Infant and Toddler Car Safety

While I was on my road trip in Oregon, two incidents occurred back here in Georgia that I didn't learn about until my return, and that's why this column is delayed in the writing and posting.

On June 18 in Atlanta a toddler died from heat exhaustion after being left in his carseat  in the back seat of his father's car while the father went to work.  The details of the death are still being uncovered, and the father has been charged with murder.

One day later, here in Augusta a woman left her infant in her car while she went into a college to take final exams.  Fortunately, someone discovered the child and called 911.  Thanks to the alertness and quick action of that other student, the baby was rescued and suffered only minor dehydration.  The mother has been charged with willful neglect with more serious charges still pending.

Regardless of the grisly implications of these cases, it is not unusual for several infant and toddler deaths to occur every year during our summer months due to their being inadvertently left in the back of a car by a preoccupied parent who intended to drop the child off at a day care center on the way to work.  The results are most often fatal.

The laws for child restraint seats vary widely by state, and many do not require that the child be placed in the rear seat of the vehicle, but recommend rear seat if available.  It is common for the child to go to sleep while riding in the car.  If the parent takes a cell phone call or becomes otherwise distracted, it is all too easy to forget about the child;

out of sight-out of mind when there is no interaction between the adult and the child.

The "rear seat restraint," whether required or only recommended, is a problematic when the child is not yet old enough to speak or when it goes peacefully to sleep out of sight of the adult.  We live in a busy world and we try to multi-task, often unsuccessfully.  There has to be some way to set an alarm that prevents us from neglecting that quiet munchkin in the back seat. 

Well, I'm please to say that there is such an alarm, and it is very easy to arm it.

First of all, never go anywhere with a child in the back seat without placing some object that you MUST RETRIEVE when you get to your ultimate destination in the rear seating area.  For most women, that will be a purse, which you always carry with you.  Men are more likely to have tools, a uniform hat, a briefcase, or some other essential item they cannot do without.  Whatever it is that you designate as your 'alarm', make sure that you place that in the back seat out of the child's reach.  If you get in the habit of alarming the car in this fashion, the chance of disaster is reduced to zero.  There might be that day when you get to work late, because you had to turn around and go back to drop the kid off, but that beats the alternative.

I know that many, if not most of you to whom I send this weekly column are not in the child-rearing years.  You don't have infants or toddlers, but I'll bet you have some grand children who you love very much.  That means that you must share this column with your own children and anyone else you know who has children of that  age.  Let's make this summer one that is disaster-free on the car seat tragedy news.

America in Decline

Note: I originally wrote this column two years ago, but I didn't publish it at the time due to its political content.  However, since that time I've decided that I do believe in that sage advice that, "If you don't speak out on a problem, then you are part of that problem."

I'm getting tired of sitting on the sidelines watching my country torn asunder by fools and incompetents in Washington and elsewhere.  Now I'm going to start speaking out on our problems and, if you don't like it, at least I've done my part. Welcome to the debate.

******************************

We just celebrated one of our most important holidays, Independence Day, but some of us only know it as “The 4^th of July” and its significance has lost all meaning.  It has become an excuse to buy and set off fireworks and fire up the grill for a picnic. Some people wish that it would become another of those holidays that is always celebrated on Monday so that we get an extended weekend.  To too many, those are the only benefits they see in this celebration.  That is truly sad.     

I again watched a very disturbing video this week.  It featured radio talk-show host Dennis Prager on a panel discussing American exceptionalism.  His take of it was that America is no longer exceptional, but not because of current politics and policies, not because of the controversial actions of Barack Obama, and not because of our dependence on imports to fuel our stagnant economy.

No, the reason Dennis Prager gave for our decline is that we have not passed on what it means to be an American.  The greatest generation did not teach this generation what Americanism is.  It goes back a hundred years to the age of “modern” education.  We have incrementally changed our teaching from the three-Rs to a social hodgepodge that doesn’t even include history anymore.

