A Trip Down Memory Lane

     Please don't ask me any embarrassing questions about why I've never done this before. But over the weekend I finally downloaded the photos from my smartphone -- the ones I've taken over the past couple of years, ever since I first got the phone. That's right, in the over two years since I've owned the phone, I've never bothered to do this  . . . even though when I finally decided to figure it out, it took me about 30 seconds.

     Anyway, the bonus is, the exercise offered me a little trip down Memory Lane. This first photo is from someplace in Florida. Don't remember when, or where. Ft. Lauderdale? Key West? Naples? Does anyone recognize the street?

 
     We were shopping for a new microwave. So this is our new Samsung microwave . . . or, our new microwave as it looked in the store two years ago.

     The view from my office window. Obviously, not last week. This was, probably, the summer before last.

 
     I featured this photo in my post The First Pictures, back in 2013, when I got the phone and when the government was suffering its infamous shut down. I thought the bar owner was making the best of a bad situation. (No, I didn't go in the bar . . . maybe I should have!)

  
     I posted this photo in Look What I Found! I had lost my camera when vacationing on Cape Cod. B and I looked everywhere for it. The camera finally turned up, about two months later, when I brought the car in to the car wash and they vacuumed the interior. There it is, in my nice clean car! Sure enough, it had been stuck somewhere under a seat.

     A street scene from the Philadelphia "Fall Into the Arts Festival" in October 2013.

     B and I went ice skating last winter at Bear Mountain, on the Hudson River. That's the Bear Mountain Bridge in the background.

 
     B and I visited Buffalo last summer, and we found this piece of artwork down at the park by the lake. It's made out of small pieces of scrap paper. See how it outlines the Great Lakes? Okay, here's a quiz for you: Can you name the five Great Lakes? (Answer below.)

     Finally, the end-of-summer bonfire on Nauset Beach, Cape Cod, last September -- a big bonfire to usher in a long, cold winter. But winter is over now. It hit 46 degrees here in New York yesterday afternoon.

     P.S. The Great Lakes are: Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior. Did you remember them all? If so, here's your advanced-placement question: Name the Finger Lakes in upstate New York. How many can you get? (I'll supply the answer next post, because . . . heck I don't know what they are, I have to look them up!).

Remember Her?

     Americans loved her. But she was actually European, born in Brussels in 1929. Her father was Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, a British subject who'd come from a section of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that is now the Czech Republic.

     Her mother was Baroness Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch aristocrat, who's father had been mayor of Arnhem. The family often traveled from Belgium to the Netherlands to England, and because of her international background she learned five languages.

Arnhem

     During the 1930s her father became a Nazi sympathizer. But her parents got divorced because her mother found her father in bed with the nanny. In 1937 she moved with her mother to England, where she went to a small Catholic school and studied ballet.

     In 1939 they moved back to Arnhem, as her mother thought the Netherlands would avoid the war, as it had during World War I. Instead, the Germans took over, and the young girl adopted her mother's name to blend in with the locals. She suffered from malnutrition, developed anemia and respiratory problems, and as she said later, was horrified as she watched Jews being herded onto trains for deportation.

     During the war she continued studying ballet. She took part in several secret performances to raise money for the Dutch resistance, and she occasionally served as a courier as well. In the final months of the conflict, as meager food supplies were cut off, she saw people starving in the streets, and resorted to making flour out of tulip bulbs to bake bread and biscuits.

     After the war she continued her dancing lessons in Amsterdam. But her height and her weak constitution ruled her out as a prima ballerina, so she turned to modeling and acting.

     She moved in London in 1948 and became a chorus girl. She appeared in several musical revues and landed her first film role -- as a stewardess on an educational travel film. She took small roles in several minor films, until one day, so the story goes, the French author Colette happened to be on set, looking for the right person to play the title character in her Broadway play Gigi. "Voila!" Colette supposedly said. "There's your Gigi."

     Gigi opened in New York in November 1951, where her name was featured on the marquee. The next year she went on the road with the play, ending up in California, where she did a screen test for Roman Holiday and beat out Elizabeth Taylor for the role of the Italian princess who falls in love with an American newsman played by Gregory Peck.

