Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Feats of the oldest


At 71, the Oldest one up high

A 71-year-old Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa became the oldest person to scale Everest.

Oldest People on 7 Summits

A 69-year old Werner Berger from Newmarket,Ontario became the oldest North American to reach all seven of the world's highest summits. These include Mt. Everest, Mt. McKinley and Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Speaking of climbing over world records, Jeanne Stawiecki at age 56 completed seven marathons and climbed the summits on the highest peaks on seven continents. I'm not sure why she is so modest.

79 Year old Triathaloner


In Texas, Phyllis Mann will become the oldest woman to compete in the Danskin Women’s Triathlon in Austin, Texas, at the age of 79.

A Cricketer No More at 96

The world's second oldest living test cricketer has died. Former New Zealand batsman Jack Kerr was 96 and only 10 days younger than the oldest.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Oldest Living Twins are 105



Ellen Robertson and Sarah Jeanmougin have just turned 105. Pictured here at a previous celebration, the twin sisters are recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living set of twins in the world.

Robertson who suffered a stroke recently and is hard of hearing celebrated with family her family in Winnipeg. Her sister was for health reasons unable to travel from her home in Arizona.

They were born May 29, 1902 among 10 children in what now is Wolseley, Saskatchewan. At that time the area was still part of the Northwest Territories.

Robertson taught an hour-long aerobics class at her senior home until she turned 93.

Friday, May 25, 2007

Old News: Oldest US Mother of Artificial Twins


A 60 year old New Jersey woman went through a lot of trouble to get into the history books to become the oldest American mother of twins this week. The twin boys were conceived via artificial-insemination in South Africa at a center which specialized in fertility in older women.

The newest babies are healthy, although they were born somewhat prematurely (35 weeks), somewhat under-weight (4 pounds 11 ounces), and via c-section.

The story is getting old fast, so fast in fact that you can read a reasonable account here from the Iranian Alalam News.

Though a record of some sort, Freda Birnbaum is not the oldest mother in the world (age 66), nor the the oldest American mother (age 63, in which the mother lied to the fertility clinic about her real age). This record is simply for being the oldest American mother of twins.

The new baby boys A and B have older siblings, brothers ages 6 and 33 and a sister age 29.

Birnbaum is now friends with Lauren Cohen who was the previous record holder having her kids exactly one year earlier at age 59.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Oldest Blogger

Somewhere out there is the world's oldest blogger. Like everything else in the oldest business, there are some grey areas.

Donald Crowdis of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is 93 and has a blog called Don To Earth.


Olive Riley is 107 and blogs, but as she can no longer see, she is assisted by Mike Rubbo. She lives way down under, and her blog is called The Life Of Riley.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

One Whopper of a Birthday



An Indian man just enjoyed a huge celebration of his birthday. He is what I consider a double-senior citizen (older than 65 times two). At 138, Habib Miyan's has been entered into the Limca Book of Records. (I couldn't find his entry on their website, and their book is not readily available here in the U.S.)

I just love this stuff!

According to this interesting 2005 story, he might really only be 129 today.

But the problem is that the most widely accepted oldest person died in 1997 at the age of 122.

Is the Guinness (beer) Book of World Records more reliable than the Limca (Coca-Cola) Book of (Indian) Records? Or visa-versa?

There are certainly dozens of people who feel one way and over a billion of people who probably feel the other way?

He might deserve an entry in Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, but they have him beat. The oldest person that they have verified lived until age 166. To their credit, Ripley's discounted familiar reports of longevity from the Bible and a 244 year old Chinese man once featured in Time Magazine.

So here's a big happy 138th birthday to Habib Miyan!

And you can believe it or not!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Oldest Sports


At 68, solo sailing legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston finished the Velux 5 Oceans round the world yacht race. He completed the 30,000 mile race last week in Bilbao, Spain after 159 days at sea and finished fourth.




In order to raise money for her church, Bessie Sandison rappelled down a bridge pillar of a 165ft bridge. The 86 year old lives in Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scottland.




Another Scott has made the news. Muriel Annan, age 86, is the oldest female member of her golf club and has hit her first hole in one after 60 years of playing. She made the shot during a senior ladies' event at Merchants of Edinburgh Golf Club.




