February 2016 | Baltimore Beacon

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Brightening ill children’s days

Founding the foundation Started in 2002 by Casey Baynes, the Casey Cares Foundation provides ongoing programs for critically ill children and their families.

FEBRUARY 2016

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PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER MYERS

By Carol Sorgen When a child is critically ill, the entire family is affected, as Debi Katzenberger knows all too well. Her granddaughter, Kamryn, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004 and passed away three years later when she was just 8 years old.

As Kamryn endured treatments and innumerable hospital stays, her days were brightened by tickets to shows, birthday presents and other gifts from the Casey Cares Foundation — a Baltimore nonprofit that provides uplifting activities and support to children affected by cancer and their families.

“The organization made such a difference for our whole family during such a difficult time. They would say, ‘What do you need? What can we do?’” said Katzenberger, who lives in Glen Burnie.

After her granddaughter died, Katzenberger felt adrift after the all-consuming years of caring for Kamryn, so she decided to volunteer for Casey Cares. She started out helping with data entry.

But then Katzenberger thought about how a high point for her granddaughter was getting a new pair of pajamas so she didn’t have to wear a flimsy hospital gown.

So she developed and spearheaded a new project for the organization to provide pajamas to young hospital patients in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Pennsylvania. Called Kami’s Jammies, the program collected and distributed more than 6,000 pairs of pajamas last year. Each pair includes a tag about the program with a photo of Kamryn.

“When you’re 8 years old and pass away, you don’t really have time to build a legacy or to do something that helps people remember you were here. This [project] is something that definitely has done that” for Kamryn, Katzenberger said.

“When you lose a child, a parent’s greatest fear is that their child will be forgotten, and this assures she will not. So it helps them and it helps me, and it helps those kids in the hospital.”

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L E I S U R E & T R AV E L

Cozumel — beaches, diving, Mayan ruins and more; plus, budget travel to Russia, and how to bid online for hotel rooms page 23

ARTS & STYLE Terry Tacka (left) and Nancy Lund help coordinate the Casey Cares Birthday Blast program, which gives toys, stuffed animals, tickets and gift cards to critically ill children on their birthday. Baltimore-based Casey Cares works to brighten the days of young patients throughout the mid-Atlantic region, and to

While learning was always a challenge for Baynes due to her dyslexia, she nonetheless received her A.A. degree before graduating high school, graduated from Salisbury State in 1996 with a B.A. degree in Liberal Arts, and continued on to become the youngest master’s degree recipient at Towson State University in 1998 at age 20.

After graduating, Baynes worked in the nonprofit sector for several years, but then went on to help run her family’s 125-yearold trucking and warehousing business.

In 2000, after missing the sense of fulfillment she got from charity work, Baynes created the foundation. Under her leadership, it grew from serving a few families in Baltimore to now helping approximately 700 families in six states.

Most of the children are being treated for leukemia, brain tumors, cystic fibrosis, blood disorders, lymphoma, sarcoma and other childhood cancers.

The foundation arranges for a variety of outings — from a day at the zoo or a night at a concert, to a variety of art, entertainment and cultural activities. Since, due to weakened immune systems, many children can’t attend events in the community when they first return from the hospital, the organization sends the family pizza and a movie they can enjoy together in the comfort of their own home.

In addition, families may be provided sky box seats at baseball games, concert See ILL CHILDREN, page 28

A voyage back in time to Our Town with the Vagabond Players; plus, the book Our Souls at Night eloquently explores finding love late in life page 27 TECHNOLOGY k Our vulnerable power grid k Helpful links and apps

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FITNESS & HEALTH 7 k Growing ‘organoids’ for research k How genes affect drug reactions LAW & MONEY 17 k Organize estate records online k Best bonds for 2016 ADVERTISER DIRECTORY

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Out of pocket, Part II Last month, I wrote about rising pre- like to devote this month’s column to it. scription drug costs, and made the point First, I do believe it’s fair to say Medicare that a considerable portion of is prohibited from purchasing the cost of new drug developdrugs from foreign countries. ment is borne by taxpayers In fact, all Americans are (from the U.S. and other deprohibited from doing so, veloped nations). under current law, though I also noted that many very little is spent on enforcdrugs, including some of the ing the provision. newest “breakthrough” drugs, The chief justification used are available in other counfor this rule is that it protects tries for a small fraction of the Americans from unsafe and cost charged U.S. patients and counterfeit drugs. In truth, insurance companies. counterfeits are rife in much FROM THE I raised concerns about PUBLISHER of the world’s prescription By Stuart P. Rosenthal this state of affairs and asked drug-supply chain, and they some questions that I felt we can be notoriously difficult to should be discussing as a country. Then detect. The easiest way to keep them out is we received the following email from a to forbid all imported drugs.

Beacon reader, raising a different one: But that’s not to say we couldn’t come “In January’s Beacon, Stuart Rosenthal up with ways to ensure that we are importmentions that Gilead Sciences has an ing only safe, properly manufactured $84,000 treatment for hepatitis C that is drugs from select countries (such as Canaavailable in India for $300. I don’t know if da) if we wanted to. It’s been proposed anyone can answer this, but is Medicare many times as a way to save money, but prohibited by law to get this treatment has been shot down repeatedly. from India? And if Medicare does [so], Why has it been so difficult to change would that influence Gilead Sciences to the law? For one thing, U.S. drug manufaclower their price?” turers have lobbied hard against it.

This question raises a broader set of isPharmaceutical company manufactursues than I addressed last month. But it ers say that it costs $2.6 billion and more goes to the heart of the matter, so I would than 10 years of development to bring

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each new drug to market. They also note that the profits from successful new drugs must cover the development costs of many other potential new drugs that end up failing during clinical trials.

While that’s true, others note that drug companies spend much more on marketing than they do on drug development.

Furthermore, between paying high prices to support those development costs and underwriting most basic research through government grants, U.S. taxpayers end up footing most of the bill for the new drugs and treatments that are used to save and extend lives throughout the world.

But is that necessarily unfair? Americans’ standard of living is among the highest in the world. Our Gross Domestic Product per person is over $50,000 a year.

The GDP per person in the 30 poorest nations is under $3,000 a year. (India’s is less than $6,000.) Would it make sense to expect people whose income is so far below the average American’s to pay the same price for life-saving drugs as we do?

Furthermore, we engage in, and pay for, this research for our own benefit. If we stop supporting this research, who will take our place? Do we want these breakthroughs or not?

The question is whether Americans need to be paying as much as we do for new and existing drugs to keep drug companies doing necessary R&D. After all, Americans pay considerably higher prices for drugs than do patients in Canada, Germany and many other developed countries whose GDP per person is not significantly below ours.

This is partly due to the fact that U.S. law also prohibits Medicare from negotiating drug prices directly with manufacturers. Those other countries have national healthcare systems or mandatory insurance programs that can and do negotiate prices, resulting in considerably lower prices than Medicare pays.

U.S. law does permit the Veterans Administration and Medicaid (the healthcare program for poor Americans) to negotiate drug prices for their patients, and those programs typically pay 10 to 20 percent less for drugs than does Medicare. So we know negotiation works to bring down drug prices.

Why is Medicare treated differently?

Until 2006, Medicare didn’t even cover prescription drugs. When the Bush Ad-

ministration proposed adding Part D (prescription drug coverage) to Medicare, it specifically forbade Medicare from negotiating prices directly with drug companies in order to secure necessary support from Congress (and the pharmaceutical industry).

Instead, the program was built around private insurance companies which, it was argued, would do an even better job negotiating with drug manufacturers, and would produce a wider variety of options for consumers.

It has apparently not been true that drug prices have come down as much as they would have through program-wide negotiations. We continue to pay more for drugs in this country than we have to.

But the latter benefit — wider choice — has been achieved, and that’s not insignificant. As anyone who shops for a Part D plan knows, there are a plethora of choices in most markets, and different plans cover different drugs at different prices.

Were Medicare to negotiate as a whole for drug prices, we’d pay less, but there would be one national formulary, as in countries with national health plans.

In those countries, it is common for only certain brand-name drugs to be available, for their use to be limited to certain circumstances, and for generic drugs to be mandated whenever available. Patients who want or need a specific brand-name drug because other options don’t work for them may not be able to obtain coverage for those drugs at all.

For now, Americans can generally get the drugs they want if they choose the right Part D plan (though this may not be true if they get their medications through the VA or Medicaid, which have single formularies).

Candidates now running for national office are raising important questions about this subject, and it’s about time. Are drug companies profiting excessively at U.S. taxpayers’ expense? If so, what should be done about it?

Whatever we decide, we need to remind ourselves that our choices will have consequences. We can’t get something for nothing. Changing the current system will lower prices, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be other costs to bear.

Letters to the editor Readers are encouraged to share their opinion on any matter addressed in the Beacon as well as on political and social issues of the day.

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Technology &

Innovations U.S. power grid vulnerable to cyberattacks

By Grance Burke and Jonathan Fahey Brian Wallace, a security researcher at the cybersecurity firm Cylance, was on the trail of hackers who had snatched a California university’s housing files when he stumbled into a larger nightmare: Cyberattackers had opened a pathway into the networks running the United States’ power

grid. The attack involved Calpine Corp. — a power producer with 82 plants operating in 18 states and Canada.

Digital clues pointed to Iranian hackers.

And Wallace found that they had already taken passwords, as well as engineering drawings of dozens of power plants, at least one with the title “Mission Critical.” The

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drawings were so detailed that experts say skilled attackers could have used them, along with other tools and malicious code, to knock out electricity flowing to millions of homes.

Wallace was astonished. But this breach, the Associated Press has found, was not unique. The AP conducted more than 120 interviews looking at the vulnerability of the energy grid as part of a yearlong examination of the state of the nation’s infrastructure.

Cyberattacks designed to steal information are steadily growing in scope and frequency; there have been high-profile hacks of Target, eBay and federal targets such as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

But assaults on the power grid and other critical infrastructure aim to go a step further. Trained, well-funded adversaries can gain control of physical assets — power plants, substations and transmission equipment. With extensive control, they could knock out the electricity vital to daily life and the economy, and endanger the flow of power to mass transportation, military installations and home refrigerators.

According to a previously reported study by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a coordinated attack on just nine criti-

cal power stations could cause a coast-tocoast blackout that could last months, far longer than the one that plunged the Northeast into darkness in 2003.

Foreign governments involved About a dozen times in the last decade, sophisticated foreign hackers have gained enough remote access to control the operations networks that keep the lights on, according to top experts who spoke only on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter.

The public almost never learns the details about these types of attacks. They’re rarer, but also potentially more dangerous than data theft. Information about the government’s response to these hacks is often protected and sometimes classified; many are never even reported to the government.

These intrusions have not caused the kind of cascading blackouts that are feared by the intelligence community. But so many attackers have stowed away in the largely investor-owned systems that run the U.S. electric grid that experts say they See POWER GRID, page 6

Health Study Volunteers ❏ Diabetes and Breast Cancer Study (see article on page 14)

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For free materials on housing communities and health studies, just complete and clip this coupon and mail or fax it to the Beacon.

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For Scrabble and crossword lovers, the addictive and popular game app Words With Friends is a must.

Compete against other players and take turns building words, crossword puzzlestyle. Players receive notifications when it’s their turn to make a move. Facebook users can log in using their accounts and look up friends to compete against.

Words With Friends is free, and is available for Android devices and iPhones, as well as devices such as the iPad, iPod, Kindle Fire and Nook Tablets.

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Keep track of your weight, resting heartbeat and blood pressure with one of iPhone’s top-rated health apps: HeartWise Blood Pressure Tracker is an easyto-use app that illustrates your health trends.

You must take your measurements yourself and enter them, and relevant information can be imported from other apps. But then the app can generate a spreadsheet or text report that offers instant visualization of your health trends over time. It is an effective tool to show your doctor, or to simply keep track of your important health stats.

HeartWise Blood Pressure Tracker is available for $0.99 for iPhone. A similar program called simply Blood Pressure Tracker is available free for Android phones.

If you need help understanding your desktop/laptop, tablet, or have questions on how to perform a task on your computer, volunteer Alvin Miller will be available in the computer lab at the Catonsville Senior Center on Thursday, Feb. 18 from 10 to 11 a.m. to assist you. The center is located at 501 N. Rolling Rd., Catonsville. Call (410) 887-0900 for more information.

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APPS

Track your health stats

Feb. 18

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Readers looking for advice, resources and blogs about all things senior should explore Seniors Love to Know. This site ranges from lifestyle information, such as fashion and hairstyles, to financial and retirement planning, to wheelchair exercises.

All content on the site is accessible and simply written, and the text is large for viewing ease.

Not for those who dislike the term “senior.” http://seniors.lovetoknow.com

LEARN TO PLAY XBOX GAMES

Try the Bykota Senior Center’s new Xbox on Monday, Jan. 25 at 12:30 p.m. Never played with a gaming system before? Learn how. Meet in the lounge of the center, 611 Central Ave. For more information, call (410) 887-3094.

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In the know

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LINKS

Constantly keeping up with events like other people’s birthdays can be a challenge. Use the Happy B’day! — Birthday Reminder app to signal you when it’s a friend’s or loved one’s birthday.

Simply add names of friends and family and their date of birth, and the app will let you know when their birthday is coming up and how old they are turning. You even get a countdown of several days in case you want to plan ahead.

Users can also create original greetings cards, which can be sent (on time!) via social media or text message.

Happy B’day! — Birthday Reminder is available free for iPhone. Similar apps (Birthdays Reminder is one) are available free for Android phones.

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Birthday reminder

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Beacon Links & Apps

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Power grid

hack American power companies, a top Homeland Security official told industry executives last October.

From page 4 likely have the capability to strike at will.

In 2012 and 2013, in well-publicized attacks, Russian hackers successfully sent and received encrypted commands to U.S. public utilities and power generators.

Some private firms concluded this was an effort to position interlopers to act in the event of a political crisis.

And the Department of Homeland Security announced about a year ago that a separate hacking campaign — believed by some private firms to have Russian origins — had injected software with malware that allowed the attackers to spy on U.S. energy companies.

Private firms have alleged other recent hacks of networks and machinery tied to the U.S. power grid were carried out by teams from within Russia and China, some with governmental support.

Even the Islamic State group is trying to

An outdated, vulnerable system Many of the substations and equipment that move power across the U.S. are decrepit and were never built with network security in mind. Hooking them up to the Internet over the last decade has given hackers new backdoors in.

Plus, hundreds of contractors sell software and equipment to energy companies, and attackers have successfully used those outside companies as a way to get inside networks tied to the grid.

The rush to tie smart meters, home programmable thermostats and other smart appliances to the grid also is causing fresh vulnerabilities. About 45 percent of homes in the U.S. are hooked up to a smart meter, which measures electricity usage and shares information with the grid. Their security is flimsy. Some can be hacked by

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

plugging in an adapter that costs $30 on eBay, researchers say.

