News lifestyle 2008-05-08 Andanh.com

Building a new hope Wed, 07 May 2008 07:06 EDT
Lashonda Johnson, 26, hasn't had an easy life. At 14 she'd quit school, was working a couple of part time jobs and caring for her sick mother. But, she still had hopes, dreams and self-confidence.

Until four years ago.

That's when her mother, a traveling minister, died in the car as Johnson was driving her to church. It was Mother's Day of 2004.

"She had been sick," Johnson said of her mother, "and her sister had died two weeks before. They said it was too much stress."

Confused and alone, Johnson returned to the hometown she knew, trying to make a home for herself and her infant daughter. She soon discovered that although she had changed, the environment and people of Laurel, Miss., had not.

Daily checkup Thu, 08 May 2008 09:36 EDT
OBESITY TIED TO AMOUNT OF SLEEP

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night or more than nine are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study, one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies. The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.

The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don't get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 adults, conducted 2004-2006 by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

CHINA SAYS HEPARIN PROBE BLOCKED

Looking Hot, Mama Thu, 08 May 2008 12:14 EDT

There sure are a heap of Mom Heroes out there. We asked you to nominate your mom for a special Mother's Day makeover . we asked for a few words of prose or poetry explaining why she was special . and we got scads of entries.

It reminded us that every mom is extraordinary and that there are hardly any criteria that can pick the one most worthy. So we picked four for hair and makeup stylist Leigh-Ann Mims of Voce to work her magic on. We hope you approve.

And we want to remind you that Sunday is Mother's Day; it's not too late to get her a gift of a makeover, or a makeover of your room, or a makeover of your manners or a makeover of your resolve to thank her every day for being your mom.

Bike polo is gaining converts Wed, 07 May 2008 11:15 EDT

Ponies graze minutes away, yet the polo players gathered at Lexington's Masterson Station Park have no use for them.

They prefer bicycles. Not even pricey ones.

Their steeds have been plucked from trash bins and bred for optimum acceleration. The standard uniform is rolled-up jeans and ratty T-shirts. Naturally, as with any herd of twenty- and thirty-somethings, there's cursing.

No hint of the stiff formalities associated with polo.

Revelry a sure bet Tue, 06 May 2008 09:26 EDT

Pitch a tent, invite 1,500 or so of your friends, and voil.: Derby party. That's the way Bill Morgan has been doing it since 1972. But it didn't start out quite so big.

While Morgan was a student at the University of Kentucky, he decided to throw a party for his friends who couldn't afford the exclusive Derby parties. The Poor Man's Harlan County Derby Eve Party was born.

Now it's the biggest party of them all.

And just like the more expensive parties, this bash is for .charity. .Morgan, wife Elizabeth Morgan, brother Bryan Morgan and friend James .Smitty. Jones . a onetime maitre'd at Columbia's Steak House on North Limestone . were the hosts.

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