Issuu

—Joe Heard, former White House photographer

“

I’ve reviewed about 4,000 shows. None can compare to what I saw tonight.”

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“Absolutely the No.1 show in the world. No other company or of any style can match this!”

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“This is the highest and best of what humans can produce.”

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“I just wish there is a way that I could cry out to mankinds, they owe it to themselves to experience Shen Yun.”

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opinion

The Curmudgeon

I know who’s to blame

By Drew Alexander

It was supposed to be a shoo-in that Hillary Clinton would be elected president of the United States. But then something happened on the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Electoral College expelled Hillary and admitted Donald Trump. Who or what caused this monumental upset?

Some dazed Democrats attribute the loss to the Fox News Channel. Still others blame conservative guru Rush Limbaugh, or FBI Director James Comey, or George W. Bush, or the ghost of Ronald Reagan.

Other finger-pointing has turned to Sen. Bernie Sanders, that gruff old animated socialist from Vermont who dared challenge the lady standing

confidently first in line at the White House door.

Among all the hand-wringing and blubbering, there are those distraught left-wingers who put the Clinton loss squarely on climate change, that horrific phenomenon caused by fossilfuel-loving right-wing capitalists whose goal is to destroy the world –a world that could only be saved by electing Hillary Clinton president of the United States.

Then there are those pesky Clinton e-mails and the private server squirreled away in a bathroom at the Clinton mansion in Chappaqua, New York. Yes, it’s those terribly misunderstood e-mails that sank the Clinton mighthave-been ship of state. Hillary

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admitted that it was all a mistake and apologized, so let’s move on.

Or maybe it was the Benghazi scandal that cost the lives of the American ambassador to Libya and three CIA operatives. But, after all, what difference does it make?

No, what really lost the election for the former senator and secretary of state was the dominance of misogynistic voters who were loath to have a woman as president for the first time in the nation’s history.

Or the truth actually is – as it came from Mrs. Clinton herself – that her election campaign was derailed by Donald Trump’s supporters who are a ‘‘racist, sexist, Islamophobic and xenophobic basket of deplorables.’’

Forget all of the above.

It was… the Russians.

The mass media have been telling us the Ruskies hacked into undisclosed computers at undisclosed locations and in some undisclosed way caused the Nov. 8, 2016 presidential election outcome to favor Trump.

What they have not told us is that the Russian means to influence the election was not through cyberspace. It was much more direct and personal.

I was about to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton, the candidate President Obama said was the most qualified to ever seek the country’s highest office. That’s when I felt a tap on my right shoulder. I turned around and saw a burly man wearing a big fur hat glaring at me. ‘‘I am Boris from KayGee-Bee,’’ he said. ‘‘You vill vote for Dawnold Tromp.’’

‘‘I vill?’’ I answered.

‘‘You vill – or else.’’

That insidious scene was repeated by Russian KGB agents all across America. And that’s how Moscow really engineered the defeat of Hillary Clinton.

It certainly could not have been, as Mr. Shakespeare might have written, that the fault, dear Hillary, is not in your stars; the fault is in yourself.

Could it?

Drew Alexander, also known as “The Curmudgeon,” is a monthly columnist for Lovin’ Life After 50, writing about political issues. Send comments to drewalexander@cox.net or to Drew Alexander, in care of Lovin’ Life After 50, 1620 W. Fountainhead Pkwy., Suite 219, Tempe, AZ 85282.

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Sound Off

Hi I’ve been reading your paper for several years and I really enjoy it, but I noticed in December, you left out Sound Off. I used to enjoy that quite a bit, just reading people’s opinions. It’s been decreasing over the months and in December, I didn’t see it at all. Just wondering. Editor’s note: Sound Off returns this month!

Hello friends. Here are six trends to watch and plan for in 2017:

1. Lower taxes

Lots of lower tax proposals on the table. Most people in the middle – $75,000 to $225,000 – would be in the 25 percent bracket, so not much change there. The top bracket would come down to 33 percent from 39.6 percent. Overall, more money in people’s pockets should mean more consumer spending.

2. Freelancers vs. full-time jobs

Freelancers are now 35 percent of the total U.S. workforce. It’s the fastestgrowing segment of the workforce. It’s good for ﬂexibility, bad for job security, and another great reason to have multiple streams of income.

3. Part-time gigs in retirement

From Uber and Lyft to direct sales and network marketing businesses. According to JP Morgan, more than 400,000 seniors are earning money from alternative sources in retirement. Expect this trend to grow.

4. The stock market 2017

Broad market exposure may not be the best way to uncover growth. While the U.S. economy looks pretty optimistic, the global economy’s capacity for rapid growth looks to have been severely dented. According to Blackrock, overall equities should do good but targeting specific sectors may do better. Traditional diversified portfolios may not cut it.

5. Consumers have power

Consumers have a powerful seat at the marketing table by sharing their needs and priorities through direct feedback and purchasing choices via social media. Companies will increasingly shape their product offerings around the latest lifestyle trends and increase the incentives offered to consumers. Creating your own “social brand” can be good for those with the entrepreneur mindset.

6. Rising interest rates

Maybe a few .25 percent hikes. Not enough to make a real difference for

savers. (Yeah! A five-year CD now pays 1.25 percent!) But cost of borrowing will go up. Lock in fixed rates while you can.

Denver Nowicz

What a wonderful article by Michael Grady! I laughed and agreed with him all the way through the article called “We are the bugs on the windshield of choice.” It’s good to be single, so I don’t have to argue with anyone but myself about what to watch!

Barb McNeill

I would like to get in touch with Michael Grady, who wrote an article called “The Upside” in November. I have some information he might be interested in regarding his article. I do not have a computer, so I’m not on the email, Internet, that sort of thing, but I’m still able to talk on the phone.

There’s a lot of talk about intervention by the Russians in the 2016 presidential election. Who’s to say whether Russia intervened with it or not? I don’t think they did, but let’s say they did. It is miniscule in comparison with the divine intervention that came from God. God intervened in this election big time, and the reason he did is because Donald Trump is unconditionally and dedicated totally to pro-life and God is pro-life, no matter what the Democrats think. So, did Russia intervene? If they did, so what? As Hillary would say, what difference does it make?

The Up Side

the age of fake news

By Michael Grady

My wife was in a shop last week, making small talk, when the other woman asked her: “Did you know California just passed a law making child prostitution legal?”

“WHAT? No!” My wife said. Surely, she was mistaken.

But the woman doubled down: “It was on the news.”

“What news?” My wife asked. “Oh, all over!” She said. “On television. And on the radio just now.”

The woman insisted this was just more proof that the world was going to hell in a handcart. “Can you believe it? Now it’s legal to be a child prostitute in California!”

My wife came home and did a little research. Turns out, California did pass a bill, SB1322, that decriminalizes prostitution for minors. Child prostitution is still illegal. The bill just puts the focus of punishment on pimps and removes the criminal stigma from the underage kids they manipulate. But conservative opponents, in a fun-house mirror distortion of the bill, characterized it as “a legalization of child prostitution.” And a like-minded website ran with the distortion. And a like-minded radio station used it as a source…

Welcome to Fake News Nation. Where BS grows on trees.

Fake news isn’t new. It is probably just slightly younger than the printing press. It has been making an impact at least since the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, after publisher William Randolph Hearst famously told his illustrator, “You furnish the pictures, I’ll furnish the war.”

I just thought our country was smarter than this. Now, the laughably fabricated tabloid fodder that leers at us in supermarket checkout lines has spread to our networks, our casual conversation, even to the halls of government.

I can hardly wait for Bat Boy’s confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill. The gatekeepers that once protected us – fact-checkers, story editors and journalistic integrity – can now be outmaneuvered with social media. On

Facebook and Twitter, news travels at the speed of outrage. We hear about something in the time it takes one of our like-minded friends to read a headline and get mad.

We are our own gatekeepers now.

And if the woman crying “legal child prostitution,” or the lady who confidently (and incorrectly) told CNN that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in California, or the guy who shot up a Washington, D.C. pizzeria to fight a (fraudulent) Hillary Clinton-run child sex ring are any indication, we’re not doing a very good job.

So how do you sift credible from crap? Next time you hear or surf or scroll into “breaking news,” a few things you should ask yourself:

Is it just what you wanted to hear? Or your worst nightmare? Either way, it’s probably fake or at least exaggerated. Fake news generators usually start with your fondest wishes or deepest fears and walk them backward into a legitimate-looking story.

Does it have a provocative headline? A headline is a story’s carnival barker, calling out to clickers along the midway. They are frequently written by a different writer, and often skewed for shock. Read the entire story first, to verify what its headline claims. Don’t forward anything until you’ve read the whole thing. That’s how the world gets stupider.

Is it from a legitimate URL?

Reliable news sources have a recognizable URL: newyorktimes.com; npr.org. Not com.co, not org.biz. If you think one or two letters doesn’t make a difference, I have some Beetles albums to sell you.

Does it have a byline? Has someone claimed authorship? Did anyone put their name on it? (“Exclusive sources” or “From our writers” is not a name.) If not, well, my little dog authors an unsigned work twice a day, and it’s worth about as much.

Does it quote actual people? And do the people have recognizable names or job titles? I can get the crazy guy at my convenience store to say he burned

down the Reichstag, but that doesn’t make it true.

Does it cite actual sources? And are those sources reputable? Good sources have proper names, like Senator Susan Collins, or italicized names, like The Chicago Tribune, ABC News, or Face the Nation. Bad sources have names that are not proper nouns, like “sources say,” “as everyone knows” or “guy at the convenience store.”

Does it look or sound like a lunatic? Frequently, fake stories reveal their agenda with misspellings, ALL CAPS RANTING or terrible grammar. Still in doubt? Read it aloud. Objective journalism will sound like Walter Cronkite. Hack pieces will sound like Ozzy Osbourne with his head on fire. Is it current? Recently, a story about Ford moving a Mexican assembly plant to Ohio surfaced on the Web. The timing (and some headlines) suggested the move was prompted by Trump’s election… but the story was from 2015. Nothing dies on the Internet, except Bob Denver from Gilligan’s Island, who died in 2005 and again three times on Facebook last year.

Are other news agencies covering it? Standing out against the crowd is

great, if you’re a teen in a coming-ofage movie. If you’re a news story, and no other network, website or newspaper is covering you, that’s not a good sign. Check to see if the major players have picked up your story. Yes, every once in a while the outlier proves to be right. But for every Woodward and Bernstein, there are a thousand Al Capone vaults. Can it beat other Internet sites in a ﬁght? Specifically, Snopes.com, Factcheck.org, or Politifact? If you run across a dubious story, chances are these sites have run across it, too. Even Googling the facts of a story (“Joe Biden cyborg from the future”) will usually bring up your culprit – and multiple sources debunking it.

All of these questions can help you parse truth from fiction. And all of them take a little bit of time. If that’s inconvenient for you, and you’d rather read, rage and forward in one swift motion... you’re part of the problem. You know the phrase, “A lie can circle the globe before the truth can put on its pants”? Be the truth-teller of your circle. Be the one who takes the time to get it right. In this crazy, click-bait world, too many things are already running around without pants.

Ask Gabby Gayle Advice for the over-50 crowd

By Gayle M. Lagman-Creswick

Dear Gabby Gayle: Well, here goes. I can’t talk to my doctor about this. I can’t talk to my kids about this. Who can I talk to? Gabby Gayle. I feel like I am the only one in the world with this problem. I am a widow of seven years and am 60 years old. I have met a man that I really, really like and it is getting romantic. I’m afraid he will want to have sexual relations and that scares me to death. You see, my husband died from prostate cancer and we had no relations for the last 10 years of his life. I am not sure I can perform. I have heard that if you don’t use it, you lose it! The whole idea unnerves me. Please, please help me. Signed, Scared Silly

Dear

Scared: If you cannot talk to your doctor about this, you need a new one! Go to a gynecologist to make sure all is well. While I am not Dr. Ruth, I can tell you there is probably nothing to fear. If you love this guy, I suggest you let nature take its course. Older people should be able to enjoy sex all their lives unless health interferes, and even then, there is help from the medical field with drugs, devices, counseling, etc. I will quote: “There is nothing to fear except fear itself.” Good luck. Signed, GG

Dear Daughter: I would bet that many mothers who read this are going to think one of their children wrote this, because this is a pretty universal problem. First, I would like to explain why I think older people behave this way. We have lost a lot that we had in our younger lives –our spouses, our jobs, sometimes our children, other loved ones and friends, jobs. So we often clings to what’s left –our things. Not saying it is right, but it happens. I recently downsized myself, so my kids won’t have to get rid of my stuff. It almost did me in. It is not easy. That said, I want to say to my peers, try to remember what is important in your life – it is not the stuff – it is the people, your kids, your grandkids, your extended family, your friends, but most of all your God, however you conceive him to be. You will be amazed after parting with the stuff, and the feeling that a burden has been lifted. Go ahead. You can do it! Signed, GG

Dear Gabby Gayle: I told my mother the other day that she needs to downsize her home and belongings, and she was insulted. She is somewhat of a hoarder, or maybe she is just a collector of everything under the sun. When this subject was brought up a couple years ago, she said she was saving the collections for her kids. There are five of us and none of us wants those things. When she passes, we will have a real mess on our hands trying to get rid of those things. She is now 82 and in good health. What do you suggest? She reads your column and is always quoting you!!

