Opinion

When we think of health, we often think of diet and exercise, but sleep is equally important. Good sleep is essential for our physical and emotional well-being. Adults need an average of 7-9 hours of sleep daily. Not getting enough sleep can increase your hunger the next day, reduce your feeling of fullness after eating, and make you more likely to crave junk food high in carbohydrates and sugar. Additionally, not getting enough sleep can increase your risk of depression and anxiety and raise your blood pressure, which increases your risk of a heart attack.

Recently, we reminisced about Dippity Do, Hai Karate, Mr. Bubble and other products from our youth. That opened the floodgates. Many of you shared memories of products we rarely see today. Let’s take another trip down the aisles of A & P, Piggly Wiggly, and Shop-Rite stores we visited every Friday night. As you know, pennies are being phased out of circulation. Let’s face it, most of us haven’t bent down to pick up a penny in years, so few tears are being shed. That said, I do have fond memories of “penny candy.” It seems like most of it stuck to my teeth. Many dentists built their fortunes on scraping off Bit O’Honey, Sugar Babies, Pixy Stix, and banana-flavored Kits. A penny could also land you a piece of Dubble Bubble or Bazooka bubble gum, with a color comic inside! Think about it. Bubble gum AND a Bazooka Joe comic, both for a penny. Someone made a pretty penny on that, for a long, long time.

We are 60 days into a “30-day” war. It is time to exit. We had Operation Midnight Hammer, then Operation Epic Fury, then Operation Economic Fury, and now Operation Freedom. We need our next maneuver to be Operation Skedaddle.

If you have ever grown Zinnias (a brightly colored, fast-growing and heat loving flower) then you are probably familiar with the term “pinching”. It is a technique that is done when the plant is around a foot tall and involves pinching off the top of the center stem encouraging the plant to branch out so that it can ultimately produce more beautiful flowers. If a Zinnia is not pinched during this phase, it does not mean that it won’t survive and produce blooms, but it will not be given the opportunity to reach its full potential. On Sunday we did just that with our over 600 plants already in the ground – many of which had produced their first bloom of the season. As a grower, this is always such a hard task for me because I hate to not allow the flower to continue growing in its own capacity.

I don’t remember my mother singing much to me and my brother during our formative years. (Technically, I’m still in my formative years -- if you count forming calluses, wrinkles, reasons to go to bed before nine…) Sure, Mom did a dutiful job of singing in church (while Dad hummed), but there wasn’t the oneon- one, “patty cake, patty cake” experience seen in some families. (SOMEWHERE I came up with the misheard “The Farmer in the Deal,” but I don’t think there was a maternal aspect to the transaction.)

A friend of mine recently lost his iPhone. I’ll call him Jack, since that’s his name. (He doesn’t read my column, so we’re safe here.) For about 24 hours, Jack’s life was a mess. He couldn’t focus on anything except his missing phone. “My whole life is on that phone,” he said. “My money, my passwords, my pictures. I’m lost without it!”