maryland serving the baltimore metropolitan area
•
summer
2010
Take a Trip in Maryland with the Kids page 18
Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen: Salad for Steak Lovers
page 26
How Much Money Will You Really Need for Retirement?
page 12
Movies for Grownups:
Get real at the movies this summer page 2
7 Style Tips for baby boomers on how to appear youthful and cool page 24
Summer 2010 • mdseniorsguide.com
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maryl and senior living •summer 2010
Contents
travel 18
food 26
Wolfgang Puck’s Kitchen: Salad for Steak Lovers Chef Wolfgang Puck’s TV series, “Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class,” airs Sundays on the Food Network. Also, his latest cookbook, “Wolfgang Puck Makes It Easy,” is now available in bookstores.
Take a Trip in Maryland with the Kids
16 suggestions for getting out and about
fashion 24 entertainment 2
7 Style Tips for baby boomers on how to appear youthful and cool
Movies for Grownups: Get real at the moviesthis summer
also
opinion
publisher Joe Weisbord
Incompetent marketing to baby boomers 4
director of sales Gabe Silverberg sales coordinator Devora Hawkins creative director Austin Hamby creative consultants Neil Cotterill Emily Hauver contact 1498 Reisterstown Rd. #197 Pikesville, MD 21208-3842 info@mdseniorsguide.com www.mdseniorsguide.com phone 410.878.2212 fax 410.864.8908
fitness
finance 12
How Much Money Will You Really Need for Retirement? Millions of Americans are reinventing retirement, and Mark Miller is helping write the playbook for new career and personal pursuits of a generation.
Boomer Workout: Sit and Get Fit 6 finance
Questions Loom About the Public Option for Long-Term Care Insurance 8 Creative ways of finding a job after 50 14 technology
Would your grandchildren friend you? 20
Copyright 2010 by Maryland Senior Living LLC. All rights reserved. Maryland Senior Living is published 4 times a year. Ad rates are available by request. The publisher cannot guarantee the accuracy of information in this publication. π All real estate advertising herein is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race,
color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin, or intention to make any such preferences, limitation, or discrimination. We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate that is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis.
entertainment 2
Movies for Grownups
Get real at the movies this summer by bill newcott, Entertainment Editor, AARP The Magazine
S
ummer is the season when just about every movie seems bent on confronting us with kid wizards, flying suits and/ or talking dogs. Luckily, in the coming months several new DVDs have a little something for those of us who like our entertainment to come with at least an occasional dose of reality. The Last Station June 22 How’s this for reality: The central conflict in this story about the last days of Leo Tolstoy involves whether or not he will leave the publishing rights for his works to his wife Sofya or to the people of Russia. The big surprise here is that director/co-writer Michael Hoffman and his stars, Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, make the subject compelling. The even bigger surprise is Mirren’s sexy performance– the scene in which Sofya seduces her celibate hubby is as sizzling a scene as you’ll see this year.
Green Zone June 22 The critics split on this action drama involving intrigue and double dealing during the Iraq war. The film’s political prejudices are as glaring as the desert sun
and its theme of lies and corruption at the highest levels of government is older than the Ziggeraut at Ur. But there’s no denying Matt Damon’s pitch-perfect performance as an Army officer who begins to suspect there’s a good reason why his team can’t find any weapons of mass destruction.
Creation June 29 The true story of Charles Darwin’s crisis of faith–and the torturous marital conflict “The Origin of the Species” caused between Darwin (Paul Betany) and his devoutly Christian wife (Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly)–is sensitively told in this biopic. There’s little doubt on which side of the creation/evolution debate director John Amiel and writer John Collee come down here, but as much as they
sympathize with Darwin’s revolutionary notions, they’re respectful to those for whom faith trumps theories... and disdainful of those who crow that any scientific theory can, in the words of a haughty Thomas Huxley (Toby Jones) “kill God.”
The White Ribbon July 29 It’s a question the world has pondered for 70 years or so: How could an entire nation go just stark raving nuts, like Germany did during the World War II era? This German language film takes a stab at answering that thorny question, suggesting that the insanity may have had its roots before the First World
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War, when Germany’s future Nazis were still cute little kids. Writer/Director Michael Haneke sets his story in a remote north German village, enveloping his characters in a world of black and white– both in his choice of film stock and in the village elders’ smothering moral certitude. His hypothesis of the genesis of Nazism is as good a guess as anybody’s, but whether or not it’s correct, in “The White Ribbon” he sounds a grim warming for societies everywhere.
Dragnet 1968 July 6 The stories are true, the names changed “to protect the innocent.” Starting in 1967, when he resurrected his 1950s cop series for a new generation, Jack Webb attacked the nation’s growing drug culture with all the
also new on dvd A Star is Born June 22 It was only 15 years beyond “The Wizard of Oz,” but Judy Garland had long since wandered off the Yellow Brick Road by the time she made this monumental 1954 Warner Brothers musical. James Mason plays the mdseniorsguide.com
alcoholic, fading movie star who rescues Judy’s up-and-coming young singer from obscurity, and then makes her life a living hell as he spirals to self-destruction. But the film’s poignancy comes from watching Garland, clearly battling her own reallife demons, summoning up the spirit to give a performance of astonishing power and heartbreaking vulnerability. Director George Cukor splashes a riot of brilliant colors all across his Panavision screen, and this digitally restored DVD–complete with early stereo sound–makes “Star” shine, probably brighter than it did opening night.
grim determination of Elliot Ness during prohibition. The show’s second season continued that theme (Webb tried to give his show currency by including the year in each season’s title–unfortunately, the tactic served only to instantly date it). Week after week, Webb’s proudly square Sergeant Joe Friday busted pushers, lectured users and sadly picked through the pieces of lives shattered by drug use. “Marijuana is the fuse. Heroin is the fuel. LSD is the bomb,” he tells a smug Timothy Leary-esque drug guru. The season’s relentless cataloging of the fall of Western Civilization is leavened with a classic Christmas episode–a remake of a script from both the Dragnet radio show and the 1950s TV series–in which Joe and his partner Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) investigate the disappearance of a Catholic church’s statue of the Baby Jesus.
Lost Keaton: 16 Comedy Shorts July 6 The Great Stone Face had a rough transition to sound pictures–from 1934 to 1937 he found himself making movies at a studio called Educational Pictures, and all 16 of his shorts from that era are included here–14 of them for the first time ever on DVD. Keaton never quite recaptured the exquisite perfection of his great silent films like “Sherlock Junior” and “The General”– how could he have?–but these films still show flashes of his genius for physical comedy and pantomime. If you were to compare the least of Keaton’s 1930s work to the best of his contemporaries, like “The Three Stooges”... well, only a knucklehead would even try. π
3
opinion 4
Incompetent marketing to baby boomers by virginia rohan, The Record
What do the adjoining footed bathtubs in Cialis commercials have to do with sex? And why, by the way, are people over 50 generally in ads for erectile-dysfunction and arthritis drugs and adult diapers, but not fancy cars and beers and mascara? Baby boomers Brent Bouchez, Nancy NcNally and David Page are as bemused by these things as the rest of us. Having worked on many major ad campaigns in the past 30 years, including for BMW, Nike and American Express, they can make highly educated guesses about the rationale behind baffling commercials.
