Skip to main content

On Aging – Part II, Humor

Humor is a near unique aspect of humans that leaves untouched just about every endeavor, every aspiration, and every desperation we have.  Not the least of these is aging.  While in Part I of this note on aging we reflected on the majesty and melancholy of aging, here we look at the humor.  Most speak to some aspect of youth when viewed from the lens of age.  Each speaks for itself, comments are not needed.   There are hundreds of published quotes online and in print.  Selected here are some of the very funny ones from notable people - all current graduates of that select club. 

 

  •     The older I get, the better I was. - Henry Louis Mencken
  •     Do not regret growing old; many are denied the privilege. - Ogden Nash
  •     Forty is the old age of youth; fifty is the youth of old age. - Victor Hugo 
  •     It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone. - Andy Rooney 
  •  You don't stop laughing when you grow old; you grow old when you stop laughing. - George Bernard Shaw
  •  As they say, when the age is in, the wit is out.  Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (3.5.31-2)
  •  Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. - Francis Bacon
  •  When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it. - Mark Twain
  •  I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything till noon. That’s when it’s time for my nap.- Bob Hope
  •  Nice to be here! At my age it’s nice to be anywhere. - George Burns
  •  Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough. - Groucho Marx
  • This one is sometimes attributed to George Burns (and is mostly for guys)  
    •  First you forget names.
    • Then you forget faces.  
    •  Then you forget to zip up. 
    •  Then you forget to zip down.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Human Simulation is Possible - by Humans

  Human Simulation: Agent-Based Modeling and the Computational Case for Our Reality   1.       Introduction In the essay, we introduce the notion that humanity could be a deliberate simulation based on an extremely simple single-celled organism, hardly anything more complex than that. This will allow an (apparently) new interpretation of the notion that humanity is simulated, but that there is no master engineer at a massive number of dials and switches, responsible for every twist and turn of our universe and lives. We begin with the notion that the universe exists and operates under its own laws. So, given the Earth [2] , when and where life first began, it was infused with a living agent, self-actualized, reproductive, and with other basic rules for its operations, interactions, and much of what single-celled organisms do today. The idea from this occurred some years back when writing code in ActionScript (formerly Flash), I was able to create...

The Calculus of Ideas and Patterns

  Introduction. When dealing with ideas, patterns, intuition, and brainstorming, we need operations or rules not unlike those of arithmetic. The goal is not proof, a finished device, or a fait accompli , but rather a foundation for further investigation and study. In some cases, these operations may yield a proposition, that is, something capable of being proved. In this sense, they form a practical logic of intuition. The article concludes with a few select examples from a variety of venues. Setting. We are working with a given idea, problem, or project, or simply just thinking. Our aim is to discover pathways, patterns, or conceptual connections that may be useful. The following operations describe ways in which ideas and patterns can be generated, transformed, or refined. These also work toward understanding the imagination. Yet, this framework is distinguished from formal logic and proof. We are tempted to call them as “soft logic” because while nothing is proved, reasons...

Freedom of Speech

  Think of freedom of speech as a living organism. Then think of what is required for it to survive. Coming to mind are a population agreeable to its constitution (its environment) and the institutions (its nutrients) that keep it healthy. Currently, many institutions, including some political parties, question unfettered freedom of speech and are working to deny it, claiming it is unhealthy for the body politic. Yes? No?