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No. 71/December 18, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Resources for Solo AgersUntil recen…
No. 71/December 18, …
No. 71/December 18, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Resources for Solo AgersUntil recently, older adults Aging alone – without a partner or adult children nearby – had few sources of help or advice. Today they can turn to Facebook groups, in-… Read more
Don Akchin
December 18, 2024 
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I just learned that I am a reduce…
Photo by Nathan Duml…
Photo by Nathan Dumlao on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I just learned that I am a reducetarian.According to Brian Kateman, who coined the word in his 2017 book The Reducetarian Solution, the label refers to one who deliberately reduces their meat consumption. Everything about that definition fits me except for the word “deliberately.” In my case, a reducetarian is one who deliberately wishes to remain married to a vegetarian and doesn’t want to cook his own meals for one.Share …
Don Akchin
December 14, 2024 
Photo by Austin Chan on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I am among the 48.4% of American vo…
Photo by Austin Chan…
Photo by Austin Chan on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I am among the 48.4% of American voters who are (choose one or more) [devastated/heartbroken/angry/ disappointed/ anxious/ frustrated/ despairing] over the 2024 Presidential Election result.Hundreds of people have taken to print and digital publications in recent weeks to offer their own answers to the big questions: Why did this happen? Is this the country I thought it was? What happens next?I will leave these questions to the pun…
Don Akchin
December 7, 2024 No. 70/December 4, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.A Gram Scam HomerunA British telephone c…
No. 70/December 4, 2…
No. 70/December 4, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.A Gram Scam HomerunA British telephone company has unleashed upon unsuspecting phone scammers an A.I. granny, Daisy Harris. Daisy’s mission is to waste scammers’ time, so they have less time to c… Read more
Don Akchin
December 4, 2024 
Photo by Getty Images for UnsplashNote to Readers: While I am traveling this Thanksgiving Week, I am posting a reprint of a 2022 post for your post-prandial reading. I’ll be back next week with fres…
Photo by Getty Image…
Photo by Getty Images for UnsplashNote to Readers: While I am traveling this Thanksgiving Week, I am posting a reprint of a 2022 post for your post-prandial reading. I’ll be back next week with fresh grist.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In an article in Psychology Today, Dr. Chris Gilbert tells the story of her next-door neighbors’ 13-year-old pit bull, who walked with a limp and seemed uninterested in life. Trying to discover what might spark the dog’s interest, she threw an old tennis…
Don Akchin
November 30, 2024 
Photo by visuals on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Gallons of ink have been spilled ove…
Photo by visuals o…
Photo by visuals on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Gallons of ink have been spilled over the problem of people (men, mostly) who find Retirement boring. They have abundant free time, and nothing to do. This is a legitimate problem because boredom is frequently associated with Depression and loneliness.There’s no use crying over spilled ink. But relatively little attention is paid to the problem of retirees who don’t have enough “me time” because they are kept busy doing chor…
Don Akchin
November 23, 2024 No. 69/November 20, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New “Medicine” for Loneliness: A So…
No. 69/November 20, …
No. 69/November 20, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New “Medicine” for Loneliness: A Social PrescriptionSocial prescribing, a practice that began in Great Britain, is when a physician prescribes a non-medical support or service – art classes, a c… Read more
Don Akchin
November 20, 2024 
Photo by Getty Images through Unsplash+The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I started The EndGame to cel…
Photo by Getty Image…
Photo by Getty Images through Unsplash+The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.I started The EndGame to celebrate the positive aspects of getting older. As you and I are well aware, positive aging flies in the face of conventional Wisdom and omnipresent stereotypes, which paint old age as a pitiful one-way path consisting only of suffering, senility, decline, disability, decrepitude, and ultimately, death.If that’s what you believe, you’re right!If you believe old age comes with positive benefits t…
Don Akchin
November 16, 2024 
Photo by Yunus Tug for UnsplashFirst, my apologies for not showing up in your inbox for the past two Saturdays. It was not my intention to abandon you. Knowing that I would be going on vacation for 10…
Photo by Yunus Tug f…
