We boomers have seen change in our decades on earth. Lots of it. Some is for the better, but not all. BoomerCafé co-founder and publisher David Henderson is nostalgic for some of the good things we had not long ago … and has figured out how to get them back!

I especially loved the picture of a TV test pattern, something I hadn’t seen in decades. I never understood why there was the image of a Native American in full headdress used on a TV test pattern.

Maybe those images are nostalgic for some baby boomers. For me, they were a reminder of what we have permitted our environment to become. We grew up in a simpler world than today’s. It was a time of greater substance and quality, I believe. We may not have had much money but we were richer in many other ways.

Among the images in that email were two that really caught my attention – one of a nickel Coca-Cola, and the other was a McDonalds’ sign advertising a burger for 15 cents. I remember that Cokes tasted better back then, and only later learned it was because they were sweetened with sugar. Today, Cokes are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a chemical brewed from genetically modified and inedible type of corn and toxic acids. Our bodies digest sugar because it is a food while corn syrup lacks any nutritional value, is high in starch, and makes us fat. Burgers at McDonald’s tasted better back then because the meat was leaner. Those were the days when cattle grazed on grass; today, they are fattened in feedlots on that same inedible corn mulch and antibiotics.

While there may not have been the abundance of food choices we have today, the quality of food we had while growing up was better. Then it all changed, and the American diet became corn-based … and many Americans became obese.

Today, corn syrup is ubiquitous in the food we buy in grocery stores even though it is a harmful chemical and is banned in many countries around the world. Walk through the aisles of most supermarkets and read the ingredients. Not only is corn syrup used in nearly every soda drink and many so-called “natural” juices but even in whole wheat bread, wrapped in a label that suggests it is good for you.

Quite a bit is being written about the hazards of consuming high fructose corn syrup.  A study by Texas researchers, for example, shows that the body converts fructose to body fat with “surprising speed.”

An article in August 2008 “Wellness Letter” from the University of California carries an article, “High Fructose Corn Syrup - Not Such Sweet News.”  It warns, “If you consume lots of HFCS-sweetened soft drinks and foods, or lots of any type of added sugar, cut down.”

I wrote about the hazards of corn syrup last December in my BoomerCafé piece, An Edible Quest. We are the only country in the world that has permitted proliferation of corn-based chemical substances in our foods that is harmful to our health.

A talented team of young filmmakers – Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis and Aaron Woolf – has produced a documentary, King Corn, that reveals that almost everything Americans eat contains corn. High fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet in the United States.

Today, nearly everything at McDonald’s and the other so-called fast food places is corn-based. Why? Because corn processed food is cheap to produce. It may not be good for you but it’s cheap.

Not only is the corn-based diet directly linked to obesity in America but also to an increase in heart disease and Type II diabetes, which is ravaging urban areas. America’s addiction to corny sweets is killing us, and our government is subsidizing it, according to King Corn, by providing financial incentives to farmers to grow greater amounts of the inedible modified type of corn, using powerful herbicides. By the way, it’s the same kind of corn used to produce ethanol that is mixed with gasoline to fuel our vehicles.

My wife and I, by contrast, have consciously avoided corn syrup and corn-processed foods for several years, preferring instead wild-caught fish, organic vegetables, and fresh fruit from local sources when possible … and we have been healthier, I believe, because of it. Eating better may cost us a little more but there’s an upside. We are returning ourselves to a time when quality of food was more important than it is now, and when food actually tasted nutritious because it was.

It took watching King Corn, shown recently on PBS Television, to remind me of the dangers present everywhere in the normal American diet, and what we have allowed the American food chain to become. That’s something to be really nostalgic about!

One thing I hate is to find myself repeating — or to hear someone else repeating — is some slogan or phrase we’ve heard on TV or in a movie. You know, things like, “Make my day,” or the sarcastic use and tone of the word, “Whatever.” We’ve all done it but I think it shows a certain lack of independent thought, and I kick myself mentally when I fall into the trap.

That said, there is some reality, I believe, behind the concept for some TV commercial where we see, say, Dennis Hopper — looking good at age 72 by way of cosmetic surgery, no doubt — hawking some company’s product by saying something like, “50 is the new 40.” I might still have no idea what the company or service is, but I am struck by the meaning of the phrase.

Here I am in my early 60s now, and not a day goes by that I don’t wonder to myself, “Where did all the time go?” I don’t look or feel like I’m in my 60s. I feel 40. Well, I’ve got a bum knee from bicycling but that could happen to anyone. But here’s my point: I am at the age when my parents were about to retire, and I have no interest in retiring … not soon, and maybe not ever.

Sure, my wife and I talk about how much fun it might be to find a nice place somewhere in Europe to escape the chaos and hostility of the nation’s capital, where we live. But with the dollar in such an incredibly weak and devalued state against just about every currency in the world, including Canada’s (can you imagine that?!!), we can no longer afford our fantasy of living abroad. Even if we could, the thought of just kicking back and doing nothing … i.e., retiring … feels boring, even repugnant. There’s too much to be done!

Besides, maybe Europe can better and more affordably be enjoyed through vacations there, like our annual visit to a remote valley where we hike though the breathtaking natural environment of Switzerland.

This is perhaps the most exciting time of our lives. For me, I am drawing on years of experience and contacts in my consulting practice; I’ve just finished writing a second book, which will be published next January; and I’ve self-taught myself more about today’s exciting online blogosphere than many nerds in Silicon Valley. If it weren’t for the darned knee, I’d be racing around on my Trek bike. But, I remember … that’s what caused the knee issue in the first place.

I keep thinking about a really neat email I received the other day from a young technology developer in Bath, England, who is clearly wise beyond his years. He wrote, “You sound very much like my parents. They have reached what used to be considered retirement age but are both busier than ever and seem very happy with it. My personal belief is that retirement per se is an outdated concept. Perhaps it just changes to undertaking less paid or more non-paid work.”

“Retirement per se is an outdated concept.” Wow, that’s really cool and well said from a young man who made a conscious and smart decision to leave the chaos of London for a different and more satisfying lifestyle in the beautiful English city of Bath. For me, perhaps that is the phrase to live by at this stage of my baby boomer life: retirement is an outdated concept … because it best states precisely how I think, what I am doing, and how I feel.

