lower your cholesterol

[6/1/14] After not going to the doctor for a checkup for like 15 years, I find out I have high cholesterol.  Well, I may have had high cholesterol the last time I tested, but I forget.  Anyway, here's some foods that may lower your cholesterol.

While nobody would intentionally clog their own arteries, it’s easy to do just that with the foods you choose to eat or not eat. Nibbling on hot dogs, full-fat cheese, or donuts can boost unhealthy, artery-damaging LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. Grilling and dining on salmon, on the other hand, can raise the “good” or HDL (high-density lipoprotein) levels.

Walnuts
While most varieties of nuts boast health benefits, the unique fat make-up of walnuts makes them particularly helpful when it comes to lowering cholesterol. Rich in polyunsaturated fats and the only nut source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids, walnuts are a star food for cardiovascular health. Harvard researchers found that adding walnuts to the daily diet, even for the short term, creates dramatic drops in cholesterol.

Steel-Cut Oats
Of all the whole grains, oats sport the highest amount of soluble fiber. And studies show that just five to 10 grams of this soluble fiber can lower both total cholesterol and LDL or “bad” cholesterol. Does it matter what type of oats you eat? Probably not when it comes to soluble fiber. But steel cut oats have the lowest glycemic index because they’re processed the least.

Salmon
High levels of omega-3 fatty acids, or what researchers refer to as fish oils, make salmon a shoe-in when it comes to improving levels of HDL, or “good” cholesterol. In a study from the Western Human Nutrition Research Center, HDL levels shot up 10% when volunteers (all with normal lipid levels) ate a salmon-rich diet for 20 days.

Olive Oil
Rich in heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, olive oil is always a good choice in healthy cooking. And so nutritionists and cardiologists have long encouraged using it in place of butter and other animal fats. Yet newer studies suggest the oil contains a powerful mix of antioxidants that can lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol. When possible, opt for the extra-virgin variety; minimal processing helps keep more of its antioxidants intact.

Limiting Foods that Cause Cholesterol
If you want any or all of these cholesterol-lowering foods to do their job effectively, it makes sense to also limit foods that can raise cholesterol. On that list: any animal products with large amounts of saturated fat, including whole milk, ice cream, and fatty red meats. It also includes processed foods (donuts, chips) that contain harmful trans fats, aka partially hydrogenated oils. A two-pronged effort of including foods that lower cholesterol and limiting foods that raise it will put cholesterol numbers into a healthy range.

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Lower Your Cholesterol

Ours is a pill-popping culture, so it’s no surprise the default method for lowering high cholesterol levels is usually medicinal. Drugs are readily available. They’re effective. And the pill approach requires very little effort. Yet studies show that diet and lifestyle changes can be as or even more powerful than many drugs. Better yet, these natural methods help lower heart disease risk without negative side effects. Employ one (or all five) of these strategies and chances are cholesterol numbers will improve. Already taking cholesterol-lowering meds? These changes can enhance a drug’s effectiveness.

The ultimate goal: total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dl; 100 mg/dl or less for LDL or "bad" cholesterol, and 40 mg/dl or higher for HDL or "good" cholesterol.

1. Get Moving

Hop on a bike. Walk around the neighborhood every day. Lift weights. Try dancing or kickboxing your way through an aerobic workout. Studies confirm that moderate intensity activity on an almost daily basis (yes, we mean exercising) can reduce cholesterol levels 10 to 20 percent. It also boosts levels of HDL, or "good" cholesterol.

One more thing: Get a doctor's O.K. if you've been inactive. Otherwise, the American Council on Exercise recommends starting out with 20 minutes of moderate intensity walking four days per week. Build up to one hour of walk-jogging (aerobic classes) six to seven days per week. Find routines to get you started with our Ultimate Move Finder.

2: Eat More Fiber

Eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is important to health for a lot of reasons. But when it comes to lowering cholesterol levels, soluble fiber, the kind found in oats, apples, and barley, is most adept. Studies suggest at least 3 grams of soluble fiber is needed. Start with a half cup of either oats (2 grams soluble fiber), black beans (2.4 grams), or Brussels sprouts (2 grams). Other good sources: sweet potatoes, asparagus, turnips, citrus fruits, peas, and strawberries. Starting your morning with a bowl of oatmeal, like this version with apples, hazelnuts, and flaxseed is always a heart-healthy, fiber-filled way to start your day.

One more thing: To reap the most benefits from soluble fiber make it part of a diet low in saturated fats, trans fats, and cholesterol, says the American Heart Association.

3. Lose Weight

If you're already implementing the first two strategies (exercise and fiber), numbers on the scale may already be dropping. If not, make a concerted effort to lose weight since studies show that losing even as little as five to ten pounds can lower total cholesterol levels dramatically. Not overweight? Concentrate efforts on maintaining a healthy weight.

One more thing: For long-term success with weight loss, the Mayo Clinic suggests making small, sustainable changes. Slowly work more activity into your daily routine. Bring a healthy lunch from home instead of eating out. It all adds up.

4. Focus On Good Fats

Peanut butter, nuts, olive oil, and fats found in fish, avocados, and plant foods don't raise blood cholesterol levels and in some cases even help to lower them. The hitch: some of these good fats are high calorie, so eat them in moderation. What to limit or avoid? Artery-clogging saturated fats (red meat, butter) and trans fats (partially hydrogenated oils). Oh, and keep in mind that it's healthier to replace those harmful saturated fats with small amounts of good fats rather than with carbs.

