Tense yourself skinny

Peter used to say that the way he stayed thin was to “tense myself skinny”—I think it had something to do with tensing his stomach muscles.

Then again, he had the pot belly that most Hartman males end up with, so I don’t know that his approach actually worked.

I’m a little unclear on where the phrase came from. The phrase “Tense yourself skinny” appears on the cover of the Who album The Who Sell Out (which I’m pretty sure Peter owned) as part of a fake Charles Atlas ad; I’m not sure whether the line was originally from a real Charles Atlas ad or not.

(It’s been three weeks since I last posted; I keep intending to stop by and post, but keep neglecting to do so. I do still have a bunch of stuff I want to post, but it may not be as regular as I’d intended.)

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