
##4000350 Section : ISSUES <p> When Allan Bloom wrote The Closing of the American Mind , he was probably not thinking of the " closed mind " under the image of a contraceptive . Still less would anyone be likely to think of the " open mind " that way . But such was precisely the image that seemed to govern a series of events at Princeton University this past year , which culminated in the dismissal of one of the official Catholic chaplains. 1 <p> C. John McCloskey is a young priest who belongs to Opus Dei ( the Work of God ) , a mixed lay-clerical organization founded in Spain in the 1920s with branches throughout the Catholic world . Opus Dei prides itself on its loyalty to the pope and its rigorous spiritual discipline . Some of its members were active in the Franco government in Spain , and the group has often been accused of having a conservative political ideology . Officially , Opus Dei states that it has no political position as such but that its members are free to engage in political activity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Opus Dei members are known to be politically active . <p> The group has for years been in the habit of establishing houses near elite universities , and seems to recruit new members primarily from such environments . ( There are degrees of affiliation , some of which are relatively loose . ) The group was active at Princeton as early as 1987 , and in 1989 it purchased a house just off campus to serve as its local headquarters . The purchase alarmed some Princetonians , indicating as it did that the organization intended to become a permanent presence at the university . <p> Almost from the beginning , rumors about the group and its alleged hidden agenda were circulated in both Catholic and non-Catholic circles in the community . Among liberal Catholics , Opus Dei has an image somewhat like that of the Masons in earlier times -- a malign secret organization with controlling tentacles moving in all directions . Little of this has ever been documented and , whatever the group may do in other parts of the world , it is clear that in the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal piety . <p> From 1970 to 1988 the official Catholic chaplain at Princeton was Father Charles Weiser , a Trenton diocesan priest who directed the Aquinas Foundation . This organization is Princeton 's equivalent of the Newman Clubs elsewhere , and has its headquarters in a house once occupied by Thomas Mann . Weiser was appointed by the bishop of Trenton and was officially recognized by the university . By his own account , Weiser was at first cool to Opus Dei , and he describes his early encounters with McCloskey as less than friendly . Eventually however , he made the decision to appoint McCloskey an assistant director of the Aquinas Foundation , as much as anything , according to Weiser , " to keep an eye on him . " 2 <p> Shortly afterwards Weiser terminated official relations with another assistant chaplain , Jesuit Father Robert Ferrick , because of disagreements over Aquinas Foundation policies . Rather than accept Weiser 's policies , Ferrick left Princeton , but his departure caused a good deal of bitterness among his campus admirers . <p> Running through the dispute over Opus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it is revealing that Ferrick 's most ardent admirers , who attended a weekly midnight Mass he celebrated , referred to themselves as " the Druids . " One of them , the left-wing journalist Gloria Emerson , noted : " Something remarkable must have been going on to get a Jewish undergraduate , a Puerto Rican methodist sic , and an agnostic together for a Catholic worship service . " 3 Ferrick himself , in his farewell message , listed his constituency as " Druids , chapel colleagues , black and Latino friends , those concerned with alcohol and drug abuse , the harassed , the marginal , the foreigner . " 4 Notably absent from the list were those he had been appointed primarily to serve : traditional Catholics . <p> Ferrick 's departure was the occasion for the first public attacks on Opus Dei , attacks notable for the fact that , in one of the major scholarly communities in the United States , they were made without any felt need to offer proof , not even to define terms . Thus Walter Murphy , a Catholic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying Opus Dei had " Fascist ties . " 5 The closest Opus Dei 's critics ever came to offering proof of their charges of a malign hidden agenda was a frequent citing of the book The People of God : The Struggle for World Catholicism ( Viking , 1989 ) , by the late left-wing journalist Penny Lernoux , which claims that Opus Dei has been involved in various right-wing movements in Latin America . Lernoux was hardly a disinterested scholar , and Opus Dei officials pointed out that the organization had won a libel suit against her in a West German court . Her book , however , was cited over and over again as irrefutable evidence of Opus Dei 's sinister nature . <p> This alarm was fueled , within a community that prides itself on openness and rationality , by almost unlimited attention in both the campus and the community press to all the group 's critics , frequently citing the same people saying the same things over and over again . For a while no mention of Opus Dei in Princeton failed to recall that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman found murdered in the basement , despite the fact that this information had absolutely no bearing on the controversy . <p> For some months before the McCloskey case came to a boil , the press related how some Princeton Catholics were " worried " about the organization and its possible intentions , calling it " cult-like " and possessing a " right-wing reputation . " 6 Murphy alleged that Opus Dei had particularly " targeted " Ivy League universities , a charge which , if true , merely proved that it accepts those institutions ' own evaluation of their worth . Weiser , initially unsympathetic to Opus Dei , observed with some irony the behavior of highly rational academics : <p> The guy ( McCloskey ) was coming down here three times a week and people are paralyzed by anxiety . The immediate feeling I had was that they were acting like an elephant jumping on a chair trying to get away from a mouse . People were afraid Opus Dei was going to take over. 7 <p> Critics of McCloskey studiously avoided one inconvenient fact -- students and others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and it was by no means clear that his critics outnumbered his supporters . The critics claimed , with considerable vehemence , that McCloskey 's approach to religion was inherently offensive and oppressive and , in case that fact was not known widely enough , gave it maximum publicity . But , if that was so , it seemed to follow that in a highly sophisticated community like Princeton , McCloskey 's approach would have little success and he would in time be forced to withdraw . What really bothered his critics , which for obvious reasons they could not admit , was that intelligent people , including undergraduates , did find his message attractive . The critics ' task , then , was to save such people from themselves . <p> The most vocal critic was an undergraduate named Robert Taliercio , a member of the left-wing religious group Pax Christi ( the Peace of Christ ) , who was one of those constantly referring to Opus Dei 's supposed " right-wing " political ties . Taliercio claimed to have attended an Opus Dei program in Spain one summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members lived in " very luxurious " surroundings. 8 If living in opulence is grounds for condemnation , it might be supposed that many Princeton students themselves would have to be damned . However , for all the talk about " right-wing " political ideology , no Princeton critic of Opus Dei ever reported any direct experience of this . No one claimed that McCloskey tried to influence his political views , or to recruit him into any kind of political activity , even on such identifiably " Catholic " issues as abortion . <p> Instead , a small number of students reported that they had been offended by McCloskey 's approach to what the Catholic Church calls " spirituality " or personal religious discipline . Some undergraduates ( no more than a half dozen were ever identified ) complained that he was " overly negative , " " rigid , " and " censorious , " which turned out to mean that he placed a good deal of emphasis on personal sin , warned students to avoid certain " occasions of sin , " and suggested that the larger world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ merely classical Christian doctrine ( once taught at Princeton and other Protestant schools ) and , if it is indeed unattractive to modern Americans , the problem , again , would have been self-correcting -- McCloskey would simply have failed in his mission . Thus critics were forced once more to avoid the central issue : that in a truly " pluralistic " environment Catholics were free to accept or reject McCloskey 's advice as they saw fit . Instead , they had to go through remarkable contortions to conceal the fact that they simply wanted church and university authorities to suppress an individual whose views they found personally distasteful . <p> Some attempt was made to imply that McCloskey had engaged in improper actions , such as a female student 's claim that he questioned her in the confessional about her sexual activities. 9 Allegedly , these improprieties had been reported to university authorities . The nadir of yellow journalism in the case was reached by the Trenton Times , which reported that evidence of these actions had been given to " university sources , who prefer to remain anonymous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ action against them . " 10 The Times thus found it possible to insinuate serious improprieties on McCloskey 's part , to offer no proof , to claim that the evidence existed but was being suppressed , and to charge that the university had been intimidated by Opus Dei . ( If the university did indeed keep the complaints confidential for fear of legal action , a logical assumption might be that the complaints were unfounded and would not withstand scrutiny . ) <p> Unable to state frankly that they sought to suppress McCloskey 's opinions simply because they found them offensive , his critics next fell back on a relatively narrow point -- that he should not be allowed to represent the Aquinas Foundation , since it would officially associate the Catholic Church with his own allegedly distorted theology . But it was the prerogative of the foundation 's director , and ultimately of the bishop of Trenton , to decide who could enjoy official status in the chaplaincy . Weiser later stated that he had investigated every complaint against McCloskey and found no improprieties , even though he did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> The logic of the critics ' position was that no one who could be viewed as " controversial " ought to be given official status by the foundation , a contention they would hardly have defended under other circumstances ( Father Ferrick had also been highly controversial ) . A priest who , for example , might have offended some people by passionately supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua would in all likelihood be dubbed a " prophet " and praised for his courage . <p> The nub of the issue was half-consciously expressed by Taliercio when he accused Opus Dei of trying to " stamp out those who do not agree . " 11 But McCloskey was not demanding the expulsion from the Aquinas Foundation of those who did not support his views ; rather the reverse was the case . In effect his critics ' position was , " Opus Dei wants to suppress disagreement , so we have to suppress it first . " It was the dilemma of modern liberalism in a nutshell : is " tolerant pluralism " either tolerant or pluralistic enough to tolerate those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to " tolerating " only those whose views are like its own ? <p> Taliercio said that he had originally been attracted to Opus Dei because " it provided security and it makes complicated lives very simple . Everything is black and white . You do n't have to think . " 12 It was a curious confession for an Ivy League student to make , prompting , as it did , the obvious question , " If you were so easily manipulated then , how do you know that you are really ' thinking ' right now ? " But it was also necessary to justify the exercise in liberal censorship -- those who accept the Opus Dei position allegedly do not do so with full freedom and understanding , and must be protected by those who know better . <p> In December 1989 , Suzi Landolphi , a professional comedienne , performed a routine at Princeton designed to promote both " safe sex " and feminism , which included such things as pulling a male student in front of a video camera , ordering him to say " vaginal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it got caught in your throat . " She also had female students stretch condoms over male students ' heads as a means of " desensitizing " the audience to contraceptives . McCloskey subsequently published a letter in the Daily Princetonian , the official campus newspaper , objecting that Landolphi viewed students as " salivating animals without any capacity for self-control . " 13 One student responded in a letter by accusing McCloskey of trying once more to " enslave " women with " the holy bond of matrimony " and of " keeping them barefoot , pregnant and in the kitchen , " an illogical charge given the fact that McCloskey was preaching chastity . The student concluded by suggesting that " perhaps the Princeton community . and society at large should advise McCloskey to take to drinking nothing but the semen of AIDS patients . " 14 <p> Earlier , McCloskey 's critics had met with the new director of the Aquinas Foundation , a Trenton diocesan priest named Vincent Keane , to demand McCloskey 's removal . Keane , who remained publicly noncommital , let it be known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for using the foundation 's name in his letter . <p> Following the " semen " letter it might have been thought that at least some of McCloskey 's critics would begin to wonder whether the tone of the debate was sinking lower than was proper for an elite university , but there is no evidence that they were embarrassed by such rhetoric . In some ways the essence of the matter was stated by another student letter-writer , who explicitly denied that Opus Dei was entitled to the toleration of a " pluralistic , open society " on the grounds that " their agenda is to establish a universal hegemonic view . " The writer concluded . " In a plural , liberal democracy , McCloskey is allowed to spread his AIDS : Assault on Inquiry , Discourses , and Speech . But we have our contraceptives : open minds . " 15 The Landolphi incident revealed most clearly that the real opposition to Opus Dei , therefore , was not over its alleged " right-wing " political ties , but over sexual " liberation , " and McCloskey was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " because he dared to disagree publicly with current conventional wisdom . Intellectual freedom was explicitly described as a " contraceptive , " the purpose of which is to exclude consideration of unfashionable views . <p> That sexual orthodoxy was the root of the tension between McCloskey and some in the Princeton community was confirmed when the G. K. Chesterton Society sponsored a talk by Maggie Gallagher , the author of a book arguing that women have been exploited by the sexual revolution . Gallagher faced a partially hostile audience , which at one point pelted the stage with condoms . A feminist student published a review of the speech which stopped just short of saying that Gallagher should have been barred from campus , arguing that she appeared under false pretenses , since she failed to acknowledge that she supported " patriarchy. " 16 The Chesterton Society was then accused of being an Opus Dei front organization founded to give the group unmerited intellectual respectability , although members pointed out that only some of them were affiliated with Opus Dei . <p> McCloskey 's defenders soon found themselves in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forth yet another barrage of attacks , which widened to include not only McCloskey but any student who dared to defend him . The techniques were classic McCarthyism : ceaselessly repeated charges offered without proof , unsubstantiated claims often by unnamed people , hints about confidential evidence which was being suppressed . Opus Dei found itself in the impossible situation of having to say , in effect , over and over again : " We are not a cult . " <p> McCloskey 's critics repeatedly criticized the Aquinas Foundation and the university for not investigating their charges . But Luis Tellez , head of Opus Dei 's Princeton house , pointed out that no one had ever filed a formal complaint against McCloskey with the university authorities , which would have resulted in an investigation in which McCloskey could have defended himself . The critics ' weapon was primarily an unceasing propaganda barrage , and they seem to have calculated ( correctly , as it turned out ) , that such an assault would eventually achieve their goal without the obligation of having to prove their charges in any rigorous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerning matters of sexual behavior , the critics began claiming that he had warned students against taking particular courses and prohibited them from reading particular books , and that Opus Dei members themselves are forbidden to read certain works . They therefore asserted that McCloskey 's approach to education was fundamentally at odds with the nature of the university . McCloskey , in turn , claimed that the allegations were untrue or highly distorted . The only " smoking gun " the critics could find , which they attempted to establish as the murder weapon , was a memo from the priest listing about forty " courses of possible interest from a Christian culture viewpoint at Princeton University . " 17 The list was drawn directly from the university catalogue and included nine academic departments , its net cast wide enough to include both " The Religion of Islam " and " The Origins of Modern Science . " Criticism centered on a note appended to the list : " Remember everything depends on the outlook of the teacher giving the course . The latter may seem quite interesting and stimulating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impact is counter-productive . " This warning , critics trumpeted , was censorship of the worst kind and in violation of the very nature of free inquiry . <p> But no critic even alleged that McCloskey 's list omitted courses that should have been included , which would have been the obvious way of " censoring " courses the priest thought unacceptable , and on the face of it the list was a recommendation , not a condemnation . McCloskey gave no indication which courses , if any , he considered " anti-Christian , " and his warning was no different from the kind feminists and militant ethnic minorities issue all the time on university campuses . Thus critics were in the position to assert that McCloskey had no right to evaluate university courses , no matter how mildly or obliquely , a curious understanding of the nature of free inquiry . <p> At the end of last March , six students circulated an open letter to the Princeton community accusing McCloskey of using the tactics of " intimidation " and claiming that his presence on campus was detrimental to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their names appended to the list , not all of them Catholics . ( Although McCloskey 's critics portrayed him as fostering ignorance , in contrast to those like themselves who valued knowledge , their publicity was consistently marred by elementary errors . Thus , on their petition the name of the historian Carl Schorske was spelled " Scherske , " and one student claimed that McCloskey had warned her against reading " Bertram " Russell . ) <p> Tellez issued a detailed response to the petition , mentioning , among other things , the libel suit against Penny Lernoux and the fact that no formal complaint against McCloskey had been lodged with the university ; he also said that certain statements attributed to McCloskey were not authentic . McCloskey 's defenders were at a constant disadvantage , however , since his critics used each defense merely as an occasion to mount the same charges even more aggressively , a tactic which both the university and the community press were more than willing to permit . <p> Keane , who had met with twenty people demanding McCloskey 's ouster , now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had " no right " to warn students about " anti-Christian " courses. 19 Keane cited his own experience as a college professor ( of speech pathology ) to justify his judgment , apparently an act of professional solidarity with professors for whom freedom includes immunity from criticism . The Daily Princetonian , after giving McCloskey 's critics maximum publicity for months , now formally sided with those critics in an editorial decreeing that the " Opus Dei group should be allowed to preserve its religious identity -- but only to the extent that its practices do not intrude upon the university 's academic mission . " 20 Both this statement and Keane 's seemed to imply that academic freedom includes professors ' immunity from " outside " criticism . The Princetonian 's formula also seemed to imply that Opus Dei 's preservation of its religious identity is a privilege granted by the university . <p> In April , Keane announced that McCloskey would not be returning to the Aquinas Foundation in the fall , a decision McCloskey said had been conveyed to him in December , the time of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approximately nine hundred Catholic students on campus had signed the petition against him , and categorically denied their charges . The Princetonian article announcing his dismissal was a comedy of errors which scarcely bolstered the claim that McCloskey 's critics represented responsible scholarship . Keane appeared to be advocating affirmative action for Hawaiians when he was quoted as saying that he hoped to replace McCloskey with a " lei woman , " and the student paper identified Keane 's photograph as McCloskey 's , giving rise to a deliciously wicked fantasy on the part of McCloskey 's supporters , that of posting copies of the paper all over campus with the notation , " This man has been officially found to be dangerous to students . If you see him on campus , detain him and call the police . " <p> Now , even the claim by McCloskey 's critics that the issue was the relatively narrow one of whether he ought to be officially associated with the Aquinas Foundation was belied when , following the announcement of his " non-renewal , " they continued to press for a university @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ air the same charges against him . <p> Keane 's action in surrendering to McCloskey 's critics was curious in part because of their increasingly frank agenda . One student writing for the Princetonian accepted Opus Dei 's claim to loyalty to the pope but asserted that " good Catholics " need pay no attention to him. 21 One leader of the anti-McCloskey faction , who published a lengthy attack against him , signed a pro-abortion advertisement in the Princetonian. 22 However , when Weiser wrote a letter to the newspaper arguing that McCloskey had been mistreated , it was not published . ( The letter later appeared in a conservative student publication , the Princeton Sentinel , in a summary of the case in which several of the students who signed the petition against McCloskey admitted that they never met him and had signed at the urging of their friends. ) 23 <p> McCloskey and Opus Dei intend to remain active in Princeton , and McCloskey has said that his exclusion from the Aquinas Foundation might actually make his work easier . The pastor of St. Paul 's Catholic Church @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ board member of the Aquinas Foundation who said he was not consulted about McCloskey 's removal , has commented : " It seems that a little orthodoxy scares a lot of people . " 24 Princeton University itself seems to bear little responsibility for what happened to the priest . There is no evidence that the university sought his removal , although the few officials who spoke publicly mildly criticized McCloskey . Primary responsibility rests with Keane , who appears to have decided simply to buy peace . Even if every single charge against McCloskey were true , his comments and actions were within the bounds of what is usually defined as academic freedom . Ironically , in the future , those in the Princeton community . inclined to think that Catholic officials fail to respect this freedom have only to look at the treatment accorded John McCloskey to find prime evidence for their thesis . <p> 
##4000351 Section : REPORTS FROM THE ACADEMY PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> -- Alexander Pope <p> My association with the English department at Duke University began in 1971 . Having taken my bachelor 's and master 's degrees at the University of Tennessee , I was looking for a place to study for the doctorate , and was interested in a change in academic scenery . As I considered various programs , Duke University kept surfacing as a particularly attractive choice . It was small , but not too small ; it had educated two of my best undergraduate professors ; its library was spectacularly fine ; and with its gothic architectural splendor and lush gardens it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen . Furthermore , in my English studies thus far , I had often found Duke scholars such as Allan Gilbert on Dante and the Renaissance , Benjamin Boyce on eighteenth-century culture , Newman I. White on Shelley , and Lionel Stevenson , C. R. Sanders , and Paull F. Baum on Victorian literature particularly valuable . Their work was thorough , serious , and solid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something new and worthwhile . <p> I entered the doctoral program at Duke , concentrating primarily on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century English literature ; and after taking my Ph.D . in 1975 , moved on to the University of Rochester as an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow . Thus began a career that has taken me to a number of institutions , given me a chance to write , teach , and chair ( for perhaps too many years ) an English department , and generally has allowed me to experience the kinds of ups and downs usually associated with an academic career . Through it all , I found that my training at Duke served me well . Duke could not , of course , strike brilliance from such ordinary stuff as I , but it did give me a thorough grounding in the English language and English literary history , and an exposure to a very broad range of English , American , and " world " literature . It also instilled in me the sense that however important " the profession " and my own career might be to me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ literature and culture were much more so , and moreover , quite transcended in significance the relatively small world of American academic life . <p> After 1975 I had little contact with affairs at Duke . Then , in the fall of 1983 , I received a Duke University English Newsletter , a publication promising to be the first in an " on-going semi-annual enterprise to keep alumni and friends of the Department up to date on what 's going on in the Department . " My first , perhaps naive , response was one of at least mild pleasure . Learning about the goings-on in one 's old graduate program seemed innocent enough , though I do remember thinking that the rather slickly produced publication seemed just a bit vulgar and out of key with the Duke I had known . In my time , self-advertisement was viewed with something like disdain , and we graduate students joked that the classic departmental recommendation was the one-sentence statement that a given candidate was " not without redeeming virtue . " Well , this chirpy little newsletter was a far cry from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the whole inoffensive . It listed the current departmental faculty , with a paragraph about each professor 's background and publications . At the end of this section , however , I came bolt upon the following : <p> We hope that it is our humanness , as well as our professional achievements , that will come to the fore in future issues of the Newsletter -- enough so , at least , to make you want to read about who and what we are , what we do , what we think , and even what we 're like when we are outside the hallowed halls of academe . <p> Perhaps I was too sensitive , but this statement positively jarred . Just what did they mean by " humanness " ? I was certainly far from convinced that , whatever it might be , it could be communicated in a six-page newsletter . Suspecting them of cant , I thought they rather expected more interest in them personally than was warranted . <p> If I detected something self-serving and self-important in that statement , some of my fears were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a " successful " " Duke Writers ' Conference " was discussed , which " attracted national attention " ( apparently a mention in the New York Times ) , held " rigorous workshops , " and created a " rich environment . " Another item noted a ( predictably ) " successful " Association of Departments of English meeting held at Duke having " virtues other than statistical " and featuring papers " exhibiting gratifying qualifies of mutual admiration . " It was concluded that " the most fortunate departments are those at small , private universities " -- like Duke , no doubt . The issue closed with the revelation that the Ph.D . no longer required " historical distribution . " Now each program would be " shaped by the individual student , " and Ph.D . courses " spoke more directly to the students ' courses of concentrated study , " and were " extremely popular . " <p> Here , I began to see two features that would become all too characteristic of subsequent issues : an emphasis on publicity as opposed to intellectual value @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the department 's favor . The newsletter , I would soon realize , seldom reported anything without first assuring the reader it was " excellent , " " successful , " " the best , " or " important . " This left the unsettling impression that self-congratulation , publicity-seeking , and a very dubious curricular " freedom " had become the order of the day . <p> The Spring 1984 issue contained a rather bland section on the journals published by the department . Although it focused a bit heavily on the great distinction of these journals , the rest of this issue was informative and relatively modest . <p> When Fall 1984 arrived , I was gratified by the long lead article on the great Carlyle Letters project . This undertaking , begun by C. R. Sanders in the sixties , is a genuinely important work of literary scholarship -- arguably the finest ever done at Duke . A lengthy piece followed , however , on a new department member , Prof. Frank Lentricchia , who seemed an odd choice for Duke . He was himself a 1966 Duke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ upon in my time . Furthermore , his recent work had focused on highly theoretical , contemporary , political , and rather narrowly professional subjects . After the New Criticism ( 1980 ) , his most notable book , achieved great success due , I suspect , to the hope of many bewildered scholars that it would help them make sense of the opaque , jargon-ridden wastes of " contemporary theory . " At one point , Prof. Lentricchia tossed a crumb in the direction of Duke 's past commitment to historical literary scholarship , but it was clear to anyone familiar with his work that his loyalties lay elsewhere and that a department comprised of Lentricchia and others like him would be unlikely to produce another Carlyle Letters project . Indeed , his appearance on the scene strongly suggested that an idea of scholarship was beginning to obtain that was less catholic , literary , balanced , and disinterested than I had known . <p> My suspicions were increased by another piece on the new undergraduate English major , which , it was said , would now concentrate on " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " A student " interested primarily in the history of the novel " could now mainly take courses related to that interest ; requirements based on historical , literary " periods " would be largely scrapped . Lest readers consider this approach flimsy , ahistorical , overly specialized , or irresponsible , the Newsletter assured us that students were required to take a course on a major author ( Chaucer , Shakespeare , or Milton ) . How one course on Milton would make much sense to an undergraduate largely read in the " history of the novel " the Newsletter did not indicate . My fears about the Duke of 1984 crystallized when the piece concluded with the following example of English prose : " As students recognize the excellence of an English major to later experience , both personal and professional , we hope to see increased interest in our courses continue . " It was a use of " excellence " with which I was unfamiliar . <p> The Spring 1985 Newsletter , on first blush , brought little bad news . But , in the midst of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ S. Eliot , and Robert Penn Warren , there was an incoherent and largely incomprehensible piece by Prof. Gerald Monsman on his application of Derrida 's " deconstructive possibilities " to Walter Pater and ( of all people ) Charles Lamb : <p> I pointed out that for Pater ... there is no privileged source of meaning within the text -- not the author 's life , not the fate of his characters , not the text 's intellectual precursors , not the increments appended to it by the reader-critic -- but rather , that each component generates alternative possibilities of meaning because the imagery of the text contains within itself multiple , contradictory echoes . <p> This passage left me with three reflections : first , that this might -- given de-constructionist assumptions -- be applied to any writer ; second , that Prof. Monsman 's prose had benefited little from his study of Pater ; and , third , that this was a rather ominous straw in the wind regarding the English department . <p> I was at least right about the third reflection . In further reading , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replaced by a fragmented , " **29;54;TOOLONG " affair involving seven different courses , each doing its " own thing , " taught by faculty from every manner of department , and presided over by a resident " composition theorist . " The crowning touch was that each freshman would choose which course best suited him . <p> This latest revelation regarding program " reform " brought everything into focus . Whether freshman , senior major , or Ph.D . candidate , each student was to do whatever was right in his own eyes . Any concept of common expectations , experience , and bodies of knowledge , as well as a meaningful core curriculum , was clearly becoming a rare bird at Duke . It then dawned on me that without all these , not only students , but professors also would be blissfully free to pursue merely their own specialized interests . This insight would prove useful in " deconstructing " later newsletters . <p> Looking back I see that the first four issues were merely preparatory . Their self-congratulation , self-advertisement , general complacency , justification of questionable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were prelude to the grand announcement in the Fall 1985 issue that Stanley Fish was coming to Duke , as was his wife and fellow theorist Jane Tompkins . It was also noted , though rather parenthetically , that Fredric Jameson , America 's " foremost Marxist critic , " would soon grace the halls of Duke . <p> Clearly , something big was afoot . We had been told that the emperor was being fitted for a set of magnificent new clothes , and now the attendants were arriving with the complete line . Just what Prof. Fish 's impending presence signified was evident : <p> In accord with his resistance to orthodoxies and impetus to change , Fish feels that the greatest excitement in literary studies today is in feminist studies because of the " unwillingness to stop at any boundary real and imagined . " He notes that the " revisionary energy " of literary studies currently rests in feminist studies . <p> Prof. Tompkins , in an accompanying piece , described her view of literature as " a form of political power , " her " suspiciousness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ literary works that do " social work . " She indicated that as a " populist and feminist critic " she " likes to say that ' the road from Uncle Tom 's Cabin leads to The Valley of the Dolls . ' " Even to a reader of limited insight , it was evident that Prof. Lentricchia and Prof. Monsman were but humble John-the-Baptists to the true prophets . Those prophets had now arrived -- and with a new gospel . <p> The precise nature of that gospel became brilliantly clear in succeeding issues . Anything concerning traditional literary study , literary history , " the canon " -- literature per se -- was out , or at least deeply suspect . Contemporary " theory , " postmodernism , " pop culture , " " political approaches , " " gay studies , " " feminist studies , " and " the New Historicism " ( with its Marxist assumptions ) were the " new Duke . " Despite the seeming diversity of these approaches , their essential sameness was quickly revealed in the newsletter -- though such revelations could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory . " When , for instance , Prof. Fish was quoted in the Fall 1988 issue as saying : " Once you have subtracted from the accidents of class , race , gender , and political circumstance , what is it that you have left ? " it was perfectly in character . <p> The sorts of preoccupations and limitations implicit in Prof. Fish 's question quickly came to shape almost everything in the department , and this was mirrored in the Newsletter . Thus in the Spring 1986 issue , it was announced that " nonperiod specialization " would be the new emphasis at Duke . Such shifts in focus require new faculty , bringing to Duke Marianna Torgorvnick , a " cultural critic " and Jane Gaines , a " media critic . " The piece on Prof. Gaines was particularly interesting . At one point , she indulged in the sort of logic becoming quite common at Duke : " I have argued that film studies belongs in English departments because this strange presence ... better answers ... the question , ' What is literature ? ' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a close study of those texts which are not considered literature . " Maintaining that people in " film and television studies ... must find every manifestation of mass culture significant , " she went on to assure the reader that such scholarship is quite respectable : " Now Duke can move ahead with assurance because media studies has established its theoretical pedigree . Academic study of film and television is respectably aligned with the most sophisticated French theories . " No doubt . <p> The Fall 1986 newsletter heralded the hiring of another " couple " : Professors Annabel and Lee Patterson were the result of " another impressive year of recruiting . " It was made clear that the Pattersons were linked not only in marriage , but also in their " commitment " to the " political " study of literature . Annabel Patterson specifically affiliated herself with the " reaction against the reaction against political history . " Readers would perhaps have liked to ask whose political history , but that would be frowned upon , and besides , we are all expected to know the answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the new Duke . The first was a lecture by Prof. Fish on the " irrelevance of theory for practice in sports , literary studies , and the profession of judging . Examples came from legal texts , newspaper articles , and the career of former Baltimore Oriole pitcher Dennis Martinez . " The second ( not totally unrelated , perhaps ) involved the graduate English program : no longer were specific requirements needed to ensure the coverage of historical periods of literature , and comprehensive examinations would cease to be comprehensive and , instead , focus on " a major area . " Further , the foreign language requirement would also be closely tied to the " major area . " It occurred tome that with every reiterated claim of greater diversity and range at Duke , the actual literary and linguistic horizons of its students seemed to narrow . <p> The next three newsletters focused on continued hiring and the kind of " scholarly " activity characteristic of the new Duke . The Fall 1987 issue announced the acquisition of Barbara Herrnstein Smith , who apologized for her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of herself as " always having been a theorist . " Prof. Smith 's major contribution to " theory " is that all values are " radically contingent . " Also noted was the arrival of some younger academics , including Regina Schwartz , who combined study of the Bible with ( what else ? ) contemporary theory , Michael Moses , whose main concerns were South American fiction and literary studies " within the context of political philosophy , " and Michael Moon , who combined the " New Historicism " and " gay studies . " I then read of John Clum 's several essays on homosexuality , Leigh Deneef 's deconstruction of Thomas Traherne , and Joseph Porter 's explorations of " postfeminist tragedy " in Shakespeare . The highlight of the issue , however , was its list of " visiting professors , " among them a Marxist , a feminist , and " a television theorist with a special interest in soap opera . " <p> Spring 1988 stands out for its coy protest that , despite recent " newspaper accounts , " the English department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Furthermore , it was asserted that the " classics are taught and abundantly , " offering as proof the fact that English majors were required to take a course on either Shakespeare , Chaucer , or Milton . What more could one ask ? <p> What really gets taught at Duke was perhaps more candidly revealed in the Fall 1988 issue . New hires were again noted , and the stars featured were Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick , who was quoted as observing that " if the work does n't have a strong political thrust , I do n't see how it matters . " Such a charge can hardly be leveled against her . Her work centers on " male sexuality , " " central oppressions " in our culture , and " the AIDS epidemic . " What literature Prof. Sedgwick addresses in this worthy scholarship was not revealed , though the 1989-90 newsletter published the titles of two of her papers : " How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay " and " Jane Austen and the Masturbating Girl . " Apparently the classics are not dead at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whose interests include " contemporary , marginal literatures . " Despite his brave commitment to the contemporary , he lamented his students ' lack of historical perspective : " The literature of the 60 's and 70 's is ancient history . These are people who first came to social awareness in 1980 if not 1984 . " Compensations , however , do exist for Prof. Ferraro . He is delighted to be in a department , he noted , in which The Godfather is deemed a masterpiece . <p> The latest newsletter ( 1989-90 ) continues to tell the good news about hiring , and we read that Duke has a new star in black studies , two new feminist theorists , and -- my favorite -- a specialist in " daily life . " This learned person is particularly interested in the scholarly contemplation of " aerobics , shopping malls , Barbie dolls , Michael Jackson , and Mickey Mouse . " I do n't know that we should be very surprised that the department 's new Mickey Mouse authority comes to Duke after an appointment in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California at Santa Cruz . <p> As tempting as it is to close on this sublime bit of bathos , I really can not do so , for despite its rich comic value , the " new English " at Duke is not finally funny . If $100,000-a-year professors at one of America 's most expensive and " elitist " schools want to posture as good comrades , populists , and the vanguard of class struggle , probably no lasting harm is done -- to them . There are undoubtedly , however , students at Duke who would like to study literature . What they are actually studying is made all too clear in two of the most recent Newsletters . It is noted that Duke graduate students have given a number of papers lately . And what are we to suppose were their topics ? Some tides are indicative : " From Screwballs to Cheeseballs : Comic Narrative and Ideology from Frank Capra to Rob Reiner , " " Fear and Loathing in the Literary Canon . " " The Gynecology of the Closet in The Changeling , " " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Gender Paradigm , " and " Kierkegaard , Marxism , and Post-structuralism . " <p> This list is to me inexpressibly sad . Not only is the dreary sameness of the assumptions and preoccupations depressing , but completely or almost completely absent is any sign that the authors of these " works " have had any real exposure to the rich , beautiful , endlessly fascinating , and genuinely " liberating " fullness ( " canonical " and " noncanonical " ) of English and American literature from Anglo-Saxon times to our own . In the final analysis , it is not so much what the Duke English department actually does that matters -- as silly as much of it is -- rather , it is their painful and ultimately absurd desertion of literature as a great human art , and as a great instrument of culture in the Arnoldian sense , that condemns them . <p> By Phillip B. Anderson <p> <p> Phillip B. Anderson is professor of English and chairman of the Department of English at the University of Central Arkansas , Conway , AR 72032 , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4000352 Section : POINT OF VIEW <p> Should the curriculum include more humanities ? Many thoughtful people think so . They argue that the humanities are needed to help us get back in touch with our essential humanity , regain our moral insight , recover our sense of values , return to our cultural roots , and restore our political traditions. 1 Like the humanities themselves , this argument is inspirational but vague ; and because it is vague , it is dangerous . It leaves many questions unanswered , and this leaves room for people to answer these questions in ways we might not like . <p> Here are some of the questions that need answering . What , exactly , are the " humanities " ? Which courses in humanities will students be required to take ? Why should these courses be preferred to those they will replace ? Who will teach these courses , and whose humanity , moral insight , values , culture , and tradition will they advance ? How will these courses be taught ? I believe that these and similar questions must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whether requiring more humanities is a good idea or a bad one . The Vagueness of the Idea of the Humanities <p> If anything can safely be said about this subject , it is that the term humanities is not well defined . Consider the list of courses that will satisfy the humanities requirement in my own university 's so-called core curriculum. 2 This list , which is typical , contains just under a hundred items and is still growing . In addition to the usual courses in literature , classics , history , anthropology , philosophy , and religion , there are also courses in art , music ( both jazz and classical ) , dance , American studies , women 's studies , Latin American studies , communications , political science , speech , film , etc . This is a very heterogeneous and divergent lot . These courses may have what the philosopher Wittgenstein called family resemblance , meaning that A has eyes like B , who has a nose like C , but there is almost certainly no way in which they all resemble each other . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long , but that it is too diffuse . No one could object to the richness of choice if it served a clear and coherent educational purpose , but , if it does , who can say what that is ? Certainly not I. Each of these courses may have its value , but the value is different in each case . There does not seem to be anything that all of them have in common . So , there does not seem to be any reason to group them all together and require every student to take one or more . <p> It is sometimes said that the humanities all have in common a concern with values . Accordingly , courses in art and literature treat of things that embody aesthetic values , and courses in feminism or Marxism treat of economic , political , and moral values . Yes , but every human activity , including science and engineering , either treats of or embodies values . Thus , the social sciences treat of values in discussing human behavior , and the physical sciences embody values by preferring evidence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the exclusive possession of the humanities . <p> We could , of course , try to limit the humanities to particular sorts of values . For example , we could try limiting them to aesthetic values . The humanities would then include nothing but courses in art , music , and literature . Women 's studies and communications would be left out . Yes , but also left out would be the first two parts of Northrop Frye 's famous triad of humanities : philosophy , history , and literature . Why not then simply limit the humanities to Frye 's triad ? Because that would leave nothing out . Philosophy , history , and literature are universal media ; they cover everything . So , once you 've included them , you 've included everything else , too . <p> We could leave out the arts if we limited the humanities to moral values , but we would then have to include women 's studies , black studies , economics , politics , and so on . In fact , social science would now comprise most of the humanities -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desires . <p> Evidently , it is hard to find a characterization of " the humanities " that will limit them to a short and well-defined list of things . In fact , every choice is arbitrary . Although no single principle , rule , or definition determines what counts among " the humanities , " there is a perfectly good explanation and justification for every item on virtually everybody 's list . Humanities Has Added New Meaning with Each Age <p> Why this is so will become evident after we review the history of the concept of the humanities . As this history reveals , the word humanities is a chameleon which has changed its color to suit every age and ideology . In consequence , it has not one well-defined meaning but many different , if overlapping , meanings . <p> So far as I have been able to discover , the idea of the humanities originated in the Renaissance , when scholars tired of medieval theology and other-worldliness distinguished literae humaniores , writings about things human in scale , from literae divinae , writing about things divine in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been given over to God and the church , most of the down-to-earth writings were in classical Latin or Greek . Therefore , the first humanists were classicists , lovers and scholars of classical literature . More generally , they were admirers of things classical , devotees of classical ( i.e. , Greek and Roman ) literature , art , and culture . <p> Present use of the term humanities still retains some of its original meaning ; but the term has also acquired a very different connotation , one that is in some ways broader , in other ways narrower . <p> First , the broader connotation . Where medieval theology had been dry and logical , the classics were elegant and charming . So , the adjective humanistic soon came to connote not just the subject but also the style of the writing . In fact , style eventually counted for more that content . Whether the writing was about man or God ceased to matter very much ; what mattered was whether it was refined or florid . Hence , humanities now more often denotes what the French @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything at all , human or divine . <p> Once this extension of usage came into existence , a still further extension was soon to follow . If what made literature humanistic was its refinement or elegance , then the same could be said of all art , whether literary or not . Accordingly , humanities has come to denote not just poems and stories but all refined art , including painting , music , sculpture , film , and the like . As a result , humanistic now means arty -- in other words , refined , cultivated , and effete . <p> This broadening of the term to include all of the refined arts has been accompanied by a compensating narrowing . In the Renaissance , humanists prized classical discussions of science . One of the greatest discoveries of humanist scholars was a copy of Lucretius ' poem On the Nature of Things , which made known to modem scientists the atomic theory of matter first formulated by Democritus of classical Greece . Also of interest to Renaissance humanists were Roman writings on engineering , governmental administration , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to adopt the factual , analytical manner of the medieval scholastics , science and technology ceased to count as humanistic . In fact , both science and its technological applications came to be regarded as the embodiment of all things that were not humanistic . C. P. Snow 's " two cultures " came into being , as science became antihumanistic and humanists became antiscientific . <p> The exclusion of things scientific was completed in the nineteenth century , when the German romantics distinguished what they called Geistewissenschaffen , studies of the spirit , from what they called Naturwissenschaffen , studies of the physical world. 4 Believing that a human being is essentially a spiritual , not a physical , being , the Germans reinterpreted the humanities as inspirational studies , the main purpose of which was to influence not the intellect but the will and the emotions . This made theology , which had originally been the very opposite of a humanistic study , into the most important such study . It also meant that science was now formally excluded from the humanities by virtue of its content as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that had flowed from science . Accordingly , humanistic now meant things ornamental , inspirational , and cultivated but unscientific and impractical. 5 <p> In summary , the word humanities originally meant the naturalistic writings , then the naturalistic art , of classical Greece and Rome . Later , it signified any form of refined art or writing , and then any form of art or writing that is edifying , inspirational , or entertaining but not analytical , informative , or utilitarian . At one time or another , therefore , humanities has denoted just about anything anybody cares to mention . <p> Given this history , it is no wonder that lists of " the humanities " are so lengthy and diffuse . One might desire to prune these lists , but there is no obvious and principled way to do it . In the history of the term humanities one can find a justification for every item on the list . So , whether he likes it or not , a friend of " the humanities " is committed to them all . The Diverse Values of " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diffuse and divergent collection of things ? The customary answer is , again , one that mentions " values . " We teach the humanities , it is said , in order to teach our pupils a sense of aesthetic , moral , political , economic , or intellectual values . Let us now examine this answer . <p> Obviously , it owes a lot to the romantic conception of the humanities . In that conception , the humanities are inspirational rather than scientific studies ; their main function , as the romantics themselves emphasized , is to cultivate not the intellect but the passions and the will . In other words , their business is to inculcate us with certain moral and aesthetic values . Where the sciences teach facts and logic , the humanities are to teach feelings , obligations , and taste . Where the sciences teach us how the world is , the humanities teach us what it ought to be . Where the sciences endeavor to understand the world , the humanities aspire to take the right attitude towards it and make efforts to improve it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ idea is questionable because it leaves out the social sciences , which deal with both facts and values , and overlooks the fact that natural science embodies and teaches the values inherent in a preference for reason and truth . However , let us overlook these difficulties . For the sake of the discussion , let us grant the distinction . How does it help ? <p> So far as I can see , it does not . Here is why : once the topic of values has been raised , we inevitably face the question , " Whose values ? Mine or yours ? " You like Mozart ; I like Monk . Who will we teach our students to like ? You prefer Matisse : I prefer Grandma Moses . Who will we teach our students to prefer ? Jones favors feminism , Smith , a strong family . Which will we teach our students to favor ? Sarah believes in free enterprise , Sam , in socialist equality . Which will we teach our students to believe in ? <p> To some people , the answer will seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to prefer what is beautiful to what is ugly , what is good to what is bad , what is true to what is false , and so on . Unfortunately , these abstract terms -- truth , beauty , justice , goodness , etc. -- conceal great intellectual and practical problems . Who gets to decide what is to count as true , beautiful , just , or good ? You , I , or somebody else ? <p> This is no problem where you and I , who share essentially the same values , are designing a curriculum for a private school or university supported by voluntary contributions and attended by people who wish to be taught what we wish to teach them . Designing a curriculum for a public school or university , however , presents a moral difficulty . This arises from the fact that it is contrary to the principles of a free society to compel citizens to pay taxes to support the teaching of values that can not be reconciled with their own consciences and interests ; and it is doubly onerous to compel them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The public schools are nobody 's private property . They do not belong to any group to do with as it pleases . Rather , they are the property of all who must pay the taxes that support them or submit their children to their tutelage . What Are Our Choices ? <p> What then should we do ? The answer , I think , lies in giving up the idea of using the schools to teach students " values " per se , and insisting instead that they be taught skills . In particular , we can insist they be taught the intellectual skills that used to be known as the liberal arts . I believe that , in the process of learning these valuable skills , students will also automatically acquire some of the most important values , namely , respect for discipline , hard work , reason , truth , honesty , excellence , achievement , civility , etc . There will be no need or room for indoctrination . <p> These remarks will puzzle some readers . It is generally believed that the humanities and the liberal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , it will seem inconsistent to praise the one while condemning the other . It is also widely believed that the main business of teaching the humanities is to refine the tastes and improve the morality and politics of our pupils . So , it will seem self-contradictory to reject doing this while recommending training for citizenship . How the Liberal Arts Differ from the Humanities <p> To resolve these paradoxes , I must now explain how the liberal arts differ from the humanities and why teaching the skills necessary for good citizenship can escape the temptation to engage in political or moral indoctrination . <p> The idea of the liberal arts was invented by the ancient Romans , to whom the word arts meant " skills " and the word liberal signified " free . " Accordingly , the great Roman writers Cicero and Seneca explained that the liberal arts were the intellectual skills needed by free men -- as opposed to the menial skills needed by slaves . Among the liberal arts as thus understood were the skills of calculating , reasoning , reading , writing , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsibility and prerogative , as citizens , to participate in making or approving policy for the republic . In short , the liberal arts were the skills needed for free and effective citizenship . <p> The term liberal arts retained this rich and complex meaning throughout the Middle Ages . In the typical medieval university , the basic studies were the seven artes liberales , which comprised the trivium of logic , grammar , and rhetoric and the quadrivium of arithmetic , geometry , astronomy , and music ( i.e. , poetry ) . Higher education involved the study of more esoteric subjects : revealed philosophy ( i.e. , theology ) , natural philosophy ( i.e. , science ) , and moral philosophy ( i.e. , ethics ) . Anyone who went through this curriculum got a liberal education , one fitting him not to earn a living or enrich himself at a particular occupation , but to fulfill his public responsibilities as a citizen . He could read , write , and reason at a very high level of proficiency . <p> It should now be clear that the liberal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the concept of the liberal arts is far better defined . Second , the liberal arts are skills whereas the humanities are subjects . Third , mathematics is one of the most important of the liberal arts , but it is positively excluded by the romantic conception of the humanities . Fourth , although they are intellectual rather than occupational skills , the liberal arts are useful rather than ornamental , utilitarian rather than inspirational ; unlike the humanities as they are presently conceived , the liberal arts can not be equated with the refined arts . Finally , there is no antagonism between the liberal arts and either science or technology . Teaching the Liberal Arts Should Be Our First Priority <p> My contention , broadly stated , is that we ought to concern ourselves first with instruction in the liberal arts . We should make the teaching of the subjects embodied in the humanities , and in the social or natural sciences , a goal of secondary importance to the inculcation of intellectual skill . <p> The reasons are obvious . Everybody needs these skills , but few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my own experience as a college teacher confirms , students these days can not read or write or calculate , much less reason effectively . I know from personal experience that we are now graduating with B.A. and B.S. degrees people who can not write grammatical sentences , read and understand paragraphs , calculate simple percentages , or compose a coherently formulated argument -- things many eighth graders could do fifty years ago . This is shocking , it is shameful , and it desperately needs to be corrected . <p> But we are not going to correct it if we continue to fight over whose values to teach . Instead , we shall just distract attention from what truly and most urgently needs to be done , namely , restoring to our students the capacity to reason seriously . <p> The task may seem insuperable , but if we attempt it we have one thing going for us : it is , in fact , an objective that virtually everybody , whatever his political or religious convictions , can support -- because virtually everyone will benefit from its realization . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arts -- as much of them as we can get . So , anybody with any sense wants to be able to read and write at as high a level of proficiency as his abilities will allow . <p> For this reason alone , instruction in the liberal arts ought to be one of the main tasks of public education in a free society . Training people in the refined arts ought to come second . So should training in the occupational or vocational arts , as well as training in moral , religious , and political values . <p> Please note that nothing in this proposal either rules out teaching the humanities , the social sciences , or any other subject or denigrates the importance of exposing students to rival values and views of life . It just requires that these be taught with an eye to increasing the student 's level of literacy , numeracy , and general powers of reason . What better way to teach students to read and think than by doing it through Plato , the Bible , Shakespeare , Jefferson , Marx , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take courses which are aimed at influencing their attitudes and conduct , but not at raising their level of intellectual skill . <p> Unfortunately , humanities courses do not always satisfy this standard . In a passionate and eloquent essay on the topic , writer and former teacher Ellen Ashdown has pointed out that many humanities courses in the public junior colleges are designed not to raise the level of student literacy but to accommodate the illiterate student. 7 Such courses use books with lots of pictures in them , and rather than teaching the student to read or write they rub a little high culture off on him while collecting his fees . <p> The universities have little cause to feel superior . To see why not , consider English and history , the two most popular fields in the humanities . When taught correctly , they are excellent vehicles for inculcating the liberal arts ; but they are not always taught in the right way . Teaching the liberal arts is labor-intensive ; it takes time. 8 Professors in the public universities have far too many students to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thus , as William Arrowsmith pointed out long ago , the professors of English generally leave the teaching of literacy to their graduate students , to whom they teach literature. 9 The professors of history do something similar . They teach great masses of students names and dates in mind-numbing survey courses while graduate students mark the papers . This is not the fault of the professors , who are often doing as best they can under difficult circumstances ; but it nonetheless needs to be corrected . Until it is corrected , we can not automatically expect students to learn the liberal arts from studying English and history . Conclusion <p> The moral of the story is this : an argument can be made for requiring students ( especially in the public schools ) to study courses -- whether in the humanities or not -- when these are taught with a eye to inculcating the liberal arts , the basic intellectual skills that every citizen requires . Little argument can be made , however , for increased study of the humanities where this will have the result of substituting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the basic skills of the intellect ; and no argument at all in support of using the humanities to indoctrinate students in the moral , religious , or political values of any group . <p> It will be objected that teaching people to read , write , calculate , and reason is the business of the grammar and the high schools ; and so it is . But I believe that the colleges and universities should also teach these skills , albeit at a higher level . Furthermore , the debate over which level should do it is academic . At the moment , neither the grade schools nor the institutions of higher education are teaching the liberal arts . They must both go back to doing so . For reasons that the ancient Romans understood well but we have somehow managed to forget , our preservation as a republic of free citizens may depend on it . <p> This brings us back to politics . As these last remarks suggest , the purpose of teaching the liberal arts is political ; but it is political in the broadest and best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ competency in the liberal arts is good for the whole political order and everybody in it . Emphasizing the primacy of the liberal arts is , however , certainly not political in the narrow and bad but popular sense of that word : the liberal arts are not partisan ; they do n't favor the program of this political party over that one ; they do n't advance one group 's interests at the expense of another 's . Rather , possessing the liberal arts enables every group to advance its own interests and , thereby , the well-being of the whole . <p> 
##4000357 On 5 April 1990 , the New York Times reported that Dr. Joel Segall , president of Baruch College of the City University of New York , was resigning from his job , following a critical review by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges . There was no allegation that Baruch was anything less than an excellent college . In fact , it is widely regarded as one of the four top business colleges in the country and trains almost one out of every three of the certified public accountants working in New York . Rather , the complaint was that there were not enough " minorities " in the faculty and administration and that not enough " minorities " graduated . Disturbing though this is , even more unsettling is the fact that the criticism was concocted by the central offices of the accrediting agency , acting independently of its own guidelines and evaluation team . <p> While it contained some criticisms of Baruch 's curriculum , the public report issued by the evaluation team itself was on the whole quite positive . ( The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mentioning ethnic tensions and the lack of minorities on the faculty . The report did not state that accreditation was to be withheld or deferred because of these matters . ) According to procedure commonly followed in accreditation , Baruch was given an opportunity to submit a statement answering the criticisms in the team 's report . Following the college 's response , a still confidential letter from Sarah Blandshei , the chair of the Middle States Association , is said to have indicated that accreditation would be " deferred " because of the " minority " attrition rate and the lack of " minorities " in the administration and faculty . <p> Dr. Howard L. Simmons , executive director of the Middle States Association , acknowledges that under his leadership , the agency has undertaken a new activist role . He has asserted , according to a recent issue of Black Issues in Higher Education , that all universities must be made responsible for the success of " minorities " in higher education. 1 In order to do this , Simmons said in an interview , the faculty and administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the student body . " 2 This is part of a broad initiative by Simmons . According to published reports , fifteen to twenty other institutions have also been threatened on these grounds by the association ; Baruch 's is only the first case to become public . <p> The attack on Segall and the Baruch faculty represents an ominous direction taken by accreditation . For the first time , an accrediting agency is criticizing the ethnic composition of a college 's graduating class , as well as making specific complaints about the racial makeup of its faculty and staff . According to a source on the Department of Education 's National Advisory Committee on Accreditation and Institutional Eligibility , such a step is entirely unprecedented . No other accrediting agency has ever undertaken an aggressive role in attempting to impose racial quotas on faculty , administrators , and graduates . <p> In itself , the attempt to control the ethnicity of university personnel is nothing new . In the last twenty years , the concept of affirmative action has evolved into a quota system in which white males are routinely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ article in the American Scholar. 3 Although deeply threatening to the integrity of the university because they undermine the concept of professional peer review , quotas imposed on personnel committees have been a long time aborning , and it does not appear that they will be easily abolished . Until recently , however , the federal government was the principal agency in this coercion . Now , it appears , the effort has shifted from government to private agencies such as Middle States , accompanied by the notion that henceforth a college may have its accreditation withheld if it does not graduate the right percentages of certain ethnic groups . A Racial Graduation Quota ? <p> When asked if a college could be found delinquent for failing to graduate sufficient numbers of " minority " students , Simmons agreed that Middle States does use an " outcomes-based approach " for granting or withholding its approval . He denied that Middle States has any " hard and fast rules " regarding minority retention rates , indicating there is " never a single standard " in assessing a school 's performance in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education : Standards for Accreditation , the handbook used by Middle States . In fact , there is no statement whatsoever in that manual concerning minority retention rates . When this was pointed out , Simmons changed his mind and said that accreditation is granted or withheld on a case-by-case basis . " I know that sounds hard to understand , " he admitted , " but that 's how they do it . The team decides differently for each school . " There are " so many factors involved " that there can be " no quantitative standards " for evaluating a college . So much for the objective criteria of accreditation . <p> What is particularly bizarre about Simmon 's line of reasoning is the fact that students at Baruch , regardless of racial and ethnic identity , generally have a much better chance of graduating than elsewhere . Of white freshmen at Baruch , 48 percent graduate in four years , compared to a national average of 40 percent ; 37 percent of black freshman graduate in four years , compared to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graduate in four years , compared to 42 percent nationwide. 4 ( Only " Hispanics , " a particularly heterogeneous group whose actual composition varies greatly by region , do slightly less well -- 31 percent at Baruch and 35 percent nationwide . ) <p> Apparently , not only have the criteria for " minority retention " been invented for the occasion by Middle States headquarters , but the true numbers have been ignored . It is likely that the criteria are kept deliberately vague in order to increase the arbitrary power of the accreditors . The use of an unstated but de facto racial graduation quota puts university administrators in a vulnerable position , since there is no way to tell whether Middle States will charge them with not having satisfied the goal of graduating sufficient numbers of designated minority groups . The lack of precision permits Middle States to deny that they are seeking any exact outcome , thereby avoiding legal action . At the same time , when it suits them they can use the " outcomes-based approach " as a potential threat to colleges seeking accreditation . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real racial graduation quota , residents and deans will be inclined to design programs to increase graduation prospects for protected groups . <p> Middle States can thus obtain the desired outcome without ever having to invoke the threat explicitly , and all the while remain protected from public scrutiny . Simmons admits having adopted the same tactic with many other institutions , but because of the secrecy involved in the accreditation process , he has not had to be held publicly accountable . However , in this he may have violated federal regulations . The Department of Education has criteria for recognition of accrediting agencies , one being that an agency " not mislead the public " regarding an " institution 's or program 's educational effectiveness . " 5 Can Whites Teach Blacks , and Vice Versa ? <p> The other criticism leveled against Baruch is that is does not employ enough " minorities . " In reality , this argument is absurd , since many Baruch professors are Jewish and non-white Asians . But in education-speak , such individuals are not defined as " minorities . " Middle States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ non-Hispanic whites and not enough blacks for a student body that includes many blacks and Hispanics . Thus , the broader question at issue is whether or not white instructors can adequately teach " minority " students . The " diversity " of a student body , according to Middle States , must be matched by a corresponding " diversity " of faculty and administrators . This belief is so widespread amongst academic administrative cognoscenti that few question it . When the logic of such a concept is challenged , the usual response is that a white professor can not be as good a " role model " for a black student as a black professor . <p> In fact , there is little or no systematic evidence for this argument . In social psychology , the notion of " role model " is correctly applied to the basic socialization of children , when explaining how in childhood we " identify " with others , particularly parents , siblings , and peers , and choose certain persons ( particularly those of the same sex ) on whom to model ourselves . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may be as likely to " de-identify " or want to be the opposite of a peer or a sibling or a parent . It is also highly questionable whether this process takes place after puberty . At most , therefore , while one may suggest that professors can serve as inspirational mentors to college students , no evidence exists that such individuals must be of the same sex , race , or cultural background . The idea of " role model , " in short , is fraudulently applied in the field of higher education . <p> Indeed , if such a concept did make sense , it would have exactly the opposite results of what Middle States ostensibly desires . It would mean not only that black students should be counseled to take courses only from black professors , but also that white students should not take courses from black professors . If black students need black professors as role models to spur them to greater levels of achievement , white students require and deserve the same kind of encouragement . Taken to its logical conclusion , the " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial segregation in higher education . If black students respond best to black professors , they ought to maximize their chances by enrolling at all-black colleges . The same would apply , mutatis mutandis , to white students . <p> Another justification for the use of racial quotas in hiring is the suggestion that white professors are somehow harder on black students . As closet , or unconscious , racists , white faculty are , according to this argument , responsible for the higher dropout rate of blacks . In point of fact , there is no evidence for greater white professorial bias against black students . Dr. June O'Neill , a former member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights and professor at Baruch 's Center for Business and Government , has done extensive research on the determinants of black and white high school students ' achievements when they are young adults . Black students who have black teachers tend to do less well in terms of verbal aptitude , but this is because black faculty tend to be less well prepared . By itself , a teacher 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is doubtful , however , that Simmons and his allies are inspired by evidence or logic . There is no reason to believe that much reflection was done on the scientific basis for their criticisms and suggestions . Rather than call for measures that will actually improve the quality of education at the institutions they investigate , they seek symbolic moves that produce positive media images . Future Implications of Accreditation Quotas <p> In the classic accreditation process , institutions are evaluated on the basis of the stringency or laxity of their educational standards . In the past , if a college was found to be too lax , accreditation was withheld , or perhaps conditionally granted pending correction of certain deficiencies . But now , for the first time , a college 's accreditation has been " deferred , " not because its standards are too low , but because they are too high . An institution of higher learning is being directed to arrange its faculty , administration , and curriculum so that a de facto racial graduation quota can be filled . Aside from some serious issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the abolition of institutional autonomy and faculty control over the hiring process . <p> It is no coincidence that this new and arbitrary direction has been taken by a private accrediting agency . In 1989 the Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that seriously undermined the ability of government to require institutions to use racial and sexual quotas in hiring and promotions . Though this was a serious setback for those who would like to see a political system governed by racial and sexual entitlement , they have evidently regrouped . <p> For example , under the sponsorship of Senators Kennedy and Hawkins , the Civil Rights Bill of 1990 currently being argued in Congress would reimpose on employers the burden of proving that they did not discriminate against minorities in hiring . Since it is virtually impossible to prove that something has not occured , the result will be that employers ( including colleges and universities ) will be obliged to adopt quotas in hiring in order to forestall potential lawsuits . This is particularly likely because the same legislation will require employers to pay the cost of employees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discrimination free of charge . <p> On the level of academic rhetoric , the tactic has been to substitute " diversity " for the now-tainted " affirmative action , " since it is widely recognized that the latter has produced discriminatory preferential hiring . Surveys show that most blacks , as well as most whites , are opposed to preferential treatment for blacks . Using " diversity " sounds better because the term is vague and it is hard to say one is against it . But the Baruch case shows what " diversity " truly means ; it is simply old wine in new bottles . <p> That there is no logical or empirical justification for racial quotas in hiring or graduation should not need saying . But Simmons and his allies are not governed by logic or facts ; they are driven by a sense of moral righteousness that is impervious to any argument . Rather than conforming to consistent and objective standards of excellence , Simmons makes up the rules as he goes along . Rather than appealing to the intellect , Simmons tugs at people 's basest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education . <p> 
