JOHNSON CITY, TN (AP) - Picketing continued today outside the house where Tennessee Fatty has been holed up for the last six months. Fatty has not left the residence since declaring a diet strike last February. Some citizens of this quaint Tennessee hamlet contend that Fatty is eating more than his fair share of the community's food supply. "He just keeps a-eatin and a-eatin and a-eatin," said protester Maggie Junkin. "It seems like there's no end in sight and it's liable to get worst. Don't we have the right to eat like that too?" asked Junkin. Chester Thornton, a lifelong resident of Johnson City and organizer of the protests, said that the protests will continue "as long as necessary." When questioned about the motives of the protesters, Thornton minced no words. "All we're doin is makin sure that our childern and our childern's childern have the opportunity to be as fat as they want to. It's got so bad that some of our buffets no longer offer specials to the seniors. He's been known to wipe out a whole Shoney's breakfast bar. With Fatty eatin everthang nobody has enough. We'll form a blockade if it comes to that."
 

                                                                    

 Fat people march outside the house of Tennessee Fatty.

The protests come in the wake of an alleged vow by Fatty to double his body weight within a year.

The community is sharply divided over the matter. "These are difficult times," explains mayor J.C. "Buck" Ellis. "We're lookin at thangs from differnt angles. On the one hand Fatty has got the right to eat whatever he wants. And he brings alot to this community. Since 911 he's been responsible for consuming more food that any other source in this county- and that keeps many of the restaurants and grocery stores out of the red. On the other hand, the citizens of this town have the right to eat whatever they want. I'll probly just wait until the court decision next week."

Tennessee Fatty won a landmark decision last year that allows him to receive disability insurance for ten people, since he is the size of ten "normal" men. "We sought just compensation for Fatty based on the Southwest airlines ruling that a plus-sized person must purchase two seats instead of one, based on the amount of space they take up. Since Fatty weighs as much as ten men, he should have the same worker's compensation as ten men. It's that simple," says Fatty's lawyer Hewey Watts. "We're optimistic that we'll win our next one [court decision] too." Next week the supreme court decides whether or not Fatty will be given the right to "vote his weight" in upcoming elections. If victorious, Fatty could actually be given 11 votes since he has accumulated one more body size since the previous ruling.

Fatty's hefty weight leads to as bulging pocketbook for many of the community's restaurateurs. "As far as I'm concerned they should give him [Fatty] the key to the city", said a local baker speaking under condition of anonymity. "They's been weeks when Fatty orders fifteen or twenty cakes and pies. It's not uncommon for him to spend five hunderd dollars a month at our place. He tips our delivery boy good too." Virgil Sumpter, owner of Sumpter's Bar-B-Que, agreed: "What we need around here is more folks like Fatty. He may be big, but he carries his weight. I think what he's doin with tryin to get more money by doublin his size is a tremendous example of what one person can do if he puts his mind to it. Young people could learn from it. And since Fatty don't spend money on clothes or a car or whatnot like most people, almost all his money goes to food. In lean times like this he keeps us all employed."

When asked if he would be successful in doubling his weight to an unheard-of 3,600 pounds, Fatty just nodded. Last week, in his longest public statement since the standoff, Fatty's rhetoric was irrefutable: "Anybody can talk. Why waste time talking when I could be eatin? I'm just doin what I love and getting paid for it. Isn't that the American dream?"
 

                                                                

Tennessee Fatty taking time out from his busy eating schedule.

Tennessee Fatty's entitlement checks will total in excess of $152,000 for fiscal year 2003, the highest salary in the economically depressed county.