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
Medicare and Social Security: Changes Needed to Avoid Consequences Are More Urgent
If lawmakers take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare. Earlier action will also help elected officials minimize adverse impacts on vulnerable populations, including lower-income workers and people already dependent on program benefits. more »
Culture Watch Book Reviews: The Bookman's Tale and Rebels at the Bar; The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers
Reviewer Julia Sneden writes: The Bookman's Tale involves a blazing romance, a marriage followed by tragedy, a rare book mystery, and even a murder. If you like books, history, and mysteries involving old books, this is the story for you. Being reminded of the brave, intelligent, controversial women who broke through many barriers a good hundred years before the 1950's has been a fascinating experience and I have read Rebels at the Bar with profound gratitude.
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Review: Kristin Nord Takes a Walkabout at Yale's Edwardian Opulence Exhibit
Ah, the Edwardians – with their sumptuous clothes and candelight dinners, their bone china, their silks, their gleaming silver. Merchant and Ivory and the BBC have made fortunes selling fanciful pastiches of this era to the viewing pubic, all the while touching lightly on a less seemly back story. more »
Edwardian Opulence at Yale: 'As If a Viennese Hussar Had Suddenly Burst Into an English Vicarage'
This is the first major international exhibition in more than a generation to survey visual and decorative arts in Britain during the reign of King Edward VII (1901–1910). The exhibition immerses visitors in the sumptuousness of British art and society immediately before World War I, while encouraging them to consider the multifaceted character of the era that fostered such material lavishness. more »
