Since I’m 66 now, halfway to 132, I thought I’d see who my contemporaries are. Turns out it’s a rather varied crew:

Born in 1952:  Mandy Patinkin (Inigo Montoya!), Dan Ackroyd, and John Goodman, but also Harvey Weinstein, Pee Wee Herman, and Vladimir Putin. Mr. T. and David Hasselhoff share my birth year as well.

Mark Harmon and Sting are 66 but, more importantly, so are Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), The Incredible Hulk (Lou Ferrigno) and Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter). Superman (Christopher Reeve) would have been on the list, but unfortunately he is no longer with us.

Other items of interest from my birth year — “Singing in the Rain” was released in 1952, as was “High Noon.” Hank Williams was big in ’52, with “Jambalaya,” “You Win Again,” “Honky Tonk Blues,” and “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.” 

“Charlotte’s Web,” “The Old Man and the Sea,” and “East of Eden” were all published in that year; “Diary of a Young Girl” was published (in English) in 1952 as well.

Mr. Potato Head was patented in the year of my birth, the polio vaccine was created, and Princess Elizabeth of England became Queen.

I’ve already lived longer than Joan of Arc, Billy the Kid, Caligula, Stephen Crane, Keats, Shelley,  Pocahontas, Otis Redding, and King Tut.

If I live as long as my grandfather I have 34 more years left. Accordingly, I’m going to have to start pacing myself; I’d hate to run out of things to do and still have a couple of decades ahead. And, as I’m heading into official old man territory, I have some important decisions to make. Serene or irascible? Wise or irrelevant? Pining for the good old days or embracing a future I barely understand? Curmudgeonly or faintly amused? Up to date or anachronistic? So many decisions. I think I need a nap.