ITEM 1: There is a campaign in Australia’s Victoria state to preserve the East Gippsland old-growth forest there. A group of elders has joined the movement calling themselves “Oldies for Old-Growth Forests.”

The group’s spokesperson, Wolf Passauer, says their goal is to preserve the forest for their children and grandchildren:

“We have something to offer society, specifically to the environmental movement,” he said.

“We have stood the rigours of time, like an old forest, we’re still alive and we [try] to give the best that we can do in our sort of sunset years,”

- ABC News Online [Australia], 25 August 2006

As most elders discover, our later years - when children are raised and careers are done - is an excellent time to work for larger causes and many choose the environment. This group’s slogan caught my attention as the best new use of a Biblical admonition I’ve seen in a long time:

“Respect Your Elders – Protect Old-Growth Forests.”

ITEM 2: Dug Falby, who first alerted Time Goes By to a U.K. blog, Life on the Pea Harvest, a couple of months ago, emailed this request:

“I'm doing some research at work and we're trying to get a handle on what American over-50s make of Great Britain. I know this is highly irregular, but would you be willing to ask the question on your blog (perhaps something like ‘Why is Great Britain good / bad’)?”

Dug’s a friendly guy and I’m curious to know too, so I agreed to ask readers (though I’m tardy in doing so). He also said:

“To date we've had some responses:

• We like Tony Blair
• It's a place in the Da Vinci Code
• The UK is too expensive
• The English have bad teeth
• Great historical stuff
• The hotels are too small and uncomfortable

“I'd be happy with even three or four bona fide honest opinions from American over-50s whether moral, ethical or political (even trivial would be interesting).”

So please help out, if you are so inclined, with Dug's research. He will check in here to see what you’ve said, or you can email him at dug.falbyATgmailDOTcom.

ITEM 3: A website that promotes itself as "a new way of finding people who don't suck" turned up via this link from Frank Paynter at listics. Take a look. It's an enlightening experience to read about yourself as if you're a specimen in a petri dish and not quite human.

I tried to find some humor in this. I tried and tried and tried. At least the babies can't read yet.

ITEM 4: Steve Sherlock, who maintains more blogs than I could handle including Steve’s 2 Cents, has nominated my post about An Old Woman’s Daydream in the “silly-but-fun category” of a carnival meant to enliven heat-of-summer doldrums. What a cool thing for Steve to do and I thank him.

Voting for the winner is open now at Pet’s Garden blog. The four other nominees have done estimable work in the silliness category and it would be difficult for me to choose which to vote for. To resolve that little issue, I chose myself, also because the only thing of note I ever won in my life was $4000 at a casino in Spain, and certainly a silliness award infinitely outranks four long ones, don’t you think?