Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds

Carrie Fisher, the actress, author and screenwriter who brought a rare combination of nerve, grit and hopefulness to her most indelible role, as Princess Leia in the “Star Wars” movie franchise, died on Tuesday morning. She was 60.

“Star Wars,” released in 1977, turned her overnight into an international movie star. The film, written and directed by George Lucas, traveled around the world, breaking box-office records. It proved to be the first installment of a blockbuster series whose vivid, even preposterous characters — living “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” as the opening sequence announced — became pop culture legends and the progenitors of a merchandising bonanza.

Ms. Fisher established Princess Leia as a damsel who could very much deal with her own distress, whether facing down the villainy of the dreaded Darth Vader or the romantic interests of the roguish smuggler Han Solo.

Wielding blaster pistols, piloting futuristic vehicles and, to her occasional chagrin, wearing strange hairdos and a revealing metal bikini, she reprised the role in three more films — “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, “Return of the Jedi” in 1983 and, 32 years later, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” by which time Leia had become a hard-bitten general.

Lucasfilm said on Tuesday that Ms. Fisher had completed her work in an as-yet-untitled eighth episode of the main “Star Wars” saga, which is scheduled to be released in December 2017.

***

[12/28/16] Debbie Reynolds, the Oscar-nominated singer-actress who was the mother of late actress Carrie Fisher, has died at Cedars-Sinai hospital. She was 84.

“She wanted to be with Carrie,” her son Todd Fisher told Variety.

She was taken to the hospital from Todd Fisher’s Beverly Hills house Wednesday after a suspected stroke, the day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died.

The vivacious blonde, who had a close but sometimes tempestuous relationship with her daughter, was one of MGM’s principal stars of the 1950s and ’60s in such films as the 1952 classic “Singin’ in the Rain” and 1964’s “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” for which she received an Oscar nomination as best actress.

*** [12/30/16]

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds to be buried together

ways to use flour

I have an old bag of flour that's been sitting in the fridge unopened for probably 10 years (or more).

I'm about to toss it, but maybe I can find some use for it?

Well, how about cleaning my stainless steel sink top?  I think I'll try it before tossing it out.

Tom Moffatt

Tom Moffatt — radio disc jockey, concert promoter and one of the most influential figures in the Hawaii entertainment industry — died Monday. He was 85.

Longtime associate Barb Saito, operations manager and vice president of Tom Moffatt Productions, confirmed that Moffatt died Monday night at home after several months of declining health. She described the 35 years she worked with him as “an amazing ride.”

Born Dec. 30, 1930, in Detroit, Moffatt disliked city life and spent most of his teen years working on farms and going to school in small towns outside the Motor City. He came to Hawaii in 1950, enrolled in the University of Hawaii, gravitating toward a career in radio.

Moffatt was playing jazz on KIKI when he started getting requests for a unknown artist named Elvis Presley. With the station’s permission, Moffatt became the first “rock ‘n’ roll” disk jockey in Hawaii and one of the pioneers of modern Top 40 radio.

Moffatt developed the format with Hawaii-born Ron Jacobs at KHVH, KPOA and finally at KPOI — possibly the first time that a station’s call letters formed a pronounceable word. Moffatt, Jacobs and other deejays became the “Poi Boys,” and captivated Hawaii audiences with a seemingly endless series of contests, special events, staged “feuds” between Moffatt and Jacobs, and the “Marathon of Hits” — an annual countdown of the most popular songs in Hawaii as voted on by KPOI listeners. KPOI dominated the Hawaii radio market throughout the 1960s.

Moffatt got involved in concert promotion in the 1950s as an outgrowth of his work in radio. He presented musical revues of the hit artists of the day with the “Show of Stars” concerts and then helped open the Honolulu International Center (now the Neal S. Blaisdell Center) with the first in a series of “Million Dollar Parties.” In the decades that followed Moffatt presented almost every big name in the music business at least once — among his biggest productions were mega-concerts by Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and the Eagles in Aloha Stadium. He also brokered reunion concerts by Cecilio & Kapono, Kalapana and Hui Ohana when conventional wisdom held that the members of the those acts would never work together again.

Moffatt’s involvement in the Hawaii record industry started in the late 1950s. He became a major figure in the Hawaii record industry in the 1970s and 1980s as the head of two labels — Paradise and Bluewater — that released Hoku Hanohano Award-winning recordings by Keola & Kapono Beamer, Andy Bumatai, Loyal Garner, the Aliis, the Kasuals, Rap Reiplinger, The Krush, Hui Ohana and Ledward Kaapana.

Early in his career — while he was still in his 20s, and for reasons now long forgotten — Moffatt’s teenage fans began calling him “Uncle Tom” and dubbed his radio studio as “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Moffatt said in 2016 that only one person had ever seemed to take offense at the nickname — an African-American entertainer who arrived from the mainland and wanted to know “Who this ‘Uncle Tom’ guy is.” Prominent kamaaina members of Hawaii’s African-American community have said that although a disc jockey’s use of the name “Uncle Tom” could be problematic elsewhere in the country they found nothing offensive in Moffatt being known as “Uncle Tom” in Hawaii.

