Massage

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it actually can be made not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

If you're dealing with tired, sluggish kids who aren't able to listen or pay attention, try this quick mind-body trick. Called elephant ears, it is demonstrated here by Leah Kalish, founder of Move With Me Action Adventures, which specializes in yoga and movement education for kids. What it does The gentle massage around the outside of your ears stimulates the energy meridians in the body, Kalish says, waking up your senses, so you're less distracted and anxious and can hear and think more clearly.

If you're dealing with tired, sluggish kids who aren't able to listen or pay attention, try this quick mind-body trick. Called elephant ears, it is demonstrated here by Leah Kalish, founder of Move With Me Action Adventures, which specializes in yoga and movement education for kids. What it does The gentle massage around the outside of your ears stimulates the energy meridians in the body, Kalish says, waking up your senses, so you're less distracted and anxious and can hear and think more clearly.

The humming breath is a great way for children to calm and soothe themselves. It's sort of like a virtual hug, giving you that "everything is going to be OK" feeling, says Leah Kalish, founder of Move With Me Action Adventures, which trains teachers in movement education. What it does The deep breathing and pressure point massage relaxes, while the back-and-forth eye movement helps improve eye-teaming skills and cross-motor coordination so kids can think, as well as feel, better.

Devotees of massage therapy know it's relaxing and feels good. But massage may also be an effective tool for maintaining good health. Researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reported this week that a single massage produced measurable changes in the immune system and endocrine system of healthy adults. The researchers, led by Dr. Mark Rapaport, studied 29 healthy adults who received a 45-minute Swedish massage and 24 healthy adults who had a 45-minute session of light touch massage, a much milder exercise that served as a comparison to the more vigorous Swedish massage.

The director Cameron Jamie has a sharp eye for the cryptic weirdness in everyday American and European life. At this screening, the new film "Massage the History" makes its L.A. debut alongside Jamie's trilogy of "BB," "Kranky Klaus" and "Spook House" that find the uncanny in suburban and urban life when we think nobody's looking. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. 7 p.m. Thur. Free. hammer.ucla.edu .

Patients at the end of their lives often receive their final care from hospice workers. Contrary to what the haven't-really-though-about-it-crowd might suspect, not all such care involves administering drugs. Hospice therapists in Florida team up to use a combination of music and massage to treat dying patients such as Bernard Michels, 98. He, for one, sees the merits. "It brings back memories of when I was a younger guy," he says in a South Florida Sun Sentinel story . The music-massage approach delivers more than a passing feel-good emotion.

Here’s a soothing twist on holiday shopping: The Milliken Creek Inn and Spa in Napa Valley is offering a free massage with every reservation made on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. The deal: The setting alone at this three-acre spread, with redwoods and quiet gardens, looks relaxing. The Serenity Special adds one 75-minute aromatherapy massage, valued at $160, to each reservation. Rooms at the inn start at $275 plus tax per night and include hot breakfast, wine reception, free Wi-Fi and other extras.

One of our cancer patients recently was discharged from the hospital after a long and difficult stay, only to be readmitted two days later for a dangerously high fever. Though devastated to be back in the hospital, there was something that made it tolerable for him: a massage therapist. "I was only able to deal with this," the patient told his massage therapist, "because I knew you would be here."

Is Fido feeling blue? Or perhaps uncharacteristically lashing out at loved ones? Fido may not be psychotic after all, just reacting emotionally to a host of undiagnosed aches and pains. Enter Dawn Eshelman, a 40-year-old pet-sitter who has become a specialist in the art of animal massage. After training as a sports massage therapist at the Institute of Therapeutic Studies in Santa Ana, Eshelman traveled to a Virginia school earlier this year to learn how to apply her art to animals.

In the unfolding scandal involving accusations against John Travolta, last week's salacious sexual-misconduct allegations had given way Monday to a boatload of I-said-he-said, heck-no-I-never-said, and let-me-clarify-what-you-think-I-said minutiae. Fabian Zanzi, the cruise-ship crew member who last month accused Travolta of inappropriate sexual behavior on the high seas, has spoken up again - this time in English - repeating allegations that while he was on the job several years ago, the actor asked him for a massage and a chat, then disrobed, gave him a naked hug and offered $12,000 in exchange for sex. After reporting the 2009 incident to his Royal Caribbean supervisors, Zanzi received a written warning for fraternizing with a passenger, according to personnel papers obtained by TMZ. The document noted that the VIP attendant's self-reporting had been considered as a mitigating factor in determining disciplinary action.

