Mountain Views News, Pasadena Edition [Sierra Madre] Saturday, October 13, 2018

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BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mountain Views-News Saturday, October 13, 2018 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett


Who Should Khloé Kardashian Choose as Legal 
Guardian For Her Child—One Instance Where 
‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ Might Be A 
Good Idea

 You might not be a big fan of their typical 
life choices, but the Kardashians recently 
demonstrated impressive wisdom in protecting 
their minor children using estate planning. 

 During a recent episode of Keeping Up 
With The Kardashians, Khloé Kardashian was 
preparing to give birth to her first child, daughter 
True. Khloé was second-guessing her initial 
choice to name her sister Kourtney as the child’s 
legal guardian in the event something happened 
to her or the baby’s father, Tristan Thompson. 
During her pregnancy, Khloé spent lots of 
time with her other sister Kimberly and her 
family, daughters North, Chicago, son Saint, and 
husband Kanye West. Watching her interacting 
with her own kids, Khloé really connected with 
Kim’s mothering style and pondered if she might 
be a better choice as guardian.

 “I always thought Kourtney would be the 
godparent of my child, but lately I’ve been 
watching Kim, and she’s been someone I really 
gravitate to as a mom,” Khloé said. 

 To make things more challenging, Kourtney 
always assumed she’d be named guardian and 
said as much. Over the years, Khloé had lots of 
fun times with Kourtney’s family—sons Mason, 
Reign, and daughter Penelope—and Kourtney 
thought her own passion for motherhood would 
make her the natural choice. 

 For guidance, Khloé asked her mother, Kris 
Jenner, how she chose her kids’ guardians. Kris’ 
answer was to compare how her two sisters’ raised 
their own children.

 “You just have to think,” Kris told her. 
“‘Where would I want my child raised, in which 
environment? Who would I feel like my baby is 
going to be most comfortable and most loved?’”

 In the end, Khloé chose Kim over Kourtney. She 
explained her decision had nothing to do with her 
respect or love of Kourtney; it was merely about 
which style of parenting she felt most comfortable 
with.

 “Watching Kimberly be a mom, I really respect 
her parenting skills—not that I don’t respect 
Kourtney’s, I just relate to how Kim parents more,” 
said Khloé. “I just have to make the best decision 
for my daughter.”

 Khloé’s actions are admirable for several 
reasons. First off, far too many parents never 
get around to legally naming a guardian to care 
for their children in the event of their death or 
incapacity. Khloé not only made her choice, but 
she did so before the child was even born. 

 Khloé also took the time to speak and spend 
time with her sisters beforehand, so the family 
understood the rationale behind her decision. 
Khloé was lucky her choices were close family 
members, so she had ample opportunity to 
experience both of their parenting styles. 

 Depending on your life situation, you might 
not be able to spend that much time vetting 
your choice. But at the very least, you should 
sit down with each of your top candidates 
to openly and intimately discuss what you’d 
expect of them as your child’s new parents. 
Dedicated to empowering your family, building 
your wealth and defining your legacy,

 A local attorney and father, Marc Garlett is 
on a mission to help parents protect what they love 
most. His office is located at 55 Auburn Avenue, 
Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Schedule an appointment 
to sit down and talk about ensuring a legacy of love 
and financial security for your family by calling 
626.355.4000 or visit www.GarlettLaw.com for 
more information.

These Truths: A History of the 
United States by Jill Lepore

In the most ambitious one-volume 
American history in decades, award-
winning historian Jill Lepore offers a 
magisterial account of the origins and 
rise of a divided nation, an urgently 
needed reckoning with the beauty 
and tragedy of American history. 
Lepore’s groundbreaking investigation 
places truth itself a devotion to facts, 
proof, and evidence at the center of 
the nation’s history. The American 
experiment rests on three ideas 
”these truths,” Jefferson called them 
political equality, natural rights, and 
the sovereignty of the people. And it 
rests, too, on a fearless dedication to 
inquiry, Lepore argues, because self-
government depends on it. But has the 
nation, and democracy itself, delivered 
on that promise? These Truths tells this 
uniquely American story, beginning 
in 1492, asking whether the course of 
events over more than five centuries 
has proven the nation’s truths, or 
belied them. To answer that question, 
Lepore traces the intertwined histories 
of American politics, law, journalism, 
and technology, from the colonial town 
meeting to the nineteenth-century 
party machine, from talk radio to 
twenty-first-century Internet polls, 
from Magna Carta to the Patriot Act, 
from the printing press to Facebook 
News. Along the way, Lepore’s 
sovereign chronicle is filled with 
arresting sketches of both well-known 
and lesser-known Americans, from 
a parade of presidents and a rogues’ 
gallery of political mischief makers 
to the intrepid leaders of protest 
movements, including Frederick 
Douglass, the famed abolitionist 
orator; William Jennings Bryan, the 
three-time presidential candidate 
and ultimately tragic populist; Pauli 
Murray, the visionary civil rights 
strategist; and Phyllis Schlafly, the 
uncredited architect of modern 
conservatism. Americans are descended from slaves 
and slave owners, from conquerors and the conquered, 
from immigrants and from people who have fought to 
end immigration. “A nation born in contradiction will 
fight forever over the meaning of its history,” Lepore 
writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying 
the past is part of the work of citizenship. “The past 
is an inheritance, a gift and a burden,” These Truths 
observes. “It can’t be shirked. There’s 
nothing for it but to get to know it.”