Moffatt continued to be active as a concert promoter and radio personality well into his 80s. He returned to radio in the 2000s hosting a Saturday morning program on Kool Gold 107.9 where he entertained listeners with stories about events from the 1950s to present and played songs from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s — in some cases song that had only been hits in Hawaii.

Moffatt is survived by his wife, Esther “Sweetie” Kealoha Cablay Moffatt, son Troy Moffatt, his brother Norman Moffatt and sister Alice Moffatt.

Van Williams

Van Williams, star of the 1966 TV show “The Green Hornet,” died last Monday. He was 82.

Actress Pat Priest, Williams’ longtime friend and neighbor, confirmed the news to Variety. Priest received an email from Williams’ wife, Vicki Flaxman, about her husband’s death on Sunday.

“Sad news. Van passed away last Monday night,” Flaxman wrote. “He really fought hard, but he had more health issues than he could manage. I am heartbroken.”

Producer Kevin Burns first announced the news on his Facebook page after being forwarded the aforementioned email by Priest.

Williams was a diving instructor in Hawaii when he was discovered in 1957 by producer Mike Todd, who was married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time. Williams was persuaded to come to Hollywood and try his hand at acting, and earned his big break on the ABC private detective show “Bourbon Street Beat.” He played Ken Madison, a character he later recycled for another detective show, “Surfside 6.”

In 1966, Williams signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to star in “The Green Hornet” as both the titular masked crusader and his newspaper editor alter ego, Britt Reid. He was ably supported by his martial arts master sidekick Kato, played by Bruce Lee, and by his weaponized car, Black Beauty. Williams played the role straight, signaling a departure from the lampoon comedy of Fox’s earlier “Batman” series.

Williams later appeared in iconic shows such as “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” as well as in the young adult-targeted “Westwind,” which centered around the adventures of the Andrews family who sailed around the world on a yacht.

After his acting career dropped off in the late 1970s, Williams became a reserve deputy sheriff and a fire fighter in the Los Angeles area.

Grant Tinker

Grant Tinker, a television producer and network executive who ushered in a new era of sophisticated prime-time programming in the 1970s and 1980s, championing such well-received series as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers” and “The Cosby Show,” and who turned around NBC’s flagging fortunes in the early 1980s, died Nov. 28 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.

NBC announced his death. The cause was not disclosed.

Mr. Tinker, who began his career at NBC during the dawn of the television era, later became an advertising executive who helped develop “The Dick Van Dyke Show” in the early 1960s. Several years after he married the sitcom’s co-star, Mary Tyler Moore, the two founded a production company, MTM Enterprises, that launched some of television’s most honored and successful programs.

Their first effort, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” debuted on CBS in 1970 and featured the personal and professional misadventures of a single woman working in a TV newsroom. The groundbreaking series, which brought the concerns of working women to prime-time television, went on to win 29 Emmy Awards during its seven seasons.

Three of the show’s spinoffs, “Rhoda,” “Lou Grant” and “Phyllis,” became critical and commercial hits, along with other MTM sitcoms such as “The Bob Newhart Show,” about a Chicago psychologist, and “WKRP in Cincinnati,” about the staff of a Top-40 radio station.

After his success at MTM, Mr. Tinker was named chairman of NBC in 1981. NBC was in last place among the three major broadcast networks of the time and was in such bad shape that its parent company, RCA, was thinking of selling it or shuttering it altogether.

Mr. Tinker took a patient approach, renewing shows that didn’t immediately find an audience, such as Bochco’s gritty police drama “Hill Street Blues” and the hospital show “St. Elsewhere” — both produced by MTM. Despite dismal early ratings, he renewed “Cheers,” a comedy set in a Boston neighborhood bar, and “Family Ties,” about aging hippies raising children in the 1980s. All became long-running hits.

He revamped NBC’s news operation and added prime-time blockbusters to the lineup, such as “L.A. Law,” the stylish detective series “Miami Vice” and, especially, “The Cosby Show.” The Cosby sitcom was the breakout No. 1 hit and established the network’s “must-see TV” comedy block on Thursdays for decades to come.

By the end of 1985, Mr. Tinker had transformed NBC from an industry laughingstock to TV’s most-watched network. Johnny Carson and David Letterman ruled late-night television, and “Today” had become the No. 1 morning show.

take a deep breath

Take a deep breath, expanding your belly. Pause. Exhale slowly to the count of five. Repeat four times.

Congratulations. You’ve just calmed your nervous system.

Controlled breathing, like what you just practiced, has been shown to reduce stress, increase alertness and boost your immune system. For centuries yogis have used breath control, or pranayama, to promote concentration and improve vitality. Buddha advocated breath-meditation as a way to reach enlightenment.

Science is just beginning to provide evidence that the benefits of this ancient practice are real. Studies have found, for example, that breathing practices can help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and attention deficit disorder.

Florence Henderson

LOS ANGELES » Florence Henderson, who went from Broadway star to become one of America’s most beloved television moms in “The Brady Bunch,” has died. She was 82.

Henderson died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday night, a day after she was hospitalized, said her publicist, David Brokaw. Henderson had suffered heart failure, her manager Kayla Pressman said in a statement.

Family and friends had surrounded Henderson’s hospital bedside, Pressman said.

