Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2015 i Zoomer Magazine

WITH APRIL COMES SPRING, a season often associated with renewal – buds and blooms; romance – the song “April in Paris” springs to mind; and, yesb, S-E-X, or the birds and the bees if we want to be quaint. This issue marks our third themed one covering that three-letter word. It’s a big word that can mean so much and so many different things to people of various ages, genders and preferences that we decided to celebrate it with two cover treatments, see page 4 for a look. We approach the topic head to toe, inside and out with perspectives on what boomer men and women want and don’t want between the sheets. Regular readers of Zoomer know that we often report on sex through the health lens, in that…

I WAS 14 when I first began to notice that I was competing for girls my age with guys who were older than I was. I remember thinking that was peculiar as well as unfair. The fact that I went to a small parochial school at the time, with a commensurately small number of eligible girls, made the situation all the more irritating. That irritation grew as I got older until, in my late teens, I was competing for 16-, 17-, 18-yearold girls with guys in their mid to late 20s, even 30s. By then I was outraged at the injustice of it all and, frankly, a bit contemptuous of my rivals. What kind of young professional dated high schoolers? Apparently, a lot of them. With regularity, girls I had…

“He was quite simply the heart of the Beatles” —John Lennon on Ringo Starr EXTOLLED AS EVERYTHING from “vastly underrated” by Phil Collins to “beyond reproach” by the Black Crowes’ Steve Gorman, Ringo by any other name would have surely found his path to Starr-dom. Under the Beatle banner, however, he was, to some, only the goofygrinned drummer keeping the beat to his band mates’ timeless tunes. Even a post-Beatles string of hugely successful solo hits didn’t quell the punch lines. In 1976, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels famously offered the Fab Four $3,000 to reunite on his fledgling sketch show. “You divide it up any way you want,” he suggested. “If you want to give less to Ringo, that’s up to you.” Those who’ve followed the beat of…

Oh Canada, With our flag of red and white It seems pretty benign But it didn’t come without a fight With roaring debate Tempers they did rise Between the Liberals and PCs PM Pearson pushed his “pennant” proud “No way,” scoffed ol’ John Dief A committee chose the flag “Here it is, take it or leave ’er” Sure, it’s kind of plain But at least it’s a leaf, not a beaver I mean, a lumberjack would have been cool But at least it’s a leaf and not a beaver. — Mike Crisolago A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FLAG OF CANADA LATE 1940s A Red Ensign with a golden maple leaf and Union Jack is proposed to replace the Red Ensign, our flag at the time. Quebec opposes the Union…

I had plenty of fizz. I was impetuous, impulsive and wildly unpredictable. But I had trouble with my long game. I had my eye on the ball but not on the playing field. Lots of drive but no destination. I remember shaking my head when I came across a James Thurber essay entitled “Is Sex Necessary?” “Are you kidding?” the Young Me shrieked incredulously. The Elder Me gets it. When I was young and green, I loved to linger in the sensual paintings of Georgia O’Kee. e, the libidinous writings of D.H. Lawrence and the erotic grottos of John Donne’s early love poetry. He’s the lusty devil who begged his inamorata to: Licence my roving hands and let them go Before, behind, between, above, below. In his youth, Donne was…

I CAN’T REMEMBER another occasion when I started crying in the middle of an interview. It wasn’t a matter of being shocked – I knew the details of Miriam Friedman Ziegler’s horrific story since I was a young child. Miriam is a survivor of the notorious Auschwitz death camp, and I spoke with her as she was preparing to journey back for the 70th anniversary of the camp’s liberation on Jan. 27. “In all the 70 years, I never talked about this,” she told me. “It’s very painful.” I grew up in a community of Holocaust survivors and many, including my parents, never spoke of what they went through. We were taught about the six million who died. We knew that included our family but we were spared the specifics…