So, my thanks to Keir, the young man in Bath, for the gift of my new motto to live by. His words are far more in-tune and valid with who we are as baby boomers than anything we might hear on TV or at the movies. Even if Dennis Hopper says it!

[Listen to the interview with Juliet Stevenson online - click here]

David: Juliet, how are you handling middle-age? You are phenomenally talented. I’ve noticed that you are very busy and have done something like 20 films in the last eight years. How do you do it?

Juliet: Have I? I haven’t counted. Yes, I have worked a lot. I spend my whole life juggling … my children and my work and my partner, Hugh (Brody), and other things besides. I just consider myself like anybody else who is doing that … and most women I know are doing that. I think it is kind of crazy and there are times when I think that I’ve bitten off a little more than I can chew.

I wouldn’t have it otherwise, and I haven’t noticed any drop-off of stamina much. I haven’t yet experienced a lot of energy loss. People say it happens to you in your 40s but I don’t really feel that … yet. I guess it’s easy if you have natural stamina. I think it’s genetic … my Mum is 83, and she’s still tearing around. I don’t tire that easily.

I have had my kids late, and that does make for some degree of exhaustion. My littlest is only seven, and he needs a lot of running around … football in the park, up early and bed late … but I asked for this. These are all choices I made, and I wouldn’t have asked for them if I didn’t think I could somehow manage them. It’s like anything – you derive energy from what you like to do and I love my kids to pieces and I would never have managed sustaining a career without children like this. They just keep me sane.

I think that as you get to middle-age I think that one of the great problems is that you start to see the work you do and the industry you are in with a much more saturnine eye … I’m not in love with the (motion picture) industry or the business anymore, and that’s for certain. When the work is good, it’s still thrilling. When the script arrives that’s truthful and exciting and original, I love it as much as I ever did but there’s a lot about the profession that I dislike, and I think I would have found it very hard to go on in it if I hadn’t had kids to enable me just to step right out of it and get a perspective on it. So the two different aspects of your life complement each other in a way.

David: Wasn’t it last year … you were cast as Colin Firth’s mother in the film, “And, When Did You Last See Your Father.”  How did that feel?

Juliet:  I know … outrageous wasn’t it?!

David: And, you are about the same age!

Juliet:  I think I’m about three years older than Colin … I know (laughter).  The character … I had to go between mid-30s through late 60 … 70.  I thought, how am I ever going to play 70!  That’s crazy! Well, I had a lot of latex (makeup) … let’s just get that out there …

[Listen to the interview with Juliet Stevenson online - click here]

David: I saw similarities between the character Nina that you played in “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and the character of Julia in your new film, “A Previous Engagement.” Both seem like intense yet vulnerable women.

Juliet: I thought that, too, but I really hadn’t thought about it. When I watched “A Previous Engagement,” I thought, gosh she’s like a … she is an older Nina. I completely agree, and I think that has to do with the writing.

Joan (Carr-Wiggin, who wrote “A Previous Engagement”) writes fantastic dialogue. I thought the dialogue was the best dialogue I’d had in a movie since “Truly, Madly, Deeply.” She just understands the rhythms of speech and how the heart and the head are just furiously fighting for attention when you speak. You delude yourself with language and then you backtrack … sentences are broken up … nobody speaks in perfect sentences and most writers don’t recognize that. But Joan really does understand about the way people think, the fragmentation of thought and the infusion of thought with passion. She just understands the rhythms that connect you up.

And, I think there is something similar in the character Joan had written … very similar to Nina. Both characters are quirky, full of contradictions. Both are very intelligent but also capable of making really daft decisions and not always knowing herself well enough to make a wise decision and yet impulsive on the one hand and cautious on the other … wanting adventure, terrified of adventure. That comes from the writers. It’s amazing how few writers are really able to write dialogue that reflects the complexity of who we really are. As an actor, you get that dialogue in your mouth, it releases you, it gives you scope and you really play it.

David: Tell me about your interest in human rights … to help asylum seekers in England.

Juliet: I recently mounted an event in London … it is to give voice to people seeking asylum in England, mothers and children shut up in detention centers without lawyers or protection. I am very ashamed with what this country has become in the way it deals about the asylum process. It’s cruel, it’s humiliating, it’s degrading and for those who have to experience it and for those whose country it is, at best it’s an embarrassment and at worst an outrage. It’s having a terrible impact on a large number of people. I just can’t stand it that England is like that. It shouldn’t be like that. We have such wealth, so many resources. People are just asking for a fair hearing. We should be a country proud of offering refuge to people in need of it, and I can’t stand it that it is not that anymore, and the government has fallen prey to the tabloid press who are always priding themselves on tough immigration control.

David: Do you have any advice to share with women in their 40s and 50s about relationships, career and the challenges they face at this point in their lives?

Juliet: I suppose I would say of my own experience … I think I function best when I ignore. When I function from a sense of who I am, based on a sense of who I feel myself to be inside, and not try to conform to what the world expects me to be from the outside because of my age. When I am just functioning from instinct and from those internal drives that shape your day, I don’t take much notice of age. Age kind of runs alongside, like a reality that’s jogging beside you.

If you look at yourself in the mirror and see what the world sees, and you say, “God, I’m this age and I’d better behave like this and this and this because that’s what people expect from a middle-aged woman,” I think that’s going to doom me to a pretty depressing existence. Whereas, if you just be who you are, be who you feel yourself to be – if you feel yourself to be 80 one day, okay then be 80, but if you feel yourself to be 22 the next day, be 22.

But, especially to women, do not buy in to what the world tells you to be … don’t give up on your expectations of sensuality or don’t take the world’s value of you. Develop a sense of your own value and worth and try to defend it from what the world will tell you your value is. Because, for women, the world will value you very much for your external appearances and age is going to impact on that very, very significantly but that’s not having anything to do with the experience of being alive.

