heinleinblog

The Master’s name is invoked in an LA Times article about some folks who think the secret to long life is injecting Human Growth Hormone:

Turney, now 75, has since changed his name to Lazarus Long, after an immortal character in Robert Heinlein sci-fi novels. He says he has injected growth hormone to slow aging longer than any other human and that, except for a recent surgery to remove blood clots from his head, he feels great. He is vigorous enough, in fact, to lead his own virtual country, a libertarian paradise dubbed New Utopia that he likes to say is located on an offshore reef near Belize.

Though he suffered a setback in 2000 when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission stopped him from selling bonds to finance his “nation,” he holds the title of Prince Lazarus and governs from his Florida apartment. He owes it all, he says, to growth hormone. “I am convinced if I had not begun taking it I would be dead by now. I am here to tell you everybody I know of who has taken it has benefited.”

Tell you what, “Prince Lazarus,” if you life past 100 (something folks are doing a lot of these days, even without HGH, then call me. If you’re that old and you aren’t sitting there wearing diapers and drooling, I might stop and consider that you might, just might, be onto something.

But I do like the phrase “immortal character.” Heh.