tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-166234872024-03-08T12:03:30.660-05:00Amanda's articleswhat i'm writing these days.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger196125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-21472105540055025242011-11-07T14:22:00.001-05:002011-11-08T16:15:31.068-05:00Umbrellas 2.0For this fun little NGM piece <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/visions-now-next#/next">about the future of umbrellas</a>, I interviewed three different inventors/designers. I wish there had been more space to convey just how passionate they all were about what seems, on the surface, like such a simple device. And they aren't the only ones with a lot to say about umbrellas! In the course of research, I came across an entire <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=134OAAAAYAAJ&dq=history%20of%20the%20umbrella&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">quirky old book</a> about "that dearest and truest friend in need and indeed, the Umbrella." <div><br /></div><div>The author, writing in the 1860s, pities those who lived in less modern times:<div><div><div><blockquote>"Strange to say, it is a fact, melancholy enough, but for that all too true, that our forefathers, scarce seventy years ago, meekly endured the pelting of the pitiless storm without that protection vouchsafed to their descendants by a kind fate and talented inventors."</blockquote>Oh, the horror!</div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-27956948934173623392011-11-01T15:38:00.001-04:002011-11-08T16:16:45.808-05:00The Elusive OkapiHere's a short article I wrote for NGM on an obscure animal that's probably endangered -- but it's so little-studied, no one knows for sure. Had you ever heard of <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/visions-now-next#/now">the okapi</a> before? They're wonderfully weird!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-48685459502759971842011-09-10T16:52:00.001-04:002011-11-08T16:58:43.992-05:00Brazil's MachismaThere's a feature in our September issue about the rapid decline of Brazil's fertility rate. Sociologists suspect a surprising influence: Strong female characters in soap operas, called telenovelas there. <div><br /></div><div>I didn't write <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/gorney-text">the story</a> (that would be the very talented Cynthia Gorney), but this was my first opportunity to write a full set of <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girl-power/stanmeyer-photography">photo captions</a>---or legends, as they're called around here. I enjoyed it.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-66192455886366313982011-08-15T16:17:00.002-04:002011-11-08T16:28:38.495-05:00A pint-sized pieceDid you know that a British imperial pint holds about 20 percent more beer than a typical American pint? Somehow I missed this fact during my junior year abroad. (Probably because I had never had an American pint, being underage and boringly law-abiding.) And because the Brits are a bit uptight about weights and measures, regulations dictate exactly what fractions of a pint pubs may serve: One half or one-third, nothing more or less. But it looks like they <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/08/visions-now-next#/now/2">might be relaxing a bit this year, allowing for a two-thirds pint.</a> Cheers!<div><div><div><div><br /><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-10429435513071061552011-07-15T16:29:00.000-04:002011-11-08T16:51:07.873-05:00How to Feed a Growing PlanetAfter writing text for the catchy <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/visions-now-next#/now/3">gatefold graphic about food waste</a> in our July issue, I now fear discarding so much as a crouton from the office salad bar. Researching this also reinforced my commitment to a mostly vegetarian diet: some sources count the diversion of arable land for animal grazing as "food waste," and I see their point. You can feed a lot more people per square foot on soybeans than burgers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-13059123596744600592011-06-08T13:59:00.002-04:002011-11-08T17:14:19.756-05:00Sunlight in the DarkMy first byline in NGM, where I now work as an editor! A very, very short <a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/06/visions-now-next#/next/2">piece about "microsolar" power in Afric</a>a. If you're interested in learning more about microsolar projects, I'd suggest checking out the websites for <a href="http://www.lightingafrica.org/">Lighting Africa</a> and the organization <a href="http://www.solar-aid.org/">Solar Aid</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-75702325380900512172011-02-08T17:04:00.000-05:002011-11-08T17:13:39.654-05:00Are Video Games Good for Us?That's what Jane McGonigal thinks -- check out my Smithsonian interview with <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Interview-Jane-McGonigal-Computer-Game-Developer.html">this "alternate reality" game designer</a>. She makes a lot of excellent points, and makes me feel better about all the hours I spent playing King's Quest.