Signed, Frustrated Daughter

Dear Gabby Gayle: I have recently retired at age 65. I couldn’t wait to retire, but now that I have, it has hit me that I am getting old, and that thought gives me the creeps. It scares me. I don’t know why I didn’t give more thought to this retiring business. I should have kept working. What do I do now? Signed, Old

Dear

Old: (I had trouble writing “old” because you are not old) I am a bit surprised to find someone your age who feels old! First off, “old” is not bad, it is “gold.” You have some wonderful years ahead of you. If you want, you can get a part-time job, you can volunteer, you can take up something you never had time to do when working, you can join a dating site, if single; you need to get involved! Retirement does not mean to stop living, it means to “re-tire” – put on new tires and get going.

Signed, GG

HateWe need hate crime laws

By Bill Straus

crimes pose a particularly unique threat in the world of criminal behavior. And yet the very concept of hate crimes – and the laws we have enacted to punish them, for that matter – are misunderstood by many.

Hate crimes are once again on the rise, in America and beyond, so it appears to me that this is an appropriate time to revisit the subject. And I’m just the guy to lead that effort. I advocated on behalf of hate crime laws and worked with then-Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley to pass them in Arizona just over 20 years ago when I hosted a KTAR talk show. And then I went to work for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the agency that virtually led the effort to create hate crime laws.

First, let’s define the term. The FBI

defines hate crimes as a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” I cannot tell you how many calls I fielded at the ADL from alleged victims of hate crimes who had been called an epithet or a slur. But I can tell you that most of them were not. Calling someone a name is not a crime, so it cannot be a hate crime.

Two complaints were raised at the time of Arizona’s consideration of hate crime laws. Several callers to my radio show accused me of promoting the “thought police” because of my advocacy of hate crime legislation. Hate crime laws are not a manifestation of the “thought police.” One cannot be

punished for merely thinking hatefully. It’s legal to be a bigot in America. It is only when one crosses the line of criminal behavior and was probably motivated by those thoughts that a hate crime has taken place. The other complaint was that we simply don’t need additional laws to punish crimes; they already exist. I say that hate crimes are far more likely to involve violence. The victim of a hate crime assault is four times more likely to require hospital treatment than the victim of a similar assault without the motivation of bias or hate. Additionally, hate crimes are far more harmful in their aftermath, with many victims suffering from long-lasting post-traumatic stress. But the primary difference between hate crimes and all other criminality is that hate crimes send a message. It’s

a three-tiered message, each tier more threatening than the preceding one: 1. You are different, so you’re not wanted here.

2. Get out!

3. Get out – or else!

The message’s most sinister aspect is that the entire community hears the message loud and clear. For example, when a cross is burned on a family’s lawn, you can rest assured the AfricanAmerican community knows about it. Hate crimes literally victimize entire communities. Hate crime laws enhance the sentencing for the perpetrators of those crimes.

And we need them – the laws, not the perps.

Travel with Purpose

From ecotourism to voluntourism, “traveling with purpose” is becoming the mindful way to roam.

By Jimmy Magahern

Susan Pace of Green Valley, a small senior community located about 20 miles south of Tucson, always wanted to learn Spanish. So she recently took an immersion trip to La Antigua Guatemala, and stayed for two weeks in the home of a family there. “For me, I travel to learn about other cultures and other people,” she says.

Pace is part of a wave of older adults traveling with new purpose. Whether that purpose is to challenge ourselves physically, expand our appreciation of global cultures or trace our own ancestry, mature travelers are embracing forms of travel previously associated with younger globetrotters – things like ecotourism (low-impact educational visits to fragile and natural areas where the mantra is to leave it as you found it), immersion trips to learn language and culture, culinary cruises to learn about the cooking authentic to faraway lands and even mission trips or “voluntourism,” one of the fastest growing trends in travel, according to travel professionals.

“The market for what we call ‘servicebased travel’ – which includes everything

from learning a skill for personal development to helping a community, getting involved – is over $2 billion a year,” says Paula Stege, owner of A Time To Go Travel in Chandler. “And it’s growing.”

Pace runs an informal travel club comprised of about 265 members called Wander Lust Travelers that enjoys frequent trips to Mexico. She often books tours through S&S Tours in Sierra Vista, which specializes in travel down to Copper Canyon in Sierra Madre where its clients, mostly retirees, often volunteer to help at the Tarahumara boarding school for girls.

While taking language classes at a local church, Pace got involved helping in the church’s mission, which involves riding around Guatemala in an old school bus that members have converted to a bookmobile.

“A lot of places in Guatemala are very small and don’t have schools for the kids, so they drive up in the mountains and lend the kids books and read them stories,” she says. “And I got to go along and help with that, which was wonderful. The bus is painted very colorfully, and they carry

chickens in crates on the top. And La Antigua is surrounded by three volcanoes, and while I was there I was lucky enough to see the orange lava being released from one of them. The area itself is beautiful, just dense with vegetation – all kinds of mangos and bananas. It’s like a paradise.”

What impressed Pace more, however, were the people.

“It was marvelous to see the children in these little villages who were so excited about us bringing them books,” she says. “The people are so warm and wonderful there. Most of them don’t have washing machines or dryers, they don’t have dishwashers, or air conditioning –

...continues on page 12

Susan Pace on zipline course bridge

The Tarahumara boarding school for girls makes a great "voluntourism" destination.

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which really makes you appreciate the conveniences that we have. But they still find ways to be happy.”

Meeting other world travelers can also be enlightening.

“I stayed at the home of this Mexican family – grandmother, mother, a daughter and son – who rent their home out to travelers who come to La Antigua for Spanish classes,” Pace says, noting the popularity of Guatemala’s Spanish language schools, favored by many American businesses for their low cost and quality programs. “When I arrived, there was a Canadian woman also staying in the house, who was taking salsa lessons.

A little later a woman from South Korea came, and my second week, a man from Paris came. So in this one house we had all these different nationalities.”

Pace found in the rich mix of cultures her greatest learning experience.

“If I could say anything that’s important

about traveling, it’s that you realize that people are fundamentally the same everywhere,” she says. “There are good and bad, nice and not nice everywhere. But we can’t isolate ourselves, and think that we’re the only ones in the world that are smart and caring people. You have to look at the world positively and try to make friends everywhere you go, so they don’t think we’re all ‘Ugly Americans.’ We can’t be separatists and isolationists and expect to live in a world that’s going to have peace. We have to take care of our own people, but we also have to recognize that people in the rest of the world are working toward good, too.

“Travel lets you see that,” she adds, “if you’re open enough to see it.”

Stretching boundaries

When Art Huseonica travels – which he does at least three or four times per year – he does so with three purposes in mind.

“I like to challenge my body, my mind and my soul,” says the Sun City resident, 66, who recently returned from a 4,200 mile group expedition along the Amazon River and its tributaries from Ecuador to the east coast of Brazil. “If it’s not difficult, there’s no challenge or motivation in it. I like to explore new areas, experience different cultures and learn new things.”

Huseonica, a retired Navy man who has taken trips to Japan, South America, Greenland, the Caribbean and Iceland in addition to all 50 United States, is perhaps an extreme example of the new wave of travelers age 55 or better who are venturing beyond simple sightseeing to

Travelers to Mexico like to mingle with the locals (pictured).

“traveling with purpose.”

On his Amazon trip, led by U.K.-based explorer Jacki Hill-Murphy, Huseonica says that in addition to studying the changes that have taken place on the river since its discovery by the early 18thcentury explorers – along with retracing the tragic journey of Isabela Godin, the first known woman to attempt to travel the length of the river – he also got to learn about shamanism from a practicing indigenous healer who accompanied the team for a leg of the journey.

“I learned about how they use the plants in the jungle to make their own medicines, which they administer along with a ritual,” he says. Huseonica admits he had his doubts about shamans, which the Western world often dismisses as “witch doctors,” but he says this particular medicine man did cure a nasty rash he had contracted along the treacherous trip with the juice of what he called a dragon’s blood tree. “I’m sure there’s some psychosomatic explanation for it,” Huseonica says. “But by the end of the day, it was better!”

Betsy Donley, travel adviser at Camelback Odyssey Travel in Phoenix, acknowledges that much of the trend toward purposebased travel owes to a growing desire

among health-conscious travelers for tours that spend less time on the cruise ships and more time on the ground.

“We particularly do a lot of ‘active trips’ – hiking, biking, walking – basically all over the world,” she says. “Travelers now that are over 50 are wanting to combine activity and wellness. But they also want to get an educational view of wherever they’re going.” Donley says tours that substitute bikes and good walking shoes for tour buses and cruise ships give travelers a more direct relationship with the lands they’re visiting.

“You’re immersing yourself more in a culture,” Donley says. “If you’re on a bike or walking through a village, you’re much more a part of the party than you are if you’re in a car with a driver. If you go out of your inn or lodge in Tuscany in the morning and get on a bike, and bike to lunch in a village, you’re really part of the culture, immersed in the local community. Which is what everybody wants. Everybody wants authentic, they want unique experiences, they want to feel that they’re getting in touch with the location in which they’re traveling. I think the older you are, the more you want to be immersed in the culture of the place

Art Huseonica’s adventures (L to R): Amazon River Expedition dugout canoe; Cadoshi Village in Peru; Atlantic Ocean after Amazon Expedition; Death Valley.

you’re visiting. You don’t want to be going back to the ship at 5 o’clock. You want to be out on the boardwalk or the sidewalk café, where the color and pageantry of the evening is starting.”

Stege says even the major cruise lines are taking notice of the changing preferences of older travelers.

“In my own business, I have many people that want to trek to Machu Picchu in Peru, they want to go to the Galápagos Islands, they want to visit a lot of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) world heritage sites,” Stege says. “And when a tour or cruise provider can include those types of activities, we’re seeing a higher growth in markets where people can really get up close and personal with the land they’re visiting. Princess and Carnival and Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, they all are focused on this now. The key thing they’re marketing in response to demand are intimate, upclose, personal adventures for their clients. It used to be all about the ship. But now they’re doing more and more on the land portion.”

Altruism or false

David and Carol Porter run a travel agency out of their Scottsdale home

that caters to mature travelers, and the couple does a lot of traveling themselves. David Porter counters the perception that vacationers over are ﬂocking to book trips centered on a higher purpose than mere recreation.

“We’re finding that Boomers and seniors are not looking for altruistic travel as much as the media likes to think,” he says. “Sure, a certain segment of the Boomer travel world does these types of trips, but we find that these trips are generally booked through a specific group. For example, we attend a large church with 12,000 members. Hundreds and hundreds are taking missionary trips, but they are booked through the church by travel agencies that focus solely on that type of travel. So, this travel does exist, but we don’t see it.

“We find travelers very interested in culinary, wine, and certainly learning and visiting other cultures,” he adds. “But we see very little that might be considered eco, endangered, global warming or any of those other popular topics in the press. If you asked the bulk of our clients why they travel, they would answer, ‘To broaden our understanding of the world, see sights that we’ve always dreamed of, and as a reward for our decades of hard

work.’ We’ve never had one person call and say that they want to plan a trip for primarily altruistic reasons. The closest we see to that is, ‘I want to go to Cuba before McDonald’s gets there.’”

“I would say older clients will tend to stick more to the educational, selfenrichment type of tours,” echoes Stege. “They’re trending toward smaller, more intimate learning experiences, as opposed to being on a ship with 5,000 people.”

Bonnie Bouma of Phoenix is a prime example of someone who travels for education and enrichment, not only for herself but for her sizable family.

“We have 21 in our family; our oldest grandchild is now 25,” says Bouma, 80. “And we’ve done Prague, Austria, Germany, Holland, Venice, Amsterdam, aris, ome, Switzerland and a few other places together. But the best trip we’ve had together was the one we took last June to Israel.”

Bouma, who categorizes her throng as a “very religious Christian family,” says she wanted them all to have the “ultimate experience, to walk the Bible.” The trip, which the 21 family members took on one bus, brought them through Jerusalem

and Bethlehem up the aza strip to neighboring Syria.

