Monthly Archive for August, 2008

OMG Boomers: We Are Destined to Become Chronically Ill by 2030 (If We’re Not Dead)

Published on August 30, 2008 in Baby Boomer and Health. 4 Comments


Your moment of durrrrr (apologies to Jon Stewart who features a “moment of zen” each program)

The worldwide leader in news gathering and investigative reporting, Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) is running some stories about getting old. CNHI includes such stalwarts as the Goshen Tribune, located in the Land o’ Goshen.

This series of stories by upstate newspapers in the Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. group examines exactly what these problems mean for our communities.

  • Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, Lockport, NY
  • The Journal-Register, Medina, NY
  • Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, NY
  • Tonawanda News, North Tonawanda, NY
  • The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY
  • The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, NY

may be carrying the series so excuse me if you already have read this.
Among their conclusions… are you ready for this boomers?

More than six out of 10 Baby Boomers will be managing more than one chronic health condition by 2030.

Yup, by the time we hit ages 66 to 82, we will have the dreaded “chronic health condition.” Lawdy Miss Clawdy! Build more hospitals, hire more nurses, expand the cemeteries, provide duo-core ambulances, we are gonna need all the resources we can muster.

Chronic! To the youngster that wrote this – and they are youngsters because CNHI can’t afford much more than interns and just graduated journalists – must equate chronic with critical.

[_] Walks up to lectern, *** taps on mic… “is this thing on?” *** “can you hear me OK?”

Today students the word is chronic. Chronic means “long-lasting” or “recurrent.” Not to be confused with catastrophic which means “you are skee-rewed” or calypso which means “come Mr. Tallyman, tally me bananas.” “Sorry, Mrs. Sixty, it’s time to calypso Mr. Sixty.”

You see, students, some of you have chronic issues: alcoholism, STD’s, Hepatitis, Athlete’s foot, and AIDS.

[_X  Steps down from lectern.

Actually 50% of all Americans have a chronic illness. So if by 2030, 60% of boomers have a chronic illness, hey, that ain’t bad.

I got a chronic illness, so I got my end of the stats covered. Osteoarthritis. What’s your chronic illness? And, no, AC/DC or OCD or ADD, or FEMA,  or TSA, or CRS doesn’t count.

It’s Palin-drome Day; Madam I’m Adam

Published on August 29, 2008 in Education, Entertainment and Writing. 11 Comments


Always the sucker for word play, palindrome is the first thing that pooped into my noodle when I hear McCain had picked Gov. Palin (who?) So I wrote some crap down.

Madam, I’m Adam is a palindrome: reads the same backwards or frontwards.

A man, a plan, Panama is another favorite.

Here are others (source)

  • Dogma, I am God (from the Book of Sixty)
  • God Saw I was Dog (dogswithcones.com)
  • Go deliver a dare, vile dog (my house, last night)
  • Rats Live on No Evil Star (Star Wars: Revenge of the Rodents)
  • Go Hang a Salami, I’m a Lasagna Hog (Godfather V – yet to be released)
  • Kay, a red nude, peeped under a yak (One of my favorite poems: It was the Yak Before Christmas)
  • Lisa Bonet ate no basil (Cosby: the College Years)
  • Doc note: I dissent! A fast never prevents fatness. I diet on cod. (Rosanne Barr to Dr. Phil)
  • Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw? (Spitzer jury Voir Dire)
  • Campus Motto: Bottoms Up Mac (University of South Florida)
  • Do geese see God? (To Kill a Swan)
  • Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas (Lil Kim, F**k One R**rar)

How about it?

UPDATE: 224 word Palindrome
Commenter: retteb siflahd nocese httub, but the second half is better

I Opened Pandora.com and Love It.

Published on August 29, 2008 in Baby Boomer. 2 Comments

Tinnitus (ringing in my head) makes it not fun for me to be in a very quiet room. I’m lucky that Nancy likes to fall asleep with the TV on. Otherwise there is usually plenty of background noise to make the tinnitus bearable. Except where our desktop computer is located.

