RICHARD -[EXERCISE]- SIMMONS

If I bumped into Richard Simmons, I'd hug him. I'd instantly recognize him -- those nifty legs, candy-striped short-shorts, sparkling tank top, kinky curly hair, and his contagious smile.

He has joy in him and sends it out, shares and spreads it around with every hello no matter where he is. The boyish, not-young, sixty-two-year-old Simmons has a genius for giving himself, for being at the moment on the moment.

It's Zen -- being there -- being fully, utterly there, wherever you happen to be. The best dancing I ever did in my life was at the moment on the moment -- ditto with writing, cooking, or making love.

Simmons has credentials -- a Florida State University BA in Art. In NYC, after graduating, he was a waiter, a Maitre D'; in advertising, where he worked for Revlon and Coty Cosmetics. Meanwhile, he developed a diet, exercised, and lost 123 lbs, which he's kept off for 42 years. Even today, he's passionately promoting exercise-more-eat-less programs for public schools throughout the country.

This guy just does it and when you're near him you just join in. He calls his gym "Slimmons" -- his personal studio is "The Anatomy Asylum" -- daily exercise with music is called "Sweating to the Oldies."

Knowing all the secrets about staying fit, Simmons teaches, preaches, exemplifies -- "Love Yourself And Win," a title he created for a PBS pledge drive. He invents marvelously catchy titles -- Lighten Up, Super Sweatin', Never Say Diet, Fitness Fiesta, Wicked Workout, Walk Around the World, Shimmy Into Shape, Party Off the Pounds, and that's just a few of the titles you can buy and use by yourself -- 15 DVDs; 10 CDs; 10 cassettes, and 12 books.

Yes, he's a busy boy-guy-man -- a fantastically gay GAY? He's never said, but who cares? He lives alone in Hollywood Hills with two Dalmatians. He giggles and quotes the numbers -- he's been doing this for 35 years, and has probably helped humanity lose about 3,000,000 pounds.

The other exercise kings and queens -- including, Jane Fonda, Jillian Michaels of "Biggest-Loser" fame, Jack LaLanne, grandfather of U.S fitness, whorecently died, and others who have capitalized on what they know and what made them famous -- they are all people who help people, but Richard Simmons is unique, as a giver of joy.

Here he is, a spur of the moment, with a .group

QUESTIONS TO ASK A LOVER

Today's a good day to scrutinize love.

I sing "Lonely Heart" when my husband, JC, is mostly ignoring me -- watching sports, or fixing something that doesn't need to be fixed.
♪ "NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART,
CAN KNOW MY SADNESS,
ALONE AND PARTED,
FAR FROM JOY AND GLADNESS." ♪♪

JC laughs and pays attention. We get along -- we're very different, but we know each other well.

OkCupid. com, a very successful dating site was recently bought by Match. com. for $50 million and they hired Ok's founder to run it. Here's what OK asks all potential "listees."

Recommended first questions:
Is it okay for two unmarried people to live together?
Are you open minded?
Do you brush your teeth? (Wow -- if a person said no, for me it would be a deal breaker.)

Second batch of questions:
Do you believe in God?
Can a racist joke be funny?
Do you like scary movies?
Do you believe in miracles?
Do you put more weight on science or faith?
Has Christianity made the world better or worse ?

JC knows how I'd answer those questions, and I know what he would say. We're not word for word identical -- but, for instance, that I don't believe in miracles fits with what JC understands about miracles. So our differences are okay.

Third batch of questions:
Which is more offensive -- book burning or flag burning?
Should evolution be taught side by side with creationism, in public schools?
Should the death penalty be abolished?
Wouldn't it be fun to chuck everything and go live on a sailboat?
Would you be comfortable being poor the rest of your life?

If I say no and JC says yes, we chat back and forth, and find similarities in why we disagree -- therefore even our disagreements bring us closer together.

When you try the three batches of questions are you closer, or further apart? If you and your potential lover are further apart, try ♪"NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART." ♪♪

Does your person laugh? (Maybe your person doesn't know the song.)

If you have a song, poem, or silly saying in your head that you think when you're feeling rejected, blue, or bored -- TRY IT OUT. Your partner's response will tell you where the relationship's heading.

Hey, I'm going to write the new Match-OkCupid.com and tell them their listees will make faster, better, stronger matches if they disagree, sing a silly song, and laugh. It's not an acid test, but it predicts the future.

ADVICE TO YOUNG ACTORS (video)

How to become an established actor and musical theater "star" is the question, Emily asks John Cullum.

Cullum tells what happened to him, when he arrived in NYC with a letter of recommendation from the head of the drama department at the University of Tennessee.

WHO WHAT WHERE -- WHY DO I CARE?

Why is my every-day life entangled -- I'm being strangled, choked, stifled by civil wars, killings, diseases, horrors here, there, everywhere, in places -- cities, villages, countries I can't pronounce or find on the map.

And villains, or are they friends? the presidents, dictators, old tyrants, new despots brutalizing thousands -- Hutus, Tutsis, Sunnis, Shi'ites, Rwandans, Hezbollah -- stop them? do something? do what in Haiti? what about Iran, N. & S. Korea, Israel, Palestine, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Communist China -- an unending list of names and places that have no meaning to me except death, disaster, woe, and here I am doing nothing -- a helpless do-nothinger!
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Before we went to war in Iraq, we knew that Sunnis and Shi'ites could never ever get along, and yet millions, billions -- money and lives -- were spent and are still being spent on what -- to gain, obtain, and win what?

Most pundits agree the big loser is the U.S.

I don't know about you, but I am derailed when I see yet another unpronounceable name or strange faraway place that's an enemy or an ally, with a bunch of seriously downtrodden humans to pray for.

Sure, I can Google. I have an atlas, and the NY Times, and three TV sets educating me, mellow voices pronouncing new names and places that are falling apart, exploding, burning and desperately needing American money-money-money.

Is your head spinning? Mine is. I'm worried about Arizona, and guns, and Congress revving up various major attacks on the White House while we're fighting in Afghanistan, threatening Iran, waiting, watching to see if what happened in Tunsia, what's happening in Egypt, will inspire protesters, fire up horrifically bloody revolutions throughout the middle east. east.

When I was a child, I remember a lot of talk about "isolationist America."

There has always been a strong isolationist streak in American political life. President Washington, then Adams, then Jefferson, each of them (in different ways, for different reasons) kept us from getting entangled, and when President Madison got us involved it was almost a disaster -- so the idea of staying out of European Wars became an accepted principle for us.

Anyhow, (I'm whispering), I wish we were able to turn back the clock, ignore all the unpronounceable names and places, and dangerous spots that just might explode.

We can't. We won't. We're Daddy/Mommy/Big Brother/Uncle protector of all those "- stan" places. Gee, the only people I know, who know all the names and can pronounce them, are Obama, Hillary, Gates, (and probably Valerie Jarret).

Well ... even though I'm a do-nothinger, who still isn't sure how to pronounce things, I can pray, so I'm seriously praying that the good smart folks in the White House will keep lending a hand to the family. Yes -- these days, like it or not, love them or not, the family is the rest of the people in the world.