AGE

They say growing old is not for sissies. Apparently, it isn't for the barefoot, either. I broke my foot. Again. Faithful readers of this column will remember that I broke my foot a year or so ago while moving the hose in the yard. I was barefoot that time, too, and I stepped in a hole. I told people it had happened during full-contact gardening. This time, I was safe inside my kitchen, putting groceries away and making a pot of spaghetti sauce on a rainy Sunday night, when I slammed my baby toe into a chair leg and broke the same bone in the same foot.

In an age when faster isn't fast enough and newer isn't new enough, it's easy to overlook the virtues of aging.We assign value to antique furniture, stately homes, classic cars. But at the first gray hair, we shudder with fear as if sentenced to a long, terminal illness."Old age is very hard, and it's no joke. But it's not a disease. That idea is more of an affliction on the old than their own afflictions."So says James Hillman, a prominent Jungian psychologist, talking about his new book, "The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life" (Random House, $24)

ST. MICHAELS -- Here's a state law somebody's mother must have thought up: Imbibers in Garrett County are not allowed to run up a bar tab.Here's another one: In Frederick County, forget about snagging beer from a drive-through window. State law says no.Hiding from the spouse while indulging in Charles County? Careful. Taverns down south must have at least one clear window -- unobstructed from street view. The law says so.The number of laws covering liquor consumption and sales in Maryland is, well, staggering.

NOW THAT the country's given Bill Clinton a pass on his dating habits, we can begin paying attention again to some legitimate reasons to be infuriated by this president of ours, starting with his love-hate relationship with the military while undernourished communities starve for a little affection.The same guy who not only dodged the draft during Vietnam but declared he ``loathed'' the military now wants to increase military spending by $110 billion, building bombs and missiles and warplanes that even the voracious Pentagon says we don't need.

Everybody's doing it -- aging, that is. A century ago, the average American's life span was only 46 years. Now we can look forward to living to be 77, and baby boomers are blasting past 50th birthdays at the rate of 11,500 a day.Not to worry: Rushing to the rescue of the newly gray -- and filling the best-selling bookshelves -- are experts on age and what science is doing to make it better. Hot off the presses is Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld's guide, "Live Now, Age Later: Proven Ways to Slow Down the Clock" (Warner Books, $24)

Quality of voice, a profound knowledge of baseball -- worthy of Phi Beta Kappa recognition -- and the ability to transmit the subject matter with an attention-getting professional presence have carved a distinctive identity for Ernie Harwell. He has been an artist with words, painting vivid pictures; a moving montage, so to speak, from parks and stadiums across the landscape of America.It has been more than 50 years and still he goes on, uninterrupted, defying the aging process and creating a longevity that has informed and entertained generations of listeners.

Quote: "It's nice to see a guy throw that hard that's my age." -- Blue Jays manager Jim Fregosi, 57, on Devil Rays rookie Jim Morris, 35It's a fact: Forty-nine of the Indians' 96 wins have been come-from-behind victories.Who's hot: The Blue Jays have won 28 of their past 41 road games.Who's not: Twelve straight runners have stolen against the Indians' Sandy Alomar since the catcher returned from arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Sept. 5.On deck: If he gets 10 RBIs this week, the Indians' Manny Ramirez will become the seventh major-leaguer with 170 RBIs in a season.

BOSTON -- The 92-year-old woman was sitting in her wheelchair, talking with her psychiatrist at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged, when the phone she carries in a black canvas bag rang. She unzipped the bag and greeted her niece on the line: "Hello, Myrna. I'm in a meeting now. Can I call you back?"The psychiatrist, Dr. Eran Metzger, smiled. A year ago, the woman was so depressed that she had not only lost interest in talking to anyone, but she had stopped eating. Not long after he started her on an anti-depressant, her mood began to improve.

ARE YOU thinking of buying real estate investment trusts (REITs) for high income, often up around 8 percent? Proceed carefully. Here, according to Forbes, June 14, are danger signals:"Dividend shouldn't exceed 80 percent of a REIT's operation funds. Look past financials and examine properties. Gritty properties are the first to lose tenants. Avoid REITs whose debt exceeds 150 percent of equity."START YOUNG: "If you make a $2,000 annual contribution to an IRA at age 25 and stop at age 35, you'll end up at age 65 with $895,612," says Money, July.

JUST TWO WEEKS ago, he appeared the picture of health when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Monday, A. Leon Higginbotham died at the age of 70 after a series of strokes.When he retired in 1993, Higginbotham was chief judge of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. He was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for his contributions to his profession and country, including his landmark multivolume work, Race and the American Legal Process.

