Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i Zoomer Magazine

FOR ME, the most haunting information from the deluge of news in the wake of the Notre-Dame de Paris fire was that France no longer grows trees big enough to replace the wooden beams of the roof that burned in the blaze. Just days after the fire, which raged as we put this issue to bed – cable news and live-streams of the unfolding tragedy, a grim office backdrop as we worked; donations at press time quickly tallied the billion euro mark in response to French President Macron’s resolute pledge to rebuild the cathedral. But the old-growth forests – one that has reached a great age without much disturbance – from which those 13th-century beams that crowned the Gothic structure are no more. It is hard not to perceive this…

AT AGE 90, YAYOI KUSAMA remains one of the most in-demand contemporary artists in the world. In 2017, a museum dedicated to her works opened in Tokyo, while in 2018 her Infinity Mirrors installation at Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario proved such a hit that it inspired a crowdfunding campaign to bring it back permanently. And it worked. On May 25, Infinity Mirrored Room - Let’s Survive Forever debuts at the AGO, one of a handful of such rooms in the world and the only permanent one in Canada. ago.ca…

“THE GREAT THING about rock ’n’ roll,” Elton John once declared, “is that someone like me can be a star.” That’s because a few hit tunes and a glam rock makeover turned a shy, bespectacled Reginald Kenneth Dwight into Elton Hercules John, a rock legend who burst into the cultural consciousness like Superman out of a phone booth, albeit with fewer muscles and far more sequins. It’s a story tailor-made for a big screen biopic à la last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which took in nearly a billion dollars worldwide and four Oscars — including Best Actor for Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. And if the early reviews for the extended Rocketman trailer are any indication, Elton’s film could eclipse it. But outrageous costumes and dreamlike musical sequences aside, Rocketman,…

DISCUSSING PROSTATE HEALTH may induce an understandable wince among men, but it’s a conversation few can avoid, considering the numbers. Prostate is the most common cancer among Canadian men, with about one in seven expected to develop it during his lifetime. And about half of all men between the ages of 51 and 60 experience benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), enlarged prostate, with incidence increasing to 90 per cent among those 80 and older. NOW, FOR SOME GOOD NEWS Prostate cancer mortality has been in decline for the past 25 years and, when it’s diagnosed before the cancer has spread, the five-year survival rate is now close to 100 per cent. And because low-risk prostate cancer – more than half of newly diagnosed cases – tends to grow slowly or not…

“There is no such thing as a perfect formula for all this. You just try your best” FOR THE RECORD, I don’t believe in time travel, UFOs or that you can’t wear skinny jeans after 50. Yet the moment I replayed “Sunglasses at Night” for the first time in more than a decade, I was transported to the ’80s. That’s the power of music, which, like the fragrance of a long-forgotten perfume, can in an instant snap us back to another era, another place. I was 16 when Corey Hart’s First Offense album hit the airwaves in 1983. And, like countless other teenage girls at the time, when I saw the video for “Sunglasses” in the summer of 1984, I was crushing hard on the Canadian singer-songwriter. He was…

JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT on Dec. 17, 2017, Julia Fraser*, 51, a managing partner at a major Toronto P.R. firm, was woken by an urgent call from the Caribbean, where she had spent her early childhood. Fraser’s mother, who had just turned 80, had suffered a stroke. By the time Fraser reached her, it was apparent that something had changed dramatically. Her mother had suffered partial paralysis from the stroke and, more worrisome, what the doctors described as a “seizure of dementia.” Up to this point, her mother had been living in her own apartment, largely subsidized by Fraser with some minor help from her two younger sisters, both of whom were living in the U.S. But now, until a nursing home could be found, Fraser had to arrange for round-the-clock…

GIVE ME FIVE! What a thrill to see a renewal of interest in the Dionne Quintuplets [“Wisdom of the Ages,” April]. Loved the photo! Born a few months after the Quintuplets, I was named Yvonne after the quintuplet, Yvonne Dionne. They were highly regarded idols of my childhood and now the source of many fond memories. An early photo of me at age two, shows my hair parted on the side, “ringlets,” a forehead “kiss curl” and a rather large ribbon to complete the image. Ah, memories are “Roses in December!”—Yvonne Pagani, Queenston, Ont. POT? I THINK NOT I just finished the article on cannabis [“Pot Primer,” April]. No amount of reworking the terminology can alter the fact that it is still a drug and that producers, sellers and…

