Senior Women Web

Author: SeniorWomenWeb

  • Eccentric Enthusiasts from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

    Miss [Gertrude] Jekyll, revered for her perfection of the herbaceous border, engaged in some unique gardening practices. A witness to her planting method for Lilium giganteum (now called Cardiocrinum giganteum) bulbs once deemed Jekyll a sorceress. On that day, having dug a sizable hole and added some leaf mold and sand, the famed gardener also tossed in a freshly killed rabbit. Then she counseled, “Now, always seat the bulbs clockwise,” a task she accomplished with a firm rightward twist before filling in the hole with topsoil. Four months later, she apparently had lilies just a hare under five feet tall.

    Once, ostensibly to entertain her niece, she organized an elaborate tea party for her six cats and kittens with written invitations, an elegantly set table, and a selection of kitty delicacies artistically arranged on saucers. Guests were seated on stools, paws resting on table, except for Miss Maggie, a cat who evidently felt it discourteous to put her feet on the tablecloth. The event was apparently well received, as, according to one biographer, “a grand purring and washing of faces” followed.

    Of decidedly different temperament was William Robinson, popularizer of the trend of natural gardening. At age 21, while working in the greenhouse of a large Irish country estate, he was entrusted with the care of some tender plants that had been lovingly nurtured from seed. On a bitter cold night, after an equally bitter quarrel with his superior, Robinson allowed the greenhouse fires to die out and, after flinging the windows wide open, hotfooted it off to Dublin, never to return. Whether he was intentionally negligent was never quite determined, but after making his fortune, Robinson banned greenhouses from his own garden forever.

    Read the rest of Eccentric Enthusiasts — Stories from the Far Side of the Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden site.

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  • Friendship

    Rose Mula writes: Sally is a very private person, whereas I am apt to blab every detail of my life — and maybe yours. Well, not really. At least I’d like to think I’d keep your secrets. But with Sally, there’s no doubt whatsoever. If you tell her something in confidence, even the threat of hanging wouldn’t get her to reveal it.

  • Whether and When Seniors Should Receive Swine Flu Vaccine

    Primary information for Swine Flu (H1N1) can be found at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When at the site, there’s general information about this strain of the flu, as well as influenza disease activity in the United States and findings of key flu indicators in a report called FluView.

    Another page on the CDC site includes a seasonal flu map and resources for your individual state.

    The CDC site includes questions and answers about the safety of the Swine Flu vaccine.

    We’re including the section that’s devoted specifically to seniors:

    Why aren’t people 65 and older recommended to get early doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine?

    There are two main reasons why people age 65 and older are not included in the groups recommended to get the initial doses of 2009 H1N1 vaccine:

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  • Obama’s War: A Frontline Rough Cut Preview

    PBS’s Frontline presentation of Obama’s War on October 13th (check your local PBS for times)is previewed in a 24 minute video with an advance warning about the use of language and imagery.

    Among features on the site relating to the US involvement in Afghanistan are readings and we have selected a few:

    READINGS

    Facts and Stats: The Marines in Helmand Province

    23,000 square miles: Size of Helmand Province in Southern Afghanistan. Population: more than 1 million.

    4,000: Number of US Marines inserted across Helmand in early July ’09 as part of Operation Strike of the Sword offensive.

    40 to 50: Number of Marines in Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment at Combat Outpost Sharp at any given time. The rest of the company — there are roughly 120-150 Marines in a company — is pushed out to other positions, some very close by. The Marines frequently rotate out and back to COP Sharp, their main base. (The 2/8 is known as “America’s Battalion.”)

    Lance Cpl. Charles Seth Sharp’s Funeral – NPR Transcript: The US Marines are fighting alongside the British in southern Afghanistan. We’ve been following one battalion there. Shortly before they began their current operation in Helmand province, one Marine wrote a letter to his grandmother.

    Lance Corporal Charles Sharp wrote that soon he’d be fighting in a mission his grandchildren would learn about in history class. Well, just days after he mailed that letter, Sharp died in battle, the first Marine killed in the offensive.

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  • From Polanski to Big Love; Hollywood’s Twisted View of Child Sex Abuse

    By *MARCI A. HAMILTON, at Writ

    When it comes to child sex abuse, the world is divided into two groups: the adults who are taking action to end this scourge, and the adults who protect the abusers. Sadly, many of the power players of Hollywood — with all of its money, power, and access to the media – fall into the latter category.

    First, as I discussed in a prior column, we had Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson producing HBO’s “Big Love,” which merely winks at the sexual degradation of girls in the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints enclaves, but never shows the system in an accurate light that would reveal its true, abhorrent nature. If the pretty fictions were stripped away, the show would be unrelentingly bleak and horrifying: a portrait of a male-dominated society that is inherently inimical to women’s rights, progress, and power.

    Now, we have the specter of many in Hollywood rushing to Roman Polanski’s defense for his proven statutory rape. Three decades ago, as has been widely reported, Polanski admitted to drugging a 13-year-old girl with quaaludes and alcohol before proceeding to have sex with her. After being turned in, he first pled down the charge and then skipped the country to avoid his punishment. Yet much of Hollywood seems to think his evasion of justice is just fine, and ought to continue forever.