Comment on tanning hazards is questioned In this age of media hype and loose reporting standards on the Internet, virtually anyone can write a report or blog on anything and convince the public that it is fact. However, news sources should be held to a higher standard. I question [Larry Carson's] recent report on indoor tanning and the comment ... "Brittany Lietz, a former Miss Maryland who believes her battle with skin cancer was caused by indoor tanning." Is Ms. Leitz qualified to make such a medical diagnosis?

Growing up is all about gaining new friends, skills, privileges and - ultimately - responsibilities. And it seems to me that growing older is all about losing each of the aforementioned, bit by bit, in a most excruciating manner. Wow, what an upbeat beginning to this week's humor column. But now that I am on the cusp of an age I considered "really old" when I was a teenager, I have gained not only some extra pounds, but one weighty, wiser perspective: The attribute that makes or breaks the successful navigation of any life stage is a positive outlook.

After falling for more than a decade, the U.S. suicide rate has climbed steadily since 1999, driven by an alarming increase among middle-aged adults, researchers said yesterday. A new six-year analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that U.S. suicide rate rose to 11 per 100,000 in 2005 from 10.5 per 100,000 in 1999, an increase of just under 5 percent. The report found that virtually all of the increase was attributable to a nearly 16 percent jump in suicides among people ages 40 to 64, a group not commonly seen as high risk.

Everyone wants to meet the new guy. And so as Benjamin Todd Jealous works the room at Baltimore's Annie E. Casey Foundation, there is a receiving line of sorts that forms everywhere he turns. Roslyn M. Brock, vice chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's National Board of Directors, squires the 35-year-old Californian around the reception on the second day of his new job. He is the 17th CEO and president of the NAACP, "the youngest in our history, and THAT is something," she says as applause fills the room.

We seem to have settled the issues of race and gender this election season (although that might be optimistic), so only one rude and divisive issue remains on the table: age. John McCain is old, there's no getting around it. He'd be 72 at his inauguration, the oldest president ever. His hair is white, he protects his cancer-scarred face with a silly hat that makes him look like he is a member of the cast of Cocoon and he moves like the Tin Man because of all the injuries and torture he suffered during his time as a prisoner of war. Barack Obama is young by comparison.

Sometime during my growing up, my mother lopped 10 years off her age and started making the occasional cradle-robbing jokes about my father. There was nasty gossip in our old neighborhood that somebody's cousin had graduated from high school with my mother and knew the truth. But she denied her real age until the end. My mother was actually three months older than my father, a matter we finally sorted out while writing her obituary. Instead of being appalled at the deception, my sisters and I began a quiet speculation: How exactly did she reconfigure her age?

Some lawmakers want to call attention to a little-discussed problem among the nation's senior population: falls. Falls are the leading cause of death stemming from injury among people over age 65, accounting for 1.8 million emergency room visits and $27 billion in health care costs every year. President Bush is expected to sign a measure this week sponsored by Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and passed by Congress that aims to raise awareness - through education and research - of how falls affect seniors and what can be done to protect them.

For children between the ages of 4 and 8 - too old for a child safety seat and too young or small for just a seat belt - a booster seat can be a lifesaver. Studies show that when combined with a shoulder belt, the booster seat can reduce serious injury in a crash by 60 percent. All of Maryland's neighboring states require boosters for children through the age of 7. It's time Maryland caught up. Under current state law, boosters are only required for children through age 5, regardless of weight, and for those who weigh 40 pounds or less regardless of age. That's just not adequate.

Forty-three years ago Willie Carroll Parker conned a man into helping him escape from a prison work camp on the Eastern Shore. For the first few years he evaded the law - moving from city to city and using fake names - but finally he became convinced that Maryland authorities had stopped looking for him. He was wrong. On Wednesday afternoon deputies with the U.S. marshal's office arrested Parker at his home in Clinton, N.C. He is 81 years old and in the care of a nurse. "They said they were going to take me back to Baltimore," Parker said yesterday in a telephone interview from the Sampson County jail, where he is being held.

Baltimore magazine has just come out with a list of 20 "Top Singles." Among them: Del. Jill P. Carter, who is billed as a 40-year-old lawyer and legislator whose worst habit is "avoiding the inevitable." I'd say the habit's working for her. Carter has managed to avoid the passage of time - at least in the magazine. Carter's date of birth, according to the Baltimore City voter registration form she filed in 1982, is June 18, 1963. That makes her 44. Asked why the magazine was under the impression that she'd just hit the big 4-0, Carter said: "Well, it's what I said.