F-f-fifty Something

I've Moved

2009-02-15T21:21:00.001-05:00

Hi - I'm not posting to this one any more (explanation below).

Please visit me at my new location.

Thanks.

Restless and Moving

2009-02-14T20:00:00.000-05:00

In just under one month, this blog, my first, will reach its third anniversary. I began by making fun of my age:

I am trying to get comfortable with saying f-f-fifty f-f … (this is the only time I stutter).

Like many boomers my age, I don’t look, act or feel like I’m (the number would go here if I were to say it). The few co-workers who know the number can’t believe it. I can’t believe it.

I had just begun a radio show interview segment called Boomer Talk and decided to try my hand at writing observations about being a fifty-something baby boomer.

What does it mean to be a baby boomer?

The technical answer, according to demographers, is that to be a boomer means you were born between 1946 and 1964. That’s it. No application form, no dues, no initiation ceremony. Just a 4-digit number on your birth certificate.

But dig deeper and you realize it means a whole lot more. We rule the world. There are about 85 million of us in the United States alone. We’re the big bulge on the demographic charts, the folks with the money and the power (Clinton and Bush were both born in 1946), the generation that changed the world. We fought racism, sexism and now ageism. We married later and more often. We’re living longer and healthier lives than our parents did. We were and are idealistic dreamers who lived out our dreams.

And in that first post, I also asked and answered this question:

So what is the point of this blog?

Hell if I know. As I grow older, I have a greater need to communicate than I did at a younger age. This mostly one-way style suits me fine. I welcome feedback and an exchange of ideas, but I’ll be happy if I’m the only reader of this material.

I did get feedback (thank you), made a few new internet friends (nice to meet you) and I have more than one regular reader (12 maybe? – thanks again).

But I’m feeling a little restless with a few parts of my life and I’m ready to make some changes. This blog, however, is the only change I can afford to make right now. Instead of just freshening it, I decided to end it and move on to a different design and a somewhat different focus.

So please join me on Boomer Randomness, my new blog. It’ll be a little more random, a little less about being over 50.

I’ll leave this one up as long as Blogger will let me, but I invite you (beg you) to drop by my new place on the internet.

Take care. See ya soon.

Bernie

Eggplant, Fat Chance and the Neutral Ground

2009-01-31T18:13:00.002-05:00

If you need proof that English is a difficult language for immigrants to learn, read the next few lines. We take these contradictions for granted, but try to explain them to an ESL student.

There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.

Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?

Why do we have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Read more examples on Deejay’s blog.

Mastering English is often difficult for those of us who have spoken it our entire lives. To complicate matters, American English is different from British English which is different from Australian English. And like any language, there are regional dialects. Listen in on a conference call between Boston, Baltimore and Birmingham and you might need a translator to keep up. If you’re just learning English, you might not understand what I mean by “keep up” in my previous sentence.

English spoken in my native New Orleans might not be recognizable as English to someone from Milwaukee. If you’ve lived in neither, do you know what a ‘neutral ground’ is? Or a ‘bubbler’?

I’ve said all of that to say this: one thing I miss from my youth is personal conversation. Fiftysomethings grew up writing letters and visiting people. Twentysomethings grew up on email and texting. I prefer face-to-face interaction to email. The language of personal communication includes visual cues as well as words. Context can help explain gaps in grammar. A smile means almost the same thing in every culture. Music is universal. Email is just a string of words on a screen, and casual email writing style is very fragmented. Half sentences. Abbrvtns.

Txtng s wrse WTF

I have nothing against email; it just doesn’t have the richness of facial expressions and colorful slang. And I have exactly one friend in the world who refuses to send email. I look forward to his hand-written, postal-delivered letters.

OK, time to go. I’ll wrap this up with one more sentence borrowed from Deejay’s post:

Why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

Fragmentation in Boomerville

2009-01-28T23:01:00.001-05:00

The commonly accepted birth year range for Baby Boomers is 1946 – 1964. Or so I thought. Even though someone born in 1946 (who is turning 63 years old this year) might not have much in common with someone born in 1964 (who is turning 45 this year), both were considered Boomers.

I also believed that Generation X came next, starting with those born in 1965 (who are turning 44 this year).

Those definitions are just perfect for me: clean demographic lines for generational categories with otherwise blurry borders.

But I recently heard of a new generational category: Generation Jones. Have you heard of this one?

Wikipedia defines Generation Jones as the generation of people born between 1954 and 1965. Someone who commented on my last post pointed out that many publications are claiming President Obama (born in 1961 and turning 48 on his next birthday) as someone in Generation Jones.

Friends of mine who participate in a weekly DC radio show called Women Talk (which I sort of produce) claim the new Pres as a Gen-Xer. I claim him as a Boomer. In fact, in my last post I said he is likely to be the last Boomer president. So if he’s not a Boomer, then Bush was the last Boomer President. Say it ain’t so!!

As we Boomers become Seniors, are we really going to want either of the last two presidents to go down in history as representing our generation? If the new president lives up to his campaign for the next four to eight years, then we would probably would want him to be remembered as a representative of the Boomer generation. But if he isn’t a Boomer, then that won’t be the case, will it?

This fragmentation of definition sucks. So does my undefined point in this post, my unclear logic from open to close and this very blurry conclusion. And my fragmented sentences.

No Matter Who

2009-01-18T11:42:00.004-05:00

No matter who you voted for and no matter what you think about the incoming or outgoing Presidents, you should celebrate the Inauguration on Tuesday.

At Noon on January 20th, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, George W. Bush will go home to Texas having served for eight years in what most people would call the most powerful and challenging leadership position in the world and for the 43rd time in our history, there will be a smooth transition of power from one leader to another.

Presidents Clinton and Bush were both at the leading edge of the Boomers and President-elect Obama is at the younger end of the spectrum. Three Boomers in a row have lead our country, for good or bad, and this will likely be the end of that reign. Let's make the most of it.
=============
Bruce Springsteen is one of many performers playing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial this afternoon. I happened to be there yesterday when he was rehearsing with a choir:

=============
Visit my photo blog to see more of the pre-inauguration pictures I took in Washington DC yesterday.

Quick Reflexes or Experience?

2009-01-17T22:32:00.003-05:00

So let's say you're a passenger in an airliner that just got struck by a flock of birds. The birds were sucked into both jet engines, causing them to stop, and you know that an airliner can't really glide so you also know a crash is probably less than a minute away.

Which of the following pilots would you want in the cockpit: a 30-year-old from the joystick/video game generation with perfect eyesight and the quick physical reflexes of someone that age or a 57-year-old from the 'look out the window' generation with a calm personality and 30 years of experience?

I'm sure you heard about the plane that crashed in the Hudson River in New York yesterday and how the experienced, 57-year-old pilot made a nearly impossible turn followed by a nearly impossible smooth water landing and saved 155 lives.

Experience wins this round!!

Tell me why airline pilots have to retire at age 60.

=========================
Visit Rhea's Boomer Chronicles blog for some more (and better) perspective.

Inauguration Fever

2009-01-16T23:54:00.000-05:00

It is so cold in Washington DC and the surrounding areas tonight that a little fever might be welcomed.

Crowds are arriving and streets are closing. Local transportation systems and law enforcement personnel are at the ready.

A record-setting amount of people are expected to descend on the region and people around here are either trying to find ways to stay away on inauguration day or to get right into the middle of it all. At first I was in the ‘middle of it all’ camp because it really is a thrilling experience to see the ceremony surrounding a smooth transition of power in a great country. And I have a little bit of media access with my job that would give me a tiny edge on exactly where I would be.

But now I think I’d prefer to watch the Oath of Office and President Obama’s inaugural address on television from the comfort of my warm radio station.

I do plan to go into DC with my camera on Saturday to take a few pre-inaugural photos. I’ll post some of them soon.

He Said WHAT?

2009-01-05T07:36:00.000-05:00

There is only one thing I will miss about our soon-to-be-former President: his mangling of the American English language.

Admittedly, American English is a difficult language, filled with contradictions and odd colloquialisms. I have trouble with it myself, even though it is the only language I speak. But I expect a Yale-educated former business executive who was elected President of the United States for two terms to have better mastery of the language than I do.

People who have worked closely with him claim that in private, he is disciplined, inquisitive and forceful in his leadership style. His public persona contradicts that claim.

Here are a few examples from a story on the AOL site:

"I remember meeting a mother of a child who was abducted by the North Koreans right here in the Oval Office." | Location: White House Rose Garden, Washington, D.C. | Date: June 26, 2008

"These are big achievements for this country, and the people of Bulgaria ought to be proud of the achievements that they have achieved." | Location: Sofia, Bulgaria | Date: June 11, 2007

"We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job." | Location: Meeting with Mississippi leaders, Gulfport, MS. | Date: Sept. 20, 2005

"Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." | Location: Campaign rally, Poplar Bluff, MO. | Date: Sept. 6, 2004

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." | Location: The White House, Washington, D.C. | Date: Aug. 5, 2004

"They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too." | Location: Langley, Va. | Date: Sept. 26, 2001

I say again that I am no literary giant, but I expect more from a President. However, if people close to him believe he is smarter than he seems, I might have misunderestimated him too.

Space: the Final Frontier … and Suburb

2009-01-03T23:58:00.002-05:00

Many of us who grew up in the 1960s were/are fascinated by space travel. The ‘race to the moon’ dominated the news and our culture then. Americans have always been obsessed with exploration and it seemed only natural that the moon, and eventually Mars and other planets, would be the next frontier. After all, we ran out of continent at California and stopped colonizing after Alaska and Hawaii.

Colonizing the moon was supposed to be the next step. A working environment there would serve as a place for scientific research and a jumping off point for further space exploration and, of course, real estate development.

Those dreams seemed inevitable then, impossible now.

Fortunately there are still some dreamers among us, including Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society. Come to think of it, if there is a Mars Society, there must be plenty of dreamers. Zubrin just published a book called "HOW TO LIVE ON MARS: A Trusty Guidebook to Surviving and Thriving on the Red Planet."

I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to. The author has a background in nuclear engineering, aeronautics and astronautics and seems to have a great sense of humor, too. Some of the chapter titles are How to Get There, How To Choose Your First Ground Rover (don’t buy the usual rover, buy a Honda), How To Get Rich (there is plenty of beachfront property available).

Here’s a quote from the press release:
With the housing market in a slump, isn’t it time to break away
from these earthly boundaries? Let’s face it: Mars is where the
future is. Its wide-open (and affordable!) spaces are waiting for
folks like you with guts and gumption to go out and make your
mark. It’s a new world, ready for a young civilization to be born,
and rife with history raring to be made.

That’s my kind of humor; and in a way, my kind of dreaming.

The fiftysomething Bowl

2009-01-01T23:19:00.002-05:00

Remember when there were just a few bowl games? Cotton Bowl, Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and a handful of others.

Now there are 35 or more, most with advertising naming rights. Many of the traditional bowl games retain their original name along with the sponsor, like the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the FedEx Orange Bowl and the AT&T Cotton Bowl.

Some, however, are just named for the sponsor. The season started right here in my area with the EagleBank Bowl in Washington DC. Others include the Papajohns.com Bowl, the Capital One Bowl, the Meineke Car Care Bowl (at the Bank Of America Stadium in Charlotte – yes, stadiums are also often named for sponsors), the magicJack St. Petersburg Bowl (played at Tropicana Field), the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl (at Qualcomm Stadium).

One of the more ridiculous names: the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Puh-leeze! And it turns out this one, played in Atlanta since 1968, dropped its original name: the Peach Bowl.

Do these games count for anything anymore? Is there still a football game in the middle of the hype and commercialism?

Please don’t misunderstand my point; this is not a rant against advertising. I love commercials. I make my living making commercials. The company I work for exists by connecting advertisers to consumers. But shouldn’t there be some limits? Does everything have to have a sponsor?

Auto racing is my favorite sport but sometimes I laugh out loud while watching a NASCAR race. The cars are sponsored, of course, and some of the sponsor connections make sense. Jimmie Johnson in the Lowes #48 car was the points champ for the past three seasons. Building supplies and auto racing – I get that. Contenders for the championship include Tony Stewart in the Home Depot #20 and Carl Edwards, who is takin’ care of business in the Office Depot #99. Mark Martin now drives the US Army #8 but a few years ago his sponsor was Viagra; he is one of the older drivers so there is a bit of synergy there. But how does Juan Montoya feel when he climbs into the Juicy Fruit Slim Pack #42 car?

My favorite driver ever is the late Alan Kulwicki; one year his sponsor was Hooters.

Every aspect of the race coverage on TV has a sponsor. Drivers stop on pit road to top off with Sonoco racing fuel. Last year, Kasey Kahne in the Budweiser #9 Dodge won the Coca Cola 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway. In at least one race, Kahne avoided a serious collision on the track and was designated the Allstate Good Hands Driver of the day. (I’m not making this up).

Back to Bowl Games … how ridiculous can naming rights get? The Wii Bowl? The Kellogg’s Cereal Bowl? The Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner Bowl? Toilet Bowl, for short. The Edy’s Ice Cream Bowl?

What if Victoria’s Secret wanted to buy the naming rights to a Bowl game? Maybe a World Cup, Davis Cup or Ryder Cup event would be a better fit for them.

Just a Second

2008-12-31T22:51:00.002-05:00

As I write this, less than ninety minutes remain in 2008. At the stroke of midnight, a new year begins.

Isn’t it amazing how much difference one second makes?

The time between 11:59:00 and 12:00:00 is only one second, yet in that instant we move from 2008 to 2009, from a year of campaigns to a year of a new President, from a year of economic difficulties to a year of potential recovery, from twelve months during which most of us did not stick to last year’s New Year’s resolutions to a year in which we try again.

Nothing physically changes when the clock strikes twelve.

Here in Maryland tonight, the wind is gusting to 40 miles per hour; at 12:00, the wind will continue to blow at 40 miles per hour. At one second before midnight, the sky will be dark; as the clock reads 12:00:00, the sky will still be dark. If your heart rate is 72 beats per minute, your heart will beat 1.2 times between 11:13:59 and 11:14:00 and it will also beat 1.2 times between 11:59:59 and 12:00:00.

Yet as 11:59:59 becomes 12:00:00 tonight, a whole new year begins.

Jokesters among us will blink during that second then say, “hey, I haven’t seen you since last year.”

In that one second, many of the negatives we experienced during the last twelve months are erased and the door opens to a whole new world of positive possibilities. Even if we have never lost the weight we said we would in New Year’s resolutions in the past, it is possible we will lose the weight in the next year, so we make that resolution again.

Any dream we have could become reality: zero balance credit card debt, a clutter-free house, a new job, a new lover, world peace.

In just over one hour, that one second will flash across the Eastern Standard Time Zone in the United States. Millions of people will engage In a shared collective countdown: 10, 9, we watch our clocks or the readout on a TV screen, 8, 7, fiftysomethings see Dick Clark on TV and remark on how young he still looks despite the slurred speech pattern resulting from a stroke a few years ago, 6, 5, partygoers ready their champagne glasses as one brave soul prepares to pop the cork, 4, 3, some people are already asleep, viewing this as just another Wednesday night, 2, 1, but sentimentalists like me take a deep breath in that remaining second and shout …

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

More Merry Than I Expected

2008-12-29T22:24:00.001-05:00

A few posts ago, I talked about holiday depression. I was having a particularly down day but speculated (hoped, actually) that it might be the only really depressing day of the season for me this year.

Fortunately, it was.

I won’t go so far as to say I’ve been joyous this holiday season, but I’ve been happier than usual. I followed some of the advice I’ve been given over the years – don’t over schedule, try to accept whatever comes, work on establishing new rituals to replace the ones form youth that we might miss – and it actually worked.

My wife and I have a few rituals of our own, including a making a big deal out of opening presents with the dogs and taking pictures of the proceedings. We went through this whole season without arguing about which lights to put where and which corner of which room to place the tree. We had a nice meal on Christmas day. I caught myself singing along with Christmas songs on the radio while driving home from work one day. And this past Saturday we spent the afternoon with some old friends of mine who were visiting the area.

So the season has been relatively jolly. Hope yours was too.

And New Year’s Day, my favorite holiday, is just two days away.

A Kidless Christmas

2008-12-25T22:50:00.005-05:00

We don't have kids, but my wife and I treat Christmas as if we did. See all of these presents? Most are for our three dogs.

Here is one of our dogs thanking my wife for all the great presents.

Here I am showing off a Christmas present from my wife, a 'coffee table' book of photographs by one of my favorite photographers.

Hope you have a great holiday, and if you don't happen to celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a great December.

Me Me Me

2008-12-22T23:03:00.003-05:00

I think I discovered a reason for my temporary writer’s block. Basically, I don’t really like to talk about myself.

OK, people who know me in real life would laugh at that statement; I talk about myself way too much. But those conversations are held among a small circle of people I know. Blogs, by their very nature, are public forums in which people write about themselves. Subject matter can range from daily mundane activities to personal opinions about the meaning of life. Readership can range from dozens to millions.

