Glossary

This page provides a definition of selected terms referenced in articles on this service.

Attitude of Gratitude

Refers to the habit of practicing gratefulness in your day-to-day life.Gratitude is the mother of joy. As we focus on what we’re thankful for, fear, anger, and bitterness simply melt away, seemingly without effort.

Breaking the word down a bit further thanks to the ever-convenient Dictionary.com, gratitude means:

• an appreciative attitude for what one has received
• a warm or deep appreciation of personal kindness
• a disposition to express gratefulness by giving thanks

Gratitude also relates to a full life spent in awareness of all the good things that surround us

Gratitude is expressed through big and things.

Living a balanced life of gratitude requires that our “big rocks” be well established. Most importantly, our family and other close relationships need to be in order. And if we don’t love all aspects of our work, we have to enjoy at least most of them and feel like we are contributing to something greater than ourselves.

Big rocks like these are indeed quite important, but I believe the small things also matter. The way we speak to family members, the habit of picking up after ourselves throughout the day, the choice to recycle instead of throwing everything in the trash can, the willingness to allow other drivers to “cut” into our lane–over time, these small decisions matter a great deal.

Your Attitude of Gratitude is not all about money, but it does include money.

The way we handle our money reflects how we feel about other people and our lives in general. Therefore, an important part of living gratefully usually includes a commitment to regularly help others with our financial resources. The process of outwardly showing more gratitude (by investing your money in others’ lives) will create an inward feeling of gratefulness. It’s a win-win relationship.

Your Attitude of Gratitude must be regularly cultivated, even when times are hard. A good way to do this is with a Gratitude Journal.

When you think about it, as if you have access to a computer and are able to read this glossary page, you’re already doing pretty well compared to half of the world. That’s something to be thankful for.

When you bring an Attitude of Gratitude in your life, you have:

1. A sense of purpose in your life
2. An appreciation for the lives of those around you
3. A willingness to take action to show the gratitude you feel

Baby Boomer

Person born during the Post-World War II baby boom between 1946 and 1964. Following World War II, several English-speaking countries – the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the baby boom. The terms “baby boomer” and “baby boom”, along with others expressions, are also used in countries with demographics that did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval.

Boomer Lifestyle

Refers to the lifestyle being lived by baby boomers.
Also, this is the name of this online service.

Boomers

Shortenned slang referring to “baby boomers“.

Boomer Women

Women born during the Post-World War II baby boom between 1946 and 1964. See baby boomer.

Bucket List

List of goals one wants to achieve during their lifetime.

BFF

Internet slang, or chat room and cell phone texting shorthand, the abbreviation stands for “best friends forever.”

Blogosphere

A collective term encompassing all blogs and their interconnections. It is the perception that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social network. According to wikipedia, the term is generally attributed to William Quick, who first used it in 2002, in his blog, Daily Pundit, and was quickly adopted and propagated by the warblog community. The term resembles the older word logosphere (from Greek logos meaning word, and sphere, interpreted as world), the “the world of words”, the universe of discourse.

Chrismas Cookies

Christmas cookies, as we know them today, trace their roots to these Medieval European recipes.

• Dutch and German settlers introduced cookie cutters, decorative molds, and festive holiday decorations to America
• German lebkuchen (gingerbread) was probably the first cake/cookie traditionally associated with Christmas
• Sugar cookie recipes descended from English traditions
• And animal crackers actually began as edible ornaments

Back in the days when we didn’t have a grocery store or big box chain store on every corner, these holiday treats featured “rare” and “expensive” ingredients like sugar, or essential ingredients like flour that weren’t normally “wasted;” only on the most special occasions did you commit the cost of expensive or essential ingredients to such treats. So it is only natural that a holiday like Christmas would end up having cookies associated with it.

Not used to thinking of sugar or flour as rare and expensive ingredients?
Then you probably aren’t aware that sugar once sold for the equivalent of $100.00 a pound? Or that flour was a far more essential kitchen item in households where people literally had to bake bread and biscuits everyday for basic sustenance?

By the 1500s, Christmas cookies had caught on all over Europe:

• German families baked up pans of Lebkuchen and buttery Spritz cookies
• Papparkakor (spicy ginger and black-pepper delights) were favorites in Sweden
• Norwegians love their krumkake (thin lemon and cardamom-scented wafers) made with whipping cream, butter, eggs, sugar and flour and cooked wafer-thin in an iron, then rolled into tubes
• And the Dutch first brought Christmas cookies to America in the early 1600s

As a result, cookies, candies, and cakes are a traditional part of most every Western celebration. Why cookies, specifically?

