I know it may seem small and insignificant, but at least I can say I'm trying to make this a better place to live. I'm hoping it will spread a message of love and caring in a world with too much hurt and violence. Ideally, one or two people will notice and pay it forward.

It's spring, and so far I have volunteered as a math tutor at a local school and shoveled the snow off a neighbor's sidewalk. But I'm already falling behind, and I'm struggling to come up with some good ideas. I know you and your readers often have creative suggestions. Can you suggest more acts of service I can do for strangers? -- TRYING TO BE NICE

DEAR TRYING TO BE NICE: You could volunteer at a local food pantry. Or find an organization that delivers food to shut-ins and take meals to the clients they serve a couple of days a month.

You could bring a garbage bag with you when you take walks in the morning or evening and pick up paper cups, plastic bags, cigarette butts and candy wrappers that litter our streets and beaches. Or simply acknowledge the presence of others by smiling and saying, "good morning," "good afternoon" and "good evening" to people you encounter.

Readers, if you'd like to chime in, I'd be interested in your ideas.

DEAR ABBY: Two years ago, when I was a senior in high school, a guy became overly attached to me. He shared many very private feelings with me about his lack of friends and severe depression. After trying to help him, first by myself and later with a school guidance counselor and even involving his parents, I decided his problems were too much for me to handle and ended the friendship. I know I hurt him, but I saw no other alternative. After high school we didn't speak for about a year.

We are now in the same college and he's trying to force himself back into my life and be friends again. Abby, he hasn't changed at all. I feel bad, but I have no interest in becoming his friend.

What should I do? I have a hard time saying no because he is so persistent and I feel guilty. -- FEELING PITY IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR FEELING PITY: Tell him the truth. Say, "I can't be your friend because your problems overwhelm me. But you can do something about them by going to the student health center and asking for counseling, and by joining some clubs and activities so you can interact with new people."

DEAR ABBY: Why are brownies called brownies if they are black? -- JUST WONDERING IN HOUSTON

DEAR JUST WONDERING: I took your question to Lachlan Sands, executive chef at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Los Angeles, who says, "The first mention of 'brownies' is in a Fanny Farmer cookbook published in 1906. They are not called brownies because of the color, but were named after Celtic pixies."

P.S. If your brownies are turning out black, you may be baking them too long.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans accustomed to immediate access to the newest technology may be shocked to find that is not the case when it comes to devices that treat ailing hearts.

U.S. approval requirements for cardiac devices are much more stringent than in Europe, where there is no centralized decision-making body. But a growing number of U.S. heart doctors feel the regulations are so demanding that patients are being denied access to beneficial therapies.

From 2006 to 2011, European regulators approved mid-to-high-risk medical devices, including heart devices, an average of four years ahead of the more conservative U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a report last year by Boston Consulting Group. The quicker road to market in Europe did not lead to a discernible increase in recalls or safety problems, according to BCG and the California Healthcare Institute, which conducted the study, and Eucomed, the European trade group.

"There is frustration among the U.S. investigators(researchers) and U.S. care providers around delayed access to certain interventions that appear to be a winner," said Dr. Patrick O'Gara, a cardiologist with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

An example cited by several doctors is a replacement for diseased heart valves made by U.S. device maker Edwards Lifesciences. The Sapien transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) system is particularly suited for elderly and frail patients, since it can be put in place via a catheter threaded through an artery rather than replacing a valve by cracking open the chest for heart surgery.

"With this disease, if you wait two or three years, 60 or 80 percent of (patients) are dead. So not to have the most updated version of the device to treat more patients like this doesn't seem to be a particularly good idea," said Dr. Martin Leon, director of the Center for Interventional Vascular Therapy at Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Heart disease remains the world's No. 1 killer. An estimated 500,000 Americans suffer from severely diseased heart valves, according to the American Heart Association. Many could be candidates for valve replacements.

The approval delays are also costing device makers, such as Edwards and Medtronic Inc, hundreds of millions of dollars in potential sales while they are being asked to help pay for U.S. healthcare reform through new taxes.

Dismay among heart doctors over delayed access to new devices gained momentum at this year's American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting, which featured several U.S. clinical trials of devices long available in Europe.

One top researcher at the meeting called the United States "a Third World country" when it comes to availability of cutting-edge heart devices.

Only Edwards' original Sapien valve has U.S. approval - which it received in 2011, four years after Europe and elsewhere. European cardiologists have been using a next-generation version, which doctors find easier to maneuver into place and believe may cause less trauma to the artery, for three years.

