Betty White

Dec 31 (Reuters) - Comedic actress Betty White, who capped a career of more than 80 years by becoming America's geriatric sweetheart after Emmy-winning roles on television sitcoms "The Golden Girls" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," died on Friday, less than three weeks shy of her 100th birthday.

The agent, Jeff Witjas, told People magazine: "Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever." No cause was cited.

In a youth-driven entertainment industry where an actress over 40 faces career twilight, White was an anomaly who was a star in her 60s and a pop culture phenomenon in her 80s and 90s.

Playing on her eminent likability, White was still starring in a TV sitcom, "Hot in Cleveland," at age 92 until it was canceled in late 2014.

White said her longevity was a result of good health, good fortune and loving her work.

"It's incredible that I'm still in this business and that you are still putting up with me," White said in an appearance at the 2018 Emmy Awards ceremony, where she was honored for her long career. "It's incredible that you can stay in a career this long and still have people put up with you. I wish they did that at home."

White was not afraid to mock herself and throw out a joke about her sex life or a snarky crack that one would not expect from a sweet-smiling, white-haired elderly woman. She was frequently asked if, after such a long career, there was anything she still wanted to do and the standard response was "Robert Redford."

"She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty," former costar and friend Ryan Reynolds wrote in a Twitter post.

"Old age hasn’t diminished her," the New York Times wrote in 2013. "It has given her a second wind."

Minutes after news emerged of her death, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters: "That's a shame. She was a lovely lady." His wife Jill Biden said: "Who didn't love Betty White? We're so sad about her death."

Betty Marion White was born on Jan. 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois, and her family moved to Los Angeles during the Great Depression, where she attended Beverly Hills High School.

A DEBUT IN THE 1930s

White started her entertainment career in radio in the late 1930s and by 1939 had made her TV debut singing on an experimental channel in Los Angeles. After serving in the American Women's Voluntary Service, which helped the U.S. effort during World War Two, she was a regular on "Hollywood on Television," a daily five-hour live variety show, in 1949.

A few years later she became a pioneering woman in television by co-founding a production company and serving as a co-creator, producer and star of the 1950s sitcom "Life with Elizabeth."

Through the 1960s and early '70s White was seen regularly on television, hosting coverage of the annual Tournament of Rose Parade and appearing on game shows such as "Match Game" and "Password." She married "Password" host Allen Ludden, her third and final husband, in 1963.

White reached a new level of success on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," playing the host of a home-making television show, the snide, lusty Sue Ann Nivens, whose credo was "a woman who does a good job in the kitchen is sure to reap her rewards in other parts of the house." White won best-supporting actress Emmys for the role in 1975 and 1976.

She won another Emmy in 1986 for "The Golden Girls," a sitcom about four older women living together in Miami that featured an age demographic rarely highlighted on American television. White also was nominated for an Emmy six other times for her portrayal of the widowed Rose Nylund, a sweet, naive and ditzy Midwesterner, on the show, which ran from 1985 to 1992 and was one of the top-rated series of its time.

After a less successful sequel to "The Golden Girls" came a series of small movie parts, talk-show appearances and one-off television roles, including one that won her an Emmy for a guest appearance on "The John Larroquette Show."

By 2009 she was becoming ubiquitous with more frequent television appearances and a role in the Sandra Bullock film "The Proposal." She starred in a popular Snickers candy commercial that aired during the Super Bowl, taking a brutal hit in a mud puddle in a football game.

A young fan started a Facebook campaign to have White host "Saturday Night Live" and she ended up appearing in every sketch on the show and winning still another Emmy for it.

The Associated Press voted her entertainer of the year in 2010 and a 2011 Reuters/Ipsos poll found that White, then 89, was the most popular and trusted celebrity in America with an 86% favorability rating.

White's witty and brassy demeanor came in handy as host of "Betty White's Off Their Rockers," a hidden-camera show in which elderly actors pulled pranks on younger people.

"Who would ever dream that I would not only be this healthy, but still be invited to work?" White said in a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey.

White, who had no children, worked for animal causes. She once turned down a role in the movie "As Good as It Gets" because of a scene in which a dog was thrown in a garbage chute.

She looked forward to her milestone birthday, writing on Twitter just three days before her death, "My 100th birthday ... I cannot believe it is coming up."

why we clutter and what to do about it

All that “stuff” in our drawers, closets and corners is a hazard, but there are ways to keep it at bay.