On the surface, “The Brady Bunch” with Henderson as its ever-cheerful matriarch Carol Brady resembled just another TV sitcom about a family living in suburban America and getting into a different wacky situation each week.

But well after it ended its initial run in 1974, the show resonated with audiences, and it returned to television in various forms again and again, including “The Brady Bunch Hour” in 1977, “The Brady Brides” in 1981 and “The Bradys” in 1990. It was also seen endlessly in reruns.

“It represents what people always wanted: a loving family. It’s such a gentle, innocent, sweet show, and I guess it proved there’s always an audience for that,” Henderson said in 1999.

Premiering in 1969, it also was among the first shows to introduce to television the blended family. As its theme song reminded viewers each week, Henderson’s Carol was a single mother raising three daughters when she met her TV husband, Robert Reed’s Mike Brady, a single father who was raising three boys.

The eight of them became “The Brady Bunch,” with a quirky housekeeper, played by Ann B. Davis, thrown into the mix.

Maureen McCormick, who played the eldest Brady daughter, Marcia, tweeted, “You are in my heart forever Florence.” ”Dancing With the Stars” host Tom Bergeron tweeted, “Heartbroken. I’ll miss you, my friend.” Henderson’s last public appearance was Monday at the “Dancing With The Stars” taping where she was in the audience to support McCormick, who competed this season.

Wonder Woman: United Nations ambassador

[10/22/16] Not one but two Wonder Women assembled at the United Nations on Friday, as the iconic superhero was named an honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls.

Gal Gadot and Lynda Carter joined Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson at the U.N. for a special ceremony recognizing the 75-year-old superhero. As part of the U.N.’s sustainable development goal number five, which focuses on promoting gender equality, the U.N., DC, and Warner Bros. plan to use Wonder Woman’s image to raise awareness for gender-based issues around the world.

The U.N. ceremony marked the first joint public appearance of Gadot, who appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and will star in next year’s Wonder Woman, and Carter, who starred in the long-running ‘70s TV show. Both women spoke at the ceremony about the longevity and cultural impact of Wonder Woman, who celebrates her 75th anniversary this year.

[12/13/16] The United Nations has ended its campaign with Wonder Woman to promote gender equality after less than two months, DC Entertainment told NBC News on Monday — bringing to a close a venture that was loudly protested from the beginning.

why are our presidents so bad?

Brad Porter on Quora:

I am going to be profoundly contrarian here. It is very, very easy to say “aww hell all politicians are crooks!” or “dammit I hate this candidate, but I hate their opponent more!” or “politics is dirty!” or “the system is rigged!” or whatever else. Cynicism is cheap. We spend much of our time focused, laser-like, on the flaws and controversies of everyone who enters the public sphere. It’s natural, and it’s even constructive.

So allow me a counterpoint.

You can say what you want about any one of these men - notice I will not say a word on the politics of any of them nor will I even discuss their time as president - but let me at least lay it out for you.

Our current president is one of the most gifted orators of the last half century, with a profoundly inspiring background whose very existence as a public figure gives hope to millions. He is an extremely intelligent and profoundly decent man, who rocketed to political success after a background in community organizing, law, and academia and on the basis of an expressed vision that what unites us is stronger than what divides us.

This man [George W. Bush] was the extremely popular two-term governor of one of the nation’s most populous states - when he was reelected in 1998 it was with the highest vote total of any governor in Texas history. He had a knack with connecting with people in a way that many politicians didn’t - he never, in the Southern way of speaking, “put on airs.” Being the son of a President and the brother of a very popular governor of another populous state, he came from a pedigree few could match. When he won in 2000, it was against a primary field that was one of the most impressive ever. And he won in large measure because he espoused a vision of the GOP that was compassionate and big tent.

This man [Bill Clinton] could make a reasonable claim to being among the most intelligent individuals of the late 20th century. A Rhodes Scholar, Oxford educated, tremendously bright lawyer, he chose to enter public service, beginning as Attorney General and then as Governor of Arkansas - he was 32 when he was first elected Governor, the youngest in the country by far and among the youngest to ever hold the office of Governor of any state. When he was elected again in 1982 he then served in the office for ten years straight before bursting onto the national scene.

Arguably one of the most accomplished Americans of his generation - and it was a doozy - this man [George H.W. Bush] joined the Navy on his 18th birthday, following Pearl Harbor, became an aviator (quite literally the youngest aviator in the entire United States Navy at the time), left the service at the end of the war, breezed through Yale in two and a half years, founded an oil company, and was a millionaire by the age of 40. He chose to become a public servant then, was elected to the United States House of Representatives, became the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, then a special envoy to China at a critical time, then became the director of the CIA. Following that he became a two-term Vice President, before being elected President himself.

Raised poor, this man [Ronald Reagan] started out as a radio announcer, then as an actor. While his acting career was not that noteworthy, he was held in such high esteem by his peers that he was chosen to lead the Screen Actors Guild as president, twice elected during the 50s when that was arguably one of the most important unions in America. Like Obama, his “coming out” was as a convention speaker, where he showed an uncanny vision for an optimistic Republicanism. He was then elected Governor of the most populous state in the union, and won reelection easily. He ran unsuccessfully for president twice, gaining tremendous respect and national exposure in the process, before finally winning the nomination and then the office. He was subsequently reelected by the largest electoral college margin in American history.

