Culture Watch

Julia Sneden writes: No amount of exercise or cosmetic surgery or brain games or vitamin pills or even love notes will change the fact that biology is destiny. We age, and if we have put any energy into living, our faces and bodies show it. Remembering my grandmother's beloved faces, lined and soft and gentle as they were, is dear to me. I hope that my face, too, gives evidence of a life lived energetically, with past sorrow and joy and fatigue right there for the world to see. more »

Parmigianino painted the Schiava Turca in the early to mid-1530s. The sitter wears an extravagant, almost theatrical costume comprised of a ball-shaped headdress, voluminous sleeves, and a striped garment with a plunging neckline. She holds an ostrich-feather fan in her left hand. In the early eighteenth century, when the portrait was in the collection of the Uffizi Gallery, the style of the woman’s costume inspired a cataloguer to invent the title 'Turkish Slave' by which she has since been known. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Most people read poetry (if they read it at all) for the pleasure of it. I get very irritable when the author makes that impossible on purpose — very much like the 'modern' artists and composers who seem not to care a whit if their production is pure fraud. Of course, they get a way with it a lot because no one can figure out how to prove it's bogus. more »

Marcia Schonberg writes: Multigenerational travel is the term used when two family members (one over 60 and the other under than 18) take a vacation together. Oh, and they don't live in the same household either. Discovering options both an energetic teen and a boomer-aged grandparent enjoy wasn’t as daunting as it seemed and Québec bestowed a perfect backdrop for my world traveler wanabee of a grandson, Joey. The province is European in style and as French as you can get on this continent. more »