ProZ.com Translation Forums

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Grandmother

Philip Lees — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:46:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Philip Lees
Post title: Grandmother

[quote]The Shredder wrote:

Older people previously didn’t have the money or health to be having fun later in life. And it wasn’t the done thing, perhaps. [/quote]
My grandmother used to throw great parties. Don't forget that hers was the generation that lived through WWII - the Blitz and so on - when having fun at home, despite what was going on, could be considered as a gesture of defiance.

Translator resources | Interpretation project in France and Georgia.

yugoslavia — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 01:52:00 +0000

Forum: Translator resources
Topic: Interpretation project in France and Georgia.
Poster: yugoslavia

Dear French colleagues from Proz.com,

I hope you are doing well in France and also in other European countries.

I'm writing to you because I was hired for an interpretation project in Paris, France, and the country of Georgia. I have some questions for those who live in France and are familiar with the country.

Do they have shuttle services from Orly International Airport in Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport? Or shuttle services to the hotels?

Do you know if they have trains or buses from both airports? (Orly and Charles de Gaulle)

I sent a message to the airport, but I haven't gotten a response.

I need to take a flight from that airport to Tbilisi, Georgia. I haven't traveled there in many years. I was last there more than 24 years ago. They have many new buildings now.

Do you know a good travel website or travel agency where I can find a hotel for a good price close to Orly Airport in Paris? Or close to the Latin Quarter neighborhood in Paris? We may stay in Paris for two days. I will be Interpreting in two conferences there.

We may travel there in around seven days. Feel free to write to me in Spanish.

Thanks for your help and advice.

Yugoslavia.

Scams | Impersonation of Flynde Translation Solutions using real translators' names

Andrea Capuselli — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 17:33:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Impersonation of Flynde Translation Solutions using real translators' names
Poster: Andrea Capuselli

ProZ.com has received reports of scammers impersonating legitimate translation companies and, in some cases, professional translators in order to recruit linguists for fraudulent translation projects.

One company known to have been impersonated is Flynde Translation Solutions, which has confirmed receiving multiple reports of this type of fraud. According to the company, the scammers frequently:

- Claim to represent legitimate translation companies while using generic email addresses (such as Gmail) instead of the company's official domain.
- Use the names and profile photos of real translators without their knowledge or permission.
- Offer unusually high translation rates or unusually attractive working conditions to encourage quick acceptance.
- Misrepresent their affiliation with legitimate companies.

If you receive an unsolicited translation offer, especially one that seems unusually lucrative, we recommend that you:

- Verify that the sender's email address matches the official domain of the company they claim to represent.
- Independently confirm the sender's identity through the company's official website or contact information.
- Be cautious of requests for personal information, payments, or other sensitive data.
- Report suspicious communications to the company being impersonated and, whether you received the communication through the site or not, to ProZ.com Support.

Please note that the use of a translator's name or photograph in these scams does not imply that the translator is involved. In one reported case, a translator whose identity was being used confirmed that they had no connection whatsoever with the company the scammer claimed to represent.

As always, if an offer appears too good to be true, take a moment to verify its legitimacy before responding.

You can always reach us at ProZ.com/Help

Scams | Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank | No evolution

William Bowley — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 16:53:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank
Poster: William Bowley
Post title: No evolution

The strangest part of these "offers" is that with all the technology (yes, even AI) presently available, people still fail to write a remotely believable professional text, when this has never been easier.

It's as if it's a copy/paste from 30 years ago.

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Scraped knees and lasting friendships

expressisverbis — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 15:35:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: expressisverbis
Post title: Scraped knees and lasting friendships

One memory that seems to unite many of us in Generation X is falling off our bikes.
We'd simply get up, brush ourselves off, wipe the blood from a scraped knee, and carry on as if nothing had happened. Looking back now, it still makes me smile.
Those were simple times, but they gave me memories and friendships that have stayed with me ever since.
I also think resilience is one of the defining traits of Generation X. Those childhood experiences taught us that falling wasn't the end of the story. You got back up, learned from it, and kept going.
Somehow, that became a lesson for life, at least for me. It's probably one of the reasons I don't subscribe to the idea that everything is doomed in our profession.

Confession: I absolutely hate the '80s. 😂
But I do love having grown up as part of Generation X. Those are two very different things.

