South Coast Prime Times – January/February 2016

our

12th ye a r!

J anuary/F ebruary 2016 · Volume 12 · Number 1

Find Your Star Ski Free Staying Fit Notable Newmakers

Donating Blood Clear Eyes

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CONTENTS 14

In every issue

4 From the publisher 24 In brief…

by Elizabeth Morse Read

Prime living

10 Fitness and health

all year ‘round

by Greg Jones

8

18 National blood

donor month

by Jay Pateakos

18

20 Oh say can you see?

by Elizabeth Morse Read

Prime season

8

Up the down ski slope

by Sean McCarthy

30 Knicker kicker

by Paul Kandarian

20

Good times

6

South Coast newsmakers

by Elizabeth Morse Read

OUR 12TH YE AR

!

J ANUARY/F EBRUARY 2016 · VOLUME 12 · NUMBER 1

14 Save those digital memories

by Greg Jones

Find Your Star on the cover: As

winter sets in, it’s an important time to check in with yourself and find your star – sometimes even literally. We found this one at How On Earth on Route 6 in Mattapoisett.

Ski Free Staying Fit Notable Newmakers

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J a nuary /F ebruary 2016

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3

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

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McCarthy discusses the many benefits of hitting the slopes with

If you’re more inclined to cuddling up by the fire with a good book, then you might want to read Liz Read’s article on page 20. She’ll fill you in on everything you’ll need to know about keeping your eyes healthy. If you find yourself unable to read it, then you know it’s meant for you!

To fill in any gaps, turn to Greg Jones’s article on page 10. No matter how you get your exercise, he has the top tips to make sure you’re doing it safely and efficiently.

But of course, it’s sometimes best to consider the health of others first. January is National Blood Donor Month, and it’s an easy way to save a life. Check out Jay Pateakos’s article on page 18 to see what you can do to share your good health with someone desperate for it.

However you stay healthy, I hope you do so. There’s so much to take advantage of here on the South Coast, but keeping yourself at 100% is the best way to ward off the winter doldrums. Find your star – have a happy and healthy New Year!

Ljiljana Vasiljevic Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

facebook.com/thesouthcoastinsider

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January/February 2016 n Vol. 12 n No. 1 Published by

Coastal Communications Corp.

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief

Ljiljana Vasiljevic Editor

Sebastian Clarkin Online editor

Paul Letendre Contributors

Karen Ellery-Jones, Greg Jones, Paul Kandarian, Sean McCarthy, Jay Pateakos and Elizabeth Morse Read South Coast Prime Times is published bi-monthly.

Copyright ©2016 Coastal Communications Corp.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission from the Publisher. All information contained herein is believed to be reliable. Coastal Communications Corp. does not assume any financial responsibility for typographical errors in advertisements, but will reprint that portion of an advertisement in which the typographical error occurs.

Next issue February 17, 2016

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J a nuary /F ebruary 2016

5

GOOD TIMES

South coast

newmakers

by E lizabeth M orse R ead

Regional notes The US Energy Department predicts that home heating costs will be significantly lower this winter. Electricity rates, too, are expected to be almost 15% lower than last year.

Southcoast Health System is in discussion with Providence-based Care New England Health about a possible merger of the two not-for-profit healthcare providers.

The New Bedford/Nantucket ferry is back! SeaStreak LLC, which already operates high-speed passenger ferries from New Bedford to Martha’s Vineyard, has received approval from the Woods Hole/ Martha’s Vineyard/Nantucket Steamship Authority to run high-speed ferries from New Bedford to Nantucket. The “Seastreak Whaling City Express” is scheduled to operate May 27 – September 6 in 2016, and will provide two-hour passenger trips to Nantucket, twice daily Monday-Thursday, three times daily on weekends.

Southcoast Hospitals Group (St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, Tobey Hospital in Wareham, Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River) is locked in a bureaucratic battle with Steward Health Care (St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, Morton Hospital in Taunton and Hawthorn Medical in Dartmouth) over the future of cardiac catheterization services on the South Coast. The South Coast has the highest rate of coronary heart disease in Massachusetts.

Spinner Publications is a regional treasure, and their latest effort of its widely acclaimed “A Picture History of New Bedford” series, will be in bookstores beginning December 18. Covering 1925 to 1980, a period many readers are personally familiar with, it’s more than a simple stroll down memory lane. These were years crowded with vitality and awash in importance: Prohibition (and its companion industry, rumrunning), the 1928 Textile Strike, the Great Depression, the 1938 hurricane, WWII, the Hurricane Barrier and enough left to fill a book. This they have done, in a readable, enjoyable, well-edited and worthwhile book. $40, tax included, call 508-994-4564 to order or find a retailer.

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It’s official – Plymouth’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts) will close by 2019.

The National Park Service turns 100 years old in 2016 and wants everyone to

J a nuary /F ebruary 2016

celebrate! The 16 entrance fee-free days for 2016 will be: Jan. 18 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day); April 16-24 (National Park Week); Aug. 25-28 (National Park Service Birthday Weekend); Sept. 24 (National Public Lands Day); and Nov. 11 (Veterans Day). New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park does not charge fees for admission. The visitor center stocks a variety of park passes which are valid at National Park Service locations. For more information on passes visit the US Geological Survey website at store.usgs.gov.

And the winners are

For the fifteenth year, New Bedford has remained the Number 1 seaport in the country for the dollar value of the catch, $329 million this year, thanks largely to scallops.

Dartmouth High School’s marching band won the New England Marching Band Championship in October, and

Fall River residents have elected their youngestever mayor, 23-year-old City Councilor Jasiel Correia. Correia beat incumbent and former Bristol County DA Sam Sutter, who’d served less than a year in office.

went on to win second place in their category at the USBand’s National Marching Band Championship in New Jersey.

At the New Bedford Seaport Chowder Festival in October, the People’s Choice for Best Clam Chowder was The Black Whale; for Best Seafood Chowder, Freestone’s City Grill; for Best Kale Soup, EJ’s Restaurant & Deli; for Best Signature Soup, Brazilian Grill; for Best Stuffed Quahogs, Pa Raffa’s Italian Restaurant; for Best Table Presentation, Brookdale.

Congrats!

South Coast newsmakers

Taunton firefighters Mathew Arruda and Joseph Santos were honored by Governor Baker and state Fire Services officials as Firefighters of the Year for their heroism in rescuing a handicapped woman in a burning trailer home last summer.

Marta del Pozo, professor of Foreign Languages and Literature at UMass Dartmouth, was recently awarded a major literary prize in Spain for her poetry.

State Troopers Nathan Monteiro of New Bedford and Jeremy Lockwood of Freetown were awarded Medals of Valor by the Massachusetts Police Association for their heroic actions during a shootout in Bourne last February.

Louise Racine Bastarche, a long-time midwife at Tobey Hospital in Wareham, was awarded the Omega Award by the non-profit Healthy Children Project.

Bizz buzz

A large LNG facility in Acushnet being proposed by Eversource, the gas and electricity utility, is running into serious opposition from residents and environmental groups.

Fall River’s city leaders are pitching the benefits of relocating to Fall River to the new owners of the Pawtucket Red Sox. The state has approved $30 million in funding for the expansion of UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) campus in the South End of New Bedford.

The new Swansea YMCA has received a $1million gift from the Robert F. Stoico/ FIRSTFED Foundation.

A major economic development plan is in the works for the New Harbor Mall in Fall River. A new “South Coast Plaza,” scheduled to open in summer 2017, would include a 10-screen cinema, stores, restaurants and possibly a grocery store.

Happy Days! Sonic Drive-In will open in March in the former Wendy’s Restaurant on GAR Highway in Somerset.

The Massachusetts School Building Authority has given the go-ahead for the proposal to build a new BMC Durfee High School in Fall River.

HealthFirst Family Care Center in Fall River has partnered with the Massachusetts Health Connector to offer walk-in enrollment services for state health insurance.

Work has begun on the construction of the Amazon distribution center in Fall River, which is scheduled to open in late 2016, and which promises to create 1,000 new jobs. FedEx has proposed building a new regional distribution center on the Seekonk/Swansea line, not far from the new Amazon distribution center.

The Zeiterion Performing Arts Center has partnered with the New Bedford Folk Festival, and will manage the festival’s

overall production and marketing in the future. Meanwhile, the wildly-popular annual Working Waterfront Festival in New Bedford may soon become a biennial event, next scheduled for 2017.

Southcoast Health ranks 1st in New England – and 8th in the US – as Best Hospital for Heart Attack Care, according to the national website www.BetterDoctor.com.

The Winter Farmer’s Market has returned to the ORR Junior High School gymnasium in Mattapoisett, and will be open on the second and fourth Saturday of every month through April.

Your Theatre Inc. has signed a purchase and sales agreement with the historic First Baptist Church in downtown New Bedford. The church’s congregation will move into the enlarged chapel in the rear of the building, and Your Theatre will renovate the current sanctuary into a permanent theatre.

Twin River Management Group is proposing to build a casino on a site off Route 81 in Tiverton. If approved by the town, the new casino would replace the Newport Grand casino.

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7

PRIME SEASON

Up the down

ski slope

Throughout the years our many experiences help us garner some life lessons. One of those lessons may be that fulfillment often comes after frustration.

Sean McC arthy

So it is with skiing, a recreation that provides the opportunity for a plethora of enjoyment to those who persist through the early challenges.

