This Week in Elder News: 16 August 2008

In this regular weekend feature you will find links to news items from the preceding week related to elders and aging, along with whatever else catches my fancy that I think you might like to know. Suggestions are welcome with, however, no promises of publication.

I don’t like admitting that I missed the 73rd birthday of Social Security last Thursday, 14 August. To make up for my lapse, below is a short video statement from James Roosevelt, the grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who signed the Social Security legislation in 1935. [1:02 minutes] You can read about the creation of Social Security here and about its 73rd birthday celebration here.

A new survey shows – in Britain, anyway – that women begin using anti-wrinkle creams at the tender age of 28. “Do any of these creams really make us look younger?” asks Bryony Gordon who is, herself, 28?

“No," she answers, "they just work by making you feel older. And when you spend your life trying to turn back the clock, you only end up missing what is staring at you in the mirror - and that's a face which is probably not half as bad as the beauty companies would have you believe.”

Now that’s a young woman after my own heart. Read more here.

According to a study from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Medicare Part D insureds paid $3.7 billion more in 2006 and 2007 for the top 100 prescription drugs than they would have paid if they were covered under Medicaid which, unlike Medicare Part D, is allowed to negotiate prices. More details here.

Former presidential candidate, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Dem, OH), has introduced The Medicare Drugs for Seniors Act (H.R. 6800) that would require Medicare to negotiate prices, among other important provisions. Read Rep. Kucinich’s statement here.

Nancy Belle, who works and blogs for Erickson Retirement Communities, writes:

“The stigma of age is tied heavily to the stigma of 'those retirement homes'. We [Erickson homes] are not places for the end of life. We are for living life.”

To help change public perception of retirement homes, Erickson has produced a new television commercial [:31 seconds] and Nancy, who is a good friend of Time Goes By, is wondering if you think it makes the point. You can let her know here.

When you don’t have old people around to check facts with, it can embarrass your company and undermine its brand. Can you spot the mistake in this screen grab of a promotional email from boomer/senior website eons.com last week?

Hint: “Hog FarmER tent???” I don’t think so. I was there. In the tent. And anyway, back in the day, the Hog Farm was widely known. Mistakes like this are as jarring as an airplane above the desert in an old western movie and in this case, makes a company that targets elders look foolish.

Eighty-three-year-old James Hoyt died last week. Never heard of him? In 1945, as a private first class, he was one of the original four GIs who liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. Read this touching and historical obituary.

You know how a song gets stuck in your head and won’t go away? I was plagued this week with Mairzy Doats which I don’t believe I had heard or thought about in more than 20 years. At the risk of driving you nuts too (why shouldn’t you suffer with me?), here’s a modern version done in 1940s style. [1:44 minutes]