Consumer Reports; Dr. Santa's Health Blog

A few tips from Dr. Santa; it is his real name as he explains. Especially pay attention to heart attack symptoms and how to avoid a Christmas heart attack. I will try very hard to follow his, and my own, advice!

Dr. Santa’s 12 tips for a healthy holiday
Yes, my name really is Dr. Santa. (It’s Hungarian.) I like doctoring around the holidays—my name makes it fun, and a lot of important health issues come up then, too. I hope this series helps you navigate the season.

TIP 9 Don’t be a holiday heart attack

It’s hard to sugarcoat the statistics: You’re more likely to die of a heart attack on Christmas or New Year’s than any other day of the year. Why? It could be a lot of things. Stress. A particularly high-fat meal. Shoveling snow. Substandard care in an emergency room staffed with a limited holiday crew. But my guess is that denial plays a big role.

Denial, after all, is pretty common over the holidays. We want lots of laughing, all the meals gourmet feasts, and everyone a picture of health. In other words, we think life will take a holiday. But it won’t. You want to believe that slight pain in the chest is just heartburn and not worth making a fuss over. Right? Wrong.

Precisely because heart attacks are so common around the holidays, you should be especially alert to these warning signs:
Chest discomfort, including pain, pressure, squeezing, or a feeling of fullness in the center of the chest. The symptoms may wax and wane.
Pain or discomfort that radiates to one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
Sudden onset of shortness of breath, even without chest discomfort.
A cold sweat, nausea, or lightheadedness.
If you think you’re having an attack, call 911. Then chew and swallow a regular-strength aspirin.

Of course, it’s even better to avoid heart attacks in the first place. So take these common-sense steps:

Avoid overindulging in food or alcohol. The risk of an attack appears to double in the two hours after a particularly large meal.
Get a flu shot and treat any respiratory illness immediately. In frail folks, those infections can sometimes precipitate an attack.
Minimize emotional stress. Negative emotions, such as anger or stress, trigger the release of hormones that can threaten your heart.
Bundle up outside, since cold temperatures can increase blood clotting and cause blood vessels to constrict.
And take it easy when exerting in the cold, too—whether it’s shoveling snow, or playing with the grandkids.

—John Santa, M.D., M.P.H, director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center


TIP 1 Don’t shop till you drop: How to navigate the holidays in a stress-free and healthful way.

TIP 2 Lights, ladder, and candles: Avoid holiday accidents.


TIP 3 Dr. Santa’s stocking-stuffers.


TIP 4 What not to get for the holidays this year: A cold or the flu.


TIP 5 Over the river and to the ER: What to do if you get sick while traveling.


TIP 6 Raise a toast—but not too many.


TIP 7 Stuff the goose—not yourself.


TIP 8 Difficult holiday conversations.

Holidays

I can't beleive that I've not posted yet in December, but it ahs been that kind of month. We missed a major blizzard, but are subzero and ice covered; some of long for a nice, warm trip to Siberia! The museum joined the Montana Lady's Antique Doll Pages today which is a terrific reference site. I recommend it to all. She is faithful about posting and sharing information. Best online "doll club" yet!

My thanks to my friends at the Warren County Doll Club; we had a great Christmas meeting and party, and the ornament exchange was terrific. This is a devoted and wonderful group of people, warm and sharing in the true spirit of doll collecting.

Christmas is a sad time for us at the museum; since my mother died, there are really no gifts, and no festivites at my parents house. My dad, ever a scrooge in somethings, is now in his glory. It's HIS way of keeping Christmas. Our holidays consist of trips to her grave, but I don't mind that. I look forward to it, and I have left her small dolls and little things like we used to buy together. She loved Christmas, and busy as she was with me, Dad, and a job, she always made ornaments and dressed one of my dolls in a fantastic outfit. She knitted and crocheted till the day she died, for the dolls. She hated old things, but gamely went with me to antique shows and stores, and got to the point that she "loved the hunt" herself, and would ask for dolls for "our" collection for special occasions. We will have a gallery devoted to her work, and the doll she made and dressed. Her specialty was outfits for "ugly" dolls, like the Alien Queen, and two-headed Halloween monster baby, who now wear tasteful knitted ensembles. She also created fantastic Barbie wardrobes, shoes, trousseaux for china heads, and knitted stuffed animals.

She loved to decorate trees, and we had all kinds of all sizes. My late puppies were always in the act, and my Smokey dog didn't bother the tree, but loved to brush by it because his tail set off an ornament with a bell. He liked hearing it ring.

