Arts & Entertainment

Photo from PJCC

Insight Healing Ministries in Port Jefferson was treated to a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce on May 20. Owner Marianne Hennigar received a Certificate of Congratulations from Town of Brookhaven aide Zachary Baum on behalf of Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich. 

Located at 156 E. Main Street, in Port Jefferson, Insight Healing Ministries uses the concept of Psycho-emotive Anatomy, a body based approach, for physical and emotional healing.

Pictured from left, chamber members Stuart Vincent, Pat Kennedy, Mary Joy Pipe, and Raquel Fernandez; owner Marianne Hennigar with husband Dr. Randy Hennigar; and Zachary Baum, Town of Brookhaven Aide for Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich. For more information, visit insighthealingministries.com.

Image from FDA
Much of our sodium comes from processed foods, including breads and sauces

By David Dunaief, M.D.

Dr. David Dunaief

When you hear someone tell you that you should lower your salt intake, how do you respond? Typically, I hear responses like, “I don’t use salt,” “I use very little,” or “I don’t have high blood pressure, so I don’t have to worry.”

Unfortunately, these are rarely true. All of us should be concerned about salt or, more specifically, our sodium intake. Also, approximately 90 percent of Americans consume too much sodium (1).

Why do we care?

We most often hear that excessive sodium in our diets increases the risk of high blood pressure (hypertension), which has consequences like stroke and heart disease.

Now comes the interesting part. Sodium also has a nefarious effect on the kidneys. In the Nurses’ Health Study, approximately 3,200 women were evaluated in terms of kidney function, looking at the estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) as related to sodium intake (2). Over 14 years, those with a sodium intake of 2,300 mg had a much greater chance of an at least 30 percent reduction in kidney function, compared to those who consumed 1,700 mg per day.

Why is this study important? Kidneys are one of our main systems for removing toxins and waste. The kidneys are where many initial high blood pressure medications work, including ACE inhibitors, such as lisinopril; ARBs, such as Diovan or Cozaar; and diuretics (water pills). If the kidney loses function, it can be harder to treat high blood pressure. Worse, it could lead to chronic kidney disease and dialysis. Once someone has reached dialysis, most blood pressure medications are not very effective.

How much is too much?

Ironically, the current recommended maximum sodium intake is 2,300 mg per day, or one teaspoon, the same level that led to negative effects in the study. However, Americans’ mean intake is twice that level.

If we reduced our consumption by even a modest 20 percent, we could reduce the incidence of heart disease dramatically. Current recommendations from the American Heart Association indicate an upper limit of 2,300 mg per day, with an “ideal” limit of no more than 1,500 mg per day (3).

Where does sodium hide?

If the salt shaker is not the problem, what is? Most of our sodium comes from processed foods, packaged foods and restaurants. There is nothing wrong with eating out or ordering in on occasion, but you can’t control how much salt goes into your food. My wife is a great barometer of restaurant salt use. If food from the night before was salty, she complains of her clothes and rings being tight.

Do you want to lose 5 to 10 pounds quickly? Decreasing your salt intake will allow you to achieve this. Excess sodium causes the body to retain fluids.

One approach is to choose products that have 200 mg or fewer per serving indicated on the label. Foods labeled “low sodium” have fewer than 140 mg of sodium, but foods labeled “reduced sodium” have 25 percent less than the full-sodium version, which doesn’t necessarily mean much. 

Soy sauce has 1,000 mg of sodium per tablespoon, but low-sodium soy sauce still has about 600 mg per tablespoon. Salad dressings and other condiments, where serving sizes are small, add up very quickly. Mustard has 120 mg per teaspoon. Most of us use far more than one teaspoon of mustard. 

Caveat emptor: Make sure to read labels on all packaged foods very carefully.

Breads and rolls are another hidden source. Most contain a decent amount of sodium. I have seen a single slice of whole wheat bread include up to 200 mg. of sodium.

If you are working to decrease your sodium intake, become an avid label reader. Sodium hides in all kinds of foods that don’t necessarily taste salty, such as breads, soups, cheeses and salad dressings. I also recommend getting all sauces on the side, so you can control how much — if any — you choose to use.

What about sea salt?

