Five things we think you’ll really like
Plan your (financial) endgame
It’s a calculation nearly everyone faces but few discuss: What do you need in a nest egg to ensure that you can coast, at least a little, late in life? In his breezily written book “The Number,” Lee Eisenberg, a former Esquire editor and Land’s End executive, tells how even late starters can plan and live a creative life that doesn’t resemble a treadmill – or break the bank, either.
Magazine’s new medium
Readers of Real Simple, the cleanly designed, tidbit-strewn lifestyle magazine, should enjoy the similarly presented new half-hour “life-strategy show” it has spawned (PBS, Saturdays). Friday’s première includes a quick lasagna recipe (we tried it; it works), a somewhat elementary guide to foreign phrases, and a touching segment about a woman whose late father wrote her letters she waited until adulthood to read.
A TV series appreciates in value
The Antiques Roadshow, PBS’s hit series in which appraisal experts turn one man’s junk into another’s treasure, turns 10 this month. Mark L. Walberg hosts the show as it embarks on a series of “house calls” to search for priceless antiques in musty attics across America.
Squirrel nutcase
The spirit of Looney Tunes infuses the hilarious preview for “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown.” Here, as in the first movie, a prehistoric snaggletoothed squirrel continues a futile quest to hoard acorns in a glacial landscape. See it at www.apple.com/trailers.
A great CD with cover art to match
And you thought only Americans and Europeans knew how to swing! This fantastic compilation tracks the swing beat around the globe, from Zimbabwe to Greece to Hawaii. We dare you to stay in your seat when listening to “Swing Around the World,” released in 2005.