“We kayaked the Jordan River, and the whole family was baptized there,” she says. “Then we were on a ship on the Sea of Galilee that was built to replicate the one esus and his disciples used for fishing. The grandkids went swimming in the Dead Sea, which was fun. And when we finished the trip, one of my granddaughters told me, ‘Grandma, everything I read in the Bible is now alive to me.’”

Bouma admits the itinerary was met with some resistance from some extended family members, who were less enthralled about their kin retracing the paths of ancient Bible texts than concerned about them navigating present-day Israeli–Palestinian tensions.

“My daughter-in-law’s mother was saying, ‘You’re gonna get my grandchildren killed traveling through Israel now!’” she says. “So I was pretty happy when we got them all home safely. To me, it was proof that you can travel to other countries regardless of what the newspapers and television tell us about how dangerous it is to venture outside of our borders.”

Betsy Donley in Peru.

Roaming Boomers Dave and Carol Porter

A tale of two Canadian winter festivals

By Ed Boitano

Anuncle in Seattle likes to chide me that Phoenix has only two seasons: Hot and hotter. Sure, it’s worth a laugh. And indeed, our summers do fit into the “hotter” category, but those of us who live here know that there are seasons – they’re just very subtle. Nevertheless, life in Phoenix generally means we don’t have to leave the area to escape the snow, ice and cold. Instead, we must find it elsewhere. Last winter I did just that. I explored two unique cultures that embrace the hardships of ice and snow with celebrations that warm the heart and soul.

Winterlude: Ottawa, Ontario

Each February, Ottawa hosts Winterlude, three weekends of excitement and activity that celebrate Canada’s winter climate and culture in the heart of Ottawa, between Parliament Hill and the Fairmont Ch teau Laurier. The festival includes spectacular ice sculptures, ingenious ice slides, the children’s Snowﬂake ingdom, ice mazes, food and music. The frozen . -milelong Rideau Canal is transformed into the world’s longest skating rink. Business people skating to work with backpacks and briefcases in hand is a sight that I will never forget. And I know that children on skates will never forget seeing a clumsy, terrified journalist trying to negotiate the ice.

Signature Winterlude snack

BeaverTails are named after the shape of one of Canada’s national symbols – the beaver. Made with fried whole wheat pastry, then tossed in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar, it is a popular treat. They can also be made with toppings of garlic, cheese, jam or chocolate sauce.

Most Winterlude activities are free, but registration and admission fees may apply to certain events. Winterlude 2017 runs from Feb. 3 to Feb. 20.

About Ottawa

Canada is celebrating its 150th birthday in 2017 and Ottawa, as the capital city, will be the epicenter of the cel-

ebrations. A series of seemingly endless blockbuster events are scheduled throughout the year. Visits should begin with a trip to the observation deck of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, which offers sweeping views of this world-class city. Other attractions can include watching the proceedings of the Senate or House of Commons from the public galleries, the Canadian useum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian War Museum, which shows Canada’s history of war from the perspective of an average person.

Carnaval de Québec –Québec City, Québec

Nestled on the banks of Old Québec City, Carnaval de Québec is the biggest winter carnival in the world. Sixty-four years of history are reﬂected in this two-week festival that includes snow sculptures, an Ice Tower, night parades, concerts, giant football game, ice fishing, skating and other activities based on u becois folkloric traditions. Located just a short drive out of the city ( minutes) is the H tel de lace, the only ice hotel in the Americas. Entirely made from snow and ice, this magnificent manmade palace features rooms and suites, exterior spa and sauna, bar, café, an exhibition room, a chapel for weddings and an ice slide. Guided day tours are also available.

Signature Carnaval snack: Maple taffy (“tire

d’erable”)

Maple taffy is made by pouring hot, thick maple syrup onto a board of fresh snow. When it begins to harden, you grab a popsicle stick and pick up the taffy in a rolling motion, wrapping it around the stack. Maple syrup is a staple of u becois cuisine, reﬂecting the natural taste of the countryside, where “sugar shacks” in maple groves are used to boil maple.

Most Carnaval activities are free, but admission fees apply to some events. Carnaval de Québec 2017 started Jan. 27 and runs through Feb. 12.

About Québec City

Québec City was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 and is the only walled city in North America. The best way to explore this historical city is to stroll along its narrow, cobblestone streets lined with stone houses, cathedrals and cafes. The city itself is nothing less than a living museum. Québec City has embraced its history, which is reﬂected with more than museums, exhibition halls and interpretation centers. Pedestrian streets are populated

with local artisans and musicians. In this city, 95 percent of the residents speak French. A quick journey down the funicular leads you to Lower u bec, the birthplace of the city. A ferry ride on the St. Lawrence iver is mandatory for stunning photo opportunities.

For further information about Ottawa’s Winterlude, visit www.canada.pch.gc.ca/ eng/1416239267950

For information about Carnaval de Québec, visit https://carnaval.qc.ca/home

Ottawa’s 4.8-mile-long Rideau Canal is transformed into the world’s longest skating rink.

Québec City at night.

THE 2017 TRAVEL PLANNER

OUR GUIDE TO THE BEST IN TRAVEL FOR 2017

Compiled by Ed Boitano

INTERNATIONAL

ADVENTURE CANADA — Join Adventure Canada on a voyage through the legendary Northwest Passage. We’ll search for polar bears, seals, walrus and whales; visit vast Arctic bird colonies; hike among budding wildﬂowers, and tour welcoming Inuit communities. An exceptional team of experts—biologists, historians, Inuit guides, authors, musicians and artists—provides daily lectures and onshore interpretation to complement your journey. (800) 363-7566 or visit www.adventurecanada.com

CRUISEONE specializes in cruise and land vacations to the world’s most exotic destinations, including all western coast destinations, the St. Lawrence River, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Hawaii and the Mexican Riviera. Programs range from family reunions at sea and honeymoon cruises to river cruising and land vacations. Each independently owned and operated business combines the latest technology

with old-fashioned customer service. Contact Joni Notagiacomo in Los Angeles at

is the world’s ﬁrst adventure travel company designed exclusively for people 50 and over. Established in 1987, ElderTreks offers active, off-the-beaten-path, small-group adventures by both land and sea in over 100 countries. ElderTreks offers wildlife and tribal African safaris, active hiking trips to the Rockies, Himalayas and Andes, expeditions by icebreakers to the Arctic and Antarctic and cultural journeys

To advertise in this section, contact Ed Boitano at 818.985.8132 or Ed@TravelingBoy.com

throughout Cuba, Asia, and South America. Join ElderTreks on one of our small group adventures for travelers 50 plus. (800) 741-7956 or www.ElderTreks.com

ST. LAWRENCE CRUISE LINES — Cruise the St. Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers on a classically designed riverboat. The Canadian Empress carries 66 berthed passengers in comfort along routes selected for their rich gifts of history and natural beauty. There are several cruise choices of 4, 5, 6 and 7 night duration. You will ﬁnd excellence and value aboard our ship where elegance, adventure and genuine warmth are sincerely offered and happily experienced. These cruises are particularly popular with the 50+ market. (800) 267-7868 or www.StLawrenceCruiseLines.com

TARA TOURS specializes in tours to Latin America with more excitement and mystery one could experience in a lifetime of travel. Tara Tours can take you there, with great service and tour programs, designed with your desires and budget in mind. Experience the majesty of Machu Picchu, Rio de Janeiro’s “Cidade Maravilhosa,” indigenous market of Chichicastenango; Peru’s Amazon Jungle; the incredibility of the Galapagos Islands, Chile and Argentina’s Patagonia,the ruins of Tikal, Easter Island, and natural beauty of Costa Rica. (800) 327-0080 or www.TaraTours.com

WARWICK PARADISE ISLAND BAis a stunning all-inclusive ‘Adults Only” resort nestled on The Bahama’s Nassau Harbour. With picture perfect views of Nassau and Paradise Island, the resort is within walking distance of The

Bahama’s best beaches, shopping and entertainment. Delight in our all-inclusive experience, enhanced with luxurious touches, stylish accommodations, delectable dining, and personalized service. All guests must be a least 18 years old, except March, April & June where the minimum age requirement is 21 years old. 1 - (888) 645-5550 or WarwickHotels.com/paradise-island-bahamas.

ALASKA

ALASKA CRUISES AND VACATIONS BY TYEE TRAVEL — What kind of cruise is right for you? From casual same AFTER 50ll-ship cruises to elegant luxury ships, Alaskans at Alaska Cruises & Vacations have experience and ﬁrst-hand knowledge to plan your perfect cruise. Customize a land tour to make your journey complete. For advice from Alaskans who cruise themselves, go online at www. akcruises.com or call (800) 977-9705

CORDOVA — Intentionally off the beaten path. Cordova, Alaska is an authentic commercial ﬁshing town nestled in the heart of a spectacular wilderness, shaped by its dramatic natural setting, rich cultural heritage and colorful residents. In 2017, let Cordova become your base of operations for an unforgettable Alaskan adventure. Go hiking, ﬁshing, birding, boating, kayaking, or travel to other parts of the state. (907) 424-7260 or www.cordovachamber.com

SEWARD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE — Known as the ‘Gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park’ Seward is a picturesque town located 126 miles south of Anchorage. Discover our bustling harbor and historic downtown filled with quaint shops and art galleries. Experience trophy sport fishing, glacier and wildlife cruises, sailing, hiking, kayaking, flight seeing and more. A wide range of accommodations, restaurants, RV parks, tent camping, and visitor services are available. (907) 224-8051 or www.Seward.com

TOGIAK RIVER LODGE— Located in Togiak, Alaska, we are all about the fishing and keeping you comfortable and well fed. Yes we have the hot tub on the river’s edge, and a sauna too, satellite television for those who must catch up on their sports teams, Wi-Fi Internet, daily room service and more, but it is the world-class Alaska Salmon fishing, King Salmon Fishing, fly fishing Silver Salmon, and Trophy Rainbow Trout fishing that people travel to Togiak, Alaska for. Allow us to take care of you, your family or friends on a remote Alaskan wilderness fishing adventure of a lifetime. (503) 784-7919; www. togiaklodge.com or llchinook@aol.com

CALIFORNIA

BIG SUR LODGE is located in ancient groves of redwood and oak trees in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Big Sur, California. Guests are invited to step back in time to an earlier, more peaceful era. Our 61 cottage-style guest rooms, each with its own deck or porch, are located on a hillside, within walking distance of our restaurant, gift shop, and grocery store. Your stay at the Big Sur Lodge includes free access to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Andrew Molera State Park and Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. (800) 4244787 or www.BigSurLodge.com

CAMBRIA CALIFORNIA — Nestled among towering pines and the shimmering sea on California’s Central Coast, Cambria is a picturesque village that unfolds along scenic Highway 1 between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Free of chain stores and brimming with charm, Cambria invites you to exit the beaten

path and explore one of California’s truly unique destinations. Just six miles south of the famous historic landmark Hearst Castle, enjoy art galleries, antiques, unique

shops, gourmet food and events like the Annual Art & Wine Festival in January 2017. 805-927-3624 or www.cambriachamber.org

THE CEDAR HOUSE SPORT HOTEL, located just outside the Historic Downtown District of Truckee, California, fuses innovative green architecture with the best of contemporary design. Described as a stunning combination of hip and organic, savvy and relaxing, The Cedar House incorporates a number of eco-friendly elements, bringing a fresh and environmentally conscience style to the Sierras. Featuring 42 rooms and suites, enjoy modern conveniences, from ﬂat screen TVs to plush linens. (866) 582-5655 or www.CedarHouseSportHotel.com

DOLPHIN BAY RESORT & SPA — Set along the rugged California Coast, just south of San Luis Obispo, Dolphin Bay Resort & Spa is centrally located in Pismo Beach. Dolphin Bay is the ideal hotel for romantic getaways or family vacations where guests stay anywhere from two nights to months at a time. With 60 spacious 1 and 2 bedroom suites featuring all of the amenities of a home, Lido Restaurant, The Spa at Dolphin Bay and an array of activities, guests can experience the best of the Central Coast. (800) 516-0112 or www.thedolphinbay.com

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES OF ATASCADERO — Stay, explore, savor the best of the Central Coast. Experience our award-winning wine country hotel featuring full hot breakfast, Wi-Fi, refrigerators/ microwaves/Keurig coffeemakers in each room, and an outdoor heated pool & spa. Conveniently situated in the heart of the Central Coast – minutes to Hearst Castle and historic Atascadero City Hall. Marston’s 101 Restaurant & Cocktails and Caladero Event Room – NOW OPEN! (805) 462-0200 or www.hieatascadero.com

THE LODGE AT LAKE TAHOE - Centrally located in South Lake Tahoe. Our condominiums provide ample space and comforts of home to relax after a fun-ﬁlled day. Heated pool is open seasonally with hot tub open year-round. Our onsite resort amenities serve as the premier spot to relax and enjoy South Lake Tahoe. Call today (866) 469-8222 or visit www.8664myvacation.com

