September 2024 | Howard County 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

LEISURE & TRAVEL

British Columbia’s remote coastal rainforest teems with bears, wolves, orcas and humpback whales; plus, tips for solo travelers

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 DOG AND TRAINER, page 27

PHOTO BY BARBARA RUBEN

PHOTO BY MAPLE LEAF

AVENTURES

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.

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.

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(!).

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.

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.

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!

The Beacon is a monthly newspaper dedicated to inform, serve, and entertain the citizens of the Howard County area, and is privately owned. Other editions serve Greater Baltimore, Md. and Greater Washington, D.C. Subscriptions are available via third-class mail ($12), prepaid with order. Maryland residents add 6 percent for sales tax. Send subscription order to the office listed below.

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.

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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.

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

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.

Health Fitness &

Fitness & Health

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 is there anything you can do 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 know 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).

But this fails to tell the whole picture re-

garding 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.”

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 ba-

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.

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. See REDUCE CALORIES, page 5

Reduce calories

From page 4

nanas, 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.”

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

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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 sim-

ply 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.

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MAS 8/8/24–12/31/25

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.

“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 conversation 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 mar-

Have confidence in every conversation.

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ried 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 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 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?”

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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.

available if you do happen to get it. Here’s what you should know.

By Jim Miller

But the good news is there are things you can do to protect your eyesight, and a number of treatments are

What is AMD?

Macular degeneration, also known as 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.

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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.

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 high risk. These include eating antioxidantrich 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 doc-

GUIDED NATURE WALK

tor may recommend you start taking a daily dose of antioxidant vitamins and minerals known as AREDS or AREDS2.

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 (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.

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.

Come for a free hike in the Belmont Manor woodlands, 6553 Belmont Woods Rd., Elkridge. Enjoy seeing and identifying plant species with a naturalist on Sat., Sept. 28 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Registration required. For registration and more information, see bit.ly/BelmontHike or call (410) 465-8877.

WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S

Join the Alzheimer’s Association for a walk to end Alzheimer’s on Sat., Sept. 21. Come to Centennial Park, Ellicott City at 9 a.m. when the site opens. The walk starts at 10 a.m. To register or donate, visit act.alz.org/HowardCounty. For more information, contact geshifflett@alz.org or (443) 892-0232.

Why food may not taste like it used to

By Environmental Nutrition

We know that as we age, eyesight and hearing may decline. But did you know that taste and smell can as well?

We start out with thousands of taste buds, not only on the tongue, but in the throat and on the roof of the mouth. Some taste buds are sensitive to sweet, others to sour, salty, bitter and more.

When taste buds are damaged (like from scalding coffee), they are able to regenerate. In fact, they are typically replaced every couple of weeks.

But sensitivity to flavors and the ability to regenerate is reduced with age, beginning in your 50s or 60s.

Smell = Taste

Maybe even more important than a loss of sensitive taste buds with age is a loss of smell. That’s because taste and smell are intimately connected.

When you bite into a spicy food, you

breathe in the flavor and exhale it through your nose, where chemicals interact with receptor cells and transmit information to the brain about the taste.

The loss of sensitivity to smell with age is even greater than the loss of sensitivity in your taste buds.

But together, the losses are a double whammy and can translate to less sweetness in desserts, less sting from chili peppers, and less sinus-opening effects of horseradish. In fact, that loss of taste you’re sensing could actually be a loss of smell.

In addition, sensitivities to specific tastes can shift with age. It’s not uncommon for a preference for sweet flavors during youth to shift to a preference for saltier flavors with age.

Other causes of taste loss

Medications and zinc deficiencies are two other common causes of changes in

taste. As many as 45% of adults 60 years and older have zinc intakes below the average requirement, which can negatively affect the ability to taste.

Red meat, poultry, beans, nuts and cereals are all good sources of zinc.

Chemotherapy, antihistamines, antide-

•

•

pressants, inhalers and blood pressure medications can also interfere with your ability to taste, no matter your age.

Reprinted with permission from Environmental Nutrition.

© 2024 Belvoir Media Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Primary Care

At Home

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

• 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.