[and so on..]

Beyond that, I think there is something we don’t often realize.

Public service is a very crappy way to become rich or famous.

It’s true! If you are an extremely smart individual, and your goal is fortune - you do not give up your career on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley to go run for the open seat in AZ-2. Typically, the people who get elected to state office are people who have been paying their dues for years, organizing voters, signing people up with clipboards, schmoozing donors, and on and on. You wind up spending all of your 20s and most of your 30s doing mundane work for no pay. Your peers, typically, are busy making partner or getting VC funding while you’re worrying about yard signs. It is a lousy way to get rich.

If you are an extremely vain individual, and your goal is popularity or power - public service is likewise an awful avenue. You spend most of your life in public service eating shit. You have to sit there and listen to constituents tell you every crazy reason in the book why you’re a Jew Illuminati and you just smile and nod. Before you even sniff ballot access as a major party candidate, you have to pay your dues shadowing small-ball idiots who nevertheless you have to treat as the next JFK. And, most people who run for office….well, lose. They don’t tell you that part. Hell, even in my little above exercise, nearly all of those guys got stomped at one point of another. And most people don’t even get that far - they die on the vine trying to build name ID for a local congressional race in New Hampshire. It is a lousy way to get famous.

And this is all way before we’re talking a presidential run.

The truth is: a person who has dedicated their life to public service, has typically done so because they believe in something.

And, more to the point, the very fact that they are running for office usually means they are sacrificing something to try to make a difference. That they have paid dues, come through the ranks, offered something of themselves.

It’s not for everyone! There are smarter people around - Elon Musk, I’m sure, has maybe better ideas…but would he make a better public servant? I don’t know. I actually doubt it.

Uhura

The world that Roddenberry put together 50 years ago was different than anything that had been on TV as far as the cast was concerned. Crew members represented a variety of races and gave women jobs of respect.

Most of that came through the casting of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, the ship’s communications officer. Black actresses at that time on TV were cast as servants or second-class citizens. That fact was not lost on viewers, one fan in particular.

Although Nichols was given a prominent role on the ship, her work load was so limited she decided to leave. The day after she told Roddenberry she planned to beam off the show, she was at an NAACP fundraiser and was told there was a big fan who wanted to meet her.

“I thought it was a Trekkie, and so I said, ‘Sure.’ And I stood up, and I looked across the room, and there was Dr. Martin Luther King walking towards me with this big grin on his face,” Nichols says. “He reached out to me and said, ‘Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.’ He said that ‘Star Trek’ was the only show that he and his wife, Coretta, would allow their three little children to stay up and watch.”

She told King about her plans to leave the series.

“I never got to tell him why, because he said, ‘You can’t,’ “ Nichols says. “He said, ‘You’re part of history, and this is your responsibility even though it might not have been your career choice.’ “

He said it was her duty to stay on the show and be a positive role model.

Nichols went back to work and told Roddenberry she would stay. When Roddenberry heard what King had said, he cried.

Read more here

Go Ask Alice

Alice Inoue, I suppose, is the spiritual successor to Ruth Wong writing about self-improvement, organization, clearing clutter, etc.

Her article yesterday caught my eye.  Ironically when I searched for it, it turned out to be a reprint of an article from 2014!

Alice's column is in the Hawaii Renovation section of the Sunday paper.  I don't see it pop up in a search of the regular archives, but it is available online and as a digital issue (for example, here), but the digital issues are hard to navigate and read on my old compter.

An archive of Alice's articles is available here.  Having an archive of Alice's articles is somewhat ironic too :)

***

10/15/17 - Alice on Marie Kondo

to floss or not to floss?

The federal government has recommended flossing since 1979, first in a surgeon general's report and later in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans issued every five years. The guidelines must be based on scientific evidence, under the law.

Last year, the Associated Press asked the departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture for their evidence, and followed up with written requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

When the federal government issued its latest dietary guidelines this year, the flossing recommendation had been removed, without notice. In a letter to the AP, the government acknowledged the effectiveness of flossing had never been researched, as required.

The two leading professional groups — the American Dental Association and the American Academy of Periodontology, for specialists in gum disease and implants — cited other studies as proof of their claims that flossing prevents buildup of gunk known as plaque, early gum inflammation called gingivitis, and tooth decay.

However, most of these studies used outdated methods or tested few people. Some lasted only two weeks, far too brief for a cavity or dental disease to develop. One tested 25 people after only a single use of floss. Such research, like the reviewed studies, focused on warning signs like bleeding and inflammation, barely dealing with gum disease or cavities.

When the ADA was asked for proof of its claim that flossing helps prevent early gum disease and cavities, the group cited the 2011 review and a 2008 two-week study that measured bacteria and did not even consider gum disease.

In a later statement to the AP, the ADA said flossing "removes plaque" and "is proven to help remove" debris from between teeth. A video on its website proclaims that flossing "helps prevent gum disease." When pressed, Matthew J. Messina, a practicing dentist and spokesman for the dental association, acknowledged weak evidence, but he blamed research participants who didn't floss correctly.

