It was actually slightly more than 20 years ago that I was living in Southern California, working as a freelance writer, when an editor from the Orange County Register called. The paper was launching a monthly regional magazine targeting owners of luxury homes — think Laguna and Newport Beach — and he wanted a column that would be the antidote to potentially pretentious content.

“So,” I said, “you want a column that is not about rich homeowners and their chichi architects and their museum-quality art collections and the exquisite homes they build on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific and how the whole experience was one giant lovefest, and they had money left over?”

“Right,” he confirmed, “a reality column.”

He’d found the right writer. At that point, I had built two homes from the ground up, had the debt and cortisol levels to prove it, and had an arsenal of frustrations.

Still disbelieving, I added, “You want me to write about the tile mason with the drinking problem, the neighbors who won’t speak to you because you’ve had an outhouse and a Dumpster parked in your front yard for three months, the dogs who got so fed up with the construction they ran away in search of a rescue, and about how the remodel took three times as long, cost three times as much, and you weren’t speaking to your spouse at the end?”

“Exactly,” he said. “Sprinkle in some advice. Be the girl next door who has the same problems as everyone else but is two steps ahead, because you’ve made the mistakes and know who to call.”

Eighteen months later, my then-husband and I moved from Southern California to Colorado — just one of my many moves. And soon, I had a syndicated column. That former editor congratulated me, then ominously added: “It’s great to have a weekly column, but one day, you are going to run out of ideas.”

Until then, a dry well hadn’t been on my worry list. I flashed back to when I was in kindergarten and got in trouble for talking too much in class. I wound up in the principal’s office with my mother to discuss “the problem.” When the principal asked why I talked so much, the answer was easy. “I just have so many important things to say,” I said, which was unintentionally hilarious.

So here we are 20 years and 1,040 columns later, and I still have things to say and no shortage of topics. Because I have never been able to see where home design stops and home life begins, my columns are about both. Here’s a brief look back at some of the moments we’ve been through together:

The calamities: You were there when my two custom seven-foot sofas arrived with the upholstery fabric inside out, when the back patio in our new Colorado home fell three feet into a sink hole, and when our rescue dog on his first night with us tested our commitment on the one-day-old living room carpet. (Who gets a new dog and new carpet on the same day?)

The many moves: You were there through 10 houses and nine moves, including the move to Florida, where I had a stint as a live-in home stager and moved six times in four years.

The life changes: You were there when I sent each of my children off to college, entering some sort of self-imposed dorm-decorating contest in which I was the sole contestant. You were there through my divorce and remarriage, the loss of two parents and the gain of three grown stepchildren.

The micro and macro: Together, we’ve covered the minor (how to choose drawer knobs and tea towels) and the major (the meaning of home and belonging and how to leave a meaningful legacy.

The celebrity encounters: We both learned from world-class experts including the late architect Michael Graves, goddess of domesticity Martha Stewart, “This Old House” star and carpenter extraordinaire Norm Abram, the Property Brothers, and other illustrious and less illustrious experts who generously shared their expertise.

The upsizing, downsizing, rightsizing: You contributed in so many ways to my domestic documentaries that resulted in seven books about all things home — decorating on a budget, trying to live beautifully with those who don’t, downsizing, blending two houses into one, and rightsizing your life to live where, how, with whom and with what you want.

Marni Jameson has written seven books, including the newly released “Rightsize Today to Create Your Best Life Tomorrow.” Reach her at www.marnijameson.com.

NEW YORK — The latest iteration of the Fab Five has a fresh new face on board.

Roughly three months after the news that “Queer Eye” design expert Bobby Berk would be leaving the series after Season 8, Netflix has announced that Jeremiah Brent will be stepping in to replace him.

The new interior designer will join long-time castmates Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness for Season 9 of the Emmy Award-winning series, which is set to be filmed in Las Vegas.

But who is Jeremiah Brent and where might you have seen him before?

Who is Jeremiah Brent?

Brent, whose birth name is Jeremy Clevenger Johnson, is a design industry superstar hailing from Modesto, California.

