New York Times

As the Senate defeated the “skinny” health care repeal bill this morning, AARP thanked Republican Senators Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski, as well as Senate Democrats and Independents for opposing the bill.

The way Gretchen Reynolds kicked off her recent New York Times article made me jump for joy - then jump into my jog togs:

Burt Shavitz, the 79-year-old founder of Burt's Bees cosmetics, lives the life of a recluse. And he's very happy about it.

The abrupt firing this week of Jill Abramson, the first female executive editor of the  New York Times, once again puts a spotlight on unequal pay between men and women doing similar jobs, as details continue to leak.

It's not just women toiling away in middle management or other low-profile positions who apparently are paid less than men.

In 2011, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua ignited a firestorm with Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Excerpted in The Wall Street Journal, it described how Chua demanded that her two daughters get straight As in school (they did-then later got into Harvard and Yale).

[ View the story "Second-Guessing a Blogger's Life-and-Death Battle" on Storify]

Consider this: An older patient visits the dentist. The treatment she needs is expensive and not covered by Medicare. So the dentist offers her financing, on the spot, through a credit card plan. She accepts and gets the work done right away. When she gets the first month's bill, she's stunned to learn that the financing plan carries an interest rate of 30 percent.

Have you heard? This year's Gone Girl is The Silent Wife by A. S. A. Harrison.

UPDATE: Last week, we cited a report by The New York Times that a growing number of older adults are using their pensions as the basis to borrow cash -- and paying interest rates as high as 106 percent.