Baby Boomers

WASHINGTON - Deaths from liver-destroying hepatitis C are on the rise, and new data show that baby boomers are most at risk. Federal health officials are considering whether anyone born between 1945 and 1965 should get a one-time blood test to check if their livers harbor this ticking time bomb. Two-thirds of people with hepatitis C are in this age group, most unaware they have a festering virus that takes a few decades to do its damage. The issue has taken new urgency since two drugs hit the market last summer that promise to cure many more people than ever was possible.

NEW YORK - She was the first crush for a generation of boys, the perfect playmate for a generation of girls. Annette Funicello, who became a child star as a Mouseketeer on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1950s, ruled among baby boomers, who tuned in every weekday afternoon to watch her on their black-and-white television sets. Then they shed their mouse ears, as Annette did when she teamed up with Frankie Avalon during the '60s in a string of frothy, fun-in-the-sun movies with titles like "Beach Blanket Bingo.

The Democratic Party hopes the 1988 election will be a replay of 1976, when the combination of a White House scandal and a weak nominee cost the Republicans their hold on the presidency. But the Democrats shouldn't bet that the Iran-contra affair will have the impact of Watergate, or that Gerald Ford will be reincarnated at the head of the GOP ticket. They would be better off looking for parallels in another election that brought a Democratic victory - 1960. A glance at the crowded Democratic field of declared or likely candidates - Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, Michael Dukakis, Bruce Babbitt, Richard Gephardt, Albert Gore Jr., Joseph Biden, Paul Simon - underlines what may be the crucial element in the next presidential contest.

WASHINGTON - Many baby boomers say that they're likely to stay put in retirement amid a shaky economy. Those who hope to buy a new place are looking for a smaller home somewhere with a better climate that's more affordable and close to family, a new poll finds. The 77 million-strong generation born between 1946 and 1964 is increasingly worried about retirement and their finances in light of the economic crisis of the past three years. Just 9 percent said that they are strongly convinced they'll be able to live comfortably when they retire, according to the Associated Press-LifeGoesStrong.com poll.

The aging of the baby boomers has touched off a marketing blitz by the manufacturers of lotions, creams, cleansers, ointments, moisturizers and other skin-care products intended to ward off the all-too-obvious effects of growing older. Although many makers of cosmetics imply that their products can prolong or restore youth, federal regulators question such assertions. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration initiated a crackdown on extravagant advertising claims by cosmetics companies.

"I'm going to take youse out of the '80s," yowls Jon "Bowzer" Bauman as he leaps out of a gleaming peacock blue 1956 Thunderbird convertible during "Bowzer's Original Doo Wop Party," the new summer revue at the Tropicana. "I'm gonna take youse back to da '50s, a simpler era, when Marlon Brando could still fit on a motorcycle, when Pepsi Free didn't cost 75 cents. " Why not? When the casinos first came to Atlantic City, most of the entertainment offered was aimed at people in their 50s and 60s, because those were the folks with the most money to blow.

Maybe President Bush ain't too good at arithmetic," Slats Grobnik said. What prompts that observation? "Because he says he don't know why people are more scared of this recession than they were of other recessions that was worse. " Well, he has a point. One need go back only 10 years when we had a recession that was more severe. And there have been others in which the economic indicators were less hopeful. "Yeah, and that's what I mean about his arithmetic. A little simple math can tell you why people are more scared.

"My Life" could be the definitive Baby Boomer tear-jerker, combining "Terms of Endearment" cancer drama with camcorders, the Inner Child and a hero who likes "anything Motown. " It's the story of a successful executive (Michael Keaton) stricken with incurable cancer. He fears he may not live to see his pregnant wife (Nicole Kidman) give birth, so he records himself on video as a gift for his unborn child. The premise is diabolically good, and the slick presentation probably ensures "My Life" the kind of eye-dabbing success predicted for "The Joy Luck Club.

In "The baby boomers have come of age" (Op-ed Page, Jan. 2) Richard Reeves sounded a sour note for the new year as he marked the 40th anniversary of the birth of the "baby boom" generation. His bleak celebration of a generation that he apparently believes has received its comeuppance is a perfect example of the media disdaining one of its own creations, in this case, the fuss over the baby boom generation. The fascination with this generation is rooted in the media as much as anywhere else.

