HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

                                    Valentine wishes from Robin and Doris at Over 40? So What!

WE'RE STAMPING OUT THE USPS

     
    Well, as of August, there will be no Saturday postal service, except for packages.  In case you were thinking of complaining about this injustice, remember. we were responsible for curtailing our own mail service.

     I am just as guilty as anyone, since I use the internet to pay my bills, send greeting cards, correspond with friends, etc.  I used to buy a book of stamps every couple of weeks.  Now I have almost a full book of Christmas stamps that I stamp the occasional letter with.  

    I heard on the news last night that for the Postal Service to maintain our services, they would have to charge $1.04 for a first class stamp.  You'd have to keep your stamps in your safe deposit box if that happened.  You could bequeath them to your children.

     The world it is a-changin' and, like the post office, we either have to learn to live with the changes or get the heck out of the way.  Sometimes I yearn for the good old days, but not when I'm loading the dishwasher, or watching a first-run movie without leaving the house, or diagnosing my latest ailments on Web.MD.  For everything we have given up, we have received - for good or ill - ten things in return.

      Anyway, I don't imagine having no Saturday delivery will have as much impact as it  would have only a few years ago.  


                 Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these 
                  couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

                                                  But budget problems?  Meh

WE'RE BAAAACK

     Like the proverbial bad penny, your friends from Over 40? So What! have turned up again.  Our apologies for our absence.  We have been working diligently on a new book which may or may not see the light of day within the next year.

     Our new effort is a novel and is still in the developmental stage, although a few preliminary chapters are in outline and pre-editing condition.  Writing non-fiction is immeasurably easier than writing fiction - who knew?  After all, non-fiction relies on data and research.  Easy stuff compared to delving into your imagination.

     So blah, blah, blah, this is our excuse for not posting to our blog since (gasp) September.  We have also regrettably had to give up publishing our monthly magazine, since the amount of work and time that this involved was mind-boggling.  

     Just to prove that we are sincerely sorry and will produce occasional posts, we hereby cheat by presenting one of our more popular posts from the fairly recent past.  We promise to try to do better in future.

THE AMAZING, NON-BROWNING GM APPLE

If you've ever been turned off, disgusted or appalled by a cut apple that has started to turn brown, cheer up!  Those friendly folks who brought you the bright red, tasteless tomato have worked their magic on apples.  

By inserting an extra copy of a gene that interferes with the enzymatic activity that causes browning - an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase - they have produced a fruit that can be sliced, diced, packaged in plastic and sold round the world to those purists who must have pristine apples.

This is not to be confused with those apple slices that are already available in the produce departments of your neighborhood supermarkets; these contain preservatives, such as ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and calcium chloride.   Unfortunately they only (?) have a shelf life of about three weeks.  Now wouldn't you rather have a nice genetically modified apple that would mummify before it turned brown?

You know, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.  Wouldn't it be a hoot if they found out later on that what helps keep the doctor away is the enzyme they have managed to nullify?

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