by Ruth Griffiths

When I put on my Capri pants for the first time this season I got that “thickening” feeling. The pants seemed a lot tighter than I remembered them being last summer. I might be able to fool the bathroom scales, but waistbands don’t lie. There is definitely more to me than there used to be.

Losing weight appears to be a self-defeating process. When you eat fewer calories than you consume, your body must use up some of your stored fat and you lose weight. But it doesn’t end there. The body now thinks you are entering a period of famine and starts to conserve energy by slowing your metabolism. Your body becomes more efficient and it takes even fewer calories to accomplish everyday living. That’s why it seems you can eat less than you did years ago, but still gain weight.

We also tend to become more sedentary as we age. We’re content to sit and enjoy life, rather than jumping up every five minutes to rush around and do something as we did when we were much younger. And of course, while you’re sitting there you need a little tea and toast!

Exercise can actually reduce your appetite. You might feel so tired that you don’t want to eat. (Unfortunately this rarely happens to me. I’m always ready to eat.) Exercise also speeds up your metabolism so that you are burning more calories, even while you sleep.

What’s the best exercise for the over 55 crowd? It’s the exercise that you DO. In order to maintain a fitness program month after month, you need to enjoy what you are doing. Life’s too short; if it’s not fun, don’t do it.

The same goes for dieting. Any changes you make to your meal plans need to become a part of your lifestyle for the rest of your life. So don’t do anything drastic. Don’t cut out whole groups of food unless you have some medical condition requiring you to do so.

Whatever you choose to do to lose your weight, you need to keep doing to keep it off. Choosing a diet you don’t enjoy is just a recipe for putting the weight back on. If you are going to keep it off you’ve got to like how you’ve lost it enough to keep doing it.
Ruth Griffiths is the former editor of Rural Roots.

by Ruth Griffiths

Today is my birthday. It’s the 68^th anniversary of my birth, a very important event … at least in my life. I’ve noticed that women of a certain age are no longer reluctant to announce their age. And when you reach a century, you begin to announce your age is fractions again, like the very young do. You are 99 and a half or 100 and a quarter.

One of the oldest recorded birthdays was over 4,000 years ago when King Pharaoh celebrated his birthday by making a feast for his court followers. Another Bible story tells how King Herod made a birthday supper for his lords, high captains and other special friends in Galilee.

Today most people celebrate their birthday with greeting cards and a decorated cake. Birthday celebrations in the European tradition evolved as attempts to fend off the evil spirits that people believed were attracted to a person celebrating a birthday.

Centuries ago, birthdays were considered a time when the bad spirits, as opposed to the good spirits, were able to harm you. It was believed that the only way to keep the bad spirits at bay was to have your friends and family surround you with their good wishes.

 The custom of lighting candles originated with people believing that the gods lived in the sky and by lighting candles and torches they were sending a signal or prayer to the gods so they could be answered. When you blow out the candles on your cake and make a wish this is another way of sending a signal and a message.

I remember getting the birthday bumps as a child at school. Apparently this tradition originated in Ireland and where the birthday child is lifted and “bumped” on the floor for good luck.  The number of bumps given is the age of the child plus one for extra good luck.

Different cultures celebrate in different ways.

In Brazil, well-wishers pull on the earlobes of the birthday girl or boy for good luck. The party includes candies shaped like fruits and vegetables.

In Australia, a children’s birthday feast includes “Fairy Bread”… buttered bread covered with colourful candy sprinkles. (I’ll bet someone invented this when the cake flopped.)

In India, children wear new clothes on their birthday.

Mexican children smash piñatas at their large birthday gatherings. The piñata is a decorated container for candy. The piñata actually originated in China where they were used to celebrate New Year’s.

I plan to celebrate my birthday with a quiet meal with family, but if I really wanted to keep my birthday secret I would have thought up a different topic to my column, wouldn’t I.