LENARD H. HAMMER, M.D., F.A.C.S.

GORDON LUI, M.D.

SCOTT B. BECKER, M.D.

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:

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,

PUMMPKIN PAL L ALOO LOO

Short of breath

From page 10

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

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 Mary-

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

land 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.

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 for the shortness of breath.

Howard LeWine, M.D., is an internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. For additional consumer health information, see health.harvard.edu. © 2024 Harvard University. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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.

BEACON BITS

Sept. 14

VOLUNTEER FAIR

Looking for ways that you can get involved and make a difference in our community? Visit a Volunteer Resource Fair featuring a wide range of opportunities available through local nonprofits. Come Sat., Sept. 14 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Dill Dinkers – Columbia, 9179 Red Branch Rd., Suite F, Columbia. For more information, visit www.acshoco.org/event/volunteerresource or contact Colleen at community@neighborride.org or (410) 884-7433.

Sept. 5

50+ CAREER AND RESOURCE FAIR

Join for a day of networking, job opportunities, community resources and career growth with employers in the Prince George’s County area interested in hiring experienced older workers. Come Thurs., Sept. 5 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to the Laurel Multiservice Center, 204 Fort Meade Rd., Laurel. General health and prostate cancer screenings available; registration required. For more information and registration, visit bit.ly/50upCareerFair.

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.

Please tell our advertisers, “I saw you in the Beacon!”

Upcoming Programs for 55 Years + Recreation &

Parks

To view all of our programs and activities, visit www.HowardCountyMD.gov/rap.

Crafts & Fine Arts

• Info: Tessa Hurd, 410-313-7311 or thurd@howardcountymd.gov.

Digital Photography 101

With today’s digital cameras, anyone can take great pictures! Come learn by focusing on the fundamentals. Learn the elements and techniques that produce compelling photos, then practice your new skills while photographing Belmont’s historic manor and grounds. Digital camera required (DSLR, mirrorless or point-and-shoot with manual controls).

55 yrs +Instructor: John GuionClasses: 4

RP3521.101Belmont ManorSep 179:30-11:30amTu$95

Dance

• Info: Tessa Hurd, 410-313-7311or thurd@howardcountymd.gov.

Beginner Ballet for Active Aging Adults

with Carol Asher

This adult beginner ballet dance class is filled with graceful and fluid movements that build strength and flexibility while having fun. Beautiful classical music is added to this light and enjoyable class. No equipment is needed. Enjoy this weekly class and socialize with members of the community.

55 yrs +Classes: 8

RP3508.101Roger Carter CCSep 1812:30-1:30pmW$89

Encore Adventures

This is your opportunity to dabble in a variety of outdoor skills! Paddle a kayak, learn the basics of archery, fish around Centennial Lake, and much more. Earn a certificate and patch for completing at least five Encore Adventure activities within a two-year period. All equipment provided for use during the program. Detailed information is emailed during the week prior to the program. Info: Matt Medicus, 410-313-1769 or mmedicus@howardcountymd.gov.

Encore Adventures Blackwater Kayaking Trip

Practice your skills on the open water and discover the beauty of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. This one-day trip is a tidal flatwater out and back trip. Beginner and intermediate kayakers welcome; all paddlers must complete our paddling basics class or kayaking club before the trip.

55 yrs +Centennial Pk SouthDays: 1

RP9171.112Sep 178am-5:30pmTu$75

Intro to Fishing

Are you a new angler? Coming back to the sport? Learn or review how to cast, identify fish, rig a pole, tie knots and more. Equipment and bait provided.

55 yrs +Centennial Pk SouthClasses: 1

RP9171.102Sep 249:30-11:30amTu$30

Intro to Target Archery

Learn the basics of target archery including equipment, safety and elements of shooting with an USA Archery-certified instructor.

55 yrs +Alpha Ridge PkClasses: 1

RP9171.103Oct 19:30-11:30amTu$39

Scan the QR code or visit tinyurl.com/activeaging55 for more 55 yrs + programs!

Fitness

• Info: Tessa Hurd, 410-313-7311 or thurd@howardcountymd.gov.

