Rose Mula

  • Joan Fontaine

    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

    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: 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…

  • high heels

    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…

  • Vintage jewelry, Wikimedia Commons

    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…

  • ways to grasp a pencil

    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…

  • Captain Charles E. Yeager

    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…

  • stack of books

    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…

  • Fact Tank: Voters Have Little Confidence Clinton or Trump Would Help Workers Get Skills They Need to Compete

    As the demand for high-skilled workers continues to grow, American voters express relatively little confidence in either major party presidential candidate when it comes to their ability to help American workers prepare to compete in today’s economy. Among the six economic issues tested, 43% of voters say that jobs will be either the most important…

  • Donald or Hillary? Humanizing Them to Voters Through Listening or Viewing

    In the first experiment, 322 participants watched, listened, or read one of six communicators’ opinions about controversial political and social topics — war, abortion, and music — that they either supported or opposed. A second experiment tested whether the same effect held true for communicators’ own written speech. Once again, observers dehumanized communicators with differing…

  • The Bosky Dell: “Mid Beechy Umbrage, Bosky Dell ‘Tis There the Ringdove Loves to Dwell”*

    Julia Sneden wrote: Beyond the life-giving oxygen that they produce, beyond the cooling shade they offer on a hot summer’s day, beyond the protection they offer to birds and squirrels and other creatures, trees are just good for the soul. When I was a child, I was best friends with a California live oak tree.…

  • Stolen, Chopped Up and Stripped of Parts; Cities Breathe New Life into Abandoned Bikes

    Ever wonder what happens to all those battered bicycles chained to street poles or abandoned on bike racks, with rusting pedals, bent frames and missing tires or handlebars? In Denver, they’re sold at auction. In New York City, they’re sent to a scrap recycling center. And in Chicago, they’re handed off to a nonprofit that…

  • Eliminating the Statute of Limitations for Rape and Related Crimes in California

    SB 813 will ensure justice for victims and survivors of felony sexual offenses by allowing the indefinite criminal prosecution of rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation, and sexual penetration. Existing California law presently generally limits the prosecution of a felony sexual offense to only 10 years after…

  • From the CDC: Flu Vaccines Have Been Updated This Season to Better Match Circulating Viruses

    What viruses do 2016-2017 flu vaccines protect against? There are many flu viruses and they are constantly changing. The composition of U.S. flu vaccines is reviewed annually and updated to match circulating flu viruses. Flu vaccines protect against the three or four viruses that research suggests will be most common. For 2016-2017, three-component vaccines are…

  • Elaine Soloway’s Rookie Widow Series: Pick-Up Lines; All Dressed Up And … Playing the Field

    There may be dates involved; evenings that include uncomfortable high heels (me), dreaded auditions and boring biographies (both) — all while my mind is zeroing in on his comb-over, toupee, paunch, age spots, or other blots. (He is likely doing the same when it is my turn to drone. How can she be so short?…

  • Voter Registration Deadlines for the General Election by State; Which State Doesn’t Require Registration?

    Find your state’s voter registration deadlines for the Federal General Election — to be held on November 8 this year — below. This page provides a summary of information taken from state election office websites. This information can change. For the most complete and up-to-date information, contact your state election office. Select your state name…

  • A Place for Healing and Reconciliation: National Museum Of African American History And Culture

    The museum features a series of openings — ‘lenses’ — throughout the exhibition spaces that frame views of the Washington Monument, the White House and other Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. These framed perspectives remind visitors that the museum presents a view of American through the lens of the African American experience. “Save Our…

  • We Celebrate Smithsonian Craft to Wear

    Art meets fashion October 6th through 8th, 2016, when 80 master designers come to Washington DC’s National Building Museum for a Craft2Wear show and sale of hand-crafted wearable arts. Returning artists — all previously juried into the Smithsonian Craft Show — are joined by a group of first-in-show designers recommended by California College of the…