You don’t need us to tell you that cutting down on sugar is beneficial to virtually all of us. But with the American diet so sugar-coated, how to do that? Here are some helpful hints.

1.) Start your day with protein – As a society, we’ve been conditioned to think of breakfast as a time for grain-based cereals. This is due to misguided health nuts like Dr. Kellogg whose theories have long been found to be false. Yet, our insistence on Frosted Flakes in the morning persists. This is bad because starting your day with carbs can spike, then crash your blood sugar, leading to food cravings not long after you eat. Instead, experts recommend starting your day with plenty of protein, like you find in eggs, yogurt or a smoothie with protein powder.

2.) Get a Good Night’s Sleep – Believe it or not, studies have shown that those who get a good night’s sleep consume significantly less sugar than those who sleep poorly.

3.) Be on Guard in the Grocery Store – The best not to consume products high in sugar is not to buy them and bring them home in the first place. If there are no cookies in the cupboard, you can binge on them later.

4.) Go for a Walk – research also shows that a 15-minute walk can reduce sugar cravings. Plus, it has other positive health benefits.

5.) If All Else Fails, at Least Make a More Sensible Choice – If you simply can’t defeat your sweet tooth, try picking a more healthful way to satisfy your sugar craving with fruits like blueberries, cantaloupe or grapes. Or chew a piece of gum.

Almost forgotten now, the Dave Clark Five were at one time considered to be the band that would dethrone the Beatles as the Baby Boomers’ favorite. How could that be?

Before we answer that question, it’s good to get a little background on the band. They hailed from the Tottenham section of London. Dave Clark, a drummer, and guitarist Rick Huxley started in 1958 as part of a back-up band for singer Stan Saxon. The lads wisely decided to quit Saxon and strike out on their own. Huxley moved over to the bass guitar and they eventually added Lenny Davidson on lead guitar, Dennis Payton on saxophone and Mike Smith on keyboards and main vocals. By 1962, they were gigging around London as the Dave Clark Five. Clark also functioned as the band’s manager (saving the boys an additional 15% of their earnings).

When the Beatles went global in 1964, the DC5 was not far behind. The band got a publicity boost by becoming the first group to break the Fab Four’s stranglehold on the #1 position in the British charts when “Glad All Over” finally ousted “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from the top spot. “Glad All Over” was actually the band’s 6^th single and only their second to even chart.

American radio stations hungry for more British product latched onto “Glad All Over” and sent it up the American charts. Here, however, Dave & the boys were held out of the top spot by the continuing popularity of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Ed Sullivan made the DC5 the next British rockers to earn a spot on his Sunday TV show, appearing for two weeks in March of 1964 (following the Beatles’ three weeks in February). They went on to appear 10 more times, more than any other band from the British Invasion, including the Beatles.

Between 1964 and 1967, the Dave Clark Five placed 14 songs in the American Top 20, including “Bits and Pieces,” “Can’t You See That She’s Mine,” “Over and Over” and “You’ve Got What It Takes.” They starred in their own movie, a Hard Day’s Night clone called Catch Us if You Can in the UK and Having a Wild Weekend in the States.

Yet, as the decade moved on, the Dave Clark Five failed to move with it. As rock grew more complex, the simpler sounds of the DC5 fell out of favor. By 1970, the group disbanded.

Dave Clark, however, was not finished. He was an acute businessman. He became a successful entrepreneur in the show business world, buying up the rights to the long-running British TV rock showcase, Ready, Steady, Go. He also wrote and produced a stage musical named Time that featured Laurence Olivier’s final acting performance. He continued to tour with various musicians as Dave Clark & Friends.

He also owned the rights to the entire musical catalog of his old band, There, he may not have been as wise because he kept the group’s music totally out of print between 1978 and 1993. Starting in ’93, Clark made a greatest hits compilation available, but it wasn’t until 2019 that virtually the entire catalog of the Dave Clark Five’s music was once again on sale to the general public.

The group was finally enshrined in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Denny Payton had passed away by that time. Mike Smith planned on attending the induction ceremony, but sadly, he also passed away just 11 days before the event.

Now, why in the world did people think that the Dave Clark Five would replace the Beatles? Because most of the media at that time was still in the hands of adults who had come of age in the pre-rock era. They presumed that all rock acts were just flashes in the pan, no better than yo-yos or bellbottoms, and the audience of star-struck teenage girls would quickly move from crush to crush in a fickle manner. The notion that the music really mattered never occurred to them.

