PROTECTING PRIVACY OF PERSONAL DATA ON YOUR COMPUTER

Click here to read A REVIEW OF RESPONSES TO CAMPBELL’S BEST BUY LAWSUIT: Part 1 &

A REVIEW OF RESPONSES TO CAMPBELL’S BEST BUY LAWSUIT: Part 2 (filed in category COMMENTARY)

Click here http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/02/a-lost-laptop-a.html#posts to read article on Raelyn Campbell’s $54 million lawsuit against Best Buy

In reviewing posts responding to Raelyn Campbell’s “tale of frustration” in dealing with

her laptop repair problems at Best Buy and her resultant $54 million lawsuit (read the article at http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/02/a-lost-laptop-a.html#posts ) I discovered many valuable hints on protecting my data privacy when my laptop (or computer) must report to the electronics hospital.

A MOTHER’S FINAL RETALIATION

—written by Carolyn C. Holland

My sister, Lee, called me this morning to tell me about the bitter icy weather Buffalo was experiencing, and that they were expecting yet more snow and ice.

Then she asked me if I had said “Happy Birthday” to our mother, Nancy Isabelle Briskay Cornell Lipsius (February 22, 1922 to January 3, 1998). Lee told me she had done so while out in the car this morning.

I hadn’t done so yet, but I had thought about calling Lee and sharing memories with her. We ended the call with my statement that I would call her back, and talk to her over a cup of tea I would drink from a cup decorated with violets. (To continue reading click on A MOTHER’S FINAL RETALIATION )

NORTHERN BAYBERRY YIELDS READY-MADE CANDLES

—written by Carolyn C. Holland

Winter and the holiday season are around the very close corner. Below is information on bayberry candles, used for Christmas and for light.

In the process of writing a historic romance novel, I keep finding material that is unfamiliar, such as the “plant that yields ready-made candles.” Hopefully you will enjoy the fruit of my research as much as I did, and perhaps you will even want to make some of your own candles this year.

A plant that yields ready-made candles? To me it sounds too good to be true. (Click here to read the rest of this story: NORTHERN BAYBERRY YIELDS READY-MADE CANDLES

TRASH OR TREASURE: COMMUNITY TRASH PICKUP DAY

When we lived in Atlanta, Georgia, we rented a third floor apartment. On trash day, we could see right into the collection bins. In so doing we discovered that on any collection day one could supply a modest home with pretty good furnishings, but these items were destined to land in a dump.

Most communities have special days set aside to collect items beyond just “garbage.” Connellsville, Pennsylvania, does this twice a year. This tradition provides an opportunity for residents to rid their homes of unneeded items.

It also gives them the opportunity to “go the extra mile.” They turn trash day into a community-wide give-away yard sale/recycling event by placing their items curbside early to allow persons who might need those items to pick them up.

FROM THE BASTILLE TO CINDERELLA

—written by Carolyn C. Holland

In writing my historic romance novel, circa 1790s, I struggled to determine a starting point. After doing much research, I realized that all the characters appearing in the beginning of the novel had witnessed the Fall of the Bastille in France on July 14, 1789. I decided to have them sharing their experiences several weeks later as they imbibed in chocolate coffee, a popular drink in Paris at that time.

I researched eyewitness and news accounts of the event in preparation for writing their conversation. One comment intrigued me. It referred to the days of the warring as The Night and Orcus. What did this mean?

I typed “Orcus” into the computer search engine

VOICES OF WILDERNESS: PEACE MEETING

—written by Carolyn C. Holland

During a discussion on peace issues this evening, Monte and I told others of a meeting we attended in Bath, Maine while traveling through New England in 2003. I told the others at the meeting that I would post my travel journal report on the Peace Meeting in the Beanery Online Literary Magazine.

One night I suggested to Monte that we attend a meeting where a woman from Iraq was speaking of her experiences being there during the war. It included a pot-luck dinner, so we purchased an adorable yellow-iced cake with brown mice on it.

When we arrived things seemed like they were loosely run, and I felt uncomfortable. No one seemed to know what was going on. The speaker turned out to be Kathy Kelly, a well-known peace movement leader of a loosely knit organization known as Voices of Wilderness.

CARDIAC DISEASE AND DEPRESSION-Is there a connection?

A note to the old faithful and welcome new Beanery Online Literary Magazine readers:

As leader of the Beanery Writers Group and manager of this site, I apologize for the lack of posts since Christmas, when “old man flu” hit my body.

Then, on January 2, 2007, word came that my nephew died, a victim of…suicide…following a deep depression and a doctor’s sloughing off his complaints of a sore back and shoulder. He was only 38 years old!

The autopsy showed that my nephew had such a severe case of hardening of the arteries that  he was a walking time bomb for a fatal eruption. Furthermore, information is coming that heart disease and hardening of the arteries can produce depression.

I intend to research the relationship of cardiac disease and depression. Watch for a future post on the subject. Meanwhile, if any of you have anecdotal stories or evidence of this connection, please E-mail Carolyn at beanerywriters@yahoo.com, with the terms “suicide” or “heart disease” in the address line.

The Beanery Online Literary Magazine will return to its regular posts by January 15, when I am returned home and reoriented to a more regular schedule—and hopefully over this flu bug! Thank you for your patience!

12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2007-B

According to the PNC press release announcing what the “true love” pays to purchase all the gifts on his Christmas list (as laid out in the song, “The 12 Days of Christmas”), the total cost can be calculated four different ways: the purchase of one set of items for each day (77 items) or “True Cost of Christmas,” the total cost of items gifted by a True Love who repeats the gift-giving in all of the song’s verses (364 items), for both traditional and Internet shopping.

2007 is the twenty-third year the gift costs have been calculated by PNC. The gift prices rose 3.1 percent above what they cost in 2006. This mirrors the U.S. government’s Consumer Price Index (a widely used measure of inflation calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), up 3.5 percent so far this year.

“Each year, the Christmas Price Index reflects trends in the broader economy,”

THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS 2007-A

—written by Carolyn C. Holland

Most people assume that the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” is secular music. They are surprised to learn it was written for religions reasons.

There was a period in England, circa 1558-1829, when it was a crime to be a Catholic, and the law banned them from any private or public practice of their faith.

DEER HEAD FOUND IN MAILBOX—A GIFT?

When Sue G., Slippery Rock Township, PA., saw her cat in her window she breathed a sigh of relief. She had just discovered the severed end of a head of an unknown creature in her mailbox.