www.mycommunityhomecare.com
JULY 2014
A Community Home Care Publication
VOLUME 3
-
ISSUE 4
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
1. •Word of the Month
•Fun Facts about Independence Day
2. •Why do we Celebrate the
4th of July with Fireworks?
•Independence Day Tips of
Pet Owners
3. •Chicken Kabob Recipe
•Ikigai and adding 12
years to your life
4. •Letter Exchange Quote
Puzzle
Did you know that Seward, Nebraska
has been holding a 4th of July celebration since 1868? Then after years of
celebrations, Congress designated the
town as “America’s Official Fourth of
July City-Small Town USA” in 1979.
This year, whether you are celebrating in Seward with the 40,000 other
folks who will attend the celebration,
participating in your town’s local festivities or just watching the fireworks
from your doorstep, we wish you a very
happy and safe 4th of July!
Best Regards,
Ron Ross,
President
Independence
Day Facts
• July 2nd, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was
voted on and wasn’t printed
and available until the 4th
of July. Some people believe
that we should celebrate on
the 2nd.
• July 4th, 1776 Declaration of
independence was signed.
• Philidelphia’s Liberty Bell
was not rung until July 8th,
1776 to honor first reading of
the Declaration of Independence.
• Parades, Speeches, and Public Readings of the declaration of independence was
how the fourth of July was
originally celebrated.
• On July 4th of 1777 Congress
authorized the use of pyrotechnics to celebrate the 4th
of July.
Word of the Month
Precarious
[priˈke(ə)rēəs]
Adjective
A century is not that long in the history of the English language. Over that kind of timescale
words do of course acquire new nuances, and new meanings, but it’s relatively unusual to
come across a word whose core meaning—what most people would understand by it—has
shifted significantly since it was first included in the OED. That’s why precarious is such an
interesting word to revise, because it seems to have undergone just such a shift: not that huge
a shift, perhaps, but a significant one.
Ask most people what they mean by ‘precarious’, and they will probably say something about
physical instability; they may suggest something like ‘rickety’, or ‘liable to fall or collapse’.
They may well be familiar with usages like ‘a precarious existence’, but they may perceive that
these derive from the ‘physical instability’ sense, by the use of metaphor. However, it turns
out that the word has quite different origins. The Latin word precarius means ‘given as a favour’, or ‘depending on the favour of another person’; and the earliest meaning of the English
word precarious relates to the idea of being given something—the right to occupy land, or to
hold a particular position—‘at the pleasure of ’ another person, who might simply choose to
take it back at any time.
By Peter Gilliver, OED - http://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/word-stories/precarious/
Independence
day Tips for
Pet Owners
If you have pets then you might find
them exhibiting odd behavior during the 4th of July celebrations. Pets
are often more sensitive to the noises
and this can upset them. Think about
asking your vet for some calming
medicine if you have witnessed your
pet act up in the past.
Our family dog will often get sick,
nervous, and have accidents in the
house in addition to looking scared.
We started giving her medication
during the time when fireworks are
going off and she seems much hapdisplays in the city. Even to this day, pier, and the house much cleaner.
New York is among the top rated fireworks displays in the country during Other tips to help your pets feel
the 4th of July. Macy’s holds their an- better during the 4th:
nual display for the 38th consecutive
• Put down an extra pad in your
run this year.
pet’s kennel
However, Fireworks can be dangerous and in the early days of the Unit- • Make sure they are well fed in the
days leading up to the 4th of July
ed States some western states would
(if your pet has a tendency to not
use dynamite in celebration instead
eat when they are stressed)
of fireworks. As you can imagine,
•
Close the windows to dampen
it could be quite dangerous to be
the noise of fireworks
in the streets during the Fourth of
July. Terrible fires also affected cities
throughout the 19th century caused
by excessive firework use. The Twentieth century brought about a “crack
down” on fireworks in the street. This
was aided by medical associations
who would track deaths that were
caused by fireworks.
Today, you may not be able to light a
stick of dynamite in the street (thankfully so) but you can help light up the
sky “from one end of this continent
to another” in remembrance and celebration of our county’s origin.
Happy Independence Day from
Community Home Care!
Why do we celebrate Independence
Day with Fireworks?
John Adams, who signed the declaration of independence, wanted us
to celebrate with fireworks. The festivities that he had in mind would
light up this whole continent from
one side to another. He wrote on
July 3rd, 1776 “with pomp and parade, with shews, games, sports,
guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent
to the other from this time forward
forever more.”
In 1777, Congress made it legal to
use fireworks or pyrotechnics for
celebrating Independence Day.
