Authors

Rose Madeline Mula: If You Can’t Stand the Heat

Rose Madeline Mula Writes: “It was with considerable trepidation, therefore, that I entered the kitchen of my hostess, the legendary actress, Joan Fontaine, one long-ago Thanksgiving morning, to offer my assistance. Acting was not Miss Fontaine’s only talent. Not by a long shot. She was also a hole-in-one golfer, a prize-winning fisherwoman, a hot air…
An Undocumented Childhood by Rose Madeline Mula

Rose Mula Writes: Some people never leave home without their American Express card; I never leave home without a camera. Digitized pictures of the twenty-five countries and forty-plus states of America that I’ve visited since my first tour of exotic New Hampshire constantly flash on my computer monitors and digital frames throughout my home, helping…
Julia Sneden Wrote: Love Your Library

Julia Sneden Wrote: My mind’s eye can still see the face of the Children’s Librarian, although I have long since forgotten her name. We will be wise to continue to back up our knowledge of history and literature and art and science with hard copy. She kept up with my reading level, suggesting writers and…
Julia Sneden Wrote: If The Shoe Fits … You Can Bet It’s Not Fashionable

Julia Sneden Wrote: My mother was a mini Imelda Marcos. She kept upwards of 40 pairs of shoes well into her 80’s, and was crushed when she had to give up high heels following a heart attack at the age of 89. Her sole criterion in buying shoes was style, not comfort, and she was…
Joan L.Cannon Wrote: A Family Inheritance: More Than ‘Things’ … Emblems of Our Lives

Joan Cannon wrote: As one advances in years, one accumulates possessions the way a caddis fly larva accumulates grit. The glue that makes us carry it all along with us is in a way self-secreted as well. However, it’s psychic rather than physical — emotional rather than material. Perhaps the most obvious example is a…
Julia Sneden Wrote: Old Dogs, New Tricks

Julia Sneden wrote: At the age of 37, I started a new career as a kindergarten teacher. My first day on the job, the lead teacher, who was in her 70’s and scared me every bit as much as she scared the children, watched me writing a note. “You’ll have to change the way you…
Joan Cannon Writes: Finding the Right Excuse; Committing Words to Paper Because …

Joan Cannon Writes: Think of the poets and novelists and playwrights whose words sink into the consciousness of thousands and even millions and remain there, as emblems, guides, beacons of hope or warnings of disasters, and the excuse (as if one is needed) presents itself. Maybe there’s information or a revelation for some unknown viewer…
Joan Cannon Asked: What is a Book Club? An Old-Fashioned Book Report? A Program Given By an Author? What Is the Accepted Practice?

Joan L. Cannnon wrote: A year or so ago, I was invited to attend a tea given by the combined membership of all the book clubs in the town where I now live. A presentation was scheduled for the proprietor of the much-loved local independent book store cum gift shop. She is a legend in…
The IDF Medical Corps Team at Work in Haiti’s Soccer Stadium With Map

The hospital was one of the first fully functioning medical sites with advanced equipment. So far, 300 patients have been admitted, 92 surgeries have been performed and 5 bebies have been delivered (2 were premature).
A Year by Any Other Name is Still a Year

“Twenty Ten” trips easily off the tongue, although only marginally quicker to say than “Two Thousand and Ten.” At this point, either term seems acceptable. I suspect, however, that by Two Thousand and Sixty-six, we’ll be in the “Twenty Sixty-six” mode. We’d better just hope that we have no Battle of Hastings of our own…
J. R. Beard, 1800-1876 The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Negro Patriot of Hayti: Comprising an Account of the Struggle for Liberty in the Island, and a Sketch of Its History to the Present Period

I AM about to sketch the history and character of one of those extraordinary men, whom Providence, from time to time, raises up for the accomplishment of great, benign, and far-reaching results.
Mechanical Puzzles, Brainteasers & Ingenious Objects Including a POW Escape Aid in a Rolling Ball Puzzle

A more intriguing and event-oriented 1914 puzzle from England was the Niagara Puzzle with File and Compass. The player was directed to “Roll all the balls from the bank into the whirlpool (hole). The hack saw blade and the compass, along with a map, were hidden inside Journet puzzles that were sent to British soldiers…
Are Those Two Senior Women Models We Spy?

Now that editorial content is reminding people to a nauseating degree that the ‘boomers are coming’ (could we just lose that overworked expression), why are we not seeing more older women in clothing, hairstyle and makeup layouts?
My Mother’s Cookbook: Val’s Refrigerator Rolls, Vernie’s Brunch Casserole, Cherry Pie with Crisco Crust and Danish Puff

My oldest brother, Ben had moved back to our hometown by then, and he became the person with whom she could talk things over. They enjoyed planning for and preparing holiday meals and lunched together most days of the work week. Ben kept his weekend activities separate, except when family members were in town. Mom…
Traveling With Living Gold Press and Adventuresome Women

“A classic tale of two women school teachers in the early days of the rough and remote Klamath River country of northwestern California. Hired by the Indian Service to teach for the Karuk tribe in 1908, on arrival they found themselves to be the only white women in sixty miles.”
CultureWatch: Talking About Detective Fiction and The Museum of Innocence

This section covers everything from technical developments; to scientific advances like DNA which provide new investigative methods; to movie and television links; to new access to detective fiction from foreign countries (e.g. the Swedish Wallander series); to new avenues of research (she still prefers to do her own). Anent the latter, that there is a…
Cinderella Needs a New Narrative

Women are also building empires in their homes, surrounded by the same four walls that just about four decades ago, Betty Friedan insisted were closing in on them.
Why Are Some Drugs Doubling in Cost?

The majority of all extraordinary price increases were for drugs priced less than $25 per unit; however, a full course of treatment for some of these drugs could total several thousand dollars.