Investigate HERS, June/July 2015

HIS Godless, Flagless, Homeless | Defence Meltdown | 06/2015

HERS Ghosts Of Anzac | Nepal Quake | 06/2015

CURRENT AFFAIRS & LIFESTYLE FOR THE DISCERNING WOMAN

GODLESS, FLAGLESS, HOMELESS THREE ‘KEY’ ISSUES FOR NEW ZEALAND

GHOSTS OF ANZAC CENTURY OLD WAR DIARY FROM KIWI HERO

ENGLAND’S LAST GASP

ARE BRITAIN’S DEFENCE FORCES ON THEIR LAST LEGS? June/July 2015, $8.60

Smart Homes

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR

+

BEAUTY HEALTH TRAVEL & MORE

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 51 publiceye-INVES6014

Contents www.investigatedaily.com

Issue 150

June/July 2015

08 Ghosts Of Anzac

A 100 year old war diary from a decorated Kiwi hero sheds new light on the Battle of the Somme. DOREEN LANGSFORD previews the book release

16

Aftershocks

How they’re coping in Nepal

20 Smart Homes

They may be the next big thing, but you have to ask, what happens in a powercut?

24

Ebola’s Legacy

If it doesn’t kill you, it might still give you grief

Contents

34

46 30 38

Formalities

04 Miranda Devine 06 Chloe Milne

Health & Beauty 26 28

30 34

Food for your brain From the walker to the dance floor Boutique Nail effects

Cuisine & Travel 36 Wine & Eggs 38 Dessert in Vienna

Books & Movies 42 Winter Reads 44 Hot Pursuit, The Age of Adaline

Family & Music

40 Music’s evolution 46 Raising twins & Triplets

44

HERS

DEVINE

By Miranda Devine

Rape pregnancy – more complex than you think

R

emember “Bring Back Our Girls”?

“It should be a no-brainer for international donors The unctuous twitter campaign sparked by like the U.S. government, like [the United Nations the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls Population Fund], to be going into Nigeria and

by Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria, last April, helping these girls access safe abortions, for the ones became a feminist cause celebre when Michelle who want and choose that,” Serra Sippel, president Obama tweeted a sad selfie with the hashtag of the Center for Health and Gender Equity, told #bringbackourgirls. the magazine.

Well, no thanks to Michelle and her Hollywood pals, Abortion is illegal in Nigeria, so activists want the “Our Girls” are back, after a year of living hell, many US government to capitalize on the Boko Haram having endured continual gang rape by their captors. menace by pressuring the Nigerian government “They turned me into a sex machine” Asabe Aliyu, to change its laws and offer rape victims what is told Nigeria’s The Daily Times. “They took turns to euphemistically called “a full range of reproductive sleep with me. Now, I am pregnant and I cannot health care services”. identify the father.”

The sick suggestion is that Nigeria has already Inevitably, almost half of the 534 girls and women been told by the Obama administration that it must rescued by Nigerian government forces in recent change its laws on contentious social issues, includweeks are “visibly pregnant”. ing abortion, before it gets any help to fight Boko But now, these young Christians are being trau- Haram. matised all over again by a Western feminist estab- “The United States actually said it would help Nigelishment which wants them to abort their unborn ria with Boko Haram only if we modify our laws children. concerning homosexuality, family planning, and Instead of agitating against the birth control, “ Nigerian Cathunfair stigma often applied to olic Bishop Emmanuel Badejo the children of rape, or pushing recently told the Catholic news for the US government to help network Aleteia.org.

Nigeria fight Boko Haram, WestIf it is true that abortion activThese young ern activists are using their conists are hampering Nigeria’s abilChristians are being ity to fight the Islamist threat, siderable influence to push for abortions for victims of Islamist then they are helping create traumatised all sexual violence. even more rape victims, which over again by a “As Boko Haram Kidnapping probably serves their purpose Victims Are Rescued, Many of of promoting abortion in one of Western feminist Them Are Pregnant. Why Isn’t the last holdouts, Africa’s most Anyone Talking About Their establishment which Christian country.

Right to Abortion?” ran the Thus the pregnant Boko wants them to abort Haram headline in Cosmopolitan magavictims are trapped at their unborn children the intersection of two extreme zine this month.

4 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

ideologies: Islamist fanaticism and post-Christian feminism.

They were targeted by Islamist militants because they were Christian, and now they are being targeted

by Western abortion activists for the same reason.

Abortion won’t help these young women, who face stigma either way, because they live in communities where killing the unborn is regarded as a sin.

Instead they should be praised for being mothers to children who have done nothing wrong. You can’t blame a baby for the crimes of its father.

Pressure from Western NGOs to abort their children only adds to the anguish of these women, and may destroy their one chance for happiness.

The example of the brutal Rwanda genocide 21 years ago shows that, for many rape survivors, their child was the only thing that made life worth living, according to a paper in The Journal of Social and Political Psychology.

“How Motherhood Triumphs Over Trauma Among Mothers With Children From Genocidal The way NGOs could help survivors of genocidal Rape in Rwanda” by Odeth Kantengwa, is a heart- rape is not by encouraging them to have abortions, warming affirmation of the best of human nature. but by helping to reduce the social stigma in their “Social stigma related to rape and children born communities, and by providing practical help such of rape created challenges,” writes Kantengwa, a as job training for the mothers and school fees for researcher from the Research and Documentation the children.

Center on Genocide in Kigali.

Kantenwaga suggests that professional counseling “However, despite these and other difficul- can also help women create positive “perceptions ties, motherhood played a positive role for many of their future babies”. women, often providing a reason to live again after No one pretends that the journey ahead for the the genocide.”

Boko Haram girls is easy. They have already been Kantenwaga found “these female survivors have traumatised beyond belief. come to view their children as gifts, rather than But it is a false promise that abortion is the soluburdens.” tion to their pain, when, in fact, motherhood offers Motherhood helped them reestablish happiness them a reason to live. and trust and find “meaning in a life caring for and being sustained by others”. devinemiranda@hotmail.com June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 5

HERS GEN-Y

By Chloe Milne

Space

A

mong the things that I miss since moving to Hong Kong: fresh air, fresh produce, silence, greenery, clean water and people who get out of the way when you’re tying to pass them, space is the one I miss the most. I crave the physical ability to freely move around without bumping into seven million others trying to do the same. I crave the ability to walk barefoot in a garden, to ride the Metro without smelling someone’s armpit and to people would be willing to give up their lives on see farther than two hundred metres without being earth forever. They would be willing to say goodbye restricted by buildings or smog. to their families, friends, to sunshine, to beaches, I was told before I left, that living in Hong Kong to rainforests, animals, lakes and mountains. They “is like being trapped on a rock with a few million would never be able to walk barefoot on a beach, to drunk madmen” and after having only been here for swim in a natural water source, or breath clean air six weeks I can say that Hong Kong might well turn from an atmosphere again. me into one of those madmen. Fortunately though, Don’t get me wrong; the idea of space travel is excitI’m only in this crazy, smoggy, crowded city for as ing. The idea of visiting Mars is exciting, but it’s the long as I want to be. An airport is a forty-minute taxi one-way ticket part, that I can’t get my head around. ride away, from where I could travel to anywhere I’ve only been restricted in Hong Kong for six weeks else in the world. and I already crave these natural, earthly abilities.

The same cannot be said for those ambitious Mars Of these questionably sane people, 100 have been One astronauts in waiting. chosen as “suitable” after various tests. My suggesSince I am continually travelling and frequently tion is that these tests weren’t too stringent since one talking about travel and adventure, I often get asked; of the candidates who calls himself “M1-KO”, claims “Hey Chloe, you know that Mars project thing, not only to be a Martian himself, but says he was one would you do that?” I can say wholeheartedly with- of the first four Martians to arrive on our planet. It out an ounce of uncertainty, that no, I would not. makes me wonder that perhaps it might be a good The thought of being trapped thing that he will soon be leaving with 200 people, who might well us. To re-phrase Muldoon: they be some of the most insane our might be helping us to improve world has to offer, makes my skin the IQ of both planets. crawl and it’s not due to the Hong The idea of visiting POSTSCRIPT: New research from NASA Kong mosquitos either.

Mars is exciting, There were some 200,000 indicates the amount of radiation applicants said to have registered absorbed by migrants to Mars during but it’s the onetheir interest in the programme, the trip may leave them significantly way ticket part, which will supposedly send peobrain damaged when they get there, ple to Mars on a one-way ticket, unable to perform basic tasks. that I can’t get with intent to colonise by 2027. my head around It is baffling to me that 200,000 www.chloemilne.com

6 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

+ HEALTH REVIEW

Tebonin® EGb 761®

NOTICING YOUR AGE?

Available from leading pharmacies and health stores.

With age our circulatory system can slow down; red blood cells lose suppleness, capillary walls become less flexible and blood flow is impeded.

Tebonin® EGb 761® has been clinically shown to naturally support a healthy and normal microcirculation. It supports vein-wall health and suppleness as well as pliability of the red blood cells; Tebonin® thus helps optimise microcirculation blood flow.

Take Tebonin® with confidence knowing that over 8,000,000 doses are taken daily worldwide, and that over 650* published international studies have established its effectiveness along with a well-defined safety profile.

“We both believe this tablet does all it says it will do ... and more. We have used Tebonin n® EGb 761® for over five years to support normal balance, mental performance and inner ear calm and d qu quiet. uiet.

Distributed by Pharma Health NZ Ltd, Your Health. Nature’s Power. www.pharmahealth.co.nz People on blood thinning medication or prior to surgery should check with their doctor first. Supplementary to and not a replacement for a balanced diet. Use only as directed and if symptoms persist, see your health p professional.

TAPS NA 6228

T

he microcirculation carries blood to the extremities including the complex organs such as ears, brain, eyes, and even hands and feet. Effective blood flow through the very fine capillaries of the microcirculation is essential for the health of these areas.

