Helen Fielding's clumsy protagonist Bridget Jones struggles with the double whammy of making wrong choices; both with her food and with her men!

Peer into any chick-lit lover’s bookshelf and you might spot the obligatory Bridget Jones’ Diary, The Devil Wears Prada and the terrifyingly titled Skinny Bitch. Page after soppy page details the travails of heroines who stumble and bumble through their diets, makeovers and professional lives—only to emerge skinny, chic, successful and finally with that job at The New Yorker.

Positive these successes could be duplicated in our dingy lives, we swear off the fudge and trash that bag of chips, convinced that a diet could help us shed a few pounds here, make us a little leaner there and hold the ticket to success. But what if it didn’t.

Author Lorraine Duffy Merkl dishes on her debut novel Fat Chick (Pic Courtesy: Our Town)

In her debut novel Fat Chick, columnist Lorraine Duffy Merkl holds up a mirror to the lessons of a lifetime of dieting. While every girl eager to find her prince kisses frogs called diets, it may turn out you’re wasting your time on the wrong thing. In the novel, protagonist Trish is an advertising professional who has just lost a prestigious account to a skinny colleague. Talented and on a mission to reclaim her position in the agency, Trish embarks on a vicious dieting routine with surprising consequences.

Merkl, a freelance advertising consultant whose work has been published in the New York Times and New York Post, recently sat down over breakfast to give us the skinny on Fat Chick. She is already at work on her second book.

Q: You say there is a difference between fat chick and a fat chick mentality.

A: When I tell women what the book is about, more than one person has asked, “Am I on the cover of the book?” They say it jokingly, but you know there is some truth to their saying it. If you are a size 2 and you turn around and ask your friend if you look fat in an outfit, that’s not a fat chick, but a fat chick mentality.

Q: Your protagonist Trish is similar to the pre-makeover Peggy Olson, from Mad Men. Maybe she could take a few lessons from Joan?

A: Joan is a perfect example of someone who is “stacked.” She is poised, gracious, so confident—she looks beautiful—yet she is a big woman. The de facto heroine in my book is also a big woman, a plus-size model who carries herself with great confidence and poise. People trash media images for projecting certain body types. But even if there were no models, no pictures, you would still see women in a communal changing room or in a bathing suit at the beach and compare yourself to other people. You should not be caught up in what others think. The book talks about fashion, but it doesn’t trash fashion or magazines for women’s body issues.

Q: You are 51 now and have yo-yo dieted since you were 13. Is this a memoir?

A: It’s not a memoir, it’s a novel. As with any fiction writer, I took stories from my own life. I didn’t want this story to be about a fat girl that lives happily ever after, after losing a ton of weight. If that were true, then people like Kirstie Alley wouldn’t be gaining weight.

Q: Do thin chicks get the guys, or is that a myth?

A: It’s a myth. People like [Tiger Wood’s wife] Elin Nordegren, Jennifer Aniston—people we hold up as beautiful women and think, “If only I had her hair, if I had her legs,” if that were all it took to be happy, then bad things would never happen to beautiful people. Comparing yourself to others is a waste of time. Run your own race.

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Fat Chick is available exclusively at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

This piece originally appeared in Our Town

Mad Men ended it’s third season this Sunday with some of the best drama so far, capping off a somewhat mediocre last few episodes, in which Betty falls for a lame City official, Don dallies with Sally’s school teacher (most annoying character so far, according to moi) and Joan’s rapist husband signs up for the Vietnam war. But, in a moment of complete redemption, Mad Men pulls its socks up and offers an explosive finale to the season.

But what are the management lessons to be learned from Mad Men? Check this out.

The piece was written at the beginning of season three, but now with the new agency in the wings, maybe the lessons still hold.

Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men

So much infidelity, so little time!

On Sunday, ESPN fired baseball analyst and former general manager of the New York Mets, Steve Philips, after he admitted to an affair with a 22 year old production assistant.  ESPN said Philipps ability to be an “effective representative for ESPN has been significantly and irreparably damaged.”  Last week, the New York Post  reported the affair between 22 year old Brooke Hundley, who was also booted by ESPN today and Phillips, creating a nation-wide story and causing a serious problem for ESPN.

The New York Times writes that a letter from Hundley to Phillips wife, Marni, also turned into salacious fodder.

When Phillips was the general manager of the Mets, he was forced to take a leave of absence in 1998 because of a series of affairs and an accusation of sexual harassment by a Mets employee. He entered counseling and returned to the Mets, but was eventually fired in 2003.

In other infidelity news, New York Magazine has a great profile of Late Night host- David Letterman. The article, “ The Devil in David Letterman“  chronicles the time before and after news broke of Letterman’s affair with his personal assistant Stefanie Birkitt. Check out the comments at the bottom of the page and most of the readers’ rage seem to target Birkitt, for cheating on her live-in boyfriend, with whom she was reportedly “over the moon” – with a married man , whom she was “great friends with.” You decide!

Last, but not the least! Mad Men! And perhaps the biggest cad, albeit a fictional one, of all time – Don Draper!

Is it just me, or were other people also rooting for him to be caught with the incredibly annoying and cloyingly sweet Miss. Farell? Honestly, I think no other woman Don has taken up with has annoyed me as much as Miss. Farell – what is with the raging idealism, the long curly hair “no one has anymore” and it’s quite nauseating to see Don, sappy eyed over her! Blechh.  So, I was hoping Miss. Farell would actually walk through the door to check on why Don’s taking so long. No such luck! But if she had done so..Betty would have been done too! No way Jose!

I would rather see more Betty and Don’s dysfunctional, limping “love” than anymore of Sally’s teacher shacking up with Don. I am glad Don got rid of her! Good riddance to idealistic rubbish! Go cynical, self loathing, depressive relationships!

And Roger Sterling, as always, being smooth skinned and brilliant! why don’t they have more of Roger anyways?

Two more episodes to go before the season ends and I can only wonder what’s going to become of Don and Betty

( chewing nails! Sitting on edge of couch, mouth open!)

Here is a preview of next week’s show “The Grownups”