Are fancy sea salts better than table salt? High amounts of salt are harmful, and the type is not important. The only difference between them is slight taste and texture variation. I recommend not buying either. In addition to the health issues, salt tends to dampen your taste buds, masking the flavors of food.

As you reduce your sodium intake, you might be surprised at how quickly your taste buds adjust. In just a few weeks, foods you previously thought didn’t taste salty will seem overwhelmingly so, and you will notice new flavors in unsalted foods.

If you have a salt shaker and don’t know what to do with all the excess salt, don’t despair. There are several uses for salt that are actually beneficial. According to the Mayo Clinic, gargling with ¼ to ½ teaspoon of salt in eight ounces of warm water significantly reduces symptoms of a sore throat from infectious disease, such as mononucleosis, strep throat and the common cold. Having had mono, I can attest that this works.

Remember, if you want to season your food at a meal, you are much better off asking for the pepper than the salt.

References:

(1) cdc.gov. (2) Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2010;5:836-843. (3) heart.org.

Dr. David Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com. 

By Jeffrey Sanzel

There’s no real way to prove this, of course, but the Man of Steel’s image — the muscular body wrapped in skintight primary colors, a cape billowing behind him and a large S splayed across his chest — is universally recognized … From the very young to the very old, from Australia to Algeria to Alaska, it’s a pretty safe bet that almost everyone knows Superman. 

excerpt from Is Superman Circumcised?

In Is Superman Circumcised? (McFarland Publishing), Roy Schwartz investigates the creators behind the most iconic superhero and his symbolic connection to Judaism and his place in the general cultural pantheon. It is a fascinating work that mines the historical and sociological place of the Man of Steel.

Author Roy Schwartz

Author Schwartz was born and raised in Tel Aviv and began reading comics at age nine. It was through this medium that he learned English. (Comics allowed him to be comfortable with using the word “swell.”) In his freshman year of college, Schwartz wrote an essay entitled “World’s Finest: Superman and Batman as Didactic Utopian and Dystopian Figures.” Throughout his New York college career, he continued to study the power and place of comic lore, building to his senior thesis, which was the launching source of this book.

Part of Schwartz’s connection to Superman was rooted in their mutual connection of being immigrants, sharing Superman’s sense of alienation, loneliness, and sense of mission. As a result, Schwartz continually surveys the concepts in the Superman oeuvre. 

Jewish influence in the comic book industry is easily traced to its roots. The majority of the original writers and artists were children of immigrants. Superman’s creators — writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster — are very much part of this. They “freely borrowed elements from their cultural environment, including the extensive Jewish tradition of heroic stories about men and women given special abilities to defend the helpless, from biblical to rabbinical.”

The book explains in detail how Superman’s origins and adventures reflect the Jewish experience, both biblical and historical, as a prophetic figure and modern hero:

Their Man of Tomorrow reimagined a mythology is old as civilization, capturing the imagination of America and the world. From Krypton’s destruction echoing the biblical flood in Genesis, to his origin as a baby rocketed to safety paralleling that of Moses and Exodus, to the Clark Kent persona as a metaphor for Jewish immigrant assimilation, to Kryptonite symbolizing remnants of the Jewish civilization destroyed by the Holocaust, to this role as a modern Golem advocating the New Deal, open immigration and intervention in World War II, Superman’s legend is consistent as Jewish allegory.

Schwartz gives a detailed account of Siegel and Shuster’s upbringing, inspirations, and odyssey. He traces them from their teen years, when they conceived of the hero, their attempts to sell it, their breakthrough and rise, and ultimately, both its loss and legacy. On March 1, 1938, they sold the first Superman story to DC for $10 a page, totaling $130. Unfortunately, the contract cost them millions of dollars as they sold the story and the rights to the character as well. This would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Moreover, the impact of this sale would continue beyond their deaths, entangling issues of ownership that the estates would wage.

The earliest part of the book focuses on the biblical connections. Superman is most closely associated with Moses and Samson, but Schwartz also explores Superman as a Jesus figure. While the early Superman reflects an Old Testament figure, in film, television, and later incarnations, the Christ symbolism became strongest.

In the second section of the book, Schwartz expands to the general world of comic books and the influence of the exodus of Eastern European Jewry to the lower East Side of Manhattan. He traces the history of comic books, noting that it was at the bottom of the artistic industry, but one in which Jews could participate, having been blocked out of legitimate magazines and newspapers. 

