Ssh! It’s Personal Data Privacy Day on January 28th

If a suspicious someone were following you on foot or on the freeway, you'd likely notice. What about online or on paper?

How safe is your confidential information? Are you confident that your account password and individual identification information are secure?

Today is Personal Data Privacy Day.

Sounds like a super time to rev up the paper shredder and change a few online passwords. Why not run those computer security checks too?

Check out these helpful online articles, offering practical pointers, particularly for Personal Data Privacy Day.

Top 10 Tips for Personal Data Privacy

How private is your personal data? Are you well protected, or are you likely to fall prey to identity thieves? January 28th is Personal Data Privacy Day. Here are 10 tips for keeping personal data private and protected '" on Data Privacy Day and every day.

Top 20 Documents to Shred for Financial Security

Identity theft is on the rise. How many consumers play right into thieves' hands by failing to destroy key papers? Here's the top list of 20 shredding musts for privacy and prudent protections, plus 15 documents to keep securely stored.

Receipt Rip-Off - Protecting Your Credit Card Information

If you toss a sales receipt, are you inviting identity theft or credit card fraud? What if someone fishes your receipts out of the trash? Will unknown charges appear on your credit card statement? How can you keep your credit safe?

Cybershopping with Confidence

Fearing identity theft and fraud, many people worry about internet shopping. They are afraid to zip their credit card numbers off into cyberspace. However, ordering online can be quite secure, if you follow appropriate steps.

Identity Theft - the Ultimate Identity Crisis

What is identity theft? How can you tell if your identity is stolen? How can you protect your identity and credit rating? This article answers these questions and more.

Stop identity theft and cyber crime! Keep your confidential information to yourself, on Personal Data Privacy Day and everyday.

Related Items:

• Busting Cyber Crime
• Plastic Panic - Dealing with Credit Card Theft
• Prevent ATM Skimming Scams with 3 Simple Steps
• Skip the Scams - Seven Tips for Super Bowl Ticket Buyers

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Paper Shredder - Public Domain photo

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Celebrate National Soup Month in January with Prime Potages

January is National Soup Month in the United States. Put the kettle on!

What a wonderful reason to warm hearts and innards with great goulashes, beautiful broths and super stews.

With winter winds blowing outside, a marvelous mug of bouillon, a bowl of borscht or a brew of savory stock fits the bill perfectly for a lovely lunch or a cozy supper.

Save the chilled gazpacho and vichyssoise for spring, when the mercury starts to rise.

Do you have a favorite soup recipe?

Are you a gourmet home cook, whipping up soup from scratch, or do you simply grab a can opener and heat up whatever flavor sounds good to you at the moment?

However you heat it, soup is definitely a suitable menu selection for cold-weather days, particularly during the National Soup Month of January each year.

Check out some of our favorites, published by several friends and writing colleagues. 

15 Super Soup Recipes for National Soup Month

1. 15-Minute Vegetarian, Glycemic Index-Friendly, Soup, by Cherri Littleton Megasko
2. Crock Pot Left Over Turkey Soup , by Rae Lynne Morvay
3. Easy Crawfish Etouffee Recipe, by Janet Hunt
4. Fast and Easy Cock-a-Leekie Soup, by Kyla Matton
5. Fresh Sweet Corn Chowder on a Cool Autumn Day, by Cherri Littleton Megasko
6. Hamburger Bean Potato Soup Recipe, by Tina Samuels
7. Heart Healthy Chicken Soup, by Amy Browne
8. Low Fat Diet Chicken Soup, by Cherise Kelley
9. Mouth-Watering Ways to Commemorate National Soup Month, by Candes King Meisenheimer
10. Place-Kickers Potato Chowder, by Linda Ann Nickerson
11. Recipe: Creamy Garden Goodness Soup, by Linda Ann Nickerson
12. Recipe: Turkey Chili - A Delicious Supper on a Chilly Day, by Linda Ann Nickerson
13. Thrifty Soup Recipes, by Veronica Bright
14. Two Easy Hearty Soup Recipes Featuring Hot Italian Sausage, by Debbie Henthorn

Plug in that crockpot. Stick a saucepan on the stove. Celebrate National Soup Month in savory style.

