Just a Bite 12-29-09

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

This coffee tastes like mud!
Well, it was ground this morning.
~ Unknown bad punster

Resources to bite into

1. Coffee and tea

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly focuses on coffee and tea trivia in honor of the soon to arrive Hot Tea and Gourmet Coffee month. We suspect there is much you don’t know about these beverages. For example, here’s a bit about tea:
• Did you know that loose tea leaves should never be stored in the refrigerator because they pick up food odors like baking soda does?

• Did you know that pouring tea over a lemon slice in the bottom of your cup will prevent scum forming on the top of the tea?

• Did you know that milk negates the impact of tea’s natural antioxidants? Try green tea, which has higher levels of antioxidants, and is more flavorful, thus less in need of milk for flavor.

2. Coffee trivia

People have been adding flavorings to coffee for a thousand years. Here are some local preferences:
• Italians drink their espresso with sugar
• Germans and Swiss with equal parts of hot chocolate
• Mexicans with cinnamon
• Moroccans drink their coffee with peppercorns
• Ethiopians with a pinch of salt
• Coffee drinkers in the Middle East usually add cardamom and spices
• Whipped cream is the favored by Austrians
• Egyptians like pure, strong coffee without extras. It tends to be sweetened only at weddings.
Others add spirits – whiskey or Kahlua, for example – especially to welcome a New Year!

3. End your year with charity

You have only a few more days to make charitable contributions that will count on this year’s income tax, but I hope you will keep charity in mind throughout the coming year as well. One of the journalists I admire for his dedication to making a difference is Nicholas Kristof, who devoted a recent New York Times column to listing some of the lesser known charities whose work he can vouch for. Check out the column at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/24/opinion/24kristof.html?_r=1&th&emc=th. Here are a few he listed:
• Acumen Fund, http://www.acumenfund.org/
• Afghan Institute of Learning, www.creatinghope.org
• BRAC, http://www.brac.net/, a Bangladeshi antipoverty organization
• Sustainable Health Ventures, http://www.sheinnovates.com/
• The Worldwide Fistula Fund, http://www.wfmic.org/ and the Fistula Foundation, http://www.fistulafoundation.org/fistulafoundation.org/

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also suggests that as an alternative to making New Year’s resolutions, you consider single words you want to concentrate on for the year. You may choose one word or different words for various areas of your life, such as:
• A word for your relationships with family and friends
• Your volunteer or paid work
• What you hope to accomplish
• How you will care for yourself physically and/or mentally
Some words are always on the list – like love, compassion, laughter. But other words or phrases take on a particular meaning in certain years: balance, travel, focus, success, triumphing over adversity, for example.

What’s your word for 2010?

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Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website
become the apple of your eye.

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

Nothing is better than the unintended humor of reality.
~ Steve Allen (born December 26, 1921)

Resources to bite into

1. Creating intentional joy

As noted in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly, Jytte Lokvig, a fellow member of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), recently wrote a blog about her fondest Christmas. In her native Copenhagen, celebrations had been elaborate, but when she and her family first immigrated to the United States, they were very poor, and old customs were unaffordable. Determined to celebrate anyway, they wrapped each present in newspaper, trimmed with bows and fringes cut from old magazines, and when it was time to open them, they took turns and exclaimed with joy as the contents were revealed. What were these pleasurable gifts? Necessities opened with an attitude of gratitude: “With each reveal, we would thank each other profusely with appropriate comments like: ‘Oh, what I always wanted’ (toothpaste) – ‘How did you know?’ (deodorant) – ‘Perfect size!’ (toilet tissue) – ‘Love the color!’ (dishwashing liquid). Not only had we saved ourselves from a lot of the stress, but we had the best laughs in years.” Whatever gifts you receive this holiday, consider accepting them with the same bright spirit. (To sign up for Jytte’s blog, write to her at lokvig@yahoo.com.)

2. Making the mundane merry

While I’m mentioning ideas from fellow AATHers, here’s one from Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant, M.P.H., whose website (where you can also sign up for her blog) is www.accidentalcomic.com: “There is a company online that gives awards for making mundane things more fun. Their theory is that people are much more willing to do something that is good for them (like taking the stairs) if that thing is made enjoyable. Check out some of their giggle-inducing videos at: www.thefuntheory.com.”

3. Easily amused

Nearly out of space, so here’s one last quickie: You have a little time left to “Elf Yourself” http://www.elfyourself.com/. (Insert your own picture, and SHARE it!)

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly takes advantage of this week before Christmas to fit in one more holiday quiz – this one on matching punny punch lines with an often absurd question. For example:

1. What do snakes sing in December? ___
2. How do fish celebrate Christmas? ___
3. How do sheep in Mexico say Merry Christmas? ___
4. What do English sheep say to each other at Christmas? ___
5. How do cats greet each other at Christmas? ___

Can you match the answers?
a. Fleece Navidad!
b. Have a Furry Merry Christmas and a Happy Mew Year!
c. Season’s Bleatings! or Merry Christmas to Ewe!
d. Sssssss-ilver Bells
e. They hang reefs on the door

A variation on this theme would be to think of how other animals or characters might celebrate December holidays or greet one another. What ideas do you have for:

• Penguins
• Bears
• Chickens
• Dracula
• Mary Poppins
• Anyone else?

