EDITORIAL NOTE: Writing this note on Tuesday, I'm still under the weather, a condition that manifests itself (among other symptoms) with brain death. There isn't a chance that I could write anything coherent right now so I've pulled out this old post from early, early, early in this blog's existence, 2005.

If you want to compare to 12 years ago, the original publication of this post is here with those comments.

Earlier this year, I published a lengthy post about the benefits of blogging for old people. Among those benefits are new friendships, something that becomes particularly important when, as we get older, families may live far away, retirement removes daily interaction with colleagues, spouses and friends die and for some, as the years pile up, getting out and about becomes more difficult and less frequent.

And so, there are fewer opportunities to enjoy old friendships or to make new ones. Isolation and loneliness can become problems and are known to negatively affect health and mental acuity.

But blogging opens up a world of intimate connections and even for those who are not alone – or old yet – blog friendships are rewarding. Why else are we here every day? Yes, much has been written of the ego gratification of seeing our thoughts in print and having people respond to them. That is not to be dismissed. But I think as we become accustomed to it, the personal connections we make over the months and years of blogging take on greater importance.

Next to nothing has been written about the nature of blog friendships. They often develop, I think, when a blogger, writing of deeply personal feelings and events, touches another who has lived a similar experience. And even without revealing innermost secrets, we come to know and be drawn to one another through reading of our shared interests.

Email is then taken up, and a friendship burgeons, blossoms and grows although in most cases, we never meet in person. Do these friendships, I wonder, have the strength and “stickiness” of in-person friendships? I haven’t been blogging long enough yet to be certain.

My friend Sali and I met in 1969 or 1970. She subsequently moved to Israel and our face-to-face visits have been few in the 35 years since then. In recent years, email has kept us in closer touch, but we write in bursts and sometimes months can go by with little more than quick “hi, just checking in” notes. But when we see one another, we always relish the fact that we pick up the conversation as though we had seen one another just last week – as though no physical absence of great length has intervened.

Sali and I have a long-term, in-person history. Is it different, do you think, when we don’t know what someone we’ve come to feel a closeness with looks like?

Many of us publish photos of ourselves from time to time and even a video now and again. But what we don’t know is a blog friend’s body language, facial expressions, way of expressing themselves in speech – and what they might say in conversation without the advantage we have on our blogs of thinking it over first, editing ourselves and putting our best feet forward.

What I am wondering is how this changes the nature of online friendship compared to in-person friendship. In my early years of reading blogs, before I started TGB, I was often astonished at how personally revealing many bloggers are. Much more so, I think, to unknown readers than most of us would be in the first few meetings with a new in-person friend.

This might be an advantage to getting to know another better; sometimes it is easier to be honest at a remove from one another. On the other hand, there is much to be discerned about people non-verbally – the look in their eyes, the kinds of clothes they prefer, whether they are the touchy-feely sort or not, etc.

“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” How DO online and in-person friendships differ? I wish some people more thoughtful and articulate than I am would put their minds to the nature of blog friendship.

That is one of the U.S. soldiers who spent a good deal of time last week placing a flag at each and every one of the more than 400,000 military graves at Arlington Cemetery.

Today, beginning at 2PM EDT, there will be the National Memorial Day Parade down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. to honor those who died during their service to our country.

The other two big, national events - the National Memorial Day Concert and the Indianapolis 500 auto race - took place yesterday. I have no idea why this car race is always held on Memorial Day.

Other traditions on this holiday are small-town parades, picincs, backyard barbecues for family and friends along with fireworks in many cities and towns tonight.

And there is is one more celebration this Memorial Day weekend, a big one for us at here at Time Goes by: the 92nd birthday(!) of Darlene Costner today.

If you read the comments, you know her name, and you know she never pulls any punches. Darlene always says exactly what she means and I'm proud to call her a friend for at least a decade now.

So, everyone, please join me in wishing Darlene a fabulous and beautiful 92nd birthday.

EDITORIAL NOTE: I had plans for a more elaborate post today – you know, Darlene's big deal birthday, the holiday and maybe something about patriotism in the age of Trump.

But I've been under the weather for the past couple of days (nothing serious) and just ran out of steam so this will have to do. I'll see you back here soon.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

Here's a column pretty much guaranteed to depress you. At first glance there may not seem to be much that the two artists today have in common except for the same first name. However, they both started out as folkies and both had a serious interest in jazz that showed in their work and both were extremely influential musicians.

Another unfortunate aspect that links them is their use of hard drugs, which was the cause of death of both of them. The first Tim wrote beautiful melodic songs and the second, well, less so on that score, but they were really interesting if you listen with an open mind.

The first Tim is TIM HARDIN.

I'm sure many readers know about this Tim and his songs. Those of you who don't know his name almost certainly will know several of his songs. They have been covered by many people over the years. I'll give you an initial for instance: If I Were a Carpenter.

♫ Tim Hardin - If I Were A Carpenter

I don't know if Tim wrote the next song as autobiographical. I suspect not as he mentioned that he was there "to steal her money". However, he mentioned that the lady's name was Susan Moore and Tim actually married Susan Morss.

Okay, not the same, but still...Lady Came From Baltimore.

♫ Tim Hardin - Lady Came From Baltimore

One of my all time favorite concert albums is "Tim Hardin 3" – Tim wasn't very creative in the naming of his records, his first two albums were called "1" and "2".

"3" was recorded at the Town Hall in New York with a crack jazz band backing him. From that session is Misty Roses.

♫ Tim Hardin - Misty Roses

Another song from that same live album. This one is called Lenny's Tune, and it's about Lenny Bruce. I don't want to psychoanalyze Tim, but the song really does reflect mostly on Lenny's drug problems.

♫ Tim Hardin - Lenny's Tune

Tim's final song would have been covered by even more people than the first one. It's really a very short song (as are most of his songs, but this one even more so). Maybe that's the reason people record it. Reason to Believe.

♫ Tim Hardin - Reason To Believe

Unlike the first Tim, the second one didn't really believe in brevity. There are few songwriters outside Dylan who wrote longer ones than he did.

I saw TIM BUCKLEY once, at Winterland in San Francisco in 1970, opening for the Mothers of Invention. Not to be out-weirded by that group, he spent most of his gig playing the bagpipes.

I thought that just a little bit strange, but maybe I was the only one in the audience who wasn't zonked out of his brain. It was an interesting evening.

After the first three or four albums, Tim seemed determine to alienate his fans. His experimental work got stranger and stranger and quite frankly wasn't very good.

However, before that he wrote and recorded some interesting songs which, like the other Tim, were covered by many others. One of those is Morning Glory, from the album "Goodbye and Hello" – his breakthrough album.

Well, as much of a breakthrough as Tim ever managed.

♫ Tim Buckley - Morning Glory

The consensus of those who like to speculate of these things is that his finest album is "Greetings From L.A." (I prefer the previously mentioned one). From that album comes the song, Make It Right.

♫ Tim Buckley - Make It Right

Going back to "Goodbye and Hello", here is I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain. Boy, does this one go on. And on and on. It's about Tim's relationship with his by then ex-wife and their son Jeff.

♫ Tim Buckley - I Never Asked to Be Your Mountain

For a complete change of pace, Tim channels his inner lounge singer. Well, as much of one as he was capable. Blue Melody is taken from the album "Blue Afternoon" most of which were songs Tim had meant to record on previous albums but hadn't got around to doing.

♫ Tim Buckley - Blue Melody

Finally, (you may hope) only one more song left. Another one from "Greetings From L.A." and another long song. Get on Top.

♫ Tim Buckley - Get on Top

BEFORE WE GET STARTED TODAY

PROTEST FCC CHANGES TO NET NEUTRALITY
Finally, John Oliver's direct link to the FCC comment page on the agency's net neutrality changes is up and running again.

To get there, go to this URL, click on the word, “express” at the far right of the page. At the next page, you can fill in the form and let them know that you support net neutrality and Title 2.

Again, here is the procedure – Oliver has made it so much easier than the FCC does:

1. Navigate in your browser to gofccyourself.com
2. Click the word “express” on the right side of the page
3. Fill in the form to support net neutrality and Title 2

It will take you only a few minutes to do this and if enough people do, we can save net neutrality – like last time, three years ago. (If you need a refresher about this issue, click here and scroll down about halfway.)

A month ago, I told you about the quest of a bunch of billionaire tech executives who are spending large chunks of their personal wealth on longevity research convinced they can conquer death in their lifetimes and live forever.

Founders of Facebook, eBay, Napster and Netscape among others, reported the Washington Post, are driven by a certainty that rebuilding, regenerating and reprogramming patients’ organs, limbs, cells and DNA will enable people to live longer and better.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison says, “Death has never made any sense to me.” Google has backed a project called Calico with the ambition of “curing death.”

As I mentioned in that March post, the creepiest research so far is what I couldn't help but label “the vampire project” in which scientists say that old mice show remarkable rejuvenation when transfused with the blood of young mice. And the research hasn't stopped with rodents.

