Diane Girard

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…
In the Gusher of Super PACs, Even One Named ‘The Internet’

It’s worth taking a step back and considering all the confusing names, and all the confusing money that might be spent in the coming months. It’s worth considering how we got to this new frontier, which even campaign operatives say is messy
Happy 150th Birthday Edith Wharton!

Break out a glass of champagne, don an antique jet-beaded jacket and celebrate Wharton’s 150th birth anniversary. Read a book of Wharton’s, watch the Age of Innocence or The Buccaneers and visit her home, the Mount.
Befogged

On those foggy days, I arrived at the bus stop very damp despite my jacket. My fine hair was plastered to my head, and my braids, having escaped from their soggy ribbons, began to unbraid themselves. I well remember the day my new red ribbons, the product of cheap, war-time dyes, got so fog-wet that…
Youthful Healing, Old Bodies: A Surprising Journey into Biotechnology

As we age, our healing process deteriorates until it is slow and incomplete in comparison with our younger selves. This decline is linked to the deterioration of the rest of our system with age; understanding how to slow, or even halt, its advance could have promising implications
When Women Are Scarce: Men Become Impulsive, Save Less and Increase Borrowing

“In a male-biased environment, men also expected they would need to spend more in their mating efforts … We see that there are more men than women in our environment and it automatically changes our desires, our behaviors, and our entire psychology.”
A Blushing Bride (Again) – at 62

After Dick died, I was certain I would eventually find someone to share my life with again. Ed and I married in 2001 during a four-hour luncheon/bay cruise on a yacht before 80 friends and family. I was a blushing bride at 62. Then we went to Paris for a two-week honeymoon.
In Mississippi, Identities of Pardon Applicants Must Be Public

Senior Circuit Judge Tomie Green noted that during Barbour’s tenure he had granted clemency to individuals convicted of “murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, aggravated assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, burglary, domestic violence, etc”
What if the Mayan Calendar is Right?

It’s become an annual tradition for my husband and me to create a calendar for an intimate group of friends. This year we decided to add an extra page. After the month of November 2012 is an illustration of the Mayan calendar with a 3-week ‘bucket list’ of things to do before the world is…
A Web Resource Helps Doctors Calculate Life Expectancy of Older Patients

A team led by researchers from the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco has completed the first systematic review of prognostic indices used to calculate a patient’s life expectancy, and created a website that puts these indices in one central location.
Bicentennial of Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel; Nation’s Oldest Natural History Museum

With eight books and a map of Switzerland, the founders began a library, which ranks among the world’s finest natural history libraries. Each founder also contributed a few specimens; the collections now number 17 million specimens