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One of Anchorage's now-closed department stores can trace its roots to the Gold Rush days of the Klondike when a young Swede hunkered down with pick and ax and chipped out a small fortune. John W. Nordstrom arrived in New York City from his native Sweden in 1887. With $5 in his pocket, and not a lick of English on his tongue, the 16-year-old made his way to Michigan where he labored in an iron mine. He eventually migrated to the West Coast. While making $1.50 a day as a logger and sawmill hand...
If you were a child growing up during the 1960s and a fan of sci-fi television of the day, the nostalgic value of shows like "Lost in Space" can't be overstated. Cast members Bill Mumy and Angela Cartwright recognize the connection many seniors may have to the series and have updated and expanded their 2015 "Lost (and Found) in Space" book into a new volume, released September 14 (see www.NCPBooks.com ). "The new book is now 350 pages and contains over 900 photographs," said Bill Mumy, who...
I used to do a lot of litigation – trial lawyer work – and I still read the decisions the Alaska Supreme Court sends out each week. There was one this spring which had me shaking my head in amazement, and which sent me back down the memory trail, to a case I handled. The year was 2008. An Anchorage woman had choked on some food, suffered anoxia – a temporary loss of oxygen to the brain – and fell into a coma. A mere nine days later, the hospital decided that her chances of survival were nonexis...
Q. Is there a dictionary for Emoji? A. What a delightful question. There is not just a dictionary, but an entire encyclopedia! Point any web browser to emojipedia.org, your one-stop shop for all things emoji. While many people know about emoji, fewer people know that there is a constantly changing universe surrounding emojis. New emojis are added regularly, and illustrations for existing emoji characters change over time. For example, a recent change to the syringe character removed the red drops suggesting blood, expanding the usefulness of th...
Reversing Trump's limits on fines The Biden administration recently quietly reversed a controversial Trump administration policy that had limited the fines levied on facilities that endangered or injured residents at nursing homes. While the numbers of deaths have plummeted since the release of vaccines, inadequate staffing, protective equipment shortages and poor infection control remain significant concerns at most of the nation’s 14,000 skilled nursing facilities, advocates say. The Trump policy favoring lower penalties was adopted in 2...
Our state is facing budget challenges and will need to make important decisions about how we can best address these challenges to continue providing health and financial security as well as economic opportunities to Alaskans of all ages. For many years, Alaska used its oil revenues to balance the state budget and fund state services and programs. At the same time, the state used Permanent Fund earnings to issue dividend checks to all Alaska residents. As oil revenues declined, the state reduced spending on services and programs and used the...
Sept. 17, 2021 is Constitution Day, the 234th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution. The state of Alaska, and several of its local jurisdictions have called for a Constitutional Amendment to implement needed reforms. To understand the need for changes to our Constitution, we need to understand the Constitution we have. Our Constitution establishes the fundamental structures of our democracy and helps protect us against governmental abuses. The drafters also provided for changes (amendments) to the Constitution. Jefferson wrote that it ought to...
Equitable access to care, services and supports for older adults and their caregivers has always been one of the main pillars of The Diverse Elders Coalition, founded in 2010, which comprises six member organizations representing African American/Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Southeast Asian American, Hispanic/Latinx and LGBT+ communities. The coalition’s partnership with the American Society on Aging (ASA) reflects a shared commitment across the Coalition, the ASA membership and the broader A...
Q: How do I tell family and friends I’m struggling with depression? A: While depression is common amongst older adults, it is not a normal part of aging. Life transitions, isolation, death of a loved one, health issues or loss of life purpose are stressful situations, and can cause a person to experience depression. It’s good you have recognized the symptoms, and hopefully are receiving the help you need. For most people, they get better with treatment. Often older adults do not recognize the...
The garage sale signs were posted on each side of the driveway, so I knew we were expected and welcome, but I still had mixed feelings. An older gentleman in our community of Slana back in the summer of 2010, had sold his home and moved to Tok. His lifetime accumulation of personal belongings needed to be removed from the property. A Norwegian immigrant, he moved to Alaska in 1966, making his living as a commercial fisherman, a trapper, and a carpenter. He embraced the homesteader lifestyle....
Prospectors searching for gold in the Wrangell mountains during the early 1900s found a mountain of copper instead. That discovery brought the famous Guggenheim-Morgan Syndicate into the history of Alaska, along with chicanery of the highest order. The Syndicate, which owned the copper mines, needed a transportation system to haul its lucrative cargo. It planned a railroad line in the Copper River valley that ran 196 miles from Cordova to the site of what became the Kennecott Copper mines. The...
When the Los Angeles Hollywood Museum reopened in August, having closed its doors to the public during much of the pandemic, Claudia Wells was one of many guests invited to celebrate the event that included a "Back to the Future" exhibit (www.thehollywoodmuseum.com). Wells appeared in the original 1985 movie as Jennifer Parker, girlfriend to Marty McFly played by Michael J. Fox who starred in the beloved movie trilogy. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991 at age 29, Fox later established...
