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VOL.29, NO.12

Couriers transport gift of life

Life as a courier Couriers live across the U.S., and are on

DECEMBER 2017

I N S I D E …

PHOTO BY REY LOPEZ

By Barbara Ruben The snowflakes fell fast and furious, blanketing roads, shuttering runways and canceling Jim Frison’s flight. But what might be merely an inconvenience for some was a matter of life and death in this case. Frison was gripping a bright blue cooler containing recently donated bone marrow on its way to a cancer patient, and it was Frison’s job to get it there. With just 48 hours to reach a patient to ensure the cells remain viable, volunteer couriers know just how dire a delay can be. The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), also known as Be the Match, worked to find Frison another flight, and he left one snowbound city for another the next morning. “I noticed when I landed in the snow storm and was dashing through the terminal that the arrivals and departures displays showed all the departures were canceled. And all but one arrival was canceled, which was the flight I was on — because I was on that flight,” Frison recalled of the harrowing trip. On his way to the hospital in a taxi, they passed cars that had spun off the road, and when he finally arrived, a lab tech was there to meet him, telling Frison the transplant would take place just 15 minutes later. “When you make the delivery, you feel you’ve grown angel’s wings,” said the 67year-old Frison, a resident of Arlington, Va. He’s one of 321 volunteers who transport marrow and blood stem cells worldwide for Be the Match, the largest donor program in the U.S. “Once you get there, it’s an amazing feeling, knowing someone’s been handed life because of what you carried.” Frison makes about 11 trips a year. In the five years he’s volunteered, he has traveled to six countries and more than 50 cities. He became a courier because, after joining the National Bone Marrow Registry as a potential donor years ago, he was never matched with a patient with leukemia or lymphoma who could be helped before Frison turned 61, which is the cut-off age to donate marrow.

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LEISURE & TRAVEL

Albuquerque’s sunny disposition; plus, reasons to hire a travel agent, what to do about nonrefundable fares, hanging out in Greenwich Village, and inspiring travel books page 38

ARTS & STYLE Jim Frison (left) and Jorn Dalboe are among hundreds of volunteer couriers who ferry life-saving bone marrow cells from donors to patients for Be the Match, the country’s largest marrow registry. They must keep their bright blue coolers containing the cells within sight at all times, and get the life-saving cargo to the destination hospital — sometimes on other continents — within 48 hours.

Miracle on 34th Street as a musical; plus, Woody Harrelson reflects, beautiful books for everyone on your list, and Bob Levey on phony phone calls page 44

call to make life-saving deliveries at least six times a year. While most trips are domestic, about a quarter of the trips span the globe. While couriers range from age 21 to 73, Be the Match Volunteer Specialist Rut Kessel said that many are older adults who have time to travel on short notice. “They’re pretty much just traveling, and that’s it. They have to be on call. It’s not a fun thing. It’s a stressful, get ‘er done kind of thing. It’s a huge commitment and a huge responsibility that they take on,” she said. Most trips are two to four days long, and all travel and hotels are paid for by the program. After a delivery has been made, a volunteer can choose to spend additional time at the final destination — at their own expense, however. Couriers must retire at 75, because the

job requires stamina that might diminish past that age, Kessel said. “But [many couriers] don’t want to leave,” she added. “They take many trips a year, a lot more than the minimum of six. They really do enjoy being part of that healing process.”

How to become one The program won’t be recruiting for new volunteers until next October, and most new couriers learn about the opportunity through word of mouth. Kessel first screens applicants by phone. Those who make the cut attend training at the National Marrow Donor Program in Minneapolis. The training includes blood born pathogen training, how to keep everything See COURIERS, page 16

TECHNOLOGY k Can selfies prevent ID theft?

FITNESS & HEALTH 8 k Mini-organs have many benefits k Understanding gender issues LAW & MONEY 26 k Make the most of your donations k Are your bonds doing their job? SPOTLIGHT ON AGING k Newsletter for D.C. seniors

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How the world works When I was six years old, my father took ly appeared to offer a glamorous lifestyle. our family to New York City (where he had But the reality was definitely something a business trip) for a vacation. else, as reporting on televiAmong many other firsts sion and in the newspapers for me on that eye-opening made clear. trip were my first visit to a Some years after that trip, a World’s Fair and my first muyoung actress from New York sical on Broadway: Oliver! came to my home town to play I was instantly taken with the role of Anita in West Side the idea of the theatre. I alStory at a local theatre. My ready played piano and liked family had the opportunity to to sing, and there I saw a host her for a meal. child about my age starring in It was from her that my a Broadway show! I came out FROM THE brother and I first learned of the theatre singing some of PUBLISHER about the “casting couch.” She By Stuart P. Rosenthal Oliver’s numbers. Was this bitterly complained about how something I could aspire to? difficult it was for female acMy father very quickly filled me in on the tresses to land parts on Broadway or in TV or downsides of such a career. Not only the eco- films without sleeping with the producers, nomic insecurity, but also the difficulties of which she refused to do. maintaining a marriage, of raising children, Here my father’s claims, and even worse of withstanding temptations, and the like. behavior, were substantiated. And she por(Yes, I know I was only a child, but my father trayed that devil’s bargain as being rampant always took me seriously and replied in in the industry. kind.) Another example of my education in “the Performing on stage and screen certain- way the world worked” came from my moth-

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er when I was older. She had a dear friend who was a newspaper reporter for our hometown paper. This friend had spent several years as the paper’s Washington correspondent during the Kennedy administration. She had told my mother at the time about the extramarital liaisons President Kennedy was having in the White House, and how the entire press corps was aware of it. When my mom asked her why this information was not publicized, her friend basically said, “It isn’t relevant. Why tarnish his presidency when it has no effect on his work?” As a kid, I was both appalled and fascinated by these revelations. Is this really how the world worked? Did all adults (and less sheltered teens) know about all this? The answer seemed to be yes. Well then, why do we allow it to continue, I asked? The answer, such as it was, seemed to be that the rich and/or powerful get away with this, and the rest of us are expected to accept that. Just do what you can to steer clear of it, my dad advised. These vignettes have been popping into my head recently, as we read almost daily of the end of at least part of this era. Hollywood producers, politicians, journalists and others who have long taken advantage of their positions, believing they lived

under a different set of rules, are finally being called to account. For years, it appeared there would be no repercussions for their past (and in too many cases, continuing) “indiscretions.” They were able to use their power to prevent victims from coming forward, or from being believed. They may have bought their silence with cash settlements and gag orders, or cowed them into silence with threats and lawsuits. But today, it looks like the jig is up. Perhaps due to a changing social attitude, we have decided to stop the cover-ups and accept the reality of what has long been rumored. Clearly, the Internet and social media have played a major role in enabling the victims to band together and amplify their voice into one that can no longer be ignored. I had never understood why we tolerated the unconscionable way “the world worked” for all those years. I’m not so optimistic as to say it doesn’t work that way anymore. But I think we can say we’re moving in the right direction. And it’s about time.

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The Beacon is a monthly newspaper dedicated to inform, serve, and entertain the citizens of the Greater Washington DC area, and is privately owned. Other editions serve Greater Baltimore, Howard County, Md. and Greater Palm Springs, Calif. Readership exceeds 400,000. Subscriptions are available via first-class mail ($36) or third-class mail ($12), prepaid with order. D.C. and 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. • Publisher/Editor ....................Stuart P. Rosenthal • Associate Publisher ..............Judith K. Rosenthal • Vice President of Operations ....Gordon Hasenei • Director of Sales ................................Alan Spiegel • Managing Editor............................Barbara Ruben • Art Director ........................................Kyle Gregory • Assistant Operations Manager ..........Roger King • Advertising Representatives ........Doug Hallock, ......Rodney Harris, Dan Kelly, Barbara Koscielski, ........................................................Hubie Stockhausen • Assistant Editor ..........................Rebekah Alcalde

The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915 (301) 949-9766 • Email: info@thebeaconnewspapers.com Website: www.theBeaconNewspapers.com Submissions: The Beacon welcomes reader contributions. Deadline for editorial is the 10th of the month preceding the month of publication. Deadline for ads is the 15th of the month preceding the month of publication. See page 55 for classified advertising details. Please mail or email all submissions. © Copyright 2017 The Beacon Newspapers, Inc.

Letters to the editor Readers are encouraged to share their opinion on any matter addressed in the Beacon as well as on political and social issues of the day. Mail your Letter to the Editor to The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915, or e-mail to barbara@thebeaconnewspapers.com. Please include your name, address and telephone number for verification. Dear Editor: I always enjoy reading your regular columnist Bob Levey, as I did over the many years he wrote for The Washington Post. He seems like an old friend, and I appreciate his observations about aging as we stroll along that path together. However, I have to take exception to his column in the November issue of the Beacon (“Defiantly hanging onto a fading tradition”), in which he talked about his preference for using checks instead of charge cards to make purchases. That was my long-time habit, too — until it occurred to me that my bank account and routing numbers are printed across the bottom of every check! Plus, each check provides a handwriting sample for anyone interested in copying my signature. Now, cash or credit cards seem to me to be more private and “secure” than checks — especially when purchasing from unknown vendors at public events like craft fairs and such. It’s something for your readers (and Mr. Levey) to think about. L.R. Tokarz Greenbelt, Md. Dear Editor: In the November Beacon, Bob Levey re-

lates his comfort in paying for groceries, etc. by check. I am at least as old as Bob, but my comfort level goes way down when standing in line at the Safeway while the person in front of me dutifully fills out a check and gives it to the clerk, while my ice cream and frozen pizza are getting warmer by the minute. Paying by credit card may be so 20th century, but at least it’s not 19th century and will speed the people behind you home with the groceries. David Cosson Washington Grove, Md. Dear Editor: I just read the Beacon for the first time and came across Bob Levey’s column extolling the tradition of check-writing. Paying by check can leave you more at risk than paying by credit card. When you use a check, you hand over all the information a crook needs to order checks in your name, with your address and your bank account number. Fraudsters can refer to your signature when they forge your name on their fake checks. I think this is an important issue for the Beacon’s audience. Nancy B. Falls Church, Va.

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Technology &

Innovations Applying for a credit card? Take a selfie By Ken Sweet The selfie (a photo of oneself taken by smartphone) is everywhere — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter — and soon your bank could be asking for one in order to approve your purchase or credit card application. Payment processing giant Visa Inc. is launching a platform to allow banks to integrate various types of biometrics — your fingerprint, face, voice, etc. — into approving credit card applications and payments. Consumers could experience Visa’s new platform in a couple of different ways. If a person were to apply for a credit card application on their smartphone, the bank app could ask the applicant to take a selfie, and then take a picture of a driver’s license or passport. The technology will then compare the photos for facial similarities as well as check the validity of the driver’s license, all happening within seconds.

Reducing online fraud The selfie could also play a role in an online purchases. With the wider acceptance of chip cards in the last couple of years, inperson fraud at retailers is on the decline. But online fraud is still a concern, with

as many as one of six transactions being declined due to suspicious activity, according to Mark Nelsen, senior vice president for risk and authentication products at Visa. Instead of a bank call center autodialing a customer when they have a concern about a transaction, this new technology could allow the customer to use Apple’s Touch ID or other fingerprint recognition technology, or to take a selfie or record their voice, to verify they made the transaction. With voice recording, a customer may have to speak a certain phrase. “Customers will be able choose their own preference for biometric authentication: voice, face, finger print. Any manner that they want,” said Tom Grissen, CEO of Daon, one of the companies that Visa is partnering with to launch the platform. The announcement comes at a time when a huge amount of personal information on 145.5 million Americans was recently accessed or stolen from the credit bureau Equifax. The information — birthdates, Social Security numbers, addresses, last names — is also information that could be used tomorrow or 20 years from now to potentially commit identity fraud.

Better than passwords Financial companies are particularly interested in biometrics, not surprisingly, as mostly a fraud protection measure. While a birth date, Social Security number or last name can be more easily stolen or mimicked — as anyone who has been a victim of identity fraud will tell you — it’s much harder to fraudulently mimic a person’s face, fingerprint or voice. A bank’s traditional defense against stolen personal data has been a customer creating a password or four-digit personal identification number (PIN). But few people change their passwords regularly, or make each one complex enough. Often people use the same password for multiple sites, so if it’s stolen from one location, multiple other locations become at risk. “Passwords are frustrating, increasingly complex and proven not to be secure,” Grissen said. So banks have been tinkering with biometrics for a couple of years in various forms. Many banks now accept Apple’s Touch ID in their iPhone apps, which uses a person’s fingerprint to verify a person’s identity. Citigroup has rolled out facial recognition in its banking application as

another example. While nearly every bank is interested in biometrics, not every bank has the size and scale that JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, or Citigroup has to afford inhouse biometrics experts. What Visa’s platform, which is officially known as Visa ID Intelligence, will do is provide banks and credit unions a place to install these biometric technologies into their own applications without having to build them in-house. Think of it as an Apple App Store or Google Play store, but for banks and biometrics. Visa itself is not storing any of the biometrics, the company says. It’s simply providing a connection between the bank and biometric technology companies. Banks won’t be integrating Visa’s platform immediately, just like it took a couple of years for chip cards to be fully introduced. But expect to see more forms of biometric authentication in the coming years, and not just in banking, industry experts say. For example, Apple’s new iPhone X and Samsung’s new Galaxy 8 line of smartphones use facial recognition technology as a form of authentication. — AP

Lock your phone to prevent data breaches By Justin J. Kumar Your phone is essentially a one-stop shop for your data and, if stolen or exposed to identity thieves, can compromise your identity and financial accounts. People are using smartphones for more of their digital needs, but even if you don’t use mobile banking or financial apps, your phone could store sensitive data from online shopping, social networking, games and more. An unsecured phone poses a major security risk that makes you vulnerable everywhere you go. Here’s a quick checklist of how to protect your data from identity thieves by securing your mobile phone: Password-protect your phone. A password locks your phone, so that anyone who picks it up can’t just rummage around in your mobile life. Use a complex and unique password, beyond just numbers if possible. A good password mixes letters, numbers, punctu-

ation and special characters. Use unexpected transformations. “Dollars” is a very easy password to crack, but so are the common variations “Doll@rs” and “Doll@r$.” Instead, try inserting a random character in a less predictable way to get something such as “D[]//@r$” or “D{}LL@r$” for increased security. As an alternative, your fingerprint may be sufficient to protect your phone — if it has a fingerprint sensor and if you don’t mind the invasiveness of a phone company having a unique identifier for you. Set your phone to auto-lock. Auto-lock means that your phone will automatically require a password for you to re-enter after a certain amount of time. This feature is important, especially in public places where phones that look alike can be accidentally swapped. You can set the auto-lock time by going into your phone settings and choosing from immediately up to several minutes,

even hours. Saving passwords isn’t smart. Make sure any mobile banking or financial apps have passwords that are not automatically saved on your phone. It may be convenient, but it’s also potentially dangerous. Turn off GPS, Bluetooth and wireless features. When you’re not using them, that is. Not only do they drain the battery life, but thieves can pair their Bluetooth device with yours to hack personal information or even track you. Be careful on Wi-Fi networks. Wi-Fi is another channel for thieves to remotely access your data undetected. Only connect your phone to secure networks with passwords, especially in public places that offer free Wi-Fi. Even if you are using Wi-Fi for browsing and not for shopping, banking or anything else that requires passwords or account data, on a public, open-source network, your personal information can be exposed

unwittingly. Download with discretion. Before downloading any apps to your phone, always do a quick search to make sure they come from a legitimate site or publisher. Check user reviews for any complaints. To move forward, back up. If you have photos, videos, music, emails, contacts or any other information that you want to make sure you can access if your smartphone if ever hacked, lost or stolen, then make sure they are all backed up on a computer, USB drive or cloud storage service. It’s always a good idea to make backup copies. Quick: Think of your best friend. Do you know his/her phone number? While some information can be replaced, it can turn out to be more of a hassle than you bargained for, and some items may be irreplaceable. Enable a service with remote trackSee LOCK YOUR PHONE, page 6

❏ Ashby Ponds (See ads on pages 21 & 52) ❏ Chesterbrook Residences (See ad on page 16) ❏ Crossings at Spring Hill, The (See ad on page 6) ❏ Culpepper Garden (See ad on page 19) ❏ Greenspring (See ads on pages 21 & 52) ❏ Gum Springs Glen (See ad on page 25) ❏ Falcons Landing (See ad on page 3) ❏ Herndon Harbor House (See ad on page 25) ❏ Lockwood House (See ad on page 25) ❏ Morris Glen (See ad on page 25) ❏ Overture Fair Ridge (See ad on page 13) ❏ Paul Spring Retirement Community (See ad on page 10) ❏ Tall Oaks Assisted Living (See ad on page 14) ❏ Waltonwood (See ad on page 18) ❏ Wingler House (See ad on page 25)

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Health Studies ❏ Alzheimer’s Nilotinib Study (See ad on page 23) ❏ Weight Loss Cancer Study (See article on page 23)

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See LINKS & APPS, page 6

❏ Aspenwood Senior Living (See ad on page 12) ❏ Atrium Assisted Living (See ad on page 22) ❏ Bayleigh Chase (See ad on page 41) ❏ Brooke Grove (See ad on page 11) ❏ Buckingham’s Choice (See ad on page 41) ❏ Charles E. Smith Life Communities (See ads on pages 9, 28-29) ❏ Churchill Senior Living (See ad on page 14) ❏ Covenant Village (See ad on page 25) ❏ Emerson House (See ad on page 25) ❏ Fairhaven (See ad on page 41) ❏ Gardens of Traville (See ad on page 22) ❏ Homecrest House (See ad on page 32) ❏ Olney Assisted Living (See ad on page 15) ❏ Park View Bladensburg (See ad on page 51) ❏ Park View Columbia (See ad on page 51) ❏ Park View Emerson (See ad on page 51) ❏ Park View Laurel (See ad on page 51) ❏ Riderwood (See ads on pages 21 & 52) ❏ Ring House (See ad on page 9) ❏ Springvale Terrace (See ad on page 19) ❏ The Village at Rockville (See ad on page 15) ❏ Victory Crossing (See ad on page 23) ❏ Victory Terrace (See ad on page 33)

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In a fascinating podcast series called the 1600 Sessions, White House Historical Association President and podcast host Stew-

Maryland

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White House lore

❏ Friendship Terrace (see ad on page 19) ❏ The Residences at Thomas Circle (see ad on page 12)

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Links

District of Columbia

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If you travel a lot, you know it can be stressful, frustrating and confusing. The app Gateguru aims to streamline and simplify the airport experience, covering 204 airports across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia. The home screen displays your current and future trips, complete with all flight information from booking sites like Tripit or Kayak, and maps of the terminals. It will also tell you estimated security

Housing Communities

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

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Undone odd jobs around the house may be a thing of the past with apps like Takl that let you search for pre-priced help for small jobs and chores, including house cleaning, junk removal, lawn care and small home repair. No more waiting for price estimates, haggling on price, or arguing what’s fair after the fact. You can order a job done seven days a week and pay directly through the app (you can even tip). Service providers undergo a thorough background check, and all service is backed by Takl, who will try to make it right if you’re dissatisfied. Takl, free in the iTunes and Google Play stores

According to Kiplinger, Libby, the latest app from digital-content distributor OverDrive, is the hottest new app for readers to get free, on-the-go access to a trove of titles from multiple libraries. All you need is a smartphone, a reading device and a library card (or three). For several years, OverDrive has helped bookworms borrow and download content from their local library on their e-readers. Libby incorporates the same features, including a ledger to place holds on unavailable titles, and adds some new ones. Access is provided by library cards, so the more cards you have, the more content you can borrow. Simply select your local library when prompted, enter your card number, and browse what’s available. Soon, the app will even offer new library cards if you’re within the area. Libby, free in the iTunes and Google Play stores

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Help with household chores

Borrow e-books for free

MAIL OR FAX FOR FREE INFORMATION

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Apps

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By Barbara Ruben and Rebekah Alcalde

wait times, and provide a detailed directory of airport food, shops and services. Fellow travelers can also post reviews and tips. Gateguru, free in the iTunes and Google Play stores

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Beacon Links & Apps

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Technology & Innovations

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Technology & Innovations | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

Lock your phone From page 4 ing. This is a service that exists on most phones. In the event your phone is stolen, you can remotely lock your phone and

Links & apps From page 5 art McLaurin interviews luminaries, historians and eyewitnesses to history about America’s most famous residence and office — the White House. Each episode includes a prominent guest or guests to discuss varying facets of White

even erase its data while the GPS tracks its movement in a criminal’s hands. You can even set your phone to automatically wipe your data if your phone password is entered incorrectly several times. Of course, a full reset would be a last resort to

protect personal information, and hopefully you remembered to back up your data. If you are changing or upgrading smartphones, then make sure that all of your personal information and content is erased from your old phone after you have up-

loaded it into your new one. Many phones have built-in reset features that will restore all settings to their defaults. © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

House history, including insights from former staff and many other topical issues. The1600Sessions.org

ticular vista both before and after they built that huge bridge. There’s a name for such comparisons: Rephotography. It’s the act of taking a photo of a scene that has already been photographed some time ago. Rephotos is a website that loves to tell these “before and after,” “then and now” stories with just two pictures. The site acts like a central hub for this type of art, and allows users to browse hundreds of such pictures, or upload and align their own for free. www.re.photos

Fresh desktop wallpaper

Old and new photos Imagine seeing a photograph of a street or neighborhood taken decades ago, aligned with a photo taken today. Or a par-

BEACON BITS

Dec. 18

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY The Prevention of Blindness Society of Greater Washington pres-

Tired of the same stock wallpaper on your computer desktop? There are tons of free downloads online through WallHalla, a play on the Norse mythological hall Valhalla. Use the simple search tool with keywords to find something fresh and engaging. Experienced computer users can also search by the image’s luminosity, resolution and aspect ratio. wallhalla.com

ents a Tech Talk on assistive technology for low vision on Monday, Dec. 18 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at its headquarters, located at 233 Massachusetts Ave. NE,

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Washington, D.C. For more information, call (202) 234-1010 or visit

Dec. 12

www.youreyes.org.

Dec. 13

INTRO TO POWERPOINT Arlington Public Library offers an introduction to Microsoft

COMPUTER BASICS

Powerpoint on Tuesday, Dec. 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the computer lab at its

Prince George’s County Memorial Library offers a computer

Central Library location, 1015 N Quincy St. Participation is first-come, first-

basics class for beginners on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 9:30 a.m. at

served. Reserve a seat at the computer help desk 30 minutes prior to class

8724 Glenarden Pkwy., Glenarden, Md. For more information or to register, call (301) 772-5477.

time. For more information, call (703) 228-5990.

