Lina Ko April 28th, 2008
According to a new national snapshot of Canadian eating habits, nearly half of Canadians (45 percent) buy takeout or order-in meals at least once a week. The highest proportion was among trailing-edge boomers, with 63 percent of people aged 45 to 49 getting takeout or ordering in regularly.The new research is complemented by a study by NPD Group that shows a broad national rebellion against cooking.
According to the research company, boomers have developed a habit of not cooking. Cooking from scratch is something that’s relatively infrequent in the average household now. Takeout meals from Canada’s casual dining restaurants over the last six years have seen double-digit growth. As the population ages, there is a greater demand for convenient food for those childless households that no longer feel the need to participate in the cooking process.
In 2007, 28 percent of meals purchased from casual dining restaurants in Canada were eaten at home. In 1994, roughly 20 percent of these meals were takeout. Empty nesters are more likely to buy prepared food because they don’t feel guilty if there are no children.
Food and beverage marketers are capitalizing on this opportunity to make even takeouts special. An Australian wine brand recently launched a Canadian website that suggests different wine pairings for popular order-in food items. Semillon chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, for example, are said to be a good fit for pizza, while Riesling is being touted as the beverage to accompany spring rolls and hot-and-sour soup.
Perhaps it’s time for William Ashley to introduce customized china for order-in meals?
Lina Ko April 21st, 2008
According to the most recent issue of Maclean’s magazine, baby boomers are moving en masse into their absent-minded-professor phase. Names, in fact, are among the first things to go as our brains begin shrinking – by about half of one percent annually – starting as early as our thirties.
Name loss is only the most noticeable symptom of age-related memory decline. In middle age, we can’t multi-task the way we did when we were younger – it becomes harder and harder to divide our attention and it also takes longer to process new information.
So what can boomers do about it? According to Martha Weinman Lear’s Where Did I Leave My Glasses?: The What, When and Why of Normal Memory Loss, there are compensatory strategies, from the basics (to-do lists) to what experts call the spaced-rehearsal technique. Don’t rapidly mutter a new name over and over – your memory won’t respond well. Instead, repeat it silently when you first hear it, wait 10 seconds, do that again, wait 20 seconds, and so on for a couple of minutes.
I always pride myself in having a memory like an elephant, but remembering names has always been a problem to me. Faces, yes, but names are always a challenge. According to Maclean’s, ’smart’ pills designed to chemically boost the age-weakened connections between our neural networks will be widely available within 10 years. An MIT robotics professor even predicted that memory chip implants will be invented in due course. In the meantime, we boomers have to rely on more active mind games – mahjong, poker, crossword puzzles, chess, etc.
Lina Ko April 7th, 2008
I went and saw Martin Scorsese’s “Shine A Light” over the weekend. We all know that Scorsese has been a Stones fan all his life – that’s why he directed this documentary, and that’s why he was treating Mick Jagger and his lads as demi-gods!
I think this movie is awesome, not only because I love the Stones, but because The Rolling Stones is the ultimate dream for baby boomers. Given that all the band members (exept for the back-up singers) are leading-edge boomers, the Stones still command respect and adoration from not only the baby boomers, but also the baby boomers’ kids. It’s obvious that the front-row audience at The Beacon Theatre in New York all comprised attractive, energetic and young 20-somethings who probably grew up with their parents’ music at home.
The movie is a success due to the following simple reasons: The Rolling Stones are great musicians in the first place and the fact that they played not only rock-and-roll, but country and blues music in the movie as well, just captivated audiences of all ages. Most of the songs that were on the line-up of this concert were rare numbers – music that was not played in the typical giant-stadium venues that became a trademark of the Stones.
The Stones also made a deliberate effort to collaborate with the younger generation – Jack White and Christina Aguilera – and this made them special and appealing to the younger audiences. Throughout the movie, there were numerous attempts by Scorsese to mock the ageing process of the Stones, and they didn’t mind it. In fact, they were having some fun with mocking their own ages!
The movie is a resounding success also because the quirky personality of each Stones member was portrayed without any embarrassment or apologies. Charlie Watts actually spoke! Keith with his perennial drug problems and his chain-smoking on stage! Mick, with his larger-than-life persona and show-business charisma!
When I exited from the IMAX cinema with all the boomers and some senior citizens with walking canes, I couldn’t help but feel excited about the enduring power of the boomers as demonstrated by The Rolling Stones! When was the last time you were excited by a group of wrinkly, but energetic men in their 60’s?