Merrily Orsini’s elder-senior-mature market blog

An Evening with Will Smith and friends

2008-07-04T21:45:55Z

Just being in Los Angeles in itself is like being in another world. Weather that is perfect, a breeze blowing softly and the fat lemons on the tree behind the house just ripe for the picking. Bougainvillea in its purple splendor adorning corners of the yard.

And the people, everywhere are beautiful people, tall, slender, blonde with revealing low cut blouses and frighteningly short skirts. And men with arms hard as rocks and buns that look like the statue of David. So, LA is the appropriate setting for Hollywood. Where else would Hollywood reside? There is no other place in the world like it.

So, this is how I got to spend the evening with Will Smith and friends. It started at an auction in Louisville for a red carpet premier. A bid for an item that sounded like fun. The months of discussion with the events coordinator at Columbia pictures about what movie would make the best trip to the premier seem worth the ridiculous amount that I had paid for it. Then the decision that Will Smith would be the one.

LA is awash with billboards about Hancock. Huge billboards. And all I have to show that I am participating is one piece of paper that designates self parking. The day arrives. I really do not know what to expect. Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is cordoned off with a wall of security like the president is visiting. Men in black suits with sunglasses about every 3 feet on Hollywood from Highland to Orange. But my friends and I breeze through them with that flick of the paper in hand. Will call. My name on the envelope allows the four of us into the theatre. The tickets are definitely scrap book material as they have the now very familiar image of the unshaven Will Smith as Hancock on them, and they are reserved primo seats. One of my friends had asked, teasingly, “can we get popcorn?” Well there was popcorn and soft drinks, all free, and as much as anyone wanted. But who wanted to eat or drink when the idea was to see who was there, and to see if Will smith DID actually come to his premiers and then to just experience the evening of a lifetime.

The lights blink off and on. The theatre is almost full. He appears, in a gray suit with a vest. And he yells. He loves the adoration and he loves, even more, being the center of attention. “You are legend” comes a yell back from the other side of the theatre. And a hearty welcome to all from Will Smith, and let’s start the show. To quote Will, “Ladies and gentlemen. I give you Hancock,”

Great movie is all I can say. A screen that wraps and envelopes the viewer. Sound that surrounds and reverberates through your body. And a movie that is exciting, touching, thrilling, ridiculous, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Then the afterparty. Yes, we have tickets to the afterparty. We exit the theatre. Hollywood Boulevard is still closed off, and there is one lane set aside for us to walk from Grauman’s to the afterparty site. Crowds line the street and photograph and yell, “Charlize, Charlize!” Turning, I realize that Charlize Theron is right behind me, and she is closely followed by Jason Bateman. We are walking with the stars down Hollywood Boulevard to the afterparty. On a balmy June 30th. For a Will Smith premier. I am not dreaming. This is real.

Tickets are handed over as we walk the red carpet through tight security and under a 20 foot tall emblazoned eagle spanning the entrance. The event is outside in an area about the size of half a foot ball field. There are food bars, drink bars, drive-in movie sized screens, djs, lounge areas, sitting areas, bar areas, tattoo artists, photo settings with wrecked cars to hold up by a finger for the cameras, and stars. Beautiful movie and recording stars mingling, drinking, laughing, talking, posing, and doing what they do in Hollywood. Being adored, being photographed, being stars.

Mingle, stroll, gawk, drink, enjoy the evening and keep pinching myself that this is really happening. Then Will Smith takes the stage. He really loves the spotlight and he loves performing. His dj friend. DJ Jazziy Jeff, is there to set the stage as Will performs rap song after rap song. His buddies join him on the stage, and he dances, sings, jiggles his extraordinarily tight buns amazingly at the audience, and has himself a fine time at his own party. And the crowds love him back.

There are flaming wrecked cars everywhere, used as backdrops for all the bars. There are loud speakers everywhere. There are screens everywhere. This is Hollywood premier at its finest, and I am sharing it with friends. And I am sharing Will Smith with friends. Cross this one off the bucket list. I have red carpet premiered with Will Smith and now I have indelibly in my memory for those times when life is not Hollywood and things are just normal back in Louisville.

Garden wins crowd even with swarming cicadas

2008-06-07T12:15:06Z

Yew Dell Gardens in Crestwood, Kentucky defies marketing odds. It is in an inconvenient location, not easily accessible, and not really close to anything. It is a garden that has to be a destination - a journey in itself for the visitor. Yet, June 6 from 5-8 PM Yew Dell Gardens was awash in visitors, paying money to visit and see the sculpture that had been placed strategically on the manicured grounds.

You can have the best of the best, and if no one knows about it, then there is no buzz, no sizzle, no sales. So how did Yew Dell get most of Louisville to travel outside of town, pay the high gas prices, endure the 95 degree hot and humid evening, dodge the mass of swarming cicadas and enjoy this outdoor garden and its new summer sculpture?

They used a variety of marketing techniques, and they obviously used them effectively. First, they started with amassing a group of loyal supporters who are willing to give time and money and to tell friends. Secondly they have hired the very best to work in this setting, and those folks are gaining a reputation internationally with speaking, writing and making Yew Dell visible to the outside world. Oftentimes it takes national recognition
for locals to notice local gems, and Yew Dell is successfully gaining national and international attention.

They use effective networking and strategy. Networking in that each and every volunteer is charged with getting those in their social and business circles to not only come to events, but to tell their friends about it. And, they are using social and business circles to get THE people that other people want to know to be THE names sponsoring the events.

And, they have an incredibly high quality product. The gardens are impeccable, changing daily almost with the changing flora and its displays. The sculpture is from local and regional artists, but was by invitation only so the quality of the sculpture was most worthy of its setting. And, you now have those who are amazed at their success writing about it and telling others!

Enjoy a scenes from the opening of the Sculptures in the Dell, June 7 through July 26, 2008. Yew Dell Gardens, Crestwood, KY, 502-241-4788.

Always the Customer; Not Necessarily Right

2008-05-26T13:29:06Z

"My pleasure" said the obsequious waiter at Proof on Main, one of Louisville's top restaurants this Memorial Day weekend. "My pleasure" he said every time my husband or I said "thank you". Hubbie said, "It's not his pleasure. It's his job." To which I replied, "Well, 'my job' just does not get it as an appropriate response to a customer. If he said "my job' every time you said 'thank you', you'd be laughing so hard you couldn't finish your bison tenderloin."

Thus began the conversation on what a waiter should say to a customer, since, in doing his job, he should be thankful and gain pleasure from a)having a job and b)having a job that allows him to serve paying customers. "It is my pleasure to serve you" was what he meant, I am certain, but shortened it to "my pleasure" since he was so ever present. And trying to be obsequious. Which he accomplished nicely, I might add. We will return to Proof on Main for those special occasions as it does feel good to be a customer there.

The night before at Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse, another Louisville culinary location of renown, we had the opposite experience. Our waitress was barely attentive, and the food was overpriced and VERY slow to be delivered. Because of the extreme wait, I had asked the hostess (2 of them NOT busy, I might add) to make a call for me (cell phone reception is nil there for some reason) and she told me to go outside where I could place the call myself. Aggravated, I did just that, and had several people confuse my presence at the door as some sort of welcome wagon hostess service. This experience and the almost $200 bill for bad service for only one meal which we split will mean that Jeff Ruby's does not get our business again soon.

What customers want first and foremost is to be appreciated, and to have someone's attention. Whether it is in a restaurant, on a phone call, or in a retail store, or on line. Customers want to be appreciated as they are about to drop some money to someone's bottom line, and getting the customer to do that is sometimes not easy. Remembering names is probably #1 on the list of what makes a customer feel special. Don't you love it when someone knows your name and addresses you when you come back into a store or restaurant? Then #2 is getting whatever you are trying to do, done correctly. So efficiency and effectiveness in the buying process is appreciated. #3 might be knowledge of the subject, and if the sales person is lacking knowledge, then finding the answers to questions instead of just saying "Gosh, I don't know" and leaving it there. And #4 would be make the customer's life easier. They may not always be right, but they are always the customer.

