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My Greatest Fear June 4, 2015 by Flora Davis - From my living room window, I look out on a pretty little park—and the nursing home across the way. I know someone who lives there but I haven’t visited her, I’m ashamed to say. The place scares me because it…
Going Nuclear in a Family Way May 18, 2015 by Flora Davis - I grew up in a nuclear family—parents, kids and that was it—but I had the impression that practically everyone else in America lived in three-generation extended families. When grandparents grew old, I believed, their grown children automatically took them in,…
Why Would You Even Ask? May 11, 2015 by Ashton Applewhite - “How Old is Too Old To Have Sex?” was the title of a HuffPost Live panel discussion that I took part in last year. As I pointed out during the exchange, the question itself is profoundly ageist.
Something’s Fishy May 1, 2015 by Pepper Evans - Pick up any women’s magazine or any healthy-living publication and you are sure to be admonished to eat more fish. It’s good for your brain, your weight, your longevity. I know! But in my house of picky eaters, I can…
Live to 100: Do You Have What It Takes? April 17, 2015 by Pepper Evans - There's an old joke that goes something like this: The Japanese drink very little wine and experience fewer heart attacks than US or British citizens, while the French and Italians drink wine at every meal and experience fewer heart attacks…
Baring All for a Good Cause April 10, 2015 by Flora Davis - The other day, a friend told me she planned to leave her body to a medical school when she died so that students could dissect it to learn anatomy. She wanted to know whether I’d consider doing the same thing.…
New Cream on the Block March 23, 2015 by Pepper Evans - Here at the Silver Century Foundation, we are all about the positive aspects of aging. That said, I confess that hope springs eternal when I read about the age-defying beauty products on the market. I’m in my mid-50s and the…
Chastizing the Old Dolls March 16, 2015 by Margaret Morganroth Gullette - Poor Roz Chast unburdened herself of her dislike of her mother and her pity for her father by describing their slow decline and dying, and doing it in the most public possible way, in a graphic narrative called Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir (2014).
Midlife Malaise and the Happiness U-Curve March 11, 2015 by Ashton Applewhite - An Atlantic magazine cover story last October described living past 75 as pretty darn inadvisable. Then, in quite the about-face, the December cover story championed the Happiness U-Curve and the growing body of research showing that we reliably grow happier, almost regardless of circumstances, after our 40s.
Step It Up March 9, 2015 by Pepper Evans - I just learned that fewer than half of adults are getting enough physical activity to benefit their health. (Um, yes, that would be me.) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while 60 percent of us are walking…
A Life or Death Decision February 23, 2015 by Flora Davis - The other day, I went to the vet with my 15-year-old dog to talk about euthanasia. A couple of my friends thought Korku was suffering and that I should free him from his infirmities. Many people refer to this as…
One-Way Conversations January 15, 2015 by Flora Davis - I often talk to myself, and for a long time I couldn’t figure out why. I never did my thinking out loud before my husband died. I wondered: do I do it now because I live alone or is this…
Oh, Grow Up! January 13, 2015 by Ashton Applewhite - That was my visceral (and ever so mature) reaction to “Who Are You Calling Grandma?,” a fluff piece in the New York Times about how baby boomer grandparents, especially celebs, are rejecting traditional grandmonikers for hipper titles.
Shingles—Are You Protected? January 5, 2015 by Pepper Evans - When was the last time you thought about chicken pox? Not since you were a child, I bet. A middle-aged friend of mine was recently diagnosed with shingles. It’s caused by the same virus as chicken pox, varicella zoster. WebMD…
Great Reads for the Book Lovers on Your Holiday List December 20, 2014 by Pepper Evans - I love to give books as gifts. I strive to match the book to the recipient the way some givers try to find the right scarf or tie—I want to make eyes sparkle. If you are shopping for a book…
Spring Swingers December 1, 2014 by Flora Davis - I lived in Montreal for half a dozen years in the 1950s, and I recall winters when the snow seemed endless. There was so much of it that the city didn’t just plow, it trucked the stuff away and dumped…
Do I Smell Old? October 24, 2014 by Flora Davis - When I was a teenager, I worried sometimes about whether I had bad breath or BO (body odor). Advertising campaigns regularly demonized these and other normal, human smells, and that sold a lot of toothpaste, mouthwash and deodorant. My concerns…
How Old Is Too Old? October 23, 2014 by Flora Davis - I am a fan of short, online videos—the kind you see on YouTube. I often follow the links that come flooding in with my emails. I’m willing to give them a try, trusting the judgment of people in my chain…
How Problematic Is This Atlantic Cover Story? Let Me Count the Ways October 20, 2014 by Ashton Applewhite - The cover of the October 2014 Atlantic magazine features a white-bearded skateboarder careening crazily above the title of an article that encapsulates American ambivalence about longevity, Ezekiel Emanuel’s “Why I Hope to Die at 75.” I wrote a letter to the…
Time to Rethink Ink October 14, 2014 by Pepper Evans - Tattoos: love them or hate them? If you are like me, you shudder at the thought. The mere word can conjure movie images of bikers, sailors, trollops—not to mention the creepy, all-night tattoo parlors—and brings to mind a long-held belief…
How to Navigate Our Fragmented Medical System - For three years, Lil Banchero’s 86-year-old mother struggled with pain due to advanced arthritis. She tried yoga. Doctors prescribed medications and tried injections. Nothing worked. The pain got worse, and her mother became depressed. “Months passed,” said Banchero. “Nobody was…
‘Othering’ Other People - My friend Jack called me a few weeks ago to share an experience. He’d been at a public meeting at the library, seated at a table with three forward-facing chairs. He was sitting in the chair on the left, a…