Off topic | Do you procrastinate? | YES

Zea_Mays — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:50:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Do you procrastinate?
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: YES

I find procrastination annoying, but what I procrastinate even more.

Scams | Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank | @Sandra

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 10:47:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Post title: @Sandra

Red flags all over. It looks very much like an impersonation:

[url removed]
[url removed]

As I couldn't find her email address, I would contact her through LinkedIn...

Scams | Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank

expressisverbis — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:42:00 +0000

Forum: Scams
Topic: Impersonation of a legitimate USA bank
Poster: expressisverbis

Has anyone else received emails like this recently?

This morning, I received an unsolicited "project opportunity" from someone claiming to be the Chief Customer Officer of M&T Bank, USA.
However, the email was sent from a Gmail address rather than an official corporate domain.
The message was very vague, contained no project details, and simply invited me to reply for more information.
Whether this is a phishing attempt or another type of scam, it appears to be an impersonation of a legitimate company.
It's a good reminder to verify the sender's email domain before responding to unsolicited offers, especially when they claim to represent a well-known organization.
Has anyone else received similar emails impersonating banks or other major companies?
Be careful!

Here's the email:

"From: Krista Phillips

Dear sandra Flor Ferreira dos Santos,

I hope this message finds you well. My name is Krista Phillips, and I serve as the Chief Customer Officer, M&T Bank, USA.

I am reaching out to present an exciting project opportunity that I believe could be of great interest to you. I would love to collaborate with you on this endeavor, and if you're interested, I’d be happy to share all the necessary details.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to your positive response.

Warm regards,

Krista Phillips
Chief Customer Officer
M&T Bank, USA.
P.O. Box 1302 Buffalo, NY [phone removed] "

Translation Theory and Practice | Getting my book? | Yes

Samuel Murray — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:01:00 +0000

Forum: Translation Theory and Practice
Topic: Getting my book?
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Yes

[quote]Gregor Trebec wrote:
Who should I contact? The agency? [/quote]
Yes. You have no relationship with the end-client, so you should not communicate with the end-client.

If the book is truly published, and is free, you can of course follow the route that any member of the public would follow when they want to get a copy of the book.

Translation Theory and Practice | Getting my book?

Gregor Trebec — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 08:54:00 +0000

Forum: Translation Theory and Practice
Topic: Getting my book?
Poster: Gregor Trebec

Hi,

I want to get the book that i translated, when it is done. The book is free of charge therefore i assume it wouldn't be too much problem. It is Slovenian book translated into English by me, for Canadian region. Who should i contact? The agency?

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Nuance

The Shredder — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 06:25:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: The Shredder
Post title: Nuance

You might well be right, Philip. My kids have turned out fine, despite my best efforts, but my partner’s daughter is stuck down a phone-based spray-tanned fast-fashion rabbit hole of unfathomable entitlement.

I find people bleeding on about lattes and avocados in the broadsheets somewhat irksome, but I do see the young wasting money left, right and centre. Their lifestyles seem much more lavish than ours at their age. But wages are low, jobs are being lost rapidly to AI and housing is so much more expensive now. At some point they’re going to have to buckle down and fund my pension.

My point about affording to have fun also works retrospectively, I think. Older people previously didn’t have the money or health to be having fun later in life. And it wasn’t the done thing, perhaps. And lots of them were still working.

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Fun

Philip Lees — Tue, 04 Aug 2026 04:50:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Philip Lees
Post title: Fun

[quote]The Shredder wrote:

*can afford to have fun [/quote]
I do appreciate your point, Chris, but I really don't think that's it.

I would certainly not necessarily equate having fun with spending money, and actually I think I would feel sorry for anyone who did.

When I was a kid, in the 1950s, most of the things I and my friends did for fun didn't involve money at all. Apart from that, my family used to throw parties, where people would do "turns" and we played silly party games. They were great fun. Do people even do things like that any more?

Fun means different things to different people, and involves many aspects, but I would say that two essential components for having fun are: 1) exercising your imagination, and 2) having a well-developed sense of the ridiculous, the absurd. With those skills at your disposal, you can have fun doing not very much at all. But I think the constant media bombardment people are subjected to nowadays must make it much harder to develop those skills.

