Last June, Jeralean Talley, who had been the oldest known living person in the world, passed away in Detroit at the grand old age of 116.That left Susanna Mushatt Jones, also 116, and the second known living person born in the 1800s, to assume the throne. When asked about the secret to her longevity, the sprightly supercentenarian replied that she ate four strips of bacon every morning. She has a sign in her kitchen that reads, “Bacon makes everything better.”

Jones' devotion to bacon may have amused the media, which had only just regaled the consuming masses with the results of a study that found bacon and other processed meats exacted untold damage on the human body, presumably resulting in shorter life spans.

Judging from recent retail sales behavior, the public has sided with Jones. “The bacon business appears to be immune to the consumer trend toward healthier cuisine,” noted Ellen Zentner, chief economist at Morgan Stanley in her group's annual deep dive report into consumption trends.

As for what else has been insusceptible, The Liscio Report's Philippa Dunne noted that home improvement sales were not only revised up sharply from December but tacked on another neat gain in January taking the growth rate over last January to 1.7 percent. Sales at the Home Depots and Lowe's of this world likely signal the continued stunted mobility among many Americans who still owe more on their home than it is worth.

That factor aside, there was this little thing called a historic snowstorm that swept the East Coast in January, “Home improvement is just plain strong, seemingly without the help from the weather,” Dunne observed. Blizzard smizzard!

All in all, retail sales have been healthy for the past two months of reported data, reversing a string of disappointments. “Core sales,” which feed gross domestic product, net out autos, gasoline and home improvement sales; they rose at a 3.1 percent seasonally adjusted rate, which is a nice improvement from December's 2.2-percent pace.