New Tricks for Old Dogs

Book excerpt: 28 hilarious "self-help" lessons for seniors who've heard it all. With age comes wisdom. Mostly, we become wise enough to realize that we can’t do some of the things we did so well when we were young. The beloved comedian George Burns said it quite eloquently: “I can do anything at eighty that I could do when I was twenty. That gives you an idea of what terrible shape I was in at twenty.” Self-help books offer solid, beneficial techniques, but they really only work for the young. Award-winning comedy writer Gene Perret reveals that more mature devotees must adjust these techniques, tweak them, alter them, and in some cases, ignore them completely. New Tricks for Old Dogs points out some of the flaws in the self-help philosophy. It tempers the advice with common sense. The battle cry of this volume is “Do it, but don’t overdo it.” Sometimes, after we reach a certain age, the best exercise program is a good, brisk nap.