The attack involving Calpine is particularly disturbing because the cyberspies grabbed so much, according to previously unreported documents and interviews.

Cybersecurity experts say the breach began at least as far back as August 2013, and could still be going on today.

Calpine spokesman Brett Kerr said the company’s information was stolen from a contractor that does business with Calpine. He said the stolen diagrams and passwords were old — some diagrams dated to 2002 — and presented no threat, though some outside experts disagree.

Kerr would not say whether the configuration of the power plants’ operations networks — also valuable information — remained the same as when the intrusion occurred, or whether it was possible the attackers still had a foothold.

According to the AP investigation, the hackers got:

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— User names and passwords that could be used to connect remotely to Calpine’s networks.

— Detailed engineering drawings of networks and power stations from New York to California — 71 in all — showing the precise location of devices that communicate with gas turbines, boilers and other crucial equipment attackers would need to hack specific plants.

— Additional diagrams showing how those local plants transmit information back to the company’s virtual cloud — knowledge attackers could use to mask their activity.

Calpine didn’t know its information had been compromised until it was informed

by Cylance, Kerr said.

Cylance notified the FBI, which warned the U.S. energy sector in an unclassified bulletin last December that a group using Iran-based IP addresses had targeted the industry.

Homeland Security spokesman SY Lee said that his agency is coordinating efforts to strengthen grid cybersecurity nationwide and to raise awareness about evolving threats to the electric sector through industry trainings and risk assessments. As Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged in an interview, however, “we are not where we need to be” on cybersecurity.

That’s partly because the grid is largely privately owned and has entire sections that fall outside federal regulation, which experts argue leaves the sector poorly defended against a growing universe of hackers seeking to access its networks.

No one claims that it would be easy to bring down the grid. To circumvent companies’ security, adversaries must understand the networks well enough to write code that can communicate with tiny computers that control generators and other major equipment. Even then, it’s difficult to cause a widespread blackout because the grid is designed to keep electricity flowing when equipment or lines go down — an almost daily occurrence that customers never see.

Because it would take such expertise to plunge a city or region into darkness, some say threats to the grid are overstated — in particular, by those who get paid to help companies protect their networks. Still, even those who said the risks of cyber threats can be exaggerated agree it is possible for cyberattackers to cause a large-scale blackout.

Authorities say they take the threat seriously. Homeland Security said it had helped more than 100 energy and chemical companies improve their cyber defenses, and held both classified and unclassified briefings in June 2013 and late 2014 on threats to companies associated with power grid operations.

Still, even the utility companies’ own experts, who maintain it would be extraordinarily difficult for a hacker to knock out power to customers, admit there is always a way in.

“If the motivation is high enough on the attacker side, and they have funding to accomplish their mission, they will find a way,” said Sean Parcel, lead cyberinvestigator for American Electric Power.

— AP

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Health Fitness &

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BEAT CHEMO SIDE EFFECTS Common drugs may help protect your heart during cancer treatments NO MORE BAD HAIR DAYS Learn the many reasons hair falls out and strategies to stem the loss DIABETES AND CANCER LINK? A breast cancer study examines blood sugar’s role in cancer risk A SERIOUS DESSERT A not-too-decadent recipe of dark chocolate baskets filled with berries

Scientists grow ‘organoids’ for research

By Malcolm Ritter Dr. Sergiu Pasca, a neuroscientist, used to envy cancer specialists. They could get their hands on tumors for research, while Pasca could not directly study key portions of a living brain.

But these days, Pasca does the next best thing: He grows his own.

In his lab at Stanford University, thousands of whitish balls of human brain tissue float in hundreds of dishes. Each smaller than a pea, they were created from human skin cells, including some from people with autism. Each one carries the DNA of the person it came from, and each organized itself enough to form a part of the brain that interests Pasca.

He is hardly alone. Dozens of labs are growing lumps of human brain tissue for study, a practice that drew notice in 2013 when researchers said they had created “mini-brains” that contained multiple major parts of the fetal organ.

Just to be clear: Although brain cells in the lab-grown tissues show some activity, nobody has created fully functioning, adult human brains. The versions reported in

scientific journals mimic only one or more parts of a fetal brain.

(An announcement last August of a nearly complete brain comparable to a fetal one hasn’t been backed up by a journal article yet, and experts are withholding judgment until they can see the details.)

It’s part of a larger movement over the past few years to create “organoids” — miniature versions of the body’s organs or key parts of organs. Researchers have made organoids representing the intestine, prostate, kidney, thyroid, retina and liver.

Scientists say the technology holds great potential for studying the roots of diseases like autism and schizophrenia, testing possible treatments, tackling basic questions about evolution, and perhaps supplying replacements for transplants.

This approach “is a major change in the paradigm in terms of doing research with human tissues rather than animal tissues that are substitutes....It’s truly spectacular,” said Arnold Kriegstein, who studies the brain at the University of California, San Francisco.

Organoids “are poised to make a major impact on the understanding of disease,

and also human development,” he said.

New technique makes possible To grow lumps of brain tissue, researchers call on a technique that helped earn the Nobel prize in medicine in 2012.

Virtually all cells of a person’s body contain the same lineup of DNA. A skin cell differs from a brain cell because of differences in what genes were turned on, and when, during development.

The breakthrough lab technique provides a way to turn skin cells back into blank slates called iPS cells — a form of stem cell.

These iPS cells can then be turned into any cell of the body, as they respond to nudges from chemical cues they are exposed to.

For years, scientists have used this approach to make brain cells and other cells that lie on the flat surfaces of lab dishes.

The new wrinkle is to let the cells grow into three-dimensional clumps instead.

The cells don’t need much help to organize themselves. “They start communicating and signaling with each other,” Kriegstein said, specializing “in a way that starts looking like a developing human brain.”

But the cells don’t get cues from surrounding tissues that help an ordinary fetal brain organize itself, noted Madeline Lancaster of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. So while the 400 or so tiny “minibrains” floating in dishes at her lab contain many brain parts, she said, those parts are laid out in abnormal patterns.

“They are connecting to each other, and the different regions do seem to talk to each other. But not in the way a normal brain would,” she said.

Lancaster compares the patchwork layout to an airplane that has one wing on top, a propeller at the back, the cockpit on the bottom, and a wheel hanging off the side.

“It can’t actually fly,” she said. But “you can study each of the components individually and learn a lot about them.”

Studying autism and more A popular region to grow is the cerebral cortex — the wrinkly outer layer of the brain that is key for sophisticated thought.

See BRAIN TISSUE, page 8

Your genes affect your reaction to drugs

By Charis Eng Your doctor prescribes a medication. If you have a high risk of negative side effects, do you ask for something else instead? If you know the drug won’t work well for you, do you request more options?

These questions aren’t just hypothetical.

They’re at the heart of pharmacogenomics.

Pharmacogenomics is the study of how your genes affect your response to drugs.

If you have certain genetic variations, some medications might be too risky for you to take. Others might offer few or no benefits.

Yet others are just the right fit for you.

Rite Aid is already giving patients a chance to peek over their doctor’s shoulder with genetic tests that help determine the effectiveness of some prescriptions.

The drugstore chain is selling Harmonyx testing kits at nearly all of its stores. The kits cost between $49 and $89 without a prescription, and customers can use them to learn more about the effectiveness of medicines for cardiac conditions, cholesterol and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Customers who buy these kits swab their cheek to get a genetic sample, and then send that to Harmonyx. The company delivers results to the patient, his or her physician, and the drugstore pharmacist.

For perspective on this growing field, I turned to colleague and pharmacogenomics expert Kevin Hicks, PharmD, Ph.D. Below are a few things patients should know.

The fast metabolizer Sometimes, patients actually process drugs too quickly. Because of variations in a particular gene, these “ultra-rapid metabolizers” transform drugs swiftly in their bodies.

Unfortunately, this speedy process can lead to unexpected and exaggerated reactions.

Codeine provides the perfect example.

When you take codeine, your body actually turns it into morphine to relieve pain.

But if you have a certain variation of the gene CYP2D6, you may create morphine at a dangerously rapid pace.

The reaction is especially dangerous in children. Because of this, many pediatric

hospitals have removed codeine as a treatment option for pain.

Side effects with few benefits While some people metabolize drugs too quickly, others may have trouble processing them at all.

The CYP2D6 gene offers multiple examples again. In the case of codeine, some patients with a genetic variation don’t get much pain relief because their bodies don’t process the drug properly.

The same is true for antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). If you have a certain CYP2D6 variation, you may not respond to a certain SSRI, or may be more likely to have a side effect.

Knowledge changes care Knowing your genetic risk can actually change your care. That’s true for the examples above, as well as for a classic pharmacogene called G6PD, which doctors have known about since the 1950s. If you’re deficient in G6PD, you may have

problems with several drugs.

G6PD deficiency typically causes no symptoms. But it does cause red blood cells, which carry oxygen, to be slightly more fragile. When exposed to certain drugs — such as some antimalarial drugs and sulfa antibiotics — red blood cells in people with G6PD deficiency break. This leads to jaundice and the inability to carry oxygen around the body.

Because this effect is so well known, G6PD testing is usually performed before prescribing certain drugs. If you have a deficiency, doctors won’t prescribe some anti-malarial drugs or sulfa antibiotics.

What does the box say?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keeps a list of medications in which pharmacogenomics play a part.

However, fewer than 10 drugs rise to the level of a “boxed warning” — the FDA’s strongest warning. These include See GENES AND DRUGS, page 8

8

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Brain tissue From page 7 The tiny balls of tissue in Pasca’s lab were designed to mimic this region because of hints that it’s important in development of autism and schizophrenia.

While the effort to learn about disease with the technology is still quite new, some early hints are emerging. Dr. Flora Vaccarino of Yale University grew lumps containing cerebral cortex that were made with DNA from people with autism.

She found that a particular kind of brain cell is overproduced, and linked that to overactivity of a particular gene. Vaccarino cautions that she’s not claiming this is what causes autism, but Lancaster calls it “really very exciting.”

Cambridge’s Lancaster studies a rare and devastating disorder in which people

are born with small brains because they have too few neurons. Her work showed that “minibrains” made with DNA from these patients also turned out to be unusually small, and suggested why: The precursor cells that manufacture neurons go to work too early, so they peter out over time and can’t fulfill their quota.

That disease, called microcephaly, is a good example of why growing brain tissue can be a better way to study some conditions than studying mouse brains. The genetic mutations that cause the disease in people have little effect when introduced in mice.

The biology of other diseases, like autism and schizophrenia, may also be better mimicked in lab-grown human tissue, experts said.

And even if a disease can be reproduced in mice, their brains are different enough from ours that a treatment that looks good

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

in the rodent may not work for people, Kriegstein said.

Still, he and others said, the technique probably won’t replace mice completely in the lab. Mouse experiments are quicker and cheaper, he said.

Kriegstein also said it’s not clear what the lab-grown brain tissue can reveal about illnesses that appear late in life, like Alzheimer’s, because it models the fetal brain rather than the aging one. Lancaster said she believes it’s still worth a try.

Ethical issues down the road Diseases aren’t the only focus. Lancaster and Alysson Muotri of the University of San Diego, California, are tackling the evolutionary question of how our brains develop differently from those of other animals. So far, lumps of brain made with chimp DNA look a lot like their human counterparts at early stages of development, Muotri said.

Lab-grown brain lumps are limited in their growth and development because they lack a blood supply. That brake on

Genes and drugs From page 7 codeine (connected to CYP2D6) and the oncology drug rasburicase (connected to G6PD). Boxed warnings are more likely to trigger a test and raise awareness among doctors, pharmacists and patients.

So what’s a consumer to do? If you’re concerned about a prescription you receive, start by asking your doctors and your pharmacists these questions: Does your new prescription carry a genetic risk? If so, is a test available? Are you a candidate?

Even if they don’t know the answers right away, health experts can be a resource to help you find answers. Our processes for helping doctors understand this complex, growing field aren’t perfect

maturation helps keep them in a relatively primitive state, which means they are far from posing any ethical questions, researchers say.

“I don’t see any philosophical problem yet,” Muotri said. But “I don’t know what the future holds for us. We may be able one day to recreate the entire brain...and somehow put memories in there and let those minibrains think. I don’t know if that will ever be possible, but it is an interesting possibility.”

Hank Greely, who directs the Center for Law and Biosciences at Stanford, said the biggest issue would arise if scientists produce a brain organoid that could attain something like human consciousness.

That’s quite unlikely in today’s tiny versions, but might be possible down the road, he said.

Kriegstein agreed. “No one would have thought 10 years ago that we’d be able to do what we do now,” he said. “Another 10 or 20 years down the road, I have no idea how far along we will be.”

— AP yet. But they’re getting better.

For example, hospital systems such as the Cleveland Clinic have developed their own technology to make sure all doctors who touch your electronic health record see red flags for tests you’ve had and known medication risks. Cleveland Clinic also has an outpatient pharmacogenomics clinic.

Right now, electronic systems cover only a few medications. But with every new study — and with every new advance in genetic testing — the list grows stronger.

From WhatDoctorsKnow, a magazine devoted to up-to-the minute information on health issues from physicians, major hospitals and clinics. Online at www.whatdoctorsknow.com. © 2015 Whatdoctorsknow.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Additional information from AP.

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BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Health Shorts Heart drugs might protect cancer patients Many cancer treatments can damage the heart. A recent study suggests this risk might be lowered in women with breast tumors if they take a heart drug as a preventive measure during their cancer care.

Radiation treatments can harm arteries, making them prone to harden and clog and cause a heart attack. It also can cause valve or rhythm troubles. Certain cancer drugs, such as Herceptin and doxorubicin, sold as Adriamycin and other brands, can also hurt the heart.

“We give poison with a purpose,” because it fights cancer, but heart problems can be

“one of the dark sides of that,” said Dr. Ann Partridge, a breast cancer specialist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

As it stands now, cancer patients are referred to cardiologists after certain cancer drugs or radiation treatments have already weakened their hearts. But “if you wait until the disease has occurred, it may be too late” to do much good, said Dr. Javid Moslehi, of Vanderbilt University.

The study involved 120 women with early-stage breast cancer, and tested two drugs long used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure — candesartan and metoprolol. The drugs are available as generics and cost less than a dollar a day.

Women were given one or both drugs or dummy pills, and their hearts’ pumping capacity was assessed at various time points with MRI scans.

Heart damage worsened in the group on dummy pills. Metoprolol did not prevent heart decline but candesartan did, al-

though the benefit was small — an improvement of 2 to 3 percent in pumping strength compared to the placebo group.

“The effect was very modest,” so whether that prevents heart failure from developing down the road is not known, said Dr. Bonnie Ky, a cardio-oncology specialist at the University of Pennsylvania. Still, it’s a first.

As cancer patients are living longer, the risk of dying from heart problems actually exceeds that of cancer, so it’s important to prevent damage, Ky said.

Meanwhile, some doctors already are considering this tactic, especially in women taking drugs known to harm the heart or who already have some risk factors for heart problems.

