Good oral hygiene, including regular brushing and flossing, will prevent bad breath. But if you're one of those people who likes to use mouthwash just because it makes your mouth taste good, consider making your own — sans all those harsh germ-killing chemicals.

Debra Lynn Dadd, author of "Home Safe Home," says you can get the same effect by rinsing your mouth with very strong, cooled mint tea, or with your favorite flavored extract, such as peppermint, anise or cinnamon, mixed into pure water.

— Zenaida Serrano

FINAL WORD

"While we can get nostalgic for the past — 'Oh, I used to be so happy' — or wistful about the future — 'Someday I will be happy' — it is now, in this very moment, that we must create the only happiness that we can count on."

M.J. Ryan | author of "The Happiness Makeover: How to Teach Yourself to Be Happy and Enjoy Every Day"

PRIME TIME

UH MUG SHOT

One of the mysteries on NBC's new 7 p.m. Monday night mystery, "Surface," is not merely what's breeding beneath the ocean, and how that is menacing the population, but how a University of Hawai'i coffee mug — the green, black and white one with the "H" logo — wound up on the recent premiere episode.

The mug was seen in an opening scene. Then later, there was a young boy wearing a T-shirt with "Hawai'i" on it.

Will future episodes explain a link?

— Wayne Harada