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-83056705845829373052010-08-01T17:00:00.003-04:002010-10-14T16:40:00.884-04:00The Future of Global Food Security<i>Rosamond Naylor directs the Program on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. An economist by training, she studies the world food economy and sustainable agriculture. Though she says she is deeply worried about climate change and population growth, she described herself as “optimistic” in a conversation with Smithsonian’s Amanda Bensen.<br /></i><br /><b>By 2050, there will be an estimated nine billion people in the world. Do we have the land and water to feed them?</b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Rosamond-Naylor-on-Feeding-the-World.html">Read Naylor's response</a>, and the rest of our conversation, in the 40th-anniversary special issue of Smithsonian. I also wrote <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Five-Game-Changing-Crops-That-Could-End-Starvation.html?utm_source=relatedarticles&utm_medium=internallink&utm_campaign=SmithMag&utm_content=Five%20Game-Changing%20Crops%20That%20Could%20Help%20Feed%20the%20Hungry">this sidebar about new and under-utilized traditional crops</a> that could help feed the hungry in the future.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-43127563862715549772010-05-04T09:47:00.000-04:002010-11-04T09:49:24.042-04:00A Taste of VermontAs a web extra to accompany one of the features I helped edit this month (a nice piece about Vermont's Route 100), I highlighted a few of the many food- & drink-related tours available in my home state. Read <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/A-Culinary-Adventure-in-Vermont.html">"A Culinary Adventure in Vermont" on Smithsonian.com</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-56048148768470505722010-05-02T20:13:00.001-04:002010-10-14T16:41:10.081-04:00Home is Where the Kitchen Is<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">For her latest book, photographer Dona Schwartz chose the home’s busiest shared space to observe how a newly blended family—two adults, one preteen, three teenagers, two college kids and two dogs—learned to live together. She spoke with </span><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; z-index: 0; font-style: italic;">Smithsonian</em><span style="font-style: italic;">’s food blogger, Amanda Bensen, about what she saw "In the Kitchen."</span></blockquote><br /><br /><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Home-is-Where-the-Kitchen-Is.html#ixzz12INTf2XB">Read the Q&A and view Dona's photos here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-84484703933142835472010-05-02T10:21:00.005-04:002010-10-13T22:29:53.324-04:00Did This Man Invent Color Photography?<i><blockquote>"There, do you see it?” she asks, holding up a small, silvery rectangle in the half-lit room.<br /><br />For a moment, I do: a splash of blue on a bird’s wings. Then it disappears. The photograph, captured some 160 years ago, reveals the outline of an owl and three smaller birds.<br /><br />Lifting another plate from a storage box labeled “Hill, Levi,” Michelle Delaney sighs as she examines it.<br /><br />“Oh, that makes me sad. You used to be able to make out the outline of the village in the center here, but it’s faded even more now,” she says. I see only a blur of brown, gray and white; what a ghost might look like caught on camera...</blockquote></i><br />Read more about Levi Hill, the mysterious minister who may or may not have been the first to invent color photography, <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/A-160-Year-Old-Photographic-Mystery.html#ixzz12IPZg6ML">in the April issue of Smithsonian</a>. <p></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-38887443355487384622009-11-13T22:06:00.000-05:002010-10-13T22:13:43.394-04:00John Marshall and the Ju/'hoansi<blockquote><i>The African giraffe stumbles to a halt, bewildered by the poisoned spears studding its breast and flanks. Moments later, it falls stiffly backward. The giraffe's slender legs point skyward, then swing sideways as it collapses in the desert dust. The scene flashes to a Ju/'hoansi hunter, tearing into a joint of glistening red meat with his knife.</i></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br /></span></span>Read the rest of my piece about filmmaker John Marshall's footage of one of Africa's last hunter-gatherer tribes, <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Priceless.html">in the Nov. 2009 issue of Smithsonian</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-83508775379289696502009-06-19T22:31:00.003-04:002010-10-13T22:32:50.361-04:00Ant-thropology and "Doctor Bugs"I had a fun assignment for the August issue of Smithsonian: catch up with Mark Moffett, aka "Doctor Bugs," for a short profile pegged to his photo exhibit at the Natural History museum. This guy is a true character, and a born storyteller...for days after the interview, I couldn't stop spouting trivia about ants and all the parallels between their lives and ours. <div><br /><div>You can <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ATM-Ant-Eye-View.html">read it here,</a> if you want to become a bug dork, too.