My maternal grandmother would agree that the secret to long life is a proper diet. Specifically, having a couple glasses of cream sherry every Sunday. Only the inexpensive stuff: Christian Brothers or Harvey's Bristol Cream Sherry.

She never, ever changed her rule about drinking cream sherry only on Sundays. But in her late she changed her calendar by deciding each Sunday began on Saturday. After she reached 100, Wednesdays became mid-week Sundays. She made another change at 103: if a clean glass wasn't handy, she took a swig from the bottle.

Surprisingly, my grandmother gave up drinking cream sherry when she was 104 1/2. She considered it unseemly to drink it while dead.