In this week’s blog menu, we have AARP’s Celebration of Caregiving, an interview with the woman played by Hilary Swank in Conviction, and an Australian blogger coming to terms with her growth in “‘the place where emotions are felt.”

• This week’s season finale of Mad Men sparked numerous headlines and a big blogosphere buzz, considering new developments for  all the show’s strong women. One of the more interesting takes came from The Awl (edited to remove spoilers):  “The episode as whole was still pretty awesome. Each of the characters’ reactions to the engagement was spot on, as was the reveal of [the] non-abortion (and I mean, “Yes, they’re bigger,” COME ON), and the development of  [a character] coming into her own, going in hard and nabbing her own client. ….Don’t you think all of these stories have serious implications for the next season? That’s how good television is supposed to work.”
• Last week, frequent WVFC contributors Susan Baida and John Mills took their eCare Diary to Florida for the AARP’s “Celebration of Caregiving.” At the conference, the organization “specifically focused on their members in the 50 to 65 age group, the baby boomers, who make up most of the family caregivers of aging loved ones in this country,” Baida writes in her eCare Diary blog. In addition to workshops on caregiving, the week included “an exhibit booth where massagers were handed out, a treasure hunt sweepstakes for a day at the spa,” and an opportunity for “family caregivers to tell their stories on camera.”  Baida also interviewed Elinor Ginzler, Senior Vice President of AARP’s Office of Social Impact and lead spokesperson on caregiving, and posted the interview on her site’s Video Page.
• Australian blogger Liz Conor describes a discovery she made last week at the bra shop:  No longer a perky C-cup, she was now a “matron.” Specifically, an E: “Now advancing to E is no small matter. It was no use protesting that my ‘Balcony’ bra at home (otherwise known as my mid-life-crisis bra, or just Thwang) was C cupped. My new status could not be shrugged off with the relative sizes of brands in the hope that Elle might size me down to a girly C. Only escorts of the Big Mama variety would admit to being an E. As ‘the place where emotions are felt’ (breast in literary) molded snugly into their E cups I entered new territory.”
• If you have thoughts about your own more mature figure, you might want to take up the invitation from Our Bodies Ourselves, to join a study about body image in women 50 and older, now being conducted by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Eating Disorders Research Program. “In contrast to extensive knowledge about body image and weight concerns in young women, we know very little about how body image and weight concerns change as women mature. We would like to develop a deep understanding of how women age 50 and above feel and think about their bodies, both in terms of appearance and function,” the researchers write. For more info and an opportunity to join, click on this link.
• This fall, there are more strong women in movies than even our friends at Women and Hollywood can keep up with; rumor has it that Oscar nominators have way too many to choose from.  One, of course, is Hilary Swank in Conviction, about a young woman who went to law school specifically to get her brother freed from prison. Melissa at W&H has an interview with Betty Anne Waters,  the Boston waitress  whose true story was the basis of the film. The interview, like the trailer below, makes us anxious and optimistic at the same time, just as all potential Oscar nominees might feel.