Word: methuselah
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...more precisely, they adored Harrison and Colbert, who, at 77 and 81, may be the world's most accomplished practitioners of the all-but-lost art of amusing repartee and witty exit lines. Their last Broadway romp was The $ Kingfisher in 1978. "I go back to the age of Methuselah!" says Harrison, with what sounds like genuine pride. "When I first went to London to work in the '20s, I loved watching the great high-comedy actors of the period, like Gerald du Maurier. To my mind, they were the epitome of what acting is about...
...this with a flourish, though without posting any records. Fragile Sprinter Evelyn Ashford's gold-medal ambitions declined from three to two. Hurdlers Edwin Moses and Greg Foster rejoiced. Mary Decker found out she could run only as far as the law would allow. And a wound-up Methuselah named Ed Burke took a 16-lb. ball by the chain, swung it and flung it, and spun something wonderful...
...Georgakas has come along with an unusual line on our national madness. Georgakas has recently released The Methuselah Factors, a painstaking study that he modestly suggests unlocks "the secrets of the world's longest lived peoples." The first half of Georgakas' study examines, often laboriously, the claims and traits of those peoples reputed to be the world's longest-living cultures; the second half details his conclusions--and his tips on how you, too, can try to live beyond 100--with and without yogurt...
What makes The Methuselah Factor refreshing is that Georgakas has merged those two trends of the 1970's, concern for the future of humankind and aggressive me-ism, the Ishmael and Queequeg of this whale of a book. At times the book reeks of excess attention to individual concerns. Many of Georgakas' 'prolongevous' lessons would require people to pay such attention to lengthening their own lives that they could have little time or energy for passionate activism. He also largely dispels notions of national or racial bases for longevity, convincingly arguing that long-living communities can boast of unusual proportions...
...Methuselah Factors is more than a handbook for living well into the 21st century. Had Georgakas confined his book to a 'how-to' guide for beating old age, he'd have succumbed to the same shortsightedness, triviality and impossible hypotheses that make calorie counters, exercise manuals and sex menus only marginally worthwhile. As he prescribes proper habits for today's would-be centenarians, Georgakas vigorously attacks America's carcinogenic and achievement-oriented society. That society's herky-jerk lifestyle, Georgakas argues, prevents people from attaining the relaxed routines that characterize his beloved oldsters...