Spotlight

Whereville, AL

Identify and place this Alabama landmark and you could win $25! Winner is chosen at random from all correct entries. Multiple entries from the same person will be disqualified. Send your answer with your name, address and the name of your rural electric cooperative, if applicable. The winner and answer will be announced in the December issue.

Submit by email: whereville@alabamaliving.coop, or by mail: Whereville, P.O. Box 244014, Montgomery, AL 36124.

Do you like finding interesting or unusual landmarks? Contribute a photo you took for an upcoming issue! Remember, all readers whose photos are chosen also win $25!

October’s answer: These bronze shoes are a part of the statue of William Shakespeare that’s housed at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival building in Montgomery. A spokeswoman for ASF says that Wynton Blount commissioned the replica when the Carolyn Blount Theater, home to ASF, opened in Montgomery in 1985. (Photo by Lenore Vickrey of Alabama Living) The randomly drawn correct guess winner is Brian J. Rogers of Dixie EC.

Find the hidden dingbat!

Some of you might have gone a little “batty” trying to find last month’s dingbat. A few readers claimed to see the winged creature in the sky flying over Southwood Kitchen on Page 22, while still others saw it in the ad on page 15 in the hands of a fellow steering a jet ski. Remember: the dingbat will never be in an ad! No, the bat was actually flying inside the letter “A” in the word Alabama in the Alabama Bookshelf headline on Page 26.

Marianne and Bob Wertz of North Alabama Electric Cooperative said it took them going through the magazine a few times but they found it, and it was much easier than September’s hidden goal posts (we agree). Catherine Smith of Prattville said her household has a challenge every month to see who can find the hidden object. “One searched for an hour and the other person searched for half that time before giving up,” she wrote. “I found it

Take us along!

We’ve enjoyed seeing photos from our readers on their travels with Alabama Living! Please send us a photo of you with a copy of the magazine on your travels to: mytravels@alabamaliving.coop. Be sure to include your name, hometown and electric cooperative, and the location of your photo.We’ll draw a winner for the $25 prize each month.

Max and Maggie Tomlin of Athens attended float decorating for the January 2022 Rose Parade in Pasadena, California. They are members of Baldwin EMC.

Charlene Bert of Marbury visited the home of “The Pioneer Woman” in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. She and her husband James are members of Central Alabama EC.

The Baranovics family of Gulf Shores took their magazine to Hungary, where dad Lorant saw his family for the first time in 22 years! From left, Solomon, Daniel, Lorant, Christy and Drew overlooking the Danube River in Budapest, with the Hungarian Parliament in the background. They are members of Baldwin EMC.

Bud and Sandy Wilson of Montgomery, members of Dixie EC, traveled with their magazine to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.

in about five minutes. Good job stumping them!” Jennifer Chesser of Honoraville writes that she and her mother-in-law Jane also like to race through their magazine to see who can find the dingbat first. They both correctly found it in the “A.” Congratulations to Pamela Maten of Gilbertown, a member of Black Warrior EMC, our randomly drawn winner this month. She’ll receive a prize package from Alabama One Credit Union. This month we’ve hidden an alarm clock as a reminder to fall back at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6. Good luck!

By mail: Find the Dingbat Alabama Living PO Box 244014 Montgomery, AL 36124

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‘Nothing else like it in the state, really….in the nation’

Auburn culinary center a win-win for students, tourism

By Jennifer Kornegay “At the intersection of campus and community.” This phrase is used often to describe Auburn University’s new Tony & Libba Rane Culinary Science Center (RCSC), and it’s not just a motto; it’s a physical reality.

The state-of-the-art facility complete with a teaching hotel and restaurant, a food hall and culinary lab spaces opened in August and occupies a street corner across from Samford Hall, Auburn University’s administration headquarters and a stately landmark that denotes where campus ends and the rest of Auburn begins. But it is a philosophy, too, one that conveys a vision and a hope for the center’s far-reaching and long-lasting impact.

