Quality time with my dad

When I tell people I wrote a book with my dad, they usually say, “It must be nice to think of the legacy (遗产) you created with someone who means so much to you.”

This was a beautiful idea, but it was not the way I, or my dad, ever thought about the cooperation.Though we created something we’re proud of, “nice” is not the word either of us uses to describe the process.

“It was more confrontation(对抗) than cooperation,” my dad likes to say.I agree.When we landed a book deal，we began a writing journey that was more difficult than either of us had expected，but also far more rewarding.

For almost three years.we met once or twice a week at my parents*house and talked daily to plan and outline each chapter.After these meetings，one of us would write a rough draft that the other would build on.I wanted the book to focus on positive vices (不良习惯):such as moderate (适度的) chocolate. However, my dad felt the book should include chapters dealing with things like walking and spending time with family. Eventually, I saw it his way.He said the book was about more than just good vices.It was about encouraging people to enjoy life in healthy ways.

Writing this book was a reminder that our family members share not only our faults but also our strengths. My dad is smart, funny, critical and caring.He has a strong passion for the truth.I hope I share these great qualities. For this book, he researched each topic with an enthusiasm I’d never seen from him, and he insisted that we constantly question and critically analyze every piece of information- even our own conclusions.He was determined to cooperate on a book, not because he couldn’t write one on his own, but because he believed that we could create than we something better together than we could alone.

I’m not sure if our cooperation led to better writing, but it led to a better writing experience.Writing this book was difficult, sometimes more difficult than past projects, but it was never lonely.

Interviewing is one of those skills that you can only get better at. You will never again feel so ill at ease as when you try it for the first time, you’ll probably never feel entirely comfortable trying to get from another person answers that he or she maybe too shy to reveal. But at least half of the skill is mechanical. The rest is instinct(本能，直觉), which can all be learned with experience.

The basic tools for an interview are paper and two or three well-sharpened pencils. But keep your notebook or paper out of sight until you need it. There’s nothing less likely to relax a person than the arrival of someone with a note-taking pad(便签纸). Both of you need time to get to know each other. Take a while just to chat, judging what sort of person you’re dealing with, getting him or her to trust you.

Never go into an interview without doing whatever homework you can. If you are interviewing a town official, know his voting record. If it’s an actor, know what plays he has been in. You will not be liked if you inquire about facts that you could have learned in advance.

Many beginning interviewers are afraid that they are forcing the other person to answer questions and have no right to inquire about his personal secrets. The fear is almost 100 percent unnecessary. Unless the person really hates being interviewed, he is delighted that somebody wants to interview him.

Most men and women lead lives that are uninteresting, and they grasp any chance to talk to an outsider who seems eager to listen.

This doesn’t certainly mean that it will go well. In general you will be talking to people who have never been interviewed before, and they will get used to the process awkwardly(笨拙地), perhaps not giving you anything that you can use. Come back another day; it will go better. You will both even begin to enjoy it—proof that you aren’t forcing your victim to do something he doesn’t really want to.

Thousands of brave souls have adventured into the Rocky Mountains for the past decade, searching for a treasure box filled with gold, diamonds and other valuables. But that adventure has finally come to an end. The treasure has been found. Forrest Fenn, the 89-year-old art and antique collector who created the treasure hunt, made the announcement Sunday on his website.

“It was in the thick forest of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago,” Fenn wrote in his announcement. “I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the exact spot.” The treasure was found a few days ago by a man who did not want to be named. The man was from “back East”. He acknowledged his discovery by sending Fenn a photograph of his newfound riches.

The treasure, worth over million, was a way for Fenn to encourage people to explore nature and give hope to people affected by the Great Recession. Clues leading to the treasure’s location were included in a 24-line poem published in Fenn’s 2010 autobiography “The Thrill of the Chase.” It is estimated that as many as 350,000 people from all over the world went hunting for the treasure. Some quit their jobs to fully devote their lives to the hunt and some even died.

“I congratulate the thousands of people who participated in the search and hope they will continue to be drawn by the promise of other discoveries,” Fenn said on his website.

Technically, many of the healthy foods we eat are processed, but not in the way you might think. For example, if you have a Mason jar full of organic dried beans, you have processed food in your fridge. Frozen vegetables are processed, even if you picked the vegetables from your garden, blanched(焯水)them and put them in the fridge. The moment you blanched them, you processed them. When we say we shouldn’t eat processed foods, what we really mean is ultra-processed foods.

What are ultra-processed foods? If I made flatbread at home, I would make it with materials like flour, yeast, milk, butter and salt. I keep whole-grain flatbread in my freezer because it deteriorates quickly. Healthy meals for sure. But I normally buy them from the grocery store, and while the bread I buy contains almost the same materials as a homemade version, it also includes the dextrose, type of sugar, and some other additives. Then it can be called an ultra-processed one.

If we ate ultra-processed foods only occasionally, it wouldn’t be as big of a problem. However, researchers indicated that almost 58% of the calories Americans consume are from ultra-processed foods. A study found people who increased their daily intake of ultra-processed food by 10% increased their risk of developing overall cancer by 12% and breast cancer by 11%.

While the study didn’t identify the exact reason why ultra-processed foods cause a higher risk of cancer, researchers did have several theories. One theory is that the foods contain high levels of salt, sugar and fat. Those materials have been linked to overweight, which can also lead to a greater risk of cancer. A second theory is that some ultra-processed foods contain certain additives that lead to cancers. Also another theory is high temperatures used to process the food can create newly formed pollutant. Finally, bpa(Bisphenol A)(双酚 A)is commonly used in food packaging and can leak into the food.

While further studies are needed to know the exact reasons why ultra-processed foods can have such an impact on health, it’s safe to say that the consequences of eating them outweigh the benefits.