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Blockbusters set to roll for summer movie season

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

With its shocking and surprising billion dollar gross, “Super Mario Brothers” has given Hollywood a powerful signal that, finally, moviegoers will be ready to be to return to movie theaters and make this summer’s box-office haul one to remember.Yes, writers may be on strike but since movies are routinely made a year ahead, Hollywood’s all-important summer slate – officially from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day — is unaffected.And with billions of dollars invested in Come See packaging, the message is clear:  Come to theaters and be truly entertained!Studios are hopeful of a “halo” effect where the season’s blockbusters will become box-office behemoths and generate interest in more modest fare.Hare are, then, the season’s mightiest contenders.Easily leading the way and generating intense interest is one of the most expensive movies ever made: Tom Cruise’s years in the making “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” When it opens — on a global scale (July 1...

Bruins playoff report card: Team gets an ‘incomplete’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

We thought this marking period had, oh, another seven weeks to go. How wrong we were.Hockey is hockey and anything can happen, but this Bruins team gave every indication that it could buck the Presidents’ Trophy curse and go on a long run. Nope.Despite the fact that GM Don Sweeney seemed to have planned for every contingency, there’s only so much you can do when your top two centers and elite goaltender pull up lame at the most inopportune time. When the B’s blew a 3-0 series lead to the Flyers in 2010, that team was still on the rise and won the Stanley Cup the next year, immediately removing the stench of that loss. With a cap crunch and possible retirements of stalwarts Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, this one could leave a mark on the franchise that could take a long time to remove.Here are the playoff grades:ForwardsBrad Marchand, B: Yes, a minus-6 is a minus-6. But Marchand elevated his game with the top two centermen out and led by example. The regular se...

Michael J. Fox shares his journey with viewers in ‘Still’ on AppleTV+

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

Michael J. Fox, rightly regarded as a hero having raised a billion dollars in research funds for Parkinson’s disease, now stars in “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” streaming Friday on AppleTV+.Directed by Davis Guggenheim, an Oscar-winning documentarian for “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Still” mixes scenes from Fox’s career, new interviews and archival material to let Fox, 62 next month, tell his story in his own way.The movie offers re-enactments from Fox’s movies and blurs the line between the man and the characters he plays. It uses moments in his movies to portray moments in his life, like meeting Tracy Pollan, his wife.“I was excited,” Guggenheim, 59, said in a joint virtual press conference with Fox, “to try this idea of, Can you make a documentary that feels like an ‘80s movie? Something that’s big, something’s that fun, a lot of laughs, big music.  And part of that is to put ‘80s and ‘90s movies in it.“It’s a different kind of documentary. It’s a wild ride in the way that those ...

How to teach children about body safety, boundaries

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

The statistics reported by the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network are sobering: 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 20 boys will experience sexual abuse or sexual assault by the time they reach age 17.The idea that anyone would sexually abuse a child is terrifying, especially for parents and caregivers. But like with any risk our children might face, we need to be able to empower them with information that will help them recognize unsafe situations.Children and teens who feel in control of their bodies are less likely to fall prey to sexual abusers. And if they do suffer abuse, they are more likely to tell a trusted adult — which can make all the difference in stopping the events and subsequently helping them recover from this painful experience.Here are some tips to help parents teach their children about body boundaries and safety:Use appropriate language. Teach children proper names for all body parts, including their genitals. Making up names for body parts may give the impression that...

Marriage to diplomat crumbles while living abroad

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

Q. My sister is living abroad with her husband, who is a diplomat.  She has been unhappy in her marriage and has recently been drinking too much.  She was stopped for DUI last week and is worried that she is going to be sent home without her children even though she was not arrested.  I am trying to reassure her that this will not happen because she stays home and cares for the children.Should she just take the children and come home and file for divorce here?A. Nothing is quite so straightforward in situations with diplomats.  The same immunity that gave rise to her not getting prosecuted for her DUI stop may prevent her from leaving post with her children without her husband’s blessing.  Even if she returns home with the children, she would then have a waiting period here before she could file for divorce.  And, her husband probably has jurisdictional immunity when it comes to being served with a divorce or custody complaint from afar.Further, regardless of whether she is the prim...

