September 2024 | Baltimore Beacon

Both dog and trainer are fast

By Barbara Ruben

A dog aptly named Nimble is a blur of black and white fur as she leaps through a ring, jumps high over a bar, and then races through a tunnel.

Her speed and dexterity, even when charging up a see-saw and confidently prancing down the other side, led the 6year-old Ellicott City dog to become the first mixed-breed to win the agility competition at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show in May. The prestigious event, held in New York, is the country’s oldest dog show, dating back to 1877.

Nimble’s owner and trainer, Cynthia Hornor, couldn’t be prouder of her. “Nimble loves what she does and works so hard,” Hornor said of her border collie-Papillion mix.

At the competition, Nimble flawlessly zipped through the course in a fleet-footed 28.76 seconds, which no other dog could do in less than 30 seconds.

She was also the first dog in the smallest height division — 12 inches from paws to shoulders — to win the competition title, officially called the Masters Agility Championship.

One of Hornor’s other dogs, a pure-bred border collie named Truant, won the Westminster agility competition last year. And Truant’s mother, Spice, has also placed in numerous competitions.

“She’s getting up there in years now at 16, and that makes me very sad,” Hornor said of Spice.

Always dogs at home

Hornor, who is in her 50s, grew up in New York state with several dogs in the household.

Her mother owned German shorthaired pointers that she entered in field competi-

tions, where they were judged on their hunting ability. Hornor helped with the dogs but also had an affinity for horses, riding competitively on a horse she owned.

“My sister and I had to take care of our horses and clean up after them and feed them even when it was 20 degrees below. We also helped take care of the dogs. My mother believed that taking care of animals

made us very dependable,” Hornor said.

Hornor also fell in love with training dogs for shows. She began her career as a certified public accountant but found herself drawn to canine competitions, which led to starting her own training company.

“Very early on, I realized [traveling] to

DOG AND TRAINER, page 20

Ellicott City dog

trainer Cynthia Horner and her dog, Nimble, made history at the Westminster Dog Show this year. Nimble became the first mixed-breed dog to win the agility competition. Horner offers dog training in Hunt Valley.

See

PHOTO BY BARBARA RUBEN

PHOTO BY MAPLE LEAF AVENTURES

PHOTO BY KIM NEWMONEY

Disability inability

One aspect of Social Security that doesn’t get as much attention as retirement benefits is what’s known as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

Its monthly payments are designed to help workers who develop a life-threatening physical or mental disability, or one that will prevent them from engaging “in any substantial gainful activity” for at least 12 months.

Eligibility is based on age, degree of disability and length of work record, so the older the applicant, the better the chance of success. More than threequarters of all SSDI recipients are over 50, and 41% are between 60 and full retirement age. (Disability benefits end once regular Social Security begins.)

an SSDI determination last year. It takes the Social Security Administration (SSA) more than seven months to render an initial decision to applicants, up from about four months a few years ago.

If rejected initially, as about 70% of all applications are, there are then typically two levels of appeals.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

By Stuart P. Rosenthal

An appeal for “reconsideration” requires another sevenmonth wait. If that’s denied, a person will typically wait another 15 months before the case is heard by an administrative law judge.

The biggest reasons for these delays may stem from problems not of the SSA’s making.

However, it’s not clear that having an inadequate number of workers is the only problem. In some cases, it may have something to do with the staff they do have.

Disability applicants do not qualify for benefits if, despite their disability, they could still reasonably be expected to perform other “substantial” work in a different job.

To determine that, the SSA uses an outdated government listing of occupations developed by the Department of Labor in 1938 and last updated in 1991. Apparently, no other agency, including DOT, still uses the list.

As a result, the SSA sometimes denies disability benefits to workers when they could theoretically find work in occupations that are, in fact, not available in the present-day workforce.

fortunately, not among them, though SSA did add that “nut sorter” is a career for which the agency will be “implementing additional evidence requirements” before using it to disqualify an applicant(!).

Funded by a portion of the payroll taxes withheld from workers’ earnings, SSDI is on a sounder financial footing than Social Security, with funds expected to last through at least 2098.

The bad news is that perhaps one of the reasons it’s in better financial shape is that the SSDI determinations process is dysfunctional, with a waitlist of more than one million applicants (for a program that has seven million recipients). AARP reported that 30,000 applicants died while awaiting

First, the number of Social Security beneficiaries overall is up about 25% since 2010 (yes, those aging baby boomers). At the same time, Congress has reduced the agency’s budget by nearly 20% in real terms, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

We mentioned in an article last month that the average caller to Social Security is now waiting 36 minutes on hold. But that’s nothing compared to waiting 29 months for a determination on your disability claim!

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Publication of advertising contained herein does not necessarily constitute endorsement. Signed columns represent the opinions of the writers, and not necessarily the opinion of the publisher.

Publisher/Editor – Stuart P. Rosenthal

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The Washington Post reported a couple of years back that a “vocational expert” hired by the SSA told an incredulous judge that the plaintiff should not qualify for disability insurance because he could obtain work in the U.S. as a “nut sorter, dowel inspector or egg processor,” based on the list.

In June, to some fanfare, SSA announced it had identified 114 occupations it would no longer use to deny eligibility. The three supposed occupations its expert cited are, un-

Economist Mark Warshawsky of the American Enterprise Institute reports that the SSA has spent more than $300 million over the past 15 years to commission a more realistic list of occupations from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While that effort was at least partly complete by 2020, the agency has still not begun to use it, and SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley told Congress recently that he wasn’t planning to do so. So, while part of the blame should be placed on Congress for inadequate SSA funding, it sounds like the agency itself should take a good chunk of responsibility for its ongoing dysfunction.

A word to the wise: If you need to apply for SSDI, hire an attorney (on a contingency basis) who specializes in it. They tend to get better and quicker results.

Letters to the editor

Readers are encouraged to share their opinions on any matter addressed in the Beacon as well as on political and social issues of the day. Mail your Letter to the Editor to The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915, or email info@thebeaconnewspapers.com. Please include your name, address and telephone number for verification.

Dear Editor:

I recently experienced a profound loss. My husband, a respected teacher and loving husband, passed away under circumstances that could have been prevented.

He spent his final days in a memory care facility. He got up out of his wheelchair and took a hard fall; he only lived 12 more days.

We were unaware that the facility we placed him in was “assisted living,” and so [wheelchair] seat belts were not allowed due to Federal and state laws [limiting use of restraints].

Education is needed to inform the public about these laws on restraints so we can make better choices for our loved ones. The many books I have on Alzheimer’s usually do not mention restraints.

Janice L. Hufford Falls Church, VA

Ed. Note: As you note, both Federal and state laws strictly limit the use of restraints (including seat belts in wheelchairs) to medically necessary situations. Their use typically requires a physician’s orders, written consent from the patient or their legal representative, and continuous reevaluation of the need.

The goal of such laws is to prevent the widespread use of physical and chemical restraints for the convenience of staff, which had been a problem prior to such laws.

or lose their lives due to the absence of restraints in certain circumstances.

Particularly in assisted living situations, it can be difficult to strike the perfect balance between the freedom residents want and deserve and the restraints that might protect them from harm. Thank you for calling attention to this important issue.

Dear Editor:

The issue of uncontrolled illegal immigration has become so serious in our country that it has potential to decisively influence presidential elections.

Building a wall on our southern border may temporarily reduce illegal immigration but won’t solve the underlying issue. The root cause is the gap between the demand for, and supply of, low-level labor.

A Guest Worker Program offers a unique pragmatic solution that addresses illegal immigration without substantial costs, while boosting our economy.

Young individuals recruited to work in the USA will undergo technical training in trades such as plumbing, carpentry, gardening, nursing, caregiving and other needed sectors.

They would be issued work visas for a fixed duration, such as five years, and return to their home countries at the end of the contract period.

Beacon Newspapers, Inc.

As you have learned through this tragedy, there are also cases where people are injured

Health Fitness &

NO SHAME IN SLEEPING APART

To get a good night’s rest, many couples choose to sleep in separate rooms

THE EYES HAVE IT

What’s macular degeneration and can you do anything about it?

SUMMER SWELLS

Swollen ankles may be a sign of kidney problems, anemia or even heart failure

STUDY VOLUNTEERS WANTED

The National Institute on Aging wants to see if a supplement can prevent diabetes

Yes, you can reduce some food’s calories

By Matthew Kadey

Calorie counts are everywhere: stamped on packaged foods, plastered on restaurant menu boards, and accompanying recipes in magazines. They’re inescapable. And many of us pay a great deal of attention to these numbers in the name of calorie-controlled eating.

In recent years, however, scientific studies have cast doubt on the way calories in some foods are measured and how we typically count them.

You see, calorie stats are based on a century-old formula called the Atwater system, where the macronutrient components — carbohydrate, fat and protein — of a food have a set number of calories (a unit of energy).

Health Fitness & Gym’s water cooler is fountain of youth

By Stephen Wade

Here’s the message from Dr. Marcas Bamman, a physiologist with decades of research into aging who preaches the benefits of weight-resistance training for those who are getting up there.

We’re talking people 60-plus — women and men. And we’re talking about hitting the gym and weight training.

“Resistance training is in many ways the true fountain of youth,” Bamman said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I like to say the fountain of youth is the water cooler in the gym.”

Of course, there are biological limits. But Bamman said the bulk of age-related decline in strength, flexibility and endurance is behavioral — putting too few demands on the body, not too many.

“When I tell somebody that in four to six months your strength and muscle mass and overall muscle function is going to elevate to the levels of people 30 to 35 years younger, that hits home,” he said.

Perhaps you know you’re too sedentary and the birthdays keep piling up. You suspect resistance training would be beneficial. But perhaps you’re intimidated. Don’t be.

Getting started

Check with medical professionals to make sure there are no health problems that stand in your way.

But this fails to tell the whole picture regarding the calories our bodies actually extract from foods.

“When it comes to the way we metabolize calories, the type of foods we eat has a big impact on this,” said Megan Hilbert, a registered dietitian nutritionist with Top Nutrition Coaching. Calorie absorption and metabolism are more complex than we may think. Here are a few ways you can tweak your diet to help eat your way to a calorie deficit, or at least make it harder to go overboard on them.

Go nuts for whole nuts

Nuts are not a low-calorie food, but a few studies have shown we metabolize (absorb) fewer of their calories than once

thought.

For instance, an investigation in the journal Nutrients found that we typically glean about 16% fewer calories from cashews than what you would read on nutrition labels.