The RCSC was made possible, in part, by a generous donation from Auburn alum Jimmy Rane that helped fund years of intense research, design and development. It’s named in honor of his parents and is now the home of Auburn University’s School for Hospitality Management. Its sheer size and scope make it a standout in the world of culinary and hospitality education; so too does its innovative collaboration between private business and the university, with the college and Ithaka Hospitality Partners (IHP) joining forces to operate its many facets.

“It’s a true partnership between industry and academia,” says Ithaka founder and CEO Hans van der Reijden.

With the Rane Culinary Science Center, Auburn students now have access to a School for Hospitality Management that encompasses a teaching hotel and restaurant, food hall and culinary lab.

Photos by Thomas Watkins Photography

Taste the teaching

The RCSC’s teaching restaurant, 1856, is a 48-seat fine-dining space named for the year the university was founded and is fully staffed by hospitality management undergrad students. They’re at the hostess stand, waiting tables and in the open kitchen, where they receive guidance under the watchful eye of a professional chef.

Each year, the program heads will choose a chef-in-residence, someone who has achieved a high level of success in the field. “They visit and oversee things at 1856 once a month, but they send their sous chef or chef de cuisine to live here and work alongside our students in the restaurant for that year,” van der Reijden says. For the current academic year, the chef-in-residence is Tyler Lyne, who’s also opening two new Birmingham restaurants.

Freshmen and sophomores run the lunch service, and at dinner time, upperclassmen prepare and serve a nine-course tasting menu with wines paired by the master sommelier and pulled from the restaurant’s two-story, temperature-controlled wine room.

The learning opportunities continue in a more casual but no less impressive environment at RCSC’s Hey Day Market food hall. Here, one of the stalls will serve as a new business incubator dedicated to helping hospitality management and culinary science students with an entrepreneurial spirit launch their food-focused idea. Starting in 2023, one student will develop their culinary business concept at Hey Day with additional support from the university’s business school for planning and marketing.

The purpose is to elevate hospitality education, and the center drew inspiration and ideas from other schools, organizations and companies in the hospitality sphere. “We visited so many places doing this or that very well; but they had silos of excellence,” he says. “We wanted to create a facility and program that covers every aspect and does them all with excellence. This approach gets us there.”

Auburn’s Hospitality Management program has three primary tracks: hotel and restaurant management, culinary science and event management. With RCSC as its homebase, students complete traditional classroom work with lectures and note-taking and participate in active learning as they chop, stir and sauté in gleaming stainless-steel-cloaked cooking and baking labs.

But they also gain hands-on experience in an up-and-running restaurant and a hotel that are serving real-world customers in real time. Every student in the program, whether they are majoring in hospitality, culinary or events, spends time working in every component before graduation. They do all the food and hotel labs, plus an additional 1,000 work hours. It’s all to ensure students see, hear, touch, smell and taste every piece of the wider hospitality picture.

Dr. Martin O’Neill heads the educational side of RCSC and notes what makes it such a big win for students. “It allows us to do something we weren’t able to do before, not at this level. We can focus on ultra-luxury and premium service,” he says.

The center’s Hey Day Market food hall has dining options from poke and ramen bowls to creamy gelato and wood-fired pizza.

Eat it up

Hungry yet? Satisfy almost any appetite with one of the many eating options at RCSC’s Hey Day Market. • Khoodles: Malaysian street noodle and rice bowls • La Cubanita: classic pressed Cuban sandwiches • Little Darling Burger Co.: juicy burgers, fries and frosty milkshakes • Loud Roots: build-your-own bowls and smoothies based on fresh, nutritious ingredients • Pizzeria Ariccia: artisanal, woodfired pizzas • Pokémen: poke and ramen bowls featuring fresh seafood and veggies • Saint Bernardo Gelateria: smooth and sweet, creamy and cold gelato in multiple flavors • Wildchild: Southern California-style tacos and more • Cherry Moon: Vietnamese and

Cantonese cuisine, including bahn mi sandwiches and boba tea

“The entire center is a living and learning lab, and the multiple elements allow us to really dial into a training regime and get very specific with each student.”

