Current Reading

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…
NIH Reports, Gene Linked to Optimism and Self-Esteem

“Some people think genes are destiny, that if you have a specific gene, then you will have a particular outcome. That is definitely not the case. This gene is one factor that influences psychological resources and depression, but there is plenty of room for environmental factors as well.”
A Sudsy Saga

I would never, ever become a slave to the soaps, I always asserted, looking down my nose at my weak-minded sisters. Yeah, well never say “never.” It’s time for me to confess: My name is Rose, and I am a Soapaholic
Pew Reports: How People Learn About Their Local Community

As a rule, those with higher levels of education and higher levels of income are more likely to follow most of the local news topics asked about, particularly those with a civic dimension such as politics, government news, and community events.
FactCheck’s Analysis of Orlando Debate; Fanciful Facts and Fiction

Nine Republican presidential candidates debated for two hours in Orlando, Fla., and they served up more exaggerations and falsehoods — about Obama, each other, and even Thomas Jefferson
The War on Elderly Drivers

We’re not taking our eyes off the road and our hands off the wheel to make out with a “friend with benefits” in the passenger seat, or on our lap. (We don’t have many friends left alive — with or without benefits.)
Urban Institute Finds Surveillance Cameras Are Cost-Effective Tools for Cutting Crime

With state and municipal budgets shrinking and public safety resources diminishing, public surveillance camera systems offer local law enforcement agencies a cost-effective way to deter, document, and reduce crime
CultureWatch Review of 1493 by Charles Mann: Pause and batten down the hatches before you plunge in!

Julia Sneden reviews 1493 by Charles Mann and wonders whether it would come up to the standard Mann had set so high with 1491. She writes, “The answer, dear reader, is a resounding ‘Yes!’ That answer does not, however, come without a few caveats.”
Old Lady Shoes

Doris O’Brien writes: “I bought a pair of chic, shiny blue wedgies to wear as Mother of the Bride. They matched my dress and felt gratifyingly comfortable. By the end of the ceremony, I was being whisked back in a golf cart to my hotel room in order to change shoes, so that I could…
TechNOlogy …To E or Not To E, That Is the Question

Julia Sneden writes: Just leave me alone with my books, my real, physical, weighty books. Just try entering “e-book” into Google, if you want a lesson in technological confusion. Our public libraries are struggling with the parameters of e-book usage as are the publishers
Another Aging Puzzle: The Case of the Disappearing Fingerprints

Recently, we had our fingerprints taken for a US government traveler’s identification system. What we didn’t realize was that we had lost an integral part of our personal identity.