Johns Hopkins Health Review, 2016 (EXERCISE)
Exercise energizes the brain, and understanding how this happens may lead to therapies for age-related neurological degeneration and diseases. As we age, our brain cells may stop producing enough energy to remain fully functional, and diseases like Alzheimer’s can complicate matters. A team of scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the National Institute on Aging’s Intramural Research Program studied mice as they ran on wheels and found that the rodents had increased levels of a protective enzyme in their brains, which may subsequently boost energy levels in brain cells.

Johns Hopkins Health Review, 2016 (ADDICTION)
Whether your first cigarette is a one-off rite of passage or one of thousands you’ll smoke in your lifetime may depend on your genes.

By studying the earliest stages of nicotine dependence, researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have determined that “there are definitely some people who are nicotine avoiders and others who are nicotine choosers,” says addiction researcher Roland Griffiths.

Genetic and metabolic vulnerabilities likely lead some people to become nicotine choosers, a finding based on the behavior of nonsmoking volunteers in a recent small study. Over time, the volunteers were able to distinguish between two seemingly identical pills – one with nicotine, one without – and then say which one they preferred and why. Nicotine choosers cited improved concentration, alertness, stimulation, energy, and mood.

Nicotine avoiders chose the placebo because the other pill made them feel light headed, dizzy, or sick. Knowing that this predisposed preference exists may lead to new preventive measures and smoking-cessation options.

Editor’s Note: Are you ready for another trip down Memory Lane? Those of you who grew up in the boroughs of NYC, will identify with this trip!

Arnold Fine, a”h, passed away on Sept. 5, 2014 at the age of 90. The Jewish Press continues to feature his timeless columns that have warmed the hearts of readers for more than fifty years.

Some Excerpts:
Some of us old timers were children of the Depression years. We knew how to live without many of the luxuries kids have today. We collected things that didn’t cost us a cent.

The bottle caps we saved became our checkers. If you pried the cork center out of the bottle cap and then pressed it into another cap, that cap became our “shooter” when we played Skelly in the street. To play Skelly all you needed was a piece of chalk to draw a box with a certain pattern and you were in business.

Saving cheese boxes was also a big thing. You could get a cheese box from the grocer; it was always clean white wood. You could save marbles in them – or keep them for old pencils. They made wonderful planters we kept on the fire escape.

Some of us also saved rubber bands. Whenever we found one we would twist it along with many others into a rubber ball. Remember those rubber-band balls? The big trick, of course, was to see how big a rubber-band ball we could make. It wasn’t easy! The wide rubber bands were the best and the easiest – the little skinny ones would always manage to slip off the edge of the ball.

Some of the kids made rubber-band balls that were the size of a baseball. When you bounced it,  it would go up almost three or four stories. But who played in the street with a rubber-band ball? You kept it in the house to impress friends. It was like a paperweight.

Saving matchbook covers was also a big thing in those years. We would walk along the street looking for discarded matchbook covers. In those years so many different companies advertised on matchbooks, and if you ever got a matchbook from out of state, you were almost a celebrity in our neighborhood.

Another thing saved in those years, especially as we grew older, – were Playbills. You know, the pro- grams you get when you see a show. If my sisters went to a show they would come back with a dozen Playbills. They would save them and give the extras to their friends. who did the same for them.

A big item in those years was a song sheet. They sold for 10 cents. Most of them were the size of today’s pennysavers and the front cover would proclaim, “500 of the Top Songs of Today!” True, those sheets did have the words to the top tunes of the day, but they never had 500 songs in them. To fill out the sheets they included the words to the national anthem, some old dance numbers, and a few of the songs we learned in school.

Another item we saved in those years were empty Prince Albert tobacco cans. They were great for storing nails, nuts, and dozens of other items.

Chocolate tins were always saved, for stationary. Mama and my sisters’ always kept stamps in purple chocolate boxes.

Ice cream sticks were also a big thing in those years. We would walk around the street and look in the gutter for discarded sticks. They were great for weaving little fans during hot summer nights, and every so often if we found a stick that said “Free Good Humor” on it, we could get a free ice cream from the Good Humor man, when he came around the neighborhood.

We also saved Bungalow Bar ice cream wrappers. The company had a promotion in those years where if you saved enough wrappers you could get a baseball or a doll or even a bat. I remember saving 75 wrappers to get a bat. I had ice cream coming out of my ears but I was so determined to get the bat that I just ate and ate and became a blimp that summer. But I got a bat!

Palm Beach Post Special Section

As a Physician in Florida since 1990, I have witnessed the benefits of exercise in my mostly senior population of patients. Many of my patients have either stopped or decreased both anti-hypertensive and diabetic medications. They have improved their circulatory and cardiovascular system, which has the added benefit of improving endurance. Not only does regular exercise improve bone density and muscular strength but also improves joint flexibility and weight loss. Seniors who exercise regularly have reduced stress and depression and have increased self-esteem. Remember a sedentary lifestyle is one of the top risk factors of heart disease. Fortunately, it is a risk factor that can be changed with a well-balanced exercise program. Remember not only is increasing muscular strength possible it is imperative to your health.

