Last weekend an old friend of my age
\nplunked his pill jar down on the brunch table
\nand proclaimed, astutely, that without
\nmedical science he wouldn\u2019t be there
\nto enjoy the free-range egg omelet
\nand\u00a0crisped smoked bacon I served him.<\/p>\n
Last night, thanks to Netflix, I took in\u00a0two
\nnoirs which I would never have\u00a0been able, let
\nalone be allowed to see in the ringworm-ridden
\nmovie houses of my boyhood. Planes, then,
\nhad propellers. They flew\u00a0just above the clouds.
\nGirls got\u00a0pregnant. Boys fought with their fathers.<\/p>\n
None of this makes any difference now \u2013\u00a0neither
\nlast night nor this morning.\u00a0No one uses\u00a0cash or
\nthinks of change for phones. Things that mattered
\nthen stayed off-stage.\u00a0I need to remember to dim
\n<\/i>the digital clock and make sure I haven\u2019t
\n<\/i>inadvertently set it for some wrong\u00a0hour<\/i>.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Nunc saepe scribo de senectute – these days I often write about aging. \u00a0Here the topic is not so much senility as how similar memories are to distractions, and vice-versa.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last weekend an old friend of my age plunked his pill jar down on the brunch table and proclaimed, astutely, that without medical science he wouldn\u2019t be there to enjoy the free-range egg omelet and\u00a0crisped smoked bacon I served him. Last night, thanks to Netflix, I took in\u00a0two noirs which I would never have\u00a0been able, … <\/p>\n