All salable, marketable, rammed-down-our-throats evidence to the contrary, sex is not just a young person's pastime or pleasure. Sure, it is all hard bodies, tight buns, firm breasts and lush, thick hair in popular portrayals of passion, but in real life geezers do it, too.

A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine featured in this article in the Washington Post surveyed more than 3,000 57- to 85-year-olds and learned that a good half to three-fourths were still doing some impression of the horizontal bop, Shakespeare's beast-with-two-backs, on a regular ... and varied ... basis.

Okay, perhaps the parameters in the study wouldn't score highly on any randy richter scale ... being sexually active was defined has having had consensual sex with a willing partner sometime within the past 12 months ... but 54% who were doing it were doing it at least two to three times a month.

Statistically, men came in higher, but that doesn't indicate what some may assume at first look at the numbers ...

Mirroring their younger counterparts, elderly men reported more sexual activity than women, but researchers said that was largely because women live longer than men, giving the surviving men more opportunities to have sex than women.

"This doesn't necessarily mean that women aren't necessarily interested in intimacy and sexuality," Lindau said. "A substantial number of women say the reason they are not having sex is they don't have a partner."

There are, of course, issues that must be admitted when it comes to geezer sex. Parts may not function with quite the oomph or easy they did before, but there are ways to deal with most problems, and the benefits are great enough to make it worth the bother.

"Individuals who remain sexually active gain the benefit of the physical exercise that comes with sex," Lindau [Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago, who led the study] said. "It's also possible the hormones -- the endorphins released by orgasms -- give a general sense of well-being that could be beneficial. The psychological benefits of being loved and cared for may also trickle over to physical health."

Then there is the fact that it's just plain fun!

I can't tell you how happy I am to have stumbled across this new research! I'm 56 now, you know, and today have had my hope renewed that there's a bright, sexy light on my horizon.

With this study aimed at people 57 and over, I can hang on to the stimulating thought that by this time next year I'll be joining my fellow geezers in frisky frolics ... No! I am not talking about some group thing, thankyouverymuch! ... and hopping into the ranks of the sexually active mature set.

This, of course, will depend on Mark and me being successful at getting Sam OUT of our bed and into his own room around his 5th birthday ... and me having enough energy at the end of a day as I prepare for the boudoir to look at my husband and think something other than, "I wonder if he remembered to feed the cats."

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