Back to my early childhood, we had a radio in the house, but no TV until I was 6 or 7 (most people didn't). We used to read a lot, which is a great way to develop the imagination, and we would take stories from the books and act them out in our kids' games. My parents would bring a new batch of books from the local library every couple of weeks.

Do kids even read books any more?

I know this isn't the kind of fun Maria Teresa's quoted article was talking about, but I think once you've learned to have fun, you never forget how to do it, and the fun you have as a child gets extrapolated into different activities during adulthood.

But some people never learn.

[Edited at 2026-08-04 04:52 GMT]

[Edited at 2026-08-04 05:45 GMT]

ProZ.com technical support | It takes forever for a job listing to open.

José J. Martínez — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 17:18:00 +0000

Forum: ProZ.com technical support
Topic: It takes forever for a job listing to open.
Poster: José J. Martínez

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | unique strengths

Lucas Fischer — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 14:06:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Lucas Fischer
Post title: unique strengths

Ageing disgracefully sounds more like embracing life than resisting it. Many Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have shown how adapting to change — from typewriters to AI — keeps us vibrant. Instead of focusing on generational divides, it’s inspiring to see how each group brings unique strengths. Living with curiosity and humor may be the best way to age “disgracefully” yet gracefully.

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Ageing disgracefully?

Daryo — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 12:36:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Daryo
Post title: Ageing disgracefully?

Sounds like a far more interesting variant.

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Generations

expressisverbis — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 11:18:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: expressisverbis
Post title: Generations

Much of today's public discussion focuses on Baby Boomers, Millennials, and Gen Z.
But Gen X is sometimes called the "middle child" of generations because it receives comparatively less media attention.
However, let's keep in mind that they learned to use typewriters, fax machines, floppy disks, dial-up internet, smartphones, cloud computing, and AI.
They remember finding information in libraries and paper encyclopedias, but they also adapted to search engines, smartphones, and now AI.
Of course, it's worth remembering that people's personalities and values are shaped by many factors (temperament, family, education, peers, culture, opportunities, and their own choices over time) besides the years in which they were born.

Off topic | Transferring PC-PC | .exes

Gjorgji Apostolovski — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:48:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Transferring PC-PC
Poster: Gjorgji Apostolovski
Post title: .exes

I think that from pc to pc for .exeS the best way would it be to reinstall them freshly on the new pc and new OS, but if you have any licensed software locked on machine Id you might got problems.

Winpinator allows you to transfer files (no .exes) via local wi fi network. So, no usb cables, external drives...
Also works from Windows to Linux and vice versa.

AI for translators and interpreters | What to do starting in September | Well..

Gregor Trebec — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:36:00 +0000

Forum: AI for translators and interpreters
Topic: What to do starting in September
Poster: Gregor Trebec
Post title: Well..

What to do, what to do... :D

AI for translators and interpreters | What to do starting in September

MassimoA — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:04:00 +0000

Forum: AI for translators and interpreters
Topic: What to do starting in September
Poster: MassimoA

Translation will exist forever; the sector will never face a crisis.
The evolution of AI will necessitate the creation of new roles - such as AI verifier or AI-assisted interpreter (a role that, in theory, anyone could perform).
We need to give this serious thought starting in September.
Happy holidays, everyone.

MemoQ support | Import filter for markdown files wanted | Cascading filter

CafeTran Trainer — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 07:50:00 +0000

Forum: MemoQ support
Topic: Import filter for markdown files wanted
Poster: CafeTran Trainer
Post title: Cascading filter

A kind person uploaded this cascading filter that she wrote:

[url removed]

You have to subscribe to the mQ Group first:

[quote]In order to prevent spam, subscriptions by e-mail via the Subscribe address [email removed] will only be accepted if you add a brief reason why you wish to join the group.[/quote]

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Correction 😉

The Shredder — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:59:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: The Shredder
Post title: Correction 😉

[quote]Philip Lees wrote:

Summing up some of the main points of the article:

1. Our generation - the baby boomers - know how to have fun.

2. Subsequent generations don't.

3. That's why they resent us. [/quote]

*can afford to have fun

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully | Fun

Philip Lees — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:45:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Philip Lees
Post title: Fun

Summing up some of the main points of the article:

1. Our generation - the baby boomers - know how to have fun.

2. Subsequent generations don't.

3. That's why they resent us.

Off topic | Do you procrastinate? | Not today

Philip Lees — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:35:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Do you procrastinate?
Poster: Philip Lees
Post title: Not today

I was going to respond to this topic, but then I decided to leave it until later in the week.

