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Diane Girard writes: I ride city buses frequently and so do many seniors in my town, especially the older women. Fortunately, we have good public transit, because for some of us it is our only transportation except for the occasional taxi ride. The women I will mention here don’t resemble Xena, the Warrior Princess. They go about their business mostly unnoticed and uncelebrated except perhaps by their kindred. So, why do I refer to these older women I know a little about, the women who tell me personal stories, as warriors? Because they are honorable fighters. They get on with their lives, with grace in most cases and with smiles, almost always. more »

Julia Sneden wrote: My grandmothers taught me how to iron. In our multi-generation household, my parents or occasional hired helpers did the physically challenging work like gardening, vacuuming, window washing, carpentry, cooking, and laundry. My grandmothers and great aunt did less active things like polishing silver, ironing, setting the table, dusting, and drying the dishes. Ironing was a joint effort. The two grandmothers took turns, one each washday, while my great aunt read aloud to them. I would hang out nearby, just to hear my Aunt Martha read, usually from The Saturday Evening Post or The Atlantic Monthly. Her voice was light and gentle, and her diction precise without being fussy. more »

I know I complain about the squirrels eating everything we plant, the reason we constructed a screened-in vegetable garden, but in truth, I like them. They are inventive and extremely smart. They help me remember that 'different' is only an adjective, it does not mean inferior. And different is how we all are, from other life forms and from each other. If only we can learn to appreciate the value of differences within all of life, perhaps we would not be so quick to do harmful things to each other. more »

Worldmapper, on behalf of the Bodleian Libraries, have analysed over 8,000 tweets since Trump was elected and created a cartogram that depicts which countries he has mentioned the most on Twitter. Trump has made 1,384 mentions of foreign countries. Russia tops the bill, with 297 mentions (21 per cent of all tweets mentioning foreign countries). North Korea (163), China (158), Mexico (99), Puerto Rico (47), Iran (47), Syria (44), Japan (43), Canada (39) and France (37) complete the Top ten. The cartogram is part of the Bodleian Libraries’ Talking Maps exhibition, which opened on 5 July 2019.  more »