Connecticut Green Living

I'm a stickler for details. "Why is everyone doing their year roundups several weeks before the end of the year?" I asked my friend Len. "Well, because it's the way they do it, you know, the year's almost over." I can't remember exactly what he said. "But something incredible - good or bad - could still happen in these, let's see, 12 days." "Then write your roundup and add something in if that happens." So here we are. This was a difficult year, though not without its share of excitement and joy. The principal excitement came when I bussed off to D.C. as I have been wanting to do for a couple years, and attended the National Press Club Career Day . We got free profile pictures courtesy of a wonderful photographer by the name of Melissa Lyttle and I met with representatives of the AP, Washington Post and regional publications around the country. My favorite part of the day was probably "Nail the interview: Advice for succ...

My late mother was fond of saying she must come to terms with having lost most of her classic beauty. Yet even on my last visit with her, at age 78 she was still turning heads. I have enjoyed a fair amount of continuing interest even at 62, but as of last Thursday night that quickly changed. I am generating interest, but of a different kind. I can read the stares. 'Who beat her?' 'What's wrong with this woman?!' Sometimes, I am wearing my mask so people cannot see my broken nose or most of the huge purple bruise from the eye socket down to the nose. I have never enjoyed mask-wearing more than I do now. Sometimes I talk about it. Other times I address questions, such as from the boy who asked his mom, "Why is that lady wearing a Band-aid on her nose?" I turned and told him. I have also offered the story when I see The Stare because I want to offset their impression. Other times, I have seen this as an interesting social experiment. Far more interesting than...

Vienese researchers have found that alcoholism and extreme alcohol consumption, evident in five percent of the Austrian population, leads to B1 loss and excess iron in the brain. The iron deposits contribute to dementia. In a release, a team at Medical University of Vienna state: "A common consequence of chronically high alcohol consumption is a decline in cognitive function, which can even progress to full-blown dementia. However, we do not yet fully understand how alcohol damages the brain. A research group led by Stephan Listabarth from MedUni Vienna's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division of Social Psychiatry, has now developed a hypothesis whereby iron deposits in the brain – resulting from alcohol-induced vitamin B1 deficiency – can be regarded as key factors in cognitive decline. The work has now been published in the leading journal "Alzheimer’s and Dementia". Researchers find that thiamine can be useful in offsetting the ill effects. In the ...