health/fitness

Dr. Barry Franklin, a Michigan cardiologist, is a widely respected expert on nutrition and exercise and a prominent member of the American Heart Association -- and he's a pretty trim and fit guy, to boot.

So Franklin surprised himself when he stopped to fill up his car recently and left the gas station with two Twinkies.

Doug State entered hospice care two years ago knowing exactly how he wanted to die: at home in Cambridge, Minn., with his wife, Carol, and his dog, Teddy.

Need to find a hotel in Starkville, Miss.? Find one with confidence at TripAdvisor.com, or any number of online Web sites.

Looking for lunch in Bethesda, Md.? Consult Washingtonian.com.

But if it's a cardiologist you seek, you're better off consulting your general practitioner, a relative or a friend.

ODESSA, Fla. - Mike Monsky was driving along one day with his son, who was eating a peanut-butter sandwich. When some of the filling spilled on a stray television remote control, he got a big idea.

He tried in vain to clean the peanut paste from between the rubber buttons. Then it came to him: Why not make a remote with a flat surface, a control that can easily be cleaned?

It may be one of the most delicate topics a health professional can broach with an elderly patient -- not sex, or even end-of-life choices, but driving.

Specifically, whether the patient's physical and/or mental condition have reached a point where it's no longer safe to drive.

We depart from our usual calm and reasoned nutrition quiz for this alarmist, tabloid bleating: Your food can poison you! OK, stop hyperventilating and take our quiz.

1. Which toxin do apple seeds contain?

a) arsenic

b) cyanide

c) hemlock

2. True or false: Chewing three or four seeds from a single apple is enough to be sickened.

MINNEAPOLIS - William the Conqueror defeated Chris' arch-enemy Harold, but he never could have done it without Scott.

Sounds like a weekly soap-opera update from "As the Medieval World Turns," but it's actually the tale of two guys, a traveling kidney and saving lives through social media.

PITTSBURGH - Researchers want to visit older adults living alone to equip such everyday items as a pillbox, telephone or sofa with wireless, computerized sensors. The hope is to use those small sensors to track any decline in their cognitive or physical abilities long before either normally would be noticed.

Amber cried a lot after the birth of her first child, a son.

"Small things upset me -- not to the angry point, but to the confused point," said the 26-year-old part-time preschool teacher from northern Ohio.

Culinary students standing outside and smoking cigarettes are such a common sight in Pittsburgh that they're practically a city landmark.