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Burlesque

Foxxie Follies comes to the Playhouse

Para Nordic Worlds Prince George’s Otway Nordic Centre is ready to host the championship that sees athletes from 20 countries compete from Feb. 15 to 24.

Thursday, february 14, 2019

Prince George’s weekly news

Transformation of Heather Rose frank peebles 97/16 staff

The Occupation of Heather Rose became the occupation of Jennifier Cundy-Scott.

This play, a seminal work by Canadian playwright star Nancy Lill, was the first production ever done by upstart professional drama company Theatre Northwest (TNW) in Prince George.

The year was 1994 and Cundy-Scott (she was Cundy-Ma back then) was the first actor ever employed by TNW. She was also as young, naive and ego-informed as the character.

Heather Rose was a newly minted nurse set to take on the injustices and maladies of the world and Cundy-Scott was fresh from her graduation at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. She couldn’t believe that her first professional gig would be back in her hometown.

A lot has happened in the 25 years since she stood on stage as the first TNW actor in the first TNW play. When she saw that Theatre Northwest was remounting the show for its silver anniversary season, she was vortexed back to those halcyon years and took a long look at all the flashbacks along the way.

The most noticeable image is an irony at which Cundy-Scott herself marvels.

She did not pursue acting, after her TNW triumph. Instead, she became – can you believe it? – a nurse. Her performance and her character’s traits played a direct role in this choice.

“I’ve done a complete life change,” Cundy-Scott told The Citizen. “At the time my two girls were just babies. Now they are 27 and 25, which is unbelievable to me. I remember with the travelling

that it was quite hard to be apart from them and I remember thinking to myself ‘hmmm, I don’t know if this lifestyle is sustainable.’ I decided I wanted to focus more on my family life, concentrate on the kids.”

Life had several stages for Cundy-Scott, with several twists in the plot. Her first marriage ended; another one blossomed.

She moved to the States and, as a dual citizen of Canada and the U.S., was able to live 18 years in Washington and Hawaii. It was while living in Las Vegas that she was finally accredited as a nurse.

“You’re never too young or too old to start anything,” she said. “I always had a passion for nursing. I had an elementary school teacher tell me once that I should be a nurse, but I had the acting bug. I wanted to do that first. As I was performing the play, I remember thinking that this role, the profession of the character, was somehow a part of me. I believe it’s a calling. You don’t become a nurse, you are a nurse inside of yourself. Definitely the play put it back in my head that I should pursue that as my true profession.

And what I loved about the plot of that story is this nurse, Heather Rose, was so excited to get out and make a change in the world, but there was this immaturity at the core of her being. I was about 23 at that time, so I had some of that, too, and I think most young people have that, at least a little bit. She was thinking she could walk into a diverse culture, another world, and tell those people how they could live their lives. Now, as a nurse for real, I am faced with this quite a lot – people who choose to live their life a certain way I don’t understand – and it is not my job to tell them how best to live their life. It’s my job to help them live their lives as they feel is best for them.

Heather Rose wasn’t very culturally com-

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Jennifier Cundy poses for a photograph for The Citizen in 1989 before leaving Prince George to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. petent, is how I would describe her, and we learn that in our nurses’ training to be respectful of differences in cultures and in belief systems and we have no magic wand, we are there to help people but not change people.”

One can only change one’s self, as Cundy-Scott demonstrated when she shifted gears from the stage to the operating room.

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Local actor looks back on the Theatre NorthWest role that changed her life Continued from page 1

She switched again when she moved into primary care nursing, doing house calls in Prince George. It’s a version of the job she loves because of the personal interactions, and that interactive touch is what won her the 2015 Daisy Award “for exceptional nursing” handed out in Everett, Wash., by the Daisy Foundation and AONE-American Organization of Nurse Executives.

“That was the best day at work ever, and that’s what Heather Rose wanted.

She wasn’t going about it in the right way, but its how she wanted to have an impact,” said Cundy-Scott.

Even her experience with the play contained an element of that outreach.

TNW did not yet have a home theatre, so a few Prince George performances were done at the College of New Caledonia (some were command performances for the Northern Interior Health Unit, North East Native Health Conference, Community Arts Council, that year’s Wimmin’s Conference, and a show especially for local nurses) but then also on tour for the regional communities of Kersley, Mackenzie, Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, Burns Lake, Williams Lake, Quesnel, McBride, Wells, Fraser Lake, Hixon, Smithers and Terrace.

Cundy-Scott came back to Prince George a few years ago along with hus-

band Doug who “has been a real trooper” in cold weather to which he is not accustomed.

She has not ventured back into the acting and dancing that were such formative aspects of her youth here.

As a dancer, Cundy-Scott won the top prize (the Norman & Sophie Blackstock Scholarship) at the 1986 Dance Festival for her ballet prowess. The same year she represented her hometown at the B.C. Festival of the Arts held in Prince George.

The same year she worked with director Sonia Church and choreographer Judy Russell in a Prince George Theatre Workshop production of Anne of Green Gables, for which her singing and acting were praised by critics.

A year later, she starred opposite Kennedy Goodkey in the PGSS production of Guys & Dolls directed again by Church but this time Cundy-Scott was also that show’s choreographer. Citizen reviewer Arnold Olson said at the time “one cannot refer to this production without running smack into the considerable talent exhibited by Jennifier Cundy. One member of the audience condensed the reference into the comment ‘That lead girl was marvelous’ as if the musical were hers alone.”

Goodkey then called on her to join his youth-led hit show Summer Stage ‘87 along with Brian Clarke, Don Mitchell, Demetri Goritsas, Traci Steves, David

Hooper (with whom she performed an acclaimed dance duet), Nicholas Harrison, Emmanuel Soupidis, Chris Clugston and James Marshall.

She had a role in the Prince George Theatre Workshop production of Barefoot in the Park in 1990, then got the lead in their 1991 production of Nuts.

Cundy-Scott then directed the Centrestage Dinner Theatre production of Beyond Therapy in early ‘92 alongside her brother Derrick Cundy McCandless, Bas Rynsewyn, Stuart Gilby, Susannah Edwards, Ryan Cardwell and Allison Haley.

During that time, Cundy-Scott also shared with Debbie McGladdery the teaching of children’s theatre classes at the P.G. Playhouse.

Now that she is settled in Prince George amongst family and friends, her children grown, and her master’s degree in nursing recently completed, she is finally feeling enough personal space to perhaps get back into the performing arts scene of the city.

The first step will be going to see the new TNW production of the part she knew so well and played such a pivotal role in return for hers.

The Occupation of Heather Rose is on now until Feb. 24 starring nationally celebrated Cariboo actor Julia Mackey.

Get tickets 24-7 at TNW’s website or in person at Books & Company.

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Jennifier Cundy-Ma returned to Prince George in 1994 to play the lead role in The Occupation of Heather Rose, the first-ever Theatre Northwest production. TNW is currently restaging the play during its 25th anniversary season, with Julia Mackey in the lead role.

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seeing stories through different lens christine hinzmann 97/16 staff

“You know better to do better,” Camille MacDonald said about going out and starting her own video production and social media advertising company called Pop Media.

Most people will remember MacDonald for her work as reporter/anchor at local television station CKPG, which was her first real job out of journalism school.

“I’ve become one of those people who was supposed to be here for a year and now here I am – I think I’m a lifer,” MacDonald laughed.

She said she never thought she’d start her own business but here she is today with hundreds of projects completed in the two short years since she started.

“I just saw what was happening in the social media world and I found it really exciting that people were using content in a new way,” MacDonald said. “It was almost like a mixture of advertising and storytelling.”

Things do evolve as a business gets more established and Dan Johnson joined the team a year ago when MacDonald started having to turn away business because she couldn’t meet the demand alone. Johnson and MacDonald met at CKPG while they both worked there and each came from a different area of the Lower Mainland. At CKPG, Johnson was a writer and producer in charge of creating local commercials before he decided to join MacDonald in further developing Pop Media.

The two are also a couple who share a home together and have a cat. Linus is a rescue from the Humane Society.

“We don’t even like cats,” Johnson joked.

(MacDonald said they love their little lemon loaf.)

She said when she started the business she knew it was going to be Prince George and people centred.

“It was like news stories but with an extra kick to it,” Johnson jumped in to explain what role the multimedia and advertising aspects contributed to the projects.

“A lot of what we do is about video content but also targeting that content to a particular audience which I don’t think news has generally done,” MacDonald said. “The first year was me trying to figure out so many things. I’d never been in business before so that alone was and continues to be a lot to figure out and it was pretty much a blur.”

Johnson said that working as a journalist for television, MacDonald would be accompanied by a camera operator.

“Now she’s operating the camera, editing and doing the interviews,” Johnson added, who said taking the leap from the secure job at CKPG to independent business partner was a big one.

“But if I stayed I knew where I was going to be in a year,” Johnson explained.

“If I made this leap we didn’t know where we could be and obviously that worked out because by the end of the year we were in New York working.”

