Age

BOSTON - There are days, I am sure, when all parents regard their 14-year-olds as only one-quarter human and their 16-year-olds as barely half grown-up. Even so, this is a touch odd. In California, a bill to lower the voting age passed its first hurdle. It would let 14- to 16-year-olds vote, but only count them as one-quarter of their elders. It would give ballots to 16- to 18-year-olds, but cut them down to half-size. This plan for "Training Wheels for Citizenship" was authored by state Sen. John Vasconcellos, who promoted the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem in the late 1980s and describes himself as "something of an anarchist at heart."

Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist, playwright and essayist, plans to concentrate on Thomas Mann and George Bernard Shaw when he speaks Sunday at Johns Hopkins on "Creativity in Old Age," but he offers a fine example of his topic himself.Mr. Davies, who lives about 50 miles outside Toronto, turned 80 in August but still maintains an on-the-go work schedule. The first of his 30 books was published in 1939, his most recent novel in 1991. "The Deptford Trilogy" is one of his best-known works.

The year: 1764. The place: A royal apartment in London. The players: Herb I. Vore, an animal-rights activist, and Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart. Herb: "Your Wolfie is only 8 years of age. That's too young to be composing. He should be out playing with the other boys and catching disfiguring diseases. He must act like a child and leave the music business to the grown-ups, like Lawrence Welk." Leo: "But he is the toast of the town. He and his sister have performed for the king of England.

IRVING, Texas -- So, the Cowboys beat the bejeebies out of the 49ers yesterday in the NFC championship game. What do you want me to say? That it was surprising? That someone out there was surprised that the best team in the league smacked around the second-best team? Sorry. No one could have been too surprised.We are living in the age of the Cowboys. For better or worse. If their supremely cocky, 10-gallon shtick bothers you, sorry, you're out of luck. It is a Texas thing in the NFL right now. This is the Cowboys' hour.

TORONTO -- Paul Molitor is 37 years old and getting better, which, because he isn't a bottle of wine, makes no sense.What is the portrait of a player, even the best player, at the grandfatherly baseball age of 37? Neither his bat nor his reflexes are as swift and steady as they were. Something somewhere is slowly giving out. Maybe his knees. Maybe his confidence. At the most, the very most, he is maintaining. But certainly not getting better.How, then, do we explain Molitor? Simple. We don't even begin to try. Because there is no explanation.

The conversation was focused on "shooting your age."More specifically, at what stage of a golfer's life should he consider the prime time to post a score the equal of his age.It was conceded to be before age 100 and after age 60. The best score ever recorded by a golfer at any age is 59.Still, the feat which has been described as the most satisfying thrill in the game has been accomplished at a wide variety of ages. It has been recorded even by golfers in their 90s.However, take it from former Piney Branch senior champion Vernon Sullivan, who, at age 72, feels he may be within striking distance of the rare accomplishment.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - The revelations continue to roll in from Latin America, where tougher U.S. immigration scrutiny has forced dozens of players to reveal they are older than they had previously been willing to admit. Birth certificate fraud - particularly in Caribbean countries - is nothing new, but no one knew the true scope of the problem until the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks put American immigration officials around the world on a heightened state of vigilance. So why are so many major-league organizations treating the situation like it's no big deal?

One of the greatest human achievements of the 20th century is the gift of longer life. Americans are living 30 years longer than they did in the early 1900s, and this century is projected to be the first in which the old will outnumber the young. By the time the entire baby-boom generation reaches retirement age, doubling the number of senior citizens to 70 million, the country's demographics will mirror Florida's today. The era of old age is here: Demographers estimate that half of all human beings who ever lived beyond the age of 65 in the history of this planet are alive right now. As life spans stretch to new lengths, more Americans are spending an entire third of their lives as senior citizens.

Sixteen former state employees have filed a class-action federal age discrimination lawsuit against state officials as a result of their firings last year.The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, alleges that employees over age 40 with a substantial time of government service were unlawfully targeted for termination and that the defendants disregarded state merit system rules that should have allowed the plaintiffs to bump into positions held by less senior employees during times of layoff.

CONCORD, N.H. -- Former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander was asked whether, as a result of Sen. Bob Dole's much-criticized television response to President Clinton's State of the Union address, he thought the Senate Republican leader was too old to be president.The question was an obvious one in light of many comments, even among fellow Republicans, that Senator Dole had indeed appeared old and haggard.It also was a question long hanging over the candidacy of the 72-year-old Dole, who would be the nation's oldest president when elected.