“Because available energy in whole foods like nuts is behind cell walls, we often don’t absorb every last calorie, and thus, this energy gets expelled in our stool,” Hilbert explained.

Microorganisms in our gut microbiome also get access to some of the calories in almonds and other nuts, which may help explain why studies have failed to show that eating calorie-dense nuts leads to weight gain.

With the extra processing required to break down the nuts’ cell walls, there is a

good chance we absorb fewer calories from eating whole nuts than from nut butter, for example.

Cool down your carbs

When you cook starchy foods like rice and potatoes and then let them cool down in the refrigerator for several hours, a unique type of carb called resistant starch is formed.

“This is a carbohydrate that our digestive system can’t break down into energy and instead becomes food for our gut bacteria,” Hilbert said. “Research shows that resistant starch has fewer calories than regular starch — two instead of four calories per gram.”

See CALORIES, page 4

Then find a gym. Larger gyms offer a social component with things to do on a day off from weight training. And Bamman suggests getting a trainer.

“It’s actually quite safe [to weight train], but it does require proper progression,” Bamman said. “You have to have a good instructor who can teach the movements properly.”

Bamman, a research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, said finding a fully qualified trainer can be tricky.

“We need more rigorous certification of trainers,” he said. “The problem is that you can go online tonight and pay $50 and get some certification as a trainer.”

What you should aim for

Bamman suggests resistance training twice a week. Three times is even better, and he recommends non-weight-training days in between. For instance, work out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and let Tuesday and Thursday be days of rest.

He suggests 10 different exercise movements — eight is sufficient. Do 10 repetitions of each movement. Do this three times, described as three sets. Then move on to the next movement.

When you reach the 10th repetition of any given exercise, you should feel you can’t do many more. If you could have done 10 more reps, you want to increase the resistance.

Bamman said machines are better for beginners, but free weights — barbells or dumbbells — may be more effective as you gain confidence.

Before turning to the weights, start with a five- to 10-minute warmup — on the treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical machine — to get the blood flowing. You can add a few minutes on the mat for stretching and abdominal work.

Then come the weights.

“Sometimes you see people who sit on the machine, do a set and then play with their phone for three or four minutes. We like to keep them moving.”

Important for women as well

Women may benefit from resistance training even more than men because it’s a way to fight osteoporosis, the loss of bone density.

“Women are on a disadvantaged trajectory for bone loss, particularly in susceptible areas such as the hips and lower back,” said Bamman.

“But the strength-training benefits for both sexes are really important. There are no sex differences in the ability to respond. In gaining muscle mass and strength in untrained people, men and women track the same.”

The body demands work

In a few words: Use it or lose it.

Bamman cautions against pampering

yourself, and criticized even healthcare professionals “who baby seniors.” Of course, common sense is required.

“Our human body is a demand-based system,” he explained. “If you chronically impart a low demand on the body, we have adaptations to low demand. That’s why we lose muscle mass, that’s why we get weaker. We’re not demanding much.”

“But if you put high demands on the system — like resistance training — now the body has to adapt to these higher demands. The body says: ‘To adapt to these new demands I’ve got to make my bones stronger. I’ve got to make my muscles bigger.’”

Bamman used the example of space flight, or extended bed rest, due to which people rapidly lose strength.

“Bed rest or space flight is essentially expedited aging,” he said. “All of our systems as we age are capable of responding and adapting. They just need the stimulus.” He said he’s seen positive effects for people in their 70s and 80s, and even for some in their 90s.

Bamman is 57 and joked he’s getting “closer in age to the people I study.” He also emphasized there are no shortcuts.

“These programs that roll out for older adults — seated exercises and the like. This is gimmicky, and they don’t impart enough demands on the body,” he said.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

page 4

So, a cold potato salad or grain salad is likely to have fewer digestible calories than if you eat these foods immediately after cooking them. Ditto for green-skinned bananas, which have more resistant starch than ripe bananas.

In general, eating more high-fiber foods like legumes and seeds is a good way to bid adieu to more calories. “Higher fiber foods take longer to digest, and thus we don’t get the available energy from these

foods as easily,” Hilbert said.

Turn up the protein burn

Different foods go through different metabolic pathways. Some of these pathways are more efficient than others.

“Protein takes the most energy to digest compared to the other macronutrients, and 20 to 30% of the total calories from protein are used to digest it,” said Hilbert, who added: “The reason for this is that proteins are large and complex molecules that take a lot of moving parts to properly break them down.”

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Owing to their abundance of protein, the calories we derive from a chicken breast, a slab of beef, or a bowl of Greek yogurt is likely less than advertised on the label.

Extra calorie burn may be one way that higher protein diets help some people drop pounds.

Keep your grains (more) whole

According to Hilbert, intact whole grains like wheat, rye, barley, oats, quinoa and spelt have most of their available calories packaged behind cell walls and fibers, which makes those calories harder for our bodies to digest and absorb.

“If we think about the act of processing foods, such as turning grains into flour, this is partially digesting those foods for us, and because of this [processing], we can absorb more of the calories,” Hilbert said.

So, anything that reduces the size of food particles in items like whole grains likely increases the calories you absorb from that food. Cooking flour (in pasta, bakery products, and so forth) likely increases the calories you absorb even more.

A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people who consumed a diet rich in whole grains burned almost 100 more calories per day than those who ate the same diet but with refined grains such as white flour and white rice, due to having a greater resting metabolic rate and the excretion of more calories.

Limit ultra-processed foods

Since it’s easier to soak up more calories from ultra-processed foods, that might be why they contribute to unwanted weight gain.

An investigation in the journal Food & Nutrition Research provided volunteers with either a sandwich made with multigrain bread and cheddar cheese or one made with more highly processed white bread and cheese slices.

Even though both meals had the same number of total calories on paper, the lessprocessed sandwich meal required nearly twice as much energy to digest, resulting in fewer calories being available to the body for storage.

Again, the added work required for the digestive process and the extra fiber present in the less processed sandwich could drive up the calorie burn and drive down the calorie absorption.

Other research shows that people simply tend to consume more calories when eating ultra-processed foods than calories from minimally processed foods. So, a combo of higher calorie intake and more calorie retention can make ultra-processed food problematic for achieving a healthy body weight.

Reprinted with permission from Environmental Nutrition, a monthly publication of Belvoir Media Group, LLC, 1-800829-5384, EnvironmentalNutrition.com. © 2024 Belvoir Media Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Benefits to couples sleeping separately

By Leanne Italie

Michael Solender and his wife have been together for 42 years. They slept in the same bed for the first 10, taking to separate rooms after that.

Their sleep separation was due to his developing chronic and heavy snoring that eventually led to a diagnosis of sleep apnea and his use of a CPAP machine.

After the machine eliminated his snoring, however, they continued to sleep apart in their Charlotte, North Carolina, home because of other issues. He’s typically warm at night, and she’s usually cold.

“For us to maintain separate rooms for sleep just makes for a healthier relationship and a better relationship,” said Solender, 66. “There’s no shame attached to that. There’s no stigma.”

Snoring, temperature variations, cover stealers and tossing and turning often lead to partners sleeping separately. Other issues might also be in play, including illness, different work shifts, and partners who go to bed and get up at different times.

More than one-third of Americans said they occasionally or consistently sleep in another room to accommodate a bed partner, according to an American Academy of Sleep Medicine study last year. Men are the ones who usually hit the sofa or guest room.

And, perhaps surprisingly, it’s millennials who do it most, rather than older people.

Prioritize good sleep

Dr. Seema Khosla, a pulmonologist and spokesperson for the academy, said achieving adequate sleep, which is usually seven to eight hours for adults, is important for healthy relationships.

Studies indicate that people who consistently experience poor sleep are more likely to experience conflict with their partners,

said Khosla, who is the medical director of the North Dakota Center for Sleep, in Fargo.

“It’s really a question of people prioritizing their sleep,” Khosla said. “I have had patients who have been married like 60 years and they swear that separate bedrooms is a reason.”

Sleeping separately, she said, “is probably more common than we think.”

Not a barrier to intimacy

Key to making separate sleep spaces work is talking about it beforehand, as Solender did with his wife.

“It’s not about avoiding intimacy. It’s about recognizing that you can have intimacy, you can have that time together, but then you just sleep apart. That’s a really important part of the conversation. Both partners need to understand and agree,” Khosla said.

She has seen some reluctance among her patients when she suggests sleeping apart.

“Usually, it’s somebody’s spouse who is snoring or someone who has a spouse’s alarm that wakes them up at four in the morning or something like that.

“We’ll talk about it. And people will push back right away saying, oh, no, no, that’s not gonna work for me,” she said.

Some, Khosla said, “will sit with it for a minute and they’ll think about it, and you can tell that they’re kind of like, ‘I would love to do this but how do I tell my partner?’”

Tracey Daniels and her husband have been sleeping apart for about four years. Initially, there was no big talk. She just headed to the guest room.

“It started because my husband is a horrible snorer. But also I’m a very light sleeper. He could drop a paperclip on a carpeted floor and I would wake up,” said Daniels, who lives in Tryon, North Carolina.

Later, she said, she initiated a conversa-

tion after she was diagnosed with breast cancer and went through surgery.

“He comes and tucks me in and gives me a kiss,” Daniels said.

They rotate their three dogs at night.

Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and director of a sleep clinic at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said sleep separation is common in her practice.

“It would be a great idea to discuss sleep compatibility before you get married. I tend to see it when couples have been married and/or they’ve been together for some time and have been trying to negotiate this for a while,” she said.

Come middle age, Zee said, sleep is less robust.

“In general, you’re more prone to getting things like insomnia or sleep apnea. And so that begins to be bothersome,” she said.

Technology can help

While there’s no shame in sleeping apart, Zee said technology has helped make sharing a bed easier in some ways. White noise machines, cooling pillows and bedding, mattresses with dual temperature controls and dual control electric blankets can help, Zee said. Some couples have given up sharing blankets, using

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Facing age-related macular degeneration

Dear Savvy Senior, Is macular degeneration hereditary? My mother lost much of her vision from it before she died, and now at age 65, I’m concerned I may get it too. What can you tell me?

—Brown-Eyed Betty

Dear Betty, Unfortunately, having a parent or sibling with macular degeneration does indeed increase your risk of getting it by three to four times.

By Jim Miller

But the good news is there are things you can do to protect your eyesight, and a number of treatments are available if you do happen to get it. Here’s what you should know.

What is AMD?