“
And they know about the faulty logic that underlies commercials that take direct aim at, or totally sidestep, boomers: the assumption that cool consumers are strictly between the ages of 18 and 49.
It stops at 49, and then you fall off the cliff.”
“It stops at 49, and then you fall off the cliff,” says McNally (born in 1955), who with Bouchez (1957) and Page (1956) launched Manhattan-based Five-0 in March 2009. They bill it as “the first creatively driven company dedicated to messaging and content for the 50-plus consumer” and aim to challenge and counteract what Bouchez calls an “ingrained bias which really is based on old marketing think.”
Companies generally consider the “sweet spot” to be in the 32-to-34 age range, they say. But having spent their entire careers marketing to baby boomers, they knew this demographic group still has lots of buying power and offers “gigantic growth opportunities for companies,” Page says–and not just in needs-based categories. People over 50, they say, collectively have $2.5 trillion in annual income and 2{ times the discretionary spending power of any other group, are set to inherit between $14 trillion and $20 trillion in the next 20 years, and account
for 60 percent of the spending on packaged goods. And then there are cars. “The average American household buys 13 cars in its lifetime, but here’s the best part: Seven of those cars are bought after the head of household is over 50,” Bouchez says. “And yet I had lunch today with someone who said that he met with (someone from) a major car company in Detroit who said, ‘We don’t target consumers over 50, because they don’t have a lot of buying cycles left in them.’“ A further folly is the assumption that we’ll devote our remaining buying cycles only to things that compensate for what we’ve lost. In the advertising business, Bouchez says, “your goal is to make the product aspirational. That’s the key word. I aspire to drive that car, to take that drug, to be that person. But for some reason, anything for someone over 50 is all about needs.” Because baby boomers have always been in the spotlight, he says, “everybody thinks they know everything there is to know (about them). But this is a group that has changed every life stage they go through in a radical way.” All of the assumptions about how we are at this stage of life are “predicated on marketing ideas that are about 30 years old, based on what our parents and grandparents did.” Then, too, the three say, the average creative person in a U.S. ad agency is 28 years old, the average media planner is 24, “and less than 4 percent of agency personnel across the country are over 50.” And so most of the people making commercials for us are young enough to be our kids. This may explain why we wind up with commercials like: The Cialis twin bathtubs campaign: “My guess is, they originally did that out of some sort of modesty ... that they were very much afraid of going into the actual sexual part of the drug,” Bouchez says of the tubs. “And what happened, I believe, is they became the thing that they were known for quite quickly. It was just a different kind
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of a visual. The business is very much about recall ... and I’m sure that they said people were remembering these tubs more than they were remembering the Viagra people.
“
People over 50 were actually raised in a time of brand experimentation.”
“But what the honest 50-plus consumer says is, ‘I don’t get it.’ I’m not sure how you have sex in two bathtubs, and not sure why you would want to.” Commercials for all ED drugs have been memorable, he says, for one simple reason–the FDA-required disclaimer about seeking medical help for four-hour erections. “If not for that line, they wouldn’t have sold nearly as much of the stuff, I guarantee, because every man in America said, ‘I’m in,’” Bouchez says. Just for Men Touch of Gray ad, in which middle-age men surf and shoot hoops: Says Bouchez: “It makes a bad assumption that nostalgia is a positive thing, and it is actually not. There might be some of us who look back on the days when we were surfing as the best times of our lives, but actually what we’re saying is this is the best time of our life. ... There’s a huge assumption that I want to be 30 again, and I actually don’t.” Marketers, he says, counter that 55-year-olds say they feel 35 or 40, so by targeting the younger group, they’ll also get the older crowd.
“Well, here’s the problem with that,” Bouchez says. “I might feel 35 years old or 40. I might want the knees of a 25-year-old and the skin of a 30-year-old. But I don’t think like a 35-year-old or 40-year-old. I think like a 55-year-old or a 52-year-old ... and the fact is, marketing and advertising talks to my brain.” Another myth, the three say, is that people over 50 are “really brand-loyal,” and so there’s no point trying to get them to try something new. “The truth is, in fact, the exact opposite. People over 50 were actually raised in a time of brand experimentation. We were the people that went from buying American cars to Japanese cars to German cars to Korean cars,” says Bouchez, noting that more people over 50 buy hybrid cars than any other age group. Says McNally, “In our presentation (to companies), one of the things we talk about is ‘50 is the new 50.’ It’s not the new 40. It’s not the new 30. And marketers and advertisers should understand it’s not what you think it is ... It’s a whole new world.” π 2010, North Jersey Media Group Inc. Visit The Record Online at http://www.northjersey.com/ ©
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Please give us a call at: 410-318-6780.
mdseniorsguide.com
5
fitness 6
boomer workout
Sit and Get Fit
by wina sturgeon, Adventure Sports Weekly
Some boomers are still very active and youthful (the first helps maintain the second). But whether if you spend much of your day in a chair or on a couch, or whether you spend it being youthfully active, don’t waste the opportunity of getting an easy workout just because you’re sitting down. You can still strengthen your body and make it more flexible while sitting. As a boomer, anything that helps maintain your strength and flexibility will prolong your functionality and make your life more comfortable.
and the back of the lower thigh during leg lifts, it means you’ve lost a lot of flexibility, and need to do some stretching; specifically toe touches. You can do these sitting or standing, they’re pretty easy. With your leg straight, bend from the hips and reach to touch your toes. If you can’t touch your toes, extend your reach by putting a towel behind the ball of your foot and pulling on both sides of the towel. If you’re active and in shape, you can add to the strength-building quality of leg lifts by wearing a pair of ankle weights while you do them. The adjustable weight kind are best. Start with two pounds, and add one pound a week. This will help build even more strength in your thighs. Stash the weights under
the couch so it’s easy to grab them when you sit down to watch TV. If you have no problems with back pain, try some sitting back strengthening exercises. Start with simple floor touches. While keeping your back as straight as possible, sit on the edge of your seat, bend at the hips, lay your upper body over your thighs and reach down to touch the floor. Then sit up straight. Those already in good shape may wish to use a pair of lightweight dumbbells; reaching down to pick them up. This will strengthen the abs
Start with the easiest exercise: leg lifts. Lift one foot until that leg is straight out in front of you, put that foot back on the floor and lift the other leg. Do this 20 times on each leg about five times a day. It will help develop leg strength as well as synovial fluid, the lubricating substance of the knee. If you feel a slight pull in your upper calf
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“
Stash the weights under the couch so it’s easy to grab them when you sit down to watch TV.”
Founded 1937
“Because We Care” as well as the spinal erectors, thick columns of muscle that help support your upper body.
