I've been working flat-out since way too early this morning and was just thinking that a few minutes of hammock time might be a good idea before the rest of the day starts going really crazy, when this headline from the TImes On Line grabbed my eye: ‘I know Thatcher survived on four hours – I need a bit more’.

Without going into any thoughts on Maggie Thatcher and how much of an inspiration she could ever be to me, as that would certainly be another blog... more

“Anita did more than run a successful ethical business: she was a pioneer of the whole concept of ethical and green consumerism,” Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth, wrote in The Evening Standard on Tuesday. “There are quite a few business people today who claim green credentials, but none came anywhere near Anita in terms of commitment and credibility.”

Again this week, like last, I find myself needing to laud a hero of the... more

Six years ago today, I was dozing on the couch in my daughter's house in North Carolina, cuddling my month-old granddaughter and giving her mom some needed sleep-in time.

Although I had planned to be in the States for the birth, an emergency C-section brought Addie three weeks earlier than expected. It was over the phone that I learned I was a grandmother and my first sight of this amazing child was via an email, but a couple of days of travel time brought me eye-to-eye with this new human being that my daughter ... so recently a baby herself ... had made. (Okay, her... more

Or, more accurately, do Boomers think Heaven is an option at the end of the trail?

According to an article in the latest edition of AARP Magazine, most Americans over fifty ... 73% ... believe in life after death, and 86% of those figure Heaven is a likely destination, even though only 70% would say the same about hell.

Although many in our generation looked askance at the Pearly Gates during our youth, something about passing the half-century mark has a lot of Boomers rethinking... more

I am about to share something with you all that is so sad ... pathetic, actually .... and has me puzzling away at any possible significance. I'm wondering if I should be worried, angry and devastated or unconcerned and totally okay.

You see, in the course of posting an earlier blog, I happened to check the calendar to check what the heck month this might be ... September? How did THAT happen? ... and I suddenly came face to face with the fact that yesterday was the 13th anniversary of my marriage to Mark.

Hmmmm.

What? No flowers? No card, candy, gift?... more

It doesn't happen often that one person's passing signifies a loss for the whole world, but the death of Luciano Pavarotti does exactly that.

Most of us come and go with little fanfare, and the ripples we leave in our pond smooth out long before they reach the farthest of even the shores we know about.

Yes, there are those who make global headlines by dying and raise a "hmmm" or a "Gee, that's a shame" ... or even a "Good riddance" ... but any hole left behind is filled by the time the newspapers finish with the funeral. Someone else steps into the... more

Being the geezer blog, we have spent sometime gazing inward at our old bones in the past, but some new information published recently in The Lancet, the UK's medical journal, prompts another look.

It seems that dietary supplements are back in favor, with a 12% reduction in the risk of fracture being reported in people over... more

Back in July I wrote about the finalists that had made it through the $10,000 award segment of the Purpose Prize, an award that honors older Americans working to solve social problems in creative and innovative ways.

This week, the winners were announced, five of them, each receiving $100,000.

Dr.... more

I have a few items relating to older parenting that have been gathering pixels ... or whatever you'd call cyber dust motes ... in the corners of my desktop. They've been collected for sharing, so I'll do that today.

This article from the Sunday Herald asks the terrifying question: "Have you turned into your mother yet?"

Although the author takes off on wrinkles, she eventually focuses on some really scary ... read: right on the money ... observations of those... more

This story from a British woman whose au pair, hired to give a mom a break, became pregnant reminds me that I've not done an update on our similar situation here in a long time.

To recap for those not familiar with the saga of Catherina ...

In October of last year, an assistant who'd pledged to stick with me for the duration of a book-writing stint I committed to because of said pledge left me high and dry by quitting on a Monday morning via a text message.

After interviews... more