James Heintze wrote the book
“Fourth of July Encyclopedia,” and
talks about how the symbolism in
our celebration is a good thing. In
one instance they fired 13 rockets to
represent the 13 states. In 1777, the
use of fireworks was seen in various
places but by 1876, 100 years after
the signing of the Declaration of
Independence, the use of fireworks
had spread almost everywhere. Cities would compete with one another to outdo each other with a
better fireworks display. New York
became the leader and even had 15
PAGE 3
RECIPE
Chicken Kabobs
Ingredients
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
1 8oz can pineapple chunks, drained
and save the juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• 1 small orange
sts
• 4 boneless, skinless chicken brea
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 cup whole mushrooms
• 1 small red onion
Directions
pep1. Combine juices, olive oil, salt and
•
•
•
•
Ikigai and adding
12 years to your life
Many studies have been done over the
years to try to find an answer to an
age-old question. How can I live longer?
Dan Buettner gave a speech at the
TEDxTC Conference in 2009 that
went over some interesting studies concerning age and the health in
our later years. He came across a few
small geographical locations, while
working with the National Geographic and National Institute on Aging,
that have people living well into their
late 90’s and 100’s while also maintaining a great quality of life. Dan
calls these regions “Blue Zones”. Not
only are people in these regions living
to be 100 but they are still operating
on hearts, building fences, and riding
mopeds.
“[T]he fact of the matter is the best
science tells us that the capacity of
the human body, my body, your body,
is about 90 years, a little bit more for
women. But life expectancy in this
country is only 78. So somewhere
along the line, we’re leaving about 12
good years on the table.”
-Dan Buettner
The studies carried out further illus-
per in a bowl and whisk together.
the
2. Put 1/2 cup of this marinade to
side.
add
3. Place chicken in a ziploc bag and
the remaining marinade.
ken.
4. Chill for 2 hours to coat the chic
inch
1
into
ns
onio
and
5. Cut peppers
chunks and slice the mushrooms in
half.
inade
6. Remove chicken from the mar
es.
piec
inch
1
and cut into
1-2
7. Cut lemon, lime and orange into
inch pieces.
with
8. Take 8 skewers and thread them
.
ken
chic
and
es
tabl
the fruits, vege
t.
9. Preheat grill a medium-high hea
e
bast
and
l
10. Place kabobs on the gril
imar
rved
rese
occasionally with the
k
nade. Turn kabobs frequently and coo
e.
don
is
ken
chic
until
ken
11. Note: Feel free to replace the chic
with steak or shrimp!
trated some commonalities between
these blue regions and Dan believes
he has found 9 congruent reasons
why these locations have healthier elder populations.
The first Blue Zone discussed was
found off the coast of Italy on an island called Sardina. The population
is roughly 1.4 million, but not all of
these people occupy the Blue Zone. In
the Nuoro province is where you will
find 10 times more centenarians than
found in America. People here at 102
years old can be found riding a bicycle to work.
What makes them live longer?
• Low-intensity physical labor
• Plant-based diet
• Omega-3 rich food instead of
Omega-6
• Wine with more polyphenals than
any other in the world
• Social status of elders*
*Elders in the Nuoro province are
treated very well and honored in the
society. This, Dan believes, is the key
to the health of their elders.
The second “Blue Zone” in the study is
located in Okinawa, islands in southern Japan. The statistics of this region
hails it as “ground zero for world longevity.”
Again similar reasons to why they
live longer:
• Plant-Based Diet
- Kelsey Martin from cookeastshare.com
• Avoid over-eating
• Lifelong friends-Moai
• Ikigai*
The normal American view of life includes two distinct parts of your life.
First we are born, and then we retire.
Though in the Okinawan language
there is not a word for retirement. They
do however have a word that they use
for their whole life ikigai - “the reason
for which you wake up in the morning.”
This word propped up when the National Institute on Aging gave the people doing the study a questionnaire to
ask the centenarians. They must have
been very culturally astute because on
of the questions on this questionnaire
was “what is your ikigai.” Surprisingly
most every centenarian knew exactly
what their ikigai was.
Longevity and purpose seem to have
an affinity to one another. It has even
propped up in inhumane studies of the
past. A television show even proposed
the questions what do you need to survive in the wilderness and the answer
was not being fit or having any specific
knowledge, but rather they found that
your mind and drive are the best assets
to help you survive. I think the study
Dan is talking about reveals that we
need purpose in order to remain alive.
So I ask you, what is your ikigai?
Dan Buettner (Speaker) How to live to be 100+ [TEDxTC video]. http://embed.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html
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Community Home
Care Quarterly
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LETTER EXCHANGE QUOTES:
In this puzzle each of the letters has been swapped with another. Look for
punctuation and sentence structure to decipher the code and reveal the
quotes.
M I S S I S S I PP I
Example:
T FOOFOOFYYF
Community Home Care newsletters are published quarterly. The
T
next newsletter will come out in
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October of 2014.
Newsletter Schedule:
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G R S O L P Q L B V.
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