VOL.3, NO.12

I N F O C U S F O R P E O P L E O V E R 5 0DECEMBER 2013More than 30,000 readers throughout Howard County

The Howard County F R E E

I N S I D E …

FITNESS & HEALTH 4k Bacteria that may fight fatk Raising a toast to grape juice

THE SENIOR CONNECTION 16k Howard County Office on Aging newsletter

LAW & MONEY 18k Finding lost savings bondsk Obamacare scams

PLUS CROSSWORD, BEACONBITS, CLASSIFIEDS & MORE

ARTS & STYLEA couple’s love letters from theKorean War inspire a new play; plus, Billy Crystal findsinspiration in turning 65

page 26

LEISURE & TRAVELVoluntourism makes for thetrip of a lifetime; plus, airlinesoffer a return to civility — for a price

page 22

By Anne BallTreating patients with personality and

mental health issues can get a little wild inColumbia psychiatrist Dr. Carl Segal’s of-fice. He helps patients open up and adds alittle levity to treatment by using captionedpictures of animals he has photographedto illustrate human traits and foibles.Conversation-starting images of leop-

ards, peacocks, elephants, tortoises andscores of other species — all snapped inzoos around the world — are displayed onhis office walls in the Medical Arts Build-ing on the campus of Howard County Gen-eral Hospital and in his book, MentalHealth Care, What a ZOO! A gorilla appears to be pondering the

big questions of the universe. A flamingocomically shakes off water after bathing.The affable Segal, 79, dates his interest

in animals back to his youth in Philadel-phia. He frequently visited the zoo on Sat-urdays, photographing the animals with aninexpensive camera that was a bar mitzvahgift from his parents.

Zooming through zoosFast forward through the years of med-

ical school and relocation to the WestCoast to 1987. That’s when Segal made adecision to visit as many American zoos aspossible and write a coffee table guide-book to American zoos.“Zoos have always fascinated me; it’s not

just the animals and plants that I find in-triguing, but also the sense of wilderness inthe midst of cities, and the dedicated menand women who care for their charges aslabors of love,” Segal writes in his book.Between 1988 and 1990, he toured ap-

proximately 160 zoos and took more than80,000 photos. This included a marathonEuropean zoo trip when he visited 13 zoosin 14 days.“It would have been 14 zoos in 14 days,”

Segal said with a chuckle in an interviewwith the Beacon, “but when I got to Brus-sels and checked into my hotel, I askedabout the zoo. The desk clerk told methere was no zoo in Brussels, even thoughit was the capital. I couldn’t believe it!“So I went out to the cab stand and

asked a cabbie. He confirmed it. So muchfor spontaneity!”

Promoting progressAll this travel and exposure to zoos

worldwide has heightened Segal’s interestand commitment to promoting theprogress and development of spacious andnaturalistic zoo exhibits.“The antiquated days of small and some-

what inhumane enclosures and ‘postagestamp’ collections are ending,” he said. Certainly the animals in his photos look

at ease in their habitats, whether snoozing,snuggling with an offspring, or cozying upto a mate.While his coffee table book on zoos

never came to fruition, in his self-pub-lished Mental Health Care, What a ZOO!,Segal uses the animal photos to illustrate

concepts such as couples therapy (two gi-raffes touching, but facing opposite direc-tions); love and early courtship (two whiteswans in the water facing each other, theirnecks and heads forming a heart shape);and psychophysiological headache (afrowning orangutan with one hand clutch-ing the top of his head).

Posters and note cards, tooIn 1994 he started a company called

ZooTREK to publish note cards, postersand similar products using his animal pho-tos. Segal’s work is carried in a number ofzoo gift shops around the U.S. and in the

Dr. Carl Segal, a Columbia psychiatrist, has taken engaging photos of animals at zoosaround the world. He uses the images in his practice to help patients express theirfeelings. He also sells prints of his photos at zoo gift shops throughout the U.S., aswell as at Neighbor Care Pharmacy and the Artists Gallery in Columbia.

See PHOTOGRAPHER, page 27

A doctor with animal instincts

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You know how it is that sometimessomething very ordinary strikes you asmeaningful in a new way? For example, I attend Sab-

bath services every week at asynagogue near my home.There are a number of placesin the service where every-one is expected to sing alongor sing in response. Normally, at these times, I

hear mostly my own voice inmy head. But if I stop singingand listen for a moment, I canhear the whole room singingas if it were a symphony. There are the lady sopra-

nos (with a diva or two), some altos, themale tenors and baritones, an occasionalbass. All blend, usually, into a nice, richtone, at least when the tune being led is afamiliar one.But the other day, I was aware not of a

symphony, but of a cacophony. A fellow sit-ting near me, apparently a visitor or new-comer, had begun to sing loudly right atthe start of the song — but at a note or twolower than the leader and, to my mind, therest of us in the room. Now, I happen to be used to the fact that

a different gentleman who often attendsthe same service cannot carry a tune. I

have learned to tune out hisnear misses on those occa-sions when he chooses tosing along. But this new fellow was dif-

ferent. He didn’t have any trou-ble keeping to his key. He wasdead on — just in a differentkey from everyone else, and itwasn’t a key that harmonized. He even had a nice voice.

He probably was well awareof that, too, as he continuedto sing quite loudly and clear-ly in his own personal key,

every single note clashing against the oth-ers in the room, grating on my nerves. In the sanctuary as a whole, his disso-

nance was probably negligible. In fact, Imay have been the only person aware of it. For some reason, though, it continued

to occupy me long after the song was over.(Yes, I daydream in synagogue. Some-times.) So I kept thinking: Why did this fellow,

who evidently was quite musical, not realizethat he was out of sync with everyone else?Or did he realize it and not care? Was

he, perhaps, trying to make a statement?Did he think that, somehow, he wassinging in the “right key” and everyoneelse was wrong? Was he listening so intently to his own

voice that he remained truly unaware ofthe dissonance he was causing? Or did heview the clashing notes as a problem creat-ed by others, not himself?I have no idea who the fellow was or

what, if anything, he was thinking. But Icouldn’t help but see the whole experienceas a metaphor of sorts — for human differ-ences in personality, political beliefs,lifestyles and the like. Most of us are content to play our role in

society and to focus for the most part on our-selves, with some secondary attention tothose around us and to society as a whole. We prefer to do the work, or sing the

part, that comes most naturally to us. (Per-haps that’s because when we must strainto reach beyond our register, our voicesbecome “falsetto.”) Then there are some whose song/per-

sonality/belief is a bit different. It soundsto the rest of us like it’s off-key, or as ifthose people can’t carry the tune the waymost of us can. But they’re singing alongjust the same, eager to participate in theirway, and we generally respect that. But it can be harder to deal with those

who, knowingly and unabashedly, insist onsinging loudly in a different key altogether

— a key, in fact, that creates dissonancewith the song the vast majority of us sing. Now, it’s interesting to realize that, were

we to listen to this other song on its own,we might well think it is a perfectly finesong, as melodic as any other. It only pro-duces dissonance when it’s sung a half-tone or so differently from the song otherssing. (After all, it takes two to make a dis-sonance.)If yet more people start to pick up the

same “off” melody, the resulting “dischord”can grow even more noticeable for awhile.But in some cases, so many others adoptthe new melody that it can supercede thefirst one.We hear a lot nowadays about our diver-

sity in culture, our conflicting political par-ties, and the split in opinions that deeplydivide us. These are not subtle differ-ences, and they can tear apart a family, aninstitution, even a government. Yet, on some level, we are all just trying

to sing our song — sometimes followingthe notes, sometimes riffing on themelody, other times purposely belting outsomething completely different. It’s all just part of what it means to be a

free human being, a member of the cho-rus, each with our own unique voice.

Imperfect harmony

FROM THEPUBLISHERBy Stuart P. Rosenthal

Readers are encouraged to share their opinion on any matter addressed inthe Beacon as well as on political and social issues of the day. Mail your

Letter to the Editor to The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915,or e-mail to barbara@thebeaconnewspapers.com. Please include your

name, address and telephone number for verification.

Letters to the editor

2 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

BeaconThe Howard County

I N F O C U S F O R P E O P L E O V E R 5 0

• Publisher/Editor ....................Stuart P. Rosenthal

• Associate Publisher..............Judith K. Rosenthal

• Vice President, Operations........Gordon Hasenei

• Director of Sales ................................Alan Spiegel

• Assistant Operations Manager ..........Roger King

• Managing Editor............................Barbara Ruben

• Graphic Designer ..............................Kyle Gregory

• Advertising Representatives ........Doug Hallock,

................................................ Steve Levin, Jill Joseph

• Publishing Assistant ....................Rebekah Sewell

The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring, MD 20915(410) 248-9101 • Email: info@thebeaconnewspapers.comSubmissions: The Beacon welcomes reader contributions. Deadline for editorial and advertising isthe 1st of the month preceding the month of publication. See page 35 for classified advertising details.Please mail or email all submissions.

© Copyright 2013 The Beacon Newspapers, Inc.

The Beacon is a monthly newspaper dedi cated to in-form, serve, and en ter tain the citi zens of Howard County,Md. and is pri vate ly owned. Other editions serve GreaterBaltimore, Md., Greater Washington DC, and GreaterPalm Springs, Calif.Subscriptions are available via third-class mail ($12),

pre paid with order. Maryland residents add 6 percent forsales tax. Send sub scrip tion order to the office listedbelow.

Publication of advertising contained herein doesnot necessarily con sti tute en dorse ment. Signed col -umns represent the opinions of the writers, and notnecessarily the opinion of the publisher.

Dear Editor:The article in the November issue by Gio-

vanna Dell’orto, “Andalusian fusion: Christi-anity and Islam,” gave a beautiful portrayalof Moorish culture in Spain for over 800years, a period of time in which Muslims,Jews and Christians flourished harmonious-ly together.It was only when Catholic monarchs im-

posed by force their idea of only onesupreme religion, by pushing out the Moorsand the Jews, that the region became, for a

period of time, intolerant and racist. Fortu-nately, they did not destroy a lot of the incom-parable Moorish architecture, the jewels ofwhich are the Alhambra and the Cordoba.A fact frequently overlooked is that,

after the expulsion of Moors and Jews, theMoors welcomed the Jews into their socie-ty in North Africa and Turkey. Such ashame that somehow this good will for alldid not continue.

Doris RauschColumbia

HISTORIC HOUSE TOUR The Howard County Historical Society annual holiday tour of his-toric homes is scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 15 from 1 to 6:30 p.m.

The five historic properties include the Shrine of St. Anthony and Folly QuarterManor in Ellicott City, Richland Farm and Dalton in Columbia, and Salopha inSykesville. Participants will travel to the sites on buses leaving from the MillerBranch Library, 9421 Frederick Rd., Ellicott City at 1 p.m. Tickets may be pur-chased online at www.hchsmd.org or on site the day of the event at the libraryparking lot. Prices begin at $35 for historical society members, $45 for theirguests, and $50 for the general public. More information is available athchsmd.org or by calling (410) 480-3250.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 15

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon 3

COMPREHENSIVE

PLANOLDERADULTS

For additional information on the public meeting,the Comprehensive Plan and more, please visit ColumbiaAssociation.org/OlderAdults.

Monday,January 13, 201410am-12pm & 5-7pmMeeting content will be the same at both sessions.Inclement weather day is Tuesday, January 14 at the same times.

SlaytonHouseWilde Lake Village Center10400 Cross Fox LnColumbia, MD 21044

for serving

SAVE THE DATE!Columbia Association is developing a Comprehensive Plan

for Serving the Older Adult community. The work team will be releasing its draft plan recommendations and is seeking your feedback.

Please join us for a Public Meeting on the Draft

4 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

RAISE A TOAST TO GRAPE JUICEIn some ways, grape juice may providemore health benefits than red wine

A NOVEL CUREPills full of bacteria may offer a safenew way to cure serious intestinal infections

DRUG MUGGERSMany medicines rob your body of essential nutrients. What you can do tocounteract their effects

HealthFitness &

By Lauran NeergaardCall it a hidden ally: The right germs

just might be able to help fight fat. Different kinds of bacteria that live in-

side the gut can help spur obesity or pro-tect against it, say scientists at WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis who transplanted in-testinal germs from fat or lean people intomice and watched the rodents change. And what they ate determined whether

the good germs could move in and do theirjob. The report in the journal Science raises

the possibility of one day turning gut bac-teria into personalized fat-fighting thera-pies, and it may help explain why somepeople have a harder time losing weightthan others do. “It’s an important player,’’ said Dr. David

Relman of Stanford University, who alsostudies how gut bacteria influence healthbut wasn’t involved in the new research.“This paper says that diet and microbes arenecessary companions in all of this. Theyliterally and figuratively feed each other.’’

Our intestines differWe all develop with an essentially sterile

digestive tract. Bacteria rapidly move in start-ing at birth — bugs that we pick up from

mom and dad, the environment, first foods. Ultimately, the intestine teems with hun-

dreds of species, populations that differ inpeople with varying health. Overweight peo-ple harbor different types and amounts ofgut bacteria than lean people, for example. The gut bacteria we pick up as children

can stick with us for decades, althoughtheir makeup changes when people loseweight, previous studies have shown. Clearly, what you eat and how much you

move are key to how much you weigh. Butare those bacterial differences a contribut-ing cause of obesity, rather than simply theresult of it? If so, which bugs are to blame,and might it be possible to switch out thebad actors? To start finding out, Washington Univer-

sity graduate student Vanessa Ridauratook gut bacteria from eight people — fourpairs of twins that each included one obesesibling and one lean sibling. One pair oftwins was identical, ruling out an inheritedexplanation for their different weights.Using twins also guaranteed similar child-hood environments and diets. She transplanted the human microbes

into the intestines of young mice that hadbeen raised germ-free.

Some surprising findingsThe mice who received gut bacteria

from the obese people gained more weight— and experienced unhealthy metabolicchanges — even though they didn’t eatmore than the mice who received germsfrom the lean twins, said study senior au-thor Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, director of Wash-ington University’s Center of Genome Sci-ences and Systems Biology. Then came what Gordon calls the battle

of the microbes. Mice that harbored gutbacteria from a lean person were put in thesame cages as mice that harbored the obe-sity-prone germs. The research team tookadvantage of an icky fact of rodent life:Mice eat feces, so presumably they couldeasily swap intestinal bugs. What happened was a surprise. Certain

bacteria from the lean mice invaded the in-testines of the fatter mice, and their weightand metabolism improved. But the tradewas one-way — the lean mice weren’t ad-versely affected. However, the fatter mice got the bacteri-

al benefit only when they were fed a low-fat, high-fiber diet. When Ridaura substi-tuted the higher-fat, lower-fiber diet typicalof Americans, the protective bug swap did-n’t occur.

