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…
CultureWatch, May 2009

The Gift of a Bride and The Indian Bride are murder mysteries, while Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth is a set of short stories. The books are united by a shared concern for the demands, rewards, and complications of marriage and immigration, particularly on the part of individuals who once called India “home.”
Veterans Remember

Veterans in-depth interviews examining the narrators’ early years as well as thoroughly address their military experiences in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and War on Terrorism from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Oral History program
Sailing, Part Two

John Malone writes: While we were out in the back yard cleaning up the debris from the tornado, I discovered our old Thistle resting against the back wall of the house. Papa and Mama had given up sailing, and nobody else wanted the boat, which had deteri…
PBGC’s Financial Condition and New Challenges

PBGC Testimony: “At the end of FY 2008, there was substantial reasonably possible exposure in plans of companies in airlines, autos, and steel, among other sectors. Subsequently, declines in the stock market have reduced the value of assets held by DB plans and have caused the unfunded liabilities of most DB pension plans to increase…
Wishing for ‘A Modest Proposal’

Joan L. Cannon writes, “There seems to be no excuse for the callousness of [Namibia] for the exploitation of conspicuous consumption. I thought of Swift’s ability to flay human folly and wished I could convey in the way he would have the combination of fury and incredulity that assailed me.”
San Francisco Center for the Book Exhibits

Exhibits at the SFCB — Once Upon A Book: Author/illustrators reveal their creative processes; Show Me a Story includes an essay excerpt from Maribeth Back’s essay, Encoding Enchantment: Engineering the Materials of Story
Jo Freeman Reviews Red, Blue, and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics

Jo Freeman reviews Red, Blue, and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics — The authors offer numerous insights into voting trends, a few surprises, and much food for thought. If you want to know why the 2008 election was not an aberration, read this book.
All in the Family: Five Producers of Good-Value Italian Wines

Sharon Kapnick writes: Other than family management, ingredients that go into these wines are passion, dedication, creativity, research, innovation, state-of-the-art technology, tradition and decades — even centuries! — of experience
What Is a Book Club?

Joan L. Cannon writes: I thought a book club would bear some resemblance to an English class, presumably without grades or written reports. Everyone would read the same book, and then the meeting would take place with everyone discussing the chosen volum…
It’s a Gray Area, Part One

Roberta McReynolds writes: I was hoping for something more exotic sounding than Clairol #18 — Pecan. I never came up with anything called #1 — Foxy Brunet, #10 — Helen of Troy Umber, or even Frosted Chocolate Malt Fantasy. Oh, wait a minute … that last…