I read online today that a woman in Canada presently holds the record of “second oldest living woman” at 115 years. These milestones always make me think back to my own grandmother who passed away at the ripe old age of 112, remaining lucid to the very end, always firm in her belief that she owed her long life to a diet that included very little meat, a lot of greens, and one glass of red wine a day. She was apparently a very tough cookie who ruled the house with a wooden broom handle, and one of my favorite stories my father used to tell about her concerned the Mallozzi family’s conversion to Protestantism. It seems that one day, my aunt Antoinette (then a very young girl), wandered into the boy’s schoolyard in search of my father. Well, in those days this sort of behavior was simply unheard of. A nun (presumably the one on guard duty at the time) caught my aunt, gave her a sound spanking, and sent her off. When my aunt returned home in tears and told the family what had happened, my grandmother went berserk. She did what any loving yet firm-minded mother would do. She rolled up her sleeves and marched down to the school, prepared to beat the living crap out of the gulty nun. The clergy in charge of the school tried to calm her down to no avail, and it was only because the nun in question went into hiding that my grandmother finally returned home, unsatisfied, knuckles unscathed. The next day, the local priest paid my grandmother a visit, hoping to smooth things over. She responded to his house call with a couple of well-placed blows from that wooden broom handle she’d been known to wield with alarming accuracy. She chased off the priest, pulled her children out of the school they’d been attending, and left the Catholic church. And that is how my father’s side of the family came to embrace the Protestant faith. Truly an inspirational journey.
A journey of another sort concluded with tonight’s satisfying 3 hour finale to Survivor’s 13th season. Unlike The Amazing Race, this isn’t one of those reality shows that leaves me thinking “Wow. I’d love to try that.” Short of having Mary-Anne castaway with me, baking her famed coconut cream pies, I can’t think of any circumstances by which I’d be able to survive 1 day on that island, much less 39.
Well, Christmas draws near and I have yet to finish my holiday shopping which is truly pathetic since I only have to buy for one person: my wife. Fondy is in charge of getting gifts for family and friends (add sending out the Christmas cards to her list of duties), while my sole responsibility is to pick up something for her. Which I have yet to do. It’s not that I’m procrastinating. I’ve headed out twice already with every intention of picking something up for her but, each time, come home – well, not exactly empty-handed but let’s just say “mission unrealized“. On the brighter side, I did get this very cool book of Hot Chocolate recipes and these totally kick-ass South Park figures of my two fave characters: Timmy and Jimmy. Oh, Carl will be so jealous. Now before any of you get on my case, rest assured that I’ll be heading out tomorrow to finally pick up that gift. I wonder if she’d like something from the Comic Book Shoppe…
Thank you for the amusing anecdote!
I read in the Smithsonian magazine a couple of years ago that the largest population of centenarians (sp?) was Canadian.
Apparently they were from around the area of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (home of the Bluenose–look at your dime!). Researchers studied diet, geography, alcohol ingestion, etc. The results: genetics was the key.
So there you go, maybe it’s good Canadian genes. 😉
Merry Christmas and good luck with S4 of SGA!
Since you mention SOUTHPARK, I just had to send you this link –
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-6254514444631119780&q=monty+python
SouthPark’s tribute to Monty Python. LOL!!!!!
I have said it before but it’s worth saying again: your family RULES 😉