Idea inspired by the website http://www.brownielocks.com/ChristmasJokes.html
Answers are 1. d 2. e 3. a 4. c 5. b

To get the advantage of seeing all these ideas in an expanded version, subscribe to Brain Aerobics Weekly today.

To order Brain Aerobics Weekly,
go to www.wisernow.com now.
It’s a great holiday gift for anyone who needs a legal form of positive mind stimulation!

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

Educate a boy and you educate an individual.
Educate a girl and you educate a community.
~ African saying

Resources to bite into

1. The amazing Greg Mortenson

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly celebrates the work of Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greg Mortenson who has long been building schools for girls and boys in the remotest areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where educating girls is still a radical idea. He wrote about these adventures in Three Cups of Tea several years ago, and the continuation of his story has just been published as Stones into Schools. He began the quest as a result of the kindness of the villagers of Korphe who nursed him back to health after a mountaineering accident following his attempt to climb K2, the world’s second highest mountain. Finding the children had no school and were hungry to learn, he promised to build them one, and one school just led to another. Here is holiday inspiration that will warm your heart. Read more at http://www.ikat.org/ or http://www.stonesintoschools.com/.
• To order Three Cups of Tea, click here.
• To order Three Cups of Tea (Young Reader’s edition), click here.
• To order Stones into Schools, click here.

2. Holiday Nuts

The current discussion pages of Brain Aerobics Weekly features a trivia quiz on nuts – the kind that come in a tin, not the kind that you may be related to and obligated to invite to a holiday dinner. It was inspired by an article in one of my favorite magazines, Mental_Floss, (November/December 2009 issue) but much of the information for the quiz came from “nutty facts” at www.fishernuts.com. For example, did you know that walnuts are the oldest known tree food eaten by man, originating in ancient Persia about 7000 B.C.? Or that Brazil nuts come in pods that can weigh up to 5 pounds and are found in trees that grow to 200 feet? (Look out below!)

3. December 15 is the 70th anniversary of the premiere of “Gone with the Wind”

You are undoubtedly familiar with the movie’s most famous line that begins, “Frankly, my dear . . .” but frankly, my dears, I prefer this line of Rhett Butler’s: “You should be kissed and often and by somebody who knows how.” Learn more at http://ngeorgia.com/ang/Atlanta_Premiere_of_Gone_With_The_Wind.

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also uses the imagination section to suggest topics for holiday reminiscences. If you ask someone to describe the holiday generally, many of us will answer in generalities. Asking specific questions is more likely to result in memories that were long buried. For example, the trivia quiz on holiday nuts brought to mind both my grandmother’s filbert nuts – served only in December, and my beloved nutty Aunt Ruth. Here are examples of what you might ask about a Christmas tree:
• What was it made of? (If real, did you cut your own, or shop together for one? Who went along? Who had the final say?)
• Where was it placed?
• How was it decorated? Did you make some or all of your own decorations? (Children in elementary school frequently do, and some are saved for decades.)
• What kind of lights did it have? Who put the lights up? Was this a frustrating experience in your household?
• Did any ornaments have special significance?
• What went on the top of the tree?
• Was decorating done by parents as a surprise to children or done by the whole family?

To get the advantage of seeing all these ideas in an expanded version, subscribe to Brain Aerobics Weekly today.


To order Brain Aerobics Weekly,
go to http://www.wisernow.com/ now.
It’s a great holiday gift for anyone who needs a legal form of positive mind stimulation!

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website
become the apple of your eye.

Just a Bite 12-08-09

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

There is a bit of insanity in dancing
that does everybody a great deal of good.
~ Edwin Denby

Resources to bite into

1. Is Dancing in our Genes?

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly, celebrates New Zealand and Maori culture on the excuse that December 13th marks the first sighting (in 1642) by Europeans of the beautiful islands. In recent years, the Maori dance of intimidation called the haka, which involves stomping, chanting, chest beating and sticking one’s tongue out, has been taken up by New Zealand’s national rugby team, the All Blacks, and a few American football teams. But the Maoris – like all cultures throughout history – have a variety of traditional dances, so scientists have begun to study whether dancing is in our genes. Read more at http://www.livescience.com/health/060310_born_dance.html and http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2006/02/22/1576009.htm).