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Technology & Innovations

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Age-Friendly Montgomery “I’m inviting you to enjoy our County’s resources and programs.” County Executive Ike Leggett

Recreation Options for County Residents Age 55+ The Montgomery County Department of Recreation has many activities and programs designed exclusively for our 55+ community. From aquatics to yoga—and everything in between—our recreation, aquatic and senior centers are sure to have something you will enjoy. Classes: The Department of Recreation offers hundreds of classes for every interest, age and ability level. Do something you love or try something new. Classes in art, dancing, cooking, yoga, swimming, pottery, tai chi, water aerobics and so much more can be found in The Guide— online at www.montogmerycountymd.gov/rec. Hard copies can be found in aquatic, recreation and senior centers and all public libraries. Programs and activities: Our senior centers have hundreds of programs and activities for every interest and every ability level. Many are offered free of charge. Senior centers are also a great way to catch up with an old friend or to make new ones. Find out what’s happening in your neighborhood senior center at www. montgomerycountymd.gov/rec and click on Senior Program under the Things to Do tab. Join us for lunch: Our senior centers offer nutritional meals five days a week for just $5.72 for individuals 55 to 59 years old. For individuals age 60 or older, a voluntary contribution is requested. For more information, call 240777-4925.

Transportation: Door-to-door transportation service is available to all of our senior centers. Simply call 240-7774925 to find out if you live in our service area. Senior Olympics: The Montgomery County Department of Recreation is the host agency for the Maryland Senior Olympics. 2018 planning is now underway. Call us at 240777-4930 for more information and plan to participate with us in 2018. Gym Memberships: Keep fit with our Senior Sneakers Exercise program. For just $50 a year, you can access our weight/exercise rooms located throughout the county in our senior and recreation centers. There’s a Department of Recreation facility near you. • Senior Centers are located in Damascus, North Potomac, Potomac, Rockville, Silver Spring and Wheaton. • Recreation Centers are located in Burtonsville, Cabin John, Chevy Chase, Damascus, Germantown, Potomac, Rockville, Sandy Spring, Silver Spring and Wheaton. • Indoor Aquatic Centers are located in Germantown, North Bethesda, Olney and Silver Spring. For more information on the Department of Recreation visit www.montgomerycountymd.gov/rec or give us a call at 240-777-4925.

• Aging & Disability Resource Line 240-777-3000

• 3-1-1 or 240-777-0311 for County programs and services; 9-1-1 for emergency • www.montgomerycountymd.gov/senior

• “Seniors Today” airs on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. on Comcast/RCN 6, Verizon 30

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Health Fitness &

CHANGING GENDER ROLES Is there a difference between one’s sex and one’s gender? Our columnist explains NOT JUST FEELING BLUE About 15% of seniors have depression. Medicare covers screenings and help FINDING ALCOHOL TREATMENT NIH’s new online tool helps problem drinkers get high-quality help DOGGED COMPANIONS Assistance dogs assist those with physical disabilities, hearing and vision loss

Massive study seeks 1 million volunteers By Lauran Neergaard In a quest to end cookie-cutter healthcare, U.S. researchers are getting ready to recruit more than 1 million people for an unprecedented study to learn how our genes, environments and lifestyles interact — and to finally customize ways to prevent and treat disease. Why does one sibling get sick but not another? Why does a drug cure one patient but only cause nasty side effects in the next? Finding out is a tall order. Today, diseases typically are treated based on what worked best in short studies of a few hundred or thousand patients. “We depend on the average — the onesize-fits-all approach —because it’s the best we’ve got,” said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health. That’s changing: The NIH’s massive “All Of Us” project will push what’s called precision medicine, using traits that make us unique in learning to forecast health and treat disease. Partly it’s genetics. What genes do you harbor that raise your risk of, say, heart dis-

ease or Type 2 diabetes or various cancers? But other factors affect that genetic risk: what you eat, how you sleep, if you grew up in smog or fresh air, if you sit at a desk all day or bike around town, if your blood pressure is fine at a check-up but soars on the job, what medications you take. Not to mention differences based on age, gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomics. Layering all that information in what’s expected to be the largest database of its kind could help scientists spot patterns, combinations of factors that drive or prevent certain diseases — and eventually, researchers hope, lead to better care. “The DNA is almost the easiest part,” Collins said. “It’s challenging to figure out how to put all that together to allow somebody to have a more precise sense of future risk of illness and what they might do about it.”

Pilot study has started Pilot testing is under way, with more than 2,500 people who already have enrolled and

given blood samples. More than 50 sites around the country — large medical centers, community health centers and other providers like the San Diego Blood Bank and, soon, select Walgreens pharmacies — are enrolling patients or customers in this invitation-only pilot phase. If the pilot goes well, NIH plans to open the study next spring to just about any U.S. adult who’s interested, with sign-up as easy as going online. It’s a commitment. The study aims to run for at least 10 years. The goal is to enroll a highly diverse population, people from all walks of life — specifically recruiting minorities who have been under-represented in scientific research. And unusual for observational research, volunteers will receive results of their genetic and other tests, information they can share with their own doctors. “Anything to get more information I can pass on to my children, I’m all for it,” said Erricka Hager, 29, as she signed up last month at the University of Pittsburgh, the project’s first pilot site. A usually healthy

mother of two, she hopes the study can reveal why she experienced high blood pressure and gestational diabetes during pregnancy.

Focus on tailored medicine Heading the giant All Of Us project is a former Intel Corp. executive who brings a special passion: How to widen access to the precision medicine that saved his life. Precision medicine is used most widely in cancer treatment, as more drugs are developed that target tumors with specific molecular characteristics. “Why me?” is the question cancer patients always ask — why they got sick and not someone else with similar health risks, said Dr. Mounzer Agha, an oncologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Unfortunately I don’t have answers for them today,” said Agha, who says it will take the million-person study to finally get some answers. “It’s going to help them understand what are the factors that led to See HUGE STUDY, page 9

Mini-organs can help find best treatments By Maria Cheng Els van der Heijden, who has cystic fibrosis, was finding it ever harder to breathe as her lungs filled with thick, sticky mucus. Despite taking more than a dozen pills and inhalers a day, the 53-yearold had to stop working and scale back doing the thing she loved best, horseback riding. Doctors saw no sense in trying an expensive new drug because it hasn’t been proven to work in people with the rare type of cystic fibrosis that van der Heijden had. Instead, they scraped a few cells from van der Heijden and used them to grow a miniature version of her large intestine in a petri dish. When van der Heijden’s “minigut” responded to the treatment, doctors knew it would help her too. “I really felt, physically, like a different person,” van der Heijden said after taking the drug. This experiment to help people with rare forms of cystic fibrosis in the Netherlands aims to grow mini-intestines for every Dutch patient with the disease to fig-

ure out, in part, what treatment might work for them. It’s an early application of a technique now being worked on in labs all over the world, as researchers learn to grow organs outside of the body for treatment — and maybe someday for transplants.

Organs grown in the lab So far, doctors have grown mini-guts — just the size of a pencil point — for 450 of the Netherlands’ roughly 1,500 cystic fibrosis patients. “The mini-guts are small, but they are complete,” said Dr. Hans Clevers of the Hubrecht Institute, who pioneered the technique. Except for muscles and blood vessels, the tiny organs “have everything you would expect to see in a real gut, only on a really small scale.” These so-called organoids mimic features of full-size organs, but don’t function the same way. Although many of the tiny replicas are closer to undeveloped organs found in an embryo than adult ones, they are helping scientists unravel how organs

mature, and providing clues on how certain diseases might be treated. In Australia, mini-kidneys are being grown that could be used to test drugs. Researchers in the U.S. are experimenting with tiny bits of livers that might be used to boost failing organs. At Cambridge University in England, scientists have created hundreds of minibrains to study how neurons form and better understand disorders like autism. During the height of the Zika epidemic last year, mini-brains were used to show the virus causes malformed brains in babies. In the Netherlands, the mini-guts are used as a stand-in for cystic fibrosis patients to see if those with rare mutations might benefit from a number of pricey drugs, including Orkambi. Made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Orkambi costs about 100,000 euros per patient every year in some parts of Europe, and it’s more than double that in the U.S., which approved the drug in 2015. Making a single mini-gut and testing whether the patient would benefit from

certain drugs costs a couple of thousand dollars. The program is paid for by groups, including health insurance companies, patient foundations and the government. The idea is to find a possible treatment for patients, and avoid putting them on expensive drugs that wouldn’t work for them. About 50 to 60 patients across the Netherlands have been treated after drugs were tested on organoids using their cells, said Dr. Kors van der Ent, a cystic fibrosis specialist at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital, who leads the research.

Stem cells are key Clevers made a discovery about a decade ago that got researchers on their way. They found pockets of stem cells, which can turn into many types of other cells, in the gut. They then homed in a growing environment in the lab that spurred these cells to reproduce rapidly and develop. “To our surprise, the stem cells started See MINI-ORGANS, page 10

WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

Medicare’s Part D doughnut hole shrinks By Kimberly Lankford Q: What will be happening with the Medicare Part D doughnut hole in 2018? Will it continue to close? A: The Medicare Part D doughnut hole — the coverage gap in Medicare prescription-drug coverage, in which you pay a larger portion of the drug costs out of pocket — will continue to close next year. In 2017, people with Part D pay 40 percent of the cost of brand-name drugs in the coverage gap and 51 percent of the cost of generic drugs. In 2018, you’ll pay 35 percent of the cost of brand-name drugs in the coverage gap and 44 percent of the cost of generic drugs. The doughnut hole will continue to shrink each year until 2020, when you’ll need to pay

Huge study From page 8 their disease, and it’s going to help us understand how to treat it better.” Beyond cancer, one of the University of Pittsburgh’s hospitals tests every patient receiving a heart stent — looking for a genetic variant that tells if they’ll respond well to a particular blood thinner or will need an alternative. NIH’s Collins expects surprises from the study. Maybe, he speculates, Type 2 dia-

only 25 percent of the cost of brand-name and generic drugs in the coverage gap.

How Part D coverage works For 2018, after you pay a deductible (up to $405; the deductible amount varies by plan), your Part D plan will provide coverage until your drug expenses reach $3,750 (including both your share and the insurer’s share of the costs). Then you will land in the doughnut hole, and your out-of-pocket cost will be 35 percent of brand-name drugs (50 percent of the discount for brand-name drugs will be covered by the drug company, and your plan will pay 15 percent), and 44 percent for generics (a 56 percent discount for generics will be a federal subsidy). betes will turn out to be a collection of genetic subtypes that require varied treatments. “This looks at individual responses to treatment in a way we couldn’t do previously with smaller studies,” he said. Collins himself plans to enroll in the study. He’s had his DNA mapped before, but can’t pass up what he’s calling a one-in-a-million experience to be part of a monumental study rather than the scientist on the other side. “I’m curious about what this might teach me about myself. I’m pretty healthy right now. I’d like to stay that way.” — AP

For example, if your generic drug costs $100, you’ll pay $44, and the government subsidy will cover the remaining $56. When your out-of-pocket costs reach $5,000, you will be out of the donut hole, and your plan will pay 95 percent of your drug costs. You’ll just pay the remaining 5 percent. Even though the pharmacy applies the discount in the doughnut hole automatically, both the 35 percent you pay and the 50 percent discount the drug company pays for brand-name drugs (but not the 15 percent paid by your plan) will count toward your $5,000 out-of-pocket cost cutoff. For

generics, only the 44 percent you pay will count toward your out-of-pocket costs. For more information, see “Closing the Coverage Gap” at www.Medicare.gov. Open enrollment to pick a new Medicare Part D plan or Medicare Advantage plan for 2018 runs until Dec. 7. You can compare premiums and coverage for the 2018 plans in your area with the Medicare Plan Finder. (Medicare Advantage plans are called “Medicare Health Plans” in the tool.) © 2017, Kiplinger. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Mini-organs From page 8 building a mini-version of the gut,” Clevers recalled. Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations in a single gene that produces a protein called CFTR, responsible for balancing the salt content of cells lining the lungs and other organs. To see if certain drugs might help cystic fibrosis patients, the medicines are given to their custom-made organoids in the lab. If the mini-organs puff up, it’s a sign the cells are now correctly balancing salt and water. That means the drugs are working, and could help the patient from whom the mini-gut was made. Researchers are also using the miniguts to try another approach they hope

will someday work in people — using a gene editing technique to repair the faulty cystic fibrosis gene in the organoid cells. Other experiments are underway in the Netherlands and the U.S. to test whether organoids might help pinpoint treatments for cancers involving lungs, ovaries and pancreas. While the idea sounds promising, some scientists said there are obstacles to using mini-organs to study cancer. Growing a mini-cancer tumor, for example, would be far more challenging because scientists have found it difficult to make tumors in the lab that behave like they do in real life, said Mathew Garnett of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, who has studied cancer in mini-organs but is not connected to Clevers’ research. Also, growing the cells and testing them

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

must happen faster for cancer patients who might not have much time to live, he said.

Growing transplants is harder Meanwhile, Clevers wants to one day make organs that are not so mini. “My dream would be to be able to custom-make organs,” he said, imagining a future where doctors might have a “freezer full of livers” to choose from when sick patients arrive. Others said while such a vision is theoretically possible, huge hurdles remain. “There are still enormous challenges in tissue engineering with regards to the size of the structure we’re able to grow,” said Jim Wells, a pediatrics professor at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He said the mini-organs are far smaller than what would be needed to transplant into people, and it’s unclear if

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Dec. 12

Dec. 10

DEMENTIA COMMUNICATION To help families better understand why communication changes

scientists can make a working, life-sized organ in the lab. There are other limitations to growing miniature organs in a dish, said Madeline Lancaster at Cambridge University. “We can study physical changes, and try to generate drugs that could prevent detrimental effects of disease. But we can’t look at the complex interplay between organs and the body,” she said. For patients like van der Heijden, who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as a toddler, the research has helped her regain her strength. Vertex agreed to supply her with the drug. “It was like somebody opened the curtains and said, ‘Sunshine, here I am, please come out and play.’” she said. “It’s strange to think this is all linked to some of my cells in a lab.” — AP

PILLOW TALK Learn how to get a good night’s rest with “Sleep, A Fantastic

with dementia and the new ways to improve interactions, Holy Cross presents a

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video presentation and discussion of the video “Communication” on Tuesday,

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Dec. 12 from 10:30 a.m. to noon in Room 21 at Holy Cross Resource Center,

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When someone cries, “Be a man!” or “Act more lady-like!” have you ever wondered what that really implies? What it means to be a man or a woman has changed greatly over the past few decades. The issue of “gender identification” has also become more prominent a focus in recent years.

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Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

The changing perception of gender roles When someone cries, “Be a man!” or “Act more lady-like!” have you ever wondered what that really implies? What it means to be a man or a woman has changed greatly over the past few decades. The issue of “gender identification” has also become more prominent a focus in recent years. This all leads to one question: What does the word “gender” really mean?

and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.” Sex is not the same thing as gender, although the two terms are often used interchangeably. Sex is a definite characteristic, based on biology and the specific chromosomes the individual possesses, and can be classified as male or female. Meanwhile, gender (described as masculine or feminine) is not definite. Clearly, gender roles have GENERATIONS Gender vs. sex drastically changed over time. TOGETHER The technical definition of By Alexis Bentz Societies develop stereotypes the word “gender,” according about each gender — for exto the World Health Organization, is “the so- ample that men are athletic, dominant and cially constructed roles, behaviors, activities brave, or that women are delicate, emo-

EVERY DAY’S A HOLIDAY AT ASPENWOOD SENIOR LIVING!

tional and obsessed with looks. Each gender also has had socially assigned duties or skills — such as the expectation that men go out and work, while women stay home to raise children. While much of this is based on an understanding of nature or biology, a great deal of it comes from nurture and even prejudice. Stereotypes and expectations made about the gender of individuals can place pressure on them to be someone who they are not. Women may feel pressured to give up on their career aspirations to get married, while men may be forced to suppress their emotions so that they will not be perceived as weak. Non-compliance with the stereotypes may also cause the individual’s sexuality to be questioned. While our society has stressed the importance of these gender roles for years, recently has it become acceptable to behave differently. Today, being a specific gender doesn’t mean you must comply with these standards. Plenty of women work or are skilled at sports, while many

men do the cooking and cleaning or stay home with the kids. Reversal of these gender stereotypes isn’t a bad thing — the point of this change is to promote a sense of self unique to each individual, and to usher in an era of gender unity, where women and men are equals with the same opportunities.

What transgender means The idea of being forced to be someone you are not can mean more than just not being able to participate in an activity not typically associated with your gender. In some cases, it can actually mean not identifying as your gender at all. This leads me to the idea of gender identification. Transgender individuals are those whose personal identities do not match the sex they were born with. They are often bullied, marginalized, discriminated against and harassed. See GENDER ROLES, page 15

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MEN’S GRIEF WORKSHOP

Montgomery Hospice offers a two-session workshop, called “Getting a Handle on Your Grief,” for men grieving the death of a loved one, on Mondays, Dec. 11 and 18 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. This program is free and open to any male Montgomery County resident. Montgomery Hospice is located at 1355 Piccard Dr. in Rockville. Registration is required. For more information or to register, call (301) 921-4400.

Dec. 31

RUN & PIZZA PARTY

The Fairfax branch of Pacers Running presents the Fairfax Four Miler on Sun, Dec. 31 at 6 p.m. at 10427 North St. What better way to ring in New Years than a run with thousands of your closest running buddies? Celebrating their ninth year, the Fairfax Four is a favorite for its post-race pizza party and cozy sweatshirt premium. Register early to secure a sweatshirt. For more information or to register, call (703) 537-0630.

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health

Flaxseed can aid digestion, heart health Dear Mayo Clinic: I have heard that adding flaxseed to my diet could improve my health, but I know nothing about it. What’s the best way to take it? Answer: Flaxseed is a nutritional powerhouse. Its health benefits come from the fact that it’s high in fiber, and is a rich source of a plant-based type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid. Flaxseed also contains an array of other beneficial nutrients, including soluble and insoluble fiber, antioxidant phytochemicals called lignans, and numerous other vitamins and minerals. Flaxseed commonly is used to improve digestive health or relieve constipation. But it also may help lower total blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol levels, which may help reduce the risk of heart disease. The connection between dietary fiber in flaxseed and digestive health is fairly obvious. But when it comes to potential heart health benefits, it’s not clear which components of flaxseed are most beneficial. It’s possible that all components are beneficial, or that they may work together.

How to consume flaxseed Ground flaxseed is easier to digest than whole flaxseed. Whole flaxseed may pass through your intestine undigested, which means you won’t get its full nutritional benefit. Flaxseed supplements are available, but usually contain only one element of flaxseed nutrition — such as the alpha-linolenic acidrich oil — thus limiting their benefit. Flaxseed oil is also available. It has more alpha-linolenic acid than ground flaxseed, but it doesn’t contain all the nutrients of ground flaxseed. The best way to incorporate flaxseed into your diet is by adding 1 to 4 tablespoons of ground flaxseed to your snacks and meals each day. Flaxseed has a light, nutty taste that can be added to any number of foods. Try mixing 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed into yogurt or hot or cold break-

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Dec. 19

SENIOR LEADERSHIP FORUM

Prince George’s County Memorial Library is holding a senior leadership forum on Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 11 a.m. at 2398 Iverson St., Temple Hills, Md. There will be guest speakers and interactive activities, with a focus on health and wellness, computer literacy, county services and more. For more information, call (301) 630-4900.

fast cereal. You could add 1 teaspoon to mayonnaise or mustard when making a sandwich. Or add ground flaxseed to a smoothie, pancake mix or baked goods. Unripe and raw flaxseed can have toxins that may be harmful in high doses. Consider toasting, cooking or baking the flaxseed to destroy those toxins. Flaxseed is available in bulk, whole or ground, at many grocery stores and health food stores. Whole seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder and then stored in an airtight container for several months. To preserve the taste and health benefits of flaxseed, keep it in the refrigerator or freezer, and grind it just before using. Like other sources of fiber, flaxseed should be taken with plenty of water or other fluids. Flaxseed shouldn’t be taken at the same time as oral medications or other dietary supplements.

As always, talk with your doctor before trying any dietary supplements. — Katherine Zeratsky, R.D.N, L.D., Endocrinology/Nutrition, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Mayo Clinic Q & A is an educational resource

and doesn’t replace regular medical care. E-mail a question to MayoClinicQ&A@mayo.edu. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org. © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. All Rights Reserved. Distributed By Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

How to recognize and treat depression Dear Savvy Senior: believe, it’s not a normal part of aging or a Since retiring a few years ago, my hus- personal weakness. band has become increasHere’s what you should ingly irritable and apathetic. know, along with some tips and I’m concerned that he’s deresources for screening and pressed, even though he treatments, and how Medicare won’t admit it. covers it. Where can we turn to get Everyone feels sad or gets help with this? And what, if the blues now and then, but anything, does Medicare pay when these feelings linger for? more than a few weeks, it — Concerned Spouse may be depression. DepresDear Concerned: sion is a real illness that afDepression is unfortunately SAVVY SENIOR fects mood, feelings, behavior a widespread problem among By Jim Miller and physical health. older Americans, affecting apIt’s also important to know proximately 15 percent of the 65-and-older that depression is not just sadness. In population. Contrary to what many people many seniors, it can manifest as apathy, ir-

ritability or problems with memory or concentration, without the depressed mood. Fortunately, it is very treatable.

Online screening tests To help you get a handle on the seriousness of your husband’s problem, a good first step is for him to take an online depression-screening test. He can do this for free at Mental Health America, a national nonprofit organization that offers a variety of online mental health screening tools at www.MentalHealthAmerica.net. Click on “Take a Screen” in the menu bar. Or visit www.HelpYourselfHelpOthers.org, which is offered by Screening for Mental Health, Inc. Both of these tests are anonymous and confidential, take less than 10 minutes to complete, and can help you determine the severity of your husband’s problem.

Getting help If you find that your husband is suffering from depressive symptoms, he needs to see his doctor for a medical evaluation to rule out possible medical causes. For example, some medications can produce side effects that mimic depressive symptoms. Pain and sleeping meds are common culprits. It’s also important to distinguish between depression and dementia, which can share some of the same symptoms. If he’s diagnosed with depression, there are a variety of treatment options, including talk therapy, antidepressant medications or a combination. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a particularly effective type of talk therapy. It

helps patients recognize and change destructive thinking patterns that lead to negative feelings. For help finding a therapist who’s trained in CBT, ask your doctor for a referral, check your local yellow pages under “counseling” or “psychologists,” or contact the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (www.FindCBT.org), or the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (www.AcademyofCT.org). To search for therapists that accept Medicare, use Medicare’s Physician Compare tool. Go to www.Medicare.gov/physiciancompare, type in your ZIP code, or city and state, then type in the professional you want to locate, like “psychiatrist” or “clinical psychologist” in the “What are you searching for?” box.