Locations included McBride, doing a major project promoting the opportunities and lifestyle offered in the Robson Valley, creating memories at a wedding in Mexico and, of course, the trip to New York.

“We’ve done helicopter weddings and tons of events,” he said.

“There’s never a dull moment,” she said.

Ideally Pop Media would like to reach out to the northern part of the province because MacDonald and Johnson consider it untapped territory and the north needs its stories told, too.

“We create social media video campaigns,” MacDonald said. “Whether that’s one video or a series of videos we work with the client to understand their goals and who they’re trying to reach and then we work backwards to create video that will appeal to their audience and we pair that with advertising on social media to reach more people online.”

MacDonald and Johnson each brings something different to the table when it comes to making Pop Media a success.

“We have very complementary skills,” MacDonald said. “We don’t really overlap too much. Dan has amazing production skills and I come from a world of the daily story so he’s really helped me understand how to plan and produce content in a more productive way than, you know –” “Show up and see what happens,” Johnson filled in the end of the thought.

MacDonald said she appreciates Johnson up and quitting his secure job to take a chance with her.

“I think it’s normalized for him a bit because his parents and grandparents each owned their own business,” MacDonald said. “I don’t think it was such a wacky thing for him to do.”

Johnson said he was looking for more, including the responsibility of going out on his own.

“I needed a light under my ass to go out and do my best work,” he said.

“And nothing sets a light under your ass like –” she began.

“Having to pay your mortgage,” he finished and they laughed together. “So lots of startups like this sees one person working as the other tries something like this. I think we’re in a unique position where we put everything on the line to do this and we’re kind of in it together at this point.”

“And we’re making it work,” she said.

Johnson said he couldn’t do this without MacDonald.

“Camille has this whole other part of the business where she’s socializing and going and meeting the clients and it’s sales but it’s so much deeper than sales,”

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Camille MacDonald and Dan Johnson of Pop Media above are seen out and about in Prince George while below in this handout photo they were in Gary Vaynerchuk’s office in New York City as part of one of their many work assignments.

Johnson said. “It comes from a true love of community and wanting to be involved – and not that I don’t have that but I’m computer boy. So you combine all that with the journalism chops and I’ve set up the camera and she knows what questions to ask so the arc of the story is already being thought of in the moment as we’re driving to the location and there’s strengths where maybe the other person doesn’t have those strengths and I think just being a team of two makes us super agile.”

They’ve kept the equipment simple to allow mobility when it counts. The quality is in the equipment they have chosen and they know keeping it simple allows for the best approach when dealing with camera-shy people.

“What we are trying to capture is real life and that’s the most amazing back drop of all,” MacDonald said. “And it really does go to a deeper level than just running ads.”

MacDonald sites Boogie with the Stars as an example. Tim and Carli Bennett competed in the dance competition and did a really sweet dance, she said.

“I just felt like wow, they’re kids when they’re grown up are going to be able to watch this and see what their parents were like when they were young and they did this cool thing in front of a bunch of people and isn’t that wild,” MacDonald said. “The work that we do is capturing memories in a way that our families have never had before and so that’s just kind of our mission.”

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Couple spent life caring for others I n November of 2014, Dr. Phil Staniland was officially recognized for his contributions and long-term service as a family physician in Prince George to both his community and to the University Hospital of Northern BC. The Prince George Medical Staff Society and Northern Health presented him with a plaque in recognition of his long and exemplary medical service from December 1968 to March 2010.

Phil was born in 1934. He was raised and educated in Broughton, North Lincolnshire, England.

In England at the time, the country adhered to the National Service Act of 1948 which formulated National Service as peacetime conscription; which meant

Seniors’ Scene Kathy Nadalin

that healthy males 17 to 21 years of age were expected to serve in the armed forces for 18 months and remain on the reserve list for four years.

Phil’s father was a war veteran and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from injuries he received during the war. His mother felt strongly that she did not want her son to have to go into the army. The solution was to move to Canada and join a great uncle in Vancouver. Phil and his father left for Vancouver in 1953 and his mother and two sisters followed three months later.

His father found work in a packing plant as a meat cutter. Phil was 17 and he wanted to study chemistry to be a scientist in metallurgy. He had finished his secondary schooling in England and upon his arrival in Canada he took Grade 13 at King Edward High School. He attended UBC for the next three years and earned a degree in physiology and sociology. For the next three years he studied theology – a broad field that included biblical studies, ministry and religious studies – and attended seminars.

He went on to serve as the United Church minister in Invermere for three years and that is when he met his future wife Jean Rickson.

Jean was born in Powell River in 1933.

She grew up wanting to be a nurse so after high school she took the four-year

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Dr. Phil and Jean Staniland’s life’s work was dedicated to helping others. nursing program at UBC and earned her degree in nursing. She was working as a nurse in Kimberly when she met Phil.

All the public health nurses in the area met for a monthly business meeting in Cranbrook. A nurse from Invermere wanted to introduce Jean to her church minister Phil Staniland. At first, Jean declined the offer because she was not interested in looking for a boyfriend let alone a husband. Eventually in early 1961, she attended a dance in Invermere, met Phil and they got married in October that same year.

Jean explained, “After we got married, we moved to Vancouver. I kept working as a public health nurse and Phil went to medical school. He graduated from medical school in 1967, served his internship in family medicine from 1967-68 at the Royal Columbian Hospital, passed all the rotations as required and we moved to Prince George in 1968.

“Doctors were needed in Prince George so we decided to check it out.

We liked the community and agreed that we would only stay for five years.

When the five years were up it was our children who wanted to stay. We had a family meeting and our very young boys reminded Phil that he was not a bank manager that was forced to move by the company and that he had choices and could stay if he wanted too. We stayed and as it turned out we are still here and the children are now living at the coast.”

Phil and Jean had three children; Jeffrey Thomas Phillip, Ann Christine (deceased) and Andrew James William.

They have three grandsons that are perfect in every way.

Phil started his own medical practice in 1968 and shared space with Dr. Umesh Khare for many years.

Subsequently, he took further training and obtained membership in family medicine a few years later. In the meantime, having volunteered on the executive of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, in the B.C. division, Phil was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Phil taught in the medical training program at UNBC, did locums and established Prince George Palliative Care Service in 2005. He retired completely in 2012 after a very successful 44-year medical career.

Phil said, “I moved into palliative care and it was the best thing that I did. Palliative care is medical care focused on im-

proving the quality of the life of patients with serious illnesses by treating symptoms and providing emotional support. I worked with the families facing the problems associated with a life-threatening illness of their loved ones.

“We were the third palliative care unit in the province at the time. We had a team of physicians, nurses, dieticians and pharmacists in the program and we met once a week to discuss cases and plan conferences. It was always rewarding and retiring in 2012 as the medical director of the Palliative Care for Northern Medical was the pinnacle of my career.”

Over the years Phil and Jean were always willing to give back to their community. Phil served on the board of AiMHi, the Prince George Association for Community Living in the mid-1970s, volunteered at the Rotary Hospice House and sang with the Cantata Singers for nearly 20 years. He was a member of the Forever Young Choir, the drama club and served on the board of directors at the Elder Citizens Recreation Centre.

He coached speed skating for about three years and served on the board of the Speed Skating Club.

Phil said, “Now at the age of 85, I no longer serve on executive positions and Jean and I have both retired from volunteering. We used to travel to Europe and all over B.C. but now we are using the time to just enjoy our retirement here in Prince George.”

Jean explained, “We moved into our Prince George family home in 1968 and we have been here ever since. I was surprised to learn that my longtime university friend Marguerite Fox lived just down the street. She was working as a teacher and I was working as a nurse when we ran into one another only to learn that we were neighbors. Phil and I have been married for 58 years but I have been friends with Marguerite even longer than that.

“We eventually formed the Dalhousie neighbourhood weekly craft group along with Marguerite and my other neighbours; Roberta Barnes, Margaret Dunlop, Karen Pavich, Nancy Spensley, Donna Hills and Sylvia Swennumson. We used to make and donate many items to local fundraisers but now after 40 years we just meet, do some knitting, enjoy snacks and have great conversations mainly about our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and of course we all have coveted photos to share.”

around town

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Don’t forget it’s Valentine’s Day. Listed below are a couple of options to do on this special day.

A play, Valentine’s specials and hockey The Occupation of Heather Rose

Record | Revise Exhibition Opening

Until Sunday, Feb. 24 at Theatre NorthWest, #36-556 North Nechako Rd., The Occupation of Heather Rose will be presented. It’s the first play ever staged

by Theatre Northwest. Twenty-five years later the theatre is bringing it back.

It’s a beautiful heartwarming and inspiring play that charts the growth in understanding of a naïve nurse working on the Snake Lake Reserve in Northern Ontario. For more information call 250614-0039 or email FOH@theatrenorthwest.com.

