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Editor's note: This article is part of a monthly series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, focusing on different segments of the senior population. My grandfather passed through the Golden Gate - where the Golden Gate Bridge would later be constructed - in October 1903. He arrived in the time between the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924. By 1924, the U.S. government had completely blocked the immigration of people it deemed undesirable, including Asians, Arabs,...
My column has been AWOL for the last couple of issues, and I apologize. I became one of the “walking wounded” in early June after a fall which broke my right arm. Despite having an extensive workplace safety enforcement background, I willfully and stupidly violated the three points of contact rule by not using the hand rails. My fall broke my right arm and rendered me incapable of independent living for several weeks. This article isn’t about my injury, which is healing, and I expect to be at...
Our lives with our animal companions are defined by rituals. Here are a few that have taken place in our home: Monkey barks every morning as soon as we wake up and continues until breakfast; Blue begins silently commanding us to bed at 9 p.m. every night – staring at us as he moves toward the bedroom; Elsie meows for the bathroom faucet to be turned on so she can sip water from the running stream. Some of these rituals still happen, others ended years ago with the passing of that animal, and o...
Enterprising newsmen published the first issue of the Yukon Press in March 1898. The 14-page effort shared the news of the day from St. Michael to the upper Yukon. With the discovery of gold along Interior rivers and in the Klondike region, thousands of stampeders flooded into the wilderness of Alaska looking for their pot of gold. Circle City, located about 160 miles northeast of present-day Fairbanks, got its start in 1894 as the supply center for the Circle Mining District 50 miles to the...
The list of actors with whom Barbara Rush shared the big screen is impressive. "I did work with a lot of interesting and talented men," said Ms. Rush from Los Angeles. "And actresses, too, such as Jane Wyman. I found the nicest people were actually the biggest stars because they were all so gracious and helpful." Just considering 1958's "The Young Lions," she worked alongside Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin. "It was a serious war film, but Dean still made me laugh – a lovely m...
Remember 1987? If you lived here in Alaska, you might remember that it was the absolute nadir of the recession. Oil prices had dropped, jobs had gone away, houses had been abandoned. Generally speaking, it was not a good time and place to start a career. But there I was, fresh out of law school and returning to my hometown. Growing up and going to college here in Anchorage, this had been an exciting boomtown. In the three years I was gone, it had become more like a ghost town. If you’re an a...
Q. My family is spread all over the country, but we keep in touch on Facebook. Do you have any suggestions for things we could do online together? A. My mother, who will turn 80 next year, used Facebook to help her create the ultimate family photo album. Once a week she would select an old family photo and upload it to Facebook. Uploading is easier than ever, since smartphone cameras can digitize images as well as scanners once did. Once online, she would caption the image to identify who was in it, where they were, the date, and any other...
Editor, I read your July edition. As usual, there were many articles on Medicare, most apparently talking down to recipients. Have you ever considered an article from the recipients’ viewpoint? First off, please remember that most of the people enrolled in Medicare pay premiums for Medicare and D and Supplements. Medicare is not free. Are statistics available on the total paid to Medicare? Supplements are quite expensive but they must be profitable to insurance companies or the companies would not offer them. Often, medical practitioners s...
This is an ongoing series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, looking at different segments of the senior population. Hispanics and Latinos make up the fastest-growing demographic of the U.S. population. In 2015, the Hispanic population reached 56.6 million, making Hispanics the nation’s largest ethnic/racial minority, constituting 17.6 percent of the US population. It is projected that by 2060, the Hispanic population will reach 119 million, or 28.6 percent of the U.S. population. In addition to rapid population growth, Hispanics and Latinos a...
A pachyderm named Annabelle, who became prolific with a paintbrush and easel, is responsible for the creation of the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. It all started when Jack Snyder saw a tongue-in-cheek come-on for a Chiffon toilet paper contest for grocers in 1966. The Crown Zellerbach company ad announced: "$3,000 or a baby elephant" to the winner. The Anchorage grocer won the contest. Snyder then startled the tissue paper executives when he said, "I'll take the elephant." One can just imaging the...
Whether singing her own words or those of others, the sublime vocal talent of pop/folk singer Judy Collins has been drawing audiences for over 50 years. But it almost never happened. "I contracted polio as a child and later tuberculosis when I was in my early 20s," recalled Collins from her home in New York. "My school teachers told me I was suffering from growing pains but when I was around 11 and the pain became severe, I went to the doctor who said I had polio. Of course, there was an...
“I’m just gonna leave everything to Bubba,” says the gent across from me. “That's certainly doable,” I tell him. “But what's the reason you’re disinheriting your other kids?” “I’m not really disinheriting them,” he says. “Johnnie has some alcohol problems. Dolly is fine, but if her no-good husband gets his hands on the money, he’ll spend it all. So I’ll just leave it all to Bubba, and he’ll take care of the other kids.” “So... when you say you’re leaving it to him, I take it you mean, he’ll b...
Q. How do I dispose of a smartphone? A. These guidelines apply to most electronic devices, everything from smartphones to PCs. There are two concerns, protecting your privacy and proper recycling. If the device is only a few years old and still operates, you could sell it, extend its life by passing it along to a family member, or donate it to a charitable organization. The longer the device can be used, the less impact there is on the environment. Eventually, every smartphone reaches the end of its useful life. No matter what, do not d...
