Facing facts about facial hair

To shave or not to shave. That’s the choice men face every day.

Do I want to be clean-shaven every morning? Do I skip a day or two and look a little scruffy? Do I stop shaving, let my beard grow, then spend that shaving time trimming?

During my adult life, I’ve answered “yes” to all of those questions.

In the early 1970s, I grew a mustache. I kept it until the mid-’80s when we sold our second house while building a new place. I remained clean-shaven until late last year, when I decided to let my beard grow for the first time. It was a good change for me during my first year in retirement, and the vast majority of people who saw it liked it.

Last week, I decided to end the experiment for now. Maybe I’ll reconsider in the fall.

That experience led me to do some thinking and research about beards.

The growth of shaving

Beards seem to have become popular in recent years. That’s a change from most of the 20th Century, when most men were clean-shaven. And that was a change from the 19th Century, when beards were very popular.

Men have been shaving for thousands of years (think clam shells and shark teeth), but obviously shaving was more difficult before the development of sharp knives, which led to the development of the razor, according to howstuffworks.com:

“Even with these developments, however, men preferred beards. This may be because shaving with a straight razor is a somewhat dangerous activity better left to a professional. Unless you live in a city and are wealthy, being able to find and afford a shaving professional is difficult. And so, all the way up to the 20th Century, beards were fashionable and most men wore them.

“But during World War I in the United States, that all changed. And there were two reasons for that change:

“Gillette had released the ‘safety razor’ in 1901, and it was steadily gaining popularity because of a massive ad campaign. The safety razor made it possible and inexpensive for men to shave daily.

“Soldiers in the United States army were required to shave.”

According to the website, because of chemical agents used during World War I, soldiers needed to use gas masks. For those to fit properly, soldiers needed to be clean-shaven:

“The army bought millions of Gillette razors and blades to make shaving possible.

“When all of the soldiers returned from WWI with their clean-shaven faces, they were heroes. They appeared in their home towns, and they also appeared in newsreels in the new movie theaters that had sprung up everywhere. Combined with ad campaigns from companies like Gillette, it became the fashion to be clean shaven. Between 1920 and 1960, beards were definitely unfashionable.”

Famous beards

Some famous men were known for their beards, including Confucius, Leonardo da Vinci, Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln, who served from 1861-1865, was the first bearded president of the United States. Only four other presidents have had beards: Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), James A. Garfield (1881) and Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893).

Seven others had some type of facial hair: John Quincy Adams (1825-1829), long sideburns; Martin Van Buren (1837-1841), long sideburns; Zachary Taylor (1849-1850), sideburns; Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), mustache and long sideburns; Grover Cleveland (1885-1889, 1893-1897), mustache; Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), mustache; and William Howard Taft (1909-1913), mustache. Taft was the last president to have facial hair.

There is an interesting story about Lincoln’s beard, reported by many sources, including The Atlantic:

“In what has to go down as one of the all-time great moments of political image consulting, an 11-year old girl suggested to a fresh-faced Abe Lincoln that he grow a beard. And then he did. The website Letters of Note even has copies of the girl's letter and Lincoln's response. Beyond being the cutest historical footnote of all time, Ms. Grace Bedell, had some solid reasoning behind her request.”

Here is the lettersofnote.com transcript of that letter from Grace, who lived in Westfield, N.Y.:

“Hon A B Lincoln

“Dear Sir

“My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin’s. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brothers and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield Chautauqua County New York.

“I must not write any more answer this letter right off Good bye

“Grace Bedell”

Here is the transcript of Lincoln’s response:

“Springfield, Ill. Oct 19, 1860

“Miss Grace Bedell

“My dear little Miss

“Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received— 

“I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughters— I have three sons— one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age— They, with their mother, constitute my whole family—

“As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now?

“Your very sincere well wisher

“A. Lincoln”

Whether or not Grace’s suggestion made a difference, Lincoln was elected as our 16th, and arguably most famous, president, and the rest is history.

Other men have been defined by their beards, such as Blackbeard the pirate and James “Grizzly” Adams. And who could imagine Santa Claus clean-shaven?

