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[boomerbroadcaster]

May I Offer A Tip On Tipping

This is not advice on how much or when to tip but a comment on how to tip. I do not claim to be any kind of expert but I’ve just learned something about tipping I thought I’d share. As a teenager in high school, I worked for two years as a waitress and a carhop at a hamburger joint behind the bowling alley in our small town. I never made much in tips. My customers were mostly high-school kids…

[boomerbroadcaster]

I May Never Leave The House Again

At the risk of sounding immodest, I had previously never considered myself to be a stupid person. A simple trip to the grocery store this week disavowed me of that fantasy immediately. While I prefer ordering groceries online and sending hubby to pick them up, I only needed a few essentials so I opted to be a big girl, get some fresh air, and do it myself. Is it me or them? My first obstacle was…

[boomerbroadcaster]

I Will Never Give The Phone Company My Copper Wire

According to recent statistics (if you can believe statistics these days) a shocking 85% of landline users have jumped ship in favour of cell phones only. Phone companies are encouraging subscribers to relinquish them so that the expensive copper wiring can be better utilized. Furthermore, they don’t want to be bothered with servicing us! As one of the remaining 15% “hardline” users, I am…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN Is A Must-Read For Baby Boomers

As someone who is already a fan of books by New York Times best-selling author Kristin Hannah, I couldn’t wait for her newest release, The Women. It’s a story about the war in Vietnam during the late sixties and early seventies when thousands of people were dying for a dubious cause. Sadly, no one acknowledged or appreciated the contribution made by the women at that time, including more than ten…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Are Boomers Up For Wide-Leg Jeans?

Are Boomers Up For Wide-Leg Jeans?

Baby boomer couture. There was a time a few years ago when I questioned whether as an aging boomer, I was getting too old for jeans. That short-lived brain-lapse soon evaporated when I realized that baby boomers were the heart and soul, the very essence of jeans culture and we deserve to be buried (or cremated depending on your preference) in our treasured, weathered, and finally soft, vintage…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Having just spent an entire day on phone calls and chat lines attending to billing and maintenance issues with five different service providers, I am ready to slit my wrists. Trying to resolve issues with the telephone company, the gas company, our cellphone provider, our satellite radio service, and our home security provider, I was left feeling exhausted, angry, and frustrated that everything…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Having just spent an entire day on phone calls and chat lines attending to billing and maintenance issues with five different service providers, I am ready to slit my wrists. Trying to resolve issues with the telephone company, the gas company, our cellphone provider, our satellite radio service, and our home security provider, I was left feeling exhausted, angry, and frustrated that everything…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Do Chat Lines and Call Centres Save Time or Waste Time?

Having just spent an entire day on phone calls and chat lines attending to billing and maintenance issues with five different service providers, I am ready to slit my wrists. Trying to resolve issues with the telephone company, the gas company, our cellphone provider, our satellite radio service, and our home security provider, I was left feeling exhausted, angry, and frustrated that everything…

[boomerbroadcaster]

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Gwyneth Paltrow?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last ten years or so, you will be familiar with the name Gwyneth Paltrow and her SuperGoop line of snake oils and lifestyle potions. She’s the consummate capitalist, reeling people in (mostly women) with her dubious claims of age-bashing elixirs and bizzare lifestyle practices. Paltrow’s advice and products have been condemned by respected expert…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Lyn Slater Is A Ray of Hope and Sunshine For Boomer Gals

Judging by the bookmarks, to say I enjoyed Lyn Slater’s How To Be Old would be an understatement. Lyn Slater is a retired professor at Fordham University in New York, a former social worker, model, fashion icon, writer, social media influencer, and advocate for positive aging. She is also one of us— a baby boomer. After following Slater for years on Instagram and Facebook as the “Accidental…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Is It Still Good For You?

I’m hooked and I admit it. Are you still enjoying the internet? Does it still excite you the way it once did or has it become a chore, an onerous and exhausting exercise you devote countless hours to simply because it’s there demanding attention? Do you mourn those wasted hours on Instagram and Facebook absorbing useless information and following vague threads to a questionable end? I signed on…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Further Reflections on Friendship

Neil Sedaka was right. Any kind of breaking up is aways hard to do. By the time boomers reach retirement age, most of us have experienced at least one painful breakup. Many of us are veterans of multiple breakups. When it happens, we feel like we will never recover but inevitably we do. We put ourselves back together and often find someone else to love. Whether through divorce or widowhood, these…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Nina Stibbe Examines The True Meaning of Friendship

When I read three books in a row by the same author, then you can be assured I love her writing. After reading and reviewing her two diary-styled non-fiction books a couple of weeks ago (Went to London, Took The Dog and Love, Nina) I went looking for other books by Nina Stibbe and came upon the fictional One Day I Shall Astonish The World. The title is the motto for the British university where…

[boomerbroadcaster]

How To Manage That Nasty Menopause Middle

We all know how it feels . . . well, most of us! Not all of us get it but most of us do—that extra layer of fat distribution around the middle that accompanies menopause and turns our body from a feminine hourglass shape into a rectangle (me!), a pear, or an apple.  In my youth, when I was slim, I naively thought it would never happen to me but it did and I’ve been fighting a losing battle with…

[boomerbroadcaster]

It's Great Fun Reading Other People's Diaries?

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding is one of the few diaries I’ve had the opportunity to peek into (even though it was fictional), but reading the inside story of other people’s lives is probably why I enjoy memoirs and biographies so much. I’ve just finished reading Went To London, Took The Dog: The Diary of a 60-Year-Old Runaway by British writer Nina Stibbe. While not quite as…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Boomers Remember With A Little Help From Our Friends

Get a bunch of old boomers together and you will notice we are frequently called upon to complete each other’s sentences. Not only is it because we’re that in tune with one another but more importantly, we either can’t remember what we wanted to say, or we can’t remember an important name/fact/movie title/song relevant to the conversation. It’s like we have gaping moth holes in our brains. In…

[boomerbroadcaster]

Rick Mercer Helps Canadians Confirm Their Identity

Whether he’s ranting on CBC’s Rick Mercer Report, entertaining on This Hour Has 22 Minutes or otherwise sharing his informed opinions on politics and contemporary Canadian lifestyle, Rick Mercer is a national treasure. Before retiring from his RMR show, I doubt I missed an episode in the fifteen seasons his show was on the air. Mercer’s newest book The Road Years is an homage to all those years…