Use a five to ten pound pair of dumbbells to do biceps curls and work your arms while watching your favorite TV show. Sit up straight, so that your back isn’t resting against any support. Hold a dumbbell in each hand beside the outside of the knee. Alternate bending each arm up to the ear, and clench your biceps as you do. This will tone and strengthen your upper arms so they won’t have the flabbiness that often comes with age. The obliques, the muscles on the sides of your rib cage and abdomen, are important for balance. Since falls are one of the biggest sources of injury for people past 50, it’s good to strengthen these often neglected muscles, and it’s a simple exercise to do while sitting. Hold the dumbbells on your shoulders and slowly twist your upper body from side to side. You can also do this without weights, but a little resistance works the obliques more efficiently. If you want to eliminate “batwings,” loose and flabby skin at the back of the arms, hold the dumbbell at ear height and slowly lower it until your arm is straight. This will build and strengthen the triceps muscles in the back of the arms. Make it a habit to work your body while sitting. You can make TV watching a productive experience that will help you stay in shape, and best of all, keep your body more youthful for the rest of your life. π
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Wina Sturgeon is a nationally recognized expert in helping boomers stay younger. She’s also an athletic boomer who ski races, ice skates and races BMX. Call us today to learn more at 1-800-480-3225 or 410-832-7761
mdseniorsguide.com
7
finance 8
Questions Loom about the Public Option
for Long-Term Care Insurance
by mark miller, Tribune Media Services
“
Long-term care needs can throw a monkey wrench into even the best-designed retirement plan.”
In the din of debate over health care reform legislation, one of the bill’s most important features went almost unnoticed–a public option for long-term care insurance. The law signed into law earlier this year establishes a national insurance program for purchasing community living assistance services and support (CLASS for short). The new plan, which will be rolled out over the next several years, was a top priority of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. CLASS should help raise the profile of long-term care insurance (LTC)–an important financial tool that doesn’t make it into most retirement plans. Long-term care needs can throw a monkey wrench into even the best-designed retirement plan. About one-third of Americans turning 65 this year will need at least three months of nursing home care sometime during their lives, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). Another 24 percent will need more than a year of care, and 9 percent will need more than five years.
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BEST VALUE Affordable • Locations • Services
Bring this ad in and we will waive the application fee! Anne Arundel County • Park View at Furnace Branch: 410-761-4150 • Park View at Severna Park: Coming Soon Baltimore City • Park View at Ashland Terrace: 410-276-6440 • Park View at Coldspring: 410-542-4400 Baltimore County • Park View at Catonsville: 410-719-9464 • Park View at Dundalk: 410-288-5483 • Park View at Fullerton: 410-663-0665 • Park View at Miramar Landing: 410-391-8375 • Park View at Randallstown: 410-655-5673 • Park View at Rosedale: 410-866-1886 • Timothy House (Towson): 410-828-7185 • Park View at Taylor: 410-663-0363 • Park View at Woodlawn: 410-281-1120
Eastern Shore • Park View at Easton: 410-770-3070 Harford County • Park View at Box Hill: 410-515-6115 • Park View at Bel Air: 410-893-0064 Howard County • Park View at Colonial Landing: 410-796-4399 • Park View at Columbia: 410-381-1118 • Park View at Snowden River: 410-290-0384 • Park View at Ellicott City: 410-203-9501 • Park View at Ellicott City II: 410-203-2096 • Park View at Emerson: 301-483-3322 Prince Georges County • Park View at Bladensburg: 301-699-9785 • Park View at Laurel: 301-490-1526 • Park View at Laurel II: 301-490-9730
Call 410-246-7499 or Email SeniorLiving@sheltergrp.com to inquire about eligibility requirements and to arrange a private tour. Professionally managed by The Shelter Group. www.thesheltergroup.com Park View is committed to Equal Housing Opportunities for people of all races, religions, ethnic groups, and disabilities and all other groups protected by federal, state, or local law.
finance 10
Medicare covers only a small portion of long-term care needs, and the cost of a semi-private room averages $79,000 per year. CRR calculates that the mean lifetime exposure to long-term care costs for our 65-year-old couple is $260,000, with a five percent risk of a $570,000 expense. That’s the sort of risk that’s best handed off to an insurance company. LTC insurance offers a way to protect your assets and insure that any unmet care needs will be covered. But private LTC coverage hasn’t taken off, probably due to the complexity of policy choices and the simple fact that none of us are too eager to set aside money now for a visit to a nursing home later. Then there’s expense; annual premiums can run $3,000 or more for policyholders who buy LTC coverage in their 50s. These hurdles have held back sales of LTC policies. Ninety percent of people over age 55 have no LTC coverage, says Mark Meiners, a professor of health administration and policy at George Mason University. The largest provider of LTC coverage is Medicaid, the federal and state-administered insurance program for low-income Americans. Medicaid funds about 49 percent of all LTC, but getting coverage requires spending down most of your assets. CLASS is an attempt to expand coverage by providing a basic, inexpensive LTC option. The program will be deployed mainly through the workplace as an opt-out choice in benefit plans. Employers don’t have to participate, but the opt-out feature will be important for those that do. It means employees will be in unless they make an active decision to drop out. And, while CLASS is aimed mainly at the workplace, there also will be a public exchange where policies can be purchased by those working for companies that don’t participate, or for selfemployed people. CLASS participants would pay an insurance premium via payroll deduction, currently projected at $123 per month. After a five-year vesting period, CLASS would provide a benefit of no less than $50 per day to pay for LTC. Two additional, very significant features make CLASS different than most private coverage: There will be no lifetime or dollar cap on benefits, and
insurers can’t turn away applicants due to a pre-existing condition. CLASS becomes effective in 2011, but Meiners doesn’t expect plans to appear in workplace benefit plans until January, 2013. But the success of CLASS will depend largely on how it’s implemented–and the program faces some complex challenges. “I worry about how it will be put forward,” says Meiners, who is a supporter of the general CLASS concept. “A lot of factors will make it difficult for this to work.” One obstacle is pricing. A national survey of 1,000 employed Americans last fall by the American Council of Life Insurers found broad support for a public option LTC program such as CLASS–73 percent of respondents reacted positively to the idea. But support dropped sharply when proposed premium prices were mentioned, and 95 percent said they were not likely to participate if the premium was set at $110 per month. That suggests employers could have a tough time getting employees to stay in CLASS. And employers could decline to participate out of concern that the program will be more trouble than it’s worth. A limited benefit period would be one way to reduce premium costs. Meiners notes that the lifetime care benefit is extremely generous compared with private LTC policies–but it’s a “sacred cow” among CLASS proponents and not likely to be altered anytime soon, he says. Another worry is what Meiners calls “the selection issue. If the only people who opt for CLASS are those who can’t be insured elsewhere and everyone else opts for private coverage, that’s a significant problem. You need younger, healthier people to get in and stay in to balance against the cost of uninsurable people.” π Mark Miller is the author of the forthcoming book, “The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security.” He publishes http://retirementrevised.com, recently named the best retirement planning site on the web by Money Magazine. Contact him with questions and comments at mark@retirementrevised.com
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finance 12
How much money will you need to live comfortably in retirement? One way to calculate the answer is the old income-replacement rule of thumb–to retire comfortably, you must replace 80 percent of your annual pre-retirement income. But at best, this is a rough estimate. For example, it doesn’t take into account unforeseen spending needs such as higher health care expenses or a long-term care insurance policy.
