Relationships and Going Places

Much of the data the Grandma Brigade collects is prosaic: records of campaign donations or voters who have recently died. But a few volunteers see free information everywhere. They browse the listings of names on Tea Party websites. They might add a record of what was said around the family Thanksgiving table — Uncle Mitch voted for Bachmann, cousin Alice supports gay marriage. hare In Minnesota, Democratic volunteers scour their local newspapers each morning for letters to the editor with a political slant. They pay attention to the names of callers on radio shows. They drive through th… more »

Joel Kotkin writes:In 2000 only three U.S. metro areas had more elderly than children under the age of 15 (Pittsburgh, Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.). The 2010 Census showed we now have 10, with the addition of Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland, Hartford, Providence, Rochester and San Francisco to the first three. The elderly population is overtaking the younger population not only in Florida’s retirement havens, but in a number of Rust Belt and Northeastern cities. more »

Julia Sneden writes: It happened quite late on Christmas Eve. As I recall, the only ones in the living room were my son William and his five-month-old son Adam, who was being walked and burped after polishing off his late bottle. I was in the kitchen, busily putting things to rights for the umpteenth time that day, when William called me into the living room. "Watch this," he said. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Did you ever notice the inverse proportions of our lives that seem to be dependent on our ages? The changing importance of common segments of time, of course, are most obvious, perhaps — like a decade seeming half way to forever when you’re fourteen, and about like a week when you’re seventy. During our middle years, we often wish only to expand our horizons — all of them. Then along comes the evidence that whether we like it or not, those horizons are drawing closer to us instead of receding. more »