Statistically there are more birthdays at this time of year, so a “happy birthday” wish to all you other spring lambs.

by Ruth Griffiths

Canadian newspaper history dates back more than 250 years. Like most industries, newspapers have waxed and waned, but now they seem to be in serious decline. Could it be that newspapers will disappear?

On March 23, 1752, Canada’s first regular newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, began publication. According to Wikipedia, the two-sided paper contained public notices, ads from booksellers and wholesalers, notices about slave auctions, poems and elegies, and excerpts from notable publications.

The Gazette was succeeded in 1874 by the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the oldest existing newspaper in North America. The Halifax Chronicle-Herald is owned by Sarah Dennis of Halifax. It is the largest independently-owned newspaper in Canada.

But the newspaper’s newsroom staff have been locked out of work since January 2016. The newspaper continues to publish but has lost ground to online competitors as well as the free daily Metro Halifax, which is now the most-read newspaper in Halifax.

A month ago, CBC reported that the union that represents 55 striking newsroom staff at the Halifax Chronicle-Herald says contract talks have broken off.

Union president Ingrid Bulmer says union members have already agreed to a longer work week, a five per cent wage cut, fewer vacation days, a freeze to their pension plan, lower salaries for new hires and other concessions.

The newspaper’s management has said big changes are required to meet business challenges.

At one time, owning a newspaper was “a license to print money.”  Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch once described the profits flowing from his newspapers as “rivers of gold”, but several years later said, “sometimes rivers dry up.”

According to the same Wikipedia article, Warren Buffett commented: “If cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the Internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed.”

Newspapers have consolidated with electronic media and cut staff so that today there are fewer reporters. In 2016, for the third year in a row, the CareerCast survey of the best and worst jobs in the U.S. reports that a newspaper reporter is the worst career. It pointed to fewer job prospects because of publications closing down, and declining ad revenue providing less money for salaries. Being an over the air broadcaster was the third worst, and advertising sales is in the bottom 10.

My career with the Prince Albert Daily Herald began in 1981 when the newspaper was owned by Thompson. I have personally witnessed the computerization of the newsroom and production. A new owner, Transcontinental, removed the printing press in 2001 and had the paper printed in Saskatoon. I lost my job when most production and editorial functions were consolidated in Moose Jaw in 2009.

Will we always be willing to have our news delivered to us on paper? Are newspapers dead?

by Ruth Griffiths

Perhaps it is the news topic du jour, but racial intolerance and violence against visible minority groups appears to be on the increase worldwide. Like rats in a crowded cage we are turning on each other, tooth and claw.

I can understand it when starving people riot. I can empathize with the protests of overcrowded people. But I have little patience for people who do violence in the name of religion, because at the core of all religions is the injunction to live peacefully.

Christians follow the teachings of Jesus Christ who said the most important moral law is to love God completely and that the second law followed from the first: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

But what about the newcomer, the person not yet recognized as a neighbour?

The New Testament encourages hospitality to strangers: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:2)

Christians, Jews and Muslims all follow the teachings of the Old Testament: “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21)

The Qur’an specifies fair treatment for “the neighbour who is a stranger.”

“And do good unto your parents, and near of kin, and unto orphans, and the needy, and the neighbour from among your own people, and the neighbour who is a stranger, and the friend by your side, and the wayfarer, and those whom you rightfully possess. Verily, God does not love any of those who, full of self-conceit, act in a boastful manner…” – An-Nisa (4:36)

People of faith are taught to react to a stranger as an individual, not as a faceless member of a group that might threaten them. When we see each other as individuals, we begin to value them for who they are… a child of God.

There is no they… there is only us.

I give the last word to the Dalai Lama: “Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species.”

by Ruth Griffiths

My father died recently at age 101. He was a huge part of my life and I miss him every day. But several other people I had known also died this year, and I realized that everyone I meet somehow has an impact on my life, changing it, often in imperceptible ways.

During three decades working with the local newspaper I had some wonderful experiences. I won awards and was recognized locally and nationally for the service work I had done. But when I tell people about the highlights in my career as a journalist, it’s the “people” who made it special. My life is truly rich because of the people whom I met during my work.

