The age-to-pee ratio

There are some things about aging that are a constant.

Here's one: The older you are, the more times you're likely to need to pee. It's the age-to-pee ratio.

It is such a constant that the need to pee is big business for pharmaceutical companies. If the vast number of television commercials are to be believed, we Baby Boomers are a generation that's always looking for a bathroom.

The sad part is they're right.

I don't go anywhere without knowing where a bathroom is. The grocery store where I shop, the bank where I bank, the church where I pray all have bathrooms that have "Welcome Paul" signs.

If I drive from my home in New Hampshire to visit my daughter in Connecticut I know just the rest stop on Interstate 84 where I'll have to stop to pee. If the state of Connecticut ever closes that rest stop as a budget savings measure, I'll have to do one of two things: 1) stop visiting my daughter or 2) bring a bottle or something to pee in.

There are ratios ... way too many, in fact.

The age-to-weight ration. The age-to-cholesterol ratio. The age-to-unruly eyebrows ratio.

In all cases the older you are, the more there is -- weight, cholesterol and unruly eyebrows.

It seems odd to have my barber ask if he can trim my eyebrows for me. But it's satisfying nevertheless to get it done.

There's one inverse ratio: Age to hair, mostly for men.

The amount of hair on your head is inverse to your number of years. The older you are, the less hair you're likely to have.

On your head, that is.

The exception is your eyebrows, and your nose hair, and your ear hair.

We get more hair where we don't want it as we age, less hair where we want it.

The age ratios are the joke that nature loves to play on us Boomers as we try to hold onto the notion that we'll never grow old.

Baseball by day when possible please

As a sworn citizen of Red Sox Nation I have to begrudgingly acknowledge that the New York Yankees have won their 27th World Series championship. Their ticker tape parade is today in New York City.

While that bugs me, it's not what's really on my mind today.

Nighttime baseball is on my mind. In particular I'm wondering why two of the World Series games between the Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies that were played last Saturday and Sunday were played at night.

I'm disappointed those games weren't played during the day.

I'm not a baseball purist. I do like use of the designated hitter in the American League. And I like nighttime baseball games.

But for something as special as the playoffs and the World Series, I think when possible there should be day games. I think of my nephew Zach, who during this year's playoffs with the California Angels wasn't allowed to stay up for the night games with the Red Sox during the week because of school the next day. He was one unhappy fan.

Of course I realize there are economic forces that far exceed the interests of baseball fans.

A Saturday day game would have competed with college football. A Sunday day game would have competed with professional football. I guess that's what happens when a summer sport encroaches so far on fall.

Fox's coverage of the first four games of the World Series was a winner in the weekly prime-time ratings race.

Fox took the top three spots for its prime-time coverage of the World Series between Oct. 26 and Sunday, averaging 14.68 million viewers per game, according to figures released Tuesday by Nielsen Co.

The New York Yankees' 7-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 on Sunday was the week's most-watched program with 22.76 million viewers. It was also the most-watched Game 4 since 2004, when the Boston Red Sox wrapped up their first World Series title since 1918.

(Damn, the Yankees beat us again.)

I just wish that economics -- that constant hunt for profit -- wouldn't always trump tradition.

There's a tradition to day baseball. It means the kids who we want to be fans when they become adults don't have to go to bed because it's getting so late at night. It means that those of us who struggle to stay awake beyond 10 p.m. (and I'm certainly a guilty party there) can watch a game all the way through.

Fox made a lot of money with night games. I lost sleep.