WOMODO no more.

How did I ever miss this? I enjoy trolling for new, if at times, whacky inventions because they amuse me. Somehow this product escaped my notice when it was first introduced in Japan earlier this year. A Hello Kitty breath tester.

Hello hello Bono, what kind of kids are begging mom and dad to buy this, dare I call it, a toy? How about a school bully, using it as a way to wear the disguise of a kind, gentle, pink kitten loving innocent?

Picture this. You're five. It's snacktime. You spy a potential victim. Bradley. He stole your cookie, a Mallobar, precious because it's only sold in the cold winter months when it has a snowball's chance of staying fresh and crisp unlike the summer months when it goes soggy and limp. But I digress. You know Bradley has Halitosis, you saw him chewing on Lester Kelly's salami earlier. So, instead of hurling the tired but old school, "who cut the cheese, snicker snicker," at Bradley, an allegation that can be blatantly denied because of the difficulty of obtaining rock solid evidence, you surreptiously pull out the Hello Kitty BT from under your blankie. Bradley will pay, you say to your little developing brain. Not with a pointing finger, not with a knock over the noggin, but with an ego shattering accusation made ever more poignant and wounding by the grimace on sweet little Hello Kitty's face. "Ewww," you shout, "Bradley. Bradley has stinky breath. Bradley has stinky breath. Bradley's breath smells like poo. Poo breath. Poo breath." The other kids join in the chant driving Quasimodo, I mean Bradley, over and into the cloak room. The teacher, sensing her tenous hold on what could turn into a food fight, hestitates just long enough to do a quick breath in-to-the-hand check before she intervenes.

Fast forward twenty years later. There's Bradley, lying on a couch, talking to his therapist about the key traumatizing moment in his life and how it led him to swear off ever dating anyone who loves pink or cats.

Check out Medgadget if you want to find out how to get one in time for the holidays.

From a European report on marketing to women, entitled Women Over 45 in the UK, published by Key Note.

"However, when most marketers think of older women they do not see glamorous social rebels, they see frumpy middle-aged women or little old ladies."

How old are these marketers? If young, do they have or personally know mothers, aunts, friends, coworkers and so on over the age of 45, or do they exist in a vaccuum? If they're part of the baby boom generation, are they looking at themselves and their friends, or are they themselves frumpy and little? Maybe, as marketers, it's time to get out amongst the people instead of sitting in the office reading a report.

Okay, neophyte blogger discovers the name of her blog may lead to heaven. Who knew a made up name would ever be affliated with a rapture bible studies site sponsored by Circuit City no less? Not me. In this world of copycat/me too'ers one little slip of the "b" button fast forwards readers to logspot.com and prophecies about the end of the world. Well here's a new prophecy I'm adding to the mix. I predict that my blog will have a new name by sundown.

By the way if you got here by accident here's the link to get you back to the bible site womodo.logspot.com.

At the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Dr. Leslie Bernstein, PHD, from the University of Southern California Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, said that risk factors that may lead to breast cancer can be modified. Two of the changes cited were physical activity and dietary considerations.

Below is an excerpt from the Symposium press release posted December 10th at 20:27 on PR Newswire:

Risk factors for breast cancer can generally be divided into those that cannot be changed and those that can. Risk factors that cannot be changed include age, gender, race/ethnicity, early noncancerous changes in the breast,family history of breast cancer, age at first menstrual period, and age at menopause. Those that can be changed include pregnancy history (number of births, no births), removal of the ovaries prior to menopause, lactation, density of the breasts as shown during mammography, past radiation treatment, physical activity, postmenopausal obesity/adult weight gain, hormone therapy, and alcohol intake."

"Many women would prefer to consider lifestyle changes. Obesity in postmenopausal women (usually defined as a body mass index >27) is associated with increased risk, with about 7.6% of breast cancers in the United States attributable to obesity. Thus, simple weight loss is a feasible strategy. Exercise in women of reproductive age, especially in younger women and teenagers, can have a significant effect on the occurrence of breast cancer, possibly due to disturbances in the menstrual cycle that result in reduced hormone levels. Lifetime physical activity is associated with lower risk of invasive breast cancer among women in Europe and Asia and among Asian-American and Hispanic-American women. In contrast to the risk associated with obesity, in this case risk reduction is greater among women without a first degree family history of breast cancer.

There are also dietary factors that may affect breast cancer risk. For example, biologically active compounds from green tea have been shown to suppress the growth of human breast cancer cells injected into mice, and consumption of green tea is associated with reduced breast cancer risk in Asian-American women.

Dr. Bernstein pointed out that, as opposed to pharmacological and surgical strategies, these lifestyle changes have the advantage of being cost-effective and likely to meet with greater patient acceptance. Further research needs to address questions about the importance of age of exposure, duration of exposure, and exposure intensity, as well as the size of the benefit that can be obtained from lifestyle changes."

It would be nice if someone would release new information rather than a rehash of that already available. Aren't symposiums supposed to be about sharing and disseminating cutting edge research?