Despite the fact that this bill has over 100 Congressional co-sponsors, you probably have not heard about H.R. 676, The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act. This legislation would: • guarantee access to comprehensive, high quality, affordable health care to all U.S. residents; • allow you to go to doctors and hospitals of your choice (unlike private insurance, which often forces you to use their list of doctors and hospitals); • not require you to pay copayments or deductibles; • not surprise you with huge unexpected medical bills....
Editor's note: This is the eighth article in a series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, looking at different segments of the senior population. I don't let cold weather stand between me and exercise. I enjoy pulling on my cleated hiking boots, grabbing my walking sticks and taking a brisk walk on an icy sand beach on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula. It does something for my spirit. I can enjoy it now at age 73 because I have the muscle mass and tone to extend myself. I can actually work up a sweat! I...
Baseball has long been a staple of summers in Alaska. And when Anchorage baseball fans wanted a semi-pro team in 1969, they knew they could count on George "Lefty" Van Brunt to coach the boys of summer from the first base side of the plate. Lefty's career with the Anchorage Glacier Pilots began that year when the Anchorage Community got serious about baseball because the adult league's all-star team could never beat the Fairbanks team. "The Gold Panners used to come down and kick our butts,"...
Best known for her roles in musical theater, Tony-nominated actress and singer Susan Watson released a collection of 14 Broadway and jazz standards on her CD "The Music Never Ends" last fall. "Some of these tracks I had sung earlier in my career and others I had always heard and loved, and just wanted to get them recorded," said Watson from her home in Sherman Oaks, California (see www.susanwatsonmusic.com). As an added bonus, says Watson, six of the songwriters on the CD were women well into th...
I grew up in the '70s. Back then, young people tended to sow their wild oats fairly indiscriminately. Sometimes, one of those wild oats sprouted. Those of you with grayer hair than mine, or at least with a good historical perspective, might point out that this sort of thing has been going on since... well, probably since the dawn of time. Even the Old Testament is complete with such stories (think Bathsheba). "Les Miserables" is based on such a sad tale. But back then, before the sexual...
Q. My 80-year-old mother received some messages from her Facebook friends that they had gotten a friend request from her, despite the fact they were already friends. What is going on? A. According to published estimates, there may be as many as 80 million fake accounts on Facebook, and this sounds like one of those situations. It usually starts when a malicious attacker steals someone’s profile picture and header photo as the basis for a fake account. Next they send friend requests from the fake account to the victim’s friend list. Most peo...
Suppose a debt collector sues you and wins a judgment. It may get a court order to garnish money from your account or benefits received by prepaid card. But the U.S. Department of Treasury requires banks to automatically protect certain federal benefits, IF that money gets deposited directly into your account. Banks must protect two months’ worth of benefits. So, let’s say you normally get $1,000 per month. Your bank must protect $2,000 of that money, but if you have more than that on deposit, it may be garnished or frozen. Important note: If y...
Editor's note: This is the seventh article in a series from the Diverse Elders Coalition, looking at different segments of the senior population. "How's that jade plant doing?" Joe asked me as we sat down at his kitchen table for our weekly visit. "You said you put it in a westward facing window, right? It should be getting way more light than mine do." He gestured toward his patio door where cactuses, orchids, jade plants and an avocado plant were growing on a bench he built. I had been Joe's...
Typically, when people think of animal companions they think of dogs and cats. But not everyone wants to, or can, walk a dog or has a secure enclosure for a dog to spend time outside. And some folks are allergic to cats. So we have another suggestion for you: rabbits. Yes, rabbits. Rabbits don't enjoy the popularity of dogs and cats. In fact, according to the House Rabbit Society there are only an estimated 3 to 7 million pet rabbits. That's a small number compared to the estimated 78 million...
PTSD is a term used by laymen to explain aberrant behavior by individuals who served in combat. Is this a fair assessment or a misuse of a term that carries deadly consequences? What is this disorder and does PTSD have any correlation to suicide? In the movie “Patton”, General Patton slapped a soldier who had “lost it” in battle and was recovering in the infirmary. He had battle fatigue or was shell shocked, according to the attending doctor. Of course, old “Blood and Guts” Patton couldn’t fa...
A small spruce that peered skyward in a dense forest on Prince of Wales Island in the mid-1700s found its way to Anchorage when Alaska became America's 49th state. This Southeast Alaska sapling held no importance when Secretary of State William Seward finalized the purchase of Alaska from the Russians on March 30, 1867. And most Americans at the time thought Alaska unimportant, as well, and referred to it as "Seward's Ice Box." But just as Alaska grew in importance for the nation, this little...
We all use the wrong word occasionally – "that skinny dog looks emancipated" – but comedian Norm Crosby molded a career from such humorous grammatical gaffes known as malaprops. "Although I had a good job as an advertising manager for a shoe company in Boston, I liked to fool around with comedy," said Crosby from his home in Los Angeles. It was the 1950s, and Crosby began visiting small, local bars and clubs on weekends to try his hand at standup. "I would watch the Ed Sullivan show and borrow a...
