A large Gallup poll of more than has found that “by almost any measure, people get happier as they get older.” The tone is skeptical: “[Getting old] sounds miserable, but apparently it is not.” The methodology is impeccable: researchers surveyed 340,000 Americans aged 18 to 85. The conclusion is clear: “good news for old people, and for those who are getting old.”  In other words, for everyone.

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.)

Judith Warner’s “I Feel It Coming Together” post on her "Domestic Disturbances" blog, excerpted in Sunday’s New York Times, bemoans the fact that it’s all downhill after age 44. “I now see the passage of time more as a kind of bell curve,” she writes. “Years of ascension, soaring anticipation, followed by a plateau — which is not so bad, really — and then, no way to sugar coat this: a rather precipitous decline.” So long forever to “excitement, discovery, intensity.”  

Oh please.

I’ve blogged several times about “U-shaped happiness curve” studies  that show Americans to be most content at the beginning and end of their lives. Another one, the “August National Well-Being Index,” was released by Gallup on September 10th.  (Great news: Americans’ grip on their flotation cushions has relaxed by .07% since January!)

I’ve been working on the Introduction for the book proposal, and am delighted by the fact that a number of ideas fell nicely into place. One of them was the framing of three central paradoxes of aging well.  The first I knew intuitively.  The third one was a complete surprise when I encountered it through my reading; then (duh!) I realized that it mirrored my own experience. The second one I only figured out a few weeks ago, while trying to synthesize research findings.

Sounds improbable, doesn’t it? We tend to think of the United States as a bumptious country where youth culture rules, where the elderly are sidelined as an unpleasant reminder of sagging flesh and dimming prospects. Yet, as I’ve noted on this blog, several recent surveys of happiness at different ages show that the elderly come out ahead.

This Associated Press article brought to my attention by geriatrician Hilary Siebens chirps, “It turns out everything doesn't go downhill as we age — the golden years really are golden.” A three-decade study of 28,000 people conducted by Yang Yang, a University of Chicago sociologist, showed older Americans to be the happiest at every stage.

Every Valentine's Day Daniel Jones reaches for an uber-comment on the human condition for the New York Times’ “Modern Love” column. (Full disclosure: this is the first part of the Sunday paper I turn to.) This year’s springboard was a new study of happiness patterns conducted by researchers from the University of Warwick and Dartmouth College.