[Edited at 2026-08-03 04:36 GMT]

Off topic | Transferring PC-PC | Use backup software

Samuel Murray — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 15:43:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Transferring PC-PC
Poster: Samuel Murray
Post title: Use backup software

[quote]Gregor Trebec wrote:
I want to transfer programs to the new PC via USB keychain. Google says it cannot be done and programs should be downloaded, installed from fresh. [/quote]
Yes. You have to find the installers for the software and install them one by one.

Alternatively, use backup software to create a "mirror" of your existing computer and then transfer that mirror onto the new computer. This will overwrite anything that is on the new computer (so, e.g. if the new computer has Windows 11 and your old computer has Windows 10, transferring a mirror would remove Windows 11).

E.g. in Macrium Reflect you'd select the option "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows". Macrium will create the mirror file somewhere e.g. on an external hard drive. Then you'd have to figure out how to transfer the mirror onto the new computer.

AI for translators and interpreters | AI cyber-security incidents | Same here

Angie Garbarino — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 15:13:00 +0000

Forum: AI for translators and interpreters
Topic: AI cyber-security incidents
Poster: Angie Garbarino
Post title: Same here

[quote]Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:

‘ai’ in Portuguese is an interjection used to express pain, distress, displeasure, sadness or astonishment. This meaning seems to be becoming increasingly relevant… [/quote]

Italian: Ahi (che dolore) (written wih H in te middle but pronoucede AI) :)

AI for translators and interpreters | AI cyber-security incidents | let ai bots alone...

Zea_Mays — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 14:46:00 +0000

Forum: AI for translators and interpreters
Topic: AI cyber-security incidents
Poster: Zea_Mays
Post title: let ai bots alone...

and see what happens - Andon Labs experiments:

[url removed]

[url removed]

Chinese | 唱歌吧......(Sing, Sing a Song...) | Stranger On The Shore

pkchan — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:17:00 +0000

Forum: Chinese
Topic: 唱歌吧......(Sing, Sing a Song...)
Poster: pkchan
Post title: Stranger On The Shore

Stranger On The Shore ANDY WILLIAMS
[url removed]

Stranger On The Shore - Acker Bilk
[url removed]

Acker Bilk - Stranger On The Shore
[url removed]

Stranger On The Shore - Patti Page
[url removed]

Kenny G - Stranger on the Shore
[url removed]

[Edited at 2026-08-02 20:35 GMT]

Translator resources | Remote Interpreting Platforms

Ercan Celik — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 13:14:00 +0000

Forum: Translator resources
Topic: Remote Interpreting Platforms
Poster: Ercan Celik

What remote interpreting platforms are you working for? Could you share your resources please?

Off topic | Do you procrastinate?

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 12:25:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Do you procrastinate?
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida

I have never been a procrastinator (work-wise). When something needs done, I do it — as soon as possible. During the heyday of my translation career, when I had more than one project on the go, I always started with the most complex one. So, I found interesting this article in “The Economist”.

“How to stop procrastinating

Thwarting the thief of time

PUTTING THINGS off exacts a hefty toll. One study published in 2013 ranked 22,053 people on a procrastination scale of one to five. Each increase of one point was associated with a drop of nearly $15,000 in annual earnings. Those who habitually engage in “self-regulatory failure”, as procrastination is also known, are more prone to delaying medical treatment. A study of 3,525 Swedish university students published in 2023 found that those who scored highly for procrastination were more likely to suffer debilitating pain.

It gets worse. The same Swedish study also found procrastinators more prone to anxiety, stress and loneliness. A 2025 meta-analysis, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry and covering 88 studies involving 63,323 people in 17 countries, found procrastination and its resulting erosion of self-esteem to be a predictor of future depression. How might procrastination be curbed?