One Armed Weight Lifting

2008-05-23T14:33:24Z

In this era of specialization, did you know that there are specific weight bearing exercises now recommended for people specifically to combat osteoporosis? It is now recommended to vary the weight bearing and lift weights with only one hand at a time (seems that the body gets used to the symmetry and will strengthen the core better if the asymmetrical method is used), to use two weights together to work on grip (a noted problem with aging is the inability to open jars or pillboxes), to experience "hard landings" so there is stress added to the hip joints (a bit out of the ordinary from the message that impact is bad....seems now that SOME impact is good and the elliptical is not all the older exerciser needs).

The other item is that any exercise is good exercise, even if done in shorter stints. So exercising 10 times a day for 3 minutes is almost as good as exercising for 30 minutes in one straight blitz. So, don't think that because you do exercise and have a routine that you won't have to learn new tricks as you age.

How does this relate to marketing a product or service? You have to really understand what it is you are selling and to whom, and change the message or the delivery method as the targets changes and evolves. Plus, like the 3 minutes 10 times a day, the importance is in just doing it. In marketing it is communicating what it is you want the target to know, in a variety of ways, over time.

Things go better with mango margaritas

2008-05-14T04:53:41Z

Dan Ariely in his book Predictable Irrational has researched why people buy and the advantages of choices and comparables when shopping. No where is this more apparent than in Puerto Vallarta in the sales of time share properties. Everywhere one goes from the first contact after disembarking at the airport to breakfast, lunch or dinner at the hotel, there are people selling timeshares. And the comparables and choices get better with each offering.

The marketing message learned here is that people do compare offerings. And the presentation and promotion does make a difference. Basking in the sun with a fresh squeezed mango margarita makes owning a time share in a laid back place seem a wonderful opportunity for an inexpensive getaway. And the money also seems reasonable based on what vacations cost.

The Mom Factor

2008-04-29T08:33:20Z

Marketing is really the science of matching products or services with a targeted group that has a potential to need them. Reaching that target is the key, and whether or not one has enough time or money to position the product or service in front of the target market is one key to success of failure. Whether the pricing is right and the timing is right given all other constraints and enticements on that time and money also factor in to success or failure. Marketing 101.

Dr. Yolanda Brooks is one example of a professional person who takes her service, her professional background, and her interests and parlays them into jobs that she likes. Thus marketing herself, in a way, to selected targets. I first met Dr. Brooks in Dallas at a professional football players conference when she was the psychologist for the Dallas Cowboys. She has also worked with the NBA, won numerous awards, and through it all she remains focused on helping others through her combination of education, experience and insights. And wheter or not she is selling balance or support to professional sports team members, or supporting her family and moms and daughters, she is great at matching her services with the targeted group that needs them.

As an aside, corecubed, my company, just won the Working Mother Magazine's Best 25 Women Owned Companiesin America award, and we are so proud to have been a recipient. Hat's off to all the moms who are raising families and keeping their professional careers on track.

If It Works, Why Break It

2008-04-24T20:17:13Z

Choosing what rules to live by is a crucial part of one's destiny. On a recent trip to South America I was introduced to the Inca culture and was taken by the powerful, but simple rules of that civilization.

Inca rules: Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t be lazy.
Inca values: Knowledge, Love, Hard Work.

If you think about it, these values and rules sort of encompass all other rule books by all religions and cultures. And, not only did the Incas have their values and rules down to a science, their architecture and engineering feats are still to be revered.

Amazingly the structures built by the Incas are still standing. Some were toppled by the invading Spanish conquistadors, but then modern churches were built on those foundations, and the modern churches have been felled several times with earth movement, only to have those Incan foundations still standing so the modern can be rebuilt. Sewers, water supply in cities – all things that were engineered by the Incans. Some systems are still operational today.

In these troubled times, it seems that if we adapted the Inca values and the Inca rules then the world would be a better place. If we adapted the Inca engineering and architectural rules, then powerful, unexpected earth movement would be just another event, and cities would not have to be rebuilt following quakes.

