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4A Daily News – Saturday, October 20, 2012 Glory Days & maturity MINNEAPOLIS (MCT) — Vincent Price was right: "No mere mortal can resist the evil of the Thriller" — even after the funk of almost 30 years. Yes, 2013 will mark three decades since Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video stalked into the national psyche and, eventually, into the Library of Congress as "the most famous music video of all time." lifestyles Why dance for nearly 30 years? 'Cause this is 'Thriller' Medicare tries to steer seniors from low-ranked plans By DIANE C. LADE Sun Sentinel (MCT) For the first time this year, Medicare is sending home bad report cards on its under-performing private plans. The zombie song-and- lurch remains as popular as ever because of a growing interest in learning the dance steps to perform at wedding receptions, school programs, civic flash mobs — even while killing time in prison, as a group of Fil- ipino convicts did in 2007, in a video that's garnered more than 51 million views. "I don't think 'Thriller' ever died, no pun intended," said Monica Mohn, a for- mer ballroom dancing champion in Minneapolis who is teaching more than a dozen "Thriller" classes this month, mostly through community education. Some students grew up with the video, but others weren't even alive when it first aired on Dec. 2, 1983. The current zombie craze also is a factor. But mostly, weirdly, credit the weddings. Mohn recalled describ- ing something in the video to one group, "and they looked at me and said, 'What video?' They only knew the dance from wed- ding receptions." MCT photo Elementary teacher Jane Panning-Miller laughs after forgetting the moves to the dance from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video on Oct. 5. The teach- ers at Plymouth Creek Elementary School in Plymouth, Minnesoa, will per- form the popular dance at a school festival. "I'm not as rhythmically gifted as some," he said, laughing. "The steps go by really fast." Last week, Mohn taught the dance to a group of teachers at Plymouth Creek Elementary School, who will perform it at the school's fall festival this month. The students spanned decades, from new to retired teachers. After 1 1⁄2 hours, they had the moves down, thanks to lots of repetition to create what Mohn called "muscle mem- ory." Marc Wegner, a third- grade teacher, sported a sheen of sweat at the break. By BILL DALEY Chicago Tribune (MCT) Remember "The Talk," when mom or dad sat you down to explain the facts of life? Well, it may be time for you to initiate "The Talk" again, but focusing this time not on how life begins but how it should end, even if that end is not for several decades yet. "I hope people will rec- ognize there are things they should think about today to The dance isn't a dead (sorry) ringer for Jackson's "Thriller" video. "It could- n't be," Mohn said. "That's a 14-minute story and is very complex." What she does, as dance instructors nationwide do, is piece together iconic parts of the video to make a sort of "homage to Michael Jack- son." Stomps are expected. The twitches? Crucial. "And you need the claws," she said. Mohn breaks down the dance into discrete portions, creating a story with cues to help students remember the order of the moves. school lunch line. But over the course of the class, their inner zombies began to emerge. came next — a sharp flinch of the shoulder on beats one, five and seven. The signature "twitch" Mohn then led them through the "surfer dude" move, the "ripping open a bag of chips" move, then "dangling dinosaur" and "cheerleader" moves (inspired by bad movie matinees). Next was the "exhausted "If you can count to eight, you can do 'Thriller,'" she told the group, then moved them through the opening zombie steps (for- ward four, backward four, repeat). Her arms flailed menacingly as she stomped through the steps, hunched over and writhing, while the teachers looked as if they were shuffling through the plan for their future," said Nancy Orel, director of the gerontology program at Bowling Green State Uni- versity in Ohio. "I rarely hear people say, 'I can't wait until I'm old.' I hear people say, 'I can't wait until I retire,' but that's an ending, and they have to reinvent themselves." While important for drop," in which they were directed to bend from the waist and lunge to one side (two, three, four) then shift their weight to the other leg and, on two, suddenly snap their heads up "like you're selecting your next victim." (three, four). "Squeeze your butt cheeks as hard as you can. That's going to make your hip pop right out." On the eight count, that sounded like, "One, squeeze, three, squeeze, five, squeeze, drop and look." Americans with Medicare managed care plans or stand-alone drug plans started receiving notices last month if their coverage had been rated 2.5 stars or less in the past three years in the government insurer's five-star system. The government is so serious about steering people away from low-rated plans, it has dis- abled the electronic enrollment tool for those offer- ings on Medicare's website. It's all part of Medicare's push to force chronic under achievers to improve care quality. And there's reward as well as punishment: Plans with higher rat- ings can get bonus payments of up to 5 percent of their contracts, expected to total $3.1 billion this year. Edith Gooden-Thompson, the Broward County, Fla., coordinator for the Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders Medicare counseling program, antic- ipates getting calls from puzzled seniors as the letters start hitting mailboxes, just in time for the Oct. 15 start of Medicare open enrollment. She stresses that no one will be forced to leave the lower-starred plans or lose coverage. ranked coverage to carefully review what they're being offered and shop around — something everyone on Medicare should do anyway, Gooden-Thompson said. The notices just encourage beneficiaries with low- began to appreciate what an amazing performer Michael Jackson was. At this point, everyone As the "Thriller" refrain poured from the boombox, it was time for "the Michael," a move that started benignly ("Shift your weight to your right leg") before Mohn asked the teachers to fully commit them- selves to the moment: everyone, planning for all the what-ifs of senior life is