HELLUVA NAME
Unusual names chosen by new
parents in 2018 included Lucifer,
Messiah,Awesome, Nun, Royalty
and Corbyn-Bleu (yes, really). Olivia
was the most popular name for
girls in Scotland, but Luna-Marvel-
la, Favour,Pepper and Alba-Crystal
were also picked. Jack topped
boys’ names, but Harlem-Ace,
Echo,Winter and Merlin were other
new arrivals.Sun, 20 Mar 2019.LOURDES HAVE MERCY
Many families in the Catholic
pilgrimage town ofLourdes hold
stakes in the 66 shops and stalls
selling holywater and religious
statues and trinkets; but their liveli-
hoods are threatened by the local
council’s plan to sell off the shops
to private owners in order to cancel
municipal debt. The town, in the
foothills of the Pyrenees, attracts
more than six million visitors ayear.
D.Telegraph, 25 Mar 2019.LAST ORDERS, PLEASE
The French doctrine of imminent
apocalypse goes under the unlikely
franglais namela collapsologie,
coined byagronomistPablo
Servigne in his 2015 bestseller,
Comment tout peuts’effondrer. It ’s
based on the assumption that cli-
mate change, declining resources,
speciesextinction and rubbish
mountains are driving humanity
to the brink by as early as 2030.
Times, 14Feb 2019.FRUITBAT
An unnamed man had already
eaten two mouthfuls from a plastic
jar of GoulburnValley peaches
beforefi nding a dead micro-bat
about the size of a tablespoon. His
wife said he put the pickled bat into
his mouth before realising hewas
eating a mammal instead of a fruit.
dailymail.co.uk, 1 Mar 2019.MORELATEDEPARTURESSIDELINES... Super-centenarians
in theworld’s news10 FT- Julia Flores Colque is said
to be theworld’s oldest person,
approaching the age of 119.
Her ID card, certifiedby the
Bolivian government, claims she
was born in a Bolivian mining
camp on 26 October 1900,
though GuinnessWorld Records
have not been approached
for confirmation of this. Birth
certificateswere introduced
in Bolivia in 1940; before that,
birthswere re gisteredby
baptism certificates issuedby
the Catholic Church. As a child,
Ms Colque herded sheep and
llamas in the Bolivian highlands
until she moved in her teenage
years to avalley, where she
sold fruit andvegetables. She
never married, still sings in her
indigenous Quechua tongue and
strums acharango(tiny Andean
guitar) at her home in Sacaba,
where she lives with hergrand
niece. Researchers in Denmark
have found away to determine
age by radiocarbon dating the
lens of theeye, but normally this
can only be done post mortem.
Despite Russian disinformation
[FT376:15], the all-time official
longevityrecord holder is still
the FrenchwomanJeanne
Calment (122years and 164
days). Metro, 29Aug 2018.- Olive Evelyn Boar, née Macro,
became Britain’s oldest person
on 11 May 2018, when the
Yorkshirewoman Bessie Camm
died at the age of 113years and
325 days. Mrs Boar, a former
seamstress andgrandmother
of fi ve, was born in Ipswich,
Suffolk, on 29 September 1904,
the fourth of eightchildren, and
married Claude Boar in 1932.
In 1935 they bought a house in
Ipswichfor £300. Claude died
in 1979 and his widow stayed on
in the house until moving toa
care home inFelixstowe in 2013.
She died on 28August 2018,
aged 113years and 333 days.
She didn’town a passport and
had never beenabroad. Her son
Robin Boar, 73, recalled how she
did everythingby hand, despite
the effects of ageing,refusing
to use an automaticwashing
machine. “Herroast dinners
were fairly renowned,” he said.
“Shewould makefi ve times as
much as you could possibly eat.”
East Anglian DailyTimes, 2 Sept;
BBC News, independent.co.uk, 3
Sept 2018. - Richard Overton, possibly
the oldest man in the US, died
on 27 December, aged 112. He
served in the all-black 1887th
- Olive Evelyn Boar, née Macro,
EngineerAviation Battalionfor
threeyears andwas in volved
in combat operations and
beach landings in thePacific
duringWWII. He credited his
longevity to cigars and whisky.
“I been smoking cigars from
when Iwas 18 years old, I’m
still a smoking ‘em.Twelve a
day,” he said. OnVeterans’ Day
in 2013, Barack Obama said:
“[Overton]was there atPearl
Harbor, when the battleships
were still smouldering. Hewas
there at Okinawa. He was there
at Iwo Jima, where he said,
‘I only got out of thereby the
grace of God.’” Born in 1906, he
spent most of his life inAustin,
Texas, andfor his 111th birthday
Austin City Councilrenamed the
street he had lived on for more
than 70years Richard Overton
Avenue.Well into his 100s, he
would drive widows tochurch.
BBC News, 28 Dec; Guardian, 29
Dec 2018.- Masazo Nonaka, aformer
innkeeper inJapan, became
‘officially’ the oldest man in the
world in April 2018 [FT371:7].
He was born on 25July 1905 and
died on 20January 2019, aged
113 years and 177 days. He had
outlived se ven siblings, his wife,
STR / AFP / GETTY IMAGESMARTIN ROSS
STRANGEDAYSABOVE:Julia Flores Colque, rocking on as she nears theage of 119.FACINGPAGE: Richard Overton made it to 112, cigars and all.