204 Comments

Thank you, thank you...a thousand times, thank you! I am so sick of the topic of Biden’s age when his experience overshadows everything. Do we honestly think anyone else could bring more to the table right now? His international experience, steady hand, and yes, empathy, are exactly what this moment needs. Instead of complaining, democrats of every stripe ought to be shouting this from the rooftops, helping to get out the vote, and doing everything possible to get him re-elected. The alternatives are simply not acceptable.

Expand full comment

Wisdom, experience, knowledge, empathy and individual evolution of mind and spirit are MORE IMPORTANT to the world than physical strength. Thank goodness we have a president who has been developing his abilities and awareness as he has gotten older, regardless of concurrent physical frailties. I have been a psychologist for 43 years and what I have experienced and learned is completely invaluable to those that I supervise who have come after me. It’s very difficult to get across what I now know, compared to even ten years ago, but I feel more expansive as time goes on. The worst thing is for human beings to contract and get smaller as time goes on. Biden is the epitome of a mensch that has exponentially grown, especially during this critical time on earth. Again, I give thanks.

Expand full comment

In American culture appearance counts for more than it does elsewhere. Americans must have perfect teeth, for one thing. The whiteness of Trump’s teeth is almost blinding. English prime ministers, even, have not always had their teeth straightened. People who are not exceptionally photogenic can even be seen on news shows. Here, there is an acceptable way to look, except maybe on PBS.

Expand full comment

Those aren’t teeth, they’re dentures. Do you remember “God blesh the Unined Shtash? One of his plates slipped out of place. I recognized it, because I also have store-bought teeth. And yes, when they’re new, they are blindingly white, unnaturally so.

Expand full comment

Thanks, I was about to say that TFG has fake teeth.

Expand full comment

I suspect TFG’s are implants or caps/crowns.

Expand full comment

If you have read Mary Trump's book...Yamface had veneers. I don't know if that is still true or not but fake enamel on his teeth does sound exactly like a Trump move. You know how cheap Trump is; I suspect the cost of an entire mouthful of "the best" caps/crowns would make cheapo Donald cringe. (Maybe he should have gotten that nutcase dentist, Arizona Rep Paul Gosar, to "do a favor" for him....)

Expand full comment

I’ve read that book, but don’t recall that detail. Thanks for reminding me. “Veneer” is so appropriate!

Expand full comment

a tiny possibility they're implants, but they don't sound like caps (which have no sound if your dentist is any Good). but I vote dentures. mine sometimes whistle.

Expand full comment

ditto.

Expand full comment

Oh, yeah, the orange maggot has great teeth, but shitty hair and a rotted brain!! Americans need to lose the vanity.

Expand full comment

Totally agree about vanity. To me his teeth are grotesque, the rest of him too. I’ve watched classic movies from 30 years a few decades back. Teeth are not so very white. I read advice that teeth should not be much whiter than the whites of your eyes.

Expand full comment

my uncle was a dentist, and every time I went to the (new) movies with him, an actor would grin and he would laugh HARD. I'd ask him why he was laughing and he'd say "that actor's jackets [what dentists call caps] are soooo stupid."

one time I was crossing the street around Lincoln Center and Adolph Green was crossing the street. the sun hit his dentures and I was momentarily BLINDED.

some people just want to have the world's whitest teeth. fucking UNNATURAL.

Expand full comment

...aha...it just occurred to me...his teeth look like they're made of Lego blocks.

Expand full comment

nah...they're shitty teeth if you KNOW they're not real. or at least THAT was the aesthetic when I was a kid.

you know, back when folks in their fifties had LINES in their foreheads. in those before-and-after Botox commercials, the people always look better in the "before" picture. at least to me.

Expand full comment

C Towers...You would think so, right?

Unfortunately there seem to be factions of Dems who are not happy with "good", or even "great" because they insist that they must have "perfect". Odd how Dems forget they are supposed to be the "big tent party" and must make accomodations for all the different folk who comprise the Democratic Party. Why do they not understand that in order to make room for everybody's needs and wants there must be compromise?

