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…
Wanted: Celebrity Parents

I am seeking a new mother or father — preferably one who hosts a popular TV show (think Oprah … any of the ladies on The View … Regis before he leaves) on which he or she can plug my newest book. You know what I mean
YouTube for How To’s: Just-In-Time Learning

My husband was standing on my desk, replacing the dead ceiling light fixture in my office. He’d taken down the old fixture, and two frayed wires were sticking out. The new fixture had a t…
The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives at the Morgan Library

For centuries, people have turned to private journals to document their days, sort out creative problems, help them through crises, comfort them in solitude or pain, or preserve their stories for the future. “The museum is noted for its holdings of manuscripts, sketches, letters, drawings, and other items that speak to the creative mind at…
The Function of Laughter at the US Supreme Court

“I argue that laughter plays an important social and communicative function in Supreme Court oral arguments that enables advocates and justices to negotiate the complex institutional, social, and intellectual barriers to obtain brief moments of equality within the Courtroom”
NIH Research Matters Newsletters

A recent article available through the National Institutes of Health’s weekly newsletter, Research Matters, is only one that are of interest: Scientists used a brain-computer interface to show how the activity of just a few brain cells can control the display of pictures on a computer screen. The finding sheds light on how single brain…
The Web Collaboration Project at the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender

As part of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Center for the Historical Study of Women and Gender collaborated with Women’s History faculty from twelve institutions across the country. That gave students the opportunity to do research on women in social movements in the US
Searching JFK’s Digital Archive

Caroline Kennedy: “And as they discover the heroes of the civil rights movement, the pioneers of outer space, and the first Peace Corps volunteers, we hope they too are inspired to ask what they can do for their country.”
Worn and Wrong Parts; A Tale of Black Ice, ‘Possessed’ Water Closets and Bird Seed

I washed and dried a load of towels to have ready and waiting for the next chapter of Man vs. Toilet. I’m comfortable in the knowledge that if I had found myself living alone with a misbehaving toilet, I am reasonably certain my repairs would have included chewing gum and vegetable shortening covered with at…
Views of Gun Control – A Detailed Demographic Breakdown

Where Does the Public Stand? A Detailed Demographic Breakdown about gun control has been split since April 2009 — a substantial change from previous years in which majorities consistently prioritized gun control over gun rights. See a detailed breakdown of American opinion about legal limits on guns.
Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915

During the nineteenth century, with the advancement of tailoring tools and techniques, styles changed in dramatic ways, accentuating or minimizing different body parts —shoulders, breasts, waist, hips, derriere — in ongoing attempts to keep up with fashion.