Macular degeneration, also known as

Sleeping

From page 5

their own, to make sleep easier.

“There’s a whole market out there to mitigate some of these issues,” she said. Sleep separation is more accepted now as people have become more aware of the

age-related macular degeneration (or AMD) is the most common cause of severe vision loss in people over age 60, affecting an estimated 20 million Americans.

AMD is a progressive eye disease that damages the macula, the part of the eye that allows us to see objects clearly, causing vision loss in the center of your vision. It affects the ability to read, drive, watch television and do routine daily tasks, but it does not cause total blindness.

There are two types of AMD: dry and wet. Dry AMD, which affects about 85 to 90% of all people that have it, progresses slowly and painlessly over a period of years. Wet AMD is much more aggressive, and can cause severe vision loss in a matter of weeks or months.

importance of quality sleep to overall health, Zee said.

“On the other hand, there is research to show there are benefits to sleeping together,” she said. “In general, probably the top line is seek professional help before making a decision. Are the issues a sign of a sleep disorder that one can treat?” AP

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Factors that can increase your risk of getting AMD include age (60 and older), smoking, excessive exposure to sunlight (especially if you have light-colored eyes), certain genetic risk factors, a family history of AMD, high blood pressure, obesity and being Caucasian.

What you can do

For anyone over the age of 65, it’s a smart idea to get your eyes examined by an ophthalmologist every year. They can spot early

signs of AMD before vision loss occurs.

Early signs may include shadowy areas in your central vision or unusually fuzzy or distorted vision.

The Amsler grid is also an excellent tool you can use to check your eyes for AMD at home. Visit Macular.org, and search for “amsler chart.”

While there’s currently no cure for AMD, there are things you can do if you’re

A place of independence

Pickersgill assisted living residents are rarely in l their rooms! Instead, , theyy’re out and about— participating in a community activity or event or dining with friends.

A place of beauty

Living in n this community—ttucked d into a beautiful West Towson neighborhood —you or your loved one beau njoy a warm welcome and daily activities, and they’ll appreciate the will enj paths, beautifully landscaped grounds, lovely gardens and more. walking path

A place of caring

Each assisted liv g resident enjoys three chef-prepared meals per day, ing re y services, medication administration, help with daily housekeeping and laundry se quest, and all included in a reasonable monthly tasks and more—always by reques o all of the fee. Each h resi s dent also has access to all Pickersgill ameni l ties. private, full bath, and residents are Our assisted living g residences include a priv wish. This is a lifestyle dedicated to encouraged to decoraate their homes as they al staff. independence and assured by a caring, professionalfessionalstasttaff.

EXPLORE THE BENEFITS

Medical, hospital, and prescription drug coverage1 all in one plan with premiums as low as $0, 2 plus these added benefits:

• Comprehensive dental plan

• Hearing aid allowance

• $0 copays for mail-order generic drugs

• Over-the-counter (OTC) quarterly wellness benefit

• Transportation to care at no cost

• Thriving After 60 community

• Fitness center membership and online workout classes5 Benefits vary by plan option.

Call 888-877-9883 today for more information or to schedule your personal tour.

Kaiser Permanente is an HMO and HMO-POS plan with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in Kaiser Permanente depends on contract renewal. You must reside in the Kaiser Permanente Medicare health plan service area in which you enroll.

1 Except for our Kaiser Permanente Medicare Advantage Liberty (HMO) plan

2 For our Value (HMO and HMO-POS) plans

Jefferson

SAVVY SENIOR

Ankle swelling and shortness of breath

By Howard LeWine, M.D.

Q: I tend to get ankle swelling on hot days. But now it seems more constant. What might cause the change?

A: Lower leg and foot swelling is most often the result of an abnormal fluid buildup. Doctors call it edema. Because fluid flows downhill, it pools in the lowest parts of your body.

Excess fluid retention can be triggered by many things, including summer heat, eating too much salt, or standing for a long

period of time.

The most common cause is leaky valves in your veins. Doctors call this venous insufficiency.

There are one-way valves in your veins that help keep the blood flowing in the right direction. Ordinarily, as you walk around, your leg muscles squeeze the veins, which pumps the blood through these valves up toward the heart. When the muscles relax, the valves prevent blood from draining back down the vessels.

If these valves become leaky, the blood gets propelled upward, but much of it drops down again when the leg muscles relax. The result is an accumulation of blood — and an increase in pressure — within the veins. The higher pressure pushes fluid out of the veins, causing leg swelling.

Because your swelling seems to be worse than ever before, you should make an appointment with your doctor to be sure it isn’t due to a new medical problem.

Your doctor will ask if you have shortness of breath, fatigue or pain in your legs,

and whether one leg is more swollen than the other.

Depending on your symptoms and your doctor’s physical exam, he or she might order blood and urine tests to evaluate your kidney and liver health. It’s also possible you might need an echocardiogram to make sure your heart function is normal, or a leg ultrasound to look for blood clots. Some medications also can cause fluid retention in your legs. This can happen with

From page 7

high risk. These include eating antioxidant-rich foods such as dark green, leafy vegetables, and cold-water fish for their omega-3 fatty acids; protecting your eyes from the sun by wearing UV protective sunglasses; controlling high blood pressure; exercising regularly; and, if you smoke, quitting.

Dry AMD treatments

If you do happen to get AMD, your doctor may recommend you start taking a daily dose of antioxidant vitamins and minerals known as AREDS or AREDS2.

(Syfovre and Izervay) that were approved by the FDA last year to treat a late-stage form of AMD called geographic atrophy or GA.

These treatments, which are given either monthly or every other month in the form of an injection into the eye, can slow the progression of GA.

Wet AMD treatments

For wet AMD, there are several anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) medications like Avastin, Lucentis and Eylea that can stop vision loss — and may even restore it.

These medications, which have been around for more than a decade, are also given by injection into the eye and repeated every month or two.

Studies by the National Eye Institute have shown that while taking these supplements cannot prevent you from getting AMD, they can reduce your risk of progression from intermediate to advanced AMD by about 25 percent.

You can purchase AREDS supplements — made by Bausch and Lomb and sold as PreserVision — over the counter in many drugstores and online for around $30 a bottle.

There are also two new medications

Newer anti-VEGF drugs, like Vabysmo and Eyla HD, are also highly effective but don’t require monthly treatments. Most patients on these medications can go three to four months between injections.

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.

Peruvian rice and chicken dish shines

By Annie Petito

Peruvian arroz con pollo originated in the seaside city of Chiclayo as arroz con pato, where it featured native duck and chicha de jora, a fermented corn beer that dates to the Inca Empire.

Over time, Peruvians adapted to the lack of, or expense of, these ingredients by swapping in chicken and malty beer.

The one-pot meal of succulent chicken parts and savory, fluffy rice enhanced by a colorful mix of vegetables, aromatics and spices is a darling of Latin American kitchens at large.

What makes the Peruvian version distinct? Its green color.

The greenish cast comes from a substantial infusion of pureed cilantro that, along with the dark beer, spices and aderezo (the flavorsome base of sauteed red onion, garlic, and often ají amarillo, a hot yellow pepper paste), imbue the rice with incredible depth.

Peruvian Arroz con Pollo

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:

For the chicken and rice:

2 cups (2 ounces) fresh cilantro leaves and stems

1/2 cup water

6 (5- to 7-ounce) bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed

2¼ teaspoons table salt, divided

¾ teaspoon ground pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 red onion, chopped fine

1 to 2 tablespoons ají amarillo paste (optional)

1 tablespoon minced garlic

½ teaspoon ground cumin

1½ cups dark beer

2 cups chicken broth, plus extra as needed

1½ cups long-grain white rice, rinsed

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into ½-inch-wide strips

2 carrots, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces (1 cup)

½ cup frozen peas

For the Sarza Criolla (relish):

1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced through root end

1/8 teaspoon table salt, plus salt for salting onion

1¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons lime juice

teaspoon pepper

Directions:

For the sarza criolla: Toss onion and 1/2 teaspoon table salt in strainer or colander set over bowl. Let stand for 10 minutes. Rinse onion under cold water and pat dry. Combine onion, cilantro, lime juice, pepper and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a bowl. (Sarza criolla can be made up to 1 hour ahead.)

For the chicken and rice: Process cilantro and water in blender until cilantro is finely chopped and very loose puree forms, about 1 minute, scraping down sides of blender jar as needed; set aside. Pat chicken dry and sprinkle both sides with 1½ teaspoons salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat until shimmering. Add chicken, skin side down, and cook without moving until well

browned, 8 to 12 minutes. Using tongs, flip chicken and brown on second side, about 2 minutes. Transfer chicken to a large plate. Add chopped onion, amarillo paste (if using), garlic, cumin and remaining ¾ teaspoon salt to fat left in pot and cook, stirring often, until onion is softened, 5 to 7 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high and add beer, scraping up any browned bits. Cook until mixture is almost dry, 7 to 10 minutes.

Stir in cilantro puree and return chicken to pot, skin side up (chicken will be almost entirely above surface of liquid). Adjust heat to maintain simmer, cover and cook until chicken registers at least 195 degrees, 18 to 20 minutes.

Using tongs, transfer chicken to a clean plate and tent with aluminum foil. Transfer cooking liquid and solids to a 4-cup liquid measuring cup (you should have about 1½ cups). Add enough broth to measure 3½

cups. Return broth mixture to pot and stir in rice, bell pepper and carrots. Bring to boil, adjust heat to maintain simmer, cover and cook until rice is tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Off heat, stir in peas (browning at bottom of rice is OK). Arrange chicken on top of rice and pour any accumulated juices into pot. Cover and let stand until peas and chicken are warmed through, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve, passing sarza criolla separately. For 25 years, home cooks have relied on America’s Test Kitchen for rigorously tested recipes developed by professional test cooks and vetted by 60,000 at-home recipe testers. The family of brands — which includes Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country — offers reliable recipes for cooks of all skill levels. See more online at www.americastestkitchen.com/TCA. © 2024 America’s Test Kitchen. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Enjoy a free 45-minute flow yoga class offered every Wednesday at 6 p.m. along the waterfront in Baltimore Peninsula, Rye Street Park, 301 E. Cromwell St., Baltimore. Bring your own mat and water. All experience levels welcome. For more information and registration, visit bit.ly/BaltYoga or email MarissaWalch@gmail.com.

Goood T Le Times Thhe et T Roll s l

Health Studies INFORMATION ON AREA CLINICAL TRIALS

NIA study seeks way to prevent diabetes

By Margaret Foster

Strawberries, raspberries and nuts are delicious. Can they also prevent diabetes?

