Modern Architecture

As you might expect from a geezer I'm not a real fan of modern architecture, particularly the modern architecture of the 1960's and 70's.  I do love Saarinen's Dulles Airport and St. Louis Arch. 

And this building in Reston, now vacant, works pretty well for me.  Not great, but okay.

What I'd Like to Know: Age Distribution of Small Farms

From Farm Policy, this quote got me wondering:

The FT article concluded by stating that, “Tom Sell, a farm industry lobbyist in Washington, says US farmers receive relatively less support than their peers in other countries. He adds that removing financial aid will hurt smaller, family farms and accelerate the move to industrialised [sic], large-scale farming.

This follows a discussion of how the biggest farms produce most of the crops.

But what I'd like to know, is how the age distribution of farmers relates to the size distribution of farms.  It's probably available in some ERS study, but I'm lazy today, having just returned from working in the garden for the first time.  Why would I like to know this?

My suspicion is there's two types of old farmers, those with children who are going to go into farming (like John Phipps) and those who aren't (like my dad).  The first category and the young farmers (not many of those) are forward-looking, wanting to expand, buying up land when they have the chance, looking at the future, etc. etc.  The second category is probably conservative, without the drive or incentive to take a lot of chances in order to expand.  My bet is there's a big difference in the size/intensity of the farming operations of the first category and the second. If my stereotypes have some truth to them, we might well be overestimating the importance of a safety net for the smaller farms. I'd also hazard the guess that the first category is more indebted than the second, so the second can coast to retirement by mortgaging or selling land.

I may well be wrong; it's always dangerous to traffic in stereotypes and examples which readily come to mind, but then life is dangerous.

Don't Grow Old: Nature Conservancy and Climate Change Denial

I was amused to find two age-related posts in my Grist feed: one reports that the Nature Conservancy's members are old and gray, which causes concern; the other reports that climate change deniers are old and gray, which causes pleasure.

The mantra of my household is: don't grow old.

GHWBush Shows Age

No, George W. Bush's dad isn't greying much, particularly when you realize he was born in 1924, but he is in a wheelchair according to this picture of him and son Jeb with Obama this weekend. 

Good News for Obama

Stolen from Joshua Tucker at Monkey Cage, although reworded: While his young voters from 2008 may lose some enthusiasm as 2012 approaches, partly because they've graduated into a terrible job market, McCain's old voters from 2008 will also be losing enthusiasm for the Republican candidate, partly because they're dying off.

The Decline of Standards

How do scholars expect to get respect when they don't dress the part:

Beyond the conference, as some commenters note, we almost never teach in suits.  The men in my department tend to wear long-sleeved shirts and ties when they teach, but most of the men professors in other departments wear jeans or khaki pants with a fleecy vest and hiking boots.  (That’s the preferred look around here, anyway, but it’s probably more casual on average than other parts of the country might be.)

In my day the professors wore suits, when they didn't wear corduroy sports coats with the leather elbow patches.  Things have gone to the dogs.

Signs of Age

It's hard to tell when you're getting old, at least until you find yourself creaking when you get out of bed. I think I've found another sign of age, problems in parking.  These days when I make a right or left turn to pull into a parking place I find I'm not doing it fast enough/sharp enough, meaning that the car ends up at least slightly catty-corner in the parking space.  I can't wait for cars which are smart enough to handle parking.

All Us Geezers Aren't Selfish

Matt Yglesias posts on the offer of Japanese geezers to work at the Fukushima plant struck by the tsunami.

Makes sense to me, though I'm not ready to volunteer quite yet.  Check with me when I'm wheelchair bound.

How Old Am I? II

When skimming an entertainment column in the NY Times, I saw Peter Townshend was doing a memoir.  I said to myself, I didn't know Princess Margaret's true love was still around.

I gather The Who are some new rock band? 

Am I Playing With House Money?

George Will and I don't normally see eye-to-eye, but his post on reaching 70, a tad after I did, is something I can mostly agree with.

He cites the end of racial segregation, the emancipation of women, the end of the Cold War, the advance of medicine, as major milestones he's seen.  Doesn't mention gay rights or the emancipation of the mind, AKA the Internet, or the liberation of the aged and their  by extending Social Security and creating Medicare.  But that's nitpicking, which I'm good at. 

Ethical Geezers--Are We a Minority?

