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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rebecca Nappi

This individual is no longer an employee with The Spokesman-Review.

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First-generation Latino students making college a family affair

The evening after her parents dropped Maria Alvizar off at Eastern Washington University for her freshman year, she called her mother on the phone and sobbed: “You left me here! How could you?” Though Alvizar loved learning and had graduated from Othello High School with honors, she insisted her father pick her up every Friday afternoon after math class, and drive her home to Othello, a two-hour trip, and then drive her back again Monday in time for her 8 a.m. history class.
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Boomer column: Technology continues to amaze

The news that a wealthy space travel entrepreneur hopes to send a man and woman on a 501-day trip in space toward Mars sparked many conversations last week. I asked several boomers if they thought they’d live to see some startling occurrence before they passed on. Yup. Several said they half expected to witness a cataclysmic event, such as an asteroid strike or a nuclear missile aimed at the United States. Others said they thought space travel would become as common as airplane travel is today.

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Live, learn and prosper: Area programs feature science experts

Inland Northwest residents have the great fortune to be surrounded by several institutions of higher learning. Our regional colleges and universities invite terrific speakers from all over the country – and sometimes from all over the world – and open these talks to the public. This week, enjoy a free science binge. On Wednesday, Spokane Community College’s President’s Speaker Series is hosting a talk on global partnership by Shaifali Puri, executive director of Scientists Without Borders. Puri’s presentation begins at 7 p.m. in the SCC Lair-Student Center auditorium, 1810 N. Greene St.
News >  Features

Column: You’re just as good as you say you were

‘The older I get, the better I was. No fear.” T-shirt worn by a gray-haired/bearded man in a Spokane cafe. BE A CHAMPION: The population is aging in such a way that within the next couple of years, people 65 and older will outnumber children 5 and younger, according to a United Nations world population report.
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Column: Powell’s tell-all memoir reveals bit too much for comfort

In 1976, when Betty Rollin wrote about her breast cancer in “First, You Cry” the memoir was seen as revolutionary. Rollin wrote openly about losing a breast. Compared with memoirs of the present, Rollin’s book seems downright demure. I recently read Julie Powell’s 2009 book “Cleaving.” She’s the author who cooked her way through Julia Child’s recipes and landed a bestseller and a movie – “Julie and Julia” – describing the experience.
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Boomer column: Proof that some memories can fade

On Dec. 13, I started a “10 items a day for 1,000 days” project. Every day, I get rid of 10 items in our house. Some I throw away and others I give away. My strategy is simple: I pick one drawer, one cupboard, one closet, one file and begin. At 10 items, I stop, no matter how tempted to continue. Our house isn’t ultra cluttered, but after 23 years the stuff has piled up, hidden away in drawers and closets. And the garage! Oh my.
News >  Features

Immigrants helped country bloom

In the 1950s and 1960s, some young baby boomers heard Italian, Irish and German accents in their grandparents’ homes or while visiting with the grandparents of their buddies. These grandparents were immigrants who settled in the United States in the early-to-middle 20th century. They arrived here mostly from Europe, according to a recent U.S. Census report.
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Spokane women crusade for universal health care

They could have chosen an easier cause to embrace, these three Spokane women. Perhaps ending world hunger or stopping nuclear-weapon proliferation. Instead, Kelly Hunt, Mary Huntington and Jill Williams chose as their cause universal health care for every United States citizen. Their hopes go way beyond Obamacare. So it’s no surprise they’ve been called socialists.
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Column: Never take life’s conveniences for granted

You don’t know what you got till it’s gone. The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that Saturday mail delivery of first-class mail will be phased out by summer. When I lived temporarily in Chicago last fall during my sabbatical, my neighborhood was bereft of post offices, and I used “postal stores” that charged outrageous fees to mail packages. When I returned to Spokane, I felt a renewed appreciation of the handy post office across the street from the newspaper building. Esquire magazine recently published a long story on why the post office system still rocks. Here’s an excerpt:
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Boomers: You’re only as old as you feel

Boomer bits. That was the original name for this column. Thank goodness for alert Spokesman-Review copy editor Ruth Reynolds who reminded me that “bits” can sometimes be slang for “parts.” And I don’t mean car parts. So this no-name column will feature boomer statistics and studies and other items of interest, as well as boomer-related social-media eruptions and some upcoming events of interest to readers. In other words, bits of information.
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Monsignor has spent lifetime helping the homeless

