Remembering 2024’s Losses: Richard Simmons

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Brr. I slowly scooted out (we had a “flash freeze,” so everything is iced over…again), fed the strays, and got my butt back in the house. I’m getting used to eating at home, which is probably killing the economy of the local restaurants. While I contemplate when and where to escape to, I’ll present another famous person we lost in 2024. Richard Simmons Did you know that there’s a “President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition”? Fat (pun intended) lot of good it’s done our obese nation. It’s been around since the 1940s. Gyms have been around longer than that, but they had a problem: they didn’t want Refrigerator Perry-looking people coming in. (You had to be fit to join the fitness place, which defeated joining in the first place!) Enter Richard Simmons. A morbidly obese young man (weighing as much at 268 pounds at one point in his life), he decided to take matters into his own hands. As a result, he lost over 120 pounds. Not content to be the only one, he opened a gym specifically FOR the “Refrigerator Perry-looking people.” One thing led to another, and by the end of the 80s you couldn’t turn your TV on without seeing Richard Simmons. Whether it was on his own talk show, someone else’s, or his ubiquitous infomercials for either Deal-a-Meal or “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” video tapes, he was everywhere. Along the way, he said, he helped people lose a combined total of twelve million pounds. (That’s six thousand tons of fat!!!) Yes, he was lampooned a lot for his effeminate presentation and nonstop enthusiasm, but the man did a lot of good for people. He helped a major health problem, and he got rich doing so. What could be better? Richard Simmons Born Milton Teagle Simmons, July 12, 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana Died July 13, 2024, Los Angeles, California (injuries from a fall) (age 76) Here’s an ABC News article about his death, which occurred one day after his 76th birthday: