Our Crowd: In the Arena and in the News
More older Americans are smoking marijuana
U.S. marijuana consumption is more prevalent today than during the conservative 1980s. Surges in drug use are often attributed to “kids these days,” but new research shows that the change has been driven not by stereotypical longhair youngsters but by the gray-haired and balding set. Read more at the Washington Post
The British women who secretly served in the Cold War
For more than 20 years, the green plains of Holderness, East Yorkshire, were the secret location of underground bunker RAF Holmpton, where radars watched the skies amid the threat of the Cold War. During the uncertain years of the Cold War, when nations prepared for the prospect of a devastating nuclear war, Britain created a […]
Gmail set for ‘entire rewrite’ in biggest overhaul for five years
Google is implementing the biggest overhaul of its popular Gmail webmail service in five years, bringing a new look, advanced AI-powered features and improved privacy. Two years in the making, the redesign is intended to help Google better compete with Microsoft’s Outlook on the business side and modernise consumer email by bringing features from its […]
Queen Elizabeth II Celebrates 92
Queen Elizabeth II marked her 92nd birthday on Saturday. The celebrations kicked off at Buckingham Palace during the changing of the guard where the Band of the Irish Guards played “Happy Birthday.” The customary gun salutes by the British Army took place midday — “a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park, a 21 gun salute […]
OK, robots have passed the Ikea test. Now let them clean our toilets
Listen, I’ve probably been a bit hard on this whole robot uprising thing. The idea of losing my job to something as coldly logical as an algorithm spooked me for a bit, plus I wasn’t exactly jazzed by the prospect of being rendered obsolete as a species by a platoon of super-intelligent militarised killing machines. […]
‘You were the reason’: Barbara and George Bush’s love story remembered at her funeral
Some 1,500 guests filled the pews of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston on Saturday, including former presidents and first ladies, and family and friends who gathered to celebrate Barbara Bush’s 92 extraordinary years of life. Seated front and center, confined to a wheelchair but sporting socks embroidered with books to celebrate his wife’s dedication to literacy, was Barbara’s husband […]
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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