Motivated to keep moving!

Our newly-formed Keep Moving Exercise Class meets on Mondays at 2:30 pm in the Community Room in Staenberg Commons.  The class can be done entirely in your chair, if you have mobility challenges.  We had our first session on Monday the 28th, replacing the former class after that teacher took another job.  There's no cost for seniors at the Crown Center or in the community, if you want to join us.  I ordered copies of the booklet above to share with participants, along with the poster you see below (and HERE).

I also learned online (HERE) that a 2019 study in JAMA Internal Medicine on older women found that as few as 4,400 steps daily was associated with longer life compared to those who were more sedentary.  Although more advantages were seen as step counts went up, they tend to level off around 7,500 steps — not 10,000 as we've heard.

Books and weather

The Good Life ~ by Erin McGraw, 2004, stories, 208 pages

These stories feature characters battling daily demons of envy, fear, and disillusionment while somehow maintaining an abiding optimism.  They are trying to weather the confounding people of the world — the chronically successful, the lucky in love, the athletically gifted — clinging to their cynicism while admitting that hope and passion demand a suspension of skepticism.  (This is one of the 28 books I got on sale back in February and wrote about HERE.  I'm finally reading it.)

The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? ~ by Leslie Bennetts, 2007, feminism, 380 pages

Women are constantly being told that it's simply too difficult to balance work and family, so if they don't really "have to" work, it's better for their families if they stay home.  Not only is this untrue, Leslie Bennetts says, but the arguments in favor of stay-at-home motherhood fail to consider the surprising benefits of work and the unexpected toll of giving it up.  It's time, she says, to get the message across — combining work and family really is the best choice for most women, and it's eminently doable.

Bennetts and millions of other working women provide ample proof that there are many different ways to have kids, maintain a challenging career, and have a richly rewarding life as a result.  Earning money and being successful not only make women feel great, but when women sacrifice their financial autonomy by quitting their jobs, they become vulnerable to divorce as well as the potential illness, death, or unemployment of their breadwinner husbands.  Further, they forfeit the intellectual, emotional, psychological, and even medical benefits of self-sufficiency.

The truth is that when women gamble on dependency, most eventually end up on the wrong side of the odds.  In interviews with women from a wide range of backgrounds, the author tells their dramatic stories — some triumphant, others heartbreaking.  This book will inspire women to accept the challenge of figuring out who they are and what they want to do with their lives in addition to raising children.  Not since Betty Friedan has anyone offered such an eye-opening and persuasive argument for why women can — and should — embrace the complex lives they deserve.

Farmers' Almanac winter 2023 predictions

"Winter arrives this year on December 21, 2023.  On the winter solstice, those of us who live in the Northern Hemisphere are tilted as far away from our Sun as possible.  Winter brings cooler weather, the joy of winter sports, curling [up] by the fire, and the holiday spirit.  It also brings shoveling, snowblowing, dealing with bad roads, and sometimes unbearable temperatures.  What will winter bring this year?  A Winter Wonderland!"

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.

Recommended by Mary

The Tender Bar ~ by J. R. Moehringer, 2005, 2021, memoir, 370 pages

J.R. Moehringer grew up captivated by a voice.  It was the voice of his father, a New York City disc jockey who vanished before J.R. spoke his first word.  Sitting on the stoop, pressing an ear to the radio, J.R. would strain to hear in that plummy baritone the secrets of masculinity and identity.  Though J.R.'s mother was his world, his rock, he craved something more, something faintly and hauntingly audible only in The Voice.

At eight years old, suddenly unable to find The Voice on the radio, J.R. turned in desperation to the bar on the corner, where he found a rousing chorus of new voices.  The alphas along the bar — including J.R.'s Uncle Charlie, a Humphrey Bogart look-alike; Colt, a Yogi Bear sound-alike; and Joey D, a softhearted brawler — took J.R. to the beach, to ballgames, and ultimately into their circle.  They taught J.R., tended him, and provided a kind of fathering-by-committee.  Torn between the stirring example of his mother and the lurid romance of the bar, J.R. tried to forge a self somewhere in the center.  But when it was time for J.R. to leave home, the bar became an increasingly seductive sanctuary, a place to return and regroup during his picaresque journeys.  Time and again the bar offered shelter from failure, rejection, heartbreak — and eventually from reality.

In the grand tradition of landmark memoirs, The Tender Bar is both suspenseful and funny.  It's a portrait of one boy's struggle to become a man, and an unforgettable depiction of how men remain, at heart, lost boys.

My friend Mary came up to me the other day to show me this book.  She held it up so I could take a photo of it (so I'd remember it) and said she thought I'd like it. So I'm sharing it with you, even though I haven't read it — yet.

Beginning ~ with a snorting, hissing train

Beginning

The train was late the day I ran away.  Those waiting stood quietly — the women tightening their shawls, the men taking turns looking up the tracks.  When it finally came in, the southbound number 7 snorted and hissed, its damp breath spilling over the travelers as they said last good-byes and draagged their belongings up the metal stairs.