How Much Money Will You Really Need for Retirement?
“
The first step is getting a precise handle on your current budget.”
by mark miller, Tribune Media Services At the same time, the rule doesn’t recognize that some expenses might fall or disappear entirely, such as commuting or maintaining a business wardrobe. But most important, the income replacement method is wrong for our current hard times economy, because it puts all the focus on wealth accumulation. It doesn’t begin with the correct questions: What is the lifestyle I want? How much will I need to spend on basics? What can I afford to spend? “The replacement ratio method is a good place to start, but it ignores major changes that can result from reduced expenses for dependent children, paying off a mortgage or downsizing major items like your home or cars,” says Steve Vernon, an actuary and president of Rest-of-Life Communications, a retirement-education concern. “It also assumes you’ll want the same material standard of living in retirement that you had before. That ignores the possibility that you might be willing to live on less. Often, as people age, they’re less interested in material
things and more interested in learning, hobbies, volunteering, and spending time with friends and family.” A better approach in hard times is to start with a clean slate. Take the time to ascertain what foreseeable retirement expenses and balance them against the sources of income that you can count on. Here’s a checklist of major issues to consider: 1. What are you spending now? The first step is getting a precise handle on your current budget. You can do that using any of the major financial-planning software tools or by tracking what you spend on a spreadsheet for a couple of months. Working with a trusted financial planner is another good way to zero in on what you’re really going to need. 2. Subtract for retirement lifestyle. Once you’ve got a good picture of current spending, subtract any regular expenses that won’t continue in retirement–for instance, the cost of commuting, dry-cleaning bills, wardrobe and taxes on income for Medicare and Social Security.
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3. Add back in retirement expenses. Some discretionary expenses could rise in retirement, say, if you plan to travel extensively. And your non-discretionary spending almost certainly will rise, as well. Health care is the expense many of us fail to anticipate; Medicare deducts premium costs from Social Security checks, and you’ll probably pay additional premiums for a Medicare supplemental plan and a Medicare D prescription drug plan. Finally, you may want to consider a long-term care insurance policy. Fidelity Investments has been publishing an annual report on retiree health-care expenses since 2002. In that time, average costs have jumped 50 percent, rising 6.7 percent in 2009 alone. Fidelity reports that a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2009 will need to spend $240,000 out of pocket to cover medical expenses in retirement, assuming that the man lives 17 additional years and the woman 20. 4. Inflation. While the cost of living has been flat lately, the Consumer Price Index has jumped about 3 percent annually over the past 20 years, and can’t be expected to stay quiet forever. Most seniors live on fixed income–with the exception of Social Security, which is indexed for inflation. That means inflation must be factored into your retirement planning as a cost that will erode spending power.
mdseniorsguide.com
5. Housing and other debt. It’s difficult to overstate the importance of debt reduction as a retirement planning strategy. Avoid carrying a mortgage and other expensive debt–such as credit card balances–into retirement if at all possible. This is one of the best routes available to cutting expenses and boosting monthly retirement cash flow. That means getting on an aggressive debt-slashing path in the years leading up to retirement. And in some cases, it may make sense to sell your home and move to a less expensive part of the country– or even rent. 6. Emergency funds. Budget for the unexpected–home repairs, emergency medical needs or even money you may want to set aside to help out children or aging parents. π Millions of Americans are reinventing retirement, and Mark Miller is helping write the playbook for new career and personal pursuits of a generation. Mark blogs at www.retirementrevised. com; contact him with questions and comments at mark@ retirementrevised.com
13
finance 14
Creative ways of finding a job after 50 by gary geyer, LetLifeIn.com
This is not one of those “look him in the eye and give him a firm handshake, go back to school and learn new skills, hire a professional to rewrite your resume” type articles. After 50, the chances of you landing an advertised job is next to zero. Apply if you want but don’t hold your breath. Here’s what to do instead: Resumes don’t count. This is how I feel about resumes: Nobody reads them. These days, everyone is padding their resumes with questionable achievements and hiring managers know it. Besides, did you ever try to read five resumes in a row, let alone a few hundred (or a few thousand)? The reality is most times your resume never gets read. There are just too many of them. If you feel you must have a resume because everyone says you need one and everyone asks you for it just because they think they should, at least make it look as interesting and creative as possible. Include graphics, cartoons, a letter from your third grade teacher–anything that draws attention and makes it stand out. And NEVER include it as an attachment. Put it in the body of your e-mail instead. Nobody wants to open an attachment You’ve heard of viruses? OK, here’s when you do need a resume. After you’re hired there’s always somebody who needs to have a copy for their files. So you might as well do one just in case. But don’t include dates and don’t go back further than 15 years.
Avoid online applications. Like the plague. They are programmed to reject you if choose one answer they are not looking for. And that’s after you spend an hour filling one out. And talk about impersonal. I suspect that no human even looks at your application. One computer looking over the shoulder of another computer–how nice! Nix headhunters. Headhunters are having the same difficulty you are having in finding a job. In today’s economy, many employers would rather not pay a headhunter’s finding fee–they’ll use Craigslist or word of mouth to get the word out. Besides, many (not all mind you, but many) headhunters are snakes. They’re not called ‘headhunters’ for nothing. They are your best friend if they think you might be a hot prospect and then don’t return your calls if you turn out to be cooling down. You’ve got better things to do, trust me. Avoid the humiliation in dealing with them. Postings and grapevines. Don’t bother applying for jobs that you find posted online or heard about through the grapevine. A zillion other people will be applying for that job having seen the same posting or by being on that same grapevine. The odds are not with you. Chances are you are not the “best” qualified person applying for the job. (Sorry.) Besides, with all those people applying, the person hiring probably won’t even get to or read your resume. Exception to that rule: Try being over-qualified. Apply for a job that you are over-qualified for and that is offering much less pay than you would be willing to work for. Assume that they would never hire you (see finding a job, pg.16) to advertise call 410.878.2212
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finance 16
“
Nobody wants to price themselves out of contention by going too high or screw themselves by asking too little.” because you’re overqualified and that they will think you would probably quit if you found something that would pay you more. Tell them that you are sure, based on your experience that you are over-qualified for the position but tell them that they shouldn’t be concerned because you are an underachiever. (That’s a joke.) Push for a meeting. The object of this approach is to somehow get them to want to at least meet you even if they would never hire you. You want them to keep you in mind if something else comes up. Don’t let yourself be interviewed. Think of it as a meeting, not an interview. In fact, act as if you are conducting the interview. Ask a lot of specific direct questions like “Tell me the truth: Is this a good place to work?” “Are the people in charge intelligent?” “What’s the level of talent or expertise of the employees?” “Is the
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Never think of yourself as being unemployed or out of a job. As far as anybody is concerned you are a successful consultant or have your own small business. Have business cards made. It’s alright to say the economy has affected your business which is why you are getting out and meeting people more. You are always in a stronger position when the person in the hiring position thinks you already have a job rather than you need a job. Don’t be modest/exaggerate/drop names. These are tough times. If you don’t have genuine success stories, gross exaggerations are perfectly acceptable. Exaggerate how successful a campaign or sales event you were instrumental in implementing and at the same time drop some names. For example: “It was the biggest sales promotion success in Coca Cola’s history.” “I was instrumental in making the Chicago Lottery the No. 1 Lottery in the country.” “We used Sean Penn as a spokesperson–great guy.” The “successes” will provide you with both credentials and endorsements by association. Mind their business. Find out if a company you have been pursuing is participating in a local trade show or convention. If they are, make it your business to attend and visit their booth. Meet some of their people. Tell them you have been corresponding with so and so and you like the way the company does business. Take business cards. Afterward, follow up with the CEOs or hiring managers and mention you visited their booth at the trade show. Offer your observations of the show, their booth, their pitches, their competition, etc. This is a great way to show that you are not only interested in their industry but are interested in their company as well.