Why? Gordon already knew fromhuman studies that obese people harborless diverse gut bacteria. “It was almost asif there were potential job vacancies’’ intheir intestines that the lean don’t have, heexplained. Sure enough, a closer look at the mice

that benefited from the bug swap suggestsa specific type of bacteria, from a familynamed Bacteroidetes, moved into previ-ously unoccupied niches in their colons —if the rodents ate right. How might those findings translate to

people? For a particularly hard-to-treat di-arrheal infection, doctors sometimestransplant stool from a healthy person intothe sick person’s intestine. [See “Pillsmade from poop cure gut infections,” page8.] Some scientists wonder if fecal trans-plants from the lean to the fat might treatobesity, too. But Gordon foresees a less invasive al-

ternative: Determining the best combina-tions of intestinal bacteria to match a per-son’s diet, and then growing those bugs insterile lab dishes — like this study could— and turning them into pills. He esti-mates such an attempt would take at leastfive more years of research.

— AP

The right bacteria might help fight obesity

By Lauran NeergaardIt happens too often: A doctor isn’t sure

what’s causing someone’s feverish illnessbut prescribes antibiotics just in case —drugs that won’t work if a virus is the realculprit. Now Duke University researchers are

developing a blood test to more easily tellwhen a respiratory illness is due to a virusand not a bacterial infection, hoping to cutthe dangerous overuse of antibiotics andspeed the right diagnosis. It works by taking a fingerprint of your

immune system — how its genes arerevving up to fight the bug. That’s very dif-ferent from how infections are diagnosedtoday. And if the experimental test pansout, it also promises to help doctors trackbrand-new threats, like the next flu pan-demic or that mysterious MERS virus thathas erupted in the Middle East. That viral “signature could be quite pow-

erful and may be a game-changer,’’ saidDr. Geoffrey Ginsburg, Duke’s genomicmedicine chief. He leads the team that re-cently reported on a study that providedearly evidence the test can work.Today, when symptoms alone aren’t

enough for diagnosis, a doctor’s suspicionguides what tests are performed — teststhat work by hunting for evidence of a spe-cific pathogen. Fever and cough? If it’s flu season, you

might be tested for the flu virus. An awfulsore throat? Chances are you’ll getchecked for strep bacteria. A negative testcan leave the doctor wondering what germto check for next, or whether to make abest guess. Moreover, rapid in-the-office tests aren’t

always accurate and can miss infections.So patients may have blood or other sam-ples sent to labs to try to grow any lurkingbacteria and tell if it’s to blame — addition-

al testing that can take days. “This is something we struggle with

every day,’’ said Dr. Octavio Ramilo, infec-tious disease chief at Nationwide Chil-dren’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, whowasn’t involved in the new study. Particu-larly with children, a respiratory virus anda bacterial infection “in the beginning lookcompletely alike,’’ he added.

Hints from our immune systems Hence researchers at a number of uni-

versities are trying to harness a fairly re-cent discovery: As your immune systemdetects an invading bug, different genesare activated to fend off a viral infectionthan to fight a bacterial or fungal one. Those subtle molecular changes appear

to be occurring even before you feel anysymptoms. And they form distinct patternsof RNA and proteins — what’s called a ge-nomic fingerprint.

The Duke team discovered 30 genesthat are switched on in different ways dur-ing a viral attack. The test essentially is afreeze-frame to show “what those genesare doing at the moment in time that it’scaptured,’’ explained Duke lead re-searcher Dr. Aimee Zaas, an infectious dis-ease specialist. Small studies spotted that viral signa-

ture in people who volunteered to be in-fected with different influenza strains forscience. For a more real-world simulation, the re-

searchers then analyzed blood samplesstored from 102 feverish people who hadcome to the emergency room — and whowere eventually diagnosed, the old-fash-ioned way, with either some type of virusor a bacterial infection. The genomic test proved 89 percent ac-

Is it viral or bacterial? New test may tell

See VIRUS TEST, page 5

High-dose flu shotprotects better

A new high-dose flu vaccine for seniorsworks better than the standard shot in thatage group, according to a long-awaitedstudy by the vaccine’s manufacturer.Experts say regular flu shots tend to be

only about 30 to 40 percent effective inpeople 65 and older, who generally haveweaker immune systems. Sanofi Pasteur’sFluzone High-Dose vaccine boosted effec-tiveness to 50 percent.“I wouldn’t call it great,” said Dr. Ed-

ward Belongia of the Wisconsin-basedMarshfield Clinic Research Foundation, aflu vaccine researcher who was not in-volved in the Sanofi study.But any improvement is welcome, and

the results could mean fewer illnesses —and, hopefully, hospitalizations and deaths— in seniors, he said.For other ages, effectiveness can run 60

percent or higher for the regular vaccine.The Food and Drug Administration li-

censed the higher-dose Sanofi vaccine inlate 2009, based on a study that showed itled to higher levels of flu-fighting antibod-ies in seniors a month after vaccination.The new study is the first to measure howmuch protection it actually providesagainst the flu.The study involved 32,000 seniors in the

U.S. and Canada during the last two flu sea-sons. Half got a regular flu shot and half gotthe high-dose version. Researchers calledthe participants to see if they had flu symp-toms or were hospitalized; tests to confirmthe flu were done in more than half of thepeople reporting symptoms.The high-dose shot was 24 percent

more effective than the regular shot at pre-venting flu, against all strains, the compa-ny said.Sanofi has the only high-dose flu shot

for seniors on the market. It was used lastyear in 1 in 5 seniors who got vaccinated,according to Sanofi. The $27 per dose costis more than twice the $12 for the compa-ny’s older version. But Medicare pays forboth, and Sanofi executives say they don’tthink cost is a significant deterrent.

Instead, they believe doctors have beenholding off until they saw real-world effec-tiveness studies.

Small 2014Social Securityincrease

Social Security benefits for nearly 58million people will increase by only 1.5 per-cent next year, the government announcedin late October. Social Security pays re-tired workers an average of $1,272 amonth. A 1.5 percent raise comes to about$19.The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or

curate in sorting out who had a virus, anddid even better at ruling out those whodidn’t, Zaas reported in the journal ScienceTranslational Medicine. It took 12 hours to get results. The re-

searchers hope to speed that up so that itmight work as quickly as some in-officetests. Still, “it’s a promising tool,’’ said Ramilo,

an Ohio State University professor who isdoing similar research. He called theDuke study an important step toward cre-ating a commercial test, and predicts onemight reach the market within five years.

Preventing antibiotic resistance Why would a doctor want to know mere-

ly that a virus is present and not whichvirus? That’s enough information to rule out

antibiotics, Zaas said. Unnecessary antibi-otic use is one factor in the growing prob-lem of drug-resistant germs, which the

government blames for more than 23,000deaths a year. Plus, if a dangerous new virus begins

spreading, like MERS, this approach couldhelp avoid quarantining people unneces-sarily by telling right away which ones arevirus-free, Ginsburg added. In Ohio, Ramilo is exploring a more im-

mediate need: When young infants havehigh fevers, they’re often hospitalized whiledoctors run a battery of tests to find the frac-tion who have a serious bacterial infection. He is leading a study involving 22 pedi-

atric emergency rooms to see if a genomicfingerprint approach could separate whichbabies really need all that testing. But the virus-or-not question is just the be-

ginning, Ramilo said. His research suggestsgenomic fingerprints also can distinguish aflu strain from other common viruses. And the Duke team is analyzing a huge

study of students living in dormitories, tosee if the genomic test detected who wasincubating the flu before their first sniffle— and thus might be useful in stemmingoutbreaks. — AP

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 5

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COLA, is based on a government measure ofinflation. It is small because consumer priceshaven’t gone up much in the past year. The increase is among the smallest

since automatic adjustments were adoptedin 1975. This year’s increase was 1.7 per-cent. There was no COLA in 2010 or 2011because inflation was too low. The COLA affects benefits for more

than one-fifth of the country. In addition toSocial Security payments, it affects bene-fits for millions of disabled veterans, feder-al retirees, and people who get Supple-mental Security Income, the disability pro-gram for the poor.The amount of wages subject to Social

Security withholding is also rising. SocialSecurity is funded by a 12.4 percent tax onthe first $113,700 in wages earned by aworker, with half paid by employers andthe other half withheld from workers’ pay.The wage threshold will increase to

$117,000 next year, the Social Security Ad-ministration said. Wages above the thresh-old are not subject to Social Security taxes.In some years, part of the COLA has

been erased by an increase in MedicarePart B premiums, which are deducted au-tomatically from Social Security payments. But Medicare announced in October

that Part B premiums, which cover doctorvisits, will stay the same in 2014, at $104.90a month for most seniors. (Premiums aremuch higher for those with high in-comes.) — AP

From Harvard Health LetterQ: Can heart or kidney issues cause

bags under your eyes? What elsemight cause them? How do I get rid ofthose bags?

A: Yes, heart or kidney disease can con-tribute to “bags under the eyes.” And puffyeyes may actually be the first sign of amedical problem. That’s because puffyeyes often become more noticeable withany condition that causes fluid retention. Liver disease, kidney problems or heart

failure are potential culprits. Any medicinethat causes you to retain fluid may makepuffy eyes get worse, as well.Here are some other causes of bags

under the eyes:1. Normal aging. The skin around the

eyes is normally thinner and looser thanskin elsewhere on the body. As we age, itbecomes even looser and thinner. This al-lows fluid to collect, causing a puffy ap-pearance. Veins under the skin can createthe dark appearance of the skin.

2. Sleep position. Lying horizontalcan make it easier for fluid to collect be-neath the eyes. It can also dilate the veinsunder the eyes, which darkens the appear-ance of the skin even more.

3. Nasal congestion. Veins around theeyelids may drain into the nose. Nasal con-gestion or seasonal allergies also cause theveins under the eyes to dilate.

4. Genetics. Some people have an in-herited tendency toward puffy eyes.Contrary to popular belief, having bags

under your eyes is not a reliable indicationof being tired or sleepy.The standard recommendations are to

get plenty of rest and seek treatment forany medical condition that may be con-tributing to the problem.Topical treatments, such as moisturiz-

ers and vitamins, may help. Other optionsinclude makeup, laser treatments and cos-metic surgery. Placing cucumbers over

Questions answered on eyes, ears, legs

See Qs & As, page 7

6 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

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Health shortsFrom page 5

the eyes is an unproven remedy, but is un-likely to make things worse.As puffiness under the eyes may be a

normal part of aging, there’s one more op-tion: acceptance.

—Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. is a prac-ticing physician in rheumatology at Beth Is-rael Deaconess Medical Center, Boston,Mass., and an Associate Professor in Medi-cine at Harvard Medical School.

Q: My 42-year-old son suddenly losthearing in one ear. They did someblood tests, and he was given steroids.But he has not improved. Is there any-thing else that can be done?

A: There are two basic types of hearingloss: conductive and sensorineural.Conductive hearing loss happens when

something keeps sound waves from travel-ing through the ear. The obstacle can beanything from a chunk of earwax, to in-flamed tissue, to a benign growth.Sensorineural hearing loss is a problem

stemming from one of two things. It can bea problem with the intricate apparatus thattranslates sound waves into nerve impuls-es (the sensory part of sensorineural). Or

it can be a problem with the auditorynerve that sends those impulses to thebrain (the neural part).I can’t stress enough the importance of

getting a hearing test as soon as possible ifyou’ve lost hearing suddenly. Early diagno-sis and treatment can prevent permanentdamage and loss of hearing.Judging by the steroid treatment your

son received, my guess is that he had asensorineural problem caused by inflam-mation.“Steroids” in this instance is short for

corticosteroids. They are powerful anti-in-flammatories. They should not be con-fused with the anabolic steroids used byathletes to get stronger.Early treatment with corticosteroids has

the potential to reverse the inflammationbefore there is permanent damage. But itdoesn’t always work.Your son should ask his doctor about a

bone-anchored hearing aid. It can be veryuseful for people with one-sided sen-

sorineural hearing loss. The procedure doesn’t restore nerve

function. But it can make it easier for himto hear with the good ear without alwaysturning his head.

—Howard LeWine, M.D., is a practicinginternist at Brigham and Women’s Hospi-tal, Boston, Mass., and Chief Medical Edi-tor of Internet Publishing at HarvardHealth Publications, Harvard MedicalSchool.

Q. I’ve had restless legs syndromefor years. Is there anything I can takefor it that won’t cause side effects?

A. Unfortunately, there’s no medicinefor any condition that has zero risk of caus-ing side effects. But there are plenty ofmedicines for which the risks are smalland temporary, and nondrug treatmentshelp some patients.As you know, restless legs syndrome

(RLS) causes unpleasant sensations in,and sudden spontaneous movements of,the legs — typically during sleep or when

at rest during the day. RLS is much more likely to occur in peo-

ple with iron deficiency, diabetes and cer-tain other conditions. Diagnosing andtreating these conditions can eliminateRLS.The problem also can be provoked or

made worse by nicotine and high intake ofcaffeine or alcohol, and improved by quit-ting smoking and reducing caffeine and al-cohol.For mildly affected people, exercises,

heating pads or hot tubs may give suffi-cient relief. If such nondrug treatments donot give enough symptom relief, thenthere are several medicines that are quiteeffective for restless legs syndrome.

—Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., Editor inChief, Harvard Health Letter

For additional consumer health informa-tion, please visit www.health.harvard.edu.

© 2013 President and fellows of HarvardCollege. All rights reserved. Distributed byTribune Media Services, Inc.

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 7

Qs & AsFrom page 6

FREE TIPS TO QUIT

SMOKING

Join other tobacco users wanting to

quit the tobacco habit and support

those who have already quit in a free

session on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 7

p.m. in the Wellness Center Medical

Pavilion, Ste. 100, 10710 Charter

Dr., Columbia. Call (410) 740-7601

for more information.

EARLY STAGE

MEMORY LOSS

CLUB

Kindred Spirits, a social club for per-

sons diagnosed with early stage mem-

ory disorders, meets on Mondays,

Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m.

to 1 pm. at the Gary J. Arthur

Community Center, 2700 Rte. 97,

Cooksville. Activities include thera-

peutic music, art, exercise and a sup-

port group. A daily fee of $40 includes

snacks, lunch, coffee and tea. The

program is sponsored by the Howard

County Office on Aging and the

Alzheimer’s Association of Greater

Maryland. For more information, call

Judy Miller at (410) 313-5441 or

email jumiller@howardcountymd.gov.

BEACON BITS

Jan. 16

Ongoing

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PLANNED ACTIVITIES SUCH AS WATER AEROBICS,RESIDENT MIXERS, COOKING CLASSES, ZUMBA,MOVIE NIGHTS, BBQ’S AND MANY MORE!

By Marilynn MarchioneHold your nose and don’t spit out your cof-

fee: Doctors have found a way to put bacteriafrom healthy people’s poop into pills that cancure serious gut infections — a less yuckyway to do “fecal transplants.” Canadian re-searchers tried this on 27 patients and curedthem all after strong antibiotics failed to help.It’s a gross topic but a serious problem.