While the Dave Clark Five certainly looked good, Mike Smith being a particular heartthrob, the band didn’t have the brash stand-out personalities of their Liverpool cousins. Also, the Beatles started trends, from their haircuts to the movies to sitars and beyond. The DC5 were a competent combo of rockers, but innovators they were not. Clark, the group’s chief songwriter, didn’t have the writing talent or range that Lennon, McCartney and Harrison would develop as we moved through our Wonder Years.

Nevertheless, they deserve their spot in the Hall of Fame, and listening to the best of the tunes they cranked out in the mid-sixties can still make us feel “Glad All Over.”

During the early part of the 1960s, the absolute, “must-have” piece of jewelry for young men was the I.D. bracelet, most famously made by Speidel. They were relatively inexpensive as jewelry goes and came in silver or gold.

The purpose of the bracelet was not really to be worn by the male who purchased it and had his first name engraved boldly on it. It was to be given away to his girlfriend, who would then wear it as a symbol that the particular male in question was “taken.” It also provided something concrete that the girl could give back to the guy to establish in physical terms that she was breaking up with him.

The bracelets were large and clunky. They fit on guys’ wrists rather loosely, so you can imagine the trouble some females had keeping them on their arms. But it didn’t matter. Your boyfriend’s letterman jacket could only be worn outdoors (and then only in cooler weather and only if your boyfriend had a letterman jacket), the I.D. bracelet would announce your relationship status no matter where you were or how athletic your boyfriend was.

There is no record of where the fad started, but it faded as the decade wore on. Yet, those bracelets are still available from multiple sources today (including Speidel), so somebody must still be wearing them.

No, exercise snacking does mean doing arm curls to get the Doritos to your mouth. It means approaching exercise like you approach snacking. It means exchanging one prolonged period of intense exercise for several shorter, less strenuous sessions throughout the day.

A 10-minute walk or light jog at one point of the day, followed by 10 minutes of stretching, followed by 10 minutes of aerobic exercise can help improve joint movement as well as reduce your risk of injury. It can also help regulate your blood sugar if you’re diabetic or afraid that you may become diabetic.

The best way to avoid the high interest rates most credit cards charge is to pay off your outstanding balance on time every month.

But if you have one or more cards with a balance that’s costing you 18% (or more) every month, keep an eye out for those 0% balance transfer offers you get from other credit cards. By transferring that outstanding balance to the card with the offer you can avoid additional interest charges for time periods usually up to 18 months. But pay attention! Some of these offers will charge you a percentage of the transfer (typically between 3%-5%) upfront. Make sure you’re clear on the exact terms of the offer.

Then, don’t make any other purchases on the card to which you just transferred that balance. Doing that will make it harder to pay off that balance. Keep in mind that often that 0% interest offer is a “deferred” interest offer. That means the credit company keeps track of the interest you would owe on each monthly balance as if they were charging you their standard rate. If you don’t get that balance paid off before the offer’s time limit expires, you’ll get hit with the accrued interest charges, not just on the remaining balance, meaning you gained nothing by making the transfer!

One of the saddest truths about getting older is we develop aches and pains that simply do not go away. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways you can reduce chronic pain, whether it’s back pain, neck pain, or somewhere else.

Experts say physical therapy can help if practiced regularly. The key is commitment. Don’t try it for a while and then give up. If you have an insurance plan that allows you to see a therapist or attend their clinic, great! But there are also exercises you can do at home daily and for free.

Get with your physician and see if you can work out a plan that will have you feeling better and more active for years to come.

Anybody who was anybody in the world of rock was on stage at the Woodstock Festival in Bethel, NY, to close out the summer of 1969. That is everybody except Joni Mitchell, who wound up writing the hit song that celebrated that historic event.

What frustrated Mitchell and inspired her to pen to the tune was the fact that she was supposed to perform at the festival. Touring with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni wanted to perform at Max Yasgur’s farm, but her manager at the time, the almost-as-famous David Geffen thought she might have trouble getting back to New York City in time for an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show due to the massive traffic jams the 3-day concert was causing in New York state.

So, Geffen let CSN&Y head off to Woodstock, but Joni stayed home and watched coverage of the event with Geffen in a hotel room. While watching that news footage and wishing she could be there, Mitchell began writing the song that would memorialize the event.

