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
Season Five, Downton Abbey, A Mystery! Called Grantchester and More: Every Secret Has a Price
The United Kingdom has its first Labor Party prime minister. Five new characters are introduced. Plot threads left dangling from the last season of Downton Abbey, including Lady Mary's courtship contest, Lady Edith's trials as a secret single mom, Thomas's scheming against Bates. A new Mystery! series includes a charismatic young clergyman and Robson Green as the Police Inspector as well as the series, Indian Summers, with Julie Walters more »
Thinking of a Summer Driving Vacation? The EIA Explains What's Up — and Down — With Gasoline Prices
So far the projections for prices remaining at low or near-low price levels seem positive. EIA analysis of the petroleum market points to fluctuations in the price of crude oil as the main contributor to the large changes in gasoline prices the United States has experienced in recent years. Crude oil prices are greatly affected by levels of supply relative to actual and expected demand for the petroleum products made from crude oil. Get out that atlas! more »
The Late P.D. James, Writing Within the Conventions of a Classical Detective story and Regarded as a Serious Novelist
P. D. James Q & A: What is the difference between the detective story and the crime novel? The reader can expect to find a central mysterious death, a closed circle of suspects each with credible motive, means and opportunity for the crime, a detective, either amateur or professional, who comes in like an avenging deity to solve it, and a solution at the end of the book which the reader should be able to arrive at by logical deduction from clues presented by the writer with deceptive cunning but essential fairness. What interests me is the extraordinary variety of talents which this so-called formula is able to accommodate. more »
When Norms Clash With Formal Laws: How Does a Society Encourage More Whistleblowing?
Mathew O. Jackson says norms are often so ingrained that people do not even notice the extent to which they shape behavior: "They make our behaviors seem natural." Norms become self-reinforcing, since it is much easier to live in a society where people's behaviors are predictable and people understand what is expected of them, Jackson adds. The downside is that such conformity can make even very bad norms difficult to change. more »