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-74624766053712499802009-06-19T22:28:00.002-04:002009-06-19T22:31:06.003-04:00Salami, Mr. Holcomb?My latest article for Smithsonian magazine catches up with one of the first women to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, and the poor plebe she yelled at in a historic photo by Lucian Perkins. <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Salami-Mr-Holcomb.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Salami-Mr-Holcomb.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div>It was a pleasure to report this story, because all of the people involved are just so genuinely nice!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-17953506069674772512009-04-19T19:27:00.000-04:002009-06-19T23:20:50.566-04:00Ireland's Hill of Tara, an "endangered cultural site"I wrote this short feature as part of a magazine package about "endangered cultural sites," and I think it's by far the most-read, most-commented-on thing I've ever written...not that I'm too surprised, as there's clearly a lot of passion surrounding the issue. <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Endangered-Cultural-Treasures-The-Hill-of-Tara-Ireland.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/Endangered-Cultural-Treasures-The-Hill-of-Tara-Ireland.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-84554504781546554222009-04-02T11:00:00.002-04:002009-06-20T11:06:31.050-04:00My other blogMost of my writing these days is about food and drink from a Smithsonian perspective (science, history, anthropology, etc.)... it's called "Food And Think" and you'll find it on the upper right of the Smithsonian.com homepage, or by clicking here:<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/">http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>I'm psyched to have help from a friend and former colleague with this endeavor---Lisa Bramen was a fellow features reporter with me at The Post-Star, and won awards there for her writing about food and other subjects... and now she's my FAT co-blogger! (er, only acronymically speaking, of course.)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-88647986609542601482008-11-29T20:13:00.000-05:002009-06-19T23:15:25.174-04:00Q&A with Sarah VowellDid I mention how cool my job is? I got to interview Sarah Vowell! I love her stuff on NPR's This American Life, and her books, the latest of which contains intriguing reflections about the Puritans:<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Sarah-Vowell-Puritans-Legacy.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Sarah-Vowell-Puritans-Legacy.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Sarah-Vowell-Puritans-Legacy.html"></a> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-89144856396169842092008-10-29T18:34:00.000-04:002009-06-19T23:01:33.600-04:00The "Blue Rider" artistsMy favorite artists, Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, were part of something called the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) group in early 20th-century Germany. And since they happened to be based in <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/munich.html">Munich</a>, the city starring in the latest feature I fact-checked for Smithsonian, it seemed a good excuse to write something about them as an "online extra"...<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/blue_rider.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/blue_rider.html</a></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-38756502600957336412008-09-19T09:37:00.000-04:002009-06-19T22:45:30.959-04:00Adventures of a Portuguese PoetFor Smithsonian.com, a short story about Luis Vaz de Camoes, who I personally hadn't heard of until I started fact-checking a feature on <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/macau-jackpot.html">Macau</a>. He had kind of a crazy life!<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/portuguese-poet.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/portuguese-poet.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-65131553493587391392008-04-29T11:27:00.000-04:002009-06-19T23:08:48.760-04:00Winslow Homer's long facePoor Homer.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/no-more-long-faces.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/no-more-long-faces.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-2245228409887393472008-03-28T21:09:00.000-04:002009-06-19T23:12:52.457-04:00A Brief History of ChocolateI'm so grateful that those pre-Columbian cultures figured out the cacao tree's potential...