Half a million Americans get Clostridiumdifficile, or C-diff, infections each year, andabout 14,000 die. The germ causes nausea,cramping and diarrhea so bad it is oftendisabling. A very potent and pricey antibiotic can

kill C-diff, but also destroys good bacteriathat live in the gut, leaving it more suscep-tible to future infections.Recently, studies have shown that fecal

transplants — giving infected people stoolfrom a healthy donor — can restore that

balance. But they’re given through expen-sive, invasive procedures like colono-scopies or throat tubes. Doctors also havetried giving the stool through enemas, butthe treatment doesn’t always take hold.There even are YouTube videos on how

to do a similar treatment at home via anenema. A study in a medical journal of asmall number of these “do-it-yourself” casessuggests the approach is safe and effective.

Custom made pills are clean, safeDr. Thomas Louie, an infectious disease

specialist at the University of Calgary, de-vised a better way — a one-time treatmentcustom-made for each patient.Donor stool, usually from a relative, is

processed in the lab to take out food and ex-tract the bacteria and clean it. It is packedinto triple-coated gel capsules so they won’tdissolve until they reach the intestines.

“There’s no stool left — just stool bugs.These people are not eating poop,” andthere are no smelly burps because the con-tents aren’t released until they’re well pastthe stomach, Louie said.Days before starting the treatment, pa-

tients are given an antibiotic to kill the C-diff. On the morning of the treatment, theyhave an enema so “the new bacteria com-ing in have a clean slate,” Louie said.It takes 24 to 34 capsules to fit the bacte-

ria needed for a treatment, and patientsdown them in one sitting. The pills maketheir way to the colon and seed it with thenormal variety of bacteria.Louie described 27 patients treated this

way at IDWeek, an infectious diseases con-ference in San Francisco. All had sufferedat least four C-diff infections and relapses,but none had a recurrence after taking thepoop pills.

Margaret Corbin, 69, a retired nurse’saide from Calgary, told of the misery of C-diff. “It lasted for two years. It was horri-ble. I thought I was dying. “I couldn’t eat. Every time I ate anything

or drank water I was into the bathroom,”she said. “I never went anywhere, I stayedhome all the time.”With her daughter as the donor, she took

pills made by Louie two years ago, and “I’vebeen perfectly fine since,” Corbin said.Dr. Curtis Donskey of the Cleveland

Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who hasdone fecal transplants through colono-scopies, praised the work.“The approach that Dr. Louie has is com-

pletely novel — no one else has done this,”he said. “I am optimistic that this type ofpreparation will make these proceduresmuch easier for patients and for physicians.”

Researching wider applications The treatment now must be made fresh

for each patient so the pills don’t start todissolve at room temperature, becausetheir water content would break down thegel coating. Minnesota doctors are testing freezing

stool, which doesn’t kill the bacteria, so itcould be stored and shipped anywhere apatient needed it. “You could have a uni-versal donor in Minnesota provide a trans-plant for someone in Florida. That’s wherewe’re heading,” Donskey said.Other researchers are trying to find

which bacteria most help fight off C-diff.Those might be grown in a lab dish andgiven to patients rather than the wholespectrum of bacteria in stool.The hope is “we could administer that

as a probiotic in a pill form,” Donskey said.Louie sees potential for the poop pills for

other people with out-of-whack gut bacte-ria, such as hospitalized patients vulnera-ble to antibiotic-resistant germs.“This approach, to me, has wide applica-

tion in medicine,” he said. “So it’s not justabout C-diff.”Learn more about C-diff from the Cen-

ters for Disease Control and Prevention atwww.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff_infect.html. — AP

Pills made from poop cure gut infections8 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

NAVIGATING SENIOR HEALTHCARE

Dr. John R. Burton, director of the

Johns Hopkins Geriatric Education

Center, will offer guidance on the

complexities of choosing and commu-

nicating with doctors and translating

insurance plans on Thursday, Dec. 5

at 10 a.m. at the Wellness Center

Medical Pavilion, Ste. 100, 10710

Charter Dr., Columbia. For further

information, call (410) 740-7601.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 5

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 9

tip of

The early signs of cognitive decline can seem inconsequential. However, the symptoms can be the first indication of more severe problems on the horizon. The NeurExpand Brain Center can assess your risk and create a treatment plan shown to measurably improve memory, focus, and cognitive performance in patients. Developed by renowned neurologist Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D., this clinical program, which is usually covered by most major insurance plans, is your best chance to ensure that your mind and memory remain sharp. Call NeurExpand today.

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That word on the

By Marilynn MarchioneFor the first time, government advisers

are recommending screening for lung can-cer, saying certain current and formerheavy smokers should get annual scans tocut their chances of dying of the disease. If it becomes final as expected, the ad-

vice by the U.S. Preventive Services TaskForce would clear the way for insurers tocover CT scans, a type of X-ray, for those atgreatest risk. That would be people ages 55 through

79 who smoked a pack of cigarettes a dayfor 30 years or the equivalent, such as twopacks a day for 15 years. Whether screening would help younger or

lighter smokers isn’t known, so scans are notadvised for them. They also aren’t for peoplewho quit at least 15 years ago, or people toosick or frail to undergo cancer treatment. “The evidence shows we can prevent a

substantial number of lung cancer deathsby screening” — about 20,000 of the

160,000 that occur each year in the UnitedStates, said Dr. Michael LeFevre, a taskforce leader and family physician at theUniversity of Missouri. Public comments were taken through

the end of August, and the panel is expect-ed to issue its final advice by February. Re-ports on screening were published in theAnnals of Internal Medicine.

Recommendation affects millions The recommendation is a big deal for

many reasons. The task force, an inde-pendent group of doctors appointed by thegovernment, in recent years has urgedless frequent screening for breast and cer-vical cancers, and no screening forprostate cancer, saying PSA blood tests domen more harm than good. There are nogood ways to screen for ovarian cancer orother less common types. But lung cancer is the top cancer killer

worldwide. Nearly 90 percent of people

who get it die from it, usually because it’sfound too late for treatment to succeed. About 85 percent of lung cancers in the

U.S. are attributable to smoking, and about37 percent of U.S. adults are current or for-mer smokers. The task force estimatesthat 10 million Americans would fit thesmoking and age criteria for screening. The American Cancer Society (ACS)

used to recommend screening with ordi-nary chest X-rays, but withdrew that advicein 1980 after studies showed they weren’tsaving lives. Since then, CT scans havecome into wider use, and the ACS andother groups have endorsed their limited

use for screening certain heavy smokers. The scans cost from $100 to as much as

$400, and are not usually covered byMedicare or private insurers now. Butunder the new healthcare law, cancerscreenings recommended by the taskforce are to be covered with no co-pays. “It’s generally going to be covered by all

health plans” if the advice gets final taskforce approval, said Susan Pisano of the in-dustry trade group America’s Health In-surance Plans. She said her group may de-velop a response during the public com-

Heavy smokers need yearly lung scans10 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

New blood test measures cancer riskA blood test to identify lung cancer

risk has recently been developed by acompany in Rockville, Md. Genesys Biolabs’ test, the second of its

kind available in the U.S., examines apanel of six biomarkers in the blood thatare associated with lung cancer. While thetest doesn’t diagnose lung cancer, it identi-fies the risk level for having the disease.“Lung cancer is a silent killer,” said

Barry Cohen, product manager forGenesys Biolabs. “The reason so manypeople die of the disease is that therehasn’t been a good way to identify thosewith the disease until it’s too late.”While CT scans can help identify those

who may have lung cancer, the test is ex-pensive and exposes patients to radiation.If the patient first has the blood test and isfound to have a low risk of lung cancer, aCT scan may not be necessary, Cohen

said. Conversely, those showing a highrisk are then directed to have a CT scan.The test is called the PAULA test,

which stands for Protein Assay UsingLung cancer Analytes, and is namedafter the wife of a local physician whodied of lung cancer at age 55 only a fewmonths after diagnosis.The test is designed for smokers or for-

mer smokers who have at least a 20-yearhistory smoking a pack or more a day.Those who get the test should be age 50 orover, without lung cancer symptoms, andnot currently receiving annual CT scans.Most insurances and Medicare cover

the test, said Cohen. The blood test isdone in a patient’s doctor’s office and sentto Genesys’ Rockville lab for analysis.For more information, ask your doctor,

see www.BloodTestForLungCancer.comor call (240) 453-6342. — Barbara Ruben

See LUNG SCANS, page 11

(410) 442-0191A-1 Action Nursing Care, Inc.®Serving The Maryland Suburban Area Since 1978

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ment period, but has had “high regard” forthe task force in the past “because theyrely so heavily on the evidence” in craftingtheir recommendations. The task force considered lung cancer

screening in 2004 but said there was too lit-tle evidence to weigh risks and benefits.

Since then, a major study found that screen-ing the age group covered in the task force’srecommendation could cut the chances ofdying from lung cancer by up to 20 percent,and from any cause by nearly 7 percent. Screening “is absolutely not for every-

body,” not even all smokers, LeFevrestressed. That includes President BarackObama, who said a couple years ago thathe had quit smoking. Obama is too young

at 52 and too light a smoker (he reportedlysmoked less than a pack a day), to be in thehigh-risk group advised to get screening.

Why screening isn’t for allThe potential benefits of screening may

not outweigh its possible harms for peoplenot at high risk of developing lung cancer. A suspicious finding on a scan often

leads to biopsies and other medical teststhat have costs and complications of theirown. Ironically, the radiation from scans tolook for cancer can raise the risk of devel-oping the disease. “These scans uncover things, often

things that are not important. But youdon’t figure that out for a while,” and onlyafter entering “the medical vortex” of fol-low-up tests, said Dr. Peter Bach, a cancerscreening expert at Memorial Sloan-Ket-tering Cancer Center in New York. The best way to prevent lung cancer is to

quit smoking or never start, and screeningdoesn’t make smoking safer, doctors stress. “That’s everyone’s public health concern:

People [may] see this as a pass to continuesmoking,” Bach said of screening. “I don’tthink it’s likely,” because people know howharmful smoking is, he said.

— AP

Lung scansFrom page 10

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 11

The Neighborhoods at St. Elizabeth has been giving independence and health back to our community members for over 87 years.

With such a rich tradition of excellence and a reputation for deliver-ing world class care, it’s no wonder families choose St. Elizabeth for their rehabilitation & nursing care needs generation after generation.their rehabilitation & nursing care needs generation after generation.

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CONTROL YOUR STRESS LEVELDiscover insights into how your perceptions influence your stress,and learn how to bring more peace into your life during a free pro-

gram offered by Howard County General Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m.at the Wellness Center Medical Pavilion, Ste. 100, 10710 Charter Dr., Columbia.For more information, call (410) 740-7601.

MANAGING ARTHRITIS PAINRevive Physical Therapy is offering a free seminar and personalconsultations on strategies to manage arthritis pain through exer-

cise on Monday, Nov. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Revive office, 10300-B BaltimoreNational Pike, Ellicott City. Reservations should be made by Nov. 22 by calling(410) 988-5171.

BUDDING AUTHORS MEET AT LIBRARYShare your original writing with other aspiring authors for mutualsupport and feedback on Monday, Dec. 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the

Central Branch Library, 10375 Little Patuxent Pkwy, Columbia. For more informa-tion, call (410) 313-7860.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 4

Nov. 25

Dec. 9

12 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

1

N

Additional Medicare plans are also accepted. See pharmacy for details. Plan is insured or covered by UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or one of its affiliates, a Medicare-approved Part D sponsor. UnitedHealthcare pays a royalty fee to AARP. These fees are used for the general purposes of AARP. ©2013 Target Stores. Target and the Bullseye Design are registered trademarks of Target Brands, Inc. All rights reserved. 483404 Y0066_PDPSPRJ14842 _000 IR

Members of AARP® MedicareRx plans, insured through UnitedHealthcare,®

could save on Medicare prescription copays at Target Pharmacy.

For more information, visit www.UHCPreferredPharmacyNetwork.com/Target.

Target Pharmacy has you covered.

The buzz about the benefits of red winehas many of us drinking a glass to goodhealth. And for those who choose not to im-bibe, it turns out the booze behind the buzzmay not be necessary. Grape juice and de-alcoholized wine can offer similar benefits.Studies show that a daily glass or two of

red wine may lower the risk of heart disease.While alcohol content may be partially re-sponsible for wine’s ability to relax blood ves-sels and increase levels of “good” (HDL)cholesterol, the hearty concentration offlavonoid compounds, such as anthocyanin,catechins and resveratrol, play their ownrole in heart health by boosting antioxidants.It comes as no surprise that purple grape

juice — essentially unfermented red wine— boasts flavonoid compounds, as well.Grape flavonoids seem to have similar

protective effects in juice as they have inwine. Studies show that these compoundshelp prevent the oxidation of LDL (“bad”)cholesterol that leads to plaque formationand build-up inside artery walls.According to a study in the journal Cir-

culation, when 15 patients with cardiovas-cular disease were given a glass of grapejuice each day for two weeks, their LDL ox-idation was significantly reduced and bloodflowed more freely through the arteries. And according to preliminary research

in a 2007 Cardiovascular Research study,grape juice stimulated the production of ni-tric acid in cells lining the arteries, whichallows for improved blood flow.

Grape juice better in some waysThe flavonoid content in grape juice was

shown to be similar to that of red wine. Inaddition, a study in the Journal of Biomed-ical Biotechnology found that one memberof the flavonoid family in particular — an-thocyanins — were better absorbed fromgrape juice than from red wine. The re-searchers believe the higher natural sugarcontent of grape juice may aid absorption.Furthermore, the absence of alcohol

may boost the amount of time these antioxi-dant compounds stay in the body, accord-ing to findings reported in the January 2000American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. When volunteers were given red wine

and then a de-alcoholized version of thesame red wine, catechin flavonoids re-mained in the blood more than four hoursin the volunteers who drank the nonalco-holic wine, but just over three hours inthose who drank the wine with alcohol.

But red wine has resveratrolRed wine comes out on top, however,

when it comes to resveratrol, which hasbeen linked with preventing heart diseaseand cancer in preliminary studies. Resvera-trol is extracted from the skins of the grapesduring the fermentation phase of winemak-ing, which doesn’t occur in grape juice.Both red wine and grape juice can, in mod-

eration, be a healthy addition to a balanceddiet that includes a variety of nutritious foods.Treat yourself to no more than one glass ofwine a day for women and two for men. Or, enjoy a four-ounce glass of grape

juice a day — be sure to scan labels for 100percent juices with no added sugars.

Reprinted with permission from Environ-mental Nutrition, a monthly publication ofBelvoir Media Group, LLC.