He discusses both the religious and secular influences on this particular art and its manifestations in various titles. There is an emphasis on the bridging of the foreign culture integrating into American life. “Whatever his metaphorical foundation, the Man of Tomorrow is, and was always intended to be, a symbol of cultural collaboration, exemplified by his origin story as an alien refugee taken in by loving Americans and his life’s mission of bringing to bear the gifts of his heritage for the benefit of all.”

There is no question that the rise of anti-Semitism at home (the KKK and the Bund) and abroad (the ascent of the Nazis) strongly influenced the comic. Amid this rise in anti-Jewish sentiment, Action Comics #1 debuted Superman in June 1938. A year later, Superman #1 appeared, which coincided with the St. Louis — known as “the Voyage of the Damned” — being refused entry and sent back to Germany. Thus, Superman’s origin of a “refugee from a destroyed home when traveling to safe harbor in a vessel granted asylum by kindly Americans” could not have been more germane.

Schwartz gives both context and perspective. He points out that the idea of Superman was so original, there was no true point of reference. “How utterly ridiculous Superman must have seemed to editors then. A strongman from outer space, dressed in long johns, wellingtons and a cape. What a mashugana idea.”

Schwartz demonstrates extraordinary insight in his overview of the intersection of comics, the history of heroes and heroines, theological knowledge, and pop culture. He easily communicates how time and place and the personal history of the creators manifested in the character’s launch. Schwartz imparts the information with humor, focus, a range of examples, and an uncanny ability to join the concepts in an accessible, entertaining, and enlightening way. He easily debunks esoteric theories and interpretations that are rooted in extreme scholarship but have no factual basis. He draws on a wide range of sources, including Siegel’s unpublished memoir.

Schwartz addresses Superman as the ultimate wish-fulfillment: “He’s neurotic catharsis in a cape.” He spends time dissecting the question of who Superman’s true self: the caped hero or Clark Kent. Schwartz delves into the philosophical and cultural aspects, touching on everything from Nietzsche and religion to the accusation of comic books as a corrupting influence. He discusses the many incarnations and traces the constant reinvention of Superman in print and celluloid. He notes the contradiction both the liberal and conservative claim on Superman.

In all of this, the final takeaway, and perhaps the heart of this exploration, is one of identity. The message is a powerful one and valuable as much now as it was in 1938. “For all their glory and symbolism of American might and rectitude, superheroes were created by a band of Jewish kids from the ghetto, and they reflected their fears, fantasies and faith — if not religious, then in the promise of the nation that took them or their parents in.” Superman, as an immigrant, “showed the refugees weren’t, and some insisted, dangerous strangers from the hinterlands, ungrateful, clannish and treacherous. They were thankful and faithful contributors to the American collective.”

Is Superman Circumcised?: The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero  is available online at www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com. Visit the author’s website at www.royschwartz.com.

1962 GTO

The Reboli Center for Art and History in Stony Brook is beaming with excitement to announce its June Artisan of the Month … Nelson Medina! Medina, who hails from the Bronx, is well known in the automobile industry nationwide for his meticulous hand crafted, pinstriping work and is now becoming more recognized for his incredibly detailed and expressive oil and acrylic paintings on canvas.

1957 Ferrari Testarossa

According to Medina, “I grew up in one of the most eventful cities in the world when the automobile industry was exploding with beautiful and powerful vehicles … a very cool period to have experienced. It was the summer of 1964 and I was 11 years old. I witnessed a gentleman pinstriping while on a night out with my parents … we stopped for maybe 15 minutes at the most … it was so impressive … the rest is history.”

Medina explained to the Reboli Center’s staff that, “All my talent comes from my Dad who was a true master sculptor in the field of wax for the jewelry trade. I always knew that I held a penchant for creativity and through time, dedication and determination, I’ve come to understand how to unite my body with my soul so they may perform as one doing what I love … this art form has allowed me the ability to express myself in many arenas… creating with color, balance and flavor.”

He also shared with us about a car accident that he experienced a few years ago. It was after this accident that he learned to develop an intense and inspiring love for his work on canvas. Painting quickly became Medina’s mistress.

