At 10:38 PM 5/15/97 -0500, Uncle Fester wrote:

    Let's just see a show of hands (or canes, if you choose), of
the ML members over the age of 40.

  <adjusts trifocals>
   I'm just a few years shy of qualifying.  The demographics of the ML
reflects the greater percentage (as compared to general population) of
college students with net access.  It may also reflect the fact that
university anime clubs are often the only or dominant anime clubs in many
communities.  As it happens, I did not become interested in Anime through
any university club (although I am now an officer in the U of C Japanese
Animation Society).  I was introduced to it by a friend from Honk Kong.

The "senior citizens" bring perspectives and provide insights that a
twenty-something year old won't have.  As Uncle Fester pointed out, he has
not only been a teenager, he has now raised some.

Aging of the mind is not a physiological process.  A youthful mind is
independent of chronological age.  I was talking yesterday to Robert Fogel,
Nobel laureate in Economics, who didn't even finish his Ph.D. until he was
37 and who is now over 70.  As one who has had him for a teacher, I can
testify that only his body has slowed down.
 
People also should remember that many of their favorite artists are in the
Over 40 Club.   

                                                                 dml