Much of what I’ve written in this blog has been through the “life in our fifties” filter with the goal of sharing common experiences and offering explanations of our attitudes to other generations, using my life and observations as examples.

But my parents said we shouldn’t talk about ourselves. That presents an annoying inner conflict. I also recall being taught to keep my opinions to myself.

All of that adds up to a lot of second-guessing on my part.

Do I say my opinion or not? Does anyone really want to hear my opinion? Do I really want to hear anyone else’s opinion, especially if it’s a comment post in which someone disagrees with me?

On the other hand, engaging conversation based on disagreements in point of view is a very engaging form of communication. We learn and grow through that type of discourse. We discover that ours isn’t the only valid opinion. We learn how to bond and maintain friendships in spite of philosophical differences.

Back to my writer’s block. I could write about myself daily … endlessly. Most writing I do in my life is work-related and for other people. The writing I do here is for me. I even said something like that in my very first post: This blog might turn into a place where I express my opinion, for no particular reason other than that I can.

By the way, this is my 281st post.

So, to borrow from a Toby Keith song from a couple of years ago … “I want to talk about me, me, me, me, me.” Maybe this will cure my writer’s block.

Opinionated Journalist and Quick Reflexes

2008-12-14T17:28:00.003-05:00

The White House Press Room can be quite contentious at times, but it's nothing compared to this scene in Iraq today.

I bet no American journalist ever threw shoes at a U.S. President.

Of course a few questions and observations come to mind:

- It was an Iraqi reporter who threw the shoes at President Bush. If he had thrown shoes at his country's leader six years ago, he probably would have been shot.

- A majority of American citizens dislike President Bush but most of them (us) would never consider throwing something at him. Like him or not, he IS the President and deserves respect.

- Some people have probably dreamed about throwing something at him.

- What will most people remember about the press conference - the message or the shoes?

- Bush has some damn good reflexes.

- What did the person sitting on either side of the Iraqi reporter think when they saw him remove his shoes?

Snow in New Orleans

2008-12-12T22:20:00.005-05:00

THIS doesn't happen very often:

I grew up in New Orleans, and I only saw snow three times during the 27 years I lived there. One of those snowfalls set a record ... 5 inches. I've since lived in places where that would be called a dusting.

It snowed there yesterday.

Temporary Writer's Block

2008-12-11T00:29:00.003-05:00

I've been busier than usual at work and at home and paying more attention to my photo blogs than this one. Basically, my brain is a little tapped out this month, so I have had little to say.

But I'm still here, still alive and well. Thanks for asking.

Check back again soon. I know my creative spark is around here somewhere.

Calories and Tears

2008-11-30T17:38:00.002-05:00

I’m holding back tears as I watch a TV documentary. I’ll tell you the subject matter in a moment.

Even my closest friends would be surprised to learn how emotional I really am. In most public settings, including work and family gatherings, I have a fairly steady, even temperament. I show emotion but not in an extreme way. My laugh isn’t hearty and I rarely cry in public.

But I experience holiday depression. From Thanksgiving Day through New Year’s Day, that bundle of pent up emotion that a surprisingly large number of people deal with lives just below the surface of my exterior personality. It doesn’t take much to open the window and let it out.

I’m revealing this part of me in this somewhat public setting just in case you have similar feelings during the holiday season and need a little validation to prove you’re not alone or crazy.

I got through Thanksgiving week in a great mood this year. My sister and some of my cousins emailed greetings and a few old photographs to each other. These are the cousins who I spent nearly every Thanksgiving of my youth with. The photos and messages felt good. No tears, many smiles.

But this afternoon is another story. It is three days after Thanksgiving, cloudy, rainy and cold, much colder than it ever was in late November in my southern youth. I’m eating the last of the holiday leftovers, thinking about how my original plan to spend Thanksgiving with my sister in New Orleans didn’t work out, and watching the beginning of a documentary on television. It is a whimsical but fact-based look at the history of donuts.

Yes, donuts are making me cry.

The lead example this documentary uses to explain the world’s fascination with fried dough is the beignet, the only food item served at Café du Monde in New Orleans. I have probably been to that that famous outdoor café more than a hundred times in my life and often during significant, emotional moments. My earliest memory of eating beignets there was after a grandmother’s funeral. Dad took us there after at least three funerals during my youth. I spilled the powdered sugar beignet topping on a tuxedo after at least two proms in high school. In the years since leaving New Orleans, I have shared their café au lait and beignets with at least two girlfriends and a wife. I’ve dropped in solo. The strong coffee and calorie-laden beignets are major part of my life and viewing those sights and sounds have opened the emotion window.

This kind of reaction is a normal component of holiday depression. As adults we often try to recreate family rituals from our youth and the disparity between that attempt and current reality often leads to sadness rather than joy. There is nothing wrong with it and it is perfectly normal. Knowing that doesn’t necessarily make it easier to cope with, however, but it is a good first step. Making your own rituals and traditions is another positive step toward reducing the sadness. Letting it just happen rather than kicking yourself in the butt is another good technique.

I used to feel sad for the whole six or seven weeks of the fall/winter holidays. My favorite two words were “bah humbug.” Scrooge had some serious holiday depression going on. Changing his current behavior and attitude after connecting with his happier childhood helped him feel better. A story like that could help me and you. A tasty beignet from Café du Monde would help too.

Fortunately my holiday depression doesn’t last long any more. This one afternoon incident might be it for this year.

It’s Crazy

2008-11-28T14:15:00.002-05:00

A stampede of people trampled him to death just inside of the entrance.

Does that sentence refer to a political demonstration gone bad? Restaurant patrons as they flee a burning hotel? A prison riot?

No.

That sentence describes what happened this morning at a Wal-Mart in Long Island, New York as the doors opened at 5:00 A.M. for the beginning of the post-Thanksgiving Day sale. The investigation is not yet complete, but early indications are that a crowd of shoppers rushed the entrance, broke the glass doors, destroyed the metal door frame and crushed a young store employee.

That is just f-ing crazy!

I do understand why hordes of people would arrive for a 5:00 A.M. store opening to get bargains like a 50-inch plasma TV for $798 or popular DVDs for $9 each. Holiday shopping on “Black Friday” is a ritual that has been going on for decades; the prices are great and it’s nice to finish Christmas gift buying in one day, a month ahead of the big day.

But what bargain price justifies the kind of pushing and shoving that damages property and endangers lives? Did the first ten people through the doors take advantage of the $69 sale price on those 10.2 megapixel digital cameras?

Picture from a different store

The young employee who was crushed died at a local hospital an hour after the incident. He was a 34-year-old maintenance worker from a temp agency. A 28-year old woman who is 8 months pregnant was also injured, but she and the baby are doing fine. Early reports indicate that five other shoppers were also injured.

The day after Thanksgiving Day is called Black Friday because that day is typically when retailers reach profitability for the year … the day they ‘go into the black.’ For family and friends of the dead Wal-Mart worker, that term will forever mean something else.

Happy Holidays!

Honey, Have You Seen My Hammer?

2008-11-26T20:04:00.002-05:00

My Dad was quite the handy man and his workshop contained enough tools to supply a Home Depot. Those tools were his. Mom never touched them, nor did she have much interest in them. He had a specific plan for storing his tools and he always knew where each one was.

I have many of those tools myself now, his wish before he died, and I’d like to think those tools and others I acquired myself over the years are mine. I also have a plan for tool storage, but my wife is fairly handy with tools herself and she uses “my” tools all the time. Her plan differs from my plan and I often have to ask for the whereabouts of “my” tools.

So I was quite amused to learn that astronauts lost a bag of tools last week … in space! The bag floated away and is now orbiting the Earth on a path just ahead of the space station the astronauts were working on. In fact, if you look in the right place at the right time, you can see the tool bag’s trek across the night sky.

The contents of the orbiting tool bag? A couple of grease guns, a scraper tool and some large trash bags. The cost? $100,000. For a grease gun and trash bags?! Don’t they know there’s a sale at Home Depot?

By the way, the astronaut who accidentally let go of the bag of tools is somebody’s wife. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper is the lead space walker on this mission and her job is to clean and lubricate a jammed solar panel on the space station. Her husband is a NASA engineer in charge of the equipment used for her training. That means he is in charge of the tools. I guess their tool storage plans aren’t exactly in sync either.

Click for more:

The bag streaks by in the night sky.

The story on Space.com

Track the bag.

Forty Five Years Ago

2008-11-22T23:15:00.002-05:00

For those of who remember that day, it’s hard to believe it was forty-five years ago today. A young, vibrant, inspiring President who promised change (sound familiar) was gunned down in Dallas (hope that never happens to a President again).

Even though I was very young, I remember that Friday like it was yesterday. Today it took a Google search to find any media stories noting this sad anniversary. From my perspective as a fifty-something I can't believe it doesn’t get major coverage, especially on an anniversary ending in five (a number that usually garners memorial almost as much as zero-year anniversaries).

Maybe it is time to forget about John F. Kennedy’s assassination or to just relegate it to the history books and the Jeopardy home edition. If you’re at the leading edge of the baby boom, you were 17 years old that day and remember it well. If you’re a young Boomer, you were a baby and not even old enough to know there was something unusual about your parents crying in front of the television all weekend.

If you are Gen X or younger, the whole thing is something your parents talked about, sort of like my parents talked about the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. You know it is important, but it doesn’t really mean anything to you.

For me, November 22nd is right up there with September 11th as a significant day to remember.

-------

If you’re interested, here are some of today’s stories, memories or commentary:

- Dallas television station report

- Boston Herald column

- Newseum

Here’s an excerpt from the Newseum story which shows how different news coverage was in 1963:

Journalists didn’t have laptops, digital cameras or cell phones four decades ago. But using typewriters, film and land-line telephones, they reported every breaking development — from Parkland Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead, to Love Field, where Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president, to the Texas Theatre, where suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was captured.

Television networks carried nonstop, commercial-free coverage for nearly four days. Two days after the assassination, TV viewers who were tuned to NBC, the only network that carried live coverage of Oswald’s jail transfer, witnessed the first live murder on television when nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot the accused assassin at point-blank range. The following day, more than 93 percent of U.S. TV households watched Kennedy’s funeral.

- The Zapruder film of the actual assassination

And if you’re a TV news geek, watch these two videos. They are part of a series of videos showing uncut CBS television coverage that day as the story was developing. You’ll hear numerous references to “our CBS news correspondent Dan Rather” who was at the hospital but without live TV cameras.

- CBS News coverage segment part 6

- CBS News coverage segment part 7 (the famous scene where Walter Cronkite holds back tears as he reads the ‘official’ announcement of Kennedy’s death is near the end of this clip)

Veteran’s Day

2008-11-11T10:32:00.002-05:00

November 11th is an important day for anyone who has ever served in the military as well as for families of those veterans. We salute all who have worn the uniform, everyone from heroes on the battlefield to the soldiers who provided the most routine of services back home; those who are alive today and those who gave all for their country.

One veteran who holds a special place in my heart is my Dad. Although his enlistment in the Navy near the end of World War II was somewhat reluctant, he proudly served his country. He never saw combat but he certainly saw danger. The ship on which he was a radar tech nearly capsized in a typhoon in the Pacific, and the base where he was stationed in China was surrounded by people who weren’t always convinced that the war had really ended.

November 11th is also significant to my family because Dad died on this date a few years ago.

I don’t talk about this much, but I am also a veteran.

I was in the Army near the end of the Viet Nam war, but my service was totally unremarkable. Most of my time was spent safely in Louisiana and Texas, where I typed letters, moved furniture and swept floors. One enduring memory was the sad look on the faces of soldiers returning from that war; not the sadness of what they had endured but rather the ridicule they faced when they got home from fighting that unpopular war.

Regardless of anyone’s opinion of our current unpopular war, the men and women in uniform deserve respect for their service and fortunately, they usually get it. Those soldiers will be veterans one day and November 11th is their day. And ours.

Where Were They Then?

2008-10-30T22:59:00.008-04:00

Curiosity in the fifty-something world often leads to the question, “where are they now?” But sometimes it’s interesting to see where some boomer celebrities were, say, twenty-five or thirty years ago.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on television tonight. I have never seen this cult classic movie all the way through and until tonight I hadn’t paid much attention to the cast members. While watching it with my wife, I dug through a movie trivia book to answer her question about a cast member and was surprised to learn who was in the movie.

The lead character in Rocky Horror was played by Tim Curry.

I was aware of that and also knew he had a role in The Hunt for Red October starring Sean Connery.

The question that started this information search was about Susan Sarandon. I knew she was in the cast of Rocky Horror but didn’t realize she played a major role.

Here was the surprise. Do you recognize the actor in this scene with Susan Sarandon?

Here is a more recent photo.

It’s Barry Bostwick, known for many roles including that of the Mayor on the popular 1990s TV show Spin City. Rocky Horror was one of his first film roles; he played Brad Majors. His more recent work includes appearances on the television shows Law & Order: SVU and Ugly Betty and he will be in the Hannah Montana movie next year. He is also a regular host and singer on the PBS broadcast of the 4th of July festivities on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC.

Rocky Horror was one of Sarandon’s early movie roles; here is a scene from Thelma and Louise, one of her most memorable films:

All three of these actors have had and still have great acting careers. I wonder if they are ever embarrassed by their earlier roles.

The Peggy Reunion – Accidental Friendships That Last Forever

2008-10-25T14:08:00.003-04:00

How did you meet your closest, longest-lasting friends?

A few weeks ago I had a wonderful, three-hour meal, but it was the company not the food that made it so special. I hadn’t seen Peggy for thirty years. We had a lot of catching up to do.

Peggy is not an old girlfriend, but she is one of the key players in a significant circle of friends that were part of my life at the time I left home three decades ago to chase a dream. Our reminiscing reminded me of how random social connections can be.

For me, Peggy, Melanie, Sherry, John, Tommy and Jeanne formed the core of this group, which probably totaled a couple dozen people. As part of our catching up conversation, Peggy and I tried to remember how the people in this circle met each other. Peggy, Melanie and Sherry met at work. Melanie, Tommy and John lived in the same apartment complex when they first met. I’m not sure how Tommy and Jeanne met, but by the time I met them they were a married couple.

My connection to this group is just as accidental: we met at a pizza parlor. I was a DJ playing oldies in the backroom bar, perhaps the oddest job I’ve ever had, and they discovered me while waiting for pizza one Saturday. They became regulars and we all became friends.

It still amazes me how random and accidental these meetings were and how some of these interconnected friendships continue across time and distance. A little more randomness: Sherry, John and I all left Louisiana within a year of each other, heading for three different parts of the country. Sherry and John both eventually lived in the same part of California, where Sherry introduced him to Kate, his future wife. It turns out both John and Kate grew up in Illinois, they got married there and I made it to the wedding because by that time I was living in that area. Sherry might now be the best connected and organized of us all because she has managed to keep all of us in touch, even though she now lives in Hawaii.

Confused? I’ll spare you the rest.

The point is that some of our best lifelong connections begin accidentally.

Mobility is a boomer-era trend that conspires to separate lifelong friends; we keep moving across the country and around the world. But two boomer-era inventions help keep the connections alive: cell phones and the internet.

It is no accident that I am getting back in touch with old friends – it was a goal I set on my 50th birthday. Maybe it is no accident that after decades of individual personal growth and change, some accidental friendships continue to exist even though the original span of face-to-face friendship time was only a few years.

All philosophy aside, it was great to see Peggy again and to know that she is happy.

Do We Believe Everything We See?

2008-10-23T20:13:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen this photograph?

Is it real or is it Photoshop?

This picture and others like it are often used to make a religious point. Maybe this one is supposed to mean God is on our side. I do not intend to discredit anyone’s religious beliefs, but I want to raise at least a small bit of skepticism. Photos can easily be altered.

The technology is both amazing and scary. That photograph can indicate some kind of sign from the heavens or it can document someone’s very creative photographic manipulation skills.

Have you seen THIS photograph?

Is it real or is it Photoshop?

As we age, shouldn’t we question everything in life? Politics, religion, a car salesman’s claim. Answers to questions may alter beliefs we formed in youth. We might change political parties, religious affiliations or favorite brand of car.

On the other hand, answers to questions might re-confirm earlier beliefs.

Either way, shouldn’t we ask the question?

We can’t always believe everything we see.

Your Last Minute

2008-10-18T13:52:00.002-04:00

Do you ever picture your last minute? Where will you be when you take your final breath? Who is with you? How old are you?

I never really thought about death till my parents died a few years ago. Death was always some future thing. There’s plenty of time to do whatever I want to do. The end is for old people and I’m not old yet.

My parents, on the other hand, seemed to think about it a lot. The evidence isn’t so much in what they said but in how they planned for it. Dad purchased mausoleum space in the 1960s. He didn’t need it for another forty years. Mom moved in four years later.

Twice in my life I’ve witnessed a person’s last minute.

One person was my Dad. He expected death but he occasionally confessed some fear near the end, telling my sister something about seeing “the devil.” In truth, he had nothing to worry about because he had lived a long, by-the-book life, met nearly every goal he ever had and seemed to decide, in a short clearing of the Parkinson’s-related dementia fog, that it was time to go. He took his last breath with his wife and two children watching. His last minute included several smooth breaths assisted by a respirator, followed by two labored snoring-like spurts, then nothing. His eyes were closed. He was at peace, with his family at his side. The only thing that could have made this moment better was if he had been in his own bedroom and not a nursing home.

