Health, Wellness, and Nostalgia Television

 Breathe through your nose, not your mouth.

In my journey to learn more about my body and how I can improve it, I read Breath: the new science of a lost art by James Nestor. I learned a lot of things about one's breath, some of it quite unbelievable. According to Nestor, a few people have discovered how to cure their scoliosis; improve the performance of elite athletes; and spend time naked in sub-zero weather, yet melt the snow around them just by using different breathing techniques.

Nestor traveled to lots of different places, talked with lots of different people, read extensively and participated in multiple experiments concerning breathing. 

While this was somewhat interesting, much of what he describes is pretty extreme (he admits that), and limited as to the number of people it affects. Somehow, this book didn't excite me and I was not sure how useful it might be to me or the average person, though I wouldn't mind using my breath to keep warm instead of oil or electricity - much cheaper.

However, the Epilogue (which summarized his findings for the general public) and the Appendix (which summarized the different types of breathing and the purpose of each) were the best and most useful parts of the book. Here are his recommendations: Shut your mouth; Breathe through your nose; Exhale; Chew; Breathe more, on occasion; Hold your breath; How we breathe matters.

Very quickly: the nose filters and warms the air we breathe. Breathing through your mouth lets nasal passages deteriorate, helps raise blood pressure and promotes snoring. Exhaling completely helps clean out the lungs and allows more air in. Chewing helps strengthen the jaws. The other recommendations are more complicated to explain. You'll have to read the book.

Nestor also explains that acute problems often need the attention of a doctor or other medical professional, but good breathing techniques can alleviate the chronic problems from which so many people suffer.

Life has its lighter moments, as well. One of my favorite television shows was the Odd Couple with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. I've just finished watching the fifth and final season. It ran from 1970 to 1975. Perhaps the best part of the show is seeing the fashions from the early 1970s. Egad! Wide ties, garish colors, short skirts. 

Sometimes it's hard to believe people actually dressed like that.

I'm in Love with Bennett Cerf

For the last several months I've been on a nostalgia trip - ever since I discovered episodes of What's My Line on You Tube.

I remember watching the show on television when I was a kid. I also watched it when it went into syndication late in the 60s, but the original version - which ran from 1950-1967 is the best.

The regular moderator was John Daly. Regular panelists were Arlene Francis, Dorothy Kilgallen and Bennett Cerf. There was a rotating guest panelist every week: often Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, or Tony Randall.

While everyone on the show was articulate, urbane and witty, by far the most adorable was Bennett Cerf. I love his impish grin.

Bennett Cerf was the founder of Random House. He was also an author. Know for his puns, he had a great sense of humor. There was constant teasing between Bennett and host John Daly.

Publisher, wit, theater goer, avid reader - what librarian wouldn't love him? Every few days I sit down at my computer and watch an episode (or two or three) of What's My Line.

An update on other aspects of my life: I just finished reading The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen. My stack of reading was getting low and this was on the New Book shelf at the library. While I'm generally not interested in books with a supernatural or paranormal theme, this one was gripping. I couldn't put it down! Not all of the "loose ends" were completely tied together, but I don't care. It was a totally absorbing read.

Writing down my intention of practicing Yoga regularly has worked - at least so far. I think maintaining the habit will be easier as I continue. I took the time twice last week and again today (it's only Tuesday) to listen to and work along with my favorite Yoga CD.

And at work, I'm still plugging away on the letter S. There are lots of words that begin with that letter, so this may take me a while. Yesterday I worked on merging duplicate records of items with titles that began with "Sigmund Freud", books and other media by and about Sigmund Freud, and any other record I happened to spot along the way. Then I began on the word "sign". MassCat has lots of books in its catalog on American Sign Language and baby signing.

I think the best part of my job is serendipitously learning about so many different things and being about to follow up by borrowing a book and learning more. I keep saying that this is the perfect job for me.

I Miss Rhoda Morgenstern

For the last several months, I've been watching the Mary Tyler Moore Show on DVD. It was one of my very favorite shows back in the 70s. I loved Mary Tyler Moore when she was Laura Petrie on the Dick Van Dyke show and I loved her even more as Mary Richards. She was a role model for me: an independent career woman navigating life.

I loved the reparté between Mary and her best friend Rhoda who lived upstairs. Rhoda was witty and sassy and just plain fun.

I just watched season 5 and Rhoda is no longer there. In the show, she returned to NYC. On television, she starred in her own show which I watched, but watching Mary and Rhoda separately was just not the same as watching them together.