[Listen to the interview with Juliet Stevenson online - click here]

Our generation may be getting a few gray hairs but that hasn’t slowed us from embracing new technology, like the switch in photography from film to digital. I only have one friend who is still using film. Everyone else has switched to digital.

I love digital photography, and a couple of things started me thinking recently about getting a new digital camera.

First, was the pain I endured lugging around my Nikon D70s SLR during a hiking vacation in the Swiss Alps last summer. The Nikon can capture outstanding images but feels like a brick on a strap that’s slung over your shoulder. Who needs that weight during a long hike? Give me something lightweight that takes superb photos.

Second, while my other camera, a small and lightweight Canon SD600 point-and-shoot camera, takes pretty good pictures, there have been technology advancements in the couple of years since I bought it. Digital cameras now sport “VR” or image vibration reduction (a nice feature because some of us baby boomers tend to shake a little), wide angle lenses and more megapixels, which the camera manufacturers suggest is better.

So, I set off to conduct my own evaluation and find the best of the latest lightweight point-and-shoot digital cameras under $300. The results surprised me … mostly because some of these new cameras produce professional-quality photos.

While online camera stores have lower prices … and I certainly do my share of online shopping … I am old-fashioned when buying something like a camera. I want to hold it and try it out. The only place is an old-fashioned bricks-and-mortar camera store.

The strategy I suggest to check out new digital cameras is to take along your older digital camera with an empty memory card and test-shoot a few pictures of the same scene at the store on each camera, using the same memory card, and compare those photos against those taken by your older camera. It’s really the only way to conduct a valid test. Explain to the sales person what you intend to do. Then, take the card home, load all the pictures on your computer and evaluate the results.

There are so many good cameras on the market but some have silly limitations. For example, some require only the manufacturer’s proprietary memory cards. Another models only give you a heavy desktop charger, a real nuisance when traveling.

The cameras I selected to consider were Nikon’s ultra-small and lightweight S600, and Canon’s SD870. Both are priced under $300 and have 10-megapixels and 8-megapixels respectively, and both feature wide-angle lenses, a big plus in my book. Other good cameras that deserve a look are Panasonic’s Lumix models, although I have read a few mixed reviews about them. Nikon and Canon are the leading brands and safe bets.

I should note briefly … and it only deserves brief mention … that the megapixel size issue has gotten to be really a mute point in these cameras unless you plan to blow up and print pictures for super-size posters. Other than that, it really doesn’t matter and has become more marketing hype among the camera manufacturers than anything else. What matters most is how you subjectively judge image quality and what you like and dislike in a camera.

The “feel” of Canon’s top-of-the line SD870 point-and-shoot in my hands suggests high quality in a camera, and the shooting menu is outstanding. Canon has smartly carried the intuitive style of their camera menus throughout its models. What I found most appealing about the SD870 is that the photos the small camera captures look natural, much as your eyes see a scene or object.

Here’s a natural light photo taken with a Canon SD870 at a recent reunion of the ’70s rock band, The Desperados.

The shooting menu of Nikon’s new S600 defies logic and intuition. It’s a confusing mess. Even the fellow at the camera store struggled with understanding the settings, and he had attended a Nikon workshop! Image quality wasn’t impressive. Reds tended to be over-saturated and unnatural-looking. Incidentally, I called Nikon to get a better understanding of the S600’s problems and was referred to their PR agency … but no one at the PR agency returned phone calls or emails.

Whether you have a new digital camera or an older one, here are my tips for improving picture quality:

1. Manually set the camera to take the highest possible resolution of pictures. This is the single most important thing you can do to improve picture quality. In the setup menu, find picture quality among the settings … often in the Function menu … and adjust it for the largest possible picture size and superfine quality. You will note that such a setting will reduce the number of pictures you can take on a memory card but that no longer is an issue because large capacity memory cards are cheap. This optimized camera setting will result in dramatically better quality pictures.
2. Consciously think about holding the camera steady when you shoot a picture, and you eliminate any need for “VR” or image vibration reduction.
3. Keep the lens clean. Toilet paper … unused … is ideal for cleaning a camera lens.
4. If the rechargeable battery in your older camera is failing, buy another one. Datamem.com is a great source for camera memory and batteries.
5. Finally, paying a higher price for a digital point-and-shoot camera does not equate to better quality pictures, as I learned with the Nikon S600. Canon’s SD1100, for example, costs less and takes superb pictures. Only big difference is it lacks the wide-angle lens.

If you need a new camera, Canon SD870 would be my first choice followed closely by the SD1100.

By the way, here’s a photo I took recently with my Canon SD600 camera of doves that were nesting outside our house. Click on it to enlarge. Not bad?!

When I was a kid growing up in the Washington, D.C. area, American Airlines had one of the most romantic images in the sky, with its shiny silver planes. My family didn’t travel by air often because we, like a lot of Americans in the post-World War II era, just didn’t have the money. But I remember the … well, it was the feeling of riding on a plane back then and sitting in a seat that was actually spacious even for an adult and swallowed up a kid like me. All that is fast-changing before our eyes. We baby boomers may be the last generation with those memories of great legacy airlines … and great service.

And with the huge catastrophe in early April when American had to cancel thousands of flights to make minor repairs to many of its aircraft, I think we may have witnessed the death of American Airlines’ brand reputation, caused largely by self-inflicted poor corporate communications. Just plain bad PR. Yes, the airline was faced with the real problem of fixing the aging wiring in its aging fleet of MD-80 jetliners, some dating back to the ’70s. Yes, the airline should have been able to spread it out over months rather than being forced into immediate and economically costly action by the FAA. Yes, the airline dragged it feet while the top executives were paid millions to keep down expenses.

It would have been so easy to get out ahead of this aggravating issue for the flying public, use more contemporary methods of communications, and show some empathy. But American created its own form of crisis communications by poor communications and lousy PR. There’s a lesson here for other companies in the U.S.

Ripping a page from 1970s-style corporate communications, American’s CEO, Gerald Arpey, said there was nothing to be alarmed about. “Irrespective of FAA oversight, no one would put a plane in service that wasn’t safe,” he told The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I put my kids on these airplanes all the time.”