For those who see snow buildup as a reason to shut themselves inside, they may want to see it as an opportunity to get some scenic exercise and find enjoyment in the winter months.

“I had trouble getting the hang of it, but when I could make my skis go where I wanted them to, I wanted to do it as much as possible,” says 65-year old Kathy Knutsen of Fairhaven who often skis along with her 73-year old husband Henry.

Their first time on skis was humbling, but now they ski throughout America and Canada as many as ten times a year.

“I love being outside with the crisp air and the beauty of the snow-covered trees,” Kathy says.

Sense on skis Ray Parent is a 67-year old resident of Westport. He especially values his time on the slopes when he is joined by his family.

“I like being able to ski with my four grandchildren,” he says. “My 11-year old granddaughter can ski faster than I can.

It’s also a way to bond with friends and make new ones.”

Many retirees with time to spare have different options to take to the mountains. There can be a one-day trip to a regional mountain or a weekend trip.

There is also the availability for week-long trips to some of the nation’s largest mountains in western America such as in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming.

The Knutsens occasionally enjoy weekend trips.

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“We’ll drive up on a Friday afternoon and check into the hotel,” Kathy says.

“We’ll get up on Saturday morning and ski all day before retreating to the bar to celebrate a successful day of skiing. We’ll ski half a day on Sunday before returning home.

“The ski ranges often have bars and restaurants, usually with live bands. But if not, there are often places available in surrounding towns where you can enjoy yourself.”

You can stretch your muscles, get some fresh air, and enjoy the scenery The Knutsens also schedule trips for the middle of the week when there are more people at work than on the slopes.

They track the amount of snow that will be available by monitoring in on the Internet.

Beyond pizza and french fries Every mountain will offer two important elements that will help beginners get going on their skis – lessons from experienced instructors and trails tailored to novice skiers.

“Follow closely what your instructor is teaching you,” Henry advises. “Skiing is not instinctual – it has to be learned. But once you become confident and master the basics, the rest will come quickly. It’s good to start with an experienced friend

J a nuary /F ebruary 2016

who can be with you until you want to go it independently.”

“You can start skiing as a senior,” Kathy says. “Just take your time and be patient.”

There are mountains in the region available for skiers who want a one-day excursion including Blue Hills in Massachusetts; Wachusett in Princeton, MA; Nashoba Valley in Westford, MA; King Pine in Madison, NH; and Pat’s Peak in Henniker, NH. The mountains can rent the necessary equipment for a day on the slopes.

Paul Merrill-Days is a Maine native and a Fairhaven resident who has been skiing for 45 years.

“Don’t be nerved up when you first get on your skis,” he suggests. “Start out relaxed. Use the easier trails to work on your technical elements such as how to stop and how to turn. If you fall at first get up and go again. You won’t be hurt – injuries and accidents are extremely rare.

“It’s a good feeling from seeing your progress. You could eventually reach the point where there’s a rush from skiing and feeling exhilarated after you’re finished.”

“Skiing is an enjoyable opportunity to get out of the house,” Henry says. “You can stretch your muscles, get some fresh air, and enjoy the scenery.”

Kathy’s advice is the athlete’s motto – “Just do it!”

Social skiing Merrill-Days talks about the social element to a day on the slopes.

“Skiing can be more than the thrill of speed,” he says. “You can also have fun with your buddies. It’s nice to go with a partner or you can plan a group outing.”

Merrill-Days gives recommendations for what a skier should wear.

“Your base layers should be long underwear on the top and bottom,” he says.

“For insulation you can wear a wool shirt or a sweater or a turtleneck. You can also wear a scarf for neck protection.”

If you’re feeling more secure about your skills, some mountains offer night skiing on weekend nights and holiday nights.

These opportunities don’t usually draw an abundance of skiers resulting in a less congested experience.

But if you choose a daytime excursion Merrill-Days claims that skiers will truly enjoy the view from the top of the mountains.

And before embarking for higher terrain, Merrill-Days suggests that you should look for a mountain that has four-to-five inches of snow.

But if you’re interested in something more leisurely than downhill skiing you can try cross-country skiing.

Nordic skiing, as it is sometimes referred to, is often done in wooded areas and is an opportunity to appreciate the scenery and surroundings of the trees coated in white frosting and the icy brooks and waterfalls. Like downhill skiing, there are different distances and levels of difficulty, and it also provides a quality workout.

Cross-country skiing requires less energy which allows the skier to enjoy longer distances. Cross-country skiers will employ something known as “the glide” where they stop striding and use their momentum to coast along the snow trails, preserving energy.

“It’s nice to enjoy the company of someone else who you can talk to while you ski,” says Carol-Ann Days Merrill of Fairhaven. “It’s something that could be an introduction to downhill skiing.”

Days-Merrill goes skiing with her husband Paul and their 15-year old son Steven. They often hit the trails every other weekend during the ski season.

The cross-country courses are generally flat and most excursions are done with a partner or a group.

Some trails have “warming huts” where skiers can relax with some food and drink such as hot chocolate.

Benefits for the Nordic skier are that it’s fairly inexpensive and easy to learn. Some simple stretching exercises are recommended before going out on a course. A beginner’s experience may be three-tofive miles on a predominantly flat course.

For many people in New England, the weather is only enjoyed for three seasons a year. But if you devote yourself to learning to ski you have the opportunity to enjoy the region year ‘round.

Don’t let joint pain slow you down.

Join Southcoast Health Orthopedic Surgeons for a free seminar to learn about arthritis, hip and knee pain and other orthopedic conditions. Learn about non-surgical and surgical options.

Call to register for a free seminar: 508-973-1101 Charlton Memorial Hospital 363 Highland Avenue Fall River

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southcoast.org/ortho

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

S ean M c C arthy has been a freelance journalist for 25 years.

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9

PRIME LIVING

Fitness and health

all year ‘round Greg Jones

In the summer, exercise often seems to come with the territory, so to speak. But now that the sun has gotten low in the sky and goes down at what seems to be the middle of the afternoon, and stepping outside requires getting out coats and sweaters, exercise can be difficult.

Yes, there are sidewalks to shovel, but that’s not really the best sort of exercise, and if it’s exercise that you only do when there is a lot of snow, then it’s not regular.

In order for exercise to do you the most good, while minimizing the chance for injuries, it should be regular, several times a week.

You’ll live longer, stay healthier, and enjoy life more.

The Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, part of The Centers for Disease Control, has published some

rate, and there is a simple formula to determine your “target heart rate.” Subtract your age from 220, and that is the maximum age-related heart rate when engaging in serious, strenuous exercise.

So, if you’re 60 years old, your maximum heart rate would be 220 minus 60 – 160 beats per minute. But let’s not go there.

At least, not just yet. A more practical, and arguably safer goal is engaging in moderate-to-vigorous exercise.

How to determine that? Moderate exercise will result in a heart rate of 50-to-70 percent of the maximum, so, for our theoretical 60-yearold exercise, that’s 160 x .50 = 80 beats per minute at 50 percent and 112 beats per minute at 70 percent. So, the “moderate exercise” range, for our fit and healthy 60-year-old is somewhere between 80 and 112 beats per minute. This is enough stress so you can talk, but you wouldn’t be able to sing.

Vigorous exercise, at somewhere between 70 and 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, will you get breathing

The recommendation for older adults is for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, with at least two sessions a week devoted to muscle-strengthening addressed to all the major muscle groups.

Get pumped Even if you consider yourself healthy and fit, you should consult with a medical professional if you are embarking on a new exercise program.

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basic guidelines on exercise, and while you’re never too old to exercise, as you age, your exercise regimen should adapt to the physical changes related to aging.

Finger on the pulse The key item to monitor is your heart

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so hard you will only be able to say a few words without stopping for breath. Again, for our 60-year-old exerciser, 160 x .85 = 136, so the target heart rate is 112 to 136 beats per minute.

You can check your pulse by laying your index and middle fingers at a 45-degree angle across the inside of your wrist, with the middle finger just at the base of the thumb. Feel around and you will locate the pulse. Begin your count on the beat, and start at “zero.” Do it for 30 seconds and multiply by two, or go for the entire minute.

R aise the intensity Okay, we’ve got the pulse count down – the next thing is intensity. If you’re going to get the maximum benefit from your exercise, any given exercise period should last for at least 10 minutes to get your heart rate up.

The recommendation for older adults is for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, with at least two sessions a week devoted to muscle-strengthening addressed to all the major muscle groups.

“Yikes,” you say, “I don’t have two and half hours available for this.”

Neither do a lot of people, but the good news is that you can break this up into 10-minute segments throughout the week. Going shopping? Park at the other end of the lot and walk briskly for 10 minutes before you get to the store.

Skip the elevator and take the stairs. Sing along to “Stayin’ Alive” and go up the steps to the beat. That will get you up 100 steps in about a minute.

Join the “Y” or a gym so you can continue to exercise on cold days. If a gym membership doesn’t fit into your budget or you just don’t like to go to a gym, then head outside and walk around the block.

Get to know your neighbors and fill your lungs with good fresh air. Depending on where you live, you might see some wildlife, even if it’s just a couple of squirrels.

Even if you can’t make the 150 minutes a week goal, remember that any exercise is better than no exercise. Get out there and walk, climb stairs, explore your neighborhood. Meet your friends at the post office or the local coffee shop and catch up on things while keeping fit.

Remember that it’s never too late to start exercising for a healthier, happier, and longer life!

