Here's what I've learned over the past few weeks, while doing interviews for my new book, "Drinking Problems at the Fountain of Youth." Even in 2008--or perhaps especially in 2008--it's considered shocking for a woman of a certain age to own up to that age publicly.

It always goes down...

On my way into Starbucks yesterday I passed a young woman holding a clipboard and trying to engage passersby in her cause. "Do you have two minutes to save the Earth?" she asked. Her face was open and sincere, and on her T-shirt was a picture of unspoiled wilderness. "I'm...