NEW! Chair Yoga

Exercise, reduce inflammation, and improve your sleep at night! Chair Yoga is a complete class with life-enhancing, spiritual, physical, intellectual, and emotional benefits. In the hour-long class, participants engage in dynamic exercises which enhance fitness and concentration. Results and benefits of this class include increased energy levels, mobility, focus, and a greater sense of peace in everyday life.

55 yrs +Classes: 8

RP3549.101Gary J Arthur CCSep 10 6-7pmTu$96

NEW! Yoga for the Core with Kathy Greisman

Formerly Yoga for Bone Strength. Let’s gain better balance and stability by focusing on our core strength. The core is vital to maintaining balance, stability and helps to prevent injury. Bring a yoga mat.

55 yrs + Classes: 12No class 10/14

RP3566.101Belmont ManorSep 911:30am-12:30pmM,W$95

LaBlast w/ Carol Asher

LaBlast is a revolutionary, ballroom dance, partner-free, fitness program based on the dances seen on Dancing with the Stars! It fuses dance into a calorie-burning workout. Take your mind, body, and soul through dances from different countries and cultures.

55 yrs +Classes: 6

RP3561.101Roger Carter CCSep 181:30-2:30pmW$65

Nature Programs

• Info: 410-313-0400.

Sr. Naturalist Program

Having fun in nature is for all ages! This program provides a foundation of understanding on a variety of environmental topics through hands-on exploration and demonstrations in a casual, social atmosphere. Topics change monthly based on seasonal happenings. Life in a Water Droplet: Journey down to the Middle Patuxent River to explore the microscopic life that can be found in a water droplet. Nature Journaling: Learn nature journaling techniques and how this practice of tracking nature through the seasons can benefit your mental health and provide calm. Birding Walk: Enjoy a walk to identify birds around the property while learning how to recognize the differences between species sights and sounds. Astronomy: Enjoy the winter constellations and a film in the planetarium.

50 yrs +Robinson Nature CtrClasses: 1

RP4831.101Life in a Water DropletSep 253-4:30pmW$15

RP4831.102Nature JournalingOct 163-4:30pmW$15

RP4831.103Birding WalkNov 203-4:30pmW$15

RP4831.104AstronomyDec 183-4:30pmW$15

Park Ranger Programs

Bats Amazing!

Explore the incredible world of our favorite flying mammal, the bat! Learn all about their amazing adaptations, their role in healthy ecosystems, and threats to their conservation. Learn tips for bat-friendly habitats. End with a night hike to scout for our nocturnal neighbors.

All agesDays: 1

RP9971.101Warfield Pond PkSep 156:30-7:30pmSuFree

• Info: Tracy Adkins, 410-313-7279 or tadkins@howardcountymd.gov.

September 19: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Explore this top-rated museum in Richmond! View 5,000 years of art from around the world. Bus provided.

RP4791.8018:30am-5pmTh$99

September 27: Gettysburg

The Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center provides exclusive resources and unique experiences to introduce you to the Battle of Gettysburg and prepare you for your personalized battlefield tour. Visit sites from the Battle on a bus tour with a guide who shares information about the three-day battle, which was a turning point in the American Civil War. See Devil’s Den, Little Round Top, the location of Pickett’s charge and more. If you’re a history buff, don’t miss this chance to learn about a pivotal piece of the United States’ history. Bus provided.

RP4792.8018am-4:30pmF$125

Fallingwater – Frank Lloyd Wright House

Experience Wright’s most recognized example of the union of architecture and nature. Walking the beautiful, forested grounds and exploring the house from interior spaces and outdoor cantilevered terraces, you will closely examine Fallingwater’s intimate relationship with the mountainous landscape that inspired its design. Bus provided.

RP4574.101Oct 49am-6pmF$129

December

21:

World-Famous Radio City Rockettes NYC Christmas Spectacular!

