Picture this

As a former newspaper reporter, I looked at this LA Times story (reg req) about fat girls wearing too-tight clothing differently than most people.

My first thought was: some poor reporter had to go out and try to interview fat women about being fat?

How do you start that line of questioning? "Excuse me, I was noticing that you are fat and your clothes are too tight..."? It makes me shudder to think of getting an assignment like that.

There were too many other terrible ones: talking to people whose kid had just died. Or whose kid had just committed murder. Or whose house had burned down...and there was no choice. You HAD to go try and get the story. Those were the days at work when you felt like the scum that got scraped off the bottom of other scum. (But then there were the days when you got to interview Rosalynn Carter and found out you had a crush on the coolest 77-year-old woman on earth).

If you read to the bottom of the article, one woman called a relative who fit the description and the girl was still pissed three days later. I'll say.

Please delurk and tell me tales of crap you had to do at work.


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