One more thing: Missing butter? Try cholesterol-lowering spreads like Benecol® or Take Control® that block the body's absorption of cholesterol.

5. Drink Red Wine or Tea

Studies confirm red wine raises levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol. It doesn't hurt either, according to a 2010 review from the Journal of Cardiovascular Research, that wine is rich in antioxidants (quercetin, resveratrol, proanthocyanidines), which protect the heart by decreasing inflammation and oxidative stress. If you imbibe, the American Heart Association advises women put a limit on alcohol to one drink (one 5 ounce glass of wine) per day and up to two drinks per day for men.

One more thing: Don't drink? This isn't a call to start; these same antioxidant compounds can be found in grape juice, green tea, and many fruits and vegetables.

More Cholesterol-Lowering Tips

Spoiler alert: While diet and lifestyle changes can promote dramatic drops in cholesterol for many folks, sometimes they don't do the trick, particularly in people with a genetic disposition for high cholesterol levels. If that's the case, a doctor can prescribe medications (probably less of them if you're being scrupulous about diet and exercise) to bridge the gap. Also important, if you're a smoker, quit smoking. Studies on smoking suggest mixed results with smoking raising LDL levels in some studies and having little impact in others. Yet there is no doubt that smoking is a strong risk factor for heart disease.

*** [8/17/22]

Nine foods that lower cholesterol

New research continues to shape our knowledge when it comes to heart health, cholesterol, and diet. This means that recommendations evolve — and they change slowly too. It can leave each of us wondering what foods are really best for lowering cholesterol and blood lipids. Can oats really improve your heart health? Can beans protect your ticker?

We're simplifying the science by sharing nine foods that research suggests (and continues to support) naturally lower cholesterol. Check them out, and then look for ways to incorporate a few into your favorite heart-healthy recipes.

1. Lima Beans

A half cup of lima beans packs in 6.5 grams of total fiber; soluble fiber makes up over half of that. This is key since soluble fiber decreases total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL — the "bad" kind) cholesterol levels by forming a gel in the intestines to block fat and cholesterol absorption. Not a lima bean fan? That's OK. All beans and peas contain some soluble fiber, so aim to get at least three cups of beans and peas each week. Search our best lima beans recipes.

2. Pears

Pectin is a type of soluble fiber found predominantly in the skin and flesh of fruit, and it's one of the reasons that recommendations advise eating fruit, rather than drinking it. While all fruits have pectin, pears are at the top. One medium pear boasts two grams of soluble fiber and four grams of total fiber. The next best is a medium orange or a grapefruit half which has has two grams soluble fiber and two to three grams total fiber. Pears are also one of 10 foods that help you poop.

3. Steel-Cut or Rolled Oats

Eating a bowl of oatmeal made from less processed oats is one of the best ways to start your day to lower cholesterol. This is because oats are rich in beta-glucan, a type of soluble fiber found primarily in oats and barley. Beta-glucan is particularly powerful at lowering total and LDL cholesterol levels. To get the most benefit, skip instant oats, and opt for whole oats that are labeled steel-cut or rolled. These oatmeal recipes will mix up your morning routine.

4. Salmon and Tuna

Research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids found primarily in fish work to lower triglycerides and may even increase high-density lipoproteins (HDL or "good") cholesterol. These omega-3s also slow the progression of plaque build-up in arteries thanks to their anti-inflammatory effects. That's another reason why health recommendations advise eating two to three servings of omega-3-rich fish a week. Good sources that are also low in mercury include salmon, canned light tuna, catfish, pollock, sardines, and anchovies.

5. Edamame

Edamame or immature soybeans are an easy and delicious way to work more soy into your diet. This is important because soybeans contain isoflavones. Research suggests these compounds lend a powerful hand to potentially lowering cholesterol, especially when compared to non-soy legumes and beans. Eat them steamed straight from the pod or shelled, seasoned and toasted. Another route to get more soy is to incorporate tofu into your diet in place of animal proteins.

6. Walnuts

Swapping your regular afternoon snack for one to two ounces of nuts each day not only decreases heart disease risk, but it also improves cholesterol numbers. In fact, numerous studies suggest that eating a nut like walnuts each day significantly reduces both total and LDL cholesterol. Partial to another nut? Tree nuts like almonds and pistachios, as well as peanuts, appear to offer similar cholesterol-lowering benefits.

7. Brussels Sprouts

Even if they're not your favorite, adding Brussels sprouts to your plate isn't a bad idea. These cruciferous vegetables offer three grams of soluble fiber and 4.5 grams of total fiber per half cup, which assist in pulling down cholesterol numbers. In addition, they're a great source of antioxidant compounds that may help prevent LDL oxidation. For those who aren't a fan of the veggie at all, choose another cruciferous vegetable like broccoli, cauliflower, or kale.

8. Avocado

Cutting back on total fat may have been the focus in past decades, but today we know that it is the type of fat that matters most when it comes to reducing heart disease risk. And avocados are a great way to add healthy, monounsaturated fats since they are also rich in fiber and the antioxidant Vitamin E. Slice or cube ripe avocado to add to a sandwich or salad; mash it to use as a spread in place of mayo or make a quick guacamole.

9. Flax Seeds

Flax seeds are one of the best sources of plant lignans, a unique type of fiber that's not widespread in foods, as well as bioactive polyphenols and an omega-3 fatty acid known as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Incorporating a little flax seed is considered one of the most beneficial foods to add for heart health to improve lipids because of this powerful nutrient combination. Unsure how to add it or what to do with it? Try sprinkling a little ground into smoothies or hot oatmeal.

