Acknowledging fats are children as they walk in my local park A couple of days ago I was taking Mr. Awesome for his first walk of the day in the park behind my house. We walk there at least twice a day, for about 30-45 minutes each time. It's a really nice park. There's a big round "track" out in the open (with a huge open area in the middle, where I sometimes run around and play with him off-leash if the park is empty), and then at the ends of the "track" the path keeps going past a large wooded area, where it branches twice to go through the trees (lots of shade) and comes out at a really cool kid's playground and a couple of sand-filled volleyball courts. Near the playground are a scattering of picnic tables in little niches, with big permanent charcoal grills next to each table.  It's about half a mile around the entire perimeter and then another eighth or so on the side path that goes through the middle of the woods; Smartest Bestest Doggie and I usually end up walking about a mile and a half - two miles on each visit, doing the perimeter once and then winding in and out of the woods to avoid the sun, with lots of stops and starts, obviously, so he can pee over other dogs's pee and sniff everything and find a good bramble bush or something to crouch over--whatever makes it hardest for me to pick up his poo, is what he goes for--but we keep a brisk enough pace in general to get my heart rate up.  It's a great place to walk, despite the assholes who don't pick up after their dogs (even though there are FREE BAG stations at every entrance/exit). World's Best Dog loves it there, especially since we often see my dad walking on the opposite side of the big circle track, at which point--after making sure there aren't other people or dogs nearby--I drop the leash, and The Handsomest Boy Ever gets to race hell-for-leather across the field to greet his grandpa, who then joins us for the rest of our walk. The last is relevant because, on that walk a few days ago, I'd noticed some writing and cartoons chalked on the cement path. I didn't really pay attention; I figured it was for some kids' event they'd done there. (It's a Community Park, and the Community Center is there as well, so in addition to the usual summer day camps/cooking and tennis lessons and stuff they offer, there are often special "days" and such in the park itself. They did a big Easter Egg Hunt recently, frex.) But when we came up to a drawing of a waving Minion, my dad shook his head and snorted. "Can you believe how childish this is? Just to get some fatasses to actually walk. They're adults, for God's sake." It turned out that there's some summer walking program for fats, and that's what the cartoons were for. My dad had seen them the day before: a gaggle of lumpen tubs huffing and puffing as they plodded along the path, while normal fit people (the "instructors") blew whistles and yelled encouragement through a megaphone. He laughed at the memory, and we had a nice chat about the ridiculousness of adult human beings needing cartoons and juvenile cheerleading, the aptness that children's cartoons were chosen as the best and most at-their-level symbols, to get them to actually walk in a beautiful park on a lovely day. I mean, I get that not everybody has a super-energetic GSD like Mr. Incredibly Smart and Gorgeous who needs his exercise, but this is ridiculous.  I took some pictures, so you can see exactly what level of intellectual and emotional maturity we're dealing with. (Unfortunately, some of them didn't photograph well, so I've only got a few images.) Remember, this is a walk set up for adults, and these are what the "instructors" of those adults specifically chose to draw after meeting them: The "starting line." Notice they had to count down the number of laps for them, because they know their fat "students" are too dumb to know what numbers lead up to 3 ("#1, #2, #3 LAPS to Wellness"): https://imgur.com/FIjg5I4 This one says, "WALKING ROCKS." Gotta remind them what they're doing, I guess: https://imgur.com/71z6aHt I didn't get a picture of it--the writing was too light and the path shady--but over the entrance to the side-path in the woods they'd written, "NO SHORTCUTS!" Because they know damn well that even fats who have PAID to be coached into walking a certain distance will cheat if given half a chance. These arrows are all over the path(s). The best part is there is no turnoff. The arrows are not drawn at a junction of two paths to show the correct way, or at an exit to encourage the fatties not to just leave and go across the parking lot to the ice cream parlor there. No, these arrows are at every curve in the path, presumably because without them, the fats would just leave the path and walk straight into the trees or fall into the thin stream that the path bridges once or twice: https://imgur.com/cO251mR And here we go. I also took a picture of the waving Minion, and of the various half-moon faces drawn above the space between large paving blocks--you know, like little cartoon people peering over the edge?--but I figured you wouldn't want/need to see a dozen pictures of the various flowers, faces, and smiling suns that patronize all who walk there. I thought one would be representative enough.  So aside from the Minion, we have this. THIS is the level at which the instructors feel their "students" are most comfortable and enthusiastic. THIS is the image they feel their "students" will feel most encouraged by, most identify with: https://imgur.com/INdgwJb Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. Minions and Monsters Inc. Two fat little cartoon characters. Fats are lazy children, and even people who claim to want to "help them get fit" know it.