WHEN IT COMES to sex after heart attack, studies have shown that sexual activity contributes to less than one per cent of all heart attacks. It increases our heart rate and is to be encouraged once one is physically able to do so. Usually, someone who has suffered a heart attack will have to wait several weeks before resuming sex. As for any new activity, start slowly and progressively increase intensity. Ask about cardiac rehabilitation programs after heart attack, which can gradually increase patients’ cardiovascular fitness. If you experience chest pain or discomfort, abnormal shortness of breath, nausea or dizziness, then it’s time to stop. Many medications prescribed to heart attack sufferers can cause or worsen sexual dysfunction, and sometimes changing the medications can correct the problem. And although medications…

MENOPAUSAL HOT FLASHES make a woman feel like she has a personal furnace with a wonky on-off soaked with sweat. If she’s sleeping, she’ll wake and kick the covers off . Then she’ll get cold. She feels hijacked by the unpredictability of the process. Scientists describe hot flashes as vasomotor symptoms that happen when a woman’s estrogen levels wane, disrupting the temperature-regulating ability of the brain’s hypothalamus. Drinking hot liquids or alcohol, eating spicy foods, smoking and being in a warm environment can trigger symptoms. Obesity and lack of physical fitness also play a role. The Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists Canada reports that 60 to 80 per cent of women going through menopause experience these “power surges.” Dr. Vivien Brown, a family physician in Toronto, advises patients to…

CELIBACY IS THE NEW MEDITATION, it sometimes seems. Every week, I read another article by someone who has found inner peace by giving up sex – and all its attendant striving, its competition and its rejection. Self-denial shares with meditation a sort of quasi-Buddhist sense that the world is bad for you, that isolation and asceticism bring more joy than ice cream and victory. It goes hand in hand with juice cleanses. Most of these articles, it must be admitted, are written by people no longer in the first bloom of youth, and one wonders if their celibacy is really as much choice as acceptance. There is always one nasty wag who points out in the comments that there is a difference between a fast and a famine. I feel…

IT WILL COME AS NO SURPRISE that 84 per cent of men, according to a recent study done at the Université de Montréal, fantasize about having sex with two women, nor that only 36.9 of women do. What should be done about this disparity? Nothing whatsoever. There are more important issues to get impatient with your spouse over. But it raises some important questions about fantasy generally and the value of acting on it. An even less important but, to me, intriguing research question would be: “Do men dream of these things more over 50?” Lots of people had threesomes in their 20s and 30s. I did. I had the more frequent kind – couple of women and a guy (what porn calls FFM, as if you didn’t know) –…

SO, IT’S COME TO THIS: in the gaping absence of any federally approved treatment to help North American women with sexual problems – when, for men, there are twenty and counting – a California company hopes to fill the void with a cannabis-infused lubricant for the vagina. A spray-on blend of coconut oil and THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient, Foria is touted as a woman’s sexual aperitif; it’s to be applied about half an hour before sex to whet the appetite, relax, stoke desire and heighten arousal and sensation. Pioneers of California’s medicinal pot industry, a collective known as the Aphrodite Group, launched it in that state last summer and, in January, it went on sale in Colorado, where medical marijuana use is also legal. Beyond those regions, however, the…

How women want men to smell They say that men are aroused by the scent of vanilla. But according to Dr. Alan Hirsch of Chicago’s Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, it’s baked goods like pumpkin pie and doughnuts that lead the pack in piquing their interest, while vanilla is 11th on the list. Use that information any way you wish. Women, surprisingly, are not sexually aroused by overt food notes, according to Hirsch’s research. He believes that food smells “evoke feelings of work, as women are traditional food preparers.” Masculine fragrances that can raise a woman’s temperature instead unite typically “masculine” notes like leather, woods, smoky tones with softer, feminine scents: florals, warm spices and musks that evoke skin. Often, it’s the unisex fragrances that women would choose…