What is the marketing message in this reverie? If it works, why break it? Just build on the strengths and adapt to new ideas using what already works. It really is not necessary to tear anything down to start over. Sometimes new things can come from using old foundations, or old structures and building on them.

Compare Marketing with the Prickly Pear

2008-04-14T08:49:23Z

Just travel to the Galapagos Islands if you want a good lesson on how to adapt to situations. Speciation it is called by scientists, but marketers could call it adapting to the environment. In plants and animals it is obvious as the prickly pear cactusgrows a trunk to keep its fruit above the tortoise, and spines if there are land iguanas around trying to eat its fruit. Businesses have to adapt to the environment also – customers’ changing habits, technology, competition- all are present in changing ways, and it is the adaptable business that stays around, remains profitable, and always looks for ways to be better. Marketing’s job is to stay ahead of those changing environments and to position the company to continue to meet their customers’ changing needs.

One Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

2008-02-22T06:16:19Z

What is it that an effective marketing communications strategy always does?

Marketing communications strategy always targets an audience. The more well defined and the more specific the audience, the more effective the marketing communications strategy will be.

An effective marketing communications strategy sells brands, not companies. Trying to market yourself as an institution to buyers who only want some specific industry service is usually what most companies do, and ineffectually.

When the marketing communications strategy targets a narrow niche, “one rising tide lifts all boats.”

A good example of this was when corecubed took on the National Private Duty Association’s (NPDA) marketing and pr strategy in 2003. At that time there was little information in the media about private duty home care. Through strategically positioning NPDA members as the safe solution to in-home care, all private duty home care companies benefited. Now there is another organization that services that industry, the Private Duty Home Care Association, an arm of the National Association of Home Care and Hospice.

Currently corecubed is working with private duty companies in a geographically exclusive marketing program that is based on educating referral sources rather than selling. This positioning is the extreme example of narrowing the niche market as well as selling a brand and not companies. And it works!

Powerful Messages Reach Their Target Better

2008-02-16T16:36:20Z

Reaching your audience is much easier if the message is powerful. Most people will only remember two or three key messages at a time, if that.

So, to start getting that message right, focus on and develop a very limited number of messages. They can and will change from time to time, but start with two or three.

Some guidelines for the message are:
• Remember your goals
• Use the message as an opportunity to reach those goals
• Try to envision yourself in their position by considering what information they need to know that will help sell your services to them.
• Speak in simple terms and avoid industry jargon and any technical language.
• People learn by example, so some good examples or anecdotes will help make your message memorable.
• Anticipate questions and practice answering the easy as well as the difficult ones. Use role-playing with an outside professional to get the best, honest feedback.
• If you have to cite statistics, do so sparingly and in a very simplified form.
• Become human to your audience. Make use of any personal experiences that will support your message.

The message is the mediumone wise marketing guru once said. I don’t agree with that 100%, but the message is certainly important.

Our Need for Speed Hinders the Frail

2007-09-15T14:06:44Z

Some mighty life lessons were learned at Chautauqua this year.

The first relates to aging and recuperating from an illness. When the body is frail but in the healing and strengthening process, it is better for the frail one to attempt to use muscles even though it takes longer to do everything. In our eagerness to assist an older person struggling to do a task, we are preventing them from using the muscles required. Opening doors, fetching things. We facilitate their weakness by doing for them. Our haste makes us want to accomplish things faster. And our need for speed makes a slow, frail person take longer to get back into shape. It is really always better to ask a frail person if they would like that door opened, or that glass retrieved. They may prefer to do the task themselves. The other downside to waiting on people, is the frail person then is left with nothing to do, but to sit and wait to be waited on. Every single person wants to be useful and have purpose, so allowing a person to be useful is giving them reason to live.

Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORC) was a concept with which I was unfamiliar. The Chautauqua Institute appears to be one of those. This concept has been formalized, and there is actual funding to assist in program and service developments for these kinds of communities. It certainly makes sense for those who want to age in place, and then live from frailty to grave in a place with people they know and love and who are informal support for meeting lots of life's needs.