Medicare coverage You’ll be happy to know that original Medicare currently covers 100 percent for annual depression screenings that are done in a doctor’s office or other primary care clinic. They also pay 80 percent of its approved amount for outpatient mental health services, such as counseling and therapy services, and will cover almost all medications used to treat depression under the Part D prescription drug benefit. If you and your husband get your Medicare benefits through a private Medicare Advantage plan, they too must cover the same services as original Medicare, but they will likely require him to see an in-network provider. You’ll need to contact your plan directly for the details. Send your questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org.

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Gender roles From page 12 Again, this probably stems from society’s obsession with gender compliance. It seems that people expect you to pick a

side: girl or boy. However, why must we identify as a specific gender? The idea of going gender neutral or having genderless children has begun to manifest itself slowly around the world. Although children being raised as gender-neutral have a definite male or female sex, they are simply being discouraged from partaking in activities classified as male or female.

cussing the idea of gender neutrality, this is a great opportunity to learn more about each other’s lives and to see things from different perspectives. You can also discuss how perceptions of gender norms have impacted your life, as well as which stereotypes do and do not fit you. Finally, you can chat about the importance of acceptance regardless of your gender, and how children can be raised to

be comfortable in their own skin, not just in their own sex. The “gender landscape” is rapidly changing. The hope is that eventually, we will reach a time of acceptance; a time when regardless of your sex or gender, you will be free to do whatever — and be whomever — makes you feel happy and special. Alexis Bentz is a 10th grade student at Wootton High School in Rockville, Md.

Thought-provoking discussions

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This column is meant to promote intergenerational activities and better communication between older adults and youth. You and your teenage friend or grandchild can have an in-depth discussion about this controversial topic. From contrasting gender roles during your lifetimes, to dis-

Hope Connections for Cancer Support presents “Count Your Blessings” on Monday, Dec. 11 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. with Lola Crawford. This interactive workshop is intended for cancer patients and survivors to reflect on their state of mind and become more aware and grateful for everyday blessings. For more information and to find out the location, RSVP to info@hopeconnectionsforcancer.org or call (301) 634-7500.

Dec. 11

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

Alexis Bentz, author of the Generations Together column in the Beacon, was presented with a We Lead By Example Award from Dr. Clifford L. Thomas, president and CEO of Tae Kwon Do Ramblers Self-Defense Systems, after she wrote an article about the organization’s work with older adults, published in our October issue. “At a time when the public is inundated with so much negative news from so many fronts, it is important to publish positive stories about dedicated individuals who, and organizations that, are leading by example in our communities,” Thomas said. “We salute the Beacon because it stands out in its approach to publishing news that is both fit to print and informative for its readers.”

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Couriers From page 1 confidential and safe, and how to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Confidentiality means the couriers will never meet the donor or the recipient of the marrow they carry. And they cannot let anyone but airline officials know what they are carrying in the blue bags they must hold onto or have in their sight at all times. Frison didn’t want to even divulge the cities he’s traveled to, although other volunteers don’t feel that violates confidentiality. Their precious cargo contains blood-

forming stem cells derived either from a donor’s bone marrow (collected via a surgical procedure from their pelvic bone), or from circulating blood whose stem cells have been boosted through injections of a medication for five days before the blood is taken. Only about 30 percent of patients who need a bone marrow transplant can find a match within their own family. Fortunately, Be the Match has nearly 16 million potential marrow donors in its database. A patient’s likelihood of having a matched, available donor on the registry ranges from 66 to 97 percent, depending on their

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

ethnic background. A bone marrow transplant from an anonymous stranger saved Kate Christofides’s mother’s life several years ago. The Chevy Chase, Md., resident, who is her 30s, had joined the registry but wanted to do more. When the life-saving bone marrow donation was delivered to her mother’s bedside in Texas, Christofides remembers asking, “How did it get to Houston? Did you Fed Ex it?” When she found out a human courier brought it, she applied to become one herself. “It’s especially poignant whenever I go into a children’s hospital, or the one that my mother was treated in — where I practically lived for a while. I always feel so cleansed when I’m done with a trip,” she said.

Expect the unexpected Jorn Dalboe feels similarly humbled to be a courier. “To get the opportunity to be a link in the chain is extremely important. To know you have a hand in saving someone’s life or at least extending it….How often do you get an opportunity to do that? So that was my motivation for signing up,” said Dalboe, 65, who lives in Reston, Va., and is a retired photographer.

Like Frison, Dalboe also has a story about delivering marrow in a snowstorm. During a trip to Sweden to collect a donation last year, 10 inches of snow fell suddenly in an area that doesn’t usually get large amounts. He grabbed a cab from the airport to the hospital, but became mired in a huge traffic jam when an accident blocked the road. Dalboe jumped out of the cab, ran past the accident and found another cab to take him to the hospital. “You have to be ready and willing when the unexpected happens, and not panic in these situations,” he said. Dalboe has traveled to countries as far flung as S. Africa, Israel and Singapore in the four years he has served as a courier. One morning, soon after he signed up, Dalboe got an urgent email saying a courier that had been scheduled to travel had been hurt in an accident. Could Dalboe go instead? So he drove an hour to a hospital in Virginia to pick up the marrow, and by that evening was on a plane to London. For Dalboe, important qualifications for the job include having traveled extensively in the past, being able to think on your feet See COURIERS, page 17

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Does suicide risk have a genetic factor?

In addition, it is known that 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a psychiatric illness at the time of death. Mood disorders, psychotic disorders, certain personality disorders, and substance use disorders can increase suicide risk substantially. Each of those disorders has a genet-

For those whose thoughts do turn to suicide, the way they arrive at suicidal thoughts may be a well-imprinted and familiar pathway. Psychotherapeutic treatment can help examine the process they go through to get to that point and find ways to interrupt the process. Genetics, family history and environment all matter when it comes to the risk of suicide. But knowing risk factors is not a substitute for a thorough assessment of an individual’s situation and the process he or she takes to arrive at suicidal thoughts.

If you or a loved one is concerned about your risk for suicide, or if you’ve had suicidal thoughts, talk to a mental health professional. To help you find ways to break the cycle that leads to suicidal thoughts, he or she can work with you to treat any psychiatric illness that may be present, and help you understand the process you’re going through when you turn to the possibility of suicide. If you are in a suicide crisis or emotional distress, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides free, confidential emotional support 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255. — Brian Palmer, M.D., Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Mayo Clinic Q & A is an educational resource and doesn’t replace regular medical care. E-mail a question to MayoClinic Q&A@mayo.edu. For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org. © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

you to dash through airports carrying a cooler that can weigh 20 pounds. “I thought about it for a year, realizing it was a major commitment,” he said. “At first I thought, ‘I don’t know about this. I’m not a

nurse or doctor or paramedic.’ But it turns out, that’s not really what they’re looking for. “I realized I had what it takes, and am honored to have the opportunity to help save a life.”

To learn more about various volunteer opportunities with Be the Match, see https://bethematch.org/support-thecause/participate/volunteer or email Rut Kessel at rkessel@nmdp.org.

Dear Mayo Clinic: Why does it seem that suicide tends to run in families? Does it have anything to do with genetics? Answer: The association between genetics and suicide is complicated. Research has shown that there is a genetic component to suicide. But it is only one of many factors that may raise an individual’s risk. And even if someone is at high risk for suicide, that doesn’t predict whether or not an individual will actually act on suicidal thoughts. Genetic research, including studies involving twins, has revealed that many psychiatric conditions, including having suicidal tendencies, are influenced by genetics. While studies demonstrate that specific genes, such as one called the BDNF Met allele, can increase risk for suicide, it’s more likely that a range of genes affect connections and pathways within the brain and impact suicide risk. Complicating matters further, a process called epigenetics also comes into play

when considering the effect of genes on suicide. This process controls when certain genes are turned on or off as a person grows and develops, and it can be influenced by what happens in a person’s environment. For example, if someone goes through a difficult event as a child, that experience could have an impact on how or when a gene is activated within that person’s brain. Researchers speculate that negative experiences influencing epigenetics in a person who has a family history of suicide could further compound that person’s suicide risk.

Couriers From page 16 and change plans at a moment’s notice, and a degree of physical fitness that allows

Most have psychiatric illness

ic component, too. It’s important to understand, however, that an increased risk of suicide does not predict who will commit suicide. For some people — even those whose genetics may seem to predispose them to a higher suicide risk — the thought of suicide doesn’t enter their minds. For others, suicide quickly may become a focus of their thoughts.

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Most cases of thyroid cancer are curable Dear Mayo Clinic: How is thyroid cancer treated? Does it always require taking out the thyroid? When is iodine treatment used, and how does that work? Answer: Treatment for thyroid cancer usually involves removing all or part of the thyroid gland. In cases where thyroid cancer is advanced or aggressive, radioactive iodine treatment may be recommended after surgery to destroy any cancer cells that couldn’t be removed during surgery. For very small papillary thyroid cancers (less than 1 centimeter in diameter and completely confined to the thyroid on ultrasound examination), it may be reasonable to avoid surgery and monitor them periodically without treatment. This is

termed “surveillance,” and requires annual imaging of the thyroid with high-quality ultrasound. These small thyroid cancers are low risk for progression, especially in persons over 60. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the midline of your neck, about halfway between your Adam’s apple and your breastbone. Your thyroid gland produces two main hormones: thyroxine, or T4, and triiodothyronine, or T3. Thyroid hormones impact many cells within your body. They maintain the rate at which your body uses fats and carbohydrates, help control your body temperature, affect the working of your nervous system, and influence your heart rate. Your thyroid gland also produces calci-

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tonin, a hormone that helps regulate the amount of calcium in your blood.

or TSH. That’s useful, because there’s a possibility that high TSH levels could foster the growth of any remaining cancer cells.

An uncommon cancer Thyroid cancer is not common in the U.S. When it is found, though, most cases can be cured. Surgery to remove all or most of the thyroid — a procedure called a thyroidectomy — is often the first step in treatment. Thyroidectomy typically involves making an incision in the center of the neck to access the thyroid gland directly. In addition to removing the thyroid, the surgeon may remove lymph nodes near the thyroid gland if the cancer is known or suspected to be spreading outside the thyroid. Then, those lymph nodes will be checked for cancer cells. An ultrasound exam of the neck before surgery can help doctors determine if lymph node removal is necessary. When thyroid cancer is found in its earliest stage, and the cancer is very small, it may only be necessary to remove one side, or lobe, of the thyroid, and leave the rest in place. In that situation, the thyroid still can function and produce hormones. When the entire thyroid is removed, however, lifelong thyroid hormone therapy is required to replace the thyroid’s natural hormones and regulate the body’s metabolism. In addition to supplying the missing hormone the thyroid normally makes, this medication also suppresses the pituitary gland’s production of thyroid-stimulating hormone,

Radioactive iodine’s role If thyroid cancer is found in its later stages, if it’s a more aggressive form of cancer, or if it is cancer that has come back after earlier treatment, then radioactive iodine therapy may be recommended after the thyroid has been removed. Radioactive iodine comes in a capsule or liquid that’s swallowed. The therapy works because thyroid cells naturally absorb iodine. So when the medicine is taken up by any remaining thyroid cells or thyroid cancer, the radioactivity destroys those cells. Because the thyroid is the primary site where iodine is absorbed by the body, there’s a low risk of harming other cells with this treatment. Afterward, the radioactive iodine leaves the body through urine. If thyroid cancer is not cured with a combination of surgery and radioactive iodine therapy, then chemotherapy, external radiation therapy or other treatment may be necessary. Fortunately, surgery cures most cases of thyroid cancer, and the long-term outlook after the procedure is usually excellent. — John Morris III, M.D., Endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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NIH offers tool to locate alcoholism help for developing it. “It’s desperately needed.” The tool can’t solve issues of affordability or accessibility. Insurance coverage varies, and some parts of the country have shortages of providers that may leave patients traveling or turning to telemedicine, Rosenberg cautioned.

and three FDA-approved medications. • Continuing recovery support. “It’s not just an acute disorder,” said Lori Ducharme, a NIAAA specialist who led the Navigator’s development. “You want someone who will stick with you for the long-term.”

Interview providers The Navigator offers a step-by-step guide to assessing additional options beyond the well-known AA and detox. First, it links to existing directories of thousands of board-certified addiction doctors or psychiatrists, accredited alcohol treatment centers, and licensed therapists, searchable by ZIP code. Licensing and accreditation information mark an initial filter. Next, the NIH defined five signs of quality to check: • Credentials. For example, look for a therapist who holds at least a master’s degree, and has specialized training in addiction treatment, the tool advises. • A comprehensive assessment. Providers can use a battery of tests to determine the type and severity of alcohol disorders. • Customized treatment. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, Koob stressed. • Evidence-based practices. NIH wants patients to consider scientifically proven options, including behavioral therapies

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you,” Ducharme said. The Navigator provides a script — lists of questions targeted to each type of provider — plus an explanation of why each question is important and what answer to listen for. For example, if a provider automatically dismisses medication, that’s a warning sign that they aren’t practicing evidencebased care. Find the Alcohol Treatment Navigator at https://alcoholtreatment.niaaa.nih.gov. — AP

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By Lauran Neergaard The phone calls come — from fellow scientists and desperate strangers — with a single question for the alcohol chief at the National Institutes of Health: Where can my loved one find good care to get sober? The government recently released a novel online tool to help — the Alcohol Treatment Navigator — which provides access to directories of alcohol treatment providers and a list of key questions patients should ask for a better shot at high-quality care. “Most people think treatment is detox for 28 days or Alcoholics Anonymous. There’s a vast in-between,” said George Koob, director of NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). More than 15 million adults in the U.S. have what’s called alcohol use disorder, meaning they either misuse or are addicted to alcohol. Yet, fewer than 10 percent get treatment, according to federal estimates. And many who do get treated don’t receive quality care that best fits their needs, Koob said. He ordered development of the Navigator after realizing if medical professionals were confused, families must be lost. “It’s the hardest thing, navigating how do you find treatment,” agreed Linda Rosenberg, president of the nonprofit National Council for Behavioral Health. She wasn’t involved with the tool but praised NIAAA

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Assistance dogs do more than you expect By Jim Miller Dear Savvy Senior: What can you tell me about assistance dogs for people with disabilities? My sister, who’s 58, has multiple sclerosis. I’m wondering if an assistance dog could help make her life a little easier. — Inquiring Sister Dear Sister: For people with disabilities and even medical conditions, assistant dogs can be fantastic help, not to mention they provide great companionship and an invaluable sense of security. While most people are familiar with guide dogs that help people who are blind or visually impaired, there are also a variety of assistance dogs trained to help peo-

ple with physical disabilities, hearing loss and various medical conditions. Unlike most pets, assistance dogs are highly trained canine specialists — often Golden and Labrador Retrievers, and German Shepherds — that know approximately 40 to 50 commands, are amazingly wellbehaved and calm, and are permitted to go anywhere the public is allowed. Here’s a breakdown of the different types of assistance dogs and what they can help with. Service dogs: These dogs are specially trained to help people with physical disabilities due to multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease, chronic arthritis and many other disabling conditions. They help by performing tasks their

owner cannot do or has trouble doing — including carrying or retrieving items, picking up dropped items, opening and closing doors, turning lights on and off, assisting with dressing and undressing, helping with balance, household chores and more. Guide dogs: For the blind and visually impaired, guide dogs help their owner get around safely by avoiding obstacles, stopping at curbs and steps, negotiating traffic and more. Hearing dogs: For those who are deaf or hearing impaired, hearing dogs can alert their owner to specific sounds — such as ringing telephones, doorbells, alarm clocks, microwave or oven timers, smoke alarms, approaching sirens, crying babies, or when someone calls out their name. Seizure alert/response dogs: For people with epilepsy or other seizure disorders, these dogs can recognize the signs that their owner is going to have a seizure and provide them with advance warning, so he or she can get to a safe place or take medication to prevent the seizure or lessen its severity. They are also trained to retrieve medications and use a pre-programmed phone to call for help. These dogs can also be trained to help people with diabetes, panic attacks and various other conditions.

Finding a dog If your sister is interested in getting a service dog, contact some assistance dog training programs. To find them, Assistance Dogs International provides a listing of around 65 U.S. programs on their website that you can access at https://assistancedogsinternational.org. After you locate a few, you’ll need to either visit their website or call them to find out the types of training dogs they offer, the areas they serve, if they have a waiting list, and what upfront costs will be involved. Some groups offer dogs for free, some ask for donations, and some charge thousands of dollars. To get an assistance dog, your sister will need to show proof of her disability, which her physician can provide, and she’ll have to complete an application and go through an interview process. She will also need to go and stay at the training facility for a week or two so she can get familiar with her dog and get training on how to handle it. It’s also important to understand that assistance dogs are not for everybody. They require time, money and care that your sister or some other friend or family member must be able and willing to provide. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

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The Springfield Christian Women’s Connection presents a holiday sing-along luncheon on Wednesday, Dec. 13 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Springfield Golf and Country Club, 8301 Old Keene Mill Rd., Springfield, Va. Reservations are required by Friday, Dec. 8. Lunch will be accompanied by Christmas carols. There will also be a “best outfit” contest, so wear festive Christmas attire. Admission is $20. For more information or to reserve lunch, call (703) 922-6438 or email Springwmconn@yahoo.com.

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Why you should care about magnesium The mineral magnesium participates as store aren’t soaking up as much mag as they a cofactor in more than 300 enzymatic re- used to back in the day! When you eat it, it’s actions in your body. not as nutritious. This may come as a surprise Magnesium levels impact to people who think that FDAone hugely important organ in approved medications hold a your body: your heart! Everyclinical edge over nutrients. one is so afraid of a heart atMedications tend to steal the tack, and yet, I bet you don’t show, but I can’t name one know that a low level of magdrug that functions in 300 nesium is associated with an metabolic processes in your increased level of C-reactive body. Not one! protein (CRP). The National Institutes of DEAR CRP is a marker for type of Health says magnesium is nec- PHARMACIST inflammation, and it can be a essary to help maintain normal By Suzy Cohen silent killer. High CRP levels muscle and nerve function, are associated with heart diskeep your heart rhythm steady, support a ease. Has anyone ever tested your RBC maghealthy immune and bronchial system, and nesium levels if you have asthma? The reakeep your bones strong. son I ask is because low magnesium levels Why supplements? have long been associated with several adAccording to a survey by the U.S. gov- verse, dangerous lung conditions. ernment, 75 percent of American adults A recent study confirmed that low levels have a magnesium-deficient diet. That’s of magnesium and vitamin D are associatthree out of four of you. ed with an increased incidence of severe It’s getting worse due to massive coffee breathing difficulties. Sadly, most patients consumption, because compounds in cof- are put on inhalers for their entire lifetime, fee help deplete the body of magnesium. without ever getting tested to see if low Human deficiencies are more common mag is contributing. today because the soil in which much proA low magnesium level can damage your duce is grown is very deficient in magne- brain and mood. In my book, Headache Free, sium. The salad ingredients you buy at the I quoted research to show how magnesium

can reduce headache frequency, while improving mood and restorative sleep. No surprise there. Magnesium is needed to create dopamine, serotonin and other happy brain chemicals.

Take the right type A very common mistake is taking the wrong form of the mineral. You will need the kind of magnesium that actually gets into your brain, like the “threonate” form, as opposed to the laxative form of magne-

sium, called “citrate,” which slides through your colon. I have much more to share with you about magnesium’s role in women’s health, bone integrity and cardiovascular disease, so I’m inviting you to my website (suzycohen.com) to sign up for my newsletter. When you do that, I’ll email you the longer version of this article. This information is opinion only. It is not See PHARMACIST, page 22

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Healthier eggplant parmesan freezes well By Melissa D’Arabian Make-ahead meals and cooking for the freezer — once relegated to suburban supermoms who had it more together than the rest of us — are now trendy with the healthy-eating crowd. Sure, we call it “meal prep” but it’s pretty much the same thing: Make good food in advance, so that we can eat it sometime in the future. In the past, this was primarily to save meal-planning stress, dishwashing time, and money. Now, we are recognizing another implicit benefit: We are more likely to make healthy food choices if something tasty and nutritious is already prepared. Cook once but eat twice has long been the battle cry of the make-ahead meal, with Italian comfort foods such as lasagna and eggplant parmesan perhaps being the poster-children of this eat-one-freeze-one movement. So I overhauled these Italian casseroles

into my Eggplant and Spinach Parmesan, a healthier veggie-filled version that is actually quite easy to pull together and freezes beautifully. To make my healthy tweaks, I focused on an eggplant Parmesan dish simply because I felt the pasta would be missed less. The eggplant, usually breaded and fried, was simply seasoned and roasted, and no one in my family missed the extra breadcrumbs or oil. I added in baby spinach, which contributed nutrients, but also added a nice layered lasagna-like element to the dish. Without actual pasta, though, I knew I needed to keep some serious cheese. Using part-skim ricotta as the main component worked well, and I boosted the flavor with just a little bit of nutty Parmesan, and a reasonable quantity of mozzarella for melty-stretchy goodness. Luckily, marinara needs no makeover, as long as you buy or make one without extra sugar or preservatives. My version is vege-

tarian, but feel free to add a pound of lean browned ground turkey or beef if you want. The recipe makes enough for eight, so a small family can freeze half for a second meal, or divide up leftovers into individual servings for DIY single-serving frozen meals. You can also double the recipe and really load up that freezer. I buy a bunch of foil baking pans at a warehouse store, because just seeing a stack of those pans in my cupboard inspires me to cook double and stock up the freezer.

