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
Congressional Bills Introduced: Abortion, Economic Security and Safety of Victims of Dating Violence
Abortion
H.R. 1122----Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)/Education and the Workforce (3/13/13)---A bill to prohibit federal education funding for elementary schools and secondary schools that provide on-campus access to abortion providers.
Child Protection… more »
Decreasing the Age of the Older Face: Are certain features or color dimensions more important than others for age perception?
"The luminance contrast between the eyes and the surrounding skin and the lips and the surrounding skin has been termed ‘facial contrast. Female faces have greater facial contrast than male faces, and facial contrast plays an important role in sex classification and the perception of masculinity and femininity and also attractiveness. Inspection of averaged faces of older and younger adults led us to hypothesize that facial contrast decreases with age and is related to perceived facial age." more »
Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces
The Guastavino family’s soaring tile vaults grace many of the nation’s most iconic structures including Grand Central Terminal, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Boston Public Library, the US Supreme Court, and the Nebraska State Capitol (see below). Yet the name, the accomplishments, and the architectural legacy of this single family of first-generation Spanish immigrants are virtually unknown. more »
The Scream, Everyone’s Inner Angst With a Rock Star Reputation
Val Castronovo writes: "I was walking along the road with two of my friends. The sun set — the sky became a bloody red. And I felt a touch of melancholy — I stood still, dead tired — over the blue-black fjord and city hung blood and tongues of fire. My friends walked on — I stayed behind — trembling with fright. I felt the great scream in nature. E.M." more »