WHEN I WAS A KID, one of the things we’d always do as a family was celebrate my parents’ anniversary. It’s in late November and at that time of year, there was always another reason to celebrate: Swiss Chalet’s festive special. Sound corny? Perhaps. But for me, it was all about the chocolate. Back in the day, it was a bar of Toblerone, lined with those funny, triangular-shaped chunks of choco-heaven. I’d never associated Toblerone with anything else. And we still do have that festive special every year, even though it now has Lindt as the treat. But a funny thing happened on the way to the Chalet this year. I actually made a stop in Switzerland. Yes, Switzerland is known for the Alps, spotted cows, cheese that’s full…

THE GLOBE AND MAIL once called Toronto scribe Anthony De Sa “the most impressive two-book-oeuvre writer in Canada,” referencing both his first novel, the coming-of-age tale Kicking the Sky, and his Giller-nominated collection of short stories Barnacle Love. Now, the 52-year-old expands his oeuvre to three with the novel Children of the Moon, a tale of war, acceptance and love that’s rooted in both his own family history and in the stories of persecuted people around the world. The novel is informed by his experiences in Tanzania and Mozambique, where he connected with people with albinism who’d survived attempts on their lives by those who believe their body parts possess magical powers. And he also turned inward, drawing on the story of his Uncle Clemente, who served mandatory military…

(AND DOWN) This gives new meaning to the term “Golden Girl” Flo Filion Meiler, 84, wins gold medals in her age group in high jump, 60-metre hurdles, pole vault, pentathlon and 4x200 relay at recent World Masters Athletics Championships. Does no one just go for a simple mall walk anymore? In New Brunswick, seniors all the way up to those in their 90s are taking up boxing to stay fit, active and to stave off age-related health problems. And for those of us whose pole vaulting and boxing days are behind us … Greek researchers say napping could lower blood pressure as effectively as medication. Research also shows that eating lots of garlic could keep age-related memory issues at bay Not to mention everyone within a five-foot breathing radius.…

Former Conservative MP Rona Ambrose recently criticized the Canadian Senate for holding up her private member’s bill that would require sexual assault law education for judges. Chagrinned at the delay to her bill, which was passed nearly two years ago by the House of Commons, Ambrose complained: “The bottom line is this is the old boys’ club protecting the old boys’ club.” A witty barb, no doubt, but is it actually true? Although many still share Ambrose’s view that the Senate, the sweetest of all patronage plums, is a soft landing place for aging male political cronies, her criticism no longer holds. The old boys’ club began breaking up in 1930, when Cairine Reay Wilson was appointed as the first female senator, following the Supreme Court’s 1929 ruling that women…

IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SIGNS that society has entered a new age of innovation, consider the South American groundcherry. Rich in fibre and protein, the tiny fruit may taste like pineapple and smell like a dream, but it’s a pain in the knees to grow. It hangs off a sprawling low-yield bush and often falls to the ground before it ripens. In October 2018, however, U.S. scientists announced that with the latest gene-editing technology, they had swiftly accomplished what selective breeding and even old-school genetic engineering would take ages to pull off: creating a tidier bush with larger fruit that’s easier to mass produce. It could be the next quinoa. Around the same time, biomedical engineers at the University of Utah announced they’d overcome a major hurdle in the field…

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea”—Henry James (1843-1916), American-born author who spent most of his life in Britain THIS OBSERVATION from Henry James’ novel, The Portrait of a Lady, was first published in 1881. It’s also rather timely, as another now-famous American, Meghan Markle – who has settled into her life in Britain as the newyly minted Duchess of Sussex – has certainly taken up the ceremony but with her own modern twist on tea. Avocado toast replaces scones, and little bites of chocolate are as sweet as petits fours for the Duchess, as we discovered when one of her guests for tea at Kensington Palace – prior to the Sussexes move to Windsor – revealed all…

THE NIGHT BECKONED in Budapest. Dinner was on the agenda, but first things first: a trip to the synagogue. Here, now, in a metropolis that had long eluded me but one that I swiftly concluded to be the most underrated capital in Europe – a reservoir of faded grandeur and Wes Anderson-ian panache, complete with ruins and bridges and baths – it proved to be decisive: the Dohány Street Synagogue more than whets a culture vulture’s appetite. “And that is the Ark of the Convenant,” my guide – a brisk man, economical with his adjectives – told me, pointing to the golden doors on the east wall, said to house a myriad of Torahs saved from Nazi desecration. Impressive enough from the outside, with its towering Byzantine-Moorish brickwork and its…