Happy Fourth of July

It’s the Fourth of July and I am starting to feel back to normal. That can only mean that my next cycle is just around the corner – July 12th. I’ve never really experienced the symptoms of cancer like night sweats, fatique (OK looking back I did this time), loss of weight, etc. I’ve always felt pretty well when I’ve been told I needed to start chemotherapy. My joke has been that I feel good so they make me feel bad so everybody feels better.

I was reading an article on MinnPost.com by Timothy Walch, director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa, about historic words too important to be misquoted. Apparently Herbert Hoover gets misquoted a fair amount – no chicken in every pot and car in every garage – but so do the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Why? Because we are lazy.

According to Walch, we “too often rely on questionable Internet sites or biased cable-TV talk shows for news and information; we too often digest what we read and hear as factual when it's more accurately opinion or, perhaps, pure fabrication. Compounding our gullibility is the tendency for Internet pundits and political leaders to misquote or take quotes out of context to bolster a particular point of view. In short, "documentary information" is too often twisted to justify partisan perspectives.”

He goes on to say that there are good ways of checking stories and quotations. Just as the Internet is the source of a lot of misinformation, it also offers the tools to find the truth. Most well-known stories and quotes can be checked using the search box on Google.com other sites such as Snopes or WikiQuote.

Does my referencing an article found on the internet make you stop and pause? I hope so. I like the way Walch put it - "The Fourth of July, the day we cherish freedom, is a good day to use our thinking skills to check the accuracy of what we read and hear."

Eat Good Food, Be Kind, Tell the Truth

Click below for the collection of recipes or for an easy to print copy of a single recipe.

Collection of Recipes

Grilled Pepper Salad

The Friday Update: Just the Facts