1957 Ferrari 625

Thankfully, over time, he has developed a harmonious dance between designing, painting and pinstriping. Needless to say the Reboli Center is so very honored to have Nelson’s work featured in its gallery and also to have his help in the planning and execution of their current exhibition, Shifting Gears, and its related events. Medina’s work will be on display at the Reboli Center until July 18. You can also meet the artist by attending one of the Center”s Sunday Car Shows

The Reboli Center, 64 Main Street Stony Brook is free, and open Tuesday – Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.   For more information on the Artisan of the Month, please call the Center at 631-751-7707.

Smithtown Township Arts Council is pleased to announce that the works of Brookhaven artist Lynn Kinsella will be on view June 14 to August 12, 2021 at Apple Bank of Smithtown, 91 Route 111, Smithtown. The exhibition, part of STAC’s Outreach Gallery Program, can be viewed during regular banking hours Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Lynn Kinsella attended Phoenix School of Design in Manhattan, and went on to work in book publishing specializing in layout and illustration. After retirement, she decided to expand her creativity by taking watercolor classes. Lynn’s watercolor paintings have been exhibited in galleries across Long Island and her work has been selected for exhibition in juried exhibits across Long Island.

“I paint primarily in watercolor with a focus on nature. I enjoy painting scenes reflective of the local environment here on Long Island,” she said.

STAC is grateful to Apple Bank for its continued support of culture in our communities. We are so happy to feature the talents of Long Island artists in this space!

Smithtown Township Arts Council is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization.

May 27 was Silly Hat Day at Goosehill Primary School in Cold Spring Harbor…and these kids did not disappoint – WOW! What innovative ideas and imagination, hopefully there was not a contest to win “best in show,” because it would be impossible to decide on a winner? Great job Goosehill students — we should have a hat parade in your honor!

Photos from CSHCSD

Nubbins

MEET NUBBINS!

Nubbins is a three to four year-old female Domestic Shorthair Mix who spent part of her early life as a shop cat. One day, she showed up to the shop missing part of her tail as a result of some unknown trauma. Fortunately, the vets at the Smithtown Animal Shelter managed to amputate the damaged part of her tail, and now she’s healthy and ready to find a furrever home!

Nubbins is a sweet and affectionate little lady who can always put a smile on your face. She is the ultimate flirt and loves getting attention! She will roll around on her back and chirp to let you know she needs some TLC. Nubbins has experience living with other cats, and would do well in a home with children young or old.

She is spayed, microchipped and up to date on her vaccines. 

If you are interested in meeting Nubbins,  please call ahead to schedule an hour to properly interact with her in a domestic setting, which includes a Meet and Greet Room. The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. Shelter operating hours are currently Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sundays and Wednesday evenings by appointment only). 

For more information, call 631-360-7575 or visit www.smithtownanimalshelter.com.

Stock photo

By Matthew Kearns, DVM

I can’t tell you how many pet owners arrive at my clinic saying, “both myself and Fluffy suffer from the COVID 15”, with the “COVID 15” referring to weight gain during the pandemic. Remember, it is important to realize that weight gain in pets is as dangerous as weight gain in humans. Here are a few of the diseases associated with obesity in pets: 

Growth abnormalities and arthritis: There is a documented link between overfeeding and growth abnormalities. One study was able to prove that by feeding a group of growing dogs less calories than the control group, the risk of hip dysplasia was reduced by 25%. We are not talking about starving dogs, just not overfeeding. Additionally, the added weight is a burden on already arthritic joints, especially in older pets.

Respiratory Disorders: Severe obesity will lead to respiratory problems in any pedigree or mixed breed. However, brachycephalic breeds (breeds with flat faces) such as Pugs, Boston Terriers, Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apso, English Bulldogs, Pekingese, etc) and cat breeds such as Persians are at a higher risk.  

Pancreatitis and diabetes: Pancreatitis is a serious disease, sometimes life threatening, in dogs and cats just as it is in people and risk increases with obesity. Pancreatitis can damage the insulin- producing cells in the pancreas but experts conclude that insulin resistance is more common in obese pets similar to insulin resistance in obese humans.

Anesthetic risk: Recent studies have shown a 20 to 40% increase in mortality associated with general anesthesia in obese patients. The added fat increases blood pressure and makes it more difficult for the anesthetized patient to breathe on their own under general anesthesia.

