Our Crowd: In the Arena and in the News
Mitt Romney fails to secure Utah GOP nomination, will face primary
West Valley, Utah (CNN)Mitt Romney did not win the Utah Republican Party’s nomination on Saturday, meaning he must compete in a June primary election as he seeks to replace retiring US Sen. Orrin Hatch. After a wild and raucous day of voting at the Utah GOP convention, the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential […]
Bernie Sanders heads to the South. Can he win over black voters?
Bernie Sanders entered Duke University Chapel on Thursday night to hundreds of people singing “This Little Light of Mine.” Sitting down with NAACP national board member Rev. William Barber II, Sanders’s conversation brought up a familiar theme of his 2016 campaign: the “moral economy.” “There is no excuse for 40 million Americans living in poverty,” […]
Swimmer, 99, breaks world record in Australia
A 99-year-old Australian swimmer appears to have smashed a world record for his age group in the 50m freestyle. George Corones clocked 56.12 seconds at an official event in Queensland – a new benchmark for the 100-104 age category. He eclipsed the previous mark, set in 2014, by 35 seconds. It will now be verified […]
40 comedies from 40 years that changed the way we talk
Some movies have a way of infiltrating our everyday conversations. “Clueless,” for example, influenced the way an entire generation of kids talked. In the mid-1990s, suddenly every teen was dishing out a blase “whatever” when they weren’t totally buggin’ or Audi. It’s not the only comedy with pithy, repeatable dialogue that weaseled its way into […]
Circular & linear communicators. Which are you?
One day, my daughter wasn’t feeling well, so I took her to the doctor. Wanting the receptionist to take me seriously, I started the conversation by listing all possible symptoms my daughter had: A fever, a cough, a congested nose. After I was done with the litany, the receptionist asked: “So what do you want?” […]
The Maternal Grandparent Advantage
When I arrive at my daughter and son-in-law’s Brooklyn apartment on Thursdays, my 18-month-old granddaughter hurtles toward me with her still lurch-y gait, happy for our weekly date. While her parents work, we spend the day doing toddler stuff — reading favorite books six times in a row, singing about spiders and stars, placing objects […]
Robert Mercer’s Secret Adventure as a New Mexico Cop
Robert Mercer probably would have flown into Roswell. From there—1,800 miles from home—he would’ve traveled south through the high desert plains of southeast New Mexico, flat as a tortilla, past abandoned homesteads and irrigation machines moving in slow circles. His phone reception would’ve gotten spotty when he turned left off Highway 285. He would’ve seen […]
Finding Meaning and Happiness in Old Age
What’s the best way to develop a healthy perspective on old age? Spend more time with elderly people and discover what brings meaning and pleasure to their twilight years despite the losses, both physical and social, they may have suffered. That’s what two authors of inspired and inspiring books about aging discovered and, happily, have […]
Isabella Rossellini Introduces Her Chickens
Leave it to Isabella Rossellini to take what started as a hobby—raising chickens on her Long Island farm—and turn it into art. In the new book My Chickens and I, the actress, model, and artist introduces readers to her crew of heritage-breed chickens, with names like Andy Warhol and Amelia Earhart, who are photographed inside […]
Processed Foods Pave the Road to Alzheimer’s
Dementia haunts the United States. There’s no one without a personal story about how dementia has touched someone they care for. But beyond personal stories, the broader narrative is staggering: By 2050, we are on track to have almost 15 million Alzheimer’s patients in the US alone. That’s roughly the population of NYC, Los Angeles, […]
Sally Field on the ‘Newest Stage’ of Her Life
If Sally Field nursed a hope of dodging notice at the Whitney Museum of American Art this month, that hope was crushed when she stretched her 5-foot-3-inch frame on an outsize banquette, its cushioned surface an apparent invitation to relax. It was no such thing, as Ms. Field soon discovered. The outline of her body […]
Burt Reynolds Has Made Mistakes, But Regrets Nothing.
After 60 years in the movie business — five of them, from 1978 to 1982, as the top box-office star in America — Burt Reynolds might appear to be an open book, his every feat, foible, affair and chest hair chronicled so vividly that almost nothing about him could surprise you the way that naked […]
- Agelessness
- At Large
- Best of 70+
- Books and Authors
- Front Page
- Health
- Marketplace
- News
- One of a Kind
- Opinion
- Politics & Government
- Relationships
- Remembrance
- Technology
- The Arts
- Tools
One of a Kind
Being an artist, writing short stories and years in love with the theater are the least of Henrietta Mantooth Bagley’s qualities that strike those fortunate enough to cross her path. Those are, rather, the light in her eyes, the quickness of her mind, the openness of her heart and the authenticity that precedes her everywhere. She is an American original.
I met Henrietta, a friend of my daughter Susan, in a small restaurant in New York City’s Chelsea district. Nothing in my journalistic background had prepared me for the frankness of our conversation. I remember asking her – I don’t remember why – what she, a widow then 88, most missed about marriage. “The sex,” was her immediate answer. When I responded by asking if she hadn’t gotten enough sex in her life, she said: “No one gets enough sex.” There was much more to our conversation, but I knew I’d met someone with whom to reckon. Several months later Susan and I interviewed her in anticipation of publishing this online magazine. You’re encouraged to read the full text. The link at the bottom will take you there. read more