The self-taught interior decorator first made a splash in the world of reality TV as a styling associate on Season 4 of Bravo’s “The Rachel Zoe Project.” Years later, he hosted the Emmy Award-winning “Home Made Simple” for two seasons on the Oprah Winfrey Network and starred in TLC’s “Nate & Jeremiah by Design” alongside his husband, fellow interior designer Nate Berkus.

Berkus and Brent — the first same-sex couple to be featured in ads for Banana Republic — were married in 2014 and are the parents of 8-year-old daughter Poppy and 5-year-old son Oskar, both of whom were born via egg donors and surrogates.

In 2011 — the same year he appeared on “The Rachel Zoe Project” — Brent founded design firm Jeremiah Brent Design (JBD), with offices in Manhattan and Los Angeles.

“My personal design aesthetic is monastic, but obviously, we don’t do just that with the firm,” he told Architectural Digest in 2022.

Why did Bobby Berk leave “Queer Eye”?

Following the premiere of “Queer Eye” in 2018, Berk quickly became a fan favorite thanks to his stunning home makeovers and compassionate conversations. So it came as a surprise to fans when the 42-year-old Houston native announced in November that he was departing the show after Season 8, which dropped Jan. 24 on Netflix.

“It’s with a heavy heart that I announce that Season 8 will be my final season on ‘Queer Eye,’” Berk wrote on social media. “It’s not been an easy decision to be at peace with, but a necessary one. Although my journey with ‘Queer Eye’ is over, my journey with you is not. You will be seeing more of me very soon.”

Berk elaborated on his departure in a recent profile for Vanity Fair, saying he thought the show had come to an end after they had completed the contract they initially signed.

“We thought we were done [after September 2022],” he said. “Mentally and emotionally, I thought we all moved on. I know I did, and I started planning other things.”

“We just assumed that the show wouldn’t come back if we all didn’t come back,” he said.

Berk also confirmed rumors of a rift with fashion expert Tan France.

“Tan and I had a moment. There was a situation, and that’s between Tan and I, and it has nothing to do with the show,” he told Vanity Fair. “It was something personal that had been brewing — and nothing romantic, just to clarify that.”

How to watch “Queer Eye”?

All six episodes of the current season of “Queer Eye” — filmed in New Orleans — are streaming now on Netflix, along with all previous seasons of the series. There’s no word yet on when Season 9 will premiere.

©2024 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Changes include nine new items that will bring the chain into a “new era,” according to a news release.

Among them are four new sandwiches: Toasted Italiano with Black Forest ham; Chicken Bacon Rancher; Ciabatta Cheesesteak; and Tomato Basil BLT.

RELATED: How Panera Bread ducked California’s new $20 minimum wage law

Salad-wise, the chain is adding New Mediterranean Chicken Greens with Grains; Southwest Chicken Ranch; Balsamic Chicken Greens with Grains; and Ranch Cobb Salad.

There is also a Bacon Mac & Cheese.

Twelve existing items will receive “menu enhancements,” including the Bravo Club Sandwich, Chipotle Chicken Avocado Melt and the Fuji Apple Chicken Salad.

The new menu will add items priced at less than $10 at participating restaurants, the news release said, including the Tomato Basil BLT, a Ranch Cobb Salad and the Mediterranean Greens with Grains. It also states that there will be “more chicken and steak on many salads and sandwiches.”

Panera Bread is exempt from a law hiking wages for fast food workers from $16 to $20 an hour in California, a fact that has been widely reported this week. The law contains an exemption for chains that bake bread and sell it as a stand-alone item. Critics have said Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed for the exemption and note that Newsom’s donor Greg Flynn owns a number of Panera franchises.

In addition Panera Bread settled a class action lawsuit over delivery fees for $2 million this week and in recent months has been subject to wrongful death lawsuits over the caffeine content in its lemonades.

They feature a few guilty chuckles, many from the grumpy yet affable host who interjects his awkward perspective into the proceedings constantly. Then there are feather-fisted members of the security team that tries to break up the angry subjects and their physical battles, a motley crew of bad behavior.