UNTIL recently, I wouldn’t have suggested tequila as the star – I’ve always thought of it as a nasty drink that brings back vague memories of my younger self perched on a bar stool with a group of gal pals, all of us licking our paws like naïve kittens before downing a shot and then shoving a lemon wedge in our mouths. But then a couple of years ago, I visited Reposado on Toronto’s trendy Ossington strip for the first time. When I glanced at the menu, I didn’t recognize a single dish and was surprised when the waitress patiently explained that the menu was comprised of different types and brands of tequilas. “All of this is tequila?” I asked, flipping through the pages. “Who knew?” According to the Liquor…

RAISE THE BAR Swap your soap and give your skin better touch and feel with botanically scented bars from The Perth Soap Co. Developed over two years with a century-old manufacturer in Perth, Ont., the formulation is pH-balanced, which helps your skin retain its natural oils, and hydrating, with 30 per cent moisturizing ingredients including Moroccan argan oil. Plus, free of dyes as well as parabens and phthalates (preservatives and softeners known to have harmful health effects), the bars are an indulgence for what’s in them just as much as what isn’t. $10 each, perthsoap.com SINGING IN THE RAIN Soap up under the new Kohler Moxie Rainhead and stream, pun intended, whatever piques your aural pleasure. The Moxie rechargeable wireless speaker connects via Bluetooth to devices (smartphones, MP3 players or…

AJAX-PICKERING, ONT. (CH 20) Randy Filinski, 905-509-1708, ajaxpickeringcarp@live.ca AVALON, N.L. (CH 1) Edgar Williams, 709-753-1187, carpavalon@gmail.com BARRIE, ONT. (CH 36) Gwen Kavanagh, 705-252-4756, barriecarp@gmail.com BRAMPTON, ONT. (CH 52) Peter Howarth, 647-918-4802, bramptoncarp52@gmail.com BRANTFORD, ONT. (CH 17) David Simmons, 1-888-363-2279 x264, carpbrantford@gmail.com BROCKVILLE-1000 ISLANDS, ONT. (CH 40) Dawn Edgley, 613-802-0424, edgley.carp@gmail.com CALGARY, ALTA. (CH 10) Susan Costello, 403-256-1181, carpcalgary@gmail.com CHATHAM-KENT, ONT. (CH 49) Sharon A. Jubenville, 519-682-1796, carpchathamkent@gmail.com EDMONTON, ALTA. (CH 13) Bernice Rempel, 780-450-4802, carp.edmonton@gmail.com FORT MCMURRAY, ALTA. (CH 46) Felix Berube, 587-645-5999, fortmcmurraycarp@gmail.com FREDERICTON, N.B. (CH 27) Suzanne Maltais, 506-455-2620, carp.fredericton@gmail.com GEORGIAN BAY, ONT. (CH 14) Linda Flemington, 705-888-9204, carpgeorgianbay14@gmail.com GREATER BAY OF QUINTE AREA, ONT. (CH 39) Mary Robertson, 613-967-9479, carpbbq@gmail.com GUELPH, ONT. (CH 50) Katherine McLeod, 1-888-363-2279 x276, k.mcleod@carp.ca HALIBURTON, ONT. (CH 54) Bob Stinson, 705-457-3919, carp.haliburton@gmail.com…

Marni Jackson has won numerous awards for her journalism and is on the literary arts faculty at the Banff Centre. Lately, she has been working on a collection of short stories about how the famous invade our private lives. For this issue, she’s not airing all her laundry but she is sharing her tips for a good and long sex life in “She Said …” (pg. 57). Carolyn Abraham is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work explores the sticky intersection of science and society. She fell hard for science while writing about it for 14 years at the Globe and Mail, covering everything from stem cells to yes, sex. She lends her expertise to the topic of THC and the pleasure gap in “Sexpot” (pg. 70). Russell Smith…