     And by now you must know she is Audrey Hepburn, who for her performance was crowned Best Actress at the 1953 Academy Awards. Hepburn went on to become one of Hollywood's most beloved leading actresses -- and who more than once was named most beautiful woman in the world.

     She was nominated four more times as Best Actress (although she never won again): for Sabrina, opposite Humphrey Bogart and William Holden; for her role as Sister Luke in The Nun's Story; as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's; and as a blind woman in the 1967 thriller Wait Until Dark.

     In all she appeared in over two dozen films, including Charade with Cary Grant, Funny Face with Fred Astaire, and My Fair Lady with Rex Harrison. After the 1960s, she scaled back on her acting career, but became almost as well known for her charitable work with UNICEF. In 1993, she was posthumously awarded the Jean Hersholt Academy Award for her contribution to humanity.

     She was married twice. She suffered several miscarriages but was able to have two children -- one son with her first husband, the actor Mel Ferrer; and a son by her second husband, the Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti, who was nine years younger than she was. They eventually got divorced; and Hepburn in her later years partnered up with actor Robert Wolders.

     Unfortunately, she met an untimely death when she contracted a rare appendecial cancer. She died in January 1993, at age 63, and was buried in a small cemetery overlooking the village of Tolochenaz, Switzerland. European to the end.

     But if her father's name was Ruston, and her mother's name was van Heemstra, where did the name Hepburn come from? From her father. At one point in England he found the name Hepburn buried in his family tree. He thought it sounded posh, so he doubled-barrelled his name to the more aristocratic-sounding Hepburn-Ruston. After World War II -- when she went by van Heemstra -- she adopted Hepburn as her name. And that answers the question: Was she related to Katharine Hepburn? No, not any more than you and I are.

Crossing a Threshold

     Sometimes in life we end up doing things we never expected we'd do. I never expected to get divorced. I never expected to lose my job. I never expected to be as old as my dad ... and yet I hear his voice coming out of my mouth all the time.

     The Midlife Crisis Queen never expected to move to a small town in the middle of Colorado. But that's just what she did a little less than a year ago. She and her husband are renting a place in the tiny town of Walsenburg, CO, with a population of 3,068, which still makes it the largest metropolitan area in Huerfano County. In her post Living in the Land of Relaxation she offers her impressions of small town living after years of residing in the city.

     But moving to this tiny town is not the half of it. The reason she's there is because she's building her own home even farther out into the wilderness, in the shadow of the Spanish Peaks. To see how it's going, journey over to her post Beautiful Snow and a Garage Door Too! I guarantee you'll be amazed at some of her photos.

     Meanwhile, Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting has crossed her own threshold in life. Get ready, because it's a big one!

     As much as she hates to admit it, she now eagerly drives into town in the late afternoon, heads to a restaurant and proceeds to patronize the ... early bird special! Check out her admission into this new phase of life in Confession of an Early Birder.

     Personally, I see nothing wrong in taking advantage of a cheap meal -- however you come by it -- but the real question is: Does she stuff those Sweet 'n Lo packets into her purse before she goes out the door to get home safely before dark?

     Now I move on from something we never expected we'd do, to something that I, at least, resolved never to do again. After struggling through several used cars in my early adulthood -- a Buick, a VW, a Saab -- I told myself I would never buy a used car again. So the years went by. I bought a brand new Ford Taurus, a Honda, another Saab (okay, everybody's allowed to repeat one mistake). And then, again, I needed a new car. But a new one seemed so expensive, and there was this great deal on a Volvo with less than 30,000 miles on it, and there was a one-year guarantee ... and (the salesman told me) it was only driven by a little old lady. On Sundays. To church.

     So I went ahead and bought a used 2004 Volvo. Then, within a few weeks, it was back at the dealer for a new transmission. Fortunately, it was covered by the warranty. Still, I spent a fortune on that car over the next several years -- until my daughter said she'd take it off my hands. She's now still driving that thing, closing in on 200,000 miles. And if what she tells me is true, she hasn't spent a dime on it in the last three years other than to change the oil. Go figure.

