Nibbled News

Cancelling coverage too early costs motorist

"As I approached the intersection, a stop sign suddenly appeared in a place where no stop sign had ever appeared before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid the accident."  

 When it comes to having adequate insurance coverage to protect our home, auto, life and family we all want the best plans that money can buy but at a reasonable cost.

Admittedly, we are all bargain hunters when it comes to this subject consistently demanding the most amount of coverage possible for the least amount of money.

Many folks accept this as a cost of modern life. Other people only weigh in the monthly cost of coverage and do not view the long term effect of prematurely cancelling their overall automobile insurance coverage. Acting hastily and cancelling some types of insurance could seriously jeopardize a person's financial situation.

My own insurance agent the other day told me about one of his long-standing customers cancelling his auto collision insurance. The vehicle was twelve years old and the guy involved wanted to reduce some of his monthly insurance costs. He felt he was a careful driver and did not want to continue to spend good money protecting an older vehicle.

The agent tried desperately to dissuade him from taking this course of action by offering him a number of less costly insurance alternatives. He outlined the costs involved if the man was involved in an accident. The man listened with a deaf ear. He was determined to take the collision coverage off this vehicle. 

The agent reluctantly cancelled the man's collision coverage and gave him his business card in case he wanted to change his mind. He signed the appropriate release forms for the agent. The client thanked him for his assistance and then left the office.

Ten minutes later the agent's telephone rang. The client whose collision insurance he had previously cancelled was calling him to report that he was involved in an accident just outside the insurance office's parking lot. The man was distraught and frantic. He asked the agent if he could help him.

The agent tried to explain to him that there was nothing he could do to assist him. He suggested the man call the police and report the accident. The driver had willingly declined the collision insurance coverage and was not covered . The car was substantially damaged and the cost to repair it would have to come from out-of-pocket finances.

Both drivers were not injured in the accident. The other driver was going to visit his own insurance agent to upgrade his own collision coverage when the accident happened. It was just one of those ironies of life . It happens.

The moral of the story: before you start lopping off monthly insurance costs make sure you have weighed all the pros and the cons. Sometimes a penny saved in one area can end up costing you big bucks in another. Try to think things through and get the big picture before you act.

Give Up My Password To My Boss -- No Way!

"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy." --Edward P. Morgan

 Many folks who maintain social networking sites are being asked by their bosses to supply them with their personal password so that their online activity can be monitored for potential security and breach of corporate protocol  concerns.

While they privately make light of the fact that this demand is an invasion of their privacy and personal space a great many employees begrudgingly provide their demanding employers with the requested password to their Facebook account.

Suddenly their perfect job has become tainted by the fact that they must unwillingly relinquish their guarded password to their boss. The economics of the situation persuades many of these employees to succumb to the demand of the job and of course their continuing employment.

Julie is one such employee who has been a marketing researcher for the past five years. She works in an office environment and communicates with clients via her Facebook site. She manages her site when she is at work and states that she uses it for business promotions, conferencing and client updating.

She realizes that her employer is providing the net connection for her to use and as such has the right to ask her for her password. She resents the fact that a condition of her continuing employment with the firm rests on her compliance with the password ruling.

Concerned friends and colleagues advise her to comply but also suggest that she either create a new Facebook account for her own private use or else change the password a month after she reveals it to her employer.

A number of people I chatted with resented the outright imposition on their privacy. They stated that their employer really had no right to invade in their private space especially if their private thoughts and concerns revealed online were not related to their jobs.

Doug, a radio DJ , said "no way Jose!" would he ever comply with such a demand by his employer. His connection to his listeners was enhanced by his Facebook persona and he emphasized the fact that his listeners might not communicate as freely with him if they suspected third or even fourth parties were monitoring them.

Facebook does provide a forum for many folks to not only express their views to the world but also at times an ideal meeting place to meet new friends, business associates and reconnect family members separated by great distances.

It also offers unscrupulous employers the opportunity to not only intimidate their employees with termination but also a private view into the non business lives of their personnel. 

 It may be wise and economically prudent to maintain two such social media accounts: one to appease the demands of your boss and a second , more private one in which your non work related personality and networking connections are private and secure from your company's probing eyes.