<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-of-chocolate.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-of-chocolate.html</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-38360461001345311372008-03-15T22:02:00.003-04:002009-06-19T23:02:57.385-04:00Cixi, the "woman behind the throne" in ChinaSometimes I feel like this new job of mine isn't even really a job; I'm getting paid to be a student, and I feel incredibly lucky. As usual, I learned a lot in the process of fact-checking an article about Beijing's <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/da-forbidden-city.html">Forbidden City</a> for the magazine. I was particularly drawn to the mysterious, powerful character of Cixi, so I wrote a little something about her for the website: <div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/da-cixi.html">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/da-cixi.html</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-60377890705744251422007-08-15T12:03:00.000-04:002009-06-19T23:06:23.651-04:00Where I'll be for the next few monthsI've left the Post-Star and am heading to Frankfurt, Germany for the next few months, thanks to an Arthur F. <a href="http://www.icfj.org/OurWork/Fellowships/BurnsFellowships/tabid/207/Default.aspx">Burns Fellowship</a> from the International Center for Journalists!<div><br /></div><div>I may blog occasionally: </div><div><a href="http://frauamanda.blogspot.com/">http://frauamanda.blogspot.com/</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-2117823567002672942007-08-01T09:31:00.002-04:002011-10-06T11:59:19.835-04:00Helping him find his way<span style="font-style: italic;">Update: This story received a first-place feature writing award in NYSAPA's writing contest for 2007-08. </span><br /><br />--<br />The Post-Star<br />June 10, 2007<br /><strong><br />Helping Him Find His Way:<br />Siblings pull together to care for parent with Alzheimer's disease<br /><br />By AMANDA BENSEN<br /></strong><br /><div>~~~<br /><em>Bernard Bondzinski is looking for something, but he can't remember what. The feeling has been nagging him for a long time.<br /><br />It's not in the napkins, the package of hamburger buns, or the bag of chips set out on the kitchen table for the Memorial Day barbecue.<br /><br />It's not in the pattern of the tablecloth, although he studies it closely.<br /><br />He looks at the face of the woman across the table. She wants something -- what is it?<br /><br />"Let's go outside," she is saying.<br /><br />He doesn't know her name, but he accepts the support of her arm and moves slowly toward the yard. Maybe it's out there, this nameless missing thing that makes its presence known only by its absence.<br /><br />Who are these people leaning down to kiss him on the cheek, hold his hand, offer him a mug of root beer?<br /><br />Nice bunch.</em><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>~~~<br /></i><br />"Nice bunch" is how Bernard described his own family recently when his oldest daughter, Pat Frederick, showed him a framed family portrait. She pointed out faces that were once familiar: his wife, Lena, and their seven children, their smiles preserved beneath glass.<br /><br />"That's you right there," Pat told him.<br /><br />"Me?" he asked in surprise.<br /><br />"Yep," she replied.<br /><br />He looked at the faces a while longer, but couldn't find the memories.<br /><br />"Huh," he said.<br /><br />She sat down next to him and watched a movie on television, answering his questions about the actions on screen. Eventually, she would fix him supper, then help him get ready for bed. If he woke in the night feeling confused, frightened or restless, she would be there.<br /><br />Parents are supposed to take care of their children, not the other way around.<br /><br />But as Pat puts it, "Life plays dirty little tricks on us sometimes and changes us in ways we don't want."<br /><br />Frederick and four of her six siblings are in-home caregivers for their father, Bernard "Pete" Bondzinski, who has Alzheimer's disease. They have developed a rotating shift schedule, like nurses, so that someone is with him in his home 24 hours a day, seven days a week.<br /><br />Most of them have full-time jobs and families of their own, but they have been keeping up this arrangement for three years, starting in 2004 with their mother, Lena, who died in 2005. The children knew she didn't want to go into a nursing home, so they had family meetings and agreed to share the burden of caregiving.<br /><br />"We decided we would do what we could, as long as we could, and that's what we did," Pat said.<br /><br />As Lena entered the final stages of Alzheimer's, Bernard was slipping into the disease's grasp almost unnoticed.<br /><br />"He was always very private, in control of his world. If he resisted something, we would say, 'Oh, Dad's just being stubborn,' " Pat remembered.