Denial-Few Plan For Care In Old Age!!

Few plan for care in old age

We're in denial: Americans underestimate their chances of needing long-term care in old age, and are few are taking steps to get ready.

A new poll of people 40 and over found two-thirds of respondents said they'd done little to no planning.

Only a quarter predicted they would likely personally need help getting around or caring for themselves as they age, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

That's a surprise, considering more than half said they already had been caregivers for an impaired relative or friend.

The poll found most people expect family to step up if they need long-term care, even though most haven't talked with loved ones about the possibility.

There were also misperceptions about costs. Nearly 60 percent of respondents underestimated nursing home costs, which average more than $6,700 a month.

Medicare doesn't pay for the most common types of long-term care. Yet 37 percent thought it would pay for a nursing home or home health aide. - AP

Death Cafe Atlanta, Historic Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta GA

Event Death Cafe Atlanta 2 Originating in Europe in 2004 and arriving in America less than a year ago, Death Café is now an international movement.  It is designed to provide a comfortable setting for people to talk about death while drinking tea and coffee and eating cake.  The only objective of a Death Café is "to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives."  There is no intention of leading participants to any particular conclusion, product, or course of action.  Instead, a Death Café provides an open, respectful, and confidential space free of discrimination where people can express and explore their understanding of death safely.  As Andy Webster, a hospice chaplain, once said, "Our greatest prejudice is against death. It spans age, gender, and race. We spend immeasurable amount of energy fighting an event that will eventually triumph. Though it is noble not to give in easily, the most alive people I've ever met are those who embrace their death. They love, laugh, and live more fully."

Carol Burnett On Coping With Death Of Her Daughter Carrie

How to Cope With the Death Of a Loved One by Carol Burnett


It has been 11 years now, and of course there's not a day that goes by that Carrie is not in my heart and my thoughts, but I feel time does help.  And being active helps.  Dedicate all your positive actions to them.  I think it's the worst pain a parent can have.  But I'm forging ahead, because I know that's what my daughter would have wanted.

As told to Spencer Bailey

To Be Or Not To Be

Suicide was basically forbidden and illegal when this was written.  This thought of suicide was revolutionary and traumatic for Hamlet's audiences during Shakespeare's day. -deathternity

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To be, or not to be, that is the question

Meaning

Is it better to live or to die?

Origin

To be or not to be is probably the best-known line from all drama or literature. Certainly, if anyone is asked to quote a line of Shakespeare this is the one that first comes to mind for most people. It is, of course, from Shakespeare's play Hamlet, 1602 (Shakespeare's actual title is - The tragedie of Hamlet, prince of Denmarke):

HAMLET:
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.

Gary Martin:

What Hamlet is musing on is the comparison between the pain of life, which he sees as inevitable (the sea of troubles - the slings and arrows - the heart-ache - the thousand natural shocks) and the fear of the uncertainty of death and of possible damnation of suicide.

Hamlet's dilemma is that although he is dissatisfied with life and lists its many torments, he is unsure what death may bring (the dread of something after death). He can't be sure what death has in store; it may be sleep but in perchance to dream he is speculating that it is perhaps an experience worse than life. Death is called the undiscover'd country from which no traveller returns. In saying that Hamlet is acknowledging that, not only does each living person discover death for themselves, as no one can return from it to describe it, but also that suicide os a one-way ticket. If you get the judgment call wrong, there's no way back.

The whole speech is tinged with the Christian prohibition of suicide, although it isn't mentioned explicitly. The dread of something after death would have been well understood by a Tudor audience to mean the fires of Hell.

The speech is a subtle and profound examining of what is more crudely expressed in the phrase out of the frying pan into the fire. - in essence 'life is bad, but death might be worse'.

Paul Noth New Yorker Funeral/Casket Cartoon-Ah, Life/People

Ah, Life / People ! :

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George "Ferris Wheel" Ferris' Ashes Left At FH As Bill Unpaid After He Died At 37

Many thought the first Ferris Wheel at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair would be an absolute disaster, and that scores would be killed.  Thanks to The New York Times Magazine:

INNOVATION

Who Made That Ferris Wheel?

John Harper/Spaces Images, via Corbis

The London Eye

By PAGAN KENNEDY

Published: April 5, 2013 7 Comments

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“I leave it to you, ladies and gentlemen, to say if the wheel is still in my head,” George Ferris called out to a crowd at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Skeptics had joked that the young engineer would never build the giant whirligig that spun in his imagination. That day, his steel behemoth towered over the fairgrounds, its spokes gleaming in the sunlight; it could accommodate more than 2,000 riders at once.

