All the colors in a gray rainbow...

Being handed a sign that says, "Congratulations, you're the oldest person in the world," is an experience few of us will ever get to relish. Yone Minagawa, still chugging at 114, is said to be youthful and fond of sweets. Clutching the sign that declared her most senior status, flashbulbs popping in her face, Minagawa declared to the assembled media circus that she was "grateful," and then she smiled.

If you're looking for a slightly meatier and more dramatic insight into the nature of the aging, gray psyche of Homo sapiens, you must run to the nearest theater and see Venus. It's a beautiful and unflinchingly hilarious film about dying and acting and the things we need to keep us alive. How can I make that sound more appealing? Does Peter O'Toole getting it on with a teenager make you hot and bothered? Oh, just bothered? Well, go see it anyway.

A man died. I never met him, but I was related to him in a remote and roundabout way. I didn't know much about him accept that he loved Star Trek. I heard he was buried with a Star Trek captain's insignia pinned to his finest suit. I woke up with this thought.

Aging is not what it appears to be.