MY HOMETOWN SERIES Bethany Krom Manor 334

By Bob Bennett

My Story: Prior to her semi-retirement, Bethany Krom of Manor 334 served as Assistant Dean at the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences. The “semi” part comes in because she continues to serve at Mayo Clinic as an Executive Coach. Her husband, Robin, is now retired after serving as an administrator, trainer, real estate agent, and store owner.

My Family: Bethany and Robin have two children, Justin, and Heather. Justin is a Captain for Spirit Airlines. He lives in Duluth, Minnesota with his wife Erika. They have three children: Colin, age 12, Magnolia, age 6, and Riordan, age 4. Heather is a Nurse Anesthetist at Mayo Clinic. She lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her husband Mike, who is a GI Nurse. They have two children: Liam, age 10, and Keely, age 8.

My Interests: Bethany enjoys traveling, camping, golf, pickleball, kayaking, waking, games, and theater. She actively promotes kidney donation, having donated one herself in 2021. But her favorite times are those spent with family and friends.

My Leisure World Hometown: Bethany has lived in Leisure World for three years, discovering it through friends who already lived here. The Kroms belong to the Leisure World Pickleball Club during the season and spend their summers in a permanent campsite in Minnesota.

My Leisure World Favorites: Bethany’s favorite part of life in Leisure World is the circle of friends, the gatherings, pickleball, golf, and being sunbirds (avoiding winter).

Thanks Bethany, for making Leisure World your hometown!

By Matilda Charles

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of Covid cases has steadily risen since December. Earlier in the fall, Covid took a short break while the flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) made it to center stage. Those illnesses are now waning a bit, and here comes Covid again.

It doesn’t help that we have a new variant -- an offshoot of Omicron, the XBB.1.5 -- taking off around the country. By Christmas nearly half the cases of Covid were that new variant, so it’s growing.

Seniors, as usual, are being hit hard with those in the age 70+ range being the largest group affected, followed by ages 60-69.

If you’re hesitant to go back to being extremely careful, we’re experiencing what some doctors are calling the Senior Wave. It means the numbers on a graph show that the largest group affected with hospitalizations are seniors.

By Matilda Charles

Which means it’s still not time to let down our guard. If anything, it means renewing our efforts to stay safe. Frequent handwashing, wearing a mask in the store, even if you’re the only one who is, staying out of large groups ... we know how to do this.

And like it or not, we should. The growing number of seniors being hospitalized or dying due to Covid should shake up all of us.

Another, and possibly even more accurate, statistic for the spread of Covid is the wastewater. This is where municipalities test the sewage for Covid. People can hide their exposure and illness by using the at-home tests we all received in the mail, thereby skewing the “official” numbers, but the sewage in an area is sure to be more accurate.

One Billion Safety Recalls

It was recently disclosed that in the first half of 2022, there were over 1 billion recalls across the country of products that we buy.

That’s billion, with a “b.” Depending on the level of the recall, some of them can be extremely serious ... even deadly.

How do we know whether we missed an announcement about a product we own? We can go online to Recalls. gov and look. They cover everything from sports equipment to electronics, household items and more. You can search on that site by date, the type of hazard and the country where an item was manufactured. I searched for clothing. It was shocking to see a dozen children’s items recalled for fire hazard. And the padded rolling desk chair with the legs that can break. And the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms that don’t work. And laundry detergent with dangerous bacteria in it.

To be notified about recalls, go to www.cpsc.gov/ Newsroom/Subscribe and sign up for the free email alerts.

If you need to keep up with recalls and alerts for a vehicle, go online to www.nhtsa.gov/recalls. You’ll need the vehicle identification number (VIN), which can be found on the door jamb behind the driver door. Or you can search by year, make and model of your vehicle. For the very latest vehicle recalls, Kelley Blue

To see the wastewater data by county, go online to CDC.gov and search for “National Wastewater Surveillance System” (NWSS).

Book also has them listed on the front page at www. kbb.com/recall.

Food is another area where we need to keep up with any recalls and warnings. Search for “FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts” for the latest information on cosmetics, veterinary items, medical devices and food. Right on the front page was a list of alerts for products with undeclared wheat, potential listeria, salmonella and more. In the medical devices it was disturbing to learn of rust on needles.

You’ll see a link there to sign up for alert emails. Let’s make 2023 our year to be aware and safe.

Strange But True

Good Eats!

By Lucie Winborne

• Martial arts icon Bruce Lee could throw a single grain of rice into the air and catch it with chopsticks.

• A 2009 study found that lost wallets were 88% more likely to be returned to their owners if they contained a photo of a baby. Barring that, you’re also more likely to recover one if you typically carry pictures of a puppy, family members or an elderly couple.

• The word “checkmate” comes from the Arabic “shat mat,” or “The king is dead.”

• *Want your candles to burn longer and drip less? Put them in the freezer for a few hours before lighting them.

• In what must qualify as one of the oddest marketing campaigns ever created, Burger King launched one that entitled customers to a free Whopper if they unfriended 10 Facebook friends. Those folks would receive a message explaining that their digital relationship was less valuable than the sandwich. Hey, we like Whoppers too, but really!

• Dolphins have been witnessed amusing themselves by creating underwater bubble rings.

