Dick Van Dyke Turns 100

Take your current age and work backwards that same number of days, months and years before your birth. Every year something else remarkable is added.

At my current backwards age, World War II is close to two decades away; the UK is still recovering from World War I. Rocket 88, the first rock and roll song, won't be written for nearly another thirty. Women still can't vote in the UK, the Wall Street Crash is several years away.

When my father (who knew one of the most important men in medical history in his younger days and who was working in medicine not long after the NHS was founded) died, his backwards age reached back before the germ theory of modern medicine.

Another interesting game is to use your "oocyte age" — about 32 weeks before your mother was born is roughly when the oocyte developed that led to your egg. In my case this too is before World War II started.