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A pat on the back to contractors you can count on |
 About 20 years ago, my oldest son, Jon, decided to go into business for himself. He called me and asked me what he should put on his truck in addition to his name and phone number. Without hesitation, I told him to make his logo: ‘‘I show up.’’
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Laughter can be a way of life if you’re aware |
 Every time I do a seminar, people ask me how I got to be so funny and how they could see more humor in their own lives.
The answer is a little complicated. |
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You never know, so act on your fondest dreams today |
 My career has taken me to many wonderful places and today I am lucky to be going to, of all places, Monte Carlo. This is a very special trip because I am going with my daughter, who is in remission from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. When she was diagnosed, we made a pact to make sure we did not just talk about what we wanted to do, but that we would do it.
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Let’s get off our fannies, live longer |
 As I sat in the airport last week, waiting to
board a flight to California, I suddenly became aware
of the bodies walking by me and how most were heavy and out of shape.
I began counting how many people were moderately overweight to obese. It turned out to be seven out of 10. Why not read a book instead of this rather strange activity at the airport? I was being a bit of a statistician because I had just completed my manuscript on aging called ‘‘Kick Up Your Heels Before You’re Too Short to Wear Them!’’ One chapter focuses on exercise and its relationship to brain health and longevity. We spend an inordinate amount of time in this country on food intake and little
time on caloric expenditure. Only 31.3 percent of people 18 and older in the United States
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This year, let’s look to our strengths, not weaknesses |
 Well, here we are again, another new year. I guess I’m supposed to
motivate and encourage everyone reading this to get going and create a
list of resolutions that could enhance or change their lives.
But my years in teaching stress management have shown me that making
lists that reflect our desire to lose weight, stop smoking, exercise
more often or mend our relationships only seem to sabotage our efforts.
The biggest reason for the lack of success is that we come at New
Year’s resolutions from feelings of guilt or the perception that we
suffer from some weakness over which we have no control.
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Life today presents too many choices |
 I think I’ve come up with a new job. It’s called a choice assistant. What do they do? Well, they help you decide things. What things? I don’t know about you, but I’m getting more confused with each passing day. Nothing is easy anymore.
If I go out to eat, they hand me a 30-page menu. It includes foods I’ve
known about for the better part of my life, like steak, shrimp, pasta
and fish, but now there are subcategories. There’s petite filet, steak
tips, rib eye, venison, ostrich and alligator. Pasta used to be
linguine and angel hair. Now it’s pappadelle, fafalle, rigatoni,
tortellini and who knows what.
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Holiday season needn’t be a stress fest |
 Just the other day, I was interviewed by a magazine about
holiday stress. It happens every year. I get asked what advice I can give about
difficult relatives, demanding children, high expectations and a whole host of
situations which would take at least a page to describe.
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I think the phone voices are out to get us all |
 I spend a lot of time on the phone making travel
arrangements and paying bills. During the past several years I have noticed
that the procedures that go along with these tasks have shifted from the
sublime to the ridiculous.
I used to call the bank to check on my balance and the voice mail would tell me
what numbers to press right off the bat. Now I have to suffer through at least
three minutes of advertising for new services before I can access what I need.
They always start off with ‘‘Did you know that you can blah, blah, blah now any
time you want?’’ or ‘‘You can get a loan for blah, blah, blah by just promising
us your first-born.’’
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Political ads are like kids in a schoolyard |
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The election is right around the corner and I’m
sure most of you have already decided for whom and what to vote. I was never
very politically active as a young woman, but I find that as I become more in
tune with what I truly value I have become more involved in fundraising and
those issues that I am passionate about. What I find troubling is how
contentious some of the political ads have gotten. Larry King had a show on a
couple of nights ago that showed candidates from across the country using
tactics to win their race that could only be labeled as smarmy.
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Things we might know if we used some sense |
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I keep trying to understand why Americans find
it so hard to have common sense. I always remember my grandparents and my
mother being so aware of the obvious. We spend millions of dollars on
researching and discussing what we know to be true before we allow ourselves to
believe it. Not a day goes by without a news report or article giving us the
results of yet another study.
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