The National Institute on Aging needs your help to determine whether a nutritional supplement can help regulate blood sugar — and perhaps stave off type 2 diabetes.

When we eat foods like pomegranates, berries, walnuts and pecans, our bodies produce something called urolithin A. It’s also sold in pill form.

“The purpose of this study is to see if the supplement urolithin A (UA) will improve how our body handles glucose (sugar). This may help us better understand why people are at risk for type 2 diabetes as they get

older,” according to the study organizers.

“We also want to look at the effect of Urolithin A on brain and muscle function and immune response (how the body responds when you get sick), which may be altered as we age.”

Volunteers sought

You may be eligible for the study if you’re 55 or older, overweight (BMI of 27+) and don’t have diabetes. Volunteers will go to the National Institute on Aging’s office at MedStar Harbor Hospital for a screening visit. (You’ll have to fast before the visit but will receive a meal coupon afterwards.)

Those who are accepted into the study will be sent home with a blood glucose

monitor and a bottle of pills. Participants will take four pills each morning.

Individuals will be randomly assigned to a group: Some will take four urolithin A gelcaps, and others will take similar-looking but inactive pills known as a placebo.

“In the study we are delivering a placebo, which does not contain urolithin A, [or] urolithin A itself to investigate if urolithin A will improve insulin secretion. We are doing this by looking at the insulin response to an oral glucose tolerance test,” explained Dr. Josephine Egan Earley, principal investigator of the clinical trial.

Multiple visits, compensation

The study lasts about two months and

requires five in-person visits. During each visit, after researchers collect blood, urine and stool samples, participants will hop on a treadmill and take an oral glucose tolerance test.

In addition, researchers will ask participants to wear a continuous glucose monitor on their arm between visits and keep a food diary.

Participants will receive compensation. They will also get free electrocardiograms (ECG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs), and researchers will share those results and give referrals if needed.

In addition, volunteers should know they will be helping other older adults. “As people age, they have an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and loss of muscle strength,” NIA study organizers note.

“In the future, other people might benefit from this study. It will help us learn if taking the supplement urolithin A will help blood glucose levels and improve muscle function.”

For more information or to volunteer for the study, email NIAStudiesRecruitment@mail.nih.gov or call (410) 350-3941.

Letters to the editor

From page 2

These workers would provide a trained workforce, fill low-paying jobs, and can help make American products more competitive. By filling the labor demand with legal workers, the incentive for illegal immigration will decrease.

This arrangement offers a sustainable solution to illegal immigration, reducing costs and boosting the economy.

Jasbir Singh (Veteran) Potomac, MD

Ed. Note: You might find it interesting that a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented migrants paid more than $96 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022, with Maryland garnering more than $770 million of that tax revenue.

With some undocumented workers being paid under the table, the study found if migrants had access to legal status such as a guest worker program, as you suggest, the states and localities would realize an additional $7 billion in tax revenue annually, while adding another $33 billion in federal revenue.

By the way, the report showed more than a third of the total paid by undocumented workers goes toward payroll taxes such as Medicare, Social Security and unemployment insurance — programs the same workers are unable to access.

As these people most often rent, they also pay more than $10 billion in property taxes either directly or indirectly via payments to landlords.

From page 8

high doses of ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), naproxen (Aleve), and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Leg swelling is also a common side effect of certain calcium-channel blockers, especially nifedipine (Procardia XL) and amlodipine (Norvasc).

Meanwhile to help reduce the swelling:

• Cut down on your salt intake. Sodium can cause your body to retain water, so focus on eating less of it.

• Put your feet up. If you have a few minutes, elevate your feet above your heart when you are seated or lying down.

• Wear support stockings. Wearing support stockings, which provide pressure to the veins in your legs to help move blood back up toward the heart, can help reduce swelling.

• Get moving. Exercises such as walking, moving your ankles, and stretching can also reduce swelling by helping to push blood back toward your heart.

Q: I had a chest cold about six weeks ago. I thought I was over it within five days, but I feel like I am still more short of breath than usual. Is it from the chest cold? What else might be causing it?

A: When considering what might have caused your shortness of breath, I like to consider four general categories: a lung issue, a heart problem, anemia (low red

blood cell count), and deconditioning.

I suspect your “chest cold” was a case of viral bronchitis. Since the symptoms resolved within a week, deconditioning secondary to such a short illness is less likely, except if you were already more sedentary due to health issues. So, let’s put this cause aside for now.

Regarding the other three categories, knowing if you have other symptoms besides shortness of breath is also important.

For example, shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing usually suggests a lung problem. Even people who have never had asthma can develop asthma-like symptoms after a viral respiratory illness. Those symptoms can last many weeks before resolving.

Shortness of breath from a heart problem could be due to a weak or stiff heart, which can diminish the heart’s pumping ability, known as cardiomyopathy. With cardiomyopathy, people also can experience ankle swelling from fluid retention and difficulty breathing when lying down.

Also, most people with coronary artery disease — plaque buildup in the walls of arteries that supply blood to the heart — experience chest pain with exertion, but sometimes shortness of breath is the only symptom.

A low red blood cell count, especially anemia due to iron deficiency, would be less likely than the other causes mentioned. Besides shortness of breath, other signs of anemia are pale skin and weakness.

Since you’ve had shortness of breath for six weeks, you definitely want to arrange for medical evaluation to help determine the underlying problem. Then, your doctor will likely have enough information to suggest whether your chest cold was either a cause or contributing factor to your continuing symptoms.

Your doctor will take a detailed history of your symptoms and perform a physical exam focusing on the heart and lungs.

Initial diagnostic tests will likely include wearing a finger probe to measure your blood oxygen level, a blood test to check for anemia, and chest imaging with a chest

x-ray or CT scan. Additional investigation might include an echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to assess heart function, and an evaluation of your breathing (called pulmonary function tests).

The good news is that you and your doctor can formulate a treatment plan to help improve your symptoms, even if you don’t discover the specific reason.

Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

© 2024 Harvard University. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Are you 50 years or older? Are you relatively healthy, without a diabetes diagnosis?

If so, you may be eligible for a new research study in which you learn about your daily blood sugar fluctuations and cognitive abilities.

Have confidence in every conversation.

Do you find it difficult to use a standard phone? Do people ask you to repeat yourself during telephone conversations? Do you miss important calls because you can’t hear the phone ring? The Maryland Accessible Telecommunications (MAT) program is here to help by giving Maryland residents the opportunity to apply for State-provided telecommunications equipment to independently make and receive calls. Once you qualify, a skilled evaluator meets with you to determine the best device to support your day-to-day communications. The MAT program has a variety of equipment solutions to support clearer communication, including:

• Amplified phones

• Tablets

• Ring signalers

• Phones with large and/or high contrast buttons

• Captioned Telephones

• And more

For more information: 800-552-7724 | 410-767-7253 (Voice/TTY) 410-801-9618 (Video Phone) | MDMAT.org

Money Law &

For easy, inexpensive ways to update your house, see story on page 14.

Beware AI-generated audio, video fakes

Courtesy of ZeroFox.com

The person at the other end of that video call certainly looks and sounds legitimate. Maybe it’s your grandchild or someone you’ve bonded with in the past.

Yes, it’s odd that they’re asking you to send them money or provide sensitive personal information, but you trust them.

Just one problem: They’re not real. Their image and voice have been generated through artificial intelligence (AI), and are being controlled behind the scenes by a scammer.

What you’re experiencing is a “deepfake” — a rapidly evolving technology often used for malicious acts.

The U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) defines a deepfake as video, photography or audio that “seems real but has been manipulated with AI. The underlying technology can replace faces, manipulate facial expressions, synthesize faces, and synthesize speech.”

More and more criminals are using AI deepfakes to commit identity fraud or pry money and data from businesses and individuals.

Cloned voices and faces

By creating a deepfake persona, fraudsters can trick people into believing they’re

interacting with someone they know or want to know. This builds trust, making it easier for the scammer to manipulate the victim. Cybercriminals can also utilize deepfakes to create compromising material for the purpose of extortion. They can use an AI bot to, for example, take a brief snippet of a person’s real voice and “clone” it to produce an authentic-sounding facsimile. The faked voice can then be made to say just about anything. The majority of deepfake fraud cases thus far have targeted businesses. Even large global companies have fallen for these scams.

In one recent example, an employee at a multinational design and engineering firm was tricked by a deepfake video call into transferring $25 million of the company’s funds to fraudsters.

As this technology grows more sophisticated, it’s also getting easier to use — which means it’s becoming increasingly popular as a method to defraud individuals.

Deepfakes have made their way into the world of romance scams, according to a recent report in Wired. The article described how a crew of scammers used “deepfakes and face-swapping to ensnare victims in romance scams, building trust with victims using fake identities, before tricking them into parting with thousands of dollars.”

How to detect deepfakes

While a number of deepfake detection tools currently exist, many are only available to businesses. Also, most are designed to analyze recordings, and cannot help in real time during audio or video calls.

To recognize deepfakes in real time, you’ll most likely have to rely on your own powers of observation. The MIT Media Lab offers the following tips on how to determine whether a person seen on video is a deepfake.

Zero in on elements of the person’s face, they advised. This includes:

• Cheeks and forehead — “Does the skin appear too smooth or too wrinkly? Is the agedness of the skin similar to the agedness of the hair and eyes?”

• Eyes and eyebrows — “Do shadows appear in places that you would expect?”

• Eyeglasses — “Is there any glare? Is there too much glare? Does the angle of the glare change when the person moves?”

• Blinking — “Does the person blink enough or too much?”

• Lip movements — “Some deepfakes are based on lip syncing. Do the lip movements look natural?”

In an article for the fact-checking website PolitiFact, Manjeet Rege, director of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence at the University of St. Thomas, and Siwei Lyu, a

computer science and engineering professor at the University at Buffalo, listed clues that a voice might actually be an audio deepfake. These include “irregular or absent breathing noises, intentional pauses and intonations, along with inconsistent room acoustics.”

Use your common sense

One thing is clear: Deepfake technology is evolving at such speed that it will become progressively more difficult to tell fiction from reality.

Today you might be able to spot a weird glitch in a person’s face on video, or a strange vocal pattern on a call. But those flaws might not be as noticeable a year or two from now. Your best defense is to use common sense. If someone contacts you by phone or video — even if it’s a person you think you know and trust — and makes an unusual request or demand involving money or sensitive information, step back and assess the situation.

