Alas, Lum’s Restaurants, purveyors of those beer-steamed dogs are no more. A shame,too. At their peak they had 450 stores across America and threw off enough cash that the corporate owners were able to purchase Caesar’s Palace in Vegas.

That’s where the problems began. Once they acquired the resort, they sold off the Lum’s chain to the guy that was running KFC. He got the company moving in the wrong direction and then sold it to Weinerwald, which completely ran Lum’s into the ground many years ago.

Beyond the hot dogs, many of us fondly remember their hamburger, the Ollieburger. Invented by Oliver G. Gleichenhaus, a restaurateur himself, who sold his recipe to Lum’s. The burger proved popular enough that Lum’s also spun off a smaller chain of Ollie’s Trolleys that also served the burger.

If reading this has you jonesing for an Ollieburger, there is a company on the internet that claims to sell the original seasoning for it and other Lum’s delicacies. We have not sampled their products so we are not endorsing them, but simply making you aware. You can find them at:https://ollieburgerspices.com/. 

The number of scam artists trying to con you via your phone or over the internet is increasing. They pose as IRS agents, anti-virus tech support, jury duty managers, bank/credit card verifiers and more.

Think you can spot a fraudsters? Most of us think we can, yet more people are getting scammed every day.

AARP has a special web page devoted to keeping you up-to-date on the latst scams.. You can check it out at https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/

If you’re concerned about your health (and what Baby Boomer isn’t), the 2017 Senior Health Report is available from the United Health Foundation. Best of all, it’s free!

Visit AmericasHealthRankings.org to obtain your copy.

BTW – the healthiest states for Boomer Health are Minnesota, Utah and Hawaii. The 3 “unhealthiest”: Mississippi, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

The report is based on this definition of health from the World Health Organization:
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

From our family to yours!

Once upon a time, people relied on magazines like Consumer Reports before making big purchase decision. Now, people increasingly rely on online reviews. But most experts give those kind of ratings low ratings!

There are several reasons for this. One is that if people have a bad shopping or shipping experience, they tend to blame the product and not the retailer. Second, many consumers are swayed by brand name recognition and are hardly putting these products through scientific testing - the way the consumer magazines do.Thirdly, some products actually have paid people and/or employees to post favorable reviews online. (What? I can't believe everything I read on the internet?)

Those who know say smart shoppers still rely on consumer testing experts and NOT online reviews.

Hazel was a very popular sit-com that ran for 5 seasons (4 in full color), producing 154 shows, that was also quite popular in syndication.

The show was based on a popular one panel cartoon drawn by Ted Key that ran in The Saturday Evening Post magazine. Hazel was a no-nonsense live-in maid that basically ran her household and also functioned as mother and father to her employer’s son.

In making the move to television, producers scored a real coup when they signed Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Booth for the title role. Her employers, the Baxters, were played by Don DeFore (who spent many seasons as Ozzie & Harriet’s neighbor Thorny) and Whitney Blake (who would go on to co-create the sitcom One Day at a Time). Whitney Blake was actually married to a guy named Baxter for several years before she was cast in Hazel. She’s the mother of actress Meredith Baxter. Bobby Buntrock rounded out the cast as the Baxters’ son, Harold.

Hazel referred to the Baxters as “Mr. B,” “Missy” and “Sport.”

No one ever asked why the Baxters needed a live-in maid (who also did all the cooking) as Mrs. Baxter was always around the house doing things like arranging flowers in a vase. Most of the plots revolved around a battle of wills between Hazel and Mr. B with Mr. B usually losing in the end.

After four seasons on NBC (and two Emmys for star Booth), the show’s rating began to decline. NBC cancelled the show only to see CBS decide to pick it up for a fifth season. CBS, in their wisdom, decided that the Baxter parents were “too old” (Whitney Blake was all of 38 when the decision was made). So, Harold was shipped off with Hazel to live with Mr. Baxter’s younger brother (Ray Fulmer) and his wife (Julia Benjamin). Apparently, viewers didn’t agree with CBS’ opinion as the re-tooled show quickly sank to the bottom of the ratings and was cancelled.

As we moved into the 1970’s, wholesome family sit-coms fell out of favor (with the singular exception of Leave It to Beaver) and Hazel disappeared from syndication.

In our efforts to always provide the best in modern sounds, Boomtown America just splurged on this high-fidelity stereophonic sound system!

As we head into winter, the experts say turning down your thermostat can cause your body to produce a hormone called irisin that can lead to burning more calories and weight loss!

You don’t have to live in a meat locker. Lowering the temp in your home between 75 to 68 should do the trick!

Just as most of were embarking on life as full-fledged adults, Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young penned this Hallmark card of song, encapsulating the life of tranquil bliss we all imagined ourselves living once we settled down with our "one true love."

"Our House" was featured on Dejé Vu, the album that saw Neil Young formally join what had been the superstar trio of David Crosby, Steven Stills and Graham Nash. It was written by Nash about his relationship with singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell. The two were living together in L.A. The couple had stepped out for breakfast. After the meal, Mitchell spotted a vase she liked on Ventura Boulevard. When they arrived back at home,the weather had turned chilly. Nash remarked, "Why do I light the fire and you put some flowers in the vase you just bought."

Struck by his own words, he went over to the piano and an hour later, "Our House" had been composed.

As few, if any of us, ever achieved the idyllic existence promised in the lyrics of the song, it may be comforting to know that Nash and Mitchell didn't either. The couple split up before the year was out.

Three Coins in the Fountain is solid proof of how easily entertained we were in the 1950’s. This piece of cinematic junk food was actually nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in the year of its release. Sadly, watching it today, one can’t help but notice that the background scenery is the most interesting part of the movie!

Made when Cinemascope was the newest gimmick studios were employing to lure people away from their newly beloved TV sets, Three Coins involves the extremely thin story of three American working girls searching for husbands in Rome, with a brief side trip to Venice.

Jean Peters, Maggie McNamara and Dorothy McGuire play the ladies in question – designed to represent young, very young and dangerously approaching middle age. They all work as secretaries – Peters and McNamara for a make-believe U.S. Government agency, “The United States Distribution Agency,” and McGuire for expatriate American author Clifton Webb (playing a far less venomous version of his character from Laura).

The girls live in an impossibly huge, luxuriously furnished apartment and Peters and McGuire also seem to own extensive designer wardrobes, indicating secretaries must have earned fantastic salaries in those times.

The scenery is fantastic, but one begins to notice that this is an Italy devoid of Italians. Only Peters' love interest, Rossano Brazzi, and his family in the country are authentically Italian. McNamara’s love interest is an Italian prince, played by Louis Jordan. The other cast members courteously refrain from asking the prince why he has an English mother (Cathleen Nesbitt) and speaks with a French accent. Whenever these characters visit famous landmarks, there are no tourists or locals to be seen anywhere.

The film is billed as a romantic comedy. It’s very long on romance and very short on comedy. The title is also something of a cheat as only two of the American girls actually toss a coin into the legendary Trevi Fountain.

Curiously, the film does not open with credits. It opens with an uncredited Frank Sinatra singing the now-classic title tune (which did win the Best Song Oscar) to a montage of breath-taking footage of fountains all around Rome. When the song finishes, there is a brief dip to black and then we fade up on the film’s opening titles. Apparently, movie audiences had a lot more patience back in 1954.

Still, it does make for the most interesting travelogue on Rome ever filmed.