Comments on: Not Fade Away

By: Rory Harper

Rory Harper — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:36:02 +0000

Thanks for the post, Bud — I now feel younger than you.

That’s a good thing. For me, anyhow.

By: Bud Simons

Bud Simons — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:08:17 +0000

Ah, middle age. The time of life where dreams go to die. Just remember: Today may be the best day of the rest of your life. If that knowledge doesn’t put an alcoholic beverage in your mitt, then you’re probably not allowed to drink anymore.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:58:00 +0000

I tend to prefer Mad, Caroline, but since you’re so cool, you can call me Maddy (it takes the curse off the whiny middle aged English teacher who called me Maddy with a long A when I was in tenth grade).

I’m totally with the idea of drinking heavily, if only to disguise the fact that my memory is in shreds. A few years ago someone told me that menopausal women lose nouns. Specifically nouns. What I want to know is: when I get to the other side of the Estrogen Cha-cha, do I get my nouns back? I envision a tidy linen drawstring bag with my nouns neatly folded…

I used to pride myself on my organization. I made the trains run (mostly) on time at Tor, by God. Now I’m lucky if I can find both my shoes before I have to leave the house. If I remember I have to leave the house at all.

By: Caroline Spector

Caroline Spector — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 19:08:06 +0000

I am totally down with the Middle-aged Whiny Women Club, Maddy. (Is it okay if I call you Maddy?) I think we should get together once a month and everyone has to do a shot for the number of decades we’ve been alive.

And then the real drinking can begin.

I, along with Maureen and Steve, also hate the fact that my memory is shot to hell. Not that it was ever any great shakes to being with. In the middle of doing a chore, I go to another room, and then have to spend a couple of minutes thinking, “What did I come in here for?”

Also, The Dude bought a Wii last week. And now that I have the time to play the new Zelda game I discover that my learning curve for using the Wii-mote nunchucks attachment is ass. Not to mention that it’s killing my arthritic left hand.

Anyway, thanks to you all for the embarrassing assessment of the coolness of me. I am both hugely flattered and mortified. I’m going to do a Dentonian squid response now. You know turn red, then spew my guts out on the floor.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 18:04:05 +0000

Exactly, Maureen, I have sometimerz disease myself. Sometimes I remember, sometimes…what were we talking about?

By: Maureen McHugh

Maureen McHugh — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 17:19:26 +0000

Not only am I a member of the ‘Caroline is cool’ club (I kept whining to my husband, ‘do you think Caroline thinks I’m a dweeb?’) but you were described to me by a third party as both ‘cool’ and ‘hip’. But then I think of the crowd we run with, and I admit, the barrier to entry may be a little lower than if we were all, say, performance artists in downtown New York.

Mad, what I most didn’t expect about aging was that not only would my thumbs ache and I get those lines around my mouth that in repose make me look as happy as Whistler’s mother, but that my brain would betray me. I always prided myself that I may not have been, you know, popular or athletic, but at least I had a brain. Now I can’t be counted on to remember a lunch engagement.

By: Casey Hamilton

Casey Hamilton — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 08:29:51 +0000

This all sounds so familiar. First off, Caroline, you are and always have been cool. It’s inherent in who you are, just accept it. Besides, anyone who plays bass is cool.

Secondly, Ed and I faced the encroaching middle-ages by doing 2 things: ditching the classic rock and only listening to current music (in our case, preferrably alt-rock); and deciding not to go along with the “growing up” trip. I realize that may not be too much of an option for parental types.

Thirdly, I can seriously recommend Philosophy skincare. When I was sick and not taking care of myself, I looked genuinely middle-aged. Now, my skin looks younger than people 10 and 15 years younger than I am, without makeup. It’s great stuff.

By: Madeleine Robins

Madeleine Robins — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 05:27:19 +0000

Caroline, let’s start a club. The Whiny Middle Aged Women club.

Sometime after I hit 50 my genes, which had been playing nicely for all those years, suddenly decided they had had enough, opened the door, and Middle Age came roaring through. I had always planned to be one of those people who let the passage of time wash over me…but I find, to my horror, that I really mind having achy thumb joints and hair that is not graying elegantly, but in disordered sprays; that I would swap the nasty lines in the corner of my mouth for crows’ feet any day. I find I’m vain, with decreasing numbers of things to be vain about, and I find that that pisses me off.

I remind myself that sliding into middle age–and beyond–is far better than leaving a young and glamorous corpse.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 05:07:36 +0000

I’m afraid to ask what needs to be photoshopped….

By: Rachael

Rachael — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 05:05:26 +0000

That’s got to be photoshopped.

By: Caroline Spector

Caroline Spector — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 03:07:29 +0000

Er uhm, I think you’re all mistaking hotness with hot flashes. But, thank you, my fellow brainiacs.

And, non sequitor time, if you guys haven’t seen “End of the Century” (a great documentary about the Ramones), go rent it. Gabba Gabba Hey.

By: Steven Gould

Steven Gould — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 03:06:14 +0000

Well, if Rachael thinks you’re cool, per your essay, you must be old!

By: Rory Harper

Rory Harper — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 02:10:09 +0000

Rachael thinks you’re extremely cool, incidentally.

And if she thinks somebody is cool, they are, by defintion, cool.

By: Rory Harper

Rory Harper — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 02:08:58 +0000

Yeah, me and Morgan would both do you in a heartbeat.

….Wait… Was that inappropriate?….

By: Morgan J. Locke

Morgan J. Locke — Sun, 03 Dec 2006 01:32:24 +0000

I hate to break it to you, but you’re in trouble with that not looking cool business, Caroline, because you are really hot.