From Our Blogs

BOOSTER SHOTS

Dig in garden to stay fit

In the fitness world there’s an ongoing debate about whether gardening constitutes moderate physical activity. Yes, say some; the walking, bending, digging and pruning that go on are strenuous enough to gain fitness benefits. No, say others; more vigorous movement is needed to make a difference.

A recent study may put this discussion to rest, at least when it comes to older people. Researchers from Kansas State University studied the gardening habits of 14 older men and women and determined that their time spent among the foliage does count as moderate physical activity -- important to note, since many people become sedentary as they age. They observed how much time the participants, ages 63 to 86, spent on tasks such as watering, walking, cleaning tools, weeding and harvesting. During these tasks their heart rates and oxygen uptake were measured to determine how hard they worked. Standard metabolic equivalent measures were used to rate the intensity.

Activities such as digging, raking and mulching used upper and lower body muscles and were considered moderate intensity, while lower intensity work like mixing soil and hand weeding engaged only the upper body.

Overall, researchers concluded the gardeners’ activity was of moderate intensity, changing with the seasons and plant growth cycles.

The study noted that since boredom is a familiar reason many give for abandoning exercise, the dynamic qualities of gardening could help people stay active.

The study was published in the journal HortTechnology.

-- Jeannine Stein

From Booster Shots: Oddities, musings and some news from the world of health.

For more, go to latimes.com/booster_shots

BABYLON & BEYOND

No confessions on phone, Net

Egypt’s Coptic pope has outlawed confessions over the phone for fear that state security agents might be listening in, a local newspaper reported last week.

“Confessions over the telephone are forbidden, because there is a chance the telephones are monitored and the confessions will reach state security,” the pope was quoted as saying in the independent Al Masry Al Youm daily.

Pope Shenouda III also forbade online confessions, as they might be read by others.

“Confession through the Internet cannot be considered confession because everybody can read it and hence it will not be a secret,” added the pope.

Telephoned confessions are a relatively new practice -- only allowed for the last four or five years, Coptic Bishop Marcos was quoted in a report by Agence France-Presse.

In the same press report, Marcos said that the pope also has banned monks from using cellphones.

“The monk is supposed to be secluded from the world,” he said. “But the mobile phone brings the world to him,”

-- Noha El-Hennawy in Cairo

From Babylon & Beyond: Observations from Iraq, Iran, Israel, the Arab world and beyond

For more, go to latimes.com/babylonbeyond

ALL THE RAGE

A governor and Play-Doh

Something about Milorad “Rod” Blagojevich and his bouncin’ and behavin’ head of hair has given us an odd feeling of deja vu. The sheer volume of it makes you look for the telltale chinstrap holding the helmet in place. Both are from my childhood.

There are only two places I’ve seen anything like it, and both are from 1977.

First is the Play-Doh Fuzzy Pumper Barber & Beauty Shop (which apparently lives on in an updated version as the Play-Doh Fuzzy Pumper Crazy Cuts playset), a toy that allowed you to clamp a mold over the bald head of a toy figurine and, by turning a crank, extrude Play-Doh into something approximating a mass of play clay hair as solid as the Illinois governor’s.

The other was atop the head of child star Adam Rich, who played Nicholas, the youngest of the Bradford brood raised by Dick Van Patten on the ABC series “Eight Is Enough” from 1977 to 1981.

Rich seemed to sport more hair on his tiny head than the rest of the cast combined, an outsized bowl of hair soup so dense it could quite possibly have hidden a ninth Bradford (or maybe Oliver from “The Brady Bunch”).

The resemblance is even more uncanny when Blagojevich starts his finger-biting and half-smirking, like a child star who knows all too well how to toy with the camera for maximum exposure.

The bad news is that, not unlike other former child stars, Rich has had his own run-ins with the law (in 1992 he was convicted of breaking into a West Hills pharmacy and of stealing a drug-filled syringe from a Marina del Rey hospital).

The good news? Sans the trademark coif, Rich can walk around virtually incognito. Our suggestion? When all this blows over, Blago might want to seriously consider a back-to-basics buzz cut. By trimming his tonsorial trademark, he’d almost be able to hide in plain sight.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s been his plan all along.

I wonder if the authorities can get a restraining order against his barber?

-- Adam Tschorn

From All the Rage: The Image staff muses on the culture of keeping up appearances in Hollywood and beyond.

For more, go to latimes.com/alltherage