KEEP IT SIMPLE

Do you kiss your partner regularly? It turns out that kissing is more important than what you might think when it comes to your relationship. Do you ever notice how you feel better, even giddy, after a make-out session with your spouse? There are many benefits to kissing the one you love, and it can affect you both physically and emotionally.

Most married couples kiss on the way out the door in the morning, but this becomes more of a habit than anything else. It’s the same as you grab your cell phone and cup of coffee as you leave. Kissing, however, has many benefits to your body that you don’t see. Research shows puckering up has the following advantages:

• People who kiss each other daily live up to five years longer than those who don’t.

• The blood rush a kiss gives you can help heal blemishes on your face and dermatitis.

• The rush of chemicals from a physical encounter causes the pulse to rise to over a hundred beats per minute, which can be as good as a workout.

• It takes an astounding 29 muscles in your face to kiss someone passionately, so it might help reduce wrinkles.

• Your lips are way more sensitive than the tip of your finger, and when you kiss someone, you’re stimulating all the significant nerves within the body.

• Though it’s challenging to think about the saliva exchange when you kiss someone, it’s healthier than you might imagine. It can help you build a robust immune system to fight disease and keep you healthy.

Research also shows there are many emotional benefits of kissing. Part of a kiss is an instinct ingrained into you biologically. However, when you lock lips with your spouse, you’re connecting on a level much deeper than what you do with another person.

The more you kiss one another, the closer you will feel. When your lips meet, your brain is charged and releases a chemical cocktail that helps you feel amazing. While there are many ways to kiss, research shows a deep and passionate intimate kiss will do more for your bond as husband and wife than a peck on the cheek, as it connects you unlike anything else.

So, if you want to improve your relationship, the best place to start is with a kiss.

1. Name the debut album of Curiosity Killed the Cat?

2. Who was Tom Dooley (of Kingston Trio 1958 song fame) and what did he do?

3. Name the ‘50s artist who wrote and released “Island in the Sun.”

4. How do you know if you’re a Parrothead?

5. Name the late 1980s song that contains these lyrics: “The scales are sometimes unbalanced, And you bear the weight of all that has to be.”

FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR HOME AGAIN!

Trivial Pursuit

Answers on pg. 34

1. What is the name of Scarlett and Rhett’s daughter in the 1939 film “Gone with the Wind”?

2. What body of water lies between New Zealand and Australia?

3. Eric Camden is a minister on which TV dramedy?

4. Which element has the Latin name stannum (Sn)?

5. Which book was written first in C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” series?

6. What is the name of the bird logo on Twitter?

7. How long does it take a sloth to digest food?

8. What is the irrational fear represented by coulrophobia?

9. Which Greek god stared at his own reflection until he died?

10. What did Alessandro Volta invent?

HERE’S A TIP

the edges

Need sliced mushrooms for your salad or recipe? They are hard to cut. If you have an egg slicer, get it out. It works very well for mushrooms, and it’s easier to use than trying to cut those slices yourself.

Flashback Answers

1. ”Keep Your Distance,” released in 1987. The album topped the charts in the U.K., but the individual songs didn’t do as well.

2. Tom Dula was a North Carolina soldier in the Civil War who’d killed his girlfriend. A politician lured Dula to his farm for work and Dula was captured and hanged.

3. Harry Belafonte, in 1957. The song was also used in the film by the same name, which was taken from the 1956 novel of the same name.

4. If you wear Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats to Jimmy Buffet concerts, you’re a Parrothead.

5. ”Giving You the Best That I Got,” by Anita Baker in 1988. It got four nominations and netted two Grammy awards: Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

Food

HAM & CHEESE