“In my sex fantasy, nobody ever loves me for my mind” —Nora Ephron Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd, Kristen Wiig and others gathered to celebrate Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary In the show’s most touching moment, Sinead O’Connor took the stage and tore up photos of everyone in the cast. The Brady Bunch star Florence Henderson, 80, revealed she and a chiropractor enjoy a friendswith-benefits arrangement This gives new meaning to the chiropractic term “dynamic thrust.” Scotland’s oldest woman, 109, attributes her longevity to fitness, porridge and steering clear of men In other words, gentlemen, unless you’re the Quaker Oats guy, don’t bother. L’Oréal ads may start looking like a chic Golden Girls remake Supermodel Twiggy, 65, becomes L’Oréal Professionnel’s brand ambassador, following in the footsteps of new U.K. L’Oréal Paris…

aGE WITH REGRETS or perhaps regret you never aged – neither option is particularly enticing, though Al Pacino, Blake Lively and a collection of boomer box office legends tackle them in two spring releases. Pacino, 74, stars alongside Christopher Plummer and Annette Bening as the title character in Danny Collins (March 24), based loosely on the true story of British rocker Steve Tilston, whom John Lennon wrote a letter of encouragement to in 1971 that Tilston didn’t receive until more than 30 years later. Unlike Tilston, Collins becomes a huge star but reassesses his life choices when the letter lands in his hands. In The Age of Adeline (April 24), Lively plays a woman who ceases aging after a car accident. Being stuck at age 29 sounds fun at first…

THE FINAL OLIVE drops into the martini glass this spring when Mad Men, one of the most critically lauded and influential television shows of its generation, signs off for good. The ’60s retro cool sensibility that’s permeated everything from clothing to cocktails to coiffure is evidence of the show’s impact on popular culture, its greater irony being that the decade that witnessed the moon landing and future visions of flying cars and robotic servants inspires 21st-century folk to turn back the clock for cultural cues. As Bruce Handy wrote in Vanity Fair, “... you can now talk about a Mad Men skirt or lampshade or pickup line where once you might have used ‘space age’ or ‘Kennedy era’ or ‘Neanderthal.’ ” And still, beyond the superficial, the show reflects something…

Yes, the jumpsuit is back! However, this time around, it’s gentler, relaxed and, dare we say, much more elegant. The all-in-one garment had utilitarian origins, created in 1919 and worn by parachuters and racecar drivers. Fashion quickly recognized the stylish potential of this garment and as early as the 1930s Schiaparelli designed it in silk. It showed up again in the 1950s in Hollywood on screen sirens, but it was in the 1970s when it became iconic in all its form-fitting and sparkling glory on legends like Diana Ross, Elvis Presley and David Bowie. But as it takes another turn in the fashion spotlight this season, lest you think it’s best left to the young, check out Jane Fonda, who at age 77, rocked a jumpsuit at the recent Grammys,…

ARGUABLY, THERE IS some truth that older tech users tend to be late adopters compared with their springchicken counterparts. The reasons, however, are not rooted in fear of technology; the overall penetration on social site usage by the 50-plus gang is smaller because of a lack of perceived need. Many are simply content with real-world relationships versus interacting via Likes and emoji. Instead, what is driving tech adoption among Zoomerati is post-youth pragmatism: the fact that prices have dropped while the user experience has become more stable, intuitive and cleaner. And the tech has become more beneficial for older consumers: mobile health apps, smart homes and, eventually, Google’s self-driving cars. Of course, there is also another facet of boomer-era life that the Internet and tech can help with: loneliness. And…

“IT WOULD BE A GOOD idea!” replied Mahatma Gandhi when asked what he thought of Western civilization. CARP members have the same reaction to promises of “patientcentred care.” The Commonwealth Fund annual report has confirmed our experience that Canada does not serve older Canadians very well, dead last among comparator nations on some measures. Waits for primary and specialist care in Canada have not improved since they were first reported on in 2007. Canadians wait longer to see their family doctors and specialists and have fewer options for after-hours care outside of emergency departments. Once they get to see a doctor, however, older Canadians are more satis- ed with their care but concerned about communication between their doctors and specialists. And as in the CARP Poll, they believe that fundamental…