“I get calls from the oncologists saying, ‘she’s at high risk, why don’t we just start it?’” Dr. David Slosky, a cardiologist at Van-

Ongoing

GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP

Valley Presbyterian Church in Lutherville sponsors a free 13-week non-denominational support program for people adjusting to the loss of a loved one. Participants can join the group any time during the course of the program. Contact the church at (410) 828-6234 or visit www.griefshare.org for a complete list of program locations, dates, and time schedules, as well as more information about the program.

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derbilt, said of preventive treatment.

“They’re pretty benign,” he said of the heart drugs the study tested. “The threshold, if somebody’s got a high-risk cancer, will be pretty low” to use them preventively, he said.

Heart advice for cancer patients can be found at www.cardio-onc.org.

Pot belly not good, even if not overweight New research suggests normal-weight people who carry their fat at their waistlines may be at higher risk of death over the years than overweight or obese people whose fat is more concentrated on the hips See HEALTH SHORTS, page 10

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I am a patient who had severe foot pain for 2 years, with no relief in sight....by the end of the 4 days I was 85% pain free in both feet. I thank God for Dr. Goldman and his passion for research in healing people with foot and leg pain.

After our rehab team worked with Mary, she was up on her own two feet, managing all of her own needs and, in no time, was discharged and back to her regular routine.

As an added bonus, ManorCare’s exercise regimen jump-started a weight loss which helped her to resolve her diabetes. Mary says, “Thanks to ManorCare, I feel great!”

– Alvin, Baltimore

As a podiatrist with over 30 years experience, I have always focused on non-surgical treatment of foot and leg pain. I find that most people with foot or leg symptoms (arthritic, aching, burning, cramping or difficulty walking) , even those who have had other treatments, including surgery of the foot (or back), can be helped, usually in 1 or 2 visits.

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Jan. 22+

U.S. LACROSSE CONVENTION

If you’re a lacrosse fan, this is your opportunity to meet members of Team USA, hear coaches and officials, attend educational clinics, and come away with lacrosse-related gear and gifts. The convention will be held Friday to Sunday, Jan. 22 to 24, at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Times vary. General admission is $10, but ranges up to $190 for fan activities. For more information, call (419) 649-7000 or visit www.uslacrosse.org/events/convention-and-fan-fest.aspx.

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From page 9 and thighs.

The study signals that the distribution of fat matters, whatever the scale says. “If the waist is larger than your hips, you’re at increased risk for disease,” said Dr. Samuel Klein, an obesity specialist at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis, who wasn’t involved in the new research.

The research also has implications for advising patients whose body mass index or BMI — the standard measure for weight and height — puts them in the normal range despite a belly bulge.

“We see this with patients every day: ‘My weight is fine’ they say. ‘I can eat whatever I want,’” said study senior author Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, preventive cardiology chief at the Mayo Clinic. “These results really challenge that.”

Risk increases for men if their waist cir-

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cumference is larger than 40 inches, and 35 inches for women. Still, doctors typically focus more on BMI than waistlines; after all, girth tends to increase as weight does.

But a BMI in the normal range may not give the full story for people who are thin but not fit — with more body fat than muscle — or who change shape as they get older and lose muscle, Lopez-Jimenez said.

His study analyzed what’s called waistto-hip ratio, dividing the waist circumference by the hip measurement. There are different cutoffs, but a ratio greater than 1 means a bigger middle.

Researchers checked a government survey that tracked about 15,000 men and women with different BMIs — normal weight, overweight and obese. At every BMI level, people with thicker middles had a higher risk of death than those with trimmer waists, the researchers reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.

In the study, 11 percent of men and 3 percent of women were normal weight, but had an elevated waist-to-hip ratio. They were at greater risk — for men, roughly twice the risk — than more pear-shaped overweight or obese people.

Abdominal fat — an apple-shaped figure — has long been considered more worrisome than fat that settles on the hips and below — the so-called pear shape.

Fat that builds around the abdominal organs is particularly linked to diabetes, heart disease and other metabolic abnormalities than fat that lies under the skin, said obesity expert Dr. Lisa Neff of Northwestern University, who wasn’t involved the study.

— AP

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BALTIMORE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP

The Baltimore Cancer Support Group, Inc. offers a safe, confidential setting in which to share your fears, concerns and problems, as well as your triumphs. Under leadership of trained professionals, weekly support groups give members an opportunity to exchange ideas, feelings, information and encouragement. Medical professionals often participate with the group, which meets Thursdays at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, 7910 Belair Rd. For a calendar of events, visit www.baltimorecancersupportgroup.org.

Jan. 28

DECLUTTER YOUR MIND

In “Organize your Mind, Organize your Life” learn how to keep your mind organized so that you can lead a more fulfilling life with less anxiety, less worrying, and more positive behavior. The program will be held in Room 119 of the Ateaze Senior Center, 7401 Holabird Ave., Dundalk, on Thursday, Jan. 28 from 10 to 11 a.m. Sign up at the front desk by Wednesday, Jan. 27. Call (410) 8877233 for more information.

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

11

Why your hair falls out and how to fix it I went to my favorite make-up store, and the outer edges of your eyebrows begin to took note of several women buying expen- thin or fall out. You may completely lose sive hair serums and shamyour eyebrows and eyelashes. poos to deal with hair loss. I Brows and lashes become didn’t want to be off-putting brittle and dry. Restoring thyand approach them with better roid hormone is the fix; learn suggestions, so I’m writing how in my book, Thyroid this article instead.

Healthy.

Save your money! Most of Iron deficiency — Iron is the ingredients listed on the measured usually via the prolabels, some of which are tein “ferritin.” When it is deficompletely made-up words, cient, your hair falls out do not grow or regrow hair, alfaster. Low iron goes hand in though they might make it DEAR hand with thyroid disease and PHARMACIST shinier and softer. the ulcer bug Helicobacter pyBy Suzy Cohen I’m all about “the fix” — not lori (H. pylori). the fancy label.

SHBG — This stands for Correcting a hormonal imbalance in Sex Hormone Binding Globulin, low levels your body makes regrowing hair easy. of which lead to hair loss. FYI, green tea Restoring nutrients that may be insuffi- raises levels of SHBG. cient due to the effects of drugs that reNow for the medications that cause hair duce them (what I call “drug muggers”) loss: can also help.

Chemotherapy — This causes hair to There are dozens of reasons for hair fall out. It usually grows back after your loss. This is why Minoxidil (as good as it treatment ends. The best way to offset is) doesn’t work for every individual. The chemo is to take supplements and eat root cause of hair loss varies from person foods that support mitochondrial health. to person.

Anticonvulsants — Carbamazepine is Let’s go over some possibilities. You one example. Antibiotics also crush biotin may assume that lab work is expensive, levels. When biotin is tanked, your hair but if it teases out the underlying cause, can fall out. Restoring probiotics and biotin it’s still cheaper than useless products. can improve hair regrowth.

First, the hormonal imbalances associatAcid blockers for reflux and hearted with hair loss: burn — I know this one is a real head Elevated estrogen or Estrogen Dom- scratcher! What do gut drugs have to do inance — This is sometimes referred to with your head? But this category of medas “testosterone deficiency” in the scientif- ications is a strong drug mugger of zinc, ic literature. When this imbalance is cor- and zinc is needed for healthy hair growth. rected, hair grows back. The goal is more Zinc is also needed for Superoxide Dismutestosterone, less estrogen. tase, a natural enzyme in your body that Hypothyroidism or Hashimoto’s — captures free radicals and escorts them This is a thyroid hormone imbalance and out. Corticosteroids like prednisone also it’s a biggie. When you’re “thyroid sick,” smash zinc.

Estrogen or menopausal drugs — These drugs are used for birth control and hormone replacement. The reason they affect hair growth is “estrogen dominance,” but for the final nail in the coffin, these drugs deplete almost all your B vitamins.

Taking a B complex can certainly offset the drug-induced nutrient depletion, but it only does so much. Improving estrogen metabolism and breakdown (or discontin-

uing the estrogen-derived medicine) is your fastest path to luscious locks.

This information is opinion only. It is not intended to treat, cure or diagnose your condition. Consult with your doctor before using any new drug or supplement.

Suzy Cohen is a registered pharmacist and the author of The 24-Hour Pharmacist and Real Solutions from Head to Toe. To contact her, visit www.SuzyCohen.com.

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Facing up to sibling rivalry after 80 years Dear Solutions: I’m 80 years old and have never written for advice in all these years.

My daughter said I should ask you.

She’s probably tired of hearing this.

When my grandmother died, she left only a few belongings to my mother, one of which was a tin matchbox.

My mother, in turn, gave it to my sister.

I remember this tin with great fondness, as I lived with my grandmother

and she raised me. Every night she’d pull a match from the tin to light a kerosene lamp.

When I see it at my sister’s house, I think of my grandmother. My sister hardly knew our grandmother.

One day, I asked my sister if I could have it. She said I couldn’t always get what I want.

This is very upsetting to me. Who do you think should get the tin?

— Mary

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HEALTH PROGRAMS AND SCREENINGS

The Baltimore County Department of Aging offers evidence-based programs, health education presentations, and screenings emphasizing wellness and disease prevention at senior centers throughout the county.

Topics include: vision screening, chronic disease self-management, hearing screenings, nutrition education, bone density screenings and blood pressure screenings. For more information, contact your local Senior Center or visit www.baltimorecountymd.gov/Agencies/aging/healtheducation.

Dear Mary: There’s gold in that thar tin — the gold of happy childhood memories! However, it sounds like there’s also the dross of sibling rivalry and resentment.

It may look like a simple tin, but it’s really an alloy of metals and emotions. The gold for you is in the memory. The gold for your sister is evidently in having something to withhold from you that gives her a certain amount of power and control over you.

As every divorce lawyer knows, the seemingly innocuous objects that people will fight over often have very little to do with the object itself (no matter what the sentimental value), but represent unfinished emotional business.

You and your sister are certainly of an age where you could try to put some of this business to rest. I would strongly urge both of you to seek some short-term counseling.

Meanwhile, I don’t know the circumstances. Why were you brought up by your grandmother while your sister hardly knew her? Why did your mother give the box to your sister? What is the underlying cause of this hostility between you and your sister?

I can only suggest that you try to find something you have that she wants and would be willing to trade for the matchbox.

Yes, I think you should have it. But remember, you can’t win this battle without finding out first what the fight is about.

Dear Solutions: Some time ago I read — I think it was in your column but I’m not sure — about a man who said he “fell out of love” with his wife, wanted to leave her and the children, and just feel free. He said he would visit the children, of course. She was devastated.

I don’t know how that turned out, but my advice would have been to insist that he take the children with him.

That’s what I did over 40 years ago when my children were small and my husband wanted to leave.

Okay, I said, but you’ll have to take the children because I’m not capable of taking care of them myself (a lie). I immediately packed a bag and told him I was ready to get out as soon as he wanted me to.

Oh no, he said, I can’t take care of them myself, either. This back and forth thing went on for a while and finally calmed down.

It’s now 40-something years later.

The children are long out of the house, my bag got unpacked when he said he “fell back in love” with me, and he’s still here with me.

— Hung In There Dear Hung In: Well, you can truly say your children kept your marriage together, since neither one of you would take them!

Falling out of love happens inside a marriage from time to time. Sometimes, just braving it out and hanging in there can change the atmosphere, and love can fall back in again.

And sometimes the one who thinks he really wants to leave needs a good excuse to stay. That doesn’t mean problems shouldn’t be looked at and dealt with, but you bought the time to do that. Great letter.

Thanks. © Helen Oxenberg, 2016. Questions to be considered for this column may be sent to The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915. You may also email the author at helox72@comcast.net. To inquire about reprint rights, call (609) 655-3684.

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LIBRARY ASSISTANCE AVAILABLE Personalized help is waiting for you with My Librarian, a program

at the Baltimore County Public Library that allows you to schedule a free 60minute appointment with a librarian. Get help with downloading books, audiobooks and magazines to your mobile device; job searches, résumés and email setup; database and genealogy research and much more. You can request an appointment online at www.bcpl.info/mylibrarian or in person at any of the 19 branches. For quick email or phone questions, use the Ask a Librarian service (bcpl.libanswers.com). For more information, visit www.bcpl.info/mylibrarian.

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BECOME A BIG SISTER OR BROTHER Jewish Community Services matches Big Brother or Big Sister mentors with children and teens ages 7 to 17. These relation-

ships are mutually rewarding and often develop into long-lasting friendships.

Studies have shown that youth who have mentors are less likely to drop out of school, less likely to become involved with alcohol and other drugs, and more likely to have positive relationships with family members. If you’re Jewish and looking to become a Big Sister or Brother, or interested in arranging for a child to have a Jewish Big Brother or Big Sister, call JCS at (410) 466-9200 or visit www.jcsbaltimore.org.

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

13

Dark chocolate and berry basket dessert

By Melissa D’Arabian If you were to join my family for dinner on a regular weeknight (go for it, but call first!), you’d see our typical dessert routine in action.

It works like this: My husband grabs my favorite tiny bamboo cutting board and a paring knife, while I grab a variety of fruit.

Then we sit with our four daughters, chatting about our days — sometimes enjoying an impromptu dance show from one or more of the girls — as we pass wedges of pears or whatever around the table. It’s sacred family time.

But sometimes a girl needs a serious dessert. And by serious, I mean chocolate.

Yes, I’ll sometimes satisfy this need by nibbling on a square of dark chocolate with my decaf espresso. That’s fine.

But for truly special occasions I whip up little edible chocolate bowls. They take just minutes to make using chocolate chips, and you can fill them with berries, your favorite fruit, or anything else you want. These little bowls are fun enough to make for kids’ sleepovers, yet elegant enough to serve at a dinner party.

I buy the darkest chocolate chips I can find (usually 60 percent) because I love the

almost-bitter flavor of darker chocolate.

Plus, it is healthier.

Once you master the (simple) technique of making these chocolate baskets, you can easily customize them, adding cinnamon, cayenne, rosemary, chunky sea salt, flecks of orange zest, whatever your imagination desires.

I usually fill my bowls with berries or inseason fruit (try lightly sautéed pears).

But feel free to treat them like super tasty tart crusts, and build even more decadent desserts in them.

Dark Chocolate Berry Baskets Start to finish: 30 minutes Servings: 8 1 cup dark chocolate chips 1 teaspoon coconut oil 2 tablespoons finely chopped toasted almonds Kosher salt 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (white, if you have it) 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar Ground black pepper 2 cups halved or quartered fresh strawberries (or other berries or orange segments, membranes and seeds removed)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint In a large glass or other microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate and coconut oil. Microwave on 50 percent power, stopping to stir every 30 seconds, until melted and smooth, about 3 minutes.

Spread a few spoons of the melted chocolate into a silicone cupcake liner, using the back of the spoon to spread the chocolate up the side of the liner so it is evenly and thickly coated. Sprinkle the wet chocolate with a teaspoon of almonds and a tiny pinch of kosher salt.

