THE TITUSVILLE HERALD, Titusville, Pa., Saturday, June 13, 2015 – PAGE 7
HELP
Mothers’ interfering bothers reader Dear Harriette: I used to be best friends with a girl in middle school, and our moms became close friends as a result. Years later, we have grown apart, but they are still close friends. I am happy my mother has a confidante and partner in crime, but both mothers do not seem to understand that their daughHarriette ters do not share the Cole same bond. They think setting us up on “play SENSE & dates” of sorts will work to rekindle our friendship. SENSITIVITY We grew apart because of a difference in values and interests, and I am happy with the current amount of friends I have. I am always cordial to the daughter when I see her, but I find this maternal meddling frustrating. Is there any way to politely tell my mother to get over the end of my middle school friendship? — No Old Friends, Memphis, Tennessee Dear No Old Friends: The direct approach is the best approach. Talk to your mother and tell her that you are happy that she and the other mom have become so close. Then point out that the same is not true for you and her daughter, and it is OK. The two of you do not share the same values, interests or friends, so neither of you is trying to cultivate a bond. Ask your mother to let you live your life as she enjoys hers. Dear Harriette: After senior prom, students separate into smaller groups to get ready for
after-prom, which takes place 30 minutes away. Party buses are rented for this occasion, and who is on which bus is determined by friendships. My boyfriend and I do not have the same friends, and since we are spending pre-prom with my friends, I thought it’d be a good compromise to go on a post-prom bus with his friends. Upon seeing that my boyfriend and I were on the list for this bus, other passengers contacted him saying they do not feel “comfortable” with me being on this bus. We have since switched buses to be with my friends. The people who contacted him were people I previously considered friends. I was originally shocked to learn people felt this way, but I know that not everyone is going to like me, and that’s OK. I do not know how to react when I see these people again. I would like to ignore them, but I am simply not sure how to proceed. Is ignoring them immature, or is it the best path to follow in this situation? — Can’t Win ‘Em All Dear Can’t Win ‘Em All: Chalk all of the drama up to prom cliques and jitters. Congratulate yourself and your boyfriend on working your bus rides out together. That’s the most important thing. Don’t give the others a second thought. When you see them, greet them in a friendly way. You have no need even to think about them anymore. Your bond with your boyfriend trumped all of them.
Lifestylist and author Harriette Cole is president and creative director of Harriette Cole Media. You can send questions to askharriette@ harriettecole.com or c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, Mo., 64106.
Biking is great exercise for kids and their families
Dear Doctor K: Summer is here, and my children are out all afternoon riding their bicycles. What can I do to make sure they’re as safe as possible? Dear Reader: Bicycling is a wonderful activity for children — and for famiDr. lies. As with any sport, bicycling carries a risk of Anthony injury. Proper safety skills Komaroff and equipment are essential for all children before heading out on the road. It can be tricky to find a safe place to teach your child to ride a bike. The streets near your home may be too busy. My father taught me to ride a bike in the same place he taught me to drive a car: the parking lot of a large department store when the store was closed. By far the most important safety measure is the use of a properly fitting bicycle helmet every time your child rides a bike. Helmets can reduce the risk of serious head injuries by 85 percent. And many states — wisely — require helmet use. All helmets made in the United States today must meet standards set by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. It’s important to make sure your child’s helmet fits properly. A helmet that is too big or too loose will not provide the appropriate protection upon impact. A helmet needs to be worn in a level position, with the chin straps snug enough that the helmet
does not move out of place when pushed from the side, front or back. Many helmets come with foam fitting pads of various sizes that can be placed inside the helmet and adjusted as the child’s head grows. If possible, purchase your child’s helmet at a bike shop. The people who work there can make sure it fits properly. At the same time, get your child’s bike checked for any mechanical problems and make sure the bike is the right size for your child. Most bike shops can do this for a small fee. Children must also understand and follow the rules of the road. Be sure to go over the rules with your children when they are learning to ride. Review them periodically. Riding on the right side of the road and using hand signals appropriately may be the difference between avoiding an accident and causing one. Many communities have set aside bike lanes or bike routes for riding. If these are available, encourage your child to use them instead of a busy street. They are much safer than regular city streets. It’s important to take precautions, but don’t let them scare you or your kids off their bikes. Biking is a fun way to stay active. Regular exercise will keep your kids healthy now and also set them up for good health habits that can last a lifetime. Dr. Komaroff is a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School. To send questions, go to AskDoctorK.com, or write: Ask Doctor K, 10 Shattuck St., Second Floor, Boston, Mass., 02115.
