"I've never had but one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it!"

I have a friend who is way up in his nineties. He fought at Normandy. I am so anxious to learn more of his history. He comes in daily to the store where I work, and always is in good humor. If I am too busy to talk to him, he flashes humorous signs to me with his hands.

Neo-neocon linked to this article about centenarians, who tell why they think they lived so long. For example,

Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122, gives credit to olive oil, which she poured on her food and used on her skin, drinking port wine, and eating about two pounds of chocolate every week. “I’ve never had but one wrinkle,” she used to tell her friends, “and I’m sitting on it.”

How about how one handles stress?

Helen Reichert, 109, chalks her advanced age up to stress — or, rather, on knowing how to bounce back from it. "You don't get to be 109 without life hurling a few curve balls at you, and Reichert has had more than her share. And after each, she dusts herself off and moves on," her doctor, Dr. Mark Lachs, told NPR in 2011. "A few years back, she had a modest stroke that affected her language abilities. I don't think I've seen a patient of any age tackle rehabilitation and speech therapy the way she did." She also knows how to indulge: She eats chocolate truffles, and her favorite beverage is Budweiser. "She once announced to me that she was thinking about smoking again," Lachs said. "When I protested, she reminded me that she has outlived several other physicians and told me to mind my own business."

Any common threads? Well, doing what you enjoy seems to be high on the list. I guess I'll just keep blogging.