##4000358 Recently I read a fine article by Prof. Walter Berns , called " The Core as an Education for Natural Aristocrats " ( see Academic Questions , Summer 1989 ) . It 's a Jeffersonian idea and I agree with it , but for some reason I find that I spend much more time worrying about that oxymoron , the natural bourgeoisie , than about any kind of aristocracy , natural or conventional . <p> It 's true that students at liberal arts colleges , even in Ohio , have a kind of aristocratic assurance that their lives will be successful , and that they will do important things in the world . Also , they tend to enjoy something of the high-minded innocence of the well-reared and protected which encourages them to love learning for its own sake rather than for material utility . But , to belabor the obvious , above all they are creatures of liberal democracy and , as such , irredeemably bourgeois . They pretend to be relativists but are really believers in rights and individual responsibility . Underneath the high-toned moralism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lives they will lead when they graduate will overwhelmingly be bourgeois lives , composed of the usual professional and commercial careers , condominiums , divorces , therapies , and retirements . <p> Of course , not only do liberal educators know this , but on the whole it drives them wild . As we all know , by and large liberal arts professors belong to that strain of the bourgeoisie which dislikes itself ; hence the really powerful intellectual movements on contemporary campuses are all characterized by bourgeois-bashing . What holds " humanistic , " i.e. , aesthetic , Nietzschean Marxism together is hatred of the human products of commercial republics . Feminism , which in the larger society has strong elements that are irreproachably bourgeois ( wages , equality , self-fulfillment ) , in the prestigious universities is magnetized to utopian , antibourgeois speculations about overcoming the " tyranny " of gender or " patriarchy . " Deconstruction , despite , and indeed because of its air of a political cool , mocks the square epistemological naivete of workaday life . The crusade against the dominance of " Western @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students to something really exotic , and thus to destroy their bourgeois complacency . Pedagogical politics is thoroughly antibourgeois , whether it is engaged in purifying democracy of its bourgeois taint or creating idealists who are to work for a better nonbourgeois and perhaps nonliberal world . <p> Yet there is something paradoxical and self-defeating to the point of comedy in the way this all works out . To understand this , one has to remember why the bourgeois got such a bad reputation in the first place . This is not self-evident . In certain passages Adam Smith , for example , glorifies the honesty , straightforwardness and independence of the bourgeois . Where the courtly spaniel fawns and begs for a bone of patronage , the manly bourgeois plunks his hard-earned money down and " trucks " for his wherewithal . There are still some students like this , mostly economics majors , who simply can not be made to feel guilty about maximizing their utilities . Still , most of the students I see resemble the bourgeoisie Rousseau denounces and Moliere lampoons , a bourgeoisie intimidated by aristocratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bourgeois is a creature of cities , but not really a citizen , just a lover of private life , peace , and commerce . Alienated from his original human nature as a happy , sappy , witless beast , he has not achieved a coherent second nature . That is why " the natural bourgeoisie " is an oxymoron ; the bourgeois is convention incarnate . This makes him extremely nervous and he lives , like Moliere 's M. Jourdan , according to the opinions of others . His natural self-love sours into amour propre , poisoned by fears about his neighbors ' judgment of his lawn , his car , his politics , and his soul . The vice of vanity constitutes his inner life . He wants to be liked , even if not well-liked , if only someone will tell him what rules to conform to . In the end , most do not go as far as M. Jourdan ; most do not try to transform themselves utterly into aristocrats or -- as is more typical today -- proletarians or bohemians . But mostly the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conscience . <p> I find that students fit the pattern pretty well . The smugness which their teachers find so exasperating is only an attitude , struck for lack of a better , and easily gives way to self-contempt and cynicism . Last year I heard the actress Jody Foster , recently graduated from Yale , interviewed on a morning news show . The interviewer asked Ms. Foster if playing a rape victim in a film had enabled her to relive the real victim 's plight . Of course not , came the reply , to imagine that would just be " bourgeois . " I gather from this that Ms. Foster had learned her lessons well at Yale . She had learned that " bourgeois " is a synonym for philistine , fake , and vulgar . <p> But did learning this make her less bourgeois ? She may think so , but , to judge by the students I see , she would be wrong . Contempt for the bourgeoisie is in fact a classic and unattractive bourgeois trait that today 's liberal education tends merely to aggravate . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ frequently assumes the character of a pathological , " passive aggressive " relationship . On the surface , one parmer constantly exhorts , denounces , and edifies while the other heaps ashes on his head , confesses , and grovels . Really , however , the apparent victim , in this case the student , remains quite untouched , absorbs the critique into a preexisting pattern of self-blame and determination to resist , and often succeeds in revenging himself in typical passive aggressive ways by constantly offering hope of reform and constantly frustrating it . Real liberal education is thus twice blocked : first by the genuine , though hidden , resentment felt against what liberal education appears to be , and second by the students ' delusions that they have overcome their bourgeois limitations when they have merely intensified them . <p> Of course , the question Rousseau raises about the bourgeois is a version of the question we are treating here . There is indeed something defective about the bourgeois as a citizen , precisely because of his irony and anxiety , which are inextricably attached to his privatism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bourgeois wavers between gestures of " commitment " and gestures of cynicism , between bursts of indignant enthusiasm ( for drugs today , against them tomorrow ) and retreats into passivity . The middle position between these gestures which , knowing themselves as gestures , are also done in bad faith , is a moderation essentially helpless , unguided by principle . Argument can lead nowhere : Should we interfere with other governments ? No . What about South Africa ? That 's different . Should we protect freedom of speech ? Yes . What about racist speech ? Well ... <p> It seems to me that ever since Rousseau there has been a great emerging argument in the West about how to ennoble and edify the bourgeoisie . Humanist Marxists , socialist communitarians , teachers of republican virtue , and even , though secretly I think , the overtly unedifying literary critics are all engaged in the task . Of course , as Allan Bloom has reminded us , liberal education always must balance against the prejudices of the regime , partly for the sake of the regime but mostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may not understand itself as essentially or primarily edifying . <p> Yet it seems to me that under current circumstances the argument between thought for its own sake and for political and moral edification is largely moot . This is because , as far as I can tell , all efforts at edification are failures on their own terms precisely because they are sensed , however dimly , as efforts at edification rather than real education . The contemporary version of anti-bourgeois moralizing fails with particularly comic aplomb because it plays right into those bourgeois traits it seeks to overcome . But the more serious nineteenth-century version , which had its roots in German classicism 's project of aesthetic education , failed as well . <p> Unlike contemporary moralism , which conceals itself as open-mindedness , the nineteenth-century version sought to combat mean-spirited anxiety directly . By holding heroic examples to the bourgeois for inspection and emulation , the bourgeois was supposed to become nobler , his vulgar tastes refined , his self-regarding passions generously extended . <p> In Schiller 's Don Carlos , written years before he developed the theory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practice , we have the classic test case . The play 's apparent hero , the Marquis Posa , is a good eighteenth-century liberal set in despotic , unenlightened times . He is presented as both noble and democratic , a citizen of the world and a loving friend , a model to the high-minded young of the new , more egalitarian world . <p> But a careful reading of the play shows Posa to be a far more ambiguous character than his edifying appearance , a bad friend and an incompetent politician , motivated by vanity . The true greatness of the play depends on that more careful reading . Yet Schiller 's intent seems to have been to allow the edifying , moralizing reading to be generally accepted . The consequence was that the nobility of the example became unreal . Posa and other Schillerian heroes became hollow plaster casts of classical statuary which could be filled with any political content . Hence those horrible monographs one can still find in card catalogs on Schiller the Nationalist , Schiller the Socialist , Schiller the National Socialist . The ennobled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , understood it to be a gesture devoid of content . Hence , in part , the failure of high German culture to create a sufficiently responsible , politically decent bourgeoisie , a failure betokened in many old war movies by the figure of the sensitive , piano-playing German officer who still , justly , gets shot at the end . <p> The most edifying education that middle class Americans can receive , it seems to me , is the one that is the least overtly edifying , the least concerned to hector them or remake them , the one that is most concerned with setting out the matters of fact about themselves and the world . Trivial though this suggestion may appear , its implications may not be . <p> What would such an education look like ? It would share with the contemporary " diversity " movement the goal of letting students understand that their habitual customs and tastes are not simply natural but a product of prior choices that they must either affirm or reject . That means it would have to make available to them the Other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way . Starting with a polemical animus against what the students presumably are , one teaches a wide variety of texts , taken out of the context of highly developed cultures , which are then made comprehensible by a hopelessly Western , if antibourgeois , analysis . The result is gesture and costume . Like those Nobel Hurons and Compassionate Pashas the eighteenth-century Enlightenment loved so dearly , the student sees the Other dressed in exotic garb , but he is really looking in the mirror and all he ever sees is himself . Thus he thinks he is learning " non-Western values , " when in fact it is only in a particular part of the West that faiths are thought of as " values . " Because he does not know himself he can not know the Other and thus can not know himself through the Other . Adding Fanon to the canon in no way rescues students from the grasp of Dead White European Males ; it merely adds a couple of outfits to the great historical fashion show to go with , say , the guitar of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The alternative would be to start with the West , not tormented by the bizarre dogma that everyone , from Aristotle to Augustine , was really just confirming the goodness of the American status quo . There students discover versions of the good , human types , which both distress and attract them : honor-loving warriors , contemplation-loving philosophers , God-fearing prophets and mystics , serious , warlike relativists , irrationalist scientists . They come to see for themselves what they are , what their lives are and generally will be like . As they reflect on their own responses to the arguments they are faced with , they come to understand the bourgeois not as a historical accident or , as Ms. Foster was taught , a social solecism , but as the product of a very serious choice that has its strengths and limitations . <p> On this basis , they can , if they are willing to expend the costs in time and energy , study a non-Western culture in a serious way , learning the language , taking its account of the good as seriously as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I suspect it will be much easier in most cases to find the way to the samurai ideal from the Greek gentleman described by Aristotle than from the contemporary antibourgeois bourgeois prejudice which shudders at the very notion of rank , or to find the way to Asian religion from a serious study of Augustine than from the contemporary dogmas of those who understand religion only as a manifestation of " culture . " <p> On this basis , too , students can , I think , become better citizens of a liberal democracy . They learn how to escape from the plight of M. Jourdan , alternating helplessly between the attitudes of immense self-satisfaction and total anxiety . It is not that they are freed from irony about themselves . On the contrary , their irony will be far deeper because it will not have the phony salvation of progressive self-righteousness to offer it temporary and inadequate relief . They know much better than before just how far they are from what is truly excellent . But this knowledge , partly because it is knowledge , their knowledge , need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one 's own shortcomings is part of one 's life , one 's possession , and not a perpetual damnation by some unappeasable figure of authority . In those circumstances , it makes sense to try to change oneself from inside , to approximate standards that are not merely one 's own but which one has made one 's own , without regard to the opinions of others . <p> This is of course what those who sought to ennoble the bourgeoisie were after ; it is at the heart of the Kantian project that even now , in scientific disguise as Kohlbergian psychology , heavily influences the schools . But that end can not be held up as an ideal or hypostatized into a standard . If the end is already known , if we communicate , however subtly , that becoming more sensitive , or a more virtuous citizen , or a despiser of bourgeois vulgarity , or even an autonomous moral being is the goal of education , then that education degenerates into edification . Only if all the cards are put on the table can students , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and hot gospeling are constitutive of their bourgeois lives , emerge from the crippling irony and anxieties that are at root the same thing , whether they express themselves as cynicism or dogmatism . Only then can students become what they are , which is a necessary step to becoming something better than they are as citizens , as human beings , and yes , as members of the bourgeoisie . <p> <p> By Fred Baumann <p> <p> Fred Baumann is associate professor of political science at Kenyon College , Gambier , OH 43022 . <p> 
##4000365 Section : ISSUES <p> A Cleveland Plain Dealer article refers to the " skyrocketing population figures of blacks and Hispanic youth . " Time magazine devoted its 9 April 1990 cover story to " America 's Changing Colors , " and asked on its cover , " What will the U.S. be like when whites are no longer the majority ? " These new demographics , as such projections are frequently and approvingly called , are invoked by educators to argue that inevitable demographic changes require a transformation of American schools and colleges , particularly in curriculum . This is one of the most popular ideas in American education today . Proclaimed in educational publications , reports , and conferences , it is ubiquitous and unchallenged . Workforce 2000 <p> The source of the new demographics is Workforce 2000 , a report that has proved far more influential than its authors probably envisioned . Workforce 2000 deserves much of the attention it has received . Published in 1987 by the United States Department of Labor , it compiles studies by the Hudson Institute on the nation 's and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The purpose of Workforce 2000 is to alert policy makers of the social changes that may affect American productivity and competitiveness . The research is carefully done , and its implications are effectively elaborated . Sparing the readers social scientific jargon , the report is also refreshingly readable . <p> The serpent in the garden , however , is this short sentence : " The cumulative impact of the changing ethnic and racial composition of the labor force will be dramatic . " 1 Somebody got carried away rhetorically , and the editors let it slip by . For this statement simply is not substantiated . <p> The report does show that by the year 2000 women , blacks , Hispanics , and immigrants will make up 85 percent of new job seekers . But this is the percentage of new job seekers , not the percentage of the total workforce . More importantly , the categories themselves are misleading because white women are the largest " minority " group listed . White women , according to Workforce 2000 , will account for 42 percent of new entrants into the workforce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white and nonwhite , will account for 22 percent , leaving 20 percent to native nonwhite males and females , and 15 percent to native white males . These numbers seem to indicate a revolutionary transformation of America 's ethnic profile -- but only if one forgets that white women have been included in the minority population , and only if one confuses new job seekers with the total workforce or the total population . <p> According to Workforce 2000 , " black women will comprise the largest share of the increase in the non-white labor force . " In fact , " black women will outnumber black men in the workforce . " This statistic suggests that the increase in the numbers of working black women is due more to their being women than to their being black . It does not prove that the total percentage of the population that is black is increasing dramatically . <p> Nevertheless , the new demographics have popularized the notion that minorities will become the majority over the next couple of decades . That simply is not true. 2 Minority groups as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3 are increasing in inverse proportion to their relative size . That is to say , the most rapidly growing minority groups are also the smallest ( see table 1 ) . <p> Asians are the fastest growing minority . Between 1970 and 1980 , America 's Asian population grew 143 percent , but Asians make up a small percent of the American population . Despite its large growth rate , the Asian population grew from only 0.7 percent of the American population in 1970 to 1.5 percent in 1980. 4 The highest estimates suggest that by the year 2000 , Asians may grow to as much as 4 percent of the population . Similarly , the growth of America 's Hispanic population will not soon make Hispanics a large group . This population grew 39 percent between 1980 and 1989 , a seemingly large rate , but it caused the Hispanic population to grow from only 6.3 percent of the American population to its current 8.2 percent. 5 ( Of course , in California and Texas , Hispanics do make up a large proportion of local communities . ) Finally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is growing the most slowly of all . Blacks currently constitute about 12.5 percent of the population ; they will make up 13.1 percent by the year 2000 and 14 percent by 2025 . Some Nonimplications for Higher Education <p> The mistaken conclusion that America 's ethnic minorities will become the majority has been eagerly seized on by many educators and taken to a still more absurd extreme , namely , that the population of college students will soon be composed predominantly of minorities . But even if minorities were to become the majority in the total population , the evidence indicates that the same result would not be achieved , at least not automatically , in the student population . American Indians , for example , are underrepresented in higher education when compared to their fraction of the population of the United States . In 1988 , American Indians made up only 0.7 percent of American college enrollments. 6 Asians are well represented , but they constitute a small fraction of the population . College-age blacks ( like college-age whites ) are actually a shrinking cohort . From 1979 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by 11 percent. 7 The Hispanic population is growing in the United States , but this fact does not automatically translate into hopeful projections for college attendance . According to a study by Arthur Levine and Associates : <p> The growth of Hispanic enrollment is not yet fully apparent in secondary and postsecondary education because the Hispanic population is very young , it continues to drop out of high school at a high rate , and the fraction of Hispanic high school graduates going on to college has declined since the 1970s. 8 <p> We all wish that more minorities , especially underrepresented minorities , would attend college . Better practices in grade school and high school and increased transfer opportunities from two-year colleges , where most minority freshman enroll , might help . But even the most optimistic projections of minority participation do not suggest that minorities will transform American higher education . <p> Furthermore , those who draw pedagogic and curricular implications from the new demographics ignore the diversity within the large ethnic categories they feature . For example , to discuss the educational patterns of Hispanics , one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ former showing relatively dismal participation in higher education , while the latter are well represented . In a similar vein , M. Yukie Tokuyama complains that the Asian groups identified by the United States Census Bureau " exhibit different employment patterns , occupations , incomes , and poverty levels . Moreover , there are differences within subgroups-linguistic , political , educational , generational , and occupational . " 9 Yet , many educators and journalists persist in claiming that broadly-defined minority groups , each assumed to be monolithic , will all demand exactly the same change in higher education . Multiculturalism <p> The change minority students are supposed to demand is that undergraduate curricula should include the study of minority and Third World cultures , necessarily at the expense of the traditional , supposedly " Eurocentric " curriculum . Thus , some educators are using the new demographics to argue for the justice , wisdom , and inevitability of so-called multiculturalism . But even if the exaggerations of the new demographics and its academic corollary were true , do demographic trends really compel curricular changes ? <p> No one ever thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on European cultural achievements , was justified on the ground that most Americans are of European descent . On the contrary , the justification for that curriculum has been that the American polity-its social , economic , and political system-derives from European antecedents and has been informed by the thought of European philosophers . Beyond that , further justification for the European emphasis follows from the fact that liberal education originated in ancient Greece and all of the disciplines it now comprises developed within that tradition , albeit with heavy , repeated , and crucial borrowings from a wide variety of non-European cultures . It is , therefore , not at all obvious that changes in the racial and ethnic makeup of the population should have any effect on college curricula . The purpose of American education has been to prepare our young people for the future and not to tie them to their ancestral past . <p> In what approaches a parody of the argument from demographics to curriculum , Annette Kolodny , dean of the faculty of humanities at the University of Arizona , writes in the Chronicle of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way , " colleges should change teaching practices : " different cultural groups may emphasize one cognitive style over another-for example , reasoning by analogy instead of strict linear logic . " 10 Dean Kolodny does not identify which cultural groups lack the capacity for logic , though she claims that at one university : <p> young women were using empathy as a learning strategy . What frustrated them was that their instructors rarely introduced specific case histories ; raw data abstracted from case studies made up the bulk of the material presented in the classroom . In that learning context , the men performed better than the women . And the women switched majors . <p> What ugly thoughts lurk behind such statements ? Can women not think as well as men ? Do individuals of different ethnic groups have different mental capacities ? Dean Kolodny does not pause to consider the practical implications such differences would have . <p> Echoing the alarmist rhetoric of nineteenth-century Nativist and Know-Nothing movements , the new demographics proponents picture current immigrants as intractable agents of alien cultures that will forever transform the culture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this : because the major sources of American immigration these days are nationalities that ( by chance ) fit America 's conventional taxonomy of minorities ( namely , Asians and Hispanics ) , immigration patterns require a concomitant multicultural response , especially in school curricula . <p> In fact , today 's immigrants largely mirror the culture they are about to join . For example , a recent survey of immigrants found that " the newcomers , whether Arabs , Vietnamese , or other Asians , are mostly Christians . " 11 And Barry A. Kosmin , who conducted the study , stated that " most immigrants are in the mainstream of the Judeo-Christian culture . " ( The survey revealed that 86.5 percent of the immigrants declared that they were Christian , 1.8 percent Jewish , and the balanced stated no religion or simply did not respond . ) If this is true for their religious beliefs , why should we assume that immigrants differ in other cultural respects from the present population of the United States ? In particular , why should we expect that they want their children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans or past immigrants ? Would it not be more reasonable to assume that immigrants come to America , in part , to provide their children the educational benefits our schools are already known to provide ? <p> Besides , there is nothing new about large numbers of immigrants coming to the United States . Consider that in 1980 , 6 percent of Americans were foreign born compared to 9 percent in 1940 and 13 percent in 1920. 12 The United States has a long history of diverse immigration , the most diverse in the New World , according to Roger Daniels , who concludes that although the United States received a variety of Europeans during the colonial period , other colonized countries , such as Canada , Australia , and those of Latin America showed a comparatively homogeneous immigrant pattern. 13 Many kinds of immigrants have come to America and enriched it , but they did not come to replicate what they left . Indeed , many wished to escape their native countries ' most pernicious elements . <p> Why encourage minorities to attend college only to deny them the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ force minority students to undertake a multicultural curriculum at the expense of courses traditional college students took to secure seats in professional schools and careers ? Why insist that minorities should attend college only to change college for them , as if they were not worthy of it as it was ? Thoughtlessness or Worse <p> Proponents of a " multicultural " curriculum advance many arguments to justify their revolutionary demands . Yet their uncritical acceptance of demographic claims unsupported by any evidence -- and the eagerness with which they have used those claims to make " multiculturalism " appear inevitable -- makes one wonder about the character of their commitment . Indeed , their version of multiculturalism fits all too well with the broader desire , evident in certain circles since the 1960s , to denigrate the ideals of the West and to dismantle its institutions . <p> Whether with that motive or merely out of a thoughtless anxiety not to be left off the latest bandwagon , various members of the educational establishment have cited Workforce 2000 as if it were a fiery sword pointing us toward a new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ford Foundation awarded nineteen American universities " cultural diversity " grants . The program 's goal , a foundation press release explained , was to ensure that colleges " keep pace with the rapid demographic and cultural changes under way in American society . " Franklin A. Thomas , president of the foundation , was quoted : " To teach the roots of intolerance . . . we must make the teaching of non-Western cultures a basic element of undergraduate education . " Similarly , Peter Brooks , director of Yale University 's Whitman Center for the Humanities , defends the assault on the traditional curriculum by asserting : <p> People who say we 've got to return to a core curriculum are just nostalgic for a kind of cultural consensus that just does n't exist anymore . The freshman class at Berkeley is now 80 percent non-white . That gives you a sense of how much America is changing. 14 <p> The last sentence might more accurately read : " That gives you a sense of how much Berkeley is changing . " At any rate , it is safe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ California does not represent the United States in general , precisely if Brooks 's figure of 80 percent is correct . <p> Consider , also , the proposal that regional accrediting agencies include evidence of student and faculty racial , ethnic , and sexual diversity as part of the criteria for accrediting colleges . In defending such a policy , Stephen S. Weiner , executive director of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges , asserts without qualification that " American colleges and universities are undergoing massive changes in the racial and ethnic composition of their student bodies . " 15 Weiner argues that , " In 1988 , white , non-Hispanic students accounted for 65 percent of California 's college enrollment , compared with close to 80 percent for the nation as a whole . " Exactly : colleges and universities are 80 percent white and not , as Weiner would have us believe , " undergoing massive changes . " <p> Clearly those who are sounding these themes wish that the United States were different from what it is . Some people want public policy to be based on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ envisioned policies . Responsible educators such as Dale Parnell , president of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges , have warned that Workforce 2000 has been " widely misquoted. " 16 Yet the new demographics myth persists among many educators and education policy makers . For them , the idea that America 's ethnic mix will soon be transformed appears to be a truth too good to be tested . <p> 
##4000368 Section : REPORTS FROM THE ACADEMY <p> Political correctness in American universities is much discussed and often lamented , recently even in mainstream media ; but the focus is usually on elite schools . Politically correct faculty at universities with lower standing can arguably do more harm , for their students are especially ill-equipped to recognize that indoctrination is being substituted for education . Certainly during my undergraduate matriculation at a second-tier branch of a state university system I encountered many unrelievedly politically correct professors whose ideological biases my classmates seemed unable to identify and articulate . <p> The overwhelming force and rigidity of political orthodoxy became so oppressive in an undergraduate research seminar during my final semester that I felt obligated to challenge it . This effort left me an intellectually demoralized , despairing witness of the professoriate 's ideologically induced indifference -- sometimes , hostility -- to serious debate , contrary viewpoint , and even a sincere search for truth . Several other students also came to loathe the seminar , but I do not believe they dearly understood the cause of their dissatisfaction or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ideological presuppositions instead of benefiting from a truly open inquiry . <p> I joined this seminar because one of my professors , I will call him the Ethicist , strongly encouraged me to do so . Our usual rapport had recently been strained because I had charged in a student evaluation that his personal ethics class had been extremely biased in favor of his quasi-Marxist , radical environmentalist , antiindividualist views . So disturbed was he by my criticisms that he sought me out to defend his pedagogy -- with the unnerving observation that he has " only fourteen weeks to make students question the values of the dominant culture . " I retorted that I did n't see his role as that of deprogrammer but as educator . This unpleasantness notwithstanding , he recruited me for the forthcoming seminar on Indian treaty rights , 1 a project about which he was most enthusiastic . And because I initially thought that the legal issues involved would place a moderately libertarian person like myself on the side of the pro-minority angels , I signed on . What Are Indian Treaty Rights ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its faculty requires some historical background and an explanation of the Indian treaty rights controversy now raging in northern Wisconsin . As the result of successful litigation initiated by the Chippewa against the State of Wisconsin in the mid-1970s , they are allowed special hunting , fishing , and timber harvesting rights not enjoyed by other citizens , including all other Indians . Initially , the court determined that the Chippewa were entitled to 100 percent of the " maximum allowable harvest " of various fish and game species on the lands they sold to the federal government a century and a half ago . The court recently reduced this percentage by half . <p> The judicial reasoning supporting this decision opened the door for the Chippewa also to claim valuable timber on publicly , and possibly privately , owned land in the northern third of Wisconsin . Indeed , among the most worrisome consequences of the Chippewa 's court-awarded rights is that real estate titles throughout the upper third of Wisconsin may have been clouded . As the basis for these resource rights , the Wisconsin Chippewa leadership and their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Superior Chippewa and the United States . <p> The court , in addition to accepting the Chippewa 's claims about these treaties , may employ all manner of modern hunting , fishing , and timber-harvesting methods , including spearfishing 2 and gill netting . These fishing methods are otherwise prohibited in Wisconsin because they can bleed a lake of its maximum allowable harvest in one day , thereby dosing it for the rest of the fishing season . Businesspeople in tourism-dependent northern Wisconsin want fishermen to stay at their resorts , eat in their restaurants , and patronize their sportshops . If Chippewa fishing doses a popular lake in their area or drastically reduces the bag limit , these small businesses can lose a great deal . Moreover , sportsfishermen 's fishing-license and club fees keep the lakes stocked with such valued species as walleye and muskie , so when the Chippewa -- who do not pay these fees-spearfish egg-bearing fish , many citizens are angered . Imbalance from the Outset <p> The seminar was composed of a half-dozen students and five faculty members whom I will call Professors Ethicist ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Junior Anthropologist . At our first meeting the faculty handed out a generic syllabus that described various goals of a research seminar , but we students were verbally advised simply to " scratch around " and go wherever our interests took us . Several professors announced the names of possible contacts for our research , all of whom were Indian activists , lawyers with Indian organizations , or journalists . <p> At the second meeting Sociologist and Ethicist suggested we consider undertaking a survey of public opinion on treaty rights , and the latter provided his poll on attitudes about affirmative action as a model . Then several of the faculty showed a film defending treaty rights . None offered information about representatives opposing treaty rights . <p> At the third or fourth meeting I began to grasp the ideological raison d'etre of the seminar and to discover the shallowness of the professors ' scholarly standards . When several described an alleged conspiracy by Exxon and other corporate black hats to funnel money into the anti-treaty rights cause , I quietly listened for some time . Then I stated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ significant funding ; indeed , their movement has the hallmarks of a working-class , seat-of-the-pants operation , one too unsophisticated to have either the financial or the public-relations resources of Exxon behind it . The faculty responded with the assertion that one can not expect to find evidence of such corporate malfeasance because capitalist elites are too " crafty " and " resistant to study " to document their machinations . Lack of proof notwithstanding , several professors made comments throughout the seminar revealing their assumption of sub rosa corporate dastardliness . <p> Because no one else seemed inclined to do so , I decided to interview treaty opponents , with whom I was fully prepared to find fault . The seminar professors had indicated that opponents were calling for " abrogation " of the relevant treaties ; my position was that a Senate-ratified treaty is the law , and its conditions must be upheld and honored . But by the fifth or sixth seminar meeting I had made contact with and closely examined the literature of some anti-treaty rights activists . I discovered that the more astute among them did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the seminar participants , these opponents argue that the term-specific stipulations of the treaties in question had been fulfilled by the federal government , most of them in the last century . Furthermore , any issues arising from the inherent inequities of some treaties had been addressed after World War II by the Indian Claims Commission , which ordered additional compensation for the Chippewa as an explicitly final resolution to any residual treaty claims , a condition accepted by the Chippewa and their attorneys at those earlier proceedings . <p> Many opponents argue that the courts invented the controversial treaty rights by accepting , rather eagerly , a historically dubious explanation for one stipulation in the treaties of 1837 and 1842 . Thus , they charge that judicial activism is the source of the Chippewa 's rights . <p> I obtained copies of all the Lake Superior Chippewa treaties , compared them with the language of the other 360-plus treaties between the federal government and various Indian tribes , and determined the treaty rights opponents ' position has merit . Moreover , I managed to acquire a trenchant , unpublished manuscript @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surrounding them . The author , the nationally known and respected anthropologist James A. Clifton , had been an expert witness for the Chippewa until they realized his scholarship did not support their case . <p> When I related these unanticipated findings to the seminar group , along with my opinion that Clifton 's work seriously undermined the basis for the court 's treaty rights decisions , I hoped to ignite scholarly excitement at the intellectually tantalizing prospect of facts and plausible arguments that run counter to the issue 's standard presentation . <p> The faculty 's reaction was underwhelming . My investigation was all very interesting for those " who are into history and legal issues , " I was advised , but we also need to consider questions of " cultural diversity " and the positive " witness " Indian culture offers the West regarding the environment . Senior Anthropologist asked for a copy of Clifton 's unpublished work , and both he and Archeologist called my attention to an informative newspaper article about Clifton that they had on file . Otherwise , my research met either passive resistance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that I was free to continue this line of inquiry but that it was much " too narrow " for them . <p> By the seventh meeting , I had spoken at some length with several members of anti-treaty rights groups . I reported to the seminar that , contrary to the views expressed by the faculty , critics of treaty rights were not necessarily racists . But surely I knew , Sociologist objected , that most racist attitudes are latent and difficult to detect or that their problem may not be racism per se , but a lack of " openness to cultural diversity " ? What was in order , he opined , was an examination of George Orwell 's work on the political uses of language . As an example of the potential enlightenment students might expect from such a course of study , he declared , " I 've never met anybody who was pro-abortion , " the dear implication being that those who use that label , instead of pro-choice , are engaged in unseemly propaganda . When I pointed out that a biologist on campus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state-coerced , unchosen abortion was understandable , Sociologist stared at me for a bit and then said , " Yes , well , he 's in favor of that because of environmental concerns . He 's not pro-abortion , he 's pro-environment . " The Real Seminar Topics <p> The title of the seminar notwithstanding , most of the faculty involved were manifestly uninterested in extensive inquiry and open discussion of the controversy over treaty rights , preferring instead to use the subject as a springboard for their ideological concerns : cultural diversity and antigrowth environmentalism . Because organized opposition to treaty rights is a predominantly white , middle-class movement , the professors could not concede even the possibility of its legitimacy. 3 This class is the bete noire of the advocates of so-called cultural diversity who find bourgeois culture " stupefying , " as Ethicist once put it . They have cast treaty rights opponents as an illegitimate adversary in the several political dichotomies structuring their worldview . To consider opponents ' arguments on their merits would not serve their politically correct dualism of pitting environmentally saintly , oppressed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of promiscuous polluters . I repeatedly challenged these unproven ( and , by the faculty 's own admission , largely unprovable ) stereotypes and dichotomies . The faculty listened to everything I said and then utterly ignored it . I was n't stifled , merely rendered irrelevant . <p> In pursuit of their ideological interests , the seminar professors invited environmentalists to speak to us , encouraged a trip to an anti-mining rally , and chose as their primary seminar project a survey of student and citizen attitudes on environmentalism and treaty rights in Wisconsin . The following are some of the statements that survey subjects were asked to rate according to their agreement or disagreement : <p> I believe scarcity of resources will limit the world 's economic growth in the next ten to twenty years . <p> Humans are different from other creatures but should not be considered superior to them . <p> The natural environment can not sustain present levels of the world 's economic growth . <p> Economic growth must be limited to protect the environment . <p> It is probably too late to prevent environmental catastrophe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must learn to care more about the balance of nature and less about economic growth . <p> Commercial development in Wisconsin is more important than treaty rights . People in American society should try to get along with nature as traditional native Americans have done . <p> I protested that most of the survey questions were irrelevant to the ostensible subject of the seminar , and the results of the survey were not difficult to predict . Those initiated in the doctrines of political correctness would give the right answers while working- and middle-class people in economically depressed northern Wisconsin would find limiting economic growth ridiculous . Thus , the survey team would find a positive correlation between environmentally conscious ( good ) subjects and support for treaty rights , as well as some correlation between those less supportive of the radical environmentalism reflected in the survey questions and objection to treaty rights . Thus it is proven : the morally right-minded support treaty rights . <p> Students who completed the survey were advised " that there are no right or wrong answers . " However , the naked biases and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . For instance , when I pointed out that Ted Williams , a respected sports journalist , environmentalist , and contributing editor of Audubon magazine , had published a cogent critique of treaty rights and the mythology of Indian as environmental saint , 4 Junior Anthropologist sought to undermine his credibility by observing that many environmentalists believe Williams is actually a developmentalist . Similarly , when I reminded the professors that one of the campus environmental experts who spoke with us had admitted that some Indian fishing was ecologically harmful and unfair to other fishermen , Ethicist responded with the ad hominem charge that this environmentalist was " a conservative man . " Clearly , the seminar faculty thought there were wrong opinions on environmentalism as well as wrong political proclivities . <p> It is , of course , much easier to design politically correct surveys than to investigate the origins and historical context of nineteenth-century Indian treaties . One of the chief faculty architects of the environmental-attitude survey eventually became frustrated with my persistent references both to what the treaties actually said and their documented meaning for treaty signatories . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had time to read a lot of this stuff . I 've got so much else to do ! " <p> In a final attempt to reason with the faculty regarding the seminar 's predominant focus on environmentalism , I sent all five a memo that complained : <p> I still do n't understand all the attention we are paying to environmental issues in this seminar , at least as we move beyond the question of whether the Indians ' fishing/harvesting rights are or are not dangerous to resources . My concern is that laying an eco-aware template over the various issues relating to Indians detracts from the central points of the controversy . <p> Sociologist responded , in relevant part , " The discussion of environmental issues and environmental conceptions represent an effort to examine different aspects of one dimension of the treaty rights issue . " He claimed that " from the very first " there were three " dimensions that were defined as ( a ) concerns about the environment , ( b ) concerns about fairness and rights , ( c ) concerns about cultural diversity . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some ten weeks into the seminar , the faculty had not structured the project short of setting meeting times . There were no required papers or readings , no lectures , and no exams . The weekly seminar meetings were free discussions during which very little of substance was accomplished . That one of the faculty was stipulating intellectual parameters at this point seemed wholly gratuitous . Willful Ignorance and Petty Arrogance <p> In his lengthy response to my memo , Sociologist revealed his deconstructionist bent : " What some might consider simple facts others might view as complex ideological claims . Further , facts are always viewed within the context of a larger view of the natural and cultural world(s) " ( emphasis in original ) . I responded , in a second memo : <p> Some historical facts have such compelling evidentiary support and logical credibility that they are virtually certain , independent of who posits them ( the Holocaust occurred even if the person telling me so is a militant Zionist or the one denying it has an Ivy League Ph.D . ) . And in between this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to decreasing likelihood . The best that reasonable people can do when facts are in dispute is to choose a value of likelihood from this spectrum . To resist or downplay efforts to determine historical fact , whatever one 's reasons , is to choose obscurantism . Moreover ; such a choice can be as convenient for those making ideological claims as the manufacture of pseudo-facts . ( Emphasis added . ) <p> I concluded with the observation that the faculty were demonstrating " a decidedly non-neutral antagonism to any perspective on this issue which deviates from what Clifton calls the New Indian Ring . " 5 Several examples of faculty behavior will illustrate the validity of my charge , to which I never received a response . <p> Because several University of Wisconsin at Madison law professors had issued a report describing opponents of treaty rights and their attorney as " precisely analogous " to the Ku Klux Klan , I was astonished to learn that the attorney in question is a Chippewa , a fact of which the law professors may have been aware. 6 His wife , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Women , had published a provocative editorial imploring her " sisters " to stop " romanticizing " life on the reservation . I copied some of this couple 's intriguing compositions and sent them to the faculty with a proposal that they be invited to speak to us , perhaps even to debate their Madison accusers . Sociologist declared he had n't joined the seminar for " that kind of shtick . " The other four professors agreed with him . <p> Because I persisted in pointing out the significant Chippewa presence in the treaty rights opposition , Ethicist and Sociologist finally felt obliged to explain these aberrant Indians by citing the coopting strategy " known " to be employed by various power elites . The other students appeared to accept this latest spin on the conspiracy theory . <p> Not surprisingly , I was the only seminar participant to bring in an opponent of treaty rights ( one of the other students did make an unsuccessful attempt ) . The faculty reaction to his pending visit can only be described as petty and infantile . Displeased to hear that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with smug amusement , asked me what my speaker 's " Indian name " was . Before I could respond , he quipped , " I 'll bet he does n't have one . " When we polled ourselves to determine who would be joining the dinner party for this speaker ( a seminar protocol for most out-of-town guests ) , Junior Anthropologist snidely cracked , " I 'll make up my mind after I hear what he has to say . " <p> After enough such incidents , I confronted Ethicist in his office . First he denied the comments about the Indian speaker 's name . Then he launched into a dizzying display of decon-speak , accused me of " presumption " for believing I knew what he had meant by his remarks , and said that I needed to understand about the " hermeneutics of intentionalism . " This explanation of his attack on the ethnic identity of the Indian treaty rights critic only fueled my outrage , and I advised Ethicist I was considering putting my criticism of the seminar and its faculty in writing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ encounter ethical problems , an opinion I have seriously considered and reject . What I write about took place in , or in the context of , a class at a public university , not a confessional . <p> Throughout the seminar most of the faculty participants engaged in entre nous repartee that assumed a common bond of political and religious ( anti-Christian ) correctness among the seminar participants . Sociologist rhetorically asked if the Lutheran synod listed in the credits of a pro-treaty rights film was the one " that did n't require a lobotomy when you joined . " At the end of the semester , with obvious relish and amusement , Junior Anthropologist announced that a student evaluation from another class charged that she appeared to hate white people . She did not infer any legitimate criticism from this student 's observation , nor did her chuckling colleagues , one of whom sighed and stated with mock-resignation , " Yes , it 's a tough job , but somebody 's got ta do it . " In Summary <p> The Indian treaty rights seminar faculty taught me almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the seminar . They did not even define their terms . That is , we students were never instructed as to what an Indian treaty is , nor were we shown how the courts extrapolated the controversial new Indian rights from certain treaty stipulations . <p> What they did teach is that undemonstrable assertions , at least when they are grounded in correct politics , constitute legitimate support for scholarly conclusions . On the other hand , solid facts that undermine correct politics can be dismissed by " viewing them within the context of a larger view . " Furthermore , the faculty , who were supposedly dedicated to diversity , demonstrated in word and deed that people whose experiences and perspectives do not support political orthodoxy should be ridiculed and despised or at least ignored . <p> To what degree the other students in the seminar accepted the faculty 's ideologically motivated behavior as valid scholarly praxis , I do not know . I suspect that several of them have accepted it . But such a mockery of liberal education ought to be of concern to academics even if , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ classroom serves only to demoralize . <p> 
##4000369 I first heard of student protests at Bowdoin College when I returned there in June of 1990 for my twenty-fifth reunion . Outgoing president Leroy Greason , addressing the assembled alumni , mentioned that at the end of the spring semester , a group of students had staged a rally on the steps of Bowdoin 's Art Museum in support of gay and lesbian studies at the college . Greason said that he met with the students and listened to their demands but made them no promises . The event ended with student leaders walking with Greason back to his office and trying unsuccessfully to change his mind . <p> After Greason 's retirement at the end of the academic year , the students ' demands , which included a formal response by 2 November 1990 , fell to his successor , Robert H. Edwards , who assumed office in the fall of 1990 . He began inauspiciously . In his convocation address and again in his inaugural address , Edwards stressed the college 's commitment to diversity . Then , on October 31 , Edwards responded to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gay and lesbian studies , by issuing a memorandum " to the college community expressing general support for increased diversity . " Two days later , a group of students , apparently dissatisfied with that response , or , as the alumni newsletter euphemistically put it , " feeling a need for a more specific commitment , " blocked the entrances to the administration building and the library . <p> According to the newsletter 's sketchy account , Edwards met with student representatives and agreed to establish a committee that fall to devise a plan for increasing the number of minority faculty ( including women ) at Bowdoin and to refer a proposal for a gay and lesbian studies program to the faculty . The newsletter concluded by noting that " President Edwards also expressed deep disappointment that the protesters had chosen to block the library . ' Protecting freedom to learn in an open institution is a sacred trust , ' he said . " <p> I , too , was deeply disappointed by the students ' actions , as I told President Edwards in a letter of December 5 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " freedom to learn in an open institution , " but that they had apparently not been disciplined . On the contrary , Edwards rewarded their efforts by referring their program proposal to the faculty for consideration . Their easy success could only have confirmed the lesson learned by radical students in the 1960s , that where arguments fail to convince , force and intimidation succeed . When the use of force is allowed to play a role in determining curriculum , as at Bowdoin , the integrity of academic procedure is violated . <p> I expressed my fear that faculty consideration of the proposed program would mean , as is often the case with student demands of this nature , that its approval is a foregone conclusion . I suggested that , given the coercive manner in which the students made their demands , their proposal should not be considered . <p> Edwards replied , in a letter dated December 12 , " Every experience I 've had indicates that , when presented by a confrontation that could polarize the campus , it 's best to diffuse it and channel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see that Edwards and I were working from a number of different assumptions . What he regarded as mere confrontation , I saw as an illegal action by some students that deprived other students of their right to access college facilities . What he saw as a situation that could polarize the campus , I saw as an action that had already polarized the campus , separating those who respect the rule of law from those who respect force . Where Edwards conceived the president 's role as diffusing disorder by acquiescing to the demands of the party causing the disorder , I believed he should enforce the rules that define the college community . <p> To provide details on the student protest and his view of the circumstances surrounding it , Edwards included with this letter several documents : his memorandum of October 31 to the Bowdoin community and the Coalition for Diversity , his statement to the student protesters on November 2 , and his memorandum of November 5 to the trustees and overseers of Bowdoin College . He also included a copy of the coalition 's November 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Edwards called diversity " the greatest issue facing American society , " and announced that " I have reiterated my conviction that Bowdoin must create a more welcoming environment for cultural , racial , religious , and socio-economic diversity . " <p> Most alumni must have been surprised to learn that Bowdoin 's atmosphere was less than congenial to groups of people long considered welcome at the college . Edwards did not suggest what made the environment unwelcoming , nor when the negative transformation occurred , nor what could be done to improve the situation . He simply offered an obscure and unsubstantiated indictment of the college 's atmosphere after being on campus only ten weeks . <p> Edwards 's memo also affirmed that " race and gender , as issues , are treated widely throughout the curriculum . " This fact , he said , " demonstrates Bowdoin 's awareness that , although many students arrive on campus ignorant of issues about race , gender , and ethnicity , it is the College 's business that they graduate more enlightened than when they arrived . " Enlightenment , understood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gender , and ethnicity , marks a significant departure from Bowdoin 's traditional sense of its mission as teaching . <p> Edwards ended his memorandum by saying , " Finally , I would emphasize that this note is only a status report . It is not designed to dispose of the question of diversity , but to open discourse on a subject that will never have a ' solution ' but will require unending commitment , tolerance , and energy from all of us . " Edwards made no attempt to justify his discouraging assertion that this subject would never be solved . Significantly , nothing in his memorandum addressed gay and lesbian studies . <p> Hoping for a response , Edwards delivered his October 31 memorandum in person to a meeting of the Coalition for Diversity , but November 1 passed without an answer . In his November 5 memorandum to trustees and overseers , Edwards explained what happened next : " About 7:00 a.m. on November 2 a group of about 40 students blockaded the entrance to the Library and to Hawthorne-Longfellow Hall . They demanded that the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's demands read as follows : <p> The " status report " presented to the Coalition of Concerned Students on October 31 is inadequate . As previously stated , we demand : a significant increase in the number of faculty from minority groups ( including women ) reflecting the demographical percentages of these groups in the United States . the creation of a position in Gay and Lesbian Studies . <p> The document asked the president to affix his signature to these demands as well as to the following demands : <p> We the Coalition of Concerned Students demand that no disciplinary action be taken against staff members who could not enter the Hawthorne-Longfellow building on November 2 , 1990 . Furthermore , we demand that no disciplinary action , such as dismissal , on the part of Bowdoin College , be taken against students , faculty and staff involved in the protest . <p> The November 5 memo continues the chronology of events following the blockade of the library : <p> By 9:20 a.m . Dean Lewallen had invited 5 or 6 students to the Afro-American Center Library to talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to my inquiry as to why there had been no discussion , " when the door was open , " I was told that the memo was a regurgitation of what was known ; gave no clear indication as to the action that would be taken , whereas my statement on the budget has promised an interim answer by June of 1991 ; and made no explicit mention of the gay-lesbian demand . <p> Edwards said that he explained to the students the limits of his power to grant their demands , reiterated his agreement " on the diversity issues generally " ( suggesting for the first time that he included gay and lesbian concerns as matters of diversity ) , and proposed language he thought would be acceptable to the students . <p> Following his meeting with student representatives , Edwards went to the library to address a group of " some 50 to 60 students " who were still blocking the building 's entrance . Edwards found the protester " in a cheerful humor " but noted that " there were beginning to be disagreements between the protesters and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delivered the following address to the assembled students : <p> Good morning to all of you . I just wanted to say to all of you that I am warmly in accord with your cause . But as your new president , you need to know -- and I say this from the bottom of my heart to you -- I am deeply disappointed that you have decided to block the library . <p> Libraries represent liberal learning and freedom of education and freedom of thought , and my understanding is that 's what you all stand for . You 've chosen the wrong symbol to block , because blocking libraries and burning books is what happens in fascism in Europe and you need to know that . That 's the starting point . OK ? But secondly -- and let me say -- when this is over , I want you to know that I want to have a continuing discourse with you , because I believe in this cause and I 'm strongly with you . <p> I want you to know that this is a statement that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of your group . It says : <p> As I stated in my memorandum of October 31 , I am committed as president of Bowdoin College to expanding diversity at the College . . . . <p> To that end , <p> 1 . I shall meet with department and program chairs in the coming week to establish procedures for advancing this goal through recruitment in the 1991 season . I will also act to establish a committee that will begin work this fall to produce a plan , with time goals , for securing at Bowdoin a significant increase in the number of faculty from minority groups ( including women ) reflecting the demographic percentages of these groups in the United States . I would expect the committee to produce a hard interim report by June 1991 . . . . <p> 2 . I shall introduce to the faculty the proposal to establish a program in gay and lesbian studies and the staffing such a program would require . <p> That being so , I would ask you to disperse from the doors of the library and allow the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ( Emphasis in original . ) <p> " I believe , " wrote Edwards of the response to his address , " there was relief all around when the statement was read . " The relief was understandable , because Edwards had just handed the protesters everything they demanded , and they no longer had any reason to prohibit other students from using the library . Some of the protesters lay on the ground an additional fifteen minutes and then dispersed . <p> Edwards continued the November 5 memo with a self-assessment and a look forward : <p> How would I interpret all this , and what might it bode for the future ? There is a head of resentment at Bowdoin , and on a number of other campuses , on the diversity question . At Bowdoin , although there are some who are obdurate and want publicity , most genuinely seek more social , racial , and personal diversity and a welcoming atmosphere for them on the campus . <p> Edwards is obviously conversant with the political implications of diversity and is quick to recognize that some ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accept it unquestioningly . He therefore divided the campus population into two groups , the right-thinking majority who support diversity and the publicity-seeking opposition . Anticipating that the hard-hearted publicity seekers will continue to resist the mollifying suasions of the diversity camp , Edwards looked to the future with guarded optimism : <p> I believe we can make progress , but would caution that progress will not mean a solution or tranquillity . The more diversity we create , the more the campus will become a forum for expression by those who have suffered prejudice and indignity . This will not necessarily be calm , and it will require steadfastness because this will be the American social agenda of the ' 90s . <p> Edwards , who acceded to the demands of protesters to avoid polarization , pledged himself to keeping the campus in a state of constant polarization . There will be neither tranquillity nor calm , he said , as we pursue the social agenda he proclaims for our entire country for the remainder of the century . Edwards then returned to his assessment of the protest itself : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement responding to student demands made undertakings that would have been quite reasonable to agree to in open discourse . The Library and Hawthorne-Longfellow Hall returned to normal after about four hours of disruption , without angry confrontation and polarization of the campus . I believe the protesters now understand the gravity with which the College will view interruptions of its academic processes . The deans will be taking steps to ensure that students henceforth understand the disciplinary consequences of such action . <p> In the only humorous remark I ran across in many memos , Edwards suggested that protesters will now begin to fear the judgment of his administration . On the contrary , the deans might spare themselves the effort of making students " henceforth " understand the consequences of library-block-ing ( as if students normally arrive at Bowdoin without any notion of decorum , rules , or the order of law ) . The students already understand full well the disciplinary penalties of their actions and look forward to being treated again to hollow strictures ( " You 've chosen the wrong symbol to block " ) and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are happy to achieve something less than they demand ; these protesters asked for a slice of bread and received a loaf . Their statement demanded the creation of a position in gay and lesbian studies . Edwards promised to propose a program in gay and lesbian studies and the staffing such a program would require , thus revealing a greater enthusiasm for gay and lesbian studies than the protesters themselves demonstrated . <p> That enthusiasm is evident in the conclusion of the November 5 memo : <p> Regarding gay and lesbian studies , the College has established procedures for considering new academic programs which are faculty-driven , and gay rights is a volatile and political issue , with much potential for militancy and backlash . The faculty understand the importance of the College 's taking control of the issue , creating a rational process for analyzing it as an academic question-evaluating the research , disciplinary base , and theory that exist -- before considering the appropriateness of a new program at Bowdoin . The issue will be discussed at the coming faculty meeting . <p> Thus , Edwards injected the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' statement of November 2 did not mention and which does not follow from his earlier reference to the academic issue of gay and lesbian studies . And once again , he attempted to discredit any opposing view in advance by yoking it with such strongly negative concepts as " backlash " and " militancy . " <p> As his various correspondence makes clear , Edwards regards diversity as the central concern of Bowdoin or of any college or university today . Just as clearly , he described that issue in Manichean terms , with good will and moral right on the side of diversity and ill will and immoral views on the other side . He took an advocacy position and , while pretending that nonaligned persons are welcome within the diversity camp , really left no neutral ground . However , as college president , he can not act as both advocate and judge . <p> In ending his letter to me , Edwards made a heavily hedged acknowledgment of a position on campus opposed to his own : " There are , incidentally , strong indications that there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ success , tactics like blocking the library produce antibodies of resistance that deflect attention from the very cause the protesters seek . " However , within less time than it takes to study for a final exam , the protesters received agreement to all their demands , and more . To suggest that the tactic of blocking the library produced anything less than total victory for the student protesters , as Edwards did , is misleading . <p> In all that Edwards writes , a great deal is left unsaid . Nowhere does he admit that the opposition has valid arguments . Much has been written against affirmative action and a curriculum driven by political concerns . On campuses across the country , there are professors who question the appropriateness of a separate discipline devoted to homosexuality ( what of heterosexual studies ? ) . I mentioned the last of these points in my letter to Edwards , but he wrote nothing in response . <p> Similarly , Edwards left a great deal unsaid about his own views , which are offered without substantiation . He asserted that Bowdoin must be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a small college in Maine with a long history of drawing the majority of its students from Maine and Massachusetts should mirror the demographics of all fifty states . <p> Edwards 's reaction to the library incident is easier to understand in light of statements made in his convocation address , in which he saw " a fresh task before us of dimensions even greater , in a way , than those early Congregationalists faced when they set forth Bowdoin as a light and a beacon on what they considered to be their ' errand into the wilderness . ' " Judging that " we have perhaps yet another wilderness before us , " Edwards asserted that Bowdoin 's new mission is " to create a just and cultivated society . " Continuing the theme of social engineering , Edwards said he came to Bowdoin " with no interest in control , but with great interest " in engaging the college community " in defining the meaning of culture in modern America . " He went on to include within that sphere of definition not only " knowledge and understanding " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changed Bowdoin 's nearly 200-year-old mission from imparting knowledge and transmitting culture to creating a new society and defining culture ( including behavior ) . His promotion of the cause of homosexual studies and even of gay rights may be the first step in fulfilling the college 's new charter . <p> Through all his memoranda , addresses , and statements , it becomes apparent that Edwards believes not so much in allowing diversity to exist as in imposing " diversity , " coupled with a studied antagonism toward any opposing point of view . I found myself agreeing with Edwards on one matter : in the next few years , Bowdoin can look forward to troubled times . <p> By Gary Crosby Brasor <p> <p> Gary Crosby Brasor , formerly assistant professor of French at Howard University , is a policy analyst at Digital Equipment Corporation , 200 Forest Street , Marlboro , MA 01752 . <p> 
