Tam Gray

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…
Harvard Study: A Prolonged Increase in Death Rate in Puerto Rico Following Hurricane Maria and $90 Billion in Damages and Relocation of Residents

The study estimates a death rate of 14.3 deaths per thousand between September 20 (date of Hurricane Maria) and December 31, 2017, up from a rate of 8.8 deaths per thousand at the same time in 2016. About one-third of the reported deaths in the households surveyed in the study were attributed to delayed or…
Live Hearings on The National Institutes of Health Pain Consortium, Thursday May 31, Friday June 1

The NIH Pain Consortium was established to enhance pain research and promote collaboration among researchers across the many NIH Institutes and Centers that have programs and activities addressing pain. The consortium supports initiatives, development of research resources and tools. This symposium features NIH supported researchers whose work has made an important contribution to pain research.…
Lifelong Pursuits: Musing on the Triple Crown

Joan L. Cannnon wrote: It’s been a while since I have had the unique pleasure of sitting above the common order of humanity, to become a part of the grace and strength of the horse under me. We communicated through my fingers on the reins, the nervous ears in front of my face, and the…
The Growing Outdoor Recreation Economy: Conservation of Public Lands Helps Small Businesses Thrive

A key element of the growing outdoor recreation economy — which accounts for $887 billion in annual consumer spending and supports 7.6 million jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association — are small businesses, especially those that operate in the gateway communities around public lands. Sure, online shopping is convenient, but it’s to a local…
Retraction Watch: A Cancer Researcher Said She Collected Blood From 98 People; It Was All Her Own

A researcher collected her own blood and forged the labels so it would appear to be samples from nearly 100 people, according to a new finding of research misconduct released today by the U.S. Office of Research Integrity (ORI). The former researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center swapped her own blood…
What Are Common Misunderstandings About Net Neutrality?

The change is from regulating internet providers as “public utilities” to regulating them as most other businesses in the economy. We have had a long experience with public utility regulations where companies and municipalities have provided telephone, electricity and water services across the country. Tight regulation is great for such services that do not experience…
California State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones Statement on Trump Rule to Restrict Funds for Women’s Health Services

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In response to reports that the Trump administration is preparing the release of a rule restricting Title X funding for organizations providing vital women’s health services, such as Planned Parenthood, California Insurance Commissi…
A UK Law Requires Companies Employing More Than 250 to Report Their Gender Pay Gap: What Does the US Have?

From 2017, any organisation that has 250 or more employees must publish and report specific figures about their gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed relative to men’s earnings. For example, ‘women earn 15% less than men per hour’. Employers must both: publish…
100 Pairs of Shoes: Walk This Way Exhibition Includes Stories of Conformity, Independence, Culture, Class, Politics and Performance

In the early 1900s, when women made up less than 20 percent of the total industrial workforce, one-third of the workers in shoe factories were women. Women became active in trade unions like the Daughters of St. Crispin, named after the patron saint of shoemakers, and the International Boot & Shoe Workers Union, participating in…
National Institutes of Health: Mediterranean Diet May Slow Development of Alzheimer’s Disease, Recipes by Lisa Mosconi

In a new study, Dr. Lisa Mosconi from Weill Cornell Medicine and her colleagues measured changes in brains over time. They performed baseline brain imaging in 34 people who ate a Mediterranean diet and 36 people who ate a Western diet. The volunteers ranged in age from 30 to 60 and showed no symptoms of…