By Jane E. Brody

Published Dec. 20, 2021

Updated Dec. 21, 2021, 11:15 a.m. ET

Many of us took advantage of the long, lonely hours of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns to cleanse our closets, drawers and cabinets of clothing from a bygone era, packaged foods long past their expiration dates and files no longer relevant. At first, I was among them and enthusiastically tackled the low-hanging fruit: ill-fitting dresses and suits, shoes I could no longer walk in, hundreds of empty plastic and glass containers.

It felt good initially, but I soon lost interest in decluttering and lacked the mental and physical energy to tackle what remained.

And, I assure you, after living in the same house for 55 years, there was a lot more to get rid of. Empty spaces have a way of filling up. I actually envy friends and neighbors who downsized and had to dispose of dumpsters full of items no longer used or useful.

But when a leaking pipe recently saturated the carpet in my finished basement, where for decades I’ve stored everything I didn’t know what to do with but couldn’t bring myself to throw out, I was thrown back into action. There’s nothing like a crisis, minor or major, to force one to come to terms with an unmanageable accumulation of stuff.

Clutter is a hazard

People like me, who fill storage areas as long as the living spaces remain orderly, do not rise to the seriousness of being a hoarder, which is considered its own psychiatric diagnosis. But clutter has its own risks. Among them are the chronic and repeated stresses that can arise, for example while searching frantically through stacks of miscellany for an important paper or racing to clear piles of junk before visitors arrive.

Not to mention risking a fall over objects left where they don’t belong. When my friend of 61 years, who can’t seem to dispose of anything, had complications from a head injury that kept him in the hospital for many weeks, his wife felt compelled to clear their apartment of untold objects lying about before his return home.

In addition, clutter is distracting, stealing attention from worthy thoughts and tasks. It saps time and energy and diminishes productivity. And, a 2015 study at St. Lawrence University found that a cluttered bedroom goes hand in hand with a poor night’s sleep.

The burden of clutter doesn’t even end when we die. When my friend Michael and his brothers cleaned out their 92-year-old mother’s house in Florida after she died, among the many multiples they found were eight identical jars of mustard, five dozen cans of pineapple chunks, 72 rolls of paper towels, 11 walkers and four wheelchairs. Costly truckloads of clutter had to be carted away. I’d like my family to have better things to fret or chuckle over when I die.

Reasons we clutter

You may wonder why people like me and my friend’s mother collect so many things we likely will never need. Fear of running out is one reason I often buy in bulk, especially when desired products are on sale. A similar fear undoubtedly resulted in the frenetic run on toilet paper, pasta and canned beans at the onset of the pandemic. I never forgot what a neighbor said when, in the midst of a block party, she was asked where she kept her extra paper towels. “In the store,” she replied.

When feeling low, I’m not above indulging in retail therapy, often buying yet another bathing suit or cozy fleece to add to my extensive collection. Scott Bea, a clinical psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic, has noted that our consumer society drives many people to collect stuff they don’t need.

Some also feel compelled to hold on to the past, like a friend who keeps the programs of every event he’s attended over the last six decades. Out of guilt or sentiment, some find it hard to part with useless gifts from people they love or admire. “What if they come over one day and discover it’s gone?” is a common rationale.

I have many reasons for not parting with a long-unused item. If it’s something I long treasured, like the silverware and china my husband and I bought with our wedding gifts 46 years ago, I want to give them to someone I know will appreciate and use them. And I have a quasi-irrational fear that as soon as I dispose of something, I will find I need it.

Still, I routinely bite the bullet and donate to charities that collect clothing and household items in my neighborhood. I also live on a block with lots of pedestrian traffic and if I put giveaways — from shampoos and shoes to pots and picture frames — in front of the house, they tend to disappear within hours.

When I realized it was time to part with decades-old professional files, I enlisted the aid of a helper, instructing them not to let me see anything that was being discarded from my drawers. Now to do the same with the hundreds of work-related books I’ll never open again!

Tips to tackle decluttering

Establish a plan. You may want to go room by room or focus on a category like coats or shoes, but avoid changing course midstream before you’ve finished the task you started.

Set reasonable goals based on your available time and stamina. If a whole closet is too intimidating, even as small a task as clearing items from a single drawer or shelf can get you started in the right direction.

If a more gradual approach is more manageable, consider my friend Gina’s suggestion: keeping a container in each room to house giveaways. When she tries something on that no longer fits or looks good, it goes directly into the donation bag, not back in the closet.

If needed, get help from a friend, family member or paid consultant who won’t have the same attachment to your possessions.

Create three piles — keep, donate and discard. Don’t second-guess your initial assessment; immediately trash the discard pile and schedule a pickup for the donations or take them to a worthy destination.

If your clutter includes items you’re storing for other people, consider giving them a deadline to pick them up, or suggest they rent a storage locker.

