Bette Boyle was once known only as 'the kid who knows a Bishop'

It was a lovely spring day when I first became wellknown in my childhood neighborhood as "the kid who knows a Bishop." That day came after the snowy winter night when I had that unfortunate accident involving my sled and a taxi cab. The injuries I sustained made it necessary to spend more than month in bed.

This had meant no school, no church, no sorority meetings - not much of interest to do for a whole month. I spent most of my time reading, or even just looking out my bedroom window. But on a particular Sunday, I saw an unusual sight.

A long, black limousine drew up in front of my house. The front doors of the car opened and two smartly dressed chauffeurs actually stood at attention as the rear door of the car opened and a tall man dressed in the elaborate garb of an Episcopalian Bishop stepped out. He had just come from my parent's church, where he had welcomed the new confirmation class, of which I was to have been a member. Having been told of my injuries, he decided to make the trip to my home to cheer me in my recovery.

As he proceeded up the front steps, doors began to pop open up and down the street. My neighbors, many of whom were Jewish, gathered on their doorsteps to see the strange sight - a Bishop in full regalia, mitre and all, paying a house call.

My parents brought him to my room, and I must confess the entire ceremony passed in a blur as far as I recall. I guess you could say I took my first communion in bed. But for a while at least, neighbor kids would say "You know Bette, she's the kid who had a real live Bishop in her house."

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A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that using a pedometer, a small device that counts the number of steps you take, can be an impetus to increase the amount of a person's physical activity.

Individuals who have a goal of walking a set distance or number of steps each day (that's me!) have been shown, when using a pedometer, to walk almost a mile per day more than before. And, for you weight watchers, there has been shown to be significant decrease in body mass index among users. This is a good way to keep your blood pressure within a healthy range as well.

Okay, let's start ticking off the miles!

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In case you or your husband is a poker player, you may want to know that there is roughly a fifty-fifty chance that you won't even draw a pair on just the five cards originally dealt in a hand. Three of a kind shows up only once in fifty hands, and four of kind once in 4,165 hands. A royal flush is dealt only once in nearly 650,000 hands. This information is from the U.S. Playing Card Company - they ought to know!

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Questions and Answers from an AARP Forum

Q: Where can men over the age of fifty find younger, sexy women who are interested in them?

A: Try a bookstore … under fiction.

Q: How can you avoid that terrible curse of the elderly … wrinkles?

A: Take off your glasses. See you next week!