Eggplant and Spinach Parmesan Servings: 8 Start to finish: 1 1/2 hours 2 medium eggplants, about 1 1/2-2 pounds total 1 teaspoon granulated garlic olive oil mister (or nonstick spray) 1 15-ounce container part-skim ricotta cheese 1 egg white 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese 2 teaspoons dried Italian herb seasoning 5 cups baby spinach 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese plus 1/4 cup additional for topping 4 cups prepared marinara sauce (no sugar added) 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper Preheat the oven to 375 F. Slice eggplant into 1/4-inch slices. Place on a baking rack set over a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with half the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of the salt,

Pharmacist From page 21 intended to treat, cure or diagnose your condition. Consult with your doctor before using

and spray lightly with an olive oil mister. Bake for 10 minutes, and then flip over the slices. Season the second side with the remaining garlic, another 1/4 teaspoon of salt and spray with olive oil. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until slices are tender, but not falling apart. Allow to cool enough to handle. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F. Meanwhile, mix together in a small bowl the ricotta, egg white, Parmesan cheese, Italian herb seasoning, black pepper and remaining salt. Spray the inside of a medium-sized baking or casserole dish. Place 1/2 cup of the marinara sauce at the bottom of the pan. Layer in order: half the eggplant, half the ricotta cheese, half the spinach, half the 1 cup of mozzarella, half the (remaining) sauce. Repeat the layers, ending with sauce. Top with remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese. Cover with oven safe lid or with foil (spray lightly with oil to avoid sticking), and bake until hot and bubbly, about 45 minutes, removing cover halfway through the baking time. Let sit at least 10 minutes before serving. Chef’s tip: The dish will firm up as it cools, if you are trying to cut neater squares. Nutrition information per serving: 236 calories; 99 calories from fat; 11 g. fat (5 g. saturated; 0 g. trans fats); 28 mg. cholesterol; 855 mg. sodium; 19 g. carbohydrate; 6 g. fiber; 9 g. sugar; 16 g. protein. Food Network star Melissa d’Arabian is an expert on healthy eating on a budget. She is the author of the cookbook, “Supermarket Healthy.” — AP

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

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Health Studies Page

THE PLACE TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION ON AREA CLINICAL TRIALS

Can losing weight lower cancer recurrence? By Carol Sorgen According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 20 percent of women treated for breast cancer today experience a recurrence of the disease, with most of those women developing metastatic breast cancer. Excess body weight has long been linked to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, and growing evidence suggests that obesity is associated with poor prognosis in women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. However, despite the reports supporting a relationship between being overweight and breast cancer prognosis, there have been no studies examining the effect of weight loss on the risk of breast cancer recurrence. The Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, is currently enrolling nearly 3,200 overweight early-stage breast cancer patients to determine if weight loss can help prevent their disease from returning. Previous studies have found that women who are overweight or obese when their breast cancer is diagnosed have a greater risk of their breast cancer recurring, compared to women who were thinner when their cancer was diagnosed. This study aims to test whether overweight or obese women who take part in a weight loss program after being diagnosed with breast cancer have a lower rate of cancer recurrence than women who do not take part in the weight loss program. The

study hopes to show whether weight loss programs should be a part of breast cancer treatment.

13 local sites The study began in August 2016 and is enrolling women with breast cancer through oncology practices across the United States and Canada. In the Washington area, the following hospitals are participating: Suburban Hospital, Bethesda, Md.; Kaiser Permanente in Kensington, Gaithersburg and Laurel, Md.; Montgomery General Hospital, Olney, Md.; Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.; Sibley Memorial Hospital, Washington, D.C.; Kaiser Permanente in Burke and Tysons Corner, Va.; IMG Hematology Oncology, Fairfax, Va.; Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, Fairfax, Va.; and Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, Va. In announcing the study, lead researcher Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, a breast oncologist in the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said, “The increased risk of cancer recurrence linked to excess body weight threatens to limit our progress in treating breast cancer and preventing women from dying from this disease. “If this study shows that losing weight through increasing physical activity and reducing calories improves survival rates in breast cancer, this could lead to weight loss and physical activity becoming a standard part of the treatment for millions of

breast cancer patients around the world.” Patients will be divided into several groups according to menopausal status (premenopausal vs. postmenopausal), hormone receptor status of the tumor (ER and/or PR positive vs. ER and PR negative), and race/ethnicity (African American vs. Hispanic vs. other). Each group will randomly be divided into two groups.

In Arm 1 of the study, patients will receive a standardized intervention focusing on healthy living. This will include mailings describing healthy lifestyle behaviors sent at the beginning of the study and one year later. All participants will also receive a twoyear subscription to a health magazine. See HEALTH STUDY, page 25

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Dec. 31

BECOME A MASTER GARDENER Registration closes for University of Maryland Extension’s Master

Gardener program on Friday, Dec. 31. The program is open to Montgomery County residents, and will run from Tuesday, Jan. 30 through Friday, March 9. Classes meet Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the University of Maryland Extension Agricultural History Farm Park, 18410 Muncaster Rd., Derwood, Md. The program costs $325, which includes a training manual and other materials. Topics include ornamental plants, fruits, vegetables and herbs, how to identify common pests and diseases, and proper fertilization and watering practices. Class size is limited, and the course fills on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information or to register, call (301) 590-2836.

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Dealing with negativity from family, friends Dear Solutions: ple in order to look up on himself. My nephew recently moved to my Just tell him you hope he’ll give people a city from across the counchance, and then step away. try at my recommendation. You’re not responsible for his Now all he does is comsad attitude. If you stop symplain that he can’t find any pathizing with him, he’ll have interesting people here. to start making changes for I want to convince him to himself. try joining groups I think Dear Solutions: he might find interesting, My son had a very big job but he keeps being negaand was well known with a tive. He says everyone he company that was written sees is a fool. How can I about a lot in the papers. SOLUTIONS change his attitude? He was often interviewed on — Millie By Helen Oxenberg, television and quoted about MSW, ACSW Dear Aunt Millie: his expertise. Then, unforTell him to stop looking in tunately, the company went the mirror! He is acting the fool by judging out of business. everyone without giving himself a chance He’s been out of a job for some time to know them. now, and he’s coping with it the best he Does this make him feel superior? You can. can’t control his need to look down on peoI’m the one who’s having trouble con-

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Dear Solutions: I’m a recovering alcoholic, and I’ve been sober for over six months. But I’m having a hard time when I go out with new people. My brother and I were with friends of his, and they were celebrating something and wanted to toast the occasion. When I ordered a soda, they said, “Oh, come on. You have to toast to wish us luck.” I don’t want to tell people my situation every time. What should I have said to them? — Molly Dear Molly: If it happens again, just say, “I don’t drink liquor, but my wishes are just as sincere, and my glass clinks just as nicely with soda.” You don’t have to explain anything. But if you want to, do it with pride in your accomplishment and your on-going determination. © Helen Oxenberg, 2017. Questions to be considered for this column may be sent to: The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915. You may also email the author at helox72@comcast.net. To inquire about reprint rights, call (609) 655-3684.

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Health study From page 23 In addition, all study participants will be invited to join twice-yearly webinars/teleconferences that focus on breast cancer and other health topics, such as treatment updates in breast cancer, management of menopausal side effects, general cancer screening, etc. Those in the study will also receive a twice-yearly study newsletter with study updates and other general breast cancer news. In Arm 2, patients will receive the above information focusing on healthy living as well as a two-year, telephone-based weight loss intervention. This will include individual weight loss, caloric restriction, and physical activity goals for each participant. It will be administered through phone calls delivered by trained coaches, and supplemented through print and online materials. The intervention will be tailored for each individual participant.

Participants get FitBits Dana-Farber is partnering with FitBit, which will donate products to help partici-

pants stay motivated while tracking their weight loss, and to allow their coaches to make sure participants meet their weight loss and fitness goals. Each participant will receive a Fitbit Charge HR fitness tracker, a Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scale, and will also have access to FitStar by Fitbit premium software, which offers personalized video-based exercise experiences on mobile devices. Patients will be followed for up to 10 years, primarily through the devices, which will send data to the researchers. You may be eligible for the BWEL study if: • You have had a stage II-III breast cancer diagnosis within the past 12 months • You had surgery for your breast cancer and completed chemotherapy, if applicable • You are interested in losing weight and have a body mass index (or BMI) greater than 27. Reach out to your oncologist or medical team to see if the trial is a good fit for you, and if the facility where you received or are receiving treatment is participating. For more information, visit www.clinicaltrials.gov, Identifier: NCT02750826.

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Money Law &

MORE HACKER RISKS Ways to protect your Social Security and bank accounts from ID theft FREEZE OUT THIEVES Three steps (and phone calls) can help you freeze your credit reports BOND RISKS Not all bond funds protect against stock swings; learn which ones do what THINK RESALE Before you choose a new car, check its resale value, which can vary widely

Making the most of your donor dollars By Sandra Block This year’s seemingly endless string of natural disasters has inspired countless acts of heroism and generosity. But as the year-end giving season begins, some philanthropy experts worry that a phenomenon known as “donor fatigue” could affect individuals’ willingness to support other worthwhile causes. Many global crises don’t get much news coverage in the U.S. For example, shortly after hurricanes Harvey and Irma inundated Texas and Florida, flooding in Southeast Asia killed more than 1,200 people and affected more than 40 million people, according to GiveWell — a nonprofit that supports underfunded charities. There are also long-term crises that get little attention, such as child hunger in developing countries. And if you have a group of charities you regularly support, don’t shortchange them because you donated to hurricane victims, said Daniel Borochoff, president of CharityWatch, a watchdog organization. “There are times in this life when you need to step up and do more, and this is one of them.”

Make a plan Talk with your family and decide which charities you want to support — not only before year-end (which locks in a tax break for itemizers for 2017) but also in the new year. Eileen Heisman, chief executive of the National Philanthropic Trust, which provides advice to foundations and financial institutions, suggests devoting a large percentage of your charitable-giving budget — say, 80 percent — to whatever charities you’ve selected, and setting aside 20 percent to respond to disasters and other short-term events. If you really want to help — and this applies to more than disaster relief — consider committing to a monthly or quarterly donation. Recurring gifts provide a predictable source of funding, which helps charities budget for long-term projects. In addition, charities with a predictable source of funding don’t have to spend as much on fundraising, Heisman said. If your investment portfolio has performed well this year, consider giving appreciated stock or mutual funds instead of cash. You’ll help the charity while reduc-

ing your tax bill. Most large charities accept donations of securities. If you want to contribute to smaller organizations that aren’t set up to accept contributions of securities, consider setting up a donor-advised fund. With these funds, you can make a charitable contribution of

cash or other assets, take a current tax deduction for the donation, and decide later how to distribute the money. [See sidebar below, “Make giving a family affair.”]

See DONOR DOLLARS, page 27

Make giving a family affair Question: I’d like to set up a donoradvised fund so my family can contribute to charities as a group. Does one person have to control the fund, or can several family members donate to it and get a tax break for the contributions? — E.G., Baltimore Answer: A donor-advised fund is a separately identified fund or account that is maintained and operated by a nonprofit organization, which is called a sponsoring organization. Each account is composed of contributions made by individual donors. Once the donor makes the contribution, the organization has legal control over it. However, the donor, or the donor’s representative, retains advisory privileges with respect to the distribution of funds and the investment of assets in the account. Such a fund may be controlled by one or more people. Anyone named on the account can recommend grants, and anyone can make tax-deductible donations.

Setting up a donor-advised fund is a great way to get your family involved in philanthropy, teach your kids and grandkids about giving, and build a charitable fund that can last for generations. Some parents start by controlling the fund themselves, but have their children research charities and present their ideas at a family meeting. Parents may add the children to the account as they get older so they can make their own grants. You can set up a donor-advised fund at many brokerage firms, banks and community foundations. Fidelity requires a $5,000 contribution to get started; Vanguard’s minimum is $25,000. You can donate cash, stock and other assets to get a current tax deduction, then take as much time as you want to choose the charities who will ultimately get the money. — Kimberly Lankford © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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With gift annuities, do well by doing good By Eileen Ambrose Question: My alma mater is offering a charitable gift annuity. Is that a good way to generate income? Answer: If you want to give money to your school as well as receive an income stream, a charitable gift annuity can make sense. A charitable gift annuity is a contract between you and a charity; in this case, your alma mater. You donate cash, securities or other assets to the school and get a charitable tax deduction up front. The institution invests the money, and returns some of it to you in fixed payments for the rest of your life. Thousands of colleges and charities raise money using gift annuities, and policies vary among institutions. Many require donors to contribute a minimum of $10,000 to $25,000, and to be at least age 65 to begin receiving payments, according to Laurie Valentine, of the American Council on Gift Annuities. Payout rates may differ, too, although most institutions use rates set by the American Council. You can elect to start payments immedi-

Donor dollars From page 26

Watch out for scams Shortly after Harvey hit, the Department of Homeland Security warned that e-mails seeking donations could be fraudulent phishing expeditions, or efforts to direct individuals to malware-infected websites. This scam is easy to avoid: Don’t click on a link in an e-mail seeking charitable donations, even if it looks legitimate, Heisman said. If you think the cause is worthwhile, close the e-mail and go directly to the charity’s website.

ately or later. The older you are, the higher the payout rate. For example, the American Council’s maximum immediate payout rate for someone making a donation at 65 is currently 4.7 percent. Based on the average $50,000 gift, the donor would receive an annual payment of $2,350. The payout rate is 5.1 percent for those age 70, 6.8 percent at age 80, and 9 percent at age 90 and older. You can also choose a reduced payment over two lives instead of one, so the income stream would continue until the second person died. For example, the payout rate for a couple who are both age 65 is 4.2 percent, or $2,100 a year on a $50,000 donation, instead of 4.7 percent on a single life.

Less income, but tax breaks Gift annuities aren’t for everyone. If your goal is to receive as much income as possible, you’re better off buying an immediate annuity from an insurance company. For instance, a 65-year-old man investing $50,000 in an immediate annuity would receive an estimated $3,264 a year, accordTo learn more about a charity’s expenses and accomplishments, visit the websites of charity watchdogs, such as Charity Navigator or CharityWatch. Legitimate charities, such as Donors Choose.org, may use crowdfunding to raise money, but be wary of appeals from individuals on websites such as GoFundMe.com. Some of these requests are scams. And even when the appeal is legitimate, there may be other victims with more-pressing needs. © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

ing to www.immediateannuities.com, versus $2,350 from a gift annuity. But with a gift annuity, you also get a tax break. You can deduct upfront the part of your donation that won’t be returned to you in annuity payments. The deduction is calculated by taking the full amount of your gift and subtracting the present value of all the payments you’re expected to receive during your lifetime. So, age is a factor in the size of your deduction. For example, the deduction on a $50,000 donation with quarterly payments is $17,449 for a 65-year-old donor, $22,886 for a 75-year-old, and $28,300 for an 85year-old.

Some annuity income is taxed If you’re donating cash, part of your payments each year will be a tax-free return of principal, and the rest will be subject to ordinary income tax. In the example above, $1,636 of the 65-year-old’s $2,350 annual payment would be tax-free each year for the donor’s expected lifetime, which is about 20 more years. A good way to fund a charitable annuity is with appreciated securities: You will avoid paying tax on all of the built-up capi-

tal gains because a portion of your gift goes to the charity. You will pay tax on the long-term capital gains income returned to you in annuity payments, but the tax will be spread out over your expected lifetime. Each year, the institution will tell you the portion of your payments that is tax-free, and the portion that’s subject to capital gains or regular income taxes. After making a charitable gift annuity, you will continue to receive payments no matter how long you live. But once you pass the age of your life expectancy (based on an annuity mortality table), all payments to you will be subject to ordinary income tax — whether you gave cash or appreciated securities. One caveat: Your payments are only as secure as the financial health of the school or charity you donate to. So you should research an institution’s finances before donating. If the institution fails, “as a donor, you’re out of luck,” said John Hook, a trusts and estates attorney with Stradley Ronon in Philadelphia. © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Gift That Pays You Income! Charitable Gift Annuity Age: 75 Fixed Annual Payments at 5.8%* Tax-free portion of Payments Income Tax Deduction Effective Annuity Rate**

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With over a century of experience, we know how to create healing and meaningful experiences for those we serve at Charles E. Smith Life Communities. Our high standards and thoughtful approach to care won top recognition in 2017.

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Hebrew Home of Greater Washington earned a Five-Star Overall Quality Rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Hebrew Home of Greater Washington is designated a U.S. News 2017-18 Best Nursing Home by U.S. News & World Report.

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A Winning Experience

Hebrew Home of Greater Washington earned a Five-Star Overall Quality Rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Hebrew Home of Greater Washington is designated a U.S. News 2017-18 Best Nursing Home by U.S. News & World Report.

Hebrew Home of Greater Washington is a recipient of the 2017 BronzeCommitment to Quality Award presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

Charles E. Smith Life Communities is a Top Vote Getter for Best Senior Living category by Bethesda Magazine.

Landow House and Cohen-Rosen House are recipients of the 2017 BronzeCommitment to Quality Award presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

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More risks stemming from hack of Equifax By Liz Weston Long after the Equifax breach was announced, people were still struggling to freeze their credit reports as credit bureau websites failed, lured people to look-alike products, or even redirected visitors to download malicious software. [See “How to freeze your credit in three steps,” on facing page.] But that’s just the start of the gauntlet people may have to run to protect their financial lives.

The Equifax hack exposed the names, addresses, birthdates and Social Security numbers of up to 145.5 million Americans. Drivers license information for 10.9 million people was also exposed, according to a Wall Street Journal report. This is the type of sensitive, private information that’s used to establish your identity, which is why freezing your credit reports — as important as that is — won’t be enough. Credit freezes won’t prevent criminals

from taking over credit, bank, retirement and investment accounts, said security expert Avivah Litan with Gartner Research. [See sidebar: “Secure your bank accounts, too,” below.] Thieves also could use the purloined information to snatch your tax refund or mess with your Social Security benefits. Your email, phone, shopping and cloudbased storage accounts aren’t safe, either. Here are some cybersecurity steps you should take now:

Secure your bank accounts, too By Lisa Gerstner The huge Equifax data breach has made consumers hyper aware of how vulnerable they are to identity theft. But the major credit-reporting bureaus aren’t the only ones that track your data. Several other specialty reporting agencies also collect consumer information. Among them is ChexSystems. When you apply for a checking or savings account, the bank or credit union may look up ChexSystems’ report on you. You can retrieve it, too, to look for errors or fraudulently opened accounts. A ChexSystems report usually includes

only negative information associated with accounts you’ve held. So if you have a good record, the report should be clean. But if, say, you overdrew an account and failed to pay back the debt and resulting fees promptly, a black mark may appear. Such information remains on your report for five years. ChexSystems also lists inquiries from banks that have viewed your report. You can request a free ChexSystems report every 12 months at www.chexsystems.com, and you’ll receive your report in the mail. If you find a problem, you have the right to dispute it.

And just as with your credit reports, you can set up a security freeze (you may have to pay a fee), which blocks new institutions from viewing your report, or a security alert, which is similar to a fraud alert. Doing so may prevent an identity thief from opening accounts in your name. If you want to go the extra mile, you can also check your free annual reports from other bank-account screening agencies, including Early Warning (www.earlywarning.com), TeleCheck (www.firstdata.com/telecheck) and Certegy (www.askcertegy.com). © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors

Make sure all of your freezes are in place You need to set up credit freezes separately at each of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion), as well as with Innovis, a lesserknown bureau, and ChexSystems, a database that banks use to track people who mishandle their accounts. When your accounts are frozen, banks and lenders can’t access your reports, so they are much less likely to allow criminals to set up phony accounts in your name. Keep track of the personal identification numbers you’re issued, since you’ll need those to lift the freezes if you need to apply for credit or financial accounts. Set up two-factor authentication wherever you can Two-factor security requires both something you know, typically a password, along with something you have, such as a code texted to your phone or generated by an authentication app. Security experts including Litan recommend using an app, since criminals have started taking over cell phone accounts to circumvent two-factor verification by text. Yes, two-factor authentication is a hassle, and no, it’s not foolproof. But it creates See EQUIFAX HACK, page 32

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How to freeze your credit in three steps By Lisa Gerstner Not so long ago, a credit freeze was a tool usually reserved for people who had suffered identity theft. But as data breaches have piled up — culminating with the massive data breach at credit agency Equifax announced in September — the freeze has become more widely recognized as the most effective way to protect your credit, even if a thief hasn’t yet made fraudulent use of your personal information. The reason: When you place a credit freeze (also known as a security freeze) on your credit reports, new creditors can’t review them to judge whether you’re eligible for a credit card or loan — and in turn, lenders are unlikely to grant credit to fraudsters posing as you. When you need to shop for credit, you can temporarily lift the freeze. What’s the downside? Unless you have a police report proving you were a victim of ID theft, in most states you’ll have to pay (at each bureau) to impose a freeze, as well as when you need to lift it. (Equifax is waiving fees to add and lift freezes until the end of January.) To set up a credit freeze, take these three steps.

1. Gather your information. At a minimum, you’ll have to supply identifying information such as your Social Security number, birth date and address. If you haven’t lived at your current home for more than a couple of years, you may need to have your previous address on hand, too. You must provide a PIN when you want to temporarily lift or permanently remove a freeze. Equifax formulates the PIN for you whether you go online or call to place a freeze. Experian generates the PIN and mails it to you if you set up a freeze by phone, but you have the option to create a PIN of your choice if you place the freeze on its website. TransUnion requires you to create your own PIN whether you place a freeze by phone or online. Think about the number you’d like to use — and don’t pick something obvious, such as your birth date. Keep a pen and paper handy to jot down your PINs. Have your credit-card number at the ready. In many states, you’ll pay a fee of $5 to $10 to place a credit freeze if you have not been an identity-theft victim (and you’ll often be charged to lift the freeze, too). If you are a victim of identity theft, you

don’t have to pay for the freeze. But you will have to send each agency a police report or other valid documentation of fraud, plus proof of your identity, such as copies of your driver’s license, birth certificate or bills displaying your current address. 2. Contact each credit agency. The web pages or phone numbers below are the quickest avenues to imposing a freeze. To submit your request by mail, use these addresses (identity-theft victims may have to use snail mail to send documentation).

Freeze your credit with Equifax Equifax Security Freeze P.O. Box 105788, Atlanta, GA 30348 800-685-1111.

Freeze your credit with Experian Experian Security Freeze P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013 888-397-3742

Freeze your credit with TransUnion TransUnion LLC P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19016 888-909-8872 3. Save your PINs. Write down the PINs, and keep them in a safe place at home. When you’re ready to shop for a loan or lift the freeze for any other reason, you can call the phone numbers or visit the websites listed above. © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors

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Money Shorts Buying a new car? Check the resale value When you’re shopping for a new car, dickering with the dealer to lower the sticker price may be your main concern. But even if you drive the car until the wheels fall off, overlooking resale value could be a costly mistake. “Depreciation is the largest cost in owning a car, more so than fuel and repairs,” said Tim Fleming, an analyst for Kelley Blue Book (KBB). Even if you don’t plan to sell it anytime soon — or ever — how your vehicle retains its value is important. For

example, if your car is totaled in an accident, insurers will cut you a check for the value of the car at the time of the incident. Midsize pickup trucks and midsize and large SUVs hold their value best, according to KBB. That’s because cheaper gas and improved fuel economy have boosted their appeal. Electric vehicles and subcompact and luxury cars depreciate the most over time. (Porsches are an exception because low volume fuels demand from status-conscious buyers.) Sleek “performance” vehicles, such as the Volkswagen Golf R and Subaru WRX, fare best after the bulky SUVs and trucks. Resale values can vary widely among models within the same brand. For example, the Toyota Tacoma truck was named KBB’s resale winner for 2017, holding 67.5 percent of its value after three years and 57.5 percent of its value after five years.

