Senior Women Web

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  • Just Icing on the Cake, Part Two*

     by Roberta McReynolds

    The assignment for the third and final class required baking another cake, striving to apply a smoother coat of frosting this time. This would be impossible for one of my classmates; her homework for last week was flawless. The rest of us had plenty of room for varying degrees of improvement.

    I’m thankful that our instructor, Lori, wasn’t required to grade students on skill. As long as the required class fee was paid, success wasn’t a big issue. I take that back. She wanted us to be successful enough that we would enjoy it and register for many future classes!Rose bouquet

    Lori had strongly encouraged us to practice making roses at home. Each of us possessed an instruction booklet with photographs and had seen her demonstrate the process. If you’re a good at balancing an icing nail with a mound of soft frosting in one hand and aiming a bag of frosting with a mind of its own in the other hand, while reading a book on the proper angles for each rose petal, you would be on the road to success. Oh, don’t forget that twirling the icing nail at the proper speed as you squeeze the frosting bag is beneficial.

    Read More

    Just the Icing on the Cake, Part One

  • CultureWatch Review: Anna Quindlin’s Still Life With Bread Crumbs

    STILL LIFE WITH BREAD CRUMBS

    By Anna Quindlen © 2014reading on the beach

    Published by Random House; Hardcover, 252 pp.

    Reading on the beach; Wikimedia Commons

     A story about a later-than-middle-aged New Yorker (Rebecca Winter) who has had to face the fact of a long unhappy marriage that ended in divorce, and has run off to the country? Who is an artist (photographer) of erstwhile note, and who knows nothing of rural living or small-town mores? Who doesn’t recognize a common nuisance creature in the attic of her rented cabin, but ends up falling for the rough-hewn roofer who rescues her? Don’t let this (unfair) synopsis scare you away from another of Anna Quindlen’s masterful revelations of how she perceives what makes people tick.

    Quindlen uses succinct prose of the kind honed by years of journalism and conscious editing. You never have a sense of missing something you want or need to know about where and when a scene takes place. Atmosphere is made almost palpable by the kind of attention to significant detail that makes each one come to life — sometimes by pointing out what’s absent. “She needed to reclaim the syntax of her daily existence, upended in this strange little town.” Rebecca Winter lived in a Manhattan high-rise with a gym where she exercised daily, and walked to the deli to get her breakfast bagel. Where she is now, there are no sidewalks.

    As in her other novels, Quindlen crafts individuals so real you think sometimes you might have met one of them. No one is an exaggeration of a particular characteristic either physical or intellectual. Dialogue is as naturalistic as it comes, which makes each person immediately recognizable when he or she says anything.

    Because the decline of Rebecca’s fame and fortune comes at a time when both her parents are in rapid decline, when her agent seems to have not much interest in her or her work, and when money has become an unavoidable preoccupation, the situation in which Rebecca finds herself is pretty bleak. She can’t help obsessing over her shrinking bank account. Flashbacks showing her hopelessly egocentric husband, her egomaniacal agent, and her abstracted and seemingly insensitive son make it a wonder that Quindlen invests her heroine (not too strong a word for her) with such objectivity and humor.

    You really want to know how and if Rebecca can even survive the rural winter, let alone the financial burdens and loneliness to which she seems to have become a victim. As time passes, Rebecca begins to hike in the woods. What she runs across there becomes the material for a recovery of her artistic sense, and provides some wonderful renditions of how nature strikes an urban sensibility long deprived of it. The discoveries also become central to the denouement — truly symbolic.

    After too many novels whose focus seems (if the reader is honest with herself) to be on the sexual antics and sensations involved with falling and being in love, this is a welcome rendition that allows for how real people after the flush of youth must behave. It seems likely that it would take a writer of Quinlen’s reputation to be allowed to have her two main characters act as they do. You will believe it all, and really root for a happy ending.

    This might be a tad more serious than an ideal ‘beach read’, but if you enjoy subtlety, humor, only a touch of melodrama, and a happy acceptance of the people in the story as friends and acquaintances, living in a world controlled by Mother Nature (as opposed to manmade attempts to conquer her), you will be glad you gave this novel your time. It’s a wonderful example of ‘less is more’ at its best.

    ©2014 Joan L. Cannon for SeniorWomen.com

  • Margaret Hall And Nora Saltonstall: Two of Hundreds Who Served From Massachusetts in WWI

    margaret hallMargaret Hall in Red Cross uniform, August 1918. Permission of Suzanne Diefenbach.