Many Automobile Problems Just Happen

"WHILE I waited at a service station for my car to be tuned, a woman drove up in a clunker that rattled, wheezed and coughed to a stop in a cloud of smoke. She rolled down her window and asked the attendant if she could wait while it was being fixed. "Sure," replied the attendant. "It'll take awhile, but get your things. You can sleep over there under the oil racks."    --- Anon

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Sometimes a person's best friend is his automobile dealership's repair crew. These specially trained service technicians can make or break a customer's overall satisfaction with the vehicle they have purchased. They are at times a  company's first line of defence in ensuring customer product satisfaction.

 Highly calibrated diagnostic equipment can be used to zero in on a technical problem that is currently plaguing a car owner. Other times something as simple as inside product information can give this same harried owner a plan of attack when dealing with auto issues.

My neighbor Vic is a retiree and purchased a Chrysler Sebring a few years ago. This car has been the apple of his eye and for the past number of years he has serviced the car religiously according to the owner's manual. It is a line of mid size car that was sold by Chrysler from 1995 to 2010. It offers stylish good looks and is not a gas guzzler.

Recently, Vic's overall satisfaction with his car has been seriously tested. A cold snap in the weather has sent temperatures plummeting well below the freezing mark. This frigid change has caused his car to emit a snap-crackle-pop sound whenever he starts the engine The vehicle starts alright and there is no outpouring of dark smoke. Just the irritating sound.

He consulted his dealership mechanic about the problem and discovered that many Chrysler and Jeep products are experiencing this same noisy situation whenever the temperatures plunge beneath a certain level. Apparently the power steering fluid begins to congeal like jello due to the cold.  

Vic told me a number of the mechanics had considered recommending that customers experiencing this problem use General Motors power steering fluid as a replacement for their own. However they were not sure as to what the consequences might be on the overall performance of the vehicles. The fluid might damage the gaskets and other internal working parts  used in the Chrysler-Jeep products.

The weather has changed for the better and the temperatures have become a bit more moderate. Vic is now able to start his vehicle's engine without the accompanying noise. He doesn't mind the fact that he has to scrape ice off the windshield or brush away the snow. Its the unexpected winter complications that throw a monkey wrench into his daily routines that bother him.

 

Safeway Lagging Behind On Product Quality

The traditional mom and pop grocery store has these days almost been  entirely replaced  by the mega markets promoting their bulk buying offers and huge discounts meant to entice and secure customer support and loyalty.

We trust that the modern day players in the burgeoning food industry will also adhere to the same standards of quality, freshness and safety that the local entrepreneurs subscribed to.

Sometimes this trust is naively placed into outlets that care more about profits then customer safety and satisfaction. Many times there are too many fingers in the operational pie to guarantee anything substantial for the consumer.

Last Thursday the 19th of the month  I visited my local Safeway outlet and purchased a package of extra lean ground turkey breasts. There was a two dollar deduction listed on the front of the prewrapped package.

The contents appeared to be pink and wholesome and I looked forward to enjoying it in a chili recipe to be served on the upcoming weekend. The freshness label indicated that the product was good until the 28th of the month.

Saturday evening I noticed that a clear liquid had somehow mysteriously formed and accumulated inside the package. I had not placed the carton in the freezer but on one of the fridge's inner shelves. This was a procedure I had done for years.

The package was opened gingerly and the excess mositure was drained away. The chicken did not smell tainted so it was placed on an electric fry pan. It slid easily out of the container. A few minutes after the heat was applied a white, odorless ooze began to appear around the fringes of the bulky slab of the ground chicken.

As the electric fry pan started to cook the meat more and more of the white goo encircled the meat. After a few minutes the fry pan was turned off and the chicken was thrown into the garbage bin. It seemed to be too risky an item to eat.

I suspect that the product had been previously frozen and thawed and then placed in the meat section for sale. I did not know how many times this had been done. A number of times in the past whenever I had bought the same product and frozen it at home for later use the same reaction had occurred in the fry pan but to a lesser degree.

There were no external markings on the outside of the plastic wrapped container warning a customer that the product had been previously frozen. The two dollar discount seemed to justify the fact that the product had been handled somewhat badly.