Thursday from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Two Rivers Gallery, 725 Canada Games Way, everyone is invited to attend the opening of the newest Galleria Exhibition – Record | Revise featuring local artists Maureen Faulkner, Annerose Georgeson, Anna-Maria Lawrie, Cat Sivertsen and Roanne Whitticase. For more information call 250-614-7800 or email visitorservices@tworiversgallery.ca.

CrossRoads Valentine’s Day Mix & Mingle Thursday from 6 to 11 p.m. at CrossRoads Brewing, 508 George St., there’s no need for a date this Valentine’s Day. Join the first Mix and Mingle at CrossRoads. Tickets are $25 and include all you can eat pizza, a complimentary drink, Mix and Mingle Bingo, a chance at winning a prize, fun and games. This is a 19+ event. Please bring two pieces of ID and plan a safe ride home. For more information call 250-614-2337.

Spruce Kings Hockey

Thursday and Saturday from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, 888 Dominion St., hockey fans are invited to catch the action close up as the Spruce King play on the road to the RBC cup. For more information visit www. sprucekings.bc.ca.

Valentine’s Dinner at Cornerstone Thursday and Friday from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Cornerstone Kitchen & Lounge, 444 George St., celebrate Valentine’s Day by enjoying a chef-created three-course

menu, including a complimentary glass of sparkling wine. $90 per couple or $45 per person. Call for reservations at 250561-5676 or email cornerstone@ramadaprincegeorge.com.

Prince George Cougars

Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at CN Centre, 2187 Ospika Blvd., come support the Cougars in their regular season on their way to the championship. For more information visit www.pgcougars.com.

Subtotal Live

Friday at 7 p.m. at the Oakroom Grill, 104-1023 Central St. West, Roman Kozlowski, Mike Howe and Brad Martin are excited to be back playing at the Oakroom Grill. No cover charge. For more information call 250-277-1882 or email oakroomgrill@hotmail.com.

ally impaired) who will compete in four cross-country skiing and four biathlon medal events over a period of 10 days.

There will be about 140 athletes from 20 different Nations, over 200 coaches and officials at the event. For more information visit www.caledonianordic.com.

Intro to DSLR Camera

Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Omineca Arts Centre, 369 Victoria St., everyone is invited to the admission-bydonation event, which is an introduction to the DSLR camera and the basics of getting cinematic shots. The workshop will go through the essentials of photography, the functions of the DSLR camera, lenses, and photographic composition and then move into a quick overview of some editing basics in Adobe Lightroom.

Please register for this workshop by emailing Darrin.Rigo@gmail.com.

World Para Nordic Skiing Family Gaming Afternoon Championships Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Bob

Friday until Sunday February 24 at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club, 8141 Otway Rd., the World Para Nordic Skiing Championships see para nordic athletes who are grouped into three classes for competition (sitting, standing, and visu-

Harkins Branch, Prince George Public Library, 888 Canada Games Way, bring the whole family to this gaming afternoon.

Choose from tabletop board games or video games. For more information call 250-563-9251 or emial ask@pgpl.ca.

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Demand change on global scale

C

anadian General Romeo Dallarie stated “at its heart the Rwandan story is the failure of humanity to heed a call for help from an endangered people.”

It would be nice to believe that the world learned its lesson in Rwanda, where nearly one million people were slaughtered in a period of roughly 90 days as the world stood by and watched.

Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The Rwandan Genocide spilled into Zaire, destabilized the country, resulting in the formation of a new country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a horrendous civil war that has resulted in millions, yes millions, of deaths over more than 20 years.

Not only that, but the most vile weapon used in this war has been the rape of innocent Congolese women and girls. Today, the eastern DRC is the most dangerous place in the world to be female.

Does the fact that the world has allowed this to continue for so long demonstrate that we have done little to address the issues of sexism and racism?

Have we forgotten that we share one planet and that what happens to one person happens to all of us? The assault on one woman is an assault on all women, on all of our sisters, daughters, mothers and spouses. The rape of thousands upon thousands upon thousands of women is an attack upon the soul of the earth.

Yet the media refuses to take this issue seriously. Why do we have to put up with hours of speculation regarding the supposed crimes of ridiculous politicians, yet

Lessons in learning Gerry Chidiac

hear nothing of the Congo? When then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to address these serious issues in 2009 by visiting the Congo, reporters focused on the fact that she was slightly annoyed at being called “Mr. Clinton” rather than upon the crimes happening all around her.

And what of industry? Is it a coincidence that incidences of rape are most prevalent in areas where there is mining?

Jewelry and electronics companies use “conflict minerals” from these regions to keep their prices down and consumers buy their products.

Governments also refuse to take a stand. In 2014, the Conservative government in Canada defeated the “Conflict Minerals” bill of NDP member Paul Dewar. Though the Liberals supported Dewar’s bill, since they have taken office they have done little to hold Canadian mining companies, which are very prevalent in the Congo, to an acceptable standard of ethics.

Some are indeed trying to make a difference and they hold a light for others to follow. Apple has made an effort to not only avoid conflict minerals in their products, they have invested in development projects in the DRC. The same can be said for Canadian mining company

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Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, from Liberia, addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, at UN headquarters last fall.

Banro, which has taken its social responsibility very seriously. Canadian actor Ryan Gosling has been very active in the cause for peace in the DRC, as has Eve Ensler, the writer of the Vagina Monologues.

Yet the most honourable individuals in the face of these crimes have been the Congolese themselves. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Muwege has operated on thousands of rape victims and has worked with Ensler and teams of Congolese women in helping them to find their voices and heal.

It may seem ironic, but it is these women who are the greatest source hope in brining change to the DRC and perhaps

to all of humanity. Indeed, Liberian Nobel laureate Leymah Gbowee has called the eastern Congo, “the world capital for sisterhood and solidarity.”

True power does not rest with the violent, it lies with those of integrity and courage.

Now it is up to us to pay attention to what is happening in the DRC and demand change. It is time to stand forward with our beautiful and powerful Congolese sisters and say enough is enough.

Gerry Chidiac is a champion for social enlightenment, inspiring others to find their greatness in making the world a better place. For more of his writings, go to www.gerrychidiac.com.

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health When to take those health supplements christy brissette 97/16 wire service

Whether multivitamins and other dietary supplements are necessary for the general population is a source of debate. Supplements remain recommended for certain populations with specific conditions – such as pregnant women who should take folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube defects, or children in developing countries whose diets do not provide enough vitamin A and iron. But recent studies have found there is insufficient evidence to recommend multivitamin supplements to the average healthy American, and that in fact, taking too much of certain vitamins can cause harm.

These studies seem to have little effect on the global supplement industry, which is worth an estimated $128 billion, according to 2017 data from the Nutrition Business Journal, or on the American public. Fifty-two percent of respondents to the 2011-2012 U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported using dietary supplements – unchanged from the 1999-2000 survey.

As a registered dietitian, I believe a nutritious diet is the best way to achieve a healthy foundation. Supplements (as the name suggests) can be used as a complement to help a person with certain deficiencies meet their nutrient needs.

If you’re taking a supplement because of such a deficiency, you should try to take it in a way that could promote optimal absorption. Supplement timing can seem complicated, so let’s simplify when to take some of the most common dietary supplements and why.

When to take supplements

There is debate about whether taking your vitamins in the morning or at night is best. The theory goes that because you’re getting nutrients throughout the day from food, having your nutrition supplements at night helps your body get some nutrition as you sleep.

But Jeffrey Blumberg, a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University in Boston, says, “Digestion slows down during sleep, so taking your nutrient supplement late at night would not be associated with an efficient absorption.”

vitamin D to boost calcium absorption and vitamin C to boost iron absorption.

That’s why taking in these nutrients simultaneously via supplements or boosting with food sources is ideal. A classic example is having your iron supplements with a glass of orange juice to get the absorption-boosting effects of the vitamin C.

Better apart

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A customer shops at a GNC store in New York in 2013.

Neil Levin, a clinical nutritionist at NOW Foods, agrees that morning is best for multivitamins and any B vitamins.

“Multivitamins tend to do best when taken earlier in the day, as the B vitamins in them might stimulate metabolism and brain function too much for a relaxing evening or before bed,” Levin says.

Although morning is probably ideal, the best time of day is the time you’ll remember. Put the supplement bottles on your kitchen counter next to your coffee maker, so they jog your memory when you reach for your morning cup. Or keep them in your lunch bag or briefcase so you’ll remember them.

With food or without?

Most supplements should be taken with food to reduce the chances they’ll upset your stomach and to stimulate digestion and improve absorption. For a select few, it really doesn’t matter if you take them on an empty stomach. So which ones should you pay attention to?

Iron, magnesium and fish oil supplements are the most common culprits for digestive upset when taken on an empty stomach, so take extra care to have these with a meal or snack.

Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K are better absorbed when you have them with a meal or snack that contains at least a teaspoon of fat, about five grams.

The same goes for your multivitamin, which contains these vitamins. For example, if you’re taking your multivitamin with your breakfast, make sure you’re having some almond butter with your oatmeal or avocado with your eggs and toast.

