But that reference seems disrespectful to the old girl.

Have you seen Debbie Harry perform lately? I saw a clip that started when she was offstage waiting to perform, and I saw a nice if somewhat frumpy, barrel-shaped matron in her 60s. Then she got her cue, and in a seamless transition walked on to the stage the very same woman most rated a draw in a competition with Marilyn Monroe back in the day. I could force myself to see the matron if I tried real hard, but for as long as she was onstage, the matron was the illusion, and the blond goddess the reality.

Debbie Harry's still got it, and so does the Blackbird. Both tap into a timeless vein of truth, "Blondie" about Woman, the Blackbird about flight and its engines about engineering on the raw edge of physics. What got my geek heart in the video was the way that those nerds 60-some years ago pulled off what seems now like an almost steampunk implementation of the 21st century grail the aerospike engine, gears and hydraulics and all. It ain't that it's slick and new and the freshest face on the block, simply that it's still the best on the block, period. It thrilled my heart that they got it essentially right way back at the beginning.

Don't call it geriatric, man, call it "timeless" porn.