Sightings
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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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Wednesday and Friday; Website: https://intelligence.house.gov/; First Open Hearings of the Impeachment Inquiry Into President Donald J. Trump
Did the President request that a foreign leader and government initiate investigations to benefit the President’s personal political interests in the United States, including an investigation related to the President’s political rival and potential opponent in the 2020 US presidential election? Did the President – directly or through agents – seek to use the power…
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The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea: The US Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975; Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee Awarded a Navy Cross and Destroyer Named in Her Honor
On October 9, 2019, the gallery of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum opened to the public. Many who have visited before will recognize the familiar displays depicting the Revolutionary War through the Civil War. Everything else has changed. The immersive exhibit touches on the Navy’s role during the Vietnam War, incorporating new artifacts along with…
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Updated Again: Deputy Assistant Secy of Defense Laura Cooper’s, Croft and Anderson’s Transcripts Released: President Trump Directed Freeze on Millions of Military Aid for Ukraine
Pursuant to this resolution, and consistent with the Committee’s rules and longstanding bipartisan practice, the Committee has begun preparing transcripts from the impeachment inquiry for public release, which includes a thorough, nonpartisan security review to protect classified and other sensitive information. As part of this process, the Committee is redacting (1) personally identifiable information; (2)…
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Michael Bloomberg’s Annual Philanthropy Letter, 2019; Reconsiders Running For President in 2020
One of our board members, Walter Isaacson, recently published a biography of Leonardo da Vinci. A half a millennium ago, da Vinci wrote: “I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” Da Vinci was an artist, engineer, mathematician, inventor,…
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Transcripts Will Be Released on a Rolling Basis: Today It Is From Ambassador William Taylor, Chargé d’Affaires Ad Interim For US Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine
“Ambassador Taylor’s testimony lays bare how this shadow foreign policy channel pursued by the President’s agent, Rudy Giuliani, with the assistance of Ambassadors Sondland and Volker, placed immense pressure on the Ukrainian government to accomplish the President’s goal. Ambassador Taylor makes clear why this military aid and continued bipartisan support for Ukraine are so critically…
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Updated: House Committees Release Testimony of Sondland and Volker in Addition to Yovanovitch and McKinley As Part of New Public Phase of Impeachment Inquiry
Today, Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Eliot L. Engel, the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, the Acting Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, released the transcripts of former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch and former Senior…
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Artist in Exile, The Visual Diary of Baroness Hyde de Neuville: In 1818, she stated that she had but one wish “and that was to see an American lady elected president”
Highlights of the exhibition include Neuville’s views of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, street scenes of her neighborhood (now known as Tribeca), a watercolor documenting an “Indian War Dance” performed for President Monroe, and portraits of subjects ranging from Indigenous Americans to immigrant students at a Manhattan school founded by the Neuvilles. The exhibition opens…
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A London Journey Through the World of Codebreaking, Ciphers and Secret Communications
Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cyber Security reveals the rich personal and technological stories that have underpinned secret communications over the course of a century. The exhibition features over 100 objects including never-before-seen historical technology, hand-written documents and declassified files from the collections of GCHQ and the Science Museum Group. Visitors can hear from the…
