So what did you think of The Who at the Super Bowl? Great or depressing?

Did you ever see them live in their heydey?

Had a great interview the other day with two long-married celebrities: Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna.

The couple, who are bringing their newest show to the Berrie Center for the Arts at Ramapo College, talked to me about why their marriage works and how they’ve stayed together for 45 years.

Above all, they said, it’s important to laugh. Ultimately, said Bologna, it’s the most annoying habits that become the most endearing. I’ll think of that the next time I talk to somebody I know about the socks on the floor!
Their show, on Feb. 13,  is almost sold out, but you can probably still get tickets.

Get all the info here. And look out for my interview with them in next Thursday’s Life & Style.

With several friends going through medical crises, I’ve given a national organization a second look.

The Well Spouse Association was founded more than 20 years ago by a woman whose husband was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The organization has since grown, with chapters all over the country, including White Plains and lower Westchester.

The mission of the group is to offer much needed support to the healthy spouses of men and women who are ill. Get all the details, including contact information for local chapters, at WellSpouse.org.

For my whole life, I’ve been planning to start exercising. I may step up the pace on that idea.

Here’s a story in USA Today that seems to link inactivity with…well, not a good outcome.

I am not as sedentary as a toll taker or a bank teller. I get up periodically. I walk briskly to the office cafeteria. I go to the ladies’ room that is farther from my desk. But of course I’m not breaking a sweat.

I recently interviewed a personal trainer who stressed that it’s never too late to start exercising.

What exercise are you up to these days?

With so many friends and relatives unemployed, it’s great to hear there’s a local resource eager to help.

(Sorry, guys. This one’s just for women.)

Here’s the info I just got from Westchester Jewish Community Services, a nonprofit, nonsectarian agency headquartered in White Plains.

The following is the press release, sent directly from WJCS:

With funding from the Leir Chartable Foundations, WJCS has launched Women-Helping-Women, a series of free workshops for women who are unemployed or seeking transition to other jobs.  Registration is required. Please contact W-H-W Project Director Lenore Rosenbaum at 761-0600 X308 or lrosenbaum@wjcs.com

The schedule is as follows:
Wednesday, February 24         9:15-11:15 AM
Location: WJCS, 845 North Broadway, White Plains
8 Steps to LinedIn Success—Explore the power and reach of LinkedIn, one of the most powerful networking tools on the planet.

The following workshops will be held at Greenburgh Town Hall, Town Board Conference Room, 177 Hillside Avenue, Greenburgh, NY

Thursday, February 25           9:30-11:30 AM
Thriving While Unemployed—Being out of work can be very scary. It can also be a great opportunity to stop and look at your work life—where you’ve been and where you want to go.

Wednesday, March 3             9:30-11:30 AM
Managing your Finances While Unemployed in the Current Economy – Learn  proven tips and techniques to manage your finances, set up a budget and successfully survive the economic downturn.

Tuesday, March 9                     1:00-3:00 PM
How to Look Your Very Best: Project Your Best Image & Update Your “Total Look” – Focus on how to transform your wardrobe, choose appropriate make-up to maximize your image and self-confidence as you head for an interview.

Thursday, March 18                   9:30-11:30 AM
Getting Yourself Organzied & Staying Organized—Get insights, tips and suggestions for managing your job search. Learn how to organize all the steps you need to take to land your new job.

Monday, March 22                   1:00-3:00 PM
Mindfulness Meditation and Stress Reduction to Overcome the Challenge of the Job Search—Learn the stress reduction techniques to become centered and present as you deal with the stresses of unemployment, the job search and related difficulties in the current economy.

Ever since I started working full time, I’ve found myself overcompensating for the time I’m not at home.

In other words, I probably “over-mother” when it would be just as good for me to stay out of the picture.

But I’m learning it’s a lot less stressful to let the kids solve their own problems.

A few days ago, my younger son drove the car. That night, the older one took the car to the city for a few days, not knowing his brother’s backpack was in the trunk. The minute I heard what happened (which was 7:30 pm on a weekday), I started brainstorming ways to solve the problem.

Drive in myself at night? (No way; not my job.) Have the boys meet in the middle, by train? (Hmm, might work.) Have the older one drive home the backpack? (Not likely at midnight, when his job ends.)

I found myself getting so stressed and angry, I decided it was not my problem. Why should I be solving a situation that two kids created together, without my participation?

I left it in their hands, even while the helicopter part of me knew there were some important notes in the backpack. Those notes were critical to the younger one getting a good grade on a history test this week.

“Not my problem,’’ I mumbled to myself, finding this new mantra surprisingly liberating. “Let him solve it.”

Well, the two of them finally figured out a solution that involved a third party: their good-natured sister.

But I managed to stay out of it. And it felt good.

Do you get too involved in your kids’ problems?

The founders of Home Instead Senior Care have just come out with a great book aimed at helping make decisions about the care of parents and older relatives.

Paul and Lori Hogan’s “Stages of Senior Care: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Best Decisions” (McGraw Hill, $18.95) is filled with tips on everything from aging in place to selecting nursing homes and assisted living facilities. It also contains good advice for caregivers…and does include chapters on topics many of us would rather avoid: hospice care, funerals and bereavement.

I was fortunate enough to get a review copy from the publisher.

But there is plenty of information on the companion Web site, StagesofSeniorCare.com, including numerous free downloadable resources that are extremely helpful.

If you’re a healthy woman in your forties or fifties, I bet you haven’t given a second thought to long-term care.

Well, a new report from AARP has found just that: most women don’t plan ahead for their long-term care.

Over the past few years, I have thought about it occasionally. I know it makes sense to have money set aside for old age. But the thought usually lingers about two minutes, then vanishes for months.

Have you planned, financially, for your later years?

After blogging repeatedly on the need for boys to become self-sufficient, I found myself in an uncomfortable mess last night: My car started blowing out black smoke and I had no idea what to do.

When I was in junior high, the division between the sexes was clear. Girls took home economics and boys took shop. I’m not sure my high school offered a class in auto mechanics, but if it did, girls were not invited or expected to attend.

This does not excuse my ridiculous lack of knowledge when it comes to cars.

I do know how to pump gas, and I know it’s important to get the oil changed fairly often. If the tire pressure is low, that’s also not a good thing.

But beyond that, I am pretty helpless. What sort of example am I setting when I insist my sons be familiar with cooking, laundry and cleaning, but invest little or no time in making sure my daughter (and I) are comfortable with what used to be considered a male thing?

Okay, so you’re wondering what I did with the car, right?

Sorry to admit I called my husband in California, who agreed with me that the car had overheated. Nobody had bothered to check the water or antifreeze (nobody, meaning me), so I guess that led to the smoke situation.

I left the car in the parking lot outside a nearby supermarket and got a ride home.

Tonight I plan to deal with the car. I hope it hasn’t been towed away…

But really, this whole situation raises an issue I’ve long neglected: How do we make sure our daughters are self-sufficient in all the areas traditionally overseen by men?

Any suggestions?

This summer, my father would have turned 85.

In recent months, I’ve been wondering how to memorialize him in a way that will allow his name to live on. I thought it would be nice to have it done in time for his birthday.

I have friends whose parents’ names are attached to wings of hospitals or local theaters. There’s an area I drive by in Hartsdale, a tiny strip of grass they call a “parklet,’’ and it is named after someone as well.

But I have no idea how to set these things in motion. And don’t they cost a great deal?

Last week, I started researching memorial benches. I thought it would be nice to donate a bench to one of the waterside parks in the town my father lived in. But do they even accept benches? What if everyone wanted to donate a bench?

Have any of you done something to memorialize your parent or loved one?