Andy Rooney on Living Well In New Jersey

I've been thinking of moving to New Jersey because last week I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that said that Asian-Americans "lived well in the Garden State." The Garden State is New Jersey.

The article said that Asian-Americans have a life expectancy of 91.8 years, compared to 79.7 for the rest of the population of New Jersey. I know New Jersey, and if you ask me, living there it just seemed that long.

The article reminded me of my friend Ozzie Segerberg who wrote a book in 1982 called "Living to be 100." I think until you get close to 100, living that long doesn't seem like that attractive a goal. I found out that there are more that 70,000 people in the United States over 100 years old.

Research has shown that having a sense of humor and laughing a lot helps people live a long time. To tell you the truth I doubt it, but that's what they say. They also claim that laughing and having a sense of humor reduces stress. I don't know about that, either. Sometimes I think people who laugh a lot just don't understand.

You can change your eating habits, get more exercise and stop smoking but few people can acquire a sense of humor, if they don't already have one.

I've been lucky, I don't eat right, I don't exercise much and I'm an Irish-American, not an Asian-American, but I'm pretty old already and I don't feel as if I'm about to die tomorrow, either.

If I'm not here next week, you'll know I was wrong.
Written by Andy Rooney