Editorial July 3, 2000 Issue

Break the "midlife" myth

Mary Metzner Trammell

"MEN joke about being over the hill," the bookstore manager told me. "But underneath, we worry about it."

To prove his point, he handed me a copy of Dave Barry Turns50. Just leafing through the pages had me laughing within seconds. Barry satirizes all the cliched symptoms of the so-called mid life years—from forgetfulness to fascination with obituary pages—and basically decides he's exhibiting all of them!^{Dave Barry Turns 50 (New York: Ballantine Books, 1998) .}