Before they’re gone: A different kind of bucket list
Normally, a bucket list is litany of things you want to see or experiences you want to have before you are no longer of this earth. Or, more precisely, before you are too much of this earth. Now the Weather Channel has given us a list of things you want to see before they...
Kiss your sweet pass goodbye
Do active old people—those who hike, bike, ski and get about outdoors—think of themselves as self-reliant, fiscal conservatives? Do they see themselves as people who are proud to pay their fair share? Probably not. Or they shouldn’t, if they do. We’re not talking about Social Security or Medicare here. (Yes, those programs do...
Boomers are all about the couch
A post earlier this week contained a startling public health nugget: most Baby Boomers—52 percent—report zero physical activity. No jogging, no biking, no backpacking. No walking the dog. No wading in shallow water. No golf with a cart. This is head-swiveling because (one) it’s an intellectual challenge to conceive of zero physical activity and...
Amazon wants your money, oldster
Jeff Bezos has built Amazon, the web’s premier online retailer. He’s recovered Apollo engines from the bottom of the ocean. He’s building a spaceship. And now, because he’s a man who loves a challenge, he’s setting up an on-line store for seniors. The problem with this business model should be obvious: Current Amazon...
Coming at You: The Recreati Mindset 2013
We’ll be launching the second edition of the Recreati Mindset next week. The Mindset is our little welcome to all those who turn 50 this year. (If you haven’t noticed it before, check out the section labeled Pages, at the top of the right column below.) If you know someone who reaches this golden threshold...
More noise and chatter on retirement
A wintery mix of news about retirement savings over the past few weeks. There’s some variation in the details but a consistent underlying message, which is that you will die poor, Boomer. And your generation will likely impoverish the generations coming after it. (Here’s the upside: we are told by a study of cheery Germans...
Fauja Singh, the Harold Stassen of road racing
Fauja Singh, the baddest 101-year-old vegetarian marathoner on the planet, has maybe possibly (but not really) retired from competitive racing. Singh, who turns 102 on April 1, finished last weekend’s Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon’s 10-kilometer (6.25-mile) race in 1 hour, 32 minutes, 28 seconds—half a minute faster than he ran it last year...
Please ignore our travel needs
Baby Boomers are a kind of demographic interstate: everywhere they flow, they change the landscape. Music is a good example. Boomers haven’t actually obliterated what was there before, but they certainly affected it. It’s also true for housing. And medicine and public policy. Boomers have also redefined travel. In the 60s and 70s, they forged...
Someone wants to send you up the river
If everything you know about river cruising comes from Mark Twain (or Davey Crockett), you haven’t been paying attention. (You also haven’t been watching Downton Abbey, which is sponsored by Viking River Cruises.) Right now might be a good time to start taking note. Here’s why: River cruises are booming, especially for Boomers. Booming...
Good advice for older travelers
It’s easy to be irritated with the New York Times “Booming” section, or subdomain, or whatever we are supposed to call it. Like many features aimed at Baby Boomers, it seems to slide easily into the morbid. There are upbeat stories, certainly (like a recent slideshow on attractive women who have decided not to dye...
Did Fauja Singh just taunt India’s PM?
Fauja Singh, the world’s only 101-year-old marathoner, has said he’ll hang up his sneakers next month. At this point, some men might start organizing their ribbons and trophies, or writing notes to supporters, or staring out over a brightly lit city from a high balcony. Reflecting. Or, like Singh, they might use that last month...
Old Brit wrestles shark, saves children
Oh, you can say it isn’t Jaws. You can point out that the poor animal was probably sickly, possibly dying. But it doesn’t diminish the fact that 62-year-old Welsh grandfather Paul Marshallsea, along with a couple of other old dudes, walked into the ocean off Queensland and harassed a shark until it swam off, apparently...