For probiotics, preliminary research suggests taking them with a meal or 30 minutes before a meal could be better than taking them after eating.

Hydration is also important, Blumberg says. “Fluid intake is especially important for the disintegration of the supplement tablet or capsule and for dissolution of water-soluble nutrients such as vitamin C and B vitamins,” he says.

So be sure to wash down all supplements with a tall glass of water.

The main exception to the “take with food” rule for dietary supplements is with certain types of minerals. Only chelated mineral supplements can be taken without food, Levin says. Chelation occurs when a mineral has been bound to an acid, so it doesn’t rely on your stomach acid to break it down. Calcium citrate and magnesium glycinate are the main examples. (If this level of detail is overwhelming, take your supplements with food to cover your bases.)

Better together

Some nutrient dynamic duos include

Calcium can affect your body’s absorption of iron, zinc and magnesium. I recommend taking any calcium supplements at a different meal than any iron supplements or your multivitamin. Also, your body absorbs calcium more effectively when you take 600 milligrams or less at a time. If you’re taking more than that per day, you’ll want to split up the dosage into morning and evening doses.

Fibre is another nutrient you’ll want to take apart from other supplements and medications because it interferes with absorption. I recommend doing so before bed if you aren’t taking anything else at that time.

Here’s a sample schedule for optimal absorption of the supplements named.

With breakfast Multivitamin or prenatal multivitamin/ folic acid B vitamins Omega-3s Probiotics With lunch Calcium Vitamin D With dinner Iron Vitamin C Before bed Fiber supplement (with a large glass of water) If it isn’t practical for you to remember to take supplements at lunch or other points during the day, don’t worry. Have your multivitamin and any fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) with food that contains some fat, keep your calcium and iron separate, and you’ll be fine. You’ll be even better off if you focus on eating nutritious whole foods, because science suggests that this, rather than supplements, is the optimal way to get your nutrients.

Brissette is a registered dietitian, nutrition writer, TV contributor and president of 80TwentyNutrition.com.

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Five myths about Valentine’s Day mandy len catron 97/16 wire service

It was Liz Lemon, the protagonist of television’s 30 Rock, who noted that the word lovers really tends to bum people out – “unless it’s between the words meat and pizza.” But it’s February and lovers are everywhere, celebrating the holiday we love to hate.

Valentine’s Day occupies a strange space in modern culture. The occasion is defined by its strong traditions but few of us know anything about where they came from. When it comes to this celebration of love, misinformation abounds.

Myth No. 1: Valentine’s Day was invented by greeting card companies.

“Valentine’s Day only exists to sell greeting cards.” It’s the complaint of cynical ex-boyfriends everywhere. In the 2004 film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carey’s character, Joel, says the holiday was “invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap.”

Even the myth-busting website Snopes. com has a page discussing this common trope.

As it turns out, Valentine’s Day – and Valentine’s Day cards – existed long before commercialization. The Victorians exchanged tokens, notes and handmade cards on Feb. 14. The tradition really took off when postal infrastructure improved in the mid-19th century. The English penny post made sending romantic notes both affordable and anonymous, meaning the otherwise stuffy Victorians

were free to express sentiments that ranged from risque flirtation to what the London Review called “scandalous productions, vilely drawn, wretchedly engraved, and hastily dabbed over with staring colours.”

Corporate interests were quick to capitalize on Victorian traditions. In 1868, Cadbury was the first to put chocolates in a heart-shaped box. Mass-manufactured greeting cards were introduced in the United States in 1849 and sold by Hallmark in 1913.

A 2015 survey found that 66 per cent of respondents agreed that “the consumerism surrounding Valentine’s Day has ruined the romance.”

But that didn’t stop Americans from spending a record $20.1 billion on Valentine’s Day in 2018, with an astounding $751 million of that devoted to gifts for their truest loves: their pets.

Myth No. 2: Saint Valentine set the tone for this lovers’ holiday.

It’s natural to assume that there must be some historical connection between romantic love and the man named Saint Valentine. According to ThoughtCo, “he was sent to jail” for performing illegal weddings. Get Fed, a Catholic website, says that “his intercession was called upon by lovers and engaged and married couples after his entrance into eternal life.”

Even priests use the holiday as an opportunity to imagine what kind of advice the saint would offer today’s married couples.

The truth is much less romantic.

According to Lisa Bitel, a historian of

Christianity, “our modern holiday is a beautiful fiction.”

Bitel points out that there were several third-century saints named Valentine, at least one of whom was decapitated on Feb. 14.

Most likely, the feast of Saint Valentine commemorates the martyrdom of two men, but while we have some idea of when and how they died, historians know almost nothing about their lives.

The Oxford Dictionary of Saints pulls no punches on the subject: “The connection of lovers with St. Valentine, with all its consequences for the printing and retailing industries, is one of the less likely results of the cult of the Roman martyrs.”

Most likely, the romantic stories were invented centuries after the martyrs’ gruesome deaths.

Myth No. 3: Feb. 14 has always been a celebration of love.

We inherited our contemporary version of Valentine’s Day from the Victorians, but some accounts – such as a story last year in Lifehacker and another from NPR on The Dark Origins of Valentine’s Day – have argued that the history of the holiday can be traced all the way back to ancient Rome. In mid-February, the Romans celebrated Lupercalia, a drunken festival that involved hitting women with the hide of a sacrificial goat in hopes of increasing their fertility. The celebration was ultimately denounced by Pope Gelasius in the late fifth century and it fell out of favour, but some suspect that its lusty spirit carried over into Valentine’s Day traditions.

The links to Lupercalia, though, don’t hold up well to investigation. Geoffrey Chaucer appears to have been the first person to imbue St. Valentine’s feast day with romantic associations back in the 14th century. In his poem Parlement of Foules, Chaucer imagines Valentine’s Day as the occasion for birds to convene and choose their mates. Literary historian Jack Oruch points out that the holiday had no romantic pretenses “either literary or social in customs, before Chaucer.”

Given the thousand-year gap between Lupercalia and the imaginary avian assembly, it seems unlikely the two were related.

Myth No. 4: Cupid is the incarnation of sweetness and romance.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day iconography, no one is more popular than Cupid, the rosy-cheeked cherub. In the neoclassical vision of Peter Paul Rubens, for instance, he flutters around Venus playfully. A similar creature powders the cheeks of a female centaur in Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia.

But he wasn’t always a chubby toddler in a loincloth. Cupid is the Roman incarnation of the Greek god Eros, who first appears in Theogony by the poet Hesiod. This god, the “loveliest of all the Immortals,” was far from adorable.

Eros wielded power over god and mortal alike, making men’s bodies “go limp, mastering their minds and subduing their wills.”

Classical depictions of Eros (from pottery in the fifth century B.C., for instance) feature a young man who is both beautiful and dangerous. In the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, Cupid is defined by his seductive powers – and his reputation wasn’t exactly mild: In the sixth century, Archbishop Isidore of Seville called Cupid a “demon of fornication.”

By the Renaissance, artists began depicting a younger Cupid, often with

National Gallery image

Cupid wasn’t always a cute, innocent toddler in a loincloth, as An Allegory With Venus and Cupid, a painting by Bronzino, circa 1545, shows. his mother, Venus, though occasionally still in disturbingly seductive situations, as in An Allegory With Venus and Cupid

by Bronzino. Baroque and rococo artists embraced the childlike Cupid by combining him with the biblical figure of the cherub. These fat, winged babies were responsible for provoking love rather than participating in it. His lascivious past long forgotten, the new Cupid was a beloved character on Victorian Valentine’s Day cards, which is probably how we wound up with such an adorably innocent matchmaker today.

Myth No. 5: Valentine’s Day is pretty miserable for single people.

Marie Claire asserts that “we all know Valentine’s Day is deeply unpleasant if you’re single,” while GQ offers the single man’s “self-loathing guide” for the holiday. But you don’t have to pick up a magazine to notice the absurd amount of condescending pity aimed at single folks on this holiday. Psychologist Bella DePaulo points out that the way we talk about Valentine’s Day implies that those who are paired up “are happier people – even better people – than singles.”

Our culture would have you believe that it’s either a romantic candlelight dinner for two or watching Bridget Jones’s Diary on repeat in your bathrobe while doing bicep curls with a pint of rocky road.

Luckily there are reams of research on the lives of single people and it shows that being alone is a far cry from being lonely.

Sociologist Erik Klinenberg discovered that almost everyone who lives alone does so because they choose to, noting that one of his “most powerful findings is that nothing is lonelier than living with the wrong person.”

Studies show that single people are more likely to have strong ties to friends and neighbours than their married friends do. They also place a higher value on meaningful work and experience more personal growth than those who are married.

So if your coupled friends can’t stop giving you pitying glances this time of year, just remind them that getting married doesn’t change your long-term happiness.

Mandy Len Catron is the author of How to Fall in Love With Anyone: A Memoir in Essays.

