Julia Sneden, Jill Norgren and Nichola Gutgold re-read books and those long-denied treats and must-reads: Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God was a ground-breaker; she used her gift for telling a story to reach into our hearts and minds. A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America begins “Silas Deane was stranded in Paris, sick with anxiety, and nearly out of invisible ink”; The Pink Lady: The Many Lives of Helen Gahagan Douglas gives rich detail of the Hollywood heyday and the woman remembered for Nixon’s rough treatment; and Matisse’s inspired biographies by Hilary Spurling await.
Blog
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A Man’s Presence Might Provide an Incentive to Transmit a ‘Signal’ of Femininity
If you are a woman who dines with a man, chances are you choose food with fewer calories than if you dine with a woman. That is one of the findings in a study conducted by researchers at McMaster University [in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada}.
The results appear in the online version of the international journal Appetite entitled Food for thought. What you eat depends on your sex and eating companions.
Meredith Young, PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, found that what a person chooses to eat at lunch or dinner is influenced by who they eat with and the gender make-up of the group.
By observing students in naturalistic settings in three large university cafeterias with a wide choice of food options and dining companions, Young found that women who ate with a male companion chose foods of significantly lower caloric value than did women who were observed eating with another woman.
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Curators’ Favorite Objects from the Smithsonian
Curators from the museum regularly choose favorite objects to describe to the public, as well as explaining their attachment to the object. Here are some of the current selections and their history, given by the individual curators:
Helen Keller’s Watch by Carlene Stephens: “In 1892, when she was twelve, Keller met John Hitz, the superintendent of Alexander Graham Bell’s Washington, DC establishment for the deaf, the Volta Bureau. Hitz, a retired diplomat, was the proud owner of a Swiss-made “touch watch.” This uncommon watch has a case studded around the edge with pins that correspond to the hours on the watch dial. A revolving hand stops at a point between the pins that corresponds to the hour and approximate minute. With the hand and pins as locators, it was possible to feel the approximate time in the dark or, in the case of a diplomat like Hitz, discreetly. Hitz presented the watch to Keller, who prized it and used it her entire life.
Laser-capture Microscope by George Terry Scharrer: Sick cells send protein signals into the margins between healthy and unhealthy cells. The laser-capture microscope allows pathologists to isolate the margins, extract those regions, and identify their protein signals by mass spectroscopy.
Once the pathologist knows the defining array of protein signals that indicate cancer within an organ, it becomes possible to look for the same protein “signatures” in the blood of other patients before a detectable tumor mass has formed. Such early detection, with a surgical solution, can be life-saving in most cases.
“Servais” Stradivari Cello by Gary Sturm: On the morning of March 12, 1981, I was preparing for rehearsals in our auditorium when the telephone rang. Albert Meserlin explained that he represented an unnamed client who owned a Stradivari cello made in 1701. Revealing no details, he wanted to learn of our potential interest in a donation of this mystery instrument. The answer came quickly. After the call, I independently learned Stradivari made only one cello in 1701. It was the legendary Servais. It belonged to Miss Charlotte Bergen of Newark, New Jersey. And I was soon flying to Newark to pick up the Smithsonian’s first Stradivari instrument in the history of the institution.
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Is Congress exempt from “many” laws including one against sexual harassment?
Lawmaker Loopholes? A FactCheck.org Q&A regarding, as they termed it, the latest e-mail rant against Congress, tackles some of these ‘false and outdated’ claims:
Q: Is Congress exempt from “many” laws including one against sexual harassment?
A: No. The latest e-mail rant against Congress — proposing a “28th Amendment” to the Constitution — is full of false and outdated claims.
FULL QUESTION
A chain e-mail (see below) claims members of Congress can retire after one term with their same pay and, while serving, pay no Social Security and exempt themselves from some laws, e.g., sexual harassment and health care legislation. A 28th Amendment to the Constitution is proposed barring Congress from enacting laws applying to its members and not equally to the “citizens of the United States.”
Are the facts right?
Subject: An idea whose time has come
For too long we have been too complacent about the workings of Congress. Many citizens had no idea that Congressmembers could retire with the same pay after only one term, that they didn’t pay into Social Security, that they specifically exempted themselves from many of the laws they have passed (such as being exempt from any fear of prosecution for sexual harassment) while ordinary citizens must live under those laws. The latest is to exempt themselves from the Healthcare Reform that is being considered …in all of its’ forms.