G reg J ones is a local writer who lives in Dartmouth.

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he New Year is upon us and with that comes the dreaded “New Year’s Resolution”. Obviously you don’t have to do a New Year’s resolution but small changes can result in big results. Here is a list specifically geared to the older generation:

Lose weight and get fit Losing weight has a tremendous effect on your life: you can move more easily, you can breathe better, it helps to lower your blood pressure and cholesterol, your clothes fit better and it builds self-confidence!

Lots of insurance companies offer a Fitness and Weight Loss Reimbursement benefit program to help you better manage your health and reduce your risk of developing a future illness. Many Council on Aging centers offer Weight Watchers or TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) And as we all know, a rolling stone gathers no moss so get moving! You can always: walk around a park, take a zumba class, do chair aerobics, learn yoga, join a gym. The endorphins that are released when you are exercise help to reduce stress, combat anxiety and depression and improve your sleep! Just make sure you have your doctor’s blessing before you try any exercising!

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Many retirees look forward to no alarm and no schedules. But for some, it is not what it cracked up to be. In fact, many seniors become isolated and lonely because they feel they have no purpose. Volunteering is a great way to get out of the house, interact with people and have a feeling of accomplishment. Schools need volunteers to make copies or to read to the children.

Libraries need volunteers to call patrons or shelve books. Food banks need volunteers to stock the pantry. Churches need volunteers to teach Sunday School. You are only limited by your imagination.

Learn something new Did you always want to quilt, work with wood or learn computer skills? Now is your chance! There are plenty of opportunities to learn a new skill or hobby. Some are just for one day like a tiling class at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Or you can you can take semester long Adult Education Classes at New Bedford Voke, or Michael’s Craft Store.

Did you drop out of high school or college to help raise your family or because it was too expensive? You can always return to

night school to get your GED or under the Commonwealth’s Categorical Tuition Waiver for Seniors over 60, you can earn a college degree! So, with all those resources available who says you can’t teach an old dog a new trick?

Travel more Travelling affords you the opportunity to get out of the house, meet new people and try new things! Many local COAs have travel clubs. Some are just day trips to Foxwoods but others are overnight stays such as a weekend to Niagara Falls. They are safe and affordable and best part you don’t have to do the driving! AAA Travel and other travel clubs also offer discounted rates, including trips for overseas or cruises.

Reduce, reuse and recycle Over the years we tend to accumulate a lot of stuff called “junk”. If you have adult children, chances are that it is their junk!

Make this year the year that you get rid of stuff you have been holding on to for years.

If your children want their high school yearbooks so badly, have them come and get it. Hold a neighborhood yard sale and advertise it on Craigslist. Make some money for yourself and do something fun with it! It can be hard to part with things, but memories that you hold are in your heart not in a now cracked vase that someone gave you twenty years ago. Whatever doesn’t sell, donate or throw it away! Just make sure it does not come back into the house.

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Our Center was first in the state to offer MAKOplasty® robotic assisted surgery, is a leader in rapid rehabilitation and offers outpatient joint replacement. It’s no wonder more patients (and their doctors) are choosing our Center for Orthopedic Excellence.

Manage stress

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Stress is a huge factor in being unhealthy.

It affects our sleep, it makes us over eat, makes us irritable and causes physical ailments such as high blood pressure, depression and anxiety attacks. Learn to manage your stress by learning to delegate, exercise to release those endorphins, learn breathing techniques, do yoga and meditation to relieve stress. If your stress levels are so high, you may need to seek the help of a professional whom you can talk with and will help you work through some of your issues. Remember, there is no shame in asking for help.

We hope that these tips have helped to encourage you to try something new and to be proactive about your life! Here is to a happy, healthy New Year and to a new YOU! This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

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GOOD TIMES

Save those digital memories Greg Jones

Until relatively recently, most families had a shoebox in a closet somewhere, full of old photographs. Maybe instead of a shoebox the photos were in a drawer, stored in the attic… the point here is that these family memories were stored and were relatively accessible to future generations.

On rainy days maybe the kids would find the box and, together with their parents, look at photos of their parents as children, of vanished generations with strange clothes and funny hairstyles.

Now we have many more photos, hundreds of them, maybe, stored in smart phones, laptops, desktops, floppy disks, hard drives, SDs, DVDs, CDs... but no shoeboxes stuffed with prints, no “real” images that you hold in front of you and look at without the aid of some device.

Have you given any thought to safeguarding your family’s digital legacy?

Imagine your grandchildren holding a CD with “vacation 2015” written on it. It was in a box that had been forgotten, and their children found it, your great-grandchildren.

They hold it up, looking at how it catches the light.

“What’s this?” they ask their

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parents. At that point your grandchildren realize that they haven’t seen a CD player in 25 years. In the old box are also memory cards, old cell phones and tech gear so obsolete nobody even knows what it’s called.

dent on many things, such as storage conditions, quality of the disc and so on, a CD is not forever, and the CDs that you burn at home generally don’t have the lifespan of pre-recorded CDs and DVDs. Estimates on how long a CD will last

We have no idea what the cool storage medium that will eventually replace the optical disc will look like.

This is a problem that has been attracting some attention recently, from ordinary people who don’t want to lose a lifetime’s worth of memories to the Library of Congress, who have similar worries, but on a much larger scale.

Out with the old CDs and DVDs, “optical discs,” have lifespans, and while the actual number of years a CD will last is depen-

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under ideal storage conditions (cool, dry and dark) run from 25 years to 200 years, depending on who you ask and how they did the “accelerated ageing” test.

If they get scratched then the game is over. Period. No more information from that part of the disc, maybe the entire disc.

The latest, greatest, and most nearly “permanent” of the optical disc storage devices might

be the “M-Disc,” with a lifetime figured by the manufacturer to be a thousand years.

It’s not an idle claim. The Navy did a series of test on the MDisc, abusing them with heat, humidity and bright lights, conditions that ruined all the competing DVDs. The M-Disc is expensive (the 25 GB disc goes for around five bucks and the 100-GB discs are about $20 each), and they write at a rather leisurely pace compared to burning CDs and DVDs. And M-Discs can still be sidelined with a scratch, although the plastic outer layer is much tougher.

In with the new Moving away from optical discs, you can store your images on removable hard drives, “thumb drives,” (small magnetic storage devices roughly the size of your thumb) and SD cards. These devices have a somewhat better life expectancy because there is nothing to wear out, no moving parts, just a magnetic charge that is more or less permanent (unless the device gets near a magnet, such as those used in loudspeakers, or goes through the laundry in your pocket or, well, you get the picture. But these devices will still wear

out as their data are recorded and erased, recorded and erased, until they wear out, but the number of cycles is fairly high, in the thousands.

While the discussion goes on and on among the computer experts, the real issue of storage might be new hardware that is not back-compatible.

We have no idea what the cool storage medium that will eventually replace the optical disc will look like. When was the last time you used a floppy disk? Almost certainly, there are readers of this article who have never seen or used one.

You can also store your images in “the cloud,” relying on the services of companies such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Box and many, many others. Among the advantages are virtually unlimited storage (for a price), security (unless they get hacked or go out of business) and relative ease of access.

So what to do? Make copies of everything you value and store them in separate locations. A box of CDs at a relative’s house, another in a safe-deposit box, perhaps.

Every five years or so copy everything and make fresh versions. This will also keep up with technology, since the biggest danger for viewing today’s images in 50 years is that there might not be anything that can “read” a storage device that is 50 years old.

To put that in perspective, suppose your entire music collection was on eight-track tapes and you wanted to play them, but your eight-track player just broke.

In with the old?

But with all the discussion among the digital literati, the obvious, palm-to-theforehead solution for saving those treasured photographs is to have them printed. Get the prints done from a company that uses what are called “archival” paper and inks. These prints will cost more than the

machine-grade prints from the local drug store, but they will last, with proper storage, 50-100 years.

At this point, you’re probably wondering if the whole business is just too much like work, in a medium in which you lack professional expertise. For you, the answer might be a photobook, or several photo books. These aren’t the photo albums you remember with prints attached to pages with those tiny, sticky triangles. They are printed and bound like books, with anything from eight to 200 or more pages.

Assembling your photobook is relatively easy, requiring only basic computer skills to select and arrange the photos.

Priced begin as low as $10, with a 20-page book going for $20-$40, on average. You can select the binding, the type of paper, the color of the paper…in short, you can control nearly every aspect of the book.

Put together a book celebrating a special event, or one dedicated to photos of your children from birth to graduation. You can have additional copies made, either ar at the same time or much later, as most companies store your files.

A short list of some of the bigger outfits includes Shutterfly, Mixbook, Fineprint Express, Viovio, Blurb, PhotoWorks, Persnickety, My Pictures, Inkabook and many, many more. For maximum longevity, be sure to get acidfree paper with the images created by dyes, not inks.

Saving your family’s “image history” with a photobook ensures there will never be a problem with storage media being obsolete, and for future generations, all they have to do is open the book. Even in a hundred years we can be pretty sure people will still know how to use a book.

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ADVERTISEMENT

A lbert Loerinc, MD, and M anny Berthil, RRT

Volumetric Capnography at Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts New monotoring technology decreases the time patients spend on the ventilator

By K aren Ellery-Jones

F

ew medical professionals would deny the immense clinical benefits that are derived from mechanical ventilators.

