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We need a little humor

A woman decides to have a face lift for her 50th birthday.  She spends $15,000 and feels pretty good about the results.

On her way home, she stops at a news stand to buy a newspaper.  Before leaving, she says to the clerk, ‘I hope you don’t mind my asking, but how old do you think I am?’

“About 32,” is the reply.

“Nope! I’m exactly 50,” the woman says happily.

A little while later she goes into McDonald’s and asks the counter girl the very same question.  The girl replies, “I’d guess about 29.”

The woman replies with a big smile, “Nope, I’m 50.”

Now she’s feeling really good about herself. She stops in a drug store on her way down the street. She goes up to the counter to get some mints and asks the clerk this burning question.  The clerk responds, “Oh, I’d say 30.”  Again she proudly responds, “I’m 50, but thank you!”

While waiting for the bus to go home, she asks an old man waiting next to her the same question.  He replies, “I’m 78 and my eyesight is going. Although, when I was young, there was a sure-fire way to tell how old a woman was.  It sounds very forward, but it requires you to let me put my hands under your bra. Then, and only then can I tell you EXACTLY how old you are.”

They wait in silence on the empty street until her curiosity gets the best of her. She finally blurts out, “What the hell, go ahead.”

He slips both of his hands under her blouse and begins to feel around very slowly and carefully. He bounces and weighs each breast and he gently pinches each nipple. He pushes her breasts together and rubs them against each other.  After a couple of minutes of this, she says, “Okay, okay…How old am I?”

He completes one last squeeze of her breasts, removes hi s hands, and says, “Madam, you are 50.”

Stunned and amazed, the woman says, “That was incredible, how could you tell?”

The old man says, “Promise you won’t get mad?”

“I promise I won’t,” she says.

“I was behind you in McDonald’s.”

What if Boomers start saving?

We will see more articles investigating the revised spending habits of the members of the Baby Boom.  Out retirement accounts have been hammered twice in the last eight years.  In addition the meltdown of the housing market has clipped serious market value from the valuation highs of a couple of years ago.  Early Boomers are just around the corner from retirement.  For a group used to having more time, retirement looks like it’s coming next Sunday.  Can you say panic?

For three decades Boomers have helped spend the economy to greater heights.  There is growing evidence that particular party may be over.  Friday’s New York Times had an article titled “Baby Boomers Under Water.’   In it the author, Bob Tedeschi, takes a look at the effect of lower home values on retirement plans.  Check out the following,

The Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, which released the report last month, estimated that 30 percent of homeowners aged 45 to 54 were in this predicament, known as being “under water.” (About 15 percent of older baby boomers, 55 to 64, fell into that category as well.)

He cites three major factors in the erosion of Boomer wealth -

  1. The double stock market meltdown in eight years.
  2. Eroding home values
  3. Virtually no savings from 2004 – 2009

So what are Boomers doing differently?  They are beginning to (not) spend like their parents.  They are looking for value.  They are buying fewer ‘brand names’.  And they are putting off purchases.  The net effect is that one of the significant economic engines is throttling way back.  The generation that consumed its way through life is going to quit consuming.  A ton of consumer spending is coming out of the market.

To further tighten the economic screws, there is another disturbing trend: the group in their 20s has already slowed their spending.  They are feeling the economic pressure of the two-tier wage scales (older workers make more while newer workers start at a lower level).  Since they are paid less money, they have less to spend.

Our best hope for an economic recovery is the group between 30 and 45.  For our economic recovery to begin they must start spending like there is no tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, the implications of these spending trends for Detroit are dire.  That is another entry.

Can we improve 'brain' performance?

Recently I have seen quite a few brain fitness articles and products.  The idea is that we can improve our mental performance and memory through training programs and exercises.  There are many brain enhancing approaches from computer software to nutrition.  My guess is that swirling them together in our own personal recipe is a solid approach.

I ran across a  really good article at Sharp Brains summarizing the four basic steps or pillars to a healthy brain.  Here are the four pillars:

1) Physical exercise – do something cardiovascular.

2) Mental exercise – learn something new every day.

3) Good nutrition – more leafy vegetables, omega 3 fats (cold water fish), and foods low on the glycemic index.

4) Stress management – take 10 – 15 minutes a day to breath deeply and recharge.

So with a little work and a plan you can help maintain your mental health.  Red wine was never mentioned – humm.

In 1969, 40 years ago today the number one song was “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe.  (OK, I had to go find it on the internet.  He sang “Sheila” and “Stagger Lee” as well.)

And finally, Sharon Stone was born on this date in 1958.

You have to hear before you can listen

During dinner last night my wife and I were told there was an intermittent high frequency noise somewhere in the kitchen.  Our daughter and son (23 and 20) were both bothered but it.  They unsuccessfully searched different drawers and cupboards for the annoying and offensive source.  Meanwhile neither my wife nor I were bothered.  Dinner was good.