PAJARO DUNES RESORT — Hidden away in a coastal setting, this private gated community curves along the Monterey Bay. Our beach community is located between Santa Cruz and Monterey, California off the infamous Paciﬁc Coast Highway. Relax in one of our beautiful beach front homes, townhouses, condominiums with stunning views of rolling sand dunes and the calming Monterey Bay - available for vacation rentals and real estate sales. (800) 564-1771 or www.pajarodunes.com

PISMO COAST VILLAGE RV RESORT — Located right on the beach, this beautifully landscaped RV resort features 400 full hookup sites, each with complimentary Wi-Fi and cable TV, on 26 grassy, tree-lined acres. Enjoy general Store, children’s arcade, restaurant, Laundromat, heated pool, bicycle rentals and miniature golf course. The resort offers the ideal location for wineries, golf or Hearst Castle. Pismo Coast Village RV Resort was awarded the 2007/2008 National RV Park of the Year. (888) RV-BEACH or www.PismoCoastVillage.com

HAWAII

WAIKIKI RESORT HOTEL puts you in the heart of Waikiki Hawaii, footsteps away from of silky, white sands, renowned shopping and incredible attractions and activities. The three-star Honolulu beach resort features 275 hotel rooms and suites, outﬁtted in tropics-inspired furnishings and deluxe amenities, including mini refrigerators, high-speed Internet access and 32” HD LCD TVs. Enjoy two onsite restaurants, bar and lounge, outdoor pool, spa, hotel shops and more. Consider Waikiki Resort Hotel when seeking hotels that offer comfort, convenience and value. Mention Booking code: 55 Plus (800-3675116) or http://www.waikikiresort. com/specials/senior-special

MONTANA

BIGHORN ANGLER — Hiring a guide is the best way to maximize your time fly fishing the Bighorn River in Fort Smith, Montana. Consisting of some of the most courteous and hardworking guides in Montana, the Bighorn Angler guide staff is second to none. Each guide is a highly accomplished angler and fly fishing instructor whose only goal is to ensure you have the fly fishing trip of a lifetime! Our all-inclusive packages include guided fly fishing, lodging and all meals. (406) 666-2233 or www.BIGHORNANGLER.COM

UTAH

LOGAN, UTAH — Plan your wintertime getaway to this beautiful high mountain valley. Rent snowmobiles or go snowshoeing, downhill skiing at two resorts, ice fishing and birdwatching. Or just cuddle up to a warm fire at a bed and breakfast, check out a live performance, or shop and dine at an array of restaurants. You can have all sorts of outdoor adventures, experience hands-on living history, and performing and fine arts. It’s a charming and affordable escape where we do winter right. Just 90 minutes north of Salt Lake City. (800) 882-4433 or www.explorelogan.com

RUBY’S INN is located at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park and offers the closest lodging with everything from luxury hotel rooms to RV parks and campgrounds. Ruby’s Inn is open year-round with a General Store that provides fuel, groceries, camping gear, clothing and gifts. To plan your vacation, visit www.RubysInn.com or call 1-866-866-6616.

WESTERN EXPERIENCES

COLORADO TRAILS RANCH — What you need is a week unwinding and exploring the wonders of our ﬁrst class guest ranch. Colorado Trails Ranch is not far from Durango, in Southwest Colorado. Set in the spectacular panoramas of the San Juan Mountains, our dude ranch resort offers lifetime experiences for singles, groups and entire families. There isn’t one difﬁcult activity in our perfectly personalized programs. The food is delicious, the comfort is wonderful and you’ll feel like a well cared member of the family. (800) 323-3833 or www.ColoradoTrails.com

HOUSING & RELOCATION

BRIO, a community built around your life — Nestled amongst the beautiful red rocks of St. George, Utah, BRIO is built to support your lifestyle. Featuring an abundance of smart ﬂoor plans and a clubhouse with indoor and outdoor pools, pickleball, tennis

courts and a ﬁtness center — life at BRIO feels like a resort style getaway, every day. Find out more about BRIO at lifeatbrio.com or by calling 800.303.BRIO today.

RETIRE SIERRA VISTA — Experience blue-Arizona skies and average daytime temperatures of 75 degrees at sunny Sierra Vista. Lots to do…but without the crowds. And comfortably affordable. Now you can sample it all with our 3-day $199 “Pretirement” sampler that includes two to three nights hotel stay, meal deals, free admission to Ramsey Canyon Preserve, round of golf for two at Pueblo Del Sol Country Club, two day guided tours and more. Find out more at www.RetireSierraVista.com or call (520) 458.6940.

SUNRIVER - ST. GEORGE is southern Utah’s premier master-planned active adult lifestyle community. Built in an unspoiled, rural location, SunRiver St. George provides a quiet, superbly planned community with occupancy limited to at least one resident 55 or older. From the golf course layout and community center design to the

or www.SunRiver.com

South Korea: From hanboks to headsets

Story by Andrea Gross; photographs by Irv Green

Flashback 60 years. Korea had barely recovered from a half-century of domination by the Japanese when it became ground zero for a contest between China and Russia to the north and United Nations forces to the south. The streets of Seoul were filled with oxcarts, the buildings were pockmarked with shrapnel, and starving people, dressed in tattered hanboks, foraged in the country for food.

Today, the streets are filled with Hyundais, the buildings have been replaced with skyscrapers, and the country has morphed from one of the poorest in the world to one of the richest. Korea’s growth has been so extraordinary that it is commonly referred to as “The Miracle on the Han,” the Han being a river that ﬂows through the center of Seoul.

To accomplish such a miracle, a country needs folks who are driven. It also needs folks who are caffeinated. Fortunately, South Korea has both. And now it plans to use that energy to brag a bit, to invite others to learn about its prewar past and its remarkable present. It seems to be succeeding. National Geographic lists Seoul as one of the top go-to places for 2017.

Thus, here we are tourists in the Land of the orning Calm, which isn’t very calm at all. The only thing that’s calm is the traffic, which is calm because it’s gridlocked to a standstill.

It takes us a while to acclimate. Few signs are written in nglish, few people speak nglish, and most are too rushed to try even if they can. But on the other

hand, its worth the trouble. Where else can you see a miracle still in the making?

We begin our exploration at Deoksugung alace, one of five royal homes in Seoul that served as the seat of government during the oseon Dynasty ( - ). It’s here that we’re able to glimpse the city’s transition from past to present. Seen from certain vantage points, the changing of the royal guard takes place in front of the stately gate of the ancient palace. From others, the drum rolls are backed by streets of distinctly modern buildings.

A short subway ride takes us to Bukchon Hanok illage, an authentic enclave of centuries-old homes (hanoks). any of the homes have been turned into guesthouses and cultural centers, and women stroll the streets dressed in colorful hanboks shortjacketed, long-skirted dresses that date back thousands of years. No matter that the women are tourists who spent $20 to rent a hanbok for four selfie-filled hours. They give the village a certain panache, and I’m delighted to revel in a picturesque version of Korea’s past.

What’s more, off in the distance, framed by wing-roofed homes, I can see the highrises of downtown Seoul. This serves as yet another reminder of the miracle that has transformed the city.

We leave the past behind when we go to Hapjeong, a former riverfront neighborhood that is now dominated by ecenatpolis all, a group of three towers that punch more than 40 stories into the air. On the streets people scurry

Deoksugung Palace is one of five royal palaces in Seoul.

about, a smart phone in one hand, a latte in the other. This is the home of the driven, folks who are harried as well as hurried.

But as we wander a few blocks downhill from the mall, we come upon a neighborhood that has yet to be renovated. It’s filled with homes that date back to the ’70s; some still have echoes of traditional architecture. The owner of a small cafe tells us that these buildings are slated to be torn down and replaced with modern skyscrapers filled with offices for tech-savvy geeks. “But,” he says, “others are betting it’ll become part of the area’s creative renaissance, a place for filmmakers, musicians and other artists. After all, Hapjeong is part of the new Seoul.”

Located across the Han iver, Gangnam is the new Seoul on steroids. The people may be determined, but they’re also energized not only by the omnipresent coffee shops but also by a palpable enthusiasm that permeates the rarefied air.

A while back angnam was rice fields, but then came the Olympics and the rice fields became expensive real estate.

In , a South orean rapper named Psy released a song about the upscale neighborhood in which he grew up.

After “ angnam Style” was featured on a YouTube video that received a reputed billion hits, his old neighborhood became Seoul’s hippest hangout.

We gaze at tall skyscrapers, visit the largest underground shopping mall in Asia and wander through a maze of upscale shops, galleries and restaurants that seems to go on forever.

It’s a far cry from the war-torn and depressed city of the ’50s. Korea has indeed leapfrogged from hanboks to headsets with unprecedented speed. It’s a miracle to be sure.

For more about Korea travel, go to our website, www.traveltizers.com

TUESDAY, FEB. 7

9:30 - 11:00am

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 8

10 - 11:30am

THURSDAY, FEB. 16

2 - 3:30 pm

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22

5:30 - 6:30 pm

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 23

10 - 11:30 am

YOUR CALENDAR FOR: Wellness Lectures | Screenings | Demonstrations | Special Events

Valentine’s Day Cards

Learn how to create your own greeting cards with multi-media artist Carolyn King. You’ll be using oil pastels, liquid watercolor paints, watercolor pencils and sparkles. No experience needed! All materials provided. $15/person (non-refundable or transferable). Register and pay at tmcaz.com or 520-324-1960.

Choosing Well at the Grocery Store

The food we eat becomes even more important as we age and our metabolism changes. Enjoy a morning with our nutrition experts, Mary Atkinson and Laurie Ledford as they take you on a virtual grocery shopping trip. You’ll learn how and why to choose the foods that are best for you, how to avoid impulse shopping traps and more….

TMC One Series: Osteoporosis- Causes, Diagnosis & Treatment

Join TMC endocrinologist Shubh Kaur, MD as she shares the risks factors, the importance of early diagnosis and the latest treatment procedures.

Orthopaedic Lecture Series: Benefits of Physical Therapy as We Age Join Jennifer Zoucha, DPT, from Tucson Orthopaedic Institute as she discusses how physical therapists can show us how to stay as active as possible throughout our lives.

Wills and Trusts: Are You Prepared

Developing a will or trust is one of the most important things you will do. Don’t put it off or wait until the last minute. Join elder law attorney Ron Zack, JD, as he shares when each of these should be used and the essential pieces and the pitfalls of each.

Registration required. All events listed are free unless noted otherwise.

Events take place at TMC Senior Services

El Dorado Health Campus 1400 N. Wilmot Road

Namdaemun Market is the largest traditional market in Korea.

A gold staircase in Lotte World Mall seems a fitting metaphor for the chic district popularized by a South Korean rapper whose video “Gangnam Style” went viral.

Entertainment

Joyful art

Diana Madaras celebrating “perfect” new location

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski

Diana adaras’ artwork has been called “joyful.” She plans to keep that theme running when she celebrates the opening of her new gallery on Sunday, Feb.12.

“We are having three different musical groups, including the Catalina Flute Choir, an African drumming group and a jazz group,” adaras says.

“Besides music, we’ll have refreshments, and tents in the parking lot. There will be gallery specials and new paintings, too.”

Perhaps most impressive to her is that art by iconic designer era Neumann, best known for her scarves, will be on display and for sale.

“Her original art was discovered in storage,” she says. “This will be the first show of her art west of the ississippi ever. It would be incredible to own one of her originals.” A -year Arizona resident, Madaras is known for her intense and dramatic recollection of subtle, natural beauty of ordinary scenes. She paints in watercolor and acrylic.

“ eople come in here and say, This art makes me happy,’” she says. “I think people like the colors. I’m all about the color.”

Madaras moved into the new location at N. Swan d. in October, and closed her other two on Skyline and Broadway.

“We decided we didn’t want to pay rent anymore,” she says. “We had two locations and the Broadway one was purchased by the city. We had the funds to buy a building because Broadway was

rent anymore,” she says. “We had two locations and the Broadway one was purchased by the city. We had the funds to buy a building because Broadway was selling.

she says proudly as she tours her gallery. “They’re using my image.”

There is a bar for entertaining, too.

“I knew the woman who owned it,

“We do a lot of events here,” she says. “It’s all over the gamut. We’ve had events since we opened in October. We’ve been busy. It’s like walking into someone’s home. For the winter events, we have the fireplace on.”

“I knew the woman who owned it, Rochelle Rubin. She built this building. I asked her what she was doing with it, and she said that the previous night she decided to sell it. At the first big event, I got a text that she died. She was so happy that someone she knew was taking over her building. On Feb. , we’re going to dedicate the building to her.”

her building. On Feb. , we’re going to dedicate the building to her.”

