Because we know why: WVFC knows we’re late to the party in noticing  Cloris Leachman’s mildly obscene performance at Comedy Central’s roast of comedian Bob Saget,  in which she told the assembled funnymen “I have vibrators older than you.” The ageless Leachman, born in 1926, could have added  here the awards earned before their conception:

Leachman picked up the first of her 21 Emmy nods for her supporting work on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in 1972, just weeks after winning the supporting actress Oscar for her appearance in “The Last Picture Show.” While she lost that first race to her on-screen nemesis Valerie Harper and Sally Struthers (“All in the Family“)
she was back the following year and won lead actress in a telefilm (“A
Brand New Life,” 1973). Since then, she has shown what a utility player
she is with those 8 Emmy wins spread across seven categories.

Above: a glimpse of why she won that Oscar. After you see it, you’ll laugh harder when she describes in last night’s show what she now plans to do with it.

Diversity? I do not think that word means what you think it means. As the effect of the worldwide credit crunch continues to spread, a new study from a UK think tank shows that across the pond, as here, older workers and women are seeing their jobless rates spike. The second quarter of 2008 alone showed  “a 9,000 decrease in those in employment” for workers  50 or older:

Contrary to the governments drive for increased equality in the workplace, London-based charity The Age and Employment Network said that the majority of credit crunch redundancies will be comprised of women and older workers….Coming closely behind this, the figures also found that 8,000 fewer women were working since in comparison to 1,000 less men.

OK, maybe self-employment is for me after all.Given the pink-slip festival happening on both sides of the pond, the timing couldn’t be better for this week’s column in USA Today by  Gladys Edmunds.  Edmunds, 67,  began her self-employed career at 16, “launched her own travel company from a card table in her living room and shes been flying high ever since.” Midlife women, she writes, may be the ideal entrepeneurs:

Taking care of a family is not easy. Each member in the family has his or her own personality and must be dealt with individually and yet collectively. This takes good communication skills. Enduring the upheaval of divorce teaches one to learn how to cope with change and uncertainty. To say that you devoted your life to your family means you know what it means to be committed. These are major skills and talents used by entrepreneurs.

There are many things you should consider to help you spread your wings. Here are just a few ideas:

1. Make a list of services or products you believe would make life easier and select one to build a business on.

2. Offer workshops to support women who are going through divorce.

3. Check your recipe box to see if you have a healthy recipe that could become a business, or, as in the case of Victoria Boutenko, a book on how to painlessly feed a family healthy meals.

Also, keep in mind that Margaret Mead’s career flourished in her mid-years, after her divorce. Martha Stewart’s success followed that same timeline, too.

Most important, trust in yourself and your intuition. And like heather in the autumn on the Scottish hills, you will unfold into “your own” with any situation you choose.