##4000371 As students of power relations have known for years , Machiavellian strategies can operate in academic departments just as they do in the larger world . Indeed , with such ideals as objectivity , rationality , and the disinterested pursuit of truth now subject to widespread ridicule by ideological militants and devotees of postmodernism , hardball politics may be more commonplace on campus than off . Unfortunately though , among the torrent of books and articles documenting the rising influence of academic ideologues , there has been little if any attempt to analyze the concrete political strategies by which activist faculty gain and perpetuate their power . This article is intended to rectify this oversight and to propose some acceptable countermeasures for those who wish to resist . The Ideological Cartel and Departmental Governance <p> Prof. Holley H. Ulbrich recently coined the term academic cartel to describe a small , closely knit group of professors who seek to enhance their academic standing and vocational benefits by dominating the decision-making machinery of a department. 1 Understanding university life as characterized by fluid coalitions that shift in response to changing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that " circumstances peculiar to academe virtually guarantee a lifetime for the departmental cartel that is brief . " 2 Our view , however , is that this fairly benign prognosis seriously underestimates the contemporary power of shared ideology and common political cause to neutralize " circumstances peculiar to academe , " freeze alignments , and extend the existence of departmental cartels indefinitely . Cartel Strategies <p> The key goal of an ideological cartel is to capture the departmental chairmanship , for it is the occupant of this position who usually appoints committees , defines and redefines jurisdictions , writes job descriptions and agendas , oversees peer review , and establishes the framework for hiring . As intermediary between dean and department , the chairman also exercises substantial control over the flow of information to higher levels , shaping impressions about the relative merits and contributions of the department 's members . This differential evaluation is often accompanied by what Richard Rorty calls " a lot of ad hoc departmental rhetoric " contrived to reeducate the powers that be about " the nature of the discipline . " 3 Once an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other strategies for cartel maintenance become far easier to execute . These are addressed in the following paragraphs . <p> The incremental transformation of the department 's agenda . The composition and orientation of a department are the cumulative result of successive decisions about courses and hiring . Continuity of control over these decisions is maintained by appointing cartel members as chairmen of departmental committees having jurisdiction over course additions , course deletions , the rewriting of course descriptions , and program reviews . Given enough time , the curriculum decisions made by these committees will restructure faculty needs and determine recruiting . When they do , two crucial consequences follow : noncartel faculty are gradually marginalized and rendered vulnerable to pressure to switch departments , seek jobs at other institutions , or take early retirement , and future recruiting focuses on those who share the cartel 's ideological vision of the discipline . <p> The dissolution of fixed structures . This strategy replaces permanent bodies possessing established jurisdictions and elective memberships with ad hoc ones appointed by the chair . These bodies are then empowered to make policy and procedural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> The manipulation of information . Even when a departmental vote can not be avoided , control can still be maintained by withholding information until university deadlines are at hand . Then , cartel members -- having already determined their own position -- call the required meeting and force votes on policies that others have had little or no time to evaluate . <p> Cartel members can complement this strategy by reducing the number of departmental meetings ( easily done , for few faculty members campaign for more meetings ) . Infrequent meetings make it harder for noncartel members to pool knowledge from noncartel sources about emergent policy changes , and they prevent dissidents from confronting cartel leaders with potentially embarrassing questions . <p> The development of flexible evaluation methods so that performance scores of cartel members can be inflated in areas of responsibility they prefer to avoid . There are activities that university administrators respect but do not generously reward . To remain " respectable , " cartel members must avoid these burdens without incurring onus . Unfortunately , teaching ( especially of undergraduates ) is frequently regarded as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often teach inordinately heavy loads , thereby subsidizing the minimal teaching responsibilities of those inside the cartel. 4 In universities where teaching accounts for a sizeable percentage of the annual evaluation , policies must be manipulated to ensure that cartel members receive ratings equal or superior to those carrying the heavier burdens . This can be accomplished by various techniques , including preferentially assigning more lightly enrolled elective courses to cartel members or allowing them to teach seminars that do not require much preparation . Releasing time from teaching in return for nominal administrative assignments is yet another way to allow the favored to look better than they deserve . Adroit information management and appropriate obfuscation can hide these privileges from any but the most persistent inquiry . <p> The use of gossip to discredit dissidents . Accusations and rumors of sexual harassment , problem drinking , crankiness , lack of congeniality , or insubordination can irritate institutional sensibilities and identify the accused as " the other . " 5 This transforms legitimate intellectual differences into a question of personal failure , thereby discrediting criticism . <p> The suppression of academic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some larger university mandate . This maneuver requires a powerful act of intimidation to deter future debunking . For example , cartel members can seize an argument designed to reaffirm , in the midst of ideological dominance , the legitimacy of a nonideological perspective and reinterpret it as an attack on the moral purposes of the institution . This becomes easier as colleges and universities , often without much reflection , adopt vague mission statements on the importance of diversity , multiculturalism , and a sensitive learning environment . Cartel members can present the " subversive " argument to sympathetic university officials when its author is not on hand to rebut the argument 's misconstruction . At appropriate moments , the cartel departmental chair can then state or , even better , merely hint that senior administrators found the dissident position " disturbing . " Challenging Cartel Dominance <p> Most of those likely to be left out of ideological cartels entered the academy not out of any zest for confrontation but to enjoy the calm , quite pursuits of scholarship and teaching . But , as Machiavelli says , when " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does not " change his mode of proceeding . " 6 Thus , when confronted by an ideological cartel , professional survival may well require developing a combativeness not originally thought part of the academic job description . For those willing to summon the appropriate resolve and application the following course is recommended . <p> Document everything . Since the leaders of the cartel have kept files and bestride the official channels of communication , it is necessary to retain memoranda , letters , announcements , and meeting agendas ( as well as to take minutes independently ) in order to document procedural tricks and double standards . Dissidents need such records to establish their credibility with administrators . <p> At every opportunity aggressively and openly question cartel policies . The question mark , as Saul Alinsky observed , is an inverted plowshare , a " carrier of the contagion of curiosity . " 7 Asking pointed questions at committee and departmental meetings forces cartel members to formulate convincing and internally consistent justifications for salary decisions , teaching assignments , committee appointments , and procedures in general . Forcing them to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or force cartel members to adhere to more evenhanded procedures , thereby weakening the cartel 's effectiveness . <p> Promote counter-pressure . Ulbrich advises dissidents to " raise the costs of cartel behavior by constant monitoring , by grievances , by complaints flied with the higher administration , and by establishing a reputation for the cartel among other academic departments so as to predispose any grievance hearing toward the grievant and . . . to create alliances within the local academic community that may bear fruit in the future . " 8 A problem does not exist until people define it as such ( to paraphrase Alinsky ) . 9 Encouraging colleagues to visit deans and air their complaints , either individually or collectively , alerts administrators that all is not well . A series of memos exposing the cartel , particularly from someone who has both seniority in the profession and tenure in the department , can also be very effective . <p> Redress intellectual power imbalances by calling in outsiders and create new forums for discussion . To legitimatize intellectual alternatives , dissidents can cite respected scholars from other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bring these professors to the campus as speakers . Dissidents can also sponsor educational programs , for example , brown-bag luncheons , focusing on such topics as departmental governance or the erosion of academic freedom . <p> Press colleagues to take a stand . In circumstances of ideological oppression , faculty must be aware of the Machiavellian necessity to choose : <p> A prince is also esteemed when he is a true friend and a true enemy , that is , when without any hesitation he discloses himself in support of someone against another . This course is always more useful than to remain neutral , because if two powers close to you come to grips , either they are of such quality that if one wins , you have to fear the winner , or not . In either of these two cases , it will always be more useful to you to disclose yourself and to wage open war ; for in the first case if you do not disclose yourself , you will always be the prey of whoever wins , to the pleasure and satisfaction of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason , nor anything , to defend you or give you refuge . For whoever wins does not want suspect friends who may not help him in adversity ; whoever loses does not give you refuge , since you did not want to share his fortune with arms in hand. 10 <p> Those who prefer others to do their fighting for them forfeit their claims to respect and risk coming to grief however things turn out . Once the campaign against the cartel acquires real momentum , fence-sitters should be reminded of this basic fact of life . <p> Alert college administrators to the fact that ideological cartels can expose the institution to embarrassment . It is becoming increasingly obvious that administrators who allow ideological cartels to flourish open themselves to embarrassment when the media and public observe the intolerance , zealotry , and abuses of power that these cartels engender . Repeated allusions in appropriate campus forums to conspicuous examples of such embarrassment may eventually penetrate the consciousness of even the most resistant provost or academic dean . <p> When all else fails , inform the media , the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a high-risk venture to be considered only in serious situations when there is no further internal recourse , iniquitous policies that for ideological reasons may pass muster within colleges and universities almost always look different when exposed to broader scrutiny . Moreover , savvy administrators may sometimes welcome such exposures as a means of weakening or overthrowing cartels they are otherwise helpless to confront . Needless to say , however , the personal costs of following this course may prove high for the whistle-blower . Conclusion <p> In the past , it was believed that the commitment of scholars to the canons of reason and evidence prevented the ideological capture of most academic departments . However , such transformations not only take place but do so through strategies that are likely to render them permanent . In these new circumstances , those holding traditional academic values may find themselves defined or harassed out of professional existence . As unpleasant as it may be , scholars must learn to recognize and respond to these attempts , which are likely to become increasingly common in the 1990s . These days , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hasten one 's ruin . <p> 
##4000372 Section : ISSUES <p> I am taking it as given that politicization and low academic standards are the enemies of liberal education , that those enemies are currently in the ascendant , that my readers agree with me about this , and that they agree with me about little else . <p> There are two questions that I wish to address in this essay . The first is : In what sense of " defense " is liberal education in need of defense ? The second is : What are we defending ? Both questions turn on the difference , to put it crudely , between philosophy and politics , or , if you wish , between theory and practice or between scholarship and action . <p> Scholars accentuate their disagreements . They like to sharpen the issues . The deeper each goes into a question , the more he disagrees with every other scholar . And that is all to the good . It furthers understanding . Scholars , in addition , wish to win battles by fact and logic , not by the number of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement who does not understand it , that is disagreeable . But in a political battle , it does not matter why you vote with me as long as you do . Our agreement need only be practical , not philosophical . That is why politics makes strange bedfellows . The art of finding a ground on which we who agree about little can , nevertheless , stand together is not an art to be despised . It is , nonetheless , a political not a philosophical art . <p> Because scholars disagree about matters of fundamental import , they will not agree about the essence of liberal education . For the idea of liberal education is part of a network of ideas -- about knowledge , human nature , society , and God -- that are essentially contested . If we could agree about the exact form and contents of an ideal curriculum , we would already possess answers to all the unanswered questions that make liberal studies so lively an enterprise . Our failure to agree on a definition of liberal education is , therefore , as it ought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we should teach the questions . But that is no answer . For we also disagree about which questions are meaningful , which are important , and which are still unanswered . In addition , this emphasis on questions obscures -- and perhaps is meant to obscure -- the fact that there is a great deal of knowledge that is almost beyond question , much of which should be conveyed to our students . Indeed , one of the most prevalent forms of contemporary politicization is an exaggerated emphasis on questions . For this has the effect of undermining the entire enterprise : its covert message is that there is no truth to be had and , hence , that questions are not to be taken seriously , that liberal studies are a game , and that nothing of importance remains except political commitment unqualified by information or reflection . Plying a sea of questions without the ballast of knowledge is a dangerous business . No wonder so many students and schools capsize . Furthermore , not to teach that which is known , and not to insist on accuracy and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to our inadequately prepared college students and to perpetuate the low standards to which they have become habituated . And pandering breeds boredom . For one must first know something , before he can find the deeper questions intelligible , much less exciting . <p> So we are back to the fact that those of us who are most concerned to defend liberal education do not agree on its definition . This theme can be developed in greater detail than I have room for here . For example , many of those with a religious orientation claim that the root of politicization goes back to the same Enlightenment conceptions to which others appeal in opposing politicization . Hence , while on the issue of the moment we may agree , that agreement is like a sheet of ice over the liquid depths of more interesting disagreements . <p> That would be fine , if our interest were purely philosophical . However , we do not oppose politicized scholarship in idea merely . Instead , it is an immediate practical threat , undermining all our versions of liberal education . Nor is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in arguing the issues . Instead , his object is power , not truth , and therefore he is unmoved by rational argument . Thus the defense liberal education needs is political , not philosophical . To see what this defense requires , let us examine the character of politicization more closely . Politicization 's Progress <p> How did the academy become politicized ? What were the rest of us doing ? Why did we let it happen ? It all seems so improbable -- so much so , indeed , that many people , both in and outside the academy , have trouble believing it is a fact . The explanation has several parts , but the major part has been overlooked , just because it stares us in the face : the politicized minority gained power precisely because it is politicized and the rest of the professoriate is not . Preferring power to truth , the politicized scholar can be ruthless , hence , efficient , in the pursuit of power . <p> Had genuine scholars been interested in power , they would not have become scholars . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Left in the 1960s . Having succeeded as students in imposing their will on entire institutions , they naturally wanted to continue the fun as adults -- and to make their livings at it . So they became scholars , of a sort , while retaining their commitment to " activism . " And they succeeded easily -- just as easily as they had won their student victories over reason and fair play . Hence the advent of the well-named " Tenured Left . " <p> It is true that by the 1960s , scholarship and teaching had already declined to the point where they were vulnerable to any intrusion bearing some signs of vitality . The curriculum had already become a wasteland of arid professionalism and premature specialization . Coherence and educational purpose were long since sacrificed on the convenient altar of student choice ( merely an excuse for teachers to pursue their scholarly specialties in undergraduate courses ) . This was the fertile field on which fell the seed of the weed called " relevance . " And many professors had become so involved in shallow careerism that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they were not unhappy to gain a little extra time for their research , when student " activists " managed to shut down classes or put an end to grading . The same sort of professors are unperturbed today when their colleagues debase the curriculum with undemanding political content . It is also true that many of those who were paying attention lacked any defense against radical demands . Always they said , " Well , I do n't like their tactics , and they are going too far , but it 's in a good cause and I can not oppose them . " The same sort of professors are still saying that , but now it is about what their colleagues are doing . They profess to care about the rights or welfare of women and minorities , but in fact they do not care enough to oppose the outrageous things being done in their names . Nor do they understand the purposes of education sufficiently to see why the curriculum should not be politicized " in a good cause . " <p> Essential as these factors are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We have to recognize , in addition , that psychologically and institutionally the academy was not -- is not -- prepared to withstand the importunities and stratagems of the politically motivated . I have already touched on the psychological aspect -- the fact that genuine scholars are not girded for battle . Indeed , one might go further : a major impetus of scholarship -- beginning with Plato 's founding of his school in the original groves of Academus -- is to retreat from the hurry-burly of political strife , the better to understand it . Scholars are by nature the men and women least inclined to sacrifice accuracy and nuance to the crude demands of political rhetoric , and they are the persons least inclined to sacrifice to the exigencies of the moment that leisure which is necessary to their taking a large view of things . It should therefore surprise no one that genuine scholars have not been very good at defending themselves from the dirty work done by their politicized counterfeits . <p> But more important than psychological considerations is the fact that the academy as an institution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of governance evolved to protect it from external political pressures but not to protect it from organized internal pressures to conform to a particular political program . Internally , that system serves to protect our enterprise from the biases that vary with individuals and from those plays for power to which overweening ambition leads an occasional scholar . It presupposes that nearly all academics have at least a large measure of commitment to the traditional goals of teaching and learning . It does not work when there is a sizeable minority who share essentially the same political goal and who are shameless in their pursuit of the power to advance that goal -- at whatever cost to truth and education . This is the reason the academic Left has succeeded in taking control of higher education , despite the fact that a ( diminishing ) majority of professors remain unpoliticized . <p> When faculty debates and committee deliberations -- never to tell the truth , noted for their high intellectual level -- are undermined by the concerted action of those who plan their strategies beforehand , who applaud speakers on their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standard big lies , such as that Western civilization is racist and sexist ) , and who do all they can to distract attention from the arguments of the " other side " and to intimidate those who dare make such arguments ( especially by calling them racists and sexists ) , then the system no longer works . For it depends on a certain amount of civility , intellectual honesty , and multidimensional disagreement -- as opposed to the reduction of every issue to two " sides . " Nor is there any mechanism in place to prevent the academic Left from tirelessly proposing new programs , recycling the same tiresome ideas in ever new forms . Opposition from genuine scholars , who would rather be doing their proper work , is thus exhausted , and students graduate " knowing " little more than that Western civilization is racist , sexist , and " homophobic . " Nor is there any mechanism for monitoring individual classes for such flagrant abuses of academic freedom as irrelevant political harangues , known falsehoods presented as fact , and biased grading . Indeed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chat , forty years ago , was one of the means attempted for external political control of the academy . Defending Liberal Education <p> What , then are we to do ? There is no way out of this ocher than to explain -- clearly , repeatedly , and patiently to all who we can get to listen -- that politicization has changed the game and chat the game can not be restored without changing the rules , at least for the duration . We need to explain that academic freedom , which ordinarily requires independence from outside interference , calls for just such interference when that freedom is being subverted from within . Not that parents or trustees or the public should dictate curricula ; however , they have every right to refuse to fund those institutions that permit their own faculties to violate the principles of academic freedom or that otherwise do not live up to their own pretensions . In addition , we have to build up an internal body of resistance -- a group of faculty and administrators who understand what is at issue , to whom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide an alternative in answer to a public call for reform . <p> But for the purpose of gaining public support , as well as to gain the support of our colleagues , we need to be clear not only about what the academic Left is doing but also about what it is that our society is losing thereby . And this brings us to our second question : What shall we defend ? For all talk of strategy and technique is trivial in comparison to clarity about our goal . Nor can we move anyone if we only complain of what is wrong , and are perceived as mere carpers and cavilers . We must also say what it is that we stand for , and we must make that statement inspiring . Despite our philosophical differences , we have to find a common ground on which to make our appeal to colleagues , parents , trustees , and the public . Politicization 's Paralyzing Paradoxes <p> Here we confront a paradox . Scholarship leads us to sharpen our disagreements , rarely to resolve them , while an effective defense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can stand together . The language of political campaigns is adopted deliberately . For another form of the paradox is this , that to fight the politicization of scholarship we must become political . This paradox is an enormous stumbling block to us . Our enemies use it to charge us with hypocrisy and those who should be our allies use it as an excuse not to fight . The former say we are just as political as they are , and the latter say that if we spend our time in fighting rather than in teaching and learning , then we have already lost . Both of these arguments are fallacious , just as it is a fallacy to suppose that a peaceful nation may not arm itself against warlike aggressors . Nevertheless , the paradox that underlies those arguments is not so easily dismissed , for it is subject to endless metamorphosis . No sooner have you rid yourself of it in one form than it reappears in another . <p> Consider , for example , the familiar plaint that opposition to politicization is right-wing politicization . There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the issue goes well beyond the fact that politicization is currently from the Left . If that were all there is to it , then we could easily maintain that we oppose all politicization and not only its current leftist form . Furthermore , most of us would be saying that honestly , and few of those we want to convince would doubt that most of us are saying it honestly . But the issue is muddled by the fact that the Left -- I mean the academic Left , for what other Left is there today ? -- has adopted the thesis that all education is political . In consequence , any defense of unpoliticized education is ipso facto a rejection of leftist doctrine . The academic Left seems to have put us in the position of being unable to transcend politics . We either accept their politicization of the academy or , by opposing it , seek to place the academy in opposition to the Left , which , of course , is to politicize it . Deuced clever of them , what ? <p> But it is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its doctrine . They did not have to . The idea that all education and all scholarship is political does , of course , have its provenance in Marx 's idea of mystification . But it goes beyond that notion . Marx never said that every idea mystifies . Indeed , it is a corruption of Marxism to suppose that objectivity is impossible or that it is possible only after one has taken a political stance . For Marx himself sought to establish his views by rational argument based in part on historical data . Once upon a time , the Left thought it could win in a fair fight : by facts and by logic , it could win to its own view all those who were not mystified or self-serving . Only in the 1960s did a segment of the Left , namely , the New Left , decide to immunize itself from criticism by holding that everything is political , so that any inconvenient fact or argument could be dismissed as " reactionary . " ( In this , the New Left echoed in doctrine the practice of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ following every twist and turn of the Moscow-dictated party line . But evil practice is one thing , its justification in theory is another . ) <p> Thus , in opposing politicization , we do not reject leftist doctrine per se . Rather , we reject only the current debased form of leftism . And besides , rejecting a view as ground for academic practice is not inconsistent with giving that view a fair hearing within the academy . In fact , in the present case , the doctrine can not be fairly considered except by not acting upon it ( just as one can not simultaneously practice suicide and think about whether suicide is a good idea ) . For the serious examination of any view is possible only if ( 1 ) objectivity is possible and ( 2 ) we are trying to be objective ; but the idea that all education is political denies ( 1 ) and sanctions the violation of ( 2 ) . It follows that sincere radicals -- those who believe in the truth of what they espouse -- will join with us in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shall We Defend ? <p> What idea of liberal education joins the Jesuit and the atheist heir of the Enlightenment , the Orthodox Jew and the Fundamentalist Christian , the libertarian and the socialist in a common cause to save the academy ? I think an answer can be found in the history of liberal education , in the fact that a tradition that began in pagan Greece proved essential to the Christian universities of the Middle Ages and to secular education in modern democracies . For this suggests the existence of some common core that can be conceptualized and used in a variety of quite different ways and yet is identifiably the same thing . <p> The Pythagoreans believed that the study of mathematics liberated souls from their bodily prisons ; it did so because the truths revealed therein were universal and neither served any particular party 's self-interest nor depended on any particular person 's perspective . Thus Proclus credited that sect with creating liberal studies . The same ideal of impartiality is implicit in a religion that claims to be universal , not tribal . The Christian scholar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but , in however subordinate a role , the liberal arts continue to serve that end and thus formed , and form , the body of Christian education . Nor is it any accident that modern democracies have fostered the liberal arts . For they , too , despite -- or because of -- their emphasis on individual liberty , depend on a general understanding of the impartial rule of law and of rights deemed universal . Without such an understanding , a democracy will degenerate into an unlimited , unmediated , unmitigated warfare of special interests . <p> Therefore , liberation from limited perspective , granted to us by the acquisition of objective knowledge and by the development of our rational faculties , is the goal of liberal education and makes that education valuable in a variety of contexts . We can disagree about whether a liberal education is complete if divorced from theological instruction ; we can disagree about whether moral teaching must be part of it or must be left merely as a hoped-for consequence of strictly mental training ; but we have to agree that knowledge and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of themselves lead to or in conjunction with other things support that self-transcendence without which life is less than human . It is perhaps needless to add that low intellectual standards and politicization are the two wicked arrows that could penetrate liberal education 's heart and kill it . This is especially true of that contemporary form of politicization which teaches that one 's sex or race or class determines one 's " perspective " or " values " or " culture " -- for this is the very denial of the possibility of self-transcendence . <p> As the needs of a democracy are those that will be most generally acknowledged in our society , let us look more closely at liberal education in their light . One frequent criticism of the traditional curriculum is that it is elitist , and that a more democratic curriculum would give equal treatment to the contributions and cultures of all of America 's , or even the world 's , subgroups . I will ignore the problem that there is an enormous number of ways in which millions of people can be subdivided , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Far more important is the fact that the traditional curriculum was indeed designed for an elite group , and that it is therefore precisely the curriculum most needed by today 's democratic citizenry . To begin , again , with the ancient Greeks , liberal studies were those deemed suitable to the gentlemen of leisure whose only responsibility was to take a leading role in their polis . By teaching them a larger view of things and to think for themselves , it prepared them to rule . Since in our democracy the franchise is widespread , that same sort of education must also be widespread . In a democracy it is elitist no ! to make " elitist " education widely accessible . <p> Let us take military , political , and diplomatic history as an example , since that is so often invidiously compared to the " more democratic " social history . Social history , fascinating and valuable as that is , does not teach the art of statesmanship , of which the democratic citizen needs some understanding . It is far less useful to women and black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is to learn how to rule , which means studying what has been done by rulers , especially those of societies most like our own ; and those rulers have been , primarily , white males . It is a tendentious oversimplification , typical of present-day politicization , to suppose that former ruling classes were merely racist and sexist and that we have nothing to learn from them of prudence , statecraft , and practical wisdom . <p> The new , " multicultural " curriculum is not a curriculum for free men and women , prepared to take control of their own futures . It is , instead , a curriculum for those who will remain slaves to their origins , to their sex , race , age , class , handicap , or other peculiarity . It is , thus , inimical to democracy . So , too , is the related devotion of educational institutions to reforming students ' attitudes . In the first place , that really is elitist and antidemocratic , since it means that a self-selected group of educators has decided for all the rest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Worse yet , it interferes with the transference of knowledge and development of mental skills that is essential to democratic citizenship . A democracy is in peril when its citizens can not think for themselves . Finally , the social reform motive serves as a welcome mat for politicization . If higher education is to perform its true service to democracy , it must drop the project of directly reforming society and return to the task of improving the minds of our young . <p> In conclusion , I think we can agree that the liberal arts tradition we defend is characterized most fundamentally by its quest for objective knowledge , both of historical and cultural peculiarities and of universal principles . Such knowledge lifts us out of the prison houses of our individual selves and peculiar conditions , making morality and democracy possible and supplementing the teachings of universalistic religions . Without this knowledge , partly achieved and partly hoped-for , unanswered questions can not be examined impartially nor taken seriously . Within this framework , there is much we can disagree about , as we can disagree about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is clear that such knowledge and such inquiry , as well as the literature ( mostly European ) in which it is embodied and the social forms ( developed in the West ) that support it , are of general import to mankind regardless of one 's origins or present habitation . <p> By Thomas Short <p> <p> Thomas Short is associate professor of philosophy at Kenyon College , Gambier , OH 43022 . <p> 
##4001472 A review of five measures of cognitive style suggested three underlying dimensions despite differences in the terminology and theoretical bases of these instruments . Consequently , factor analytic methods were used on five measures completed by a sample of 143 students and faculty : the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator , Gregorc Style Delineator , Decision Style Indicator , Learning Style Inventory , and Lifescripts . Results of this analysis identified three underlying factors consistent with predictions , i.e. , a thinking/feeling dimension , an information-processing domain , and an attentional focus dimension . Implications for future psychometric research are discussed . <p> There has been longstanding interest within the behavioral sciences in developing typologies of behavior . Such classification systems have been developed in such areas as personality ( Jung , 1923 ) , learning styles ( e.g. , Gregorc , 1982a ; Kolb , 1976 ) , decision-making styles ( Rowe &; Mason , 1987 ) and social styles ( Christensen , 1980 ; Merrill &; Reid , 1981 ) . Moreover , these various schemes reflect the work of both theoretical and applied researchers in such fields @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , there appears to be little integration across these fields regarding consistent similarities among various classification systems . Examination of such regularities may indeed help elucidate underlying theoretical processes/and or mechanisms ; consequently the purpose of the present study was to examine the conceptual similarity among five different taxonomies of cognitive behavior . Using factor analytic methods , we demonstrate the consistent overlap among these systems and argue for the existence of three primary dimensions of cognitive operation . It is important to emphasize that this work is not meant to be an evaluation , per se , of the quality of the particular measures used to create these taxonomies , but rather , an examination of the implications of the confluence of the models . REVIEW OF FIVE MODELS <p> We begin by reviewing the five models and then present the logic of our conceptual synthesis . Our review requires the explication of the key dimensions of each system ; to aid the reader , we have presented in Tables 1 and 2 the proposed conceptual equivalences among the five . We begin with a discussion of Jung 's model @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 1923,1971 ) theory of personality types rests upon three orthogonal , bipolar dimensions ( a ) a perceiving dimension , which is concerned with the ways we initially process information ; ( b ) a judging dimension , which characterizes decision-making ; and ( c ) an attentional dimension , which defines preferences for internal versus external focus . One end of the perceiving scale , termed Sensation , is practical , realistic , and present-oriented . Sensing types prefer facts , details , and structure . The opposite perceiving approach , Intuition , reflects a greater concern for meanings and implications rather than raw facts , and with patterns , rather than details . Intuitive types are imaginative and able to quickly recognize relationships in data . <p> Judging is accomplished either by Thinking , the term Jung used to denote an objective , logic-oriented mode of evaluation , or by Feeling , which is more personal and value-oriented . Individuals with a strong Thinking orientation tend to value control while those who lean toward Feeling generally prefer collaboration . <p> Jung also defined two opposing attentional preferences ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which gives more attention to the internal mental process . <p> Jung 's framework is the theoretical foundation of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ( MBTI ) ( Myers &; McCaulley , 1985 ) , an instrument widely used in counseling , educational , and industrial environments . Myers and Briggs introduced an additional dimension , called Judging-Perceiving , which describes an individual 's preference for organizing or controlling one 's external environment ( judging ) or for understanding these events ( perceiving ) . ( This was not one of Jung 's original dimensions ; moreover , we do not explicitly deal with this dimension in our study . ) <p> Several researchers , e.g. , Hellriegel and Slocum ( 1975 ) , McCaulley ( 1987 ) , have defined a 2 x 2 problem solving/cognitive style matrix by crossing Jung 's perceiving and judging dimensions , i.e. , Sensation/Thinking , Sensation/Feeling , Intuition/Thinking , and Intuition/Feeling . The utility of this taxonomy has been demonstrated in organizational studies of preferred organizational climate ( Mitroff &; Kilman. 1975 ) and executive decision-making ( McKenney &; Keen , 1974 ) . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ style is the work of Gregorc ( 1982a , 1982b ) whose four learning style categories are based upon the crossing of sequential or random processing ( dimension 1 ) with concrete or abstract data ( dimension 2 ) . In his theory , " concrete " refers to the immediate experience of new information , no matter how it is dealt with , while " abstract " refers to the mental representation of the experience . Gregorc 's four styles are summarized by Butler ( 1988 ) as follows : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> The preceding description of the Concrete Sequential can be applied to Jung 's Sensation type while the adjectives describing the Abstract Sequential are appropriate for the Thinking type . The Abstract Random description is quite suitable for Feeling types while Intuitives can easily be associated with the Concrete Random learning style . While no studies have directly compared MBTI types with those measured by the Gregorc Style Delineator ( 1982b ) , they have been linked in separate studies involving a third measure , the Kirton Adaptation/Innovation Inventory . <p> Kirton ( 1976 ) proposed two problem-solving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work within the existing situation to solve a problem and tend to be practical , methodical , and conforming . Innovators , on the other hand , question all aspects of a problem , approach it from new angles and challenge rules . <p> Kirton 's descriptions generally coincide with Myers ' ( 1987 , p. 5 ) description of Sensing types who " ... accept and work with what is ' given ' in the here-and-now , and thus become realistic and practical " and Intuitives who " ... grow expert at seeing new possibilities and new ways of doing things . " Indeed , Carne and Kirton ( 1982 ) found significant correlations between Intuitives and Innovators and between Sensates and Adaptors . Joniak and Isaksen ( 1988 ) compared the Kirton and Gregorc instruments and found that Adaptors corresponded to Concrete Sequentials and Innovators to Concrete Randoms . The results of these two studies support the Jung/Gregorc parallel summarized in Table 1 . <p> Additional evidence of the parallelism between the Gregorc and MBTI systems can be seen in the response profiles of men and women taking the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scored significantly higher on the Abstract Sequential channel while females scored higher on the Abstract Random channel . Both genders were predominantly Concrete Sequential . Similarly , Myers and McCaulley ( 1985 ) report that on the MBTI males are most often classified as Thinking types ( parallel to Gregorc 's Abstract Sequential ) while most females are typed as Feeling ( Abstract Random ) , and there are many more Sensates ( corresponding to Concrete Sequential ) in the general population than there are Intuitives ( Concrete Random ) . Thus data from the Kirton Inventory , as well as gender differences in response patterns to the two measures , suggest the similarity between MBTI and Gregorc " types . " Decision Style Inventory <p> Rowe 's Decision Style Inventory ( DSI ) ( Rowe &; Mason , 1987 ) has its conceptual foundation in his earlier work with Driver ( Driver &; Rowe , 1979 ) on the use of information in decision making and idea generation . His model is based upon the dimensions of cognitive complexity and environmental complexity . The first term reflects an individual 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concern for people- ( vs. task- ) oriented work environment . The four styles derived from this model are : Directive , Analytic , Conceptual , and Behavioral . <p> The Directive Style reflects a practical , present-oriented approach . Directives are autocratic , action-oriented , and prefer structure . Analytics are logical , task-oriented , abstract thinkers . The Conceptual style is associated with creativity , insight , and intuition . Behaviorals are people-oriented , supportive , and receptive . Kolb 's Learning Style Inventory <p> Kolb 's ( 1984 ) learning cycle model represents another conceptual approach to classifying cognitive processing . Based largely on Piaget , Kolb uses the terms abstract and concrete differently than does Gregorc , relating them to Jung 's Thinking and Feeling dimensions . Kolb states that " An orientation toward abstract conceptualization focuses on using logic , ideas , and concepts . It emphasizes thinking as opposed to feeling " while " An orientation toward concrete experience focuses on being involved in experiences and dealing with human situations in a personal way . It emphasizes feeling as opposed to thinking " ( pp. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learning theory is that of active experimentation versus reflective observation . In one of the several perspectives that Kolb offers on his theory of learning , he describes his two dimensions respectively as one of grasping information and one of transforming it . Grasping is accomplished by either apprehension ( concrete experience ) or comprehension ( abstract conceptualization ) . The two forms of transformation are extension ( " active external manipulation , " p. 41 ) and intention ( " internal reflection , " p. 41 ) . Kolb specifically relates intention to introversion and extension to extraversion . <p> Kolb 's four styles are defined by the intersection of his two dimensions . Convergers favor abstract conceptualization and active experimentation while Divergers emphasize reflective observation and concrete experience . Accommodators value active experimentation and concrete experience , while Assimilators prefer abstract conceptualization and reflective observation . <p> Comparing his Learning Style Inventory ( LSI ) and the MBTI , Kolb ( 1976 ) noted " The strongest and most consistent relationships appear to be between concrete/abstract LSI and feeling/thinking MBTI and between active/reflective LSI and extrovert/introvert MBTI " ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learning styles relate to the extraverted and introverted aspects of the Thinking/Feeling scale . Lifescripts <p> The last measure considered is Christensen 's ( 1980 ) Lifescripts . Designed for use in management consulting , the scale defines four styles ( Analyzer , Controller , Supporter , and Promoter ) that Christensen relates to social interaction rather than cognitive functions . Nevertheless , the authors believe that such styles , as described as follows by Christensen , do , in fact , reflect cognitive variations in the way people use information whether they are in social situations or performing more clearly cognitive tasks . Moreover , we see definite parallels between this taxonomy and the Thinking/Feeling and **25;441;TOOLONG dimensions of the MBTI . <p> According to Christensen , " Controllers want results . They are very task oriented and will make sure the job gets done " ( p. 3 ) . They " ... like to direct and coordinate the work of others " ( p. 3 ) . Myers and Myers ( 1980 , p. 85 ) tell us that " Extraverted Thinkers use their thinking to run as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " ; and " ... they enjoy deciding what ought to be done and giving appropriate orders to ensure that it will be done . " <p> Introverted Thinking types , like Analyzers , are logical and reserved . They " use their thinking to analyze the world , not run it " ( p. 89 ) . Extraverted Feeling types are friendly , tactful , sympathetic , and like dealing with people , while Promoters are described as gregarious , outgoing , and socially skillful . Introverted Feeling types are idealistic , loyal , and " value , above all , harmony " ( p. 97 ) . Supporters are also characterized as idealistic and loyal and " ... will try to keep conflict low in order to maintain harmony " ( Christensen , 1980 , p. 2 ) . <p> It should be noted that Lifescripts represents only one of a considerable number of style measures developed for consulting purposes ; cf. Life Orientations Survey ( Atkins , 1981 ) , The Self Profile ( DeVille , 1984 ) , and Social Style Profile ( Merrill &; Reid , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be found in Bokoros ( 1989 ) . <p> We have considered five conceptual models of style relevant to cognition and noted their similarities ( see Tables 1 and 2 ) . We consider it significant that these pronounced similarities exist despite their differences in conceptual development , domains of application , specific item content and the response format of the measures . Jung based his typology upon observations made in the course of his clinical practice ; Gregorc and Kolb studied learning in the academic environment ; while Rowe and Christensen drew from work done in the industrial environment . <p> The similarity that exists among the systems suggests that the five measures may all be tapping into a single , consistent conceptual framework . Indeed , we hypothesize that a factor analysis of these five measures ( see also Table 3 ) will lead to the emergence of three factors : Factor 1 -- An executive cognitive function charged with controlling cognitive operations and arriving at decisions ; Factor 2 -- A receiving function ordering and encoding sensory input ; and Factor 3 -- An activating function determining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a close relationship with Factor 1 . <p> Finally , we believe that factors 1 and 2 operate along bipolar dimensions analogous to serial and parallel processing . METHOD <p> The instruments used in this study were the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ( MBTI ) , the Learning Style Inventory ( LSI ) , the Gregorc Style Delineator ( GSD ) , the Decision Style Inventory ( DSI ) , and Lifescripts ( LFS ) . <p> The MBTI and LSI are relatively well-known instruments with documented psychometric integrity ( see Carlson , 1985 ; Carlyn , 1977 ; Myers and McCaulley , 1985 ; Thompson and Borello , 1986 , MBTI ; Freedman and Stumpf , 1978 ; Geller , 1978 ; Kolb , 1976 , 1981,1984 , LSI . ) Consequently , we will examine the latter three measures . <p> The GSD ( Gregorc , 1982a , 1982b ) presents the respondent with 10 sets of 4 words . In each set , the individual is asked to rank order the words in terms of how well they describe the respondent . Gregorc ( 1982b ) describes test-retest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ construct validity ( positive correlations between GSD style types and endorsement of 40 characteristics theoretically consistent with the types ) ; nevertheless , the psychometric soundness of the GSD does not appear to be well-documented . <p> The Decision Style Inventory ( Rowe &; Mason , 1987 ) involves choosing from a set of four phrases the best ending to a sentence . Twenty sentences and word phrases are presented . Rowe ( Rowe &; Mason , 1987 ) reports significant split-half validity for his measure and reliable correlations between the DSI and other well-known measures- the MBTI , the LSI , and the Embedded Figures Test ( Witkin , Oltman , Raskin &; Karp , 1971 ) -but presents no actual data in his book . Finally , Christensen 's ( 1980 ) Lifescripts consists of 18 sentence completion items with four choices each to be ranked in order of how descriptive they are of the subject . The first six sentences are questions about a hypothetical autobiography ; the next six refer to a movie based on the book ; and the final six relate to critical responses ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no reported data on either the validity or reliability of the measure . <p> Although the last three measures do not have well-established reliability and validity , this does not present a particular difficulty in terms of the focus of our study , which is on the convergence of these measures . Indeed , the extent to which the measures are not psychometrically sound should just add random " noise " to the analysis and work against any convergence of factors . <p> The five measures were administered to 180 students and faculty members at Central Connecticut State University . One hundred and sixty-two of the subjects correctly completed all five measures . The data were then screened for outliers , skewness , and multivariate normality following procedures described by Tabatchnik and Fidell ( 1989 ) . The final sample of 143 individuals had a mean age of 32 years with a range of 17 to 72 . A variety of majors was reported , but most of the participants were from psychology , education , and business disciplines . <p> To prepare the data for factor analysis , all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . This transformation did not distort the meaning of the scales but allowed for more direct interpretation of the factor analysis in terms of the hypothesized factor alignment . For the MBTI , the dimensions were E/I S/N , T/F , J/P ( see Myers &; McCaulley , 1985 ) . On the LSI , we labeled CE - AC as LSI1 and AE - RO as LS12 . The dimensions of the GSD were defined as GSD1 = Abstract Random Abstract Sequential , and GSD2 = Concrete Random - Concrete Sequential , while for the DSI , dimensions were computed as DSI1 = Behavioral - Analytic , and DSI2 = Conceptual - Directive . <p> Computing continuous dimensions for Lifescripts was more complex since the instrument asked for responses under both normal and " adverse " conditions ( i.e. , negative reviews of the book and movie about their life ) . Since this division was not needed for our study , responses for a given item were combined into a single score for each type . The SP ( Supporter ) and PM ( Promoter ) scores were then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was obtained by combining AN ( Analyzer ) with CT ( Controller ) . Subtracting Task from People produced the scale , LFS1 , that we believe is associated with the MBTI 's T/F . The extraversion score ( CT + PM ) was subtracted from the introversion score ( AN + SP ) to obtain LFS2 . <p> The continuous scores were subjected to a principal factor analysis using varimax rotation ( SAS , 1985 ) . The specific factor alignment predicted is shown in Table 3 . RESULTS <p> A complete intercorrelation matrix of all variables is available from the authors . The pattern of correlations was generally consistent with predictions with the exception of the LSl 's AE and RO . Neither showed any meaningful association with Introversion or Extraversion . AE did show a small correlation with Sensation , and RO with Feeling . We also found that the GSD 's Sequential scores were significantly correlated with Introversion and the Random scores with Extraversion . <p> Kaiser 's Measure of Sampling Adequacy ( Kaiser , 1970 ) was 0.78 , exceeding the 0.6 threshold recommended by Tabatchnik @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Three factors , which account for 100% of the common variance , were retained . The eigenvalues were : 3.163 , 1.670 , and 0.854 , respectively . The inclusion of the third factor with an eigenvalue less than one was based on inspection of the scree plot ( see Tabachnick &; Fidell , 1989 , p. 635 ) . The factor loadings after varimax rotation are shown in Table 4 . <p> Loadings exceeding 0.55 , Comrey 's ( 1973 ) criteria for " good " factors , are enclosed in parentheses . As can be seen , the alignment of the dimensions coincides very well with our theoretical predictions . DISCUSSION <p> The findings support our hypothesis in nearly every respect . Factor1 represents a decision-making function : convergent and objective at one pole ; divergent and subjective at the other . It appears to play a supervisory role in cognitive functioning . Factor2 represents a basic data-processing orientation : at one extreme immediacy , accuracy , and applicability ; at the other patterns and possibilities . Factor3 consists of the MBTI **25;468;TOOLONG scale and a similar scale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more to external stimuli or to one 's own thoughts and ideas . While Kolb 's theory approaches this factor from a purely cognitive standpoint ( as opposed to Christensen 's emphasis on the social environment ) his active/reflective dimension failed to load on this factor , or any other . This may reflect more on the instrument per se than on Kolb 's learning theory . In our opinion one end of his scale relates to pragmatism , rather than to activity , and the other end to a preference for passive learning , which is not necessarily reflective . <p> All of the instruments , including the LSI , load successfully on Factor1 , the decisionmaking dimension . Lifescripts combines this dimension with Factor3 ( Introversion/ Extraversion ) . The " social " styles defined by this instrument apparently reflect the internal and external application of the executive cognitive function . <p> The pattern of results is also consistent with certain neurophysiological data regarding brain functions . Luria ( 1966,1970,1973 ) , based on research into functional deficiencies resulting from localized brain damage , postulated three primary structures he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ p. 66 ) . The first block ( brain stem , reticular formation , and hippocampus ) , relates principally to arousal ( see also Eysenck , 1967 ) ; the second block ( temporal , parietal , and occipital lobes ) deals with encoding of information ; while the third block ( frontal lobes ) is concerned with planning and decision-making . <p> The three blocks appear to have direct functional correspondence to the MBTI , i.e. , block one with **25;495;TOOLONG , block two with sensation/ intuition and block three with thinking/feeling . The remaining four models show parallels with two of the three blocks . Both Gregorc and Rowe describe functions related to encoding ( block two ) and decision-making ( block three ) while Kolb 's and Christensen 's measures both consider functions akin to attentional focus ( block one ) and decision making ( block three ) . <p> What are the implications of our results ? We believe that the convergence of the five instruments , containing in total 28 separate cognitive/behavioral indices , into three bipolar dimensions argues for the fundamentality of these dimensions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the individual measures in their appropriate applications , a focus on the underlying cognitive processes may result in the development of new measures ( or the simplification of existing ones ! ) that have greatly expanded utility and applicability . Moreover , such research may inform neurophysiological work examining the chemical and biological bases of cognitive behavior . We believe that future psychometric research should examine the commonalities among psychological measures and their implications for underlying psychological processes rather than adding to the continued proliferation of instruments of limited applicability . TABLE 1 Related cognitive factors proposed by Jung , Gregorc and Rowe PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 1 1923 , 1971 2 1982a , b 3 1987 TABLE 2 Related social/cognitive factors proposed by Jung , Kolb and Christensen PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 1 1923 , 1971 2 1984 3 1980 TABLE 3 Predicted factor alignment PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 1 J/P is included in factor 2 owing to its high correlation with S/N , no other prediction is made with regard to it TABLE 4 Factor Loadings after Varimax Rotation Scale Factor1 Factor2 Factor3 LFS1 ( 0.794 ) 0.135 0.026 DSI1 ( 0.754 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 0.655 ) 0.206 -0.328 LSI1 ( 0.635 ) -0.039 -0.193 LSI2 -0.249 -0.046 -0.137 S/N -0.006 ( 0.723 ) -0.149 GSD2 0.174 ( 0.653 ) -0.336 DSI2 -0.023 ( 0.586 ) 0.137 F/P 0.229 ( 0.555 ) -0.126 E/I -0.184 -0.029 ( 0.655 ) LFS2 0.132 -0.218 ( 0.646 ) <p> Note : High loadings enclosed in parentheses <p> 
##4001474 No gender differences appeared in personality ratings of aggression/assertiveness when separate rating scales were used to rate extensive interview and test material on elderly women and men . Men were rated significantly lower in aggression on a scale created to rate women than on a scale created to rate men , and men tended to be rated as less aggressive than women on the female scale . For women , aggression was apparent in their accounts of current activities , while in men aggression was more often apparent in their renditions of past-life activities . Gender differences were most apparent in verbal aggression in interpersonal interactions . Findings are consistent with the possibility of age-related decline in aggression in men . <p> This study explored gender differences in old age in personality ratings of aggression/assertiveness along with patterns of apparent change in aggression from middle to old age . A perennial issue in adult development and aging is mean-level personality change from middle to old age , in which men become less , and women more , aggressive ( Turner , 1982 ) . Longitudinal research using objective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trait aggression ( Costa &; McCrae , 1980 ) , while research on self-concepts ( Bengtson , Reedy , &; Gordon , 1985 ) indicates more , and research using projective tests ( Gutmann , 1977 ) suggests still more , differential personality change in aggression for women and men . <p> In the present study , ratings of aggression were made from lengthy structured interviews and test materials . In this study , aggression is defined as action which is carried out in a forceful way to achieve ends . High aggression refers to a high level of assertiveness and goal-directedness to push toward a goal despite obstacles . A high level of hostility or overt anger does not necessarily indicate high assertiveness . At the low end of the scale , the individual is not assertive ; hostility may be suppressed or covertly expressed , but the individual is withdrawn and nonassertive ( Turner , 1969 , p. 123 ) . <p> When such data were initially analyzed , Turner ( 1969 ) created and used separate five-point scales for male and female respondents to rate aggression , for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ differed somewhat from those in women ; but , more important , examination of the interview and test protocols gave Turner the impression that men in this sample were , in general , less aggressive than women ( Turner , 1969 , p. 125 ) . Separate scales were created to control for these apparent gender differences , and , using the two separate scales , men and women did not differ in aggression . <p> But were the women in that sample indeed more aggressive than men ? To answer this question , men and women must be rated on the same scale . In the present , secondary analysis , aggression in male respondents was again rated , using the scale devised for rating women . Two comparisons were made . First , ratings of male respondents on the scale created in 1968 to rate men were compared to ratings of male respondents on the scale created in 1968 to rate women ; second , ratings of male respondents on the latter scale were compared to those of female respondents on the same scale . It was hypothesized that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scale than on the male scale , and that men would be rated as less aggressive than women when both genders were rated on the female scale . METHOD Sample <p> The sample consisted of 85 elderly Jewish persons ( 60 women and 25 men ) who were interviewed while on the waiting list for admission to one of three homes for the aged . The age range was 63-91 years old ( M = 78 years ) ; all respondents were born before the turn of the twentieth century . All respondents were ambulatory , free of major incapacitating illnesses , and showed no gross signs of altered brain function as defined by poor performance on several cognitive measures ( Turner , Tobin , &; Lieberman , 1972 ) . There were no gender differences in cognitive status ( Turner , 1969 ) or physical and functional capacity ( Tobin , 1990 ) . Data <p> A basic battery of instruments and focused interviews was administered to all respondents . This battery consisted of 18 structured instruments and 9 focused interview sections , administered in 4 to 6 sessions totalling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made six types of judgment on each respondent after completing the interview . <p> Turner ( 1969 ) developed a definition for the construct " aggression " and devised five-point scales to rate aggression as a personality trait in men and women separately ; scales were constructed to distribute the sample evenly among the five points . Scale points shown below were devised to rate women , and in the present analysis were used to rate both genders . <p> Scale point definitions for personality ratings of aggression used to rate women , and in 1990 , men also : Very Low Aggression . Respondent denies assertiveness in almost every instance , seeming instead to withdraw . Respondent seems unable to assert self , even in situations in which interpersonal conflict would not occur . Respondent may appear " helpless " or apathetic . Personal characteristics include : Respondent is a very quiet , compliant , unobtrusive person who places or has always placed others ' needs before own needs ; respondent represses own needs to propitiate others , is subservient ; Respondent is verbal and friendly to the interviewer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; is timid and fears own decisions , so defers to those of relatives , or " gives in " so as to avoid confrontations and denies anger or expresses helplessness ; and Respondent despairs of influencing others and has withdrawn , feels helpless . Respondent may seem actually afraid of the interviewer . Low Aggression . Respondent is generally a very mild person , but on occasion goes after things despite being most uncomfortable in situations involving interpersonal conflict . Or respondent seems never to go after things directly , but instead manipulates others in a passive fashion to supply needs . Respondent may use martyrdom and whining as weapons , but at the same time conveys impotence in influencing others and an inability to follow through in an assertive manner . Rather than mildness , respondent may convey strong anxiety with consequent withdrawing tendencies and a strong wish to avoid trouble that is then acted on . Moderate Aggression . Respondent is not particularly assertive , but focuses considerable hostility outward , so may angrily tell others off . Respondent has much potential for interpersonal conflict that is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be very domineering in one or two relationships within the family circle , but is markedly fearful of ( and thus avoidant of , or deferent to ) nonfamily figures . Or , respondent 's aggressivity has a metered quality and is appropriately expressed ( but is not sufficiently intrusive/dominant to be rated a 4 ) . High Aggression . Respondent is very goal-directed in certain areas of life ; may be tough and argumentative , but is occasionally unsure of self and withdraws . Respondent is somewhat domineering ; or tends to assume leadership roles and actively assumes responsibility in social situations , but is not as intrusive/dominant as a 5 . Or , a mild , unobtrusive front covers an ability to assume control of people and social situations , so that respondent is strongly directive and powerful without seeming to be so . Very High Aggression . Respondent runs everything , takes over ; is a leader . Respondent may pop off unrestrainedly at every opportunity ; has a never-say-die attitude and is a formidable opponent . May manipulate people but in an active , commandeering , openly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is an iron-willed dictator who compels deference . Respondent is instantly prepared to fight for own rights in almost any situation . Highly intrusive . <p> For the purpose of comparison , scale point definitions for personality ratings of aggression used to rate men in 1968 are shown below . The scale point definitions for personality ratings of aggression used to rate men in 1968 were : Very Low Ageression . Respondent may be extroverted or very quiet , but in either case he expresses impotence and helplessness in interpersonal conflicts ; e.g. , if his child says something mean to him , he cries , or feels he must " take it . " The interviewer may remark that he is especially mild-mannered , passive , and subservient . He is " broken . " He has a strong self-image of noncompetitiveness and unobtrusiveness ; he views himself as a man who " never argues . " Low Aggression . Respondent seems to do his very best to avoid conflict , but irritation slips through . He may be apathetic and humble but manipulates others . In his job , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may have an " underdog " air . Moderate Aggression . Respondent is easily irritated , agitated , and negativistic , but he deals with these feelings by isolating himself . He is a quiet man , but he has a stubborn streak . At present , he seems to be a quiet , even a passive man , but in earlier life he seemed to display decided masculine-assertive characteristics ; e.g. , he reveled in his superordinate position as foreman in which he directed the work of many other men ; or he once loved to participate in competitive sports . In general , he has a potential for conflict although he prefers to avoid it . High Aggression . Respondent was quite competitive in his business and took on many organizational activities and responsibilities . Often he has been a " doer " and still tries to control others . He is occasionally quite irascible , or he may be an egotist who persistently seeks to be the center of attention . Although he may express some timidity about crossing others , he will stand up for his rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ verbally aggressive or is quarrelsome and maintains a masculine-aggressive pose ; he is forceful and may even be physically aggressive , or he was when younger . He was , and still tries to be , dominant over others . Or , he is an egotist who takes on organizational responsibilities as well as relentlessly seeking a limelight . RESULTS <p> The mean score for women on the rating scale for aggression created in 1968 for rating women , M = 2.98 , SD = 1.44 , was almost identical to the mean score for men on the rating scale created in 1968 for rating aggression in men , M = 3.0O , SD = 1.26 . A second rater , unaware of the specific hypotheses of this study , rated 13 female and 18 male protocols on the female and male scales , respectively ; interjudge reliability ( product-moment correlations ) for female cases was .86 and for male cases , .93 . <p> Next , all 25 male cases were rated on the aggression scale created for rating women , M = 2.44 , SD = 1.00 . Interjudge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scale was .95 . Thirteen of the 25 men ( 52% ) were rated as less aggressive on this scale than they were rated on the scale for men . No men were rated as more aggressive on the female scale than on the male scale . It should be noted that 4 of the 25 men had received the lowest possible rating on aggression on the male scale , and therefore could be rated no lower on the female scale . Hence , of the 21 men who might have been rated lower on the female than on the male scale , 62% ( n = 13 ) were so rated . Men were rated as significantly less aggressive on the female scale than they were on the male scale , t(24) = 4.80 , p <.001 . <p> Finally , ratings of men and women were compared on the scale created for rating women . On the aggression scale devised for rating women , men ( M = 2.44 ) tended to be rated as less aggressive than were women , M = 2.98 , t(83) = 1.71 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this study provide partial support for the hypothesis that men ( in this sample of Jewish elderly ) were less aggressive than women . Although half of the men were rated as less aggressive on the scale created for rating women than they were on the scale devised for rating men , and although this difference is significant , mean ratings for the two genders on the female scale failed to reach significance at the .05 level . <p> Gender differences were especially apparent above the midpoint of the scale . Twenty percent of the women , but none of the men , received the highest rating ( 5 ) on the female scale . Analysis indicated that , for women , the presence or absence of forceful goal-directed action was generally apparent in their accounts of current activities . For men , in contrast , the presence of forceful action was more often rated on the basis of their renditions of past-life , especially occupational activities . Occupational life and , for some , organizational activities and competitive sports , provided the context for male assertiveness . Organizational activities and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ context for highly assertive women , but gender differences were particularly apparent in the expression of verbal assertiveness in interpersonal situations . Among men , verbal aggression often appeared as irritability ; assertive women , in contrast , were more zestfully direct in verbal aggression and more forceful in their attempts to achieve their goals in interpersonal contexts . These gender differences in the expression of aggression were not accounted for by differences in physical status ; the women and men in this sample were comparable in health status ( Tobin , 1990 ) . The gender differences in manifestations of aggression in this study are similar to the gender differences in expression of ego mastery style found in projective test responses of elderly . Gutmann ( 1964 ) reported that women tended to view conflicts as interpersonal , or deployed aggression directly , while men were more likely to struggle against an impersonal environment , or were unable to act instrumentally to reach their goals . <p> These data are cross-sectional , and it can not unambiguously be concluded that the men in this sample are less aggressive than they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however , with such an interpretation . The mechanism for such a change , if it occurs , remains unclear in these data . Gutmann 's socioevolutionary model ( 1977,1987 ) is the most comprehensive approach to gender differentiation across the life span in personality traits such as aggression ( Huyck , 1990 ) . Gutmann has proposed that aggression in younger men has evolved in response to the demands of parenting ; when the offspring are no longer vulnerable and in need of support , men are free to become less aggressive . <p> Another suggestion is that occupational life provides a normative context for male aggression across many cohorts in our society , such that assertiveness dwindles when the occupational context is unavailable to men in old age . Intimate interactions , in contrast , form the normative context for female aggression , at least among the elderly cohorts thus far studied . Aggression , in other words , may be somewhat situation-specific for each gender . In this sample , however , assertive old women were more likely to be directly aggressive in public " impersonal " contexts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men were in " private " interpersonal interactions . <p> The findings of this study are consistent , then , with the possibility of age-related decline in aggression in men . It also appears that the old men studied are indeed somewhat less aggressive than are the old women , at least when aggression , defined as forceful goal-directed action , is rated from extensive interview and test materials . ( In contrast , studies using objective personality tests such as the Guildford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey find large gender differences in the expected direction on masculine-associated scales Costa , McCrae , &; Arenberg , 1983 ) . <p> Because aggression in women in this study was readily rated on the basis of current activities , there is no way of estimating stability or change in level of aggression among women . Whether women increase in aggression from middle to old age remains an open question in these data . <p> 