The third lesson was that these NORCs are perfect targets for home care and aging services. They are ripe for someone to research for location and them start providing services to the high end communities.

10 Exercises While Waiting for the Phone to Ring

2007-07-21T10:02:00Z

One of my clients who has just started a business said she was antsy just waiting for the phone to ring. My reply? What can you spend your time doing now (while you are not swamped) to make that phone ring?

Some ideas to start relationship building that will keep you and your business in front of others, and therefore "top of mind":

1. Create or join a networking group that includes other professionals with whom you hope to do business.
2. Be a resource. Start or beef up your personal research and library relating to how you can provide helpful information, tools or tips to your clients or potential clients and/or any possible referral sources. These could include business or personal problems and issues. As you learn new things, share with others and get them thinking of you as a resource in your field.
3. Write notes or send a branded (useful/memorable) gift to recognize milestones, news, events,etc.
4. Clip news articles or magazine articles that are relevant and send to the person who is quoted or featured, or about a related business of interest, or anything else that is of interest to your prospective client or referral source, and include a short, personal note.
5. Ask for their input or help on a presentation or to give feedback on an article you're writing. People really like to feel important and needed, and will likely remember you.
6. Create or plan and coordinate an outing or an event, and all the better if it is work related somehow. Invite those who you want to do business with or who you would like to know better as a referral source. This can also serve as the beginning of a networking group if you really put your mind to it.
7. Send some "personal PR" about what you have done (like starting your new business) or a feat accomplished (like obtaining licensure in a particularly difficult state), or an article you have published or an article of interest that allows you to point out how it might help their business.
8. Volunteer for a group or an event that will either effectively demonstrate your skills in your business or place you with others who you want to know better.
9. Just keep in touch by phone or email so you are not out of sight and out of mind.
10. Entertain them: Lunch, dinner, golf or any other event. But invite and enjoy getting to know those with whom you want to do business.

These should keep you from just sitting and waiting for the phone to ring.

Stranger Within Our Gates

2007-07-02T09:00:00Z

The Cumberland Inn, in Williamsburg, Kentucky is about a 3 hour drive from Louisville and a 3 hour drive to Asheville, NC, a trip that I make pretty frequently. A few weeks ago I stayed at the Inn having left Louisville late in the evening. Upon retiring after a tiring drive, I found on my bed this message, “In ancient times, there was a prayer for ‘The stranger within our gates’. Because this hotel is a human institution to serve people and not solely a money making organization, we hope that God will grant you peace and rest while you are under our roof.

May this room and hotel be your 'second'home. May those you love be near you in thoughts and dreams. Even though we may not get to know you, we hope that you will be comfortable and happy as if you were in your own house.

May the business that brought you our way prosper. May every call you make and every message you receive add to your joy. When you leave, may your journey be safe.

We are all travelers. From ‘birth till death’ we travel between the eternities. May these days be pleasant for you, profitable for society, helpful for those you meet, and a joy to those who know and love you best.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but, this message truly made my day and I DID keep the good wishes for my travels and will stay at the Cumberland Inn again. Not to mention the delicious 2 egg $5 breakfast.

Wishing all safe travels this summer season.

Drowning in technology

2007-07-01T14:51:00Z

Drowning in technology, this cute email phases reprinted today from the NY times is written By NORA EPHRON and Published: July 1, 2007.

Stage One: Infatuation

I just got e-mail! I can’t believe it! It’s so great! Here’s my handle. Write me! Who said letter writing was dead? Were they ever wrong! I’m writing letters like crazy for the first time in years. I come home and ignore all my loved ones and go straight to the computer to make contact with total strangers. And how great is AOL? It’s so easy. It’s so friendly. It’s a community. Wheeeee! I’ve got mail!

