Common to all of us as we age, regrettably, is the loss of our youthful appearance. Most of us cope, with varying degrees of success, by simply getting used to it.
Some people fight it, employing every tool known to humankind — diet, exercise, hairdye, wrinkle cream, age-defying cream, meditation, in extreme cases surgery — but nobody wins that war.
So another strategy is to simply ignore the inevitable and embrace the positive — i.e. we need not worry about this kind of thing any longer. Nature is taking care of the matter for us.
Mental decline is quite another matter. It is ironic that many of us boomers wasted at least part of our youth trying to lose our minds — or at least radically alter them — through some combination of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll.
Speaking of the latter, my former boss Jann Wenner did himself and the magazine he co-founded and many us launched our careers at, Rolling Stone, a serious disservice by denying and disparaging the undeniable truth that the roots of rock music, like humanity itself, lie in Africa.
It was the various genres of the music created by black people — from rhythm and blues, soul, jazz, Motown, even slave-era chants and drumming — that eventually led straight to Elvis Presley, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all the rest. They were cover artists, damn good ones, but not the originators.
Anybody with a lick of sense knows that.
Except, perhaps, for an aging person who did too many drugs over time and is now exhibiting the sad signs of cognitive decline.
HEADLINES:
Iran Releases 5 Americans as U.S. Unfreezes Billions in Oil Revenue for Tehran (NYT)
Iran prisoner release deal may signal new direction in western diplomacy (Guardian)
Biden to Target Industrial Pollution in a 2nd Term, if He Gets One (NYT)
Hunter Biden sues the IRS, alleging agents illegally released his tax information (CNN)
Red states quit nation’s oldest library group amid culture war over books (WP)
Ford, GM Stocks Fall as UAW Contract Negotiations Restart (Barron’s)
House GOP deal to avert shutdown gets icy reception from conservatives (The Hill)
Kevin McCarthy not ready to abandon negotiated funding deal despite conservative opposition (CNN)
With democracy on the ballot, the mainstream press must change its ways (Guardian)
Trump wrote to-do lists for assistant on White House documents marked classified (ABC)
Schumer ditches Senate's informal dress code (Axios)
The future of Silicon Valley (FT)
Debris found in search for F-35 fighter jet that went missing after pilot ejected during 'mishap' (NBC)
2 years ago, the Taliban banned girls from school. It’s a worsening crisis for all Afghans (AP)
Is the end of AIDS in sight? (Economist)
In Wagner’s largest African outpost, Russia looks to tighten its grip (WP)
The disappearance of Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu highlights the opaque and complex nature of the People's Liberation Army, diplomats and analysts say. (Reuters)
China flies 103 military planes toward Taiwan in a new spike of activity (AP)
Testing the limits of generative AI (InfoWorld)
Morgan Stanley kicks off generative AI era on Wall Street with assistant for financial advisors (CNBC)
OpenAI Hustles to Beat Google to Launch ‘Multimodal’ LLM (The Information)
37-Year-Old Makes Absolutely Heartbreaking Last-Ditch Effort To Get Really Into New Band (The Onion)
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