Elaine Soloway

Elaine Soloway’s Author Page

  • 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…

  • Here Yesterday, Gone Today

    Rose Madeline Mula writes: To go with that one-piece bathing suit was the inevitable cap — that scalp-hugging, hideous, rubber helmet worn today only by competitive swimmers to reduce drag and increase speed. Back in the day we girls all wore them, even if we just waded in the surf (which was my speed) to…

  • The GAO Looks At Airline Competition: Do You Know What ‘Capacity Restraint’ Means? Bet You Do

    Since 2007, there have been four major airline mergers. Baggage and reservation change fees collected by US airlines increased from about $1.4 billion in 2007 to $6 billion in 2012. Unlike prior recoveries when airline capacity growth undermined the ability to charge profitable fares, airlines since 2009 have restrained capacity growth even though demand for…

  • The Debate Has Been Resolved: Old Master ‘Selfie’ is a Rembrandt

    “Careful cleaning and removal of several layers of aged and yellowed varnish which had been added to the painting much later … What was revealed was a true depth of colour, much more detail and a three-dimensional appearance to the fabric in Rembrandt’s cloak which had previously been obscured and detracted from the quality of…

  • Ferida Wolff’s Backyard: The Lilac Presence, Blackberries and Raspberries and Useful Screening

    Lilacs are just as famous for their scent as their color. There are dozens of varieties that can smell sweet or spicy, cloying or calming. Berries are full of antioxidants, fiber, and Vitamin C, among other beneficial properties. While these particular berries are not on The Dirty Dozen list of foods that are the most…

  • Supersurvivors and A Level of Contentment: The Fordham Centenarian Study

    Dr. Daniela Jopp: Each centenarian has found a sense of meaning in their lives; a lot of people just have goals and projects that they pursue, and that’s another source of meaning; their singular will to live yields high levels of self-efficacy; they tend to be optimistic, and continue to look forward to their lives.

  • Carla Fernández, The Barefoot Designer at the Gardner

    This first fashion exhibition at Boston’s Gardner Museum explores the development of a new language in visual design that Fernández has built over two decades. She uses a method called “the Square Root” based on the Mexican tradition of making clothing from squares and rectangles.

  • Why Move? A Better Home, Family, Own Household, Job Commuting and Marriage

    Men were more likely than women to move for job-related reasons. Better-educated people were more likely to move for job-related reasons than those with lower education levels. Married respondents were the least likely to move for family-related reasons. Reasons such as “change of climate,” “health reasons” and “natural disaster,” were each cited by fewer than…

  • Father’s Day Gifts: Sunglasses, Monticello Seed Kit and Planter, Golf Laser Rangefinder & Caffeinated Shaving Products

    Portable. Rechargeable. Powerful. Lumio unfolds, seemingly by magic, from a book. Simply open the cover to turn on the warm, high-performing LED lamp. Sunglasses that help with fishing and cataract floaters. Slippers, bow ties and MLB team cufflinks. A pasta maker for the microwave and before that a rangefinder for golf. The Fire Store work…

  • For a Respected Prosecutor, An Unpardonable Failure

    In the late eighties, James Leeper was a fast-rising prosecutor known for his fairness and loyalty. Decades later, his alleged misconduct in the Jonathan Fleming case has shocked colleagues and adversaries alike. Fleming, 27, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. It took 24 years, but eventually it became clear that there had…

  • The Music of an Auction

    Sandra Smith writes: Waiting for the auctioneer is something like being present at a stage musical while the orchestra warms up. My stomach was a little fluttery. Would I understand? How fast would he talk? What if I scratched my nose and he thought I was bidding? I got so caught up in it, I…