Liz Flaherty

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 News Industry In the Digital Realm Is No Longer In Control of Its Own Future”

Nearly half of all Americans (47%) now get some form of local news on a mobile device; Fully 46% of people now say they get news online at least three times a week, surpassing newspapers (40%) for the first time. Only local TV news is a more popular platform in America now (50%).
States Advance Abortion Legislation and An Analysis of the Politics At Work

“A second Kansas bill to require consent of both parents for minors to get an abortion and to require doctors to provide the state with more detailed records for abortions also is headed to the governor”
Health For Sale: Ars Medica and Cheret’s Lithographs Explore Medical Posters From 1846 to Present

Bright colors and punchy slogans captured the public’s attention, using humor, satire and caricature to sell products, promote pharmacies, or to warn against social evils including alcoholism, marijuana and venereal disease.
Upstairs Downstairs Revisited: Dame Eileen Atkins and Jean Marsh Comment on the New Series

A new set of occupants will reside at the iconic address of 165 Eaton Place, London and viewers will see how external and internal influences of the tumultuous pre-war period shape and mould the lives of this wealthy family and their servants.‬
A Connoisseur Reviews and Critiques White House Protests

Expressing yourself is all well and good, but it’s secondary. Far too many demonstrators let “expression” obscure “message.” The message is conveyed with signs, flyers, and photogenic props. Chants can reach a listening audience, but speeches are rarely heard by anyone not part of the demonstration
Lemme Just Say, “Thanks, Geraldine Ferraro!”

When I heard of Geraldine Ferraro’s death, I remembered her generosity when I asked her if she would write the foreword for a book I wrote that chronicles the lives and communication styles of five women who ran for president. She always said that politics is not a spectator sport.
Engineering and Couture: Fashioning Apollo

When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon July, 1969, they wore spacesuits made by Playtex: twenty-one layers of fabric, each with a distinct yet interrelated function, custom-sewn for them by seamstresses, whose usual work was fashioning bras and girdles
Age Differences In Job Displacement, Job Search, and Reemployment

• Older displaced women who become reemployed also suffer sizeable wage losses, but the differences between older and younger workers are not as dramatic as for men.
Notting Hill Decorative Hardware

Even though we didn’t build a Storybook cottage, we do find Notting Hill Decorative Hardware very appealing. Their bronze and pewter line of highly-decorative classic motifs is quite jewelry-like
DeYoung Style: Balenciaga and Spain

Declared “Fashion’s Picasso,” Balenciaga drew inspiration from the color palette of Goya, Velázquez’s courtiers and royalty, the draped fabric in El Greco’s and Zurbarán’s images of saints, as well as the vestments of Spanish nuns and priests