Finally, avoid backsliding. Resist refilling the spaces you clear with more stuff.

Jane Brody is the Personal Health columnist, a position she has held since 1976. She has written more than a dozen books including the best sellers “Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book” and “Jane Brody’s Good Food Book.”

A version of this article appears in print on Dec. 21, 2021, Section D, Page 7 of the New York edition with the headline: Why We Clutter, and What to Do About It.

watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe

[posted 5/1/15] You've probably seen most of Marvel's films, but what about the TV shows?

If you're like me, that is to say a continuity junkie, timelines are very important to you -- but timelines in the world of comics and movies can be more than a little confusing. So to help you fill in the gaps before you see " Avengers: Age of Ultron ," watch all the shows for fun, or even just try to impress your friends, we've created a timeline of Marvel's Phase 1 and 2 properties in the perfect viewing order.

Here's a more detailed episode-by-episode order including the One Shots.  Here they say to watch Agent Carter after Agents of SHIELD season 1, rather than after Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

And here's a timeline of events from Marvel.

***

AMC article (3/5/20)

Updated CNET article after WandaVision (3/14/21)

Tom's Guide article  (3/19/21)

10 Habits

To recap, here are 10 Simple Habits That Will Change Your Life

1. Keep Things Tidy

2. Mindfully Manage Your Money

3. Choose Gratitude

4. Stay Hydrated

5. Plan Your Days

6. Put Your Family First

7. Get Up Early

8. Prepare for Success the Night Before

9. Get Moving

10. Rest 

Marvel Comics reading order

Yeah, yeah.  You've seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  And you probably have your own favorite viewing order: generally release order or chronological order (pocket-lint, empireonline, techradar, collider, nerdest, digitalspy includes TV shows, cnet w/ TV,  cnet2, gamesradar w/ TV, amctheatres - thematic, theverge: Disney+).  I think I like the cnet2 order.

But now that you have watched all the movie (and waiting for the next one), what about the comics that the movies are based on?  Yes, there is a timeline for those too.  CMRO (the complete Marvel reading order) aka Travis Starnes has created one, starting with Fantastic Four no. 1.

From the FAQ, "The goal of the order is to put all the comics of the main Marvel universe in a readable order. To have the events form issues flow in a way that makes sense, so if an event or comic is referenced in one issue, you have already read the comic being referenced. The Order also tries and keep all the characters where they should be. So if the Hulk is wandering around in Siberia, he isn’t seen intermittently in Nevada at the same time. There are of course times with the convoluted nature of the Marvel universe will make this impossible, but the goal is to get it as close as we can."

The order starts off with Fantastic Four #1 (cover date November 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), then Tales to Astonish #27 (January 1962 - Henry Pym, later to be Ant-Man, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962 - Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Journey Into Mystery #83 (August 1962 - Thor, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Strange Tales #101 (October 1962 - Johnny Storm, The Human Torch, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), Tales of Suspense #39 (March 1963 - Iron Man, Larry Lieber and Don Heck), Amazing Spider-Man #1 (March 1963 - Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Tales to Astonish #44 (June 1963 - The Wasp, Larry Lieber), Strange Tales #110 (July 1963 - Doctor Strange, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), The X-Men #1 (September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), The Avengers #1 (September 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Tales of Suspense #49 (January 1964 - The Watcher, Larry Lieber),  Daredevil #1 (April 1964, Stan Lee and Bill Everett), Tales to Astonish #60 (October 1964 - The Hulk, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko), Tales of Suspense #59 (November 1964 - Captain America, Jack Kirby), Strange Tales #135 (August 1965 - Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Tales to Astonish #70 (August 1965 - Sub-Mariner, Stan Lee and Gene Colan), The Mighty Thor #126 (March 1966, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (April 1968, Roy Thomas and Gene Colan), Captain America #100 (April 1968, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby), Iron Man #1 (May 1968, Archie Goodwin and Gene Colan), Marvel Super-Heroes #12 (December 1967 - Captain Marvel, Gene Colan), Captain Marvel #1 (May 1968, Gene Colan), Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968, Roy Thomas and John Buscema), Doctor Strange #169 (June 1968, Roy Thomas and Dan Adkins), Silver Surfer #1 (August 1968, Stan Lee and John Buscema), Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #1 (June 1968, Jim Steranko), Amazing Adventuers #1 (August 1970 - The Inhumans and the Black Widow, Jack Kirby).

