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
FactCheck.org Analyzes a Misleading Ad by 60 Plus
Many of the ads feature seniors saying the law will "hurt the quality of our care." But the law specifically forbids cuts in the basic package of Medicare benefits, and even adds some new features, such as wellness checkups. It also closes the "doughnut hole" gap in the prescription drug benefit. more »
Life Long Pursuits: Defining a Birder
Wordless and fascinated, I shared the porch with these frenetic birds for well over an hour, watching bare-eyed as they performed their dance of life before me. It was like being on the set of my own personal Discovery channel program. I would have watched all day. And I would surely have liked to ask them who was going to claim that scraggly, barely usable nest. more »
Science, Travel and History: Never Lost
online visitors can learn to see the world as it appeared to the ancient Polynesians. Virtual voyage instruction, master navigators “talking story” in the Hawaiian tradition, an online planetarium with a tour of the Hawaiian night sky, podcasts more »
Elizabeth Warren, "It’s time for all of us to pull up our socks and get to work"
The new consumer bureau is based on a pretty simple idea: people ought to be able to read their credit card and mortgage contracts and know the deal. They shouldn’t learn about an unfair rule or practice only when it bites them — way too late for them to do anything about it. The new law creates a chance to put a tough cop on the beat and provide real accountability and oversight of the consumer credit market. more »
