Sixty may be the new 40, but Bill Clinton hates it

NEW YORK -- Bill Clinton, who turned 60 yesterday, said that he hates being so old and that it's no consolation that 60 is being touted as the new 40.

An archetypal baby boomer who lived through the swinging '60s and the disco era, Clinton plays the saxophone and acknowledges that he smoked marijuana, although he did not inhale.

But although a recent survey indicated that almost 80 percent of Americans born in 1946 were satisfied with their lot, Clinton said being 60 was no dream.

``I hate it, it's true," the 42d president told the International AIDS Conference in Canada this week. ``For most of my working life, I was the youngest person doing whatever I was doing, then one day I woke up and I was the oldest person in the room.

``Now that I have more days behind me than ahead of me, I try to wake up with a discipline of gratitude every day."

Clinton was spending the day quietly with his family yesterday. He is to be saluted by the Rolling Stones at a private concert and fund-raiser in New York on Oct. 29.

He was born at the start of the baby boomer generation, which began as birth rates started climbing along with economic prosperity after World War II and ended in 1964.

There are about 78 million baby boomers in the United States out of a population of about 298 million. The US Census Bureau estimated that about 8,000 Americans a day will turn 60 this year.

Others to join the 60 club this year include President Bush, who celebrated his birthday in July, singers Cher and Dolly Parton, property tycoon Donald Trump, and actress Diane Keaton.

AARP, an association for Americans older than 50, conducted a telephone survey of 800 Americans turning 60 this year and found 77 percent were satisfied with their lives.