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The 4Runner SUV came next, with a resale value of 62.2 percent after three years, and 52.5 percent after five. But the tiny Prius C and Yaris models held only about 30 percent of their value after three years and 20 percent after five. KBB and Edmunds.com both offer “cost to own” tools, which allow you to enter a make and model and calculate additional costs of vehicle ownership — including depreciation — over the course of five years. The higher the depreciation figure, the more value it loses over time. One way to make depreciation work to

your advantage is to buy a used car instead of a new one. Thanks to a glut of off-lease vehicles, prices for used cars have declined. Fleming said he expects the bargains in used cars to last another two years.

Equifax hack

you can do. People who have already been victims of such a scam are issued a special code they can use in the future. But a pilot program offering codes to other taxpayers hasn’t been extended. The IRS will start processing returns Jan. 22, 2018. (However, employers don’t have to send out the W-2 forms most of us need to prepare our returns until Jan. 31.) Create a “my Social Security” account Again, you’re trying to get there before the evildoers. Setting up online access to your Social Security records will help you monitor activity, such as attempts to take over your account or apply for benefits. If your credit files are frozen, you’ll need to lift the freeze with Equifax before you can set up the account. Yes, Equifax is the bureau Social Security uses to verify your identity. Or, you can set it up in person at a Social Security office. Equifax is waiving the fees to set up and lift freezes until January. You can’t make your identity hack-proof, unfortunately, any more than you can keep a determined burglar from breaking into your home. Your goal is to make the bad guys work hard enough that they’ll decide to move on to an easier target — Nerdwallet via AP

From page 30 another barrier between your accounts and the criminally inclined. Typically, once you set it up, you’ll have to use it only if you try to sign in with an unrecognized device or after a set amount of time. Two-factor security is a must for your password manager (if you have one), your email, and any cloud-based storage account, including DropBox and Evernote. Consider setting it up for shopping sites, such as Amazon, and your social media accounts, too. Incredibly, not all financial institutions offer this (though they should). Consider whether you want to continue doing business with a company that refuses to take your security seriously. The four big cell phone carriers don’t offer it, either, which is pretty horrifying. Phone numbers are often used as a security backup, so a criminal controlling yours could reset passwords on many of your accounts. File your taxes early It’s pretty lame that the only thing you can do to thwart thieves from ginning up a phony tax return is to file your legitimate one as soon as possible after the IRS begins accepting them. Right now, that’s all

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Are your bonds lowering or raising risk? By Eleanor Laise Most retirees hold a mix of stocks and bonds, assuming that their bonds will not only generate income but also cushion the fall if stocks crash. But are your bonds really taming your portfolio’s risk — or amping it up? For much of the past two decades, bonds could be depended on to zig when stocks zag. But now, some analysts and money managers are warning that the correlation between stocks and bonds is headed higher — meaning they’re more likely to rise and fall in sync. At the same time, many bond funds that form the core of retirees’ portfolios have sought juicier income in bond-market sectors, such as high yield, that behave even more like stocks. “Your bond funds are meant to be defensive when equity markets melt down,” said Craig Israelsen, financial-planning professor at Utah Valley University. But investors can no longer take that for granted. To be sure your bonds are bringing stability to your portfolio, rather than rocking the boat, you need to keep a close eye on your fixed-income funds’ holdings as well as on the performance of those funds when the stock market takes a dive.

How stocks, bonds correlate While many investors assume that bonds will tame their portfolios’ stock-market risk, that hasn’t always been the case historically. From the 1980s to 2000, correlations were positive, according to fund firm BlackRock — meaning stocks and bonds were likely to rise and fall in sync. Since 2000, correlations have tended to be negative, meaning stocks and bonds have generally moved in opposite directions. That’s because most stock-market

declines during that period have been driven by economic or geopolitical worries, and in those situations, bonds tend to do well, said Russ Koesterich, portfolio manager for BlackRock’s global allocation team. With the Fed now raising rates, stockbond correlations are drawing more scrutiny. Over the past 25 years, BlackRock found, the correlation has tended to move higher when the Fed is hiking rates. (When interest rates rise, bond prices fall.) Analysts aren’t predicting that stocks and bonds will start moving in lockstep — after all, the market isn’t expecting many more Fed rate increases in the near term. But if the stock-bond correlation does move into positive territory, cash will become a more effective way to hedge stock risk than bonds, Koesterich said.

record, beating roughly 85 percent of its peers in the multisector bond category over the past 15 years. But its three-year correlation with the S&P 500 is also one of the highest in the category, according to Morningstar. Many bond funds launched in recent years are “unconstrained” or “go anywhere” funds, which typically means that they don’t need to stick closely to a benchmark or maintain any minimum average credit quality. In many cases, managers have used that flexibility to load up on high-yield or emerging-markets bonds. In a study of 10 large unconstrained bond funds, Israelsen found that all but one had a high correlation with the S&P 500. “A portfolio is like a go kart: You have

an engine and brakes,” Israelsen said. “The brakes have traditionally been bond funds.” But if unconstrained or other, more aggressive bond funds form the bulk of your fixed-income holdings, “good luck,” he said. “You’ve chosen a brake that looks a lot like an engine.”

Some defensive bond funds So where can you find some brakes that will keep your portfolio from running off a cliff? Focus on bond funds that keep most of their assets in investment-grade government and corporate bonds. And if the managers venture into highyield or emerging-markets bonds at all, See BONDS, page 34

Check out the prospectus Another factor introducing stock-like risk to bond holdings: fund managers thirsting for yield. During a long stretch of low rates, many bond funds have dipped into high-yield bonds, emerging-markets bonds and bank loans — three fixed-income segments that have shown the highest correlation with Standard & Poor’s 500stock index over the past three and five years, according to investment-research firm Morningstar. Check a bond fund’s prospectus to find out how much leeway it has to invest in lower-credit-quality holdings — or even stocks. The Loomis Sayles Bond Fund (symbol LSBRX), for example, can invest up to 35 percent of the portfolio in non-investmentgrade holdings, and up to 10 percent in common stock. The aggressive approach has helped the fund build a strong track

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home. And that’s true for Maryland and Virginia, both of which landed among the top 10 states in a new study of the most charitable states by financial website WalletHub. (Washington, D.C. was not part of the study.) To determine where the most generous Americans are inspiring others to be more selfless, WalletHub compared the 50 states based on 14 key indicators of charitable behavior — ranging from share of income donated to share of sheltered homeless. Maryland came in second in the nation overall, ranking first in the percent of the population that donated money in 2016, and fifth in the percentage of donated income. However, Maryland ranked lower in volunteering: 21st in the country in volunteer hours per capita, and 26th in the percent of the population who donated time. It came in 32nd in the percent of the population that collects and distributes food for the needy. Somewhat paradoxically, Maryland was ranked as number one in community service requirements for high school graduation. Virginia was rated as the seventh-most charitable state, with the fifth-highest percent of the population that donated money, and 16th in the percentage of donated income. In terms of volunteerism, Virginians are more generous with their time than are their neighbors across the Potomac, coming in fourth in the country in volunteer hours per capita, and 19th in the percent of the population who donated time. At the same time, it came in 38th in terms of percent of the population that collects and distributes food. To read the full report, visit https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-charitable-states/8555. — Barbara Ruben

• How to DECLUT TER & ORGANIZE to Bonds SELL your home From page 33 check that they use caution to avoid over• TOP Ques ons to ask your paying for those holdings, said Karin Anderson, associate director at Morningstar. Realtor® BEFORE you hire them If a fund has a significant stake in international bonds, which expose investors to & much more! foreign currency swings, read the

Call 1-800-900-9104 to request your FREE guide or download it at EricStewartGroup.com

prospectus to find out whether the fund is hedging away that risk. In unhedged funds, currency fluctuations can make for a bumpy ride.

Claim saver’s credit on your tax return If you contribute to a 401(k), traditional or Roth IRA, 403(b), 457 or other retirement plan, you may be eligible for the retirement saver’s tax credit. The credit can be worth $200 to $1,000 per person, depending on your income (couples earning more than $62,000 and single filers earning more than $31,000 are ineligible). And knowing that you’re eligible for the credit might encourage you to save a little more. The credit is worth from 10 to 50 percent (depending on your income) of the first $2,000 you contribute to the retirement plan for the year. You can claim the top 50 percent credit if your adjusted gross income in 2017 is less than $37,000 if married filing jointly, $27,750 if filing as head of household, or $18,500 for single filers. The credit is worth 20 percent of your contribution if you earn $37,001 to $40,000 if married filing jointly, $27,751 to $30,000 if filing as head of household, or $18,501 to $20,000 for single filers And you can qualify for a 10 percent credit if your income is $40,001 to $62,000 if married filing jointly, $30,001 to $46,500 for head of household, or $20,001 to $31,000 for single filers. You can’t claim the credit if you earn more than that. To be eligible, you must also be 18 or older, not a full-time student for five months or more of the year, and not claimed as a dependent on another person’s tax return. To claim the credit, file IRS Form 8880, Credit for Qualified Retirement Savings Contributions, with your tax return. For more information, see the IRS’s Retirement Savings Contributions Credit factsheet. — Kiplingers Bond funds that take a more conservative approach should truly behave like bonds — and they should form the core of retirees’ portfolios. Some good options, Anderson said, include Baird Aggregate Bond (BAGSX), Fidelity Intermediate Bond (FTHRX), Fidelity Investment Grade Bond (FBNDX), and Kiplinger 25 member Metropolitan West Total Return Bond (MWTRX). © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE By Laura Newland Executive Director, D.C. Office on Aging I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We’ve been hard at work planning the Mayor’s Annual Senior Holiday Celebration on December 13th at the D.C. Armory. The theme this year, Together We Thrive, celebrates community and the vital role all of us play in making sure D.C. is a place where people of all ages and abilities can thrive. And what better time is there to celebrate the power of community than during the holidays? I hope you’ll join us, and I hope you’ll walk away feeling more connected than ever to the thousands of residents, hundreds of community organizations, volunteers, government agencies and businesses who are all coming together to celebrate just that — togetherness. But community doesn’t just exist when it’s time to celebrate. Here in D.C., our community shows up for each other every day. I’ve always said that the District is a big, small town — a place where neighbors look out for neighbors, citizens are engaged, and government is truly of the people and by the people. This past year, we’ve seen students from D.C. Public Schools take a break from their studies to create thousands of handmade Valentine’s Day cards for homebound and isolated seniors. Notes of kindness, love and support from students ranging in age from 4 to 12 years old were delivered across the city, and some were even hand-delivered by the Mayor herself! And it’s not just the kids looking out for our older residents. Our seniors are vital to building these strong communities and instilling in all of us what it means to be a Washingtonian. We’ve seen more enthusiasm for volunteer opportunities and more residents coming to our office to complete Ambassador training to learn

how to serve as a resource for isolated seniors in their own neighborhoods. Seniors are also using their creativity to help a great cause. Several of our Senior Wellness Center participants are currently hard at work creating unique handmade quilts and blankets for children and babies transitioning out of homeless shelters and into long-term housing. We’ll be proudly displaying some of these quilts at our Holiday Celebration this month before they are donated. Last month, Mayor Bowser launched “Home for the Holidays,” a city-wide effort to secure permanent homes for 400 of the District’s most vulnerable households. This is an enormous community effort requiring landlords, residents and stakeholders to work together to identify safe, stable and affordable housing for families and individuals, many of whom are seniors. If you’d like to help, we’re accepting donations of new or gently used kitchenware, toys, housewares and professional clothing that will help families transform these houses into a home. You can bring items to the Adams Place Day Center at 2210 Adams Place NE. For more information on contributing, contact homefortheholidays@dc.gov. So this year’s Holiday Celebration is an opportunity to celebrate what we have done together as a community, and what we continue to do every day for ourselves, and for each other. Thank you for looking out for each other. Thank you for being an example of Washingtonians coming together to accomplish extraordinary things. Remember, the holidays can be a lonely time for many. Reach out to your neighbors, spread kindness, and continue to show up for one another. Wishing you a peaceful and happy holiday season.

Get Involved Friday, Dec. 1 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 13 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

World AIDS Day & Luncheon Presented by the Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism and the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs Reeves Center, 2001 14th St. NW Ward 1 Contact: Isha Lee, 202-215-1176

Mayor’s 2017 Senior Holiday Celebration D.C. Armory 2001 E. Capitol St. SE Ward 6

Wednesday, Dec. 6 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Caregiver chat Topic: Holiday traveling tips for family caregivers https://dcoa.dc.gov/page/ caregiver-chat

Community Resource Fair in Collaboration with D.C. Office on Aging Capitol Hill Towers 900 G St. Ward 6

Monday, Dec. 11 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. D.C. Office on Aging will provide an informational table on D.C Office on Aging Resources and Services Samet Atrium, Physician’s Office Building,106 Irving St. NW Ward 5

Tuesday, Dec. 19 noon

Wednesday, Dec. 20 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Southwest Waterfront AARP Chapter Silver 25th Anniversary Luncheon Washington Navy Yard Catering & Conference Center 1454 Parsons Ave. SE

Helping More Residents Access DCOA Services

The D.C. Office on Aging is in the community providing informational events almost daily as a way to ensure that more seniors, adults with disabilities, and their caregivers have greater access to information about our services. We partner with many government- and community-based organizations — including D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking, D.C. Fire and EMS, MetroAccess, ServeDC and TransportDC, as well as others — to give more residents access to resources and services. If we have not come to your group, organization or religious institution, give us a call to schedule an event at 202-535-1321 or email www.dcoa.dc.gov.

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Spotlight on Aging

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D.C. Takes on Atlantic City Ms. Senior D.C. poses with Peggy Brennan, Ms. Senior America 2016, during the events. Members of the D.C. delegation pose with Ms. Senior America Carolyn Slade Harden This group of Ms. Senior America Pageant Contestants prepares for their interviews with the judges.

Ms. Senior D.C. Francis Curtis Johnson competed for the title of Ms. Senior America in Atlantic City in October, accompanied by two busloads of supporters from the District. Curtis Johnson was one of 37 women from across the country competing in this annual event held at the Resorts Hotel.

During the week of activities, Ms. Senior D.C. presented her talent, where she portrayed a disc jockey for a senior radio program, WFRJ 67.5 FM, and shared her gift of impressionism as she took calls from two senior women in a comedic skit. She also presented her philosophy of life, displaying elegance, grace and poise in her grey sequined evening gown. Ms. Senior D.C. is 68 years young, and is still employed as an assistant in the The MC Steppers performed during the Ms. Senior America Pagprivate sector. eant, dancing to the music of Prince and Bruno Mars.

Spotlight On Aging is published by the Information Office of the D.C. Office on Aging for D.C. senior residents. Advertising contained in the Beacon is not endorsed by the D.C. Office on Aging or by the publisher.

500 K St. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002 202-724-5626 www.dcoa.dc.gov

Executive Director Laura Newland

Editor Darlene Nowlin

Photographer Selma Dillard

The D.C. Office on Aging does not discriminate against anyone based on actual or perceived: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, familial status, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, disability, source of income, and place of residence or business. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination which is prohibited by the Act. In addition, harassment based on any of the above protected categories is prohibited by the Act. Discrimination in violation of the Act will not be tolerated. Violators will be subjected to disciplinary action.

The Office on Aging is in partnership with the District of Columbia Recycling Program.

were Toni Jackson, Ms. Senior D.C. 2014 and Billie LaVerne Smith, Ms. Senior D.C. 2016, She also served for two terms during who joined queens from several the Clinton White House. states as part of the National Carolyn Slade Harden from Queens Choir. New Jersey was crowned Ms. The National Senior Senior America. The 73-yearAmerica Alumni Club old is a singer and former held elections during business executive who has the week, and Ann worked with Whitney HousThomas, Ms. Senior ton, Cissy Houston, Dionne D.C. 2006, was reapWarwick and other profespointed as a member sionals over the years as a of the Board of Direcrecording artist. tors. Shirley Rivens The MC Steppers performed Smith, Ms. Senior D.C. during each day of the three-day 2009, was reappointed as long pageant, performing a differParliamentarian. ent number each day. The first Ms. Senior D.C. Frances The District of Cotwo days, the MC Steppers Curtis Johnson is shown lumbia was definitely performed tributes to Prince. during her philosophy of represented during life and evening gown For the finale, the group competition. this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ms. Senwowed the crowd with a mix ior America Pageant. Congratulations of Uptown Funk and 24 Karat Magic. Also participating during the events again to all participants.

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Travel Leisure &

Greenwich Village’s charms have evolved over the years, but Washington Square Park remains the same. See story on page 42.

Albuquerque basks in its place in the sun

Pueblo influences The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center

chronicles the Pueblo people’s reliance on the sun’s sustenance for their land-based culture, as well as their respect for the Earth, and their undaunted perseverance through three uninvited, colonizing forces aimed at suppressing the native culture: Spain, Mexico and the United States. The Spanish conquest brought horses, livestock, disease, missions and a new religion. Franciscan Catholics tried to squelch Pueblo customs, leading to a full-scale revolt in 1680 that killed 400 Spaniards and drove 2,000 would-be settlers away. In another not-so-sunny chapter, the U.S. government forcibly removed native children from their families and plunked them into boarding schools. The U.S. government also usurped native water and mineral rights. Pottery, baskets, weaving and farming exhibits in the Center’s museum symbolize the Pueblo peoples’ strong survival spirit. New Mexico has 19 Pueblos or tribal nations today. “Our struggle for existence has not ended,” says one sign. Pueblo influences are threaded like a tapestry throughout Albuquerque, like the University of New Mexico’s pueblo-style buildings. The city’s original Old Town is a tight cluster of 150 flat-roofed, Pueblo-Spanishstyle, adobe buildings with soft contours

PHOTO BY RON BEHRMANN

By Glenda C. Booth Albuquerque license plates sport New Mexico’s symbol — an ancient red sun on a bright yellow background, an image borrowed from the indigenous Zias for whom the sun was sacred. Maybe that’s because the sun shines on Albuquerque 310 days a year. Sunlight dapples across the high desert, and sunsets turn the Sandia Mountains watermelon pink. The sun inspired early inhabitants, who chipped images on rock formations, as well as the Pueblo Indians, who built thick adobe walls to retain the sun’s warmth. The sun helped heal thousands of tuberculosis patients, known as “lungers,” who basked in the warmth and low humidity between 1880 and 1940, giving Albuquerque the title, “Health City of the U.S.” With 559,000 people, Albuquerque is the largest city in the state dubbed “Land of Enchantment.” Visitors can explore petroglyphs of 13,000 years ago, the native Pueblo culture of yore and today, the area’s Spanish heritage, the town’s 1706 roots, the coming of the railroad in 1880, the famous Route 66, and even some of today’s high tech gurus.

Each October, Albuquerque hosts the world’s largest balloon festival, with 600 hotair balloons taking to the sky over the city and the Rio Grande River.

PHOTO BY GLENDA BOOTH

connected by brick sidewalks, some leading to tucked-away courtyards dating to the early 1700s. Many buildings have long portals or porches offering shade from the sun. Thick walls help cool interiors on hot days and absorb heat for chilly nights. The oldest building in Old Town is the San Felipe de Neri Church, built in 1793 on a Spanishstyle plaza. Old Town today is a warren of art galleries, crafts boutiques and souvenir emporiums hawking cowboy hats, chili pepper key chains, and Route 66 T-shirts. One curious anomaly is the largest collection of live rattlesnakes in the world, the American International Rattlesnake Museum, home to western diamondbacks, twin-spotted, Arizona black rattlesnakes and more.

Varied museums

The Pueblo Deco style KiMo Theatre, which opened in 1927, is an Albuquerque landmark. It continues to host a variety of entertainments, including film, theater and musical performances, today.

At the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, visitors learn how a Native American language helped the United States win World War II. Chester Nez, one of the 20 Navajo code talkers, was fluent in both Navajo and English, and used this language as a tool for victory in the South Pacific. Another exhibit, highlighting Albuquerque’s ethnic diversity, touts, “We’ve all been blended. We embrace the differences.” The museum’s 10,000-works collection

focuses on the art and history of the southwest U.S., from Native Americans to contemporary artists. The history wing spans four centuries, displaying items from the Spanish military invasion, Mexican cowboys, and the town’s early railroad years. For more modern history, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science sings the praises of two hometown boys who made good: Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the entrepreneurs who in 1971 started MITS, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, a business that morphed into today’s computer giant, Microsoft. The “Start-up” exhibit relates the history of the microcomputer — “electronic brains” created by the U.S. military in World War II. In 1953, this computer cost $1 million and required seven staffers to operate it. In the 1970s, Gates, a Harvard University dropout, and Allen envisioned “a computer on every desk and in every home.” Imagine that. Downtown or “new town” is spread along Central Avenue, a.k.a. Route 66. That’s the well-known “Mother Road” and 2,000-mile highway from Chicago to Los Angeles made famous by Nat King Cole as “the highway that’s the best.” Urban renewal demolished many of the original neon signs, motels and other icons once there, but brown signs note its path. See ALBUQUERQUE, page 40

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Why hire a travel agent to plan your trip? By Miriam Cross Before the Internet put trip-planning tools at your fingertips, you might have popped into a travel agency to shop for airline tickets or flip through brochures. Now, online booking engines and review sites can spark vacation ideas and point you to everything from a cozy B&B to the best wine bar in a city. Does that leave any reason to turn to a travel agent? It depends on the trip. An agent won’t add much value to a quick getaway or a meandering road trip that you plan as you go. And for some people, researching where to go and stay is part of the experience, according to Kelsey Blodget, senior executive editor of Oyster.com and Jetsetter.com. But if you have a complicated itinerary or exotic destination, you can benefit from an agent’s advice. And if you hate sweating the details or become overwhelmed by all the information online, a travel agent can save you both time and money.

