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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…
Of Horizons and Hope

Joan L. Cannon writes: Did you ever notice the inverse proportions of our lives that seem to be dependent on our ages? The changing importance of common segments of time, of course, are most obvious, perhaps — like a decade seeming half way to forever when you’re fourteen, and about like a week when you’re…
While Waiting for the Tipping Point: The Impact of the Fiscal Cliff on the States

The state impact of the fiscal cliff’s expiring federal tax provisions and scheduled spending cuts is missing from the national discussion. This PEW study finds that the effects on the states vary greatly based on the extent to which states are tied to the federal tax code and federal spending.
New Studies: Older People and Trust; Science Faculty’s Subtle Gender Biases

A NIA study has shown that older people are less adept than younger people at discerning visual clues of dishonesty in others, helping explain why many older people are more susceptible to financial fraud and other scams. In the other study, science faculty participants rated the male applicant as significantly more competent and hireable than…
Cuba Today

Ferida Wolff writes: We visited a Cuban cooperative organic farm. The land is still state-owned but the produce can be sold privately. We ate in a few paladars, small, privately owned restaurants located in homes. What we found was a resourceful culture, friendly people, and music that enlivens everything.
Bills Passed and Introduced: Intercountry and Domestic Adoption, Child Protection and Violence against Women

The Intercountry Adoption Universal Accreditation Act of 2012 (S. 3331) would apply universal accreditation standards to adoption service providers in all countries involved in the adoption of foreign orphans under the age of 16, regardless of whether or not the country is party to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect…
Remembering Your Secret Passwords: Difficult To Be Guessed by Intruders As Well as ‘Authorized Users’?

“We expected that differences in password usage would be evident across age and education level. More specifically, based on findings from extensive prior studies on memory and aging, we expected that older adults would report a higher rate of forgotten passwords, an expectation that was surprisingly unconfirmed.”
The Holiday Hustle Hassle

Rose Madeline Mula writes: We’ve all heard stories from the old folks of how they used to be beside themselves with joy if they found so much as an orange, instead of a lump of coal, in their Christmas stockings. Today it’s not so easy to please a kid. Unless the eight-foot tree is completely…
Dickens and Doctors: Vignettes of Victorian Medicine

J E Cosnett writes: Doctors are prominently represented in Charles Dickens’s fiction. In 14 major works there are at least 27 members of the medical profession, some named, others anonymous. The main medical personalities provide vignettes of Victorian medicine, seen through the eyes of a very observant, critical, and socially conscious layman.
“Music is Just Dreaming in Sound” — Interviews With Important Popular Music Performers of the Last 50 Years

The first group of recordings posted will consist of 25 interviews including those with Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Bo Diddley and Linda Rondstadt. “One of the great things about the interviews is how relaxed many of them are … They’re not on camera and they’re talking to someone who’s…
Elaine Soloway’s Caregiving Series: Do You Have a Visual?

My daughter and I were combing the aisles of Ocean State Job Lots, not seeking the retailer’s “quality brand name merchandise at closeout prices,” but instead searching for Tommy. Perhaps he had had enough of my hovering, my reminding, my suggesting, and decided to give me the slip. I worried because his condition has left…