PRIMETIME of your life FREE | VOLUME 5 • ISSUE NO. 4 | APRIL 2016 Interesting features for our 50+ audience
Michele Quinn Kaner Wanderlust Personified By Lucinda Sue Crosby For PrimeTime of Your Life
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ichele Quinn Kaner was born under a wandering star. She has traveled the world, explored ancient ruins in the birth places of civilization, visited bunkers underneath US Air Force bases in Southeast Asia, devoured freshly made pasta in Italy, sipped of the wine and the culture in Paris … well, you get the picture. Michele was born into a large and bustling traditional Irish Catholic family in San Francisco. Her rather sheltered early life was spent in a convent-run grammar school and high school – like her mother before her. “Aunts, uncles and cousins as well as nuns and priests were in and out of the house regularly,” she said. “We lived in a big close-knit Parish where everyone knew everyone else’s comings and goings.” In her youth, Michele discovered one of her lifelong passions in her favorite Uncle’s living room – opera – and has enjoyed performances all of her adult life in places as farflung as Italy, Germany and across America. She still adores classical music and listens to it when she’s at home, until daughter Jennifer turns the channel. After attending two colleges in the Bay Area, Michele wound up studying at England’s storied Cambridge, where her unusual curriculum in-
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cluded classes in couture sewing, watercolor painting, sculpture, furniture caning and artisan bread baking. In no way a suitably modern education, it felt particularly satisfying to the young American on her own and away from home for the first time in her life. “Maybe I was born into the wrong century,” she said with a lovely, warm smile, her deep blue eyes lit from within. “I lived in an old English rectory for quite some time that felt so familiar to me … even though it was across from a cemetery, I never felt afraid. In fact, I felt right at home.” Upon returning to San Francisco, she became engaged to a young fireman. But her sister was divorcing as were her parents and Michele suddenly became afraid of such a serious commitment that could eventually crumble around her. About this
same time, she interviewed with World Airways and was offered a job based in Japan. The only hitch? She had to leave the next day. “This opportunity was an answer to my dilemma but it devastated my fiancée,” Michele explained. “Happily, we were able to become friends later in life.” Her shifts usually took 15 days to complete and her routes changed often. A thirst for roaming was slaked as she made her way from her all-girl schools into the Big Wide World. She was amazed by anything and everything, enjoying her discoveries adventure by adventure. She dabbled in archaeology throughout Egypt’s digging sites and prowled Rome’s Coliseum and Athens’ Parthenon.
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RECIPE: LEMON MOUSSE CHEESECAKE – PAGE 6
THIS MONTH IN HISTORY PAGE 8
TOPIC OF DISCUSSION PrimeTime of Your Life provides local editorial and advertising content for our active adults (50+). We strive to educate and inform through lifestyle features and human interest profiles. PrimeTime is distributed throughout the Coachella Valley.
Deb Geissler - Publisher
dgeissler@desertentertainer.com
Jose De La Cruz – Editor
news@desertentertainer.com
Kimberly Brucks - Senior Marketing Specialist kbrucks@desertentertainer.com
Judy Telander - Marketing Specialist
jtelander@desertentertainer.com
Sandy Cloyd - Marketing Specialist scloyd@desertentertainer.com
Agustin Alejandre - Sr. Graphic Artist
ads@dmhnews.com | ads@desertentertainer.com
Lucinda Sue Crosby Feature Writer
(760) 776-5181 | 41-995 Boardwalk, Suite L2 Palm Desert CA 92211 A Product of the Desert Mobile Home News. Titles registered and all contents copyright 2016 by Hi-Desert Publishing Co. All Rights reserved.
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Native American girl removed from longtime foster family Here’s some of what’s been reported A California couple’s fight to reunite with a 6-year-old foster child who was taken from their home because she is 1/64th Choctaw Native American has cast a spotlight on the Indian Child Welfare Act. The girl had a rough start in life. Court papers say at 17 months old she was “removed from the custody of her mother, who has a lengthy substance abuse problem and lost custody of six other children.”
of a Native American tribe, and his daughter is also considered Native American, her case falls under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which was put in place in 1978. The law is supposed to protect the rights of tribal families and try to keep the families together, so the tribe gets a say in deciding where a child is placed.
Her father “has an extensive criminal history and also lost custody of one other child,” according to the documents.
“After reunification efforts failed, the father, the tribe, and the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services recommended that the girl be placed in Utah with a non-Indian couple who are extended family of the father,” court documents say.
