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Posted by Mary Jo on March 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Posted by Mary Jo on February 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Just because February is coming to a close, doesn’t mean that it’s time to forget about our hearts. The facts are sobering and demand our attention. Heart disease is the number one killer among women. One in four women die of heart disease, with women in the 40-60 age range at the highest risk.
That made me stop and read it again.
Some risk factors are hereditary and beyond our control, but other risk factors can be lessened by modifying our diets. One simple way to change your diet is by adding foods that are high in anti-oxidants, resulting in two benefits – helping to maintain a healthy weight and reducing risk factors of heart disease.
There are some many fruits that are high in anti-oxidants that it makes an easy addition to your diet. Whether you prefer them raw, or want to add them to a favorite dish, they make a perfect snack food or addition to a full meal. And they taste good, too!
Here are some heart healthy fruits that you can add into your diet.
- Berries: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries
- Plums and prunes
- Cranberries
- Apples: Red delicious, Granny Smith, Gala
- Cherries
- Red grapes (one glass of red wine is okay as well)
- Pomegranates (great eaten plain or on salads, and the juice can be used for a basting sauce on skinless chicken)
- Citrus fruit: oranges, pineapples, grapefruit
- Kiwi fruit
- Tomatoes (officially a fruit, not a vegetable)
I picked up some strawberries and raspberries at the store yesterday, and have eaten some plain. I’m going to use the rest to make a smoothie, and keep some raspberries to mash up to add to a salad dressing for dinner. How easy is that to eat well and healthy!
How do you add heart healthy fruits into your diet?
Photo credit: SXC
Posted by Mary Jo on August 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I was driving on my way to an appointment, when an interview with Ronald Kessler came on the radio. Kessler, a prolific author and former columnist for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, has a new book out, In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect . Although a bit too much of the interview was whinging about the Secret Service needing more money (I’m neither agreeing nor disagreeing with that premise), some of the gossipy presidential tidbits grabbed my attention.
I fired up my trusty Kindle, downloaded it, and settled in for a read.
The book was based on interviews that Kessler conducted with over 100 current and former Secret Service agents, including at the management level. In most cases, he names names and provides sources. The absences of sources is missing in some of the more over-the-top anecdotes, making them a little more difficult to attach credence to.
The book traces the birth and evolution of the Secret Service, and how its missions has been honed, and changed, over the years. It’s very clear that Kessler resents the shifting of the Service away from the Treasury Department and over to Homeland Security. Equally clear is his dissatisfaction with the budget allocation that came with that shift. He cites countless examples of weakness and gaps in the protection protocol, and continues the whinging for more money.
What struck me as the difficult question in all of this, is that protectees are looking for less (or perhaps less obtrusive) protection, allowing them to be closer to the people who elect them, at the same time that the Service insists on higher levels of protection and risks at an all time. Until those disparate interests find some middle ground, I don’t see the budget and structural issues of the department getting resolved.
I enjoyed the book, which was a very quick read, for it’s tabloid-like anecdotes about the foibles, misadventures, and lives of Presidents, Vice Presidents, public officials, and their families. It felt a bit voyeuristic at times, but that didn’t stop me from plowing ahead.
I liked the tidbits about how the Service felt about the people who they protected, which in large part seems to be based on how willing the protectee was in complying with their requests. A brief overview below:
- Kennedy – No surprises here as they talk about his infidelities.
- Johnson – A picture of LBJ as a sexual conqueror, and Lady Bird’s turning away and choosing not to see or acknowledge
- Nixon – Despised him, felt pathetic toward Pat and her alcohol issues
- Ford – Not the bumbler that was portrayed in the press, he was actually quite athletically gifted – but very cheap.
- Carter – Hypocrite about using alcohol and carrying his own bags, and examples of brattiness on the part of first daughter Amy.
- Reagan – Loved him, thought him jovial and engaging, but Nancy called the shots.
- Bush I – Both he and Barbara were thought to be charming and caring people.
- Clinton – Loved him as well, and though his caring about people and their situation was honest and real. Always late. Not fond of Hillary at all.
- Bush II – Loved him, and absolutely adored Laura. Many examples of kindness and thoughtfulness expressed toward the service. Always prompt. Also plenty of stories about the first twins.
- Obama – A little too early for complete feedback, but the initial word is that what you see is what you get, except that he hasn’t quit smoking. They appear to love Michelle, citing examples of her kindness toward them. And as for the girls, well, they have to do their homework.
There’s lots of other dirt on public officials, from cabinet members to aides, who’ve made less than stellar choices in their personal life. While it’s mean spirited to say, we love reading this stuff! It’s a little like reading the supermarket tabloids, only in book form.
Interested in buying the book?
Posted by Mary Jo on July 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Posted by Mary Jo on May 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Posted by Mary Jo on May 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I read the book The Reader LONG before a movie was in the making.
CAUTION: Spoiler Alert. If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, you may not want to know the details I’m going to talk about. Just click away!
I remember being shocked when I found out, at the same time Michael did, that Hanna was illiterate. She had done unspeakable things in the Nazi camps, but the shame of her illiteracy was far greater than the shame for her participation in the killing of Jews.
Shame is a theme that permeates the entire movie, and it shapes the choices the characters make.
Hanna has shame that she cannot read, and goes to great length to conceal it. She winds up works for the SS because she quits a job rather than take a promotion and be ashamed when illiteracy is discovered. She “admits” to planning a strategy to exterminate Jews in the concentration camps,rather than providing a writing sample and being subjected to the shame of illiteracy. And finally, it is true shame, for her behavior in the camps, that leads her to suicide.
