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EndNotes archive for July 2011

FRIDAY, JULY 29, 2011

The gravesite of Louis Davenport at Riverside Memorial Park. (Courtesy of Tom McArthur)

Remembering Louis Davenport

Yesterday I had the privilege of walking with some Friends of the Davenport to remember on his death day, Louis Davenport, who left behind the Davenport Hotel. It was a glorious day for the short stroll in Riverside Memorial Park. And it was refreshing to…

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THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2011

Would you watch? 

According to the MMD newswire, billionaire Alki David has paid for the rights to stream over the Internet "the legally assisted suicide of Nikolai Ivanisovich (62), who is terminally sick with brain cancer from a clinic in Switzerland with the use of lethal injection administered…

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 2011

In this Feb. 26, 2010 file photo, Jeret Peterson, of the United States, holds his silver medal during the medals ceremony for the men's freestyle skiing aerials at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia. Utah police say Peterson has killed himself in an isolated canyon. The Unified Police of Greater Salt Lake said Peterson called 911 before shooting and killing himself on Monday evening, July 25, 2011. (AP Photo / Gerry Broome)

Jeret "Speedy" Peterson dies

When we look at people who are famous, people who have reached success beyond our own imaginations, we think we have an accurate glimpse into their lives. We do not. Today we learn the sad news of Jeret “Speedy” Peterson’s death – from an apparent…

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TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2011

"Her end was very grim" 

Though Mary Gordon wrote the book Circling My Mother in 2007, I only now just read it. Her mother had a fascinating life -- she was a career woman long before most women, a polio survivor, a mother who treated her daughter like an adult…

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MONDAY, JULY 25, 2011

Geiranger Fjord, Norway
Photo: Faisal

"There's always Norway..." 

…I would say when violence erupted in Seattle, in Lakewood, at the Uffizi in my beloved Florence. At the 1994 Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway, a wallet was inadvertently left on a bench. The finder turned in the wallet which made its way back to…

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Man wakes up in morgue

The Associated Press reported that a South African man spent 21 hours in a morgue, in the mistaken belief he had died. The man started yelling, prompting morgue workers to run away in fear. They eventually returned and removed him from the fridge. He was…

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SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011

Memory candles at a wedding 

My mom and I went to a wedding yesterday for a couple who married later in the age game. Their parents have all passed away, but they were not forgotten at the wedding Mass. The siblings of the bride and the groom lighted candles in…

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SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011

Last call  

Singer Amy Winehouse has died. I do not recall her music, if I ever heard it, it has left my memory. The only voice I do remember is that of media reports of her on-going demise: alcohol, drugs, strung out, passed out, a self-destructing-train-wreck of…

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FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2011

Godspeed to a good and humble man

Elwood Powers, 92, died recently and was put to rest today. Steve Witter, who worked with Elwood's wife, Dorothy, long ago at The Spokesman-Review, delivered a beautiful eulogy. What was so moving about Elwood's life was this detail from Witter: "Though he was a man…

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THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011

The vigil keepers

When my husband was in surgery Tuesday, my sister and mom showed up in the surgery center waiting room, even though I'd insisted earlier in the day that I would be fine waiting alone. The surgery was not a major one, though Tony was put…

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 2011

The $450 billion cost of caregiving

My husband had some minor knee surgery yesterday and I'm home today as caregiver, because he can't really do much except stay in bed and keep ice on his knee. When we got out of the surgery center yesterday at 5ish, we were both tired.…

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**FILE** In this file photo from Feb. 26, 2008, a young couple enjoys the view of Mount Hood looming over downtown on a spring-like day in Portland, Ore. (Don Ryan / Associated Press)

Oh! the places we'll go!

Austin, Texas was recently named by Kiplinger as the number one "Best City for the Next Decade." As Baby Boomers hit retirement, many of us seek a new place to call home, a place where money will go far. Today's retirees often take classes, pursue…

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TUESDAY, JULY 19, 2011

Closing the Borders

Remember learning to read: the feel of books and struggling to carry them around as a child? Remember lugging them in the hallways of school or down the road to home? How we read has changed recently as much as what we read as adults.…

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MONDAY, JULY 18, 2011

Spacey Senior

Happy 90th birthday, John Glenn! What a journey – then and now. I am old enough to remember Glenn's first flight into space. It was sci-fi-like. Would you, if you were offered the chance, travel into - or out of - the atmosphere?