MANY AGE-RELATED medications, radiation therapy to the head or neck and some systemic diseases such as diabetes can cut output of saliva and create dry mouth (xerostomia). Not a good thing, as saliva, the antimicrobial fluid that lubricates the mouth, flushes away food particles and millions of bacteria, defends tooth enamel and prevents cavities and gum disease. Acid generated by bacteria in plaque makes teeth vulnerable to decay. Plaque can lead to inflammation of the gums (gingivitis), which, if it progresses, destroys bone and gum tissue (periodontal disease) and may mean loss of teeth. Researchers think bacteria and chemicals from this inflammatory process travel through the bloodstream and may be linked to atherosclerosis (a risk for heart disease and stroke), diabetes, arthritis and cell mutations that lead to cancer. April…

WILL FERGUSON Canadian author and winner of the 2012 Giller Prize for his novel 419 (his next book is Road Trip Rwanda, a travel memoir) Kiyomizu-dera temple, Kyoto, Japan At a small Shinto love shrine, tucked inside these temple grounds, visitors write their heart’s desires on rice paper and then watch them dissolve into water. The most common wish? To find true love. I asked for a winning lottery ticket. Nyungwe Forest Lodge, Western Rwanda A luxury resort in the heart of the African rainforest, it would have been even more romantic had my travelling companion, Jean-Claude, been a beautiful woman. Sadly, he was not. The most romantic place? The Municipal Curling Rink in Fort Vermilion, Alta., circa 1976 My first kiss was behind this curling rink. I haven’t been…

IF YOU THINK I’m going to write about my sex life, you’re crazy. But I will say this: I am 68, my husband 65. Sex has always been “important to us” (i.e., our verbal communication left something to be desired in the early days of our relationship. But then, we’re both writers.) We’ve been together 37 years, married for 18 of those. And we still have sex regularly, at least the kind of sex that makes you say, when it’s over, “Why don’t we do that more often?” The answer to that is: because we’re not 24. But once you accept that you’re not going to have hot, young, barn-burning sex every day for the rest of your life, you can stop competing with your younger self and enjoy the…

HUMANS ARE A LUSTY LOT. Across cultures, continents and most of recorded history, the hunt for aphrodisiacs has driven lovers to astonishing lengths – and also, their deaths. They’ve swallowed sparrows’ brains, munched the feet of skink lizards and rubbed their hair with ambergris, a.k.a. whale dung. But most things to jumpstart libido have proved no better than snake oil (which has also been sold as a sex aid over the centuries). Still, there’s enough excitement around aphrodisiacs that science sometimes steps in to offer insight. Here are a few of the more famous examples, the deadly and the everyday. SPANISH FLY What It Is One of the oldest and most storied of aphrodisiacs, it’s not a fly nor does it hail from Spain. It’s made from the crushed bodies…

iT ALL STARTED with food. And, then, my senses. Food that played with my eyes, food that I could breathe in, food that tickled my tongue, my tastebuds, my fingertips. Food that brought whispers of more, more, more to my ears. It all started in Istanbul. In one night, one moment and one man’s absolute culinary cool. Sergi Arola, the two Michelin-starred Ferrán Adriàtrained chef (and I mean that Ferrán Adrià of El Bulli, one of the most lauded restaurants – ever) is in the house. Yes, absolute. Not just black truffles but white, too. Not just molecular gastronomy but also hints of Catalonian home cooking he learned from his grandfather. Not just plating it but also presenting it so that there is surprise, delight and just a hint of…

IF LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD, you will need a commander-in-chief to help you navigate and avoid those precipitous pitfalls. And leading the troops seeking love is matchmaker Aviva Reimer, 47, whose company Perfect Fit finds prospective partners for those looking for that special someone of a discerning age. But like any great general, she believes in strategic preparation. Before marching into the dating field, clients are taken through their paces with nutrition plans, fitness lessons in her private gym, along with hair, makeup and fashion advice coupled with dating etiquette. It’s all part of the confidence-building those might need who are fresh o­ bitter divorces, out of tough relationships or recently lost loved spouses. To ease nerves and jitters that often surround first dates, she organizes mixers – essentially a…