Mechanical ventilators continue to be an effective and lifesaving tool for patients suffering form respiratory difficulties resulting from serious accidents, surgeries or illnesses. Yet, mechanical ventilation does have implicit risks. Additionally, the endotracheal or tracheostomy tube may cause considerable discomfort and result in loss of mobility and diminishing quality of life, so liberating patients from their ventilators as quickly and efficiently as possible is preferable, but it can be a long process.

However, for ventilator patients at Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts (formerly New Bedford Rehabilitation Hospital), a 90-bed, long-term, acute-care hospital in Southeastern Massachusetts, physicians and respiratory therapists are using

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the latest monitoring technology to accelerate the liberating process, which results in a 29% reduction in the average length of time patients spend on ventilators.

The ‘GPS’ of Ventilator Management Director of Pulmonary Medicine, and Medical Director, Albert M. Loerinc, MD, notes that the new monitoring device (Volumetric Capnography) provides information reflecting the status of the patient’s breathing. “We call volumetric capnography the GPS of ventilator management” he says. Volumetric capnography is very different from other standard respiratory monitors.

Volumetric capnography measures the actual volume of exhaled carbon dioxide. “We can monitor the changes in the exhaled volume of carbon dioxide breath by breath and minute by minute, so that when changes are made to ventilator settings, we can

tell immediately whether those changes are providing improved ventilation.

The monitor provides a snap shot of the patient’s breathing and cardiac status, explains Manny Berthil, RRT, Chief Clinical Officer. “Before we started using volumetric capnography, clinical staff would make a change in the ventilator settings and then perform a blood test to assess the efficacy of the ventilator change.

“We would be looking at the patient’s respiratory status retrospectively, as opposed to how he or she is currently doing, “he says. “Blood test determinations are a one-time snapshot, whereas volumetric capnography is continuous monitoring of what is happening physiologically to the patient.

“Upon admission, Harld Allioth, Director of the Respiratory Department and the team utilize volumetric capnography to optimize the patient’s ventilator settings. Once the patient is stabilized on his or her new ventilator settings, the liberating process begins. We continue to use volumetric capnography to assess the patient’s cardiopulmonary status throughout the liberating process and to decrease the time of ventilator dependency. “A patient’s clinical condition can vary at times. By using this new monitoring technology, we can differentiate whether the problem is related to the patient’s breathing, or other ailments, explains Dr. Loerinc.

“Effective use of volumetric capnography requires training and a lot of hands-on experience” says Dr. Loerinc, who, along with Berthil, spent several days training at Duke University Medical Center to learn and apply the practices now employed at Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts. “As a result, we have decreased the average length of time patients are on mechanical ventilation by 29%”.

“This new technology is a valuable tool that assesses the cardiopulmonary status of a patient and provides information as to how likely a patient is to come off the ventilator ” Berthil says. “The monitor can help predict successful liberation.

Patients are typically not even aware of the machine that is attached to their ventilator , but can certainly feel the benefits of the technology, regardless of their diagnosis.

has earned over the years for successfully liberating hard-towean patients. Patients are typically transferred from acute-care hospitals in Boston, Cape Cod, Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts, for additional rehabilitation, including ventilator liberation.

“We specialize in treating medically complex patients who need daily intervention,” says Dr. Loerinc. “We work as a team with pulmonary physicians, respiratory therapists, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, psychologists, case mangers and dieticians to rehabilitate the patient. Most of our patients are very debilitated, so our goal is to work together to get these patients back to a state of better health.”

Because no two patients are alike, liberation from the ventilator is individualized and tailored to each patient based on that particular patient’s needs. With an experienced team of professionals working in a multidisciplinary mode, and with a long history of liberating ventilator-dependent patients, Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts continues to be the leader in providing high-quality acute care for chronically, critically ill patients. By incorporating this new monitoring (volumetric capnography) in the care of mechanically ventilated patients, the pulmonary team can manage and liberate these patients much more effectively. Currently, 92% of patients admitted on a ventilator, are liberated, which is well above the national average.

Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts, www.vhmass.com, is a member of Vibra Healthcare. Vibra Healthcare currently has 92 hospital operations and outpatient locations in 18 states. For more information about Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts, please call 508.995.6900 or visit www.vibrahealthcare.com.

Respiratory Therapist, Cheryl M arshall, works with a patient receiving high-flow ozygen via tracheostomy tube

A dditional benefit to COPD patients

PHOTOS © RYAN RICHARDSON

“We have had a high level of success with COPD patients using this technology in combination with high-flow oxygen devices in gaining back the regions of the lungs that have been underutilized or not utilized at all, thereby increasing their chance of being liberated from the ventilator and transfer to a simpler oxygen device.

Regional reputation Patients are referred to Vibra Hospital of Southeastern Massachusetts because of the strong reputation the hospital

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PRIME LIVING

National Blood Donor Month Jay Pateakos

If you have never given blood before (or haven’t in a good while), wake up and get to it! January is National Blood Donor month, picked because it’s in the heart of the winter when supplies are low and attention spans even lower.

If you are willing and able to do this, there’s really no excuse not to – it could save lives. Besides, you never know when it’s your life that might need saving.

With our generation always in a rush to go nowhere, this may be the single most effective donation of your time there is.

Every two seconds, someone in the country needs blood, which comes out to more than 41,000 donations per day.

The reasons for these transfusions are legion. Sickle cell disease affects more than 70,000 people in the U.S, and about 1,000 babies are born with the disease each year. Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives. Beyond that, more than 1.6 million people were diagnosed with cancer last year. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment. There are also emergency transfusions for car accident victims, who can each require as many as 100 pints of blood.

Finger on the pulse Every time my family went to New Bedford’s St. Luke’s Hospital, we would see my uncle Richard Sylvia’s name on a golden plaque on the wall, a sort of Hall of Fame of Blood donors for the hospital over the years. I can’t remember his donation numbers but it was dozens of

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gallons.

I started donating in my 20’s, finding out that I had AB positive blood, one of the rarest blood types along with AB negative.

I was told that Type AB-positive plasma can be transfused to patients of all other blood types but that it is also usually in short supply. I clung to this knowledge, and have donated every 58 days for the past 15 years. It’s a very simple process (and you get cookies in the end or maybe even a Dunkin Donuts gift card or movie gift certificate.) But I do it for the benefits it provides others.

Safety and numbers For those with certain paranoias about the donation process, American Red Cross alerts that donating blood is a safe process. A sterile needle is used only once for each donor and then discarded. Blood donation is a simple four-step process: registration, medical history and miniphysical, donation, and refreshments. Every blood donor is given a mini-physical, checking the donor’s temperature, blood

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pressure, pulse, and hemoglobin to ensure it is safe for the donor to give blood.

The actual blood donation typically takes less than 10-12 minutes. The entire process, from the time you arrive to the time you leave, takes about an hour and 15 min (this is according to the Red Cross – I am out in less than a half hour.)

The average adult body has about ten pints of blood, and roughly one pint is given during a donation. A healthy donor may donate red blood cells every 56 days, or double red cells every 112 days. All donated blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis and other infectious diseases before it can be released to hospitals. All the information you give to the American Red Cross during the donation process is confidential. It may not be released without your permission except as directed by law.

Blood banks Donna Cantin, Supervisor of the Blood Bank for Saint Anne’s Hospital in Fall River, noted that Saint Anne’s Hospital’s

Blood Bank operates as a transfusion service that relies on 100% of its blood supply coming from area donor centers, primarily the American Red Cross. These donor centers hold blood drives at many community venues, including hospitals that are able to provide the appropriate space needed to host a blood drive.

“There are three main blood products achieved with donations: red cells, plasma, and platelets. All are vital in the medical treatment of many health conditions,” said Cantin. “Saint Anne’s Blood Bank provides blood products for our two cancer centers, the emergency room, operating room, and seven inpatient care units, including the intensive care unit and all medical-surgical units. All of these areas have a constant demand for all blood products of all blood types.”

Cantin said Type O is the most frequently used blood type, with O negative being the most in demand. O negative is the universal blood type, safe for any patient in traumatic situations.

All blood types are always needed, she said, as each individual patient’s blood type is matched with the blood type of the product donated.

“These blood products undergo extensive disease testing at the donor centers, prior to being shipped to the local transfusion service,” said Cantin. “The transfusion service then performs in-depth testing to match these donated products to the patient requiring a transfusion.”

Thanks to the generous support of Saint Anne’s employees and the local community participation at our monthly blood drives, Cantin said thousands of patients are able to receive the high quality care which Saint Anne’s is known for through these donations.

“We urge healthy adults who meet certain criteria to donate blood when they can so that others throughout our communities receive this gift of life,” said Cantin.

In addition to local Blood Drives, the American Red Cross is the most wellknown of all blood recipients as they help those in need of blood across the world.

Colin Riccobon, External Communications Manager for American Red Cross Blood Services, noted American Red Cross blood donors are helping meet the needs of local patients and hospitals, but also as a national network, the Red Cross has a unique responsibility to help ensure blood is available for patients whenever

and wherever it is needed.

“Since 1970, January has been declared National Volunteer Blood Donor Month.

It’s a time when blood organizations like the American Red Cross pay tribute to the everyday heroes who give blood each year to help ensure that blood is available where it is need and when it is needed,” said Riccobon. “We also hope it encourages others to start the New Year off right by scheduling an appointment to give hope by giving blood.”

Riccobon said there is no substitute for a volunteer blood donor since blood cannot be manufactured.