Repeat with 7 more liners. Chill the chocolate until firm, at least 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together the vinegar, brown sugar and a pinch of pepper. Add the strawberries and

toss to coat. Let sit to allow flavors to meld for at least 15 minutes, or up to a few hours.

Immediately before serving, stir the mint into the strawberries, remove the chocolate baskets from the molds and spoon in the berries.

Nutrition information per serving: 170 calories; 90 calories from fat (53 percent of total calories); 10 g. fat (7 g. saturated; 0 g. trans fats); 0 mg. cholesterol; 40 mg. sodium; 23 g. carbohydrate; 3 g. fiber; 20 g. sugar; 3 g. protein.

Food Network star Melissa d’Arabian is an expert on healthy eating on a budget. She is the author of the cookbook, Supermarket Healthy. More information at www.melissadarabian.net.

— AP

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Health Studies Page

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

THE PLACE TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION ON AREA CLINICAL TRIALS

Are diabetes and breast cancer linked?

By Carol Sorgen The link between obesity and adultonset diabetes has been well-documented in studies. Now researchers are investigating the relationship between the high insulin levels that can accompany obesity and/or diabetes and the risk of breast cancer.

Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore is participating in a National Cancer Institute-funded study to research the link between insulin resistance and breast cancer prognosis in African American and Caucasian women.

The role of insulin Insulin helps the body make use of the glucose (blood sugar) that results from digesting food. Insulin resistance means the body needs high levels of insulin to respond properly to the food we eat.

According to Dr. Nina Bickell, co-director of the Center for Health Equity & Community Engaged Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, African American women are more likely to suffer from obesity, and obesity often goes hand in hand with insulin resistance. In addition, she said,

Do your legs feel tired, painful, or cramp when you walk?

Men & women are needed to participate in a research study of exercise and weight loss at the University of Maryland / Baltimore VA Medical Center.

You will receive medical and fitness evaluations.

Call 410-605-7000 ext. 5431 Mention code: ACTION

African American women tend to get more aggressive forms of breast cancer and have higher mortality rates from the disease.

The study taking place at Mercy seeks to determine whether racial differences in insulin resistance are responsible for more aggressive breast cancers, which may explain some of the higher mortality rates African American women with breast cancer experience.

In a study published last year in the journal Cancer Research, researchers reported on insulin’s role in breast cancer risk.

More than 3,300 women without diabetes were studied; 497 of them developed breast cancer over the course of eight years.

The study showed that high fasting insulin levels doubled the risk of breast cancer, both for overweight and normalweight women. In addition, women who were overweight and insulin-resistant were 84 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than overweight women who weren’t insulin-resistant.

Because of Baltimore’s significant African American population, Dr. Neil Friedman, director of the Hoffberger Breast Center at Mercy Hospital and principal investigator of the study there, believes that the Mount Sinai study can

prove useful in developing prevention and treatment options.

Taking part in the study The study will evaluate 1,286 participants in six hospitals through November 2017. Mercy is the only hospital in Maryland participating in the study.

Participants should be African American or Caucasian women with a diagnosis of new invasive breast cancer, who are not taking medication for diabetes, and who have not yet begun active breast cancer treatment.

Those who are approved for the study will make one visit to Mercy Hospital.

They will take part in a brief survey, have measurements such as weight and height taken, and provide blood and tissue samples, which are taken during breast cancer surgery. Each participant will receive a gift card as a thank you for taking part in the study.

Taking part in the study does not affect treatment. Information gathered will be used for the development of future prevention and treatment plans.

For more information, or to volunteer to participate, call (410) 332-9330 or (410) 951-7950 or visit www.mdmercy.com.

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

GEROME AND HIS CIRCLE

The Walters Art Museum hosts an exhibit on late 19th-century French academic artist Jean-Leon Gerome through Sunday, Feb. 7.

The museum is located at 600 N. Charles St. and is open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.thewalters.org or call (410) 547-9000.

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Popular spices can reduce appetite, fat

By Karen Asp As the mercury drops, what better way to add warmth than by spicing up your favorite cold-weather foods?

Apple pie wouldn’t be the same without cinnamon; spicy ginger punches up soups; zippy black pepper jazzes up roasts; and aromatic vanilla adds extra oomph to baked goods.

But spices do more than just add flavor.

They also serve up unique health benefits.

Although you probably know ginger best as a stomach soother, it may also help you feel fuller and even burn more calories.

When overweight men ate breakfast with ginger “tea” (powdered ginger dissolved in hot water), they felt more satisfied and ate less throughout the day than men who were given the same breakfast with just hot water, said research in the journal Metabolism. Plus, the men who drank ginger tea burned about 40 calories more just digesting their meal.

Pepper and ginger fight fat

Vanilla cuts appetite

The most popular spice in the United States may be an ally in your battle against holiday weight gain. A substance in black pepper called piperine may help block the formation of new fat cells, according to a recent study on mice from the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

If you’ve hit the trails or gym a little too hard recently, a sprinkle of cinnamon may help you recover faster. Women who ate about 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon (or ground ginger) every day for six weeks experienced a decrease in muscle soreness brought on by exercise, found research from the International Journal of Preventive Medicine.

There’s plenty to love about the flavor that vanilla adds to baked goods. Sniffing that delicious aroma can also help put the brakes on your sweet tooth.

Overweight individuals who wore a vanilla-scented patch on the back of their hands for four weeks cut their intake of sweet foods (like sugary drinks and high-calorie desserts) in half, while people in the study who wore a lemon-scented patch or no patch showed no change in eating habits.

“Vanilla helps offset the pleasure derived from sweet foods,” said Catherine Collins, R.D., lead study author and principal dietiSee POPULAR SPICES, page 16

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Seeking Men and Women The University of Maryland & Veterans Affairs of Baltimore are conducting a research study to better understand balance & prevent falls as we age.

With your participation you will receive: • Health evaluation • Balance, step, strength, and/or flexibility exercises • Compensation for your time

For Information, please call the Baltimore VA/University of Maryland Gerontology Recruitment Phone Line

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16

Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

‘Heart age’ reveals risk of future problems

By Mike Stobbe Your heart might be older than you are.

A new government report suggests chronological age is just a number — and perhaps not a very telling one when it comes to your risk of heart attack or stroke.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report takes a new approach to try to spur more Americans to take steps to prevent cardiovascular disease. CDC scientists estimated the average “heart age” of men and women in every state, based on risk factors like high blood pressure, obesity, and whether they smoke or have diabetes. Then it compared the numbers to average actual ages.

The results?

Nearly three out of four U.S. adults have a heart that’s older than the rest of their body, according to CDC calculations.

For U.S. men on average, the predicted heart age was nearly eight years greater than their real age. For U.S. women, it was

about five-and-a-half years.

“This is alarming. Heart disease is the nation’s number one killer,” said the report’s lead author, CDC scientist Quanhe Yang. “But the bottom line is you can do some very simple things” to become younger at heart, he said.

The leading cause of death Each year, one in four U.S. deaths is due to heart disease. Many are heart attacks and strokes. The average age of first heart attack is about 64 1/2 for men and 72 for women, according to the American Heart Association.

The nation’s heart disease death rate has been falling thanks to advances in prevention and treatment, including drugs to control blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

But heart disease remains America’s leading cause of death, and health officials have been pushing to get more people to control their weight, quit smoking, and take other steps to help their heart and blood vessels.

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The CDC is leading a “Million Hearts” campaign, launched in 2012, to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.

CDC scientists were intrigued by a heart age calculation developed by other researchers who were conducting a large study in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Some research has indicated that Framingham heart age calculations have resonated more with patients than have more conventional medical warnings, so CDC researchers used the Framingham model — and CDC national survey data — to produce the first report on heart age across the nation.

“It gives a stark, simple picture of your future risk of having — or dying from — heart attack or stroke,” said CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.

The estimates were specific to adults 30 to 74 who have not had a heart attack or stroke.

Mississippi has the highest proportion of adults with advanced heart age, followed

by West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and

Popular spices From page 15 tian with St. Georges Hospital in London.

To get a similar effect and to help you avoid overindulging on holiday sweets, light a vanilla-scented candle in your

Alabama. Those states also have higher rates of smoking, obesity, and other heart disease risk factors.

Utah and Colorado had the lowest proportions of people with a heart age five years or greater than their actual age, followed by California, Hawaii and Massachusetts.

Maryland and Virginia fall in the middle.

The study also found that for blacks nationally, heart age was 11 years greater than actual age. The gap was much smaller for whites and Hispanics.

Find your own heart age CDC also officials shared the Framingham study’s online heart age prediction calculator for individuals to assess themselves. People have to know their systolic blood pressure — the higher of the two measurements — to generate an estimate.

The CDC report is available at www. cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heartage/index.html.

Calculate your heart age at bit.ly/ calculate_heart_age.

— AP kitchen or wear a vanilla-infused body spray or perfume.

EatingWell is a magazine and website devoted to healthy eating as a way of life. Online at www.eatingwell.com. © 2015 Eating Well, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Say you saw it in the Beacon

Money Law &

17

LIQUIDITY CONCERNS New regs may make it difficult to cash in a bond fund when you want to YOUR ESTATE DOCS ONLINE Several websites offer storage and organization for estate planning documents BEST BOND STRATEGY Bonds are still worth holding; learn some safe ways to maximize yields RETIRE GRADUALLY? More options for phased retirement are on the horizon for older workers

A guide to organizing your estate records As I’ve emphasized before, one of the employer’s name, address, phone number, best legacies you can leave to your loved human resources contact and website. List ones is a well-planned estate. Part of that is all benefits you or your beneficiaries are making sure your important entitled to, from current and estate documents are organformer employers, and identiized for easy access. fy the location of all docuThis is the topic of a useful ments related to these benebook, Get it Together by fits.

Melanie Cullen and Shae Irv• Healthcare directives. ing (published by Nolo), These are legal documents inwhich advises on creating a dicating your wishes for medcomprehensive plan with ical care in case you are unyour attorney and organizing able to speak for yourself. all your important estate docThere are two relevant docuTHE SAVINGS uments. ments. One is a living will — a GAME The number and variety of written statement that indiBy Elliot Raphaelson necessary documents can be cates to medical personnel the daunting, as the following list type of care you want if you suggests. should become incapacitated. The second • Employment. For each job you cur- is a durable power of attorney for healthrently hold, have a file that includes the care, which allows you to appoint someone

you trust to be your healthcare agent.

Their job will be to ensure you are provided with the care you need.

• Durable power of attorney for finances. As with a healthcare power of attorney, this one lets you appoint someone to manage your finances for you should you be unable to make decisions for yourself. You may provide your agent with as much authority as you wish — such as paying everyday expenses for you and your family, handling transactions with banks and other financial institutions, managing your retirement accounts, and buying and selling insurance policies and annuities.

• Organ donation. If you want to donate organs or your body, you need to take some steps to make your desires known.

For example, you can obtain an organdonor card to carry at all times by registering online with a donor registry.

• Burial or cremation. Your family members will want to know if you want your body to be buried or cremated. Advance arrangements will make it much easier. In addition, you can also document your wishes regarding the timing of the cremation or burial, as well as your preferences regarding a memorial service.

• Wills and trusts. Cullen and Irving have a comprehensive chapter discussing how wills and certain trusts work, with a detailed discussion of the advantages of specific types of trusts, including methods to avoid probate. (These methods should be discussed with your attorney.) An important section discusses factors you should consider in selecting executors and trustees. Include in your records a list of each key estate-planning document, with See ORGANIZE, page 18

What financial paperwork to keep or toss Dear Savvy Senior: • Utility bills when the following month’s How long should a person hang on bill arrives showing that your prior payto old receipts, stock records, tax re- ment was received. If you wish to track utilturns and other financial ity usage over time, you may documents? I have accuwant to keep them for a year. If mulated boxes full of such you deduct a home office on papers over the years, and your taxes, keep them for would like to get rid of seven years. some of it now that I’m reTo avoid identity theft, be tired. sure you shred anything you — Getting Organized throw away that contains your Dear Getting: personal information. It’s best This is a great time of the to use a crosscut shredder year to get rid of unnecessary rather than a strip one. The SAVVY SENIOR or outdated paperwork and to latter leaves long paper bands

By Jim Miller organize your records in that could be reassembled. preparation for filing your tax return in the Keep for one year spring.

• Paycheck stubs, in order to check the Here’s a checklist of what to keep and what to toss out, along with some tips to help accuracy of the W-2 you’ll get in January.

• Bank statements (savings and checkyou reduce your future paper accumulation. ing accounts) to confirm your 1099s.

What to toss quickly • Brokerage, 401(k), IRA and other in• ATM receipts and bank-deposit slips vestment statements until you get your anas soon as you match them up with your nual summary (keep longer for tax purposmonthly statement. es if they show a gain or loss).

• Credit card receipts after you get your • Receipts for healthcare bills, in case statement, unless you might return the item you qualify for a medical deduction. or need proof of purchase for a warranty.

• Credit card statements that do not have Keep for seven years a tax-related expense on them.

Supporting documents for your taxes,

including W-2s, 1099s, and receipts or canceled checks that substantiate deductions.

The IRS usually has up to three years after you file to audit you, but may look back up to six years if it suspects you substantially underreported income or committed fraud.

Keep indefinitely • Tax returns with proof of filing and payment. You should keep these for at least seven years, but many experts recommend you keep them forever because they provide a record of your financial history.

• IRS forms that you filed when making nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA or a Roth conversion.

• Receipts for capital improvements that you’ve made to your home until seven years after you sell the house.

• Retirement and brokerage account annual statements as long as you hold those investments.

• Defined-benefit pension plan documents.

• Savings bonds until redeemed.

• Loan documents until the loan is paid off.

• Vehicle titles and registration information as long as you own the car, boat, truck or other vehicle.

• Insurance policies as long as you have them.

• Warranties or receipts for big-ticket purchases for as long as you own the item, to support warranty and insurance claims.

Keep forever Personal and family records — such as birth certificates, marriage license, divorce papers, Social Security cards, military discharge papers and estate-planning documents (power of attorney, will, trust and advanced directive). Keep these in a fireproof safe or safe-deposit box.

To reduce your paper clutter, consider digitizing your documents. Scan them and then convert them into PDF files so you can store them on your computer and back them up onto a USB flash drive, external hard drive, and/or online storage site like icloud.com or carbonite.com. [See also “Websites that help organize estate docs,” on page 29.]

You can also reduce your future paper load by switching to electronic statements and records whenever possible.

Send your questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

18

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FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

Beware hidden dangers in bond funds

By Eleanor Laise Regulators and money managers are raising alarms about a growing threat to bond funds and their investors. The concerns revolve around “liquidity” — the ability to buy or sell a security at a decent price within a reasonable period of time.

As a result of new regulations enacted since the financial crisis, broker-dealers — the bond market’s middlemen — have sharply curtailed their trading activities.

At the same time, corporate bond issuance has surged as companies seek to take advantage of ultra-low interest rates.