A lot of people today might be responding, “Gee, Mr. Arpey, I don’t really care about you or your kids … I just wanted to get home because my mom was ill” or “We wanted to attend a wedding tomorrow … but we can’t because you screwed up.”

Why didn’t Arpey call the nation’s media to the airline’s repair hubs and personally show them the relatively minor nature of repairs and try to explain the problems? Why wasn’t he the “voice” of his airline, as Richard Branson would have been, rather than issue a series of statements through a spokesperson?

Why didn’t Arpey show up at key cities and personally apologize to passengers who got slammed by the airline with cancelled flights and spotty refunds? Why wasn’t he walking the ticket counters, interacting with customers, taking their names and personally making promises to make good on their inconvenience? Why didn’t the airline make better use of the Web to reach out to the hundreds of thousands of passengers who got stuck and penalized when clearly it was American’s fault? This is modern corporate PR. American acted like it was 1978, not 2008.

If you checked American’s web site during the week when they shut down thousands of flights and inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of travelers, it appeared to be business as normal … except for one little line: “Aircraft inspections affect some AA travel.” No kidding.

I think American Airlines dug a hole so deep that it’ll be hard to fly out of. What they could have done when we were kids didn’t work. You’d think the baby boomers running the company would have figured that out.

I don’t know whether it is an indication of greater awareness or personal preference or maturing in my likes and dislikes … but I have been paying a lot more attention over the last decade or so to the quality of food I eat.

I love fish so why eat farm raised when wild caught fish is available even though it might cost a little more? Why drink mundane coffee when really outstanding coffee, such as Lavazza, costs no more, as I have previously written on BoomerCafé? Why eat meats, fruits and vegetables that are loaded of chemicals and growth hormones when organic and much healthier food is readily available?

And … so it is with granola, something I consider to be a soul food of the baby boomer generation.

I remember finding granola back in the ‘70s that was downright … yummy. It was made from fresh, healthy and organic ingredients. But, then, granola seemed to disappear to a large extent as a breakfast food as America turned to more processed foods. Much of the granola available on grocery shelves today is made from highly processed ingredients and sweetened with corn syrup, a toxic super-sweetener that’s banned in most countries. Consequently, the food value has been lost.

But, all that has changed for me. I rediscovered organic granola, made not by a baby boomer but by a younger woman named Michele Thornett (right), who simply desired to make better quality food than her baby boomer parents.

Michele founded a company in Silver Spring, Maryland, called, Michele’s Granola – made by hand with all-natural ingredients. Business is booming … among boomers, like me. All of a sudden, I have rediscovered a healthy food for breakfast.

“I actually think my interest in cooking and baking began because my (baby boomer) parents didn’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen,” Michele tells me. “I remember a lot of pre-packaged and frozen foods in my childhood. I had an interest in health foods and cooking and baking from scratch, so I liked to step in and make family dinners, birthday cakes, etc.

“But, I fell in love with granola while spending a summer on Martha’s Vineyard. A bakery there made wonderful granola bars. I ate one almost every day and I couldn’t find anything nearly as fresh or delicious when I moved back to the Washington, DC, area. Every product seemed to skimp on the good, crunchy stuff like seeds and nuts. So I began experimenting with my own recipes, giving granola to friends as gifts, and when I started working at the farmers market, a business was born.”

I’m hooked on Michele’s granola. It’s the best I’ve ever found, anywhere. And, you can now order it online.

Here’s a really neat part — A portion of the proceeds from Michele’s Granola is donated to help low-income women in developing countries start food businesses of their own. Visit KIVA.org to learn more!

[Editor's note: on February 11, 2008, service failed for approximately 12-million Blackberry users worldwide, blamed on a server failure at the company's headquarters in Canada. It was the second major service failure in the last year.]

Living in the Washington, D.C., area, it seems as if everyone has a Blackberry. People are addicted to them and check their Blackberrys compulsively for messages — while walking down the street, during lunch, during meetings, in the Metro … everywhere. Every which way you turn, you see people holding the wireless device, heads bowed in which has been nicknamed, “the Blackberry prayer.”

I was having a business luncheon meeting with a woman who worked at Nextel to discuss a project, and she kept checking her Blackberry every minute or so. She kept it in her purse beside her, and so, she would reach over to her purse, remove her Blackberry and check messages … all while continuing to talk with me. Finally, I asked her, out of curiosity, what she was doing. She replied that she was on Match.com and just checking to see if anyone had responded to her profile. Clearly, I knew where I stood in that luncheon meeting! (Incidentally, Nextel didn’t sell the Blackberry at the time so obviously she was using some other cell phone service.)

Now, Apple’s much-touted iPhone is on the scene, competing with Blackberry, and the choice of which one to use is more difficult to make, no doubt, than the Nextel marketing lady trying to figure out which Match.com guy might be a real big-shot and have a ton of money, making him attractive to pursue.

I think I’ve got the iPhone-Blackberry thing figured out … I have both – an iPhone for personal communication and a Blackberry for work. It’s not by choice but necessity, and the reason gets into a curious dynamic about where the whole computer scene is headed. You may know what I’m talking about – that “Mac versus PC” thing.

Blackberrys are designed primarily for Windows PCs … iPhones – created by Apple – will work with either PCs (Windows) or Mac computers. Therein is the rub – many diehard Windows PC people look upon anything Apple as … sort of the anti-Christ of the tech world. I’m not kidding … the suspicion by a few people of Apple products is akin to some form of … well, emotional extremism (or … is it fear?)

At work, I simply have no other choice but to use a Blackberry for wireless email because someone bought into the myth that Blackberry technology is more secure than iPhone. That’s not, in fact, true, and it’s being confirmed by the switch by U.S. government agencies, such as Homeland Security and the FBI, from Blackberry to iPhone. Let me explain:

Even though your company may believe that Blackberrys are the most secure, all emails sent to and from your Blackberry are routed through third-party servers in Canada and elsewhere outside the United States that are owned by Research In Motion, the parent company of Blackberry. I’m not suggesting there’s anything wrong with that except that it debunks the myth about enhanced security. It’s sort of like your bank informing you that they are out-sourcing management of your checking account to someone in Berzerkistan.

iPhones, on the other hand, do not rely on third party servers and have all of the security features of Blackberry for email. iPhones sync with your computer - Windows PC or Mac - to provide updated calendars, contacts, photos, iTunes and many other handy communications features. The telephone component of an iPhone is like no other mobile phone I’ve seen and allows you to put calls on hold to pick up an incoming call or direct it to voicemail or conference. You can also surf the Web, just like on your computer. The iPhone is actually a computer in the palm of your hand. Okay, my friends tell me I sound like a walking Apple commercial so I’ll stop it.