    To commemorate the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, the Massachusetts Historical Society has organized the exhibition Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: Massachusetts Women in the First World War, focusing on two of the hundreds of women from the Commonwealth who went to France as members of the US armed forces, the Red Cross, and other war relief organizations. From the Society’s extraordinary collection of women’s remembrances, this exhibition features photographs, letters, diaries, and memorabilia related to Margaret Hall and Eleanor (Nora) Saltonstall, Red Cross volunteers in France. Both women were keen observers of the climactic months of the war and depicted what they witnessed in vivid detail. The exhibition is open at the MHS  through January 24, 2015.

    Nora Saltonstall was 23 when she sailed for France in October 1917 to work in Paris with the Bureau of Refugees and Relief, a division of the American Red Cross, which provided lodging for refugees. In November, she transferred to an American Red Cross dispensary in Paris and, after the new year, to Mrs. Charles Daly’s Auto-Chir No. 7, an American Red Cross hospital unit attached to the French army. The Auto-Chir was a mobile hospital which followed the troops, serving as the primary medical unit after the first aid station. Later, she was the chauffeur while the Auto-Chir served along the western front in France, the site of the German offensives in the spring of 1918.  It was for this service that she earned the Croix de Guerre that is on display in the exhibition along with a selection of her letters home and a portrait of Nora by Frank Weston Benson.Nora Saltonstall

    Eleanor “Nora” Saltonstall at helm of yawl Comanche; Massachusetts Historical Society

    In August 1918, a Massachusetts-born woman named Margaret Hall boarded a transport ship in New York City that would take her across the Atlantic to work with the American Red Cross in France. The year she spent abroad was eye opening. When she returned stateside, she compiled a typescript narrative from the letters and diary passages that she wrote while overseas and illustrated it with roughly 275 photographs and illustrative items. Her words offer a first-hand account of life on the Western Front in the last months of the war while her photographs depict the soldiers, canteens, and extensive destruction following the war. That narrative, “Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country, 1918-1919,” is a manuscript in the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) and will be on display in Boston, MA. The exhibition will highlight a selection of Hall’s large-format photographs of the battlefront on loan from the Cohasset Historical Society.Margaret Hall outside a Red Cross Tent

    Margaret Hall and a soldier standing outside an American Red Cross canteen tent

    The MHS will publish Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: The World War I Memoir of Margaret Hall on July 14, 2014, as part of its commemoration of the beginning of World War I. Modern readers will be transported by this first-person account of a woman’s life in the Great War. The book augments Hall’s written story with several dozen of her striking and never-before-published photographs, selected from those she included in the archived typescript.

  • Congressional Bills Introduced and An Update to the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative

    Looking at smartphone on subway

    Operating smartphone on subway, Washington, D.C. Wikimedia Commons, Elvert Barnes

    Adoption

    H.R. 4909—Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI)/Ways and Means, Education and the Workforce (06/19/14) — A bill to provide states with assistance in finding a permanent home for every child.

    Family Support

    H.R. 4904—Rep. John Carter (R-TX)/Agriculture (6/19/14) — A bill to provide an incentive for households participating in the supplemental nutrition assistance program to purchase certain nutritious fruits and vegetables that are beneficial to good health.

    Tax Policy

    S. 2488—Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)/Finance (06/18/14) — A bill to provide an exception to the exclusive use requirement for home offices if the other use involves care of a qualifying child of the taxpayer, and for other purposes.

    International

    S. 2475—Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)/Foreign Relations (06/17/14) — A bill to realign structure and reallocate resources in the federal government, in keeping with the core American belief that families are the best protection for children and the bedrock of any society, to bolster United States diplomacy and assistance targeted at ensuring that every child can grow up in a permanent, safe, nurturing, and loving family, and to strengthen intercountry adoption to the United States and around the world and ensure that it becomes a viable and fully developed option for providing families for children in need, and for other purposes.

    S. 2509—Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ)/Foreign Relations (06/19/14) — A bill to ensure compliance with the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, to establish procedures for the prompt return of children abducted to other countries, and for other purposes.

    Violence Against Women/Crime

    S. 2483—Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)/Judiciary (06/17/14) — A bill to protect more victims of domestic violence by preventing their abusers from possessing or receiving firearms, and for other purposes.