So in a larger market with fewer middlemen facilitating trades, it’s getting tougher for mutual funds to buy and sell bonds.

That can become a real problem if rising interest rates or other market events prompt investors to stampede out of bond funds. A fund struggling to quickly sell bonds to meet investor redemptions may have to dump holdings at fire-sale prices

— triggering a vicious cycle of falling bond prices and investor panic.

More difficult to trade That means it’s increasingly important for investors to understand what their bond funds hold — and how difficult it can be to trade those holdings.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in September proposed new rules that would require funds to maintain a minimum level of highly liquid assets. The proposed rules would also require funds to disclose the percentage of their total holdings that can be converted to cash within three days.

Low liquidity is not a new issue in the bond market. Many bond issues are small and rarely change hands, and riskier, lower-quality bonds have always been tougher to trade. But liquidity problems have grown more acute in recent years.

As investment-grade corporate bond issuance has soared, corporate bond turnover

— a measure of trading volume relative to the size of the market — has declined steadily, according to a T. Rowe Price report. And while “the high yield market has always been illiquid, in the investmentgrade and Treasury market, it’s new to have less liquidity,” said Elaine Stokes, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles.

To adapt to a lower-liquidity market, some funds have set up lines of credit they can tap if shareholder redemptions surge.

Others are holding more cash and highly liquid high-quality bonds.

“On the worst days, when bonds are quoted down the most, not a lot is trading,” Stokes said. “But as things start to recover, that’s when people start to let go of the bonds.”

Assess your exposure As a bond-fund investor, you probably can’t avoid liquidity risk altogether — at least, not if you want to get a decent yield.

“There is a trade-off,” said Sarah Bush, di-

Organize From page 17

-

details regarding the professional (if applicable) who helped prepare each document.

• Insurance. Identify any life insurance policies you own, including the associated coverage and contact information.

Also indicate the location of all policies.

Cullen and Irving offer detailed information about the different types of life insurance policies available, annuity alternatives, and an in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of long-term care insurance.

• Retirement plans and pensions.

List all plans and pensions, including current ones and those you expect to collect from later. Identify the location of the plan documents. Your executor will have to noti-

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rector of manager research for fixed-income strategies at Morningstar. “You get paid for taking liquidity risk.”

You can, however, get some sense of your funds’ liquidity risks by delving into the portfolio holdings. Review each fund’s quarterly reports, or go to Morningstar.com to stay up-to-date on current holdings. Cash, Treasuries and high-quality agency mortgages are generally the most liquid holdings, Bush said.

Check out the fund’s cash allocation. A large cash cushion offers some reassurance that the fund can easily meet large shareholder redemptions. Yet some funds have virtually no cash. In a recent study, the SEC found that at least 10 percent of municipal-bond funds hold no cash or have a net negative cash position.

Look at how much the fund has allocated to lower-quality bonds. A BB-rated See BOND FUNDS, page 19

fy the plan administrators of your death, and file claims for any outstanding benefits.

• Secured places and passwords. Almost everyone today uses passwords, access keys and PINs. Your agent, executor or survivors will need access to this information. The book includes an important section discussing who should have access to your safe deposit box.

If you haven’t established a comprehensive estate plan or haven’t taken the time to organize your records in a way that will help your executor, trustee, agents and survivors, now is the time to do it. Get it Together will help you do it the right way.

Elliot Raphaelson welcomes your questions and comments at elliotraph@gmail.com. © 2015 Elliot Raphaelson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

19

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Websites that help organize estate docs

By Sally Abrahms Websites that organize and store all of your important documents in one place are the latest in just-in-case insurance. If you become disabled or die, loved ones are just a click away from the financial and estate-plan information they need.

Of course, you can store your paper documents in boxes, file cabinets and safe deposit boxes — and hope family members can sort everything out during a crisis. But these websites can make life for your loved ones easier.

Depending on the site, you can collect and upload wills, deeds, healthcare directives and powers of attorney. You also can store passwords, financial-account information, and the names of your advisers.

You can even leave instructions for your funeral.

All of these sites are encrypted for safety. You name two or three people who have full or partial access to information. You can provide full access to a spouse, let’s say, while limiting an adult child’s access to certain sections.

And you can specify under what conditions someone gets your information — such as only after you die or become incapacitated.

Estate Map (www.estatemap.com). Joe Henderson, a Minneapolis estate lawyer, knows from experience that people are “leaving all sorts of assets on the table”

after they die. Bank accounts and property in safe deposit boxes often go unclaimed because heirs don’t know about them.

Henderson, who created Estate Map in 2014, said many people don’t think about disability or who will get access to their information when they’re incapacitated.

Rather, people often keep critical documents “in a desk drawer, hoping the right person finds it at the right time,” he said.

His Website divides the data into three categories: information on assets, the estate, and personal health and life. Estate Map costs $96 the first year and $24 a year to renew.

Everplans (www.everplans.com). Cofounder Abby Schneiderman said she doesn’t think of the site as a “platform before you die, but a place to organize all details of your life when you are living.” That could include informing people where to find an extra set of keys.

You first take a short, personal assessment, including your marital status, ages of children, and whether you have a will and healthcare directives. Then you receive customized recommendations on what to tackle first.

Everplans provides links to sites where you can download legal and health forms from your state. You can also attach copies of legal documents you’ve already pre-

Bond funds

Look to 2008 for its financial-crisis performance, as well as May through August 2013, when the market tumbled as the Federal Reserve wound down its bondbuying program. If the fund suffered more than its peers, it may have bigger troubles in any future liquidity crunch.

All contents © 2015 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

From page 18 bond with a lot of issuance may be much easier to trade than a junkier CCC-rated bond. Be wary if the fund’s yield is well above its category average, “because lessliquid bonds tend to pay more,” Bush said.

Finally, check how the fund has performed in past periods of market stress.

pared.

There’s space to write your own obituary and to upload a photo for your obit.

And you can leave a letter to your family or instructions about possessions.

Launched in March 2014, the site offers a free version as well as a premium version that costs $75 a year. With the free model, you can’t upload documents, but you can read 2,000 articles on estate and end-of-life planning. A premium user can store documents and gets access to live chat support.

The Torch (www.thetorch.com). Those skittish about putting sensitive documents online can use The Torch. This site doesn’t ask for personal information, such as account numbers. Instead, it allows at least two people you’ve designated to know what documents you have and where to find them.

Lenore Vassil, a former corporate technology executive, founded the company in

2012. In her research, Vassil learned that people are often reluctant to put a lot of personal information online. “My sister doesn’t need to see a copy of my will, she just needs to know I have it,” she said.

The Pro or Lifetime version ($24 a year, or a one-time charge of $144) allows you to upload the location of your Social Security card, birth certificate, safe deposit box and other information.

You can also create virtual notebooks on a number of topics, including what a loved one will need to know about your car, real estate, pet and people in your life.

A free version provides basic information, such as whether you have a retirement account or insurance. If you don’t have these assets, your family won’t go scrambling to find them.

All contents © 2015 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

BEACON BITS

Jan, 28

TAX-FREE INCOME Michael Crabb with Synergy Financial Group will talk about how to

keep more of your hard-earned income on Thursday, Jan. 28, from 10 to 11 a.m. at the Pikesville Senior Center, 1301 Reisterstown Rd. For more information, call (410) 887-1245 or email pikesvillesc@baltimorecountymd.gov.

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FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

The best bonds for your portfolio in 2016

By Jeffrey R. Kosnett As the Federal Reserve finally starts to gently raise interest rates, and fear and loathing reach a fever pitch in bond-land, I am reminded of a column that appeared in a well-known business magazine in December 2013, just before Janet Yellen’s confirmation as Fed chairman. It began, “Bonds are going to get killed. Are you ready?”

My reaction at the time: Poppycock. Now, two years later, my view hasn’t changed much.

Bonds will not get slaughtered in 2016 any more than they were clobbered in 2015, mauled in 2014, or creamed over any extended period in recent memory. And that’s because, no matter what the doomand-gloom crowd opines, interest rates will not skyrocket (bond prices and rates move in opposite directions).

Rates won’t climb much because global economic growth is tepid and inflation re-

mains persistently low. A strong dollar also keeps rates low because it encourages foreigners to buy our Treasury notes and corporate bonds.

All this buttresses my view that low rates and bond yields are an entrenched fact of life and will be around for the rest of this decade. [Not everyone agrees with this view. See “Beware hidden dangers in bond funds,” on page 31.]

My yield forecast: Cutting to the chase, I expect the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond to range from 2.0 percent to 2.75 percent in 2016 (compared with 2.2 percent in early November).

It’s true that if and when the Treasury prints 2.75 percent on a new bond due in 2026, an existing 10-year bond will lose roughly 6 percent of its market value. But bond prices and yields will bounce all year within that range. A temporary 6 percent hit is no more cause to boycott bonds than

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the 2015 correction in share prices was reason to quit stocks.

Invest in these core funds For 2016, I suggest that you adhere to a core-and-satellite strategy. The core of your bond portfolio should be a high-grade, medium-maturity mutual fund or exchange-traded fund. Fidelity Total Bond (symbol FTBFX, 3.1 percent yield), a member of the Kiplinger 25, is a solid choice. If you prefer ETFs, use Pimco Total Return Active ETF (BOND, 2.8 percent), a member of the Kiplinger ETF 20.

Then target corners of the vast bond marketplace that pay you the most extra income for the least amount of risk. (Tax-exempt municipal bonds are the leading example.)

Next, look at debt with maturities of two to five years. Even as the Fed kept overnight rates near zero through last October, shortterm yields have quietly been rising.

You can buy short-term and intermediate-term bonds directly, or use funds — such as Kip 25 member Vanguard ShortTerm Investment-Grade (VFSTX, 1.8 percent) or DoubleLine Low Duration (DLSNX, 2.1 percent) — that mostly hold bonds in that range of maturities.

gram for students age 60 and older. For more information, visit www.ccbcmd.edu

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or call (443) 840-4700.

To aim for still higher yields, take advantage of the growing gap between yields of

long-term Treasuries and those of medium-grade corporates of similar maturities.

Many long-term corporates with triple-B ratings are now paying about 2.5 percentage points more than comparable government debt. That means you can get yields of about 5 percent on IOUs from solid, though not pristine, borrowers.

I sense that yields of 5 percent on tripleB bonds are more than enough to attract such key buyers as banks, insurance companies, and Europeans who cannot abide the Continent’s invisible yields.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see total returns of 7 percent in this area in 2016. A solid fund with about two-thirds of its assets in bonds with triple-B ratings is T. Rowe Price Corporate Income (PRPIX, 3.3 percent).

I am much less sanguine about highyield (junk) bonds because of the heavy representation of energy companies in the junk-bond market. Unless oil prices unexpectedly rally, we could be facing a raft of defaults in the energy patch.

Stick with investment-grade bonds over the coming year.

Senior Editor Jeff Kosnett is also the editor of Kiplinger’s Investing for Income, a monthly newsletter that focuses exclusively on this topic.

All contents © 2015 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

21

Workers seek phased retirement options

By Adam Allington Roberton Williams’ plan was to retire on his government pension and take a parttime job to make up the difference in salary. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Williams, 68, did retire, but then started another full-time job with the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank. “The plan was to work full time just until I got my feet wet,” Williams said. “But I ended up working full time for the next nine years.”

He’s far from an aberration. Many aging baby boomers are caught between a desire to work less and a labor market that just isn’t ready to let them go.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17.7 percent of people 65 and older are still working in some capacity, compared with 11.7 percent in 1995.

Of course, part of this increase could be due to a growing fear felt by many Americans about financial insecurity during retirement. Survey data has shown that fears about outliving one’s savings are factoring into retirement planning.

That is even prompting 34 percent of workers age 60-plus to say they plan on working until they die, or are too sick to work, according to a recent Wells Fargo survey.

Some workers just want a gradual transition, whether for financial reasons, or just to keep working jobs where they can still contribute and help train the next generation.

Slightly more than 40 percent of U.S. workers hope to cut back hours or transition to a less demanding position before retirement, according to a 2015 report from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

Phased retirement One option offered by a small number of employers is “phased retirement,” which allows retiring workers to go part time while

also mentoring their incoming replacement, providing for a smoother transition.

The Society for Human Resource Management puts the number at 8 percent.

In other cases, employers are eschewing formal arrangements in favor of shortterm contracts.

“One thing we see is that employers are increasingly able to tap into a more flexible labor market, rather than going through formal HR structures,” said Jean Setzfand, AARP’s senior vice president of programs. “So having hard-and-fast rules for this can be difficult.”

For federal workers, Congress passed legislation in 2012 creating a phased-retirement program, and the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, formalized the rules last year.

But to date, OPM has only finalized 16 applications for phased retirement. These are from workers at the Library of Congress, NASA, the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Energy Department. It expects to soon receive 12 more from the Smithsonian Institution — that’s from a federal workforce where 45 percent of employees are age 50 or over.

OPM has stressed that it is up to individual federal agencies to decide when and if they will offer a phased-retirement option to their employees.

Tancred Lidderdale, 62, is one of the initial 16 federal workers who chose phased retirement. He works for the Energy Department as an economic forecaster, applying highly complex mathematical models to oil and gas markets. He’s played an integral part in building these models over the past two decades.

“I know our agency would miss me,” Lidderdale said. “They knew I was thinking about retirement, and mentioned this

option as a way to help pass on what I know before I leave.” Lidderdale will work part time for the next two years.

But after nearly three years of waiting, many other federal workers are wondering if the program will arrive in time for them.

“We have people with over 35 years of experience waiting to retire here, and it’s a shame that many of them could walk out the door without the ability to pass on that knowledge,” said David Maxwell, 64.

Maxwell is an air quality specialist with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Maxwell said if the bureau does offer the program, he’d be interested.

In a statement, BLM said the Interior Department recently issued guidance and “expects to complete a draft phased-retirement policy by the spring of 2016.”

Reasons for delays One explanation for the ongoing delays is that agreements must first be struck between management and labor unions.

Email and phone requests for comment to AFGE, the largest federal labor union, were not returned.

There are also just basic difficulties of scale. How do you offer the same option to all workers when not all jobs are created equal?

“A lot of these people who would qualify

for phased retirement are senior staff and managers,” said Jessica Klement, legislative director for National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE). “How do you allow someone who is managing a department to take off two days per week?”

Klement said union members are calling asking when phased retirement will come to their agency. “I just don’t think there is a strong desire from federal agencies to do this,” she said.

In the private sector, some older workers looking to spend less time in the office are simply leaving one job for another.

Sally Korth, 65, has spent almost 40 years in the healthcare industry — first as an emergency room nurse and later as an executive overseeing the transition to electronic medical records for large corporate accounts.

“I was working 60 to 70 hours per week.

One Christmas I was spending some time with my kids and grandchildren, and I just thought, ‘What am I doing?’”

So, Korth took a new job for significantly less pay, and recently scaled back her hours to four days per week. “That extra day off is huge,” she said.

