And then there was this story in the New York Times about...about...what was I saying? Now they're saying that middle age stretches from your 40s until sometime in your 60s, so I suppose that I'm still middle aged, but just ever so barely. And actually, if forgetfulness, distraction and an occasionally fuzzy connection with reality are hallmarks of advancing age, then I've been a really old guy since I was about 12. 
  But even though I might forget your name, or what I had for lunch, or whether or not I had lunch, my brain is okay, according to Barbara Strauch whose book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, will be out in April. Strauch covered some of her main points in an article in last Thursday's New York Times.
  What she says, I think, is that you don't really forget all the stuff you think you forget, it just gets tucked behind other stuff, and if, for example you forget Brad Pitt's name, it might come rushing back to you if you get into a conversation about cherry pits, tar pits, or armpits. Or if you forget Angelina Jolie's name...well, who could forget Angelina Jolie?
  One suggestion Strauch has for the next time I "forget" something is to go silently through the alphabet until I come across a sound that unlocks the thing I'm trying to remember. (Okay, I just tried that trick to try to remember Einstein's first wife's name - I recently read Walter Isaacson's excellent biography of the genius who was in a class of his own for forgetfulness - and I couldn't come up with her name. Went all the way from A to Z. But I remembered that his second wife was his first wife's cousin, and that he had to promise his first wife all the money from his Nobel prize - this was years and years before he got the prize - if she'd agree to a divorce. I remember the juicy parts.)
  Anyway, I took heart from Ms Strauch's thoughts, and if you're the average 57-year-old farmer, I thought you might, too. And I'm going to buy her book when it comes out. If I can remember.
  The article is here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss 


     72,000 beef cattle could be headed for Oswego, New York, and the community is concerned. Colorado-based Bion Environmental Technologies envisions a closed-loop system for the herd, which would minimize odors and water usage. Manure from the herd would be used to produce ethanol, and the enterprise would create 600 new jobs. Opponents are concerned about the effects on the land, the nearby fishing streams, whether the jobs would go to local people or to low-wage workers from other places, and the impact on the community in general. Lancaster Farming correspondent Jeanne Sergeant wrote about the issue in our current ediition, or you can read it here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2723 


     This guy should stay off Red Bull. Forever.  
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/pastrana-sets-world-record-backflips-into-harbor/1ab7838iw