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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Einstein at Home
The Historical Society of Princeton presents Einstein At Home, featuring family photographs, artwork, special memorabilia, and seventeen select pieces. Einstein is quoted saying: “But I also found Princeton fine. A pipe as yet unsmoked. Young and fresh. Much is to be expected from America’s youth”
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Design Shopping: Placewares.com
Baggalini Urban Backpack: Developed by two retired Delta Airlines flight attendants, this versatile bag converts from a shoulder bag to backpack by unzipping and rehooking the shoulder strap. Interior has numerous compartments for items you normally carry in your wallet plus slots for your cell phone and pen and zippered spaces for coins and cosmetics.…
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MIT’s Age Lab: The Future is Gray, Small and Female
A vivid portrait of the near future when great numbers of people, mainly women, will not only live longer, but alone. In the US, many of these seniors expect to continue working and playing, sometimes battling chronic illness, but above all, maintaining independence and freedom
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A Creative Pair in Collage and Fashion
“A long time collector of ‘things’ Peter trawls the markets with his wife textile designer Karen Nicol and collects old stamps, faded maps, love letters, labels, buttons, dress making patterns, playing cards, textiles cotton webbing that binds books and paper boxes for the basis of his work”
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The Shakespeare Portrait Question at the Morgan; Battle of Wills Documentary
When the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust unveiled a portrait with strong claims to be the only surviving contemporary likeness of Shakespeare, it created an international stir. But wait, there’s another claim about a 1603 portrait created by an ancestor who was a bit actor in Shakespeare’s troupe
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Bard’s Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties
Their gilded surfaces and brilliant colors put them at odds with the austere criteria of the scholars’ aesthetic from the Song dynasty. In 1368 Cao Zhao wrote that cloisonné enamels were not suitable for study by members of the scholar class and were really appropriate only for the apartments of women
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Second Chances Underscore Flaws in Death Investigations
Dr. Thomas Gill’s ability to resurrect his career time and again reflects a profound weakness at the center of the US system of death investigation. A chronic shortage of qualified forensic pathologists allows even questionably competent practitioners to remain employable
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Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave
Taking inspiration from the rich depictions in early European paintings, iconic costumes in museum collections, photographs, sketches and even literary descriptions, de Borchgrave skillfully works paper to achieve the effect of textiles: crumpling, pleating, braiding, feathering and painting the surface.
