In December of 1962, Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine, embarked on a monthly series of essays which he called “The Playboy Philosophy.” The series lasted 25 issues, just over two years, and to read the pieces today is a revelation. They are by turns fascinating and turgid, defiant and defensive, and always interminable […]
One of the gospels of our new century is that, since Sept. 11, a new global conflict has risen to replace the Cold War as the prime geopolitical struggle of our time. This conflict has been variously described as a Clash of Civilizations; a struggle between East and West, Democracy and Tyranny, Religion and the […]
“Sex after 90 is like shooting pool with a rope.” —George Burns, 1896-1996 “Picasso had his pink period and his blue period. I’m in my blonde period.” —Hugh Hefner When I first thought about writing The Zoomer Philosophy, I just assumed that the instalment dealing with aging and sex would be the most controversial. If […]
Growing up in Montreal in the 1950s as the only child in a refugee family of DPs (displaced persons), I suppose I was poor but never thought of myself as such. My father worked as a clerk in a shoe store and, eventually, as the proprietor of his own perpetually semi-bankrupt business from which, at […]
The best way to keep going is to keep going. Recently, I attended the National Association of Television Program Executives 2010 Market and Conference in Las Vegas with the aim of introducing ZoomerMedia (and the Zoomer agenda) to the television industry. Because it was my first time in a while and because my previous interest […]
ZIP — The Zoomer Inclusive Party. A pipe dream? Maybe not. One of the great conundrums of the aging phenomenon has been the failure, till now, of the older demographic to organize politically or to effect political results in any enduring way. In terms of impact, the converse seems true: for years, politicians have been […]
Live Well, Do Good, Die Broke. In the late 1940s, shortly after I’d arrived in Montreal as the then-only child in a survivor family, I was sitting in a kindergarten class learning English as the teacher recounted some kind of fairytale involving a prince whose life is saved in battle by a sturdy page. In […]
The myth of the looming health-care crisis. “Let’s just start cutting and see what happens.” Over the course of writing The Zoomer Philosophy, I’ve received one set of reader comments that has intrigued me and which I’ve come to identify, pardon the yiddishism, as the Chorus of Oy. “Oy,” the chorus runs, “Give us a […]
Designing for the mature consumer is good for everyone. “Thank God for Donna. She’s the only one who understands my ass.” One of my pet peeves has been the supposed incompatibility of the Zoomer world and the world of fashion. For some reason, people past a certain age are expected to surrender to the party […]
Skeptics be damned. “And this one is my grandma and her current lover.” Recently I read a newspaper article titled, “10 good Things about getting Cancer.” not surprisingly, the “good” things were of a spiritual variety, with a large dose of rationalization thrown in. It reminded me of the skepticism I’ve felt when people talk […]