Issues Links

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…
Woman of Note, Interview With Nadine Gordimer: “I don’t think happiness is possible without freedom”

“But you are not only a writer, you are also a human being living among your fellow human beings in your society, in your country. You’re enclosed by the laws of that country. You’re enclosed by the morals and attitudes of the people around you. You have to be in relation to that as well,…
Lady in Red: Perhaps Adjust Your Wardrobe and Alert Chris de Burgh To Re-release His Song

“Recent research suggests that red is an aphrodisiac for men viewing women. Men viewing women on a red background or in red clothing find them more attractive and sexually desirable, intend to spend more money on them, and choose to sit closer to them.” One experiment situation: “Imagine that you (are interested in casual sex…
War, ‘Mutiny’ and Civil Rights: Remembering Port Chicago

Just after 10:18 p.m. on July 17, 1944, UC Berkeley seismographs measured what looked like a 3.4-magnitude earthquake. Far from a routine temblor, though, this was a seismic event of a different kind: a ferocious explosion at the Port Chicago naval base, the worst stateside disaster of World War II. The explosion led to the…
Napkin Rings and Saving Ways

Julia Sneden writes: The fad for matched napkin rings has grown and nowadays even the catalogues feature such sets. They weren’t meant for decor, and they certainly weren’t meant to match. They were simply a means of identification that allowed us to reuse our napkins, usually for a week at a time. In the days…
It’s Not Just Snakes — Other Wild Creatures Inspire Exaggerated Fears, Too: Bats, Spiders, Birds, Fish — Yes, Fish

In the course of greeting thousands of visitors a year, Rangers on National Wildlife Refuges find that natural—world denizens invariably make some people flinch or go EWWW. Whether it’s because today’s visitors tend to live more indoor lives than past generations or watch too many TV survival shows, fears of nature are flourishing — in…
JD Fergusson, the Scottish Colourist, An Artist of Passion and Sensuality

With a career encompassing the birth of modern art in Paris, to revitalizing the arts scene in Glasgow after the outbreak of World War II, Fergusson is the most international and diverse of the Scottish Colourists. The only Colourist to make sculpture, he was also involved with the performing arts through his partner, the dance…
The Hobby Lobby Impact, A Q&A From the Pew Fact Tank; Female Justices Issue Searing Dissent Over New Contraceptive Cases

The US Supreme Court decision allowing for-profit businesses to opt out of the contraceptive mandate in the new health care law has raised questions about what the ruling might mean for businesses, for future challenges to the contraception mandate, and even for the future of church-state law. The Pew Fact Tank posed these questions to…
Is Your State Aging or Becoming Younger? The Census Reveals Two Booms

“We’re seeing the demographic impact of two booms,” Census Bureau Director John Thompson said. “The population in the Great Plains energy boom states is becoming younger and more male as workers move in seeking employment in the oil and gas industry, while the US as a whole continues to age as the youngest of the…
The Great Egret Sanctuary: Sharing An Adventure With Good Friends

Sandra Smith writes: Egrets. Add an R and it becomes regrets. Is it possible to speak of regret, birds, women friends, and youth in the same post? We sat in the shade under the awning with other visitors and took turns using the viewing scopes to spy on courting rituals, egret eggs, and fuzzy babies.…
Senate Subcommittees Holds Hearings on Global Violence Against Women & Campus Sexual Assault

“When universities fail to respond adequately to campus sexual assault, they may be forcing the affected students to attend school in a sexually hostile environment. This environment deprives them of their freedom to go to class without being re-traumatized by a perpetrator sitting a few seats away, walk on campus without being harassed by a…