Chicken Little and the President

Chicken Little was in the woods. A seed fell on his tail. Chicken Little said, The sky is falling.” So he ran to tell the king and everyone in the kingdom. That got me to thinking about looming research budget cuts caused by sequestration and pondering, is President Obama the Chicken Little of Sequestration? Maybe he’s just making a big deal about the slash in medical funding for research. Or maybe Republicans are right – it’s all just Gloom without the Doom. So I started looking for answers. I looked through less than a month’s worth of news clips. Not

The Lady with All the Answers

Dear Abby: I have always wanted to have my family history traced, but I can’t afford to spend a lot of money to do it. Have you any suggestions? — M. J. B. in Oakland, Calif. Dear M. J. B.: Yes. Run for a public office. Such was the incisive wit of Pauline Friedman Phillips, known to millions as Dear Abby. Affectionately nicknamed “Popo” by friends, Dear Abby was the advice maven of a generation – or rather, generations. Dear Abby: Are birth control pills deductible? — Bertie Dear Bertie: Only if they don’t work. Admittedly not an expert in

I Must Have a Puppy

It occurs to me that my mother never told us some basics about what she wanted should she ever have Alzheimer’s. True, few people think in those terms, but since both my grandmother and mother had Alzheimer’s, there’s a good chance I will be next. So, here’s my first list for my husband, daughter and son: 1. I must have a puppy to lick me and stay by my side and think everything I do is wonderful. 2. Hair: I must always be a blond with shoulder length hair. No pixie cut. Only Mia Farrow and Peter Pan can carry

If Marilyn Had Lived…

Marilyn Monroe had beauty, fame, riches, and men. But, in the end, she had nothing. Unable to remember lines, totally unreliable, and often falling into deep despair and paranoia, Marilyn increasingly turned to booze and drugs. In August of 1962, her psychiatrist Ralph Greeson, who had prescribed so many of the drugs she used, found Marilyn Monroe dead in her Brentwood home. The coroner determined her was due to “acute barbiturate poisoning” leading to a probable suicide. Marilyn never knew her father (though for a while she pretended he was Clark Gable), had a mother who was in and out

The Sexy Goddess

Rita Hayworth was a dazzler. Women wanted to be her; men wanted to be with her. She was a graceful and electric dancer. Her mother was in the Ziegfeld Follies, but wanted her daughter to act; her father, a renowned dancer, wanted her to dance. They both got their way. Margarita Carmen Cansino was born in Brooklyn in 1918. In 1937, feeling that her name typecast her, she dyed her brown tresses a blazing red and became Rita Hayworth. She was on her way to fame, fortune and a life in the sun. In 1987 Rita Hayworth died of complications