To add insult to injury, when her appearance on the Cavett Show rolled around on August 18th, Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and even Grace Slick, all of whom played the festival and returned to New York City with no problem, were allowed to “crash” Mitchell’s night on the Cavett show to talk about their experience being at the festival.

There was some consolation, CSN&Y recorded her song, “Woodstock,” and took it to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Mitchell herself recorded her own version for her Ladies of the Canyon LP. Both versions are still played to this day.

The huge wave of cash that American International Pictures was surfing with their Beach Party pictures (see what we did there?) did not go unnoticed in Hollywood, where imitation is the sincerest way they do business.

Columbia Pictures decided to see if they could catch the same wave with 1964’s Ride the Wild Surf. As AIP cast an East Coast Italian singer as their lead (Frankie Avalon), Columbia signed the guy widely thought to be a less than successful attempt to clone Avalon, Fabian.

Yet Columbia did not produce an even cheaper knockoff of a cheap drive-in flick. Strangely, Columbia actually released what many critics consider the best of all the surf, sand, and sex films that followed in the wake of the original Gidget.

First off, the film focuses on surfing in a way that no other beach picture ever did. The film, including the surfing footage, was shot on location in Hawaii instead of purchasing already-made surfing footage and shooting in California. In addition, Ride the Wild Surf used professional surfers dressed in suits that matched the movie’s male stars. Tab Hunter and Peter Brown also dyed their hair so it better matched the surfers doubling for them.

It’s important because the main plot of the film centers on a surfing competition that pits most of the males in the cast in an endurance contest to see who can last longest in Hawaii’s savage surf. The result is some spectacular surfing footage that the sport’s aficionados say is the best ever used in a mainstream Hollywood film.

The film is also not a comedy. There are no silly subplots with the possible exception of the thankless role given to Barbara Eden. She plays the film’s only “kooky” character. We know she’s kooky because she’s named Augustina or Augie for short. Because, sure, you totally buy a 20-something girl would be named Augie. She’s also an expert in martial arts because why not? She’s kooky, right? And she wants to build her own fireworks. Did we mention she’s kooky?

The rest of the cast gets involved in some seriously complicated love affairs. Tab Hunter is wooing island girl Susan Hart against her mother’s wishes. Fabian is trying to sweep Shelly Fabares off her feet, but Shelly is resisting because Fabian has no ambition in life beyond winning the film’s surfing competition. Peter Brown, the third of the male leads, is trying to convince Barbara Eden that he can be kooky too.

There seems to be some strange hair coloring going on in the film. After giving Peter Brown blonder hair to match his surfing double, producers asked Barbara Eden to dye her blond hair red so she would contrast with her love interest. They asked Shelly Fabares to go blond to contrast with Fabian’s dark hair. Susan Hart’s hair had to go jet black so she’d be believable as an island native.

The cast, which also includes Robert Mitchum’s son, James Mitchum, turn in performances that are better than you might suspect and the film treats the sport of competitive surfing seriously.  The only musical number within the film is a Hawaiian hula performed very seductively by Ms. Hart. The title song, co-written by Brian Wilson (who also provided the title music for the first Beach Party movie) and sung by Jan & Dean makes its only appearance over the movie’s closing credits.

(BTW – Jan & Dean were originally supposed to appear in the movie as Fabian’s surfing buddies. Before shooting started, one of Dean’s friends was involved in a high-profile kidnapping case. His association with the singer received a lot of publicity and the studio moved to replace them with Hunter and Brown. They were still retained to sing the title track.)

Seriously, if you’re in the mood to see a serious beach picture or want a feel for what the surfing craze of the sixties was really like, track down a copy of Ride the Wild Surf and take that last ride!

When you use one of the travel aggregator websites like Expedia or Travelocity, be careful of the prices you see, especially from the so-called budget airlines.

These types of websites only show the base price. Many airlines, again, especially the budget ones, have all kinds of hidden fees…like seat selection, boarding passes (how would you use your ticket without one of these?), the weight of your carry-on luggage, etc. By the time they’re done hitting you with all the extra fees, that ticket may be no budget!

Many of the major airlines have some or all of those amenities built into their ticket price. Do a little research to make sure you’re comparing apples to apples (or airlines to airlines as the case may be).