An insomniac’s medicine cabinet
Wakeful, wandering, grumpy and doomed. These precious words describe our faithful, bleary-eyed columnist most nights.
Most recent articles by Gary Tetz
This year, stop wandering about!
If you didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, you better be prepared to explain why.
Go venti or go home
Any chance to write about coffee, I should. That’s perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned over all my years writing for McKnight’s. Based on audience response, it’s one of the topics long-term care folks care quite passionately about.
Seniors — more than shadows of former glories
It would be one of those sympathy shows, I figured, the kind where you go home acknowledging the performer more as a historical artifact than as a still-vigorous artist. “How good could she really be at this age?” I even caught myself wondering.
Things I Think: The lessons of autumn
Autumn is a time of change. That probably seems trite and obvious, and certainly it’s a trait shared by all the seasons, at least where I live in the Pacific Northwest. But the transitions of fall always feel most jarring.
Escape from Emojiland
The growing use of a lazy trend in text communications makes me weep for the future of real compassion and empathy.
Things I Think: Opera’s resonance
How can listening to opera possibly improve the cognitive function of dementia patients? Notice I didn’t ask whether. According to McKnight’s, Chinese researchers are proving the point, and who am I to argue? You’ll notice that opera characters who express strong opinions generally die. I love opera, so getting to listen to it all the…
Achieving best practice in a data-driven birthday environment
That’s right, it’s my birthday. I’ll pause just long enough for you to feel bad about not yet wishing me a happy one.
The rats are coming! The rats are coming!
Our long-term care facilities are apparently under ongoing attack, and we desperately need a hero.
Things I Think: Playing favorites
Over the years, I’ve had my favorite senior care residents. Many of them. Anyone who works in this profession probably has some too. I’m particularly drawn to those who are funny, optimistic, resilient, articulate and who smile a lot. No surprise there, as those are areas in need of frequent augmentation in my own life. …
