Diane Girard
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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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Public Opinion Snapshot: The American Public Still Backs Health Reform
On the one hand, more Americans are not in favor (44 percent) than in favor (37 percent) of the new law. But on the other by majorities ranging from 57 percent to 84 percent, they approve of almost all provisions included in the law.
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Stroke Risk Factors Linked to Cognitive Problems
A new study found that high blood pressure and other known risk factors for stroke may also raise the risk of developing cognitive problems. Each 10-year increment in age doubled the risk of cognitive impairment. LVH increased the risk by about 30%.
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NYPL Digital Collection of Apartment Houses; Shop Their Finds
From the Althorp to the Ansonia, the New York Public Library holds image folios of the Classic 6; Apartment Building Living, 1880s – 1910s. Shop the Library’s marvelous gift choices, even for yourself
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Infinite Jest and Met Museum Shopping
Drawings from Leonardo da Vinci, Eugène Delacroix, Francisco de Goya and Lautrec are displayed. Caricature can be combined with various kinds of satire to convey personal, social, or political meaning. And the Met Museum shop is a trove of gift ideas!
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Growing Quality of Life: Urban Trees, Birth Weight, and Crime
Researcher Geoffrey Donovan found that women who live in houses with more trees are less likely to have underweight babies. Larger trees, including trees located near the street, are associated with a lower incidence of property crimes
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In Case We Forget: Centennial of Women Suffrage in California
“Politics is no place for a women consequently the privilege should not be granted to her. The mother’s influence is needed in the home. She can do little good by gadding the streets and neglecting her children.”
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Facts and Figures for Thanksgiving Day: Nov. 24, 2011
“The legacy of thanks and the feast have survived the centuries, as the event became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving.” Cherry, Pumpkin or Pecan?
