No More Loose Change : time for a ruthless revolution of financial acquisitiveness among the gray, the bald, the lonely – and the female.
The Third Age is being very poorly led. (more…)
Prospero’s Punchline : or the necessary rise of silver-speak in pursuit of perfectible ageing
Imagine this. If you are aged between 55 and 65 there is a reasonably strong chance that one of the major cancers is coming your way. Perhaps, after having done quite well in life, you have already retired away from that old daily grind which used to devour so much of your focus and energy. Gardening is your greatest pleasure these days along with mindless novels about the grizzled but brilliant Norwegian detective, the one with a drink problem and a teenage daughter who still blames him for her mother’s suicide. Suddenly one day, you get a letter summonsing you to the hospital. Soon you are sitting in a consulting room so functional that it would have been a disgrace even in Soviet Russia, as the tired and emotionless…
Those Grey Track-Suit Bottoms : time to whip them off – and get the over-65s committed to sport.
Let’s get down on it. If the UK has a sport-and-exercise problem, then it is a problem not so much of youthful indolence but of ageing unsuccessfully in these, our not-modern-enough times. Sport England tells us that formal inactivity - we are talking here about those NOT doing 150 minutes of moderate intensity sport per week - defines much of the Third Age. Some 30% of those in the bracket 65-74 are inactive; some 48% in the 75-84 group; and 71% among the over-85. As Dr. Sharon Moalem says in his book The DNA Restart: “If you stop moving intensely (sic), what you’re telling your body is that it’s time to stop being a burden on others – it’s time to die”. Whatever this older generation needs, it is…
OAP-GDP-QED : why the reality of the Third Age revitalises the case for economic growth
Smaller Economy = Weaker Public Provision A spectre is haunting the ageing process in the UK and beyond. The spectre goes by the name of No-Growth-Economics. And the spectre needs a spanking. (more…)
The Binning of Granny’s Dressing Gown : an evolution of feminism, sexism and catwalk-attire for all ages
When does an incident become a trend? At what point do a couple of pebbles rolling down the mountain start an avalanche? How do we know when the atmospherics of the day suddenly suit seismic shifts? When the two pebbles plop purposelessly into the pond below just so often - are we right to conclude that they signal nothing save a barely troubled equilibrium? Or, when and how do today’s news headlines really matter to the forecaster? This is a story here about the shifting dimensions of ageing. We toss out the following pebbly-titbits: In late 2018, the US lingerie chain Victoria’s Secret is subjected to a bruising assault by an alternative and self-consciously feminist underwear brand called ThirdLove. Other commentators join the virtual demo. The core complaint is that…
Take the silver from the surf : why older citizens should travel less.
OK. You and your delightful spouse are each 70 years of age. Of an evening, you love to pull out your respective bucket-lists (travel section) and discuss which foreign adventure should come next. Among many other outings over the recent years, you have already been once to Machu Picchu; twice to Iceland; five times to NYC; eighteen times (sic) to Paris. You have seen the Alhambra, the Mona Lisa, Petra, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Monaco Grand Prix. You tried the Oktoberfest at the age of 65 but had to acknowledge that you could not keep pace with the younger drinkers. Today, you have a notion to give Kenya a try as your next destination and plan to buy the latest guidebook in Stanfords for a gander. In the…
Vivat Olay Regenerist : why we should not be against anti-ageing and all its works.
If you think ageing stinks, then put your life in the wash. We hold these truths to be self-evident: • That any person over the age of (say) 65 has the inalienable right to grow older in the unchallenged manner of his or her choosing. (more…)
Senility Soccer : decline-and-fall in the beautiful game.
The first question is this : how old do you need to be before you can permit yourself publicly to abandon a lifelong passion? We will come back this way. (more…)
How can we meet the increasing demand for social care without GDP growth? Well???
This is a question for certain academics, economists and sundry lobbies. And its origins are simple: (more…)
Sport, Competition and Extreme Ageing : a revolution in the making.
Prodded By Science We reference here, first of all, what we will call a new scholarship of empowerment. The by-now-long-since embedded realisation that millions of us, at the moment of once conventional retirement, have another twenty years+ of healthy living to fill has stimulated a new wave of self-help literature. (more…)