Therefore, when it’s not “fan weather” I depend on Pandora.com – a marvelous internet radio station – to play in background when I’m surfing or blogging. It’s free. But Congress and the Recording Industry Association of America are putting them out of business.

Pandora.com is not peer-to-peer. I’m not pirating music. Pandora pays artists everytime I listen. It’s The Music Genome Project, formed by musicians.

However, an obscure federal panel decided last year that Internet radio providers had to use a different pay scale. An exorbitant pay scale. It’s high now, but by 2010, sites like Pandora will have to pay 2.91 cents per listener per hour. Right now, Pandora will have to pay the RIAA 70% of its projected revenue for 2008, and that bill is going to shut down the site, Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora, said…

I love Pandora.com because it has exposed me to music I NEVER would have listened to in the past. Therefore, I’ve listened to artists that NEVER would have made my playlist because I didn’t know they existed.

Yet RIAA, who you would think would want me to listen to new artists, is killing the Goose that has a big golden egg.

The music industry has been suffering massively reduced revenues lately as music downloads have caused CD sales to plummet. Internet radio was a shining new business model. Not only does it give you a way to listen to your favorites, it gives emerging artists a chance to be heard. Pandora and Slacker make it easy to buy new music too. — music that you might never have heard any other way. The music business must be crazy to limit this pipeline.

Regular radio is exempt from these outrageous feeds. Because they carry those damn irritating commercials to pay the way. Get this: they don’t pay if they broadcast music, but do pay if they stream it on their website!

There is hope – I hope it doesn’t come too late.

Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060), which Manzullo and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced last year. The bill, which maintains the strong bipartisan support of 149 cosponsors, would vacate a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision last year to triple royalty rates Internet radio stations must pay and instead put the rates at parity with satellite and cable radio.

I don’t have a iPod. I find the earpieces annoying. I don’t like CD’s because I don’t want to listen to the same artist for an hour. Terresterial radio is a non-starter because in our little burg it’s Public Radio longhair, Classic Rock, or Country Western. And all those irritating local commercials!

I sure hope Pandora’s box doesn’t get slammed shut by the Recording Industry Association of America. The irony would just be too, well, ironic.

Recycle Phones Into Phone Cards for Troops

Published on August 29, 2008 in Technology. 4 Comments

You probably have an old cell phone or two rotting away in some drawer that you just can’t bring yourself to toss in the trash, right?
Cell Phones For Soliders

GOOD! Go to CellPhonesForSoldiers.com and donate your phone. On the site is a POSTAGE PAID label, so all you have to do is find an envelope or box to cram the phone in and mail it.

You have no good reason not to do it.

The phones are recycled and the money is used to buy phone cards for troops. It’s a helluva a project started by a couple teenagers!

The vast majority of phones in the United States are temporarily stashed in junk drawers and storage closets before ultimately being discarded – contributing a staggering 13,750 tons of unused cell phones to landfills every year. A mobile phone contains toxic heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and beryllium, and hazardous chemicals, such as brominated flame retardants (BFR) which can cause birth defects. Not only will recycling help the environment, it will help the troops.

If you want to do more – it’s easy.

Get your company, business, church, union, scout troop, Starbucks studs, AA associates, PETA pals, whatever, to collect a bunch of phones. Then contact CellPhonesForSoldiers.com and they will make arrangements for a bulk shipment direct to the recycler.  AGAIN: The shipping is PAID.

They have everything you need – posters, press releases, flyers…

If you still want to do more… nominate them to get funding from American Express. The site is pretty hinky (American Express! Why does this website suck so badly?)  and they hide the “guest” registration link waaaaaay down at the bottom of the page. But give it a go.

This is a really neat deal – and it’s just so simple and provides such great results. I haven’t asked you for much, but please give this project your support.

I Want To Party Like the Democrats!

Published on August 28, 2008 in Baby Boomer. 0 Comments

This cracks me UP!