<br /><br />But the signs were there. They took away his car after noticing that he drove at excessive speeds and got lost in familiar places. He started burning his eggs in the mornings. Sometimes he refused to change his shirt for days at a time, like an obstinate child. That was one of the toughest phases to go through, Pat said.<br /><br />"Where do you say, I'm taking over? Where do you say, you have to do something, and where do you say, I respect your right to do as you please? That's the hard part," she reflected.<br /><br />As she spoke, her father dozed in his armchair, as he had been doing all morning. He sometimes sleeps all day, or simply sits in silence, petting the cat and watching television.<br /><br />"Where he's at right now, it looks hard ... but it's easier," she said. "What we focus on right now is keeping him contented, feeling secure. Instead of trying to bring him back to our world, we go into his world ... You just expect that whatever happens, that's the normal for that day."<br /><br />Pat works weekdays as a receptionist and spends Friday night through Sunday morning at her father's house. Her five sisters -- a sixth lives in Florida -- take the other shifts, while their brother handles things like bills and yard work. They don't want Bernard to have to leave the house he built himself, using wood from the scenic swath of land in South Glens Falls where he used to run a dairy farm. He has lived on the property since his Lithuanian immigrant parents moved there when he was 6 years old.<br /><br />"My dad is so tied to this land. There's no way he would ever feel good being anyplace except where he is," Pat said. "Would we ever consider an alternative? ... It would have to be a last resort."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Going back in time</b></div><br />In many ways, Bernard's children feel that they are watching their father's life in reverse. He's slipping backward through time, into corners of his memory they've never encountered, giving them a glimpse of the child his own parents knew long ago.<br /><br />"He's getting younger. I've seen him act down to probably around four, where he would say, 'Pick me up,' " said Carol Kennedy, one of his daughters. "And yet he will snap back into the adult, telling you what to do -- it keeps you on your toes."<br /><br />A few weeks ago, Carol stopped by her father's house during Pat's shift on a Saturday afternoon.<br /><br />A relative had died suddenly the night before and the family was trying to cope with that loss without disrupting Bernard's calm routine, but Carol was visibly stressed.<br /><br />She collapsed with a sigh in a kitchen chair between her father and sister.<br /><br />Bernard was in a good mood. He had spent the last 10 minutes opening and closing a musical birthday card, jumping slightly and chuckling each time the tune exploded from the unfolding paper. </div><div><br /></div><div>"<i>Celebrate good times, come on!</i>" the song declared.<br /><br />When he seemed to be losing interest, Carol leaned in close to her father and sang a snippet of a children's song to him.<br /><br />"The itsy bitsy spider ..." she sang, then made a funny face.<br /><br />He grinned.<br /><br />"Woof," he said, with a glint of mischief in his bright blue eyes.<br /><br />"Meow," she answered, laughing.<br /><br />"We get goofy sometimes. We all have our own special ways of connecting, and that's mine," she explained to the others in the room.<br /><br />"It works, doesn't it Dad?" she added.<br /><br />"Did it?" he asked. Most of his answers are questions.<br /><br />"Well, it gave me a laugh, and I needed that," she said.<br /><br />"That's good, isn't it?" he asked.<br /><br />The brain works in mysterious ways, and fleeting moments of clarity can emerge from the fog of Alzheimer's. Seizing this one, the women began to sing their father's favorite song, "God Bless America."<br /><br />He joined in, and remembered all the words.<br /><br />A few hours later, Pat made Bernard a grilled cheese sandwich.<br /><br />"What do I do with this?" he asked her.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Unexpected blessings</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>No one would ask for the situation facing the Bondzinski family, but they have discovered rewards amid the challenge of caring for their parents.<br /><br />It has brought the siblings closer than they ever were and taught them to let certain differences go. There are four or five types of butter and margarine in Bernard's fridge, and as many kinds of bread on the counter -- it's not worth fighting over the "right" way to make a sandwich.<br /><br />"This forced us to experience the strength of each other," Carol said. "And oh my goodness, have I learned! We've all learned."<br /><br />As their father has become more childlike, his daughters say they have appreciated the chance to get closer to him. He was the kind of father who showed his love by always being there, not by flowery displays of emotion or physical affection, they said. Now, they feel free to hold his hand or say "I love you, Dad" -- things that would have made him uncomfortable in the past.