Just a Bite 8-11-09

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

Life itself is the proper binge.
~ Julia Child (born August 15, 1912)

Resources to bite into

1. Julia’s Joy

Julia Child was born 97 years ago this week. Just released is a new movie based on her life, as described in her memoir, My Life in France, and on the experiences of Julie Powell who wrote a blog and then a book about preparing all 524 recipes in Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year.

At a time when Americans are eating more and cooking less, and when Time Magazine has just published an article noting losing/maintaining weight has more to do with what you eat than how much you exercise (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1914857,00.html?xid=newsletter-daily), why not order the book and start having fun with Julia?
• To order Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, click here.
• To order her memoir, My Life in France, click here.

2. Create en plein air

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly celebrates a Date to Create (any date will do) by encouraging people to get outdoors and truly notice their surroundings. Take a sketch book and without judging yourself, draw what catches your eye – a tree, a lawn chair, a sleeping cat, anything. Then pretend you are Claude Monet and return a few hours later to see if your object has changed with the light.

3. Do you speak English or American?

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also features a quiz comparing American and British words for various items. For example, British pants are American underwear (men) and American pants are trousers to the British. An American vest is a waistcoat to Britons and a British vest is an American undershirt. An American boob tube is television; the British version is a tank top. Confused yet?


Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The television premiere of “Candid Camera” was August 10, 1948, so this is a good week to think up candid camera stunts as a group exercise. According to creator Allen Funt’s son Peter, who took over the show after his father’s death in 1999, his father taught him three primary responsibilities:
• Don’t make others look bad. If you wouldn’t want to be caught in a situation depicted, chances are others would be humiliated, too.
• Don’t abuse authority. In power mismatch situations (teacher/student or boss/ employee, for example), people will do almost anything, but it’s a cheap trick to put them in that position.
• Care about people. Be interested in what makes humans tick, in what makes us smile.

Keeping those principles in mind, divide into teams of about four people each and try to come up with two or three candid camera stunts that would be fun to pull off. Some may actually be possible. Others might require a big budget and elaborate props but can still be fun to imagine. (You can also do this as an individual exercise, but two or more heads are likely to come up with more ideas as you play off each other’s thoughts.) Here are some samples of old ideas to start your creative juices flowing:
• A talking mailbox
• A car which split in two as it passed a traffic policeman
• Speed bumps in a super market aisle
• Couples “getting married” by vending machine in Las Vegas
• A waitress tasting customers’ food
• A saleswoman visiting the homes of people on the “Do not call” list


Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website become the apple of your eye.
-- Host a workshop, purchase materials or click on the blue print to sign up for Brain Aerobics Weekly. and Wiser Now Alzheimer’s Disease Caregiver Tips.