Do whatever you can to independently verify that what the person is telling you is true. As AI expert Rege said in the PolitiFact interview, “Healthy skepticism is warranted, given how realistic this emerging technology has become.”

This article was originally published by ZeroFox.com. Reprinted with permission.

Social Security online update not a scam

By Jim Miller

Dear

Savvy Senior,

I recently received an email that I needed to update my online Social Security account. Is this legit or is it a scam?

—Suspicious Susan

Dear Susan,

The Social Security Administration did indeed send out a legitimate email recently to notify recipients that they are making changes to the way you access Social Security’s online services, including your personal “my Social Security” account.

The changes will simplify your sign-in experience and align with federal authentication standards, while at the same time provide you safe and secure access to your account and other online services.

If you created an online “my Social Security” account before September 18, 2021, you’ll need to shift to a Login.gov account to be able to continue to access your account.

These online accounts enable both beneficiaries and people who are not yet receiving benefits to access services, including requesting Social Security card replacements, estimating future benefits, checking on the status of benefit applications and managing current benefits.

The online services aim to save time for both current and future beneficiaries, as well as the Social Security Administration, as the agency grapples with long wait times for its national 800 phone number.

The average speed to answer those calls was about 36 minutes in the second quarter, according to the SSA.

How to update your account

If you already have a “my Social Security” account, go to ssa.gov/myaccount and sign in with your Social Security username. You’ll then be guided through the process of creating a new account with Login.gov.

Once you successfully link your personal “my Social Security” account with your new Login.gov account, you’ll get a confirmation screen and have immediate access to online services. In the future, you’ll sign into your account with Login.gov and not your Social Security username.

If you already have either a Login.gov or ID.me account, you do not have to take any action.

Beware of scams

To be sure you’re taking the appropriate

steps to update your account, verify any websites or links leading you to the Social Security website. The legitimate Social Security Administration website address is www.ssa.gov and the agency link to your “my Social Security” account is ssa.gov/myaccount.

It’s very important to be mindful of potential scam artists who may send you fraudulent websites pretending to direct you to Social Security. These sites will closely mimic the format of the agency’s links to try to lure you into entering your personal information. If you see a suspicious email or link, it is best not to respond or click on it. Instead, you can report it to the website of the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General, oig.ssa.gov, or call the fraud hotline at 1-800-269-0271.

Don’t hold alternative assets in your IRA

In a recent column for InvestmentNews, IRA expert Ed Slott highlighted the potential problems of holding alternative assets in IRA accounts. [Ed. Note: The term “alternative assets” generally refers to illiquid assets, such as real estate, artwork, collectibles and non-publicly traded investments.]

Slott explained that, in a recent case involving the estate of the late actor James Caan, several mistakes were made, resulting in approximately $1 million paid in taxes and penalties.

In Caan’s case, the custodian was unable to report to the IRS the year-end value of the IRA account holding hedge fund assets.

In addition, the financial adviser Caan was using left the firm that was holding Caan’s IRAs, and convinced Caan to transfer some of his holdings to a new financial institution. However, because of the valuation problem, that account was not actually transferred to the new financial firm.

By Elliot Raphaelson

The primary issue stemmed from the nature of assets within the IRA account. Caan had multiple IRA accounts, one of which contained hedge funds.

Custodians must report the year-end valuation for all IRA accounts. However, valuing illiquid alternative assets within these accounts poses challenges. This is particularly problematic when a required minimum distribution (RMD) necessitates a year-end value.

Because the original custodian had not been able to obtain a year-end valuation, the custodian made an “in-kind” distribution of the funds in the IRA to Caan, and subsequently issued a 2015 1099-R listing its year-end 2013 value. Caan did not report the distribution as taxable income, as required.

In December 2016, long after the 60-day rollover deadline had passed, Caan asked the hedge fund to liquidate his holding and roll over the proceeds to the new custodian recommended by his adviser.

The IRS notified Caan that he had an income tax deficiency for 2015 of approximately $780,000 because the hedge fund distribution was taxable, and also assessed approximately a $156,000 penalty for substantially underestimating his 2015 taxes.

Caan asked the IRS in a private letter ruling to waive the penalty associated with the rollover, but the IRS did not waive the penalty, and an appeal to the tax court also failed.

After Caan died in 2022, his estate also tried to obtain a favorable tax appeal but failed. The tax court ruled that Caan’s attempted rollover did not work because it violated the “same property” rule that requires that the property distributed from the IRA must be the same property that is rolled over.

Caan received a distribution from a

hedge fund and rolled over cash. The judge also found that the rollover was not completed within the 60-day required time frame.

Bottom line: It is ill-advised to hold illiquid alternative assets, such as real estate, in your IRA due to the challenges in obtaining a year-end valuation.

Moreover, when transferring assets from one IRA to another, you must adhere to the same-property r ule and 60-day timeline.

Noncompliance with these rules can result in taxation and penalties from the IRS, and tax courts are unlikely to be sympathetic to any appeals. For investments in illiquid alternatives, it is generally safer to invest through non-IRA accounts.

© 2024 Elliot Raphaelson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Easy, cheap updates you can do by yourself

By Kimberly Blaker

So, you’ve been dreaming of updating your home or apartment, but the cost of new flooring or a kitchen remodel doesn’t fit your budget?

Check out these simple, inexpensive updates and fixes that’ll give your home a fresh new look, inside and out:

For homeowners

Replace your front door. This is the first thing guests see when they walk up to your house. So it’s a great place to begin your updating.

A higher-end wooden door will add beauty to your entrance. But even a new steel door painted in an attractive color will add a lot of curbside appeal to your home.

Repair window screens. Torn window screens detract from curb appeal. Fortunately, they’re inexpensive and easy to fix.

Buy a package of replacement screening and a screen rolling tool to do it yourself.

If you’re not up to the task, hardware stores often do screen replacement at a reasonable cost. Just drop off your damaged screen, and they’ll have it ready for you in a couple of days.

Revitalize or paint cabinets. If your solid-wood bathroom or kitchen cabinets look worn, you can revitalize them by rubbing them with Old English scratch cover and furniture polish.

Painting them is a good alternative since white or gray cabinets are the trend. You can also get creative and choose a bold color to liven up your kitchen or bathroom.

Install a kitchen backsplash. A tile backsplash will add richness to your kitchen. Find do-it-yourself instructions at diynetwork.com.

If that’s more work than you want to in-

vest, choose from a wide selection of faux tile backsplash panels to add dimension and character to your kitchen.

For home or apartment dwellers

Cure dirty or crumbling grout. The wonderful thing about tile is not only its luxurious look but also its longevity. But filthy or broken-down grout can spoil the look.

Make your tile floor or shower look new again by freshening the grout. If it’s just dirty, you can clean it. For instructions, visit bobvila.com.

If the grout is broken down and needs to be replaced, find grout removal instructions at thespruce.com.

Update switch plates & outlet covers. This is a super-easy way to update a room, and there are so many choices for every decorating style.

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If you like the look of metal switch plates but don’t want the expense, buy some metallic spray paint in bronze, brushed nickel or silver. Just remove the covers, spray them, and in an hour they’ll be ready to put back on.

Replace ceiling fan blades. Do your ceiling fans look decrepit? The blades often deteriorate faster than the fixtures. Buy new blades to make your fans look new again. Liven it up with paint. Fresh paint goes a long way toward updating and freshening a room.

Pick up paint brochures at your hardware store for color scheme ideas, then play around with different colors against your room’s flooring and furnishings. You might be pleasantly surprised to discover a beautiful new look.

Freshen trim & doors. Paint the trim and doors throughout your home in a single color. Not only will this freshen your home, but it’ll also give your home a cohesive look. If your home is small, white or light grey paint will keep it bright and make it feel more spacious.

If you have a larger home, you can go bold with a medium or dark color. This will add richness to your living space. Medium grays and tans or dark charcoal and coffee colors are good choices.

Wallpaper a small room. Wallpaper is in again and can transform a small space, such as your bathroom or foyer. Choose from the latest patterns, textures and colors for a great new look.

Replace vent covers. Over time, bangedup and painted-over vent covers become an eyesore. New vent covers will go a long way toward making your home feel like new.

Remove hard water stains. Clean hard water stains off your toilet and tub. If you have hard water, your toilet bowl and bathtub may be hideous.

Fortunately, CLR calcium, lime and rust remover does wonders on porcelain. If your bathtub is vinyl or acrylic, read instructions carefully.

For more hardened buildup on porcelain, buy a handled pumice stone and sand off the accumulation. But don’t use pumice stones on vinyl and acrylic because pumice is too abrasive and will leave scratches. Update cabinet hardware. New cabinet knobs and pulls can give your bathroom or kitchen a facelift, and there are tons of styles from which to choose.

Update doorknobs. Do your doorknobs look shabby or dated? This is another easy fix. Brushed nickel is the latest trend in hardware.

Doorknobs come complete with instructions and are easy to change with just a screwdriver. Also, consider replacing the hinges to match the doorknobs.

Kimberly Blaker is a freelance writer. She also owns an online bookshop, Sage Rare & Collectible Books, specializing in out-of-print, scarce, signed and first editions; fine bindings; ephemera and more at sagerarebooks.com

Copyright © 2023 Kimberly Blaker. All rights reserved.

Travel Leisure & Canadian rainforest’s bucket-list sights

By Don Mankin

As our boat glided across Canada’s Kitlope Lake, the surface gleamed like glass, reflecting the steep, thickly forested slopes that lined the shore. Wrapped in silence, we gazed at the jagged, icy peaks looming in the background.

We were on the fourth day of a weeklong adventure deep into the fjords of the northern coast of British Columbia, one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The Great Bear Rainforest is wild and remote — no roads, only deep fjords and channels lined with lush forests, glacierencrusted mountains and granite cliffs.

At almost 16 million acres, it’s the largest intact temperate coastal rainforest in the world. Thanks to decades of advocacy by environmentalists and First Nations tribes, most of it is now a nature preserve.

In the sections of the rainforest that we explored, there are no cities, towns or villages, just bears, eagles, whales and the remnants of indigenous villages and camps dating back thousands of years. These historic cultural sites added a human dimension to this wild place.

We were transported into this fairytale landscape on a historic vessel, the MV Swell, a 1912 tugboat converted into a touring boat. With six private cabins and a crew of six, the Swell is compact and intimate, furnished in polished wood and brass fittings, with a combination salon/lounge/dining room, two outdoor decks and a hot tub.

