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  • Why Census Demographics and Commedia dell’Arte Masks Are Sexy

    A decade-long source favorite of SeniorWomen.com, the Scout Report’s variety of sightings are demonstrated by the following examples just listed. Here are two contrasting items in culture, style, relevance and history:

    County Business and Demographics

     The United States Census Bureau publishes hundreds of reports and statistical updates each year that are quite popular with public policy makers, researchers, and interested members of the public. This recent interactive map draws on data from the County Business Patterns program to highlight annual statistics for businesses with paid employees within the US and Puerto Rico. The business statistics here are viewable on the national, state, and county levels. It is worth noting, however, that the data does not include statistics on self-employed businesses or employees of private households. Visitors can use the novel icons on the map to learn about the states that have the most auto repair stores, electronics shops, and gas stations. Visitors can then click on each icon to look at a more detailed map. Additionally, when visitors click on “Explore the Map” they can even create their own customized map that displays a wealth of data culled from recent surveys, such as the American Community Survey. [KMG] © 2012 Internet Scout Project

    Top 10

    Counties with the most Residential Construction establishments; States with the most Electronics Stores establishments; States with the most Convenience Stores establishments; Counties with the most Gas Stations establishments; Counties with the most Real Estate Industries establishments; Counties with the most Day Care Centers establishments; States with the most Hotels & Motels establishments; Counties with the most Full-Service Restaurants establishments; Counties with the most Bars establishments; States with the most Auto Repair Shops establishments; States with the most Beauty, Nail & Barber Shops establishments

     commedia dell'arte

    Commedia dell’Arte: The Masks of Antonio Fava

     Born amidst the tremendously productive cultural backdrop of the Italian Renaissance, Commedia dell’Arte is an art form that continues to inspire theatrical groups around the world. In the city of Chicago, it’s spirit is still an integral part of the city’s thriving improvisational comedy scene. It makes sense that Northwestern University would have a wonderful collection of masks created by Antonio Fava, the noted contemporary master of this art form. Visitors can click on the “Biography” tab to learn about Fava, and they will also want to peruse the “Commedia dell’Arte” section to learn more about how this art form was created by Carlo Goldoni. The collection was purchased with a grant from the estate of Dorothy Jean Adams, and this website presents photos and 3D molds that will allow a wider public to appreciate these masks. The “Masks” area is the signature aspect of the site, and it includes magnificent images of five masks, including those that represent the spirit of “pulcinella” (the chicken) and “pantaloon” (the foolish old man). [KMG] © 2012 Internet Scout Project

  • Gender and Body Image: Women 50 and Over Revealed What They Think and Feel

    Eating disorders are commonly seen as an issue faced by teenagers and young women, but a new study reveals that age is no barrier to disordered eating. In women aged 50 and over, 3.5% report binge eating, nearly 8% report purging, and more than 70% are trying to lose weight. The study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders revealed that 62% of women claimed that their weight or shape negatively impacted on their life.

    The researchers, led by Dr Cynthia Bulik, Director of the University of North Carolina Eating Disorders Program, reached 1,849 women from across the USA participating in the Gender and Body Image Study (GABI) with a survey titled, ‘Body Image in Women 50 and Over – Tell Us What You Think and Feel.’weighing on scale

    “We know very little about how women aged 50 and above feel about their bodies,” said Bulik. “An unfortunate assumption is that they ‘grow out of’ body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, but no one has really bothered to ask. Since most research focuses on younger women, our goal was to capture the concerns of women in this age range to inform future research and service planning.”

    The average age of the participants was 59, while 92% were white. More than a quarter, 27%, were obese, 29% were overweight, 42% were normal weight and 2% were underweight.

    Results revealed that eating disorder symptoms were common. About 8% of women reported purging in the last five years and 3.5% reported binge eating in the last month. These behaviors were most prevalent in women in their early 50s, but also occurred in women over 75.

    When it came to weight issues, 36% of the women reported spending at least half their time in the last five years dieting, 41% checked their body daily and 40% weighed themselves a couple of times a week or more.

    62% of women claimed that their weight or shape negatively impacted their life, 79% said that it affected their self-perception and 64% said that they thought about it daily.

    The women reported resorting to a variety of unhealthy methods to change their body, including diet pills (7.5%), excessive exercise (7%), diuretics (2.5%), laxatives (2%) and vomiting (1%).

