The F Word

Yep. FORTY. Today. Thanks to everyone who said Happy Birthday.

I'm not sure how well I'm taking the whole 40 thing. I really have been thinking about death way too much lately. I've never been much of an existentialist, but the 40 thing has hit me much harder than I thought it would.

As an antidote, I searched for other people who turn 40 this year, and tried to figure out if them being around my age made me feel good or bad. (This is just a list of names that made me feel SOMETHING about how old they are or how my impression of them makes me feel. It's in order of birthdate.)


Cuba Gooding Jr. (Doesn't make me feel too bad, he seems young and filled with energy)
LL Cool J, (Makes me feel pretty old)
Mary Lou Retton (Makes me feel ANCIENT)
Sarah McLachlan (Alright, maybe not that ancient)
Lisa Marie Presley (Back to Ancient)
Gary Coleman (Downright decrepit)
Molly Ringwald (Was she 12 when she was in Breakfast Club?)
Jeri Ryan (Oooh..At least HOT is still possible)
Lisa Loeb (How old is Dweezil Zappa?)
Mark McGrath (ugh)
Kenny Chesney (Oh good lord)
Céline Dion (This one made me put a deposit on a cemetery plot)
Sebastian Bach (This one made me pay it off because I'll need it tomorrow)
Patricia Arquette (Wow, didn't know she did True Romance as an infant.)
Anthony Michael Hall (See Molly Ringwald)
Ashley Judd (Okay, I honestly thought she was older, so this was a bit encouraging)
Timothy McVeigh (Outlived one on the list anyway)
Traci Lords (Maybe I should dig that cemetery plot this weekend)
Tony Hawk (Hey, maybe this 40 thing will hit someone else harder than me!)
Jorja Fox (Not sure about this one)
Barry Sanders (Good lord I'm old)
Jim Norton (And unsuccessful)
Gillian Anderson (This one shocked me. She must have been 20 when X-files started)
Eric Bana (I'm the same age as the Hulk. Wow)
Debra Messing (I thought she was older)
Rachael Ray (I REALLY thought she was older)
Mike Piazza (Finally, an active player. Youth may be possible yet)
Will Smith (Parents just don't understand that getting old only beats the alternative)
James Caviezel (I'm older than Jesus)
Hugh Jackman (And Wolverine!)
Vanilla Ice (Bury me now)
Parker Posey (Love her, but still thought she was older)
Sammy Sosa (maybe I should try HGH)
Owen Wilson (Okay, maybe someone is taking the 40 thing harder than me)
Lucy Liu (It's so hard telling the age of people with different heritage)
Margaret Cho (Except when it's Margaret Cho and you just feel OLD)

I've always insisted that the year I was born was perhaps the worst in the history of America, and not just because I was born in it. Here's a list of Bad things that happened in 1968.

Tet Offensive
My Lai Massacre
This picture was taken
Nixon Elected
RFK Assasinated
MLK Assasinated
Black Panther Salute at Mexico City Olympics
Charlie Chaplin died
John Steinbeck Died
Helen Keller Died
Chicago 8/7
France gets the bomb
Saddam Hussein comes to power
Congress repeals the gold standard

Just to offset, some good things obviously happened. But this is all I could come up with:

Apollo 8 Orbits the moon
Hypertext debuts
The White Album debuts
Civil Rights Act of 1968 is signed