We scoured the after Christmas sales all over the country; Macy's and Marshall Fields were tradition. We also cooked and baked till we dropped, cleaned, looked for real holly, and organized gifts for the next Christmas. We wrapped everything, and even our puppies had stockings. The room was filled with all kinds of beautiful stockings and wrapped gifts,and we always had something to exchange through the 12 days of Christmas and Epiphany and Russian Christmas on the 7th.

Now, I honor the season for her sake, but it is painful, and the stark "do without" is a shock. I try to put up my own decorations, and my husband and his family try, but it is not the same. There used to be more than 12 people around our Christmas table, even if we travelled to my Grandmother's. Now, there aren't even two.

But, Christmas is about love and sharing; I bake for my friends with her recipes, I visit her grave, I do things at work and we send things to the Children at the Sun Valley Indian School in Arizona. I also like to donate to Goodwill, Toys for Tots, and The Salvation Army. Sometimes, I'm sad, but a little releived when Christmas is over. January was her birthday, and the month she died, and the month we have lost others in my family. I've come to be more of a spring/summer person, with fall my all time favorite season, but Christmas with its old traditions and my mother's love of dolls and doll restoration will always live in my heart.

Seasons Greetings and Merry Christmas to all of you from The Doll Museum.

American Pickers

Happy Post Thanksgiving and Black Friday! I've been off due to severe tendinitis and carpal tunnel in my left hand. But, here I am. I've decided that American Pickers, those stars of The History Channel, need me, Dr. E, to avoid costly mistakes! In fairness, I've become addicted after a rare afternoon and evening with Net Flix. After finishing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which hadme riveted, I go into American Pickers. I'd never seen it, though we made one pilgrimage to find their hideout; it was closed up. The stories are great, and the travels intriguing, and it is amazing what people collect and have behind their front doors, an observation Carl Fox made about NY Brownstones forty years ago.

I enjoyed their strategies, tips, and preferences, but I also watched them walk right by a group of paper covered, lithographed toy and doll houses at one location, that I was sure were Bliss. I got the shivers looking at them, and I only get the shivers around something really good in the antique/collectible realm! They boys didnt' have a clue, or just weren't interested, but the Bliss houses can be worth over $1000. Go figure.

We at the museum follow Lovejoy, the antique dealer/detective created by Jonathan Gash. We shiver and have "feelings" when we come across a neglected treasure, and we've learned to keep it to ourselves.

So far, the live-sized Gualtier mannikin on display is keeping her head. I think she gained weight since I bought her many years ago. I had to carry her up to the exhibit. It wasn't easy. And, I had to re-attach her head. She does look happy in that sled, though. Photos to follow.

Woodsy Owl was finally reclaimed; after he was washed, disinfected, dried, and sort of reshaped, I made him a slipcover with an owl appliqued mask. He is now preserved and santized from the ravages of the great flood disaster the dolls and I survived a couple years ago. In the words of the late but immortal Genevieve Angione, "All Dolls are Collectible!"

There are many interesting dolls out there this Xmas, including Video Girl Barbie who is spawning lots of controversy. Not that I'm happy about it, but if cell phones do it, well . . . Another Shirley, a Patseyette, several Nancy Anns, and some lovely compos have joined our family, as well as some great Alexanders.

I had a long journey finding Egypt by Madame. I may as well have gone there. I finally found a dealer who had her, a lovely lady with a family owned business. I just wish she had her figures staight. The "discount" she gave me, which I paid before she even sent the doll, turned out to be "low." After a lot voodoo economics, I got a phone call asking for $15.00 more. I'm sending it, but I'm not the one who sent the price. The doll is bought, paid for,and in my possession. Dr. E's is not under any legal duty to pay more money. I'm doing it out of compassion. But, this is not the greatest way to do business.

On a positive note, our recent trip to American Girl Place was wonderful, and Felicity joined our ranks. There is less acquiring and more refurbishing, restoing, decorating and organizing these days. Museum maintenance is important.

At this time of year, I like to review all the dolls my mother contributed, restored, and dressed. Christmas meant new clothes for several of my dolls, that disappeared in the weeks before Xmas, but reappeared on Christmas Eve in a gaily wrapped package with a whole new outfit, even new shoes and hairdos.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and more to come from Dr. E's!

Restored dolls, vintage vinyl, Raggedy Ann, Black Dahlia, and German Costume

There are some new photos up of our newest museum displays and of dolls Dr. E has restored. If these could be fixed, there is hope for the most hopeless!

