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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…
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…
High-tech, High-skilled and High-paying Careers: Selling Manufacturing to a New Generation

Pamela Prah writes: Nationwide, US employers reported in 2013 that skilled trades positions were the most difficult to fill, the fourth consecutive year this category has topped the list. A 2011 industry report estimated that as many as 600,000 manufacturing jobs were vacant because employers couldn’t find the skilled workers to fill them, including machinists,…
First Ovarian Cancer Study to Use a Combination of Drugs Taken Orally

Significant improvement with the use of a combination drug therapy for recurrent ovarian cancer was reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago. This is the first ovarian cancer study to use a combination of drugs that could be taken orally.
To Travel in a Boat Together: A Canadian Museum’s Wolf In A Copper Canoe; The Empress Of Ireland Exhibit

The Canadian Museum of Civilization has introduced a sculpture of a life-size bronze wolf in a copper canoe which it commissioned from internationally acclaimed Namgis First Nation artist Mary Anne Barkhouse. Now on exhibit: On the foggy night of May 29, 1914, two ships collide in the St. Lawrence River. The Empress of Ireland, with…
“Give Your Ideas Some Legs”: Study Finds Creative Output Increases When Walking

The overwhelming majority of the participants in these three experiments were more creative while walking than sitting, the study found. In one of those experiments, participants were tested indoors — first while sitting, then while walking on a treadmill. The creative output increased by an average of 60 percent when the person was walking, according…
Senate Committee Holds Roundtable Discussion on Working Women, Bills to Improve Quality of Infant and Toddler Care & Preventive Heart Screenings

The Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution recognizing the importance of providing preventative heart screenings to women through primary care. Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) introduced a bill to authorize additional leave for members of the armed forces in connection with the birth of a child. Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) introduced bill to provide for…
A Family Inheritance: More Than ‘Things’ … Emblems of Our Lives

Joan L. Cannon writes: Unless memories and tradition count as “things,” these concrete reminders are not just things. They’re emblems. They’re absolute reminders — souvenirs in a literal sense — of what has happened in many lives, not just our own. As such, they serve as records that are apt to endure longer than any…
Remembering … On a Day Once Known as ‘Decoration Day’

Julia Sneden writes: To me, they were just my big cousins, glamorous in their uniforms — so brave, so tall, so handsome — and it while I knew they were going off to danger, I never for a moment considered that they might not come back. It’s right that we pause to remember the cost,…
Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy and Miss Sarah A. Bowman, San Francisco National Cemetery

Two unusual interments at San Francisco National Cemetery are “Major” Pauline Cushman and Miss Sarah A. Bowman. Cushman’s headstone bears the inscription “Pauline C. Fryer, Union Spy,” but her real name was Harriet Wood. Also buried at San Francisco National Cemetery is Sarah Bowman, also known as “Great Western,” a formidable woman over 6 feet…
Janet Yellen Toasts NYU’s Graduating Class, a Quality of ‘Grit’ and a Lowly Sea Slug Who Helped Decipher the Chemistry of Memory

Janet Yellin on performance and grit: One aspect of grit that I think is particularly important is the willingness to take a stand when circumstances demand it. Such circumstances may not be all that frequent, but in every life, there will be crucial moments when having the courage to stand up for what you believe…
Harvard Professor Brigitte Madrian Remarks on the Retirement Savings Landscape for Women

“My biggest concern for women is what happens in retirement. Women have longer life expectancies than men, and married women tend to be several years younger than their husbands, so that the average married woman reaching retirement can expect to spend several years as a widow, and the average single women reaching retirement will spend…