ENTERTAINMENT
Six private Harper Lee letters fail to sell at Christie’s auction By Ula Ilnytzky Associated Press
NEW YORK — Six letters by “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee to one of her close friends failed to sell at auction Friday. The archive had been expected to bring as much as $250,000 at Christie’s, which said the bidding did not reach the reserve price. Four of the letters date from before “Mockingbird” while Lee was caring for her ailing father, Amasa Coleman Lee, the model for her protagonist Atticus Finch. The signed and typed letters were written to Lee’s friend, New York architect Harold Caufield, between 1956 and 1961, according to Christie’s, which is selling them on Friday. In one, she writes about her “stunned” reaction to the huge success of the book, published in 1960 and made into a movie starring Gregory Peck two years later. “We were surprised, stunned and dazed by the Princeton review,” she wrote. “The procurator of Judea is breathing heavily down my neck — all that lovely, lovely money is going straight to the Bureau of Internal Revenue tomorrow.” In another letter, she tells Caufield: “Daddy is sitting beside me at the kitchen table. ... I found myself staring at his handsome old face, and a sudden wave of panic flashed through me, which I think was an echo of the fear and desolation that filled me when he was nearly dead. It has been years since I have lived with him on a day-to-day basis.” The sale comes as Lee’s second book, “Go Set a Watchman,” is set to be released in July. It was written before the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Mockingbird” but takes place 20 years later. Lee’s agreement to release the book stunned the literary world. “Watchman” has been ranked No. 1 in new releases of classic literature and fiction on Amazon.com for weeks. “She’s arguably one of the most important American novelists of the post-war period who has not published a great deal,” said Tom Lecky, Christie’s head of books and manuscripts. “She’s remained a private figure so the appearance of an archive like this is a very important moment in the marketplace. Only three other letters of hers have come up at auction within the last 35 years.”
In this 2007 file photo, author Harper Lee, who wrote ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ smiles during a ceremony honoring her at the Capitol in Montgomery, Ala. Christie’s said the seller, who wished to remain anonymous, acquired the letters on the open market. The auctioneer intentionally has blurred the contents in its catalog and online to protect the author’s privacy. The 89-year-old Lee, who is in declining health and lives in an assisted-living home in Monroeville, Ala., could not be reached for comment about the sale. Her attorney, Tonja Brooks Carter, did not return an email and phone request for comment. In a 1961 letter, Lee wrote that Esquire magazine turned down her “pastiche” about “some white people who were segregationists and at the same time loathed and hated the K.K.K. This is an axiomatic impossibility, according to Esquire!” The letters, totaling eight pages, are signed as “Nelle,” ‘’N.H.,” or with comic pseudonyms including, “The prisoner of Zenda,” a reference to an 1894 novel about a king who is drugged and kidnapped on the eve of his coronation. The letters present “an interesting bracket of before and after of a monumental moment in American letters where you have the time leading up to while she’s writing her book and then you get a glimpse into her reaction to the reaction,” said Lecky. “You see how the book was received and how she received those reviews.”
