This is the February 13, 2007 edition of Keeping in Touch from SeniorSSuperStoreS.com./

Welcome to our new subscribers; and to our established subscribers of Keeping in Touch, a special Welcome Back. We're glad to see you again.

You are receiving this free newsletter because you subscribed to it or because someone thought you would enjoy it.

If you like the content of Keeping in Touch, please feel free to forward each copy on to as many folks as you wish. And, encourage your friends and family to visit with us at www.seniorssuperstores.com and sign up for their own subscriptions. Or, they may sign up for their own subscriptions by emailing us at "seniors-request@seniorssuperstores.com" and include the word "join" in the body of the email message.

This issue of Keeping in Touch deals with several matters of interest to Prime Time Surfers:

1.) Our new subscribers and Federal law
2.) The English "Language?"
3.) "Home care" senior scams 4.) A Double-Dose of Humor Today! "Women who read"
5.) Your Subscription Details

1.) Our New Subscribers and Federal Law

While our Keeping in Touch newsletters are entirely ethical and we don't participate in activities such as sending out junk e-mail to folks who haven't subscribed to Keeping in Touch, we have taken heed of the Federal law that attempts to control unwanted and unsolicited e-mails.

Just to protect ourselves against unwarranted claims that we fall under the purview of that new law, and to protect YOU against someone who signs you up to receive our newsletters and you didn't initiate the action, we have changed our subscription routines.

Now, for all new subscribers, when you subscribe to receive our newsletter editions, we will e-mail you a confirmatory e-mail asking you to simply reply to that e-mail as a confirmation action. This way, if someone signs you up as a prank, you will know about it before we send you any "regularly irregular" editions, because you can simply respond to our confirmation e-mail that you don't, in fact, want to subscribe. This also helps us confirm that the e-mail address given to us to add to our database is the correct address.

So, while we don't HAVE to do anything to comply with the new law, we are making this change anyway because it just makes good business sense, and it is courteous.

2.) The English "Language?"

(Courtesy of our friends at The Newbie Club.)

A little more humor for our health......

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple or pine in pineapple. And while no one knows what is in a hotdog, you can be pretty sure it isn't canine.

English muffins were not invented in England nor French fries in France.

Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, two meese? Is cheese the plural of choose? One mouse, 2 mice. One louse, 2 lice. One house, 2 hice?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Why do people recite at a play, and play at a recital? Ship by truck or car and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

How can the weather be hot as heck one day and cold as heck another?

When a house burns up, it burns down.

You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on.

You get in and out of a car, yet you get on and off a bus.

When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

English is a silly language ... it doesn't know if it is coming or going!!!

3.) "Home Care" Senior Scams

A recent Better Business Bureau workshop dealing with Scams on Seniors had a session on how some home health care nurses, aides and attendants had been scamming seniors, and here are some of the ways:

* Stealing random checks from checkbooks and boxes of checks. Think about it, a "trusted" individual working in a senior's home no doubt will learn where the checkbook and boxes of new checks are stored. It would be rather easy to steal random checks (never the next one on top, and never in sequence); then, forging the owner's signature can be easy (and besides, what banks ever pay attention to signatures, anyway?). By the time the damage is discovered, it may be too late, and then there's the problem of proving who did it, and how.

* Stealing credit cards and using them to either perform identity theft or just to make unauthorized purchases.

* Stealing pain medications and either using them themselves or selling them on the streets. This is a very easy crime to commit against the elderly. Who actually counts the pills in a bottle? If one (or a few) is missing, such can be attributed a drugstore error in filling the prescription, or often it's a matter of the senior (or family member checking-in) simply attributing the shortage to forgetfulness.

* Fake charities. One scam involved friends of the seniors' attendants coming into the home and striking up a casual conversation about a "charity" they were involved in order to build trust and sympathy of the senior with the visitor. When the senior leaves the room to get her purse and checkbook, the visitors helps themselves to personal effects and other valuables. In other situations, the attendant leaves the room and the visitors follow and help themselves to what they want elsewhere in the house.

If you are a senior, or have a loved one, who relies on in-home care to help out with daily living activities, what can you do to provide protection against these unscrupulous characters? How can you identify those you can't trust so you can avoid them? Recognizing that, often, these criminals have a track record that can be identified, do we bother to check these people out before hiring them?

Some of us think that if we use a home care agency, that business will screen its employees and not send someone into the home who has a criminal record. But, unfortunately, that's not always the case. Many agencies are so desperate to find enough employees to fill the need, or experience such turnover in personnel, they'll take anyone who walks in off the street. Many agencies also won't spend the money on a background check.

Most states have a state agency through which you can perform a criminal background check either for free or a nominal charge. But, most of the time, that check is only for criminal charges brought against individuals within that state, and not other states.

4.) A Double-Dose of Humor Today! "Women who read"

This bit of humor was provided to us by one of our readers, and we thought you might find it humorous.

"Women who read"

A couple goes on vacation to a fishing resort in northern Minnesota. The husband likes to fish at the crack of dawn - the wife likes to read.

One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and continues to read her book.

Along comes a game warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, "Good morning Ma'am. What are you doing?"

"Reading a book," she replies, (thinking, "Isn't that obvious?")

"You're in a restricted fishing area," he informs her.

"I'm sorry officer, but I'm not fishing, I'm reading."

"Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start fishing at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up."

"If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault," says the woman.

"But I haven't even touched you," says the game warden.

"That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment."

"Have a nice day ma'am", and he left.

MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think!

5.) Your Subscription Details

You are receiving this free newsletter because you subscribed to it or because someone thought you would enjoy it.

If you like the content of Keeping in Touch, please feel free to forward each copy on to as many folks as you wish. And, encourage your friends and family to visit with us at SeniorSSuperStoreS and sign up for their own subscriptions. Or, they may sign up for their own subscriptions by emailing us at "seniors-request@seniorssuperstores.com" and include the word "join" in the body of the email message.

So, until next time, here's goodbye. Remember, if you want us to add any resources or items of interest, just drop us an email from the SeniorSSuperStoreS Contact Us page. Watch your email box for future newsletters!

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Until next time, happy Prime Time Surfing!