Exceptionalism has been replaced by humanism, equality of birth—when we allow birth to take place—has been replaced by equality of result, charity has been replaced by entitlement and morality has been replaced by civility. None of these changes has improved us as a nation, they have only leveled the playing field so that everyone is less than they can be or should be.

The melting pot that was once America has slowly but surely become a nation of many camps.  They are not physically at war with one another, but they define themselves in exclusive terms by ethnicity, skin color, politics and ancestral nationality.  The hyphen has taken on a new significance in America.  Everyone is now a hyphenated being. Even I have a hyphenated appellation; Red-State-Conservative.

No one is just an American anymore.  We are African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Irish-Americans, etc, etc, etc. We are gun-toting, pro-life and anti-establishment ...  and that is only a partial designation for my side. 

The late Rodney King was famous for his saying, “Can’t we all just get along?”  Well, I hate to break it to you, but no, we cannot all just get along.  Too much is at stake, even if America has begun to fade into the scrap heap of history.  There are still a lot of people who want to restore America to its best years, and they are more than willing to fight to achieve that end.

I am glad that I won’t be around to see or participate in the civil war that is coming. This will be a true civil war, not a North/South conflict like we fought 150-years ago that was not really a “civil” war at all.  It had clearly defined boundaries.  This one will be a street-to-street, house-to-house combat that well might destroy whatever is left of our once-great nation.  I hope you’re prepared for it, because I fear that it is coming and coming soon.

You may well ask,  “Do I love my country?”  My response is, "Yes, I do," and I am appalled by what I see happening in all my travels.  But I am especially appalled by what I see happening in Washington, D.C.  We are no longer a nation of laws because the laws on which this country was founded are scoffed at and overridden daily. 

I know that some of my friends and even some of my family will be offended by this column.  I understand that, but I pity you as well.  You are lied to, misled and yes, even brainwashed into ignoring those who present the facts that our media-mavens cover up.

Example – Andrea Mitchell’s out-of-context, edited clip of Mitt Romney prior to the 2012 election that made it seem like he was “amazed” at the technology that enables him to order food at an ATM-type screen, and then her refusal to admit the truth in the unedited video that showed Romney was “amazed” not by the technology, but that government cannot adopt private sector innovations like the touch screen and instead relies on old and failed devices and policies that are inefficient and expensive.  Ms. Mitchell didn’t even apologize for her too-clever ruse to belittle Romney and never played the entire clip for her audience.

More up-to-date, the New York Times published an article this week under the byline of one Monica Almeida about the protest at Murrieta, California.  Her lead paragraph reads:

When the three busloads of immigrant mothers and children rolled into town for processing at a Border Patrol station this week, they were met by protesters carrying American flags and signs proclaiming “return to sender” as they screamed “go home” and chanted “U.S.A.” Fearing for the safety of the migrants and federal officers, immigration officials decided to reroute the buses to San Diego, an hour south.

This is patently false, as those were not "immigrant mothers and children."  The women  were escorts for and with unaccompanied minors, hired earlier this year by the Federal Government, and were not even related to the children they were with.  And those "mothers" were not any immigrants, either. They are all most likely United States citizens.  Leave it to the NYT to let a Hispanic writer lie for them.

I regret that I am throwing water on your fireworks and barbeque grill, but I hope I can inspire you to spend some time post-Independence Day thinking about, and maybe even reading about what has made America great and exceptional.  Maybe we can become that nation once again if enough of us care.

 

Oh, and one more thing.  I hope they never move Independence Day to a Monday holiday.  It is a special day like Cinco de Mayo is to the Mexicans or Canada Day (formerly Dominion Day) is to the Canadians, that cannot and should not ever be used as an excuse for a three-day weekend. 

The Star Spangled Banner

Some columns are good enough to repeat from time to time, and this is one that I last published almost seven years ago.  Since Independence Day is coming up next Friday, I think it appropriate to revisit this topic today.

Unless you know all four stanzas of the Star Spangled Banner you may find this most interesting.  Perhaps most of you didn't realize what Francis Scott Key's profession was or what he was doing on a ship.  This is a good brush-up on your history.