Mental exercises appear to help. One set is known as mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). Popularised in a number of smartphone apps, the idea is simple: picture the benefits of achieving a goal; contrast that image with the main obstacle; and devise a tactic to overcome it. In two randomised trials reported in 2020 undergraduates were given online MCII exercises designed to reduce the delaying of bedtime, which research has linked to procrastination in general. They missed their intended bedtimes by around 38 minutes less each night than those in a control group given advice about healthy sleeping habits.

Exercise shows promise too. A Chinese trial published in March assessed procrastination in 77 male teenagers. Those randomly assigned to 12 weeks of strength training, high-intensity interval training, or a combination of the two, showed “significant reductions” in putting things off. An earlier study of 564 Chinese university students, published in 2022, found that the most physically active also procrastinated less. The researchers speculated that overcoming the stress of exertion gave them a “sense of mastery” that boosted confidence and motivation.

Then there is the question of diet and other habits. A 2024 study of Italian university students found higher procrastination among breakfast-skippers, heavy drinkers and poor sleepers. The researchers speculated that missing the energy from breakfast might hinder “motivation and ability to focus on tasks”. But the skipped breakfasts may have been a consequence of procrastination, rather than a cause: studies have yet to show convincingly that diet affects it.

As for medications, none as yet targets procrastination. But an intriguing finding emerged in 2021 from an American randomised controlled trial. Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder showed significant gains in cognitive executive function, including the ability to get started on tasks, while taking the stimulant lisdexamfetamine rather than a placebo.

These days, opportunities for procrastination are greater than before. Many people work from home, out of the boss’s sight. Smartphones offer endless distractions. In one review published in 2022, each of the 18 studies assessed linked excessive smartphone use to procrastination. Scrolling often delays bedtime, too. Lack of sleep impedes executive function, leading to more failures of self-regulation. It would be helpful if the scientists involved could stop dawdling.”

Off topic | Ageing disgracefully

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 10:13:00 +0000

Forum: Off topic
Topic: Ageing disgracefully
Poster: Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida

As we are starting the “silly season”, I’ve taken the liberty of including an article published yesterday in “The Economist”. The article focuses on people over the age of 55 but under the age of 75. In Portugal, as far as I know, the situation is very different. We “oldies” tend to live alone in our own homes, with our families or in care homes, not in communities.

“Why people over the age of 55 are the new problem generation

Baby-boomers are keeping their bad habits into retirement

THE WORDS “retirement community” summon up images of easy chairs, overcooked food and endless daytime TV. Latitude Margaritaville, a community being built near Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, quickly disabuses these. “There was a toga party this past weekend,” says Lynette, a resident. “There was a live band, and it was a riot.” Barbie, another of the community’s “ambassadors” (residents employed by the developers to help sell it to potential newcomers), compares living there to “starting college all over again”. There are, she says, “drinks on the driveway, cocktails on the concrete”.

If Margaritaville’s residents are representative of their age cohort, there will be a lot more to the toga parties than fancy dress. Whereas young people in rich countries these days are addicted to their phones, more anxious than previous generations and far less likely than them to use mind-altering substances or to party recklessly, their grandparents belong to a generation that experimented with sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. As they reach older age, they are not giving up their old habits.

Among those for whom time’s winged chariot is hurrying a little nearer, drug and alcohol use—and abuse—have surged. And since many have also long since struck coyness from the statute books, sexually transmitted diseases are also spreading. The prevalence of gonorrhoea, to name but one, among Americans aged 55 and up has increased by more than six times since 2010. “Today, older adults are more likely to participate in the hookup culture of casual encounters and condomless sex, which might be further encouraged by the availability of drugs for sexual dysfunction, the commonality of living in retirement communities, and the increased use of dating apps for seniors,” noted Janie Steckenrider in a paper in the Lancet.

Similar increases are evident elsewhere. Though in the four years to 2023, the number of new syphilis infections among young adults in England fell slightly, cases in those over the age of 65 grew by 31%. That is despite it having already shot up in the previous five years. (Happily, this trend does not apply to HIV, the number of new infections of which is falling globally.)

In the past, revolutionary and reckless youth worried politicians. These days the oldest strain public services, wreak havoc on national politics and account for a growing share of social problems. Elderly revellers are numerous: the number of people over 65 is growing across the rich world. In Britain they are more than a fifth of the population. And they want to have fun. In a way, those over the age of 55 but under the age of 75—roughly speaking, the baby-boomers and some of what is referred to as “Generation X”—are the new problem generation.