Beard varieties

Beards are as different as hairstyles, and it’s good that not all are alike. Some beards are neatly trimmed, others are wild. Some are short, others extremely long. Some are thick, others are scraggly. Beards look natural on some men. On others, not so much.

Some young men want to grow a beard before their beard is ready to grow. I guess it’s an attempt to make them look older.

There are many styles of beards, according to Gillette, the grooming products company. It lists circle beard, royale beard, goatee, petite goatee, Van Dyke, short boxed, Balbo, anchor, Chevron, 3-day stubble, horseshoe mustache, original stache, mutton chops beard, gunslinger bear and mustache, chin strap and chin strap style beard.

The names are fascinating, as are those of mustaches, including Fu Manchu and handlebar.

The cost of shaving

We spend a lot of time and money on shaving and trimming.

If a man spends three minutes every day shaving for 65 years, he will have spent about 50 days of his life shaving.

It’s difficult to point to how much each of us spends on shaving products because we have different approaches. 

There also is variety in how we care for our facial hair. Some men use blades; others prefer electric razors.

Years ago, shaving required some type of soapy lather and a straight razor. I remember my grandfather using a brush to apply the soap from his mug to his mug. Now many men use gels that turn to lather to avoid nicks and cuts and to give a closer shave and a smoother face. And don’t forget the pre- and post-skin treatments that some men use.

And new products are being developed.

According to an article by CNBC in 2018, Harry’s shaving club (there’s a great company name) has cut into the men’s shaving market that has been dominated by Gillette and Schick:

“Harry’s has captured about 2 percent of the $2.8 billion men’s shaving industry since its launch in 2013, according to Euromonitor market research firm. Its main shaving club rival, Dollar Shave Club, has about 8 percent.

“Gillette controlled about 70 percent of the U.S. market a decade ago. Last year, its market share dropped to below 50 percent, according to Euromonitor. The company, owned by P&G, was forced to slash its razor prices by an average of 12 percent last year.

“No. 2 razor maker Schick has also been squeezed. Parent company Edgewell Personal Care reported a 3.6 percent drop in net sales from its North America shave business in its most recent earnings report.”

And through all of this information I haven’t even addressed the shaving, waxing and plucking that women do to remove body hair.

Personal choice

Some religions encourage or require men to have facial hair, but for most of us it’s a personal choice. Do I like the way I look with a beard? 

More important, I believe the best way to answer that age-old question – To shave or not to shave? – is to ask the woman in your life. 

She’s the one who has to look at you. And making her happy will help you to avoid a different type of close shave.

We all need the Reading Eagle

Soon after I started working at the Reading Eagle more than 40 years ago I heard the first of many rumors that the newspaper company was being sold. It was a valuable and profitable company then and it made sense that larger newspaper companies, especially chains, would covet a vibrant family-owned community newspaper. 

Every year as new rumors surfaced, there were assurances that the family had no intention of selling. The family, descendants of founder Jesse Hawley, who published the first edition of the Eagle on January 28, 1868, was committed to serving the people of Berks County.

And that continued for a century and a half. 

All of that changed last week when executives at Reading Eagle Company announced they had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and are seeking a buyer. 

It is sad news for the company, its employees and the community. Those of us who have retired from the Eagle are hurting, too, because we invested so much of our lives in that great institution. We worry about the future of the 250 employees who remain at the Eagle and at WEEU radio, South Schuylkill News and REP commercial printing, which the company also owns. We worry about our community, which needs a local newspaper.

For many people, the news was shocking, but change has been coming for some time. 

The newspaper industry has suffered in recent years. Several weeks ago Joyce Terhaar, former executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and a board member of the American Society of News Editors, wrote about the state of the industry: “In recent years, the outcome has become dire, with nearly one in five — almost 1,800 newspapers — closed in the last 15 years, according to Penelope Muse Abernathy, the Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Economics at the University of North Carolina.”

Many of those were community weeklies, but dailies also have closed.

