What’s New
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Bills & Hearings: Childhood Development and Education in Indian Country, Military Sexual Assault & Suicide
Listen and view North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitcamp’s questions and a witness stating the difficulty in finding teachers for the Indian community schools. Is catching up with middle-class children’s vocabulary impossible or is early childhood intervention a reachable goal for the children of Indian country? In another hearing, VHA administrative data sources show a similar…
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Who Doesn’t Like Penguins? New Marine Megafauna Open Online Course Instructor Interview
An Introduction to Marine Science and Conservation, a new MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) from Duke University taught by David W. Johnston, Asst. Prof, Marine Conservation & Ecology, will encourage students to use the papers in the Collection to gain a deeper understanding of marine life and how scientists study the ocean.
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Married Women’s Average Contributions to Household Retirement Savings Increased 1992 to 2010: 20 to 38%
The Government Accountability Office examined: (1) the trends in and status of marriage and labor force participation in American households, (2) how those trends have affected spousal benefits and retirement savings behavior within households today, and (3) the implications of these trends for future retirement security. From 1960 through 2011, the percentage of women aged…
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Secrets of the Vatican, A Frontline Presentation
The 90-minute television presentation tells the epic, inside story of the collapse of the Benedict Papacy — and illuminates the extraordinary challenges facing Pope Francis as he tries to reform the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, root out corruption, and chart a new course for the troubled Catholic Church and its 1.2 billion followers.
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The Moral Merits of Reading Fiction … Not One of Literature’s Strong Suits?
According to Stanford Professor Joshua Landy, literature plays on our emotions instead of giving us rational reasons to adopt new beliefs, so we can easily be manipulated by it. Getting people to change their beliefs based on emotions is not an unambiguously positive thing: “When I do it, it’s called persuasion. When you do it,…
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Governors Pitch Novel Tactics to Create Jobs
As the US economy gains strength and states are in their best financial position in years, governors are proposing tactics to create jobs, especially in health care and high-tech. In crafting their proposals, many governors are trying to respond to a common complaint from employers: They are ready to hire, but can’t find workers with…
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“I’m a Consulting Detective” … I Dabble With Poisons a Good Deal”: The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes
Museum visitors will learn how Sherlock Holmes, a scientific expert ahead of his time, used seemingly trivial observations of clues others missed to solve some of his era’s most mysterious crimes. The International Exhibition of Sherlock Holmes features original manuscripts and period artifacts, investigative tools influenced and used by Sherlock Holmes, and interactive crime-solving opportunities.
