The Coke machine, the snack machine, the deep fryer.Hoisted and dragged through the halls and out to the curb, they sat with other trash beneath gray, forlorn skies behind Kirkpatrick Elementary, one of a handful of primary schools in Clarksdale, Mississippi.elebrity goes into rehab for alcohol and drug addiction” isn’t the rarest showbiz gossip story you’ll ever read.However, news that the celebrity in this case is Anthony Mc Partlin - the taller one from beloved duo Ant & Dec, who always stands on the left of your screen - has rocked the TV-viewing nation.That was seven years ago, when administrators first recognized the magnitude of the problem.Clarksdale, a storied delta town that gave us the golden age of the Delta blues, its cotton fields and flatlands rolling to the river, its Victorian mansions still beautiful, is at the center of a colossal American health crisis.Walton, Clarksdale born and bred, was leading me through the school, discussing ways the faculty is trying to help students—baked instead of fried, fruit instead of candy—most of whom have two meals a day in the lunchroom.She was wearing scrubs—standard Monday dress for teachers, to reinforce the school’s commitment to health and wellness.

And I understand that you have this competition you call "the Olympics," where the more athletically minded of your lot race against each other in cute little games. Mister "39 World Records" gets his name right there in the title, but I'm just called "Shark." (It's "Bruce," by the way. I didn't see the land until -- well, I'm not sure I've ever really seen the land, because how would I get around on it? But you get the point: Phelps is simply a land shark, and he's gonna need a bigger boat.

The student body is 91 percent African American, 7 percent white, “and three Latinos”—the remaining 2 percent. Take, for example, Nicholas Scurlock, who had recently begun his first year at Oakhurst Middle School.

“These kids eat what they’re given, and too often it’s the sweetest, cheapest foods: cakes, creams, candy. Nick, just tall enough to ride the coaster at the bigger amusement parks, had been 135 pounds going into fifth grade.

We sharks find the one you call "synchronized swimming" especially entertaining. But face it, your wimpy Olympians are nothing compared to we great white sharks. An event so monumental no one has ever attempted it before. Named after my dad, whom you might know from a certain Steven Spielberg movie.) My agent's going to have a word with the Discovery Channel's lawyers about that -- and they better pay up, because he's a real shark.

That's why I was quick to be the shark who volunteered to race Michael Phelps in the upcoming Discovery Channel Shark Week program, "Phelps vs. ET, July 23, in case you want to tune in and cheer me on.)Here's the description from the channel: "They are one of the fastest and most efficient predators on the planet: Sharks. The world's most decorated athlete takes on the ocean's most efficient predator: Phelps Vs Shark – The race is on! It's real cute, too, how they don't go into a lot of detail about how this race was set up. I call it, "swallow the leader."Phelps seems pretty proud of himself, recently sharing an Instagram photo captioned: "I was able to do something that I had always wanted to do.