As for Roberton Williams, he hopes to cut back to four days a week next year — and then finally retire at 70, “whether I like it or not.”

— AP

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Law & Money | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

How high earners can contribute to a Roth IRA

By Rachel L. Sheedy Want to put money into a Roth IRA, but can’t because your income exceeds the threshold for contributions? There’s a “backdoor” strategy you can employ.

That’s how Paul Missel is building a taxfree pot of retirement money. Missel, 59, works for a pharmaceutical company in Fort Worth, Tex., and his income is too high to make direct contributions to a Roth. Instead, he makes nondeductible (after-tax) contributions to a traditional IRA, and later converts the money to a

Roth. There are no income limits for conversions.

Missel is a big Roth fan because the money grows tax free, and he will not have to take required minimum distributions when he turns 70 1/2, as he would with a traditional IRA. “It’s the tax liability of RMDs that’s driving me forward doing this,” he said.

Singles with adjusted gross income of more than $131,000 in 2015 (more than $193,000 for joint filers) cannot contribute directly to a Roth IRA. Taxpayers who are

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The rule and the work-around

UNITED SENIORS OF MARYLAND FORUM

United Seniors of Maryland will hold its annual forum on Wednesday, Feb. 3, at the President’s Conference Center, Main Floor West Wing, Miller Senate Office Building, 11 Bladen St., in Annapolis. The program runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The program includes a welcome from Gov. Larry Hogan, status of legislation affecting seniors, meeting with your legislators and more. Call Elizabeth at (410) 608-7966 or email ew@elizabethcoonbeyagency.com to volunteer or for more information. Fee for attendees is $15 and includes continental breakfast and a box lunch. Mail payment in full to USM, P.O. Box 1094, Sparks, MD 21152 or register and pay online at www.unitedseniors.net.

Jan. 25

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younger than 70 1/2 can contribute to a traditional IRA — up to $6,500 in 2015 for those 50 and older. You can convert contributions at any age.

Because those nondeductible contributions already have been taxed, the money can be converted tax free. But there’s a hitch if you also have deductible IRA contributions, said Wade Chessman, of Chessman Wealth Strategies, in Dallas. In that case, the “pro rata rule” comes into play, permitting only a portion of the Roth conversion to be tax free.

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Here’s how the pro rata rule works: You must figure the ratio of your nondeductible contributions to the total held in all of your traditional IRAs. Only that percentage of a conversion will be tax free. So if, for example, you have $10,000 of nondeductible contributions and $90,000 in deductible contributions, just 10% of a conversion is tax free. You will owe ordinary income tax on the rest.

But some workers may be able to circumvent the pro rata rule with what financial planner Kevin Reardon calls a “401(k) rollup.” If you participate in a 401(k) plan that allows you to roll IRA money into it, you can move all your deductible contributions and any pretax earnings into the 401(k).

Because employer plans only accept pretax money, just the nondeductible contributions will be left in your IRA — and you can do a tax-free conversion of that to a Roth, said Reardon, founder of Shakespeare Wealth Management, in Pewaukee, Wis. Reardon said the 401(k) rollup is an ideal move for investors who’ve made nondeductible contributions over the years. Perhaps you own one IRA with

$50,000 of nondeductible contributions that have grown to $80,000. The $30,000 of pretax growth would go into the 401(k), and the $50,000 of nondeductible contributions could be converted to a Roth tax free.

Those who are self-employed can do this strategy, too, with a solo 401(k).

Your spouse can help Another way to sidestep the pro rata rule: If your nonworking spouse doesn’t have a traditional IRA, you could make nondeductible contributions to a spousal IRA for her. She can then convert the money to a Roth tax free.

Because IRAs are not joint accounts, the husband’s traditional IRAs aren’t counted with hers when tallying up the wife’s traditional IRA balances, said Michael Kitces, the director of planning research at Pinnacle Advisory Group, in Columbia, Md. Whatever way you use the strategy, you want to show that each move is independent of the other — and waiting between the two steps is a way to do that.

But advisers differ on how long you should wait. Kitces said he advises his clients to hold off for a year. However, the longer you wait, the more the account may grow, which will increase your tax bill on the earnings when you convert. But assuming you plan to keep the money in the Roth for a number of years, Kitces said, “the fact you waited a year is irrelevant.”

Jeffrey Levine, IRA technical consultant with Ed Slott and Co., suggests waiting one statement cycle. The paperwork will show the money was put into a traditional IRA first, and you can get the money into a Roth sooner for tax-free growth.

All contents © 2015 the Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Say you saw it in the Beacon

Travel

23

Leisure &

Thanks to the weak ruble, now is a good (though cold!) time to see Russia on a budget. See story on page 25.

Cozumel — part Mexico, part Caribbean resident crocodiles in their lair, and by observing endangered sea turtle hatchlings making their way to the Caribbean waters where they will spend their lives.

Venture beyond tourist zone

© SHUTTERSTOCK/TONY MORAN

Most travelers to Cozumel begin their visit in San Miguel, where most island residents live. Once a sleepy village, it has evolved into a popular cruise ship destination, where passengers descend to patronize chain restaurants, jewelry stores and other shops near the docks.

My advice: Venture just a few blocks inland to find a more mellow setting that retains the heart and soul of the original community. There, sidewalks are lined by small, family-owned stores and eateries where locals go. El Mercado, the oldest market on the island, houses a warren of tiny shops and restaurants offering traditional food.

The Museo de la Isla de Cozumel (Cozumel Museum) introduces visitors to the island’s past and culture. Exhibits include a variety of ancient Mayan relics and a thatched hut, which provides insight into the domestic life of pre-Columbian civilization — noted for its hieroglyphic script, architecture and other advanced accomplishments.

In fact, Cozumel derived its name from the Mayans who settled there some 2,000 years ago. They believed the island to be the home of Ixchel (pronounced ee-shell’), the goddess of love and fertility.

According to legend, their construction of temples dedicated to Ixchel earned her gratitude, and in return she sent her favorite bird — the swallow — as a token of thanks. The Mayan words Kozom (swallow) and Lumil (land) were compacted to Kozomil (Land of the Swallows) and it stuck.

A more mundane explanation of the name is that it A Mayan dancer plays a flute and drum in Cozumel. Dance was a central component of social and political life for the Mayans who first settled this Mexican island 2,000 years ago.

© SHUTTERSTOCK/SCOTTEN

By Victor Block Much about the island of Cozumel says Mexico.

Scattered archeological sites hint of the rich Mayan civilization that once flourished there. Parts of San Miguel, the only town, retain the charms of typical villages that are common throughout the rest of the country on the nearby mainland. One of those is the Sunday evening gathering of people along the malecon (esplanade), where parents show off their spiffily dressed children.

At the same time, Cozumel also proudly proclaims “Caribbean.”

White sand beaches are fringed by stately palm trees. The center of the island is covered by dense jungle and swampy lagoons. Activities common to Caribbean islands greet visitors, from sunbathing to sightseeing to snorkeling.

Lying 12 miles off the east coast of Mexico, Cozumel is known for offering deep sea diving that’s among the best in the world. It’s ringed by an underwater wonderland of Technicolor coral heads and submarine gardens that are home to an almost unimaginable variety of sea life.

Non-swimmers may enjoy close-up introductions to creatures large and small in a glass bottom boat or mini-submarine, during a dolphin show, by checking out

Tulum is one of the best-preserved coastal Mayan ruins sites. The walled city, built 800 years ago, served as a fortress against enemies approaching by sea and is perched on top of a cliff 40 feet above the Caribbean Sea. It’s a popular day trip from nearby Cozumel.

refers to the large number of those birds that stop over during their annual migration from North to South America.

In the Mayans’ footsteps Visitors who explore reminders of Ixchel are following in the footsteps of the Mayans who made a religious pilgrimage to Cozumel. More than 30 archeological sites have been documented on the island.

Present-day San Gervasio was, and is, the most important setting. Sacbes (ancient elevated roads) connect several architectural complexes, including temples, an ossuary and ceremonial centers. Painted red handprints of unknown significance adorn the walls of the Temple of the Hands, and signs of a mural painting remain visible in another structure.

The name of another site, El Caracol (the snail), relates to a conch-shaped building which, according to folklore, acted as a whistle when strong winds blew through it to alert people of an approaching tropical storm. Another theory is that the structure functioned as a kind of lighthouse.

However, those in the know insist that neither of those tales is true.

One of the least impressive archeological sites became one of my favorite locations, but not because of the Mayan con-

nection itself. The temple at El Cedral was an important ceremonial place and the hub of Mayan life on the island.

When Spanish Conquistadors landed on Cozumel in 1518, they destroyed the structure, and the remaining portion provides little evidence of its past glory.

However, I found the charming village that surrounds the ruin, which is nestled in the dense jungle, to offer a pleasant contrast with the hustle and bustle of San Miguel. The unpaved streets lead past colorfully painted, miniscule houses that caught my fancy.

Beaches, parks — and pirates It’s also possible to find soothing settings at some beaches, while others are more developed and crowded.

There are inviting stretches of golden sand along the west side of the island, facing the mainland of Mexico. On the lessdeveloped, eastern (Caribbean Sea) side, quiet beaches are interspersed between rock-strewn areas, and the strong breakers and undertow discourage swimming.

Cozumel also is home to parks and preserves that show off both Mother Nature’s handiworks and man-made attractions.

The Faro Celerain Ecological Reserve, See COZUMEL, page 24

24

Leisure & Travel | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

Cozumel From page 23 which sprawls across the southern tip of the island, does both.

The park protects a mixture of mangroves, lagoons, coastal dunes and reef systems that provide a refuge for a variety of wildlife — including crocodiles, iguanas and resident and migratory birds.

Hardy folks who climb to the top of a towering more-than-century-old lighthouse enjoy magnificent views over the setting, while exhibits in a small museum at ground level are devoted to topics that range from maritime navigation to pirates.

Speaking of which, Cozumel once provided a safe haven for buccaneers who roamed the Caribbean Sea, including the notorious Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte.

At times, the cutthroats hid their ill-gotten treasures in the catacombs and tunnels of abandoned Mayan structures.

Chankanaab Park (Mayan for “Small Sea”) includes enough to-see’s and to-do’s to satisfy many interests. Visitors may stroll through a lush botanical garden, study the colorful inhabitants of a natural aquarium, and enjoy a close-up view of the only inland coral reef formation in the world. There are areas devoted to diving and snorkeling, and opportunities to swim with dolphins.

The complex also recognizes the pervading Mayan influence. It features dozens of replicas of archeological sites, and a

working Mayan house that brings to life daily chores of ancient times, like cooking, weaving and planting crops.

A more participatory experience awaits those who take part in a temazcal — a Mayan sweat lodge session that also is available elsewhere on the island. Warning: you will sweat more than you ever thought possible.

One of the most pleasant surprises during my visit to Cozumel with my wife Fyllis was how much I enjoyed the kind of attraction that I typically avoid. Why, I wondered, should we spend time visiting a Mexican cultural theme park when the real Mexico is just outside? As it turned out, I was happy that Fyllis insisted we check out aptly named Discover Mexico.

We began by watching a multi-screen presentation that traces the country’s history and describes its cultures. Then we admired a collection of native art and crafts created by artisans from around the nation.

This was followed by the main attraction. Our stroll through a setting of coconut palms, banana trees and other tropical vegetation, along pathways shared with turtles and iguanas, would have been reason enough for me to be glad we dropped by. But that was just the beginning.

The trail led to more than three dozen meticulously detailed scale models of Mexico’s most famous archeological sites and buildings. Replicas of structures from the Mayan, Aztec and Colonial periods stand near models of contemporary archi-

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tectural treasures like the magnificent Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.

Alternating with signs that offer information about the undersized edifices are others that provide interesting, if to me somewhat bizarre, tidbits. For example, I learned that Mexico has the highest consumption of Coca-Cola in the world, and that the Caesar Salad was invented in Tijuana. (Note to readers who may be skeptical of these claims: I verified them through an Internet search.)

Speaking of food, a variety of regional items is on the menu at the Visit Mexico snack bar, and where there’s food, there’s drink. In Mexico, that usually means tequila, which locals light-heartedly refer to as “Mexican water.” Visitors to the theme park have an opportunity to discover how tequila is made, then sample several different brands.

Sipping tequila is about as Mexican as it gets. So, too, is much about the island of Cozumel — which, at the same time, offers attractions usually associated with other Caribbean islands. That combination presents visitors with the best of both worlds.

If you go Few resorts immerse their guests more in the culture of the destination than the Presidente Intercontinental Cozumel Resort & Spa. The temazcal sweat lodge experience is just the beginning. Many signs throughout the hotel recall the Mayan language, like those for the adult swimming pool (sayab, ocean of tranquility) and

lobby bar (Bin K’iin, sunset).

Some traditional Mayan dishes are served in the main restaurant, and the spa incorporates ancient Mayan traditions into treatments.

Mayan art decorates guest rooms, and instead of a chocolate left on pillows, a pamphlet recounts a different Mayan legend each night. My favorite relates how Zamina, creator of the universe, fell in love with the Goddess Ixchel.

Rates at the Presidente Cozumel begin at $282, in keeping with its upscale ambience and attractions. For information or reservations, call 1-800-344-0548 or log onto presidentecozumel.com.

Among cuisines served at the hotel’s four restaurants are northern Italian, international fare and, of course, Mexican dishes. A more local dining experience awaits a short walk away at the casual Money Bar. Given its oceanside setting, the focus there is on dishes like seafood soup ($8) and fish filet with three side dishes ($12). More information is available by calling (987) 8695141, or visit moneybarbeachclub.com.

In San Muguel, the Casa Denis has been serving meals out of the family home at Calle 1 #132 Centro since 1945. The extensive menu includes snapper filet ($13), beefsteak with onions ($10) and chicken “10 ways” ($10). For more information, visit casadenis.com or call (987) 872-0067.

Information about Cozumel is available at www.cozumel.travel.

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Leisure & Travel

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

25

Weak ruble aids budget travel to Russia

By Cara Anna The ruble’s weak. The warnings about a complicated visa process turned out to be wrong, at least after a travel agency’s help.

And current geopolitical tensions make this a good time to temper headlines about Russia with experiences involving everyday Russians and places.

Consider the prices, at least outside the summer tourist rush: A round-trip air ticket between Washington and lovely St. Pe-

tersburg last fall cost less than $750. Prices this winter are looking about the same.

Hostel beds start at around $6. A balcony ticket to the ballet at the famous Mariinsky Theatre is about $10. Tickets for most runs of the high-speed, four-hour train between St. Petersburg and Moscow are around $55.

Three weeks of exploring western Russia left me with the following impressions, along with a number of useful words and phrases.

(By the way, make the effort to learn the Cyrillic alphabet, which doesn’t take long. It helps in getting adjusted and in buying tickets for the train, which is the best, and most social, way of getting around.)

Gdye? (Where?)