• There’s a Google Map for Mercury, Venus, Earth’s moon, Mars, Pluto, three out of four of Jupiter’s moons, and all but one of the round Saturnian moons.

• Leonardo da Vinci often bought caged animals just to set them free.

Moments In Time

• On Feb. 10, 1535, notwithstanding the winter chill and in a form of protest that was, unsurprisingly, ridiculed by both Protestants and Catholics, a small group of Anabaptists ran stark naked through the streets of Amsterdam, shouting that they “had been sent from God to communicate the naked truth to the godless.”

• Early 19th-centur y composer Robert Schumann had an interesting, if grisly and ineffective, method of attempting to cure any disease he had or might have: plunging his hands into the guts of recently slaughtered animals.

• Sid Nouar, owner of the 1000&1 Signes restaurant in Paris, was the first deaf person to open a restaurant in France. It is also staffed entirely by deaf employees.

Thought for the Day: “Take action. An inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention.” -- Steve

Maraboli

By: Joseph M. Amme

My wife and I visited Brooklyn New York Pizza and Italian Cafe and were amazed at not only the quality (and quantity) of food but also the service. We went for lunch the first time and had the all-youcan-eat lunch. For only $13.29, you each receive a salad, the pasta of the day, it was ziti when we went, and a 10” pizza with your choice of toppings! The pasta was perfectly cooked, and the sauce had great flavor. I ordered the sausage and pepperoni pizza, and it was one of the best I have ever had, cheesy and with loads of toppings. My wife had the NY Supreme with sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Sometimes when you get all those toppings the crust can be soggy, but not here, it was crispy and delicious. It was more than we could eat and provided another meal for each of us.

We visited Brooklyn Pizza again for dinner the next week and shared the spaghetti with sausage and peppers. At $16, this is the most expensive dinner on the menu and at any other restaurant it would sell for $25! It was fantastic and the portion was so big that we even had some to take home. Don’t forget the cannoli for dessert.

I cannot recommend this place enough! Such a warm and welcoming environment! Brooklyn Pizza is a small local restaurant with great service, food, and definitely a go-to place.

Look for their ad in the Leisure World News along with coupons.

They are located at 7145 E Main St in Mesa, in the strip mall next to Ace Hardware. Their phone number for takeout is 602-457-7775 and their website is brooklynnypizzamesa.com.

• On Feb. 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were respectively elected to six-year terms as the Provisional President and Provisional Vice President of the Confederate States of America, after running without opposition.

• On Feb. 11, 1916, American feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested and imprisoned for violating the Comstock Act just before she was scheduled to deliver a public lecture on birth control, which she argued was essential to women’s social, economic and sexual freedom.

• On Feb. 6, 1952, England’s King George VI passed away, making his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II. The sovereign received the news from her husband, Prince Philip, while on a trip to Kenya, which was immediately cut short as she prepared to assume her new role.

• On Feb. 7, 1964, the music world would never be quite the same after the Beatles arrived in New York for their first visit to the U.S., where thousands of nearhysterical fans waited to greet them at Kennedy Airport. During their appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” they whipped up an even greater frenzy, with 73 million viewers watching on their TVs at home.

• On Feb. 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair, which was the only execution method used in that state, represented a violation of human dignity and was consequently unconstitutional, adding that electrocution “has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein than the death chamber.”

• On Feb. 12, 2014, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a sinkhole estimated at about 30 feet deep and 40 feet wide opened under the National Corvette Museum, swallowing eight of the rare sports cars. The building suffered no structural damage and remained open, and though damaged, the vehicles were returned to display and remain a popular attraction.

Divas On A Dime

You know those inexpensive pasta sauces? While they’re indispensable for making quick spaghetti dinners, these sauces are useful for so much more than pasta. Here are several ideas that think outside the pasta box. Not a noodle in sight.

Easy Creamy Tomato Soup -- In a saucepan, lightly saute 1/2 cup fresh basil (minced) in 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil. Add one (24-ounce) can of pasta sauce, 2 cups water and heat through. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup heavy cream. Yields 4 servings. This soup told me it’s lonely without its best friend. So please make a grilled cheese sandwich, too.

Sloppy Joes -- Brown 1 1/2 pounds ground beef with one (16-ounce) bag frozen pepper and onion blend. Add 2 cups pasta sauce, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Divide the mixture between 4 to 6 hamburger buns.

Tomato Butter -- In a food processor or mixing bowl with a hand mixer, blend 1 stick (1/2 cup) softened butter, 1/4 cup pasta sauce and 1/4 cup chopped parsley or basil. Use plastic wrap to roll the compound butter into a log; refrigerate. Slather on fresh baked breads, fish, chicken, cooked vegetables or rice.

Yield: 4 to 8 servings

Total Time: 2 to 3 hours, 15 minutes

Here’s a great recipe for those times when you can linger in the kitchen and enjoy your home leisurely filling with the aroma of a slow-cooked roast.

So next time you’re feeling a little saucy, remember life is about exploring all the pasta-bilities, even those beyond pasta.

Lifestyle expert Patti Diamond is the penny-pinching, party-planning, recipe developer and content creator of the website Divas On A Dime -- Where Frugal, Meets Fabulous! Visit Patti at www.divasonadime.com and join the conversation on Facebook at DivasOnADimeDotCom.

Email Patti at divapatti@divasonadime.com