    H.R. 4906—Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA)/Judiciary (06/19/14) — A bill to protect more victims of domestic violence by preventing their abusers from possessing or receiving firearms, and for other purposes.

    Health

    H.R. 4879—Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)/Energy and Commerce (06/17/14) — A bill to provide for expedited review of drugs and biological products to provide safer or more effective treatment for males or females, to enhance the consideration of sex differences in basic and clinical research, and for other purposes.

    H.R. 4888—Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA)/Energy and Commerce (06/18/14) — A bill to provide for the identification and dissemination of best practices for medical professionals and other health care providers relative to neonatal abstinence syndrome, and for other purposes.

    Small Business

    S. 2481—Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)/Small Business and Entrepreneurship (06/17/14) — A bill to amend the Small Business Act to provide authority for sole source contracts for certain small business concerns owned and controlled by women, and for other purposes

    Editor’s Note about a Secure Our Smartphones Initiative

    Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón  announced that, for the first time, Google and Microsoft will incorporate a kill switch into the next version of their respective operating systems. Google’s operating system, Android, runs on more than half of all smartphones used in the United States. Microsoft’s operating system is on all Nokia smartphones. The announcement means that a kill switch will be incorporated into the three dominant smartphone operating systems — Android, iOS, and Windows Phone — which currently encompass 97 percent of smartphones in the United States. 

  • The Hague’s Mauritshuis Marvelous Renovation Revealed: International Allure

    Cross section of Mauritshuis

    Editor’s Note: We attended the traveling exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco three times, once with our grandchildren; now we hope to visit the refurbished museum in The Hague. Val Castronovo reviewed the exhibit for SeniorWomen.com during its visit to New York City’s Frick Museum.  And, do not forget to visit the Museum’s Shop.

    The scaffolding around the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis has come down, revealing that the Mauritshuis changed color.

    The woodwork and masonry of the building’s façades have been repainted and the windows have been replaced. The exterior of the listed monument now looks much closer to its original design of 1644, created by the 17th-century architect Jacob van Campen (1596-1657).

    The reason for the renovation is the museum’s building project, which links the city palace to the building across the street at Plein 26 by means of an underground foyer. Changes to the exterior of the building are intended to return as far as possible to Van Campen’s original design, all based on research into the architectural history of the building.

    The exterior of the Mauritshuis has been renovated several times since it was finished in 1644. The first time was during the period 1705-1718, after the entire interior was gutted by fire in December 1704. Further renovations took place in the 19th century and 1950, and another extensive project was undertaken in 1982-1997.

    The entrance has been moved to the front courtyard, restoring the stately appearance of the Mauritshuis that befits its international allure. The surface area of the entire museum is doubled, creating more space for art, exhibitions, education and events. The renovated premises will be reopened on June 27, 2014.

    During the renovation of the Mauritshuis, much of the collection was on display in museums in the Netherlands and abroad. More than 100 highlights from the collection were on view in their own dedicated wing of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag and a number of paintings, including Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, toured museums in Japan, the United States and Italy.

    Photographer: Ivo Hoekstra
    Credits: Mauritshuis, The Hague

    Mauritshuis through the ages

    Mauritshuis through the ages

    Pretty Girl: Girl with a Pearl Earring makes a stop at The Frick in New York, the last leg of its American tour

  • Back to Reunion With Hillary and Madeleine, A Precarious Balancing Act to Be Downsized and Uplifted At the Same Time

      Madeline Albright & SneakersFormer Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Class of ’59, at the launch of the Athletics Hall of Fame showing off her Wellesley blue running shoes

    Wellesley Blue running shoes

    By Doris O’Brien

     A few years before my father’s death, he attended his 60th college reunion at Cornell.   It was a highlight of his old age, shared with some three dozen other alums — mostly men, of course, since few women attended college in the early part of the 20th century.  On his desk sat a picture of the smiling assemblage, decked out in striped blazers and straw hats like a covey of barbershop quartets. 

    Under the spell of my Dad’s obvious pleasure, I vowed on the spot that I would  attend my own 60th college reunion were I still around and able when the time came.  This summer, some thirty-five years later, it finally did. And though my father  had never gone to  a class reunion before his long-delayed hegira to Cornell, I’d been returning  to Wellesley at fairly regular 5-year intervals over the years*.

