The lead news article in the national section of today's New York Times runs under the headline, "Wheelchair Users Fly More, And Airlines Try to Adapt; Balancing Aging Boomers and New Security."
Interest piqued, Smartertimes.com scoured the article for an example of a single "aging boomer" who uses a wheelchair on an airplane. But there are only two wheelchair users whose ages are given in the article. One is 63 and another is 72. That makes them too old to be part of the baby-boom generation.
The Times's own stylebook has an entry on "baby boom" that states, "as allusions to the population surge after World War II -- between 1946 and 1964 -- 'baby boom' and 'baby boomer' are overused; ration them." Using that Times stylebook definition, baby boomers are now between 56 and 38 years old. That makes them a bit young to be "aging" enough to be using wheelchairs, unless it is for a knee injury sustained while playing squash or while downhill skiing. It also makes them a bit young to have retired to Miami, where the Times news article is datelined.
The only reference to baby boomers in the article is one that says, "the airlines say they expect an even greater demand for services geared toward passengers with limited mobility as more graying boomers begin to request wheelchairs at airports." Again, the article doesn't cite a single specific example of a "graying boomer" who is beginning to request a wheelchair at an airport. If there are such examples, the boomers are likely to be requesting the wheelchairs for the use of their elderly, non-boomer parents. And in any case, the headline does not refer to an expected surge but to one that already exists: "Wheelchair Users Fly More." It would be reasonable for a reader to expect from the headline that these "wheelchair users" who "fly more" are the same "aging boomers" mentioned elsewhere in the headline; in that sense, the headline is misleading.
Snubbing Moynihan? A front-page news article in today's New York Times reports, "While many of those who landed in the coveted seats on the steps of City Hall were familiar to any New Yorker -- two current New York senators and one famous former one, two former mayors, the departing City Council speaker, Peter F. Vallone, and former Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, to name but a few -- there was also a fresh bevy of faces." So, the Times noticed "one famous former" U.S. senator from New York on the City Hall steps. The text of the article runs alongside a photograph that clearly shows both Senator D'Amato and Senator Moynihan on the steps of City Hall. Is the Times trying to suggest that Mr. Moynihan is not famous? Or is it a snub of Mr. D'Amato? In any event, with Mr. D'Amato and Mr. Moynihan both sitting on the City Hall steps, the reference to the presence of "one famous former" senator, without specifying which former senator is the one the Times is referring to, is the kind of coy mischief that doesn't belong in a front-page news article.