NEW YORK - Baby boomers preparing for retirement are driving a surge in small-business sales, as they find more and more buyers confident enough in the improving economy to expand their own businesses through acquisitions. In the first three months of this year, the number of sales that closed jumped 56 percent from the same time in 2012, according to BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses. Retirement was the No. 1 contributor to business sales in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey by Pepperdine University and two trade groups, the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source.

NEW YORK - She was the first crush for a generation of boys, the perfect playmate for a generation of girls. Annette Funicello, who became a child star as a Mouseketeer on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1950s, ruled among baby boomers, who tuned in every weekday afternoon to watch her on their black-and-white television sets. Then they shed their mouse ears, as Annette did when she teamed up with Frankie Avalon during the '60s in a string of frothy, fun-in-the-sun movies with titles like "Beach Blanket Bingo.

The realities are harsh. Many of the nine million jobs lost in the recession will never return. They are gone to globalization and automation. The slowly recovering job market is creating work that tends to pay less. The American worker is increasingly disposable, easily cast aside when not needed. Many of the oldest workers, the baby boomers, can't afford to retire. Others have retired unwillingly. "They've been left beside the road," said Rutgers University public policy professor Carl E. Van Horn, author of a new book, Working Scared (Or Not at All)

WHEN I HEARD that Sally Starr had died, I thought of my father, Phil, himself gone 14 years next month. I thought of his reaction when, in the summer of 1984, I announced that I was hoping to bring "Our Gal Sal" - who hadn't been heard from for 12 years - back to Philly as a way to publicize the RV Roundup, a recreational-vehicle exhibition scheduled for the old Civic Center that September. I was public-relations director for a Center City ad agency whose clients included the Roundup.

SALLY STARR, the vivacious and maternal blonde TV cowgirl who served as a surrogate parent for the Philadelphia region's baby boomers, died Sunday morning, two days after her 90th birthday. Starr died peacefully in a South Jersey nursing home shortly after 6 a.m., according to Michael Yip, a close friend of Starr's. She had been in poor health for years, both from various natural causes as well as from the effects of a 2005 car crash. The precise cause of death was not immediately known.

It was a moment to note when Leo J. Scoda told Phoenixville Borough Council on Tuesday - the day after his 71st birthday - that he would not seek reelection later this year to a fifth four-year term as mayor. This is a year for milestones for Scuda, who is marking his 50th anniversary as tennis coach at Phoenixville High School, a job he took when he became a science teacher in 1963. That was the fall that he moved to town, after earning a bachelor's in biology at Pennsylvania State University.

Rich Morin did a virtual double take, and so should you. Because what he and a colleague at Pew Research Center discovered about wealth and retirement is what I've been sounding alarms over for three years, a lone wolf in a media and political pack that blissfully ignores this scary reality. Hard data are starting to pile up, most recently in a new report by Pew, that the most financially fragile group in America doesn't include Grandma or that guy in his early 60s or even the twentysomethings who entered the workforce during a doozy of a recession.

WASHINGTON - Younger Americans in their late 30s are now the group most likely to doubt they will be financially secure after retirement, a major shift from three years ago, when baby boomers nearing retirement age expressed the greatest worry. The survey findings by the Pew Research Center, released Monday, reflect the impact of a weak economic recovery beginning in 2009 that has shown stock market gains while housing values remain decimated. As a whole, retirement worries rose across all age groups - roughly 38 percent of U.S. adults say they are "not too" or "not at all" confident that they will have sufficient financial nest eggs, according to the independent research group.

Everybody should plan for retirement, but if you are working, there are good reasons not to actually retire if your health allows - at least not yet. About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, according to this post at bankrate.com, which lists seven "signs" that retirement might not be the best idea for each of them. In addition to financial reasons, the list includes warnings that you shouldn't retire just because of your age and certainly not if you don't know what you'll do with time on your hands.

DEAR ABBY: America's tradesmen - plumbers, masons and others - get very little respect. The only time these professionals get attention is during an emergency. This lack of regard is leading our nation down an unfortunate path, as fewer young people pursue those jobs. On Sept. 21, we have a chance to thank those people on National Tradesmen Day. Drop a box of doughnuts at the job site near your home. Call your plumber and say, "Thank you. " Invite a tradesman to speak at school. Abby, would you help to get the word out?