Word: comforts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Skirt lengths, like their wearers, will continue to come in all altitudes. Neither do the new, higher-hemmed styles resemble the thigh-flashers of the hip-hugging mini revolution. Perhaps reacting to Paris' long, sizzling summer, the designers of the new short look have genu- flected toward comfort, stressing coolness, looseness, flounce...
...Cornflakes. Tests on mice show that a simple dietary change -feeding them only two days out of every three-can postpone all of the usual senile changes, from coat graying to tumors and loss of reproductive power. The key to aging rates in humans is far more complicated, but Comfort thinks a battery of tests can be devised to identify people who are aging unusually fast or slowly and to find out why. "If eating cornflakes or using toothpaste makes us age fast," he says, "we would now have no way of knowing this." What would it cost to develop...
...meantime, Comfort suggests that those over 65 stay active and reject leisure ("Leisure is a con") and retirement ("Two weeks is about the ideal length of time to retire"). At times, Comfort outrambles Polonius: "Be a little cautious of reliance on hobbies." "Late in life it's a good idea to aim at a trouble-free hair style." The telephone "is the most important single technological resource of later life...
...many of his points challenge the conventional wisdom. Comfort believes that loneliness among the elderly is vastly exaggerated: "Most old people who say they are lonely are in fact ill-some psychologically, others physically. Illness saps mobility and loosens the grip on life and may make us drop contacts and friendships. And this is a vicious circle." Only 20% of Americans over 65 live alone, and Comfort doubts that the elderly are any more lonely than the middleaged. All the elderly really need, says Comfort, is a better shake from society-and more bloody-mindedness...
...Every human being loses about 100,000 brain cells a day. Though many researchers consider this a form of deterioration, Comfort calls it "some programmed clear-out process" of the brain...