The facility will make a profound and positive impact on the education available to university students, but it’s a boon for the surrounding community too. RCSC’s commercial entities – the Laurel Hotel, the Hey Day Market food hall and 1856 restaurant – are open to the public, inviting Auburn residents and visitors to come dine out and hang out. Other offerings and special events welcome them to continue their own education with workshops and informal classes, further blurring the line between education and entertainment, courses and commerce.

O’Neill stressed that engaging and enriching the community in this way is at the core of the university’s mission. “We have teaching, learning, scholarship and research as our focal points, but also outreach, and RCSC allows the university to hit all of these,” he says. “We have a very open-door, open-minded approach to bringing the community here to enjoy it and be a part of what we are accomplishing.”

Greenspaces and a rooftop terrace will regularly host events. The center’s culinary exhibition classrooms will be the sites of wine tastings and cooking demos, even food photography courses. These aspects give the program’s event management students unique experiences to plan and execute. “The end goal is for the center to offer an unparalleled experience for the entire area and draw even more visitors by enhancing Auburn as a tourist destination with these new, exciting amenities,” says van der Reijden.

But RCSC’s significance extends beyond the university’s and the city’s borders. O’Neill explains how the entire region will benefit from the center. “The center is totally unique,” he says. “There is nothing else like it in the state, really nothing else like it in the nation. It will enhance tourism and train the next generation of hospitality professionals necessary to meet the needs of increased tourism. We want to be a key part of bettering the Alabama experience for all visitors who come to the state.”

Raising the roof

The pinnacles of the stunning RCSC are the rooftop terrace, pool deck and garden that crown the Laurel Hotel. The lovely view awaiting guests of the property and those attending events held onsite is embellished by the leafy greens, herbs, edible flowers and other veggies growing up top. The garden isn’t only for show; its harvests will also grace dishes and drinks served in RCSC’s eateries and bars. Students will grow produce, take it down to the 1856 kitchen, cook it, plate it and watch it head to a customer’s table. It doesn’t get more hands-on than that.

Stay awhile

The Laurel Hotel & Spa is a boutique property with 26 guestrooms and an emphasis on stellar service. Like RCSC’s restaurants, it will be run by students. “We’ll know who you are when you arrive,” van der Reijden says. While one student whisks your luggage away, another will lead you up to see the spa and library area, seamlessly checking you in on an iPad once they welcome you to your room.

On the menu

Here’s a bite-by-bite look at all the educational components of the 155,000-square-foot RCSC. • A brewery science lab to be utilized by the program’s master of brewery science students, complete with a taproom for serving and selling beer made onsite. • A distilled spirits lab with a micro-distillery, which will host visiting distillers to teach techniques using both column and pot stills, which were built in Kentucky, a bastion of

American spirits. • Wine appreciation classrooms • Kitchen labs specific to baking, global gastronomy, catering, butchering and more • A coffee roastery • Hey Day Market food hall • 1856 Restaurant • Laurel Hotel & Spa

Mountaintop experience

Cherokee Rock Village attracts climbers, campers, families

Since the 1980s, rock climbers and mountaineers from all over the world have flocked to Cherokee Rock Village to practice and perfect their climbing skills. Hollywood even took notice and filmed scenes for the 2006 film “Failure to Launch,” starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker, at the park, which is located in Cherokee County near Leesburg.

“Cherokee Rock Village offers such a special experience for people—because many climbers experience outdoor climbing there for the very first time,” says Meagan Evans, executive director of the Southeastern Climbers Coalition. “Hundreds of routes offer a variety of sport and traditional climbing, and bouldering for everyone from beginners to advanced climbers,” she added.

