Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2025 i Zoomer Magazine

Twenty-five years ago in film, Meg Ryan faked a doozy of an orgasm in When Harry Met Sally to prove men couldn’t tell if a woman had climaxed or not. Numerous studies, mostly focused on women, have explored who acts it out and why, but researchers at the University of Copenhagen wanted to know why people stopped faking it, and asked a nearly even split of women and men. Their online survey of 11,541 mostly heterosexual men and women from six European countries, published in The Journal of Sex Research, showed a whopping 66 per cent of men never faked it, compared to 36 per cent of women; 34 per cent of women and 19 per cent of men had done it in the past; and 18 per cent…

The Palichuks were a happy family, once upon a time. When Steve and Nina Palichuk were building their dream home on two green acres in Acton, Ont., in the late 1960s, Linda Palichuk remembers how she and her younger sister, Susan Palichuk, camped on the property before the house was finished, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire. Their father eventually put in a trout-stocked pond, where they fished and swam in the summers and skated in winters. The memories are bittersweet now. In 2016, Steve Palichuk died suddenly in his Acton home at 85, and the family ties have since unravelled. Both parents’ wills and spoken wishes were for their estate to be split equally between their two children. But, in the fall of 2020, Linda, who…

I don’t think my mother’s ever laid a table in her life,” laughs India Hicks, talking about the aristocratic subject of her latest book, Lady Pamela. “But she was a brilliant hostess, because she knew exactly how to invite and mix an interesting table.” It’s a classic British understatement. Lady P., as Hicks calls her mother, was perfectly positioned to create sparkling guest lists, given she was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth II (her third cousin), the daughter of Lord Mountbatten (India’s last viceroy) and the wife of England’s most famous interior designer, David Hicks. Lady Pamela, who was 17 when she moved to India with her family, maintained close ties with Princess Elizabeth. She was by her cousin’s side in 1952 when Princess Elizabeth learned her father, George…

THE VIEW FROM HERE Nestled in the rolling Laurentian mountain range in the Quebec countryside sits Mont-Tremblant National Park, with its 400 lakes, plush forests and vast trail system. Only two hours away from Montreal, the park is the perfect place for steeping yourself in nature, and in the nearby Vallée de la Diable sits Farouche, an eco-luxury resort that lets you do so in style. Here, you’ll tuck away in your very own pint-sized A-frame that’s perfect for one (and even better for two) for the ultimate glamping-in-the-woods experience. —Kate Rae MAPPED INTEL The well-stocked store in the cosy on-site “farmbar,” a.k.a. café, carries a selection of local products. There’s everything you need to cook your own meal, including produce from Farouche’s Nordic farm across the road. The…

If the category is “What Are You Doing?,” then the answer to the puzzle – for the past 50 years – is “Watching Wheel of Fortune.” Inspired by the pen-and-paper Hangman games he’d played as a child, Merv Griffin created the now-classic game show in 1975 with host Chuck Woolery at the helm and “hostess” Susan Stafford as a beta Vanna White – the latter took over in 1982 and has never left. By design, Wheel of Fortune has felt consistent and unchanging, but in reality the game show has taken many forms in many time slots over the years. NBC passed on the disastrous pilot called Shoppers Bazaar – where contestants bought prizes with the cash they earned. But Griffin renamed and rejigged the show, and then convinced…

THE BIG ISSUE The #FreeBritney movement, which led to the very public end of the pop star’s 13-year conservatorship in 2021, got me thinking. The draconian measures controlled “the person and the estate,” meaning her conservators, including her father, were making decisions regarding Spears’ medical treatment, business affairs and personal finances – with her fortune funding their fees and expenses. I wondered if someone with Spears’ youth and resources could lose control of her life, what, then, of the elderly and vulnerable, who did not have the means and legions of fans to fight back if their autonomy was under attack? In her research, executive editor Kim Honey discovered guardianship, as it is termed in Canada, hinged on the matter of capacity – whether people understand the facts and…