1-888-224-2580
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company in good financial shape?” “How long have you worked here?” This approach shows that you are carefully considering whether this is the kind of company you might want to work at. It also puts the interviewer on the defense a little, which is always to your advantage.
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to advertise call 410.878.2212
“
Do some research and find companies with CEOs older than you who are still very much active in the company.”
Contact an old guy. Do some research and find companies with CEOs older than you who are still very much active in the company. Over 70 is ideal. Find a way to make contact. (This is sometimes difficult. You might try saying you are interviewing local CEOs about the current business environment.) Older people won’t consider you old. Even if they do, they know that older workers have value and appreciate your experience.
I recommend writing letters rather than e-mails. Everyone gets dozens of e-mails. Very few people get regular mail these days that isn’t junk mail or a bill. Use multiple denominations of stamps on the envelope so that the envelope looks a little different than the rest of his mail. If you can, find an article about the industry he’s in, include it as something you found that he might find of interest. Flatter him by telling him how you admire his company and the way it does business. Find a nicety you can play back to him or her and thank him for it. Tell him how refreshing it is to find a company that has values. This works best with CEOs that own the company. When you meet, find a way to mention your particular skills and offer your help if needed. DON’T ask for a job. He’s probably not the person who does the hiring but it sure doesn’t hurt if he passes your name on to the one who does. Good looking? Have a professional but casual photo taken. If you’re attractive, by all means include a small photo of yourself via business card or resume. The more attractive
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you are, the better your chances to get to see someone in person. That’s how pharmaceutical company reps get in to see doctors. Unfortunately, like it or not, as a rule the best looking people have an advantage. If you look like George Clooney or Michelle Pfeiffer–you’re hired automatically. Awful question No. 1: Why did you leave your last job? Answer it this way: Tell them you were let go because there was a difference of opinion on what constitutes “ethics.” (Say “ethics” in a way that clearly shows that you think your former employer lacks them.) And then say you would rather not discuss it. Say, “Let’s just say I don’t think it would be in my best interest for you to contact them.” Awful question No. 2: What are your salary requirements? I hate that question. Nobody wants to price themselves out of contention by going too high or screw themselves by asking too little. Answer it this way: “I have no salary requirements, I have job requirements. If the job seems like it’s a good fit, I’m willing to work within your budget. On the same token, if you think I’m the person for the job, I would appreciate you offering me a fair salary.” Be ballsy! If the above suggestions don’t get you anywhere and if you’re really ballsy, try this: If you have a resume, blow it up to 3 feet by 5 feet. On the top in giant letters say Marketing Manager (or whatever you are) Needs Work. Include your resume beneath it. Make two copies and mount them on heavy Styrofoam boards. Wear them as sandwich signs, front and back. Walk up and down a busy thoroughfare like Madison Avenue in New York. You’ll get noticed and maybe make the evening news. Get a friend to video it and put it on YouTube. The point of this article is to encourage you to try and think and do things a little different than everyone else is doing them. Remember, tough times require innovative means. Good luck. π
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travel 18
Take a Trip in Maryland with the Kids 16 suggestions for getting out and about by gerald h. levin
Summer’s here and that can mean more time with your grandchildren. It’s an opportunity to share new experiences together away from daily distractions. Fortunately, Maryland has an abundance of destinations with appeal for all ages. And, you don’t have to drive for hours. Plenty of trip ideas are readily accessible to Central Maryland. Consider these four categories for planning a summer excursion with the kids: planes, trains, boats and birds. Here are trip ideas for each of the categories:
planes
1 College Park Aviation Museum College Park Airport (Prince George’s County)–The museum is on the grounds of the oldest, continuously operating airport in the world, which opened in 1909 when Wilbur Wright trained military aviators there. You’ll find a variety of hand-on interactive exhibits in the museum, aircraft displays, special exhibitions and a gift shop.
tion of Naval aviation, Patuxent has a significant outdoor collection of aircraft, indoor exhibits, a flight simulator, airplane models, a display of pilot helmets and a gift shop.
4 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt (Prince George’s County)–A step or two beyond airplanes, this NASA facility has a “rocket garden,” visitor center with interactive displays and models, satellite hardware, a piece of the moon and special exhibits like “Science on a Sphere”–a multi-media presentation that projects images onto a suspended 6-ft. sphere. trains
Martin State Airport (Baltimore County)–The collection here includes 13 historic aircraft, research models, aircraft tools, archived films and more than 200,000 aviation and company photographs. Special attention is focused on the history of Maryland aviation.
5 Brunswick Railroad Museum Brunswick (Frederick County)–From the late 1800s to the 1950s, the town was a hub of railroad activity. Today, the museum pays tribute to the glory days of railroading here. It has a large, interactive HO-scale model railroad, train equipment and plenty of memorabilia. The museum is close to the C&O Canal.
3 Patuxent River Naval Air Museum
6 B&O Railroad Museum
Lexington Park (St. Mary’s County)–As the only official Navy museum dedicated to depicting the technical evolu-
Baltimore City–American railroading began here when construction of the first 1.5 miles of mainline rail started in
2 Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum
to advertise call 410.878.2212
1829. The 40-acre property includes an assortment of historic structures, including the nation’s first passenger station. Also here: 200 pieces of locomotives and rolling stock, thousands of railroad artifacts, uniform displays and model railroad.
decoys and decorative carvings. The museum is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. The Concord Point Lighthouse is nearby.
7 B&O Railroad Museum
Wildlife Refuge 12 miles south of Cambridge (Dorchester County)–Called “the Everglades of the North,” Blackwater has more than 25,000 acres of marshland, freshwater ponds and forests. It was created in 1933 as a sanctuary for ducks and geese migrating along the Atlantic Flyway. The East Coast’s largest breeding population of bald eagles is here. Blackwater has a visitor center, places for fishing, and trails for hiking, biking and paddling.