National Institutes of Health dentist Tim Iafolla acknowledged that if the highest standards of science were applied in keeping with the flossing reviews of the past decade, "then it would be appropriate to drop the floss guidelines."

Regardless, he added, Americans should still floss.

"It's low risk, low cost," he said. "We know there's a possibility that it works, so we feel comfortable telling people to go ahead and do it."

Sgt. Sacto

“Captain Honolulu” was KHVH’s (now KITV) answer to the successful “Checkers and Pogo” kids’ afternoon show on KGMB. John Farrington was hired to play the lead.

“Unfortunately, the night before, Farrington partied too hard and didn’t show up for the live show. We panicked,” Grimm recalls. “The program director, Bob Smith, said he had an Air Force flight jacket and cap, and we sent him home to get it.

“We decided he would be Sgt. Sacto and substitute for Captain Honolulu, who was chasing criminals on Mars. The name Sacto may have come from the acronym of SAC – the Strategic Air Command.

“Farrington was fired and never appeared as ‘Captain Honolulu,’ leaving sidekick Sgt. Sacto to host the show. It ran for years.”

The show aired in the 1960s when television was black and white. Sgt. Sacto chatted with kids between cartoons (such as “Popeye,” “Mickey Mouse” and “Bugs Bunny”).

“Sacto was famous for creating a mask with his thumb and fingers, turned inside out in a way that few could mimic. Kids at every elementary school tried, and those that could earned a special status.”

Lady Gaga: hostile foreign force

Lady Gaga has reportedly been added to a list of hostile foreign forces banned by China’s Communist party after she met with the Dalai Lama to discuss yoga.

The American pop singer, who has sold more than 27m albums, met the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader on Sunday before a conference in Indianapolis.

A video of the 19-minute encounter – in which the pair pondered issues such as meditation, mental health and how to detoxify humanity – was posted on the singer’s Facebook account.

The meeting sparked an angry reaction from Beijing, which has attacked the spiritual leader as a “wolf in monk’s robes”.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in March 1959, insists he is merely seeking greater autonomy from Chinese rule for Tibetans.

But China’s rulers consider him a separatist who they claim is conspiring to split the Himalayan region from China in order to establish theocratic rule there.

Following Lady Gaga’s meeting, the Communist party’s mysterious propaganda department issued “an important instruction” banning her entire repertoire from mainland China, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily reported on Monday.

Chinese websites and media organisations were ordered to stop uploading or distributing her songs in a sign of Beijing’s irritation, the newspaper said.

Wilbur Post

Alan Young, a comedian and veteran supporting actor who found wide fame as an unlikely sort of second fiddle — the hapless straight man to a talking horse in the 1960s sitcom “Mister Ed” — died on Thursday in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 96.

Mr. Young had been a popular radio and television personality and had appeared in several films, including “Tom Thumb” (1958) and “The Time Machine” (1960), when, in his early 40s, he landed the role of Wilbur Post, the bumbling, well-meaning architect who owned a loquacious, fun-loving horse named Mr. Ed.

“Mister Ed” became a hit, running from 1961 to 1966 on CBS. The episodes usually revolved around Wilbur’s clumsy attempts to undo Ed’s mischief, situations made more difficult by the fact that Ed would speak only to Wilbur.

Mr. Young had a mischievous streak himself: Many years after the fact, he said he had started the rumor that the crew got Ed to “talk” by coating his mouth with peanut butter. Actually, the crew would place a piece of nylon in Ed’s mouth; the horse would then try to remove it by moving his lips, giving the illusion that he was talking when the voice of Allan Lane, a star of B westerns, was added. (Mr. Lane died in 1973).

In 1950 he brought “The Alan Young Show” to TV. It remained on the air until 1953. In 1951 it won the Emmy Award for best variety show, and Mr. Young won for best actor. (Sketch actors were included in that category at the time.)

Throughout the ’50s he appeared in numerous TV roles and on the variety shows of Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Dinah Shore and others. In later decades he made guest appearances on dozens of series, including “Death Valley Days,” “The Love Boat,” “Coach” and “ER.”

His last film was “Em & Me” (2004), an independent feature in which he played an elderly man traveling cross-country to visit his ex-wife’s grave.

Mr. Young was also a frequently heard voice in animated movies like “The Great Mouse Detective” and television cartoon series like “The Ren & Stimpy Show” and “The Smurfs.” He was the voice of Scrooge McDuck in several Disney projects.

He published two autobiographies: “Mister Ed and Me” (with Bill Burt) in 1995 and “There’s No Business Like Show Business ... Was” (2006), an account of his career and life in Hollywood.

Planning for long-term care

As part of retirement planning for my clients, I always ask them the question, “Have you planned for long-term care?” Very often the answer is no. I proceed to ask, “Why not?” The answers I often get are: “Don’t Medicare and Medicaid cover that?” “I told my wife to just let me make (pronounced mah-kay, Hawaiian for ‘die’) if I ever get into that situation” or “My children will take care of me.”

People who do answer “Yes, we have thought about long-term care” are almost always those people who have experienced it firsthand through their family members. They understand the financial and emotional burden that long-term care can cause for families.

