Julia Sneden
Julia Sneden was a writer, friend, wife, mother, Grandmother, care-giver and Senior Women Web's Resident Observer. Her career included editorial work for Sunset Magazine, 20th Century Fox and Universal Studios as well as teaching. Julia was a passionate opponent of this country’s educational system, which she felt was floundering. She will be greatly missed as the heart of this website and this editor's friend of fifty years.
Julia Sneden's archive of articles.
A Year by Any Other Name is Still a Year
“Twenty Ten” trips easily off the tongue, although only marginally quicker to say than “Two Thousand and Ten.” At this point, either term seems acceptable. I suspect, however, that by Two Thousand and Sixty-six, we’ll be in the “Twenty Sixty-six” mode. We’d better just hope that we have no Battle of Hastings of our own to mark it. (At least not until for a very long time). more »
CultureWatch: Talking About Detective Fiction and The Museum of Innocence
This section covers everything from technical developments; to scientific advances like DNA which provide new investigative methods; to movie and television links; to new access to detective fiction from foreign countries (e.g. the Swedish Wallander series); to new avenues of research (she still prefers to do her own). Anent the latter, that there is a nifty little bibliography and list of suggested reading at the end of the book. more »
Goosed
They began by arguing the merits (or rather, the lack of merits) of sweet side dishes that had marzipan in them. “That was a lot of WORK,” my sous-chef growled. “Eat it and shut up.”“This rice is hard and funny,” said another son, “and the chestnuts look like little brains.” “I made it exactly the way the recipe said to,” said his brother.“Eeeew!” said the third as he poked at the slaw. I looked down the table in an effort to enlist their father’s support in quashing the rebellion. John was sitting hunched over, eyelids at half mast, face quite green. He hadn’t touched his food. more »
December 2009 CultureWatch
Abigail & John: Portrait of a Marriage is important because it helps to regender early American history which remains overly focused on generals and male political leaders. Lori Hahnel’s collection of short fiction, Nothing Sacred, is spare, subtle and literary but not pretentious in any way, and very pleasing. Now in paperback, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge, give the reader a deep sense of the connectedness of the small town and its inhabitants, and of Olive’s place in the scheme of things. more »