Near the end of his life, the great science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about the four stanzas of our national anthem. However brief, this well-circulated piece is an eye opener from the dearly departed doctor.  In Azimov’s own words, "I have a weakness—I‘m crazy, absolutely nuts, about our national anthem. The words are difficult and the tune is almost impossible, but frequently when I'm taking a shower I sing it with as much power and emotion as I can. It shakes me up every time."
 
 NO REFUGE COULD SAVE:  
BY DR. ISAAC ASIMOV

I was once asked to speak at a luncheon. Taking my life in my hands, I announced I was going to sing our national anthem -- all four stanzas. This was greeted with loud groans. One man closed the door to the kitchen, where the noise of dishes and cutlery was loud and distracting. "Thanks, Herb," I said.

"That's all right," he said. "It was at the request of the kitchen staff"

I explained the background of the anthem and then sang all four stanzas. Let me tell you, those people had never heard it before -- or had never really listened. I got a standing ovation. But it was not me; it was the anthem.

More recently, while conducting a seminar, I told my students the story of the anthem and sang all four stanzas. Again there was a wild ovation and prolonged applause. And again, it was the anthem and not me.

So now let me tell you how it came to be written.

In 1812, the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was in a life and death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United States declared war, Napoleon marched off to invade Russia. If he won, as everyone expected, he would control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated. It was no time for her to be involved in an American war.

At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent the message, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." However, the weight of the British navy beat down our ships eventually. New England, hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession.

Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and in 1814 was forced to abdicate. Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a three-pronged attack.

The northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain toward New York and seize parts of New England.

The southern prong was to go up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the west.

The central prong was to head for the Mid-Atlantic States and then attack Baltimore, the greatest port south of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the United States, then, rested to a large extent on the success or failure of the central prong.

The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would have to take the fort.

On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had been arrested in Maryland and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key, a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his release.

The British captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to wait. It was now the night of September 13, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry was about to start.

As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting and saw the red glare of rockets. They knew the fort was resisting and the American flag was still flying. But toward morning the bombardment ceased, and a dread silence fell.  Either Fort McHenry had surrendered and the British flag flew above it, or the bombardment had failed and the American flag still flew.

As dawn began to brighten the eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have asked each other over and over, "Can you see the flag?"

After it was all finished, Key wrote a four-stanza poem telling the events of the night. Called "The Defense of Fort McHenry," it was published in newspapers and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old English tune called, "To Anacreon in Heaven"—a difficult melody with an uncomfortably large vocal range. For obvious reasons, Key's work became known as "The Star Spangled Banner," and in 1931 Congress declared it the official anthem of the United States.

Now that you know the story, here are the words. Presumably, the old doctor is speaking. This is what he asks Key:

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

("Ramparts," in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that surround a fort.) The first stanza asks a question. The second gives an answer:

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep.
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

"The towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure.

In the third stanza I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to act otherwise?  During World War I when the British were our Staunchest allies, this third stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

(The fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than the other three and with even deeper feeling):

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation,
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto --"In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I hope you will look at the national anthem with new eyes.   Listen to it, the next time you have a chance, with new ears.   Pay attention to the words.   And don't let them ever take it away ... not even one word of it.

AND IT'S SUNG IN ENGLISH!!!

I cannot add a thing to that stirring recitation by Dr. Azimov.

What is That Word?

I fancy myself a wordsmith, in that I write these columns, and I have written a couple of (unpublished) books.  Therefore, my topic for this week concerns a word that always seems to be either misused, or mispronounced.  It turns out that it is neither, but I dislike its use whenever I hear it or read it.  The word is 'misperception."

When I was growing up and going to school, and to college, whenever someone did not understand something and gave an incomplete or inaccurate definition of  it, we said that they misconceived what it was or what it meant. It was a misconception of the facts.

