Senior Women Web
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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A Challenge to Reproductive Decisions Made by Politicians
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona today sued to challenge an Arizona law banning pre-viability abortions on behalf of two Arizona doctors whose patients include women in need of this essential medical care. “Whether a woman decides to continue with a high-risk pregnancy or terminate it, the important thing is that…
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Realities: Upcoming Tax Changes and the Health Care Reform Act
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act argues for a refresher on some of the bill’s key tax provisions. We’ve included the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit planned to help small businesses and small tax-exempt organizations afford the cost of covering their employees.
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Smart Systems: Don’t Expect to See the ‘Home of the Future’ by 2020
Editor’s Note: We built a new home that has Internet, cable and satellite connections facilitating present and future smart systems. IBM is enabling citizens’ smartphones with apps alert cities to the existence of potholes, graffiti, and water issues by taking photos and sending them to city management, where they can be dealt with. Sensors that…
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In Search of a Job: Criminal Records as Barriers to Employment
Amy L. Solomon relates her testimony: I am writing this letter … out of desperation and to tell you a little about the struggles of re-entering society as a convicted felon.” Thus began a letter that made its way to me at the US Department of Justice. “I have had numerous interviews and sent out…
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Four Months to Go: Campaign Exhausting But Informative.. Important But Dull
While fewer Republicans than Democrats currently say the campaign has been interesting, GOP voters are more engaged than Democratic voters in the 2012 campaign. For instance, more Republicans are giving quite a lot of thought to the election and more say it really matters who wins.
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The Missing Piece: CERN experiments observe particle consistent with long-sought Higgs boson
“Positive identification of the new particle’s characteristics will take considerable time and data. But whatever form the Higgs particle takes, our knowledge of the fundamental structure of matter is about to take a major step forward.”
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Nuanced Sexism: Reflections of a female surgery resident
Arghavan Salles writes, “The next time you sit in a meeting where a man takes credit for a woman’s ideas or a woman does all the work on a project for which a man takes credit, think about what you can do to prevent this from happening to your mother, your sister or your daughter.”
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Veterans’ Benefits, Child Protection For Adoptive Parents and Against Child Pornography
Senator Patty Murray testifies: “Many of these veterans dream of one day starting a family. But with the injuries they’ve sustained on the battlefield that may not be possible without some extra help … My bill will help make real the dream of starting a family by authorizing VA to provide advanced fertility treatment to…