I would like to leave you with a list of exercise side effects.

• Strengthen your heart and cardiovascular system
• Improve your circulation and help your body use oxygen better
• Improve your heart failure symptoms
• Increase energy levels so you can do more activities without becoming tired or short breath
• Increase endurance
• Lower blood pressure
• Improve muscle tone and strength
• Improve balance and joint flexibility
• Strengthen bones
• Help reduce body fat and help you reach a healthy weight
• Help reduce stress, tension, anxiety, and depression
• Boosts self-image and self-esteem
• Improves sleep
• Make you feel more relaxed and rested
• Make you look fit and healthy

The wonderful article in the October issue of the Aberdeen Times about Pearlman’s Candy Store woke up a memory in this Bronx boy’s mind. It had been asleep for many years since Candy Store Communication was long ago replaced by Cell Phone Mania.

Back in the day, if you were fortunate enough to hang around in a neighborhood Candy Store you were part of the “in group.” It was your meeting place, your town hall, your comfort zone. You were there with your friends, since it was the place to go. You were also there to meet new friends. Substitute “friends” with “girls” or “guys.”

Jerry’s Candy Store, at the corner of 183rd street and Beaumont Avenue, in The Bronx, was where our crowd hung out during our teen-age years. Jerry and Louise Fortunato were our away-from-home parents who allowed us to share their Candy Store as our second home. A side agenda to their generous hospitality had something to do with their lovely daughter, Jeanne, being one of the sisters in our crowd.

Jerry’s store had an alcove with 4 booths that were always occupied by the Clovers or the Cloverettes; the name of our baseball team and the beautiful young ladies who supported the team. It was a team to support and be proud of since it had a winning record every year. Another activity that occupied our crowd was the softball games played on concrete across the street at the PS 32 school field. On Sundays, the games were watched by as many as forty or more folks from the neighborhood.

The crowds were even larger at the stick ball games played on the street, where your talent was determined by the distance you hit the Spaldeen, which was determined by how many sewers the ball traveled. The Spaldeen high bounce ball has been referred to by some as the Rosetta Stone of Urban Childhood Fun.

Jerry (& Louise) made the best egg cream in The Bronx. For those unfamiliar with our Champagne Cocktail, an egg cream consists of milk, carbonated water and chocolate syrup. There is no egg and no cream in this wonderful beverage.

Jerry permitted us to use his back room to play cards (yes, for money). Some of our card games lasted for hours except when a guy heard his code knock on the door, which informed him his girl friend had arrived. My code knock from Joan was 2 knocks followed by a single knock.

I would like to pay tribute to a quartet of my friends who attracted crowds when they harmonized outside Jerry’s in the evenings. It is more than 70 years ago but I remember Rocco (Black) and Frank (Stoogie) Balazano, Joe (Cat) Miele, and Sylvio (Chip) Mastroanni being referred to as Little Italy’s version of the Ink Spots. Didn’t y’all have nicknames growing up?

Our group of guys and gals deserve high fives. We came together from different neighborhoods, enjoyed each other, grew together and never were faced with problems that required police attention.

…for the taxes that I pay because it means that I am employed.

…for the mess to clean after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.

…for the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat.

…for my shadow who watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.

…for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.

…for all the complaining I hear about the government because it means we have freedom of speech.

…for the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.

…for the lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means that I can hear.

…for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means I have clothes to wear.

…for weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have been productive.

…for the alarm that goes off in the early morning hours because it means that I am alive. !

…for getting too much e-mail because it lets me know I have friends who are thinking of me.

… Anonymous

Sports has given me a career, an unbreakable bond with my son, moments of joy never to be forgotten, catastrophic gut-punches of defeat that (immaturely) fracture the soul like losing a family member and a very special friendship that’s lasted a decade and spanned an ocean.

This tale starts outside Bologna, Italy at Gianni Falchi baseball stadium in August 2007. A young Italian man takes a photo of my son after the first game. But something about this Italian and his slightly-. fractured English draws me to him immediately. He is, I determine quickly, the most knowledgeable sports fan I’ve ever met as we talk about all American sports, international auto racing and, of course, soccer.

When game 2 starts at 9 AM that Saturday, the young man pulls out a baseball scorebook and keeps score, something I rarely see in U. S. parks. When the Fortitudo (home team) pitcher strikes out a batter, he is prepared with laminated forward and backward Ks that he tapes to a
nearby railing. I point to the several hundred other fans in the stands and say, “Afro, do these people understand what these [Ks] are for?” “They don’t understand anything,” he shoots back at me and I realize he has a NY  sense of humor on top of everything.