At a private clinic called Ambrosia in Monterey, California, people can pay $8,000 to have blood plasma from teenagers and young adults pumped into their veins.

Many of us were taught in school that 16th century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon made it his mission in Florida to find the fountain of youth. That's probably a myth but tales of such magical waters have been told since at least the 5th century BCE.

I was reminded of this ancient pursuit of mankind a few days ago in a newsletter I receive from H.R. Moody, editor of the Teaching Gerontology at the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.

Moody linked to a wonderful story about the extreme ways humanity has tried to cheat death throughout history. Amazingly, blood transfers from young to old are far from being a new idea. Here is a sampling:

6TH CENTURY BCE
Those who want to live a longer life are advised to consume a mix of root powder, gold, honey and butter after a morning bath according to the Sushruta Samhita, an ancient Sanskrit medical text.

1ST CENTURY CE
Pliny the Elder reports of Romans with epilepsy rushing to drink blood of gladiators to cure their ailment and gain strength and vigor. (Pliny did not think this was a good idea.)

4TH CENTURY CE
The alchemist Ge Hong describes a medicine made from the brains of a certain kind of monkey that, mixed with herbs, would lengthen life up to 500 years.

1489
Philosopher Marsilio Ficini suggests the elderly drink the blood of young men to rejuvenate themselves. A few years later, Pope Innocent VIII tried it. He died shortly after.

1667
French doctor Jean-Baptiste Denis performs the first animal-human blood transfusion. The human patient recovered afterwards.

1920
Eugene Steinach experiments with a popular procedure that involves a partial vasectomy. Among his patients were W.B. Yeats and Sigmund Freud. The latter hoped it might slow his jaw cancer. It didn't.

1930
British newspapers report that a man named Giocondo Protti successfully rejuvenated the elderly by performing blood transfusions from young donors.

And if you believe that...

These are just a few of the various historical attempts to avoid the grim reaper that you'll find listed at the Time magazine story.

I wonder if the tech billionaires will eventually join the likes of Ge Hong, Marsilio Ficini, Jean-Baptiste Denis, etc. as amusing sidebars in misbegotten pipe dreams or become more famous for their longevity success than for their technology companies.

The main beneficiaries of President Donald Trump's 2018 budget proposal are the people who already have too much, the one percent. Here's how tax cuts go for them, as reported in Yahoo! News:

”According to calculations from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities [CBPP], each household in the top 1% would receive approximately $250,000 per year, and the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes would each receive at least $15 million per year, for a total of 'at least $6 billion annually.'

“As the CBPP points out, '$6 billion is more than the federal government spends on grants for major job training programs to assist people struggling in today’s economy,' and it is 'roughly the cost of providing 600,000 low-income families with housing vouchers.'”

Other winners in the budget proposal would be the military at a 10 percent increase and the border wall with $1.6 billion set aside to begin its construction.

After that, it is a reverse Robin Hood budget. All of the above is being paid for with deep cuts to programs for children, the poor, disabled, elders and important agencies of the federal government that benefit everyone.

So many programs and agencies are under the knife in the proposed budget that I'll concentrate on the ones that mostly affect old people by which I do not mean to slight the pain others would suffer. No one but the very rich would escape hardship if Congress passes this budget.

First, here is a chart from the White House showing some of the "winners and losers" in Trump's first budget. Most of the ones we'll discuss fall under the Department of Health and Human Services. (Don't faint at the percentage reduction of the Environmental Protection Agency.)

MEDICAID
$800 billion would be gone from the program that gives millions of elders access to long-term care. That amount is on top of the $839 billion that would already be cut under the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA) that passed in the House earlier this month.

Few people recall that during the campaign, candidate Trump promised to not touch Social Security, Medicare and MEDICAID. (More on this below.)

MEALS ON WHEELS
Eliminates the Community Services Block Grant that helps pay for delivery of meals to low-income and house-bound elders.

LIHEAP
Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) that helps elders with winter heating costs. I lived in Maine for four years, one of the poorest and coldest states in the U.S. This program is crucial to keeping old people there warm (and maybe) alive in winter.

SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY (SSDI)
Administration spokespersons and too many journalists are saying that the budget keeps Trump's campaign promise not to touch Social Security.

HUL-LO. Social Security Disability Insurance IS part of Social Security.

Back in March when he was discussing a preview of the 2018 budget on Face the Nation on NBC-TV, White House Budget Director Mike Mulvaney had this to say:

”Do you really think that Social Security disability insurance is part of what people think of when they think of Social Security? I don't think so.”

Well, I do and so do millions of SSDI beneficiaries and their families. Nevertheless, in keeping with Mulvaney's misbegotten snark, the new budget makes deep cuts to the program that covers people mostly 50 and older who can no longer work, until they are old enough for retirement Social Security.

SSDI benefits are typically modest. In March 2017, the average monthly benefit for a disabled worker was $1,171.52, barely $14,000 a year. If this cut is approved, it would be the first inroad to cutting Social Security retirement benefits in the future.

OTHER CUTS
The proposed budget also makes cuts to SNAP (food stamps), CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program), student loan repayment aid, education and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would take a big hit too.

Experts, pundits and some others who are supposed to know such things are saying that this budget is dead on arrival in Congress and I certainly hope they are right.

But I keep thinking, these are the same people who told us Trump would lose the election and they are kin to Trump himself who said a hundred times during the campaign that he would not touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

It's time to make some telephone calls again. The offices of congresspeople and senators keep count and the number of calls they receive DOES matter. So contact your representatives even if you believe they would vote to reject this Draconian budget that would further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class.

That's one of the four questions John Oliver asked Sunday night on his HBO show, Last Week Tonight.

Time Goes By does not usually publish on Tuesday but I'm posting this video today instead of next Saturday because there will be so much more to know by then that we need this to help us up keep up.

Last week was by any measure the worst presidential week yet in this administration and that's saying something. Scandal upon scandal, a new one every day and more than that on some days.

Oliver titled this 25-minute segment “Stupid Watergate.” He takes us through all the terribly worrying events of last week saying everything I've been wanting to say but he does it better than I can while also being funnier about it without minimizing the importance of a single point.

Three or four years ago, I was invited to a “Brownie Day” at the Adult Community Center (ACC) – the name my town gives the senior center.

The nine-year-old members of a local Brownie troop (young Girl Scouts) each made a batch of brownies herself from a family recipe as refreshments for an afternoon of board games with members of the ACC, elders all.

At first, we were a little shy with one another; after exchanging names we were not sure what to talk about. But the ACC manager, who knows what she's doing, soon had us settled down at tables for the games.

By the end of the afternoon, thanks to the silly board games we played together with the sugar high from the brownies that had us all laughing and giggling together as if we were drunk, we actually shared some real conversation about our lives.

[You can find out more about that afternoon in this post from 2014.]

There is, in recent years, a lot of conversation around the need for more intergenerationality. That word is a mouthful and it sounds dull as hell. In most cases, it is.

Meetings are held, studies are done and with a few excellent exceptions, nothing happens beyond bureaucratic-sounding checklists of items that don't produce much substance. Like this one:

• Get local foundations to support intergenerational projects
• Lobby local government to make intergenerationalism a core value
• Ask organizations that work with the young to collaborate with the old

You can't say anything is wrong with those ideas except that there is nothing specific to hang on to, nothing that says, “Hey, let's give this a try.”

What if people whose hearts and minds are moving in the right direction talked about, instead – oh, say

• Young folks helping elders with technology
• Young and old making music together
• Playing games – silly ones and, for example, chess too
• A hike and picnic with one another
• Cooking meals together

I'm sure you can come up with more activities that old and young can participate in equally – the kinds of things that grease the wheels of conversation among age groups that don't get to spend much time together, and especially that lead them to laugh with one anther.

Something close to that has been happening recently in and around the U.S. Capitol.

Last week, the Washington Post published a story about three 17-year-old high school students - Hannah Docter-Loeb, Kaela Marcus-Kurn and Aviah Krupnic - who started a group they named GTG Tech which, they say, stands for Generation to Generation and Grandkids to Grandparents and Giving the Gift.

”...they hold free training sessions at libraries, senior centers and community halls once a month [in the Washington, D.C. area]. It’s a nonprofit, volunteer group that’s growing as their friends join in to help.

“But it’s not like they’re trained computer experts, the girls reminded me. They’re working on the simple, everyday tasks that digital natives take for granted.

“'We just grew up in this, so we know how to do it,' said Kaela, a junior at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.”

Here's a short video produced by One News Page about GTG Tech:

A whole lot more is going on than showing an 80-year-old how to text her boyfriend, or helping an 87-year-old who didn't understand how to use Wi-Fi:

”...there is also something magic about the formula, the intergenerational exchange that happens when young and old interact, especially when they aren’t related.

“'It’s like a blood transfusion. It’s about more than computers,' said Renee Dunham, 78, after the teens helped her with text messaging. 'I learn a little bit about their lives. How they organize their lives, their phones. What they’re listening to or what tech they’re using.'