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Fan-tastic Follies sashay into Playhouse frank peebles 97/16 staff

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Sasparilla Foxx, head of the Foxxie Follies, is bringing her show, including lots her friends, to the Prince George Playhouse Saturday.

No one can accuse Sasparilla Foxx of not having any skin in the game.

The burlesque dance instructor drives from her hometown of Quesnel up to Prince George on a semi-regular basis to spread the nudes – make that news – of this old-school brand of entertainment.

She also drops in on Williams Lake, Fort St. James and other locations around the area because a grassroots burlesque movement calls her into action.

“There is so much demand for it, I can’t keep up,” she said on a recent visit to Prince George for a weekend class with some P.G. rookies. “You need an instructor here really badly. I’ve been trying to come up for classes, and some have come down to my studio in Quesnel for lessons, and I am trying to find a way to get here more regularly. I’m the mama hen of burlesque in the Central Interior, and there are more and more chicks getting into it.”

She does her work on Prince George trips at Angel’s Aerial Fitness Studio. It has been going so well that Saturday, when she hosts a full burlesque show at the P.G. Playhouse, it will be a mix of local dancers in amongst the veterans she brings from Quesnel for these events.

“They (the aspiring Prince George performers) are so newby,” she laughed. “It keeps it fresh. I have a blast with them, and it’s such a great feeling when you’re backstage with dancers who’ve been with me for eight years and dancers who are about to do their first public performance.

“As you can imagine, anything goes in burlesque so that backstage mix of personalities is a lot of fun to be a part of, and feel that energy between people.

And your audiences in Prince George are awesome. It’s like half the audience is there to watch the thee-ahh-tahhh and half the audience thinks they’re at a hockey game and that is just great. It’s a great vibe. Everyone is there to appreciate it in their own way.”

The Sasparilla Foxx group works under the troupe name Foxxie Follies. They are regularly on the Quesnel stage at The Occidental show club, a venue to which she gives her own personal ovation for their support and outreach.

And how could you not be supportive, she said somewhat facetiously. Due to the sexual innuendo, she knows there are populations of society that disapprove of burlesque but it is only innuendo.

No one actually strips to nothing, it is just, in her view and in the hearts of those who do it for recreation, simply a way to have some fun, build some body image, celebrate the fun side of the human form and our natural urges.

In the local area, it is done by the full gender spectrum, all ages, all ethnicities, and certainly all body types with equal welcome.

In their visits to Prince George, they have held shows at a number of performance spaces and, as the audience embrace has grown wider, they took the step to move onto the P.G. Playhouse stage.

“It took the show up a notch just being in that room,” she said. “The stage, the dressing rooms, the technical capabilities, the way the audience is situated, it’s all great. I love P.G. You guys are blowing up. I have a really busy dance studio in Quesnel (she teaches ballet, jazz, hiphop, tap and modern classes), I’m like the Judy Russell there, but we are sure jealous of all the arts and entertainment and show spaces you have here in Prince George.”

What Quesnel has that Prince George does not is an annual burlesque fest.

Sasparilla Foxx is the impresario for the Itty Bitty Burlesque Festival set this year for April 25-27.

There are professional headliners who come to perform from all over Canada and the United States, plus a large number of local and provincial dancers who earn their way in by video application.

Foxx said she was hopeful that Prince George dancers would enter and the application window is open on the festival’s Facebook page.

Before the festival, though, are some all local showcases. The next Foxxie Follies event is Saturday at the Prince George Playhouse (there is another on March 16 for those marking calendars).

Tickets for the upcoming show can be purchased at the downtown location of Simply Beautiful or online at the Eventbrite website.

Look up the ValenTease Burlesque Variety Show.

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Connections, partners led to Northern FanCon Coyne toss NOrm Coyne

W

e were hot on the heels of the excitement that Sons of Anarchy star Kim Coates had jumpstarted the city with.

His appearance at Pine Centre was a massive success in engaging hundreds of fans for photos and autographs. Prince George was abuzz with the new direction of the BCNE. The stage was set for what was next.

But what was next?

BCNE president Alex Huber and I came up with something spectacular. We had seen the throes of Sons of Anarchy fans turn out for Kim Coates.

It only made sense to follow up that appearance with someone else from the hit series – Ron Perlman. In order for that to happen, we sought sponsorship support from Brent Marshall but that was not enough. In truly inspiring form, Alex was so committed to the idea that he invested some of his own personal resources to make it all happen.

Flash forward to our pursuit of Ron Perlman. As luck would have it, we were able to book him through an agent Denise Crosby (Star Trek: the Next Generation, Pet Sematary) had recommended to us – Gary Hasson.

As I mentioned in an earlier column, it is never just as simple as picking up the phone and booking the guest but Gary’s agency (BookCelebrities.com) does make it as easy for you as possible. We attribute much of the foundation of Northern FanCon to the attention we received from this agency as we started. In the particular booking of Perlman, we could not have asked for a better situation than what they offered us.

In most cases, an agent rep will accompany the appearing celebrity guest to the event at which they are booked.

The agent rep’s job is to make sure the celebrity guest is taken care of, doesn’t have to handle money, and is on hand to deal with any situations that might arise.

This likely comes as no surprise to you

but what came as a surprise to us was who the agency sent with Perlman for our booking. BookCelebrities.com sent us a man by the name of Barry Greenberg – Gary Hasson’s business partner.

We could not have asked for a better person on the ground to support us in the event than Barry.

It was almost surreal that they were sending him. We were about to have the chance to explain face to face our vision for what would eventually become Northern FanCon to a leader in the celebrity appearance business.

Perlman and Greenberg arrived in Prince George according to plan. The BCNE had a ton going on that year and Ron’s appearance was the crown jewel.

He would do a series of autograph signings and photos throughout the day and we chose to do an interview with him by Citizen reporter Frank Peebles live on the midway.

In retrospect, the latter piece here was

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Amanda Holoien has her picture taken with Ron Perlman by Leah Coghlan. They were the first two in line to see the star at the BCNE in the summer of 2014. a huge risk but it was absolutely stunning. Imagine thousands of people in the midway and when Perlman took the stage, everyone stopped in their tracks to watch.

You could hear a pin drop.

To date, that is still one of my favourite moments of the FanCon history.

Before Barry and Ron flew out the next day, I said my goodbyes and Barry said to review the roster of BookCelebrities. com for options for the inaugural year of Northern FanCon. It did not take long that day to decide on who we wanted to book as our first guest.

We wanted William Shatner.

News Tip? Call 250-562-2441

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Sports

Fan gets tattoo of Brett Connelly getting a tattoo scott allen 97/16 wire service

Washington Capitals fan Tyler Duchaine knew he wanted to get a tattoo to commemorate the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title, but the 29-year-old couldn’t decide on a design.

Inspiration came from an unlikely source: a photo of Capitals forward and Prince George native Brett Connolly looking casual as can be, eating a slice of pizza while getting the Super Mario Bros. character Bowser tattooed on his arm during the team’s championship bender last June.

What if, Duchaine thought, while watching the Capitals on TV last month, he got a tattoo of Connolly getting his tattoo on that alcohol-fueled day? Duchaine’s friends loved the idea, as did his wife, Lindsey. He tweeted the glorious photo of Connolly, which originated from an Instagram story, and vowed to follow through on his idea if he got 10,000 retweets. It was an ambitious, perhaps unattainable goal.

“Screw it,” Duchaine tweeted 20 minutes later. “I’ll do it for 1,000.”

Less than 24 hours later, he surpassed that mark.The reality was that Duchaine had already committed, in his mind, to getting the tattoo, regardless of how many retweets he got.

“That’s crazy,” Connolly told The Athletic’s Chris Kuc when informed of Duchaine’s plan.

“I’d love to be there, I’ll pay for it if I have to, too,” fellow Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly said. “I mean, I wanna see that done for sure.”

In January, Duchaine contacted Tattoo Paradise. That’s the shop where Connolly and several of his teammates got inked two days after winning the Stanley Cup, as part of their nonstop celebration that also included pounding beers at Nationals Park and frolicking in the fountains at the Georgetown Waterfront. Duchaine arranged a consultation with Billy Bennett, the artist who tattooed Connolly, and explained his out-there idea.

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During the Super Bowl on Feb. 3, Washington Capitals fan Tyler Duchaine got a tattoo, right, of Brett Connolly getting a tattoo while eating a slice of pizza, left, in June.

“He was down,” Duchaine said of Bennett’s response. “This was a cool opportunity for him because he had never tattooed himself on someone else before, so that was sweet. We decided on a style and basic details. He sent me a few mockups of the line work and then just went to town.”

Over the course of roughly 90 minutes, Bennett tattooed an image of himself tattooing Connolly on Duchaine’s left biceps. When Duchaine scheduled the appointment he didn’t realize it was the day of the Super Bowl, but of all the possible years to miss the NFL’s biggest game to get a tattoo of a bearded man eating pizza on your arm, he picked a good one.