© 2013 Belvoir Media Group. Distrib-uted by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A toast to benefits of red wine, grape juiceHOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Fitness & Health 13

CHILDREN’S CHORUS PERFORMS ATSENIOR CENTER

A chorus of children from Bushy ParkElementary School will perform tradi-tional holiday music in a concert onThursday, Dec. 5 at 11 a.m. at theEllicott City Senior Center, 9401Frederick Rd., Ellicott City. For moreinformation, call (410) 313-1400.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 5

• Samples of our new Entertaining Platter menu!• Sample hot cider and seasonal nogs.• Canned food drive for Mana and Food Not Bombs - Roots will match all donations!

Bark is participating in Warm Hearts Happy Paws. Donate food supplies for local rescue organizations. Olney will be collecting for Greyhound Welfare and Clarksville will be collecting for Animal Advocates of Howard County. Weruva and Natures Variety will be matching any food donations of their products.

•

•

• Special holiday-themed lattes! • Buy a latte and get a free bumper sticker.• Seasonal lunch specials.

• Frosty's Magic Jar - free raffle with purchase.• Jennifer Holland, author of Unlikely Friendships and Unlikely Loves, will be signing books and answering questions from 1-3pm.

barknatural.com

boulder4men.com

rootsmkt.com

greatsage.com

• Coat sale all weekend (Dec. 7 and 8): 20% off all winter coats and jackets.

nestnaturalhome.com

SATURDAY, DEC. 7TH • 12PM - 4PM

5805 Clarksville Square Drive, Clarksville, MD 21029 443-535-9321 • consciouscorner.com

Have You Fallen?Seeking Men and Women to participate in a research study at the

University of Maryland & Veterans affairs of Baltimore to betterunderstand balance and the prevention of falls in aging individuals.

you will receive:• Health evaluation

• Balance, step, strength, and/or flexibility exercises• Compensation for your time

If interested call: 410-605-7179 & Mention code: LIFTBaltimore VA/University of Maryland Gerontology Recruitment Line

*You must be at least 65 years old and in good health*Participants will be seen at the Baltimore VA Medical Center and

University of Maryland School of Medicine *You will attend approximately 41 visits for 1 to 4 hours of time per visit

CaLL Today!

Dear Pharmacist:I take a water pill (diuretic) for

blood pressure. Now, my doctor says Ihave to take Boniva for osteopenia. Isthere a connection? What’s next forme? — H.J.Dear H.J.:Oh yes, definitely connected! I don’t

mean to be crass, but your diuretic makesyou lose water volume (the point). But withevery bathroom trip, you pee out minerals! Many people are saying “Aha” now, be-

cause you started out taking a blood pres-sure med, then at some point, you wereprescribed a bone building drug for osteo-porosis. Often, you’ll find that each drug you take

creates a side effect calling for another drug.I’ll share my side effect solutions with

you because I realize you have to (or wantto) take your prescription medications. You’ve asked, “What’s next for me?” De-

pending on the specific diuretic you take,you may eventually need an antidepres-

sant, something for leg cramps, andmaybe tinnitus (ear ringing). You may alsoneed a drug for heart arrhyth-mias — all just to counter themineral and electrolyte defi-ciencies that result from the“drug mugging” effect ofdrug number 1, your bloodpressure drug! Shocked? When side ef-

fects due to nutrient depletionby a drug (drug mugging) arenot recognized, you’ll get anew ‘disease’ and a new med-ication for it. This year, an estimated

163,000 people will suffer mem-ory loss (perhaps Alzheimer’s) due to vari-ous prescription drugs that mug brain nutri-ents. About 61,000 people will hear the words“Parkinson’s disease,” but won’t realize it wasdrug-induced. Another 32,000 of you will suffer a hip

fracture from a drug-induced fall, and al-most 8,000 people will die from internalbleeding caused by over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs orNSAIDs. This gets me fired up! It’s why I wrote

Drug Muggers (Rodale 2011) for you, be-cause 75 percent of doctor’s office visitsend with the physician giving you a pre-scription for a medication — and you needme to protect you! I’ll email you a longer version of this ar-

ticle with more side effect solutions if yousign up for my free newsletter at my web-site, www.dearpharmacist.com.

In the meantime, here are several sideeffect solutions to ask your practitioner(s)

about. Don’t make changeswithout your physician’s ap-proval:

Parsley or dandelion:These are gentler diuretics,less likely to cause the harshdepletion of minerals; alsoless likely to cause dehydra-tion in low doses.

Marshmallow root: Bis-phosphonate drugs for bonescan irritate the esophagus insensitive folks. Marshmallowroot or slippery elm teasoothe and protect your

esophageal tract. Green foods and supplements: Think

of spinach, kale, spirulina or chlorophyllsupplements, or wheatgrass shots. Theseare full of minerals to restore what the drugmugger (diuretic blood pressure pill) is tak-ing from you. Take me seriously, mineraldeficiency leads to heart beat irregularities,faintness, dizziness and depression.

Coconut water: Unsweetened, unheat-ed coconut water will restore electrolytesif you have to take diuretics or lisinopril, apopular blood pressure drug.

This information is opinion only. It is notintended to treat, cure or diagnose your con-dition. Consult with your doctor before usingany new drug or supplement.

Suzy Cohen is a registered pharmacistand the author of The 24-Hour Pharmacistand Real Solutions from Head to Toe. Tocontact her, visit www.dearpharmacist.com.

DEAR PHARMACISTBy Suzy Cohen

Many meds deplete important nutrients14 Fitness & Health | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

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Dear Solutions: I am in charge of Thanksgiving

every year, and I always have thewhole family here.

My two daughters havealways gotten along. Myolder daughter remarriedthis past year, and, unfor-tunately, my two sons-in-law who are in competingbusinesses are in what Iwould call a feud aboutsomething that happened.

When they’re together,they argue constantly overeverything, even the foot-ball teams they support —and it seems there’s always a footballgame to watch during the holiday. Mydaughters stay out of the arguing be-cause they really love each other andlove to get together.

What can I do about these guys sothey won’t spoil the day? — UpsetDear Upset: Uh oh, here comes Thanksgiving, and

here, in your case, come the three Fs —food, football and feud. Hopefully your daughters, since they

get along, will have some influence ontheir husbands. To help your sons-in-law refrain from

spoiling the day for everyone, I would alsosuggest that you call each of them sepa-rately and, without taking sides in their ar-gument, tell them you are counting onthem, as you are on everyone who is invit-ed, to help make the day a success. Then put a big sign on your outside

door that they will see as they enter. Itshould say “Food, friends, football wel-come inside: Feuds must be left on thedoorstep and may, if necessary, be picked

up on the way out. No exceptions!!”Dear Solutions:

My daughter-in-law recently cameback from a trip to Europeand brought me a necklaceand earrings that are justnot my style. I take pride inhow I dress and what kindof jewelry I wear, and Iwould never consider wear-ing these if she hadn’tbought them.

I know I could just wearthem when she’s around.However, now we have a bigfamily affair to go to, andshe knows the gown I’m

going to wear. She keeps saying, “Oh,I’m so glad I got you that. I had thatgown in mind and think it’ll really lookgreat with that.”

They’re really kind of gaudy andflashy, and I always wear quiet jewel-ry. Should I wear them? — NormaDear Norma: Yes. This time you be a gaudy and flashy

mother-in-law by pointing the jewelry outto people and boasting how your daughter-in-law took the time and effort to bring thisfor you all the way from Europe. People at the affair may not love the jewel-

ry, but they will appreciate — and maybeeven envy — the good relationship you man-age to maintain with your daughter-in-law.Dear Solutions:

Every time one of my kids or closerelatives has a problem and tells meabout it, I start worrying and can’t stop.I console them the best I can, and thenwhen I don’t hear from them for a while,I just keep worrying over and overabout what will happen. The same thinghappens when it’s my own problems.

How do I stop being a worrier?— Hilda

Dear Hilda: OK, so you’re a worrier. First, stop wor-

rying about it. It keeps you from movingon, so accept that about yourself and thenfocus on what you can do about it. After you’ve consoled your kids and

then don’t hear from them, I’ll bet they’vesolved their problem and have moved on,while you leave yourself stuck in the sameplace. So, until you hear from them again,assume they’ve solved their problem. When you’re stuck worrying about a

problem of your own, try removing your-self. Step back and visualize a friend ask-ing your advice about that problem. Whatwould you tell her/him?

Also, when you’re feeling very nervous,try deep breathing. Take a deep breath,hold it for a count of four, release it slowlythrough your mouth and repeat. And each time the worrying starts and

you haven’t found a solution, take a timeout. Actually say the words out loud —“time out” — and watch a movie, read abook, anything that will engage your mind,

After you’ve done all this, please tell mehow it has worked. If I don’t hear from you,I’ll worry.

© Helen Oxenberg, 2013. Questions to beconsidered for this column may be sent to:The Beacon, P.O. Box 2227, Silver Spring,MD 20915. You may also email the authorat helox72@comcast.net. To inquire aboutreprint rights, call (609) 655-3684.

Tamp down family feuds at Thanksgiving

SOLUTIONSBy Helen Oxenberg,MSW, ACSW

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16 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

VOLUME 3, NO. 12 • DECEMBER 2013

By Dayna Brown,Office on AgingAdministrator

Happy Holidays! As youplan, shop and prepare festivecelebrations for your ownfriends and family, please takesome time to remember the

less fortunate folks in our community as well. TheOffice on Aging’s Project Holiday is a great way tomake the holidays merrier for older adults in HowardCounty who don’t have families in the area. Donations(see the ad, opposite for suggestions) will be packagedinto holiday gift bags and delivered to residents ofnursing homes, assisted living facilities and others inour community just in time for the holidays.While shopping for the holidays is foremost on

your to-do list, don’t forget that you have until Dec. 7to shop for a new Medicare prescription drug plan aswell. During open enrollment, our SHIP counselorscan help you determine if your current plan will meetyour needs for the coming year, or if another planmay be a better fit. Give them a call at 410-313-7391to schedule a one-on-one appointment or register forone of the free enrollment events throughout thecommunity. Visit www.howardcountyaging.org for acomplete list of upcoming events.Unfortunately, Medicare’s Open Enrollment

period also provides new opportunities for conartists to steal money and personal information fromunwary health care shoppers. To avoid becoming avictim of Medicare fraud, remember that whileprivate insurance companies sell Medigap andMedicare Advantage coverage plans, they should notclaim to be Medicare representatives, nor can theysay they are endorsed by Medicare. Cold calling — by phone or in person — is not

allowed. If an insurance agent calls and you haven’trequested a call, hang up. If an agent comes to yourdoor and you haven’t requested a visit, don’t invitethem in. If you do decide to talk with an insuranceagent, don’t feel pressured to buy anything on the spot.For more tips, visitwww.howardcountymd.gov/avoidemedicarefraud.htm.Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season!

A Message from the Administrator

Some Medicare EnrollmentsContinue After Dec. 7

Prescription Plan DeadlineBy Bill Salganik, Counselor, State Health

Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP)Medicare’s annual enrollment period for

prescription coverage and MedicareAdvantage plans ends Dec. 7, but there areother enrollment periods you can use atother times of the year:

Basic Medicare.The General EnrollmentPeriod for Medicare Parts A and B is Jan.1 toMarch 31, but you can sign up outside thatperiod when you turn 65, or when you leaveemployer coverage. Sign up online atwww.ssa.gov/medicareonly, visit a SocialSecurity office, or call 1-800-772-1213. Yourenrollment will be effective July 1.

Replacing dropped plans. If your planwas dropped for 2014 — Aetna PPO,AetnaPremier HMO, or Envision Rx PlusGold for prescriptions — youhave until the end of Februaryto pick a replacement plan.But if you do not make thechange before Dec. 31, youmay not have all of thecoverage you want until thenew enrollment takes effectthe first of the followingmonth.

Switches for people inassistance programs. Ifyou’re enrolled in the federalExtra Help or Maryland’sSenior Prescription DrugAssistance Program, you canswitch prescription orMedicare Advantage plansoutside the regular enrollmentperiod. Changes take effectthe first of the month afteryour new enrollment. Ifyou’re eligible for assistanceprograms (if your annualgross income is below$34,470 for an individual or$46,530 for a couple) buthaven’t signed up, you can doso any time.

Switching out of Medicare Advantage.If you’re in a Medicare Advantage (HMO orother full health insurance program) plan,but want to return to Original Medicare,you can do so between Jan. 1 and Feb. 14.The change takes effect the first of themonth after your new enrollment.

Medigap.Medigap (sometimes calledMedicare supplement) policies don’t have aspecific enrollment period, so if you needMedigap, you can apply for it any time.Within six months of starting MedicarePart B, you can get Medigap withouthaving to answer health questions.

For more information about these andother Medicare questions or to make anappointment for free one-on-one counseling,call SHIP at 410-313-7392.

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HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon 17

Coming EventsWednesday, Dec. 4, 9:30 a.m. – Giftsfrom the Kitchen, Glenwood 50+ CenterLearn how to make unique but easy items to giveas hostess gifts or to friends. Taste the creationsand learn how packaging is everything! Cost: $6;call 410-313-5440 to register.

Wednesday, Dec. 4, noon to 7 p.m. –Holiday Craft Boutique, Ellicott City Senior CenterShop our first Holiday Craft Boutique; $1admission includes door prize drawings and a giftbag from Encore at Turf Valley. Proceeds benefitGrassroots and ECSC programs. Call 410-313-1400 for details.

Thursday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. – CamerataMusica, East Columbia 50+ CenterExperience the a cappella sounds of CamerataMusica and enjoy refreshments in the warmth ofour center. Free; no reservations required. Call 410-313-7680 for details.

Friday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m. to noon – HolidayPlant Sale, North Laurel 50+ CenterDecorate your home for the holidays withpoinsettias and wreaths from eMerge, Inc.Sponsored by the North Laurel Senior Council;call 410-313-0380 for details.

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 11 a.m. – Gospel Choir Concert, Bain CenterDelight in traditional Holiday music with theBain Center’s Gospel Choir and pianist. Enjoy thisfestive season with friends, food and fun. Sign upin the lunch room if you plan to stay for lunch.

Tuesday, Dec. 10, noon – Poinsettia andWreath Sale, East Columbia 50+ CenterOur center will be full of beautiful plants andwreaths for holiday decorating and gift giving.Looking for something in particular? Call 410-313-7680 to let us know!

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 10:30 a.m. – HCC BainSenior Choir Holiday Recital, Bain Center Join Bain’s chorus as they sing holiday tunes thatwill be music to your ears. Free, holidayrefreshments served at 10 a.m. Call 410-313-7213to reserve your seat.

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. – Gift Exchange Bingo, Elkridge Senior CenterEnjoy bingo with a holiday twist; play for free bybringing a gift valued at $10. Last year this eventsold out, so register early by calling the center at410-313-5192.

