50th Birthday

This post originally appeared in the Bloomington Herald Times on June 29, 2005

Well, I'm back. It's been four months since my last column on these pages, or at least, on pages that looked like these, only bigger. Geesh, you turn your back for a few months and look what happens. My word allotment slashed nearly in half! For a chatty woman like me, that's a hard cross to bear.

So where have I been while the Herald-Times was downsizing? Under deadline to revise my American politics textbook. Months of fascinating, but exhausting work, far, far from the world of food.

Except for one thing. Just recently I had one of those landmark birthdays - the kind that end with a zero and, in my case, begin with a 5. A big milestone and a marvelous time of life. Hard to believe that it wasn't all that long ago that a man at 50 was sexy and distinguished while his female counterpart was considered past her sell-by date. What a difference a little power and equality can make.