Saturday, April 29, 2023

RECAlCULATION

 I just discovered that when I hit 90 my life expectancy will be another 4.6 years. I think I need a somewhat longer term game plan.

11 comments:

  1. Viva Bob!
    (Wasn't there a Zeno guy who argued it's impossible to get to the end?)

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  2. You probably have a healthier life style than the average person does. You exercise on a stationary bicycle, you eat a healthy diet, you're not overweight, you have access to better medical care than the average person does given your income level, so since those life expectancies are calculated for the average person, your probable life expectancy is longer than the figure you mention.

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  3. 4.6 years. Such a precise estimate. lol

    What is the source, btw?
    An estimate from the CDC puts the average life expectancy in 2021 for a 90-year-old white man at 3.7 years.
    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf

    As Wallerstein says, your personal life expectancy will likely be well north of the average for your cohort, when that date rolls around. Especially considering your sister's longevity.

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  4. I believe the world has not seen the end of a certain Robert Paul Wolff!!!

    Hopefully, Artificial Intelligence will be able to discover the lost Fountain of Youth & Plato's lost city of Atlantis before any of our life chapters come to an abrupt end.

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  5. Last night, NBC had a birthday tribute to Carol Burnett. I was surprised to learn she is turning 90 years old. She was still alert and spry, and (with the help of a plastic surgeon, no doubt) looked to be in her 70s. Sitting next to her throughout the show was her good friend. Julie Andrews, who is 88 years old. It was a rather moving production, with clips from her numerous TV and stage performances, both comic and dramatic, and tributes from her many friends. It ended with her singing part of her signature song, “It’s Been Nice To Spend This Time Together” – and she was still on key.

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  6. In today’s NYT, there is an editorial by Vanessa Mobley titled, “Examining the Power Of a College Degree.”

    In the opening paragraph, Ms. Mobley states:

    “There’s a game working professionals can sometimes play: imagining what their next job could be. Anecdotally, I’ve observed that lawyers often wish to be philosophers, and doctors like to imagine their lives as artists.”

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  7. As I indicated in a previous thread I intended to do, I attended the presentation Saturday night at the Detroit Film Theater, which featured an interview of Laurence Fishburne by film critic and documentarian Elvis Miller. I brought with me two envelopes containing cover letters, addressed to Mr. Fishburne and Mr. Miller, and my analysis of the wrongful conviction, and life imprisonment, of Crosley Green. The cover letters urged them to produce a documentary about Mr. Green’s injustice, and to generate publicity about the wrongful conviction and imprisonment. I delivered the envelope to the director of the film festival, and asked that she deliver them to the recipient named on the outside of the envelopes. After the presentation was over, I asked her if she had delivered the envelopes, and she told me that they told her to leave them on a table in their dressing rooms. I hope, but do not know, that they picked up the envelopes, opened them and read their contents. The cover letters included my telephone number and email address. I have not heard back, but hope that, regardless, they read the contents and act on my suggestion.

    The interview of Mr. Fishburne was interesting and informative. Of his over 50 films, I have seen 12. My favorites are his performance in Othello and Finding Bobby Fisher. I was not aware that he was in Apocalypse Now, which he discussed at length and about how Francis Ford Coppola decided to cast him in the movie, at the age of 16. He said his most difficult role was portraying Ike Turner in “What’s Love Got To Do With It.” He acknowledged that a good part of the difficulty was that he had been involved in incidents of domestic violence himself, and that he had to channel that anger in order to get through the role.

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  8. Vanessa Mobley's piece (which I haven't read) was presumably an op-ed column. In any event, it was not an editorial. An editorial, by definition, is an unsigned piece presented as the collective opinion of a newspaper's editorial board. (That's the wording in the U.S. at any rate; in Britain I think editorials are called leaders, or used to be -- but a British reader can correct me on this if need be.)

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  9. LFC,

    You are of course right. Please forgive my incompetence.

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