    Two-thirds, 66%, were unhappy with their overall appearance and this was highest when it came to their stomach, 84%, and shape, 73%.

    “The bottom line is that eating disorders and weight and shape concerns don’t discriminate on the basis of age,” concluded Bulik. “Healthcare providers should remain alert for eating disorder symptoms and weight and shape concerns that may adversely influence women’s physical and psychological wellbeing as they mature.”

  • Dappled Willow Hedge

    by Ferida Wolff

    dappled willows
    The privet hedge on the side of our yard began to have problems. The ground it was planted in is mostly marl, a moist, clay-like dirt. While some of the plants were able to establish good root systems, others had shallow roots and after many years of providing a nice boundary they began leaning, which loosened their root grip even further and negated their hedge-like quality. When their leaves started to wither and their branches turned brittle, it was time to do something.

    In browsing the nurseries last year, we came upon the Dappled Willow and immediately fell in love. The white foliage with pinkish tips had an exuberant appeal. We were told that they would only grow to about six feet, though we learned later that this might be a low estimate, and their branching would fill out to form a striking hedge. We amended the soil and planted the first of the hedge line. We waited to see if the willows would survive. They did and when the plants sent out leaves this spring we were entranced with the delicate quality they presented. The sun shone through the translucent leaves so that they seemed to glow. Our neighbor, who has a good view from his deck, commented on their attractiveness.

    We planted the rest of the hedge so that now we have a full line of Dappled Willows to admire. We’ll prune them come early winter to encourage dense growth and maintain a reasonable size. Dapple willows are deciduous but the foliage comes out several weeks earlier than most deciduous plants, starting the season with a burst of beauty.
    These willows are still young but, like toddlers, they already show their potential. They will fill out and grow and, I imagine, charm us as they do so.

    So much to know about Dappled Willows: 
    http://www.midwestgardentips.com/hakuro-nishiki_dappled_willow.html

    ©2012 Ferida Wolff for SeniorWomen.com

    Editor’s Note: Salix integra (Chinese: 杞柳 qi liu; Japanese: イヌコリヤナギ inukoriyanagi ; syn. S. multinervis Franch. & Savatier) is a species of willow native to northeastern China, Japan, Korea and Primorsky Krai in the far southeast of Russia.

    It is closely related to the European and western Asian Salix purpurea, and has been treated as a variety of it by some authors, as S. purpurea var. multinervis (Franchet & Savatier) Matsumura, or as a subspecies S. purpurea subsp. amplexicaulis (Chaubard) C.K.Schneid.

  • The Rise of Asian Americans: More Satisfied With Their Lives, Finances and the Direction of the Country

    OVERVIEW

    Asian Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. They are more satisfied than the general public with their lives, finances and the direction of the country, and they place more value than other Americans do on marriage, parenthood, hard work and career success, according to a comprehensive new nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center.

    A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination. Today they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines. When newly minted medical school graduate Priscilla Chan married Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last month, she joined the 37% of all recent Asian-American brides who wed a non-Asian groom.

    These milestones of economic success and social assimilation have come to a group that is still majority immigrant. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of Asian-American adults were born abroad; of these, about half say they speak English very well and half say they don’t.

    Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States. The educational credentials of these recent arrivals are striking. More than six-in-ten (61%) adults ages 25 to 64 who have come from Asia in recent years have at least a bachelor’s degree. This is double the share among recent non-Asian arrivals, and almost surely makes the recent Asian arrivals the most highly educated cohort of immigrants in US history.

    Compared with the educational attainment of the population in their country of origin, recent Asian immigrants also stand out as a select group. For example, about 27% of adults ages 25 to 64 in South Korea and 25% in Japan have a bachelor’s degree or more.In contrast, nearly 70% of comparably aged recent immigrants from these two countries have at least a bachelor’s degree.

    Recent Asian immigrants are also about three times as likely as recent immigrants from other parts of the world to receive their green cards — or permanent resident status —on the basis of employer rather than family sponsorship (though family reunification remains the most common legal gateway to the U.S. for Asian immigrants, as it is for all immigrants).

    The modern immigration wave from Asia is nearly a half century old and has pushed the total population of Asian Americans — foreign born and US born, adults and children — to a record 18.2 million in 2011, or 5.8% of the total US population, up from less than 1% in 1965. By comparison, non-Hispanic whites are 197.5 million and 63.3%, Hispanics 52.0 million and 16.7% and non-Hispanic blacks 38.3 million and 12.3%.

