How dark is your bedroom when you sleep? Believe it or not, if it’s not dark enough, it might cause you back pain!

Even when we sleep, our bodies can detect the amount of light in our surroundings. If there’s too much light, we don’t get the kind of deep sleep our bodies need. Sleep helps relax our muscles, especially our back muscles. It also gets rid of lactic acid, which contributes to back pain. On top of all that, the less sleep we get, the more susceptible we are to feeling pain. Add all of that up and lack of sleep can be a significant contributor to chronic back pain.

Make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible.

Every Baby Boomer worth their Mickey Mouse ears knows this Stones’ classic. During the turbulent summer of 1968, it kept us revved up whether we were at the beach or protesting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Little did we know that song had been inspired by Keith Richards’ country gardener.

In ’68, Richards lived on an estate about 80 miles outside London, a 15th-century moated house called Redlands. The estate was tended by a local gardener named Jack Dyer. On a day in early March, Richards’ bandmate & writing partner, Mick Jagger had dropped round for a visit. It was raining heavily, yet Dyer was mucking about in the gardens near the house. Jagger asked his host about a loud thumping noise he kept hearing. Richards responded, “That’s Jack…it’s Jumpin’ Jack.” Just then, a huge flash of lightning occurred and before you knew it, the duo was busy converting that gardener into a giant figure of a demon “born in a cross-fire hurricane.”

And the rest is rock & roll history!

Backpacks? We don't need no stinkin' backpacks!

As the first generation for whom consumption of marijuana spread beyond avant-garde bohemians and jazz musicians, it has been interesting to watch the growing legalization of what we called pot and the kids call weed. Okay, not as dangerous as our parents warned us, but how beneficial is it?

Growing legalization has finally led to scientific studies of the various claims made about marijuana. Studies have confirmed that marijuana has some benefit in reducing chronic pain as well as helping people with sleep problems. But surprisingly, there’s still a lot we don’t know. As with many mind/mood-altering substances, it appears that everyone has different tolerance levels, so medical experts stress newbies should start slow and actually keep a journal of how much marijuana they’re taking and what the effects are.

Also, as the idea of smoking anything has decreased in popularity, gummies and other pot-infused edibles have now overtaken smoking/vaping as the most popular way to consume weed.

In these days of streaming, mp3 files, and super-expensive vinyl editions of classic albums, most music lovers of today are blissfully unaware of a super-cheap method Baby Boomers used to build their record collections back in the day – the “cut-out” album or 45!

These were older releases that the record labels were “cutting out” of their catalog, meaning the label would no longer press new copies of these recordings because sales had dwindled to extremely low levels. These records were then sold, in bulk to wholesalers, who in turn sold them to record stores or large discount chains (think of the forerunners of Wal-Mart, like Zayres and Arlens).

To prevent retailers from selling these heavily discounted items at full price, the label would disfigure the record in some way before selling them to the wholesalers. For albums, that meant clipping a corner of the LP’s cover, adding a slot to the cover, or even a small metal grommet. For 45s, it usually involved boring a hole right through the single’s label.

At a time when LPs typically were selling for $3 to $4 and singles at $0.79 to $1, cut-outs could come as cheaply as $0.69 for an album and $0.29 for a 45. If you were a savvy rock fan, you could build an impressive collection for literally pennies on the dollar. Nearly every recording act (with the singular exception of the Beatles) had at least some of their catalog hit the cut-out bin at one time or another. Early albums by the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and Pink Floyd (pre-Dark Side of the Moon) could be found in abundance. Ditto for 45s that featured B-sides that never made it onto an act’s albums.

When computers arrived with software that allowed for easy ripping of CDs along with early music-sharing sites like Napster, the entire notion of paying retail for music became quite quaint, joining the rotary phone, trading stamps, and manual transmissions in oblivion. But among the small group of dedicated vinyl collectors, those cut-out editions are now often worth more than the legitimate full retail copies. Had we only known, we’d have saved a lot of ours.

Mouseketeer Roll Call: Sharon Baird

Those early Mouseketeers had one thing in common. With the exception of Bobby Burgess, they were all short. But none turned out to be shorter than Mouseketeer Sharon Baird, who topped off as an adult at just 4’10”.

