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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…
Elvis 1956, as photographed by Alfred Wertheimer

The year that would have been his 75th, is now being noted and celebrated by Elvis fans. Fortunately, there are a selection of photographs by Alfred Wertheimer that are available for viewing for those who cannot afford to buy the book nor travel to the exhibitions.
Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate Papers at the Ransom Center

‘Deep Throat’ (Mark Felt, Associate Director of the FBI), includes the sentence, “believes that someone will eventually flush out this story and it could to [be?] the one that sends the administration over the wall.”
Stumbling on Secrets

Then came the paragraph in which he apologized with abject humility. I understood the reference he was making. He pleaded with his young wife not to be too upset at the prospect. He admitted it was perhaps sooner than they would have liked, but he suggested they might together find satisfaction in what was to…
I Love You … What’s Your Name?

Such incidents increased, becoming more and more bizarre, until one of them precipitated Muriel’s admission to the dementia unit of an assisted living facility. There she lost her freedom but found her new love, another resident. Unfortunately, she can’t remember his name. She refers to him as “The fellow I go with” or “You know…
Do You Google Your Doctor? Perhaps He/She Does, Too

How can one be sure the person posting a review is really a patient and not someone with a grudge against the physician? If a physician disagrees with a particular comment, there is no opportunity for rebuttal.
Reynolda House American Art & Gardens; Twig Reading, Mustardseed Moonshine Ramekins and Molly Dingledine Jewelry

“… the property shall be perpetually held … for the operation and maintenance of a botanical garden having an aesthetic and educational value… .”— Deed of Gift, 1958
Hiding Another Story in a Story: There’s A Mystery There; Sendak on Sendak

“That’s the best fun in all of this – the layers of meaning, the layers of storytelling,” Sendak said in a 2007 interview. “When you hide another story in a story, that’s the story I am telling the children.”
Studying the ‘Science’ of Online Dating

Can the application of science to unravel the biological basis of love complement the traditional, romantic ideal of finding a soul mate?
Images of Fashion from the Court of Louis XIV; Fashion Illustration in the Eighteenth Century

“Under the reign of Louis XIV, fashion, in particular the manner of dress, follows the court. The French change style every day. Foreigners follow French fashion with the exception of the Spanish, who never change their style.”
I’ve Been Friended!

Okay, okay, I am finally on Facebook. I was not inclined to join but I was shamed into it by my two-year-old grandson. No, he has not been allowed to sign up quite yet. He can’t work the keypad properly though he does pretend to.