Food Compass

Just when we thought we finally got the hang of this whole wellness thing, a new study from Tufts University throws a curveball our way.

People reports that Tufts has released their Food Compass, a nutrient-profiling system that was developed by researchers at the university. The system uses a unique algorithm to assign foods a score between 1 and 100, with 100 being the most healthy.

Among the many observations made thanks to the Food Compass is that chocolate ice cream in a cone with nuts (score of 37) is healthier than a multigrain bagel with raisins (score of 19). And we can only imagine what the bagel's Food Compass score becomes once you slather it with cream cheese or butter.

Additionally, you might want to skip on that side of saltine crackers with your next bowl of soup. The crispy crackers scored a less than impressive 7. But if you are feeling peckish, your best bet is chocolate-covered almonds (score of 78) and air-popped, unbuttered popcorn (score of 70).

According to Dariush Mozaffarian, who led the study, the goal of the Food Compass is to simplify what healthy eating looks like. "Once you get beyond 'eat your veggies, avoid soda,' the public is pretty confused about how to identify healthier choices in the grocery store, cafeteria, and restaurant," Mozaffarian said, according to People. "Consumers, policy makers, and even industry are looking for simple tools to guide everyone toward healthier choices."

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Here are some highlights:

Beverages: soft drink, cola, Gatorade (1), tomato juice 100%, celery juice (100)

Grains: bread, pita (1), cheerios (95!)

Fruits: nectarine, strawberries, peach, orange, lemon, grapefruit, cherries, cantaloupe, blackberries, apricot (100)

seafood, dairy, eggs, meat: hot dog, beef (3), canned tuna (88), greek yogurt (95), broiled salmon (95)

extincton vs. jobs

we prefer your extinction to the loss of our job

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2022/07/31

Nichelle Nichols

Nichelle Nichols, who made history and earned the admiration of Martin Luther King Jr. for her portrayal of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek, has died. She was 89. 

Nichols, who earlier sang and danced as a performer with Duke Ellington’s orchestra, died Saturday night of natural causes, her son, Kyle Johnson, posted on her official Facebook page.

“Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration,” he wrote Sunday. “Hers was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.” (Read tribute to the late actress here.)

A family spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that she died in Silver City, New Mexico. She had been living with her son and was recently hospitalized.

Nichols played a person of authority on television at a time when most Black women were portraying servants.

She was cast as Uhura by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry after she guest-starred as the fiancee of a Black U.S. Marine who is a victim of racism in a 1964 episode of another NBC show he created, the Camp Pendleton-set The Lieutenant.

(Leonard Nimoy and Ricardo Montalban, two other Star Trek actors, appeared on that short-lived Roddenberry series as well.)

In the 2010 documentary Trek Nation, Nichols said she informed Roddenberry midway through Star Trek’s first season of 1966-67 that she wanted to quit the show and return to the musical theater, which she called “her first love.”

However, a chance meeting with King at an NAACP fundraiser — who knew he was a Trekker? — led Nichols to stay put.

“He told me that Star Trek was one of the only shows that his wife Coretta and he would allow their little children to stay up and watch,” she recalled. “I thanked him and I told him I was leaving the show. All the smile came off his face and he said, ‘You can’t do that. Don’t you understand, for the first time, we’re seen as we should be seen? You don’t have a Black role. You have an equal role.’

“I went back to work on Monday morning and went to Gene’s office and told him what had happened over the weekend. And he said, ‘Welcome home. We have a lot of work to do.’ ”

Said Roddenberry in the documentary, “I was pleased that in those days, when you couldn’t even get Blacks on television, that I not only had a Black but a Black woman and a Black officer.”

Nichols played Nyota Uhura, who hailed from the United States of Africa in the future, on all three seasons of the series, which featured a multi-ethnic, multi-racial crew manning the deck of the Starship Enterprise.

She reprised the role in all six of the Star Trek films from 1979 through 1991, on animated series and several videogames and on a 2002 episode of Futurama.

In the three recent Star Trek films directed by J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin, Uhura was portrayed by Zoë Saldana. (Celia Rose Gooding plays her in the new Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.) 

In the original Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” which first aired in November 1968, Uhura and Captain Kirk (William Shatner) shared an interracial kiss. (They couldn’t help themselves; according to the plot, aliens made them do it.)

When NBC execs learned about the kiss during production, they feared stations in the Southern states would not air the episode, so they ordered that another version of the scene be filmed. But Nichols and Shatner purposely screwed up every additional take.

“Finally, the guys in charge relented: ‘To hell with it. Let’s go with the kiss,” Nichols wrote in her 1994 book, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories. “I guess they figured we were going to be canceled in a few months anyway. And so the kiss stayed.”

In the mid-1970s, after Nichols took NASA to task in a speech for not reaching out to women and minorities, the organization asked her to serve as a recruiter.

“I went everywhere,” she said. “I went to universities that had strong science and engineering programs. I was a guest at NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command], where no civilian had gone before.

“At the end of the recruitment, NASA had so many highly qualified people. They took six women, they took three African-American men … it was a very fulfilling accomplishment for me.”

Among those who applied to NASA thanks to Nichols were Sally Ride, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair and Ellison Onizuka. A documentary about her efforts, Woman in Motion, premiered in 2018.

