Remember Him?

     At first glance, he did not seem a likely candidate to become a national hero. He was a college dropout. As a pilot during the Korean War, he got tagged with the nickname "Magnet Ass" for his dubious record of being able to draw enemy fire, as he routinely returned to base with his Panther jet riddled with flak holes along the fuselage. Can you guess who he is?

     When he was in his 40s, he decided to run for political office. In 1964 he quit his job and announced he would challenge the incumbent senator from Ohio in the Democratic primary. But before he even got started, he hit his head in the bathtub, suffered a concussion and injured his inner ear. He was unable to campaign, so he was forced to withdraw from the race -- without collecting a single vote.

The School of Public Affairs

     And yet this man was one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century. He was honored by President Kennedy for his achievements and he received a ticker tape parade up Broadway in New York City.

     He was born in central Ohio in 1921 -- in fact, his 91st birthday is coming up next week, on July 18 -- and he still lives in Ohio and is still actively involved in public life, particularly for his school of public affairs at Ohio State University.

     Reflecting back on his upbringing in small town Ohio, he said, "A boy could not have had a more idyllic early childhood than I did." His father was a plumber, and to help with the family budget his mother took in boarders from nearby Muskingum University. As a boy he was surrounded by college students, tutored by his mother, and developed an interest in science and in flying. After graduating from high school he entered Muskingum, the local Presbyterian college, where he studied science and earned college credit for taking flying lessons. He received his pilot's license in 1941.

     After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, he dropped out of Muskingum, enlisted in the Naval Aviation Cadet Program and became a Marine pilot. He flew 59 combat missions over the Pacific during World War II, winning several flying awards. After the war he became a flight instructor at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christie, Texas. Then when the Korean War started, he volunteered for combat duty and flew another 63 combat missions. Before his career was over, he would win six Distinguished Flying Cross medals, awarded for " heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight."

     After Korea, he became a test pilot, specializing in flying at high altitudes, and in 1957 he completed the first supersonic transcontinental flight -- flying from California to New York in 3 hours and 23 minutes.

     In 1959, despite the fact that he had no college degree, he was selected as one of the original group of seven astronauts. He was not the first man in space, nor the first American in space. But as the fifth man in space, aboard Friendship 7, on February 20, 1962, he was the first American to orbit the earth, circling the globe three times on a flight that lasted just shy of five hours. When he passed over Perth, Australia, residents famously flicked on all their lights, and the city became known as the City of Lights.

Astronaut John Glenn

     His sudden fame, and political potential, was noted by President Kennedy, and he became a friend to the Kennedy family. Six weeks after President Kennedy was assassinated, astronaut John Glenn resigned from NASA and at the suggestion of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy, he filed to run for the senate from his home state of Ohio.

     Glenn faltered on his first bid for public office, but he remained friends with the Kennedys. He was with Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles when he was assassinated in 1968. Two years later Glenn ran again for the senate from Ohio, losing the Democratic primary to businessman Howard Metzenbaum (who lost the general election to Robert Taft).

Senator John Glenn

     In 1974 Glenn again ran against Howard Metzenbaum in the senate primary, and this time he won, and also went on to beat his Republican challenger. He entered the U. S. Senate in 1975, where he took an active role in foreign relations and armed services, and was the chief author of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978.

     In 1976 John Glenn was considered for the vice presidential slot under Jimmy Carter, but his lackluster speaking style torpedoed his chances.  In 1984, Glenn ran for the presidential nomination, but he lost out early to eventual nominee Walter Mondale.

     In 1998, as a sitting senator at age 77, John Glenn again lifted off into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Although some criticized his mission as a political junket, he was credited with providing valuable research on the effects of space travel on the elderly. When Discovery flew over Perth, Australia, residents again flashed their lights, as they had 36 years earlier.

     After 24 years in the U. S. Senate, Glenn decided not to run for re-election in 1998, and he retired back to his home state of Ohio. He served on the board of trustees of alma mater Muskingum University, and he helped found the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University, where he continues to encourage young people to participate in public service.

Affordable Health Care for Early Retirees

     The Affordable Care Act is now, apparently, the law of the land, and while I'm no expert on health-care legalities, it does seem that Obama's ACA extends a very welcome helping hand to those of us who, by force or by choice, are among the ranks of the early retired -- the "lost generation" of people who have left work but are too young to qualify for Medicare.

     When I was laid off at age 53, I was able to stay on COBRA for a while, which covered my wife (we were separated at the time but still married) and my two kids. Eventually I had to get my own insurance. The way I did it was to find a work-related association I could join that offered health plans to its members, and through the association I was able to sign up for somewhat-reasonably-priced medical insurance. As my kids went off to college they were able to get health insurance through their universities. After I got divorced, my ex-wife qualified to join a different association and get medical insurance through them.

