The origins of April Fool’s Day appear to be a mystery. Some say it began after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in the 16^th Century, as a derogatory term for people still clinging to the outmoded Julian Calendar.

Others speculate that “April Fool” was first applied to farmers who began planted their crops in April, instead of May, which was considered the “official” start of summer in many pre-Christian cultures.

Whatever its beginnings, April Fool’s Day has a rich legacy of pranks, jokes, and hoaxes. Here are a couple of the most famous:

• The Swiss spaghetti harvest. In 1957 the BBC reported that a mild Swiss winter, combined with a decline in the “spaghetti weevil” population, had resulted in a record crop of spaghetti in Switzerland. Swiss farmers were shown happily harvesting spaghetti from trees, and many viewers called in to find out how to grow their own spaghetti trees.

• Reduced gravity.Sir Patrick Moore, a British astronomer, told the BBC in 1976 that an unusual alignment of the planets Jupiter and Pluto would result in lower gravity on April 1 at 9:47 a.m. He urged people to jump up into the air to experience the “strange floating sensation” that the phenomenon would produce. The BBC received calls from listeners claiming to feel the effects.

While signing on to get my mail from AOL, I decided to stop by the home page first. I noticed a blurb telling readers about secret coupon codes for $$’s off at some of the top stores. Oh yum! I don’t know how long this has been going on, but am delighted to find this source now. See AOL announcement below:

Coupons, Deals and Savings - AOL Shopping
Online coupon codes that save you cash! Go shopping at your favorite stores for less with coupons from AOL Shopping. Shopping AOL Coupons

I have not yet tried this, but certainly plan to.

A friend told me about Dianne Schlegel, a woman who makes beautiful handmade greeting cards. My friend later sent one of Dianne’s lovely Kalico Kards to me, I still have it. How could I not, it shows a bookstore with a little cat sitting in front. I love books and cats. I smile just looking at the card.http://www.kalicokards.com/

Last week I ordered a small assortment of greeting cards. Saturday they were in my mailbox and I am delighted with every card that I ordered. These cards are perfect for framing. By the way you can get your card(s) personalized. The printing is calligraphy by hand, the messages touch the heart and the designs are fabric.

Do yourself a favor and stop by

Fixya.com is a free online help and tech support, Manuals & Troubleshooting for Consumers. I have not personally used this site, but it looks like it could be useful. It appears that it has information on just about everything from ipods to cars. Plus it has a good blog that is not stuffy.

“Fixya provides Free tech support and technical help for gadgets, electronic equipment and consumer products. Fixya’s technical experts advise on fixing problems and provide instructions on proper usage of products either by chat or message posting. Fixya stores manuals and troubleshooting guides for over half a million products.”

Here is site http://www.fixya.com and Blog http://blog.fixya.com/

Everything is changing, money is tight, jobs are being eliminated, it seems that our lives have become merry-go-rounds. We spin, but always end up in the same place once the ride stops.

 Susan Dunn is a clinical psychologist. When I first checked out Dunn’s site, my first thoughts were, “Oh my goodness, this site is so busy and scattered.” Ms. Dunn offers so many courses, you wonder how she can concentrate on all of them and teach you as well, but she does and does it well. I guess this shows that you can’t always judge a person by his or her website.

Susan Dunn has observed that people who can bounce back after failure and confront new obstacles without losing their nerve generally do these essential things:

Learn from experience. Resilient people reflect on what happens to them—good and bad—so they can move forward without illusion.

Accept setbacks and losses. You’ve got to face the reality of what happens in order to get past it.

Recognize emotions. Resilient people don’t hide from their feelings. They identify what they’re feeling and express their emotions appropriately.

Keep time in perspective.Past, present, and future are separate. Don’t mix them up (by letting what’s in the past determine your choices in the here and now, for example).

Think creatively and flexibly. Look for new ways to solve problems and face challenges.

Take care of yourself. Resilience is based on good physical and mental health. Get enough rest, eat sensibly, and spend time with people who support you.

Ask for help.Resilient people don’t try to do everything themselves. Accept that you’ll need to ask others for assistance, and learn how to do so graciously and effectively.

