Cheri, there are those who will continue to make their own tobacco preps despite what I or anyone else might say. TMV hasn't been a major problem for many years and I'd have to look up the date, but the last outbreak in the US in a field of tomatoes was in MO many years ago. There are small outbreaks here and there and I think the last one I knew of was in CA a few years ago. TMV is found sometimes in large commercial greenhouses where it's spread manually, not by insects. And tolerance to TMV is still found in most newer hybrids b'c it's easy to breed in. And perhaps most importantly the commercial tobacco grown in the US for maybe the last 20 years has been TMV tolerant, but that's not true of Turkish tobacco. THe diseaase that seems to make some folks think they have TMV is Cucumber Mosaic Virus ( CMV) b'c the symptoms are very similar to TMV and with the latter there are several strains so the symptoms aren 't always the same. But I've found that you're probably be going to be preaching to the choir when it comes to making up tobacco preps, which are toxic to some plants and no, without doing a Google search I don't remember which ones, and that's b'c most will come back and say their father or grandfather used it and it's great as a pesticde. So be it. ( smile) Carolyn

I am someone who suffered with awful PMS, hormonal hell, physical symptoms w/menstruation, etc...and for me, menopause has been almost completely a blessing and a godsend! Actually my sisters (all of whom had the same bad pattern) formulated a theory. Women who never had the experience of that kind of nightmare probably have a worse time with menopause because suddenly the mood swings, period effects and so on are really severe and unpleasant. Whereas, for women like us that stuff is par for the course and the final cease fire of menstruation is mostly a huge relief. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it-or should I say living it. My last menstrual period was 2+ years ago and I can't honestly say I miss it for a second. I feel great, no more mood swings, and not having to deal with periods from hell (perimenopause was a horror show too of course)...what's to miss or mourn?! As far as symptoms, I have hot flashes but then again my skinny bones husband is constantly cold so usually when I feel really warm I discover he's turned the AC up to 88 degrees again. Otherwise, so far so good.

things continue to go well, although some problems. I got another period 2 weeks ago, the first 24 hours I went through wearing THREE super absobent products at one time for a total of 50 products, I was changing every 2 hours, it was horrible. then it suddenly stopped and I am getting my energy back. My energy is coming back sooner, though, than it used to when I had a period every month. the night sweats have gone mostly completely away now that I can again exercise outside. the water intake is very important to my reduction of hot flashes I have noticed. For some reason, milk makes my bladder overactive. Strange things I am figuring out to make my transition work for me. it is still better than the monthly cycle,, Good luck all! Lori

The thing is, people are people and a person's gender should NEVER be used to judge them by. You say the young women you see are far too bold - OK we were having a discussion on women so I said that the timid mouse image that was being painted is not my experience so the statement of too bold applied to women only because we were talking about women. There was no statement about men at all, so don't infer it. I never said or even implied that the behavior is any different than young college men or that it is more acceptable in men. In fact, I said both young men and women were too bold. Since the innuendo is getting me in trouble, the statement is probably going to get me hung but what the hell. I was specifically talking about the all too popular trend of asking any guy you like for d#ck pics, and reciprocating with topless photos. I get a few drunk pics of some guys junk several times a year. Believe me, I think they are too bold also. I never said that bias doesn't exist. I am just referring to the evidence that all biases seem to be lessening, thus studies centered around younger adults may be more relevant. There is still plenty of every bias to go around. You guys are really looking for a fight, that quite frankly, I don't want to be in. So you win. Risk aversion/acceptance varies widely within the genders and I suspect that women may be, on average, more risk averse than men. - Let me explain in greater detail. EVERYONE has different risk appetite. Older people are more risk averse than younger, poor people are less risk averse than the upper middle class, different races have different risk tolerance, different geographic areas have different risk tolerance, and all of those are gross generalizations. The reason why risk doesn't matter between men and women isn't that they don't have different risk tolerance, it is that everyone has different risk tolerance. So the first thing you learn in finance is establishing acceptable risk. There is no right answer. As long as the desired rewards match the risk, you are right. As investors both men and women learn about the market (become sophisticated), we usually see risk seekers temper their desire to make it big in the market, and we see risk avoiders start to focus more on the rewards, realizing that complete risk aversion may not achieve their goals. In the end, the two sides, whether they be race, gender, or just personality, get reasonably close together. So what I am saying is there really is no issue for gender to effect. Once you have a risk appetite that you are comfortable with, you control for it. Controlling for it simply means selecting the investments that will most likely get you to your goal at your stated risk and realizing that not every investment needs to be at your risk appetite.