      I don't know why -- because she was a woman? because she moved to a different state? because she belonged to a different association? -- but she had to pay even more than I did for medical insurance. In this past year, she was shelling out more than $1000 a month for coverage . . .  just for herself!

     But at least we were able to get insurance. If your employer won't let you stay on their plan (very few do) or you're not eligible to join an organization, and have to buy medical insurance on an individual basis, your prospects are dim indeed. Some states offer medical plans for people with limited income; but a lot of people can't get medical insurance at any cost.

     (Which is one reason why I don't blame insurance companies for the high cost of medical care. If they were making so much money off medical insurance, they'd be sending us flyers in the mail, calling us on the phone, advertising on TV, in order to get us signed up. But instead, it's difficult to find an insurance company to take you on as an individual, so it can't be that profitable. Anyway, I stopped complaining about my medical insurance when they paid, in full, a $950 charge by an ambulance corps to drive my son 3 miles to the hospital when he cut his head in college. Who's ripping us off here? I asked myself. Not the insurance company. It's the ambulance corps!)

     Anyway, now starting on January 1, 2014, under the Affordable Care Act, states will be required to set up insurance exchanges where you can buy your own individual medical insurance. Indeed, unless you qualify for an exemption (are you Amish?), or are already covered under another plan, you will be required to get insurance.

     So, finally, those of us in our 50s and 60s who are no longer on the company payroll, and who are too young for Medicare, can do the responsible thing -- we can afford to buy reasonably priced medical insurance

     If your income is limited, the government will help you buy insurance. Medicaid will cover people under 65 who have incomes up to 133% of the poverty level -- which, today, would be $14,856 a year for one person or $20,123 for a couple.

     People with incomes up to four times the poverty level would qualify for assistance in buying health care. An estimate by the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services says a couple earning the poverty level of $15,130 a year would pay an annual premium of $303 for health coverage. A couple with an income at four times the poverty level -- an annual income of $60,520 -- would pay $5,750 a year for health insurance, or $480 a month.

     When you consider that my ex-wife is paying over $1,000 a month for her health insurance, that sounds like a good deal. I pay less than that, but not a lot less, and $480 a month sounds like a good deal to me, too.

     All along, I've personally have been supportive of the government trying to do something about health care. The medical-hospital-insurance complex is just too big and complicated for individuals to negotiate by themselves, especially if they're sick or injured. I do worry that Obama's plan does not really address the high costs involved with medical care, and that ACA is going to end up costing us all a lot more than we've been told. But that's an issue for another day.

     In the meantime, if you really want to educate yourself, go read all 974 pages of the Affordable Care Act (unless you think the Republicans are going to repeal and replace, in which case it would be a waste of time, but I'm betting that doesn't happen.)

     Or, for a brief summary, go to "Consumer Questions on Health Care Act, and the Answers" from the Sunday New York Times, or for a slightly more jaundiced view check out this other report "How Obamacare Could Help You Retire Earlier (or Destroy Itself Trying)" from AOL Daily Finance.

Hello?

     Does anyone recall Lionel Richie? He started out in the 1970s with the Commodores, and then went on to a successful solo career. I liked Lionel Richie, even though I was embarrassed to admit it because he was more than a little sappy and syrupy.

     But he must have been doing something right. He recorded big hits like "Truly" and "My Love" and the soothing if somewhat monotonous "Say You, Say Me" as well as the more upbeat "Dancing on the Ceiling."

    A friend of mine recently put me on to this clip, which I thought was amusing, and serves as an appropriate follow-up to my previous post about the movies. To the tune of one of Richie's other big hits, it brings back memories of  ... okay, Apollo 13 is easy. Then there's Schindler's List, Annie Hall, Goodfellas. Do you know which one is Being John Malkovitch? How about American Beauty? Can you name any of the others?

Movies for Mature Audiences

     While I was on vacation from my blog, B and I drove down to our local "arthouse" movie theater to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and several other acting veterans. It's definitely a film for "mature audiences only."

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

     The movie tells the story of a group of English elders who for one reason or another have fallen on hard economic times, and decide to move to India where retirement promises to be less expensive. The drama develops as dreams of exotic India clash against the reality of crowded streets, strange customs and a run-down hotel, and as some of the characters embrace the new life while others cannot abide the unfamiliar circumstances.

     It's a fine movie. It's not a great movie. It's only grossed a little over $38 million at the box office. But the story makes you think, and it stays with you for a while after you've left the theater. Something that doesn't happen when you see one of the summer blockbusters like The Avengers (gross: $600 million) or Madagascar 3 (gross: $160 million) or Men in Black 3 (gross: $165 million).

