This monthly roundup of blog posts is particularly important for three reasons:

1. I have been having trouble synching up the blog with social media.
   I think the problem is fixed but for several weeks the blog simply would not connect with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, all of which direct readers to The Next Phase daily. That means a lot of people who would ordinarily have seen a link to one of these posts just didn’t—and that means they didn’t come and read some of what they might have otherwise enjoyed.
2. We were away. For the first time we spent a winter week somewhere sunny. In this case, it was Scottsdale, Arizona, where the Sonoran Desert was warm and dry. Unseasonably so, in fact. The locals said it was April weather in February. (Last June the folks in Savannah said they were having August weather in June.) Hmmm.
   We spent a couple of days with our two granddaughters. When they left for home, we stayed on to do some fun stuff on our own. More on that in tomorrow’s post.
3. In the course of creating a roundup of February 2016 posts, I realized that I never did the same thing for January. Oops.

So here’s a double roundup of January and February 2016 posts that lets you can catch up on any you missed. It includes all seven of the Bronze Menagerie series about animal statues in Boston,including the Democratic Donkey and Jumbo the Elephant. They’re just in time for the primary elections.

Animals

• The Difference a Dog Makes 

Boston and History: 

The King of the Jungle on a cold winter day

The Bronze Menagerie Series —  Aline

1. Political Animals: Jumbo the Elephant
2. Political Animals: Democratic Donkey
3. Boston’s Bronze Teddy Bear
4. Boston’s Kensington Lions
5. Boston’s Horses: Paint and Henry
6. Boston’s Animal Statues: Codfish
7. Boston’s Bronze Rhinos 

Other Boston Posts — Aline

• Boston’s Popcorn Man
• Become a Boston By Foot Docent

Business and Technology

• Predicting Future Technology — Aline
• Predicting Future Technology: Part 2 — Aline
• Predicting Future Technology: Part 3 – Aline
• Cell Phone Addiction – Susanne
• The Family You Work With – Susanne
• 10 Most Stressful Jobs – Aline
• Radical Candor / Radically Wrong — Aline 

Food and Cooking

• The Winter Kitchen – Susanne

Health and Safety

• Hospital-Based Infections: The Solutions Already Exist – Seth
• You Got a Cold? Vitamin C to the Rescue – Seth
• Statin Drugs and Calcium Absorption – Seth
• The Heartbreak of Psoriasis – Seth
• I Don’t Have a Headache—I Have a Migraine – Seth
• Sleep Problems and Counting Sheep – Seth
• Remembering to Write About Alzheimer’s Disease — Seth

Life and Culture

• The IF in Difference – Susanne
• Sexist Advertising: Getting Worse – Aline
• On My Mind: February 2016 – Susanne
• The Declutter Project – Susanne
• Real Home Economics Needed – Aline
• Racism in Politics and Society – Aline
• Preposterous Powerball – Aline
• 2016: A Year of Less — Susanne

Military

• Wounded Warrior Project: Charity or Investment Bank? — Susanne

Movies and TV

• Downton Abbey’s Disappointing Docents
• 3-Movie Roundup: January 2016