Sorted by date Results 641 - 665 of 1132
On Nov. 8, 2018, in more than 150 locations across the U.S. and the globe, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and allies gathered as part of the intergenerational LGBT initiative SAGE Table. The event, which had a successful debut last year with the help of many high-profile stars, including Whoopi Goldberg, Zachary Quinto and Sarah Paulson, was created to address the prevailing challenge of loneliness for older LGBT people as they age. SAGE Table encourages...
Welcome to 2019! There are a number of changes in Medicare this year of which you will want to be aware. New Medicare cards The New Medicare card mail-out for Alaskans began April 1, 2018 and ended June 30. If you have not received your new card, please contact the Medicare Information Office (800-478-6065) or 1-800-Medicare, so that they can determine why your card has not arrived. It is possible an address update is needed. However, you do not need to panic, as the old card is still usable unt...
I used to have a fitness class instructor who liked to say about workouts, “Once you turn 40, it’s all rehab.” It brought chuckles, but it’s true that over the years we will inevitably subject our bodies to wear and tear. Various mishaps lead to injuries, some minor, some worse, some that will scar and haunt us forever. Our stories of how we’ve acquired these hurts may be humorous or downright horrific. I have my share of colorful tales – a spinal injury on the beach in Hawaii; a leg-crushing snowmachine wreck on the Yentna River. But I’m afr...
One man who arrived in Southeast Alaska's new gold-rush settlement of Harrisburg, later named Juneau, in 1880 created a sensation by claiming he had seen a city appear above a glacier. But people who knew him said, "He was the kind of person to gaze into a raincloud and see the sun." Richard "Dick" Willoughby landed in Harrisburg from Missouri shortly after Auk chief Kowee led Joe Juneau and Richard Harris to Silver Bow Basin, which started Alaska's first big gold rush. Many historians claim the...
The Christmas season may be over, but last December held special significance for Joan Dangerfield, who married comedian Rodney Dangerfield 25 years ago on Dec. 26. The pair had dated for 10 years following a chance meeting in 1983 when Rodney strolled passed Joan's Santa Monica flower shop. "Being a die-hard fan, I recognized Rodney immediately," Joan recalled from her West Hollywood home. "I was 16 when I first saw him on 'The Tonight Show' and suddenly there he was, 14 years later, walking...
As I write these words, it has been only a few days since the recent earthquake. By the time you read these words in the Senior Voice, though, it will probably be at least a month out, and most people will have forgotten about it. I don’t want to forget. Earthquake preparedness is a good thing. When something like this happens in a third world country, thousands of people can perish. We didn’t lose a soul. I’m convinced that part of that is the mercy of a loving God on our undeserving souls, but...
Have you wasted lots of time looking for stuff you know you have, but can’t find? Where is the manual for the washing machine? What the heck did I do with the business card from the guy I met on the plane? Where is that recording I made of the nephew’s graduation speech? How do I find those websites I saw about crafts? You get the idea. Truth be told, I still have lots of drawers and boxes with stuff in them, but a number of years ago I discovered the joys of what are commonly called “note-taking” applications for smartphones and tablets...
Q. When I open Safari on my iPhone, I am always forwarded to Apple’s website. Is there a way to choose a different home page? A. Apple removed the custom home page setting on iPhone for some mysterious reason, but there is a work-around. I set up my favorite sites as “apps” by adding their icons to the home screen. When you are on a Safari page you want to access again, with the bottom toolbar visible, tap the square with the arrow pointing upwards. A menu will slide up from the bottom of the screen. Swipe sideways on the row of grey icons...
Elders are among those most vulnerable to dehydration, and African American and Hispanic adults are more likely to become dehydrated than whites, researchers have found. In a patient-care advisory last February, staff at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., explained that dehydration occurs when the body loses more fluid than it takes in, causing a shortage of fluids needed for normal functions. While everyone is susceptible, dehydration is especially dangerous for older adults and young...
Winter dog walks-on the right day they can be enjoyable excursions with snow gently falling and a low winter sun in the sky, but on other days they can be downright treacherous with icy sidewalks and no light to help you see the ice before you feel your feet slip out from under you. Sometimes the safest decision is to ignore that pleading look in your dog's eyes and stay inside. But that doesn't mean your dog has to be bored and restless. There are ways to keep her entertained inside that are...
In October 1999 my husband Gary and I moved from Palmer to Slana, which was at that time one of the few places left on Alaska's road system still without commercial power. Residents ran their own generator, or did without electricity. This was not a completely new situation for us. Twenty-five years prior, while living on Chena Hot Springs Road out of Fairbanks, we learned it would take $10,000 to bring power to our property. After living there for a year and half, we moved to California. For...
Russians knew there were gold deposits in Alaska, as they had sent a mining engineer to search the land after the gold discovery in the late 1840s in California. The engineer found colors all around the mouth of the Kenai River, but his discoveries must not have meant much to his superiors, because they pulled him off gold duty in 1852 and told him to look for coal instead. And the Russians didn't broadcast the fact that they had found gold, either, because they feared a rush of gold-seeking...
