Elaine Soloway

Elaine Soloway’s Author Page

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…
Ferida’s Wolff’s Backyard: A Nest!

Ferida Wolff writes: “And then one day, while trimming the bushes on the other side of the yard, a nest with blue eggs appeared! Was this robin protecting that nest even though it was away from the house? And were these eggs actually the robin’s eggs? Other birds lay blue eggs. Plus, within the bush…
*GAO Report on Pandemic Learning: Less Academic Progress Overall, Student and Teacher Strain, and Implications for the Future GAO-22-105816 Published: Jun 08, 2022. Publicly Released: Jun 08, 2022

“Compared to a typical school year, teachers reported that more of their students started the 2020-21 school year behind and made less academic progress, according to GAO’s generalizable survey of K-12 public school teachers. Teachers also reported that many students ended the year behind grade level expectations (see figure). Educators and parents also shared their…
Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol

“(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the “domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol”) and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the…
GAO, Unemployment Insurance: Transformation Needed to Address Program Design, Infrastructure, and Integrity Risks

“The Secretary of Labor should develop and execute a transformation plan that meets GAO’s high risk criteria for transformation; the plan should outline coordinated and sustained actions to address issues related to providing effective service and mitigating financial risk, including ways to demonstrate improvements. Planned actions may include addressing audit recommendations, and determining whether legislative…
Congressional Bills, Schedule and SNAP: Authorizing Assistance to Train and Retain Obstetrician-gynecologists and Sub-specialists in Urogynecology

“A bill to authorize assistance to train and retain obstetrician-gynecologists and sub-specialists in urogynecology and to help improve the quality of care to meet the health care needs of women in the least developed countries; A bill to provide for the expedited and duty-free importation of infant formula that may be lawfully marketed in the…
Jo Freeman’s Review of Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath

Jo Freeman writes: Bill Browder has written a political thriller. Covering roughly the decade ending in 2018, he traces his efforts to sanction corrupt Russian officials who had murdered his friend and Moscow lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Law enforcement is a continuous theme. But whose laws and whose enforcement? Of course, Browder and his family had…
Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau: Further Strengthening Our Gun Control Laws

“Keeping Canadians safe is the Government of Canada’s top priority. We know that one Canadian killed by gun violence is one too many, which is why, two years ago, we banned over 1,500 types of military-style assault firearms. We also strengthened our gun control laws to expand background checks and keep firearms out of the…
Federal Reserve: Responding to High Inflation, with Some Thoughts on a Soft Landing; What Is Slide Four We Ask?

May 30, 2022; Governor Christopher J. Waller At the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS) Distinguished Lecture, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany: To sum up, the relationship between vacancies and unemployment gives me reason to hope that policy tightening in current circumstances can tame inflation without causing a sharp increase in unemployment. Of course, the…
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Commencement Address to the Harvard Classes of 2020 and 2021 Cambridge, MA ~ Sunday, May 29, 2022

“A democracy cannot survive if its citizens forsake the rule of law in favor of violence or threats of violence. We are all in this together. We must protect each other.” … So, for me, public service is a way to repay the debt my family owes to this country for our very lives. “…
A Short Poetry Book Review By Diane Girard: Stars In the Junkyard by Sharon Berg: “The poems in Stars in the Junkyard have depth, intensity glimpses of brightness that encourage rereading”

“Stars in the Junkyard is a collection of poems by Canadian writer, Sharon Berg. Her work reveals the kinds of loss, abuse, and betrayal that she, like many other women has suffered and yet, there is hope and sometimes an unexpected tenderness. The poems in Stars in the Junkyard have depth, intensity glimpses of brightness…