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
Someone To Watch Over Me ... And My Shoes
Rose Mula writes: I have no concrete evidence that God exists, but I now know for sure that there's a heaven. Cindy and I entered it that day. No pearly gates, but gazillions of deeply-discounted designer shoes. The proverbial kid in a candy store couldn't possibly be happier than we were ... until the next morning when we went to church. more »
Bumble Bee Adventures: A Pollinator's Destination Routes Tracked
Bumblebees are remarkable navigators. While their flight paths may look scattered to the casual eye, all that buzzing about is anything but random. Like the travelling salesman in the famous mathematical problem of how to take the shortest path along multiple stops, bumblebees quickly find efficient routes among flowers. And once they find a good route, they stick to it. more »
No Excuses: Hiding Toxic Ingredients In Cleaning Products
Formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen, is sometimes used as a preservative or may be released when terpenes, found in citrus and pine oil cleaners and in some essential oils used as scents, react with ozone in the air. Chloroform, a suspected human carcinogen, sometimes escapes in fumes released by products containing chlorine bleach. more »
Winslow Homer and His Maine Studio: “Look at nature, work independently, and solve your own problems”
At his Prouts Necks studio on the Maine coast, inspired by the rugged beauty and dramatic weather of Maine, Winslow Homer produced works that revolutionized marine painting in American art and created an iconic and enduring image of the New England coast. more »