Duchaine chose that day because the Capitals were off that night (he attended their Super Bowl matinee loss to the Bruins) and also on Monday, increasing the likelihood that Connolly and

Smith-Pelly would accept the invitation he extended to them during the all-star break. The players ultimately had to pass – “they probably had a Super Bowl party at Ovi’s,” Duchaine said – but Duchaine’s wife and several friends tagged along for moral support and to live-stream the experience on Twitter. During the procedure, one viewer commented that all 11 people in his apartment to ostensibly watch the Super Bowl were watching Duchaine get inked instead.

“Do you have any regrets?” Duchaine’s wife asked.

“No, of course not,” he replied. “As long as I’ve had to think about this, I am very happy.”

Unlike Connolly, who sat in a chair while getting his tattoo eight months ago, Duchaine lay on a table. That would’ve made it difficult to consume a slice of pizza to really complete the

“Inkception.”

“They also say you shouldn’t eat and get tattoos,” Duchaine said. “I’m sure that afternoon in June there was an exception to many rules.”

Duchaine, who hopes to show Connolly and Smith-Pelly the finished product at some point, said he doesn’t plan to share any close-up photos of his new tattoo until the redness has started to fade and “it can really stand out.”

“It’s going to remind me, of course, of the Cup run, and that it all sort of ended in a moment that we all got to share,” he said. “I look at that photo and I think that could’ve been any of us fans. Looking at Conno in that seat, eating that pizza, with that ‘I don’t really care’ look on his face, that could’ve been me, that could’ve been any of us. That was the feeling of that celebration. They felt it just like we did.”

millenials

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Forget ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’

Why millenials prefer using the word ‘partner’ caroline kitchener 97/16 wire service

After Gavin Newsom was sworn in as the governor of California earlier this month, his wife, Jennifer, announced her decision to forgo the traditional title of “first lady.” She will be known, instead, as California’s “first partner.”

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who wrote and directed Miss Representation, a documentary about the underrepresentation of women in leadership, fashioned this term to signal her commitment to gender equality.

“Being First Partner is about inclusion, breaking down stereotypes, and valuing the partnerships that allow any of us to succeed,” she tweeted in January: “Being First Partner is about inclusion, breaking down stereotypes, and valuing the partnerships that allow any of us to succeed.

Grateful for this opportunity to continue advocating for a more equitable future – now let’s get to work!”

But with this new title, reflected on the governor’s official website, Siebel Newsom is also publicly validating her constituency’s changing lexicon.

All over the country, particularly in bright blue states like California, people are swapping the words boyfriend and girlfriend – and even husband and wife – for the word partner.

According to data compiled by Google Trends, the search term “my partner” has been steadily gaining traction: it’s more than eight times more popular today

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Gavin Newsom hugs his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom as he celebrates at an election night party in Los Angeles after he defeated Republican opponent John Cox to become governor of California on Nov. 6. than it was 15 years ago.

“There are so many words that you first hear and think, ‘That’s weird.’ Then they begin to seem more normal,” said Deborah Tannen, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown, who studies the language of relationships. “That’s definitely happened with the word partner.”

Originally used to describe a business relationship, partner was slowly adopted by the gay community in the mid to late 1980s, said Michael Bronski, a professor of women and gender studies at Harvard University.

As the AIDS epidemic rattled the country, he added, it became critical for gay people to signal the seriousness of their romantic relationships, both to healthcare professionals to gain access at hospitals, and, eventually, to their employers, once companies began to extend healthcare benefits to domestic partners. After the term domestic partnership gained significant legal and popular recognition, partner became the default word for much of the LGBT community until same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States in 2015.

More recently, straight couples have started saying partner, with the term gaining most traction among young people in highly educated, liberal enclaves. On certain college campuses, several students said, it would come across as strange, even rude, to use the terms boyfriend or girlfriend in lieu of the more inclusive, gender-neutral partner.

“At Harvard, everyone is very polite and liberal,” Bronski said.

The clearest explanation for the word’s spike in popularity is the lack of any other good options. Unmarried people in serious relationships, in particular, face a gaping linguistic hole. Boyfriend and girlfriend are too high school. Significant other sounds like it belongs on a legal document. Lover connotes too much sex for everyday use; companion, not enough.

Partner, on the other hand, implies a set of values that many couples find appealing.

“It’s a word that says, ‘We are equal components of this relationship,’” said Katie Takakjian, a 25-year-old lawyer based in Los Angeles, who started using the term partner while interviewing at law firms. One of the youngest students in her law school’s graduating class, Takakjian told me, she worried the word boyfriend could make her seem even younger.

If you get married in your 20s, and you’re part of a college-educated crowd, it might feel old-fashioned or even embarrassing to admit you’re married.

— Andrew Cherling, Professor at Johns Hopkins University For a long time, a wedding was the only way to signal the depth and seriousness of a romantic relationship, said Amy Shackelford, founder and CEO of the feminist wedding planning company Modern Rebel.

“But we work with couples who get married six years, nine years, 12 years, after they started dating,” she told me.

“You think they weren’t serious before then?”

The word partner, she said, gives couples the power to publicly announce a lasting adult commitment, without an engagement or a wedding. If the couple does decide to get married, the ceremony itself serves not to solidify the relationship, but to celebrate it, surrounded by family and friends.

Many couples continue to use the word partner even after they’re married.

Shackelford, who got married in November, has a visceral negative reaction to

the words husband and wife.

“Those words carry a lot of baggage,” she said, conjuring 1950s images of the man who comes home expecting dinner on the table; the woman who bears sole responsibility for raising the children.

If Takakjian gets married, she also plans to continue using the word partner, especially at work.

“There is still so much societal pressure for a woman to step back at work once she gets married,” she said.

Takakjian worries about the stereotypes that partners at her firm – many of whom are white men over 50 – associate with the word wife.

“They might think, ‘Now she’s probably thinking about babies, she’s probably going to quit. We don’t need to put her on the important cases, we don’t need to give her as many opportunities.”

The word partner, Takakjian said, could be one way to challenge those assumptions.

The growing preference for partner over husband and wife could suggest a shift that goes beyond labels and language.

When Time magazine asked readers in 2010 whether marriage was becoming obsolete, 39 per cent said yes – up from 28 per cent when Time posed the same question in 1978.

Millennials, who are marrying later in life than any previous generation, increasingly view the institution as “dated,” said Andrew Cherlin, a professor of sociology and the family at Johns Hopkins University.

“If you get married in your 20s, and you’re part of a college-educated crowd, it might feel old-fashioned or even embarrassing to admit that you’re married.”

Because today’s young newlyweds are far less eager to trumpet their marital status, he told me, they’re gravitating to partner.

But some members of the LGBT community are skeptical.

“It’s a joke we all know,” said Sean Drohan, a teacher based in New York City who identifies as gay. “If I was making a movie for a gay audience, and a straight couple introduced themselves as partners, that would definitely get a laugh.”

For most of his life, Drohan told me, he assumed he’d never be able to get married and struggled with which words to attach to his romantic relationships, present and future.

His father, he remembers, used the word lover, which felt awkward and strangely disparaging. Gay people, he said, “have had the experience of treading weirdly over different words,” ultimately finding partner. “That was our word,” he said, “and it kind of sucks for other people to want in on that.”

He is especially dubious of people who use the term as what he calls a “performance of wokeness,” an attempt to publicly showcase their progressive worldview.

“If they want to say partner, people of relative privilege should take a moment to reflect on their word choice,” Coco Romack wrote for Broadly last fall. “It never hurts to check yourself by asking, ‘why am I choosing to identify this way?’”

Drohan knows many straight people have good answers to that question. He finds the most obvious one particularly compelling.

“There is no non-marriage marriage term, for anyone,” Drohan said. “So on a logistical level, partner just makes sense.”

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Highland spring fling offers life lessons Home Again Megan kuklIs

I

was suckered into signing up for a dance festival.

Not for me, (although that would be interesting), but for my daughter who has fallen under the spell of Highland Dance.

When I was a young girl, I was briefly in ballet and when I was around 10, I joined tap for some unknown reason.

Highland Dance was never something that I thought about, or really noticed, but I vaguely remember that my cousins Highland danced when we were kids.

In my young and carefree years as a young adult in university, I joined a belly dance class and I absolutely loved it. I loved the blingy costumes, the music, the sisterhood and the way that my body grew stronger and more flexible.

Plus, it was really fun.

Being able to shimmy was a fun party trick that no one asked me to do. I was not able to continue belly dance with any sort of regularity after I had kids because the classes started (started!) at 8:30 p.m. in the evenings.

Who wants to leave the house again at 8:30 p.m.? I sure didn’t and, as such, my own dancing career has fallen by the wayside. (When I say dancing career, please note that it was never actually going to be a “career” for me, but instead a fun way to exercise and to get out of the

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The infamous Highland socks as seen during the 2015 Reel North Highland Dance Competition at the Civic Centre. house). But I still love dance.

I love ballet and contemporary dance.

