John Malone

  • Joan Fontaine

    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

    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: 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…

  • high heels

    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…

  • Vintage jewelry, Wikimedia Commons

    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…

  • ways to grasp a pencil

    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…

  • Captain Charles E. Yeager

    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…

  • stack of books

    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…

  • Elaine Soloway’s Rookie Widow Series: To Be Adored; Holiday Parties and Offended2013

    “Why in the world would you want another man in your life right now (or ever)?” Why have I asked my paired-up friends to keep me in mind if they knowWhy indeed did I — now happily independent in my new downtown digs — sign up for JDate in the first place? And, why have…

  • The California Fair Pay Act: Closing the Wage Gap for Women

    The California Fair Pay Act will strengthen the state’s existing equal pay laws by eliminating loopholes that prevent effective enforcement and by empowering employees to discuss their pay without fear of retaliation.The Act will strengthen the state’s existing equal pay laws by eliminating loopholes that prevent effective enforcement and by empowering employees to discuss their…

  • Home Fires, A New Masterpiece Theater Series Based on Britain’s Women’s Institute

    The series is largely based on Julie Summers book Jambusters, which details Britain’s Women’s Institute’s contribution to wartime food production, education, and social issues. Though World War II was a time of rations and sacrifices, there are still plenty of fashion moments in Home Fires. Actress Francesca Annis was especially struck by the original, period…

  • Culture Watch: A Review of a John Fowles Classic, Daniel Martin

    The story line covers about forty years in the life of an Englishman who has become first a playwright, then a film scriptwriter making comparisons between being English and being anything else, but most often, with being American. He declares his chagrin at the formalities and frozen traditions of English formal education and the class…

  • Pension Advance Transactions: Questionable Business Practices and the Federal Response

    GAO identified at least 38 companies that offered individuals lump-sum payments or “advances” in exchange for receiving part or all of their pension payment streams. The 38 companies used multistep pension advance processes that included various other parties. At least 21 of the 38 companies were affiliated with each other in ways that were not…

  • Medicare Fraud Reports From the Office of Inspector General and Recent State Enforcement Actions

    One case: New York State Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced [in August] that his office has secured settlement agreements with five defendants in a False Claims Act case that will return more than $8 million to the Medicaid and Medicare programs. The agreements resolve claims that SpecialCare Hospital Management Corporation defrauded Medicaid and Medicare…

  • States Attack the Pay Gap Between Women and Men; Latinas Earn 54% of What White Men Earn.

    over a casual lunch three years ago, her colleagues shared their salaries. Rizo, 41, the only full-time woman in her office, was startled to discover that some of her male co-workers — including a new hire with less experience and education — were being paid at least $10,000 more than she was. Rizo sued the…

  • How Great to See You! You Look Marvelous! And Other High School Reunion Tales

    Rose Madeline Mula writes: I’m depressed. I just got back from the first high school reunion I ever attended. I refuse to say which one. Not which high school-which year. I don’t want anyone to know. I won’t even admit it to myself. What I will tell you is that none of my classmates showed…

  • Masterpiece Theater’s New Saga, Indian Summers: The Imperial Game Was Up

    Set against the grandeur of the Himalayas and tea plantations of Northern India, the drama tells the story of the decline of the British Empire and the birth of modern India, from both sides of the experience. But at the heart of the story lie the implications and ramifications of the web of passions, rivalries…

  • British Museum’s Celtic Exhibit: A 700 AD Brooch of Silver, Gold and Amber Belonging to ‘Melbrigda’

    The British Museum, in partnership with National Museums Scotland, has staged the first British exhibition in 40 years on the Celts. The exhibition tells the story of the different peoples who have used or been given the name ‘Celts’ through the art objects that they made, including intricately decorated jewelery, highly stylized objects of religious…