That is why Leon, who is co-lead investigator of U.S. clinical trials for both the original Sapien heart valve and the smaller, newer Sapien XT, sends some patients to Europe for treatment if he believes them better suited for the sleeker XT.

Medtronic has a similar heart valve replacement awaiting U.S. approval that has been used in Europe since 2007.

Asked at the ACC meeting if he found the situation frustrating, Dr. Gary Mintz, chief medical officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation in New York, shot back: "You mean because Algeria had TAVR before the U.S.?"

"Even the FDA recognizes the problem, but they are answerable to Congress, not us," Mintz said.

FDA'S BID TO STREAMLINE

The FDA requires proof of efficacy as well as safety through carefully controlled, randomized clinical trials before approving products, and may ask for long-term follow-up data.

"We recognize that some of our regulatory requirements have been viewed as impediments compared to other parts of the world," said Andrew Farb, medical officer in the FDA's division of cardiovascular device evaluation.

The FDA is working on a new program to help streamline the path to U.S. approval that would involve the agency much earlier in device development - possibly discussing results with researchers after use in the first patient, according to Farb.

The agency expects to publish this year its "early feasibility study guidance," which it hopes will outline a path toward swifter reviews and approvals of devices in development in the United States, Farb said.

"When you're starting a new way of thinking, getting this really ramped up is a challenge, but we're hopeful," he said.

Some companies, eager for faster returns on their investments, have moved early-stage device trials overseas, since they know they are likely to be able to begin selling the products there years earlier. That has added to delays of U.S. trials and approvals, Farb and others said.

Enrolling patients in randomized U.S. trials mandated by the FDA is also being hampered by patient fear they would be put in a control group that did not get the new device, doctors said.

Farb said the FDA is concerned by such trends and is seeking ways to move early-stage human trials back to the United States.

EUROPE MAY SEEK TIGHTER CONTROLS

In Europe, device makers must prove a product's safety to the satisfaction of one of some 80 designated regulator bodies and show it functions as intended. Effectiveness is determined through post-approval surveillance as it is used in patients. Some European politicians view the system as too lax and have called for a model closer to the U.S.

"I think we need to meet somewhere in between," said Dr. David Holmes, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic and a past ACC president, of the two regulatory systems. He said Europe may need to tighten its regulations without necessarily adding years to its process.

One suggestion put forward by Eucomed - a device industry trade group that represents thousands of companies - and others would significantly cut the number of European regulators allowed to approve higher-risk devices.

U.S. doctors are actively looking for ways to address the issue. "We need a coalition of involved, thoughtful and balanced individuals who see things on both sides of the equation and look for every opportunity to shorten this time line," O'Gara said.

Holmes said such a coalition, including researchers, manufacturers and physician groups like ACC and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, is looking to work more closely with the FDA on the issue. He said the group is compiling a database of all patients getting TAVR to enhance understanding of the procedure's long-term performance and aid the FDA in making decisions.

MILLIONS IN LOST SALES

The approval lag means companies are leaving money on the table when it comes to their newest devices.

Edwards' original Sapien sells for about $32,000 per patient and had U.S. sales of about $200 million in its first year on the market. Had it been available in the United States at the same time as Europe, the company could have rung up at least an additional $800 million in sales, said Joanne Wuensch, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets. "That assumes no growth, which is ridiculous, so that is an extraordinarily conservative number," she said.

Proving efficacy can be a lengthy process. St Jude Medical's Amplatzer Occluder device, used to close a tiny hole in the heart, is awaiting an FDA decision. The decisive U.S. trial, which was not deemed complete until a pre-specified number of patients suffered strokes or died, took eight years.

For other examples, see:

Eucomed is campaigning to keep in place the system that brings new products to those markets earlier.

"As you get physician experience developing, you also start immediately improving the product," said Eucomed CEO Serge Bernasconi. "That explains why by the time it gets to market in the U.S., often in Europe we are already on the second or third generation."

Edwards, which considers the original Sapien valve to be obsolete and manufactures it only for U.S. use, expects European approval for its third-generation version by the end of 2013.

Meanwhile, U.S. doctors still await its predecessor.

(Additional reporting by Debra Sherman; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Ed Tobin and Douglas Royalty)

LONDON (Reuters) - Fashion media and analysts broadly welcomed Marks & Spencer'snew clothing strategy and a preview of autumn/winter fashion ranges, giving the firm's boss some respite from pressure over falling sales.