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Joanna Grossman on Common-Law Marriage: A Nineteenth-Century Relic with Continuing Relevance
We pick up Joanna Grossman’s article at this point …
Common-Law Marriage Today
Today, common-law marriages can be established in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and the District of Columbia. Moreover, six additional states recognize common-law marriages that were established prior to the date that the relevant state’s legislature abolished the status. Thus, for example, common-law marriages established in Oklahoma prior to November 1, 1998 are valid.
(Readers who watch the ABC drama Grey’s Anatomy might note that Washington State is not on this list. Thus, Derek and Meredith, who purported in last year’s season finale to get married by “post-it note” because they couldn’t find the time to sneak away from the hospital to Seattle’s city hall, are not, even in TV-land, actually married.)
But common-law marriage sometimes reaches even further – for most states that have abolished common-law marriage nonetheless will give effect to such a marriage if it was validly established elsewhere. This is consistent with the general principles of interstate marriage recognition, which I have discussed in many previous columns, including here and here. The “place of celebration” rule, which every state follows, provides that a marriage is valid everywhere if it is valid where celebrated.
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“Mischief in the Mansion”
“Admit it. No matter how interested you are in serious news, every so often you glance at a gossip column, scanning its staccato list of items and bold- faced names to see if there is anything of interest . . . Yet, is American society becoming too obsessed with gossip, too absorbed with the private lives of public people? . . . For Naushad Mehta, interviewing columnist Liz Smith and her brethren for this week’s cover stories was an amusing change of pace . . . Though Mehta kept asking about the troublesome issues raised by our national infatuation with the trivial, her subjects kept changing the topic to . . . you guessed it. Says Mehta: “They usually prefaced their gossip with the words ‘Don’t quote me on this, but’ … “
“Mary Cronin probed the public relations trade . . . ‘Flacks guiding clients up the social ladder,’ she says, ‘protect them as if they were atomic secrets’ . . . In Washington, Michael Riley rang up Diana McLellan, the doyen of D.C. gossips . . . ‘She breathlessly picked up the receiver and talked without stopping. And she was doing her nails, causing her to lose her train of thought several times’ . . . In Los Angeles, Jeanne McDowell concluded that gossip levels there approach the toxic because so many people have car phones . . . Stuck in traffic? Call a friend and talk about Cher.”
“As the motto embroidered on a pillow in Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s sitting room said, ‘If you can’t say anything good about someone, sit right here by me’ . . .”
Talk about Cher? What era is this? It’s 1990 and gossip (Gossip: Pssst…Did You Hear About?) was the cover subject of a Time Magazine cover .
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CBS’s New Reality Show, Undercover Boss, and An Original, Jack Coleman
The new CBS reality show, Undercover Boss brings back memories of a college President who, while on leave in 1977, took a job, not on Haverford’s College’s campus, but as as a garbageman or as it’s termed today, a waste collector.
Coleman’s background didn’t presage this experiment, as People Magazine outlines his background when introducing his story: “John Royston Coleman, 55, is a Ph.D. in economics, an ex-lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy and a former executive of the Ford Foundation. He is also chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.”
His job-switch wasn’t the only innovative decision in his career at Haverford:
“As the ’60s ended, Haverford students did express a favorable opinion of ‘co-education’ in the form of a student exchange with other women’s colleges. Sixteen women from Smith, Vassar and Sarah Lawrence arrived in the fall of 1969; of those, six loved the College so much they petitioned then-president Jack Coleman to let them remain after their exchange year had ended. They went on to earn bachelor’s degrees in 1972.”
“These events prompted Coleman — a strong advocate of co-education — to appoint a Commission on Women, headed by Dean of Admissions Bill Ambler, to once again explore the idea; in a 50-page report, the commission concluded that the admission of women would “enhance the possibilities” of Haverford’s realizing “its educational goals.” However, the Board rejected full co-education in 1974, instead opting to strengthen Haverford’s relationship with Bryn Mawr by allowing students to live, major, and take classes at either school.”
Since those events, Mr. Coleman, who admits he’s rarely stayed at the same job for more than 10 years, has been an innkeeper and newspaper owner in New England.
But back to the new CBS show: “Each week a different executive will leave the comfort of their corner office for an undercover mission to examine the inner workings of their company. While working alongside their employees, they will see the effects their decisions have on others, where the problems lie within their organization and get an up-close look at both the good and the bad while discovering the unsung heroes who make their company run.”