The internet has something for everyone, including the advanced-age contingent desperately trolling websites looking for a tidbit to suggest that they still matter.
That news came yesterday in the form of a global study of trees that reached a surprising conclusion. Big old trees suck up much more carbon than younger trees and continue to grow aggressively in their later years, overturning the depressing expectations about aging and decline that appear to remain true with just about every other living thing.
Somehow, elderly trees manage to stay relevant. They dominate the forest. Of course this cheerful news demanded a parody of what may be America’s best-known tree poem. With apologies and thanks to Joyce Kilmer
I’m thrilled to hear this new decree
That old age benefits a tree.
An elder tree, with vigor blessed
adds height and girth and all the rest
At rates that common sense confounds!
But old folks also put on pounds,
and widen out and suck up space.
Should old trees be less in your face?
The answer: an emphatic “No!”
These geezer trees – please let them grow!
And when an elder tree expands
wrap ancient trunk with heart and hands
and hug it tight! It’s adding mass
to kick those young trees’ woody ass.
What improves with age?
Trail Baboon 
Ah . . . um . . . . em . . . . well . . .
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What are you trying to say, Clyde?
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At 4 a.m. with one hour sleep that had only one meaning. Now I suppose it could have more than one. I meant I cannot think of a thing. Certainly not my typing skills. I am going to rest my hands, fingers shoulders and lurk today.
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I was just joking, Cylde. I think I know the meaning of those utterances.
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Good Cheese.
Never had anything older than 12 year old cheddar, but its superiority to mere whippersnapper cheddar keeps me looking….
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I love old cheeses. Denmark excels in them. The older, and stinkier, the better. You can’t buy them in this country, but I always bring a couple back with me. They require a fridge of their own once you’ve opened them, but oh my god, they’re good. Gammel Ole, yah you betcha!
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Have you ever had the German cheese that are made out of dust mite poop?
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I hope not!
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excellent though they may be, I never want to know the facts on that one!
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It is a delicacy. They put dust mites in quark and roll it in rye flour every day, and the mites eat the flour and poop and once the whole thing ages it is eaten. People who eat this cheese develop an immunity to dust allergies.
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Well, in that case, possibly I’ve had it, I have no allergies, to dust or anything else. Knock on wood.
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Renee, I thought you were making this up but I googled it and, sure enough, there is such a thing. Here’s a link: http://tips.cleaninghouselondon.co.uk/did-you-know-that/five-bizarre-types-of-cheese #4 is the cheese. #5 sounds just as gross.
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Truth is often stranger than fiction.
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Good morning. As and older person who hopes to become very old, I hope I will improve with age. I’m afraid there is no guarantee that I will improve with age. It has often been said “there is no fool like an old fool”.
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With just a little bit of TLC, old friendships improve with time.
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Like.
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brandy, whiskey, red wine, but then there is white wine which is my preferrence. you have to give it a little while to let it mature then you have a window of a time where it is in its prime then it better be dealt with quickly before it is worthless. maybe there is a better simile.
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As you get older, tim, you might think about switching to red wine.
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as in many things i find my tastes choose me not the other way around. i am just along for the ride. red wine is good, i love a tawny port and enjoy a glass of red but it doesnt call out to me. white on the other hand is something i enjoy right away. i like tasty beer. the article i was reading a while ago about the trappist monks with the 50-100 year plan to brew trappist ales like thos from belgium makes me think a slow long term vision is better than reacting to taste of the moment. my 20 something sons like 2 gingers that a minneapolis restraunteer parlayeed into a good business is taking irish whiskey and ginger beer (not ginger ale) in a bottle and selling it to every joint in the area and around the vountry. the minnesota state law says you cant have a resteraunt and sell whiskey int he same lifetime so he had to sell the resteraunts. what kind of stupid law is that. keiran is the guy and he did great restraunts but now sells whisket instead. old cognac, old whiskey, old wine are all good ideas but i wonder where they came up with all this 25 year old whiskey when there was no demand for it until 5 years ago. someone just happened to have a whole bunch of 23 year old stufff just sitting around?… my skeptisism gets more refined with age. thats for sure.
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I thought that once they were bottled, whiskey and brandy don’t change one bit.
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they leave it in casks to age and turn it every 6 months of so to keep from being staganant. it mellows and intensifies at the same time. elegant drunkeness
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But once it’s in the bottle, it doesn’t change.
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i had a friend who always had the ambition to build a boat made of portland cement. portland cement is very heavy and the idea of building a boat out of it is counterintuitive but thats what makes it interesting. part of the interesting part of the process is that portland cement strengthens when in contact with water so that a 10, 20 30 year old boat is stronger than a new one. i always like that.
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It seems I alway mention this, but curries always are better a couple of days after they are made. Teenagers are better with age. Terriers are, too, except by the time they mature, they are at the tend of their life span! The vet commented the other day that our terrier is finally settling down. She is 12 years old!
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I think this is true off most spiced foods- chili, pasta sauce & gingerbread come readily to mind. Tomorrow is sounding like it will be a good day to stay in and make all of that. Need to check the pantry and lay in supplies…
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Split pea soup, definitely better the second day. Today is a split pea soup-making kinda day.
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what defines a split pea soup making kind of day?
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A blustery day with the temps predicted to fall considerably by tomorrow. A day when I’d just as soon not be out and about if I don’t have to be. Make the soup today, bake the bread tomorrow.
