My Decade of Turning 50

When I mentioned in a recent post about a prayer list for turning 50 years old, I was thinking of a colleague who recently was diagnosed with cancer. I and others have added him to our prayers, and combined with his treatment, his attitude, and his family, we expect to see him again soon back [...]

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Oh a story I just read brought back memories of first going online, in those heady days of chat rooms in AOL — the smiley face ASCII art — you know, these — is turning 25 years old. According to this article: Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to [...]

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I ran a post recently with the YouTube video of “Done Got Old“, which made me think about some other songs about aging that could be used for a slideshow or roast for a baby boomer turning 50 years old. There are a couple of obvious ones — The Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four,” or Frank [...]

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My other favorite boomer blog, The Boomer Chronicles, weighs into with a post titled “Male Menopause is an oxymoron.” I remember sitting through a conference workshop in the mid-1990s on this subject, and both blushing and leaving the room in fear of my 50s. Of course, at 40-something, 50 seemed a distance island I would [...]

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I’ve been thinking some about songs appropriate for turning 50 (hey, it’s not all about jokes!). My favorite is Buddy Guy’s version of “Done Got Old.” I could see someone using part of it in a video tribute, or buy it in iTunes and lay it under a slideshow of the person turning 50 for [...]

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I wish I had a camera when as I drove to work this morning — and, yes, I apparently am the last person in America without a cell phone camera. I passed a Baptist Church in Apopka, Florida, whose sign said this: Sunday, Sept. 910:15 a.m.Armageddon I’m hoping they are showing the 1998 asteroid-threat movie [...]

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My mother used to say that you were lucky to have one good friend. Well, drawn in by my former boss and seismic changes in journalism, I joined Facebook today. Somehow I now have five friends..wait, six! Josh just accepted me as a friend. Wow, the joy of excess. What began as a social networking [...]

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I’m probably the last guy to see this, but it is both fun and scary — it’s the AARP rap. Unlike other stuff on YouTube, this isn’t a parody, unless you consider it self-parody, since it appears made by AARP. For whom? I wouldn’t want to guess with lines like “One thing you have to [...]

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I like life lists. I’ve made them here and there, mostly in my head. Apparently (surprise!) I am not alone as an-obsessed-with-how-much-time-I-have-left baby boomer turning 50. The New York Times this weekend wrote about such lists of things to do before you die in an article with the funny headline (and story structure) called “Ten [...]

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Here’s a toast or roast joke about someone turning 50 years old. (Yes, it’s a real groaner but what toast/roast is complete without one or two of those.) Insert the name of your favorite birthday boy or girl: “I was talking to John the other day and he said he was changing his last name [...]

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