ENTERTAINMENT
Oculus’ virtual-reality headset to simulate touch, gestures By Michael Liedtke AP Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Oculus is expanding its virtual-reality headset to simulate the sensation of touch and gesturing as part of its quest to blur the lines between the fake and genuine world. The touch controllers unveiled Thursday by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey are designed to enable people to pick up guns, throw Frisbees or carry out other actions within the fantasy scenes they see through a virtual reality headset called the Rift. The controllers also will make it possible to point, wave inside the video games being played on the Rift, according to Luckey. The half-moon shaped controllers, called Oculus Touch, will be showcased along with the Rift headset next week in Los Angeles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, a major video game conference. “We really think Oculus Touch is going to surprise you,” Luckey, 22, said. “We think they are going to deliver an entirely new set of virtual reality experiences.” Besides showing off its latest gadgetry, Oculus provided a glimpse at the line-up of video games being designed for the Rift and announced a partnership with Microsoft Corp. to make the headset compatible with the Xbox console and devices running on the next version of the Windows operating system scheduled to be released next month. Oculus’ virtual-reality technology is so highly regarded that Facebook bought it for $2 billion last year. Since that acquisition, the Rift has remained in a testing phase that has kept its early prototypes in the hands of video game makers and computer programmers. The first consumer model of the headset won’t be released until sometime during the first three months of next year. The touch controllers start selling shortly after that, at some point between April and June. The Rift’s price hasn’t been announced yet, although Oculus has previously said the headset and a personal computer needed to power the technology will cost less
Photographers take pictures of the new Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset and touch-input device following a news conference Thursday, in San Francisco. than $1,500. The Rift package will also include a wireless controller and adapter for the new alliance with Microsoft, which is branching into another emerging niche of technology known as “augmented” reality with its own HoloLens headset. Facebook and Oculus called reporters to a San Francisco studio Thursday for a glimpse of what the Rift’s consumer model will look like. It’s a lightweight device that will fit on top of a person’s head like a helmet. Images are viewed through two screens housed inside a visor. The audio is
piped through removable headphones. The goal is to trick people’s brains into believing what they are seeing and hearing is the real thing instead of a fabrication, said Oculus CEO Brandon Iribe, who started the company with Luckey three years ago with $2.4 million in financing. The Rift’s initial target market will be avid video game players. The inaugural line-up of video games built for the Rift include titles from CCP Games, Gunfire Games and Insomniac Games that will appear to transport players into space, an artic zone and a fictional land where a
John Fogerty feels like ‘Fortunate Son’ with new memoir By John Carucci Associated Press NEW YORK — After nibbling on a few finger sandwiches at teatime, John Fogerty now feels energized to talk about his upcoming memoir and summer concert tour. Aptly called “1969,” the 41-city tour represents that prolific year for Creedence Clearwater Revival: They released three albums — and Fogerty wrote one of the most profound protests songs of all time. “Fortunate Son” took a harsh look at America’s inequities during the military draft for the Vietnam War. “It just seemed like the young male sons of rich people were managing to escape being drafted or at least being sent to places that weren’t dangerous,” Fogerty recently told the Associated Press. Instead, the poor and middle class were shipped overseas to fight in the war. “I really took a harsh look at that,” the Army veteran said. Ironically, Fogerty decided to name his memoir after the song. Published by Little Brown, “Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music,” comes out in October. While the 70-year-old Fogerty feels a little funny about it, he finds the title is appropriate in a different way. “The words still mean what they mean and yet to call my own book ‘Fortunate Son’ is certainly some sort of a leap,” he said. “As I a kid I wanted to make music and dreamed about being like my musical heroes and eventually it came true. I have become very fortunate, so that’s my take on the use of the phrase now.” Until then, Fogerty is on tour, playing a very Creedence-heavy set, but it wasn’t always like that. Legal troubles with his band and record label soured him on playing songs from his old band. In the 1980s, he was sued by record label, Fantasy Records, for copying his own song. They claimed his 1985 hit, “The Old Man Down the Road,” ripped off “Run Through the Jungle.” Both were written by Fogerty, but the label owned the copyright. A jury sided with Fogerty. There was also bad blood with his former band mates, including his brother, Tom, who passed away in 1990, over control of the band and a variety of issues. They were also in court over royalties owed to Fogerty by performing his songs. The problems were so intense that when
young man defends his home turf from a dragon. Luckey and Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, though, believe the Oculus technology eventually will extend far beyond video games to enable people’s avatars to attend business meetings and bring together friends and families in virtual living rooms even though they are many miles apart. Movie buffs might even be able to insert themselves as characters in their favorite flicks. “This isn’t science fiction,” Luckey said of the Rift. “This is reality.”
