You Look Good for Your Age

Last week I drove to LA to meet Aaron and his new girlfriend, Regine. We had dinner at a retro restaurant, the HMS Bounty. Complete with large, upholstered booths, nautical paraphernalia, and red-glowing buoy lights, the Bounty is adjacent to the Gaylord Apartments, the ample lobby of which sports photos of '20s and '30s film stars and display cases of memorabilia, presumably of those who once graced the rooms of the establishment

On Sunday I saw Aaron again, and he told me that Regine had said I look good for my age and that her father, whom he met last week for the first time, looked good too. I looked at him and said, "Well, Son, and you look good for your age too."

"Thanks, Mom," he said with a bright smile and so the following banter, so typical of our interactions, began.

Aaron: Maybe we should start saying that to young people, you know, like to 16-year-old girls. Just when they're feeling insecure about their bodies.

Heidi: Well, Son, that would take on a whole different meaning. "You look good for your age" would mean "Oh, I see that your breasts are fully developed."

A: Yeah, I see what you mean. How about "You look good for your age." (As he said this, he motioned with his hand as if to include the entire milieu.) Like say that to someone from the Middle Ages.

H: Yeah, like: "Everyone else of your time looks like shit, living as they are in cold, damp, rat-infested hovels, eating moldy bread and rotting meat, and fighting off the plague, but you, you look good for your age."

I just love these insights into the language, these plays on words. What fun language is!