Wednesday, Dec. 11, 11 a.m. – North Laurel Winter Concert, North Laurel 50+ CenterLyric Opera Baltimore’s Opera Cares programpresents holiday favorites. Enjoy a sing-along anda special holiday meal. Tickets: $10 per person.For more information or to purchase tickets, call410-313-0380.

Friday, Dec. 13, 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. –Holiday Cards Workshop, North Laurel 50+ CenterMake personalized holiday cards for your lovedones during this joyful season. Cost: $7 includesinstruction and materials. For more informationor to register, call 410-313-0380 by Dec. 11.

Friday, Dec. 13, 10 a.m. — Cookie Sale & Concert, Glenwood 50+ CenterSupport our fundraiser by purchasing home bakedgoodies for $4.50 a dozen, then enjoy the soundsof the Bushy Park Elementary School chorussinging the songs of the season! Call 410-313-5440 for details.

Friday, Dec. 13, 11 a.m. – Lyric OperaHouse Holiday Concert & Luncheon,Ellicott City Senior CenterCelebrate the holidays with beautiful music fromthe Lyric Opera House as they perform theirHoliday Spirit Program. A gourmet catered lunchfollows at 12 noon. RSVP: 410-313-1400.

Friday, Dec. 13, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. – Bain Center Council DanceEnjoy an afternoon of live big band musicfeaturing Men-n-Motion. Refreshments served.Cost: Women $6; men get in free! Call 410-313-7213 for more information.

Monday, Dec. 16, 11 a.m.to 1:30 pm. – Create aGingerbread House,Elkridge Senior CenterWork with a student from theAPL to create a beautiful houseto take home or use as a gift.Snacks and lunch will beprovided; donations areappreciated. Call 410-313-5192to sign up.

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 6:30 p.m. – Lyric OperaReturns, East Columbia50+ CenterThe Lyric Opera will performseasonal favorites at our annualmocktail and hors d’oeuvreholiday event. Free; bring adonation for the HowardCounty Food Bank. Call 410-313-7680 for details.

Thursday, Dec. 19, 11 a.m. to noon –Marriotts Ridge Women’s Ensemble,Ellicott City Senior CenterJoin us for a holiday concert featuring the talentedladies from the Marriotts Ridge High SchoolWomen’s Ensemble. Free; call 410-313-1400 fordetails.

Friday, Dec. 20, noon – Holidays Go Retro, Glenwood 50+CenterKick off the holidays with a catered lunchfeaturing “The Retro Rockets” — they are sure toget you up on your feet. Cost: $7; for tickets call410-313-5440.

Mondays starting Jan. 6, 5:30 to 8 p.m. –Living Well, Medical Pavilion at Howard County, 10710 Charter Drive,Suite 100, Columbia, MD 21044 Learn how to manage your chronic conditions in asupportive group setting over the course of sixweeks. Cost: $28; includes all materials. Call 410-313-5980 for information or to register.

Wednesdays starting Jan. 15, 5:30 to 8 p.m. – Living Well for Men,Medical Pavilion at Howard County10710 Charter Drive, Suite 100, Columbia, MD 21044 Living with prostate cancer, COPD, heart disease,obesity, arthritis or other chronic conditions?Attend Living Well for Men, a six-week workshopled by men, for men only, to regain control ofyour life. Cost: $28; includes all materials. Call410-313-5980 to register.

Tuesdays starting Jan. 21, 9:30 a.m. to noon – Living Well with Diabetes, Bain CenterLearn how to manage the symptoms of diabetesby taking charge of your health in just six weeks.Cost: $28; includes all materials. Call 410-313-5980 for information or to register.

If you need accommodations to attend any of theseevents, call 410-313-5980 one week in advance.

The Senior Connection is published monthlyby the Howard County Department of Citizen

Services’ Office on Aging. We welcome your comments and suggestions.To contact us, or to join our email subscriber

list, email seniorconnection@howardcountymd.govwith ‘subscribe’ in the subject box.

Howard County Office on Aging6751 Columbia Gateway Drive,

Columbia, MD 21046410-313-6410

www.howardcountyaging.orgwww.Facebook.com/HoCoCitizenDayna Brown, Administrator

Advertising contained in the Beacon is not endorsed by the Howard County Office on Aging or by the publisher.

The Bain Center, 5470 Ruth Keeton WayColumbia, MD 21044

410.313.7461www.howardcountyaging.org

The Howard County Paws4Comfort programfosters special bonds between pets, their

owners and the County residents they visit.

If you are interested in volunteering, or wish to schedule a free

evaluation for your pet, contact Ingrid Gleysteen,

at 410-313-7461 or igleysteen@howardcountymd.gov.

Evaluations are held the 1st

Wednesday of every month.

Wednesday, Dec. 4th

7 PM at Bain Center

The Senior Connection

We have now passed the fifth anniver-sary of the financial crisis, which testedevery investor in America —from neophytes to the mostjaded traders on Wall Street.

As Chicago Mayor RahmEmanuel once said, “Younever want a serious crisis togo to waste. And what I meanby that is an opportunity to dothings you think you couldnot do before.”

While Emanuel was talkingabout politics, I think we canapply his statement to in-vestor behavior leading up to and duringthe financial crisis.

With five years of distance from the eyeof the storm, here is my list of the top five

lessons every investor cantake away:1. Keep cool: There are

two emotions that influenceour financial lives: fear andgreed. At market tops, greedkicks in, and we tend to as-sume too much risk. Con-versely, when the bottom fallsout, fear takes over and makesus want to sell everything andhide under the bed.

If you had sold all of yourstocks during the first week of the crisis inSeptember 2008, you would have been

shielded from another 40+ percent in furtherlosses (stocks bottomed out in March 2009).

But how would you have known when toget back in? It is highly doubtful that most in-vestors would have had the guts to buy whenit seemed like stock indexes were hurtlingtowards zero! Yet, stocks are now up close to150 percent since the March 2009 lows.2. Maintain a diversified portfolio...and

don’t forget to rebalance. One of the bestways to prevent emotional swings is to createand adhere to a diversified portfolio thatspreads out your risk across different assetclasses, such as stocks, bonds, cash and com-modities.

In September 2008, a client shrieked to methat “everything is going down!” But that wasnot exactly the case: this person’s 10 percentallocation in cash was just fine, as was her 30percent holding in government bonds.

That did not mean that the stock andcommodities positions were doing well, butoverall, the client was in far better shapebecause she owned more than risky assets.3. Maintain a healthy emergency re-

serve fund. Bad luck can occur at anytime. One great lesson of the crisis is thatthose who had ample emergency reserve

funds — six to 12 months of expenses forthose who were employed, and 12 to 24months for those who were retired — hadmany more choices than those who did not.

While a large cash cushion seems like awaste to some (“it’s not earning any-thing!”), it allowed many people to refrainfrom selling assets at the wrong timeand/or from invading retirement accounts.

Side note: The home equity lines ofcredit on which many relied for emer-gency reserves vanished during the crisis.4. Put down 20 percent for a mort-

gage (and try to stick to plain vanilla homeloans, like 15- or 30-year fixed rate mort-gages, unless you really understand whatyou are doing!)

Flashback to 2004-’07, and you will like-ly recall that you or someone you knewwas buying a home or refinancing withsome cockamamie loan that had “features”that allowed borrowers to put down about3 cents worth of equity.

There’s a good reason that old rules ofthumb work. Yes, Virginia, house pricescan go down. And despite the recovery,

Investor lessons from the financial crisis

RETIRE SMARTBy Jill Schlesinger

18 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 — H O WA R D C O U N T Y B E A C O N

MoneyMoneyOMBAMACARE SCAMSWatch out for scam artists using the new healthcare law to bilk seniors, including false websites and fake insurance navigators

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By Elliot RaphaelsonAccording to the Department of the

Treasury, 25,000 paymentsare returned to it every yearas undeliverable.

In addition, billions of dollarsin savings bonds have stoppedearning interest but haven’tbeen cashed. Many bonds havebeen lost, stolen or destroyed.

Fortunately, there is a De-partment of Treasury web-site, TreasuryDirect.gov, thatcan assist you if any of thesesituations apply to you.

From this website, you canuse a feature called “Treasury Hunt” to de-termine whether you are the owner of asavings bond that has stopped earning in-terest but hasn’t been cashed.

The system does not contain a record ofall savings bonds. It does, however, pro-vides information regarding Series EBonds issued in 1974 or later, and SeriesEE bonds issued in 1974 or later. You onlyhave to enter your Social Security number.

If you are not sure who is the registeredowner of the bonds, enter the Social Secu-rity numbers of all members of your fami-ly. There is no advantage in holding ontobonds that no longer earn interest.

You can redeem bonds that no longerearn interest, or any other bonds you own,through a local financial institution or theU.S. Treasury. There will be no charge toyou to do so. Information on how to sellbonds through the Treasury Departmentis available on the TreasuryDirect website.

You can obtain redemption informationand other information regarding bonds at 1-800-245-2804 — the savings bond processingsite of the Treasury Department. (I called thesite, and was pleasantly surprised to be able

to talk to a real person, who was very knowl-edgeable. And there was no waiting time.)

Understanding taxesand penalties

If you decide to redeembonds that are still earning in-terest, make sure you under-stand the penalties associatedwith redemption.

You must hold both Series Isavings bonds and Series EEsavings bonds for at least 12months. After 12 months, youhave the option to redeemthem. However, it may pay to

hold the bond for at least five years. Thereis a three-month’s interest penalty on bondsnot held at least five years.

Interest on savings bonds is taxableonly at the Federal level; bonds are freefrom state and local income taxes.

If you purchased the bonds after Dec.31, 1989, and use the proceeds to cover tu-ition for qualified higher education, the in-terest is tax-free at the Federal level also.You can determine the current rates for Se-ries I, EE and HH bonds at 800-US-BONDS(872-6637). This information is also avail-able at the TreasuryDirect website.

If you own several bonds and would pre-fer assistance with valuing and redeemingyour bonds, you can purchase personalservice from SavingsBonds.com for about$6 per year. With this service, you will beprovided up-to-date information on all yourbonds, specifically interest rate, currentvalue and maturity date. The service willalso provide you with recommendationsregarding redemption.

The site contains a great deal of usefulinformation, such as a comparison be-tween I savings bonds and EE savings

bonds, regarding denominations, pur-chase price, interest, redemption and taxinformation.

If you had bonds that were lost, stolenor destroyed, you can submit Form PDF1048, available from the TreasuryDirectwebsite. By providing as much informa-tion as you can — specifically estimateddate of purchase, name of registeredowner, type of bond and so forth — theTreasury Department will search itsrecords for you.

You can use this process for registeredTreasury notes and bonds in addition tosavings bonds. This site allows you todownload other forms, such as for replace-ment of lost or stolen checks, or claims forbonds ordered but not received.

Locating unclaimed propertyThe Treasury Hunt feature of the Trea-

suryDirect website will identify only informa-tion regarding savings bonds. I recommend

that you also go to www.unclaimed.org to de-termine if there is any other unclaimed prop-erty identified for you on state websites thatyou are not aware of.

If you were a beneficiary of an estate,there may be assets turned over to a statethat belong to you, not the state. For exam-ple, if the decedent owned bank accountsin their name only, and the executor of theestate was not aware of these accounts, theproperty would be turned over to the state.

A few years ago, my children and I re-covered several thousand dollars fromFlorida’s unclaimed property site in exact-ly this situation, with a search using dece-dent information.

Treasury and state websites are conven-ient. Make sure you recover any assetsthat belong to you.

Elliot Raphaelson welcomes your questionsand comments at elliotraph@gmail.com.

© 2013 Elliot Raphaelson. Distributedby Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

THE SAVINGSGAMEBy Elliot Raphaelson

Finding and redeeming lost savings bondsH O WA R D C O U N T Y B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money 19

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please shun the advice from so-called ex-perts like Suze Orman, who are once againsaying that 10 percent down is just fine.5. Understand what is in your target

date fund: Pre-crisis, many investors hadstarted to use funds in which the fund man-ager “targets” your future date of retirementand adjusts the allocation as you near thetime that you will need to access the money.

Unfortunately, many of these funds

were far riskier than investors understood.Whether it’s a target date fund or an age-based investment for your kid’s collegefund, be sure to check out the risk levelbefore you put a dollar to work.

Living through a crisis is never easy, solet’s try to at least learn from it!

Jill Schlesinger, CFP, is the Senior Busi-ness Analyst for CBS News, a former optionstrader and CIO of an investment advisoryfirm. She welcomes comments and questionsat askjill@jillonmoney.com.

© 2013 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

By Kimberly LankfordQ. I received an email telling me I

need to buy a health insurance card thatshows I have coverage under Oba-macare or I will have to pay a penalty.The email looked legitimate, but it askedfor my credit card number. Is it a scam?A. Yes. Although the Affordable Care

Act requires people to have health insur-ance in 2014 or pay a penalty, there is nospecial card to buy.

This is just one of the many ways that

crooks are trying to take advantage of mis-conceptions and misinformation so thatthey can get your credit card number,bank-account information or cash.

Here are a couple of other scams towatch out for:• The Medicare-card scam. One

woman in San Diego received a call from aperson claiming to be from Medicare whosaid she needed a new Medicare card be-cause of Obamacare and asked for her per-sonal information and checking-account

number. (He already had her name and ad-dress.) The woman was told that herMedicare benefits would stop if she didn’tprovide the information.

She became suspicious and contactedthe California Senior Medicare Patrol, oneof 54 programs throughout the countrythat work with the U.S. Department ofHealth and Human Services to fightMedicare-related fraud.

Not only does the new healthcare lawnot require you to get a new Medicare orhealthcare card, but Medicare will never,ever call you. Instead, like the IRS,Medicare will contact you about any per-sonal issues through the mail.

You can call 1-800-633-4227 or go toMedicare.gov for more information, orcontact the Senior Medicare Patrol in yourstate (www.smpresource.org). • Fake navigators and exchange sites.

The U.S. Department of Health and HumanServices awarded $67 million in grants tocommunity organizations to help people signup for coverage through the new healthcareexchanges (also called marketplaces).

Now scam artists are posing as thesecommunity “navigators” and saying thatthey’ll sign you up for coverage if you sendthem or wire them a few hundred dollarsto get started.

Legitimate navigators will not cold-callyou or send you an e-mail. To find a legiti-mate navigator in your area through yourstate’s exchange, go to the “How do I gethelp enrolling in the marketplace?” factsheet at Healthcare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596 for more information and resources.

Q. Does the new healthcare law pro-hibit medigap insurers from denying cov-erage or raising rates because of health?A: No. Even though starting in 2014

most health insurers won’t be able to re-ject applicants or charge them more be-cause of their health, the new law doesn’tapply to Medicare supplement policies(often called medigap).

You can buy any medigap policy regard-less of your health within six months ofsigning up for Medicare Part B. But afterthat initial enrollment period, insurers canreject you or charge higher rates becauseof a medical condition.