Photo by Yunus Tug for UnsplashFirst, my apologies for not showing up in your inbox for the past two Saturdays. It was not my intention to abandon you. Knowing that I would be going on vacation for 10 days, I selected two previous posts and set them up to be published on those two dates. To my surprise, neither went out to you. Since Substack never makes mistakes, I must assume that I did something in the setup that did not compute, which I regret.The EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Speaking of t…
Don Akchin
November 9, 2024 
No. 68/November 6, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Having a Satisfying Post-Career LifeWhat…
No. 68/November 6, 2…
No. 68/November 6, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Having a Satisfying Post-Career LifeWhat does it take to have a satisfying life after you hang up your spurs? According to an article in the Harvard Business Review titled “Retire Without Regret… Read more
Don Akchin
November 6, 2024 No. 67/October 23, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Book Documents Preventable Elder Dea…
No. 67/October 23, 2…
No. 67/October 23, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.New Book Documents Preventable Elder DeathsEldercide: How It Happened, How to Prevent It is the latest book by Brandeis University scholar Margaret Morganroth Gullette. In it, she documents the u… Read more
Don Akchin
October 23, 2024 
Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovati…
Photo by Centre fo…
Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The kitchen renovation is 95% complete, our finances are secure again after the latest incident of identity theft, and we have planned, executed, and survived three home invitational events around the Jewish High Holidays. Now, finally, we have returned to the front burner the task of assembling everything our children need to know when one or both of us departs this earthly vale.It is a somewhat macabre enterprise, …
Don Akchin
October 19, 2024 
Photo by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There is a major d…
Photo by National C…
Photo by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There is a major disconnect between what older adults want from health care and what the health care system delivers to them.That disconnect appears on every page of a new study by Age Wave and the John A. Hartford Foundation, titled Meeting the Growing Demand for Age-Friendly Care: Health Care at the Crossroads. When adults aged 65 and older were asked to assign a letter grade to the health care system, only 11% a…
Don Akchin
October 12, 2024 No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even …
No. 66/October 9, 20…
No. 66/October 9, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Election Dilemmas – Medicare Gets Even More ComplicatedFrom the “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” Department: In 2025, out-of-pocket costs for drugs covered by Medicare are limited to $2,000 annually… Read more
Don Akchin
October 9, 2024 
Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 ye…
Photo by Vladislav …
Photo by Vladislav Babienko on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.From the time I was 12 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to do in life. What a pity that I was wrong.My ambition was to become a newspaper reporter in the footsteps of role models Mark Twain and Clark Kent. In single-minded pursuit of this goal, I worked on my school newspapers in junior high school, high school, and college. In high school I was a stringer for the local daily, earning the princely sum of 25-cents p…
Don Akchin
October 5, 2024 
Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I receiv…
Photo by Jan Canty…
Photo by Jan Canty on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On Thursday, September 5, I received an email from Microsoft, stating: “Thanks for your order on September 4, 2024.” The billing statement showed that I had purchased Microsoft 365 Business Standard package for $450.00, marked up (for reasons unstated) to $492.08.I do have Microsoft 365 on my computer, but not the business standard. I don’t need it. I don’t want it. And I was mad as hell about it.Share The EndGameScam …
Don Akchin
September 28, 2024 No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDesp…
No. 65/September 25,…
No. 65/September 25, 2024NewScan is a biweekly briefing on news relevant to readers of The EndGame. NewScan is a premium feature exclusively for paid subscribers.Most Retirees Are Okay FinanciallyDespite the persistent drumbeat of scary stories declaring that workers are not saving enough for a secure retirement, 86% in a Federal Reserve survey said th… Read more
Don Akchin
September 25, 2024 
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.At 7:45 a.m. there is a kn…
Photo by Torsten De…
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on UnsplashThe EndGame is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.At 7:45 a.m. there is a knock at the front door, just as there has been every weekday morning for five weeks. Still wearing a t-shirt and running shorts, I open the door to admit Chris and Matt, the carpenters remodeling our kitchen, a room which, coincidentally, has been unavailable to us for five weeks.Today starts a little differently. They need to remove everything from our storage room so the floor can be swept and th…
Don Akchin
September 21, 2024 
