On being 72 and in charge

I am taking a french class. I love it. This is my second french class here in the Pac NW and I've been happily dusting off my skillz.

My current instructor is a 72 year-old guy. He's smart, witty and quite spry. But, sometimes in class, he goes off on a tangent. Last night we spent 40 minutes listening to him tell a story about the days when he used to teach out [nearby University that thinks too highly of itself]. The story had a great surprise ending. And although he was talking about something that happened "one time in French class", it had nothing to do with Chapitre Deux and even less to do with en parlent francais. It was just a 40 minute digression. This would have been perfectly acceptable at afternoon tea, not so much for my tuition-paid class.

But, he is 72 and these things are bound to happen. Maybe this is what happened to McCain when he mentioned that the average South Korean is three inches taller than the average North Korean. Sure, the discussion was on Korea, but on nuclear complicity, not the correlation between height and ethnicity.

Is this what we have to look forward to with a 72 year-old president? Are these early signs of dementia?

Whenever Monsieur T goes off track, he says "Don't worry about this story, I am old and crazy, I am allowed to ramble." I have a feeling that might not work so well in a meeting with Ahmadinejad. Well, I guess we don't really have to worry about that, because McCain would NEVER have a meeting with the likes of Ahmadinejad. Ever.