The Christmas Spectacular, starring the Radio City Rockettes, is an annual holiday show presented at Radio City Music Hall in the heart of New York City. The 90-minute show combines singing, dancing, and humor with traditional scenes featured. Watch over 140 performers and hear an original musical score. The star performers are The Rockettes. Since 1933, this show has become a New York holiday tradition. Explore the city or dine on you own after the show. Bus provided.

RP4569.1017am -11:30pmSa$249

Scan the QR code or visit tinyurl.com/RPtrips for more trips & tours!

e the pow Explor p f p i er of connection at 50+ Centers

Nra n en a attional Senior C nter Mo th, celeb atted ever y year in h erSeptemb r, , promotes a positive image of aging and highlig ts l how 50+ Centers can improve the lives of local older adultts dy and strengthen mind, bodyy, , spirit, and community connections.

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Is now the time to sell your big house for a smaller home? See story on page 20.

Money Law & 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.

PHOTO BY SPENCER MEANS

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.

fer 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.

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.

THE SAVINGS GAME

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.

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 trans-

BEACON BITS

Sept. 19

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 yearend 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

FILING FOR SOCIAL SECURITY?

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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 ob-

BEACON BITS

Ongoing

MARYLANDERS ONLINE

taining 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.

Maryland residents can use Marylanders Online to speak with trained Digital Navigators for tech help in virtual, one-on-one sessions or on-site training and events. Available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Help offered in multiple languages. For more information, visit marylandersonline.umd.edu/get-help or call the hotline 1-866206-8467.

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Sept. 5

Expand your TV viewing options and potentially cut costs by switching to streaming. This free virtual session hosted by AARP will explore streaming services such as Hulu Live, YouTubeTV, Apple TV+, Netflix and others. Join Thurs., Sept. 5 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. For registration and more information, visit bit.ly/SwitchToStream or email neaarp@aarp.org.

Is this a good time to sell and downsize?

By Kate Ashford

Your home is your sanctuary, but it’s also one of your biggest budget items. And after you retire, it may feel like more house than you need.

But in this housing market, when a smaller home with upgraded features may be about as expensive as the one you’re selling, is it still smart to downsize?

In some cases, downsizing is appropriate, but not necessarily money-saving. You may be able to sell your house and buy something cheaper, but it might also make sense to downsize to move closer to family or have less house to clean.

It’s important to be clear on what you want. “Goals are so crucial,” said Juan HernandezAriano, a certified financial planner in Houston. “There are multiple pathways people can take.”

Here are some situations that may

BEACON BITS Sept. 6

match up with a “For Sale” sign.

You’re in a cash flow bind

In retirement, you might find that rising prices combined with a fixed income make you feel a little squeezed.

HernandezAriano notes that his clients in southeast Texas are bothered by high home insurance premiums due to severe weather events, plus high property taxes. “A lot of insurance companies are dropping coverage on the southeast side of Texas,” he said.

If downsizing is a question of money, consider all your housing costs. Weigh the mortgage, property taxes and insurance, plus basic bills like electricity and water services for your current and future homes.

One client in Houston did the math and moved 90 minutes away, where they got a cheaper home and dropped their home-

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owners insurance by 60%.

“Property taxes also went down since they weren’t in a highly competitive school district,” HernandezAriano said. “They still spent more on gas and water and had to pay for relocation expenses, but overall, they saved monthly.”

You’re in a pricey area (like here)

If you live in an expensive city or suburb, you have a better chance of selling your home and finding something cheaper. “When you’re [currently] in a lowercost area, it’s going to be difficult to find something even lower cost,” said David Demming, a CFP in Aurora, Ohio.

Just do some looking before you leap. Inventory is low in many places and competition is steep for a smaller home with upgrades.

To save money overall, the value of the home you’re purchasing should be at least 20% less than the house that you’re selling, according to Diane Pearson, a CFP in Wexford, Pennsylvania.

You can’t live there safely anymore

Your health may require you to find a new home with fewer stairs, a first-floor primary bedroom or an accessible bathroom.

Michael Maye, a CFP in Gillette, New Jersey, notes that his clients who’ve seen parents go through long-term care or health issues are more likely to consider future mobility when planning their retirement.

