William Thomas is a baby boomer and boy, is he pissed off. But mostly at his generation...us. Thomas is a Canadian humorist (no, that's not an oxymoron) and he's pretty sure our generation has wrecked the world for everyone else, as laid out in this column.

The line was about a half hour long but the incentive was a free laptop every hour. No, we didn't win, but we had a great conversation with fellow boomers about waiting in line for Stones tickets. Somehow the two queues, separated by 35 years, seemed strangely familiar in their cult-like appeal.

The picture to the left is proof we got in - looking up through the glass cube from the sales floor. (See the related article on how this photo got here from my wireless phone)

The following rant chronicles my descent into the bowels of Verizon hell.

My cell phone contract was about to expire and Verizon offers a "credit" on a new phone if you re-sign for another two years. Being fairly technologically savvy, I did my research on new phones, and decided on the Motorola RAZR - mainly because it had Bluetooth that would allow me to wirelessly transfer contacts, calendars and files from PC to phone.

The signup was effortless and in less than an hour I had a spanking new RAZR complete with Bluetooth headset. Even pairing the phone and PC was easy - but there was a problem. No matter what I did, I simply could not transfer files to or from the phone.

I'm not one to give up on something like this so I went online to see if I could find a solution. Lo and behold there are volumes of data explaining that the Verizon version of the RAZR has object exchange (OBEX) disabled.

Yes, there is an alternative - send the picture to any email address directly from the phone - at $.25/each + airtime. Suddenly it all makes sense. Verizon through manipulation of the phone software, is denying me access to standard phone features and forcing me to pony up every time I send a file.

OK, shame on me for not knowing this beforehand - but I don't have an alternative. Verizon is the only carrier in my area with a signal.

Just for fun, I decided to return to the Verizon store and see if there was some alternative - perhaps this was all some big mistake and in the interim had decided to turn OBEX back on. Here's the chronology of my Verizon adventure.

LIE #1
At the store, they have a "tech support" window, so I bellied up like I didn't know what was going on and explained that my phone was broken and wouldn't transfer files.

The "tech support person" explained that it was something Motorola had done as a security measure to keep nefarious Bluetooth hackers from accessing the contacts and files on my phone. When I revealed that all other wireless carriers who offer the RAZR allow OBEX, he continued to insist that it was a Motorola problem and there was nothing he could do about it.

LIE #2
Not satisfied with the tech guy's bold-faced blame shuffling, I decided to see what the phone support people had to say. After reaching a Bluetooh tech support person at Verizon, I was told that, yes, there may be a way to transfer files from my RAZR, but it was not something that Verizon tech support could not do. Would I like to talk to Motorola about it?

My hopes soaring, I was transferred to Motorola. The next sound you hear is that of Verizon hanging up on me.

The Truth #1
So I get the Motorola tech support number and proceed to explain that my Verizon RAZR won't transfer files. The MOTOtech explains that this is not something Motorola supports because it doesn't exist on Verizon RAZR - Verizon has instructed Motorola to turn off OBEX.

Finally, the painful truth
Back to Verizon tech support. By now all I want is someone to come clean. We already have confirmation from both the Internet and from the phone manufacturer that this is a Verizon marketing scheme, so stop lying and tell me the truth.

This time over at Verizon phone support, the rep couldn't answer Bluetooth questions and requested that I talk to another tech support person (already on the line) who could help. Once again, the next sound you hear is that of Verizon hanging up.

Back to Verizon phone support. Finally, I was connected to someone who admitted that the OBEX is turned off and the only way I could transfer files was to use the Verizon service at $.25/each + airtime.

Shouldn't there be some law against blatant lies - if not through legislation at least on moral grounds? I'm sure that somewhere in the contractual language there's mention of OBEX not being available. But I'm stuck, I don't have another carrier. What's more, I'm a big boy - just tell me the truth, I can handle you being the greedy monolithic corporate telecom that you are.

We're on an email list for the DCCC who really know how to run email campaigns, by the way. This particular piece was pretty compelling, especially after going to their cool little chart.

We received this from a member of a new cohousing community in Massachusetts.

"Cohousing is a concept that may be very appealing to the aging hipster. Cohousing is a intergenerational pedestrian friendly neighborhood geared toward a balance of private and community space" Take a look at Mosaic Commons.

Hmmm...old age home with jello for lunch and a nice game of bingo after dinner or a community in some beautiful part of the country with real neighborhood, several generations, and independence. Tough choice.

Cohousing is a burgeoning movement, with communities all over the country. It's an interesting option for those who want to get back to their hippie roots, redefine community, or just start planning for their second acts. The Cohousing Association of the United States is a good starting point.

Our local weekly newspaper--you know the kind with livestock prices and dates for the next Tricky Tray--has a curmudgeonly Boomer columnist, George L. Stafford, who came out with this article just last week. Never heard it said better.

Pardon me, if I don't keel over just yet

It has recently come to my attention that anyone over forty is considered to be over the hill, literally. Those over forty-five are obsolete. Those above fifty fall into the category of endangered species. Anyone fifty-five and older is dead but has simply refused to fall down.

Hmmm...and here we thought we were doing everything right. Gen-Y (that would be OUR kids) spoke up in an AP article by Martha Irvine, about how the Boomer lifestyle and parenting style has affected them.

by
Frank Mullen III

I went to college in the 60s. The professors were either decrepit, brain-dead codgers who'd had their last coherent thoughts shortly after the First World War, or young assistant professors with flared sideburns and mod jackets who spent the mornings carrying protest signs back and forth across the quad, and the evenings carrying coeds back to their apartments.

So when I started teaching at an East Coast college, I had no good role models to fall back on. I had to devise my own techniques for dealing with student difficulties. And believe me, today's students have problems. Can you imagine delivering an oral report in front of your classmates and realizing that your navel-ring doesn't match your tongue-studs?

I think you'll see that I succeeded in dealing effectively with student problems. While I have edited some of my responses for clarity, the student questions and complaints below are authentic and presented verbatim, to the best of my recollection.