Reporter Pamela Paul kicked off a story in today’s New York Times Style section with the declaration that “most young people would prefer to be older and most old people yearn to be young.”  Actually, that’s not the case.  Aspects of youth do indeed appeal, but these are pangs, not ongoing yearnings.

Wincingly titled “The Loin in Winter,” a story on the front page of the New York Times describes Hugh Hefner’s work-, travel-, and fun-filled life.  Granted, not too many octogenarians would have a slew of 20-somethings eager to move in, as did Hef after breaking up with his “No. 1 girlfriend” last fall.  (He picked three blondes; don’t miss the photo.)

In Slate’s geezer-centric issue, Daniel Engber takes a lucid look at sexual activity — or, more likely, its prohibition — in an article titled "Naughty Nursing Homes."  Engber cites an August 2007 article in the New England Journal of Medicine  about sexual activity among older people. Some predictable findings: people who described themselves as healthy were more likely to be sexually active, women were less so then men, and sexual activity declines with age. But not so fast!

“The men I know are all looking at 80-year-old women,” says Murray Katz. Given his age, it’s not exactly a shocker; Katz is 82. But as this article by Frank Greve in the McClatchy Newspapers describes, Katz and his friends are part of a growing trend. Along with living longer, Americans are defying the stereotype of the sexless senior in record numbers. They’re not just hooking up, “they're the fastest-growing users of Internet dating services and the fastest growing group of cohabiters.”