1. Color Printing               

A letter in Consumer Reports complained that they installed continuous ink system for their inkjet printer to save money.  Then after a while the ink solidified in the tubes and it was useless.  CR  responded that you need to print at least one a week to prevent this from happening.

One can always hire  a “printer nanny.”

Virtually all my printing is black and white, but I like the capability to print color.  I purchased new ink cartridges (with built-in print heads) and after a while the color wouldn’t print.  I soaked the cartridge in a 50-50 mixture of isopropyl alcohol and distilled water for 2 days with no effect.  I figured out a solution:  continue to use the printer with the clogged color cartridge, it will always register full.  Keep a new color cartridge in a peanut butter jar with a small amount of distilled water, and when you need to print color, install the spare cartridge.  It just takes 60 seconds.  Then return the spare to the jar.

For routine printing with URLs in color, I print “grayscale” or black and white.  Otherwise they come out blank.

CU suggested buying a laser printer.  However they are expensive, bulky, and heavy and the toner is expensive.  Also the photo print quality is not as good as with inkjets.

(My printer will not function without both cartridges installed).

Canon TS3522

2. Drinking

For decades, studies suggested moderate drinking was better for most people’s health than not drinking all, and could even help them live longer.  A new analysis has concluded that many of those studies were flawed and that the opposite is true.  Scientists said that the older studies failed to recognize that light and moderate drinkers had myriad other healthy habits and advantages and that the abstainers used as a comparison group often included former drinkers who had given up alcohol after developing health problems.  Moderate drinkers tend to be wealthier, more likely to exercise and eat a healthy diet, and are less likely to be overweight.  They even have better teeth.  Also the alcohol industry’s role in funding research has come to light.  Even moderate consumption of red wine may contribute to cancers of the breast, esophagus and head and neck, high blood pressure and a serious heart arrhythmia called atrial fibrillation. Boston Globe 5Ap23