Reading Books

 Reading books may add years to your life

Steinbeck Collection: photo by Cliff Hutson

It seems that reading books may have health benefits.  Researchers at Yale University School of Public Health conducting an ongoing study of adults 50 and older determined that people who read books regularly had a 20% less chance of dying over the next 12 years compared with people who were not readers or those who read magazines and newspapers. 

Their findings, published in the September 2016 issue of Social Science & Medicine held true regardless of health, marital status, wealth, education, or race.  So, the act of reading books may add years to a life in which to read them.  

As the World Warms

Hometown Highs

Another Warm Day photo by Cliff Hutson

This past weekend, I came across a The New York Times article, that originally ran in 20218, on how most of us can expect to experience more "hot" days in the future than we had growing up. If you click through you find a tool that will show you how much hotter your hometown is than when you were born.

My Hometown 

The data does not go back to my birth year (I am a Boomer), but in 1960 the number of days temperatures  for the city I grew up in and lived much of my adult life reached 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) or higher was 55.  That number in 2017 was 67 days on average.

We moved to where to where I now live in 1989.  The number of such days was 64 then and 79 in 2017. I am willing to bet that this year's heat wave, or whatever you want to call it, should exceed that count. 

Greener Grass?

Island Dream: photo by Cliff Hutson

Honolulu, HI can expect only one day over 90 degrees each year per the  tool, but an average 38 days annually according to Wikipedia. That seems nice, but, then I would have to worry about hurricanes. Not sure if that is a tradeoff I am eager to make.

Paper Bag Day

A Celebration 

Paper Bag: photo by Cliff Hutson

Paper Bag Day (also known as World Paper Bag Day) occurs on July 12 each year to celebrate the item we use to carry our groceries, our lunches, or take away meals.

Save the Date

This week also contains le quatorze juillet or la fête nationale.

Reading Log: June 2021

 The books I finished reading in June 2021:

June 2021 Books: photo by Cliff Hutson

"World Travel: an Irreverent Guide," Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever 

"Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal," Mark Bittman

In-N-Out

In-N-Out Shake: photo by Cliff Hutson

Tony liked this place and said that he would stop on the way from the airport and on the way to the airport whenever he came to Los Angeles.  I feel lucky that I live close to one.

On this day in 1852:

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass made one of his most telling speeches: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”