Sadly, the security staff has all the effectiveness of a mouse guarding the door at a nightclub, but hey, anything that gets the purveyors of this brand of trash television to chant the host’s name is a supposed win.

All of which raises a question that probably no one in their right mind would even stumble upon: How in the world does “The Jerry Springer Show” connect to the primal nature of opera?

The answer is “Jerry Springer: the Opera,” a show born in London’s West End 20 years ago and now playing at San Jose Playhouse. It is not for the faint of heart. While the television show functioned highly as a prude-free zone, the production led by the talented cast is solid, even though creators Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee’s concoction isn’t exactly high culture.

The premise is predictable, based on the infamous host whose name blares inside the play’s title. The guests have lots of range — there are serial cheaters, all types of scuzzy folks and even a man who likes to dress as a baby and act out everything, down to the boom boom in his diaper. Oh, and there are also appearances from Angel Gabriel, Jesus and Satan, because hey, why would they miss out on this nonsense?

Any great opera has a brutal death, and Springer’s offing at the hands of someone who was probably actually gunning for a Klan member in Act 1’s finale is brutal indeed. That ending is complete with tap dancing leading to the tighter Act 2, aided by yet another Steve Wilkos (Fred Isozaki) security fail. As a result, Jerry’s infamous final thoughts have transitioned to his new address in Hell.

One of the challenges of the show is finding the line between gratuitous shlock and something genuinely edgy, which is blurred too often. Irreverent humor is the hallmark of many a great production, but here, that irreverence does not have nearly enough sharp satire for it to effectively sustain over the course of the show’s two hours.

That said, many moments are delightfully funny, with terrific production values — some of the best the Playhouse has produced in recent memory. The trio of creatives who make up the bulk of the Playhouse’s productions in downtown San Jose take turns showcasing the mastery of the spectacle.

That spectacle is led with Scott Evan Guggenheim’s deft direction of his talented cast, with Ric Iverson’s turn as Springer achieving a nice balance of the television host’s befuddlement and sketchy inquiry of his oddball guests. Vocal director Stephen Guggenheim consistently receives a pleasing sound from the 11-member cast that serves up tight harmonies and solos. And Shannon Guggenheim’s choreography parallels the freneticism of the original source material, the play mostly moving at breakneck speed. In addition, Shannon Guggenheim’s stellar video designs along with Jon Gourdine’s terrific set creates an environment where television hell (literally) is about to be unleashed.

What works well is the constant tension housed under the studio roof, with the basest and most offensive humor imaginable paired with the pleasing sounds of opera. Many Playhouse regulars make appearances in the production. Nina Edwards is a stellar Mary, with a buttery smooth register making fantastic runs constantly. Beautifully-presenced B Noel Thomas understands deeply the nature of tongue-in-cheek within her multiple roles. Krista Wigle showcases both a solid voice and impeccable comic timing, and Joseph Meyers is especially funny throughout, namely as the narrative comes to a close with his donning a skin-tight Elvis costume.

“Jerry Springer: the Opera” is one wild ride that isn’t going to be for everyone. I can’t really say it was even for me, and I love irreverence. But if it wasn’t wild, it wouldn’t be Jerry Springer. Or opera. After all, people who want their mamas to spank them while dancing on poles are still just, well, people.

David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.

‘JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA’

Created by Richard Thomas and Stewart Lee, presented by San Jose Playhouse

Through: March 17

Where: 3Below Theaters, 288 S. Second St., San Jose

Running time: Two hours with an intermission

Tickets: $45-$65; sanjoseplayhouse.org

But Cooper has a different view of nudity when it comes to the privacy of his own home. In an interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the “Maestro” actor and director said he grew up with a father who was “always nude” in their house, according to the Daily Mail.

So, Cooper said, he has a very relaxed approach when it comes to shedding his clothes behind closed doors, including around his 6-year-old daughter.