A silly notion swirls around the iPhone — driven, I believe, by computer hackers and Apple’s competitors — as to why the iPhone is not open or unlocked so it can be used on any cell phone service other than ATT Wireless. I don’t really understand this because … what’s wrong with ATT? ATT is unquestionably a heck of a lot better than Nextel/Sprint, the former company I used that had customer service in some far-off, yet-to-be-named country where English is a fourth language.

The bottom-line is that whether Blackberry or iPhone, these sophisticated wireless devices are very cool. If you are a baby boomer like me who often travels with a laptop, it’s only going to be a matter of time until we decide it’s handier and certainly lighter just to use an iPhone or Blackberry to access email, the Web and as a mobile phone.

As for me … well, after years of using PCs and putting up with spyware, viruses, “missing .dll” files and all that crap, I gave away everything PC and am totally Mac … and, you know what?! Everything works, and I’m more productive. It was one of my smartest decisions, including investing in an iPhone.

I was watching “The Big Chill” again the other day… for the umpteenth time … with my wife, and I realized that the film was released in 1983 … 25 years ago! Everything about the film was charmed – the cast, the storyline, the setting, the time in our lives as baby boomers, and … the music. Just as “The Big Chill” has become a classic, so has its soundtrack. What a contrast from today’s music.

Now, let me say something … at the risk of sounding like my parents sounded when I was a teen … something that is blatantly socially incorrect: I think much of today’s popular music (or whatever it is called) is pure crap. Nearly all of it sounds the same. There is such a dark sameness in the themes of today’s popular music – guns, violence, abuse, sex, degradation of women. Crap with few redeeming qualities.

Working out at the Y this afternoon, listening to my iPod, I decided that maybe it is time to update my Top 10 list of great songs from the baby boomer generation.

But before I do, just let me take my ball cap off in sincere tribute to Steve Jobs for conceiving of the iPod. At a time early in this decade when illegal music-sharing was rampant, and the Record Industry Association of America in Washington, D.C., couldn’t think of any constructive solution but to sue children for sharing songs, Jobs was creating the iPod and a brilliant music management system called iTunes, where you can organize your music library and purchase music. Jobs is a titan. I have two iPods, by the way.

Now, back to my revised Top 10, plus a little commentary about why:

1. Every Picture Tells a Story – Rod Stewart. Some of us knew the life of adventure in the 70s and traveling ‘round the world on the spur of the moment that Stewart describes. Remembering those times, it is a wonder we are still alive.

2. Laughing – David Crosby. The lyrics are about questioning myth and conventional wisdom. It was recorded by the awesome engineer Steve Barncard during a magical session in the San Francisco area and featured Jerry Garcia and a breathy cameo by Joni.

3. Bitch – The Rolling Stones. Hard-driving rock.

4. Refuge of the Roads – Joni. It was a trip along the coast, north of San Francisco, in 1972.

5. Mustang Sally – Wilson Pickett. Even today, there is nothing like a hot lady driving a classic early Mustang.

6. Long May You Run – Neil Young. Did you know this? Young wrote the story about his beloved car, a hearse he called Mort.

7. Bang The Drum Softly – Emmylou Harris. A haunting song of heartbreak from the Vietnam War, it’s just as meaningful today with the senseless war in Iraq. She grew up in Lorton, Virginia, not far from where I grew up. Damn… wish I knew it at the time. She’s still hot.

8. Roll Me Away – Bob Seger. I have wondered how many people have heard this song and begun questioning the value of a mundane life.

9. Abraham, Martin and John – Dion and the Belmonts. Dion summed up the emotion of the 60s better than anyone.

10. I Heard It Through The Grapevine – Marvin Gaye. Who can sit still when they hear this? Is this the theme song of the boomer generation?

Well, that’s my Top 10. No crap! Just classic rock. How about your favorites?

When we baby boomers were kids, we were exposed to a pack of lies, and we’re suffering for it today. And we keep getting reminded of it.

Here’s what I mean: an American friend returned recently from Canada raving about how good Coca-Cola tastes there. I don’t drink many sugar beverages but I had a Coke not long ago while working in Slovenia in Central Eastern Europe, and it was actually pretty good and reminded me of the soda fountain Cokes of my youth. It was during that trip that I also bought a bag of Peanut M&Ms during a stopover at Frankfurt airport, and they, too, tasted better than the same candy in America.

Candy and sodas aside, I find that the quality of food products is better nearly anywhere in the world than in the United States. There are easy explanations but at the top of the list are corn syrup and polyunsaturated fats.

Banned in most places on the planet as toxic substances, corn syrup and trans fats are loaded into processed foods in the U.S.

Corn syrup is a high intensity genetically modified super-sweetener made from corn, intended to prolong the shelf-life of products and create an artificial craving for more of whatever we are eating that contains the stuff. Sprite doesn’t want you to have just one can but several to quench your thirst, and corn syrup is just the trick to do it. The corn syrup tells your mind that you need more. The problem is that some people cannot stop the craving, and obesity is one of the many bad results.

Many baby boomers grew up watching the TV ads promoting products, like margarine, that are made with trans fat. Problem was … it was all a lie. Trans fat is not just bad for you, it can kill you. Companies have replaced butter and other natural ingredients with trans fat because it is cheap. Like corn syrup, trans fats are chemicals with no food or nutritional value. Eating trans fats is bad particularly for baby boomers because it increases the risk of coronary heart disease.

[Update: In a bold move, the new Chairman of the Arlington County, Virginia, Board - J. Walter Tejada - said he would encourage restaurants to ban the use of trans fats in foods.]

