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Blog archive

June 2025

May 2025

A Day to Celebrate, Connect, and Empower: Older Americans Month at Victory Park
05/30/2025

End of Life: You Do Have Choices!
05/30/2025

Get Moving, Pasadena Village: Walking Toward a Healthier, Happier You
05/30/2025

Music: A Universal Language
05/30/2025

President's Message
05/30/2025

The New Grammar Guardian of Pasadena Village
05/30/2025

Undue Influence: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer
05/30/2025

Village Within a Village
05/30/2025

What do we do now?
05/30/2025

Status - May 10, 2025
05/10/2025

A Tribute to Dad
05/05/2025

A Tribute to Mom
05/05/2025

A Board Director Perspective
05/02/2025

A Death Valley Adventure
05/02/2025

Ask an Architect
05/02/2025

Message from the President
05/02/2025

My 15-Minute City
05/02/2025

Neighboring Anew
05/02/2025

Scam Red Flags
05/02/2025

Sir Beckett, A Woman's Best Friend
05/02/2025

Volunteer Appreciation: Giving a New Level of Love and Caring
05/02/2025

April 2025

March 2025

About Senior Solutions
03/28/2025

Building a Bridge With Journey House, A Home Base for Former Foster Youth
03/28/2025

Come for the Knitting, Stay for the Conversation... and the Cookies
03/28/2025

Creating Safe and Smart Spaces with Home Technology
03/28/2025

Finding Joy in My Role on The Pasadena Village Board
03/28/2025

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!
03/28/2025

Managing Anxiety
03/28/2025

Message from Our President: Keeping Pasadena Village Strong Together
03/28/2025

My Favorite Easter Gift
03/28/2025

The Hidden History of Black Women in WWII
03/28/2025

Urinary Tract Infection – Watch Out!
03/28/2025

Volunteer Coordinator and Blade-Runner
03/28/2025

Continuing Commitment to Combating Racism
03/26/2025

Goodbye and Keep Cold by Robert Frost
03/13/2025

What The Living Do by Marie Howe
03/13/2025

Racism is Not Genetic
03/11/2025

Bill Gould, The First
03/07/2025

THIS IS A CHAPTER, NOT MY WHOLE STORY
03/07/2025

Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art
03/03/2025

Empowering Senior LGBTQ+ Caregivers
03/03/2025

A Life Never Anticipated
03/02/2025

Eaton Fire Changes Life
03/02/2025

February 2025

Commemorating Black History Month 2025
02/28/2025

Transportation at the Pasadena Village
02/28/2025

A Look at Proposition 19
02/27/2025

Behind the Scenes: Understanding the Pasadena Village Board and Its Role
02/27/2025

Beyond and Within the Village: The Power of One
02/27/2025

Celebrating Black Voices
02/27/2025

Creatively Supporting Our Village Community
02/27/2025

Decluttering: More Than The Name Implies
02/27/2025

Hidden Gems of Forest Lawn Museum
02/27/2025

LA River Walk
02/27/2025

Message from the President
02/27/2025

Phoenix Rising
02/27/2025

1619 Conversations with West African Art
02/25/2025

The Party Line
02/24/2025

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski
02/17/2025

Dreams by Langston Hughes
02/17/2025

Haiku - Four by Fritzie
02/17/2025

Haikus - Nine by Virginia
02/17/2025

Wind and Fire
02/17/2025

Partnerships Amplify Relief Efforts
02/07/2025

Another Community Giving Back
02/05/2025

Diary of Disaster Response
02/05/2025

Eaton Fire: A Community United in Loss and Recovery
02/05/2025

Healing Powers of Creative Energy
02/05/2025

Living the Mission
02/05/2025

Message from the President: Honoring Black History Month
02/05/2025

Surviving and Thriving: Elder Health Considerations After the Fires
02/05/2025

Treasure Hunting in The Ashes
02/05/2025

Villager's Stories
02/05/2025

A Beginning of Healing
02/03/2025

Hectic Evacuation From Eaton Canyon Fire
02/02/2025

Hurricanes and Fires are Different Monsters
02/02/2025

January 2025

Slippage: Facts, Fiction & Fun

By Karen Bagnard
Posted: 06/26/2025
Tags: karen bagnard, newsletter july 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!

 

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