Top Ten List of Great Things about Turning Sixty-Four

1) 64 is the same as 8², 4³, and 2⁶. No other age within a normal human lifespan reaches a sixth power. The only other age that reaches a fifth power is 32—that is, 2⁵—which just happens to be the age my daughter will turn in ten days, because I just happen to have given birth to her when I was 32. 

2) 64 is the smallest number with exactly 7 divisors, and the smallest whole number that is both a square and a cube. 

3) 64 is the number of squares on a chess or checker board. 

4) 64 is the number of crayons in the perfect box of crayons. 

5) 64 is the minimum age of the world's oldest known wild bird, Wisdom the Laysan Albatross. 

6) The Yellow Warbler was the #64 species on my life list. I saw my first on June 26, 1975.

7) I turned into a teenager in 1964. That seemed like a momentous milestone at the time. 

8) The TV show Jeopardy!, hosted by Art Fleming, first aired on NBC in 1964. 

9) The Beatles' album, Meet the Beatles, was released in 1964.

10) John Lennon, demonstrating why the Beatles deserved their acclaim, announced in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964 that they'd never perform for a segregated audience. And Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.

11) The Beatles made this the perfect age for determining whether my sweet baboo will still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, and a bottle of wine, and whether he'll still need me and feed me. And the answer is YES!

(ALL my "top ten" lists include 11 things because my birthday is 11/11. So there.)