Today there are studies for just about everything. A study comparing smokers with non-smokers found that smokers are concerned primarily with the present and non-smokers are concerned more about the future. Professional dancers were given as an example. Because their careers are short, professional dancers are more concerned about the present - and professional dancers, as a group, are heavy smokers. This surprised me because dancing requires good physical condition. Nevertheless, if smokers are the ones who are concerned about the present that must mean those in charge of government spending are non-smokers.



New German research shows that while the brain is sleeping it continues to work on problems which baffled us during the day. Supposedly, we're three times more likely to find solutions for those problems if we've had eight hours of sleep. According to this research, older people have poorer memories because they don't get the deep sleep which is necessary for memory processing. Great - something else for me to lose sleep over.

Then there's the research that was done by the California Institute of Technology. Twenty-one volunteers were asked to taste five cabernet sauvignons. Although each bottle was marked with a price, the volunteers didn't know that the wine marked ten dollars and the wine marked ninety dollars were the same wine. In spite of that, the ninety dollar wine caused more activity in the brain's pleasure center. Because the test was run fifteen times to verify its results, I can't be the only one who's glad to know my taste isn't all in my mouth.

I'm also glad to know that Mother's Day is the busiest day of the year for the phone companies. Millions of children are obviously calling their mothers to thank them for all they did for them and to express their undying love - and rightly so. Unfortunately, other statistics show that Valentine's Day is the busiest day for the sale of candy and flowers. Somehow mothers lose out on that sweetheart deal.

Exercise, however, is a winner when it comes to being the subject of studies. The Intramural-Recreational Sports Association reported that the top two benefits of exercise are emotional well-being and reduced stress, while experts at London's Kings College said that exercise slows down the aging process and the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that exercise improves sexual function. Frankly, I'm feeling better after just that one, run-on sentence.