Stage Two: Clarification

O.K., I’m starting to understand — e-mail isn’t letter-writing at all, it’s something else entirely. It was just invented, it was just born and overnight it turns out to have a form and a set of rules and a language all its own. Not since the printing press. Not since television. It’s revolutionary. It’s life-altering. It’s shorthand. Cut to the chase. Get to the point.
And it saves so much time. It takes five seconds to accomplish in an e-mail message something that takes five minutes on the telephone. The phone requires you to converse, to say things like hello and goodbye, to pretend to some semblance of interest in the person on the other end of the line. Worst of all, the phone occasionally forces you to make actual plans with the people you talk to — to suggest lunch or dinner — even if you have no desire whatsoever to see them. No danger of that with e-mail.
E-mail is a whole new way of being friends with people: intimate but not, chatty but not, communicative but not; in short, friends but not. What a breakthrough. How did we ever live without it? I have more to say on this subject, but I have to answer an Instant Message from someone I almost know.

Stage Three: Confusion

I have done nothing to deserve any of this:
Viagra!!!!! Best Web source for Vioxx. Spend a week in Cancún. Have a rich beautiful lawn. Astrid would like to be added as one of your friends. XXXXXXXVideos. Add three inches to the length of your penis. The Democratic National Committee needs you. Virus Alert. FW: This will make you laugh. FW: This is funny. FW: This is hilarious. FW: Grapes and raisins toxic for dogs. FW: Gabriel García Márquez’s Final Farewell. FW: Kurt Vonnegut’s Commencement Address. FW: The Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. AOL Member: We value your opinion. A message from Hillary Clinton. Find low mortgage payments, Nora. Nora, it’s your time to shine. Need to fight off bills, Nora? Yvette would like to be added as one of your friends. You have failed to establish a full connection to AOL.

Stage Four: Disenchantment
Help! I’m drowning. I have 112 unanswered e-mail messages. I’m a writer — imagine how many unanswered messages I would have if I had a real job. Imagine how much writing I could do if I didn’t have to answer all this e-mail. My eyes are dim. I have a mild case of carpal tunnel syndrome. I have a galloping case of attention deficit disorder because every time I start to write something, the e-mail icon starts bobbing up and down and I’m compelled to check whether anything good or interesting has arrived. It hasn’t. Still, it might, any second now. And yes it’s true — I can do in a few seconds with e-mail what would take much longer on the phone, but most of my messages are from people who don’t have my phone number and would never call me in the first place. In the brief time it took me to write this paragraph, three more messages arrived. Now I have 115 unanswered messages. Strike that: 116.

Stage Five: Accommodation
Yes. No. No . No . Can’t. No way. Maybe. Doubtful. Sorry. So Sorry. Thanks. No thanks. Not my thing. You must be kidding. Out of town. O.O.T. Try me in a month. Try me in the fall. Try me in a year. NoraE@aol.com can now be reached at NoraE81082@gmail.com.

Stage Six: Death
Call me.

Searching for some talent

2007-06-10T15:51:00Z

Looking for talent is always a challenge. Attracting and retaining quality employees is one key to success and competition between employers is fierce, and getting no better. So, it was very interesting to me that in a recent online survey conducted by The Washington Post on their Web site respondents answered questions as to what special privileges would be most appealing to them. Of the 3400 respondents, the results broke down as follows:

Telecommuting 548

Training/tuition 396

Flextime 379

Benefits 375

Bonus 370

Fitness 357

Money 334

Other perks 302

Time off/vacation 227

Opportunity/growth 109

Recognition/security 80

corecubed is seeking incredibly talented marketing, design and PR professionals, and we do offer telecommuting, training/tuition, flex time, bonus, time off/vacation, opportunity/growth, and recognition/security. So, if you are a design, marketing or PR professional go to www.corecubed.com/contact.asp and see if your talents and our needs are a match.

81+ Skater Offers Life Advice

2007-06-01T07:40:00Z

For those of you who under 80 do not exercise regularly, take note of the possibilities for the future. Yvonne Dowlen, an 81+ year old skater takes to the ice in a link provided below. She has been skating 67 years. Her comment, "As you grow older, if you don't move, you won't move."

http://www.dailyherald.com/galleries/benskate/index.html

Now, get up and away from your computer, and start moving! You can thank me in 25 years or so.

...

A drink a day keeps the Alzheimer's away

2007-05-28T15:10:33Z

Finally a USA TODAY report on drinking staving off the effects of dementia. From the May 22, 2007 edition:
The story headlines that "Imbibing may slow dementia in seniors."

