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
Ferida Wolff's Backyard: Coreopsis on the Table; Skipping the Privets for Skip Laurels; Does Talking to Plants Help Them Grow?
Is it a myth that plants respond to human/plant interaction? Years ago my friend and I heard that talking to plants help them grow so we each prepared pots with the same soil and the same plants. We watered them equally. Then we talked to one plant but not to the other. After a month we noticed that the plants we spoke to flourished while the other plants were not as vibrant. Science now shows that plants interact with each other. We seem to be part of a universal communication system even if we don’t all speak the same language. more »
In Wake of Paris, How Prepared Are US States, Cities?
Chet Lunner, a security consultant and former official at Homeland Security (DHS) and Michael Balboni, a security consultant and former NY state senator who wrote homeland security laws for his state, say even if smaller cities and towns aren't at high risk for violence and are short on the financial resources that big cities have, they should still plan and practice for terrorist attacks. Until there is centralized information-sharing between the national and local governments, it will be difficult to get localities invested in sustained antiterrorism work, Balboni said. more »
CultureWatch Reviews by Nanda and Gregg Provide Gift Ideas: Crime and Culture, Three Extraordinary Murder Mysteries
Serena Nanda and Joan Greg review: Culture plays an essential role in the crimes committed in these three extraordinary murder mysteries in the lives of the victims and perpetrators, and in the interactions of the investigations. Each narrative situates its action in historical realities that extend from the past into the present. These novels are all available through the public libraries and Amazon.com. more »
Houses and Passageways: Vermeer's The Little Street Whereabouts in Delft
Frans Grijzenhout, Professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam, consulted seventeenth-century records that had never before been used for this purpose and clearly indicate the site of 'The Little Street' in Delft. The discovery of the wherea… more »
