Gray, blue, few hairs rule

The world is upside down. Evidence for this manifested Thursday on the Strip.

Witness this: There's a seminar called Facebook 101 scheduled at this year's annual AARP convention, being held right now at the Sands Expo.

And look at Ed Murashi, for goodness' sake. He's got dark hair with less gray than a cloudless sky, looks in pretty good physical shape, and turned 50 a few months ago. And he's an enthusiastic member of the AARP.

Aren't they all supposed to be blue-haired old ladies whose walkers will surely crowd the Strip on this convention weekend?

"When you first get the membership application in the mail, you're like, 'What? I'm not that old,'" Murashi said.

And yet -- he is that old. The AARP used to call itself the American Association for Retired Persons, but dropped that name a while back in favor of just the acronym. It also lowered its eligibility age to 50. Despite a little dust-up earlier this year when a reported 60,000 members dropped out over the politics of health care, the organization boasts a membership of 40 million.

It holds these conventions every year, and thousands of people attend. Organizers said they expect 25,000 people at this year's event.

"We expect to come very close to breaking an attendance record, even with the down economy," said a group spokeswoman, Deborah Moore Jaquith.

This convention isn't so much for business as it is for fun.

There are seminars like the one about Facebook -- teaching the over-50 crowd about the social networking site most popular with the young. There is entertainment -- Faith Hill and Gloria Estefan are scheduled, for example. And there are speeches. Lots of speeches.

Murashi said he was looking forward, in particular, to a couple of seminars.

He is from Fullerton, Calif., and just got laid off after 32 years with an engineering firm there. He got a pretty good severance package, and would like to get going on his own engineering consulting business.

Which makes it nice that one of the seminars offered at the AARP convention covers how to operate your own small business.

There are others -- retirement planning, health care, the expected stuff, as well as topics like dating and pop culture.

"We try to make it every year," said Rock Jarzynka, 68, who came down from Reno. "This is absolute information overload."

Jarzynka, dressed in khaki shorts, a Hawaiian style shirt and a shiny gold hoop earring, said there's so much to gather, he can't take it all in.

In addition to the seminars and speeches, there are celebrities. Some, you'd expect at an AARP gathering: Penny and Garry Marshall, Olympia Dukakis, Al Roker, Norman Lear, Maya Angelou.

But Magic Johnson? Steve Guttenberg? Martina Navratilova? Yeah, they've all gotten that old.

But old isn't what it used to be, noted Kathleen Hynes, who came in from North Carolina. Old is the new powerful.

"This is the biggest money spending group in the world -- the older people," she said.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates a non-gaming impact from the convention of $39 million.

Hynes, 63, attends the convention every year, she said, and found this one a little annoying -- she felt like the trek through the casino from the parking area was just too much walking for the oldsters.

Contact reporter Richard Lake at rlake@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0307.