“Recently, I proactively worked with a couple, and they knew that they didn’t want to age in place because they have a bigger house,” he said.

They wanted to buy into a continuing care retirement community, where they could take advantage of graduated levels

of care as they needed it. “They could stay in their house, but they don’t plan to,” Maye said.

You want to be closer to family

While being closer to children or aging parents is a good reason to downsize, don’t count on this being the cheaper option, especially if you’re moving into a hotter market.

Consider one of Demming’s clients, who moved from one part of Ohio to another part of the state. “It cost her $150,000 more to move there, to get a house that was acceptable to her,” Demming said.

Even with the higher cost, Demming said, it was worth it to be closer to her children and grandchildren. And her new city is booming.

“There is no looking back,” Demming said. “Her new home has appreciated quite a bit since moving.”

You’re prepared to create a new support network

If downsizing means a new city, keep in mind that you may have to rebuild your community. Even if you’re moving to be near family, you shouldn’t count on them to be your activities hub.

“Are you a social person who’s going to be able to get out and about and make your own way?” Maye asked.

You’ll need to make new friends, find new medical professionals, find a new gym. “Those are the trade-offs,” Maye said. “None of them are deal breakers, but I think people should really think about all these other things.”

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Kate Ashford is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: kashford@nerdwallet.com.

Is real estate or stock best investment?

By Alexandra Svokos

These days, it feels like there’s not a lot Americans agree with each other on. But we do seem to have one consistent belief: that real estate is a great long-term investment.

Americans voted real estate as the best long-term investment, according to a new Gallup poll. And in fact, real estate has come out on top of this poll every year since 2014, beating out stocks or mutual funds, gold, and savings accounts or CDs.

This year, 36% of Americans put real estate on top. Next up was stocks, at 22%, followed by gold, 18%, and savings accounts or CDs, 13%.

Coming in at the bottom of the list was bonds, at 4%, and cryptocurrency, at just 3% — not a huge surprise, considering many people are still trying to figure out what cryptocurrency is.

Somewhat surprising

That real estate has been such a consistent winner this past decade is interesting, though.

Now, don’t get me wrong: Both real estate and the stock market have historically been great long-term investments. They have both exceeded the rate of inflation, meaning that if you were invested, you saw some great returns in the long-term.

They also both generally have higher rates of return than safer vehicles like savings accounts, CDs (even with the high CD rates these days) or bonds.

But lately, stocks have given a better return than real estate. And those returns have come as investing has gotten increasingly accessible thanks to tools like online brokers and trading platforms.

Real estate, meanwhile, has only gotten less accessible, if you’re not already a homeowner, as prices have been rising and down payments are a bigger barrier to entry than, say, throwing $100 into a Vanguard account.

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DONATE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

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That’s particularly true now, when people like me are arguing it is the worst time to buy a house — between high mortgage rates and prices. [Ed. Note: Unless you’re in the sweet spot of selling a larger one and downsizing. See “Is this a good time to sell and downsize?” on page 20.]

Less volatile than stocks

If you’re an older homeowner or real estate investor, though, it’s easy to understand why you’d say real estate is a better investment than the stock market. From 1990 to 2006, returns on housing were higher than stocks, according to Investopedia.

But since 2006, stock market growth has exceeded housing. Using the S&P 500 vs the Vanguard Real Estate Index, Sean Ross at Investopedia found that from December 2013 to December 2023, the real estate index had a 37% total return, while

the S&P 500 had a 155% total return.

Even so, again, I can understand why people stick with real estate. It’s a simple idea, really, which is that real estate feels safer.

The stock market has bumps and volatility in short-term segments, while housing generally keeps a more slow but steady climb.

BEACON BITS

And you can’t disagree that on a rainy day, a roof over your head feels like a better investment than a share of Google stock in your brokerage account.

© 2024 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

WEEKEND PUPPY RAISING

The Guide Dog Foundation, America’s VetDogs and the Maryland Department of Corrections are looking for volunteers in Jessup, MD to help raise puppies being trained as assistance dogs on weekends. Weekend volunteers host puppies from Friday evening through Sunday, and socialize them by bringing them to the mall, restaurants or sporting events and traveling by car or public transport. For registration and more information, visit bit.ly/JessupPuppies.