    Asian Americans trace their roots to any of dozens of countries in the Far East, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Each country of origin subgroup has its own unique history, culture, language, religious beliefs, economic and demographic traits, social and political values, and pathways into America.

    But despite often sizable subgroup differences, Asian Americans are distinctive as a whole, especially when compared with all US adults, whom they exceed not just in the share with a college degree (49% vs. 28%), but also in median annual household income ($66,000 versus $49,800) and median household wealth ($83,500 vs. $68,529).

    They are noteworthy in other ways, too. According to the Pew Research Center survey of a nationally representative sample of 3,511 Asian Americans, conducted by telephone from Jan. 3 to March 27, 2012, in English and seven Asian languages, they are more satisfied than the general public with their lives overall (82% vs. 75%), their personal finances (51% vs. 35%) and the general direction of the country (43% vs. 21%).

    They also stand out for their strong emphasis on family. More than half (54%) say that having a successful marriage is one of the most important things in life; just 34% of all American adults agree. Two-thirds of Asian-American adults (67%) say that being a good parent is one of the most important things in life; just 50% of all adults agree.

    Their living arrangements align with these values. They are more likely than all American adults to be married (59% vs. 51%); their newborns are less likely than all U.S. newborns to have an unmarried mother (16% vs. 41%); and their children are more likely than all U.S. children to be raised in a household with two married parents (80% vs. 63%).

    They are more likely than the general public to live in multi-generational family households. Some 28% live with at least two adult generations under the same roof, twice the share of whites and slightly more than the share of blacks and Hispanics who live in such households. U.S. Asians also have a strong sense of filial respect; about two-thirds say parents should have a lot or some influence in choosing one’s profession (66%) and spouse (61%).

    Asian Americans have a pervasive belief in the rewards of hard work. Nearly seven-in-ten (69%) say people can get ahead if they are willing to work hard, a view shared by a somewhat smaller share of the American public as a whole (58%). And fully 93% of Asian Americans describe members of their country of origin group as “very hardworking”; just 57% say the same about Americans as a whole.

    By their own lights, Asian Americans sometimes go overboard in stressing hard work. Nearly four-in-ten (39%) say that Asian-American parents from their country of origin subgroup put too much pressure on their children to do well in school. Just 9% say the same about all American parents. On the flip-side of the same coin, about six-in-ten Asian Americans say American parents put too little pressure on their children to succeed in school, while just 9% say the same about Asian-American parents. (The publication last year of “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” a comic memoir about strict parenting by Yale Law Professor Amy Chua, the daughter of immigrants, triggered a spirited debate about cultural differences in parenting norms.)

    The immigration wave from Asia has occurred at a time when the largest sending countries have experienced dramatic gains in their standards of living. But few Asian immigrants are looking over their shoulders with regret. Just 12% say that if they had to do it all over again, they would remain in their country of origin. And by lopsided margins, Asian Americans say the U.S. is preferable to their country of origin in such realms as providing economic opportunity, political and religious freedoms, and good conditions for raising children. Respondents rated their country of origin as being superior on just one of seven measures tested in the survey — strength of family ties.

    • Read the Full Report

  • Codebreaker: Celebrating lan Turing’s Life and Legacy On the 100th Anniversary of His Birth

    Science Museum, London

    Alan Turing

    A new exhibition celebrating the life of pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing ((1912–1954) will open on 21 June 2012 at the Science Museum.

    Alan Turing’s Life and Legacy will examine the achievements of the man whose influence on computer science is still felt today and whose wartime codebreaking helped take years off the length of World War II.

    The Science Museum will present the most extensive collection of Turing artefacts assembled under one roof, including machines he devised and devices that influenced him and his colleagues. Together, the collection will offer an indisputable argument for Turing’s enduring global legacy.

    At the heart of the exhibition will be

    • the Pilot ACE computer – one of the star items since it embodies Turing’s ideas for a universal programmable computer. It was the fastest computer in the world at the time and is a forerunner of today’s machines.
    • Featured alongside will be a special simulator of the Pilot ACE, made in 1950 to present the computer’s capabilities to the public.
    • Other key exhibits include a piece of Comet jet fuselage wreckage analysed with the aid of Pilot ACE in 1954 following a series of crashes. The work by Pilot ACE eventually helped to reveal the source of the problem, leading to changes in aeroplane design.
    • Other highlights include German military Enigma machines.
    • Few remaining parts of the huge, revolutionary electromechanical ‘bombe’ machines devised by Turing during World War II to crack codes.

