The first thing you notice upon entering the Cape Cod-style home of Dr. Scott Powell and his wife, Dr. Cynthia Boxrud, is the music room at the front of the house. Dominating the space is a Baldwin baby grand piano’her 50th-birthday present from him a few years back’and on the floor are half a dozen of his guitars. Also eye-catching is the photo of Powell and his rock n’ roll band Sha-Na-Na, taken more than 30 years ago when the group’which sang mostly ‘oldies but goodies”played the Brooklyn Fox Theatre. Powell, who was in the band for 11 years, graduated with a master’s degree in theatre from NYU in 1977 before deciding to go to medical school. Besides being in the short-lived ‘Sha-Na-Na’ syndicated television series (1975), he also appeared in the films ‘Woodstock’ (1970), ‘Grease’ (1978) and ‘Caddyshack’ (1980). In fact, on the day Powell was interviewed by the Palisadian-Post, he had just returned from a ‘Caddyshack’ reunion in Chicago which raised money for the Illinois Military Family Relief Fund. ‘I was happy to be able to participate,’ said the Pacific Palisades resident. ‘And it was nice to see people from that time in my life.’ Ironically, Boxrud was also actively involved in music at one time, including singing backup and playing piano for a band called Short’n Bread. She graduated from the Manhattan School of Music in 1978 as a classically trained pianist before she too decided to become a physician. Music to medicine? Both of them? ‘I was never great in school until I went into medicine, which is where I learned how to get A’s,’ Boxrud explained. ‘I was doing research for a play about doctors, which is what got me interested,’ said Powell in the comfort of their Palisades living room, the turquoise walls covered with the couple’s extensive black-and-white photo collection, which includes a rare still of Marilyn Monroe’working out in a gym. Powell and Boxrud, who met through a mutual friend and knew each other for 10 years before becoming romantically involved, both did their pre-med studies at Columbia University. Powell became an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in sports medicine’a relatively new specialty at the time. He is currently the team physician for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (a volunteer position), which will compete in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Powell has also worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers and Kings. Having recently retired from Kaiser Permanente, he is now in private practice, doing ‘about 75 percent shoulders, as well as some elbows and knees.’ He shares an office with his wife in Santa Monica. Boxrud, who trained in ophthalmology, is now a plastic surgeon, specializing in the eyes and in reconstructive surgery. Her work ranges from correcting droopy eyelids to removing cancer in the orbital (eye) area to full facelifts. She offers her services free to victims of domestic abuse. After eight years of investing in related medical research Boxrud now has two patents: a special pillow to protect the eye area after surgery and a cream for dark circles. Five years ago she built her own operating room adjacent to her office in the medical building next to St. John’s Medical Center. Her clients come through referrals’most of them wanting basic cosmetic work. ‘As we age, the face starts to deflate, like a balloon.’ Boxrud explained. ‘So I add volume where I can and take away what I can from other parts.’ Asked what she thought about what appear to be extreme makeovers on some celebrities, she said: ‘Personally, I’m a minimalist. I’d rather have patients come back for more than risk going too far. My goal is to keep my patients safe at all costs.’ Boxrud, 54, said she likes to be ‘hands on’ and often makes house calls. She said that for fun one of her favorite things is to ‘jam’ at home with neighbors and friends. And she also enjoys going down to the beach’not to swim but to clean up. ‘Sometimes on the weekends, Scott and I will just go down there with a couple of garbage bags and pick up what we can,’ Boxrud said. While she agrees that Santa Monica Bay is cleaner than it was a few years ago, when medical waste’including hypodermic needles’was found floating in the ocean, Boxrud said there’s still a long way to go. Knowing how much is wasted at the source”our hospitals”her current pet project is collecting this waste, which she said is often ‘perfectly good’ (even though it may have been used or has an expiration date on it) and getting it to where it can be put to good use. She said that, so far, two hospitals have agreed to give her their waste”stuff like sutures and disinfectant”which she immediately sent off to two hospitals, one in El Salvador, the other in Chile. Boxrud said she is working on expanding her program into recycling hospital waste ‘because I know what a difference that waste can make.’ For ‘fun,’ Boxrud recently volunteered to work for three months in the kitchen at the restaurant JiRaff, where she was put to work ‘cutting chickens and chopping vegetables. I learned a lot, like how to work with lobster, for example. There’s actually a lot of similarity between cooking and medicine. Both are about technique.’ The couple decided to move to the Palisades from Westwood with their then young children’Evan, now 20 and a freshman at the University of Colorado, and Jessica, 14, who attends Brentwood School’almost a decade ago after taking part in the town’s Fourth of July Parade. Boxrud, a Girl Scout leader at John Thomas Dye school in Bel-Air, decided that marching in the parade would be a great way for her troop ‘to earn their community service badge. So we built about 20 canoes on our front lawn which the girls pretended to paddle in the parade. We came in second for best float. We were elated,’ Boxrud recalled. She said that the morning of the parade the family also took part in the Will Rogers race and was happily surprised to find that ‘people we didn’t even know would say ‘hello’ to us. The Palisades reminded both Scott and me of the small-town atmosphere we both grew up in.’ Powell was brought up in Chappaqua, New York, where his parents, both 86, still live. Boxrud was raised on a cattle farm in Madelia, Minnesota, that also grew alfalfa and corn. She said that in many ways it was an idyllic life’everything the family ate was organic, she rode horses and she and her sister helped with the chores. Boxrud also learned anatomy from her dad, ‘who would bring home animals injured on the road.’ She would help care for them’foxes, rabbits, squirrels and sometimes cows. They would dissect the ones that didn’t make it to try and figure out what went wrong. Those that survived ‘we returned to the wild,’ she said. Boxrud goes back to the farm two or three times a year. On her most recent visit with her daughter, Jessie, she canned corn and made raspberry jam with her mother, Jean. Boxrud said the first time she ever left home was to attend music school in New York. Then after graduating from medical school in 1986 and spending three more years training to be an eye doctor, she worked at Cornell Medical School caring for children with facial tumors. She and her husband came to L.A. in 1992 after being awarded fellowships: she at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA; he at Kerlan-Jobe. Both now lecture and teach part-time. Besides teaching, the couple have been on several medical missions: she to Chile (2003) and he to Cuba (2004), where he met Fidel Castro, whose youngest son, Tony, is also an orthopedic surgeon. ‘Five of us had gone to Cuba with 75 boxes of equipment, including some outdated arthroscopic cameras that are used for operations,’ Powell explained. ‘Then Tony said his father would like to meet us. We were with Castro, who I found to be charming and charismatic, for about five hours.’ Powell, 57, said he is planning a mission next year to Haiti. Asked what she expects to be doing in 10 years, Boxrud said ‘Helping out somewhere in South America.’ She never sees herself retiring. ‘As doctors, there are so many ways for us to continue to contribute. In fact, even though we came to medicine late, in some ways I feel like we’re just getting started.’

By ALLAN COMEAU, Ph.D. Special to the Palisadian-Post Since time immemorial humankind has had a fascination with everlasting life. While past explorers, such as the historical Ponce de Leon, may have wandered from place to place in search of fountains with mythical properties, researchers and scientists, such as Dr. Gary Small and colleagues at the UCLA Center on Aging, have been working with real people. Some of them are already showing signs of aging and reduced mental acuity, and they are being taken through carefully designed programs for stimulating their brains and bodies to continue to get the most out of their lives. In “The Longevity Bible: Eight Essential Strategies for Keeping Your Mind Sharp and Your Body Strong” (published by Hyperion and available at Village Books on Swarthmore), Small and co-author and spouse Gigi Vorgan provide both the rationale and scientific basis for their program. They follow up with a clear and practical set of instructions for, as the subtitle says, keeping your mind sharp and your body strong. Since this book is so full of important facts and recommendations, I’ll reflect a bit on each of its main chapters. ‘ “Sharpen Your Mind”‘Use and exercise your mind regularly. As Small writes, “Simply doing mental exercises can significantly improve memory skills and, when combined with the other essentials, may extend life expectancy.” Regular mental exercise has been found, in some studies, to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by nearly one-third, Small reports. ‘ “Keep a Positive Outlook”‘ “Science shows that [this] helps us stay healthy and live longer,” Small reminds readers. He and Vorgan discuss approaches to happiness, self-confidence and spirituality, among related topics, giving valuable reasons for following their advice on these matters. ‘ “Cultivate Healthy and Intimate Relationships”‘Building social networks and connecting with others on an emotional level are essential to good and longer living, the authors emphasize. ‘ “Promote Stress-free Living”‘The effects of stress add directly to the wear and tear of bodies and minds. Small shows how enhancing our lives through mindful