The other person was a construction worker, probably in his 20s or 30s. I watched in horror from my office window as he got caught in a crane cable, was pulled right off the open edge of the 6th floor construction site along with a steel beam and fell to his death. No plan, no thought, no warning. His last minute included fifty seconds of attaching a cable to a beam and a ten-second screaming freefall to a concrete parking lot. His eyes were probably open. The only thing that could have made that minute better was if it had never happened.

At fifty-something, my days fly by, wonderful friendships fade away; twenty-four hours isn’t nearly enough time to get everything done yet there seems to be no forward momentum in my life. I know I should live like there is no tomorrow because maybe there isn’t one. Yet I tend to do the same thing day in, day out. My job involves constant change but the process is very similar each day. My commute IS the same every day and it sucks, but it is the tradeoff for living where I live. I have many hobbies and interests but only time and money to pursue one at the moment.

Although my parents led relatively interesting lives for their time, they seemed to have fairly basic expectations: raise kids, work, eat, sleep, go to church, clean, putter around the house, retire. Their hobbies were interesting but always optional: Dad repaired watches and built things as a hobby and Mom painted landscapes on canvas.

Many Boomers, on the other hand, expect to lead interesting, full lives. We want jobs to be fulfilling as well as bringing home the bacon. We want interesting hobbies and active retirement that includes a second career doing what we might have always wanted to do but didn’t because we needed the steady job to fund all the other things we wanted in life.

We want to live forever. Death is not an option. St. Pete’s number isn’t in our Rolodex or Outlook.

And with no warning this week, I pictured my Dad’s final minute and wondered what mine would look like.

I tried to imagine Dad’s last minute from his perspective: did he know his family was with him in that room? Did he see us and think “I can go now?” I tried to imagine Mom’s last minute: did she know she was two hundred miles from home at the end of a hurricane evacuation odyssey with no family members in sight? Did she see a nursing home staffer’s face and think, “everyone I know is gone so it’s time for me to go too?”

If my last minute happened today, and my entire life played back in that sixty seconds, I’d be laughing, crying and wondering in amazement how this shy, straight-laced Louisiana Catholic kid born in the 1950s could have lived such an amazing life. But somewhere during that minute, I’d be screaming, “Wait! I’m not done yet! My bucket list is full of unchecked items!”

Sixty seconds? I want sixty more years!

Economic Perspective and a Fifty Cent Haircut

2008-10-07T22:15:00.003-04:00

A good friend sent this to me.

These comments were made in 1955, just 53 years ago. If you’re 50-something, you might remember hearing your parents saying some of these things:

'I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00.'

'Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2,000 will only buy a used one.'

'If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.'

'Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?'

'If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.'

'When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage.'

'Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail haircuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls.'

'I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL of DAMN in it.'

'I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.'

'Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President.'

'I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now.'

'It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.'

'It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.'

'Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat.'

'I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.'

'Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress.'

'The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.'

'There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.'

'No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood.'

And last, but not least ...

'If they think I'll pay 50 cents for a haircut, forget it.'

Issues or Fear?

2008-10-04T18:01:00.001-04:00

I wonder if character attacks have always been part of politics.

Yesterday, Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin accused Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists.” She was referring to Bill Ayers, a former 1960s radical with whom Obama served on a charity board in the 1990s.

Palin’s source of information about this connection was a recent New York Times article. What she failed to mention is what the article actually said … "A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called 'somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.'"

In other words, in the absence of anything substantive to say about issues, Governor Palin makes up crap about an opponent to scare people. Serving on a charity board with a man whose past actions he detested does not add up to palling around with terrorists.

I could probably find as many reasons to vote against Obama as to vote for him, and none of them would have anything to do with religion, race or age. I think he is at least as ready to lead as anyone else who has become president in my lifetime; so is McCain. Palin is clearly NOT ready to lead.

We might not think much about Vice Presidents when choosing a President, but in my life time two VPs have become President before the end of their President’s term: Lyndon Johnson and Gerald Ford. Two other Presidents in my life time (Ford and Reagan) survived assassination attempts and their VPs could very well have been called on to become President.

Palin said in a speech (her VP acceptance speech?) that if the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance were good enough for the Founding Fathers they’re good enough for her. Uhh, those words were added to the pledge in 1954! She also apparently doesn’t know that the Pledge itself doesn’t go all the way back to the Founding Fathers. Not everybody under 50 knows those two facts, but I expect the potential President to know at least that much about U.S. history, especially when citing those things to make a point about government.

Maybe we should pay more attention to Number Two than we usually do.

I wonder if Palin knows how to spell potato.

Paul Newman Died

2008-09-27T16:12:00.004-04:00

You could say Paul Newman was a guy who aged successfully.

He is most well-known for an acting career that spanned more than 50 years. Many of his movies are classics, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, The Color of Money (playing an older version of the same character), The Sting, The Verdict and Cool Hand Luke (my favorite). His voice was heard as the Doc Hudson character in Cars.

As he grew older, he also was a winning race car driver (till age 81)and his big smile and blue eyes grace the labels on a line of food products that not only raise money for worthy causes but taste good too.

More than a month ago he knew his time was short and he told his family he wanted to die at home. Yesterday, cancer killed him at age 83.

He is gone but his movies and sincerity will live on.

Another Knight? You’re Kidding, Right?

2008-09-25T23:39:00.005-04:00

Blame this on more Boomer nostalgia or a Gen Y lack of creativity. Either way, it’s a Wednesday night TV time waster that won’t last a whole season.

NBC has a new version of Knight Rider, the 1982-1986 show with a “plucked-from-near-death and given a new identity” crime fighter Michael Knight who partners with futuristic tools like a computer-driven talking Trans-Am called KITT.

What’s the good news/bad news about the new version?

First, the bad. It’s even less believable than the original series. In one scene, the car turns into a truck … do they have to pay royalties to the Transformers creators for this idea? A car that can drive itself? In another generation, that fantasy will be reality – we’re almost there now. A talking car with personality? The original KITT was much more entertaining than the new one; in fact the original KITT (voiced by William Daniels, the same actor who played Dr. Mark Craig on St. Elsewhere) was much more entertaining than the original human star (played by David Hasselhoff).

The good news? KITT is now a Mustang.

That’s it. There is no other good news. And if you’re on the TransAm/Camaro side of that classic car debate, this isn’t good news. For me, it’s great. I always preferred Mustangs.

Does someone at NBC really think this show will last? Or is it just something to fill time on Wednesday nights before Deal or No Deal? Do they think this will create some fond memories for those of us who watched the original Knight Rider? It never was a great show, but it was entertaining. Is it for kids? Probably not, because in the 5-minute scene I endured, the lead villain that Michael is chasing cuts off the thumb of her passenger. For teens? Maybe; the lead villain is a hottie!

If 30-somethings at the networks are trying to snag Boomer viewers with nostalgia, don’t just copy the details. The thing that made KITT so interesting in the original wasn’t that it was a talking car; it was because KITT was sarcastic, naïve and funny, which are unexpected characteristics in computer-based language software. You could almost call KITT a role model for the Terminator or Star Trek’s Data – humanoids trying hard to pass for human. The new KITT is just a dry voice (played, by the way, by Val Kilmer).

If you’re a conspiracy theorist, you might wonder if the producers of the new Knight Rider also produce the shows that play in that time slot on CBS and ABC. It might have been their worst idea, so they convinced NBC to take it so their other shows would do well. Just a thought. A stupid thought perhaps, but not any, uhh, stupider than the show itself.

----------------------------------
Here’s another review of the show

It’s Coming

2008-09-17T23:35:00.001-04:00

Tick tick tick tick

It’s coming!

Tick tick tick tick

Nothing can stop it!

Tick tick tick tick

The signs are all there: earlier sunsets, nippy nights.

Tick tick tick tick

School busses …
Tick tick tick tick… and that sinking feeling I used to have on the first day of school and still have for a brief moment at this time each year when I first see school busses on the streets.

Tick tick tick tick

Nothing you or I can do will stop it.

Tick tick tick tick

At that precise moment, it will begin, silently, unobtrusively, with no measurable change from the moment before it happens. On Monday or Tuesday, depending where you live, it will arrive … fall, autumn, the autumn equinox, the day when night and day are exactly the same length.

I’m not ready for the coming darkness, the earlier sunsets, the higher heating bills. But I am ready for the cooler temperatures we’re already having in Maryland and for the fall color palette.

Tick tick tick tick

Yep, it’s coming.

Glory In The Flower

2008-09-10T23:35:00.001-04:00

I love poetry, I write poetry, I know virtually nothing about poetry.

I can’t recite poetry from memory, not even my own poetry. The only poets I ever really paid attention to in school were Carl Sandburg and e e cummings, although I know I’ve been exposed to everyone from Longfellow to Thoreau to Langston Hughes.

But tonight I heard an amazing excerpt from something written by William Wordsworth. I’ll tell you where I heard it in a moment.

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.

These words were spoken by a character during the final scene of a TV show called Criminal Minds. One of the plot lines running through this episode involved grief and loss. Hearing poetry on a television program is a surprise. Hearing something as eloquent as this, something that resonates so well with anyone who has ever dealt with loss, is beyond surprise.

Mild Writer's Block

2008-09-09T08:25:00.002-04:00

I promise I will write about something other than hurricanes soon.

There are several fifty-something issues floating around in my head ...
- changes in TV viewing (some of this decade's most talked-about shows like Sex In The City and The Sopranos never aired on the 'big three' ABC, CBS or NBC)
- generational workplace differences (boomers like process, twentysomethings live totally in the moment with no apparant thought about the next moment or the previous moment)
- cars almost drive themselves (everything from automatic traction control to that bell that yells at me when I don't buckle up, even though I'm only in my driveway)
- why do I need a home phone when everyone calls me on the phone in my pocket?
- do men really buy that hair color product that specifically covers only some of the gray?

Burning questions about aging, right?

I have a lot to say about all of that and other topics, but the words just aren't connecting with the keyboard this week. Maybe I should just speak my thoughts, record them and transcribe them.

More later.

The Hurricanes Keep Coming

2008-09-05T21:22:00.002-04:00

Last weekend it was Gustav in New Orleans. This weekend it's Hanna on the East Coast.

I bet the odds makers in Vegas are busy betting on Ike.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a little obsessed with hurricanes. I've been near them and in them and even ran away from a few of them. Most of my hurricane experience came from growing up in New Orleans, but I've also evacuated from a hurricane in coastal North Carolina and have been drenched by two since moving to Maryland.

Tomorrow morning I actually get to be one of the people on the radio dissemminating storm information. Fortunately I'll be home before the worst of the rain and wind gets here.

I have both fear and respect for hurricanes. In my youth I almost liked the adventure involved with getting ready for them. Not so much any more.

Jerry Lewis and Hurricanes

2008-09-01T10:23:00.002-04:00

Today I was thinking back to some family traditions from my youth. One was the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon. I can still clearly picture the regular family gathering at Aunt Catherine’s house, with cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma watching the telethon. I hear the sound of Jerry’s whiney but sincere voice pleading for donations, punctuated by occasional snoring from Dad or Uncle Denny during their post-meal snooze in front of the television. The entertainment on the telethon was incredible and because there were only three TV station choices, it was hard to ignore or forget the telethon.

I thought about this as I surfed past the telethon today. It is now merely one of nearly 100 program choices and I don’t recognize one single entertainer. I’m happy to see that they still can raise significant amounts of money for this great cause, even though the event is no longer a significant part of Labor Day weekend.

Hurricanes are another part of family tradition that is on my mind today. Because our neighborhood was vulnerable, we would usually evacuate to Aunt Catherine’s house when hurricanes approached New Orleans. She lived on slightly higher ground in a suburban neighborhood that was less likely to flood. My mental picture is of Mom, Dad, aunts, uncles, cousins and Grandma sitting around the huge dining table playing dominoes or cards till the power went out.

I still hear the sound of local TV meteorologist Nash Roberts in the background talking about wind speed and barometric pressure. He first appeared on TV in New Orleans in 1948, when there was only one TV station, and he was the first full time TV weatherman in the South to use radar on television weather reports.

He always warned of a specific hurricane path that could flood the city. Long after he retired, a hurricane named Katrina took that exact path, and for the first time in his life, he evacuated. He is still alive (age 90) and still well-known to baby boomers from New Orleans. (Click here to read or watch a recent interview with him)

So this Labor Day, from the safety of my Maryland home, I’m watching TV coverage of a hurricane moving in on the New Orleans area. My viewing choices include the traditional networks from my youth (NBC, CBS and ABC), several news networks (CNN, MSNBC, Fox) and something no one could have imagined in the 1960s – The Weather Channel. And I can even watch live coverage from New Orleans TV stations on the internet.

I guess some traditions never die.

Three Years Later and Another One’s Coming

2008-08-27T18:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating attack on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. This is a weekend to remember but definitely not one for celebration.

Katrina is personal to me because I grew up in New Orleans and much of my family still lives there. An artist cousin lost a lifetime of his work to the flood and my sister lost most of her belongings, including a lifetime of family photos. At least her house survived, the house we grew up in, and she was finally able to return to a rehabbed version of the Dad-built structure this year.

Mom wasn’t so lucky. She died shortly after a stressful evacuation from the nursing home where she lived for her last four years. Her health wasn’t very good at the time and she might have died that day even without Katrina, but that doesn’t make us feel any better.

My sister's house in Oct. 2005, after the 1st day of cleanup

New Orleans is still a broken city. The tourist areas have recovered and those parts of town suffered less damage to begin with. However, many parts of town still look like they did right after the water receded. My sister’s neighborhood is slowly coming back, but vacant lots dot as much as a third of each block; houses that couldn’t be repaired were torn down, a sad but safe alternative to leaving them there in moldy squalor.

And now another hurricane is threatens New Orleans.

Same house in April 2007, part way through rehab. Note the vacant lots on either side

Some people wonder why anyone would live in an island-like city that sits three feet below sea level. I often wonder that myself, as I sit here perched on high ground thirteen hundred miles away. But if you grow up there, or spend extended time in the “city that care forgot,” you understand the attraction and comprehend the risk. San Francisco has earthquakes, Nashville has tornadoes, Chicago has blizzards; no place is totally free from natural disasters.

So this week the cycle begins again: watch the weather forecast, say some prayers, hope that places like New Orleans just get a little rain and wind. And if you live along the Gulf Coast, pack your “ready kit” and fill up the gas tank.

Looks Good

2008-08-19T08:41:00.000-04:00

Have you ever heard (or said) the words “she looks good for her age”?

A sentence like that is often spoken in reference to famous women over 50. If you are a woman (or man), famous or not, does it annoy you when someone says that? What if a fifty-something person looks good without that qualifier? Can’t someone just look good regardless of age?

I recently met a fairly famous fifty-four-year-old who looks good. Period! Without qualification or reservation. Remember the Mandrell sisters of music and TV fame, especially in the 1980s? This is Louise Mandrell, the middle sister.

She visited one of my radio shows recently to talk up a Christmas season show she is putting on in Nashville this year.

And she looks good. Great, in fact! Age has nothing to do with it.
By the way, she is also talented, friendly and fun.

Pop Queen Turns Fifty

2008-08-16T00:23:00.004-04:00

Even by today’s definition of fifty, Madonna doesn’t look fifty. But today, August 16, 2008, is her 50th birthday.

Called The Queen of Pop by some, she has been making hit songs since the 1980s, with twelve of them reaching Number One, and she has sold more than 63 million albums. Madonna was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year. In addition, she has been in more than twenty movies. Some sources say she is worth $400 million.

This was her look in 1985:

And she is still recording. One of her hits this year is “Four Minutes,” a duet with the 27-year-old Justin Timberlake. She holds her own vocally and visually. Here is a video of the song:

Happy birthday Madonna Louise Ciccone from Bay City, Michigan.

Boomerandomness 5

2008-08-07T22:59:00.001-04:00

Here are a few random musings:

- XM Satellite Radio has a channel called Fred. And another called Ethel. I just got that. Doh!

- The price at my neighborhood BP station is down to $3.79/gallon tonight. Woohoo!

- “Did you really think the lane wasn’t going to end in ½ mile? 1500 feet? 1000 feet? 500 feet?! NOW!?!?” HONK!!! “Jerk!”

- What if you never bought an iPhone or a Blackberry? Would it matter?

- Do you remember when power steering, power brakes, power windows and air conditioning were expensive options on a car and not standard equipment? Do you remember a manual transmission shifter on the steering column and not the floor? Geez, you must be as old as I am.

- Do you remember when each candidate wasn’t chosen until during the convention? And this year do you sometimes wish they’d just skip the conventions and go right to the election?

- Thunderstorms can be mean and dangerous. But the sunset after a thunderstorm can be incredibly beautiful.

