Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg Do not look now, but the flu season is inexorably upon us. Time to bulk up on antibacterial solutions/wipes—anything that will be used to remove the unwanted ubiquitous (and dangerous) critters that are everywhere! So … If we shake hands, clean your hands, or if we touch a door handle, clean…
Category: December 2025
Features, December 2025
Ask Emma: Advice and Paw-spective
Emma, a Little White Dog Who Lives in SaddleBrooke Hi SaddleBrooke Progress friends! I’m Emma, your cheerful little white dog who loves morning golf course walks, greeting neighbors, and riding through the community in our golf cart. I write this column to share a dog’s-eye view on life here in SaddleBrooke—with kindness, gentle humor, and…
December 2025, Features
Consider Reexamining the Meaning of the Holidays
Suzanne Marlatt Stewart December is a time of friends, family, fun, festivities, and food, but it is also a time of reflection and planning for the year ahead. The winter festival predates all organized religions by millennia; we celebrate Christmas when we do because it aligns with the cycles of nature and of our lives.…
December 2025, Features
2 Your Health: Holiday Grief
Dr. Rose Bricker Yes, it is a real thing! We often feel grief as early as November, and it can continue on through December. It’s also not uncommon for the feelings to last as we enter into the new year. Those three months can be emotionally painful. Sometimes grief is only seen as the death…
December 2025, Features
Dollars & Sense: Details Matter
Leah Kari, Retired Pharmaceutical Representative and Licensed Insurance Agent Licensed insurance agents are part analyst, sleuth, and detail man. As a former pharmaceutical representative of 16 years, people would joke about representatives being called “detail men” in days past. Diligence in details was a professional requirement. It is equally important for licensed insurance agents reviewing…
December 2025, Generals
Word of the Month: Contronym (Continued!)
David Zapatka Reader JoAnn Weston writes about the October 2025 WOTM column, “Hello David. Here is another contronym for your list: “Bound,” meaning to leap, but also the opposite, tied up. I enjoy your column, very clever! Oh, another one—“Leave” meaning to go and to remain!” In serendipitous fashion, friend and fellow verbivore, Richard Lederer,…
December 2025, Features
Freaky Factoids for the Holidays
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg Can anyone explain where the last 12 months went? Seriously, wasn’t it just March? Actually, we have managed to use up another year—one that was filled with tons of memories, both good and bad. And on Dec. 31, as you lift your glass for a toast and sing “Auld Lang Syne,”…
December 2025, Generals
Tri-Community Food Bank Seeing an Increase in Need for Emergency Food Assistance
Marilee Jensen As I write this article for the SaddleBrooke December newsletters, approximately 135,000 Tucsonans are not receiving their November SNAP benefits. This lapse creates great hardship for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. While the Tri-Community Food Bank (TCFB) cannot provide the amount of food that SNAP provides, we are stepping up to…
December 2025, Generals
Film and Speaker from Jewish Film Festival at DesertView
Joan Elder An outstanding film was selected from the January, 2026, Jewish Film Festival to be shown in the DesertView Theater on Jan. 18, 2026. The cost is $10, and the program begins at 2 p.m. Among Neighbors is a blending animation and testimony documentary which confronts the legacy of a Polish town where Jews…
December 2025, Generals
Dia de los Muertos Party in SaddleBrooke One
Ric Nicholson The 14th Annual Halloween Party, held on Oct. 31 at the home of Ron and Carol Aeschliman, was another great success. Very creative Dia de los Muertos costumes were sported by many of the more than 60 in attendance. Outstanding food and beverage was provided by the Aeschlimans. The evening included a magic…