##4001476 A three-alternative forced choice forward masking procedure was embedded in an arcade-style rocketship video game . Human subjects were categorized into five groups adults and 5- , 6- , 7- , and 8-year-old children . The masker was a 500-msec noise that simulated rocket engines and the 20-msec , 500-Hz sinusoidal signal was a chirp from a gremlin . The gremlin hid , at random , in one of the three rockets . Subjects responded and interacted with the game by touching the rocket hiding the gremlin . Results revealed that masked thresholds decreased for all groups as a function of the interstimulus interval . The reliability of the psychophysical approach was confirmed and a developmental trend lends support to the hypothesis that auditory processing improves as a function of age . Children 's auditory filters were suggested to be functionally larger than those of adults . <p> A child 's perception of the world , like everyone 's , is a function of experience and innate sensory abilities . In this respect important and fundamental questions exist concerning a child 's sensory competence . It is well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young child can lead to permanent perceptual impairment if the defect is not recognized and corrected . As a result , the need to evaluate and understand a child 's visual capability is important . Likewise , the auditory modality is a vital and significant window to the world . Indeed , normal hearing mechanisms are clearly functional well before birth and are vital to normal speech development ( e.g. , Bredberg , 1968 ; DeCasper and Fifer , 1980 ; Elliott et al. , 1979 ; Morrongiello , Kulig , &; Clifton , 1984 ) . <p> The present paper examines an essential auditory parameter , temporal processing , using young children . The choice of time as the variable of interest , rather than frequency or intensity , was based on intuition as well as empirical data . Investigators of infant and child hearing have labored diligently to provide important contributions to the development of frequency and intensity processing ( e.g. , Allen , Wightman , Kistler , &; Dolan , 1989 ; Aslin , 1989 ; Davis &; McCroskey , 1980 ; Irwin , Ball , Kay , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , &; Schade , 1986 ; Jensen , 1987 ; Morrongiello &; Trehub , 1987 ; Morrongiello , Kulig , &; Clifton , 1984 ; Nossa &; Wilson , -1984 ; Olsho , 1985 ; Soderquist &; Hoenigman , 1973 ; Soderquist &; Moore , 1970 ; Thorpe , Trehub , Morrongiello , &; Bull , 1988 ) . There is , however , no doubt that temporal patterns within acoustic events are equally vital to the normal unfolding of language , speech , and musical perception ( e.g. , Bailey , 1983 ; Elliott et al. , 1979 ; Elliott , Hammer , Scholl , &; Wasowicz , 1989 ; Nossa , Rossman , Bond , &; Miller , 1990 ; Studdert-Kennedy , 1975 ; Tallal , Stark , Kallman , &; Mellits , 1981 ; Trehub , 1987 ; Wightman , Allen , Dolan , Kistler , &; Jamieson , 1989 ) . Investigations that focus on the temporal parameter , use convergent methods , and control subject variability should generate significant information regarding auditory development in children . Our initial goal in this project was to investigate the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a forward-masking paradigm . <p> Aside from the problem of children 's variability within psychophysical tasks ( which is addressed below ) , we were concerned about the development of the auditory system . We hypothesized that a child 's performance in a forward-masking task would be inferior to that of an adult . This is because recent data show that children 's auditory filters are larger than those of adults ( e.g. , Irwin et al. , 1986 ) . If the auditory filters are larger , they would be less efficient and less selective in funneling-out and removing extraneous sounds . The predicted result would be that children would have higher masked thresholds because of the decreased signal-to-noise ratio concomitant with large auditory filters . Signal detectability decreases as a function of increasing filter size ( the filter passes more noise and decreases the S/N ratio ) . When the temporal domain is examined , as in forward masking , one would expect the signal to be less detectable for children with large auditory filters . Further , one would expect that children of different ages would perform differently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Young children with large filters would be expected to have higher masked thresholds than older children and adults . Further , the functions should vary systematically as the interstimulus interval changes . These conjectures were examined in the present study . <p> The use of children in behavioral psychophysical tasks raises interesting and complex questions . It is well known that psychophysical tasks necessitate focused attention and careful following of verbal instructions . It is equally clear that one often encounters difficulties when young children are requested to be careful psychophysical observers . Some of the more obvious impediments are motivation , attention , restlessness , and just plain boredom . A request to sit quietly in a sound attenuated booth , push buttons , and attend to weird noise bursts and/or tone pips over earphones is not a child 's idea of fun . Under such conditions a child quickly becomes bored , disinterested , and inattentive to monotonous repetitive stimuli . If no effort is made to maintain a recalcitrant child 's curiosity and interest in the task , the data collected during even a short experimental session @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finish the task ! ) . To overcome this obstacle an experimental technique has been developed , both in our laboratory and others ( e.g. , Abramov et al. , 1984 ; Allen et al. , 1989 ; Hall &; Grose , 1990 ; Jensen , Neff , &; Callaghan , 1987 ; Wightman et al. , 1989 ) , where a psychophysical technique is embedded within a computerized video game . This innovation allows investigators to focus on primary auditory processes while maintaining the child 's cooperation . The introduction of a touch screen system to replace button presses also appears to be a useful innovation . <p> There are several approaches to the investigation of auditory perception via the temporal parameter. 1 The rapid temporal shifts within the flow of fluent speech suggest forward masking as one promising avenue . The detection of a signal that is preceded by a masker is , in part , a function of the interstimulus interval ( ISI ) between the two stimuli ( Elliott , 1962 , 1971 ; Soderquist , Carstens , &; Frank , 1981 ) . Using forward masking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ability of a subject to detect a brief signal following a masker . METHODS Subjects <p> There were 25 subjects categorized into five equal sized age groups : 5 through 8 , and adults . Each subject had normal hearing and was examined by the University Speech and Hearing Center . Children were recruited from local day care centers and elementary schools . Adults were selected from faculty and students at the University . Brief Illustrative Procedure <p> On the day of the " game " the child was brought to the Auditory Perception Laboratory . Upon arrival he or she was shown toys and prizes that could be won by playing the game . After a short acclimation period , the child was allowed to enter the " game room " with one of the research assistants . The child sat at a table within the room . The child 's monitor , and a similar one outside the room for the experimenter , were interfaced with a microcomputer and a touch screen system . When the child entered the room , an introductory logo was on the screen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " danced and " chirped " ( Figure 1a ) . The child and the research assistant put on matching earphones and listened to the gremlin while the instructions for the game were explained . Once the child understood the goal of the game , i.e. , to find the gremlin hiding in one of the rocketships , a practice game would begin . The game would start when the child touched the gremlin displayed on the monitor . When the game began , the visual image changed to that of three rocketships resting on launch pads . The child could hear each rocketship , in sequence , " test its engines " ( a noise burst ) . As each rocketship tested its engines , red flames would emanate from the rocket simultaneously with the noise burst ( Figure 1b ) . On each trial the gremlin would signal its hiding place by providing a chirp ( the signal ) immediately following one of the three noise bursts . Using the chirp as a cue , the child 's task was to touch the rocketship containing the gremlin ( Figure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increment in the score shown on the screen and the emergence of the gremlin from the top of the rocket ( Figure 1d ) . The gremlin would chirp and zig-zag upward into the sky until , near the top of the screen , it would be vaporized with a laser beam and disappear with a bang ( the backfire of a Model-T Ford , near 60 dB SPL ) ( Figure 1e ) . If the subject made an error , the gremlin would appear briefly below the correct rocketship , dance , chirp three times and disappear ( Figure 1f ) . The game continued in this manner until the threshold for the signal was estimated by the 3AFC adaptive procedure ( Levitt , 1971 ) . At the completion of each game the rocketship would blast off for a new planet , the point total would appear , and a brief rest period was introduced . Each game lasted approximately 3 to 4 minutes and averaged approximately 30-35 trials . Following the practice game , the experiment would begin and the child would play three games at one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between games . With older children , the assistant often left the game room and the child played alone . In situations where the assistant remained in the room , he or she removed the earphones and sat silently behind or to the side of the subject . The subject 's performance was , in all cases , monitored via a one-way mirror . Adults played the same game and had the same practice . Apparatus and Stimuli <p> Each subject was seated in front of a Zenith VGA Multi-Sync monitor inside a double-walled chamber . Auditory stimuli were presented via matched earphones ( TDH-49 in supraural cushions ) . The video game was produced using Borland Turbo Pascal 4.0 and subject responses were recorded via an Elographics Touch Screen and controller . The signal was a digitally generated 500-Hz sinusoid using a sampling frequency of 25 kHz . The signal was converted by a Data Translations 2801-A D/A converter . The rise/fall of the signal ( the gremlin chirp ) was 5 msec . The total duration of the signal was 20 msec . The 500-msec analog noise , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ precision noise generator bandpassed ( 10-3kHz at 3 dB down ) through a 24 dB/oct Krohn-Hite 3100 adjustable filter . The noise spectrum level ( No ) was approximately 38 dB ( 73 dB SPL overall ) . The stimuli were mixed , amplified . and controlled using Coulbourn Instruments mixer/amplifiers ( S8224 ) , Coulbourn Instruments programmable attenuators ( S85-08 ) , and a Crown D-75 amplifier . Stimuli were monitored using a Tektronix storage scope ( SAISN amplifier and SL4N spectrum analyzer ) , Ballantine 320A true RMS meter , and Hewlett-Packard manual attenuators ( 350-D ) . Psychophysical procedure <p> A three-alternative forced choice psychophysical procedure ( 3AFC ) using a 2-down/ 1-up Levitt ( 1971 ) adaptive algorithm was embedded into the previously described video game . The algorithm provided a 71% correct detection at the masked threshold . <p> The interval between noise bursts ( inter-rocket interval ) was 500 msec . The interval between the noise offset and the signal onset ( ISI ) was either 10 , 30 , or 100 msec for each game . On each trial the 20-msec signal followed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The subject indicated their decision by touching the rocket where the gremlin was thought to be hiding . The signal level varied according to the 2-down/1-up algorithm ( Levitt , 1971 ) . If the subject made two consecutive correct responses , the signal intensity decreased . The signal level increased for each incorrect response . An individual game was terminated after eight turn-arounds . A turn-around occurred whenever the signal intensity changed from increasing to decreasing , or vice-versa . The signal level changed in 4-dB steps for the first three turn-arounds and in 2-dB steps thereafter . The masked threshold for each game was based on the signal intensity at each of the last five turn-arounds . The final datum , for each ISI , was obtained by deriving the mean from the thresholds of three consecutive games . The order of ISI was counterbalanced as much as possible across subjects . The signal intensity for the first game was always at 60-dB SPL . The beginning signal level for the following two games was determined by randomly adding between 10 to 19 dB to the signal threshold obtained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3 , and 4 show , for representative subjects , signal level as a function of trial number . Figure 2 displays the results for a 5-year-old in the left column , and a 6-year-old on the right . Figure 3 shows data for the 7- and 8-year-old groups . Figure 4 shows the performance of two adults . Each column displays three games at each of the three different ISIs . The Mean ( M ) and Standard Error ( SE ) , calculated across games , are indicated within each panel . As is evident from the figures , the performance of the subjects was similar regardless of age . That is , there was a systematic decrease in signal level across trials . Once the masked threshold was approached the subjects tracked the signal to the end of the game ; viz. , the eighth turn-around . Also , as can be seen from the figures , the within subject variability ( SE ) was quite small and differed little as a function of age . This latter result reflects the reliability of the subject 's performance . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The mean masked threshold is plotted as a function of ISI . The standard error shown below each ISI indicate the presence of individual differences across subjects . The mean threshold , in all but four instances , decreases as a function of increasing ISI . In addition , the standard error for adults , at each ISI , is smaller than the standard error for children . The single exception is the 10-msec ISI for the 6-year-olds . <p> Figure 6 shows the mean-masked thresholds ( top panel ) and the best data ( lower panel ) for each group . In the former case each data point was determined by averaging across all subjects and all games . In the best data condition only a subject 's best game was used in the calculation . The best game was defined as the one that yielded the lowest masked threshold . The figure shows clearly that age affects task performance . The younger the child the higher the masked threshold . Two mixed design ANOVAs revealed significant main effects for age and ISI ( p < .001 ) for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A significant Age X ISI interaction ( p < .02 ) occurred for the Mean Data but not the Best Data ( p > .35 ) . The Greenhouse-Geisser correction for df was applied where appropriate . Bonferroni post-hoc tests showed that , in both sets of data , the adult means were significantly lower ( p < .05 ) than those of the children at all ISI values . DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS <p> The data support the conclusion that the rocketship video game reduces the within-subject variability often reported when young children are used in psychophysical experiments . One of the most striking features of the technique , aside from the video game itself , was the introduction of the touch screen for the subject 's response . The children specifically enjoyed interacting with the game by touching the rocketship which hid the gremlin . The immediate recording of the correct response and the attempted escape by the gremlin ( and its subsequent demise ) appeared to be important feedback for the child and the success of the technique . The interactive mode provided by the touch screen was most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Although button pressing had been used as a response mechanism for some of the older children at the outset of the project , the change to the touch screen activity , in conjunction with the inherently interesting gremlin rocketship video game , increased the children 's attention span , interest , and motivation to the level where even the younger children responded like adults ( e.g. , Figures 2 through 4 ) . That is , their data were reliable and systematic as they tracked the signal . In addition , they had relatively small standard errors both within a game as well as between games . The possible exception to this was the 5-year-olds . Not all 5-year-old children could learn to associate the gremlin chirp with the rocketship hiding the gremlin . Approximately 40-50% of the children at this age had difficulty and could not do the task after one practice game . Older children were all successful and played the game with no difficulty . <p> The data on the forward masking ( Figure 6 ) show clear and significant differences among the groups . The noise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The younger the child the more effective the noise was in masking the signal . A plausible explanation is suggested by the rather remarkable similarity among the groups . The mean thresholds shifted downward systematically as age increased . This outcome suggests a single underlying factor associated with the differences in performance across groups . This factor , we believe , is the functional width of the auditory filter centered at the signal frequency . If the filter were larger in young children and decreased as a function of age , as suggested by other investigators ( e.g. , Irwin et al. , 1986 ) , then the present results are easily interpreted . The wider filters , at young ages , permit more noise to enter the auditory system and mask the signal . As the child grows older these functional filters decrease in width , are more selective , and simultaneously restrict the amount of noise entering the system . The reduction in noise at these older ages yields a lower masked threshold and parallel functions . <p> Finally , it is worth noting that even though the children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ age 8 , there are significant differences between a child 's performance and that of an adult . First , it appears that , if the performance is indeed dependent upon the auditory filter width , the auditory filters have not reached their adult level by the age of 8 . Second , the between-subject variability was , in nearly all cases , larger for children . This outcome also suggests that children 's perceptual systems are still developing through 8 years of age . Moreover , the rate of development appears to vary widely ( Figure 5 ) . The data show , for example , that some of the younger children performed the perceptual task as well as children 2 years older . Large individual differences , however , are expected during the course of development . The critical factors for our purposes were the low within subject variance and the steady improvement in performance as a function of age . <p> 
##4001553 Maria Montessori ( 1870-1952 ) , the Italian physician turned educational theorist , espoused a form of education for young children that considered them in their entirety -- spirit , mind , and heart . Today , such education is called " holistic " and stands as a counterpoise to the kind of experience typically offered children in American schools ( J. Miller 1988 ; R. Miller 1990 ) . The holistic worldview is essentially a spiritual , rather than a materialistic , one . It prizes such tuner human qualities as mind , emotion , creativity , imagination , compassion , a sense of wonder , reverence , and the urge for self realization , recognizing these as vital aspects of human existence ( R. Miller 1990 , 58 ) . <p> Montessori 's view of the child is that of a human person creatively unfolding from within . " We know , " she says , " how to find pearls in the shells of oysters , gold in the mountains and coal in the bowels of the earth , but we are unaware of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he enters this world to renew mankind " ( 1970,240 ) . Montessori sees spiritual powers as a form of wealth that must go into circulation so that others can enjoy them , wealth that must be expressed and utilized ( 1970,140 ) . <p> As a young , enthusiastic educational reformer , Montessori agreed with Frederick Froebel 's view of education , to which she owed much : " By education , then , the divine essence of man should be unfolded , brought out , lifted into consciousness , and man himself reused into free , conscious obedience to the divine principle that lives in him , and to a free representation of this principle in his life " ( 1970,4 ) . Montessori 's agreement with Froebel stemmed from both her Roman Catholic belief in human transcendence and her clinical observations of young children . <p> Montessori 's life-long perception of her work as " scientific pedagogy " and her apparent need to have it considered as exclusively " scientific , " rather than as partially emanating from an intuitive or ideological source , strongly influenced the language @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up at the end of her life , especially in her books , The Absorbent Mind ( 1967 ) and The Child in The Family ( 1970 ) ( both posthumously published ) , she clearly indicated her method 's alt encompassing inspiration . <p> As an old , wise , and revered sage , interned in India during World War II , Montessori revisited her earliest educational views and restated them in language congenial to her audience . Together with Krishnamurti , Montessori believed that the right kind of education cultivates one 's whole being and with Gandhi , that " unless the development of the mind and body goes hand in hand with a corresponding awakening of the soul , the former alone would prove to be a poor lopsided affair " ( 1970,138 ) . <p> For Montessori , education is a " help to life . " It transcends the narrow limits of direct instruction and direct transmission of knowledge from one mind to another . Montessori 's focus was on the " preparation of the environment , " the key to her idea of education from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exert through children has the environment as its instrument , for the child absorbs his environment , takes everything from it , and incarnates it in himself " ( 1970,66 ) . Montessori deplored the universally limited perception of education as an education merely of the mind . " If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated Line of a mere transmission , there is little hope from it in the bettering of man 's future . If help and salvation are to come , they can only come from the children , for the children are the makers of men " ( 1970,4 ) . <p> Montessori sees education as a help to the unfolding of the child 's inborn psychic powers . She , through her method , proposes to unleash the constructive energy of the child , which she maintains has returned unnoticed for thousands of years . Using as an example the facility with which every child acquires his or her language of origin , Montessori finds within every child a painstaking teacher . " The only language men ever speak perfectly is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teach them anything " ( 1970,6 ) . Montessori sees the teacher 's task as " not to talk " but to prepare and arrange a series of motives for cultural activity within an environment especially designed for the young child . The child 's education is not acquired by listening to the teacher 's words but by virtue of experiences in which the child acts on his environment . Forty years of experience with young children in many countries persuaded Montessori that the child 's individual activity was the one factor that stimulated and produced development ( 1970,8 ) . " We teachers can only help the work going on , as servants wait upon a master . We then become witnesses to the development of the human soul " ( 1970,9 ) . <p> Montessori sees the traditional credit given parents , especially mothers , for the formation of the child as a major obstacle to understanding the child 's inner powers . " We used to say that it was the mother who formed the child ; for it is she who teaches him to walk , talk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done by the mother . It is an achievement of the child . What the mother brings forth is the baby , but it is the baby who produces the man " ( 1970,16 ) . Montessori reserves a particularly harsh judgment for authoritarian parents bent on replicating themselves in their children . She saw the reactions of the young children in her schools , where youngsters ' repressed spirits expanded and revealed themselves , as an indication of the serious child-rearing errors committed in the past . She described the children in her schools as tranquil , absorbed , and intensely interested in their work , achieving an amazing level of serenity . " Evidently , our students ' natural spontaneity , which derives mysteriously from the child 's inner life , had long been suppressed by the energetic and inopportune intervention of adults , who believe they can do everything better than children , substituting their own activities for those of the children and forcing them to submit their will and initiative to adult control " ( 1970,10-11 ) . <p> Children who live in a world created by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs . Montessori sees virtually all child rearing and education pervaded by the notion of adaptation of the child to the adult world , adaptation based upon an unquestioning obedience , " which leads to the negation of the child 's personality " ( 1970,12 ) . Her solution to the problem is to create for young children an adaptive environment different from the ones in which children typically operate and that have already formed their characters . " The implementation of any educational system ought to begin with the creation of an environment that protects the child from the difficult and dangerous obstacles that threaten him in the adult world . The shelter in the storm , the oasis in the desert , the place of spiritual rest ought to be created in the world precisely to assure the healthy development of the child " ( 1970,13 ) . <p> Montessori argues for the child as a separate being , rather than as an extension of parents or as an appendage of family . " The child as a separate entity , with different needs to satisfy in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into consideration " ( 1970,15 ) . Montessori exhorts parents , politicians , and educators to join forces in their respect and help for the " construction work the human soul is called upon to do , a work of formation which brings out the immense potentialities with which children , the sons of men , are endowed " ( 1970,17 ) . <p> Montessori 's explanation of the child 's immediate postnatal development is as a " spiritual embryo . " Just as the prenatal period has done its formative work in the physical sphere , so the formative work of the postnatal period is to make the baby into a kind of " spiritual embryo . " Unlike infra-human species , only man has this double embryonic life characterized by his prolonged infancy . " If the work of man on the earth is related to his spirit , to his creative intelligence , then his spirit and his intelligence must be the fulcrum of his existence , and of all the workings of his body . About this fulcrum his behavior is organized , and even his physical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spiritual halo " ( 1970,61 ) . <p> If it is , as she believes , the nature of man be ruled by an enfolding spiritual halo , then , Montessori maintains , the care given the newborn must be care transcending bodily needs . The ability of newborns to absorb everything around them directly dictates the design of a particular environment for them . " The child has a different relation to his environment from ours . Adults admire their environment ; they can remember it and think about it ; but the child absorbs it . The things he sees are not just remembered ; they form pan of his soul , He incarnates in himself all in the world about him that his eyes see and his ears hear . In us the same things produce no change , but the child is transformed by them " ( 1970,62 ) . <p> Montessori underscores the immense influence that education , in the guise of a " prepared " environment , can exert on newborns. gifted as they are , with a capacity for incarnation . This environment has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Children are born with a vital force already present in general structure of the absorbent mind . This structure changes throughout their early life in response to growth and psychic development , as well as to their interactions with the environment . <p> Montessori envisions as the steward of the child 's emergent spirit a parent or teacher with faith that children , if allowed , will epiphanize their true selves . " Our schools , " she says , " offer the tinies ( two and three year olds ) a sheltering refuge in which the first elements of character can take shape " ( 1970,222 ) . The teacher is the keeper and custodian of the environment and an exemplar of non-intrusive behavior . " Although the relationship between the child and teacher is in the spiritual field , the teacher can find a very good model for her behavior in the way a good valet looks after his master . ... He serves his meals , but does not oblige his master to eat . ... So we must behave when the child 's spirit is being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ child 's spirit " ( 1970,281 ) . <p> Helping children act , will , and think for themselves is at the heart of Montessori 's " method . " In an environment responsive to their true needs , children acquire physical independence by being self-sufficient . They become of independent will by using the power of choice . They become capable of independent thought by working alone without interruption . In all of this , the adult 's contribution to children is to serve their spirits . <p> 
##4001557 In the beginning there was Spider Woman , she who was called Thought Woman . At the dawn of being , Spider Woman spun a line from North to South , and another from East to West . She sat by these threads that stretched to the four horizons , which she had drawn across the universe , and she sang . As she sang two daughters came forth : Ut Set , who became the mother of the Pueblo people , and Nau Ut Set , who became the mother of all others . On all her daughters ' children Spider Woman placed a covering of creative wisdom , spun from her own spider being . To each she attached a thread of her web . It is for this reason that each person has a delicate thread connected to Spider Woman , connected through a doorway in the top of the skull . We chant to keep the doorway open . <p> Many forget the door . They grow cruel and corrupt . Only those who remember to keep the door open , to draw open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ travel . They can see and feel the thread that is their part of the web of destiny that Spider Woman weaves . -- Keres Pueblo creation myth adapted from Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood by Merlin Stone <p> <p> Narratives concerning the origin , nature , and functioning of the world provide a container within which the individual develops a particular relationship to experience . That container helps to delineate the boundaries of consciousness for both the individual and the group . As Paula Gunn Allen says in her recent book Grandmothers of the Light ( 1991,229 ) , " Thought Woman spins her web of dreams , thinks us into being , dances us into existence . As she thinks , so we are . " This article examines the thesis that , as the gods or goddesses of creation think , so the individual is . Cosmology , that aspect of a culture 's mythology that defines the origin and nature of the universe , reflects psychology ; the culture 's image of the cosmos is mirrored in the structure of the individual psyche . My use of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ layers of the self , particularly the relationship between ego and the unconscious . <p> This is not to imply a direct cause and effect relationship between the structure of the psyche and cosmological narrative . That in itself would be an attempt to force a complex nonlinear reality into a linear form . Cultural and clinical observations imply that cosmology and psyche do not interact in a specifically predictable , diagrammable way . The relationship between psyche and cosmology seems to be that of an interactional field , a series of reflections connected in a web of facets , many of which can not be addressed in this discussion and some of which are unknown to us . This field filters perception and guides the assignment of value and meaning , shaping the experience of reality . Accessing a nonlinear reality is difficult with linear , cognitive tools . The rationally oriented ego must adjust to tracking visible aspects of this web in order to gain clues concerning its nature . This process is somewhat like following the trails of atomic particles in a cloud chamber . The object of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deduce certain of its characteristics from its visible effects . <p> One visible effect of the multilayered field is cosmological narrative . These narratives are constructs of reality that include metastories concerning the creation of the world and the way the world functions ; tales of the nature of a particular human group and its place and function in that world ; and individual life stories of origin , purpose , and relationship to the whole . The scope of normal awareness and the limits of perception can to a certain extent to be charted or envisioned by building a picture of individual or group cosmology . An exploration of the cosmological stories of Western science illustrates this relationship and reveals psychological implications concerning the experience of mystery and rationality . In contrast , the cosmology of the Spider Woman stories presents a different perception of reality . <p> Spider Woman , as a Goddess of creation , evokes a universe in which tangible and intangible realities overlap ; human beings exist in both layers . The cosmology of the Keres Pueblo provides a container within which the individual can maintain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of destiny . Enactment of a ritual round of ceremony connects the community and its members to the mythic universe of mystery , the ground of being . A cycle of stories describes the mythic world as an integral part of the " real " world and conveys , through narrative , relationships among the cohabitants of a multilayered universe ( Gunn Allen 1991 ) . Attention and participation will bring the individual to awareness of his or her connection to the cosmos , a weblike interconnection that permanently exists , although it might be " forgotten . " Mystery is a natural , even nourishing aspect of existence , conveyed through story and image as both immanent and transcendent , ineffable but deeply felt , the source of meaning and inspiration . This creation story portrays a metaphysical ground of being much like the Hindu picture of Brahman , " the life force of the universe which secretly dwells in all things , " as the Upanishadsjung describes it . How do these images compare to those of Western cosmology ? <p> Some mythic traditions of the Western world offer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gateways to mystery , but the common practice of secular life in Western culture excludes a personal connection to the ground of being . The dominant worldview attempts to define the universe , its inhabitants , and their relationships through a scientistic methodology that explicitly excludes the existence of mystery . This cosmological structure constitutes a secular myth which states that the cosmos is entirely subject to rational explanation , if only one has sufficient data . <p> Thus the prevailing cosmology of America has gone beyond the worldview of the patriarchal monotheisms . The Genesis God of creation forms a world in which the individual is born out of connection to the ground of being but , through the careful following of rules , may gain a hierarchical relationship to the source of creation ( Campbell 1968 ) . Received secular wisdom depicts instead a cosmos to which one can relate only through the medium of rational understanding . The God of creation in this cosmology is rational cause and effect , and the ground of being has all but disappeared from conscious perception . <p> Within this worldview the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have explained and that which we are in the process of researching . As a pragmatically enlightened people , we travel down the linear road of time , acquiring knowledge of and therefore mastery of a fundamentally mechanistic cosmos in which human cognition is the essence of awareness . Insights that question the primacy of linear understanding , such as chaos theory or the delineation of the unconscious , are regularly reworked so that they appear to support the quest for a fully rational explanation of the universe . All those aspects of the universe and the human being that are not particularly amenable to rational analysis assume nonreality . And thus the cosmos is split . One can not experience any valid relationship to the mysterious ground of being , because mystery itself is merely a misperception springing from inadequate research . We " limit the definition of reality to the body of theoretical and empirical knowledge at our disposal and declare as meaningless all questions about the actual nature of systems " ( Keller 1985 , 147 ) . Experiences and inquiries that resist the process of linear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the individual . <p> How are nonrational experiences relegated to shadow ? Most commonly , society or culture , particularly patriarchal culture , is spoken of as a sort of force that somehow controls the individual 's perceptions and creates shadow . The image is of culture as an external power whose influence can perhaps be eliminated by the individual through insight and the adoption of new rules for thinking and living ( as with political correctness ) . Such efforts are frequently ineffective . People raised within the Western worldview mirror the cosmological split of the culture in the structure of their psyches . They must work with the " real but unknown " ( Jung 1966 ) aspects of self in order to effect a change in how reality is experienced . Intellectual decisions are inadequate for this level of change . <p> How is the split cosmos of Western culture reflected in the individual psyche ? Conscious and unconscious aspects of the psyche are strictly separated . The standard ego in this configuration is the ultimate rationalistic arbiter of reality itself , the personality 's scientist attempting to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world . Internal and external experiences that can not be molded to the ego 's grasp can only reside in the unconscious . Ego strength is directly opposed to that archetypal , nonlinear world of mystery that is without boundaries . Thus , it lives in the unconscious . Flexibility in the separation of ego and unconscious is synonymous with inaccurate perception , if not delusion . <p> In the typical individual only severe trauma or neurological imbalance will prevent the structure of the psyche from being formed by the time adulthood is reached . From that point , perception is determined by the boundaries of the ego and the relationship between ego and unconscious . Jung ( 1966 ) thought that the ego forms a lens or filter that bends external and internal stimuli into shapes it can handle . The ego complex of the healthy Western , post-Enlightenment individual is cognitively imperialistic in its effort to master all phenomena . This style of ego is the perfect partner to a cosmology that imagines a universe in which the conquest of phenomena through rational understanding is the ultimate good . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ object . Where can ineffable mystery reside in the domain of such an ego ? It exists in the unconscious aspect of the psyche , where its spiritual reality is enmeshed with all other unexplainable phenomena , including pathogenic material . <p> It was Jung 's opinion that the ego-dominated , rationalistic stance of the Western psyche gives rise to loss of meaning in the experience of life ( Jung 1966 ) . In this way , the disappearance of meaning from inner life reflects the disappearance of the ground of being from cosmology . His attempt to mediate this psychic structure was to emphasize the deep archetypal meaning in mythic images that emerge from the unconscious . The individual 's journey into the archetypal level of the unconscious aspect of the psyche provides a connection to the ground of being and thus a felt sense of meaning . Analytic psychologists tend to use this framework to interpret the myths of tribal cultures as though the images in those stories are manifestations of the unconscious life of the tribe ( e.g. , Sandner 's Navajo Symbols of Healing , 1979 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ego complex , this is an accurate interpretation . If they do not have that structure , it is a misrepresentation . <p> Several years ago I was visiting a friend who was pediatrician for the Indian Health Service on a Navajo reservation . We were driving through an arroyo in her truck one day , when she told me about beliefs concerning the coyote that she had encountered among her patients and their parents . She then asked me what I made of these beliefs . Clearly she was asking me for a psychological interpretation . I looked out the window to consider my answer , and there was a coyote running along the top of the arroyo , keeping pace with the truck . Before I could say anything , the coyote dashed across the path of the truck . Smoke immediately began to pour from the dashboard , and the truck shuddered to a halt . I offered no psychological interpretations to my friend concerning the unconscious meaning of coyote stories . <p> When Gunn Allen writes of the " living reality of the Medicine world " ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directly challenges the usual and traditional psychological interpretations of mythological symbols . Her statement that myths are " factual accounts " that " connect with deep levels of being , not because the figures they tell about are . . . denizens of . . . the unconscious but because the supernaturals live within the same environs that humans occupy " asks us to shake loose from the Western ego complex and enter into the cosmological container of Spider Woman . <p> Her statements , which are echoed by Leslie Marmon Silko and others , seem to indicate an ego complex that is not imperial in its rational conquest of the phenomenal world but which is willing to be acted on and to interact with aspects of the cosmos that can not be explained or mastered . I speculate that the psyche formed within such a cosmological container might have an entirely different relationship to nonlinear aspects of the universe . The relationship between ego and unconscious might not be an adversarial split but rather a floating and permeable one . Cosmos and psyche in such a container might reflect a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subjectobject split . <p> A year after the incident in the arroyo , I again visited my friend . She continued to recount the stories told to her by her patients , but she told them with a fascination and absorption that clearly did not ask for interpretations . When I mentioned the shift in her attitude , she told me her own story . One night a very small baby who was expected to die had inexplicably rallied and lived . This was not an unknown experience for her as a doctor , and , within the culture of medicine there are accepted ways of looking at such events . For some reason , that night she realized that the accepted stance was a sort of nonexplanation , a way of putting aside a mysterious event . She began to consider her experience with the baby as a real question . Six months later that particular question was still unanswered , but , in trying to answer it , my friend had entered into a chain of questions concerning her beliefs about the nature of reality , causality , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her cosmological beliefs were completely changed but several gateways had opened in its framework and a relationship with the mysterious had begun with that first question based in genuine curiosity . Such questions honestly addressed are the key to change . <p> There is a story in which the twins Monster Slayer and Born for Water meet Spider Woman on the path of the gods . She says , " Before I help you must tell me as fully as you can who you are and where you come from . You must tell me what you have done and what you hope to do " ( Zolbrod 1989 , 196 ) . The twins do not find it easy to answer her , but , when they do , they enter a new level of experience . If an individual or group is willing to articulate a detailed picture of the universe and their place in it , and especially to bring the underlying unconscious assumptions of that picture to light , room is created for previously unknown influences . As Keller describes her analysis of the construction of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " that we make for nature and nature 's observable phenomena . There is space as well between the ideology of inquiry and its practice ( Keller 1985 ) . Into these spaces , the process of change enters . <p> This process can take place concerning a specific aspect of worldview , or it can encompass the nature of reality . It is a process that can be triggered by a crisis , a piece of luck , an accident , an epiphany , an insight . It is not a question of choosing a story or script that is therapeutically or politically correct . Becoming conscious of and articulating the cosmological narrative that one is already living and finding its opportunities for expansion is the essence of the process . Such a narrative , when honestly mapped , contains many levels of the self . The ego is included but not exclusive . In addressing the myth and the story , we can go beyond a cognitive consideration or analysis of beliefs and beyond a catharsis of emotional reality . Exploration through narrative and image affects the internal relationships @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the psyche processes experience , the interaction of the ego and the unconscious . <p> As the mythic narrative unfolds , a container is needed for the multiple and sometimes contradictory layers -- symbolic , somatic , emotional , cognitive , and communal -- which emerge . Myth is " explanatory of how we began and also a prescriptive account of how subsequent beginnings ( which renew the cosmos ) should proceed ; the Last Supper , for example , tells us not only how the Christian era began but how its energies can be periodically renewed " ( Young 1991 , 28 ) . A ritual act recaptures the nature of the world with its multiple layers and connects individual consciousness back to those layers least evident in the work-a-day world . The split cosmos and the split psyche are woven back into the web . Ritual practice provides a container which also feeds back into the exploration of narrative . Many activities beyond those which are typically referred to as ritual serve the same function -- art , ceremony , psychotherapy ( the ritualistic aspects of which are described @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more . What ever the form of the ritual , it must be rooted in the cosmological narrative in order to renew the cosmos in an evolving form ; in turn , the ritual must inform the myth . " Myth is noun , ritual is verb " ( Gunn Allen 1991 , 8 ) . NOTE <p> This paper is an aspect of ongoing work that is supported in part by a grant from the Center for the Story of the Universe . <p> 
##4001353 To put Singer 's ( 1992 ) work on relative deprivation and responses to preferential treatment in context , studies from a procedural justice perspective are reviewed . That review suggests that the psychological dynamics of preferential treatment are well accounted for by concepts derived from theories of procedural justice . It is thus argued that , to be parsimonious , Singer 's work is best conceptualized in procedural justice rather than relative deprivation terms . <p> What theoretical approaches have provided us with some understanding of the social psychological dynamics of preferential treatment ? According to Singer ( 1992 ) , " . . . neither distributive nor procedural justice ! theories have been applied to fairness issues involving personnel selection or preferential hiring ( p. 130 ) . But Singer has apparently ignored that theories of procedural justice have been used to conceptualize the psychological dynamics of preferential treatment . Indeed , the evidence from studies guided by procedural justice theory is so strong that such studies constitute a standard by which new theoretical approaches to the issue should be gauged . PROCEDURAL JUSTICE AND THE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of preferential treatment from a procedural justice perspective have been varied and , in the main , were undertaken in response to studies rooted in a pure distributive justice perspective . Working from equity theory , Austin , Friedman , Martz , Hooe &; Ball ( 1977 ) had claimed to show that , when individuals were led to believe that they had been selected for a position because of their gender , they evaluated their own selection as unfair . The notion was that , if an individual was selected because of his or her gender , that would mean that the individual 's outcomes ( i.e. , getting the position ) would not be commensurate with her or his inputs ( i.e. , their technical qualifications ) . In view of their findings , Austin et al . concluded that " the procedure of affirmative sexual discrimination renders situations unfair even when normal standards of distributive justice are satisfied : ( p. 292 ) . <p> Nacoste ( 1985 ) took exception to the conclusions drawn by Austin et al . He argued that , since those researchers had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treatment , it was premature to claim that they had shown that the " procedure of affirmative sexual discrimination " is viewed as unfair by recipients of the gender-based favorable treatment . Working from the then relatively new procedural justice literature , Nacoste argued that one could differentiate between classes of preferential selection procedures . Specifically , he argued that a procedure of preferential treatment could be designed to give an absolute advantage to members of a certain group ( e.g. , women ) , while another procedure could be designed to give some weight to membership in that group while still giving significant weight to technical qualifications . The former procedure would ignore " equity inputs " ( e.g. , completion of high school ) , whereas the latter procedure would give those " equity inputs " significant weight without ignoring group membership . As Nacoste put it , " the distinction between the two is at least analogous to the distinction ( made in the procedural justice literature ) between an equity and a legalistic procedure " ( p. 228 ) . Given this procedural justice connection , Nacoste @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " would be perceived as fairer by beneficiaries of preferential treatment and cause those beneficiaries to have more positive emotional responses to being selected . Using a manipulation of procedure that was true to that conceptualization , Nacoste provided strong empirical support for his hypothesis . Even with individual qualifications varied , selection procedure had independent effects on the perceived fairness of the process and outcome as well as beneficiaries ' affective responses . <p> Following that work , a number of other studies were conducted . Nacoste &; Lehman ( 1987 ) showed that the level of evaluation apprehension that might be experienced by beneficiaries of preferential treatment varied with type of selection procedure . A selection procedure that did not give weight to equity inputs ( i.e. , a nonequity procedure ) as compared to one that did ( i.e. , an equity procedure ) increased the level of evaluation apprehension experienced by beneficiaries . When a nonequity procedure was used , beneficiaries expected that relevant others would not evaluate their work objectively and positively . <p> Working from both the research on procedural justice and interdependence theory ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) addressed a question raised first by Touhey ( 1974 ) and secondly by Heilman &; Herlihy ( 1984 ) . The question : What are the conditions under which preferential treatment might negatively affect beneficiaries ' interest in an occupation or an organizational position ? Taking an approach different from any other proposed , Nacoste argued that individuals use procedures as a basis or cue for inferring an organization 's " disposition toward fairness . " He argued further that those inferences are important because they would influence the extent to which an individual would be attracted to formal association with the organization . Using the same manipulation as employed by Nacoste ( 1985 ) , this study found that , ( 1 ) based on the selection procedure used , beneficiaries do indeed make inferences about an organization 's disposition toward fairness , and that ( 2 ) the most important predictors of beneficiaries ' attraction to an organization are those procedure-based inferences ( Nacoste , 1987a ) . <p> These studies ( Nacoste , 1985 ; 1987a ; Nacoste &; Lehman , 1987 ) focus on the role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they include concrete manipulations of procedures . But that is not much of a limitation , since it has been shown that beneficiaries ' prior evaluations of the fairness of the procedures of preferential treatment affect beneficiaries ' self-evaluations of ability when their selection by preferential treatment is made salient ( Nacoste , 1989 ) . Finally , as an aside , it is worth noting that some of this work has been replicated directly and extended to racial target groups ( e.g. , Arthur , Doverspike , &; Fuentes , 1992 ) and that , because of this work , the relevance of procedures in preferential treatment is being acknowledged generally ( Ayres , 1992 ; Tougas &; Beaton , 1992 ) . <p> We should be aware , of course , that the foregoing studies of the relationship between procedural justice and reactions to preferential treatment focused on the responses of potential beneficiaries . That fact notwithstanding , there is at least one published study that focused on the role of procedural justice in the responses of nonbeneficiaries . In the context of voting behavior , Nacoste ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also affected by the type of procedure used in making personnel selections . He argued that reactions to Walter Mondale 's selection of Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in a U.S. presidential election would be affected by an individual 's prior beliefs about , and evaluations of , affirmative action procedures . Procedures dictated by policies of preferential treatment would be relevant , Nacoste thought , because so much attention had been focused on " why " Ferraro was selected : was it her qualifications or her gender ? Following and extending the conceptualization of procedures developed by Nacoste ( 1985 ) , this study ( Nacoste , 1987b ) measured ( 1 ) college students , beliefs about how much weight was generally put on technical qualifications vs. group membership ( e.g. , gender , race ) in an afffirmative action procedure ( average procedure ) and ( 2 ) college students ' tolerance for the use of group membership as a selection criterion in an affirmative action procedure ( unacceptable procedure ) . Controlling for a variety of factors important to voting behavior ( for example , political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote , discrepancies between the Average-procedure and the Unacceptable-procedure were strong predictors of tendencies to vote for the Mondale/Ferraro ticket . A respondent became less inclined to so vote in response to Mondale 's selection of Ferraro when the respondent thought that the Average-procedure gave the same or more weight to group membership , which the respondent evaluated as unacceptable . As importantly , those voting inclinations were a strong predictor of the final pattern of voting by study participants in the 1984 presidential election . PARSIMONY IN PSYCHOLOGICAL POLICY ANALYSIS <p> Clearly , the evidence is that the reactions of both beneficiaries of preferential treatment and others are affected by procedural justice considerations . Thus , there is no basis for Singer 's ( 1992 ) assertion that no work has been done on the relationship between procedural justice and psychological responses to preferential treatment . In fact , the ability to use procedural justice as an approach to the responses of both beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries suggests that a procedural justice approach has the potential to be comprehensive . <p> But what makes procedures so powerful in this context @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ approach for work that follows in this domain ? In an important theoretical advance , Barnes Nacoste ( 1990 ) has argued that , like other procedures , procedures of preferential treatment or affirmative action are responded to " as a function of the degree to which evaluation criteria are structured within a selection procedure to give ' voice ' to each individual 's claims to deservingness of an outcome " ( p. 182 ) . The theory behind this claim is that : <p> Affirmative action selection procedures will be made up of two general sets of criteria : traditional qualifications and group membership , or universalistic and particularistic criteria , respectively . Universalistic criteria are criteria that are thought to be achieved and performance-related ( e.g. , experience ) . . . In procedural justice terms , these are " voice-related " criteria because consideration of these criteria gives voice to each person 's claims to achieved and lto performance-related deservingness of the outcome ( e.g. , a promotion ) . Particularistic criteria are not thought to be performance-related ( e.g. , ethnicity ) . . . Particularistic criteria @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not relevant to achieved , performance-related deservingness . <p> According to Barnes Nacoste , any combined use of these criteria will constitute a procedure of preferential treatment . Moreover , <p> To the extent that universalistic criteria are given the most weight , beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries will perceive the policy to be fair because such a weighting structure gives " voice " to each person 's performance-related claims to deservingness . However , where particularistic criteria are given the most weight , the policy will be perceived to be unfair because a selection procedure so structured " silences " the performance-related " voice " associated with each individual 's credentials ( pp. 182-183 ) . <p> This theoretical approach is obviously supported by the research reviewed . As already indicated , in the Nacoste program of research , universalistic- ( or equity-based ) procedures were perceived as fairer than particularistic- ( or nonequity-based ) procedures . But what support is there for this " voice " interpretation ? From very early on in the procedural justice literature ( Thibaut &; Walker , 1978 ) , it has been shown in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them to present individualized claims to an outcome ( for a recent overview see , Lind &; Tyler , 1988 ) . That is seen most clearly in the higher preference that individuals generally express for procedures that give them process control -- i.e. , control over the arrangement and presentation of their claims . When individuals have such process control or " voice , " not only do they perceive the procedure as fairer and are more satisfied with the procedure , but they also evaluate those acting in their behalf and the decision maker as more competent ( Thibaut &; Walker , 1975 ; pp. 67-80 ) . Aside from the effects on perceived fairness of process and outcome that we have seen for different procedures of preferential treatment , further evidence supportive of the voice interpretation comes from procedural effects on perceived competence of decision makers . In Nacoste 's 1985 study , subjects who thought that the selection committee had used a universalistic-procedure were more likely to believe that the committee was competent in carrying out its duties . Apparently , similar to that for other procedures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which gives significant weight to voice-related decision criteria is taken as an indication of competent decision making . <p> Given the existence of what appears to be a comprehensive theoretical approach in the form of procedural justice , the value of new contributions to this literature must be evaluated in light of that approach . We should ask , is the new contribution distinct from the dominant framework ? If it is not distinct , is the new contribution consistent with the dominant framework ? <p> Although couched in terms provided by theories of relative deprivation , Singer 's ( 1992 ) work is not operationally distinct from the work done on the influence of procedural judgments on reactions to preferential treatment . Singer has essentially manipulated procedure at the level of the weight given to decision criteria . Rather than manipulate the overall structure of the procedure , indicating what decision criteria are supposed to be used and in what weighting arrangement , Singer manipulates and tests the effects of the actual decision criteria used . In a selection for training context , that is accomplished by providing information about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gender group membership . The trainability score is obviously the universalistic decision criterion and group membership the particularistic decision criterion . Singer 's results also follow what would be expected from the procedural justice approach to reactions to preferential treatment ; to the extent that the particularistic criterion appears to be given more weight than the universalistic criterion , the final decision is evaluated as less fair by those disadvantaged and advantaged by this positive weighting of group membership . <p> On the one hand , then , there is no reason to consider Singer 's work as other than another demonstration of the role of procedural justice in responses to preferential treatment . To accept the relative deprivation interpretation Singer offers is simply not parsimonious . Specifically , the latter would require us to violate in our inductive logic , the " requirement of total evidence . " Putting it directly , before accepting any new conceptual interpretation , " the total evidence available must be taken as basis for determining the degree of confirmation " ( Carnap , 1952 , pg . 211 ) . In this case , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ empirical relations already developed from a procedural justice conceptualization . <p> On the other hand , Singer has made a contribution by providing a very important confirmation of one implication of the procedural justice approach to the psychology of preferential treatment . In two conceptual statements by Barnes Nacoste ( 1990,1992 ) , it is strongly implied that there should be a linear relationship between the weight given to universalistic relative to particularistic decision criteria . Whereas some empirical suppoti for this theoretical expectation has emerged ( e.g. , Nacoste , 1985 ) , that support has been indirect . So Singer has taken the critical step of demonstrating in full the expected linear relationship between procedural stntcture and psychological responses to preferential treatment . <p> 
##4001355 On the basis of both previous and recent research on intercultural perceptions ( Lee &; Ottati , 1993 ; Triandis &; Vassiliou , 1967 ) , it is hypothesized that perceived group homogeneity would be intimately related to familial loyalty ( or commitment ) and stability . A cross-cultural questionnaire study was conducted both in the People 's Republic of China ( n=182 ) and in the United States of America ( n=182 ) . The results revealed that both Chinese and American subjects perceived a collectivistic society to have more familial commitment and stability while they perceived an individualistic society to have less familial commitment and stability . The implications for this study have been discussed . <p> As the divorce rate in the United States rose surprisingly from the 1950s to 1980s , the issue of marriage and the family seems increasingly important to research . Ostensibly , marriage and the family have an effect on the quality of life . Because of this , much work has been done on love and intimacy ( e.g. , Clark &; Reiss , 1988 ; Fromm , 1956 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( see O'Leary &; Smith , 1991 ) . However , little attention has been paid to cross-cultural research on why one culture ( such as the United States ) has a higher divorce rate than another , and on whether culturally different people would have a different degree of their family commitment and stability . <p> Many social scientists have argued that socio-cultural context has much impact on familial loyalty and marriage stability ( see Bellah , Madsen , Sullivan , Swidler &; Tipton , 1985 ; Dion &; Dion , 1988 ; Triandis , 1990 ; Yang , 1986 ; Yee , 1989 ) . Some research has even suggested an influence of culture and religion on familial responsibility and stability ( e.g. , Brodbar-Nemzer , 1986 ; Cherlin &; Celebuski , 1983 ; D'Antonio et al. , 1982 ; Hsu , 1983 ) . For instance , Brodbar-Nemzer ( 1986 ) has found a relationship between divorce and group commitment . That is , American Jews who had a greater group commitment on a variety of Jewish variables ( e.g. , denomination , ritual observance , synagogue attendance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were consistently less likely to have been divorced . <p> Although the study by Brodbar-Nemzer indicated that Jewish culture and religion had an influence on American Jewish familial loyalty and marriage stability , would non-Jewish Americans agree that , because of Jewish culture and religion , Jews are more committed and loyal to their families than non-Jewish people ? Unfortunately , his research did not address this question . The current study attempts to test whether there would be a perceptual agreement between culturally different subjects as far as familial loyalty and marriages stability are concerned . <p> In social sciences , it has often been argued that Chinese culture is collectivistic while American culture is individualistic ( e.g. , Fairbank , 1987 ; Hsu , 1983 ) . Consistent with this position , Triandis and his colleagues ( Triandis , 1990 ; Triandis , McCusker &; Hui , 1990 ) have found that in individualistic cultures , people put much emphasis on values and interests that serve the self by making the self feel good , be distinguished , and be independent . These people more likely tend to use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On the other hand , in collectivistic cultures , people stress values and interests that serve the ingroup by subordinating personal goals for the sake of preserving ingroup integrity , interdependence of members , and harmonious relationships , and the self is usually defined in ingroup terms ( also see Triandis et al. , 1988 ) . <p> Furthermore , Triandis , McCusker and Hui ( 1990 ) pointed out that one of the distinctions between collectivistic and individualistic cultures was that people in a collectivistic society tended perceived ingroup members to be homogeneous while people in an individualistic society tended to perceive the ingroup to be heterogeneous . In their cross-cultural research , Lee and Ottati ( 1993 ) have also found that both Chinese and Americans perceived Chinese people to be homogeneous and perceived Americans to be heterogeneous . Triandis ( 1990 ) also reported similar results among Chinese mainland residents and American Illinois residents . <p> If people emphasize " homogeneity " or collectivity socially , it may suggest that the loyalty to or harmoniousness with an ingroup ( e.g. , family , work group or community ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ goals or interest over society or group ( e.g. , family , work group or community ) , it means that the self/individuality and personal pleasure are important . <p> Research by Buss and 50 other cross-cultural psychologists all over the world ( Buss et al. , 1990 ) also showed that people from collectivistic cultures such as China , India and Iran valued " chastity " and " good house keeping " in selecting matches , whereas people from individualistic cultures such as France , America and Spain stressed " personal pleasure " and " exciting personality . " When love and marriage are primarily seen as psychological satisfaction in individualistic cultures , they may fail to fulfill their social function of providing people with stable , committed relationships that tie them into the larger and more homogeneous society/entity . For example , it was reported that Americans got much " happier " with their marriage relationship in the 1970s and 1980s than in the 1950s , but the rate of divorce has increased ( Bellah et al. , 1985 , p. 85 ) . <p> Moreover , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Services , the divorce rate per 1,000 population remained 4.7 in 1990 , and between 1970 and 1990 the proportion tripled from 47 divorced persons per 1,000 married persons ( with spouse present ) to 142 per 1,000 ( Wright , 1992 ) . Dion and Dion ( 1988 ) explained that Americans ' high rate of divorce was possibly due to the culture 's exaggerated sense of individualism in society or due to much emphasis on one 's individuality and independence from their group ( e.g. , family ) . <p> Seligman ( 1991 ) also pointed that much individualism and the waxing of the self in the United States coincided with a diminished sense of community and loss of higher purposes ( e.g. , less family stability ) . Similarly , Bellah et al . ( 1985 ) stated , " The meaning of one 's life for most Americans is to become one 's own person , almost give birth to oneself , " and much of this process involves breaking free from their families , communities and inherited ideas ( p. 82 ) . <p> On the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their families as shameful and/or at least as negative ( Hsu , 1953 , 1963 ) . They derive the meaning of the self from their relationship to others and perceive themselves to be similar to or at least part of a group/family ( Tu , 1985 ; also see Yee , 1989 ) . Therefore , on the basis of the foregoing discussion , it is reasonable to assume that perceived group homogeneity would be positively correlated with familial loyalty and stability . METHOD Subjects <p> The sample consisted of 182 subjects in the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) and 182 subjects in the United States of America ( USA ) . Within the Chinese sample , there were 162 students and 20 teachers . This included 20 subjects from the Changsha Railway Institute ( Southern China ) , 75 from Hunan Normal University ( Southern China ) , 49 from Beijing Normal University ( Northern China ) , 17 from the Beijing Management College ( Northern China ) , and 21 Mainland Chinese students from elsewhere . The sample encompassed a variety of academic majors or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Management , Mathematics , Chemistry , Physics , and Engineering . The average age of the Chinese sample was 27.2 . There were 104 male subjects and 78 female subjects . A total of 26 subjects got married while the rest of them were single . The Mainland Chinese subjects received the questionnaire from their academic instructors . <p> The American data were collected from 182 American college students . These subjects were approached in class and received the questionnaire from a research assistant . As with the Chinese sample , the American sample encompassed a variety of academic majors . These included Psychology , Sociology , Biology , Chemistry , and Engineering . There were only 6 subjects who got married . Eighty four of the American subjects were male and 98 were female . The average age of the American sample was 21.2 . Measures <p> The questionnaire items included measures of perceived group homogeneity and perceived family commitment and stability . The measure of perceived group homogeneity was also used in the study of Lee and Ottati ( 1993 ) . In measuring both perceived group homogeneity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the items along a five-point ordinal scale ranging from " strongly agree " ( 1 ) to " strongly disagree " ( 5 ) . <p> Perceived Group Homogeneity . After subjecting the homogeneity items to tests for accuracy and reliability ( see accuracy and reliability results below ) , the pool of items was reduced to 12 measures as the independent variable . Specifically , these perceived homogeneity items were extracted from a cross-cultural questionnaire through a factor analysis ( see Lee &; Ottati , 1993 ) . In order to assess perceived group homogeneity , the following items were administered : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Thus each subject responded to a total of twelve **25;684;TOOLONG items . Translated versions of these twelve items were administered to the Chinese sample . <p> Perceived Familial Loyalty/Commitment . The dependent variable in this study was family commitment . A factor analysis of these family commitment items revealed that the following items loaded strongly on the first factor for both the Chinese and American sample . These items were used to assess the perception of Sino-American family commitment and stability . PREFORMATTED TABLE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the American target culture were administered to both Chinese and American groups . Thus each subject responded to a total of six family commitment and stability items . The Chinese sample was given translated versions of these six items . RESULTS <p> All items were scored such that higher numbers reflect greater perceived group homogeneity , and greater familial loyalty/commitment and stability . Sums of the appropriate items were also computed in order to arrive at indices of total group homogeneity and total familial loyalty and stability . Accuracy and Reliability of Measures <p> Accuracy of Translation . The English version of the questionnaire was translated into a Chinese version by the author of this article . The author is a native of Mainland China who has known English for over 12 years and has resided in the United States for the past six years . In order to check the accuracy and consistency of the English and Chinese versions , both versions were administered to 22 Chinese bilinguals who had studied English for an average of 10.4 years . The bilingual judges rated the translation for each item as very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or very inaccurate . On the basis of their ratings , 72% of the judges rated these items as " very accurate " or " accurate " ; 20% rated these items as " hard to be evaluated " ; and only 8% rated these items as " inaccurate " overall . Because the author understands Sino-American emics ( i.e. , culture-specific aspects ) and etics ( i.e. , culture-common aspects ) , the results of this evaluation method should be as valid as the outcome of back translation or multiple translation procedures ( Brislin , 1986 , 1993 ) . <p> Homogeneity Scale . In order to assess the internal consistency of the homogeneity scale , an alpha coefficient ( Cronbach , 1951 ) was computed for the American and Chinese samples separately . The alpha for the American sample was .73 and the alpha for the Chinese sample was .71 . In sum , the homogeneity scale satisfied fairly stringent criteria with regard to both accuracy and internal consistency . <p> Familial Loyalty/Stability Scale . The item set , which taps a familial loyalty and stability measure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chinese ( alpha=.69 ) and American sample ( alpha=.58 ) . Basic Sino-American Findings <p> The results from the Chinese sample indicated a significant correlation between perceived Chinese homogeneity and Chinese familial loyalty and stability ( r = +.20 , p < .01 ) and a significant correlation between perceived American homogeneity and American familial loyalty and stability ( r = +.30 , p < .001 ) . In the American sample , there was only a significant correlation between perceived Chinese homogeneity and Chinese familial loyalty and stability ( r = +.17 , p < .05 ) , and the relationship between American homogeneity and American familial loyalty and stability was very weakly correlated ( r = +.07 , ns ) but not significant . <p> Moreover , Chinese subjects scored higher in Chinese familial loyalty and stability ( M = 9.31 ) than in American familial loyalty and stability ( M = 2.97 ) , t ( 181 ) = 28.67 , p < .0001 . In a similar vein , American subjects reported that Chinese had more familial loyalty and stability ( M = 8.74 ) than Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ = 11.89 , p < .001 ( see Table 1 ) . This supported the hypothesis . <p> As noted previously , the Chinese culture , which was collectivistic , was different from the American culture , which was individualistic . This cultural difference was reflected in the results both in the Chinese and in the American sample -- i.e. , strong evidence of the close relationship between perceived homogeneity and familial loyalty and stability . DISCUSSION <p> Based on the previous data , this study revealed that perceived group homogeneity was correlated with the judgments of familial loyalty/commitment and stability , and that both Chinese and American subjects reported that , the more homogeneous a culture was perceived to be , the greater perceived familial loyalty and stability it might have . In other words , the results both from the Chinese and from the American sample showed that Chinese families were seen as more stable and Chinese people were seen as more loyal to their families than American counterparts . <p> The current results may be due to different cultural ideologies . For example , according to Bellah and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans believe the individual has a primary reality where a group or society is a second order , a derived or artificial construct ( p. 334 ) . On the other hand , there is a totally different ideology of family commitment and marriage stability in Chinese culture . To many Chinese , a group ( e.g. , family , clan , or community ) is always a part of his selfhood and is a place where he or she always stays ( Tu , 1985 ) . For example , a Chinese may think family commitment and marriage stability are more important than his or her personal interest or pleasure . This ideology is possibly based on Chinese Confucianism ( Lee , 1991 ; Tu , 1985 ) . Fairbank , an American sinologist wrote : <p> The Chinese are collective , seemingly eager to be just like one another , to work together and not separately , to conform and not deviate , and to get their satisfaction from the approval of the group and constituted authority rather than from realizing private ambitions or any form of self-indulgence . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ within group , not apart from it , is of course not a transient vogue but the product of many centuries of Confucian family collectivism , now redirected to serve the people ' ( Fairbanks , 1987 , p. 96 ) . <p> Moreover , Chinese people usually reprimand or at least hold a very negative attitude toward those who deviate from an ingroup ( e.g. , a family or community ) while Americans do not . Take divorce for example . American men and women " can marry as often as they are widowed or divorced , and there is no significant stigma against either " ( Hsu , 1963 , p. 193 ) . In China , the pressure from a family , from a community , and from peers ( e.g. , friends or colleagues ) is very severely put on those who will get or have gotten divorced . The divorced people are usually stigmatized . <p> Although the data here revealed that perceived group homogeneity were related to familial loyalty/commitment and stability in this cross-cultural survey , other explanations deserve discussion . One of them is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ younger than Chinese subjects . But by analysis of variance , age was not a significant mediator of our dependent measures . <p> Another interpretation is a " kernel of truth " ( Allport , 1954 ; Triandis &; Vassiliou , 1967 ) . That is , perceptions or stereotypes of a social group are based on the objective characteristics of the target group . Some social stereotypes or social perceptions may have a component of veridicality ( Funder , 1987 ; Jussim , 1991 ) . In other words , it is possibly true that Chinese may have a lower rate of divorce than Americans regardless of whether Chinese are perceived as homogeneous or not . <p> Nevertheless , we need to realize that , due to an open-door policy in recent years , the People 's Republic of China has become more and more exposed to Western cultures and ideology . As a result , the concept of the self in China today also is changing ( Chu , 1985 ) . Chinese families now are less stable than before . It was reported that the rate of divorce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ await further research . <p> In conclusion , the results of this study suggested that perceived group homogeneity is related to the judgments of familial loyalty and stability . That is , Chinese and American college subjects perceived Chinese to have more familial loyalty and stability whereas they perceived Americans to have less familial commitment and stability . These data may be due to different cultural ideologies . Also , as Mainland China changes , its family structure and stability will change . <p> 
