THIS IS 50
Holiday Movie Checklist
How many of these have you accomplished?
—Mike Zimmerman
▢ Made others miserable with your excessive gloom (A Charlie Brown Christmas, 1965).
▢ Made others miserable with your excessive cheer (Elf, 2003).
▢ Made peace with your delinquent sibling for one day for Mom (The Year Without a Santa Claus, 1974).
▢ Spent a holiday by yourself (Home Alone, 1990).
▢ Crashed an office holiday party (Die Hard, 1988).
▢ Cursed out a customer service rep (Planes, Trains and Automobiles, 1987).
▢ Got your tongue stuck to a frozen pole (A Christmas Story, 1983).
▢ Resolved to be a better person—and acted accordingly beyond New Year’s (Scrooged, 1988).
ON AGING
Minnie Driver
Q: Now that you’re in your 50s, are you making any lifestyle changes?
A: No, I’m just carrying on living my life. I refuse to subscribe to age as the benchmark of anything except wisdom and continued curiosity. I surf every day. I do all the stuff I’ve always done. I watched both my parents live to a great age, and they were as youthful and engaged as they ever were, right to the very end. So, yeah, I don’t make any concessions for age. I suppose I will have to at some point, but that day is not today.
Actress Minnie Driver, 54, plays Queen Elizabeth I on the Starz series The Serpent Queen. Read her interview with Gayle Jo Carter at aarp.org/quickquestions.
21%
Twenty-one percent of 55-year-olds expect to need help from their kids to cover their housing costs in retirement, compared to 12 percent of 65-year-olds and 9 percent of 75-year-olds.
SOURCE: PRUDENTIAL 2024 PULSE OF THE AMERICAN RETIREE SURVEY
The lights! They flash in Purcellville, Virginia, and (below) Las Vegas.
RECREATION
FLIPPING FOR PINBALL
THOSE TILTING, flashing arcade machines are regaining popularity. Helping drive the trend: throwback TV shows like Stranger Things and online maps identifying places to play. A few noteworthy options:
★ Pinball Hall of Fame (Las Vegas) The 368 machines at this 25,000-square-foot site date from the 1950s to a 1992 Addams Family game to Jaws machines released in 2024.
★ Next Level Pinball Shop & Museum (Hillsboro, Oregon) The 27,000-square-foot facility has over 300 pinball machines and 300+ arcade games, from Pac Man to Donkey Kong.
★ Sparks Pinball Museum (New Baltimore, Michigan) Most of the 58 pinball machines are from the ’80s and ’90s, and feature icons of the era such as Indiana Jones and Elvira.
★ Jackpot Pinball Arcade (Purcellville, Virginia) This town has been called “a Gen X playground,” and the arcade’s more than 50 pinball machines are one reason. —Ken Budd