Born Grace Nichols on Dec. 28, 1932, in the Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois, she studied dance at the Chicago Ballet Academy. As a teenager, she toured as a dancer with Ellington and Lionel Hampton, then sang for the first time with Ellington’s band when a performer became ill at the last minute.

She danced with Sammy Davis Jr. in Porgy and Bess (1959), was a dice player in James Garner’s Mister Buddwing (1966) and played the foul-mouthed head of a prostitution ring who puts a hit out on Isaac Hayes in Truck Turner (1974). In 1968, she recorded an album, Down to Earth.

Nichols appeared as the grandmother of avenging angel Monica Dawson (Dana Davis), who has the power to mimic any physical motion she witnesses, on the NBC series Heroes.

Her more recent film appearances came in Snow Dogs (2002), Are We There Yet? (2005) and This Bitter Earth (2012).

Survivors include her son, who starred in the Gordon Parks film The Learning Tree (1969). The Los Angeles Times reported in August that he was at the center of a conservatorship battle over his mom, who had lived in Woodland Hills.

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George Takei, Stacey Abrams and More Pay Tribute to Nichelle Nichols: "Champion, Warrior and Tremendous Actor"

Will Smith banned from Oscars

[7/29/22] Will Smith shares updates and thoughts on Instagram

[6/1/22] Jada Pinkett Smith hopes Will Smith and Chris Rock can reconcile

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The motion picture academy on Friday banned Will Smith from attending the Oscars or any other academy event for 10 years following his slap of Chris Rock at the Academy Awards.

The move comes after a meeting of the academy's Board of Governors to discuss a response to Smith's actions.

The academy in a statement called Smith's actions “unacceptable and harmful.”

Smith pre-emptively resigned from the academy last week during the run-up to the meeting and said he would accept any punishment the academy handed down.

“I accept and respect the Academy’s decision," Smith said in a statement.

The academy also apologized for its handling of the situation and allowing Smith to stay and accept his best actor award.

“During our telecast, we did not adequately address the situation in the room. For this, we are sorry,” the academy said. “This was an opportunity for us to set an example for our guests, viewers and our Academy family around the world, and we fell short — unprepared for the unprecedented. ”

foods to detox your body

Our modern lifestyle is comfortable, sure, but it has its downsides too. Pollution, too much chlorine in water, preservatives in food, additives, and many other chemicals end up in our bodies, whether we like it or not.

To stay healthy, you must help your body fight these pollutants by eating any detox foods you can get.

These are the best detox foods you should start eating today.

Citrus - Citrus fruits like limes, lemons, grapefruits, and tangerines have impressive doses of vitamin C, a nutrient that boosts your immune system helping you get rid of any intruder and toxic compounds floating around.

Vitamin C is also great for your skin and will help it stay clean and elastic. Our skin absorbs many pollutants from the air, and you must take care of them too.

Pomegranate - The ruby-red, seedy fruit has an incredible amount of punic acid, which lowers your triglyceride levels, clearing your blood vessels. A healthy circulatory system helps your body eliminate cholesterol. Pomegranate seeds also have antibacterial properties.

Hibiscus Tea - Hibiscus flowers render concentrated brightly colored tea, which has many antioxidants that help you detox your blood from harmful compounds and free radicals.

The red flower treats liver steatosis too, which is accumulating fat in your liver. Remember, your liver takes care of detoxing your body every day.

Avocados - Avocado is the perfect detox food. They’re not only loaded with unsaturated fatty acids that clear your arteries, but they also have lots of fiber that gets rid of toxins and waste. Avocados help you absorb other nutrients, and that’s a welcoming bonus.

Fatty fish - Fatty fish have many Omega-3 fatty acids that clean your veins and arteries and lower cholesterol levels. The high proteins in salmon, tuna, and other oily fish speed up your metabolism, making you lose weight faster, getting rid of unnecessary fat.

Turmeric - Curcuminoids in turmeric have fantastic health benefits, and one of them is that they encourage natural detox. Turmeric, especially when combined with piperine found in black pepper, cleanses us from inside out, at a molecular level. Expect not only a deep-cleanse but an improvement in your overall health.

Asparagus - Asparagus have extraordinary amounts of insoluble fiber, the best kind to cleanse your digestive system. The green stemmy vegetable is not only good for you but also for bacteria living in your gut. These microorganisms are responsible for eliminating hard-to-digest compounds and promoting nutrient absorption, which means a cleaner, richer bloodstream.

Beets - The purple root vegetable is an excellent addition to your detox diet because of its insoluble fibers that can help you lose weight. Antioxidants in beets clean your arteries and dietary nitrates, which lower your blood pressure, improve your liver work more efficiently.

Matcha tea - We’re sure you already know that green tea, especially the powdered matcha, is one of the most potent sources of antioxidants. What you might not know is that the bright-green powder is right for your liver and kidneys too. Matcha can prevent both liver damage and liver diseases if ingested regularly, helping your body get rid of all toxins and waste in your body.

Berries - Berries, all red, black, and blue, have amazing detox properties, they have proper amounts of antioxidants in the form of anthocyanins. The sweet fruits are a good source of fiber and lower harmful cholesterol levels. And there’s more, berries have collagen, which will bring back elasticity and strength to your skin, reversing the damage of pollution and chemicals in the air.

Made the most of your detox diet

There’s more news, all foods above are not only excellent ways to detox your body, but they’re also super healthy. 

While you indulge in detox foods, reduce your simple sugar intake, and drink plenty of water. These two habits will boost the health benefits in your detox diet and will make you feel lighter and healthier.

