Popeye and Olive Oil

My Medical Minute

I attended high school in the sixties; graduated in sixty-eight. My mother told me that if I were to come home at lunch time she would make a hot meal for me. I really liked that idea so most of the time I would go home for lunch. The only times that I did not go home for lunch would be the times when I was involved in a badminton match, floor hockey or if there was a big blizzard heading our way next day, then I would take lunch with me.

The TV was usually on and I would sit and watch TV while eating lunch. Invariably I would watch the Popeye cartoons because that would be the only 'good' program on. I do not know to this day what it was about those Popeye cartoons but they became rather addicting. Sometimes I was not sure whether I was going home because of the 'hot lunch' or just to watch the Popeye cartoons. And what was equally numbifing was the fact that I could watch the same old routine day after day and it was just great. I knew that Popeye would get himself into a jam of some sort, Olive Oil would be involved and Popeye would need some spinach in order to save the day.

Years later I was discussing the Robin Williams movie with a friend and we somehow got on the topic of spinach and olive oil. His remark to me was that the health benefits were what the cartoons were really all about. I wasn't so sure, I thought they had more to do with the overcoming of injustice in our society. Who came up with the Popeye cartoons in the first place and what were their motivations?

A few years after this I had cause to investigate the goodness of olive oil and I became so impressed that I put olive oil in my diet on an every day basis and so it is to this day. Shortly thereafter I discovered spinach and what a blockbuster this is. It would take less paper to write down what spinach does not have. I try to include spinach at least once a week but it would be better twice!

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Tags: Popeye, Olive Oil, Spinach, Robin Williams, blockbuster.