Olive Riley, proud Australian and, at 108 reputedly the world’s oldest blogger, has died. Her last blog post described her impromptu concert for her new roommate and the nursing staff (she sang daily, and frequently posted her Greatest Hits to YouTube).

Here is Olive describing how to bathe a baby using a tin pan and a wood stove. “The trick is to keep the baby warm” eh? No, the trick is to keep the baby intact, I would think. When you think about the size of some of the pioneer families, it’s truly shocking to realize just how much hard work went into raising them.

It’s the weekend. Kick back and have a few lols. Lyk dese:

The always excellent and erudite Mr. Henry wrote a post last week regarding food and grandmothers. Specifically, the food our grandmothers made that reminds us of growing up. It is amazing how the food of our childhood can bring back such strong memories.

I was lucky enough to have two grandmothers who were fabulous cooks. One was German, the other Italian, neither of them much far removed from their homelands. So I took for granted all the wondrous, made-from-scratch food they made for us.

We are lucky enough to still have one grandmother with us, a great-grandmother to the Munchkin. But her days of being able to stand at the counter and cook polenta from scratch are sadly behind her.

The other grandmother, the German frau who passed away many years ago, would have recognized in the Munchkin her culinary soulmate. Butter? Why not just put it on with a spatula! Something doughy? Oh my, yes! Apple strudel and puffy German pancakes? Pass the plate please! And for her, making food and nourishing her family was her expression of love. Because bless her heart, she was a stoic woman who was not often outwardly affectionate. But one taste of that strudel, at once chewy and flaky and perfectly sweet but not-too-sweet, and you knew there was nothing but love and care in the making.

As the Munchkin gets older, I find myself wanting to connect him with his ancestral roots, and thus I have attempted to make some recipes from both grandmothers. Before he was born, I wistfully thought of the dishes that I looked forward to eating as a child, but didn’t do much in the way of actually making them. Now, I try much harder to recreate the food I equated with love and happiness, hoping to have some of that rub off on him as well.

And as for my own mother, someone who didn’t enjoy cooking in the same way her mother did, it seems that the Munchkin will always equate her with chocolate chip pancakes.

She could defintely do worse.

I’m just not a baby person.

I’m cool with babies and all, but I am not one of those women who will drop everything to rush over to an infant. I don’t normally coo and cuddle someone else’s child, unless I am related to or good friends with the parents.

I remember taking the Munchkin out when he was about six months to get our taxes done. The secretary saw him and immediately squealed, lurching out from behind her desk, begging to hold him. Granted, he was one cute baby, but I was a bit nonplussed that this woman, this stranger, was practically salivating at the thought of cradling him.

Since her boss was the one who was going to be saving us some money, I reluctantly allowed her. Her face suffused with joy, and she said, “I can’t help it, I am totally baby crazy. I just looooove babies.”

And when the Munchkin was young, I came across many of these women. Seemingly normal, but if their radar picked up an infant within twenty feet, their eyes would glaze over and their minds became slightly unhinged. Once that baby hit their arms, they could no longer communicate properly with the outside world. Syllables became drawn out, and nonsensical babbling/singing would come out of their mouths. There was nothing else but this infant and their momentary bond. Which is touchingly sweet, and yet is at the same time a wee bit creepy.

I sort of get it. There is something so very adorable about newborns. Those little lips! Those big eyes! The cute noises! And the helplessness! Who can resist the helplessness?

Well, I can.

I think I am happier now that my son and I can have a conversation, that he can brush his own teeth, and that diapers are a thing of the distant, distant past.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is genius and then there is Genius.

Einstein. Descartes. Plato. Albert Martin.

The great-grandfather from Benfleet in the UK has invented perhaps the greatest shopping-related accessory in the history of forever; shopping bag suspenders.

“When you carry plastic bags your fingers go numb, you keep moving the bags to different fingers but eventually you drop your bags and lose all your shopping.

“I decided I would make a harness with two hooks to hang your bags on instead. I find it comfortable to carry two bags on each side.

“There’s a strap over your shoulders with a hook on either end to carry your shopping and a strap across the back to stop you losing your bags if you lean forward…”

Mr Martin said: “We made it in the garage. My wife got her sewing machine out and away we went…

“You can carry your shopping and wipe your nose, eat fish and chips or talk on the phone at the same time.”It’s great for mums holding their children’s hands – you could even hold a baby at the same time as carrying your shopping.”

Mr Martin is so confident in his invention that he’s obtained a patent and conservatively estimates that he will make his first million before his 90th birthday. And we at TeenyManolo can only applaud and say: where do we place an order? In typical fashion, it looks like the celebrities have already got their orders in advance:

From the land that gave us Monty Python and, inadvertently, The United States of America, comes this delightful concept: playgrounds for old people!

From the Guardian:

Manchester, UK: John and Patricia Baxter, aged 73 and 57 respectively, try out the new play equipment at the Older People’s Play Area in Dam Head Park, Blackley. The new play area, which is the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to give gentle excercise for the elderley and has the slogan “You’re never too old to play”

True enough, and now it’s time for us to play: Captions in the Comments section, please. Winner announced Monday, and I promise not to pick myself this time.

Truly hath it been said that the days between Christmas and New Year’s are the sweetest of the calendar, and for one reason only: presents!

You get to play with the kids’s presents.

Or is that just me? No. No, loyal reader, it is not. And how do I know this? I know this because our faithful friends across the Pond have informed me that Hunky Prince William is having the very devil of a time getting his WII out of the hands of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Or, as we may now call her, the QuWIIn.

From People.co.uk:

William’s girlfriend Kate Middleton bought him the £200 gift for Christmas – but he now has to share it with his grandma.

A Palace source told The People: “When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in.

“She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural.

“It was hilarious. William was in fits of laughter. He was enormously impressed at having such a cool gran.

Indeed, she’s not the only one who’d like to get her hands on William’s WII.