Exercise, a tedious cliche, helps us exorcise our lazy demons

Exercise is like a workweek during one's summer college job era. It begins like Monday, ankle deep in offal while double shifting at Mendelsohn's Meat Mart. Tuesdays and Wednesdays offer a slight reprieve as you move to bone saw and cleaver duty, with frequent trips to the walk-in freezer to beat the summer heat. Thursdays allow for boning up on one's EQ as deli duty puts you tete-a-tete with the customer, and the Mendelsohns allow staff a free lunch plucked from the bounty of Boar's Head pastrami, prosciutto, salami, swiss and kaiser rolls.

And then comes Friday with a cherry on top, as both buyers and sellers are in ebullient spirits, amplified by the big-spending Catholic and Jewish customers intent on fulfilling their fish fry and Sabbath culinary requirements.

Such is exercise - excruciatingly tedious when you begin, but progressively tolerable until the climactic conclusion when you remember why you started with the whole business in the first place.