• First, cookies are really a form of small cake, with the conveniece of being handheld and quick to bake.
• The German traditions that led to Christmas cookies included ”Lebkuchen” and ”Spritz” - recipes that used less sugar and more spices like cinnimon, cloves, and nutmeg–cheaper and easier to get than sugar was–as well as raisins and other dried fruits.
• Scandinavian Chrsitmas cookies generally feature butter, sugar, flour, spices - and sometimes eggs. (The Norwegian Fattigman, for example, are known as “rich man’s cookies,” because the recipe features a dozen eggs, along with the cream, sugar and flour.)

I suspect it was these same traditions made those spices synonymous with Christmas; at least, I always associate cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom with the holidays!

Today, Christmas cookies are simply fun and anticipated part of the holiday. For many families, cutting and decorating Christmas cookies is a tradition as important as leaving them out for Santa Claus (either to be nice, or to try and bribe a better gift!).

Co-Ho

Recently coined shorthand (generally attributed to TIME magazine editors) for the relatively new concept of “communal home ownership.” In a co-ho agreement, two or more unrelated people (specifically friends who are not in a romantic relationship) purchase a home together. In doing so the partners generally agree to share companionship and equally split the mortgage, the tax break, and the cost of upkeep. People who have entered into a co-ho relationship note that, “It’s like a reversion to the old extended family, except that you choose your family.”

Comfort Foods

The term “comfort food” was added to the Webster’s Dictionary in 1972. According to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, comfort foods are foods that are simply prepared and associated with a sense of home or contentment.

Wikipedia tells us that comfort foods are typically inexpensive, uncomplicated, and easy to prepare, and notes that many people turn to comfort food for familiarity, emotional security, or as a special reward.

The reasons a dish becomes a comfort food are diverse but often include pleasant associations of childhood. Small children often seem to latch on to a specific food or drink (in a way similar to a security blanket) and will repeatedly request it in high stress situations. As a result, adults eat comfort food for a sense of continuity.

Comfort foods are typically composed largely of simple or complex carbohydrate, such as sugar, rice, refined wheat, and so on.

The foods which fill the urge for comfort vary, depending on a person’s taste, but in any given culture or cuisine there are foods that become universally accepted comfort foods.

Items such as mashed potatoes and tomato soup are generally accepted by everyone as comfort food. (In fact, it is quite common in popular psychology to label people dissenting in this judgment as being fundamentally “low-comfort” individuals.)

Comfort food has always been the staple of diners and other informal restaurants, as well as home cooking. Traditionally, there has been an emphasis on authenticity and low cost.

Recently, however, as American chefs have begun exploring the roots of American cuisine and tried to define it as a unique style, fine dining comfort food restaurants that feature more careful cooking and presentation, higher quality and fresh organic ingredients, (and consequently, higher prices) have evolved.

One such example is the “One Eleven Main” Restaurant, in Galena, Illinois, which its owners say “captures the rich, fresh flavors of the Heartland while highlighting the products, talents, and knowledge of local farmers, artisans and food purveyors.

The menu at One Eleven is influenced by these locals who have made food their life. From growing, harvesting and creating their own products to immersing themselves in a culinary specialty, their love for food and wine is visible, and has inspired the restaurant owners to forge special partnerships with these locals to bring guests the best of the region.

When possible, dishes include locally-sourced ingredients and specialty items recommended by their partners. Their input and product intensifies the flavor of the dishes.”

Comfort foods may be created at home, too, of course. Here are links to several cookbooks featuring comfort food:

• EatingWell’s Comfort Foods Made Healthy: The Classic Makeovers Cookbook (Jessie Price and The Editors of EatingWell)
• Favorite Comfort Food: Classic Favorites and Great New Recipes (Martha Stewart)
• Comfort Foods: Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals (Rachael Ray)

And finally, here’s a free recipe, for one of my favorite comfort foods “Cherry and Pecan Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, with Hearty Gravy“.

Cougar

Not so much the large predatory cat; this term refers to an attractive older woman who dates younger men, a la Mrs. Robinson in the classic movie, “The Graduate”.

CraigsListing

CraigsList, at http://www.craigslist.org, provides online local classifieds and forums for more than 550 cities in over 50 countries worldwide. The site is community moderated, and largely free, though there are some fees for job ads. People use Craigslist to seek and/or promote the availability of just about everything, from jobs, to housing, goods, services, romance, local activities, even advice. Craigslist has grown to be the among the 50 most popular site online, with more 50 million people worldwide viewing more than 12 billion pages per month. So it is no wonder that the process of listing something on the service has become known as “craigslisting.” Is there actually a Craig? Yes, Craig Newmark started the service as an email list of San Francisco events in early 1995, and still works there. However, Jim Buckmaster has been CEO since 2000, the company was incorporated as a for-profit entity in 1999, and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Cranberries

Cranberries pack a powerful – and healthy – punch! Recent studies show that the tart, red berry is a unique good-for-you fruit that offers a wide variety of health benefits. Not only are cranberries a healthy, low-calorie snack, but they can also play a significant role in preventing urinary tract infections, reducing the risk of gum disease and much more. Specifically:

• Cranberries and cranberry products contain significant amounts of antioxidants that may help protect against heart disease, cancer and other diseases.
• Cranberries may be beneficial in the prevention of ulcers, which are linked to stomach cancer and acid reflux disease.
• Cranberries contain hippuric acid, which has antibacterial effects on the body, as well as natural antibiotic ingredients.

