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2C Daily News – Friday, June 29, 2012 FEATURES Drunk parolee causes problems have been with ''Jim'' for eight years. We are in our 40s and have been through a lot togeth- er. When I moved in with him three years ago, two of his kids lived with their mother, and the older boy was in prison. I was sup- portive of Jim's vis- its to ''Lloyd'' and also wrote letters myself. Lloyd got out of prison 18 months ago and was paroled to our home. He is not supposed to frequent bars, but his drinking has increased, and he constantly violates the terms of his parole. Two months ago, he was arrested for public intoxication and spent the weekend in jail. He had to wear an ankle monitor for 30 days. Lloyd refuses to abide by our cur- Dear Annie: I Annie's Mailbox by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar few. He wakes us up when he strolls in drunk at 3 a.m. Twice he left the refrigerator open and let the food spoil. He has kicked in our front door and broken numerous things, and now items have been disappearing. We've given Lloyd chance after chance. We pay all of his bills, includ- ing the one for his cellphone service. I've told Jim that Lloyd needs to respect our rules or find somewhere else to live. Jim keeps telling Lloyd to straighten up, but there are never any repercussions, so it never happens. I'm exhausted and can't take much more. I don't want to ruin my rela- tionship with Jim. How do I proceed from here? — Lost in Love Dear Lost: Jim thinks he is pro- tecting his son, but unfortunately, he is only reinforcing Lloyd's irresponsible behavior. The best thing for Lloyd would be to get a job (try the Safer Foundation at saferfoundation.org) and move into his own place. Howev- er, you won't be able to encourage Lloyd's independence without Jim's support, so joint counseling is a good place to start. Also try Al-Anon (al- anon.alateen.org) for additional help. Dear Annie: I'm a 62-year-old widow and have no children. In the past three years, five people close to me died, leaving me alone except for two nieces and one nephew, and none of them is speaking to me. no money due to longstanding finan- cial problems. Before my sister died, we were trying to work through her feelings about me. She never liked me and had a great deal of anger toward me. At the time, I was still having financial difficulties and could not attend her funeral or send flowers. My nephew offered to pay for the trip, but I didn't feel comfortable accepting. I know I should have called, but I didn't know what to say. By the time my mother died, my sister's kids had pret- ty much ruled me out. I have written letters to them When my husband passed, we had explaining the problems in our family. I have sent handmade presents to my nephew's two little girls and mailed cheerful Christmas greetings, all to no avail. No thank-you notes. Nothing. I realize they may have ''inherited'' their mother's feelings toward me, but I'm at the point where I'm ready to give up all contact. Is this the end? — No Family Dear Family: We think your nieces and nephew are unhappy because you neither called nor sent a card when their mother died. We understand you were unsure of what to say, but your silence reinforced the negative impression they already had from their mother. You need to apolo- gize. Beyond that, there are no guar- antees. Please look for ''family'' among your friends. Dear Annie: ''Sad Wife'' is unhappy that her husband won't look for anything better than his minimum- wage job. She has to put her child in day care so she can provide for her family. If she has to be ''Mrs. Career,'' he should be ''Mr. Mom.'' But right now, he has the best of both worlds. I bet if she ditches the day care and tells him to stay home, raise the baby and take care of the house, he'll find a bet- ter job. — Louisville Lady Annie's Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please email your questions to anniesmailboxcomcast.net, or write to: Annie's Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. Rebooting 'Spider-Man,' in a flash NEW YORK (AP) — On a weekend in January of 2010, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios pivoted faster than even Spider-Man would dare. A fourth installment of the hugely popular Spider- man franchise was planned, with director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire returning to their trilogy of films that had earned more than $2.5 billion at the glob- al box office and generally been hailed as a standard- bearer in big-screen comic book adaptations. Raimi's dissatisfaction with the script and the producers' eagerness for a new movie had come to a head. In a flash, the sequel was kaput, and a reboot was ordered up. Next Tuesday, ''The Amaz- ing Spider-Man'' will be released, charting a new start for the web-slinger just five years after ''Spider- Man 3.'' But by that Monday, ures (The Hulk). The Hulk was famously