    Two Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright, are among the luminaries who graduated from Wellesley.  They also happen to share my reunion ‘cycle’, which includes all classes ending in ‘4  and ‘9.   Mrs. Albright graduated five years after I did;  Mrs. Clinton, fifteen years.   Together they generally suck the oxygen out of other reunion events on campus, but nobody seems to mind, even when the former First Lady’s Secret Service detail disrupts traffic. 

    Hillary and I, you might say, go back a long way on the reunion circuit.  I happened to attend her graduation, back in the days when Wellesley reunions and commencements  took place  on the same weekend.  As the spokesperson for her graduating class, Hillary Rodham caused quite a stir when she delivered what was  most likely the first of  a lifetime of political speeches.  But that is a tale for another time. 

    Fast forward to my class’ 60th reunion this summer, attended by about 80 octogenarians.  I will admit from the outset that the hardest thing for me  to process was the palpable evidence of accelerated change.   I suspect my own father was better able than I to cope with this at his 60th, because the classmates he encountered were virtual strangers to him. 

    Well, what can one expect of ladies who have been officially ‘over the hill’ now for more than half their lives?  We are grateful  to be on the side of God’s  earth where the  grass grows.  Aging reunion attendees are survivors who are  willing  to confront present realities  in order  to revisit  past pleasures.  We find reassurance in our mutual company; we take pride in our college roots. Most of us bear scant resemblance to the graduation yearbook photo that dangled from our necks throughout reunion weekend. Yet we know in our hearts that we are the same people in ways that matter most.  Wellesley alums celebrating

    Wellesley Alums from Celebrating Classes of ‘4s and ‘9s at their reunions, June 2014; Wellesley College photo

    Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow – and we take plenty of those, too — was the recognition that some minds, that had been  in full flower during our college years,  are now inexorably closing shut.  One recognizes this in fixed smiles and tentative stares. Yet how  can it be possible when  once upon a time we were all of us considered the brightest and the best?

  • Spare That Limb, Create a Damp Salt Lick and Build a Bee Condo: Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators

    Editor’s Note:  An update to our Pollinator Week post: 

    MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
    Subject: Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators

    “Pollinators contribute substantially to the economy of the United States and are vital to keeping fruits, nuts, and vegetables in our diets. Honey bee pollination alone adds more than $15 billion in value to agricultural crops each year in the United States. Over the past few decades, there has been a significant loss of pollinators, including honey bees, native bees, birds, bats, and butterflies, from the environment. The problem is serious and requires immediate attention to ensure the sustainability of our food production systems, avoid additional economic impact on the agricultural sector, and protect the health of the environment.

    “Pollinator losses have been severe. The number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013-14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration. The continued loss of commercial honey bee colonies poses a threat to the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States, which could have profound implications for agriculture and food. Severe yearly declines create concern that bee colony losses could reach a point from which the commercial pollination industry would not be able to adequately recover. The loss of native bees, which also play a key role in pollination of crops, is much less studied, but many native bee species are believed to be in decline. Scientists believe that bee losses are likely caused by a combination of stressors, including poor bee nutrition, loss of forage lands, parasites, pathogens, lack of genetic diversity, and exposure to pesticides.”

    Series of pollinator and flower images.

    Follow these simple steps to create a pollinator-friendly landscape around your home or workplace.

    A collage of bees and butterflies on flowers.
    Photo by Beatriz Moisset

    Picture of a garden along a shoreline.
    A butterfly garden. Photo by Janet Mukai.

    Monarch larva on milkweed.
    Monarch larva on milkweed. Photo by Rachel Powless.

    The end of a post block with holes drilled in it to make a bee box.
    Build a bee box.

    Hummingbird nectaring on a purple flower.
    Hummingbird. Photo by Bill May.

    American copper butterfly on a white flower.
    American copper, Lycaena phloeas. Photo by Beatriz Moisset.