It seems that an Italian study revealed that drinking up to one alcoholic drink a day may actually slow the development of dementia, including Alzheimer's, in seniors who already have mild memory problems. Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disease that afflicts 5 million people in the USA. This latest study is by Italian researcher Vincenzo Solfrizzi. And he reports that this is the first study to suggest that an alcoholic drink a day might just help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that often precedes Alzheimer's, to reduce the effects of Alzheimer's.
Solfrizzi's study appears in today's Neurology. Wine, particularly red wine, contains natural chemicals called polyphenols that could protect the aging brain from Alzheimer's. However, the exact type of alcohol is not researched.
In this study, the Italian team actually reported on the study of 1,445 healthy adults 65 and older and 121 who already had been diagnosed with MCI. Sofrizzi is a geriatrician at the University of Bari in Italy.
USA Today reports that the study showed that people who already had MCI at the start of the study appeared to gain some protection from additional memory loss. The report found that drinking just half a glass of wine or less than a beer or some other kind of alcoholic drink a day seemed to decrease the rate of progression from MCI to full dementia, including Alzheimer's. Now THAT is news for those of us who enjoy imbibing occasionally.
More good news from other research is that moderate drinking -- one or even two glasses of wine a day -- just might help stave off dementia and other ailments such as clogged arteries and heart disease. This was reported by Gary Small who is director of the University of California-Los Angeles Center on Aging.

Following this report is the usual disclaimers that warn against drinking to excess and to warn those who are not used to drinking against taking up the exercise for health reasons, as falling and other alcohol related calamities might ensue.

Here are some of the 10 warning signs for an Alzheimer's type dementia:

*Severe memory loss.
*Difficulty doing familiar tasks.
*Problems talking or writing.
*Confusion about the time or place.
*Loss of judgment.
*Problems with abstract thinking.
*Misplacing things. People with Alzheimer's might put items in unusual places.
*Changes in mood or behavior.
*Changes in personality.
*Loss of motivation.
Source: The Alzheimer's Association

Note from Merrily, "Some of these are also synonymous with drinking!"

So, heed the words of caution before prescribing tequila for that memory impairment, but continue to look for ways to combat the effects of cognitive impairment.

Change is Hard

2007-05-13T16:57:00Z

Change is hard. Just when you get the hang of the new friendlier post office they change all the rules and make postage complicated. However, we have for your easy reference both an easy 2 page guide from the USPS and a 20 page all you ever need to know about postage.

For more detail you can also go to the source directly at www.usps.com

...

Ensure for Less

2007-04-25T08:58:00Z

To provide some much-needed financial relief, Kmart has launched The Caregivers Marketplace, an ongoing cash-back program for the purchase of brand-name healthcare products commonly purchased by caregivers.
The Caregivers Marketplace is a free and confidential program that requires no membership. Customers may pick up a cash-back form at Kmart pharmacies beginning April 18, 2007, or download a form online at http://www.caregiversmarketplace.com. The form is then mailed to Caregivers Marketplace with the receipts for any combination of five or more eligible products.
    The average cash-back check issued by Caregivers Marketplace is
expected to total approximately $30, and there is no limit to the number of times a consumer can apply for cash back.
     Eligible products include: Ensure, Glucerna, Depend, Poise, Huggies, Cottonelle Fresh Folded Wipes, Citrucel, Comfort Personal Cleansing, No-Rinse, and Os-cal.
    For more information, caregivers are encouraged to speak to a Kmart pharmacist.
     In addition to The Caregivers Marketplace cash-back program for
healthcare products, Kmart provides family caregivers a way to save on common prescriptions through its 90-Day Generic Program, which offers a 90-day supply of covered generic medications for $15 regardless of the prescribed daily dosage.

3 year olds at Pre-school

2007-04-17T22:08:00Z

Sharing visually the concentration and individual personalities of 3 year olds.

http://picasaweb.google.com/MerrilyO/BostonMAPreSchool

Enjoy.

Merrily ...