Noteworthy: Apparently a lot goes into living a long life, but a really long life is passed down

By Bruce Penton on January 31, 2024.

The most interesting story I read online recently was from Axios, and it dealt with living a long life. For the next few weeks, some of the info in that story will be repeated here. For instance, our behaviours – things like diet, exercise and sun exposure – account for 75 per cent of what gets us to 90, and our genes play a 25-per-cent role.

After age 90 though, our genes have a stronger influence in the length of our life. So if you live to be 100 or more, thank Mom and Dad. Or perhaps Grandma and Grandpa, or even further down your family’s heredity trail.

– This may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black – because I’ve been responsible for more than my share of typographical errors over the years – but if I were in charge of a national Canadian sports TV network, I’d make sure my graphics staff had plans in place to have 100 per cent accuracy. But in recent weeks, we’ve seen ‘excorcises’ instead of ‘exorcises’ and last week, an all-caps graphic said the Carolina Hurricanes were in the midst of a ‘Mom’s trip’. Yet, I saw many moms, not just one, when the camera panned the suite from where the moms were watching.

– When I was at a very impressionable age in the 1960s, the Beatles were on top of the musical world. To this day, 60-some years later, their music remains ubiquitous. ‘Yesterday’ is the group’s song covered most often by other singers/bands, but No. 2 in that category, a bit of a surprise, is George Harrison’s ‘Something’, a song called by Frank Sinatra as the greatest love song ever.

– A mid-column groaner – direct theft from the internet: “I just found out that I’m colour blind. The news came completely out of the green!”

– Football fans won’t know what to do this weekend with no professional games on TV, but in 10 days’ time, the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will meet in the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. The 49ers are a slight favourite, but Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes always seems to work some magic and pull out a victory.

CBS and TSN in Canada must be overjoyed with the matchup, because not only does it offer a compelling game between two great teams, but the TV cameras will get to zoom in on Taylor Swift a few dozen times during the game. Swift, the world’s No. 1 entertainer, is the girlfriend of Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce and always seems to get a ticket – no matter how expensive – to a fancy suite at the biggest games. Maybe she’ll join Usher at halftime and sing a few tunes, just to further alienate the growing percentage of football fans who are annoyed at her highjacking of the NFL season.

One report said Swift’s inclusion in the Chiefs’ TV broadcasts “has generated an equivalent $330 million of brand value for the Chiefs and the NFL.” The report went on to say that “Taylor led the NFL to its highest regular-season viewership ever among women.”

– Canadian musical icon Joni Mitchell, a native of Fort Macleod, Alta., but who grew up in Saskatoon, will be one of the featured performers this Sunday at the Grammy Awards. Mitchell is 80 – recovering from a stroke suffered nine years ago – and will be one of about a dozen performers, including a few I’ve heard of – Billy Joel, U2 and Billie Eilish – and others whose names are foreign to me, such as Burna Boy, Luke Combs, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo and Travis Scott. (I know, I know, I’m so far out of touch music-wise, it’s embarrassing.)

Mitchell’s Live at Newport is one of the nominees in the Best Folk Album category.

– Tip of the hat to Ken Sauer, a Member of the Order of Canada and easily in the top 10 all-time on the list of Best Medicine Hat citizens, after his announcement that he’s giving up the job of master of ceremonies at the annual Mayoral State of the City address.

– Enjoy this above-zero weather for the next few days. Long-range forecast looks like southern Alberta is dipping back into normal ‘winter’ temperatures for a while.

– Nobody asked me, but Brendan Miller takes some great News photos.

– A sad sign of the times, I suppose, when you hear that civic authorities are looking at bolstering security at city hall after the scary firearm situation last week at Edmonton city hall.

– Have they started work yet on making that right lane at Strachan Road and 13th Avenue corner a right-turn only?