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
Woman of Note and Her Gallery: Marianne North
Marianne was rare among women of this period – travelling unaccompanied and visiting areas virtually unknown to many Europeans. Marianne North was at her happiest when discovering plants and painting and she spent nearly all her time abroad in the wild, surrounded by the habitats and plants she longed to capture in oil paint more »
PBS Cooks Up Kings of Pastry
France’s oldest and most prestigious pastry competition, the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, an epic three-day test of passion, perseverance, artistry, and technical skill is on view. The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is a dream and an obsession. more »
VA Health Care: Actions Needed to Prevent Sexual Assaults and Other Safety Incidents
GAO found that many of the nearly 300 sexual assault incidents reported to the VA police were not reported to VA leadership officials and the VA OIG. GAO found significant weaknesses in the implementation of these physical security precautions ... including poor monitoring of surveillance cameras, alarm system malfunctions, and the failure of alarms ... more »
Bernanke: Facing Significant Headwinds
The housing sector typically plays an important role in economic recoveries; the depressed state of housing in the United States is a big reason that the current recovery is less vigorous than we would like... Overall inflation measures reflect these [commodity] price increases: ... over the six months through April, the price index for personal consumption expenditures has risen at an annual rate of about 3-1/2 percent, compared with an average of less than 1 percent over the preceding two years. more »
