Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • How Did Labor Do in the 2010 Election?

    by Jo Freeman

    Labor unions poured an enormous amount of money into the midterm elections, as well as a lot of labor to get out the vote. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes data obtained from the Federal Election Commission, of the 1.5 billion dollars spent on the Congressional races in the 2010 election, 3.9 percent was donated by labor unions. Twenty percent of the top one hundred non-party donors were labor unions. They gave almost $52 million to Democratic candidates and $3.6 million to Republican candidates. The rest was independent spending.

    Labor is also a big contributor of campaign volunteers. While this kind of support isn’t reported any place, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told ABC News that the “Labor 2010 member-to-member mobilization included 30 million phone calls, 20 million pieces of mail and 5.1 million knocks on union family doors.”

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  • Wimbush’s Luck

    by John MaloneWimbush

    “Haileybury College, Inter-House Team Race, 1915, L.E.B. Wimbush.” These words are engraved on an antique pewter beer mug that somehow found its way from England 7,280 miles across Europe and Asia to an antiques flea market in Jalan Surabaya, Jakarta, Indonesia, where it was discovered by my wife sixty-two years later in 1977. Here is the story behind this mysterious trophy, mostly fact but partly fiction:

    Haileybury College, originally founded in 1805 as East India Company College and subsequently renamed Imperial Service College (1845) and later United Services College (1874), has traditionally served as an elite preparatory school for the upper ranks of military and civilian leadership of the British Empire, both at home and abroad. Seventeen Haileybury alumni have received the Victoria Cross, placing Haileybury a close third among British public schools, right behind Eton and Harrow. And 1,436 Haileybury alumni have given their lives while serving their country in the military.

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  • The Gifted Victoria and Albert Museum’s Holiday Shopping

    Even though it’s in London and there’s a conversion from pounds to dollars to be calculated, most of the packages  appear quickly in the US and your mailbox. Most of the items are unique, colorful and well designed and conceived.

    Typeface Memory Game might be a little too subtle (unexciting?) for most players in the crashingly violent world of video games, but then again, the V&A is in London and more reserved, perhaps. But considering that the older cohort is now being besieged by memory games, it is worth a look.

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  • Are Older Women Being Used to Make a TSA Counter-Profiling Statement? Letter of Concern from UCSF Professors About Back-Scatter X-Rays

    Journalism.org published an article, Social Media Join the Anti-TSA Movement:

    Anger and frustration over the new TSA airport security measures boiled over in the social media last week. And while much of the mainstream press reported or commented on that rage, those in the online community embodied those sentiments.

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  • CultureWatch, November Edition

    A bookish holiday and winning reads for the young. Reviewed by Jill Norgren and Julia Sneden: Image from Amazon
    Jane Addams: Spirit in Action     by Louise W. Knight relates how Addams stretched her understanding of people and political forces and translated thought into action.

    Image from Amazon
    13 Words by Lemony Snicket     by Lemony Snicket and Maira Kalman is a great grandparent/grandchild read.

    Terry Pratchett, the author of Image from Amazon
    Nation     is a profoundly moral writer, consistently playful and often just delicious.

    And there’s a caveat about Image from Amazon
    Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer     by John Grisham

     

  • The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families

    Summary of Pew Research, Social & Demographic Trends

    The transformative trends of the past 50 years that have led to a sharp decline in marriage and a rise of new family forms have been shaped by attitudes and behaviors that differ by class, age and race, according to a new Pew Research Center nationwide survey, conducted in association with TIME magazine, and complemented by an analysis of demographic and economic data from the US Census Bureau.

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  • Can That Stranger With the Suitcase Be Me?

    by Rose Mula

    I hate snow.I’m not too crazy about heat, sand and sun. I think gambling, shopping, donkey races, and the ritual of afternoon tea are boring and/or ridiculous. I always enjoyed the luxury of staying in bed late when I didn’t have to go to work. I never buy on impulse. I eat sensibly and count my calories. I never walk when I can ride. However, whenever I’m on vacation, none of the above is true.

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  • An Artist Produces a Unique Project

    Hannah Haworth produced a unique project entitled ‘The Hunt’ for a Degree Show at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland.

    Hannah writes at her site: “I grew up in the Mangyan tribe of Mindoro Island, Philippines.  After moving to my native country Scotland in 2001, I continued to practice the traditional handicrafts of the Mangyan and also learn local Scottish craft. This has focussed my interests intently on primitive cultures, and as I continue to learn more about our early relationships with the landscape, the more my work focusses on craft, ritual and our connections with other species.”The Hunt by Hannah Haworth

    Ms. Haworth begins her degree show, The Hunt, thusly: “One day she did not return from her fishing and so she was searched for, he reached her spot but it was deserted. And so he began looking for her tracks – they led directly away into the vast interior. It began to get dark as he ventured inland more and more. As night fell, he became sure that her feet were bare. They became smaller and smaller the further he tracked her. As he continued, one of her feet became wolf while the other remained human. As she was like that, he turned back.”

    Hannah comments about an upcoming exhibition: I have a big solo show coming up in February that I am creating a full scale (10ft) Beluga Whale for, among other ambitious works. Yarn is arriving in generous quantities from lovely sponsors … Hannah and The Hung

    To further demonstrate her art and craft, there’s a Mr Fox, “A sly wee companion knitted from pure tweed wool, he measures about 18 inches to the tip of his tail” on her Etsy shop as well as other foxy bits and more.

    Exhibiting The Hunt:

    02/11 Gitana Rosa Gallery, NYC (solo)

    01/11 Vogue Knitting LIVE, The Hilton, NYC

    01/11 The Leith Gallery, Edinburgh

    12/10 The Union Gallery, Edinburgh, The Hunt

    Don’t overlook her ‘play’ page, either.

  • I Took a Risk and Revealed My Age

    by Elaine Soloway for SeniorWomen.com

    I was enjoying my morning newspaper and coffee when a write-up about two well-known Chicagoans with ages similar to my own stopped me mid-gulp.

    I stared at the column that announced television newsmen, Bill Kurtis, 71, and Walter Jacobson, 73, were being honored for returning to their old anchor seats and for successful aging.

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  • NEJM, Final Diagnosis: Wrong-site surgery and wrong procedure (carpal-tunnel release instead of trigger-finger release)

    Discussion

    Dr. Harry E. Rubash (Orthopedic Surgery): Dr. [David] Ring asked that this case be presented at our departmental conference and published in the Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, in hopes of stimulating discussions and encouraging the development and following of procedures that would minimize the risk for such events in the future.

    Presentation of Case

    A 65-year-old woman was admitted to the day-surgery unit at this hospital for release of a trigger finger of the left ring finger.

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