April 2014 - My New Old Self

Misleading reports on “senile dementia” as inevitable cause of writer Marquez’s death 1

Apr

24

2014

Reports on the cause of the death of Latin American literary giant Gabriel Garcia Marquez have been greatly distorted – to paraphrase Mark Twain’s famous quote about “greatly exaggerated” reports of his own death. Misleading statements have appeared in many obituaries of the author of 100 Years of Solitude and many other acclaimed works, stating ...

1964 World’s Fair, I was there

Apr

23

2014

I am one of more than 50-million people from all over the world who went to the New York World’s Fair in 1964. That was the year that the US passed the Civil Rights Act banning racial discrimination, and when a South Africa court sentenced Nelson Mandela to life in prison. This week marks the ...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s nude magazine cover a victory for older women? 1

Apr

10

2014

You know the old rule about what’s news and what’s not: Dog bites man, no. Man bites dog, yes. So according to this journalistic guideline about the unusual and unexpected trumping the expected and predictable, a sexy young woman is too common to be news. But an older women who is still hot, that’s news. ...

Eat your vegetables (like we told you)

Apr

10

2014

So Mom was right. And Granny. And all our elders who urged us to eat our vegetables. Spinach makes you strong like Popeye, they said. Carrots help you see in the dark. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Turns out it was all basically true. A British study in a respected medical journal ...