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…
President Obama Meets Civil Rights Icon Ruby Bridges

In 1963 Rockwell confronted the issue of prejudice head-on with this, one of his most powerful paintings. Inspired by the story of Ruby Bridges and school integration, the image featured a young African-American girl being escorted to school by four U.S. marshals amidst signs of protest and fearful ignorance When Ruby Bridges visited the Oval Office…
The Ups and Downs of Matchlessness

My grandmother’s tall, glass-fronted bookcase swayed out from the wall. Its doors flew open, spewing books onto the floor. She quickly jumped into a doorway. She shut her eyes, waiting for the crash, but another swift jolt caused the bookcase to jerk back against the wall with a bang, and that was it. The quake…
The “most notorious liar in the country” Gets a Memorial on the Mall

15 months after Dr. King’s famous speech at the 1963 march and rally, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover told a group of women reporters that King was “the most notorious liar in the country.” This came in reaction to newspaper reports of a mild criticism by King of the FBI’s handling of civil rights complaints…
Week of Activities Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.in DC; Updated Plans

A week of celebration of Martin Luther King’s legacy began on August 22 with a press preview of the memorial to Dr. King on a four-acre site on the National Mall. It will end on August 28, the 48th anniversary of the famous March on Washington, when President Obama dedicates a memorial to the life…
Every Little Thing

Women who lost husbands years ago tell me that their memory, in time, becomes only a shadow. They recall them fondly … maybe too fondly. But that is how it should be — for the living and the dead
Five Ways Students Will Feel Budget Cuts

school leaders at both the K-12 level as well as at public colleges and universities are unable to shield students from feeling the impact of budget cuts in the classrooms and in their daily lives.
Two Exhibits: Maya Zack and The Living Room; Collecting Matisse and Modern Masters by The Cone Sisters of Baltimore

Two exhibits at NYC’s Jewish Museum: A family’s apartment in 1930s Berlin as inspiration for a room-sized work, using 3D technology and sound to explore the past and how it is remembered; Baltimore’s Cone Sisters were among the earliest collectors to bring European modern art to the United States several years before the famed New…
Women and Communities of Color Could Suffer from the Super Committee 12’s Lack of Diversity

Women and communities of color are both populations that rely disproportionately on safety net programs, but women of color constitute the most vulnerable population that relies on these services in this economic climate. This group currently lacks even a single representative member on the committee. Nearly 7 in 10 elderly adults and nearly 8 in…
Are You Considering Retirement? Just What Is The Average Retirement Age?

Will the retirement age continue to increase? The fact that all the incentives associated with the recent reversal will remain in place argues for “yes.” But there are risks – the move away from career employment, the availability of Social Security at 62, and employer resistance to part-time employment.
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Aprons have disappeared, along with the once-ubiquitous cotton housedress. Jeans are now the uniform of the day for everyone, regardless of gender, age or girth — or activity, for that matter — from cleaning out the garage to sipping Cosmos at the Ritz, whatevcr a Cosmo is. Mom would have no idea.