But her father’s heritage makes this custody battle more complicated. Because he is enrolled as a member
The relatives in Utah are not Native American, but they are related to Alexandria’s Native Ameri-
can father through marriage, and the Choctaw Nation argues it is the best place for the child. The tribe argues the foster family knew all along their involvement with the child would be temporary. The foster family complied with the court order but their attorney says they will fight to get her back. “That law needs to be repealed or repaired,” said the foster father. “We can’t have a law in this country that keeps doing this to children, I think the world sees that now. We’re fighting until this law changes,” said the foster mother. Who do you think the child should be with? Do you believe this was the right decision for the child?
Feel free to send us your thoughts on this subject by emailing news@desertentertainer.com.
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immune cell count. This helps reduce your chances of illness and missing out on work.
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pril is officially Humor month - so how about taking a look at some interesting facts about humor. • An industry-wide study of over 2,500 people found that 55% of workers would take less pay to have more fun at work. This means a majority of people would literally take a pay cut for a more light-hearted work environment. • Laughter boosts your immune system by enhancing your antibodies (which help fight infections) and increasing your
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• Not only does laughter help your immune system, it also has an effect on your cardiovascular system. Laughter can lower your heart rate, reduce your blood pressure and even improve the function of your blood vessels; laughter causes an expansion of your endothelium (the tissue that forms the inner lining of your blood vessels), which improves blood flow and even reduces your chances of cardiovascular disease. • Humor has been proven to help develop creative thinking in various settings. Not only does it provide a more colorful environment, a playful office also helps encourage openness and diminish the fear of criticism towards outlandish or creative ideas. Even people who don’t share their humor at the office are more relaxed about speaking up in settings where levity is encouraged.
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Step 2: Starting with green shades, paint a few free-form leaves scattered on both temples. Allow to dry, and add another layer in another shade of green for depth. Step 3: Choose a bright shade and paint some ruffly floral shapes scattered around and overlapping the leaves. Start with one shade, allow it to dry, then go over with another shade. YOU WILL NEED • Plain pair of plastic sunglasses • Acrylic paint • Small paintbrushes • Acrylic paint sealer (Outdoor ModPodge) Step 1: Clean your glasses to make sure they’re free of dust and debris. Dry them thoroughly.
Step 4: Using a thin brush and a contrasting but complementary color, paint some outlines to give the flowers definition. Step 5: If you wish, finish your flowers by painting a few stamens to add an extra pop of color. Step 6: Allow all paint to dry fully and seal with a layer of paint sealer. Allow this to dry and cure.
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ooking for a perfect dessert for your special dinner? Try this Lemon Mousse Cheesecake. It’s super creamy and a bit tart and, topped with slices of fresh lemon, so very pretty. The filling is on the light side, due to the beaten egg whites that are folded into the batter. When baking he cake, be sure to use a water bath (bain marie) to temper the heat, help create a soft, creamy filling, and prevent the top from cracking. Without the water bath, the filling will be firmer—more like traditional cheesecake. If the top happens to crack, despite your best efforts, just pile on fresh lemon slices in the form of a flower. No one will be the wiser, and you’ll have created a dessert that’s as lovely as it is tasty.
Lemon Mousse Cheesecake Crust: • 5 tablespoons melted butter • 40 vanilla wafers, crushed, or 8 graham crackers, crushed (about 1 1/2 cups) • 1/4 cup sugar Filling: • 24 ounces cream cheese • 1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
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• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour • 4 eggs, separated • 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind • 3/4 cup lemon juice (about 4 lemons) 1. Preheat oven to 325F. Wrap aluminum foil around the outside bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. 2. To prepare crust, combine all ingredients. Stir well and press into pan. 3. Combine cream cheese and 1 cup sugar; beat until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add flour, egg yolks, lemon rind and juice; beat until smooth. Beat egg whites, which clean beaters, until soft peaks form. Add remaining 1/3 cup sugar; beat until stiff peaks form. Fold into lemon batter. Pour batter into crust. Place pan in a large baking pan. Add water to baking pan to a depth of 1 inch. Bake about 55 minutes, until cake is set but still jiggly in the center. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. To decorate, ring the top of the cake along the outside edge with thin half-moon slices of fresh lemon. Work around the cake in concentric circles, overlapping the slices to form a flower shape. Serves 20.
This Month in SCAM ALERT!