Adorable Margaret O'Brien began her big-screen career at the age of three with a one-minute spot in 1941's "Babes on Broadway." Her career took off the following year as the star of MGM's "Journey for Margaret." Throughout the 1940s she continued to endear herself to millions seeking Hollywood diversions as World War II came and went. Ms. O'Brien, now 81, is back this holiday season starring in "This is Our Christmas," a sequel to the popular 2015 TV movie "Beverly Hills Christmas," and follows...
What’s not black and white, but green all over? Environmental, social, and governance investing, or ESG. ESG investors evaluate and invest based on corporate behavior as a predicator of future financial performance. After wading into ESG investing a couple of decades ago, I have found that “investing for good” has become a successful and rewarding strategy to prepare me for retirement. ESG investing, like any type of investing, is not black and white. All of us stress over saving and the safety of our savings. Wondering what our invested dolla...
I’m not much of an oenophile. Occasionally I might enjoy a nice glass of wine with certain foods, but I can’t tell the difference between a Merlot and a Bordeaux. But despite my lack of sophistication in matters of the grape, I think about decanting quite a bit. To a wine connoisseur, decanting means pouring wine from one container to another. It is done either to remove sediment from the wine, or to let the wine breathe before drinking. But to an estate planner, decanting means something ver...
Q. As a longtime iPhone user, when I needed a new phone I would just get the latest model. Now the lineup has so many choices I’m confused. How do I pick one? A. The 2018 iPhone models create an array of choices, yet choosing among them can still be simple. There are three new designs: the iPhone Xs, which comes in two different case sizes, and the iPhone Xr, the least expensive model. Unlike most tech products, iPhone customers are not saddled with older technology when they step down from the most expensive model. The iPhone Xr is by far t...
"Well - he doesn't hit me." It's a phrase I hear when talking to older women through Humble Warrior, a free compassionate listening service aimed at providing support to those in distress. While the women recognize they are miserable in their marriages, they often believe that if they aren't being hit, they have no legitimate reason to leave. Somewhere along the line, they've come to accept that emotional, verbal and financial abuse are just part of the marital package. Indeed, for many older...
My husband Gary burst in the door of our cabin, peeled off his outer gear, and said, "I volunteered us to cook the turkey in our wood cook stove. They'll do everything else on their Coleman stove. Thanksgiving dinner will go on as planned!" He had just returned by snow machine from checking on our neighbors, and said he would go back to their house with the sled in a while to fetch the bird. We all had awoken to no electricity that snowy November morning back in 1979. Gary and I had only lived...
President Richard Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act on Nov. 16, 1973, but many people had been working for years to lay the foundation for building that line long before it was approved. Throughout the 1960s, experts believed that the North Slope held commercially viable amounts of oil. And when found, they also knew that getting it to market would be a challenge as there was no road to Alaska's north country. The only way into the North Slope was by air or sea. The oil in...
As the TV matriarch of the Cunningham clan in the sitcom "Happy Days," Marion Ross appeared in over 250 episodes during the hit series' 11-season run from 1974 to 1984. But one episode has special significance for the actress this time of year. In 'The First Thanksgiving,' broadcast two days before the November holiday 40 years ago this year, Ross's character (also named Marion) leads the cast in a departure from the show's usual Milwaukee-based setting. She narrates a flashback story set in...
Sometimes when we talk about a particular subject a lot, we take it for granted that people know certain background facts. I realized this recently when I was talking about the high cost of probate (a subject I mention pretty regularly) and was asked whether it was in fact true that, as this person had heard, probate costs could run several thousand dollars. Several thousand dollars? That’s if you’re lucky. Probate costs money. A lot of money. In many states, the key players – attorneys and e...
Q. What is your favorite Android phone? A. I am a huge fan of the Google Pixel. I think that it offers the very best experience on the Android platform, and it’s my go-to recommendation for anyone who prefers Google’s services to those offered by Apple. I still think the overall best choice for most consumers is an iPhone, but marketing in the Android space is fierce, and the Pixel is the best top-quality phone that few people have ever heard of. Android itself is a product of Google, and while all the top-of-the-line models from third-party ph...
As all people who have birthdays on holidays know, there are good points as well as drawbacks. Through out my life, my birthday has always had an air of anticipation, excitement, and no lack of parties and candy – October 31. I'm sure my mother had her hands full trying to squeeze in both a birthday party and trick-or-treating. When my children were little, it was a challenge getting them ready for trick-or-treating and answering phone calls from family. Five long distance greetings were not u...
Around the first of April of this year, I began using a wheelchair when I leave the apartment. This was an inevitability that I resisted, fought off for as long as I could. Admitting that I need a wheelchair struck me as “the last straw,” akin to simply giving up, accepting the fact that the virus is winning. Worse, I have become more of a burden to my fiancé Rick than a companion. However, between the debilitating pain in my back—from severe osteoporosis, three herniated discs, four compression fractures, and a mysterious inflammation that w...
After news of gold found in the Klondike spread during the summer of 1897, many people in the Lower 48 left their jobs and families to head north to search for their fortunes. And soon a hoax, perpetuated by promoters looking to profit off of the stampede, would eventually birth one of Alaska's most picturesque little towns. 1897-1898 headlines rang out with "Gold in Alaska. Valdez Trail – Best Trail!" But the reported pre-existing trail turned out to be a glacier that was twice as long and s...