The last Avengers by Lee and Kirby was #8.  Don Heck took over in #9 (October 1964).  The last X-Men by Lee and Kirby was #11.  Alex Toth took over for Kirby in #12 (July 1965), though Kirby still did the layouts through #17.  The last Captain America by Lee and Kirby was #112.  Jim Steranko took over for Kirby in #113 (May 1969).  Actually Steranko also did #110-111 too.  The last Thor by Lee and Kirby was #179.  Neal Adams took over for Kirby in #180 (October 1970).  The last Fantastic Four by Lee and Kirby was #102, John Romita Sr. took over for Kirby in #103 (October 1970).

When Kirby left Marvel, that's kind of when I stopped buying comics.  Well actually I still bought some of Kirby's works for D.C. (Kamandi, OMAC, etc.) and when Kirby returned to Marvel (Captain America, Black Panther, etc.).   But the thrill was gone for me with the Lee and Kirby split.

exercise

For most of human history, people didn’t have to worry about burning too few calories. They had to worry about burning too many and dying from exhaustion or starvation.

In fact, exercise — as we now define it — was sometimes a punishment. “For more than a century, English convicts (among them Oscar Wilde) were condemned to trudge for hours a day on enormous and steplike treadmills,” Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, writes in his new book, “Exercised,” which is well-timed for new year’s resolutions.

As Lieberman explains, exercising for the sake of doing so is unnatural, from an evolutionary perspective. But the sedentary nature of modern life forces many people to choose between unhealthy habits and unnatural ones.

As Lieberman takes readers through the history and anthropology of physical exertion, he also encourages people not to be too hard on themselves. You don’t actually need a standing desk, for example. You just need to avoid sitting still for extended periods. “Take a break. Get up. Or at least ‘squirm shamelessly,’” John Hawks, a University of Wisconsin anthropologist, writes, in his Wall Street Journal review of “Exercised.”

“What works?” Jen Miller, The Times’s running columnist, writes in her review. “It’s not especially complicated, and Lieberman outlines the science behind his prescription of a mix of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, strength training and high-intensity interval training.”

Related: The Times’s Tara Parker-Pope makes the case for short bursts of physical activity she describes as “exercise snacks.”

Calvin and Hobbes

‘Calvin and Hobbes’ said goodbye 25 years ago. Here’s why Bill Watterson’s masterwork enchants us still.

by Michael Cavna

Yet the beloved duo have never really left us.

“Calvin and Hobbes,” one of the greatest strips ever to grace newspapers, blazed across the pages for a beautiful decade before heading off into the white space of our imaginations, trusting us to continue the next adventures in our heads. And to this day, the creation — once syndicated to 2,000-plus papers — is ever-present on bestseller lists, in libraries and nested on home shelves within easy reach of nostalgic adults and each next generation of young readers.

Decades later, the brilliance of “Calvin and Hobbes” refuses to dim. It remains a tiger — the tiger — burning bright.

The final “Calvin and Hobbes” strip was fittingly published on a Sunday — Dec. 31, 1995 — the day of the week on which Bill Watterson could create on a large color-burst canvas of dynamic art and narrative possibility, harking back to great early newspaper comics like “Krazy Kat.” The cartoonist bid farewell knowing his strip was at its aesthetic pinnacle.

“It seemed a gesture of respect and gratitude toward my characters to leave them at top form,” Watterson wrote in his introduction to “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes” box-set collection. “I like to think that, now that I’m not recording everything they do, Calvin and Hobbes are out there having an even better time.”

Readers return that respect. Ask a fan for a favorite “Calvin and Hobbes” scenario and a stream of recurring comic premises pours forth.

“Spaceman Spiff, Tracer Bullet, Calvinball, G.R.O.S.S., the wagon rides, Calvin’s battles with his food, Calvin’s epic confrontations with [babysitter] Rosalyn, the cardboard-box inventions, Stupendous Man — and that’s just off the top of my head,” says curator Andrew Farago, whose Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco has exhibited Watterson’s original art. “I don’t think any strip since ‘Peanuts’ made such an impact on so many people.”

Just what is it about “Calvin and Hobbes” that continues to enchant so many?

For some fans and fellow artists, it begins with the comic’s sense of boundless imagination. A fresh snow is like “having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!” says Hobbes in the final strip. That dialogue reflects the comic’s sheer joy in taking readers on wild rides, exploring the creative possibilities with youthful abandon.

Watterson’s ability to tap into childhood, including his own memories, propels Calvin’s flights of fancy, whether he is climbing into a capsule as Spaceman Spiff (facing down alien overlords as stand-ins for Calvin’s real-life authority figures) or imagining himself to be a fearsome beast.

Stephan Pastis, creator of “Pearls Before Swine,” views Calvin as an expression of pure childlike id, yet thinks there is a whole other dynamic that makes many of Calvin’s acts of imagination so appealing.

