Another pre-Jazz Fest note, this one on Aretha Franklin. Mike Seely at the Seattle Weekly wrote this week protesting the choice of Aretha Franklin to sing at the Obama Inaugural Ball. His complaint? She’s too fat.

Aretha Franklin is not full-figured, nor is she even fat. She’s not even obese — she’s a whole ‘nother classification of obese: Arethabese. The degree to which the Arethabeast let herself go is sad and disgraceful, and to prop her gargantuan ass in front of tens of millions of viewers sends a very loud message that it’s a-okay to keep wolfing down dollar-menu items with impunity.

He tries to weasel out with the oldest dodge in the book – I’m one too:

I have no problems with full-figured people. I’m a full-figured person, and I’d be doing myself a big favor if I managed to drop 20 lbs. Recently, I won a prize at a couples baby shower wherein each guest was to try and guess the size of the eight-months-pregnant mom-to-be’s stomach. I simply measured my own, and it was an exact match.

But that doesn’t excuse his premise – fat people shouldn’t be seen or given a public platform because it will make others think it’s okay to be fat. But what’s worse is that even the complaint seems dishonest. Does he think he should be barred from public speech because it might give people license to eat until obese as well? Or is this just a ruse to give him an excuse to fire off some cheap, easy fat jokes?