<br /><br />"It's like getting to look at someone who has dropped all their defenses. You get to see the core person," Carol said. "I have found beauty in it. I have found healing in it. And yet -- do I want my children to parent me? Absolutely not. I know that sounds like a contradiction. But I know the emotional toll it can take."<br /><br />They share their thoughts with each other in a notebook, keeping track of everything from Bernard's sleeping and eating habits to their own moments of grief, anger, joy and exhaustion.<br /><br />"He becomes confused as to day and night -- forgets if he's eaten, never remembers who we are, forgetting in an instant what we've just said to him ... and what we once thought we'd established over a lifetime," Gail Kenyon, another sister, wrote in June of last year. "It's old and new all at once. The disability of the brain, its ability to make the known unknowable, family into strangers, is old. This terrible affliction was expressed in more colorful, detailed, heartwrenching ways in our mom. Dad's world is more black and white, just as he's been over the years."<br /><br />The most important thing they can do for their father, the Bondzinski children believe, is to simply return the gift he gave them for so many years -- a quiet, supportive presence.<br /><br />"I think even if you can't take care of your parents, even if they have to go into a nursing home -- you can be a presence. Be fearful if you need to be, be sad if you need to be, but be it there," Gail said. "In the last hours of my mother's life ... she didn't have to know our names, or even that we were her daughters. She just knew that we were there."<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>What was</b></div><br />Bernard met his wife, Lena, when the two were teenagers in a local accordion band. They were married for almost 65 years and in the last several years Bernard was Lena's caregiver as she was increasingly disabled by arthritis and Alzheimer's.<br /><br />By the time she died in 2005, Bernard was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, and in some ways, that eased his pain, Pat said.<br /><br />"He knew she died, he was with her when she died, but then a part of him sort of closed off afterwards, except to sometimes wonder where she was," Pat said. "Every once in a while now, he'll say, 'Where's my woman?' And we'll have to say, 'Well, she's not here right now.' "<br /><br />Lena and Bernard had a favorite song, as many couples do -- Barry Manilow's "In Apple Blossom Time."<br /><br />Pat sang a few bars of it to her father the other day, as she looked out the kitchen window at the yard where her parents once strolled beneath apple trees.<br /><br />"I'll be with you in apple blossom time, I'll be with you to change your name to mine. One day in May, I'll come and say, happy the bride the sunshine's on today ..."<br /><br />Her voice broke as she remembered all that was lost -- the apple trees, her mother, and now her father, slowly disappearing.<br /><br />The kitchen clock ticked out several long measures of silence while she wept.<br /><br />Bernard watched his daughter with the steady, curious gaze of a child trying to unravel the mysteries of grown-up behavior. He leaned forward in his chair slightly, as if he wanted to say or do something, but wasn't sure what.<br /><br />"It's difficult," he said at last.<br /><br />Pat looked at him thoughtfully, surprised at this moment of coherence.<br /><br />"Yes," she replied. "It is difficult."<br /><br />~~~</div><div><br /><b>MORE ABOUT ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE</b><br /><br />Alzheimer's disease was named after the German doctor Alois Alzheimer, who described the first known case of the disease in 1906. In the hundred years since, the number of cases diagnosed has risen dramatically.<br /><br />According to the national Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's disease is currently eroding the brains of more than 5 million Americans, which is 10 percent more than five years ago. At this rate, the U.S. population may include as many as 16 million senior citizens with Alzheimer's disease by 2050 unless more effective prevention and treatment methods are developed.<br /><br />The disease's prevalence increases sharply with age.<br /><br />Most Alzheimer's patients are older than 65 and the disease affects 42 percent of people 85 and older. Age is the biggest risk factor for developing the disease, but a family history of Alzheimer's and poor cardiovascular health may increase that risk.<br /><br />Some studies have also shown that people who suffered a serious head injury at some point in their life may be at a higher risk for developing Alzheimer's.<br /><br />It is a fatal disease that currently has no cure, although some prescription drugs can temporarily slow the symptoms.