Lots of stuff in the blogosphere on Rep Ryan's proposals.  One thing he does is to exempt people over 55 from the effects of his change on Medicare.  That may be wise politically, but it's not right.  I prefer the approach in the original Ryan-Rivlin plan, where geezers would choose between the current plan and the new plan (supported premiums/vouchers). Best would be a plan which is phased in and which applies to everyone.  No special breaks for geezers, even though we do vote.

How Old Am I?

Old enough to remember when some college basketball teams would choose between the NCAA and NIT tournaments.

Symptoms of Growing Old

When you and your wife go from sharing a pitcher of beer, to drinking a beer each and splitting a third, to skipping the third.

When you go from drinking a pot of coffee of leaded  to a partial pot, to a partial pot that's half decaf, half the good stuff.

When you go from Starbucks vente bold to Starbucks half and half.

Obama Defends Government, Not Bureaucrats

Obama spoke at the University of Michigan, asking for civility and defending the necessary role of government.  That's all fine, just as motherhood and apple pie are fine (though rhubarb pie is better), and honoring "Older Americans" as you all are supposed to do this month is fine.

But when is someone going to speak out in praise of the poor "faceless bureaucrat"? You can't have government without faceless bureaucrats.

[Updated--this is Public Service Recognition week.  Though how one recognizes the faceless I'm not sure.]

Too Late Wise

Our temperatures are in the low 70's, Monday's snow has melted, the garden calls. So I spent some time at our plot in the community garden, working on replacing two of the beds. That is, replacing the sides of the bed. Reston Association runs the garden and requires it to be organic. 30 years ago or so I was the first or second gardener to set up a raised bed. At that time treated lumber was fine for use in making beds, but over the years RA has changed the rules so new treated lumber is a no-no. So far they've grandfathered in the wood in the existing beds.

The site of the garden is on the right of way of a set of pipelines which run through Reston. A few years back the pipeline company ran their "pig" through the pipe and found some weak spots. So they had to dig down to the pipeline and fix them. Naturally one of the weak spots was below our plot, so we lost most of the good dirt we'd built over the years and had our beds deconstructed. After the repairs were finished, we rebuilt the beds, but somehow after doing the first 4 beds we ended up short of wood for the last 2. So, being too cheap to buy untreated 2"x10" lumber which would rot, I bought some man-made "wood" trim material and used it for a couple years. But it's not satisfactory, so this year I'm planning to replace it.

That was my goal today. So some digging of old sides, measuring new boards, (hand) sawing of new material, etc. ensued. Long ago, back on the farm, doing outdoor work the first days of spring I likely would have raised blisters on the sides of my thumbs. But today, not so. I'm home with hands which tingle a bit, but no blisters. Was it the wisdom gained by age that saved my thumbs? No, fraid not. Because I've lost whatever endurance I once may have had, my get-up-and-go left before my blisters developed.

Going Gray

Both Post and Times have articles on Obama's graying hair. See MSNBC .

They say stress leads to gray. By that measure my life must not have been stressful, as I'm not much grayer than Obama. Course, he has more hair left than I do.

Geezers Don't Give a ....

One sentence extracted from a quote in a long post on conformity by Robin Hanson, which I very quickly skimmed:

The association with age confirms other research suggesting that older people are less susceptible to social pressure.

I think it's true, for me, as I grow more and more conscious of my waning days, I sometimes feel freer to say "what the hell" and venture where I wouldn't have gone before ("venture" that is, in a very safe and intellectual, not physical, way).

On Generations

Very interesting article on generations, by Siva Vaidhyanathan,says the idea of a tech-savvy generation, and even the concept of a "generation", is a myth. (That overstates things, but he's contrarian.) It's refreshing to a codger who just barely mustered the courage finally to buy a cellphone.

(I particularly liked the quote from the woman who talked about learning programming with punch cards--ah, those were the days.)

The Best Line I Read Today

"“It seems like age and experience do have a role,” Mr. Nagel said in an interview.

From Floyd Norris in the NYTimes reporting a study of whether experienced fund managers did better or worse during the tech bubble.

We Really Must Get Organized

That's what I say to my wife, almost every day. And she quotes Tonto back at me: "what's this 'we'"?

But now, via John Phipps, comes this site, where I can spend my time instead of really organizing myself. As in answering "yes" to most of the 21 questions to test whether I'm chronically disorganized. Growing old has one advantage, it gives one an alibi for one's forgetfulness and disorganization.