“And, Dunham observed, it came with no strings attached. No long debates with her granddaughter about her hair and make-up, no reminders to tell her grandson not to slouch.

“'Like you can’t teach a family member to drive. That never works,' Dunham said.”

I'm not a sociologist nor a child psychologist, but those clauses I bolded strike me as right on the money with families. GTG Tech has been wildly successful both in terms of popularity and what young and old are getting out of it which is much more than instruction.

”Although it might be easy to make fun of Grandpa when he brings in his three maxed-out Hotmail accounts and isn’t sure how to delete emails,” writes the WaPo reporter, Petula Dvorak, “the teens have learned that he was once a hottie who flew warplanes. Or the lady walking with a cane used to be a ballet dancer.

“On a recent rainy Saturday at the Chevy Chase library, every GTG Tech slot was full. And for three hours, the teens gave digital advice to many interesting seniors: a retired linguistics professor, a pioneer FORTRAN programmer, a former wire service reporter.”

Grandchildren notwithstanding, few of us have opportunities to spend real time with people of a generation so different from our own, nor do many young people have reasons to hang out much with elders unrelated to them.

But in the case of GTG Tech, everyone is getting an up close and personal insight into what each other's lives are like - which is what happened to me with Brownie troop.

Do they give you any ideas? (The photos in this story are from the GTG Tech website which you will find here.)

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

It surprised me that I haven't done a column completely dedicated to male soul singers, as I've already done one on the females - quite some time ago. Thus today I'm going to rectify that oversight.

Naturally, with today's title it's axiomatic that I begin with the soul men themselves, SAM AND DAVE.

That not only describes them, it's also the name of the song. Well, nearly, it's actually Soul Man.

♫ Sam & Dave - Soul Man

OTIS REDDING is guaranteed to be present today.

There are scores of his songs that I'd be happy to include but I'll go with the first one he recorded. This was after some other performer's session had ended and there was still time on the clock and Otis pretty much said, "I have a song, could we do it?"

First take, cut, released and a classic was created. He was backed by the band in the studio, Booker T and the MGs. It was far from the last time they performed together. These Arms of Mine.

♫ Otis Redding - These Arms Of Mine

The next song is indelibly associated with Otis but others have performed it too. One of the best of those is ARTHUR CONLEY.

Arthur is best known for his song Sweet Soul Music where he name checks the best of the soul singers. Naturally, he left himself off the list, but perhaps he should have been included.

Let's see what he does with I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now), a song written by Otis and Jerry Butler.

♫ Arthur Conley - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)

CLARENCE CARTER was born blind but he didn't let that set him back.

After achieving a degree in music, he began singing professionally with Calvin Scott as Clarence & Calvin later shortened to the C & C Boys (a bit unfortunate, that name).

He began a solo career when Calvin was seriously injured in a car accident. Clarence has recorded a bunch of songs and has had several that crossed over on to the pop charts, including Patches, Too Weak to Fight and the one we have today, Slip Away.

♫ Clarence Carter - Slip Away

Z.Z. HILL, like many soul singers, began his career in a gospel group, in his case The Spiritual Five.

Later he performed in clubs around Dallas until Otis Redding caught his act and encouraged him to record. Z.Z. went to Los Angeles and joined his brother, who fortuitously, was a record producer.

Z.Z. brought a more blues sound to his soul music, which is no bad thing. You can hear that, as well as some gospel, in Ain't Nothing You Can Do.

♫ ZZ Hill - Ain't Nothing You Can Do

I've stated before that James Brown learnt pretty much his entire act from DON COVAY.

He wasn't particularly grateful as he tried to shoot Don once (he missed).

I've always preferred Don as a performer, which might be the reason I keep mentioning that story. As well as singing, Don was a writer of songs, both for himself and others – Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Wilson Pickett, the Rolling Stones and Solomon Burke are only a few who have covered his songs.

Here, he gets a bit of a surprise in his song I Was Checkin' Out She Was Checkin' In.

♫ Don Covay - I Was Checkin' Out She Was Checkin' In

The life of Overton Vertis Wright, generally known as O.V. WRIGHT rather parallels that of Z.Z. Hill.

In O.V.'s case, he was from Tennessee and the gospel groups he fronted were The Sunset Travelers and later The Harmony Echoes. He was in the latter group with James Carr, one of the all time finest soul singers.

O.V.'s first recorded song was That's How Strong My Love Is, later covered by Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Percy Sledge and many others. Today he sings He Made Woman For Man, that sounds rather gospelly to me.

♫ O.V. Wright - He Made Woman For Man

Okay, this next one isn't entirely a soul man – we have both genders here today. This song has always tickled me but I know others don't like it. You can make up your own mind.

In the eighties one of the more interesting soul singers was RICHARD FIELDS. He generally went by the nickname Dimples because he had (and I bet you can't guess) dimples.

One of his most interesting albums from that time was called "Dimples" which I have on vinyl, but I haven't seen on CD (but it's probably out there somewhere).

From that record is a song I think is a real hoot called She's Got Papers on Me. Listening to it the first time, you think that it's just another conventional soul song until towards the end when we get a bit of a swerve to the left when BETTY WRIGHT joins the party.

♫ Richard Dimples Fields - She's Got Papers On Me

JAMES & BOBBY PURIFY were James Purify and his cousin Robert Dickey. In later years Ben Moore took over as the second Bobby Purify.

Most of us are probably familiar with the song, Shake a Tail Feather, particularly the version by Ray Charles, even if just from the "Blues Brothers" film. He wasn't the first to record it though, that was The Five Du-Tones.

Some years later James and Bobby tackled the song and did a really good job of it. See what you think.

♫ James & Bobby Purify - Shake A Tail Feather

JOE SIMON may not be a household name but he's had dozens of hits that made both the pop and R & B charts over the years.

I won't even try to list those, or even the most significant ones. I'll just play the song I selected, Message from Maria.

♫ Joe Simon - Message from Maria

Here is a very late bonus track. I only learned about this band last Saturday as Norma, the Assistant Musicologist and I were driving to the South Melbourne Market.

This song came on the radio and we wondered who it was, it was so good. Several different people were suggested by us but we were wrong because it turned out to be someone we hadn't heard of. They are THE TESKEY BROTHERS.

These are young folks from Warrandyte, an outer suburb of Melbourne, home of great wines, gorgeous scenery and now, terrific music in the form of Pain and Misery. It demonstrates that the young folks are still producing wonderful music.

♫ The Teskey Brothers - Pain and Misery

PORTRAITS OF A CENTURY

As Senior Planet explains it, Czech Republic photographer, Jan Langer

”...has spent some time comparing images of people when they were young with their 100-year-old selves. His meditation on age is the basis for a thoughtful, impactful and deeply moving photo project, Faces of Century.

First example is Antonin Baldrman at age 17 and 101:

And here is Marie Baresova at age 23 and 101:

See more at Senior Planet and even more at Mr. Langer's website.

HISTORY OF THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

There aren't many of us who have not eaten chocolate chip cookies or even baked them too. Mental Floss recently published a history of the chocolate chip cookie. Apparently, they say, there are many versions of the origin story.

But I thought the story screamed for video and I found several at YouTube. Here is one of the many I found on this topic.

A more detailed story is at Mental Floss.

VERTICAL FARM IN NEWARK

Vertical farms aren't new but this one, AeroFarms, is said to be the largest in the world that grows produce indoors without sun, soil or pesticides. Here's a short video:

There is a much more thorough story about it at The New York Times.

NET NEUTRALITY UPDATE

Last Saturday, I posted John Oliver's essay on Net Neutrality along with a link to the website he had set up to make it easy for all of us to tell the FCC what we think about the director, Ajit Pai's intent to kill equal access to the internet.

The response of viewers of the essay on Oliver's HBO show, Last Week Tonight, broke the FCC website which then announced it would not accept comments until after the FCC commissioners vote on the proposal. They did that on Thursday, voting 2 to 1 to end net neutrality.

"The agency is now inviting public comment on whether it should indeed dismantle the rules," reported the BBC yesterday. "Americans have until mid-August to share their views with the FCC.

"This call for comments is likely to attract a huge number of responses. Prior to the vote, more than 1 million statements supporting net neutrality were filed on the FCC site."

As I told you last Saturday, Oliver posted a web-only update which is well worth your time to watch – it's shorter than his usual essays, about six minutes:

As of late Friday, the Oliver link to the FCC comment page was not yet functional. I'll update here when it is. Meanwhile, here again is the procedure to leave your message to the FCC. Even if you left a comment before the website broke, please do it again as the FCC has announced that it will not count those earlier comments.

Again, here is the procedure – Oliver had made it easy:

1. Navigate in your browser to gofccyourself.com
2. Click the word “express” on the right side of the page
3. Fill in the form to support net neutrality and Title 2

When the comment page is available, do it, please, to help save the internet for everyone.

