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Newsletter, April 1,
2009
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In This
Issue
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1. Quotation of the Week
2. Conversation Tip of the Week
3. Conversation Questions About ...
4. Pronounce this Word of the Week
5. April Fool's Day Story
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1. Quotation of the
Week
“Growing old is
mandatory. Growing up is optional.” - Chili
Davis
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2. Conversation Tip of the
Week
When Is It OK to Ask a Woman Her
Age?
Never.
Unless she’s
buying beer or cigars from you.
Here’s another
exception to the Don’t Ask, Never Tell
rule:
Ask her virtual
age. It’s the beginning of an important
conversation about
putting more
years in your life and more life in your
years.
First things
first. What is someone’s "virtual
age"?
It’s the
combination of one’s biological age, genetics,
and lifestyle choices.
A nifty website
figures it out for you if you answer the
questions honestly—
no fudging. (I'll
give you the link at the bottom.)
If you’re eating
bananas and birdseed, exercising regularly, and
not skydiving daily, you could knock years or
even decades off your biological
age.
I’m 62, but my
virtual age is 45. Take that, Father
Time.
A few years
dropped off my life expectancy (98, yikes! too
much!), because I sleep less than 6 hours a
night and engage in moderately risky activities
(surf’s up!) Plus I picked the wrong parents,
coronarily speaking (i.e., they both had heart
problems).
Take the test
yourself. It’s quick. The results might scare
you, elate you, or
make you change
some habits. You may be younger, or much older,
than you think!
Send this virtual
age calculator to everyone you care about. And
then talk,
talk, talk to
them about how you all can stay younger longer
and continue to enjoy the pleasure of each
other’s company.
Here’s the link to
the
virtual age
calculator.
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3. Conversation Questions About ...
Health
- How old do you feel
today? How do you define
old?
How do
you determine when someone is
old?
- Do you plan on growing
old gracefully or fighting it? What will be
your weapons of choice? Are you going to
have facelifts until your chin meets your
eyebrows?
- What one thing are you
willing to change, starting now, to live
longer and better? It could be anything
from walking 5 more minutes a day to
drinking 8 glasses of water daily. You know
what to do. What lifestyle change are you
willing to commit yourself to doing as
though your life depended on
it?
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4. Pronounce this Word of the
Week: Colonel
Although
colonel
is an easy
one for most adult English speakers,
phonetically, it's the pits. According to
Romalda Spalding, author of
The Writing
Road to Reading, it's the toughest
English word to sound out. How do you get
KER-n'l out of a word that starts like
colony?
That's just
the way it is.
Now go quiz your
friends:
"What's the toughest English word to pronounce
just by looking at it?"
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5. April Fool's Day Story
April 1, 1946,
Lanikai, Hawaii
Janie Powlison was doing the
dishes at Hilltop House, looking out on
Kailua Bay. She'd never seen the tide so
low. All the water was gone, and the
coral heads were showing. "Dad! Something
is happening to Kailua Bay!" Her father,
Skipper, looked and said, "I've never
seen a tidal wave, but I think we're
going to have
one." Skipper called several
Honolulu radio stations who all told
him the same thing: "April Fool's!"
They didn't believe him and didn't warn
their listeners. By the end of the
day, nine walls of water had washed
in and out, carrying pianos, fish,
trash, houses, and cars. It was the
day that Mother Nature fooled
everyone.
© 2009
Tracey E.
Bennett
All rights
reserved.
I
welcome your comments, questions and
anecdotes.
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