Thumbs Down?

I rarely use emojis, in part because half the time I can’t make out what they are trying to convey. And it’s not an eyesight issue. It’s more about whether that face is happy or sad or noncommittal. Are you trying to console me or mock me? Why are you sending me a pile of poop? Is that a grimace or did you get new dentures?

Sorry. I’ll get over it. But apparently Gen Z is done with some emojis and cannot understand why boomers are still using them. These are the same peeps who declared skinny jeans are over so you have to take them seriously.

According to research done with 16 to 29-year olds by Perspectus Global, there are 10 emojis that just make you look old. Thumbs up is number one on the kill list. Next is the red heart, followed by the OK fingers, check mark, poo, crying face, monkey eye cover, clapping hands, red lip kiss, and grimace face.

If you think you’re having trouble discerning emoji meanings, it turns out that 78 percent of those surveyed said they innocently used an emoji before learning that it meant something other than what they thought it did. Even they were as confused as I am.

By the way, this surveyed population indicated they used an average of 76 emojis per week. Is it so hard to just say what you mean? Why can’t we just say we’re happy to hear someone’s good news? Or sad to hear of someone’s misfortune? And I still don’t know why you would want to send someone fecal matter (new puppy?).

Twenty-two percent of the survey group indicated that they use multiple emojis in texts in order to make it clearer. Huh. Or should I say, huh? If the recipient is confused by the meaning of the inserted emoji, how does that make the text more clear?

Why am I asking you? You are most likely a baby boomer who couldn’t give 2 you-know-what’s (see…you don’t need a pile of poop). I’m glad I got that off my chest and that there is no emoji for the word chest. Is there??

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.

Keep the money!

According to a national survey, 1 in 4 boomers believe that they can’t trust younger generations with an inheritance. Fine! Keep your money! Are you afraid you’re going to run out of dough and trust issues are just an excuse? Or you really think your kids are too dumb to do the right thing with the money?

Either way, it doesn’t say anything good about A) the way you handle your retirement funds or B) the way your brought up your kids.

Half of the respondents thought it was more important to enjoy life with the cash on hand than leave it behind as an inheritance. Okay, that’s more like it. Travel, play, enjoy yourselves (“it’s later than you think”) and the kids will be fine. When you’re gone, they can have the house and whatever is left in the bank and mutual funds. That’s not such a bad deal all the way around.

Is it too late to mention that close to 45 percent of Gen Xers and Millennials surveyed were confident that they would make good use of an inheritance. And why not? It’s found money. Almost like seeing a $100 bill laying on the ground. Only it’s 50, 60, or 100 thousand of them laying on the ground. Of course they will make good use of it. They could afford a nicer home, a more reliable car, better colleges for the kids and maybe a nice vacation now and then. Wouldn’t that make you happy knowing that your money can make your kids happy? No! You’re dead, remember?

Families and money. It can be a real palaver. In the end (and I mean that in the life cycle sense), all you can do is hope that whatever assets you leave behind are passed on to your progeny and they get some real pleasure out of whatever they do with that money. And if you enjoyed spending it when you were alive, all the better. Everyone’s happy. Unless you wanted to live to spend it a little longer. Can’t help you there.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.

The Future

Saw a disturbing headline today. “What is the future for baby boomers?”

I think/hope they were referring to lofty subjects such as eldercare, co-op housing, workplace transitions, etc. Otherwise, you would have to infer they were talking about the fact that we are not just retiring in great numbers, but also dying in great numbers.

Sorry about going a little dark here, but if you query Google for what year most baby boomers will die, you get the following: “Projected deaths rise steadily as the baby boomers age and eventually die, then plateau around 2045. By 2060, the tail end of the baby boom will be 95 or older.”