Others have been sold, some more than once. Circulation has declined significantly, and so has advertising, the two main revenue streams that fund newsrooms, as more people have sought free information – not always real news – on the internet, and as businesses turned to the internet and direct mail to connect with customers.

According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center:

“The estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2017 was 31 million for weekday and 34 million for Sunday, down 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, from the previous year.”

Circulation has been on a steady decline for years at most newspapers, and internet traffic hasn’t made up for the loss in print readership. According to Pew:

“Gauging digital audience for the entire newspaper industry is difficult since many daily newspapers do not receive enough traffic to their websites to be measured by comScore, the data source relied on here. Thus, the figures … reflect the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers based on circulation. In the fourth quarter of 2017, there was an average of 11.5 million monthly unique visitors (across all devices) for these top 50 newspapers. This is nearly the same as in 2016 (11.7 million), making this the first year since we began tracking the trend that did not show a double-digit rise in web traffic: There was, for example, a 21 percent increase from 2015 to 2016 and an 18 percent rise from 2014 to 2015.”

Advertising revenue also has declined. Pew, citing figures from the News Media Alliance and Editor & Publisher magazine, reported that total newspaper advertising revenue in the U.S. fell from $49.4 billion in 2005 to $16.4 billion in 2017.

As a result of those losses, many of the news companies that continue to operate have cut staff.

Pew recently reported: “According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Employment Statistics, 39,210 people worked as reporters, editors, photographers, or film and video editors in the newspaper industry in 2017. That is down 15 percent from 2014 and 45 percent from 2004.”

TheEagle,in stories about its bankruptcy filing, reported that advertising revenues declined from $17 million to $12.6 million between 2016 and 2018. It lists daily circulation at 37,000 and Sunday at 50,000. 

Several years ago, when I still was the editor at the Eagle, I was told by ownership that the one area that was not to be cut was the newsroom, because without strong content the newspaper could not survive. Yet, soon after I retired more than a year ago, 13 positions were cut in the newsroom. That didn’t help.

Neither did the cost-saving moves to reduce the number of pages and eliminate some features in the newspaper. But when revenue declines, something has to be done to reduce expenses.

All of those moves weren’t enough for the Eagle.

The model that has existed for centuries no long is sustainable. But focusing on the business side rather than on the journalism won’t save it. And it won’t help our community or our nation and the freedoms that newspapers protect.

The future likely will have a scaled down version of news delivery that still will require dedicated editors and writers. Most notably, it won’t be free. It likely will require benefactors who are willing to help fund independent journalism and consumers who are willing to pay for credible news.

When a community loses its local newspaper it loses part of its conscience. 

Who provides credible and accurate information about what is happening in the community?

Who asks the hard questions?

Who represents citizens when they are too busy or distracted?

Who holds public officials accountable?

Over the course of 20 years, Chuck Gallagher, who preceded me as editor of the Eagle, and I took a newsroom that was revered and respected and built a dream staff. We hired excellent editors, photographers, designers and some of the best writers in the state. Some came from other regional newspapers that were struggling and making staff cuts. Others wanted to be part of what was becoming one of the top newsrooms in the state.

Although journalists don’t focus on winning awards, the recognition of hundreds of awards – including the current streak of six Keystone Press Awards sweepstakes, a Pennsylvania Newspaper of the Year Award last year and three straight Inland Press Association national Community Leadership Awards beginning in 2013 – came as the result of doing quality journalism.

All of that was important. It served the community, and it made us feel good, but it couldn’t save the company.

The Eagle’s $20-some million investment in a new printing press and distribution center that opened in 2009, and the resulting debt, was too much to overcome as more readers turned to the internet for free information and as advertisers used the internet and direct mail to connect with customers.

Last week the Eagle’s newsroom reported its company’s own story, including specific details from its bankruptcy filing. That’s a tribute to the excellent reporters and editors still there. In the Friday edition, they included a list of creditors. 

The Eagle cited bankruptcy papers that listed the company's assets at just over $15 million and its liabilities at almost $38.5 million.

It also listed its shareholders and their percentages, which I’m sure few in the public had ever seen from this private company. 