Cleaning reveals dental issues in cat

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

Dear Dr. John,I recently brought my nine-year-old cat in for a dental cleaning and what I thought was 1-2 extractions on teeth that my vet identified as needing to come out on an oral exam done a few weeks ago. On the day of the procedure, I received a phone call from the hospital notifying me that more extractions would be necessary based on x-rays taken that morning under anesthesia. The cost went up considerably too. I was informed that the x-rays identified that there were huge defects on one upper fang tooth and smaller ones on the other three fangs. Will my cat have trouble eating when losing so many teeth? Since when did x-rays become standard in doing cleanings on pet mouths and why wouldn’t they remove all the teeth with defects or do fillings? N.C.Dear N.C.,Dental radiographs in pets are becoming the proper standard of care and is seen in more practices all the time.  Dental x-rays allow a veterinarian to visualize what is hidden behind the gumline as well as defects not r...

TV Q&A: ‘Dancing with the Stars’ sashays back to ABC

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

You have questions. I have some answers.Q: A lot of my friends and I are VERY upset that “Dancing with the Stars” moved from ABC to Disney+. There are so many shows that do not provide us with wholesome entertainment while “DWTS” did.A: Then you will be pleased to learn that the show will be back on ABC in the fall, with simulcasts on Disney+ and next-day telecasts on Hulu. Several reports noted this will give ABC an unscripted program to fill time if the writers strike delays production of scripted shows for the fall.There will be changes in the show. To the delight of many of my readers, Tyra Banks will no longer host. Alfonso Ribeiro, who co-hosted in Banks’ last season, will be back as host along with Julianne Hough. Judges are Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Julianne’s brother, Derek Hough. (Longtime judge Len Goodman stepped down from the show last year and passed away in April.)Q: At the conclusion of “Modern Family,” there was no reference to the fact that th...

The boss resigned – should you go for his job?

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

Q. My boss resigned and they’ve already posted the job to hire someone externally. But I filled in for him last summer when he was out of the office for two weeks. I can totally do his job! No one’s approached me though. Thoughts?A. Go for it! Pursue it. Get on your boss’s boss’s calendar — ask for a meeting and express your interest in pursuing the role. Outline reasons why you’re ideal for the role, in particular stepping up to the plate last summer. Plus, remind them that you already know the company, you’ve been working there and it sounds like a natural evolution. It would be easier to backfill your current role and promote you than to higher someone at the higher level from the outside.Granted, I don’t know the intricacies if perhaps there’s a skill set you don’t currently have, so you should carefully look at the job description and attempt to acquire new skills (online, etc.) you don’t possess.I wouldn’t...

Editorial: Crypto still a mess – a crackdown can only help

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

US regulators appear to be on a collision course with crypto. Sometime soon, many issuers and intermediaries could be forced out of business or at least out of the country.It could be the best thing that ever happened to the industry.There’s plenty to dislike in the crypto realm. Celebrity touts and the promise of riches have lured people into buying myriad tokens with no intrinsic value; of more than 40,000 issued last year, an estimated one in four were outright pump-and-dump scams. Investor protections are lacking at even the most established intermediaries, as the demise of the FTX trading platform demonstrated. Blockchain-enabled payments have facilitated all sorts of criminal behavior, from aiding human trafficking to funding North Korea’s nuclear program. If the market hadn’t imploded last year, it might have become big enough to threaten the entire financial system.Now Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is poised to deliver the coup de grâce. He has said t...

Dear Abby: Old column helped reader see clearly

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:56:47 GMT

Dear Abby: I want to thank you for a letter you published in 2007. It came from a woman saying her daughter had “convergence insufficiency disorder,” in which the eye drifts and causes double vision. I was 61 and had that problem, but I never knew what it was.I would get headaches from reading and did poorly in school. A teacher once suggested my mother have my eyes checked. The doctor gave me the standard eye chart test, which showed nothing. He recommended more tests, but Mom reasoned they would find nothing and be a waste of money. She insisted I was lazy, and believed corporal punishment would make me study harder.In 1980, after I had a family, I started night school. It was difficult, but I taught myself to focus on each word before moving to the next one. After you printed that letter, I went to an eye doctor who prescribed “prism” glasses, which made reading much easier. Many people have been diagnosed with this problem, but I’m sure a lot more h...