Let’s see … corn syrup is almost inescapable in America, and the U.S. has the most obese citizens in the world. Trans fats are loaded into foods, and the U.S. has one of the greatest instances of health disease. Am I connecting the dots?

The third thing that’s killing us is salt. God, what is it with the compulsion restaurants have to put too much salt into the food they serve us even though so many of us are aware of the link between salt and high blood pressure. I had a dinner last evening at a supposedly good restaurant in the Hyatt at Cambridge, Maryland, and the meal was inedible because of too much salt. I don’t want to single out Hyatt because the problem of over-salting is endemic at most eating places across America.

But it doesn’t end with corn syrup, trans fats, and salt. I love salmon but most of the salmon served in restaurants is farm-raised. What’s worse, they don’t always admit it. When I asked the chef at a restaurant whether his salmon was farm-raised or wild-caught, he proudly proclaimed that it was neither – his salmon was “organic” and came from Scotland. I’ve seen the so-called “organic” fish farms in Scotland and, believe me, there is nothing organic about it – the fish are jammed into floating cages so tightly that they can barely swim among their own poop. Organic salmon may be a marketing slogan but it’s still crap.

So, what’s the problem? We’re baby boomers, presumably the most educated generation in history. So why do we accept such a preponderance of really poor quality food in America? The answer is complex – advertising, lobbying, and complacency. We are brainwashed by advertising. The fat cats who profit from corn syrup and trans fats hire expensive lobbyists to get approvals in Washington. And maybe, we have just become a little too accepting that the piece of chicken the server places in front of us is actually chicken and not a chemistry set of antibiotics and growth hormones.

Okay, I admit it … I am particular about the quality of food that I eat. But if we don’t complain, who will?

It had never occurred to me … as my wife and I arrived in a remote part of Switzerland’s Engadin region for our vacation of hiking and relaxing … that the sport of hiking has its own culture. Hiking is certainly not an exclusive culture, like ocean yacht racing, or showy, like polo, or boisterous, like football. I suppose it is more like golf, without the funny looking trousers and clubhouses. Well, on second thought … maybe not.

The culture of hiking is different from anything I have experienced. Let me try to explain.

We had driven for several hours on two-lane, twisty-turny roads through Austria and Switzerland to reach a town called Sils-Maria and a nearby valley called Fex that is renowned for its hiking trails – 300 kilometers or about 180 miles of trails. The area is surrounded by the Alps and near the border with Italy. To give you a better idea of location – just in case you are looking for a map of Switzerland online – Sils-Maria is about six miles and a world away from glitzy, crowded and tourist-filled St. Moritz.

My wife and I were in search of rest and exercise, quiet and magnificent scenery, privacy and healthy food, and a replenishing distraction from the hectic environment of Washington, D.C. All those things, I found, are part of the hiking culture.

Hiking is perhaps Europe’s most popular participatory sport. It’s just you and nature, and it appeals especially to baby boomers who need a change. Of course, hiking in the Alps is relatively easy and affordable for many European boomers who can reach any number of spectacular places within a few hours driving. We, on the other hand, had flown from D.C. to Munich, rented a car and had driven five hours to Sils-Maria. But, man, was it worth it!

[Click here to see David's hiking photo album]

After first driving through the traffic-choked streets of St. Moritz and I was thinking, geez, why did we come all this way for THIS!, we arrived at Sils-Maria. It’s off the main highway, and if you are going fast, you’ll miss it. There’s an understated entrance to an underground garage at the edge of town because vehicle traffic is restricted in Sils-Maria. The streets and lanes are too narrow.

Sils-Maria has just a handful of hotels and cafés, all first-class. At night, there is … well, nothing to do. No casinos, no bars, no theatres or entertainment … nothing. People come for one thing each spring, summer and fall – hiking. During the winter, there is world-class skiing, which the locals hope not too many of the St. Moritz crowd will discover.

If Sils-Maria could be described as first-class, the Fex valley (Val Fex on trail signs) earns the pure and authentic title of the most exclusive place in Europe … at least as judged by the completely subjective Henderson rating.

I have visited Cap Ferrat, the toney and staggeringly expensive gathering place of the rich and famous on the French Riveria, while vacationing at nearby Villefranche-sur-Mer, and had never seen such wealth and big gold medallions on chains and great tans. Fex is none of that … it simply defines exclusive. It is a place where celebrities and ordinary folks like us share … each in our own very private way … a precious place on earth that tends to make you forget everything else.

Our hiking adventure began when we arrived at the Hotel Sonne Fex, located just over a mile into the valley from Sils-Maria. They send a van or a horse-drawn carriage for you after your car is parked in the underground garage. No car, no exceptions.

We were greeted by Frau Susanne Witschi-Fümm … a baby boomer on the younger side, I’d guess … who has personally made her hotel a legendary experience for guests. Frau Witschi-Fümm grew up in the Fex valley and the family owned Hotel Sonne.

The hotel … which looks rustic and like the perfect vision of a traditional Swiss lodge, which it is … has 11 rooms. Fabulous rooms of a quality rarely found. Our room had a window that looked out over a 16th century chapel, the tiny village with six or eight houses and a sweeping view of the Alps. The view from the other window was even better … up the valley toward three ancient glaciers. The views were changing constantly with light and weather. I must have taken nearly 200 photos of the Fex valley because I had never before seen anything like it, even though I have traveled around the world. Dinner at Hotel Sonne Fex includes five-courses, and I would rank it among the world’s top restaurants. This hotel is certainly part of the hiking culture.

From this place, we hiked. Now, out of full disclosure, I have to say that I wasn’t too sure about a hiking vacation. My wife has hiked for years in Switzerland and Germany and is passionate about it. So, even after just a year of marriage, I have come to trust her suggestions. When she had suggested a hiking vacation at a place recommended by a friend, I said … well, sure.

There is another factor that made me a little … well, more than a little … nervous – I have terribly bad feet. Flat feet, pronated ankles. All my friends know about my feet. My feet have hurt even when walking across the street, and here I was in Swiss Alpine hiking Valhalla. But, it was really something how some good hiking socks and shoes, custom-made orthotics and a tube of pain-relieving cream that I found in Italy can make real hiking possible.