##4001477 Letter series and number series tests , consisting of items based on identical rules , were administered in a counterbalanced design to 320 ( 160 female and 160 male ) undergraduates in order to investigate the gender differences in inductive reasoning ability measured by letter and number series tests . Results indicated that female college students obtained significantly higher ( p < .05 ) means on letter series tests , but showed no such superiority on number series . <p> Gender differences in biosocial and behavioral attributes constitute a lively area of scientific debate and research . Some reviews of research ( Maccoby &; Jacklin , 1974 ; Maccoby , 1990 ) seemed to indicate some replicable gender differences in performance on tests of mathematical and spatial abilities , but other aspects of intellect seemed to be equal in the two genders . Other reviewers ( Hyde , Fennema &; Lamon , 1990 ) concluded that gender differences in mathematics performance were small and favored females in samples of the general population . Girls showed a slight superiority in computation at or below the middle school level , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ college on complex problem-solving tasks . Also , the magnitude of the differences in mathematics performance in favor of men has declined over the years ; studies published since 1974 have shown difference only about half as large as that indicated by studies published in 1973 or earlier . <p> A number of problem-solving tasks ( e.g. , probability concepts or probability learning tasks , matrix items , and letter series or number series items ) involve cognitive processes that are common to the traditional psychometric instruments , sequential information processing tasks , and mathematical problem solving . Letter or number series items are considered a measure of inductive reasoning ability ( Thurstone , 1938 ) and a convenient vehicle for illustrating a theory for the acquisition of rules for sequential patterns ( Simon &; Kotovsky , 1963 ) . Letter or number series items involve mathematical operations whose frequency and complexity can be manipulated to construct very difficult sequential patterns or problem-solving tasks ( Butterfield , Nielsen , Tangen &; Richardson , 1985 ; Quereshi , 1960 ; Quereshi &; Fisher , 1977 ) . <p> It seems that items @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , offer unusual opportunities for investigating certain theoretical and practical problems in both cognitive psychology and psychometrics . Although letter or number series tests have been used in a number of well-known group ability batteries such as Primary Mental Abilities ( PMA ) ( Thurstone , 1938 ) , studies comparing female with male samples on letter or number series tests have not been reported in the PMA technical reports or any other relevant published source . <p> If there are no gender differences in performance on letter or number series items , we have available a universe of gender fair items for measuring inductive reasoning . In addition , a theory for the acquisition of rules for sequential patterns can be considered applicable to all regardless of their gender . We therefore attempted to investigate the gender differences in performance on letter series and number series tests in college undergraduates . We hypothesized that college women and college men would have equal means on letter series as well as number series tests . METHOD Subjects <p> Three hundred twenty undergraduates ( 160 women and 160 men ) from an introductory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the study in exchange for some extra points toward their course grades . Chronologically , they were between 18 and 25 years and , ethnically , 97% were white and 3% were Asian American . Material <p> The Michill General Ability Test ( MOAT ) ( Quereshi , 1960 ) is a standardized test that has two forms ( LA and LB ) , each consisting of 44 letter series items . The two forms have parallel-form reliability of about .80 and concurrent validity ( correlation with Wechsler full-scale IQ ) of about .60 in samples of over 100 ( Erstad , 1988 Quereshi &; Fisher , 1977 ; Quereshi &; Ostrowski , 1985 ) . With the letter series items in MGAT forms LA and LB as the guides , we constructed two new forms NA and NB , each consisting of 44 number series items , such that each item in NA or NB was identical to a corresponding item in LA or LB in both composition and rule except that it employed two-digit numbers as the constituent units . Procedure <p> All 320 persons ( 160 women and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 40 women and 40 men ) each but each person was assigned to a given group on a random basis . Group 1 ( n = 80 ) first completed the letter series form A ( LA ) and then the number series form A ( NA ) ; group 2 ( n = 80 ) first completed the NA and then LA form ; group 3 ( r ' = 80 ) first completed the letter series form B ( LB ) and then the number series form B ( NB ) ; and group 4 ( n = 80 ) first completed the NB and then the LB form . The tests were administered in a counter-balanced order during a single 2-fur session under essentially power conditions . Each 44-item test was accompanied by five practice problems and the following instructions : <p> Each problem in this test is arranged according to a certain rule of its own . You are to discover the rule and then provide the last letter/number in the row . See that there is a dot ( . ) at the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ row that you have to find out . Write this letter/number clearly in the space provided for answers . Data Analysis <p> Because we wanted to investigate the differences between the two genders on letter series and number series separately , the data were subjected to a 2 x 2 multivariate analysis of variance ( MANOVA ) , with gender and forms as the two independent variables of two categories each and the letter series and number series as the two dependent variables . RESULTS AND DISCUSSION <p> The MANOVA results are given in Table 1 . Although the multiple Fs are significant ( . p < .05 ) for both main effects ( gender and form ) , our major concern is the gender main effect as exhibited by either of the dependent variables ( letter series and number series ) . The univariate F ratios for the gender main effect show that the differences between the two genders are significant beyond the .05 level on the letter series tests but not on the number series . Examination of the means for the two genders indicates that the letter series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men . <p> Because the interaction is not significant , the interpretation of the gender main effect is quite straightforward . We have found that , in our sample of college undergraduates , women have obtained significantly ( p < .05 ) higher scores on inductive reasoning as measured by letter series items , but no such difference exists on the number series tests . <p> Maccoby and Jacklin ( 1974 ) , after reviewing research dealing with gender differences on inductive/deductive reasoning , reached the following conclusions : <p> We have been unable to locate studies made since 1966 in which standardized reasoning tests have been given to subjects of high school age or older . The evidence from earlier work is that sexes do not differ on such measures as the reasoning subtest of the Primary Mental Abilities test . The two studies with this age group . . . show an advantage for females , but taking these studies in combination with earlier work , the overall picture remains one of little or no sex differences . ( pp. 108-110 ) <p> There are , however , two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prior to 1966 , no studies could be located in which female adolescents or young adults were compared with male adolescents or young adults on PMA . Second , the PMA technical reports never presented either any data by gender or demonstrated the nonexistence of gender differences on reasoning or any other abilities measured by the PMA . <p> Even a more recent and comprehensive review ( Hyde , Fennema &; Eamon , 1990 ) does not provide any directly relevant information regarding the gender differences on cognitive tasks involving sequential patterns because letter/number series items are usually a part of tests of intelligence rather than tests of mathematical performance reviewed by Hyde et al . On the other hand , solutions of sequential problems may be conceptually similar to some tasks in mathematical problem solving and , thus , we could compare our results with some of those presented by Hyde et al . ( 1990 ) : <p> There was in the area of mathematical problem solving a slight female superiority or no gender difference in the elementary and middle school groups ; however , a moderate gender difference @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups . ( p. 148 ) <p> In contrast , our results seem to indicate female superiority in sequential problem solving , using letter series items , even at the college level . In addition , we found no gender difference in sequential problem solving involving number series items in our sample of college students . <p> Halpern ( 1992 ) asserts that , " Evidence from a variety of sources supports the finding that , on the average , females have better verbal abilities than males " ( p. 64 ) . Our finding might be interpreted to indicate that female college students ' superiority on verbal skills may be generalizable to other processes ( e.g. , reasoning ) if they are tested by sequential semantic units . This should be an important finding if it is corroborated by further research , especially that involving different cultural and ethnic groups . In any case , any such differences mainly reflect the impact of cultural and social beliefs and practices at a given point in time , in the history of a given society , and require no elaborate explanation rooted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : March 1 , 1993 . Correspondence should be addressed to : M.Y . Quereshi , Dept. of Psychology , Marquette University , 517 North 14th St. , Milwaukee , W1 53233 . PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4001478 This paper reports on the development of an Inventory of Managing Skills designed to provide working MBA students with a current assessment of their managing skills . A canonical correlation matrix reporting interrelationships between the 20 scale dimensions in a pilot sample of 378 respondents is reported . The Inventory can be used for self assessment by students and for other-assessment by the student 's superiors and peers . BACKGROUND <p> This paper reports on the development of an Inventory of Managing Skills ( IMS ) designed for use by working graduate students as an aid in forming an assessment of their current levels of management skills . Such an assessment could be helpful in tailoring short and long term career plans . <p> The need for a tool of this type arises from the increasing interest of graduate business faculties in providing students with opportunities to enhance individual management skills , such as decision-making , supervising , leadership , and communication . The American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business ( 1984,1989 ) provided a stimulus in 1976 when the " Outcome Measurement Project " was initiated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along two dimensions : cognitive knowledge and personal management skills . With respect to the skills enhancement objective , Smith and Mortenson ( 1988 ) undertook the development of specific course experiences aimed at helping students assess their current levels of management skills , plan developmental activities that respond to individual needs , and engage in skill development exercises on an in-class basis . <p> Procedures and methods generally employed for management skills assessment include assessment centers , situational tests , and paper-and-pencil inventories which use the self-assessments of the subject and/or assessments of the subject by others ; these may be used in combination to enhance process reliability . Since there are no commercially available management skills assessment inventories suitable for self or other assessment use with graduate students who are working adults , it was decided to develop an appropriate instrument . <p> The primary purpose of such a skills assessment inventory would be to provide the student with information on his/her current level of skill in each of several relevant management skills dimensions , supplementing assessment and evaluation information from other sources . Data from student skills inventories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other important respects : as a program evaluation device and as input to curriculum development deliberations . METHOD <p> To be useful for these purposes , a skills inventory should meet several design criteria . It should ( a ) tap several dimensions of behavior/skills that are relevant to supervisory and management jobs across multiple levels of responsibility , ( b ) measure such dimensions with acceptable reliability , and ( c ) present the self-assessor and other-assessors with an uncomplicated response task , perhaps requiring no more than about one hour to complete . <p> Dimensions and Items . An initial inventory design decision was made to present the respondent with a large number of specific behavioral items which relate to several broad dimensions of supervisor/management job performance . A variation on typical job analysis procedures was used to identify both the set of dimensions to be built into the inventory and the component items . <p> First , a review of the literature on supervisory or managerial behaviors , skills , and other personal characteristics was conducted , focusing on those elements that relate to successful job performance . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conducted involving groups of management and business school faculty , engineering school faculty , human resource management ( HRM ) administrators and executives , staff , operating and engineering supervisors/managers , and human resource development experts . Finally , the investigator drew on personal observations and judgments formed over an extensive career in HRM staff and technical management positions . <p> In each inquiry , the primary concern was to identify those supervisor/manager job behaviors , skills , and other attributes that characterize the performance of successful managers across several levels of responsibility . Based on these inputs , judgments were made identifying 20 dimensions of managing skills , involving 115 inventory items , for inclusion in the research draft of the Inventory of Managing Skills ( IMS ) . <p> Importance Analysis . As a further check on the relevance of the items selected for inclusion in the research draft of the IMS document , a special inventory form was prepared to obtain the item importance judgments of graduates of the University of Michigan-Dearborn MBA and Master of Engineering programs . A copy of the special inventory was mailed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; persons receiving master 's degrees between 1960 and 1989 were included . <p> The special inventory contained the same set of 115 items used in the student-peer-supervisor IMS documents , with appropriate modifications . Subjects were asked the question " How important is each of these items to successful performance on jobs like yours ? " Responses were made using the following five-point scale : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> A personal data section was included in this inventory , asking for advanced and undergraduate degree fields and dates , and current job assignment . Returns were received from 61 MBA graduates and 93 Master of Engineering graduates . The response rate was approximately 49% . Assessment Task <p> The 115 items were randomly sequenced within the IMS . Two inventory formats were developed : A student self-assessment format on which the respondent recorded her/his responses to inventory items , and an other-assessment format on which the student 's work supervisor ( or a work peer ) could assess the student . Students distributed the other-assessment documents to their supervisors and to peers of their own choice ; each inventory packet contained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , preprinted envelope in which the supervisor or peer could mail the completed form directly to the investigator . <p> In the self-assessment format , the student was asked to read each item and assess his/her level of skill in the designated area by recording a candid judgment using one of the following five rating categories : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> This rating scale format was used on the inventory forms given to peers and supervisors with appropriate modifications of personal pronouns and verbs . Similarly , item wordings were adjusted slightly in the different formats to use appropriate language . <p> Each inventory form carried the student-subject 's name . A short personal data section was included at the end of each form of the inventory . The self-assessment form asked for job level and type and undergraduate degree . Peer and supervisory raters were asked to indicate the number of months ' work experience they had with the student . <p> A total of 156 graduate business students submitted self-assessment inventories , representing about 80% of the students who were offered the opportunity to participate . Responses were also received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; none of these raters indicated less than five months ' experience with the ratee , and all were included in the data set . RESULTS <p> Dimensions and Items . Item-dimension relationships and dimension scale reliabilities were analyzed in a two-staged process , combining the responses of students , peers and supervisors ( Nunnally , 1978 ) . <p> First , product-moment correlations were calculated between each item and each a priori dimension scale score . Any item that exhibited its highest correlation with the dimension to which it had been assigned on an a priori basis was retained ; eight items were removed from the IMS on this criterion . Next , the impact of each item on dimension reliability was assessed . Alpha values were calculated for each dimension , including and excluding each component item ; any item that did not add to its dimension alpha coefficient was dropped ; four items were removed on this criterion . The final dimension alpha values were judged to be acceptable and are shown in Table 1 , along with a listing of the final IMS dimensions and the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the IMS document was reduced in length from 115 items to 103 items . <p> A matrix of interdimension correlation coefficients is presented in Table 2 . <p> Graduates ' Importance Ratings . The item importance responses provided by the 152 MBA and Master of Engineering graduates were tabulated and averaged ; dimension scores for each respondent were calculated . <p> Two item-screening criteria were utilized . To be included in the final IMS item set , each item must achieve an average rating of at least 3.00 across the total sample , with a rating range which included one or more 5-ratings ( Critically Important ) . All items met these conditions . <p> The relatively small samples of business and engineering graduates precluded detailed cross-tabulation analysis , a cooperative research project is under way to obtain a larger graduate data pool . It might be of interest , however , to review the rank order of dimensions as determined from average dimension importance scores calculated across the entire sample ; that rank order is shown in the dimension lists in Tables 1 and 3 . Problem Solving and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , etc . DISCUSSION <p> Through the processes described here , an Inventory of Managing Skills was developed for use as a tool for self-assessment and other-assessment of working graduate students in business and engineering . Scale reliabilities are acceptable , and the inventory 's content validity characteristics are enhanced both by the process used in identifying items/dimensions and by the ratings of graduates whose present jobs are said to involve the items included in the IMS . Interdimension correlations are high , particularly among the " soft skills " areas , such as leadership , group interaction , and interpersonal effectiveness , probably due to the fundamentally positive interrelationships between these types of skills among effective supervisors and managers . <p> Informal contacts with respondent students and graduates suggests that the IMS has face validity . Inventory completion times of 45-65 minutes were reported . <p> The Inventory of Management Skills is intended to be used in combination with other assessment processes , such as situational tests and assessment center techniques . To the extent that additional measures are available on those skill dimensions considered to be among the more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . There is value to self-assessment , together with assessments by work associates ; the impact is multiplied when supplemented by other sources of evaluation . The principal PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> ROBERT A. BOLDA The University of Michigan-Dearborn <p> 
##4001568 Listen , humans , this is our world . For hundreds of millions of years we have been evolving our ways , rich in our own wisdom . Now our days are coming to a close because of what you are doing . It is time for you to hear us . <p> I am lichen . I turn rock into soil . I 've worked as the glaciers retreated , as other life-forms came and went . I thought nothing could stop me ... until now . Now I am being poisoned by acid rain . <p> Your pesticides are in me now . The eggshells are so fragile they break under my weight , break before my young are ready to hatch . <p> Listen , humans . I am raccoon , I speak for the raccoon people . See my hand ? It is like yours . On soft ground you see its imprint , know I 've been there . What marks on this world are you leaving behind you ? <p> The people seated in a circle are speaking extemporaneously . Stepping aside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be spokespersons for other life-forms . They are meeting in the Council of All Beings , a central part of the workshop they attend . These men , women , and young people have gathered in this workshop to share concerns for their planet . They have met to tell the truth about what they see happening to their world , and to move beyond despair . <p> They are aware , as most of us are on some level of our consciousness , that our life support system is being destroyed . As the workshop began , they spoke out about developments that are familiar to us all , though they usually seem too vast , too pervasive to address . They spoke of poisons exuding from toxic waste dumps ... the pollution of air , water , soil ... extinction of plant and animal species ... deforestation ... spreading deserts ... the suffering in animal laboratories and farm factories ... chemical additives in food and drink ... friends and relatives dying from spreading epidemics of cancer . <p> The ecological crisis these developments produce does not stand apart from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common thread weaving through issues of the arms race and human oppression . Just as concentrations of wealth push the poor onto marginal , easily erodable lands , so does the drive for profit demolish our oxygen-producing forests and put carcinogenic pesticides and preservatives into our food . And so does manufacture of weapons threaten us with the radioactive horrors of our own Chernobyl disaster . The four Defense Department reactors are of similar design to the Soviet one that burned out of control ( with graphite and no containment domes ) , the only difference being that ours are older and more decrepit . Yet they are kept in operation to produce plutonium for the 17,000 additional missiles that the Reagan administration wants to build . Our addictions to profit and power , and to the lifestyles they sustain , turn the world toxic . <p> These addictions culminate in an ecological crisis that is the ultimate expression of a human mistake . It is a mistake about our place in the order of things , the delusion that we can -- as corporations or as nations or as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we are put here to rule , aloo ! from the rest of creation . It is the fantasy that we can be immune to what we do to other beings . It is the denial of our deep systemic interdependence . <p> Fortunately , another perspective is emerging as a healing corrective . Ecology teaches us that we humans are neither the rulers nor the center of the universe , but are imbedded in a vast living matrix and subject to its laws of reciprocity . " Deep ecology " is a term coined by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess , to contrast with " shallow environmentalism , " a band-aid approach applying piecemeal technological fixes for short-term human goals . Deep ecology represents a basic shift in ways of seeing and valuing , a shift beyond anthropocentrism . <p> Anthropocentrism means human chauvinism . Similar to sexism. but substitute human race for man and all other species for woman . <p> When humans investigate and see through their layers of anthropocentric self-cherishing , a most profound change in consciousness begins to take place . Alienation subsides . The human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a relief then ! The thousands of years of imagined separation are over and we begin to recall our true nature . That is. the change is a spiritual one ... sometimes referred to as deep ecology . -- John Seed <p> <p> There are , of course , manifold ways of evoking or provoking this change in perspective . Methods for inspiring the experience of deep ecology range from prayer to poetry , from wilderness vision quests to the induction of altered states of consciousness . The most reliable , perhaps , is direct action in defense of Earth . <p> In deep ecology workshops there are three genetic approaches that I have found especially suitable for groups . They consist of mourning , then remembering , then speaking from the perspective of other life-forms . <p> Deep ecology remains a concept without the power to transform our awareness , unless we allow ourselves no feel -- which means feeling the pain within us over what is happening to our world . The workshop serves as a safe place where this pain can be acknowledged , plumbed , released . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what is slipping away -- ancient forests and clean rivers , birdsong , and breathable air . It is appropriate , then , to mourn -- for once at least , to speak our sorrow and , when appropriate , to say goodbye to what is disappearing from our lives . As participants let this happen , in the whole group or in small dusters , there is hopelessness expressed . There is also something more : a rage welling up and passionate caring . <p> Only if one loves this earth with unbending passion can one release one 's sadness . -- Don Juan in Carlos Castaneda 's Tales of Power <p> <p> Our interconnectedness emerges as the ground of this anger and grief . Why else do we weep for other beings and those not yet born ? There 's no cause for so great a sadness if at root we are not one . Deep ecology serves as the explanatory principle both for the pain we experience on behalf of our planet and its beings and for the sense of belonging that arises when we stop repressing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> As organic expressions of life on earth , we have a long and panoramic history . We are not yesterday 's children , nor are we limited to this one brief moment of our planet 's story ; our roots go back to the beginning of time . We can learn to remember them . The knowledge is in us . As in our mothers ' wombs our embryonic bodies recapitulated the evolution of cellular life on earth , so we can now do it consciously , harnessing intellect and the power of imagination . We can reclaim our history in order to know afresh our deep ecology . <p> As your memory improves , as the implications of evolution and ecology are internalized and replace outmoded anthropocentric structures in your mind , there is an identification with all life . Then follows the realization that the distinction between life and lifeless is a human construct . Every atom in this body existed before organic life emerged ... Remember our childhood as minerals , as lava , as rocks ? <p> Rocks contain the potentiality to weave themselves into such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why do we look down upon them with such a condescending air . It is they that are the immortal part of us. -- John Seed <p> <p> Certain methods help trigger this remembering . Guided visualizations can take us through our four and a half billion year story , making it present and vivid . One form this can take is the Gala Meditation I adapted from letters from John Seed , who is a member of Interhelp Australia and director of the Rainforest Information Center . Sometimes we use a drum to sound a heartbeat , suggesting our connection with the pulse of life in all beings through time . <p> Our evolutionary journey can also be explored through body movement . Nosing , crawling , wriggling , pushing up , we can begin literally to feel the inner body sense of amphibian and reptile and lower mammal , because these earlier stages of our life are imbedded in our neurological system . John Seed and his colleagues in Interhelp Australia accord a lot of time to this exercise , allowing participants to move through many previous evolutionary forms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What was striking , " reported one , " was that modern human was the most disconcerting to me . " <p> It is to be noted in this connection that nonhuman memories can surface with particular intensity and authenticity when consciousness is altered by special accelerated patterns of breathing . Stanislav and Christina Grof developed what they call holotropic breathing to permit subjects to recapture and resolve significant experiences surrounding their birth . They have found that the material that comes to light often goes beyond the biographical and even the human realm to include phylogenetic sequences and episodes of conscious identification with other species and life forms . These are so real as to produce remarkable insights into specificities of animal behavior , botanical processes , and even inorganic interactions of inanimate matter . A version of this breathwork has been used to similar effect in the Eco-Breath workshops held in Australia . <p> This we know . The earth does not belong to man ; man belongs to the earth . Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth . This we know . All things are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things are connected . -- Chief Seattle <p> <p> Ordinary . consciousness is certainly sufficient to allow us to shake off for a while our solely human identification and imaginatively to enter the experience of other life-forms . It is as satisfying to do this as to resurrect a half-forgotten skill or sing , after years , a once familiar song . The workshop helps us feel our way . We choose -- or , as I prefer to put it , let ourselves be chosen by -- another life-form . We give it our attention , we give it our voice , we practice speaking for it in small groups where others , listening , can elicit from us more . We play tapes of environmental sounds , sometimes let hoots and howls , wind and water noises , come through our throats , hearken to inner intuitions , stretch to see and feel what lies just barely beyond our human knowings . <p> The Council of All Beings is the culminating ritual form , in which participants formally speak on behalf of these other beings . Because it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changing and always different . It originated in Australia in early 1985 , after a Despair and Empowerment workshop that included environmental activists . These " rainbow warriors " had done direct action on behalf of Earth , interposing their bodies to stop French nuclear testing in the South Pacific and to protect the remaining stands of rainforest in New South Wales and Queensland . John Seed was one of them , and the Council of All Beings resulted from our encounter . <p> It is not all that strange to imagine ourselves in nonhuman forms and draw fresh vision from them . Poets and children do it , shamans and primal people know that gift . The Lord Buddha himself , it is believed , developed his perfection of compassion through numerous animal incarnations ; the Jataka at " birth " tales of his lives in such forms as rabbit , monkey , tiger , elephant , serve still as models of bravery and selflessness . The interconnectedness -- or , more precisely , the interexistence -- of all beings is expressed in the Buddhist vision of reality known as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ node of the net , each being like a gem reflects all the others , as those for their part mirror back all the rest , the reflections catching back and forth . <p> Today explorations into quantum physics , systems theory , holography and morphogenetic fields offer similar perspectives on the structure of the universe . The many transbiographical and trans-species experiences occuring throughout his years of psychophysical work with people have led Dr. Graf to conclude that : <p> In a yet unexplained way each human being contains the information about the entire universe or all of existence , has potential experiential access to all its parts , and in a sense is the whole cosmic network , as much as he or she is just an infinitesimal of it , a separate and insignificant biological entity . <p> It follows then that deep ecology can empower us . As we open to the radical interrelatedness of all that is , fresh vision and vigor can be gained for our work in the world . Actions on behalf of Earth are strengthened , less limited by self-doubt , self-interest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " I am protecting the rainforest " develops to " I am part of the rainforest protecting myself . " And it is good that that is so , for the crises we confront in this planet-time demand more of us than business-as-usual . They require depths of wisdom and courage that appear to exceed our individual resources . Yet these become available to us , as we break free of the prison cell of isolated human ego and open to our deep ecology . <p> In religious language and experience , the sense of being sustained by a source beyond our self , by a power that is not our own possession , is known as grace . In this time of almost overwhelming peril , grace comes -- as indeed it always has -- in many forms . One of them is the Council of All Beings when , near the end , a shift occurs . <p> A voice -- the ritual leader 's -- speaks on behalf of the humans , those who at any point are sitting silent in the center of the circle , listening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fellow-creatures . We know we are wrecking the world and we are afraid . What we have unleashed has such momentum now , we do n't know how to turn it around . Do n't leave us alone , we need your help . You need us too for your own survival . Are there powers you can share with us ? <p> Without any other announcement , this plea signals a turning . The beings in the circle respond spontaneously , <p> I , lichen , work slowly , very slowly . Time is my friend . This is what I give you : patience for the long haul and perseverance . <p> By offering them , naming them , the participants in the ritual invoke the powers within themselves that they want strengthened . These powers are available to us all because they inhere in the web of life and because , in the final analysis , that web is what we are . By virtue of the long planetary journey we have made , and the processes still at work within us , that deep ecology is our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it now in this time of danger . <p> It is a dark time . As deep-diving trout I offer you my fearlessness of the dark . <p> I , lion , give you my roar , the voice to , speak out and be heard . <p> I am caterpillar . The leaves I eat taste bitter now . But dimly I sense a great change coming . What I offer you , humans , is my willingness to dissolve and transform . I do that without knowing what the end-result will be ; so I share with you my courage too . <p> 
##4001150 ABSTRACT . Sixty undergraduate subjects were exposed to one of three depressive mood inductions : cognitive , behavioral , or control . Subjects in the cognitive induction group read negative self-statements consistent with Beck 's ( 1974 ) cognitive theory of depression . Subjects in the behavioral induction group were exposed to insoluble discrimination problems consistent with Lewinsohn 's ( 1974 ) behavioral theory that lack of reinforcement produces depression . The control group read a neutral passage . Following the mood induction , subjects rated their current moods using the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist ( MAACL ; Zuckerman &; Lubin , 1965 ) . The cognitive and behavioral inductions produced significantly higher MAACL total and subscale scores than did the control condition ; however , the cognitive and behavioral inductions did not differ from one another . Because the cognitive and behavioral mood inductions appear equally powerful , they may be used by researchers who are attempting to identify variables that are related to subjects ' differing responses to behavioral and cognitive influences on depression . <p> COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL MODELS of depression have become increasingly influential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) cognitive theory and Lewinsohn 's ( 1974 ) behavioral theory have both generated substantial research on the cause and treatment of depression . To date , evaluations of cognitive and behavioral therapy for depression have shown that both treatments are effective but that there is no clear support for the greater efficacy of one over the other ( Sacco &; Beck , 1985 ) . Rehm , Kaslow , and Rabin ( 1987 ) attempted to identify variables that predict responses to cognitive versus behavior therapy . To date , however , there are no clear indicators as to which approach will be more effective for a client . <p> Rexford and Wierzbicki ( 1989 ) suggested that laboratory mood induction studies might help identify variables that predispose one to respond to cognitive versus behavioral therapy . They developed cognitive and behavioral mood inductions and found that both were effective in inducing negative mood but were unable to identify the variables that predicted different responses to cognitive and behavioral inductions . <p> One problem with Rexford and Wierzbicki 's study was that its behavioral induction had subjects read about , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the behavioral induction could be regarded as cognitive . Rexford and Wierzbicki suggested that future researchers use behavioral inductions in which subjects actually experience negative events . <p> Hiroto and Seligman ( 1975 ) administered insoluble problems to subjects and observed that they exhibited decreased learning . Others found that exposure to insoluble problems increased depressed affect ( Sedek &; Kofta , 1990 ; Trice , 1982 , 1985 ) . <p> The purpose of this study was to compare the intensities of a cognitive and a behavioral mood induction . If the two types proved equally intense , researchers might then use them in efforts to identify variables that predict different responses to cognitive and behavioral therapy . Method <p> Subjects and Procedure <p> Subjects were 60 college students ( 49 women , 11 men ) in undergraduate psychology courses at Marquette University ; the students received extra course credit for volunteering to participate in research . <p> Subjects met individually with an experimenter , who assigned twenty subjects randomly to each of three mood induction groups : cognitive , behavioral , and control . The cognitive and behavioral induction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10.6 min ) . Subjects in the control condition read a passage of text for 12 min . After completing this procedure , subjects evaluated their moods , using the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List ( MAACL ; Zuckerman &; Lubin , 1965 ) . Subjects were then debriefed . Those who had been exposed to the depressive mood inductions were exposed to an elating induction designed to remove any remaining negative affect . <p> Materials <p> The behavioral mood induction consisted of a set of insoluble discrimination problems described by Hiroto and Seligman ( 1975 ) . Subjects were first administered one sample problem consisting of a series of five cards , each with two stimulus patterns . Each pattern contained five dichotomous dimensions : a letter ( X or Y ) , a color ( red or blue ) , a size ( large or small ) , a border ( square or circle ) , and a border line ( solid or dashed ) . <p> The subjects were told that each pattern contained only one value for each of the five dimensions and that 1 of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to guess which of the two patterns on each card contained the target value , after which they were told whether they were correct or incorrect . Using this feedback , the subjects tried to identify the target value for the problem . Subjects viewed each card for a maximum of 15 s ; after 10 s , subjects were told that they must make a selection in 5 s . <p> The subjects were then administered the sample problem , after which they were given the opportunity to ask questions about the procedure . We then administered three discrimination problems similar to the sample problem except that they consisted of 10 cards each and only four stimulus dimensions ( border line was omitted ) . Two other dimensions differed slightly from the sample problem : letter ( A or T ) and color ( black or white ) . <p> Feedback ( whether selections were correct or incorrect ) was provided on a predetermined schedule , independent of the subjects ' actual selections . After the last card in a problem was viewed , the subjects were asked to identify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subjects were told that their answers were incorrect . <p> After the first two problems , the subjects were told that a new 10-card problem would be presented and that a new target value may or may not have been chosen . The same procedures were used for each of the three problems . Insoluble discrimination problems have been shown to decrease ability to solve later problems ( Hiroto &; Seligman , 1975 ) and to increase depressed mood ( Sedek &; Kofta , 1990 ; Trice , 1982 , 1985 ) . <p> The cognitive mood induction was modeled after Velten 's ( 1968 ) procedure in which subjects read 59 depressing self-statements . Rexford and Wierzbicki ( 1989 ) identified 59 statements of negative thoughts and thinking errors , consistent with Beck 's theory of depression , that were matched for severity with Velten 's statements . Velten 's instructions were used , with each step printed on an index card . After the instructions , subjects read a series of statements printed on index cards . Velten 's initial statement appeared first : " Today is neither better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the 59 statements used by Rexford and Wierzbicki were presented . The other 18 statements were omitted so that the two induction procedures would take the same time . An analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) showed that this subset of 41 and the original set of 59 statements did not differ in mean severity , F(1,98) = 1.77 , ns . <p> Subjects in the control condition read a passage on psychotherapy from an introductory psychology textbook ( Kalat , 1990 ) . We selected this passage because it had not been assigned to subjects during the semester and because we judged it to be neutral with respect to mood . Subjects were told that they would not be tested on this material , and they read for 12 min . <p> The MAACL ( Zuckerman &; Lubin , 1965 ) was administered after the mood induction or control condition . The MAACL consists of 132 adjectives that are endorsed if they describe how subjects currently feel ; it provides measures of depression , anxiety , and hostility and has been shown to be both a reliable ( Pankratz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ valid index of negative mood ( Nagata &; Trierweiler , 1988 ) . It has commonly been used to assess the effects of laboratory mood inductions ( e.g. , Nagata &; Trierweiler , 1988 ; Rexford &; Wierzbicki , 1989 ; Schare &; Lisman , 1984 ) . <p> Following debriefing , the subjects who had been exposed to the mood inductions were exposed to an elating mood induction . This consisted of reading 30 positive self-statements developed by Velten ( 1968 ) . These statements have been used to remove any remaining effects of depressive mood inductions ( Frost &; Green , 1982 ; Rexford &; Wierzbicki , 1989 ) . Results <p> We summed the MAACL subscale scores to produce the MAACL total score , which has been interpreted as an index of general negative affect ( Pankratz et al. , 1972 ; Turzo &; Range , 1991 ) . Using ANOVA , we determined that the MAACL total scores differed significantly across groups , F(2,57) = 7.30 , p < .01 . Scheffe tests showed that the cognitive and behavioral groups both differed significantly ( p < .05 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and behavioral groups did not differ ( Table 1 ) . <p> A multivariate analysis of variance ( MANOVA ) using Wilks 's lambda criterion determined that MAACL subscale scores did not differ by gender , F(3,52) = 2.27 , ns , or in the interaction between gender and group , F(6,104) = 1.03 , ns . However , MAACL subscale scores did differ across groups , F(6,104) = 2.35 , p < .05 . <p> Univariate ANOVAs showed that the MAACL Anxiety , F(2,54) = 3.41 , p < .05 , and Hostility , F(2,54) = 5.05 , p < .01 , subscales differed across groups , although the MAACL Depression subscale did not , F(2,54) = 2.03 , ns . Planned comparisons showed that the behavioral and cognitive inductions did not differ from one another on the MAACL Depression ( t = 0.46 , ns ) , Anxiety ( t = 0.32 , ns ) , or Hostility ( t = 1.85 , ns ) subscales . However , the combined behavioral and cognitive inductions differed from the control condition on the Anxiety ( t = -2.44 , p @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ p < .05 ) subscales , and almost differed significantly on the Depression subscale ( t = -1.81 , p < .10 ) . Table 1 contains the group means on the MAACL subscale scores . Discussion <p> This study compared the effects of a cognitive and a behavioral depressive mood induction . The two procedures did not differ in severity , but both produced significantly more negative mood than a control condition . <p> Exposure to a set of insoluble problems produced a significant increase in negative affect consistent with Lewinsohn 's ( 1974 ) behavioral model , which posits that low reinforcement leads to depression , and with previous studies ( Hiroto &; Seligman , 1975 ; Trice , 1982 , 1985 ) showing that exposure to insoluble problems increases negative affect . <p> The cognitive procedure also induced negative mood . This is consistent with Beck 's ( 1974 ) theory that depression is caused by cognitive factors , such as automatic negative thoughts and thinking errors . Many studies have now shown that Velten 's ( 1968 ) procedure induces depressed mood ( Larsen &; Sinnett , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's ( 1989 ) finding that a Velten-like induction consisting solely of statements consistent with Beck 's cognitive theory induces negative affect . <p> Previous research addressed how psychological variables moderate the effects of laboratory mood inductions . For example , responding to Velten-like inductions of depressed mood has been found to be related to personality characteristics , such as self-consciousness ( Scheier &; Carver , 1977 ) and neuroticism ( Hill , 1985 ) and to cognitive processes such as frequent automatic negative thoughts ( Blackburn , Cameron , &; Deary , 1990 ) . <p> Because the cognitive and behavioral inductions in this study were equally powerful , future studies may use both these procedures in attempts to identify variables that predict different responses to cognitive and behavioral therapy . In this way , laboratory mood induction studies may help to identify people who have different susceptibilities to cognitive and behavioral influences on depression and who may respond differently to cognitive and behavioral treatments of depression . <p> TABLE 1 <p> Mean MAACL Total and Subscale Scores Across Induction Groups PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> <p> 
##4001151 ABSTRACT . Ethical values of 171 college students at California State University , Chico , were measured , using a subset of the Rokeach ( 1968,1971 ) Value Survey . Non-parametric statistical analysis , four value measures , and four different consistent tests of significance and probability showed , surprisingly , that the younger students were more ethical than the older students . College students under 21 scored significantly higher ethically on three out of the four measures . Younger college students valued equality , freedom , and honesty more than their older classmates did . Surprisingly also , the younger students were significantly more concerned with being helpful and intellectual and were less involved in pursuing an exciting life and in social recognition than were the older students . <p> AGE AND ETHICS are generally believed to be related ( Kohlberg , 1984 ) . The common understanding that " older is wiser " means that age advances mental , emotional , social , and moral maturity ( Glenn , 1992 ) . Several recent studies report relationships between age and ethics . Serwinek ( 1992 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did indeed explain variance in ethical viewpoints .. Burnett and Karson ( 1987 ) , Posner and Schmidt ( 1984 ) and Arlow ( 1991 ) found that older people become more conservative in their ethical viewpoints . Younger employees tend to have a more liberal view of potentially unethical situations ( Grant &; Broom , 1988 ) , whereas older workers tend to have somewhat more adamant opinions about what should be considered acceptable behavior ( Brenner , 1988 ) . <p> Older people have had more opportunity to see the consequences of unethical behavior ( Wood , Longenecker , McKinney , &; Moore , 1988 ) and are more likely to realize from experience that the unethical eventually suffer the consequences of their actions ( Miesling &; Preble , 1985 ) . Also , a longer , continuous exposure to tradition and custom appears to be a major explanation of why a person 's age is a significant predictor of ethical values ( Mudrack , 1989 ) . In short , age has been the most influential demographic predictor of ethical standards . As age increases , subjects have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compromising interpretations of what is to be judged ethical . <p> For more than 25 years , the Rokeach Value Survey has been a commonly used research instrument to measure human beliefs , attitudes , and values ( Rokeach , 1968a , 1968b ) . Personal and organizational change have also frequently been measured using this instrument , and human values and value systems have been studied for more than 20 years using this methodology ( Rokeach , 1971 ; Sikula , 1972 ) . Some early value research has indirectly used the Rokeach Value Survey to measure religious values , but to the best of our knowledge , this study is one of the first attempts to define ethical values in terms of this survey . <p> The Rokeach Value Survey consists of two parts : 18 terminal ends and 18 instrumental means . Each set of 18 values is arranged in alphabetical order . Respondents are asked to arrange the 18 values in order of their importance as guiding principles of life from 1 ( most important ) to 18 ( least important ) . <p> Our purposes in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , using student subjects , to determine whether younger ( 21 or under ) and older ( 22 or over ) students have different ethical values . We defined ethical values in terms of the Rokeach Value Survey as a subset of the terminal ends and the instrumental means . Two terminal ends and two instrumental means constitute ethical values . Thus , the ethical values are equality , freedom , honesty , and responsibility . Method <p> Subjects <p> Subjects were 171 students in three different sections of the introductory , junior , and senior level Management and Organization course , all taught by the same professor at California State University , Chico , during the spring semester of 1992 . Each student filled out a Rokeach Value Survey about 1 month into the semester . Actually , 211 students filled out surveys , but 40 were not used for a variety of reasons pertaining to incomplete information . <p> The 171 students were mostly college juniors and seniors , although a few were sophomores or graduate students . The subjects were divided into two groups , 21 or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because it is the legal age for voting ( and drinking ) in many states and because it split the subjects almost evenly in half ( 80 vs. 91 , respectively ) . California State University at Chico is a residential campus in a rural town and attracts largely traditional college-aged students . Although some students take more than 4 years to complete their degrees , most juniors and seniors are relatively young compared with students in urban communities where working people take part-time loads and evening classes . We ran data on age splits at 25 and 30 in addition to 21 , but the older samples were so small that we were not confident in the numbers . Of the total 171 students only 22 were over 25 and only 8 were over 30 . <p> The professor designed the course so that it contained a heavy dose of ethical and moral information , although management processes and functions remained the basic subject matter and format of the course . Topics included planning , organizing , controlling , leading , staffing , motivating , communicating , and decision making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and international subject matter . The professor focused on each topic for about 1 week , and each topic contained at least some discussion of its ethical aspects and moral implications . <p> Statistical Analysis <p> Because nominal ranking scales instead of ordinal intervals are involved when using the Rokeach Value Survey , nonparametric statistics rather than parametric statistical analysis had to be used for comparing the two groups in this study . Several references are provided here for the reader interested in becoming more familiar with nonparametric statistical tests ( Conover , 1980 ; Hayek , 1969 ; Lehmann , 1975 ; Quade , 1966 ) . <p> To answer the questions raised in this study and to provide the appropriate statistical analysis , we used four nonparametric tests to determine the differences in ran.kings between younger and older students . These four nonparametric tests almost always gave the same conclusions regarding the significance of the findings and probabilities at the traditional level of .05 , and thus reinforced one another in terms of the reported results of this research . The following four nonparametric procedures and tests were used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two-sample test with normal approximation and continuity correction Kruskal-Wallis test with a chi-square approximation Median two-sample test with normal approximation Median one-way analysis with a chi-square approximation Results <p> Table 1 contains the medians , ranks , and quartile deviations of the terminal ends for the 80 students aged 21 or younger and for the 91 students aged 22 or older . The value ranking differences for the two age groups indicated that five terminal values had a spread of five or more between the rankings of the younger and older students . An exciting life , a world at peace , equality , inner harmony , and social recognition had spreads of five or more between younger and older student rankings . <p> Table 2 contains the medians , ranks , and quartile deviations of the instrumental means for the 80 students aged 21 or younger and for the 91 students aged 22 or older ; these data indicate that six instrumental values had a spread of five or more between the rankings of the younger and older students . Cheerful , forgiving , helpful , intellectual , logical , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and older student rankings . <p> First impressions are often inaccurate , however , and they are not scientifically determined . A quick look at the medians and quartile deviations reported in Tables 1 and 2 give a slightly different picture than that seen when simply comparing ranks . We also used the four companion tests of probability and significance to examine the frequency distributions of all the rankings by every student . Wilcoxon , Kruskal-Wallis , median two-sample , and median one-way probability tests were applied to all 36 Rokeach values . <p> Just as first impressions are right only about half the time , 6 of the 11 values that passed the visual inspection of the 5 or more rankings spread test failed the statistical analysis examination . To pass the probability benchmark , we required that all four probability tests of significance be in agreement , but we did stretch the traditional limit of .05 to .06 to capture two values . Two terminal ends , a world at peace and inner harmony , and four instrumental means , cheerful , forgiving , logical , and polite , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two groups of students . Thus , only five values survived the probability standard : three terminal ends , an exciting life , equality , and social recognition , and two instrumental means , helpful and intellectual . <p> In a final analysis , we first investigated significance by examining spreads of five or more between younger and older student rankings of the terminal and instrumental values . At this point , the question was , Can any other of the 36 total values pass the probability criterion ( all four probability tests at .06 or greater significance ) even though they failed the observation benchmark ( five or more ranks between younger and older student rankings ) ? The answer was yes . An examination of the total data base showed that one more terminal end , freedom , and one more instrumental mean , honesty , passed the probability requirement . Although the ranking difference for freedom was only two , when the frequency distributions were tested for significance differences , the point .003 level was surprisingly obtained in all four tests . Honesty was also added as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ although they both ranked it as number 1 . Table 2 reported a median difference of 3.0 for the two age groups on honesty . Discussion <p> For a finding to qualify as a conclusion in this study , we required that it pass the four-fold probability standard . Three out of the four ethical values identified earlier in this report qualified as conclusions because they were significantly valued differently by younger and older students , as determined by the probability standard . Along with past research and human intuition , this study showed that ethical values were significantly different between the junior and senior students . Surprisingly , however , the younger students placed a higher value on equality , freedom , and honesty than did the older students . Remembering that , in the Rokeach Value Survey , ranks with lower numbers reveal higher priority and importance , younger students ranked freedom number 3 ; older students ranked it fifth in order of importance . Younger students ranked equality number 8 ; older students ranked it 13th . Both student groups ranked honesty number 1 , but the median @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ older students . <p> Our results showed that age and ethics are related . Historically , older people have been shown to be more ethical than younger people . The reverse ' was true in this study , perhaps because there was not enough difference in age between the two groups . Only 22 of the 171 student sample were over 25 ; only 8 were older than 30 . The older students were more often products of the 1980s ; the younger students were products of the 1990s . But for a number of reasons , we believe that perhaps the best explanation for our findings is that colleges and universities are doing a better job in the 1990s than in the 1980s in teaching ethical values and environmental concerns . Part of the explanation may also be youthful idealism . <p> With regard to nonethical values , two terminal values , an exciting life and social recognition , and two instrumental values , being helpful and intellectual , passed the fourfold probability test . Again , surprisingly , older students , by five ranks , valued an exciting life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put less value on social recognition than did their elders ( by six ranks ) . Younger students also valued being helpful more than the students 4 to 7 years older ( by seven ranks ) and being intellectual ( by six ranks ) . Based on the results of this study , in which the age range was admittedly extremely narrow , younger college-aged baccalaureate students seem to be significantly more ethical than older college-aged undergraduate students . <p> TABLE 1 <p> Medians , Ranks , and Quartile Deviations for Two Age Groups PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> TABLE 2 <p> Medians , Ranks , and Quartile Deviations for Two Age Groups PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> <p> 
##4001152 ABSTRACT . Interpersonal dependency and locus of control orientation were studied in obese and nonobese samples . The Interpersonal Dependency Inventory ( Hirschfeld , Klerman , Gough , Barrett , &; Korchin , 1977 ) and the I-E Scale ( Rotter , 1966 ) were administered to 106 obese adults in outpatient treatment for obesity . The I-E Scale was also administered to 97 nonobese control subjects . As predicted , the obese subjects were significantly more internally oriented than has been previously identified in obese populations . These findings challenge currently held assumptions about locus of control in obese groups . Although the obese and nonobese subjects maintained similar overall dependency scores , the obese subjects were more likely to show low levels of autonomy in comparison with the nonobese subjects . Interpersonal dependency and locus of control dimensions associated with obese conditions may serve as useful predictor variables influencing obesity treatment approaches and outcome . <p> THE PERSONALITY DYNAMICS and psychological characteristics of obese individuals have been exhaustively researched ( Kaplan &; Kaplan , 1957 ; McReynolds , 1982 ; Slochower , 1987 ) . Although @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Brownell &; Foreyt , 1986 ) , in most contemporary paradigms researchers view obesity as multiply determined ( Kuldau , Rand , &; Tucker , 1982 ; Nash , 1987 ; Striegel-Moore &; Rodin , 1986 ) . In several investigations , researchers have examined psychological variables in obese individuals and have focused on personality correlates assumed to contribute to and maintain obesity . <p> Numerous research findings have associated personality characteristics of obese people with dependency , passivity , low assertiveness , self-consciousness , and low self-esteem ( Jacobs &; Wagner , 1984 ; Klesges , 1984 ; Mattlar , Salminen , &; Alanen , 1989 ; McReynolds , 1982 ; Stein , 1987 ) . Hirschfeld , Klerman , Gough , Barrett , and Korchin ( 1977 ) reported that interpersonal dependency is highly associated with the psychogenesis of addictive and psychiatric disorders . Hirschfeld et al . devised the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory ( IDI ) , which measures how much individuals need to associate with , interact with , and rely on others . As a personality construct , inter-personal dependency is conceptualized from the psychoanalytic theory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the ethological theory of attachment . To date , there have been no reported studies that have used the IDI with obese populations . I hypothesized that the obese sample in this study would score higher on all levels of dependency , as measured by the IDI , than the normative sample in the Hirschfeld et al . ( 1977 ) study . <p> The psychological construct of locus of control ( LOC ) orientation of obese populations has also been studied extensively . Locus of control , developed by Rotter , Seeman , and Liverant ( 1962 ) within the context of Rotter 's ( 1954 ) social learning theory , refers to how much control individuals believe they have over their lives . Researchers report that internal control orientation may be an important factor associated with successful weight reduction and the maintenance of weight loss ( Balch &; Ross , 1975 ; Cohen &; Alpert , 1978 ; Jeffrey , 1974 ; Kincey , 1983 ; Saltzer , 1982 ) . However , contradictory findings have indicated that control orientation is not a reliable predictor for successful weight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MacDonald , 1977 ) . <p> In several studies that measured locus of control in obese populations , using Rotter 's ( 1966 ) Internal-External ( I-E ) Scale , researchers found that obese adult subjects ' mean scores were within the external range of control orientation ( Balch &; Ross , 1975 ; Gormanous &; Lowe , 1975 ; Tobias &; MacDonald , 1977 ) when compared with Rotter 's ( 1966 ) original normative samples . Although most research supports the notion that obese populations demonstrate an external control orientation , results from recent studies challenge this assumption. -1 ( Mills , 1991 a , 1991 b ) examined LOC in both male and female obese adult populations before the subjects entered an outpatient obesity treatment program and discovered that the subjects demonstrated an internal control orientation . Therefore , I further hypothesized that the obese subjects in this study would demonstrate an internal locus of control . Method <p> The sample consisted of 106 obese adults ( 93 women and 13 men ) and 97 adult controls ( 51 women and 46 men ) . The mean age @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 14.5 ) , and the mean age for the control group was 21 years ( SD = 2.7 ) . The obese subjects were involved in an intensive outpatient treatment program for obesity and were recruited from two medically supervised weight-loss programs located in large metropolitan cities in the Midwest . The control group was recruited from three introductory psychology classes from Lewis University . The obese subject pool consisted of moderately to morbidly obese adults who had been medically diagnosed according to clinical standards for obesity . The subjects were at least 50 lb over their ideal weight ( according to established normal height and weight tables ) when they entered the treatment program . The obesity treatment program consisted of comprehensive medical , psychological , behavioral , and nutritional interventions . Rotter 's ( 1966 ) I-E Scale and the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory ( Hirschfeld et al. , 1977 ) were administered in a standardized fashion to the obese subjects during the initial screening process before they entered treatment for obesity . The I-E Scale was also administered to the control group in a standardized group format . For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participation was voluntary . Results <p> The LOC mean score for the total obese sample ( N = 106 ) on Rotter 's ( 1966 ) I-E Scale was 7.7 ( SD = 3.8 ) . The mean for the female obese subjects ( N = 93 ) was 7.8 ( SD = 3.8 ) , and the mean for the male obese subjects ( N = 13 ) was 7.3 ( SD = 4.0 ) . Results of a two-tailed t test that compared these groups were not statistically significant , t(104) = .46 , p > .05 . The results suggest that there were no differences in LOC orientation between the female and male obese subjects . The LOC mean score for the total control group ( N = 97 ) was 10.1 ( SD = 3.8 ) . The mean for the female control subjects ( N = 51 ) was 9.78 ( SD = 3.6 ) , and the mean for the male control subjects ( N = 46 ) was 10.22 ( SD = 3.9 ) . No statistical differences were found between the female and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , p > .05 . However , the results of a two-tailed t test that compared the obese subjects ' and non-obese subjects ' LOC scores were statistically significant , t(201) = 4.33 , p < .001 . As predicted , the obese subjects demonstrated a significantly greater internal control orientation than the nonobese controls . The findings also support the notion that the obese adults in this study had higher degrees of internal LOC than has been previously recognized in obese populations . <p> The relationship between LOC and a reported history of family obesity was examined in the obese sample . The LOC mean score for the obese subjects who reported a history of obesity in their families ( N = 90 ) was 8.0 ( SD = 3.9 ) , whereas the mean LOC score for the obese subjects with no history of family obesity ( N = 16 ) was 6.1 ( SD = 3.2 ) . Results of a two-tailed t test that compared these two groups were statistically significant , t(104) = 2.15 , p < .05 . These results suggest that the obese subjects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the obese subjects with no history of family obesity were very internally oriented . <p> The mean scores on the IDI were examined for the obese sample ( N = 66 ) and for the original normative sample ( N = 220 ; Hirschfeld et al. , 1977 ) . On Scale 1 of the IDI ( Emotional Reliance on Another Person ) , the-me , an score for the entire obese sample was 39.0 ( SD = 7.9 ) . The mean for the female obese subjects ( N = 58 ) was 38.9 ( SD = 8.2 ) , and the mean score for the male obese subjects ( N = 8 ) was 39.7 ( SD = 5.2 ) . Results of a two-tailed t test that compared the obese women and men were not statistically significant , t(64) = .28 , p > .05 . The mean scores of the obese subjects and the mean scores of the original normative sample showed no statistically significant differences on reported levels of emotional dependence on others , M = 39.2 ( SD = 7.8 ) , t(284) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scale 2 ( Lack of Social Self-Confidence ) , the mean score for the obese sample was 30.1 ( SD = 8.1 ) . The mean for the obese women was 30.6 ( SD = 8.4 ) , and the mean score for the obese men was 26.0 ( SD = 4.4 ) . A two-tailed t test that compared these groups revealed statistically significant results , t(64) = -2.41 , p < .05 . These results suggest that the obese women had lower levels of self-confidence in social situations than the obese men . A two-tailed t test that compared mean scores of the obese sample with mean scores of the normative sample ( M = 29.8 , SD = 6.4 ) showed no statistically significant results , t(284) = .27 , p > .05 . Although the obese men showed a slight trend toward more social self-confidence than the obese women overall there were no significant differences between the obese and the nonobese groups . <p> On IDI Scale 3 ( Assertion of Autonomy ) the mean score for the total obese sample was 28.1 ( SD = 6.31 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( SD = 5.88 ) , and the mean for the obese men was 33.2 ( SD = 7.36 ) . The results of a two-tailed t test that compared the female and male obese subjects were statistically significant , t(64) = 2.55 , p < .01 . The obese women seemed to be less autonomous than the obese men in this study . When the obese sample was compared with the control sample ( M = 30.2 , SD = 6.1 ) , there were statistically significant differences between mean scores , t(284) = -2.40 , p < .05 . Overall , the obese subjects in this study demonstrated less assertion of their independence and autonomous functioning than those in the nonobese control group . <p> On IDI Scale 4 ( Total Dependency ) , the mean score for the obese sample was 97.3 ( SD = 14.6 ) . The mean for the obese women was 97.0 ( SD = 15.2 ) , and the mean for the obese men were 99.0 ( SD = 9.6 ) . A two-tailed t test that compared these groups showed no statistically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . There seemed to be no differences between the obese men and women for overall dependency . When the mean score for the obese sample was compared with the mean score for the nonobese controls ( M = 99.2 , SD = 9.2 ) , there was no statistically significant difference , t(284) .... 1.04 , p > .05 . There appeared to be no differences in total dependency between the obese sample and the control sample . <p> The mean scores on the IDI and the 1 E Scale for the obese , subjects who reported a history of alcoholism in their family of origin ( N = 19 ) were compared with the scores of the obese subjects who reported no history of family alcoholism ( N = 39 ) . The subjects with a history of family alcoholism ( M = 26.1 , SD = 4.4 ) revealed results that were significantly different on Scale 3 ( Assertion of Autonomy ) from the results for the subjects with no family alcoholism , M = 29.1 , SD = 7.3 , t(56) = 2.68 , p < .05 . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t(56) = .35 , p > .05 ; Scale 2 , t(56) = .10 , p > .05 ; Scale 4 , t(56) = -.51 , p > .05 ; or locus of control , t(61) = 1.34 , p > .05 . <p> Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between scores on the I-E Scale and the four scales of the IDI . Locus of control scores were not significantly correlated with any of the factor scale scores on the IDI . However , the correlation coefficients between Total Dependency and Scale 1 ( Emotional Reliance on Another Person ; r = .73 , p < .001 ) , Scale 2 ( Lack of Social Self-Confidence ; r = .76 , p < .001 ) , and Scale 3 ( Assertion of Autonomy ; r = .40 , p < .001 ) were statistically significant . These results suggest that ( a ) the greater the obese subjects ' need for emotional reliance on others , ( b ) the lower their level of self-confidence in social situations , and ( c ) the less autonomous their behavior , the greater @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Scale I were significantly correlated with scores on Scale 2 ( r = .40 , p < .001 ) . This result suggests that the greater the subjects ' need for dependent attachment and reliance on others , the more they lacked self-confidence in social environments . Discussion <p> The results of this study suggest that both female and male obese groups are more internally oriented than has been previously reported . The obese subjects in this study demonstrated an internal locus of control ; however , most of the empirical findings in the obesity literature assert that obese populations have an external control orientation . Adults who seek treatment for obesity often report feeling that they do not have control over factors that influence the development and maintenance of their obesity . The sample in this study apparently perceived that generalized control over their lives was contingent on personal actions . In other words , the obese subjects felt in control of their lives despite feeling out of control over their weight status and food-related behaviors . This finding suggests that locus of control may be more circumscribed for obese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of perceived control of and efficacy in specific food- and eating-related situations . <p> The obese subjects ' motivations for seeking treatment may also reflect their internal stance . Seeking professional help for their condition may be associated with a desire to assume control of and responsibility for their lives rather than accepting their fate or " biological " destiny . Obese individuals who are internally oriented may possess certain indigenous strengths that can be used as potential predictor variables and applied toward behavior change to influence their obesity . <p> The finding that the obese subjects with no history of family obesity were significantly more internally oriented than the obese subjects with a reported history of family obesity could possibly reflect internalized views toward food , eating , and weight status , conditioned eating patterns , parental identification , role modeling , and attitudes toward diet and nutrition . <p> Contrary to prediction , there were no significant differences between the obese sample and the nonobese control sample on overall dependency attributes . Apparently both groups demonstrated similar needs for approval and dependent attachment to others . These results raise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs than nonobese populations . Perhaps obese individuals modulate or fulfill various dependency needs via food and eating-related behaviors , whereas nonobese individuals find other avenues to satiate these inner yearnings and concerns . <p> The scores on the specific scales of the IDI did indicate that the obese subjects were less autonomous than the nonobese normative sample . The obese group apparently preferred to be with others rather than to be alone , and their self-esteem was contingent on approval and acceptance from others . This preference may have been due to the impact of obesity on self-esteem , the developmental capacity for individuation , thwarted levels of self-expression , and dependent rather than independent gratification . <p> The findings also suggest that the obese women were less autonomous and had lower levels of social self-confidence than the obese men . These gender differences may have been due to prevalent socialization practices that influence conditioned patterns of behavior and relatedness of men and women . In addition , the gender differences may reflect unique developmental differences in personality structure , internal needs , and dynamic conflict . <p> The obese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assertion of autonomy than those subjects who had no such history . Individuals who are raised in alcoholic home environments often feel abused and deprived ( whether in reality or fantasy ) . These conditions could influence a heightened need for dependent attachment and approval from others . <p> Although locus of control was not correlated with interpersonal dependency in the obese sample , total dependency was correlated with all three dependency scales independently . Therefore , the greater the need for emotional reliance on another person , the greater the overall dependency . Lower levels of social self-confidence and low assertion of independent motives were also associated with higher levels of overall interpersonal dependency . In addition , the greater the subjects ' emotional reliance on another , the less self-confidence they demonstrated in social situations . <p> The obese sample in this study showed a trend ( although not statistically significant ) toward greater vulnerability on the dependency needs and conflict items ; the nonobese control sample showed less vulnerability . This trend suggests that food- and eating-related behaviors may have an important impact on dependency states in obese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more likely to turn to food to meet specific dependency needs . Future research that examines dependency attributes in a larger clinically obese sample may provide more cogent evidence that supports a link between obesity and greater interpersonal dependency . <p> Regarding treatment , obese patients with relatively greater overall dependency needs , higher reliance on others , lower levels of social self-confidence , and fewer capacities for autonomous behavior are probably more likely to have difficulty with obesity treatment efforts than are patients with normal dependency needs . <p> <p> 