To reach the ship, my wife and I flew to

Vancouver, then the city of Terrace in north coastal B.C., near the border with Southeast Alaska. A shuttle whisked us to the Swell in Kitimat to begin our Great Bear Rainforest adventure.

Grizzly bears, eagles and orca

The next day, the first full day on the boat, started the trip with a bang. We headed out in two Zodiacs (inflatable motorboats) to look for wildlife.

Our first sighting was a great blue heron near the shore. Then an eagle in a tree.

The main event was a lingering, upclose view of a young grizzly bear munching on sedge on the shore. The bear was unfazed by our company, pausing every now and then to check us out only a few yards offshore. At one point he even posed in full view on a log.

Then our guides received a crackly call on their shortwave radios from the skipper on the Swell about several orcas near the boat.

We sped over to see a family of three swim gracefully and majestically along the shore. The sun lit up their gleaming backs, dorsal fins and clouds of misty droplets emitted by their deep exhalations. We followed them for several minutes as they dived, surfaced and swam.

We saw less wildlife over the next couple of days, but the scenery grew even more dramatic as we entered the Gardner Canal, a long natural fjord and B.C.’s longest.

We were surrounded by steep, massive granite monoliths, thick with trees clinging to cracks in the stone like desperate rock climbers. One waterfall after another marked our way along the canal.

Another day, we landed on shore to search for evidence of bears — scratches, tufts of fur — on tree trunks in the forest. Fresh bear poop reminded us that we were not alone.

We had the place pretty much to ourselves. No internet, no cell phone service, no CNN. I didn’t miss it.

Lake expedition

On our fourth day, we embarked on a great adventure — a full-day excursion in the Zodiacs up the river to Kitlope Lake, the ancestral home of the Haisla First Nation people.

After three hours winding up the river amid puffs of cottonwood seeds drifting in the air and on the water, we spotted two skittish bears on the shore.

Soon after, we worked our way over a shallow stretch of river, dinging the propeller of our outboard motor on the rocky bottom. This was the last barrier before entering the lake — a barrier that had thwarted our guides in previous attempts.

We made it. For several minutes we sat

in silence, transfixed. No one else was there. No boats, no kayaks, no huts, no planes flying overhead.

Marlo, our chief guide, believes it’s the most remote place on earth. We lingered on the beach for a while. Except for a pool of thousands of tadpoles, we had this paradise to ourselves.

On the way back to the tugboat, we visited M’iskusu, the former village site of the Haisla nation, to see a replica totem pole — a copy of the pole taken from the Haisla people in 1929 and spirited off to a museum in Sweden.

The yearslong effort to return the pole to its rightful place among the Haisla people is an example of the First Nations’ struggle to preserve and recapture their culture and identity.

That night I slept better than I had in weeks.

Hot springs, porpoises, whales

The next day, after spotting a bear on shore, we took some time off to soak in a natural hot spring with a view of the bay. Since I was already in my bathing suit, I decided to top off the day with a soak in the hot tub on the upper

deck of the Swell

An 88-foot converted tugboat, the MV Swell, glides past the remote glaciers of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest. The Ireland-sized wilderness area has few roads, so boats or planes are the best way to see its abundant wildlife and oldgrowth forests.

PHOTO BY PHILIP STONE/MAPLE LEAF ADVENTURES

Some hotels and cruise lines are finally starting to care about solo travelers. See article on page 17.

Porpoises greet eco-tourists riding in a Zodiac. With its large population of bears, wolves, whales, orcas and other wildlife, the Great Bear Rainforest is known as the Galapágos of the North.

PHOTO BY KEVIN

J. SMITH/MAPLE LEAF

Solo travel still difficult, but improving

By Ed Perkins

Travel is geared mainly to serve customers as couples. But for a variety of reasons, many travelers are not in a coupled relationship.

In my case, I’m a widower; others include the never-married, divorced or separated; and some couples have diverse interests, so they don’t travel together.

Over the years, the travel business has given short shrift to these travelers, but suppliers have recently taken a closer look at what they see as a big potential source of business.

For years, some tour operators and cruise lines have been positioning themselves as “singles travel” specialists, but mostly their approach has been to match up singles into couples.

True solo travel is different. True solo travelers do not want to share accommodations with strangers or even with friends. They want sole occupancy of whatever arrangement they make.

The “double occupancy” trap

If you’ve traveled at all, you’ve seen that a lot of pricing is based on “per person,

coughing and wheezing from asthma brought on by a bad cold.

double occupancy,” or PPDO.

Most modern hotel rooms are designed to accommodate at least two people with two single, double or queen beds. These hotels charge the same rate for either one or two occupants. Similarly, the vast majority of cruise cabins are set up to accommodate up to four people — two comfortably in separate small beds, combinable into a double, and two more uncomfortably in pull-down bunk beds.

overnight trains such as Amtrak’s long-distance trains, the price is the same for one as for two.

TRAVEL TIPS

By Ed Perkins

Railroads charge each traveler the same for basic rail fare, but for compartments on

with an even better view.

On our last full day, several porpoises escorted us on the way to the Whale Research Station on Fin Island. They darted in, out and under our bow as we plowed through the water.

Soon after, we spotted two humpback whales frolicking in the water — leaping and diving just 100 yards away. The show went on for several minutes.

Just when I figured the trip was over, we climbed in the Zodiacs for one last cruise into Gilttoyees Inlet for maybe the most stunning scenery of all.

The terrain was essentially the same — snowcapped peaks, lush forest, sparkling water — but the colors seemed even more vivid than usual. Maybe it was the realization that our trip was coming to an end, and I wanted to burn the scene into my memory.

A healing journey

We almost didn’t make it to Canada. For three weeks before the trip, I had been

But by the end of the trip, I felt better than I had in weeks. The combination of wilderness, fresh air and wildlife had flushed out my lingering illness.

I know that over time, the body often heals itself. The right medicines also help.

But I can’t help thinking that, to some extent, my body and mind were healed by the waters, trees and massifs — as well as the living things, animal and human, past and present — of the Great Bear Rainforest.

If you go

Great Bear Rainforest trips are run by Maple Leaf Adventures (mapleleafadventures.com), the host for this trip. They offer a number of different itineraries in the Great Bear Rainforest.

The 11-day trips aboard the Swell start at around $15,000 per person. The shortest trips (5 days) start at around $4,600/pp.

Round-trip airfare to Vancouver on WestJet, United or Air Canada is less than $500. Round-trip airfare between Vancouver and Terrace, B.C. is about $225 on WestJet or Air Canada.

Even with the prevalence of PPDO pricing, solo travelers have a few reasonable options: Hotels: Although most new or recent hotels are designed for couples, small, older hotels in Europe often have single rooms designed for just one occupant, as do Japanese business hotels. Daily rates are usually substantially less than, but more than half, the double-room rates.

BELTWAY MOTEL & SUITES

Ongoing

MONTHLY WELLNESS WALK

Ready to walk your way to better health? Join Project Healthy Communities Collective for a self-paced walk every second Saturday of the month at 9 a.m. around Lake Montebello, Lake Montebello Dr., Baltimore. Come Sept. 14 to the entrance at the corner of Hillen Rd. and 33rd St. For more information, visit bit.ly/MontebelloWalk.

URBAN GARDENING

Ongoing

Volunteer for BMORE Beautiful and support the beautification of urban gardens, farms, parks, vacant lots and other green spaces in Baltimore. If you are interested or have questions, email Morgan.Wittelsberger@baltimorecity.gov. BEACON BITS

Solo travel

From page 17

On my recent trips, I’ve found comfortable single rooms at small family-owned hotels in Belgium, Switzerland and Germany, as well as in Japan. But most of the time, I have to settle for the usual double rate.

Tours: Despite a growing number of self-styled “solo” tour operators, most fall back on the idea that, “We’ll match you with a suitable roommate, and we won’t charge extra if we can’t find one.”

But if you really want accommodations by yourself, you pay a fee known as a “single supplement,” usually to occupy an accommodation designed for a couple. The supplement usually ranges from 50 percent more to double the PPDO rate.

However, what may be close to everybody’s favorite tour operator, Road Scholar (roadscholar.org, formerly Elderhostel but open to travelers of any age), posts a pull-down options menu on its website that includes “solo travelers only” filter. The choices are limited, but they’re genuinely for solo travelers. Google “solo travel” to find other outfits worth a look.

Cruises: For a long time, cruise lines ig-

BEACON BITS Sept. 3+

COMPUTER BASICS

nored the solo traveler, relying instead on stiff single supplements for double cabins. But some of the newer liners feature cabins designed for one person. The good folks at Cruise Critic have compiled and posted a list of cruise lines and cruise ships with true single cabins (cruisecritic.com/articles/whichships-have-solo-cabins).

Norwegian leads the pack in number of rooms and cabins per ship, but the other lines are catching up.

Carnival, the biggest player among cruise lines, seems to be lagging the trend, but it does have a few on Cunard. Unfortunately, other than Cunard, no high-end lines yet make the “solo traveler” list.

Trains: I don’t know any way to hack the PPDO compartment prices on Amtrak, and Amtrak seldom puts them on sale. Sorry. Keep a lookout for deals. Occasionally, tour operators and cruise lines have catered to solo travelers, mainly through “no single supplement” promotions, often for departures they believe are not likely to sell out — which means the best deals are last-minute deals. You can still find those. Email Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net or visit his rail travel website at rail-guru.com. © 2024 Ed Perkins. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Join Enoch Pratt Free Library for a four-week introduction to computer basics. The class meets every Tuesday from Sept. 3 to Sept. 23 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Orleans Street Branch, Pratt Center for Technology Training, 1303 Orleans St., Baltimore. For more information, visit bit.ly/computerBasics or call (410) 396-0970.

Ongoing

BECOME A READING PARTNER

Reading Partners Baltimore is looking for volunteer tutors to help students become lifelong readers. Volunteer for an hour each week in-person or online. No prior experience needed; training and background check provided. Must create an account. For sign-up and more information, visit readingpartners.org/volunteer-baltimore or call (410) 585-7600.

Peace of Mind is Priceless

Since 1841

When you pre-plan your funeral, you give both yourself and your family a great gi . Your service will be exactly as you wish, and your family won’t be burdened with arrangements. Pre-planning also fixes the cost at today’s prices. Plus: We offer a price-match guarantee! Call today to learn more. Ask for Jim or Chris at (410) 747-4770

Arts & Style

Novelist Amy Tan shares bird obsession

By Anita Snow

Birdwatching has become a cherished pastime for many since the start of the pandemic, when people stuck at home for months looked out their windows for entertainment and immersed themselves into the natural world, many of them for the first time.