Two days after feeling additional pain in his sprained left shoulder, guard Ramon Sessions described the shoulder before the Lakers-Nuggets game Friday as "good. " "The shoulder is feeling the best it has felt," he said. Sessions says he hardly felt that way during the Lakers' 98-84 victory Wednesday over the San Antonio Spurs. After taking a blow to the shoulder, Sessions sat out with 3:05 left in the third quarter and later returned for the final 6:30 of the game. He appeared tentative during that stretch, logging only one field-goal attempt and an assist.

There was a certain period of time - one of shyness and uncertainty, my body strung like a banjo - when a massage therapist could touch me only with a court order. Thankfully, those days are almost over, for the other day I found myself in Thousand Oaks getting a golf ball massage. "Let me show you my holster," says therapist Heather Karr. Which is something a woman has never said to me, even in the occasional fantasy sequence. Yet, there is something emotionally stirring to "Let me show you my holster" that I can't quite put my finger on. But Karr can. She puts her fingers on just about anything.

Kale is about as unlikely a food star as you can imagine. It's tough and fibrous. Bite a piece of raw kale and you'll practically end up with splinters between your teeth. Nevertheless, kale has become a green of the moment because, given a little special care, it actually can be made not only edible but delicious. You can cook it, of course, the lower and slower the better. But surprisingly, one of the most popular ways to use kale these days is in salads. Though kale leaves have always been found on almost every salad bar, it wasn't for reasons of edibility - it was for decoration, because this was one green so tough it would last forever without wilting.

Two massage parlors may lose their licenses after employees were arrested on suspicion of prostitution in recent weeks. The South Pasadena City Council, which in recent years has wrestled with concerns about a proliferation of massage parlors, scheduled hearings regarding the businesses for March 7. South Pasadena police arrested Massage Villa owner Ling Ling Kuo, 44, of Alhambra on Feb. 10 on suspicion of operating a disorderly house....

Everyone knows that it can feel really good to get a massage. Now scientists may have figured out why, by identifying how massage switches genes on and off, thus reducing inflammation and coaxing muscle adaptation to exercise. The discovery provides strong evidence that massage merits further study as a treatment for injuries and chronic disorders, said Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a researcher at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and lead author of a study about the research released Wednesday.

Michael B. Epstein would like a little respect, please, not just for himself but for his chosen profession. He's a licensed, trained, experienced massage therapist, a practitioner of the healing arts. He works independently and with doctors to help knead the kinks out of injured muscles, restore movement to frozen joints, and melt away the effects of stress. He does not, however, provide sexual services to his clients.

A bull in a china shop could not have stunned me more than seeing a neck-and-shoulder massage being given amid Villeroy and Boch porcelain at a Spritzer & Fuhrmann store in Willemstad on the island of Curacao. "Wonderful, wonderful," crooned the contented customer as she sat with bowed head near the door.

Reporting from Los Angeles and Vancouver, Canada -- Once Dorothee Burkhart had squeezed through a window and escaped, only two things mattered: Finding Harry and getting out of Germany. It was September 2007 in Frankfurt. Four months earlier, police had arrested Burkhart in a string of thefts and sent her to a woman's prison to await trial. Separated from Harry, her 19-year-old son who suffered from a slew of mental disabilities, she had grown increasingly anxious. Without her, Harry was alone and unprotected in a city that she believed was filled with people set on hurting them.

As hospitals elbow one another to attract patients, increasingly they're hoping to tap into Americans' interest in - and willingness to spend money on - complementary and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and massage. According to a recent survey by the American Hospital Assn. and the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit research group focusing on complementary medicine, 42% of the 714 hospitals that responded offered at least one such therapy in 2010; five years earlier, only 27% of hospitals offered such treatments.