##4001153 ABSTRACT . The influence of five dimensions of teaching ( organization , knowledge acquired , encouragement of questions , instructor 's knowledge , and presentation clarity ) on 40 undergraduate students ' judgments of teaching effectiveness was investigated . The students rated completed evaluation forms ( each with a different configuration of responses ) as to the teaching effectiveness of an instructor who might receive that given pattern of evaluation responses . The students ' subjective reports of the dimensions they believed most influential ( subjective weights ) were compared with their statistically derived judgment " policies " ( statistical weights ) . Analyses revealed that there were significant differences between the mean statistical and subjective weights on two of the five evaluation items ( knowledge acquired and presentation clarity ) . <p> STUDENT EVALUATION of instruction has been examined in recent research that has included topics such as ( a ) validity of evaluation ratings as a measure of teaching effectiveness ( e.g. , Abrami , d'Apollonia , &; Cohen , 1990 ; Baird , 1987 ; Cranton &; Smith , 1990 ; Gigliotti &; Buchtel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instructor or course characteristics and evaluations ( e.g. , Drews , Burroughs , &; Nokovich , 1987 ; Marlin &; Gaynor , 1989 ; Murray , Rushton , &; Paunonen , 1990 ) , and ( c ) the relationship between evaluation ratings and the instrument or process of evaluation ( e.g. , Abbott , Wulff , Nyquist , Ropp , &; Hess , 1990 ) . Few studies , however , have satisfactorily examined the underlying judgment processes used by students who are asked to assess teaching effectiveness . It is well documented that humans are not always rational and consistent in the ways they make judgments ( Kahneman , 1991 ) . Consequently , an examination of the basic judgment processes involved in student evaluation of instruction may lead to an improved understanding and interpretation of the vast amounts of past research . <p> Whitely and Doyle ( 1976 ) , in their work on implicit theories of teaching , confronted the issue of student evaluations from a judgment process perspective . Implicit theories are the assumptions that students make about covariations in various teaching behaviors . If , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Y are positively correlated , that student will rate an instructor high on behavior Y after having observed only behavior X. Students are thought to systematically apply their idiosyncratic theories across various evaluation situations ( Larson , 1979 ) . That is , students ' implicit theories are hypothesized to remain constant over time and to systematically influence instructor or course evaluations . Unanswered questions remain , however , regarding ( a ) whether students actually apply their implicit theories consistently and ( b ) whether students can accurately articulate their implicit theories . In a broader sense , the question becomes one of whether students have accurate insight into the factors that influence their judgments of teaching effectiveness . <p> In the present study , we examined whether student judgments of teaching effectiveness , based on the presence or absence of certain course dimensions , are consistent with postjudgment self-reported estimates of the relative influence of the dimension variations on the judgments . To investigate this issue , we applied an empirical judgment paradigm known as policy capturing ( Hammond , 1954 , 1955 ) . In this paradigm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ materials ( " profiles " ) . Within each profile , levels of the various cues are manipulated ( e.g. , present or absent ) , and subjects are requested to provide a judgment ( e.g. , 1 to 5 rating ) on each of the profiles . The ratings are then regressed on the cues ( coded , for example , as 0 = cue absent and 1 = cue present ) , revealing the objective weight each subject applied to each cue while making the judgments . The statistical determination of the cue weightings for each subject is the process of capturing the subject 's judgment policy . <p> Past policy-capturing research has demonstrated that an individual 's subjective assessment of his or her own judgment policy ( i.e. , the major factors that subjects report as having contributed to their judgment ) is often at odds with the statistical ( i.e. , captured ) assessment of the same judgment . Such a phenomenon has been reported with judgments of clinical psychologists and diagnostic assessments of hyperactive children ( Ullman &; Doherty , 1984 ) , and with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kozloski , &; Hults , 1991 ) . The current research assessed the relationship between statistical and subjective weightings in evaluations of teaching behavior . Method <p> Subjects <p> The subjects were 40 students ( 13 male , 25 female , and 2 not indicated ) enrolled in introductory psychology courses at a large southeastern university ( median age , 19 years ) . The subjects receive . d course credit in exchange for their participation in the research . <p> Stimulus Materials <p> The stimulus materials for the study were a series of profiles , each consisting of a teaching evaluation form containing five statements : ( a ) " Each class period was well-organized. " ( b ) " The course significantly increased my knowledge or competence in the subject . " ( c ) " The instructor encouraged students to ask questions and express opinions , " ( d ) " The instructor seems knowledgeable and well-informed on the subject . " ( e ) " The instructor presented the material clearly . " Each statement had response options of yes or no . These five questions were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1979 ) . For this study , each of the evaluation forms had been ostensibly completed ( yes or no circled for each of the five items ) by a " student " prior to the study . On each evaluation page the subjects were asked to respond to the statement " If a professor received the following course evaluation from a student ... How would you rate the quality of the professor as a teacher ? " The subjects responded on a 5-point scale ranging from very poor ( 1 ) to very good ( 5 ) . A sample profile is provided in the Appendix . <p> The stimulus materials were constructed so that all subjects provided judgments on all possible combinations of cue-level arrangements . In other words , the subjects judged all possible combinations of yes and no responses on all five evaluation form items . Given that each of the five items on the evaluation form had two response options ( yes or no ) , 32 yes no response configurations were possible . Eight duplicate profiles were developed to assess the reliability of the subjects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ order and constructed into stimulus booklets with a cover page of instructions . <p> Procedure <p> The subjects participated in the study in groups of 5 to 10 . They were each given a stimulus booklet , and they worked through the 40 judgment tasks at their own pace , assessing each evaluation form individually and providing ratings on the 1 to 5 scale . The subjects were instructed not to view their previously judged profiles once they started the procedure . Their task was not to complete the course evaluation form but to evaluate 40 completed course evaluations and provide judgments of the teaching effectiveness of a professor who might receive a given pattern of responses from a student on an evaluation form . <p> When they had completed the judgment tasks , the subjects provided ( in the form of a percentage ) their own estimates of the weights given to each of the five evaluation-form items in making their judgments . Specifically , the instructions read : " You have now completed all the ratings , but we would like you to provide us with some additional information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us how much ' weight ' you gave each of the items in making your ratings . In other words , how much attention did you pay to each question on the evaluation when deciding how to rate each professor ? ( NOTE : Your total percentage should sum to 100% ) . " Thus each subject allocated percentage points according to how much each of the five items influenced the previous judgments . Results <p> Reliability Analysis <p> To calculate reliability estimates for each subject , we correlated the ratings on the eight duplicate profiles ( Presentation 1 and Presentation 2 ) . Reliability estimates ranged from 1.0 to 0.41 , with an average reliability of 0.86 ( SD = .13 ) . This analysis demonstrates that the subjects generally maintained a consistent judgment policy throughout the series of profiles . <p> Determination of Statistical Weightings <p> The yes or no responses ( coded 0 =- no and 1 = yes ) were used as predictors in multiple regression analyses of each subject 's 32 judgments ( 1 to 5 ratings ) of teaching effectiveness ( the second presentation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ensure cue orthogonality ) . The resulting regression equation was considered the subject 's judgment policy . For each subject , squaring the beta weights associated with each evaluation item provided a measure of the proportion of the variance accounted for in that subject 's judgments by variations in the given evaluation items . <p> Assessment of Statistical and Subjective Weightings <p> To be better able to interpret a comparison of the subjects ' statistical and subjective weightings , we followed a procedure similar to that used by Ullman and Doherty ( 1984 ) and normalized the squared beta weights . The normalization procedure involved , for each subject 's data , dividing each weight by the total sum of the weights and multiplying by 100 ( thus , each subject 's statistical weights summed to 100 ) . <p> The means and standard deviations were calculated across s , 11 subjects for the statistical and subjective weightings of each evaluation item ( see Table 1 ) . Data for five of the subjects were not included in this analysis , one because of an error in the stimulus materials and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 100% ( a copy of all subjects ' individual statistical and subjective weightings is available from the first author ) . Five t tests for paired samples were performed to compare the statistical and subjective weight means for each evaluation item . Results revealed that the weightings did not differ significantly on Items 1 , 3 , and 4 ( see Table 1 ) . However , on Items 2 and 5 , significant differences were revealed between the statistical and subjective weight means . ( Because multiple t tests were performed , a Bonferroni correction was applied to control for experiment wise error rate . This procedure involves dividing the standard accepted level of significance .05 by the number of t tests to determine the required significance level . Thus , in the present case , a given t statistic needed to reach the .01 significance level .05/5 to be considered significant . ) Discussion <p> This study was designed to investigate the relationship between statistical and subjective weightings of judgments of teaching effectiveness . Analyses revealed no significant differences for the following evaluation items : class was well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The students in our sample evidently had a reasonably accurate degree of insight into some of the factors that determined their judgments . Yet , the statistical and subjective weighting means differed significantly for the remaining two items ( course increased my knowledge and material presented clearly ) ; thus , student insight is certainly not highly accurate . The finding that the students subjectively overestimated the impact of the item material presented clearly can perhaps be understood from the perspective that lecture presentation may be one of the most salient and memorable features of a course . Thus , when our subjects reported ( subjectively ) the factors they believed influenced their ratings , they relied on the most available information in memory ( i.e. , use of the availability heuristic ) . <p> Perhaps the most interesting result of our analyses of the statistical weightings was that the item that stated " The course significantly increased my knowledge or competence in the subject " was the most influential ( highest mean ) in the assessment of teaching quality . Unfortunately , however , the subjects ( subjectively ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . This finding is indeed encouraging ; Evidently these subjects did feel ( at least as expressed through their judgments ) that the amount learned in a course was a crucial variable to consider when they evaluated teaching effectiveness . The challenge is to make students realize this fact at the subjective or conscious level . <p> Limitations of the Current Research <p> Because of the artificial nature of the task in the present study , sometimes referred to as a " paper people " paradigm , we are constrained in generalizing the findings . But as Gorman , Clover , and Doherty ( 1978 ) noted , the use of a policy-capturing strategy allows for ( a ) a high degree of control and ( b ) manipulation of factors that are difficult to otherwise regulate . In addition , the paper people approach allows for the presentation of identical , standardized stimulus materials across subjects . Thus , although the policy-capturing approach lacks a degree of representativeness , it provides a great deal of control in the research environment . In fact , Ullman and Doherty ( 1984 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ setting should be more reliable and predictable than in the real world . <p> Future Directions <p> The current research was an initial attempt to examine the judgment processes of students who are asked to evaluate courses or instructors . Future studies should relate individual students ' performances on a policy-capturing task with evaluations of an actual course . The crucial question for researchers is whether accuracy in assessing one 's own judgments is related to accuracy or validity in the actual judgment of teaching effectiveness . Research that uses the same methodology should also be undertaken with different samples of students and different evaluation items to replicate the current findings . An interesting extension of the current research would be an assessment of faculty judgment policies of evaluation forms . A comparison of student and faculty judgment policies at the same institution might be an enlightening and informative venture . <p> TABLE 1 <p> Mean Percentages , Standard Deviations , and t-Test Results for Statistical and Subjective Weightings PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> APPENDIX <p> Sample Evaluation Profile <p> IF A PROFESSOR RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING COURSE EVALUATION FROM A STUDENT ... PREFORMATTED @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PROFESSOR AS A TEACHER ? PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> <p> 
##4001154 ABSTRACT . To test Herzberg 's ( 1966,1987 ; Herzberg , Mausner , &; Snyderman , 1959 ) motivator-hygiene theory , I examined the relationship between work values and job satisfaction . Educators ( N = 386 ) from 18 Canadian secondary schools were asked to report the degree to which they experienced 16 work values and five dimensions of job satisfaction . Factor analysis suggested five sets of work values : intrinsic work-related , intrinsic work-outcome , extrinsic job-related , extrinsic job-outcome , and extrinsic people-related . Regression analyses identified the best predictors for each of the five dimensions of job satisfaction . The results support and extend Herzberg 's theory . In addition to those identified by Herzberg , other factors contributed portions of variance to the five dimensions of job satisfaction . <p> WORK VALUES denote the degree of worth , importance , and desirability of what happens at work ( Knoop , 1991 ) ; job satisfaction indicates an individual 's general attitude toward the job ( Brooke , Russell , &; Price , 1988 ) . Valuation is a qualitative act , an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Satisfaction refers more to gratification of needs and wants . An individual 's judgment of what takes place at work would be expected to influence his or her satisfaction with the job . <p> The seemingly different yet theoretically connected conceptions of work values and job satisfaction are reflected in process and content theories of job satisfaction ( Locke , 1976 ) . Process theories are attempts to specify values considered causally relevant to job satisfaction . Content theories are focused on identifying values conducive to , but not necessarily causal to , job satisfaction . <p> Herzberg ( 1966,1987 ; Herzberg et al . 1959 ) , in his well-known , much criticized , yet still very relevant motivator-hygiene theory , proposed several characteristics consistently related to job satisfaction and dissatisfaction . Intrinsic factors -- achievement , recognition , work itself , and responsibility -- were recurrently mentioned by respondents as sources of satisfaction . Extrinsic factors -- company policy , supervision , salary , relationship with peers , status , and security -- were frequently named as causes of job dissatisfaction . Herzberg concluded that job satisfaction and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ promote growth needs ; dissatisfaction depends on hygiene factors that serve lower-order needs . <p> Herzberg 's theory has been criticized for purporting to explain job satisfaction , rather than work motivation , without really measuring job satisfaction ( Caston &; Braito , 1985 ) . The present research tests Herzberg 's theory by measuring work values and job satisfaction separately and examining them concurrently . Two questions were asked : ( a ) How separate are work values and job satisfaction ? ( b ) Which set of values best predicts different aspects of job satisfaction ? Method <p> Subjects <p> The subjects were 386 volunteers from secondary schools : teachers ( N = 245 ) , department heads ( N = 100 ) , and principals ( N = 41 ) from five school boards in a large metropolitan area of Canada . Most of the subjects were married ( 278 ; 72% ) and held a bachelor 's degree ( 264 ; 68% ) . More than half were women ( 197 ; 51% ) . The average age was 43 years ; the average tenure was 12 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hatfield , Robinson , and Huseman 's ( 198 ' 5 ) Job Perception-Scale . The 20-item measure , modeled after Smith , Kendall , and Hulin 's ( 1969 ) Job Descriptive Index , was used to assess five facets of job satisfaction : work itself , pay , opportunities for promotion , supervision , and coworkers . The 16 work values were derived from Elizur 's ( 1984 ) research . The respondents were asked to what degree they currently experienced each of these values in their job . A 5-point scale was used to measure both sets of responses . <p> The questionnaires were distributed by part-time graduate students to principals , department heads , and teachers in 18 schools . Most of the administrators ( 92% ) , a majority of the department heads ( 64% ) , and nearly half the teachers ( 46% ) who received questionnaires completed them . Results <p> Factor Analyses <p> To examine whether the reported job satisfaction dimensions were distinct from the work values , I performed two factor analyses . In the first method , which Cranton and Smith @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as units of analysis . In the second method , called idiosyncratic , I used deviations from the means as the unit of analysis . The first method relies on overall averages , whereas the second method takes into account individual differences in the scores . Both methods led to similar factor structures but explained different amounts of variance . In each case , the 21 variables emerged into five fairly distinct factors . However , the variance for the normative method was 34% , whereas the variance for the idiosyncratic method was 59% . <p> Two factors contained intrinsic values toward work ( see Table 1 ) . The first factor included seven work values and one satisfaction dimension : exercising responsibility , achievement through work , influence over one 's work , doing meaningful work , being able to use one 's abilities and knowledge , independence in doing one 's work , contributing to society , and job satisfaction with the work itself . This factor is called Intrinsic Work-Related Values because the variables seem to stem from the content and worth of the work itself . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job status , recognition , influence in the organization , and pride in working in the organization . These values together are called Intrinsic Work-Outcome Values because they seem to be manifestations resulting from work . <p> Two other reported factors consisted of extrinsic values directed toward the job , not the work . The third factor contained two values and one job satisfaction dimension : benefits , job security , and satisfaction with pay . This factor was therefore called Extrinsic Job-Outcome Values . The fourth factor was made up of only two values : hours of work and working conditions . It was called Extrinsic Job-Related Values . <p> The fifth factor consisted solely of three dimensions of satisfaction : opportunities for promotion , supervision , and co-workers . The other two dimensions , satisfaction with work ( Factor 1 ) and pay ( Factor 3 ) , loaded partially on this factor ( .44 and . 17 , respectively ) . The fifth factor thus represents aspects of job satisfaction , because it does not contain any of Elizur 's values . This factor was called Extrinsic People-Related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ element is present in this factor and absent in the other factors . <p> Correlation Analyses <p> To discover which values best predicted each of the five dimensions of job satisfaction , I performed simple correlation and regression analyses . Pearson correlations indicated that each of the five dimensions of job satisfaction was statistically , but not always meaningfully , correlated with most of the work values . For satisfaction with the work itself , correlations ranged from .54 for achievement to . 12 for benefits or security . For satisfaction with pay , correlations ranged from .36 for status and benefits to .06 for pride in the organization . For satisfaction with opportunities for promotion , correlations ranged from .38 for recognition and .34 for influence over work and the organization to .07 for security . For satisfaction with supervision , correlations ranged from .31 for pride in the organization and .31 for esteem or achievement to .07 for security . Last , for satisfaction with co-workers , correlations ranged from .27 for influence in the organization to .03 for benefits . Overall , of the 80 relationships , 64 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Regression analyses identified the best predictors of the five dimensions of job satisfaction . For satisfaction with work , four predictors entered the regression equation at a significant level ( p = .05 ) : achievement ( R 2 = .30 ) , use of abilities ( R 2 = .07 ) , pride in the organization ( R 2 = .02 ) , and meaningfulness of work ( R 2 = .02 ) . The total variance explained by the four predictors was .41 . <p> For satisfaction with pay , five work values were identified as significant predictors : job status ( R 2 = .12 ) , benefits ( R 2 = .07 ) , influence over work ( R 2 = .02 ) , pride in the organization ( R 2 = .02 ) , and working conditions ( R 2 = .01 ) . These five predictors explained 24% of the variance in the dependent variable . <p> Only three predictors were found for reported satisfaction with opportunities for promotion : recognition ( R 2 = .14 ) , influence over work ( R 2 = @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2 = .0l ) . Altogether , these three variables explained 18% of the variance in satisfaction with promotions . <p> As one would have expected from the factor structure , the other two job satisfaction dimensions did not produce many or meaningful predictors . For satisfaction with supervision , pride in the organization ( R 2 = .10 ) and esteem ( R 2 = .04 ) explained a total of 14% of the variance . For satisfaction with co-workers , status ( R 2 = .07 ) , independence in work ( R 2 = .02 ) , and pride in the organization ( R 2 = .02 ) explained 11% of the variance . Discussion <p> The factor structure indicates that for this sample of educators three of the five reported dimensions of job satisfaction ( promotions , supervision , and co-workers ) differed from work values and constituted a separate factor . The common element of these dimensions seemed to relate to people . The fourth dimension ( satisfaction with the work itself ) related to intrinsic work values , and the fifth dimension ( pay ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job satisfaction dimensions were clearly reported to be separate from work values . <p> The factor called Intrinsic Work-Outcome Values points to the possibility that there is a second dimension of work that differs from Intrinsic Work-Related Values aspects . This finding seems logical because it contains the assumption that work can affect an individual directly through a set of first-level values or indirectly through a set of second-level values . The first-level values seem to have an introverted , subjective component , whereas the second-level values have more of an extraverted and objective nature . <p> Satisfaction with pay fits in well with other extrinsic job outcomes . The second extrinsic factor ( Extrinsic Job-Related Values ) , consisting of working conditions and hours of work , seems to measure an extrinsic dimension of satisfaction distinct from Extrinsic Job-Outcome Values . In short , the factor structure suggests five dimensions of job satisfaction that are somewhat different from those traditionally proposed : satisfaction with ( a ) the work itself , ( b ) work outcomes , ( c ) the job itself , ( d ) job outcomes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The regression analyses showed somewhat divergent results from the factor analysis . The first two factors contributed to the variance of nearly all job satisfaction dimensions . The intrinsic work-related values of achievement , influence over work , meaningfulness of work , abilities and knowledge , and independence contributed to the variance of satisfaction with work , pay , promotion , and co-workers . Similarly , the intrinsic work-outcome values of esteem , job status , recognition , and pride also contributed to all five job satisfaction dimensions . Pride in the organization explained some of the variance in all five dimensions . Two extrinsic values -- benefits and working conditions-explained some of the variance in satisfaction with pay . Thus , intrinsic values contributed to all five dimensions of job satisfaction , but extrinsic values contributed to only one dimension . <p> The results support and extend Herzberg 's theory . Not only did the variables Herzberg termed satisfiers -- achievement , recognition , the work itself , and responsibility -- load clearly on the intrinsic dimension of job satisfaction , but the results also suggest other values that may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over work , being able to use one 's abilities and knowledge , having independence in doing one 's work , contributing to society , receiving esteem from others , gaining job status , and having influence and pride in the organization . In a later paper , Herzberg ( 1966 ) attested to the existence of other psychological needs that can motivate individuals to act . <p> The regression analyses supported the hypothesis that other values also influence job satisfaction . Although Herzberg 's sense of achievement accounted for the greatest amount of variance in satisfaction with the work itself , three other factors not identified by Herzberg added another 11% to the variance . All of the predictors for this dimension were intrinsic values . Indeed , as one would have expected for this dimension , most of the predictors were intrinsic work-related values . One might wonder which aspect of job satisfaction is tapped by the values of the second factor ( Intrinsic Work-Outcome Values ) . Adding and measuring such a factor would be logical because satisfaction with the work leaves out satisfying feelings arising from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's theory . Convenient hours of work , which would include flextime , partially reflect Herzberg 's company policy and work conditions . This two-item factor ( Extrinsic Job-Related Values ) explained only 5% of the overall variance . The other extrinsic factor , Extrinsic Job-Outcome Values , also supports Herzberg 's hygiene factors . Thus the present research suggests that two extrinsic forces may contribute to job satisfaction or , as Herzberg phrased it , to an absence of dissatisfaction . Both forces relate to factors that motivate action to avoid discomfort . <p> The fifth factor ( Extrinsic People-Related Values ) contained three job satisfaction dimensions . Herzberg classified all of them , concerning co-workers , supervisors , and promotions , as hygiene factors . He would have claimed that these three variables can , at best , lead to an absence of dissatisfaction , but not to satisfaction . He would have argued further that these three variables can therefore not be considered job satisfaction dimensions , or they can be so considered only to a limited extent . <p> The only variable that did not fully support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hygiene factor in his framework , it emerged as an intrinsic work-outcome value in this study . In the regression analysis , status was the main predictor of satisfaction with pay . Possibly this sample of educators , practicing in a relatively affluent geographical area , linked status to pay and to social position . <p> Except for satisfaction with work , the variance explained for the other four reported dimensions of job satisfaction was relatively small ; thus , other predictors of job satisfaction were not examined here . Because most of Herzberg 's factors were included in this research , it is apparent that his factors explain only a small percentage of each of the dimensions of job satisfaction . If the causal model of job satisfaction is accurate and values do combine to determine aspects of job satisfaction , then the results suggest that there may be two work dimensions , two job dimensions , and one people dimension . <p> TABLE 1 <p> Factor Loadings , Means , and Standard Deviations for Variables PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> <p> 
##4001166 ABSTRACT . Unionization votes of 133 members of an employee association at a large , midwestern , American university were examined . General beliefs , specific beliefs , normative pressures ( co-workers , family , and close friends ) , and dissatisfaction with the employee association influenced votes for unionization . Job satisfaction , age , race , and gender did not influence votes for unionization . <p> What are the attitudes of members of employee associations toward unionization ? Do some employee associations become unions ? A nationally representative survey of employees , conducted by Louis Harris and Associates in 1984 for the AFL-CIO Committee on the Evolution of Work ( 1985 ) , presented some interesting findings on the attitudes of nonunion workers in the United States . Although 56% of nonunion workers indicated that they would join an association , only 37% indicated that they would vote for union representation if an election were held at their workplace ( Ichniowski &; Zax , 1990 ) . <p> Prior research has suggested that some associations can become unions , and the AFL-CIO Committee on the Evolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yet there is debate about associations and their linkage to unions . Some academics and union officials believe that associations can be substitutes for unions ; others see associations as complementary and as stepping stones to unions . <p> Although most private-sector association members are retirees and workers on lay-off , associations in the public sector are workplace specific , and the memberships consist of current employees ( Ichniowski &; Zax , 1990 ) . Since the 1970s , several employee associations in the public sector have merged with national labor unions , such as the American Federation of State , County and Municipal Employees ( AFSCME ) and the Service Employees International Union ( SEIU ; Cornfield , 1991 ) . In fact , in an analysis of census data on local government departments , Ichniowski and Zax ( 1990 ) found that the presence of an association in 1977 was a strong predictor of the formation of a union by 1982 . <p> Most of the research on employee associations has focused on association-union mergers ( Cornfield , 1991 ) . One area that has received special attention has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of mergers , traits of merger partners , and barriers to mergers ) . However , only one published study has addressed the opinions of state employee association members toward merger with a union . In that study , Cornfield ( 1991 ) examined the impact of employees ' socioeconomic status and opportunity for upward mobility on their approval for merger with a labor union . Cornfield found a significant effect for both factors . But it is surprising that , although considerable research has been done to examine factors that influence union voting intent among nonunion employees , virtually no research has been undertaken to investigate the factors that influence an employee association member to vote for unionization . <p> Several causes of votes for unionization have been identified , and beliefs about unions and job satisfaction have been singled out as the more prominent ones ( Barling , Fullagar , &; Kelloway , 1992 ) . Although much has been written about the effect of union beliefs on unionization , there has been a wide diversity in the measures used to capture the effects of beliefs about unions in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1987 ) . Some researchers have used belief measures that simply refer to " unions " ( Kochan , 1979 ) ; others have referred to the effect of a union at the respondents ' workplace ( Youngblood , Denisi , Molleston , &; Mobley , 1984 ) . In previous studies , researchers have used either specific or general beliefs about unions as predictors of voting intentions ; however , Premack and Hunter ( 1988 ) , in a meta-analysis , treated both measures as the same . More recently ; in a meta-analysis of some determinants of union voting intent , Deshpande ( 1992 ) showed that the two constructs are distinct . <p> Recently , the effect of normative pressures on union voting intentions has been investigated . As Montgomery ( 1989 , p. 263 ) correctly noted , " The voting choice can not be adequately understood . . . without taking into account the influence that others have on the voter . " Youngblood et al . ( 1984 ) , in a sample of members of a consumer panel , found that a respondent 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had a significant effect on the respondent 's union voting intent . Zalesny ( 1985 ) found that university faculty were more likely to vote for unions when social forces were favoring unions . More recently , Montgomery ( 1989 ) , in a study of clerical employees of a public university , found that opinions of close friends , family members , and co-workers did influence respondents ' voting intentions , even though most of the respondents denied such an influence . <p> In the present study , demographic controls included measures for age , race , and gender . Additional control variables included a measure of ( a ) overall job satisfaction and ( b ) satisfaction with the existing employee association . The implications of age are mixed ( Chacko &; Greer , 1982 ) . Some researchers have found support for the proposition that younger workers are more militant , whereas others have found support for the proposition that younger workers prefer not to work under a rigid seniority system , typically found in unionized settings . There has consistently been a positive relationship between being non-White @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , most likely because union racial equality policies and protective policies inhibit possible employer discrimination . Hypotheses about gender effects have been generally similar to those about race , but studies with voting intent as the dependent variable have generally come to the conclusion that there is no gender effect ( Deshpande &; Fiorito , 1989 ) . <p> Satisfaction with the job has been shown in many studies to have a negative relationship with the desire for unionization ( Freeman &; Medoff , 1984 ) . Thus , I hypothesized that job satisfaction among association members would decrease pro-union voting intent . Finally , an overall measure of satisfaction with the employee association was used . I proposed that employees satisfied with their association would vote for unionization . This hypothesis is consistent with the findings of researchers who believe that employees are more likely to reject unionization if they are dissatisfied with the performance of their association ( Ichniowski &; Zax , 1990 ) . Examination of the impact of such factors as specific beliefs , general beliefs , and normative pressures as determinants of unionization votes among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Participants <p> A survey of 330 members of an employee association of administrative and professional employees at a large , midwestern ( U.S. ) university was completed in 1992 . The faculty ( American Association of University Professors ) , hourly workers ( American Federation of State , County , and Municipal Employees ) , and the police at this university were already unionized . The goal of this survey was to collect information on attitudes of employee association members toward unions . The survey also included a wide range of individual and workplace-related variables . <p> The survey was conducted shortly after the members of the association participated in a secret ballot that would allow the association to petition for different unions and an election conducted by the state 's Employment Relations Commission . One month before the secret ballot , the association members met with representatives of three unions ( United Auto Workers , American Association of University Professors , and the Michigan Education Association ) . Concurrently , the university had released a four-page statement that answered many questions about what would happen if the association unionized . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ addressed the association members on some of the negative consequences of unionization . <p> A total of 243 employee association members responded to my survey . Of these , 63 association members were dropped from the study because they did not participate in the secret ballot . In addition , responses of 47 association members were not used because they did not respond to all items in the study . Thus , 133 respondents remained for the analysis . Measures <p> Self-reported voter behavior on the secret ballot was the dependent variable . The behavior was measured on a 2-point scale ( 1 =favor unionization , 0 = reject unionization ) . <p> On a 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from agree strongly ( 4 ) to disagree strongly ( 1 ) , the respondents were asked to react to 10 general statements about unions : ( a ) unions improve wages , ( b ) unions improve job security , ( c ) unions improve recognition you receive for the work you do , ( d ) unions improve fringe benefits ( e.g. , medical benefits , leave ) , ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unions improve participation in decisions that affect your job , ( g ) unions improve health and safety , ( h ) unions improve treatment by supervisors , ( i ) unions reduce discrimination against women by employer , and ( j ) unions reduce discrimination based on race or national origin . <p> On a 3-point Likert-type scale ranging from get better ( 3 ) to get worse ( 1 ) , the respondents were asked to react to the impact of unionization at the workplace on the following 10 items : ( a ) the pay you receive , ( b ) your job security , ( c ) the recognition you receive for the work you do , ( d ) your fringe benefits ( e.g. , medical benefits , leave ) , ( e ) your chances of job advancement , ( f ) your opportunity to participate in decisions that affect your job , ( g ) health and safety problems , ( h ) treatment by supervisors , ( i ) discrimination against women by employers , and ( j ) discrimination based on race @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union effects at respondents ' current jobs , and the general beliefs measures refer to generalizations . The specific beliefs measures of this study are consistent with those used by Deshpande and Fiorito ( 1989 ) . <p> The respondents were asked to indicate the perceptions of co-workers , relatives , and close friends about unions . These perceptions were measured by three items on a 3-point Likert-type scale ranging from yes ( 1 ) , to uncertain ( 2 ) , to no ( 3 ) : ( a ) Do you think your co-workers would favor a union ( reverse coded ) ? ( b ) Do you think your relatives would oppose your joining a union ? ( c ) Do you think your close friends would oppose your joining a union ? <p> A 4-point Likert-type scale ranging from very satisfied ( 4 ) to not at all satisfied ( 1 ) was used to measure overall job satisfaction , and a similar 4-point Liken-type scale was used to measure satisfaction with the association . For demographic variables , the respondents were asked to indicate their age @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ choices was used to measure race . The responses were later compressed into Whites ( 1 ) and non-Whites ( 2 ) . The respondents were also requested to report their sex ( 1= male , 0 = female ) . <p> I conducted a regression analysis to examine the significance of the variables . Because the dependent variable was dichotomous , I used a probit procedure instead of the more conventional ordinary least squares regression procedure . Results <p> The correlation results show that votes for unionization were affected by general beliefs , specific beliefs , normative pressures , job satisfaction , and association satisfaction ( see Table 1 ) . But it would be premature to draw conclusions from these results , because there were intercorrelations among the predictors . <p> Results of the probit procedure show that general beliefs , specific beliefs , normative pressures , and satisfaction with association had a significant influence on votes for unionization ( see Table 2 ) . Age , sex , race , and job satisfaction did not significantly affect unionization votes . Discussion and Implications <p> The results of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unions play an important role in votes for unionization , the impact of a union at the workplace ( specific beliefs ) may be a more significant determinant of votes for unionization . This finding provides support for Gagala 's ( 1983 ) contention that union organizers need to put more emphasis on the employee 's own workplace than on general contributions of unions to society and to the work force . This can be done by providing potential members with information on labor contracts at comparable workplaces and on the significant impacts that have been made . Union organizers should also emphasize policies , practices , and unique characteristics of their union when trying to organize employees . <p> Unionization votes among association members are also influenced by the perceptions of co-workers , close friends , and family members . In fact , during an election campaign , consultants often advise employers to address their letters to the employees and their spouses ( Gagala , 1983 ) . A spouse is typically interested in activities concerning work ( especially union activity ) and can influence the employee 's final decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Job satisfaction did not influence unionization decisions of association members . It is possible that job dissatisfaction was a reason to join the association but not a factor in the transition from an association to a union . This theory is consistent with findings of previous research , which suggest that unions may not be the only means chosen by employees to redress dissatisfaction ( DeCotiis &; LeLouarn , 1981 ) . Thus , labor educators and researchers should examine the factors that influence the decision to join an association as opposed to joining a union . <p> There was a lack of support for the proposition that association satisfaction will have a positive impact on employees ' unionization votes . One could argue that dissatisfaction with association membership ( perhaps related to the association 's ability to influence overall employment conditions for the occupation or for an employer ) could lead to the choice of a representative that is , potentially , more militant . Anonymous notes sent by respondents with their completed surveys supported this contention . A major concern of the employees was that the association @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by any undesirable actions of the university , nor could it influence the university 's compensation policies . These comments imply that the desire for unionization could be driven by factors beyond the jurisdiction of an employee association . <p> The results of this study show the value of using micro-data rather than union organization-level data to address the association-to-union transition . Associations in the public sector are workplace specific , with current employees as members ; associations in the private . sector may not be workplace specific or may not even include working members . Thus , associations in the private sector are quite unlikely to be called on to be bargaining agents ( Ichniowski &; Zax , 1990 ) . Moreover , the sample in this study consisted of employee association members at a single , public university . The work environment of a public university is different from the work environment at a private-sector organization and from other public-sector organizations . Despite these limitations , this study has some important implications for labor educators , researchers , and union organizers . TABLE 1 Means , Standard Deviations , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Note . N = 133 . Coefficient alphas are shown on the diagonal in parentheses . TABLE 2 Results of Probit Analysis PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Note . N = 133 . <p> * p < .10. **p < .05. ***p < .01 . <p> 
##4001167 ABSTRACT . Conservatism is often assumed to imply a continuity of values and positions between past and present . Previous research has demonstrated , however , that there are discontinuities between historical and contemporary political conservatism and thai modern political conservatives endorse programs and legislation once regarded as liberal . Testing whether the same pattern may hold for religious conservatism was the purpose of this research . Perceptions of conservative positions in Christian history were assessed among young adults ( N = 221 ) . Results showed that individuals who identified themselves as conservatives were less likely to recognize past conservative positions on religious issues than individuals who identified themselves as liberals . These findings were not accounted for by lack of knowledge about religious history on the part of conservatives . Furthermore , women were more likely than men to accurately identify conservative and liberal positions of the past . The findings suggest that religious conservatism , like political conservatism , does not necessarily involve a continuity of positions between past and present . <p> Conservatism is often assumed to imply a continuity of values and positions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maintaining traditions and institutions ( Minogue , 1967 ) . Previous research on political conservatism , however , has demonstrated important discontinuities between historical and contemporary conservatism . For example , in a study of college-educated young adults , Sugar , Viney , and Rote ( 1992 ) found that individuals who were politically conservative in terms of contemporary issues ( e.g. , national health insurance ) supported historically liberal programs and legislation ( e.g. , child labor laws ) . <p> To date , no research has explored possible continuities and discontinuities between historical and contemporary religious conservatism . For example , do modem religious conservatives support historically liberal positions , such as vaccination to avert disease ? 1 An exploration of the perceived roots of modern religious conservatism seems timely in light of the current national debate on " traditional " values in education and social policy . A study of the relationship between historical and contemporary conservative religious views may also contribute to our understanding of some of the philosophical and psychological characteristics of conservative thought . <p> Another important question is whether perceptions of historical religious conservatism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do not even report the gender composition of their sample ( e.g. , Kellstedt &; Smidt , 1991 ; Tamney , Johnson , &; Burton , 1992 ) . There is indirect evidence , however , that gender may play a role in views of religious positions . For example , a study of young adults found that women and liberals were less likely to justify male dominance than men and conservatives ( Lottes &; Kuriloff , 1992 ) . In another study , the relationship between fundamentalism and discriminatory attitudes toward Blacks , women , homosexual persons , and communists varied according to gender ( McFarland , 1989 ; but see Kirkpatrick , 1993 , for opposite findings ) . Because religious positions about women have evolved to a greater degree than positions about men , it is likely that women will be more accurate than men at recognizing conservative programs of the past . <p> This study is an adaptation and extension of a study of political conservatism by Sugar et al . ( 1992 ) . In recognition of the variability of beliefs and values across religions , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contemporary Christian views , as perceived by Christian respondents . Based on the findings of Sugar et al. , we hypothesized that modem Christian conservatives would be less likely than modern Christian liberals to recognize conservative positions of the past . We anticipated that conservatives ' less accurate recognition of past religious positions , compared with liberals , might be a function of their limited awareness of historical religious events . Our second hypothesis was that women , especially women who identified themselves as liberal , would be more likely than men to accurately recognize religious positions of the past . Method Participants <p> Two hundred twenty-one undergraduate students ( 141 women and 80 men ) enrolled in introductory psychology classes participated in the study as one of several ways to fulfill a research requirement . Because the study was limited to exploring Christian views , we included only respondents who identified themselves as having a Christian background . In terms of religious orientation , participants identified themselves as Protestant ( n = 103 ) , Catholic ( n = 72 ) , nondenominational Christian ( n = 20 ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other ( n = 8 ) . The " other " category included individuals who identified themselves as having no current Christian affiliation but whose parents were either Catholic or Protestant . Ages of participants ranged from 17 to 36 with a mean age of 18 years ( SD = 1.6 ) . The sample was composed of 155 first-year students , 41 sophomores , 19 juniors , and 6 seniors ; of these students , 187 were European Americans , 14 were Latinas/os , 8 were Asian Americans , 4 were African Americans , 3 were Native Americans , and 5 did not specify ethnicity . All participants signed a consent form and were treated in accordance with the " ethical principles of psychologists " ( American Psychological Association , 1992 ) . Materials <p> The Christian Religious History Quiz ( henceforth referred to as the CRH-Quiz ) was designed to measure participants ' knowledge of Christian religious history ( see Table 1 ) . Based on a review of literature on the history of Christianity ( Reid , Linder , Shelley , &; Stout , 1990 ) , we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christian ( true for both Catholics and Protestants ) statements . Three historically inaccurate statements were also included ( one presumably Catholic , one presumably Protestant , and one general Christian ) . <p> The final CRH-Q consisted of 19 statements ( 5 Protestant , 6 Catholic , and 8 general ) describing issues or ideological positions supported or opposed by Catholic and/or Protestant conservatives . These statements covered topics such as the separation between science and religion ( Items 3 , 8 , 15 ) , the status of women ( Items 1 , 5 , 6 ) , the regulation of sexual behavior ( Items 2 , 4 , 7 , 9 , 18 ) , the separation of church and state ( Items 10 , 11 , 14 , 17 ) , and the literal interpretation of the Bible ( Item 13 ) . Participants were asked to indicate whether the statements were historically true or false . A respondent 's CRH-Quiz score was obtained by averaging incorrect responses across the 19 items . Each incorrect response received a score of 1 . Averaged CRH-Quiz scores ranged from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identification and lower scores indicating more accurate identification . <p> In addition to the CRH-Quiz , two scales were developed consistent with the method used by Sugar et al . ( 1992 ) . The first , entitled the Christian Religious Orientation Scale ( henceforth referred to as the CROS ) , was designed to assess whether respondents were conservative , moderate , or liberal in their current religious orientation ( see Table 2 ) . The second , Perception of Historical Christian Conservatism Scale ( henceforth referred to as the PHCCS ) , was designed to measure perceptions of conservative positions in Christian history ( see Table 3 ) . <p> The Christian Religious Orientation Scale ( CROS ) consisted of 19 statements describing positions that are endorsed by most Christian orthodoxies in the United States ( e.g. , creationism , sexual abstinence before marriage , male ministry , and the authority and infallibility of the Bible ; Reid et al. , 1990 ) . Several items were adapted from Fullerton and Hunsberger 's ( 1982 ) Unidimensional Scale of Christian Orthodoxy . The remaining items were based on a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ e.g. , Zodhiates , 1990 ) . Respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their agreement with these positions on a 7-point scale . Eleven of the scale items were worded so that a strongly agree response reflected a conservative religious orientation ( e.g. , " The Bible in every detail is the literal word of God " ) ; for the rest of the items a strongly agree response reflected a liberal religious orientation ( e.g. , " The professional ministry or priesthood should be open to women " ) . These latter items were scored on a 7-point scale with a strongly agree response receiving a score of 7 and a strongly disagree response receiving a score of 1 . The former items were reverse scored . <p> The final CROS score was computed for each participant by averaging across the 19 items . In addition , participants were asked to give a personal definition of religious conservatism and liberalism . These definitions were used to confirm knowledge of the meaning of conservatism and liberalism . Participants were also asked to rate on a 7-point scale how religiously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the religious self-rating item ) . <p> The Perception of Historical Christian Conservatism Scale ( PHCCS ) consisted of the same items as the CRH-Quiz with different instructions . Instead of judging whether a statement was true or false , participants were asked to assume that the statements were historically accurate and to judge whether each item was more likely to represent the position of a conservative or a liberal . Eight items reflected the position of a conservative . For example , one PHCCS conservative item stated that " Until 1961 , it was illegal in most states east of the Mississippi River to keep a business open on Sunday . Sunday was considered the appointed day of rest and worship . " Respondents were asked to indicate on a scale from 1 to 7 whether those who were opposed to opening a place of business on Sunday were more likely to be religiously liberal or conservative . A score of 1 indicated that the respondent judged a given position to be conservative and a score of 7 indicated that a respondent judged a given position to be liberal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ liberals and were reverse scored . For example , one item stated that " In the 18th century , the vaccine preventing smallpox was introduced . Some Christians denounced the practice of inoculation as interfering in God 's work . " 2 Respondents were asked to assume that the statement was historically accurate and to indicate on a 7-point scale whether those who were favorable to vaccination were more likely to be liberal or conservative . Respondents who answered liberal ( 7 ) received a score of 1 . <p> The three historically inaccurate items were included in the scale to disguise the purpose of the scale , but were not entered in the final score . The final PHCCS score was computed for each participant by averaging across the 16 historically accurate items . The final scores could range from I ( accurate judgment ) to 7 ( inaccurate judgment ) . Higher scores indicated more errors in the identification of the stance of conservatives on religious historical events . Procedure <p> Because some CROS items share themes with PHCCS items , we thought it possible that previous experience with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the order of presentation of these two scales was balanced . Half of the participants completed the three scales in the following order : CROS , CRH-Quiz , followed by the PHCCS . The other half completed the scales in the following order : CRH-Quiz , PHCCS , followed by the CROS . Upon completion of the three scales , participants were asked to provide information regarding their current religious affiliation , personal religious background , frequency of attendance at religious services , and their parents ' religious backgrounds . Participants were then debriefed on the goals of the study . Results <p> An alpha level of .05 was used for all statistical tests . No order effects were found for the CROS and PHCCS ; data were therefore collapsed across order of presentation . Internal consistency of the CROS scale was verified by Cronbach 's alpha ( .90 ) . The CROS score was found to be significantly correlated with the religious self-rating item , r ( 220 ) = .65 , p < .01 . Accordingly , the mean CROS score and the self-rating item were averaged to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The TRO score could range from 1 to 7 ; the observed range was from 1.2 to 6.9 , with higher scores indicating a liberal orientation and lower scores indicating a conservative orientation . Consistent with the method used by Sugar et al . ( 1992 ) , participants were categorized as conservative if their mean TRO score was between 1.0 and 3.95 ( n = 69 ) , moderate if their mean score was between 3.96 and 4.95 ( n = 67 ) , and liberal if their mean score was between 4.96 and 7.0 ( n = 85 ) . The internal consistency of the PHCCS was confirmed by Cronbach 's alpha ( .78 ) . The overall mean score for the PHCCS was 2.6 ( SD = .77 ) ; the range was 1.1 to 6.3 . Higher scores indicate more errors in the identification of the stance of conservatives on religious historical events . <p> To assess whether knowledge of Christian history varied depending on current religious orientation , CRH-Quiz scores of participants classified as conservative , moderate , or liberal were compared . Based on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CRH-Quiz for conservatives was .29 , for moderates .29 , and for liberals .28 . A one-way analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) indicated no statistically significant difference in knowledge of Christian history across the three groups . <p> Finally , PHCCS scores were analyzed in a 2 x 3 ( Gender x Religious Orientation ) analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) to test the hypotheses that modern conservatives would be less likely to recognize past conservative positions than liberals , and that women would be more likely than men to identify historically conservative positions . A statistically significant effect for religious orientation was found , F(2,215) = 7.10 , p = .001 , indicating a difference between the three groups with respect to errors in identifying past conservative positions ( see Figure 1 ) . Religious orientation accounted for 6% of the variance in PHCCS scores ( etasup 2 = .06 ) . A priori comparisons using a Bonferroni adjustment ( p < .03 ) indicated that liberals ( M = 2.37 , SD = .65 ) were more accurate than conservatives ( M = 2.78 , SD = .75 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .85 ) . Conservatives and moderates did not differ from each other in terms of recognition errors . With an alpha level of .05 , a statistically significant main effect for gender was also found , F(1,215) = 5.82 , p = .017 , indicating that the women identified conservative positions of the past more accurately than the men ( Ms = 2.52 and 2.78 , respectively ) . Gender accounted for 2% of the variance in PHCCS scores ( etasup 2 = .02 ) . There was no statistically significant interaction between gender and religious orientation . Discussion <p> The present data on religious conservatism are consistent with previous findings on political conservatism ( Sugar et al. , 1992 ) . We found evidence of important discontinuities between contemporary and historical conservatism . More specifically , the present data point to a failure of contemporary religious conservatives and moderates to identify religious conservative positions of the past , compared with liberals . These findings were not accounted for by differences across modern religious orientation groups in knowledge about the occurrence of these religious events . In other words , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be aware that certain positions ( e.g. , the perception that women who are menstruating are unclean , PHCCS Item 9 ) were endorsed , but were nonetheless less likely than the liberals to recognize these as conservative positions ( Ms for Item 9 were 2.41 for conservatives , 2.16 for moderates , and 1.4 for liberals ) , F(2,218) = 21.51 , p = .00001 . Although religious orientation accounted for only 6% of the variance in PHCCS , we believe that our findings are compelling because they were obtained under the most inauspicious of circumstances ( i.e. , with a sample of a college-educated individuals who were well informed about the historical occurrence of the religious events chosen for this study ) . As noted by Prentice and Miller ( 1992 ) , small effects can be impressive if they emerge in unlikely situations . <p> The failure on the part of the conservatives and moderates to recognize past conservative religious programs may involve both political and psychological processes . As we noted earlier , conservatives , by definition , aim at preserving the old order . In a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , change is constantly creeping in . For conservatives , what is to be conserved may be constantly shifting ( Minogue , 1967 ) . When liberal advocates for change prevail , the proposed change ( e.g. , in the religious domain , marriage for priests ; in the political domain , an entitlement program , such as Social Security ) may be incorporated in a new social structure . Such a structure may result in changes in the community 's belief system and may become a candidate for conservation . The position of early conservatives who opposed the change may no longer be relevant to the contemporary conservative agenda . <p> This theory can be applied to critique the evolution of liberal thought as well . It is likely that modem liberals would fail to identify past failed liberal programs if such programs had become inconsistent with modem liberal beliefs and values . The difference is that , in a dynamic society , liberals are more likely to embrace novelty than conservatives , although conservatives may try to instigate changes that bring back past structures . Thus , psychologically and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find themselves in the position of wanting to abandon and even forget past agendas . <p> The second main finding of this study was that women were significantly more likely than men to identify conservative positions of the past , as we predicted . Again , this finding is statistically significant ( p < .05 ) , although the amount of variance accounted for by gender is small ( 2% ) . In accordance with the arguments set forth earlier , it makes sense that women would have a more accurate recollection of historically conservative positions . Many of the changes in Christian religious doctrine initiated by liberals involved an expansion in the role of women . Some liberal positions ( e.g. , the rejection of the menstruation taboos ) have been completely assimilated by mainstream Christianity . As a result , women may be more motivated to remember past religious positions because many of these positions had far-reaching consequences for the quality of their lives . It is of interest that , in each group ( conservatives , moderates , and liberals ) , women made fewer errors in identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Figure 1 ) . <p> Yet , it is somewhat surprising that a gender effect would be found among well-educated respondents from a large secular university with an established Women 's Studies program . One would think that these college men would be as likely as the women to have been exposed to information about conservative positions in religious history . It is possible , however , that these men processed the information differently than the women . For men , information about past conservative positions may have conflicted with well-established beliefs and strong positive feelings about Christianity . The historical data might have been unconsciously miscoded to preserve the familiar beliefs and feelings , as suggested by a theory of conceptual conservatism recently proposed by Nissani ( 1994 ) . " The most difficult mental act , " writes Nissani , " is to rearrange a familiar bundle of data , to look at it differently " ( p. 310 ) . <p> Although small effects are typical in religion research , future research on religious conservatism should experiment with different operationalizations of the dependent and independent variables to test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ present data on religious conservatism and those on political conservatism ( Sugar et al. , 1992 ) accurately reflect major discontinuities between historical and contemporary conservatism , they suggest a curious irony . In a dynamic , diverse world , conservatism is changing so fast that it is no longer consistent with its earlier expressions . The conservative nature of the human mind may be all that remains . <p> The authors are grateful to Alicia S. Cook and David B. Wohl for their comments and suggestions for revision . Religious conservatives opposed vaccination on the grounds that it flies " in the face of Providence " and encroaches " on the prerogatives of Jehovah , whose right it is to wound and smite " ( White , 1896/1978 , p. 56 ) . The original version of the scale used for this study inadvertently noted that the time and introduction of the smallpox vaccine was the 17th century . Re-analysis of the data without this item did not affect the outcome of this study . TABLE 1 Items , Means , and Standard Deviations for the Christian Religious History Quiz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CRH-Quiz , participants were asked to indicate whether the statements were historically true or false . b Letters in the parentheses to the left of each item indicate the religious position ; C = conservative , L = liberal , and HI = historically inaccurate . c Letters in the parentheses to the right of each item indicate ideological positions supported or opposed by Catholic and/or Protestant conservatives ; C = Catholic , P = Protestant , and G = general . dA participant 's CRH-Quiz score was obtained by averaging incorrect responses across the 19 items . The range of possible scores was from 0 to 1 . TABLE 2 Items , Means , and Standard Deviations for the Christian Religious Orientation Scale ( CROS ) a PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Note . Items 2 , 5 , 10 , 11 , 14 , and 17 were adapted from Fullerton and Hunsberger 's ( 1982 ) Unidimensional Scale of Christian Orthodoxy with permission from the Society for Scientific Study of Religion . a In the CROS , participants were asked to indicate their opinion on each statement by writing the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement . b Letters in the parentheses to the left of each item indicate direction of agreement ; agreement with C = conservative , and agreement with L = liberal . c Mean scores for each item can range from 1 to 7. d The statistic r represents the correct item -- total correlation . TABLE 3 Items , Means , and Standard Deviations for the Perception of Historical Christian Conservatism Scale ( PHCCS ) PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Note . The thee historically inaccurate items ( 4,11 , and 16 ) were included in the scale to disguise the purpose of the scale , but did not enter into the scoring . <p> a The PHCCS consisted of the same items as the CRH-Quiz with different instructions . Instead of asking participants to judge whether a statement was true or false , participants were asked to assume that the statements were historically accurate and to judge whether each item described a conservative or liberal position by circling a number on a 7-point scale . b Mean scores for each item can range from 1 to 7. c The statistic r represents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> 
