WELL, WOULD YOU?
Nearly 30% of Americans avoid public restrooms for fear of germs, according to a recent Quilted Northern "Bathroom Confidential" survey. The poll found that of the people who use a public restroom, more than 40% flush with their feet rather than touch anything potentially "germy." 60% said they never sit down and don't touch a thing.
THE WORST OBITUARY EVER
Last night, I was looking at an online issue of the "Vallejo Times Herald" (which is the newspaper for Vallejo, California... a city just north of Oakland), and I found a crazy obituary... in which these people TOTALLY SLAM their dead mother.
According to the obituary, Dolores Aguilar was born in 1929 and died on August 7th. She had, quote, "no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life.
"I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.
"Her family will remember Dolores and amongst ourselves we will remember her in our own way, which were mostly sad and troubling times throughout the years. We may have some fond memories of her and perhaps we will think of those times too.
"But I truly believe at the end of the day, ALL of us will really only miss what we never had . . . a good and kind mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I hope she is finally at peace with herself.
"As for the rest of us left behind, I hope this is the beginning of a time of healing and learning to be a family again.
"There will be no service, no prayers and no closure for the family she spent a lifetime tearing apart. We cannot come together in the end to see to it that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren can say their goodbyes. So I say here for all of us, good bye, mom."
ANOTHER REASON FOR ANGER MANAGEMENT
In an intriguing experiment, researchers at Ohio State had 98 participants fill out questionnaires that measured how well they control expressions of anger. Then the scientists made eight small blister wounds on the subjects' forearms. (Okay, why would anyone agree to that??!!) On average, hotheads were four times more likely to take longer than five days to heal, compared with three days or less for people who said they can almost always calm down quickly. The link? During the blistering procedures, the angry group had higher spikes of the stress hormone cortisol, which slows healing. If you're quick to erupt, try cognitive therapy or relaxation techniques like yoga, advises researcher Jean-Philippe Gouin.