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  • Shopping, A Halloween Countdown Calendar

    We’ve listed Inky-Dinky before as a fun site for unusual gift and child shopping items. Even though it might arrive a few days late for the beginning of the Halloween month, artist John Littleboy has created a Halloween Countdown Calendar:

    “Open the paper gates of the cemetery and step into a darkly droll world of stylish and sinister characters strolling the moonlit grounds of a graveyard.”

    “For each day in October, open a die-cut window and read a story about this macabre cast of the recently deceased.” Click on the skull and for $11, the calendar measuring 12 x 16 unfolded and can be wall mounted or sit up on your table top as a decorative Halloween tableau.”

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  • Baghdad ER – Revisited

    by Colonel Erin P. Edgar, September 2009

    ABSTRACT: The China Dragons of the 28th Combat Support Hospital deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM from September 2006 until November 2007. This combat tour was historic in many regards, and a good team became a great team while challenged with unprecedented casualty numbers and indirect fire attacks. Not only did they save thousands of lives; they helped advanced trauma medicine, as leading hospitals worldwide have benefitted from military initiatives in the areas of bleeding control and hemostatic resuscitation. Their service epitomizes the strides that have been made in military combat medicine, and their challenges highlight the areas in which our medical system can improve further.

    (Editor’s Note: We chose our paragraphs carefully. We have a responsibility to warn you that the full report is very graphic at points and can be disturbing, especially to those who have lost members of their families or friends. However, it’s a powerful report, frank, informative and useful.)

    China Dragon Casualties.

    The nature of the combat in Operation IRAQI FREEDOM (OIF) in 2006 and 2007 made working at the CSH a fairly dangerous endeavor. Historically, a CSH was a relatively safe place to serve, but this tour was different. We had our first casualty after being in Baghdad for just a few days. A noncommissioned officer (NCO) was walking from the laundry facility to the hospital when a Kalashnikov 7.62 mm round fell from the sky and embedded in a muscle above his shoulder blade. Luckily he wasn’t seriously injured. It was either the result of celebratory fire (common after Iraqi soccer victories) or a battle that was occurring at a nearby Tigris River Bridge.

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  • The Use of Mobile Devices by Motorists

    TRENDS FACTS AND FIGURES

    Using mobile phones affects driver performance:

    “ A 2006 study concluded that nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event. The most common distraction for drivers is the use of cell phones.

    “ Both hands-free and handheld phones create enough distraction to degrade a driver’s performance. Talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, even if the phone is used with a hands-free device.

    “ A 2003 study estimates that cell phone use while driving contributes to 6 percent of crashes, which equates to 636,000 crashes, 330,000 injuries and 2,600 deaths each year. The annual financial toll of cell phone-related crashes is $43 billion.

    “ The National Safety Council, a national nonprofit that focuses on traffic and workplace safety and emergency preparedness, now calls for a ban on the use of all cell phones and other messaging devices while driving.

    States laws place prohibitions on mobile devices:

    — California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Utah and Washington — and the District of Columbia as well as the Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from talking on a handheld mobile device.

    “ Except for Utah and Washington, these laws have primary enforcement, which means a motorist may be ticketed for using a handheld cell phone while driving without also committing another traffic offense.

    “ No state completely bans all types of cell phone use, including handheld and hands-free, for all drivers, but many prohibit their use for certain drivers.

    “ In 18 states, school bus drivers are prohibited from using a cell phone when students or other passengers are on the bus. California also prohibits transit bus drivers from using a cell phone.

    “ The use of cell phones by new drivers is prohibited in 18 states and Washington, DC.

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  • Madeleine Albright’s Pins on Exhibit

    Back in 1997, Alain Sanders, a colleague at Time Magazine, suggested a Notebook item for the magazine on Madeleine Albright’s jewelry. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to the pins used as illustration for the following paragraphs, but wanted to acknowledge Alain’s early noting of her jewelry and their meanings when worn:

    BROOCHING THE SUBJECT DIPLOMATICALLY

    By Alain L. Sanders Monday, Mar. 24, 1997

    “Like haiku or hieroglyphics, diplomatic language often requires interpretation. But the new Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, has taken the semiotics of diplomacy to a new level. She literally wears her feelings on her lapel, but she makes her point subtly, with brooches. “Everyone will just have to read my pins,” she says. Below, a selection from the Albright collection, with accompanying interpretation.”

    “Albright likes to wear the eagle and top hat on her trips abroad as symbols of American power and glory. She most recently wore both when she met Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow in February. The goat is the gift of an admiral at Annapolis, who sent it to her after he read accounts that the brutal Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic had apparently named one of his goats after the then U.N. ambassador. In 1994, when reports circulated in the Iraqi press calling Albright a serpent, she decided to wear the snake pin — in lieu of a name tag — when meeting with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Albright says the bumblebee reminds her of Muhammad Ali’s motto, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” which could well be her slogan too. Look for the balloon when the Secretary is feeling up, and for the Capitol when she is trying to be at her bipartisan best. Other brooches, like the spider web, she simply finds alluring.”

    Now the Museum for Arts and Design is displaying a number of her pins as an exhibit, Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection.

  • Culture Watch: A Selection of Books From The Amelia Bloomer Project

    CultureWatch: Weary of dinosaur and vampire books for children? The Amelia Bloomer Project selection of books is about girls and women “who have broken barriers and have fought to change their situations and their environment … real and fictional [characters who] follow their dreams and pursue their goals, challenging cultural and familial stereotypes”