Doris O'Brien: As America increasingly divides along economic lines, the rich have become targets of disdain and envy. Not that they haven't always been, but now there are rumblings of an egalitarian movement in America to bring the wealthy down several…

Many garden but few gardeners have the power to reach into the future to shape landscape style and fashion. Gertrude Jekyll, Mien Ruys, Geoffrey Jellicoe, Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas Church, Roberto Burle Max, and Edwin Lutyens are just some of the extraordinary gardeners from the last century who influence today’s garden design.

Please refer to Linda Coyner's articles for many more links Blue Poppy Garden - The store and B&B is located in Sedgwick, Maine, overlooking the Benjamin River…

Of course it would also be nice if it came with some sort of niche for a small flashlight, because I am forever squinting down into lint-filled depths, looking for little items that have a way of hiding themselves. It would also need to be sturdy, because I have a bad habit of hastily flinging my purse into the backseat or onto the closet shelf, and have even been known to swing it angrily against the wall when the key to my front door jams and sticks in the lock yet again.

"The Ancient Egyptians were highly skilled in the use of herbs and spices for medicines, cooking, cosmetics, perfumes and many other purposes. Drawing on texts written by the Egyptians and their neighbours, and on works by classical authors and the Copts, Lise Manniche has reconstructed an herbal of 94 species of plants and trees used from before the pharaohs to the Coptic period.

Nearly a dozen of these sexually charged photo-portraits are on display in a separate room at the Whitney. The walls are brown and echo the sepia tones of the prints, which are soft, and in the case of the nudes, hazy. Much to O’Keeffe’s chagrin, the nudes confirmed the nature of her relationship with Stieglitz (she was 34-years-old, and he was, shockingly, married and 57-years-old) and prompted the critics to respond to her paintings as “emblems of female sexuality,” the catalogue states.

"ADULTS DON'T UNDERSTAND THE LOVE WE HAVE FOR ONE ANOTHER THEY THINK WHAT WE HAVE IS JUS' A FAZE BUT I'M SURE WE'LL STAY TOGTHER STRONGER THAN EVER FOR THE REST OF OUR DAYS."

The clothes are shapely, well-styled, very feminine, inexpensive and made in the USA. They're made from sustainable materials.

When the internet is used as a medium for neighborhood social contact, such as a neighborhood email list or community forum (e.g., i-neighbors.org), participants tend to have very high levels of local engagement.

Convening an emergency meeting with the local authorities, Reed warns that they have only 48 hours to track down the killers and probable plague carriers who threaten to spark an epidemic that could reach far beyond the city of New Orleans. Thus unfolds the drama of Panic in the Streets (1950), a film noir.

Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of both Social Security’s Full Retirement Age and the age that maximizes the household’s expected present value of benefits (EPVB). This results in a loss of less than 4 percent in household EPBV. But essentially the entire loss is borne by the survivor benefit, falls nearly 20 percent. As many elderly widows have very low incomes, early claiming by married men is a major social problem.

"The painting that sparked the outrage was Sargent's 1919 work 'Synagogue,' in which the subject is depicted as a blindfolded old woman fallen to the floor, her crown toppled, the structure around her in ruins."

From the Times: But the Obamas mix politics and romance in a way that no first couple quite have before. Almost 10 months ago, they swept into Washington with inauguration festivities that struck distinctly wedding-like notes: he strode down an aisle and took a vow, she wore a long white dress, the youthful-looking couple swayed to a love song in a ceremonial first dance and then settled into a new house.From Slate: "I remember him saying his wife thought he could do more,'' says his friend Denny Jacobs, who served alongside him. "I think she thought he was—I don't want to say twiddling his thumbs, but she thought he should either do something to move up, or he should get the hell out. She's his prod." And from the first moment, his mentor.

When dark pools share information about their trading interest with other dark pools, they can function like private networks that exclude the public investor.

Mrs. Palmer was the undeniable queen of Chicago society in the late-nineteenth century and into the twentieth, but her renown reached well beyond this city. This was a woman who entertained three American presidents at her home. She was the only woman in the United States’ official envoy at the Paris Exposition of 1900. She was related to European royalty, she golfed with King Edward, she dominated Paris and London’s elite social circles. An American leading London society?! She was in no uncertain terms a celebrity.

Robert Frost liked to say that a banker is someone who gives you an umbrella when the sun is shining and takes it away when it starts to rain. Well, we set out to prove that adage wrong at IndyMac bank. During the time we were conservator, we restructured loans for over 13,000 families to keep them in their homes.

The author, Gail Collins, is a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, and the first woman to serve as editor of the Opinion Pages. She brings a steady, folksy persona to the writing and opens the book with an outstanding account of women’s political, cultural and social history.

Those of us who became fans of Lorrie Moore’s when we first read her short stories in The New Yorker will welcome the publication of her new novel, the first in over a dozen years. Ms. Moore, who couples her career as novelist/short story writer extraordinaire with a professorship at the University of Wisconsin/Madison, may take her own sweet time between novels, but what she has produced is worth our wait.

"A socially progressive employer intenton improving working conditions within her business, Vionnetnonetheless geared her exceptional designs to an elite clientele.As was the case of many designers during the Roaring Twenties,she was not concerned with democratizing fashion. Her amazingtechnical skills paved the way for sartorial renewal based oncomplex structural experimentation."

For the 18 proceedings GAO reviewed, the length of time from an individual’s conviction through debarment (or as of November 5, 2008, for pending proceedings) ranged from about 1 year to nearly 11 years. For the 52 disqualification proceedings GAO reviewed, the length of time from initiation of a disqualification proceeding to its conclusion (or as of November 5, 2008, for pending proceedings) ranged from 26 days to more than a decade, with about one-third taking more than 2 years.

"From 1995 through 2005, the number of girls’ cases nationwide involving detention increased 49 percent, compared to a seven percent increase for boys. Compared to white girls: African American girls are sent to adult prison over five times as often and Native American girls three times as often."

"These measures are also likely to be important for people who are already suffering from cancer and who must avoid any external influence that may contribute to disease progression."

Despite expectations that this neighborhood is a secure bastion of privilege, these days, when clients get in the chair, they offer a window into the country in recession: Some are broke, others don't have a plan, and they're all looking to commiserate.