Paper description The subject of Aging: Aging has changed since our great grandmothers' era. The author explores how to prepare for the probable 30 year process (what to avoid, what to expect. She comments on parenthood (forever on alert). While sorry, some changes will steam up the bifocals with annoyance and disgust with the younger generations - like computers, pushy young and scantily dressed women. Expect memory loss, wrinkles, fitness centers, sharing space and chores with retired husbands, the single...

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History: The author, an Art Institute of Chicago docent, writes a detailed, deeply researched history of art collection (private and public) in the U.S. (including New York), but concentrating on the Art Institute (founded 1893). The acquisition of its Impressionist work is the "French Connection".

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Essay: "Make me laugh." and "I may be shallow, but I just like to laugh," writes the author. She describes the many faces of comedy: in the entertainment worlds, in literature, and political satire. Playwrights, authors, film makers - the author is well informed and hip. Even laughter in hospitals and churches. Humor connects people and that is what is irresistible.

Paper description John and Sue purchased a beautiful property on the Wisconsin River. Here is an account, however, of the restoration of the "wreck of a farmhouse and outbuildings" until it became a "Wondrous Farm" under the encompassing ministry of John and Sue. Each milk can, rooster, soybean, guinea hen - all are dealt with thoughtfully as part of the larger plan. John and Sue - and the reader - rejoice when the ultimate is accomplished. The paper includes the history of the Wisconsin River and the early...

Paper description Fictional memoir: Instead of writing a paper for the Fortnightly due in two weeks, the author flies to New Hampshire to find out what happened to a missing favorite niece, who didn't answer her phone call. A harrowing story follows. There is a search for the fifteen-year-old niece, who was abducted from her room at school. Her aunt, of course, solves the mystery and saves her niece from a terrible fate. Barbara had two weeks to select a topic and write her Fortnightly paper before she was...

Paper description The author and a French friend spent several summers in Nigeria as part of an international exchange program. The French friend's words are written as an accented French person would speak. They lived with families, Moslem and Christian, and shared their remarkable experiences. A conversation between two middle-aged women reminiscing about a long remembered summer they had spent in Nigeria just after its independence. As young women, the two had been on an exchange program, living with...

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The author and her husband were intrepid birders who kept lists of all birds they had seen in various countries. The bulk of the paper is about Africa, where they "birded" in Kenya, Rwanda, and Zaire, just before the wars between Hutus and Tutsis.

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Tony Morrison, author, professor, Nobel Prize winner is the subject of this sensitive paper. Community, history, pride, spiritualism – all are Toni Morrison’s themes. The author illustrates her themes through quotes from some of Morrison’s books.

Paper description The Pribilofs are islands in the Bering Sea, once the prize of Russians who hunted them for seals and sold the pelts. Eventually the islands became part of the Aleutians under Alaskan governance in 1867. People were not allowed to leave the islands (leading to inbreeding and consequent genetic deformities) and were not “freed” until the 1980s. Regulation of herd management did not begin until 1911. The author’s uses information from the 1879 journal of Elizabeth Beaman, the first white woman...

Paper description The author, a New Dealer, and her future husband (the conservative son of A. C. Nielsen) met at a wedding on November 29, 1943, brought together by the winds of World War II. The two relished debating and developing ideas, each person improved by the other. They married in June, 1944. She describes war-time courtship, the characteristics of and the advantages. The author had an interesting conversation with President Nixon. She describes her life as a multinational corporate wife that took...

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In her mid 70s, the author yearns to review her life experiences by culling through papers, photographs and long-owned belongings. As her closets become neater and leaner, memories gather from her early childhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, in a prosperous, but strict and cold, English-style upbringing. Her doll plays roles for the author, which offer solace and hope of recognition.

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Travel and History: The history of Sicily and an estate located in the heart of Sicily. As travelers, the author and her husband attended the famous Regaleali Cooking School with the Baron's family. The author adds the stories behind her love of cooking.

Paper description Family history/related to President Lincoln and history of portrait photography: The author’s grandfather, Frederick Hill Meserve, bought sight unseen at an auction in the late 19th century a package containing one hundred photographic salt prints. Included were two portraits of General Robert E. Lee. Meserve was hooked. By the end of his many years of amassing historic portrait photographs, his collection included ten negatives of Abraham Lincoln that Matthew B. Brady had taken from life,...