I remember back when I was in Junior High, my father had a demonstration record that illustrated the stereo and frequency range capabilities of his pride and joy Hi-Fi set-up.  It was entertaining and he loved to play it for visitors.  One memorable demonstration was the audio of two men playing Russian roulette.  One character was on the right the other on the left.  In turn each spun the cylinder of the pistol, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.  Then he slid the gun across the table to the other player who repeated the process.  It was wonderful how the sound of the gun sliding from one side of the fireplace to the other conjured up the image of the two men.  They became more deliberate.  Their breathing became more tense.  Finally the gun roared and one of the men said, “Ha, Ha you lose!”

Another impressive demonstration was a simple test to see which frequencies each listener could hear.  Starting at lower frequencies  the instructions were to hold up your hand if you could hear any sound.  As the frequencies increased the older folks dropped their hands.  The youngest could hear the highest frequencies while everyone else in the room sat and watched in disbelief.  It was good to be young during that demonstration.

Last night my wife and I never got our hands in the air.  We never heard the offending noise.

In a recent study the ability to hear high frequency sounds is highly compromised in 90% of Baby Boomers.  Nearly half of all Baby Boomer have some degree of hearing loss.   My wife gladly points out that 62% of men versus 38% of women experience these losses.  Below are some of the other key findings:

  • 23% said hearing loss affected their success in the workplace.
  • 40% said it affected their home life.
  • 65% said they were having trouble hearing television.
  • Watching TV and social gatherings are situations Boomers with hearing loss avoid most.
  • 57% said they often had trouble hearing on a cell phone.

So what can we do?  There are some pretty neat products that address a couple of these issues.  Over at I Spy I Buy (there is a link to their site on the right) they have a selection of products that can help.  They have telephones with volume controls to make phone calls easier to hear.  They have the famous TV Ears products to help while watching TV available as well.

If you or someone you know is looking for products to make their life easier, stop by and take a look at these and other products.

Oh yes, our kids never did find the alleged noise.

Woodstock – was everybody there?

woodstockEverybody knows about Woodstock.  It is a permanent part of our cultural lexicon.  450,000 folks gathered in Max Yasgur’s muddy pasture from Friday, August 15, 1969, through Monday, August 18, 1969.  Through the years I have personally met probably one or two million people that were there.  That’s remarkable because much of that time I was living in Minnesota a mere bazillion miles away from Max’s farm in upstate New York.  If you have time, click on the link and read about the history of Woodstock.  It is a fascinating read.

Whether we attended or not, we all bought the Woodstock album.  We bought the albums of the artists that appeared at the concert.  And we played them until we had them memorized and worn out.

WOODSTOCK 1969 JOE COCKERJoe Cocker was one of the many performers.  If you have seen Cocker perform, you know he sort of spasms to the music and mumbles the lyrics.  That’s Joe.   The guys at ElBucko’s web site actually listened to what Joe uttered during his Woodstock performance of  “A little help from my friends.”   We all know the words we memorized so when we hear Joe’s performance we help out by filling in  the proper lyric.  Here is a link to the words Joe actually sings during the performance.  It is fun to watch and hear Joe’s performance.  It’s also amazing how much the listener helps out with the words.  What he says is very different from the actual lyric.  Joe mumbled a lot.  Have fun.

Prior to Woodstock, a super large concert would be attended by 40,000 – 50,000 people.  To understand the sheer numbers that were there, think in terms of a football stadium and then multiply the number of people by 11.  It is no wonder Woodstock overwhelmed everything from food service to traffic.  Nobody had seen anything on this scale before.

Finally, I did not realize that Jimi Hendrix was the last performer – on Monday morning.  Or, that he was the highest paid performer, by more than double any other act, at $32,000.  That’s simply amazing.

How many Dylan fans does it take to change a light bulb?

Q) How many Dylan fans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A) The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

Q) How many Conservative economists does it take to change a light bulb?

A 1) None. The invisible hand does it.

A 2) None. There is no need to change the light bulb. All the conditions for illumination are in place. Recent surveys show growing confidence in the light bulb lighting up again.

A 3) None, because, look! It’s getting brighter! It’s definitely getting brighter!

Q) How Many Dogs Does It Take to Change A Light Bulb?

A 1) Golden Retriever: The sun is shining, the day is young, we’ve got our whole lives ahead of us, and you’re inside worrying about a stupid burned out bulb?

A 2) Border Collie: Just one. And then I’ll replace any wiring that’s not up to code.

A 3) Dachshund: You know I can’t reach that stupid lamp!

A 4) Rottweiler: Make me.

A 5) Boxer: Who cares? I can still play with my squeaky toys in the dark.