So, what is long-term care? Long-term care is when people require assistance, both medical and nonmedical, because they cannot care for themselves. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 70 percent of those age 65 and over will require long-term care in their lifetime, and for married couples there is a 91 percent chance that one spouse will need long-term care at some point. Furthermore, the average amount of time that people stay in long-term care is three years.

Long-term care is the biggest threat to your retirement nest egg because of how expensive it is to get care, especially here in Hawaii. According to Genworth Cost of Care Survey 2015, Hawaii’s average annual cost of adult day care was $19,000 and a whopping $135,000 for a stay in a nursing home. Not many retirees have enough income to cover that kind of expense, yet many people overlook this in their retirement planning. Also, relying on your children can create a huge burden as they might already have their plates full with careers and raising their own children. We refer to them as the sandwich generation.

Now let me clear up some misconceptions that people often have when it comes to paying for long-term care:

1. “Medicare will pay for my care.”

Medicare will not cover most long-term care expenses because the majority of these services are considered “custodial care.” Custodial care is nonmedical assistance for daily living activities such as bathing, eating, dressing and using the toilet. And even if you require medical care, there are stringent requirements that you must meet to get Medicare coverage. For example, you must be hospitalized for a minimum of three days, then transferred to a long-term care hospital within 60 days of discharge. Even if you meet these requirements, Medicare will cover only up to 100 days of care. It covers 100 percent of the first 20 days, then after that, you are responsible for a copayment of $157.50 per day. After the 100 days you are responsible for the entire bill on your own.

2. “Medicaid will pay for my care.”

Unlike Medicare, Medicaid does cover long-term custodial care services. However, Medicaid is a joint federal and state program meant for low-income individuals. Medicaid applicants in Hawaii are disqualified if they have assets of $2,000 or more. You can’t transfer your assets to family members to try to qualify for Medicaid, as they will look back five years before the date you apply for Medicaid. When I found out that over half of all long-term care in the U.S. is paid by Medicaid, I was in disbelief. I thought to myself, “How can that many people have less than $2,000 in assets?” Then I realized they weren’t always broke; the long-term care bills made them broke. Those who don’t have long-term care insurance will begin by paying out of pocket. Then they will quickly run out of savings and eventually rely on Medicaid. That thought made me sad. These people who had worked hard to buy their home and build their life savings now have nothing. They are forced to spend the last years of their lives relying on government assistance. I wouldn’t want to end my life this way, nor do I want to see my parents in this type of dire situation.

How can we plan for long-term care so that we don’t have to become completely broke and rely on the government or our families to take care of us? There are several options.

Long-term care insurance: Long-term care insurance will have either daily or monthly coverage plans, with periods ranging from one year to lifetime coverage. Many of them also offer inflation protection so the benefits will continue to increase every year to keep up with the rising cost of care. One thing consumers need to be aware of with long-term care insurance is that insurance companies can raise the premiums on existing policyholders. Many policyholders were hit with huge increases (some up to 90 percent) in their premiums in the last five years. Insurance companies says it’s due to the lower-than-expected numbers of policies being canceled and a higher-than-expected number of people filing for claims. When insurance companies raise premiums, most of them will give the policyholder an option to either keep the same coverage and pay the higher premium, or lower the coverage in order to keep paying the same premium.

Life insurance with long-term care benefit: This type of insurance is becoming more popular. It is life insurance and long-term care insurance all in one. Some companies will even offer a spousal coverage, in which both spouses can be covered under one policy. The obvious benefit of life plus long-term care insurance is that if you and your spouse die without using the long-term care benefit, your beneficiary will receive the death benefit. However, according to the statistics, if you get a policy with your spouse, there is a 91 percent chance one of you will use it.

Self-insure, or saving money for potential long-term care needs: If this is the option you are choosing, you should save for at least three years of care. If you are married, multiple that by 2. Let’s do the math: $135,000 x 3 years x 2 people = $810,000. Let’s now add 2 percent inflation to that number. Say you’re 65 years old and you’re going to need care in 20 years. It’s going to cost you and your spouse more than $1.2 million — money you need to save in addition to your retirement. The majority of people are struggling to save enough for retirement income, so saving another $1.2 million is a stretch.

Whatever option you choose to protect yourself from the expense of long-term care, it’s important you have this conversation with your family so you have a plan for it. We have an aversion to discussing mortality, but it’s so important to have this discussion to avoid any disagreements among kids, or having to race the clock to establish a plan. Have it in place while you’re still sharp and healthy. The irony I see too often is when people are healthy, they don’t want to talk about it. When they become ill and realize they need a plan, it’s too late to get any sort of protection. With anything in life, proper planning will help you avoid a lot of stress and problems down the road. So talk to your family and your financial adviser today to make sure you (and your parents) have a solid long-term care plan in place. It gives you great peace of mind knowing exactly how you will be taken care of and how that care will be paid for.

Kana Aikawa is a financial adviser at Wealth Managing Partners, Inc. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and Management from the Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Reach her at 954-7072.

The Dalai Lama's map of the mind

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Dalai Lama, who tirelessly preaches inner peace while chiding people for their selfish, materialistic ways, has commissioned scientists for a lofty mission: to help turn secular audiences into more self-aware, compassionate humans.

