Doris O'Brien is a retired college Speech teacher and banker. She has published two books of humor (Up or Down With Women's Liberation and Humor Me a Little) and for many years contributed light verse to the Pepper 'n Salt column of the Wall Street Journal. She is an avid writer of letters to the editors.
Doris celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in the same year she welcomed her first grandchild. She now lives in Pasadena with a great view of the San Gabriel mountains — and the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
She can be reached by e-mail: witsendob at (@) gmail.com
Gardening, Strolling Through a Park, and Folding Clothes Counts: Linked to Lower Risk of Heart Disease in Older Women
In the five-year prospective study, researchers followed more than 5,800 women ages 63 to 97 to find out if higher amounts of light physical activity were associated with reduced risks of coronary heart disease or cardiovascular disease. The current study involved a racially and ethnically diverse group of 5,861 women who were enrolled between 2012 and 2014. None had a history of myocardial infarction or stroke. Participants wore hip-mounted accelerometers, a device like a fitness tracker, that measured their movement 24 hours a day for seven consecutive days. The researchers then followed the participants for almost five years, tracking cardiovascular disease events such as heart attacks and strokes. more »
How They Did It: Reporters Uncovered Trump Hush Payments to Two Women, Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal
A team from The Wall Street Journal uncovered secret payoffs that Donald Trump and his associates arranged during the 2016 presidential election campaign to suppress sexual allegations from two women, including a porn star known as Stormy Daniels. The Journal first reported on a Trump-related payoff right before the 2016 election. On Nov. 4, 2016, journalists Joe Palazzolo, Michael Rothfeld and Lukas Alpert broke the news that the company that owns the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., agreed to give former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 for her story of an extramarital affair with Trump a decade earlier. But the company, headed by a longtime friend of Trump, did not publish the story, the Journal reported. more »
Did I Miss Something? Belated Thoughts on a Matchmaker's Skill
Joan L. Cannon wrote: Those two little old ladies couldn't have succeeded any better. It didn't take us long to figure out the gentle scheming between the two aging unmarried friends. We accepted their kind attentions with gratitude. We were married for over fifty-seven years. We have three children and seven grandchildren thanks to the conspiracy of two little old ladies whose interest in such matters completely escaped my notice at the time. more »
Senators Feinstein and Collins Introduce The Personal Care Products Safety Act to Protect "consumer health and strengthen the [FDA's] efforts to regulate ingredients"
“From shampoo and shaving cream to deodorant and make-up, every American comes into contact with personal care products every day,” said Senator Feinstein. “Families trust that these products are safe, but unfortunately many ingredients have never been independently evaluated. Our bipartisan legislation, which has the support of numerous companies and consumer advocacy groups, would modernize FDA’s oversight authority and give consumers confidence that everyday personal care products won’t harm their health.” “Americans use a variety of personal care products daily, and they should be able to know whether the products that they are applying to their hair or skin are safe,” said Senator Collins. “By updating FDA oversight of the ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products for the first time in nearly 80 years, our legislation will help increase safety for consumers, protect small businesses, and provide regulatory certainty for manufacturers.” more »