Ellicott City Station (Howard County)– This is the nation’s oldest surviving railroad station. It was the original terminus of the first 13 miles of commercial track in the U.S. The Main Depot building dates back to 1831. A 40-ft. HO-scale model train layout is in the freight house. Check for living-history programs.
8 Western Maryland Scenic Railroad (Allegany County)–A restored 1916 diesel-engine train steams through the Allegheny Mountains between Cumberland and Frostburg, a 32-mile roundtrip. The regular excursion has a 90-minute layover in Frostburg, where you can have lunch and watch how the engine changes direction on a turntable. Murder-mystery trains are intended for adults and mature youth. boats
9 Schooner Sultana Based in Chestertown (Kent County)– This replica of an 18th century British Royal Navy vessel is used as an educational sailing ship. The Sultana also welcomes the public for scheduled dockside open houses, and two-hour and full-day excursions. 10 Skipjack Martha Lewis Based in Havre de Grace (Harford County)–Built in 1955 and restored in 1994, it’s one of the few remaining skipjacks, or oyster-dredging boats, in the Chesapeake Bay skipjack fleet. With a full schedule of summer cruises, the Martha Lewis also offers special programs for kids.
15 Blackwater National
11 Pride of Baltimore II Based in Baltimore City–A replica of a Baltimore Clipper schooner used by privateers during the War of 1812, Pride II sails the globe as a goodwill ambassador for Baltimore and Maryland. The tall ship has dockside tours and public cruises when in port. 12 Canoe Adventures July 31), Elk Neck State Park (Cecil County)–This is one of the paddling trips that are available at a variety of Maryland state parks. Elk Neck is by the North East and Elk rivers–tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Turkey Point Lighthouse is the park’s signature landmark. Check with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for information about other canoe and kayak trips at state parks.
birds
13 Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art Salisbury (Wicomico County)–Named for the two Eastern Shore brothers who helped to turn working decoys into fine art, the museum has “the most comprehensive collection of wildfowl carving the world.” It’s built on the edge of Schumaker Pond (off the Wicomico River) amid an abundance of wildlife. Nature-trail tours, artist demonstrations and special programs are available.
14 Havre de Grace Decoy Museum Havre de Grace (Harford County)–The collection here includes about 1,200
16 Birds with bats Various stadiums around state–Any discussion of birds in Maryland must include the Baltimore Orioles and their family of minor-league Birds: Aberdeen IronBirds (Harford County); Delmarva Shorebirds (Wicomico County); Frederick Keys (Frederick County); and Bowie Baysox (Prince George’s County). Two non-Bird teams are also in the state: Hagerstown Suns (Washington County) and Southern Maryland Blue Crabs (Charles County). π
In addition to these suggestions, you’ll find more information at the Maryland Office of Tourism’s web site, www.visitmaryland.org. Or, call 800-719-5900 to receive free travel information by mail, including the state’s official travel guide, Destination Maryland and a Maryland Calendar of Events. mdseniorsguide.com
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technology 20
Would your grandchildren friend you? by kathy satterfield, Grandparents.com
When Nancy Briggs’s 12-year-old granddaughter, Abby, invited her to become “friends” on Facebook, the popular social-networking website, she gladly accepted. Seven months later, Briggs, 66, who lives in rural Kansas, has 44 friends of her own on the site. But none are more special than Abby, who lives thousands of miles away. Facebook helps her keep up with the tween in a new way. “I tried e-mails,” Briggs says, “but they were infrequent and had a tone of ‘Here’s a note to Grandma’–telling me what I would want to hear.” Facebook offers her a window onto her granddaughter’s world. She can learn who Abby’s close friends are and see photos of them. She can see the news the girl exchanges with her peers and get an unfiltered sense of what matters in her life. MORE WAYS TO CONNECT Some grandparents prefer traditional modes of contact, but in an increasingly mobile world, in which tweens and teens have evolved past phones to communicate with one another via text messages and Facebook “sta-
tus updates,” it may be hard to keep up with the kids any other way–especially in families separated by great distances. That’s Briggs’s status. “If you define old-fashioned relationships as hands-on, face-to-face, then I would say our very mobile society has taken that opportunity away for many grandparents,” she says. “We have to grab on to whatever is offered.” MEET THE FACEBOOK GENERATION Facebook is no fad. Mark Zuckerberg, now 25, founded the site when he was a freshman at Harvard, as a virtual space for his classmates to connect. But it has grown far beyond his alma mater’s walls. Today Facebook claims 200 million active users around the world, more than half of whom visit the site at least once a day. The fastestgrowing group of users is adults older than 35. Overall, the Pew Internet & American Life Project reports, the number of adult Internet users with profiles on at least one social-networking site has more than quadrupled since 2005. Social-networking sites are changing the way we interact with one another, and with our kids and grandkids. Traditionally, “our cultural networks (are) age-related,” says Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist for the Pew project. But the internet is changing that model. Today, different generations mix and mingle online in ways they never would in the public square: Sixtysomethings share Facebook “Wall” space with 16-yearolds; teens and tweens take responsibility for “tagging” photos of their grandparents’ anniversary party for the whole family to see.
to advertise call 410.878.2212
“ WHEN SOCIAL WORLDS COLLIDE
Social-networking sites are changing the way we interact with our kids and grandkids.”
These interactions, however, come with some pitfalls. Nancy Foote, 50, a grandmother of seven in Gilbert, Ariz., has “friended” her children and some of her former students, and says, “I hope that when my grandkids have Facebook–the oldest is 8–they will be friends with me.” But while she appreciates the opportunity to check in with loved ones online, she says, “Sometimes I find out things I would rather not know.”
There’s a good reason the old model of kids running in separate social circles from their parents and grandparents has persisted for so long. As former President George W. Bush once said, “When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible.” Most grandkids are no different. But ever-present cell phone cameras and widely available Facebook pages have made public spectacles of what were once private moments of indiscretion. Parents, teachers, and college admission and employment specialists strive to convince young people to watch what they do and keep embarrassing party pictures off the internet.
“call out” kids on Facebook pages for all their friends to see. Remember, he says, that connecting with a tween on Facebook “puts that relationship on display for the child’s larger Facebook friendship base.”
What’s the right approach for a grandparent? Briggs suggests learning about Facebook, then talking with your grandchildren (the old-fashioned way) about whether they’d be comfortable becoming virtual friends. If they say no, don’t take it personally; everyone needs their own space. But if a grandchild invites you online, Briggs says, “jump right in!” π Grandparents.com is the place for today’s new generation of active, involved grandparents to find everything they need to get more fun, more smiles and more memories out of the time they spend with their grandchildren.