Healthy and normal: inner-ear silence, balance, cognitive function, mental focus, concentration, mental performance and skin need a healthy and normal blood supply.

For more information phone 0800 657 876 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm or email info@phealth.co.nz

We believe it has also helped our mental focus and even the texture of our skin; and it helps us keep up with the grand kids. We recommend it to all.”

Jim and Diana Ryan, Tokoroa. *Copies available on request

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 7

THE GHOSTS The Diary Of A War Hero Onesimus William Howe was wounded many times in World War One, and decorated for bravery under fire. Like many of his generation, he didn’t speak much about his ordeal. It was only after he died that family members discovered the old diary. His daughter DOREEN LANGSFORD painstakingly translated the diary and it tells an incredible tale of life in the trenches at the Somme. In this extract from the book Ghosts of Anzac, she explains why the journey matters

8 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

OF ANZAC

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 9

“ L

ook Out! Look Out! Over Here!

Over Here! Come On! Come On! Fire! Fire! Come On! Come On! “Stretcher Bearer! Stretcher Bearer! Come On! Come On!” On and on went the shouting, my father’s voice ringing through the stillness of the night in the old farmhouse.

We were jerked awake by the desperate yelling.

“Mum! MUM! What’s wrong with Dad? MUM! MUM!” My mother appeared at the bedside.

“Sh-sh-sh— It’s alright. Sh-sh. Go back to sleep. Dad’s back in the trenches. It’s alright, It’s only a nightmare, go back to sleep, he’ll be alright”.

And he was. The memories of the terrible things he had seen years before once more slipped back into the subconscious mind and life went on.

Although this is a factual document it is not written by an historian or a professional writer. It is the personal record, copied word for word, from the diary of a young 21 year old soldier, written while serving with the New-Zealand Infantry forces on the Somme battle fields in France, in the year 1916.

Written in pencil, often under the most terrible conditions, it is understandable that some words have become indistinguishable over the years.

This is only one of the diaries written by my father during the 1914-18 war.

There were three others, one of which was written while on Gallipoli, 1915.

Unfortunately they all became lost over the ensuing years as my father became a sharemilker and we moved from farm to farm to farm in the 1930s and 40s.

This is the only one left and it is a part of New Zealand history that should never be forgotten.

My father, Onesimus William Howe, had been brought up by his mother. His father had left his young wife and two sons when he was only three years old, in 1898.

How my Grandmother managed to give him a good education is another story.

There were no hand outs in those days.

He did his teacher training at an early age and when 20 years old he was trying to stay alive in the massacre on Gallipoli.

As I progressed slowly through the diary I came to realize there was much to read between the lines, and I became amazed and wondered at how anyone could have had the strength and inclination to write up the daily entries whilst going through some horrific times, but my father seemed to have an almost supernatural ability to shut out all of the misery going on about him and focus on anything that was positive. Such as “a beautiful day” or “there’s a good film in the little French town”. An inbuilt strength. Indeed wherever he laid his head, be it bivvy, billet or trench, he called it “home”.

He made friends easily with the French people, and many a young Mademoiselle wrote to him. I remember my mother saying he was always popular with the opposite sex and that was because he treated them as ladies, even if they were not! Of course the Madames mentioned here were certainly not the keepers of the brothels! Just the respected wives of the local farmers.

At the back of the diary is a record of letters received and sent. Very methodical! My father was a great correspondent.

Isa’s name stood out amongst all the rest and she was the recipient of many a letter. Her name and address are still there clearly written with the indelible pencil which was all he had to write with.

“Isa B. Golder, Linwood, Perth Road, Condenbeath, Scotland.”

The last entry in the diary written on the 31.12.1916 ends with the words “at 10 a.m. I left to go to Scotland. The train left Kings Cross at 11.45 p.m.” He was on his way up to see Isa Golder.

Isa was the sister of a Scottish soldier my father had met up with in Egypt on the

way from Gallipoli to France. His address is also in the diary: Pte. R. B. Golder, 2360 Royal Scots, 52 Low Div., B.E.F. Egypt.

Alongside this military address is the same address as the one given for Isa. What happened to Isa and her brother?

We probably will never know. My Father never returned to Scotland.

There were other addresses. Both men and women. Among them was the address of Mary, from the Training College in Auckland, and addresses for London, Egypt, Malta etc., and an address for a Mlle Elise Lebreque, 25 Rue de Merville, Hazebrouck, France. The Lebreques, he visited often when away from the front line action. They became a family to him away from home.

There were many incidents not recorded. That he had shrapnel scars on his head, behind his left ear, a large scar on his back and another on his leg bear witness to wounding from which he was sent to various hospitals. Recovering quickly he was soon back on the front lines again and in the thick of the battles.

In this diary it is obvious he enjoyed practicing his French with the numerous families he came in contact with but nowhere is it mentioned recorded (military records) that in the two years following, he was often called in as an interpreter between the English and the French in the Military Courts.

One interesting fact. Fighting in the trench (and I’m not sure which battle) there was a young German man whose parents had settled in New Zealand. They had probably been interned as others were. One night this young man suddenly got up and said casually “I’m going over to fight for the other side”. He got up out of the trench and walked off toward the German lines. His mates watched in disbelief until he disappeared into the darkness. He was never heard of again.

He kept himself ‘alive’ by the interest he had in others, the writing of the many

HE COULD DETACH HIMSELF MENTALLY FROM THOSE TERRIBLE CONDITIONS. THE NOISE OF THE BATTLE RAGING AROUND, THE STICKY, CLINGING MUD, THE LICE, THE RATS, THE SCREAMS OF THE WOUNDED 10 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

letters, playing cards or going to the pictures in the little towns behind the lines while on ‘a pass for the town’.

He could detach himself mentally from those terrible conditions. The noise of the battle raging around, the sticky, clinging mud, the lice, the rats, the screams of the wounded. With death all around he writes of ‘going into the town for a bath’, or to ‘meet up with some mates’ or to ‘have a good feed’. How he seemed to enjoy those rare ‘good feeds’. How many of the restaurant goers of today would think that a piece of roast mutton and potatoes would constitute a good feed? But to those young men who often went without, it must have been a little bit of heaven.

“July, Sunday 9th, 1916: German bombardment at 9 .00 p.m. Stopped at 11. At the Mushroom (one of the battle sites) the Canterbury’s got hell. We were relieved by the Wellington’s. Then hurried into town for beers and eggs and chips”.

“Monday, 10th: over for a bath in the town at 8.30 a.m. Really good after 18 days in the trenches. Met up with 3 of the Auckland Grammar boys. I had not seen them since leaving there. Mac. gave us 60 francs (pay) the night before and as usual, of course the boys lapped it up.”

T

hen, the entry for Saturday 15th, only five days later we read, “ – all told to be ready for the trenches again. Went around to the restaurant by the station for a last good feed. We left for the trenches at 4p.m. and relieved the Canterbury’s at the top of Port Egal”.

And so it went on. His best mate, Bill Mold, was shot through the head right beside him, and reading between the lines it was a great loss to him: “Sunday, Sept. 17th: During this battle, Bill Mold while giving the order was sniped through the head. He collapsed right back beside me. He only lived for about an hour and could not recognise anyone. Everyone is very cut up about it. He was the best man you could ever meet – anywhere. That night we stayed in the gun posi and kept watch. It was a very miserable night.”

An understatement, typical of him.

As I copied out his diary a picture of the young man he must have been became clearer to me. Tall, over 6ft. A good-looking man with reddish hair and blue eyes. While enjoying the odd drink

Onesimus William (Willie) Howe, aged 20, just before leaving for war.Taken on family farm at Awhitu, near Waiuku

with his mates he was not into excessiveness as many of those soldiers were, getting themselves into much strife in the process. He enjoyed the company of all, men and women alike, different nationalities etc.

I, over the years, never heard him swear or blaspheme in vain. He was a man of integrity.

As the war went on, he moved up through the ranks. He was a Second Lieutenant when it all ended.

The citation when, as a sergeant, he was awarded the Military Medal, read thus: “M.M. Onesimus William Howe, 17th December 1917: “For conspicuous gallantry on the field.

East of St. Julian on the 4th of October, this N.C.O. went into the attack as commander of a mopping up platoon, which

he handled with capability and coolness throughout. At the commencement of the advance severe opposition was met with at Aviatic farm and it was largely due to the capable manner in which this N.C.O. handled his platoon that the garrison of this strong point was overcome and accounted for. Very severe fighting occurred here, and throughout he exhibited extraordinary coolness. His actions throughout the day until wounded showed him possessed of splendid courage and fine leadership.”

There is a Sgt. Gould mentioned in the diary and reading mostly between the lines, he didn’t appear too popular. There is also an entry where my father suffered a disappointment when one George Hume was recommended for the Victoria Cross.

This reads: June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 11

“Wednesday, 4th October: Rumours are about that George Hume is to be recommended for the Victoria Cross. Not quite fair. Why should he be picked out?

He got over with only one casualty. I lost all my men and was the only one left on my gun.”

That was all, and being the man he was, he would have soon forgotten it.

In Professor Alexander Aitken’s book, Gallipoli to the Somme, there is a clear account of going straight from the defeat on Gallipoli to the trenches of France.

Professor Aitken was badly wounded there on the 27th of September 1916 and was then out of the remaining years of the war. He served with the Otago Regiment and as accounted in the diary, “the 12 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

Otago’s and the Aucklander’s paths often crossed as they relieved one another from the front line trenches.”

In chapter eight of his book, Alexander Aitken describes the long 57 hour journey from Marseilles to Armentieres in detail (also in the diary), and in chapter ten he gives a comprehensive description of the trenches on the Somme, “The curving salient front line, with the parallel supports, the subsidiary line, the communication saps and the mushroom”. Words in the diary which were obscure to me.

He reveals to us the meaning of the ‘dump’. The place where the supplies were kept. Those who were sent for supplies would find themselves out in the open, often under machine gun fire.

