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In a random act of selectivity of a vhs tape(seems ancient) a few days ago, I found the movie “Peyton Place.” A chord of synchronicity later, I watched it; there’s something nostalgic about a 1940’s storyline(published in 1956) made into a movie, released in 1957(both now vintage in 2010). An army bus pulls up in front of the Peyton Place selective service office. A soldier in fatigues calls out waiting names, checks them off a list as they board and yells “hubba hubba,” to get last inducted stragglers to move faster. Nobody says “hubba hubba” anymore. Maybe bring it back? One lingering kiss goodbye by Ted Carter with Selena and the bus disappeared to the fields of Europe and the Pacific islands. Throughout the movie, I marveled at how simple life was back then. You walked to school in Peyton Place and said hello to neighbors; pushed a little kid in a swing and bent to pet the dog. A woman, with a clothes pin in her mouth, hanging the wash, waved to you. The town doctor waved. A single leaf departed a tree and waved. If you looked carefully there was a gazebo. Wouldn’t it be cool to stick a gazebo in Times Square where they have a pedestrian walk way now? 

 Of course I remembered when “Peyton Place” was first published by Grace Metalious. I was not even a teenager(but close). Everybody was talking(like Nilson’s song)or whispering. The sex scenes were almost a revolution. The lady upstairs told my mother about the book in 1950’s adjectives. I pretended not be listening. She’d let my mother borrow it but mother said no. I used to baby sit for the lady’s little kid. Not that I was devious but curious about words I heard the lady say to my mother. Two weeks later I baby sat and looked all over for the book. My friends told me the best page to read. I did. But I had to read the whole book. A few months later, when the furor abetted, I devised(now devious) a plan to smuggle the book out of her house and take it with me to the Jersey shore and read it on my wonderful Belmar jetty. The book was dropped out of a second floor window(while babysitting) and recovered and put into a small bag and taken to the beach that Sunday with my parents(unsuspecting). Nonchalantly, I took the bag with book to the jetty and got a nice sunburn reading as much as I could.

 Point of story. We’ve come a long way. But not there yet. Life was simple back then. But baseball was barely passed the color barrier and people still had to ride in the back of buses. So life really wasn’t simple. And Peyton Place, despite a lady waving hello to you with a clothes pin in her mouth, was not my kind of town. And look at all I had to go through to read a book. Reminds me of banned in Boston. Thinking about Peyton Place and all its quaintness and simplicity, I thought about the Jersey shore(a couple of words from the tv show made the top word usage list for 2010) and I thought about Spring Lake, New Jersey and how they could’ve almost filmed the movie there. Spring Lake is a unique shore town for the past 100 years with the longest un-commercial boardwalk in Jersey; with a gazebo and all kinds of turn of last century architecture. There’s a Garden Club, Women’s Club and Historical Society. This marvelous town is a best kept secret. I hope I don’t get in trouble for promulgating. I worry about over-promulgating. I wonder if they have a jetty for me. I think Peyton Place did.

 Now to the business of living forever. Lately I’ve been inundated with emails, newsletters and links with never-ending sources; all on living forever. I took an online test to see how long I’m supposed to live, based on my life style:  Here’s the link:

http://www.livingto100.com/

 I’m excited. They got me living to 105 years. And I was honest.  I’ve entered into negotiations with my son on my ultimate disposition; the nursing home versus the basement or a room over garage. I’m a tough negotiator. There is so much out there to extend life and improve it. I think we’re in a race. Sustainability versus singularity. And New Jersey wants to close down certain horse race tracks. New Jersey now has sweat shirts for sale with the governor’s name across the front. Imagine brand naming an up and coming governor who opted out of a new tunnel between New York and Jersey(notice I took the New out of Jersey. I’ve lived here long enough. Hey, we’ve got the ‘Jersey Shore’ MTV and HBO ‘Boardwalk Empire’).

 Back to the business of living forever. Sorry about the digression. Part of the blogging experience for me is to throw stuff out there. Google Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Calorie Restriction(CR) Society International and Gerontology Research Group. On the news front, researchers have shown that an external optical pacemaker can be used in a vertebrate to control its heart rate. Narciclagsine, a natural compound found in daffodil bulbs, may be a powerful therapeutic agent against aggressive forms of brain cancer. Researchers from Wake-Forest have found that drinking beet juice also increases perfusion, blood flow to brain.

 Stephen Hawking said, “The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster could destroy Earth as we know it. Humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years. We won’t find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we were to go to another star system.”  Meanwhile exercise is everything. Enough said for now.

 Winding down with my ‘Absurdities’ thoughts: They give tax breaks to strip clubs in Manhattan(i.e. Penthouse Exec Club got a $37,000 tax break) because they ‘remodeled’ a business. It’s estimated a computer the size of a brick fabricated with nanotechnology will be so powerful it can simulate the thought of a billion humans over a period of 5,000 years…in 1 second. At more than 2,000 calories, Applebee’s Crispy Orange Chicken Bowl is equal to 10 doughnuts.

 With nano-technology, health advances and thoughts about living on Mars, I still find the need(deep seeded) to watch ‘Peyton Place,’ and drift back, internalize, dream and wonder about gazebos and people hanging wash in the backyard with clothes pins. I’m going to watch the Sunday papers for sales on clothes pins; the wooden kind; the kind that endures, holds tight and fits between teeth comfortably.

 Holiday Gift Suggestion: All novels gift wrapped, carded, autographed & shipped. Check book trailer(and novel website) at youtube:  

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