JUDGE A ZOOMER BY ITS COVER?

Returning from our annual five-month winter escape, I looked forward to catching up on our stack of mail – and Zoomer, in particular. For a few editions, I forgot that I was no longer in the U.S. There were Goldie, Dolly, Ann-Margret – all perfectly preserved and air-brushed ... just in case plastic surgery hadn’t quite accomplished its aim to slice 25 years off their biological ages. Then, I took note of the two covers featuring Canadians – Leonard Cohen, Don Cherry and Ron MacLean – men who actually resembled senior citizens.

I’m not quite sure what message is being conveyed. It’s okay to be an older Canadian man but it’s better to be an amazing-looking American woman?

Have you already exhausted your supply of accomplished Canadian women of a “certain age” or are we just too “real” to be worthy of a cover? —Heather Berger, White Rock, B.C.