SOME GREAT ROCK AND ROLL DANCING

I used to be able to do this. Quite well. Many decades ago. This video calls it the lindy hop but when I was young, we called it swing dancing. It seems to me to be the same thing or close enough. Enjoy.

This video was recorded at International Lindy Hop Championship in 2014. The Lindy Hop Championship organization has a Facebook page here.

PRETTY, BIG AND DANCING

Oh, let's go ahead and have two dance stories this week. This one is a whole different kind, 21st century dance, with an important goal beyond the joy of dance itself. The YouTube page explains:

”Akira Armstrong started dancing at 8 years old and never looked back. She even landed a featured appearance in two Beyonce music videos, but when she decided to pursue dance professionally, she faced rejection from agencies because of her body type.

“She didn’t fit the physical mold of a typical dancer. So, Armstrong took matters into her own hands and started a plus-size dance company, Pretty Big Movement. “

Take a look – it's a terrific mini-documentary about what Ms. Armstrong is doing.

AHCA: HOW DID YOUR REP VOTE?

You wouldn't know it from the news coverage of all things Trump this week but the Senate Republicans insist they are working on a rewrite of the American Health Care Act (AHCA).

If you don't already know how your representative voted on the House version of AHCA, AARP has posted a list showing how all 435 member voted laid out alphabetically by state.

You'll find the list here.

DIALYSIS – JOHN OLIVER

As John Oliver admits at the top of his HBO show, Last Week Tonight, you might think you don't care about a 24-minute video essay about dialysis.

He says – and so do I – that you would be wrong. This is an stunning expose of the for-profit dialysis business, deadly serious but as he always can, Oliver finds a way to make us laugh while educating us.

NATURE'S GREATEST ARTIST

Okay, it's not as cute as the animal videos I usually post at the end of each Interesting Stuff column but it sure is amazing.

Thank TGB reader Joan McMullen for this one.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” at the top of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog IF you include the name of the blog and its URL.

Earlier this week, I received this email note from Peter Tibbles, he who runs the Sunday Elder Music column and is a handful of years younger than I am:

”This morning I decided to take some cardboard down to the recycle bin (and yes, they were empty wine boxes). So with laden hands, I unlocked the door and attempted to pull the key out of the lock (I have a deadlock and I leave the key in the lock when I'm home).

“It wouldn't come out. I tried and tried, but nothing. Well, the door was open so I decided to take the cardboard downstairs and check it later, making sure that the downstairs door was snibbed open.

“Well, I got back and the key still wouldn't come out of the lock no matter what I did. Then it occurred to me that it should be aligned at 3 o'clock to come out, not 6 o'clock as I was trying to do.

“Thirty years I've been here.

“I offer these mitigating circumstances: the lock on the other side of the door requires the 6 o'clock orientation to remove the key. Perhaps I didn't know if I was inside or outside.”

Oh, I know all about such a memory lapse. They happen to me all the time. It takes a good deal longer than necessary to get blog posts done because I frequently have to hunt for the feature I want in OpenOffice or paint.net or my email.

Peter has his 30 years using that lock. I have two decades using these computer programs; I should be able to function with them in my sleep. But nooooooo.

A few days ago, my Kindle needed charging. I opened the drawer where the cable lives and – oops, nothing there. I stared in disbelief; I'm good at returning items to where they belong.

It took a few hours for me to recall that a month or two ago I had moved the cable to a drawer in another room.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. I had broken one of my own long-standing rules for being old: never, ever change the place where you have stored a tool for a long time because the first storage place will stick in your mind forever and you might never find the tool again.

These – Peter's and my own memory-related mistakes – will not be unfamiliar to most of you who read this blog. I have dozens of other examples and I'm sure you do too.

Yesterday, I heard from cyber-friend and fellow New Yorker, Esther Harriott. You may remember her name from the story here two years ago about her excellent book, Writers and Age: Essays on and Interviews with Five Authors.

Esther included a link to a video that has a load of fun with the topic of today's post. It may be as vaguely familiar to some of you as it was to me yesterday. I was surprised find that it had been posted in these pages as a written joke in 2007, and in 2011, this self-same video - which further underlines the transitory nature of elder memory - or, at least, mine. Enjoy.

I'm no doctor or medical researcher but I'm pretty sure none of these incidents should be read as incipient dementia. It's just, as the video says, age-activated attention deficit disorder. Nothing to do but live with it.

When I was in my twenties, I came to know for awhile a couple in which the wife was 18 or 20 years older than her husband who was about my age.

Although I enjoyed meals, day trips and other get-togethers with them, I was still young enough to feel some discomfort hanging out with a woman who was closer in age to my mother than to me.

My failing, but I was young then without much experience with people a good deal older than I was who by definition were intimidating: parents, teachers and employers.

Many years later, I dated for a year or so, a man who was 14 or 15 years younger than I was. He was 27 when we met and I was in my early 40s. Most of my friends thought there were far fewer years between us than there were because, I suspect, we were in our middle years – 30-ish and 50-ish - when it is often easy to be way off when guessing a person's age.

While it lasted, it was a lovely romance and our breakup had nothing to do with age.

Undoubtedly you have heard by now that the new French president, Emmanuel Macron, age 39, has been married to Brigitte Macron (nee Trogneaux) since 2007, and that she is 64 years old.

That age difference has made for fascinating reading in newspapers and magazines. First, here is a short backgrounder:

This December/May marriage has generated a large amount of commentary in France and abroad, and unlike the same age difference – 24 years - between U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, some of it has been quite mean.

”News outlets snidely pointed to her deep tan, thin frame, and honey blonde hair, calling her a 'menopausal Barbie.' Some said he was 'hot for teacher,' or had mommy issues, and rumors flew that he was gay and theirs was a marriage of convenience.”

Others portrayed President Macron “as a 'mummy’s boy' who needs Mme Macron to wipe his mouth or give him 'a smack' for misbehaving.”

Glamour magazine reports that Macron has no patience with what he sees as the sexism and homophobia behind the attacks and has criticized the double standard

”... that allows men to marry much younger women while treating older women who do the same thing as deviants—or as covers for homosexuality. 'If I had been 20 years older than my wife, nobody would have thought for a single second that I couldn't be [an intimate partner],' he said.

"'It's because she is 20 years older than me that lots of people say, 'This relationship can't be tenable.'"

On Sunday, Brigitte Macron's youngest daughter from her first marriage, Tiphaine Auzière who is an attorney, defended her mother from those sexist and ageist remarks:

”'I find it totally outrageous in France in the 21st century to make such attacks...These are attacks that we wouldn’t direct at male politicians or at a man who would accompany a female politician. So I think there’s a lot of jealousy, and that this is very inappropriate.'”

No kidding.

The Telegraph in the U.K. saw the December/May romance in a lovelier light:

”The French want their women to be chic, witty, have charm; all characteristics that have little to do with youth; in fact which require experience.

“In fact, there are few more powerful words to a young Frenchman than 'une femme expérimentée'. Literature abounds with stories of young men 'déniaisés” (literally: made less stupid) by women who know what they are about.”

On the U.S. side of the Atlantic, Roger Cohen refused to acknowledge any French ageism, sexism or mysogyny in his New York Times column, and saw nothing but grace in the French reaction to the Macrons' age difference:

”People come to France for its beauty, but what finally beguiles them is its civilization, at once formal and sensual, an art of living and loving. I have been thinking of this non-judgmental French gift as the newly elected president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife, Brigitte, prepare to move into the Élysée Palace next week.

“They are an unusual couple. He is 39; she is 64. They met, as everyone knows by now, when he was a teenager and she was his drama teacher, a married woman with three children. Macron, through her, now has seven grandchildren whom he embraces as his own.

“To all of which the chief French response has been: Who cares?”

Well, maybe not quite but certainly as it ought to be.

Here in the U.S., it has always been acceptable for old men - often with a wink and a nod toward their masculinity - to take beautiful women young enough to be their daughters as their girlfriends and wives. (Some of those men have been known to turn in those wives for younger models when the first ones don't look quite as fresh and nubile as they once did.) But any woman who does the same is almost always viewed, in the words of Macron himself, a deviant or a beard.

I'm hoping that President and Madame Macron, who appear from outside to be as happy together as newlyweds, will help move women toward parity with men in romance because love isn't all that easy to find at any stage of life and no one should let age get in the way of it.

Anyone reading this blog is likely to be familiar with ageism, defined in brief as the stereotyping and discrimination of old people based entirely on their age.

It occurs in all areas of life. In the workplace, healthcare, entertainment, finance, advertising, language, movies, books, even greeting cards, old people are maligned, dehumanized and made fun of mostly with impunity.

It never changes. It never gets better. In fact, during 13 or 14 years I've been regularly inveighing against ageism, it seems to be increasing. I could be wrong about that but it feels so and it certainly is not diminishing.

One of the biggest ways ageism is perpetuated is through the media and today, I am particularly incensed about a certain time segment of television that has made elder bashing a staple of its repertoire.