A 6) Lab: Oh, me, me! Pleeeeeeeeeze let me change the light bulb! Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can I? Pleeeeeeeeeze, please, please, please!

A 7) German Shepherd: I’ll change it as soon as I lead these people from the dark, check to make sure I haven’t missed any, and make just one more perimeter patrol to see that no one has tried to take advantage of the situation.

A 8 ) Jack Russell Terrier: I’ll just pop it in while I’m bouncing off the walls and furniture.

A 9) Old English Sheep Dog: Light bulb? I’m sorry, but I don’t see a light bulb?

A 10) Cocker Spaniel: Why change it? I can still pee on the carpet in the dark.

A 11) Chihuahua: Yo quiero Taco Bulb.

A 12) Pointer: I see it, there it is, there it is, right there …

A 13) Greyhound: It isn’t moving. Who cares?

A 14) New Zealand Sheep Dog: First, I’ll put all the light bulbs in a little cluster…

A 15) Toy Poodle: I’ll just blow in the Border Collie’s ear and he’ll do it. By the time he finishes rewiring the house, my nails will be dry.

The Cat’s Answer: “Dogs do not change light bulbs. People change light bulbs. So, the real question is: How long will it be before I can expect some light, some dinner, and a massage?”

All of which proves, once again, that while dogs have masters, cats have staff.

Q) How many aerospace engineers does it take to change a light bulb?

A) None. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, you know.

Q) How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a light bulb?

A 1) It’s burned out? You must be using a non-standard socket.

A 2) None. They just write it up as a new and useful feature.

A 3) One – but Bill Gates must inspect every single bulb and socket before the operation is started.

A 4) Eight: one to work the bulb and seven to make sure Microsoft gets $2 for every light bulb ever changed anywhere in the world.

Q) How many municipal employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A) Seven – two to administer the Civil Service examination for the Light Bulb Administrator position, the Commissioner of Public Works, who ends up hiring his brother for the position anyway, one to plow the mayor’s driveway, a Summer Youth student to actually screw it in, and a Union steward to protest that its the electrician’s job to screw in light bulbs.

Q) How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?

A) Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.

Q) How many existentialists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A) Two. One to screw it in and one to observe how the light bulb itself symbolizes a single incandescent beacon of subjective reality in a netherworld of endless absurdity reaching out toward a maudlin cosmos of nothingness.

And finally, my favorite

A) One.

Q) How many psychics does it take to change a light bulb?

Guess who’s on the internet? (part 2)

It is clear that the stereotypical image of older Americans resisting technology is dead wrong.  Take a look at the consumer electronics wish list for each respective age group in the chart below.

Top 5 wanted products Age
18-34
Age
35-49
Age  50s Age 60s Age 70s
#1 HDTV HDTV HDTV HDTV HDTV
#2 Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop Laptop
#3 Digital Camera Cell Phone Cell Phone Cell Phone Cell Phone
#4 Cell Phone Digital Camera Desktop PC Digital Camera GPS Device
#5 Videogame Videogame GPS Device Desktop PC Digital Camera

Online research is an integral part of purchasing CE products for all age segments.  The amount of time spent researching CE purchases is roughly uniform across all age
segments. Approximately one‐third of each age segment spends less than 1 week researching before a purchase.

Older age segments are more likely to rely on in‐person research sources, such as friends/family or store sales staff, when making CE purchase decisions.  Among those that haven’t made a recent online purchase, fear of credit card exposure is cited at higher rates by those age 60 plus.

So the reality is that all Americans are comfortable and probably a little nuts over technology.  Age is not a factor.

Protect your computer, protect yourself!

Unfortunately, eventually, bad things happen to all people when it comes to computers and the internet.  The digital world is full of hazards and Murphy is our king.  You know, Murphy of the law, If anything can go wrong, it will.

This morning Garth over at 127Tech Posted the Top Ten Ways to Protect Your Digital Life.  He starts with the story about the two hunters that come upon a bear.  The punch line is when they realize they don’t have to outrun the bear just the other hunter.   Although any computer can be hacked, most hackers won’t bother if there are these simple security measures in place.  An effective way to protect our computers is to have more protection than the next guy.

One of the biggest protection issues we  face on the internet is malware, programs intentionally designed to harm your computer.  Garth suggests several simple things that will go a long way toward discouraging a malware attack on your computer.

Another key component of the list is the critical importance of regular system back-ups.  Even if you protect your system from all malware attacks, your hard drive could fail and put all of your data at risk.

As you work through the Top Ten list you’ll notice that you can accomplish most of it without help and with little cost.  Of course, if you are not comfortable with any of the individual suggestions, pass on that one until you can get help.  But, do what you can do as soon as you can.

We all need to visit his post and act on his advice.

Guess who's on the internet?