There are some exceptions. For exam-ple, you may qualify for medigap coveragewithout medical underwriting if you are ina Medicare Advantage plan that discontin-ues operations, or if you move out of thatplan’s service area. A few companies willlet you switch from one version of medigapcoverage to another without new medicalunderwriting, especially if you’re switchingto a plan with more cost-sharing — such asto the high-deductible Plan F or Plan N.

If your medigap premiums increase signif-icantly, try applying for a new medigap poli-cy, even if you have minor health issues. Itgenerally takes about 60 days for a medigappolicy to go through medical underwriting,but some companies will process the policyin 15 to 30 days, said Eric Maddux, seniorMedicare adviser for eHealthMedicare,which provides price quotes and sells poli-cies from many companies.

Obamacare scams targeting older adults20 Law & Money | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 — H O WA R D C O U N T Y B E A C O N

Investor lessonsFrom page 18

See MEDIGAP, page 21

If you can’t qualify for a new policy, an-other option is to switch from medigap toan all-in-one Medicare Advantage policyduring open-enrollment season, whichruns from October 15 to December 7. AnyMedicare beneficiary can buy a MedicareAdvantage plan during that time, regard-less of his or her health. These policies

provide both medical and prescription-drug coverage from a private insurer.

But keep in mind that Medicare Advan-tage policies tend to have restrictiveprovider networks (make sure your doc-tors, hospitals and pharmacies are includ-ed), and you could have a tough time find-ing in-network providers if you travel a lot.They also tend to have more cost-sharingthan medigap plans.

© 2013 Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

By Jeff BertolucciSecurity experts tell us to create long,

complex passwords (think numerals andsymbols) for every online account. Buthow are we supposed to remember all ofthose mind-numbing character strings?

Fortunately, there is software that man-ages your passwords for you. These pro-grams allow you to store your passwordsin one file by creating one ultra-securemaster password to serve as the portal toall your other user names and passwords.

Here are three of our favorites:

Dashlane This is an excellent choice for the pass-

word-challenged. Not only is it highly se-cure, but it’s also a breeze to use. Dash-lane (www.dashlane.com) is a free down-load for Windows and Mac PCs and most

smartphones and tablets. Enter a master password (be sure to re-

member it because Dashlane doesn’t saveit) and the app automatically encrypts yourpasswords and other private informationusing military-grade AES-256 encryption,which has never been hacked.

Dashlane imports new and existingpasswords from your Web browser into its“vault.” The program can remember yourshipping and credit card information, aswell as auto-fill online checkout screens.

Dashlane also works within your Webbrowser to monitor your online activities.When you log in to your online email, for in-stance, Dashlane pops up and asks whetherit should save your user name and password.

Plus, it rates the strength of your exist-ing passwords (and tells you if they shouldbe changed), and it generates strong pass-

words for new sites that you join. If you signed up for two-step verification

using Google Authenticator (you need acode generated by an app in addition toyour password), you may continue to use it.

LastPassThis is another top-notch free password

manager. Like Dashlane, LastPass(www.lastpass.com) prompts you to createa master password, integrates with thebrowser, detects when you log in to pass-word-protected sites, and asks whether youwant it to remember log-in information.

It also generates strong passwords fornew sites and auto-fills credit card andshipping information. Unlike Dashlane,however, LastPass doesn’t rate the

strength of existing passwords.LastPass stores your data online, which

lets you access your credit card numbersfrom any Web browser. (The downside: Youmay be uncomfortable with having your sen-sitive personal data stored in the cloud.) Theapp also supports Google Authenticator.

KeeperIf all you want is a free password manager

and little more, Keeper (www.keepersecuri-ty.com) is appealing. Like its competitors, theapp uses bulletproof AES-256 encryption.The app supports two-step verification, but itdoesn’t rate the strength of your passwords.

Jeff Bertolucci is a freelance writer forKiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

© 2013 Kiplinger’s Personal Finance

Let software remember passwords for youH O WA R D C O U N T Y B E A C O N — D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Law & Money 21

MedigapFrom page 20

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Professionally managed by The Shelter Group. www.thesheltergroup.com

Call the community nearest you to inquire about eligibility requirements and

to arrange a personal tour or email parkviewliving@sheltergrp.com.

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22 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

TravelLeisure &TravelLeisure &TravelLeisure &

By Glenda C. Booth“Pardon me. You did what?” asked an in-

credulous friend. “I caught crocodiles,” I replied coolly,

when asked about my two-week Earth-watch volunteer expedition studying theNile crocodile in Botswana’s OkavangoDelta. And that’s just one of many things I have

done on vacation.I have:• Filmed young marmots frolicking in

the French Alps;• Identified dolphins by their dorsal

fins’ nicks and streaks in Greece’sAmvrakikos Gulf;• Yanked invasive vines from an ancient

heiau (temple for women) on Maui;• Helped band loons wintering in the

Gulf of Mexico;• Weighed migrating shorebirds on

Delaware Bay;• Mapped and macheted invasive plants

in the Galapagos Islands; and• Cleared trails on St. John’s in the Vir-

gin Islands National Park.I’ve tangled with prickly briars, tiptoed

across volcanic crevices, fought off ticksand other clingy critters, been “decorated”with soupy loon feces, evaded hippopota-muses in the moonlight, sweltered underthe Grecian sun, and had an infected toe-nail treated atop a trashcan at a clinic inAfrican bush country.To me, these were challenging, mind-

expanding adventures, and many weretrips of a lifetime.

Volunteer vacationsSome call it voluntourism, volunteering

for conservation or another cause whilevacationing. Others dub it eco-immersionor “citizen science.” Usually, it involvestraveling outside one’s home area andworking with a group under the leadershipof a scientist or other expert. Most projects do not require subject-

matter expertise, as leaders train volun-teers on-site. It’s travel with a purpose, andservice without pay. There’s usually littletime to read a book, sip margaritas, orlounge in a beach chair.Senior volunteering is rising and is now

at a 10-year high, with one in three peopleover age 55 volunteering inthe U.S. or elsewhere. “More than 20 million

senior volunteers gave near-ly three billion hours of serv-ice, at a value of $67 billion,”announced the Corporationfor National and CommunityService (CNCS) in May. A2008 CNCS study reportedthat more than 1 million peo-ple volunteered overseas.

Making a differenceMost people say they vol-

unteer for conservation andsimilar projects to do some-thing meaningful, to make adifference. Conservation-oriented or-

ganizations promote ahealthier planet, a more sus-tainable environment. Earth-watch volunteers, for exam-ple, often help scientists col-lect data that informs publicpolicy and advances science. Vermonter Victoria

Kohler, who has gone on 15

Earthwatch expeditions, commented, “Ireally enjoy working with animals, andhope that my efforts will help furtherknowledge about them and maybe evenhelp save them from decline or possibleextinction.”

Part of a conservation project’s missionmight be to help people who live near theproject site. Claudia Seldon, an Earth-watch volunteer and retired nurse fromDetroit, Mich., said, “I’ve always enjoyedmeeting with local people. It’s differentfrom traveling as a tourist. I enjoy givingback to society.”Conservation projects are usually in out-

door settings — nature’s classrooms — inall kinds of weather. Many projects are inremote locations. That attracts Kohler. “Itgets me to unusual and interesting placeswhere the average tourist does not go,”she said.Many volunteer projects are rich learn-

ing experiences. Volunteers gain newknowledge, such as learning about ani-mals and plants, and master new skills, likeusing GPS systems or tools. They oftenhone their observation skills. For some, volunteering abroad allows

them to brush up on a foreign language. On his fifth Earthwatch expedition

studying loons wintering in Louisiana, RonLeMahieu said, “I do it because I’m a frus-trated field biologist. Holding a loon is likeholding the wilderness in your arms.”Volunteering abroad can also enhance

your understanding of world events, gen-erate insights into cultural values and as-sumptions, and can bolster respect for dif-ferences.Volunteer vacations appeal to many peo-

ple who love to travel but do not have acompatible or willing traveling companion.Usually, others on the project are like-minded and may be of a similar age. Theother volunteers wouldn’t be there if theydid not have common interests.Because projects are often “away from

the headlines” and are hands-on and in thefield, they are a healthy respite from the In-ternet, email, cellphones, television andother technological trappings of today.Bottom line: They enrich your life.

Tips for choosing tripsExtended volunteering requires thought-

ful planning. “A lot of pitfalls can be avoidedwhen people research their volunteer op-portunities well. It helps set the volunteers’

Voluntourism makes for trips of a lifetime

The author, Glenda C. Booth, films marmots in theFrench Alps, on an Earthwatch project.

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Earthwatch volunteers near the Arctic Circle in Canada use ground-penetrating radar tocollect data on permafrost and soil for climate change research. An increasing numberof older adults are taking part in volunteer vacations, which offer unique experiencesand allow them to help the environment and communities around the world.

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Airlines offer perks like iPads andgourmet meals — for a price. Seestory on page 25.

expectations,” said Genevieve Brown, exec-utive director of the International VolunteerPrograms Association. “Traveling to another country, people

will experience some level of cultureshock, so it is important to eliminate a lot

of the unknowns that can surround a vol-unteer placement,” Brown added.Here are some tips:• Understand the physical require-

ments, and assess your capabilities realisti-cally. Projects may require backpacking,

walking in muck or over treacherous ter-rain, standing for extended periods or

steady on a boat, getting in and out ofboats, and lifting heavy equipment. Canyou tolerate weather extremes, very hot orvery cold weather?• Determine your minimal require-

ments for sleeping arrangements. Expectfew frills. You may sleep on the ground, oncots, and in sleeping bags, tents or dormi-tories and you’ll likely have a roommate.• Understand meals. Explain your food

preferences and allergies ahead of time.You may have kitchen duty.• Decide if one, two or more weeks are

desirable. Weather can reduce the numberof work days, but there may be indoor

work too, such as typing data into a com-puter.• Understand the costs. Most likely, you

will have to pay for your transportation toand from the site. Understand what’s in-cluded in the organization’s price. Clarifywhat expenses, if any, are tax deductible.• Understand the insurance provided to

volunteers by the sponsoring organization.Consider travel insurance and extra healthinsurance if leaving the U.S.• Don’t expect healthcare facilities,

medicines or medical personnel like those

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Leisure & Travel 23

Talking on the phone can be easy again.You have our word.

To learn more, visit mdrelay. org or  call 1-800-552-7724 (Voice/TTY). 

Using voice recognition technology, a Captioned Telephone operator makes it possible for you to receive on-screen captions of what your caller says as you listen. You may qualify for a Captioned Telephone, ampli�ed phone, or other devices through the Maryland Accessible Telecommunications program at no cost.

Captioned Telephone from Maryland Relay

Word-for-word captions Easy-to-read display Simple to use

VoluntourismFrom page 22

See VOLUNTOURISM, page 24

GARDEN OF LIGHTS WALKING TOUR Sponsored by Recreation & Parks, a bus trip to the BrooksideGardens in Silver Spring is planned for Sunday, Dec. 8, leaving at

4 p.m. and returning at 10 p.m. for an evening stroll through the lighted displays.Tickets are $49 per person. To reserve or for more information, call (410) 313-7279.

MORMON TEMPLE LIGHTS DISPLAY PLUS DINNER Dinner at Mrs. K’s in Silver Spring is packaged with the MormonTemple light show and musical production for a bus trip onTuesday, Dec. 10, leaving at 4 p.m. and returning at 10 p.m.

Tickets are $65, available by calling Recreation & Parks at (410) 313-7279.

COLUMBIA DEVELOPMENT STUDYA meeting to introduce the public to a study that will help deter-mine the economic outlook for Columbia’s several villages will beheld on Thursday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Hawthorn Center, 6175

Sunny Spring, Columbia. The session, sponsored by the Columbia Association,and the county’s Planning and Zoning and Economic Development Authority, willintroduce the consulting team, provide an overview of the project, its processesand objectives, and include discussion time for participants. Registration isencouraged via www.ColumbiaMarketStudy.EventBrite.com. For more information,call David Greisman at (410) 423-4103.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 8

Dec. 10

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Dec. 5

you have in the U.S.• Pay close attention to the list of sup-

plies recommended. Some projects re-quire specialized gear, like headlamps fornight work. Take every item recommend-ed and don’t over pack, expecting porters.You’ll likely have to lug everything your-self.• Don’t expect much privacy or free

time. While there’s always some “downtime,” generally, your time will not be yourown.• If traveling abroad, learn about the

country beforehand — its governance,politics, cultural factors and restrictionsbased on age, gender, gender identity,race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and reli-gion. The sponsoring organization canlikely connect you with someone who hasbeen there.• Don’t expect to save the world.

“I think the biggest pitfall for people isexpecting to change the world in the timeof their volunteer placement,” Brown said.“Volunteers should go into their placementwith the attitude of service, but also opento learning and striving to understand. “The greatest benefit from volunteer

service is the bridge of cross-cultural un-derstanding,” she observed.

Plan thoughtfullyWhile many volunteers come home rav-

ing about the experience of a lifetime, it’snot for everybody. A woman whose husband of 30 years

asked for a divorce signed up for a trip toEcuador to “get away,” but spent much ofthe two weeks dysfunctional and grieving.Another failed to bring strong hiking bootsand twisted her ankle the second day, dis-abling her and confining her indoors formost of the project. Most volunteer travel experiences re-

quire a tolerant, patient, flexible attitude.

Once there, it’s usually hard to leave, soyou have to “stick it out,” whatever the cir-cumstances.To help you make informed decisions

about volunteering abroad, check outwww.idealist.org/info/IntlVolunteer orwww.voluntourism.org/traveler-start.html.Most of all, volunteer travel requires a

curiosity, a willing spirit and an open mind.You might learn something new aboutyourself. For many people, it is transforma-tional.Wit Ostrenko, president of the Museum

of Science and Industry in Tampa, Floridafor the last 24 years, found volunteering onEarthwatch’s Gulf of Mexico loon projecthad a profound impact on him.“This expedition was humbling for me,

and it changed my life,” said Ostrenko.“Being part of the Earthwatch volunteerteam allowed me to be a scientist again,and it changed my life as a science centerpresident. I was reminded that it’s the

doing that matters, not the talking and theshowing.”The following organizations offer volun-

teer travel opportunities:• Earthwatch, www.earthwatch.org• Sierra Club, www.sierraclub.org/

outings• Road Scholar, Service Learning,

www.roadscholar.org/programs/srv-clearning.asp• World Wide Opportunities on Organic

Farms, www.wwoof.org• Biosphere Expeditions (wildlife con-

servation) www.biosphere-expeditions.org• Cross-Cultural Solutions, www.cross-

culturalsolutions.org• Idealist, www.idealist.org• Passport in Time, USDA Forest Serv-

ice, www.passportintime.com/• Wilderness Volunteers, www.wilder-

nessvolunteers.orgFor more organizations offering a range

of volunteer opportunities abroad, visitwww.volunteerinternational.org/mem-berlist.html.To learn about traveling with minimal

impact on the environment or cultures,visit www.responsible-travel.org.