Nowadays, that word has been almost wholly replaced by a close sound-alike word,  misperception. In fact, I so rarely hear misconception used any more that I decided to look up the definition of both words to see which is correct.  Here they are:

            1. mis•per•cep•tion (ˌmɪs pərˈsɛp ʃən)
                n. a false or incorrect perception

            2. misconception [ˌmɪskənˈsɛpʃən]

               n. a false or mistaken view, opinion, or attitude

Hmmm, that wasn't very definitive, was it?  They're pretty close, but the first concerns the senses, while the second has to do with the mind.  And even more interesting, they are not synonymous.  That is, you cannot substitute one for the other, even though the definitions look almost identical.

Now, that brings up another question in my mind... Were we using the wrong word all those years ago?  I swear that I never heard or saw the word 'misperception' until a few years ago.  Maybe it's one of those newly conceived words that appear in the OED every year.  (Kind of like a word that a good friend of mine uses frequently, 'flustrating', a combination of  'flustered' and 'frustrating')

Whatever the source, I guess I'm going to have to learn to live with the misconception that I misperceived the correct word when I saw or heard it, but I reserve the right to think 'misconception' as a substitute; it just makes me more comfortable.

Our Throw-Away Society

I've notice lately that my electric razor just isn't up to the task anymore; it doesn't do a very good job of smoothing my cheeks and neck the way it used to.  The instructions that came with the razor said that the heads should be replaced every 12 months, and I've had this one with the same heads for over two years.  So now I have a decision to make. should I buy replacement heads, or should I just go ahead and purchase a new razor.

I went online to Amazon and looked for both.  What I found was that I could buy a brand new razor for $30 to $50.  On the other hand, I could replace the heads on my current razor for $30 to $40.  Now, which do you suppose I would choose, especially since it does make for a nice annual suggestion to my daughter for Father's Day?

I don't have to use razors as my example.  How about printers?  Cartridge replacement or new printer?  In some cases, the replacement cartridges cost more than it does to replace the printer.  But then you have to dispose of a used printer.  Sell it? Donate it? Who else would want a used printer with no ink?

When was the last time - if ever - you heard of anyone mending torn clothing or socks with holes in them?  Do you even know the term, 'darning'? (Hint - it isn't a cuss word)

To some it might seem great that we've come to a stage in our technology where it is easier and cheaper to replace items with new ones rather than repair them. But think for a minute about all the junk and garbage we accumulate as a result of not using our possessions to their fullest extent.  And I'm not limiting this diatribe to small things like razors and printers and such ... our vehicles are traded in way too frequently, as well. Just travel around the country like I do and you'll see the huge junk yards, a lot with cars and vans that seem to be in pretty good condition.

One result of our throw-away mentality is that we tend to use our resources way too fast. A prime example of that is the clear-cutting of huge tracts of land.  The next time you go for a long ride on an interstate highway, notice that the forests that used to line those highways on both sides of the road are now reduced to a strip of about 20 feet, behind which is a field of tree stumps.  In some cases it will be a field with several piles of tree roots where the forest use to stand.  And it isn't a temporary condition.  I've seen some of those stumps and roots standing there for twenty or more years in my travels.

Responsible companies, like Weyerhauser and Georgia Pacific, actually treat timber as a renewable 'crop" and replant the trees they cut down.  However, many smaller industries do not practice good stewardship of the land.  Hence, those unsightly wastelands along our highways.

I have to confess that I am torn at times over my opposition to tree huggers, global warming enthusiasts, environmentalists, and those who value endangered species of useless wildlife over our ability to achieve energy independence.  There are times when I just cannot justify the actions of my fellow man.  I do at times side with the people on the left in cases like those I described above.

If there is any lesson to be learned, it is that we have to weigh all the factors before we decide where we stand on any of these issues.  For instance, I have no problems with the process called 'fracking" to extract petroleum and natural gas from the earth if it is done with modern technology and deep enough that it doesn't harm the environment.  And to date, every single study has debunked the urban legends propagated by Hollywood and the liberal media about contamination of aquifers and ground water.

On clear-cutting, I stand with the environmentalists, and one of the best examples of how that destroys the land is seen on the Discovery Channel series, "Gold Rush", which shows the strip mining in places like Alaska and, more recently, Guyana.  In my opinion, there is no more graphic example of our throw-away society than the huge areas of mud left behind where forests used to grow.  And for what?  A few ounces of gold is all they have to show for all that destruction.