    • Use a wide variety of plants that bloom from early spring into late fall.
      Help pollinators find and use them by planting in clumps, rather than single plants. Include plants native to your region. Natives are adapted to your local climate, soil and native pollinators. Do not forget that night-blooming flowers will support moths and bats.
    • Avoid modern hybrid flowers, especially those with “doubled” flowers.
      Often plant breeders have unwittingly left the pollen, nectar, and fragrance out of these blossoms while creating the “perfect” blooms for us.
    • Eliminate pesticides whenever possible.
      If you must use a pesticide, use the least-toxic material possible. Read labels carefully before purchasing, as many pesticides are especially dangerous for bees. Use the product properly. Spray at night when bees and other pollinators are not active.
    • Include larval host plants in your landscape.
      If you want colorful butterflies, grow plants for their caterpillars. They WILL eat them, so place them where unsightly leaf damage can be tolerated. Accept that some host plants are less than ornamental if not outright weeds. A butterfly guide will help you determine the plants you need to include. Plant a butterfly garden!
    • Create a damp salt lick for butterflies and bees.
      Use a dripping hose, drip irrigation line, or place your bird bath on bare soil to create a damp area. Mix a small bit of table salt (sea salt is better!) or wood ashes into the mud.
    • Spare that limb!
      By leaving dead trees, or at least an occasional dead limb, you provide essential nesting sites for native bees. Make sure these are not a safety hazard for people walking below. You can also build a bee condo by drilling holes of varying diameter about 3 to 5 inches deep in a piece of scrap lumber mounted to a post or under eaves.
    • You can add to nectar resources by providing a hummingbird feeder.
      To make artificial nectar, use four parts water to one part table sugar. Never use artificial sweeteners, honey, or fruit juices. Place something red on the feeder. Clean your feeder with hot soapy water at least twice a week to keep it free of mold.
    • Butterflies need resources other than nectar.
      They are attracted to unsavory foodstuffs, such as moist animal droppings, urine and rotting fruits. Try putting out slices of overripe bananas, oranges and other fruits, or a sponge in a dish of lightly salted water to see which butterflies come to investigate. Sea salt provides a broader range of micronutrients than regular table salt.
    • Learn more about pollinators
      Get some guidebooks and learn to recognize the pollinators in your neighborhood. Experiment with a pair of close-focusing binoculars for butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.

    Pollinator Gardens and Trails

    Here are a few US Fish and Wildlife Service National Wildlife Refuges (Refuge), Fish Hatcheries and other offices that have gardens and/or trails for butterflies and other pollinators that you can visit:

  • Elaine Soloway’s Widow Series: Sunday Breakfast, Minus One

     

    It’s 7:15 in the morning and I’m standing at the kitchen counter sorting out the bulky Sunday newspaper. “I’ve got your sports section and the comics,” I say out loud. My husband who had just died, is not physically in the room to hear my declaration. But, conversing with him eases my raw pain.

    After Tommy died, I halted our Sunday routine and stayed away from Dapper’s, our usual breakfast place, believing it would be too painful for me to enter without him. But this Sunday, I had to shop at Target in the same mall as the restaurant, so I figured it’d be a good opportunity to test a revisit.

    Somehow, I could feel my husband agreeing, celestially pushing for our regular weekend routine. First, though, I had to finish preparing the newspaper that had always accompanied us.

    I replicated Tommy’s system: Out went the advertising flyers to the recycle bin. Sports and Comics — his first choice sections — on top of the pile, followed by News (local and international), Business, Arts, Travel, Real Estate, and Magazine. I took a plastic bag, packed in the specially-arranged paper, and drove to Dapper’s.

    “Can I do this?’ I said, as I stood at the entrance’s revolving door. Tommy, evidently believing the question was addressed to him, gave me a mystic push and sent me twirling inside.

    I stepped to our usual booth. But, since we hadn’t been customers for two months because of my hip surgery, and my husband’s hospitalization and hospice, it wasn’t set up with our place settings. There were no tiny pots of jam, flavored coffee sweeteners, and other items our waitress, Linda, typically arranged before our arrival.

    “Okay, don’t sit there,” Linda said rushing towards me. She grabbed my shoulders and steered me away. I was frozen in the spot, tears staining my eyeglasses. A few of the regulars swiveled to peek, but quickly returned to their newspapers and food. Our duo was minus one. My tears and my partner’s absence told the story.

    As Linda offered alternative booths, I said, “The counter. I want to sit at the counter.”

    “Perfect,” she said.

    Linda may have seconded my choice because it could keep her closer to me, perhaps to forestall a second breakdown. But, I had another reason: when I first met Tommy in 1996, he was a regular counter occupant at the Lakeview Diner. Once we became a couple, we moved to a booth.

    Now, single, a widow, I decided to honor my husband; I’d become a counter person, too. At this early hour, I was able to spread out. My backpack went to the stool to my right. I unfolded the newspaper atop the bare counter on my left. I was easing in.

