Once upon a time, in a far away city called Waynesville, there lived a man named Charley Joe. Charley Joe owned a candy shop where he had sweets as far as your eyes could see.
Charley Joe loved his candy. Not only did he love to eat it, but also he loved to share it with others. People in the city of Waynesville loved Charley Joe. He was known to have a heart of gold. He was known to care about the people who came into his candy shop.
He was also known for his wacky ideas.
One day, Charley Joe had a new wacky idea. Business was a little rough, but he was full of creative ideas. Charley Joe never was short of ideas.
He decided that on "Fat Tuesday" he would offer a free piece of fudge to anyone over 300 pounds. He said this on his Facebook page where all 400 fans rejoiced his idea. They knew Charley Joe always had wacky ideas. I mean, that is Charley Joe!
Everyone, but one fan liked the idea...
That fan was Debra. She felt the idea promoted obesity. She felt that it was horrible that a man who was obese was making references of obese people. References he has probably heard all of his life. She was scared that this little candy shop in Waynesville would be the center of obesity.
So she did what she needed to do to stop it!
She called the local news. They were interested and did a story about it. Debra got to tell her side of the story. Charley Joe did the same. It ran on the local news and Charley could not have been happier.
Of course, now the news was outside of Waynesville. It was now in a bigger part of the land called Missouri. People who did not know Charley Joe started to chime in. Some said he was a jerk for doing this. Some said this was great. Some said he should be ashamed.
Charley Joe took it all in.
Charley Joe took a breath and went to his computer. He clicked on his Facebook page to thank Debra, the fan who did not like him, for promoting his promotion.
Funny thing is when he went to his Facebook page he noticed that he had far more fans than earlier in the day. Charley Joe was delighted! People were talking about going to his shop from all over the state. Charley Joe was thrilled!
Then... it happened.
On "Fat Tuesday," CNN ran his story.
Millions of people now knew of his promotion. His local fans could not save him from the wrath of the "eat in moderation obesity epidemic just eat less and workout more did you know % of people are obese" comments.
There were many.
Many people also knew that this was great marketing for a small store.
Charley Joe took a breath. His store was about to open. He had a promotion to think about. He had customers to embrace.
He did just that.
Many people came to see Charley Joe. All wanted a picture with him. All wanted to shake his hand. A man who has been compared to Dom Deluise more than once. A man who is obese himself, yet had confidence.
Very few got the free fudge that day. I am sure anyone who wanted free fudge regardless of size could have gotten some.
Charley Joe closed his doors and went on Facebook. He had far more fans than ever before. He had his share of haters, but had many more people who loved him.
Charley Joe had a tear in his eye.
He won "Fat Tuesday."
In my eyes, he won.
Because it is the first time I have ever heard of candy on "Fat Tuesday," and not alcohol and boobs.