Michael also has his share of shame, beginning with his affair with Hanna at the age of 15. He then experiences shame that he knows a Nazi war criminal, shame at the things she did in the camp, and finally shame that she seems to feel little remorse for her actions. His shame (that he did not intervene and provide information that would have helped her at trial) is assuaged by his reading and send her tapes of books. He feels less like he has abandoned her this way. After Hanna’s suicide, his shame is greater as he realizes how much more he could have done for her.
Any therapist worth their salt would tell clients that shame is a negative and unhealthy emotion to operate with. It is insidious in its destruction, and little good can ever come of it. If you had any doubt of that principle, this movie drives it home.
I think most people have had bouts with shame, to some degree or another. Far better to come to terms with our actions and process them, than to live with a shame death sentence hanging over us.
Let’s all leave shame behind us.
Photo credit: Amazon
Posted by Mary Jo on April 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I’m still catching up on movies from this past Academy Award season, and most recently I watches Doubt, starring Meryl Streep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.
The story is set in 1964, at a Catholic school that has accepted it first African-American student. This young boy serves as an altar boy to the friendly, and religiously progressive, Father Flynn.
After noticing that Father Flynn appears to be paying a great deal of attention to the boy, young Sister James mentions it to the tough-as-nails school principal, Sister Aloysius. If you were raised Catholic during this time frame, you probably knew a version of Sister Aloysius.
Seeing the circumstances as an opportunity to push Father Flynn out of the parish and school, sister Aloysius sets out to destroy the priest. Is her zeal justified as she fights fiercely to protect a student, or is she blinded to the truth by her refusal to change as the world changes around her?
Ultimately the viewer is left to wrestle with that question, and to decide which interpretation is beyond doubt.
What do you think? Who do you believe, and why? Do you have any doubts?
Photo credit: Amazon
Posted by Mary Jo on April 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I just finished watching Slumdog Millionaire. This was one of those movies that was both compelling and painful to watch.
With all the awards that the movie received, I knew a little bit about what to expect. Still, seeing the slums of Mumbai, even in a movie, is pretty depressing. I haven’t yet decided if the movie filled me with despair or with hope, and it’s probably going to take awhile to sort that out in my mind.
I can see why it won Best Picture!
Posted by Mary Jo on March 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I’m currently reading Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, the story of Greg Mortenson’s unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world’s second tallest mountain.
Mortenson’s story reinforces my belief that out of every failure can come a success, and is part travel book and part inspirational story.
As he was finishing his unsuccessful attempt at K2, Mortenson fell quite ill, and was sheltered and cared for in Korphe, a small and rather primitive village in Pakistan. After he recovered, he promised to return and build a school for the village. The story of the struggles to make the school a reality is a fascinating story of life, politics, culture, and the personal stories of the people in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The title of the book is based on a Baltistan proverb:
The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family.
The school project has evolved into a foundation called the Central Asia Institute, responsible for 50 additional schools in the area. I’m only about half way through the book, and the first school hasn’t yet been built, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the story goes from here to there.
It’s a great read, and you can find it on Amazon in hardback, paperback, and in a Kindle edition.
Image credit: Amazon
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Posted by Mary Jo on February 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
There’s much debate over the birth of rock and roll. Did it start with Elvis? Or did it go further back, to the rhythm and blues of what was then called “colored” music?
Memphis, now playing at the 5th Avenue Theatre, explores that question, as it depicts the life of Huey Calhoun, a character inspired by the late Memphis disk jockey Dewey Phillips.
Huey, our annoying but lovable protagonist, stumbles into a bar where he falls in love with both the music and a beautiful African American singer named Felicia. Through sheer determination and a whole lot of nerve, Huey creates an on-air persona that starts playing some crazy new music that has the adults terribly unhappy and the teens wildly enamored. He coins the phrase Hockadoo – which leaves lots of people bewildered and thinking that it “must be dirty.” HIs career is on the rise.
Huey’s celebrity helps gets Felicia some on-air exposure, she gets discovered, and her career soars. Of course, in a town that cannot accept black and white together, there are bound to more than a few bumps (literally and figuratively) along the way. Huey refuses leave Memphis, and Felicia must. As her careers rises, his mercurial behavior puts his on a downward course. Whether or not it’s a happy ending is probably a matter of personal perspective.
The music (written by David Bryan, keyboardist for Bon Jovi) is driving and steamy. Joe DiPietro wrote the book and was co-lyricist.
The interweaving of music and storyline is both obvious and surprising, and I was moved in unexpected ways. There were times that the cheering and hooting and hollering in the audience was deafening. And there were also times that the music was so poignant and emotional that you could have heard a pin drop. The roller coaster of emotions reflected the turbulence of the times.
I grew up with rock and roll in a post-Brown vs.. Board of Education world. Still, the divide in society that was reflected in the divide of the music was painfully apparent. It’s a time for a re-examination of our roots, where we’ve come from and where we’re going. It’s a time for an examination of our thoughts about race that we’ve never had before. It’s the perfect time to think about race in the context of rock and roll.
Memphis is headed to the Big Apple later this year. I think this will be a BIG HIT on Broadway!
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The book was based on interviews that Kessler conducted with over 100 current and former Secret Service agents, including at the management level. In most cases, he names names and provides sources. The absences of sources is missing in some of the more over-the-top anecdotes, making them a little more difficult to attach credence to.