We exchange email addresses and Afro, my son Andrew, and I have been teammates in love with sports ever since. Afro and I co-manage an NFL fantasy team. He taught us to love soccer and we’re immaturely over-passionate about his Inter Milan team that the three of us talk and text endlessly about.

He visited us a year later and we took him to Shea and Yankee stadiums, Fenway Park, games in Philly and Baltimore, museums and Blue Man Group. He was there to witness a classic moment in family history. On the way to Fenway, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. We ate in the car and when I peeked at the receipt and saw a 79-cent charge for a Plain Bag. I had a monumental temper tantrum about the ridiculous cost. As I threatened to sue Dunkin for every donut hole they had, my wife Bonnie grabbed the receipt, read and bellowed over my whining, “That’s not a Plain Bag, idiot; that’s for a Plain Bagel.”

The laughter that filled the car, including my own, lasted all day. When relating the incident that night to his sister, Andrew was literally rolling on the floor and Afro was roaring as well. This young man who mostly learned his English from American TV and sports on TV understood the nuance and the comedy.

In 2011, we made our way back to Italy to see our beloved Inter play soccer at Milan’s Giuseppe Meazza Stadium. Afro was our guide from Lake Como to Parma for 9 days that couldn’t have been better.

Afro came to Aberdeen in late September. That we went to two Mets-Marlins games should be of no surprise. He went to his first college football game and even three lightning delays in the Ball State at Florida Atlantic contest didn’t sap his enthusiasm for the event. We also went to a Park Vista High School football game, where the highlight wasn’t the dramatic victory for the home side against Atlantic but the amazing halftime performance by the Park Vista Performers. Afro and I urge you to go out to a Friday night game to see the wonderful band, dancers and cheerleaders.

The athletic highlight of his visit belongs to my Bermuda Isle neighbor/Marshall Williams, who invited us to go bowling in Greenacres. Afro, in his second bowling experience, and I watched in awe as Marshall strung together 12 strikes from the middle of the first game to the middle of the second. A virtual 300 game! What Afro couldn’t understand on the way home, and I don’t think it was trouble with his English, was why Marsh insisted he needed a new bowling ball an hour after that magnificent feat.

Afro loved Aberdeen and South Florida and best of all, we did some online research and discovered that as an NAV software programmer he could earn enough money to move here with his girlfriend fulfilling a lifelong dream of becoming an American.

It was sad to take the young man, who I think of as my Italian son, to the airport after 12 wonderful days. But the three of us will be together again soon. Just before Christmas, Andrew and I are flying to Florence, where Afro will pick us up and we’ll head immediately to a Fiorentina-Napoli soccer game. Then we’ll spend Christmas Eve Mass, Christmas Day and a few days at Afro’s 90-year-old grandfather’s apartment, his father’s butcher shop and his mother’s restaurant in or near the tiny town of Baragazza, in the hills of Tuscany midway between Florence and Bologna.

I can’t wait to meet them, learn more about Afro and pray to the sports gods for what they’ve given me.

I am so happy to let everyone know that we have new Lakers. Welcome to Charlotte Fernandez, formerly of Switzerland and Joanie and David Lacher, formerly of Long Island, NY.

Our condolences to Judy Noar on the passing of her hubby, Bucky. I have been living here in Sterling for 15 years and I just found out his name was Bernard. He was a special man.

We send get well wishes to Ellie Newman, Renee Engel and Janet Trapani. Hope you all get better fast.

Some of us have been fortunate to have taken vacations during the summer. I went to the middle of our country on the Mississippi paddlewheeler, the American Queen Steamboat. It was wonderful! Fran and Robert Lovett traveled to Israel to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary. The one comment was, “enough old ruins”! Carol and Mike Wallace went up north and were so happy to return home. Janet and Tim were able to go north to visit family before she had her surgery. Ruth Rabinowitz traveled to the middle of our country as well. Carol and Herb Kayne returned from their usual summer vacation.

Happy birthday wishes to Sandy November, during this month of November. I guess you just had to be born during this month.

Our community had a luncheon to meet and greet our 2 new residents. They now have so many names to remember, I am glad I moved in before them.

I also think I caught a glimpse of Eva Citron during the summer, but only for a short time.

Come on back all you birds! We miss you!

Hi Hamptonites!
We just returned in time for Hurricane Matthew and are so lucky that we had so little damage. It was our first hurricane in Florida and of course we were apprehensive, especially when we kept hearing the updates. It was good to see how prepared the state was.

Hope you all had a good summer; I know a lot of us were away on vacation.

Speedy recovery to Bart Cherry; he is recovering nicely. Good health wishes to all residents of the Hamptons who are ailing.

Our calendars are getting full! Our annual budget meeting is coming up. Let’s hope for a balanced bud-get to take us into a new year.

Next month, this column will list our neighbors who recently passed away. It is always sad when long-time residents who were here from the very be-ginning leave us. Rest in peace.

Club members have a cocktail hour planned for Oct. 20, at 4:30. We welcome all new members who have bought in the Hamptons.

Again, we wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.