##4001168 ABSTRACT . The relationships among a cluster of attitudes toward work and job were investigated using a sample of 171 nurses . The hypothesis was that involvement in work and job , commitment to the employing organization , and satisfaction with the job ( overall , and with specific facets of the job ) would be significantly correlated . The results showed that involvement was not related to overall satisfaction but only to two specific facets , satisfaction with work and promotion opportunities . In contrast , the degree of relationship between overall and various facets of satisfaction and commitment and between involvement and commitment was moderately high . <p> Employee attitudes toward involvement in and satisfaction with the job and commitment to the employing organization have become of compelling interest to industrial psychologists because of their impact on behavior at work ( Robbins , 1993 ) . Job involvement frequently includes identifying with the job , actively participating in the job , and perceiving job performance to be important to self-worth ( Blau , 1985 ; Rabinowitz &; Hall , 1977 ) . Job satisfaction in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toward the job or toward specific dimensions of the job ( Hodson , 1991 ) . Organizational commitment refers to identification with and loyalty to the organization and its goals ( Blau &; Boal , 1987 ) . Employee attitudes are reflected in tendencies to respond to the job and the organization and its people and situations either positively or negatively . <p> Attitudes tend to cluster and categorize themselves . A person who has developed a favorable attitude toward one aspect of the job based on unique experiences , is likely to react favorably to other related job aspects . Thus , if one is involved in a job , one is likely to be satisfied with the job and committed to the organization . A person who is dissatisfied with a job may become less involved in the work and less committed to the employer . Although attempts have been made to introduce causality -- for instance , that satisfaction determines involvement ( Mortimer &; Lorerice , 1989 ) -- studies of discriminant validity suggest that these attitudes are relatively unrelated ( Mathieu &; Farr , 1991 ) . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these attitudes in conjunction with organizational outcomes . For example Farris ( 1971 ) , Horn , Katerberg , and Hulin ( 1979 ) , Mowday , Porter , and Steers ( 1982 ) , Blau and Boal ( 1989 ) , and Mathieu and Kohler ( 1990 ) have variously used involvement and commitment separately and interactively to predict tardiness , turnover , and absenteeism . Other researchers have linked job involvement to organizational factors ( Jans , 1985 ) and organizational commitment to influence ( Angle &; Perry , 1983 ) or work experiences ( Pierce &; Dunham , 1987 ) . However , the interrelationship of these attitudes has not been studied separately and exclusively . Only Moser and Schuler ( 1993 ) , in validating Lodahl and Kejner 's ( 1965 ) job involvement scale , predicted and found a high correlation among them . <p> In this research , I examined to what degree these attitudes were related . Generally , no causality was assumed : People may become involved in their jobs because they are satisfied with their jobs , or satisfaction may lead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or commitment may lead to involvement and satisfaction . However , it is also possible that " chunks " of one attitude may be related to chunks of other attitudes in many ways -- causally , acausally , or spuriously . This contention can be derived from contingency theories that predict that the strength and direction of any relationship among a set of variables is likely to vary with the individual involved and with the context within which the individual works . I hypothesized that these three job-related attitudes would be significantly related : involvement with satisfaction , satisfaction with commitment , and involvement with commitment . Method Participants <p> The participants were 171 nurse educators and registered nurses employed by 11 hospitals and 3 community colleges in southern Ontario . Two thirds of the nurses were between 35 and 45 years old . Most of them were married ( 72% ) . They had worked for their organization an average of 8 years . Instruments <p> Organizational commitment was measured with Mowday , Steers , and Porter 's ( 1979 ) Organizational Commitment Questionnaire . Two scales were used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Kanungo ( 1982 ) , which asks respondents to indicate the degree to which they are involved in their present job . The other asks respondents , on a 5-point scale , to what degree they are involved in their work ( as opposed to involvement with their families or with leisure activities ) . A short form of the Job Descriptive Index , developed by Hatfield , Robinson , and Huseman ( 1985 ) , was used to measure the various facets of job satisfaction . Finally , instead of using an additive version of the five facets of job satisfaction , a separate , one-item measure of overall job satisfaction was also used ( Iris &; Barrett , 1972 ) . Procedure <p> The data were collected by seven nurse educators enrolled in a graduate program in education . They distributed 245 instruments to all of the nurses employed in the hospitals and colleges surveyed . To show the relationships among the attitudes , simple Pearson correlations were calculated for all variables . The required level of significance ( p ) was set at < .01 . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ analyses to assess their respective contributions to explained variance in commitment and involvement . F values were considered significant at p < .01 . Results <p> The means and standard deviations for the variables investigated were as follows : Organizational commitment , M = 24. 1 , SD = 5.0 : overall job satisfaction , M = 3.5 , SD = 1.0 ; satisfaction with work , M = 3.9 , SD = .7 ; satisfaction with pay , M = 3.1 , SD = .9 ; satisfaction with promotion , M = 3.3 , SD = .9 ; satisfaction with supervision , M = 3.6 , SD = .9 ; satisfaction with co-workers , M = 3.9 , SD = .7 ; involvement in work , M = 4.1 , SD = .9 ; and job involvement , M = 3.7 , SD = 1.0 . Involvement and Satisfaction <p> Simple correlations showed that neither job involvement nor involvement in work were statistically related to overall job satisfaction ( r = . 19 and .16 , respectively , ns ) . However , some facets of job satisfaction were significantly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ involvement . Job involvement was related to satisfaction with the work itself ( r = .33 , p < .001 ) and with opportunities for promotion ( r = .24 , p < .001 ) , but not to satisfaction with pay , supervision , or co-workers . Involvement with work was related to three of the five facets of satisfaction : work ( r = .29 , p < .001 ) , opportunities for promotion ( r = .33 , p < .001 ) , and supervision ( r = .25 , p < .001 ) . <p> Regression analyses indicated that facets of satisfaction are not powerful predictors of involvement . Concerning job involvement , only satisfaction with work entered the regression equation , explaining 11% of the variance . For involvement with work , two dimensions explained a total of 13% of the variance -- satisfaction with promotions ( 11% ) and satisfaction with work ( an additional 2% ) . Satisfaction and Commitment <p> In contrast to involvement and satisfaction , satisfaction and commitment were both statistically and meaningfully related . Commitment was related to overall job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to satisfaction with work ( r = .58 , p < .001 ) , pay ( r =.22 , p < .01 ) ; opportunities for promotion ( r = .55 , p < .001 ) , supervision ( r = .54 , p < .001 ) , and co-workers ( r = .30 , p < .001 ) . <p> When the facets of job satisfaction were subjected to a regression analysis , three facets contributed significantly to the variance in commitment . Satisfaction with the work itself explained the highest portion of the variance , 33% , followed by supervision , 13% , and promotion , 4% . Altogether , the three facets explained 50% of the variance in organizational commitment . Involvement and Commitment <p> Although involvement was not related to satisfaction , the concept was moderately related to commitment . There was a correlation between commitment and job involvement ( r = .32 , p = .001 ) . Commitment was correlated with involvement in work ( r = .38 , p = .001 ) . Involvement , Satisfaction , and Commitment <p> Each of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with the two remaining attitudes as independent variables . The following pattern of results emerged . <p> When I treated commitment as the dependent variable and the various facets of job satisfaction and involvement as independent variables , only satisfaction but not involvement contributed to the variance in commitment . With commitment as the dependent variable and satisfaction and involvement in work as independent variables , the latter contributed only 1% additional variance to commitment in addition to the 50% contributed by satisfaction . <p> When commitment was predicted from overall job satisfaction and involvement in work , overall satisfaction contributed 41% and involvement in work an additional 7% , resulting in 48% of the overall explained variance . When overall job involvement was substituted for involvement with work , overall job satisfaction again explained 41% of the variance in commitment ; job involvement contributed an additional 4% , to result in 45% overall explained variance in commitment . <p> When I treated job satisfaction as the dependent variable and involvement and commitment as independent variables , commitment explained 41% of the variance in satisfaction , and job involvement did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and commitment were regressed against the satisfaction variable , commitment also explained 41% of the variance , whereas involvement in work did not contribute to explained variance . <p> When job involvement was treated as the dependent variable , commitment explained 10% of the variance in involvement , whereas overall satisfaction did not contribute to the variance . In a separate analysis , when the facets of satisfaction and commitment were treated as independent variables , satisfaction with the work itself contributed 11% and commitment an additional 2% to the variance in involvement . <p> When the second measure , involvement with work , was substituted for overall job involvement , the pattern of variances did not change much . Commitment explained 14% of variance , whereas overall job satisfaction did not contribute to involvement with work . In the analysis of facets of satisfaction and commitment as independent variables , commitment again contributed 14% , whereas satisfaction with promotion added 2% , for a total of 16% of explained variance in involvement in work . Discussion <p> For this sample of nurses , three conclusions can be drawn from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ degree of relationship between satisfaction and commitment was moderately high , between satisfaction and involvement was negligible , and between involvement and commitment was moderate . <p> Clearly , involvement in work or job was related to commitment to , and identification with , the employing organization , but not to satisfaction . The findings also suggest that involvement does not necessarily lead to satisfaction . Why is this the case ? The answer may have to do with the nature of the work . People may become enveloped and drawn into work that is difficult , troublesome , or dangerous , leading to a discharge of obligations rather than pleasure . Alternatively , as Hackman and Oldham ( 1980 ) suggested , the work may be perceived as repetitive and routine , lacking in variety or significance . In both cases , the nature of the work may still demand involvement but may not lead to satisfaction . <p> Another set of explanations pertains more to the personality of the person doing the work than to the work itself . People may not be satisfied with the job because the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their needs , especially the higher-order needs , for instance , for autonomy , achievement , or competence . Or perhaps satisfaction of these needs does occur but leads to overinvolvement , which in turn results in low job satisfaction . Also , work may merely lead to the satisfaction of lower-order needs , like pay and security . " I am involved in my work because I have to feed the children and pay the rent , not because I like the work " may be a typical response . <p> Furthermore , different types of personalities ( Jung , 1971 ) may become involved and derive satisfaction in different ways . In short , it is equally likely that ( a ) people become involved and do derive satisfaction , ( b ) people become involved but do not derive satisfaction , ( 3 ) people do not become involved and do not derive satisfaction , or ( 4 ) people do not become involved yet do derive satisfaction ( with pay and/or co-workers , for example ) . <p> These reflections on aspects of job involvement are only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Rabinowitz and Hall 's ( 1977 ) , and Blau 's ( 1985 ) explanations of involvement . It is possible that the absence of these aspects in the definition and measurement of job involvement accounts for the elusiveness ( Knoop , 1986 ) or entanglement ( Mortimer &; Lorence , 1989 ) of the concept . It seems likely that people get involved in work or job for reasons other than identification , participation , or self-worth , the accepted ingredients of the definition of involvement . <p> Yet the necessity of becoming involved , in order to keep a job , for example , could also lead to commitment , especially if commitment was perceived differently . Instead of identification or loyalty , as Blau and Boal ( 1987 ) advocated , commitment could mean making a pledge or promise to the employer . An individual could well pledge to stay with an organization and to get involved in difficult work that brings little gratification to discharge an obligation . <p> The relationship between satisfaction and commitment is easier to explain . Satisfaction with the work itself in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be related to commitment . These findings seem logical . When one likes one 's job or work and derives contentment from it , one can see oneself staying with it and with the organization offering this work . This finding implies that commitment can decrease if the job ceases to be challenging or interesting , either because the job gets changed or because the job holder gets bored with it . <p> The present study needs to be replicated in other work settings . Nurses may derive satisfaction and gratification from caring for patients , but they may not want to get too involved with their patients ' illnesses . Nurses may also be committed to their organization because they chose nursing as a profusion ; the particular hospital they are employed in may not mean as much as the profession itself . <p> 
##4001169 ABSTRACT . Conceptual level ( CL ) has been proposed as an important individual difference variable related to counselor training and effectiveness . However , relatively little attention has been paid to CL measurement issues in relation to counseling . Previous researchers have concluded that counselor CL is related to counselor training and counseling outcomes . A meta-analysis of 10 studies using counselors or counselor trainees as participants and outcomes based on counseling interviews showed the relationship between counselor CL and outcome to be inconsistent and weak . Although further research into CL and counseling appears warranted , such research will require valid domain-specific procedures for measuring counselor CL . <p> It has been accepted generally for some time that personality dispositions measured by conventional self-report personality inventories are not consistently related to counselor effectiveness or counselor training outcome ( Loesch , Crane , &; Rucker , 1978 ; Rowe , Murphy , &; DeCsipkes , 1975 ) . Counseling psychology researchers have investigated possible relationships between counselors ' performance and their characteristic global ways of conceptualizing . Harvey , Hunt , and Schroder ( 1961 ) defined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provides the basis by which the individual relates to the environmental events he experiences " ( pp.244-245 ) . <p> Hunt ( 1970a , 1970b , 1971 ) proposed conceptual level ( CL ) as the major person variable in a person-environment interaction model of interpersonal functioning . He defined CL as " a personality characteristic that describes persons on a developmental hierarchy of increasing conceptual complexity , self-responsibility and independence " ( Hunt , 1978 , p. 78 ) . The most generally accepted implication of Hunt 's work is that high-CL individuals are more likely to benefit from those learning environments that encourage discovery learning , whereas low-CL individuals are more likely to benefit from learning environments that are relatively more structured and emphasize following the rules ( Miller , 1978 , 1981 ; Miller &; Wilson , 1979 ) . Several authors have discussed possible implications of Hunt 's proposals concerning CL in relation to counseling ( Berg &; Stone , 1980 ; Holloway &; Wolleat , 1980 ) . <p> Two general hypotheses related to counseling have been derived from CL theory . The first ( represented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or counselor training setting is inherently ambiguous and poorly structured , high-CL counselors or counselor trainees will tend to perform better than their low-CL counterparts on average . The second general hypothesis ( represented by Type B studies ) is that high-CL counselors or trainees will perform relatively better in more ambiguous and unstructured situations , whereas low-CL counselors or trainees will perform relatively better in more structured situations . A corollary is that counseling will be more effective when counselor and client are matched on the basis of their CL ( high with high , low with low ) . Conceptualizing and Measuring Counselor CL <p> Miller ( 1981 ) described conceptual systems theory as " a personality theory that focuses on individual differences in social cognition within a developmental framework " ( p. 34 ) and proposed that the theory characterizes persons in terms of the structure and content of their conceptual systems . In most accounts , conceptual system complexity is identified as the key element , where high levels of complexity imply high levels of both cognitive differentiation and cognitive integration ( Miller &; Wilson , 1979 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cognitive integration go together , others ( notably Miller , 1981 ) have commented that the relationship between these two cognitive structure qualities is far from clear in that " high differentiation may actually hinder the development of integrative skills " ( p. 35 ) . <p> In a counseling interview , a counselor must not only be able to make differentiations and discriminations in relation to client behavior and experiences in the course of a counseling interview or series of interviews , but must also be selective so as to use the most relevant information and be able to integrate this information so as to respond appropriately to the client 's real needs . It is suggested that the methods of measuring counselor CL used most frequently emphasize the differentiation and discrimination aspect of CL but fail to address adequately the selection and integration of information aspect . <p> The most widely used procedure for estimating CL involves participants undertaking a paragraph- or sentence-completion task by writing personal responses to a series of topics ( Harvey , 1966 ; Hunt , Butler , Noy , &; Rosser , 1978 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Responses are rated for their level of conceptual abstractness , in which higher ratings are given for expression of several alternatives and the ability to hold multiple viewpoints ( Hunt , 1970a ) . This assessment procedure assumes that structural complexity necessarily implies structural integration . However , apparent complexity can be associated with disintegration , and the standard rating systems appear not to take this into account in estimating an individual 's apparent CL . <p> The second procedure for assessing CL is to use a role construct repertory grid technique , based on proposals by Bieri ( 1955 ) , to measure a participant 's level of cognitive complexity . Carr 's ( 1965 ) Interpersonal Discrimination Test requires participants to rate a set of significant other individuals using a list of bipolar adjective pairs ( or constructs ) . A ( relatively ) cognitively simple participant will apply the bipolar adjectives in much the same way to most of the individuals in the set , whereas a cognitively complex participant will apply the adjectives differently to individuals in the set . <p> Several quantitative procedures can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; such as the percentage of variance in the individual x Adjectives rating grid accounted for by the first principal component of the grid : the smaller the percentage , the more cognitively complex is the individual . The major shortcoming with all such grid rating analysis procedures is that they fail to distinguish true cognitive complexity from cognitive disorganization -- or even random responding -- because all three processes will result in low correlations among the bipolar adjective pairs . <p> Both of these most frequently used approaches to the measurement of CL are therefore potentially inadequate . Each may be sensitive to the differentiation and discrimination components of CL but fail to tap the integration , or quality of organization , component implied in the CL construct . <p> A further shortcoming of the standard paragraph- or sentence-completion method for measuring CL in counseling research is that the topics involved are very general and have little overlap with the domain of interpersonal helping : for example , " When I am in doubt ... " or " What I think about rules ... " ( Harvey et al. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ issue when he reported non-significant correlations between scores on the standard paragraph-completion measure of CL and scores on his Teacher Adaptability Index , a CL measure with teaching-specific content : <p> The most likely explanation for these low correlations is the very generalized , non-specific nature of the Conceptual Level ( CL ) measure . When a CL-type Index is put into a more domain-specific content , as the " Attitude to Teaching " measure , the relationship is considerably higher . ( p. 333 ) <p> This explanation implies that the paragraph- and sentence-completion methods typically used to measure CL as a global quality of counselors ' conceptual systems may be unable to show that CL is related strongly to performance in actual counseling interviews because the item content is related only tenuously to the specific interpersonal demands of the counseling situation . <p> In addition to these potential shortcomings in methods of measuring counselor CL , there is little evidence that the different approaches tap the same psychological processes . Whereas the Paragraph Completion Test ( Schroder et al. , 1967 ) and the Paragraph Completion Method ( Hunt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gives results correlated with those of Harvey 's ( 1966 ) This I Believe Test ( Miller , 1978 ) . Vannoy ( 1965 ) found that the Paragraph Completion Test was unrelated to cognitive complexity scores derived from interpersonal bipolar adjective rating grids . This apparent lack of convergent validity among CL measures casts doubt on the comparability of research findings based on different approaches to CL measurement . <p> This discussion of the shortcomings in methods currently used to measure counselor CL suggests that , regardless of any potential merits of CL theory in relation to counseling and counselor training , problematic aspects of current methods of measuring counselor CL make it difficult for researchers to actually demonstrate a strong relationship between counselor CL and performance . Reviews of Research on CL and Counseling <p> Two reviews of research on counseling and CL have been reported ( Holloway &; Wampold , 1986 ; Stoppard &; Miller , 1985 ) , covering 28 published studies and revealing considerable diversity , making it difficult to draw general conclusions : Two characteristics on which studies differed seem particularly important . The first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or counselor trainees ) , or whether it focused on other kinds of individuals , such as clients or research volunteers . Clearly , conclusions about counselor CL and performance based on data generated by individuals other than counselors are somewhat uncertain , given that differing motivational sets would probably be brought to the research task by participants other than counselors . <p> The second characteristic is whether the dependent , or outcome , variables used in a particular study were based on counseling interviews , or whether they involved some other analog procedure , such as responding to written or taped client statement vignettes . Several authors have drawn attention to the fact that noninterview-based measures of counselor performance are related tenuously , at best , to counseling interview effectiveness ( Ford , 1979 ; Matarazzo , 1978 ) . In addition , as Miller ( 1981 ) noted , CL differences are most likely to find expression in complex interpersonal behaviors rather than in relatively simple tasks such as responding to multiple choice counseling response tests or writing responses to written client statements . <p> Stoppard and Miller ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the question of matching individuals ' CL with the level of environmental structure ( Type g research studies ) . This was a traditional voting or box score review ; Stoppard and Miller concluded that results in 11 of the studies supported Hunt 's matching hypothesis , and they suggested that the findings warranted further research into matching clients and counselors on CL . However , of the 15 studies they examined , only 2 used counselors or trainee counselors as participants and relied on interviews as a basis for determining outcome . Of these 2 studies , I reported a significant positive outcome ( McLachlan , 1972 ) ; the other ( Rosenthal , 1977 ) did not . The other 13 studies used student research volunteers , or clients , or trainee teachers as participants and/or did not rely on outcomes involving counseling interviews . <p> Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) carried out a quantitative meta-analysis of 23 reports ( published prior to September 1983 ) that examined either the direct relationship between CL and counseling effectiveness ( Type A studies ) or the effect of matching participants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . It should be noted that a Type B study will also typically provide Type A data in the form of a main effect for counselor CL in addition to the Type B result in the form of a counselor/client CL interaction effect . <p> Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) used standard meta-analytic procedures ( Glass , McGaw , &; Smith , 1981 ) to convert group mean differences or correlations into standard effect sizes ( ES ) and regression analyses to identify any relationships between the magnitude of effect sizes and other moderating variables such as type of participant and rated design adequacy . Holloway and Wampold reported a mean ES for Type A studies of 1.07 : that is , the outcome measure score of the average high-CL participant exceeded that of 86% of low-CL participants . However , there was no evidence of a corresponding main ( or Type A ) effect for CL in their Type B ( interaction effect ) studies : ES = 0.02 . <p> Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) explained these discrepant findings as perhaps stemming from the relatively poorer methodologies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mean interaction ES for matching participants ( high CL or low CL ) with environments ( low structure or high structure , respectively ) of 0.15 ; that is , the outcome measure score of the average participant in a matched condition exceeded that of 56% of participants in an unmatched condition . Holloway and Wampold concluded that <p> The findings of Type A studies imply that high-CL rather than low-CL individuals may be preferable as applicants to counselor training programs due to their superior performance on perceptual tasks in complex , ambiguous situations . Type B studies , by testing the effectiveness of using a matching model to increase the effectiveness of a person 's performance , provide support for the more prescriptive technological approach . It appears that low-CL persons only need to be in more structured conditions to benefit from training or counseling environment . ( p. 318 ) <p> In their discussion of their positive conclusions concerning the importance of counselor CL in relation to training and performance , Holloway and Wampold acknowledged that studies in their review were disparate in many ways and should best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than with counseling solely . <p> I decided to re-examine the studies reviewed by Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) , placing my attention only on those that focused on counselor CL and used counseling interviews as a basis for determining counseling or training outcome . Reappraising Counselor CL and Performance <p> Of the 23 reports reviewed by Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) , 7 were not related directly to the outcome of training in counseling or to the effectiveness of counselors . Of the remaining 16 studies , 10 did not use performance in an interview situation to provide an outcome or performance measure . Thus , only 6 of 23 studies were concerned directly with the performance of counselors or counselor trainees in an interview situation . These studies are summarized in Table 1 . They include the two studies described previously by Stoppard and Miller ( 1985 ) : McLachlan ( 1972 ) and Rosenthal ( 1977 ) . <p> In view of the small number of studies that met the inclusion criteria , I decided to see whether more studies could be located . I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supplemented by a hand search , to locate eight additional reports concerning counselor or counselor trainee CL and performance published up to December 1992 . Of these , four did not involve individuals conducting an interview . The remaining four studies ( using interviews ) are summarized in Table 1 . <p> Restricting consideration only to studies that focused on counselors or counselor trainees involved in some form of interview as the basis for assessing counselor performance or counselor training outcome resulted in inconsistent and equivocal evidence for a relationship between CL and counselor performance . Of the 10 studies listed in Table 1 , 5 showed that CL was related to counseling performance or counselor training outcome . Lutwak and Hennessy ( 1982 ) found that empathy level following training was related to trainees ' CL . MacLachlan ( 1976 ) claimed indirect evidence that clients may perceive high-CL counselors more positively than low-CL counselors : clients of low-CL counselors were more likely to discontinue prematurely . Mayadas and Duehn ( 1978 ) found that high-CL counselors performed better than low-CL counselors , and that CL was related to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found that group psychotherapy patients who were matched for CL level with therapist CL level showed greater average improvement than patients not matched with their therapist on CL level . O'Brien ( 1984 ) found evidence that counselor CL was related to client self-rated outcome . However , the other five studies reported no significant relationship between CL and counselor performance or training outcome . On a simple voting basis , these findings suggest that counselor CL is probably unrelated to performance , because the number of studies reporting significant positive findings equaled the number of studies reporting nonsignificant findings . <p> Reviews based on simply counting the proportion of studies returning significant results have been criticized on the grounds that such a narrow approach is insensitive to overall trends in findings ( Wolf , 1986 ) . Accordingly , I conducted a quantitative meta-analysis of the findings in the 10 studies contained in Table 1 . The procedures described by Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) were used to calculate effect sizes for both main effects due to counselor CL ( Type A ) and for interactions ( or matchings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . In all cases , the Hedges ( 1982 ) Formula 4 correction was applied to produce unbiased effect sizes , correcting for small sample size , using the program EFFECT ( Omodei , 1993 ) to make the calculations . Following the recommendations of Berman , Miller , and Massman ( 1985 ) , in those studies that used multiple outcome measures , I derived an overall effect size by averaging the effect sizes calculated for each outcome measure . Failure to do so would have arbitrarily weighted the importance of studies according to the number of outcome measures used . <p> The overall average Type A ES ( for the two Type A and eight Type B studies combined ) was 0.59 . That is , the client outcome measure score of the average high-CL counselor exceeded that of 72% of low-CL counselors . The overall average Type B ( or matching ) ES was 0.31 . That is , the outcome measure score for the average client in a matched condition exceeded that of 62% of the clients in an unmatched condition . However , the overall average @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lutwak and Hennessy ( 1982 ) and Mayadas and Duehn ( 1978 ) reported quite large effect sizes . <p> Lutwak and Hennessy ( 1982 ; Type A ES = 2.22 ) exercised no experimental control over the counseling interviews conducted by their participants , who simply recruited volunteers from among their acquaintances to serve as analog clients in informally arranged interviews . This may well have allowed uncontrolled motivational factors to inflate the relationship between CL and counseling performance . Mayadas and Duehn ( 1978 ; Type A ES = 2.9 , Type B ES = 1.7 ) relied simply on changes in the frequency of use of six counseling microskills by their counselor trainees as the outcome variables . <p> As Hill ( 1990 ) noted , there is no evidence that use of particular forms of counselor responses is necessarily associated with greater counselor effectiveness ; thus , using this type of outcome variable as a measure of counselor performance is questionable . If these two studies are dropped from the analysis , then the overall average Type A ( simple main effect ) ES falls to 0.09 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matching effect ) ES falls to 0.19 . That is , using these more conservative estimates of overall effect size , the client outcome measure score of the average high-CL counselor exceeded that of 54% of low-CL counselors , and the outcome measure score for the average client in a matched condition exceeded that of 58% of clients in an unmatched condition . These are very small effect sizes ( Wolf , 1986 ) , and at this juncture it must be concluded that the proposed relationship between counselor CL and performance in counseling interviews is inconsistent and weak . <p> With only eight studies judged to be methodologically sound , it was difficult to explore what factors might be associated with relatively larger effects for CL . Six studies used actual counseling clients . The average main effect ( Type A ) ES for these was 0.09 , the average interaction effect ( Type B ) ES was 0.16 . Two studies used role-playing clients and the corresponding values were 0.11 and 0.29 , respectively . The overall average ES for the five studies that used the Paragraph Completion Test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Completion Method ( Hunt et al , 1978 ) was greater ( Type A = 0.17 , Type B = 0.35 ) than that of the one study that used Harvey 's ( 1966 ) This I Believe Test ( MacLachlan , 1972 ) or the two studies that used combined measures ( Blaas &; Heck , 1978 ; Larimer , 1978 ) . Discussion <p> The merits and limitations of quantitative meta-analysis procedures have been discussed by several writers ( e.g. , Wolf , 1986 ) , and there is substantial agreement that such approaches are preferred generally to less sophisticated alternative review methods , such as simple enumeration of outcomes . There seems to be little doubt that the general quantitative meta-analytic strategy of including all studies relevant to the topic and relying on multiple regression techniques to establish the relative importance of various factors ( including methodological differences ) should be the method of choice when a large number of studies have been published that clearly involve the variables of central interest . <p> In the present case , however , inspection of the content of the 36 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed that only iO ( 28% ) actually focused on counselors or counselor trainees and used performance in an interview as the basis for assessing outcome . I judged that , with such a small number of studies fulfilling these important criteria , it was potentially misleading to aggregate them with the much greater number of studies that did not meet the criteria . <p> The 10 studies contained in Table 1 are quite disparate in detail . Apart from methodological weaknesses in the studies of Mayadas and Duehn ( 1978 ) and Lutwak and Hennessy ( 1982 ) , no feature could be identified confidently that distinguished those studies with larger effect sizes from those reporting smaller effect sizes . In light of the earlier discussion of shortcomings in existing CL measures in relation to the counseling setting , the finding of even a weak relationship between counselor CL and counselor performance , using a set of studies selected on the basis of very stringent inclusion criteria , suggests that further research into counselor CL and counseling is warranted . However , such research is unlikely to prove fruitful until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the absence of counseling-specific measures , counselor CL takes on the status of a static global personality disposition related only indirectly to the specific cognitive structures underlying those processes that mediate a counselor 's behaviors during a counseling interview . <p> There thus appears to be a need for the development of a measure of counselor cognitive structure that is content-specific to the counseling interview domain . This need could be addressed in several ways . First , it may be sufficient to modify existing approaches : that is , ( a ) to construct a paragraph- or sentence-completion task involving items whose content relates more directly to beliefs about counseling , or ( b ) to develop an interpersonal constructs rating grid with elements describing client characteristics and to devise scoring systems that address both the complexity and the integration components of CL . <p> Alternatively , it may be that new approaches to measuring counselor CL are required in order to determine empirically whether CL is an individual difference variable related strongly to counselor training outcome and counselor performance . In this regard , results of a study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggest that counselor cognitive complexity may not be a fixed traitlike dispositional characteristic that a counselor brings with him or her into every interview but may rather be a dynamic quality that depends to some extent on the nature of a particular counseling interview . Developing such a measure would entail using procedures that assess counselor CL in action rather than as a fixed personality characteristic . <p> In the meantime , there appears to be little empirical justification for using existing procedures as a basis for selecting counselor trainees , assigning trainees to more versus less structured training conditions , or matching clients with counselors , regardless of the attractiveness of CL theory for some counselor educators . TABLE 1 Summary of Studies of Counselor and Counseling Trainee Performance and Conceptual Level Using Interview-Based Outcomes PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Note . Explanation of numbered entries follows : 1 . Number and type of clients interviewed . 2 . Number and type of counselors or counselor trainees . 3 . Focus of the study . 4 . Method of assessing CL. 5 . Outcome measure . BLRI = Barrett-Lennard Relationship Inventory ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : SCL = Symptom Check List . <p> a Type B studies arranged in descending order of interaction ES magnitude . b Averaged across all outcomes in the study ; the figure in parentheses shows the number of outcomes in the study . c Examined originally by Holloway and Wampold ( 1986 ) . <p> 
##4001170 ABSTRACT . Effects of adult attachment style on the perception of and search for social support were examined . One hundred and fifty undergraduate students completed self-report scales tapping their attachment styles , the extent to which they perceive the availability of emotional and instrumental support from significant figures ( father , mother , same-sex friend , opposite-sex friend , romantic partner ) , and the extent to which they look for instrumental and emotional assistance in times of need : Findings showed that secure persons perceived higher levels of emotional and instrumental support from the assessed figures and reported seeking more emotional and instrumental support than avoidant and ambivalent persons did . Results are discussed in the context of an attachment perspective of social support . <p> The contribution of social support to well-being has been one of the major areas of psychological research during the last decade . Social support is a multidimensional construct that may be defined as the comfort , assistance , and/or information one receives through formal or informal social contacts ( Wallston , Alagna , DeVellis , &; DeVellis , 1983 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social support -- the generalized appraisal that one is cared for and valued -- is related to particular personality traits ( Lakey &; Heller , 1988 ; Sarason , Shearin , Pierce , &; Sarason , 1987 ) . The present study followed this idea and examined the relationship between one basic personality characteristic , attachment style , and a sense of social support . <p> Attachment theory ( Bowlby , 1969 , 1973 , 1980 ) can serve as a theoretical framework for studying how the sense of social support originates . In our terms , a sense of social support can be related to the concept of secure attachment . Bowlby defined secure relationships in infancy as those interactions in which parents are responsive to infants ' distress , assist infants in regulating tension , and bring relief and comfort . The responsiveness of parents to infants ' distress signals and their availability in stressful situations provide infants with a " secure base " and foster the sense of a " good-supportive world . " This relationship between attachment and social support has been also emphasized by Sarason , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the formation of attachment styles may be related to the development of the sense of social support . Securely attached children , who experience supportive relationships with attachment figures and use these figures as a " secure base " ( Ainsworth , Blehar , Waters , &; Wall , 1978 ) , may develop a strong sense of social support . In contrast , insecurely attached children ( either avoidant or ambivalent ) , who grow up with doubts about the extent to which attachment figures can comfort them in times of stress ( Ainsworth et al. , 1978 ) , may develop a generalized belief in a " non-supportive world . " <p> Early attachment experiences and the resulting sense of social support may have important implications for personality and social development . Bowlby ( 1973 ) claimed that the individual 's attachment style is a stable personality pattern and that it organizes cognition , emotion , and behavior throughout life . Several studies have provided evidence on the stability of attachment style ( Arend , Gove , &; Sroufe , 1979 ; Sroufe , 1983 ) and its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ &; Noller , 1990 ; Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ; Mikulincer &; Erev , 1991 ) and cope with stress ( Collins &; Read , 1990 ; Kobak &; Sceery , 1988 ; Mikulincer , Florlan , &; Tolmacz , 1990 ) . <p> There is also evidence indicating an association between adult attachment style and social support . Kobak and Sceery ( 1988 ) found that secure persons reported having more available support from their families than avoidant persons did . Simpson , Rholes , and Nelligan ( 1992 ) found that secure women were more likely than avoidant women to seek emotional support from their partners before undergoing an anxiety-provoking experience in the laboratory . Mikulincer , Florian , and Weller ( 1993 ) found that secure Israeli adults reported seeking more social support than either avoidant or ambivalent adults did as a way of coping with the Iraqi SCUD missile attacks on Israeli cities . <p> The problem with those studies is that they did not address the multifaceted nature of social support . Specifically , they did not differentiate between different components of social support ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ e.g. , parents , friends , lovers ) . <p> The perception of and search for social support are far from being unitary concepts ; rather , they appear to be differentiated along several dimensions . Cutrona ( 1990 ) differentiated between emotional support ( expression of comfort and caring ) and instrumental support ( provision of services , resources , and problem-solving means ) . Although high correlations have been found between these two components ( Brown , 1986 ; House , Kahn , McLeod , &; Williams , 1985 ) , some recent studies have demonstrated their existence via confirmatory factor analysis ( Brookings &; Bolton , 1988 ; Cutrona &; Russell , 1987 ; Vaux , Riedel , &; Stewart , 1987 ) . In addition , another differentiation has been made according to the identity of the supportive figure -- family members , friends , or romantic partners ( Cohen , 1988 ; Sarason et al. , 1987 ) . <p> In the current study , we examined the association of attachment style and self-reports on the perception of and search for social support . Undergraduate students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to which they have and search for emotional and instrumental support from their mothers , fathers , same-sex friends , opposite-sex friends , and romantic partners . <p> We hypothesized that secure adults , who had experienced supportive relationships ( Shaver &; Hazan , 1993 ) , would be more likely to perceive available social support in times of need than avoidant and ambivalent adults , who had experienced rejecting or inconsistent relationships with attachment figures . In addition , both avoidant and ambivalent persons would be less prone to search for support than secure persons would , but their tendency would reflect different psychological reasons . On the one hand , avoidant persons would not search for support because they rely on themselves and maintain distance from others ( Bowlby , 1982 ) . On the other hand , ambivalent persons would not seek support because of their strong fear of rejection ( Mikulincer et al , 1990 ) . <p> We also hypothesized that the tendency of secure persons to perceive and seek more support than avoidant and ambivalent persons may be found mainly when assessing emotional components and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support concerns experiences with parents who have been successful or unsuccessful in bringing emotional relief . However , if attachment style is generalized across interactions and domains ( Bowlby , 1973 ) , the effects of attachment styles may also be found with regard to instrumental support and extrafamilial interactions . Method Participants <p> One hundred and fifty undergraduate students ( 85 women and 65 men ranging in age from 21 to 28 years ) from the social science faculty at Bar-Ilan University volunteered to participate in the study without monetary reward . Of these participants , 85% were single . Materials and Procedure <p> The volunteers were asked to participate in a study on social relations , and they filled out the questionnaire during regular class time . They answered questions on scales tapping attachment and social support in random order . The procedure took approximately 30 min . <p> Attachment styles were assessed via two instruments previously used by Mikulincer et al . ( 1990 ) . First , participants read the three Hazan and Shaver descriptions of feelings and cognitions regarding attachment styles and endorsed the description that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 15 statements ( five items per attachment style ) , constructed by decomposing Hazan and Shaver 's descriptions ( for more details , see Mikulincer et al. , 1990 ) . Cronbach alphas for the three attachment factors were acceptable ( from .75 to .84 ) . On that basis , we averaged items corresponding to each factor , compared those scores , and assigned each participant to the attachment style that had the maximal value of the three alternatives . <p> Only five mismatches resulted from comparing the results of the two techniques . No clear pattern was detected in these failures to coincide . To avoid classification ambiguities , we decided to drop those cases from the analyses . Frequencies of attachment styles in the current sample were similar to those in previous studies with American and Israeli samples ( Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ; Mikulincer et al. , 1990 ) . Fifty-nine percent of the participants ( n = 86 ) were classified as secure , 30% as avoidant ( n = 43 ) , and 11% as ambivalent ( n = 16 ) . <p> Social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study . The Perceived Available Instrumental and Emotional Support Scale ( PAIESS ) tapped the extent to which five figures ( mother , father , same-sex friend , opposite-sex friend , and romantic partner ) were perceived as providing instrumental and emotional support . The Seeking of Instrumental and Emotional Support Scale ( SIESS ) tapped the extent to which the respondent looked for instrumental and emotional support from those figures during difficult times . <p> The PAIESS , a 14-item , self-report questionnaire , was constructed on the basis of items selected and translated into Hebrew ( using a back-translation technique ) from the Social Support Questionnaire ( Sarason , Levine , Basham , &; Sarason , 1983 ) , the Social Support Perception Scale ( Vaux , 1985 ) , and the Social Support Behavior Scale ( Vaux et al. , 1987 ) . The PAIESS included seven items tapping instrumental support ( e.g. , " My father is ready to assist me financially when I need it " ) and seven items tapping emotional support ( e.g. , " My father is ready to listen to my innermost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to which a particular person provided support on a 6-point scale ranging from 1 , not at all , to 6 , very much . They completed five versions of the PAIESS , each for a different figure . The order of the versions was randomized across participants . <p> Factor analyses with varimax rotation conducted separately for each PAIESS version yielded two main factors ( eigenvalue > 1 ) , which explained 65% to 73% of the variance . The first factor ( between 42% and 51% of explained variance ) included the seven instrumental support items ( loading > .40 ) . The second factor ( between 13% and 22% of the variance ) included the seven emotional support items . Cronbach 's alpha coefficients were appropriate ( between .83 and .89 for instrumental support items and between .79 and .92 for emotional support items ) . On that basis , we computed two scores of perceived instrumental support and perceived emotional support for each figure by averaging the items loading high on each factor . Higher score reflected more perceived support . <p> The SIESS , a 10-item @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ items selected from the Hebrew version of the Ways of Coping Checklist ( Folkman &; Lazarus , 1980 ) . The SIESS included five items tapping instrumental support ( e.g. , " I ask for advice from my father about solving the problem " ) and 5 items tapping emotional support ( e.g. , " I seek sympathy and understanding from my father " ) . Participants rated the degree to which they seek support in difficult times from a particular person , on a 6-point scale ranging from 1 , not at all , to 6 , very much . They completed five versions of the SIESS , each for a different figure , as mentioned earlier . The order of the versions was randomized across participants . <p> Factor analyses with varimax rotation conducted separately for each SIESS version yielded two main factors that explained 68% to 78% of the variance . The first factor explained 57% and 71% of the variance , and it was composed of the five instrumental support items . The second factor explained between 7% and 11% of the variance , and it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alpha coefficients were appropriate ( between .76 and .85 for instrumental support items and between .84 and .90 for emotional support items ) . On this basis , we computed two scores for the search for instrumental and emotional support for each figure by averaging the items loading high on each factor . Higher scores reflected a higher tendency to seek support . Results <p> We analyzed the data by three-way analyses of variance ( ANOVAs ) for attachment style ( secure , avoidant , ambivalent ) , component of support ( instrumental , emotional ) , and identity of the figure ( father , mother , same-sex friend , opposite sex-friend , and partner ) . The two last factors were treated as within-subject repeated measures. 1 <p> The three-way ANOVA on the perception of available support yielded a significant main effect for attachment style , F(2,142) = 9.27 , p < .01 . Duncan post hoc tests ( alpha = .05 ) indicated that secure persons perceived more available support ( M = 5.01 ) than avoidant ( M = 4.57 ) and ambivalent persons ( M = 4.40 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results for avoidant and ambivalent persons . The interactions of attachment style with the two other factors were not significant , implying that attachment groups differed in their perception of support availability regardless of the component of support endorsed and the identity of the support provider . Secure persons reported having more available support in all the categories assessed than insecure persons did ( see Table 1 for means and univariate F ratios ) . <p> The three-way ANOVA also yielded significant main effects for component of support , F(1,142) = 8.18 , p < .01 , and identity of the figure , F(4,559) = 13.82 , p < .01 . Participants perceived more emotional support ( M = 4.87 ) than instrumental support ( M = 4.76 ) . In addition , Duncan post hoc tests indicated that they reported that romantic partners provided more support ( M = 5.08 ) than did mothers ( M = 4.88 ) and same-sex friends ( M = 4.87 ) , who , in turn , were perceived as providing more support than opposite-sex friends ( M = 4.66 ) and fathers ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effects were qualified by a significant two-way interaction for component of support and identity of the figure , F(4,559) = 52.05 , p < .01 . Tests for simple main effects ( Winer , 1971 ) indicated that participants perceived their romantic partners and friends to provide more emotional than instrumental support . In contrast , they perceived their fathers to provide more instrumental than emotional support . Mothers were perceived as providing equal amounts of emotional and instrumental support ( see Table 1 ) . <p> The three-way ANOVA on the search for social support yielded a significant main effect for attachment style , F(9,142) = 8.57 , p < .01 . Duncan tests indicated that secure persons reported seeking more social support in dealing with life problems ( M = 4.15 ) than avoidant ( M = 3.66 ) and ambivalent persons ( M = 3.42 ) did . No significant difference was found between avoidant and ambivalent persons . Secure persons reported seeking more social support in most of the categories assessed than insecure persons ( see Table 2 , means and F ratios ) . <p> The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , F(1,142) = 13.46 , p < .01 , and identity of the supportive figure , F(4,559) = 45.96 , p < .01 . Participants reported seeking more instrumental ( M = 4.01 ) than emotional support ( M = 3.85 ) . Duncan tests indicated that romantic partners were preferred as supportive figures ( M = 4.67 ) over same-sex friends ( M = 4.19 ) , who , in turn , were preferred over mothers and opposite-sex friends ( M = 3.75 , M = 3.71 , respectively ) . Fathers were the least preferred supportive figures ( M = 3.36 ) . <p> Those two main effects were qualified by a significant two-way interaction for component of support and identity of supportive figure , F(4,559) = 23.18 , p < .01 . Tests for simple main effects indicated that fathers were sought out for more instrumental than emotional support . Romantic partners , mothers , and friends were equally sought out for emotional and instrumental support ( see Table 2 ) . <p> To examine the association between the perception and seeking of social support , we computed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Most of the correlations between the perception and seeking of support were relatively high -- between .50 and .69 -- in the total sample ( see Table 3 ) : A similar pattern was identified among both secure and avoidant persons . With regard to ambivalent persons , however , the pattern of correlations differed . We found significant associations between the perception and seeking of social support only for the emotional component of support . This pattern may imply that ambivalent persons did not perceive the availability of instrumental support as related to the extent to which they search for it . Discussion <p> In the present study we examined the association between adult attachment styles and sense of social support . In general , the findings support the hypothesis that attachment groups differ in the extent to which they perceive available emotional and instrumental support from significant others . In addition , attachment groups were found to differ in their tendency to seek support in times of need . <p> The pattern of social support shown by secure persons was in line with the predictions . Those persons have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in times of need and were responsive to signals of distress ( Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ) . This attachment history creates expectations that significant others will be available when needed and will be able to bring comfort and relief ( Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ) . In the present study , these expectations are reflected in secure persons ' tendency to see significant others as providing relatively high levels of support . This trust in significant others may also underlie secure persons ' tendency to seek support . Because secure persons perceive others as efficient means for affect regulation , they would be prone to seek their company in times of need . <p> The pattern of social support shown by insecure persons , either avoidant or ambivalent , is also in line with our predictions . Insecure persons have a history of relationships with figures who were not responsive and available in times of need ( Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ) . They grow up with worries about the intentions and responses of significant others . They may perceive the surrounding social world as a threatening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social interactions for help coping with life 's adversities ( see , e.g. , Hazan &; Shaver , 1987 ) . This basic mistrust is reflected in insecure persons ' tendency to perceive a relatively low level of available instrumental and emotional support from others and their relatively low tendency to seek social support in times of need . <p> Ambivalent persons differed from secure persons not only in the degree of their perception and seeking of social support but also in the association between those two support-related constructs . Whereas secure persons showed a positive correlation between the perception and seeking of support , ambivalent persons showed low correlations for instrumental support . Possibly the search for instrumental support among ambivalent persons is guided more by their own basic anxieties than by a rational decision based on the availability of support . This interpretation is consistent with previous findings that ambivalent persons are not highly attuned to relevant information available in their social surroundings ( Mikulincer &; Nachshon , 1991 ) . <p> With regard to support seeking , our findings are in line with an earlier study ( Mikulincer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have coped with the Iraqi missile attacks on Israeli cities . Our findings also provide partial support for the findings of Simpson et al . ( 1992 ) on support seeking within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation . Although both of those studies indicated that avoidant persons seek less support in times of need than secure persons do , only in the present study were significant differences found between ambivalent and secure attachment groups . A clear interpretation of this empirical discrepancy is problematic , because the two studies used entirely different methodologies . <p> The present findings were in line with the suggestion by Sarason et al . ( 1990 ) that the sense of social support has a personality substrata . Even though the objective presence or absence of supportive relationships may contribute to a sense of social support , the way a person appraises and reacts to them may also be determined by his or her personality . In this theoretical context , attachment style may be an important personality contributor to the sense of social support , but it can not be considered the exclusive or most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ related to attachment style ( e.g. , hardiness , social orientation ) , may also shape a person 's appraisal of , attitudes toward , and reactions to social support . <p> Our findings also show that attachment styles were similarly and significantly related to the emotional and instrumental components of social support that were provided by intra- and extrafamilial figures . These findings can be explained on the basis of the self-confirming property of cognitive schemata such as attachment styles , which generalize expectations beyond the original intrafamilial interaction . Through such a generalization , secure persons come to expect the receipt of support from the social word , whereas insecure persons have doubts about the responsiveness of that world . This reasoning suggests that differences in attachment style reflect general positive or negative orientations toward the social world . <p> The present study also delineates the particular structure of the sense of social support among young adults . It seems that the support provided by romantic partners and friends may be more appropriate to the needs of young adults than that provided by parents . Moreover , our sample @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the kind of support they could provide : Romantic partners and friends were perceived mainly as sources of emotional support , fathers were perceived as potential sources of instrumental support , and mothers were perceived as the providers of both instrumental and emotional types of support . <p> Our findings and their interpretation should be viewed as an initial step in the exploration of the complex association between personality and social support . Several possible limitations of the present study may reduce the theoretical generalizability of the findings . First , we did not examine differences among attachment groups in actual behaviors of seeking support in real-life situations . We also have no information about whether the relatively low perception of available social support among insecure persons reflects their subjective experiences or the presence of objective , problematic social interactions . We also did not examine what it is that the three attachment types seek from supportive figures and how they feel about the types of support they receive . However , the data provided here may further contribute to the integration of two theoretical frameworks that emphasize the importance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conducted with gender as another independent variable . No significant association was found between the distribution of attachment style and gender , and no significant interaction was found between them in their effects on the perception and seeking of support . However , the analyses revealed the frequently found main effect of gender on social support ( Vaux , 1985 ) : Women perceived and searched for more emotional and instrumental support than men did . TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations for Available Social Support According to Attachment Style PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> * p < .05. ** p < .01 . TABLE 2 Means and Standard Deviations for Search for Social Support According to Attachment Style PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> * p < .05. ** p < .01 . TABLE 3 Pearson Correlations Between the Perception of and Seeking of Support PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> ** p < .01 . <p> 
##4000859 The Global Land Mine Plaque <p> As a little boy in the Gaza province of Mozambique , Luis dreamed of being famous . He wanted to be a soccer star , to see the world , and to help build the future of his beloved Mozambique , the pearl of the southern African nations . So each day he practiced and played , on and on into the dark hours of the early tropical night , until his mother would call him into their hut . His father had been a soccer player , and so had his three brothers , but none of them had ever become a star . But Luis was faster , stronger , and better at the game than all of them , so he had the right to dream his dreams . <p> Mozambique , in those days , was involved in an immensely cruel and seemingly endless war . As far back as Luis could remember , his country had been fighting : first against the Portuguese , then against the Rhodesians and the South Africans , and sometimes against the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself . Some Mozambicans received weapons , supplies , and training from the Rhodesians and the South Africans . This group was called the Renamo , and it attacked government installations and communal settlements like the one in Gaza where Luis lived . <p> The fighters of the Renamo had a well-earned reputation for brutality and were considered by many Mozambicans to be little more than gangsters . They disrupted internal transportation systems . They blocked roads and railways , raided villages and set them on fire , and stole chickens and pigs . Often they raped and kidnapped children and taught them how to fight . Sometimes they even forced them to kill their own parents and made them drink their blood . The Renamo employed its terror tactics , which included both selective killing and wholesale slaughter , to frighten people away from supporting the government . In the process , it had created a massive refugee problem , perhaps the most serious one in the world . <p> " They were essentially bandits , " Luis now says reflectively . " They have been responsible for the depredations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the countryside . " <p> The Renamo fought the Frelimo , the armed forces of the government , whom Luis understood were no angels either-but maybe , just maybe , a little better than the Renamo . After all , the Frelimo was backed by the Russians ; they were socialists and that stood for more justice , more health care and education , and less difference between the classes . Or so they said . <p> Luis knew that in 1980 , when he joined the Frelimo , his dreams of becoming a soccer star were over . He knew this because the war ended most dreams . He was only 18 then . That was 16 years ago . <p> On his very first day with the Frelimo , Luis was put to work laying mines . He can not remember asking why he , a complete novice , should have been handling these deadly devices , nor what the military purpose was in laying them . Nor can he remember , 16 years later , exactly where he laid them or how many . He thought that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , hard tropical grass , they would be forgotten-at least until some Renamo fighter stepped on them . <p> And it certainly never occurred to him that those mines would still be in place , armed and deadly and waiting to explode , long after the fighting had ended . <p> In December 1990 , a peace treaty was signed between the Frelimo and the Renamo . It lasted a couple of days , and then the fighting resumed . This led to more negotiations and more fighting . In October 1992 , the Renamo finally agreed to recognize the Frelimo as the constitutional government ; in December 1992 , peace came to Mozambique . And it was eight months into the peace when Luis , now a civilian , went into the forest to chop wood and lost his leg to a land mine . <p> It happened on August 13 , 1993 , close to Provincial Road Number 10 , some 35 miles south of Maputo , the capital . Luis remembers the events of that day in vivid and horrific detail . He says it was near the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way with a friend to cut wood so that he could build his family a new home . He also needed wood so that Alda , his wife , could cook the family a meal . <p> Luis and his friend were wading through the shallow waters of a rice field when suddenly they heard a bang . At first , Luis did n't feel a thing ; he even remembers wondering , for a split second , if his friend had stepped on a mine . Then a gurgling sound came from the water . Luis looked down . The water was colored red . It was then he realized his left leg was n't there any more . <p> Luis almost lost consciousness ; his friend , panic stricken , turned and started to run , then realized what had happened and came to an abrupt halt . Thanks to his days in the army , Luis knew that he had to tie the stump off immediately in order to stem the bleeding . He ripped off a piece of his shirt and created a tour , niquet and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took Luis ' friend nearly an hour to work his way out of the minefield , using a stick to probe the ground ahead of him every step of the way . In that time , he came across a second mine -- a little Chinese T-72 , a plastic cylinder not much bigger than a man 's first , with thirty grams of explosives packed into a military-green casing to make it more difficult to detect in tropical-grass areas . ( Mozambicans call these mines frogs because of their color and the noise they make just before exploding . ) <p> Half an hour later , the friend returned with help from the village . It took them another 30 minutes to clear a path through the minefield and drag Luis ashore . Once they returned to the village , someone came up with the idea of going to Boane to get help . Boane was a three-hour walk -- but at least there was a car there , and the car could get Luis to an ambulance and the ambulance could take him to the Central Hospital in Maputo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Luis finally reached the medical facility . Within the hour , surgeons had amputated his left leg above the knee . Luis knew then that his life had changed forever . For one thing , he would never play soccer again . <p> Dr. Mack is a Red Cross surgeon who worked in Afghanistan and Rwanda before coming to Mozambique . He still remembers Luis very well . " One of his problems was that he had lost very much blood and an awful lot of mine mud had to be removed . We tried to save the right leg and had to clear all the affected spots . People who step on a mine lose one leg or foot at least , " he said , " but the mine mud very easily enters the other leg . That other leg has to be saved at all costs . If not , the victims are completely lost in a Third World country . " <p> Anti-personnel mines -- the kind of device that Luis lost his leg to -- generally do not kill more than 30 percent of their victims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is to inflict damage and to instill a sense of terror . " Strategically , the psychological effect of a mine is more efficient and important than removing a soldier from the battlefield , " says Tom Gowans , a mine-removal expert who works for Halo Trust in Quilimane , Mozambique . " A soldier who loses a foot or a leg or who suffers from severe internal bleeding has to be carried away by at least two other soldiers to receive medical care and attention . The rest of the soldiers are greatly affected in terms of morale . That is the perverse logic behind the use of mines . " <p> Halo Trust is a London-based humanitarian mine-clearance organization hired by the United Nations to conduct a nationwide assessment of Mozambique 's land-mine problem . The organization began working in early 1994 in the Maputo and Tete provinces . Six teams are being sent out with questionnaires to every district and municipality in an attempt to draw up a more scientific assessment of the worst areas for mines . This information is then put into a database and plotted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Children , Doctors without Frontiers , and the Red Cross . <p> As I speak with Gowans , a call comes over his mobile receiver . A good 150 miles up the provincial road toward Cariwa , his people have found a group of villagers who know where some land mines are located . He invites me along to watch the removal . <p> The provincial road is in poor condition , and many bridges have been destroyed . Upon arriving at the village , I meet two members of Gowans ' team -- one from England and the other from New Zealand . The village itself is small and , in the days of the Portuguese , must have been very beautiful . There are six or seven colonial brick homes in which Ernest Hemingway would have felt right at home . The houses are all gutted now , with war slogans displayed along their walls : " Long live the revolution ! " " Socialism or death ! " " Welcome , Fidel ! " <p> The Brit comes out of his landrover carrying two maps of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this is where a land mine is supposed to be . As he points its location out to us , I notice that the pinky and ring finger of his left hand are missing . " Mind you , " he says , " you are now in a minefield . " Two marked lanes some 300 feet long extend to the side of one of the houses . In a very carefully dug hole , I see a small , rusty , grenadelike bomb that must have been placed there during the war . The removal team gingerly attaches electric wires to it and , a few minutes later , my tape recorder registers the explosion . <p> About a hundred villagers sit and watch the operation from the porch of the only store in town . A limping man approaches us and cries out that he has served in the army all these years and has become no more than a disabled beggar . That is not what life had in mind when he was created , he says : " I gave my youth and this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government just send me back to my mother ? She will take care of me . I just want to go home ! " <p> Gowans tries to explain that we are there only to remove the mines . The limping man insists that we must help , since the government does n't care . " You people have been sent to give aid to us , " he argues desperately , " to help us . If you do n't help , we have no one else to go to ! " <p> But there is nothing that any of us can do for him . <p> In the days of the civil war , Mozambique was a very poor country . It still is today . In fact , according to the World Bank , Mozambique is even poorer today than it was during the war years ; per capita income has actually fallen from $80 to $60 a year , making it the poorest nation on earth . And of every 1,000 children who are born in Mozambique , 300 die before they reach the age of five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ land mines got to a country like Mozambique in the first place , it is not enough to point an accusing finger at the Renamo or the Frelimo-or even at the First World corporations which turn a tidy profit from the manufacture and sale of these devices . For the story of land mines is also the story of human inventiveness , especially when it comes to dealing out death and destruction upon other members of our species . It is the dark , disturbing underside of our much-celebrated technological progress . <p> Although land mines are a creation of the twentieth century , some military historians credit the Romans with pioneering a primitive version of minefields , laying salt on the farm , lands of Carthage to prohibit their use for decades . ( The Romans also developed steel bullets which were fired from slingshots placed in front of the enemy 's horses . ) <p> It was n't until the First World War , however , that the German war industry developed the land mine as we now know it in order to stop the tanks of the Allies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that mines could also be used to sow death and terror among an advancing infantry led to the invention of the anti-personnel mine . <p> During World War II , an estimated 300 million anti-tank and anti-personnel mines were laid by the Axis and Allied powers combined . Today , a territory of some 500,000 square miles in northern Africa is still infested by mines left over from that war alone . In the 1960s , a new generation of mines was developed that could be laid in any chosen territory by " sowing " them from a plane or helicopter . Today , we have a third generation of " smart " mines , delivered by the hundreds from cannons , rockets , or aircraft , which are equipped with acoustic and infrared sensors and can arm and trigger themselves after having been instructed by a computer . <p> " In the old days , " says Andre Milloret , head of the United Nations Organization Mozambique in Maputo , " mines were laid to stop and divert the enemy . But with improving technology , manufacturers have stressed their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but it is a horrible truth today : this new generation of land mines is able to ' look for ' its enemy and operate autonomously . " Milloret also observes that , in today 's wars , mines are not only being laid in battlefields but also around houses , churches , drinking wells , and even in schoolyards . <p> " It is appalling , " says Patrick Blagden , a British de-mining expert based in New York City . " It is utterly appalling what we are doing . Land mines are first produced against substantial costs , then sold and distributed ; then they lay there dormant until someone finally steps on them . It is a safe bet to say that , during the daylight hours of every day of every week of every month of every year , someone is maimed or killed by a land mine every 15 minutes . " ( For the record , the official figure , according to such organizations as the United Nations and the International Red Cross , is 2,000 victims every month . ) <p> Blagden himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 1992 . He knows there are an estimated 110 million active land mines scattered throughout some 60 countries and at least 100 million more still in the planet 's arsenals . Many producer nations -- including Russia , Italy , Belgium , Portugal , Spain , Canada , and the United States -- will often throw in a shipment of land mines as a bonus when some Third World nation makes a hefty weapons purchase . <p> Blagden describes the use of land mines by these countries as a form of economic suicide . When you factor in the social and medical costs , the strain on already inadequate health-care systems , the loss of wage earners , and the inability to create revenue , either from agriculture or industry , because whole areas lie fallow once they are mined , the cost to these countries is enormous . <p> So , too , are the costs of removal . Blagden shows me a picture of his mine-removal team at work in a Cambodian rice field . Every single blade has to be cut by hand with a pair of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trip-wires attached to them . These are Valmara 69s from the Valsella Meccanotecnica factory in Italy , a so-called bounding fragmentation mine . Once the tripwire is snagged , the V-69 shoots into the air and explodes at waist level , riddling the immediate area -- and anyone in it-with shrapnel . The V-69s are " intelligent " because they can " communicate " with one another : a single trip-wire can set off a whole string of mines . <p> Only after the grass has been meticulously cut can the real business of mine removal begin . De-miners go in on their knees and prod the soil 400 times per square meter . Using a metal detector is pointless , because in many parts of the world the soil contains high grades of iron ore . Then , too , many current anti-personnel mines are made primarily of plastic , with metal parts too small to be recognized by conventional detectors . Blagden estimates that de-mining costs anywhere between $300 and $1,000 per mine . This is because , unlike laying the mines , which can be done by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , de-mining requires the services of professionals who have to be trained , equipped , and insured . They incur travel and living expenses and have to be provided with backup and support . <p> But some mines , like the Chinese 72-A , are made chiefly of fiberglass and cost no more than $3 apiece . " Now , who is willing to poke around 400 times per square meter just to find a $3 mine ? " Blagden wonders . Altogether , the total cost of removing the 110 million mines already in place could easily run into the hundreds of billions of dollars . No one knows how such a project could possibly be financed or even how long it would take -- to say nothing of having to spend such an appalling sum of money cleaning up the deadly relics of past wars when it could have been far better spent on education , health care , housing , and food . <p> In the African nation of Angola , 20 years of war have left behind over 15 million land mines -- at least one for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . No one knows exactly how many mines are buried in Mozambique , but current estimates run as high as 10 million . " But is that really important to know ? " Luis asks bitterly . " Since I stepped on one and lost my left leg , I know there is one less . When my wife , Alda , stepped on another one a few months later , I knew there were two less . And when my youngest daughter was killed by a land mine , I knew there were three less . I lost my child , a leg , and so did my wife . Since I am impaired , I ca n't get a job . I wanted to play soccer , and now I ca n't even watch a game properly . War is shit . Land mines are shit . " <p> In April 1996 , representatives of more than 50 nations met in Geneva , Switzerland , to debate a ban on land mines as part of a periodic review of the 1980 U.N . Convention on Conventional Weapons . Anti-mine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration into joining a group of 24 nations calling for an immediate ban on anti-personnel mines . They were joined in their efforts by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation , which ran an ad in the New York Times demanding " Ban Land Mines Now . " And at least a dozen retired U.S. generals , including former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair David Jones , Desert Storm commander Norman Schwarzkopf , and former NATO commander John Galvin , signed an open letter to President Clinton urging their ban . <p> The results have not been encouraging . The Clinton administration chose not to press for a ban in Geneva , under the disingenuous claim that " we ca n't change our demands at the eleventh hour . " Instead , it offered a series of lukewarm amendments to the conventional-weapons accord : a requirement that anti-personnel mines be equipped to self-destruct after 30 days ; a prohibition of the sale of land mines to nations involved in civil war ; and ( perhaps most bizarre ) a rule that long , lived mines be used only in properly marked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also proposed a series of stricter export controls , although , if recent history serves as any guide , this will be merely a paper deterrent . Late in 1991 , for example , four executives of Valsella Meccanotecnica were prosecuted for the illegal sale and delivery of nine million land mines to Iraq for a payment of $180 million . Valsella never had an export license ; an investigation showed that the order was shipped through a company in Singapore and that some of the land mines reached Mozambique . <p> The executives were found guilty and sentenced to pay a fine . <p> ILLUSTRATION <p> By Anton Foek <p> <p> Anton Foek is a freelance writer based in New York City . <p> 
