Happy 50th birthday to Dan Shaviro (NYU).  Those of us approaching the big 5-0 can relate to Dan’s thoughts on hitting this milestone:

It’s strange to have been young all one’s life, strongly conditioning one’s self-image, and then increasingly to find that one is no longer so. That being said, I weigh the same and am in better aerobic shape than when I was a college or law student. I also would make short work of my past self if we played, say, racquet sports against each other. But alas, all this requires eating a lot less and exercising a lot more. I also increasingly get all sorts of aches and pains that I didn’t know as well back then. Some days you just don’t feel that good, once you reach this stage. I now have to do regular exercise and stretching routines for nearly every body part that is potentially injurable in sporting activities. I also need reading glasses unless the print is large and/or the lighting great. And dessert now often inspires something of the same mute horror that I assume mice bring to thinking about cats.