Are you a hyperactive raisin?

Lumen · 22-10-2014 11:51am #1

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-mcwilliams/prolonging-life-will-only-make-death-the-least-of-our-worries-in-an-ageing-society-30683323.html

Spa' McWilliams wrote:

As getting old is inevitable and happens quicker than we think, looking back at the end of my own Dad's life has prompted me to look forward to the end of mine...Will I be rotund, corpulent and content or will I be raging against time, trying to run marathons, looking like a hyperactive raisin in Lycra cycling like a demon up the Sally Gap in Co Wicklow, trying to prove something?

Beasty · 22-10-2014 12:11pm

Well my aim is to reach 100 - if not I'll die trying .....

daragh_ · 22-10-2014 12:11pm

Glibby McGlib witters on.

The world turns and nobody cares.

Saying that, I'm also looking forward to the end of his life.

niceonetom · 22-10-2014 12:18pm

I'm a magnificent grape.

Raam · 22-10-2014 12:21pm

More of a perfect peperami.

smacl · 22-10-2014 12:27pm

Was cycling up from Wexford a couple of weeks back and ended up chatting to a lad just turning seventy, on his return trip from cycling up to the 9 stones on Mt Leinster. Didn't look like a raisin, or even that he was anywhere near close to 70. I'd be well chuffed to still be able to cycle up hills at that age, and couldn't care less whether I looked like a dessicate fruit.

godtabh · 22-10-2014 12:48pm

Maybe he should stop being a dour prick and get out on a bike and enjoy it for what it is

ThisRegard · 22-10-2014 1:04pm

David McWilliams, is there no end to the bull**** phrases he makes up trying to make himself appear clever and insightful ?

ford2600 · 22-10-2014 1:11pm

There's a well known GP in Tipperary who's father cycled into his 90's.

About 5 years ago he was going a 3 day cycle from Galway to Clonmel. On day 2 he reached Nenagh/Roscrea and when checking into B& B he decided he would rather his own bed and cycled home, a 3 daytrip becoming 2 days at 90odd

Ole Rodrigo · 22-10-2014 1:18pm

Its pretty encouraging to see an elderly grimpeur, as opposed to an irrelevant journalist who trades in bitter opinions.

Seaswimmer · 22-10-2014 1:45pm

ford2600 wrote: »

There's a well known GP in Tipperary who's father cycled into his 90's.

About 5 years ago he was going a 3 day cycle from Galway to Clonmel. On day 2 he reached Nenagh/Roscrea and when checking into B& B he decided he would rather his own bed and cycled home, a 3 daytrip becoming 2 days at 90odd

My own father is still doing 10 miles a day (well when the weather is dry) at age 82. The differences I notice over the years (apart from the drop in speed) is that the gears get progressively lower. He was on the big ring up to about his late sixties, then about 10 years on the middle ring and now in about 4th lowest on the small ring so he has a few gears left. He has also modified his route to make it as flat as possible.

He also feels the cold much more so would appear overdressed to most cyclists. And now he does a circular route around his area so he is never too far from home in case of problems.

It gives me great hope for my own cycling future.

Beasty · 22-10-2014 1:51pm

Seaswimmer wrote: »

My own father is still doing 10 miles a day (well when the weather is dry) at age 82.

The IVCA currently has a couple of people racing in their 80s

godtabh · 22-10-2014 2:27pm

I feel like I'm 80 on the bike sometimes

quozl · 22-10-2014 2:31pm

Beasty wrote: »

The IVCA currently has a couple of people racing in their 80s

Talking about yourself in the 3rd person again, Beasty?

slap/dash · 22-10-2014 2:42pm

Jesus you get paid for that? Half the article was boring stats that came off some leaflet at the doctors office and the other half said nothing at all

NeedMoreGears · 22-10-2014 3:30pm

To be fair to McWilliams he spoke reasonably eloquently about his father's decline and death ; similar to own fathers last few years (cancer/stroke). He then went on to set out the demographic challenge of providing a decent standard of living for the older members of society, a group that is likely to make up an increasingly greater proportion of the overall population. In the middle of it all he makes a poor joke about being an old cyclist - no real harm done in my view (he problably couldn't sat "wrinklie"). He also misleads a wee bit when he compares the 1961 absolute numbers of over sixty fives with the 2011 data ; percentages would have been better

RayCun · 22-10-2014 3:42pm

The odd thing is that he starts by contrasting his father's life in his early 70s - an active walker apparently - to his last few years - when walking was no longer possible because of ill-health.
But later in the article he talks about being fat and sitting in an armchair as a good thing, and being active and running or cycling as a bad thing.

slap/dash · 22-10-2014 3:45pm

It's like here I'll mention my experience with my dad and thereby I can write any auld tosh without fear of criticism. Like hello, we all experience loss.

Could do better.

petethedrummer · 22-10-2014 5:08pm

Heard this somewhere recently: It is better to wear out than to rust out.

DaithiMC · 22-10-2014 5:17pm

In my father's adult lifetime, since the mid 1950s, increases in longevity have been achieved mainly by extending the lives of people over 60.

I guess he is being paid by the word or had a bet with someone that he could insert a thoroughly meaningless phrase into the opinion.