Why Dolls Should not be in Landfills

I went to another doll show, and found some amazing things, including the 20th c. F.G. Fashion, and an Emma Clear, The Gibson Girl, a Kathy Hansen baby boy, some lovely bisque dolls, a china head, glazed with blue flowers and boots decorated with bisque flowers, and these add to my finds of last week, and a couple surprises at The Salvation Army, including a Wendy Lawton Little Woman, JO, I think.

I am a sucker for a doll that needs help, and I always have a wreck or two in need. Woodsy Owl, flood ravaged, is my worst. I am rebuilding him an appliqued felt body, a la a model on Etsy that I admired. Dolls don't belong in landfills, should not be destroyed, abused, vandalized for parts, tossed in garbage, simply because, they are made in our image, and thus, someone loved them. Someone appreciated them, and they were a personal talisman, if not once a loved and important ritual object, representative of something greater. No other human artifact can claim this,though portraits, photographs of people, figurines, and other statutes share the idea. They shouldn't go in landfills, either.

Just a few thoughts on a late, lonely night. It also helps us to reclaim and to restore. It helps us to appreciate the creations of others, and to know that a little bit of their sould is in the doll they lovingly made or owned. If only they could tell their own stories. Good night, and Happy Thanksgiving from The Museum.

Stickers and Dolls

I love stickers; we still use them at school and have competitions even though we are in college. Doll stickers abound, and the Dover sticker paper dolls are both reasonable at $1.00 - $2.00 each, and lots of fun. You can have a whole doll collection for under ten dollars! Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Doll House also rocks, as do Sticker Advent Calendars. Children love stickers. There are even sticker collections on display on the Martha Stewart Sirius Blogs, e.g., Morning Living, during collectors week. I saved and adhered to a better surface wonderful new Chiquita stickers, and interesting stickers from fruit. These are free with the fruit, and encourage kids to collect, and to eat what is good for them! They could make great sticker albums for Christmas this way.

Here are a couple of new photos from our museum holiday displays. Enjoy!

A Long Weekend

It's been a long but fun weekend visiting American Girl Place and presenting at MMLA, a dream for me. American Girl Place was truly fantastic; lots of people, even late in the afternoon, and all pink, white, and pastels. Two floors of the dolls and their accessories, and life-sized vignettes of the historical periods from which the dolls come. I chose Felicity to join the rest of the American Girls, since she will be retired. The staff there is very helpful and friendly. One chooses the type of purchse from tiny post-it note photos and descriptions. There were many books and of course, the clothes for little girls. I would liekt o return to see the holdiay window and to have lunch. They don't validate for Watertower, though, and don't serve dinner.

MMLA was fantastic; I saw one of my old profs from grad school, and the speaker was Lady Antonia Fraser, noted author and authority, and widow of Harold Pinter. I also love her Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Warrior Queens, and Mary, Queen of Scots. She was the first author to respond to me when I was writing my dissertation, and later my book. The Vampire Narratives panel went great; I mentioned the vampire dolls and toys popular, and gave everyone gummi skeletons and plastic vampire teeth. We all need our toys! The conference theme was "terror" and my sister panelists were terrific. Thanks for a wonderful experience.

Today, I went to a presentation on German cooking and holiday cookies. I visited the disoplay of my own dolls, too. We learned about gingerbread figures and molds, and figures made of dough and given on St. Nicholas day. I am going to make them for my class. Dolls made of dough and in gingergread are an important part of German Christmas, along with the Christmas markets and toy markets that date to at least 1450 or even earlier. The Christmas stollen, or cake, I learned, represents the Christ child in his swaddling clothes. There is a long tradition of dough figures from Sweden, South America, the US, Greece, and other countries. There is a fertility goddess with three breasts in Carl Fox's classic, The Doll, and the 1956 World Book Encyclopedia discuss Swedish dolls made of dough and dressed in long gowns.

I have several edible dolls made of gingerbread and other types of dough, preserved and varnished for posterity. I keep them in an extra fridge, low temp, or in cool, dry, tightly sealed places. I have seen Golliwog cookies in collections, and gingerbread marionnettes as well.

Tomorrow or so, there will be new photso posted of displays of my nutcrackers and German dolls and some of the dolls that I restored which were beyond hope. Also, I hope to discuss some of my favorite mysteries on dolls and hobbies by Deb Baker, Laura Childs, Diane Mott Davidson, Tamar Meyers, Joanne Fluke, Margaret Grace, Sharon Fiffer, Sharon Holub, and Ms. Jackson's classic, Missing Melinda. Happy Dolling!