Why Being 50 Is Good

2008-08-02T00:15:00.002-04:00

The AARP Newsletter I read on my computer includes an article this week called “50 Reasons to Love Being 50.” I’m sure if I thought about it for awhile, I could find an equal number of reasons for hating this age, but I’ll save that for another post (or for a post that I’ll write but never share).

Their reason #36 is close to being my #1 … “we’re living longer.” The average American born in 1900 didn’t even make it to age 50. My parents, who were both born in the first quarter of the last century, beat the odds by making it to their 80s (Dad) and 90s (Mom). If genetics is a predictor, I’ve got a lot of time left. Even just going with the odds, someone who is 50 today will live to be at least 80, according to this article. I’m shooting for 100.

The article also says that love, sex and confidence are better, our brain is more efficient and we are less neurotic than we used to be (well, I don’t know about that last one).

But for me, the most important part of their article only ranks in the 30s on their list: “we are powerful.”

Here are the statistics that back this up (quoting reasons 30 – 35 of their 50):
- 41 percent of American adults are over 50, the highest percentage in U.S. history.
- 80 percent of Congress is over 50.
- Half of the Americans who voted in the 2006 elections were 50+.
- People over 55 own 77 percent of all financial assets in the United States.
- 50+ adults account for 45 percent of U.S. consumer spending, or $2.1 trillion per year.
- By 2011 the American 50+ population will surpass the 100 million mark.

So there you have it. Just when I thought 20 and 30 year olds were taking over, this article backs up the assertion I’ve made since I started this blog two years ago: Boomers rule the world!

To my twentysomething and thirtysomething friends and readers – you are welcome to have the world, eventually. For now it’s still ours. The good news for all is that some of the idealism we had when we were 20 and 30 will actually become reality when you’re in charge. The bad news is that it might take that long because we can’t seem to make it happen. For example, caring for the environment.

If you get a chance, read the article. Number 10 is embarrassingly cool, as are #s 8 and 14.

I’ll close this by quoting #48, which they’ve quoted from Maggie Friede of Quincy, Massachusetts: “Happiness no longer seems like an unobtainable goal—it can reside in a superb cup of coffee.”

Perspective

2008-07-29T22:09:00.002-04:00

I haven't had much to say for a week, but I didn't want this blog to go dormant. So tonight I did what I usually do in this case: I dug through old posts in search of repeatables.

And I found this brief post from September 8, 2006:

Gas is only $2.75/gallon today! Woohoo!

I can't believe I'm doing mental hi-fives at the Exxon because gas is ONLY 2.75!! I'm happy the price is going down. I paid $3.09 per gallon at this same station just 2 months ago. I've paid as much as $3.59, shortly after Katrina.

But even $2.75 seems high. Only 20 years ago we were horrified that the price had crossed the dollar-a-gallon line.

So just two years ago, I noted that the highest I had paid for gas had been $3.59. Tonight I paid $3.96 at the same Exxon station that inspired the old post and thought: woohoo! - it's below $4 again.

Perspective!

One Small Barely-remembered Step For Man …

2008-07-20T18:40:00.001-04:00

Today, July 20, 2008, is the 39th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon.

Space geek kids of the 1960s like me make note of this date every year. The total absence of any mention of this anniversary in today’s Washington Post tells me that my claim that Boomers run the world might be in error. A quick scan of NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, MSNBC and CNN backs up my observation that this scientific and cultural milestone isn’t considered news any more. (It is possible that one or more of those news networks might have mentioned it, but I haven’t seen any mention).

Two days before this momentous event in 1969, three thirty-something men were launched into space while the whole world watched on live television. There were no 24-hour news networks then, just three networks that still exist (NBC, ABC and CBS). All three pre-empted their soap operas and aired the launch live, with reporting and commentary by their star anchors, most notably CBS’s Walter Cronkite.

The only “moon” story on cbsnews.com today is about Rev. Moon’s injury in a helicopter crash. The next closest Apollo 11 story is from two days ago; it is about a piece of the spacecraft being donated to a museum. A search of abcnews.com shows no story today and just some passing reference to Apollo 11 in a story about the bald eagle. I couldn’t find anything current on NBC sites either.

Wired.com did something on it a few days ago on the anniversary of the launch. Their story is mostly about Michael Collins, the “forgotten” astronaut on that mission; he’s the one who circled the moon in the orbiter while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took small steps for man and giant leaps for mankind on the grey, sandy lunar surface.

In my opinion, those first steps were an event that changed the world. Apollo 11 redirected in a positive way how we as Americans felt about ourselves and how the rest of the world looked at us. The successful voyage there and back was the culmination of a dream spelled out by a dynamic president years earlier, even though he didn’t live to see it happen. July 20th is a date that should be filled with celebrations every year. Maybe someone will notice next year on the 40th anniversary; our culture tends to acknowledge zero year anniversaries.

At 10:56pm tonight, the exact moment when Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface and said “it’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” I’ll drink a toast to the event as I continue looking for the pictures I took of our TV as those moments were broadcast live. They’re around here somewhere.

--------------------------------------------
Here is more information about Apollo 11:

Astronautix
Space.dom
NASA

Geezin’ Tonight

2008-07-15T23:24:00.002-04:00

I do a pretty damn good job of masking my age. If I didn’t talk about this blog to friends, they’d never know I’m even 50 yet, much less … well, you know. And I’m proud to say I’m not locked into or stuck in any era. My attitudes, music tastes, etc. run the full spectrum from then till now.

But after listening to country music all day at work and 30 minutes of alternative rock on during my ride home tonight, I surfed to the 60s channel on XM for a few moments of age-appropriate nostalgia.

And there it was …

Duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh; duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh …

That heartbeat paced jammin’ bass and organ line starts … Duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh; duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh … climbing the scale, the bass drum and snare kicking underneath.

Four bars in, that 60’s guitar soars in on top with the organ melody behind it, with the ever-present Duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh; duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh folding into a staccato drum bridge to Eric Burdon’s soulful voice:

When you complain and criticize
I feel I’m nothing in your eyes
It makes me feel like giving up
Because my best just ain’t good enough
Girl I want to provide for you
And do all of the things that you want me too

Oooooh oh no don’t bring me dowwwnn!!

By now I’ve cranked the sound as loud as I can stand it while driving, singing at the top of my lungs, cruisin’ somewhere between I-70 and high school.

Some music really sounds dated as the years unfold, but this song is just as cool to my fifty-something ears as it was in 1966. Hit ‘play’ below and tell me what you think, especially if you're thirtysomething and have never heard the song before.

... duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh; duh DUHH duh, duh DUHH duh …

News and Age

2008-07-12T11:03:00.004-04:00

Do you watch the news on TV? Do you read a newspaper daily? Weekly? At all? Do you listen to a newscast on the radio? How old are you?

If you’re over 50 you might remember when an average midsize city had three television stations and two newspapers. Add in news headlines on the radio and you get maybe ten news sources.

In some families like mine, watching the news was a daily ritual. The local news was part of dinner time, followed by national news delivered by Huntley, Brinkley or Cronkite. And at some point in my youth, there were two daily papers. Mom read both, daily.

Now with cable television and the internet, we have hundreds, maybe thousands of news sources, with the potential for timely updates 24 hours a day. Does anyone still use TV or newspapers as a source for what is going on? And is the source age-specific?

My impression is that younger people don’t care much about news (by news, I mean something other than the latest on Britney’s sister’s baby), and when they do care, they hit the internet for the details. I also assume older people care more about news but choose newspapers or TV for the stories. But I might be wrong about some of those assumptions.

A recent online AARP article says that “Forty-two percent of users 50 and older check the Internet for news daily or several times a day, compared to 18 percent of users under 20.”

Note that I’m over 50 and saw that story on the internet.

Keeping up with the news is still a habit for me and I still like turning pages with ink-stained hands. But I only buy a newspaper about two or three times a month. My main news source is television, followed closely by the internet. Most 20-somethings I know don’t care about the news no matter what the source, even though the same 20-somethings regularly use the internet on their cell phones and use texting constantly to spread the news within their own personal community.

Any thoughts on this from your perspective?

---------------------------------
P.S. - I picked up a paper twice this week. A friend was profiled in a local daily paper and I was profiled in a local weekly. Both stories also appear online and I saw the online versions first. Both stories got much bigger play in the print versions; hers was front page in the Food section with several more photographs and mine was on the front page of the paper. And both stories were about blogs. Slow news week out here in the boonies I guess.

This Made Me Laugh

2008-07-07T22:12:00.001-04:00

This message is on a baseball cap advertised on a Boomer web site:

What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it’s all about?

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-03T22:24:00.006-04:00

This is a slight rewrite from something I posted two years ago. I still feel this way.

There is a great song by the country-rock duo Montgomery Gentry called “My Town,” which celebrates small town life in America. Their town is in the middle of Kentucky (Lebanon, population 5700).

My wife and I live near a small Maryland town (pop. 3500), less than 50 miles from the Capital of the Free World. As I watch Independence Day fireworks shows from a park in my town each year, I think of the lyrics in the song.

There's a "For Sale" sign on a big old rusty tractor.
You can't miss it, it's the first thing that you see.
Just up the road, a pale-blue water tower,
With "I Love Jenny" painted in bright green.
Hey, that's my Uncle Bill, there by the courthouse.
He'll be lowerin' the flag when the sun goes down.
And this is my town.

The story continues with images of a closed mill, a diner, and the crowds at church on Sunday. Life goes on, the kids grow up and have babies of their own. The storyteller buys the rusty tractor, paints it and proudly shows it off in his front yard. When you hear the song, you can picture the scene and recognize it as a part of the mosaic of lifestyles we celebrate every year on the 4th of July.

The Washington DC suburbs are slowly beginning to invade my small town, but the mentality is still more rural than urban. Many of the families watching the fireworks in the park each year are the children or grandchildren of farmers. The crowd in the park numbers in the hundreds rather than the tens of thousands who witness the rockets’ red glare on the Mall in DC, but they are no less enthusiastic as they watch the modest fireworks show.

Even though I’ve been a city/suburb kid most of my life, I have grown to enjoy small town Independence Day celebrations with their red, white and blue saturation of the senses. Each year I experience the sound of a local country band, the scent of barbeque, the taste of home-made ice cream and the thrill of the grand finale: the fireworks show.

The rockets’ red glare! It doesn’t get more all-American than this.

Although I’m relatively private in how I show my patriotism, soaking in a small town 4th of July connects me with those things that make me proud to be an American. I encourage you to seek out a similar experience near where you live.

Happy Independence Day!!

A Fun Time-Waster Survey

2008-07-02T09:36:00.000-04:00

I saw this on KJ’s blog a long time ago and have been saving it for a week when I don’t have anything else to say. This week, for example. Answer these questions on your blog and let us know where they are. Here are my answers.

If you could get a brand new car for free what kind would it be?
Acura TL 3.2

Have you ever lived in a trailer?
No

What is your favorite talk show?
Ellen

If you could be another race would you?
probably not

What did you last color with a crayon?
can't remember

What is on your bed?
two of my dogs, snoozing on the lighthouse-themed comforter

What is your favorite thing to drink when you first wake up?
coffee

What is your favorite brand of shoes?
Rockport

Have you ever been to jail?
no

Have you ever caught some one in a lie?
yes

Have you ever flirted with a cop just to get out of a ticket?
This must have been written for women to answer. If I flirted with any of the cops I’ve met, they’d shoot me.

What do you think about clothes with polka-dots?
looks like a Target commercial

When you see a WAY overweight person does it gross you out?
I feel bad for them

Do you like to drink beer?
Sometimes

Ever broken your cell phone?
no

Do you rather write with a pen or pencil?
a roller ball pen

If you could have 1 thing for free right now what would it be?
round trip airline tickets for two to Hawaii

When is your birthday?
early in the year

What is your favorite color?
depends on what it’s on, but often it’s red

What do you do for a living?
make radio commercials

Where are you from?
New Orleans

What's your favorite food?
Chinese or Italian

Do you like snowy weather?
sometimes.

How often do you watch the news?
Daily

Do you prefer coffee or cappuccino?
Coffee.

Have you ever cheated on a test?
a few times in high school.

Are you on a diet?
not officially.

Have you ever had braces?
Yes, in my 40s

Have you ever had a root canal?
No.

Do you have a good memory?
I have an annoyingly detailed memory for things relating to cars or first meetings

What is your biggest wish?
to know that something I did helped make someone feel good about themselves

What is your worst fear?
being ignored

Do you like rainbows?
yes

Where is your favorite shopping place?
the internet or an Eddie Bauer Outlet

Where is your favorite vacation place?
Arizona/Utah

Are you scared of the wilderness?
not especially

Have you ever been fired?
yes, more than once

How old were you when you shared your very first kiss?
real kiss? 17, I was a late starter. I made up for lost time later.

Do you like Astrology?
yes

Are you scared of airplanes?
I love airplanes but I’m not a big fan of flying

Do you fear heights or the dark more?
the dark

Do you like junk food?
sadly, yes

Do you believe in God?
sort of, but not the God I was taught about growing up

What's your religion?
Unitarian Universalist

Are you scared of death?
I’m afraid of dying before I’m done all the living I want to do

Are you scared of needles?
I don’t like them at all

Are you paranoid of the police?
No

Do you follow or break rules?
a little of both

Cupcakes or soft baked cookies?
soft baked cookies

OXY SCREAM

2008-06-29T21:18:00.001-04:00

HI, I’M BILLY MAYS FOR OXY SCREAM !!!!

WHEN I WAS A KID, MY MOM NEVER HEARD OF "TIME OUT" AND “USE YOUR INSIDE VOICE.” NOW I’M ALL GROWN UP AND DISCOVERED THAT I REALLY CAN MAKE A LIVING TALKING LIKE THIS!

MOM DID THREATEN TO WASH MY MOUTH OUT WITH SOAP, SO IT’S ONLY NATURAL THAT I END UP YELLING, UHH I MEAN, SELLING CLEANING PRODUCTS!

AND IF YOU ORDER NOW, WE’LL DOUBLE YOUR ORDER!

… AND, I’LL SHUT UP!

… AND MAYBE I’LL WEAR SOMETHING OTHER THAN KHAKI PANTS AND A BLUE SHIRT!

30 About 50

2008-06-26T10:43:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you hear the phrase, “50 is the new 30.” AARP, the organization built for those past 50, prefers to say that 50 is the new 50. In other words, turning 50 is a good thing. It’s a time for looking at life differently, for taking new directions, for starting a new career, or, as in my case, returning to college.

Or to quote their January article on the subject, “it can mean the freedom and confidence to do whatever the heck you want—whether it’s to spend time with family, write children’s books, take to the stage in a corset, or, like Madonna, do all three.”

Here is a list of 30 people or organizations celebrating the big 5-0 this year:

-Madonna (August)
-Prince (June)
-Sharon Stone (March)
-Michelle Pfeiffer (April)
-Ellen DeGeneres (January)
-Prince (June)
-The Daytona 500
-Rice-A-Roni
-the Hula Hoop
-Alec Baldwin (April)
-Jimmy Smits (July)
-The American Express Credit Card
-BankAmericard, now known as Visa
-Alaska as a State
-Deborah Norville (August)
-Shaun Cassidy (September)
-NASA
-Marg Helgenberger (November)
-Jamie Lee Curtis (November)
-Jeff Foxworthy (September)
-NASCAR
-The Grammys (Best Song: Volare by Domenico Modugno; Best Male Vocal Performace: Perry Como, Best Female Performance: Ella Fitzgerald)
-The Jolly Green Giant television ads debut (whose first version scared kids, so they lightened the color and added the ho, ho, ho)
-Kevin Bacon (July),
-Daniel Day-Lewis (April)
-Michael Jackson (August)
-The Chevrolet Impala

-"Look Ma, no cavities"(Crest ad slogan)
-Stereo records
-and last, but not least, AARP

Any surprises? Parts of this list might change your perspective on turning 50, especially if you are in your 30s … or if you’re 49.

The Forecast Tonight: Dark

2008-06-23T21:59:00.002-04:00

Does that title sound familiar? Here is the whole sentence: "The forecast for tonight, dark. Continued dark tonight, turning to partly light in the morning.” The line is from Al Sleet, the hippy dippy weatherman, a bit and character created and performed by the legendary comedian, author and free-speech advocate George Carlin.

Carlin died yesterday at the relatively young age of 71. He wasn’t a Boomer but his humor was central to Boomer life from the 1960s and 70s right up to this day. He was outspoken and painfully, brutally honest in his observational humor. He made you laugh and he made you think. He was funny!

Here are a few of his one-liners:

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

When cheese gets it's picture taken, what does it say?

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

“I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?

George Washington’s brother, Lawrence, was the Uncle of Our Country.

If there is a heaven and he’s doing a show there tonight, he might have to rewrite this one: I'm always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I'm listening to it.

George Carlin was also famous for the “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.” And those words are … not going to be said on this blog. Amazingly, at least five of those words are regularly heard on cable television now, so maybe he opened the door for that to happen.

Here is a clip of one of his best observational pieces. This is actually a 1990 performance of one of his older routines. It is funny because it is so universal.

