Culture Watch
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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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Margaret Hall And Nora Saltonstall: Two of Hundreds Who Served From Massachusetts in WWI
To commemorate the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, the MHS has organized the exhibition Letters and Photographs from the Battle Country: Massachusetts Women in the First World War, focusing on two of the hundreds of women from the Commonwealth who went to France as members of the US armed forces, the Red…
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Congressional Bills Introduced and An Update to the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative
A bill to enhance the consideration of sex differences in basic and clinical research; a bill to prevent domestic abusers from possessing or receiving firearms; a bill to provide authority for sole source contracts for certain small business concerns owned by women. Criminals now target smartphones not likely to be equipped with a kill switch,…
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The Hague’s Mauritshuis Marvelous Renovation Revealed: International Allure
Editor’s Note: We attended the traveling exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco three times, once with our grandchildren; now we hope to visit the refurbished museum in The Hague. Val Castronovo reviewed the exhibit for SeniorWomen.com during its visit to New York City’s Frick Museum. And, do not forget to visit the Museum’s…
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Spare That Limb, Create a Damp Salt Lick and Build a Bee Condo: Creating a Federal Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators
The number of migrating Monarch butterflies sank to the lowest recorded population level in 2013-14, and there is an imminent risk of failed migration. Avoid modern hybrid flowers, especially those with “doubled” flowers. Often plant breeders have unwittingly left the pollen, nectar, and fragrance out of these blossoms while creating the “perfect” blooms for us.
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Elaine Soloway’s Widow Series: Sunday Breakfast, Minus One
The New Series: After Tommy died, I halted our Sunday routine and stayed away from Dapper’s, our usual breakfast place, believing it would be too painful for me to enter without him. But this Sunday, I had to shop at Target in the same mall as the restaurant, so I figured it’d be a good…
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Betting Decisions and Dopamine Regulating Genes in Your Brain
“We know from brain imaging studies that when people compete against one another, they actually engage in two distinct types of learning processes. One type involves learning purely from the consequences of your own actions, called reinforcement learning. The other is a bit more sophisticated, called belief learning, where people try to make a mental…
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The Escape Artist: Characters in Horsehair Wigs and Intimations of Houdini in a New Masterpiece Mystery!
David Tennant stars as a defense lawyer with a perfect record of courtroom wins and a perfect family to go with it — until things go horribly wrong. Written by thriller master David Wolstencroft, The Escape Artist airs in two … should we say … nail-biting episodes.
