McKay Jenkins makes a persuasive case that we’re inundated with too many toxic chemicals. Jenkins offers plenty of ways for us to avoid the worst of these toxins. Jenkins recommends using high-quality furnace filters. Avoid aerosolized indoor pesticides. Avoid synthetic carpet-cleaning chemicals. Always remove your shoes when you walk in your home (shoes track in an bacteria and toxins).

Most toothpastes and personal care products contain ethylene glycol (used in paint and anti-freeze). Think about switching to plant-based toothpaste and other personal care products from tomsofmaine.com.

Don’t buy food in cans. Virtually all cans are lined with plastic which contains bisphenol A. Whenever possible buy food packaged in glass. What’s Gotten Into Us lists hundreds of suggestions to buy less toxic furniture and appliances, clothing, and laundry products. After reading this book, you’ll change the way you look at the world. GRADE: A

Superman, 1941-1942 retails for $26.00. Daedalus Books is selling it for $7.98. This set includes 2-DVDs full of 17 short animated features. In addition to gems like The Mechanical Monsters, Billon Dollar Limited, The Arctic Giant and The Bulleteers, this set includes some bonus features. First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series is an engaging documentary featuring interviews with modern animators who discuss their affection for the Fleischer series. There’s also a brief but informative look at Max Fleischer’s rise to prominence. If you’re a Superman fan and/or a superhero animation fan, there’s plenty to like with this set. Especially, the price.

Dr. Marc Agronin is a psychiatrist at the Miami Jewish Health Systems specializing in Elder Care. Dr. Agronin is going to visit Western New York and speak about Aging so I figured I’d read his book before I attend his lecture. How We Age is a series of stories of Dr. Agronin’s patients. Some are depressed about aging. Some have Alzheimer’s or dementia. Some are sharp mentally, but suffer from failing bodies. How We Age runs the gamut of responses to getting older. Some people embrace it, some resist it, others simply succumb to entropy. There’s plenty to learn about how to deal with aging issues by reading Dr. Agronin’s patients’ experiences. GRADE: B+

Yes, those are chicken wing hats those two guys are wearing ! (They are Drew Cerza and Bobby Flay at the Anchor Bar where Buffalo chicken wings were invented.) Welcome to Wing Fest 2011, an orgy of eating chicken wings. For the next two days, over a 100,000 hungry chicken wing aficionados will consume about 20 tons of chicken wings. Hot wings, barbecue wings, sweet & sour wings, over a 100 different kinds of chicken wings.

Wing Fest began in 2002, after Buffalo News columnist, Donn Esmonde, saw Osmosis Jones (a 2001 box office bomb). The movie is about an animated white blood cell played by Chris Rock who lives in actor Bill Murray’s body, protecting him from germs. Murray plays a compulsive eater who plans on attending the National Buffalo Wing Festival right here in our hometown. The funny thing was, the National Buffalo Wing Festival didn’t even exist. Completely fictitious. But the idea of a Buffalo Wing Festival sparked Esmond’s interest, and his resulting column got the attention of “Wing King” Drew Cerza.

Cerza got to work, and organized the first ever National Buffalo Wing Festival in 2002. It didn’t take long for the festival–and Cerza himself–to become a hit. This year, over a 100 vendors from 49 states (no Arkansas) will be presenting their unique chicken wing creations. Since the first Wing Fest, Drew Cerza has been featured on CNN, the Travel Channel, Regis and Kelly, The Today Show, the Food Network alongside Emeril Lagasse, and Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Cerza even made a PBS documentary on the subject of Buffalo chicken wings. All of the proceeds from Wing Fest go to charity.

If you’re a fan of chicken wings, you need to put Wing Fest on your schedule. And, if you come to Buffalo, let me know and I’ll show you the sights…that’s if you can still walk after consuming a couple pounds of chicken wings!

Hunt the Space-Witch is the first of three volumes Planet Stories will publish featuring Robert Silverberg’s delightfully pulpy science fiction adventures. If you haven’t read these novellas, you’re missing some great fun. Silverberg churned out reams of SF back in the 1950s and 1960s, but he’s a gifted writer and the quality of these stories is above average. Recommended!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Slaves of the Star Giants
Spawn of the Deadly Sea
The Flame and the Hammer
Valley Beyond Time
Hunt the Space-Witch!
The Silent Invaders
Spacerogue

LAST 10 DAYS! read the sign outside one of BORDERS stores that are closing in our area. I didn’t have much time now that I’m back to work but I thought I’d pop in and do a quick search. There may be other treasures to be found in BORDERS, but I was happy finding some nice volumes to fill out my George Pelecanos library. All fiction was 50% to 70% off and I received an additional 15% off. These books cost me a total of $25.06. That’s a savings of $50! I’ll try to get back to BORDERS one more time before they sadly close their doors forever.

Jane Gross, who writes on aging for the New York Times, shows the current state of our broken Elder Care system in A Bitter-Sweet Season. Gross uses her own mother’s decline and death as a case study to make her arguments. Gross’s mother was in her 80s, living independently in Florida when a tumor was found on her spine. Jane Gross and her brother, Michael, move their mother to an assisted living center near them in New York City. From the beginning, things go wrong and the Grosses make Bad Decisions despite their Good Intentions. Moving their mother north meant finding new doctors. Doctors tend not to take on elderly patients covered by Medicare. Jane Gross’s mother’s health care was a jumble of specialists and fragmented testing. ER visits became more numerous. The spiral of more health problems got worse.

If you want a book to help you understand our current, lame, healthcare system A Bitter-Sweet Season accomplishes this in detail. Medicaid, Medicare, long-term health insurance plans, living wills, health care proxies, and dozens of other topics are explored in detail. By seeing the mistakes Jane Gross and her brother made in trying to care for their aging parent, we can all learn how to do it better. And we can start to plan for our own aging issues so that we don’t burden our children or relatives with draconian decisions. GRADE: A

Nikita: The Complete First Season comes out today and you can bet that my copy should be arriving UPS from AMAZON. Yes, this version of Nikita had some lame episodes mostly due to poor scripts. Hopefully, the scripts for Season Two, which will start on the CW in a few weeks, will be upgraded. I’m a fan of Maggie Q and I hope she has more to do this season that just blow things up and kill Bad Guys. She has way more talent than that. This series has plenty of potential with spies, terrorists, and political chicanery. If you haven’t checked out Nikita, this box set is one option.

Tonight I’ll watch The Closer on TNT, but I won’t be watching the program that follows, Rizzoli & Isles. Last season, the focus of Rizzoli & Isles tended to be on police work. But this season, with Rizzoli’s Mom’s divorce and the “cutsy” girlie talk between Rizzoli & Isles, my interest in the program plummeted. Call it the BURN NOTICE Effect: when the lead character’s Mom and dopey brother started to dominate the plot, I stopped watching that program, too. If you’re going to have a spy program, it should be about spies. If you’re going to have a cop show, it should be about cops solving crimes. Bringing in family issues and dating strategies only accentuates the vacuous nature of this season’s plots. So even though I like Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander I can’t bear to watch another episode.