Happy Heinz Day to me
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You've all seen the label on Heinz ketchup bottles with the famous "57 varieties" slogan. Actually, when company founder Henry J. Heinz came up with that slogan back in the 1890s, the company was already making more than 57 products. He chose the number "57" simply because he thought the numbers "5" and "7" looked nice together.
I think of today as my "Heinz" birthday because as far as I'm concerned the number associated with my age has no more basis in reality than the Heinz slogan. Age is just a number. It has nothing to do with the state of my body or spirit. If I tried to fit the general notion of what a 57-year-old should be like, I wouldn't be lifting weights, riding a bike or aspiring to become a personal trainer.
These days you often hear expressions like "60 is the new 40." With all the advancements in medicine, coupled with a healthy lifestyle, anyone can maintain the body of a much younger person. There's a website called RealAge, where you can enter all sorts of information like your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, diet, exercise habits and medical history, and it calculates your "real" age. It told me I'm really a 45-year-old!
When I was approaching my 40th birthday, the British pound had been devaluated several times, and there was talk of devaluating the U.S. dollar. If they could do that, I reasoned, why couldn't I devaluate the year?
If I devaluated it by 20 percent, then I'd only be 32, and when I hit 50, I'd only be 40.
Looks like I've managed to hold myself to that formula. Most important, I feel like a 45-year-old.
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on 5/23/2008
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