His graphic description of the “dug out” trenches says it all: “The foul smelling water, feet deep in the bottom and the large well conditioned rats that infested the lines at night, scampering along the parapet and gnawing at haversacks in the dug outs, supplementing their vampire meal”.

On the 24th May 1915, a truce was called between the Turks and the allies on Gallipoli, for the burial of their dead.

In Peter Liddle’s book Gallipoli 1915: Pens, Pencils and Cameras at War there is a letter written by a G.C. Grove, Sapper 2nd Field Comp. 1st Australian Division which describes the conditions on that day. This is part of that letter: “It seemed very queer all day with

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 13

everything so quiet, no firing or anything all the time Our men and the Turks were exchanging cigarettes and tobacco while others were burying the dead. The smell was something cruel, most of the bodies being almost totally decomposed.

The sight was most queer. Men sitting around in bunches smoking and sharing their food with the enemy, amidst the dead bodies, amputated arms and legs and heads and general horrible surroundings”.

In Christopher Pugsley’s book Gallipoli, the New Zealand Story, there are two excerpts from letters which were sent by my father back to New Zealand.

One of these quoted in the book came 14 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

from a letter dated 7th September 1915 and described part of the night advance on Chunuk Bair and the attack by the Auckland Battalion on the morning of the 7th August 1915.

Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story speaks graphically of the horror, the mistakes and the terrible slaughter of thousands of young inexperienced men who were thrown into a situation beyond their control.

That they had no idea of what they were going into is summed up in the words on a postcard which my father sent his brother, from Egypt on his way over to Turkey. On the front of this card is a photograph of ‘The Heliopolis – Palace

Hotel’ across which he has written “Near the Cairo Camp, The Palace Hotel , now used as a hospital for the wounded” . On the back was the letter: “Mr. A .Howe, Alfriston, Auckland, New Zealand. We arrived here two days ago after a lovely sea trip. We can realize now the reality of this thing. Some of my Hokianga mates have been killed and others wounded. We leave for the front tomorrow. If there’s any chance I will write from there. We are all looking forward to the fun. From Willie.”

Three quotes from Gallipoli – The New Zealand Story, courtesy of Christopher Pugsley are as follows:

Quote 1: “The Battle For Chunuk Bair.

The Auckland Battalion had advanced 100 metres along the length of a narrow ridge from one knoll to the next. It was a repeat of the slaughter of the Light Horse at The Nek. Some 300 men fell dead or wounded. Grant was mortally wounded. the survivors either stayed at the Apex (mentioned in Howe’s 1916 diary) or crouched in a shallow Turkish trench, some 18 inches deep, that cut across the narrow pinnacle slightly above the saddle of the land leading to Chunuk Bair. To move was to die. Between them, groaning and crying in the sun, lay half the Battalion. Snipers fired at any movement”.

Quote 2: “If I were asked to give a description of the colour of the earth on Chunuk Bair on the 9th or 10th of August I would say it was dull, brownie red – and that was blood. Just dried blood”.

Some `fun’ those young New Zealand soldiers were heading for as they left Egypt and headed for Gallipoli.

Quote 3: “Only a very small percentage of New Zealanders saw service in France and Belgium. The New Zealand Division paid a heavy price for the failure of the Gallipoli campaign. In France and Bel-

gium, with the Canadian and Australian Divisions it became a spearhead division.

Here for three more bloody years, our small national army learnt well the full meaning of ‘attrition’.”

My father was one of these and this is the diary of the first 12 months he spent in France, after evacuation from Gallipoli. It is history, and it is only a small part of his story.

GHOSTS OF ANZAC by Onesimus William Howe, RRP$29.99, Langsford Publishing, PO Box 5461 Wellesley St, Auckland 1141

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 15

NEPAL SANITATION EFFORTS SUFFER AFTER

QUAKE Words by Molly Hennessy-Fiske

16窶オNVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM窶カune/July 2015

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 17

S

anitation specialist Tess Gough arrived in this earthquake-ravaged town with an uncomfortable question to ask.

“It’s about toilets,” she said.

As in many towns and villages in Nepal, most of the brick homes in Paslang were reduced to rubble by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck April 25. Water was still flowing from communal taps, but no one had checked whether the water system had been damaged. And it wasn’t clear where people were going to the bathroom.

“We had a toilet in each house before,” Bikash Ranamayar, 20, told Gough. “But most have been destroyed.”

Before the quake, Nepal had made great strides in building toilets and persuading people to stop going to the bathroom outdoors, one of the leading causes of cholera and other diseases. But now at least 2.8 million are displaced, many holed up in tents in more than 16

camps, unable or unwilling to return to quake-damaged homes.

Experts warn there could be another outbreak of diseases like they saw in Haiti after the earthquake there five years ago.

“There was a big campaign in Nepal, ‘One house, one toilet,’” said Gough, who works with the US-based nonprofit CARE. But before those public health campaigns in recent years, she added, “a lot of people didn’t have toilets, so if they get damaged, they could go back to that.”

During her visit last to Paslang after the quake, about 140 miles west of Kathmandu, Gough asked Ranamayar to show her the water system from tap to source.

They walked uphill through town, past the ruins of several of the village’s 46 homes to a communal tap where a woman was filling brass jugs.

“This is what I’m worried about,” Gough said.

They came to a second tap where an elderly woman was bathing in the sun.

“We do bathing cabins too,” Gough noted, citing projects that provide both sanitation and privacy.

They climbed past the tap and followed the pipe feeding it uphill to an underground holding tank. The tank’s top was open, and they could hear water rushing below.

“Where does the water come from?”

Gough asked.

Ranamayar, an electrical engineering student, pointed to a hill opposite.

“And where is the pipe?”

He pointed again. Gough checked the pipe. It appeared to be in good condition.

Then she pressed him about toilets.

“Are people sharing?” she asked.

Yes, Ranamayar said. He has been living in a tent, using a neighbor’s bathroom.

“Do they go in the field?” she asked.

No, he said. But he didn’t sound totally sure.

Building toilets can be expensive,

BEFORE THE QUAKE, NEPAL HAD MADE GREAT STRIDES IN BUILDING TOILETS AND PERSUADING PEOPLE TO STOP GOING TO THE BATHROOM OUTDOORS, ONE OF THE LEADING CAUSES OF CHOLERA AND OTHER DISEASES

18 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

Gough said: $100 for a structure with flimsy woven walls, up to $500 for a brick privy.

Ranamayar said Paslang residents had been working on constructing more bathrooms when the quake hit.

“Maybe we can work on the toilets so people don’t have to share,” Gough said.

She left Paslang that day convinced that Nepal now faces two challenges: restoring sanitation in areas that have been destroyed and maintaining it in the temporary camps.

The largest camp is at the Tundikhel parade grounds in central Kathmandu, the capital. Although it has shrunk from 12,000 to several thousand residents, sanitation is still a concern there and at other camps around the capital, experts said.

Bina Niraulla, 34, has been staying at the camp with her four small sons since their home was damaged in the quake.

“The water facility is good,” she said as she waited in line for water being trucked

in by the Nepalese army last week. “The problem is the toilets. Too many people are using the toilets. It’s dirty and people need to wait in the line, so a few are using the field.”

That would be the same field where babies crawl, children pile rocks and dogs roam.

“There are functioning toilets, but there’s three for hundreds of people and it’s not well lit,” leading to safety concerns, said Carolynne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Kathmandu office of international nonprofit WaterAid, which works to improve sanitation.

Sanitation experts are concerned about the spread of disease in the camps but also in more rural areas such as Lalitpur, a town about three miles south of the capital where they have already heard about small diarrhea outbreaks, Wheeler said.

“We must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent and control communicable

disease outbreaks,” said Dr. Roderico Ofrin, head of emergency response for the World Health Organization, which has been surveying and coordinating Nepal’s medical services since the quake Health teams have been deployed to Gorkha and Sindhuli districts to the west of the capital to respond to reports of influenza and diarrhea, according to the latest United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs situation report.

“We want to stop it before it spreads because it can spread very quickly,” Wheeler said of contagious disease as she distributed 800 hygiene kits of soap, toothpaste, detergent, cups, buckets and other essentials in Kavre, about 60 miles southeast of the capital.

“We’re seeing a lot of families that have lost everything and if you don’t have enough soap to clean yourself or your child after you’ve gone to the bathroom, that’s a risk,” she said.

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 19

20窶オNVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM窶カune/July 2015

Smarter

Homes Why one day, two blinks of the light could mean rain Words by Amina Elahi

I

t’s been more than 50 years since the world met Rosie the Robot, yet the likelihood of the world resembling The Jetsons – which was set in 2062 – remains in question.

While talking-robot maids and flying cars remain dreams, smart homes may be within closer reach. So said a panel of home automation experts who gathered in Chicago recently to discuss ways homes are getting smarter.

Sce Pike, CEO and president of US-based startup Iotas, said at a Science and Energy Innovation Foundation event called “Surge Series 2015: Why Are Our Homes Still Dumb?”: “We’re trying to make people’s lives a little bit more efficient.”

Panelists said home automation provides numerous opportunities to improve energy efficiency and to make individuals’ and families’ lives easier and healthier.

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 21

Pike said her company, which aims to track energy use in multi-family homes, targets the rental-apartment market because it will allow her company to collect more data that covers more people in similar homes. She said she could compare tenants of onebedroom apartments to those in two-bedroom apartments and see how energy usage and patterns change.

The other panelists were Rob Schildgen, CEO of Priority Energy, which focuses on indoor air quality, and Yann Kulp, VP of residential energy solutions North America for Schneider Electric, whose smart Wiser Air thermostat will become available in June.

ISEIF program director Clare Butterfield moderated.

The panelists shared their visions of how home automation could transform the way humans live in the future. Here are some of their big ideas:

you and it’s your best ally. And that home also has a sense of movement. So essentially your home is learning all these things about you, where you want the lights to turn on and blink when it rains.”

