Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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■ Michelle Obama is knitting and thinking about retiring from public life. The former first lady says in a new People magazine interview that she picked up knitting needles to pass time during the coronaviru­s pandemic. And now she’s hooked. “Knitting is a forever propositio­n,” she said. “You don’t master knitting, because once you make a scarf, there’s the blanket. And once you do the blanket, you’ve got to do the hat, the socks.” She’s working on her first crew neck sweater for her husband, former President Barack Obama. “I’m figuring out how to make sleeves and a collar,” she said. “I could go on about knitting!” The former first lady also talks about how the pandemic helped her and her husband reclaim “stolen moments” with Malia, 22, and Sasha, 19, who both returned home from college to quarantine with their parents at the family homes in Washington and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Michelle Obama, 57, also discusses what she says is the “low-grade depression” she experience­d during the pandemic lockdowns and after George Floyd’s killing by Minneapoli­s police in May, along with her shift away from high-impact exercise and what she wants out of retirement. The woman whose buffed biceps and exercise workouts were widely seen on the internet during her time as first lady said she taught herself to be a better lap swimmer during quarantine “because I’m finding in my old age that the high-impact stuff I used to do doesn’t work.” Obama’s new Netflix children’s food show, “Waffles + Mochi,” premieres Tuesday, and the Obama Presidenti­al Center is under constructi­on in Chicago. “Barack and I never want to experience winter again,” she said. “We’re building the foundation for somebody else to continue the work so we can retire and be with each other, and Barack can golf too much, and I can tease him about golfing too much because he’s got nothing else to do.”

■ Veteran news anchor Nancy Grace will host a weekly program on Fox Nation tied to the return of “America’s Most Wanted.” The long-running crime series starts a new season on the Fox broadcasti­ng network Monday, with Elizabeth Vargas as host. Immediatel­y after each episode ends, Grace, 61, will discuss it on the Fox Nation streaming service on a new show, “America’s Most Wanted Overtime.” Grace also hosts a SiriusXM series, “Crime Stories,” that is simulcast on Fox Nation. That arrangemen­t will continue as part of a new multiyear contract she has signed with the streaming service, Fox News Media said. Grace also frequently appears on Fox News Channel to discuss criminal-justice stories.

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Grace

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