She calls the location “perfect in every

She calls the location “perfect in every way.”

Madaras loves everything about art seeing an inspirational scene, taking photos, sketching, painting, photographing, framing and selling it.

“We have guest artists,” she says.

“It shows the art incredibly well and the gifts. Oh, it was like it was made for us.”

“We have guest artists,” she says. “It shows the art incredibly well and the gifts. Oh, it was like it was made for us.”

The gallery also features crown jewel-inspired, high-end costume and semi-precious jewelry by Whitney Wilkening. ift items, reproductions and bronzes are also available.

“Here are hand-carved wooden pieces that are handpainted by exican artists,”

“I always have my camera with me especially when I travel,” she says. “I’ll go away on a retreat for 10 days and paint. sually, I go to one of the ranches around here. I’m preparing to do that now.”

The Madaras Gallery will celebrate its new location with an open house from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, at 3035 N. Swan Rd. To RSVP, call 623-4000 or email ops@madaras.com.

Calendar of events February 2017

February 1 Wednesday

Totally Tiled in Mini Workshop, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., DoubleTree Inn Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way, $15, christifriesenart.com. Use stamps, texture sheets and molds to make a plethora of pretty tiles to decorate a small metal tin.

February 2 Thursday

Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society Meeting, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sky Islands High School, 6000 E. 14th St., free, 256-2447, tucsoncactus.org. Guillermo Rivera, director of Florida’s South American Nature Tours, will discuss Argentina’s plants.

Frontier Printing Press Demonstrations, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., repeats Feb. 16 and Feb. 23, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $5, adults, $2 youth, free children 7-13, 398-2252, events@tubacpresidio.org. A knowledgeable volunteer demonstrates the Washington Hand Press used to print Arizona’s ﬁrst newspaper in 1859.

Birding Agua Caliente Park, 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m., Pima County Agua Caliente Park, 12325 E. Roger Rd., $5, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, 615-7855, eeducation@pima.gov. Take a guided walk to look for wintering birds such as ducks, woodpeckers, bluebirds, and sparrows, as well as roadrunners, wrens and other resident specialties.

Paint Out in the Park, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Pima County Catalina Regional Park, 4135 E. Trotter Place, free, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr. Join the friendly group of Tucson Plein Air Painters to try your hand at painting landscape scenes in the open air of Pima County’s Catalina Regional Park. February

Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association General Meeting, 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m., Steward Observatory Lecture Hall, Room, N210, 933 N. Cherry Ave., free, tucsonastronomy.org.

February 4 Saturday

German American Club of Tucson Mardi Gras Dance, 5 p.m., Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, 3445 N. Dodge Blvd., $8 dinner, $8 admission, 477-7447 for reservations.

Music by Norm Siess Band.

Walking Tours of Old Tubac, 10 a.m. to noon, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $10 admission includes all-day admission and tour, reservations requested, 398-2252, info@tubacpresidio.org. Guided by Connie Stevens, tourists will discover fascinating facts about the town’s early adobe buildings and Arizona’s ﬁrst European settlement.

Talk: The Historical Inﬂuences of the Railroads on the Borderlands, 2 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $10 includes all-day admission to tour the park, reservations required, 398-2252. Rio Rico historian Dwight Thibodeaux will speak about how the arrival of the railroads in Arizona Territory affected the borderlands.

Birding Tucson Mountain Park, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Tucson Mountain Park, Ironwood Picnic area, 1500 S. Kinney Rd., free members, $5 nonmembers, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov, 615-7855. Join a local birding expert for a guided walk in Tucson Mountain Park to see rufous-winged sparrows, gilded ﬂickers, phainopeplas, and many other desert birds.

Medicinal and Practical Uses of Desert Plants, 9:30 a.m. to noon, Tucson Mountain Park, Desert Discovery Center, 7798 W. Gates Pass Rd., $10 members, $15 nonmembers, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, 615-7855, eeducation@pima.gov. Join the group at the Desert Discovery Center in Tucson Mountain Park for an in-depth look at the medicinal and practical uses of desert plants. Workshop includes a short hike and make-and-take session to process a variety of desert herbs for use at home.

A Night Under the Stars, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Pima County Agua Caliente Park, 12325 E. Roger Rd., free, 6157855, eeducation@pima.gov, www.pima.gov/nrpr. Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association volunteers introduce the night sky and set up telescopes for celestial viewing.

Savor: Southern Arizona Food and Wine Festival, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way, $65, saaca.org.

February

5 Sunday

Teodoro “Ted” Ramirez Artist-in-Residence Concert Series: Earl Edmonson, 2 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, 418, reservations required. 3982252. Earl Edmonson is a master of the ﬂat-top guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, harmonica, and vocals. His work is found on countless Arizona recordings, and he has appeared live with Alison Krauss and Union Station, the Subdudes, Travis Edmonson, Katie Lee and Tom Paxton to name just a few.

Bingo Happenings - February 2017

Desert Diamond Casino Bingo

With bingo favorites, new games and levels to buy in, there’s more to win than ever before.

WHEN: Thursday thru Monday from 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

WHERE: Desert Diamond Casino, 7350 S. Nogales Hwy.

COST: $4 to $200 INFO: 342-1840

Casino del Sol Bingo

Casino del Sol’s spacious bingo hall seats up to 600 players with smoking and nonsmoking sections.

WHEN: Daily with start times from 12 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. WHERE: Casino del Sol, 5655 W. Valencia Rd.

COST: $1 to $95, depending on package INFO: (855) 765-7829 or www.casinodelsolresort.com/ tucson-casino/bingo

Elks Lodge Tucson East Bingo

Open to the public. $1,000 jackpot on the ﬁrst three bingo days of the month.

WHEN: Sundays at 1 p.m.; Monday at 7 p.m.; and Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

WHERE: Elks Lodge Tucson East 2532, 615 S. Pantano Rd.

COST: Depends on number of cards purchased. INFO: 886-8120

DAV Bingo

The public is welcome to play bingo at the Disabled American Veterans Hall.

WHEN: 12:45 p.m. every day except Sundays and Wednesdays; and 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays

WHERE: Disabled American Veterans, 3455 S. Wilmot Rd.

COST: Call for cost INFO: 747-3333

February 6 Monday

Meet Me at Maynards, 5:35 p.m. Mondays, 400 E. Toole, free, meetmeatmaynards.com/docwalk/. The mission of Meet Me at Maynards is to bring active adults and families to the downtown Tucson area to enjoy healthy exercise, experience the beauty, history and architecture of the unique neighborhoods and to appreciate and patronize local businesses.

February 7 Tuesday

Hike Brown Mountain Trail, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Tucson Mountain Park, Brown Mountain Trailhead, 8451 W. McCain Loop Rd., free members, $5 nonmembers, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, 615-7855, eeducation@pima.gov.

Enjoy the scenic and rugged beauty of the Tucson Mountains on this 2-mile guided hike with a Pima County naturalist.

February 8 Wednesday

Tubac Festival of the Arts, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Feb. 12, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $8 per car, 398-2252. The 58th annual event showcases the work of hundreds of visiting artists and craft persons from around

the country and Canada. The food court features a variety of cuisines.

February 9 Thursday

Green Valley Stroke Support Group, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Zuni Room, La Perla at La Posada, 635 S. Park Center Ave., free, reservations required, 626-2901. Facilitated by Leslie Ritter, PhD, RN, and supported by Banner - University Medical Center, University of Arizona College of Nursing and Sarver Heart Center. For stroke survivors and caregivers to learn more about stroke, to ﬁnd positive solutions to shared concerns and to unite in support of each other.

February 10 Friday

February 11

February 11 Saturday

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, Tanque Verde Guest Ranch, 14301 E. Speedway Blvd., $20, reservations required, programaauwtucson@gmail.com. The group will spotlight its college and university connections. Members will discuss grant recipients for the Virginia Palmer Memorial Scholarship, funds left by a former member, and the Louise Hoppy Native American Scholarship.repeats Feb. 25.

Tucson Area Iris Society Meeting, 1 p.m., Murphy-Wilmot Branch Library, 530 N. Wilmot Rd., free, 749-9512, tucsoniris. org. Author Ron Coleman will present an illustrated talk about

“Wild Orchids of Arizona and New Mexico.” Business and board meetings will follow.

February 12 Sunday

Sarah Kroger’s “This is My Story,” 3 p.m., St. Mark Catholic Church, 2727 W. Tangerine Rd., Oro Valley, $20 suggested donation, 469-7835. Composers like Sarah Kroger are highly regarded in Catholicism as leaders in their ﬁelds. Kroger is passionate about delivering the message “that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.”

February 13 Monday

The National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Association, Chapter 55, Meeting, 11 a.m., Golden Corral, 4380 E. 22nd St., $10, 444-6970. Current and retired federal employees, their spouses, guests, and visitors are welcome.

beauty, history and architecture of the unique neighborhoods and to appreciate and patronize local businesses.

February 14 Tuesday

Statehood Celebration at the Tubac Presidio, 11 a.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $2-$5, 398-2252. Celebrate the state’s 105th anniversary when the Presidio cannon is ﬁred at 11 a.m. and the group will sing a birthday song. Visitors are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy on the park grounds.

February 15 Wednesday

Guided Tour of the Barrio de Tubac Archaeological Site, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $10, reservations required, 398-2252, info@tubacpresidio.org. Special tour by Phil Halpenny and Gwen Grifﬁn of the Spanish colonial archaeological site just south of the park, which preserves the remains of the original Tubac town site, including residence foundations, plaza area, refuse area and partial irrigation ditch.

February 16 Thursday

Keeping Your Heart in Sync: What You Need to Know

About Atrial Fibrillation, 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., Canoa Hills Social Center, 3660 S. Camino del Sol, Green Valley, free, 6262901. Atrial ﬁbrillation is a heart rhythm disorder that affects between 2 to 3 million people and accounts for about one-ﬁfth

of all strokes in the United States. Dr. Mathew Hutchinson, professor of medicine at the UA Sarver Heart Center, specializes in treating atrial ﬁbrillation.

February 17 Friday

A Night Under the Stars, 5 p.m. (tour), 6 p.m. (star gazing), Historic Hacienda de la Canoa, 5375 S. Interstate 19 Frontage Rd., Green Valley, free, pima.gov/nrpr, canoaranch@ pima.gov, 724-5220. Sonora Astronomical Society volunteers set up telescopes for celestial viewing and introduces the night sky. Come before dark to take a self-guided tour of the Canoa Ranch Headquarters. Bring your ﬂashlight and lawn chair. Weather permitting. All ages welcome.

...continues on page 29

Antique, Vintage, & Collectible Book Fair, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., repeats 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19, Foothills Mall, 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., free admission, 219-0650. Antique, vintage and collectible book fair beneﬁting Tell Me A Good Story educational nonproﬁt.

February 18 Saturday

Hell Bent for Resurrection: A Hike through Tubac’s Many Layers, 10 a.m. to noon, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, reservations required, 398-2252. Join the group for a new program of History Hikes to take advantage of the great outdoors and the amazingly rich cultural heritage. Join a docent for an insightful walk on the Anza Trail starting at the original Plaza de Armas from which the expedition to Alta California departed.

Desert Discovery Day, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tucson Mountain Park, Desert Discovery Center, 7798 W. Gates Pass Rd., free, pima.gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov, 615-7855. Explore the diversity of the beautiful Sonoran Desert with a variety of family-friendly, hands-on activities.

Cruise, BBQ and Blues Festival and Car Show, 10 a.m., Oro Valley Marketplace, 12155 N. Oracle Rd., Oro Valley, $5, saaca.org/classiccarshow.html. Rev up the weekend with oldies music, kids’ activities and great food. Twenty classes of auto awards will be given in Best of Show, Best Interior, Best Paint, Best Engine and People’s Choice, as well as a ﬁrst-place award in each vehicle category.

“Your aunt Dot is tossed!”

Skip the misunderstandings, not the moment.

With a captioned phone, you can hear and read your phone calls on a bright, easy-to-read screen. No asking to repeat. No “can you speak up?” Just the simple joy of conversation.

February 19 Sunday

Teodoro “Ted” Ramirez Artist-in-Residence Concert Series: The Remuda Triangle with Sue Harris, 2 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $20, reservations required, 398-2252. “Remuda” is the Spanish word describing the herd of horses vaqueros use to pick their daily riding mounts. This herd includes Stewart MacDougall, Ed Brown and Sue Harris. Harris is the latest member of the New Christy Minstrels. The group’s poems are laced with raw humor, irony and commentary on the state of just about everything, blended seamlessly with songs that range from poignant reﬂections on days gone by to uplifting celebrations of modern cowboy life.

