Ferida Wolff

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…
A Look Back at Julia Sneden’s Review of The Emperor of All Maladies

Julia Sneden writes: One of the great strengths of this book is Dr. Mukherjee’s willingness to detail the theories and politics and failures and frustrations that have accompanied this War On Cancer. After many years of emphasis on possible treatments for various cancers, it is only in the last years of the 20th century and…
Catching Up on Your Fashion Education, Ladies: Revolutionary 3D Printing Technology

“By rethinking the whole approach to 3D printing, and the chemistry and physics behind the process, we have developed a new technology that can create parts radically faster than traditional technologies by essentially ‘growing’ them in a pool of liquid,” said Joseph DeSimone. “In addition to using new materials, CLIP can allow us to make…
Ferida’s Wolff’s Back Yard: Do Robins Herald Spring? Squirrel on the Roof; Winter and Baking

In the midst of Winter it is always easy to pine for Spring but then we often ache for Summer and its swimming weather only to welcome Autumn for the heat-relief it brings. Then Winter calls to skiers, sledders, and everyone for holiday fun. The year’s variety, while it can be challenging, is emotionally bracing.…
Hatched, Matched, Dispatched – and Patched! One of Three Exhibits to See at the American Museum

Mourning garments, heavily beaded with jet, contrast with delicate bridal gowns originating from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as christening robes crafted from cascades of handmade broderie anglaise lace. A tablecloth embroidered with the names of colleagues and friends of an American soldier who took part in the D-Day landings is incomplete. His…
Iranian Artist Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s Mirror Sculptures: Infinite Possibilities

The artist’s ambitious mirror sculptures, known as ‘geometric families,’ which she produced in the last decade since reinstating her studio in Tehran, are on view. Indigenous art forms such as Turkoman jewelry and clothing, coffee house paintings (a popular form of Iranian narrative paintings), and the technique of reverse-glass painting influenced her work.
Irresistible: Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence Extends to New Realms

Astronomers have expanded the search for extraterrestrial intelligence into a new realm with detectors tuned to infrared light. Their new instrument has just begun to scour the sky for messages from other worlds. The idea dates back decades, Wright pointed out. Charles Townes, the late UC Berkeley scientist whose contributions to the development of lasers…
Interior Department Issues Final Rule to Support Hydraulic Fracturing Activities on Public and Tribal Lands

“Current federal well-drilling regulations are more than 30 years old and they simply have not kept pace with the technical complexities of today’s hydraulic fracturing operations,” Secretary Jewell said. “This updated and strengthened rule provides a framework of safeguards and disclosure protocols that will allow for the continued responsible development of our federal oil and…
Dante in the City: Where Have All the Yellow Mustard, Orange Poppies and Blue Lupine Gone?

Julia Sneden writes: Surely, I thought, people have observed and learned a lesson from the large urban areas in the northeast and far west — but no, our small cities have replicated the poor planning and nutty zoning that have allowed the destruction of roadside beauty all over the country. We’re right up there with…
Assisted Reproduction: “The United States is the Wild West of the fertility industry”

Donor-conceived children argue that donors should be subjected to better medical screenings. Generally, donors are only tested for sexually transmitted diseases. There are no laws requiring medical testing for genetic diseases or requiring that donors – usually in their 20s at the time of donation — update medical information as they age and inherited diseases…
Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies on Masterpiece: Thomas Cromwell, A Wholly Original Man, A Charmer and A Bully

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell both idealist…