The Good Life - September 2020

The good

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THE GOOD LIFE

New ways to experience

DREAM DESTINATIONS KATHY WITT

Tribune News Service

Not quite ready to travel to insert-name-of-dream-destination just yet?

Not a problem. Your dream destination will come to you by way of an irresistible packaged experience, enticing virtual or video tour or at-home activity. Here are several:

‘If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you’ And they’ll come in a box of handpicked products. For the past five years, Midgi Moore, founder and CEO of Juneau Food Tours – a USA Today “top 10 best food tours in North America” – has been

on a mission to deliver tasty memories to those visiting Alaska’s capital city. Now the forward-thinking foodie is bringing Alaska right to your front door with Taste Alaska!, seasonal subscription boxes filled with goodies showcasing the very best of the Last Frontier.

“Our goal is to not only deliver the

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deliciousness of Alaska, but to share artwork, culture and travel information,” Moore says.

The first box contains such tasty items as smoked salmon, locally sourced tea, spruce tip caramels and wildly popular kelp hot sauce, plus the beautiful photography of award-winning photographer Mark Kelley, recipes and guides for help in planning a trip to Alaska. Future boxes will include Alaska game and sausages, smoked salmon roe, ulus (a traditional tool of Eskimo women) and cultural art pieces.

“Alaska is ready and waiting for visitors to return,” Moore says. “Until that time, Taste Alaska! is a way to enjoy the true Alaska experience from your living room.”

Place your order at www.juneaufoodtours.com (click on the “Taste Alaska! tab). The summer box is shipping now.

Until travelers plan an in-person visit, all ages can “Explore from Home” with a diverse slate of programming that includes activities, history lessons, behind-the-scenes peeks at select galleries of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the DeWitt Wallace Deco-

rative Arts Museum and more.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with what we’ve been doing and the plan is to continue this programming indefinitely,” said Carol Gillam, senior digital marketing manager. “It may be quite a while before people will be comfortable traveling again.”

Live chat with nation builders: Martha Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Clementina Rind, the young printer of the Virginia Gazette, and Gowan Pamphlet, an enslaved tavern worker who secretly preached to fellow African American believers and founded Williamsburg’s First Baptist Church, in operations to this day. Click into a museum collection and find a carved and

painted lion carousel figure, floral prints that were an 18th century must-have for gardeners and other items.

Throw a garden party at home and decorate with paper carnations. The how-tos and supply lists for this colonial craft and others are offered via videos, along with background about each. Crafters will learn that artificial flower sprigs were very

With over 25 different styles to choose from McGowans has the areas largest selection of power lift chairs

Travel back in time

At the top of many travel wish lists is Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, the largest outdoor living museum in the country, which began a phased reopening on June 14.

ABOVE: Midgi Moore is the founder and CEO of Alaska’s Juneau Food Tours.

RIGHT: In an effort to share Alaska during a time of no travel, Juneau Food Tours has developed a subscription box service that delivers Alaska to consumers’ doors.

JUNEAU FOOD TOURS VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE‌

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trendy in 18th century America to add pizzazz to a gentleman’s coat or a lady’s gown or embellish a curiosity cabinet. Make a recipe for an 18th century dish, like apple pie made with a “few tea-spoonsful of rose-water and some cloves” and updated for 21st century cooks.

(You’ll learn that the saying, “as American as apple pie,” should have gone to the British!)

Programming may be accessed through the colonialwilliamsburg.org website at www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/learn/explore-from-home as well as the site’s social media channels.

Napa zooms into your living room

A couple of wineries in Napa Valley are inviting oenophiles to bring wine country into their home. Clos Du Val Winery (www.closduval.com) offers a “Tasting at your Table” experience with the wines tailored to your tastes and held at your convenience.

Founded in 1972 in the Stags Leap District in the Napa Valley, Clos Du Val is one of the heavyweights of this legendary winemaking region. Its name is French for “small vineyard estate of a small valley” and it is known for its award-winning cabernet sauvignon.

Tasting packs feature Clos Du Val limited-edition wines and start at $240. Once the purchase is completed a representative from Clos Du Val will be in touch to schedule a one-on-one personal tasting. Eager tasters may find details here: www.closduval.com/wine-shop/ virtual-tasting-packages.