On a recent weekday afternoon, families were cooking out at one of several picnic tables located along the ridgeline, and a few backpackers had set up camp overlooking Weiss Lake in the valley below. The park has more than 100 primitive campsites and 15 RV hook-ups for overnight camping.

Visitors also find more than three miles of relatively easy hiking trails meander through the 300-acre park, and a new mountain bike trail opened in Spring 2022. Rock crawling, featuring hybrid four-wheel vehicles designed to “crawl” over obstacles, is also very popular.

“In addition to rock climbing on the massive boulders, CRV is a great place to relax, hike, and enjoy the outdoors,” says Theresa Hulgan, executive director of the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce & Tourism. “We welcome groups to Cherokee Rock Village, such as Boy Scouts, youth groups, and universities, for everything from team-building outdoor fun to basic skills

Climbers from across the globe come to northeast Alabama to scale the massive boulders at Cherokee Rock Village.

training. The views are awe-inspiring, whether you are gazing out from the overlook area or perched on top of the highest boulder. You can see as far as Rome, Georgia, if the weather cooperates.”

My introduction to Cherokee Rock Village came through Instagram where I saw images of imposing boulders, some 20 stories high, piercing the sky in rural Cherokee County. For a photographer, the boulders, mountaintop and beautiful vistas looked like the right spot for a photography adventure, and I coordinated my first visit on a sunny late-October day to coincide with fall foliage. From my perspective, late spring and fall are the best times to visit.

Although I was a little late that first visit for the peak of color, I was rewarded with beautiful views of Weiss Lake and some lingering leaves along a few of the trails. I was also able to observe experienced rock climbers shimmying up the face of the mammoth rock.

The park, sitting atop the southern end of Lookout Mountain overlooking Weiss Lake, is open all day every day and requires a $7 admission per car. Camping and pavilion rentals are also available. Visit cherokeerockvillage. com or call (256) 523-3799 for more information.

Visitors to Cherokee Rock Village are apt to see climbers shimmying up and down the face of its mammoth rocks. Hikers will enjoy the beautiful fall foliage as they walk through the three miles of easy hiking trails.

Smart planning for the future

at any age By M.J. Ellington

Planning for the distant future may seem like a pipe dream, especially if you don’t have a lot of money or are still in the early stages of your working years.

But smart planning for the future is important at any age or income level, say experts who help clients write wills and other legal documents that spell out what you’d want to happen if you couldn’t speak for yourself.

A Montgomery-based financial planner says common-sense planning starts with a simple notebook where you list places where you have insurance policies, investment accounts, bank accounts and their locations. The location of your will and advance directives need to be listed in the notebook too. The directives are legal documents that state what you want to happen if you can no longer manage your finances or are sick or injured and can’t speak for yourself.

Experts who advise clients from all income levels and family needs say planning will help you decide which type of will and advance directives are best for you. They give tips on ways to avoid pitfalls in planning.

When fewer employers offer pensions

“When you’re young, you probably don’t even think about retirement,” financial planner Lisa Free says. But the certified public accountant from Montgomery says that today, unless you work in a government job with set retirement benefits or a fixed retirement program, you will not have a fixed pension that guarantees a set amount of retirement income. Social Security alone will not be enough to meet your future needs, she says. “You will have to save for yourself,” Free says. “If you start young, a little bit at a time, it will build up.”

Free says if saving for the future is all in your hands, you can stash funds in an individual retirement account. You should start

What do you need to get together before you start putting your plan for the future in place?

• Review life insurance policies and retirement accounts to make sure that all beneficiaries are up to date.

• Review deeds and title(s) to assets that you own to ensure that things are in order.

• Know who you want to leave your possessions to at death.

• Know who you want to serve as personal representative under your will. (It is also advisable to name an alternate personal representative).

• Know who you want to serve as your agent under a Durable Power of Attorney. It is also good to name a successor agent to step in if the agent dies, gets sick, or for any other reason can no longer act (or continue acting) under the POA.