Among the Eagle’s stories was one announcing that the company’s chief financial officer was trying to put together a group of investors and financing to purchase the company. Something isn’t making sense there. 

I have my own theories about what drove the Eagle to the cliff, but sharing those here would serve no purpose at a time when positive solutions are needed. 

These days it is nearly impossible for a newspaper to survive under leadership that doesn’t understand the basics of good journalism and doesn’t value and respect employees. Those things have to be part of a newspaper company’s fabric and culture.

Maybe another family or community group will come forward and purchase the company. It would have to be someone or some group that sees the value of local journalism as something more important than profits. It will take someone with a lot of resources, including deep pockets. It will take someone with strong management skills.

More likely, as has been the case in other communities in recent years, some large company from another community or state will see an opportunity to buy at a bargain price and cut its way to a profit. That’s very sad, but it’s the reality of journalism today.

It’s also reality that many younger people refuse to pay for news and choose to get their information online from sources that often are not credible, including much of what is posted on social media.

Before I retired and shortly after, I reminded people about the importance of community-based newspapers. I encouraged them, in what I wrote in my Sunday column and in conversations with people individually and while speaking at events, to support local news by subscribing to the newspaper and encouraging local advertisers. I warned that people won’t realize how important local news coverage is until they lose it.

It costs money to collect and distribute local news. You can’t support a stand-alone community-focused newsroom solely on advertising revenue. Many people don’t understand that or refuse to accept it. As one long-time newspaper executive often told me: Facts are stubborn things. Citizens need to invest in local news; there is no free ride.

Yet, through the online posting of this news about the state of the Eagle last week, some people continued to criticize the Eagle’s model of charging for news. I often wonder why they don’t criticize grocery stores for not giving them free food or utilities for not providing free services. Maybe people think they can’t live without those things, but they don’t believe they need a newspaper. They are wrong.

Some on social media labeled the Eagle’s reporting as liberally biased. Others criticized the Eagle as too conservative. In both cases, they are wrong.

You would be hard-pressed to find a more balanced or accurate newspaper than the Eagle is. 

Early last year, the Reading Eagle marked its 150^th anniversary. It’s sad that a year later the company’s days as a family-owned newspaper appear to be over. Regardless who owns it in the future, two things are critical:

■ The community must have a local news company.

■ That local news company must have the freedom to independently report the news.

If not, we’ll all pay the price.

Bugged by news about the Beetle

I’ve never been a car junkie, but I can’t imagine living without one. I was thinking about the cars in my life several months ago after reading about Volkswagen ending production of the Beetle this year after 80 years. The story brought back memories from 50 years ago.

In the early 1970s I bought a 1964 Bug. It wasn’t my first car – that was a ’64 Rambler American I shared with my mother – but it was the first car I bought. Who didn’t love VW’s Bugs and Buses back then?

It was rear-engine and air cooled with a stick shift on the floor and got great gas mileage before gas became expensive. I could fill up the tank for under $3 because gas cost about $.27 per gallon back then. Compare that to today.

It wasn’t much on power. When I would drive home from college, I had to get a running start to make it up the hill outside of town. Sometimes I thought I could run faster than that car moved when it reached the top of that hill.

That was the first of about 20 cars I’ve owned during 51 years of driving, including many years as a two-car family. Most of them we kept between five and 10 years. I recently tried to make a list of all of the cars I’ve owned. Great nostalgia. That includes several mini vans, which allowed parents to separate their children (“Mom, she’s touching me.”) and carry all the things that never fit in the trunk of a car.

I’ve never had an interest in owning another Beetle, but it’s sad to see such an iconic symbol of the ’60s and my journey into adulthood end. 

The Beetle was associated with the decade of love – the love bug – and was featured in the “The Love Bug” movies of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The Bug and the Bus were favorites of the hippies and the flower power generation of the ’60s. College kids tried to see how many people they could stuff into a Bug, when they weren’t doing the same thing in phone booths. Remember those? Those challenges may have seemed silly, but they made more sense than some of the things kids do now.