When Shepard revealed that he and his wife, actor Kristen Bell, are pretty relaxed about nudity at home, saying he and his family are “naked all the time,” Cooper agreed, “Me too.”

“I was like that. Not with my mom but with my dad,” Cooper told Shepard, according to the Daily Mail. “My dad was always nude, always took showers with him.”

“And you’re quite comfortable nude?” Shepard asked.

“Totally,” Cooper said.

Cooper revealed that he and his daughter Lea — whom he co-parents with ex-girlfriend Irina Shayk — regularly chat while he is on the toilet. For his part, Shepard said that his daughters, Lincoln, 10, and Delta, 9, regularly “file in” to the bathroom to talk during his “poopy time.”

In response, Cooper laughed: “My bedroom — the bathtub and toilet and bed are all in the same room.”

“It’s 24/7, dude! There are no doors,” Cooper said, according to the Daily Mail. “The stairs go up and it’s all one floor.”

When Shepard asked, “Do you find that your daughter doesn’t care at all?’

Cooper replied, “Yeah, no, no. We talk where I’m on the toilet, she’s in the bathtub; that’s sort of the go-to.”

The Swedish actor, who is best known for the “Dune” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises, touched off this internet guessing game when she recently recounted her heated exchange with a co-star during an appearance on the “Reign With Josh Smith” podcast Tuesday, the New York Post and other outlets reported.

“I did a film with an absolute idiot of a co-star and it doesn’t matter who it was,” Ferguson began.

“I remember there was a moment when this human being was being so insecure and angry because this person couldn’t get the scenes out,” Ferguson shared. “And I think I was so vulnerable and uncomfortable that I got screamed at.

“But because this person was No. 1 on a call sheet, there was no safety net for me,” Ferguson added. “So no one had my back. And I would cry walking off set.”

But Ferguson said she rallied by the next day and stood up for herself. She told her co-star, “You get off my set. You can (expletive) off. I’m gonna work towards a tennis ball. I never want to see you again.” While producers told her, “You can’t do this to No. 1. We have to let this person be on set,’” she replied that “the person can turn around and I can act to the back of the head.”

Ferguson added that this happened “within my last 10 or 12 years.”

Everyone pretty much agrees that it’s wrong that Ferguson had to deal with such a big, raging, fragile ego, though. Hollywood has long been filled with big, raging, fragile egos. But her story still raises the question of who yelled at her.

As Decider writer Liz Kocan wrote, Ferguson provided few clues. She was careful not to use gender pronouns. The only thing she said is that the A-list actor or actress was no. 1 on the call sheet, the project was a movie and that the incident occurred 10 or 12 years ago.

The New York Post and Decider listed many of of Ferguson’s major co-stars. They include Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Grant, Michael Fassbender, Chris Hemsworth, Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt.

It should be noted that, in her interview, Ferguson clarified that her screaming co-star was not Cruise or Jackman, her co-star in “The Greatest Showman.”

With that, here is a breakdown of the leading contenders to be Ferguson’s unnamed screaming co-star based on reports and social media speculation.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson 

The Hayward native, Ferguson’s co-star in the 2014 film “Hercules,” actually rushed to distance himself from her accusations. In a post on X, Johnson wrote, “Hate seeing this but love seeing her stand up to (expletive). Rebecca was my guardian angel sent from heaven on our set. I love that woman. I’d like to find out who did this.”

Unfortunately, Johnson may not have done himself any favors with this post, as Decider’s Kocan pointed out. On one hand, it’s “great that Johnson was quick to jump in with his support,” Kocan said. On the other hand, Johnson’s post may be an example of a self-serving actor “trying to get ahead of the story,” cynics said. Kocan also said that he’s “had his share of ego moments on movie sets, including his notorious rivalry with Vin Diesel, and the role he played in tanking the success of “Shazam‘s” sequel and his own Black Adam franchise.

Jake Gyllenhaal

For Decider’s Kocan, Gyllenhaal is a top contender, even though Gyllenhaal’s collaboration with Ferguson is more recent than 10 or 12 years ago. They co-starred in the 2017 film “Life” with Ryan Reynolds, who isn’t among the top contenders for the screamer.