Wednesday at noon, an apartment building for the chronically homeless will be dedicated in downtown Spokane, named in honor of Monsignor Frank Bach. The crowd will include Spokane’s movers and shakers, along with the homeless and the poor. The 82-year-old Catholic priest will move easily among rich and poor alike, as always.
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Chaplain’s call

From September to December, I took a sabbatical from The Spokesman-Review, moved to Chicago and completed a 12-week internship in chaplaincy at Rush University Medical Center. Aging experts predict that some baby boomers now in their 50s will work at “encore careers” in their 60s and 70s, lured there by financial necessity and/or unfulfilled callings.
News >  Washington Voices

King Collection: Getting back into routine

By the end of the summer, if people are honest, an exhaustion sets in. So much light and heat, so much pressure to pursue evening and weekend fun. September’s routine offers a return to “ordinary time” to borrow a term from church liturgical calendars. People are back in the saddle, nose to the grindstone. You get the drill.
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Grievers shouldn’t have to apologize

Q. My 22-year-old daughter died suddenly three years ago, and I still run into some of her childhood friends who didn’t hear about her death, either because they now live out of town, or they live in town and don’t read newspaper obituaries. Many have expressed great sympathy but one or two had this weird reaction: They were mad at me. They wondered why I didn’t tell them, and I found myself apologizing, even though I felt angry that somehow they felt it was up to me to inform everyone. Should I have been more honest? A. The language of grief is like any foreign language. It has to be taught. Obviously, your daughter’s friends hadn’t been taught and therefore had no clue how their words upset you.
News >  Washington Voices

Getting back into routine

By the end of the summer, if people are honest, an exhaustion sets in. So much light and heat, so much pressure to pursue evening and weekend fun. September’s routine offers a return to “ordinary time” to borrow a term from church liturgical calendars. People are back in the saddle, nose to the grindstone. You get the drill.
News >  Features

Aging adults enjoy comfort, camaraderie at day health center

At Providence Adult Day Health, elders spend the day in a safe, nurturing environment, providing a break for their regular caregivers. It is the only adult day health center in Spokane. Within 20 years, as the country’s 78 million baby boomers reach their 70s and 80s, will adult centers be as ubiquitous as child care facilities are now?
News >  Features

Spiritual milestone

This summer, two well-known Catholic sisters are celebrating 50 years of commitment to religious life. Sister Rosalie Locati and Sister Celine Steinberger don’t belong to the same religious “order.” Locati is a Providence sister; Steinberger a Holy Names sister.
News >  Washington Voices

King Collection: Making a splash in bygone era

The American women who swam in this summer’s Olympics wore suits that look ultra modest in our string-bikini world. Black and sleek, the suits are built for function, not to show off form. Yet 100 years ago, the Olympians would have been arrested had they ventured into lake, river or pool in their modest Speedos.
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The longest chapter

Jess Steven Hughes was 40 when he caught the fever to write a book. He reached his goal this year. He’s 70. He’ll talk about his book “The Sign of the Eagle” Saturday in Coeur d’Alene. But this story isn’t just about Hughes’ book, it’s also about what it takes to pursue a lifelong passion before you run out of time. It could be writing a book. Or learning a language. Or saving the world.
A&E >  Food

Applying fridge wisdom

When Dennis Carper visited his mother, Delores, on his way back home to Redmond from Spokane, she always wanted to feed him. So he’d look in the refrigerator. Always, she had meatloaf. “How long has this been here?” Carper would ask. “Oh, not very long,” his 80-something mother would always answer.
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Cultural celebration

At Unity in the Community next Saturday, you can visit more than 45 cultural village booths. The people at the booths live in the Inland Northwest, but they moved here from places around the globe. “You don’t have to travel throughout the world to see different cultures,” said Ben Cabildo, the event’s co-chairman.
News >  Washington Voices

Making a splash in bygone era

The American women swimming in this summer’s Olympics wear suits that look ultra modest in our string-bikini world. Black and sleek, they are built for function, not to show off form. Yet 100 years ago, the Olympians would have been arrested had they ventured into lake, river or pool in their modest Speedos.