History April 3, 1995: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to preside over the Court, sitting in for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. April 4, 1968: Civil Rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was shot and killed by a sniper in Memphis, Tennessee. April 6, 1917: Following a vote by Congress approving a declaration of war, the U.S. enteredWorld War I in Europe. April 10, 1942: During World War II in the Pacific, the Bataan Death March began as American and Filipino prisoners were forced on a six-day march from an airfield on Bataan to a camp near Cabanatuan. April 11, 1968: Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The law prohibited discrimination in housing, protected civil rights workers and expanded the rights of Native Americans. April 11, 1970: Apollo 13 was launched from Cape Kenned. During the flight an oxygen tank exploded in the service module. Astronaut John L. Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang and said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Swigert, James A. Lovell and Fred W. Haise then transferred into the lunar module, using it as a “lifeboat” and began a perilous return trip to Earth, splashing down safely on April 17. April 12, 1961: Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. April 14, 1986: U.S. warplanes, on orders from President Ronald Reagan, bombed the Libyan cities of Tripoli and Benghazi in retaliation for the April 5 terrorist bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin in which two American soldiers were killed. April 15, 1912: In the icy waters off Newfoundland, the luxury liner Titanic with 2,224 persons on board
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Craigslist Abounds with Rental Scams
sank at 2:27 a.m. after striking an iceberg just before midnight. April 18, 1906: The San Francisco Earthquake struck at 5:13 a.m., followed by a massive fire from overturned wood stoves and broken gas pipes. The fire raged uncontrollably for three days resulting in the destruction of over 10,000 acres of property and 4,000 lives lost. April 19, 1993: At Waco, Texas, the compound of the Branch Davidian religious cult burned to the ground with 82 persons inside, including 17 children. April 20, 1999: The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history occurred in Littleton, Colorado, as two students armed with guns and explosives stormed into Columbine High School. April 25, 1967: The first law legalizing abortion was signed by Colorado Governor John Love, allowing abortions in cases in which a panel of three doctors unanimously agreed. April 26, 1986: At the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, an explosion caused a meltdown of the nuclear fuel and spread a radioactive cloud into the atmosphere. April 28, 1945: Twenty-three years of Fascist rule in Italy ended abruptly as Italian partisans shot former Dictator Benito Mussolini. April 29, 1992: Riots erupted in Los Angeles following the announcement that a jury in Simi Valley, California, had failed to convict four Los Angeles police officers accused in the videotaped beating of an African American man. April 30, 1967: Boxer Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing championship after refusing to be inducted into the American military. He had claimed religious exemption.
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Planning to move this spring? If you are hunting for an apartment on Craigslist, watch out for rental cons. A new report from New York University explores just how common these scams are. Spoiler alert: they are everywhere.
HOW THE SCAM WORKS You are looking at Craigslist apartment listings for a new place to live. You know that scams are common on the site, but just how prevalent are they? Very, according to the NYU researchers. Craigslist fails to identify more than half of rental scam listings, and suspicious posts linger for as long as 20 hours before being taken down. Researchers reviewed more than 2 million for-rent posts and found 29,000 fake listings in 20 major cities. Of those, there were three key types of scams. In the first, a fake post instructs a would-be tenant to purchase a credit report. The scammer gets a commission from the credit reporting site, even though there is no property for rent. In another scheme, con artists duplicate rental listings from other sites and post on Craigslist at a lower price. Prospective renters pay a deposit via wire transfer. Another pervasive scam is “realtor service” companies. Targets are asked to pay fees to access listings of pre-foreclosure rentals or rent-to-own properties. In the majority of cases, the companies leading the scams have no connection to the properties listed.
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM THE SCAM • Don’t wire money or use a prepaid debit card: You should never pay a security deposit or first month’s rent by prepaid debit card or wire transfer. These payments are the same as sending cash - once you send it, you have no way to get it back. • Watch out for deals that sound too good: Scammers lure in targets by promising low rents, great amenities and other perks. If the price seems much better than offered elsewhere, it may be a scam. • See the property in person: Don’t send money to someone you’ve never met for an apartment you haven’t seen. If you can’t visit an apartment or house yourself, ask someone you trust to go and confirm that it is what was advertised. • Don’t fall for the overseas landlord story: Scammers often claim to be out of the country and instruct targets to send money overseas. • Search for the same ad in other cities: Search for the listing online. If you find the same ad listed in other cities, that’s a huge red flag. To find out more about other scams, check out BBB Scam Stopper (bbb. org/scam). To report a scam, go to BBB Scam Tracker (bbb.org/scamtracker).
