Money 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…
How Did Labor Do in the 2010 Election?

“Labor 2010 member-to-member mobilization included 30 million phone calls, 20 million pieces of mail and 5.1 million knocks on union family doors.” The percent of union households voting Democratic has held up as well as it has because of the growth of public sector unions such as AFSCME and SEIU
Wimbush’s Luck

Wimbush reports to Dunkirk where the squadron is being re-equipped with new Sopwith Triplanes. Seven of their comrades have been killed, wounded or captured by German pilots flying vastly superior Albatros D III’s. On February 15th they proceed to the aerodrome at Furnes in West Flanders, ready to go back to war
The Gifted Victoria and Albert Museum’s Holiday Shopping

For example, Ed Kluz is fascinated by the objects of English cultural heritage. He seeks out the eccentric, the lost and the overlooked, vanished buildings, follies, curiosities, tales and uses them as starting points for vibrant artworks which explore themes of renewal and reinvention.
Are Older Women Being Used to Make a TSA Counter-Profiling Statement? Letter of Concern from UCSF Professors About Back-Scatter X-Rays

“We are writing to call your attention to serious concerns about the potential health risks of the recently adopted whole body backscatter X-ray airport security scanners.” … “The large population of older travelers, 65 years of age, is particularly at risk from the mutagenic effects of the X-rays based on the known biology of melanocyte…
CultureWatch, November Edition

Although Addams hoped for independence and a medical school education, graduation from Rockford sent her into the waters of duty, tragedy, and a nervous breakdown. In compelling narrative Knight spells out these events. More critically, she places Jane’s illness in the context 1880s medical and moral thinking including Jane’s belief “that she lacked the goodness…
The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families

Fully 86% say a single parent and child constitute a family; nearly as many (80%) say an unmarried couple living together with a child is a family; and 63% say a gay or lesbian couple raising a child is a family. Marriage matters, too. If a childless couple is married, 88% consider them to be…
Can That Stranger With the Suitcase Be Me?

My pre-vacation resolutions to eat sensibly invariably dissolve at my first sight of a palm tree stirring in balmy breezes, or the bright lights of Picadilly, or the sound of the gurgling waters of the Trevi Fountain, or the melodious tinkle of a Swiss cow bell. I usually lose my first skirmish in another battle…
An Artist Produces a Unique Project

Hannah Haworth produced a unique project entitled ‘The Hunt’ for a Degree Show at the Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland … “as I continue to learn more about our early relationships with the landscape, the more my work focusses on craft, ritual and our connections with other species”
I Took a Risk and Revealed My Age

Everytime I read of an elderly woman (60!) who (amazingly) fended off a purse snatcher or competed in a marathon, my stomach turns. I wanted to let journalists know that women over 70 could start, re-start, and succeed (fingers crossed) in entrepreneurial pursuits.
NEJM, Final Diagnosis: Wrong-site surgery and wrong procedure (carpal-tunnel release instead of trigger-finger release)

“Although I was able to help put her at ease, the encounter was very emotional, producing in me both the cognitive and physiological aspects of anxiety, as well as a resolve to do everything possible to prevent such an unpleasant experience for future patients … I recall privately counseling myself that the next operation would…