Cribbett opted for a relatively new procedure to solve these problems: a surgical procedure called dental implants. Dentists started using implants around 1965, and the popularity and advancement of the technology continues to increase.

Taylor isn’t taking tai chi only for the benefits of relaxation — he’s in the class because he is doing his best to beat Parkinson’s disease. While reading one of his Parkinson’s publications, he found an article touting the benefits of tai chi. Right away, he decided to try it out.

While aging brings a bounty of undeniable gifts, age spots may not be considered one of them. The telltale spots, which range in color from light brown or gray to darker shades, often appear on the face, neck, chest or the backs of hands as we get older.

Don’t have time to work out? We asked eight fitness pros for creative, real-life ways to make time to sweat.

Could that pain in your abdomen be a hernia? We tend to think of hernia largely as a male health problem, but it affects women, too.

One of my earliest childhood memories is that of a curly brown-haired fellow with an impish grin coming to our house to see my older sister Ginny.

Nit-pickers are people who “find fault with (someone or something) in a manner that is finicky or petty.” There’s a sizable dose of nit-picker in most copy editors.

Q: A psychiatrist has diagnosed my elderly mother with bipolar disorder or bipolar depression. Can you explain what that is?

Here’s something that might keep you awake at night: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy drivers account for more than 100,000 crashes each year, including more than 1,500 fatalities.

Bill rushed outside, and off in the distance was Pearl Harbor. Japanese aircraft were zoning in on their targets, bombs were dropping and fireballs and thick, black smoke were rising into the air. It was all happening so fast.

When men get old, they try to bring new life to old things. Whether it is restoring Model T cars or Chris-Craft speed boats, there comes a time when men seem driven by some Paleolithic instinct to recreate their youth and honor their past.

I love Christmas music. The whole “chestnuts-roasting-on-an-open-fire-Jack-Frost-nipping-at-your- nose” thing. The first item I pull out of my Christmas closet the day after Thanksgiving is my box of Christmas CDs. All my old — and new — favorites are there.

Then there was the referral to some advice on growing older from Will Rogers that is a lot more truth than fiction. To wit: Eventually, you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it. (I’m there.) The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Any abandoned and useless automobiles were stripped of all the upholstery and anything not metal and hauled off to the scrap yard, adjoining the rail lines to be shipped to Detroit for manufacturing of the war goods. It was basically a community effort by just about everyone in every city and town in America, and we went to war. It was a time I will never forget.

I am enclosing a photograph of a small chocolate pot (I think) with a "Moby Dick" pattern by Rockwell Kent. It was made by Vernon Kilns. It is 5.5 inches tall with dark blue lines and a sailboat depicted on the front.

Without making too much of a to-do about it, by this time next week, I will have passed one of life’s quasi-significant mileposts. I, you see, am about to observe my Diamond Jubilee. Or, as daughter Susie calls it, my Semi-Sesquicentennial.

It’s hard to say goodbye to “The Land of Later On,” an afterlife that’s “infinite in space and time” and yet fetchingly intimate and affecting. Gloucester author Anthony Weller’s short novel about a bewildering but intriguing life after death is a feat of imagination and writing.

Do parallel universes exist? And if they do, is my credit rating always the same? If there are lots and lots of universes, though, there must be lots and lots of variations. Some would be slight, like a universe where the only difference is Wednesday is spelled without the first “d.”

When Abraham and Mary Lincoln moved into the White House in March of 1861, there wasn’t enough matching china to have a dinner for even a dozen guests.

All I want for Christmas is a stun gun. The gift is priced at $49.99, but for stocking stuffers, there also is a $24.99 “palm-sized 350-volt stun gun” that also “will take ’em down.” Peace and joy to you and yours this Christmas season.