24 Reasons to Travel in 2024: Whether it’s relaxing at an all-inclusive, revelling in Paris, basking in Rome or shopping in Tokyo, Zoomer’s travel special highlights the trends and destinations to help you plan your next great escape.
NEW LEASE ON LIFE Dear Mr. Znaimer: Thank you for sorting out my corroded attitude on aging. I am fast approaching 70 and, unlike my daughter who simply turns up the radio when her car starts to clunk, the creaks and groans earned from my ongoing career as a dairy farmer have become increasingly hard to ignore. What is even more damaging, they have been making me act old. Your words refuelled my determination to walk taller and reclaim some of what I have been allowing to slip away. Yes … Zoomer on!! —Brenda Campbell As you’ve noted, Brenda, attitude is everything. You’re living by our favourite adage: “The best way to keep going is to keep going.” TYPES AND SIZES Why is the print so small in Zoomer…
BASED ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE of me with my one true love – the spaghetti pomodoro served at the Four Seasons Hotel in Florence – could my reason to travel have been to celebrate World Pasta Day in its motherland? I would cross an ocean for it, but the fact that I was in Italy on that auspicious occasion, Oct. 25, 2023, was serendipity. The idea of indulgence is why I chose to accept the “pleasure tax" (i.e., the high cost of flights) and not cancel when a late-breaking work situation made the timing of the long-planned trip awkward. Physically and mentally, I needed respite through immersion in a culture of mesmerizing beauty. I escaped thinking of my everyday through lavish meals, lashings of wine and voraciously consuming antiquities…
UP From “Hanoi Jane” to “Flexible Fonda” Actor Jane Fonda, 86, tells The Telegraph flexibility is key to great later-in-life sex, because “you’ve got to be able to put your legs over your head.” For those who aren’t as bendy A Swedish retirement home sells “pleasure baskets” with sex toys and lubricants as part of a program to promote sexual health and intimacy. That classic fairy tale scenario: Man meets woman, falls in love and cameras catch it all In a totally genuine move – and not at all a publicity stunt – Golden Bachelor Gerry Turner, 72, and his chosen bride, Theresa Nist, 70, marry on The Golden Wedding, a two-hour special on prime-time TV. Clearly, Nist didn’t see this before saying “I do” British researchers say older…
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN a coin toss about just when King Charles III (right, with Queen Camilla) would ever supplant his long-lasting mom and make it onto our pocket change, but his visage now graces Canadian currency. The first batch of coins rolled off the line at the Royal Canadian Mint in Winnipeg on Nov. 14, in honour of the King’s 75th birthday, and many local collectors lined up for a chance to own a piece of history. (A $200 pure gold coin, which cost a whopping $4,199.95, sold out.) One royal tradition to be observed: Each monarch must face in the opposite direction of the previous one, so Charles faces left. Canadian portrait artist Steven Rosati was chosen to design the effigy (but, hey, no pressure), and produced…
AS 40-YEAR-OLD SOCCER STAR Christine Sinclair (below) walked off the pitch for the final time of her glorious international career in December, she received a thunderous ovation from a full house at Vancouver’s B.C. Place. That a women’s soccer game played in Canada could sell out a large stadium and deliver a national TV audience would have seemed unthinkable 23 years ago, when the Burnaby, B.C., soccer phenom first donned the Maple Leaf, at the age of 16. Back in the early 2000s, the women’s team played in front of sparse crowds, with limited media coverage and laughable compensation – Sinclair and her teammates earned $10 a day. Moreover, the prize money from global competitions paled in comparison to men’s and there was no domestic professional league from which…
Aging is almost imperceptible. Do you feel different now than five or 10 years ago? Twenty? Usually it takes a reminder – a backache, say, or a high school reunion. For me, it was a catch-up with Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew during the 2022 Junos, where we reminisced about the CD release party for the indie rock band’s breakthrough album, You Forgot It in People – and I realized it happened back in 2002. Musicians can’t avoid age reminders because their songs carbon-date them, chaining them to memories on our shared timeline. They can either settle into “oldies” status, or channel this temporal perspective into their songwriting. Drew, 47, has done both, augmenting BSS’s recent 20th-anniversary tours with his recent solo album, Aging, a half-hour of piano ballads…
