What IS musical plagiarism? Is a particular number of notes, strung in a certain order, the giveaway? Sandy Wilbur, forensic musicologist, says no; it’s more complicated than that.
Jerolyn and her fellow researchers tease out the details of the ancient Minoans’ domestic life through piecing together shattered objects, chemical analysis, experiments (like cooking demonstrations), and informed speculation. "We put these deposits together very slowly, very meticulously, to form a story about an archaeological deposit that’s been excavated," she tells us.
Perry Barber has called more baseball games during her 32-year career than any other woman umpire, and more than a lot of men, too. She means to continue umping as long as her strength and her legs hold up—and goddess help any bureaucrat who tries to keep her out of the game.
“Law school almost killed me. It almost kills even the 22-year-olds,” says Diane Bradshaw. A singer-dancer-actress for a quarter of a century, she finally yielded, when she was 48, to the continuing call of a college education. “Law school tore up my guts,” she says. “But I'm glad it did, because practicing law tears up your guts too, and a lawyer has to be able to withstand that.” And then there was the financial risk . . .
“These are David and Goliath stories," Clara Bingham acknowledges. "I like to write about whistle-blowers and people who put their lives on the line to fight corruption.”
Dr. Lauri Romanzi operates on women in developing countries who have suffered pelvic-organ injuries—many of them through obstructed childbirth. Some of her patients "have suffered so greatly at the hands of their communities," she notes, "that even if they’re returned to fully normal function, they often don’t want to go back to their village."
"Sojourner Truth was an architect of democracy as we know it! She was the first black woman feminist ever!" the opera director mused. "I started to get grumpy—Who has tucked this woman under the coffee table, and why have they done it?”
Rev. Dr. Sandra McCann has switched careers abruptly—and with some amazement—all through her life. Ask her how she happened to become a doctor, then a radiologist, then a priest, and she’ll say, with a touch of wonder, “I was taken by surprise!”
Pleasure has been Ann’s business since 1980, when she came up with the idea of a floating swimming pool. “The joy on the faces on the kids, both in Brooklyn and particularly in the Bronx . . . " she says “. . . except for my four children, and marrying my husband, 'The Floating Pool Lady' is the best thing that could have happened to me.”
Dr. Holland's concern for patients’ mental and emotional well-being—at a time when physicians took little notice of how patients were reacting to the stresses of their illness—was to develop into a medical subspecialty, "psycho-oncology," that has made a difference in the lives of thousands of patients.
In her traditional white satin wedding gown, Ann Belkov made a stately entrance into the wedding hall. But when she saw her guests, she threw her arms out and cried, “AT LAST!” For, at 75, she was a first-time bride.
How a Peabody Award–winning journalist goes about teaching a new generation of foreign correspondents the old-fashioned tricks of her trade: how to find—and reliably report—serious stories on consequential issues.
"So many people see religion as a source of division and violence," notes Dr. Sarah Sayeed. "Islam in particular is in the limelight right now as the most divisive or the most violent religion . . . but there’s so much beauty in it, so much inspiration for so many people around the world!"
Hospice care at home is not turning the home into a hospital, but making the home environment a safe and comfortable place to die. Hospice nurse Kimberly Hone explains how a hospice team educates caregivers on how to give the patient hands-on care; manages the patient's pain; offers crisis (emergency) care; and helps shepherd caregivers through their loved one’s dying process.
Dr. Holland's concern for patients’ mental and emotional well-being—at a time when physicians took little notice of how patients were reacting to the stresses of their illness—was to develop into a medical subspecialty, "psycho-oncology," that has made a difference in the lives of thousands of patients.