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DEAR ANNIE: Cornered by her sister’s constant invitations

DEAR ANNIE: I moved to northern Florida over a year ago to help care for my parents. My sister has lived in southern Florida for many years, and for as long as I can remember, nearly every conversation with her includes the same question: “When are you coming down?” Before I moved here, she asked it constantly. Once, she and her husband picked me up from the airport, and before we had even left the curb, she asked, laughing, “When are you coming down again?” She knows it irritates me, but she does it anyway. Now that I live in the same state, nothing has changed. It is still, ...

HINTS FROM HELOISE: Single-ply toilet tissue works fine

DEAR HELOISE: Apparently, there’s truth to the saying, “You’re never really too old to learn new things.” Several months ago, at the tender age of 77, I learned that I’d been purchasing the wrong type of toilet paper for decades. I accidentally purchased a no-frills, plain ol’ roll of single-ply toilet paper versus the multi-ply, quilted, super-soft stuff that I’d bought for years. Here’s what I found out: For our household of two, a single-ply roll costs less than $1 and lasts for eight full days. The quilted rolls, on the other hand, cost more than $1 and barely last ...

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH: Meds to help you sleep can be risky for some

DEAR DR. ROACH: I have occasional difficulty when going to sleep and/or getting back to sleep. I have tried Ambien, trazodone, clonazepam and Lunesta. All have their pros and cons. My question regards sleep quality. I know there are several stages of sleep that we should go through and that the brain cleans out junk during sleep. Do these sleep aids still allow a person to go through the needed sleep stages and also allow the brain to clean itself? Are any of these meds better or worse than the others for occasional use? — S.H. ANSWER: How much time we spend in the different ...

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH: Access to records shouldn’t be difficult

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’ve decided that it’s time for me to find a new primary care doctor. My biggest concern is access to my medical records. I currently have access to a patient portal to request doctor appointments or prescription renewals and review test results. Since the healthcare providers in my area use different portals, I need to know if I’ll have access to my past records. More importantly, will my new physician have access to my CAT scans, doctor’s notes, and other information that I’m not privy to through the patient portal? In the past, I know I could request that ...

Bridge by Steve Becker

Deception plays a prominent role in bridge, just as it does in most other competitive endeavors. But while a declarer can practice deception with virtual impunity, the defenders run the risk of misleading their partners. Nevertheless, there are occasions when a defender can judge that the only one who can fall victim to his ruse is the declarer. Here is a typical case. West led the king of hearts, and East, sizing up the defense’s prospects, saw that West could take two heart tricks, and that he himself had a sure trump trick. It was also clear that South had to have all three ...