Matthews: "Preparing for 'Hardball' with a big bag of M&Ms....powered by sugar and caffeine."

[DeepModem Mom]

Examiner.com: Matthews' Son Debuts Video on His Dad's Diabetes
June 14
Just a little pinprick

“For a long time I would prepare for ‘Hardball’ by sitting with a couple of my producers with a big bag of M&Ms on the table in front of me. And we would finish off that baby, and I’d be drinking coffee and I’d drink coffee during the show so I’d be powered by sugar and caffeine.”

So says MSNBC’s Chris Matthews at the outset of a video produced by his son Michael for tonight’s Father of the Year Awards dinner, which benefits the American Diabetes Association.

It was those kinds of habits, the video implies, that exacerbated Matthews’ diabetes last December, forcing him to miss two weeks of work and spend time in the hospital.

The unexpected illness changed some plans that he and Michael had made to go to Iraq on a USO tour with Al Franken.

Michael, a documentary filmmaker, said since he had already taken time off, he decided to turn his lens on his father’s condition....

http://www.examiner.com/blogs/Yeas_and_Nays/2007/6/14/Matthews-Son-Debuts-Video-on-His-Dads-Diabetes

[TwilightGardener]

1. I do sympathize with him. I have a terrible sweet tooth myself, and my

Grandma, who died of diabetes complications, was what we nurses call "non-compliant". She used to go to restaurants and smuggle dinner rolls into her purse, and always kept candy bars "for the grandkids."

[DeepModem Mom]

3. I thought this might offer some explanation for hyper-Tweety --

I'm glad he seems to be taking better care of himself.

[WinkyDink]

2. Caffeine isn't a factor. And wouldn't weight (and carbs and fat) be more of a cause than candy?

[tkmorris]

4. Sugars ARE carbs nt

[UTUSN]

5. His physical illness aside, (I'm interested in how he treats Dems)

"Of his regular, self-administered blood tests, he says, “I (now) enjoy it the way men like to shave in the morning.”


(My compassion for his illness is compartmentalized over by itself.) Perhaps that quote is a bit of explanation of his continual man-crushes on RAYGUN, Shrub, McCAIN, GIULIANI, Fred THOMPSON---that Tweety is always trying to be one of the dudes and he is attracted to stereotypes of what these REAL MEN are like.

When I was a kid and wanted to shave, my daddy said, "Some day you're going to hate doing it." He was correct. And I don't hear other dudes singing the praises of shaving. And I have no enjoyment of needle sticks.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. That is, indeed, a curious statement. Matthews seems to have...

some issues involving masculinity.

[PCIntern]

7. Just a few...

He's the 'reach-around' king. Oh I'm sorry, it's Scarborough who talks about 'reach-arounds'.

My bad...

[Berry Cool]

8. Maybe it was meant as dry sarcasm.

"Oh, now I love sticks. Just like shaving, only with sticks you're actually supposed to hit blood."

[DeepModem Mom]

9. You could be right, Berry. All of Tweety's man talk may have...

led us to read more into that comment than is there.