Joan L. Cannon

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…
Mrs. Delany and her Circle, at the Yale Center for British Art

At the age of seventy-two, Mary Delany, née Mary Granville (1700–1788), a botanical artist, woman of fashion, and commentator on life and society in eighteenth-century England and Ireland, embarked on a series of one thousand botanical collages, or “paper mosaics.” These were the crowning achievement of a life deﬁned by creative accomplishment.
Current Reading, Screen Memories from The New York Times

“Devotion to playthings and playmates, a fascination with bodily fluids and a queasy obsession with sex — these were what defined a movie hero not preoccupied with killing bad guys. Traditional romances and sex farces were supplanted by comedies of arres…
New Recommendations about Pap Tests and Mammography Screenings

Following on the heels of the AHRG’s new guidelines for mammography screening, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynocologists recommend that the first cervical cancer screening be delayed until age 21 as well as a recommendation for less freque…
The New Brown-Baggers

Doris O’Brien: As America increasingly divides along economic lines, the rich have become targets of disdain and envy. Not that they haven’t always been, but now there are rumblings of an egalitarian movement in America to bring the wealthy down several…
Pursuit of the Perfect Purse

Of course it would also be nice if it came with some sort of niche for a small flashlight, because I am forever squinting down into lint-filled depths, looking for little items that have a way of hiding themselves. It would also need to be sturdy, because I have a bad habit of hastily flinging…
Shopping by Culture, Ancient Egypt

“The Ancient Egyptians were highly skilled in the use of herbs and spices for medicines, cooking, cosmetics, perfumes and many other purposes. Drawing on texts written by the Egyptians and their neighbours, and on works by classical authors and the Copts, Lise Manniche has reconstructed an herbal of 94 species of plants and trees used…
The O’Keeffe show at the Whitney is the first to study, and celebrate, her abstract works

Nearly a dozen of these sexually charged photo-portraits are on display in a separate room at the Whitney. The walls are brown and echo the sepia tones of the prints, which are soft, and in the case of the nudes, hazy. Much to O’Keeffe’s chagrin, the nudes confirmed the nature of her relationship with Stieglitz…
Wordsmiths: By a Teen’s Pen

“ADULTS DON’T UNDERSTAND THE LOVE WE HAVE FOR ONE ANOTHER THEY THINK WHAT WE HAVE IS JUS’ A FAZE BUT I’M SURE WE’LL STAY TOGTHER STRONGER THAN EVER FOR THE REST OF OUR DAYS.”
Shop for Yourself and Family: Sublet Clothing

The clothes are shapely, well-styled, very feminine, inexpensive and made in the USA. They’re made from sustainable materials.
Shop at the Museum Stores: Brooklyn’s Museum of Art, Washington’s National Building Museum and Cleveland’s Museum of Art

We’ve found that our grandson is intrigued with art cubes and the Museum has one with six images from the exhibition Arms and Armor from Imperial Austria as well as another from Impressionist Landscapes.