tried twice, in 2003 and 2008 by Marvel and Univer- sal Pictures. Similarly, a new Superman ("Man of Steel'') is due out next year from Warner Bros., a new start for the DC Comics' character after 2006's ''Superman Returns'' disappointed. ''The Amazing Spider- Man,'' on the other hand, comes close on the heels of Raimi's acclaimed trilogy. Though Sony's preference was to make a fourth film with the same team, Pascal now says they were ''look- ing for a story that wasn't there,'' following the con- clusiveness of ''Spider-Man 3.'' es have been typically launched many more years later than that. But today, ''five years is a lifetime in the movie business,'' says Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal. ''I wasn't trou- bled by it.'' Reboots of film franchis- million ''Amazing Spider- Man'' a somewhat daring maneuver, bound to face comparisons to the recent Spider-Man films and skep- ticism from some moviego- ers. That makes the $200 Reasons for reboots vary from restoring dormant franchises ("Star Trek''), to refreshing long-running ones (James Bond) or improving on previous fail- fatigue, Sony has imbued the new, 3-D ''Spider-Man'' with youth: Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker, Emma Stone plays his girl- friend Gwen Stacy and Marc Webb, whose only previous feature was 2009's ''(500) Days of Summer,'' directs. ''The only time to take a break is when your fran- chise fails,'' says Avi Arad, a producer of the film and for- To combat any Spidey mer CEO of Marvel Stu- dios. ''People want Spider- Man, so it's our responsibil- ity to give them something new, something different and start a whole new gener- ation of Spider-Man lovers.'' Webb's vision of the film (written by James Vander- bilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves) is predicated on Parker's origin — tracing his history as an orphan and beginning with his parents. That also means, come high school, covering some of the same ground from Raimi's first ''Spider-Man'': the spi- der bite, the uncle's death, the school hallway show- downs. ''It's not like we're retelling the exact origin as Sam had done it,'' says Webb. ''But I felt it was important for a new story to understand the character from the ground up because I feel like the inflection of this character was quite dif- ferent than what we'd seen before.'' Spider-Man. A fan of the comics since childhood, he says taking on the role was less a decision to consider than a matter of listening to ''my inner 3-year-old screaming at me.'' ''With Spider-Man, the That inflection is closer to the Spider-Man of the comics. Garfield's version of the hero is more sarcastic, lithe and twitchy — more of a rebellious teen. The 28-year-old British actor from ''The Social Net- work,'' who's fresh off an acclaimed performance in ''Death of a Salesman'' on Broadway, wanted to honor the previous incarnations of legacy is so huge and there's so much to pay homage to and respect to, that you have to be as aware of it as much as possible,'' says Garfield. After moving through some of the iconic elements of the Spider-Man story, the film brings in a new villain from the comics: the Lizard, as transformed from the sci- entist Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans). The film reminds one that Spider- Man remains a young man's superhero: It works best as a coming of age story. Had ''Spider-Man 4'' gone ahead (Maguire is now 36), producers said it would have been the last of the series. ''A big part of the DNA of Peter Parker is that ado- lescent quality,'' says Webb, whose ''(500) Days of Sum- mer'' was also a story of transition into adulthood. ''It's a time in your life where you're imperfect and you're unpolished and you make mistakes and you're discovering things and every emotion is apocalyptic.'' Certainly, unending seri- al storytelling is part of the spirit of comics, which typi- cally flow in constant week- ly or monthly installments. ''I want to live in a world where Spider-Man stories are being told over and over again,'' says producer Matt Tolmach. ''Sometimes, peo- ple leave things sitting on a shelf for too long.'' RED BLUFF Managing stress can minimize its effect on heart health DEAR DOCTOR K: I'm under a lot of stress at work. My doctor warned me that if I don't get my stress under control, it could affect my cardiovascular health. Is this true? it's true. Long-term, constant stress can harm many aspects of your health, including your cardiovascu- lar health. Stress is the body's way of responding to threat. Our distant prehistoric ancestors had a pretty stressful life, but it was different than the stressful lives we have. They knew that at any moment they might be killed. Back then, it was lions that were the threat. Today's "lions" DEAR READER: Yes, to become stickier. Stickier platelets make blood clots more likely. And ongoing high blood pressure dam- ages the heart, blood vessels and other organs. It greatly increases your chances of developing heart disease. Stress may also con- tribute to inflammation. Chronic inflammation plays a key role in the process leading to cholesterol- clogged arteries and heart attacks. Inflammation also influences the formation of artery-blocking clots. Clots are the ultimate cause of heart attacks and many strokes. don't threaten to eat us; they just threaten to take our jobs. Today, there's a lot to do, and a lot of hassles that make it hard to do all the things that need to be done. We have the drip-drip-drip of multitask- ing; sometimes we need to be in three places at once. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) includes a range of ailments that affect your heart and the blood vessels that transport blood through- out your body. Two exam- ples of CVD are heart attacks and strokes. How might stress con- tribute to CVD? To begin with, stress appears to increase cholesterol levels. People with high levels of "bad" cholesterol are more likely to develop atheroscle- rosis. As fatty deposits accu- mulate on artery walls, the channel that the blood flows through becomes progres- sively narrower. Eventually, blood flow is obstructed. The blockage can cause angina, a heart attack or stroke. What's more, repeatedly arousing the body's stress response can cause blood pressure to rise and platelets Dr. K by Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D. likely to smoke and less like- ly to engage in physical activity. And I, for one, tend to eat more when I'm stressed. negatively influ- ence behaviors that affect cardio- vascular risk. People who are stressed are more Stress can Read more about strate- gies to manage your stress in "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Say Goodbye to Stress: Manage Your Problems, Big and Small, Every Day" by Dr. Jeff Brown of Harvard Medical School. (You can learn more about this book at AskDoctorK.com.) On a more positive note, managing your stress can lower your risk of develop- ing CVD. Whether you're struggling with financial worries, marital discord or, as in your case, work-related stress, talk to your doctor about strategies to help you relax. Dr. Komaroff is a physician and professor at Harvard Medical School.To send questions, go to AskDoctorK.com, or write: Ask Doctor K, 10 Shattuck St., Second Floor, Boston, MA 02115. Curry out as co-host of NBC's 'Today' show NEW YORK (AP) — Ann Curry offered a tearful goodbye as co-host of NBC's ''Today'' show on Thursday, saying, ''This is not as I expected to ever leave this couch.'' Her exit represents NBC's most visible response to the popular morning show's worst stretch in the ratings in nearly two decades. ''Today'' hadn't lost a sin- gle week since 1996, but this spring it was beaten four times by ABC's resur- gent ''Good Morning America.'' Curry's exit marked a stark contrast to the lengthy tribute shows given to pre- decessors Meredith Vieira and Katie Couric. She announced it during the final five minutes of her shift, ending a week of DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Your "Local" Daily Newspaper Since 1885 To Subscribe Call Today! 527-2151 newsdesk@redbluffdailynews.com Website: redbluffdailynews.com advertise@redbluffdailynews.com circ@redbluffdailynews.com E-mail: FAX 527-3719 Published through a co-sponsorship agreement with The Daily News DAILY NEWS — PO BOX 220 545 DIAMOND AVE. RED BLUFF CA 96080 awkward television as she continued working after word spread that NBC was looking to oust her. ''For all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I'm sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line but, man, I did try,'' she said, breaking down. as a news anchor in 1997. Passed over for the co-host job when Vieira replaced Couric, she was given the chance when Vieira left last June. But her pairing with co-host Matt Lauer never seemed to click and she took the fall for the show's ratings troubles. NBC's Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosts the 9 a.m. segment of the show, is expected to replace Curry. Curry joined the show Each of her colleagues recalled some of Curry's reporting from her ''Today'' tenure, but there was no video tribute. The ''Today'' website displayed ''15 top Ann moments spanning her 15 years on TV,'' asking viewers to vote on their favorite. ''To all of you watching, thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me touch yours,'' she said. Roker and Natalie Morales on the couch as Curry choked back tears and apologized for being a ''sob sister.'' ''It's not goodbye, not by a long shot,'' a grim- faced Lauer said. NBC News, saying she's been given a ''fancy new title'' to lead a reporting team. NBC said she will be anchor-at-large and nation- al and international corre- spondent. Her work will occasionally resurface on ''Today,'' and Lauer said she will be in London with the show for the Olympics. He sat next to Curry, Al Curry will remain at