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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…
Jo Freeman’s Convention Diary: Class and Culture at the Republican and Democratic Conventions

Walking around the conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia one could see that there have been many changes in class and culture both inside and outside of the parties in the last fifty years. Many of you remember back in the ‘60s when those of us who marched for civil rights and against the war in…
Jo Freeman’s Convention Diary: Cleveland Had More Police Than Protesters and Philly Was Cop-Lite

We were told that 500 Cleveland police and 2,800 police from elsewhere were keeping the protests peaceful. They slept in the dorms of the local colleges and were moved around in local school buses. These were the friendliest police I have ever seen at a protest. They spoke with the various march leaders as though…
After the Louvre: My Favorite Paris Museum, Musee des Arts et Metiers

Founded by anti-clerical French revolutionaries to celebrate the glory of science, it is no small irony that the museum is now partially housed in the former abbey church of Saint Martin des Champs. The museum’s collection originated with a selection of mechanical contraptions bequeathed to Louis XVI by the mechanical engineer Jacques Vaucanson, inventor of…
Jo Freeman’s Democratic Convention Diary: Bernie Sanders Supporters, More Sad Than Celebratory, More Angry Than Uplifted

But the Berniers I listened to in the downtown rallies and in FDR park were more sad than celebratory, more angry than uplifted. They wanted red meat, not Tofurky. This went beyond what I saw in 2008, when Hillary’s dedicated supporters were disappointed that she wasn’t heading the Democratic ticket, or even in the second…
Elaine Soloway’s Rookie Widow Series: Cheapskate, Environmentalist, or Chicken; How Journaling Propels Me Forward; Que Sera, Sera

In this current period of my life, with my morning journaling as sacred as a religious rite, I also read a page taken from past years. I do this because I want to learn my patterns — worries that never came to pass, prophetic musings, and other buried gold. Because of my daily journaling and…
General Mills Flour Recall Relating to E. coli Illnesses: Do Not Eat Uncooked Dough or Batter Made With Raw Flour

General Mills has recalled several types of flour due to E. coli illnesses the US Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have linked to eating uncooked dough and batter made with raw flour. See link to the FDA for additional recalls.
Culture Watch: Book Review of Did You Ever Have a Family

The precipitating event of the lives intertwined like threads in primitive needlework is the tragedy on their wedding eve of a fatal explosion that destroys the young couple, sons and a lover. The bereavements leave behind survivors who are forever changed. Even the landscape where the exploded house once stood is forever wiped out. Each…
The Largest Single Criminal Health Care Fraud Case Ever Brought Against Individuals: $1 Billion Scheme Involving Miami-based Health Care Providers

“Medicare fraud has infected every facet of our health care system, said US Attorney Ferrer. “As a result of our unrelenting efforts to combat these pernicious schemes, the Criminal Division, the US Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners continue to identify and prosecute the criminals who, driven by greed, steal from a program meant…
Jo Freeman’s Convention Diary: Where Was the Luncheon for Melania? Keep It Made in America and the Donald Trump Bobblehead Were in Cleveland

Jo Freeman writes: I went to that party after writing this story in a tent sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, which has comfortable couches and free drinks. The AAM is an alliance of the National Association of Manufacturers and several unions, including the United Auto Workers, of which I am a member (via…
Demystifying General Anesthetics: Challenges Facing Anesthesiology Research Today

Emery Brown’s research provides insight into why the doses required to achieve an anesthetic state differ among age groups. In one study, the anesthetic-induced brain waves of older adults were two to three times smaller than those of younger ones. As we age, Brown explains, brain cells function at a lower level, so weaker brain…