Senior Women Web

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…
Keep Those Paws Off My Pajamas

Diane Girard writes:There are pajamas I will not wear. I no longer buy the ones with critters on them. I have tried — but the animals disturbed me. I do not want to wear pink frilly nightwear either because then I feel silly, as if I’m stuck in a time warp at a pajama party.
More Than Meets the Eye: Piercings, Tattoos, Comb-Overs, Droopy Pants

Liz Flaherty writes, "There are a host of things I don’t mind. Skimpy tops with body parts hanging out — although I must confess to jealousy here; I’d give my earring collection to have the kind of body that looks good in those tops."
CultureWatch

In this issue: The Private Patient by Baroness P.D. James holds our interest by the discovery of not just the who-dun-it, but the complex motives behind the actions. Anyone who loves dogs and brilliant descriptive writing will find Sawtelle rewarding. Wa…
CultureWatch, February 2009

The Private Patient by Baroness P.D. James holds our interest by the discovery of not just the who-dun-it, but the complex motives behind the actions. Anyone who loves dogs and brilliant descriptive writing will find Sawtelle rewarding. Wallace Stegne…
Financial Stability Plan

Treasury Secy. Timothy Geithner released a statement concerning the basic form of the Financial Stability Plan. Aside from that brief outline, he announced a new website called FinancialStability.gov, which holds a fact sheet with more details. The co…
Amha Goes to the Inauguration

John Malone writes: Born in a remote Ethiopian village, Amha had been sold by his father to a traveling trader, survived in the mean streets of Addis Ababa and now stood with his adopted father witnessing a historic event on the Mall.
Inaugural Journal, Tuesday: Touring the Outskirts

Jo Freeman writes, “Eight groups had been given NPS permits for ‘first amendment activity’ on January 20. I paused at a media check-in to shed a tear for the seat on the press riser that I didn’t get and went on my way.”
Inaugural Journal, Waiting to Party

Jo Freeman writes, ” I did have my Obama moment. It was late at night on a dark DC street, but I didn’t have to wait for hours in the cold, or be crushed by a crowd, or even buy a ticket.”
Inaugural Journal, Monday

Jo Freeman writes, “Monday was Martin Luther King Day; It was a good day to protest, even if there wasn’t anything to protest about: Celebrating ‘The End of an Error,’ the Raging Grannies sang to the crowd and Code Pink did the Can-Can, as in ‘Yes We Can-Can End War, a take-off on ‘Yes We…
Inaugural Journal, Sunday

Jo Freeman writes, “The combination of the first African American elected President followed by Pete Seeger, the 89-year-old folksinger who had been convicted for ‘contempt of Congress’ in the year Obama was born, made one believe that the Sixties had triumphed after all.”