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…
Just Icing on the Cake, Part One

Roberta McReynolds takes us on another of her adventures: “I allowed the cake to cool and readied myself for the process of turning my cake into two even layers. It seemed that the cake didn’t understand its role. The pieces falling off the sides of the cake as I attempted to side the wire through…
Beyond My Wildest Dreams!

Rose Mula writes, “If I won the lottery, I’d buy a new luxury car or two — every year for the next fifty. Furthermore, I’d look young and beautiful forever because I could afford plastic surgery to erase every wrinkle as it appeared.”
Utterly Unsuitable

The week ahead Holds lots of dread: I have to buy a bathing suit. I’d be a dope To have much hope Of finding fit (don’t mention cute). In fact if my long search is fruitless I may well have to dive in suitless. Julia Sneden writes and rhymes about…
Lost: An Incredible Emporium

Joan Cannon writes, “Wanamaker’s in New York City had beauty, utility and art for art’s sake in a commercial venue. It had an enormous staff, whose livelihoods depended on it for many years. The inventory was huge and so diverse it amazes me to think that they didn’t close the store until the nineteen fifties.”
Obama Inspires Republicans

Jo Freeman writes: African-Americans achieved a visibility at the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee not seen in the memory of anyone there, and perhaps not ever on the national level.
Blending In

Ferida Wolff writes: My husband and I went on vacation to a place both foreign and familiar to me — the Middle East. The foreign aspect was that I had not been in that part of the world before. The familiar part had to do with my paternal family. My…
Gay Republicans Plan Their Future

Jo Freeman writes: Log Cabin Republicans are very dedicated, stalwart Republicans, who refuse to be run out of their party despite a hostile atmosphere. They have occasionally found allies among some of the other outsiders in the party, but not witho…
Summer sun protection is much more than just picking the right sunscreen

Dermatologist Cynthia Bailey writes: As a California dermatologist, I spend most of my time treating people with skin cancer. I teach my patients to enjoy being outdoors and keep their skin safe. Today, sun protection information is complicated by vi…
The Theater of Estate Sales

Jeanne Hubbell Asher writes: "Aspects of the estate sale are rich subjects for high drama, theater of the absurd or sometimes a farce. Perhaps the sales could best be described as improvisational with deeply moving personal sagas tempered with,…
The Bored of Education

Julia Sneden writes: "While it is often left to the populace to vote on bond issues creating new schools, the need for school maintenance and repair seems to me to be every bit as vital. Too often it is shoved aside for other matters, buried so…