Pike: “It’s simple things like if they enter the closet,

you know what the water temperature is? No. It’s the right temperature or the wrong temperature ... but on our thermostat, we get obsessed with the number. So why do we need a number? We don’t need a number. We should only be saying, this is good for me, (or) I want it hotter, I want it colder. So we’re testing this. It’s very interesting dynamics; we have to re-change habits. Fundamentally, you don’t need a number. What you do need is a comfort level.

Am I good or not? That’s all you need to know, and if you’re too cold, I want it warmer and vice versa.”

instead of us just turning on the closet light, we would essentially blink the closet light twice to let them know it’s raining outside or snowing outside. If they’re getting ready in the kitchen, we would blink the lights and let them know they have to leave now to catch their bus or their train.

“For us, that is more important (than energy efficiency) in some sense, informing people and having your home in some sense be a replacement of a screen, of your smartphone, where it’s informing 22 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

Schildgen: “Right now, it is very hard for us to moni-

tor the health of the structure and the health of the home. When I say the health of the structure, the actual structure itself, the walls, mechanicals, all of that. And then the health of the inhabitants, the air quality and everything that goes along with that. If we could easily integrate that with the smart home solutions coming out of the seats next to me, I think that would be my wild vision because right now it is not easy.”

Kulp: “Do you have a number in your shower? Do

Available at Whitcoulls, The Warehouse, Paper Plus, Take Note and all good bookstores, or online at

www.ianwishart.com June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 23

Words by Al Varney Rogers & Robyn Dixon

Ebola’s

LINGERING

PAIN 24 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

I

n Liberia, they call it Decoration Day, a time of pain, celebration and memory when people visit graveyards to honor their dead, cleaning the graves, whitewashing them or painting them in bright colors.

But the first Decoration Day since the main brunt of the recent Ebola epidemic hit Liberia last year was heartbreaking, not just because of the loss of 4,117 Liberian lives, but also because in most cases there is no grave to decorate.

Cremation, a practice so alien here as to be almost unthinkable, was widely used during the Ebola epidemic, compounding the grief for many families. In Liberian society, death demands a “decent burial” – and a body is required.

Early in the crisis, suspicions about cremation led people to hide bodies, to try to have them buried.

Government officials reported that some Liberians bought fake death certificates on the black market, showing a cause of death other than Ebola. That allowed them to bring the bodies of loved ones to funeral parlors for burial.

Authorities turned to cremation in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital and largest city, because people were dying by the hundreds each week at the height of the crisis – and the bodies of Ebola victims are so con-

tagious that handling them is extremely dangerous. Some neighborhoods rejected burials of Ebola victims nearby.

One reason the virus spread so fast last year was because of traditional burials, where bodies are washed and dozens of relatives touch the dead.

Outside Monrovia, at a crematorium near the airport, dozens of bodies were brought each day to be burned.

The bodies of more than 3,000 people, reduced to ashes, are contained in 19 drums from the Monrovia crematorium.

The ashes will be buried in a 25-acre site by the Robert Field Highway, selected as an Ebola memorial by the government of Liberia, which recently declared the release of the country’s last Ebola patient from treatment.

For many grieving survivors, it hurts deeply to pass Decoration Day without being able to mark a loved one’s death at a graveside.

Sianneh Beyan, 28, who is jobless, lost her husband, a driver, after he contracted the virus from a passenger he did not

know was sick. She then lost her sister, who had helped to care for Beyan’s dying husband.

She had called an ambulance to take her husband to a treatment center, but by the time it came, he was dead.

“He died in the house,” said Beyan, who wore a simple black skirt and a shirt with black pinstripes on Decoration Day. She wiped away her tears. “I’m angry that they burn(ed) my husband. They should have buried him like they are burying people now. They got my husband to dust.

I’m feeling bad that tomorrow I can’t show my children their father’s grave.”

She still hopes to get her husband’s ashes, but the ashes of victims are mingled.

“I have no grave to decorate on this day. Let the government give me my husband’s dust so I can find a place to put it,” the widow said.

The disease was cruel and swift. Some children were left without parents. Some mothers or fathers were left alone after all their children and their spouse died.

Among the hardest hit were health workers, caregivers and those who tried to help by taking desperately sick people to hospitals. At the height of the crisis, the sight of wheelbarrows ferrying stricken patients to hospitals was common. Outside hospital gates, people lay retching, vomiting and pleading for help.

Relatives watched their loved ones placed into quarantine in Ebola treatment units, and often it was the last time they saw them. For some, not seeing the body made the loss harder to accept.

Johnson Wleh, 32, a trader, went to

the Robert Field Highway burial site on Decoration Day, hoping to locate the ashes of his brother, who left Wleh his four children to raise.

Wleh looked disheartened, with his face unshaven, his shoulders sagging. He was shocked to learn that his brother’s ashes were mixed with those of others.

“We are not used to this burning body thing. I’m confused with this dust of our relative, because they join everybody and burn them, so I want to see how they will tell which dust is for me or the other person.

“I never thought that my brother was going to end up like this. I’m vexed with the way they handled his body, but at that time (there was) nothing I could do,” Wleh said. “This disease has made good people to be buried like animals. It has destroyed lives and broken families.”

Decoration Day has been marked in Liberia for 99 years on the second Wednesday in March. All flags in the nation were lowered to half-staff at a minute past midnight.

David Sonnie, 43, a trader with four children, lost his brother, sister-in-law and niece to Ebola.

“My young brother took sick and infected his wife and one of his daughters, who later died like him,” he said.

Their cremations added to his grief.

“This burning of (a) body is very discouraging and disheartening,” Sonnie said. “You will not see your relatives’ graves.

“If they give us the dust, we will dig a grave and put it there just to have (a) place to come every Decoration Day.”

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 25

HERS health

Food for your brain Words by Barbara Quinn

I

once chuckled over a bumper sticker that read, “Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.” Later on, it was not so funny when my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a disorder that destroys cognitive functions of the brain.

Several factors influence who will eventually develop this devastating disease, say researchers.

One of them may be our diet, according to a recent study called the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND. As the name suggests, this research found that an eating style based on the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets – known for their ability to reduce blood pressure, heart attacks

26 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

and stroke – could also lower the risk for developing Alzheimer’s Disease.

Contrary to the name, however, this was not a true intervention trial. Rather, researchers at Rush University Medical Center in America looked at what seniors were already eating and scored them according to a list of “brain healthy” food groups.

People who reported eating more of these foods and fewer unhealthy ones were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, they found.

Brain healthy foods identified in the MIND study include vegetables (green leafy veggies in particular), nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil and wine. Unhealthy foods were excess amounts of fried foods, red meat, butter, cheese, sweets and pastries.

Interesting that berries were the only fruit specifically named on their brain healthy list. “Blueberries are one of the more potent foods in terms of protecting the brain,” states Martha Morris, Ph.D., a researcher who helped develop the MIND diet.

Strawberries are also rich in compounds that can help protect brain function.

What might this eating pattern look like? Each day includes at least 3 servings of a whole grain food, a mixed green salad, another vegetable and a glass of wine. Fish, chicken or turkey are eaten a few times a week; beef and pork less often. Beans are on the menu every other day or so. Nuts and berries are frequent snacks. Cheese, fried and fast foods are eaten no more than once a week. Butter is limited to less than a tablespoon a day. Pastries and sweets are reserved for special occasions.

While more studies are in order, these scientists recognize that we tend to be healthier the longer we practice health-related habits. It’s what we eat consistently over time that probably gives us the best protection, they conclude. I’ll try to remember that.

World Acclaim for Lyprinol® PCSO-524®

A trusted source of potent, complex & rare Omega-3s

Katie Stretching Dad

Lyprinol® has been an essential part of my family’s daily diet for over 3 years; our two children (Katie and Alex) love the capsules, they are small, easy to take and they see them as treats. We see them as support for their developing brains and bodies.

I believe Lyprinol® is the best Omega 3 for my family as it supports heart and brain health as well as mood balance. For me it helps with flexibility, joints, mobility and healthy breathing.

As I age I find Lyprinol® supports my busy physical work and helps my body achieve my high expectations.

Surfing, windsurfing, kite boarding, mountain biking, yoga, etc all require joint suppleness, good coordination, fitness and strength. I feel Lyprinol® helps me with the demands I make on my body and I am confident that taking it regularly will help me and Stephanie stay active and keep up with our children.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Bruce Kendall

Windsurfing Olympic Gold Medalist, World Champion & Olympic Coach.

Outstanding NZ export story with markets in over 40 countries International renown for purity, quality and effectiveness Contains up to 91 different Omega-3s and other active marine components1 Scientific research demonstrates support for joint health, suppleness, normal mobility and healthy breathing2 Extracted using rigorous patented processes and unique, quality-control checks (MAF and International Standards) The only marine lipid to be extracted by a patented CO2 super-critical extraction process Meticulous testing guarantees efficacy, purity & that indicated levels of omega-3s & other ingredients are present3 Internationally recommended by doctors – Lyprinol® delivers its health promise and helps users stay active Suitable for the whole family including children 2 and older

1. Mickleborough and Lindley 2013 Respiratory Medicine 2. Studies available on request 3. COA’s available on request Pharmalink International guarantees that every batch of Lyprinol® PCSO-524® passes all tests and satisfies all NZ and international standards for the purity, strength and effectiveness of its range of complex omega-3s and other ingredients.

SPECIAL OFFER: 3 Packs delivered for $105 – www.lyprinol.co.nz

Available from leading Pharmacies and Health Shops.

Always read the label and use as directed. If symptoms persist consult your healthcare professional.

www.pharmahealth.co.nz Freephone 0800 567 800 Email info@phealth.co.nz

TAPS NA 7597

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 27

HERS althealth

From walker to teaching dance Words by Harry Jackson

T

he side effects of the treatment for leukemia put Theresa Daniels on a walker; she couldn’t even stand without help. Who could think of a greater nightmare for a woman who teaches dance and is a former professional dancer?

But Daniels, 60, never stopped smiling, even when it was a struggle. And she never gave up. She even kept her Adiva Dance Center opened during her yearlong ordeal.

