BouncingBabyBoomer.com

New Feature: BBWZ (Weekly Zeitgeist)

Beginning this week we are starting an experiment.. the Bouncing Boomer Weekly Zeitgeist (BBWZ). It gathers all on one page some especially interesting tidbits and links that bounced on to our radar this week, each of which could have launched a blog post of their own had time and space been sufficient. It will be a quick handy way to share links, quotes, books and sites that made a recent impression before they scroll away.

Click here to read the first edition, then follow the topic "BBWZ."

Hot Headlines in Boomer Health This Week

Recent health stories worth reading by Boomers || From USA Today: Study Shows Statins Help 'Normals' and Women: In a study with 18,000 subjects. people with normal cholesterol but high levels of C-reactive protein had such a dramatic reduction in rates of heart attack and stroke the study was stopped to let those on placebos switch to Rx meds. The study was also able to validate a statin benefit which applied equally well to women; see link above for detail... / Congress questions some AARP health policies: AARP agreed voluntarily to stop selling some controversial "limited benefits" health insurance policies to people between age 50 and 64 after a Congressman questioned "misleading marketing" which may have led buyers to think they had more coverage than they did... / Angio May Be On Its Way Out:  Three major studies suggest that using angioplasty to open blocked arteries or treat chest pain may be riskier and no more beneficial than medication. ||  From the New York Times: This week's cover story in the New Old Age blog (aimed at Boomers caring for elders) is a Delicate Calculus in End of Life Decisions; / also in New Old Age, click to read Where the Mommy Track Crosses the Daughter Track ../ and click for Assisted Living Care: ‘Uneven and Often Problematic’ the latest in a controversial series on a topic becoming increasingly relevant to some Boomer parents; the reader comments in this series are as thought-provoking as the articles... / and last but not least on my NYT list, Stretching the Truth which suggests much of what we've been told about warming up for workouts has been wrong || Meanwhile, from New Scientist: Men-o-pause in Males? More and more, graying males are seeking HRT for fatigue, libido and other symptoms of what is now being called  "andropause." ||

My First Thought for Today (11/5/08)

Happy New Era to US all!!!! (she said while tagging this post to every category on this blog where I now feel more optimistic than I did yesterday)

Preview of the "New Old"

(a sequel to Post 1.3, Selling Us Daddy's Car)

The "New Old"

For Boomers, there is compounding evidence that our later years will be as big a departure from the old norms as our early adulthood.

Our health tends to be better than our parents at the same point, perhaps because we were raised with better diets from an earlier age. We got an early wakeup call about things that can deter decline, such as diet, exercise, brain fitness, and Omega 3s. Meanwhile, new medical breakthroughs seem to keep happening weekly, from pharmaceuticals tailored to one's own genome to pivotal proteins in Alzheimer's plaques. And if that isn't enough, they keep coming up with new lotions, potions and lasers that let you prolong a youthful appearance if you wish to fool Mother Nature some more.

Overall, we tend to be much better informed about our options and much less shy than our parents were about asking questions and expecting value and evaluating results. We've held more jobs in one lifetime and often acquired sklls in more than one discipline. All of this tends to create a wider point of view that seeks a broader menu of options, including the option of not retiring.

To a big bunch of us, much of this seems a good thing, since between the housing slump, the credit crunch, the declining dollar, and our shrinking portfolios, not to mention our rising costs of health care, we may have no choice but to keep on being engaged for pay anyway, especially if we want to access those nifty treatments they say will let us do that long and lively thing.

They're Selling Us Daddy's Car After All

The leading edge of the Boomers are becoming linked to their parents in ways they haven't seen since Detroit gave up on selling us Daddy's Oldsmobile. Whatever the specifics of our own needs and interests, we begin being herded back into our parents' marketing niche as soon as we sign on for AARP at 50.

It's no small irony for the generation who perhaps worked the hardest to separate.

As a group, we probably made the biggest leap ever away from the 'rents when we pushed back around the draft and Viet Nam, then insisted that Nixon not skate on Watergate. Later, we led the leap in to the digital age and on to the Internet, leaving a number of elders feeling out of the swim and pressed to catch up.

By combining those larger leaps with a lot of smaller shifts, we may have become more autonomous and self-defined than any generation before us. But today as they approach their own retirement phase, the leading wedge of 50+ Boomers find themselves lumped into their parent's demo anyway.

The leading edge of the Boomers are becoming linked to their parents in ways they haven't seen since Detroit gave up on selling us Daddy's Oldsmobile. Whatever the specifics of our own needs and interests, we begin being herded back into our parents' marketing niche as soon as we sign on for AARP at 50.

It's no small irony for the generation who perhaps worked the hardest to separate.

As a group, we probably made the biggest leap ever away from the 'rents when we pushed back around the draft and Viet Nam, then insisted that Nixon not skate on Watergate. Later, we led the leap in to the digital age and on to the Internet, leaving a number of elders feeling out of the swim and pressed to catch up.

By combining those larger leaps with a lot of smaller shifts, we may have become more autonomous and self-defined than any generation before us. But today as they approach their own retirement phase, the leading wedge of 50+ Boomers find themselves lumped into their parent's demo anyway.

BBB Quickie: Seeking Boomer Job Stories

A writer who's on an email list I frequent is seeking Boomer stories, specifically Boomer stories relating to a too-common plot among those past 40:

"Looking for Baby boomer, formerly retired, takes job for which the company's younger workers lack management background."

If this sounds like you or someone you know, drop a line (call it "Job Story") to editor@ bouncingboomers.com. In the note, give a very brief synopsis (such as "Boomer accountant is best qualified, but last hired and first fired"). We'll forward your notes  to Dr. C. who may contact you for the rest of your story (she will see your address and write you directly). And if it isn't a fit for her article, we may follow up with you for a future employment story ourselves. 

(Rest assured, our policy is not to share your email address with any third party unless you give us permission by responding to an item such as this.)

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