The product line, Eating Right, is not processed in the store. It is an item mass merchandised and handled by a national conglomerate. Somewhere along the line the product may have been frozen during transport and then placed on the shelf in the meat section for sale.

Chicken has traditionally been associated with salmonella. This alone should inspire large retailers like Safeway to place a higher emphasis on caution when selling this product for consumer use.

I wrote an email to the Safeway business ethics division detailing the problem I had with this product line. I tried contacting the local retailer via their customer complaint hotline but their site has been experiencing technical difficulties the entire weekend. Go figure.

 

 

  

Impatient People Should Never Drive Buses

Ralph Cramden, a television character portrayed many years ago by Jackie Gleason, was a bus driver for the fictional Gotham Bus Company. He was a soft-hearted man who loved his wife, was frustrated by his lack of personal success and had a very short temper that many times landed him in hot water.

Although this portrayal was fictional there are many folks out there today who do drive a bus and also have short temper fuses waiting to be ignited by the proper stimulus. This potential emotional explosion could conceivably result in serious accidents , injury and death to their passengers.

Granted that we live in economically challenging times. Jobs are scarce and people are desperate to find and ultimately secure for themselves any kind of employment. But, in my opinion,  impatient people should never attempt to become bus drivers. They eventually become  a menace to themselves, their passengers and the general driving public as well.

According to many taffic safety studies a number of these drivers  over time tend to flaunt the safe driving rules of the road, cause more accidents and create more unsafe incidents than other less stressed drivers. Their stringent passenger deadlines when combined  with the  on-the-job expectations of their employers transform them into aggressive road raged ogres.

School bus drivers, public transportation drivers and special needs drivers for the handicapped over time eventually succumb to the urge to rule the road and dominate the flow of traffic. After all they are the larger vehicle on the road. Their passenger's safety and well being never enters into their equation for success.

The size of their vehicles combined with the number of passengers they carry at any one time helps them foster the belief that they are the supreme masters of the road . All other vehicles in the vicinity must submit to their dominance. To their way of thinking red lights are merely a deterrent to them completing their route successfully and on time.

Over the past few weeks I have seen school buses run red lights, drive faster than the posted speed limit in school zones and at times strand youngsters who were a few seconds late for their scheduled pick up time.

The parents were outraged but the drivers offered them the explanation that they had their schedule to meet. School administrators and union officials backed the drivers' reasons for the stranding of the young students. This smugness did not sit well with the parents who were forced to drive their children to school.

I was recently driving behind a small sized, specially designed vehicle for people confined to wheel chairs. The driver of the vehicle easily darted back and forth through traffic, ran a few red lights and took many of the turns at a rate of speed that shuffled his passengers about like eggs in an opened container. Many of the passengers were clinging to the hand rails inside the vehicle for safety and stability.

I realize that not all public transportation drivers fit the emotional description I have offered. Many of them are actually responsible, courteous men and women who take their jobs seriously and place their commitment to safe handling procedures at high levels. These folks ought to be commended.

There are however those drivers who put deadlines and schedules before safety. These folks receive more police citations for unsafe driving practices than normal. They want to please their boss and not tend to the safety of their passengers. They are the drivers that should be rooted out of the system and replaced by people who place passenger safety at the top of their list.

 

 

 

 

 

Jell- O -- It's A Tasty But Deceptive Dessert

"The jello jiggled in the bowl.
It jiggled upon my spoon.
It jiggled towards my mouth.
Ooops!!! What is this?"

 

Sometimes reality bites a person gently on the butt. Other times this very gentle nibbling transforms itself  into a more forceful,  rude awakening. 

It  is less user friendly and as a result a person's way of thinking or relating to an event or an object in the real world is drastically altered forever.  

 

This situation describes my recent late life awakening to the fact that Jello gelatin dessert should no longer be considered that jiggly, happy fun food that Bill Cosby endorsed so heavily in numerous television commercials.

Do you remember seeing the little cubes of Jello poised enticingly on the tip of his teaspoon ready to be easily devoured? Bill eagerly placed the spoon in his mouth, smiled and emitted a sigh of satisfaction and pleasure.