Also offering virtual tasting kits is AXR Winery (www.axrnapavalley. com), a historic estate located in the heart of St. Helena that is featuring fully customizable virtual tastings.

The winery sits on land that has been privy to dramatic chapters in American history, from that of the Native Americans who hunted it to the pioneers who blazed a trail through it to the innovator who in 1886 became the first woman vintner of California on it, one Josephine Marlin Tychson.

The winery promises a tasting experience that will take wine lovers on a journey through the past, present and future of Napa Valley. It all starts by contacting the winery and getting connected with an AXR wine ambassador to plan wine picks together. Once selections are made and purchased, tasting notes are shared digitally and buyers are offered the opporClos tunity to enjoy a guided oneDu Val virtual on-one virtual 60-minute tasting experience tasting via zoom or Facelets you taste fine wine Time. Visit the website in the comfort of your at www.axrnapavalley. own home. com/enjoy-the-wines for more information CLOS DU VAL VINEYARD VIA TRIBUNE NEWS and to see the selection of SERVICE‌ wines.

Cruise lovers can experience Holland America Line’s entertainment virtually until they can board one of its 15 ships for an in-person sailing.

Cruisin’ on land

Holland America Line (www.hollandamerica.com) brings a variety of experiences from the ship to your home with its HAL@HOME series, the link found with a quick scroll on the cruise line’s home page.

The lineup includes programming from the ship’s onboard entertainment staff along with cooking demonstrations, destination features, itinerary highlights and more that will have to tide cruise lovers over until they can get back onboard Holland’s fleet of 15 ships.

This includes its newest Pinnacle-class ship, Ryndam, which unveils Music Walk, an exclusive collection of five venues featuring live music and performances.

Whip up a pasta dish with Chef Ethan Stowell or a tasty appetizer with Master Chef Rudi Sodamin. Watch “Sea Turtles, The Caribbean’s Living Dinosaurs” from the Exceptional Places video series. Tune into a Lincoln Center Living Room video for a live Lincoln Center Stage performance – Bach’s Andante Movement from Violin Sonata No. 2 or a piano performance of Impromptus by Franz Shubert, among others.

Virtual explorers can also visit HollandAmericaFan’s YouTube page to see an entire library of videos – everything from O, The Oprah Magazine Reading Room to Culinary Council cooking shows. Tune into www. facebook.com/SethonHAL to join the HAL brand ambassador during Trivia Tuesdays. On Holland America’s own Facebook page, a weeklong Virtual Alaska Cruise program kicked off on June 22 with all the fun and excitement of a cruise, on land.

Holland America plans to begin sailing again in October of 2020 with departures from the west coast to Mexico and other destinations. Check the website for updates in case of further changes.

Author and travel and lifestyle writer Kathy Witt feels you should never get to the end of your bucket list; there’s just too much to see and do in the world. Contact her at KathyWitt24@gmail.com, @KathyWitt, www.kathywitt. com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

HOLLAND AMERICA LINE PHOTOS VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE‌

Holland America Line provides a variety of experiences from the ship with its HAL@HOME series.

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Negative thinking linked to increased risk of dementia

Certain personality traits may affect the risk of pre-dementia.

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NANCY CLANTON

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

STUDY SHOWS SOME PERSONALITY TRAITS MAY BE LINKED TO

PRE-DEMENTIA RISK KIERSTEN WILLIS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A

study published recently shows that certain personality traits may affect the risk of pre-dementia.

In findings published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers analyzed five personality traits — neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness — and their associations with motoric cognitive risk (MCR) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) syndromes, according to a Wiley press release.

“Personality traits are considered predictors of behaviors like depression and indicators of response to stress and anxiety,” the authors wrote. “A previous study found that depression diagnosis was associated with higher neuroticism and lower extraversion in older adults, and that the effect of openness was mediated by level of education.

“Adjusting for depressive symptoms did not affect the association between neuroticism and non-amnestic MCI, but it attenuated the effect of openness on MCR, indicating that depressive symptoms may drive the effect of

openness on reducing risk of MCR,” they continued.

