Cool to be round?

Which apparently is the case if you're a man. The NYT wants to blame Barack Obama:

Hipsters, by nature contrarian, according to Dan Peres, the editor of Details, may be reacting in opposition to a president ... “If we had a slob in the White House, all the hipsters would turn into some walking Chippendales calendar,” Mr. Peres said. Instead, the streets of Williamsburg are crowded with men who are, as he noted, “proudly rocking a gut.” Mr. Peres’s magazine has a term for these people: the new “poor-geoisie.” But the people lining up for $13 lobster rolls at the Brooklyn Flea last weekend hardly looked as if they were worried about making the rent.

“I sort of think the six-pack abs obsession got so prissy it stopped being masculine,” is how Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out, explains the emergence of the Ralph Kramden. What once seemed young and hot, for gay and straight men alike, now seems passé. Like manscaping, spray-on tans and other metrosexual affectations, having a belly one can bounce quarters off suggests that you may have too much time on your hands.

I don't know if I would call this good or bad news - though the temptation to call it good news and just stop is nearly overwhelming while doing intervals. As Glenn Reynolds asks - "So does this mean that we could solve our national obesity problem by electing Jack Black?" I certainly hope not.