Expand full comment

He knows where the countries are on a map.

Expand full comment

One of your best, Lucian. This 74 year old thanks you from my very essence.

Expand full comment

This 74 year old seconds that emotion.

Expand full comment

...and yet another, even if I'll be 75 in three months or so.

Expand full comment

I'm 76 right with you, and I'm right you with on Joe Biden too. We are extraordinarily lucky to have him as president.

Expand full comment

Older than me. Hahaha

Expand full comment

I hope that five years from now (when, hopefully, I reach 81) I have half the intelligence, the understanding of the world, the empathy, the integrity and the ability that Joe Biden has. Many of the people criticizing Biden don't have a clue about the dangers we face in this world with Russian and Chinese dictators trying to extend their reach and their encroachment all across the globe. Joe Biden does. Moreover, until somebody else shows up who can match Joe Biden's abilities, he's the only thing standing between us and a dictatorship that will be unimaginable to all these people who think is is too old to be president.

Expand full comment

Many of them don’t have a clue period!

Expand full comment

Age and experience will defeat youth and exuberance every time.

Expand full comment

I like your version of the proverbial wisdom, the one I ran across decades ago was something like:

"Age and treachery will overcome youth and inexperience every time."

See:

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/david_mamet_478663

^^^^^ Then I located this version from David Mamet, there follows a series of quotes from greats like Mark Twain and Confucius on old age, also this gem from the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut:

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class

is running the country."

Expand full comment

I thought Vonnegut was very clever with that line until about 10 years ago, when I realized that 80% of the people I knew senior year in high school were/are teachers, and good ones. Durham (NC) High School, Class of 1970.

Expand full comment

Baldwin High School, Milledgeville GA, Class of 1970. 👍🏻

Expand full comment

Leno if High School, Lenoir, NC 1969!

Expand full comment

OMG. That would indeed be a nightmare.

Expand full comment

Well said, Lucian, even though I seem to be a youngster here at 66 and a half. It’s disgusting that ageism has become such a widely accepted prejudice.

Mick and Keith are the same age as Joe Biden and still seem to be chugging along pretty well despite habits that would’ve killed many. Or did. Pablo Casals was still a maestro at 96. They, along with Lucian, are role models for us pups.

Expand full comment

Thank you Lucian! So beautifully written and so true. Women start to deal with ageist America once we hit 40, so by the time we are 65, we're had 25 years of being considered too old. In fact, we become invisible. Regarding Biden, many seem to miss something so critically important. He's mentally stable.

Expand full comment

So true. Except, not you or Tracy or any of my other women readers.

Expand full comment

Thank you! No doubt whatsoever.

Expand full comment

Another 76 year old, young feller. I guess I'm not the only one slowing down physically, and thinking about it. We're not done yet, and cheers to Biden. I think we need his age and wisdom more than ever.

Expand full comment

Bravo!! This was inspiring, Lucian. And not to mention getting up in the early morning, flying off to Israel, meeting with leaders in a war zone, comforting hundreds and inspiring millions and then jumping on a plane, flying home and giving the speech of your life...and up the next day back to help sort the homefront out! Simply amazing.

Expand full comment

Yes!

Expand full comment

Amen to every word of this.

Expand full comment

Absolutely right. I just hit 87, and I have more focus than I have ever had before. I’m politically active, raise money for my nonprofit, of which I am a founder and the VP for Development, and navigate stairs (since that seems an important criterion) without using the banister. Our society seems to have struggled against sexism and racism to some degree, but still openly embraces ageism. Would they rather die young and “make a good looking corpse”?

Expand full comment

Bravo, Frank!! Bravo!

Expand full comment

At 83 i just made the first 10 mintues of the 20 mintue walk to the garbage. Sat down at the Club house on the way back for a breather. And saw you were up, scribbling.

I'm still doing the only thing I've always done well , Reading.

I do like the way

Joe wears his Sunglasses.

Reminds me Arnold Schwarzengger

and a lot of Highway patrolmen.

Ok up and back to the Motorhome.

