It's time for me to promote Relay for Life again.
Relay is an annual event that has two goals--raise money for the American Cancer Society and honor cancer survivors. I was involved with Relay for Life of Sangamon County for several years because of the family members I've lost to cancer, including my mother.
Then, in November 2008, I heard those words: It's cancer.
In my case, though, the followup was, "But it's the good kind of cancer!" What the doctor quickly explained was that my form of testicular cancer was curable. And he was right--I'm currently in complete remission and feeling fine.
Others aren't so lucky, including a college classmate who passed away near the end of 2011. It was the reminder I didn't need that the fight against cancer unfortunately hasn't ended yet.
If you would like to join the fight, just click on the Relay icon in the upper right corner. That will take you to my online donation page, where you can give to your heart's content.
Thank you for reading, and thanks for any donation you might give. Every dollar makes a difference.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Leave Paula Alone?
Paula Deen has her detractors, but she has at least one fan.
A Springfield, Illinois woman wants us all to leave Paula alone. Well, good luck with that.
In case you've never heard of her, Paula Deen is a Southern cook who has written some cookbooks and had her own show--several shows, actually--on the Food Network. Nearly all of her recipes involve butter, butter, and more butter. Some of them involve meat or flour and sugar.
Fat, carbs and calories are the running themes in her recipes.
Someone pushing that type of cuisine would naturally stir up some detractors, but Paula Deen has now given the naysayers even more reason to criticize her. She recently announced that she's a Type 2 diabetic and has been for, oh, three years.
She also announced that Novo Nordisk has hired her to endorse a new diabetes management drug. I'm sure it's all a coincidence.
Now, I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm also a Type 2 diabetic (see The Diabetic and the Dilly Bar). But I control my blood sugar with diet and exercise. Nobody has called to ask for an endorsement, although I walk and run in New Balance shoes and drink GeniSoy soy protein shakes (soy protein helps prevent kidney problems) and use Nautilus exercise machines. That's okay, because I really don't want to be the guy who pushes people to exercise or eat a certain way.
That's Paula's job. She's always very entertaining, even when she's answering those detractors I mentioned earlier. When she's been criticized in the past for the dishes she pushes on her show, she has used the following dodge: "I'm your cook. I'm not your doctor."
Soon, however, she will be appearing in TV commercials promoting a diabetes drug. I hope the people who see those commercials will remember that Paula is a cook instead of a doctor. I hope they'll realize there are other ways to manage diabetes than to get the Paula Deen drug.
Leave Paula alone? Probably not, but I will continue leaving her recipes alone.
A Springfield, Illinois woman wants us all to leave Paula alone. Well, good luck with that.
In case you've never heard of her, Paula Deen is a Southern cook who has written some cookbooks and had her own show--several shows, actually--on the Food Network. Nearly all of her recipes involve butter, butter, and more butter. Some of them involve meat or flour and sugar.
Fat, carbs and calories are the running themes in her recipes.
Someone pushing that type of cuisine would naturally stir up some detractors, but Paula Deen has now given the naysayers even more reason to criticize her. She recently announced that she's a Type 2 diabetic and has been for, oh, three years.
She also announced that Novo Nordisk has hired her to endorse a new diabetes management drug. I'm sure it's all a coincidence.
Now, I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm also a Type 2 diabetic (see The Diabetic and the Dilly Bar). But I control my blood sugar with diet and exercise. Nobody has called to ask for an endorsement, although I walk and run in New Balance shoes and drink GeniSoy soy protein shakes (soy protein helps prevent kidney problems) and use Nautilus exercise machines. That's okay, because I really don't want to be the guy who pushes people to exercise or eat a certain way.
That's Paula's job. She's always very entertaining, even when she's answering those detractors I mentioned earlier. When she's been criticized in the past for the dishes she pushes on her show, she has used the following dodge: "I'm your cook. I'm not your doctor."
Soon, however, she will be appearing in TV commercials promoting a diabetes drug. I hope the people who see those commercials will remember that Paula is a cook instead of a doctor. I hope they'll realize there are other ways to manage diabetes than to get the Paula Deen drug.
Leave Paula alone? Probably not, but I will continue leaving her recipes alone.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Slow Death of a Newspaper
My hometown newspaper is dying a slow death, and it’s pretty painful to watch.
The State Journal-Register will be losing 10 copy editors soon. The paper’s corporate owner, GateHouse Media, plans to consolidate copy editing for some papers at an office in Downers Grove, a suburb of Chicago.
I’m looking forward to copy editors in Downers Grove trying to grasp that the arts center in Springfield, Illinois is spelled Hoogland or trying to understand a local address like 801 North Grand Avenue West.
The copy editing idiocy was announced about the same time that rumors circulated of new layoffs on the editorial side of the paper. The upshot is that fewer people will be writing local news, and the local news stories will be edited a couple hundred miles away.
Unbelievable.
I realize that the situation facing The State Journal-Register is the same one facing papers across the country. But that realization doesn’t make it easier to watch this paper slowly die.
The newspaper industry is scrambling to figure out how to continue making a profit as its former audience moves away from buying physical newspapers every day. One day somebody is going to figure out how to turn a profit by gathering and distributing news in the online age.
Until that day breaks, people in cities all over America will experience what I’m seeing now, the slow and painful death of their local daily newspaper.
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