At Least It Beats Old Dudes With Guitars

Much has already been made of the Super Bowl half-time show. Women over 40 can be hot! Maybe even too hot and spicy! I’m not sure how many more headlines like “Shakira, J. Lo & More Women Over 40 Need To Do All The Things, Please” I need to see, though.

I’m also not sure the takeaways, if any, I have from the performance I watched while drinking a beer at the Starday Tavern, one of the first bars I visited after moving back to Portland (which I could’ve sworn I wrote about). The old-school bar patronized by a gentleman with a tramp stamp saying “Check Me Out,” and who didn’t know the difference between Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck. On this visit, I actually heard someone (a man, naturally) say aloud that he was born in 1975.

Anyway, my initial thought, bolstered by the recent Jennifer Anniston fascination was that duh, you can look hot after 40–even 50–if you have enough money. And you can only remain relevant if you maintain your hotness, obviously. Then you start heading into Madonna hand-wringing territory.