Centenarian in 1911: Bathing and pie are killing our young people

The Lookout ^ | December 21, 2011 | Liz Goodwin

[decimon]

Sometimes it's nice to remember that older people have always been shocked by the habits of the young. One hundred years ago, in 1911, Tilden Pierce turned 100 years old and talked to the New York Times (not the Onion) about why he didn't think the younger generation would be able to achieve his longevity: too much pie and too many baths.

"Yep," he told the Times from his Plymouth, Mass., old folks' home. "What's shortening the days of the present generation is because they eat too much pie and cake."

[rhombus]

I liked how the writer tries to debunk this at the end of the article.

A more recent study on longevity revealed that people who live to 95 years and older have just as many bad habits--smoking, drinking, and avoiding exercise, for example--as people who die younger.

Hey Moochella, I'll have the Big Mac with extra cheese. And you bet I want the pie too. ;-)

[SkyDancer]

Shortly followed by this:

[PGR88]

Considering that 30% of Americans are obese - too much PIE (and nachos, burritos and burgers) is indeed killing Americans.

[headsonpikes]

And was he wrong?

I’d say he was at least in the ballpark - soft living and poor diet.

[MrEdd]

If they are, then thirty percent obesity is the normal state for north Americans, outside extreme periods of economic collapse.

Don't believe me?

Do a survey of American paintings and photography starting in the late eighteenth century.

Outside the periods of the civil war, WWI, the great depression, and WII, crowds of Americans have always exhibited pretty much the same intermixing of fat people we see now.

Obesity is new in the same way polar melting is new...to embrace the notion you have to disregard the historical record, and purge the existing data from previous eras.

[Bobalu]

Have pie while you bathe :-)

[don-o]

Though we have never met, for some reason these two pictures just screamed LLLAAAAZZZ!!!! when I looked at them.

[paudio]

I’d say he was at least in the ballpark - soft living and poor diet.

Taking a bath is considered soft living?

[paudio]

Thanks for the posting. Generation gap will always be there. All you need to do is look at FReepers’ postings complaining about how things are so bad today, particularly anything related to culture (music, movies, and so on). Many of them are related to generational issue, but often masked as conservatism v. liberalism.

[SkyDancer]

My grandfather was telling me how his generation was caught up in that same sort of thing from the same generation that danced to Benny Goodman, The Dorsey’s and Glenn Miller.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

She forgot to mention was that he is still alive and just turned 200!

So definitely cut out the pie and bathing.

[headsonpikes]

Well yeah.

[Larry Lucido]

And cars! Someone’s gonna get killed in one of those contraptions!

[headsonpikes]

And airplanes!

If man was meant to fly, God wouldn’t have given us the steam locomotive!