© SHUTTERSTOCK/REIDL

The iconic St. Basil’s Cathedral towers over Moscow’s Red Square. The tourist attraction is one of many low-cost visitor sites across Russia, especially thanks to the declining value of the ruble against the dollar.

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St. Petersburg makes for a soft landing in Russia. Peter the Great’s vision of a Europe-facing nation plays out here among the miles of canals, the fantastic art-filled Hermitage overlooking the Neva River, and a younger generation more comfortable with the world abroad.

The Soul Kitchen hostel, which overlooks one of the city’s waterways, has both dorm and private rooms and thoughtful touches — like freshly baked apple cake in the collective kitchen every morning, and classical music playing in the bathroom. Highly recommended.

A nice surprise was Kaliningrad, a fragment of Russia tucked between Poland

and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea for which I found same-day flights for as low as $40 from Moscow.

I easily filled a couple of days with a bus tour for about $17 to the Curonian Spit — a fragile sand dune peninsula on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and with places like Kvartira — a cafe-art spot in an apartment building that would hold its own in Brooklyn.

Don’t be surprised if people try speaking to you in German, as Kaliningrad was once the German city of Konigsberg.

Chto? (What?)

Art, more art, Orthodox churches, urban exploration and cherry dumplings. A bluff overlooking the Volga River is about as much altitude as this part of Russia offers, so go for the culture instead of the sweeping views.

Moscow has plenty to offer beyond its high-end shopping and nightclubs. Be preSee RUSSIA, page 26

26

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FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

How to bid for rooms at a choice of hotels Bidding on the price of a hotel room just have to hunt through the list to find doesn’t limit you to “opaque” bids where those in your preferred area. you don’t know the specific In this system, you — and, hotel you’ve “won” until after presumably other travelers — you’ve made a nonrefundable enter a nonrefundable and booking. That’s the Priceline nonretractable bid. If a hotel model, and certainly the most has multiple bids for the same popular. specific dates, it accepts the But, fortunately, it’s not the highest bid at the time the auconly bidding model. I know of tion closes, and the hotel asks four online agencies that allow you to pay. It’s not clear you to bid on rooms at hotels whether some hotels may acthat you know from the getcept more than one bid, but TRAVEL TIPS go. they may.

By Ed Perkins

Onlybidding.com

Extendedstayer.com

This appears to be the most fully realized of the group I checked. It lists hundreds of hotels throughout the U.S. and most of the rest of the world, including some pretty small cities. And, at least nominally, lots of hotels appear to be playing.

In London, for example, a search returned a list of some 1,100 hotels, of which more than 400 were open to offers for the test dates I entered. They ranged from one-star tourist hotels to five-star luxury properties.

You can filter the list by star ratings, but not by location within a metro area. You

This site, as its name suggests, concentrates on weekly and monthly accommodations. As far as I can tell, its inventory is limited to U.S. cities, with nothing in Canada or Europe.

You don’t actually bid rates, yourself. Instead, you post where and when you want to stay, with a one-week minimum, and the agency runs your proposed stay by participating hotels, any of which returns an offer to you if it’s interested.

The agency claims to have more than 30,000 “partner” participating hotels. When

Russia

The word “hipster” has entered the Russian language — just aspirate the “h” and roll the “r” — and you can feel like one at places like the Red October cultural complex in Moscow or the Museum of Soviet Lifestyle in Kazan. The latter’s collection of late-Soviet-era items makes it a kind of Russian rock-and-roll hall of fame.

Also in Kazan, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg, you can fill your pocket with old 15-kopeck coins and play at the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines.

From page 25 pared for long weekend lines of art lovers at both branches of the State Tretyakov Gallery. And there’s always the Kremlin.

In St. Petersburg, the Russian Museum is a worthy afternoon if the Hermitage left you wanting more. And the Erarta museum is a good collection of more modern art, with the rare benefit of detailed descriptions in both Russian and English.

you get one or more bids, you can choose the best offer and accept it. If none of the bids appeals to you, you aren’t obligated to buy. You pay nothing up front. As far as I can tell, you can’t specify a preferred location within a metro area.

MyRoomBid.com This site concentrates on hotels in Cyprus, Indonesia, Morocco, the Philippines, and Thailand. It employs a more conventional bidding process.

You check its list of participating hotels, and if you see one you like, you enter a bid.

The hotel either accepts your bid or returns a counter offer. The system allows you three bids per inquiry. You also have a “buy now” option.

You can filter by location in some cases, and you can select from a list of 10 accommodation types, such as “hotel,” “villa,” or “serviced apartment.”

When I checked, the inventory seemed to be quite limited. It reported only one hotel in Bangkok; most of the Thailand offers seemed to be villas in resort areas.

RoomAuction.com RoomAuction.com concentrates on hotels

in the UK, although it lists some throughout the world. When I checked for London, the site returned a long list of hotels, but only eight were accepting bids — the others were simply fixed-price bookings.

None of the eight bid acceptors was a standout; most were modest, and several were well out of the city center. You can’t filter the list at all.

The process is straightforward: Select a hotel and submit a nonbinding bid. You can bid on more than one hotel at the same time. Accept the bid you prefer.

This is my first look at transparent bidding sites. I haven’t actually tried any of them, so I’m obviously not vouching for any. I’d like to hear from readers who have some experience with using these or others.

Meanwhile, the strategy is obvious: Before you submit a bid on any given hotel, check out the best available rates through any big search engine. Then bid something at least 25 to 30 percent below the lowest posted price and see whether you get any bites.

Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. © 2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Pochemu? (Why?)

Kogda? (When?)

Need more reasons to go? Consider these: The historic small town of Suzdal outside Moscow.

The stunning changing skies over the Neva in St. Petersburg.

The Soviet-era “pishki” donuts and sweet coffee (25 rubles, or about 35 cents, a cup) at 25 Bolshaya Konushennaya in St. Petersburg.

The caviar on buttered bread at the Mariinsky Theatre. The chandeliers.

Your first view of Red Square from the Resurrection Gate.

The inexpensive but classy stolovaya, or cafeteria, at the lavish GUM department store in Moscow.

The ubiquitous color red — from meaty borscht to creaky-old trams.

The collection of old Soviet statues in the park near the new Tretyakov gallery in Moscow.

The honey-spiced hot drink called sbiten.

The old Lada cars here and there.

Near-strangers gifting you books.

If you’re a budget traveler, fall and winter are when you’ll find bargains. Of course that also means bundling up in gloves and down jacket. Hot drinks and ever-warming vodka help, too.

Hard-core travelers wrap themselves in blankets to cruise the St. Petersburg canals on the decks of small boats in fall and at night as well. Being near the sea keeps St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad temperatures more moderate than places like Kazan and Nizhy Novgorod in the interior.

If you go It’s useful to download free apps like SpeakEasy Russian and iTranslate, add a Russian-language keyboard to your smartphone, and even get a Russian SIM card to stay online and benefit from Google Translate. Most locals appreciate the effort.

The website of The Man in Seat 61 offers a useful beginners’ guide to Russian train travel. Find him at www.seat61.com.

— AP

BEACON BITS

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MIAMI AND KEY WEST Spend nine days and eight nights exploring Miami and Key West

with the Victory Villa Senior Center. The trip is from Friday, Jan. 29 to Saturday, Feb. 6. Cost is $709 per double. Call (410) 686-1352 for details.

Mar. 11

FLOWERS IN PHILLY Join the Senior Box Office for a visit to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show on Friday, March 11. Tickets are $70. Call (410)

882-3797 for reservations.

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

Say you saw it in the Beacon

Style

27

Arts &

Kent Haruf’s last novel, Our Souls at Night, looks at love in late life.

See review on page 29.

Revisiting Wilder’s enduring Our Town Though written in 1938, there is much about Our Town that fits well into today’s sensibilities. The play is divided into three acts: “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage,” and “Death and Eternity.”

In the third, Wilder never speaks of Heaven or Hell or even God, but a more New Age notion of spirits “weaning themselves from earth,” burning away their connections to the physical world in preparation for moving to a new level of existence.

PHOTO BY TESSA SOLLWAY

By Dan Collins Billed as “America’s Oldest Continuously Performing Little Theatre,” the Vagabond Players in Fells Point is celebrating its 100th season by reviving plays “that were particularly successful in the past,” so sayeth their press release.

One of these past glories is playwright Thornton Wilder’s thick slice of Americana, Our Town, which was previously produced at “Vags” in 1947 and 1968.

It’s an appropriate play for looking backward, as Our Town is set more than a century ago, in 1901 idyllic Grovers Corners, N.H. As the Stage Manager (the play’s narrator, portrayed by Josh Shoemaker) relates, there’s Main Street, Polish Town, “and some Canuck families” across the railroad tracks; Congregational, Baptist and Catholic churches, the town hall, a post office and — well, just imagine it was the New England inspiration for Andy Griffith’s southern town of Mayberry.

Into this pleasant Norman Rockwellish tableau comes a dominant theme of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play: time and the damages it wreaks upon us. No sooner does Kathy Foit Sewell’s Mrs. Gibbs appear on stage than the narrator reveals how she will die of pneumonia in a few years time.

And when 11-year-old paper boy, Joe Crowell, Jr. (Samuel Dye) presents Doc Gibbs (Chip Meister) his copy of the daily news, we are informed how Joe earn scholarships and graduates head of his class.

“But the war broke out and he died in France. All that education for nothing.”

A family affair At the core of Our Town are the Gibbs and Webb families — particularly burgeoning lovers Emily Webb (Ryan Gunning) and George Gibbs (William Meister), who present a wonderful picture of innocence and young love in an age of horse-drawn milk carts and strawberry phosphates.

Mark Scharf as Editor Webb and Chip Meister as Doc Gibbs offer touching portrayals of fatherhood, as the Doc comically maneuvers George into relieving his mother of the chore of chopping wood, and Scharf offers words of father-in-law-ly wisdom to his soon-to-be-son-in-law on his wedding day.

Sewell and Carol DeLisle as mothers Gibbs and Webb, respectively, remind us a bit of Griffith’s Aunt Bea, dutifully shelling peas and making meals, serving as the living caulk that holds each household together. But there are moments when we are allowed insights into each woman’s dreams and past glories — whether that’s being hailed the most beautiful girl in town or pin-

In the Vagabond Players’ production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, Ryan Gunning and William Meister play lovebirds Emily Webb and George Gibbs, as Josh Shoemaker (as the omniscient Stage Manager) provides added narration.

ing away for a trip to Paris.

Our Town is a play about family, and this particular production is certainly a family affair as Doc Gibbs and son George are real life father and son, Chip and William Meister. Similarly, Constable Warren is played

by Brian Gunning, father of actress Ryan Gunning.

While one might argue that biological overlap might be more likely in a local, See OUR TOWN, page 29

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Ill children From page 1 tickets, tickets to plays, and passes to museums and local attractions. Always included are special touches like parking passes, vouchers for meals, and souvenirs that add to the outing, all meant to avoid additional costs that the family might not be able to afford.

Special birthday gifts, themed pajama parties for children who are hospitalized, group parties, gift cards for families and more are also part of the services Casey provides to families. Activities and events are provided frequently during the period of a child’s illness.

Casey Cares serves children and their families throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in hospitals such as Johns Hopkins, Children’s National, Georgetown University, University of Maryland Hospital for Children, Children’s Hospital at Sinai,

Medical College of Virginia and Hershey Medical Center.

One such child is Kevin Buck. Seven years ago he went from being a healthy, active 5-year-old to developing a bump on his head that led to being diagnosed with a very rare blood disorder.

“Within 48 hours he was in surgery, and within days of that he was receiving chemotherapy,” said his father David Buck.

That first year, Buck recalled, he and his wife were “frantic,” caring for Kevin who was sick with anxiety before his chemo treatments and sick afterwards from them.

They helped him cope with the teasing from classmates who didn’t understand that his treatments caused him to gain weight, and also made sure their daughter wasn’t being ignored.

While Kevin was being treated at Sinai Hospital, Casey Cares offered opportunities to forget about Kevin’s illness for a while, enabling him and family members

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

A FEMININE AS YOU LIKE IT

Center Stage honors the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a production of As You Like It, a classic comedy performed with a twist: the traditionally all-male cast will be performed by an allfemale troupe. While the theater’s Mount Vernon home undergoes renovation, the company will perform at Towson University, Mainstage Theatre, 1 Fine Arts Dr., though Feb. 14. Times vary. Tickets range from $10 to $69. For more information, call (410) 332-0033 or visit www.centerstage.org.

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FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

to attend Orioles games, movies, special events at the Baltimore Arena and more.

“You don’t know such an organization exists until you need it,” Buck said.

Bolstered by volunteers While the organization employs professional staff members, the volunteers — many of whom have been involved from the Foundation’s inception — are the heart and soul of Casey Cares, said Baynes.

“There is no way we could continue to operate all of our programs and engage as many children and their families without our volunteers,” she said. “They don’t just stop in for an hour and leave. This is truly a regular, active group, and we are so lucky to have them.”

Katzenberger works full time for insurance company CareFirst, but finds eight to 10 hours a week in her busy schedule to work on Kami’s Jammies.

Patricia Scheitlin is another volunteer.

The 64-year-old Linthicum resident has been involved with Casey Cares for 13 years. For Scheitlin, Casey Cares is a family endeavor. Her husband also volunteers, and her daughter Kim Meyers runs the Family Festivities Program.

Scheitlin volunteers every Monday and Wednesday for four to five hours a day, “and whenever Kim calls,” she laughed.

Both Scheitlin and her husband have had their own personal experiences with cancer, which makes their volunteering even more

meaningful. “We understand what it means to be where these families are,” she said.

Nancy Lund and Terry Tacka are also long-time volunteers. Lund, who lives in Ellicott City, started out seven years ago after retiring from a career as a paralegal, and Tacka, four years ago after retiring as a human resources manager.

The two work on the Birthday Blast Program, making sure every child receives a birthday gift — from toys for the younger ones to gift cards for older kids — as well as flowers, cards, cookies, etc.

“It’s nice for them to have a special surprise on their birthday,” said Lund, with Tacka adding that people sometimes overlook how important a birthday is to a sick child. “It’s a milestone,” she said. “It means they’ve made it another year.”

Besides helping the children and their families, Tacka and Lund also appreciate the genial atmosphere and camaraderie the volunteers and staff enjoy. “It’s a real team effort here,” said Tacka.

For Kevin Buck and his family, the volunteers and what they provided made a tremendous difference. “Because of Casey Cares, you feel less alone when you’re going through something like this,” said Kevin’s father. “We couldn’t be more grateful and appreciative.”

To find out more about the Casey Cares Foundation or to volunteer, call (443) 5680064 or visit www.caseycares.org.

Additional reporting by Barbara Ruben.

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

29

His last novel: Finding love in late life

By Carol Sorgen Both elegant and eloquent, Our Souls at Night is a sparely written look at love in late life, with its unexpected joys and — not unsurprisingly — its accompanying heartache and heartbreak.