Nonetheless, Kocan wrote how Gyllenhaal recently made news for his alleged demanding behavior in pre-production for the film “Suddenly.” That film’s director, Thomas Bidegain, told a French magazine about a “humiliating” situation involving Gyllenhaal, according to Variety. The magazine story also described how Gyllenhaal demanded multiple rewrites and rehearsed scenes in a mocking “Pepe Le Pew-like accent.”

During the press tour for “Life,” Gyllenhaal also made some arrogant comments about the art of acting, which may echo what Ferguson’s screaming co-star said to her: “You call yourself an actor?” Gyllenhaal told The Guardian in 2017 that it “seems to me that anybody feels they can be an actor nowadays.”

Hugh Grant

Ferguson was in the 2016 movie “Florence Foster Jenkins” with both Grant and Meryl Streep. Many social media sleuths are pointing the finger at the “Notting Hill” star who has developed a reputation for being curmudgeonly, the New York Post said.

When another person argued that Streep was the star of the film, still another pointed out that Grant could have been No. 1 on the call sheet the day that he filmed scenes that involved Ferguson.

Someone else wrote: “I’ll bet it was Hugh Grant, I’ve read stuff about him being really rude and hard to work with. He’s even said himself that his female costars probably hate him.”

Michael Fassbender 

Fassbender and Ferguson co-starred in the poorly reviewed 2017 serial killer thriller, “The Snowman.” According to The Post, many movie fans believe that Fassbender, famous for his intense roles, was the screamer.

“It’s Michael Fassbender y’all,” one person declared.  “This was definitely Fassbender,” another said. 

But others defended Fassbender, based on the way that he and Ferguson appeared to get along well while doing publicity together for “The Snowman.” Still, one person pointed out: “People posting interviews with them together doesn’t prove a damn thing. Publicity tours are part of the job and they’re ACTORS.”

WHY WE LEAP

Leap days keep our modern-day Gregorian calendar in alignment with Earth’s revolutions around the sun. It takes Earth 365.242189 days, or 365 days, five hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds, to circle the sun. This is called a tropical year, and it starts on the spring equinox in March.

The modern Gregorian calendar added leap day because its precursor, the Julian calendar, did not precisely calculate the Earth’s rotation around the sun.

This Julian system was instituted in the Roman Empire by Julius Caesar around 46 B.C. But this calendar was 0.0078 days (11 minutes and 14 seconds) longer than the tropical year. Between 46 B.C. and 1582, this accumulated error amounted to 12.7 days.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar by specifying the leap rules:

The year must be evenly divisible by four.

If the year can also be evenly divided by 100, it is not a leap year unless …

The year is also evenly divisible by 400. Then it is a leap year.

According to these rules, the years 2000 and 2400 are leap years, while 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are not.

Ten days of birthdays lost!

The Gregorian calendar came into use in Roman Catholic countries in October 1582, when Thursday, Oct. 4, was followed by Friday, Oct. 15.

America gets on time

Britain and its colonies did not introduce the Gregorian calendar until September 1752, by which time an additional one-day correction was required.

Born on leap day

A baby has about a 1 in 1,500 chance of being born on Feb. 29. Each state has different laws about how Feb. 29 birthdays are handled when it comes to getting a driver’s license. In Michigan, leap day babies have to wait until March 1 to go to the DMV, but in some places (including California) the date is Feb. 28. This law doesn’t affect too many people in the United States – it’s estimated that fewer than 200,000 leap day babies are Americans.

The seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter has lined up five California dates on her 2024 Deeper Well World Tour.

Musgraves performs Sept. 23 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Sept. 24 at Chase Center in San Francisco, Oct. 1 at Pechanga Arena San Diego in San Diego and Oct. 3-4 at the KIA Forum in Inglewood.

Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. March 8, kaceymusgraves.com/tour. American Express cardholders have access to presales in some markets, from 10 a.m. March 5 to 10 p.m. March 7.