My favorite hike was up Fex valley to the glacier. It was a windy and cold day right after a storm. There was fresh snow on the mountaintops. Back home in D.C., the temperature was probably in the upper 90s but we weren’t thinking about home.

As we passed other hikers, we exchanged the traditional Swiss greeting, “Grüesi” … a combination of hello and good day. That is part of the culture, too.

We stood at the foot of what once was a mighty glacier now reduced by more than 60 percent by global warming and experienced a sense similar to visiting an ancient cathedral. No words came to express the feeling … the spiritual feeling … of being there. Even a group of French hikers, mostly baby boomers, were silent. We just forgot about the cold and the miles we had hiked and the stinging wind. I had an overwhelming feeling of sadness about this glacier and others I saw. I seem to recall someone once saying that glaciers are living things. Surely, the glaciers of the Alps are dying, and I believe we are all partly responsible.

Other days we hiked through forests to the nearby village of Isola on a lake with clear blue water, called Lej da Segl. We hiked high above tree line on a mountain called Furtschellas to a series of lakes formed by the glaciers and winter snow. But it was being so close to the Fex glacier that haunts me … and you know what? I don’t believe I am alone … and maybe that is part of the culture of hiking, too. An awareness … a time away from everything else in our lives … to allow ourselves to be touched by nature and to be concerned.

While hiking in the region of Sils-Maria and Fex, we heard German, Italian and French spoken most often. Most people at cafés and hotels also speak English. We did encounter a group of Orthodox rabbis from England and their families on a hiking trail who fluently switched between English and Hebrew. But we didn’t run into any other Americans, and maybe that is part of our own hiking culture of just getting away from it all.

[Click here to see David's hiking photo album]

As a baby boomer, I get mad as hell when I hear someone (always younger) suggest that anyone over 50 probably doesn’t keep up with today’s computer and online technology. I bet you know what I’m talking about.

But then, I have sobering reminders that there might be some truth to it. Arriving at Washington’s Union Station recently for a train trip to New York, I first went to a ticket kiosk to retrieve the train tickets that I had booked online at Amtrak.com, as I always do.

I stood behind a man who I guessed to be in his mid-50s who was holding a credit card in his right hand and staring, frozen, at the kiosk.

After a few moments, I asked him whether he was waiting because the machine was broken. I thought that was a polite thing to say.

He answered that he was just trying to figure out how it worked … that it wasn’t clear to him. Here’s what it said on the kiosk screen:

1. Touch here to buy tickets or touch here to retrieve prepaid tickets.
2. Insert and remove credit card quickly.
3. Confirm purchase.
4. Retrieve tickets.

Duh. I nearly clamped my hand over my mouth to keep from asking him what was so difficult about understanding the instructions. Just then, another kiosk became available, and I moved over, punched the screen in the appropriate places, swiped my credit card and got my tickets … all in about 20 seconds. I left the poor fellow standing and staring.

The experience made me realize that perhaps technology remains a little overwhelming to some in our generation. Many of us learn and adapt, others move along a little slower and take their time. That’s okay.

The stark reality is that the day of the online digital revolution is today, and if you don’t force yourself to learn and adapt, you just might be left standing in a frozen position, holding up the queue. But at the same time, getting in step with the digital revolution should not be rocket science.

Microsoft hasn’t made it any easier for boomers. If I had a nickel for every hour wasted trying to figure out some damn Windows problem, there would be fresh caught salmon on the table tonight. Windows has become (maybe it always was) an astonishingly difficult computer operating system. I believe it’s a harsh, overly complicated, unstable and costly environment, and if you need to contact them with a problem … good luck! Nearly everyone has some horror story about attempting to contact Microsoft for help with some Windows problem.

Let me share with you an alternative to all the persistent crashes and lock-ups, all the viruses, spyware and crap found with Windows. At the risk of sounding like an ad, there are none of those aggravations when you use an Apple Mac. A Mac is the ideal computer environment for a baby boomer — easy, intuitive and (trumpet blast!) it works!

What I found with a Mac is that it becomes a creative extension of yourself, whether you want to write a letter or a story … or express yourself online … or put together a slideshow of digital photos … or buy a train ticket. Apple provides a high level of quality service that is unmatched by other computer makers, such as Dell (which has the worst, in my opinion).

You can visit an Apple store and get friendly advice from people who don’t talk down to you but rather focus on helping and clearly answering your questions. (Tell me the last time you saw a Microsoft store.) If there’s not a store nearby or you don’t want to put on your shoes, call Apple’s toll-free AppleCare service and get a real person on the phone within a couple of minutes (it’s not off-shore, either). Apple is that rare company that stands solidly behind its promise of quality customer service.

Apple’s hot new laptop … the Macbook … is quickly becoming one of the most affordable and popular computers on the planet. Perfect, in my opinion, for a baby boomer … especially any baby boomer who has been tentative about becoming more tech savvy. Check it out.

I don’t know whether this has happened to you as a baby boomer – a clerk in a store looks at you, and you can interpret their body language and expression to read, this customer is a geezer. It happened to me, sadly, just the other day.

My wife and I were in our neighborhood Blockbuster to find a movie we hadn’t seen. We selected “My House in Umbria,” starring Maggie Smith. (It’s terrific, by the way, and we recommend it.)

At checkout, my wife handled the transaction with the clerk – a young man probably in his mid-20s – and then, my wife asked him about some foreign film title. He had not heard of it but suggested that we check Blockbuster-dot-com.

He then turned his attention fully to me and said, “If you ever go onto the Internet, you can check the Blockbuster Web site.” What I noticed was that he emphasized the word, IF.

All kinds of feelings and emotions ran through me in a nanosecond. It was the way the young man made the suggestion that struck me – he was trying to be helpful to someone he assumed was perhaps a little too old to be actively online, if at all. Heck, for all I knew, he probably assumed I’d never heard of the Internet.