    In between customers, Linda stood on her side of the counter, elbows up, hands holding her concerned face. I could bawl directly to her without rousing anyone else. “It’s so hard being here without him,” I said.

    “He’s here, sweetheart, he’s here,” she said. “His spirit is here.”

    “I really felt like he wanted me to be here, and he wanted to come, too.”

    “Of course,” she said.

    So, I did what I always did, but this time from my new counter seat instead of our old booth: I removed Comics and Sport from the stack I had brought with. Without worrying about anyone thinking me dotty, I said to my right, “Okay, Honey, here’s your sections,” then placed them on the empty space. As I finished my own parts of the newspaper, I’d add them to Tommy’s pile.

    Although his stack never moved, never diminished, I was okay with the arrangement. I drank my coffee and ate my egg-white Spartan omelet with mozzarella instead of feta, Greek toast, bacon, and fruit. My eyes never left the newspaper.

    When I finished my breakfast, Linda brought only one white foam box for leftovers. No need for Tommy’s half of waffle, pancake, or cheese omelet.

    I placed all of the newspaper sections back in the plastic bag I had brought from home including Tommy’s stack. I knew I’d never read Comics or Sports, but somehow, I couldn’t leave them behind.

    After I paid the bill, and as I headed for the exit, with a lightweight bag of leftovers in one hand, and a full bag of newspaper sections in the other, Linda called after me,  “See you next week?” Her voice and face hopeful.

    “I’ll try,” I said. “I’ll try.”

    Then, with Tommy’s gentle push, I slowly revolved out the door into my new life.

     
    ©2014 Elaine Soloway for SeniorWomen.com

  • Betting Decisions and Dopamine Regulating Genes in Your Brain

    The Cheat With Ace of Clubs

    The Cheat With the Ace of Clubs, Georges de La Tour, c. 1630 -34, oil on canvas. Kimbell Art Museum

    By Robert Sanders

    Investors and gamblers take note: your betting decisions and strategy are determined, in part, by your genes.

    Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, National University of Singapore and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have shown that betting decisions in a simple competitive game are influenced by the specific variants of dopamine-regulating genes in a person’s brain.

    Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a chemical released by brain cells to signal other brain cells – that is a key part of the brain’s reward and pleasure-seeking system. Dopamine deficiency leads to Parkinson’s disease, while disruption of the dopamine network is linked to numerous psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders, including schizophrenia, depression and dementia.

    While previous studies have shown the important role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in social interactions, this is the first study tying these interactions to specific genes that govern dopamine functioning.

    “This study shows that genes influence complex social behavior, in this case strategic behavior,” said study leader Ming Hsu, an assistant professor of marketing in UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. “We now have some clues about the neural mechanisms through which our genes affect behavior.”

    The implications for business are potentially vast but unclear, Hsu said, though one possibility is training workforces to be more strategic. But the findings could significantly affect our understanding of diseases involving dopamine, such as schizophrenia, as well as disorders of social interaction, such as autism.

    “When people talk about dopamine dysfunction, schizophrenia is one of the first diseases that come to mind,” Hsu said, noting that the disease involves a very complex pattern of social and decision making deficits. “To the degree that we can better understand ubiquitous social interactions in strategic settings, it may help us understand how to characterize and eventually treat the social deficits that are symptoms of diseases like schizophrenia.”

    Hsu, UIUC graduate student Eric Set and their colleagues, including Richard P. Ebstein and Soo Hong Chew from the National University of Singapore, will publish their findings the week of June 16 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    Hsu established two years ago that when people engage in competitive social interactions, such as betting games, they primarily call upon two areas of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex, which is the executive part of the brain, and the striatum, which deals with motivation and is crucial for learning to acquire rewards. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans showed that people playing these games displayed intense activity in these areas.

    “If you think of the brain as a computing machine, these are areas that take inputs, crank them through an algorithm, and translate them into behavioral outputs,” Hsu said. “What is really interesting about these areas is that both are innervated by neurons that use dopamine.”

    Hsu and Set of UIUC’s Department of Economics wanted to determine which genes involved in regulating dopamine concentrations in these brain areas were associated with strategic thinking, so they enlisted as subjects a group of 217 undergraduates at the National University of Singapore, all of whom had had their genomes scanned for some 700,000 genetic variants. The researchers focused on only 143 variants within 12 genes involved in regulating dopamine. Some of the 12 are primarily involved in regulating dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, while others primarily regulate dopamine in the striatum.

