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My Interview With NPR About Alzheimer’s and my Dad

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | Aging, Home & Family Expert | Comments

Caregiving | Home & Family | Personal Health | RelationshipsI recently spoke about my Dad with NPR’s Jacki Lyden for their Weekend All Things Considered story on Alzheimer’s disease. I told her it was a bittersweet experience for me. I started listening to the show as a young child with Dad, and there I was, 40 years later, at the NPR studio, talking about him and the ways that Alzheimer’s disease  is slowly robbing his brain. The first few notes of the show’s theme song immediately summon warm, secure “all …

Merck Insomnia Drug Carries Risks of Drowsy Driving, Suicidal Thoughts

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | General News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Personal HealthBy Matthew Perrone, AP Health Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health regulators say an experimental insomnia drug from Merck can help patients fall asleep, but it also carries worrisome side effects, including daytime drowsiness and suicidal thinking. Related: ER Visits Soar for Older Adults Taking Ambien The Food and Drug Administration on Monday released its review of the company’s sleep aid, suvorexant, ahead of a public meeting on Wednesday. The pill works by temporarily blocking chemical messengers that keep people …

Did Eleanor Roosevelt Really Pack a Pistol at 72?

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | Who's News | Comments

Bulletin Today | PoliticsA just-published article on the news website Slate focuses on the little-known fact that Eleanor Roosevelt, who became famous and widely admired as an activist for causes such as integration and international human rights, possessed a handgun permit from New York State. The permit, issued to her in 1957, when she was 72, is part of an exhibit featuring the contents of Mrs. Roosevelt’s wallet, at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, N.Y. As detailed in the …

Christine White: Heroine From a Classic ‘Twilight Zone’ Episode

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | Who's News | Comments

Bulletin Today | Entertainment | LegacyActress Christine Lamson White, who died on April 14 at age 86 in Washington, D.C., racked up an impressive 53 appearances in TV series and made-for-TV movies during a career that stretched from 1952 to 1976, including roles on hit programs such as The Fugitive, Bonanza, The Untouchables, and Perry Mason. She also had a small role in a 1973 Clint Eastwood action movie hit, Magnum Force. But White remains best known as the wife who sat next to a then-youthful …

Are Ageist Smartphone Commercials a Dumb Move?

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | Who's News | Comments

Bulletin Today | TechnologyIf you watch TV, by now you’ve probably seen the pool-party commercial for the new Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. The spot shows hip college-age revelers befuddling their iPhone-using elders with all of the phone’s flashy technology — such as the AirView feature that allows users to answer the phone by sweeping their fingers over the screen without actually touching it, a camera mode that allows them to take rapid-fire pictures of moving objects and an app that transforms the phone …

Debt Is a Taboo Conversation Topic

Posted on 05/20/2013 by | The Ultimate Cheapskate | Comments

Money & SavingsAs a young adult, my parents taught me to never discuss religion or politics in a social setting, especially if you know and like the other people in the room. I’ve since learned that sex is often included along with religion and politics in the trifecta of taboo polite conversation topics. Trust me, growing up 50 years ago in the farmlands of Ohio it went without saying that sex wasn’t something you talked about in public (or even in private, for that …

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