Hand-holding and more A good agent should interview you about your travel style and the inspiration for your trip to suss out your “ultimate de-

sires” — whether that means outdoor adventure or delicious cuisine, said Scott Koepf, senior vice president of sales at Avoya Travel. Agents will research, customize and book as much of your trip as you like, using reputable companies. They can help sift through the myriad cruise-line options, organize private pickups from transportation hubs, reserve tables at restaurants that book up fast, and arrange skip-the-line tickets to popular attractions. They can also steer you away from, say, a resort displaying the lowest price in favor of one that offers better value. Thanks to travel blogs and online destination guides, travel agents aren’t the only gatekeepers of unbiased or “insider” knowledge. But agents can tap their global contacts to arrange something you’d be hard-pressed to replicate yourself. For example, Michelle Weller, an agent in Houston, once set up a client and his friend with a private English-speaking guide to revisit where they served in Vietnam. Agents may also be privy to deals that aren’t advertised elsewhere. Plus, agencies that are part of larger networks can

BEACON BITS

Dec. 12

GOING ON SAFARI

Arlington County presents a talk on safaris with travel writer, editor and photographer Jess Moss at Walter Reed Senior Center, 2909 S. 16th St., Arlington, Va., on Tuesday, Dec. 12 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. She will discuss steps to take from start to finish on planning a trip to Africa. For more information or to register, call (703) 228-0955.

Dec. 9

LUNCH WITH SANTA

Bring your grandkids to “Lunch with Santa” at Old Town Hall, 3999 University Dr., Fairfax, Va. on Saturday, Dec. 9. Children age 10 and under can dine with Santa, with two time slot options at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Tickets cost $6 per child, with a limit of 10 tickets per person. For more information or to get tickets, call (703) 385-7858.

access group rates and perks. For instance, agents affiliated with Travel Leaders Group can get up to 30 percent off “best available rates” at thousands of hotels, along with free breakfast and WiFi, and up to $100 in credits, depending on the property.

The price of advice Travel agents say you won’t pay more to book an excursion through them instead of directly with a tour operator or cruise line; rather, they make a commission off the sale. Some agents will charge a planning fee, which could range from $50 to several hundred dollars for a complex itinerary. To find an agent, you can search by des-

tination and specialty at the American Society of Travel Agents’ consumer site, Travel Sense, or use online search tools at networks such as Travel Leaders or the luxury-focused Virtuoso. Ask prospective agents about their expertise in your style of travel and destination, what they offer that you can’t arrange yourself, and how they will advocate for you if something goes awry. For example, can you call your agent at any hour to fix a missed connection? If that peace of mind helps you sleep at night, you’ll be a happier traveler. © 2017 The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The theme is “Wonders of Water”. Enter the show under a canopy of exotic flowers at this “must experience” horticultural event. PUGLIA - ITALY, Apr 14 – 22 .............................................................................................. $2795 Includes air from Dulles, 7 nights in one hotel, daily breakfast, 2 lunches & based on double occupancy 3 dinners, transfers, sightseeing daily. A new area of Italy for tourism, a must see! KENTUCKY, May 7 – 10 ..........................................................................................................$799pp Includes motorcoach, 3 nights hotel, breakfast daily, 2 lunches & 3 dinners, based on double occupancy plus 3 evenings of entertainment. Great sightseeing too!

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Albuquerque From page 38 You can still “get your kicks,” as Nat crooned, at the no-frills Dog House Drive In, and scarf up green chili tater tots, chili cheese fries, chili burgers and chili dogs. Downtown’s KiMo Theatre may be Albuquerque’s most distinctive building, built in a flamboyant, Pueblo Deco style and decorated with southwestern motifs and Native American iconography.

Mountains and petroglyphs Atop the looming, black Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque the sun is closer at the highest peak, 10,678 feet, and the temperature 15 degrees cooler than in town 5,300 feet below. The end reward of a climb up by car or via the Sandia Peak Tramway (2.7 miles) — through varied landscapes and life

zones to the top — is a panoramic view of the Rio Grande Valley and a line of extinct volcanoes. The Sandias are “a place for reverence,” home of ancient gods revered by the Puebloans, wrote James A. Morris, a local. Along the west mesa, the sun bears down on the 7,500-acre Petroglyph National Monument, decorated with more than 24,000 images — one of the largest petroglyph sites in North America. Boiling volcanoes erupted 150,000 years ago and left behind five cones along a jagged escarpment. Basalt boulders are coated with a dark, natural varnish, conducive to scraping with stone tools to reach the paler, grayer stone beneath. Scratched in the rocks are hands, feet, lizards, birds, snakes, spirals, geometric patterns, and many more mysterious images from 400 to 700 years ago. Ancient graffiti? Art? Messages? “Each

BEACON BITS

Dec. 22

LUNCHEON AND ZOO LIGHTS Montgomery County Senior Outdoor Adventures in Recreation

(SOAR) presents a buffet luncheon at Mrs. K’s Toll House and a trip to see Zoo Lights in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Dec. 22. The cost is $79 for county residents. The van will depart from Olney Manor Park, located at 16601 Georgia Ave., Olney, Md. at 1:15 p.m. and will return at 9:15 p.m. For more information, call (240) 777-4926.

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of these rocks is alive, keeper of a message left by the ancestors,” wrote William F. Weahkee, a Pueblo elder. On the way up to the crest of the Sandia Mountains is quirky Tinkertown, where the late Ross Ward, a certified circusmodel builder and master whittler, created the Old West in miniature with hundreds of thousands of wood-carved figures and displays, some animated with tiny levers and pulleys. This 22-room cabin is crammed with a mishmash of folk art and objects such as swords, wedding cake toppers, ice tongs, wrenches, corn grinders, a hand-cranked horse, and a World War I-era mule clipper. Over 55,000 glass bottles wedged into the walls suggest some phantasmagoria. Ward once said, “I did this whole thing while you were watching television.” Go Topes! How could a baseball team get a cumbersome name like Isotopes? A clue: Life-size, fiberglass statues of Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa Simpson, from the fictional television series “The Simpsons,” proudly stand in the town’s baseball stadium. They were hauled 800 miles from Los Angeles, washed and refurbished with shiny new paint. Homer holds an Isotopes ticket, and Marge a bucket of popcorn. What’s the connection? Local newspaper readers chose the name Isotopes over the Road Runners and the 66ers because in a 2001 episode of “the Simpsons,” the manager of fictional Springfield’s team, the Isotopes, threatened to move the team to Albuquerque. This Triple A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies plays in 11,124-seat Isotopes Park.

Gustatory Albuquerque While the sun heats up the outdoors, Albuquerque cuisine heats up “the innards.” “It’s all about the chili,” promotes Cocina Azul, a popular eatery. Another favorite, Monroe’s, uses 150,000 pounds of chilis

every year. Servers routinely query customers, “Red or green?” Chefs blend chilis with Mexican, Native American and Spanish dishes, using local ingredients like corn, beans and squash. Chilis go into tamales, eggs, chicken soup, stews, ribs and cheeseburgers. Joyce, age 80 and a Kansas transplant, said, “After you’ve been here for awhile, I don’t know what you’d do without green chilies. You can get them mild to hot and roasted. I put them in eggs and gravy.” Other staples include enchiladas and sopaipillas, the latter being puffed-up, fried pastry filled with savory ingredients. Locals stress that New Mexican food is not Mexican food. The city’s zingy specialties are front and center at the National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show, dubbed “the hottest show on earth.” It features hot sauces, hot rubs, hot ribs, hot BBQ, hot jerky, hot salsas, and a “cool down booth” for ice cream to ease the burn of the hot and spicy foods. The 30th annual show will be held March 2 to 4, 2018. Visit www.fieryfoodsshow.com.

If you go Start your planning at www.visitabq.org. Once in Albuquerque, get oriented and see the major attractions on the ABQ Trolley, www.abqtrolley.com. The Spanish-colonial-style Hotel Albuquerque, steps away from Old Town’s attractions, has a Southwest feel. Visit www.hotelabq.com. Throughout the year, Albuquerque hosts events that feature, among other things, bull riding, flamenco dancing, powwows, fiestas, wool dyeing, salsa, arts and crafts. Oh, and every October, throngs gather for the world’s largest hot air balloon fiesta. Frontier Airlines has the lowest roundtrip fare from the Washington, D.C., area in mid-December at $188 from Reagan National Airport.

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Nonrefundable fares vs. trip insurance If you look at the many consumer com- hours in advance without penalty. In my trip planning, I always take the replaints about the travel industry, one issue fundable option. Yes, it costs clearly rises to the top: nonremore, but it leaves me free to fundability. In exchange for givchange either my itinerary or ing you a price break, airlines, my choice of hotels. hotels, car rental companies, But not all travel arrangetour operators and others make ments are as easy as hotels. your payment nonrefundable. With airfares, a fully refundable Airlines allow you to alter a fare can be more than double nonrefundable ticket, but only the nonrefundable rate. Cruises after a very stiff change fee, and vacation rentals are often toand only by spending the retally or at least partially nonremainder with the airline. And TRAVEL TIPS fundable, no matter what. In other nonrefundable services By Ed Perkins those cases, I buy insurance. are completely nonrefundable: You can cancel, but you get nothing Buying travel insurance back. My position on travel insurance has reRequests to refund nonrefundable prepayments are sometimes wrenching: A mained consistent ever since I’ve been doing spouse dies, a parent develops cancer. Con- this: If you have more money at risk in nonsumers often think, “Yes, I know it’s nonre- refundables or cancellation penalties than fundable, but in this special case, the sup- you are willing to walk away from if someplier should obviously take pity and refund thing happens, buy trip-cancellation/intermy payment.” And then they condemn the ruption insurance (TCI). It costs 5 to 10 persupplier as being heartless for not bending. cent of what you have at risk, and it usually includes medical and other benefits, as well. What options do you have? TCI is a “named peril” form of insurLegally, when a supplier says “nonre- ance: Each policy specifies what continfundable,” it is on firm ground when it re- gencies it covers as a “named reason” — fuses to refund your payment: The contract and it won’t cover anything else. you accept when you buy clearly specifies Most TCI is very good about all sorts of the nonrefundability and the penalties. sudden sickness or accident, not only if The suppliers’ position is straightfor- something happens to you as a traveler but ward: If you don’t like the idea of nonre- also to your travel companion. And it usufundability and penalties, don’t buy nonre- ally covers you if something happens to a fundable, or buy insurance. And those are close family member, or even to a business exactly your options. partner at home who isn’t even traveling. Overall, my primary rule is to avoid nonIt typically also covers a laundry list of refundables whenever you can. When you other contingencies, such as being called to book a hotel on a site such as Booking.com, jury duty or to active duty in the armed for example, you often get to choose either forces, or damage to your home, or a natural a nonrefundable rate or a slightly higher re- disaster at your destination. And, these days, fundable rate that you can cancel up to 24 most policies allow you to cancel if your des-

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tination area suffers a terrorist attack. TCI isn’t perfect, and I’ve seen cases where an insurer has denied what looks like a legitimate claim. But for the most part, it’s a good protection for money you have at risk. I recommend buying from an independent third-party travel insurance agency such as g1g.com, insuremytrip.com, quotewright.com, squaremouth.com, totaltravelinsurance.com, travelinsurancecenter.com and tripinsurancestore.com.

You should avoid any “insurance” that is really just a supplier’s waiver of its own cancellation policies. Those waivers offer a lot less protection, and, in some cases, the benefit is limited to a credit toward future travel rather than a cash refund. My suggestion is to bypass the supplier’s link and buy from an independent insurance agency. Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. Also, check out Ed’s new rail travel website at www.rail-guru.com. © 2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Greenwich Village: Still cool to hang out By Beth J. Harpaz As a teenager in New York City in the gritty 1970s, I often hung out in Greenwich Village with friends. There was nothing cooler than buying a tie-dyed T-shirt in some little shop, or listening to a guitarplaying hippie in Washington Square Park. As an adult in the complicated 21st century, I can still recommend the Village as a magical place to spend a day, but its charms are different now. The neighborhood’s bohemian reputation gave way long ago to expensive real estate, but you can still enjoy a bite in a cafe or a night out listening to live music. And while the city’s latest terror attack in November unfolded nearby in Lower Manhattan, perhaps a stop in the Village at a peaceful spot, like the garden at The Church of Saint Luke in the Fields, 487 Hudson St., is just what a harried visitor needs.

Food and books Start your day at Patisserie Claude, a tiny bakery at 187 W. Fourth St., serving yummy little quiches and pastries. For lunch, try the massive chicken Chimayo salad for $13.50 at Cowgirl NYC, 519 Hudson St., though that might leave you too full to sample the goods at Murray’s Cheese Bar, 264 Bleecker. For dinner, find a friend to share Mediterranean small plates at Jack’s Wife Freda, 50 Carmine St., or go for rustic Italian at Rafele, 29 Seventh Ave. South. If you enjoy reading, the bookstore Three Lives & Company, 154 W. 10th St., is a must. I went in just to look around and walked out with an armful of books.

Pop culture If you loved the TV show “Friends,” you’ll need a selfie outside the building where the gang lived, at the corner of Bed-

ford and Grove. Fans of “Sex & the City” have two stops. Even though Carrie Bradshaw lived on the Upper East Side, the brownstone used for exterior shots of her home is in the Village, on Perry Street. Its steps are roped off, and a sign asks visitors to donate to a charity for homeless dogs and cats. “Sex & the City” also helped make Magnolia Bakery famous, at 401 Bleecker St., where cupcakes are piled high with swirled frosting.

Literary history The house at 75 1/2 Bedford St. was once home to the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and at just 9 1/2 feet (2.9 meters) wide, it is billed as “the narrowest house in New York” (though that claim has been disputed). The Cherry Lane Theatre at 38 Commerce St. proudly boasts of showcasing

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early works by playwrights like Sam Shepard and Harold Pinter. And the White Horse Tavern at 567 Hudson has been a favorite bar for famous writers from Jack Kerouac to Dylan Thomas, who is said to have downed his last shots there before collapsing. He died soon after.

Music Google “Bob Dylan walking tour” and you’ll find lots of options for tracing the footsteps of one of the biggest names ever associated with Greenwich Village. The Washington Square Hotel, 103 Waverly, where Dylan once stayed, recommends a self-guided map tour with stops on MacDougal St. and at the Bitter End, 147 Bleecker, where he performed and where you can still enjoy live music. Jazz lovers will want to check out the Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Ave. South, while Marie’s Crisis Cafe, 59 Grove, is known for its lively piano bar.

Parks and monuments Riots erupted in 1969 after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher St. The Stonewall National Monument was established across the street in 2016 at Christopher Park to mark the birthplace of the gay rights movement. The park is also home to sculpted figures by artist George Segal in a work called “Gay Liberation.” Until Feb. 11, the massive white marble arch at Washington Square Park is the site of a cage-like installation by Chinese activist-artist Ai Weiwei. It’s one of 300 of his works on display around the city, all themed on the global refugee crisis. Greenwich Village was settled before Manhattan’s numbered street grid was put in place, and its named, irregular streets can be confusing to navigate. Even the numbered streets don’t always make sense, like the illogical intersection of West Fourth and West 10th Sts. For those who need some reference points, the neighborhood runs south from 14th Street, north from Houston, west to the Hudson River and east to Washington Square-University Place (though the eastern border is a subject of debate among locals). The West Village usually means west of Sixth Avenue (though that can be debated as well). Don’t get too hung up on geography, though. Just call it the Village, find a cafe, and channel your inner cool. Get a neighborhood guide at http:// bit.ly/greenwichvillageguide, and information from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation at www.gvshp.org. — AP

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Travel books to inspire you or give as gifts By Beth J. Harpaz Travel books can get you dreaming. They can provide practical information for your trips. And they can also just tell a good story. Here are a few books out this season to consider buying for your own use and entertainment, or to give as a gift.

Moon Travel Guides has a new series, City Walks, exploring neighborhoods in seven cities: Berlin; Amsterdam; Barcelona, Spain; London; New York; Paris and Rome. The walks include descriptions, maps, attractions, dining and shopping.

Coffee table books

For fun and inspiration

They’re way too big and heavy to tuck in your suitcase. But these beautifully illustrated volumes with big themes will get armchair travelers smiling and real-world travelers planning. The Cities Book: A Journey Through the Best Cities in the World, from Lonely Planet, looks at 200 cities from Abu Dhabi through Zanzibar, offering everything from the best time to visit, to ideas for a perfect day. Great Hiking Trails of the World covers 80 trails in 38 countries on six continents, including Peru’s Inca Trail, Japan’s Shikoku Pilgrimage, and the U.S. triple crown of hiking: the Appalachian, Pacific Crest and Continental Divide trails. Timeless Journeys: Travels to the World’s Legendary Places, from National Geographic, explores 50 once-in-a-lifetime destinations, from places that offer a window on lost worlds, like Pompeii in Italy, to living wonders like a Tanzania game preserve.

These books about places and travel offer laughs, eye candy, a good read, or some combination thereof. And some of them just might make you jealous in that ‘Why didn’t I think of doing this?’ way. For New Yorkers, former New Yorkers and wannabe New Yorkers: Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York, by cartoonist Roz Chast, is absolutely laughout-loud hysterical. It’s an illustrated memoir about city life told through the eyes of a native New Yorker who moved to the suburbs, billed as an ode/guide/thank-you note to Manhattan. Gems include this aside: “Sixth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas are the same thing. But no one calls it ‘Avenue of the Americas,’ because GIVE ME A BREAK.” Topics include stores of mystery and the ancient landmarks. Van Life: Your Home on the Road, by Foster Huntington, grew out of the author’s three-year adventure traveling around

Practical info

North America in a Volkswagen van. The photos showcase all kinds of funky vehicles parked in picturesque locations, along with peeks at a few interiors. Ultimate Journeys for Two: Extraordinary Destinations on Every Continent, by Mike and Anne Howard, grew out of the writers’ five-year adventure across seven continents as the world’s longest honeymooners — an experience they chronicled on their blog HoneyTrek.com. The book includes 75 featured destinations; top 10 lists of day hikes, festivals, beaches and more; and travel advice. Holy Rover: Journeys in Search of Mystery, Miracles, and God, by Lori Erickson, is part memoir and part travel guide as the author reflects on her pilgrimages to 12 sites around the world — from

Our Lady of Lourdes in France to Machu Picchu in Peru. The book also recounts her meetings with spiritual leaders, including the chief priest of the Icelandic pagan religion Asatru, and a Lakota Indian man who directs a retreat lodge at the holy site of Bear Butte in South Dakota.

Best of 2018 The folks at Lonely Planet don’t just publish a list for where to go in the new year, they’ve published an entire book: Best in Travel 2018, with the travel media brand’s picks for best countries, regions, cities and trends in travel for the new year, along with suggestions on what to see and do there. — AP

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For more info call 311 or visit doee.dc.gov/udp To apply for the telephone Lifeline Service (Economy II), call 800-253-0846.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Style Arts &

In the past year, Woody Harrelson has appeared in six movies, including two released last month. He reflects on the year on page 46.

34th Street retains its miraculous charm hearts. When Mr. Kringle is wrongly sent to jail on an assault charge that turns into an insanity hearing, Fred is the lawyer who does his best to free him.

Musical highs and lows The show itself is a little disjointed, though Toby’s does its best to smooth out all the lumps. The music borrows elements from other shows, especially Willson’s own Music Man, and can’t seem to figure out what kind of show it wants to be. There are boisterous, fun numbers, like “Big Ca-Lown Balloons” during the Thanksgiving Parade, but then things quickly turn dark with “You Don’t Know,” in which Doris croons a cautionary tale to her daughter about how disappointing life is. By the next song, the mood’s back up, and so the rest of the show goes on. You will get to hear a familiar tune in act one by the ensemble, though — holiday favorite “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” penned by Willson before he wrote the musical. Perhaps the most perplexing thing about the show is that it doesn’t need to be a musical at all. The film’s story is so solid

PHOTO BY JERI TIDWELL

By Rebekah Alcalde No doubt you’re familiar with the 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street — a classic featuring a young Natalie Wood that challenges you to suspend disbelief and embrace the idea that Santa Claus is real. But you probably didn’t know there’s a musical theater version, penned by Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man. The show debuted to mixed reviews in 1963 and was originally billed as Here’s Love. Since then, productions have changed the name, sometimes calling it It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas. Now, Toby’s Dinner Theatre is presenting the musical, renaming it to match the film. The show’s plot primarily follows the movie, with a focus on embittered and pragmatic divorcee Doris Walker, who hires an old man named Kris Kringle to play Santa Claus at Macy’s flagship store in NYC. The twist? He thinks he’s the real deal, and manages to convince Walker’s young daughter Susan (and everyone else but Doris). Their neighbor and marine-turnedlawyer Fred Gaily also charms them, and does his best to loosen up and open their

An entertaining musical version of the 1947 classic film Miracle on 34th Street is now onstage at Toby’s Dinner Theatre. Toby’s veteran Robert Biedermann plays jolly Kris Kringle, shown here with the full cast.

on its own that the songs appear to be injected at odd times, conveying feelings that are sometimes better spoken — not sung (and danced).

Outstanding cast What is always reliably excellent at See 34TH STREET, page 45

“ SLICK … A WHOLE LOT OF FUN.” — Broadway World

THE PAJAMA GAME

‘Great Performances in the Neighborhood’ Rockville Civic Ballet presents

Rockville Concert Band presents

“THE NUTCRACKER”

‘TIS THE SEASON!

6 performances | Saturdays, Dec. 2 and 9 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, Dec. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 17 at 3 p.m.

Photo of Tim Rogan and Britney Coleman by Margot Schulman.

45th ANNIVERSARY HOLIDAY CONCERT Sunday, Dec. 17 at 7:30 p.m.

NOW PLAYING THROUGH DECEMBER 24 BOOK BY GEORGE ABBOTT AND RICHARD BISSELL MUSIC AND LYRICS BY RICHARD ADLER AND JERRY ROSS BASED ON THE NOVEL 7½ CENTS BY RICHARD BISSELL DIRECTED BY ALAN PAUL | CHOREOGRAPHED BY PARKER ESSE MUSIC DIRECTION BY JAMES CUNNINGHAM

Rockvile Chorus presents

Theatre F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tickets online: www.rockvillemd.gov/theatre Box Office: 240-314-8690

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

34th Street From page 44 Toby’s is the talented cast, and Miracle’s runs the gamut of age and experience. The ensemble of child actors is especially wonderful and sweet. Hannah Dash steals a scene as an orphan from the Netherlands named Henrika, who wants to meet Santa. His response back to her in Dutch is partly why Susan believes in him. And who can forget our show’s Susan, played splendidly by Camden Lippert, the ideal balance between wide-eyed and shrewd — with a great singing voice to boot. The adult cast is just as entertaining. Heather Beck, as Doris, is the perfect picture (and pitch) of a strong woman living in a man’s world, trying to protect her daughter. When she tells Susan not to believe in anything she can’t “see, taste, touch or smell,” you truly believe she means well. Beck also belts out all the right notes, effectively leaning into a few of the songs’ strange minor-chord endings. Always-funny Jeffrey Shankle (Fred) plays a different kind of character as the ex-marine who’s just as disillusioned with love as Doris is. He definitely has the fasttalking New York attitude down pat, and his few moments of vulnerability stand out — as in “My Wish,” when he sings to little Susan while they’re alone at the playground (clearly a different era, when this

was acceptable). Fred does repeatedly talk down to Doris as a “little girl,” which is a bit unnerving, but Shankle does his best to make Fred roguish rather than repulsive. The strongest performance from the main cast belongs to Toby’s veteran Robert Biedermann as Kris Kringle. He brings a slightly more youthful, energetic and sweet portrayal of the classic figure, which feels fresh. He also has great chemistry with everyone, especially Susan. Though he doesn’t do much singing, he’s spot-on in every other aspect.

show’s strongest number, “My State, My Kansas,” in which he tries to convince the judge on Kringle’s case that sending Santa to prison would be bad for his career. He’s joined on the number by Shellhammer, the hilarious David Bosley Reynolds as the judge, and a very good David James as Tammany, a local political figure. From the creative set design for the Big Apple, to the dazzling costumes and effects like mock snowfall (spoiler alert!), Miracle is the perfect show for your grandchildren (and inner child). It may be a little saccharine for some, but it’s the holidays, after all.

