Authors
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Palin vs. Gore Climate Showdown
From FactCheck.org: “On Dec. 9, an op-ed by Sarah Palin on climate change ran in the Washington Post. Al Gore responded to Palin’s piece and made some fresh claims of his own later that day in an interview with MSNBC. We find that both engaged in some distortions and have been rightly called out by…
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Shopping Green for Gifts
We thought the jewelry at the Inhabitat shop very good looking especially the Swedish pieces made by Kumvana Gomani: Snö leaf earrings are made in Sweden delicately handcut from recycled soda and water bottles and like a true snowflake, no two are exactly alike … for $20.
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Brilliant Women, 18th Century Bluestockings
They got their comical name – ‘Bluestockings’ – when another guest, the botanist Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702-71), was welcomed at one of Elizabeth Montagu’s salons even though he had arrived absent-mindedly wearing the blue woollen stockings normally worn by working men, instead of the more formal white silk.”
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Teens and Sexting, One of a New Series of Pew Reports
A new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project found that 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via text messaging, a practice also known as “sexting”; 15% say they have received such images…
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Current Reading, Divorce Denied: Social “Social Abandonment” is Insufficient Grounds in New York
In her complaint, she alleged what amounts (or might amount) to “social abandonment” – stating that her husband refused to celebrate or acknowledge major holidays or birthdays with her; refused to “eat meals together”; refused to “attend family functions or accompany [her] to movies, shopping, restaurants, and church services”; once left her “at a hospital…
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Book Review and a Holiday Gift Idea: Read My Pins; Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box
“Read My Pins” is an appealing coffee-table book; it is an indulgence. This one justifies itself by being light enough to lift, fun to read, and visually beautiful.
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The Exquisite Corpse Adventure
Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has written the first episode. He has passed it on to a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who must eventually bring the story to an end. Every two weeks, there will be a new episode and a new illustration. The story will conclude a year…
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The Shape of Fashion and Its Underpinnings, 1870 – 1960
“Underpinnings are the foundation upon which the shape of fashion is built, and similarly reflect the swing of the fashion pendulum. Perhaps more fascinating than the costume itself, these foundations for The Shape of Fashion reflect more earnestly the essence of the feminine realm.”
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Exploring the Article “Married (Happily) With Issues” on Air
The New York Times Sunday Magazine article entitled Married (Happily) with Issues, was discussed by the author, Liz Weil, joined by her husband, Dan Duane, on KQED’s radio program, Forum. The marriage therapies the couple tried are examined.
