Another day, another Boo-mie award. This one goes to actress Alanna Ubach, with Jay Roach, director of The Fockers, as a close also-ran. Jay’s nomination has nothing to do with casting Barbra Streisand as a middle-aged sex therapist. Barbra does us proud, defying the aging stereotypes and having fun, to boot. But he is accountable for casting a 29-year-old as the middle-aged former housekeeper of the Fockers. There are many levels to the motivation for giving this award, so bear with me.

While waiting to get my car washed yesterday (a long, drawn-out affair for such a little car...) I was thumbing through one of the books that the car washers had put on the counter for sale. It's a book of cartoons aimed to make women fifty up laugh. Okay, so some of the jokes were funny--but the drawings definitively did not. We do not have bouffant grey bubble heads on sunken, upholstered figures (at least most of us don't have the bouffant part--and Armani can do wonders for gravity-challenged body parts...) I meant to look at when the book was published, but clearly, it was meant for a whole other generation. The thing is, it's still being sold now--and does more damage than levity for any one who flips through the pages and buys into the notion that once we get past fifty, we lose all sense of style! That said, next time I get the car washed, I'll look up some of the funnier jokes to share with you...
Grateful to be alive! Grateful to be blogging! Grateful to have you reading! And together, grateful to be gra-defying the stereotypes!
Carol Orsborn

Despite our rich histories of accomplishment, one of the complaints that Dr. Smull (Jimmy) and I heard frequently from our research participants is that they can be made to feel invisible in certain social and business settings, not to mention when it comes to advertisements, magazines and the like. And so, there I was enjoying my morning coffee, watching the network morning news and reading the paper (multi-tasking!), when I read a telling quote from CBS Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves addressing Dan Rather’s retirement and the future of CBS Evening News. Noting that the average age of news viewers among broadcast and cable networks is “way over 45…We have to do something really different to get people’s attention.” Hello! I know that it is in all of our best interests to get people 45 to tune into the news—but if you’re over 45, you’re not “people?”

Last night was the television premiere of the David Cronenberg film “A History of Violence.” There was mayhem, dark secrets exposed and plot twists galore, all penetratingly portrayed. But the image that I have been most unable to shake is this: Maria Bello, as a trailing-edge boomer mom of a taller-than-her teenaged son, donning her high school cheerleader’s outfit and making whoopee with hubby Viggo Mortensen—also a boomer—like rodeo champs.

On Friday, I blogged about the film “A History of Violence”, and how the boomer mom of two children still fits into her high school cheerleading uniform. Is this—and the attendant imagery of extraordinary boomers jumping from airplanes, looking younger than their daughters and so on –reflective of our generation’s true aspirations?

My colleague Dr. Jimmy Smull and I did a research study of 100 well-educated, high performing leading edge boomer women who are on the path to achieving what they defined as meaningful lives, regardless of the circumstances they were facing. Precious few still fit into their high school clothes—nor wanted to. They did have dreams, however. And yes, there were quite a few who wanted to do some form of adventure travel, who look great for their age and so on. But you want to know what the biggest dream was for many of them? To give up overachieving.

Okay class. Please open your Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” issue to pages 38, 39 and 41. This is Time’s photo montage of the composite “YOU” who shared the most-anticipated cover story honor of the year. Now, tell me what’s wrong with this picture? It appears to be politically correct enough with a variety of ethnicities, cultural influences and genders represented. There are boomer guys singing the blues, a peppy cheerleader from the Cougars, even a soldier in jungle camouflage.

I challenge Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post Magazine to meet me at the top of the fast-moving escalator of his choice to see who—at our respective ages—can negotiate the journey to the bottom culminating with the most graceful landing.

One of our faithful readers, Todd Derene Vice President of Marketing from RTi Research, www.RTiResearch.com, a global market research company, poses the billion(s)-dollar question. Todd writes:
“It’s been well published that Baby Boomers continue to have a huge economic impact at every stage of their lives, that they will be the wealthiest retirees the world has ever seen, and they may be destined to become a dominant factor for decades to come.”

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

My husband is a cat lover. I am a dog lover. We talk about someday buying an exotic bird. Despite these differences, we’re both sickened by Michael Vick's recent dog fighting case, which is so tummy turning that I end up walking out of the room whenever the story hits the airwaves.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog

Dr. Brent Powell, an adult development specialist, has come up with a fascinating psychographic tool. In brief, you can go to his website www.GenerationalProfile.com, (which I did) take a brief free quiz, and find out to which generation your responses most closely correlate.

For the rest of today's blog, continue at The Boomer Blog