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My husband, at 74, is the baby of his bridge group, which includes a woman of 85 and a man of 89. This challenging game demands an excellent memory (for bids, cards played, rules and so on) and an ability to think strategically and read subtle psychological cues. Never having had a head for cards, I continue to be amazed by the mental agility of these septua- and octogenarians. The brain, like every other part of the body, changes with age, and those changes can impede clear thinking and memory. Yet many older people seem to remain sharp as a...

As every sleep researcher knows, the surest way to hear complaints about sleep is to ask the elderly. “Older people complain more about their sleep; they just do,” said Dr. Michael Vitiello, a sleep researcher who is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington. And for years, sleep scientists thought they knew what was going on: sleep starts to deteriorate in late middle age and steadily erodes from then on. It seemed so obvious that few thought to question the prevailing wisdom. Now, though, new research is leading many to change their minds. To researchers’...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Is there hope for your hippocampus, a new lease for your temporal lobe? Science is not sure yet, but across the country, brain health programs are springing up, offering the possibility of a cognitive fountain of youth. From “brain gyms” on the Internet to “brain-healthy” foods and activities at assisted living centers, the programs are aimed at baby boomers anxious about entering their golden years and at their parents trying to stave off memory loss or dementia. “This is going to be one of the hottest topics in the next five years — it’s going to be...

Josephine Tesauro never thought she would live so long. At 92, she is straight backed, firm jawed and vibrantly healthy, living alone in an immaculate brick ranch house high on a hill near McKeesport, a Pittsburgh suburb. She works part time in a hospital gift shop and drives her 1995 white Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera to meetings of her four bridge groups, to church and to the grocery store. She has outlived her husband, who died nine years ago, when he was 84. She has outlived her friends, and she has outlived three of her six brothers. Mrs. Tesauro does, however,...

As Osama ages, if he does, we should predict the changes. Oddly enough, an older Osama looks familiar!

October 19, 2005 Letters of Trafalgar warrior, aged 11 By Dalya AlbergeBoy told his mother of Admiral Nelson’s bravery A REMARKABLE series of unpublished letters written by an 11-year-old midshipman who was at the Battle of Trafalgar has been acquired for the nation. The vivid eyewitness account of George James Perceval, who served on HMS Orion, a 74-gun battleship that played a key role in the closing stages of the battle, has been purchased by the National Maritime Museum. In more than 40 letters, many written to Lord and Lady Arden, his parents in London, George painted a portrait of...

The work ethic is alive and well among America's retirees, or at least the ones who bombarded me with letters after I suggested raising the retirement age for Social Security. They said they would be glad to keep working if I could find them a job. In theory, this shouldn't be a problem because employers ought to be clamoring for workers as baby boomers hit retirement age and the pool of younger workers shrinks. In reality, though, older workers face discrimination. While some companies are recruiting them, many employers are still leery, partly because of irrational prejudice against the old,...

Despite what doctors have long recommended, regularly taking calcium and vitamin D does not prevent fractures in older people who have broken a bone or who have osteoporosis, according to two large studies released yesterday. People with osteoporosis are often encouraged to consume as much calcium and vitamin D as possible to strengthen their bones and to lower the likelihood of injuries. But the new studies, involving thousands of elderly people in Britain who had symptoms of the disease, found that those who took calcium and vitamin D tablets were just as likely to break a bone as those who...

In a push to recruit older workers, Home Depot, the hardware chain, now offers "snowbird specials" - winter work in Florida and summers in Maine. Borders bookstores lure retired teachers to sales jobs with discounts and the promise of reading and discussion groups. Pitney Bowes, the business services company, pays tuition for courses in computer programming as well as spare-time skills like golf and flower arranging. After years of encouraging workers to take early retirement as a way to cut jobs, a growing number of companies are hunting for older workers because they have lower turnover rates and, in many...

FRIDAY FAX February 4, 2005 Volume 8, Number 7 Controversy Surrounds UN Disabilities Negotiation Today the United Nations closes the fifth in a series of two-week drafting sessions intended to produce an internationally binding convention on the rights and protection of people with disabilities. Despite mounting pressure to finalize the text, which the UN has been drafting since mid-2002, much controversial work remains. UN negotiators addressed only a fraction of the overall draft, and most of the language that pro-lifers find troublesome remains in the document. Among the most controversial passages is an article that pro-life advocates believe grants a...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Asked about the election result, the sharp-tongued reporter simply put her hand on her face and said, "My God, the man is a fascist -- a fascist, I tell you." She warned that Bush's victory will mean one thing: more war. She expects Iran to be next. But surely Thomas, a female reporter who succeeded decades ago in a "man's world," had some empathy about Condi's appointment. As we suggested the notion, a look of horror came over Thomas' face. "I tell you, the women is a monster, a monster, a monster," she kept saying.......

The threat, not well understood outside the medical community, has been rendered with authoritative starkness since news broke of the flu vaccine shortage. Lives are at risk. Every year, we are told, influenza kills multitudes of vulnerable people, and the death toll is often repeated: 36,000 die annually in the United States alone. The lethal efficiency of the flu has come as a surprise to many, it turns out, because almost no one is ever officially classified as dying of influenza. There is no public national accounting of who had influenza listed on their death certificate. But of the roughly...

Patron Saints of Desperate, Forgotten, Impossible or Lost Causes Saint Philomena Little is known of her life, and the information was have was received by private revelation from her. Martyred at about age 14 in the early days of the Church. In 1802 the remains of a young woman were found in the catacomb of Saint Priscilla on the Via Salaria. It was covered by stones, the symbols on which indicated that the body was a martyr named Saint Philomena. The bones were exhumed, cataloged, and effectively forgotten since there was so little known about the person. In 1805 Canon...