To survive and thrive, the skill you need to master is resilience. 

 http://www.susandunn.cc/

Dale Carnegie.com is offering a free download the Dale Carnegie Golden Book. Here is the lead information:http://www.dalecarnegie.com/golden_book.jsp?keycode=google06c&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=G_Communications

“Dale Carnegie wrote the book on success – his Golden Book. Implementing the principles in this book will make you a success in business and in your personal life.

These principles inspired Dale Carnegie to write How to Win Friends and Influence People, the most influential business book of the twentieth century…”

As always check out everything *before* you hit the send button. Uncheck anything that you do not want to receive.

For the direct page go to
http://www.dalecarnegie.com/golden_book.jsp?keycode=google06c&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=G_Communications

 Or visit www.dalecarnegie.com

Looking for a fast and easy fudge recipe? Try this one made with butterscotch chips, chocolate chips and walnuts.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips (or use semisweet or dark chocolate chips)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon Watkins Vanilla Extract
1 cup walnuts, broken into pieces

DIRECTIONS

Pour the condensed milk into to a medium-sized double boiler with water just simmering, or use a sauce pan set over a pot of simmering water. Then add the butterscotch and milk chocolate chips. Stir constantly to keep mixture smooth and silky. When smooth and toughly mixed remove pan from heat source and add walnuts and vanilla flavor. Stir to mix and set aside while you butter a small (9 inch) square baking dish.

Use a rubber scraper to scrap chocolate/butterscotch mixture from sauce pan into buttered baking dish. Smooth the fudge in the baking dish and place in the refrigerator to cool and set. This will take about 15 minutes. When the fudge is sufficiently chilled and set, cut into 1-½ or 2 in squares. Enjoy!

I think you will love this fast fudge.

Visit Watkins to buy Watkins Pure Vanilla Extract or Watkins Double Strength Imitation Vanilla.

ICR National Survey Finds Consumers Altering Shopping Behavior As They Deal With Impact Of The Recession.

Media, PA - March 6, 2009 – Survey conducted by independent market research firm,
ICR / International Communications Research, finds that consumer packaged goods
manufacturers might want to take a close look at their consumer marketing efforts as it
appears grocery shoppers are altering their shopping behavior as they try to deal with
the impact of the recession.

See the full ICR report (PDF)

Are You Using Your Credit Card Reward Points?  Think of your reward points as cash, because that’s just what they are.

 J.D. Power and Associates performed a study and has found that  80 percent of credit card holders receive some type of reward. And that these programs have become key in the way credit card users select the cards they want. Airline miles are the most popular reward, with 40 percent of credit card holders receiving them, a Cash points came in at 22 percent, and hotel rewards came in at 9 percent.

In the survey, many customers believed they weren’t taking full advantage of their rewards and said they needed to know more about the following programs:
• Rewards programs—48%
• Identity theft/account protections—40%
• Buyer protection services—35%
• Traveler protection services—29%
• Insurance policies (e.g., car insurance)—21%

I recently redeemed a great many reward points to get a full set of Cuisinart cookware. This is something I have always wanted, but could not or would not spend the money for these fabulous pots and pans. This weekend, I redeemed reward points to order subscriptions to three business magazines. When I read the fine print I was delighted find that the magazine subscriptions did not automatically renew; this is a fairly new tactic and is something that drives me crazy.

One of Switched.com’s recently featured stories is “15 Phishing Scams to Watch Out For.” I still don’t get it, these people are so clever, you would think they would spend their time doing something more useful. But then, they would not be able to make what they must call, “sucker money.”

I have to tell you that those Nigerian money scams do not always originate outside of the U.S, the letters can come from anywhere. Someone joined one of the professional groups I belong to last year and immediately sent out e-mails to the group list. I contacted the group owner and the person was stopped by the owner that same day.

To check out the scams that Switched.com mentions visit their site at Switched.com Bogus stimulus offers are cited, even fake McDonald’s, Coke, and Hallmark coupons. Now how sad is that? It is up to us to be ever vigilant if we are to keep our hard earned dollars. Author Jeffrey Deaver wrote a novel (mystery/thriller) titled, The Blue Nowhere (meaning cyberspace) although it was fiction, it shows what computer hacker’s can do. The word “chilling’ is used to describe the novel, it is very a accurate description.