• Talk with the person (or persons) that you are planning to name as your personal representative (under your will), agent (under your power of attorney), or your proxy (under a medical directive), in advance, to be certain that the person is willing to serve and understands (and will carry out) your expectations.

Source: LaTanya D. Rhines, staff attorney with the Top of Alabama Regional Council of Governments aging program serving Huntsville and surrounding counties. building savings as well so you have readily available money in emergencies such as loss of a job or large unexpected expenses.

If you work for an employer with an official retirement program – such as a 401(k), where you make regular investment contributions for your long-term future – Free says to contribute as much as you can to the program.

If your employer doesn’t have a long-term program, Free says you could set up an IRA that you control to begin long-term saving. You pay taxes on money you take out of the IRA, so you need to make sure you understand how IRAs work.

If you are just beginning a long-term program, Free says you don’t have to go to a broker at first. Instead, “go with a reputable company such as Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Ameriprise and Prudential, to name a few,” she says. “Saving gets easier as life goes along.”

Three Cs that direct your care and assets

Long-term planning for the future can be divided into three categories: control, cash, and care, Birmingham attorney Lynn Campisi says. The controls are the documents you put in place directing how you want your assets distributed after you die, spell out how you want your financial assets managed, and give direction on how you want your health care and personal needs handled while you are still alive if you cannot do so.

A will provides written direction on how you want your financial resources – cash – and physical assets such as a house or other property to be distributed after you die. Your will names an administrator or executor who carries out the directions written in the will. The administrator pays any last bills you may have and the people you named as beneficiaries in the will.

In contrast, advance directives give direction on how you want your finances and health care handled if you are still alive but unable to make decisions for yourself.

A living will or health care power of attorney, as well as a financial power of attorney, give direction while you are still alive to the person or people who will make decisions for you if you cannot do so: • The financial power of attorney directs who will make decisions about the use of your financial assets. • The health care power of attorney directs who will make decisions about your health care if you cannot make those decisions yourself due to injury or illness.

With these elements in place, most people have the essential components of a smart plan for the future to consider, no matter what your financial situation or age may be.

For more information:

The Alabama Department of Senior Services administers the statewide Legal Assistance Program to help people ages 60 and older with legal documents including wills and living wills, powers of attorney, legal education and court representation. The program is income-based and focuses on lower-income Alabamians, according to the Senior Services website. For more information, call ADSS at (877) 425-2243 or (800) 243-5463. Online, go to https://alabamaageline.gov/.

Pulled pork, pigtails and three styles of ribs – St. Louis, baby back and Texas, along with macaroni and cheese and baked beans.

Tiny town home to a big dream for this barbecue pitmaster

Story and photos by Allison Law

Jamie Lee Mitchell is not just the owner of the Alabama Rib Shack, his custom-built restaurant in tiny Gainesville, Alabama; he’s also the pitmaster, cook, gracious host and the biggest cheerleader for his hometown, nestled in a curve of the picturesque Tombigbee River in Sumter County.

He has a personality that fills the dining room of the lodge-like structure and spills out onto the patio, which is filled with picnic tables and shaded by weeping willows (his favorite plant). His energy is tremendous, and his dedication to this restaurant and this town is very real.

“This town” – he pats his chest – “it just means so much to me. I said, when I build this restaurant, I’m going to give Gainesville the best I got.”

One recent Sunday, he took a break – well, several, actually – from serving up pigtails and three kinds of ribs and jerk

Alabama Rib Shack

9316 State St. Gainesville, AL 35464 205-652-1115 Hours: 12 to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 12 to 5 p.m. Sunday Search alabama_ribshack on Instagram and AlabamaRibShack on Facebook

Gainesvillel chicken to talk about starting a business, returning to his roots in rural west Alabama and how when you have a calling for something, you can’t question it.