awareness and practicing simple stress-reducing exercises can potentially benefit our cardiovascular and emotional health systems. ‘ “Master Your Environment”‘Living comfortably and taking responsibility for the world we have created around ourselves are vital. Many suggestions, such as reducing clutter and reducing information overload, are given to help us take back control over the living and social spaces that, in turn, have so much impact on our overall well-being. “All forms of physical activity,” Small reminds us, “whether it’s walking, cycling, basketball or dancing, appear to prolong healthy living.” In their chapter on body fitness'”Shape Up to Stay Young”‘Small explains the basics of three exercise routines, benefiting our cardiovascular conditioning, balance and flexibility, and overall strength. This is a well-thought-out chapter, giving many useful examples of exercises and specifying s basic program’with illustrations’for beginners. As the saying goes, we are what we eat, and, according to many scientists, including Small, “What we eat directly affects our health and life expectancy by affecting our risk for heart disease, cancer and other age-related illnesses.” Small and Vorgan’s discussion of the benefits of a longevity diet based on antioxidant fruits and vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats, and whole grains and healthy carbohydrates was an inspiration to me’and I am incorporating many of these ideas into my own diet (though old habits fade slowly). Small’s chapter on modern medicine for feeling and looking younger covers recent and still worthy breakthroughs in treatment and preventive care. Discussions on managing medications as well as their side effects, and tips for keeping bones strong and blood pressure well regulated, are but a few of the useful topics covered. Putting it all together’which is also the title of the final chapter of this extremely helpful book’I can tell you that Small’s science is solid and his clinical experience and reputation are stellar. Once again we are given an opportunity unlike any other’to read and partake of the wisdom of the ages and to put into practice the best that science has yet to offer toward a more mindful, healthy and, perhaps longer, life. ( Allan J. Comeau, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist on the clinical faculty at UCLA. Write to him at 2001 S. Barrington Ave., Suite 304, Los Angeles, CA 90025. Visit his Web site at www.drcomeau.com. E-mail questions may be directed to yourmindmatters@hotmail.com.)

First it was a plane. Then a blimp. Now, the iconic New York City yellow taxi will soar in a Technicolor dream coat of vibrant flowers painted by children from all over the globe. The project, called ‘Garden in Transit,’ was spearheaded by Pacific Palisades resident and artist Ed Massey through his nonprofit Portraits of Hope. Massey and his brother Bernie started Portraits of Hope in 1995 as a creative therapy program for hospitalized and physically disabled children, and the program has expanded to include both children and adults who participate through various community programs and institutions. Helen and Peter Bing were the first major sponsors. With ‘Garden in Transit,’ New York will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its first metered taxi. The mobile public art exhibit’one of the largest of its kind in the city’will brighten the streets of New York from September through December 2007. ‘In the 100 years of the yellow taxi, this has never been done,’ Massey told the Palisadian-Post. About 50,000 children, mostly from the New York metropolitan area, will participate in the painting, which is scheduled to begin next month and will last about a year. They will paint flowers on self-adhesive vinyl that will then be applied to the roofs and trunks of just under 13,000 taxicabs. ‘The beauty of it is that it’s transportable,’ Massey said of the 700,000 sq. ft. of material they plan to use. Portraits of Hope plans to take the project to children at two facilities (hospitals, schools and community institutions) in every state, as well as Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. People in the home countries of some of the New York taxi drivers, such as Pakistan, will also have the chance to participate. Volunteers bring all of the equipment’paint, brushes and music’to the children. Hospitalized children who are wheelchair-bound use a special telescope brush to paint their sections. Others who are unable to paint with their hands use a shoe paintbrush or a brush with fruit-flavored wrap that is held between their teeth. ‘It really is one of those fantastical projects, to see the energy that the kids will have,’ said Massey, a painter and contemporary sculptor who also writes children’s books. ‘It’s wonderful seeing people get together and work on something that they can point to and say, ‘I did that.” Portraits of Hope also teaches children about reaching for goals by leading a discussion prior to the actual painting. ‘We get their hands moving and their educational juices flowing,’ Massey said. Massey’s inspiration for Portraits of Hope began when he was invited to do a reading for his book ‘Milton’ at a children’s hospital. ‘That was my first introduction to the pediatric care unit. I saw that these kids were painting and drawing in somewhat isolated situations.’ Around the same time, he noticed that the Tower of Hope, an oil rig on Olympic in Beverly Hills, ‘was falling apart visually.’ Massey realized that hospitalized children could paint flowers as a cover for the rig if he could bring the walls of the structure to them. The result is a whimsical tower of flowers that stands as a symbol of hope and beauty amidst the city buildings. Massey brought one of his large-scale painting projects home to the Palisades last year with Soaring Dreams, a huge blimp co-sponsored by Ameriquest Mortgage Company. Children ages 4 to 18, including Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center preschoolers and Marquez School third graders, painted pieces of the colorful airship, which debuted over the Santa Monica Pier. ‘All of the projects I’m involved in are very family-oriented,’ said Massey, whose wife, Dawn, is a lyricist who writes the music for the projects. They have two children, Felix, 6, and Georgi, 2-1/2. The Portraits of Hope projects give parents and family members a chance to paint with the children. The cheerful colors that will grow on the New York City taxicabs include fuchsia and lavender, teal and magenta, as well as various yellows, reds and oranges. ‘I just think it’s going to be an absolutely spectacular visual experience for the world to see,’ Massey said. ‘The sea of yellow is going to become truly a colorful city. These colors are just going to pop right out of the concrete.’ The installation will require 12,000 people hours in the first three weeks of September, which Massey says will be a 24-hour operation and will not require the taxi drivers to stop working. ‘It’s almost like a pit stop because drivers can’t lose money.’ Portraits of Hope chose New York because of the verticality of the city. ‘It made perfect sense to have this moving cityscape’a kaleidoscope of colors,’ Massey said. ‘Garden in Transit’ has been in the works for more than six years, during which time Massey met with city officials’initially with Mayor Rudy Guiliani and then with his successor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. New York City has welcomed public art events that bring people together, ranging from displays at City Hall Park to Christo and Jeanne Claude’s ‘The Gates,’ but approving a change in color of the city’s signature cab was not a simple process. ‘It’s like saying, ‘Let’s have the Eiffel Tower painted’,’ Massey said. ‘It’s an icon and they’re protective of icons.’ The Masseys will move to New York City for about a year and a half to facilitate the project, but plan to return to the Palisades at the end of that time. Both native Palisadians, Ed and Dawn were neighbors when they were both preschoolers and met again years later. ‘All our friends want to come to New York and work on the project,’ Dawn said, adding that they also are going to incorporate some of the Palisades children. To learn how to volunteer for, sponsor or donate to a project, visit www.portraitsofhope.com.

In 1931, Mrs. Irma von Starkloff Rombauer was newly widowed and in need of a way to support her family. The celebrated St. Louis hostess struck on the idea of turning her personal recipes and cooking techniques into a book. She self-published ‘The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat,’ and the legend was born. American women related to Irma’s sensible, fearless approach to the culinary arts, and Cheese Ball Florentine, Chicken ‘ la King and Apple Betty found their way onto our tables. A rare first edition of Rombauer’s ‘Joy’ resides in the L.A. Public Library, part of the Central Library’s collection, which is one of the largest on food and drink in the nation. This extensive collection and the rich history behind it is what animates the work and joy of the about 300 members of the Culinary Historians of Southern California, who indulge their curiosity beyond the knife and fork. ‘Food history is still mostly the work of impassioned amateurs and, fortunately for all, they’re getting better at it all the time,’ says Los Angeles Times writer and author Charles Perry (‘A Baghdad Cookery Book’ and ‘Spuds, Truffles and Wild Gnocchi’ with Joachim Splichal). Founded 11 years ago by food stalwarts Perry, Dan Strehl and Jackie Knowles, the Culinary Historians allied themselves with the L. A. Public Library from the start, which fed the members’ intellectual and gastronomic approach to food history. Nourished by the library’s culinary collection, with more than 18,000 cookbooks, members set out to hold monthly meetings that would include lively programs, with a sprinkling of tours, restaurant visits, and semiannual parties. This summer’s party was held at the historic Gilmore Adobe with the menu of authentic California Rancho food prepared by members. A truly democratic bunch, SHSC members are chefs, food writers and academics, but also men and women who work in entertainment, museums and marketing’all fascinated by the history of food and its ever-changing social context. Part of the