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
The Global Gender Gap Report 2014 — "2095: The year of gender equality at work, maybe"
Iceland ranks at the top for the sixth consecutive year. Finland ranks second, Norway holds the third place and Sweden remains in fourth position; Denmark gains three places and ranks this year at the fifth position. Northern European countries dominate the top 10 with Ireland in the eighth position and Belgium (10) Nicaragua (6), Rwanda (7) and Philippines (9) complete the top 10. more »
CultureWatch Book Reviews: Local Stop in the Promised Land
Serena Nanda Reviews: The Local Stop of Gregg's title is the upper West side of New York City, which Gregg calls the Avenue, from the early 20th century through the 1950s. Gregg, who lived in the neighborhood, so authentically recreates its ambience and its residents that the novel reads like a compelling urban ethnography. Gregg’s evocative dialogue and descriptions wonderfully express how the Avenue impacts each resident in unpredictable ways, as we follow their lives and relationships throughout the book.
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States Backtrack on Student Tracking Technology That Can Read Small Portions of A Student's Fingerprint
Students are issued badges or tags with embedded chips that either broadcast a radio signal, (battery-powered active systems) or are read when they are near a radio-frequency reader (passive systems).RFID badges are read at school doors, on buses or at school events so educators know who’s where. The technology also allows school doors to be locked and allow entry to only those with RFID badges. "And once you collect the information, there is no rolling back." more »
What's The Matter With Politicians? Don't They have Families Like the Rest of Us?
Joan L. Cannon writes: My first job out of college paid $35 a week. Even in 1950, that wasn't much in New York City. I lived at home, rode the subway to work, paid for my clothes, and doctor and dentist bills, but nothing else. My granddaughter is paying for a car, beginning to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, fretting at being a burden on her parents, and afraid to take any kind of financial risk. more »