Supporting actors shine As is the case in many of Toby’s productions, the side characters are particularly memorable. Doris’ assistant Marvin Shellhammer (Tommy Malek) is fantastic in every scene he’s in, especially the amusing number “Plastic Alligator,” where he convinces the new clerks to use a silly jingle to push the toys he accidentally bought in surplus. His energy is infectious. My favorite performance of the night was, to my surprise, Russell Sunday, who brought the character of Macy’s CEO William H. Macy to life. He may be in and out of the show, but he commands every scene he’s in. Sunday’s booming deep voice and excellent vocals really help elevate the second act. He shines particularly brightly in the

Seeing the show Miracle on 34th Street continues through Sunday, Jan. 7 at Toby’s Dinner Theatre, located at 5900 Symphony Woods Rd. in Columbia. The show runs seven days a week, with evening and matinee performances. Doors open at 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, for dinner prior to the evening performances, which begin at 8 p.m. For Sunday evening performances, which begin at 7 p.m., doors open at 5 p.m. for dinner.

On Wednesdays and Sundays, there are matinee performances, which open for brunch at 10:30 a.m., with shows beginning at 12:30 p.m. Reservations are required. Ticket prices range from $45.50 (for children under 12) to $64, depending on the performance. Ticket prices include buffet dinner or brunch, tea and coffee. Specialty alcoholic drinks — like this show’s strawberry-flavored “The Kringle,” which my husband topped with optional Pinnacle whipped crème vodka — are priced separately. While not five-star cuisine, Toby’s buffet-style meals offer something for everyone. Our meal featured prime rib, roast potatoes, cocktail shrimp, a variety of vegetables and salads, and more. Cake and unlimited ice cream are also included. You can also arrange to have coffee or alcohol brought to you during intermission. At Toby’s, the show’s actors also wait on tables. Their tips constitute much of their pay for their performances, so be sure to tip well. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (410) 730-8311 or visit www.tobysdinnertheatre.com.

For gift subscriptions, see page 53.

40th International Saxophone Symposium

Michael Jackson Jr., photo by Andrew Eccles

Bring Your Group to the Kennedy Center for Entertainment on a Grand Scale!

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Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the National Symphony Orchestra in three concert performances of Bernstein’s cherished musical take on Romeo & Juliet. Part of Leonard Bernstein at 100. February 14–17 | Concert Hall

New York City Ballet

Ashley Bouder in The Four Seasons, photo by Paul Kolnik

George Mason University Center for the Arts in Fairfax, Virginia.

Now more than ever, the world needs the power of dance, and the arts. For its annual Kennedy Center engagement, the beloved company will continue to push the art form into fascinating new territory, with multiple programs as unique and phenomenal as the Ailey dancers themselves. Programs available at kennedy-center.org

NSO Pops West Side Story in Concert

Concert Band with Claude Delangle Timothy McAllister the Navy Band Saxophone Quartet and Dale Underwood

Commodores with Miguel Zenón

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February 6–11 | Opera House

FRIDAY, JAN. 12, 8 P.M.

SATURDAY, JAN. 13, 8 P.M.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

SAVE UP TO 25%

NYCB returns with two sensational repertory programs, including one to celebrate the centennials of Jerome Robbins, one of the most influential dance-makers in the company’s history, and legendary composer Leonard Bernstein (Mar. 30–Apr. 1). It also presents three works by NYCB’s George Balanchine and Peter Martins’s Zakouski, while Resident Choreographer and Soloist Justin Peck offers the Kennedy Center premiere of a brand new piece (Mar. 27–29). Programs available at kennedy-center.org March 27–April 1 | Opera House

CONTACT US NOW TO RESERVE YOUR GROUP TICKETS! All concerts are FREE and open to the public. No tickets required. For our full performance calendar, visit our website.

(202) 416-8400 | TOLL FREE (800) 444-1324 kennedy-center.org/groupsales | groupsales@kennedy-center.org David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of the NSO. AARP is the Presenting Sponsor of the NSO Pops Season.

Support for Ballet at the Kennedy Center is generously provided by C. Michael Kojaian.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Woody Harrelsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s banner, prolific year By Lindsay Bahr There are some years when prolific doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t begin to describe Woody Harrelsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s output. In the past 12 months, Harrelson has appeared on screen as an acerbic history teacher (The Edge of Seventeen), a neurotic divorcee (Wilson), a terrifying military leader (War for the Planet of the Apes), the brilliant but troubled father of Jeannette Walls (The Glass Castle), the local police chief who turns a grieving mother into an avenger (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), and the 36th president of the United States (LBJ) for director Rob Reiner. And the 56-year-old still has the young Han Solo film, Solo, to come in May (he plays the space smugglerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mentor). â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;noâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; in my vocabulary, other than the k-n-o-w, right?â&#x20AC;? Harrelson laughs. On a recent afternoon in a Los Angeles hotel promoting LBJ and Three Billboards, both released in November, Harrelson is in a giggly mood and sporting some interesting garb â&#x20AC;&#x201D; loose striped drawstring pants, no shoes and white socks adorned with marijuana leaves. (Harrelson said earlier this year he gave up smoking.) In a conversation with the Associated Press, Harrelson talked about softening on LBJ, Ron Howard taking over â&#x20AC;&#x153;Solo, the

sexual harassment crisis in Hollywood, and his need for a break. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity. AP: Do you enjoy working so much? Harrelson: Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been maybe overworking it a bit. You know, eventually theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll get bored of you. So Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to put my foot on the brakes. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m tappinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the brakes. AP: How did Rob Reiner convince you to take on the role of Lyndon B. Johnson? Harrelson: Rob had the same kind of attitude â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even more extreme than me â&#x20AC;&#x201D; about LBJ, because he was draft age. He hated LBJ because he might send him to his death. A really good friend of mine whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a producer says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to play LBJ.â&#x20AC;? And I said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Well dude, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m sorry, but I just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like him because of Vietnam.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard for me to overlook that. But I decided that I would at least read up on him a little bit. So I read a book, and it softened me a little. And then literally, right at that time, Rob Reiner calls me and says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;I want you to play LBJ.â&#x20AC;? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too bizarre. And I do think, although you canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t overlook genocide, he did a lot of great things. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve now come to feel like I kind of begrudgingly admire the man. AP: How do you choose projects lately?

Harrelson: Things have gotten better and better in terms of choices. And Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m really psyched about the last couple of years of unbelievably cool projects. Even the ones that didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work at the box office, I feel very lucky to be part of. I watched LBJ in Austin with people who either knew LBJ or knew Lady Bird. Never would there be a more right audience for saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;No, this is bullâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-; this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t good.â&#x20AC;? Their response was just so gratifying. Three Billboards I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t even worry about, I just know itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to do great. AP: Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worked with director Martin McDonagh before on Seven Psychopaths. Harrelson: I knew him years ago. I wrote this screenplay that takes place in Ireland, so naturally I wanted to look into the greatest Irish writers. So I met Martin in Dublin, and we had a big night, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been friends ever since. I was working in London doing a play and we were hanging out frequently, and I really, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a big admirer, I think heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s one of the greatest living writers. And he offered me (the play) The Pillowman. And I read it, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh my god.â&#x20AC;? Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like a kid crucified on stage, and I said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The darkness had finally overcome the light in your work,â&#x20AC;? and I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do it. Then I watched it, and it was freakinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

one of the greatest things Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever seen onstage. I was, like, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never turn down another Martin McDonagh anything. AP: Do you care about awards recognition? Harrelson: Not even a little bit. I got awarded this life. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s un-freakin-real, you know? And the statues wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change my life one way or the other. My main thing is, I want people to see these movies. You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to make them for a dusty closet. AP: And then you have Solo. Harrelson: Yeah, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not worried about that one. AP: I think everyone was surprised when directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller exited the film. How was that transition? Harrelson: We got Ron Howard. How OK can you get? I love Ron. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been in this industry almost longer than anyone else, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still a kid. He still has this childlike exuberance for life. He didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get stained by life. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s beautiful to see a person like that. It can be pretty unforgiving, this industry. AP: There is obviously a lot going on in the industry with all the revelations of sexual harassment and assault, with something new every day it seems â&#x20AC;&#x201D; See HARRELSON, page 48

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WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

IN THE CONCERT HALL

Bernstein’s “The Age of Anxiety” Ravel’s Boléro Yutaka Sado, conductor Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano Rossini Thibaudet

Handel’s Messiah Jeannette Sorrell, conductor Sophie Daneman, soprano Ann McMahon Quintero, alto Karim Sulayman, tenor Christian Immler, baritone University of Maryland Concert Choir, Edward Maclary, director Thu., Dec. 14 at 7 p.m. Fri., Dec. 15 at 8 p.m. Sat., Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. Sun., Dec. 17 at 1 p.m.

Overture to La Gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) Bernstein Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety” Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini Ravel Boléro Thu., Jan. 11 at 7 Sat., Jan. 13 at 8

Schumann’s “Rhenish” Symphony Christoph Eschenbach, conductor Leila Josefowicz, violin Brahms O. Knussen Schumann Josefowicz

SUN. MATINEE

Variations on a Theme of Haydn Violin Concerto Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”

Thu., Jan. 25 at 7 Sat., Jan. 27 at 8

NSO Pops

A Holiday Pops featuring Megan Hilty

Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration

Steven Reineke, conductor

This is the 25th anniversary concert celebration of the acclaimed album produced by Take 6’s Mervyn Warren that reinterpreted Handel’s oratorio and is praised for its use of African American music, ranging from spirituals to blues, from ragtime to hip hop.

Dash through the snow and warm your spirit with fresh takes on comforting classics and sing-along carols in this annual NSO tradition, joined this year by Tony®-nominated stage and screen star Megan Hilty and The Washington Chorus. Fri., Dec. 8 at 8 Sat., Dec. 9 at 2 & 8

Wed., Dec. 20 at 8 SAT. MATINEE

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! KENNEDY-CENTER.ORG | (202) 467-4600 Tickets also available at the Box Office. Groups call (202) 416-8400. For all other ticket-related customer service inquiries, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.

David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of the NSO. AARP is the Presenting Sponsor of the NSO Pops Season.

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Beautiful books for everyone on your list Books that take readers pictorially to Marseilles are just a few of the more than unique places and times are fun to peruse. two hundred black-and-white photographs They also make great gifts. that capture the aura and mood Many books that are reof those places and times. ceived as gifts become treasAn added bonus is the talentured keepsakes, especially if a ed amateur behind the camera thoughtful and heartfelt inlens — the late Paul Child, scription is added. Moreover, a diplomat and husband of the book of photographs with aclate Julia Child. The future companying text can be encelebrity chef is shown in many joyed repeatedly and at greater of the photos posed alongside leisure than a visit to a museum iconic buildings, at home, and exhibit. in picturesque outdoor settings. Here are some coffee table THE The accompanying text tells books that you might consid- BIBLIOPHILE the story of the fascinating life of er giving — or making your By Dinah Rokach Paul and his loving marriage to very own. Julia, whose career he nurtured. France is a Feast is a collection of Mrs. Child blossomed during her years in beautiful photographs of Paris and Mar- Paris. She was inspired by the flavors of the seilles in the late ‘40s to mid-‘50s. These local cuisine, studied the classic techniques French cities are depicted as they returned of French gourmet cooking, and started writto the tranquility of the post-war years. ing, with her collaborators, her groundbreakImages of cobblestone streets, narrow al- ing first cookbook. leys, the River Seine, and the waterfront of Paul Child’s poetry and excerpts from

his letters add a touch of grace to this stunning volume. Photographs from France is a Feast are on exhibit in Napa, California, through February. But you needn’t travel there to enjoy scenes that transport you to this continental mid-century magical milieu. Return time and again to these romantic destinations by opening the book and turning its pages. What a magnificent gift to give yourself or a special loved one! France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child by Alex Prud’homme and Katie Pratt, 208 pages, 225 black-and-white photographs, Thomas & Hudson, 9.2 x 1 x 10 inches, hardcover, 2017. New York’s Lower East Side was once

predominantly the home of Jewish immigrants. Free from the constraints of Old World persecution, their way of life flourished in freedom’s soil. To many, the Lower Manhattan street names — Essex, Orchard, Allen, Ludlow, Delancey and Hester — evoke a deep, nostalgic response. With time, the neighborhood has gentrified, the immigrant generation has passed on, and their progeny Americanized. The nature of the neighborhood has changed. Remnants is a lovingly compiled book of exquisite photographs depicting what remains of the Jewish Lower East Side. The photographs were shot beginning in 2008, with the exception of one taken in 1999. They record for posterity the

Harrelson

dustry help this era end? Harrelson: Well, I can’t imagine anybody doing anything now! Who’s going to be that stupid? I think it’s ended. I really think it’s ended. On the other hand, who knows after

time how things shift. But I can’t imagine anybody, even if that’s their inclination, behaving that way. So it’s shifted. It has happened. It’s seismic; it’s a 9.0 frickin’ earthquake. Tectonic plates have moved. — AP

From page 46 like James Toback. Harrelson: See, I didn’t know anything about James Toback, but some people say

he was a less well-kept secret. But these guys, it’s good they’re getting their comeuppance. On the other hand, it’s like the last thing I want to talk about. AP: Do you feel a responsibility to do anything? How can men in this in-

See GIFT BOOKS, page 50

WB1217

WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N â&#x20AC;&#x201D; D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style

Arts & Style | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com

Gift books From page 48 rich and unique lifestyle that tugs at the heartstrings. Reading about the neighborhood and viewing the photographs remind the reader of a community that centered around family and faith. The reverence afforded the subjects is commendable. The esthetic appeal of the photographs makes the book a truly accomplished work of art to be treasured.

Remnants: Photographs of the Lower East Side, photos by Janet Russek and David Scheinbaum, text by Amy Stein-Milford and Sean Corcoran, 136 pages, 120 images in color and black-and-white, Radius Books, 9.3 x 1 x 11.2 inches, hardcover, 2017. The story of the official residence of the Vice President as told by Charles Denyer is sure to delight lovers of history, politics, Americana and interior design. This lavishly illustrated book tells the tale of Number

ANSWERS TO CROSSWORD

FROM PAGE 52 ANSWERS TO SCRABBLE

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

F I B A R I B A G T L I B A R A K A R E D B R E B R I E F

S E E T V

A L L W E T

B A D R E A U B S D O E N R Y

E K E D L D S

T S A N E R A O R W I A N G L A N T O O U Y N A S

O G D E N

P I L E D

A B O S O M

I G S A N I Z A E N D B U R O I S J E A S W

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V I D D E N I O E N R E L D R I P S R T T E R E A O R D D R E E A R

O C E A N

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ANSWERS TO JUMBLE Jumbles: CLOVE WHEEL DEFACE SECEDE Answer: When the con man pulled the wool over their eyes, the couple was – FLEECED

One Observatory Circle, which old timeWashingtonians will remember as the imposing home of the Chief of Naval Operations, situated up a hill on Massachusetts Avenue. This historic mansion was designated the official residence of the Vice President beginning with the tenure of Nelson Rockefeller, who used it only for official functions. It truly became a family home when the Mondales moved in. Although all succeeding veeps have taken up residence there, it is still by law temporary. Learn this and other interesting trivia while admiring the interior and grounds. Get an intimate look at the Second Families in posed settings and candid moments. You’ll find especially touching the tribute to the late Joan Mondale by her adoring husband. Read about the mostly unheralded contributions of our nation’s Second Ladies. Relive the history of the modern vice presidency through the domicile of the men who were “a heartbeat away.” Number One Observatory Circle: The Home of the Vice President of the United States, by Charles Denyer, 280 pages, more than 200 color and black-and-white photographs, Cambridge Klein Publishers, 9.1 x 1.2 x 12.3 inches, hardcover, 2017.

For anyone who has been inspired by the life of President John F. Kennedy, JFK: A Vision for America is a must read. This book is a literary, historical and photographic compendium of immense value. It includes the many speeches of JFK, and essays by historians, public figures and journalists in appreciation of his unique vision. The photographs include candid shots of the Kennedy family, and a timeline summarizing the key moments of his life and times. Magazine covers and political paraphernalia are showcased. Jackie is given her due, and the book covers with great elan her years as the Senator’s wife and the nation’s First Lady. This year marks the centennial of JFK’s birth. The book evokes warm and wonderful memories for those of us who lived in that era. It also reminds us of an idealism that flourished when we were young. JFK: A Vision for America, edited by Stephen Kennedy Smith and Douglas Brinkley, 496 pages, including more than 500 photographs and facsimiles of Kennedy’s marginalia on drafts of speeches, letters, notes from meetings, and other documents, Harper Books, hardcover, 2017.

WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style

Phony phone calls call for new etiquette My mother was very insistent about it. If home to Los Angeles by the next morning, caller with credibility he doesn’t have and seem heartless. As my elder fraud experts the phone rings, young Bob, you answer it. or he’d be fired. So could I please wire him doesn’t deserve, my experts told me. That explained to me, those two factors are usuMight be Grandma. Might $300 for a plane ticket and can lead to a $300 Western Union wire, ally what tip seniors over the edge. Even if be an emergency. Might be something to eat? He’d pay me very quickly. they can’t recall any Jonathans in their Hollywood. And even if it’s back as soon as he got home. For another thing, I know how the family, they just write that off to a senior none of these, answering the When I hesitated slightly — phone system works. After I said “Hello,” moment, and they pay up. phone is the polite thing to I did that strictly for effect, to there was a telltale pause of about two secI could have hung up at any point during do, she would always say. smoke him out — he piled on onds. That wouldn’t happen if “Jonathan” the call from “Jonathan.” I could have deMama was lucky that she the logs. were calling from a private or a business livered a blistering lecture to him. I could didn’t live in the age of algo“Robert, gosh, I know this is a phone. But it happens routinely if he’s call- have vowed to report him to the police. rithms, robocalls and clever lot to ask, and I’d never ask if I ing from a “boiler room” or a phone bank. But I decided to go for some unvarscammers. If she were still could have reached any of my For a third thing, I know how the banking nished honesty. with us, she’d be hard-pressed HOW I SEE IT family in California. But I tried system works. If “Jonathan” has a bank ac“Jonathan,” I said. “We both know that to insist on answering the By Bob Levey and I can’t. You’re my only hope.” count anywhere in the world, all he has to you’re trying to con me, right?” phone today, especially since To punctuate that last sentence, do is to march into any bank branch, even if Whereupon he hung up without another telephone scams have become a leading av- he gave a small sob and a small sniffle. it’s part of a different company, and tell them word — thus confirming that my question enue for abuse of elderly Americans. Now, I may have trouble writing love the name of his bank. Assuming he has had been right on the button. I recently chatted with two experts in scenes, but I would never fall for such a call. money in his account, the Oregon bank can So my meager bank account remains safe. the field — one a prosecutor, the other an For one thing, I’m not lonely — as so arrange a wire transfer in mere minutes. My pride remains intact. My love scene is elder-care advisor. They told me what I al- many older “marks” are. They are flattered Of course, “Jonathan” was counting on See BOB LEVEY, page 53 ready suspected: Phone scams are usually by a call, any call, so they tend to invest the emotions — and on my not wanting to about money. But they might also involve sexual abuse, emotional abuse or physical abuse. And it isn’t as easy as it once was to tell the bad guys from the good. Some bad guys are very smooth and ALL very believable. And over the last couple of years, phone scammers have found a way SMOKE to be calling from Timbuktu, but to make it FREE appear on your caller ID as if the call is APARTMENT HOMES FOR THOSE 62 AND BETTER originating from your area code and your three-digit exchange. That’s how an attempted scammer got me to answer the phone the other day. I was tapping away on my keyboard, deep into The Great American Novel (a guy can hope), when the phone chirped. I immediately recognized the first six digits on my caller ID — my area code, my exchange. Surely the caller was a neighbor ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY EASTERN SHORE or a friend. Furnace Branch 410-761-4150 Easton 410-770-3070 So I set aside the show-stopping love Severna Park 410-544-3411 scene, grabbed the receiver and said HARFORD COUNTY “Hello.” BALTIMORE CITY Bel Air 410-893-0064 “Hi, is this Robert?,” said a voice that I Ashland Terrace 410-276-6440 pegged as middle-aged, accent-free — and Box Hill 410-515-6115 Coldspring 410-542-4400 clueless. The only people who call me HOWARD COUNTY Robert work for the IRS, and who needs BALTIMORE COUNTY them? Colonial Landing 410-796-4399 So I should have known right away that Catonsville 410-719-9464 Columbia 410-381-1118 this caller was a three-dollar bill. I should Dundalk 410-288-5483 Ellicott City 410-203-9501 have hung up. But my mother’s lectures Fullerton 410-663-0665 Ellicott City II 410-203-2096 about telephone politeness are still baked Miramar Landing 410-391-8375 deeply into me. Emerson 301-483-3322 “Yes, this is Robert,” I said. Randallstown 410-655-5673 Snowden River 410-290-0384 “Oh, good,” said the voice. “I’m so glad Rosedale 410-866-1886 that I reached you. This is Jonathan. You PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY Taylor 410-663-0363 know, Jonathan. Your brother’s stepson.” Bladensburg 301-699-9785 Towson 410-828-7185 My brother doesn’t have any stepsons, 55 AND BETTER! and his actual son isn’t named Jonathan. Woodlawn 410-281-1120 So after ten seconds, I knew that we were Laurel 301-490-1526 solidly into foul territory. Laurel II 301-490-9730 But the fabulous love scene wasn’t exactly flowing off my fingers, so I decided to string the caller along. Call the community nearest you to inquire about “Yes, Jonathan,” I said, with as much eligibility requirements and to arrange a personal tour. false enthusiasm as I could muster. “Good to hear from you. What’s new?” www.rhomecommunities.com Jonathan was right there with a tale of woe. He was in Oregon. His wallet had been stolen. He really needed to get back ALL PARK VIEW COMMUNITIES ARE PET-FRIENDLY

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D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

Crossword Puzzle Call 1-877-575-0231 for your FREE brochure.

