Julia Sneden

Articles by Julia Sneden

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…
The Federal Reserve Raises Federal Funds Rate For the First Time in Nine Years

“The Federal Open Market Committee judges that there has been considerable improvement in labor market conditions this year, and it is reasonably confident that inflation will rise, over the medium term, to its 2 percent objective. Given the economic outlook, and recognizing the time it takes for policy actions to affect future economic outcomes, the…
Everything’s Just Peachy: Salvaging An Infuriating Day

Roberta McReynolds writes: I took my husband to a doctor’s appointment only to discover they had no record of it. His appointment card was at home, so I couldn’t convince the receptionist that we were supposed to be there. She initiated a long, pointless dialogue about the dates of Mike’s previous visits. We were just…
My World Interrupted: It Is More Than a Loss of Place, It Is a Loss of Identity

“Over the past 35 years, we’ve lost 2,500 to 3,000 feet of land to coastal erosion. To put this in perspective: I was born in 1997, and since then, Shishmaref has lost about 100 feet. In the past 15 years, we had to move 13 houses — including my dear grandma Edna’s house — from…
Seeing Nature In Landscape Masterworks and the Artists’ Collaboration, Fallen Fruit

Masterpieces spanning nearly four hundred years from Jan Brueghel the Younger’s series devoted to the five senses to Canaletto’s celebrated views of Venice; landscapes by innovators ranging from Joseph Mallord William Turner, Paul Cézanne, and Gustav Klimt to David Hockney and Gerhard Richter. Paintings by Thomas Moran, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe, and others provide…
The Political Impact of Terrorism

Stanford sociologist Robb Willer says terrorism generally serves to sharpen national boundaries and increase nationalist spirit. However, scholars are largely in uncharted territory in regard to how terrorism will affect the 2016 presidential campaign, as prior research has focused primarily on incumbent officeholders.
Culture Watch Review By Joan L. Cannon: The Social Sex, A History of Female Friendship

This book reminds us how far we have come when there are more highly educated women everywhere than at any other time in history. Still unresolved is the question of friendships between women and men. The difficulty of engaging in this fashion is emphasized by the need repeatedly to declare to doubters that sex is…
Stretchable Hydrogel Electronics Water-based ‘Band-Aid’ Senses Temperature, Lights Up, and Delivers Medicine to the Skin

Hyunwoo Yuk says an immediate application of the technology may be as a stretchable, on-demand treatment for burns or other skin conditions. “The unique capability here is, when a sensor senses something different, like an abnormal increase in temperature, the device can on demand release drugs to that specific location and select a specific drug…
The Great N.C. Wyeth Caper: “Go, Dutton, and That Right Speedily”

The exhibition, The Great N.C. Wyeth Caper: Paintings by America’s Storyteller, features six artworks that were the focus of the state’s largest art heist and an 18-month criminal investigation. After the paintings were taken from a private collector’s home in Portland, Maine, four were removed from their frames and endured a perilous cross-country journey to…
Bills Introduced and Defeated: Denying Firearms, Child Protection, Women’s Health Care, Eating Disorders, Family and Medical Leave

According to information prepared by the Government Accountability Office, individuals on the consolidated terrorist watch list, which includes the no-fly list, cleared a background check for a gun transaction in 94 percent of attempted transactions in 2013 and 2014 (455 out of 486 times). Between February 2004 and December 2014, individuals on the consolidated terrorist…
Holiday Gifts: Books for Childen & Young Adults; Pellerin Vintage Models, Pajamas, Cufflinks and Socks, Soulcycle Certificate, Pour-over Coffee Stand, Petanque Set

Jill Norgren writes: For young adults, Ali Benjamin’s The Thing about Jelly Fish; and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming. For folks of all ages, Betty Caroli’s Lady Bird and Lyndon: The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President. My teen granddaughters have asked for a gift certificate to a few sessions of jazzed…