It's the late night comedy shows. Hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers are the ones I see most frequently and every one of them makes it a regular practice to demean old people. It is always off-handedly as though it carries no more more social freight than the weather forecast and it always gets them a laugh.

Jimmy, Jimmy, Stephen, Seth and the others (even, now and then, John Oliver) - that is, comedians - are among the worst purveyors of ageist hilarity, falling back on this handy kind of cheap humor whenever their or their writers' creativity fails them.

The jokes are pervasive, turning up at least once a week on each of the shows usually in the monologue but even during interviews and they use these jokes with abandon because - well, everyone knows that it is wrong, for example, to make fun of the disabled but mocking old people's failings and foibles is just good fun.

What infuriates me beyond the ageism itself is that it is perpetrated day in and day out from otherwise talented performers who help keep me sane in this dark era of America's political crisis.

And that brings us to this: Throwaway lines that take five or six seconds to toss off are bad enough. A protracted attack including just about every stereotype known of old people is quite another.

In Saturday's Interesting Stuff column, I posted the wonderful video from NBC-TV promoting actor Melissa McCarthy's appearance as host of Saturday Night Live that evening.

McCarthy's Sean Spicer segment was not brilliantly written this time but okay, likewise Alec Baldwin's Trump impersonation and Weekend Update was one of Colin Jost's and Michael Che's best this season. There were other good moments. And then there was a skit about the Amazon Echo.

It is only 2:40 minutes long but it feels, while watching it, as if it will never end – on and on and on and on.

Perhaps it is understandable for young comedians steeped in unchallenged ageist humor from birth to believe this is acceptable, even funny. But I doubt they would agree to perform in a similar take down of, for example, brown people, women, Jews, Muslims or LGBTQ people.

And get this: Each week, SNL produces more skits, recorded and live, than they can use in one show and the final choice of which ones to include is made at dress rehearsal by producer, Lorne Michaels.

Lorne Michaels is 72 years old. Apparently he sees no personal irony in this week's Amazon Alexa skit choice.

It's everywhere on late night television, elder bashing is, and that spreads continued acceptance of ageist behavior far and wide particularly among young adults who are the main fans of late night humor shows which are further distributed through YouTube.

As gerontologist and Professor Emeritus of Medical Sociology at Duke University Erdman B. Palmore admitted in an article in the Encyclopedia of Ageism, humor may be a less serious form of ageism than, for example, employment or criminal discrimination. However, he continued:

”...because negative humor is so frequent and insidious, it may well be a root cause of the more serious forms of ageism...

“Just as racist and sexist jokes support negative attitudes about race and sex, most jokes about old people are ageist. Most tellers and listeners are probably unaware of their ageist effect, which may even increase the joke's impact on the listener's unconscious attitudes.”

For the record, I have two Amazon Echos and use them as easily as any young person. So do many other elders.

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

The best harmony singing, with only rare exceptions, comes from siblings. There are many examples in the male singing world, but it holds just as well for females. This is the basis for today's column. Let the singing commence.

VIKA AND LINDA BULL are Australia's foremost female singing duo.

They have appeared on hundreds of records (besides their own) and been in quite a few bands. If you need some female backup singers or some lead singers, they are the go-to people. Here, from one of their own records, is Love is Mighty Close.

♫ Vika & Linda - Love is Mighty Close

The trio called the DINNING SISTERS were Lou, Jean and Ginger Dinning.

Jean and Ginger were twins. There were nine kids in the family, all of whom sang really well. There was a young brother named Mark who was a bit of a pop star in the fifties for whom Jean wrote the song Teen Angel.

The trio was some record company's attempt to emulate the Andrews Sister but they were more restrained than their more famous rivals. They perform Better Not Roll Those Blue, Blue Eyes.

♫ The Dinning Sisters - Better Not Roll Those Blue Blue Eyes

THE ROCHES were Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche from New Jersey.

Maggie and Terre performed as a duo for some years until Suzzy joined them and they became The Roches, as you will hear. Maggie wrote most of their songs with Terre contributing a few. Alas, Maggie died early this year. The group introduce themselves with their song We.

♫ The Roches - We

KATE AND ANNA MCGARRIGLE were not only performers, they wrote terrific songs as well.

There's also an older sister, Jane, who occasionally wrote songs and performed with them. Some of the songs that Kate and Anna wrote have been covered by the cream (as well as the milk) of singers.

It was difficult choosing just one song, but I finally decided on You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down.

♫ Kate & Anna McGarrigle - You Tell Me That I'm Falling Down

I could have continued the previous two a further generation. Loudon Wainwright III was once married to Kate McGarrigle and they have a daughter Martha (and a son Rufus). After their divorce, he married Suzzy Roche and they have a daughter Lucy. Martha and Lucy have played and recorded together. However, I thought their contribution was for another column.

Probably the most famous singing sisters were the ANDREWS SISTERS.

Readers of the column probably don't need to be told that they were LaVerne, Maxene and Patty Andrews. Rather than use one of their famous (and thus too well known) songs, I thought I'd use one I didn't know until I discovered it on my database. Of course those who know them better than I do might be familiar with it. Alone Again.

♫ The Andrews Sisters - Alone Again

THE MCGUIRE SISTERS were sort of the Andrews Sisters of the fifties.

Christine, Dorothy and Phyllis McGuire had a bunch of hits in that decade until they stopped performing because of (apparently quite founded) rumors that Phyllis was seriously involved with the mobster Sam Giancana.

Anyway, getting back to music, their biggest hit was Sugartime, which might be considered an answer song to Jimmy Rodgers' song Honeycomb. It certainly references that song.

♫ The McGuire Sisters - Sugartime

Whew, this next one brings back memories but I'm not going into details. Here are the POINTER SISTERS.

The group started out as June and Bonnie Pointer. Later Anita joined them. Later still Ruth turned them into a quartet. The group that was most successful consisted of June, Ruth and Anita. Later, after June died, Ruth's daughter Issa joined the clan.

These days Ruth's grand-daughter Sadako is in the mix. Okay, from the most famous of the various combinations is their most famous song, Slow Hand.

♫ The Pointer Sisters - Slow Hand

The KIM SISTERS were born in South Korea but made their name in America in the fifties and sixties.

They were Sook-ja and her sister Ai-ja Kim and their cousin Minja Kim. Their parents encouraged them to learn instruments and each played several. American soldiers stationed in Korea were impressed with them and would encourage them by giving them records so they could learn the latest songs.

After arriving in America they were featured on many TV shows, most notably on Ed Sullivan's and Dean Martin's programs. They sing Going Back Together.

♫ The Kim Sisters - Going Back Together

The PARIS SISTERS started out in San Francisco and are best known for recording with Phil Spector.

They were Albeth, Sherrell and Priscilla Paris. Priscilla, the youngest, was the lead singer in the group. They had one song that made the top five and several more that tickled the charts a bit lower down. Their big one was I Love How You Love Me.

♫ The Paris Sisters - I Love How You Love Me

Martha, Connee and Vet, known to us as THE BOSWELL SISTERS were all classically trained on piano, cello and violin.

However, by that stage they were living in New Orleans and the jazz scene there won them over. It also meant they got to experience the best musicians of that style which influenced them considerably.

Although not the first, they were one of the earliest to record the now evergreen song, I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter. They also sing verses that generally aren't heard these days.

♫ The Boswell Sisters - I'm Going To Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter

REPUBLICAN HEALTHCARE DISSOCIATION

Jonathan Chait in New York magazine tried to explain the reasons many Republicans believe women should pay more for healthcare than men:

”Women have, on average, higher lifetime medical costs than men, which means a market-based insurance system, where every individual plan is priced based on that person’s expected medical costs, will charge women on average higher premiums.

“Republicans have been dancing around this implication for years with their argument that people who don’t need prenatal care should not have to buy insurance that covers it.”

And, of course we all know men having nothing to do with the reason women need prenatal care. Right?

You can read more here.

THE MOST EXPENSIVE SPICE IN THE WORLD

You can probably guess which spice it is but even if you can, the video is still enlightening.

OWLS AND THE NAPA VALLEY VINEYARDS

According to the YouTube page, one of the best-kept secrets of Napa Valley wineries is that they rely on barn owls rather than chemicals and pesticides to keep rodents at bay.

”Wildlife biologist Carrie Wendt has spent years learning how these majestic nocturnal creatures can have productive, working relationships with winemakers. So the next time you take a sip of that California pinot, take a moment to thank our feathered friends who helped make that glass possible.”

217 REPUBLICANS REFUSE JOY REID'S INVITATION

I realize that the firing of James Comey has buried news of the Republican healthcare bill this week but that hadn't happened yet last Saturday – it was still hot news then.

MSNBC weekend host, Joy Reid, reported that she and her staff contacted all 217 Republicans who voted in favor of the execrable American Health Care Act (AHCA), asking each one to appear on her program. Not a single one said yes.

Could it be, maybe, shame?

SHOULD WE REQUIRE INTELLIGENCE TESTS FOR CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES?