This is really a  Dr Jeckyll- Mr Hyde creation made from the ground hooves of a variety of animals, fish intestines and of course an assortment of other connective organic materials. These raw ingredients are treated with a special acid and boiled into submission for further industrial treatment and commercial usage.

This repulsive goop is processed to a point wherein salts, flavor additives and other materials are added so that the jiggly, tasty and mouth watering dessert we know and love is ready for consumers to purchase and enjoy. Chemicals are added to the mix to help consumers readily indulge their senses and treat their taste buds.

Jellified organics (Jello) could also appropriately describe that dry, scented powder that both we and our parents over the years prepared by simply doing the folowing:

1. Add one cup of boiling water to crystals.
2. Stir to dissolve the crystal in hot water.
3. Add one cup of cold water and stir.
4. Refrigerate for a few hours until firm.

Jello's at home preparation time has not changed that much over the years. The lineup of flavors has increased and over time a number of these have been dropped due to customer demand. My favorites were strawberry, grape, orange , wild cherry and blackberry.

All that changed last weekend when I learned the truth about the compositional nature of my favorite dessert. At first I felt relatively stunned and could not believe that the dessert had such a checkered chemistry about itself. When I verified the facts for myself via a Google search I felt betrayed and of course nauseous.

It is amazing that hospitals, senior citizen homes, school cafeterias and other such eateries offer this mess to their patients, customers and dependents. The easy preparation time and probably the low product cost could be the determining factor in the product's widespread use and general acceptance. 

However a significant number of people who believed this dessert to be non organic are definitely in for their own wake up call. At times the only difference between this gelatin dessert and let us say headcheese lies in the fact that the visible chunks of animal meat  and byproducts are cleverly concealed from view.

Product ingredients listed on the outside of the Jello box outlines the great number of salts used to enhace and possibly prolong the flavor, aroma, freshness, shelf life and useablility of the contents inside. Many people today get more than their required share of salts and fats in their diets.

Consumers battling obesity and high blood pressure concerns really do not need this type of assumed non organic dessert in their diets.

Dieticians and others responsible for the care of our sick, children and seniors should become aware of the true nature of this attractive dessert and ban its serving from their menus.

 

                                                                                  

Sorry Buddy, Your Dog Can't Drive The Car

" I used to look at (my dog) Smokey and think, 'If you were a little smarter, you could tell me what you were thinking', and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'" --- Fred Jungclaus

Imagine this situation. You are sitting at a red light waiting  to make a left hand turn. It is an unusually warm summer day.

The cooling beads of sweat are playfully and slowly trickling down the back of your neck. Your shirt has absorbed about as much moisture as the high priced paper towel might have done.

You have waited your turn  patiently in the sweltering sun for what to you seems like an eternity. The traffic light finally turns green and you begin to execute your left turn.

The oncoming lane of vehicles is light for this time of the day. You casually glance over your right shoulder towards the curb lane to check for any oncoming traffic. There are no pedestrians or other vehicles impeding your making the turn.

At that moment you notice that the operator of the vehicle beside you in the non turning lane is not a human being afterall but rather a large, shaggy headed bouvier with its left paw hanging freely outside the driver's side of the curb laned vehicle while its tongue hangs freely from its drooling mouth.

You do a visual double take hoping that you are not suffering from some form of temporary dementia or weather induced heat stroke. As that vehicle continues onward past your own vehicle you notice that a hand now tugs on the dog's leash and yanks it towards the passenger side of the car.

To you it seemed that the frisky but very large puppy had jumped up on the driver's lap, blocked his field of vision and commanded the driver's side of the car while it had stopped for the red light.

This incident could have proven fatal if the dog decided to leap onto its master's lap while the vehicle was moving. Fortunately no one was injured.  I'm certain the driver of the car did not learn to be a more careful driver from the experience.

The warmer summer conditions cause many people to abandon their usually dependable common sense notions. People want to bond closer with their animals and fail to accept the fact the an unharnessed animal bounding freely in the front seat of their cars could lead to traffic fatalities, injuries and possibly death.

