Do me a personal favor--admittedly clumsy person--and purchase yourself some bamboo thongs. I'd rest a lot easier. $10 on Amazon, tops. Bill

Hey lady, it ain't the shelves you need to worry about. It's the coils. Hit one of those with metal tongs and you'll give big hair a new meaning. Bill

Metal tongs in an electric oven can cure "flat-hair" issues permanently. Good morning Texas! Bill

If said person is going to take care of you in your old age, then consider very carefully training them to think heating/cooking food in a microwave is acceptable practice, or you'll likely spend your dotage consuming microwaved food, a fate that might be worse than death. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! And those "silicone" thongs cover metal. Not safe. Although it might save you from a microwaved-food old age. Bill

Exactly. Doesn't microwaved water taste "flat?" Bill

Not that I don't violate this rule myself, but I don't like others using metal tongs in an electric oven. You touch the coils with it in operation and it would not be good. I'd advise wood or bamboo tongs for safety's sake. Bill

+1000 I've NEVER owned a stinking microwave. With a Smart Oven that cooks everything better, why use inferior technology? Bill

I wish I were qualified to offer you sound advise here, but that isn't the case. I know that's not helpful, but I didn't want to ignore your post. Bill

I was very glad to wake-up to calm winds this morning after forecasts of a very significant wind event that might re-spark the Getty Fire (immediately south of where I live). The Santa Ana winds blow south by south-west, which puts my hillside community out of risk, but we have many friends in the affected areas of Brentwood and Pacific Palisades. The lack of winds makes our immediate air quality worse--I would not have known there was a huge fire burning very close by when the winds were high--but I'll take the calm dirty air anytime to save those homes and wild areas from burning. I hope it remains calm here. Bill

Dawn. Bill

I don't get "militant" about a lot of issues, but standing for a woman's right to breastfeed her baby anywhere and any time she feels the need is one of those issues where the world will witness a very large and very grumpy papa bear if they dare intrude on something I hold as precious and beautiful. Pity the fool who pulls this sort of crap when I'm around. Grrrrrr. Bill

A quick web search says this: The Wahls diet suggests you skip foods that could cause cell harm such as sugar, processed foods, grains, soy, dairy, eggs, and legumes, while embracing veggies, grass-fed meat, fish, fruit, and plenty of healthy fats. The MA Recovery diets says:The MS Recovery diet avoids five common trigger foods that can set off the symptoms of MS--dairy, grains containing gluten, legumes, eggs and yeast. A very strong overlap with Wahl's. And IMS The MS Recovery diet classes "soy" under legumes as a common trigger food. Despite it having been a decade since I've read Sawyer's book, I also recall the emphasis on identifying "individual trigger foods" that might affect some individuals and not others. For example, I belive Sawyer's daughter (who also developed MS) had lobster as a trigger food. The first section of the MS Recovery diet book is very informative on the science of diagnosing MS and on the diet hypothesis. Even if one chose not to follow the dietary suggestions there is a lot of useful information for people new to MS. The idea here is to limit the expression of symptoms by preserving myelin. I'm no expert on MS and a person who is very skeptical of "woo." I would listen to physicians who are experts in the field. But when I dug into this complementary approach while making the television show, I was impressed by the number of people helped as an augment to medical treatments, by Sawyer's reasoning for how reducing inflammatory responses in the body can slow the destruction of myelin, the integrity of her character that came through in the raw footage, and that there is no money-making in her approach--in fact before the book she used to hand out similar information in packets for free and she encourages people to share her ideas freely. No "secret" formulas here. Nothing to purchase. If anyone dear to be had MS I would recommend the book to them for them to evaluate for themselves. Best wishes to you and your husband. Bill

I was curious about the Wahls diet due to your post and found a strong overlap between its elimination foods and those of the MS Recovery diet. Bill

Many years ago I worked on an alternate health television show. One of the profiles we did was on Ann Sawyer who is the co-author of a book called The MS Recovery Diet. Sawyer, a nurse and a person with MS, refined earlier diet-based approaches that appeared to reduce the symptoms of MS. Her approach is built around eliminating "trigger foods" that set up a cascade of myelin damaging responses in the body. She explains the science in the book. She in no way proposes this diet as a "cure" for MS, or as a replacement for medical treatments, but it seems to help people mitigate the symptoms of MS. Worth checking out in my non-expert opinion. https://www.amazon.com/MS-Recovery-Diet-Identify-Disease/dp/158333288X#customerReviews Bill

This old football player (and rugger) is off to go see his son's water polo match. His high school has a pool, but no lacrosse team (which was his long-term primary youth sport). He also dabbled playing rugby, soccer, and did a couple of years of Saturday hockey clinic. To the OP's question, for me concussion risks are something I take seriously. Against it I try to balance passion, body type, the responsibility of youth sport coaches and leagues, and the positive aspects of participation in team sports and contact sports in particular. It is not an easy equation to balance. I loved playing football myself, as in I could not have imagined not playing. It was my passion. I did not attempt to impose "my passion" on my son. In fact, I tried offering up all reasonable alternatives to him. I'm not convinced hockey is less risky that football for big concussions (vs more frequent sub-concussive hits typical in football), depending on how it is played and coached--based on my limited exposure to hockey and long-time involvement with football. Hockey helmet technology is very poor in my estimation. Hopefully the merger of Cascade (leaders in lacrosse helmets) and Bauer (hockey) lead to further improvements. Lacrosse is similarly not without risks. Far fewer sub-concussive hits that football, but still risks of big hits leading to concussions. I coached youth lacrosse for 5 years. I was a loud voice in our league for rule reforms that would eject any player whose behavior put another at risk of concussion and expulsion from the league for any repeated offenses. I was frustrated in my efforts in a league that prided itself in player safety. I always taught my teams clean play. That was not universal, and in some cases player behavior was beyond the control of good and caring coaches. I crossed myself (figuratively) every Saturday hoping no one would leave the game with a brain injury. There was NOTHING I cared about more. There are always risks to participation in team sports and activities like skiing, kayaking, etc. No one said being a parent would be easy. I make different judgements for my kid than I made for myself. But had my participation in football been infringed in my youth there'd have been a riot going on. For sure. Life is a balancing act. Missing out on physically demanding sports bring it own downsides. Must run. Water polo match awaits. Bill