Britain's biggest clothing retailer said on Tuesday it would focus on better quality and styles in womenswear, deliver more compelling and clearer sub-brands, and make shopping easier in stores, as it tries to reverse nearly two years of declining sales.

On Wednesday, shares in the 129-year-old firm, up 20 percent over the past year after periodic bouts of bid speculation, rose up to 4 percent, hitting a five-year high of 438 pence.

However, bookmaker Ladbrokes still made Chief Executive Marc Bolland odds-on at 8/11 to have left his position by the end of the year.

"The changes outlined contained a variety of enhancements based on detailed customer feedback that even the bears will find hard to completely ignore," said analysts at N+1 Singer, arguing that investors should not underestimate the potential from the changes if they gained traction.

M&S will present the autumn/winter ranges to the bulk of Britain's fashion media on Wednesday and Thursday but some key fashion editors have already viewed the ranges and like them.

Lisa Armstrong of The Daily Telegraph called it "the most convincing effort I've seen for a long time," The Times' Laura Craik said "M&S is back in the game," and the Guardian's Jess Cartner-Morley said the collection "could be a high street game changer."

Liz Jones, the influential fashion columnist at the Daily Mail newspaper, had a sneak preview last week and said she was "pleasantly surprised", praising much improved quality.

UNDER PRESSURE

Bolland, CEO since May 2010, is under pressure from investors to revive M&S's clothing business, which has reported seven straight quarterly falls in underlying sales.

The autumn/winter ranges are widely seen as make-or-break for a new general merchandise team, assembled by Bolland and led by John Dixon, the former boss of M&S's food business, and Belinda Earl, the former CEO of Debenhamsand Jaeger.

Bolland has repeatedly said the new team will not make a major impact on sales until the ranges start hitting the shops in late July.

But on Tuesday, he cautioned the market not to expect too much too soon. "This is a step in the right direction. The one thing that we want to be very clear on is that it's a step by step approach," he said.

Independent retail analyst Nick Bubb remained skeptical, given M&S's recent history.

"We were disappointed about the dichotomy between Bolland's view that all major store revamp work will be completed this financial year and Dixon's evident frustration with the clutter and poor presentation standards of the stores," he said.

And while analysts at Credit Suisse said the strategy seemed mostly sensible, they questioned how reinvesting in quality would be paid for.

"As with last week's logistics presentation we are left thinking this may well be the right change in management and strategy, two, or more, years late," they said.

Next week Bolland will present M&S's 2012-13 results, with analysts on average forecasting a 7 percent fall in pretax profit to 658 million pounds ($1.0 billion), according to a poll on the company's website. That would be a second straight annual decline, although the dividend is expected to be maintained. ($1 = 0.6554 British pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Slower growth in U.S. healthcare costs improved the budget outlook for the Medicare program for the elderly from last year, but the fortunes of the Social Security pension program have not changed despite a better economy, trustees of the programs said on Friday.

The trustees repeated warnings to Congress to pass reforms that will enable the programs to meet all of their long-term obligations, but their report adds to recent evidence of an easing in U.S. budget pressures, and could help encourage a sense of complacency in Washington.

The main trust fund that supports the Medicare healthcare program will be depleted in 2026, two years later than forecast last year, the trustees said in their annual status report.

The trustees attributed the improvement to lower projected spending for most treatment categories, especially in skilled nursing homes, an assumption in keeping with recent signs of slower healthcare inflation.

They also said the implementation of key parts of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law next year will reduce costs by more than previously projected.

The report said the Social Security fund for retirees will be depleted in 2033, the same as forecast last year. But a much more pressing need is the 2016 depletion date for the Social Security's trust fund that pays benefits to people with disabilities.

While this is also unchanged from last year's report, it means that Congress now only has three years to agree on new funding or reforms that would avoid reduced payments to beneficiaries.

Depletion of the Medicare and Social Security trust funds does not mean that all benefits would stop. At the current rate of payroll tax collections, Medicare would be able to pay about 87 percent of costs after 2026, declining to 71 percent by 2047. Social Security would be able to pay about three quarters of its benefits through 2087, according to the report.

REFORM ENTHUSIASM DIMS

The programs represent the two largest federal expenditures and account for about one-third of all U.S. fiscal outlays. The reports will feed into bitter arguments between Democrats and Republicans over how to reform the programs to keep them solvent and able to support the needs of the massive Baby Boom generation that is now starting to retire.