especially crucial if you are living alone. And let's face it, even if you have a partner and/or kids, there's no guar- antee any of them will still be around when you need them. Do you know who is going to be there to step in with comfort, guidance and rational medical advice when you are old? Start answering those questions now, no matter your age, gerontology experts say. "(People) need to start planning, and they need to look forward to it," Orel said. "I hope someday to hear someone say, 'I can't wait to get old,' with the After that, Mohn demon- strated "the claw" move, which segued into a stomp and a turn that left the zom- bies facing the left wall of the gym. They began the sequence of steps again, eventually turning to the back wall, then to the right wall and finally ending up facing front as Vincent Price's inimitable cackle reverberated off the gym mats. better they looked. "There's usually a The deader they got, the moment," Mohn said later, "when you can see that someone is fulfilling their dream of being the dancer they always wanted to be. And that's wonderful." same enthusiasm as some- one wanting to turn 21." Graying baby boomers Medicare officials, when announcing early 2013 plan details last month, said they wanted to make it increasingly challenging for seniors to enroll in low performers. Medicare HMO participation was project- ed to increase by 11 percent next year. The stars are based on several factors including patient satisfaction surveys, the availability of screenings and vaccines, and the plan's ability to manage chronic conditions. Insurers support the concept of rewarding quality care, said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for Ameri- ca's Health Insurance Plans, and rankings overall have been inching higher. But he said the industry remains concerned that the ratings truly reflect things that ben- efit consumers and don't unfairly penalize certain plans operating in rural or poor areas. Doris Einhorn, an 80-year-old Tamarac, Fla., resi- dent, has switched Medicare HMOs several times over the years, willing to jump ship if premiums rise or if drugs she needs are no longer covered. She's checking the changes in her Humana plan and shop- ping around. And yes, she'll look at the ratings, although her current plan isn't an underachiever. "If a plan has two stars, they either aren't giving you something or they are charging too much," Einhorn said. About 9 percent of enrollees nationwide are in plans with fewer than three stars and another 7 percent are in plans not rated by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. Seniors have until midnight Dec. 7 to enroll in managed care or stand-alone drug plans. Those who later decide they are unhappy with their choice will be able to drop that coverage and go back to traditional Medicare, starting Jan. 1 through Feb. 14. Aging, alone: Planning can make those future years golden offer a cautionary tale for those inclined to wait, only to realize they may have waited too long. A recent study by the university's National Center for Family and Marriage Research found one-third of adults age 45 to 63 are unmarried, a more than 50 percent increase since 1980. Susan Brown, the cen- ter's co-director, said these unmarried boomers tend to be more vulnerable eco- nomically, socially and physically than their mar- ried counterparts. "Usually when people are married, spouses are the first line of defense," she explained. for a variety of reasons, Brown said. Some may have delayed getting mar- ried and eventually let go of More people are single the idea, she noted. Others are single because of divorce, an experience that she said can be especially difficult economically for women. What's more, those marrying later may choose (or be forced to choose) not to have children. "The pathways we take as young adults have ripple effects through life," Brown said. "This is a lesson for younger people. You want to enter old age with as many resources as you can." Orel conducts much of her research in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgen- der community. The "resilience and strength" she has witnessed offer examples for others to learn from. for the possibility that they will," Klinenberg said. "The good news is they'll have plenty of company. The bad news is we, as a society, have done little to promote the health and security of aging single seniors. "When I did interviews for my book, I met with a lot of older people living alone who spent a consider- able amount of time devel- oping support systems of friends and neighbors as well as family in case of an emergency." In the new movie "Robot VETERANS HALL 735 OAK ST. Red Bluff, Calif. THURSDAY NOV. 1, 2012 5pm-8pm FRIDAY NOV. 2, 2012 8am-8pm SATURDAY NOV. 3, 2012 10am-4pm 12149 HIGHWAY 99 W, RED BLUFF www.southmainstorage.com North Hand-crafted country gifts MAIN South Jackson "That population pro- vides a lot of connections," she said. "People become connected through LGBT groups. They voice con- cerns. They build strong families of choice. They participate in the communi- ty so they don't have a sense of being alone." Eric Klinenberg is author of "Going Solo: The Extra- ordinary Rise and Surpris- ing Appeal of Living Alone" (Penguin Press). In it, the New York University sociology professor notes more than 50 percent of American adults live alone and are learning new and often richer ways of living by going solo. Still, he said, it is difficult to grow old alone. "An enormous number of people have to be bracing & Frank," actor Frank Lan- gella plays a retired cat bur- glar whose children think he can't live alone anymore. Instead of sending dad to a nursing home, the kids get him a robot programmed to improve his physical and mental health, and much adventure follows. But that film is fiction and set in the near future — maybe you'll be lucky to live long enough to see robotic caregivers become a reality. Right now, though, there's no Hollywood end- ing to the challenge of growing old alone. Like so much else in life, planning depends on each individual situation. But the key is to take responsibility, experts say, and begin doing that thinking and talking now, even if that triggers plenty of seat-squirming. "We all hope we'll get old, but we don't plan to get old," Orel said. "You have to have the conversation before there's a crisis." WALNUT OAK ST.