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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The Devil Wears Prada? What psychological consequences do luxury goods have on people?
Harvard’s Business School released a working paper that will probably only confirm those suppositions we’ve made about people and their affinity for luxurious goods.
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FDA Approves A High Dose Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Specifically Intended for People Ages 65 and Older
The FDA has approved a more concentrated influenza virus subtypes A and B vaccine (Fluzone High-Dose) for patients 65 and older.The vaccine creates a greater immune response in older patients, who typically do not respond as well to standard flu vaccine dosages because they have a weaker immune system, drug manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis said.
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Report of the Defense Task Force on Sexual Assault in the Military Services
The expectations of a training environment are to get them in, get them trained, get them fit to fight . . . a sexual assault report stops this process momentarily . . . some leaders may view it as an inconvenience rather than a crime. . . . Although many leaders know how to talk…
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WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, With and Without Humor
Although the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist was published in a New England Journal of Medicine article last January, it bears repeating. Not only is it in a pdf form to be used by surgeons, operating room staff and others, it can be found in a YouTube video; nervous giggling allowed.
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Written on Water; Literature of the Sea in the Age of Sail
“My dear Louis. You are too far away — you are too absent, too invisible … friendship is too delicate a matter for such tricks — for cutting great gory masses out of ’em … Therefore come back. Hang it all — sink it all and come back. A little more a…
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Travel: The Splendor of India’s Royal Court and Palaces of the Maharajas
“For confirmation of our love and friendship, I desire your Majesty to command your merchants to bring in their ships of all sorts of rarities and rich goods fit for my palace”— The Great Moghul Jahangir: Letter to James I, King of England, 1617 A.D.
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How Seniors Change Their Asset Holdings During Retirement
More generally, our results indicate that most of the older population is extremely cautious in formulating their spending plans as they age. This may be because of a very strong bequest motive or because of a concern that they will face emergency expenditures, most probably related to health care. However, the conservatism is so extreme,…
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Goosed
They began by arguing the merits (or rather, the lack of merits) of sweet side dishes that had marzipan in them. “That was a lot of WORK,” my sous-chef growled. “Eat it and shut up.”“This rice is hard and funny,” said another son, “and the chestnuts look like little brains.” “I made it exactly the…
