True blue male friends are hard to come by.  Many of us have had the good fortune to have a GOOD male friend and it is a treasure.  Popular thinking is that it is not possible to have a male friend without sexual overtones—that probably hinges on the individuals involved in the friendship.   But, according to Psycology Today Magazine, men and women can and should have healthy friendships.  (They still point out the Mars/Venus thing.)  And, trust me; sex has never played a roll in my longtime male friendships.  My best true male friendships have come from couple’s friendships, and then, when MY “significant other” was no longer around, I maintained a relationship with both female and male friends.   My VERY dear friend Stu Cohen helped us set up the  ABD Thanksgiving Turkey Run in St. Louis last year.  We gave him NO acknowledgement and pretended he wasn’t even around.  We featured his wife, daughters and nieces, but no Stu —shame on us.  He also whined a little about being invisible—(just to make me crazy-er).  Well today is a BIG BIRTHDAY for a TRUE male friend.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY STU!!  You’re no longer invisible!

Our casting call event was a HUGE success!  We met women of all ages and size.  Gorgeous women!!  At first, we were getting a lot of 50 year olds (who looked like they were 35) and, of course, we needed a range of 50 to 80 year old women for our AgingButDangerous Modeling Squad and our fashion show on April 22, (Dispelling The Myths of Age and Fashion).  Then we started seeing the 60 and 70+ year olds, who, again, looked much younger than their biological age. What a beautiful group of women!  We also heard many heart-warming stories.  One women just left an abusive marriage and said to us, “even if I don’t get picked, just trying out has given me so much self-confidence”.

Women’s heart attack symptoms are unique to women–not the grab your heart, falling over drama that we see men experience in the movies.  Myocardial infarction, (heart attacks), are the #1 killer of women in America.   It’s not only dangerous not to read and remember this, it’s deadly.

The following story was e-mailed to Collective Wizdom.com by Janet H. of Eugene, Oregon:

‘I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prioremotional trauma that one would suspect might’ve brought it on.  I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, ‘A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.