If the first thing you do upon seeing that statement is subtract 2022 from 2045, you are not alone. Let’s see…that’s 23 years from now. Twenty-three more years to live, breathe, travel, enjoy good food and fine wine, maybe visit places you’ve always wanted to see, finish reading the books you started but never completed, enjoy the companionship of one special friend (along with the other great friends and family in your life), play pickleball if still able, and the list could go on and on. I’ll let you make your own list.

But the picture is not all rosy. Life expectancies for boomers are improving all the time, but about 2.6 million boomers die each year. By 2050, that number will be 4 million each year. Whoosh! That’s the sound of positive thoughts now hurriedly escaping from your brain.

The point however, if there is one, is if we can just hang on in reasonably good health, there’s still a lot of time to enjoy life. The good health aspect is a major caveat. If you’re not taking good care of yourself, aren’t you just cheating yourself out of that 23-year package? That’s just a little nudge to get you out there walking and exercising. And flossing! Don’t forget flossing. No one really wants to travel to exotic places without their own teeth.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.

Crime Is Still Paying

The good news is that crime is going down. No, really. It’s been going down for the last 20 years. The arrest rate has gone down a third in that time.

As you would expect, most crimes are committed by younger, more agile folks. People who can jump over fences after a burglary, or outrun police after robbing someone at an ATM. But here’s the kicker. Crime among young people is decreasing at the same time that baby boomer crime is INCREASING. For adults aged 55 and older, there has been a twenty per cent increase. One way to read that statistic is that these boomers engaged in criminal activity when they were younger, and they are still at it. What the hell? Once a crook, always a crook, as someone close to me pointed out. She also mentioned a former President.

Other than fomenting insurrection, what sort of crimes are boomers committing? Like many other age groups, the crimes fall into the 4 major categories: murder/non-negligent manslaughter, robbery, rape, and aggravated assault.

If this is starting to worry you as much as it does me, we’re not alone. Think about the Gen Z kid who’s worried that Grandpa is cooking up a jewel heist or murdering his former business partner who ratted him out to the Feds for money laundering.

We are supposed to be retiring, moving to the Sunbelt and playing shuffleboard, not murdering anyone. What happened to the Summer of Love? That was 1967 in San Francisco. Timothy Leary told the hippie crowd to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” And many did just that. Unfortunately, many others followed the path of crime and now it’s clear that they are still on that path. Politicians alone must be responsible for a large chunk of boomer crime. Insider trading, misuse of government funds, misuse of campaign funds, bribery, perjury, tax evasion – the possibilities are endless.

If you are reading this and have committed a crime lately, my plea to you is “knock it off.” You’re making boomers look bad and we’ve done a fine job doing that without you adding to our bad reputation.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.

All Hail the 70'

It’s official. The 70s are going to be the best time of your life. Even if AARP didn’t come out with a recent survey that indicated people in their 70s were the happiest, I myself was feeling pretty darn happy, just so you know.

You can click the link for the AARP/National Geographic “Second Half of Life Study, but the bottom line is that people in their 70s are in one description, “doggedly optimistic” about their life and the future. Keep in mind, these people were interviewed post-COVID and they are still thinking positively about their lives and what’s ahead. Thirty-four percent of adults 80-plus and 27% of those in their 70s report they are “very happy,” compared to 21% of those 60 to 69, 18% of those 50 to 59 and 16% of those 40 to 49. According to the survey: 90% of respondents in their 70s said they were happy, compared with 81% in their 60s and 80% in their 40s.

Some observers have noted people in their 70s might be referred to as Generation X, for the lack of attention that they receive. It’s all about people in their 60s who are on the cusp of retirement, or people in their 80s who are beginning to face physical and cognitive limitations. You could say we’re the Rodney Dangerfield Generation, since we don’t get any respect.

How do we account for this extraordinary level of happiness? The simple, unscientific answer is that we’re boomers. Our generation is known for its sense of optimism and willingness to explore new things. These are people who flocked to San Francisco for the Summer of Love and hitchhiked to Woodstock without much more than a few dimes in their pockets. Now we are hitting the road again to see and do things we’ve not done before. As one observer put it, the seeds of being boomers in their youth are now growing into a sense of tranquility that other generations can only aspire to gain.

