Val Castronovo

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…
Puzzling

As a lifelong addict of puzzle-solving, or at least of taking a whack at it, I’ve been delighted to note that nowadays neurologists and gerontologists recommend that we seniors keep our minds sharp by doing crossword puzzles. To me, that’s a bit like giving a chocolate lover the key to the Godiva factory
HBS’s Working Knowledge, Terror at the Taj

“Not even the senior managers could explain the behavior of these employees,” says Deshpandé. “In the interview, the vice chairman of the company says that they knew all the back exits — the natural human instinct would be to flee. These are people who instinctively did the right thing. And in the process, some of…
Between Dusk and Bedtime: Suppressing a Sleep Hormone

Room light before bedtime may impact sleep quality, blood pressure and diabetes risk; new study shows indoor lighting has profound suppressive effect on the hormone melatonin.
Women and Retirement Risk

Forty-six percent of retired women are more likely to expect to pay for assistance than retired men (34 percent), during the less active, somewhat limited stage of retirement. Additionally, 70 percent of retired women are more likely to rely on family or community services for help than retired men, during the least active stage of…
Travel: Vietnam Today

Half a century later, my husband and I decided to visit the country we had so long ago feared. When I told our friends that we were going to Vietnam I could see the question in their eyes. Why, of all places, did we want to go there? They had painful memories, too. And to…
Managing Financial Goals: Study on Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers

“the standard of conduct for all brokers, dealers, and investment advisers, when providing personalized investment advice about securities to retail customers … shall be to act in the best interest of the customer without regard to the financial or other interest of the broker, dealer, or investment adviser providing the advice”
GOP Introduces Four Anti-Abortion Bills Into Congress; Other Women’s Issues at Risk

The Republican Party’s capture of the House of Representatives has feminists worried. As the 112th Congress convened, feminists held meetings and rallies all over the nation’s capitol where they spoke about Republican plans to reduce or dismantle programs that protect women.
CultureWatch, January 2011 Edition

Cleopatra: A Life — In the end, we must ask ourselves if Stacy Schiff, one of the most gifted American biographers currently writing, has successfully peeled away two millennia of myth and propaganda or, rather, given us a new myth, a Cleopatra who fits modern, Western feminist thinking. In the Pursuit of Happiness — To…
Short in Stature, Tall in Tone

It wasn’t the reading of my weight that terrified me. After a lifetime of dieting (skip birth to age 10), for the past half dozen years I’ve held steady at 104. Poundage was not the problem. It was the ruler she was about to pull up, then down, then down again, to measure my height.
Knitting a Puppy? Stitches Events and Unravel 2011

We haven’t added a new dog to our family since our Puli had to be put down. But we were intrigued by the related items we found in the latest Selvedge Magazine. For instance, the intriguing aspect of knitting our own dog