Sadly, the forecast for his brand of comedy is dark; and I don’t think we’ll see his kind of light shining any time soon.

I Finally Did It

2008-06-21T15:10:00.005-04:00

My vehicle shopping dilema is finally over. In a post last month I speculated that Boomers often choose vehicles that relate in some way to their identity. An additional observation: car buying was often a passionate endeavor. It still is for some people.

Most of my vehicle choices have been practical as well as passionate. I've owned three station wagons, two of them to haul around audio equipment when I was a wedding DJ. I had a sporty luxury car for a few years when perceived status was important to me. I had a Mustang when it was all about fun. I owned a van when I lived on a farm.

The vehicle I've driven for the past six years was an SUV. I wanted a wagon-style 4-wheel drive vehicle for a long time and was able to justify the high price and low gas mileage because it snows a lot around here and I live 42 miles from work. Truth be told, it was a horrible vehicle for such a long commute. And it got 18 miles per gallon, which is a problem as gas prices keep rising.

So last week, after months of agonizing and second-guessing, I traded this:

for this:

... a 2-wheel drive, 4-door sedan. Ugh!

Actually, I love it already. It handles better than every other car I've owned, it is very comfortable, and it should get 28 mpg on the highway. The trunk is large for this size car and the rear seat folds down, adding to the trunk space.

I'm pretty good at rationalizing, aren't I?

Actually, this is exactly the right car for how I use a car at this time in my life. I know I'll miss the Explorer the next time there is a significant snow event, but all things considered, this was a good move.

Two other environmental aspects of this trade: 1) the Explorer had 164,000 miles on it when I sold it, a personal record and a good example of vehicular recycling, and 2) this "new" car is a used car, so I've recycled again. Maybe I'll set another personal mileage record.

A Thousand Tears

2008-06-19T12:57:00.001-04:00

You’ve heard the phrase a picture is worth a thousand words. Is there a picture in your life that led to a thousand tears?

Many images in the 150-plus years of documentary photography have generated strong emotional response.

This famous photo most surely leads you to some kind of reaction:

And this one:

Can you think of a personal picture in your life that has done the same? Perhaps a graduation shot or a wedding picture.

This one picture below on the right caused me to gasp, then to cry:

It is a photo of my childhood home in New Orleans sitting in ten feet of water after Hurricane Katrina.

See the house with the white reflecting roof? Ours is two houses below that. The picture on the left was taken during a routine satellite mapping pass in 2004 or early 2005. The one on the right was specifically commissioned in September, 2005, a week after Katrina, to help survey the flooding.

I call this “our” house because it is still in my family. My sister has been the owner for at least ten years and has lived there for most of that time. She evacuated fifty miles north the day before the storm and learned days later that there was flooding and residents would not be allowed back into the city till the water receded. So she moved into my house in Maryland for six weeks.

We were desperate for news about the Lakeview neighborhood and I spent a lot of time searching the internet for photos. I found many, some as close as a few blocks away. Then one day I found the aerial shots. Till that moment, it just wasn’t real. I discovered I could zoom in, and there it was, the little Dad-built white cottage sitting in water up to its eaves. I literally gasped, then started crying; I was sitting at my desk at work but no one bothered me.

My sister’s initial reaction that night was a bit less emotional. She was in denial at first, thinking that maybe the water wasn’t as high as it looked and maybe there wasn’t as much water inside as there was outside. When we finally returned to the house a month later, we saw firsthand that it was even worse that the picture indicated. The house survived but virtually everything in it was destroyed, partly by the standing water and party by weeks of heat and humidity.

People in the midwest who are experiencing the floods this week understand this kind of loss, maybe more than they ever thought possible. Years from now, pictures will bring them back to this moment in an instant; tears may follow.

It took more than two years for my sister's house to be rehabbed, but that work is done and my sister lives there again. I have pictures of the house taken periodically through the gutting and the rehabbing, but only one picture of the pre-Katrina house, taken just a week before the storm to show off some new landscaping. Those are all emotional photographs in their own right, but for me, this one is still worth a thousand tears.

My Summer Staycation

2008-06-17T10:21:00.004-04:00

Trendy vocabulary is often annoying, but the new buzz word staycation is amazingly timely and accurate.

Because of the high price of gasoline this summer, many Americans are choosing to stay close to home for their vacation. I am one of them.

Spending my vacation at home is nothing new for me, however. I’ve done it several times in the 2000s. Instead of travelling, I work on big house projects and take a break on one or two days to do some local sightseeing. Using a combination of car and subway, I can reach the heart of our Nation’s Capitol in just over an hour. Driving for seventy minutes in another direction and I can explore Ft. McHenry in Baltimore, the grounds over which the rocket’s red glare inspired our National Anthem. A thirty minute drive in one of three other directions will take me to a noteworthy Civil War battlefield.

While I’m around the house this week, I hope to catch up on some landscaping projects and repaint my home office. The most significant item on my list, however, is my plan to replace my aging SUV with a more fuel-efficient vehicle. After that task is done, I can look forward to a future vacation.

Happy Dad’s Day

2008-06-15T01:36:00.001-04:00

Dad prepared my sister and I for a lot of things we would face in life but I don’t think he prepared us for his death. Not the emotional part. Not the loss we would feel.

He died more than six years ago and the loss has faded, but the memory of him springs into my head at the most unusual times, usually when I’m trying to fix something in the house and I’m using the very same tools he used.

He was a quiet man but had a lot of presence. In a group setting, he’d quietly listen and observe in a way that made it seem he wasn’t paying any attention; then out of the blue, he’d say the one thing that became the most significant part of that conversation.

He was the consummate do-it-yourselfer, and not just with little projects. He built the house we grew up in, nearly by himself. That sturdy little cottage in the Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans survived the Hurricane Katrina floods. The contractors who rehabbed it told my sister (who has lived there since right before Dad’s death) that it was built more like a commercial structure than a residence.

This is my favorite picture of Dad. He was just a few years older here than I am now. I like this because it captures his classic look and smile. Parkinson’s disease robbed him of that look many years before he died and this shot takes me back to a better time in his life. We honored his long-standing request for a closed-casket funeral, but we placed a framed 8 x 10 of this photo on the casket. More than once that day we heard someone say, “there’s the Benny we remember.”

Much Too Young

2008-06-13T23:49:00.002-04:00

I’m sure you’ve heard that NBC Meet The Press host Tim Russert died today, at age 58.

Fifty-eight is much too young for death!

This guy was absolutely my favorite TV journalist. I loved his style. I’ll never be in his league as an interviewer, but I tried to think about his amazing composure while doing my own interviews on the radio. He was prepared, confident and very authentic. If you paid a lot of attention, you might know a little about his personal politics, but he never let the personal stuff show in an interview. He asked the tough questions on all sides and was well respected for it.

A couple of things I didn’t know about him till today: he went to Woodstock; he booked some concerts while in school, including one starring a then unknown Bruce Springsteen; he was the longest-running host of Meet The Press (16 years); he was a lawyer, admitted to the bar in New York and DC; he met his wife at a the Democratic National Convention (in 1976).

He died at work, while in a studio recording voiceovers for this week’s Meet The Press.

Sixty

2008-06-12T22:52:00.006-04:00

No, no, no, not me!

Some actors familiar to fifty-somethings, and even 40- and 30-somethings, are turning 60.

Remember the TV show "Leave It To Beaver"? The Beave turns 60 this month.

And remember Bill Cosby's TV wife? Phylicia Rashad also turns 60 this month.

Thanks to Rhea for the monthly reminder that we're all aging. ;-)

Final Approach

2008-06-08T17:17:00.004-04:00

There is an interesting story on the AOL website about companies that don’t exist anymore. Three of the twenty-five companies they profile are airlines.

During the early years of older Boomers, air travel was still a luxury most people couldn’t afford. So many of us didn’t take our first plane flights till we were in our 20s or 30s and some of the iconic airline companies we may have flown then no longer exist.

Pan American World Airways, Pan Am for short, flew from 1927 till 1991. According to the AOL article, their name and logo became synonymous with luxury travel. Boomers might remember Pan Am as the airline of choice for the Beatles in their early days. Sadly, Pan Am is also remembered for a terrorist hijacking in 1986 and the terrorist bombed Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988.

Trans World Airlines was another one of the early airline companies, founded in 1930. For many decades, they seemed to be the only airline. The letters TWA often appear in movies and documentaries.
During the “hostile takeover” era of the mid 80s, they were taken over and reorganized a couple of times. American Airlines eventually picked up what was left of the company and TWA officially ceased operations shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Eastern Airlines was one of the top four airlines at one time. It began as a regional carrier in the 1950s, grew to prominence over the next few decades, then struggled in the 80s and went bankrupt in 1989.

So many airlines are in jeopardy these days that it’s hard to remember which are still in the air. And as you probably know, significant jet fuel price increases have led to staggering air fare increases, which may eventually lead to decreases in passenger numbers. I wonder how many of today’s airliners will still be flying at this time next year.

Old and Young Mindset

2008-06-03T23:23:00.002-04:00

Velvet made a very interesting observation on her blog recently about old and young mindsets. I’d like to expand on it a bit.

She said her husband thanked her for introducing him to new things and keeping him in a younger mindset. She went on to say that many of her peers are set in their ways and “many of them have sort of frozen themselves in the era that they came of age. Why is that?”

I think I know why, or at least part of why.

Several friends and acquaintances, especially the fifty-somethings, seem stuck where they were at the dawn of adulthood. They like the same music and hate the new stuff. They like doing things like they’ve always done them and reject the thought that a new way could be better. They reached many conclusions about life in their twenties and believe that what they knew at that point is all they need to know. It was good enough then so it must be good enough now too. They have little interest in trying new things and often struggle to adapt to changes, regardless of the potential positive value of those changes.

The period just before coming of age is a volatile and memorable time of life and when we survive it, we ultimately feel invincible and bulletproof. Later on, when life throws us its inevitable curves, we seek security in that time when we thought we knew it all.

The paradox is that we look back at a time of constant change in our lives as something solid and secure, forgetting that it was neither. To those who are frozen, I say hit the defrost button.

Velvet also asks, “Shouldn't life continue to be an adventure of discovery?”

My answer is yes! We should embrace many of the changes we face as well as the challenge of change. At the very least we should accept the possibility that change can be good. We should give change a fair shake, even if we ultimately decide to stay the course. In some ways an adventure of discovery can be scary, but it can also feel a lot like our coming of age time; a time when we sought change and believed that anything was possible.

That was a great, exhilarating feeling then; why not feel it now? It’s a matter of mindset.

OK, THIS Makes Me Feel Old

2008-05-27T23:06:00.002-04:00

Here is a headline for a story in a broadcasting industry website I visit daily: Lynyrd Skynyrd Keyboardist Undergoes Hip Replacement Surgery.

You don't even need to hear the details in the story to understand what I mean, do you?

These guys were a big deal in the early days of my radio career. In fact, I was on the air the night their plane crashed in Mississippi in the mid 70s and played nothing but their music all night. Many of the country music singers I now love were influenced by their country-flavored Southern rock sound and many country songs refer to them or their music. The remaining members still play.

But the thought that their keyboard guy had a hip replacement is almost too much to handle. How old are those guys anyway?

$3.89

2008-05-26T13:59:00.003-04:00

I paid $3.89 per gallon for regular this morning. The saddest part is that this amount is below the new national average. The station on the other side of the Interstate was selling regular for $3.98.

My friend at AAA reluctantly says that we shouldn't be surprised if it hits $5 this year.

Are you old enough to remember the gas lines in 1973? There were shortages that year so this is still better. In '73 there were odd day and even day fill up restrictions based on the last digit in the license plate number. In some places, gas stations that were usually open every day were closing one or two days a week.

I hope we don't get to that point.

Another One

2008-05-25T18:42:00.003-04:00

OK, I started another blog.

My new camera has seriously energized my photography passion and for the moment, my two photo blogs are the main outlet for that side of me.

I live near some very photogenic towns, and one of them is the subject of my new blog.

Two Things Meme

2008-05-21T23:54:00.003-04:00

I saw this on a site three months ago and I’m just getting around to posting my version of it. Give me some of your answers in Comments or post your answers on your blog and tell us where it is.

Two names you go by: Bern and Bern Man

Two things you are wearing right now: cargo pants and a sweatshirt

Two things you would want (or have) in a relationship: Love and good conversation

Two of your favorite things to do: Listen to music and photograph landscapes

Two things you want badly now: More time and more time

Two pets you have or have had: Nash and ZeeZee, two of my Border Collies

Two things you did last night: Read an amazing email from my friend in Hawaii and washed clothes

Two things you ate today: cereal and jambalaya

Two things you're doing tomorrow: working and walking on my treadmill

Two longest car rides: If you mean longest stretches without stopping for an overnight stay, Frederick County, Maryland to Chattanooga, Tennessee and Milwaukee to New Orleans.

Two favorite holidays: New Years and Thanksgiving

Two favorite beverages: Coffee and Merlot

Two people no longer alive who you'd like to talk to: Mom and Dad

OK, it’s your turn.

Andrews Air Show

2008-05-17T23:28:00.005-04:00

I love planes. I don't like flying all that much; I just love watching planes.

The annual Joint Services Air Show is this weekend at Andrews Air Force Base near DC. This is the President's airport. Civilians don't usually have access to the base, but one weekend each year, the various branches of the military stage this public event to show off their heritage and their hardware.

This is the 3rd year in a row that I've gone there and the first time with a good camera. You can see a few of the photos I took on my photo blog.

What’s Your Number?

2008-05-16T22:52:00.003-04:00

Do you remember phone numbers? Has your memory of phone numbers changed with technology that stores those numbers?

I used to have a knack for remembering phone numbers. I knew my home number, of course, back when the whole family had just one number. In college, however, I remembered lots of numbers: school, work, a gas station that did repairs, the radio station request line, my girlfriend’s number. I also knew numbers of aunts, grandma, the record store and most of my friends. All of that information was stored in my head.

Later in life, as I needed to recall more phone numbers, I began the habit of writing them on the back on a business card stashed in my wallet. I used a Rolodex at work and carried a pocket-sized address book.

These days I still know my home number, although I rarely call it. But I don’t know the switchboard number at work or any co-worker’s direct dial desk number or cell phone number. I know the radio station’s request line number because I work there and have spoken it on the air thousands of times, but I do not know the special insider number employees use to call the DJ.

I was thinking about this today as I tried to remember my wife’s cell phone number.

I actually don’t know it, even though I call her several times a day. But it doesn’t matter. I don’t have to remember any phone number because every number I need to know is programmed on my cell phone. Several hundred numbers.

This is a huge technological shift, isn’t it?

Here is another change: in the Rolodex days, you looked up a number then punched the digits on the phone. Now you highlight a name on the cell phone screen and press Send.

As the number of numbers we need to know has grown … multiple home land lines, a separate cell number for each family member, friend and business contact … so has the number of numbers in a number, from six in the 1950s to seven for many decades to ten in regions like mine that require the area code for every call.

But we have another techno-change that offsets the additional digits: speed dial.

To reach my sister, press 5. Hit 6 for the boss, 7 for work voice mail; 2 will get me that DJ. My wife? 4.

This could be especially good as aging Boomers experience gradually diminishing memories. Instead of ten numbers per person, we just have to remember the speed dial number. Forget that? Search for a name on the screen. Forget a name? I don’t even want to think about that yet; my number will be up soon enough.

Missed It By THAT Much

2008-05-14T23:02:00.002-04:00

I can’t believe it’s back. All of it. The telephone booth, the red sports car, the theme song, the cone of silence, CONTROL, KAOS, the shoe phone and the sexy never-identified-by-name Agent 99. The phrases that became part of normal conversation, like “missed it by that much” and “would you belieeeve …?”

And of course, the greatest secret agent to ever foil an enemy plot: Maxwell Smart!

Get Smart is back as a movie this time, based on the TV show that ran from 1965 to 1970. Do you remember it? Did you watch it? Did you think it was funny then and you wonder why when you see it now on TV Land?

It stars the ubiquitous Steve Carell (The Forty Year Old Virgin, The Office, Bruce Almighty, Dan In Real Life), who seems to be in front of a camera almost as much as Ryan Seacrest and Rachel Ray.

I wonder of this silly, but memorable and legendary television program has been brought to the big screen by Boomers trying to capitalize on Boomer nostalgia or by Gen-Xers who think Boomers will actually pay money to sit through 100 minutes of Boomer nostalgia. Either way, it’ll probably work. This could be one of those rare movies that actually draws people over 40. I can name at least one fifty-something who will see it.

Then:

Now:

Lessons From Mom

2008-05-09T22:56:00.002-04:00

I don’t know the original source for this, but I stole it from a co-worker’s web page.

I Owe My Mother
**********************************
1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
'If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.
' Because I said so, that's why.'

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you' re in an accident.'

7. My mother taught me IRONY.
'Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about.'

8 My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
'You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.
'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.'

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.'

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.
'Stop acting like your father!'

15. My mother taught me about ENVY.
'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.
'Just wait until we get home.'

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.
'You are going to get it when you get home!'

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to get stuck that way.'

