Grandparenting

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…
Elaine Soloway’s Caregiving Series: All For One, One For All

This is the day of the week I cede responsibility for Tommy to the group I call the Three Musketeers. I fancy Barry, Hal, and Marshall as characters from the Dumas novel because the way they care for my husband; while my love for the Musketeers could be considered self-serving because they give me a…
How the Maker of TurboTax Fought Free, Simple Tax Filing

Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You’d open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone. It’s already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using…
States’ Attorneys Generals Split Ahead of Gay Marriage Arguments; Audio from SCOTUS

Wednesday the Supreme Court Justices heard challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. On Tuesday, the court considered California’s Proposition 8. On this question the justices could rule broadly or narrowly: The court could reaffirm a lower court decision striking down the ban, a decision that would legalize same-sex marriages only in California. Or…
“A Sport for Every Girl”: Women and Sports at The Metropolitan

Val Castronovo writes:“The sporting girls” category of cards that are the main focus of this show was distinct from the more popular female series of the time, such as those depicting actresses and beautiful, alluring women, and bearing names such as Parasol Drills and The World’s Beauties. Nonetheless, sportif females were a “viable, even lucrative…
Crossroads … Or Not?

Joan L. Cannon writes: I see woods all around, with an unpaved road that forks in a Y. For no reason, it’s always twilight. A traveler can choose to return, or to take one branch of the Y: three choices. No metaphor presents itself — except for the Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken”,…
Trying to Calculate How Long a Person Might Live: A Check List for Seniors’ 10-Year Survivability

Calculating medical risk can be an inexact science, especially for older adults, with many factors from the environment to chronic diseases helping determine how long a person lives. A UC San Francisco team has developed a tool that can help determine – and perhaps influence – senior citizens’ 10-year survivability rates.
The Science of Clouds — Why They Matter, and Why There May be Fewer of Them

The largest source of uncertainty in today’s climate models are clouds. Clouds can both cool the planet, by acting as a shield against the sun, and warm the planet, by trapping heat. But why do clouds behave the way they do? And how will a warming planet affect the cloud cover? “We don’t understand many…
Serendipity in the Woods: Author Carol Gracie Explores the History and Life of Wildflowers

Kristin Nord writes: Outfitted in parkas and mittens and hats the hearty women scaling the hillsides were soon rewarded. There were meadows of trillium and foamflower, wild ginger, ginseng, and Solomon’s seal. There were Jack-in-the-pulpits, Mayapple, blue cohosh, and five varieties of violets, some 55 natives in all. The naturalist Carol Gracie was at the…
Congressional Bills Introduced: Abortion, Economic Security and Safety of Victims of Dating Violence

Abortion H.R. 1122—-Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)/Education and the Workforce (3/13/13)—A bill to prohibit federal education funding for elementary schools and secondary schools that provide on-campus access to abortion providers. Child Protection…
Diane Girard

Diane Girard is working on the second draft of a novel. Her short stories have appeared in the Ten Stories High anthology series and in Plum Ruby Review. She lives in Kitchener Ontario. Diane can be contacted at dgirard772 (at) sympatico.ca