Senior Women Web

  • 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…

  • Why Census Demographics and Commedia dell’Arte Masks Are Sexy

    Two from Scout Project: Use “Explore the Map” to create a customized map displaying a wealth of data from recent Census surveys including counties with most beauty shops, auto repair and residential construction. Born amidst the cultural backdrop of the Italian Renaissance, Commedia dell’Arte is an art form that continues to inspire theatrical groups around…

  • Gender and Body Image: Women 50 and Over Revealed What They Think and Feel

    36% of the women reported spending at least half their time in the last five years dieting, 41% checked their body daily and 40% weighed themselves a couple of times a week or more. 62% claimed that their weight or shape negatively impacted their life, 79% said that it affected their self-perception and 64% said…

  • Dappled Willow Hedge

    Ferida Wolff writes: “In browsing the nurseries last year, we came upon the Dappled Willow and immediately fell in love. The white foliage with pinkish tips had an exuberant appeal. These willows are still young but, like toddlers, they already show their potential. They will fill out and grow and, I imagine, charm us as…

  • The Rise of Asian Americans: More Satisfied With Their Lives, Finances and the Direction of the Country

    Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the US, passing Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants. They place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to Pew Research.

  • Codebreaker: Celebrating lan Turing’s Life and Legacy On the 100th Anniversary of His Birth

    Turing designed the ‘bombes’ to attempt to deal with the proliferation of enemy messages and therefore pinpoint the location of German U-Boat submarines. Eventually, over 200 were built, each weighing a ton and operating constantly at Bletchley Park and other secret sites in the UK. The exhibition also includes a working aid used to break…

  • London Revisited: “Ageing is optional here”

    Jane Shortall writes about London: “Nattily dressed and high heeled women, some looking marvellously Botoxxed, came out of the restaurant, chatting loudly and gathered at a table in the alfresco dining area. They carried small glasses of chilled white wine, lit up cigarettes with pricey lighters and blew smoke in the air, tossing their expensive…

  • Surviving Cancer: US Numbers Are Estimated at Nearly 18 Million by 2022

    Abstract Although there has been considerable progress in reducing cancer incidence in the United States, the number of cancer survivors continues to increase due to the aging and growth of the population and improvements in survival rates. As a re…

  • The New ‘Dallas’: Sex, Scandal and U.S. Energy Policy!

    Did the fracking debate dredge up ‘Dallas’ – the redux – or was this soap opera’s resurgence just another convenient mirror in which to reflect how central the nation’s debate over energy has now become in our culture?

  • CultureWatch Review: The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker

    Jill Norgren writes: Tell-all autobiography has the ability to be “satisfyingly scandalous,” with remembrances of friends, colleagues, and lovers “somewhere between mash note and carpet-bombing.” In her years with The New Yorker, she went, she saw, she conquered…and was conquered.

  • Elaine Soloway’s Caregiving Series: Unpacking

    Elaine Soloway writes: My suitcase lies open and empty on the bed in our spare bedroom. Clothing, all black, to make wardrobe accessories easier, are in small stacks surrounding the bag. But, the three-times-a-year family destination timetable, and my husband’s voiced responses to any trips, dissolved after his condition worsened. Today, Tommy can barely get…