Watterson “accurately captured how put-upon you feel as a kid — how limited you are by your parents, by your babysitter, by [schoolteacher] Miss Wormwood. You’re really boxed in and all you have is individual expression,” says Pastis, who collaborated with the “Calvin and Hobbes” creator on a week of “Pearls” strips in 2014, marking Watterson’s only public return to the comics page since 1995.

“I think that’s why to this day, some people get [Calvin] tattooed on their bodies,” Pastis continues. “He stands for that rebellious spirit in the fact of a world that kind of holds you down. You get into adulthood, you get held down by your various responsibilities. Calvin rebels against that, therefore he always remains a hero.”

Calvin’s irrepressible nature is often comedically set against Hobbes, who, alive through Calvin’s eyes, holds forth as the voice of reason — leading to art that revels in both the physical and the philosophical.

In one day’s strip, Calvin and Hobbes might engage in, say, a ballet of physical comedy — the stretch and squash effects rendering the strip as near to animation as a static art form can. The next day, by contrast, our buddy-comedy protagonists might muse on themes befitting a comic-strip title that name-checks two lofty thinkers.

“My 8-year-old son tends to laugh out loud at the physical humor, like when Hobbes pounces on Calvin, or his mother’s mystery dinner attacks him,” says Jenny Robb, who curated a 2014 Calvin and Hobbes retrospective at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, which holds almost all of the 62-year-old Watterson’s art in its collection, in his home state of Ohio.

Yet one of her son’s favorite strips is “where Calvin saves a snowball in the freezer for months, then throws it at” neighborhood girl Susie Derkins — but misses, says Robb, noting that “the more philosophical ones give us something to discuss when we read them together.”

Those philosophical ones even deal with mortality in an especially tender way, such as when Calvin comes upon a dead bird and says, “Once it’s too late, you appreciate what a miracle life is.” Or when he asks, “Hobbes, do you think our morality is defined by our actions, or by what’s in our hearts?”

“The series I remember the most was when the baby raccoon died,” says CNN anchor Jake Tapper, a comic-art collector and former college cartoonist. “That was a week-long series about loss that was very moving” and “planted itself in my soul.”

Daveed Diggs, the “Hamilton” and “Soul” star who co-created viral webisodes in 2014 that acted out “Calvin and Hobbes” strips, says that the comic was able to address “adult existential angst in the bodies of this kid and tiger.”

As “Calvin and Hobbes” evolved, so did Watterson’s virtuosic abilities to render everything from kinetic action to spot-on facial expressions to panoramic long shots.

“I don’t think any cartoonist since Walt Kelly has been able to make nature as gorgeous as Watterson — you’d have to go back to the swamps of the Okefenokee,” says Tapper, citing the creator and the setting of the classic strip “Pogo.”

Dave Kellett, a comics documentarian and creator of the strip “Sheldon,” especially relishes Watterson’s half-page Sundays created during the latter half of the strip’s run.

“His beautiful vistas of the American Southwest, his energetic panels taking you through Ohio forests, his experiments with brush and pen that really shined with the increased real estate — those are some of the most beautiful newspaper comics ever made,” says Kellett, whose 2014 film “Stripped” was a love letter to the form. “They probably go toe to toe with the greatest pages Winsor McCay ever produced for ‘Little Nemo in Slumberland.’ ”

So many 20th-century comics feel embalmed in their era because of topical references or period-specific jargon and humor, but 35 years after its launch, the spirit of “Calvin and Hobbes” feels snowflake fresh. Sure, the strip knowingly decorated its interiors with throwback furniture — Watterson noted how fun it was to draw mid-century styles — but little else looks antiquated.

“The vast majority of situations, jokes and themes that Bill wrote about work just as well in 1890 as they did in 1990, so I suspect that same agelessness will work well for the strip in 2090,” says Kellett, whose “Stripped” film featured original poster art that was a surprise gift from Watterson.

That accessibility helps the strip appeal to generations of fans — a dynamic that Robb witnessed during her Watterson retrospective. “I loved going up to the galleries to listen to visitors laughing out loud,” she says, “or to watch them point out a favorite strip to their companion or their child.”

That staying power is unfettered by ancillary projects or products. The cartoonist boldly drew and held the line against merchandising his creation, lest commercial tie-ins pollute the purity of the creator and reader experience.

“Everything having to do with ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ expressed my own ideas, my own values, my own way,” Watterson wrote in his box-set introduction. “I wrote every word, drew every line, and painted every color.

“It’s a rare gift to find such fulfilling work and I tried to show my appreciation by giving the strip everything I had to offer.”