Now, in retirement, I continue to meet people through volunteering and in the fitness classes I lead. Each person adds to my life, helping me to build a richer and more complex version of myself. Without the influence of others, beginning with my parents, I would be a single-dimensional person … a very limited version of me.

I tried to think of a metaphor for this concept. I would love to think that my life was like a bouquet of flowers or a painting, but instead I arrived at the thought that my life is like the dust on my kitchen floor!

When I sweep the floor (which isn’t often enough), I am amazed at the collection of detritus that is collected in the dustpan. There’s a flake of rolled oats from breakfast. There’s an apple seed from last night’s snack. There’s a piece of thread from my quilting project. Sadly, the “dust” in the pan is often composed mainly of my own hair and skin cells! (I’m shedding worse than a cat!)

This unappetizing story helps me to explain how other people touch my life. Everything that happens in my kitchen leaves its imprint on the floor. Everyone I meet leaves an imprint on my life, imperceptibly changing me.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” is a funeral phrase that has richer meaning for me when I think about the rich and cumulative nature of dust. We come from “dust”… the rich heritage of our genealogy … and we return to “dust” … the complex compost of the grave. But along the way we acquire a lot of new dust from the host of people who enter our lives.

I am truly grateful for the people who have “dusted” my life.

by Ruth Griffiths

Since humans started to drape themselves in animal skins, we have needed something to hold it all together. I found it intriguing to research the history of clothing fasteners.

Buttons date back to 2800 BCE, according to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Buttons were first used “as ornamental details carved from seashells and stones, rather than fasteners. Functional buttons popped up in Germany during the 13th century thanks to the advent of the buttonhole, and by the start of the 14th century, buttons were used widely across Europe, due in part to the popularity of tight-fitting clothing.”

Buckles date back to the Iron Age, between 1200 BCE and 600 BCE. Both square and D-shaped belt buckles have been discovered in ancient graves. Interestingly, the word “buckle” has roots in the Latin “buccula”, or cheek strap, which alludes to the straps that Roman soldiers used to keep helmets in place.

According to a blog by Emily Singer, “hook and eye closures first popped up in 14th century England on doublets and breeches as an invisible button of sorts. Originally crafted by hand from wires, hook and eye closures have primarily been used in women’s clothing, specifically bras and corsets. Arranged in rows, they evenly distribute stress on restrictive garments.”

I had thought that the zipper was an invention without precedent, but the zipper was initially called the “hookless fastener.”

Perhaps there really are no “new” ideas, only innovative improvements on the past.

According to Singer, Elias Howe received a patent for an “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure” in 1851. There have been many refinements of the zipper over the years, including airtight and water-tight zippers. “Invisible” zippers have the teeth hidden behind a tape, so that the zipper is invisible. The zipper tape’s colour matches the colour of the garment, making it “invisible”.

Like buttons, zippers have become a fashion statement. You’ll find zippers on clothing where no openings exist.

Did you ever wonder about the initials YKK that are on most zippers? That Japanese company (formerly called Yoshida Kogyo K.K.) controls half of the market worldwide.

Anyone who struggles with shoelaces will love the story of Velcro. This tape and hook fastener was invented in 1951. Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticed how burrs clung to his dog’s fur and his own clothing while on a hunting trip through the Alps. He made an innovation on the hook and eye closure on a massively reduced scale, taking two fabric strips — one with tiny hooks and one with soft loops — that bound together when pressed.

by Ruth Griffiths

We are well into the home stretch for the 2017 Prince Albert Winter Festival. It’s one of the longest running festivals in Canada, celebrating local talent and the traditional northern lifestyle.

In its beginning, in 1965, Prince Albert Winter Festival events were held on the North Saskatchewan River. When the ice creaked and groaned, it added to the excitement of being on the river. Sadly, because of fluctuations in water levels, the ice is no longer safe for hosting the festival events.