Baird was already a seasoned show biz professional when she was given her ears in 1955, having appeared in a Martin & Lewis film (Artists & Models) as well as being a regular on the early Eddie Cantor Colgate Comedy Hour TV program. She became a part of the core cast of Mouseketeers who stayed with the show through all 4 seasons of filming new material.

An exceptionally talented dancer, Sharon was often paired with Burgess, far and away the best of the male dancers. The disparity in their heights (Burgess was around 5’10” and Baird just 4’8” during their Mouse Club years) added a bit of comedy to their routines. Baird’s ability at the jitterbug was also highlighted in the “Annette” serial which aired during the show’s 3^rd season.

When The Mickey Mouse Club stopped producing new episodes, Baird continued to make personal appearances on behalf of Disney for a few years. She completed high school but found professional opportunities as an under-sized entertainer limited. So, after graduating college in 1963, she worked for a number of years as a secretary, while simultaneously trying to get a singing career going as Two Cats and a Mouse, with her husband Dalton Lee Thomas and another male friend.

The marriage and singing career came to an end in 1969. Sharon was resigning herself to diving back into the secretarial pool when an entirely new career opened up for her. In the 1970s, Sid & Marty Krofft produced a number of Saturday morning kid shows for the networks: H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Land of the Lost and more. They had an urgent need for dancers and performers who were shorter than average (to fit into the puppet-like costumes most of the characters wore). It was a match made in show biz heaven. Sharon Baird became one of their star performers playing multiple roles in most of their productions.

Baird continued to find work as a voiceover artist and performer for many years thereafter, including a stint in Raquel Welch’s Las Vegas revue and as an assistant to the comedian Gallagher. She never remarried and has since moved from Southern California to Reno, Nevada, where she resides to this day.

It’s bad enough that, as we age, our metabolism slows down, forcing us to eat less if we want to maintain our weight. But experts also say that trying to lose weight can actually cause you to gain weight in the long run.

That’s because our bodies are built to maintain whatever our current weight is. Studies show that 80% of the people who lose weight regain it all within 5 years. Additionally, as we lose weight by dieting the body will slow down our metabolism further and also release more of the chemical that tells you you’re hungry.

So how do we lose weight and keep it off? Again, the experts say to stick with whole grains, lean protein, low-fat dairy, and plenty of fruits & veggies. Also, avoid processed foods and added sugars.

Good luck!

#1: Declutter – Are you renting a storage unit for stuff you haven’t looked at, let alone used, in years?  Throw the stuff out, donate it or sell it. Not only will you have less stuff to worry about, you’ll also save that monthly rental fee.

#2 Review Your Automatic Subscriptions – Are you paying for streaming TV services you seldom watch? Or maybe subscriptions to online news sites? Studies show most people grossly underestimate how much spending they have on automatic pilot. Popular apps like PocketGuard and Rocket Money can help you discover where and how much of your is going. Several credit card companies also offer such tools.

 #3 Regular Medical/Dental Check-ups – Catching problems earlier is almost always less expensive than waiting until they become very serious.

As kids, we all loved the Disney film, The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). What you may not remember was that Hasbro introduced a toy in 1962 called “Flubber” based on the miraculous compound invented by Fred MacMurray in that film.

It was made from synthetic rubber & mineral oil and had all of the qualities one would want from a toy. It bounced like crazy, could be molded into a wide variety of shapes, you could stretch it or break it into pieces, and it was inexpensive, usually within the reach of our allowances.

Just one problem. Hasbro forgot to actually test it with kids over a long period of time. Turns out, Flubber made kids sick. Its toxic substances caused sore throats, rashes, and other nasty reactions. It also picked up dirt and heaven-knows-what-else from the surfaces it was applied to.

Hasbro was forced to pull Flubber off toy shelves quickly and the fad was over as fast as it had begun. Fortunately for the company, those times were far less litigious and there weren’t a lot of lawsuits that could have put the company out of business.

They just had one final problem. What to do with tons of this toxic toy that came back to the factory? You couldn’t bury the stuff at sea. It was lighter than water and would float to the surface. You couldn’t burn it because that would cause huge clouds of toxic smoke.

So, the company buried it beneath a building on Delta Drive in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. More than 50 years later, residents claim that on hot summer days, the smell of Flubber still fills the air, and the stuff can still be seen oozing through the cracks in the pavement.

Parents of millennials will get a sense of déjà vu because Nickelodeon experienced somewhat similar problems when they tried to market Gak as a kid’s toy in the '90s.