First, from the West Coast (where else), the Contra Costa Times reports that the first response of a 52-year-old woman when she was about to become a first-time grandmother was to go to great lengths to try any other name besides something that sounded like “gran” or “mother.” Never mind that she was exactly the same age as her own “grandmother,” who apparently kept the honorific.

In the end, she decided that today’s grandmothers are Grandma 2.0. Oh, and her new name – Bobbi. Because it’s sort of like the Russian word, “baba,” for grandmother. Really.

Second, comes Harvard Business Online, where a poster said a friend recently told the story of his wife, who had decided to go back to work at a very interesting company run by members of Generation Y, who called in a panic on her first morning. There she was at 8:30 a.m. – and the place was deserted. To which the poster responded: “Ditching the 8:30 thing is a great idea – why didn’t we think of it? But give us a heads up – we like some face time sometime.”

There’s something wrong with asking what the start time is?

And third, MarketWatch reports on a “Money Across Generations®” study by Ameriprise Financial which found that more than 9 out of 10 parents have financially helped their adult children in at least one way after graduation, from helping them pay for student loans, or cover living costs or buy a car – or live at home rent-free. No surprise there.

The survey of 1,000 affluent baby boomers (identified as people with $100,000 or more in investable assets) also found that all of this predictable help was taking a toll on the boomer parents.

The punchline: recent data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that one in four boomers have saved less than $10,000 toward retirement; 45 percent have saved less than $50,000.

Let’s get to work boomers. We’ve got a long way to go babies.

Donna Rohrer