I congratulate you if you are 70+ and reading these words. You’ve made it, found more happiness than most, and can just focus on enjoying the years ahead. For those not yet 70 –  the best is yet to come.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.

Best of BoomSpeak

2006. Remember where you were or what you were doing? I had to stop and think about where I was living and working. Oh, right. I was the Creative Director at DesignConcept and had this idea that since everyone was blogging about something, it might be a good time to create a blog devoted to being a baby boomer. It had a funny name at first, but then we settled on BoomSpeak because that seemed to fit for a blog that would give boomers a voice and an opportunity to express their thoughts on growing up and aging as boomers. We thought it might make money by selling ads. Ha! Another fantasy crushed!

Thanks to longtime contributor Harpeth Rivers for suggesting that we put out a collection of the best of BoomSpeak. As I note in the subtitle, I think they are all great or I would not have put them in the blog in the first place. Thanks also go to all our faithful readers and contributors for sticking with us for the long haul, and to Jim Fanzone @ DesignConcept for the cover art.

It was surprising to scroll through our online archives and realize how many contributors we have had in sixteen years. We selected what we thought were the best posts and that was not easy — there were so many gems. You have our most sincere gratitude for selflessly allowing us to share your words and thoughts.

We hope you find this BoomSpeak anthology entertaining, and thanks again for coming and going along for the ride.

If you ever contributed a piece that we published, you might find it in this anthology. A sneaky way to get you to buy the paperback or Kindle version?? Yeah, so what? It would be the first time there was any monetary profit to putting out this ezine for 16 years.

Click here to order your edition, and thanks again for being part of the BoomSpeak experience. Much appreciated.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon. Best of BoomSpeak is now available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.

Muscling In

We’re melting. Well not really melting, more like shrinking. No, shrinking isn’t the right term either. We have muscles, but they are slowly wilting.

Wilting is a better word. But the actual loss of muscle mass is a bit scary. Starting at age 40, 8 per cent of our muscle mass just disappears. If that wasn’t bad enough, the research indicates that we then continue to lose another 8 per cent each decade.

Stay with me now. That means you lose 16 per cent of muscle mass by age 60, 24 per cent by age 70, and 32 per cent by age 80. When I see these numbers, I start to imagine that we’re going to be just skin and bones in our 80s. Come to think of it, that’s what our parents did look like in their 80s.

Are we going to just take this lying down? Because we’re just too weak and lacking enough muscle to stand up? NO!

Okay, maybe. If we do nothing to change the course of this wilting muscle mass phenomenon, we will be limp noodles that can barely pick up a cup of java in the morning (a loss of unparalleled magnitude for many).

Or, and you know what’s coming, we pick up the free weights and start lifting. And the TV remote does not qualify as a free weight. We are talking about those little barbells that come in 4, 6, 8, 10, 12-pound varieties. You lift them up out to the side, over your head, and in any other approved motion. Some people even use water bottles if they don’t want to bother with the free weights. AARP has loads of info on strength training.

The objective is to keep the muscle mass you have, not to end up looking like Popeye. Not that the Popeye look would be so bad, it’s just over the top when you’re 80 years old.

Boomers are getting butt lifts, neck lifts, breast lifts, cheek lifts, hair plugs, and a raft of other procedures that are generally designed to tighten up their bodies. Spending all that money and time on these procedures without addressing diminished muscle mass means they could still end up being a bag of bones.

If you want to lift something for a better body, go out and get some free weights. Tell them Popeye sent you.

Jay Harrison is a writer and creative consultant for DesignConcept. You can also visit his author page here. His newest mystery novel, Rio Puerco Demise is available on Amazon. His first mystery novel, Head Above Water, is also available on Amazon.