“Blood and platelets are needed for many different reasons,” said Riccobon.

“Accident and burn victims, heart surgery patients, organ transplant patients, and those receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease may all need blood. It’s the blood products on the shelves today that help save lives in an emergency.”

Riccobon said the Red Cross needs platelet donors and blood donors of all blood types – especially those with types AB, O negative, B negative, and A negative.

Sanguine solution As an added incentive to donate (though you shouldn’t need one), The American Red Cross and Dunkin’ Donuts will team-up for a campaign this January to help increase blood donations and reward generous donors during National Volunteer Blood Donor Month. Through the “Dunkin’ Donors Make a Difference” campaign, all those who come in to give blood or platelets in January at Red Cross blood drives and donation centers in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and parts of New York will receive a $5 Dunkin’ Donor Card, said Riccobon.

So there you have it. One pint of your blood every two months, taking less than an hour of your time, could save many people. With winter bearing down and people not thinking much of donating, now is the time to start and set dates to do it every two months. It’s a great feeling.

And the cookies are kind of cool too.

J ay Pateakos has been a freelance writer for more than 10 years including daily and weekly newspapers and monthly magazines.

A native of New Bedford, he currently lives in Marion and has three children.

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PRIME SEASON LIVING

January is National Eye Care and Glaucoma Awareness Month. Go find your glasses and read on!

Eliz abeth Morse Read

The eyes have it. This may be a really icky mental picture, but your eyeballs are actually the external part of your brain. Eyes are fragile marvels of evolution, complex little cameras that allow us to see and function in the world around us. They’re like little computers, sending 90% of the information your brain interprets every millisecond, gathering more sensory information than from all your other senses combined.

If anything at any age goes wrong with your eyes, you could be severely limited in daily life. It’s well worth getting an eye examination, even if you think your eyesight is just fine. A dilated eye exam can detect early signs of eye diseases like glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration before you even notice any changes in vision.

And a comprehensive eye exam not only checks for visual acuity and eye diseases, but also can detect early symptoms of many non-vision-related disorders, like Alzheimer’s disease,

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arteriosclerosis, diabetes and even certain cancers and genetic disorders. So get your eyes checked regularly! Early detection and treatment can prevent blindness and disability – and maybe even save your life.

A natomy of an eyeball Imagine your eyeball as a hollow ping-pong ball filled with a gel-like fluid (vitreous), with a cord coming out the back containing the optic nerve, which leads directly to your brain. At the front of your eyeball (the part you can see) is the sclera (the whites), the cornea, the colored iris, and the lens.

If you’ve ever been fascinated by cameras and photography, then you’ll be fascinated by how the eye works. The cornea is the clear, bulging part at the front of your eye that captures and bends (refracts) incoming light. The colored iris is like a camera’s f-stop – it contracts and dilates the pupil opening to control the amount of light that reaches the lens behind it. The clear lens focuses the light/image that then gets projected onto the retina.

At the back of the inside of your eyeball, the retina is a thin layer of tissue composed of photosensitive cells (rods and cones) that convert the light impulses into electrical signals, which are then sent through the optic nerve to your brain to create the images we see. And all in the blink of the eye!

Refractive disorders: ‘I can see clearly now’ Refraction is the bending of light as it passes through the cornea, iris, and lens so that it’s projected clearly and precisely onto the retina. The most common vision disorders are caused by changes in the shape of the eye, which causes distortions in your visual acuity. These are called “refractive disorders” and they’re treated successfully with corrective lenses (eyeglasses, contact lenses) or with specialized surgery like LASIK. It’s not unusual to have one refractive disorder in one eye and a different disorder (or none) in the other eye. As we age, it’s common to need customized bifocal corrective lenses for multiple refractive problems in either eye. Our eyes and eyesight get older over the years, just like the rest of our bodies.

Myopia, also known as near-sightedness, is a refractive disorder whereby close objects are clear and distinct, but distant objects are progressively blurrier and fuzzy. Myopia affects 25% of Americans (it’s inheritable), and can occur at any age, but it tends to worsen during adolescence and old age. If you have to squint to read the blackboard or the road signs, or if you can’t immediately identify your best friend on the other side of the street, you should get your eyes checked.

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Subtle changes in your eyes from year to year can tell the eye doctor whether you might have underlying medical issues Hyperopia, also known as far-sightedness, is a refractive disorder which makes far-away objects look clearer and more sharply-focused than objects that are closer to you. Almost 10% of Americans are far-sighted, and it tends to run in the family. If you can easily read all the road signs but have to squint to read the dashboard, you should get your eyes checked.

Astigmatism is a refractive disorder caused by changes in the shape of the eye’s cornea – objects may look stretched out or blurry around the edges. Astigmatism can happen at any age (even in children) and may affect only one eye. The Renaissance Spanish painter El Greco, famous for his elongated, shimmering figures, probably had astigmatism.

Presbyopia is a normal aging disorder which makes it increasingly difficult to focus clearly up close – like when you’re reading small print. Presbyopia usually occurs after age 35, but if you start getting headaches when you read, or if you start holding the newspaper farther and farther away from you, you should get your eyes checked.

E yes are the window to the soul That old proverb may well be true, but what most people don’t realize is that our eyes are also a window into our overall health Continued on next page S ou th C oast P r ime T imes

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PRIME SEASON

Continued from previous page – they’re early-alert diagnostic tools.

Your eyes are like the proverbial canaries in the coal mine, giving doctors a non-invasive glimpse into your body. A thorough eye examination can reveal early warning signs of systemic diseases like arteriosclerosis, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease; viral diseases like herpes and AIDS; inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s Disease or lupus; even of metastasizing cancers – long before we notice or experience any symptoms in the rest of our body.

Subtle changes in your eyes from year to year can tell the eye doctor whether you might have underlying medical issues that need to be investigated [see sidebar]. For instance, yellowing of the sclera can indicate liver problems, like cirrhosis or hepatitis.

A drooping eyelid can be a sign of a neuromuscular problem, or swollen/protruding eyeballs can indicate thyroid problems.

Also, the pupils in both of your eyes are usually the same size, and should show the same reaction to light – noticeable differences in pupil size/reaction could be an indication of concussion, stroke, aneurysm, syphilis or multiple sclerosis, as well as of bad reactions to prescription/OTC medications or street drugs.

Look me in the eye Those annual vision tests your kids get at school, or else those quickie eye exams at the mall and the Registry/DMV, only check for your visual acuity. They don’t examine your eyes as portals into what’s really going on inside your body. From birth to old age, everyone needs to have their eyes carefully examined at regular intervals.

Anyone with a family history of refractive problems or eye diseases, and anyone suffering from a systemic disease (like diabetes, high blood pressure) should schedule comprehensive dilated eye exams every year. Some people are just born at higher risk of eye diseases and disorders (African-Americans and older Hispanics, for example.) People who are overweight, who smoke or who are regularly exposed to excessive sunlight, toxic substances, and hazardous flying objects are also at higher risk.

People who wear contact lenses or who have jobs/studies that are visually-demanding (like staring at a computer screen all day) need to have their eyes examined regularly. Comprehensive dilated eye exams should be considered a mandatory step in preventive medical care, like mammograms, blood tests and blood-pressure checks, and not just as a measure of visual acuity.

(Don’t worry, pupil dilation is painless and temporary, done with eye-drops during the exam.)

When to have an eye exam Pregnancy, just like puberty, severe stress, and menopause, brings on hormonal changes that can suddenly affect eyesight.

Pregnant women can experience severely dry eyes, blurriness, or other visual changes triggered by gestational diabetes. Visual disturbances in the third trimester of pregnancy could be a warning sign of preeclampsia, a life-threatening sudden rise in blood pressure. Fortunately, pregnancy-related eye problems usually disappear after the birth – but it does point out the special need to monitor eye health during life-changing circumstances.

Maternal health monitoring is also critical to the future eye health of the baby. A pregnant woman’s exposure to rubella (German measles), toxoplasmosis, AIDS, or herpes could result in disastrous vision problems in newborns.

Pediatricians carefully check babies’ and young children’s eyes during their wellness visits, especially if they were born prematurely, had difficult births, or if there were any problems with maternal health. Once children reach three years old, pediatricians start testing them for visual acuity, especially before they start attending school.

After that, eye check-ups with an optometrist (not just the school nurse) every two years is fine for most young people – until they start wearing glasses/contact lenses, or are diagnosed with a systemic disease like obesity or diabetes. That’s when annual eye exams, just like annual dental exams and vaccinations, should be part of good preventive healthcare.

How an eye exam saved my life…

I’ve worn glasses since I was 14 years old. I developed keratoconus and gestational diabetes when I was pregnant. When I hit 40-ish, I needed bifocals.

So, unlike many people, I’m quite used to scheduling annual eye exams.

Four years ago, I started noticing an odd blurriness while I was driving. Time to make an appointment! But during the routine eye exam, the optometrist said he wanted me to make an appointment ASAP with an ophthalmologist.

“The internal pressure in your right eye has doubled since last year – I think you might have glaucoma.”

By the time I saw the ophthalmologist the following week, the vision in my right eye had deteriorated and I was experiencing excruciating headaches.

“You have neovascular glaucoma – you’ve apparently had a mini-stroke, and I want an ultrasound done on your carotid arteries STAT.” The ultrasound showed 90%+ blockage (arteriosclerosis) in my right carotid artery, and I underwent vascular surgery immediately. The damage to my right eye’s vision was total and irreversible, but I’m alive. All because I had a comprehensive eye exam.

