Tuned In

What a Drag It Is Getting Old

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Two unrelated, yet entirely related, items, about the discovery that getting old is not the fun-filled candy buffet that it’s made out to be. 

First, dailybeast.com editor (formerly of Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Talk) explains that if you’re in the media and you’re in your fifties, this is a pretty terrifying time. Unless you’re figuring out a way to work in online media and “you have enough put away to ride this wave.” You know: unless you’re Tina Brown. 

Second, Craig Ferguson unleashes a sweeping, three minute pop-historical torrent on how the deification of “youth and stupidity” since the late ’50s is the reason “everything sucks”:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFQkMAPVoIo&feature=player_embedded]

I just had a birthday, so I’m more sympathetic to Ferguson’s argument than I might otherwise be. I will just point out that no other late-show host would assume of his audience, “I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying, ‘But wait a minute, Craig, in ancient Greece they deified the youth.'” And that’s why we need him, age, experience and all.