Moving right along on the subject of Congress, on 5 May, Republican Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho had this to say at a town hall meeting with constituents:

If you missed that or can't play the video, Representative Labrador said, "Nobody dies because they don't have access to healthcare."

Who ARE these people who supposedly represent American citizens?

MELISSA MCCARTHY'S SEAN SPICER SINGS I FEEL PRETTY

Actor Melissa McCarthy began her impossibly wonderful impersonation of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live in February. Tonight, she is hosting that show and here is how the producers are promoting her appearance.

Don't skip this. It is funny, wonderful (and short):

SOCIETY AT ITS BEST AND WEIRDO PARFAIT

For the past week there has been severe flooding throughout Canada. Although I expect Canadians everywhere are good Samaritans, this story from reporter Tyler Dawson gives new faith in humanity:

”There were no soldiers filling sandbags or heaving them into trucks on rue Saint-Louis on Monday morning. Just regular people, of all sorts and of all ages, shoveling from two big piles of sand into green bags and hefting them into the backs of pickup trucks.

“Civil society at its best.

“Before I’d even got my boots on, someone drove by, asking if this was the spot to help out. A steady stream of people, some lugging shovels, made their way to loading area to help. An efficient passing line had sprung up to lift the bags into the trucks, a sort of organized chaos that seemed absent any particular leader or organizer.

“Somehow, everyone seemed to know where to go.”

You can read the rest of the story at the Montreal Gazette and view the video there.

Thank doctafil of Montreal for sending this item. You probably recognize her moniker, as she has been a frequent contributor in the comments at this blog for many years.

But today I have the pleasure of revealing her real name – Brenda Henry – as she has just published her third book of short stories which is titled Weirdo Parfait.

Almost all of Brenda's short stories are based on incidents in her life in Montreal and her frequent travels to Florida and other points of the world. She has a wonderful way with words - when she writes about how much her feet hurt, you feel it too.

”I removed the bonfires. I mean shoes...” she writes in The Shoes the Bus and the Music. “I should have snapped their necks like stale bread sticks, tossed them into the a dumpster, and gone home barefoot...But I had to squeeze the monstrosities back on...”

Of course, she had me with her story, New York City Walk, in which she perfectly describes the energy of the city that I miss so much:

”...New Yorkers doing their usual walking, shopping, looking, buying, arguing, laughing or playing. The city is crazy busy with people wearing oddball outfits, weird hats.”

Brenda volunteers a lot, especially with old people, so there are several stories about that including a lovely one titled, Everything Nothing Something, about a 90-plus year old woman that will break your heart in the best possible way, and reveal the best of Brenda too:

“'The truth is [says Bella], I don't want to leave my home, but you think I have options, huh?'

“'Bella' [says Brenda], 'as long as you have your marbles and can afford to live in your home, you've got this covered.'”

Weirdo Parfait is available at Amazon in paperback and a Kindle edition.

JOHN OLIVER ON NET NEUTRALITY

On May 1, I wrote about the newest attack on net neutrality and what it means for internet users (less access, higher charges). Now, the brilliant John Oliver and his staff to the issue.

When he did this last time net neutrality was threatened three years ago, so many of his audience followed his instructions to tell the FCC to keep net neutrality, they broke the FCC website.

That happened again this week (this episode was broadcast last Sunday night). Take a look at it – Oliver is serious and as always, so funny about it.

As Oliver explained in the video essay, the FCC made it so difficult and obscure to navigate to the page where citizens can leave their thought, he bought the URL, gofccyourself.com.

It is up and running as I write this on Saturday. To get to the FCC comment page, go to that URL, click on the word, “express” after which a new page will open where you can fill in the form and let them know that support net neutrality and Title 2.

Again, here is the procedure – Oliver had made it easy:

1. Navigate in your browser to gofccyourself.com
2. Click the word “express” on the right side of the page
3. Fill in the form to support net neutrality and Title 2

Do it, please, to help save the internet for everyone.

UPDATE: 7AM PDT: As Nana Royer notes in the second comment below, the FCC is not taking comments for a week or so. Here is the explanation from Oliver at that URL:

Hello!

​Because of a procedural quirk, the FCC will not be considering any comments on the issue of net neutrality that are submitted over the next week or so.

​ We'll update you when the comments are officially open again. In the interim, you’ll have to find something else to be mad about on the internet.

Best of luck with that.

Ronni again: I'll remind you when it's up and running again.

FRANKIE, THE TRUCK DUCK

This video is nearly 10 years old so perhaps you've seen it. I hadn't and it is so cute, so funny and so nice that it is worth resurrecting.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” at the top of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog IF you include the name of the blog and its URL.

If, earlier this week, the friend to whom I said I believe the U.S. is in the midst of a slow-moving coup had called me out for being hyperbolic, I would not have disagreed. That is, until I ran across this nearly identical headline at Salon:

Americans are witnessing a slow motion coup.

The article is written by journalist, novelist and screenwriter, Lucien K. Truscott IV who has covered some of the biggest news stories of our lifetimes, here and abroad. (Disclosure: I knew him slightly half a century or so ago when we were both starting out.) I'll get back to his Salon piece shortly.

There hasn't been much in these pages about the dying of American democracy because who can keep up. Any one person could write 24 hours a day, seven days a week and not cover all the outrages being inflicted almost daily by the president and the Republican Congress upon the citizens of the United States.

Besides, plenty of other people - in print, online and on TV - have more than enough to say - too much of it unhelpful and even wrong. And it is not within the mandate (see banner above) of this blog.

Even with all that, this week's firing of FBI Director James Comey, the fact of it along with the shameful haste, lies and crudeness with which it was done, is unprecedented. In the 240 years of our country's history, it has happened only once before that a president fired the person investigating his own election campaign.

Some reporters are making the comparison to President Richard Nixon's “Saturday night massacre” and that is not inapt. What is different for me and for people who are older than about 55 now is that we were there in real time.

For nearly a year, we lived through the daily dispatches from Woodward and Burnstein, became familiar with Deep Throat's leaks and followed the accusations and denials that pretty much unhinged the country for nearly a year.

When, at last, Nixon resigned, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief of millions of citizens throughout the land. It was an unprecedented moment in our history.

And so is this one.

For all the millions of words already spoken and written about the Comey firing, what appears to me to be most true is that the letters the White House released were outright lies. It is becoming increasingly clear to any sentient being that the real reason Trump fired Comey is that he was getting too close to whatever connections there may be between the Trump campaign and/or administration and Russia.

The reason I bring it up today, instead of the age-related post I had planned, is that I am worried, maybe even panicked, that as the Republican Congress has ignored every Trump administration transgression so far, they will do it again with this one.

Because he closely echoes my own thoughts and is more concise, I will let Mr. Truscott explain:

”All political power is being concentrated in the office of the president. All law enforcement power is being concentrated in the office of the attorney general and, when it comes to enforcing the law regarding the Trump campaign and its contacts with elements of the Russian government, in the office of the deputy attorney general.”

“They have turned their offices into black holes into which things are meant to disappear without investigation or enforcement.

It sure does seem that way to me. Further, Truscott tell us, unless these three men decide otherwise, there are no ways to enforce U.S. law without which we do not have a government and our democracy is crippled.

”What we have (then) instead is an authoritarian regime run by a few men for the personal and political benefit of one man, President Trump.

“No one else benefits — not the citizens, not the systems by which we have until now governed ourselves, not the people who staff those systems, not the people occupying the other elective offices of the government. Only Trump.”

If I may stray slightly from the main topic, let me mention a related disturbing development – the escalating war on free speech in general and journalists in particular.

Without that First Amendment civil guarantee, an open society cannot exist and although there are plenty of other Trump administration attacks on journalists, ponder just these three that took place within just the past two weeks:

⚫ A woman, Desiree Fairooz was convicted of laughing during Jefferson Beauregard Sessions' Senate confirmation hearing in January.

⚫ A journalist was arrested for asking a question of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

⚫ U.S. news organizations were entirely shut out of the Oval Office during Trump's visit with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador while Russian news agency Tass was allowed access.

Our government, our institutions, our founding documents and therefore our country are being snatched away from us and the Republicans controlling Congress have made it evident that they are going to allow this to happen.

Lucien K. Truscott IV again:

”it will take enormous outrage by the citizenry, and an act of enormous political will by their representatives, to bring a halt to this this authoritarian madness.

“Our government belongs to us — not to [Trump]. Unless we teach him this lesson, we deserve everything he does to us with the power he has so nakedly and corruptly seized in this slow-motion coup.”

The whole reason for this post is that I'm deeply curious if TGB readers who are mostly old enough to remember Watergate think I am being hyperbolic to say I believe there is a coup underway, and what other thoughts you have about the astounding government and political events of this week.

Reminder: There probably are not a lot of Trump supporters among us to provoke unseemly argument in the comments but as always, whatever you have to say, keep it civil.