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i like it
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if you ever want to put up the recipies i would take notes. i know you did this with a list last week but i didnt take notes. if its all there i can look it up. if not maybe we should see what is involved in having someone take over the recipe portion of the trail that has gone dormant.
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Having accomplished nothing of great import in my first half-century of life, I’m optimistic that I will improve with age. Improve at what, I can’t say, but there’s always golf. It’d be nice to get my handicap down to an all time best. Maybe I could be the Grandma Moses of golf! Might even get that novel published before I turn one hundred. 😉
Being a wine geek, I second the notion by others here that red wine especially improves with age. Funny though, of all the great wines I’ve tasted over the decades, I find that I prefer the young reds over their mature counterparts. The flavors are all fresh, intense, vivid in a young wine. The aged wines, while nuanced and subtle, often taste a bit tired to me, like they’ve lost some flavor and intensity.
The one exception I’d make is with vintage port. I’ve enjoyed many ten- and twenty-year-old ports. Then again, they may still be considered young in the lifespan of a great port, since 30+ years of aging is often possible with the best vintages.
Chris in Owatonna
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Agree about the port.
I have not golfed in many years and have recently found out that golf clubs as I know them are now “vintage”. Apparently people still play with them, and there is even a guy who handcrafts the woods.
Should you decide to pursue a career as a vintage vintage golfer, I shall be prepared to cheer you on!
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Thanks, mig. Actually, some golf tournaments are put on where old clubs, balls, and equipment are required. They’re only for fun, and the golfers do it to connect in some way with the long history of the game.
Not for me though. I started on ancient wooden clubs (my grandfather’s) when I was twelve and didn’t much care for them back then. I do miss “real” woods (as opposed to today’s titanium monstrosities.) Some of the craftsmanship, laminating, polishing, etc. was beautiful to the point of being artistic.
C in O
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i still have some persimmons if you ever want a trip down memory lane
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I’ll keep that in mind, tim.
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i hear shooting your age is a goal of many old duffers. you still have a few years or you could quit after 9.
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A goal of mine too, tim. Most guys don’t achieve that goal until their eighties. Any time in my seventies would be all right by me.
Beats when I was a kid and sometimes shot my age on one freakin’ hole! 🙂
Chris
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youd have to have a really bad hole to do that today
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Let me be first:
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Excellent. Doesn’t get much better than that.
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thanks steve. perfect song, wonderful concert choice. i am going back now and listening to the whole concert. i sure like john prine. i think folksingers get better with age. it is rare when they have the words keep coming to them for years and years but some do loudan wainwright comes to mind. his songwriting is phenomenal, maybe i shouldnt post this under steves post because steve always has some recollection of nasty stuff written by loudans kids when he was a drunken absetee dad but man that misfit can write. many writers get better as they get into their own groove and find a comfortable place to come at the world form. i think thats the trick just do what you do and let the results be your reward. a big tree is very good at being a big tree. if it wasnt for the lumber barons of the 1800’s wed have a heck of a place here. if people find something tat comes as natural to them as accepting sun and rain and nutreiance from the earth comes to a tree imagine how wonderful life could be.
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As you get older, more guarantees become lifetime guarantees. 20 year shingles? Yup, that should just about do it.
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Yeah, there are a lot of things I buy now and think, this should be the last _____ I ever need to buy.
If only they would make a computer that wouldn’t be obsolete in an insanely short period of time.
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by the way dale i thin billy marty berry might find it interesting that you want to kick gus’ kids ass before they are even born. i think maybe the deep seeded resentment you feel toward youth should be very closely examined and even though we like you very very much we are concerned.
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Some marriages – Husband and I are doing way better than we were in, say, the late 80s when we almost split up…
I also agree about the red wine, although I don’t really know why I think that – never let anything age long enough to sample it… I have a little saying on the fridge that goes “Age Improves with Wine”.
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With approximately a mere decade left to my life, there’s a noticeable acceptance of where & how it is. One of the sweetest changes reflecting “getting better with age” is my relationship with my brother. I wish this hadn’t taken about 65 years to evolve, but I’ve come to experience him as one of my closest and most loving friend.
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Thanks, Nancy, and I agree completely.
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Very glad that you two have found an understanding of each other.
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he is kind of a nice guy isnt he.
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what improves with age? appreciation. all the stuff i took for granted while i was flying by i look back at and realize how much i would love to have been better at appreciating the moment at the time. i am better at it today and will be better yet tomorrow
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Lots of things – my cooking, my cribbage game, my patience…
I finally read the tree article – that is fascinating, Dale – it needs to reach everyone in the logging industry.
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Not my car. Grumble grumble. Glad it didn’t konk out last week when it was bitter cold. Nor did it choose to not re-start far away from home. But not re-starting at 5:30 pm on a Friday, mere minutes after my mechanic closed for the weekend was not ideal. Sigh. At least we still have one functional car in the family.
That said, I think my appreciation for Beethoven has deepened with age. I liked Beethoven as a kid – it was always a treat when I got a bit of Beethoven to play for piano lessons. But as an adult, his symphonies about move me to tears. I love love love them. Maybe I should put on the 7th, turn the volume up and “air conduct.” That might take the sting of the defunct VW off my mind for a bit…
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