Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/10831
Friday, May 21, 2010 – Daily News – 5A FEATURES Stepdaughter smokes in front of kids Dear Annie: My step- daughter, ‘‘Pam,’’ is 24 and is the mother of two children, one 7 months and the other a toddler. Her children are often ill with bronchitis and other maladies, and the oldest has behavioral issues. The baby rattles when he breathes. Pam smoked during preg- health and to work with her on ways to minimize the damage. You also can recommend she consult her pediatrician for additional advice. Dear Annie: Please settle nancy, much to our chagrin, and she recently admitted that she smokes in the car with her children in the backseat. This both appalls and infuriates me, and I believe it is neglect- ful and abusive. My husband says I shouldn’t badger her about it because it will only make things worse. Pam does have some learning disabilities, but she is intelligent enough to understand that smoking is extremely harmful, not only to herself, but to her children. Do you think I should shut up about her abusive behavior and allow her children to suffer the ill effects? A friend of mine suggested that I call the authorities and let them deal with the situation. — Disgusted in Pennsylvania Dear Disgusted: Smoking in front of your children is not generally con- sidered child abuse. Smoking is highly addictive, and even if your stepdaugh- ter wanted to quit, it would be difficult for her. Is the children’s father in the picture? If so, he would be the best one to approach Pam about the effects of secondhand smoke on the children’s Annie’s Mailbox by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar doing. My husband thinks it’s too soon to ring their bell. He says it would look like we’re just being nosy. When is the correct time to introduce yourself to new neighbors? — Samantha Dear Samantha: As long as you don’t expect the newcomers to invite you in for coffee, the correct time is when the moving van is gone. A couple of weeks is plenty. Bring your cookies or brownies and introduce yourselves already. Most newcomers appreciate being welcomed by their neighbors and having the opportunity to form new friendships. Dear Annie:You recently printed a letter from ‘‘Crushed,’’ whose husband thought he was dying and confessed to being unfaithful many years ago. You said such deathbed confessions leave an emotional burden on the listener. an argument. A couple of weeks ago, new neighbors moved in two houses down from us. I want to bake cookies or brownies, give them to our new neighbors and introduce ourselves. After a brief hello and an offer of ‘‘if you need a cup of sugar,’’ we will let them get back to whatever they were But that husband was still alive and feelings could be reconciled. In my case, it was a true deathbed confession, not of physical unfaithful- ness, but of emotional unfaithfulness. At one point during our marriage, my job took me away from home. My hus- band thought I no longer loved him, and in response, he turned to another woman for emotional support. I was so shocked by what he told me that I did- n’t ask for any details, thinking we would have time to talk about it. As it turned out, he died that night. Do you have advice for a widow who had no opportunity to bring about any kind of reconciliation and is now carrying a heavy emotional burden? This situation invades my mind and keeps me from getting proper rest at night. — Also Crushed Dear Also:How sad that you didn’t have the time to resolve this. We are certain your husband did not intend to leave you with such damaging unfin- ished business. Please talk to a grief counselor to help you work through your feelings and come to terms with your loss. Annie’s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to anniesmailboxcomcast.net, or write to: Annie’s Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 5777 W.Century Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. $1000 in prize money in Tehama photo contest With $1,000 in prizes, entries are being accepted until Sunday for the The Images from a Glass Eye, International Juried Photog- raphy Show 2010, sponsored by the Tehama County Photo Club of Red Bluff. The show will open with an artists’ reception and awards cere- mony August 13 at the Big Pic- ture, 857 Washington Street and will run through September 10. The Show’s website is partially underwritten by The Tehama County Arts Council, The Califor- nia Arts Council, and Art lover’s License Plate program. Any photographer 18 or older may enter the show. Entries may be captured either digitally or on film. Works must be captured and post-processed solely by the entrant (except for film develop- ment and printing). Images must be submitted as digital files in JPEG format. Submitted files must be at least 1000 pixels and no more than1200 pixels on the long dimension at 72 ppi. Entries may be submitted online at www.imagesfromaglass- eye.org or on a CD or DVD with the entrant’s name and title on each file, along with entry form available from the website or at the Big Picture and a check to The Tehama County Photo Club, 1910 Jefferson Ave., Red Bluff, Califor- nia 96080. Entry Fees are $20 for first image entered; $10 for each addi- tional image entered. Entries are limited to six per individual. The awards are $400 First Place, $300 Second Place, $200 Third Place and $100 Fourth Place The judge is native-Californ- ian, professional photographer and teacher Sean Arbabi. He specializes in adventure, lifestyle, nature and travel photog- raphy for advertising, corporate, and editorial clients. He has had assignments with over 300 publi- cations and 150 companies world- wide. With a passion for photogra- phy, he has biked along forest trails, sailed on oceans and hung over cliffs, all to capture images he and he clients were in search of. