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EndNotes archive for Oct. 2013

THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 2013

A badly damaged home leans to one side along the beach in the Belle Harbor section of the borough of Queens, N.Y., on Monday in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. (Associated Press)

Sandy survivors – one year later

We remember the images of rain, wind, storm surge and massive destruction brought by Superstorm Sandy along the East Coast one year ago. The re-building continues with drywall and insulation as well as courage. Lots and lots of courage. Perhaps most poignant were images of…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30, 2013

Rosemary lamb tagine with chickpeas and tomatoes is cooked on the stove using a tagine. The conical lid allows steam to gather and drip down into the food. (Associated Press)

Poverty and its lasting imprint

A person raised in extreme poverty may suffer long-lasting consequences – showing up on one’s brain. Chronic stress caused by poverty actually shows up on the brain and may be the cause of physical and mental ailments later in life. Social workers include childhood poverty…

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MONDAY, OCT. 28, 2013

She's back ~ Bridget Jones

She is back! That lovable, fallible character created by Helen Fielding: Bridget Jones. She is “of a certain age” now. A boomer? Bridget lives in a world of email, tweets and twitter, a life well-lived. Perhaps. Is Daniel still hanging around? Her hunky man, Mark…

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SUNDAY, OCT. 27, 2013

Cruggleton Lodge, a vacation rental in Garlieston in southwest Scotland, commands a sweeping ocean view.

For Becky 

Today, Rebecca Nappi writes words of good-bye as she leaves the Spokesman-Review. I will miss my friend on these pages. We met in college 40 years ago - 40 years! As college freshmen, we were clueless about almost everything as we innocently explored the world,…

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Saying goodbye to journalism

So this, my farewell story, ran in today's Spokesman-Review. After 28 years here, I'm trading journalism for an encore career in health care. And this blog officially now belongs to my co-writer Catherine Johnston. Thanks for reading EndNotes. Please continue reading. And thanks for reading…

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Yard ghosts are easy to make in time for Halloween. King Features (King Features / The Spokesman-Review)

I think I hear someone…

Have you ever wondered what has happened inside your home before you lived in it? Ever wonder if someone died in your home? Now there is a website (of course) where you can seek that information. www.DiedInHouse.com reportedly will give you that information. One search…

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SATURDAY, OCT. 26, 2013

Spokane sunset as seen from Cliff Drive overlook. (Cheryl-Anne Millsap / Photo by Cheryl-Anne Millsap)

Mistaken identity

Earlier this week a Western Washington family opened the casket of their loved one to say a last good-bye and found – another man’s body (story). Somehow the bodies were mixed up and the body of the man people thought was in the casket had…

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FRIDAY, OCT. 25, 2013

OxyContin pills are arranged for a photo at a pharmacy in Montpelier, Vt. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Drug overdose deaths rose for the 11th straight year, federal data show, and most of them were accidents involving addictive painkillers despite growing attention to risks from these medicines. As in previous recent years, opioid drugs � which include OxyContin and Vicodin � were the biggest problem, contributing to 3 out of 4 medication overdose deaths. (Toby Talbot / Associated Press)

Got drugs?

Many of us have prescription medications we needed after surgery or for a specific illness – and many of us have those leftover or outdated medications still in the cabinet. Keeping them can be dangerous: we can inadvertently grab those unneeded meds when groping in…

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THURSDAY, OCT. 24, 2013

Students stand in a school courtyard as they wait for the first day of classes to begin, in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 19, 2013. Mexican children returned to classrooms Monday, and they were getting a quick lesson: Not just school kids make mistakes. Their brand new textbooks have the kinds of errors that they are supposed to be learning not to make: words written with a "c'' instead of an "s," too many commas, not enough accents and at least one city located in the wrong state. (Ivan Aguirre / Associated Press)

Oldest child = smarter?

Another study just released suggests the oldest child in a family may be smarter and more successful in life than the younger siblings. Hmmm. We all know people for whom this theory seems correct. And we all know families where it does not fit -…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 23, 2013

U.S. Army Medal of Honor

What?!

A recent study by The Opportunity Nation coalition claims that 15 percent of Americans from 16-24 years old are not in school or working. Concluding that the rest of the young adults are up to no good or floundering. Rob Denson, president of Des Moines…

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MONDAY, OCT. 21, 2013

A mother and baby sketch is by artist Valerie Woelk.

Tick tock

Scientists at UCLA have discovered a new “biological clock” that measures the age of human tissue. If future testing proves the research valid, the work has strong implications for anti-aging-research. Note: the goal is not to seek a fountain of youth, but to assist with…

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President Obama: Waiting for Congress to act. (Associated Press)

A prayerful, private president

One’s spirituality is unique and private. From the public’s vantage, President Obama maintains an extremely private and protected expression of his faith life. However, according to Obama’s advisors, our president begins his morning by reading a devotional written just for him. The texts include scripture…

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SUNDAY, OCT. 20, 2013

After a week�s worth of rain, the sun peeked through the clouds for a few minutes late Friday, Sept. 13, 2013 ... just long enough to give Alamogordo, N.M., residents a stunning view of low-hanging clouds drapping the Sacramento Mountains and topped with a rainbow. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa, N.M.,said Friday that Alamogordo received between 2.5 to 3 inches of rain since Monday -- an unusually high rainfall total given the desert climate of the area. (Michael Johnson / Alamogordo Daily News)

