Fletcherizing

Around the same time, millions of Americans got caught up in the fad called “Fletcherizing.”

“Who has time for this?” was the reaction of Jaime Aranda-Michel, a gastroenterologist with the Mayo Foundation, when I called to ask him about Fletcherizing.

Generals and presidents took up “Fletcherizing,” as did Henry James, Franz Kafka, the inevitable Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

After bragging, in a 1910 letter, that a family of five could save enough money to furnish a five-room flat in 15 months by Fletcherizing, he adds, “Of course, the furnishings must be of the simplest sort.”

At one chew per second, the Fletcherizing of a single bite of shallot would take more than 10 minutes.