    During the War, Turing designed the ‘bombes’ to attempt to deal with the proliferation of enemy messages and therefore pinpoint the location of German U-Boat submarines. Eventually, over 200 were built, each weighing a ton and operating constantly at Bletchley Park and other secret sites in the UK. The exhibition also includes a working aid used to break Enigma, which has never been displayed outside of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).enigma machine being used

    Codebreaker – Alan Turing’s life and legacy will give a fully-rounded picture of the man known at the secret government intelligence site Bletchley Park as ‘the Prof’. It will explore Turing’s work on artificial intelligence and his morphogenesis work, cut short by his untimely death in 1954 following a conviction for ‘gross indecency’ and an enforced period of medical ‘treatment’ with female hormones.

    Science Museum exhibition curator, David Rooney, said “The exhibition is an opportunity to present the remarkable work of a man whose influence reaches into perhaps the most widespread and increasingly popular public pastime of the 21st century, the use of the personal computing device, yet whose name is probably unfamiliar to the vast majority of people.”

  • London Revisited: “Ageing is optional here”

    by Jane Shortall

    London became the city of my dreams when, as a child, I read Great Expectations and went on the adventure with Mr. Pip and Mr. Pocket in one of the greatest cites on earth. Living in Ireland, a tiny island perched on the edge of Europe, most Dubliners went to England regularly. Almost all of us had relations living there and to most people I knew, despite the often bloody history between the two islands, England was a sort of extension of our country.Regent Street

    The first time I went to London, aged exactly sixteen and a half, (a very important age at the time, because our parents thought we were on the way to being seventeen, and therefore almost sensible), four friends took the overnight ferry from Dublin to Liverpool one Friday night and went down to London by train the following morning.  Emerging from the great train station, I so excited, I might have arrived in heaven.

    Not wanting to waste a second, we four girlfriends put in seven frantic hours racing around seeing as much of the city as we could, before catching the evening train back up north, then the Saturday night boat back to Dublin. I arrived home dying to show my mother my purchases; my Mary Quant make-up, union jack socks, a red fringed bag and a mad, wild hat, bought in the ultra trendy Chelsea Girl ‘boutique’. We are clearly in the early seventies.

    A few years later (very few; when only nineteen) I was properly invited toLondon, to stay in a flat off Regent Street, for two whole weeks. I swooned at the thought and in truth, felt a tiny bit provincial as my clothes (at least in my view) did not measure up to a fortnight in London. I need not have worried; the person inviting me worked right in the thick of the fashion world and within two days of arriving, my wardrobe had been transformed, and my hair dyed bright red.

    We had drinks at the BBC Club and my first evening was spent in the company of media people yelling at each other across the room. One lady grabbed my attention, as she sat rather imperiously meeting and greeting; when my friend, who had brought me to the club, asked if her husband was due in later, she screamed ‘he’s here already darling, reading the news…’

    Later, we all went for dinner to an extremely smart restaurant where I was introduced to an amazing amount of people. I was too young, much too unimportant for them to bother with me and while everyone was polite and some very friendly indeed, they soon went back to shrieking at each other, talking about people I’d only read about. 
    It was fantastic to be on the inside, as it were, looking on and listening, while remaining on the outside, not being one of the crowd.

    Later, an elderly gentleman arrived and having introducing himself asked ‘what do you think of London?’ I said I didn’t know it very well yet, but very much hoped to. He offered to show me around a little. It turned out that Tom, who brought me to Wheelers, the legendary fish restaurant, who explained the Promenade concerts, who made sure I knew where the Royal Academy was and St Martin in the Fields, and so many other London highlights, had been one of the BBC’s most distinguished foreign correspondents, working in Africa and various parts of the colonies. He had announced to the world on the BBC that Hitler was dead. Mr Tom Chalmers, with his cravats and his elegant cane, who looked completely at home in the Burlington Arcade, cemented my love of London.

    Over the years, while never actually living there, I got to know parts of it very well, like the Sloane Square area, where my Irish friend Olive worked in Barclays Bank. An Irish company I worked for had London offices near the Ritz, and I once leapt out of a car at traffic lights during a row, ran straight through the open doors and down to the left where, in the comfort of the splendid Ritz Hotel ladies room, I worked off my temper by re-doing my face.

