Found this little quiz originally published by the Associated Press. Since so many in our forums are obsessed with generational definitions, this should be fodder for some nostalgia discussions. We invite you to add your own differentiators.

Are you a baby boomer? A Gen Xer? A slacker? Part of the entitlement generation? Some clues to figuring out where you fit in.

With all the "Ohmigod--we're turning 60" press lately, this columnist, Ed Cullen,in the Advocate in Baton Rouge, give us his funny take. I'll turn 60 with him any day.

I used to believe that if reindeer are good, reindarlings must be even better. For a glimpse back to the wondrous world of childhood beliefs and (mis)conceptions check out I Used to Believe .

OK--here's one I really did believe: I was always covered in freckles as a kid. When I was about 4, a bigger kid told me that when I grew up, all my freckles would melt together and I would be Black. I believed her completely, in spite of the fact that I knew perfectly well there were kids my own age who were Black already. I guess I just thought their freckles melted together earlier than mine.

A Pew Research poll recently found that a goodly percent of Boomers are bearing financial responsibility for both their children and their parents. From the survey:

Sixty-eight percent of baby boomers with adult children help those children financially.
Twenty-nine percent of baby boomers whose parents are still alive provide them with some financial assistance.
Thirteen percent of baby boomers provide financial support to both parents and children.
Two-thirds of baby boomers say parents have a responsibility to pay for their children's college education, an opinion that varies little with income.
One-third of boomers say parents have a responsibility to provide housing for adult children.
Fifty-six percent of boomers say adult children have a responsibility to provide housing for elderly parents.

But in past generations, didn't the family always take care of its own? Farmers typically broke off acreage for a house for their children and often had their parents living with them as well. There was something to be said for the extended family close at hand. The elders could help care for the youngers and help children with the benefit of their experience. Even in the suburb where I grew up, it wasn't uncommon for a grandma or grandpa to be living with my friends' families. Now we all hope we can scrape together the money to ship old Mom off to a half-decent nursing home if, God forbid, she can't live off her investments.

There do seem to be more post-college kids coming home again. Just when you think it's safe to turn the kid's room into a home gym, here they are again---fancy college degree and not a job prospect in sight. I admit to going home for three months after college, but I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Even if it meant waiting tables and living in a dump. Does this reverse exodus mean we haven't done a good enough job of teaching independence or do they just like their parents a lot? I've read some marketing literature that claims Gen Y-ers actually do admire and like their parents--that would be us--more than say Boomers did.

Now allegedly, we Boomers have more money than any other generation, but does that account for those who have been downsized and/or lost their pensions in the last several years? So for those of us not enjoying the deserved riches of approaching old age, how exactly do we support both the young 'uns and the old 'uns? And still have something left for our own decrepitude?

You've got this favorite song, it replays in your head - over and over. Yeah, you love it, but make it go away! Perhaps it's the melody, a particular beat or instrumental quality that implants itself in the music lobe of your brain - where it gets top billing.

Now, thanks to Pandora, you can not only hear your favorite song, but listen to an endless stream of other songs with similar qualities. For you Aging Hipsters out there who want to discover music (new and old) that puts you in a single groove, this is the place. It's your "personal DJ"

From the Pandora FAQ:
"Pandora is a music discovery service designed to help you find and enjoy music that you'll love. It's powered by the Music Genome Project, the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Just tell us one of your favorite songs or artists and we'll launch a streaming station to explore that part of the music universe."

"We take your input (artists, songs) and feedback ("I like this", "I don't like this") and use the Music Genome Project to create stations that play songs that are musically similar to what you've told us. That's it; only the music counts. We don't care how popular the artist is, who's backing them, and we don't care which genre bin they usually belong in. Only the music matters."

The Smothers Brothers (you remember them, right?) used to do a bit about the best rescue strategy if you ever found yourself drowning in a vat of chocolate. Their conclusion was yell "FIRE" 'cuz no one will ever come running if you yell "CHOCOLATE!"

I think I was recently pushed into a vat of chocolate.

You see, the other day, my significant other (riding in the passenger seat) yelled "TEENAGER!" I could hear the urgency in her voice, but she was yelling "CHOCOLATE!" Just then, a late 80's model white Corolla with a backwards-hat-wearing boy cut the corner, nearly removing my left front fender.

It wasn't the near accident that pissed me off, it was the perturbed look on his face. Perhaps he cuts that corner every day and there had never been anyone there before!

By the way, that significant other I mentioned also yells "DARLING" when there's a deer about to bolt out in front of the car - she doesn't want me confusing "DEER!" with "DEAR!" So now I know that "TEENAGER!" is code for "brace yourself, old man, you're about to become a statistic."

P.S. Thanks to a reader for pointing out it was the Smothers Brothers, not Bill Cosby who did the Vat of Chocolate Routine.

Bush, Justice shine at USC pro scout workout

Seeing the words "Bush" and "justice" in the same sentence gave me pause...but it's actually REGGIE Bush and WINSTON Justice, mentioned in an ESPN headline. An article about the NFL draft is probably the only place we'd see those two words together in a sentence.

A recent article by Lisa Belkin in the New York Times Magazine offered a retirement solution I hadn't thought of--I can go back to live at college! In efforts to stop mass boomer migration and to provide us with something more than pottery classes in the nursing home, communities are being developed on or near college campuses for 'life-long learners.' Some require a link to the school, most do not.

A model development, is the University Commons near the University of Michigan, where residents can select townhouses, villas, or condominiums.They have the benefit of the educational and cultural resources of a univerity setting and the development even offers high-speedinternet access, a university email address, a recital hall, and dinners prepared by students in a local culinary program.

One company, Campus Continuum is developing a nation-wide "network of university-branded residential communities."

What an appealing idea! All of the advantages of college life and none of the downside -- no term papers, no frat houses, no cafeteria food. And it sure beats exiling oneself to the homogenous world of typical retirement communities where the only people under 55 are the golf pro and the nurse who takes your blood pressure.

Those Ivies that rejected you 40 years ago are welcoming you now. Princeton, here I come!

I'm getting a strong dose of Genx lit these days...and I'm loving it. Even if you hardly actually know any 30-somethings and your kids are too young and you're too old, "Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless" by Susan Jane Gilman has a bunch of a-ha moments. Gilman, who grew up in New York City the child of hippie parents, recounts some of the less than golden moments of her youth--finding religion (or not), dealing with the popular girls, little-girl dreams of adulthood, boys, crushes, jobs, and all the angst of being a girl in the modern world.

A review on femail.com says:
"Susan's experiences are universal - whether it's coping with mean girls at school, working for a feminist boss who, it turns out, is horrible to the women who work for her, or simply being terminally uncool. Reading like terrific fiction, this entertaining memoir will strike a chord with 20- and 30-something women everywhere."

Don't let the 20-30-something reference stop you; this is a terrific read. You can buy the book at Amazon.

Second, I am shamelessly plugging a book I've only read excerpts of. Another book that has absolutely nothing to do with Boomers, but hey--my sandbox, my rules. "Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be : A Rock & Roll Fairy Tale" was written by Jennifer Trynin, the daughter of a dear friend. A Boston singer-songwriter who was almost famous, Trynin took her experiences with near-greatness and the music industry and has written a cautionary tale for all would-be rock stars.

According to Entertainment Weekly, "Trynin's terse, hilarious, you-are-there prose is as strong as her songwriting was, and this will remain an excellent primer for any rockers considering signing with a major label...for however many months said labels continue to exist."

One way to support the music is to buy the book at Amazon.

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