     Anyway, that's a long introduction to The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, where consumer journalist Rita R. Robison offers a parking lot full of the  Best Used Cars for Every Budget, according to Consumer Reports. The review also includes a list warning us off the worst used cars. So if you're in the market, drive over to see the list. And by the way, Volvo doesn't make either the best or the worst list. Which leads me to believe, maybe it's not the car, but the driver, who determines how the car performs over the long haul. 

     Finally, from Smart Living 365, we have some thoughts not about how cars perform, but how we ourselves perform in our own lives, and how much we create our own circumstances and our own futures.

     Says blogger Kathy Gottberg, "While I'll admit that it is empowering to think I influence my world, and easy to imagine that your reality can be very different from mine, obviously that doesn't mean I can fly just because I want to. So do we create our own reality? What does the statement even mean? Is it true? And if yes, how does that lead to a smart and happy life?" For some insights, if not the final answers, try going to The Truth Behind "You Create Your Own Reality." 

      That's all from the Baby Boomer bloggers, except to say that B and I will be watching Downton Abbey tonight. It's the Season 5 finale, so maybe we'll find out what happens with ... well, you can watch on your own and enjoy it yourself.

Does Cold Weather Help You Live Longer?

     I'm always looking for the silver lining, so the other day when I was outside shoveling the walkway and freezing my butt off, the thought came to me that I'd read somewhere recently that people who live in cold climates live longer than people in warmer climates. So I began to wonder, is that really true, or is it just a tale northerners tell themselves? I decided to do some homework on the issue.

     Researchers from the University of Michigan, in a study published in the journal Cell, reported that worms exposed to cold temperatures demonstrate a genetic response that triggers longer life spans. The researchers went on to speculate that the phenomenon may translate to humans since similar genetic pathways are present in human beings.

     Also, according to an article in Prevention magazine, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that reducing the core body temperature in mice extends their lifespans by up to 20 percent. And another study discovered that mussels in balmy Spain live an average of only 29 years, but mussels in frigid Russia survive as long as 200 years!

     Well, that's fine. But what if you're not a worm or a mouse or a mussel? The evidence is not nearly so clear. One source who believes cold weather extends life suggested that things get rotten in warm places. So people living in northern climes are like perishables put in the refrigerator -- they last longer. Another speculates that many harmful bugs and bacteria are killed off during the cold northern winters, lessening the threat of deadly diseases to northerners. Still another says that southerners suffer more damage from overexposure to the sun, which ages the skin and causes skin cancers, thus shortening their lives compared to their northern counterparts.

     Another suggestion: The mitochondria in human cells produce body heat by burning fats and oxygen, and in the process they swallow up the free radicals that contribute to aging. People in cold climates need more mitochondria to produce more heat. They therefore have more mitochondria, and the more mitochondria you have, the slower your aging process.

     On the other hand, some southerners point out that northerners don't get enough sunlight, and may bear the consequences in Vitamin D deficiencies. Some health experts estimate that 50 percent of adults have low levels of vitamin D, largely because they spend too much time indoors away from the sun. The long, dark northern winters may also bring on seasonal affective disorders and other forms of depression which can lead to premature death.

     Being stuck inside, northerners are also more exposed to communicable diseases such as influenza, and because the cold air dries out people's mucus membranes, they are more susceptible to infections, and more likely to suffer from allergies and asthma. They are also more likely to lead sedentary lives resulting in obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart problems.

     However, studies also show that cold weather may affect our body chemistry to reduce the impact of pain, and exposure to freezing temperatures can increase our energy output. Presumably, taking a two-mile walk in 20-degree weather is more exercise than taking a two-mile walk in 70-degree weather -- and we don't feel the aches and pains afterwards.

     So what does all this mean? According to an article in U. S. News, you are most likely to live to age 100 if you reside in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa or Nebraska. These states are indeed cold, but they also share another common denominator. They are all Midwestern states where people may have old-fashioned Midwestern values such as hard work and clean living.