Contrary to popular myth, technology is not the the sole domain of youth.  The Consumer Electronic Association, CEA,  commissioned a study of Older Americans  aged 50 and above.  During November and December of 2008 they interviewed 3,135 adults.  Their final report is full of interesting findings.  Here are a couple of nuggets -

1) 67% of 70-somethings use a cell phone weekly.

2) Older Americans are 27% more likely to visit a travel web site than the average internet user and 98% more likely to visit health sites.

3) Feature creep is a leading cause of technology frustration among all age groups.  (Feature creep: the unnecessary addition of extraneous features to electronic products.  The main issues cited are too many features, buttons too small and confusing technology.)

They defined older Americans as those of us 50 and over – born in 1958 and earlier.  We grew up before DVD players (before video tape players!), before cell phones (remember rotary dials and long phone cords for privacy?), before personal computers (remember punch cards and main frames?) and before the internet.  So, I guess, old school meets the technology world.

They reviewed the usual population statistics.  Americans 50 and over number 96.2 million folks or 31% of the total population in 2009.  In 2015 there will be 109.7 million folks over 50.  In 2020 there will be 118.7 million representing 35% of the country’s population.

They reviewed on-line presence from 2005 to 2008.  In every 5 year grouping, internet presence was up from 2005 to 2008.  For 2008 the group from 50 -54 was at 78%, 55-59 was at 71%,  60-64  62%, and the 65-69 was at 57%. For the 70 – 75 age bracket internet presence was up from 26% to 45%.  Finally, internet presence was up in 76+ group from 17% to 27%.

So, what electronic gear do these older Americans use?  47% own a laptop PC, 32% own a DVR and 23% own a game console!

When asked if technology will help them live a fuller life, 55% of those 18-49 said it would, 59% of those in their 50s, 64% of those in their 60s and 52% of those 70 plus.  That’s unexpected.

They asked older Americans about specific internet activities with interesting results when compared to the average internet users. They are almost twice as likely to visit a health site, 27% more likely to visit travel and hobby sites, 19% more likely to visit a news site and 9% more likely to visit a gaming site.  They are typical in their visits to music, video and social networking sites.  Clearly, older Americans have embraced the internet.

Next time we’ll review the balance of the study’s findings.

Today in history – in 1959 Fidel Castro became the leader of Cuba.  In 1968 the first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Alabama.  The number one song this week in 1969 was Everyday People by Sly and the Family Stone.

Everyone: Please learn about Snoopes!

It seems every day I receive an email warning of this or that scam, virus or conspiracy.  Today was refreshing, it was accurate.  The scam du jour is the old “you failed to report for jury duty” special.  For once the warning is valid and worthwhile.  No known jurisdiction calls prospective jurors.  They all communicate through the mail.

Why do many folks believe everything in their email in-box?  Is it because email looks like it is written, and everybody knows to get everything important in writing?  Or are people intimidated by the whole internet thing?  You know, “so much information is available so quickly – I’m overwhelmed!”  It doesn’t make sense when you think about it.

Take the well-worn Nigerian scam.  The scammers send out a tidal wave of poorly written, badly spelled illogical emails to any and every emailbox on the planet.  In my experience, my correct email address is not even in the ‘To:’ field.  To be less credible would take some serious effort.  These emails are badly done.  Evidently the prospect of easy wealth, in writing, no less, causes normally rational people to lose their minds and actually send money to the foreign account of a guy with a funny name that they don’t know.  These emails must work, the emails keep coming.

Imagine a stranger approaches you and tells you that if you give him several hundred dollars in cash he’ll shower you with a lot of money.  Would you do it?  No way! Why does this scam work on the internet?

How about this?  A stranger walks up to you and wants your full name, birth date, social security number and every other detail of your life.  Would you share all of your personal information?  No way! We all know this information can lead to identity theft which is a horrible problem to unravel.

So here’s the deal.  First of all, NEVER give out your personal information in an unsecured environment to someone that contacted you.  If you think the request might be kosher you can ask them to share what they have so you can verify it, ask for their telephone extension so you can call them back at the company’s listed number, or you can have them send you a letter with their request (like with a stamp and everything).

You can check on scams all by yourself. Here’s how:  If you ever want to know if something is a scam or an urban legend go to www.snoopes.com.  There is an amazing collection of scams and urban legends discussed on their site.

As a public service please promise to tell everyone you care about:

  1. Just like the real world, the internet is an amazing place with virtual crooks.  Use common sense.
  2. Never give out your personal information to a stranger in a open communication iniated by the other person – phone or email.  Verify what information they have, call them back or respond through the company web site.  But, whatever you chose to do, do it on your terms – not theirs.
  3. If an email you receive sounds a little fishy, go to Snoopes and check it out.  Its easy.  Normally all you need to do is copy and paste the subject line into their search box.

What does this have to do with us Boomers?  Most of these scams are older than we are so let’s quit falling for them.