I love watching So You Think You Can Dance once the wretched auditions are over and they get on with the beautiful dancing. My kids love to dance and we regularly have dance parties in the evenings to shake the sillies out before bedtime.

When I put the kids in dance last year, hip hop for my son and ballet for my daughter, I just wanted them to enjoy learning more about dance and to get some fun exercise. It has been great.

Rarely do they complain that it is time for dance and they like to practice the “sweet dance moves” that they learned

that week. When I asked them in September if they wanted to join dance again this year, the answer was a resounding “Yes!” My daughter wanted to do ballet again and she also wanted to learn to dance, like “the girls with the socks.”

Not knowing anything about Highland except for the fact that I liked the socks too, we agreed and signed her up for Highland as well as ballet.

Little did I know that those socks cost around $200. And those cute little tartan kilts, oh, they run around $800 new.

Luckily, there are lots of used costumes floating around and the other dance families are happy to help you learn the ropes, borrow clothes and understand

this baffling new language of stamps and Scots Dance cards and exams and such. It is a lovely community and I am grateful for the other moms that are helping me and the older girls who are such lovely role models for my little girl.

I was feeling weak when my daughter’s teacher had suggested she join a festival so she could learn what competitive dancing was like in a supportive environment.

“It will be good for her,” she said.

“She’s ready,” she said.

Sighing, I asked, “How much?” and off we went during the coldest morning in February to the Civic Centre for a Highland Dance competition.

We were really proud of our girl.

She wasn’t nervous and went up on stage and gave it her all with another little girl from her studio.

The only issue was that our sweet girl thought she was going to win first place. I explained that because she only just started dancing, she might not win and I asked her what was she going to do if one of her friends won instead.

She thought for a moment and then said that she would clap for them and tell them “good job.”

When she didn’t place, she held herself together onstage and clapped as the other girls who had been dancing for years received their trophies and only when she came back to the audience did she start to cry. We hugged her and told her we were proud of her.

And we are.

Maybe it is good for her – $200 socks are a small (not really small) price to pay for something that makes her try her best and light up from the inside.

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Prince George ready for PAra Nordic WOrlds ted clarke 97/16 staff

John Huybers has seen his Caledonia Nordic Ski Club host big events like the Canada Winter Games in 2015 and Canadian cross-country ski championships in 2005.

But never has Otway Nordic Centre gone global as host of an international event like it will this weekend with the start of the World Para Nordic Championships. Otway is wired for sight and sound and the host Caledonia club prepared to let a worldwide internet audience see for themselves what the city has to offer as a ski destination.

“It’s our first world championship and Caledonia Nordic is used to big competitions, but this is being livestreamed into Europe, so literally there are millions of viewers and it’s a great way to advertise northern British Columbia and Prince George itself, for its facility” said Caledonia club president John Huybers.

“People are going to see the ski club on TV in Europe and know about Prince George.”

As soon as it was announced in December 2016 that Prince George had won the right to host the event, the wheels were already in motion. The club latched on to $350,000 provincial tourism grant to help pay for a $250,000 snowmaking system which was installed late last year.

While the big dumps that came right around Christmas mean artificial snow won’t likely be needed for the 10-day event, it will be there as a legacy to help attract future championships.

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John Huybers, president of the Caladonia Nordic Ski club, talked about government funding at Otway Nordic Centre in January 2018.

“As a condition for hosting this event we needed to put snowmaking in, which gave us a huge base, and conditions are fantastic right now,” said Huybers.

“There’s the slight negative of the cold weather but we can’t do anything about that.

“It’s going to stay cool but we shouldn’t have to cancel anything. We have two training days that we can move around in case we lose any days to cold weather. We have the advantage that we’re starting the events 10 a.m., which is dinnertime in Europe, and that’s what they want, prime-time viewing.”

The WPNC combine cross-country skiing and biathlon and in both disciplines

there are three race categories – sitting, standing and visually-impaired. The races begin Saturday with the 10- and 12.5-kilometre biathlon events. Crosscountry takes the spotlight Sunday at Otway with free technique 10 km and 7.5 km events. Races follow on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Races start at 10 a.m. and will be done by 4 p.m. each day.

Cross-country racers will compete in four events – freestyle sprint, middistance, long-distance classic technique, open/mixed relay. Biathletes will have three events – sprint, individual and middistance.

Medal ceremonies will follow on each race day at 7 p.m. and the Prince George Civic Centre auditorium. The hour-long opening ceremonies start this Friday at 6 p.m. at Canada Games Plaza.

While there will be free parking available at the site, there is a park and ride bus shuttle service to Otway that leaves twice daily from the Aquatic Centre (8:30 or 9 a.m., and 11 a.m.) and a return bus leaves from Otway twice a day (noon and between 2 and 4 p.m.).

The event is staged every two years.

Local organizing committee chair Kevin Pettersen got a firsthand look at what it takes to host a Para Nordic World Cup last year in Canmore and also attended the 2017 WPNS in Finstrau, Germany.

“Finstrau is a very sparsely-populated area near the Czech Republic and it was kind of like a resort community so they had logistics (problems) around getting teams from all these little pensions and hotels, 40 or 50 minutes away, to the venue and back,” Pettersen said. “I think we’re real fortunate here for how close we are to our airport to our downtown to the venue.

“A lot of the pieces are coming together now. We were all along going to have live streaming and the International Paralympic Committee kicked in extra money so we can do everything we had envisioned.

We wanted to be able to showcase and promote Prince George with video vignettes of the city and they’re totally on board with that, so that will go out around the world. We’ve been pushing the frontiers with the IPC in a lot of ways and I think they are appreciating it that we are taking it to the next level.”

Pettersen and his committee have done their homework creating a brand that’s helping to market the event which has won the approval of the IPC and they’re ready for the athletes, some of whom are already in Prince George testing out the slopes at Otway.

The Korean team arrived last week and skiers from the Ukraine and Great Britain were out testing the trail on the weekend. Team Canada was due to arrive on Monday. Most of the athletes raced a month ago at the IPC World Cup No. 2 in Ostersund, Sweden, Jan. 12-19.

The 13-member Canadian team includes skier/biathlete Mark Arendz of Hartsville, P.E.I., a World Cup and world championships multi-medalist, and visually-impaired skier Brian McKeever and his guide Graham Nisikawa, both of Canmore. McKeever, Canada’s most decorated Paralympian, will be making his return to Otway Nordic Centre, having first raced there in the 2005 Western Canadian cross-country championships.

McKeever is the top-ranked visuallyimpaired male cross-country skier in the IPC world list, while Arendz is second in standing-skiing biathlon and fourth in cross-country.

Also on the Canadian team list are: Emily Young (North Vancouver, standing cross-country/biathlon), ranked third in the world in cross-country and ninth in biathlon.

The team also includes Natalie Wilkie (Salmon Arm, standing cross-country); Ethan Hess (Pemberton); Collin Cameron (Sudbury, Ont.); Brittany Hudac (Prince Albert, Sask., standing crosscountry, biathlon); Russell Kennedy (Canmore, ski guide); Derek Zaplotinsky (Smokey Lake, Alta., sit-skiing); Kyle Barber (Lively, Ont.); Simon Lamarche (Quebec, ski guide); Yves Bourque (Bécancour, Que., sit-skiing); Jesse Bachinsky (Kenora, Ont., visually-impaired skiing).

The first World Cup event of the year was held December in Vuokatti, Finland, where athletes were tested to determine each individual’s level of impairment for the rest of the season.

The classification is based on activity limitations and which muscles they can use and each athlete is assigned a percentage used as a multiplier to determine final times in races.

The timing software takes into account the level of impairment and figures out the adjusted times. In sprints, which utilize a hunter start format, athletes with a higher level of impairment start the race ahead of those with less impairment and whoever gets to the finish first wins.

The event will feature 120 athletes from 19 countries bringing 60 support staff for six days of competition. The participating countries are: Canada, United States, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Tajikistan, and Ukraine.

Russia and China won’t compete in Prince George and three of the smallest teams from Brazil, Croatia and Switzerland also declined invitations.

Russia is still under competition ban which expires March 15 for doping violations during the 2018 Olympics. China is in a diplomatic squabble with Canada and the United States over the arrest of Hauwei executive Meng Wanzhou and won’t be sending its team.

“We have the strongest teams here,” said Pettersen. “It’s not like the ones that dropped out were big strong teams.

Ukraine, Canada and Norway are all here and it will be the best of the best.”

More information is available on the event website at www.2019worldparanordic.ca.

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How to prepare a draft separation agreement b.c. provincial court

When couples separate, they have options for creating a separation agreement – they can use a lawyer to negotiate or engage in private mediation, and now they can use an online resource, the MyLawBC Dialogue Tool, to prepare a draft for review by lawyers.

The Legal Services Society (LSS), B.C.’s legal aid provider, has recently improved its Dialogue Tool, one of the interactive, online pathways on the MyLawBC website.