    This year, on a quick visit, I left the West End alone and for the first time booked into the huge Marriott Hotel overlooking Canary Wharf. Here, among the towers, the glass and steel monuments to money making, as curious as it may seem, I found everything I wanted and needed just now. Top restaurants and super shops all within walking distance and a splendid view over to the city; the Gherkin and the Shard lit up at night. Canary Wharf, now generally agreed to have taken over as the central hub of the financial world, provided me with a much appreciated blast of luxury. The glamorous waitresses and waiters who work at the Manhattan Grill in the Marriott were only short of picking up the cutlery and eating my food for me, such was the service. 

    Regent Street, London, at Holiday time; Wikipedia

  • Surviving Cancer: US Numbers Are Estimated at Nearly 18 Million by 2022

    cancer staging

    Abstract

    Although there has been considerable progress in reducing cancer incidence in the United States, the number of cancer survivors continues to increase due to the aging and growth of the population and improvements in survival rates. As a result, it is increasingly important to understand the unique medical and psychosocial needs of survivors and be aware of resources that can assist patients, caregivers, and health care providers in navigating the various phases of cancer survivorship. To highlight the challenges and opportunities to serve these survivors, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute estimated the prevalence of cancer survivors on January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2022, by cancer site. Data from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registries were used to describe median age and stage at diagnosis and survival; data from the National Cancer Data Base and the SEER-Medicare Database were used to describe patterns of cancer treatment.

    An estimated 13.7 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive on January 1, 2012, and by January 1, 2022, that number will increase to nearly 18 million. The 3 most prevalent cancers among males are prostate (43%), colorectal (9%), and melanoma of the skin (7%), and those among females are breast (41%), uterine corpus (8%), and colorectal (8%). This article summarizes common cancer treatments, survival rates, and posttreatment concerns and introduces the new National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center, which has engaged more than 100 volunteer survivorship experts nationwide to develop tools for cancer survivors, caregivers, health care professionals, advocates, and policy makers. CA Cancer J Clin 2012. Published 2012 American Cancer Society.

    Introduction

    Cancer is a major public health problem in the United States and many other parts of the world. Currently, one in 3 women and one in 2 men in the United States will develop cancer in his or her lifetime. Increases in the number of individuals diagnosed with cancer each year, due in large part to aging and growth of the population, as well as improving survival rates, have led to an ever-increasing number of cancer survivors. There are several definitions of cancer survivors; here, we use the term “cancer survivor” to describe any person who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the balance of life. There are at least 3 distinct phases associated with cancer survival, including the time from diagnosis to the end of initial treatment, the transition from treatment to extended survival, and long-term survival.

    The goal of treatment is to “cure” the cancer, or prolong survival in patients with advanced disease, while preserving the highest possible quality of life in both the long and short term. Many survivors, even among those who are cancer free, must cope with the long-term effects of treatment, as well as psychological concerns such as fear of recurrence. Cancer patients and survivors also face a variety of medical and social concerns dependent on their age, comorbid conditions, socioeconomic status, and family/support network. Throughout this article, the terms “cancer patient” and “survivor” are used interchangeably. It is important to note that not all individuals with a cancer diagnosis identify with the term “cancer survivor.”

    In this article, we provide statistics on cancer prevalence, common treatment modalities, and survival and review issues related to cancer treatment and survivorship.

    Materials and Methods

    Prevalence Estimates

    Cancer prevalence was projected using the Prevalence, Incidence Approach Model method, which calculates prevalence from cancer incidence and survival and all-cause mortality. Incidence and survival were modeled by cancer type, patient sex, and age group using malignant cases diagnosed from 1975 through 2007 from the 9 oldest registries in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. The most recent year of available data (2008) was excluded due to anticipated undercounts because of reporting delay. Survival was assumed to be constant from 2007 through 2022 and was estimated by fitting a parametric mixture cure survival model to the SEER data. Mortality data for 1969 through 2008 were obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics and projected mortality rates for 2009 to 2022 were obtained from the University of California at Berkeley mortality cohort life tables (available at: demog.berkeley.edu/∼bmd/). Population projections from 2008 through 2022 were obtained from the US Census Bureau. 