Author Kent Haruf, who died in 2014 at the age of 71, is the author of five previous novels. Our Souls at Night, published last year, is his final work.

Like his previous works of fiction, Our Souls at Night is set in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. Seventy-year-old Addie Moore, a widow of many years, unexpectedly visits her neighbor, widower Louis Waters.

The two of them and their spouses had known each other for years but did not socialize even though Addie was very fond of Louis’s wife.

Addie makes Louis a proposal: that he begin spending nights with her — not for physical intimacy, but for the intimacy of

companionship. Simply to lie next to each other and to talk.

After some consideration, Louis agrees, and the two start “keeping company.”

Their relationship develops from nighttime visits (which the all-seeing neighbors become aware of in short order) to daytime outings, a shared dog they adopt to help her visiting grandson through a difficult time, and ultimately, albeit briefly, the intimacy they weren’t sure they even wanted or needed in their lives anymore.

They are both surprised and delighted at this turn of events. As Addie says, “Who would have thought at this time in our lives that we’d still have something like this. That it turns out we’re not finished with changes and excitements. And not all dried up in body and spirit.”

Their small-town neighbors first looked askance at their arrangement, but eventually come to accept it — or at least to mind

Our Town

ings ever realize life while they live it — every, every minute?”

And the answer comes from town drunk and organist, Simon Stimson (played by Howard Berkowitz who, by the way, has one of the play’s more comical moments, attempting to solicit the best out of the church choir).

As Stimson tells us from the other world, “That’s what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those about you.

To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion or another.”

If the setting and characters of Our Town remind us of Mayberry, it’s a Mayberry of both Frank Capra and David Lynch. There’s brilliance and beauty, darkness and madness. In other words, it’s human, and about as real as life portrayed on a stage can get.

Our Town continues weekends through Feb. 7 at Vagabond Players, 806 S. Broadway, at the foot of historic Fells Point. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for all on Fridays; $20 for general admission and $17 for seniors on Saturdays and Sundays. There will be a special $10 Thursdays-on-Broadway! Performance on Feb. 4.

For more information, visit www.vagabondplayers.org or call (410) 563-9135.

From page 27 community production of a three-act play requiring 17 actors, the knowledge certainly adds to the tenor of this show, which has so much to do with the ties that bind — parent to child, spouse to spouse, community to town, life to death.

Conjuring a timeless town Our Town is, by Wilder’s own staging, a minimalist play when it comes to scenery and props. Little is called for — or needed, given the powerful acting abilities of this stellar ensemble cast. Kudos to director Eric C. Stein and production stage manager Angela Stein (yes, they are married) for turning a couple of ladders and trellises into the neighboring home and gardens of the Gibbs and Webb families.

Sound effects provide everything from the wail of the 5:45 a.m. train to Boston to the whinny of the milkman’s horse. And these little touches are key, because they represent “stop-and-smell-the-roses” moments, which are another theme of a play which is truly a work of art — simple on the surface, but complex beneath.

As Emily declares with shock and dismay, “Oh, Earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human be-

ANSWERS TO CROSSWORD

FROM PAGE 30 ANSWERS TO SCRABBLE

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their own business.

Not so their children. Louis’s daughter and Addie’s son are none too pleased about the relationship. They make their feelings known — in the case of Addie’s son, cruelly and heartlessly.

In his final interview, conducted a few days before his death from interstitial lung disease, Haruf discussed the writing of Our Souls at Night: “The idea for the book has been floating around in my mind for quite a while. Now that I know I have, you know — a limited time — it was important to me to try to make good use of that time.

“Typically, I have always had a story pretty well plotted out before I start writing. This time I knew generally where the story was going, but I didn’t know very

many of the details.

“So as it happened, I went out every day trusting myself to be able to add to the story each day. I’ve never had that experience before.

“It was like something else was working to help me get this done. Call it a muse or spiritual guidance, I don’t know. All I know is that the trust I had in being able to write every day was helpful.”

Both bittersweet (in part because we know that this was Haruf’s last book) and hopeful, Our Souls at Night explores late-life romances, and the idea that we’re never too old to create a relationship that works for who we are now, and not necessarily who we have been.

Our Souls at Night is available from bookstores and online for $24.

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Across 1. With 69 Across, singer of the 1972 song featured in this puzzle 6. Ladybug/leopard link 11. Netflix mailer 14. Neil Armstrong took one for all of us 15. It may reveal your future 16. Host city of the 2016 Olympics 17. Welcome to one's good ole' days!

18. Jabber on and on 20. Alternative to "believe it" 21. Responses just said to Nancy Reagan 22. In good taste 24. DEA target 25. Important artery 26. Work on the Appleseed family quilt 31. Third rock 34. Dance Moms performers 35. Get the latest gossip 37. ___ the line 38. Like a cool day in hell 39. Good ones don't have holes 41. Air Jordan maker 42. Request permission 43. "Hmmm ... try it to the left ___" 44. Going steady 46. Nugget of wisdom 48. They point straight to a rooster's heart 50. The seventh storm, some years 52. Aloof 53. Well-behaved 55. Network founded by Ted Turner 56. Deflategate stat 59. Fondue feature 60. Title with three triple homophones 64. Ingredient in Hawaiian Beef Stew 65. Sign, or sign up 66. ... ___ Mockingbird 67. "I could go on" 68. Looks for the hiders 69. See 1 Across

62

63

Down 1. First off-er 2. One lower than soprano 3. Use half of one's R&R time 4. Non-clerical 5. MAYPOLE middle 6. Walked confidently 7. Selects debit or credit 8. The treasure of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 9. Stick figure's line of symmetry 10. One at the wheel 11. Ginned up drink 12. Medicine bottle 13. Lethargic 18. Dusty 23. Southwest suspicion 24. Chop off 25. "History is ___ of lies agreed upon" (Napoleon) 26. Bra feature 27. Wipe clean 28. Not a nine to fiver 29. Boy named in Johnny Cash's top charting song 30. She was spun off from Minneapolis in 1974 32. Car wash coin 33. Obeys the warning 36. ___ of Love (Andrew Lloyd Webber musical) 40. It flows on Kilauea 41. Dir. from Madrid to Paris 43. Very alert 45. Wrigley Field feature 47. Letters on a Halloween decoration 49. They went back-to-back in XXIII and XXIV 51. Unmanned aerial vehicle, briefly 53. Francis was the Americas' first 54. Donnybrook 55. Star ___ 56. It may reveal your future 57. It might hold an LFM-25C Titan II missile (or corn) 58. Gone ___ instant 61. Native of the Beehive State 62. Approves 63. Good roll at a Roman casino

Answers on page 29.

BALTIMORE BEACON — FEBRUARY 2016

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Business and Employment Opportunities NEED EXTRA INCOME? SELL AVON! Avon is the #1 Beauty company. $15 start-up, be your own boss. Call 410-236-6023 or email: btheavonlady@gmail.com. Website: www.youravon.com/bwright1.

Caregivers SEARCHING FOR LIVE-IN CAREGIVER in assisted living. Experience and credentials preferred but will train the right person. This is a job where you live where you work. Room and board plus pay. Nice residents, nice staff, beautiful home. Two positions available. One is in 21237 and one in 21220. No smoking, clean background and clean health clearance. Call for more information, 410-365-1633. Daytime only please.

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10% Senior Discount. Licensed, Bonded and Insured. Call Jesse, 443-379-HAUL (4285). www.baltimoresbestjunkremoval.com.

SANFORD & SON HAULING & RECYCLING. Trash + Junk removal, house & estate cleanouts, garage+ basement cleanouts. Demolition – Shed, deck fence + pool removal. Licensed + insured. Free estimates over the phone. Call 7 days a week, 7 am to 7 pm. 410-746-5090.

Wanted FINE ANTIQUES, PAINTINGS AND QUALITY VINTAGE FURNISHINGS wanted by a serious capable buyer. I am very well educated [law degree] knowledgeable [over 40 years in the antique business] and have the finances and wherewithal to handle virtually any situation. If you have a special item, collection or important estate I would like to hear from you. I pay great prices for great things in all categories from oriental rugs to Tiffany objects, from rare clocks to firearms, from silver and gold to classic cars. If it is wonderful, I am interested. No phony promises or messy consignments. References gladly furnished. Please call Jake Lenihan, 301-279-8834. Thank you.

WE BUY JEWELRY, SILVER, GOLD, AND COSTUME. Coins, Paper Money Too. Watches, Clocks, Military Badges and Patches Old and New. Call Greg, 717-658-7954.

OLD AND NEW, WE BUY STERLING SILVER FLATWARE, Tea Sets, Single Pieces of Silver, Large pieces of Silver Plate. Attic, Basement or Garage. Call Greg, 717-658-7954. You have something to SELL, we are looking to BUY.

TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED Deadlines and Payments: Ad text and payment is due by the 5th of each month.

Note: Only ads received and prepaid by the deadline will be included in the next month’s issue. Please type or print your ad carefully. Include a number where you can be reached in the event of a question. Payment is due with ad. We do not accept ads by phone or fax, nor do we accept credit cards.

Private Party Text Ads: For individuals seeking to buy or sell particular items, or place a personal ad. Each ad is $10 for 25 words, 25 cents for each additional word.

Business Text Ads: For parties engaged in an ongoing business enterprise.

Each ad is $25 for 25 words, 50 cents for each additional word.

Note: Each real estate listing counts as one business text ad.

Send your classified ad with check or money order, payable to the Beacon, to:

The Beacon, Baltimore Classified Dept.

P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915-2227 Wanted

Wanted

CASH BUYER FOR OLD COSTUME JEWELRY – wrist and pocket wrist watches (any condition). Also buying watchmaker tools and parts, coins, quilts, old toys, postcards, trains, guns, pocket and hunting knives, linens, fishing equipment and tackle boxes, fountain pens, Christmas garden items, crocks and jugs, lamps and lanterns, pottery, military items, sports memorabilia, advertising signs, paintings and contents of attics, basements and garages. Professional, no pressure individual with over forty years of experience. Lloyd D. Baker. 410-4094965. 717-969-8114, office.

VINYL RECORDS WANTED from 1950 through 1985. Jazz, Rock-n-Roll, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Reggae and Disco. 33 1/3 LPs, 45s or 78s, Larger collections of at least 100 items wanted. Please call John, 301-596-6201.

COLLECTOR BUYING MILITARY ITEMS: Helmets, weapons, rifles, shot guns, knives, swords, bayonets, web gear, uniforms, etc. from all wars and countries. Large quantities are okay. Will pay top prices for my personal collection. Discreet consultations. Call Fred, 301-9100783.

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

THE 39 STEPS

The 39 Steps, a reimagining of Alfred Hitchcock’s famous film of the same title, will be produced by the Collaborative Theatre on the Godfrey mainstage of Fells Point Corner Theater through Feb. 14. The play tells the story of a dapper London man who tries to prevent a top-secret agent from stealing classified information. The theater is located at 251 S. Ann St. Tickets, which start at $15, are available at www.fpct.org or at the box office one hour prior to performances. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., with pay-what-you-can Thursdays on Jan. 21 and 28 at 8 p.m.

Jan. 28+

BALTIMORE BOAT SHOW

Boating season is just around the corner. See what’s new at the Baltimore Boat Show, Thursday to Sunday, Jan. 28 to 31, at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Admission is $14 (age 15 and under free). The show is open Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Boat deals, educational seminars and family-friendly activities are planned. For more information, visit www.baltimoreboatshow.com.

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE Clinical Research Studies

Brain Imaging Study . . . . . . . . .14 Caregiver Support . . . . . . . . . . .15 Cancer Survivor Spirit Study . .16 Falls Prevention Study . . . . . . .15 Fall Prevention Sturdy Study . .16 Leg Pain/Exercise Study . . . . . .14 Memory Research Study . . . . . .14

Education

CCBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Financial Services

Bennett Senior Services . . . . . .19 Complete Money Management .18 Debt Counsel for Seniors and the Disabled . . . .21 PenFed Credit Union . . . . . . . . .19

Hearing Services

Hearing & Speech Agency . . . . .8

Home Health Care

Options for Senior America . . . .22

Housing

Angels Among Us Assisted Living . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Brightview Senior Living . . . . .32 Buckingham’s Choice/Integrace .4 Charlestown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Fairhaven/Integrace . . . . . . . . . . .4 Gatherings at Quarry Place/Beazer Homes . . .6 Homewood at Frederick . . . . . .21 Linden Park Apts. . . . . . . . . . . .24 Oak Crest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Park Heights Place . . . . . . . . . .18 Park View Apartments . . . . . . . .10 Shangri-La Assisted Living . . . .24 St. Mary’s Roland View Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

31

Housing Referral Service

Shopping

Oasis Senior Advisors . . . . . . . .25 Senior Placement Service/Care Patrol . . . . . . . .4

National Photo . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Radio Flea Market . . . . . . . . . . .27

Legal Services

CommuniCare Health . . . . . . . .13 Manor Care Health Services . . . .9

Disability Support Services . . . . .5 Frank, Frank & Scherr Law Firm .18

Medical/Health

Dr. Richard Rosenblatt, DPM . .10 Eldorado Hair Replacement . . .11 Mishpacha Dental . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Stuart Goldman, DPM . . . . . . . . .9

Pharmacies

Professional Pharmacy Group . .11

Real Estate

The Bob Lucido Team . . . . . . . . .3

Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation

Theatres/Entertainment

Toby’s Dinner Theatre . . . . . . . .27 The Lyric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Travel

Eyre Tour & Travel . . . . . . . . . .25 Shanti Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Utilities

BGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Volunteers

Meals on Wheels of Central MD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

32

FEBRUARY 2016 — BALTIMORE BEACON

More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

Enjoy More Great Days Before You Make a Choice, Visit Vibrant Lifestyle

Vibrant People

High-energy fun to quiet relaxation, to a social life as full as you want it to be; get-togethers with friends, old and new; lifelong learning; volunteer programs

Caring and fun staff providing a full complement of services; positive, neighbors where everyone shares a spirit of vibrant living; programs to keep your mind, body and spirit at their best

Vibrant Place Great gathering places to connect and engage; transportation services offering you the freedom to get out and about; hassle-free living in your own private home

Vibrant Company Baltimore-based company; high standards, a proven track record and outstanding resident and associate satisfaction ratings; a solid value for your dollar

Independent, Assisted Living & Dementia Care Brightview Avondell • 410-638-8100 | Brightview Mays Chapel Ridge • 410-628-2100 Brightview Perry Hall • 410-529-1903 | Brightview Rolling Hills • 410-744-7101 Brightview Severna Park • 410-544-1605 | Brightview Westminster Ridge • 410-871-2225

Assisted Living & Dementia Care Brightview Bel Air • 410-893-2202 | Brightview Catonsville • 410-788-5001 Brightview South River • 410-956-7310 | Brightview Towson • 410-296-3320 Brightview White Marsh • 410-668-1588

www.BrightviewSeniorLiving.com