Thank god, bladder incontinence has become trendy. It's about time!

 

    We Baby Boomers are inspiring each other to regard elderliness as alluring, sassy and brilliant. Now, hundreds of profit-mad companies have succumbed to our voluptuous wisdom by creating products that have turned 80-year-olds into the new hip-hop generation.

And she means anything, sister!

    We should urge the Obama Administration to award the Medal of Freedom to Depends adult diapers (the Freedom to pee any time, anywhere), pictured at the top of this post with the ever-desperate "celebrity," Lisa Renna, and her gang of leaking jocks. This dear corporation has reminded us that peeing our pants can be as much fun as it was when we were little babies. It has taught us that getting old is kind of like getting young (which I've been telling my readers for years).  And it has shown us that the great entrepreneurial spirit can dream up all sorts of products that will make the aging process the hippest, most fashionable and most liberating time of our lives.

Pick one to suit your mood, you adorable pee machine!

    Anyway, toilets are such a bore. And they're never there when you need one.

    Last year, the awesomely compassionate masterminds at Depends created an array of stylish colors and patterns for their product. At last, those enduring the heartbreak of incontinence could stride with pride -- as the very attractive, smartly dressed woman in the TV ad did -- tossing her glossy hair in the breeze and smiling at all the male attention her confidence was eliciting. Little did those "come hither" guys know that her bladder was letting loose at that very moment.

    Now this shameless company is trying to enlist young people to walk the streets wearing Depends, with nothing over them, to "show your support" for those who need incontinence protection. It's a social movement, a noble uprising -- or actually a rather pathetic marketing ploy.  

 

    But Boomers don't need your approval! Those of us who have been buying adult diapers for our parents and grandparents for years aren't embarrassed in the slightest to have Depends (or their much cheaper and equally cute competitors) in our shopping carts. I'd be more self-conscious about buying almost anything else in the whole grocery store (pork butt, Cheez-whiz, Fruit Loops, etc.). 

   We will see to it that "diapers" become sleeker, sexier, and more environmentally friendly, but we've already made incontinence acceptable, if not outright bohemian. 

  

EVERY FIBER OF YOUR BEING

    Getting old used to be such a drab, gray, smelly process, but we Boomers have made our demands known to the highest corporate authorities, and things are looking up -- very up -- for those of us on the cusp of  senior-citizen status.

    If you're not incontinent, you're probably constipated, but even that little affliction has been given a surge of youthiness. A recent ad campaign for Metamucil -- the psyllium-husk laxative -- depicted it as a virtual fashion must-have, with "a bright new look." The ads featured cool models wearing clothes that match Metamucil's "hip flavors," and implied that the models'  nice flat tummies were the result of some very excellent bowel action, courtesy of the product at hand. They were literally leaping with the pleasure of that cleaned-out feeling, thanks to a product that has begun touting its ability to help you ward off "age-related conditions."

SAY WHAT? HAUTE COUTURE HEARING

    Not so long ago -- like yesterday --  people wanted hearing aids that were as close to invisible as possible. But after much grumbling and defiance from my generation, these devices are being made to look so fantastically "with it" that you might want to get a pair even if your hearing is fine. One hearing aid described by the New York Times, "looks more like an earring. Its tiny triangular body comes in exuberant colors like sunset orange, racing green or cabernet red; a slender wisp of wire uncoils gracefully from the body to an earpod no bigger than a teardrop."

    Does this not ease your anxieties a bit about hearing loss? Now you can look forward to embracing a wearing something that combines modern art, architecture, high-tech and joyful defiance. You'll feel like a babe in "StarTrek." Buy a stretchy iridescent jumpsuit to complete your ensemble, and challenge the world to regard you as old.

     There are other saucy new hearing aids that are more "out there," virtually indistinguishable from the Bluetooth earphones or the Antares MP3 player. Some look like ultramodern jewelry. They will give such a boost to your self image, you might not even want to turn them on. Being inundated with the ambient noise of everyday life is a way-overrated perk of being alive. It's just a distraction from the fabulous insights and analyses that are bubbling to the surface inside your ever-beautiful head. 

 

 

 

Hearing aids can be a cool accessory. But do we really want to listen to all that crap out there?

 

A TWIRLY TOY FOR AN OLDER GIRL OR BOY

    Being in a wheelchair is no longer anything to be depressed about, with the advent of the "Jazzy Power Chair." I have been whizzing around in one for years, just for kicks, hoping someone would get me on "America's Funniest Home Videos," which could generate some easy money just for being old and wacko. It gives you "style, performance and superb maneuverability," its promotional materials exclaim.

    This groovy machine enables you to scoot and swerve like a toddler with a new toy, and you can choose from a line of "Pride" accessories to go with it, including jaunty caps, T-shirts and a pennant flag that proclaims your seated swagger at owning this magnificent $10,000 beast. It comes in models with names such as Victory, Go-Go Elite, Pursuit, and Maxima -- the perfect complement to your Viagra. Hot stuff! And certainly not old!

    Another great benefit of being a tiny bit elderly is that this motorized throne can be had "at little or no cost to you," thanks to Medicare. Think of all the envious stares you'll get as you zoom past those who still have to walk from place to place. Boring!

Sit back and enjoy the breeze. Toot, toot!

 

    Don't feel bad, though, if you are still ambulatory. Exquisite and ever-flashier new walking canes are available to bring a little cavalier pep to your step. 

    You can buy an exact replica of the flame-entwined cane used by Dr. Gregory House on the Fox TV hit. There are royalty canes with skulls and dragons, swords and warriors. There are songbird canes, diamond-cut crystal canes and canes made from rare woods and genuine animal horns. Some have embedded rhinestones! Most desirable of all is the legendary bull penis cane, from FashionableCanes.com. 

