How to Train the Aging Brain
2nd January 2010
Note how Barbara Strauch establishes her progressive bona fides in the first paragraph:
I LOVE reading history, and the shelves in my living room are lined with fat, fact-filled books. There’s “The Hemingses of Monticello,” about the family of Thomas Jefferson’s slave mistress; there’s “House of Cards,” about the fall of Bear Stearns; there’s “Titan,” about John D. Rockefeller Sr.
How she resisted including Dreams From My Father in her list of ‘fat, fact-filled books’ is a puzzle. I love reading history, and the shelves of my living room are filled with books like The Art of Medieval Hunting by John Cummins, The History of Money by Jack Williamson, and John Adams by David McCullough — not the sort of shelf-liners that will get you a gig writing for the New York Times.
The problem is, as much as I’ve enjoyed these books, I don’t really remember reading any of them. Certainly I know the main points. But didn’t I, after underlining all those interesting parts, retain anything else? It’s maddening and, sorry to say, not all that unusual for a brain at middle age: I don’t just forget whole books, but movies I just saw, breakfasts I just ate, and the names, oh, the names are awful. Who are you?
A common problem among the Crust, for whom it is more vtal to display the right opinion-accessories than actually to have a thought. It’s a wonder they find their way to the office every day. Of course, they have people to do that for them.
Barbara Strauch is The Times’s health editor.
Of course. The health of The Times could certainly use some editing.