Best-selling novelist Amy Tan of The Joy Luck Club fame is among about 45 million Americans the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has estimated are birders, with many investing seriously in their passion by purchasing birdseed and birdwatching accessories.

Now, with entries from her nature journal and astonishing illustrations thanks to lessons in bird illustration, Tan has published The Backyard Bird Chronicles about an obsession of hers that dates back to before the pandemic.

Tan’s book is the latest to grab onto the popularity of birdwatching.

It joins Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World , last year’s memoir by Christian Cooper, who famously clashed with a white woman walking her dog in New York’s Central Park.

Another book sure to delight amateur nat-

uralists was published in May: The Birds that Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness by Kenn Kaufman.

Kaufman, an avid birder since he was a boy, has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books, including his own Kaufman Field Guides.

In his latest, he tells of the vicious competition among naturalists and John James Audubon, who is known for his efforts in the 1800s to describe and illustrate all the birds he could find.

But amid the rivalries, fraud and plagiarism, The Birds in America — Audubon’s seminal collection of 435 life-size prints — missed many winged creatures that were not discovered for years, including some common songbirds, hawks and sandpipers.

California birdwatching

Tan could only identify three bird species when she first embraced birdwatching as a pastime.

The number of species she could identify steadily grew to 63 as she lured more birds to the area behind her home with a view of San Francisco Bay, dangling seed and nectar feeders from a stand and plant-

ing her rooftop garden with succulents sporting white, yellow and pink blossoms.

“I’ve been spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing,” she notes at one point. “How can I not? Just outside my office, four fledgling scrub jays are learning survival skills.”

“We’ve been shut down by Covid-19, required to stay home,” she wrote on March 19, 2020. “Almost everything seems like a potential transmitter of disease and death — the groceries, a door knob, another person. But not the birds. The birds are a balm.”

Like a loving mother, Tan watches in delight as fledglings learn how to get food from her patio cage feeders. She worries whether they’ll be affected by smoke from fires in California’s north.

Tan eventually becomes controlled by birds, feeding them 700 to 800 squirmy beetle larvae a day, at a cost of some $250 a month.

She also leaves alpaca yarn outside so an Oak Titmouse can line her nest with the soft fuzz.

As time passes, Tan becomes intentionally curious in nature, fascinated as a pair of Great Horned Owls take up residence in

her backyard, depleting the rat population as they regurgitate pellets comprised of bits of indigestible bone and fur. She learns to stay motionless for long periods, even in the cold, to silently observe. “One must suffer for beauty, happily, for birds,” she writes. —AP

Amy Tan’s new birdwatching book is a bestseller.

How do you train a young dog? Learn from a master. Our cover story continues on page 20.

national and international events makes it very hard to work 9 to 5,” she said. “I had all these people that were asking me to give [their dogs] lessons and teach them, so I started teaching dog agility full time.”

Hornor and her husband have three adult children, but none “caught the agility bug.”

Back yard for training

Hornor teaches dogs from beginners to those who have placed in national competitions.

Her large Ellicott City yard includes a fenced agility area with equipment. Hornor also teaches in Millersville and Hunt Valley, and offers online training classes for those outside the area.

She says basic training — with commands for sit, stay and heel — should start in early puppyhood. Dogs are ready for agility training at around six months old.

But not all dogs are cut out for fancy footwork. “Everybody says, ‘Oh my dog will be great at agility,’ but then they don’t pay attention to the handler, and they just run around.

“Just because they can run fast doesn’t necessarily mean they will follow cues and

not get distracted,” Hornor said.

Some dog owners drop out when they realize that training is hard work. But others, she said, “embrace it and love it. They have this bond and have fun with their dog. It really has to do with both the dog and owner working together.”

Food and toys are essential

While some dogs learn cues from, and are incentivized by, food, others — like Nimble — have an affinity for toys.

Nimble’s favorite are little round balls. But they’re so small they pose a choking hazard, so Hornor ties them to a bungee cord.

“You actually transfer the value of that toy to the [track’s] obstacles, so she learns to love the obstacles as much as the toys,” Hornor explained.

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Nimble’s favorite piece of equipment is called the “dog walk” — a 12-foot-long bridge-like apparatus where dogs scamper up a ramp, across the flattened top, and then down a ramp on the other side. Nimble also likes to weave her way back and forth between horizontal polls.

“But, honestly, she just likes all of it. She just loves running fast,” Hornor said.

In fact, Nimble runs at a speed of seven yards per second. Agility competitions don’t convert that to miles per hour, but if Nimble were doing the 100-meter sprint in the Olympics, she might not run quite as fast as Noah Lyles’ 9.7 seconds, but she could still

cross the finish line in 15 seconds.

Keeping

fit with her dog

It’s not just the dogs that have to be fast and fit; it’s the trainers, too, Hornor said. While Nimble is racing around the course, Hornor is keeping pace and giving cues.

“You do have to train yourself to make sure that you keep up,” she said. “I try to have a fitness program as much as I can because, while there are many people who are not terribly fit that do agility, I find that the people who are competing at a high level on really big courses need to be physically in shape.

“You also have to have a good mental game, and you have to be good at memorization,” she added.

Hornor said she’s “on the older side for a trainer. I’m competing against people who are 25.”

Last year, a new league for dog agility trainers over 55 was formed. The first Senior Open Agility World Championship was held in July in Belgium. Hornor and Nimble missed that one because they were already committed to another competition in England around the same time.

Hornor stays in shape on her Peloton bike, as well as hiking with Nimble, who also loves to swim and will prick up her ears in delight at the phrase “swim swim.”

“I think that being happy is really, really important for the dogs,” Hornor said. “And that goes for the trainers, too.”

Classifieds continued from p. 23

PUBLIC POLICY VOLUNTEERS - The University of Maryland’s Legacy Leadership Institute on Public Policy, in partnership with the state of Maryland, is looking for volunteers age 50+ to serve as volunteer legislative leaders during the 2024-2025 session of the Maryland General Assembly. Classroom training begins in September for 12 weeks, two days per week, at the College Park campus, with site visits to the state complex in Annapolis. The volunteer assignment will be for a minimum of two days per week, starting in Jan. 2025 in the Annapolis offices of various senators and delegates. For more information or for an application, contact Wesley Queen at wqueen@umd.edu or call (301) 405-2529.

BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR. We want to Read Your Book! Dorrance Publishing-Trusted by Authors Since 1920. Book manuscript submissions currently being reviewed. Comprehensive Services: Consultation, Production, Promotion and Distribution. Call for Your Free Author`s Guide 1-833-992-0110 or visit dorranceinfo.com/beacon

CLEANING - Do you live in the Parkville / Nottingham area 21234 - 21236 and don’t like how cleaning services operate? - If so, give Mary Katherine a call. This one-time teacher has worked at Oakcrest in the past, and she grew up in Parkville, so she knows the area. Reasonable rates offered by someone who has experience working with seniors, knows the area, and will get the job done with a smile. Contact Mary Katherine (designsbymarykatherine@gmail.com) or leave a message at (443) 495-9901.

EVERY TIME YOU WALK OUTSIDE a layer of microbes lands on your skin. They cause aging. Rose Beauty Cream takes them away. Sharon, a Leisure World resident says, “I won’t be without my Rose Beauty Cream,” www.barbarafrank222.com or call 301-949-4873.

GET DISH SATELLITE TV + INTERNET! Free Install, Free HD-DVR Upgrade, 80,000 On-Demand Movies, Plus Limited Time Up To $600 In Gift Cards. Call Today! 1-844-560-5837

DIRECTV - All your entertainment. Nothing on your roof! Sign up for DIRECTV and get your first three months of Max, Paramount+, Showtime, Starz, MGM+ and Cinemax included. Choice package $84.99/mo. Some restrictions apply. Call DIRECTV 1-888-572-4953.

BUYING VINYL RECORDS from 1950 to 1990 JAZZ, ROCK, BLUES, R&B, DISCO, SOUL, REGGAE, & GOSPEL, ANY VINYL FORMAT 33 1/3 RPM Albums, small 45 RPM’s & some 78 RPM, Also CD’s, Prefer LARGER COLLECTIONS AT LEAST 100 items, PLEASE CALL JOHN 301-596-6201.

CASH FOR ESTATES; I buy a wide range of items; art, antiques, jewelry, cultural items, furniture, collections/accumulations. Whole estate/single item. Visit theatticllc.com or call Gary: 301-520-0755. License #18-SH-004-233.

PAYING TOP CASH FOR ANTIQUES and collectibles. Housecalls made with prompt, courteous service seven days a week and 25 years of experience! Buying toys, trains, militaria, glassware, advertising merchandise, paper items and much more! Contact Mason or Megan at: 443-306-8816.

BEACON BITS Sept. 21

BIRDWATCHING WALK

The Baltimore Bird Club is leading a birdwatching walk Sat., Sept. 21 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Enoch Pratt Free Library, Cherry Hill Branch, 606 Cherry Hill Rd., Baltimore. Learn tips for spotting the different species while taking a one-to-two-mile walk. Binoculars and field guides provided. For more information, visit bit.ly/BirdwatchWalk or call (410) 396-1168.

SQUARE DANCE LESSONS

Sept. 9+

Modern Western Square Dance can keep you sharp and fit. Lessons take place this fall every Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Westowne Elementary School, 401 Harlem Lane, Catonsville, MD. Cost is $8 per lesson. Single dancers welcome. For more information, contact Melanie Jester at tomthumbsquares@gmail.com or leave a message at (410) 206-8707.

Scrabble answers on p. 21.

Dreck

Crossword Puzzle

By Stephen Sherr

Across

1. Maintains the flavor

6. Where the Parent Trap twins met

10. Ball girl

13. “___ now, when?”