Glenda C. Booth is a travel writer andvoluntourism enthusiast.

24 Leisure & Travel | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

You’re on top of your medications.But we make a good back up.You know it’s important to stay on your medications exactly as prescribed. However, if you miss a dose, want a lower-cost alternative, or experience any side effects, we can answer any questions. Speak to your local CVS Pharmacist to learn more.

Find a store near you at www.cvs.com

014331RXX11

VoluntourismFrom page 23

TECH TALK WITH LIBRARIANSDrop in to talk with

librarians about ways to utilize spe-cialized online research tools, includ-ing the Internet, library catalog andother technology, on Thursday, Dec.12 from 10 to 11 a.m. at theGlenwood Branch Library, 2350 Rte.97, Cooksville. Call (410) 313-5577for more information.

HANUKKAH PARTY AT BAIN CENTERThe annual Hanukkah

party complete with Mahaya musicalentertainment will be held onThursday, December 5 at 10:30 a.m.at the Bain Center, 5470 RuthKeeton Way, Columbia. The event isfree, but reservations are required. Toreserve or for more information, emailSNovinsky@JewishHowardCounty.orgor phone (410) 730-4876, ext. 103.

A CRAFTY EVENT The ninth annualTown Center Holiday

Craft Fair will be held on Saturday,Nov. 23 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. atHistoric Oakland Manor, 5430Vantage Point Rd., Columbia.Admission is free. For information,call Patricia Loeber at (410) 730-4744 or visit tcvillage@columbia-towncenter.org.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 12

Dec. 5

Nov. 23

By Scott MayerowitzU.S. airlines are introducing a new bevy

of fees, but this time passengers might ac-tually like them. Unlike the first generation of charges,

which dinged fliers for once-free serviceslike checking a bag, these new fees prom-ise a taste of the good life, or at least amore civil flight. Extra legroom, early boarding and ac-

cess to quiet lounges were just the begin-ning. Airlines are now renting Apple iPadspreloaded with movies, selling hot first-class meals in coach, and letting passen-gers pay to have an empty seat next tothem. Once on the ground, they can skipbaggage claim, having their luggage deliv-ered directly to their home or office. In the near future, airlines plan to go

one step further, using massive amounts ofpersonal data to customize new offers foreach flier. “We’ve moved from takeaways to en-

hancements,” said John F. Thomas ofL.E.K. Consulting. “It’s all about personal-izing the travel experience.” Carriers have struggled to raise airfares

enough to cover costs. Fees bring in morethan $15 billion a year and are the reasonthe airlines are profitable. But the amount of money coming in

from older charges like baggage and reser-vation change fees has plateaued. So theairlines are selling new extras and copyingmarketing methods honed by retailers.

Customized optionsTechnological upgrades allow airlines to

sell products directly to passengers atbooking, in follow-up emails as trips ap-proach, at check-in, and on mobile phonesminutes before boarding. Delta Air Lines recently gave its flight

attendants wireless devices, allowing themto sell passengers last-second upgrades toseats with more legroom. And just like Amazon.com offers sug-

gested readings based on each buyer’spast purchases, airlines soon will be ableto use past behavior to target fliers. “We have massive amounts of data,”

said Delta CEO Richard Anderson. “Weknow who you are. We know what yourhistory has been on the airline. We cancustomize our offerings.” Other airlines are experimenting with

tracking passengers throughout the air-port. In the future, if somebody clears se-curity hours before their flight, they mightbe offered a discounted day pass to the air-line’s lounge on their phone. Airlines have yet to find the right bal-

ance between being helpful and beingcreepy. So, for now, most of the data is

being used to win back passengers aftertheir flight is delayed or luggage is lost. “We want to get back to a point where

people feel like travel isn’t something toendure, but something they can enjoy,”said Bob Kupbens, Delta’s vice presidentof marketing and digital commerce.

Keeping base fares low Most passengers select flights based on

the lowest base fare. The online travel in-dustry plays up that price sensitivity withsites named CheapOair.com, CheapTick-ets.com and InsanelyCheapFlights.com. When airlines try to raise fares, they are

met with resistance. “Customers are veryquick to either change travel plans, or useanother carrier or not travel at all,” saidJim Corridore, an airline analyst with Stan-dard & Poor’s Capital IQ. In the past three years, airlines have

tried to hike fares 48 times, according toFareCompare.com. During 29 of those at-tempts, bookings fell enough that airlinesabandoned the increase. Airlines are also starting to bundle

items. Passengers purchase items theymight not necessarily buy alone; it alsosimplifies the dizzying array of offers. “I don’t want you to have to do the math

every time,” said Rick Elieson, managingdirector of digital marketing at AmericanAirlines. American offers a package for $68

roundtrip that includes no change fees,one checked bag and early boarding. Delta is experimenting with a $199 sub-

scription that includes a checked bag, earlyboarding, access to exit row seats, andextra frequent flier miles on all flights a pas-senger takes between October and Jan. 5.

— AP

Airlines offer a return to civility, for a feeHOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Leisure & Travel 25

Call 888-620-4945 for a Personal Tour and Lunch!

A Heartfeltapproach to

Assisted Livingin Howard County

Visit us online at LiveHarmonyHall.com

Harmony Hall has been a part of the Howard County community for decades with a reputation rooted in providing care with genuine compassion. Our philosophy encourages the process of aging in place - private apartments and competitive pricing along with the availability of in-house physical, occupational, and speech therapy, and 24/7 nursing promote overall well being and proactive care.We sit adjacent to Lorien Columbia, a sister community specializing in skilled nursing care and sub-acute rehabilitation, and we are in close proximity to acute and urgent care facilities.

REMEMBERING

THE ENCHANTED

FOREST

The Enchanted Forest near Ellicott

City opened in 1955, the first chil-

dren’s theme park on the East Coast.

Authors Janet Kusterer and Martha

Anne Clark have written a book

detailing the history of the park

through its closing in 1989, The

Enchanted Forest: Memories of

Maryland’s Storybook Park. They will

speak at the Howard County Library

System’s “Meet the Author” event

co-sponsored by the Howard County

Historical Society on Tuesday, Dec. 3

at 7 p.m. at the Miller Branch Library,

9421 Frederick Rd., Ellicott City.

BEACON BITS

Dec. 3

26 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

By Robert FriedmanA woman packing up her family’s be-

longings in their Columbia home after thedeath of her parents finds the love lettersexchanged by her father and mother dur-ing the Korean War.

The letters are playful, angry, passion-ate, articulate.

”Let me know what you are doing,” thewoman tells her future husband, who is7,000 miles away. “The only way I canshare it with you is by your telling meabout it — all of it (good and bad).”

Her husband-to-be, who commands aninfantry platoon, replies: “I have felt prettysick mentally the last couple of days be-cause one of my good friends here gotboth legs blown off and died before he gotto the hospital.”

He also writes: “My heart, mind andsoul leap oceans to you, always.”

Dwight Thompson’s sweetheart whobecame his wife, Cleora Thompson, wasHoward County’s first archivist, from 1975-1981. Through her efforts, many countybuildings were put on the National Regis-ter of Historic Places. She died in 2010.

The couple moved to Columbia in 1971,

after Lt. Col. Thompson became the Armyprovost marshal at Fort Meade.

A daughter’s discoveryThe daughter who discovered the hun-

dreds of courtship letters is Susan Thomp-son, an actress and playwright now livingin Massachusetts. She spent her formativeteenage years in Columbia, participated inthe Columbia Dance Theater, and graduat-ed from Wilde Lake High School, class of1976.

Susan Thompson finds the letters againand again when she takes to the stage toreenact her discovery and to dramatizetheir contents and how they shaped herparents’ more than half-century — 51years — of life together.

She wrote a play about their lives, shesaid, to memorialize her parents and howthey aged together, and so the audiencewill remember the soldiers who hadfought in what has been called America’s“forgotten war.”

Perhaps that is why she named the playUnforgettable: Letters from Korea. It was writ-ten last year, and Susan Thompson hasacted as both herself and as her mother in

the performances that have been presented. So far, the 75-minute work has not had a

continuous run. Last July 25, it was pre-sented at the Korean War Veterans Memo-rial on the Mall to mark the 60th anniver-sary of the end of the Korean “police ac-tion” that took the lives of 36,516 U.S. mili-tary and 1.2 million Koreans.

In 2012, the playwas performed at theArena Stage library inD.C. for Korean veter-ans and their families.It has been staged afew times in theBoston area. Thomp-son is a lecturer in theBoston College The-ater Department.

A moving time capsuleWhen she discovered her parents’ let-

ters 50 years after they were written, “Iwas moved by them, not only because theywere my parents, but because they werehistorically significant,” Thompson said.

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After her parentsdied, Susan Thomp-son found in theirColumbia home theletters they had writ-ten to each otherduring the KoreanWar. She has writtena play about the let-ters in which sheplays both her moth-er and herself. Sheis hoping to performUnforgettable: Let-ters from Korea lo-cally at some point.

Korean War love letters inspire new play

See NEW PLAY, page 27

A flamingo takes a bath in one of Dr. CarlSegal’s animal photos. Read the rest ofthe cover story on his work on page 27.

The letters were filled with the details ofeveryday life — the food they were eating,the clothes they were wearing — and theywere “rich in emotion.”

The letters, she said, ”were specific totime and place and particular to my par-ents, and yet they were universal becausethey were dealing with love and war.”

Thompson said she is also working on aplay about her great-great grandfather’sletters during the Civil War. In one of thoseletters, he wrote to his wife: “Please ex-cuse the dirt on the letter.”

“Those were the same exact words myfather had written to my mother in one ofhis letters,” she said. This small but tellingdetail “shows that they [the soldiers] weretrying to shield their loved ones from theirown situation, which was writing while sit-ting in mud. They wanted to send some-thing heartfelt to their sweethearts in theirclean little worlds.”

Thompson noted: “In working on thescript, sometimes I needed to do very little,the source material was so strong…Theplay is really a story of love and how it en-dures through time.”

Portraying both mother anddaughter

The actress-playwright takes tworoles. She is her mother — at 22, when asa college senior she was correspondingwith her soldier-boyfriend, and at 72, justbefore she died of Alzheimer’s disease —and she is the daughter, recalling theirlives.

During those last years of her mother’slife, Thompson noted, her father continual-ly cared for her, dressing her for church onSundays, taking her to his law office andeven to court, letting employees close tothem watch over her while he argued a casebefore the judge.

The play moves back and forth over 50years, interweaving the love letters, the lastyears of the war, projected images of thetimes, poetry, memories and songs heardoften in the 1950s (“These Foolish Things,”“I Cover the Waterfront,” “Side By Side”and, of course, “Unforgettable”).

On Nov. 9, Thompson and others in theproduction were in Osage, Iowa, wherethe Mitchell County Historical Society andthe county’s Fine Arts Council sponsoredtwo performances of Unforgettable to com-memorate the Korean War armistice.

High school students in the town inter-

viewed Korean veterans living there andthe society put together an exhibit of uni-forms, letters, medals and other memora-bilia of the war.

The play has not yet been presented inHoward County. Thompson said shewould love to bring it to the county, where“my parents were so involved for over 30years with church, the community.”

She has contacted the Howard County

Historical Society, and they told her theywould “try to facilitate” a presentation,Thompson said.

Sean Gladden, the society’s executivedirector, told the Beacon that he would liketo see the play presented locally. He saidthe society could not sponsor a presenta-tion alone, but he hoped other organiza-tions would come forward to partner withhis group to present the play.

Neighbor Care pharmacy of the MedicalArts Building at 11085 Little PatuxentPkwy., where he has his office.

The Artists Gallery cooperative at 10227Wincopin Circle in Columbia carries someof his cards, and usually has two or threephotos on display there each month.

Segal, who has been in private practicein Columbia since 1972, moved to the towna few years after it was established in 1967.With a bachelor’s and master’s degree inpharmacy from Temple University, he

earned his M.D. degree from Thomas Jef-ferson University, and held a residency inpsychiatry at Walter Reed General Hospi-tal. He did post-residency training in com-munity mental health at Harvard MedicalSchool.

He served in the U.S. Army for 10 years,and directed the Bureau of Mental Healthand Addictions of the Howard CountyHealth Department from 1972-77.

Segal also held the posts of president ofthe Howard County Medical Society, presi-dent of the medical staff at Howard CountyGeneral Hospital, and chair of the hospi-tal’s department of psychiatry.

Adapting to changeHe happily shares his future plans: “To

continue in the active practice of psychiatryin Howard County as long as I am physical-ly and mentally able. To continue regularlyvisiting zoos and taking photographs aslong as I am physically and mentally able.”

In October, some 80 of his framed photo-graphs were arranged in a 25-year retrospec-tive exhibit at his office suite, arranged byHelene Segal, his wife of 57 years, and patientmanager Karen Phillips, also a photographer.Together, the two women form what Segalacknowledges as “my support system.”

Segal notes that he has been experienc-

ing some challenges in his distance visionlately, so he often takes someone alongnow on his zoo trips to spot an attractivesubject. He takes it from there.

Once he has focused on the animal,magnified in the viewfinder, Segal waitsuntil the exactly right moment — theheight of the yawn, the blink of the eye in aflirtatious wink. Then SNAP.

Segal has also moved from his treas-ured single reflex lens camera to digital inrecent years: “Got to be ‘adaptive’ — that’sthe key to keep going,” said the manwhose own name reflects one of the ani-mals he so loves to capture on camera.

PhotographerFrom page 1

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style 27

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New playFrom page 26

Columbia Pro CantareFrances Motyca Dawson, Conductor. 37th Season!

Handel MessiahDecember 8, 2013, 7:30 PM

Jim Rouse Theatre, 5460 Trumpeter Rd., Columbia 21044

www.procantare.org

Columbia Pro Cantare chorus, Amy Van Roekel, soprano; MaryAnn McCormick, mezzoCharles Reid, tenor; Lester Lynch, baritone, Henry Lowe, positiv organ; Festival Orchestra

“A CHRISTMAS NOËL” December 15, 2013, 3:00 PMSponsor: The Steve & Susan Team of Long & Foster Real Estate.

Christ Episcopal Church, 6800 Oakland Mills Rd., ColumbiaCPC Chamber Singers perform season music spanning 400 years.Alison Gatwood, piano, Frank Rittermann, organJOIN CPC AT OUR NEW YEAR’S EVE SOIRÉEJared Denhard and Friends at a private home in Dunloggin, Ellicott City

For information and tickets: 410-799-9321 or 301-854-0107

Sponsored by:

By Hillel ItalieBilly Crystal remembers a show in Balti-

more, around 1975, when he opened forthe ‘50s revival act Sha Na Na.