<br /><br />It destroys brain cells and neurons, starting with those that control memory and thinking skills.<br /><br />With time, it progressed to areas of the brain associated with physical functioning. In the final stages of the disease, patients become completely incapacitated and require constant care.<br /><br /><b>WARNING SIGNS</b><br /><br />1. Memory loss, particularly short-term.<br /><br />2. Difficulty performing familiar tasks.<br /><br />3. Problems with language and vocabulary.<br /><br />4. Disorientation to time and place.<br /><br />5. Poor or decreased judgment.<br /><br />6. Problems with abstract thinking.<br /><br />7. Misplacing things.<br /><br />8. Mood swings or behavioral changes.<br /><br />9. Changes in personality, such as sudden confusion, suspicion or fearfulness.<br /><br />10. Loss of initiative, increased sleeping and passivity.<br /><br />Source: Alzheimer's Association</div></div><div>~~~</div><div><br /></div><div><b>RESOURCES</b></div><div><br />Alzheimer's Association of Northeastern New York: http://www.alzneny.org/<br /><br />National Alzheimer's Association: http://www.alz.org/, 24-hour helpline (888) 272-3900<br /><br />Office for the Aging, Warren County: 761-6347, Washington County: 746-2420, Saratoga County: 884-4100<br /><br />U.S. Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center: http://www.alzheimers.org/, (800) 438-4380<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16623487.post-61668249047004489122007-06-08T15:56:00.000-04:002007-06-14T16:05:45.602-04:0020something column: You can read this in under 5 minutes<strong><span style="font-size:85%;">By AMANDA BENSEN</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">Published in The Post-Star (G2) 6/7/07</span></strong><br /><br />"You are speeding," an electronic sign warned me as I drove home on the Northway one night.<br />I slowed down to match the speed limit in the construction zone, but not without grumbling. Forty-five miles an hour seemed like a snail's pace.<br /><br />But then I reconsidered my reaction -- what was my hurry, anyway? I had no plans for the evening, other than making dinner and catching up on some e-mail.<br /><br />Americans are always in a rush, it seems.<br /><br />We zip through fast-food restaurants to consume calories, then pop "instant weight loss" pills to get rid of those calories.<br /><br />We'll honk at the car in front of us if they take a millisecond too long to hit the gas after the traffic light turns green.<br /><br />We don't like to wait in line at the grocery store, so we'll take the self-checkout option even though we're stymied when the computer demands the produce code for broccoli crowns. We prefer ATMs and electronic passes to potentially slow bank tellers and tollbooth collectors. Some of us have even tried "speed dating."<br /><br />I admit it -- I'm addicted to speed, too. But I've found that travel can be an excellent form of rehab.<br /><br />In France and Spain, I learned to enjoy long, leisurely dinners and savor every sip of wine. In Austria and Germany, friends explained that a waiter generally won't bring the check unless you ask for it, because they don't want you to feel rushed. How nice.<br /><br />In Africa, I learned that everything follows a tangibly slower tempo, from the pace of pedestrians on city sidewalks to the schedules of important events. When my friends and I showed up on time to attend a 4 p.m. wedding in Kampala, Uganda, we watched four other happy couples leave the church before things finally rolled around to our friends' wedding an hour and a half later. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum, the waiting bride and groom just shrugged their shoulders and smiled.<br /><br />And on a 30-hour train ride across the face of India, I learned to enjoy looking out the window, chatting with strangers, and just laughing when the train inexplicably creaked to a halt for long stretches of time. Simple pleasures, like eating an orange or playing a card game, gained a new sheen of fascination in contrast.<br /><br />My most recent trip was much less exotic -- a weekend of camping on an Adirondack lake -- but it also reminded me that it's important to slow down sometimes. Separated from my laptop, cell phone (which also serves as my watch), and car, it simply wasn't possible to hurry anywhere or even check the time. It felt wonderful.<br /><br />I woke at sunrise and sat at the edge of the lake for a while, listening to the gentle gulping of the water against the rocky shoreline. I didn't have to be anywhere else, or do anything else.<br /><br />Eventually, I paddled out in a canoe.<br /><br />I didn't have a destination in mind, but I knew I was definitely not speeding.<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">-- Amanda Bensen is a features writer for The Post-Star. She only uses her car horn to scare ducks out of the road.</span></em>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1