Relationships and Going Places
Elaine Soloway's Rookie Widow Series: To Be Adored; Holiday Parties and Offended2013
"Why in the world would you want another man in your life right now (or ever)?" Why have I asked my paired-up friends to keep me in mind if they knowWhy indeed did I — now happily independent in my new downtown digs — sign up for JDate in the first place? And, why have I been spying on physically fit grey-haired men at my health club? an older single male who meets my criteria; i.e. strolls without the aid of a walker and drives at night? more »
Home Fires, A New Masterpiece Theater Series Based on Britain's Women's Institute
The series is largely based on Julie Summers book Jambusters, which details Britain's Women's Institute’s contribution to wartime food production, education, and social issues. Though World War II was a time of rations and sacrifices, there are still plenty of fashion moments in Home Fires. Actress Francesca Annis was especially struck by the original, period clothing used for the series. more »
Culture Watch: A Review of a John Fowles Classic, Daniel Martin
The story line covers about forty years in the life of an Englishman who has become first a playwright, then a film scriptwriter making comparisons between being English and being anything else, but most often, with being American. He declares his chagrin at the formalities and frozen traditions of English formal education and the class system, but never can hide his own debts to both. this intensely detailed psychological, political, philosophical biography becomes so thickly layered, it would be easy to be overcome by it. As it is, it takes over 600 printed pages to tell it. more »
How Great to See You! You Look Marvelous! And Other High School Reunion Tales
Rose Madeline Mula writes: I'm depressed. I just got back from the first high school reunion I ever attended. I refuse to say which one. Not which high school-which year. I don't want anyone to know. I won't even admit it to myself. What I will tell you is that none of my classmates showed up. They sent their grandparents instead, all of who insisted they had gone to school with me. No way. more »