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It's a personal resolution I observe every January: celebrating the New Year with duck soup, animal crackers and, of course, the cocoanuts. No, it's not some strange private culinary ritual. It's a tradition to welcome the New Year with some old-fashioned Hollywood madcap merriment by viewing several Marx Brothers films including, but not limited to, three of my favorites: "Duck Soup," "Animal Crackers," and "The Cocoanuts." And at some point this January, I'll also enjoy the next episode of...
If you ain’t no punk Holler “we want prenup! We want prenup!” It’s something that you need to have ‘Cause when she leave your *** She gonna leave with half. - Kanye West This month’s column is about prenuptial agreements. If you read the news, you probably think that is something a billionaire uses to keep his fourth wife from getting half of his fortune, but it’s more than that. Bear with me. Most people get married without a prenup, and that’s fine. Not everyone needs one. There are laws...
Q. When I visit certain web pages, a video starts playing automatically. Is there a way to disable this annoying behavior? A. The simple answer is yes, there is probably a setting you can adjust to stop most videos from automatically playing. Where things can get messy is finding the right setting. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari each have preferences that block video auto-play everywhere, and they can also selectively block auto-play on specific sites. These options can be found in the browser’s preference (settings) screen, under the h...
The Biden administration recently rolled out several steps toward getting more Americans vaccinated with two different new rules covering more than 100 million workers and specific guidelines for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The first rule, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) covers companies with 100 or more employees, applying to an estimated 84 million workers. It requires companies to ensure that their workers are either fully vaccinated...
After the 2020 election in Alaska the hidden backstory came out: GCI donated $100,000 to the national Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which gave $380,000 to the Alaska Council on Good Government, which launched late-in-the-campaign attack ads against Alaskan Independent and Democratic legislative candidates, and ads supporting five Republican candidates in Anchorage and Fairbanks. At the same time, another group, Defend Alaska, collected $150,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund based in Washington D.C. and spent it in support of...
In May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Twitter that its COVID-19 data tracker now displays U.S. vaccination progress by race and ethnicity. The tracker, "Percent of People Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine by Race/Ethnicity and Date Reported to CDC, United States," showed that as of July 6, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest vaccination rate in the country, with 45.5 percent having received at least one dose and 39.1 percent fully vaccinated....
Q: I have been watching the TV series “Dopesick” about opioid addiction. How do I talk to my mom‘s doctor about whether or not the medication she is on needs to be adjusted as she ages? A: This is a relevant question for any family. As adults age, social and physical changes occur which may increase vulnerability to substance misuse. As reported from 2018 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data, 1 million adults age 65 and older live with a substance use disorder. While...
One winter while living in Slana, a couple months after our devastating 2002 Denali Fault earthquake, I took a two month leave of absence from my school aide job, and my husband, Gary, and I drove our truck camper Outside to visit family in several states. One of our stops was at his sister Diana's home in Gilroy, California, which is located near an outlets shopping complex. This really excited me since I had not had time to drive to Anchorage to shop for replacement items destroyed in the...
Capt. James Cook reported seeing a tall, sail-like rock about 60 miles west of Dutch Harbor in 1778. Unbeknownst to him and his crew, a 6,000-foot volcano lay beneath the conical mountain and its crater sat just below sea level. At various times throughout Alaska's history, navigators' logs recorded changes in the volcanic island's shoreline from season to season. Sometimes it was said to have disappeared into the ocean, only to emerge later in other locations. The mystery island, named...
Premiering in Los Angeles a few days before Christmas 75 years ago this year, "The Yearling" depicted the post-Civil War Baxter family struggling to survive in the backwoods of Florida. Notwithstanding fine performances from screen parents Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman, the film soon became a family favorite due in no small measure to Claude Jarman Jr. and his dramatic portrayal of their son, Jody. Just 10 years old when filming began in spring 1945, it was young Claude's first professional...
Many of our Senior Voice readers will remember Ric Ocasek. He was the lead singer of a band called The Cars which had quite a few hits in the late 70s and early 80s. And if you were paying attention to pop culture in that time frame, you might also remember Paulina Porizkova, a supermodel who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Did you know they were married? This is their story. At least a little piece of it. Ric and Paulina met while filming the video for the song “Drive”. You might rem...
It appears the sky may soon be the limit on campaign donations in Alaska. In the case Thompson v. Hebdon, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down three provisions of Alaska law. With the chief justice dissenting, the two-judge majority overturned the $500 per-year limit on the amount of money an Alaskan can contribute to an individual candidate; the $500 per-year limit on contributions to a particular political group; and the $3,000 per-year limit on the amount of money a candidate can accept from all out-of-state donors...
