The New Yorker, 2007-04-30

"Lady Be Good"  / Anthony Lane

• The message it sends is “Hmm. Ain’t no mountain.” If she likes the fellow, she will scale him, but make no mistake: as a female, she is already a superior soul. Should she choose to open her heart, it will be only on the most condescending of terms. “I love him because he’s the kind of a guy that gets drunk on a glass of buttermilk,” Sugarpuss eventually says of Professor Potts.
• (Taylor was seduced by Ava Gardner, but in the movie industry that was like pulling into a gas station for an oil check.)
• Cyd Charisse said much the same of “East Side, West Side” (1949), although that is more easily excused. After twenty years in the business, Stanwyck had met someone with better legs.

"The Way We Age Now" / Atul Gawande

• The natural life cycle of the scalp’s pigment cells is just a few years. We rely on stem cells under the surface to migrate in and replace them. Gradually, however, the stem-cell reservoir is used up.
• Even without cataracts, the amount of light reaching the retina of a healthy sixty-year-old is one-third that of a twenty-year-old.
• The three primary risk factors for falling are poor balance, taking more than four prescription medications, and muscle weakness. Elderly people without these risk factors have a twelve-per-cent chance of falling in a year. Those with all three risk factors have almost a hundred-per-cent chance.
• “As you get older, the lordosis of your spine tips your head forward,” he said to me. “So when you look straight ahead it’s like looking up at the ceiling for anyone else. Try to swallow while looking up: you’ll choke once in a while. The problem is common in the elderly. Listen.”

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