Skirt up, Ben, if you're going to mention it, why not link to some actual columns? The woman seems not-insane; she even manages an okay response to this query:
Q: My 80-year-old father-in-law has reconnected with a female friend from 55 years ago. My husband and I think he is moving too fast with her. His wife passed away three years ago, and her husband passed away a year ago. We're afraid he gives her too much personal information. She spends a lot of time on the Internet, and we don't know if she is street-savvy enough to beware of Internet fraud. Can you help us understand and help him at the same time? --Anonymous
Speaking of advice columns, did we discuss Dan Savages statement: "we are so screwed up that we have gays having vaginal sex and straights having anal sex"?
My husband and I think he is moving too fast with her.
For god's sake, he's 80 years old! It's not as though he has all the time in the world to take things slowly.
What an odd query. I suspect some other, unmentioned fear: namely, that dear old dad/dad-in-law will marry this woman and leave her his money/property.
Huh indeed. I like this AARP Modern Love.
Though I've only read one column so far.
My 83-y-o neighbor took up with a 75-y-o widower she knew. Apparently the age difference didn't bother him.
She was worried about her reputation. That was hilarious because in her better days her reputation was poor.
1, 3: I was just coming to comment on that very one. "For god's sake, he's 80 years old!" seems like all that was really required for the response, but I guess you gotta fill column inches somehow.
Apparently the age difference didn't bother him.
Delightful. And I think you've mentioned these people before, John.
The column that interested me was just the front page one on the AARP Modern Love page: woman puzzled as to why a 37-year-old man might be interested in her, and wondering whether the prospect was idiotic. The writer doesn't say how old she is.
It seems that one is eligible for the AARP at age 50?? Good lord, that seems a bit young.
everything you always wanted to know about sex, love, and relationships at age 40 and beyond.
40 is the new 65?
As I'll be turning 40 in about 5 weeks I'm quite interested to know that it's the new 65.
It seems that one is eligible for the AARP at age 50?? Good lord, that seems a bit young.
One gentleman of my acquaintance was quite perturbed when his wife signed him after he turned 50. Apparently they have a rule that spouses are eligible immediately, so she became a member (or some such) at age 44. She was quite happy about it, for the discounts etc. He had to do a bit more work adjusting his self-image.
(Apo, if you're still reading, how's the quitting going? More inspiration, if you need it.)
40 is the new 65?
And here I thought 40 was the new 30! Well, that's what I read in the Style section, and I know they never fudge the data when they're making up reporting on new trends.
You start getting AARP stuff in the mail when you get close to 50. Then again, the senior discount at the ice rink at the National Scupture Garden kicks in at 50 as well.
10: It is not, except in someone's weird head. Pay no mind. I'm serious: it's a complete joke to think so.
From 11, I love this salacious detail:
Among the substances in third-hand smoke are ....; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006.
10: Not to worry, Togolosh, you won't become invisible to potential significant others. (Assuming you're male and straight.)
(I can't read the full JSTOR link, but the beginning says: "Belief in a creature called Togolosh, or Togolasb, is universal. It is invisible to men but visible to women, and infants.")
11: I have Nicorette gum in my mouth at this very moment. I've quit a bunch of times before. The first few days are usually easier than the ones that follow.
And here I thought 40 was the new 30!
40 IS the new 30! And 30 is the new sixty-five! Seventy is the age of the undead vampyre presidential candidates.
max
['Economic debates: the elder vampyress are arguing over which of the young to consume!']
I am interested in these AARP discounts: I asked my mom over the holidays whether she had a good line on discounts for vitamins (damn things are expensive). She said the discount cancelled out with the shipping costs. Oh. Bummer.
19: IMX cold turkey and no way to cheat is the way to go. It took three days but after that I've only had the occasional urge to kill everyone within reach. Good luck.
