Are You Losing Your Memory? Part 2
Those two articles that I thought I had lost, about when — and when not — to worry about losing your memory have magically reappeared. Of course, they were right where I put them, but who knew? In...
View ArticleTo Live and Die in L.A.
Only in L.A.! Where else would you expect to find a museum featuring a "California Death Room" devoted to ghastly murders committed here? What first comes to mind is Hollywood's most famous murder...
View ArticleMissed Manners
My mother used to say that good manners were simply the outward expression of inner respect -- or words to that effect. If so, there is precious little respect around today, what with candidates...
View ArticleAre You Left- or Right-Brain Dominant?
Almost everything I thought I knew about right and left brain activity has been stood on its head (so to speak!) by a recent article in my local newspaper. I knew that left-brain dominant people tended...
View ArticleThe Great E-Book Controversy
The technology in today's world would have seemed "Buck Roger-ish" in my day, when telephones plugged into the wall, and a "text" was a schoolbook. Think of all the new terms that have come into the...
View ArticleThe Fine Art of Doing Nothing
Doing nothing, or time spent with no discernible point or purpose, is often met with contempt. My mother used to call idle hands the Devil's playground, and I still sometimes feel a little guilty about...
View ArticleAre We Having Fun Yet?
It's bad enough to be "of a certain age," with doctors and scientists constantly telling us what we should be doing, eating, avoiding, etc., but here's a new wrinkle (so to speak). Now they are telling...
View ArticleTaking the Birth Order Quiz
Of America's first 23 astronauts in space, how many were first-born children? Give up?read more
View ArticleKeeping Your Brain Young
We all know that older adults who get regular exercise are healthier than those who don't. But who knew that they are also 60% less likely to develop dementia? And here's the best part: exercise...
View ArticleSome Tasty Reasons to Eat Chocolate
Ah, chocolate candy and red roses, timeless hallmarks of love! If you were lucky enough to get both, this past Valentine's Day, the roses wilted long ago, and you may be avoiding the candy because you...
View ArticleCelebrate Getting Older
If you didn't know that May is Older Americans Month, you are not alone. I would guess that not a lot of people did know, including me. A recent article brought it up, and urged those of us who are "of...
View ArticleGetting a Grip on Anxiety
Have I got this right? Fear is a rational emotion, whereas panic and anxiety are not. But wait. Aren't panic and anxiety the same? "Anxiety" may sound more scientific than "panic," from the Greek god...
View ArticleHow the Brain Tracks Speeding Objects
Ever wonder how a batter knows when to swing at a pitch coming toward him, sometimes at more than 90 miles per hour? read more
View ArticleWhat's So Good about Being Single?
For some, "healthy, wealthy and single" has become a mantra for the 21st century.read more
View ArticleGiving Credit Where It's Due
My grandmother was fifty-something before she cast her first ballot. It was 1920, the year the 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote.read more
View ArticleType A Personality
Researchers have been studying personality traits known as "Type A" for so long that it has become a household word. We call people who are work-obsessed and overly competitive— with increased risk of...
View ArticleWill the Real Me Please Stand Up
A friend and I recently got into a discussion of what it means to have an "alter ego." (In Latin, the "other self," or "doppelgänger" from the German.) As I understand it, they all pretty much describe...
View Article"It's a Wonderful Life" (The Sequel)
Really, is nothing sacred anymore? Frank Capra, the extraordinarily talented movie director of the last century, must be rolling over in his grave with the news that a sequel to his iconic Holiday...
View ArticleThe Ultimate Man Cave
To a slightly dyslexic person like me, the words "man cave" can be mistaken for "cave man," but whoever coined the phrase "man cave" probably had prehistoric creatures in mind anyway.read more
View ArticlePassing Through a Shadow
"Everyone has his or her own way of dealing with grief," my always cheerful therapist liked to say, "and you'll find yours." She was less positive about her answer to my question, "Does it ever end?"...
View ArticleWhen Hoarding Becomes a Hazard
At first glance, it might look as if I am a hoarder, simply because I have run out of space in my filing cabinets, and things are piling up. I've tried cleaning house, but the last piece of paper I...
View ArticleMindfulness: New Age Fad or Old as Buddha?
If you already knew what "mindfulness" was, you were way ahead of me. I just read about it recently. At first I wondered if "mindfulness" was the opposite of "mindlessness." But apparently there's more...
View ArticleHuman IQ: Where Does It Come From?
Is our intelligence due to nature or nurturing? Are we born with a certain amount that never changes, or can it grow over time? If you think you were not born smart enough to learn something new, you...
View ArticleStressed to Excess?
"Some days you just can't make a nickel," my father would say in times of stress. And he never had to deal with computer glitches, airport security, gridlock in Washington, or GM recalls. Just two...
View ArticleSense and the Single Girl
You may have heard that real men don't eat quiche, and real women don't pump gas. A new insurance survey says we don't change tires, either. Only half the women surveyed had ever changed a tire,...
View ArticleConfessions of a Bad Mother
My daughter was only in nursery school when Mattel toy makers launched a fashion doll named "Barbie," with an adult body and clothes for her tall, curvy figure. Five years later, my little girl wanted...
View ArticleClose Encounters of the Worst Kind
I sympathize with the frequent flyer who caused an uproar by using a "Knee Defender", a $22 device that attaches to a tray table and prevents the person in front from reclining more than a few...
View ArticleWhat Are We Afraid of Now?
I live in "Earthquake Country," otherwise known as California. My newspaper arrived on my doorstep this morning bearing a spine-chilling front page headline: MASSIVE QUAKE COULD HIT ANYTIME. We've been...
View ArticleBaring It All on the Internet
Our personal computers know -- and tell -- a lot about us. If you think they can keep a secret, just try Googling something as a test. A few days ago I typed "surveillance cameras" into my browser,...
View ArticleGoing Left Isn't Always Right
Does this ever happen to you? I can be driving north on the freeway thinking that I'm going south, unless I can see the sun setting over the Pacific, and even then I can get confused. (What's the ocean...
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