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Two humorous pieces: One is fiction based on the truth (Tracking the Non Sequitur with Knife and Fork) and the other is factual with some fictional embroidery (Up and Down the Mies Staircase). The second piece is a memoir, which begins after her wedding to Jim McNulty in 1942. Includes getting a job at the Journal on Grand near Michigan while her husband was in the Navy. Then personal anecdotes about the Chicago Symphony, restaurants, buildings, friends, her job at the Tribune, and more.

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The tales told in this paper fall into two groups. Travel: One tale recollects incidents which happened as I traveled in England, Yugoslavia, and on board a ship circumnavigating the British Isles. Memoir or Tribute: the other tale turns the spotlight on individuals who stand out in my memory because of their characters or actions.

Paper description A tour of Illinois’ small towns, villages and cities – the author includes history and geology, but emphasizes her interest in Illinois architecture. She travels to Galesburg via Tampico and DeKalb with a stop at Sheffield to view an old church and have lunch at Bishop Hill. In Galesburg, she visits Carl Sandburg’s house. Next she traveled to Nauvoo and Quincy. The Mississippi was receding from a flood. The tour went to New Salem and on to Springfield. She includes drawings of types of...

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The author intertwines stories of Russia with her daughter's trip in 1966 as a student, the news (in 1993) confirming the fate of Tsar Nicholas II (death in 7-1918), and the stories of a Russian born family ('three Russian ladies': the author's hair dresser and the hair dresser's daughter and mother).

Paper description After considering what topics, Eleanor decided to write of her claims to fame. All centered around son, Ned. First a disputed baseball play which was arbitrated by James Galigher and Major League Hall of Fame director Ken Smith for a ruling. Ned was an intern for Chuck Percy and his essay on the experience for admittance to Yale earned him a rejection because they disapproved of his criticism of the intern program. He went to his back up school Harvard where he studied film making. The...

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A trip to Egypt, planned by Abercrombie and Kent, with descriptions of the places she went and the people who were with her. Starting in Cairo with the Cairo Museum and the King Tut exhibit and continuing to the pyramids and a camel ride, Abu Simbel and a Nile Cruise from Aswan, stopping at the Temple of Isis, Kom Ombo, Karnac, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and Hatshepsut’s Temple, she describes the events and sights of the trip.

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A name can influence your experience. The author’s husband’s unusual name is Elihu. A delightful encounter with Archibald MacLeish provided an explanation of the derivation of Elihu. Erma Bombeck’s thoughts on names are quoted.

Paper description The year is 1968. The author and her four daughters join her husband (Roy Fisher of the Chicago Daily News) for a meeting in Paris of European correspondents of his newspaper and turned it into an unusual tour of London, Paris, and Rome. They begin in London, where they are hosted and entertained by Bill Stoneman. In Paris their host is Paul Ghali, a French correspondent, related on both sides to Medici Popes. He got hold of (in an adventurous way) and published Count Ciano Diaries - written...

Paper description The paper opens with a brief history of amber mineral. Then it discusses the International Executive Service Corps, an organization that sends persons with technical and management expertise to underdeveloped countries. Jean’s husband was sent to Latvia to help a pharmaceutical company, Grindex. She writes a brief history of Latvia with its occupation by various countries, including Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia. The Pettibones arrived in Latvia the year after its independence from...

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Andrea and husband Bob sail their new boat from Maine to Florida through the Intracoastal Waterway. It is a fun month of adventure. They go through violent storms, wonderful scenery, and make new friends and visit old ones.

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Book of poems read by Mrs. Schmid’s daughter and other Winnetka Fortnightly members (Eloise Fink, Sonja Fischer, Marjorie Trobaugh, and Marguerite Remien. (Note: CDs of the reading are filed in the President's/Winnetka Box and in the Newberry Box 10).

Paper description The author brings together the arts and science of time, how each enlightens the other: time as circular and as one-way, time as a facet of man’s consciousness, the speed up of time in the 20th century, a definition of time possible only in metaphoric terms (Encyclopedia Britannica), Dalai Lama, Einstein and Steven Hawking (relativity and time as a 4th dimension), Superstring Theory, Flatland (1884 science fiction by Edwin A. Abbott), Another Dimension article in Parabola Magazine by Mr....