14. Knightwear

16. Napoleon’s was big

17. He shared a 1903 Nobel prize with his wife

19. Sketchbook

65. Three-pointer

66. Involuntary twitch

Down

1. Panel discussed at a doctor’s office

2. In flames

3. Billy Idol’s trademark facial expression

4. AL East foe of BAL and BOS

5. Uncompromising

6. Seeds that become chocolate

7. ___ for the money

20. Indignation

21. “___ buy myself flowers” (Myley Cyrus lyric)

22. Arriving after the second bell, at some schools

24. Powerful wind storm

26. Part of a backgammon set

27. From ___ Z

28. Protective joist with a slanted notch in one end

31. Commonality of both CELEBS and DWEEBS

33. Poke fun at

35. Letters between Benjamin Siegelbaum and Bugsy Siegel

36. Attend a community Zumba class (or get started on nine answers in this puzzle)

40. 40 winks

41. Came to light

42. “Roger that”

43. “Ty Cobb is a [jerk], but he ___ hit” (Babe Ruth)

45. The NFL’s blind-side protectors

47. Screams at showings of The Great Mouse Detective

48. Satellite broadcaster

52. Peyton Manning, to Arch Manning

54. Falafel holder

55. ___-down (rural party)

56. Word before chi or after mai

57. New plan of actions

61. Letters on the side of an ambulance

62. Very patient one

63. Johnny Depp’s character in 2013’s The Lone Ranger

64. Next after elemeno

8. Vaccine that prevents three infections

9. Polynesian paste

10. Express disapproval

11. “Zounds!”

12. Medical examiner’s subject

15. Pensioner, usually

18. Amazon smart speaker

23. Untouched serve

25. Direction most senators travel to their offices

26. The D in CD or DJ

28. Plain as the nose on your ___

29. Four-stringers

30. Driveway surface

31. Biblical twin

32. Use the exact right words

33. 1982 film source for a 2023 Disney roller coaster

34. Some M.I.T. grads

36. Prefixes that reverse words’ meanings

37. Those that circumvent network security

38. Paleozoic and Mesozoic, for example

39. Wall Street’s “Big Board”

44. Slippery as an ___

45. Reduced-calorie

46. Religious pamphlets

48. Off-color

49. Home to most of the world’s pigs

50. Sweetie pie

51. Likely cause of Cleopatra’s death

52. El Paso school

53. Information on a driver’s license

54. Coniferous tree

58. Participate in Nathan’s Fourth of July contest

59. NNW or SSE

60. Where to put your 53 Down on a test

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EMPLOYMENT & REAL ESTATE ADS:

We will not knowingly or intentionally accept advertising in violation of federal, state, and local laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, familial status or handicap in connection with employment or the sale or rental of real estate.

REAL ESTATE CONSULTANTS NEEDED

Great For Seniors and All Others; Work From Home; PT/FT; No Travel; $2,125/wk/ptnl; No Selling; No RE-License; No RE-Exp.; EOE; Start Immediately; Paid Daily; Call: 1-703-398-1586.

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME! Jamhuri Healthcare Services recognizes the importance of keeping seniors or adults with special needs in their homes, rather than sending them to a skilled nursing facility. Our personal in-home care program is designed to implement non-medical tasks to meet the clients’ physical needs. Our home care aides provide a multitude of services for our clients, ranging from meal preparation & house cleaning to personal assistance & running errands. We are diligent in our staff & client pairings. We won’t put just anyone in your home or the home of your loved transportation services available 24/7.Call us toll-free at 1-800-5472851.Visit our website: www.jamhuricares.com. send us a text at the same number.

RETIRED AND ACTIVE MEDIA EXECUTIVE, now interviewing: For friendly person with pleasing personality for potential position as live in personal companion. Accommodation and meals provided with private bedroom, bath and parking! Location near American University in DC. Ideal opportunity possibly for Grad Student (or other qualified person) to have daytime access to nearby Universities: American, Georgetown, and GW for early daytime classes. Companionship position duties include: light meal and housekeeping activities and shopping at nearby pharmacy and restaurants. Schedule to be 5 days with Tuesdays and Fridays free. Compensation based on mutual agreeable arrangements. Please respond by email to James, jconnelly127@ gmail.com

MOBILE HAIR & NAIL SERVICES - WE COME TO YOU. Professional Licensed Hair Stylist. Women and Men’s Services - All Hair Types. Cuts, Styles, Roller Sets, Color, Perms, Men’s Cuts & Facial Grooming, Manicures & more. Call 410-415-1760.

EXPERIENCED, COMPASSIONATE INDIVIDUAL SEEKING EMPLOYMENT in companion care. I will respond to the needs of the client. Drive and accompany client to appointments, prepare meals, join in games or other activities of interest to client. No lifting. References available. Please text or leave voicemail message at 443-921-5487 to arrange a meet and greet.

PATIENT, PRACTICAL, PERSONAL. I can help you get comfortable and confident using your smartphone, tablet, laptop, printer, TV, Alexa, etc. 20+ years experience with all skill levels, PC, Mac. Julia: 443-436-2612, computercoachbaltimore.weebly.com

FIRST SAT’S SEPT-DEC, HOLIDAY SHOP with CRAFTS GALORE Marketplace in Balt County, MD. Find unique handmade goods and homemade food from juried artisans of Vendor Members Group. Interested vendors can exclusively inquire at www.vendormembersgroup.com

PRIME TIMERS OF BALTIMORE is a welcoming community for mature gay and bisexual men. The Prime Timers offer social activities that cater to the mind and body. We meet for dinners, a book club, potlucks, hiking, tours, bowling, and more! Join us! Visit baltimoreprimetimers.org or e-mail primetimersbaltimore@gmail.com for info.

UP TO $15,000.00 OF GUARANTEED LIFE INSURANCE! No medical exam or health questions. Cash to help pay funeral and other final expenses. Call Physicians Life Insurance Company866-212-1092 or visit www.Life55plus.info/beacon WESLEY FINANCIAL GROUP, LLC Timeshare Cancellation Experts. Over $50,000,000 in timeshare debt and fees cancelled in 2019. Get free informational package and learn how to get rid of your timeshare! Free consultations. Over 450 positive reviews. Call 855-6268703.

1 DOUBLE DEEP BURIAL PLOT with 2 vaults. Section G, Lot 159, Grave 4. Moreland Memorial Park, 2901 Taylor Ave. Present cost $5500. Asking $3500. Call Tom 443-653-5208. NEW WINDOWS FROM WINDOW NATION. Special money saving offer - zero down, zero payments, zero interest for TWO years AND buy 2 windows and get 2 FREE! Offer is valid for select models. Labor not included. Other restrictions apply. Call Window Nation today! 855-909-2278.

HOW TO PLACE A CLASSIFIED AD

All classified ads must be submitted and paid for online, via our website, www.thebeaconnewspapers.com/classifieds Deadlines and Payments: To appear in the next issue, your ad text and payment must be entered by the 5th of the preceding month (for Baltimore and Howard County editions); by the 20th (for Washington edition).

Cost will be based on the number of characters and spaces in your ad: • $25 for 1-250 • $35 for 251-500. • $50 for 501-750 (maximum length). The website will calculate this for you.

Note: Maryland contractors must provide a valid MHIC number. Each real estate listing qualifies as one ad. All ads are subject to publisher’s discretion. Payment will be refunded if unacceptable for any reason.

PREPARE FOR POWER OUTAGES TODAY with a Generac Home Standby Generator. Act now to receive a FREE 5-Year warranty with qualifying purchase. Call 1-301-960-3174 today to schedule a free quote. It’s not just a generator. It’s a power move.

THINKING OF SELLING YOUR HOME?

My total listing fee - 1%- Why pay 5/6/7%? Save thousands-full service- not full price! Over 20 yrs experience. Call/text for from home valuation. Robert Holmes, professional realtor. 443794-8297 Home Selling Assistance, Inc. office 410-256-3939 marylanddiscountbroker.com

DENTAL INSURANCE from Physicians Mutual Insurance Company. Coverage for 400 plus procedures. Real dental insurance - NOT just a discount plan. Do not wait! Call now! Get your FREE Dental Information Kit with all the details! 1-844366-1003 www.dental50plus.com/320 #6258

MOBILEHELP, America’s Premier Mobile Medical Alert System. Whether You’re Home or Away. For Safety and Peace of Mind. No Long Term Contracts! Free Brochure! Call Today! 1240-650-9189.

STROKE AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE are leading causes of death, according to the American Heart Association. Screenings can provide peace of mind or early detection! Contact Life Line Screening to schedule your screening. Special offer - 5 screenings for just $149. Call 1-844-485-7035.

PORTABLE OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR May Be Covered by Medicare! Reclaim independence and mobility with the compact design and long-lasting battery of Inogen One. Free information kit! Call 855-851-0949.

DON’T LET THE STAIRS LIMIT YOUR MOBILITY! Discover the ideal solution for anyone who struggles on the stairs, is concerned about a fall or wants to regain access to their entire home. Call AmeriGlide today! 1-866-365-5170.

THE BATHROOM OF YOUR DREAMS in as little as 1 day. Limited Time Offer - $1000 off or No Payments and No Interest for 18 months for customers who qualify. BCI Bath & Shower. Many options available. Quality materials & professional installation. Senior & Military Discounts Available. Call Today! 1-855-653-0087.

SAFE STEP. North America’s #1 Walk-In Tub. Comprehensive lifetime warranty. Top-of-theline installation and service. Now featuring our FREE shower package and $1600 Off for a limited time! Call today! Financing available. Call Safe Step 1-866-478-2363.

AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL HEATING & COOLING. As temps outside start to climb, the season for savings is now. $49 cooling or heating system tune up. Save up to $2000 on a new heating and cooling system (restrictions apply.) FREE estimates. Many payment options available. Licensed and insured professionals. Call today 1-877-691-0273.

JACUZZI BATH REMODEL can install a new, custom bath or shower in as little as one day. For a limited time, waving ALL installation costs! (Additional terms apply. Subject to change and vary by dealer. (Offer ends 8/25/24.) Call 1-833-994-0538.

ELIMINATE GUTTER CLEANING FOREVER! LeafFilter, the most advanced debrisblocking gutter protection. Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 20% off Entire Purchase. Plus 10% Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-855-977-6078.

CONSUMER CELLULAR - the same reliable, nationwide coverage as the largest carriers. No long-term contract, no hidden fees and activation is free. All plans feature unlimited talk and text, starting at just $20/month. For more information, call 1-833-742-1303.

September 26

Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor | 401 West Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD

Aetna, in partnership with the City of Baltimore, invite you to the secons annual Older Adults Thriving in Baltimore City Summit! This fun and interactive day will provide you with all the tools and resources you need for leading a long and healthy life.

Enjoy complimentary food and refreshments, engaging conversations, extensive resources, prizes and giveaways, as well as presentations by community leaders. Do not miss this unique opportunity to learn, connect, and explore. We can’t wait to see you there! The summit is free to attend, and complimentary transportation services are available. Visit the website or call for more information.