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After brief stints in Skagway and Whitehorse, one Kansas girl swirled her way into gold rush history when she stepped on stage at the Palace Grand in Dawson City in 1900. Kathleen Eloisa Rockwell, better known as "Klondike Kate," delighted audiences of miners with her song-and-dance routines. She wore an elaborate dress covered in red sequins and an enormous cape in one dance that made her famous. Kate would take the cape off and start leaping and twirling with a cane that had yards of red...
Before "Grease," the hit 1978 movie, there was "Grease" the musical theater production first performed in Chicago in 1971 before moving to Broadway a year later for over 3,000 performances. Adrienne Barbeau, who played Rizzo during the first five months of the show's run, helped commemorate the 50th anniversary of the production as a co-editor of the 2022 book, "Grease, Tell Me More, Tell Me More – Stories from the Broadway Phenomenon That Started It All." It features personal anecdotes from t...
When I was in college – still a young and callow fellow – the TV show “Dallas” premiered, and I became a fan. A few seasons in, there was a scene that affected my career. If you don’t remember the show, it featured a couple of brothers who were in the oil business in Texas. Bobby Ewing was the sincere, likeable younger brother. J. R. Ewing was the evil, manipulative older brother. The other characters included their regular nemesis, Cliff Barnes, a crusading lawyer who just happened to be Bob...
Dear Savvy Senior: What are the IRS income tax filing requirements for retirees this tax season? My income dropped way down when I retired in 2022, so I’m wondering if I need to even file a tax return this year. – Recently Retired Dear Recently: Whether or not you are required to file a federal income tax return this year will depend on how much you earned last year, as well as the source of the income, your age and filing status. Here’s a rundown of this tax season’s IRS tax filing requirement thresholds. For most people, this is pretty...
Q. Is the Apple Pencil useful? A. For me, it fits into the “nice-to-have” category. I have avoided writing about Apple Pencil before now because it was something of a curiosity. It only worked with pricey iPad models, and it seemed like a product whose customers already knew why they wanted one. Today all four iPad model lines support Apple Pencil, including the least expensive model. Moreover, a recent system update added a new app called Freeform on every Apple device. Taken together, these changes make the Apple Pencil worth a deeper loo...
One of the biggest obstacles in achieving health equity for diverse populations is the lack of diversity in clinical research. Although gender equity advancements have been made through the inclusion of white women, clinical research lacks diversity, with minimal representation from racial and ethnic minority groups. In the last three decades, older adults, pregnant and lactating individuals, LGBTQIA+ populations, and people with disabilities have also remained underrepresented-and even...
Q: In the new year I am looking for volunteer opportunities. Any ideas? A: Mentoring can be an incredibly rewarding experience, both for the mentor and the mentee. If being mentored, it is one of the most important investments a person can make in themselves. Whether needing a mentor to develop professionally, grow business, increase personal agency, or to become a better leader – mentorship is an invaluable asset. Not only does it provide perspective on the journey as a mentee, but also gives t...
If you're new to pickleball, or just need a refresher course on how to behave (you know who you are), here are well-accepted rules for behavior before, during and after play. These basic rules were taken from www.woodbridgepickleballclub.org, and I've embellished them. 1. Begin each game by acknowledging the other players and introducing yourself if you don't know them. This is what helps makes pickleball the great "social" game that it is. By making an effort to introduce yourself you're...
During my recent bout with COVID-19, books helped keep my sanity. I enjoyed reading during the long weeks of recovery, when I had little energy to do much else. I have loved books for as long as I can remember. My parents read to me from a very early age. They gave me an oversized, full-color picture dictionary for my seventh Christmas in 1962. Oh, how I treasured that book and spent hours poring over the details. As a young girl growing up in Glennallen, I remember looking at books in the...
Many images come to mind when one thinks of gold rush days in Alaska: bearded prospectors swishing pans filled with water as they search for specks of gold; saloons beckoning the hardworking boys to forget all their troubles with a slug of whisky and a game of chance; and ladies known as "Lil" leaning against pianos, offering to help miners lighten their leather pokes. An image that doesn't usually come to mind is that of four nuns mingling with the masses on the virtually lawless streets of...
With a new 400+ page autobiography recently published, Bill Mumy's "Danger Will Robinson: The Full Mumy – A Memoir," is crammed with fascinating facts and stories recalling his long acting and musical career (see www.NCPBooks.com). "'Lost in Space' is definitely covered and certainly Will Robinson is the character most people identify with me," said Mumy from Los Angeles. But despite the book's title, the author examines much more than just the galaxy-wandering Robinson family. Riveted to his o...
Many years ago, a physicist named Werner Heisenberg formulated a rule called the “Heisenberg uncertainty principle.” No, it has nothing to do with cooking meth. It is a useful principle in physics, and it has to do with not being able to accurately measure the position of an object, and its direction, at the same time. But for my purposes today, we don’t need to get too far into the science. For scientists, a recognition of uncertainty – the limitations of measurement, the effect that measuri...
Q. I have promised myself that 2023 is the year I finally organize my passwords. What do I need to know? A. The list of things we have to remember grows longer each year. As phones have become the center of our digital lives, almost everyone has more than a handful of hard to remember passwords. Until now, my advice was to consider a commercial password manager app like 1Password or LastPass. However, as prices for these apps continue to rise, and as built-in smartphone features have improved, there are better choices available. Many of these f...