? KNOW DID YOU
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he Sacramento Public Library started a “Library of Things” earlier last year, allowing patrons to check out, among other things, sewing machines and other items that patrons may find useful, but don’t need to own long-term.
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ichael Nicholson, a man from Michigan, has one bachelor’s degree, 22 master’s degrees, three specialist degrees and one doctoral degree, making him the most credentialed person in history.
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hile John and Clarence Anglin, two of the three men who ever escaped from Alcatraz, were officially reported to have drowned in the bay, their mother
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received flowers anonymously every Mother’s Day until she died. Two tall unknown women were reported to have attended her funeral before disappearing.
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he Chinese Yongle encyclopedia, completed in 1408, was the largest encyclopedia ever created until Wikipedia finally surpassed it in 2007.
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here is a small town in Alaska, of about 200 people who most live in the same buidling, “a place where at any hour a resident can knock on the police chief’s apartment door and students get homework help at their teacher’s kitchen table.”
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bicycle journey across the United States and all that they discover. Palm Springs Public Library, 300 S. Sunrise Way, Palm Springs. (760) 322-7323, www.palmspringslibrary.org.
April 9: The Desert Symphony’s 27th Annual Gala featuring Neil Sedaka. McCallum Theatre, 73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Deert. (760) 340-2787, www.mccallumtheatre.com. April 14 - 16: McCallum Theatre Institute presents Open Call 2016. Don’t miss the Valley’s best performers of all ages in this exciting talent competition that has become a audience favorite. McCallum Theatre, 73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Deert. (760) 340-2787, www.mccallumtheatre.com. April 20: “American Recycled,” in honor of Earth Day this film tells the story of the Hussin brothers and thir
April 22 - May 1: Amadeus, this classic tale of genius vs. mediocrity is a historical masterpiece and was the winner of both a Tony and Oscar for best play and movie. Palm Canyon Theatre, 538 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. (760) 323-5123, www. palmcanyontheatre.org. April 24: Bird Hike in Big Morongo Canyon. Hike offers opportunities to see a variety of birds not encountered at other mountains elevation in he Coachella Valley. Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. (760) 8338169, www.accmuseum.org. April 30: 23rd Annual Evening Under the Stars. Event will feature entertainment by the Village People. Held at the O’Donnell Golf Club in Palm Springs. www.aidsassistance.org/evening-under-thestars.php
Continued from page 1 In the early ‘70s, World Airways services were leased by the US government to help establish bases in Asia. She and her crews delivered thousands of copies of Stars and Stripes as well as personnel and their dependents to military installations across the region, overnighting in Saigon as easily as a more tranquil place like Tokyo. “The sad part about it was how afraid our soldiers were to return home because the Vietnam War had become so unpopular,” she told me. When it came time to step out of her wings, she worked in telecommunications as an account exec
The Filler Files The biggest Loser Police in the town of Murrieta have arrested the burglar who’s been targeting big box stores in the area and apparently he’s a real Loser, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens. The thief, who’s real last name is Loser, has been charged
and eventually achieved quite a success in selling telephone systems. The money, though good, didn’t hold a candle to what her friends were earning by buying and selling homes and commercial property, so Michele switched gears, got a real estate license and ran smack dab into the Great Recession. Now what? “I like helping people so I attended nursing school and ended up working for every hospital in the Bay area. Then, like a bolt from the blue, I was recruited by Eisenhower Hospital to open the Rankin Pavilion.” Michele’s family had been vacationing in the low desert for decades and with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance, commercial burglary, grand theft and possession of stolen property. The Association of Mature American Citizens [www.amac.us] provides the Filler Files as a service on issues of concern to Americans over 50.
Michele Kaner, second from left, in Vietnam she’d developed a fondness for the arid landscape and friendly people. Over time, she segued into private nursing because she found that she enjoyed the one-on-one experience. One of her often famous clients was the revered real estate maven, Vera Kitchen and after Vera passed, Michele was invited to take a position in the Chaparral Country Club onsite real estate office. As you may imagine, Michele is still a stone that gathers no moss. She now works with Windermere Real Estate while keeping her hand in
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home health care. She’d like to get back to the tennis courts, another early passion, but contents herself with a daily regimen of swimming and walking two energetic Chihuahuas. She’s into dancing, reading everything she can get her hands on, cooking and spending quality time with Jennifer, a “particular joy.” “My daughter is so determined and has an amazing work ethic,” Michele said. “She actually has a vision for her future – which makes me so very proud of her.”
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