I'll climb down from my soapbox now, but I hope you will take this opportunity to think about this topic and how we can, if not reverse it, at least alleviate it.

Green Thumb

Some would say this column is as boring as watching paint dry, and you're probably right about that, but "diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks," as the old saw goes.  At least I condensed it for you, so that you didn't have to actually sit and watch the plant grow, etc., etc., etc...

About this time last year, I wrote a column about a house plant which I thought was called a zebra plant.  It actually wasn't a zebra plant, but a close relative, the croton.  There is very little difference in the leaves of these two, but a huge difference, and the reason I wrote the column, is that the croton produces a stem full of little white flowers.

Well, last year I was so intrigued with the croton that I kept pestering it until one day I accidentally knocked off the stem with the flowers on it.  If one could be heartbroken over the loss of a flower, that was me.  I really was disappointed that I couldn't watch nature take its course and produce generation after generation of buds and blooms on that stem.

This spring our croton again produced that little stem in the beginning of April.  I took a picture of it (above) on April 5th just a few days after it appeared.  then I tried to keep track of it in photos as each successive bloom took place.  Below is a picture of how it looked on April 21st, just before its first blooming.

A few days later, the blooms were starting, and there were new little buds forming for the next bloom. 

This cycle continued through five generations, until I got the below shot of the stem with no blooms but a huge number of buds.  The stem was well over a foot long by this time on June 1st.

I took the picture below on June 5th.  There are over 100 flowers on that one stem with more yet to come.

I don't know how many more times this plant will bloom this year, as that stem is getting very heavy and isn't too thick. It has been growing and blooming for two months now, and it shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.

I can't end this column without a full view of the croton plant with blooming stem. Isn't that amazing?  Well, maybe that's just my opinion.

E-mailing 101

It appears that it is time once again for a lesson I call, E-mail 101.  This week alone, I have received several e-mails that required either A) half a dozen or more mouse clicks to open multiple attachments, B) scrolling down through hundreds of prior email addresses from multiple forwarding actions, or C) attempting to read misspelled words, strange punctuation marks and spaces in the middle of words and phrases and embedded messages from unknown people who forwarded the original message without editing it.

The tips I am about to give you are not my own.  They were compiled and fine-tuned by a fellow Georgian named Cal Hendrix.  Cal had one of the best websites I ever visited.  The site is no longer there, unfortunately, but it had lots of neat links to pictures, games and wisdom.  Cal died on June 11, 2007, and even though I never met the man, I was deeply saddened by his passing.

I’m going to borrow only a few of Cal’s e-mailing tips, so that I can show you how to ‘clean up’ an e-mail prior to forwarding it.  I will underline keyboard keys, so that you know exactly which ones to depress.  It is really quite simple, because you only have to use six keys on your keyboard: Ctrl, A, C, V, Shift and Delete. 

First up: How to copy and paste.

If you want to forward an attachment that is essentially a text document with no video, audio or still pictures in it, it is easiest and best to open the actual attachment (go through all those mouse clicks until you get the genuine message) and copy/paste it into either your word processor or a new, blank e-mail that you are creating.  I prefer to paste into a blank Microsoft Word document, because then I can edit and spell-check it prior to converting it to e-mail message format using the same copy/paste procedure.                   

Here is how to copy/paste any text to or from e-mail and Word.

1.      First, you'll need to select the text you wish to copy. You do this by putting your mouse cursor at the first character you want to copy and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the last character you need copied. As you drag, you'll notice everything gets highlighted (selected).

2.      Next, simultaneously depress ctrl plus C for a moment and the selected text will be copied.  You wont see it, but it is on your clipboard for you to use.

3.      Finally, move your cursor to the area in your new document where you would like to insert the text. Then, simultaneously depress ctrl plus V and the text will appear on your screen.  You can now work with it in its new position.

