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The Time is Now. Look in Your Rear View Mirror & Help Change the World  You’ve heard the term “legacy” bandied about. It’s what you do going forward to leave behind for the next generations. It’s not a new idea. And for those of us who are 50-plus, it’s something each of us might want to think about as our days—or term as in a presidential run–may be shorter rather than longer. Case in point. President Obama secured his legacy in what was one of the most transformative weeks (June 22-26, 2015) in our American history. This is based on...

Ailment mania has taken over our conversations. Yes, we’re over 50, but does every conversation and get-together have to start with or become an organ recital? Cataracts and knee replacements. Sleep machines and cholesterol meds. Surgery for herniated discs, lap bands and gastric by-passes for pounds that couldn’t be shed from every diet tried–Scarsdale, Atkins, Paleo, and Cabbage Soup. So many of us are obsessed with staying healthy at this age, and why not if we’re determined to live a long time? However, in the process, we’re often sharing the details of every medical appointment, test result, and diagnosis we’ve...

Most of us encounter a host of thorny issues when we date at any age, but particularly after 50—who pays for a meal when we both have funds, how much to spend on a gift, ever to go Dutch? We’re certainly not etiquette gurus, but we learned when we became single, and listened to others debate these do’s and don’ts, that there are no clear-cut answers. Consider our advice as a guide, not a rule book. Nothing’s etched in stone, especially in today’s fast-changing dating world. Question: Should men and women discuss cost sharing before a date?  Answer: It’s certainly a way...

Girls like cooking, dressing up and being asked out; boys like sports, tinkering and being in charge, which includes handling the money. These are the messages most of us over 50 years of age grew up with, and which remain firmly planted in our brains, even as etiquette rules change to meet our new gender equal economy. Nowadays, more women work and want to be viewed as equals; some even have become the major breadwinner in heterosexual couples, or earn more than their male peers and potential dating partners. It’s important too to take into account cultural differences such as...

Cooking has played a starring role in most of my life, from the time my next-door-neighbor and I began our culinary adventures baking chocolate chip cookies like those on the Toll House recipe package. We mistook the salt for the sugar and tried to compensate by adding more of everything.  Need I share more? Yet, it didn’t deter me from trying again, on my own. Married in 1971 and with Julia Child as my first muse, I worked my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, perhaps not as obsessively as Julie Powell, her acolyte, but my dog-eared, page stained...