“I did ballet in bed,” she said, “a mat workout and warm up. Slowly, I could feel myself coming back, I could lift myself up, lift my heels off the bed.”

Daniels thought she had a pinched nerve in her back when she went to a chiropractor in August 2012.

The chiropractor sent her to an emergency room.

“My heart was pounding. I was yellow; I was delirious,” she said. “I saw the white light, it was coming at me, as close as you. I yelled at it and said, ‘That’s it.’ And it vanished.”

A bone marrow biopsy found leukemia, an oncologist told her. “She said there’s two kinds. One was bad and one was very bad,” Daniels said. “I had the bad one.”

She had chronic lymphocytic leukemia, CLL, a cancer of the white blood cells. The US National Cancer Institute says white blood cells become too plentiful and prevent other blood cells from doing their jobs. CLL is common among adults and usually occurs after middle age; it is rare in children.

The Cancer Institute describes several levels of treatment depending on how far the disease has progressed. Daniels spent six months undergoing chemotherapy. But the last month, when she was ending chemotherapy, brought its own problem. She picked up a second disease, CMV, a virus related to chickenpox. It’s not usually serious and usually is destroyed by the immune system so quickly most people never know they’ve been infected.

28 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

But Daniels didn’t have much of an immune system left after leukemia and chemotherapy. The CMV flattened her.

She spent parts of February and March 2013 in hospital in treatment. “I shrank to 97 pounds,” she said.

But she never believed her dancing career was over. “I had people and prayers around me,” she said. “(Some) said, ‘Don’t worry about dancing,’ and I was just happy to be alive.”

She left the hospital on a walker. She began her own rehab. When she couldn’t get out of bed, she’d exercise in bed. When she got out of bed she walked.

“It was the grandma shuffle, but I walked.”

She saw an upside, though. She had to eat highcalorie meals and snacks such as Hershey bars and macaroni salad.

Over time, “Slowly, I could lift myself up, lift my

I have chosen not to dwell on what I once could do on the dance floor, but reach outward and explore new ideas and paths of fulfillment

legs off the bed,” she said. “I could feel the invigorating of my muscles.”

Her studio stayed open. Advanced students taught classes for about a year during Daniels’ recuperation.

She eventually returned to the school and has been at full speed ever since.

Daniels is preparing for the St. Louis Senior Olympics in the US where she and a friend will enter a dance competition – finally. Last year, her friend had a foot injury, and the year before that Daniels was recuperating.

“We’re so excited,” she said. “It’s been a long time in the making. This is the first year we’re both able.”

Remembering the ordeal, she remarked, “It’s more frightening now than it was then.”

She recalls the shock of being diagnosed with a life-threatening disease. “Before, I’d only been in a hospital to have my two babies,” she said.

She recalls as best she could the CMV episode. “I was hallucinating three of four weeks I was in the hospital,” she said. “I was shrinking, and the doctors told me I’d be on a walker from now on, but I was lucky to be alive.”

Now, she dances. And she doesn’t have to take any special medicine. She’s not using nutrition supplements, either.

She still gets teary-eyed when talking about how she stayed happy and maintains an almost mythic, forward-looking perspective.

“With determination, my strength and stamina will increase, but patience is needed,” she said. “I have chosen not to dwell on what I once could do on the dance floor, but reach outward and explore new ideas and paths of fulfillment.”

“I consider it a blessing,” she said. “I have a purpose, and I’m not finished yet.”

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 29

HERS boutique

With our Adapti–Blend recipe programs, you can create oh– so–beautifully blended juices, soups, smoothies and more with just one touch of a button. Ice, nuts, whole fruits and veggies… you name it. Even the toughest ingredients are no match for the Torrent™ blender. www.kitchenaid.com

The key to getting peak performance from kitchen knives is to have a sharp edge every time. SharpIN Technology consists of individual sharpeners that are built into the knife slots within the storage block, ensuring that every time a knife is removed or replaced into the storage block it is automatically sharpened at the proper angle. www.calphalon.com

In toaster terms, the Dualit stands apart from the crowd as a truly British, robust design classic that is a million miles away from the bland looks of many other toasters. Each Dualit toaster is assembled by hand, much as it always was. The assembler’s individual mark will be found on the base plate. In an age in which so much becomes obsolete overnight, the Dualit toaster is built without compromise. www.awardappliances.co.nz

As with conventional single lever mixers, with Metris Select you also turn on the water flow at the handle and set the required temperature and water amount. However, the user can subsequently terminate the flow of water on and off via the Select button which is located on the front of the spout. The lever handle remains open, with the water volume and water temperature preset. www.hansgrohe.com

30 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

A revolutionary anti-aging skincare line that recognizes most visible signs of aging skin comes from the sun. It combines multiple award winning and critically acclaimed anti-aging ingredients into a nourishing vegan formulation that helps roll back damage and protects against future damage with better than full spectrum protection. www.christiebrinkleyauthenticskincare.com

Many colorists have been known to use a spatula rather than a bristle brush for highlighting. However, spatulas are naturally held sideways. After extensive research, The Sprush applicator was designed for precision color/ relaxer application, offering substantial savings in product usage and many benefits over the use of bristle brushes. www.blusandbeauty.com

Pure Care Dry Oil Nourishing Treatment with African Macadamia Oil is a lightweight, luxurious formula, infused with pure drops of natural oils. With unique Dry Oil technology, it absorbs deep into hair, leaving it sublimely silky, not greasy or weighed down. www.dove.us

Want glowing skin in 7 days? Here’s your answer in a bottle. Advanced Génifique is the perfect first step after cleansing to reveal smoother, more radiant skin for all ages, ethnicities, and skin types. With an exclusive self-loading dropper, Génifique delivers the ideal dosage to bring back the light into your skin. www.lancome-usa.com

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 31

Sleek Smartphones $579 OCTO-CORE 200 phone | Telecom 0 Experience the power of an eight-core smartphone.

Let’s put this phone in perspective: more built-in storage (32GB) than a Samsung Galaxy S4 (16GB). A higher resolution display than an iPhone 5S. Plus the power of not dual core, not quad core like the Galaxy, but a stoking great 8 cores, and a monster 5 inch screen (compared to 4 inch on iPhone 5S) Your choice of black or white. Tuned for Telecom/ Skinny 3G with 2G service for Vodafone/2Deg Android 4.2, 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth Corning Gorilla Glass 5 Inch Display Dual sim (Telecom in Sim 1, Vodafone/2Degrees in Sim 2) 1.7GHz Octo Core CPU 1GB RAM 8MP Camera Click here to view specs or purchase

$549 ZTE | Vodafone 1.5GHz Quad core, 3G, WiFi, GPS Dual sim (Can run Vodafone & 2Degrees) 1920 x 1080 screen Gorilla glass display Android 4.2 Click here to view specs or purchase

$299 W100 phone | Telecom 0 Android 4.2 3G, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.5 Inch Display Dual sim (Can also run Vodafone & 2Degrees in Sim 2) 1.2GHz Quad Core CPU 1GB RAM 8MP Camera Click here to view specs or purchase

CLICK ON THE BOOK COVERS TO BROWSE PURCHASE OPTIONS

HERS beauty

Nail polish health effects Words by Prevention Magazine

T

he makers of “clean” nail polish just keep finding new ingredients to remove in the name of healthy alternatives to traditionally chemical-laden polish. Five-free nail polish, which excludes formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate, toluene, camphor and formaldehyde resin, succeeded 3-free nail polish (formulas sans formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl phthalate) as the gold standard in the healthier-polish world just four years ago. But now, a growing number of 7-free and even 8-free lines are upping the ante.

Which begs the question: Is your supposedly healthy 5-free nail polish still putting your health at risk?

We asked Amanda Sergay, a dermatologist at Marmur Medical Group in the US, whether you need to worry about these three new ingredients being put on the chopping block: Ethyl Tosylamide, a plasticizer that helps transform polish from drippy to dry in minutes; the ingredient has already been barred from personal care products in Europe due to its antibiotic properties and concern over antibiotic resistance.

Xylene, a solvent that keeps your nail polish from getting gloppy; it’s also a known allergen and possible carcinogen, according to research from the International Agency on Research For Cancer Scientific Publications Series.

Parabens, preservatives that have gotten a bad rep for their estrogen-mimicking effects, which past research from the University of Reading and other institutions has suggested may trigger major health concerns like hormonal problems.

So, should you switch to 7-free polish? You bet. These ingredients can be absorbed into your

34 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

body through your nail plate, Sergay says. You also inhale some of the fumes when you’re polishing your nails (or having them polished), which can lead to further toxicity. “We don’t know the exact quantities of these chemicals that will affect your health, but if you can choose these new cleaner polishes, it’s a much safer way to go,” she says.

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 35

HERS cuisine

Wine and eggs?

Lunch in Bordeaux leads to a new pairing perspective, writes Bill Daley

T

he morning had been spent stomping through some of Bordeaux’s most storied vineyards in a cold Atlantic wind, and now lunch was being served at Chateau Palmer. The cozy first course was a deceptively simple one: eggs baked in a ramekin with red wine, bacon and onions. We all dug in, using tablespoons and sturdy strips of toast, as the last of the springtime chill seemed to melt away.

And, of course, there was a wine to help warm us, 1994 Chateau Palmer.

Drinking a $200 bottle of red wine with eggs was an epiphany. It seemed odd and exciting. The French preference for eggs at lunch and dinner and served

36 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

with wine seemed so opposite from the Anglo tradition of eggs at breakfast or brunch with, at most, a Bloody Mary on the side.

But experimenting with eggs at other times of the day, perhaps cooked and served with wine, makes lots of sense now. First, Easter has just passed, and 62 percent of U.S. mums bought at least two dozen eggs to mark the occasion, according to the American Egg Board. Do something besides just hard-cooking them. Second, hard times mean people are looking for more affordable sources of protein such as eggs.

