ONLY IN AMERICA (CANADA IS PART OF AMERICA YOU KNOW)

'Being ‘happy’ on Facebook leads to denial of claim for depression'

(Insurance & Financial Advisor Web News) -- IFAwebnews.com reports that "when a Canadian woman posted photos of herself on a beach vacation and partying at a Chippendale’s club, the insurance company that had been paying benefits for nearly 18 months because of her inability to work due to major depression found the postings to be anything but 'mundane.'" The insurance company "halted benefits payments to the Quebec woman after an investigation found photos of her in less-than-depressed situations. ... Nathalie Blanchard is fuming because she says that vacations and partying are part of her therapy." See the story at <http://ifawebnews.com/2009/11/23/being-happy-on-facebook-leads-to-denial-of-claim-for-depression/>

MISSPELLING YOUR NAME ON YOUR AIRLINE TICKET WILL NOW COST YOU $20-$150 OR MORE

American Airlines now charges 20 dollars to process a name correction (misspelled name). Even if you have to change one letter it is $20 bucks. Many people tend to use their nicknames when they buy a ticket and forget that they have to have the ticket match their government issued ID (drivers license or passport). A simple Chris to Kris will cost you $20. Steven to Stephen is $20. Matt to Mathew is also $20. Changing a complete name on most non-refundable tickets is not allowed.

A NEW TAKE ON HAND MASSAGES

I found the following article in last week's issue of Reader's Digest...Interesting!

Simple, old human-hand massages.

A spa in Israel offers an $80 treatment in which a clutch of nonvenomous snakes wander across the backs and bellies of clients. "People either like it a lot or they hate it," the spa's owner told Time.

ARE YOU OR YOUR TEAM MEMBERS SLEEPING AT WORK?

(AP) — A survey released Monday by the National Sleep Foundation found participants average six hours and 40 minutes of sleep a night on weeknights, even though they estimated they'd need roughly another 40 minutes of sleep to be at their best. Roughly one-third of those surveyed said they had fallen asleep or become very sleepy at work in the past month. The average wake up is at 5:35 a.m. and it's followed by about two hours and 15 minutes at home before heading out to work, according to the survey. Average bedtime is 10:53.

ONLY IN AMERICA

An inmate who injured himself breaking out of a Colorado jail is suing on the grounds that guards should have done more to stop him escaping. Scott Gomez Jr. claimes he was badly injured when he fell 40 feet while attempting to scale down the outside wall of the Pueblo County jail. Prison authorities, Gomez complains, "did next to nothing to ensure that the jail was secure and that the plaintiff could not escape."

THE WEEK January 18, 2008