Soup’s on!

Just watch out for slurpers as you sit down with your soup. As humorist Bennett Cerf (1898 – 1971) wrote, “Good manners [are] The noise you don't make when you're eating soup.”

Related Items:

• Truckin' with Chili Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
• Makin’ Muffins
• Wonderful Wisconsin Beer Breads

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Creative Commons Licensing photos

Hooray for Peanut Butter Day on January 24th

 Hip-hip hooray! It’s Peanut Butter Day. Gotta love it.

Every year, on January 24^th, peanut butter lovers celebrate this favorite foodie holiday. And, if you’re not allergic to peanuts or peanut butter, jump right in.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all around!

Have you ever tried a crispy peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with the gooey and warm peanut butter oozing out the sides?

Can you beat that? Maybe you’re a fluffernutter fan, smearing one slice of bread with sticky marshmallow fluff and the other with crunchy or creamy peanut butter. Slap them together, and you have sandwich heaven in your hands. (Just don’t count those calories.)

Maybe you prefer peanut butter honey, peanut butter with bananas (or Elvis Presley’s own fried peanut butter and banana sandwich), peanut butter and bacon or even my childhood favorite: peanut butter and tuna salad. (Don’t even ask!)

However you slice it, Peanut Butter Day is as good as it gets.

C'mon, you know you want to. Take a bite out of life today!

Just for fun, here’s an assortment of delicious peanut buttery (and just plain peanut) recipes to try:

• Colonial Williamsburg Peanut Soup
• Dog Food for Kids
• Peanut Butter Cup Pie  
• Easy Peanut Brittle - Microwaving Makes Magic!

By the way, September 13^th is Peanut Day. Twice a year is simply not enough for something so tasty!

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PB&J sandwich photo by Evan-Amos

Public Domain - Wikipedia Commons

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Why do hosts ask party guests to RSVP?

Party invitations usually sport this seemingly cryptic code: RSVP. Actually, RSVP is an acronym, and it’s French. Here’s the actual phrase.

"Repondez s'il vous plait."

What does RSVP even mean?

It means, “Respond, if you please.” In modern vernacular, it might be better translated this way: "Hey, are you coming, or not?"

Party hosts often add this traditional tagline to printed, posted or emailed invitations. Even online event invitations, such as those posted on Facebook and similar social networking sites, may ask guests for replies.

It’s all about poise and planning.

RSVPs are the stuff of Birthday party basics and proper protocol for invitation-only parties of all kinds. Unless an invitation clearly asks for “regrets only,” a courteous and considerate guest will respond..

Why are RSVP’s so important?

Here’s the whole story:

RSVP means respect.

So send a note. Make a call. Zip out an email. Or simply text the party host. RSVPs today are entirely too simple to overlook. And party hosts want to know how many plates to put out. 

Read more about it:   Party etiquette: RSVP spells respect 

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Invitation with RSVP card

WP Clipart

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Hold on! Spring is coming!

 Brr!

TV news reports are filled with winter storm warnings. A blizzard is headed this way, blasting across the Midwest with all the fury Mother Nature can muster.

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But winter won’t last forever.

C’mon, let’s hear an “Amen” to that.

Sixty days remain till spring has sprung. That’s two months, no matter what the groundhog says in a week or two.

Here are a few wintry quotations, just for some frosty fun.

“A lot of people love snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” (Carl Reiner)

“One kind word can warm three winter months.” (Japanese proverb)

“Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.” (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)

“Winter, which, being full of care, makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.” (William Shakespeare)

Do you love winter, or hate it?

Spring is coming!

Just beneath the ground’s surface, bulbs are bulging with the promise of new life. Seeds are sleeping now, so they can spring forth in green growth soon.

 C’mon, now.

We may be shoveling snow this weekend, but the big melt is a-coming.

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MySpace-Countdowns

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Related Items:

• Bottled Up: A Liimericked Rill on Winter’s Chill
• Coyote Mating Season Incites Increased Attacks on Suburban Pets
• Four-Season Acrostic - Winter
• Groundhog Dialogue
• Midwinter Mirth

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Making a Snowman

By Gustav Sus - 1860

Public Domain Art – Copyright Expired

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