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I Am What I Ate ... and I'm frightened!!!: And Other Digressions from the Doctor of Comedy    by Bill Cosby Amazon.com order for
I Am What I Ate ... and I'm frightened!!!
by Bill Cosby
Order:  USA  Can
HarperCollins, 2004 (2003)
Hardcover, Paperback

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* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

I have always enjoyed Bill Cosby's humor and, though I would have preferred to hear this cholesterol comedy in his own voice, I Am What I Ate ... and I'm frightened!!! is still awfully funny in book format.

You've got to empathize with the comic's ravings about bureaucracies (relating to applying for a Social Security check), whose tentacles seem to be obstructing us everywhere nowadays. He moves on to a pivotal doctor's visit, when the 'C' word (cholesterol) was first mentioned. This leads to musings on youthful eating habits ('How many pieces of scrapple? How many hot dogs? ... All those steak sandwiches. Ice cream.') Moving on, there's Internet research on heart attacks and strokes, major avoidance - 'If I don't go to the doctor, I don't have it.' - and an examination of exactly what 'once in a while' means when applied to unhealthy eating habits.

I especially enjoyed the chapter on his elderly mother's technique for hiding the ingredients for her 'fried potatoes and peppers and onions' and cooking in the middle of the night away from the eyes (and noses) of concerned family members. The exercise avoidance sequence is also hilarious, along with the definition of 'old parts' and a thorough examination of cloning as a potential solution. Smoking and drinking get their own chapters, leading in to the Cosby take on what rationalization does to moderation, especially at holidays and funerals.

In I Am What I Ate ... and I'm frightened!!!, Bill Cosby gives us a cautionary comedic monologue on how all our sins of ingestion and digestion eventually come back to haunt us. As always, he's very funny.

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