AWARD-WINNING Canadian novelist Jane Urquhart, 65, weaves rural Ireland, a Second World War pilot, an Irish bicycle race and a famous Canadian mural together for her latest novel, The Night Stages. On connecting the four themes of The Night Stages The process has to do with a kind of focus, almost an obsession. I just have to trust that if I’m that interested, there has to be a reason, and that linkage will present itself as I work. On enjoying her 60s even more than her 50s I now know how to focus on the things that really matter. I just don’t have the energy for superfluous nonsense. [Laughs] I’m in terrific health, and my husband’s 15 years older than me, so that means I’ll be young forever. On being…

ROCKER Tom Cochrane, 61, who embarks on a Canadian tour this March in support of his latest album, Take It Home, recalls a life-changing encounter as a struggling musician 35 years ago: “We’re driving back from Winnipeg to Toronto, and I’m wondering, ‘Why the heck am I doing this, sleeping in the back of the station wagon, taking turns driving?’ And outside of Thunder Bay, traffic stops, and the rain’s pouring down...this police car goes by and then slowly, out of the drizzle, comes this one-legged boy running. And you wonder whether it’s tears or whether it’s rain running down his face, and he’s looking ashen, [and] you can see the pain but you can see the courage. That was the last day [Terry Fox] ran, and it hit me…

SPRING FLING Debbie Reynolds may not be singing in the rain (above, circa 1960), but the season’s fresh makeup looks take their cue from her as does Clarins new limited-edition Garden Escape Eye Palette, which serves up six shades in hues of pink, white, two easy-to-wear greens and a neutral taupe. BIG EYES Benefit’s latest mascara, Roller Lash, uses what the beauty brand calls a Hook ’n’ Roll brush to catch, lift and curl even thinning lashes. NAIL IT Few nail polish innovations have been as popular as the gel manicure. But we don’t all have time to sit in a salon to get the benefit. Now, OPI delivers the goods with its Infinite Shine Gel Effects Lacquer System. Its three steps – primer base, one of 30 new shades…

THE OTHER DAY after my son’s peewee hockey game, I found myself musing on the passage of time. This ragged team that I help coach (I tie skates and lug water bottles) was down 2-0 with less than two minutes to play. Enough time to rally but, as the late, great hockey broadcaster Danny Gallivan used to remind us near the end of the third period of every game, time was definitely becoming a factor. Alas, there was to be no miracle comeback that day. We lost again, our 10th in a row, a minor hockey version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the dressing room after the game, the kids quickly shrugged o. the defeat, sipping their post-game juice boxes and cheerfully discussing video games, their favourite NHL players…

Over the next several years, millions of Canadian baby boomers will be readying themselves for retirement. Advisors are already fielding more retirement-related questions from clients, and there’s a good chance your attention will shift from growing your assets to preservingyour wealth. Protecting investments is always important, but it’s even more critical in retirement, since most Canadians will need to start drawing down the money they’ve saved. One way to ensure that your money is safe is to store it in one of the financial institutions that are members of the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). RRIF PROTECTION Anyone who’s saved money in an RRSP will have to start withdrawing cash from their RRIF the year they turn 72. Imagine what would happen if your bank failed that year and you…

After 10 years delivering geriatric oral care to people in more than 140 long-term care facilities, nursing homes and hospitals in Ontario, Dr. Natalie Archer of Archer Dental in Toronto has, with the Canadian Centre for Elder Law and the National Initiative for theCare of the Elderly (NICE), launched the Dental Elder Awareness Response (DEAR), so caregivers and family members will realize the importance of dental care. Expert tip When planning financial and personal care for you or a loved one, include provisions for dental care – some 65 and older may delay seeing a dentist because of cost – and a substitute decisionmaker for dental issues. Here, some of the reasons: ■ Bacteria inhaled from an infected mouth can cause pneumonia, a leading cause of death in long-term care…

