Jack Benny was one of the most beloved stars of both the Golden Age of Radio and the Golden Age of TV. Born Benjamin Kubelsky, he underwent a couple of name changes in his career. By the time he became “Jack Benny” he was established in the comedic character that millions of Americans would come to know and love.

In reality, Jack was nothing like the character he played on stage - vain, self-important and the ultimate skinflint. Much of the humor in sketches on both radio and television centered on these less than admirable qualities. But Jack didn’t mind that the jokes were usually on him. He was known to say that he didn’t care who got the laugh as long as the show was funny.

Jack never aged past 39. He had celebrated his 39th birthday on his show and didn’t want to celebrate 40. He didn’t think 40 was a very funny age and so he continued to be 39. It became another one of Jack’s running jokes and trademarks.

Another was his violin. In reality, Jack started playing the violin at age 6 and was accomplished enough to make his living at it in his early days.

Perhaps Jack’s greatest talent was his ability to get a laugh by saying nothing. With pregnant pauses, facial expressions and hand gestures, he cracked up the audience and the laughs were sustained and even increased with the length of the pause.

Possibly the best-known pause and subsequent punch line came when a mugger demanded of Jack “Your money or your life”. Jack paused and looked at the studio audience. Getting no response after a few moments, the mugger rasps again, “Look, pal! I said your money or your life!” to which Jack snaps back, “I’m thinking it over!”.

If you have a yen to return to the days of genuinely funny comedy, then I have found some great clips for you to watch.

You can watch an entire Jack Benny program by clicking on these links in sequence:

JACK BENNY & LIBERACE PART 1 Watch for a guest appearance by Bea Benederet as a telephone operator

JACK BENNY & LIBERACE PART 2 Hilarious look into the home life of Liberace

JACK BENNY & LIBERACE PART 3 Watch Jack play violin in concert with Liberace

These links will take you to a film of Jack, Mary Livingstone, Don Wilson and Eddie Anderson as Rochester as they broadcast Jack’s radio show:

Jack Benny from Camp Haan 1942 Part 1

Jack Benny from Camp Haan 1942 Part 2

We have all heard endless advice about keeping our minds active to stay young but rarely does anyone suggest how to go about this. One of the ways to keep the brain cells busy is through puzzles and these days there are many available completely free on the internet. Over the next few weeks we could have a look at what is out there but today I thought we could start by investigating crossword puzzles.

If you like words, I am sure you will have completed countless crossword puzzles over the years. Computers make it much easier to find puzzles and then fill them in, however, as many of them can be done onscreen through the keyboard. Never again will you have to hunt for a pencil or pen before you can begin!

I looked at just a few sites and tried their puzzles for ease of use, difficulty levels and clarity. My suggestions are below but you can find many more by searching for “free crossword puzzles” on Google. There are lots of sites that offer a daily puzzle but fewer that concentrate only on crosswords and offer hundreds or even thousands. I have included both types in my brief survey:

Think dot com - Daily Crossword - quite difficult but can be completed onscreen.

Crossword Puzzles Games dot com - Thousands of puzzles but must be printed out - difficult.

Best Crosswords dot com - Plenty of puzzles and you can select difficulty - can be completed onscreen. This one would be my choice.

Free Crossword Puzzles dot com - Two free puzzles daily - easy.

How often do you have contact with your children? According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, seniors and their children are communicating more than ever. In 1989 A gallup Poll found that 32% of seniors had daily contact with a family member; the Pew survey put this figure at 42%.

Part of this increase in contact stems from technological advances over the intervening period. While the telephone remains an important method of connecting between families and their parents, email has become an important additional method. Thirty percent of senior citizens reported that they have at least occasional email contact with their children. It is rare for there to be daily email contact, however.

Interestingly, those families that have daily email contact also tend to talk to each other in other ways every day. It seems that new means of communication are added to traditional methods, rather than substituting for them.

The Pew survey is very extensive, covering much more than electronic forms of communication. To read the full results, go to this article in Senior Journal.

Using the computer could boost mental function and playing computer based games can improve cognition in Alzheimer’s patients. Researchers have found that internet accessible computer activities are even more successful than classic exercies of mental stimulation commonly used with dementia patients.

The findings of the study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Fundacio ACE, Institut Català de Neurociències Aplicades in Barcelona, Spain, suggest that interactive multimedia internet based activities combined with standard pharmacological treatment of Alzheimer’s patients resulted in better cognitive function even in patients whose disease had progressed.

This study may relieve the fears of those who read about the Stanford University study that explored the possibility of internet addiction.

The findings of the study are published in the October issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Read more about the study here:
Computer-based ‘games’ enhance mental function in patients with Alzheimer’s