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Teenagers and children participate in an aerobics class at the Windber Medical Center in Windber, Pa. A study released today emphasized that people must continually watch their weight to avoid becoming obese.
 (File/Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Cancer or memory loss: Your biggest fear? 

The Associated Press is tracking aging boomer attitudes toward getting older and today reported that its recent poll indicates boomers worry most about cancer and memory loss. But they should be worried, too, about heart disease and diabetes because, according to the report, boomers are…

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SUNDAY, JULY 17, 2011

Aging with the stars

When I give journalism talks to students, I explain one of the reasons why we try to always publish the ages of people in our stories. Readers like to compare themselves to other people. So if some 30-something doctor is also a best-selling author, you…

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Ben Cabildo shares a laugh with a member of a diversity meeting Thursday at AHANA. Cabildo is the executive director of AHANA Business and Professional Association. 
 (Christopher Anderson/ / The Spokesman-Review)

See you in the obits!

On Sundays in The Spokesman-Review, our classified obituary section runs in the Northwest news section and it generally takes up two pages and more, as most families wait to place their obituaries in our Sunday newspaper, due to its high circulation. Once a month in…

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SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2011

Letting go means...letting go! 

Today, I am …well, Rebecca calls it "shedding" while a physician friend calls it "giving the house a 'crapectomy.' " I will just call it "unloading stuff into the universe." But I always get stuck on the part "where shall I send these things?" And…

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THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2011

Sweet Departures

Earlier this week our EndNotes column ran a Q/A on Japanese traditions surrounding death and grief. A lovely film explores this topic in the Japanese-produced film “Departures,” a film that won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "An exquisite cinematic masterpiece that…

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FILE--A Joe Camel advertisement sits on the counter of a concession stand in N.H., July 10, 1997. Joe Camel was a super cigarette pitchman for 10 years, a cocky figure popular with the cartoon ladies, not to mention real customers. Now he's back, but as a beast of burden. He carries all the baggage of an industry under attack for marketing to youth.(AP Photo/Andrew Sullivan)

Movies are killing our kids

How's that for a dramatic headline? It's a little bit of an exaggeration but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released today a National Cancer Institute study that says there's a link between "exposure to depictions of smoking in movies and youth smoking initiation."…

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 13, 2011

A mosquito from the storm drain near Brenda DeCuypere's home makes a meal of a visitor invading its domain on Aug. 6, 1997, in Newport News, Va. Decuypere says the mosquitos have been especially bad this year around her home. Areas like a ditch or storm drain offer mosquitoes a refuge in which to live and reproduce.  (AP Photo/Daily Press, Adrin Snider) (AP)

Stinky sock smell versus death

Malaria is a huge killer globally. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been aggressive about ways to stop mosquitos from biting people and infecting them. Bed nets has been one great solution. And now, scientists will try to make better traps, using stinky feet…

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No need for this to ever happen

A 23-year-old woman delivered a baby in an Olympia hospital, put it in a plastic bag and placed it in the trash and then walked back into the emergency room, where she was being treated after coming to the hospital by ambulance for an unrelated…

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Cher ((AP Photo/Chris Pizzello))

How old is old?

How old is old?? Rebecca and I initiated our EndNotes column primarily for our generation, the Baby Boomers, to address issues around aging, illness, death/dying and etiquette needed in these situations. A new poll finds three-quarters of all baby boomers still consider themselves middle-aged or…

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Toledo bishop and his pelvic theology  

In my theology classes, I learned the term "pelvic theology." It's used when (allegedly) celibate priests, bishops, cardinals and popes in the Roman Catholic church try to control women's bodies, especially in the reproductive area. Today, this news item from CathNewsUSA website: Toledo Catholic Bishop…

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TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011

Pope Pius XII (AP Archives)

Another pope miracle?

Did Pope Pius XII, sometimes seen as the pope who did very little to save the Jews during World War II, come out of afterlife "retirement" to save one woman from a cancer death sentence? Maria Esposito, whose Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma disappeared, thinks so.…

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Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.



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