Cynthia Bailey M.D.

  • 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…

  • Main-Street Republicans, Hard-Pressed Democrats, Bystanders and Post Moderns: The Political Typology

    The most visible shift in the political landscape since Pew Research’s previous political typology in early 2005 is the emergence of a single bloc of across-the-board conservatives. The long-standing divide between economic, pro-business conservatives and social conservatives has blurred.

  • New State Department Travel Advisory and Requirement

    “We urge US citizens to keep in regular contact with family and friends. US citizens living or traveling abroad are encouraged to enroll in the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP); Outbreak notice about Dengue Fever

  • She Was Just 17; The Gagosian Gallery Presents Picasso and Marie-Therese: L’amour fou

    References to Marie-Thérèse, a full-figured, blonde beauty with a prominent “Greek” nose, were often camouflaged, or appeared in code, in Picasso’s art, and her identity was a closely hidden secret, as was the birth of their daughter Maya in 1935.

  • A Royal Wedding Program to Download and Ceremony Details

    Regardless of when (and if) the British Royal wedding ceremony is watched (we’re choosing BBC America for commercial free viewing, recorded), a downloadable copy of the Programme is available at the official site we’ve posted previously

  • Bernanke’s First Press Conference

    On a day that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve held his first press conference (and Sarah Palin declared the reason the President released his birth certificate was to distract from Chairman Bernanke’s statements), the Fed released a statement of economic projections

  • A Really, Really Long Distance Mother’s Day Phone Call

    I turned up the volume on my Mac and heard clicks — a lipstick top being circled downward, a pocket mirror snapped shut. I raised my voice, not only because we were using technology to manage our two-way conversation, but also because my mother and I were so far away from each other. Me, here…

  • Opioids: Extensively Misprescribed, Misused, and Abused, Says the FDA

    FDA experts say extended-release and long-acting opioids — including OxyContin, Avinza, Dolophine, Duragesic, and eight other brand names — are extensively misprescribed, misused, and abused, leading to overdoses, addiction, and even deaths across the United States.

  • When a Pension Overhaul Comes Without Social Security

    The math behind any big change in pension rules doesn’t look the same when state employees and teachers sit outside the Social Security system. The bulk of uncovered public sector employees reside in 14 states; do you know which they are?

  • Revisiting the Cooper-Hewitt Shop

    The Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry review at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum gave us a chance for a virtual stroll to the online shop. Because the Museum itself is a paean to the art of design, it’s not surprising that the shop has some less-frequently-seen items

  • CultureWatch Reviews:The Tiger’s Wife and Henrietta Lacks

    The power and intricacy of The Tiger’s Wife mark the beginning of what, if Téa Obreht keeps writing, should become a distinguished literary career. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, now in paperback, is both a cautionary tale and a call for justice. In 1951 no laws were broken when Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells were…