Q: It’s the time of year when many people take trips to see their loved ones. What could I do over the holidays if I can’t travel to visit family because of my health? A: Health prevents travel for many people. If unable to visit loved ones because of an illness, injury or other health-related issue, it may be difficult to be away from family. There are a few things you can do, though, to make the situation a little easier. Here are some ways to stay connected even when you can’t travel. 1. St...
Even though January first is just another day, many of us will invest some energy in reviewing our successes in the year flown by, and strategize for further personal gains in the precious time that remains ahead. This is an excellent exercise in self care, because really taking care of oneself requires strategy and commitment. There is no more valuable way to spend time, since taking care of yourself forms the basis of your authentic capacity to care for others, and all living beings including the air, water and soil. New Year’s resolutions ar...
This time of year, many of us like to sit back with a warm cup of tea and watch the birds that come to our feeders. Chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers and occasionally redpolls and pine grosbeaks partake of the free food. But what about the other birds that stay in Alaska through our long, often cold winters? The ones that don't visit bird feeders, like golden-crowned kinglets, American dippers or northern goshawks? The diminutive golden-crowned kinglet stays in Alaska and can survive temperatu...
Some adventurous souls who came to Alaska didn't search the creek beds and mountains for golden riches. Instead they chose to make their fortunes through trapping furs. From early in the fall to the close of trapping season in April, many trappers traveled miles and miles of trap lines with no company but that of their dogs. It was no job for a "Chechako." Trappers like Ed Ueeck covered around 80 miles a week, checking to see if any animals had been caught in hidden traps. "About 14 miles a day...
Perhaps you remember her as TV mom Marsha Owens in ABC's popular 80s sitcom "Mr. Belvedere," starring alongside baseballer-turned-actor Bob Uecker and British actor Christopher Hewett in the title role. But Ilene Graff is also an established singer whose career began in musical theater. In recent years her live festive Christmas special, "The Ilene Graff Holiday Show," has delighted audiences at 54 Below, a supper club in the basement of New York's famed Studio 54 theater. "We couldn't do it...
This issue of the Senior Voice will be coming out at the beginning of the holiday season. For many of us, that means enjoying time with grandchildren. I don’t know who first said that “grandchildren are God’s reward for not killing your teenagers,” but I can certainly relate to that. And with apologies to those readers who don’t have grandkids, they certainly bring life and meaning at this time of year. One of the nice things about grandchildren is that we don’t have to take care of them all of...
Q. The built-in weather app on my smartphone is pretty basic. When I search for a more advanced app, I’m presented with an overwhelming number of choices. Is there one you would recommend? A. To paraphrase an old adage: Someone with one weather app knows the temperature, but someone with two weather apps is never sure. My mind reels when I think about the thousands of weather apps for sale in app stores. There is a standout app that I enjoy for its creativity and its expansive feature set: Carrot Weather, from www.meetcarrot.com. There is a fre...
A Social Security cost–of–living–adjustment (COLA) of 8.7% is rare — enjoy it now. This may be the first and possibly the last time that beneficiaries today receive a COLA this high. There were only three other times since the start of automatic inflation adjustments that COLAs were higher (1979-1981). You can find a history of the COLA at https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/colaseries.html. Without a COLA that adequately keeps pace with inflation, Social Security benefits purchase less over time, and that can create hardships especially as older A...
One of the most poignant exercises I have experienced was during hospice training in which participants envision, and write down, four favorite people, four favorite places, four favorite activities and four favorite objects. In the exercise, we strike off these precious parts of our life one at a time, saving the most well-loved until last. The objective is to understand the process of loss, which is an inevitable part of life, and certainly of aging. Most of you reading this will acknowledge that, in the grand scheme of things, we are the...
Q: I own too much stuff, and it is daunting when deciding what to do with everything. None of my children nor grandchildren want my memorabilia, collections, furniture, or vintage kitchenware. Any suggestions? A: For many of us, our homes are full of things we do not need or use anymore. As we get older, it’s not uncommon for our living spaces to start feeling a bit cluttered. From clothes to trinkets to outdated electronics, it can be tough to let go of things we once held dear. We hang onto t...
Have you ever found yourself, a friend, or a family member in a situation that makes it difficult to pay the rent on time? Or maybe struggling with paying a utility bill? Life happens. And sometimes not in a good way. Dealing with the unexpected such as a decrease in work hours or loss of income, an urgent medical need, an increase in expenses, providing financial help to a loved one, emergency travel – are all part of life, and can also threaten a family’s housing stability when the unexpected makes it difficult to pay the bills. If you are...
Upon feeling a familiar "swirling" motion that Sunday afternoon of Nov. 3, 2002, I left the kitchen and walked to the living room of our Slana home. I'm always a little jumpy during earthquakes, remembering the 1964 quake at age nine. Gary, my husband, agreed he felt it, but continued to sit in his recliner in another room. A few seconds later after a hard jolt, he joined me in the center of the house where there were no windows and many doorframes. We held on to each other as the jerking and...