     We've been to our arthouse theater, called the Jacob Burns Film Center, any number of times, and I always fear that I will seem out of place because the audience will consist of sophisticated 20-somethings who dress all in black, sip exotic coffees, and read French literature.

     But I am always wrong. After we saw Marigold Hotel, B and I repaired to a nearby restaurant for dinner, and we joked about the audience that actually does show up for these movies -- movies that rely on plot and character and dramatic tension rather than car chases and special effects. The audience for these movies that make you think consists almost exclusively of people with expanding waistlines and gray hair, and who are dressed not all in black, but in "mom" jeans and faded golf shirts.

     No matter how many times we go to this theater, I am surprised by the audience. And every time I am also startled, at some point, by the sudden realization that we fit right in to this crowd -- with my gray hair, my expanding waistline and my faded golf shirt.

Naomi Watts, 43, is one of my favorites

     But I finally am beginning to accept the fact that it's the adults of the world who truly are the sophisticated people interested in stories that carry real emotional impact, rather than the impact of computer-generated explosions.

     The Film Center is the place where last winter we went to see The Descendants (gross: $82 million) and The Artist (gross: $45 million).

     Last year we drove over there to watch Helen Mirrin in The Last Station (gross: $6 million), a movie about the final days of Leo Tolstoy. And Sarah's Key (gross: $8 million) starring Kristin Scott Thomas -- who knew she could speak French! -- as an American journalist, married to a Frenchman, who stumbles on a secret about the family apartment in Paris.

     Before that, we caught Summer Hours (gross: $2 million) with Juliette Binoche, a movie about three siblings who converge on their aging mother's house in rural France. We saw the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (gross: $10 million). I later had to go back by myself to see The Girl Who Played with Fire (gross: $8 million), because B thought the movie was too violent and she didn't want to subject herself to the experience again.

Benicio del Toro, 46, seems to be one of hers

     A couple of years ago we saw Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson in Le Divorce (gross: $9 million), and Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro in 21 Grams (gross: $16 million). B knew 21 Grams was going to be kind of intense, and depressing, but she felt the presence of Benicio del Toro in the movie would compensate for that deficiency in the subject matter.

     The point is, it's the older, mature audience -- not the young, hip audience -- that goes to see these more ambitious movies, movies that stick with you longer than the butter from the popcorn. If you have Netflix, or access to the DVD collection at your local library, I could recommend all of these movies to you. Some are better than others -- some are not even in English -- but they all give you something to think about.

     Meanwhile, B and I are getting ready for our next trip to the Film Center, maybe to catch up on the new Woody Allen movie To Rome with Love. Or . . . I hear Naomi Watts is going to play Princess Diana in an upcoming movie. Gotta put that one on my list!  

June: Blogging Boomers Carnival

     The Blogging Boomers Carnival this week brings us some danger, some adventure, some worries . . . and some great eats.

     Laura Lee, aka The Midlife Crisis Queen, had a terrible wildfire burning within 7 miles of her home this past week. So she's pitched in to help keep everyone updated on the High Park Fire (and she also provides a link to more fire photos.) But, she reports, she also did find time to go see the film "The Artist" and provide us with a review.

     (I saw the movie earlier this year -- I thought it was so good, it left me, uh . . . . speechless -- but Laura Lee's analysis brought me a few new insights about the film and what it means for us today.)

World's tallest building

     Meanwhile, Katie from Arabian Tales (our favorite Baby Boomer expat) is doing a lot of walking in Dubai creating Walking Tours for TripAdvisor. Do you know how many “Ultimates” -- the superlatives -- there are in the Downtown Dubai area? It is amazing . . . but then again, she lives in Dubai and in Dubai being the first, the biggest, the best is a much sought after quest!

     (And if you follow Katie's link, you can walk along with her to the Dubai Mall, the ice rink -- yes, there's an ice rink in Dubai, despite an average high temperature in June of 97 degrees -- and to the world's tallest building, the Dubai aquarium, and a few other choice locations.)

     This week on The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, newcomer Rita R. Robison, consumer journalist, summons up some fascinating facts and figures about Father's Day, writes about her frustration over the new packaging for her checkbooks, and shares her pride in marching in the Gay Pride parade in Olympia, Wash.

Ah, summer vegetables!

     On different tract, SoBabyBoomer says, for a growing number of boomers, things aren't going according to plan.  The postwar generation is living longer -- and many people are spending their savings along the way. He ranks the top four financial worries of affluent Baby Boomers.

     But on a slightly more positive note, the Accidental Locavore, a Boomer who writes about real food for real people, is happy to have found a new source for her weekly farm basket. See what was fresh this week -- and what she did with it.

     And, P.S., for the latest on the High Park fire, which is still blazing away, check out the Denver Post.