Machu Picchu. I 've never been there. My backpack has. It's black leather with a single opening and two very wide leather shoulder straps adjusted the old fashioned way, with buckles. It's a rugged good looking backpack, the kind that might have persuaded Ernest Hemingway to drag it around the globe as he travelled, wrote and was photographed for those pictures that bars in Cuba and Italy use to verify that he drank there. I think there may be a photograph of my backpack buried in my friend Laurel's photo albums.

Laurel went to Peru with her parents about nine or ten years ago. I loaned her the backpack for her trip. I think I was vaguely trying to start a trend that only I would ultimately appreciate, one akin to the lawn dwarf stolen by pranksters whose intent was to pose it in front of recognizable landmarks and then send the ensuing pics back to the dwarf's owner. In my case, Laurel dragged that pack up the steps to the ruins of fabled Machu Picchu and I think she may have even touched it to the sacred Intihuatana stone. So, instead of a worldwind global tour my backpack went, in effect, on a spiritual pilgrimage. Did it return changed? On the surface it had a few new scratches that added character to the hide. What was odd, what was hard to explain was that for some reason when I started to carry it around again it seemed heavier, even when empty of contents. My back hurt, my shoulders ached and I couldn't remember if this had always been the case, or if suddenly it truly was heavier. I want to say that there was a profound reason for the perceived additional weight. I want to say that it foreshadowed a new life that I was about to embark upon sans a husband. I want to say that the cliche of "carrying around one's baggage" had gone from symbol to concrete application. But I won't. What I will say is that this was a bag that went on a trip that I would have liked to have gone on.

Meanwhile if you haven't been to Peru, this site, Raingod, has a virtual tour of the Inca trail leading up to Machu Picchu that might nudge you into booking a trip there. And, Culture Focus has many interesting links and photos of the area, the people, and the sites along with links to book travel or explore other regions of Peru.

Irene went to her mailbox sometime this year and pulled out a letter from AARP. Seems that they wanted to know why she hadn't been taking advantage of their services. Given that she's still some time away from eligibility she held her breath just a bit longer than usual as she read through the offer.

A senior at 50, is that how it works? Someone once told me you were considered a senior citizen either when you turned 65, or when a full crop of grey pubic hair finally made an appearance, whichever happened first. Perish the thought.

My friend Margot went to a department store the other day to purchase some face cream. She picked up the product she normally uses and brought it to the counter. The cashier said that the cream was very good but redirected her to another cream in the same line stating that it was "perfect for skin over the age of 45" (let's leave cashier's emphasis and tone to our imaginations).

Margot does happen to actually be 45 but hadn't mentioned her age to the clerk. We could debate whether or not Margot looks 45 but then we'd have to empower someone to be the definitive judge of what 45 really looks like. We'd also likely have to have a template -- a 45 year old woman against whom all others would be compared. For the record, Margot is in awesome shape physically and is married to a man five years younger who's a tri-athelete. She's not exactly shuffling around with dowager's hump, but that says nothing about the state of her 45 year old skin, which to my eye looks pretty good -- clean, no blackheads, she even has those often coveted small pores but yes, strictly speaking, it is 45 year old skin.

Apparently cosmetic counter sales training programs don't include diplomacy skills. A simple, "perhaps you'd like to look at an alternative -- your skin seems stressed here's a cream that will act as an anti-depressant and bring it into a happy state of being," might have been more appropriate. By the way that cream for 45 year old skin and older cost $7 dollars more... guess compensation is a must for the extra hope or water put into the jar. I'll leave the last word to my friend Margot, who said, "same packaging, same size, same promises but it costs more because you're old."

I received a catalogue in the mail. No surprise at this time of year. What did surprise me was my reaction to the name of the catalogue. I was insulted. The offending sales piece was called, As We Change. A quick flip through its pages validated the indignity I suspected I was suffering. There were jeans, referred to as "tummy tuck jeans" with some girdle like contraption sewn into the the front to lessen that mid gut bulge that supposedly happens to women with middle age. By the way, if it does happen to a majority of older women, why hide it, if it's a natural marker of "the change." Also featured in the catalogue were pills designed to enhance lagging libidos. And of course there were "mature" models looking ever so content next to products like those promising stress relief and better sleep. Okay but couldn't these universal issues be due to any number of other causes, like financial strains, work/life imbalance, caregiver blues or perhaps battles with the co-op board, all things unrelated to "the change"?

What really galls me is the cryptic yet in your face allusion to menopause and the erosion that goes with it. "As we change." Linda, a friend of mine said, "Change what, I've been changing all of my life." No she's not dense, she just doesn't want to be told in a "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" kind of way that she's doomed to head down the invisibility road, unless she takes some immediate action like suck on the same beauty pills as Mudd's Women did in one of the original Star Trek episodes.

This catalogue retailer hit a nerve because of its not so veiled implication that women in their 40's, 50's and beyond are entering a problematic future marked by physical deterioration, loss of passion and desire, as well as neverending searches for restrooms everytime they leave the house. Don't young nubile pregnant women face this? Even the tag line for the catalogue makes the case, "Feel Better, Look Better, Live Better". I haven't been feeling bad, I don't think I look bad, and I know that I took on the challenge of living better ten years ago, well before I even neared midlife. This tag line supports a supposition that suggests I'm just not up to snuff. I don't buy this and thankfully neither do my friends. Hopefully, neither will any other woman regardless of what age she happens to be.