Anyone who's a fan of award ceremonies, particularly the red carpet segments, is treated regularly to parades - not just of celebrity but of cosmetic science. Probably at no time in history have so many people who've availed themselves of so much plastic surgery been so available for public examination. Face lifts, eye jobs, nose jobs, neck jobs, breast and buttock augmentations, filler, Botox, collagen injections, laser peels: it's all on ample display. On display too, are the relative extremes of the cosmetic continuum, from Joan Rivers at one end (the question isn't what she's had done but what she hasn't} to Meryl Streep at the other (if she's had any work done it's impossible to tell). The common motive for most of the 'work' done by and to celebrities is clear: to defeat age. And the impulse isn't restricted to Tinseltown. Today, non-celebrity Zoomers are turning to the same procedures in record numbers too. Show less «

[on aging] Clinging to the same old way of keeping score in life is like treading water because it's the only stroke you know. In the end, it's a mug's game, about as successful as a sixty-year-old trying to dress like a sixteen-year-old. More than any stage of life, more even than infancy or adolescence, old age is a universe unto itself. 'Old age is no place for sissies', Bette Davis once said. But one thing we can do to make our stay more pleasant is to adopt a value system that's more forgiving of the new species we've become. Show less «