One driver with a Ford sport utility vehicle  had two  large doberman roaming freely and unfettered inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The windows of the SUV were opened and when the vehicle stopped at a red light one of the dogs leapt through the window. 

 The large dog  immediately  proceeded  to attack a female pedestrian who was out and about walking her poodle. The driver managed to finally safely stop his vehicle and restrain the attacking dog before any serious injury could occur to either the pedestrian or the smaller , startled animal.

If the dogs in the above situations were chihuahua sized then the matter would have been both amusing and entertaining. In these instances however the size and weight of the dogs created a potential physical threat to both fellow motorists and innocent pedestrians in the immediate vicinity.

Dogs, large or small,  should be outfitted with some type of physical restraint mechanism which would effectively limit their range of movement in a moving vehicle. This type of restraint apparatus should be given the same status that a child restraint seat has for youngsters who travel in the family vehicle with their parents.

Drivers who allow their pets to roam freely inside their vehicles should be fined as heavily as those parents who do not ensure their infants are properly strapped into their special infant seats. They should also receive demerit points for not driving in a responsible and safe manner.

Children and four legged animals obviously do not fall  within the same category of passenger safety. But the amount of physical damage that a wildly careening , 90 pound, out of control animal can produce during an auto accident warrants that some type of physically restraining harness or travel case be used to safely transport the animal from one destination point to another.

Letting your family pet roam freely in the back of your pickup truck is not a responsible way to show you care for man's best friend. Small children and animals depend upon adults to provide due care, caution and concern for their safety and well being.

To provide less than the best care for them should be considered criminal. Monetary fines and demerit points might help to educate those folks who publicly ignore their responsibilities.

Pharmacists Often Commit Dispensing Errors

"I feel that nasal spray is a wondrous medical achievement, because it's supposed to relieve nasal congestion, and by gadfrey, it relieves nasal congestion." -- Dave Barry (Dave Barry's Greatest Hits) .

A pharmacist is first and foremost a human being subject to the same stresses, fatigues, weaknesses and distractions we all suffer from at one time or another. They are engaged in a demanding profession rife with legal responsibilities and medical consequences.

They should therefore be a bit more vigilant in the performance of their professional duty when dispensing medicines to their customers. A typical customer should not have to worry about the following:

• o   Receiving the wrong prescription with your own  
• o   Crushed or damaged pills concealed in bottle
• o   Being short changed on the overall pill count
• Unknowingly received two pill strengths in one pill bottle

What happens when patients have to scrutinize and actively question their pharmacist every time they visit the corner drug store to pick up a prescription their family physician has prescribed for them?

A family pharmacist is after all a university trained professional dedicated to ensuring the safe and effective use of the prescription medications and pharmaceutical drugs they dispense and provide to their customers.

Their extended professional training enables them to have a familiarity with the many notions, potions and lotions available on the market. They are aware when a patient’s medications might conflict with one another.

Their reference manuals when combined with their close and  ongoing  associations with doctors in a community setting enables them to keep a fairly up to date record of a patient's medical and prescription history over time.

 They have effectively graduated from the classical "lick, stick and pour" dispensary role of earlier times. They are now an integrated member of a health care team directly involved with patient care. Patients should not have to doubt and question their pharmacist each and every time they go to pick up their medicines.

The incidents listed above happened to me within the past twelve months. Each time I brought in my order from the doctor a recent pharmacy graduate filled my order.

This past weekend I noticed that a 5 mg pill of one medication that should have had the capital letter P had instead the letter N and the same 5 mg dosage. The color of the correct pill was white while the other pill was a deep green.

I brought the bottle to the drug store and spoke with the owner of the store. At first she had a difficult time understanding how the transaction could have happened. She examined the bottles she had in her cabinet and was baffled for a few minutes.

After she examined the prescription description on her computer screen in the dispensing area she noted that whoever filled the order for me had used two different types of meds. Apparently she had run out of the correct brand and substituted another in its stead.

The owner of the store was furious that one of her staff would mix and match prescriptions in such a manner. The correct thing to do would have been to merely replace the white pill with the green one. The dosage and the overall effect of both drugs were the same. They were a generic product costing the same amount of money.