    Selected Findings

    Cancer Prevalence

    An estimated 13.7 million Americans with a history of cancer were alive on January 1, 2012. This estimate does not include carcinoma in situ of any site except the urinary bladder, and does not include basal cell and squamous cell skin cancers. The 10 most common cancer sites represented among survivors are shown in Figure 1. The 3 most common cancers among male survivors are prostate (43%), colorectal (9%), and melanoma of the skin (7%). Among female survivors, the most common cancers are those of the breast (41%), uterine corpus (8%), and colorectum (8%). The majority of cancer survivors (64%) were diagnosed 5 or more years ago, and 15% were diagnosed 20 or more years ago (Table 1).

    Nearly one-half (45%) of cancer survivors are aged 70 years or older, while only 5% are younger than 40 years (Table 2). As of January 1, 2022, it is estimated that the population of cancer survivors will increase to nearly 18 million (8.8 million males and 9.2 million females).

    “Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics 2012” CA Cancer J Clin 2012; 

  • The New ‘Dallas’: Sex, Scandal and U.S. Energy Policy!

    by Abrahm Lustgarten
    ProPublica, June 15, 2012 The New Dallas

    Did the fracking debate dredge up ‘Dallas’ – the redux – or was this soap opera’s resurgence just another convenient mirror in which to reflect how central the nation’s debate over energy has now become in our culture?

    Either way, the show’s creators seem to have found the decades-old plot so evocative of the evolving contemporary debate over oil and gas drilling and the environment that they couldn’t resist resurrecting it. Perhaps they should have.

    When Dallas was first launched in 1978, it always covered oil, and, later, a little bit about the environment. But really it was about sex, betrayal, and the infighting that came with running Ewing Oil, the company that had made their family rich. In the end, two brothers – J.R. and Bobby Ewing – fought over whether to conserve their sprawling family ranch, Southfork.

    The plot line was an effective analogy not just for the oil business, but for all business. It provided a voyeuristic – and playfully sensationalized – glimpse into the glitzy lives of those who succeeded by it and a fantastically Reaganesque view on what it took to climb to the top of an industry on the backs of your competitors, Texas style.

    But the world was different then. Oil was a near singular symbol of business wealth in the US Texas was on top of its game. And environmentalism was still seen by big business as a fringe movement.

    Today Big Oil remains as powerful as ever, but wealth, technology and industry have diversified and become more complex. Today’s corporations often seek – and in fact profit from – social responsibility and sustainability. The notion that resources are finite and that environmental protection necessary have become mainstream. They are certainly no longer laughable.

    The next-generation Dallas – which still has its aging stars but picks up with a rivalry between Bobby and J.R.’s sons – appears to be all about trying to transcend its old paradigm, seizing on its oil roots as an opportunity to build on the current conversation.

    The opening scene glides above a verdant pasture until the camera stumbles on an oil-drilling rig nestled among the trees. It’s more a thing of beauty than an interruption in the landscape. Soon the well is gushing oil – 1880’s style – and two of the show’s young protagonists, who estimate they just found “a couple of billion barrels” are drenched in syrupy crude and kissing beneath the shower of oil.

    “This will make us richer than we ever imagined,” croons JR’s son, John Ross, played by Josh Henderson. “It will change everything.”

    In the new plot, John Ross schemes to develop the oil on Southfork without the consent of Bobby (still played by Patrick Duffy). Meanwhile Bobby’s son Christopher, played by Jesse Metcalfe, has founded Ewing Alternative Energy and espouses a seemingly anti-oil perspective. Like any good soap opera, everything is incestuous and intertwined. The two men battle over the affections of Elena, a buxom entrepreneurial wildcatter who is also the daughter of the Ewing’s in-house cook, even while Christopher marries another woman. JR – the senior villain still played by Larry Hagman, watches on in bemusement.

    The cheese is thick enough to spread on crackers.

    “So, I hear you’ve come home with some kind of alternative energy scheme to save the world,” John Ross asks Christopher, in their first major argument around the dinner table.

    “Oil is the past,” Christopher replies. “Alternatives are the future.”

    “I couldn’t disagree more.”

    “Well this country is quickly running out of resources,” Christopher adds.

  • CultureWatch Review: The Receptionist: An Education at the New Yorker

    In This Issue

    Jill Norgren reviews a tell-all autobiography that has the ability to be “satisfyingly scandalous,” with remembrances of friends, colleagues, and lovers “somewhere between mash note and carpet-bombing.” In her years with The New Yorker, she went, she saw, she conquered … and was conquered.