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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 24.

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, 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.

more than half, the double-room rates.

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.

By Ed Perkins

Railroads charge each traveler the same for basic rail fare, but for compartments on overnight trains such as Amtrak’s long-distance trains, the price is the same for one as for two.

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

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 pulldown 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.

TRAVEL TIPS

Rainforest

From page 23

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.

Solo travel

From page 24

Cruises: For a long time, cruise lines ignored 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,

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

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.

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.

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.

Arts & Style

Orchestra welcomes its new conductor

By Hannah Collins

Since its formation in 1977, the Columbia Orchestra has been a cultural force in Howard County, offering performances in a variety of genres, from chamber music to jazz.

As the orchestra moves into its 47th season, its brand-new music director, Richard Scerbo, is excited to take to the stage to share his love of music with the community.

“When I wake up in the morning, I’m thinking about music, and when I go to sleep at night, I’m thinking about music,” Scerbo said.

After their longtime conductor Jason Love retired in 2023, the Columbia Orchestra embarked on a year-long search and chose Scerbo, an Annapolis native, from a group of four finalists.

Each finalist was asked to program a concert featuring pieces the orchestra had not recently performed. Then, feedback from both concert attendees and orchestra members influenced the final decision.

Scerbo, who calls the orchestra “a cultural gem of an institution,” assumed the conductor role in July.

What drives his work, Scerbo said, is an “unending hunger for music — and to do

more, and to experiment more, and to be around people that are making music.

“What really connected for me with the Columbia Orchestra was being able to make music with people that I enjoy and respect, and that have that same enjoyment for music as well, that same hunger.”

Scerbo is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he earned an undergraduate degree in bassoon and a master’s degree in conducting.

While he also currently works at the University of Maryland as the director of the National Orchestral Institute, he previously served as artistic director and conductor of the Inscape Chamber Orchestra as well as principal conductor of the DC Youth Orchestra program and music director of the NIH Community Orchestra.

Columbia Orchestra’s executive director, Berta Sabrio, said Scerbo’s presence has already had a great impact on the orchestra as a whole.

“The orchestra is excited to come to rehearsals,” she noted. “[The musicians] have wonderful things to say about how much they love working under his baton and direction.

“Just that interaction would have been enough for me to be on board. But also his interaction with our staff — his professionalism, his kindness — is just incredible,” Sabrio said.

What’s on tap for fall

The orchestra’s primary performance space, The Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School, has plenty of free parking and affordable ticket prices, making it accessible to locals who prefer not to travel to Baltimore or Washington, D.C. to hear a live orchestra perform.

The Columbia Orchestra’s fall season features four classical concerts tied together by a thematic thread — “a new adventure”— that will engage audiences from the pre-concert conversation to the end of the show, Scerbo said.

S OPEN SEPTEMMBER 6

For instance, the theme of the first concert on September 14 is “new worlds.”

The orchestra will celebrate NASA’s 60th anniversary with Michael Giacchino’s “Voyage,” followed by a Duke Ellington number and Antonín Dvorák’s famous “New World Symphony.”

Other scheduled concerts include “The Latin Side of the Big Band” and “American Reflections,” as well as family and pops concerts.

The pre-concert conversations, which

NITE BITE FISHING

take place in the Mini-Theatre known as “the Box,” provide audiences an opportunity to learn about the evening’s concert program and to hear from musicians and soloists who will be performing. The new conductor also plans to host discussions with the audience after performances.

“It’s sort of like a concert plus education

Richard Scerbo, who grew up in Annapolis and graduated from the University of Maryland, is the new music director of the Columbia Orchestra. Its first concert of the season is scheduled for September 14 at the Jim Rouse Theatre at Wilde Lake High School.

An Ellicott City dog is the first mixed-breed ever to win Westminster’s agility competition. Our cover story continues on the facing page.

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.

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.”