The Bloc Québécois caught everyone off guard this fall when they tabled a private member’s bill that would boost Old Age Security (OAS) payments for people between the ages of 65 and 74. This OAS increase – worth about $60 a month – matched a similar bounty the Liberal government had granted to seniors over the age of 75 in July 2019. Had the Bloc suddenly abandoned its separatist agenda to become the champion of Canadian seniors? Not a chance. Party leader Yves-François Blanchet made it clear from the start that he hoped Bill C-319 would trigger a chain of events that would eventually lead to the toppling of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. Seniors benefits were simply a cynical chip to play in this high-stakes game of parliamentary…

Hello, I’m Jamie, your airplane spouse.” This is how Jamie Lee Curtis introduces herself to a seatmate when she’s flying alone. We are not on a flight now, but rather sharing an afternoon snack of chicken skewers and fries at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Toronto. And Curtis is talking about the red-eye she took the night before, and how she “proposed” to the guy sitting beside her. “I do it because, if we’re going to die, that’s the last person I’m going to be holding hands with,” she tells me. “We’re intimately sitting with each other for hours. We’re going to sleep together. They’re going to watch me sleep right next to them.” This endearing travel quirk is just one of the many ways that Curtis is constantly making…

A PASSPORT TO TRAVEL INSPIRATION AND UNEXPECTED EXPERIENCES I never wanted to go to Disney. I don’t like the idea of enforced fun, and prefer it to bubble up spontaneously. So, the “Happiest Place on Earth” was best avoided as it would inevitably be a downer. Then I had children and moved from Europe to North America, where Disney has near-mythic status, and the barrage of requests began. Over here, children seem to consider a visit to the Magic Kingdoms as a rite of passage, and no one felt more entitled to it than my 15-year-old daughter, Phoebe, who now admits she thought she was Elsa from Frozen for a good portion of elementary school. An added layer of pressure: Phoebe has a form of cerebral palsy, which makes…

For the first time in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors have retired a player’s jersey – and the honour goes to Vince “Air Canada” Carter. The 47-year-old Hall of Famer may not have been the team’s first star (that was Damon “Mighty Mouse” Stoudamire), but Carter was the one who put Toronto basketball on the map – thanks to his 1999 Rookie of the Year season, historic Slam Dunk Contest performance and role in the Raptors’ first-ever playoff run in 2000. After six high-flying years of Vinsanity, the city was heartbroken and, shall we say, bitter when Carter forced a trade in 2004, leaving for the New Jersey Nets. But bygones will be bygones: “It’s not just 15 going up, it’s all of us going up,” he told a…

COVER LOVER Wow! You guys have been on point with your covers lately! I was thrilled to see Andy Kim (June/July 2024) who has been one of my favourites for as long as I’ve owned a record player (yes … that’s a long time!). His Rock Me Gently is literally on every playlist I make. You followed up with another home run – Kiefer Sutherland! (August/September 2024). He was one of my “teenage” crushes and, man, doesn’t he still look fantastic? Having just lost his dad, the article was even more poignant and well-timed, a nod to the legacy of the incredible Donald Sutherland. I’ve also been loving the “Later in Life” love stories – they always bring me hope (haha, you just never know!). With the skyrocketing price…

Model agency owner Cathy LeDrew thought she would never find her perfect fit – until a friend fixed her up with a fellow Torontonian, Joe Gambino, an engineer who took her from the runway to the altar. CATHY LEDREW: I’d never been married and was perpetually single. My very demanding job had me out four or five times a week but I never met anyone. Marriage just didn’t seem like it was going to happen for me, and honestly, I was just fine with that. JOE GAMBINO: I was married for 20 years and divorced at 50. I’d reconnected with a group of friends I hadn’t seen since grade school. About five years ago, we were all having brunch when my friend’s wife Pat said, “I think I know…

CLAIM TO FAME: I’ve been called the Queen of Print Mixing since I can remember. My career is also a mash-up between art and style. Currently I’m contributing art editor to the Globe and Mail Style Advisor; I provide fashion commentary for The Current and CTV News and as DJ Weird Dad I have played gigs for Chanel, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Bata Shoe Museum. My latest venture is my own online newsletter-focused platform, Opaloma, where art, culture and style meet. RINSE & REPEAT: I tend to buy the same kind of pieces (slouchy blouses, wide-leg trousers, shackets/blazers) in a range of colours and prints so they can be easily mixed and matched. LAYER CAKE: Arrange your closet by style (tops, bottoms, blazers) so you can…