On Monday we talked about language, certain words that are offensive to some people, so why not move right along to talking about sex today, elder sex, and see how it goes.

When I began this blog in 2004, the words “old people” and “sex” almost never appeared in the same sentence in general-interest publications, especially when young adults were doing the writing. It was just too “eeew” for them to think about mom and dad or their grandparents doing the nasty.

In the years since then, this has changed. Google it and you'll get more than 30 million returns ranging from scientific studies to videos of actual sex acts with old people.

Before we go any further and so you know where I'm coming from, let me confess that the latter of those extremes is problematic for me. I get ootchy – always have at every age - viewing even the most artistic presentations of sex in movies whether the actors have gorgeous young bodies or wrinkly old ones.

However, do not let that lead you to believe that I find sex distasteful in any way. We'll leave my history out of this beyond saying that it has been joyful and abundant. Sex is a wonderful thing. I just think it's better in private – at least for me.

As that Google search indicates, there is little reticence in any media these days about elder sex. Everybody seems to be talking about it and the idea that old people don't get it on after some certain, unspecified age has been fading. As Huffington Post reported in January,

”...The New England Journal of Medicine...surveyed 3,005 men and women, between the ages of 57 and 85 and living in the US, about their sex lives. It found that the majority of older adults who were married or had intimate partners remained sexually active well into their 80s.

“In general, sexual activity tended to decline with age, but a significant number of men and women reported engaging in intercourse, oral sex and masturbation even in their eighth and ninth decades.”

That's one of the better surveys that didn't cut off the age range at about 70 as so many others do. Another study, reported in the Daily Beast a couple of years ago, revealed similar results:

”...sex among the senior set is important, with 46 percent of men and 33 percent of women over 70 reporting that they masturbate, and 43 percent of men and 22 of women in the same age bracket saying they engage in sexual intercourse.”

I'm not so sure these studies are not undertaken so much for general knowledge as to reassure young people that sex won't stop when they get old – or doesn't need to, anyway. What isn't often discussed, however, is that the urge diminishes over time.

For 10 or 15 years, in my case, it has felt like my hormone level must have dropped by about 90 percent. Even so, I continue to believe that if the opportunity presented itself, I would be as eager as at any previous time in life.

Not that anyone has lately given me a reason to test that theory which, according to one report (HuffPo again), may limit my libido:

"Janet Gibbens, MD, a gynecologist at Providence Health Systems in Portland, OR, says: 'Use it or lose it’ has to do with the fact that regular sexual acts bring more blood flow, and therefore more oxygen, to the vagina and to the penis.

"It promotes healthier sexual organs and improves lubrication and elasticity, particularly for women. Non-intercourse forms of sex are helpful with this as well.”

As wonderful as sex is, what I miss these days of living alone is what a friend calls "skin hunger" – the deep human desire to be touched, not necessarily sexually. In answer to that need, my birthday present to myself this year was an hour-long, full-body massage which I now schedule once a month.

It is affordable for me because the local senior center provides a masseuse at a much reduced price compared to commercial services. A highly recommend it if you aren't already way ahead of me.

Another issue with old people and sex is that it may become physically difficult depending on health conditions. The internet's long-time guru of sex in old age, Joan Price, had some nice suggestions about that at Senior Planet last year:

“Explore each other’s entire bodies,” she writes. “Our skin is our largest sex organ. Invite your partner to touch your body all over—no goals, just pleasure. On a different day, switch to exploring your partner.

“Whether you’ve known each other for a long time or just a little while, this is the body you live in now, and there’s plenty to discover about how it looks and responds.”

Just about any article you read about old people and sex includes a reminder sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) have been on the rise among elders in particular for a few years, and practicing safe sex is essential.

That makes it good to know that since 2012, Medicare Part B has allowed for free annual screenings for senior citizens for chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis and/or hepatitis B.

It's been awhile since I checked around the web for what it is saying about old people and sex and it has changed mostly for the better. There is little reticence about it now even when the language is sometimes ageist or too cutesy.

What shows nowadays is that old sex is a lot like young sex if you don't count frequency or athleticism, as U.S. News reported last year:

”One of the biggest misconceptions about older adults is that they lack passion, Foley says. 'Some people have had this extraordinary long-term partnership where they remain very passionate,' she says.

“'And other people who are widowed or divorced, when they fall in love and they’re in their 70s or their 80s, they feel the same way as people who fall in love in their 20s. They’re gaga for the person. And their sex is great.'”

As I've always said (and forgotten who I'm quoting), sex is the friendliest thing two people can do.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Ted Carr, who worked in the tech industry during some its most exciting years, retired about six years ago. He now hosts a podcast called Retirement Journeys – Real-Life Experience that Informs, Engages and Inspires and in February, he invited me to be a guest on his show.

We had a wonderful time talking about growing old, ageism, retirement, my career before that and much more. Ted has now posted the podcast at his website which you can listen to here. It's about 21 minutes long and there are more such podcasts you might find interesting.

Thank you, Ted. I am pleased and honored to have been asked.

Every now and then, Crabby Old Lady has been known to publish words in these pages that in her youth were never said in “polite company” and certainly not used in newspapers and magazines targeting general audiences.

When TimeGoesBy was new, back in 2004 and for some years beyond, she would never use “dirty words” any more than The New York Times or the Washington Post or The New Yorker would do so those days.

But time passes, tastes change and those venerable publications along with TGB sometimes allow such “profanities” as shit, fuck, cock, etc.

Crabby is certain that those titans of mainstream print have codified editorial guidelines for the approved use of such informal language. Crabby? She just goes with what feels right at the moment. Quotations, of course, are acceptable. And on rare occasions – particularly when a politician has said something exceptionally stupid or loathsome – she'll let fly a “What the fuck.”

What Crabby can be sure of when she does that is that a cluster of unsubscribe notices will arrive indicating “offensive” as the reason for canceling. So be it.

A week ago, in his monologue, Late Night host Stephen Colbert ran afoul of people with similar pristine sensibilities and before the show ended, #firecolbert was trending on Twitter.

Here is his transgression prompted by President Trump having dissed Colbert's CBS coworker, John Dickerson:

Crabby is pretty sure you can figure out what he said. If not, here is how Inside Edition published the remark on their website including their coy abbreviation:

“You attract more skinheads than Rogaine... You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is for Vladimir Putin’s c*** holster."

The usual suspects, mostly those of the conservative persuasion, erupted as expected and it didn't take long for FCC Chairman Agit Pai (you know, the guy who wants to gut net neutrality so the big internet providers can make more money) to threaten Colbert with “appropriate action.”

”The FCC's response will depend on whether Colbert’s remarks are considered 'obscene,'” Pai said according to The Hill.

“'We are going to take the facts that we find and we are going to apply the law as it’s been set out by the Supreme Court and other courts and we’ll take the appropriate action,” [Pai] told Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Thursday.

“'Traditionally, the agency has to decide, if it does find a violation, what the appropriate remedy should be,' he said. 'A fine, of some sort, is typically what we do.'”

To do that, the FCC will need to meet the U.S. Supreme Court's test for obscenity and blah, blah, blah.

All this had Crabby Old Lady assuming that, based on nothing more than conventional wisdom and her experience with blog unsubscribers, old people are a large percentage of those taking umbrage with Colbert's somewhat unusual choice of words.

But maybe not. A quick (very quick, no big-time research involved) trip around the internet turned up this, for example, from a 2011 report about a then-new Broadway show. From the New York Post [their abbreviations, not mine]:

”Standing under the marquee for Broadway smash The Book of Mormon, 92-year-old theatergoer Gloria Lewis is shocked by the musical she just saw. Packed with profane lyrics, such as 'F – – – you, God, in the a – -, mouth and c – – – ’' and characters with names like 'General Butt-F – – – ing Naked,' you can hardly blame the sweet little old lady for being a bit ruffled.

“But Lewis isn’t agitated in any negative sense. In fact, she’s blown away by the 14-time Tony-nominated musical, which is drawing enthusiastic, raving crowds of seniors just like her nightly.

“Very brilliant!” says the feisty senior citizen from Queens, who is a retired investigator for the Department of Labor and laughs in the face of anyone who thinks she or either of her octogenarian pals might be offended by the language.

“As her girlfriends, 85 and 88, smile and giggle by her side, Lewis says matter-of-factly: 'F – – – is a very common word today. Offended? Not at all.'”

Last fall, Stanford University published a widely reported study titled Frankly, We Do Give a Damn on the relationship between profanity and honesty. The researchers concluded:

"On the one hand, profane individuals are widely perceived as violating moral and social codes, and thus deemed untrustworthy and potentially antisocial and dishonest.

"On the other hand, profane language is considered as more authentic and unfiltered, thus making its users appear more honest and genuine.

"These opposing views on profanity raise the question of whether profane individuals tend to be more or less dishonest..."

"We found a consistent positive relationship between profanity and honesty; profanity was associated with less lying and deception at the individual level, and with higher integrity at the society level."

