Sightings

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…
A Subject for the Next Debate? A New CBO Report on Social Security’s Funding Gap

In calendar year 2010, for the first time since the enactment of the Social Security Amendments of 1983, spending for the program exceeded its dedicated tax revenues. In 2011, spending exceeded dedicated tax revenues by 4 percent, and that gap is growing. CBO projects that over the next decade, spending will exceed dedicated tax revenues,…
Dietary Supplements: Claims Fail To Meet Federal Requirements

Manufacturers must have competent and reliable scientific evidence to show that [Dietary Supplement} claims are truthful and not misleading, but they do not have to submit the substantiation to FDA, and FDA has only voluntary standards for it… a product label must include that the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent…
If You Think You’d Miss Big Bird, How About Downton Abbey, Mystery!, Antiques Roadshow and The Nutcracker? NPR? PRI?

It’s easy enough to identify the Public Broadcasting Company as an elimination for government funding, but those monies represent 15% of their entire funding, enough to cripple the organization’s ability to not only produce new award-winning programs but to purchase others from producers and networks here and abroad.
The Debates: Are the Candidates ‘Artfully Dodging”?

Artful Dodgers: Responding But Not Answering Often Undetected Seeing questions can help voters detect dodges and be better informed, new study says WASHINGTON—How can some people respond to a question without answering the question, yet satisfy th…
First Stroke: Gender, Health Ambiguity and Depression

The level to which survivors are uncertain about the outcome of their illness is strongly linked to depression. The relationship is more pronounced for men than for women. “Male stroke survivors in the US who subscribe to traditional health-related beliefs may be accustomed to, and value highly, being in control of their health.
Toys at Our House: Shopping for Visiting Children

We keep lots of toys for grandchildren, things that can be picked up and played with quickly, hopefully to desired conclusions. Some are absolutely classic, some new, but all engage fingers and eyes, puzzles to intrigue and keep a child or an adult absorbed. Here are some to be considered for the holidays.
Transfigured by the Magic of Light and Shade: Impressionism and Fashion

The Paris exhibition, a display of around fifty dresses and accessories, including ten hats, presents an overview of women’s fashion at the time of the Impressionists, a fashion that was mainly characterized by the gradual abandonment of the crinoline in favour of the bustle.
Sequestration: “A self-inflicted wound” to a struggling economy

Jake Grovum of Stateline writes: “Ham-handed cuts” nobody thought would actually happen. “The big, dumb spending cuts that no one wants,” – descriptions given to the looming federal budget reductions that are scheduled to take effect Jan. 2, 2013, unless Congress stops them. If they are enacted, more than $1.2 trillion would be cut from…
Loss

Adrienne G. Cannon writes: I continue to envision him here, near me in his chair, in his place in our bed. I look for a sign in some lucky breaks I have gotten — convenient parking spots, a good hotel room. But the smile that comes to my lips when I think of these happenstance…
Bumble Bee Adventures: A Pollinator’s Destination Routes Tracked

Bumblebees are remarkable navigators. While their flight paths may look scattered to the casual eye, all that buzzing about is anything but random. Like the travelling salesman in the famous mathematical problem of how to take the shortest path along multiple stops, bumblebees quickly find efficient routes among flowers. And once they find a good…