From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 2026-05-03 18:20:28 +0000, The Horny Goat said:

On Thu, 23 Apr 2026 10:18:17 +1200, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
wrote:

"Elderly" is commonly used to descibe people over the age of 60 or 65,
basically retirement / pension age. Although it is rather a vague
definition and when people themselves reach that age, it tends to move
even higher - some people in their early 70s, especially if still
healthy and mentally aware, define "elderly" as being over 80 or 95.

Having just recently joined that group I know I routinely see people
on my dog walks who are both my age and in far worse shape than me.

I'm certainly no "Ah-nold" but try to avoid the more egregious health
errors.

By coincidence, this article was in today's junk email from The New
Zealand Herald newspaper (which often means it will also be in the
printed newspaper in the next couple of days). It pretty much proves
that the definition moves depending on the age of the person you ask ...


Old age in New Zealand: What age Kiwis say it really begins
===========================================================
A recent survey of 2000 people in Britain found Generation Z believes
old age begins at 53.

That means celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vergara, Pharrell
Williams, Ben Affleck and Liam Gallagher would all be classed as
elderly by the survey respondents aged 14-29.

The research, commissioned by vitamin and supplement company
Healthspan, showed that the older respondents got, the higher their
pick for the beginning of old age - millennials said it was 63, Gen X
said 70 and baby boomers said 75.

In a very unscientific Herald poll, we discovered that New Zealand
respondents are more generous with their assessment of old age, and
the results across the generations were a lot closer.

The average response suggests people see old age as beginning at 70.
However, views vary by generation: Gen Z puts it at 67, millennials
at 65 and Gen X at 69. Boomers are the outliers - they believe old
age doesn't start until 80.

When do you think old age begins? Read on to see the reasoning behind
our respondents' choices and cast your vote in our poll.


Gen Z
-----
Average age respondents said old age begins: 67

67-year-old celebrities: Madonna, Kate Bush, Tim Burton, Angela
Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Bacon, Emma Thompson, Sade, Matthew
Modine, Michelle Pfeiffer, Viggo Mortensen, Jennifer Saunders, Flava
Flav

- I'm 24. I believe old age begins around 70-80 when the person
starts looking and feeling old - when they're fully grey and don't
have the physical abilities they once had, they've been retired
for a while and may be in a retirement home or will be in one
after a few years. Ultimately, I believe "old age" is when someone
looks like a classic old person, grey, wrinkly, maybe a bit hunched
over and maybe a little p***ed off with the world lol.

- I'm 21 and I'd probably say old age begins around 75 as my grandad
is 72 and just feels like a mate. He comes to the rugby, concerts,
the pub all with me and my friends and fits in as smooth as ever.
He still works and has even just gone to Europe for a "backpacking
trip" so in my eyes that's still young - or he acts it anyway.

- I'm 25 and I think old age starts in your 60s. My parents are in
their 50s and yes they're not young but they're still working and
I don't consider them to be "old people". I'd say once you hit 60
you're "old" because that's the decade people start to retire in.
I think the younger you are, the younger your threshold of "old" is.
If you asked me when I was a teen, I'd have said "old people" are in
their late 40s. But now that I'm older (and less afraid of ageing
and thinking that my life is over when I'm no longer young)
I realise my definition of old has stretched out. I still think of
myself as young, but I know younger people might think of me as old.
It's all relative.

- I'm 26. I personally wouldn't attach a specific number to it,
because a lot of "young" people act old and a lot of "old" people
can act quite young. For example, Cher is 79 and remains an
incredible performer - but another famous 79-year-old is, in my
view, too old to be the US President. I'd say what sort of
activities you do, how social you are, and your own perception of
your energy levels, are better indicators.

- The concept of adulthood is hanging over me like a dark cloud as I
approach my 24th birthday (in October). I've never felt my age
before. However, it's starting to hit me as I get closer to the
quarter-century mark and reflect on how many years into my 20s I am.

- I think there's a difference between what's defined as "old" and
what's defined as "old age". I consider old age to start in your 70s.
My parents are both in their 60s but are able-bodied and working.
They're not yet as frail or grey as I would expect someone of old age
to be. To summarise, I think old age starts when your hair is
completely grey (or you have none), your skin is wrinkled and droopy,
and throw a hunchback in there for good luck.


Millennials (Gen Y)
-------------------
Average age respondents said old age begins: 65

65-year-old celebrities: Temuera Morrison, Stanley Tucci, Antonio
Banderas, Hugh Grant, Bradley Walsh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julianne
Moore

- I'm 37. Old age begins at 60-ish. Or at least when friends of yours
from high school are becoming grandparents.