4 more mintues.

Expand full comment

Hilarious, Cal. I'm with you every step.

Expand full comment

I managed to get mine bagged up, but lost steam getting it all the way to the curb. Oh well. They are usually late on Mondays and I have more get up and go in the mornings. How Joe manages those Transatlantic flights, hours of negotiations, hours of consolation, and then a major address to the nation has me gobsmacked. He gives me inspiration and hope.

Expand full comment

Joe Biden's Bausch & Lomb Ray-Bans: here's a vertical photo sequence (all grabbed off the internet) to "prove" advertising works. Top shot, photo of a maybe 10 year old Joe Biden, sport jacket, and OMG, that tie and such a perfect, non-dorky haircut! Middle shot: early '50s (?) Ray-Ban ad showing a Pan America World Airways pilot who, along with Army, Navy, other airline pilots, "champion shooters and other sportsmen" count Ray-Bans as their fave sunglasses. Bottom shot: Joe Biden now, wearing his Ray-Bans. No way to create the same sequence for Jill Biden: in the previous century, black-and-white Ray-Ban ads never showed women wearing Ray-Ban Aviator-style glasses.

Many of us in Geezerville remember that in the late '60s, one mantra, often chanted after a session with smokables which were too-often seeds and stems, was "never trust anyone over 30."

One caveat, Lucian, about a column which is pretty damned profound: the idiot who blathered about numerically "old and mentally fragile people being gullible" equated that with "romance scams." You replied that Biden is at least "*capable* of romance." May I disagree? Biden is "capable" of *love,* a basic and necessary human emotion totally absent from Depraved Defendant Donny.

From the sublime (love) to...why do American presidents (and other high-level officials, as well as dignitaries and more) have to clamber up and down outdoor stairs, sometimes in the rain, to get into large airplanes, when the rest of us are given the *safety* of a tunnel. Okay, photo-op, blah-blah, but come on! Do we really have to wait for someone important and not terribly old to fall and injure him/herself for someone to come up with a better way for POTUS et al to get on and off a 747?

Expand full comment

Yeah, Joe's sunglasses....give me Dark Brandon!!

Expand full comment

Yes, I liked his shades so much that I bought a pair, my"Joe Bidens".

Expand full comment

Made me laugh, cal lash! :) :) :)

Expand full comment

Ur welcom

Expand full comment

A truly great essay, Lucian. You illuminate a profound truth, and drive home the vital point that Biden has been and is an extraordinarily effective president.

Expand full comment

I am so upset with people saying Biden is too old, and making fun of this that and the other about him. This man is an astonishing leader. I think he is my favorite president in my lifetime. Your column expresses my thoughts so much better than I ever could! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Expand full comment

An elegant and profound riff on experience and wisdom. (And a very good catch about Joe at 49 at the Clarence Thomas hearings.) This may be one of your best essays where you've put yourself in the picture. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Expand full comment

Way to go, Luc. I turn 80 this Thursday, and I know I'm a kinder person than I was in my 20;sand 30's. And way less likely to be fooled by people than I was ,even in my late 30's. I don't worry about having a ton of friends anymore, either. Everyone loves you when you are doing well. Everybody wants to be your friend. To hell with those kind of friends. I'm doing fine, and I support real friends. Proven friends. Biden knows all this and I'm sure he doesn't care at all what the "mockers" say. Screw them. He's got excellent judgement, isn't going to be fooled by Putin, like Trump is. So go Joe and Go Lucian. We've been friends since the 70's thru thick and thin. That's the kind of friend I want. To hell with flash.

Expand full comment

Every word of this, Bob. Every word. Say hi to the one you've held hands with through thick and thin, your wonderful wife, Celeste. Love you guys.

Expand full comment

Celeste and I are still together. Many many years, and our son is now in his 30's. Hard to believe. Say hello to Tracy, who I feel like I know tho we've never met. This new year we must get together.

Expand full comment

Yes indeed we must schedule a Summit Conference, preferably at a Sushi place where we can Mongo Mongo to our heart's content.

Expand full comment