The after-church crowd and several out-of-towners who learned about his restaurant on social media flow in and out, and Jamie Lee (as he prefers to be called) pauses to greet customers every time the door opens. If he doesn’t know you by name, he probably will soon. “Welcome to the Alabama Rib Shack. Your first time here?” He escorts first-timers to the counter to talk about the menu; the interview will wait.

His hospitality is genuine, say bartenders Tata Giles and Nicole Boyd. “It’s his personality,” Giles says. “He’s a kind, giving person.”

Hometown man

Jamie Lee grew up in Gainesville. His mom had him when she was 13; both he and his mom were adopted by an older couple, who he refers to as his grandparents. It was here that he developed a love for cooking; as the only child in the house, he was around his grandmother almost all the time.

“The first dish I ever cooked was candied yams. She didn’t believe I cooked those. She thought it was the neighbor’s yams!”

He got to know his grandparents’ friends, and would ask them, how do you cook this or that? He’d write down the ingredients and instructions and put the recipes in a big scrapbook. Years later, he tweaked the measurements for his restaurant business, since – as so many good cooks do – his “teachers” would say, use a dash of this, a pinch of that. He had many years of trial and error tastings to get the flavors and precise measurements just right.

But he never went to culinary school. “This was all given to me from the universe,” he says.

His grandmother saw his potential. “She knew I was a smart kid. There was nothing I couldn’t do. Anything I put my mind to, I could do.” She thought he needed to leave Gainesville and gain some knowledge and exposure to another side of life, so at about age 18, he left for Boston.

In Boston, he worked, married, started a family and – though he didn’t realize it – began the path that would bring him back to rural Alabama, and to the next chapter of his life.

Though he was up north for more than 30 years, Gainesville was home, and “I never really left.”

The exterior of the restaurant, which resembles a hunting lodge. Jamie Lee was intentional about every detail of his restaurant, from the materials used (such as the locally sourced wood used at the bar) to the time-tested menu items.

Up north, down South

He worked as a barber in Boston, but it wasn’t his true passion. “I knew I had a calling for this cooking,” he says. He started giving free cookouts on Sunday afternoons for friends on the big patio at his home. He says it cost him $300 every Sunday.

The friends didn’t realize that they were testers for Jamie Lee to try out his recipes. He would cook, give everyone a big plate, wait about 15 minutes and ask what they thought. He would make tweaks and adjustments according to their recommendations.

One of the friends from a cookout asked Jamie Lee to cater a baby shower, and asked specifically for buffalo wings. Another cookout guest was with the NAACP and asked him to cater an event. It grew from there – he catered for politicians, churches, City Hall. “It just went crazy. I would do a catering job for 300 out of my house. I don’t know how I did it.”

A few years ago, a friend of his grandmother’s died, and he came home to Alabama for her funeral. He brought his family with him. He owned the lot on which the Rib Shack now stands, but it was empty then.

“I pull up, I always take a walk all along the property. I heard a voice. ‘Jamie Lee, this is where your restaurant need to be at.’ You know what I told the voice? I said, no way!

“I think it took that voice to really get my attention.”

After that, all signs seemed to point to Alabama Highway 116 – the road in Gainesville where the Rib Shack is today. He’d had a deal to open a restaurant in Boston at the time, but the contract expired. Then, he talked seriously to his family about coming home.

Back in Boston, he asked his daughter, Jaymie, what did she think about him opening a restaurant in Alabama? “She said, ‘oh, it’s great,’ because she’s used to me saying stuff like that. But she knew I was serious.” He asked his wife, Stephanie, what she thought about putting his restaurant on the land in Gainesville. “She said, ‘when can we move?’”

He had blueprints of what is now Alabama Rib Shack in 30 days, and the foundation was poured in another 30 days. His children were chosen for a charter school in Alabama, yet another sign. “It was meant for me to come back home.”