- I'm 40, a millennial. Old age begins in your late 30s but you're not
ready to accept it until you're 40-plus. In your mid-to-late 30s,
signs of decrepitude will creep in. Dependency on subtitles becomes
a thing, and the need to turn down the radio when reversing or
parking the car is a must. Around about now, youths will use words
you no longer understand or can put into context. However, you may
still be able to deal with the odd wild night out in your late 30s.
By 40, you officially hate nights out and anything that starts
after 7pm. Absolute confirmation that you've hit old age happens
when you simultaneously start to take health insurance seriously -
along with dental work - and a bag of rocket (salad) tastes so good,
you actually start a conversation about it with your husband.

- I'm 35. I reckon it starts at 70. By that point; you're either well
into retirement or you're one of those hard-working gems who is as
fit as a fiddle and defying the norms.

- I am 35 and I believe the generational divide is another form of
tribalism designed to keep humans at odds, thus allowing the status
quo to continue. But gun to my head - I'm a millennial. Old age
begins at 65 when you qualify for the pension. As the pension age
goes up so does the old age qualified number. But there is no such
thing as old age, I interviewed a 103-year-old last month and he
told me he still feels 19 but is just in an aged body. As long as
your mind is sharp and there's breath coming into your lungs, who
cares if you're old or not. But if you asked me when I was 18,
I would have said old age started at 30.


Gen X
-----
Average age respondents said old age begins: 69

69-year-old celebrities: Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Richard E Grant,
Daniel Day Lewis, Kim Cattrall, Linda Hamilton

- I'm over 55. And old age begins at 80+. The older I get, the further
out "old" feels!

- I'm 59, so I just qualify as Gen X. I think the official definition
of old age is when you pick up your pension, which is 65 in
New Zealand, but these days it's really more like 70. My chosen
number has definitely risen as I've got older. I remember many years
ago my then-67-year-old mum being furious about a Herald story which
described a 64-year-old as "elderly". In my 30s, I couldn't see her
point - now I do.

- Old age starts at 60. It's good to get old, get out of the rat race.
By setting 60, you can ease into the best time of life, rather than
arriving at it in a crash.

- Old is whatever is 15 years older than me, even if I'm 95.

- I'm 47. I think old age starts when you refer to having "had a fall"
rather than falling over...

- I'm 55 - [Gen] X - and when I look at my friends it currently feels
like old age starts around 70. Most of us will phase out work slowly,
rather than straight up retire on our 65th birthday like our parents
did. My friends hitting 60 now are going to festivals, gigs and pole
dance classes, so 60 no longer seems old.


Baby boomers
------------
Average age respondents said old age begins: 80

80-year-old celebrities: Dolly Parton, Priscilla Presley, Goldie
Hawn, Steve Martin, Helen Mirren, Joanna Lumley, Debbie Harry,
John Lithgow, Henry Winkler

- I am a baby boomer - born before they defined generations with
soulless letters. Some young person must have decided that. I still
don't know what I want to do when I grow up. And I am still a
larrikin at heart because I often stay out until after nine. And
drink, and I love loud music. I think for me old age started at 67
because, as I recall, that was when some things stopped working,
others needed replacing and yet others needed CRC and a kick-start.
Old people say they wouldn't have changed a thing - b*****ks!
I would have done everything differently because as I have lived,
I have learned. Age is an attitude I think. A moveable feast on any
given day. Go me! Still working, still running, still gyming. And
probably will continue to do so until I "get old".

- I'm what they call a Generation Jones (like Obama). Refuse to be a
boomer and my lifestyle is inherently not boomer. Old age was 50
when I was growing up in the 60s... pipe, slippers and knitting
cardies. Now I reckon 85. I need at least another 20 years of
middle age.

- I'm a tail-end boomer (68). I'd say "old age" starts at maybe 80,
maybe even mid-80s, judging by the people I know who are still
vigorous and active into their late 80s, even 90s, and observing
parents as they aged. I reckon old age is not a gentle decline,
but often quite sudden, usually prompted by a health event that
can fell someone pretty quickly - a bad hip or knee or back so you
can't walk or drive, a heart event that means you're banned from
driving or exercise, arthritis, a cancer, onset of deafness or
fading eyesight, or, worst of all, dementia. All the planning,
eating and exercising right can't prevent that stuff and I've seen
people go from vigorous to elderly and socially isolated in a
matter of months or a year when that happens.

- I feel that maybe your 90s is when old age begins, or when dementia
takes over. I am 67 and I do not consider myself old.



