Archive for the ‘News / Events’ Category
Find Out . . .
. . .what muffuletta means
to help you enjoy
Mardi Gras.
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Clean Up Your Room
It’s never too soon to look around your bedroom for ways to make it more comfortable as age and disabilities creep into your life.
Dresser drawers can grow stubborn of the years, so you need to grease those skids or get new furniture. High shelves may become unreachable as grow older — and older. Getting around your bed, dresser, chair and whatever else you keep there without stubbing your toe is important because much or your life is spent shoeless in that room.
You might need extra space to get around it with a walker, wheelchair or some other walking aids such as canes and crutches. And you need space to store these devices without clogging up the area. It’s also important that the bedroom and closet doors are wide enough to enter comfortably with any of the mobility aids mentioned earlier. Check your bathroom door at the same time.
Thresholds should be level so you can cross them easily without tripping and not be barriers for walkers, wheelchairs and scooters. The bedroom door should open outward so you won’t block it should you fall.
What’s covering our floor is also important. Slippery material should be replaced. Rugs are decorative and comfortable but can be hazardous if not fastened to the floor. They can be tripped over as age reduces walking to a shuffle. Remove unnecessary furniture to make maneuvering much easier and remove furniture with corners that can be hazardous if you fall.
Make sure television, lamp, telephone, electrical and any other cords are not stuffed under a carpet or cluttering your pathways. Lighting is important in any room. A switch should be immediately inside the door and be accessible if standing up or seated in a wheelchair. Contrasting colors for the light switch, bedspreads and furniture will help you identify what’s what and help avoid confusion when you’re in your room.
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After Every Mardi Gras . . .
. . . there’s an Ash Wednesday.
So enjoy Mardi Gras frolicking
that begins at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the dining room,
then
all Roman Catholics
get down to the 2nd floor theater
for Communion and ashes at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
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Some people never get my name right
While there have been several requests about how to pronounce my first name, See-sill for Cecil is easy to remember.
It’s my last name that gives them the most trouble. In English, you just pronounce every letter – Scag-lee-owe-knee. In Italian, the “gl” is swallowed and the name comes out Scal-YO-knee. It works the same as gnocci — nyoki
Even after several attempts, most seem to prefer spelling my last name ending with an “i” – Scaglioni. My insurance company persisted for years to keep spelling it that way even though it was spelled correctly on the policy.
Many editors have had head-scratching sessions to make sure the by-line on my stories was spelled correctly. For many years, they preferred the shortened Cec Scaglione. One article in my Detroit paper appeared under the by-line of Ceg Scaglione until a sharp-eyed editor caught it and corrected it for the later editions.
Early in my career, I received a check from a Toronto magazine made out to Cec Scogbone. I managed to get it cashed at my bank so it didn’t become a problem.
I get a lot of correspondence with the “g” dropped – Scalione.
One of the credit-card companies I was enlisted with a while ago persisted in sending me a monthly statement addressed to Scaslione. They even came up once with Schelione.
A welfare agency I did a story about sent me a thank-you note addressed to Mr. Scageclone. A complimentary note for another story I wrote was addressed to Mr. Scheline. A Methodist bishop sent a letter to my boss lauding the effort of Mr. Ceg Scaliogre.
But I feel comfortable with my name, especially after having run across so many easy-to-maul names over the years.
It’s The Weekend . . .
. . . so take it EZ
and drop by to schmooz
around Sunday’s ice cream
+ + + +
Happiness is
not having to set the alarm clock.
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Roman Festival Brightens
Umbrian Hillside
Why not drop around on Sunday, Riccardo suggested, “We’ll have a few artichokes.”
The retired Alitalia pilot and his wife, Mariolina, were our landlords when we arrived in the medieval central-Italy castle-town of Panicale and became our friends before we left. They opted out of big-city living in Rome and built a picture-book home in a hill-clinging olive grove just below the town’s centuries-old walls.
This fortress overlooks Lake Trasemino, the peninsula’s fourth largest lake, to the north; the manicured Tuscan countryside to the west, and the rolling Umbrian hills to the south and east.
As every hiker knows, you walk a hill at your own pace. That’s why no one hurries. Everything here is up hill. So it was about a 25-minute walk to Riccardo’s.
We knew we were in for something special as we approached the lane sloping into their farmyard. It was like breaking into an opera. About three dozen people wearing the full array of bright yellows, reds, greens – pick a color – were milling about chittering, chattering, and chanting in that Italian sing-song from which arias emerged. The accompaniment was provided by Riccardo’s tractor as it hauled dead olive branches to a pile resembling a titanic tumbleweed.
We became a member of the cast immediately because our chore was to pluck mint leaves off the plant stems and chop the stocks off the artichokes – shopping-cart-sized mounds of them. The leaves were minced with garlic and olive oil and the artichokes were given a good slam on the ground to soften them because the centers were opened up and crammed with the mint leave-garlic-oil mixture.
Through all this, you had to balance wine – almost everybody brings their own to determine whose is best for bragging rights – with oil-drenched bread, cheese, fresh fava beans, and more wine before the fire was ready.
The giant pile of shrubbery is burned and the ashes raked into a flat lava-like bed of coals. Then you had to tuck your artichoke into the coals to cook. Again, the operatic metaphor arose as each person displayed a distinctive dance pirouetting around the blistering mound. It takes about 45 minutes for the artichokes to cook in this manner, which gave everyone time to sample more wine with the sausages and pork barbecued on a fire fed with larger chunks of trimmed olive wood.
Then flowed the desserts, all of them home-made.