That is, of course, no easy task. So the Dalai Lama ordered up something with a grand name to go with his grand ambitions: a comprehensive Atlas of Emotions to help the more than seven billion people on the planet navigate the morass of their feelings to attain peace and happiness.

“It is my duty to publish such work,” the Dalai Lama said.

To create this “map of the mind,” as he called it, the Dalai Lama reached out to a source Hollywood had used to plumb the workings of the human psyche.

Specifically, he commissioned his good friend Paul Ekman — a psychologist who helped advise the creators of Pixar’s “Inside Out,” an animated film set inside a girl’s head — to map out the range of human sentiments. Dr. Ekman later distilled them into the five basic emotions depicted in the movie, from anger to enjoyment.

Dr. Ekman’s daughter, Eve, a post-doctoral fellow in integrative medicine research, worked on the project as well, with the goal of producing a guide to human emotions that anyone with an Internet connection could study in a quest for self-understanding, calm and constructive action.

“We have, by nature or biologically, this destructive emotion, also constructive emotion,” the Dalai Lama said. “This innerness, people should pay more attention to, from kindergarten level up to university level. This is not just for knowledge, but in order to create a happy human being. Happy family, happy community and, finally, happy humanity.”

Larry Price leaving Perry and Price

Radio’s power pair will part ways, as Larry Price will step away from co-hosting the long-running, top-rated “Perry and Price” morning radio show on KSSK-FM 92.3/AM 590 at the middle of this month.

An announcement from station parent company iHeartMedia Honolulu said he is making the move to “focus on other interests” within the company, and did not explain the reason.

Price, 81, instead will co-host a sports show with Rick Hamada on sister station KIKI-AM 990, known as FOX Sports 990. It will air Saturdays at 11 a.m. beginning later this month.

“I decided the time is right and appropriate to make this change,” Price said in a statement, further expressing gratitude for the “support of our loyal listeners and for all the great years on KSSK.”

He and Perry have co-hosted the show for 33 years, following the death of their predecessor, highly rated radio personality Hal Lewis, who went by J. Akuhead Pupule, or “Aku” for short.

“Being a market’s No. 1 radio show for 33 years is unheard of in American radio,” said Chuck Cotton, president and general manager of iHeartMedia Honolulu.

Their self-introduction, “Perry on the left” and “Price on the right,” never was intended to be a reflection of their political leanings. Rather, it was a spur-of-the-moment comment relative to where each was standing in the studio their first morning on the air. The phrase stuck even though Price is a staunch Democrat, while Perry’s conservative views are well-known to listeners.

Price “certainly deserves the opportunity to sleep a little more, and work a little less,” said Perry.

Price initially was hired by KSSK as vice president of community relations in 1977, not long after his two-year stretch as the head football coach for the University of Hawaii.

Price also worked as an investigative reporter for KITV in the 1980s; a decade in which he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and became an MBA professor at Chaminade University, where a classroom and scholarship have been dedicated in his name. Price also was a columnist for MidWeek for many years, until his last “The Right Price” column appeared in the weekly publication on April 14.

His rise to household-name status started during his football playing days at Roosevelt High School, the University of Hawaii, and with the Los Angeles Rams.

The duo will do their last broadcasts together from the stations’ Iwilei studios this week, and then will air live shows from a cruise next week for the final time.

Perry will continue handling the morning show and the live broadcasts of the Saturday morning breakfast show solo, the station announcement said.

***

In 1977 Larry Price gave a speech that would change his life. His friends don’t remember the specifics, only what happened next.

As Price spoke at a public gathering, Cec Heftel, then the owner of KGMB AM-FM radio, watched how the former University of Hawaii-Manoa football coach mesmerized the audience with wit and humor. Heftel decided right then to hire Price.

“He said, ‘I want this guy on my team. I don’t know what he will do, but I want him on my team,’” recalled Dale Machado, who had been hired by the station only two months earlier. “I remember they gave him an office in a storeroom. There was junk in the room, and he had his desk there.”

Inauspicious as that was, the job put Price on a path to the top of Hawaii radio and a 33-year command of the morning airwaves. Although Heftel gave Price a public relations job, he paired him with Michael W. Perry in 1983, and “The Perry &Price Show” quickly became the No. 1 choice for morning listeners — a position the show has maintained with few interruptions ever since.

But on Thursday, Price, 81, retired from the show as it broadcast from a statewide cruise on the Pride of America.

It was a low-key departure, with nothing said at the end of the broadcast.

“Nobody really talked about it,” Ma­chado said. “Larry is a very private man. He didn’t want to make a big deal of it. Nothing special was said.”

Price’s departure, announced last week, doesn’t mean the end of “The Perry &Price Show.” KSSK plans to continue airing it under the same name, but with Perry as the solo host. And Price will co-host a weekly sports show on sister station KIKI-AM 990.

[wait, I'm hearing Larry Price on the radio now as I'm writing this.  I guess he didn't leave yet?]

***

5/27/16 - The Legend of Larry Price

Hanna Battah

OK, this is completely juvenile, but admit it — when you saw the photo of the news anchor with the amazing name being shared all over social media this week, you laughed, right? A little? Cannot help.