February 20 Monday

February 21 Tuesday

Hike Brown Mountain Trail, 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Tucson Mountain Park, Brown Mountain Trailhead, 8451 W. McCain Loop Rd., free for members, $5 nonmembers, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov, 615-7855. Enjoy the scenic and rugged beauty of the Tucson Mountains on this 2-mile guided hike with a Pima County naturalist.

February 22 Wednesday

Washington’s Medicine: Blood and Guts in the 18th Century, 2 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $10 includes admission to the park, 398-2252. Celebrate Washington’s birthday with a sometimes humorous and interactive look at the crude and frequently innovative medical treatments of 18th century medicine. Dr. Abraham Byrd, a Tucson family physician and surgeon general for the Sons of the American Revolution, will discuss medical practice on the frontiers of New Spain and in the eastern colonies.

First Steps in Night Photography, 10 a.m. to noon, Pima County Agua Caliente Park, 12325 E. Roger Rd., $5 for members, $10 nonmembers, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov or 520-615-7855. This beginning-to-intermediate sky photography workshop with nature photographer James Capo is designed for those with access to a camera capable of long exposures and photo-editing software. Ages 12 and up.

February 23 Thursday

Michael Feinstein, 7:30 p.m., Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St., call for ticket prices, 547-3040, foxtucson.com.

February 24 Friday

Living History: Spinning, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $2-$5, 3982252. Spinning is one of the oldest surviving crafts in the world. A knowledgeable volunteer will demonstrate how the spinning wheel produces thread from ﬁber, and you are welcome to experience spinning with a drop spindle.

February 25 Saturday

Living History: Chocolate! 1,000 Years and Counting, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $2-$5, 398-2252. Taste a cacao bean, learn how the Mayans and pre-Columbian Native Americans prepared their chocolate, and sample the energy drink that fueled the 1774 and 1775 Anza expeditions from Tubac to Alta California.

The Archeology of Arizona - Special Presentation by Jack Lasseter, 2 p.m., Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, 1 Burruel St., Tubac, $15, reservations required, 398-2252. Jack Lasseter will

YOU $AVE, WE SERVE!

discuss the six major prehistoric peoples in Arizona: the Ancient Puebloan People (Anasazi), the Mogollon, the Hohokam, the Sinagua, the Salado and the Patayan. He will also talk about the earlier Paleo-Indians, the archeological techniques used by the professionals, and some details about the archeologists who have made this ﬁeld so famous in Arizona.

A Night Under the Stars, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., Tucson Mountain Park, Ironwood Picnic Area, 1500 S. Kinney Rd., free, www.pima.gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov or 520-615-7855. Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association volunteers introduce the night sky and set up telescopes for celestial viewing.

Spring Festival of the Arts, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., repeats 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 26, Oro Valley Marketplace, 12155 N. Oracle Rd., Oro Valley, free, saaca.org. The Spring Festival of the Arts supports creative artist communities, while driving economic development in Oro Valley.

February 26 Sunday

Arizona Springs: 10,000 Points of Life, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Pima County Agua Caliente Park, 12325 E. Roger Rd., free for members, $5 nonmembers, online registration required, pima. gov/nrpr, eeducation@pima.gov, 615-7855. Ecologist and author Larry Stevens describes the great diversity of life that occupy Arizona springs, including rare plants, strange insects, and the remarkable group of Arizona ﬁsh, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

February 27 Monday

Elder Circles, The Wisdom Journey, 3 p.m., Casa Community Center, 780 S. Park Centre Ave., Green Valley, free, ourfamilyservices.org. “A safe, respectful place for harvesting your life.”

February 28 Tuesday

Tour of Hacienda de la Canoa, 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., and noon to 1:30 p.m., Historic Hacienda de la Canoa, 5375 S. Interstate 19 Frontage Rd., Green Valley, free, online registration required, pima.gov/nrpr, canoaranch@pima.gov, 724-5220.

Club Camera to host workshops at Agua Caliente Park

Four photo workshops on capturing beautiful nature and wildlife images, landscapes and the night sky will be open to interested enthusiasts who want to improve their picturetaking skills by learning simple tips and techniques that can be used with almost any camera.

The two-hour workshops are sponsored by Club Camera Tucson and will be held in the Rose Cottage ducational Building, next to the historic anch House Art allery, all on the grounds of the 101-acre Agua Caliente ark, . oger d.

The workshops are:

Capturing Nature’s Beauty through Photography, 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. . Landscape photographer Steve Dell shares the tools and techniques he uses to capture nature’s beauty. Dell covers tips for improving one’s photography in the field and in the “digital darkroom,” discussing composition and different ways to “engage” the viewer in the scene. A six-time president of Club Camera Tucson, Dell fre uently lectures in photographic techni ue, and he leads the Tucson Creative Cloud for Photographers meetup group.

First Steps in Night

Photography, 10 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. . ver wondered how photographers capture those stunning images of the ilky Way, star trails and night-time cityscapes? Learn how in this introduction to nighttime photography workshop by Club Camera Tucson nature and landscape photographer James Capo. This is a beginner-to-intermediate level workshop, and participants should have a DSL or mirrorless camera capable of shooting exposures up to seconds, a tripod, and photo editing software.

Techniques, 10 a.m. to noon

Wednesday, arch . Club Camera Tucson president Tom Anderson presents a toolbox of helpful tips and techni ues to benefit photographers of all skill levels. How do you get a cool starburst effect in your photos? What does a polarizing filter do and when should you use one? Are clouds important in outdoor photography and why? These questions and more will be covered in this workshop. Anderson is the owner of Desert Dreaming hotography, which offers custom photo tours of Southern Arizona.

Introduction to Wildlife

Photography, 10 a.m. to noon

Wednesday, arch . Club Camera Tucson past president and nature photographer Ted Fleming introduces the basic equipment and techniques you’ll need to capture beautiful photos of birds and mammals. Included will be a discussion of places to photograph wildlife in the area. Fleming spent most of his career as a biology professor, and his research specialty in tropical plantanimal interactions provided him the opportunity to travel and photograph extensively in the tropics. His photos have appeared in Arizona Highways magazine and in his published books.

Each workshop is $5 to those who hold a Pima County Natural Resources arks and ecreation (N ) annual pass for tours and outdoor activities, and for no-pass holders. Registration is required in advance at clubcameratucson.org.

The workshops are sponsored in conjunction with an exhibit of fine art photography titled “Lensmasters of the Southwest,” which is on display at the Ranch House Art Gallery at Agua Caliente Park from Feb. 11 to March 16. The lensmasters of Club Camera Tucson have captured the Southwest in an exhibit as diverse as its landscape, featuring color, black-and-white, and abstract images. The park is open daily,

“Saguaro in the Snow” is one of the featured images at “Lensmasters of the Southwest,” an exhibit of fine art photography that runs from Feb. 11 to March 16 at the Ranch House Art Gallery in Agua Caliente Park. Photo by Club Camera Tucson landscape and nature photographer James Capo.

while the Ranch House Art Gallery is open from a.m. to p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

A special meet the artists reception is scheduled for p.m. to p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14. The reception is open to the public, and attendees receive a free chance to win a piece of fine art which will be rafﬂed off as a door prize at the reception.

Entrance to the park and the gallery are free.

Club Camera Tucson is an active local club of more than 100 members that meets twice a month for a variety

of activities, including friendly photo criti ues, competitions and a diverse set of educational programs featuring outside speakers. In addition to regular meetings, the club has special interest groups and takes field trips ranging from day trips to nearby locations of photographic interest, to multiday excursions. embers are photo enthusiasts of all skill levels, from beginners to professional. The fine art photos on exhibit include images that have won recognition in numerous club competitions.

• Located in the heart of Prescott on 16 lush acres

• Garden apartments available with walk-out patios

• Beautiful nature park

• Pet friendly walking paths and fenced in dog park area

• Underground parking available

• Restaurant style dining

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Brownies, caramel a yummy pairing

By Jan D’Atri

Thismonth, with Valentine’s Day, is made for chocolate lovers. By all means, give chocolate as a Valentine’s Day gift, but if you do happen to have any chocolates left over after this sweet holiday, I have the perfect idea: Turn them into “Ellie Cakes.”

That’s what Elyse Judd’s mom did. She would add them to pieces of brownies that didn’t quite come out of the pan perfectly. She called them “Ellie Cakes” and made them an heirloom treasure.

Phoenix resident Elyse Judd shares the story:

“Mom would take the broken pieces of brownies that didn’t come out of the pan in perfect squares and any leftover chocolates we had on hand and

‘Ellie Cakes’: Chocolate Brownies with Caramel Sauce Drizzle

she would freeze them for a few hours. Then she would cut them up into little squares and pile them on top of the brownies that did come out in perfect squares, using caramel sauce as the glue! It was my favorite treat ever, so Mom named them Ellie Cakes!”

As if homemade brownies aren’t delicious enough, Ellie Cakes take them to a yummy new level. Thanks, Elyse, for a sweetheart of an idea!

chocolate chips and 1 cup of the walnuts until well blended. Reserve ½ cup walnuts for topping.

Brownie Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food cake mix

1 box brownie mix

3 eggs

1 ½ cups water

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons strong coffee or 2 teaspoons instant espresso

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 tablespoons Hershey’s chocolate syrup (optional)

1 bag (8 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Bake according to brownie mix package instructions. Do not overbake brownies. When cool, cut in squares. Place 3-4 squares in freezer. When hardened, cut into ½-inch cubes. Drizzle a small amount of caramel sauce over brownies. Place frozen brownie cubes and walnuts over top.

Caramel Sauce Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup boiling water

1 tablespoons butter

1 ½ cups chopped walnuts, divided caramel sauce to drizzle

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 shallow baking dish. (Elyse’s mom used a jelly-roll baking sheet or quartersheet pan).

Mix together package of dry devil’s food cake mix, brownie mix, eggs, water, oil, coffee, cocoa, chocolate syrup,

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a skillet or small pot, combine sugar, boiling water, butter, vanilla and salt. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, and cool until thickened. Do not burn bottom of pan.

Jan’s Notes: I love these Ellie Cakes and wanted to share some tips for making perfect brownies. If you have a pure convection element in your oven, use it. It will give you the best even cooking. Also, it’s hard to tell when brownies are done. When the aroma of chocolate coming from the oven hits me, I know the brownies are just about done. Halfway through the baking process, I open the oven and gently pat the top of the brownies. That deﬂates the air bubble on top and I can tell if the brownies are done.

Entertainment

Arizona Casinos

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Bucky’s Casino

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Casino Arizona at Salt River

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Casino Arizona at Talking Stick

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Casino del Sol

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Casino of the Sun

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Cliff Castle Casino

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Cocopah Casino

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Desert Diamond Casino I

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Desert Diamond Casino II

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Fort McDowell Gaming Center

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Yavapai Casino

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Entertainment

Trivia Contest by Kenneth LaFave

Everybody knows these two things about February: It is the shortest month of the year, and it brings us Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14). But did you know it’s the only month that can pass without a full moon? That its mispronunciation (Feb-YOU-ary instead of Feb-ROO-ary) comes from an effect called “dissimilation”? A-ha! Didn’t think so.

The possibility of no full moon stems from February’s brevity of only 28 days.

A full moon arrives every 29.53 days, so it is possible to have a full moon on Jan. 31, and not to experience another until March 1. (This will happen in 2018.)

“Dissimilation” is a linguistic phenomenon that occurs when two “r” sounds are so close together — as in the two middle syllables of “February” — that the tongue slips and pronounces only one of them.

The name “February” comes from a Latin word meaning “purification,” as someone purifies after a long period of activity, in preparation for what’s ahead. So, what’s it doing in second place, after January? You see, the Romans started their year in March, or springtime. So February was the last month.

If you know a third thing about this month, it’s that alone among the others, it is longer by one day every four years. The years in which February has 29 days are called “leap years.” These are also the years in which U.S. presidential elections are held, so if 2016 seemed longer than most years, that was no illusion — it really was.

February Questions:

1In what year did the Super Bowl move from the last Sunday of January to the ﬁrst Sunday of February?

2The third weekend of February commemorates a certain drink. What is it?

3What country dissolved in February of 1990?

4Who declared the ﬁrst Leap Day?

5Valentine’s Day substitutes for what mid-February Roman holiday, which also celebrated romantic love?

To enter:

On a sheet of paper, list the correct answers in order 1 through 5. Include your full name, mailing address, phone number and an email address (if you have one).

Mail your trivia contest entry to: Lovin’ Life After 50 Attn: Trivia Contest 1620 W. Fountainhead Pkwy. Tempe, AZ 85282

Or email your entry to: trivia@lovinlife.com

The deadline for entry is the 15th of each month. Please be sure to have your entry postmarked by that date. If you’re a winner in our drawing, we’ll contact you via telephone. Good luck!

For February, one reader in Tucson and another in Phoenix will win a certiﬁcate for a one-night stay at InnSuites.