The timing turned out to be terrible. I’d been sick all week and the forecast was predicting an “atmospheric river” for the entire weekend I would spend in Vancouver. But the arrangements had been so complicated – and my niece Sarah and her mother Lesley were so excited – trying to reschedule the bridal dress hunt seemed like a very bad idea. Sarah and her brother Leith – my brother Sam’s children – are the entire next generation of our tiny family. Although I have doted on them since they were born, I don’t see them often enough. And between time zone differences, work schedules and busy lives, we don’t talk WhatsApp or Zoom enough either. My bad. A marathon shopping event to mark Sarah’s upcoming marriage seemed like…

THERE’S A LIMIT to how much advice a person can tolerate coursing through their social media feeds, but if it’s from Richard Christiansen, a lifestyle guru on the ascendance, I’ll take it. The former marketing entrepreneur has set his exquisite design eye on nature to produce a line of goods from the garden for his growing business. First, he seduced me on Instagram with his garden erotica; then, his 2021 cookbook, Fridays From the Garden, sent me into a sensorial swoon. Now, he’s published The Guide to Becoming Alive, in which he exhorts us to put down our phones, eat real food and honour Mother Nature, whose gifts he calls “the last great luxury.” Well, why not? It’s worked for him. In just four years, the trained lawyer who…

LOS ANGELES: At the newly renovated Georgian, a splendid retro-luxe hotel in Santa Monica, room service has four buttons, each as tempting as the next: “champagne,” “dessert,” “the usual” and “book club.” With books plucked from the shelves of their L.A.-author-focused library, you can expect a novel by Joan Didion or Eve Babitz – or something from the private collection of Christopher Isherwood that now belongs to the hotel. Which button would you press? thegeorgian.com ITALY, GERMANY, U.K, BELGIUM AND RUSSIA: The 19 glamorous hotels that make up Rocco Forte’s portfolio, from the Balmoral in Edinburgh to Hotel de Russie in Rome, have partnered with theatres, opera houses and musicians in each location to offer a “musical suite service.” In Edinburgh’s historic Balmoral Hotel, Louise Marshall (below), who is…

A CURATED COLLECTION OF NOSTALGIA AND THE LATEST POP CULTURE BUZZ With the release of Presumed Guilty, we’ve come to the end of the Rusty Sabich ride – allegedly. Considering Scott Turow’s famous fictional prosecutor – however problematic and philandering and immoral – has proven irresistible to the Wisconsin-based crime writer, it seems fair to ask, is this third novel really it? Turow laughs when I call his bluff: “Well, you could be right.” After all, Apple TV+ just reintroduced Rusty to a whole new generation in its Presumed Innocent reboot (starring Jake Gyllenhaal), which promptly became the service’s most viewed drama of all time. Director David E. Kelley took plenty of creative liberties and delivered a twist-twist-ending on Turow’s original, which even the author himself wasn’t privy to…

When rock ’n’ roll first exploded in the 1950s, its success was built on cover songs. Elvis and his white contemporaries didn’t just reflect what was first called “race music” and later “rhythm and blues,” but released their own versions of Black artists’ songs, which – lo and behold – found a home on the white-owned, racially segregated radio stations of that time. In fact, the King’s early era was almost entirely covers, from debuting with bluesman Arthur Crudup’s That’s All Right to his epochal take on Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog. Bill Haley recorded Shake, Rattle and Roll while Big Joe Turner’s 1954 original of the song was topping the R&B chart; and Jerry Lee Lewis’ Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On arrived in 1957, two years after Big…

DIGITAL DHARMA by Deepak Chopra When I asked DigitalDeepak.AI why I should read this book, the wellness guru’s voice read out the answer: “It provides new insights and a deeper understanding of the human spiritual experience.” If you don’t want to subscribe, Digital Dharma will teach you how to use free chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini as guides to personal growth. “To me, AI is a mirror to the user’s consciousness,” the holistic doctor writes in his 95th book. SEVEN DEADLY SINS by Guy Leschziner Wrath, gluttony, lust, envy, sloth, greed and pride have ancient theological origins, but Leschziner, a British neurologist, argues the seven deadly sins are “hard-wired within us,” and “perhaps less of a moral issue and more of a biological one.” In chapters for each sin,…