The healthcare improvements cited by the trustees in the report could dampen enthusiasm, particularly among Democrats, for any reforms to entitlement programs. The report comes on the heels of other signs showing a quick, if only temporary, reduction in the U.S. budget deficit.

"It reinforces a consensus in this city that the crisis isn't imminent," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research Croup, a firm that advises investors on Washington politics. "A mood of complacency is intensifying over entitlement reform. There's no sense of urgency."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the report supports Democrats' approach of protecting the basic structure of Social Security and Medicare, while reducing healthcare costs and excessive drug subsidies and asking wealthier seniors to contribute more.

While the Obama administration wants to work on bipartisan reforms to strengthen the programs' financial footing, Lew said "changes to Social Security and that involve deep cuts in benefits or privatization will be unacceptable."

Senator Bernard Sanders, a liberal Independent from Vermont, said the report shows that Social Security "is not going broke" and argued against Obama's proposal to limit future cost-of-living increases by applying a less-generous measure of inflation.

Sanders in a statement said the report showed the wealthy should pay more into the pension program. "We must lift the cap on Social Security payroll taxes and make the wealthy contribute the same percentage of their income as other workers," he said. "Today, someone making $10 million a year contributes the same amount of money as someone making $113,700. That is absurd."

Republicans in the House of Representatives, meanwhile, have proposed massive long-term changes to Medicare that would effectively convert the popular fee-for-service program into a voucher-like system that provides a subsidy to seniors to buy private health insurance.

"Today's report is yet another reminder that Medicare and Social Security are in great danger," said a spokesman for House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the leading Republican fiscal voice. "We need to protect and strengthen these critical programs."

Republicans also want to repeal Obama's healthcare reforms. But the report said the "modest improvement" in the Medicare finance outlook came from lower projected spending for most service categories "that reflect recent data suggesting that certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act will reduce growth in these costs by more than previously projected."

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn and David Lawder; Editing by Vicki Allen and Tim Ahmann)

Nina Agdal agreed to step in as Jake Davidson's date Thursday night after he got turned down for prom by supermodel Kate Upton.

The Sherman Oaks teen appeared in a YouTube video that was viewed more than 2.5 million times asking Upton to be his date.

After Upton declined because of a scheduling conflict, Agdal volunteered to go, saying she never got to attend her own prom.

The Danish model is better known as the bikini-clad sunbather in a Carl's Jr. ad.

Davidson told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/173eVPS) he had an incredible night and said Agdal was down to earth.

Kyle Busch, who won the Nationwide and Truck series races at the track and is going for a series sweep, incurred damage to his No. 18 Toyota. The cable also got caught up underneath the car of Marcos Ambrose on the 124th lap of the 400-lap race.

Busch was leading at the time of the incident.

No drivers were injured.

The cars were initially brought along pit row as workers cleared the cable from the track. NASCAR then brought teams into the pits and gave them 15 minutes to work on their cars.

I have no idea how to approach him, or if I even should. I wouldn't know how to begin the conversation with him because I have no solid proof. I always considered him to be a decent individual, but in the back of my mind now I'm thinking, "He's cheating on his wife!" What makes me uneasy is that it's all based on my hunch. I'm usually pretty good with my hunches, though.

Any words of wisdom would be welcome. -- NICK IN NEW ENGLAND

DEAR NICK: What are you doing going through your friend's cellphone day planner and reading his texts? He doesn't have to account to you for his time. For all you know the man may be in a 12-step program or a therapy group. If he wanted you to know what he's doing, he would tell you. Right now the "friendliest" thing you can do is mind your own business.

DEAR ABBY: I have worked at my job almost 10 years. Most of the owners are nice, and the staff is great. I like my job most days.

I had a really bad week recently. I felt like I couldn't do anything right. The week ended with a really angry text from my boss. He was right. I was in the wrong, and I apologized. He sent me another text, still angry, and my whole weekend was ruined by it. I kept thinking how mad he was, and how in a few days, I'd start my week in the doghouse.

I can't figure out how not to take work home with me. Also, I can't help but think he was wrong using a text as a means of discussing the issue. I don't want to make him angrier. How do I confront this issue? -- STILL UPSET IN OREGON

DEAR STILL UPSET: It would have been much better management if your boss had talked with you face to face about what was wrong with your performance. By now, your boss should have cooled off, and I suggest that you have a private chat with him and say that if he has a bone to pick with you, you would prefer to hear it from his lips rather than have it communicated in a text, which was hurtful.

