January 7, 2026
100 years, zero chill
Becoming a Centenarian
A 100-year-old’s journal drops a cliffhanger and the comments go wild
TLDR: A centenarian New Yorker writer’s witty journal shifts into a Trump/Musk “DOGE” aside, then abruptly cuts off, sending readers scrambling to an archive and begging for the next line. The debate: satire vs. too-real politics—but the cliffhanger stole the spotlight and the comments turned it into a full-on mystery.
A legendary New Yorker writer born in 1925 kicks off his centennial year with a cheeky journal—cracking wise about “Feebleman” and the three ages of man (“Youth, Maturity, and You Look Great”)—then swerves into a spicy February entry about politics. He paints a scenario of Trump 2.0 unleashing executive orders and Elon Musk running a brand-new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he explains as a government “efficiency” agency, not the meme coin. And then—bam—the piece cuts off mid-sentence. Cue comment meltdown.
The community doesn’t just react; it performs. One user drops an archive link like a lifeline, while another gasps at the cliffhanger, demanding: “what happened next?” The thread splits: some read the Musk/DOGE bit as wink-wink satire, others call it “too real,” and a calmer crowd just wants more cozy centenarian reflections instead of political whiplash. Jokes fly: Feebleman memes with capes, DOGE puns galore, and quips that the essay “aged like fine wine, but the page aged like milk.” The biggest drama isn’t longevity—it’s the abrupt fade-to-black. Was it a paywall hiccup, an editor’s tease, or Feebleman losing his train of thought? The comments treat the missing line like a season finale cliffhanger, and they’re living for it.
Key Points
- •Calvin Tomkins, born December 17, 1925, begins a journal to document his hundredth year.
- •He reflects on aging, noting good overall health but increasing dependence, and ties his life to The New Yorker, also founded in 1925.
- •He discusses centenarian status and recounts Jeanne Calment’s contested record and her annuity deal in Arles.
- •Tomkins has written for The New Yorker since 1958 and turns to journaling due to memory and eyesight challenges, rejecting idle leisure.
- •In a February 15 entry, he writes that Donald Trump issued numerous executive orders and appointed Elon Musk to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with thousands of government employees already fired.