PBS Fund-Raising Diet Plan

I'm not that big of a TV watcher, but I like to have something on when I'm doing a little weight training at home. So we flipped through the channels, and (since the Jazz game wasn't on) we landed on PBS and what was listed as America's National Parks. I had heard great things about this series so I started watching.

I soon came to realize that this was the story of the Donner Party--a group of Irish immigrants who moved from Illinois to California in 1846-7 and took a short-cut over the Sierra Nevadas and into 9 blizzards. "What does this have to do with the national parks?" I asked aloud. Jim replied, "They have a park named after them." I kept exercising and watching...

In horror as they gave detailed descriptions of what those poor people went through. The massive and endless blizzards, living in snow caves, the starvation, the madness, the dead bodies in the snow, the cannibalism. The forlorn hope group that went out in search of help. Let me tell you, this show may do wonders as a diet program!

Suddenly, the show stopped mid-stream and a live host in a studio was asking for contributions. "Are you kidding me? This show is way too depressing for people to want to send money. Most watchers are throwing up right now, or they changed the channel after an especially grim detail was shared."

Lying in bed an hour or so later, I realized that Jim was full of crap when he said that there was a national park named after the Donner party. So I called him on it. We laughed. "There's a statue there, they showed it!" Yes, honey, there is a statue. It is probably a state monument. But not a NATIONAL PARK.

Moral 1. Don't believe everything people say, cause half the time they're making it up.
Moral 2. Don't take any short-cuts.

P.S. All of the 5 women in the forlorn hope group survived. Only 2 of the 10 men did.

P.P.S The only family that didn't lose any members was the Reed family--and they were the only ones who never did eat people.