During the relaxing, post-Christmas period, I like to declare a holiday from newspaper reading. For a week, at least, I may taste the luxury known by those who manage to live without exposing themselves to “the news.” But this December, as I allowed myself idly to page through a copy of the London Sunday Times, I came across one of the most delightful stories of the year. On page three of the front section was the headline: “Revealed: the Elvis Presley killer diet.” It claimed that the King’s favorite, “Fool’s Gold” sandwich—a foot-long baguette filled with bacon, peanut butter, and strawberry jam—contained 42,000 calories—and that he ate two of them a day, besides his two other large meals. There was even a helpful little bar graph comparing the daily caloric intake of an office worker, an active young man, a polar explorer, an Asian elephant, and Elvis. Elvis consumed more calories per day ...

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