The study did not differentiate among age groups but Crabby Old Lady now feels free to assert that when she lets loose a long string profane invective after having banged a toe or includes a mild “what the fuck” on this blog in reference to a latest political idiocy, she is being authentic, genuine and honest.

Anyone who disagrees is free to unsubscribe.

Meanwhile, last Wednesday, Stephen Colbert issued on his show, a non-apology while including an acknowledgement to the overly sensitive who believed his original comedic tirade was homophobic. (Oh please):

And so go the culture wars. What do you think?

This Sunday Elder Music column was launched in December of 2008. By May of the following year, one commenter, Peter Tibbles, had added so much knowledge and value to my poor attempts at musical presentations that I asked him to take over the column. He's been here each week ever since delighting us with his astonishing grasp of just about everything musical, his humor and sense of fun. You can read Peter's bio here and find links to all his columns here.

I've run out of snappy titles for this series, named initially by Norma, the Assistant Musicologist, that I use to highlight lesser known composers who are seldom heard on radio or in concert.

The only thing PIERRE RODE seems to be remembered for these days is that Beethoven wrote his last violin concerto especially for him to play, as he was a great violinist according to reports, at least until later in life when his right hand was affected by an infection which reduced his prowess.

Pierre, however, was also a composer and not surprisingly, most of his compositions were for the violin. He was influenced by his teacher (Viotti) and he also later taught violin method at the Paris Conservatory. Here is the third movement of his Violin Concerto No 7.

♫ Rode - Concerto No. 7 (3)

Speaking of GIOVANNI VIOTTI, he deserves inclusion as well.

Although born in (what's now) Italy he spent most of his life in Paris and London. He was once booted out of England because people thought he favored the revolution in France, however, the (English) king's daughter at the time, along with several of the upper crust spoke in his defence and he was invited back.

He became a British citizen later on and spent the rest of his life in that country.

The circle goes round and round - Gio was also a violinist of note and wrote a number of violin concertos that greatly influenced Beethoven's style in this genre. However, as we had one of those just above, I'll go with something else.

In this case it's one of his string quartets, the first movement of his String Quartet Op 3 No 3 in F.

♫ Viotti - String Quartet Op 3 No 3 in F (1)

I have a couple of complete sets of Chants d'Auvergne (Songs of the Auvergne) by JOSEPH CANTELOUBE. These were folk songs from the region he collected and orchestrated.

The one I've had for quite some time is by Kiri Te Kanawa, however, the recent one is rather interesting by SARA MACLIVER.

Sara is an Australian soprano from Perth and she's hot property in the opera world – look out for her if she comes your way. I've decided on pretty much the most famous, and popular, of the songs, Baïlèro.

♫ Sara Macliver - Chants d Auvergne Baïlèro

I saw (and heard) Josef Suk perform many years ago here in Melbourne; he played the violin (superbly). However, it's a different JOSEF SUK we have today.

Today's Joe is a composer and was the grandfather of the violinist. He was taught by Antonín Dvorák, whom he admired greatly, and Joe's compositions show the influence of Antonín. He also married Antonín's daughter.

Apparently they were very happy, but alas she died before turning 30. He never remarried. Besides composing, Joe played violin for many years as part of the Czech Quartet. Here is his Seranade for Piano and Cello, Op 3 in A Major.

♫ Suk - Serenade in A cello & piano Op 3 No 2

To my ears, the violin concerto by GIUSEPPE BRESCIANELLO sounds if it was written by J.S. Bach.

It's certainly possible that they listened to each other's music as their lives pretty much coincided, and although he was Italian, Giuseppe spent much of his life in Stuttgart.

However, I've not found any mention of their having met (but I haven't really searched diligently). You can judge for yourself with his first movement of the Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 1 No. 4.

♫ Brescianello - Violin Concerto in E Minor Op. 1 No. 4 (1)

VASSILIS TSABROPOULOS is a Greek composer and classical pianist, and just a whippersnapper – younger than anyone reading this column.

He greatly admired the pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy who became his mentor and for whom he wrote a set of preludes. One of his most famous (and best selling) compositions is called Melos, here performed by him on piano, Anja Lechner on cello and U.T. Gandhi on drums.

♫ Vassilis Tsabropoulos - Melos

LUIGI CHERUBINI was yet another composer who was really famous in his lifetime but is largely forgotten today.

Indeed, his contemporary Beethoven claimed he was the greatest composer alive at the time. This was after Haydn and Mozart had both died. I imagine that Ludwig added a silent asterisk footnote saying, "except for me, of course". We'll never know.

Luigi was most noted for his operas of which he wrote dozens. Later, he turned to church music. He also wrote some orchestral works and a number of rather fine string quartets. However, from his opera “Amida abbandonata” we have MARIA GRAZIA SCHIAVO performing the aria Qual da venti combattuta.

♫ Cherubini - Armida abbandonata - Qual da venti combattuta

I decided to include this next gentleman purely for his splendid name: FERRUCCIO DANTE MICHELANGIOLO BENVENUTO BUSONI.

I guess it's a case of judging a book by its cover, however, old Ferruccio was a pretty decent composer as well. He seems to have had the ultimate pushy parents, both of whom were musicians, dad a pianist and mum a clarinet player. He was taught both instruments and was a child prodigy.

He was pushed to perform from age seven by his folks and later claimed he didn't have a childhood. He toured all over the world and was in great demand as a pianist. He also wrote music, which is good for us.

One of the things he wrote is the Suite for Clarinet and String Quartet K.176. This is the first movement.

♫ Busoni - Suite for Clarinet and String Quartet K.176 (1)

Another good name is JEAN-JOSEPH CASSANEA DE MONDONVILLE.

J-J was born into an aristocratic family in Narbonne in south west France who had fallen on hard times. I can't find any reason for this; it was probably one of the usual ways of that happening.

Anyway, he moved to Paris and caught the eye and ear of Madame de Pompadour who was Louis XV's main squeeze. Through her he got a bunch of decent jobs. He was a violinist by trade but wrote music in many genres.

This is his Sonata for Harpsichord and Violin in C.

♫ Mondonville - Sonata for Harpsichord & Violin in C

PRESIDENT OBAMA ON CRITICISM AND FERVOR

Shortly before he left the presidency, Barack Obama sat down for an extensive interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates to discuss what it is like to be a symbol of power and the recipient of people's anger and excitement.

This short excerpt stands out, in contrast to our new president, for its thoughtfulness, charm and intelligence.

Read Coates's full interview at The Atlantic.

HOUSE OF CARDS SEASON 5 TRAILER

The latest season of House of Cards starts streaming at Netflix on Tuesday 30 May. Is it possible that Kevin Spacey's president is scarier than the one we have? It seems so in this trailer.

AGRICULTURE ROLLS BACK SCHOOL LUNCH NUTRITION GUIDELINES

Most of you, and certainly I, are old enough to remember the guffaws when the administration of President Ronald Reagan tried to name ketchup a vegetable in nutritional regulations for school lunches.

Now there is the Trump Department of Agriculture under Secretary Sonny Perdue lowering nutritional requirements put in place at the behest of First Lady Michelle Obama:

”As his first major action in office, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the Agriculture Department will delay an upcoming requirement to lower the amount of sodium in meals while continuing to allow waivers for regulations that all grains on the lunch line must be 50 percent whole grain.

“'By forgoing the next phase of sodium reduction, the Trump administration will be locking in dangerously high sodium levels in school lunch,' Wootan said.”

You can read more at the Washington Post.

In other political food news, a Republican Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama offered an amendment to the American Health Care Act that would ”...require sicker people to pay more in insurance costs than people 'who lead good lives,'” whatever that means.

Who ARE these people? Talking Points Memo has more detail.

IT'S NOT JUST OLD PEOPLE – THE DOORWAY EFFECT

Pretty much everyone complains about walking into a room and forgetting why they are there. It's mostly old folks who get tagged with that shortcoming but this research contends that memory isn't the difficulty, doorways are. See what you think.

Thank laura and her daughter Sara for this item.

FINLAND'S WEIRD HOBBY HORSE REVOLUTION

My friend Wendl Kornfeld sent this – a very strange teenage girl fad from her ancestral homeland. Take a look:

Did you watch until the end? Did you see that his video is a trailer for the a full-length movie? There is even a whole website about it – the fad, not the movie. I do not know what to say about this. You can read a little more here.

TRICORDER BECOMING A REALITY?

If you were and/or still are a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, you certainly recall the tricorder, a hand-held medical instrument used by those future fictional physicians to diagnose disease and collect health information by just waving it over ther patient's body.

Now, there may be something similar for us in the not too distant future. It's called DxtER (pronounced Dexter) and is, according to a story in Salon,

”...a tablet-based system that uses several biological sensors and analytic software that can track vital signs and uncover medical conditions — 34 in all, from diabetes and pulmonary diseases to tuberculosis and Hepatitis A.”

The inventors, a seven-member team of friends and relatives from Pennsylvania, just won a Qualcomm international contest that gives them