A few months back, the State of Alaska got hacked pretty badly. Some evildoers broke into their system, and the State had to shut down all their systems for a while, and then bring them back up slowly. Among the systems which were shut down for quite a long time were those of Vital Statistics. If you are not familiar with Vital Statistics (nowadays officially called the Health Analytics and Vital Records Section, but that’s too long) it does a number of things which impact the public d...
Q. How do I make the text on my phone larger? A. The good news is that both iPhone and Android have system settings to make text larger, and many apps support adjustable-size text based on these settings. The less good news is that these settings appear in multiple places, and they have different effects. Read on for some general suggestions, but I encourage you to search the web for detailed advice about your specific device. Not all text on a phone is the same. Labels are text. So is scrolling text in an email. Action items such as...
If someone you love is suffering from Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, wouldn’t you do everything possible to help them? What about if the medicine you give them has questionable usefulness or potentially dangerous side effects and costs a fortune? That’s a question millions of people may face soon. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved Aduhelm, also called aducanumab, in June, in one of its most contentious decisions. This came eight months after a harsh rejection of the treatment by an FDA advisory commi...
Seniors are known nationally for being “super voters”. But many voters find it challenging to understand and evaluate the issues and candidates. Hence this series has been created to dive into civic issues to help our Alaskan seniors, friends and families become more familiar with some issues that should be considered when casting a vote. In this series, we will start by focusing on campaign finance. In the next few columns, we will identify some of the problems that currently exist in our political system, provide history about how these probl...
New research from AARP shows that nearly 8 in 10 of those caring for an adult family member (78%) are facing regular out-of-pocket costs, with the highest burden falling on younger caregivers and those who are Hispanic/Latino or African American. The organization is launching a national campaign urging Congress to do more to support family caregivers. AARP tracked what caregivers pay for using their own money and found average annual spending totaled $7,242, and, on average, 26% of the caregiver’s income. Housing expenses like rent or m...
Caregiver burnout—also known as caregiver stress or caregiver syndrome—was first described by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974. The mental health professional worked in a clinic for drug addicts in New York and observed that most of the volunteers at the clinic had a progressive loss of energy, leading to exhaustion, symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as lack of motivation at work and aggressiveness with patients after a year of working. This is a disorder with serious implications both physically and psychologic...
Q: How can I maximize time with my neighbor who is living with cancer? A: I am so glad we are talking about this important topic. It must be incredibly difficult for you. You have taken the first step of support by being there for your neighbor. In moments of crises sometimes the best source of reassurance is a hug or your gift of time. Often you don’t need to say much, but just sit with them, offer to fix food (if they are willing or able to eat), without offering platitudes. Fear and stress a...
George Washington Carmack and his two inseparable friends, "Skookum" Jim Mason and Tagish Charlie, had wandered up and down the Yukon for several years before their gold discovery electrified the world in August 1896. Carmack traveled over glaciers, through marshes, among forests, lakes, rivers and mountains in search of his destiny. He seemed a misfit in a land where every man was looking for gold. He only wanted to live like the Natives among whom he'd made his home since coming north in...
Carla Malden credits her father, actor Karl Malden, for sowing the seeds of her writing career – first as a screenwriter then an author. "He used me and my sister to cue him quite often when he was learning a part," she recalled from her home in Los Angeles. "I think I learned a lot about writing as a result. If it was a heavily dialogued scene, he'd sometimes tell me to cross a line out of the script because he said 'I can act that.' It taught me the importance of seeing the actor's c...
I usually start thinking about my next column at least a month ahead of time. But then sometimes events derail my plans, and I have to write about something else. The 2018 earthquake, the recent pandemic, and more than a few surprise elections, judicial decisions, or Congressional acts have caused me to re-rack everything and start over. This time, my plans were hijacked by Britney Spears. For the benefit of those of my readers who have been living in a cave for the last 20 years – because o...
ANALYSIS As the nation emerges from the coronavirus pandemic, telemedicine has transformed how millions of Americans, particularly seniors, see their doctors. Now the Biden administration and Congress must decide whether video and audio appointments with doctors should continue as a routine part of health care and should get federal reimbursement. Telemedicine, also called telehealth, has been the most significant health care shift caused by the pandemic. Before coronavirus, lawmakers had tightly restricted the kind of video and audio visits...
Question: My granddaughter’s good friend is a young woman she used to work with. They spend a lot of time together and have come to visit me. It is apparent they are a couple. I’m not sure how to interact with them. Answer: This is a great question; while a grandparent may not be one of the first people a grandchild shares personal information with, how delightful she feels comfortable visiting you. It sounds like you two have a special relationship. Responding appropriately and uniquely to the...
