On the heels of our recently introduced blog feature, Goutwatch, comes the news that Grub Street editor Josh Ozersky has received a brow-raising call from the Times‘ award-winning food journalist Kim Severson on the topic of his, er, well-being. According to the post, Severson inquired about "how fat and unhealthy food bloggers are, and to ask us, in so many words, why we were still alive."

We phoned Ozersky to (a) confirm that he is quite alive indeed (he is), and (b) to ask whether he didn’t feel a bit indignant over that line of questioning.

"I made it sound worse than it is," says the ever-candid scribe. "The way she explained it to me was that between Jason’s health problems and Steven Shaw [author of The Fat Guy's Manifatso] going on a diet, that was the peg. They wanted to ask some food bloggers about hurting their health, and she asked me my weight, and if I really ate like that every night, and if I had any health problems. I told her I was the Bruce Jenner of gluttony, and I was an exemplary health specimen with clear eyes and a good appetite."

Ozersky’s good-natured response (and the ostensible absence of females from this partial list) made us wonder if portly women would have, or could have, taken a similar question in stride. It also got us wondering if Ozersky single-handedly squashed the Times story-in-the-making by broadcasting it into the blogosphere. We called Severson this afternoon to inquire on both counts, but so far no word. Now we return to our diets of pork rinds and cream cheese.