Culture Watch

Editor's note ... We stumbled upon this essay while preparing the post for SeniorWomen.com: Nicolas Ricketts, a Curator at The Strong, asks: "What makes a game classic? Part of the answer is longevity. Most people consider chess classic; we've played it for centuries. What about playing cards? Woodblock-printed cards appeared during China's Tang dynasty (618–907), while written rules for card games were first seen in 15th-century Europe. Games such as Monopoly in the 1930s and Scrabble during the 1950s broke sales records at first... Like chess and playing cards, these games are now available in electronic formats, but people still enjoy the tabletop versions. In the spirit of those other famous games, I’d like to propose the tile game Mahjong as a potential classic." more »

Joan Cannon wrote: In a corner stood a small Louis XVI vitrine. It contained a blown ostrich egg, a small opalescent flask made of Roman glass that had a strange bloom on the surface like that on a grape still on the vine, and several other small objects collected from the family’s travels. On the mantelpiece in the living room hung a tiny brass lamp. On the lid covering the oil chamber sits a tiny crudely cast mouse. It now hangs on my mantel. In my living room is an Empire table of mahogany veneer in fairly deplorable condition. Desperate to recover some of its good looks, I took a steam iron to the blistered and cracked veneer on the top, stripped its clouded finish off, and refinished it. It's the only piece of furniture from my father’s Memphis forbears remaining after the Civil War. As one advances in years, one accumulates possessions the way a caddis fly larva accumulates grit. The glue that makes us carry it all along with us is in a way self-secreted as well. However, it's psychic rather than physical — emotional rather than material. more »

Rose Madeline Mula writes: As for the kids on my list, all the little boys already own everything from motorized mini sports cars to back-yard tree houses with indoor plumbing. And the girls are all flying to Paris with their parents regularly to replenish their Barbie dolls' wardrobes at Christian Dior. Now I ask you, what in the name of Rudolph do you buy these little sophisticates to put the old Christmas sparkle in their eyes? Selecting gifts for my friends is no easier. It seems we keep playing, "Can you top this?" You know how it is. more »

Jo Freeman reviews: Leader and Hyatt look at each of the planks in the National Plan, assessing what has changed and what hasn't. Spruill pays more attention to politics, following the ways in which feminists and anti-feminists polarized party politics and presidential elections. She finds that both the Democratic and Republican parties were substantially changed by the feminist and anti-feminist blocks within them. In the 2016 election, Phyllis Schlafly endorsed Donald Trump long before he won the primaries, while organized feminism turned out the troops for Hillary Clinton. Abortion has become a litmus test in each party, and women, both feminists and anti-feminists, write the relevant planks within each party's platform.   more »