St. Valentine Died . . .
. . .around 270 A.D.
His true identity was questioned as early as A.D. 496 and one account from the 1400s describes Valentine as a temple priest who was beheaded near Rome by the emperor Claudius II for helping Christian couples wed. A different account claims Valentine was the Bishop of Terni, also martyred by Claudius II on the outskirts of Rome. Because of the similarities of these accounts, it’s thought they may refer to the same person.
In all, there are about a dozen St. Valentines, plus a pope.
The saint we celebrate on Feb. 14 is known officially as St. Valentine of Rome to differentiate him from the others Because “Valentinus”—from the Latin word for worthy, strong or powerful—was a popular name between the second and eighth centuries A.D., several martyrs have carried this name. The official Roman Catholic roster of saints shows about a dozen who were named Valentine or some variation thereof.
The most recently beatified is St. Valentine Berrio-Ochoa, a Spaniard of the Dominican order who traveled to Vietnam, where he served as bishop until his beheading in 1861.
St. Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy, among many other things.
People call on him to watch over the lives of lovers, of course, but also for interventions regarding beekeeping and epilepsy, as well as the plague, fainting and traveling. He is also the patron saint of engaged couples and happy marriages.
You can find the flower-adorned skull of St. Valentine in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome. In the early 1800s, the excavation of a catacomb near Rome yielded skeletal remains and other relics now associated with St. Valentine. As is customary, these bits and pieces of the late saint’s body have been distributed to reliquaries around the world. You’ll find other bits of St. Valentine’s skeleton on display in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland, England and France.
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Have You Ever Wondered . . .
. . .where Noah
kept the termites
on the Ark?
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Worried About Warts?
It’s always best to get medical treatment for anything that attacks your body, including warts that seem to be appear and disappear willy-nilly on various parts of your body. A common remedy is to have them frozen so they fall off or they can be cut out by a doctor.
There are several around-the-house remedies that have been successful in some cases.
For one, you can cut a small potato in half and rub the cut side of the potato on the wart twice a day until it disappears. Or you can rub the wart daily with a piece of pineapple or the inside of a banana peel.
Some folks report daily application of the gel from the aloe vera plant works. A garlic clove crushed and mixed with water, applied to the wart daily, and covered with a bandage reportedly works in three to four weeks. Another solution to try is two parts apple cider vinegar to one part water. Soak a cotton ball in the mixture and wrap it over the wart for three or four hours every day.
Meet Verena Salon Operators
hair-stylist Irene and manicurist Dawn
to get your questions answered about
services, operating times and other matters.
10 a.m. 2nd floor theater
And then . . .
It’s taken a long time
for us old farts
to realize that there’s no sense
to eating right and exercising regularly to stay fit
because we’re still going to die anyway.
Whatever Happened . . .
. . . to Albert Einstein’s brother
Frank?
Get your free blood-pressure check
in the lobby
every Wednesday at 10 a.m.
provided by BAYADA
then
Check your hearing & hearing-aids
at 3 p.m.
in the 2nd floor multipurpose room
with Preferred Hearing Care
Stay Informed . . .
. . .don’t miss today’s monthly Town Hall meeting
4 p.m. in the 2nd floor theater.
Draw Up End of Life Plans Anytime
A dear friend who passed away recently after a lengthy illness took time to discuss with her spouse details to be attended to after her death. They both agreed on the disposition of their remains and where they should be ensconced. Both felt at ease talking quietly and patiently about their plans as her death approached. After taking care of her wishes, the widower discussed and passed on these plans to their children to be followed when he dies.
Making after-death lists can become critical when they deal with your final weeks, days and hours, especially if you lapse into a coma or any condition that makes it difficult to make on-the-spot decisions. Doctors and medical staff are committed to keeping their charges functioning as long as there is any chance they will survive, when they feel the patient is not terminally ill.
More than 30 percent of adults have formalized their end-of-life preferences in what is known as an advance directive – a legal document with instructions on how they feel they wish to end their lives. In most cases, the person wishes to avoid a lengthy pain-riddled existence leading to their death. Problems arise if there is no health-care proxy on hand to ensure that the patient’s directions are followed and/or when the patient is unconscious and medics have to determine whether or not the patient is terminally ill.
To increase your chances of a peaceful death, you should discuss your plans and wishes with your family physician. If you feel he or she is unwilling to go along with your directive, you might seek another doctor. In some cases, you might want to talk things over with a clergyman.
Review your plans over and over with members of your family – all of them so there are no battles when your end-of-life treatment and timing becomes critical. You might have one of them use their mobile phone camera to take a video of you explaining your plans.
Super Bowl Sunday . . .
. . . is next Sunday,
so it’s not too late
to get in on a scoreboard lottery.
Crooks Crouch in Cyberspace
The COVID-19 shutdowns, changing regulations and general pandemonium have made it easier for cyberspace vultures to plunder your lifetime savings.
High on the list of scams is a caller pretending to be from a bank or credit-card company seeking to straighten out some issue or threaten you with penalties for a reported late payment. Be wary of similar snail-mail correspondence.
Don’t call the numbers left by the caller or letter writer. Use the contact numbers you have on your bank or credit card statements if you feel you need to follow through on the matter.
Other crooked calls claim you’re late with tax payments, you’ve won a major prize, or face legal prosecution for some fictitious matter.
There’s also the caller checking on a reported attack on your credit line and asks to verify personal information ranging from address to Social Security, credit-card and bank account numbers.
Be suspicious of any unidentified emails that creep into your computer or cell phone.
Mature Life Features 