She was very apologetic and told me that she would talk to her staff and inform them that they cannot mix and match any medication like they did. They should have claimed a shortage and then ordered more of the medication for me.

In this instance no serious damage had been done. The different color of each pill offered me a visual clue that something was running amiss.

Checking the content label on your prescription bottle is one way to ensure that you have been given the correct medication and dosage. Also be sure to visually check the color of your pills carefully and report any and all discrepancies to your pharmacist.

Some Toothbrushes Made For Hippo's Teeth

"There are two things in life that a sage must preserve at every sacrifice, the coats of his stomach and the enamel of his teeth. Some evils admit of consolations, but there are no comforters for dyspepsia and the toothache." ~Henry Lytton Bulwer

Conventional wisdom tells us that two things are certain in life: death and of course taxes. I would like to add a third certainty to the mix: dental cavities.

 As sure as children love sweets and dentists love children who enjoy sweets then it necessarily follows that cavities love children.

Concerned parents have for decades been anxiously screening the quantity and the quality of the sweets their children consume.

They constantly remind their offspring to make sure they brush their teeth after every meal and brush and floss before they go to bed .

These same overly protective parents have even sought their child's dental professional's opinion as to which type of brush will be most effective for their kids.

Dentists have  given these concerned parents their supposedly unbiased opinions as to which brush will be most effective not only for their children but also for parental use as well.

A quick tour of the toothpaste aisle in your local pharmacy or supermarket will immediately reveal how inattentive marketing research people have been in creating a brush which will effectively and thoroughly do the job.

For many people , children as well as adults, a powered toothbrush does a better overall  job of cleaning teeth particularly for those who have difficulty brushing or who have limited manual dexterity.

Many of the high-tech brushes offered to consumers have multiple heads of varying sizes , shapes and configurations all promising to reduce cavities , fight gingivitis and of course clean your teeth thoroughly.

But no matter how dedicated and committed a person is to reducing cavities the main issue is the size of the actual brush(es) doing the job inside your mouth. 

The best brush is the one that fits easily inside your mouth and gets all the teeth clean. A triple headed motorized monstrosity that barely cleans your front teeth is a waste of your time and money.

The high tech monster brushes are the types being actively promoted and are given shelf space prominence by drug stores and super markets. The prices have come down in recent months due to a decrease in demand for them. Once the advertising hype wears off many customers prefer the good old manual type of brush.

One senior I saw purchasing the motorized unit told me that she and her husband use the double headed brush to thoroughly clean their dentures. She could not imagine anyone seriously using such over sized powered brushes in their mouths.

"I could see zoo keepers cleaning the hippos or alligators teeth with this style of brush but not real people" she said.

Most dental professionals agree that a soft-bristled toothbrush is best for removing plaque and debris from your teeth. Small-headed toothbrushes are also preferable, since they can better reach all areas of the mouth, including hard-to-reach back teeth.

Whichever style of brush you choose for yourself or your family make sure it will do the job of cleaning your teeth, preventing cavities and give you that dazzling , bright smile you desire.

 

 

 

Many Men Dread Yearly Prostate Exam

Society often defines women to be the weaker sex. Men however often turn out to the more squeamish of the sexes and actually dread a physical examination that could quite literally save their lives.

The prostate examination recommended for all men over 50 years of age helps to detect prostate cancer which is the second leading cause of cancer death in men behind lung cancer.

Data recently released from the American Cancer Society stated that nearly 241,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2011. Nearly 34,000 men are expected to die from it.

Many men tend to postpone a much needed physical exam due to their fears and embarassment of having a prostate examination. The often time cliched term "Dr. Jellyfinger" causes men to avoid this exam and raise their risk of dying from prostate cancer. 

We all know of men who postpone this examination due to embarassment and eventually contracted the disease. These men, who may have been brave and unflinching in their daily lives, actually detested the thought of visiting their family physician.

Smoking definitely increases the risk that men who develop prostate cancer will die from their disease. The longer that men have smoked the greater the risk.

The overall exam is a somewhat invasive procedure but the end result of not having the exam is far more intimidating. The choice is not a difficult one to make. The result will ensure that your loved ones will have you around for a much longer time.