    The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker
    By Janet Groth; © 2012
    Published by     Algonquin Books; Hardback; ebook;  229 pp.

     An education, yes; in journalism, well not entirely. Make no mistake, Janet Groth’s The Receptionist: An Education at The New Yorker is a “kiss & tell” memoir. Readers, undoubtedly to be culled from longtime and loyal fans of this venerable magazine, will either love or hate Groth’s lively story telling. There is little room for fence sitting. Those who do not object to “oversharing” will be delighted at a new peek inside the halls and offices of The New Yorker. Other readers will have reservations.

    Tell-all autobiography has the ability to be, as Ada Calhoun wrote recently of Frank Langella’s Dropped Names “satisfyingly scandalous,” with remembrances of friends, colleagues, and lovers “somewhere between mash note and carpet-bombing.” Groth meets the “satisfying” test. In her years with The New Yorker, she went, she saw, she conquered … and was conquered.

    Janet Groth, later in life a professor of English, joined The New Yorker in 1957. Raised in Iowa, she arrived in New York City fresh from earning a BA degree at the University of Minnesota. She interviewed with E.B. White, telling him that her typing skills were “not at a professional level” to avoid assignment to the office typing pool. Handed off to the manager in charge of secretarial personnel, Groth ended up snagging a position at the reception desk on the eighteenth (the writers’s) floor.  She stayed at that post from 1957 to 1978. She did not follow the path of “countless trainees … moving either into the checking department or to a job as a Talk of  the Town reporter.” 

    Groth never became a regular contributor. Were her life a game of Monopoly, as far as The New Yorker was concerned, it would be necessary to say that Groth did not pass “GO.” In his memoir,  About the New Yorker and Me, E.J. Kahn, Jr. described Groth as one of the magazine’s “authentic oddities.” Yet, in these twenty-one years, she completed a Ph.D and began teaching college courses part-time. In the pre-feminist fifties and sixties, Groth was feeling her way along in a professional world where there were few role models.

    Why she did not advance at the magazine frames part of her story. Groth argues, first, that she entered the work world before the feminist era when women did not thrive professionally because they were used and, at the same time, overlooked. She also admits to “a prolonged identity crisis” that constantly provoked the question of whether or not she, an aspiring writer always near creative people, was or was not “one of them.”

  • Elaine Soloway’s Caregiving Series: Unpacking

    by Elaine SolowayPacking image

    My suitcase lies open and empty on the bed in our spare bedroom. Clothing, all black, to make wardrobe accessories easier, are in small stacks surrounding the bag. 

    It’s been a year since my last trip to Boston to see my daughter Faith, and it was 16 months ago when I travelled to the West Coast to visit my other daughter, Jill. There was a point I’d fly to either coast three times a year. Often enough, I figured, so my grandchildren would know me in the flesh, not merely as an iChat image.

    “Honey,” was how my trips typically began with my husband. “I miss my kids.”

    Tommy, a stepfather who believed three times a year was more than enough, would need coaxing. While I’d be content to shadow my family, he’d need a break from that togetherness. If the target was Boston, my husband would agree to join me because he liked the city’s easy public transport that allowed us to tour on our own.

    L.A. was another story. “Sun, golf,” I’d offer.

    “No, I’ll stay home and take care of the dog,” he’d say. I knew Tommy didn’t like the city’s sprawl, and since neither he nor I were brave enough to risk its roads in a rental, he hated being dependent on others for sightseeing. 

    But, the three-times-a-year timetable, and my husband’s voiced responses to any trips, dissolved after his condition worsened. Today, Tommy can barely get a word out, communicating with clues written on post-it notes.

    “You’ve got to find some way to travel,” Jill had said. “It’s been over a year since you’ve been here. Look into home health agencies.”

    I did, and was relieved when Tommy didn’t object to an aide taking over for me one day a week. With her in place, I started to make plans for a four-day trip to Los Angeles. 

    Along with the aide, I enlisted our dog walker/house sitter to sleep over for the nights I’d be gone. Because she’d be at her job during the day, I asked two of my cousins to take Tommy to lunch a few times. My ex-husband said he’d visit on one of  Tommy’s unscheduled days. Neighbors volunteered to pop in and out. All were instructed to call me after their shifts, to let me know Tommy and the dog were okay, and to convey post-it note questions. 

    I was covered. I bought airline tickets. I placed the suitcase and black wardrobe on the bed, and added a bathing suit and sandals.