So I talked to the guy who runs the centenarian and super-centenarian project (the latter looks at people over the age of 105). I asked how many men, he said no men. No, there are a few super-centenarian men. Oldest man who ever lived was 116; the oldest woman was a Parisian woman who was 122. The French Geriatric Society used to throw her a birthday party; she was a celebrity. At her 115th birthday, I remember seeing a documentary, and they were asking her in French, “You have no wrinkles; now that you are 115, do you have any wrinkles?” She says in French, “I have one wrinkle, but I sit on it.” Its true, as the project evolved, these are well adapted people; you don’t get to be that old by being mean and bitter. And interesting fact is that the females over 100 are usually not married, but they’re not loners. They’re like the hip aunt.


“And all the conduits of my blood hath froze up and hath yet my life of night doth fading glimmer left.” I find that if I just talk people shut up. It’s like, “oh it’s going to be on the test! How do you spell fading glimmer?” Stop being nerds you guys; you’re going to be doctors. It’s not the time to be immature; you’re going to care for other people. I know pre-med, we all drop sulfuric acid on other people’s lab notebooks when they weren’t looking. Grades are nice but maturity is what matters. It’s just interesting how in the old days if I would say stuff nobody would listen, but if I go “question 1 is…” and people are like, “wooo”.

- the Neurologising Philospher