With every passing birthday, trepidations of old age and mortality skirt Justin Lamorella's thoughts.

So he's probably 70 years old, right? Or at least 50?

Nope. Try 20.

Forget about mid-life crises. There's a social and generational phenomenon afoot: a quarterlife crisis. Sandwiched between a limping economy, tuition debt, the thought of a monotonous job and a society fixated on youth, an increasing number of young adults are petrified at the prospect of growing older, experts say.

"I'm always like, 'Man, I'm old,' " said Lamorella, a junior at the University of Pittsburgh. "When I saw other people who were 20 years old when I was younger, they just seemed so old. But now, I'm the one who's 20.

"But I'm trying not to get too upset until I leave college," he said. "Then the fun is really over."

How can these college-age adults -- blessed with their seemingly-interminable trim waists and boundless energy -- be worried about growing old?

It's simple psychology.

"You're only as young as you think you are," said psychologist Larry Glanz. "If you think you're old and you're 21, you're old. It's in your mind."

Psychologists say our society places an inordinate emphasis on staying young. Flip on the television, and you're inundated with hair dye commercials, rippling six packs -- and heck, even erectile dysfunction miracle drugs. Anything to keep the beer distributors asking for ID.

The desire for youth has become as contagious as yawning.

"There are now phrases like '60 is the new 50,' '40 is the new 30,' " said Janet Schofield, a prominent psychologist. "People who are living older are living as though they're younger."

But where does that leave some who actually are young?

Worried, apprehensive and just a touch nostalgic, according to a dozen or so interviews with adults in their early 20s.

"We all know getting old is going to happen," Lamorella said. "It's because everyone on TV -- everyone -- talks about it so much."

Max Snyder, 21, of Shadyside offered his take: "Sometimes I think I should have done crazier things when I was younger. But now I'm too old."

This sentiment might be even worse for women, who begin hearing the rhythmic ticking of their biological clocks while in their early- to mid-twenties, Glanz says.

Then there's the economy. Fiscal downturns might be accelerating the fear of growing old, Schofield said. At a time when everyone seems to be reaching under their sofa cushions for spare change, tuition debt is only adding to the dread.

"When everything is really good and optimistic with the economy, moving into adulthood seems really friendly and good," Schofield said. "But if it's otherwise, the threat of becoming older is more scary."

As of 2004, the average college student graduated with a debt of about $20,000, according to the Washington-based U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

Virtually every generation has been afraid of developing wrinkles, Glanz said, but this generation's fear is more acute because the nation's culture is changing. The pressure to succeed, to make something of yourself, to chase that ever-allusive American dream seemingly has intensified, he said.

It wasn't like that when Ozzie Tollefson, 71, of Hegins in Schuykill County graduated from college in 1960.

In those years, Tollefson said, he was excited for the future, not worried. But Tollefson, a high school English teacher for decades, understands more than most his age why the twenty-somethings don't want to be 71.

"They worry about getting old because it's hard to be really cool when you're old," he said. "I try to keep up, but sometimes I find it really laughable.

"What does it matter? We're all going to be worm food in the end."

So, how do you feel about this blog? Are YOU going through any type of mid-life or especially quarter-life crises?

Before I forget, if you'd like, please participate in my Emmy Contest, which is a separate blog entirely a few down!

OK, without further ado, Junky's Top 8 TV Shows. If you click on the title, it will direct you to the show's official homepage.

8. Californication

This is just one hell of a great show. Every vice in the world is explored and shown in full glory in this wonderful Showtime television show which has only had one season thus far but is returning in September. X-Files fans beware - this is NOT your old David Duchovny!

7. The Big Bang Theory

The link will take you to the official homepage where you can watch EVERY episode for FREE! It is such a wonderful show. Overlooked by many.

6. House

The BEST medical show EVER.

5. Breaking Bad

The BEST show you have never watched an episode of. Amazing!

4. Deadwood

I've NEVER been so pissed off as I was when they stopped making this show. I adored the cast and everything about it.

3. Extras

Television at its absolute best. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are fabulous in every aspect of the word.

2. LOST

The show I can't live with or without. Absolutely brilliant with a wonderful cast and so many intriguing storylines.

1. The Office (British)

Ricky and Stephen again, and the show that has influenced so very many comedies.

Well, that is all for now!

Hope you are all doing well! XOXO Junky

Estelle Getty, the diminutive actress who spent 40 years struggling for success before landing a role of a lifetime in 1985 as the sarcastic octogenarian Sophia on TV's "The Golden Girls," has died. She was 84.

Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died at about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home, said her son, Carl Gettleman of Santa Monica.

"She was loved throughout the world in six continents, and if they loved sitcoms in Antarctica she would have been loved on seven continents," her son said. "She was one of the most talented comedic actresses who ever lived."

"The Golden Girls," featuring four female retirees sharing a house in Miami, grew out of NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff's belief that television was ignoring its older viewers.

Three of its stars had already appeared in previous series: Bea Arthur in "Maude," Betty White in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Rue McClanahan in "Mama's Family." The last character to be cast was Sophia Petrillo, the feisty 80-something mother of Arthur's character.

When she auditioned, Getty was appearing on stage in Hollywood as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein's play "Torch Song Trilogy." In her early 60s, she flunked her "Golden Girls" test twice because it was believed she didn't look old enough to play 80.

"I could understand that," she told an interviewer a year after the show debuted. "I walk fast, I move fast, I talk fast."

She came prepared for the third audition, however, wearing dowdy clothes and telling an NBC makeup artist, "To you this is just a job. To me it's my entire career down the toilet unless you make me look 80." The artist did, Getty got the job and won two Emmys.