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Prescription for eye health

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Know your family’s health history. If anyone in your family had eye problems or systemic diseases like diabetes, glaucoma, high blood pressure or “hardening of the arteries,” tell your doctor.

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Maintain a healthy weight. Chronic diseases resulting from obesity can affect your eyes.

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Eat a healthy diet. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, and vitamin-rich fruits and dark leafy greens are good for your eyes.

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Don’t smoke. Simple as that.

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Wear protective eyewear. Whether at work, playing sports or chopping wood, protect your eyes.

Whenever you’re outdoors, wear sunglasses to block UVA/B radiation.

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Give your eyes a rest. Don’t stare at a book, screen or TV endlessly. Look away and focus on distant objects or movement every few minutes.

•

Practice extreme cleanliness. Don’t rub your eyes after handling harmful substances (like bleach, pesticides or hot peppers). If you wear contact lenses, be scrupulous about cleaning them properly.

FAQ: Common eye disorders and diseases Amblyopia (“lazy eye”) and strabismus (“crossed-eyed”) can be caused by eye-muscle weakness or eye disease, and they’re usually detected in early childhood. Together, they are the leading cause of vision loss in children. Both disorders can be successfully treated with eyeglasses, eye patches, or surgery.

But if either disorder is left untreated, then the child’s eyes won’t “work in sync” with their developing brains. This scenario can create both permanent vision problems and learning impairment. So, early medical intervention is critical – children won’t just grow out of it.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness worldwide, and the leading cause of vision loss in the US. Cataracts appear when an eye’s lens becomes cloudy or opaque, whether due to aging or disease. While they can appear at any age, cataracts are most commonly detected after age 40 – almost 20% of Americans have a cataract in at least one eye. People with diabetes are 2-5 times more likely to develop cataracts. Effective surgical treatments are available to remove and replace faulty lenses, but access to that surgical treatment remains a global health challenge.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a depressingly common complication of diabetes (whether Type 1, Type 2 or gestational), and is the leading cause of blindness in Americans over 20. Unlike many eye disorders, DR usually affects both eyes, and is caused by progressive damage to the blood vessels in the retina. DR can

be slowed down by good diabetes care, weight management and prenatal care, but almost half of the people at risk of DR aren’t getting regular eye examinations.

Glaucoma, called “the sneak thief of sight,” is sometimes an acute side-effect of another systemic disease that caused the internal eye pressure to suddenly skyrocket (narrow-angle glaucoma). But almost 90% of glaucoma cases (open-angle glaucoma) develop over time and aren’t so noticeable... until it’s too late. If not diagnosed and treated promptly, glaucoma can cause irreversible damage to the retina and optic nerve. Diabetics are twice as likely to develop glaucoma. Anyone with a family history of glaucoma, or any adult of Hispanic or African-American descent, is also at higher risk.

According to the World Health Organization, glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. It is the leading cause of blindness in African-Americans. If detected early enough, glaucoma can be treated with prescription eye-drops and surgical procedures.

“Floaters” are those annoying little specks and squiggles that drift across our field of vision – they’re actually shadows cast upon the retina by dried-up bits of the vitreous gel as we get older. No medical treatment is necessary, unless they suddenly multiply or if you have diabetes.

Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) usually appears after age 50, and is much more common in Caucasians than in African-Americans. A healthy diet and lifestyle can slow down the onset and progression of AMD – for instance, smoking doubles the risk of developing AMD. It is caused by damage to the macula, the extremely-sensitive focal spot on the retina needed for sharp straight-ahead vision. A blurry, dull area in the center of your vision is the first symptom, and this can grow larger and darker over time.

Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) is a genetic disorder which causes the gradual breakdown of the photosensitive cells in the retina.

The most common symptoms of RP is loss of night vision or loss of peripheral vision, resulting in tunnel vision. RP usually starts appearing in childhood and gradually worsens over time. As of now, there is no cure for RP.

Seeing is believing Eye exams aren’t just for getting glasses anymore – eye exams are powerful diagnostic tools, just like X-rays, urine samples, CAT scans or blood tests. Over time (like mammograms or HBP tests), regular eye exams are an easy, painless, non-scary way to track your overall health.

So, pay attention to what your eyes are telling you. If you notice any change in your vision (like blurring, double vision, nightblindness, light-sensitivity) or you’re getting daily headaches, consider it a wake-up call to have your eyes examined by a medical professional ASAP. It’s not just your eyesight you might be saving.

January is National Eye Care and Glaucoma Awareness Month.

Learn more at www.nei.nih.gov/health/healthyeyes.

E lizabeth M orse R ead is an award-winning writer, editor and artist who grew up on the South Coast. After 20 years of working in New York City and traveling the world, she came back home with her children and lives in Fairhaven.

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E xtra! E xtra!

In brief…

Eliz abeth Morse Read

Deck the halls and have a ball! Enjoy the bells, the festivities, and the company of friends and family. Share the love and the warmth of the season with others!

Calling all volunteers!

The Westport Land Conservation Trust is looking for volunteers for the “Tuesday Trail Team.” To learn more, contact pam@westportlandtrust.org or call 508-636-9228.

The Southcoast Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) needs Portuguesespeaking volunteers for its Hospice and Palliative Care programs. For more info, contact Mary Harrington at 508-973-3219 or at harringtonma@southcoast.org.

Help invigorate and showcase the arts and culture scene in Fall River – volunteer for AHA! Fall River! There will be AHA!

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events on April 21, July 21, October 20 and December 15 in 2016. To learn more, call Sandy Dennis at 508-673-2939 or Donna Winn at 401-663-6889.

The Samaritans of Bristol County need crisis hot-line volunteers. Training is provided. For more info, call 508-679-9777 or 508-673-3777.

Charlton Memorial Hospital is looking for energetic volunteers from the greater Fall River area. To learn more, call 508973-7038 or go to www.southcoast.org/ volunteer.

Junior Achievement of Southern MA

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needs volunteers to teach workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship to students in Bristol County and southern Plymouth County. Training and materials are provided. For more info, contact Elaine Meredith at Elaine.Meredith@ja.org or 508-997-6536 x 12.

The AARP Foundation’s Tax-Aide program is looking for volunteers of all ages to provide free tax assistance and preparation for low- to moderate-income taxpayers. Training is provided, need Spanish and Portuguese speakers. Call 1-888-6872277 or go to www.aarp.org/taxaide.

The Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) of Citizens For Citizens Inc. is looking for retired seniors who can offer their skills, talents and experience to help out public and nonprofit organizations in the Fall River and Taunton areas. To learn more, call Judy Charest at 508-679-0041.

“My Brother’s Keeper” of Easton and Dartmouth is looking for volunteers and

gently-used residential furniture and nonperishable foods for families in need. Free pick-up. Call 774-305-4577 or visit www.MyBrothersKeeper.org.

Sights to behold A must-see (and listen) – don’t miss the annual Moby Dick Marathon reading January 8-10 at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford! For more info, visit www.whalingmuseum.org or call 508-997-0046.

Travel Program. There’s a day-trip to Twin Rivers on January 11, and a multi-day day trip to Montreal and Niagara Falls May 15-20. For details, call 508-991-6171.

Meet your friends on Saturdays at the Oxford Book Haven and Café at the Church of the Good Shepherd in North Fairhaven. Fresh soups and desserts, used books on sale, and WiFi. To learn more, visit www.goodshepherdfairhaven.com or call 508-992-2281.

Watch the 104th Annual Medieval Christmas Pageant on December 15 at the St. George’s School Chapel in Middletown. Free. For more info, call 401-8477565 or go to www.stgeorges.edu.

Free trolley rides to-and-from the Fall River’s Senior Centers are available – for a schedule, contact the Council on Aging at 508-324-2401.

Check out the new Harbor Walk, a ¾ mile pedestrian/bike path atop the hurricane dike in New Bedford’s south end, officially opened to the public.

Watch a performance of “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” on selected dates through December 20, performed by the Attleboro Community Theatre! “Radio T.B.S. (Trailer Park Broadcasting Scandals)” will be performed in February.

For details, call 508-226-8100 or go to www.attleborocommunitytheatre.com.

Stroll through the splendor of “Christmas at the Newport Mansions” through January 3! For more info, go to www.newportmansions.org.

Explore New Bedford’s evolution from a whaling port to an industrial giant at the exhibit “Energy and Enterprise: Industry and the City of New Bedford” at the Whaling Museum. For more info, visit www.whalingmuseum.org or call 508-997-0046.

Visit the 62nd Annual Christmas Festival of Lights at LaSalette Shrine through January 3! For more info, visit www.lasalette-shrine.org or call 508-2225410.

Stroll through the Blithewold Mansion and Gardens in Bristol! Don’t miss “Sparkle: Christmas at Blithewold” through January 3. For info, call 401-2532707 or go to www.blithewold.org.

Check out “Undecked Halls” at Rough Point Mansion in Newport through December 29. For more info, visit www.newportrestoration.org or call 401-847-8344.

Explore “A Victorian Christmas” at the Fall River Historical Society. For dates and times, call 508-679-1071 or visit www.fallriverhistorical.org or www.lizzieborden.org.

Senior moments

If you’re 50 or older, check out the trips sponsored by the New Bedford Senior

All the world’s a stage

Estate and Medicaid Legal Services — For You and Your Family —

Get Ready for 2016 Schedule your Estate Planning Consultation Today!