What makes them so reckless? For one thing, there’s the attitudes to drink, drugs and sex. In the two decades to 2023 the proportion of people aged 18 to 34 in America who “ever have occasion to use alcoholic beverages” declined from 72% to 62%, according to Gallup, a pollster. Yet among those over 55 alcohol use increased to 59% from 49%.

Similar trends are visible almost anywhere you look across the rich world. “While younger Australians are drinking at less risky levels, there’s been a significant increase in risky drinking by older Australians,” reported the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, an Australian charity, in 2022. Such has been the shift that older Australians are now more likely to drink at dangerous levels than people in general. In France alcohol consumption has dipped among all groups in recent years. But it is the young who are forsaking it the most. “There is a loss of wine transmission within families,” complained Bernard Farges, the head of France’s wine-producers industry group, in an interview with Les Echos, a financial newspaper.

What applies to alcohol also applies to other mind-altering substances. In America cannabis use has risen sharply among older cohorts—perhaps unsurprisingly, given that it is now legal in a majority of states and the baby-boomer generation used cannabis the most when they were young. (Both Barack Obama, a member of a high-school “Choom Gang”, and more recently, Kamala Harris, have admitted extensive youthful use.)
But the trend is almost as dramatic elsewhere. In Spain the share of people aged 55-64 who report having used cocaine in the past year has increased eight-fold in 15 years. In England people well into their 50s are “getting back on it like they used to” at festivals, says Fiona Measham, an academic at the University of Liverpool who studies drug and alcohol use.

Then there’s sex. Divorce rates in the rich world are generally falling (in large part because far fewer people are getting married in the first place, and those who do tend to wait until they have found a good match). But they are rising among pensioners. In 2022 more Japanese couples divorced after at least 20 years of marriage than ever before, even though the rates have declined among younger groups. More than one in four Americans over the age of 60 lives alone. That does not, however, necessarily mean that they are having less sex. One study from the Netherlands found that the percentage of people over the age of 75 who report being sexually active leapt from 16% in 2014 to 27% less than a decade later.

Sexy oldies
The behaviour of the boomers stands in striking contrast to that of their children, who are proving surprisingly tranquil. But this is a generation that has always been chaotic. On both sides of the Atlantic, the baby-boomers and then Generation X were born to parents who had rushed out of war and into prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, marrying young, having children early and raising them with a bare minimum of attention. They grew up breathing the fumes of leaded petrol (long associated with impulsive behaviour) and watching social mores collapse. They had access to contraception, abortion and pop music.

More subtle trends may also be in play. For a start, those retiring today are far richer than in the past. In 1993 just over half of people over the age of 65 in Britain owned their homes outright. Now three-quarters do. Second, they now have fewer responsibilities. From the 1970s onwards, as female participation in the labour market increased, grandparents took on more child care. But in the past decade birth rates have plunged, meaning more older people have no children or grandchildren at all. And those who do may be expected to do less now than in the past. Paid-for child care has expanded and in some countries the government provides subsidised nursery places. In the Netherlands, for example, just 2% of grandparents report having to do “intensive” child care. That leaves more time for boozing.

What are the consequences of all this? When youthful excess is rising, it is often seen as a symbol of social decline. Fewer people worry about their ageing parents being wreckheads than the other way round. Similarly, government surveys of drinking, gambling, smoking and the education campaigns intended to stop it focus on youth. America’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which surveys drug use in that country, splits its studies into two groups: under 25s and the rest. But in fact, as viewers of “Shameless”, a TV show set in Chicago (though based on a British show) about a middle-aged drunk, can plainly see, the carefree life comes at a cost, for individuals and for society at large.

