Request And Suggestion From Mr. Id

Although perhaps offered as a compliment, Mr. Id respectfully, if emphatically, requests anyone 20 years or more younger than he resists the urge to offer the following: "You're in good shape, for someone your age." The sentence can end, effective immediately, with the word "shape".

Additionally, Mr. Id suggests a moratorium on the word "spry" when referring to anyone over 60 who can play tennis for more than two hours, ride a bicycle 100 miles, ski black diamonds, etc.  Exception: If anyone under the age of 40 inclined to use that age-loaded word will heretofore accept as their descriptor the word "cute" when they themselves are observed completing any non-couch potato physical feat.

It's not over-sensitivity prompting Mr. Id's request and suggestion. Instead, it's the arrogance and magical thinking that those still in their "prime" years are displaying. Mr. Id is tested each time he hears either the ostensible compliment or the age-loaded adjective. His test: To resist uttering this sarcastic rejoinder to the "yut" (nod to Joe Pesci) in question:  "Come talk to me in 20-30-40 years and we'll see whether you had the discipline to keep up a lifelong exercise regimen". Mr. Id hopes everyone does maintain that discipline so he can say "You're in good shape!", without the insulting qualifier.