In the current study, 524 adults age 65 years and older were followed for an average of three years. Among them, 38 participants developed MCR and 69 developed MCI, some of which also had memory loss or amnestic MCI. A 6% reduced risk of developing MCR was associated with openness, while a 6% increased risk of non-amnestic MCI was associated with neuroticism. Memory remains undamaged in non-amnestic MCI, but one or more other cognitive abilities — such as language, visual-spatial skills, or executive functioning — are damaged.

Overall MCI or amnestic MCI were not found to be linked to any of the personality traits.

“While more studies are needed, our results provide evidence that personality traits play an independent role in the risk for or protection against specific pre-dementia syndromes,” said lead author Emmeline Ayers, MPH, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in a press release.

“From a clinical perspective, these findings emphasize the importance of accounting for aspects of personality when assessing for dementia risk.”

No one can stay positive all the time, but a new study suggests we should try to be less negative.

Researchers at University College London found that persistently engaging in negative thinking might raise your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

For the study, researchers at UCL, McGill University and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research studied 292 people over the age of 55.

For two years, researchers asked study participants how they tend to think about negative experiences, focusing on RNT — repetitive negative thinking — patterns like “rumination about the past and worry about the future.” The participants also completed measures of depression and anxiety symptoms.

Not only were memory, attention, language and other cognitive functions assessed, but 113 participants also underwent PET scans. Those scans measured deposits of tau and amyloid, two proteins that cause Alzheimer’s when they build up in the brain.

People with higher RNT patterns showed more cognitive decline over a four-year period, researchers found, and they were more likely to have amyloid and tau deposits in their brain.

And even though depression and anxiety have been associated with cognitive decline, they haven’t been linked with amyloid or tau deposits, “suggesting that RNT could be the main reason why depression and anxiety contribute to Alzheimer’s disease risk.”

“Depression and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors for dementia.

Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with those disorders are more likely to develop dementia,” lead author Natalie Marchant said.

“Taken alongside other studies, which link depression and anxiety with dementia risk,” she continued, “we expect that chronic negative thinking patterns over a long period of time could increase the risk of dementia. We do not think the evidence suggests that short-term setbacks would increase one’s risk of dementia. We hope that our findings could be used to develop strategies to lower people’s risk of dementia by helping them to reduce their negative thinking patterns.”

These results are similar to an April study by Orb Media that concluded that people with a positive attitude about getting older live longer and have better mental health. Those who look at aging as a bad thing “are more likely to suffer a heart attack, a stroke or die several years sooner.”

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Activities, safe interactions reduce stress for isolated seniors KERRY DOBRUSIN

Director of Sales and Marketing Friendship Village‌

‌This pandemic certainly changed our lives in six short months. Restaurants, salons, parks and churches were closed.

Traveling to visit family and friends was off limits. The supermarkets and stores were thinly stocked on important items, and we were afraid to go out because many customers didn’t wear masks. As a result, most people found themselves not just social distancing, but experiencing social isolation.

Finding ways to “be normal” or interact with others during the coronavirus can be especially challenging as an older adult.

In previous articles, I emphasized the concept of “Aging Successfully.” What that means for each person can vary. But being able to stay in control of your life while maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle are usually high on everyone’s list.

Many have asked me something like, “if I lived in a retirement community over the last few months, would my life have been any different?” I’d like to share my expe-

SHUTTERSTOCK PHOTO‌

FaceTime, Skype or Zoom, videotaping and emailing photos keeps seniors connected with family and friends. rience as an executive in the senior living industry. I observed these enhanced benefits our residents still have access to: Even though our dining rooms were closed, delicious and nutritious

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chef-prepared cuisine was delivered right to their door each day. On-site cafés remained open for carry-out, too.

Wellness programs were scheduled more often during the week so folks could

attend exercise classes while practicing social distancing. A variety of programs kept bodies strong and minds at ease.

Activities like “Movie Nights” and “Live Music” on the lakeside patios were fun options allowing residents to stay engaged and hang with friends while being mindful of social distancing.

Residents were provided technical support to help with tele-connecting apps and software like FaceTime, Skype or Zoom plus videotaping or emailing photos so they could stay connected to family and friends.

Our on-site chaplain provided emotional and spiritual support.

