New research shows that getting older does not mean that older people are worse drivers or that they are far more likely to crash, Tara Parker-Pope reports in this story in The New York Times.

Drivers over 70 are keeping their licenses longer and driving more than earlier generations, a trend that led to dire predictions about car accident risks for aging baby boomers.

But the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says fatal car accidents involving older drivers have actually declined markedly in the past decade.

“It’s not what people had expected to see,” said Anne T. McCartt, senior vice president for research at the insurance institute.

We like to take beautiful or unusual buttons and swap them in place of the cheesy and cheap buttons that often come on a blouse or coat.

Here’s a couple of tips to safeguard precious buttons during cleaning:

1) If dry cleaning, ask your cleaner to put your garment in a net bag. That way, if a button falls off it won’t get lost and you can later reattach it.

2) Use Velcro to pad the buttons so they don’t break or chip:

Cut both pieces of Velcro to a size slightly larger than the button. Cut one of the pieces up the center to the middle and slip it over the button so the button is resting on the Velcro, as seen here.

Take the other piece and press it on the piece with the button and you then have the padded button protector, seen right.

Cait watched the TeleStik in action at the Abilities Expo in Minneapolis and came back sold on it as a Gimpliment for every household and office.

Billed as “The smallest most portable reaching aid,” the TeleStik’s magnet, hook and adhesive let you retrieve items from high kitchen cabinets or from under a heavy sofa or behind the washing machine, where you dropped the sock.

Cait says she watched a woman with limited strength and hand mobility delight in being able to pick up with ease a wallet, a fallen magazine and car keys.

After watching the video on the TeleStik Web site, Marty got one and uses it to pick up dropped pens in the office and retrieve pins while sewing — you know, the ones that don’t get found until you step on them.

TeleStik comes in several models, is lightweight and can fit in your purse.

Leatherman makes clever tools and one of the handiest is the 1.75 ounce Micra, which folds to just 2.5 inches.

Marty has owned two of these and lost both to airport security checks when she forgot to remove them from her key ring. (She swears the security guards had a covetous gleam in their eyes when they confiscated them.)

The stainless steel Micra has 10 tools, including strong spring-action scissors, and is so small you hardly notice it until you need it.

The other tools include a clip-point knife, tweezers, nail file, bottle opener, three screwdrivers, a standard-metric ruler and a lanyard attachment.

The Leatherman Micra is about $20 plus shipping. For about $27 and just slightly bigger, try the Leatherman Squirt.

Either makes a great gift for a man or woman.

Cait & Marty do not hunt, unless you count their scavenging forays at estate sales. Cait’s Baby Boomer friend, Steve, does hunt and knows what he’s talking about when it comes to protecting his hearing. Steve owns Best Days a A field, a fine Wisconsin hunting lodge, and sent us this post about a hearing Gimpliment he uses in the field:

I have been using hearing protection for 40 or more years for shooting, and operating noisy equipment. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to use electronic hearing protectors, one of my favorites is the Howard Leight Impact™ Sport Earmuff with a jack to plug in an iPod.

I love listening to books-on-tape and use my iPod for the treadmill at the gym, for driving, and for the deer stand. If you get engaged in a good story you will probably last longer on the treadmill, and it’s always more pleasant. The iPod also makes driving more pleasant, keeping me awake and alert on longer drives as it does in the deer stand.

I jack the iPod cable into the earmuffs to listen to books-on-tape for lawn mowing and sedentary hunting like sitting on deer stand, or waiting for a turkey. Turn the iPod off and turn the earmuff volume up and you can hear game sneaking around.

A friend missed a nice deer years ago using headphones to listen to a big sports game. The headphones did not have an external microphone, like my Leight earmuffs do, so he didn’t hear the deer sneak up. When he moved slightly, not knowing the deer was practicaly in his lap, he spooked it and the deer bolted.

Eds. Note: Cait thinks bird watchers would find these useful, too.

We don’t know if this is being sold in North America, but in Britain they have a ceiling-mounted dryer that purportedly eliminates the need for towels.

Using a remote control, you adjust the heat and power and then “simply stand and enjoy the warm air” flowing around you from the Triton Body Dryer.

The Triton would benefit people with limited mobility, especially those who have trouble bending, balancing or need help in toweling off.

Featured below is a demo of the dryer on YouTube. But since the video features a nude young woman caressing her lithe glistening body, you may be asked to sign in to YouTube and promise that you are over age 18.

Eds. Note: Writing about the nude in the Triton video made us remember the scene in the movie “Knocked Up,” where the testosterone-driven characters seek to create a Web site listing the exact times to the second when naked nubile nymphs take to the screen in popular movies.

Our site, however, is different. Purists, we disdain popular movies and document nudity found only in home health products.

Our friend Tom Lowy of Philadelphia maintains there’s only one way to store T-shirts - carefully roll each one up and stack them together in a drawer.

It’s quick, space efficient and, surprisingly, they come out fairly wrinkle free. And if you exercise as much as Tom, and go through T-shirts as quickly as Tom, it’s definitely the way to go.

If, however, you like taking better care of your shirts than Tom, here’s three other ways to fold them by buying something, making something or just using your pinkies.

The Flip-Fold comes in several sizes, is sturdy and would be easy to use if you have limited coordination and strength.

If you’re crafty, here’s a do-it-yourself flip fold made from cardboard, and if you’re fingers are nimble, here’s the way to fold it yourself using just your pinkies.

Public family restrooms, sometimes called Unisex restrooms, are becoming more popular as buildings are renovated to keep up with the changing needs of society.

These flexible rooms accommodate two adults comfortably, are big enough for a wheelchair, come with changing tables and afford more privacy than single-gender restrooms.

They solve the dilemma of which bathroom one gender is supposed to use while assisting the other gender, letting a grandfather, for example, assist his young granddaughter without having to narrow their choices to the men’s or women’s bathrooms.

Learn more from The American Restroom.org and watch for one in your airport, train station and department store.

Misty Lamb, of Nashville, Tenn., gave us the following tip about an easier way to wear jewelry:

“This may not be a big deal to you but I love magnetic attachments for jewelry. You (or someone else if you have MS fingers) attach the magnets to the clasps of a necklace and then you can just snap the jewelry on and off.”

This link will take you to a site where magnetic clasps are sold. (Apparently, this one has a safety clasp so if the magnet inadvertently pops open, the safety clasp will keep the necklace from falling. Reviewers also say this one works better with heavy necklaces than some other magnetic clasps.)

For a top-of-the-line magnetic clasp, see your local jewelry store.

In closing her note to us, Misty left us with this, “I have a big Mary Poppins-style purse so I can keep my fold-a-cane with me all the time.”

Eds. Note: MS fingers in the 2nd paragraph refers to someone with Multiple Sclerosis. Or in Marty’s case, someone who’s just naturally clumsy.

Computer programs created by some of the country’ brightest students would let vision-impaired shoppers point cellphones at supermarket shelves to hear descriptions of products and prices.

Another program lets a Gimpy person guide a computer mouse using brain waves and eye movements.

The programs featured in this New York Times story were among those created by eight groups of volunteers at a two-day software-writing competition in California.