18: It's an evil African Leprechaun, more or less. Curdles milk, renders men impotent and women barren, kills livestock, all that sort of good stuff. The absolute best thing is that African artisans make Togolosh (Thokolose, Tokolosh, etc.) statues and sell them to western tourists as "African Good Luck Spirits" Heheheh.
A teacher at my high school went to Korea and while there he bought a lovely piece of silk with Korean calligraphy on it. He was assured it bore a traditional Korean prayer of blessing for the home. When he got back he asked a Korean friend of mine to translate it. Between guffaws: "I have just ripped off this tourist." Which makes it much cooler, IMO.
23: That's been my experience, too; and the occasional weird homicidal urges go on for no longer than three or four years at a time.
whoops -- 24 was to 22. Just goes to show my concen concent concentration hasn't recovered since that fatal day in 1989.
There's an English GP called nhsblogdoc who has an interesting method. It involves smoking yourself sick.
no way to cheat
I live in North Carolina. There's always a way to cheat.
I suppose the everpresent temptation to go out in the tobacco fields and start grazing would be a problem.
New York City, or maybe the state, has started running a really awful bunch of anti-smoking ads in the last year or two. I don't know if they're effective in making people quit, but they do make me hide my head under the couch cushions until they're over and I don't have to look at the lady with no fingers anymore.
smoking yourself sick.
This is actually how I unintentionally wound up quitting. Out for drinks with a chain smoking friend, drank too much, smoked WAY too much. For the next 3 or 4 days, I couldn't even think about a cigarette without wanting to puke. At that point, it seemed silly to start again. I was miserable* for a week and a half, during which I kept telling myself that if I started again I'd have to go through that again.
*And making people around me miserable... Quoth my secretary, unaware that I was mid-quit: "So, you have some strong feelings about grammar, huh?" Trying not to be irritable is futile.
What worked for me was the combination of lozenges and having a co-worker whose grotesque health problems were a constant disincentive to smoke for another twenty years. Ugh. Gods, he was so fucking freaky: constant groaning wheeze, incapable of walking ten feet without getting out of breath, observably exhausted by minor physical tasks like crossing the room or getting out of his car and into the building. He had gray skin, gray teeth, gray hair, gray clothes, big gray car, gray eyes, like someone fading from an otherwise color movie. I get chills when I think about him even now. My doctor (who is a specialist in smoking cessation) told me almost everyone who quits has someone they want to avoid becoming.
29: And making people around me miserable
Reason #17 I'm not excited about work tomorrow: My boss claims that he is attempting to quit smoking as of January 1. (I already have several aggressively impatient e-mails from him.)
31, isn't that the kind of thing that makes people urge the president-elect not to quit smoking? They'd like for him to live long and not wheeze, but they'd also like for him not to be stressed and aggressive at any point for the next few years.
Re: discounts, I went skiing in Michigan on Boxing Day, and the resort has free admission for people 70 and older.
The main concern I hear about really elderly (i.e. 75+) people's sex lives is ensuring that the newly-widowed are aware and careful about STDs. Other than that, what's the problem here?
Other than that, what's the problem here?
Friable bones, perhaps?
Other than that, what's the problem here?
The deep, dark seekrit of unfogged is, we're all closet prudes who make dick jokes to try to hide it.
really elderly (i.e. 75+)
One's notions of "really elderly" depend on both one's own age and the longevity of one's extended family. "Really elderly" to me is highly dependent on the physical & mental health of a particular person but certainly isn't before late 80's.
main concern . . . about really elderly (i.e. 75+) people's sex lives is ensuring that the newly-widowed are aware and careful about STDs
"Really elderly" is the new "really teenaged."
Around here I'm young at age 62. A lot of my mom's friends are still around.
soup biscuit,
A good reason for the elderly to get away from Ye Olde missionary position and get more into 69ing. Though that recommendation also sounds like something one might say to teenagers. Let's teach senior citizens to masturbate!
People who are 75+ probably got married before the 1960s. STDs weren't invented in 1963, but they have become more virulent and prevalent since then, and of course HIV barely existed.