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A reporter named Robert Graves took a ride in one of its streetcarlike cabins, the windows crisscrossed by wires to prevent suicidal leaps. As the wheel began to move, the floor quivered, setting nerves on edge. But when the cabin floated high over the fairgrounds, passengers forgot their worries and rushed to the windows to admire the river winking in the distance. “It is an indescribable sensation,” Graves wrote, “of revolving through such a vast orbit in a bird cage.” Many engineers had predicted Ferris’s wheel would collapse, killing riders and bystanders. Instead, it performed perfectly. The “vertical merry-go-round” worked on the same principle as a bicycle wheel — each of the spokes pressed into the rim, exerting a force that gave it enormous strength, says Rich Weingardt, a structural engineer who wrote a biography of Ferris. But Ferris’s luck soon ran out. Though the wheel brought in $750,000 in ticket sales, the Chicago World’s Fair staked a claim to most of the proceeds; Ferris battled them in court — and lost. Meanwhile, America was hit with a severe recession, and his engineering business lost money. Three years after he started up his wheel, Ferriss was dead at the age of 37 from tuberculosis; the funeral home held onto his ashes because no one paid the balance due. Yet Ferris, Weingardt says, “probably had more to do with the acceptance of structural steel than anybody alive at his time.” Today, cities as diverse as Berlin, London and New York compete to build the most elaborate wheels in the world. And many are still inspired by the circle that spun in Ferris’s head.

MAN OF STEEL

Erik Larson’s nonfiction book, ‘‘The Devil in the White City,’’ tells the story of a murderer who stalked the Chicago World’s Fair. George Ferris appears as a character.

Did you know anything about George Ferris when you began your book? I never knew that the ‘‘Ferris’’ in Ferris wheel was a person. I thought it meant iron — like ferrous — that it was a corruption of that word.

What’s the strangest part of the Ferris story? That he was allowed to build his wheel in the first place. If you were to try to build an untried amusement today, it would never happen. There would be so many lawyers stepping up and saying, ‘‘I don’t want to take a chance on this thing.’’

Are you a fan of Ferris wheels? I have zero interest in riding on a Ferris wheel. I’m not fond of heights.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 7, 2013, on page MM22 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: Who Made That? (Ferris Wheel).

What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?

What could you do to make someone's day better?

Mark Twain's Birth And Death Arrive With Halley's Comet Visits, 75 Years Apart

Garrison Keillor, Writer's Almanac April 21, 2013:




In 1909, Mark Twain is reported to have said: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year and I expect to go out with it. ... The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'" And he was true to his word: Mark Twain died on this day in 1910, a day after the comet's closest approach to Earth (books by this author).
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, he grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. After his father died and left the family in financial straits, he went to work as a printer's apprentice at the Hannibal Gazette, and it was there he discovered he liked to write.
He was a travel writer, a master of humor and satire, an ardent abolitionist, an inventor, a publisher, and a popular public speaker, but he wasn't a good money manager, and though he made a lot of money at his writing, he lost it all through bad investments and declared bankruptcy in 1893. He began a lecture tour the following year and earned the money to pay back the money he owed his creditors.
William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature," and Hemingway said, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain, called Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Huck Finn is also the fourth most banned book in America, and has recently come to public notice again with the publication of a new version that replaces the controversial racial epithets with the word "slave."

World's Largest Man-Made Explosion Before Hiroshima=Halifax Harbour 1917-Horrific!

The 1917 Halifax Explosion

-Susan Munroe, About.com Guide

Updated: 11/07/11

About the Halifax Explosion:

The Halifax Explosion occurred when a Belgian relief vessel and a French munitions carrier collided in Halifax Harbour during World War I. Crowds gathered around to watch the fire from the initial collision. The munitions ship drifted towards the pier and after twenty minutes blew sky high. More fires started and spread, and a tsunami wave was created. Thousands were killed and injured and much of Halifax was destroyed. To add to the disaster, a snowstorm started the next day, and lasted for nearly a week.

Date:

December 6, 1917

Location:

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Cause of the Halifax Explosion:

Human error

Background to the Halifax Explosion:

In 1917, Halifax, Nova Scotia was the main base of the new Canadian Navy and housed the most important army garrison in Canada. The port was a major hub of wartime activity and Halifax Harbour was crowded with warships, troop transports and supply ships.

Casualties of the Halifax Explosion:

• more than 1900 people killed
• 9000 injured
• 1600 buildings destroyed
• 12,000 houses damaged
• 6000 homeless; 25,000 people with inadequate housing

Halifax Explosion Summary:

• The Belgian relief vessel Imo was leaving Halifax Harbour on its way to New York and the French munitions ship Mont Blanc was on its way to wait for a convoy when the two ships collided at 8:45 am.
• The munitions ship was carrying picric acid, gun cotton and TNT. Her top deck carried benzol which spilled and burned.
• For 20 minutes crowds collected around Halifax Harbour to watch the billowing smoke filled with sparks and fire as the Mont Blanc drifted towards Pier 6. While crews from nearby ships raced to put out the blaze, the captain and crew of the Mont Blanc rowed in lifeboats for the Dartmouth shore. When the crew landed they tried to warn people to run.
• The Mont Blanc rammed Pier 6, setting its wood pilings on fire.
• The Mont Blanc exploded, flattening everything within 800 metres (2600 feet), and causing damage for 1.6 km (1 mile). The explosion was said to have been heard as far away as Prince Edward Island.
• Fires spread quickly after the explosion.
• Water around the ship vaporized, a huge tsunami wave flooded the streets of Halifax and Dartmouth and swept many people back into the harbour where they drowned.
• The next day, one of the worst blizzards ever recorded in Halifax began, and lasted for six days.
• Relief came immediately from the troops in the area. Assistance also poured in from the Maritimes, central Canada and the northeastern United States in the form of medical supplies and workers, food, clothing, building supplies and labourers, and money. Emergency teams from Massachusetts arrived, and many stayed for months. To this day, the people of Nova Scotia remember the help they received, and every year the province of Nova Scotia sends a giantChristmas tree to Boston in thanks.

Doomed Crystal Skull Shot Glass/Bad To The Bone Skull Turquoise Bracelet

Doomed Crystal Skull Shot Glass

Bad to the Bone Turquoise Bracelet

Tributes & Love To All Affected By Boston Tragedy

Chicago Tribune Honors Boston With Beautiful Tribute

Front page, Chicago Tribune sports section, April 16, 2013. / @BaxterHolmes, Twitter

by Michael Katz, USA TODAY Sports, @KatzM

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Following unspeakable tragedy in Boston, inspiring displays of kindness and humanity have continued to sprout around the nation.

Take a look at the touching front page of the Chicago Tribune sports page this morning. It's a tribute to the major professional sports teams in Boston.

Well done, Chicago Tribune. Camaraderie matters.

Nothing Is Certain But Death And Taxes, Context-Ben Franklin

The Saying: NOTHING IS CERTAIN BUT DEATH AND TAXES.

Who Said It: Benjamin Franklin

When: 1789

The Story behind It: American-born Franklin was a statesman, scientist, and writer who frequently corresponded with the prominent international figures of his time. In 1789, at the age of 83, Franklin was still corresponding with Jean Baptiste Leroy, a French physicist and writer. Many of Franklin's personal letters contained simple maxims-the kind found in his Poor Richard's Almanack-and they prove that his wit and wisdom were not impaired by age. One of these comments was: "Our Constitution is in actual operation. Everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."

© 1975 - 1981 by David Wallechinsky & Irving Wallace
Reproduced with permission from "The People's Almanac" series of books.

Jonathan Winters, R.I.P.

Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 - April 11, 2013) was a pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy.  He died in Montecito, California and is survived by his two children:  Jay Winters, and Lucinda Winters.

Robin Williams posted, "First he was my idol, then he was my mentor and amazing friend.  I'll miss him huge.  He was my Comedy Buddha.  Long live the Buddha."

Secure Your Electronic Legacy After Death-What Happens To Online Accounts/Assets When We Die?

What happens when you go "inactive?"  What happens to to our online assets?  What happens to our email accounts and our social network posts upon our deaths?  Do they live on forever?  Does the surviving spouse take control?  Do the accounts go inactive when we do?  Have you covered your digital assets in your will?  -Suzanne Kantra, Founder, Techlicious

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Now You Can Establish A Digital Will For Your Google Accounts

posted by Fox Van Allen on April 11, 2013
in , News, Computers and Software, Blog, Privacy :: 0 comments

Drafting a will is never fun, but we all recognize its importance in keeping life on Earth flowing as smoothly as possible even after we’re gone. But have you ever thought about including instructions for handling your online presence? What happens to all those email accounts, social media profiles, and YouTube preferences?

Starting today, there’s an answer to theses uncomfortable questions: Google has rolled out its Inactive Account Manager, a way for you to manage or delete your online accounts with the company even after you’re gone.

The new tool monitors your various Google accounts for inactivity. After a pre-determined period of time has passed – 3, 6, 9, or 12 months, your choice – Google can delete your various accounts with the company (e.g., YouTube, Gmail, Google+) or send the associated data to a friend or family member. You can also choose to have Google send out automatic notices about the closure of an account to up to 10 important contacts.

Inactive Account Manager will, of course, warn you before turning over the keys to your digital estate. You can set the tool up to send you emails and text message reminders a month before any handoff takes place, giving you time to log in if you just plain forgot to do so.

To use the Inactive Account Manager, you’ll need to visit your Google Accounts page. Under the subheader Account Management, click “Learn more and go to setup.” Then press “Setup” on the following page. From there, you’ll be able to adjust all the inactivity-related settings for your account.

Not all email providers and social networks provide tools to manage your accounts should you die, but that doesn’t mean you’re without a way to plan in advance. For more information on how to secure your electronic legacy, be sure to check out our guide to managing your online accounts after death.