Heart failure: Although obesity does not have a direct effect on the development of heart disease or failure, obesity in a pet with a pre-existing heart condition will hasten the progression to heart failure. 

How do we reverse the trend of obesity in our pets? Same as ourselves: eat less, exercise more. However, before radically reducing your pet’s food intake or taking them on a 10-mile run, it would be better to make an appointment with your veterinarian to examine your pet. This way both you and your veterinarian can identify obesity and make sure there is no underlying disease that should be addressed first. Older pets that suffer from obesity could also have an underactive thyroid gland, arthritis, etc. 

If your veterinarian feels that your pet is healthy, then you can identify obesity and set realistic goals. Eliminating all the extras (table scraps, extra cookies, treats, rawhides, pig’s ears, etc) are a good start.  These are all empty calories. If that is not working then you may need to cut back on the amount of food, or consider a weight-reducing diet. These diets are available both commercially and through your veterinarian.  

Controlled exercise (short walks at first) not only burns calories but enhances the bond between our pets and ourselves. Cats, especially indoor only cats, can’t go on walks but there are toys that you can play with them. Make sure these toys are not made of material that could be chewed off or fray and potentially form an obstruction.    

So, remember to have your pets eat right and exercise. That is the best way to keep them happy and healthy.  

Dr. Kearns practices veterinary medicine from his Port Jefferson office and is pictured with his son Matthew and his dog Jasmine. 

From left, John Inglis and Richard Sever. Photo from CSHL

By Daniel Dunaief

Scientists rarely have people standing at their lab door, waiting eagerly for the results of their studies the way the public awaits high-profile verdicts.

That, however, changed over the last 16 months, as researchers, public health officials, school administrators and a host of others struggled to understand every aspect of the basic and translational science involved in the Sars-Cov2 virus, which caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

With people becoming infected, hospitalized and dying at an alarming rate, businesses closing and travel, entertainment and sporting events grinding to a halt, society looked to scientists for quick answers. One challenge, particularly in the world of scientific publishing, is that quick and answers don’t often mesh well in the deliberate, careful and complicated world of scientific publishing.

The scientific method involves considerable checking, rechecking and careful statistically relevant analysis, which is not typically designed for the sharing of information until other researchers have reviewed it and questioned the approach, methodology and interpretation.

The pandemic changed that last year, increasing the importance of preprint servers like bioRxiv and medRxiv at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, which provide a way for researchers to share unfiltered and unchecked information quicker than a scientific review and publishing process that can take months or even years.

The pandemic increased the importance of these preprint servers, enabling scientists from all over the world to exchange updated research with each other, in the hopes of leading to better basic understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the spread of the deadly virus.

The importance of these servers left those running them in a bind, as they wanted to balance between honoring their mission of sharing information quickly and remaining responsible about the kinds of information, speculation or data that might prove dangerous to the public.

Richard Sever and John Inglis, Assistant Director and Executive Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, created pandemic-specific criteria for work reporting potential Covid-19 therapies.

“Manuscripts making computational predictions of COVID-19 therapies are accepted only if they also include in vitro [studies in test tubes or with live cells] or in vivo [studies in live subjects] work,” the preprint directors wrote in a recent blog. “This restriction does not apply to non-covid-19 work.”

Inglis and Sever continue to decline research papers that might cause people to behave in ways that compromise public health.

“We are simply doing our best to tread carefully in the early days of clinical preprints, as we gain experience and bias our actions toward doing no harm” the authors wrote in their blog.

In the first few months after the pandemic hit the United States, the pace at which scientists, many of whom pivoted from their primary work to direct their expertise to the public health threat, was the highest bioRxiv, which was founded in November of 2013, and medRxiv, which was started in June of 2019, had ever experienced.

These preprint servers published papers that wound up leading to standards of care for COVID-19, including a June research report that appeared on June 22nd in medRxiv on the use of the steroid dexamethasone, which was one of the treatments former President Donald Trump received when he contracted the virus.

The rush to publish information related to the virus has slowed, although researchers have still posted over 16,000 papers related to the virus through the two pre-print servers. MedRxiv published 12,400 pandemic-related papers since January of 2020, while bioRxiv published over 3,600.

