Innholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2020 i Zoomer Magazine

My favourite cliché and a convenient one for the start of this decade is “Hindsight is 20/20” because it distills so many truisms about aging while telling us to look clear-eyed at our life lessons and apply them to the future. This was the jumping-off point for “Your Health: Vision 20/20” (page 50), as we take a look at the leading Canadian science and medical breakthroughs of the last decade and how they will transform how we age for the better in the next. In this, technology is our friend, and this future vision, which is infused by it, applies to our finances (“New Money,” page 34) and the magical but documented impact of music on our body, mind and spirit (“Good Vibrations,” page 58). Naturally, this leads me…

“HOW DO YOU feel about an adventure beyond all maps?” a grizzled and bearded Harrison Ford asks loyal canine sidekick Buck against a majestic Yukon backdrop in the latest big-screen adaptation of Jack London’s classic Call of the Wild. Of course, the 77-year-old is no stranger to adventures beyond all maps, having spent a considerable amount of time battling bad guys in a galaxy far, far away and dodging snakes and Nazis as an intrepid archeologist. But with Han Solo biting the dust in 2015 and future Indiana Jones films up in the air, Ford and his furry companion (sorry, Chewbacca) are free to explore the Great White North in search of riches during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush.…

JANE FONDA HAS been knocking on doors, pounding the pavement, waving signs and making political speeches. As she celebrated her 82nd birthday, she also rang in the New Year by getting arrested for the fifth time in four months. These scenes aren’t from any of her socially relevant movies, however – it’s real life. “I never would have expected my life to get so much fuller and, in some ways, more meaningful as I moved into my 80s,” Fonda wrote in a reflective blog post about her birthday. The legendary actress and lifelong social activist was writing from Washington, D.C., where she has been protesting – and getting arrested – since September after launching Fire Drill Fridays, a civil disobedience campaign to pressure lawmakers to take action on climate change.…

AT 94, MY FATHER has a new woman in his life. She’s a tiny thing and needs Wi-Fi to function, so my mother is okay with it. Since Alexa arrived last year, my dad has developed a love-hate relationship with his virtual assistant. Her trademarked voice can drive him bonkers with pre-programmed reminders that tell him when it’s time to take his morning pills, his evening pills, his eye drops. Yet he’s utterly smitten with the fact that when a song pops into his head, Alexa can conjure it out of the silence. One minute he’s looking for something in his bureau, pulling out batteries and very old business cards, and he’ll say, “Alexa, play ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo.’” And just like that, Dad is snapping his fingers, bobbing his…

We hear the hiss of coriander seeds. The fenugreek snaps. Found within the vestiges of YouTube is a priceless moment from the early 1990s that almost acts as a preview of food-world convergence to come: Julia Child, in the amber glow of later-in-life fame, standing beside guest cook Madhur Jaffrey, known far and wide as, well, the Indian Julia Child. Watching the extra-tall, ever-flutey Julia coo and look slightly befuddled as a rather sparrow-like and quintessentially regal Jaffrey gives the drill on preparing Shrimp in Spicy Coconut Sauce, we are privy to not only a masterful moment in odd coupledom – think the kitchen equivalent of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito – but a winnowing of culinary orthodoxy and the coming of a much larger, way more inclusive food…

THE BOSS Robert J. Wiersema hit the nail on the head [“The Long Road,” January/February 2020]. I have been a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen since 1979. I’m 72 years old and I’ve seen 31 of his shows, my last being the premiere of Western Stars at TIFF. Like Robert, I’m looking foward to his next live concert, and hopefully it will happen in 2020. I don’t agree with Robert stating that Western Stars is the darkest album since Nebraska. I think it’s quite contrary and I see it as rather uplifting. Great article though. See you further on up the road. —Joe Ragonese, via email. USER-FRIENDLY I think your November-December issue is one of your better issues as it covers a number of topics that are important to…

Winning the prestigious Booker Prize once is enough to propel an author to the pinnacle of the literary world. But to win it twice – becoming the first female author ever to do so – for two consecutive novels? That’s the rarefied air author Hilary Mantel breathes. The 67-year-old received the prize for the first two instalments of her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012). Now, with the conclusion of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, imminent, it’s only a matter of time before we see if the British-born scribe can score the first ever Booker hat trick, edging out even Canada’s literary queen Margaret Atwood (also a two-time Booker winner, for The Blind Assassin in 2000 and The Testaments in 2019).…

I’m driving up Toronto’s Bayview Avenue on a winter’s night in early January. I turn into the Bridle Path neighbourhood, an ultra-posh enclave known as Millionaire’s Row. I slow down opposite rapper Drake’s monster palace, complete with indoor basketball court, and turn toward the stately home of Gordon Lightfoot. It’s a route I know well. As Lightfoot’s biographer, I’ve travelled there many times, off and on, over a 12-year period. Much has transpired since my book, Lightfoot, was published in 2017. For one thing, Lightfoot has reached the age of 81. For another, he was the subject of a major documentary, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, in which he discussed his storied career and timeless songs alongside fans like Geddy Lee, Anne Murray and Alec Baldwin.…

If you ask Chrissy Pearson how music can make a difference in a person’s life, she might tell you about the difference it made in someone’s death. Pearson, a certified music therapist with the Canadian Music Therapy Fund in Toronto, has experience working in a variety of settings, including palliative care. One day, she appeared in the doorway of a palliative care room where the patient took one look at Pearson — with her guitar and her bag of handheld instruments — and shook her head. “I don’t want someone playing music in my room,” she said. “I’m not a musical person.” But Pearson stayed and chatted a while and came to learn the woman did like music, mostly pop songs from the 1970s. Over subsequent visits, Pearson sang…

I’ve been thinking a lot about the way I want my daughters to remember me. My mother occupies a sacred and sizable spot in my memory: her words of wisdom echo constantly, both cautioning and cheering me on. And considering how crazy-making some of my lifestyle choices may have been for her, I’ll be forever grateful not only for all her encouragement, but also for her faith in me and acceptance of the dreams I needed to pursue. It’s this kind of motherly love I’m focused on as I embark on my fourth two-day trek to the wilds of the Yukon to visit my youngest daughter Joey O’Neil – a gentle, poetic and gorgeous young woman who decided to abandon the urban jungle of Toronto and the comfort of…

We’ve long romanticised the fairy-tale ideal of a prince and a fair maiden – this one self-made and a feminist – falling in love and living happily ever after. But when the scenario becomes real and the pair attempts to escape the weight of palace pomp and politics – with a part-time move to Canada, no less – the fairy tale turns, ahem, grim. As royal observers and viewers of The Crown know, the British Royal Family doesn’t do well with change, which is why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to step away as full-time senior royals to carve their own path (though while promising to support the Queen and Commonwealth) caused such sturm und drang. But succession is secure: Harry is sixth in line to the throne…

The prospect of retiring to a French vineyard sounds like bliss, but for a former Starfleet captain suffering lingering trauma over lost friends and interstellar tragedies, there isn’t enough wine in France to keep him on Earth. That’s where we pick up in Star Trek: Picard, a sequel series to Star Trek: The Next Generation centred on Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, played by 79-year-old Patrick Stewart. The actor told Variety that he wanted the series to mirror current Trumpian- and Brexit-related struggles, so in the show, set about two decades after TNG, Starfleet is no longer a paragon of morality. Picard assembles his own crew to combat evil forces while caring for a mysterious young girl who sought out his protection. Talk about a second act. As an added thrill…

390 million. That’s the number of species of plants in the world, according to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in England, making it a field day for scientists looking for the latest magic tonic for wellness. New species are discovered every year – more than 2,000 in 2015 alone – but it’s those plants with longevity, the ability to make a go of it and stay on Mother Earth that seem the most potent. According to Google, “plant-based diet” was the No. 1 search for diets in 2019. So why not a plant-based diet for your skin? We’ve been smashing avocados and slathering them on our faces since back in the day. The beauty industry, too, has been touting the power of plants for ages. Anti-oxidants, anthocyanins, polyphenols…

“Will you be coming back from the cemetery?” the cab driver asked my husband when they arrived at the famous Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. Doug was in town to speak at a conference. During a long break, he decided to take a look at the graves of John D. Rockefeller, Elliott Ness and Alan Freed, who invented the term rock ’n’ roll. “Why do you ask?” Doug responded. “Don’t I look well?” Doug is a history buff, and he has visited many significant cemeteries around the world both with me and on his own. But before he was even offered a map, a woman from Lake View took both his hands in hers and ushered him into a boardroom. She was explaining that Rockefeller’s 70-foot obelisk is…

With a new decade comes a new opportunity to take stock of what we know about healthy aging and what we might learn in the decade to come. What kinds of exercise can help us age well? Does ethnicity play a role in how we age? How are Canadians dealing with aging and sex? These are important questions. The older cohort – the baby boomers and gen-Xers – represent nearly 45 per cent of Canada’s population, or 16,753,198 people. By 2030, Statistics Canada estimates it will be 46.5 per cent, or 19,461,400 people. The World Health Organization’s 10 Priorities for a Decade of Action on Healthy Ageing makes it clear that an effective plan requires better global data. As the WHO states, “What gets measured gets done.” Canadian researchers…

The 2013 Calgary flood was epic. Heavy rain on top of melting snow in the Rocky Mountains rushed into the rivers below, and the biblical-sized onslaught killed five people, displaced 80,000 and caused as much as $6 billion in property damage and financial losses. In the opening pages of her new book Reinvention: Changing Your Life, Your Career, Your Future, Canadian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Arlene Dickinson admits she didn’t heed a warning to evacuate her office, thinking Venture Communications – outside the downtown core and far from the raging Bow River – was safe. By the next day, the basement offices in the converted schoolhouse were flooded to the ceiling, and traumatized employees scrambled to find places to live and work. An IT staffer grabbed backup servers on…