CELEBRATING AMERICA

Time Magazine devoted it's July 4th issue to listing the 240 favorite things that Americans love about our country.

Well-known Americans -- movie stars, TV stars, editors -- shared their favorite things and the "coolest" places to visit - -- the food, the sights, the fun parks and festivals.

Golly, I remember touring as a dancer  -- traveling and performing in more than 1000 American towns, staying in hotels, motels, tourist homes, guest bedrooms -- dining in lunch-counters, snack bars, eateries, restaurants -- moseying down thousands of main streets. Everyday we were on a different road moving toward a different horizon.

ME., TEX., UT., N.MEX.

CA., NEV., WA., MO.

... trees, wheat, or corn, or emptiness ...  every day a different sky hovering over people, cows, communities, fences, bridges, birds flying hither and yon as we headed ahead on a road that was going somewhere ...

GA.,NEB., COLO., Ill., ORE.

Time Magazine's 240 Reasons to Celebrate Our Country" reminds me -- how I loved heading down Pacific Coast Highway to the Cheesecake Factory,  favorite restaurant where we met with our son  every weekend for a sumptuous dinner -- loved our log cabin at the top of Las Flores Canyon Road in Malibu -- Las Fores -- wow, what a spectacular winding road, so many, many wonderful roads.

KY., KANS., SC.

There are approximately 4,071,000 miles of roads in the United States, 2,678,000 miles paved and 1,394,000 miles unpaved ... golly, I have visions in my mind of more than 240 favorite roads ...

Yes, it's time for Thanksgiving, giving thanks for what I know, and feel, and have in my mind and heart.

Golly, America The Beautiful is beautiful.

(VIDEO) SIDE-OF-THE-BED WARS

Like most couples who share a bed, as the seasons change, AIR and the COVERLET become major issues.

 John Cullum and wife, Emily Frankel, joke about their tussles in the bedroom over window open or closed, about more or less blanket.

YAY FOR MARTHA STEWART?

On Twitter, Martha Stewart says about herself, "Curious, inquisitive, experimental entrepreneur who cares about the world we live in."

Back in our "Shenandoah" days when my husband, John Cullum, and I began to have money for renovations, I started decorating our home. I was very aware of Martha Stewart's thoughtful, practical, always neat, gracious taste.

Nevertheless, I went with what appealed to me, and ignored the Martha Stewart recommendations for furniture, floor coverings, curtains, silverware, dinnerware, as well as glasses, wine goblets. The ultra fancy stuff that lyricist Alan Lerner bestowed upon us (8 huge, Baccarat crystal beer mugs), and other expensive treasures from other famous pals, sit on the high shelves above our uniquely orange and black kitchen. (Not colors that M.S recommends.)

No doubt about it, Martha Stewart is a towering authority, a living encyclopedia on ways to handle one's life style. Before writing this, I browsed Wikipedia. Under "career" you'll see her domain -- Living Omnimedia Inc. You name it, and she is planning to do it, or has already done it, and written a book about it. She's 74. She started writing at age 41 in 1982. She has published 141 books.

Okay, I am not a fan. I have never bought a Martha Stewart book, though I admire her queenly, confident, courageous dealing with the good and bad things that came her way, especially the way she handled being in jail, back in 2004 and 2005. For lying to federal investigators about a stock sale that the IRS deemed, "inside information," Stewart received the minimum sentence: 5 months in prison, 5 months of home confinement, 19 months probation,  a $30,000 fine and all court fees.

Since then, aided by guesting on television shows, and the press coverage of her many, many appearances at openings, celebrity gatherings, and award ceremonies, Stewart's been expanding her name and her domain.

Her latest venture is Martha and Marley Spoon. She is now offering and promoting what quite a few companies have been offering since 2014 -- meals in a box. Dinner arrives in a box filled with all the raw material (ingredients and seasoning), and a beautifully printed, easy-to-follow routine. Follow it and in about a half hour you can be a gourmet cook.

My opinion: Meals in a box is not what the younger generation -- generation that's younger than Martha, or younger than me (whatever age you think I am) -- wants or needs. I think that youngers want to be IN with other people -- they want to go out, be out, do things their own way, try different things, even exhaust themselves doing whatever they feel like doing.

Hey, I bow respectfully to Martha Stewart, but now seems to be a time for fun -- pleasuring, amusing oneself, and being bravely outrageous.

How do I know?

I see it, feel it, sense it, have been  studying, researching, talk-writing about it, while functioning creatively in the real world. I am in the real, real world, much more than Martha Stewart. 


The look of Martha in this photo could be her reply.

Me?

This is me.

BIGIFY YOUR BRAIN!!!

 Can you increase your IQ?  Yes!

Back in 2012, a nine page Newsweek cover story confirmed this, and gave us information on the research that proves that you can.

Recovering from more than a year of politics, today is good day to Bigify Yourself.

Remember when everyone was taking Ginko Bilova, and Ginseng?  I tried it, but didn't  feel any different. So of course, I read every word on the nine pages and learned about exercises for the brain,  and "tricks" that help you learn faster.

I got information on neurobiology, plasticity, cognitive science, and the proof -- details on studies and tests that showed how "gray matter"(neurons) increase with use, and decrease when they're not used. I learned about stimulants, pills, and "aerobic" exercise for the brain that will improve your short term and long term memory, enhance your ability to retain information, and increase your attention span.

The piece de resistance of the article was  31 WAYS TO GET SMARTER IN 2012 -- an illustrated list with comments, oddly facetious  comments. I Googled, and found an explosion of Websites, bloggers, and radio stations, who were sharing the Newsweek article with their readers. Clicking next, and next until my thumb got tired, I saw 89 versions of the 31 WAYS, that added their own sort of ha-ha (not funny) comments.

Anyhow, 31 ways to better your brain became a hot topic. After I re-read the nine pages, I boiled it down to the 14 things that sort of made sense to me:

 (1) Play Word Games with Friends; (2) Eat Turmeric [Indian spice that can reduce dementia]; (3) Taekwondo [Martial arts]; (4) Toss Your Smartphone; (5) Get a lot of Sleep [Harvard researchers proved it helps]; Build A ‘Memory Palace [associate things with vivid images]; (7) Learn A Language; (8) Eat Dark Chocolate; (9) Play Violent Video Games [it quicken reactions]; (10) Eat Yogurt; (11) See A Shakespeare Play; (12) Play A Musical Instrument; (13) Write By Hand; (14) Drink Coffee. (You can read about the 17 other things at the end of this blog.)   

In my opinion, Newsweek was saying  if you want to be smarter and there's something, anything that you like to do, love to do, and aren't doing -- DO IT.

In the meantime, I say EAT BLUEBERRIES -- they stimulate brain activity, according to researchers at the University of Cincinnati. (They are especially tasty when you eat them with cottage cheese and a small sprinkle of Sweet'N Lo to add sweetness.)

It's even smarter to eat pomegranates. Aside from their sweet and tart taste, their juice contains Punicalagins -- they do more for you than red wine, grape juice, cranberry juice, green tea or Acai juice. As a super-antioxidant, they provide protection against heart disease, cancer and cognitive impairment. Tests show individuals drinking pomegranate juice daily performed better on a memory task than non drinkers.

Guys, you can get Pomegranates from October through February, and you can always get some frozen blueberries -- be smart, not dumb, and yum your way back from our exhausting election into a deliciously bigified brain.

If you're brave with plenty of time on your hands, here's the link to my blog in 2012 that lists and briefly explains the 31 ways.