• Health Care Proxies and Living Wills • Durable Powers of Attorney

Jane E. Sullivan, Esq. 624 Brayton Avenue • Fall River, MA

508-679-0535

Fall River’s Little Theatre will perform will perform “Nunsense A-Men” through December 13, and “Into the Woods” January 21-31. For details, call 508-6751852 or go to www.littletheatre.net.

Take the family to the 90-minute murder mystery “Murder at the Museum: Naughty or Nice,” performed by the Marley Bridges Theatre Company, on December 19 or 26 at the Newport Art Museum. For info, call 401-848-8200 or go to www.newportartmuseum.org.

Don’t miss “The Heidi Chronicles” performed through January 3 at Trinity Rep in Providence. “The Hunchback of Seville” will be performed February 4 – March 6. For more info, call 401-3514242 or go to www.trinityrep.com.

Curtain time! Mark your calendar to see Sam Shepherd’s “True West” performed January 14-24 by Your Theatre in New Bedford. For info, call 508-993-0772 or go to www.yourtheatre.org.

Check out what’s playing at 2nd Story Theatre in Warren! “Story Theatre” will be performed through December 20 and “Hysteria” will be performed January 22 through February 14. Call 401-247-4200 or go to www.2ndstorytheatre.com.

It’s all happenin’ at the Z! Don’t miss

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• Homestead Protection • Wills and Trusts • Medicaid Planning • Medicaid Applications

It’s All About Doing What’s Best for You and Your Family

www.janesullivanlaw.com

SOUTHCOAST FUNERAL SERVICE, INC. Independently Owned and Operated

“Because we care”

William J. Allen and Justin B. Souza, Funeral Directors

Affordability you can count on Special Funeral for Veterans and Their Spouses South Coast Funeral Home, Est. 2003 1555 Pleasant Street, Fall River 508 672-0291 www.SouthCoastFuneralHome.com Boyko Memorial Funeral Home, Est. 1934 709 Broadway, Fall River 508 678-5121 www.BoykoMemorial.com

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Continued from previous page

Bill H arley

Wild Ponies

Samantha Fish

Mark your calendar for the monthly Paskamansett Concert Series at the Dartmouth Grange Hall. Bill Harley will perform on January 9, Fourteen Strings on February 13. For more info, visit www. paskamansettconcertseries.weebly.com or call 401-241-3793.

Get back to your musical roots at Common Fence Music in Portsmouth! There’s Aine Minogue’s 21st Annual Winter Solstice Celebration December 19, Qristina and Quinn Bachand January 16, A Gathering of Fiddlers and Fishermen January 23, Wild Ponies February 6, and The Slambovian Circus of Dreams (at Channing Church in Newport) on February 13.

For more info, call 401-683-5085 or visit www.commonfencemusic.org.

The Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River has a fabulous lineup – there’s James McMurtry December 17, Savoy Brown December 18, NRBQ December 31, Funky White Honkies January 1, Girls, Guns and Glory January 2, David Bromberg Quintet January 21, Donna the Buffalo February 5, Samantha Fish February 11 – and much, much more! For a complete schedule, call 508-324-1926 or visit www.narrowscenter.com.

www.newportplayhouse.com or call 401848-7529.

Museum in Easton! For info, visit www.ChildrensMuseumInEaston.org or call 508-230-3789.

Listen to the music

If you’re a fan of Americana and roots music, check out the monthly Salon Concerts at the Wamsutta Club in New Bedford. For more information, visit www.wamsuttaconcerts.com. the Zeiterion’s New Year’s Eve Bash at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford on December 31– food, music, and a great view of the fireworks! Plan ahead for “Saturday Night Fever: The Musical” on January 17, “Moby Dick” on February 7 and “A Night with Janis Joplin” on February 26! Go to www.zeiterion.org or call 508-999-6276.

Find out what’s on stage at the Providence Performing Arts Center! There’s the Festival Ballet’s “Nutcracker” December 18-20, “Annie” December 29 through January 3, “Cabaret” January 26-31, and “Pippin” February 16-21! Plan ahead for the multi-media concert “StarTrek: The Ultimate Voyage” on February 14. Call 401-421-2787 or go to www.ppacri.org.

Catch a performance of “Stupid F#*%ing Bird” January 21- February 6, performed by The Wilbury Theatre Group in Providence. For info, call 401-4007100 or visit www.thewilburygroup.org.

Plan a dinner-theatre night out at the Newport Playhouse! “Always a Bridesmaid” will be performed through December 31. For more information, go to

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When the kids are home

The Festival of Lights at Edaville Railroad in Carver, and the Polar Express rides will be held through December 29.

Take the kids on Dino Land or Thomas the Tank Engine train rides! For more info, visit www.edaville.com or call 508866-8190.

Take the kids to Mass Audubon’s Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary and Nature Center in Attleboro! For more info, visit www.massaudubon.org or call 508-2233060 Explore the Children’s Museum in Providence! Go to www.childrenmuseum.org or call 401-273-5437. Then find out what’s happening at the Roger Williams Park Zoo! For more info, go to www.rwpzoo.org or call 401-785-3510.

Check out what’s going on at the Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River.

For more info, go to www.cmgfr.org or call 508-672-0033. Or the Children’s

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Fun for the whole family

Head for AHA! Nights in Fall River’s “Classic Christmas Creativity” event on December 17 at the Government Center!

To find out what’s happening in Fall River, go to www.ahafallriver.com or call 508-294-5344.

Get out the ice skates and head for the Newport Skating Center! For more info, visit www.skatenewport.com or www.newportwaterfrontevents.com, or call 1-888-900-8640 x 709.

Classical acts

Westport’s Concerts at the Point will present The Fred Moyer Jazz Trio on December 20 and the Adaskin String Trio on February 21. For more info, visit www.concertsatthepoint.org or call 508636-0698.

Don’t miss the St. Petersburg Russian Men’s Ensemble sing at Emmanuel Church in Newport on December 13! For

Saturday Night Fever

Gong Sound Bath

It’s all happenin’ at the Z! Head for the Zeiterion in New Bedford for A Celtic Christmas Sojourn December 17, the NBSO’s Holiday Pops Concert on December 19, and the Zeiterion’s New Year’s Eve Bash at the Whaling Museum on December 31! Plan ahead for “Saturday Night Fever: The Musical” on January 17 and “Moby Dick” on February 7! Call 508999-6276 or go to www.zeiterion.org.

The Sandywoods Center for the Arts in Tiverton will present Gong Sound Bath on December 19 and contra dancing every month. For a complete schedule, go to www.sandywoodsmusic.com or call 401-241-7349.

details, call 401-847-0675 or visit www.EmmanuelNewport.org.

Enjoy the centennial season of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra at the Zeiterion! There’s the NBSO’s Holiday Pops Concert on December 19, and a performance of Britten, Schumann and Mussorgsky on February 20! For more info, call 508-999-6276 or visit www.nbsymphony.org.

Plan ahead to hear “Andrius Zlabys & Friends” on February 13 at Goff Memorial Hall in Rehoboth, part of the “Arts in the Village” series. For details, visit www.carpentermuseum.org.

The South Coast Community Chorale will perform its Christmas Concert, featuring Schubert’s “Mass in G Major,” on December 13 at Good Shepherd Parish in Fall River. For more info, go to www.sccchorale.com.

Don’t miss the stunning performances at Rhode Island College – The Muir String Quartet will perform on February 1. For info and tickets, call 401-456-8144 or visit www.ric.edu/pfa.

Listen to the Rhode Island Philharmonic’s performances of Dvorak’s “New World” January 16 or Ride of the Valkyries February 20! For details, go to www.ri-philharmonic.org.

The South Coast Chamber Music Series will perform “Sweethearts” at St. Gabriel’s Church in Marion on February 13, and at Grace Episcopal Church in New Bedford on February 14. For more info, visit www.nbsymphony.org. or call 508-999-6276.

Find out what’s on stage at the Providence Performing Arts Center! There’s the Festival Ballet’s “Nutcracker” December 18-20. Go to www.ppacri.org or call 401421-2787.

Time travel

Take a tour of the Whaling City’s historic district and the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park! For

Continued on next page

Restyle Your Diamond While You Watch!

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We’ll help you select a setting from our tremendous selection and then...while you watch…we’ll take care of the entire transformation…including sizing, setting, polishing, and cleaning.

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1473 South Main Street Fall River, MA (508) 672-6421 www.PatenaudeJewelers.com Mon.-Fri. 9:30-5:00, Sat. 9:30-4:00

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YMCA SOUTHCOAST · ymcasouthcoast.org

It’s happening every day at the Y — people of all ages are getting healthier and living better through fitness, sports, fun and shared interests. Join us.

Each day at the Y, people of all ages are coming together to get and stay active. Seniors are engaging in social activities and meeting others who share common interests and passions.

They’re participating in group exercise and aquatics classes and learning about proper nutrition. And they’re working side-by-side with our Wellness Coaches to develop more active, productive lives.

FITNESS FUN & FRIENDS

Senior Membership Advantages

Free Y membeship with Senior Whole Health.

For details inquire at the Membership desk.

Continued from previous page more info, go to www.nps.gov/nebe.

Explore New Bedford’s evolution from a whaling port to an industrial giant at the exhibit “Energy and Enterprise: Industry and the City of New Bedford” at the Whaling Museum. For more info, visit www.whalingmuseum.org or call 508997-0046. While you’re there, visit the whaling-era mansion and grounds at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House in New Bedford.