19. My mother taught me ESP.
'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.
'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.
'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never gr ow up.'

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.
'You're just like your father.'

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'

25. My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Meat

2008-05-06T19:10:00.003-04:00

Fifty-something Boomers certainly remember the menu of our youth. Burgers, steak, pork chops, ham, more burgers. Occasionally Mom cooked chicken (once a week in my house) and fish (on Fridays – we were Catholic), but the main meat staple was good old fashioned American red meat.

Steak with butter-drenched baked potatoes, burgers with mayo and ketchup-coated fries, fried pork chops. Oh wait, I forgot all about bacon with eggs for breakfast. And hot dogs for lunch.

Not so anymore, at least not in my house. My wife is a vegetarian so that means only one person is a meat-eater in our home. And I read a lot of health articles so I have convinced myself that red meat should not be part of my daily diet. Red meat is a rare treat.

This evening I treated myself to a Big Mac.

Not just any meat for me. Noooo. Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun! It has been at least two years since I’ve had one of those. Yummy. Sometimes I cook burgers on the grill at home, but I usually get lean beef and I go easy on the condiments. But that giant, full color, backlit, poster-sized photograph of the Big Mac was too much to resist. Yes, I will have fries with that.

If you know how many calories that adds up to, please don’t tell me. Breakfast was cereal and low fat yogurt (like it is every morning), lunch was a chicken sandwich on whole wheat bread with an apple for a snack. I deserved a break today.

$3.69 Per Gallon Today

2008-05-05T22:12:00.002-04:00

I don’t really have to write the rest of this post, do I? The title just about says it all. I paid $3.45 at this same gas station less than two weeks ago.

As high as these record-setting gasoline prices are, people in some other parts of the world might be laughing at our reaction. According to CNN Money, gas in the UK, for example, is the equivalent of $8 a gallon. Rulers of a few oil-producing countries might be laughing at us for other reasons. Gas in Saudi Arabia and Iran sells for 50 cents a gallon or less; it’s only 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela.

These gas price comparisons aren’t perfect, of course, and the article explains why, but they do illustrate the bottom line: gas costs a whole lot more in some countries and a whole lot less in others, and it’s a lot higher here than it was just last week. Fifty cents a gallon or more than this week last year.

This web site has tips for getting better fuel economy. One of the best ways to save money on gas, however, is to use mass transit. I’m going to take a shot at that again soon.

Songs In Commercials

2008-05-04T21:54:00.000-04:00

It’s been awhile since I pointed out examples of Boomer-related songs in TV commercials. Here are a few I’ve seen recently.

Deep Purple’s “Hush Hush” in a Jaguar ad

Heart’s “Barracuda” in a spot for a Honda minivan

The Who’s “I Can See For Miles” in a Honda car ad

America’s “Horse With No Name” for Kohl’s Department Stores

Davis Bowie’s “Fame” in a Celebrity Cruises commercial

Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” in a Just For Men hair coloring ad.

That last one made me laugh because the product intentionally leaves in some of the gray instead of completely covering it, and because a character in the ad says, “Don’t trust anyone over 90.” The age reference plays off a sentiment from the 1960s that fifty-something Boomers might remember, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.”

Do you think the advertising people who work these songs into the commercials are Boomers who believe the songs will lead Boomer consumers to feel good about these products or are they Gen-Xers with that same idea?

Does Size Really Matter to Boomer Men

2008-05-02T21:41:00.002-04:00

My research and personal experience tells me that there is one part of every man for which size matters. It is something that men often obsess over and sometimes discuss with other men. Men often think if it’s bigger, it will attract women; this is especially true for older men who want to attract younger women. The bigger and bolder and more powerful, the better, if you know what I mean.

Almost every Boomer-age man I know wants to have a bigger … vehicle.

You thought I meant something else, didn’t you?

What we drive is often linked, in our own minds, to our self-esteem, our identity, our sexuality and attractiveness. We want a bigger car or truck with a bigger, more powerful engine and painted in a bright color. Sometimes the middle-age crisis car is a small sporty job, but it’s got a 400-horsepower engine. Maybe it’s an exotic sedan with a huge price tag. Maybe it’s a Hummer.

Where did this attitude come from? My guess is that it developed during the early Boomer muscle car era. Cars like the Pontiac GTO and the Mustang Shelby Cobra dominated the popular culture from the mid 1960s till the gasoline shortages of the early 70s. Of course there were cars with big engines in the 1950s too. Some were custom jobs but others could be purchased right on the showroom floor. During the early days of what we now know as NASCAR, some of the drivers would take the family car right to the track after church on Sunday and compete in regional stock car races. And, of course, Corvette envy spans the decades.

Some fifty-somethings I know have big vehicles. One drives a Cadillac, another has a 700-series BMW, a third drives an F150 pickup for work and a Suburban for pleasure. My ride is an Explorer with a V8 engine.

So what do Boomer men who think vehicle size matters do in today’s world of rapidly rising gas prices? That is my dilemma this month. My Explorer has outlived its usefulness but I can’t decide on its replacement. A few months ago, when gas prices were only $3.20, I was shopping for another 4-wheel drive SUV, like a Honda Pilot, which gets 22mpg highway vs. 18 for my Explorer. As I was pumping $3.69 per gallon gas this evening, the Honda CR-V ahead of me was looking pretty good. It gets close to 30 mph, but it has half the horsepower. And it looks so, well, uhh … small. In reality, a CR-V is only a few inches smaller than an Explorer, but some would say that, uhh, every inch counts.

Ninety percent of my driving consists of a solitary 85-mile a day round trip commute to work. I could probably do it in a Prius or a Mini Cooper. My sense of identity and attractiveness is not usually connected to my car; my previous two vehicles were station wagons, one of which I owned when my wife and I first met. But I just don’t like tiny cars. And I do like to be able to shop at Home Depot or Tractor Supply and throw my purchases in the back. You should have seen us trying to get stall mats into the trunk of a Taurus sedan a few years ago; we forgot we were driving that car and not my wagon that day.

I’ll keep you posted on my vehicle shopping adventure, and if you have a similar dilemma, please share the details.

My conclusion: size may or may not matter, but it is definitely a factor; and like many aging Boomers, I’m trying to accept the idea that quality often trumps quantity.

The Good, The Bad and The Possible

2008-04-29T22:43:00.002-04:00

Do you wonder sometimes if various worlds predicted by fiction writers could actually happen as predicted? Is the technology behind some of these writings good or bad?

George Orwell’s "1984," written in 1948, predicted a totalitarian world in which people underwent 24-hour surveillance. There were cameras everywhere, including in each person’s residence. Big Brother was always watching to make sure people complied with the society’s thought controls. No one could get away with anything because someone was always watching the cameras, ready to report any deviant behavior or attitude.

That book scared me because it seemed that a government entity could actually spy on people in that manner. The technology was fiction then, but is real now. There are cameras everywhere: speed enforcement cameras, theft prevention cameras, traffic cameras that are almost good enough to read license plates and satellite spy cameras than can read something as small as a license tag. There is even a security camera in the hall outside the door to my office.

William Gibson’s "Neuromancer," written in 1984 (really), in some ways was an update. In the world he creates, everything and everyone is connected by a global computer network. The main character is a computer hacker and he and others have a brain-computer interface. By the way, Gibson is the Boomer who coined the term cyberspace.

Worldwide interconnected computer systems are the norm today and the potential exists for every bit of personal information for every single person on the planet to be monitored, by companies, governments or anyone with computer skills. There are prosthetic limbs that can react to brain commands, sort of like a brain-computer interface.

What started me thinking about this? My wife’s Garmin.

GPS devices like Garmin, Tom Tom and OnStar have some amazing capabilities. The global positioning satellites they are connected to can plot a route from our house to a dog show, for example. If we miss a turn, a friendly voice calmly says, “re-calculating” and this plastic thing the size of two decks of cards plots a new course directing us back to our original route. The Garmin also remembers where home is and the locations of the last few dozen places we went. I learned last week that it can also tell us how fast we’re driving. In real time. As accurately as the speedometer.

OnStar, according to their commercials, knows when a car has been in an accident and an OnStar representative can have a live conversation with the driver to determine if medical attention is needed. The driver doesn’t initiate this conversation, an airbag deployment does. I wonder if that representative can listen in on other conversations in the car.

The good: these devices can save lives and keep us from getting lost.

The bad: these devices enable someone to monitor our every move, record every aspect of our daily lives and write us a speeding ticket.

In some ways, the world predicted by Orwell and Gibson has happened.

Does this scare you?

Should we trust and embrace the technology? In the right hands, it can take us on a path to a good life. In the wrong hands, it can take us down a dirt road to destruction.

Re-calculating.

Generic But Interesting Meme

2008-04-23T23:12:00.002-04:00

I stole this meme from one of Ian's blogs. Do this on yours and tell me where it is so we can share.

You're feeling: Uncharacteristically relaxed

To your left: Shelves full of CDs, DVDs, books and carousels full of 35mm slides.

On your mind: Taking photographs.

Last meal included: Rice.

You sometimes find it hard to: Relax and live in the moment

The weather: Incredible today, unusual for April

Something you have a collection of: Coffee mugs.

A smell that cheers you up: Coconut.

A smell that can ruin your mood: Burnt coffee.

How long since you last shaved: Thirteen hours.

The current state of your hair: Short.

The largest item on your desk/workspace (not computer): A 1960-style lamp.

Your skill with chopsticks: So-so.

Which section to head for first in a bookstore: Photography and local interest.

Something you're craving: Ice cream.

Your general thoughts on the presidential race: I can’t wait for the conventions to be behind us so my two favorite candidates stop arguing.

How many times have you been hospitalized this year: Zero.

Favorite place to go for a quiet moment: The far end of my 1-acre back yard.

You've always secretly thought you'd be a good: Salsa dancer

Something that freaks you out a little: How young everybody at work seems to be.

Something you've eaten too much of lately: Snickers.

You have never: been on a horse.

You never want to: stop taking photographs.

Always There

2008-04-19T20:54:00.006-04:00

One thing I like about living so close to Washington DC is that the symbols of our freedom are always there.

Sometimes I walk around the National Mall just to soak in the symbolism and to feel the power. For three years in the early 1990s I actually worked in one of the government buildings and was in downtown DC five days a week. I was on the Mall once as a new President took his oath of office.

My most memorable visit was the Sunday after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Our national symbols had survived attempts to destroy them and I had to be there. I had to see the buildings and the monuments to feel the security they represent. The oddest observation I made of that visit was how quiet it was on The Mall. Airplanes were still grounded, so the only objects in flight were birds and the occasional military jet. There were very few tourists that day. The important thing was that the buildings that are always there were still there.

During a daytrip into DC this morning, I understood for the first time why the National Park Service refers to the National Mall as America's back yard. I saw bikers, hikers and tourists; joggers and protesters; soccer games and picnics. It is one giant, mixed-use neighborhood park shared by people who live a block away and people who live half a world away.

My use of the Mall today was an exercise walk and some photo-taking. At one point I had to laugh at myself because I realized I was sitting on a park bench in front of the White House drinking Starbucks and listening to a Rolling Stones song blasting from a war protester's boom box. I'm pretty sure I never had an experience as unique as this when I lived in Milwaukee.

It’s Right Here

2008-04-17T23:12:00.005-04:00

Do you ever have one of those moments in which you suddenly realize that something you knew about for a long time but thought was some distant thing or place is actually right there in front of you? A Homer Simpson “doh!” moment?

I had one last week.

I’ve lived within an hour-and-a-half of Washington DC for the past twenty years, and relish the fact that I am so close to the heart of much of our country’s history. Good history and regrettable history. History that formed our nation, history that tore us apart and history that put us back together again. Some of my favorite vacations are stay-at-home vacations, during which I take a couple of day-trips into DC to visit museums and historic sites and soak in the magnitude and importance of our Nation’s Capitol. All of that is less than ninety minutes away.

Well, during one such stay-at-home vacation last week, it hit me that the house I’ve lived in for six years is less than a thirty-minute drive from five notable Civil War battle sites: Harper’s Ferry, Gettysburg, Monocacy, South Mountain and Antietam. They are all right here in my back yard.

“Doh!”

Actually I can see South Mountain from my front yard and Antietam, location of the bloodiest single day battle in our history, is right on the other side of the mountain. I bought a new camera during my week off and wanted to test it out on some landscapes; Antietam turned out to be the perfect place.

One of the photos is at the beginning of this post; a few more are on my new photo blog.

I don’t live in the past, but I think studying the past is important to the understanding of our present and can help us navigate our future. We get so caught up in the details of our lives that we often overlook how the present fits into the broader context of past and future. And sometimes we are so busy that we don’t realize that past, present and future converge right here in front of us.

Reliving 1968

2008-04-13T21:53:00.009-04:00

The year 1968 was a volatile, pivotal year in the lives of many Boomers. It was a turning point in American society and a coming-of-age point for youth of the era. Events of that year illustrate a great divide in beliefs and expectations of generations, races and political persuasions.

The hardest part for me to accept is that 1968 was forty years ago.

The latest AARP Magazine features a detailed examination of that year. I know this because I get that magazine. Wow, I just admitted that I’m an AARP member. While I’m temporarily admitting to reality, I’ll acknowledge that I was in high school in 1968, which further adds to the personal significance of that year for me.

Every year contains important milestones, but 1968 seems to have more than its share of historically significant events. Humans orbited the moon for the first time. Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win the U.S. Open and Shirley Chisholm became the first black woman in Congress. 60 Minutes made its debut on TV and Elvis became a Dad. Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April and Presidential candidate Senator Robert Kennedy was killed two months later.

Protesters hit the streets and cities were burning. It felt like the country was coming apart at the seams. And my own generation seemed to be at the heart of the seam-ripping.

I sympathized with demonstrators protesting racial discrimination and the Viet Nam War, but I was afraid of the destruction caused by many of those protests. The military draft scared me; there was a real possibility I would have to fight a war I didn’t believe in. As we were coming of age, so was television news coverage; vivid nightly images of these conflicts added to the fear.

Yet in many ways I felt disconnected from those events. I was busy focusing on first love, the end of high school and driving privileges. And the generational divide in my house led to many intense arguments about everything from dating to race to politics to religion to where I would go to college.

Combine those emotionally charged ingredients, add the heat of raging teen angst, and you get a hell of a memorable gumbo.

Like it or not, Boomers are forced to relive 1968 because of the media attention of a 40-year anniversary; the zero year compels us to place extra emphasis on events we choose to celebrate for the joy they brought us or ignore for their pain. In my case, it does both.

------------------------------
More images and links:

History Channel

A Newsweek article

Pop culture and fashion:

A 3-minute Mustang TV commercial:

Siblings

2008-04-09T13:01:00.004-04:00

Recently Brenda posted some observations about spending time with one of her sisters and posed an interesting question: How do you relate to your siblings?

My sister and I were very close as kids, but as we became adults I often wondered if we were even from the same planet. We haven’t lived in the same state since 1977, so it is no surprise that we developed different tastes, interests and beliefs. She remained in the shadow of our parents through all of those years and I moved away and developed a personality that was sometimes quite alien to them.

Our early influences were certainly the same. We are part of large, middle class Italian and Cajun French families. We grew up Catholic and experienced Catholic school education for twelve years. We spent most holidays with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins.

But our differences are striking. She is still a devout Catholic, I am an occasionally Unitarian Universalist. She can’t stand my favorite Presidential candidate. She never married and I am on my third marriage. She has lived at four addresses during her life; I lost count at twenty five addresses. For some reason my little sister always thought I was the smart one, yet she has a Masters Degree in Education while I’m still working on my Bachelors some three decades later.

One thing that united us as adults was our parents’ aging issues. My sister and I usually agreed on what we had to do to take care of them, right down to the eventual decision to move them into a nursing home.

Then came Hurricane Katrina. She was flooded out of her house and temporarily lived with me and my wife. That is the most contact we had had in almost thirty years and we learned a lot about each other during those six weeks. There are still many differences, but this time it is the similarities that are striking. We are both stubborn and a little judgmental. Our thoughts are organized but our living spaces are messy. We over think everything. We have a similar approach to problem-solving and we are both story-tellers. These are all traits we learned from our parents.

And during this time we became friends. That was the unexpected result of sharing an address for a few weeks. Our parents are both gone now and in many ways all we have is each other. That has brought us closer together. We can laugh at our differences as much as at our similarities.

Another question posed in Brenda’s blog is: Are you more alike or different? Clearly we are more different yet in many important ways, we are very much alike.

The Ultimate Diet

2008-04-07T13:48:00.002-04:00

How many diet plans are there? And how many have you tried? The word diets in a Google search returns 26 million results; that number is 66 million in a Yahoo search.

What’s a dieter to do?

Weight gain is normal for Boomers. And I honestly believe that the only successful way to lose weight is to eat well-balanced, relatively low-fat, modestly low-calorie meals and stick to a basic exercise regimen. At the moment, however, that strategy is not working for me. I only need to drop twenty pounds to get back in the ideal range for my height but so far I’ve lost less than five of those pounds since starting my plan in January; and I gained them all back in March.

