Art and Museums
Art and Museums stories for senior women and others
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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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“Upward pointing fins mirrored the rise in affluence” — The Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design
“As a nation roared into an era where horse-powered buggies gave way to the horsepower under the hood of a shiny new automobile, a new form of class distinction was created. Chrome reflected social status”
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Vienna 1900:Style and Identity
In painting, the decorative arts, and music, the evolution of the concept of modern individual identity was borne out in a dialogue between surface ornamentation and inner structure and a search for a specifically modern, Viennese sense of self.
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FDA Should Enhance Its Oversight of Medical Device Recalls
The Commissioner of FDA should create a program to routinely and systematically assess medical device recall information, and use this information to proactively identify strategies for mitigating health risks presented by defective or unsafe devices.
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EWG Ranks Fruits and Veggies: Apples Top New Dirty Dozen List
Picking five servings of fruits and vegetables from the 12 most-contaminated products would result in consuming an average of 14 different pesticides a day. Choosing five servings from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables would result in consuming fewer than two pesticides per day.
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Two Americas in Sharp Contrast; A Conservative States Agenda
In Alabama lawmakers passed an immigration crackdown that goes even further than last year’s lightning-rod measure in Arizona. Republicans required voters to show photo ID in Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, with dozens of similar measures being debated around the country.
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Woman of Note and Her Gallery: Marianne North
Marianne was rare among women of this period – travelling unaccompanied and visiting areas virtually unknown to many Europeans. Marianne North was at her happiest when discovering plants and painting and she spent nearly all her time abroad in the wild, surrounded by the habitats and plants she longed to capture in oil paint
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Are Facebook Users Too Trusting? Pew Examines Social Networking Sites and Our Lives:
Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Over half of all adult SNS users are now over the age of 35. Some 56% of SNS users now are female.
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Who Got What Right and Wrong in the New Hampshire Debate
Santorum claimed a Medicare advisory board created by the new federal health care law will result in a rationing of care for seniors. The law specifically says the board “shall not include any recommendation to ration health care.” Romney claimed that “we didn’t raise taxes in Massachusetts” to pay for his health care law. In…
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Does Our Personality Affect Our Level of Attractiveness?
Men who have a more promiscuous orientation were better at guessing if a woman would want to meet them, and women whose personality was very agreeable were better at guessing if a man would meet them.
