Phoenix Forever
By John Evans
Phoenix Forever is a free-of-charge newsletter, created by Dr. Estelle
Wiztling-Moskowitz, that addresses the needs and concerns of seniors.
It is published over the web, but also available in printed form.
As of August 2000, Dr. Estelle Wiztling-Moskowitz was 86 years old.
She holds a doctorate in psychology, with years of experience seeing
senior patients. Health reasons necessitated she stop practicing in
1996, but she still holds an informal get-together with seven other
older women every other week, as she has done for the past 39 years.
Dr. Wiztling-Moskowitz's newsletter/website is simple, concentrating
heavily on content rather than graphics or style. All the features
are collected on the main page, rather than organized by issue. This
seems fairly sensible to me, although it's difficult to tell which
issue is the current one or when it was produced. In all there are
more than 20 articles and editorials, with topics ranging from spirituality
to voting to making a home safe for senior living. The articles are
written in a concise, clear and informal style, making them easily
accessible. The Phoenix Forever website also houses a collection of
links for senior web surfers, bringing together all the senior-related
sites on the net (yes, including SeniorNet) as well as sites of interest
in other ways (I personally enjoyed the collection of Burma Shave
sign quotes). However, these links are provided with terse (often
one-word) descriptions, making it hard to know what you're getting
into before you click.
In all, Phoenix Forever provides an interesting, informative and
accessible read. However, I feel that similar content and more can
most likely be found on some of the larger senior websites on the
web.