There are reviews of 50 different diets on the WebMD site. Some are highly-advertised weight loss plans you have probably heard of, such as Atkins, Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, South Beach and Dr. Phil’s Ultimate Weight Solution. There is even one connected to the Biggest Loser television show. Some less well-known diets include the Fat Smash Diet, the French Women Don’t Get Fat Diet, the Hallelujah Diet, Eat This Not That and the Shangri-La Diet.

But I’ve invented one that is so simple that I’m surprised no one thought of it before. I call it the No Cash Diet.

A thorough analysis of my eating habits this year revealed a serious addiction to the vending machines at work. I’ve even written about this in the past. When I get the 3pm hungries, which happens nearly every day, I grab a few quarters from my desk drawer or a dollar bill from my wallet and head for the nearest vending machine. There are five where I work. I convince myself that the potatoes in potato chips make that choice sorta, kinda healthy. And hey, Snickers bars contain peanuts. That’s healthy, right?

I ran out of quarters during the second half of February and for some reason I had no dollar bills in my wallet for almost three weeks. The machines at work won’t accept fives or tens and I didn’t really want to ask someone to make change. I lost five pounds during February. You do the math: no cash, less weight. Proof that the No Cash Diet works!

The plan is brilliant in its simplicity! If you are a marketing wiz, feel free to steal it. If you’re looking for a diet, try it and let me know your results. I’ll keep you posted on mine.

Sure, I Can Do That Too

2008-04-05T23:33:00.001-04:00

Do you ever feel like this on your job:
You get more work, you figure out a way to handle the volume. Then you get more, and again you figure it out. You love the pace and excitement, but even more importantly, you don’t want your managers to think you’re not a team player. “Sure, I can do that too.”

Your company, like many other companies in this stockholder-driven, monster-profits-no-matter-what world of big business, cuts back the workforce. Not the workload, just the number of people doing the work. Jobs are lost, but the duties performed by those people who were laid off must still be done. And guess who is doing that work? You! On top of the work you were already doing.

This cycle hits Boomers especially hard. We don’t ever want to look like we can’t keep up. We are certainly capable of performing at this level, but many of us question the sanity of this practice. Silently, of course.

Does your job sometimes feel like Lucy and Ethel in this well-known TV show scene?

I love my job; by most measures it’s the best one I’ve ever had. But I barely crack a smile when I see this video. Mostly I picture myself trying to figure out how I can wrap all the candies and keep the job.

One Word Survey

2008-04-01T23:14:00.002-04:00

Here is a one-word meme/survey I saw recently on KJ’s blog (and Kim’s blog).

These are my answers. Do this on yours and tell me where it is.

One Word (or thought)

Yourself: Optimistic

Your Partner: wife

Your Hair: brown

Your Mother: story-teller

Your Father: soft-spoken

Your Favorite Item: coffee cup

Your Dream Last Night: don’t remember

Your Favorite Drink: Coffee

Your Dream Car: Acura TL 3.2

Your Dream Home: ocean view

The Room You Are In: home office

Your Fear: unemployment

Where Do You Want to be in 10 Years: near an ocean or a mountain

Who You Hung Out With Last: Kim and Deena at a concert

What You're Not: Jerk

Muffins: English

One of Your Wish List Items: Nikon D80

Time: not enough

The Last Thing You Did: ate ice cream

What are You Wearing: jeans and a New Orleans Hornets t-shirt

Your Favorite Weather: sunny and 80

Your Favorite Book: The Power Of Optimism by Alan Loy McGinnis

Last Thing You Ate: a salad and some ice cream
Your Life: OK but could be better

Your Mood: flat

Your Best Friends: live too far away

What are You Thinking About Right Now: my future

Your Car: Explorer

Your Summer: is never long enough

Relationship Status: married

What is on Your TV: Cold Case

What is Your Weather Like: windy

When is the Last Time You Laughed: this afternoon, while recording a co-worker’s impersonation of a game show host

OK, your turn.

What’s Wrong With Right?

2008-03-27T21:52:00.001-04:00

Why can’t more people do the right thing instead of the selfish thing or the inconsiderate thing or the politically expedient thing?

For example …

Why don’t more drivers use turn signals to indicate a lane change? Why can’t slow traffic keep right?

Why doesn’t the counter help at McDonalds say “thank you” instead of “here you go?”

When someone says “thank you,” isn’t the proper response “you’re welcome” and not “no problem?”

Two of the three leading Presidential candidates are Boomers and the third is older, so all three are old enough to be familiar with the Mom-based directive, “if you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.” Why can’t these candidates choose one of the obvious alternatives: a) talk about their own strengths instead of saying nasty things about each other or b) shut up?

Why can’t Congress fund infrastructure repair or education instead of a war? Isn’t it our money they’re spending? Don’t we have a say in this?

Why can’t large corporation pay their workers good wages and benefits and not outsource work? Why can’t large corporations accept very high profits instead of obscenely gigantic profits?

Why can’t businesses with automated phone systems provide an easy method for callers to locate a live human to answer questions that can’t be addressed by options 1 through 9?

Why doesn’t everyone toss bottles, cans and paper into the recycle box instead of the trash can?

What’s wrong with just doing the right thing?

Old

2008-03-23T12:13:00.001-04:00

I don’t usually believe in the concept of “OLD,” but I do believe these are kind of funny:

'OLD' IS WHEN... Your sweetie says, 'Let's go upstairs and make love,' and you answer, 'Pick one; I can't do both!'

'OLD' IS WHEN... Your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefoot.

'OLD' IS WHEN... A sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door,

'OLD' IS WHEN... You are cautioned to slow down by the doctor instead of by the police.

'OLD' IS WHEN... 'Getting a little action' means you don't need to take any fiber today.

'OLD' IS WHEN... 'Getting lucky' means you find your car in the parking lot.

'OLD' IS WHEN... An 'all nighter' means not getting up to use the bathroom.

AND

'OLD' IS WHEN... You are not sure these are jokes.

Spring

2008-03-22T14:30:00.003-04:00

Spring is here. In Maryland, that can mean temperature in the 60s one day, in the 30s the next, sunshine one day, flurries the next.

But these little indicators of the season have been fighting their way out of the ground for a week:

There is a 30% chance they will have snow on them tonight, but they will still be there in the morning, as if to say, "Happy Easter!"

Is It Real or Is It …

2008-03-20T22:55:00.004-04:00

Is the economy bad because of economic factors like job cuts, bad loans and inflation? Or is it bad merely because people keep saying it is bad? Or is it really bad at all?

My economy is the best it has been in years, yet I’m afraid to spend a dollar because every time I turn around someone is saying the economy is bad. One of my goals this year was to pay off two remaining non-mortgage debts and I’ve already hit one of those goals; and I should hit the other one by Thanksgiving. But I’m reluctant to replace my paid-for, eight-year-old, gas-guzzling SUV with 150,000 miles on it with a vehicle more suited to my 85-miles-per-day commute because I’m stressed by the thought of applying for a car loan.

Four years of car payments? I can’t do that … the economy is bad!

I had planned a great vacation for the end of April but I cancelled it. Why? Uhh, the economy is bad.

I clip coupons, shop at the outlet mall and bring my lunch to work four days a week. These are all fiscally responsible behaviors, but my main motivation is that … the economy is bad.

I have worked for the same company for sixteen years, yet I’m stressed about losing my job because having a job this long seems to be unusual in this (here it comes) bad economy. I have no reason to believe I’m going to lose my job. In fact, most indicators are quite the opposite, except one (here we go again): the economy is so bad.

How bad is it?

A quick and admittedly superficial internet search shows that the unemployment rate spiked in the mid 1970s, the early 1980s and again in the early 1990s, but generally has held steadily around 6% since 1960. During those spikes, it hit around 10 or 11%. The statistic for last month was 4.8%. Is that bad compared to past years?

Mortgage rates are currently around 6%; my first mortgage, in 1982, was a then typical 12.75%. My current one isn’t so bad, is it?

Certainly if you’re unemployed, carless and facing foreclosure, the economy is bad. If you’re stuck in a job that pays less than you’re worth, your economy is bad. If you live in an inflated housing market like here near DC, you might say the economy is bad. But in those scenarios, is it worse now than a year or two ago, or has it been bad for quite some time?

Food and fuel prices are rising, so maybe the economy really is bad. Or maybe this “bad economy” is just a slump that is exaggerated by overblown media attention? Any thoughts on this?

A Mustache?

2008-03-18T00:30:00.003-04:00

Have you ever listened to a song you’ve heard a hundred times and discover something new in it, something you never noticed before? My big musical discovery tonight: Cream was a blues band, often playing the same three-chord blues I now love so much but always called rock back in the 70s and 60s. Example: Strange Brew.

I also rediscovered the unresolved confusion of the Clapton/Cream song called Swlabr. The lyrics are written in that confusing 1960s psychedelic style, possibly influenced by some popular "substance" from that era.

You've got that rainbow feel,
But the rainbow has a beard.
Running to me a-cryin', when he throws you out.
Running to me a-cryin', on your own again.
You've got that pure feel,
Such good responses,
But the picture has a mustache.

The rainbow has a beard? The picture has a mustache? What?

During the early days of my DJ career, I played that song on the radio many times. I thought I knew something about it but realized tonight that I don’t have a clue. So I did what I always do in these cases: I turned to Google (this post is NOT a commercial – this really is what I do in these cases). My search turned up a site that confirms what I suspected – I’m not alone in my ignorance of the meaning of this otherwise kickass song from the 60s.

I probably didn’t know anything about it then either, although I might have pretended to know so I would sound cool.

And here is Swlabr, in case you've never heard it:

Tonight I’m thoroughly enjoying my “new” knowledge that one of my favorite rock bands from my youth was really a blues band. And even they don't seem to know what some of their songs mean.

To Dream - Revisited

2008-03-08T22:51:00.006-05:00

March 11th is the second anniversary of this blog. As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a famous newspaper columnist. It was a mid-priority dream, something I thought about from time to time but nothing I spent a lot of time pursuing. Funny how when I look back over 209 posts, I see that I have actually become a columnist of sorts. A couple of times a week, I pick a topic, do a little research and then comment on the topic through the eyes of a Baby Boomer. So you could say I've achieved that dream (minus the famous part and there is no paper involved; no compensation either).

I was going to repost my original post, but as I re-read the first five months of posts, I ran across this one. I like this one better; it is the real me, start to finish.

Thanks for visiting.

A blog I recently found mentioned a character I hadn’t thought of for years: Don Quixote. He’s the central figure in Man of La Mancha, a play/musical from the 1960s. The story is set during the Spanish Inquisition and tells of a knight who sets out to right all wrongs and win the heart of a good woman (Dulcinea) as he duels windmills along the way.

Quixote is a dreamer, an idealist, a man on a mission. I am all those things too. My dreams and missions are not as noble or significant as his, but I do identify with him because he has dreams and believes they are important.

Some of my dreams are selfish (career advancement, educational milestones, financial gain). Others are to help total strangers have a better life (some of my radio work).

I call it dreaming. Others sometimes call it goal-setting. I have lived many of my diverse dreams: host a radio show heard around the world, live in several interesting places, fall in love, ride in a helicopter, see the Grand Canyon, walk on a beach totally alone. Many unlived dreams are still on my list: graduate college, visit the Sicilian village of my great grandparents, hike the Bright Angel Trail into the Grand Canyon, write a book, interview John Glenn. And a few of my dreams seem impossible: save a person’s life, walk on the moon.

The point is to continue to dream.

Here’s an interesting coincidence … my elementary school graduation class had a song: “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha. This sounds silly, but I have to admit that I have always been inspired by those lyrics.

To dream ... the impossible dream ...
To fight ... the unbeatable foe ...
To bear ... with unbearable sorrow ...
To run ... where the brave dare not go ...
To right ... the unrightable wrong ...
To love ... pure and chaste from afar ...
To try ... when your arms are too weary ...
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

This is my quest, to follow that star ...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far ...
To fight for the right, without question or pause ...
To be willing to march into Hell, for a Heavenly cause ...

And I know if I'll only be true, to this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie will lie peaceful and calm,
when I'm laid to my rest ...
And the world will be better for this:
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach ... the unreachable star ...

An impossible dream might really be impossible, but I believe that one should dream it anyway. You might not reach the unreachable star, but you could have one hell of a flight trying to get there.

My High School Eunion

2008-03-06T22:31:00.004-05:00

My high school was one of the best in New Orleans but by the time I graduated I had come to hate it. I developed a healthy cynicism during those years, fueled by the irony of a Catholic school with military uniforms and a mandatory Jr. ROTC program. Thou shalt not kill, but let’s train you to kill. The Vietnam war was raging at the time, as were the protests.

I got through high school with my sanity intact, mostly because of three friendships I developed. We were quite different from each other but something unified us. Maybe it was because we weren’t part of the “in” crowd. I don’t even remember how we met. Maybe we sat near each other in class.

Sometimes the four of us did things as a group, sometimes we hung out in pairs. We occasionally spent time with each other’s families. All four of us went on to the same college, but that is where our paths began to split.

In the ensuing years I kept in touch with one of those friends and remain in touch to this day. However, I lost track of the other two for all the decades since … until last week. Out of the blue I received an email from one of them. As part of the ongoing “reconnect with my youth” philosophy I started when I turned 50, I recently posted my email address on the high school website so I would have access to the alumni database. My specific goal was to track down these guys. One of them happened to visit the site shortly after I did this and he found me instead. It turns out the second one married the first one’s sister, so they have definitely been in touch with each other all these years.

And now the internet has enabled the three of us to be in touch and to begin catching up. The fourth friend in this group happens to be the only person I know who does not have email, but I’ll forward information from his regular mail so he can be part of this.

I haven’t been to any of my official high school reunions since the first year and I don’t plan to go to any of them in the future. But I am thrilled to be part of this high school e-union. I’m excited to reconnect with this part of my youth and they seem to be as happy to hear from me as I am to hear from them.

Leaplings

2008-02-28T22:51:00.006-05:00

Maybe the secret to staying young is to celebrate your birthday only once every four years, on the last day of February in a leap year. Did you know there is a word for people born on February 29th? ... leaplings. I didn’t know that until today.

Here are some celebrity leaplings from the past and present:
singer and TV host Dinah Shore

1940s band leader Jimmy Dorsey,

race car driver Mario Andretti,
actor Antonio Sabato, Jr.,
rapper JaRule
actor Dennis Farina,

and the only leapling I’ve ever met, my friend and co-worker Maureen McLain, who celebrates her, uhh, 9th birthday on February 29th this year.

Happy Birthday to all!

A Meme Revisited

2008-02-25T22:52:00.003-05:00

My posting activity has been slow lately because I'm still ridiculously busy. I started to write a few posts but haven't finished them.

Meanwhile, here is a slightly revised meme from about 18 months ago. Tag: you're it. Answer these questions on your blog and tell me where it is.

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Concession stand attendant in a high school gym
2. Car parts warehouse stocker
3. Telemarketer for a home-improvement company (I quit after 2 days)
4. Overnight DJ on a Country Music radio station

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Casablanca
2. Dirty Harry
3. Cool Hand Luke
4. Lethal Weapon

Four places you have lived:
1. Louisiana
2. Wisconsin
3. Texas
4. Maryland

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. The Closer
2. Mad Men
3. Law & Order: CI
4. CSI

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Arizona/Utah
2. The Outer Banks, North Carolina
3. Cancun
4. Jamaica

Four websites you visit daily:
Only four?!?! OK, these and several more ...
1. Blogs ... all of the blogs listed to the right, but especially Merelyme, Velvet's Room, Boomer Chronicles and Ian (who just totally changed his blog).
2. Everything New Orleans
3. Google
4. My job's web site

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Jambalaya
2. Kung Pao Chicken
3. carrot cake
4. ice cream

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Walking on the beach near Sanderling, North Carolina.
2. Watching a sunset at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
3. Sharing a bottle of wine with my friends who live in Kona, Hawaii - at their house, of course.
4. Skipping my exit and continuing west on I-70 till I get to the end.

Four places you'd love to visit:
1. Palermo (Sicily)
2. Banff (Canada)
3. London
4. Montana

Four foods you don't like:
1. Sushi
2. Sushi
3. Sushi
4. Sushi

Thanks for visiting. I appreciate it.

Making a living gets in the way of actually living.

2008-02-17T20:42:00.003-05:00

Tonight I have mentally given up the idea of continuing my return to college. If this feeling continues, I will never get my college degree. For the most part, the lack of a college degree has not held me back from making a good living through my career, but it is frustrating that I never actually got the diploma.

My return has been a noble effort to study and learn history, a subject that I am interest in. It takes time, however to be a student. By time, I mean several hours a week for each credit hour of class. The specific recommendation is two to three hours of additional reading, writing and study for each hour of class. For older students who are out of practice, those numbers are minimums. That adds up to more than twelve hours a week for my one history class, a three credit hour class.

But I also need time for exercise, downtime, conversation with my wife and everything else I want to do in life. An 8-hour-a-day job that is only 8 hours would help, as would a normal person’s commute. I have neither. Last week was even busier than usual at work and one of my commutes was twice the already long amount because of an ice storm. All of that is a mental drain that interferes with the concentration needed to take a college course.

