Dateline>City of Angels

This week’s most interesting, offbeat and/or entertaining web video sharing themes with this blog…

Search: YouTube!
Keywords: “California Missions”

The Result: This time I thought we’d go beyond city limits in search of something with statewide recognition — and few historical sites are more synonymous with the Californian landscape than its chain of 21 missions. While sifting through dozens of the usual YouTube visual tours, I discovered this… A kid obviously very proud of his class Mission Project.

If you’re a California native like me, chances are you also had to build a clay or sugar-cube model like this in grammar school. So let’s all take a trip together down memory lane and admire the effort this little guy put into his assignment…

Amid all the usual tips for weekend getaways, this season’s hottest succulents and making your cramped living spaces look bigger, the latest issue of Sunset Magazine includes a curiously uncharacteristic fluff piece on “How to Live to 100.”

Announcing that “One hundred is the new 70,” the article purports to “uncover the secret to why people are living longer in the West, particularly in California, which has more centenarians that any other state.” Then, employing a rather unscientific methodology to answer this weighty question, the “Magazine of Western Living” interviews three Extreme Senior women, ages 99-102, about their lifestyles and interests. (Apparently no coherent men in that age bracket could be found.)

The conclusion? Westerners live longer, healthier lives because we enjoy the sun and relaxation, eat fresh-picked fruits and vegetables, do a lot of hiking and visiting day spas, and quaff plenty of Pinot Noir.

Oh yeah… and we garden, too.

Really.