DEAR ABBY: After my best friend of more than 20 years, I'll call him Tim, told me his wife had cheated on him, I confessed that I am in love with him. His response floored me. Tim announced that he has been in love with me all this time and can imagine growing old with only me.

A friend told me I'm committing adultery with Tim because he is now in the process of leaving his cheating wife for me. Am I? We haven't been intimate, nor do we plan to sleep with each other until the divorce is final.

I have loved Tim far longer than she has been in the picture, and I feel this is a chance for happiness that fate has offered us and we are meant to grow old together. Are we wrong to pursue a relationship? -- CONFLICTED IN CALIFORNIA

DEAR CONFLICTED: If Tim has been in love with you all these years, he couldn't have had much of a marriage. His wife's infidelity was his "get out of jail" ticket and he took it. I don't know what your "friend's" definition of adultery is, but according to Webster's dictionary, you're not committing it.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To order "How to Write Letters for All Occasions," send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Letter Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

Weiner, the candidate who infamously resigned from the U.S. Congress two years ago in a sexting scandal, unveiled a video announcing his mayoral candidacy and a campaign logo on his website on Wednesday.

The logo is written in blue and orange - the colors of Weiner's beloved New York Mets baseball team. But the image of the skyline that forms its backdrop, while similar to iconic images of New York's Brooklyn Bridge, is actually that of Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente Bridge.

The goof was spotted by several reporters and comparative images of the two bridges were widely circulated on Twitter. Weiner's campaign could not immediately be reached for comment, but the logo on Anthonyweiner.com has since been changed.

Weiner on Thursday evening is to face his Democratic rivals for the first time at a candidate's forum in the Bronx. Polls suggest he enters the race in second place, trailing City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Voters remain ambivalent about whether he should be running for office.

Weiner, once a popular six-term Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives after admitting he had sent a close-up image of his underpants over Twitter and then lied about it repeatedly. The image had been intended to be sent as a private message to a woman.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Scott Malone, G Crosse)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Vera Wang, the queen of bridal couture, is abolishing the nearly $500 fee she charged Chinese brides-to-be to try on a garment at her new Shanghai bridal boutique after the move, meant to deter counterfeiters, set off a global outcry.

Local and global media had criticized the surcharge as being discriminatory because it was applied only in China, at the company's Shanghai store, which staged a "soft opening" in January as the company's first bridal salon in the country, a vast potential market as the numbers of wealthy grow.

A Vera Wang spokeswoman told Reuters that the 3,000 yuan ($480) charge was being scrapped as of Wednesday.

"Please kindly be informed that Vera Wang has abolished appointment fees at her bridal salons worldwide starting from March 27, 2013," the spokeswoman said in an email, without elaborating.

A company spokeswoman told local media earlier this year that the charge was imposed to fend off copying of the elaborate dresses, which fetch thousands of dollars in the original.

Despite the move, though, Vera Wang's ivory tulle trains and pinched bodice gowns had already found fans in the world of pirates, with knockoffs widely available on Chinese e-commerce sites for a fraction of the price.

Li, one seller of "Vera Wang style" dresses on Taobao Marketplace, China's largest e-commerce site, says he can achieve up to 90 percent similarity to the namesake garments without even seeing the originals.

A Vera Wang original can range anywhere from $2,000 to over $10,000, but on Taobao some imitations go for as little as $100.

"For the experts you don't need to try on the dress to figure out how to copy it, you just need to see it or feel it at the shop," said Li, who declined to give his full name.

Li's factory, based in Suzhou, a city near Shanghai, makes Vera Wang knockoffs from photos of her creations, then sells them online for between 600 yuan ($97) to 1,700 yuan ($270).

The Taobao sellers who hawk the look-alikes use organza, satin and lace to recreate the ethereal bridal trains and three-dimensional floral whorls on Wang's dresses.

Most of the sellers online said they could achieve near 100 percent similarity to Vera Wang dresses but the complicated hand stitching and high quality materials that go into an original dress is something they can't replicate.

"There will be slight changes... If you want 100 percent you should buy the original," said one seller of mid-range copies.

In 2012, China was the top source country for counterfeit goods entering the United States and the European Union (EU) with more than 70 percent originating from China, according to the latest customs seizure reports from the U.S. and the EU.

Alibaba Group, which owns Taobao Marketplace, said in a statement to Reuters the company works with intellectual property rights holders to take down counterfeit listings and will penalize stores caught.

($1 = 6.2107 Chinese yuan)

(Editing by Kazunori Takada, Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)