Book Reviews

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…
Rose Madeline Mula: Color Me Overwhelmed; Every Aspect of Life is Characterized by Multiple Choice, Even Kindergartners Must Choose Which Action Hero or Disney Princess Should Decorate Their Backpacks

Rose Madeline Mula writes: Every aspect of life today is characterized by multiple choice. The Bachelor and Bachelorette must decide which of twenty-five suitors would be the best mate. Kindergartners must choose which action hero or Disney princess should decorate their backpacks. Women have to determine which of dozens of costly wrinkle creams will live…
California Man Charged with Making Violent Threats Against Boston Globe Employees

“In the past few months, [the FBI] has charged people with threatening to bomb a minority commencement ceremony at Harvard, threatening to shoot people at a Second Amendment rally, offering money to anyone who kills a federal agent, and mailing white powder and threatening notes to certain public figures,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling. “Anyone…
Lacking Meaningful Connections with Others: Social Isolation and Loneliness for the United States, United Kingdom and Japan

More than two in ten report loneliness or social isolation in the U.K. and the U.S., double the share in Japan. More than a fifth of adults in the United States (22 percent) and the United Kingdom (23 percent), as well as one in ten adults (nine percent) in Japan, say they often or always…
Delaware Art Museum: Civil Rights-themed Exhibition Trio Capstone of the City-wide Wilmington 1968 Initiative – On View Until September 9

“We’ve created an exhibition from our collection; incorporated a traveling show; and commissioned a contemporary artist to respond to images and events from our community.” The result is a strikingly nuanced exhibition trio with programming which offers ideas for specific local social action, opportunities for an in-depth look the artistic styles represented, and multiple vehicles…
Seth Frotman: *Broken Promises: How Debt-Financed Higher Education Rewrote America’s Social Contract and Fueled a Quiet Crisis

“However, by limiting the definition of the student debt problem to those borrowers who are behind or in default, the literature assumes that the remaining thirty-three million borrowers are doing just fine. This perspective is deeply flawed. First, it is certainly not acceptable to write off the financial futures of eleven million people. Second, by…
Chicago Institute of Art and John Singer Sargent, Georg Jensen and Arms, Armor, Medieval, and Renaissance

“The Midwest is perhaps an unexpected point of departure for an examination of this thoroughly cosmopolitan painter, who made his career in Europe, attracted a transatlantic set of patrons, and cultivated professional ties primarily on the East Coast. Yet Sargent was indeed a fascinating player in the cultural history of Chicago at the turn of…
Painting A Nuanced Picture of Brain System Regulating Moods, Movements

The findings could have implications for the treatment of depression and anxiety, which involves prescribing drugs such as Prozac that target the serotonin system – so-called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). However, these drugs often trigger a host of side effects, some of which are so intolerable that patients stop taking them. “If we can…
The Donut Hole and Closing the Medicare Part D Coverage Gap: Trends, Recent Changes, and What’s Ahead

As of 2019, Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Part D prescription drug plans will no longer be exposed to a coverage gap, sometimes called the “donut hole”, when they fill their brand-name medications. The coverage gap was included in the initial design of the Part D drug benefit in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 in…
Does Your State Have an Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Agency/Office? California Does

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA); the state of California’s “mission is to protect and enhance public health and the environment by scientific evaluation of risks posed by hazardous substances.” A couple of reports currently on the website: Protecting Public Health from Home and Building Fire Ash and Art and Craft Material Exposures…
Recent Reads from Retraction Watch: A Gold Star in Astronomy; Leading Journals Underrepresent Women in Photos; How Papers Can Mislead

Some Retraction Watch Items: A star may not be quite as bright, but an astronomer deserves a gold star for retracting his findings within 24 hours of posting them and thanking those that helped him find the error. A study “asked whether the top scientific journals, Nature and Science, represented men and women equally as…