For more info, call 508-997-1401 or visit www.rjdmuseum.org.

The great outdoors

Spend a Sunday afternoon exploring the colonial-era Lafayette-Durfee House in Fall River! Call 508-873-8230 or go to www.lafayettedurfeehouse.org.

Explore the trails, wildlife and scenery of the Mattapoisett River Reserve – leashed dogs welcome. Hike, fish, picnic, bird-watch – and it’s a great place for cross-country skiing! For more info, go to www.savebuzzardsbay.org.

Explore 18th- and 19th-century life at the Handy House in Westport. For more info, visit www.wpthistory.org or call 508-636-6011.

Japanophiles! If you’re interested in the history of Japan-America ties, plan a visit the Whitfield-Manjiro Friendship House in Fairhaven, where it all began. Go to www.wmfriendshiphouse.org or call 508995-1219 for details.

Learn about life in the 18th century – take the family to the Coggeshall Farm Museum in Bristol for “Home and Hearth” workshops! For details, visit www.coggeshallfarm.org or call 401-2539062.

Head for Battleship Cove in Fall River!

Call 508-678-1100 for info or visit www. battleshipcove.org. Check out the largest collection of Titanic memorabilia in the US, including the one-ton model used in the 1953 movie, at the Fall River Marine Museum in Battleship Cove. For more info, visit www.marinemuseumfr.org. or call 508-674-3533.

Food, feasts and festivals

The Winter Farmer’s Market has returned to the ORR Junior High School gymnasium in Mattapoisett, and will be open on the second and fourth Saturday of every month through April.

Fill your baskets with local produce, cheeses, jellies, wines, pies and holiday greenery. To find a farm, vineyard or winter farmers market near you, visit www.semaponline.org, www.pickyourown.org, www.farmfresh.org, or www.localharvest.org.

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The EPA recently awarded $5,000,000 to the Southeast New England Program for Coastal Watershed Restoration, which spans the entire South Coast and Cape Cod. Take a family walk through the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown!

EcoTours for all ages. For info, visit www.normanbirdsanctuary.org or call 401-846-2577.

Take a stroll through the newly-restored Acushnet Sawmills public park and herring weir in the north end of New Bedford! Canoe/kayak launch, fishing, trails. For more info, visit www.savebuzzardsbay.org. Or wander through the urban greenspace of the Allen C. Haskell Public Gardens in the north end – learn more at www.thetrustees.org or call 508-6364693.

Take a winter walk through the city’s Buttonwood Park and Zoo! For info, visit www.bpzoo.org or call 508-9916178.

If you’re near Newport, stroll through Ballard Park! For more info, go to www.ballardpark.org. Or go on a Seal Watch/Nature Cruise in Newport Harbor – the one-hour tours leave from Long Wharf through April. For details, call 401324-6060 or visit www.savebay.org.

Take the kids to Mass Audubon’s Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary and Nature Center in Attleboro! For more info, visit www.massaudubon.org or call 508-2233060.

Paskamansett Woods, the newest nature reserve operated by the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust, is now open to the public. For more info, go to www.dnrt.org.

Explore the Lloyd Center for the Environment in Dartmouth! Try your hand at canoeing or kayaking! For details and dates, call 508-990-0505 or visit www.lloydcenter.org.

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where love and skill work together

randon Woods of New Bedford is a very special place with a tremendous amount of heart, compassion, and commitment from all members of our staff. Please feel free to come in at any time for a tour, meet our wonderful team, and see why we’re the place where love and skill work together.

We at Brandon Woods of New Bedford are very pleased to announce the recent additions to our leadership team.

velopment for the past 16 years. Ginny is also a wound-care-certified clinician and has been a member of the National Alliance of Wound Care since April of 2015.

She is also a peer adviser at Bristol Plymouth Regional Technical High School as well as a volunteer with the Taunton Emergency Management System. Prior to ginny’s nursing career she had spent 5 years in the ICU where she grew her acute care skills, which she hones regularly.

Christopher McMullen is our new Plant Manager. Chris has over 10 years of long-term care plant operations experience. Chris fits right into our team and has done a fantastic job in maintaining and improving the building.

Christine Smith, RN, has been promoted to Director of Nursing. Chris has been a member of Brandon Woods of New Bedford for nearly 5 years as the Assistant Director of Nursing. She has been a staff nurse, MDS coordinator, and has just completed her case management certification. Christine knows our residents very well and has a great amount of compassion.

Virginia Ivanoski, LPN, WCC, has joined our team as Staff Development Coordinator. “Ginny” has been a nurse for the past 29 years, 24 of them in long-term care. She has been working in staff de-

keep the residents connected with the community.”

Carol Brasells, Activity Director, has been in long-term care for over 21 years, and is now bringing her experience to the position of our Dementia Program Director. Carol started her career as a dietary aide, worked her way up to cook, then transferred to activities. She has been our Activity Director since 2004.

“I enjoy working with the elderly and especially the dementia population,” she says. “My goal is to continue with education and learn new things to bring back to my residents and to help them fulfill their wishes. Something that may not seem possible may just need to be downsized to accommodate the ability and needs of the resident. We conduct a variety of programs in the facility and I also try to

Matthew Maisen is our new Food Services Director. Matt has over 15 years in long-term care food services and is bringing us to the next level of culinary experiences.

We are very proud of the additions to our team as we continue to strive to provide the highest quality of care to all of our residents.

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PRIME SEASON

Knicker kicker The things we lose as we age astound me.

We lose our hearing, making it far easier to filter out unnecessary sounds – including the annoying voices of Paul K andarian people we really don’t want to hear from.

We lose our eyesight, making it easier to filter out things we don’t want to see – including annoying people we’d rather not talk to, so we don’t have to pretend we didn’t see them because we actually don’t see them.

We lose our sense of smell, making it easier to ignore whatever smells we may be producing – and passing it off as “the dog did it, honest!” even if we don’t have an actual dog because we’re losing our memory, too.

And the things we gain as we age astound me as well. Notably, tight pants.

I swear this happens usually around the holidays, when you pull a pair of pants from the closet that once fit comfortably, only to find them snug to the point of not being able to button them. I’ve talked to others in my age range (62 and holding) and they agree: this is a conspiracy by the clothing industry to get us to buy more, larger pants.

I did this the other day. I took out a pair of jeans that fit quite nicely in summer and couldn’t button them. They looked the same, felt the same, but I did notice that they had decreased in size. I blame the Levis company for this. They somehow know when older people buy their product and have a shrinking mechanism built into them.

I know what you’re thinking, especially if you’re younger. You’re thinking, “Hey, old man, you just ate a lot over the holidays, so admit it – admit that you can’t push away from the table until every

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scrap of food on your oft-replenished plate is gone and it feels like it’s all about to burst out of your face.” Well, to that I say to you something unprintable because another thing we lose as we age is our ability to not blurt out exactly what’s on our mind.

So maybe I did eat a lot, so what? I didn’t eat any more than I did 30, 40 years ago. Back then I’d eat like a great white and not gain a pound. Okay, so then I was playing hockey four, five, six times a week. Now I play once, maybe twice. My math may be getting a little fuzzier with age, but that seems about the same to me.

I went looking for proof that pants are getting smaller and lo and behold, found it In fact, I know it’s the same. I see guys I used to play hockey with decades ago who have ballooned up to WTFhappened-to-you proportions and when I ask them, they say they haven’t played in years. I play once, twice a week and have remained largely the same weight.

So there, point proven, at least in my own addled mind.

I consulted calculator.net for my ideal weight. I see that it varies from 161 to 178 pounds, not taking BMI into account, which is body mass index, which is confusing so I dismiss it. That’s just insane.

My weight ranges from 200-210. The last time I weighed between 161 and 178 pounds I was in junior high school. So I dismiss ideal weight charts as well.

I went looking for proof that pants are getting smaller and lo and behold, found it. According to a Washington Post article

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in 2014, “This is the era of ever-shrinking men’s trousers – they are tailored and shorter, tighter and shrunken, too tight and too short.”

Ha! See? The article also said that on the average man (I count myself among their number), “the popular cut – done right – could most accurately be described as “lean.” The preference for this style crosses ethnicities and economics. It is embraced by 20-somethings as well as men in their 50s.”

So there it is, that is the problem. I’m not a 20-something, nor in my 50s, so I don’t embrace this style, it embraces me – far too tightly. It’s not me, nor is it us, gentlemen of a certain age. It indeed is the pants.

What the article didn’t say (but should have) is that pants that once did fit comfortably no longer do, and this I say is due to a shrinking mechanism in pants sold to us older types. I looked for proof online of that but couldn’t find it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not true. Fabricating total lies works for Donald Trump, so I see no reason it won’t work for me.

And this, of course, is part of a larger conspiracy in the clothing industry that also makes one sock in a pair dissolve in the dryer. Something must be done about this. Something must be done quickly.

But this does not mean turning to Sansabelt pants, the way my dad did, buying them mail-order from magazines. The company sells “men’s comfort waist dress pants in sizes 30-70,” its website says, some 19 million pants since 1952.

The things we lose as we age astound me – including the ability to admit defeat. I gotta go find a hockey game to get into.

Paul K andarian is a lifelong area resident and has been a professional writer since 1982, as columnist, contributor in national magazines, websites and other publications.

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