The illusion of youth

What an interesting combination of news stories on a single day:

First:

Bill Clinton hates it, but it is true: He will be 60 on Saturday, and he is often the oldest man in the room.

The former baby-boomer-in-chief and 42nd US president admitted at a world AIDS conference here -- at which delegates serenaded him with "Happy Birthday" -- that his approaching milestone filled him with trepidation.

"In just a few days, I will be 60 years old. I hate it, but it's true," the snowy-haired veteran of two tumultuous White House terms said.

"For most of my working life, I was the youngest person doing what I was doing. Then one day I woke up and I was the oldest person in every room," said Clinton, who was a youthful 44 when he was first elected president, in 1992.

Second:

The Rolling Stones have canceled a second concert in Spain while Mick Jagger recovers from a sore throat. Another date is being sought for the show, which had been scheduled Wednesday in the southern city of El Ejido, said Jose Hurtado, a spokesman for concert promoter Music Frog, on Tuesday.

And lo, and behold, third:

The man who made the Statue of Liberty appear to vanish may soon claim to do the same for unsightly bags and wrinkles. Master illusionist David Copperfield says he has found the "Fountain of Youth" in the southern Bahamas, amid a cluster of four tiny islands he recently bought for $50 million (26.4 million pounds).

"I've discovered a true phenomenon," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "You can take dead leaves, they come in contact with the water, they become full of life again. ... Bugs or insects that are near death, come in contact with the water, they'll fly away. It's an amazing thing, very, very exciting."

I'm sure the possibility of a rejuvenated Keith Richards touring for ANOTHER 97 years has to be somewhere on the list of "Top Signs the End of the World is Near." I can see Copperfield's grand opening now, complete with the Strolling Bones playing their new remix "ReStart Me Up..."