It’s one of those inside-jokey, if-you-know-you-know kind of things. But if you do know, Hanna Battah is pretty much the best name you’ve heard in a long time.

It might be even better than Sterling Silva, Pua Ting, Marlon Blando and all those other classic Hawaii names. Hanna Battah brings out that puerile fourth-grade glee, the kind that makes you snort-laugh in church or get in trouble with your brothers in the back seat of the car while Dad is driving. “The lady’s name is Hanna Battah. Heh heh heh. You think it’s a joke but it’s snot.”

Hanna Battah is a reporter and anchor at KBAK-TV in Bakersfield, Calif. She’s a recent University of Missouri School of Journalism grad who moved to California in November. She brought her awesome name with her.

To make it even better, she pronounces her last name “bah-TAH” so it sounds all fancy. Pardon me, Hanna BatTAH, would you have any Grey Poupon? Heh heh heh.

Apparently, she was not aware of the funny punny sound of her name until this week, when things got downright viral in Hawaii. Somebody screenshotted her image from the nightly newscast, her fabulous name displayed across the bottom, and sent it out on social media. The image was shared and shared, got thousands of “likes” and brought out every nose, mucus and picking joke known to man.

aloe vera

Known to the Egyptians as the plant of immortality and to Native Americans as the wand of heaven, aloe vera comes with a wide array of amazing healing properties — some of which you may already be aware. You might even have your own aloe vera plant in your home for those small emergencies like scrapes, cuts, and burns, but did you know that aloe vera is not only limited to topical use and is actually even more beneficial to your body when taken internally?

According to The Journal of Environmental Science and Health, aloe vera also possesses anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal properties that assist the immune system in cleansing the body of toxins and invading pathogens. But that isn’t all aloe vera juice/gel has to offer.

philosophy of everyday life

Recently signed up for quora so I could read the entire answer of a question.  Now I'm getting a daily digest of quora questions and answers.  Many of which are interesting.  Sometimes it's like reading Freakonomics.

Anyway here's one.

Philosophy of Everyday Life: What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?

1) Time passes much more quickly than you realize.

2) If you don't take care of your body early then it won't take care of you later. Your world becomes smaller each day as you lose mobility, continence and sight 

3) Sex and beauty fades, but intimacy and friendship grows

4) People are far more important than any other thing in your life. No hobby, interest, book, or work is going to be as important to you as the people you spend time with as you get older. 

5) Money talks. It says "Goodbye". If you didn't plan financially for your old age when you are young you will wish you had. 

6) Any seeds you planted in the past, either good or bad, will begin to bear fruit and affect the quality of your life as you get older for the better or the worse

7) Jealousy is a wasted emotion. People you hate are going to succeed; people you like are going to sometimes do better than you did. Kids are going to be smarter and quicker than you are. Accept it with grace.

8) That big house you had to have becomes a bigger and bigger burden even as the mortgage gets smaller. The cleaning, the maintenance, the stairs, all of it... becomes less attractive every day. Your possessions own YOU. 

9)  You will badly regret the things you DIDN'T do far more than the things you did that were "wrong" -- the girl you didn't kiss; the trip you didn't take; the project you kept putting off; the time you could have helped someone. If you get the chance - do it. You may never get the chance again.

10) Every day you wake up is a victory.

Bonus: It's never too late to become what you wanted to be or might have been if you START RIGHT NOW!

11) What people think of you is none of your business. Ignore them, whether it is good or bad, and keep your eyes on your goals. The biggest liar in the world is "They say...".

-- Jay Bazzinotti, Be Here Now

[I'd say this looks a outline for one of the zillions of self-help books out there.]

Waialae Drive-In

I met with siblings Joey Ayres and Dorothy Ayres-Smith recently to talk about their dad, who was a top local minor league baseball player in the 1940s and 1950s. I’ll write about him soon, but at the end of our conversation, they mentioned that they had worked at Waialae Drive-In in the 1970s.

The Waialae Drive-In movie theater was near Kahala Mall, on the mauka side of Waialae Avenue. It opened in 1956 and closed in 1986, and held more than 300 cars.

-- Bob Sigal, Star-Advertiser, February 26, 2016

men's room

http://assets.amuniversal.com/d6fc5ad0b6fc01333f2f005056a9545d

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2016/02/26

notable gravesites

Historic figures, celebrated entertainers, lawmakers and heroes can be found in Oahu’s quiet cemeteries. The list that follows is a sample of what can easily be found while strolling through the grave markers.

the sheep and the goats

According to what Jesus says in Matthew 25:31-46, belief in Jesus is not required for eternal life.  In fact, this passage makes it clear that it is not even necessary to know Jesus to inherit the kingdom of heaven.  One is rewarded with eternal life based on whether or not one feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, take care of the sick and visits those in prison.

Matthew 25:31-46: But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? 38 ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 ‘And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

The theme is echoed elsewhere, including Jesus' well-known parable of the Good Samaritan.

Why then are there biblical passages such as John 14:6, where Jesus declares, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No ones comes to the Father except through me.

-- Jay Sakashita, Midweek, February 10, 2016, page 17