I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

- John Cage

Somebody at my house had a significant birthday recently and, when asked whether it was a good one, replied that birthdays are like plane landings: If you can walk away - it's a good one.

We all laughed, but acknowledged aging has its concerns. For instance, some research indicates it's not necessarily young people who have trouble focusing - it's old people.

The February Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience reported that - beginning about age 40 the human brain begins to have challenges both concentrating on a particular task and tuning out distractions. As the test subjects got older, researchers found, the more trouble they had.

I was smiling when I shared this news with my wife, and she asked why.

"Don't you see?" I said with a grin, "it gives me and our 12-year-old something in common."

She suggested I finish focusing on taking out the trash.

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TODAY'S JOKE: Here's one that I think came from Bill Wood in Hephzibah:

A guy betting at the horse track was losing regularly. Suddenly, he noticed a priest slipping down to the stables and blessing a horse just before it raced.

The guy returned to his seat and was amazed when the horse, a real long shot, won handily.

Slipping back to the stable, he saw the same priest go to another horse and bless it, and sure enough, that horse also won.

This time the fellow followed the priest to the stable area and watched him pray over a particularly sad-looking horse. The fellow raced to the track window and put his entire savings on that third horse.

Then he went back to his seat and watched as the poor animal not only dropped to the back of the race, but suddenly quit running altogether.

The man couldn't believe it. He rushed back to the stable area and found the priest, whom he faced in anger.

"What happened, Father?" he demanded. "All day long you blessed horses and they won. The last race, you blessed a horse and he lost. Now, thanks to you, I've lost all my savings!"

The priest nodded wisely and said, "That's the problem with you Protestants - you can't tell the difference between a simple blessing and the Last Rites."