Support acts for the tour include Madi Diaz, Father John Misty, Lord Huron and Nickel Creek.

Musgraves is set to release her fifth studio album, “Deeper Well,” out March 15.

KACEY MUSGRAVES DEEPER WELL WORLD TOUR DATES

+Madi Diaz supporting

*Father John Misty/ Nickel Creek supporting

#Lord Huron/ Nickel Creek supporting

Sunday, April 28, 2024- Dublin, IE @ 3Olympia Theatre +

Wednesday, May 1, 2024- Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso +

Friday, May 3, 2024- Brussels, BE@ Ancienne Belgique +

Sunday, May 5, 2024- Cologne, DE @ Carlswerk Victoria +

Monday, May 6, 2024- Hamburg, DE @ DOCKS +

Thursday, May 9, 2024- Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy +

Saturday, May 11, 2024- Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo+

Monday, May 13, 2024- Wolverhampton, UK @ The Civic at The Halls +

Tuesday, May 14, 2024- London, UK @ Roundhouse +

Wednesday, September 4, 2024- State College, PA @ Bryce Jordan Center *

Friday, September 6, 2024- Boston, MA @ TD Garden *

Saturday, September 7, 2024- Boston, MA @ TD Garden *

Monday, September 9, 2024- Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center *

Wednesday, September 11, 2024- Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena *

Thursday, September 12, 2024- Rosemont, IL @ Allstate Arena *

Sunday, September 15, 2024- Greenwood Village, CO @ Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre *

Thursday, September 19, 2024- Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena *

Friday, September 20, 2024- Seattle, WA @ Climate Pledge Arena *

Monday, September 23, 2024- Sacramento, CA @ Golden 1 Center *

Tuesday, September 24, 2024- San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center *

Friday, September 27, 2024- Glendale, AZ @ Desert Diamond Arena *

Saturday, September 28, 2024- Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena *

Tuesday, October 1, 2024- San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena San Diego *

Thursday, October 3, 2024- Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum *

Friday, October 4, 2024- Inglewood, CA @ Kia Forum *

Wednesday, November 6, 2024- Laval, QC @ Place Bell #

Thursday, November 7, 2024- Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena #

Saturday, November 9, 2024- Baltimore, MD @ CFG Bank Arena #

Sunday, November 10, 2024- Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena #

Tuesday, November 12, 2024- Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center #

Wednesday, November 13, 2024- Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center #

Friday, November 15, 2024- Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center #

Saturday, November 16, 2024- Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center #

Thursday, November 21, 2024- Houston, TX @ Toyota Center #

Friday, November 22, 2024- Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center #

Saturday, November 23, 2024- Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center #

Tuesday, November 26, 2024- Austin, TX @ Moody Center #

Wednesday, November 27, 2024- Austin, TX @ Moody Center #

Friday, November 29, 2024- Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena #

Saturday, November 30, 2024- Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood #

Monday, December 2, 2024- Orlando, FL @ Kia Center #

Thursday, December 5, 2024- Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center #

Friday, December 6, 2024- Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena #

Saturday, December 7, 2024- Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena #

As a urologist, I’ve learned to read the subtle signs in urine that can speak volumes about our well-being. It’s not just about frequency or urgency; it’s also about understanding the color, clarity and odor of urine to unlock health insights.

The many colors of urine

Urine varies in color from pale yellow to deep amber, primarily due to urochrome, a byproduct of the normal breakdown of red blood cells. As these cells age, they are broken down, and urochrome is made, which is then filtered by the kidneys and gives urine its color. The intensity of this color is a direct reflection of your hydration levels. The more hydrated you are, the lighter your urine.

What color is healthy urine?

Ideally, urine should be clear enough to read a book or text through (but there is no need to test my example). Yet it’s essential to find a balance.

Drinking too much water can lead to overhydration, which dilutes vital electrolytes and can cause water intoxication, a rare but serious condition that lowers blood sodium levels to dangerous lows. This risk is particularly relevant for athletes and individuals engaged in extended physical activity.

