My doctor asked me how I feel these days when I wake up in the morning.
“Surprised” I told her, and I wasn’t kidding.
But whilst the ol’ bones creak and the slower I move, time goes faster! The good news is that I don’t have Alzheimer’s — and I intend to keep it that way!
How? Recent research confirms the best way to prevent or slow Alzheimer’s progression is diet and supplements, stress management, physical exercise and “brain aerobics.”
Neurologists report that brain aerobics can reduce our chance of developing Alzheimer’s by up to 70 percent. With them odds, it’s hard to believe we’re all not exercising our brains more often.
So why wait?
Let’s see if you can guess what celebrities these common phrases, places and things are named after.
You may know “in like Flynn” means having easily achieved something. Unfortunately, the phrase also has a sleazier connotation.
Errol Flynn was brought to trial for statutory rape of two underage girls. Because it was then and not now, the “dashing swashbuckler” actually won his case two ways: he was acquitted and the publicity from the case cemented his reputation as a ladies’ man.
Next question: Producers are now required to set aside a certain percentage of money earned by child performers for their future security. Any idea why it is named the Coogan Bill?
Back in the ’30s, child star Jackie Coogan, the kid in the Chaplin silent The Kid, earned nearly four million dollars. But when he became an adult he had nothing. His parents had every legal right to pilfer it.
Any idea what World War II servicemen nicknamed their life preservers with inflatable air pockets around the chest? The vest was named after a buxom actress who in 1935 was the second highest-paid person in the United States.
In her reel life, Mae West had worn padded clothes and high heels to appear more statuesque. That’s because in her real life she wore a 32C bra and stood at just five feet tall!
In 1993 President Clinton signed into law a landmark act that created a database to help track child abusers and to assure parents that criminals were not caring for their children.
This law is more commonly referred to by the first name of the media mogul who shared her own nightmare story of being abused multiple times as a child.
Hats off to Oprah advocating for the “Oprah Act.”
“I don’t think anybody should write his autobiography until after he’s dead.” That’s just one of an endless supply of malapropisms from which legendary producer?
They are producer Samuel Goldwyn’s “Goldwynisms.” Born Szmuel Gelbfisz, he was an orphan who fled Poland on his own. He immigrated to America as Samuel Goldfish and eventually changed his name into what became the “G” in MGM.
OK, if you didn’t do well on this brain-building quiz, don’t worry, put it out of your mind. As Goldwyn once said: “…in no time, it will be a forgotten memory.”
Until next time…keep thinking the good thoughts.
— For more than 30 years, Rona Barrett was a pioneering entertainment reporter, commentator and producer. Since 2000, she has focused her attention and career on the growing crisis of housing and support for our aging population. She is the founder and CEO of the Rona Barrett Foundation, the catalyst behind Santa Ynez Valley’s first affordable senior housing, the Golden Inn & Village. Contact her at info@ronabarrettfoundation.org. The opinions expressed are her own.