I tend to read, watch, and listen to an awful lot of Oldster-adjacent content. Now and then I’ll pass some of it along to you in a link roundup like this one.
PS If you’re a free subscriber and enjoying Oldster Magazine, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription so that I can keep paying contributors. More paywalled content is coming soon…
RIP 83-year-old Bossa Nova icon Astrud Gilberto. At Vulture/NYMag, Justin Curto eulogizes the Brazilian singer, best known for her interpretation of “The Girl From Ipanema.”
“A growing number of people age 65 age or older are postponing retirement. And plenty of others are launching second careers, starting new businesses, going back to school, or training for their first marathon.” - at Esquire, Michael Clinton writes “Why 65 Isn't the Magic Number for Retirement Anymore.”
“Juneteenth celebrations have widely expanded across the country since the day became a national holiday in 2021, when the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act was signed into law.” At PBS, a history of Juneteenth (next Monday, June 19th), plus links to assorted documentaries on the Federal holiday commemorating the day in 1865—two years after the 1863 emancipation proclamation—when enslaved Black Americans in Texas were belatedly informed of their freedom.
“I still feel like I’m about 11.” - pretty much the same here, Carol Burnett! The nonagenarian said this on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s wonderful podcast, Wiser Than Me.
“Older adults who feel young at heart may not just live longer, but may also have more life satisfaction, lower dementia risk and reduced depression symptoms.” - See, feeling young for your age is good for you. So writes Richard Sima at the Washington Post.
“It can be a lonely place if we aren’t careful.” - soul singer Erykah Badu on menopause, at Blackdoctor.org
“The birth trauma that’s happening to so many women, it’s just out of control.” - at Romper, Jennifer Block talks with Ricki Lake about the legacy of The Business of Being Born, the controversial 2008 documentary she co-starred in and co-produced with Abby Epstein about home birth as an alternative to the medical interventions associated with hospital birth, and the related docuseries they’re working on now.
“These new novels dare to imagine the lives of women at the point where they have crossed into the abyss of middle age.” - in The Guardian, Lisa Allardice writes “All the rage: the rise of the menopause novel.”
“As I prepare to marry the person I love in Florida, I vacillate between excitement and dread.” - novelist
in Time Magazine, on being gay and planning a same-sex wedding in a state she loves that “has not always loved me back.”Remember my post on comfortable sandals, featuring some styles from SAS Nola? Turns out The Strategist/NYMag’s Isabel Slone is a fan of the brand, too.
At the LA Times, Michele Filgate talks with 63-year-old author Deborah Levy (a favorite author of mine!) about her new novel, August Blue.
“These intimate snapshots were a window onto a forgotten piece of Catskills lore and a chapter of New York’s LGBTQ+ history that had remained hidden for decades.” - in the Times-Union, Maria M. Silva talks with antique dealer Robert Swope about the trove of photos he discovered from Casa Susanna, a Catskills resort where “1950s and '60s, cross-dressing men and transgender women found community during a time of persecution.” On June 27th, a documentary on the resort premieres on American Experience/PBS.
In case you missed this week’s earlier offerings, check them out now—an essay by Jay Blotcher, a Questionnaire by Dan Saltzstein, and a new installment of “Notes on Another New Life,”
’s excellent column.Next week a new monthly series launches, in collaboration with
’s The Small Bow. Stay tuned…
That’s all, folks. Have a great weekend!
-Sari
Wow! Thank you for collecting this wealth of reading and listening ❤️
Thank you! As a slightly vain women with foot problems, I've always poo-pooed the SAS brand. But, no more. My next shoe will be a SAS!