Ferida Wolff
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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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Hearings and Bills Introduced: Veterans’ Access to Child Care Act; Hearing on Gang Violence and Human Trafficking; Violence Against Women; Breast Cancer Care
A bill to improve the response to sexual assault and sexual harassment on board aircraft operated in passenger air transportation; A bill to enhance transparency, improve the coordination, and intensify the impact of assistance to support access to primary and secondary education for displaced children and persons, including women and girls; A bill to require…
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Generations of War: The Rise of the Warrior Caste and the All-Volunteer Force
In the report “Generations of War: The Rise of the Warrior Caste and the All-Volunteer Force,” the Center for a New American Security” Research Associate Amy Schafer writes that the trend of military service being passed from generation to generation has created a warrior caste in which a small section of the population bears the…
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Obamacare Exchanges In Limbo; Deadlines Fast Approaching for the Start of Open Enrollment this Fall
Covered California, the exchange, might not wrap up negotiations with insurers and announce 2018 premiums for its 1.4 million customers until mid-August — about a month later than usual. Similar scenarios are playing out across the country as state officials and insurers demand clarity on health care rules and funding, with deadlines fast approaching for…
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A Stanford Faculty Spotlight: Should Retirement Be the End Goal for Individuals Entering the Workforce?
“The idea that you can support a 20-year retirement with 30 years of work is outdated. And can’t continue. It’s just not sustainable. So as lifespans increase, then if retirements start at the same age, then retirements just get longer and longer. And I think the idea that we can continue to support a longer…
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The CBO Estimates Again: A New Senate Bill to Repeal Obamacare Would Leave 32 Million More People Uninsured by 2026
The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 17 million in 2018, compared with the number under current law. That number would increase to 27 million in 2020, after the elimination of the ACA’s expansion of eligibility for Medicaid and the elimination of subsidies for insurance purchased through the marketplaces established by the…
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Edvard Munch, Desire, Mortality, Isolation and Anxiety: Between the Clock and the Bed
As he confessed in 1939, Edvard Munch’s true “breakthrough came very late in life, really only starting when I was 50 years old.” One of his last works, Self-Portrait. Between the Clock and the Bed (1940–43) — with its themes of desire, mortality, isolation and anxiety — serves as a touchstone and guide to the…
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While Most Small Towns Languish, Some Flourish
By now, the demise of the American small town is a common tale. But even as most of them continue to lose residents, a few are adding them at a rapid clip. In several Western and Southern states, small towns are growing quickly as fast-growing metro areas swallow up more outlying towns, according to a…