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Commercial Pho- tography from Brooks Institute of Photography and began his busi- ness, Arbabi Imagery thereafter, combining outdoor, on-location and studio photography. Recently he landed two travel guidebook covers, five magazine covers, a catalog cover, wrote and shot seven feature articles, all the while working on a television pilot on Photography entitled Photoguru with Sean Arbabi. His recent project, The Better- Photo Guide to Exposure, a 225- page book published by Ampho- to/Random House, has sold over 10,000 copies around the world. Sean resides in Danville with his wife and two daughters. Sean will be present at the August 13 Artist’s Reception at the Big Pic- ture and will hold a photograph- er’s workshop in Red Bluff, Satur- day, Aug. 14. Additional information is available at tehamacountyphoto- club@gmail.com or call 529-1348 or 527-0431. When should meds and supplements be taken? DEAR DR. GOTT: My doctors have told me that there are better times during the day to take vitamins or calci- um. I take a thyroid pill in the morning. About an hour or so later, I take my vitamin with an omega-3 tablet and then take my calcium tablet with a late lunch or after my dinner. Am I taking them correctly as far as getting all the benefits from them? I hope you can answer this question for me. DEAR READER: You Dr. Peter Gott ask an extremely important question, and your doctors are correct in what they tell you. In some respects, the most appropriate time of day to take vitamins and other medications is when you are least likely to forget, such as the first thing each day. Thyroid medication should be taken on an empty stomach a half-hour before breakfast. If you are a swing-shift employee, judge accordingly and plan to take the medication at an appro- priate time. Vitamins can be taken at almost any time of the day, so just before or following a meal is satisfactory. Be sure to read the recommendation printed on each vitamin bot- tle to determine what the manufacturer believes is most appropriate. There are some supplements that work better when taken on an empty stomach. For exam- ple, if B-complex vitamins upset your stomach, take them with food. Iron supple- ments should be taken on an empty stomach. And, when- ever vitamins are consumed, do not wash them down with alcohol. Calcium comes in two forms — calcium carbonate, which is more readily avail- able and inexpensive, or cal- cium citrate. Either form should be taken at least four hours apart from any thyroid medication. This also holds true for calcium antacids, iron supplements and many drugs prescribed or recom- mended as antacids. Calci- um carbonate should be taken with meals; calcium citrate can be taken either with meals or on an empty stomach. Calci- um should be taken in 500- milligram doses or less at one time. Therefore, if your supple- ment is a 1,000- milligram tablet, split it into two doses, because it can hamper the absorption of some medica- tions, including those for high blood pressure and antibiotics, so a timing mod- ification might be required. Speak with your physician for his or her recommenda- tions. I do not believe there are any specific requirements for omega-3 fish oils. To the best of my knowledge, they can be taken at any time of day and either on an empty stomach or a full one. Drugs, whether prescrip- tion or over-the-counter, can interfere with other medica- tions. Their effect can be reduced, and they can also lead to gastrointestinal issues and a number of other problems. Make sure that your physician knows what supplements you are cur- rently taking so he or she can guide you accordingly. It appears to me you are diligently attempting to do the right thing at the right time. To provide related infor- mation, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Vitamins & Minerals.