Dance

  • Joan Fontaine

    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

    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: 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…

  • high heels

    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…

  • Vintage jewelry, Wikimedia Commons

    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…

  • ways to grasp a pencil

    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…

  • Captain Charles E. Yeager

    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…

  • stack of books

    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…

  • Seasonal Infective Disorder; Confessions of an Eternal Optimist

    Julia Sneden writes: We love to watch falling snow, or, on a clear night, the moonlight and shadows in our whitened yard. Bright winter sun in the morning reveals that the birdfeeder wears a toboggan cap of snow, which doesn’t bother the voracious finches and cardinals and chickadees perched on nearby branches, taking turns driving…

  • Matisse and the Artist Book

    Henri Matisse was 60 years old when he began to create original illustrations for livres d’artiste (artists’ books). By the time of his death, 25 years later, he had produced designs for 14 fully illustrated books, several of which are considered 20th-century masterpieces of the genre.

  • Forget About Forgetting: Older Brains Slower Due to Greater Experience, Rather than Cognitive Decline

    As the Tuebingen researchers in a new study note, it is impossible to tell if the mind’s information processing capacities do in fact decline with age if you don’t measure the information the mind processes, or how it changes over time. In every one of the cognitive tests in which the team measured this information,…

  • Size of Gender Pay Gap Varies By State, Job

    Susan Milligan writes: Female workers don’t need to be told what numerous studies have concluded: Women, on average, are paid less than men, even when they are doing the same job. But where workers live also makes a difference. Female workers in Wyoming earn just 65.5 percent of what men earn, worst of any state.…

  • A House Foreign Affairs Hearing: “Lessons Learned from Super Bowl Preparations: Preventing International Human Trafficking at Major Sporting Events”

    S. 1922 —- Senator David Vitter, having announced his entry into the 2015 Louisisana Governor’s race, has introduced bill to prevent the illegal trafficking of supplemental nutrition assistance program benefits by requiring all program beneficiaries to show valid photo identification when purchasing items with program benefits. On Tuesday, the House passed H.R.7, The No Taxpayer…

  • Decisions, Decisions ….

    Rose Madeline Mula writes: Today, after taking out a second mortgage to finance new footware, you then must analyze your requirements. Will you be wearing them while cross training, weight lifting, long-distance running, short-distance sprints, jogging, or aerobics? A flatter heel will enable you to execute deeper squats, a flexible sole is preferable for kick…

  • In California, a Raft of Measures to Improve Conditions and Oversight of Assisted Living

    California, which is home to more assisted living facilities than any other state, currently maintains one of the loosest regulatory regimes in the country, with minimal fines (as little as $150 in cases of fatal neglect or abuse) and infrequent inspections (required once every five years). state rules have been broadened to allow people with…

  • The Miami Heat Comes to Call; A Fiftieth Birthday

    The First Lady dunks with the Miami Heat. Perhaps she’ll join her brother, Craig, coaching basketball as well teaching preparation of healthy meals. First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia also prepared burritos while volunteering at the DC Central Kitchen in Washington, DC, on Martin Luther King Day

  • CultureWatch Reviews: Amsterdam, A History of the World’s Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington; DVD Tips: Foyle’s War & Doc Martin’s Return

    Russell Shorto’s gifts include a keen eye for individual little stories that add a delicious depth to his writing, and thus to our understanding of times and events in Amsterdam; A History of the World’s Most Liberal City; The Virgin of Bennington becomes a meticulous and admiringly recorded history of Betty Kray’s dedication, imagination, and…

  • Gridiron Cards at the Met: Grange, Thorpe, Washington, Unitas and Rockne

    Opening January 23, 2014, Gridiron Greats: Vintage Football Cards in the Collection of Jefferson R. Burdick will feature some 150 football cards printed between 1894 and 1959. The Collection Amassed by Burdickwho began collecting American ephemera when he was ten years old, is the finest collection of American trade cards in the United States, ranging…