The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell ~ by William Klaber, 2016, historical novel (New York state), 288 pages

At a time when women did not commonly travel unescorted, carry a rifle, or sit down in bars, Lucy Lobdell boldly set forth to earn men's wages.  She did all of these things in a personal quest to work and be paid and wear what she wanted.  But to gain those freedoms she had to endure public scorn.  In this riveting historical novel set in upstate New York in the 19th century, William Klaber captures the life of a real woman who saw well beyond her era.

The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell is the fictionalized account of Lucy's foray into the world of men, and it's her promised "memoir" as heard and recorded a century later by William Klaber, an upstream neighbor.  Meticulously researched and told with compassion and respect, this is historical fiction at its best.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays

Thoughts about three books

The Cardturner ~ by Louis Sachar, 2010, YA fiction, 352 pages

This is a novel about a King, a Queen, and a Joker.  The summer after junior year of high school looks bleak for Alton Richards.  His girlfriend has dumped him, he has no money and no job, and his parents insist that he drive his great-uncle Lester, who is old, blind, very sick, and very rich, to his bridge club four times a week and be his cardturner.

But Alton's parents aren't the only ones trying to worm their way into Lester Trapp's good graces.  There is Trapp's longtime housekeeper, his alluring young nurse, and the crazy Castaneda family.  Alton soon finds himself intrigued by his uncle, by the game of bridge, and especially by the pretty and shy Toni Castaneda, as he struggles to figure out what it all means, and ultimately to figure out the meaning of his own life.

My thoughts:  This must have been my friend Donna's book, since I can't imagine buying a book about the game of bridge, which I've never played and know absolutely nothing about.  If you have read this book, can you tell me if understanding the game is necessary for a reader to enjoy this book?

Make Change: How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future ~ by Shaun King, 2020, memoir, 272 pages

As a leader of the Black Lives Matter movement, Shaun King has become one of the most recognizable and powerful voices on the front lines of civil rights.  His commitment to reforming the justice system and making America a more equitable place has brought challenges and triumphs, soaring victories and crushing defeats.  Throughout his wide-ranging activism, his commentary remains rooted in both exhaustive research and abundant passion.

    

In this book, he offers a look at the moments that have shaped his life and considers the ways social movements can grow and evolve in this hyper-connected era.  He shares stories from his efforts leading the Raise the Age campaign and his work fighting police brutality, while providing a roadmap for how to stay sane, safe, and motivated even in the worst of political climates.  By turns infuriating, inspiring, and educational, Make Change will resonate with those who believe that America can — and must — do better.

My thoughts:  I know this one was one was Donna's because she greatly admired Shaun King and Bernie Sanders, who wrote the foreword for this book.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking ~ by Susan Cain, 2013, psychology, 368 pages

At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams.  It is to introverts — Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak — that we owe many of the great contributions to society.

 

In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so.  She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture.  She also introduces us to successful introverts — from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions.  Passionately argued, impeccably researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves.

My thoughts:  This is one I bought for myself.  I'm an introvert, who is also outgoing.  When I got the results of the Myers-Briggs test our staff took one year, I asked why I was listed as INTJ since my score showed me right on the line between being Introvert or Extrovert.  The answer had to do with how a person gets her energy back:  an introvert needs time alone, while an extrovert wants to party hearty to recharge her energy level.  No party for me, so I'm truly an introvert.

Blue moon

This year's Blue Moon was opposite the sun at 9:36 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Aug. 30, according to NASA.  I was outside trying to capture it from my neighborhood, along with four others I knew.  One got a good shot (right), but didn't want to share her name here.

What's in a word? Be creative, folks!

Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step ~ by Edward de Bono, 1970, education, 300 pages

The underlying argument of the book is that there are two kinds of thinking — vertical and lateral.  Most of us are educated to think vertically, to go from one logical step to the next, moving all the time towards the one correct solution of our problem.  We are not usually educated to be creative, to generate idea after idea.

DeBono argues that the function of vertical, logical thinking is to argue what is wrong.  It is a very useful way of thinking, but it is not the only useful way.  To claim it is, is the sort of intellectual arrogance that makes creative thinking unlikely.

Word of the Day

lat·er·al /ˈladərəl,ˈlatrəl / adjective = of, at, toward, or from the side or sides; relating to the sides of something, or moving in a sideways direction.  Example:  "He estimated the lateral movement of the bridge to be between four and six inches."  Synonyms = sideways, side, flanking, edgeways.

In trying to find something to illustrate this lateral thinking, I found a puzzle that intrigued me and followed up on it.  This illustration has a question about eggs in a carton; I'll put the answer in the comments.  Can you think of a way this is possible?  Go for it!  (Just for the record, the answer did NOT occur to me, but it is so simple.  Yes, it really is!)