There are other characters on the Mary Tyler Moore Show who had larger roles beginning with season 5. Sue Ann Nivens was played by Betty White, who is great. But Sue Ann's caustic wit is best in small doses. And Georgette, Ted Baxter's ditzy girlfriend, a sort of Gracie Allen character, can also become more annoying than funny.

Since I watched the show in the past, I know that Mary is going to move from her funky apartment in the building owned by Phyllis to a more modern complex. I remember that I really didn't enjoy those episodes nearly as well as the first 4 seasons.

I plan to continue through to the end which is 2 more seasons (2 more sets of DVDs, several more evenings in front of the TV set), but it won't be the same without Rhoda.

Binge Watching "I Love Lucy" and Reading in Between

I recently borrowed the entire 4th season of "I Love Lucy". This was aired during the years 1953-54.

I've watched so many re-runs of "I Love Lucy" I don't know if I actually saw any of these episodes in first-runs. In those days, I was not old enough to be up and awake when the show was aired even though it wasn't all that late. I do sometimes remember when I couldn't sleep, I'd sit at the top of the stairs and listen to Lucy's antics and listen to my father laugh nearly uncontrollably. I didn't hear my father laugh a lot, so clearly, "I Love Lucy" must have been pretty special.

The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz combination was pretty special. The plots were quite involved. Even though you knew it would turn out all right at the end, there was an extremely circuitous route to get there. When Lucy and Desi split and Lucy continued on with her own shows, I stopped watching. Those later ones are not nearly as witty or funny.

I also stopped watching "Cheers" when Diane left the show. Actually, I reluctantly watched for a couple of more years, but shouldn't have bothered. In my opinion, Rebecca was never as good as Diane. The only television show that continued to be great (if not better) with a change in characters was "M.A.S.H. "

I've also been reading an absolutely wonderful book. I'm nearly at the end and already feeling sad that the journey will be over soon.  A woman is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Her son, Will, often takes her to doctor's appointments and chemotherapy treatments and visits with her while she spends the month of March in Florida to escape the New York City winter. Since they are both readers, they recommend books to each other and discuss them. It is an informal book club of two and the book is The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe.

Sometimes Will and his mother re-read older books, sometimes newer ones. The subject matter varies greatly as both have widely eclectic tastes: novels, short stories, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, humorous and dark. There is so much information about books, that it is practically an annotated bibliography. And it's so beautifully written it's a pleasure to read.

Someone in my exercise recommended this book to me. Unfortunately, I can't remember who it was, but I want to thank her (I'm pretty sure it was a woman), and I fully intend to continue the favor and recommend this book to someone else. I want everyone to read it.

Jumping to J

How did I manage to get to the letter J so quickly? Only a couple of weeks ago, I was still on F.

I have a helper. She is a Library Science student who wants to be a cataloger. She's also a Mass Library System employee. Depending on the time of year, her workload is sometimes light and she asked if she could help out with MassCat to get some cataloging experience.

While merging records is not exactly cataloging, this is great experience for her to look at bib records and see what kinds of problems arise. Since I work with an alphabetized list of potential duplicate titles, she has taken the later end of the letter F through the letter I.

I began with "Jazz" and have so far made my way through "Jewel", "Jewels", and "Jewelry". I've started "Jewish" which will keep me busy for a while. When I did a single word keyword search on "Jewish", I received a list of over 5,000 titles. The first 60 or so were in Hebrew, which I don't read, so I skipped past them and hoped they were accurate enough for Hebrew readers to find what they are looking for.

I'm still reading Introduction to Cataloging and Classification, and will be for a while. It's been a great reminder of the entire purpose of cataloging. While working, it's so easy for me to get involved in the specifics of the process - that whole "losing sight of the forest for the trees" thing. As I read through the textbook, the importance of describing the resource "uniquely" (to distinguish it from similar resources) and "unambiguously" (so that the patron knows exactly what he/she is getting) is repeated regularly.

To get a break from cataloging, I've been watching the third season of Hill Street Blues. Back in the 1980s, I watched the series pretty regularly and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I learned that it was out on DVD, I began requesting the seasons (in order, of course) from the library. Every few months, I take several evenings to become thoroughly absorbed in the adventures of the Hill Street station regulars. The stories are funny, sad, and always thought-provoking. The characters are multi-dimensional. The "good guys" have faults; the "bad guys" are sometimes kind.

I think what's most fascinating is the overall culture. No one has cell phones or computers. The cars are big (gasoline was just over $1.00/gallon). People wore aviator glasses. Come to think of it, so did I.