     Meanwhile an article in WedMD tells us that the states with the longest living residents are Hawaii, Minnesota, North Dakota, Connecticut and Utah. The states with the shortest life expectancy are: Kentucky, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

     You can see the obvious correlation between temperature and longevity (with the exception of Hawaii). But it's also pretty obvious that a lot of other issues are involved, including wealth, education and a host of other factors. But maybe we can take this away from the issue: If you live in the north get outdoors more, especially in the winter. If you live in the south, stay out of the sun, especially in the summer. But no matter where you live, try to get more exercise.

Not the Oscars

     Last night was Oscar night. B and I turned on the show at 8 p.m. (EST) -- we thought it started at 8, but it actually started at 8:30, so we saw a little of the Red Carpet preview. But honestly, we switched over to "Downton Abbey" at 9 p.m., then we walked the dog, then we went to bed.

     So that tells you how much of a movie expert I am. However, yesterday afternoon we went to a dance at our local American Legion. We sat at a table with a group of friends and acquaintances, all age 60 to early 70s. For some reason, between dances, the topic of movies came up. So here's a report on what people -- real people in our demographic -- think of these current movies, not what the so-called experts would have us believe.

     American Sniper -- Well, actually, nobody at our table had seen this controversial movie about Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in American history, directed by Clint Eastwood. A couple of people wanted to see it, but not B. She is pretty sure it would be too violent for her. She does not like violent movies.

     Boyhood -- B and I have been wanting to see this movie for months, but we haven't been able to find it in a theater. Maybe we're lucky. Three people at our table had seen it. One couple reported that it was so boring they both fell asleep. Our friend Julie offered that she thought it was really bad, and said she would have walked out if she hadn't been with a friend. Later, driving home, B turned to me. "I'm surprised no one liked Boyhood," she said. "Maybe we should go see it anyway, just to find out what they're talking about." Maybe we will ... if we can find a theater where it's playing.

    Fifty Shades of Grey -- I went over this in my last post. One other person at the table had read the book besides me. Curiously, two other women volunteered that they had started reading the book, but had put it down. They thought it was too lame, too vacuous, too whatever. Nobody had seen the movie; nobody wanted to see it. So to steal a phrase ... two thumbs down.

     The Grand Budapest Hotel -- One person at the table recommended this Wes Anderson caper movie that takes place in Europe between the wars. (Another person had it confused with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about the British pensioners who retired in India. There's a sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, coming out later this year.) I don't know. I'm not a big Wes Anderson fan. But maybe we'll check it out.

     The Imitation Game -- I'd heard about this movie, and honestly, it didn't appeal to me. It's about a British code-breaker in post-World-War II England who's arrested for homosexuality. I figured it's got a complicated, hard-to-follow plot with a heavy dose of political correctness. But several people had seen it, and they recommended it enthusiastically. So I figure, I ought to give it a chance ... even though (I found out later) it only earned one Oscar (for adapted screenplay).

     The Theory of Everything -- One couple at the table had seen it, and they recommended it highly. "But isn't it depressing?" I wondered. "It's about Stephen Hawking coming down with a horrible disease." No, it's not depressing, they said, it's really an uplifting love story. And I found out later:  Eddie Redmayne (who I liked in the movie version of Les Miserables) won Best Actor for his performance. So, definitely, put this on your "go see" list.

     Wild -- I was the only one who'd seen it. I'd read the book, and I liked it. I couldn't visualize how they would make much of a film out of it, so I wanted to see what they did. I thought Reese Witherspoon carried off the role very well; but it seemed to me that a lot was left out of the story. I'd say, if you've read the book, then don't bother with the movie. But if you haven't read the book, it's worth a trip to the theater.

     Sorry, but Still Alice, the movie about Alzheimer's, didn't come up in our conversation. Julianne Moore won Best Actress for her performance. (For a complete list of Oscar winners go to Variety.) But this one has got to be depressing, don't you think?

     Finally, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), didn't come up in our conversation either. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, so I figure it's probably worth going to see. Anyway, I guess that shows you how much I know. But then, as I admitted right up front, we turned to "Downton Abbey" instead.