Personal hygiene and essential grocery items could be purchased on-site.

If you or a loved one is feeling the effects of being confined at home, please explore your retirement community options in the Cedar Valley. I believe it to be a big benefit, especially during these trying times. Keeping your mind, body and spirit joyful and healthy is crucial, not only during these times, but throughout your retirement journey.

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POLAR ADVENTURER

Marks 100 Birthday

th

81 years after his first expedition to Antarctica MATT SOERGEL

The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Robert Johnson, who turned 100 in early July, on a hot and sunny Florida day, barely hesitated when asked what he’d do if given another chance to go to Antarctica, the land of eternal ice and snow that he first journeyed to as a teenager.

“It would be very tempting, it would,” he said.

“That place stays in your heart. It really does.”

At 19, Johnson was the youngest member of Adm. Richard Byrd’s 1939 expedition to Antarctica aboard the USS Bear, a 19th-century, thick-hulled wooden ship with sails and diesel.

He went back with Byrd in 1946 for Operation Highjump, then joined another U.S. Navy expedition there, Operation Windmill, in 1948.

The son of a chief warrant officer in San Diego, Johnson was a Sea Scout who trained on sailing ships as a teen.

The summer he turned 16, he was one of the Sea Scouts aboard the Pacific Queen, a 300-foot square-rigger, for what was supposed to be a 15day cruise. The becalmed ship ended up at sea for 67 days, its crew living on severe rations, creating headlines as a frantic search ensued.

That experience didn’t keep him from the sea: He joined the Navy two years later on a battleship and then volunteered for Byrd’s expedition. With his sailing experience, he was signed on to the Bear, bound for Antarctica.

He’s believed to be the last survivor of any of Byrd’s pre-World War II polar journeys, which caught the public imagination and made the

BOB SELF, THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Robert Johnson, 100, is believed to be the last living member of Adm. Richard Byrd’s pre-World War II polar expeditions. explorer a much-decorated national hero.

Johnson, in fact, is most likely the last living member of any prewar polar expedition by any country, said Glenn Stein, a polar and maritime historian from Apopka.

Stein came to Jacksonville for Johnson’s 100th birthday party, which was under a tent outside his East Arlington home, attended by pandemicmasked family members and friends.

Five police cars drove by, sirens blipping, and neighbors and friends drove by as well, holding signs of support. The police officers then visited Johnson as he sat in his driveway near some food and displays.

Stein has interviewed Johnson several times and marvels at his still-sharp memory.

“He’s a treasure, an absolute treasure,” said Stein, author of “Discovering the North-West Passage: The Four-Year Arctic Odyssey of H.M.S. investigator and the McClure Expedition.” “This is a time when things like this just aren’t done any more, this kind of adventure.”

Harvey Morrissey, 16, a Sea Scout from Ocala, Florida, also came up for the party. He had done a podcast with Johnson and was struck by his vivid stories of Antarctica and of his teenage sailing journey on the Pacific Queen.

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“That’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t think any Sea Scout today could do that. It’s a different world, compared to today, obviously.”

Johnson was in the Navy from 1937 to 1956, ending up at Naval Station Mayport as a chief bosun’s mate. He then worked for the Postal Service until 1990.

He recalls that on the first expedition, their transport on the ice was sleds and dogs. To feed the dogs, they would shoot a seal — and that would be the dogs’ lunch.

In Operation High Jump, he parachuted to the ice, making a heavy landing in what seemed to him the quietest place on Earth.

There’s a whole room in Robert and Mildred Johnson’s house dedicated to his three Antarctic adventures. He calls it the chief’s quarters, and it’s decorated with photos, awards and memorabilia.

A place of honor is reserved for Polar Penguin Pete, a penguin Johnson took with him after one expedition and then had stuffed. It’s been with him ever since, a reminder of his journeys to the bottom of the Earth.

“That’s quite a place,” he pronounced, some 72 years after his last trip there. “It’s different from anything else, that’s for sure. It is a wonderful place down there.”

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 |

Robert Johnson sits in the shade outside his Jacksonville, Fla., home during his 100th birthday celebration near a photograph that shows him at age 19 at the wheel of the USS Bear, which Adm. Richard Byrd led to Antarctica in 1939.