But there’s a catch: “Eggs are notoriously tough on wines,” said Evan Goldstein, president of Full Circle Wine Solutions, a spirits and wine education company based in San Francisco.

Goldstein, a master sommelier and author of Perfect Pairings, a food and wine matching book, said dishes in which eggs have a starring role can dampen the profile of many dry wines.

“The egg cuts down on the acidity, it cuts down the impact of the wine dramatically,” he said. “You get something that’s a mere shadow of itself.”

His solution? Pour a very acidic, crisp wine.

Experiment with sparkling wine, gewurztraminer and riesling.

The eggs worked with the Chateau Palmer, he said, because the red wine and bacon sauce in which the eggs were cooked had enough acidity to switch the flavour focus from the egg itself.

Bacon, mushrooms and ham are “bridging ingredients” that help “smooth” red wines, such as pinot noir and syrah, to work with eggs, said Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer who runs an online food and wine matcher at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com.

For whites, she wants unoaked wines.

“I love unoaked chardonnay or sauvignon blanc with eggs because they don’t have those heavy tannins and oak flavours that battle with the sulphur compounds in eggs,” MacLean said.

The lack of oak is important, said Joshua Wesson, senior director of wine, beer and spirits for The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., better known as A&P. “If you want to make someone suffer, serve them a barrel-aged chardonnay with an egg salad sandwich,” Wesson once declared.

“You also need to consider the texture of the eggs,” he said. “Look at scrambled eggs. If they are soft and runny they present a different challenge to a sommelier than if the eggs were firm. Wine, as a liquid, has trouble relating to another liquid-y food.”

A light, even ethereal wine that matches the lightness and delicacy of the scrambled eggs would work, Wesson said. A dry manzanilla or fino sherry, or a very dry sparkling wine, are some of the better options.

The message is clear: Experiment with your favourite egg dishes and your favourite wines. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Baked Eggs, Burgundian Style This recipe is an adaptation of a dish prepared by Olivier Gibault, the chef at Chateau Palmer in Bordeaux. His recipe comes from Claude Lebey, the author of popular restaurant guidebooks in France. Use large ramekins or individual casseroles to bake this dish. Serve with a bottle of Chateau Palmer, if you have it, or go with the title of the recipe and choose a Burgundian pinot noir.

You’ll need 4 eggs 4 slices bacon, chopped 1 tablespoon butter 8 pearl onions, peeled 1/2 cup red wine 1 cup beef stock or broth 1 sprig thyme 1/2 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method 1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter two ovenproof large ramekins. Gently break two eggs into each ramekin; set aside. Blanch the bacon in simmering water for 5 minutes to remove some of the salt and smoke flavouring; drain on a paper towel. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Add the bacon;

cook until crisp, 8 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towel-lined plate.

2. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the onions; cook until softened and transparent, about 5 minutes.

3. Add the wine to the saucepan, stirring well; cook to reduce wine by half, 5 minutes. Add the broth, thyme and bay leaf. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Uncover; simmer 15 minutes. Remove the thyme and bay leaf.

Remove any fat from the top with a small spoon. Taste; if sauce seems too thin, continue to reduce until the sauce has a good consistency.

4. Spoon sauce over the eggs. Distribute the bacon and onions evenly among the ramekins. Place the ramekins in a shallow pan; fill pan halfway up the sides of the ramekins with simmering water. Bake until you see the whites coagulating, 12-15 minutes. (For a more cooked yolk, cover the ramekins 1 minute.) Season with salt and pepper. Nutrition information

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 37

HERS travel

Vienna – a cultural powerhouse Words by Donald Munro

I

t takes an empire to build a city like this.

Like an immaculately tailored suit fresh from the dry cleaner, the historic core of Vienna suggests easy elegance and decorum. The cavernous palaces, treasure-stuffed museums, towering cathedrals, superlative cultural attractions and even the pastries – ah, especially the pastries – seem to hearken back to a time of pomp and majesty. Climbing up the marble stairs in the grand foyer of the Vienna State Opera, with everything in sight gilded and buffed to a shine, you half expect to see members of the royal court enjoying a pre-show champagne.

Vienna’s drink of choice at such events is champagne, of course.

In my schooling I learned a lot of British history

38 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

and to a lesser extent French history, but I realize while immersing myself in this former imperial capital that I’m a little sketchy on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I think that’s common for a lot of Americans.

Yet the Hapsburgs – who ruled varying vast swaths of Europe for 500 years – were a very big deal on the world stage. They controlled such vast amounts of wealth and power it’s no wonder Vienna feels like regal even though Austria has long since given up its imperial possessions.

Perhaps the most conspicuous display of wealth is found in the syllable-heavy Kunsthistorisches Museum, known to locals as the KHM, just one of several world-class art museums housed in former palaces. One of the prime attractions inside is the Kunstkammer Vienna (chamber of art and

wonders), reopened in 2013 in a stunning permanent display, which includes precious artworks and knick-knacks from the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque era collected by various royals across the centuries.

There’s a whole room just for gilded models of transportation, including golden ships and carriages.

Taking in the hundreds of priceless objects is almost dizzying. Various emperors and empresses had their own specific collections they wanted to build, ranging from timepieces and sculptures to coins, weapons and “curiosities” (such as a 15th century fossil shark tooth thought to be that of a dragon). It’s as if you took a standard American tchotchke collector of frogs or owls, say, and gave him or her superpowers.

One of the themes of my January trip to Berlin, Prague and Vienna was: Go in the off-season so you don’t have to deal with the crowds. That was certainly true for Vienna. I managed to get a photo of the Schloss Belvedere, another palace converted into a museum, with almost no one in sight – as if the emperor himself had decreed an afternoon of emptiness.

But you have to plan in advance for some things.

The Vienna opera is known for selling out on a regular basis, and it’s imperative that you book tickets well before a trip. I waited until six weeks before arrival and managed to snag the last two seats (not together, alas) for a production of “Salome.”

It was ravishing, gorgeous and so emotionally charged I almost forgot to breathe in the final 15 minutes. Catherine Naglestad, singing the title role, managed to both creep me out (especially when she makes out with the head of John Baptist) and elicit my sympathy when she meets her executioners. The triumphant scenic design and fabulous singing makes the memory my most treasured Vienna souvenir.

The Vienna Philharmonic, which performs in a glorious, ornate hall opened in 1870, likewise was exhilarating. We got to hear Rafael Payare, a brilliant up-and-coming Venezuelan conductor, lead the orchestra in works by Strauss and Tchaikovsky.

Also on the program: a work by Lorin Maazel, the famed American conductor and composer who died last year, set to the text of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree. Dietlinde Turban-Maazel, the composer’s widow, read the words of the book aloud.

Throughout our stay, the elegant ambiance of Vienna just seems to settle into my bones. The city doesn’t feel like a historical theme park, which can be the case with Prague. Modern buildings sit alongside historical landmarks such as the imposing St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a towering Gothic masterpiece.

There was something formal yet almost playful about the people we met. (I even loved the sound of German in a lilting Austrian accent.) Yes, it can be a little intimidating if as a small-suitcase tourist

I could never find fault with a city that prides itself so much on dessert. Yes, an empire is to this day responsible for one of the world’s great sugar rushes

you don’t pack a sports coat for elegant events. I got really warm at the Vienna Philharmonic and took off my nice wool sweater (between movements, of course) to reveal a long-sleeved dress shirt beneath, and even sitting in the cheap seats, I caused some surprised looks from among those around me.

Yet I never felt as if people were being condescending in Vienna. If anything, they extended a dignified welcome.

Besides, I could never find fault with a city that prides itself so much on dessert. Yes, an empire is to this day responsible for one of the world’s great sugar rushes.

At the Hotel Imperial, which used to be (you guessed it) another palace, I took my first bite of the Imperial Torte and almost melted into one big taste bud. The recipe is said to have been created for Emperor Franz Josef I on the occasion of the hotel’s opening in 1873. The hard chocolate glaze, which gives way to layers of almond flavour, marzipan and a slight hint of cocoa creme, will forever for me be the taste of Vienna.

Now if I can only get back there someday to get not seconds but fifths and sixths.

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 39

HERS music

Music’s evolution Words by Eryn Brown

F

orget the Beach Boys, Michael Jackson and Madonna. The most important cultural shift in American pop music began with the explosion of rap in the early 1990s.

The Beatles and the Rolling Stones didn’t spark the British Invasion of the 1960s, but they did fan its flames.

And don’t buy snobs’ complaints about the homogenization of pop. With the exception of a brief period in the 1980s, there’s been plenty of diversity in the charts.

These are the conclusions of engineers and biologists who analyzed 17,000 digitized songs from Billboard’s Hot 100 to produce an evolutionary history of American popular music – no listening required.

Their results were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The team used computers to assess and organize

songs into aural styles, much as paleontologists pore over fossils to put creatures in their rightful place on the tree of life, said Armand Leroi, an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College London who helped oversee the research.

With digitization, “culture can – and should – be studied scientifically,” Leroi said. Evolutionary biology, with its focus on diversity, offers a perfect pathway into a quantitative study of the arts, he said.

“Why are there so many creatures?” he mused.

“Why are there so many songs?”

To trace the evolution of pop, Leroi and his coauthors used 30-second snippets of 17,904 songs that appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 list from 1960 to 2010. This digital music library represented 86 percent of all the singles that made it on the Hot 100 list during that 50-year span.

The Beatles and the Rolling Stones didn’t spark the British Invasion of the 1960s, but they did fan its flames 40 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

But rather than focus on the kind of qualitative descriptions listeners might attach to their favorite songs – “hard rock,” “folk” or “electronic,” for example – the researchers cataloged quantitative features that corresponded to chords, rhythms and tonal qualities.

They assigned each song to one of 13 style groups, based on the patterns they found. To double-check their classifications, they looked at how users of Last.fm, an online music discovery service, had labeled the tracks.

By and large, the judgments of the computer and the humans matched up. Songs that the algorithms classified as Style 2, for example, had received Last. fm tags such as “hip-hop,” “rap” and “old school.”

