Tired of feeling hot and sticky this weekend?  Well, there are big chills guaranteed if you tune into A&E’s four-hour “Coma” tomorrow and Tuesday nights (Sept. 3 and 4).

You may remember the 1978 medical thriller starring Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas, directed by Michael Crichton.  This time around, an acting A Team including Geena Davis, Richard Dreyfuss, James Woods and Ellen Burstyn surrounds sleuthing med student Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”) and her teaching doctor/love interest, Steven Pasquale (“Rescue Me”).  Really, it’s a treat to see them having such a grand time emoting the living daylights out of their roles in this two-night popcorn movie  — Davis as a sexual predator and a chief psychiatrist; Dreyfuss as an amiable medical professor; Woods as a revered and feared chief of staff; and Burstyn as the unhinged gatekeeper at a facility for long-term coma patients.  You just know someone knows more than they’re saying about the healthy young patients that go into OR No. 8 for routine surgeries and come out comatose.  Burstyn alone could induce nightmares.

Gone are creaky vestiges of the ’70′s  — including the treatment of a woman doctor as a novelty — replaced by up-to-date references to stem cell research and medical innovations outpacing ethical considerations.  The theme of just how far medical establishments will go when they’re hungry for dollars has never been more timely.   In this  “Coma,” surprises are in store even for those who do remember the ’78 adaptation of Dr. Robin Cook’s bestseller.

“We definitely tried to throw people off the scent, because, you know, the audience is always way ahead of you.  They’re so smart,” said director and executive producer Mikael Salomon (“Band of Brothers,” “Andromeda Strain”).  “You really have to do something extraordinary for them not to guess what’s coming next.”

According to him, he and executive producer David W. Zucker and screenwriter John J. McLaughlin (“Black Swan”) worked over the script for about a year before shooting began on the event presentation from Ridley and the late Tony Scott.

As far as the cast, Salomon told AARP.org, “I had worked with Richard before.  I was the cinematographer on ‘Always,’ that Steven Spielberg directed, and he played the lead with Holly Hunter.  It was great to see him again.  I had heard stories — ‘Oh, he can be difficult,’ ‘Oh, he can be hard, so demanding.’  But we had a blast.  Same with Jimmy Woods.  He’s a force of nature.  You have to let him loose, you have to let him go.

“The scene between Richard and James Woods is a scene we wrote later on, to create more action between the two of them,” Salomon said.  “They both came in, we started rehearsing, and suddenly Jim says, ‘You know, Richard, we’ve known each other for so many years.’  And Richard said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’  ‘Do you realize, we’ve never worked together before?’”

Added Salomon with a laugh, “I said to myself, I’m just going to stand back with the camera and let them do what they want to do.”

The filmmaker revealed one unexpected challenge:  wardrobe, or lack of it.   A key visual of 1978′s “Coma” was a room full of naked coma patients, suspended from the ceiling.  “I called A&E and said, ‘I think I already know the answer, but what about this,’ and they said, ‘No, no.  We can’t have nudity; this is basic cable.’”  So he and his costume designer came up with the chrome catsuits seen on their patients. The fabric is  referred to as “artificial skin.”  Maybe they’ll give real medicos ideas.

Boomers

Unlike hepatitis B, for which two-thirds of cases are spread sexually, hepatitis C is mainly a blood-borne virus. Today it ‘s spread primarily through shared drug needles, says the CDC. But before the widespread screening of blood donations in the early 1990s, it was often spread through blood transfusions. Some cases may also come from tattoos, piercings, shared razor blades and toothbrushes, nail salons and snorted cocaine.

However it’s spread, it now affects an estimated 3.2 million Americans, and two-thirds of these cases are among boomers. Officials say boomers are five times more likely to be infected than other adults.

What makes hepatitis C particularly pernicious is that someone can be infected for several decades without showing any symptoms. But that doesn’t mean the virus is harmless during that period; it slowly and gradually scars the liver, which can lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer. More than 15,000 Americans die each year from hepatitis C-related illnesses, says the CDC, and the number has been growing.

A one-time blood test can tell if someone has the virus. All people born from 1945 to 1965 who have not already been tested should ask to be tested at their next doctor visit, said Frieden.

Friday Quick Hits: 

• Not your typical senior-center craft hour. The Los Angeles-based EngAGE program provides arts and other classes for low-income retirees living in senior apartment communities, including the Burbank Senior Artists Colony, where residents write soap operas, exhibit oil paintings and make short films. “We see people without money, who had very hard lives, who are not aware of their own potential,” said EngAGE COO Maureen Kellen-Taylor. “They just had to get through life, taking care of things, and the idea of following a dream was not on their radar screens.”