Island Organizers

Your house is a mess. Full of so much stuff that you can’t find anything you need when you need it.

You need help organizing things and turning your home into a place where you can do your work neatly and live your life with joy, especially now since so many of us are working from home.

That’s where Karen Simon, Shinobu Kuroyanagi and Paige Altonn can help. They are local members of the National Association of Productivity and Organization, which offers courses in organizing and operates as a registry for people who are trained in the art of bringing “order and efficiency to people’s lives.” These organizers have developed reliable techniques and principles for organizing one’s home or office.

Simon is a co-founder of Island Organizers, a consulting firm that advises businesses and individuals on organizing their offices, whether at home or in a separate building, as well as tips on technology tools. With her business partner, the late Donna McMillan, she co-wrote a book, “Solving the Organizing Puzzle,” which offers practical fundamentals on organizing, based on their own experiences. The book is mostly focused on business, but there’s plenty in it that applies to home organizing as well. It was ­released during the pandemic, but Simon is planning to have public ­promotions soon.

Simon said people often confuse what being organized really is.

“People have this misconception that being organized only means decluttering and having stuff look nice,” she said. “But it’s not just about having things in their places, it’s about how you operate in the rest of your life. Are you on time? Do you plan? Do you look ahead for what’s going to happen tomorrow? There’s so many things you need to plan for.”

The book is based on four concepts, the most basic being the idea of seeing a space — it can be a physical space like a kitchen or bedroom, a space on your computer, or even a period of time — as “Million Dollar Real Estate.”

“Precious space is worth millions,” Simon said, and so it should be organized according to whatever activity takes place there. “If this is where you read, then you need to have a space there for your bookshelves, and a place to sit comfortably.”

The second concept, which is applied to a million-dollar real estate, is that “Clutter confuses. Uniformity creates calm.” Simon said a disorganized bookcase, where some books are on their sides while others are standing up, can be distracting, whereas one where books of similar sizes are lined up edge to edge “creates a calming effect, because it’s not all busy and different colors.” With the mind calm, the activity at hand should be easier, she said.

A third principle is the idea that “Everything Deserves a Home.” Part of that concept is the importance of having a “dumping zone” near the entry of a home, Simon said, a place to unload items from your day at work, as well as things like groceries that you might have picked up on the way home. The problem, she said, is that the items often stay there because you haven’t decided where they should really go. According to Simon, “Making Decisions” is principle No. 4, the most difficult concept of all because it can be so personal.

“People put things in those spaces where they do not belong, and that is how stuff gets classified as ‘clutter,’” she said.

-- Star Advertiser, May 22, 2022

how much exercise do you need?

For anyone interested in the relationship between exercise and living longer, one of the most pressing questions is how much we really need to stay healthy. Is 30 minutes a day enough? Can we get by with less? Do we have to exercise all in one session, or can we spread it throughout the day? And when we’re talking about exercise, does it have to be hard to count?

For years, exercise scientists tried to quantify the ideal “dose” of exercise for most people. They finally reached a broad consensus in 2008 with the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which were updated in 2018 after an extensive review of the available science about movement, sitting and health. In both versions, the guidelines advised anyone who was physically able to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week, and half as much if it is intense.

But what’s the best way to space out those weekly minutes? And what does “moderate” mean? Here’s what some of the leading researchers in exercise science had to say about step counts, stairwells, weekend warriors, greater longevity and why the healthiest step we can take is the one that gets us off the couch.

Aim for the 150-minute sweet spot.

“For longevity, 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity clearly is enough,” said Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She has extensively studied movement and health and helped draft the current national physical activity guidelines.

For practical purposes, exercise scientists often recommend breaking that 150 minutes into 30-minute sessions of speedy walking or a similar activity five times a week. “It is quite clear from numerous large-scale, well-conducted epidemiological studies that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days lowers the risk of premature death and many diseases, such as stroke, heart attack, Type 2 diabetes and many types of cancer,” said Ulf Ekelund, a professor specializing in physical activity epidemiology at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences in Oslo, who has led many of those studies.

Moderate exercise, he continued, means “activities that increase your breathing and heart rate, so the exertion feels like a five or six on a scale between one and 10.” In other words, pick up the pace a bit if your inclination is to stroll, but do not feel compelled to sprint.

Consider exercise snacks.

You also can break up your exercise into even smaller segments. “It doesn’t matter whether exercise is done in a long, continuous 30-minute session or is dispersed across the day in shorter sessions,” said Emmanuel Stamatakis, an exercise scientist at the University of Sydney in Australia who studies physical activity and health.

Recent studies overwhelmingly show that we can accumulate our 150 weekly minutes of moderate exercise in whatever way works best for us, he said. “Many people may find it easier and more sustainable to squeeze in a few dozen one-minute or two-minute walks between work tasks” or other commitments. “There is no special magic to a sustained 30-minute session of exercise” for most health benefits.

Think of these bite-size workouts as exercise snacks, he said. “Activities like bursts of very fast walking, stair climbing and carrying shopping bags provide excellent opportunities for movement snacks.” To concentrate the health benefits of these workout nuggets, he added, keep the intensity relatively high, so you feel somewhat winded.

Conceivably, you also could cram all of your exercise into long Saturday and Sunday workouts. In a 2017 study by Dr. Stamatakis and colleagues, people who reported exercising almost entirely on weekends were less likely to die prematurely than those who said they rarely exercised at all. But being a weekend warrior has drawbacks. “It is certainly not ideal to spend the workweek totally sedentary and then try to compensate” over the weekend, Dr. Stamatakis said. You miss many of the health benefits of regular exercise, such as improved blood-sugar control and better moods, on the days you do not work out, he said. You also increase your risk of exercise-related injuries.

