March 12, 2010

The oldest person in the world...

... is a lot older than other oldest persons who've been identified as the oldest. 

From the video at the link, I have gleaned some tips for hanging onto life as long as possible:

1. Stay in bed, lying down, under thick covers.

2. Have cute kids romping around you, kissing you, and bringing you flowers.

21 comments:

Joaquin said...

LOL! She doesn't look a day over 115!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Was that Vodka?

ricpic said...

I would suffer instant death from having to stare at that wallpaper. Hang a picture fer krise sake, you lousy Georgians.

Big Mike said...

Have cute kids romping around you, kissing you, and bringing you flowers.

Technically nothing requires the cute kids to be related to you, but IMHO, Professor, you'd do well to lean on JAC to get engaged and start a family if you want to make it past 110.

Scott said...

@Luke Lea: Ah yes the '60s. My dad, the psychiatrist, went to Esalen Institute in Big Sur for some Gestalt Therapy seminars or something. Came back a fan of massage. Built a portable massage table out of plywood and tried to get people interested in what he learned out there. That took a year for him to get out of his system.

traditionalguy said...

This Sunday HBO will start their mini-series "The Pacific". The honoring of these men by their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren by presenting their stories is what makes being old into a blessing. My generation knew these men. They were our uncles and the fathers of our friends at school. What they did is incredible. The first story is about Guadalcanal, which was an all time battle for the ages, like a Bastogne surrounded for 4 months instead of for 7 days. We still honor them by listening to their story today.

Anonymous said...

If someone starts a Vodka Party, I'll be their Facebook fan.

Chris said...

Jacob thought he was relatively young when he was 130.

traditionalguy said...

@ Big Mike...I had an uncle named Jack Ford that died in Italy when his Jeep ran over a land mine. I never knew him, but had to listen to aunts and uncles who loved him marvel at how much I looked like him. That and stories of death of friends in combat told to us by a neighbor who drove Sherman tanks for Patton in France made me admire their sacrifices. Another Uncle flew Naval Carrier planes in the Pacific, and came back home safely with his Australian Bride, but never talked about it. Then the births boomed in the home of the brave. Good job guys.

kjbe said...

Loved the wodka, at the end. Great piece! Thanks.

Jamie said...

My dad won the Mackay Trophy (most meritorious flight of the year - USAF) back in the late '70s for leading a rescue mission (and flying the helicopter that picked most of the sailors up) off the coast of Korea; he and his guys saved 28 Korean sailors in a terrible thunderstorm as their boat sank. He's always insisted that, if anything, HIS UNIT should have won the award, not just him - but there you go.

I'm very proud of my dad.

tim maguire said...

I'm not saying anything about this woman specifically, but in the '70s and '80s there was a lot of interest in incredibly old Eastern Europeans until it was discovered they lied about their ages to avoid service in WWI.

It's entirely possible that she was born in 1895ish and had her birth date changed to 1880 to make her too old for war service.

rhhardin said...

She probably has trouble with security questions.

Deborah M. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kirby Olson said...

Prisyadki, the dance where you're sort of sitting, and stretching your legs out with crossed legs, is something that this lady does whenever the cameras are off. she's just doing her Little Red Riding Hood's Grandma routine for now.

Kirby Olson said...

Crossed arms, sorry!

I used to dance it with this lady when I lived in Georgia. She was the best around, and still is, people say.

Fred4Pres said...

Fred Thompson is old, but he is not that old!

Fred4Pres said...

Lem, she is in Georgia. The give babies vodka and arak.

Anonymous said...

TraditionalGuy: "I'm ordering HBO tomorrow just so I can watch "The Pacific." As you suggest, it really was the turning point in the war with Japan. The Japanese were so incredibly contemptuous of American forces prior to Guadalcanal. They couldn't believe we would dare to take Henderson Field away from them (or that they couldn't take it back at the first opportunity).

And of course they had good reason to think they they were superior (at least at sea). They had better leadership, better night fighting capabilities, more accurate gunfire, and far superior torpedoes.

We in turn had (primitive) radar, doughty Australian coast watchers, clever cryptographic analysis, PT boats and increasingly better pilots (they lost most of their good ones at Midway and didn't have a system to replace them). We also had two good Admirals (King and later Halsey).

ken in tx said...

My Dad was in the Pacific War. His underway duty was as a cook’s helper. His combat duty was as a landing craft pilot. IOW, he drove those boats that went up on the beach and the front end fell down for Marines to rush out. He was in an LST half way across the Pacific to Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped. His ship was under sealed orders for the first wave of the invasion of Japan. If they had not surrendered, he would have been almost certainly killed and I would not be here. I love the bomb. Btw my Dad also taught me how to cook.

Jane said...

I spent a long time last night reading about Georgia.

I think it's one of the most tragically romantic countries. Beautiful people, beautiful art, amazing history. Their Renaissance bloomed long before the rest of Europe. They fought so hard against first their Southern and then their Northern aggressors and have survived this long.