The winners received one family four-pack of tickets each — two adults and two child admissions to the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Maria Gallardo of Tucson Mary Lou Johnston of Mesa

1Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth I, was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Ann Boleyn.

2A chamfron is the armor for a horse’s head.

3A greyhound is most depicted in coats of arms.

4Shakespeare worked with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.

5Edward VI succeeded Henry VIII to the throne.

Who said chivalry is dead? How to make a living as a knight-in-armor

By Kenneth LaFave

Herises on a workday morning and dons his armor — all 100 pounds of it. Then it’s off to ride, pounding the turf from the back of a half-draft steed 16 hands high. Warmed up, he proceeds to the core of his job: unseating mounted opponents in a joust.

Face it: You may be cool, but you’ll never be as cool as a 50-year-old man who makes his living as a jousting knight.

“It’s the best job in the world,” says Matthew Mansour, also known as Sir Maxximilian, the Jousting Earl of Braden.

Hard to argue.

Mansour and other jousters will provide the entertainment three times daily at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The festival, a celebration of all things 15th and 16th century, will take place Saturdays and Sundays Feb. 11 to April 2, plus Presidents Day, Feb. 20, at its usual site, a sprawling desert space located on U.S. Highway 60, east of Kings Ranch Road in Gold Canyon.

The jousts take place throughout the day, while elsewhere in the festival jugglers are juggling, acrobats are acrobating, and throngs of people are paying to shoot arrows, throw axes, gawk at a gallery of ancient torture devices and find their way through a maze.

Welcome to life circa 1500, as reimagined circa 1963. That was the year the first public “ enaissance faire” of record was held in Laurel Canyon, California. Since then, the production of festivals commemorating the arts and lifestyles of Renaissance-era Europe has proliferated into a high-profile business, with virtually every state in the union sponsoring one.

Mansour got into the business via his love for horses, though he hails from just about the last place you’d imagine would be home to a future knightin-armor anhattan, specifically midtown between Ninth and 10th avenues, or what used to be called “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Horses and New York City?

Matthew Mansour, 50, calls his job as Sir Maxximilian, the Jousting Earl of Braden, the “best job in the world.”

“There are actually about 500 horses in Manhattan,” Mansour says, “including police horses and Central Park carriages.”

One day when he was 12, young Matthew was walking down Ninth Avenue when he encountered a lifechanging sight.

“A horse was pulling a stagecoach, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” Mansour recalls.

The stagecoach was a promotion for a Western-style restaurant. Matthew walked right up to the driver and asked if he could work for him. He got his first job:

“I would wash the horses while the drivers sat in the bar waiting for the next ride.”

It turned out Mansour was a natural rider and he grew into a horseman. When a driver mentioned he was starting a jousting show at the New York Renaissance Faire, Mansour tagged along and signed up for the gig. But it wasn’t so easy. It took about a year to learn to joust, training first with the lance on the ground, without armor, then adding the armor and finally practicing from on horseback. Add to that the skills of an actor maintaining the character and behavior of a knight.

established. And the jousters really do try to hit as hard as they can to knock their opponent off his horse. That’s why they need real armor, which can cost between $4,000 and $10,000.

As “Sir Maxximilian” (the two Xs are there, he says, because his character is “a little bit dirty”), Mansour dresses in black and owns the persona of a “bad guy.” But sometimes the “bad guy” will win. For those among us with daydreams of an era gone by, anyone on horseback in armor is always a winner.

Arizona Renaissance Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays Feb. 11 to April 16, and Presidents’ Day on Feb. 20. The grounds are located at 12601 E. U.S. Highway 60, Gold Canyon. Ticket prices vary; for more information, visit renfestinfo.com or call 520-463-2600.

Where is home?

“This is what I do. I am a two

“This is what I do. I am a professional jouster,” he says. He’s also a professional businessman who owns the company providing jousting entertainment for the Arizona festival and three other fairs.

“I live where the fair is,” he says, expressing a true wanderlust. That means Mansour will live east of Phoenix through early April, then go to Los Angeles, followed by fairs in the Chicago/Milwaukee area and finally, Charlotte, North Carolina. Each commitment lasts about two and a half months.

“I am totally mobile,” he says, happily.

Mansour is also training his two sons, age 14, to grow up to be jousters.

Over the years, Mansour has experienced a broken arm and “a few concussions” from his time on horseback with a lance. The sport — if that’s what it is — is for real, not staged. The winner is not pre-

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Managing diabetes

Diabetes is a condition in which a person has high blood sugar due to a problem with insulin. Insulin is a hormone which your body produces to lower blood sugar. Diabetes is characterized as either a decrease in the amount of insulin your body produces and/or by an inadequate response from your body to insulin. If you have been diagnosed with diabetes there are many ways that you can stay healthy. Listed below are steps that can help you reduce your blood sugar.

Understand carbohydrates

An important aspect to managing blood sugar is understanding carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are a component of food that causes your blood sugar to increase. There are three types of carbohydrates: starches, sugars and fiber. In general, fiber is the best of the three as it helps you feel full for a longer amount of time. Starches and sugar do not have this effect. Ideally you want to consume starches along with high fiber and try to minimize your sugar intake.

Carbohydrates are found in bread, rice, grains, sugar sweetened beverages and sugar sweetened foods. The easiest way to track carbohydrates in your diet is to read the nutrition label. A nutrition label must include the total carbohydrates in the food product. The total carbohydrates will include fiber, sugar and starch so you don’t have to add up the three different numbers.

Choose your foods

Listed below are four steps you can take to improve your diet.

1. Switch from eating white bread and white rice to whole grain products. Whole grain products will contain less sugar and more fiber.

2. One of the easiest ways to reduce blood sugar is to limit the amount of sugar-sweetened beverages you drink. If you were to cut a can of soda from your diet, you would reduce your carbohydrate intake by 39 grams. As a reference, in general, diabetic adults you should be having approximately 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per meal. You can also switch to diet soda products which offer similar tastes without the sugar.

3. Just because you need to be careful about what you eat doesn’t mean you can’t eat what you want. Reducing your portion size allows you to eat the

foods you want while still controlling blood sugars.

4. The balance meal plate is a great method to help choose your foods wisely. This method recommends filling half of a -inch diameter plate with fruits and vegetables, a quarter of the plate with lean meat and the other quarter with carbohydrates that contain to grams of fiber.

Exercise

Physical activity is an important part of managing diabetes. By exercising

your muscles you will use up the sugar in your blood for energy. By performing physical activity on a consistent basis your body will begin to use blood sugars more efficiently. The more intense the activity, the better the effects, but even simple activities such as walking, gardening or cleaning the house can have a positive benefit.

As exercising can immediately impact blood sugar speak with your doctor or pharmacist with recommendations on how to manage your blood sugar when starting an exercise regimen.

Manage your medications

Your medications all work differently to help reduce your blood sugar. Knowing how and when to take your medications will maximize the benefits you obtain from them. Some medications have to be taken with food. Your Walgreens pharmacist can help you sort through your medication and can even give you a printed list of all the medications you are currently taking! For more information on how to manage diabetes, talk to your Walgreens pharmacist today.

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Naturopath

Everyone can take advantage of superfoods

By Crystal Jarvie

Superfoods contain every nutrient the body requires for optimal health. They provide phytochemicals and antioxidants proven to help prevent many degenerative diseases. People who eat more superfoods tend to be healthier and thinner than those who do not.

Here are categories of antiinﬂammatory superfoods

Healthy herbs and spices: Garlic, curry powder, chili peppers, basil, rosemary, thyme and cinnamon.

Sources of protein: ggs, fish and seafood.

Legumes: Beans, peas and lentils.

Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, hemp, ﬂax, chia and pumpkin.

Sea vegetables: Spirulina, kombu,

and children (ages 5-11).

seaweed, kelp and nori.

Vegetables: Dark leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, carrots, beets, onions, peas, squashes, asparagus and spinach.

Mushrooms: Asian mushrooms (enokidake, maitake, oyster and shiitake.)

Fruit: Acai, berries, peaches, nectarines, oranges, pink grapefruit, red grapes, plums, pomegranates, cherries, apples, pears and kiwi.

Grains: Barley, basmati rice, brown rice, buckwheat, groats, quinoa, steelcut oats and wild rice.

Healthy fats: Extra virgin olive oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, organic expeller-pressed high oleic sunﬂower or safﬂower oil.

Healthy sweets: Plain dark chocolate

(at least 70% pure cocoa), raw cacao, raw honey and bee pollen.

Herbal teas: Green, white, oolong, echinacea and kombucha.

Remember to choose a colorful range of fruits and vegetables to ensure a wide range of vitamins and minerals. Fill up on these nutrient-packed superfoods and work them into your meal regimen. They can help you fight disease, feel more energetic and even lose weight! What are you waiting for?

Crystal Jarvie is a certified integrative health coach for HealthStyles 4 You. She focuses not only on nutrition – but on relationships, physical activity, career and spirituality – and how those five things are connected to your health and vitality. For more information, visit healthstyles4you.com or call 602-722-5627.

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“OneCelebrating Tucson

One person...Six questions

By Barbara Russek

person, six questions” is a continuing series of columns about Tucson-area residents who have made an impact on the community.

This month, Lovin’ Life After 50 focuses on 66-year-old Brenda Kelley, who is president of the Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild, a Fiber Arts Community (THSG.)

elley ualifies as a “nearly native” Tucsonan, having moved to The Old Pueblo with her parents at age 3. It was here that she met her late husband, Gary. The couple spent time in other locales, including Texas and Iowa, but Kelley never forgot the beautiful Grand Canyon State. She returned to Tucson in 1986.

Interestingly, she didn’t have crafting role models in her family.

“I dabbled for many years in drawing and doodles,” Kelley said. “My husband was constantly encouraging me to take art classes, which I eventually did.”

When she was in her 40s, Kelley joined her daughter, Tamara, in pursuing weaving as a hobby. Although Tamara no longer weaves, Kelley expanded her crafting repertoire to also include tapestry, fiber dolls and crocheting. This creative crafter even makes tapestry cartoons and dollmaking patterns.

“I don’t think I have a favorite craft, but I am probably the proudest of the rugs, scarves and shawls that I have made,” Kelley admitted. “My most meaningful crafting experience was weaving a huck lace prayer shawl for my daughter.”

Can you tell me a bit about how THSG got started?

The guild was founded in 1973 as Old Pueblo Guild of Handweavers. The name was changed in 1974 to Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild. In 2010, we added “a Fiber Arts Community” to broaden our scope to more than handweaving and spinning. What crafts are represented at THSG?

Our 185 guild members, both men and women, are involved in

knitting, felting and other fiber arts. We also have an extensive fiber arts library available to our members.

During any month, what events/activities does the guild facilitate?

In addition to our monthly general meeting (September through May) we have study groups, where those interested in a craft get together for socializing, working on a project and learning. We have also had a booth at the Tucson Museum of Art’s Holiday Artisans Market for many years. hat ﬁ a t soul?

Fiber arts bring my mind and soul to peace and joy.

How long does it take to t a ﬁ a t t?

Many projects can be completed in a week, but this also depends on how difficult or intricate the piece may be. For further information, how can Lovin’ Life readers contact THSG?

I invite everyone to come to our general meeting, the fourth Wednesday of the month in the Murphy Room at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, 4440 N. Campbell, beginning at 9:30 a.m. For more information, visit thsg.org.

Barbara Russek, a local freelance writer, welcomes comments at Babette2@comcast.net

Brenda Kelley

Ask the Expert

Therapies advancing for hip and knee challenges

By Dr. Ali Dalal, MD

There are many welcome aspects of maturing – wisdom, experience, retirement and grandchildren, to name a few. Unfortunately, achy hips and knees aren’t likely to make the list.

A lifetime of active living, sports injuries and even a surgery or two can result in joint pain caused by arthritis. This ailment can be one of the most common physical challenges for mature populations.

The hip and knee joints are central to everyday movement, and when issues surface, many experience uncertainty and anxiety about treatment. Will I need surgery? Can I keep my lifestyle? What will my joint be like 10 years from now?

Orthopaedic Surgeon Dr. Ali Dalal is a hip and knee specialist at Tucson Orthopaedic Institute. Dalal performs robotically assisted partial knee and total hip replacements using the Mako system. The surgery is planned with a 3D model of the joint and completed with the help of a robotic arm that does not allow deviations from the plan. Accurate implant placement may decrease complications and improve patient satisfaction.

He answered common questions about the treatment of hip and knee arthritis.

When should someone see a specialist? Standard aches and pains are common for people of any age, and they can increase in frequency as we add more candles to the birthday cake. So when does it become necessary to see an orthopaedic specialist?

of patients do not require surgery. There are many effective therapies available, including physical therapy, oral antiinflammatory medications, lifestyle modifications and joint injections. Many patients are surprised to find that the source of their pain was an easily treatable soft tissue injury that did not involve the joint at all.

