Since most or all of us will be turning the big "5-0" in 2011 or 2012, here's some things I've found interesting in my quest for what it means to be 50:

Noun:  The cardinal number that is the product of ten and five. 

Adj:  Being ten more than forty. 

FYI, "cardinal numbers" means being or denoting a numerical quantity but not order. And the word "fifty" is acutally [Middle English fifti, from Old English fftig; see penk^we in Indo-European roots.]  Dan Morrison may want to jump in here about now!  Belated "thank yous" to Messrs. Tilley & Sims - not only have we used our algebra but we've remembered our English classes as well.  And we asked ourselves when we'd ever use algebra later in life....