January 2026

Slippage: Facts, Fiction & Fun

By Karen Bagnard
Posted: 06/26/2025

Humor and facts can get fuzzy. While humor is essential on the aging journey, so are facts. I decided to explore some familiar - or not so familiar - terms we often use in reference to being elders.

“Slippage” is a word coined by Villagers Suzie and Phil Hoge. It evolved out of their playful chiding about forgetting one thing or another. There are plenty of acronyms to describe the same thing in other terms, such as OACU: old age creepin’ up. Jeff Gutstadt and I were having a conversation recently and he could not remember something he wanted to tell me. He finally shrugged his shoulders and stated that his CRS was acting up. Knowing he is a retired doctor, I assumed it was a medical term… perhaps cognitive-something-something. I finally asked him what CRS was. He matter of factly replied,  “Can’t remember shite (Irish spelling).”  

There’s also the term “brain fart.”  I was so surprised when I heard Bruce Christensen use this since he is usually so articulate! Gary Smith has been heard using the term WAG when describing his attempts to find the word on the tip of his tongue. Often, he just takes a  “wild ass guess.” When I shared this with my ex-husband, he supplied his term: SWAG or scientific wild ass guess.

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines  SLIPPAGE as: (1) a reduction in the rate, amount, or standard of something. Memory loss happens at all ages and the cause can be anything from stress, to depression, to sleep deprivation, to overdoing it with multitasking. Certain medications can interfere with our memory. Even your grandkids can have “senior moments!”

Of course it’s fun to use these expressions, but just know that when you have a senior moment,  trouble with your CRS, feel OACU or have a “brain fart”, it likely may have nothing to do with your age!  

So there you go. Relax and carry on with whatever you were doing. If you can’t remember what you were doing, find something else to do. Enjoy life with the knowledge that, while memory may fade at times, your wisdom never will!