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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Senator Ted Kennedy on Health Care Reform: “A Right, Not a Privilege”
“For me, this is a season of hope, new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many and not just for the few, new hope. And this is the cause of my life, new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American – north, south…
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EPI Snapshot: Basic Truths About the Deficit
The Economic Policy Institute has released a copyrighted newsletter entitled: Straight talk on the federal budget deficit.A few paragraphs: “Some little-known facts about the federal budget deficit: It grew slower than was expected just a few months…
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If Bob Dylan Had Cancer or ‘The Day Before Chemo Blues” (with apologies to Bob)
Lyrics by *Susan Tifft: I feel good, I feel fine. I’ve even had a little wine! But them salad days are over and done. Mass General Hospital again has won. I got the knock-me-down, throw-me-up, I’m fixin’ to heave, day-before-chemo bl…
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Shop for Yourself: Matta
Matta: A Jodhpur rug, a pouf, “a patchwork of vintage dresses and sarees, a world of embroideries and prints” is the description of a shop named Matta. I realized when going through this site, that I have a Vaibhav blouse that this site carries. And alth…
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The Case for Investing in Bonds During Retirement
This Center for Retirement Research at Boston College brief is by *Anthony Webb published August, 2009 Introduction For households seeking retirement income security, short-term deposits (such as money market accounts, certificates of deposit, an…
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Current Reading: Ten Things Your Therapist Won’t Tell You
“Not every therapist is well trained in every disorder,” says Richard Dana, a psychologist in Newton, Mass. “Someone who is referred with obsessive-compulsive disorder may find that his therapist was not really trained in that area.” According to Herbert Klein, editor and publisher of Psychotherapy Finances, many therapists lost substantial income during the 1990s, when…
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Pew Researches End-of-Life Decisions
“Daughters are more likely than sons to have had these conversations with their parents: 65% of women vs. 48% of men say they have talked to their parents about how to handle their medical care if they become incapacitated.”