BOB SELF, THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION VIA TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

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Predicting America’s post-COVID retirement outlook

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temporary, as was also seen during the 2008-2009 Great Financial Crisis.

“The outlook for retirement is worse than a year State and local pensions suffered, and with payrolls ago,” Wharton professor Olivia Mitchell said matter- falling, (the underfunding) is getting more serious. It of-factly in an interview recently. “We’re now in a was already serious. different world.”

In a Q&A, The Inquirer asked her to elaborate on Congress passed the CARES Act, which what the post-COVID world means for America’s re- will help Americans take money from tirement savers and those who have already retired.

Mitchell is professor of Insurance & Risk Manage- their retirement plans more easily [see ment, Business Economics & Public Policy and exec- below]. But should we be borrowing or utive director of Wharton’s Pension Research Council.

ERIN ARVEDLUND

The Philadelphia Inquirer

cashing out our IRAs and 401(K) funds?

What has change for American savers?

Prior to the coronavirus, private savings weren’t that high anyway, and many investors’ portfolios were shocked by market volatility. Torsten Slok at Deutsche Bank has very good data showing low savings rates.

But in addition, we are seeing a new era of low (capital markets) returns. That should have a dampening effect on people’s hopes for retirement.

The government has given permission to people affected by COVID to take a loan, as long as your employer plan allows it. If you’ve lost your job, you can cash out up to $100,000 and pay that back in three years with no taxes. If Americans don’t take money out, this, in turn, could drive folks to claim Social Security early. We won’t know the full effects until August and September, because that’s when we’ll have a better picture of government benefits and how many people are still claiming unemployment benefits.

That’s a big unknown.

What is your forecast for stock and bond markets over the next several years? The Federal Reserve has said it has no plans Social security may feel the effects of to raise interest rates, punishing savers. COVID? In our “old normal” scenario, we used a 1% riskfree rate of return for bonds, and the expected return on stocks of 5%, on a pre-tax basis. In the “new normal,” we reduced the expected risk-free interest rate from 1% to 0%, and the expected return on stocks is reduced to 4%.

Sure. It means the exhaustion of Social Security.

The insolvency may move up to 2029, instead of later, because of the pandemic.

Medicare also faces shortfalls. I haven’t seen new projections but it stands to reason Medicare costs are rising. As a result, taxes need to rise. We have huge deficits now in the trillions of dollars, not counting Social Security and Medicare.

Your colleague Jeremy Siegel, another Wharton professor, is shifting his What’s your expectation about nursing allocation to 75%-25% stocks and bonds homes? Will the high infection rate scare from 60%-40%, and says he now owns a off new people from moving into these small slice of gold/precious metals. long-term care facilities?

Siegel is quite a bull. But economically, we’re in a different world. China is having troubles. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) published its forecast for global 2020 GDP showing an expected decline of 5% for the full year, a decline of 8% for U.S. GDP and the E.U. GDP, and Russian faces a decline of 7% for 2020. There’s great instability right now.

Even though the stock market came back this year (after the pandemic hit), it won’t remain up reliably, especially as the U.S. government hasn’t figured out how to manage the pandemic.

What has changed for those with workplace pensions?

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Only half the American workforce had pensions, either defined contribution or defined benefit. What’s changed now is that those pensions are much more underfunded than prior to COVID. Also, if companies previously were matching contributions to 401(k)s, many firms are now pulling back. Hopefully, this is

Some now view them as death traps, although my own mother was in a very good facility toward the end of her life. There’s going to be a lot more pressure on families to take care of elderly relatives themselves, or in their mom and dad’s home. Nursing homes are dangerous until we have a vaccine.

As for alternatives, Australia has something known as the “granny flat,” essentially a motor home that you can put right in your driveway or yard. That way, you can look in on your family and they’re not going to get infected.

What’s a retiree to do for income, if there’s very little income in the bond market?

Annuities. They’re more expensive now, but you still are able to buy an income stream. I’ve not yet retired, so I haven’t bought any, but I like deferred annuities.

There’s a Wharton graduate named Matt Carey who has set up a company called Blueprint Income.

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