• Older stars in their earliest roles. The Huffington Post rounds up photos and clips of some of the famous over-50 set’s first acting gigs, from Tom Hanks fighting the Fonz on Happy Days to Jack Nicholson’s cameo on The Andy Griffith Show.

• Midlife workers living paycheck to paycheck. A new survey says workers ages 45 to 54 struggle most to pay the bills. Among those who said they live paycheck to paycheck, 43 percent were in this age group, compared to 34 percent of those 55 and older, 40 percent of 18-34 year olds and 42 percent of those 35 to 44.

Photo: Ron Levine/Getty Images

We’ve teamed up with the United Nations on a series of talks around reducing poverty and challenges in aging. Today and tomorrow, we’ll be livestreaming and invite you to watch and join the conversation. Details are available here.

Madame Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile and current Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women will deliver the keynote address at the briefing.

What do you think we can learn from other nations on combatting poverty? Or what innovative solutions do we have that we can share with the world?

[Blog Ed Note: If you'd like to find a way to help in your community or around the world, visit CreateTheGood.org.]

Additional Speakers include: Lee Hammond, AARP President; Rosemary Lane, UN Programme on Ageing, Department of Economic and Social Affairs; Michael J. Hodin, Adjunct Senior Fellow, the Council on Foreign Relations; Josh Collett, Vice President, International Affairs, AARP; Nicola Armacost, Managing Director and Co-founder, Arc Finance; Ivan Šimonovic, Assistant Secretary-General, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – New York; Dr. Anne Degrand-Guillaud, Directorate General of Employment and Social Affairs, European Commission; Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary General Department for Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations; and others.

Sweet Coffee Date? {photo by Tammy Gordon}

We want your Valentine’s Day ideas and our Love & Relationships expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, might use it in an upcoming blog post. We’re looking for the 10 most creative, unconventional yet easily affordable Valentine’s Day dates. You can use ideas that you have done in the past or plan on doing this year, next year or the year after that … you get the picture. The sky’s the limit.

Here’s how it works: Share your idea with us on our Facebook page, we’ll compile them for Pepper to review, then she’ll select the 10 that she thinks are the tops. We’ll post the best ideas right here and Pepper will give you a shout out during her pre-Valentine’s Day online chat on Feb. 8. So, you have until 6 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 6, to post your ideas.

Thanks for participating in making this a special Valentine’s Day! Good luck!

Dear Heloise: Something that I think needs attention: COMPUTERS! I think they are great and provide a good service. But companies need to know that not everyone has a computer – seniors like me, and people who can’t afford them. Everywhere you look – on labels, cans, beauty products, offers for contests, recipes, you get my point – “For more info: -.com”; “to enter contest: -.com”; “to get more recipes: -.com.” They all say the same thing: “Reach us at: -.com.” We can’t reach them if we don’t have a “com”-puter!
We folks in No Computer Land are missing a lot and are left out of so much. If “com”-panies would list an 800 number (or a mailing address) on the label, we could learn a lot, too, and not feel left out! – Joyce in Montgomery, Ala.

Heloise’s response?

Joyce, how right you are! The largest demographic of the population in the United States today is people over the age of 50! Companies need to listen to their customers and understand that not everyone has a computer or even access to one.
If you don’t have a computer, your library, senior center or a public school that allows access to its library most likely has computers that you can use for free. So businesses, please remember that not all of your customers are online! – Heloise

I no longer work directly in this area, but this is an issue near and dear to my heart (I wrote about seniors and the digital divide for the now-defunct Digital Divide Network and also did my masters thesis on the subject, circa 2001).

I definitely feel for Joyce, but the reality is that there are strong business pressures on companies (cost, competition, market reach) that lead them to doing so much online. Given the two options — businesses doing more traditional offline promotions — or getting more seniors online — the latter is probably the more practical.

Dr. Jeff Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future, was recently at AARP, and he shared that their Digital Future Report shows that lack of access is no longer the primary reason that older adults aren’t online.

That may largely be true (save for some low-income or rural populations). Today, lack of participation is likely more related to other reasons, like fear of learning, how difficult computers are to use (still!), and just general lack of interest. However, new technology like the iPad is helping to address ease of use, and fear and lack of interest can be addressed with increased exposure.

