By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
The Empty Candy Dish
Sun-3
My grandmother kept an empty candy dish in her tiny attic apartment; a lasting reminder of many things, including the Ziegfield Follies. - photo by istockphoto.com/adv
Tim Torkildson
Deseret News National
Updated: Aug 24, 2014, 5:00 PM
Published: Aug 21, 2014, 4:37 PM

My grandmother lived in an upstairs attic apartment, right across from an old flour mill that clanked continuously day and night. That made conversation hard, because she was old and growing deaf and I was young and too impatient to ever say anything twice. And she never put any candy in her candy dish.

But I liked going up the dim, steep stairs to her small room filled with chipped knick-knacks, because her hugability was enormous; with her humped back she was shaped somewhat like a crescent roll, so I could snuggle right into her, fitting in like a jigsaw puzzle piece.

She kept lavender sachets everywhere. One winter day I found a soggy sachet in the bowl of tomato soup she made me. The soup didn’t taste too bad; I knew better than to ask for another bowl. She would have given it to me, but then would go without her own bowl of soup sometime that week. Her apartment smelled like my Aunt Julia’s bathroom, which was crammed with French milled soap.

I asked her one day why she never put any candy in her candy dish.
She gave me a gentle, crooked smile. Her dentures were mail order and didn’t fit very well; when she did smile they tended to slip around in her mouth. They fell out at my brother Bill’s wedding, right into the punch bowl, and sank like a stone. Bill fished them out with a set of ice tongs.

She told me the candy dish was a very valuable piece of rich cut glass that she had gotten as a wedding present from her husband’s people up in Montreal. They had not come to the wedding, she continued, but they did send the candy dish. She used to keep bon bons in it. I stopped her there, demanding to know what bon bons were. She looked out the window facing the clattering flour mill while she told me that once long ago people would work all day to hand-roll little balls of chocolate with delicious fillings inside, and that these were very expensive, but back then she kept her candy bowl full of them. Then her glasses stopped working and she took them off and didn’t talk anymore.

But I knew what had happened; mom had told me. Grandpa had run off with a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl to Toronto and never came back. I suddenly hated him very much, because he was keeping me from having any of those wonderful-sounding bon bons. My grandmother saw the fierce resentment in my face; she went to her kitchen cabinet and brought back a box of graham crackers. We ate them in companionable but sad silence together, washed down with tap water, and I forgave Grandpa for taking the bon bons away from me for his Ziegfeld girl – whatever the heck THAT was.

Tim lives in Provo, Utah. He is the proud father of eight children. A former circus clown, he currently works in social media and edits the political humor blog http://iwritetheblogggs.com/ He can be contacted attorkythai911@gmail.com
Its toxic: New study says blue light from tech devices can speed up blindness
93cbd7a5475cccd1cee701424125d3abaa9b4beaa58d3663208f656cbbbd7661
A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers. - photo by Herb Scribner
Herb Scribner
Deseret News
Published: Aug 13, 2018, 1:39 PM
It turns out checking Twitter or Facebook before bed is bad for your health.

A new study from the University of Toledo found that blue light from digital devices can transform molecules in your eyes retina into cell killers.

That process can lead to age-related macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness in the United States, according to the researchs extract.

Blue light is a common issue for many modern Americans. Blue light is emitted from screens, most notably at night, causing sleep loss, eye strain and a number of other issues.

Dr. Ajith Karunarathne, assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, said our constant exposure to blue light cant be blocked by the lens or cornea.

"It's no secret that blue light harms our vision by damaging the eye's retina. Our experiments explain how this happens, and we hope this leads to therapies that slow macular degeneration, such as a new kind of eye drop, he said.

Macular degeneration is an incurable eye disease that often affects those in their 50s or 60s. It occurs after the death of photoreceptor cells in the retina. Those cells need retinal to sense light and help signal the brain.

The research team found blue light exposure created poisonous chemical molecules that killed photoreceptor cells

"It's toxic. If you shine blue light on retinal, the retinal kills photoreceptor cells as the signaling molecule on the membrane dissolves," said Kasun Ratnayake, a Ph.D. student researcher working in Karunarathne's cellular photo chemistry group. "Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When they're dead, they're dead for good."

However, the researchers found a molecule called alpha-tocopherol, which comes from Vitamin E, can help prevent cell death, according to Futurism.

The researchers plan to review how light from TVs, cellphones and tablet screens affect the eyes as well.

"If you look at the amount of light coming out of your cellphone, it's not great but it seems tolerable," said Dr. John Payton, visiting assistant professor in the UT Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Some cellphone companies are adding blue-light filters to the screens, and I think that is a good idea."

Indeed, Apple released a Night Shift mode two years ago to help quell blue lights strain on the eyes, according to The Verge. The screen will dim into a warmer, orange light that will cause less stress on the eyes.