One factor to consider when deciding which option to use is whether there has been violence in the relationship or whether there is any court order restricting contact with the other party. In that case you should definitely talk to a lawyer first, since communicating through the Dialogue Tool may be inappropriate or prohibited by the court order.

The Dialogue Tool helps you create a separation agreement that addresses your family’s needs. You make important decisions about your children, money, home, and other property.

You start with an intake process where you answer questions about your situation and set out your ideas for the future.

You create an account to do this, and your information is saved. Once you finish this step, MyLawBC sends an email to your ex-spouse inviting them to join in the process.

If you both finish this step, the system looks at your and your ex-spouse’s answers and creates a custom template separation agreement for you both to fill out.

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MyLawBC offers a diaglogue tool for those seeking a separation agreement.

Your custom agreement includes legal clauses, with blank spaces where you and your ex-spouse add your own information. During this negotiation process, you and your ex-spouse can leave online messages for each other as you work out the finer details of your agreement.

The Dialogue Tool also contains links to helpful resources about child support, parenting time, tips on negotiation, and more.

Once you both agree on every detail, you can download a completed separation agreement for you both to sign.

Once signed, the agreement is legally binding, so it’s important to have a law-

Where have the social conservatives gone?

A

cross my Facebook feed this week, a meme of U.S. President Donald Trump, smiling benevolently and words from his State of the Union address: “let’s work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life. And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth; all children, born and unborn, are made in the image of Holy God.” Trump?

A poster boy for social conservatism?

Ask nearly every public figure and politician and you will know that there is an ever-lengthening list of topics they can’t be seen to have an opinion on, or feel forced to affirm some new idea cooked up by those idealists cooking up ever better ways for us to get along so that we don’t have to ever disagree (gasp!) on anything, because of the political risk.

Perhaps the reason for Trump’s popularity among social conservatives lies in the fact that Trump funded his own nomination run, and so owes no man anything, and can say whatever he wants?

Or maybe because, like other unprincipled politicians before him, he will say whatever he needs to get re-elected?

So we are left with this very odd picture, this aberration of this serial adulterer, verbal brawler, with a quick trigger finger on Twitter, and whatever else you may wish to call him, being used as a poster boy for what is arguably the most conservative political position on our continent.

Wasn’t there anyone else?

Thinking aloud Trudy klassen

Reminds me of another 2016 U.S. election meme “America, really, you have 350,000,000 people and these are the best two you could come up with?

Where have all the social conservatives gone?

Or maybe a better question is why don’t they speak up?

Have social conservatives become lilylivered?

Can’t defend those views?

Or are just too nice?

Preston Manning’s book Faith, Leadership and Public Life lies on my coffee table.

I need to actually read it but already I have found intriguing ideas: “The abolitionists working with Wilberforce were zealous for the cause... but they didn’t rely exclusively on these elements in communicating their cause. They also meticulously and assiduously armed themselves with the facts, and this required research – exhaustive, thorough, and comprehensive research.”

A meme about the value of human life deserves better than someone so widely known to be so combative, but why is he the only world leader willing to say what probably most other leaders privately think?

yer look over the agreement before you sign it. One way to find lawyers willing to provide this service is to check Unbundling.ca for its list of BC lawyers providing unbundled services or see Finding a lawyer or legal advice at provincialcourt. bc.ca.

Since MyLawBC’s launch, LSS gathered feedback about the Dialogue Tool from both real-world users and user testing sessions.

Based on this feedback, they made a number of improvements to the tool.

Some of those changes are to the tool’s backend and may not be readily apparent.

Here are some you might notice: • The questions asked during the intake process are rearranged to follow an order that users thought was more natural.

• The legal clauses given to users are updated to make them easier to understand.

• A new section shows the original text of the legal clauses in the template so you can refer back to it after you edit them.

LSS has heard a lot of positive things about the Dialogue Tool, and hopes with these changes to hear even more. You can try out the improved Dialogue Tool or learn more about it on MyLawBC.com.

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Heroin, the wonder drug SIDEBARS TO HISTORY

WILLOW ARUNE

H

eroin is now recognized as a scourge of modern society. We spend millions of dollars annually on our attempts to stop distribution of the drug and more millions on treatment for those who become addicted.

But back when it was first synthesized in the later part of the 19th century, it was viewed as a wonder drug for the treatment of pain and many illnesses. It was sold over the counter without any prescription.

Opium was the source. By 1805, the painkillers morphine and codeine had been derived from opium. With the growing concern of addiction, morphine – then not thought to be addictive – was used to treat opium addiction. Overtime, the addictive nature of morphine became known.

In 1874, an English chemist developed a process to make an even more powerful painkiller from morphine. A contemporary study concluded that in animals the drug produced: “... great prostration, fear, sleepiness speedily following the administration, the eyes being sensitive and pupils dilated, considerable salivation being produced in dogs, and slight tendency to vomiting in some cases, but no actual emesis (vomiting). Respira-

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Mackenzie King saw heroin addiction spreading to Canadians in Vancouver, not just to Asians as first believed. tion was at first quickened, but subsequently reduced, and the heart’s action was diminished and rendered irregular.

Marked want of coordinating power over the muscular movements and the loss of power in the pelvis and hind limbs, together with a diminution of temperature in the rectum of about four degrees, were the most noticeable effects.”

Twenty years later, the Bayer Pharmaceutical Company in Germany, famous for its Aspirin, was able to produce this new painkiller commercially. The name

heroin probably comes from the German word “heroisch” meaning “large, powerful, extreme, one with pronounced effect even in small doses.”

It was viewed as a wonder drug and soon became almost as popular as the company’s Aspirin. Other drug companies soon copied the process and heroin flooded the marketplace.

Once again, it was thought that this new drug was not addictive.

Used to treat morphine addiction, it was popular as a painkiller. It was recom-

mended for all types medical issues and especially for children.

While opium was initially thought to be only a Chinese problem in Canada, Mackenzie King saw it spreading to other Canadians after he met with opium dealers in Vancouver. Starting with the Opium Act of 1908, Canada incrementally regulated and banned various drugs.

In 1914, the United States passed a law regulating the use of heroin and by 1924 the drug was totally banned.

There were two “heroin epidemics,” according to American medical reports, one in the 1940s and the other during the Vietnam War. Recently, some countries, including Canada, have used pharmaceutical-grade heroin to treat addiction to street drugs, a treatment returning to the initial reason for heroin’s development.

In Vancouver, the Crosstown Clinic provides heroin to registered users as England has done for almost a century.

It is believed that one in 10 addicts do not respond to the more traditional treatment such as methadone. For those affected finding a safe and supervised place is a way of avoiding the perils of street drugs and building a new life.

Under the Stephen Harper government, this treatment was banned; with increasing overdosing and deaths, the Liberal government cancelled the ban and the Crosstown treatment started up again.

Every new development brings both good and bad. The history of heroin serves as an example of good intentions gone very wrong.

Solution to: NFL Divisions

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These spectacular pants harken back to childhood robin givhan 97/16 wire service

97/16 news service photo by Maria Valentino

Rachel Comey fall-winter 2019 collection see red plaid quilted pants a fashion statement.

NEW YORK — If you grew up in an area where winter meant below-freezing temperatures and the occasional blizzard, then perhaps you have a strong memory of being zipped into a snowsuit – a quilted onsie of warmth. You wore it when the snow reached knee height. You wore it when you built a snowman and when you made snow angels. It was your snow day uniform. Sometimes the cuffs of the snowsuit had little clips where you could attach your mittens for easy access.

Snowsuits were both practical and a little bit ridiculous. The most famous snowsuit of them all may be the red one worn by Ralph’s little brother Randy in A Christmas Story, the one that made him famously howl, “I can’t put my arms down!”

If snowsuits are part of your past and you have fond memories of them, then you will be delighted by a particular pair of red plaid trousers created by designer Rachel Comey for fall 2019.

She paired them with a shimmering charcoal gray top, turning snow pants into a chic cocktail ensemble. But even if such Northern nostalgia is foreign to you

and all you see is quilting that vaguely recalls an old-fashioned bedspread, no matter. These pants still are delightful. They also happen to be constructed from a fabric woven from post-consumer water bottles.

The quilting was part of an eclectic collection that also included blanket coats, patterned sweaters that hint of a vintage store treasure hunt, plenty of plaids and a lot of sparkles. But there was something about the curving stitches and the delicate fluff of the quilted pieces that made them look especially inviting. They were cozy but also sophisticated.

Comey is the sort of designer who doesn’t play by the rules of trend forecasters and colour consultants. Her clothes always look as though they have emerged from some family scrapbook or private diary. They are her personal story and yet because they exude such humanity, they serve as a reminder that often the personal can be universal and that individual eccentricities and quirks are the things that make us compelling. Our clothes can tell the world who we are and they can remind us of who we used to be.

And a pair of quilted pants can bring us immense joy.

97/16 news service photo by Maria Valentino

Rachel Comey featured an eclectic collection that included blanket coats, plenty of plaids and a lot of sparkles.

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