He was an unknown comic at the time,an unknown who happened to look exactlylike one of Sha Na Na’s lead singers, John-ny Contardo.

“I’m introduced and I have no billing,”Crystal said during a recent interview.“’Please welcome another star of our showand an up-and-coming new comic ...’ Thatwas the ‘70s. Whenever you heard ‘up-and-coming new comic,’ it was like ‘Ugh.’

“When I hit the stage, they thought I wasJohnny playing a guy named Billy Crystaland they booed and they hissed and soforth. And I started getting in their face, ina funny way. And I finished my set, and Igot a standing ovation after I walked off.And Johnny got a T-shirt that he would

wear and it said, ‘No, I’m not Billy Crystal.”‘

Time for his memoirsIt’s been a long time since Billy Crystal

has been mistaken for anyone else. At 65, he has the same round face,

scrappy New York accent and rubberygrin known to fans of Analyze This, WhenHarry Met Sally, and all those Oscar tele-casts.

Seated in his publicist’s office, sippingcoffee from a paper Starbucks cup, he looksat least a decade younger than his age, andis working at the same pace — constant —that he’s kept up for much of his life.

He’s set to star in a film comedy direct-ed by Frank Oz, and this fall returned toBroadway with his one-man show abouthis childhood and his father, 700 Sundays.

His whole life is on record for his cur-rent project, the memoir Still Foolin’ ‘Em,

which set off a million-dollar bidding waramong publishers last spring that was fi-nally won by Henry Holt and Company.

Turning 65 was all the inspiration heneeded. “All of my really dear friends whoare the same age are pretty much sayingthe same thing, which is basically, ‘Wow.Jeez. This is really happening,’” he said.

“You go through stages — first day ofschool, ‘It’s a bar mitzvah,’ ‘a wedding.’‘You know who died?’”

Living everyone’s fantasiesCrystal is both a typical baby boomer,

baseball fan and political liberal who bragsabout his grandchildren and can’t believethat he’s a grandfather, and a VIP whoseems to have lived out every childhoodfantasy — a star of movies, television andthe stage, befriended by Muhammad Aliand Mickey Mantle, adored by Sophia

Loren. During one Oscar show, Jack Nicholson

and Warren Beatty stopped by his dress-ing room to compliment him. Beatty andBill Clinton turned up backstage after aperformance of 700 Sundays.

He has not only palled around with Man-tle, Yogi Berra and other New York Yan-kees, he even got to play for them once.

“In 2007, I was in Costa Rica for Christ-mas vacation and could feel my birthdaylooming,” Crystal writes in his memoir. “Iwas anxious about turning 60 — it felt likea huge number. Derek Jeter happened tobe at our hotel.”

Jeter “happened” to be there, and alsohappened to be a longtime friend whoasked Crystal to make a birthday wish.

On March 13, 2008, Crystal was allowedan at-bat during a Yankees exhibitiongame.

“Dreams have come true for me in somany different ways that’s it’s almost as-tounding,” he said. “As I was writing thesethings, other people reacted to them —I’ve lived through them, but other peoplesay, ‘Do you realize how many great thingshave happened?”‘

Disappointments and loss, tooOf course he has had disappointments

— minor, major and profound. Joe DiMag-gio once punched him in the stomach(Crystal, hosting a tribute at Yankee Stadi-um for Mantle, had failed to introduceDiMaggio as “the greatest living” baseballplayer). He was scheduled to appear on

28 Arts & Style | More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

F R O S H I D L E O V E NL A N C E T R O T N E R OU T U R N E I G H T E E N SB A S E C A M P A S P S

W E B S O R EA B C S B A S K E T C A S EL U R I D S C O R E M I XT R I N I O R K S K I R TI R E L A N A I T I G E RD O D G E V I P E R C O D A

I M A C E E KK I L N S O F T S O A P

H A V E A B A L L H O R S EO N E A A C I D O U S T SP T S D N E T S S T O A T

ANSWERS TO SCRABBLE

ANSWERS TO CROSSWORD

FROM PAGE 30

Billy Crystal finds inspiration in hitting 65

See BILLY CRYSTAL, page 29

the debut broadcast of “Saturday NightLive,” but his segment was cut. The 1992 film Mr. Saturday Night, which

Crystal directed and starred in, was a criti-cal and commercial letdown that kickedoff a dry spell and made Crystal wonder ifhis movie career was over. But the real wound was sustained at age

15, when his father died of a heart attack.Jack Crystal was a jazz promoter and pro-ducer, and his son’s first audience. “That’s how you start,” Billy Crystal said,

“making your parents laugh. And he was areally great mentor in looking at these real-ly great comedians on television and say-ing, ‘Watch Laurel and Hardy and not TheThree Stooges. ‘You can stay up late, eventhough it’s a school night. Then you canwatch Ernie Kovacs and stay up for Jack

Paar because Jonathan Winters is on.’” With the 50th anniversary of his father’s

death approaching, Crystal decided it wasa good time for another run, likely the last,of 700 Sundays. “I love the energy of Broadway, and I

thought this was the way to commemorateit [his father’s death] and then put the

show to rest,” he said. “I see the thread [in life], as I always

end up returning to the stage, to get up infront of people and make them laugh andmake them look at themselves and makethem nod their heads and go, ‘Oh, that’sme, too.’”

— AP

HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON — D E C EMBER 2 0 1 3 Say you saw it in the Beacon | Arts & Style 29

Billy Crystal recently returned to Broadway with his one-man show about his fatherand childhood, 700 Sundays. He is also starring in a movie called Winter’s Discontentto be released next year.

PH

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Billy CrystalFrom page 28

Please tell our advertisers, “I saw you in the Beacon!”

Date: Wednesday, December 18, 2013Time: 8:30 – 10:00 a.m.

Location: Vantage House 5400 Vantage Point Rd., Columbia, MD 21044

Speakers: Jeannie Finnegan – Therapeutic Music Consultant

Topic: Music Therapy/ Holiday Networking

Learn more by calling (410) 997-0610 or visit www.cogsmd.org

PLATINUM MEMBERSHoward County General Hospital – Johns Hopkins Medicine • The Beacon Newspapers

GOLD MEMBERSBeing There Senior Care • Gary L. Kaufman Funeral Home at Meadowridge Memorial Park

Howard County Office on Aging • Visiting AngelsSILVER MEMBERS

American Remodeling Group • Carney, Kelehan, Bresler, Bennett & Scherr, LLP • Deborah L. Herman, CPAEllicott City Health & Rehabilitation Center (Communicare) • Ellicott City Pharmacy • EMA-Copper Ridge

BRONZE MEMBERSEarl Wilkinson, M.D., ENT • Gentiva Health Services • Home Instead Senior Care

HomeWatch Caregivers • Lighthouse Senior Living at Ellicott City • Professional Healthcare Resources, Inc.Sterling-Ashton-Schwab-Witzke Funeral Home of Catonsville, Inc. • The Bob Lucido Team

Trevor Barringer JD/MBA • Whaley Financial Services • Witzke Funeral Homes Inc. of ColumbiaWood Builders Collaborative

PATRON MEMBERSAlzheimer’s Association – Greater MD Chapter • Brighton Gardens of Columbia

Brooke Grove Retirement Village • Chesapeake Bay Aquatic & Physical Therapy • Craig Witzke Funeral CareElizabeth Cooney Care Network • Home Call • Home With You • Ivy Manor Normandy, Inc.

Morningside House of Ellicott City •Progressive Care at Home Right At Home – In Home Care & Assistance

Thank you to our 2013 Executive Members

We’re a coalition of nonprofits, agencies, businesses and professionals who come together to advocate for and help older adults.

Coalition of Geriatric Services

December Meeting

All Pet Crematory, Inc.(410) 552-0703 or 1(888) 552-0703 (toll free)

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30 More at TheBeaconNewspapers.com DECEMBER 2 0 1 3 — HOWARD COUNT Y B E A CON

Scrabble answers on p. 28.

Crossword PuzzleDaily crosswords can be found on our website:

www.TheBeaconNewspapers.comClick on Puzzles Plus

Answers on page 28.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22

23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

35 36 37 38

39 40 41 42

43 44 45 46

47 48 49 50

51 52 53

54 55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64

65 66 67

68 69 70

Down1. Botch2. Pro ___3. Burden of proof4. O: Attaches5. In conclusion6. One story or two lovers7. Party pooper8. Diary9. Ending of the Bible10. “I’ll be right there”11. Senate tie-breaker12. White-bellied Sea Eagle, and relatives13. Ballot proposition options19. Most pucker-producing21. Start of a sonnet rhyme scheme24. Home to the Illinois Holocaust Museumand Education Center25. “___ the fields we go”26. Other ref. nbr.27. Small donkey28. Wept30. ___ Boomer (an intense post-war kid)31. Left-over parts32. Ole buddy33. Begot34. Face in a crowd scene36. No-win situation42. O: Evicts45. Gardner of The Barefoot Contessa48. Biblical mountain, in present-day Jordan49. Arbiter or arbitrate53. Community spirit54. He could write of Pure Reason55. Folk singer Burl56. Feature of a 41 Across57. He made 425 new cars in 190158. Roughly59. “The Thin Man” dog60. Annoyance61. Short flight62. Lifetime ___ (permanent expulsion)63. Get a top grade

Enjoy Yourself by Stephen Sherr

Across1. Attendee at a new student mixer6. Unused10. GE product14. It’s used as a weapon a lot15. Hot to ___16. He has a steakhouse at Caesar’s Palace17. Complete 18018. O: Pretty good blackjack hands20. O: Last stop for supplies22. Nile snakes23. One of the w’s in www.crossword-dictionary.com

24. Achy26. Fundamentals29. O: Neurotic one35. Gruesome37. Cross the goal line38. Match match39. South Caribbean islander40. TV ET HQ41. Ann Taylor offering43. Resentment44. Hawaiian Island with no traffic lights46. After Jack, he has won the most majors47. O: New model greenlighted by

Lee Iacocca in 199050. Concluding event51. Jobs creation52. “Oh no; a mouse!”54. It turns clay to bricks56. O: A good cleanser, bar none61. Enjoy yourself (or what all the

O’ed clues do)64. Trojan hiding place65. ___-Day (vitamin brand founded over 25,000 days ago)

66. Type of jazz or rock67. Expels68. War vet’s problem69. Brooklyn team, since 201270. Short-tailed weasel

JUMBLE ANSWERS

Jumbles: USURP APPLY POWDER BEHELD

Answer: What the clerk got when she decorated the giftpackage -- "WRAPPED" UP IN IT

Puzzle Page

COMPASSIONATE CAREGIVER –LADY COMPANION available for elderlyor adult with disabilities. Very reliable, expe-rienced, own car with excellent references.CPR/First Aid/Hospice/Mental Health AideCertified. I can provide respite care,concierge, plus more services for your lovedone. Please call 240-426-3548 and kindlyleave me a message.

ACCOUNTING, BOOKKEEPING, TAXES– conscientious CPA, 37 years experience, rea-sonable rates, looking for additional business,personal and eldercare clients. Call 410-653-3363.

2 SALVADOR DALI woodblock prints fromDante’s Divine Comedy. Signed and framed.Asking $900 for the pair. Can email picturesif desired. Call Steve 410-913-1653.

BASEMENT OR FOUNDATION PROB-LEMS? LEVELIFT SYSTEMS, INC. offershonest, professional, no-pressure inspection, con-sultation & repair quotes for owner-occupiedhomes with settling, cracking & buckling base-ment walls. Our 23-year-old Jessup, Maryland-based firm has a spotless record with Angie’sList, Better Business Bureau and MarylandState Home Improvement Commission. Ask forPaul. Office: 301-369-3400. Cell: 410-365-7346.Paulm@levelift.com. MHIC #45110.

HANDYMAN MATTERS will help you staysafe in your own home. Professional, ReliableSkilled Craftsmen. Grab Bar Installation,Bathroom Modifications and your to-do list!410-549-9696. MHIC # 89094.

SANFORD & SON HAULING Trash re-moval, house & estate clean-outs, garageclean-outs, yard work & cleanups, demolition,shed removal. 410-746-5090. Free Estimates.Insured. Call 7 days a week 7am - 7pm.

ESTATE SPECIALIST Experts in estateclean-outs and preparing your house for sale.Trash removal, house cleanouts, light mov-ing, demolition, yard work, cleaning. 410-746-5090. Free estimates. Insured. Call 7 days7am - 7pm.

LEARN ENGLISH – SPANISH – ITAL-IAN – FRENCH – PORTUGUESE Conver-sational. Grammatical. Private lessons. Rea-sonable Rates. Tutoring students. 443-352-8200.

MEMBERS – CHINA-BURMA INDIAVETERANS WWII “Free State Basha.” Meet1st month. Snyders Restaurant. 410-465-3725/410-866-8781.

VINYL RECORDS WANTED from 1950through 1985. Jazz, Rock-n-Roll, Soul,Rhythm & Blues, Reggae and Disco. 33 1/3LPs, 45s or 78s, Larger collections of at least100 items wanted. Please call John, 301-596-6201.

CASH BUYER for old costume jewelry, pock-et and wrist watches (any condition). Alsobuying watchmaker tools and parts, trainsets and accessories, old toys, old glassware &coins. 410-655-0412.

WE BUY OLD AND NEW COINS, Jewelry,Silver and Gold, Paper Money too. Watches,Clocks and Parts, Military Badges andPatches Old and New. Call Greg, 717-658-7954.

OLD AND NEW WE BUY Sterling Silver Flat-ware, Tea Sets or Single Pieces., Furniture, Tools,Cameras, Good Glassware, Artwork Too. ToysFrom Trains to Hotwheels, Action Figures toStar Wars. Call Greg, 717-658-7954.

MILITARY ITEMS Collector seeks: helmets,weapons, knives, swords, bayonets, webgear,uniforms, inert ordnance, ETC. From 1875 to1960, US, German, Britain, Japan, France,Russian. Please call Fred 301-910-0783, Thankyou. Also Lionel Trains.

FINE ANTIQUES, PAINTINGS AND QUALI-TY VINTAGE FURNISHINGSwanted by a se-rious capable buyer. I am very well educated [lawdegree] knowledgeable [over 40 years in the an-tique business] and have the finances and where-withal to handle virtually any situation. If youhave a special item, collection or important estate Iwould like to hear from you. I pay great prices forgreat things in all categories from oriental rugs toTiffany objects, from rare clocks to firearms, fromsilver and gold to classic cars. If it is wonderful, Iam interested. No phony promises or messy con-signments. References gladly furnished. Pleasecall Jake Lenihan, 301-279-8834. Thank you.

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RReessiiddeennttiiaall CCoottttaaggeess AAssssiisstteedd LLiivviinngg SSkkiilllleedd NNuurrssiinngg CCaarree MMeemmoorryy ssuuppppoorrtt RReehhaabbiilliittaattiioonn

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