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
My Mother’s Cookbook Frosted Cakes: Seven-Minute Frosting, 1234 Cake, Pound Cake Torte and Carrot Cake
Margaret Cullison writes: I suffered from cake envy after attending a friend’s birthday party when I was six or seven years old. She had an April birthday, and her cake that year looked like a lamb with white frosting and coconut curled fur. The cake completely enchanted me. I knew my friend’s mother hadn’t made the cake herself. We always had homemade birthday cakes at home, but that didn’t impress me nearly as much as the magic of Sandy’s lamb cake. more »
The Power of Poison and Unique Gifts at the American Museum of Natural History
Humans have long marveled at the secrets of poisons and sought to detect their presence and protect against their toxic powers, as many fascinating artifacts on view at the exibition will reveal. Prized objects included celadon dishes, believed to detect poisons; fossilized shark teeth, thought to be dragon tongues that could "purify" food of deadly compounds; and fossilized sea animals called crinoids, believed to be antidotes to common poisons. more »
Are You Spending Down Your 401(k)? GAO Investigates Other Countries' Experiences That Offer Lessons of Spend-down Options
Strategies used by other countries include (1) communicating spend-down options to participants in an understandable and timely manner, and (2) helping participants see how their savings would translate into a stream of income in retirement by providing them with projections of retirement income in their annual benefit statements. Currently, 401(k) participants have difficulty predicting how long their savings will last because most benefit statements do not focus on the stream of income it can generate. more »
Memories of Joan Fontaine
Rose Madeline Mula writes: The only scenario that was even more incredible was that the woman on that screen would one day become my friend — we would correspond, chat on the phone, and even visit each other's homes.My fondest memories of my visits include a quiet evening munching sandwiches in her cozy library where we gossiped and laughed until after midnight. Not only was Joan an exceptional chef, she was also a licensed interior decorator, a prize fisherwoman, a hot air balloonist, and a hole-in-one golfer. "When you've had as many husbands as I've had, Love," said she, "you acquire a lot of their hobbies." more »