Over the years, Winter Festival has been held at Little Red River Park, in a field south of Marquis Drive and, most recently, at the Alfred Jenkins Field House on 10th Avenue West. The addition of indoor activities for children, the Kidz Fun Zone, has made this a popular venue.

I recall watching the King Trapper events in Memorial Square at City Hall. Contestants dressed in fur hats and buckskin jackets hauled flour, made bannock and chopped logs for prizes and a title. The moose-calling competition was educational and entertaining. This year, the traditional trapper events will be held at the Alfred Jenkins Field House on Saturday and Sunday. Check the schedule at princealbertwinterfestival.com

Most of the outdoor events are free of charge but you need to wear a Winter Festival button. The logo on the button has traditionally been a representation of a sled dog, but this year it celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday with a maple leaf. The WF button is quite attractive and costs only $3. Many people have been collecting the buttons for decades.

The cold fresh air will improve your appetite for the Fish Fry that begins Friday night and continues Saturday and Sunday afternoons at Alfred Jenkins Field House. Fish and chips is $10 per plate.

So lace up your mukluks, zip up your parka and head out to the winter festival. See you there!

by Ruth Griffiths

Along with a group of friends, I’m planning our annual trip to the Watrous Mineral Spa at Lake Manitou. Soaking in the warm mineral-rich pool is a great way to fight the mid-winter blues. 

At Lake Manitou, high concentrations of salts increase the specific gravity of the water and increase buoyancy, so the body feels lighter in the pool. You can float standing up!

Besides being a relaxing social time, many people find that the warm salty water relieves the pain of arthritis and eases skin irritations.

If you can’t get to a mineral spa, you can enjoy similar benefits by adding bath salts to a warm bath. I wondered why bath salts are so popular. Here is what I found:

Bath salts, when used in their natural, pure form, contain many beneficial minerals and nutrients that keep your skin smooth, soft and supple. Some of the minerals found in bath salts include magnesium, potassium, calcium, bromide, and of course, sodium.

Soaking or scrubbing with bath salts releases dead skin cells to make skin soft and supple. This encourages skin to renew itself.

Soaking in a tub sprinkled with bath salt releases muscle tension and promotes restfulness. It relaxes tense, aching muscles and joints. It might help to relieve arthritis and rheumatism.

One source says natural bath salt, such as salt from the Dead Sea, soothes common irritations such as insect bites, minor rashes, calluses on feet, while working on serious skin conditions like athlete’s foot, eczema, and psoriasis.

You can make your own bath salts by adding essential oils to Epsom salts or sea salt. Do not use table salt, as it does not contain all of the beneficial minerals that sea salts have. But which essential oil to choose? I found three suggestions: 

Orange: It has a fresh, sweet, citrus smell, and helps soothe dry, irritated skin as well as acne-prone skin. Excellent for rubbing on calluses on the feet.

Lavender: Eases nervous tension, relieves pain, disinfects scalp and skin, enhances blood circulation and treats respiratory problems. The benefits of lavender can be attributed to its antiseptic and antifungal properties, hence the best scent to treat skin disorders including wounds and sunburns.

Lemongrass: Bathing in water infused with lemongrass bath salts revitalizes the body and relieves symptoms of jetlag, clears headache, and busts stress.

As with any skin-care product, test your it out before you immerse your body in a bath containing bath salts.

by Ruth Griffiths

Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated each Feb.14. It originated as a Christian feast day honouring one or more early saints named Valentinus. It is now a commercial celebration around the world, although it is not a public holiday in any country.

According to Wikipedia, there are several stories about the various Valentines, including an account of Saint Valentine of Rome that indicated he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, Saint Valentine healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius, and before his execution, he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine.”

In 18th-century England, Valentine’s Day evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by giving flowers, candy and sending greeting cards.

Here’s a quiz to help you celebrate Valentine’s Day.

