PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dates:

October 24, 25, 26:  AROHE CONFERENCE
USC's Emeriti Center hosts the bi-annual conference of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education.  Thanks to our members who arevolunteering to help make this a success.

November 1:  HOMECOMING
Our tent will be open with drinks and cookies 3 hours prior to kickoff (TBA).  Stop by and celebrate our Trojan Family with friends and colleagues.  If you would like to donate some cookies (do not have to be homemade), please call Lucy Brown at 818-781-4986.

DECEMBER 10:  HOLIDAY CELEBRATION at the Galen Center
Please plan to join us for our 3rd annual breakfast buffet and musical celebration at 9:30 a.m.  A reminder notice will be in the December Emeriti Center Newsletter.

Our September meeting attendees heard an update on the state of plans to possibly include retirees in future housing projects.  Michael Lehrer, an AIA award winning architect who is working with USC administrators, discussed a number of items including:

How life-long learning could be facilitated with USC approximate housing; the potential of success due to the number of retirees and alumni who might be interested; the number of possible sites for such a development and how they would provide easy access to Downtown LA, as well as to USC; the wide variety of how retiree housing could be designed, including using "green" designs; and the process that is ongoing to determine retiree needs and wants and USC's ideas for how to best coordinate retiree housing with student and active faculty and staff housing.

Michael solicited input from our attendees, who identified the following interests they would like to see addressed:

Safety, easy access to medial and dental services, community meeting rooms, multi-generational engagement, exercise and recreational facilities, convenience to mass transit and shopping, access to USC classes, and units that can adapt to changed circumstances.

Kristina Raspe, USC VP for Real Estate, confirmed that USC has an interest in retiree housing, but that it will be 3-4 years before such developments will be pursued.

Future meetings may be useful.  Retirees do sit on a USC committee dealing with USC housing planning, so give me any input you would like to have considered during this process.

At the end of the program we were treated to Jerry Walker's barbershop quartet.  They were terrific, and we look forward to hearing them again soon.

Hope to see you soon.

Carole Gustin, SRA President
<cgustin@usc.edu>


GOOD NEWS FOR MANY OF US

Coffee drinkers can take heart: coffee won't shorten your life and may actually prolong it a little, according to a study of 125,000 health professionals.  After accounting for smoking, diets, and other factors, the researchers found that people who drank coffee—regular or decaf—were slightly less likely to die over the course of two decades, mainly because of fewer deaths from heart disease.  Coffee has been blamed for everything from hypertension to pancreatic cancer, but in nearly every instance research found it not guilty.  [From UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, September 2008]


WEBSITES TO CHECK OUT

If you don't know what happened to your user manual for a product, there may still be a solution.  You can search a database of nearly 900,000 product manuals for kitchen appliances, electronics, cell phones, cameras, and much more.  After you search for a product, you can preview the first pages of the user's guide and then download it for free to view on your computer.  <http://safemanuals.com>

Save on entertainment by swapping unwanted CDs, DVDs, and video games for other titles.  The only cost is for postage.  <http://www.swaprocks.com/dmc/swap.cgi>

Peace wreath.nbsp; Fragrant, indoor/outdoor wreath made of fresh green olive branches—ancient symbol of peace—twined with bay and eucalyptus leaves.  Sales ($50 each) proceeds are donated to the Meals On Wheels Association of America.  <https://fulfillmentserv.com/bellcarter/products.cfm>

Safer showers.  Sturdy, compact safety handle for tub or shower has an extra-strong suction grip that works on any clean surface . . . easy release ($12.95).  Great for travel.  <http://www.solutions.com/>  [Bottom Line/Personal (8/15 and 9/15/08) and /Retirement (10/08)]


TECH TIPS FOR THE BASIC COMPUTER USER

[Above is the title of the most recent issue (10/2/08) of a weekly tech column/blog, "Circuits," that David Pogue writes for the New York Times.

Because the column is long but filled with valuable tips for both PC and Mac users (almost everyone who gets this except the WebTV people), I'll include just a portion in this mailing and continue the column in the December issue of this E-letter.  Here's this issue's portion:]

Last week, I wrote an entry on my blog that began like this:

"One of these days, I'm going to write a book called, 'The Basics.'  It's going to be a compendium of the essential tech bits that you just assume everyone knows—but you're wrong.

"(I'll never forget watching a book editor at a publishing house painstakingly drag across a word in a word processor to select it.  After 10 minutes of this, I couldn't stand it.  'Why don't you just double-click the word?'  She had no clue you could do that!)

"Many readers chimed in with other 'basics' that they assumed every computer user knew—but soon discovered that what's common knowledge isn't the same as universal knowledge.

"I'm sure the basics could fill a book, but here are a few to get you started.  All of these are things that certain friends, family or coworkers, over the years, did *not* know.  Clip, save and pass along to, well, you know who they are."

You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.