No second thoughts

Asked if he questioned the idea of opening a restaurant in a small, rural town, he shakes his head. “I’m from here. I know what this town (is).” It’s on a route to a Mississippi casino, and it’s also home to nearly 150 hunting clubs, by Jamie Lee’s estimation. There’s also a sizable number of vacation homes along the Tombigbee. Good restaurants are few and far between.

While he never questioned the location, he did a fair amount of research about his food. He took a tour of Alabama and parts of Georgia, visiting restaurants known for their barbecue.

He knew he had a good product, but he found that while most places focus on the meat, no one focused on side items. “Everything was out of the can,” he says. So he incorporated some soul food items, all homemade every day.

Donald Bonner of Helena, traveling with three others on their way back from New Orleans on a recent Sunday, was impressed with the taste and attention to detail. “The potato salad, my mom used to make it like that when I was growing up. The pimentos really bring out the flavor. … The collard greens melt in your mouth.” The ribs, Bonner says, are “succulent.”

Jamie Lee does all the cooking himself. “I don’t trust nobody,” he says, though he’s trying to teach his sons, Jesse and Jayar, the business. Daughter Jaymie already works there, and daughter Jasmyn was expected to come to Gainesville in October.

He does not miss the big city life. “You can’t beat the peace,” he says. “No sirens, no gunshots. If you hear gunshots here, it’s just target practice for deer season. People are loving, they’re caring. Plus I get a chance to be the real person I always was, because the city takes something out of you. Makes you numb, makes you rude. So I couldn’t wait to get back.”

SOCIAL SECURITY

New start dates for Medicare Part B coverage coming in 2023

Changes are coming next year for when Medicare Part B coverage starts.

What is not changing:

If you are eligible at age 65, your Initial Enrollment Period (IEP): • Begins three months before your 65th birthday. • Includes the month of your 65th birthday. • Ends three months after your 65th birthday.

If you are automatically enrolled in Medicare Part B or if you sign up during the first three months of your IEP, your coverage will start the month you’re first eligible. If you sign up the month you turn 65, your coverage will start the first day of the following month. This won’t change with the new rule.

Kylle’ McKinney, SSA Public Affairs Specialist, can be reached by email at kylle.mckinney@ssa.gov.

What is changing:

Starting January 1,

2023, your Medicare Part B coverage starts the first day of the month after you sign up if you sign up during the last three months of your IEP. Before this change, if you signed up during the last three months of your IEP, your Medicare Part B coverage started two to three months after you enrolled. If you don’t sign up for Medicare Part B during your IEP, you have another chance each year during the General Enrollment Period (GEP). The GEP lasts from January 1 through March 31. Starting January 1, 2023, your coverage starts the first day of the month after you sign up.

You can learn more about these updates on our Medicare webpage at ssa.gov/medicare and our Medicare publication at ssa. gov/pubs/EN-05-10043.pdf.

Please pass this information along to someone who may need it.

November crossword by Myles Mellor

Across 1 Vegetables often enjoyed at

Thanksgiving, 2 words 7 Compass direction. abbr. 8 Firms, for short 10 Root vegetables often served at Thanksgiving 12 Pancake topper 13 Dine on 15 Processes food in a way 16 Non-commissioned officer, for short 17 Grain storage areas 19 ____ potatoes 20 “--- whiz!” 22 Start of grace 24 NFL position, abbr. 26 Candied holiday serving 27 Potato option at

Thanksgiving dinner 30 He goes in the oven 31 Yes, at sea 32 GPS directions, abbr. 33 Thanksgiving event 34 Present the feast Down 1 Meeting together as a family 2 Listening organ 3 Follow 4 A before a vowel 5 Feathered beds 6 “__ Light Up My Life” 8 Thanksgiving sauce 9 Vegetables whose first name is a European city 11 Rejection word 14 Where the meal is enjoyed 15 _____ dressing 18 Meets with 21 Historic time period 23 Cake-like biscuit 25 Prepare the turkey 27 Plan out in detail 28 Address for Isaac Newton 29 Hair colorer 32 Touring vehicle, abbr.