When is surgery the best option?

If damage to the joint is severe and other therapies have not been effective, partial or total joint replacement can make a dramatically positive difference in a patient’s quality of life. Long-term studies have found hip and knee replacement to be some of the most durable and successful procedures ever invented.

Are technological advances making a difference?

There have been significant technological advancements in the last 15 years. Improvements in materials science have made joint replacements more durable, better understanding of pain management has reduced recovery times, and the advent of robotically assisted surgery has improved surgical accuracy, ultimately creating a much better outcome.

What are the outcomes?

If joint pain and lack of mobility are interfering with everyday life, one should seek the care of a specialist. I often see patients who are unable to rise after sitting on the ground with their grandkids or who have to take a break even after a short walk. It is important not to normalize constant joint pain as part of the aging process.

Is surgery the only option? Many who experience knee and hip pain are concerned that surgery is the only remedy.

Each person is unique, but a majority

Robotically assisted surgery has already been proven to improve accuracy in implant placement for partial knee replacement. The pitfalls in total hip replacement, specifically dislocation and unequal leg lengths, are driven by inaccurate component placement. Mako technology may help minimize these complications going forward.

Dr. Ali Dalal graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a Bachelor of Science in molecular cell and developmental biology. He earned his MD from the University of California San Diego and completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Illinois Chicago. He completed a fellowship in hip and knee replacement at the Florida Orthopaedic Institute, where he worked with Dr. Kenneth Gustke, a pioneer in robotically assisted joint replacement surgery.

Loved ones who are hard of hearing

By Ken Arcia, Arizona Relay Service

Whenthe conversation around the dinner table is frequently interrupted with “What?” and “Can you say that again?,” it can get increasingly harder for family members to remain patient with a loved one who is hard of hearing. Although it can be difficult at times, steering the conversation away from them or gently avoiding them could cause lasting problems not only within the family dynamic but in regard to that person’s health as well.

Growing older is not always an easy process. It can be just as hard to watch a loved one experience the setbacks that come with aging, hearing loss being one of the most common. According to Forbes, one in three people older than the age of 60 and two-thirds of people over 70 experience hearing loss and among Baby Boomers, 15 percent are already affected.

For the majority, hearing loss is not something that is easy to swallow and is usually accompanied with a number of personal reasons to refuse treatment –pride, discomfort, expense, the list goes on. However, no matter the issue, just because a person may not be able to keep up with the conversation as he or she once had does not mean that they should be kept out of it entirely. On a human level, we all want and, to a degree, need social contact. It benefits our overall health and mental stability. With this in mind, loneliness and social isolation are fast becoming a health threat among those who suffer from hearing loss. Studies have shown that isolation increases the risk of mental and physical illnesses; a health risk that is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

So if you are struggling with how to cope with a loved one who is hard of hearing, here is some advice as to how to better communicate with them.

1. Look at the person directly and speak clearly: This will save you the effort of shouting across the room and further aggravating yourself as well as whoever else is there. You need to signal that you’re speaking to that person by locking eyes. This will help them to concentrate on what you’re saying.

2. Don’t cover your mouth and speak clearly: This may seem like a

no-brainer but in everyday conversation, we sometimes tend to rush our speech or partially cover our mouths. Be mindful of this and try to keep your mouth free of any other distraction.

3. Speak clearly but do not exaggerate lip movements: Clearly enunciate your words but don’t go so far as to drag them out unnaturally, which is tempting to do. People who are hard of hearing may use lip reading to help fill in the bits of the conversation they may have missed. However, those who are accustomed to lip-reading are used to the lips of people speaking naturally.

4. Use facial expressions: Especially when showing emotion. Those who are hard of hearing may not recognize the intonation of your voice, making it difficult for them to gauge your emotion. This, too, does not need to be overexaggerated but enough to convey your feelings.

5. Get to the point: Tailor your conversation so that it contains simple sentences that get to the meaning quickly. This doesn’t mean you have to be short but merely focused on the point you are trying to make.

6. Don’t speak all at once: Although this may be considered as another obvious tip, it is common for family gatherings to get loud. This can be overwhelming for those who are hard of hearing because they tend to rely on visual aspects of communication. It also makes it difficult for them to pinpoint where the sound is coming from.

7. Be mindful of the environment: When trying to engage someone who is hard of hearing in conversation, try to position yourselves in a location within the room that is quieter. This helps eliminate excess noise and lighting that may otherwise distract them from hearing what you’re saying.

Family represents many things to each of us but its foundation is built upon love and inclusion. Everyone should feel a part of it. Apply these guidelines to your next family gathering to make it more enjoyable for everyone involved.

For more information on the Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing, visit acdhh. org, or Arizona Relay Service, visit azrelay.org.

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T HE F INIS H L INE

Arizona’s Leader in Senior Fitness

There’s A Champion In You!

We’re making fitness and good health fun by giving you a reason to train and get ready for one of the most satisfying experiences of your life the Senior Olympics!

You don’t have to be a great athlete you’ll have a wonderful time just participating with people like yourself who want to remain active and able throughout their lives.

We offer sports and one of them is just right for you!

REGISTRATION IS OPEN NOW. For detailed information go to our beautiful web site at www.seniorgames.org. Check us out on Facebook by searching Arizona Senior lympics. ffice hours Monday Thursday, a.m.-4 p.m., Phone 602-2 4- 42

The Finish Line Newsletter is produced by Arizona Senior Olympics, founded by: in partnership with the cities of Chandler, Glendale, Mesa, Peoria, Scottsdale, Tempe and the communities of Sun City, Sun City West and Sun City Grand

Arizona Senior Olympics P.O. Box 33278

Phoenix, AZ 85067-3278

602-274-7742 web site: www.seniorgames.org

While it may be true that “age is just a number,” in the age of the Arizona Senior Olympic ames, it is much more than a number. It’s an accomplishment to be honored. It’s a symptom of strength, perseverance, wisdom and courage.

nlike most senior games, the ASO divides its competition into five-year age groups. We do this to “level the playing

LIST OF EVENTS:

Alpine Skiing

Archery

Badminton

Basketball

Billiards

Bocce

Bowling

Cycling

Fun Walk

olf

Handball ower Lifting acewalk ac uetball oad aces

Shooting - High ower iﬂe

Shooting - istol

Shooting - Skeet

Shooting - Sporting Clays

field” so that you always compete against people who are within five years of your own age. It’s probably the only program in the world where people look forward to their next birthday, if it means they can change age groups and become the youngest in the new age group. There are challenges to managing the age groups. It means there must be enough people in each age group to provide real competition. Some of our age groups have plenty of people and provide vigorous competition. But as the age groups get higher, there are fewer competitors, making it difficult to provide a competitive experience that will have real meaning to the athletes. To meet this challenge, we devised a system that allows the sole person in an age group to “play down” in the next younger age group. That way, they have the competition

Shooting - Trap

Shufﬂeboard

Softball

Swimming

Table Tennis

Tai Chi

Tennis

Track Field

Triathlon olleyball

experience, even though we always award the medals by age.

In recent years, athletes have started to call our office and ask “How many people are in my age group ” They want to know if there will be enough people in their age group for a fun competition. If they don’t think there’s enough, they don’t register. This really is a “spoiler” for the other athletes because it isn’t known how many people there are in an age group before the final deadline for registration is over. Age may only be a number, but it’s a very important number in ASO. If you want to be sure there are lots of people in your age group, invite your sameage friends! Tell other seniors you know about the ASO program and encourage them to participate. Be an ambassador for the program where age is not only number it’s a privilege!

Nominate your favorite athlete for the Athlete of the Year Award

We are looking for a Senior Olympian who embodies the following characteristics Outstanding athleticism, skill in his her sport, high standard of sportsmanship, enthusiastic support of the Senior Olympics, helpful to other athletes. If you would like to nominate an

Walking is necessary for good health

According to the Harvard edical School’s free online newsletter, Healthbeat, “sitting may be more harmful to your health than smoking.”

It goes on to say that walking has been shown to prevent myriad problems, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and memory problems. With all the evidence piling up about the benefits of walking, you would think that seniors nationwide would be hitting the streets. nfortunately, that isn’t the case. Although the reasons may be many and complex, the fact remains that walking is free, convenient, easy and beneficial.

Let’s take a look at some of the constraints that keep us from doing what we know will be good for us.

1. I don’t have the time.

esearchers at ennington Biomedical esearch Center in Baton ouge, Louisiana reported findings from a study involving women who did not exercise. After six months, a group who walked an average of minutes a week at to mph that’s about minutes of mall-pace striding a day had significantly improved heart strength and general fitness, nearly matching the efforts of women exercising almost twice as long. “Your body responds very positively, very uickly to even small amounts of exercise,” said lead study author Dr. Tim Church. “If you’re sedentary, you’ll see a lot of your greatest gains going from to minutes a day.”

athlete for Athlete of the Year, please send a letter including the name of the athlete, the sport(s) in which they participate, and how he she exhibits the ualities listed above. Send to Arizona Senior Olympics, Athlete of the Year, .O. Box , hoenix, A -

2. I’m afraid it might hurt me. Here are two ideas to prevent problems associated with walking

Stand tall leaning forward makes it harder to breathe and stresses the back.

Stand up straight as if you were being pulled up by your head. ood posture will make your walking more enjoyable and avoid fatigue.

3. I might fall. It’s true that our world is full of trip hazards. Be alert when you are walking. Stand straight, with your head up, but glance down at the ground ahead of where you are walking so that you can avoid cracks, bulges and other imperfections in the road. Be aware that you are lifting your toes. Don’t shufﬂe!

4. I can’t walk fast enough for it to do me any good. Don’t worry about your speed. Walk at a comfortable pace with your arms swinging gently. ventually you will be able to increase your speed, but don’t be in a hurry to do so. No more excuses! Happy walking!

2017 Alaska Senior Games

ark your calendars for the Alaska International Senior ames to be held in Fairbanks and North ole from Aug. to Aug. . egistration is

expected to be available in mid-April and will close on uly . For up-to-date information, visit alaskaisg.org.

Safety is a primary consideration and closing the roads to cars is a major challenge.

ASO cycling venue in question

Although Arizona Senior Olympics has been holding its races in the same location for many years, time and social progress has a way of changing things.

For the last several years, the venue has been in uestion because of the construction of the final segment of the Loop freeway. The project has been controversial and many in the Ahwatukee area have struggled to stop the project.

ach year, the ASO has planned the cycling event for ecos oad knowing that “this could be the last year.” Cyclists who ride in the alley of the Sun are aware there are not many places where to races can be held. Safety, of course, is a primary consideration and closing the roads to cars is a major challenge.

Since the freeway plans were revealed, ASO staff members have been looking for a cycling venue that is safe and conducive to racing. The search has been a challenge.

“We have a couple of sites that are appropriate and we are currently working on gaining approval from those who have authority over the streets,” said Irene Stillwell, ASO executive director.

“ veryone who registers for cycling will be notified as soon as permission to use a new site is granted. Cycling is one of our signature events and we are working hard to make this year’s event better than ever.”

For more information, call the ASO office at - - between a.m. and p.m. onday through Friday.

You get what you pay for

By Irene L. Stillwell, Executive Director

Arizona Lifelong Fitness Foundation, Producers of Arizona Senior Olympics

We are all the victims of pricing. There was a recent story on T news explaining how some companies alter their prices according to what they know about you.

Data is gathered whenever you make a purchase and from that information your “price” preferences can be ascertained.

It’s the old saying of “whatever the market will bear,” except in this case you are the market. Those companies that use this practice “know” from your buying habits what prices you accepted and charge a price they think you are likely to accept.

We here at the Arizona Senior Olympics don’t do our pricing uite

that individually however, we are often asked about the pricing of our events in the Arizona Senior Olympic ames. To be fair and transparent, we recently did a study of senior games pricing from across the country. What we found was that Arizona Senior Olympics is a little below average in the pricing of events. We have based our prices not upon “what the market will bear,” but on the amount needed to run the games. Anyone who has grown up in America knows there are direct and indirect costs to everything. As for us, we consider everything that is spent directly on a particular sport a direct expense. These are things like venue costs, bib numbers, athlete insurance,

events), barricades, police, portable toilets, etc. These costs vary from event to

officials (paid), food and or water (where none is available for purchase by the athlete), volunteer shirts, sports e uipment, medals, ribbons, signs, paramedics (for high-risk events), barricades, police, portable toilets, etc. These costs vary from event to event.

The indirect costs, however, are shared among all the sports and include things like office rental, utilities, telephone, office e uipment like a copier, printer, computer or scanner. These are costs that are re uired year-round to have a place for our volunteers to work in planning the ames.