"Old age ain't no place for sissies," said Bette Davis, who lived till she was 81, and still had Bette Davis eyes.
According to geriatricians, who try to discover new things about old people, our early and middle years are just a preliminary training period for the pleasures of being an elderly adult - what they refer to as "the happy senescence phenomenon."

With a growing public debt and deficit in Portugal, how can Portugal´s government fulfill its promises without huge loans?

People who might not seem to need them often have second jobs.  A good example of this is the American actress Hedy Lamarr, who was also an inventor who developed a radio guidance system for torpedoes called "frequency hopping" as well as the technology that led to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. 

Everything changes.  The top of Mount Everest was once on the seabed.  You could have paddled barefoot on its summit without getting frostbite.  Sharks would be a different matter.

A window cleaner taking his first tentative steps on the career ladder has one of those rare jobs where you can rise rapidly, without your father owning the business.  Or the ladder.  Should you fall by the wayside, you can climb back up and start again.

Does a sitting duck actually remain in one place, even during the hunting season, when it should really be prepared to duck and dive?  Unless it's a lame duck.  

Hats were commonplace before 3000 BC.  One of the earliest known hats was worn by a Bronze Age man called Otzi - was his name written inside his hat? 

Thanks to Hollywood and John Grisham, most of us now know what a 'rainmaker' is, which is to say a person who brings prestige or business to an organisation through their contacts and past associations.