I don't share his pessimism about the extension of dying, I would say from the evidence that more people are living healthily longer. I predict a reduction in the rate of obesity, diabetes, chronic neural disease, and other diseases of the aged as we get better information about diet and wellness in addition to being more, and appropriately, active as we age. Cycling is a key mode by which impact can be reduced in addition to helping us maintain the voice of the little boy as we whizz down hills! He should have a phone call with Hans Rosling.

RayCun · 22-10-2014 6:32pm

Not meaningless, but obviously not well explained.
You can talk about life expectancy by talking about the life expectancy of a baby born today. But you can also say, for a child born today, what is that child's expectancy of reaching 10 years old? What is a ten year old's chance of reaching 20? and so on through the age groups. And also say, what is the life expectancy of an 18 year old today? A 50 year old? and so on

High child mortality used to be a massive factor in driving down average life expectancy at birth. McWilliams is saying (I don't know if he's accurate) that the gains are not being made in making it more likely that children will live to adulthood, but in making it more likely that people over 60 will live to 80 or 90.

goose06 · 22-10-2014 8:07pm

smacl wrote: »

Was cycling up from Wexford a couple of weeks back and ended up chatting to a lad just turning seventy, on his return trip from cycling up to the 9 stones on Mt Leinster. Didn't look like a raisin, or even that he was anywhere near close to 70. I'd be well chuffed to still be able to cycle up hills at that age, and couldn't care less whether I looked like a dessicate fruit.

He wasn't a South African by any chance?

cdaly_ · 22-10-2014 9:55pm

As Hunter S. Thompson once said:

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!

tomasrojo · 22-10-2014 10:11pm

RayCun wrote: »

Not meaningless, but obviously not well explained.
You can talk about life expectancy by talking about the life expectancy of a baby born today. But you can also say, for a child born today, what is that child's expectancy of reaching 10 years old? What is a ten year old's chance of reaching 20? and so on through the age groups.

Yes, it grates on me when people quote average life expectancy at birth in, for example, Ancient Rome being 29, and then go on to assume that there were not many people older than 29. I guess averages are misleading for distributions that aren't clustered around the average.

As for McWilliams:

Boilerplate article about MAMILs, standard allusion to homoerotic clothing:
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2013/02/04/the-age-of-the-mamil

McWilliams has a thing about bicycle child seats too: it's a smug thing for him.
http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/2014/08/25/education-apartheid
He actually describes them as something along the lines of the ultimate symbol of smugness in an article from a few years back, but I can't find it.

How many other oldies like myself will be knocking around? Will I be in slippers, beside the fire, chatting to grandchildren, surrounded by loving family or will I be alone?

I can hazard a guess.

DaithiMC · 22-10-2014 10:42pm

RayCun wrote: »

Not meaningless, but obviously not well explained.
You can talk about life expectancy by talking about the life expectancy of a baby born today. But you can also say, for a child born today, what is that child's expectancy of reaching 10 years old? What is a ten year old's chance of reaching 20? and so on through the age groups. And also say, what is the life expectancy of an 18 year old today? A 50 year old? and so on

High child mortality used to be a massive factor in driving down average life expectancy at birth. McWilliams is saying (I don't know if he's accurate) that the gains are not being made in making it more likely that children will live to adulthood, but in making it more likely that people over 60 will live to 80 or 90.

Probably, well definitely, not well explained but longevity without reference to any statistical meaning is usually understood in the context of the entire length of life whereas "life expectancy" is usually related to the remaining years at a given age. "People these days, beyond the age of 60, have a greater life expectancy."

rtmie · 23-10-2014 7:58pm

Poor old DMcW. Came to fame for someone else's sound bite and has spent his time since in increasing desperation trying to come up with one of his own that will stick.

L'Enfer du Nord · 23-10-2014 8:32pm

Quite apart from anything else McWilliams ignores the fact that most other European countries are way ahead of Ireland in terms of ageing populations. Some analysis of the effects of this on say Italy is obviously beyond him.

He's always one for the extreme but simple scenario e.g. We should leave the euro and suck up to china. Which any moron can 'understand' and the stupid analogy or pop culture reference.

Reality is alway more complicated and boring than McWilliams would have us believe.

ROK ON · 23-10-2014 8:49pm

^
This.
Europe has three significant issues - Debt, Deflation and Demographics.
Of these Ireland has only Debt.

Demographics here are not only better than Europe but are amongst the most positive in the Western world.

tomasrojo · 24-10-2014 9:24am

ROK ON wrote: »

^
This.
Europe has three significant issues - Debt, Deflation and Demographics.
Of these Ireland has only Debt.

Demographics here are not only better than Europe but are amongst the most positive in the Western world.

I think you might be missing the bigger picture:

Cyclists are vain and deluded.

It's not your fault. You didn't work as an economist with the Central Bank of Ireland, UBS bank and the Banque Nationale de Paris

Lumen · 24-10-2014 9:48am

tomasrojo wrote: »

You didn't work as an economist with the Central Bank of Ireland, UBS bank and the Banque Nationale de Paris

:pac::D

Are you a hyperactive raisin?

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