A BULL PENIS YOU CAN REALLY HOLD ONTO

   "It is the most unique of all walking canes," the site declares. 'A great gift idea for any cane collector, these walking canes are constructed of real bull organs, fully sterilized and prepared by a professional taxidermist. The durable metal rod down the center of the penis cane ensures its longevity and reinforces its sturdy nature."

    Bull penis canes "are not stretched over their supportive rod. They are naturally 36" long or longer (OMG), and the metal support within is virtually invisible. The organ is professionally cleaned, sterilized and treated using top-quality taxidermy techniques, so you can be sure that your unique penis cane is beautiful, safe and durable. When you own one of these pieces, you will know that you have the most individual walking cane that can be found. It also makes a perfect gift for the most shocking over-the-hill birthday present ever!"

 

"Bull penis canes are murder," Dr. Gregory House declared. That is true.

    

     If I weren't a vegan, I would have to have this bull-penis thing, just for its gross-out value. People come up with the most magnificent product concepts, but if they require animal mistreatment or slaughter, I will have nothing to do with them. I would rather slaughter the entrepreneurs, those idiots.

    Women can choose from floral patterns, tea-party, New Age and antique canes, among others. Apparently no cow uteruses were harmed in the making of these canes.

Did someone forget to clean the fridge? Oh, Nana, it's you!

 

    But we Boomers will very likely turn this issue on its head, marketing that "old person smell" as the most delicious essence on the Planet. It will be bottled as a designer fragrance -- right along with those of Beyonce, Britney, Halle, Sarah-Jessica and all the rest of those frothy young nothings -- and it will convey so beautifully the richness and wisdom and splendor of a long life that even teenagers will want to wear it, on special occasions. It won't smell like teen spirit, thank goodness. It will smell like Amazing Grace.

   I also predict that all this cosmetic-surgery madness will screech to a near-halt within the next few years. Just as African-Americans embraced the "N" word among themselves, and gay people began throwing around the dreaded "Q"  word, older people will rise up into a backlash against the grotesque brutality of facelifts and grow to honor the "W" word.

 BOOMERS LINING UP

    A "Wrinkle Pride" movement will emerge. Yanked up, tightened skin will be released with a few snips, and old people will regard their old faces as badges of honor and perseverance. For those of us who can't seem to get any wrinkles -- maybe because we're so dead inside that we never laugh or frown -- the company that produces Lee's Press-on Nails will develop a line of press-on wrinkles. These will enable us not only to look age-appropriate but also to match our daily wrinkles with our mood, much as emoticons do online. Awesome!

 

At last, we will see the expressive beauty of our wrinkles.

    With all the "pride" stuff that is a coming-of-age phase for every disadvantaged or oppressed group, there's sure to be a movement by those with Alzheimer's, if they can just get it together. "It's cool to be out of it -- why would I want to live in YOUR reality?" they might proclaim.

    And isn't that true? Isn't real reality becoming quite unpleasant and constantly frightening, with one end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario presented to us every night on the news? 

 

DEMENTIA WILL BECOME A RAPTUROUS NEVERLAND

    Let's learn to regard dementia as a welcome escape, and a chance to be totally irresponsible. Speak your mind, spew vulgarities, demand butterscotch pudding and a vanilla-mint e-cigarette! Those poor immigrant girls will be constantly running around to fulfill your every wish. Let's all pledge to slip them a hundred-dollar tip every day. Their overlords are heartless profiteers, and the aides get practically nothing for their exhausting labors. We can rally our remaining cerebral function and organize a union for those sweethearts!

Finally, we can express our "wacko" sides, with impunity. Go for it!

     Some provocative points -- and profits -- could be made with a line of T-shirts that glamorizes Alzheimer's patients' new "loosie-goosie" lives. 

    But now, before we slip into something more comfortable -- the cozy neon gown known as dementia -- we can get things in place to ensure that we will have a blast, instead of being warehoused and narcoticized. Let's get psychedelic drugs and other mind-bending substances legalized for those with dementia, so we can party in our heads (like it's 1999), instead of sitting there drooling. Let's publicize technologies that have shown the capacity to jolt our memories back to life and to stimulate the production of new brain cells.

We will enter a "demented" world of indescribable beauty, with a  little help from our friends: drugs.      Once we make the transition into dementia, we will have "passed on," into a new realm of neuronal phantasmagoria! Neverland never seemed so good, until Boomers discovered it. Pretty soon, it will be the most "in" destination on the planet.     Yes indeed: Baby Boomers have transformed getting old into a sexy new fad. Class warfare is next on my agenda. You know, economic populism.    A version of this post originally appeared on my blog, kronstantinople.blogspot.com       SUGGESTED READING : Elderly Girl's Ravishing Secrets to High-Spirited Longevity: http://kronstantinople.blogspot.com/2011/09/news-flash-elderly-girl-will-unveil-her.html Forever Young: Elderly Girl Shares Her Cherished Secrets: http://kronstantinople.blogspot.com/2011/11/forever-young-elderly-girl-shares-her.html

 

Mirrors on the ceiling! Pink champagne on ice! We are all just adventurers here, of our own device! Among other strategies in our war on Alzheimer's, we should investigate the use of  MIND-EXPANDING DRUGS in order to defeat a MIND-SHRINKING DISEASE. Does this not make perfect sense?

http://kronstantinople.blogspot.com/2013/05/regarding-alzheimers-lets-blow-big.html