  • The Escape Artist: Characters in Horsehair Wigs and Intimations of Houdini in a New Masterpiece Mystery!

    David Tennant *(Broadchurch, Doctor Who) stars as a defense lawyer with a perfect record of courtroom wins and a perfect family to go with it — until things go horribly wrong. Written by thriller master David Wolstencroft (MI-5), The Escape Artist airs on Masterpiece Mystery! in two … should we say … nail-biting episodes on Sundays, June 15 and 22, 2014 at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings).David Tennant in Barrister Wig

    Co-starring in this legal cliff-hanger are Sophie Okonedo as Tennant’s professional nemesis, Ashley Jensen (Extras) as the hero’s wife, and Toby Kebbell as an accused murderer who is either a persecuted misfit or a dangerous psychopath.

    “If you’re chained up in a safe at the bottom of a shark tank,” quips a high-placed barrister in Episode 1, “you call for Houdini.” He means his wizard of a colleague, Will Burton (Tennant), ranked as the top young criminal lawyer in the UK and destined for silk — the honor of Queen’s Counsel — as soon as he finds the time to apply for it. Will’s talent for springing clients who should be behind bars has earned him the nickname, ‘the Escape Artist.’

    Ranked as second-best barrister is Will’s perennial rival, Maggie Gardner (Okonedo), who finds herself out-argued once again on the day that the poll is released, as she sees her latest prosecution case go down in flames to a stirring defense by Will. Lost amid their intellectual one-upmanship is an appreciation for the wrecked lives they are manipulating in their courtroom games.
    But that is about to change. Liam Foyle (Kebbell), a reclusive bird lover who is charged with the torture killing of a female medical student. Liam’s case file is handed to Will as he is leaving on a holiday with his wife, Kate (Jensen), and their young son, Jamie (Gus Barry). At their idyllic country retreat, Will pores over the gruesome details of the crime, searching for a weak link in the seemingly ironclad evidence against Liam. As usual, he puts his family life on hold for his work.

    In the ensuing legal battle, the wheels of justice turn much as he anticipates. But then strange and disturbing things begin to happen. The tables are turned — and then turned again. Will finds himself fighting fervently for a new cause that may end his career — or worse.

    “Everyone deserves a defense,” he is fond of saying. Little does he know that these words will come back to haunt him.

    *Editor’s Note —  As our grandson reminds us, the Scottish actor was chosen as the favorite Dr. Who. Tenant, who played the role from 2005-10, gained 56% of the English magazine’s RadioTimes.com vote, easily beating closest rival Matt Smith.

    We recommend The Guardian’s review by Sam Wollaston last fall, which may … or may not … entice the viewer:

     It all starts to go wrong when Will agrees to represent Liam Foyle, an oddball bird-lover, sexual deviant and violent psychopath, accused of the brutal torture and killing of a woman. Will gets him off of course, through a technicality and because the judge is an old-school duffer, but this time he has his doubts about whether he’s done the right thing, and refuses to shake the man’s hand after the trial. Big mistake. If offered, always shake a serial killer’s hand, that’s the rule. It’s certainly what I’ll be doing after this. Yes, very nice to meet you too, sir.

    Next time we see Foyle’s face it’s at the window of that country cottage bathroom, you know who is in the tub, and Will’s still up in London at a legal thing. Ciao bella, might there be room for one large serial killer? No, it’s no joking matter, it’s creepy as hell, absolutely terrifying. My girlfriend is so traumatised she can’t sleep after watching it. Have a bath, love, it might help you relax … no, that’s not helping.

    The New York Times:

    “In one area, at least, America has a severe trade imbalance with the British. They keep sending us their brainy, urbane leading men — Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Day-Lewis — and receive very little in return.

    “David Tennant belongs in that company, of course, but he’s less the thinking woman’s crumpet than those peers — more conventionally handsome, for one thing, and also more malleable. His live-wire energy and expressiveness can indicate heroic, romantic gallantry (Doctor Who) or, with the slightest tightening of face and posture, narcissism and psychosis (as in the creepy British TV movie Secret Smile).”

     Note: We’ve even put in a reserve on Netflix for this movie cited above, though it’s along wait.