On the other hand, insufficient water intake risks underhydration, which can result in dehydration, fatigue, and weak cognitive and physical performance.

How much water should you drink?

When it comes to hydration, there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation, but as a urologist, I can provide some guidelines to help you find what might work best for you. The US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine suggest about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids a day for men and 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women, which includes all beverages and food. However, individual needs can vary greatly based on factors such as body weight, activity level and health status.

For a more personalized approach, I recommend starting with 30 milliliters (or 1 ounce) of water per kilogram (2.2 pounds) of body weight per day. This accounts for individual body mass differences and can be adjusted based on your daily activities. If you’re more physically active, or if you live in a hot climate, you might need to increase your water intake by 500 to 1,000 milliliters  (about 17 to 34 ounces) per day.

It’s also important to adjust these recommendations for specific health conditions. For instance, patients with kidney stones might need more water to help manage their condition, while those with heart or kidney problems may need to limit their fluid intake.

Gender, age and health status also play critical roles in determining the right amount of water for you. Men typically require more fluids than women due to larger average body size, and older adults may need to pay more attention to hydration due to a decreased sense of thirst.

Regardless of these guidelines, the best indicators of adequate hydration are rarely feeling thirsty and having light yellow urine. Listen to your body and adjust water intake based on thirst, the color of your urine, and how you feel, ensuring you stay well-hydrated for optimal health.

What your urine color is telling you

Red or pink: Sometimes, eating foods such as beets or berries can turn your urine red or pink. However, if you notice that your urine remains red or pink over time, it could mean there is blood in it. This change is something you shouldn’t ignore, and it’s a good idea to talk to a doctor about the change as it may be a red flag for cancers of the bladder and kidneys or benign conditions such as an enlarged prostate.

Dark brown or tea-colored: Urine that looks dark brown or like tea could be a sign that you’re not drinking enough water. If you’ve been drinking plenty of fluids and your urine is still dark, it might be a sign of liver problems or other health issues.

Blue or green: Seeing blue or green in your toilet bowl might be surprising, but it could be due to certain medications or dyes in foods.

Vibrant yellow: B vitamins can infuse your urine with a vibrant yellow shade. This effect, while harmless, is a good reminder of how diet and supplements can influence bodily functions.

What does your urine clarity mean?

Cloudy urine can be a sign of an infection or a problem with your kidneys.

Additionally, it’s worth noting that the presence of semen in urine can also change the clarity of urine, making it appear cloudy.

A cloudy appearance is often benign and resolves on its own and could be natural or a side effect of medications or surgeries for an enlarged prostate.

What does your urine odor say?

Consuming certain foods, particularly those that are spicy or contain strong ingredients, can also affect the odor of your urine.

Foods such as asparagus, coffee and some fish can produce a distinctive smell due to the specific compounds they contain, which are excreted in the urine.

A urinary ‘report card’

When it comes to understanding your health, your urine can act like a daily report card. Paying attention to its color, clarity and odor offers valuable clues that might indicate underlying health issues.

If you notice changes in your urine that don’t go back to normal, it’s better to be safe and talk to a health care provider.

Remember, catching potential health issues early can make all the difference. So, before you flush next time, take a quick look — it could be more informative than you think.

The-CNN-Wire
& © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

No, this isn’t a documentary. HBO’s “The Regime” may have a bland title, but the fictional series, which premieres March 3, is a wild ride, a dark and absurdist satire of authoritarianism, that finds the funny in the sinister and the brutality in the outlandish. 

Set in a fictional Central European country, it centers on the chancellor, Elena Vernham (a mesmerizing, deeply weird Kate Winslet) who rules according to her whims and her paranoia. (She fears her dead father’s disapproval, visiting his glass coffin to pathetically plead her case.)

When she brings in the violent, possibly unhinged army corporal Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts) as an aide, sparks fly. He becomes her advisor on everything from his awful country diet to foreign policy, creating new layers of chaos in the palace and the country.   