Count your steps.

The exercise recommendations remain the same if you measure your exercise in steps instead of minutes. For most people, “150 minutes of exercise a week would translate into about 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day,” Dr. Lee said. In a large-scale new study by Dr. Lee and Dr. Ekelund of the relationship between steps and longevity, published in March in The Lancet, the optimal step count for people younger than 60 was about 8,000 to 10,000 a day, and for those 60 and over, it was about 6,000 to 8,000 a day.

Consider more.

Of course, these recommendations about steps and minutes focus on health and life spans, not physical performance. “If you want to run a marathon or a 10K race as fast as possible, you need much more exercise,” Dr. Ekelund said.

The recommended 150 minutes a week also may be too little to stave off weight gain with age. In a 2010 study of almost 35,000 women that was spearheaded by Dr. Lee, only those who walked or otherwise exercised moderately for about an hour a day during middle age maintained their weight as they became older.

So, if you have the time and inclination, move more than 30 minutes a day, Dr. Lee and the other scientists said. In general, according to her research and other studies, the more active we are, well beyond 30 minutes a day, the more our risks of chronic diseases drop and the longer our lives may be.

But any activity is better than none. “Every single minute counts,” Dr. Ekelund said. “Walking up the stairs has health benefits, even if it only lasts for one or two minutes, if you repeat it regularly.”

Gretchen Reynolds will be taking time off from the PhysEd column to work on a book. In the meantime, follow her on Twitter (@gretchenreynold) or look for her on the running trails and bike paths.

Finland tops World Happiness Report

For the fifth consecutive year, Finland has topped the latest rankings in the World Happiness Report. Once again, the other main Nordic countries all ranked in the top ten, well ahead of the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

The annual report from the Sustainable Development Solutions Network—a global initiative for the United Nations—uses data from the Gallup World Poll to report how people evaluate their own lives in more than 150 countries worldwide.

With Finland, Iceland and Denmark filling the top three places and Sweden (6th) and Norway (8th) placing well, the world’s attention has once again turned to why the Nordic countries perform so well.

In a year that the report’s authors describe as “lamentable”, they said people’s trust in each other and confidence in their governments were key factors in this year’s rankings.

As a region with high levels of societal trust, that goes some way to explaining why all the Nordic countries held on to high positions despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. But other things must explain the consistently high rankings of the Nordic countries over so many years.

Content, but not necessarily happy

One simple factor could be that the region’s high societal trust, strong welfare systems, relatively low crime and low unemployment means there are far fewer people who consider themselves unhappy.

Two American expats living in Scandinavia previously said that “contentment” is a better description than happiness for the emotion that sums up the region. Oslo-based Audrey Camp said that when people feel secure in their jobs, health and education, they have the freedom to emotionally invest in things that matter more for happiness, such as family, friends and fun.

Janteloven, or the law of jante, is another possible factor. It’s a set of societal norms captured by a Danish-Norwegian author in a 1933 novel. Many believe his observations of the suppression of individuality and personal success are still relevant today, and may explain why many people feel happier with a comfortable life rather than striving for someone else’s idea of success.

An outdoors lifestyle

Many people based farther south may find it difficult to believe anyone living in areas with so little daylight during the winter can possibly be happy. But Finns make the most of the winter, helped by the nation’s huge number of saunas.

“Whereas some countries would be on the brink of hysteria if they were to suddenly experience the winter climate of Finland, Finns have learned not only to simply adapt to the winter, but to thrive in it,” explained the Helsinki Times.

It’s a similar story across the Nordic region. Author Lorelou Desjardins gave a TEDx talk about the concept of “friluftsliv”, which broadly translates as an outdoors lifestyle.

She described it as a philosophy of living a simple life in nature, which doesn't need to involve epic adventures: “It can be something as simple as taking a Sunday hike with your family in the forest, going skiing with your friends on the weekend from cabin to cabin, or going ice fishing with your grandfather.”

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.”

Alex Trebek

LOS ANGELES >> Alex Trebek, who presided over the beloved quiz show “Jeopardy!” for more than 30 years with dapper charm and a touch of school-master strictness, died today. He was 80.

Trebek, who announced in 2019 that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, died at his California home, surrounded by family and friends, “Jeopardy!” studio Sony said.

The Canadian-born host, who made a point of informing fans about his health directly, spoke in a calm, even tone as he revealed his illness and hope for a cure in a video posted March 6, 2019.

In the video, Trebek said he was joining the 50,000 other Americans who receive such a diagnosis each year and that he recognized that the prognosis was not encouraging.

But Trebek said he intended to fight it and keep working, even joking that he needed to beat the disease because his “Jeopardy!” contract ran for three more years. Less than a week later, he opened the show with a message acknowledging the outpouring of kind words and prayers he’d received.

“Thanks to the — believe it or not — hundreds of thousands of people who have sent in tweets, texts, emails, cards and letters wishing me well,” Trebek said. “I’m a lucky guy.”

“Jeopardy!” bills itself as “America’s favorite quiz show” and captivated the public with a unique format in which contestants were told the answers and had to provide the questions on a variety of subjects, including movies, politics, history and popular culture.

They would answer by saying “What is … ?” or “Who is …. ?”

