Thursday Thirteen #457

Zzzzz ... When I started working from home during the covid lockdown, I discovered the joy of an afternoon nap. Instead of eating my lunch – which I could do during meetings with the camera off – I'd spend 45 minutes in bed, in my jammies, under the covers. It's a habit I've continued to this day.

Here are 13 things I've learned about napping from The Mayo Clinic, other sites, and personal experience.

1. Napping helps you relax. At first this seemed counter-intuitive. How can I nap when I'm keyed up? But I've found it helps to, in the words of John Lennon, "turn off my mind, relax and float downstream."

2. Naps can improve performance. As can any short break. When I was working, I found I was more productive after my little snooze, but also lunch.

3. Some people report greater manual dexterity, resulting in fewer workplace accidents, after a nap. 

4. Naps may help with pain. President Kennedy used to schedule short naps in the afternoon because staying seated in long meetings aggravated his bad back, and an afternoon snooze on a very firm mattress provided relief. (It surprised Jackie that he could both fall asleep and wake up so quickly, as she dozed off and rose slowly. She assumed his sleep habits were learned in the Navy.)

5. You may feel groggy immediately after waking from a nap. I personally haven't found this, but people who went to doctor school say it's so.

6. Look in the mirror after your nap. I've found a nap can ruin a good hair day and smear eye makeup.

7. A daytime snooze can make it harder for you to sleep at night. I found this was true back in the olden days, when I would close my eyes "for a minute" after work, wake up two hours later at around 9:00 PM, and find myself still wide awake at 1:00 AM.

8. Limit naps to half an hour. OOPS! That's not me. I'm 45 mins./hour. Maybe I should look at this.

9. Hey! Wait! NASA recommends 40 minute naps for military pilots! Oh well, this is certainly not the first time I've found competing experts disagree online. 

10. Set your alarm clock. "Sorry, I was napping," is not a well-accepted excuse for lateness.

11. Though #10 may be uniquely American. In China, for example, lunch breaks can last up to two hours to accommodate an afternoon nap.  

12. Nap in the early afternoon. I try to nap before 3:00 PM, which certainly isn't early but it works with my schedule. Napping later in the day can interfere with your sleep overnight. (See #7.)

13. Dogs and cats nap throughout the day. Dogs and cats seem pretty happy. Maybe we should be more like dogs and cats.

Where are you on the napping thing? 

 

Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.

 

 

WWW.WEDNESDAY

WWW. WEDNESDAY asks three questions to prompt you to speak bookishly. To participate, and to see how other book lovers responded, click here. 

PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up.

1. What are you currently reading? Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy by Steven Levingston. John F. Kennedy Jr. is having a moment, but most people don't know that, for two days, he had a baby brother. In August of 1963, Jacqueline Kennedy gave premature birth to a baby who died. It would have been the news story of the year, if her husband hadn't died in her lap just three months later.

 

This is a book I've been waiting for. For all that every moment of November 22-25, 1963, has been documented, the circumstances around Patrick's birth and death are harder to find. I can imagine how excited the nation must have been to have a pregnant First Lady. What was the press coverage like? How did we respond to the baby's death? On the personal side, how did JFK juggle the demands of the Presidency while watching his son fight for life, and then mourn him? I hope I'll get answers to these questions from Mr. Levingston. 

2. What did you recently finish reading? Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by Liza Minnelli. Oy, this book! Much of it reads like science fiction. At one point, Liza is legally married to a gay man (Peter Allen) while engaged to a younger man (Desi Arnaz, Jr.) and then announces she's going to marry an older man (Peter Sellers). I know it happened. I remember the newspaper photo of Liza and Peter Sellers giving a press conference from a lawn somewhere. She goes on to cheat on her second husband and has a series of affairs (at least 3) with married men. I am not judging her morality. Far be it from me to do that. It's her wisdom. I don't know how she thought any of this would work out well. Her behavior would have been more comprehensible to me if, at some point, she took off on a flying saucer or chose to embark on a expedition to Middle Earth.

 

I wish I had more compassion for Liza. She had a genuinely horrific childhood with a mercurial, addicted, yet charismatic and loving mother. We've all heard about Judy Garland's demons, and living with her damaged Liza. While often clear-eyed about Mama, she insists on romanticizing her father. Director Vincente Minnelli never seems to be there for her when she needs him, even as she talks about her darling Papa in glowing terms. Example: Liza left home at 16 to go to New York and become a Broadway dancer. She was evicted from her residential hotel for non-payment of rent and ended up sleeping on a park bench for several nights. In Central Park! Then she began sofa surfing. She claims that if Papa had known any of this, he would have been beside himself. How did he not know? His 16-year-old daughter was on her own in NYC and he wasn't keeping constant tabs on her? Remember, this was before cell phones and Liza was without a phone number for weeks if not months. Later, when Garland dies and Liza finds herself in the center of a media circus at a young age, Papa refuses to come to New York for the funeral. He didn't want to be photographed with Judy's other ex-husbands. Fair enough, I suppose. But Liza recalls crying for a week straight while planning a high profile funeral and facing painful questions about Judy's drug use and possible suicide. Papa couldn't fly to New York but skip the funeral and hide out in her apartment, just to hold her hand? Frankly, he sounded like he didn't really give a shit about her. At least not until she became famous and burnished his legacy. I don't think it's an accident that in her two best movies, Sterile Cuckoo and Cabaret, she plays a girl who desperately insists she's her father's top priority, despite all evidence to the contrary.

 

Her denial about Papa. Her denial about her self-destructive behavior. She exasperated me. 

 

I respect her talent enormously. You can see her Emmy-winning special Liza with a Z for free on YouTube and it's a delight. I admire how she overcame addiction. I give her credit for revealing so much on these pages, warts and all. But she gave me a headache. 

 

I spent 900 pages with Streisand and found her far more relatable. Babs is a diva and a generational talent, but she's also a woman of bedrock sanity. She takes her faith seriously. She's grounded. Even at her most self-involved – and you have to be self-involved to write a 900-page book about yourself – I got her. I do not get Liza at all.

 

I still need to read Cher's memoir. I wonder if I'll find she's more Streisand or Minnelli.

 

3. What will you read next?  I don't know