True. The water company did not send anyone out, and the newspaper article about the elderly couple victimized on Friday by the pair stressed that the water company always telephones its customers prior to sending anyone out, and their technicians are always in uniform, displaying ID as soon as they arrive.

I visited my parents yesterday in the scranton area. They live about three blocks from my grandmother. My dad isn't always coherent due to the gradual progression of Alzheimer's, but he still recognizes me. My mother says that often at night before he goes to bed he'll ask if all of the kids are in bed upstairs. He has two sisters, who are in more advanced stages of the disease. My Aunt Lo, who is my godmother, is in her 80s and although once a very happy, energetic lady, she is now without much emotion and often unresponsive. My cousin Kerry, one of her daughters, told me she did get an unexpected jolt of a response when she put on a tv movie and told her mom, "This is a movie about Queen Victoria...she did a lot for the poor in England>"

Aunt Lo, who was dazed and disconnected prior to that, suddenly snapped, "Well, she never did a god damned thing for the Irish!" My cousin was going to change the channel, but decided that maybe riling her up was better than having her sit without any response.