Trebek, who became its host in 1984, was a master of the format, engaging in friendly banter with contestants, appearing genuinely pleased when they answered correctly and, at the same time, moving the game along in a brisk no-nonsense fashion whenever people struggled for answers.

He never pretended to know the answers himself if he really didn’t, deferring to the show’s experts to decide whether a somewhat vague answer had come close enough to be counted as correct.

“I try not to take myself too seriously,” he told an interviewer in 2004. “I don’t want to come off as a pompous ass and indicate that I know everything when I don’t.”

The show was the brainstorm of Juann Griffin, wife of the late talk show host-entrepreneur Merv Griffin, who said she suggested to him one day that he create a game show where people were given the answers.

“Jeopardy!” debuted on NBC in 1964 with Art Fleming as emcee and was an immediate hit. It lasted until 1975, then was revived in syndication with Trebek.

Long identified by a full head of hair and trim mustache (though in 2001 he startled viewers by shaving his mustache, “completely on a whim”), Trebek was more than qualified for the job, having started his game show career on “Reach for the Top” in his native country.

Moving to the U.S. in 1973, he appeared on “The Wizard of Odds,” “High Rollers,” “The $128,000 Question” and “Double Dare.” Even during his run on “Jeopardy!”, Trebek worked on other shows. In the early 1990s, he was the host of three — “Jeopardy!”, “To Tell the Truth” and “Classic Concentration.”

“Jeopardy!” made him famous. He won five Emmys as its host, and received stars on both the Hollywood and Canadian walks of fame. In 2012, the show won a prestigious Peabody Award.

He taped his daily “Jeopardy!” shows at a frenetic pace, recording as many as 10 episodes (two weeks’ worth) in just two days. After what was described as a mild heart attack in 2007, he was back at work in just a month.

He posted a video in January 2018 announcing he’d undergone surgery for blood clots on the brain that followed a fall he’d taken. The show was on hiatus during his recovery.

It had yet to bring in a substitute host for Trebek — save once, when he and “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak swapped their TV jobs as an April’s Fool prank.

In 2012, Trebek acknowledged that he was considering retirement, but had been urged by friends to stay on so he could reach 30 years on the show. He still loved the job, he declared: “What’s not to love? You have the security of a familiar environment, a familiar format, but you have the excitement of new clues and new contestants on every program. You can’t beat that!”

Although many viewers considered him one of the key reasons for the show’s success, Trebek himself insisted he was only there to keep things moving.

“I’m introduced as the host of ‘Jeopardy!,’ not the star,” he said in a 2012 interview. “My job is to provide the atmosphere and assistance to the contestants to get them to perform at their very best,” he explained. “And if I’m successful doing that, I will be perceived as a nice guy and the audience will think of me as being a bit of a star.”

7 Books that Will Change How You See The World

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

On The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche

Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Taleb

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil

The Denial of Death by Ernest Becke

-- by Mark Mason

[OK, seven more to go...]

Sean Connery

(CNN) Sean Connery, the Scottish actor whose five-decade-long movie career was dominated by the role of James Bond, has died at the age of 90, according to his publicist.

The actor "died peacefully in his sleep," publicist Nancy Seltzer said in a statement Saturday.

"His wife Micheline and his two sons, Jason and Stephane have confirmed that he died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family. There will be a private ceremony followed by a memorial yet to be planned once the virus has ended," the statement said.

Connery, who was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for his contribution to the arts, played the British spy in seven movies, beginning with "Dr. No" in 1962, the first of the Bond movies.

He wasn't just Bond, of course. Connery starred in an Alfred Hitchcock film, 1964's "Marnie," opposite Tippi Hedren; was part of the all-star cast in 1974's "Murder on the Orient Express"; played Indiana Jones' father, in 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"; and won an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his performance as Chicago cop Jim Malone in the 1987 film "The Untouchables."

But like so many characters in the Bond films, he could never quite escape 007. He gave up the role twice before finally ending his involvement with 1983's puckishly titled "Never Say Never Again."

James Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said they were "devastated" by the news of Connery's death in a statement posted to the official 007 Twitter account.

"He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond whose indelible entrance into cinema history began when he announced those unforgettable words "The name's Bond... James Bond" -- he revolutionized the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent," the producers said.

"He is undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him."

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "heartbroken" to hear of Connery's death.

"Our nation today mourns one of her best loved sons," she said in a statement. "Sean was born into a working class Edinburgh family and through talent and sheer hard work, became a film icon and one of the world's most accomplished actors."

Sturgeon also paid tribute to Connery as "a patriotic and proud Scot," saying it was a privilege to have known him. "He was a lifelong advocate of an independent Scotland and those of us who share that belief owe him a great debt of gratitude," she said.

Actor Daniel Craig, the most recent Bond, said Connery had "defined an era and a style" and was one of cinema's true greats.

"The wit and charm he portrayed on screen could be measured in mega watts; he helped create the modern blockbuster. He will continue to influence actors and film-makers alike for years to come," said Craig in a statement shared by the official 007 Twitter account.

Actor Hugh Jackman tweeted: "I grew up idolizing #SeanConnery. A legend on screen, and off. Rest In Peace."

Britain's Pinewood Studios, where the Bond films are filmed, tweeted: "Memories of this outstanding actor and his unforgettable embodiment of superspy James Bond will forever be cherished at Pinewood."

Friends of the Library online

Foodies and home cooks can have a field day perusing the online catalog of cookbooks available from Friends of the Library of Hawaii, not just for recipes but nostalgic glimpses into different circles of community life.