Digging

Digg is a news aggregator type of social networking website whose purpose is to allow people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. Voting stories up and down is the site’s cornerstone function, respectively called “digging” and “burying.” Many stories get submitted every day, but only the most “dugg” stories appear on the front page. Digg has grown large enough that submissions sometimes create a sudden increase of traffic to the “dugg” website. This is referred to by some Digg users as the “Digg effect” while others refer to a site being “dugg to death“. However, in many cases stories are linked simultaneously on several popular bookmarking sites. In such cases, the impact of the “digg effect” is difficult to isolate and assess. Digg’s popularity has prompted the creation of other social networking sites with a story submission and voting system. The site was launched in 2004 by Kevin Rose and several friends. Registration is free, and you can find the site at http://digg.com.

Friend

Used as a verb, as in “will you friend me?” - to add someone as a contact on a social networking site such as FaceBook or MySpace.

Gay Marriage

Gay marriage is a term for a legally or socially recognized marriage between two people of the same sex. “Same-sex marriage” and “gay marriage” are the most common terms used in news media and politics.Some proponents of same-sex marriage use the term “equal marriage” to stress that they seek equality as opposed to special rights.

Marriage, as defined by the civil law, is currently available to same-sex couples in six countries. The Netherlands was the first country to allow same-sex marriage in 2001. Same-sex marriages are also legal in Belgium, Canada, Norway, South Africa and Spain. In 2005, Spain became the first country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage (including adoption rights) on equal terms and under the same law.

Two states in the United States, Massachusetts and Connecticut allow gay or same-sex marriage. From May 2008, California allowed for same sex marriages, though Proposition 8 has overturned that right as of November 2008. The states of Vermont, New Jersey and New Hampshire offer civil unions.
Oregon has domestic partnership laws that grant some of the rights and responsibilities of marriage.
Maine, Washington, Maryland, and the District of Columbia grant certain limited benefits through domestic partnerships. Hawaii has reciprocal beneficiary laws.

Opponents argue that equating same-sex and opposite-sex marriage changes the meaning of marriage and its traditions. Furthermore they frequently use the term “homosexual marriage,” and some surveys have suggested that the word “homosexual” is more stigmatizing than the word “gay.

Lipstick on a Pig

Originally referenced to someone who may be trying to make something or someone look appealing or attractive when it quite clearly will not work, or will only deceive the dumbest of people.

Retire Abroad

This concept is often referred to as “living the expat lifestyle,” - with “expat” being shorthad for “expatriate.” An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence. The word comes from the Latin ex (out of) and patria (country, fatherland).

• Most Americans choose to “retire in place,” continuing to live in the same home they lived in before retirement - for as long as possible.
• Then there is a second group of retirees, often called “snowbirds,” who continue to maintain their primary residence as their home base but buy a second home elsewhere - usually in a place with a desirable winter climate - where they spend the colder three to six months of the year. These second homes are often located in Florida, or the southwestern United States, though they may also be located in Mexico or even overseas.
• The third group of retirees, the “expats,” move out of the United States entirely - often choosing a country where healthcare is free, public transportation is readily available and the cost of living much lower.

Many of the countries selected for retiring abroad are chosen because their cost of living is low, housing is cheap, and they offer residents free or inexpensive national healthcare and convenient public transportation. In fact, many Americans choose to retire abroad simply because they can afford a much more luxurious lifestyle on the less than $2000/month they receive from their social security checks.

How prevalent is this concept? The United States Social Security office currently mails more than 400,000 checks to US citizens living overseas every month. Others who live overseas skip dependence on the postal mail and have their money deposited directly into their bank accounts. Current estimates are that more than 1 million American retirees now live overseas - at least part of the year.

We have to suspect that if the United States economy continues in the direction it’s currently going, many more about-to-retire Baby Boomers will join the expatriate leagues. Especially since American taxpayers are set to pay back trillions of dollars for the cost of the war in Iraq and the recent bailout of the mortgage industry.

The opportunity to enjoy good weather, safer cities and friendly neighbors while living a life of adventure in a fantasy location is also a significant draw. But don’t just think of expat retirees sipping Margharitas, relaxing on beaches and playing bocce ball on the lawns as the sun goes down. Many expats keep busy running significant businesses, too.

Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Greece and now even some of the former Communist countries like Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic are popular choices for American retirees choosing to live the expat lifestyle.

The concept of living an expat lifestyle has a significant history.

American literary notables who lived in Paris from the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein. African-American expatriation to Paris also boomed after World War I, beginning with black American veterans who preferred the subtler racism of Paris to the oppressive racism and segregation in parts of the United States.

In the 1920s African-American writers, artists, and musicians arrived in Paris and popularized jazz in Parisian nightclubs, a time when Montmartre was known as “the Harlem of Paris.” Some notable African-American expatriates from the 1920s onward included Josephine Baker, Langston Hughes, and, after World War II, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker. [1] [2] [3]

Another famous group of expatriates was the so-called Beat Generation of American artists living in other countries during the 1950s and 1960s. This group included Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Harold Norse, Gregory Corso and Gary Snyder. Later generation expatriates included 1950s jazz musicians such as Steve Lacy, 1960s rock musician Jim Morrison, and 1970s singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy. Preceding the Beats by several years, and serving to some extent as a point of pilgrimage for many of them was the American expatriate composer and writer Paul Bowles, who spent time in Europe in the 30s before relocating to Tangier, Morocco in 1947, where he lived until his death in 1999.

Many American fashion designers have notably become expatriates in France and Italy to design for existing European design houses or to enhance their own collections. These fashion designers include Marisol Deluna, Tom Ford, Patrick Kelly, and Marc Jacobs.

Retirement Planning

As far as we know, everyone who has ever worked for a living has at one time or another spent time dreaming of enjoying a secure, comfortable retirement.

Traditionally this time has been portrayed as a period in which you no longer work for a paycheck, and you are free to enjoy a carefree life of travel, family time and perhaps a project or two to “fill in the gaps” and keep you from getting bored.

These days, because we’re living longer, healthier lives, the concept of retirement is changing. In fact, according to Marika and Howard Stone, who wrote the book “Too Young to Retire” in 2004, traditional retirement, that longed-for goal of a previous generation, “is irrelevant for you, the in habitant of a new century, with different – and evolving – models for work, play, relationships and a meaningful life.”

They’re correct. After all, when Social Security was created in 1935, few people lived long enough to enjoy their so-called golden age. But healthy Baby Boomers can expect to spend more time in retirement – two to three decades — than did our parents and grandparents.

This means you can look ahead to choices your parents and grandparents would never have dreamed of. It also means the “one-size-fits-all” formulas that served as retirement planning in their day are in adequate in ours. Our lives are just too long for a single-minded pursuit of nothing but safety and material comforts.

Besides, very few of us have actually saved enough money to allow us to live comfortably for 20-30 years on our assets.

And even if we had, doing nothing but playing golf, travel, puttering around in the garden, decorating and visiting grandchildren for all those decades will get pretty tedious!

Of course, achieving the dream of a secure, comfortable retirement is much easier when you plan your finances, and there are plenty of resources available to help you with that. Just Google the term “retirement planning,” and you’ll find everything you need…

But we suggest that for Baby Boomers, the concept of “retirement planning” must also encompass time spent thinking about what you want to do with the time available to you AFTER you retire from the traditional workplace.

What Will Your Retirement Look Like?

• Some of you will choose to continue to work as an employee.
• Others will decide that this retirement period of your life is when you will start thinking about yourself entrepreneurially, mapping out your “third act,” which might be taking on a dream job in an area in which you’ve never worked, starting a new for-profit venture, volunteering, becoming an activist for a cause you believe in…
• And of course, you’ll still want to allow some time to putter, play, travel, garden, decorate, and visit grandchildren!

Stumbling

StumbleUpon is a highly popular Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It features a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles. (StumbleUpon reports over 5 million members as of April 25th, 2008. Before the end of May 2008, StumbleUpon says that it collected its five-billionth “stumble“; though it is significant to note that more than one billion of those “stumbles” took place in 2008) Web pages are presented when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser’s toolbar, and this process is referred to as “stumbling” the site. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate or choose not to rate any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the Web. The site also offers one-click blogging. StumbleUpon was founded by Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith, Justin LaFrance, and Eric Boyd during Garrett’s time in post-graduate school (in Calgary, Alberta, Canada). The idea of creating a company was established before the content: of the five or six ideas for products, StumbleUpon was chosen. The site was sold to eBay in May 2007 for $75,000,000.

Tatted Out

Covered in tattoos.

Tramp Stamp

A tattoo on a woman’s lower back, positioned for viewing between low-riding jeans and short T-shirts.

Twitter

A free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Anyone sending a tweet can restrict delivery to those in his or her circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, as well as via instant messaging in your cell phone, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook. The company was started in 2006 and as of July 2008, over 2,200,000 accounts were registered. You can find the service at http://twitter.com.