"In 2004, the most recent year for which there are final figures, life expectancy at birth in the United States was 77.8 years. That’s 75.2 years for males and 80.4 years for females. But if you’ve made it to sixty your life expectancy is 82.5 years: 80.8 for men and eighty-four for women."
-- from
Mine Is Longer Than Yours, by Michael Kinsley,
New Yorker magazine
(OK, these figures are for Americans, whose lifespans have been freakishly extended by diets of milk and honey and gold dust, not to mention fluoride and other anti-Communist drugs put into their water supplies. But still, they suggest that, despite people like Egghead insisting on having birthdays normally consistent with decrepit geezerhood, we probably still have a few decent years left in us. Kinsley's article is worth a read, especially if you have hopes of still hitting the ski slopes and rogering young women into your 70s and 80s.)
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