The old can still pack quite a punch

Robert Browning's words on the advancement of old age were recorded in history. "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be," the rhymester once said. Browning thus would have been proud to see a 72-year-old British pensioner rolling back the years to deliver the perfect hit, a stiff right hook to the mouth of a knife-wielding burglar, who broke into his home and threatened the man and his wife.

To be fair, the young man was drunk. But he is now behind bars, serving out a stiff prison sentence with both face and ego sufficiently bruised. What better way to instill a sobering effect?

Youth must, in future, bow before the weight of old age, or take succour in British rocker Pete Townshend's lyrics in The Who's famous debut album titled My Generation: 'Hope I die before I get old'.