🗣️ Who Wants to Live Forever?

 THE CULTURE CODE

🦴 Live Forever? My Knees Disagree

The Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood is 95 and still directing films.
Asked how, he said, “I wake up every day and don’t let the old in.”
Sounds great, but easier said than done when your knees pop like bubble wrap every time you bend down.
Yes, getting old sucks, but the world is obsessed with doing it longer.

🇯🇵 Japan just hit a record: Almost 100,000 people over 100 years old (most still walking to the shops like it’s nothing). That’s more people than live in Liechtenstein (take that, tax havens!). Their secret? Fish, walking, and definitely no doomscrolling at 2 AM.

📈 Global life expectancy keeps climbing. It’s up to 80-86.5 in developed countries — medical science, less smoking, and lots of kale (ugh).

💰 Meanwhile, the Silicon Valley Immortality Club™ aren’t settling for ‘old, but spry’. Bezos, Altman, Thiel, the Google guys… they are all pouring billions into anti-ageing: blood transfusions, gene edits, longevity pills. Anything to dodge the grim reaper (or at least ghost him for a few decades).

🚀 The irony: Space travel—their escape plan—actually ages you faster. NASA discovered that months in space accelerate cellular ageing. So, Bezos and Musk's Mars dreams? They'll arrive more shrivelled than a California raisin (just without the sweetness).

The rest of us? No robo-livers or moon mansions. Just creaky joints and overpriced supplements.
Still, living longer means more time to connect — and complain about “the kids today”.

FAMOUS WORDS

“Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.”
(Walt Disney, 1901-1966)

🎬 Can you name the film?

🗡️ Immortals fighting across time.

⬇️ Answer at the end of this issue

WORD WISE

🐔 Getting Old: The Idiom Edition

Because “elderly” sounds like a medical diagnosis…

• 🐴 Long in the tooth — From horses: the older they get, the more gum recession shows their teeth.
  “My boss is getting long in the tooth — maybe it’s time to retire?”

• ⚰️ One foot in the grave — Medieval shorthand for “basically dead.”

  “At 90, grandad jokes he’s got one foot in the grave.”

• 🐔 No spring chicken — Spring chickens were young and juicy; older ones were tough and chewy.

  “I’m no spring chicken, but I can still outrun my kids (for now).”

• ⛰️ Old as the hills — Hills don’t change, so they’re the go-to metaphor for “ancient.”

  “That joke is old as the hills, Dad, like you.”

💡 PRO TIP: Age idioms are safest when used on yourself, or joking with people you know really well. Drop “no spring chicken” on a co-worker, and it’s ageism. Drop it on yourself and its self-deprecating charm.

 NEWS YOU CAN USE

🌊 Finally, Someone to Talk To (Bring Your Snorkel)

Every pet owner thinks they “get” their animal. “Oh, Mr. Whiskers is telling me he’s hungry again.” (Translation: he’s training you).

My 8-year-old’s convinced she speaks fluent Animal. When her pet lizard ran away, she pleaded, “Come back!” like it was a Disney sidekick. Spoiler: lizards don’t do English. Or guilt. He bolted.

But what if we actually cracked the code? The $10M Coller Dolittle Challenge is bankrolling AI projects to communicate with animals. The first $100K went to scientists proving dolphins use specific whistles as “words”. (Flipper’s probably smarter than half your group chat).

🐋 And whales? Even weirder. Not content with haunting the ocean with their sad songs, humpbacks have been spotted blowing perfect bubble rings at humans — 39 times, 11 whales, 12 encounters. This is not random froth. Think smoke rings, but underwater: precise and intentional. Like Morse code from the ocean’s goth poets.

Meanwhile, humans can’t even talk to each other without wars, shootings, or Twitter meltdowns. Maybe we should fix that before we start swapping knock-knock jokes with dolphins.

💡 PRO TIP: Animal talk is instant conversation fuel. Everyone’s got a pet story or childhood fantasy.

💬 FOLLOW UP: “If you could talk to any animal, what would you ask?” (Watch people waste it on: “Why do you knock stuff off tables?”)

⛔ DON’T SAY: “I already talk with my pet.” (We want to avoid uncomfortable silence, remember?)

TALK TOOLBOX

💀 Death by Job Title

If we do finally talk to animals? If they’re like people, one of their first questions will probably be the coma-inducing: “So…what do you do?”

Humans already butcher this question daily. Most people answer with a job title: “I’m an accountant.”
🥱 Yawn. Great, pass the guacamole (conversation dead on arrival).

A better move: give them a hook, not a label.
Instead of what you are, say what you make happen.

• Boring: “I’m in IT.”

• Better: “I stop offices from bursting into flames when the Wi-Fi dies.”

• Boring: “I’m a teacher.”

• Better: “I spend my days convincing teenagers Shakespeare is cooler than TikTok.”

Small tweak, big difference. You sound human, not like a bot-filled LinkedIn profile.

💡 PRO TIP: When asked, “What do you do?”, practice a one-liner that sparks curiosity. If they want more, they’ll ask.

⛔ DON’T SAY: "I'd rather not say." (Whatever it is, people will now imagine way worse).

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ICONIC

☕ Happy 31st Birthday, Friends

Sept 22, 1994: six unknown actors changed TV forever. It was almost called Insomnia Café, then Six of One, then Friends Like Us.
Thank God they stuck with Friends.

When I came to Japan in ’96, my mum sent me videotapes of TV shows. One fave? Friends. Teachers would gather after closing time at work to watch (with bemused Japanese staff hovering nearby).

🌎 Cultural Impact:

• ‘The Rachel’ haircut became a global obsession.

• The finale drew 50+ million viewers (bigger than most Super Bowls).

• Shown in 100+ countries, with cafés themed after it worldwide (Six in India!)

• The cast went from nobodies to $1M per episode.

• Still the most-streamed sitcom decades later.

Could we BE any more obsessed?

💡 PRO TIP: Never seen it? Ask: “Which Friend never got married?” (Answer is Joey)

💬 FOLLOW-UP: “Which Friend are you?” (People will fight you on this.)

⛔ DON’T SAY: “Their place is huge! In NY, how can they afford it? “(Because it’s a TV show. Get over it.)

BECAUSE THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

 🤖 Bot Bullying: Kick Now, Pay Later

Ever noticed that every new robot demo = humans kicking it?

“Testing mobility,” they say. But it really looks like bullying metal toddlers.
Question is, when will they remember… and start kicking back?

See how quickly it jumps back up? That’s some serious Bruce Lee s**t, right there.

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ANSWER

🎬 ANSWER: Highlander (1986)

Christopher Lambert plays a Scottish warrior cursed with immortality, battling others like him across centuries until only one can survive.

• 🍿 Cultural Impact: Flopped in U.S. cinemas but blew up worldwide, helped by the Queen soundtrack — birthing sequels, a cult TV series, comics, and the immortal line “There can be only one.”

• 🧠 Deep Dive: A Scottish warrior with a French accent, and Sean Connery as a Spaniard (with a Scottish accent). Bit of a mess, but it works!

💬 YOUR TURN: What's your favourite film with immortals?

LAST WEEK

🗳️ What's your perfect 'third space' after work?

A) 🍺 Pub/bar — 22%
B) ☕ Coffee shop — 11%
C) 🏋️ Gym — 11%
D) 🛋️ My sofa (home is fine, thanks) — 56%

💬 Your Two Cents

S.Y: “It really should be the gym though…”

A.C: “Now I'll take the sofa, ta! Then again, I work upstairs, and the sofa is only 30 seconds away!”

Yes, that is definitely worse. 🥱

THIS IS THE END

That's it for #36

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