Starting about 1839 and continuing to the start of WW I, everyone wanted to get in on the caves-and-prehistory frenzy. Decorated caves are privately owned in France, except for Lascaux II. And would-be Indiana Joneses and scams abounded.

During the bone rush period, cave owners would come forward to lay a claim on prehistory, even though the paint may not have been dry on their find. Eventually caves had to be authenticated by an expert. But since experts were scant, there was bound to be hoodwinking from those hired to uncover scams, too.

One scam prevalent in Europe during the Middle Ages could be called a precursor to life insurance. Pilgrimages were popular--both to Jerusalem and later to Santiago, Spain, when things got too dicey in Jerusalem. The idea, besides offering homage, was to obtain a memento of the trip, a sacred relic.

Then you'd wear it for the rest of your life--something like a handkerchief dabbed in oil from a lamp where a saint had worshipped or been buried, for instance. But people didn't always want to take the pilgrimages themselves, so if they were wealthy enough they hired others to go on pilgrimages for them.

Thus a whole new career opportunity opened up--professional pilgrims. The hired travelers would journey forth, or not, depending on their degree of scrupulousness. But they would always come back with an artifact, supposedly taken from the holy site.

These artifacts constituted another extension of the hoax: They might, or might not, be genuine. So you had pilgrims who may or may not have left town, and you had relics that may or may not have been sacred.

There's also a question about whether the articles at the holy site were legitimate to begin with. One scam generated another as the shady circle continued to roll.

SOCK-LESS SALES MANAGER: Saratogan Skip Miller 's newest book is Knock Your Socks Off Prospecting, published by the American Management Association. Miller is the owner of M3 Learning, a sales training and management firm in Los Gatos.

His first book in 2001 was ProActive Sales Management. It is still No. 1 on the sales management bestseller list and was just translated into Russian. His follow-up book was ProActive Selling, which also reached the bestseller lineup. Prospecting was co-authored by Ron Zemke, who died in 2004, a month into the project.

Zemke had written 14 knock-your socks-off books, and Miller was determined to make this the best of the bunch. The book offers tools for warming up cold calls by concentrating on the client, relating something you know about him or finding something or someone in common.

The key is to ask the prospect questions, rather than pitching the product. Miller is a sought-after motivational speaker in sales and training events and has a heavyweight client list. But he's discriminating about travel these days because of his three children, students at Sacred Heart School.

Miller is athletic director of the West Valley Pop Warner football league, and one of the teams, the Falcons, won the national semifinals in Florida last December. His son Kyle was the team quarterback. Miller also coaches the basketball team of his twins, Alexandra and Brianna.

"I'm where on this planet I was meant to be," he says about founding his own company nine years ago.

BOCCE TITLE: Los Gatos town fathers and mothers won first place in the Cities Association ninth annual Bocce Tournament, wresting the trophy from Monte Sereno, last year's victors. Second place went to Mountain View in a hard-fought race; the Santa Clara county team claimed third.

The bocce-savvy LG team was made up of council folks Barbara Spector , Joe Pirzynski , Steve Glickman and Mike Wasserman .

THANK YOU: A thank you party for Bonnie and Alan Aerts was held last week at Villa Vasona, initiated by Lynne Helton . Helton drives the van that provides free transportation for seniors at Villa Vasona and for those who live elsewhere, a program sponsored by the Aerts.

"We wanted to say thank you and have those benefiting from his generosity meet him," Helton says. Up to now, Aerts has been a phone voice only: he's the one who plots the van's schedule. Villa Vasona resident Sue Shiroyama assisted Helton with the party.

Property manager at VV, Candy Kelly , calls the program a godsend, an enormous help. There are 125 residents at the Villa 62 or older, or disabled.

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