The show’s creator, Will Tracy, honed his political comedy chops writing for “The Onion News Network” and “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and refined his skills writing about power and wealth (and tantrums) on “Succession” and his film, “The Menu.”

He spoke recently by video about the central relationship and the geopolitics, the laughs and the fears. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Q. This is obviously a political show, but it also feels like you were creating the most toxic version of the Sam and Diane dynamic from “Cheers.” 

Herbert originally was a narrative device for the audience to enter this world – a simple country guy who asks, “What is all this?” and “Who are these people? – and he meets everybody, but around page 15 in the pilot, he just faded into the ensemble. 

But I was having trouble making Elena emotionally accessible and the story felt mainly bureaucratic and political. Then I realized he was interesting and had the idea that he might actually have something to say and what he says makes her feel very powerful. 

So just going back to old precepts of how watchable television works, it became a kind of love story like Sam and Diane. There’s a way in which they make themselves feel for little glimpses like the best version of themselves even though it is an incredibly non-traditional and toxic love story.

Q. Elena has a ruthlessness when it comes to holding onto power; she will sacrifice everyone and everything. There are obviously real-life parallels but how do you make the point without making it too on the nose?

We were interested in making a show that had something to say and felt relevant to our world without feeling like a polemic or didactic in any way. Obviously, humor helps with that. And the characters are not emotionally expressive; they’re very presentational and masked, which helps because they would not get on a soapbox and say what they’re thinking about politics because that would not be in their best interest to do so. 

Q. Keplinger, the imprisoned former chancellor, says of Elena that her behavior is born of pain and “you turn their pain to anger and then use it as a cudgel.” But he also says of her, Herbert and their followers that “Broken people love broken people,” which is not so far from Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” perspective. 

Exactly. Keplinger is a representation of the leftist exasperation, “Why do you people love her and not me?” We were being careful to remember that about the left – he’s certainly the preferable option but he is quite craven and needy and narcissistic in his own specific way. 

Q. Do you feel any empathy for Elena’s cabinet members as they accommodate and appease in ways we’ve seen in real life? 

It’s hard for me to feel that. There’s a story that they tell themselves that they’re doing this for virtuous reasons. But there’s opportunism baked into that feeling of, “I’m going to be the steady hand in there” and sometimes what that means is “I can be that in case this guy gets booted.” They all want to be in pole position. It happens until the moment in which it becomes impossible. And then they’ll do anything to protect themselves. They’ll throw anyone or any idea under the bus to survive. 

I was also inspired a bit by reading about Hitler’s big four cabinet and how even when the Soviets were just days from the bunker and all was lost, there was still a sense they were kind of still positioning themselves, they wanted Papa H to like them the best. 

Q. What did you learn from your days writing for The Onion News and “Last Week Tonight”? Obviously, “Succession” feels like a natural bridge from there to here. 

I think it still stems from The Onion in a way. We were writing these insane, impossible comic stories, but remembering all throughout, even down to the editorial voice style, that it had to have this veneer of verisimilitude. It had to look, sound and feel real, even if what you’re describing is insanity. 

Practically speaking, you also have to do your research to give it the flavor and the structure of how these real-world processes work. And on “Succession” as we’ve seen so many times recently, what would never happen has happened in politics and media and business, so we felt emboldened by that. 

Q. How did you balance the humor with everyone’s outlandish but often brutal behavior and the realism of the geopolitics?

One thing I learned just in my research is just when you think you’ve written something ridiculous and over the top about an authoritarian leader, you read about real-life figures and think, “Boy, maybe we didn’t push it enough.”

The world of the show is so extreme because the character is so extreme and so powerful and has access to unlimited kinds of material resources – Elena can create her own reality, and then everyone around her has to pretend as though it is reality. To me, that is an inherently funny, absurd, dark situation. 

The comedy is ingrained in the subject matter and the challenge is remembering that there’s real fear and cruelty and pain that comes out of the world that she creates. We have to remember that she’s a dangerous figure and we owe it to ourselves, especially in the world we live in now, to try to make the geopolitics and the consequences of all that feel real and not like a joke.