The Bug spawned the punch buggy game – punch buggy (red), no punch backs – that entertained kids (“Mom, he’s hitting me”) who watched for the cars on long family rides decades before electronic devices came on the scene.

It also had one of the top advertising campaigns of the 20^thCentury – “Think small.”

The beauty of the Bug back then was its simplicity. Now it’s hard to live without all the bells and whistles – gauges, navigation, power accessories, remote starters, heated seats and voice-activated commands. I used to take pride in believing that a car was simply a way to get from one place to another. I’ve become spoiled, although I sometimes try to convince myself that it’s all in the name of safety.

As I’ve grown older, all of that technology helps on long drives, which seem longer than they did when I was in my 20s. Which is part of the reason I’ve been thinking about owning a sports car. If you’re going to spend a lot of time behind a wheel, shouldn’t it be a little fun to drive? 

It couldn’t possibly be a mid-life crisis because I’m no longer middle-aged. Besides, it’s not likely to happen because I don’t like to spend excessive money on insurance, repairs and high-octane gas.

All of which never were concerns when I owned that Beetle five decades ago. 

Even though I have no interest in reliving those days, they are good memories of a much simpler time.

Celebrating my first year of retirement

Several years ago I started to keep a countdown of days until my retirement. It seemed to take forever until I reached that target date. But I did. A whole year ago. It’s amazing how quickly that first year of retirement has passed.

Retirement is everything I hoped it would be. Freedom. Peace. Less pressure and stress. You get the idea.

A decade ago I thought I would have had trouble walking away from a job I liked. That changed several years ago, and I knew it was time to start thinking about the next chapter in my life. 

It has been a busy year, but one filled with things I want to do and often when I want to do them.

So here is some of how I’ve spent my first year of retirement.

At the top of the list was getting married. Now I have someone special to share every day again. There are no longer all of those lonely evenings. Loneliness is a terrible way to live. When my wife of 41 years died after a lengthy illness, I didn’t expect to find someone else to love and share the rest of my life. I was wrong. Love can do that.

We’ve spent a lot of time during the past year combining two houses into one. That has included many projects at the home we now share. In addition to moving furniture, I organized a large workshop in the garage, which has made it easier to do other things, such as adding shelves in the walk-in pantry, installing lazy Susans in the kitchen cupboards, replacing lights, putting new floors in the bathrooms, installing cabinets in the laundry room and cleaning out attics. We also spent several weeks working in the gardens.

There still is a list of things that we will be working on this year. She lovingly calls me her handyman.

This year hasn’t been all work. 

We've walked and biked. This winter we’ve spent a lot of time doing puzzles. We spend many evenings sitting in front of the fireplace watching the news, “Jeopardy” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” reruns. There have been numerous shopping trips. 

We also have done some traveling – to Italy and Greece and to visit my sister and brother-in-law in southern California. I’ve been to Michigan twice to visit my daughter’s family.

We’ve attended a few of my local grandsons’ sports games and have spent time with our parents. We’re fortunate to still have all four of our parents. They range in age from 88 to 91. As can be expected at that point, three of them have been dealing with health issues, but their ages give us hope that she and I may have many years to share.

I have gotten involved with several community organizations, but I don’t intend to allow them to overwhelm me or infringe on my new relationship. I’ve come to believe that relationships are strongest when you make each other your priority. We’re looking for things to do together, such as when we help to serve meals for seniors on Christmas Day.

After a break of several months, I also started writing again, mostly through this blog. The hardest part of leaving my job was losing touch with some of the thousands of people who read my column every week. As much as this has helped others, it has helped me just as much.

People have asked if I plan to write a book. I may. At least I’ve formed a couple of ideas, but I don’t want to see that turn into the pressure of my working days.

I even have become a cat person. Who could have known? Oliver sometimes even gets off of my chair so I can work at my desk.

Now that I’m an experienced retiree, I’ve collected a few thoughts and some advice for those looking to follow me into this incredible lifestyle:

■ Stay active. Take walks, Work in the yard. Don’t sit around the house all day.

