Three Crucial Tips for the New Year!

Crucial Tip #1:

Dear Friends of Online Finds:

Under the tree for me this year I found a brand new curling iron. I already had a curling iron that suited me quite well, (at least better than the plastic curlers illustrated here); that is, until I tried this new curling iron super model! Here's why:

>My old curling iron had two heat settings - high and low. Obviously, anyone with hair would go with the high setting so that their hair would actually curl. But my new curling iron has 25 heat settings! (Does it take a cosmetology degree to figure out which heat setting is for me?)

>My new curling iron also has turbo heat! In other words, if the highest heat setting isn't hot enough for "hard to curl" areas, I still have industrial strength heat! I know it works, because when I hit the turbo button, I hear a slight sizzling sound on my head, and detect a distinct burning smell. We'll do anything for beauty, right girls?

>My new curler heats up in only 60 seconds (instead of 45 minutes), so if you turn it on you better not take a nap or run to the mall.

>It also stays hot (instead of losing heat as you use it, which I didn't even know happened until I read about the new design features of this vastly improved model).

>It even shuts off automatically should you forget about it or take a nap or run to the mall. (I wonder why the instructions warn you to unplug it when not in use?)

But the best thing about my new curling iron is the instruction book that comes with it. The product warnings very clearly state that one should never use the curling iron in the shower or while sleeping, and that this appliance can burn. Thank God someone had the foresight to warn me! Who knows what might have happened without this crucial information?

So, Crucial Tip # 1 is: Read all written material accompanying newly purchased small electrical appliances. After all, sometime during the New Year you may need a good laugh.

Crucial Tip #2:

If you are a peri- or post-menopausal woman (both of which I personally am or have been), you should know that hormonal replacement therapy (HRT) is just one of those things that we have been convinced we need (kind of like cell phones), and that synthetic hormones, originally called Premarin, "pregnant mare's urine," causes uterine cancer in humans and an amazing cycle of equine cruelty. I have written an entire post about this subject at Senior Weblogs, which you are invited to read. Premarin lawsuits, risks, and other HRT information is readily available. Bottom line, ladies, is to find some other way to relieve the discomforts of menopause without messing with your hormones!

Crucial Tip #2 is: Don't let anyone convince you to fix something that ain't broken, especially when it is your body.

Crucial Tip #3:

The best way to have friends is to be a friend.

You're thinking, Oh come on, this is a 'crucial tip?' Well, yes, in a way it is. Someone may not have learned this basic truth as a child. Hitler probably didn't. Niether did Charles Manson, I'm guessing.

Okay, so how can one be a good friend? I remember a little song we sang as Brownie Scouts that went like this: Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold. Now, to be honest I'm not quite sure what this little song means, but I do know that gold and silver prices are up there, so friends are worth at least that much. Another well known friend-fact is that diamonds are a girl's best friend. So, if you have a friend or want a friend who's a girl, (usually that would be a girlfriend) you might want to work diamond jewelry into the mix and see what happens.

So, there you have it. Crucial Tip #3 is to be a friend. With everything going on in the world, what could be better advice for the New Year?

Your friendly online find finder,

S. B.