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…
Madoff on Frontline

PBS’FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith unearths the details of the world’s first global Ponzi scheme — a deception that lasted longer, reached wider and cut deeper than any other business scandal in history — in The Madoff Affair, airing on PBS.
Summer Camp at the Grandparents

We’ve encountered an era demanding our talents as grandparents-who-entertain. A grandson is spending his after-kindergarten hours with us on a daily basis, at least for a while. Two granddaughters have been with us on a twice-week basis for eight years.…
iPod — Do You?

Rose Mula writes: iPod — Do You? My tiny pink marvel can hold hundreds of songs, so I’ll be able to add many more oldies but goodies. If it’s true that exercising your brain cells can stave off Alzheimer’s, my grandniece’s gift has made me immune. So tha…
The Rules of Love (Supposedly Brought from King Arthur’s Court)

Andreas Capellanus (late 12th cent.); Treatise on Courtly Love 1. Marriage is no excuse for not loving. 2. He who is not jealous can not love. 3. No one can be bound by two loves. 4. Love is always growing or diminishing. 5. It is not g…
As I Look Back

John Malone writes, “Is this perhaps just a case of the criminal returning to scene of the crime? Or am I searching for answers about the real meaning of my life — the good, the bad and the ugly?”
Branded

Julia Sneden writes, “Sports venues used to be named after people of achievement, if they weren’t named for the teams that used them. Nowadays, despite the fact that most venues are built at least in part by taxpayer dollars, “naming rights” are sold for large amounts of money.”
One Beat Behind

Adrienne Cannon writes, “9:30 AM. Saturday morning. Jazzercise class. The beat revves up as does the complexity of the moves. Uh-oh … that old feeling has come back. Was it really three years ago that I began to lament my position of ‘last in line?'”
Happiness, A Commodity?

Recently, a conference was held in San Francisco on the subject of happiness: Happiness and Its Causes.
A Curmudgeon’s Complaint

Joan L. Cannon writes, “If only we had Mark Twain or Voltaire to make the campaign speeches, Aristotle or Kant to force us to entertain enough thought to allow some expansion of minds. Farewell Harold Ross. You’re missed.”
Frosted Cakes: Seven-Minute Frosting, 1234 Cake, Pound Cake Torte and Carrot Cake

Margaret Cullison writes, “I suffered from cake envy after attending a friend’s birthday party. Her cake that year looked like a lamb with white frosting and coconut curled fur. The cake completely enchanted me.”