Ms. Ephron has a lot of accomplishments, a family, many friends, varied and storied experiences. So why is she so damn focused on her neck and other details of her physical appearance? We're designed to age. Our skin wrinkles, our hair gets gray, we get age spots. Big deal. It's not news that it happens, it's not news that most of us would rather not get old and then die. BTW, it's not entertainment either. It just...is.

Surely there are other things to think about, write aobut? I'm pretty sure that her world has not suddenly narrowed, at the age of 65, to a shallow superfiical place where only her looks matter and must be mourned. I'm pretty sure she's still writing, directing, being a wife, a mother, etc. You'd never know it from this interview or her book. Her fear of aging is a drumbeat that drowns out everything else.

I am 42 now, and would not trade my life as it is now to be 20, 25, or 30 again. I've had too many experiences, good and bad, that have shaped who I am and helped me undersand the world and how to relate to it. There are books I consider invaluable; there are people that are the bright shining center of my life, there are places I will never forget and places I've never been but had fun imagining for my whole life, and will continue to do so. There are things I know now I dind't know then that I would not trade to look ten years younger - how to pick my battles, how to negotiate rather than fight to win, the role of my mind in competition, the fact that my body doesn't feel much different than it did 20 years ago when I run a 10k, the satisfaction of building a career, and then a second one. How to trust, be vulnerable, love generously. I've learned all of these things with age and experience, and I wouldn't trade them for a the fountain of neck youth.

I suppose she's just trying to be funny but what's the point? We're all aging, all the time. I guess I just don't see the *need* to find so much humor in it. Aging, after all, is not a calamity. It's just what happens next, every minute. It doesn't deserve so much ink.

Ummm, because it is still better than the alternative? We can stop aging any time we want.

...and who are rejoicing the notion of "getting older," I paraphrase a famous Nora Ephron quote: "I think you are full of shit."

Just wait until it hits you. Even if you are still in your 40s, you have absolutely NO idea what it means, especially if you are a woman, to be in your 50s or 60s in this youth obsessed culture.

And menopause sucks out every last bit of estrogen your body knew and used for the majority of your life. It will turn your life AND your body upside down once the estrogen supply shuts down. Just wait. You'll see.

While it may matter what's on the inside, it's still the outside that the world sees - and all we ever see now is youth and beauty in all of its incarnations, including endless makeover TV shows.

So until all of your get to your 50s and 60s and beyond, I suggest you give the rest of us some slack. We get enough bullshit just for living this long as it is.

"You realize that you actually thought you were going to be the only person who didn't go through menopause," she said.

Why does she insist on writing "you" when she clearly means "me"? Not all of her "insights" are universal. I went through menopause at 45 and it was a breeze. At 50, I don't give crap about the "youth-obsessed" culture, except to enjoy mocking it.

"The constant confusion in life for me is that you honestly do feel bad when you see in the mirror that yet another coup de vieux has happened to you while at the same time understanding that it's better than being dead. There's this gigantic distance between those two things."

I figured this out in my 20s and moved on. Ephron still writes like someone who cares far too much about what other people think of her in regard to utterly superficial matters.

This was a nice profile with some apt back story and a good interview. For some, it underlines what they don't like about Ephron. Fine. It does a solid job of getting across who she is, what she's done and what she thinks about it. What more would one want of a personality piece?

The book also details her personal maintenance, including her wise observation that the "reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don't look the way they used to [is] not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It's because of hair dye."

Actually, women (and men) have been using hair dye for thousands of years.

There are plenty of places in the world where they have hair dye but they don't have feminism or allow women to go to the gym. And forty year old women in those places look much older than sixty year old women here.

Stress also plays a role. Like the stress of war and poverty, for example. And rape and forced childbearing and being politically powerless and all that.

Yes, those are the things that really age women. And we look so young now because we don't have as much of them here as we used to.

It is definitely not the hair dye.

that going through menopause at 45 was a breeze. You may be the only woman I've ever heard that from. I'm with Baby Boomer. I have no problem getting older, I'm happier and more successful and weigh less than I did in my 20s. But I also miss the gloss of 20 year old hair, the perkiness of my behind and the rest of the stuff that no amount of exercise or healthy eating will get back for you. so what, does that make me a shallow person. Why not make fun of it. Nora Ephron strikes me as someone who bring levity to the party, so if you don't like the article stop reading it and move on. Lighten up