group’s mission is to raise money (through raffles and used-book drives) to augment the Library’s collection. Some recent purchases include ‘Arte de cozinha, divida em tres partes,’ published in 1741 in Lisbon; and the definitive coffee bibliography. These books are housed in the Rare Books Room at the Central Library and may be viewed and used by making an appointment. For those in the know, the 640s’the Dewey decimal code for food and wine’can be as exhilarating as an excursion abroad: landscape, climate, cultivation and ritual described in books on food, open the world to the armchair tourist. Food trends we think of as fresh and original, have come, gone and come back again. Our desire for quick and easy meals to match our on-the-go lifestyles echoes the postwar infatuation with frozen foods and mushroom soup-based sauces and casseroles. Street vendors, the precursors to the now ubiquitous catering trucks, were a growing and accepted part of the city by the mid-1880s. In ‘Tamales Calientes’Push-cart Purveyors Who Flourish at Night’ (Los Angeles Times, September 23, 1894), the writer recalled a specific tamale vendor, Don Pamfilo, who used to sell tamales out of a bucket around the bars and gambling houses ‘sixteen or seventeen years ago when Los Angeles was a dusty old adobe pueblo of some 7,000 or 8,000 inhabitants.’ But today, the author continued, ‘there can now be found from the plaza up Main street as far as the Burbank, and from the corner of Temple and Spring streets away to Sixth, scores of men with little wagons or portable stands who have a variety of edibles to offer on sale.’ These are the historical flashbacks the culinary historians research and assemble for readers in the organization’s biannual newsletter, The Food Journal, or for the monthly meeting programs Members have presented more than 100 programs, which have crisscrossed the food world: scholarly presentations on a food item (‘Hooked on Tuna: Another California First’), or a historical period (‘The Foods of Puglia: Traditional Recipes from Italy’s Boot,’), or the history of legendary restaurants (‘Remember Chasen’s), or novelty subjects, such as ‘Jumbles and Gems: A Look at California’s First Cookbooks.’ Perry, who has been a food writer for the Times for many years, 15 of those as restaurant reviewer, launched CHSC with its first program ‘The Eggplant in 9th Century Baghdad.’ The response was very encouraging, and with that the group moved into the Mark Taper auditorium at the Central Library for its monthly meetings. A chef himself and unquenchable food history enthusiast, Perry offers background on the provenance of food writers. ‘Newspapers didn’t start to write about food until the teens,’ he said in an interview at the Central Library. ‘In 1912, the L. A. Times ran a two-page spread called Homemakers Common Sense in the Home, which also included a family menu for a week of dinners, Sunday through Saturday. A restaurant reviewer was added in the 1950s. Joan Winchell, who was really a gossip columnist, wrote reviews for five years until she was replaced in 1963 by Art Ryon, who was clueless about how to review food, Perry said. ‘He went down to the Redwood Room bar which was in the Times building’even had its own number on the Times switchboard’ and cried in his beer, telling the barman that he didn’t know anything about food. The bartender, Mr. Spivak, did, and became Ryon’s leg man for his column ‘Ham on Ryon.’ In 1966, Ryon was finally replaced by the first serious restaurant reviewer, Lois Dwan. ‘She combined food knowledge and literary skill,’ Perry said. Food writers have also written under territorial names. The first food columnist for the Times was ‘Marian Manners,’ aka Marian Morse. ‘Marian’ was the name of Times publisher Harry Chandler’s wife, and ‘Manners’ was the name of a fashionable shop in Los Angeles in the early 1930s. When Marian resigned in 1939, Fleeta Hoke took the column into the 1950s, when it was still known as ‘Marian Manners.’ Meanwhile, out across the USA, ‘Prudence Penny,’ aka Ruth Berolzheimer, published the ‘Prudence Penny Regional Cookbook’ in 1940, and Betty Crocker became one of the best-known women of the interwar years, who never existed. A confection cooked up by General Mills, Betty Crocker was a combination of the last name of the retired company executive William Crocker, and Betty, which was thought of as ‘warm and friendly.’ Betty Crocker started her career answering consumer product questions, and soon graduated to daytime radio and cookbooks. In the early years of the Culinary Historians, Jackie Knowles (who was also a social columnist for the Pasadena Star-News) orchestrated the CHSC programs, with some memorable favorites, including the history of catsup and the quintessential Trader Joe, delivered by founder Joe Coulombe himself. These days Nancy Zaslavsky, a cookbook author and culinary tour leader, continues to provide informative and inspired presentations. The group gets under way again on September 9 with a discussion of ‘edible gold and silver through the ages’ by Lynn Neuberg. (For information about The Culinary Historians of Southern California, call (213) 228-7201.) Membership is $25.