See our ad on page 21.

Beans and Cornbread 1

12204647

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Daily crosswords can be found on our website: www.TheBeaconNewspapers.com Click on Puzzles Plus 2

14 17

46 52

48 54

2. Investment plan addressed by IRS Pub 590-A 3. Temper tantrum 1. Tells lies to 4. “Must ___” (90’s NBC slogan) 7. Fall birthstone 5. Completely mistaken 11. Solemn promise 6. Muggle org. that uses powerful wands 14. Those named after the Little Mermaid 7. Poet Nash, who said “Progress might have 15. Ridicule been all right once, but it’s gone on too long” 16. Shrinking Arctic feature 17. Partners referenced in the 1949 Jump Jive 8. Organized cannonballs 9. “Only ___ buddy will tell you the truth” song Beans and Cornbread (Mame) 19. Family room 10. Metropolis businessman, Luther 20. Sched. notation for two Tuesdays and a 11. Wi-fi bandwidth hog Wednesday 12. The Indian is the youngest 21. Widely-used shoebox stickers 13. Takes the scenic route 22. ___ on arrival 18. Coming into view 23. See 17 Across 22. Restaurant reviewed by The Food Network’s 26. Tavern Guy Fieri 27. AL East foe of BAL and BOS 23. Tall migrant from Minneapolis to LA 28. Vasectomy patients in 1960 29. Letters before a bandit’s nickname 24. First line of data in a spreadsheet 30. Ghostbusters star, Kristen 25. Anthony Michael Hall, in several 80’s 33. The Sword of Gryffindor, for example movies 37. See 23 Across 26. Fishhook’s end 41. Start a game of 8-ball 31. “Art ___; science is we” (Claude Bernard) 42. Nile river city 32. Garden shade makers 43. Voodoo doll piercer 34. Cocktail party spy, perhaps 44. The 1st state 35. Less friendly 46. There were 7 in nineteen ninety-nine 36. Word on the reverse of all Lincoln pennies 48. On Soc. Sec. 38. No better then 49. See 37 Across 39. Squeaked out 55. Massages 40. Mork and Mindy greeting 56. Underdog at a bullfight 45. Next born after Tito and Jermaine 57. Are mixed-up 47. Walked boldly 58. Rite answer 49. Succinct 59. Writer and singer of the song, and a 1987 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 50. More like Goofus than Gallant 51. Chess board wood 63. Poetic dusk 52. There are two each in 17, 23, 37, and 49 64. Unit of force across 65. “Life is not ___ rehearsal” 53. Hangs out on a clothesline 66. Prepare a blooming onion 54. Latin lead-in to -cotta or -firma 67. Backtalk 59. Mormons, initially 68. ___ cape (dresses as a super-hero) 60. Trash talk Down 61. Beast of burden 1. Descriptive of John or Ringo 62. It is said to stand for “No Such Agency”

Across

Scrabble answers on p. 50.

Jumble answers on p. 50.

41 44

28 30

18 20

Stephen Sherr

Answers on page 50.

WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Bob Levey From page 51 still a mishmash of the obvious and the predictable (I’ll get back to it in just a second). But not before urging you to do two things if a “Jonathan” ever calls you. 1) Despite my mother’s policy, don’t answer the phone if you don’t recognize the caller. Or hang up once you know the call is phony baloney. My experts say it’s the neatest and quickest way to protect yourself. 2) Protect others by reporting attempted phone scams to the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP, or via www.ftc.gov/complaint. Be ready to provide full details — time of day, full details of what the caller said, and the phone number that appeared on your caller ID. You will get a nice warm feeling. And somewhere out there, an older person will be less likely to become a victim. Bob Levey is a national award-winning columnist.

Say you saw it in the Beacon

ONE BIG HAPPY By Rick Detorie

BEACON BITS

Dec. 14

IMPROVING HOME SAFETY

Every year we make resolutions for ourselves personally, so why not for our homes? Arlington County presents “New Year’s Resolutions for Your Home” on Thursday, Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. at Walter Reed Senior Center, 2909 S. 16th St. Arlington, Va. Bill Copeland of Home Depot will provide helpful hints to maintain your home’s livability, safety and value. Learn when to replace smoke detectors and motion sensors, how to safely clean out a chimney and dryer vent, how to create a functional spice rack and more. For more information and to register, call (703) 228-0955.

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CLASSIFIEDS The Beacon prints classified advertising under the following headings: Business & Employment Opportunities; Caregivers; Computer Services; Entertainment; For Sale; For Sale/Rent: Real Estate; Free; Health; Home/ Handyman Services; Miscellaneous; Personals; Personal Services; Vacation Opportunities; and Wanted. For submission guidelines and deadlines, see the box on page 55.

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 — WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N

For Sale/Rent: Real Estate

Personal Services

Wanted

HOME FOR PRECIOUS GEMS Assisted Living Facility in Upper Marlboro. “Where your loved one is as precious to us as they are to you!” 202-802-6202.

TURN YOUR SILVER AND OLD GOLD jewelry into cash and do something good for yourself. Gold 4 Good (8241 Georgia Ave., Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910) buys gold and silver jewelry, including broken pieces, all sterling silver, gold watches and gold and silver coins. I will come to your house and give you a free evaluation of what I can pay. If you decide to sell, I can buy your items at that time, but there is no obligation. Licensed with both Maryland and Montgomery County (lic. #2327). Call Bob, (240) 9389694.

WANTED: OLDER VIOLINS, Gu itars, Banjos, Mandolins, etc. Musician/collector will pay cash for older string instruments. Jack, 301- 2792158.

LEISURE WORLD® — $89,000. 1 BR 1FB “Raleigh” Condo. Separate dining room, enclosed patio with exit to green space. Close to Clubhouse 1. 877 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463. LEISURE WORLD® — $205.000. 2 BR + Den, 2 FB “K” model with great views from enclosed balcony, separate dining room. 1520 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463.

CAVEAT EMPTOR! The Beacon does not knowingly accept obscene, offensive, harmful, or fraudulent advertising. However, we do not investigate any advertisers or their products and cannot accept responsibility for the integrity of either. Respondents to classified advertising should always use caution and their best judgment.

LEISURE WORLD® — $310,000. 3 BR 2 FB “L” with Garage and storage room in Greens, Golf course view, new paint and carpet. 1640 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-9283463.

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

LEISURE WORLD® — $279,000. 3 BR 2 FB “M” with Garage in Fairways. Table space kitchen, separate dining room, close to the elevator, rough-in for HB. 1480 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463.

Caregivers “A” HOME HEALTH CARE – Experienced nurses, CNA, GNA are available 24/7. Cooking, companionship, personal care, housekeeping, driving. Full/Part-time or live-in. Flat rate for live-in care. 15 years’ experience. 240-533-6599. LICENSED CAREGIVER/NURSE seeks position immediately — 25 years experience. Available for 6-8 hours per day, 5 days per week. Call Ms. Stamford. Cell, 240-351-7295. “CARE YOU CAN TRUST AND AFFORD.” Loving, experienced caregiver for companionship, medication reminders, hygiene care, meal preparation, housekeeping, errands, Dr. appointments. Full/part-time, flat rate for day or live-in care. One week free. Call 301-490-1146. A LOVING, CARING, COMPASSIONATE, dependable and reliable caregiver with years of experience and references for your loved ones. Has experience with MS, Alzheimer’s, diabetics and other health problems. Please call 301-9089134. CHEVY CHASE HOME CARE – reliable certified caregivers at time of illness, infirmity, loneliness. Personal assistance, ALL AGES, 4- to 24-hour shifts, homes, hospitals, nursing homes. MD, DC, No. VA. Tel.: 202-374-1240. www.ChChHomecare.com. COMPASSIONATE EXPERIENCE caregiver with high recommendations for elderly, handicapped and child care. Grooming, cooking, shopping, driving, pet help. Live-in preferred. Linda, 202-243-9542.

Computer Services PROBLEM WITH YOUR PC/MAC OR NETWORK? Computer Systems Engineer will come to you with help. Call: David G at 301-642-4526.

For Sale/Rent: Real Estate LOOKING TO TAKE THE LEAP? I’ll take you on a tour of the community, show you floor plans, discuss campus amenities, & offer how to best coordinate your move. I will set up an automated online search for you, preview units, and contact you to arrange a showing when there is a match. I also offer exceptional service selling your home. I’m a Seniors Specialist, Buyer Broker, Top 1% of Agents Nationwide, and a Leisure World resident! You can see my current listings in this issue. Contact me: 301-580-5556, SueHeyman@aol.com, www.SueHeyman.com, Weichert Realtors. FURNISHED ROOM IN TAKOMA PARK. No pets. No smoking. Utilities included. Kitchen use. Road-side parking in safe neighborhood. Senior preferred, male or female. Shared bathroom. One step up. Available Dec. 1, 2017. Call Inez, 301-439-8017.

LEISURE WORLD® — $179,000. 2BR 2FB “F” with Garage in Greens. Enclosed balcony plus outdoor patio space, close to the elevator. 1115 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463.

LEISURE WORLD® — $269,000. 2BR 2FB “FF” in Overlook. Open kitchen, separate dining room, golf course view, close to the elevator, new paint, enclosed balcony. 1320 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463. LEISURE WORLD® — $189,000. 3 BR 2 FB “Capri” model with huge living and dining rooms, table space kitchen, carport. 1415 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-928-3463. LEISURE WORLD® — $199,000. 2BR 2FB “J” with Garage in “Greens”, move-in condition, close to the elevator. 1317 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert Realtors. 301-928-3463. LEISURE WORLD® — $199,000. 2BR + Den, 2 FB “S” with Garage in “Fairways”, Separate dining room, table space kitchen, 1460 sq ft. Stan Moffson, Weichert, Realtors. 301-9283463.

For Sale SINGLE BURIAL SITE — Parkland Memorial Park. $2,000. Call Jim, 301-881-4148. 2 SALVADOR DALI woodblock prints from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Signed and framed. Asking $900 for the pair. Can email pictures if desired. Call Steve, 410-913-1653.

Health STOP OVERPAYING FOR YOUR PERSCRIPTIONS! SAVE! Call our licensed Canadian and International pharmacy, compare prices and get $25.00 OFF your first prescription! CALL 1-888-981-7657 Promo Code CDC201725 DENTAL INSURANCE. Call Physicians Mutual Insurance Company for details. NOT just a discount plan, REAL coverage for 350 procedures. 844-3661003 or http://www.dental50plus.com/320 Ad# 6118

Home/Handyman Services GARDEN ANGLE LANDSCAPING SERVICE: Lawn and yard cleanups etc. Hauling anything. For all your household needs, please give Robert a call at 240-477-2158 or 301-987-1277. Free estimate. MOVING? CALL AMAZON MOVERS. Packing service. Moving service. Packing material available. Cleaning service after the move. We haul junk away. Loading, unloading trucks out of town. Experienced in sorting out. Serving the Metropolitan area for 30 years. Excellent references. Member of Washington BBB. We beat other movers’ prices. Call Carmen Alberto, 571-229-8021, 703525-7510, packingamazon@gmail.com.

Personals CUTE, ATTRACTIVE FEMALE, FIFTIES — ISO single white male, fifties plus, attractive, robust, warm-hearted, romantic. Enjoy dates, companionship, devoted relationship. If interested, call 240-418-4124, leave message.

FINE CLEANING AND ORGANIZING of apartment, house or office. 20 years experience with solid references. Free estimate. For Thanksgiving! For Christmas! Candida, 301-367-6566. I WILL REPAIR YOUR CHIPPED GLASS and crystal in a perfect, professional way. Call Giovanni, 301-340-2624. I also restore china and porcelain. Museum quality.

TV/Cable DIRECTV. Call & Switch Now - Get NFL Sunday Ticket for FREE! Every Game. Every Sunday. CHOICE- All-Included Package. Over 185 Channels. $60/month (for 12 Months.) CALL 1888-572-4953.

BUYING VINYL RECORDS from 1950 through 1985. Jazz, Rock-n-Roll, Soul, Rhythm & Blues, Reggae and Disco. 33 1/3 LPs, 45s or 78s, Larger collections of at least 100 items wanted. Please call John, 301-596-6201. CASH FOR JEWELRY: Buying jewelry, diamonds, gold, platinum, silver, watches, coins, flatware, etc. Ask for Tom. Call anytime, 301654-8678 (reg. 883). GOLD, SILVER, ANTIQUES — Private collector buying what you have for over 40 years! Wanted: Jewelry, Flatware, Holloware, Antiques, Men’s Magazines (pre-1971), Playboys (1953-1959), Comic Books, Coins, Stamps and other old stuff. Call or Text Alex Now. 571-4265363. COLLECTOR BUYING MILITARY ITEMS: Helmets, weapons, knives, swords, bayonets, web gear, uniforms, etc. from all wars and countries. Also Lionel Toy Trains, and coin operated machines. Will pay top prices for my personal collection. Discreet consultations. Call Fred, 301-910-0783.

SPECTRUM TRIPLE PLAY! TV, Internet & Voice for $29.99 ea. 60 MB per second speed. No contract or commitment. More Channels. Faster Internet. Unlimited Voice. Call 1-888-366-7573.

BUYING VINTAGE TOYS AND STEREO equipment, tin wind-ups, cast iron banks, peddle cars, Lego, Disney toys, marbles, record players, amplifiers, tube amplifiers, tubes. Betty, 301219-6201.

DISH NETWORK. 190+ Channels. FREE Install. FREE Hopper HD-DVR. $49.99/month (24 months) Add High Speed Internet - $14.95 (where avail.) CALL Today & SAVE 25%! 1-844560-5837.

WE PAY CASH for antique furniture, quality used furniture, early American art, pottery, silver, glassware, paintings, etc. Single items to entire estates. Call Reggie or Phyllis at DC 202726-4427, MD 301-332-4697.

Wanted

WANTED: 3 STOOGES, 1959, Bubble Gum Cards + any cards from 1950s. Call John at 301423-1256.

TIRED OF POLISHING YOUR SILVER? Turn it into cash, which does not tarnish. I will come to your home and give you a free evaluation of what I can pay. I buy all gold and silver jewelry, including broken pieces, all sterling silver, gold and silver coins, gold watches, etc. I am licensed with both Maryland and Montgomery County (lic. #2327). If you decide to sell, I can buy your items at that time, but there is no obligation. Call Bob, Gold 4 Good, 8241 Georgia Ave., Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910, (240) 938-9694. MONEY, TIME TO SELL! Make the right choice. Call Greg, 717-658-7954. We buy costume and other jewelry, coins, antiques, watches, art, paper money, toys, bottles, etc. No middleman, no fees, no overhead means more money for your stuff. Give me a call, and let’s do business.717-658-7954. CASH FOR RECORDS, CDs, DVDs AND TAPES. Best price guaranteed. Free appraisals. All types of music, 33, 45, 78 & CDs. Call Steve 301-646-5403. Will make house calls. FINE ANTIQUES, PAINTINGS AND QUALITY VINTAGE FURNISHINGS wanted by a serious, capable buyer. I am very well educated [law degree], knowledgeable [over 40 years in the antique business] and have the finances and wherewithal to handle virtually any situation. If you have a special item, collection or important estate, I would like to hear from you. I pay great prices for great things in all categories fro m Oriental rugs to Tiffany objects, from rare clocks to classic cars. If it is wonderful, I am interested. No phony promises or messy consignments. References gladly furnished. Please call Jake Lenihan, 301-279-8834. Thank you. MILITARY ITEMS WANTED: Collector seeks to purchase military uniforms; flight jackets, patches, insignia, medals, etc. from the Civil War through Vietnam. Especially seeking U.S. Army Air Corps, USMC, Airborne, and German/Japanese/Italian items from WWII. ALSO BUYING old Boy Scout, Airline Items, Toys, Lighters. Call Dan, 202-841-3062. LADY WHO LOVES FINE CHINA and crystal would like to buy yours. Especially interested in figurines and dishes by the following makers: Herend, Johnson Brothers, Lenox, Lladro, Meissen, Rosenthal, Royal Copenhagen, Shelley, Spode, Wedgwood, Baccarat, Lalique and Waterford stemware and miscellaneous. Bone China cups and saucers and quality dog and cat figurines. 301-785-1129.

BUYING MILITARY MEMORABILIA WW2, WW1, Civil War uniforms, weapons, photos and items associated with US, German, Japanese or items of other Military History. DAVE, 240-4640958. STAMP COLLECTIONS, AUTOGRAPHS purchased/appraised – U.S., worldwide, covers, paper memorabilia. Stamps are my specialty – highest price paid! Appraisals. Phone Alex, 301309-3622. Stampex1@gmail.com. ITEMS WANTED: CAUTION! BE SMART. Get 3 estimates before you sell anything of value. Cash paid for quality antiques + mid-century items, including furniture, art, sculptors, toys, jewelry, gold, silver, fishing, military, vehicles, etc. One piece or estate. Compare my estimate before you sell. 301-262-1299.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 9+

HOLIDAY CHORAL CONCERTS

Encore Chorale, for singers 55 and over, will hold three free holiday concerts in Montgomery County, Md.: Saturday, Dec. 9 at 3:30 p.m. at Asbury Methodist Village, 201 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg; Friday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Montgomery College Cultural Arts Center, 7995 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring; and Monday, Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. at Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center, 1000 Forest Glen Rd., Silver Spring. For more information, see http://encorecreativity.org, call (301) 261-5747, or email info@encorecreativity.org.

WA S H I N G T O N B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Say you saw it in the Beacon

BEACON BITS

Dec. 9

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING RATES

BUDDHIST ART SHOW

FreerSackler gallery presents “Celebration: Buddhist Journeys,” a full day of activities for all ages exploring aspects of Buddhist art and practice with two exhibits: Encountering the Buddha and Secrets of the Lacquer Buddha, on Saturday, Dec. 9 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will also be musical performances by members of the Silkroad Ensemble. The gallery is located at 1050 Independence Ave. SW in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/BuddhistJourneys.

Dec. 10

SMITHSONIAN CLASSICAL CONCERT

Smithsonian Chamber Players presents a classical concert on Sunday, Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. There will also be a pre-concert talk on 6:30 p.m. Violinist Mark Fewer, violoncello player Myron Lutzke, and fortepiano player Kenneth Slowik will perform in the hall of music in the American History Museum, 1300 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. Tickets are $25 for Smithsonian members; $35 for non-members. For more information, visit smithsonianassociates.org or call (202) 633-3030.

Deadlines and Payments: Ad text and payment is due by the 20th of each month. Note: Only ads received and prepaid by the deadline will be included in the next month’s issue. Please type or print your ad carefully. Include a number where you can be reached in the event of a question. Payment is due with ad. We do not accept ads by phone or fax, nor do we accept credit cards. Private Party Text Ads: For individuals seeking to buy or sell particular items, or place a personal ad. Each ad is $15 for 25 words, 25 cents for each additional word. Business Text Ads: For parties engaged in an ongoing business enterprise. Each ad is $35 for 25 words, 50 cents for each additional word. Note: Each real estate listing counts as one business text ad. Send your classified ad with check or money order, payable to the Beacon, to:

The Beacon, D.C. Classified Dept. P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915-2227 For information about display advertising, or to request a media kit, call (301) 949-9766.

ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE Clinical Studies Alzheimer’s Nilotinib Study.....23

Computer/ Technology Help TechMedic4u..............................5

Dental Services Friedman, Stephen, DDS .........22 Oh, Judy, DDS ...........................9

Events GROWS ...................................40

Financial & Charitable Services Children’s National Hospital....27 JCA ..........................................32 Mortgage Network Solutions ...27 PENFED Credit Union ............31 United Way Annuities ..............26

Funeral Services Going Home Cremation...........24

Government Services DC DOEE ................................43 DC Office on Aging ...........36-37 MC311 .....................................24 Montgomery County Aging and Disability Services ............7, 18

Home Health Care/ Companion Services Ameristar Healthcare Services 20

Best Senior Care . . . . . . . . . . .25 Me 1st Respite Services . . . . .16 Options for Senior America .....53

Housing Ashby Ponds.......................21, 52 Aspenwood Senior Living ........................12 Atrium Assisted Living ............22 Bayleigh Chase ........................41 Brooke Grove Retirement Village. ..................................11 Buckingham’s Choice ..............41 Charles E. Smith Life Communities ........9, 28-29 Chesterbrook Residences.............................16 Churchill Senior Living ...........14 Crossings at Spring Hill, The .....6 Culpepper Garden ....................19 Fairhaven ..................................41 Falcons Landing .........................3 Friendship Terrace....................19 Gardens of Traville, The...........22 Greenspring........................21, 52 Homecrest House .....................32 Olney Assisted Living..............15 Overture Fair Ridge..................13 Park View .................................51 Paul Spring Retirement Community ...........................10 Quantum Property Mgmt............25 Residences at Thomas Circle, The ..................12 Riderwood..........................21, 52

Ring House.................................9 Springvale Terrace....................19 Tall Oaks ..................................14 Victory Crossing ......................23 Victory Terrace.........................33 Village at Rockville, The .........15 Waltonwood .............................18

Dan Kugler Design Center..............................35, 56 Healthy Back Store ....................9 Quinn’s Auction Galleries ........24

Legal Services

Brooke Grove ...........................11 Manor Care Health Services ....20 Village at Rockville, The .........17

JGL Family Law.......................31 Law Firm of Evan Farr.............30 Law Offices of Lee Holdmann.......................27 Law Offices of Paul Riekhof ...26

Medical/Health Medical Eye Center..................21 Silver Spring Medical Center...13

Miscellaneous Beacon Celebration of the Arts..............................49 Senior Zone..............................50

Real Estate Long & Foster/ Eric Stewart.....................34, 46 Weichert/Sue Heyman..............16

Restaurants Original Pancake House...........31

Retail/Pawn/Auction CIRCA .....................................33 CopperZap................................42

Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation

Subscriptions Beacon Newspaper...................53 Washington Jewish Week.........50

Theatre/ Entertainment Arena Stage..............................44 F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre .......44 Kennedy Center .................45, 47 Toby’s Dinner Theatre ..............48 US Navy Band .........................45

Tour & Travel Eyre Travel ...............................39 Nexus Holidays ........................39 Seven Lands & Sea Travel .......41 Shillelaghs, The Travel Club ....39 Tripper Bus ..............................40 US Navy Memorial ..................41 Vamoose...................................43

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