Songs computer-sorted into Style 8 had been described by listeners as “new wave,” “dance” and “electronic.”

Once they had everything organized, Leroi said, the researchers could start asking interesting questions about the songs. Like evolutionary biologists charting the differences among species, they wondered about diversity in pop music: Do multiple styles coexist on the charts, or has music homogenized?

Music fans often lament that the great, diverse music of their youth has been reduced to “kiddie pap” by corporations and the likes of American Idol producers, Leroi said. However, the team’s data suggest that diversity actually has persisted over time – except over one stretch around 1986, when everyone went nuts for synthesizers and drum machines.

“Everything sounds like Duran Duran for a while,” he said.

Another biologically inspired question the team asked was whether music styles evolved slowly or in large leaps. By calculating rates of change between songs over time, the researchers pinpointed three periods of rapid evolution: 1964, 1982 and 1991.

By far, the largest and most important of the three was the explosion of hip-hop in 1991.

“That surprised me,” Leroi said. “Being a victim of boomer ideology, I would have guessed it was 1964,” the year of the British invasion.

Looking more closely at the works of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the researchers discovered that those pivotal bands didn’t initiate the widespread changes associated with the music of their era. Rather, they accelerated those musical changes by popularizing new trends.

Leroi said it was exciting to get a glimpse of music history that didn’t depend on subjective recollections and storytelling.

“You can say, ‘This is really when it happened,’” he said. “It’s not just, ‘Things were really cool at CBGB’s or on the Sunset Strip back then.’”

The study authors – including music informatics expert Matthias Mauch of Queen Mary University

of London as well as a bioinformatics expert from Imperial College and a data scientist from Last. fm – wrote that they would like to extend their analysis further back to “at least the 1940s, if only to see whether 1955 was, as many have claimed, the birth date of Rock n’ Roll.”

Leroi, who spends most of his time studying aging processes in a species of worms called C. elegans, recently wrote an essay for the New York Times that praised the rise of “a new cultural science” based on data rather than anecdote.

“Quantification has triumphed in field after field of the natural and social sciences,” he said. “It will here, too.”

In an interview, he said the members of his research team could have focused on many subjects in the humanities, but that they chose to mine the Billboard Hot 100 in large part because it is indeed so popular.

“I guess we could have done a couple of centuries’ worth of novels. But somehow it’s not as exciting as 50 years of pop music,” he said. “It’s wonderful to be able to look at it in a scientific way.”

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 41

HERS readit

An odd woman and children Words by Hannah Sampson & David L. Ulin The Children’s Crusade

By Ann Packer Scribner, $26.99

Bill and Penny Blair had a plan for the perfect life in late 1950s California: Build a home on a piece of oak-dominated land in Portola Valley and a life around Bill’s career as a pediatrician. There would, of course, be children.

“Penny was an only child who for company during her school years had drawn pictures of the children she expected to bear,” author Ann Packer writes in this graceful, poignant novel. “On the day Bill proposed to her, she handed him a portfolio containing a sampling of these sketches, and he was moved and intrigued by her having chosen to include two boys and one girl rather than the one of each most people would have selected.”

They go on to have two boys, one girl and another boy, a brood Penny describes as “a pack of kids led by a brilliant and demanding boy, complicated by a headstrong girl with no gift at all for the arts, softened and therefore confounded by a meek and dreamy boy, and finally overwhelmed by a miniature wild man.”

The narrative, spread over decades, leads a reader to believe Penny would have been happier if she had just kept the drawings for company. Children and the demands of marriage overwhelm her, and as she shrinks emotionally into her art, she retreats physically into a studio on the family’s land.

Robert, Rebecca, Ryan and James, in turn, long for their mother’s approval (or even just attention) and try to dream up a quest that will appeal to her sense of adventure and artistry. “A crusade,” they call it, an idea as futile as it is heartbreaking: “We have to think of things to do that Mom will want to do with us.”

Penny’s transition is one of most puzzling elements of the novel: What changes her from a girl who daydreams about her future children to a mother who just wants the kids to leave her alone?

Why does her husband, a Korean War veteran and 42 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

altogether decent man whose motto is “children deserve care,” find it so impossible to care for his wife? Whose side are we supposed to be on?

Anyone who chooses sides will probably stick with the kids, whose childhoods are sketched out in vivid, moving scenes that hint at the adult lives to come.

When the novel catches up with the present-day Blair children, they are still raw after the death of their father a couple years earlier. By the time he’s in his mid-40s, Robert, the brilliant oldest, is an emotionally stunted physician and father of two. Rebecca is a psychiatrist whose idea of a good time involves cooking dinner and watching a TED Talks DVD with her boring, considerate husband.

Ryan the dreamer teaches at the school for artistic children that he attended and lives with his French Canadian wife and baby in a simple, sustainable bubble in his mother’s former studio.

The story is mostly driven by James, the wild child who never encountered a peaceful scene he couldn’t disrupt. He’s in the midst of a new crisis as the story unfolds; the rest of the family, caught in the whirlwind, is trying to dodge the debris. His self-destructive antics grow tiresome, but the author has earned him some sympathy with her portrayal of his madcap, guileless youth. For all their flaws, each Blair has redeeming qualities and vulnerabilities that make them (mostly) likeable.

The author has clearly taken Bill Blair’s motto to heart: Characters – and readers – deserve care.

With her warm, nuanced portrayal of a family and its foibles, Packer delivers.

The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir

By Vivian Gornick Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22

Vivian Gornick’s The Odd Woman and the City is a book of ghosts. Ghosts of the past; ghosts of New York, which is for her both home and character; ghosts of a lifetime of reading, intentional and covert. These ghosts emerge when Gornick least expects it or are invoked directly in the text.

“It’s an evening in June,” she writes, “and I am taking a turn through Washington Square. As I stroll, I see in the air before me, like an image behind a scrim, the square as it looked when I was young, standing right behind the square that I’m actually looking at. That was a good fifty years ago, when my friends and I used to come down from the Bronx and in from Brooklyn on summer evenings and we’d walk around looking at a piece of world so different from that of our own neighborhoods, we might as well have been in Europe.”

This is not to say The Odd Woman and the City is nostalgic. As she has throughout her career, Gornick stands against nostalgia, which does not mean she stands against history. For her, however, history is a source of context, a way of tracing what has changed and what remains.

“I look through the scrim directly into those old memories,” she continues, “and I see they no longer have authority over me. I see the square as it is – black, brown, young: swarming with drifters and junkies and lousy guitar players – and I feel myself as I am, the city as it is. I have lived out my conflicts not my fantasies, and so has New York.”

Here, we have the heart of this elusive and stirring memoir – a companion piece of sorts to the magnificent Fierce Attachments (1987). In that book, Gornick used her relationship with her mother, antagonistic but at the same time inextricable, to frame a consideration of self and identity; part of it unfolds as a series of walks. The Odd Woman and the City takes a similar approach, although the author walks now with her friend Leonard, a gay man of like background and age.

Why walking? “On these long treks of ours,” she explains, “the ... concept of ‘hours’ evaporated.

The streets became one long ribbon of open road stretched out before us, with nothing to impede our progress. Time expanded to resemble time in one’s childhood, when it seemed never to end, as opposed to time now: always scarce, always pressing, always a fleeting marker of one’s emotional well-being.”

That question of time, of course, is essential to the memoir, which as a form unfolds in the amorphous middle ground between musing and memory.

For Gornick, such a middle ground is always front and center because she remains vividly aware of her own thinking as crucible. The Odd Woman and the City is full of what she knows, what she ponders and most of all what she has read. This makes sense, since she is a critic as well as a memoirist; her 1997 collection The End of the Novel of Love argues that “love as a metaphor is an act of nostalgia, not of discovery” – the anti-nostalgic perspective again – while The Men in My Life (2008) features essays, from a feminist perspective, about the male writers who have inspired and infuriated her, including Philip Roth, James Baldwin and George Gissing.

Gissing infuses this new book also; the title is a riff on his 1893 novel The Odd Woman. More important, though, are those other walker/writers: Charles Reznikoff, whose poetry she quotes at length, or Alfred Kazin, whose A Walker in the City (1951) is another story of a smart kid from the outer boroughs, beguiled by boulevardiers and books.

At one point, Gornick suggests that “life was either Chekhovian or Shakespearean,” by which she means fraught or epic. She makes no bones about which she believes her own to be. “We were all in thrall to neurotic longing,” she argues, comparing herself to Dorothea Brooke from Middlemarch and Isabel Archer, from Portrait of a Lady. “... Longing was what attracted us, what compelled our deepest attention. The essence, indeed, of a Chekhovian life.”

Still, if longing is, in some sense, what motivates The Odd Woman and the City, the book builds to its own measure of acceptance, as well. Gornick can be wickedly pointed – of a stilted dinner party, she writes, “The dinner is expensive, but the conversation is junk food” – but she is also clear-eyed, reflective; “That was simply the roller-coaster of life common to us all,” she observes of an older friend in an assisted care facility, “not actually a cause for sorrow.”

Such asides can be read as parables, which bestows upon the memoir the weight of a larger whole. Gornick describes what she sees on the bus, on the sidewalks, her interactions with the homeless and the forlorn. She helps an old man cross a dangerous patch of sidewalk, recalls seeing a deformed child on the subway.

It all adds up to nothing, and yet that nothing is the only thing we have. “There’s no way around this one, there is only the going through it,” Gornick insists, and the implication is that she is not only referring to herself but also to everyone.

Late in the book, Gornick describes a private reading, by an actor who has suffered a stroke, of Samuel Beckett’s Texts for Nothing. The performance takes place in the actor’s apartment and features the interplay of his broken voice with a recording of him 20 years younger and physically intact. The tension between life and art, perhaps, musing and memory, which is the tension embodied by this book.

