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At the barbershop

Some years ago a barbershop opened up in my hometown of Graz. The shop reminded me of a fancy Wild West salon with noble gentlemen (the barbers), and I absolutely loved the Christmas decoration in the window featuring the polar express and polar bears. As neat as the place looks, as expensive it is. For a cut they charge 52 euros ($60). But the treatment takes 30 minutes and includes some stylish fragrant hair lotion. They also serve Scottish whiskey, Caribbean rum, or local beer while you’re waiting. Personally, I don’t care about such perks. Yet I loved the look of the place so ...

Why too much phosphorus in America’s farmland is polluting the country’s water

When people think about agricultural pollution, they often picture what is easy to see: fertilizer spreaders crossing fields or muddy runoff after a heavy storm. However, a much more significant threat is quietly and invisibly building in the ground. Across some of the most productive farmland in the United States, a nutrient called phosphorus has been accumulating in the soil for decades, at levels far beyond what crops actually require. While this element is essential for life-supporting root development and cellular chemistry to grow food, too much of it in the wrong places has ...

Dear Annie: Not keen on friend’s condescending humor

Dear Annie: I’m a 73-year-old married woman, and my husband and I have a full social life. We regularly host other couples for happy hour, dinner and holidays. I enjoy it, and I’m grateful to have good friends at this stage of life. One friend in particular is a woman my age whom I’ve known for years. We generally get along well, which is why this has caught me off guard. Lately, she has started making comments about my height. I’m 5 feet, 1 inch tall, and she’s 5 feet, 3 inches, so it’s not as if there’s some dramatic difference. Yet in front of our friends, she calls me ...

Taking vitamin K2, although safe, doesn’t prevent osteoporosis

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a 68-year-old female who is in good health. I currently take vitamin D3. The only prescription that I’m on is rosuvastatin. It has been brought to my attention by my cousin, who is a devout vegan, that taking vitamin D3 with K2 is much better than just taking D3 alone. If this is true, I’m wondering why my doctor hasn’t recommended it. When I mentioned this to my friends, they had never heard of D3 and K2 either. Do you see an advantage to switching over to this supplement? I had a bone density test done this past year, and the doctor said that there were ...

Applause, Applause

Each Saturday, The Express community newspaper highlights people, groups and activities our readers deem worthy of applause. THANK YOU to the Susquehanna Valley Big Twins Motorcycle Club of Woolrich for their recent monetary donation to the Prayer Shawl Ministry for their needleworkers to purchase quilt batting to use for warmth in the twin sized bed quilts that the PSM makes for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Sleep in Heavenly Peace provides free beds and bedding accessories (pillows, sheets and blankets) to children in the area who need their own bed to sleep in. The Prayer Shawl ...

Big surprises in the 2030 Census estimates

About a month late, presumably due to last fall’s government shutdown, the Census Bureau has released its estimates of the populations of the 50 states and the District of Columbia for July 1, 2025. It provides an interesting picture of what the country is, and is becoming, halfway through the decade of the 2020s and one-quarter of the way through (have we really gotten this far?) the 21st century. It also provides some political dynamite, all the more explosive because of Census Bureau statisticians’ deserved reputation for apolitical rigor and willingness to admit mistakes, as it ...