During 2020, while COVID-19 was raging across the nation, my tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in Cherokee, N.C., took intense measures early on, shutting down the Qualla Boundary (our tribal lands), implementing mass testing, contract tracing and case isolation. Tribal leaders and elders feel a sense of urgency about preserving the culture and language, as was demonstrated during the worst of the pandemic when Native language speakers were prioritized to receive the vaccine by some...
As you may know, Original Medicare Part B covers 80 percent of the cost of most health care needs. But what about the remaining 20 percent, or even the other out-of-pocket costs like deductibles or copayments? This is where supplemental insurance plans, also known as Medigaps, help to bridge the difference in costs. For some who already have other health insurance, such as for some company retirees, you are already adequately covered. For others, Medigaps can really help. Understanding Medigaps...
Q: Today I read about a San Francisco couple who had $363,000 stolen from their bank accounts by their caregiver. How do I protect myself so this doesn’t happen to me? A: I read about that incident too, and can understand why you are concerned. On the Federal Bureau of Investigation website the agency reports that each year millions of elderly Americans fall victim to some type of financial fraud. With an older adult population growing proportionally larger compared to other generations, and l...
One November many years ago my son taught me something about how the streams of love and loss flow through our family. It was the day our dog died, an eight-and-a-half-year-old Springer spaniel named Bandit. Before school that morning, we discovered she had spent the night on the front porch, not moving to her doghouse to sleep as usual. Immediately I wondered what was wrong, and when I went to check, she didn't seem to be able to move by herself. I took her to the Wasilla Veterinary Clinic righ...
Anchorage's first mayor, elected on Nov. 29, 1920, bore the responsibility of governing a railroad town of 1,856 people after five years of Alaska Engineering Commission management ended. When Judge Leopold David became Anchorage's mayor, he helped the new city council develop ordinances to provide law and order. They included establishing a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for youth under 16, setting a speed limit of eight miles per hour in town and outlawing spitting in public places. David, an...
Best known for her extensive television career that includes starring roles in shows such as "Falcon Crest," "Castle" and "Dharma and Greg," Susan Sullivan is always keen to offer advice to others and that includes sharing with seniors her family's experience with health issues. "Exercise!" she declared from her home in Los Angeles. "I'm 78, and about five years ago Connell (her longtime partner) was suffering from back issues and we began a program of high-intensity interval training. A lot of...
Lots of people get living trusts. For many folks, they’re a better way to avoid costs, disputes and delays when they shuffle off this mortal coil, as opposed to just having a will (or nothing at all) and going through probate. And most of these trusts are revocable. That means that if the person or couple who created the trust wants to change it later, or even cancel it completely, they can. That makes it a very flexible type of arrangement. Circumstances changed? Just change the trust. O...
Q. What is the latest information on the Windows 11 upgrade? A. Since I wrote about it last month, the picture is much clearer. Windows 11 will be available on October 5. Moreover, thanks to Microsoft’s refreshed PC Health Check app, you should be better equipped to determine if your PC supports the upgrade. Unlike the confusion surrounding the early version of the tool, the version pre-released a few weeks ago will report reliably if your PC can handle Windows 11. Best of all, if your PC cannot run Windows 11, it will provide guidance for e...
On Sept. 17, a group met outside the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Anchorage with Senator Bill Wielechowski to protest a recent decision by the 9th District Federal Court that would strike down several provisions of Alaska's campaign finance law. The decision of the court strikes down three limits set by the law: a $500 per year, per person limit on contributions to a single candidate; a $500 per year per contribution to a political group; and a $3,000 per year limit on money donated...
Making omelets for a group of people is often a messy process, inevitably breaking a lot of eggshells. Ingredients can be changed hundreds of ways to experiment and adjust flavors. Ultimately, if it’s done well, the result is a delicious omelet concoction at the end of the kitchen adventure. Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill are attempting to make legislative omelets with numerous committees getting their hands in the mix – and lots of eggs are getting broken along the way as they work to pass the most ambitious domestic agenda in more tha...
Q: Why am I always the one everyone expects to take care of Uncle Joe? Just because I don’t have a family, it doesn’t mean there aren’t work or personal demands on my time. A: Demands of caregiving while working is a tough juggling act. Stress and resentment are common emotions while managing interruptions to your daily routine. Inequity in caregiving is experienced by relatives of older adults across gender, cultural expectations, socio-economic status, ethnic identity or employment statu...
It’s never too late to get active A study in more than 30,000 heart patients shows that becoming active later in life can be nearly as beneficial to survival as continued activity. “These encouraging findings highlight how patients with coronary heart disease may benefit by preserving or adopting a physically active lifestyle,” says study author Dr. Nathalia Gonzalez of the University of Bern, Switzerland. This study investigated activity levels over time and their relationship to the risk...