That's it. The steps are basically the same for any copy/paste procedure you need to do.  Remember, you can copy/paste from e-mail to Word, or from Word to e-mail the same way.  If the text includes a link--that blue, underlined text--to a video or article, it will usually carry over to the new message for you.            
If you have a really long area of text that you want to copy/paste, here is another way to handle it.  

Place your cursor at the first character you want selected and, while holding down the Shift key, scroll down until you can click just beyond the last character you want selected. It's sometimes easier to follow this procedure than to make selections by dragging, especially when you’re wrestling with a lengthy document, and you only want to copy/paste part of it.  I can't remember the number of times the area I wanted to stop selecting at zipped right by me on a document! 

(Want to try the shift key trick on the above paragraph?  Position your cursor before the P in Place, depress and hold the shift key, and replace your cursor beyond the ! at the end of the paragraph.  Watch the whole paragraph go white-on-black. You can now either right click to get a cut/copy/paste menu, or use the ctrl plus C to copy it.) 

Another fun way to use the Shift key is adding to an existing selection. Let's say you select an area of text and you came up short of what you really needed. Rather than trying to re-select the whole thing, try this.  While the partial text is still highlighted, just depress the Shift key and click your mouse where you would like the selection to end. (You can also shorten a selection by doing this too.)  After you have used the Shift key to get your text selected, follow the previous steps to copy/paste.

Finally, if you have that lengthy text and you want to copy every word of it, (you can edit it later for spelling and other tidbits you want to remove) that is the easiest thing to do. Just depress ctrl plus A on your keyboard to highlight the entire text.  Then depress ctrl plus C to copy it.  Lastly, place your cursor in your new message body and depress ctrl plus V, and it will appear there.  Remember that you have to press ctrl and hold it down while pressing the other key.

Once you do this a few times you will see how easy it is... took me a year to learn it, trying to read these fancy tutorials on the net! That's why I'm trying to keep this very basic. 

We have one final step to cover: Cleaning up your forwards.
 
That is, let’s remove all those former e-mail addresses of everyone who got copies of the message previously, and delete all those >>> marks in front of each line of text and the weird punctuation or letters in the middle of words.  You should try to do this in every message you decide to forward.  It not only respects the privacy of others, it also makes it easier to get to the meat of the message.  It is so quick and easy to do that you should make it a “must do” before you send any e-mail.  Here is the procedure.

1.      Click on the Forward button on your upper menu. (You won’t have to do this for messages where you used the copy/paste procedure.  You already got rid of all the garbage before you transferred the text.)

2.      Put in all your e-mail addresses at the top of the message, using the Bcc:, and put your cursor in the text box.

3.      Using the same technique you used to copy/paste, highlight any text you want to get rid of, such as those lengthy e-mail addresses from prior forwards.  You might have to do this in groups, especially if the texts are in different fonts. 

4.      Depress the Delete key on the keyboard. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all unwanted text in your message, including ‘>’ and ‘!’ and all those other strange symbols that get added whenever a message is forwarded.

5.      Use a spellchecker under Tools on the top menu bar to correct spellings.

6.      When you have only the text that you want in your message, send it in the normal manner.

If you get a message, or an attachment in a message, that has vertical blue lines to the left of the text, you can use the copy/paste method to get rid of those, too.  Merely select the text in the message--the blue lines wont be highlighted--and copy/paste them into a new blank message.  I don't know about you, but I hate those blue lines.
There you have it.  If you follow these simple steps with any message, you will speed up the entire process, too.  Uploads and downloads will be much faster, and no one will be forced to wade through all the junk to find the gem.

Now, do yourself a favor and copy/paste this message into your word processor, make your own document with the title “E-mail Tips” and keep it for future reference.  “Try it – you’ll like it.”
Note: If you want to practice these techniques, once you have copied and pasted the entire message into a word processor document and closed it, reopen it and highlight a paragraph and copy/paste it below.  That’s right, copy this paragraph, move your cursor down below this area, and then paste the same paragraph in.  When you finish, just close the document again, only this time, when the pop up asks if you want to ‘Save Changes’, click ‘No’.  Only the original text will remain in your saved document.