It culminated a long struggle for success during which Getty worked low-paying office jobs to help support her family while she tried to make it as a stage actress.

"I knew I could be seduced by success in another field, so I'd say, 'Don't promote me, please,'" she recalled.

She also appeared in small parts in a handful of films and TV movies during that time, including "Tootsie," "Deadly Force" and "Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story."

After her success in "The Golden Girls," other roles came her way. She played Cher's mother in "Mask," Sylvester Stallone's in "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" and Barry Manilow's in the TV film "Copacabana." Other credits included "Mannequin" and "Stuart Little" (as the voice of Grandma Estelle).

"The Golden Girls," which ran from 1985 to 1992, was an immediate hit, and Sophia, who began as a minor character, soon evolved into a major one.

Audiences particularly loved the verbal zingers Getty would hurl at the other three. When McClanahan's libidinous character Blanche once complained that her life was an open book, Sophia shot back, "Your life's an open blouse."

Getty had gained a knack for one-liners in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel. Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.

Undeterred, she continued to pursue a career in entertainment, and while her parents were encouraging, her father also insisted that she learn office skills so she would have something to fall back on.

Born Estelle Scher to Polish immigrants in New York, Getty fell in love with theater when she saw a vaudeville show at age 4.

She married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman (the source of her stage name) in 1947, and they had two sons, Carl and Barry. The marriage prevailed despite her long absences on the road and in "The Golden Girls."

Getty was evasive about her height, acknowledging only that she was "under 5 feet and under 100 pounds."

In addition to her son Carl, Getty is survived by son Barry Gettleman, of Miami; a brother, David Scher of London; and a sister, Rosilyn Howard of Las Vegas.

Were you a fan of Estelle's? How old did you think she was as of today?

Just announced are the EMMY NOMINATIONS. Please pick your winner for each category below! Let us see who gets the most correct after the winners are announced. I'm only going to be listing the 'main' categories - these are just the 'main' ones that I consider. Could you be the winner? Who knows? May even be a prize in it for the winner!

11 Categories to Pick!

Put a NEXT TO THE PICK YOU ARE MOST CONFIDENT IN! If you get this pick correct, it is worth 5 points! Every other pick is worth 1 point.

When commenting with your answers, PLEASE follow the format in the first comment, which are my picks! Thanks so much!!!!!

Outstanding Comedy Series

Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO

Entourage • HBO

The Office • NBC

30 Rock • NBC

Two And A Half Men • CBS

Outstanding Drama Series

Boston Legal

Damages • FX Networks

Dexter • Showtime

House • FOX

Lost • ABC

Mad Men • AMC

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program

The Amazing Race • CBS

American Idol • FOX

Dancing With The Stars • ABC

Project Runway • Bravo

Top Chef • Bravo

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

Pushing Daisies • ABC

Kristin Chenoweth as Olive Snook

Samantha Who? • ABC

Jean Smart as Regina Newly

Saturday Night Live • NBC

Amy Poehler as Performer

Two And A Half Men • CBS

Holland Taylor as Evelyn Harper

Ugly Betty • ABC

Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

Boston Legal • ABC

Candice Bergen as Shirley Schmidt

Brothers & Sisters • ABC

Rachel Griffiths as Sarah Walker-Whedon

Grey's Anatomy • ABC

Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey

Grey's Anatomy • ABC

Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang

In Treatment • HBO

Dianne Wiest as Dr. Gina Toll

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series

Entourage • HBO

Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold

Entourage • HBO

Kevin Dillon as Johnny Drama

How I Met Your Mother • CBS

Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson (You Gotta Be F*cking Kidding Me...)

The Office • NBC

Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute

Two And A Half Men • CBS

Jon Cryer as Alan Harper

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

Boston Legal • ABC

William Shatner as Denny Crane

Damages • FX Networks

Ted Danson as Arthur Frobisher

Damages • FX Networks

Zeljko Ivanek as Ray Fiske

Lost • ABC

Michael Emerson as Ben

Mad Men • AMC

John Slattery as Roger Sterling

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series

The New Adventures Of Old Christine • CBS

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine Campbell (You Gotta Be F*cking Kidding Me...)

Samantha Who? • ABC

Christina Applegate as Samantha Newly

30 Rock • NBC

Tina Fey as Liz Lemon

Ugly Betty • ABC

America Ferrera as Betty Suarez

Weeds • Showtime

Mary-Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

Brothers & Sisters • ABC

Sally Field as Nora Holden-Walker

The Closer • TNT

Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson

Damages • FX Networks

Glenn Close as Patty Hewes

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson

Saving Grace • TNT

Holly Hunter as Grace Hanadarko

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series

Monk • USA

Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk

The Office • NBC

Steve Carell as Michael Scott

Pushing Daisies • ABC

Lee Pace as Ned

30 Rock • NBC

Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy

Two And A Half Men • CBS

Charlie Sheen as Charlie Harper

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

Boston Legal • ABC

James Spader as Alan Shore

Breaking Bad • AMC

Bryan Cranston as Walt White

Dexter • Showtime

Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan

House • FOX

Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House

In Treatment • HBO

Gabriel Byrne as Paul

Mad Men • AMC

Jon Hamm as Don Draper

PLEASE TELL ANY USERS HERE ABOUT THIS SO THEY CAN PLAY ALONG!

XOXO Junky

Question of the Day:

People break down into two groups when they experience something lucky. Group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in Group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation isn't fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in Group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences? (From Signs)

WHAT GROUP ARE YOU IN????

Song of the Day:

Alice Cooper - Only Women Bleed (Click)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SONG????

XOXO JUNKY