<https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/old-age-in-new-zealand-what-age-kiwis-say-it-really-begins/premium/Y7SAI32MNZADHHJLCWB2GITISY/>


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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

Verily, in article <10tk3u3$2n53v$1@dont-email.me>, did
YourName@YourISP.com deliver unto us this message:

By coincidence, this article was in today's junk email from The New
Zealand Herald newspaper (which often means it will also be in the
printed newspaper in the next couple of days). It pretty much proves
that the definition moves depending on the age of the person you ask ...

Old age in New Zealand: What age Kiwis say it really begins
===========================================================
A recent survey of 2000 people in Britain found Generation Z believes
old age begins at 53.

We're supposed to laugh at this, but is it crazy? Really?

I'm 57, just a few years past that point. I have gray hair and wrinkles.
I'm not as physically strong as I used to be. I am, at the very least, a suspiciously long way from "young."

The US Census Bureau, looking at the whole picture, categorizes "old"
starting at age 61.

That means celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vergara, Pharrell
Williams, Ben Affleck and Liam Gallagher would all be classed as
elderly by the survey respondents aged 14-29.

I don't know who Pharrell Williams is, but the others are no spring
chickens. Ben Affleck was an adult thirty years ago, for instance. He's
no kid.

The research, commissioned by vitamin and supplement company
Healthspan, showed that the older respondents got, the higher their
pick for the beginning of old age - millennials said it was 63, Gen X
said 70 and baby boomers said 75.

One of the problems with this is that nobody wants the category to
include themselves, so they keep bumping up the threshold in their own
minds. They don't identify as old. :-\

Another problem is that modern drag-it-out medicine has added a new
stage of life *after* traditional old age. We don't want to call that something like "decrepitude," so we call that old age and have no term
left for those who have aged, slowed, and weakened but are still alive
without help.

In a very unscientific Herald poll, we discovered that New Zealand
respondents are more generous with their assessment of old age, and
the results across the generations were a lot closer.

The average response suggests people see old age as beginning at 70.
However, views vary by generation: Gen Z puts it at 67, millennials
at 65 and Gen X at 69. Boomers are the outliers - they believe old
age doesn't start until 80.

I'll go with the Census Bureau's definition. I was born to be a crabby
old woman, and I may as well get started.

When do you think old age begins? Read on to see the reasoning behind
our respondents' choices and cast your vote in our poll.

[snip of the rest]
--
The True Melissa - Canal Winchester - Ohio
United States of America - North America - Earth
Solar System - Milky Way - Local Group
Virgo Cluster - Laniakea Supercluster - Cosmos
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know who Pharrell Williams is, . . .

He wrote the song "Happy" for the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2. The song
won all sorts of awards and was played so frequently for several years
that for a time one could not get away from it. This did not make me happy.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Fri, 8 May 2026 13:14:37 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

The True Melissa <thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know who Pharrell Williams is, . . .

He wrote the song "Happy" for the soundtrack of Despicable Me 2. The song
won all sorts of awards and was played so frequently for several years
that for a time one could not get away from it. This did not make me happy.

Then you should spend some time listening to this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Tacky (Official 4K Video)
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 5/4/26 12:40 PM, Rhino wrote:

On 2026-05-04 3:05 p.m., suzeeq wrote:

On 5/4/2026 9:22 AM, The True Melissa wrote:

Verily, in article <10tagno$3n1d8$4@dont-email.me>, did
no_offline_contact@example.com deliver unto us this message:

On 2026-05-04 8:38 a.m., The True Melissa wrote:

Verily, in article <vb4fvkl5kl0b0djvv3bgvg6r522r6ua1jc@4ax.com>, did >>>>> lcraver@home.ca deliver unto us this message:

In my mind, "old" is less old than "elderly." An "elderly" person is one >>>>> whose capabilities have noticeably slipped.

Have you met many elderly 56 year olds?

No, but there are probably some.

I was shocked at my 40th HS reunion. There were a few attendees there that looked at least 10 years older than the rest of us. Because of infirmities I guess.

It was seeing a 56 year old described as elderly in that news that set >>>> me off a bit. It's like the writer was 8 and thought anyone over 15 was >>>> "old" and anyone over 30 was "elderly".

That would probably be my first thought. This particular person may
qualify as aged.

Then again, maybe the writer had seen the victim in a picture and
thought she looked unusually decrepit for someone that age, perhaps as a >>>> result of hard living or a chronic medical condition. That seems
possible too.

I remember being 15 or so and thinking that 50 was really old, like
break-a-hip old. I had grandparents in my life, so I have no idea why I
thought that.

I think our parents or grandparents seemed older at 50 than we did when we got there.

People are living longer. Average life spans continue to go up in most countries as a result of more advanced (prescription) drugs and medical techniques. It seems as if we're in decent health longer than our grandparents and great-grandparents which makes us look relatively youthful to an older age. Our ancestors might have looked like they're on the verge of being bedridden at 70 while we may just have a few wrinkles....