Not cool

“It’s not really cool to not have anybody,” said 15-year-old Davion Only, the teen who went before a Florida church congregation asking for a family. No child – anywhere, at any time, for any reason - should have to ask for a family, to ask…

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SATURDAY, OCT. 19, 2013

Ed Lauter attends the premiere of “Trouble With The Curve” in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Ed Lauter, class act

Character actor Ed Lauter, 74, died earlier this week. His name may leave one thinking, “Who?” But his face is familiar. My nephew, Dan, however, is a huge fan of Lauter’s work and knows his face, his name and his work. Last year Dan was…

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FRIDAY, OCT. 18, 2013

President Barack Obama awards the Medal of Honor to former Army Capt. William D. Swenson, of Seattle, at the White House on Tuesday. (Associated Press)

Courage and tenderness

Army Capt. William Swenson received the Medal of Honor this week from President Obama for heroic actions performed in Afghanistan in 2009. Swenson, who now lives in Seattle, risked his life to save other troops, as well as Afghan allies, and he stayed in the…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16, 2013

Sunrise, Boise, Idaho, 10/28/11 (Betsy Russell)

Pink October

The pink ribbons are everywhere: on yogurt containers as well as pro football players' armbands. The message: breast cancer awareness month is here. Pay attention. My story: a routine mammogram (get one, please!) detected my stage zero (wildly aggressive cells, no tumor), breast cancer nine…

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TUESDAY, OCT. 15, 2013

In this undated image released by Fox, cast members, from left, Amber Riley, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele perform during a scene from "Glee."  Fox says Cory Monteith�s addiction-related death will be addressed in the �Glee� episode bidding farewell to his character, Finn Hudson. Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly declined Thursday to specify how the character of Finn would exit, saying he couldn�t confirm Finn would be felled by drugs. The 31-year-old Monteith was found dead in a hotel room in Canada last month. Tests showed his death was caused by a mixture of heroin and alcohol. (Adam Rose / Fox)

The true tears of Glee

Finally got around to watching the Glee episode in which they addressed the death of Finn Hudson, played by Cory Monteith, a talented young actor who sadly overdosed in July. The episode was excellent. And you could tell the tears were quite real. My weird…

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MONDAY, OCT. 14, 2013

Pedestrians walk past a statue of former Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams outside Fenway Park in Boston. (Associated Press)

Now THAT’S baseball!

With all the Washington D.C. rhetoric making the news, it is difficult to focus on any other drama. Thank you, Boston. Game two of the American League Championship Series between Boston and Detroit offered baseball fans a wonderful diversion from politics. The tension from Detroit’s…

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FRIDAY, OCT. 11, 2013

Malala Yousafzai, waves to onlookers after speaking at a news conference on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Mass. on Friday, Sept. 27, 2013. The Pakistani teenager, an advocate for education for girls, survived a Taliban assassination attempt in 2012 on her way home from school. (Jessica Rinaldi / Fr170223 Ap)

Malala Yousafzai …and millions more 

The United Nations General Assembly declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child. The theme for the 2013 day is: educate girls and you change the world. Seems simple, but in many cultures girls are denied this basic human right. Learn more…

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THURSDAY, OCT. 10, 2013

October: a time for settling scores

While Washington prattles on and on about what they cannot do, some of us are taking comfort in the season: October baseball. Settling in to see who dodges the pitch at the plate offers more peace than watching who dodges responsibility in D.C. And it…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9, 2013

The empty chairs

My mother's 92-year-old friend, Magaret, showed me her lovely, covered patio the other day. There are four chairs among flower pots and other garden decorations. She said she used to sit in the chairs with her husband, sister-in-law and brother-in-law and they'd talk and laugh…

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TUESDAY, OCT. 8, 2013

Paul Merkel for Endnotes (Courtesy Walline / The Spokesman-Review)

Writing your parents' lives

In Monday's Boomer U, we ran an excerpt of the book Rain Delayed by Linda Merkel Walline. Her father Paul Merkel led a Whitworth College baseball team to a national championship in 1960, against great odds and on a shoestring budget. Walline researched and wrote…

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MONDAY, OCT. 7, 2013

FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 2013

Pope Francis listens to questions during a news conference aboard the papal flight on its way back from Brazil, Monday, July 29, 2013. Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Francis asked. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten. Francis' remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil. (Luca Zennaro / Ansa)

Saint Francis ~ Pope Francis I 

“Francis, repair my Church which, as you can see, is falling into ruins.” Words heard by St. Francis of Assisi October 4 is a day Christians celebrate St. Francis of Assisi, the namesake of Pope Francis I. Who was Francis? And how is Pope Francis…

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THURSDAY, OCT. 3, 2013

Freezing foliage: Ice formed during the morning watering at the U.S. Forest Service Nursery in Coeur d’Alene on Wednesday. Winter weather is making an appearance in the Inland Northwest. (Kathy Plonka)

Poetry, please

The news is unusually heavy today with pieces of our government closed, immigrants drowning and politicians on their worst behavior. Sometimes it helps to simply escape for a moment. Poetry, please. Not Here There's courage involved if you want to become truth. There is a…

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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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