Great Short Stories by American 
Women by Candace Ward

Embracing a wide variety of subjects, 
this choice collection of 13 short 
stories represents the work of an elite 
group of American women writing in 
the 19th and earthly 20th centuries. 
The earliest stories are Rebecca 
Harding Davis’ naturalistic “Life in 
the Iron Mills” (published in 1861 
and predating Émile Zola’s Germinal 
by almost 25 years) and Louisa May 
Alcott’s semiautobiographical tale 
“Transcendental Wild Oats” (1873). 
The most recent ones are Zora Neale 
Hurston’s “Sweat,” an ironic tale of a 
failed marriage, published in 1926, 
and “Sanctuary” (1930), Nella Larsen’s 
gripping and controversial tale of 
contested loyalty. In between is a 
grand cavalcade of superbly crafted 
fiction by Sarah Orne Jewett, Mary E. 
Wilkins Freeman, Charlotte Perkins 
Gilman, Kate Chopin, Willa Cather, 
Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Djuna Barnes, 
Susan Glaspell and Edith Wharton. 
Brief biographies of each of the writers 
are included.

The Trouble with Women by 
Jacky Fleming 

Perfect for fans of Kate Beaton, Lena 
Dunham, and Caitlin Moran, The 
Trouble with Women is a feminist’s 
brilliant, tongue-in-cheek, hysterical 
look at women’s “issues,” “frailties,” and 
“failures” in our not-so-distant history. 
Ever noticed that women don’t feature 
much in history books, and wondered 
why? Then this is the book for you. In 
The Trouble with Women, feminist 
artist Jacky Fleming illustrates how the 
opinions of supposed male geniuses, 
such as Charles Darwin (who believed that women 
have smaller brains than men) and John Ruskin (who 
believed that women’s main function was to praise 
men), have shaped the fate of women through history, 
confining them to a life of domesticity and very little 
else. Get ready to laugh, wince, and rescue forgotten 
women from the “dustbin of history,” while keeping a 
close eye out for tell-tale “genius hair.”


All Things By Jeff Brown

FREE EVENT! FOOLISH MORTALS AT 

SIERRA MADRE PLAYHOUSE ON OCTOBER 24

REPUBLICANS BY GARRISON KEILLOR

‘’The party of Lincoln and Liberty was 
transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed 
swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-
based economists, fundamentalist bullies with 
Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance 
racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets 
of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, 
brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons 
and get as much as you can when in power. ... 
Republicans: The No. 1 reason the rest of the 
world thinks we’re deaf, dumb, and dangerous.’’-
Garrison Keillor

Just in time for Halloween, AKT Academy at 
Sierra Madre Playhouse will present Foolish 
Mortals.

 AKT Academy is a company of young artists in 
residence under the direction of Alison Kalmus 
at Sierra Madre Playhouse. Foolish Mortals (the 
name comes from Shakespeare) are the most 
advanced performers of AKT Academy. The 
Foolish Mortals are Julian Moser, Alison Wang, 
Kevin Ying, Eliza Cevallos, Aidan O’Connor, 
Jude Gomez, Selina Ho, Myles Hutchinson and 
Momo Inouye-Wu.

 The Foolish Mortals will perform two 
works: Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy 
Hollow and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, both 
pieces appropriately atmospheric and spooky for 
the season. They’ll be presented in the style of old-
time radio drama, with live sound effects.

 The Foolish Mortals will be joined in this 
performance by special guest Sierra Madre 
Estimated running time: One hour.

 Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at Seven P.M. 
At Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre 
Blvd., Sierra Madre, CA 91024. This is just east of 
Pasadena. There is ample free parking behind the 
Playhouse. Admission is free. Reservations are not 
necessary. Website: www.sierramadreplayhouse.
org Phone: (626) 355-4318.

HEALTHY LIFESTYLES


YES, THERE’S MORE. 

The benefits of practicing 
yoga are quite profound. 
Only naming a few, we 
know it reduces stress, 
improves mobility, 
builds strength and 
calms the mind. You can 
experience these benefits 
by attending class and 
practicing at home (with some framework to your 
practice). If the style of yoga is right for you, life 
gets better almost immediately. Beyond the 
classes and the physical practice of yoga, there is 
the study of yoga. Once you’ve begun, a natural 
curiosity develops to learn more, to find out where 
the teachings come from, and what the techniques 
are that lead to deeper awareness and awakening. 
This is when studentship and inspiration begin. 

 Necessary to studentship is a teacher who is 
experienced in technique and knowledge and has 
the awareness to identify where the student is in 
their practice and level of understanding. Every 
great teacher who inspires meaningful awareness 
and awakening continues their own path as a 
dedicated student. Along with a devoted practice, 
being a student is an abundance source of a 
teacher’s inspiration. 

 Diving deeper into the teachings of yoga shifts 
perspective and brings self-realization. Think of 
it as stepping into the right shoes. It lifts veils of 
illusion and generates authenticity. Many ancient 
universal spiritual principles are within what we 
learn. I believe this is why we are drawn to learn 
and develop even more through a yoga practice. 
Also, in many cases, what we learn in yoga aligns 
well with an existing spiritual way of life. 

 I encourage you to get practicing and study if you 
are drawn to learn more about Yoga, Meditation, 
and Philosophy. It’s a vast sea and your journey 
could begin by reading one page in one ancient text 
or experiencing one sublime meditation. Helpful 
in this equation is a teacher who you connect with 
—one who dispels fear and encourages you to 
stretch yourself and your perception. 

 Please contact me to learn more: keely@
keelytotten.com. 

Namaste, 

Keely Totten, E-RYT 500, Student and Teacher of 
Yoga and Meditation 

www.keelytotten.com


THE MISSING PAGE

Real Life Tips from LIfe's Instruction Manual


Lori A. Harris

DO WHAT’S ESSENTIAL, DO WHAT YOU LOVE!

Henry David Thoreau is a much-loved man of nature. 
We love him because he stopped to notice life, nature, 
and wrote about his observations. His simple thoughtful 
words are guides to remember to live and enjoy life.

 I ask my clients to face the essential facts of life. I ask 
them to ask themselves, “what is essential?” As you rise 
to live each day, I invite you to live with enthusiasm. Are 
in engaged in a life that you truly love living? A little 
over two hundred years ago, a man lived for just under 
45 years. He was an abolitionist, a handyman, and a 
writer. While Henry David Thoreau’s life was brief, his 
writing continues to instruct and inspire. 

 “I went to the woods because I wished to live 
deliberately,” Thoreau writes, “to front only the essential 
facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to 
teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had 
not lived.”

 Mr. Thoreau conducted an experiment where he went 
to the woods for two years, two months and two days 
to see what he could see and learn. He wanted to “suck 
the marrow out of life.” I do too. We can decide to live 
intentionally. 

 Each of us is blessed with a unique view. Our interests, 
gifts, and talents are individual expressions of life, yet 
most people are stuck in a rut and are not enjoying their 
lives. If you are attentive, and on social media, you’ll 
notice that many people are in a kind of groupthink, this 
is not new, Thoreau once wrote, 
“the mass of men lead lives of 
quiet desperation.” 

 When I host a workshop, I 
help my guests ask themselves 
big questions, “what would I 
love?” In that question people 
discover their deepest desires: 
whether it’s spending more time 
in nature, repairing a broken 
relationship, or learning to 
dance. That question is the spark 
of a dream.

 “If one advances confidently in the direction of his 
dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has 
imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in 
common hours.”

 “If you have built castles in the air, your work need 
not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the 
foundations under them.” Thoreau

 At the workshops, we design a blueprint, and the 
guests leave with tools to build a dream. I would love to 
share these tools with my readers. If you are interested, 
email Lori at Lori@Loriaharris.com.

 Lori A. Harris is the creator of the Gratitude Train 
App, available in the App Store and Google Play . Learn 
more about her at www.GratitudeTrain.com


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com