Wellness fORGET HEADACHE. Backache may be the real wet blanket in the bedroom. Statistics Canada figures show that as much as 84 per cent of men and 73 per cent of women who experience lowback pain also report a significant decrease in the frequency of intercourse. University of Waterloo research is coming to the rescue with a spine biomechanics study that determined strain caused to participants having sex in positions reported to be painful for backache sufferers. Leading the study was PhD candidate Natalie Sidorkewicz, a former clinical kinesiologist whose back rehab patients routinely asked about sex. “As you can imagine, you’re married for X amount of years and, every time you try to have sex with your partner, it flares up your back injury,” she explained. “It was really…

“TO MEN AND WOMEN: the brain also is a sexually differentiated organ. One only has to look at magazines and news reports to note how well women are succeeding in filling important positions in different realms of society. But that does not prove that men and women are moving closer to ‘equality.’ The brain is wired from birth in markedly significant ways that are different in men and women. It is to women’s advantage to be cognizant of and to accept this well-established finding from brain research, to consider how these differences affect their perceptions, behaviour and emotional responses and to consider what it means for them as an individual. It is accepted that men and women are inescapably different in the genital-reproduction system, in muscle fibre composition but it…

HEALTH ISSUES FOR BOOMERS once began with a simple ABC: arthritis, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease. Now there’s another trio of letters: STI. It used to be that people got into gardening and other harmless hobbies as they aged. These days, they get into bed – with each other. Sometimes there isn’t even a bed. “Fornicating pensioners in public” was the news last year from The Villages in Florida, a retirement community where 100,000 people over 55 live and mingle. A 68-year-old married woman and a younger man who was not her husband were each sentenced to 180 days in jail for demonstrating their sexual technique in the public square of The Villages. The copulating couple likely had more to worry about than six months of celibacy behind bars and embarrassed…

IN SANSKRIT, the word vyagra (look familiar?) is derived from the word “to smell” and means tiger, an animal known for highly scented, pre-coital urine spraying. Do Sanskrit scholars with a sense of humour abound in the pharmaceutical industry? The importance of smell in sexual attraction is undeniable. But just as fashions evolve, our notions of what smells sexy change too. Those super-charged musk fragrances of the late ’70s that promised to turn women from hausfrau to sexpot seem charmingly retro today. (Go now and YouTube those Aviance and Enjoli commercials. We’ll wait.) So what is sexy now? “Our sense of smell is closely tied to memories and emotions,” says Mike Kinsey, who heads up fragrance development at Procter & Gamble. “In the brain, the limbic system, where we process…

“When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited” —Ramakrishna WHETHER YOU FANCY yourself an armchair gardener or a green thumb who likes things to get a little dirty, there’s no denying the appeal of a well-made bed – especially those of the edible flower, herb and vegetable variety. In The Gardener’s Garden (Phaidon), the United Statesbased garden designer Madison Cox – he’s envisioned sexy plots for Sting, Michael Bloomberg and the Agnelli family of Fiat fame, to name a few – introduces a landscape architect’s ultimate trip round the world in 250 gardens, many of which also feature veggie patches, herb-lined pathways and orchards in full bloom. Lemon trees sprout among topiaries at Villa Medici in Tuscany, lavender and thyme line the walkways at Dartington Hall in Devon and veggies…

for a couple who found that they were growing apart after raising the kids, Nickolaos Kon, president of Etobicoke-based Fossil Landscapes, is creating a garden to help the couple rediscover their intimacy. Its myriad “romantic private areas where adults can have fun” will, he says, offer enhanced sensory appeal to sight, sound, touch and smell. The intention wasn’t to create a backyard bordello or bathhouse. Rather, Kon wanted to make a landscape that would enhance the sensuous aspects of belonging to a couple or group of close friends. The garden, budgeted at $350,000, will occupy 8,000 square feet of the clients’ 1/4-acre lot in Toronto’s westend. The plan comprises separate modular zones; readers looking for design inspiration can pluck ideas from among those zones even if their own backyard wilderness…