Newly single old people—perhaps those attending the toga parties at Margaritaville—may need to be reminded, or perhaps even told for the first time, how easily infections can spread. “Folks are connecting in loving relationships and, quite honestly, in hookups,” says Imara Canady, of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a charity which recently launched an advertising campaign encouraging older people to get tested for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Middle-aged drug taking has consequences, too. In England and Wales deaths of people over 50 made up more than a third of all drug-misuse deaths in 2022, up from just 13% two decades before. Many of those dying come from a thinning cohort of ageing heroin addicts, who have been using for decades. But not all. Deaths caused by cocaine are now far more numerous among the old than among the young. No fewer than 38 people over the age of 50 died from overdosing on ecstasy—a drug usually associated with teenage rave culture—in the four years to 2022. Ms Measham from the University of Liverpool also runs a charity that provides testing kits for people to make sure their illegal drugs are not contaminated. She says older ravers are often less careful than the young. “Younger people are seeking information or advice,” she says. “Older people clearly don’t think they need to.”

Infection and early death are only some of the more obvious problems. A minority of the reckless old are causing more direct mischief themselves: they make up a growing proportion of people arrested and convicted of crimes. It is well known that America’s prisons are increasingly full of older inmates. What is less well understood is that this is not entirely due to inmates ageing inside. Older people make up a larger share of newly convicted criminals these days, too. From 1992 to 2022, among men arrested, the share over the age of 50 tripled, from 5% to 15%, according to data from the FBI. In absolute terms, the number increased by nearly 40%, even as arrests of other age groups tumbled. Similar trends are seen in other countries.

Older folk seem in some ways more prone to political violence, too. A generation ago, the idea of pensioners rampaging was laughable. But when anti-immigration riots broke out across England in August 2024, one of those arrested in Liverpool was William Nelson Morgan, a 69-year-old grandfather. At his court hearing, it was recounted that he shouted at officers arresting him: “I’m fucking 70.” The police officer retorted: “Well, why are you at a fucking riot?” Similarly, of those arrested and charged after the riots in Washington, DC, on January 6th 2021, almost half were older than 40, and the oldest was 81. Of the women arrested (a smaller number) fully a third were in their 50s, far outnumbering any other age group.

Perhaps this is because baby-boomers tend to be an unhappy lot. Surveys suggest that they are more pessimistic about the future than the young almost everywhere. People have always grown more pessimistic as they age, yet there is reason to think this generation is especially—and weirdly—glum. A study by Pew, a think-tank, published a decade ago found that “When it comes to quality-of-life assessments, data suggest the boomers generally have been downbeat, compared with other age groups, for the past two decades.” The more recent data do not seem to mark improvements. Moreover, some rather harder data suggest the baby-boomers (and Gen X) are in essence miserable generations. British figures show, for example, that in the decade to 2023, suicide rates rose sharply for those aged 45 to 65, while falling for those older and younger.

Clearly, not everyone is thriving in old age. Although baby-boomers are doing financially well in aggregate—they own half of the wealth in America, according to the Federal Reserve—many are feeling a pinch. People over 60 in America account for more than a quarter of foreclosures, up from just one in ten 20 years ago, and there has been a similar rise in bankruptcies, data from the New York Fed show. All of those divorces are expensive.

And the flip side of having to do less baby-sitting of grandchildren is that there are fewer youngsters around to help keep grandma and grandpa company. “Isolated and lonely older adults have longer stays in hospitals as well as higher emergency hospitalisation and re-hospitalisation rates and are more likely to be admitted earlier into residential or nursing care,” reported a study published by the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, a Vienna-based think-tank, in 2022.

Toga and tonic
It is all enough to make one turn to drink. When Jimmy Buffett wrote “Margaritaville” in 1977, he was just 31. It seems fair to say he could not have realised what he was setting in motion. The song is a bittersweet lament for the life of a beach bum, helped along by alcohol. “But there’s booze in the blender/And soon it will render/That frozen concoction/That helps me hang on.” Buffett died in 2023, at the age of 76. Today, though, Margaritaville is a real place. Or many of them. It is a chain of bars, a holiday resort and now, most pertinently, it is a group of three retirement communities: there are two in Florida, as well as the one in South Carolina. It is a place that perhaps best represents the ambitions of the baby-boomer generation in retirement.

For most of the post-war period crime, alcoholism, drugs and pregnancy were all rising among the young. And then at some point it stopped. The generations now ageing disgracefully were disgraceful in youth, and in middle age. If they’re behaving badly now, there is really not much to be done about it. If they choose to frolic at toga parties, no one will stop them. Except, ultimately, time.”

Well, well, well… interesting, isn’t it? :roll:

Teresa, who is well over 75…