Good topic for a spinoff thread.
My own opinion is that there isn’t a good term for a more mature looking woman (Ms, Madam, Ma’am…all sound awkward IMO). I’m glad my job doesn’t require me to try to greet people whose names I don’t know.
So “Mrs” may have taken that role, just as “Miss” is often used in cases where the speaker has no idea if she is married.
Ms is the “generic” term. Marital status became obsolete in the 1970s and now it’s back? Women aren’t chattels. Even if somebody IS married, if they’ve kept their birth name, they aren’t Mrs either.
Spinoff thread
I have a lot of the aging issues already mentioned. When we were younger, we’d get to a party and look for the booze, interesting/hot people, and activities. Now our overwhelming and immediate concern is to find comfortable seating.
I once saw an episode of the MTM Show, where Mary was addressed as Ma’am by the pizza delivery guy. This triggered a lot of angst and soul-searching about her age and the length of her search for a long-term relationship, which (unless I’m confusing two episodes) provoked her to try dating Lou Grant.
The main thing for me is my stomach tolerance. Up until about a year ago I could eat any sort of spicy food. And I LOVE spicy food. Mexican spicy; Thai spicy; Schezuan spicy–you name it and I’m game. Never had an issue.
But boy howdy now it just TEARS me up inside. I have a prescription for Zantac and I do try to remember to take one if I know I’m begging for trouble later, but sometimes I forget.
And now its waking me up at night. Just last night, I woke up with a start with some sort of vile acid bubbling in the back of my throat. I swear it was like I had gargled with battery acid. I made my way to the fridge and downed a few gulps of Pepto. Thought about what I had for dinner. A Greek salad and pine nut hummus. Some savory items to be sure, but nothing, you know, spicy.
I’m not sure how to handle this. Envisioning the next 40 years of my life eating bland food is depressing as hell.
If you have a lot of leopard print vests and rhinestone bedazzlements in your wardrobe, you might be a woman of a certain age.
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Crows feet? Seersucker skin. One morning you wake up, and notice you have seersucker skin.
When we were younger, our conversations with friends were all about the “new, hip, joint”. Same subject now, but without the commas.
All that by 42? Jeez, you’ve been unlucky. I experienced the same things, but a bit later. Fiery chllli or curry got a bit problematic after 45, and coffee soon after 50 - I seed to drink it by the bucket, suddenly I couldn’t, and now I restrict myself to two or three a day and look for brands that don’t scour out my stomach. But on the whole I felt that I was doing fine until about 35. I have been lucky in not going bald early, or at all, in fact. A chrome dome really makes you feel old.
One odd thing: I have run into downwards “steps” in physical energy in the middle of each decade, hence 25, 35, 45, etc. Those have been the points at which I had less energy, got tired more easily, and other problems crept in (reading glasses and the first joint problems soon after 45). The funny thing is that lack of sleep was something that I could cope with better at age 40 than 20, and older people can have more endurance in extreme survival situations (lifeboat, etc.) than the young 'uns.
Some researchers think that 120 is about the limit for humans, and the weak link in the system is the brain. It shrinks with age. You might keep a body alive for 150 years, but it might well not even be sentient. On the other hand, we will probably have a boatload of centenarians, it won’t be a big issue any longer.
But, despite the fact that people are living longer on average, I see an awful lot who drop out, even in their fifties, and then more of them in their sixties and seventies. Cancer is becoming the major killer. It is also thought to be the reason why it would not be possible to achieve really long lifetimes, because a rejuvenation process would simply provoke the development of all kinds of cancers. And what is the point of living to the century if you are semi-blind, deaf, incontinent and unable to get around due to joint and balance problems?
There is of course the issue that, if the technology to rejuvenate the human body became available, it would be horrendously expensive and only available to the very wealthy. Which is in a way the situation in the world now, with existing medical care.
He wore a toupee for his Bond roles.
Being awakened by battery acid-throat is a special hell that cannot even be imagined if you’ve never experienced it.
I find, for me, it’s not so much *what *I eat, but how late in the evening I eat it.
mmm
They made him.
I ran a 5 minute mile in my early twenties. I’d be pushing it to make 7:30 at 53 (although it I trained for it specifically I think I could knock a minute off of that). There aren’t many 18 year olds who could run a 77 minute quarter. That’s a brutal distance; you should pay yourself on the back.
On forms it takes me forever to scroll down to my birth year. 
Knock something off the table and try to catch it midair, but get nothing but air.
The old reflexes just ain’t what they used to be.
I developed fibromyalgia at 20. Now in my early 40s it is very mild, so I kind of feel like Benjamin Button - no more aching joints before rain! No more forgetfulness and cloudy thinking due to fatigue! No more struggling to hold on to small objects without dropping them!
I’m glad to be in my forties instead of my 20s - I’m so much younger now than I was then, lol.
Turning 65 soon here so, the usual aches and pains. My thumbs are getting stiff and painful at times. Too bad, I will miss opening a bottle of water without looking constipated.
On the plus side, as I reached and surpassed the ‘woman of a certain age’ stage, I gained an amazing superpower. I am invisible in most public areas. I love being able to move about in crowds without being seen and people share their most private conversations right next to me.