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a self-addressed stamped No. 10 envelope and a $2 check or money order to Newslet- ter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092-0167. Be sure to mention the title or print an order form off my website at www.AskDrGottMD.com. Dr. Peter H. Gott is a retired physician and the author of several books, including “Live Longer, Live Better,” “Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet” and “Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Cookbook,” which are available at most bookstores or online. His website is www.AskDrGottMD.com Google, partners hoping people want their Web TV SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google Inc. believes it has come up with the technology to unite Web surfing with channel surfing on televisions. To reach the long-elusive goal of turning TV sets into Internet gateways, Google has partnered with Sony Corp., Intel Corp. and Log- itech International. They unveiled their much-antici- pated plan for a ‘‘smart’’ TV on Thursday, and Intel CEO Paul Otellini predicted the effort will be ‘‘the biggest improvement to television since color.’’ ‘‘Our goal is to make the same impact on television as the smart phone has had on the mobile phone market,’’ said Rishi Chandra, the Google product manager who is overseeing the smart TV project. The TVs are expected to go on sale this fall in U.S. Best Buy stores, with prices to be announced later in the year. Sales will expand to other countries next year. Other companies have tried to promote Internet- connected TVs with little success during the past decade. ‘‘I have seen this movie before,’’ Gartner Inc. analyst Sponsored by Downtown Red Bluff Business Association Ray Valdes said of Google’s ambitious plans. ‘‘They are going down a road littered with failed initiatives like this.’’ But Google and its part- ners believe they have devel- oped a system that will make Internet TV simpler and more appealing. They are also counting on various websites to build news applications tailored to run on the Internet TV; they believe that would persuade more couch potatoes to begin interacting with their sets instead of just watching them. Many households already have been connect- ing their TVs to the Internet, mostly to watch video through set-top boxes, video game consoles and Blu-ray players. Web-connected TVs are expected to account for about 19 percent of the U.S. sales of flat-panel mod- els this year, with the share projected to rise to 46 per- cent in 2013, according to ABI Research. Three of Google’s biggest rivals — Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. — also have been trying to bring more Internet video and services to televisions. Google, which made the BOOK BARN Used Books Shoppers discounts & restaurant specials at participating merchants WELL-BEING FAIRE Wine & Mamma Mia at the State Theatre Wine @ 4pm Movie @ 5pm Saturday May 22 10am-4pm Tues-Fri 10-5 Sat 10-2 Serving Tehama County since 1994 619 Oak St., Red Bluff (530) 528-2665 bulk of its nearly $24 billion in revenue last year from Internet ads displayed on computer screens, wants to turn televisions into giant monitors for Web surfing so it can make even more money. Google estimates that television accounts for $70 billion in annual adver- tising in the U.S. alone. Google has been trying to sell ads for regular televi- sion programming for the past three years, but analysts say that has yielded paltry dividends so far. Thursday’s demonstra- tion of the Internet TV tech- nology didn’t go smoothly at a Google conference for about 5,000 software pro- grammers. So many people in the audience were using the conference’s wireless access network that Google ran into repeated problems showing how its technology is supposed to toggle seam- lessly between the Web and television programming. Google finally had to plead with the attendees to discon- nect their smart phones from the network. ‘‘Perhaps that was an omen of things to come,’’ Valdes said. Once it got enough band- width, Google was able to conduct a series of Internet searches in a drop-down box that appears at the top of television programs. The search results pointed to Internet videos and other content related to the televi- sion program on the screen. A telecast of a sporting event can be shrunk into a small ‘‘picture-in-picture’’ box so a viewer can look at statistics or other material about the game on TV. Viewers will also be able to make search requests by speaking into a remote that runs on Google’s Android operating system. And of course, users could simply use the entire screen for surfing. Google CEO Eric Schmidt raved about the potential of the Internet TVs, although he acknowl- edged it might be difficult for some consumers to grasp at first. That’s one rea- son he said Google decided to team up with Best Buy, which offers a ‘‘geek squad’’ to deal with com- plex technology. ‘‘You have to actually see (the Internet TV) to get excited about it,’’ Schmidt said after Thursday’s pre- view. Consumers who already have splurged on flat-panel TVs will be able to plug into the new technology by buy- ing a set-top box made by Logitech or a Blu-ray player from Sony. Both devices will contain the same soft- ware and microprocessor as the new TV sets. Sony will make the TVs, giving it a new product that could stand out from other flat-panel sets on the market. Now through the month of June all Fountains & Statuaries 30% off Red Bluff Garden Center 766 Antelope Blvd. Red Bluff • 527-0886