Women of Note
Elaine Soloway's Widow Series: Odd Number & Like Mother, Like Daughter or Not
There were five of us seated around the table — circular, so much better than rectangle where an empty chair would have been haunting. Four dear friends, who didn't want me alone on my aborted 15-year wedding anniversary, treated me to dinner at a favorite neighborhood restaurant. It was the same spot Tommy and I, and this very same group, celebrated at each year. more »
CultureWatch Reviews: Gillibrand's Off the Sidelines and Warren's A Fighting Change Merge Into One Compelling Narrative
Jill Norgren writes: One pleasure of A Fighting Chance and Off the Sidelines lies in the telling of each woman's path to the United States Senate. Warren announced her plan to apply to law school only to be met with the critical response of her mother: "Stay at home, have more children, and do not become one of those crazy women libbers." Gillibrand relates how a male senator walked up to her after she had succeeded in losing weight gained in pregnancy and said "Don't lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby." more »
Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash
Carmen Segarra became a polarizing personality inside the New York Fed — and a problem for her bosses — in part because she was too outspoken and direct about the issues she saw at both Goldman and the Fed. In a tense, 40-minute meeting recorded the week before she was fired, Segarra's boss repeatedly tries to persuade her to change her conclusion that Goldman was missing a policy to handle conflicts of interest. more »
A Possible Poet-Ruler, The Schiava Turca; The Poet's Pen or the Painter's Brush
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 »