Letters In the Know
WHAT I REALLY KNOW
About Snowstorms
By Pam Nolasco, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
Snowstorms keep people apart but also
bring people together. It was a snowstorm of separation in 2011 that would change life for all involved.
My husband was snowbound in New York on a business trip. Our 25-year-old son was at our Pennsylvania home with the task of clearing snow from a long
driveway. And I was caregiving at my parents’ house
in New Jersey, and also digging out my minivan, the
driveway and the sidewalk.
It was then that I realized the status quo was not
a good arrangement. It was time for my parents to
move in with us. I mapped out a plan and had “the
talk” with my parents in March, and set the moving
date for mid-May.
It wasn’t an easy move. None of us even started
to breathe again until a month later. In September
2011 my mom had
total hip replace-
ment surgery. My
89-year-old dad
has Parkinson’s. It
still isn’t easy, but
we have learned
a new way of life
together.
When Hur-
ricane Sandy took out our power
for three days last fall, we helped
one another get through it. My
husband had stocked batteries,
lighting and cooking fuel. I pre-
pared hot drinks and meals on the camping stove
and filled the bathroom sink with warm water for
washing. Our son provided entertainment.
The snowstorm of 2011 inspired a decision that
was difficult but timely, and ultimately successful.
It brought my family together so we can help one
another every day—especially in times of distress.
Consumption tax
While stressing the advantages of a tax
system based on consumption rather
than income, Bruce Bartlett fails to
mention the double whammy such a
shift would inflict on retirees and older
people in general [“What Tax Reform
Will Look Like,” Opinion, December].
For most people, income exceeds
consumption during their working life
as they save to build up a nest egg. In retirement, however, income
typically drops and savings are drawn on to cover consumption
expenses. Having paid taxes based on income throughout their lives,
retirees would in efect be double-taxed if the basis of taxation were
now to be changed from income to consumption.
Frederick D. Stocker Chula Vista, Calif.
and the famous British trial ending the
obscenity ban on D.H. Lawrence’s Lady
Chatterley’s Lover. It opens:
Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(Which was rather late for me)—
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles’ first LP.
The author, in dark
blue, with
her enlarged
family.
Rich and unemployed
Unemployment insurance is just that—
insurance in case a person is unemployed someday [“Millionaires Get Unemployment, Too,” What an Outrage].
It is paid for by the employer. Anyone
who meets the guidelines for payment
should be paid.
It is no diferent from any other insurance—home, auto, life, health, whatever. If the insurance is paid for and
you qualify for payment, it makes no
diference who you are or how much
you make.
If Warren Bufett has a life insurance
policy, it must be paid on his death, even
though he may be one of the richest
men in the world.
Daniel Ross
Campbell, Calif.
I would like to express the hope that
this wasn’t too late for the majority of
this publication’s readership.
Robert Pendleton
Benicia, Calif.
YOUR TURN!
Tell us what you really know about the
movies. Email your essay of up to 400 words to whatiknow@
aarp.org. Or mail it to “What I Really Know,” AARP Bulletin, 601 E
St. NW, Washington, DC 20049. Please include your name and a
phone number or email address.
Thank you, Beatles
I appreciated “1963: The 50th Anniversary” [“Must-Have Guide to 2013”]. As
an ex-pat Brit, I remember the explosion on the scene of the Beatles’ first
LP, Please Please Me. It also reminded
me of a poem by Philip Larkin, “
Annus Mirabilis,” alluding to the Beatles
Social Security COLA
The proposed use of a “chained consumer price index” to calculate the
cost-of-living adjustment for Social
Security [“Formula Fix Could Cut
Benefits,” Washington Watch] strikes
right in the face of promises to make no
changes afecting people 55 and older.
Cut back my purchases further in
response to higher prices when I’m
already eating chicken instead of beef?
I should switch to dog food? Raise the
A/C temperature to 95 and lower the
furnace temperature to 55? Skip half
