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
2014: Books for Children and Young Adult Readers Certain to Make Good Holiday Presents
Jill Norgren reviews: Once again I turned young readers for holiday book suggestions. I asked the same questions as in past years — "which books do you love" and "which books did you read this past year that you think other readers and listeners would appreciate?" Many favorites are new but some are classics. This year a number of books have social issue and political themes. more »
Confessions of a Would-Be Author and Halfhearted Housewife
Joan L. Cannon writes: What I didn't do was to vacuum the carpet. I didn't polish the brass (that really needs it because Thanksgiving will be celebrated here next week.) Ditto the silver in the china cabinet. I did the laundry, and then I even folded it and put it away, but dusting has almost disappeared from my vocabulary as well as my chore list. So now I try to feel better for bothering to mention all these things on paper. more »
A Scientific Mystery: A Region of the Brain Identified, Fought Over and Rediscovered
Results from a brain-imaging study led scientists into a medical mystery going back to 1881, involving a disputed brain pathway discovered by one scientist and ignored by others. The team rediscovered the pathway's original publication in texts in the basement of Stanford's Lane Medical Library and traced the structure's contentious scientific history. more »
Does the Stress of Cooking Family and Holiday Meals Outweigh the Benefits?
Editor's Note: Many a year I would come home late on a Wednesday from Time magazine in New York City, only to start cooking a Thanksgiving meal at our house the next day. On Friday, I went back to work, to return home very late as the magazine was going to press. But there were times I'd have Saturday duty at Time and only see my college-attending daughters for a few hours on Sunday before they returned to school by AmTrak. more »