Tech Training for Seniors

Today’s Wall Street Journal talks about programs that enroll teens as tech ambassadors to seniors:

The Central Oregon Council on Aging, a Redmond, Ore., senior-services agency, enrolled 70 people last year for tech training by teens from a nearby high school’s computer class, and 100 more are signed up this year. A Carmel, Ind., nonprofit, Net Literacy, enlists 400 to 600 middle- and high-school students each year for a senior tech-training program called “Senior Connects.” And at New York’s Pace University, a popular service-learning program sends students to retirement facilities to teach seniors skills from email and online banking to Wii and video chat.

As the article points out, teens can be great ambassadors because they are enthusiastic about technology and the average teen is also pretty tech-savvy. But there are potential down sides:

Many older people face cognitive hurdles. Studies show that as they age, many seniors lose some of their ability to remember, solve problems and process new information quickly. There are psychological hurdles as well. Among people over 65 who avoid using the Internet, the main reasons cited are that they either don’t feel comfortable or skillful enough to use computers, or they believe “the Internet is a dangerous place,” says John B. Horrigan, vice president, policy research, for TechNet, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit advocacy group.
These deficits may loom particularly large when a senior is seated across from a teenager who has been using computer and digital technology since elementary school.

Fortunately, there are options for seniors who would be more comfortable learning from a peer. SeniorNet is a nation-wide organization whose Learning Centers offers both basic and advanced classes; classes are small and are taught by other seniors. There are also likely to be many local and regional-based programs close by; check with your public librarian who will likely be able to help you find something that can work for you or the senior in your life.

What do you think about the grey digital divide? Let me know in the comments or tweet me at BethAARP.

Monday, January 17th marks the 25th anniversary of the celebration of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Over the years, we have come to celebrate the holiday by volunteering, a fitting way to honor the life and legacy of a man who lived his life in service to others.

This year, you can also celebrate the King holiday…over dinner.
Building on the revival of America’s Sunday Supper tradition, hosting a meal or joining others for one offers us a chance to reflect on how far we’ve come and how much we’d still like to do to ensure the health and well being of our communities.

In order to create the change we’d like to see, we have to talk to each other and, like people everywhere, we tend to do that really well when gathered around the dinner table.

On Sunday, January 16th, the night before MLK Day, people all across America will gather at restaurants, coffee shops, community centers and private homes to discuss what matters to them, to identify challenges facing their communities and imagine solutions.

Picture yourself discussing your community’s needs with neighbors you’ve already met or those haven’t. What ideas for improving your community might be developed collectively? What innovation, born over broken bread, might become real change over time?

How could our children participate in conversations like this?

This year, in addition to volunteering on MLK Day, consider hosting or joining a civic dialogue.
Host or Join a Sunday Supper and invite others from your community to attend. You can download a facilitator’s toolkit and conversation cards here.

If you can’t join a Sunday Supper event in person, you can participate in the virtual conversation by watching the America’ s Sunday Supper live webcast on Sunday, January 16 at 6:00 p.m. EST.

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post, NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo, Olympic legend Carl Lewis, S. Leo Chiang-producer and director of “A Village Called Versailles”, Barton Seaver-cook and National Geographic Fellow, Michelle Nunn of Points of Light Institute, Robert Egger of DC Central Kitchen and other special guests will share their thoughts on civic engagement, volunteerism and how to continue the work of Dr. King.

Be part of something bigger than yourself this MLK Day, make it meaningful with both action and reflection.
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There are a few that technology has improved upon, like GPS instead of paper maps, long distance fees (good riddance!) or OnDemand or Netflix streaming instead of having to drive to the movie store and hope what you wanted was in stock. But, here are some things it seems sad this next generation will miss:

• - Separation between work and home. With smart phones, work travels with us… it was kind of nice just being able to relax with family and friends without iPhone push tones going off.
• - The evening news… we’re news junkies here at AARP and love all of the options, but there was something kind of cool about the nation collectively pulling up the chair together to hear the news of the day.
• - And, retirement… wow, that’s looking different for kids born this year. Heck, it’s looking different for all of us.

Check out the full list here and let us know which ones struck you funny and what they might have missed.

Your senators need to know we’re counting on them to fix this issue before they leave for their December recess.
Call 1-800-488-7139 TODAY and tell your U.S. senators to stop these drastic cuts that will put Medicare patients’ health at risk.
Calling is easy, and you don’t need to be an expert – elected officials need to hear from everyday Americans like you. Here’s how to make your call:

Many calls end here. However, if you like, you can add that:

Don’t let Congress force doctors out of Medicare. Make sure your voice is heard by calling your members of Congress today.