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OCTOBER 19, 8 p.m. – REMEMBERING FAURÉ on the 100th Anniversary of his death; His uplifting Requiem with organ & Chamber Orchestra. First Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ellicott City

DECEMBER 8, 7:30 p.m.

HANDEL: MESSIAH – Amy van Roekel, soprano; MaryAnn McCormick, mezzo; Charles Reid, tenor; baritone TBA, join CPC, organ and Festival Orchestra. Pre-Concert Lecture, 6:30; Post-Concert Reception. Jim Rouse Theatre, Columbia

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MAY 3, 8 p.m. – ASIAN AMERICAN/PACIFIC ISLANDER CELEBRATION during AA/PI month. Pre-Concert Lecture, 7 p.m.; Post-Concert Reception. Jim Rouse Theatre

and conversation and enlightenment,” Scerbo explained. “You can get everything all in one place.”

Focus on the community

Both Scerbo and Sabrio are proud of the orchestra’s longtime commitment to the larger community. The orchestra performs free concerts throughout the county at senior living communities, hospitals and at the Chrysalis.

It offers a couple of family concerts each

year at reduced ticket prices.

And the orchestra also operates two educational programs in partnership with Howard County Public Schools: Musicians perform interactive concerts for school children and introduce them to their instruments.

In addition, the orchestra provides “coaches” to low-income schools, teaching small groups of students and their music teachers about string instruments.

With Scerbo’s deep love of music, the orchestra under his direction is “going to keep growing into something more than it already is,” Sabrio said.

COMMUNITY YARD SALE

River Hill is having community-wide yard sales on Sat., Sept. 21 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Come shop or host a sale in River Hill, Columbia/Clarksville. Red balloons will be placed on participating streets. For more information, visit bit.ly/RiverHillYardSales or call Kathy Berlin at (410) 531-1749.

Ongoing

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Scrabble answers on p. 29.

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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To o register, visit: or O f T s N–1 P S & W 12 NO P..M. his ongoing cla s fo Parkinson’s or other n disorders aims to imp balance and circulatio increasing strength, m and mobility. v iv NESD r those w ith eurogenerat ve ro e posture, n while also uscle control A PT D v im f and in y f yda v g is im Y p TUESDAYY, , SEPTEMB 10:30-11:45A.M.

FREE with $50 annual PFNCA administrat ve feee To o register, visit: bit.ly/ RVVPar xeercise

Flexibility trainin mp eveer ay fuunctioning, in relie njjur y prevent mprove e your golf swing, or other leisure activities L nbuthn uh ou en ant f ER 24 ort foor cluding pain ion. It can tennis game y njjoy! huld t t h A

Offered in partnership with t Paarkinson Foundation of the National Capital Area

WEDNESDAYYS 10:45-11:45 A.M.

This weekly wellness and pre ention progr foor indiv iduals with Parkinson’s disease and their care partner foocuses on the maintenance of communication skills, wit mpha sis on strengthening breath support and the ability to project and speak loudly enough to be heard in social settings.

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Learn about when you should stretch and discover moves that can be carried nyytime nyywhere — whether seated or standing.

To o register, visit: bit lyy/ BGStretch

PARKINSON’S COMMUNIC ATTION CL UB BGR . T e f iv h an em s f am f v A heP

HEALTHY LIVING CLASS: “YOGA FOR OLDER AD LT T S”

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FREE with $50 annual PFNCA administrat ve feee To o register, visit: bit.ly/ RVVParkCommClub UL kEx BGR . T e f iv

Offered in partnership wit Up ft Yooga a August 12 through September 23 (no class on Labor Day)

MONDAYYS & FRIDAYYS 1–1:45 P.M.

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This gentle yoga class is gear foor older adults and acces foor ALL as posit ay y be done from a yoga mat, sitting in a chair or standing w ith a c foor suppor t. Conducted at a slow pace, this class incorporates fuulness and breathing techniques, while participants learn and practice poses that will increase strength, balance and flexibility. S x- weekSessionFee:$40

18100 Slade Sc Sandy Spring, M

chool Road MD 20860

BGY .l T week Session Fee: $40

To o register, visit: bit lyy/ GYoogaSummer