■ Don’t put off things you want to do. Go places while you still are healthy.

■ Don’t be pressured by things you don’t want to do. A big part of the enjoyment of retirement is getting to pick and choose what you do most days.

■ Do things to keep your mind sharp. Work jigsaw puzzles and crosswords. Read books, magazines and newspapers. Watch Jeopardy.

■ Don’t look back with regret. Memories are good things, but don’t dwell on what could have been. That won’t change the past and will only cloud the future.

■ Don’t waste time worrying. It won’t add any time to your life.

■ If your hearing has declined, get a hearing aid. At this point in life it doesn’t matter if it makes you look old. You are.

■ Don’t stop learning. It’s never too late.

■ Don’t stop dreaming. Setting goals helps you to be excited about the future

■ Take time to watch the sunsets.

True happiness comes when we choose happiness

Sometimes I need to read things I wrote years ago to remind myself of the advice I shared with others. Here’s a column I wrote in 2012. 

We all have choices in life. Why don’t we choose to be happy? 

That’s not always easy, and I fail at times. But I’ve reached the point where I’m tired of letting people and things around me bring me down. So I’m trying to change that. 

The secret to happiness is focusing on the things that lift us up, and there really are many more of those positives than we realize. The problem is, we tend to focus more on the negatives.

You can have six good days in a row, but your week is ruined by one bad day. 

You can receive dozens of compliments, but you focus on a single criticism. 

You can accomplish countless successes, but one failure overshadows all of them. 

Why are so many people so unhappy? It may be that our expectations are too high. We want perfection; a life without problems. Now that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t set high standards or have lofty goals, but we need to be realistic. 

Many times it’s little things or things we can’t control that bring us down: a loss by our sports team; conflicts with co-workers; lack of finances; feelings of being ignored, left out, neglected or abandoned; lack of consideration; struggles to meet demands and obligations, which overwhelm us, steal our energy and make us too tired to face each day. 

I have more than my share of problems, headaches, pain and disappointments. But I also have more than my share of blessings. Far more than my share. So why shouldn’t I focus on those? After all, they are much more pleasant. 

Doesn’t it make more sense to consider what you have instead of what you lack? People prefer to be associated with positive people. 

I do know people who seem to be too happy. They bubble with enthusiasm to the point that they overwhelm those around them. You find yourself asking: Is it real? But, does it matter? If that’s what makes them happy, why should I judge them or bring them down? Even happy people have down moments. Besides, people recognize genuine happiness. 

Happiness isn’t just about that outward display. It’s about how you feel inside. How contented you are with your life. How satisfied. 

There are so many things that can lift us up. Here are things to consider whenever the world gets you down. 

■ Look at the sky at any time during the day or night and consider the vastness of the universe. Think about the way the Earth and all the other planets revolve around the sun in such an orderly manner and have for time that is countless without colliding. Then realize how insignificant all your troubles are in comparison. 

■ Look into the eyes of a baby and see the innocence and unlimited potential that exists for him and the future of this world. 

■ Consider how life began, how new life begins every second of every day and how precious every one of God’s children is in the world. 

■ Resolve that kindness is the only appropriate response to cruelty if there is to be any hope of erasing the latter. 

■ Understand that a smile can dry up more tears than tissues, sleeves and towels.

■ Treat each new day as an opportunity to do something positive in the world. 

■ Realize that when you’re gone the memory of what you did in life will fade within a generation or two, but the love you pass on will last forever.

■ Look in the mirror every morning and understand that the only one who can make you unhappy is the one looking back at you.

■ Slow down. Often it’s the pace and the competition that takes away your happiness. Let someone else get ahead of you in line or traffic and know that in the bigger picture of the world it’s not going make much of a difference in getting to your destination.

■ Remind yourself that life on Earth is temporary. In the end, we all will die, so concentrate on celebrating and treasuring the time we have and those around us. Life changes so quickly. Why waste a single moment? 

It all comes down to perspective, approach and attitude. 

You can know true happiness, but not until you choose not to be unhappy.