1. What are the traditional symbols of Valentine’s Day cards and decorations?
   
2. St. Valentine’s Day is commemorated in various Christian denominations. In what year did it cease to be a feast day in the Roman Catholic Church?
   
3. Saint Valentine supposedly wore a purple amethyst ring, customarily worn by Christian bishops. What image was engraved on his ring?
   
4. What is the significance of Cupid?
   
5. Esther Howland (1828–1904) is credited with the first mass-produced valentine cards in the United States. In what year did she begin to produce and sell embossed paper lace valentines?
   
6. A billion valentines are exchanged in the U.S. each year. Which profession receives the most valentine cards?
   
7. According to RetailMeNot.ca, the average Canadian plans to spend $164 on Valentine’s Day. What are the most popular Valentine’s Day gifts?
   
8. The celebration of Valentine’s Day is relatively recent in Japan, but differs from the West in that women give gifts to men. Why is that?

ANSWERS

1. Valentine’s Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid.
   
2. In the 1969 revision of the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints, the feast day of Saint Valentine was relegated to secular celebration.
   
3. Cupid
   
4. In mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. During the Hellenistic period, he was increasingly portrayed as a chubby boy with a bow and arrow that represent his source of power. Anyone shot by Cupid’s arrow is filled with uncontrollable desire.
   
5. 1847
   
6. Teachers
   
7. We will spend $190 on jewelry, $76 on tickets to an event or show, $61 on lingerie, $40 on flowers and $18 on candy or chocolate.
   
8. According to the website Mastermedia, a marketing translation mistake started a unique Valentine’s Day tradition in Japan. Morozoff Ltd., a confectionary and cake company headquartered in Kobe, Japan, marketed a Valentine’s Day advertisement in 1936 that featured people giving each other chocolate on Valentine’s Day. In translating the advertisement, the company portrayed women giving chocolate and gifts to men, instead of men giving the items to women. Today it is considered customary for women to give chocolate to every male friend or co-worker.

by Ruth Griffiths

We stepped out into the parking lot and noticed our heightened sense of smell. It was one of those moist, warm winter mornings after a long stretch of frigid temperatures. Why does warm air smell differently from cold air? It seemed like a good topic for research.

I discovered that odours are produced by airborne particles released by things in the environment around us. When we breathe in the air, these molecules are detected by receptors in our noses.

The odour molecules become airborne more quickly in a warmer environment than a colder one, so there are more smells available on a warm day than a cold one.

Humidity is also a factor. Pamela Dalton, a senior scientist at Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia: “Warm and humid air enhances our sense of smell, because the humidity carries odour molecules to our noses.”

Temperature and humidity affect odour because they increase molecular volatility. For a chemical to have smell, it must spread its molecules in the air. That’s why a cold dish smells less than a heated one: the vapours carry more of the scented molecules from the food. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air.

It seems that hot or cold air temperature can affect our preferences for foods. The temperature to which food is heated or chilled also affects our enjoyment of it. Think of hot apple pie versus room temperature pie.

Air temperature can also affect our sense of hearing. Sound sometimes seems to travel farther on cold days.

I remember a crisp morning on the farm when we could hear the neighbour’s dog barking. Ordinarily, sound did not travel that far. My father explained that the sound had “skipped off the clouds.” He was mostly right. It was due to thermal inversion.

Wikipedia explains: When a layer of cold air close to the ground is covered by a layer of warmer air, sound waves travelling upward may be bent, or refracted, by the difference in temperature and redirected toward the ground. An observer standing where the descending sound is focused may therefore hear a sound he would not ordinarily have heard because of his distance from its source.

Air temperature can also affect what we see. Again, as a child on the farm, I witnessed a mirage. We clearly saw in the sky the image of a forest over 50 miles away.

Wikipedia explains: A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky.

In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical phenomenon that can be captured on camera, since light rays are actually refracted to form the false image at the observer’s location.

We tend to think of our senses are static and defined, but it appears the ocean of air around us can change what we smell, taste, hear and see.