Anorexia, Aging and Two-Day-Old Croissants

It'd be a better joke if the sign said "ask our girls what they think!"

Over the past week I have, in no particular order, watched a documentary on anorexia (THIN), had my hair highlighted with blonde dye, and read a few chapters of the book that keeps showing up in the comments, This Chair Rocks.

The common thread among these three is, obviously, your looks may influence how you feel about yourself and will definitely influence what other people think about you.

This Chair Rocks by Ashton Applewhite (evidently her real name) takes aim at ageism, which is a pattern of behaviour -- like all the other "isms" -- where people assume bad things about other people based, among other things, on how they look.

Applewhite shows with lots of studies and research that the facts about old people prove the assumptions wrong. Old people are mentally nimble (just forgetful), can sustain muscle mass and vigour (though, you know, less than when they were 25), and are often happier than they have been their whole lives (no qualifier on this one; this is completely true).  

I'm a ready convert to the gospel Applewhite is preaching. All you have to do is watch a documentary about anorexia and see what a horrible burden being young (and female) can be.  

I wanted to recommend Applewhite to the 59-year-old man who fretted about his retirement as he put the highlights in my hair. Accentuating the positive, I told him about my trip to Paris, and the small pleasure of eating two-day-old croissants for breakfast. He missed my point that even stale Paris croissants are delicious and asked instead, "Weren't you worried you'd gain weight?"

Maybe Applewhite. Maybe THIN.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Much older than me:
Roman rampart in Tours

 

 

Visual Signals

Bruce and I enjoyed a delicious meal at Richmond Station last night. We were celebrating St. Patrick's Day, the anniversary of one or the other of our weddings, and the third anniversary of the COVID lockdown announcement in Ontario.

Regarding the last in that list, the streets this year are much more lively than they were in 2020. 

It's been more than a year since Ontario lifted most COVID restrictions, but I still get a kick out of seeing people thronging around in happy crowds, as they were last night outside of McVeigh's Tavern. 

As much as I enjoy a more active city, I still feel sometimes like I've got a ways to go before I'm fully adept at coexisting with strangers.

For example.

Last Saturday, I was waiting in Union Station for some friends coming in from Belleville. We'd agreed to meet by the women's washroom. I was early and their train was late, and the power of suggestion made me need to use the washroom, which I did. 

Just as I exited, what looked to me very much like a man walked in. I said, “this is the women’s washroom.” I can’t be sure now what my tone was, but it wasn’t my intention to accuse. He could have just been mistaken.

I realized I was the one who was mistaken when the person said, in a clearly offended tone, “I am a woman.”

“OK” I said. I sat down on a nearby bench, and waited for my friends. 

The trans woman spotted me when she emerged from the washroom. She marched right up to me and loudly berated me for my rude behaviour and how I should know better than to talk to a trans woman that way. She started with the question “What’s your problem?” 

My feeling was she had more of a problem than I did, so I didn't respond. If I gave her no fuel for the fire she was looking to stoke, I hoped she would stop yelling at me and go away. 

This she eventually did. Then I sat there minding my own business, but smarting a bit, until my friends arrived.

I’m sorry for that person’s troubles. They have a lot of anger, and seem to have learned somewhere that you yell at strangers in public when things don’t work the way you want them to.

There’s small irony here that the trans woman was acting like a Karen.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Dog park dogwood, Allan Gardens

Grey (Crime) Wave

Creedence Clearwater ear worm, 11 March 2023

Another week, another winter storm.  If it weren't for that shingles shot on Wednesday, I would not have gone outside this week at all.

In other old person news, Bruce and I had a coffee in a supermarket cafe recently with a friend (who shall remain nameless) who confessed to not paying his fare on the streetcar. He'd also skipped paying for some yoga classes.

We marvelled at the incredible ease with which he had committed his crimes.

"It's because old people are invisible," he said. "We can do anything we like and no one notices."

In Canada, by 2030, more than one person in five will be over 65. So watch your wallet.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

This old man, on the other hand, attracted a lot of attention when he repeatedly pounded his guitar against the giant exhaust pipes across from the Georges Pompidou Centre.

Canada Calls You

Looking out my back door, Saturday, March 4, 2023

Since we've been back from France, there have been three major winter storms.

Phooey.

So let's just enjoy some Manets, and pray for spring.

Thanks for reading!

Karen

Tours mash-up: medieval half timbered house, now the 
Leonard De Vinci restaurant, next to "Poutine Bros"
where you can get yourself some poutine
(see the lumberjack and the flag?).

Inside "Poutine Bros"