“No need of a story,” the actor recites, “a story is not compulsory, just a life, that’s the mistake I made, one of the mistakes, to have wanted a story for myself, whereas life alone is enough.” A remarkable line. But equally remarkable is what Gornick makes of it. “It was as if he had known it would be coming,” she tells us, “and had figured out a survival tactic in advance. He would go with it, ride it, in fact make use of it wherever it landed him.”

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 43

HERS seeit HOT PURSUIT Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Sofia Vergara Directed by: Anne Fletcher Running time: 87 mins Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, violence, language and some drug material G

Escape Hot Pursuit Words by Roger Moore & Matt Pais

C

heap, short and slow, Hot Pursuit is a comedy that never lets your forget that pairing up Sofia Vergara with Reese Witherspoon should have worked better than this.

A mismatch-misfire badly misdirected by the director of The Guilt Trip and 27 Dresses, it wastes the Oscar-winning Reese and the spirited spitfire Vergara, cast as a comically disgraced cop who escorts the wife of a drug lord’s accountant to court.

It’s Midnight Run without enough running, The Heat without any heat.

44 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

Witherspoon is Officer Cooper, introduced in a cute growing-up montage as the adoring daughter of a policeman father who did ride-alongs with him, pretty much from birth. A little too “intense,” she’s been re-assigned to clerk duties in the San Antonio PD evidence room. Until she’s summoned to help a federal marshal (Richard T. Jones) escort a witness and that witness’s wife to Dallas.

Vergara is that wife, a shrill Spanish-spewing caricature of the Angry Loud Latina. The job goes wrong when assassins show up, and Cooper and Mrs. Riva flee in Riva’s vintage Cadillac convertible.

The movie goes wrong right about here, when the script for an 87-minute-long movie spends minutes explaining away the women’s cell phones. Cell phones might clear this whole mess up or shorten an already under-length comedy.

The cop is tiny, “dressed like a boy – are you even a WOMAN ?” And small, “like a dog I put in my PURSE.” The mobster’s wife is bigger, brassy, buxom, and a flight risk. Vergara may play variations of a “type” in film and on TV (Modern Family) – “That’s RACHEL profiling!” – but NOBODY has every played this type funnier. Every word out of her mouth, in English, Spanish or Spanglish, is potentially funny.

“Nice po-leeeese work Meester Churlock Holmes!”

Witherspoon puts a lot of effort into playing manic and by-the-book, practicing police 10-codes “as a relaxation technique,” delicately coming up with a feminine reason to be allowed into the bathroom – “some lady business of the tampon variety.”

This never was going to be a smart comedy, but it could have worked. The script is starving for funnier lines and situations, so the two pros they cast in it strain with bits of physical shtick – trying to drive a bus handcuffed to one another, making out to distract a rancher holding a gun on them.

No money was spent on villains or other supporting players, and director Anne Fletcher undercuts the stars’ timing. Whatever might have been, the flop-happy Fletcher never lets Hot Pursuit get up to speed.

W

hat is Blake Lively doing in The Age of Adaline? I’m not asking what the former Gossip Girl is doing headlining a movie. (To quote a group of girls sitting near me at the screening: “I like her because she’s so pretty.”)

I’m asking what the hell is she doing in the movie?

As Adaline, who’s cursed with the tragedy of being young and beautiful forever, Lively delivers every line with an arrogant remove, like someone just asked to kiss her hand. It doesn’t make her seem grand, like, “Oh, I really believe that inside Adaline is 107, even though she permanently looks 29.” It’s more like, “Is she speaking softly and annoyingly because she’s worried about breaking an imaginary egg?” It might be the most sepia-toned performance I’ve ever seen.

This is a movie that seems like it worked better as a book – how else to explain why a man picking up a hat that’s blowing away is said to display “uncommon gallantry” – except it’s not based on a book. Adaline spends her life running away from people and places, sure that if she stays anywhere too long society will want to run tests on the woman who, thanks to a bolt of lightning and an acid that won’t be discovered until 2035 (seriously), is immune to the effects of time.

Recognize this doesn’t mean she’s immortal – she’s not safe from disease or accidents. Still, Adaline has an extremely narrow-minded view of her condition, even

though it’s been ages since the FBI was hot on her tail.

Obviously, she has to meet a guy who throws that policy into question. That’s Ellis (Michiel Huisman of Game of Thrones, Wild, Nashville), who won’t take, “This can’t work, I’m moving” for an answer.

Sadly, this is the only obstacle the writers (one of whose only previous credit is Nic and Trista Go Mega Dega) and director Lee Toland Krieger (proving that the slack pacing and minimal conflict in Celeste and Jesse Forever wasn’t a fluke) can come up with: whether or not Adaline will keep up this nonsense.

Luckily, Huisman’s pretty good; Adaline actually has a few sweet moments, unlike, say, The Longest Ride. But it includes an absurd coincidence involving Ellis’ dad (Ford) that is far weirder than the way the characters treat it, and the ending is a cop-out, fitting for a movie that never really engages with the question of how to live with too THE AGE OF ADALINE much time on your hands.

Cast: Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Vampires have dealt with this Harrison Ford, Ellen Burstyn for a long time. And nothing in Directed by: Lee Toland Krieger The Age of Adaline affected the Running time: 112 mins aforementioned girls as much Rated: PG-13 for a suggestive as when Adaline’s dog gets sick, comment the definition of a cinematic G Hail Mary to bring on the tears.

June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 45

HERS family

Raising twins & triplets Words by Leslie Mann

F

orming unique identities is a priority for kids, an excuse for teens to “find themselves” and grist for many a poet to ponder.

For twins, triplets and other “multiples,” it’s even more of a challenge.

Thanks to fertility treatments and older maternal age – both factors that can increase the odds of bearing multiple babies – the number of multiple births in the US rose to 34.5 per thousand births in 2010 from 23.3 per thousand in 1990, according to the US Census.

But despite their increased visibility, many multiples say society still views them as units.

“Even in our 50s, at our high-school reunion, everyone wanted their pictures taken with us, like we were a circus sideshow,” said Lisa Gleeson, 61, about her and her twin, Lydia Moul.

Part of this may be due to the earliest days of multiples’ lives, when parents have understandably been advised to adhere to a “twins’ schedule” to synchronize the babies’ feeding, changing and nap-

46 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM June/July 2015

ping. But no sooner are the kids potty-trained, that parenting advice switches to helping the children foster their individuality.

Being recognized as an individual is especially hard for look-alike multiples because they share both birthdates and physical appearance, said Nancy Segal, psychology professor and director of a US university’s Twin Studies Center. Non-identical multiples and those of different genders have it easier, she said.

At home, family members recognize the kids’ “different temperaments and personalities,” said Jeffrey Craig, deputy director of the Australian Twin Registry, which facilitates and supports medical and scientific studies, and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Melbourne in Australia.

“Parents know from year one.” But ushering them into the world, where they’re viewed as en masse, he said, is more complicated than with siblings of different ages.

How should parents foster the kids’ individuality?

Advice has evolved over the years, said Segal. “In the 1960s, twins were more often treated as one, with similar names and the same clothes,” she said. “Then we tried hard to stress their individuality. Now, we take a more balanced view. As long as the kids are happy, parents don’t necessarily need to intervene.”

Some advice is evergreen, said the experts we talked to, as well as adult twins and triplets. Following are their suggestions: Avoid pitfalls with names and clothes. Do not give

them rhyming names. Even worse, don’t choose names that can be linked together to form a combination – such as Bella and Isabel being referred to jointly as “Isabella,” said twins interviewed in a major Swedish study on multiples that was published in the June 2013 Journal of Aging Studies. And don’t even think of dressing them alike.

Consider separate classrooms. Check your school’s

policy about separate classrooms for multiples.

However, if that is not possible, or if they really want to be in the same room, Segal suggested requesting that they sit apart for tests. She has testified in court for twins unjustly accused of cheating because of their similar answers.

Teach them at a young age to introduce themselves.

This can preclude the awkward “Which one are you?” question and help them cement their identities as separate selves. As a family, discuss how to fend off comparisons, such as “She’s the smart one” or “He’s the athletic one.”

arts and academics, even though it meant she and her husband often drove in three directions to get the kids, now 14, to their respective activities.

Don’t be surprised if the multiples establish their own pecking order. Many twins cite their birth order, even

if they were born minutes apart, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, said the twins in the Swedish study. “He’s first-born, so he’s in charge,” or “He’s second-born, so he follows,” they reported.

Appreciate the special bond. Understand that your

child’s womb-mate may be more influential than you are when they reach turning points that send them in separate directions, like going to college, choosing spouses and launching careers. This is especially true among identicals, said Segal.

Sisters Gleeson and Moul decided to attend different colleges to assert their independence. At college, said Gleeson, “I was ‘Lisa,’ not one-half of ‘Lisa/Lydia.’”

“A compromise is to attend the same college, but live separately,” said Segal.

Understand the dichotomy. Although multiples yearn to be different, they treasure their special bond. “It’s often stronger than the bond between life partners,” said Craig.

“For identical twins, the bond is more intense, said Segal. “They mourn the loss of their twins more than fraternal twins do. They’re more involved aunts and uncles to their twins’ kids.”

Discourage people from referring to them as a unit.

“If there’s one thing twins hate most, it’s being referred to as ‘the twins’ or ‘twinnies,’ “ said Craig.

“They want to be called their names.”

Seek a support group. Join multiples’ parent groups

to learn valuable tips and to connect with other parents with whom you can divvy up responsibilities such as carpooling.

Find a way to celebrate each child’s birthday. If pos-

sible, find a way to give each child a separate party, gifts and cake. Gary Kramer, 46, said his parents diffused the same-birthday dilemma by celebrating famous people’s birthdays. “Lots of cakes, all year,” said Kramer, a twin. “So we never complained about sharing a birthday.”

Schedule alone time. Parents need to spend time with

each child individually, even if it’s just on an errand.

Nurture the kids’ different interests, which will vary without your intervention. Jordana Medici has always

encouraged her triplets to pursue different sports, June/July 2015 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM 47