At its peak in late March of 2020, medRxiv’s abstract views reached 10.9 million, while downloads of the articles were close to five million.

Currently, bioRxiv is publishing about 3,500 papers a month, while medRxiv put up about 1,300 during a month. Close to 60 percent of the medRxiv papers continue to cover medical issues related to the pandemic.

The numbers of page views are “not anywhere near the frenzy of last year,” Inglis said in an interview. 

With the volume of papers still high, people can receive alerts from the preprint servers using parameters like their field of interest or word searches.

“The real question is how to sort out the gold from the dross,” Inglis said. While some people have suggested a star system akin to the one shopping services use, Inglis remained skeptical about the benefit of a scientific popularity contest.

“Have you looked at the stuff [with four or five stars] on Amazon? It’s one thing if you’re buying a widget, but it’s different if you’re trying to figure out what’s worthwhile science,” he said.

Other organizations have reviewed preprints, including the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.

“By sheer diligence, the [Johns Hopkins team] go into medRxiv mostly and simply pick out things they think are striking,” Inglis said. 

At the same time, a team of researchers led by Nicolas Vabret, Robert Samstein, Nicolas Fernandez, and Miriam Merad created the Sinai Immunology Review Project, which provides critical reviews of articles from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory preprint sites. The effort ranks COVID-related preprints according to their immunological relevance. Fernandez created a dedicated website to host and integrate the reviews. The group also worked with Nature Reviews Immunology to publish short weekly summaries of preprints, according to a comment piece in that journal.

BioRxiv and medRxiv were founded on the belief that early sharing of results as preprints would speed progress in biomedical research, better equipping scientists to build on each other’s work.

“My team is proud to have contributed to the response to this worldwide human tragedy,” Inglis said. “We’re also glad we made the decision to set up a separate server for health science, in which the screening requirements are different and more stringent.”

Inglis explained that the pre-print servers have “learned a lot in the past year” about providing information during a crisis like the pandemic. “If another pandemic arose, we’d apply these learnings and respond immediately in the same way.”

Shutterstock

By Michael Ardolino

Michael Ardolino

Today’s buyers are looking for a home they can move right into. I wrote briefly about preparing your house in our May column. This month let’s take a closer look at what you need to do to get your house ready to sell.

Be proactive

Considering selling your home in the fall or winter months? Early summer is the perfect time to get your house ready.

In the long run, doing repairs now can save you money. You can compare prices when hiring someone to do the job or looking for material to do the work yourself.

Ready to go

With demanding careers and long commutes, some buyers don’t have the time for a fixer-upper. Also, take a fresh look at your space. Understand people are looking for rooms or dedicated space for a home office and for their children to take virtual classes and study.

First impressions

First impressions are everything. A well-manicured lawn will capture a potential buyer’s eye immediately. Mow the grass, trim the bushes and trees and weed the garden regularly. Carefully inspect pools, fences, doors, gutters and roofs for damage. And if you can’t pull a car into the garage, it’s time to sift through the junk. Rent a dumpster, or better yet, check out social media groups where you post your items for neighbors to pick up, such as the freecycle pages on Facebook.

You may not need to paint the exterior of your house, but power washing it and a fresh coat of paint on the front door can make a difference.

Just think, if you start working on the outside now, you can enjoy it yourself while you’re relaxing by the pool or out on the deck or porch.

Working on the inside

Once you’re done with the outside, take a good look at the inside of your house. Buyers tend to love a minimalist style.

Take a look at websites such as Pottery Barn for fresh, simple decorating ideas. Search through apps such as Pinterest for trending home colors for 2021. These colors tend to be on the lighter side. There are some beautiful neutral shades and blue tones out there. When compared to darker shades, the new colors can give your home a more modern look.

Takeaways

When thinking about selling your home, stay tuned to the news. Last Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen said inflation could climb as high as 3% this year. This is a trend we may see as the economy recovers from the adverse effects of COVID-19. However, she has also been quoted in The Washington Post as saying nothing is set in stone.

“We’ll watch this very carefully, keep an eye on it and try to address issues that arise if it turns out to be necessary,” she said.

I’ll be keeping an eye on this, too, and delve into more real estate news, trends and tips in future columns.

So, let’s talk. 

Michael Ardolino is the Founder/Owner-Broker of Realty Connect USA.