My wife picked up on his tone, too, although she pointed out that he was talking to me at that point, and not to her. That’s true and besides, she looks 20 years younger than her age, like a young Candice Bergen.

So, here was my dilemma – how could I respond to this sales clerk who clearly saw me as … well, old.

At first, I thought that perhaps I could say something like the fact that I maintain four blogs and five Web sites, have written a book on the digital revolution and am compulsively online about 16 hours each day. Naw, that sounded defensive, I thought.

So, I responded as a middle-aged subtle smartass. I looked at him blankly and asked, “What’s the Internet? … Do I need a computer?” My wife looked like she wanted to run. But it worked. The clerk became befuddled. So, on that note, we departed for home.

It’s got me thinking about how business markets to baby boomers, the largest and most affluent group in America. Some, like Blockbuster, do not. They are in the majority. Even the efforts of outfits like AARP are feeble. Heck, my old friend Greg Dobbs and I launched BoomerCafé in 1999 to show up AARP’s pathetic and expensive attempt to connect with boomers. BoomerCafé over the years has consistently had a greater audience, thanks to folks like you.

Now, marketing to boomers is the hot ticket among some PR agencies and consultants, like they just awoke from a long and deep sleep and only now have discovered this generation.

I would like to hear from you and hope you will share any similar stories. Just email us by clicking here, provided of course that you have a computer.

For many years, a book about a mysterious ship wreck and its cargo of ponies bound for the New World and two children has captured the imagination of countless baby boomers. BoomerCafé co-founder and publisher David Henderson, himself a boomer, recently revisited the actual scene of the story –

It was one of the most alluring places of my youth – two islands off the coast of Virginia – Assateague and Chincoteague. The last time I was here was about 40 years ago when I was in my teens.

The two islands – named by early Virginia Indian tribes – are long and narrow and haven’t really changed from the way I remember them. Assateague is the barrier island and the longest, protecting Chincoteague from storms.

Herds of wild Moor ponies have roamed Assateague for centuries. As legend has it, a Spanish galleon wrecked on the dangerous shoals offshore in the Atlantic sometime in the 17th century, and its cargo of ponies from Europe swam to safety on the island.

Treacherous currents off Assateague have caused thousands of shipwrecks for as long as anyone has kept track, from the time when America was first discovered until today. The skeletons of early sailing ships can be discovered occasionally today when revealed by sand and wind. It’s a harsh and beautiful environment on Assateague, now a national park.

Chincoteague is separated from Assateague by a few hundred yards of water and has long been a quaint thriving fishing village. Some visitors say the town today reminds them of the way Martha’s Vineyard use to be, many years ago.

I learned about the ponies and the islands from a book – Misty of Chincoteague – that my mother first read to me when I was a child. When I learned to read, I revisited the story many times, and read the book to my children.

Misty of Chincoteague by author Marguerite Henry is a true and timeless story of two children who lived in the village and their love of the one particular pony, Misty. Chances are you’ve either read or heard of the book which was popular when many baby boomers were children.

What’s special is that when you visit Chincoteague, you can stay in the same room in Miss Molly’s boarding house – now a B&B – where Henry wrote the story.

Yet, the best part of any visit is time on Assateague … walking the wide beaches that seemingly go on forever … climbing the original 140-year-old lighthouse right up to the top. Look out at the sea and the sand and the island covered with pine … and hope, just wish, to get a glimpse of the ponies.

I remember when I made my coffee conversion. It was in London at Covent Garden late one night in 1988. I was with old friends, and we had been out to dinner, and we stopped by the coffee shop in the center of Covent Garden for a cappuccino. Europeans don’t worry about drinking coffee late at night, as we Americans do.

I took one sip of that cappuccino and wondered aloud why we couldn’t get coffee like that on a consistent basis in the U.S. The time was just at the cusp of the coffee explosion here, when really good coffee was a thing pretty much limited by region to San Francisco, where there is Peet’s, and to Seattle, where Starbuck’s was expanding.

It was time, I decided at that late night moment, for me to learn how to make such a good cup of coffee, the type that Europeans have been enjoying for decades. So, I asked the guy behind the coffee bar who had made our cappuccinos, and he invited me to watch. Here’s what I learned –

It’s the coffee. The most popular coffee in the U.K. and Europe is Lavazza. Everyone drinks it. Lavazza is an Italian company based in Turin that has specialized in espresso for more than a century. They don’t mess around with blends. Their espresso is 100 percent Arabica. “Il perfetto,” they say. It’s perfect. I’ve tried others but always come back to Lavazza.

It’s the machine. Forget those little cheap Krups espresso makers. If you want to get serious about making a super cappuccino, invest in a good Italian-made espresso coffee machine. I like those made by Rancilio but there are many other good ones. Shop the Internet. A coffee machine will cost about $400. It’s expensive because of the pump and the internal boiler. The coffee machine first needs to get the water hot in the boiler and then force it with a strong pump through tightly packed espresso coffee in the stainless steel filter.

It’s the water. Only begin by putting cold water in a coffee machine. I prefer filtered water, mainly because the water in the Washington, DC metro area tastes like it came from a swamp and purified with bleach.

It’s the milk. In Italy and throughout much of Europe, they use skim milk that’s the equivalent of organic skim milk in the U.S. I have found that using organic milk to make a cappuccino produces a much tastier cup. It’s a lot better for you, too. And … this is very important … the milk must be cold when you begin to froth it, using steam from the coffee machine.

It’s proper steam. This is one of the most important steps — the steam pipe of the espresso coffee machine must first be purged of hot water, and there must be pure steam, no water, before frothing the milk. If hot water is plunged into the milk, it will ruin any chance of making a great cappuccino. That’s where so many production-line and restaurant coffee bars in the U.S., including Starbuck’s, go wrong today … they don’t purge the hot water before steaming the milk.

It’s a sprinkle of chocolate. A tiny sprinkle of English powdered chocolate atop a cappuccino is tradition in Europe. Not cinnamon, which competes with the taste of the coffee.

So, each morning, it’s become a zen-like ritual for me. I make one cappuccino, always striving for perfection and all the while remembering those times in England, France and Italy where all cappuccinos are perfection.