Young at Heart (But Otherwise Old)

This Class Is Boring. . . and So Short!
A 100-year-old Jewish lady, Bel Kaufman, teaches a course in Jewish humor at Hunter College. She has the credentials: Her grandfather was the great Yiddish humorist Sholem Aleichem. Her class analyzes staples of Jewish humor like this: The Frenchman says, “I am so thirsty; I must have wine!” The German says, “I am so thirsty; I must have beer!” The Jewish man says, “I am so thirsty; I must have diabetes!”

And we all know nothing enhances a joke like analyzing it.

We applaud this centenarian adjunct, and hope she gets tenure in a few years. Still, it’s not as impressive as the 98 year old Greco-Roman wrestling instructor. (There must be one.)

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer on Her Way Home from the Lady Gaga Concert

While Bel Kauffman takes pride in her age, her generational followers are not as enthusiastic. The newest trend in family dynamics: the “glam-ma.” Glam-mas are grandmothers like Blythe Danner and Goldie Hawn: Proud parents of parents who nonetheless are not quite ready for the retirement home. These GILFs encourage--if not require--their grandkids to call them by their first names or by enigmatic nicknames like Woof or Lalo or , who knows, Wrinkles McGurk--anything but the dreaded appellation “Grandma.”

I Could Have Danced All Night If I Didn’t Have a Big Sales Pitch in the Morning

But when it comes to fending off the ravages of time, few can compete with the 30 (and up)-somethings of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and other cities across the country. Not willing to go gently into that curfew-mandated night, these folks are enjoying a new fad: the adult prom.

(DIGRESSION: Before “Anonymous” pedantically points it out, we hasten to add that we know the actual line is “Go not GENTLE into that good night, . . .” etc. That didn’t work grammatically. EOD)

Adult proms feature all the magic and joy of high-school proms with less of the acne. Alcohol, of course, is available, as is loud(er) music. But since many of the couples are in fact older married couples, there is no need for prom-goers to spend the evening nervously wondering whether they will “get lucky” at the end of the night. They know they won’t.

Solipsistography
"A Second Shot to Have the Best Night of Their Lives"
"At 100, Still a Teacher, and Quite a Character"
"Who Are You Calling Grandma?"