Comments on: Middle-aged men playing tag

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:04:00 +0000

Come back when you’re 46 and tell me that you’re OK with being called “old”.

I’m OK with being called “old”.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:43:00 +0000

All the all the outs are in heaven?

By: mappo

mappo — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:38:00 +0000

Come back when you’re 46 and tell me that you’re OK with being called “old”.

By: howaboutthisdangit

howaboutthisdangit — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:20:00 +0000

He took “it” with him.

By: creesto

creesto — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:16:00 +0000

with 52 smacking me in the face this summer, your comment makes me hate you.

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0000

There’s no need for the ‘middle period’ to be the same duration as the ‘old’ and ‘young’ sections, though.

I’d argue that it’s the period that includes the midpoint of a lifespan- so if I can expect to die somewhere between 70 and 90, middle age should be 35-45.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:18:00 +0000

It seems to me that ‘middle age’ should mean the middle period of your life, not the first half of the last third. Horror of aging and fear of death shouldn’t cause us to lose sight of the fact that ‘middle’ has an actual meaning.

By: Beanolini

Beanolini — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:14:00 +0000

Are you suggesting that 'middle age' is the middle third of one's life (25-50)? I don't think many people would agree that a 25 year old is middle-aged. Wikipedia suggests that it's closer to the third quarter.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:13:00 +0000

Life expectancy for a man in the US is 75 years, so at 55, I left middle age five years ago.

By: wrybread

wrybread — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 06:03:00 +0000

Ahem! As someone in his 40s, I take offense to the title of this article! “Middle-aged” starts in one’s 50s at least. And when I’m in my 50′s, it will have moved to the 60s.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:25:00 +0000

It’s not there anymore and I have no idea what happened to it, but back in the early 80s while visiting the old El Cajon Cemetery, my sister and brother and I found the oddest tombstone. This was in the section of the cemetery reserved for stillborn infants and small children, behind an oddly tasteful wrought-iron gate that read “Babyland” at the top. The gate was black comedy enough for my siblings and me, but then we happened upon a small headstone that was engraved “To Our Little Pigface.”

We never laughed so hard in our lives, before or since. Sad as the whole place was, this was the ultimate example of “you had to be there” humor in my personal experience. Last time I went to the cemetery (in the late 90s), the headstone and the gate were nowhere to be found. I began to think I’d imagined it, until I asked my sister. Nope. She remembered it exactly the same as I did. So now I just wonder about what happened to that grave, what memorandum (if any) might have been sent to the grieving parents regarding a change in policy for headstone inscriptions, etc.

I think about things like that.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:45:00 +0000

Puts me in mind of my favorite Edward Gorey limerick:

“The babe, with a cry brief and dismal,
Fell into the water baptismal.
Ere they’d gathered its plight
It had sunk out of sight,
For the depth of the font was abysmal.”

By: slithybrilig

slithybrilig — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:44:00 +0000

Not funny. That is what is on my sister’s son’s tombstone.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:43:00 +0000

Annnnd then we have Patient Zero for the zombie apocalypse.

By: PhosPhorious

PhosPhorious — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:30:00 +0000

. . . and then it’s HILARIOUS!

By: rabidpotatochip

rabidpotatochip — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:18:00 +0000

I imagine one of the guys rising from the holy water like some sort of leviathan during the middle of a sermon to tag Father Raftis. I’d go to church more often if stuff like that happened.

By: Jack Daniel

Jack Daniel — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:07:00 +0000

Fast forward 30 years from now. One of them has nothing but the word “It” on his tombstone.

By: Cameron Postelwait

Cameron Postelwait — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:04:00 +0000

so they started playing tag shortly after this family lost contact with the outside world:

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/29/for-40-years-this-russian-fam.html

…and shortly before this tortoise got trapped in an attic in Brazil for 30 years:

http://boingboing.net/2013/01/29/lost-pet-tortoise-found-in-fam.html

seems like a theme in today’s posts.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:02:00 +0000

One summer night we had nothing to do and we were bored with our usual teen hooliganism. So we set out for a convenience store about a mile away. Right away we started kicking a can, with the occasional hip check thrown in. Half way there someone heard us clattering down the dark street and said “Don’t you have anything better to do?” and we all said “NO!!!” So went to the convenience store, got a soda and came back kicking another can. Someone else yelled “Don’t you have anything better to do?” and we all just laughed.

By: Preston Sturges

Preston Sturges — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:58:00 +0000

As soon as I saw the headline I said “Oh sure it’s fun until someone tears a knee ligament.”

By: devans00

devans00 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:48:00 +0000

Must be nice having such a carefree life.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:07:00 +0000

“What a choice, to keep an attendant from pawing at my pulse for the next 20 years, I have to sit out on that front porch like a vegetable.”
-Ernest Truex, “Kick The Can” (episode of The Twilight Zone”)

Apparently you can go home again, even if only briefly.