The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Facts and figures for the 2018 holidays

It’s that time of year. The holidays are upon us. Hanukkah has been celebrated and today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the day with the least daylight and the longest night. Christmas is approaching rapidly as is Kwanzaa, Dec. 26 to Jan. 1.

Celebrants

Nine-in-ten Americans — and 95 percent of Christians — say they celebrate Christmas, according to a Pew Research Center survey. These figures have generally held steady in recent years. Today, 46 percent of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious rather than cultural holiday.

What are your favorite stores for holiday shopping?

On Sunday, I went to the outlet mall with my daughter and her teenage son to buy his Christmas presents. Now that he’s a teen, he wants clothes for Christmas – and he wants to pick them out.

We went to Adidas. He bought a pair of sweats and we picked out a t-shirt for him also because the Black Friday deal was 25 percent off on the second, less costly item.

Next, we went to Nike. He picked out a pair of running shoes and a sweatshirt. My daughter was excited to find a rain jacket she could wear when running. And, she found a sweatshirt she liked. The deals were better Adidas. Thirty percent off on everything.

The third stop was at the store for my grandson’s sports team. He bought a coral-colored hoodie there.

It was a boring shopping trip. The shops were filled mostly with gray, black, and navy blue clothes. I looked longingly at the pretty patterns and bright colors when we passed by the women’s stores. Later, my daughter said.

My favorite stores for holiday shopping are:

Marion Nestle investigates food industry sponsored research in her latest book

Every time I hear about how research shows a food, such as coffee, is good for you, I wonder who paid for the research.

Marion Nestle, consumer activist, nutritionist, and professor, looks at research paid for by food companies in a new book.

In “Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat,” Nestle reveals how millions of dollars flow from corporations and trade groups to research laboratories at colleges and universities, distorting how consumers think about food and health. The ultimate goal of this research is to promote sales of their products.

Baby boomers write about women and men, banned books, pain, and suicide

Fall is in the air, and there’s no doubt that winter is coming soon. I’m eating the last of the cucumbers from my garden. And, it’s time to do fall cleanup and get my yard ready for winter.

As the cold, dreaded weather approaches, baby boomers are writing about:

• A mother’s story coping with her son’s suicide.
• Banned Books Week and people’s rights.
• Pain management options.
• What’s happened to men?
• The right way to wash your pillows.
• Women’s liberation today and yesterday.
• Our memories and could you remember something from 30 years ago?

Happy Mother’s Day

With Mother’s Day approaching, I’ve been thinking about my mom, Ruth L. Slingsby. I have many fond memories of her. She helped me to love school and develop a keen interest in learning. Research and writing are among my favorite things in life.

A farm wife and mother, my mom was a great cook, and she made most of the clothes for my two sisters and me, until we were old enough to learn to sew ourselves.

Growing flowers was a joy for my mom as was playing Pinochle.

20 books to read about food this spring

The Food Tank is recommending 20 new books on food and agriculture to celebrate spring. Topics include the paradox of obesity and malnutrition, building strong communities through socially-conscious food systems, and the essential link between food and healt

Books are from Italy, Puerto Rico, Australia and many other countries.

The reading list includes:

1. “Bread is Gold,” Massimo Bottura

2. “Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World,” Sam Kass

3. “The Faces of Local Food: Celebrating the People Who Feed Us,” Charlotte Caldwell

4. “Food from the Radical Center: Healing Our Land and Communities,” Gary Paul

5. “Food Is the Solution: What to Eat to Save the World,” Matthew Prescott

Baby boomers ponder retirement and old age

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is ranked the second-best place to retire in 2018 by U.S. News and World Report.

Although he’s been blogging for more than seven years, Tom Sightings reports he’s been AWOL for a couple of weeks. He’s had a short-term job and his daughter was married in Brooklyn, New York, recently.

Now Sightings, who blogs at Sightings Over Sixty, is back in the saddle, offering a round-up of baby boomer blogger articles this week.

Boomer bloggers are writing about sharing big, empty-nest houses; moving away to retire from the second-best place to retire in the nation; figuring out how Amazon is allowing third-parties to sell worn books as new so authors won’t get a royalty; wearing sunglasses and wide-brim hats all year around to protect your eyes and skin from the sun; and experiencing the new old age.

See the Best of Boomer Blogs #518 for links to these articles. And be sure to join in the conversations. Boomer bloggers love to hear from readers.

Copyright 2017, Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist

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How does the hot summer weather affect you?

As the hot summer days of July overwhelm, many of us respond by slowing down, says Meryl Baer, who lives on the East Coast in a beach community. “We lounge by the pool or the beach, savor cold drinks, and pass the hours enjoying a summer read.”

However, since I live in the Seattle area, I’m used to looking at clouds and wondering when the next sunny day will occur. We get a few days of 90 degrees and rarely 100 degrees throughout an entire summer.

However, I just visited my daughter in Sacramento. It was more than 100 degrees for most of the five-day my vacation.

Being assertive can help you be happier

After growing up on farms in Central Washington state in a family dominated by a stern father, I was shy.

Fortunately, as an adult I learned how to be assertive. It’s helped me to be happier.

As a young mom, I learned in a class on Parent Effectiveness Training how to communicate more positively. Rather than ranting at people in arguments, we were shown how to send “I” messages. When someone is upset and wants to argue, rather than getting into a cycle of yelling, you can say something like, “I get upset when people yell at me,” then try to talk about the problem without arguing.

Power adapters for Nook Tablet 7 being recalled due to shock hazard

Barnes & Noble is recalling about 147,000 power adapters sold with the Nook Tablet 7.

The power adapter casing can break when plugged into an electrical outlet, exposing its metal prongs, posing an electric shock hazard.

Barnes & Noble has received four reports of the power adapter breaking or pulling apart exposing the metal prongs. No injuries have been reported.