Actress Gilbert failed to pay $350,000 in taxes HOWELL, Mich. (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service says former “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert failed to pay more than $360,000 in federal income taxes. The Detroit News reports the IRS filed a tax lien against the actress in February and details emerged after she recently announced that her family was moving from a rented home to another area home. Gilbert blames the 2011-2013 tax debt on a stalled acting career, the economy and divorce. In a statement to the newspaper, she says that “like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard” and there was a “perfect storm of financial difficulty for me.” Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on “Little House on the Prairie,” says she’s negotiated a payment plan with the IRS.
Melissa Gilbert
Enjoy more than music at Bonnaroo festival In this April 30 photo, musician John Fogerty poses for a portrait in New York. Fogerty has a tour called, ‘1969,’ and a memoir, ‘Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music,’ expected in October. the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Fogerty refused to perform with them. Now, with those dark days behind him, Fogerty feels the book will come out at the right time. “It’s no longer about having an axe to grind. If you asked me 15 years ago, it might have been quite different. A lot of stuff happened to me in show business and my personal life and there were certainly periods where I was pretty angry and pretty bitter,” Fogerty said. Now that his life is at peace —he’s now happily married and plays music with his sons, Shane and Tyler — Fogerty has no plans to reunite with remaining members of the band. “Through the years, I have left that question open. I think it’s safe to say the longer time you spend on the earth, the more you realize you don’t know everything that’s gonna happen, but the other fellas recently made it difficult for me to do it,” Fogerty said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Don’t blame being at Bonnaroo for missing the NBA Finals or the season finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” The music festival, which launched Thursday, will also include several screenings, from TV shows to replays of cult favorite films, from “Mean Girls” to “The Goonies.” Here is a look at what’s happening outside of music at the four-day event in Manchester, Tenn., where Billy Joel, Mumford & Sons, Kendrick Lamar and Deadmau5 will perform across multiple stages.
LeBronaroo
LeBron James is one of the headlining acts at Bonnaroo — sort of. Game 5 of the current NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will be shown Sunday at the Cinema Tent. The game will be played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The festival also played Game 4 on Thursday.
Game 5 for ‘Game of Thrones’
HBO’s white-hot series, “Game of Thrones,” concludes its fifth season Sunday and the network will air it at Bonnaroo. The episode will play at The Other Tent, one of the main five stages at Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo will also play other epi-
sodes from season five throughout the festival.
‘Mean Girls’ and R. Kelly
Lyrics won’t be the only thing fans will repeat at Bonnaroo. The festival will hold “quotealong” screenings for films such as “Mean Girls,” starring Lindsay Lohan; “The Goonies;” “Clueless;” “Zoolander;” and “Back to the Future.” Bonnaroo will also hold a “singalong” to R. Kelly’s “Trapped In the Closet,” the R&B singer’s highly entertaining rap opera that launched in 2005.
Let me see you do that yoga
You can’t blame gaining weight on letting yourself go at Bonnaroo. The festival will offer free yoga classes for all levels throughout the four-day event. Bonnaroo also will offer a dancercise class and will host its third Roo Run, a 5k race, on Saturday. There is an entrance fee for the run, and proceeds will benefit the Bonnaroo Works Fund.
LOL
The Bonnaroo festival will also feature a number of comedians, including Chris Hardwick, Reggie Watts, Natasha Leggero, Jeff Ross, Michelle Wolf, Ralphie May and Nick Thune.