New Yorker Barbara Hillary recently traveled and then skied to the north pole. A lung cancer survivor, at the age of 75, she is the oldest woman and first black woman to reach the North Pole.




100-year-old Lola Harcourt became the oldest person to mount the observation deck of Sydney's tallest building. "Sydney is a lot bigger than I remember,” Lola said.

(OK, it appears from this story that she took the elevator and was pushed in a wheel chair, so this is hardly a true feat of physical daring or skill.)




A South African woman fulfilled her promise to her grandchildren to go skydiving in Cape Town. Georgina Harwood age 92 jumped from a height of 9,000 feet.




N. K. Mahajan, a retired teacher in Pune, sailed at a height of 250 feet before being brought down to the cheering of his friends and former students on Friday.
At 87, he has the honor of being the oldest person in India to parasail.




At age 106, Bill Hargrove of Decatur, Georgia became the oldest league bowler in the world. In a most recent game he scored a 93 (that's higher than what I bowled last month) which is pretty good considering he cannot see the lane very well and needs friends to tell him which pins are still up. He's been bowling since 1924. That's 83 years of bowling.

Oldest Profession: Postmaster


Verna Naylor, the oldest postmaster and the oldest female U.S. Postal Service employee in the United States, is 91. She took over the job in 1968 after the death of her husband. Her Bentonville, Ohio post office is 150.




Studs Terkel is 95 today! Happy Birthday Studs! Hear a birthday interview with him today on Democracy Now!

Besides living a rich life, Terkel was, at age 93, one of the recently become the oldest people ever to receive open-heart surgery. Few others have been older.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Oldest Woman Meets Tallest: 114 and 7 foot 7

Last month, Edna Parker the oldest American, the world's 2nd oldest woman and 2nd oldest person, celebrated her birthday with Bertha Fry, 113, and with 7-foot-7 Sandy Allen, the world's tallest woman.

Parker at 114 outlived her husband and children and lives at the Heritage House Convalescent Center in Shelbyville, Indiana.

Oldest Deaths

Last month, Reuel Millar of Lakewood, Colorado passed away at age 110.



Rosaria Caleca age 112 of Long Island has died. She was the oldest person in New York, the 8th oldest American, and 18th oldest person in the world. She was born in Palermo, Sicily, on Feb. 5, 1895.



Perhaps the oldest person in the world, 128-year-old Mary Ewen (Granny Mary) of Manchester, Jamaica has died. A self-taught midwife, nanny, doula, and farmer, Granny Mary was credited with delivering babies extending to three generations.



Kind Reader, you will notice here that some supercentarians have ages which exceed the known recorded human lifespan. They often are from third-world countries where record keeping is not as stringent especially 100 years ago. I believe that these people probably are indeed old, are quite old, and are certainly among the world's oldest people.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Oldest Law Student is 87

China Daily reports :

An 87-year-old man, Wang Jianbang of Zhengzhou, capital of Henan Province, has become the oldest person in China to take law courses.

According to Sun Jiwen, headmaster of the training school, Wang hopes to become a lawyer when he graduates.

Wang decided to take up law after he lost a property case early this year.

Moved by Wang's spirit, the training school has waived his tuition fees of more than 10,000 yuan ($1,298).

Friday, May 11, 2007

Oldest Graduate: no grown-ups left behind

In two weeks Nola Ochs will graduate from Fort Hays State University in Kansas. By doing so at age 95, she will become the world's oldest college graduate.

Her achievement was recently noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer and in many other news outlets.

"I work like a beaver," the Kansas native said. "When finals come, I work like two beavers."

Her degree, quite appropriately, is in History.




Meanwhile elsewhere in Kansas...

Though he's 55 years old and legally blind, Marvin Bottomley will become his High School's oldest graduate.

He recently attended the prom with his wife.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Oldest Post

Since this is a brand new blog, this is the oldest post and always will be. Oldest has many connotations. Sticking around, being first and surviving makes you oldest.

Oldest is the theme of this blog in every sense. In fact, in ways I have not yet fleshed out.

So welcome! Let's see where this goes.