I was really struck by a statistic I read a few years back: in the late 1700s, as industrialization was just getting going, the average German died in his THIRTIES after a "lifetime" of work that must have been primarily agricultural, although of course there must have been merchants, clergy, military people and other professions as well. But the average Heinrich would have been a farmer of some kind.

Those are misleading statistics because they are counting
average lifetimes from birth. At earlier times there were
high birth rates and high infant death rates. Count life
expectancy from year one, year 5, year 20, year 30, year
40 or 50 life expectancy comes closer to modern rates.

A man at 30 today does not have all that much longer a
life expectancy than a 30 year old centuries ago.











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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 4 May 2026 12:15:52 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

Then again, maybe the writer had seen the victim in a picture and
thought she looked unusually decrepit for someone that age, perhaps as a >result of hard living or a chronic medical condition. That seems
possible too.

Possible but unlikely. Besides - there are chronic conditions (for
instance diabetes) and there are REALLY chronic conditions (like the
ones that put you into wheelchairs)
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 4 May 2026 12:22:58 -0400, The True Melissa
<thetruemelissa@gmail.com> wrote:

It was seeing a 56 year old described as elderly in that news that set
me off a bit. It's like the writer was 8 and thought anyone over 15 was
"old" and anyone over 30 was "elderly".

That would probably be my first thought. This particular person may
qualify as aged.

Well we ALL have an age - and if my 4 year old granddaughter makes it
to my father's age when he left us she'll have reached the 22nd
century.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 4 May 2026 13:26:59 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

I grew up across the street from a seniors home so got lots of
opportunities to see old people when they came out in nice weather. I >couldn't imagine being in that age group at the time but now I'm getting >pretty close, although in better condition than some of them were. ;-)

Yep - our town (3 municipalities, total population 110000) was for a
brief time at the start of COVID the highest COVID-positive in Canada
though we're noted for having 4 of the 27 seniors care homes in
British Columbia (in per capita terms one of the highest levels in the
country) and in the early stages of the pandemic they didn't yet know
that care home staff would pass the virus to their charges. Which was
critical because a lot of the care home staff were new immigrants who
were working in 2 or 3 of the homes to make extra $$$. And while THEY
were Covid positive (and able to transmit it) they were in good enough
health not to be brought low by it.

There were a lot of things about the pandemic in March/April 2020 that
we didn't know that were well known 6 months later.
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 4 May 2026 15:40:24 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

I was really struck by a statistic I read a few years back: in the late >1700s, as industrialization was just getting going, the average German
died in his THIRTIES after a "lifetime" of work that must have been >primarily agricultural, although of course there must have been
merchants, clergy, military people and other professions as well. But
the average Heinrich would have been a farmer of some kind.

65 as the 'retirement age' was first set by Bismarck in Germany and at
that time the average male worker lived to 69-70 e.g. 4-5 years on
pension. At that time virtually nobody survived 25-30 years past 65
which was what Bismarck counted on to make his system work
financially. This was adopted by other countries and of course it was
instant career death for any politician that dared raise the age
higher.

The only close relative of mine who DIDN'T make it to 75 was my
paternal grandfather who smoked the equivalent of 2 packs a day of
unfiltered home rolled cigarettes and of course my mother who was run
over by a motor home at age 75 (and everyone expected her to surpass
her mother who made it to 91) so her health wasn't really a factor.

So I am hopeful for quite a while yet...
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From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 5/13/2026 10:25 AM, The Horny Goat wrote:

On Mon, 4 May 2026 15:40:24 -0400, Rhino
<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

I was really struck by a statistic I read a few years back: in the late
1700s, as industrialization was just getting going, the average German
died in his THIRTIES after a "lifetime" of work that must have been
primarily agricultural, although of course there must have been
merchants, clergy, military people and other professions as well. But
the average Heinrich would have been a farmer of some kind.

65 as the 'retirement age' was first set by Bismarck in Germany and at
that time the average male worker lived to 69-70 e.g. 4-5 years on
pension. At that time virtually nobody survived 25-30 years past 65
which was what Bismarck counted on to make his system work
financially. This was adopted by other countries and of course it was
instant career death for any politician that dared raise the age
higher.

The only close relative of mine who DIDN'T make it to 75 was my
paternal grandfather who smoked the equivalent of 2 packs a day of
unfiltered home rolled cigarettes

Actually, they were probably not as big a health problem as commercially
made cigarettes. Which have a lot more stuff in them than tobacco.

and of course my mother who was run

over by a motor home at age 75 (and everyone expected her to surpass
her mother who made it to 91) so her health wasn't really a factor.

So I am hopeful for quite a while yet...

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