This is so frustrating and depressing, especially because I liked the professor and a couple of my classmates who were also history majors. The worst part of all of this is that at present, making a living gets in the way of actually living.

I will probably get past the mood I’m in tonight and try this college thing one more time, in the fall. That gives me seven or eight months to reprioritize my entire damn life. Wish me luck.

Pay Attention, Then Pick One

2008-02-10T13:20:00.000-05:00

It is interesting, and maybe a little disappointing, to witness the assumptions people make about who will vote for whom. Why do people assume that most African Americans will vote for Barrack Obama because he is African American? Will most women vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman? Did every Mormon vote for Romney, every southerner for Huckabee? Did Joe Lieberman get every Jewish vote when he ran in presidential primaries a few years ago?

People may favor candidates with whom they have something in common, but I hope there is more to a voter’s decision than race, religion, gender or geography.

I am a white, southern-born, former Catholic who now calls the mid-Atlantic region home and sometimes attends Unitarian Universalist services. Who the heck would I vote for is comfort level and affinity were the only criteria?

As Americans, we have the right to choose any candidate. Our choice is individual and private. We do have the right to vote for someone merely because we share skin color, faith, body type or home state but I believe we also have the obligation to dig a little deeper into a future leader’s potential ability to lead when making our choice of who to vote for.

And I strongly believe everyone who can register to vote should register … and vote in every election, even if the choice is based on the lesser of two evils. Every vote does count and not voting, in my opinion, can be worse than voting for a not-so-good candidate. The last election I skipped was in 2000 and it will be the last one I ever miss; because if only one vote-skipper in each precinct in the country who favored my candidate at the time had voted, we would have had a different president for the past eight years.

So please research the candidates (the internet makes it is easier than ever) and then vote in your primary and vote in the general election. Make your voice heard, even if your voice is shouting different names than mine is.

If you live in my neck of the woods, Maryland, Virginia and DC, the primary is this Tuesday, February 12th.

And if your polling place hands out those silly “I Voted” stickers, take one and proudly wear it all day!

We Are Controlling Transmission

2008-02-06T23:33:00.000-05:00

Do you remember the ominous visual effects and the serious announcer voice speaking these words?

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. … For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. … You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.

The effects are laughable now, but The Outer Limits television show was intense at the time, the 1960s; and the possibility that an external force from another planet or another country could take control was a little frightening.

Skip ahead to today’s technology, specifically something called Remote Desktop. With this software, I have the ability to connect to my workplace computer from home or anywhere. So does any IT person in my entire company.

For me, this setup enables me to work from home, with the same access to work files that I have when sitting in my office.

For the IT department, this setup enables them to install software or fix problems on my computer from wherever they happen to be. It also means anyone in the company with my access information can spy on my computer. They have the right to access my computer, by the way, and I have the right to be afraid of potential abuse of that access.

I’m not especially worried about my company, however. But this same Remote Desktop process could be used by hackers, or even the government, to spy on or alter anything on any computer I use. The same thing could happen to you. That possibility scares me a lot more than the 1960s version of The Outer Limits (or the newer seasons of that show that aired on the SciFi Channel a few years ago).

Perhaps we should also be afraid of the content control possibilities of the internet or our televisions.

Should we sit quietly and let anyone control all that we see and hear?

Married, Fifty and Curious

2008-02-04T22:58:00.000-05:00

Here is some self-evaluation, curiosity and thought about dating.

I did well with the ladies during my 30s, but I don’t know why. I am usually the nice guy I seem to be, but my first two wives would probably tell you I was a jerk. I look OK but I don’t turn heads. I’m an average lover; I’ve probably disappointed as often as I’ve pleased. Maybe it was good luck and timing that enabled me to have more than my share of girlfriends then; my career opens lots of doors, although the initial attraction is usually more about what I do than who I am.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be single and searching now that I’m in my 50s. Keep in mind I’m married and not cheating, so this is just hypothetical. Most of the fifty-somethings I know are also married, so they can’t provide much insight into my curiosity. Maybe you can.

In my early dating years, there was a process to dating. Guys asked girls out, opened doors, made most decisions. Guys made the first moves physically, but never more than a kiss on a first date. Double dates were popular (two couples sharing itinerary and transportation) and it was always clear who was with whom that evening.

My impression is that younger people these days go out in groups more than in specific couples, sex is the good night kiss and “friends with benefits” trumps “going steady.” Is this a valid impression?

So what is appropriate and common for fifty-somethings who are dating? Are 50-year old men put off by women who ask them out or who make the first moves physically? Is the “friends with benefits” concept as popular with Boomers as it seems to be with twenty-somethings?

Do our social priorities change because we’re over 50 or because we’re married or because the times change? When my wife and I were dating (I was 40-ish and she was in her 30s), our weekends included movies, restaurants and passion. Note that I wrote this on Saturday night, alone in my home office, watching a movie on the computer while eating delivered pizza. My wife was in her home office at the other end of the house researching something on the internet. Nothing is particularly wrong with our pattern; this scenario just happens to represent our normal Saturday night now and is nothing like when we were dating.

If I was single again, would I spend Saturday nights on the town or would I be home alone? Would I care? Are you single? Do you date? What does “dating” mean in 2008?

If I was sitting in a room with you right now, I might ask for your age, marital status and a description of your social life. If I was feeling particularly inappropriate I’d ask about your sex life. I’m probably older than you so I think I can get away with these questions. Care to comment with some answers?

Zero

2008-02-03T11:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever wondered why zero years are so important in our culture?

We celebrate or dread turning 60 or 50 or even 30. Why is that? As my wife points out each year, on your birthday you are only a day older than you were the day before your birthday. Yet the zero years seem to have great significance.

A co-worker turned 30 last month and was depressed about it for months leading up to that day. Another colleague of mine will celebrate her 40th birthday this summer and she no longer says much about it; she mentioned it a lot when we first met two years ago.

Four or five co-workers who turned 50 during the past few years were happy to acknowledge their birthday but refused to say the number. I felt the same way on my 50th. In fact, on my 50th I had braces on my teeth like a high school kid. No one would have believed it was my 50th birthday.

Walk through a Hallmark store and you’ll see several cards for decade birthdays like 50 or 30, but good luck finding a year-specific card for someone turning 53 or 27.

The 100th anniversary of powered human flight was celebrated in Kitty Hawk, NC with a week-long party in December 2003. A hat from that event inspired this post ...

Next December is the 105th anniversary; who cares? That town might see a couple hundred extra tourists, but that’s it.

In 1976 our country celebrated its 200th birthday. We’ll be 232 next July. Ho hum.

Remember when 1999 became the year 2000? More zeros led to more attention. There were waves of optimism about a new century as well as fears that older computer systems using 99 as the year designation would fail to understand that 00 represented the next year not the previous century. What was on TV as 2008 began? Hanna Montana.

I’m tempted to say that our fascination with zeros has something to do with the metric system, in which everything is divisible by 10. However, while most of the rest of the world measures in liters, meters, centimeters and kilometers, the U.S. counts gallons, yards, inches and miles.

So if you are turning 60, 50, 40, 30 or 20 this year, happy birthday. If you’re 48 on your next birthday, uhh, call me in two years. My birthday was last week, on a day with a zero in it, but I had to really think about the year. No zero … just fifty-something again.

Aging, Driving and the Eye Test

2008-01-27T21:31:00.000-05:00

In our society, driving a car is more than a necessity. Driving is freedom, mobility, status and youth. Many older drivers fear the loss of driving privileges more than injury or illness.

I’m thinking about this today because I just renewed my driver’s license. There has been talk for years about retesting older drivers. Some say drivers over the age of (pick a number – I’ve heard ages as low as 55) should have to take 'on the road' driving tests again, a test most drivers take once, when they get their first license in their teenage years. I’m not sure about any other state, but here in Maryland, the only test one takes to renew a driver’s license is the eye test.

Put your head here, look inside and read line four.

OK, you pass. Sit over there and wait for your number to be called.

I passed? Oh, please! I know I could only clearly see three fourths of the letters on line four. I have been wearing glasses while driving for thirty years, but I always remove them when I take the eye test. I have passed this test in five states, including four or five times in Maryland.

Don’t worry. I can see where I’m going, even without the glasses … in the daylight; less so at night. But I always wear them when driving, even though I don’t legally have to.

But it scares me that I can pass this test. I wonder how many others are OKd to drive without the restriction that requires eye correction. Maybe this is why traffic is so bad around here.

Permission To Be Yourself

2008-01-23T22:41:00.000-05:00

I wrote this before I realized it is my 200th post. It seems all the more appropriate.

Boomers are old enough to be whoever they really are, especially Boomers in the second half of the age range. And we should be damn proud of it!

This is a totally unscientific observation, but I believe that in our society, we spend much of our lives living as someone else, acting out a script written by those who we encounter along the way. Then at some point in our 50s we realize that we can begin to become ourselves - the real person each of us is.

We seem to enter adulthood as the person who our parents think we should be (after we’re done rebelling against that idea). Then we get married and become the person our spouse thinks we should be. This is especially sad because we often show a small part of ourselves during the dating years, then we are expected to always show only that narrow range of our personality.

Through our working life, we strive to be who our bosses want us to be. If we become the boss, we then have to be who both subordinates and superiors expect us to be.

OK, so maybe all of this is mostly my own life experience. However, I can’t believe I’m the only one. I’m sure I read about this behavior process somewhere.

You hear about older mid-life people changing careers from something they just fell into to something they are very passionate about. Many return to school to study what they really wanted to learn. Older Boomers and Seniors are often more vocal about their opinions and are more willing to admit to likes and dislikes, even if expressing those feelings seems out of character to friends, family and co-workers.

Do you see yourself in this? How old are you? Have you tried to just be you and found barricades blocking your path in all directions?

To anyone, at any age, who finds the courage or strength to break free from the expectations of others, I say Bravo! Congratulations for giving yourself permission to be yourself. It is not always easy, but it is worth the attempt. After all these years, I think I am finally becoming me.

Cold, By Any Other Name, Is Still Cold

2008-01-21T09:27:00.000-05:00

Who invented the “wind chill factor?” … that sadistic statistic that tells us what we already know – cold feels damn cold.

The temperature was 6 degrees Farenheit at my house last night. The wind was blowing at 15 mph, which made the wind chill factor -13 degrees. Do I really need to know that six degrees felt like -13?

Can you tell the difference between 6 degrees and -13 degrees? I can’t. Either one can lead to hypothermia in a matter of minutes. If run outside to get something out of my car and fail to wear my heavy coat, I might become a 6-foot tall ice cube.

By the way, according to a couple of websites, Charles Passel and Paul Siple “invented” the wind chill factor during an Antarctic expedition in the 1930 and the weather service started using the tables and charts in the 1970s.

For me, six degrees felt like seventy last night because I stayed inside. It’s a balmy 16 this morning, so I think I’ll go to work now – in my heated car.

Dynasty

2008-01-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

In response to my recent post about candidates Obama and Huckabee, Ian noted that during his entire time as a voter, the President was either a Bush or a Clinton. George Bush was in the White House from 1989 – 1993, followed by Bill Clinton till January, 2001, followed by the first Bush’s son George. If Senator Hillary Clinton is elected our next president, the dual dynasty would continue at least four more years.

Even more remarkable, she could be elected for a second term. By then, perhaps, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush might choose to throw his hat in the ring. In that unlikely, but possible scenario, the United States would have had a Bush or a Clinton as President for thirty-two years; thirty-six years if Jeb served two terms! I wonder if Chelsea Clinton has political ambitions.

This isn’t the first time multiple family members held the country’s highest office. Members of the Adams family were Presidents #2 and #6; two Roosevelts held the office in the first half of the 20th century. In the lifetime of fifty-somethings, three different Kennedy brothers ran for President; one was elected, one was killed during the campaign and the third dropped out but has been a Senator for forty-five years.

Do you think this situation is good or bad? Or does family background have any bearing on a candidate’s qualifications?

And what about race, religion and gender? Back in the 1960s, John Kennedy was ridiculed for being Catholic; and in that era it would have been unthinkable for an African-American to even be a candidate, much less a serious contender. A woman as President? The response to that question could easily have been “stop that silly talk, honey, and make me some dinner.”

Our society has come a long way, even if you only look back through the Bush-Clinton years. The lineup of Presidential candidates at this point in the election cycle is closer to the diversity of our country’s population than at any time in our history. We have more to choose from than just two old, white, Protestant men.

We are closer now than ever to the dream of the man whose birthday we celebrate with a national holiday tomorrow. If Dr. King had lived, do you think he would have run for President?

The Class of ‘08

2008-01-15T22:09:00.000-05:00

Imagine what historians would say when looking back on ’08. The brightly lit ball at Times Square dropped at midnight, starting what could be an exciting, longer-than-usual year (a leap year). It was an election year, occurring in the last months of a two-term Republican who hadn’t actually won the popular vote.

The world changed dramatically during the first years of the new century, especially in the area of technology, with exciting new planes, and communication innovation which brought the world closer together than in the past. The United States military showed its strength around the globe and U.S. citizens believed we were the best at everything.

You thought I was talking about 2008, right?

No. Everything in the first paragraph of this post refers to 1908, courtesy of a major article in the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

The ball drop at Times Square was the first annual New Year’s ball drop (although Dick Clark could very well have been there). The Republican President was Teddy Roosevelt, who was President McKinley’s Vice President and first took office when McKinley was assassinated.

The exciting new plane in 1908 was an updated Wright Flyer, piloted by Orville Wright himself over a field full of spectators near Washington DC. He set a flight record of 75 minutes. Then on the last day of the year, Wilbur Wright set another record, flying over a large crowd in France for more than two hours. The exciting new aviation event this year is regular service using that new jumbo plane that was unveiled last fall.

Communication innovations like the telephone and telegraph were in use by 1908, bringing the world ever closer. Radio wouldn’t come along commercially for another 15 or 20 years. Cell phones and the internet are the contemporary devices that make it possible to communicate with someone in Italy as easily as someone next door.

The year 1908 was also big in the transportation world; Henry Ford started making the Model T that year. Blame him next time you’re stuck in traffic. This year is a year that signals greater acceptance of cars that don’t use gasoline (or gasoline in combination with other fuels).

The U.S. military event of 1908 was a world tour of a whole fleet of navy ships. President Roosevelt thought this would be a good way to show the world that America was the new power player on the block.

What do you think historians will say about our ’08 in a hundred years?

Will someone born this year still be alive in 2108? Longer life spans could make that not just possible, but routine. Will the Smithsonian Magazine, or any magazine, still be printed? Or will citizens a hundred years from now fill their brains with information directly using implanted digital chips, rather than obtaining it using primitive reading methods such as books or computer monitors. Have you ever seen a piece of paper in a Star Trek episode?

A century from now, will there still be fighting in the Middle East, famine in Africa, poverty in the United States? Will the U.S. still be the global superpower?

Will we finally have flying cars and colonies on Mars?

Will a fifty-something in 2108 be looking ahead ten years to their retirement, or will a 50th birthday mean he or she is just getting started with life? Will the phrase “today’s 50 is yesterday’s 20” be the latest rage?

Dark

2008-01-10T22:56:00.000-05:00

It has been officially winter for almost three weeks, but the dreary, depressing part has, as always, been delayed by the bright and cheerful Holidays. Here in Maryland, Mother Nature took an extended vacation for a few days, leaving us with record warm temperatures this week and delaying the inevitable.

But the first real sign of winter isn’t the weather; it is that day when we notice that the Christmas lights are gone. That day was last weekend.

I live in a one-block-long suburban subdivision surrounded by farms. There are about 20 or 30 houses on the street and most of the families decorate with typical bright lights for Christmas. Some displays are simple, tasteful electric candles in the windows, others are white lights lining the roofline and still others lean toward the Griswold strategy (some years that would be us). Through most of December the street is bright and joyful each night, providing a wonderful welcome home as I end my long commute from work.

Now the street is dark. There are no street lights on this street, further emphasizing the darkness.

The Christmas lights are down and stored till next fall. Reality has hit.

As I write this on Thursday night it is raining and 38 degrees, the forecast calls for normal seasonal temps over the weekend and spring is months away.

Winter is here.

And it’s dark.

Viva WHAT?

2008-01-05T13:33:00.000-05:00

I regularly post lists of songs from our youth that appear in commercials. Certainly marketers are trying to appeal to Boomers by associating positive past memories with their products. Examples: the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” for Total cereal, Led Zeppelin’s “Rock & Roll” for Cadillac, the Zombies’ “Time Of The Season” for Sprite and the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” for VISA.

But Elvis must be turning over in his grave now that Viva Las Vegas has been rewritten as Viva Viagra. That lyric is sung with great enthusiasm in recent commercials touting the popular medical solution to erectile dysfunction.

If Elvis was alive he’d be celebrating his 73rd birthday next Tuesday.

Would he be horrified at this use of one of his signature songs? Or would he be a spokesman for the product?