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
No One Is Coming: Hospice Patients Abandoned At Death's Door
As her husband lay moaning in pain from cancer riddling his body, Patricia Martin searched frantically through his medical bag, looking for a syringe. She had already called the hospice twice, demanding liquid methadone to ease the agony of Dr. Robert Martin, 66. But the doctor in charge at Mat-Su Regional Home Health & Hospice wasn?t responding. Staff said he was on vacation, then that he was asleep. Martin had waited four days to get pain pills delivered, but her husband could no longer swallow them. Now, they said, she should just crush the drugs herself, mix them with water and squirt the mixture into his mouth. I thought if I had hospice, I would get the support I needed. They basically said they would provide 24/7 support, she said, shaking her head in disbelief, three years later. It was a nightmare. more »
Klimt & Rodin: An Artist Encounter Breaking the Reigning Aesthetic Boundaries of the Time
Approximately 25 sculptures and works on paper by Rodin from the Fine Arts Museums’ collection will provide visual dialogues with the works by Klimt. The exhibition is thematically arranged around the Vienna Secession, Rodin's 1901 exhibition in Vienna, Rodin’s 1902 visit to Vienna, Klimt's landscapes and Rodin’s surfaces, and the depiction of women for both artists an eternal source of inspiration exploring shared touch points and developments in the two artists' practices throughout. more »
FAQs About the National Archives Records: Additional Documents: President John F. Kennedy's Assassination Records
According to the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, all records previously withheld either in part or in full should be released on October 26, 2017, unless authorized for further withholding by the President of the United States. The 2017 date derives directly from the law that states: Each assassination record shall be publicly disclosed in full, and available in the Collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the date of the enactment of this Act, unless the President certifies, as required by this Act, that – (i) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement or conduct of foreign relations; and (ii) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure. more »
The Movie Star and Me or Beauty and The Geek
Rose Madeline Mula writes: The woman on that screen would one day become my friend — we would correspond, chat on the phone, and even visit each other's homes. The glamorous Joan Fontaine of Hollywood, California, did meet and befriend the shrinking violet from Waltham, Massachusetts. Both events occurred many years after that day in 1940 when Rebecca captured my soul and took up permanent residence there as my favorite movie of all time. Surprisingly, it is the least loved work of its beautiful star, even though it had won her an Oscar nomination. more »