Foote says she’s concerned about some off-color language she’s seen on her granddaughter’s page, as well as stories that she’d put in the too-much-information file. Parents and grandparents who seek out their kids online must be prepared for the good and the bad. “We behave differently (with family) on Thanksgiving than when we’re hanging out at a friend’s house,” Lenhart says, although when kids know that their grandparents are watching, they’re more likely to edit what they post online. TO FRIEND OR NOT TO FRIEND? The tumultuous tween years are marked by struggles, as kids strive to find an independent identity. To keep that process private, some kids won’t want to be Facebook “friends” with parents or grandparents. It’s not necessarily that they have something to hide. “This is as much about the privacy to grow as it is the potential to share,” says Chris Brogan, president of the social-media agency New Marketing Labs. Parents and grandparents should also resist the urge to
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21
How to Find a Senior Living Community Residential living options for older adults can perplex even the smartest consumer. There is no shortage of choices available to you. In Maryland, you can select from an array of living settings, including active adult communities, assisted living residences, and skilled nursing homes. Continuing care retirement communities combine settings that range from independent and assisted living to long-term nursing care. In addition, older adults might choose not to move into a senior living community at all, but to “age in place,” receiving assistance with daily living activities in their home or perhaps participating in an adult day care center. How can you be confident that you are making the right choice? Two experienced professionals in the aging services and financial fields provide guidance for considering a move to a senior living community. Balancing rational and emotional pressures Carroll Lutheran Village President/CEO Geary Milliken urges people to carefully investigate a community’s reputation, but acknowledges that the decision to move in will be influenced by both reason and emotion. He recommends, “Focus on what you will gain. People often see only what they’re giving up. I encourage them to talk to the residents in senior living communities to discover the opportunities that wait for them.” Milliken further advises, “A decision to move needs to be a lifestyle decision for the future. It should not be a decision driven by immediate medical needs. Anticipate the years ahead in which you want to remain engaged in your community, and balance those years with those when you or your spouse may need restorative care.” More than 500 older adults have made a lifestyle decision with Carroll Lutheran Village, an accredited continuing care retirement community on 90 acres of rolling hills in Westminster, Maryland. Accreditation vs. state licensure Many people view accreditation as a mark of quality when they explore living options. Accreditation means that an independent, third-party organization has evaluated the community based on standards of excellence.
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How is accreditation different from state licensure? Generally, a company must have a governmental license before it opens for business. Accreditation, meanwhile, can be granted only after a community has demonstrated that it conforms to a rigorous set of internationally recognized standards. This conformance indicates that the community continually evaluates and improves its service quality and is focused on its residents’ satisfaction. Accreditation as a tool for comparing communities Many financial experts and planning advisors recommend that older adults keep accreditation in mind when comparing living options. Herbert J. Sims & Co., Inc. is an investment banking firm that has provided nearly $13 billion to senior living communities across the United States. From his office in Potomac, Maryland, Executive Vice President Aaron Rulnick says, “We at Sims view CARF–CCAC accreditation as a key credit strength. Residents of senior living communities, like lenders, have a vested interest in the financial health of their communities. ” Rulnick continues, “In today’s environment, financial transparency is vital. CARF–CCAC standards require timely and comprehensive financial reporting that is available to existing and prospective residents, their families, and other interested persons. In addition, the standards address management of resident funds and require long-term financial planning and comparison to actual financial results. We believe accreditation is an important factor to consider when choosing a senior living community.” Organizations become accredited by delivering positive results and remaining committed to performance improvement. These are communities in which you can place your confidence, and accreditation is their seal of quality. π The free CARF–CCAC Consumer guide to understanding financial performance and reporting in continuing care retirement communities (PDF) may be downloaded in the Resources section at www.carf.org.
to advertise call 410.878.2212
Life is Simply Better Here!
Roland Park Place is a unique boutique-style continuing care retirement community in the heart of northern Baltimore City.
410-243-5700 TDD: 1-800-735-2258
830 West 40 Street Baltimore, MD 21211 th
www.rolandparkplace.org
A Not-for-Profit Life Care Community
fashion 24
7
Style Tips
for baby boomers on how to appear youthful and cool by rod hagwood, Sun Sentinel
W
ith another book that gently guides Baby Boomers from dowdy to wow-y, Sherrie Mathieson has made a career out of wardrobe advice for middle-age moda mavens. In light of Mathiesen’s latest how-to tome, “Steal This Style: Moms and Daughters Swap Wardrobe Secrets,” we asked the style consultant and former costume designer for her best style tips for older women. The basic trick is to combine classic core pieces with current accents and accessories. For more information, visit SherrieMathieson.com.
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The older you are the more natural your look should become. “Women need to understand that minimalism is not boring and is a very modern twenty-first-century concept. Too much obvious artifice will age you.”
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Crossing the threshold of boomer-marketed shops will instantaneously age you...Poof! You’re a senior. “Segregating this age group by concentrating on elastic-waisted, nonwrinkle, and overly embellished clothing that looks either boringly dowdy or flamboyant ends up alienating women who want to look modern, ageless and youthful.”
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Women should spend more on their “investment” accessories than on total outfits. “Your accessories define your look. An authentic bracelet from Morocco, a superb pair of designer shoes, a gorgeous coral necklace, or a bag that is extremely well made and/or has an exquisite design, can be worn forever and inherited by future generations. These items may be expensive–or sometimes not–but the cost amortized through the years will prove well worth it.”
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The sportier your image, the less ‘lady-like’ the more vibrant and energetic you’ll look. “(Those) ladies-who-lunch, wearing knit suits and matched ladylike outfits look more fragile, and curiously unproductive, than women who adopt modern and stylishly mixed sporty looks.”
Wear a big (men’s size), masculine silver or gold watch. It’s a youthful look. “Something as basic as the watch you wear daily tells everything about your personal style–more than any outfit or accessory. Are you ultraconservative? Are you very daintily feminine? Are you about showing affluence? Are you very active and sporty? Are you into quality? Are you hip and modern, or the opposite? Your watch provides the best clue.”
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Personal style is often confused with fashion. “Fashion is only a component of the larger context–style. You need to learn to ‘walk’ in terms of style so that you can ‘run’ well with fashion. This knowledge allows you to be confident in what you are doing and present yourself skillfully to the world. Happily, it’s never too late to learn.”