When you get an e-mail message from eBay or your bank, claiming that you have an account problem or a question from a buyer, it's probably a "phishing scam" intended to trick you into typing your password.  Don't click the link in the message.  If in doubt, go into your browser and type "www.ebay.com" (or whatever) manually.

Nobody, but nobody, is going to give you half of $80 million to help them liberate the funds of a deceased millionaire from Nigeria or anywhere else.

You can hide all windows, revealing only what's on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: Windows key+D in Windows, F11 on Macs (or, on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo).  That's great when you want examine or delete something you ve just downloaded to the desktop, for example.  Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.

You can enlarge the text on any Web page.  In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it's the Command key and plus or minus. [Bob Stallings provided this same info in a recent Emeriti Center newsletter.]

You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse.  On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.

The number of megapixels does not determine a camera's picture quality; that's a marketing myth.  The sensor size is far more important.  (Use Google to find it.  For example, search for "sensor size Nikon D90.")

On most cellphones, press the Send key to open up a list of recent calls.  Instead of manually dialing, you can return a call by highlighting one of these calls and pressing Send again.

When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don't.  At least not until you've first confirmed its truth at <snopes.com>, the Internet's authority on e-mailed myths.snopes.com This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and—especially lately—nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.

You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful.  Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

When you're filling in the boxes on a Web page (like City, State, Zip), you can press the Tab key to jump from box to box, rather than clicking.  Add the Shift key to jump through the boxes backwards.

You can adjust the size and position of any window on your computer.  Drag the top strip to move it; drag the lower-right corner (Mac) or any edge (Windows) to resize it.

Forcing the camera's flash to go off prevents silhouetted, too-dark faces when you're outdoors.

When you're searching for something on the Web using, say, Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together.  For example, if you put quotes around "electric curtains," Google won't waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word "electric" and another set containing the word "curtains."

"What are your favorite basics-that-you-thought-everyone-knew?  Let us know in the comments for this column at <http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/!>."


SOME MAY FIND THESE FUNNY

An architect, an artist, and a computer programmer were discussing whether it was better to have a wife or a mistress.

The architect said he enjoyed time with his wife, building a solid foundation for an enduring relationship.

The artist said he enjoyed time with his mistress, because of the passion and mystery he found there.

The computer programmer said, "I prefer to have both."

"Both?"

Computer programmer: "Yeah.  If you have a wife and a mistress, they will each assume you are spending time with the other woman, and you can go to the office and get some work done."

**********

Mealtime on Flying Frugal during a flight, the flight attendant asked Jim, "Would you like dinner?"

Jim replied, "What are my choices?"

"Yes or no," the flight attendant replied.

**********

A seaman meets a pirate in a bar, and talk turns to their adventures on the sea.  The seaman notes that the pirate has a pegleg, a hook, and an eye patch.

The seaman asks "So, how did you end up with the pegleg?"

The pirate replies, "We were in a storm at sea, and I was swept overboard into a school of sharks.  Just as my men were pulling me out, a shark bit my leg off."

"Wow!" said the seaman.  "What about your hook?"

"Well . . . ," replied the pirate, "We were boarding an enemy ship and were battling the other sailors with swords.  One of the enemy cut my hand off."

"Incredible!" remarked the seaman.  "How did you get the eyepatch?"

"A seagull dropping fell into my eye," replied the pirate.

"You lost your eye to a seagull dropping?" the sailor asked incredulously.

"Well . . . ," said the pirate, ". . . it was my first day with the hook."

**********

[It seems that every other joke that pops up on the Internet is a joke about blondes, mostly obscene.  The clean one which follows is the only one I've included in an E-letter, mainly because I found it mildly funny.  You decide.
(No, I have nothing against blondes.)]

A blonde went to the appliance store sale and found a bargain.  "I would like to buy this TV," she told the salesman.  "Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.

She hurried home and dyed her hair, then came back and again told the salesman, "I would like to buy this TV."  "Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.

"Darn, he recognized me," she thought.  She went for a complete disguise this time, haircut and new color, new outfit, big sunglasses, then waited a few days before she again approached the salesman." "I would like to buy this TV."

"Sorry, we don't sell to blondes," he replied.

Frustrated, she exclaimed, "How do you know I'm a blonde?"

"That's not a TV, it's a microwave," he answered.

**********

A boy and his father visiting from a third world country were at a multi-story mall, not unlike Beverly Center or the Glendale Galleria.  They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again.

The boy asked his father, "What is this, Father?"

The father responded, "Son I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is!"

While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheelchair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button.  The walls opened, and the lady rolled between them into a small room.  The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up.  They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.  The walls opened up again and a voluptuous 24-year old woman stepped out.

The father said to his son, "Go get your mother right now!"


C L A S S I F I E D  A D S
(Listed in order of receipt)

None this month.

[To have your free ad appear (for things to give away, to sell, to buy, etc.) in the next issue, please send to <len@winesland.net> before the first of the month.]


_______________________________________

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