It seems every group in Hawaii, from the Koko Head Elementary School A+ program to the Junior League to the Honpa Hongwanji Hawaii Betsuin has put out a cookbook at one time or another.

“The local cookbooks sell very quickly,” said executive director Nainoa Mau. “People are looking for family recipes.”

These community cookbooks usually are published in small quantities by churches, clubs and organizations, which make them hard to find. Most are inexpensively bound with plastic spines and covers, illustrated by hand, and average just $3 to $5. In fact, everything for sale by the Friends goes for a mere fraction of the cover price, and less than at other second-hand sources.

Normally, most of these books would find new homes through the Friends’ annual book sale, a colossal fundraiser usually held over 11 days in June at McKinley High School. The sale was canceled this year due to COVID-19. That means 150,000 items (including CDs and vinyl records) are still taking up space at the Friends’ Halawa warehouse.

But the books are all still available to the public via the nonprofit’s website, he said. More than 26,000 titles of all genres have been uploaded to the site, with lots more added every day.

“We have tons of great stuff here,” said Mau, standing among rows of shelves and boxes of books piled halfway to the ceiling at the warehouse. And frankly, he and his volunteers are getting a bit anxious. “We’re packed to the gills,” and every day more book donations pile up.

They need to move a lot of merchandise, or he and his staff of volunteers soon won’t be able to walk in between the rows.

Cookbooks in general are the most popular of all genres with 10 categories, from Asian to holiday, from baking and desserts to beverages.

“There was panic in the beginning,” Pat Oshiro, a four-year volunteer, said. People were coming every 15 minutes for weeks to drop off books after the first stay-at-home order ended in June. The warehouse was closed during that shutdown, a period many people seem to have spent culling their bookshelves. “All the cleaning they did came over here!” Oshiro said.

Mau’s 75 regular volunteer helpers are trying to sort, price and post books online, and get them ready for pickup as fast as possible. “The volunteers are so amazing, so dedicated,” he said. “Some come daily.”

Yet only 10 volunteers, about half the usual number, are allowed into the warehouse at a time, due to coronavirus precautions. “It’s like operating an Amazon with manual labor,” he joked, with Oshiro adding, “No robots.”

Oshiro, a retired social worker and administrator, said she’s loved going to the library since she was a kid on Molokai, so she revels in being surrounded by books three days a week.

Although her favorite books are mysteries, she’s been in charge of the cookbook section the last three years. Still, if a book with an unusual title or subject catches her eye, she’ll take a few minutes to thumb through it.

“I also like looking at recipes and cookbooks for different cultures and will sometimes make something inspired by a new discovery,” she added.

“At the big book sales, I saw many people crowded around the local cookbook section looking at the recipes, page by page. Some are excited when they see these books and will buy five to 10 of these books.” Oshiro said.

Very popular are collections issued by the Honpa Hongwanji and major organizations like Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Electric. While there are plenty of books by well-known chefs and food columnists, selections also include small publications like the “Noelani Class of 1991 Cookbook” or the “Unbearably Good! Mochi Lovers’ Cookbook” from 1999.

“Cooking with Sadie and Friends,” by the Hawaii Canines for Independence from 2007, is a typical conglomeration of favorite recipes with local, mainland, multi-ethnic influences, including dishes (for humans) like Makena Hash Browns, Peggy’s Party Punch, Fast-Kine Chinese Chicken Salad and Mike’s Leg of Lamb. And (surprise!) it also includes a recipe for dog treats.

Vintage treasures include the “Hawaiian Cook Book” by Helen Alexander, published in 1938, although that sold quickly, even at a higher price of $9. It offered recipes for haupia, smoked fish and breadfruit poi, with black-and-white illustrations.

Mau said the books for sale online are all in acceptable, if not good, condition.

“The funds we raise support all 51 public libraries and their programming,” Mau said of his 140-year-old nonprofit. It pays for librarian training, technical upgrades and offerings such as author presentations and the Summer Reading Program.

But the Friends’ revenue has been severely reduced with the cancellation of the McKinley book sale, its biggest fundraiser, and two other regular sales, in November and January, are also unlikely to be held.

Still, the Friends’ are scheduled to move into a bigger warehouse in Iwilei by the end of the year. Mau is looking forward to having more space in the 11,750- square-foot building (the Halawa site has just under 8,000 square feet). The new location next to the Iwilei Costco will be much more convenient for donors to drop off books, pick up orders and for Friends volunteers to commute, he added.

Rare deals

Since 2012 Friends of the Library has opened some of its inventory to global access via Amazon.com, selling about 3,000 books through the online retailer so far.

The Friends earn about 70% of all sales.

To browse these titles, go to 808ne.ws/librarybooks (some of the prices might surprise you).

A sample of what’s available now:

>> “Hinode Rice Cookbook,” published for Territorial Savings’ 70th anniversary in 1992, going for $39.50

>> “The When You Live in Hawaii You Get Very Creative During Passover Cookbook,” released by Congregation Sof Ma’arav in 1989, $65

>> “Cooking With Hari and Muriel,” from 1994, by Hari Kojima and Muriel Miura, $34

FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY

>> Warehouse: 99-1132 Iwaena St.; 536-4174

>> Online sales: Visit friendsofthelibraryofhawaii.org; click on “Online Bookstore.” Curbside pickup.

>> To donate books: Call for an appointment. Books are accepted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays.

>> Also: Manoa Public Library holds pickups and dropoffs on Thursdays.