2. Is Giving in our Genes?

The current discussion pages of Brain Aerobics Weekly also asks whether giving is in our genes, based on an article written by Nicholas Wade for The New York Times titled, “We May Be Born With an Urge to Help” (December 1, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01human.html?_r=1&th&emc=th). However, the main focus of the BAW pages is a book by Cami Walker called 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life. (To order, click here.) Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis three years ago in her early 30s, Ms. Walker at first railed against her fate until coming across a note she had made (and ignored) from a woman who provided her with periodic counsel. The note said to give something away for 29 days. When she began taking the advice – in small ways such as making a supportive call to another woman with MS, not in physical gifts – she found she began looking forward to each day, and both her attitude and her health improved. The idea is not new – when we focus on helping others instead of our own troubles, we almost always feel better – but the 29-day cycle and the conscious recording of what one has done, that is, basking in the good feelings generated by one’s good deed, offer a new twist.


3. December 12 Is Poinsettia Day

Poinsettias were called "Cuetlaxochitl” by the Aztecs, who used the “star flower” as a dye and the sap to reduce fevers. Mexicans celebrate the date in honor of the Virgin Mary and call it La Flor de la Nochebuena or Flower of the Holy Night. Americans chose the date because it was the day the man who gave the flower its current name Joel Roberts Poinsett, died. He was the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the 1820s. But the day is meant to honor Paul Ecke Jr., who is considered the father of the poinsettia industry. Poinsettias are now the best selling potted plants in the U.S. and Canada.

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly also features a matching quiz of holiday quotations that provides an interesting pastime or a way to choose partners in a group. Give all participants half a quotation and see if they can find their other half. Here are some of the samples we used:
• Nothing's as mean as giving a little child . . . something useful for Christmas. ~ Kim Hubbard
• A holiday shopper’s complaint is . . . one of long-standing. ~ Anon
• Santa is very jolly because . . . he knows where all the bad girls live. ~ Dennis Miller
• Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and . . . his present remembered." ~ Phyllis Diller
• Santa Claus has the right idea. . . . Visit people once a year. ~ Victor Borge
• The best Yuletide decoration is . . . being wreathed in smiles. ~ Anon
• A goose never . . . voted for an early Christmas. ~ Irish Saying

To get the advantage of seeing all these ideas in an expanded version, subscribe to Brain Aerobics Weekly today.


To order Brain Aerobics Weekly,
go to www.wisernow.com now.
It’s a great holiday gift for anyone who needs a legal form of positive mind stimulation!

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website
become the apple of your eye.

Just a Bite 12-01-09

Quote to ponder under the apple tree

Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end.
~ Winston Churchill (born November 30, 1874)

Resources to bite into

1. Sir Winston Churchill – Politician and Painter

Most people know Sir Winston Churchill as a consummate politician who was especially effective as Prime Minister of Great Britain through the dark days of World War II. But he had many ups and downs during his long political career, and at one of his early low points in 1915, he took up painting at the urging of his sister-in-law. It became his chief passion after politics and family and the perfect form of escape from his cares. As noted in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly, at left is one of my personal favorites, the only painting he made of his wife, Clementine. To order Sir Winston Churchill: His Life and His Paintings by David Coombs, click here.

2. Gordon Parks, Renaissance Man

The current Brain Aerobics Weekly features four other people who happen to have been born on November 30. Gordon Parks, born in 1912, was an artist with a camera. He chose this medium because he discovered as a young man that “the camera could be a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs.” He was a groundbreaking black man who balanced diverse worlds throughout his life. He worked for many years as a photographer for Vogue, Glamour and Life magazine. But he was as likely to photograph slums as celebrities and won awards for his depiction of both. He was also a writer, poet, film director, screenwriter, musician and composer who garnered respect as all of those. Learn more about the artist and the man through his work. Here is a sampling:
• To order The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks, click here.
• To order A Hungry Heart: A Memoir, click here.
• To order Bare Witness: Photographs by Gordon Parks, click here.

3. Worth Quoting
One reason to choose the five people featured in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly is that among them they have produced hundreds of quotable lines, both amusing and profound. Here are just a few favorites on the profound side:
• Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured. ~ Mark Twain
• Poor nations are hungry and rich nations are proud; and pride and hunger will ever be at variance. ~ Jonathan Swift
• All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope. ~ Winston Churchill

Talk about these: Do you agree? Who needs to hear these messages?

Tips/ideas/insights to savor

Two of the people featured in the current Brain Aerobics Weekly are famous for their travelogues: Jonathan Swift (born Nov. 30, 1667) for Gulliver’s Travels, and Mark Twain (born Nov. 30, 1835) for Innocents Abroad (and others). They inspired a creative thinking page on lessons learned from travel.

Think about what travel has taught you about the following ideas that could also be applied to life, and give examples from your own travels:
• Always be open to new experiences.
• Keep your sense of humor.
• Keep things simple and avoid unnecessary complexity.
• Set your goals/destination, but adapt and change as needed.
• Sometimes leaping into an experience beats hesitation.
• Choose a good guide.
• Never forget the pleasures of home.

To get the advantage of seeing all these ideas in an expanded version, subscribe to Brain Aerobics Weekly today.

To order Brain Aerobics Weekly,
go to http://www.wisernow.com/ now.
It’s a great holiday gift for anyone who needs a legal form of positive mind stimulation!

Let the ever-ripening Wiser Now website
become the apple of your eye.