People can’t perceive quality as much on a totally black outfit–nor notice its details. “Conventional wisdom says that black is always ‘in’ and practical–surely a safe haven. People might falsely assume that persons dressed in all black are artsy or sophisticated. Or...black can provide an unforgiving harsh contrast next to aging skin and that black is rarely a real standout.”
food 26
WOLFGANG PUCK’S KITCHEN:
SALAD FOR STEAK LOVERS Good cooking and menu planning are often a matter of balance. We all know that “balanced meal” and “balanced diet” refer to including a wide range of different ingredients – vegetables, fruits, grains, proteins, dairy products and fats – to get all the nutrients we need for a healthy life. But, to good cooks, balance also means something even more basic. I think of balance every time I compose a recipe. Many recipes rely upon a balance of tastes and textures – acidic and sweet, for example, or creamy and crunchy – to make them intriguingly delicious. Colors and shapes call for balance, too; that's why we frequently garnish dishChef Wolfgang Puck, the host of “Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class.” es that are mostly brown or red or brown, such as a grilled steak or pasta with tomato sauce, with bright green herbs that delight the eye as well as adding their own flavor. One of my favorite examples of balance in cooking can be found in a dish you'll find on the lunch menus of many fine restaurants today: steak salads.
some form of potato or a few vegetables. But, for the sake of a more healthy and balanced diet, people came up with the idea of stretching a smaller piece of grilled meat by slicing it and serving it on top of a bed of greens. The result is a lunch course that satisfies carnivores while also reducing their feelings of guilt. I should know, since I now often order my steaks on top of salad. But that's not the only balancing act that happens in a steak salad. Combining steak with salad greens also gives you exciting contrasts of hot and cold temperatures and chewy and crisp textures. Whatever dressing you use for the salad leaves doubles as a sauce for the steak, while the hot meat juices mingle with the dressing and wilt the leaves slightly for even more pleasing contrasts. If you briefly marinate the meat beforehand, as I like to do for my Asian Steak Salad, the dish gains even more delightful complexity. Be creative and use this basic formula to prepare your own steak salad variations. For example, try marinating the steak with some black pepper, olive oil, and fresh thyme, then serve it on top of arugula leaves dressed with balsamic vinaigrette, and garnish the salad with thin shavings of Parmesan. Or prepare your favorite recipe for Caesar salad and top it with slices of garlic-rubbed steak and a sprinkling of either croutons or toasted pine nuts. Of course, you should feel free to substitute grilled chicken breast in any version. You'll be surprised by how delicious and indulgent your well-balanced meal can be.
Traditionally, steaks are served as big hunks of unadorned grilled meat, sitting on a plate with maybe
to advertise call 410.878.2212
asian steak salad with ginger vinaigrette Serves 4 marinade
ginger vinaigrette
steak and salad
1/2 cup white wine vinegar 1/4 cup fresh orange juice 2 tablespoons fine-shred orange marmalade 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger 1 garlic clove, crushed Salt 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar 1 medium shallot, minced 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger Salt Freshly ground black pepper 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon Asian-style toasted sesame oil
2 New York steaks, each 1/2 pound Salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 pound fresh shiitake or Portobello mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps cut into slices 1/2 inch thick 4 cups mixed baby salad greens 1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
make the marinade In a saucepan, stir together the vinegar, orange juice, marmalade, ginger, garlic and a little salt. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the marmalade has dissolved and the liquid has reduced to 1/2 cup, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature. Stir in the olive oil.
center of four dinner plates. On a cutting board, use a sharp carving knife to cut the steaks diagonally into slices 1/4 inch thick. Fan the steak slices on top of the greens and top with the sauteed mushrooms. Garnish with chives and serve immediately, passing extra dressing on the side. π
make the ginger vinaigrette In a bowl, stir together the rice wine vinegar, shallot, ginger, and salt and pepper to taste. Stirring continuously, slowly drizzle in the olive oil and sesame oil. Taste and adjust the seasonings, if necessary, with more salt and pepper. Set aside. Brush the steaks generously on both sides with the marinade and leave them at room temperature while you preheat an outdoor or indoor grill or the broiler. Season the steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Grill or broil them at medium-high heat until done to your liking, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. When they are done, transfer them to a platter, cover with foil, and keep warm. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute until just tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. To serve, put the greens in a salad bowl. Add any juices that have collected in the meat platter and toss the greens with enough of the vinaigrette to coat them lightly but thoroughly. Mound the salad greens in the
mdseniorsguide.com
Chef Wolfgang Puck’s TV series, “Wolfgang Puck’s Cooking Class,” airs Sundays on the Food Network. Also, his latest cookbook, “Wolfgang Puck Makes It Easy,” is now available in bookstores. Write Wolfgang Puck in care of Tribune Media Services Inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207
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useful contacts 28
senior living 888.687.2277 800.272.3900 800.227.2345 800.342.2383 800.242.8721 800.492.2499 410.396.4932 410.887.2594 800.677.1116 410.318 6780 410.729.4571 800.243.3425 410.558.0827 800.633.4227 800.222.2225 800.772.1213 800.827.1000
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AARP Alzheimer’s Association American Cancer Society American Diabetes Association American Heart Association Anne Arundel County Dept. of Aging Baltimore City Commission on Aging Baltimore County Dept. of Aging Eldercare Locator Service Hearing and Speech Agency Hospice Network of Maryland Maryland Senior Health Insurance Assistance Meals on Wheels Medicare National Institute on Aging Social Security Veteran Affairs
www.aarp.org www.alz.org www.cancer.org www.diabetes.org www.americanheart.org www.aacounty.org/Aging www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/care www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/aging www.eldercare.gov www.hasa.org www.hnmd.org www.mdoa.state.md.us www.mealsonwheelsmd.org www.medicare.gov www.nia.nih.gov www.socialsecurity.gov www.va.gov
to advertise call 410.878.2212
A Unique, New Independent & Assisted Living campus in Mt. Washington.
Live well and love it at Springwell!
A senior living community that really gets it! No large entrance fees. Reasonable monthly rates. Spacious, elegant apartments in a warm, friendly community to call home. All located on a beautiful campus, in a historic building like no other. Visit our new Wellness Pavilion. Sample a new recipe. Take in a show at Hunt Valley or the
Hippodrome. Springwell’s dedicated staff encourages our residents to enjoy a resort-like experience where wonderful amenities and services make each day care-free. It’s also comforting to know that should needs change, Springwell offers comprehensive Assisted Living tailored to your individual needs.
We have immediate availability, so come see for yourself! 410-664-4006
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2211 W. Rogers Ave.
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SpringwellSeniorLiving.com
CommuniCare
Making a difference in the lives of others. Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation Alzheimers & Dementia Care Specialty Care Centers
Eight convenient locations to serve you: Baltimore Fayette Health & Rehabilitation Center 1217 W. Fayette Street Baltimore, MD 21043 410-727-3947 Liberty Heights Health & Rehabilitation Center 4017 Liberty Heights Avenue Baltimore, MD 21207 410-542-5306 Edgewater South River Health & Rehabilitation Center 144 Washington Road Edgewater, MD 21037 410-956-5000 Ellicott City Ellicott City Health & Rehabilitation Center 3000 N. Ridge Road Ellicott City, MD 21043 410-461-7577
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Forestville Forestville Health & Rehabilitation Center 7420 Marlboro Pike Forestville, MD 20747 301-736-0240 Fort Washington Fort Washington Health & Rehabilitation Center 12021 Livingston Road Fort Washington, MD 20744 301-292-0300 Glen Burnie Marley Neck Health & Rehabilitation Center 7575 E. Howard Road Glen Burnie, MD 21060 410-768-8200 Silver Spring Bel Pre Health & Rehabilitation Center 2601 Bel Pre Road Silver Spring, MD 20906 301-598-6000
www.communicarehealth.com
CommuniCare Health Services
to advertise call 410.878.2212