##4000860 How Secret Military and Intelligence Appropriations Suck Up Your Tax Dollars <p> Corrupt and undemocratic conditions within the United States government were evident last fall when Congress siphoned a half-billion dollars from an illegal slush fund maintained by the secretive spy satellite agency , the National Reconnaissance Office , and used it to fund more B-2 " stealth " bombers . Northrup Grumman Corporation , a military contractor with a sordid and criminal background , secured the money for more B-2 bombers on December 1 , 1995 , when the 1996 defense appropriations bill became law . The half-billion dollars appropriated for the B-2 is merely a down payment on 20 more planes , which will cost over $31 billion if completed . <p> Congress has forced the bombers on the military over the Objections of the Pentagon , the Joint Chiefs of Staff , and the Air Force . In a May 1995 study commissioned by Congress , the Institute for Defense Analysis concluded that , with the demise of the Soviet Union , there was no need for more B-2s . Nonetheless , Northrop Grumman 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PAC contributions from the B-2 's corporate beneficiaries , shrewdly disclosed the existence of the NRO slush fund just as they were completing their final maneuvers to fund the B-2 . They then applied over $1 billion of the slush fund-estimated at a total of $2 billion-to the B-2 and other unpopular weapons programs . If , as President Dwight D. Eisenhower once declared , " Every gun that is made , every warship launched , every rocket fired signifies , in the final sense , a theft from those who hunger and are not fed , those who are cold and are not clothed , " then Northrop Grumman has surely robbed the American public . Shamefully , President Clinton allowed the appropriations bill to become law . Most disturbing of all , the excesses involved in funding the B-2 and the National Reconnaissance Office are not isolated incidences but , instead , are typical of the practices used in dozens of weapons and intelligence program involving as much as $125 billion annually . CIA Director Investigates Himself <p> On September 24 , 1995 , the Washington Post reported that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $1 billion without informing its superiors at the Pentagon and CLA or its overseers in Congress . " White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta later confirmed the report , claiming that the money was " inexcusably hoarded " and that CIA Director John Deutch had ordered an investigation . Deutch also allegedly ordered " a restructuring of the NRO 's financial management and a complete review of its spending " in response to the news . Curiously , prior to taking charge at the ClA in May 1995 , Deutch oversaw military intelligence , including the NRO , in his capacity as Deputy Secretary of Defense . ( The government officially admitted the existence of the NRO in 1992 , although its budget and specific functions remain classified . The NRO 's fleet of costly satellites gathers photographs and signals for electronic eavesdropping on behalf of the CIA and military intelligence agencies . ) As deputy secretary of defense , Deutch was second in command at the Pentagon , as well as the chair of the NRO 's executive committee , which makes all critical decisions at the NRO . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security clearance at the Pentagon , either knew of the slush fund or chose to remain ignorant . Defense News , a widely read military journal , recently called for the dismissal of those responsible for what it referred to as the NRO 's " funding debacle . " As there is no adequate explanation why Deutch remained ignorant of a hoard placed at over 20 percent of the NRO 's $7 billion annual budget , he , too , should be dismissed . Climate of Secrecy Fosters Waste and Unaccountability <p> The NRO , a bottomless pit into which Congress pours money , can squander hundreds of millions of dollars and still remain awash in money . In 1994 , the NRO was found to have secretly and illegally spent $300 million on an office complex in Fairfax County , Virginia . The complex , which contains 30 percent more office space than is needed by the agency , was built in collusion with Rockwell International Corporation . ( Rockwell itself is a giant military contractor whose projects include manufacturing components for hydrogen bombs as well as the B-2 bomber @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ huge complex was not an NRO project , millions of dollars in local property taxes-normally not paid by the federal government-were footed by taxpayers . Rockwell lied to local officials , telling them that the NRO complex was a Rockwell facility . <p> The secrecy surrounding the NRO and the absence of any meaningful oversight enabled the agency to obtain appropriations for operating expenses that were hundreds of millions of dollars in excess of its genuine needs . The excess funds were then channeled into a secret slush fund . Although Congress never appropriated the money for the complex , the NRO nonetheless spent $300 million , violating ARTICLE I of the U.S. Constitution , which stipulates : " No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury , but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law . " <p> The NRO 's corrupt practices have been evident for over a decade . In his 1986 book Deep Black : Space Espionage and National Security , scholar and journalist William E. Burrows wrote : <p> Those who are acquainted with NRO operations and are able to discuss it . . . contend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amounts to a carte blanche for wild engineering schemes . . . . They charge that the NRO 's excessive secrecy prevents proper monitoring and encourages some dubious projects that can be pursued at almost any cost with the knowledge that mistakes will be concealed from Congress by the large black security blanket . <p> But while NRO operations are no doubt concealed from many members of Congress , huge PAC contributions from leading NRO contractors such as Martin Marietta , TRW , and Rockwell have assured that the agency 's congressional overseers simply rubber-stamp its projects . As early as 1990 , systems engineer Marty Overbleck-Bloem , an ex-employee of Lockheed Missile and Space Company , builder of billion dollar NRO satellites , blew the whistle on the NRO . Quoted in Tim Weiner 's book Blank Check : The Pentagon 's Black Budget , Overbleck-Bloem said : <p> In a black project , people do n't worry about money . If you need money , you got it . If you screw up and need more , you got it . You 're just pouting money into the thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there to do it right the first time . Who 's going to question it ? Secrecy Violates Constitution and Undermines Democracy <p> The NRO 's functions have been classified and its secret budget unconstitutionally concealed since its creation in 1960 . ARTICLE I , SECTION 9 , CLAUSE 7 of the United States Constitution requires the government to publish a " regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money . " While the treasurer publishes an official budget annually , at least $28 billion in " classified " intelligence appropriations and billions more for secret weapons programs are falsely identified as belonging to other agencies , rendering the official budget a mere sham . <p> In the case of United States v. Richardson , decided in 1974 , the Supreme Court refused to enforce the receipts and expenditures clause of the Constitution . In Richardson , a citizen brought suit to require the U.S. treasurer to disclose the budget for the CIA as required by the Constitution . The Supreme Court ruled that citizen taxpayers have no standing to enforce this provision of the Constitution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government 's secrecy . If citizens do n't like the government 's violation of the Constitution , their only remedy is what the Court described as " the slow , cumbersome , and unresponsive " electoral process . To allow citizen taxpayers to challenge the government 's unconstitutional practice of failing to fully account for its receipts and expenditures , wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger , " would mean that the Founding Fathers intended to set up something in the nature of an Athenian democracy . . . to oversee the conduct of the National Government . " Burger 's candid contempt for democratic ideals and his related promotion of government secrecy reflects the prevailing views of U.S. governing elites at least since World War II . <p> The world 's most exclusive millionaire 's club-the United States Senate-has continuously maintained the secret government while acknowledging its unconstitutionality . In 1976 , the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence recognized that classification of intelligence budgets causes " members of the public to be deceived " and " violates ARTICLE 1 , SECTION 9 , CLAUSE 7 of the Constitution . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ budget spending since 1976 . The budget of the NRO was $3.5 billion ( in 1994 dollars ) in 1980 , half of its current level . Keeping current spending levels secret-and suppressing domestic oversight along the way-remains a priority for the military intelligence community and its corporate allies . As journalist John Pike observed in the fall 1994 issue of Covert Action Quarterly , excessive public discussion could promote the idea that " much of the intelligence budget funds expensive satellites " which have been " rendered obsolete by the demise of their primary target , the Soviet Union . " B-2 Bomber : Created in Secrecy , Sustained by PACs <p> Like the NRO , the B-2 bomber has long been a classified project . An estimated $23 billion was spent for research and development on the B-2 during the 1980s , though everything about the B-2 budget was classified until June 1989 , six months after the first bomber was unveiled . Northrop Grumman initially placed the final cost of the B-2 at $550 million per plane , which made it the most expensive airplane in history . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per plane -- four times Northrop 's estimate . This did n't stop Northrop Grumman from claiming , as part of its lobbying effort in 1995 , that the next 20 bombers could be produced for only $570 million each . Later that spring , the Pentagon released its own figures , placing the cost at more than $1.5 billion per plane . <p> Senator Ted Stevens ( Republican-Alaska ) and Representative Norman Dicks ( Democrat-Washington ) were key players in identifying-or possible creating-the NRO hoard and then transferring these funds to the B-2 . Both men had been groomed for years with huge PAC contributions from B-2 contractors , including Northrop Grumman . According to Nancy Walzman and Sheila Crumholz in The Best Defense : Will Campaign Contributions Protect the Industry ? ( published by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics ) , Dicks raked in over $10,000 from nine major B-2 contractors in four months ' time , making him one of the largest House recipients of military PAC money just as the B-2 battle was heating up . Five thousand dollars of this money came from Northrop Grumman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles and Palm Springs on a promotional tour . During the 1993-1994 period , Walzman and Crumholz disclose , Dicks was a " top recipient of B-2 contractors ' PAC money , " receiving $23,000 from Northrop , Boeing , Lockheed , Vought Aircraft , and other B-2 contractors . However , B-2 contractors were not the only ones who rewarded Dicks ; military PACs paid him at least $96,500 in the 1993-1994 period alone . <p> As for Senator Stevens , the Center for Responsive Politics found that , from 1989 to 1994 , seven major B-2 contractors-Northrop Grumman , General Electric , Boeing , Hughes Air , craft , Loral , Vought Aircraft , and LTV Aerospace and Defense -made PAC contributions to his office of at least $37,000 . This makes him one of the top ten recipients of PAC money from B-2 contractors in the history of the United States . Stevens also tops the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee with $207,000 in military corporate PAC contributions from 1989 to 1994 , ranking him as the second , highest recipient of military corporate PAC contributions in the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ key supporters of the B-2 . In the House , the bipartisan coalition of Republican representatives Duncan Hunter ( California ) , Floyd Spence ( South Carolina ) , and Buck McKeon ( California ) and Democrats Norman Dicks ( Washington ) and Ike Skelton ( Missouri ) reaped huge rewards . The CRFP conservatively estimated that members of Senate and House defense appropriations committees received over $8.5 million of military-related PAC and " individual " contributions in the 1993-1994 period . The rate of giving by B-2 contractors ' PACS dramatically increased in 1995 . <p> The defense contractors ' practice of rewarding their supporters with PAC contributions has been described by some as legalized bribery . While this analysis is accurate in many instances , it ignores other important institutional factors . Many recipients of military corporate PAC money would be inclined to support outlandish expenditures on the B-2 and other programs regardless of whether or not they received PAC contributions . Many B-2 advocates in Congress are retired military men . For example , Representative Hunter of San Diego , a long.time B-2 supporter , was an Army @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does n't necessarily buy loyalty ; it simply ensures that loyal supporters of the military-industrial complex will remain in office . Defense analyst Stephen Shalom has accurately described this effect in The V-22 Osprey and the Post-Cold War Military Budget : <p> If politicians with the " right " views get the funds they need to secure and retain office while those with the " wrong " views do not , then officeholders will tend to have the right views . The politicians may not be for sale , but the offices are . <p> Military , congressional , and corporate backing for the B-2 bomber has been assured by spreading subcontracts for it throughout at least 383 congressional districts in 48 states . Thousands of subcontractors and their suppliers benefit from B-2 production , and they have inundated pliable legislators with individual campaign contributions in addition to PAC money . Contributions from officers , directors , managers , and employees of these corporations , made in their " individual " capacity , do not fall within the limits placed on corporate PAC contributions . The senators and representatives nonetheless know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " bundling , " in which several checks for up to $1,000 from managers , employees , and family members of contractors known to the legislators are given simultaneously . Illegal Practices Widespread <p> Although the payment of individual and PAC contributions is usually legal , the effects of illegal payments and practices -- including outright bribery -- should not be discounted . Key defense contractors , including Boeing and Lockheed , have been convicted of paying millions of dollars in bribes to obtain top-secret Pentagon planning papers , while Rockwell International was convicted of and fined $5.5 million for criminal fraud against the Air Force in connection with an NRO satellite project . <p> Likewise , illegally squeezing vendors and employees for PAC contributions is a skill at which Northrop Grumman should excel . The company was formed a year and a half ago with the merger of two corporate outlaws -- Northrop Corporation and Grumman Corporation . The former president of Grumman , John O'Brien , was recently convicted of fraud related to loans he received from James Kane , the former head of Long Island Aerospace PAC , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his recent book , When the Pentagon Was for Sale , O'Brien and Kane specialized in shaking down Grumman 's vendors and employees : " Employees who aggressively raised campaign loot were rewarded with promotions and bonuses . Conversely , O'Brien threatened to fire or demote workers who were less wholehearted in aiding Kane . " Recalcitrant suppliers , such as Monitor Aerospace , which was reluctant to contribute to Grumman 's lobbying program , soon found that Grumman was doing its buying elsewhere -- a violation of federal law . Ultimately , Grumman paid the government $20 million to escape further criminal and civil liability . <p> Northrop 's criminal convictions reach back to 1972 , when it was convicted of maintaining a slush fund which was used to buy the silence of the Watergate burglars . More recently , it was convicted in 1990 of charges related to its intentional falsification of tests concerning nuclear cruise missiles and fighter jets , for which the company paid a $17 million fine . Raw Power Maintains High Spending Levels <p> By the raw power of money , the coalition of military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spending for Cold War weaponry such as the B-2 while programs for low birth-weight babies , childhood immunizations , scholarship assistance , Medicaid , and Medicare are slashed . <p> Even the U.S. government 's official propaganda does n't suggest that these levels of spending are required because of threats from China or Russia . While the United States spent about $285 billion on the military in 1994 , Russia spent less than $80 billion , and China spent only $27 billion . Given this lack of military threats , the U.S. Defense Department was forced to stretch the truth in its 1995 annual report , which sought to justify current spending levels . According to the Secretary of Defense , the threats to be guarded against are " hostile regional powers , " the acquisition by " potential adversaries " of " weapons of mass destruction , " " terrorism , " ' and " the illegal drug trade . " Since none of these so-called threats is either new or sufficient to justify such extraordinary spending levels , the government has resorted to sophistry , arguing that the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fight two major wars simultaneously anywhere in the world without allied assistance while remaining capable of defending the mainland from nuclear and conventional attack . In other words , the military must be ready to fight World War III at all times . Promising Signs for Democracy <p> The currently prevailing regime of subsidies to the military while domestic programs are cut is a direct challenge to the legitimate democratic expectations of the American people . In peacetime , democratic principles require that social and economic needs should take priority over military programs . Events within the military , Congress , the mass media , and religious and peace groups suggest that a grassroots movement is forming to resist the military-corporate challenge to democracy . <p> One promising development was the formation of a consortium of public-policy organizations in 1994 , the Military Spending Working Group , to coordinate the activities of peace and security organizations in the pursuit of a peace dividend . One member organization of the MSWG is the Center for Defense Information , which is directed by retired high-ranking military officers ; it has been scathing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of military spending " given the greatly diminished military dangers that confront America . " <p> Another promising development is the emergence of a split within the Republican Party , where significant divisions have developed between traditional " hawks " and " cheap hawks , " who claim to be willing to reduce deficits by cutting military spending . Major newspapers such as the Boston Globe have inveighed against current military spending levels , and national magazines like the Nation , the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , the Progressive , Z , and the National Times have all published commentary criticizing the lack of a peace dividend . <p> Religious groups have also objected to the degree of militarism and have engaged in inspiring acts of civil disobedience challenging ongoing nuclear weapons deployment . On August 7 , 1995 , on the fiftieth anniversaries of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , six Catholic activists calling them , selves Jubilee Plowshares entered weapons facilities on both coasts , hammering and pouring blood on nuclear weaponry and suffering criminal prosecution . One of the activists , Susan Crane , later wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand these weapons are a direct theft from the poor of the world who need food , shelter , medical care , and jobs . " <p> Such efforts to publicize nuclear threats are particularly important because the high costs and risks presently posed by nuclear weapons remains a mystery to most Americans . According to John Lehman , former Secretary of the Navy , the costs of strategic nuclear weapons alone are about $70 billion per year . Given the United States ' historical position as the only remaining superpower , the compelling moral grounds to curtail military spending , and the broad . based protest activity which is occurring , the seeds for a democratic resistance movement are present . <p> As long as the public remains unorganized and tolerant of the status quo , the military-corporate alliance will dictate a level of military spending which keeps its coffers filled to overflowing . Since at least World War II , this alliance has been the dominant force in the U.S. economy . It is not going to cede power simply because the prior justifications for its dominance -- World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War -- have ended . Instead , as President Eisenhower warned in his farewell address 36 years ago , it will invent new reasons and create new conflicts in order to justify its existence . <p> By J. Whitfield Larrabee <p> <p> J. Whitfield Larrabee is a Boston attorney who specializes in defending the indigent in criminal cases and in the prosecution of civil-rights violations . He is also an organizer of grassroots action to reduce military spending and promote peace . He can be reached by e-mail at JWLarrabee@aol.com . <p> 
##4000861 Most of us strongly object to the idea , raised from time to time , that we do n't have free will . Such a suggestion seems almost unthinkable , or needlessly pessimistic , and we ordinarily reject it out of hand . After all , not having free will seems to threaten the very foundations of moral judgment and contradicts the undeniable feeling that our future is open to us . Most of us suppose , rather , that if the tape of history were replayed , we could have done otherwise in virtually all situations . Even if every fact coming to bear at a given time -- even our own motives and desires -- were the same , we could have made a different choice . <p> The essential " I " rules , shaping behavior in a way that ca n't be fully accounted for by our genetic inheritance , our life history , or our immediate circumstances . We want to believe that in some essential respect the self stands outside of nature and culture , bearing originative responsibility for its acts . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creditworthy self . <p> On the other hand , we very much like to explain things -- in particular , what makes us tick . We want to know how the human body works , what causes mental illness , what lies behind crime and deviance , what determines sexual preference , what accounts for addiction , obesity , poverty , creativity , religious fanaticism , and so forth . In short , there is nothing in human behavior that is n't , in this scientific age , being exhaustively scrutinized from a causal perspective . The interacting effects of biology and society on the individual are enumerated , classified , and built into theories and useful rules of thumb , and generally we congratulate ourselves at our success in discovering the springs of action . <p> Could there be , perhaps , just the slightest tension between these two predilections ? We really ca n't have it both ways , after all . We ca n't , for instance , conduct a serious investigation of what caused Susan Smith to let her car slide down the ramp into a South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believing that the act must be finally attributable to her own free will . To believe the latter is to render a causal explanation of her crime superfluous , since no matter what her physical and psychological conditions were at the time she could have done otherwise . On the other hand , to believe that Susan Smith did not have free will seems to undercut the requirements of justice . If she was not raving mad ( and it seems likely she was not ) , then a complete explanation of her act that omits mention of free will seems to exonerate her . No wonder , then , that the conflict between scientific explanation and our cherished exemption from natural causality is so rarely made explicit , and no wonder it is so often the subtext of our debates about responsibility . <p> It is also the source of a good deal of political disagreement . Liberals are fond of pointing to the social and economic causes of crime , addiction , and poverty , while conservatives are more likely to hold , as Justice Clarence Thomas put it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ excuses " for failings that derive essentially from free personal choices . The liberal interest in rehabilitation and the conservative penchant for punishment are closely linked to these opposing stances -- one of which understands the individual as the potentially malleable product of outside factors , while the other insists that persons , at bottom , are self-made , hence deserving of just rewards and punishments . <p> Of course , this distinction is not quite so clean . For example , many liberals wince at the biological determinism of The Bell Curve , and conservatives often justify welfare reform on the grounds that behavior is indeed responsive to external , government-controlled incentives . Hardly anyone -- yet -- is the sort of pure , hard determinist who gladly bites the bullet of causal explanation , and no one , however insistent about the existence of free will , denies the obvious : that behavior is at least partially a function of social and biological conditions . Nevertheless , in our debates about human nature and behavior , the opposition between causality and freedom is often the forensic fulcrum . Attitudes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mentally ill , homosexuals , the obese , as well as criminals , are frequently conditioned by the underlying supposition that the ultimate cause of someone 's problem or status lies in his or her choice , finally , to be that way . It is time to begin the public , explicit questioning of this assumption , however uncomfortable it may occasionally make us . Only by doing so are we likely to come to grips with the basic structure of our disagreements . <p> This questioning , in fact , is well under way but not yet very public or explicit . The academic philosophical debate about free will has , of course , continued on in articles and books too technical for most readers . And most would suppose that such hermetic discourse has little to offer the wider world in all its messy practicalities . But it is not that philosophical investigations into the concept of free will are inapplicable to everyday life -- many such investigations have explored real world consequences -- but , rather , that the conclusions reached , for the most part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will : the belief that we are , in some important sense , the uncaused originators of our acts . The vast majority of modern philosophers dismiss this notion as incoherent and take the position that free will consists simply in being able to act , without hindrance , on one 's desires and motives . And desires and motives , like everything else in the world , have causes . <p> This so-called compatibilist view , in which free will is compatible with determinism , is a far cry from the idea of our being uncaused originators . It is not , to put it mildly , what most people suppose they possess -- or what they suppose we must possess -- in order to be moral agents deserving of praise and blame . We do not want to be told that our free will is just a matter of negative freedom -- the freedom from constraint . We like to believe , rather , in the radical , positive , libertarian freedom that permits the self to determine behavior without the self being completely determined . Only such freedom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deserve approval and censure , reward and punishment . It is no surprise , therefore , that philosophers find their investigations and conclusions widely ignored . The compatibilist version of free will is simply not the sort of free will most of us imagine we have , and we do n't much appreciate having our cherished notion of human causal privilege denied . Most folks outside the academy are incompatibilists , seeing a basic contradiction between determinism and moral responsibility . <p> This no doubt explains why explicit challenges to free will in the popular media are few and far between . Since so much seems to depend on having it , why rock the boat ? Yet some challenges have been mounted , most recently and notably by Robert Wright in his book The Moral Animal . In a chapter entitled " Blaming the Victim , " Wright pulls no punches , showing how the increasing success of scientific explanation must shrink the domain of libertarian freedom to the point where we might as well admit that " we are all machines , pushed and pulled by forces that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Paul Cotton , writing about free will in the March 1993 Journal of the American Medical Association , also worries that " science may be on a collision course with one of society 's most cherished beliefs . " Leaving aside the question of whether , if determinism is true , it is useful or apt to describe ourselves as machines , Wright 's conclusion about free will -- that it is simply a delusion without intelligible foundation -- is not a little disquieting and , perhaps for this reason , has been passed over in reviews of his book . <p> After all , is n't it simply crazy to suppose that , first , we really do n't have free will and , second , that society could get along without it ? Is n't our intuition that usually we could have done otherwise indisputable , and would n't it obviously invite havoc into our lives if it were shown that people , in fact , are not originatively responsible for their behavior ? Given the apparently dire consequences of challenging the existence of free will , it seems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . But , in fact , it is n't crazy to suppose we do n't have the libertarian sort of freedom : indeed , most academic philosophers believe precisely that , our intuitions notwithstanding . Nor is it unimaginable that society could function successfully in the absence of this assumption , since these same philosophers , along with Wright , have argued that our personal and social good can emerge unscathed in a fully deterministic world . Given that this ground has been broken but not yet made particularly visible , the next step is to legitimize a vigorous public debate on free will . Those who question it are not totally off their rockers , nor do they threaten everything we hold near and dear . They may , in fact , offer the best hope for achieving a less punitive society -- if we can suppress the affront to our dignity long enough to give them a fair hearing . <p> The Susan Smith case is a good place to start reconsidering free will , since the commission of the crime was never in question -- only why it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Susan Smith have done other than what she did that night , or was her act simply part of an ineluctable train of events ? The case illustrates the tension between the desire to blame and the desire to explain and shows how the retributive impulse , always linked to the assumption of free will , fades when a causal explanation of a crime is forthcoming . A report on the trial by Rick Bragg in the July 9 , 1995 , New York Times captured the polarity nicely in the first two sentences : <p> Her lawyers are expected to argue that Susan Smith has been the victim of destructive relationships and influences since she was born , swept helplessly through life like a cork down a quick-moving creek . <p> The prosecution is expected to paint her as a scheming monster who lied to her hometown and the entire world for nine days , blaming a phantom carjacker for the disappearance of her sons before confessing that she had drowned the two little boys in a dark lake . <p> After Smith 's confession , sentiment in the town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " view of Smith held sway immediately following the revelation that she had concocted , out of whole cloth , the story of her children 's abduction by a black carjacker . What could be a better sign of a deliberate , freely willed crime than the fabrication of an alibi , maintained as a bare-faced lie for nine days under intense national attention ? If anyone deserved the death penalty sought by the prosecution , it seemed Susan Smith did . But as time went on and the details of her life became public , perceptions changed . It turned out that the " scheming monster " had an early history of depression and mental instability , well hidden behind a facade of cheerful normality . Her biological father had committed suicide shortly after her sixth birthday , and she later suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather . Onlookers began to consider that perhaps Susan Smith had not created herself out of whole cloth , that perhaps her state of mind at the time of the murders was the fatal culmination of a life history and recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considerations , not unexpectedly , began to soften support for the death penalty . After all , when we start to understand the causal history of a person 's behavior , we ordinarily tend to blame that person less and our desire for retribution abates . This is so because one sort of explanation -- the explanation involving an autonomous , freely willing agent deserving of retributive justice -- is supplanted by another : that of antecedent causes and influences . Retributive rage is fueled by our belief that an autonomous agent-self is in control , and when the existence or capacities of the agent are called into question -- as they were in Susan Smith 's case and in other " abuse excuse " cases such as the Bobbitt and Menendez trials -- the rage diminishes . <p> The defense could not argue that no such agent existed in Susan Smith , for that would have gone far beyond the pale of judicial precedent , even though science supports such a view . Rather , it had to play by the current rules of the game and try to show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defect -- an argument made marginally plausible by her history of abuse . The bone of contention between defense and prosecution was thus the state of the presumptively autonomous self . Was the potential for freely willed choice present or not ? Did Susan Smith have , in legal parlance , the " capacity to conform her conduct to the law " or , even though she undoubtedly appreciated the wrongfulness of her act , was she in the grip of an " irresistible impulse " ? The outcome of the trial would hinge on the extent to which the jury bought the defense 's argument that the forces of her remote and recent history overrode the assumed ability to freely choose right over wrong . <p> Under the rules of the game -- that is , under the presumption of free will -- the prosecution 's case looked far stronger , since unless the defense could prove a substantial mental defect ( which a history of depression and abuse does not necessitate ) , the jury might well have imposed the death penalty . The prosecution had merely to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night , that she freely selected her actions in the service of depraved motives . Since she chose to kill , she deserved to die . <p> But why , some pesky philosophers and scientists ( or any inquiring mind ) might have asked , did the freely willing Susan Smith choose to kill ? If she was not compelled by circumstances to this heinous deed , why did n't she choose otherwise ? Had the prosecution been forced to answer such questions , it could not , of course , have cited any influences on her ( that is in the defense 's interest , after all , since it tends to exonerate ) . Instead , it could only have cited her motives -- for instance , the self-aggrandizing desire to promote an affair with her wealthy employer 's son . But even then the assumption about free will is that even a motive or impulse is not sufficient cause for an act , since the agent could have chosen to ignore its prompting . So again , the question repeats : why did n't Susan Smith decide to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , especially considering the means she hit upon ? <p> At this point , the prosecution would have had little to say , except that Susan Smith out of her own free will simply chose not to ignore it . ( Again , the prosecution could n't say the desire was overpowering , since that would suggest she was incapacitated by an irresistible impulse ) . Finally , it turns out , there is no plausible explanation for what she did in terms of influences , factors , motives , or desires consistent with free will and , thus , with our traditional notion of responsibility . <p> A related , equally vacuous reply the prosecution might have offered is that Susan Smith is simply a monster , someone who decided naturally and dispassionately to sacrifice her children . Since , under a corollary of the free-will assumption , we are all responsible for our characters , Susan Smith could have chosen ( years ago , perhaps ) to become a very different sort of person , someone who would have resisted the impulse to kill . Since she did n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legitimately , we ask again : what led her to choose to become such a distasteful character ? Well , she just chose to become that person , comes the answer . And on such an answer rests the traditional determination of criminal and moral responsibility . <p> It is embarrassing , to say the least , that proof of criminal guilt depends on blocking plausible explanations of both behavior and character , but this , in fact , is what the law requires . For it is widely reported that , once we allow a person 's actions or character to be explained in terms of cause and effect , the primary basis for personal responsibility -- the freely willed choice -- evaporates . Unless the agent somehow acted on its own ( or created itself ) in some important respect independently of influences and circumstances , we forfeit the fundamental retributive justification for punishment . The prosecution therefore wanted the jury to believe that the essential Susan Smith -- the self/agent/controller pulling her own strings -- deserved capital punishment for an act that she alone originated . <p> Unlike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exerting an influence but itself in some essential respect uninfluenced -- is an impossibility . The causal continuum -- whether physical , biological , psychological , or social -- leaves no gaps in which such agents can reside . Locating a distinct entity in space and time guarantees that it will be causally connected to the world around it . The motto for science might be " No one gets to cause without being caused in turn " or perhaps " You ca n't have your causal cake and eat it too . " On the other hand , if science proved that some of our behavior was essentially indeterminately or randomly generated , it 's hard to see how that could serve as the basis for ascribing behavior to an intentional agent . Neither causality nor a causality , therefore , support the com-mon-sense notion of free will . <p> So much the worse for science , some might say . If the traditional concept of responsibility , both moral and criminal , requires free will , then science is obviously out of order in its critique of the law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demands of our moral concept but our common-sense notion of explanation itself . When we ask why a person has committed a particular action , we are n't necessarily asking for anything terribly technical . We just want to place the act into a context which makes it understandable and perhaps predictable next time around . To have put the prosecution on the spot by asking why Susan Smith killed her children would n't have been scientism but , rather , only healthy inquisitiveness . The answers " because she simply chose to do it out of her own free will " or " because she 's a monster " seem patent evasions since we can still reasonably want more of an explanation . On the other hand , the defense 's answer -- that a history of depression and abuse led to a tortured and confused mental state -- may or may not be true , but at least this attempts to actually account for her behavior . If we believe Susan Smith acted coldly and rationally out of selfish motives , so be it ; but we need not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- buy the notion that she chose to act out of some mysterious , uncaused capacity called free will . <p> All this does not mean , however , that Susan Smith ( or Lorena Bobbitt or the Menendez brothers ) should have been acquitted . Even if a plausible explanation of her crime rules out the freely willing agent and so undercuts the justification for retributive punishment , there are nevertheless other very good reasons to detain her . Had she been judged insane ( always unlikely given her calculated lies ) , then treatment in a secure facility would have been appropriate . Since she was judged sane , it is obviously important to protect ourselves , as well as deter others harboring similar motives , by imprisoning her . Time spent in the right sort of facility , with the right sort of interventions , might even work to ameliorate a flawed character . But the primary rationale for imposing capital punishment -- that by freely choosing to commit murder Susan Smith deserved to die -- has no force if we dispense with free will . That the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carolina , bears this out . The good citizens of that town ( and the jurors who decided Smith 's fate ) quite properly sensed -- perhaps unconsciously -- that you ca n't put her crime into a causal , explanatory context and still justify retributive punishment . <p> But are feelings of rage against a murderer and the wish for retribution never justified ? If Susan Smith killed her children simply in order to advance an affair , are we wrong to condemn her ? Obviously we are not wrong to condemn the act , whatever its causes , and it 's hard to resist the initial , angry surge of desire to impose comparable sufferings upon the perpetrator . As Robert Wright points out in The Moral Animal , such feelings are simply the naturally evolved response to a horrific violation of a central human value . They serve to ensure that such transgressions are swiftly attended to , for if reliable sanctions were not imposed , no ordered society could last for long . But whether or not we should freely indulge the retributive impulse , given what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is very much an open question . <p> That impulse , science has shown us , is emphatically not justified by the existence of a freely willing agent who deserves condemnation for having autonomously originated the act . No such agents exist anywhere -- or ever have or ever could -- since humans are as much a part of the causal continuum as molecules and machines . And even if human behavior were partially attributable to some random element , that would do nothing to endow us with originative agenthood . Therefore we must , as Wright suggests , learn to accommodate ourselves to the fact that our rage at the " scheming monster " has no metaphysical justification in free will . The desire for retribution points us in the right direction , perhaps , but we need not follow that bitter path to the end . <p> Our concept of moral responsibility need not rest on the myth of originative agency but only on the necessity for social order . We must assign credit and blame and impose legal and moral sanctions not because freely willing agents exist but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this realization sinks in , the desire to inflict comparable suffering on those proven guilty may lessen , and our attention might shift from punishment to prevention , from retribution to rehabilitation . To explain is not necessarily to excuse , but explanations can help considerably in moving us away from anger toward a more constructive response to crime and deviance . <p> By Thomas W. Clark <p> <p> Thomas W. Clark , a frequent philosophical contributor to The Humanist , has pursued graduate studies in philosophy at Tufts and Harvard universities and served as associate director of the Institute for Naturalistic Philosophy in Cambridge , Massachusetts . <p> 
##4001377 The current study examined differential patterns of interrelationships between meditators and nonmeditators on issues pertaining to psychosocial adaptation . Subjects ( N = 66 ) were randomly selected from mailing lists provided by the Association of Transpersonal Psychology or were solicited via classified advertising in the Chicago Tribune and the Dallas Morning News . The findings of the current study indicate that there are no differences between meditators and nonmeditators on level of psychosocial adaptation . However examination of the zero-order correlations between dependent measures revealed differential patterns of interrelationships within the meditator and nonmeditator groups . The findings suggest that further research is needed which expands upon the influence of meditation on psychosocial adaptation by addressing topics specific to meditative practice . The implications for the development of qualitative research methods designed to investigate psychosocial parameters in transpersonal psychology are discussed . INTRODUCTION <p> Previous literature in transpersonal psychology with the focus on meditation has generally examined the influence of meditative techniques by comparing differences between meditators and nonmeditators . Most recently , investigators have examined the influence of meditation on counseling/therapy outcome , personality development , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ document the positive influence of meditation on stress reduction ( e.g. Humphrey , 1993 ; Janowiak , 1993 ; Sethi , 1990 Beauchamp-Turner &; Levinson 1992 ) ; while others have discussed reduction of anxiety through meditation ( e.g. , Castillo , 1990 ; Abrams &; Siegel , 1978 ; Beauchamp-Turner &; Levinson , 1992 ; Alexander , et al. , 1993 ; Pearl &; Carlozzi , 1994 ; Snaith , Owens , &; Kennedy , 1992 ) . Further , researchers have suggested that meditation may be beneficial in alleviating both hostility and depression . Regarding the efficacy of various meditation techniques , the positive effects of transcendental meditation ( TM ) have been documented in virtually every area of traditional meditation research ( Staggers , Alexander &; Walton , 1994 ; Fergusson , Bonshek &; Boudigues , 1994 ; Lasalle &; Russell , 1993 ; Cranson , et al. , 1991 ) . Investigations without a nonmeditator comparison group have primarily focused on the influence of meditation on development of consciousness and altered states of consciousness ( e.g. , Comptom , 1991 ) . Shapiro 's work ( 1992 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not yet generated a significant change in the type of meditation studies published . <p> The current study sought to examine differential patterns of interrelationships between meditators and nonmeditators on issues pertaining to psychosocial adaptation . Specifically , the current study compares meditators and nonmeditators on level of psychological distress , gender stereotyping , and dogmatism . Several assumptions about the relationship between psychological distress , dogmatism and gender stereotyping formed the initial basis for the selection of these three variables . Previous research suggests that psychosocial real adaptation occurs as a function of a restricted range of viewing others , dogmatism and personal rigidity ( Millon , 1990 ) . Dogmatism has been shown to be related to racism , sexism , antiegalitarianism , and authoritarianism ( Raden , 1994 ; Sidanius , 1993 ) . Also , persons high in dogmatism have shown greater belief persistence even with evidence that contradicts their original assumptions ( Davies , 1993 ) ; exhibited more polarized attitudes ( Leone , 1989 ) ; and exhibited lower self esteem ( Fernandez , 1990 ) . <p> Previous literature has suggested that self actualization @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . According to Maslow ( 1972 ) , self-actualized persons are involved in life beyond simplistic dichotomies and allow a holistic experience of self and others . Further , they choose growth over stagnation and new insight over confirmation of the status quo . Thus , individuals who are more self-actualized would typically exhibit less dogmatism , gender stereotyping , or psychological distress ( Sakairi , 1991 ) . For the purpose of this study it was assumed that meditators as a group differ from non-meditators in the degree of self-actualization , and consequently would report lower levels of psychological distress , dogmatism , and gender stereotyping . METHODS Participants <p> Participants included 33 meditators ( 9 males , 23 females , 1 no response ) and 33 non-meditators ( 9 males , 24 females ) . No significant differences were revealed between meditators and non-meditators for age , M = 43.8 ( SD = 11.9 ) and M = 34.8 ( SD = 10.8 ) , respectively ( p > .05 ) . The total sample was primarily Caucasian ( 86.4% , n = 57 ) ; 34.8% ( n @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( n = 20 ) single , and 18.2% ( n= 12 ) divorced . No differences were found between groups for ethnicity chi 2 ( 3 , N = 64 ) = 2.29 , p > .05 or marital status chi 2 ( 5 , N = 64 ) = 8.37 , p > .05 No differences were found between groups for income , averaging $24,000 annually , chi 2 ( 7 , N = 64 ) = 13.21 ( p > .05 ) . <p> Concentrative and insight/mindfulness were the most prevalent forms of meditation , with 79% ( n = 26 ) utilizing one or both forms . However 21.2% ( n = 7 ) responded " other " ( e.g. , Tai Chi ) . The most common influences to begin meditating were personal experiences ( 39.4% , n = 13 ) and another meditator ( 21.2% , n = 7 ) . The number of days practiced per week varied within the sample , including 31.3 % ( n = 10 ) one to three days per week , 37.6% ( n = 12 ) four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ = 10 ) 7 days per week . The majority of the meditators practiced between 15 and 45 minutes ( 78.8% , n = 26 ) at each session , while only 9.1% ( n = 3 ) practiced less than 15 minutes and 12.1% ( n = 4 ) practiced longer than 45 minutes . Of the individuals currently involved in a relationship , 50% ( n = 10 ) of the sample had " significant others " who also practiced meditation . PROCEDURE <p> Participants were randomly selected from mailing lists provided by the Association of Transpersonal Psychology or were solicited via classified advertising in the Chicago Tribune and the Dallas Morning News . Participants were sent a letter providing information about the current study and a self-addressed , stamped postcard . Participants were to indicate on the postcard if they were interested in participating in the current study and the number of meditator and/or non meditator questionnaire packets they would like to receive . Thus , after the return of the postcard , packet(s) and a self-addressed stamped envelope were mailed to the individual . The questionnaire packets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a consent form for participation in the study . Also , for individuals requesting meditator packets , an additional form was included which inquired about their usual length of meditative practice , type of practice , feelings when not practicing , retreat participation , and perceived effect of meditation on everyday life . Measures <p> The Symptom Checklist 90-Revised ( SCL-90-R ; Derogatis &; Spencer , 1989 ) was utilized as a measure of psychological adaptation . The SCL-90-R is a 90-item self-report inventory measuring nine clinical dimensions of psychological distress ( e.g. , depression , anxiety , somatization , etc. ) and provides a global index of distress ( GSI ) . T-scores are available for each dimension and the GSI ( M = 50 ; SD = 10 ) . The authors have shown the SCL-90-R to have high internal consistency and reliability . <p> The Traditional Egalitarian Sex Role ( TESR ; Larsen &; Long , 1988 ) is a 20-item self-report scale measuring attitudes toward traditional-egalitarian beliefs about sex roles . Items are on a 5-point continuum from " strongly disagree " to " strongly agree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behavior . The TESR has been shown to have high internal consistency and test-retest reliability . <p> The Short-Form Dogmatism Scale ( SFDS ; Schulze , 1962 ) is a reduced version of the Rokeach 's ( 1960 ) dogmatism scale . The SFDS is a 16-item self-report scale . Responses are coded on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from " strongly disagree " to " strongly agree " ; thus higher scores reflect increased levels of dogmatism . The SFDS has been shown to have high internal consistency and test-retest reliability ( Robinson &; Shaver , 1973 ) . RESULTS Analysis of Dependent Variables Between Groups <p> A 2 x 2 ( group x gender ) MANOVA was performed to examine for differences on all indices of psychosocial adaptation ( see Table 1 for means and standard deviations ) . The analysis yielded no significant interaction ( Wilk 's F ( 3,58 ) = .86 , p = .469 ) for level of psychological distress , gender stereotyping , and dogmatism . There were no significant group ( Wilk 's F ( 3,58 ) = 1.22 , p = .31 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ = 2.53 , p = .07 ) differences for level of psychological distress , gender stereotyping or dogmatism . Analyses of Dependent Variables Within Groups <p> Interrelationships between dependent measures were examined utilizing zero-order correlations ( see Table 2 ) . For the non-meditators , analyses yielded significant correlations between increased gender stereotyping and both higher levels of psychological distress ( r = .44 , p < .01 ) and higher levels of dogmatism ( r = .59 , p < .001 ) . In contrast , for the meditator group , analyses yielded no significant correlations between indices of psychosocial adaptation ( p > .05 ) . <p> Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was utilized to explore further the interrelationships between dependent measures . The index of gender stereotyping was utilized as the criterion measure ( see Table 3 ) . To minimize between-group variability , demographic parameters were entered simultaneously in block one . Indices of dogmatism and psychological distress were entered in block 2 utilizing stepwise entry ( i.e. , entering only if contributing significant variance ) . For the nonmeditators , demographic parameters were not significant predictors of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ = .35 ) . However , both dogmatism ( R 2 change = .27 , p = .01 ) and psychological distress ( R 2 change = .09 , p = .04 ) contributed significant variance to the model . For the meditators , the demographic parameters were not predictive of gender stereotyping ( R 2 change = .19 , p = .14 ) . Indices of dogmatism and psychological distress did not contribute significant variance in prediction of gender stereotyping . CONCLUSION <p> The purpose of the present study was to examine differences between meditators and non meditators on indices of psychosocial adaptation . Further , the interrelationships between psychological distress , gender stereotyping , and dogmatism were explored within each group . The analyses of group differences revealed no significant differences between meditators and non meditators on indices of psychosocial adaptation indicating a relative degree of similarity between groups . Although findings from the analyses of group differences are inconsistent with our initial hypothesis , examination of the interrelationships between dependent measures did in fact reveal differential patterns within each group . <p> Findings from the correlational analysis within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both dogmatism and psychological distress . These findings are consistent with previous literature ( e.g. , Raden , 1994 ; Sidanius , 1993 ) which suggest that maladaptation occurs as a function of a restricted range of viewing others . However , for the non-meditators , dogmatism was not related to psychological distress . In contrast , no significant relationships were found between indices of psychosocial adaptation for the meditators . The multiple regression analyses revealed similar findings , with both dogmatism and psychological distress predicting gender stereotyping for the non-meditators , but not for the meditators . <p> What could account for the within group variability that was not detected in between-group analyses ? Although the measures utilized in the current study have proven to be both valid and reliable , limitations do exist in utilizing self-report measures to detect between group variability on sensitive issues such as gender stereotyping and dogmatism ( Isaac &; Michael , 1985 ) . Given that the participating meditators and non-meditators were both self-selected and well-educated , differences between groups could be masked due to the nature of the responses required of the participants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to be an advanced meditator to respond to questions about gender stereotyping or dogmatism in a manner that would resemble advanced levels of self-actualization . Similarly , the moral development literature clearly documents that moral reasoning , a purely cognitive expression , usually occurs at a " higher " level than moral behavior ( Gilligan , 1982 ; Kohlberg , 1984 ) . <p> The findings of the present study point towards the limitations of conventional research methodology in exploration of personality variables thought to be influenced by the practice of meditation . Although between-group analyses yielded no differences , multicollinearity existed on indices of psychosocial adaptation for the non-meditators , but not for the meditators . Future research is necessary which applies both quantitative and qualitative research methodology . Self-report measures , such as those utilized in the current study can provide a global index of psychosocial adaptation . The information obtained can then be utilized as a guide in the development of frameworks for a variety of qualitative research methods , such as participant observation or grounded theory approach . The use of qualitative research methodologies might result @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of each individual ( Dey , 1993 ; Jorgensen , 1989 ; Strauss &; Corbin , 1990 ) . Although there is a vast amount of literature on meditation and types of meditation practice , qualitative research could be utilized to determine if meditative practice differentially influences psychosocial adaptation of individuals from diverse ethnic , educational , and socioeconomic backgrounds . Due to the diversity among meditators , qualitative research might more clearly delineate the psychosocial differences between individuals within specific meditation practices . <p> 
##4001967 Section : EDITORIAL <p> Americans are a remarkably religious people . Virtually every poll measuring the state of religious belief in the United States reports that at least 90 percent of Americans possess some form of religious faith . The latest poll , conducted by Goldhaber Research Associations , reports that 90.7 percent of Americans profess to have a religion . Of these , an overwhelming majority ( 83.8 percent ) identify their religion as either Protestant ( 55.2 percent ) or Catholic ( 28.6 percent ) . These figures indicate that despite the steady growth of non-Christian religions in the United States , most Americans still describe themselves as Christians . In view of this , and as another national election day approaches , it is appropriate to give consideration to several issues facing Christians as they engage in the political process . <p> Most Christians want to be good citizens , but are confused by the demands of dual citizenship ( heaven and earth ) . As a result , they are constantly wrestling with questions about how their faith affects their politics . How politically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well as the church to achieve spiritual goals ? Does God favor the agenda of one political party over that of others ? Should the Ten Commandments be legally enforced ? When confronted with questions like these , many Christians would of course disagree on the answers , but perhaps many more would admit to being unsure of how to respond . <p> There is , to be sure , a great deal of confusion today about the guidelines for Christian engagement in the political arena . Indeed , it has been controversies over the role of Christianity in shaping the nation 's law and public policy , especially the restrictions placed on that role by the doctrine of separation of church and state , that have been among those issues at the forefront of the debate now taking place across America on the important question of who will win the right to control America 's destiny . <p> I <p> The battle now being waged to direct America 's future might best be described as a " culture war . " What is this culture war all about ? According @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Virginia who has written extensively on the subject , the culture war is essentially about " political and social hostility rooted in different systems of moral understanding . " Hunter identifies the combatants as the " orthodox " and the " progressives . " The " orthodox , " he says , are social conservatives from a variety of traditional religious perspectives , but mostly Catholics , Protestants , and Jews , who basically understand that human beings are on this earth as God 's agents to carry out His will in all dimensions of life . They see the increased secularization of America as a call to redivinize the culture , to put God back in society and culture . If political means will assist in achieving this end , so be it . America will be the better for it . <p> The " progressives , " on the other hand , are warriors from a far more diverse religious landscape . They too are Catholics , Protestants , and Jews , but are joined by many Muslims , Hindus , Buddhists , Taoists , Native Americans , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by many unbelievers . They differ from the " orthodox " in that they see religion as fundamentally a private matter rather than a public concern around which civil society should be shaped . They favor compromise in politics , and are very concerned about anyone at the political level being able to impose God 's will on others . <p> Regardless of the labels employed to classify those fighting the so-called culture war , most would agree that Americans today increasingly find themselves at odds on many important questions . Is America a secular state or a Christian state ? Is the nation becoming so secularized that it risks the very judgment of God ? Should not Christians take charge of their nation in order to bring it back to its moral senses ? Is church-state separation a help or a hindrance to the realization of a healthy America ? To what extent should our nation 's law and public policy on such issues as education , sexual immorality , and school prayer reflect religious , even biblical values ? Americans , and yes , even Christians disagree on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sides in the conflict increasingly refuse to forfeit the nation 's destiny to the other , the outcome is nothing less than a culture war . <p> If we think about it , those fighting the culture war are actually only trying to bring about a unified America . There is nothing wrong with a goal of unity , to be sure , but must it be achieved at the expense of others ' religious views ? Must those holding to a particular set of religious ideas be pushed to the periphery , freeing those of a different religious persuasion -- the victors in a culture war -- to reshape culture on their own terms ? Is religion even the basis upon which we should seek unity ? Pat Buchanan , for one , believes that it is . In 1993 , several months after the Republicans lost the presidential election to Bill Clinton , Buchanan organized and held a conference titled " Winning the Culture War . " This is certainly one approach to bringing about unity in America , but are there not other , less combative approaches ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offer competing approaches to performing their dual citizenship as Christians . These are the Reconstructionists , the Religious Right , the Civil Religionists , and the Pluralists . The first two fit Hunter 's " orthodox " category , the latter two his " progressive . " I shall argue that we err not so much in being " orthodox " or " progressives , " but in using religion as the primary basis for cultural and political unity . The first three approaches commit this fatal error ; only the Pluralists seek unity on other , less specifically religious grounds , which I shall suggest is the more biblical approach . <p> II <p> Reconstructionism is a growing Christian movement which believes that the law given by God for the political and legal ordering of ancient Israel is intended for all people in all ages ; therefore , the United States is duty bound to install a political system based entirely on biblical law . Reconstructionism , which claims 20 million adherents in America but probably is considerably smaller , actively seeks to unify the nation by imposing a theocracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role of a nation by God through divinely selected spokespersons , has many exemplars in the modem world . Saudi Arabia , Iran , and Iraq are nations with obvious theocratic tendencies . But the Reconstructionists advocate what may be the purest form of theocracy . According to Rousas J. Rushdoony , a leader of the movement , the society that fails to implement a biblical theocracy " places itself on death row : it is marked for judgment . " The Reconstructionsts ' revamped polity would require capital punishment for adulterers , homosexuals , and incorrigible children . No profession of faith other than Christianity would be tolerated . Were it otherwise , say Rushdoony , " in the name of toleration , the believer is asked to associate on a common level of total acceptance with the atheist , the pervert , and criminal and the adherents of other religions . " In other words , religious liberty , the right of all citizens to worship according to the demands of their consciences , would cease . All heresy would be stamped out through the enforcement of biblical law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contributions . America would be a democracy in name only . <p> From a biblical standpoint , Reconstructionism is problematic because of the dispensational character of the Old Testament order . Christ 's announcement in Matthew 5:17 that He had come to fulfill the Law indicated that he was the One to whom all of the Law ( civil , moral , and ceremonial ) had pointed and was to find its ultimate fulfillment . In other words , all of the holy demands of the Law , all of the strict requirements of being a nation ruled by God , found their completion in Jesus Christ , who alone could satisfy them . Add to this Christ 's admonition to obey the Roman secular authorities , and the fact that He never took steps to reinaugurate Israel 's old theocratic system , and we are left with the conclusion that America should avoid , on biblical grounds , constructing a theocracy based on the teaching of the Old Testament . <p> III <p> What we have come to know in our day as the Religious Right , dominated organizationally by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but a more subtle yet pervasive infusion of Christian principles into the way the nation operates . In many ways the rhetoric of the Religious Right is indistinguishable from that of the Re-constructionists . Jerry Falwell , for example , asserts that " God promoted America to a greatness as no other nation has ever enjoyed because her heritage is one of a republic government by laws predicated on the Bible . " David Barton , in his widely circulated book , The Myth of Separation , argues that the Founding Fathers intended " that this nation should be a Christian nation ; not because all who lived in it were Christians , but because it was founded on and would be governed by Christian principles . " In the Religious Right 's program for America , law would become " Christianized , " and those outside the fold would , over time , become convinced of the merits of a nation constructed on biblical principles . Non-Christians would not be denied the right to worship privately according to their own beliefs , but they would be expected to submit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quarters . There would be Christian prayer in the public schools , Christian symbols in the public square , public monies available to religious enterprises ( with most going to those operated by the culturally dominant faith , Christianity ) , and governments in which the principle seats were held by Christians . <p> As evangelical scholar Richard V. Pierard notes , " The Religious Right . . . are not willing to accept the idea that we have a secular state . . . . The genius of the American system is that in religious matters the government remains neutral . This environment allows all to practice their faiths freely and not impose them through government . " <p> The real failure , then , of the program of the Religious Right is its failure to deal with religious pluralism . It ignores our nation 's increasingly pluralistic makeup in favor of a program to create political unity on distinctively religious terms . Indeed , non-Christian religions in the United States -- Jews , Muslims , Buddhists , Hindus , and others -- now claim an increasing percentage of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christ would approve of a nation 's neutral status toward all religions , a framework which gives no legal preference whatsoever to Christianity . Christ never suggested in his own day that the Roman Empire should become Christian ; in fact , he advocated submission to a form of government that embraced emperor worship . When Christ said in John 18:36 : " My kingdom is not of this world , " he was affirming that Christian witness is not centered on the making of temporal Christian kingdoms , but on the making of Christian persons who will enjoy an everlasting heavenly kingdom . There is little reason to think that the emphasis for Christians today should be any different . <p> IV <p> It is natural that Reconstructionists and the Religious Right , as representatives of the " orthodox " in today 's culture war , would attempt to unite America around her culturally dominant faith , Christianity . Others , however , seeking to be more accommodating to the growing presence in America of non-Christian religions , have sought in a less particularistic way to find a set of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Benjamin Franklin called " public religion , " or what has become known in our own day as " civil religion , " represents an effort to locate that common ground , that shared set of symbols that can be transmitted across regions , generations , and peoples in America . The search for a civil religion perhaps springs from the belief of most Americans that God is sovereign over their nation , that He is the one who gives meaning to their shared existence , and that all Americans must in some way bind together as a people in recognition of this fundamental reality . <p> The symbols and ceremonies of civil religion include the national motto , " In God We Trust " ; the inclusion of " God " in the pledge of allegiance ; the display of the American flag in church auditoriums ; the blending of God and country in national holidays such as Independence Day , Memorial Day , and Thanksgiving ; and the now common presidential statement appended to virtually all public addresses : " God Bless America . " <p> Many Christians see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civil religion and even to blending them . Many , for example , heartily approved of President Bush 's speech at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in 1992 , which included this statement : " In the Persian Gulf we fought for good versus evil -- it was that clear to me . . . . And American stood fast so that liberty could stand tall . Today I want to thank you for helping America , as Christ ordained , to be a light unto the world . " Bush 's statement points out one of the dangers of civil religion : it sometimes uses religion as a tool to legitimize governmental policies . Hence it politicizes religion to make it a function of the nation . Examined in this light , we might say that Bush 's statement trivialized religion by making it serve only a small segment of the world 's population instead of relating it to universal truths applicable to all people . How do we know that God approved of America 's attack against Iraq ? Perhaps God would have preferred to spare the lives of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applying the $64 billion price tag to more humanitarian purposes . No one , I submit , can answer these questions with the kind of certainty presupposed in Bush 's statement . <p> Since one of the major reasons for civil religion is to unify people behind government , there also is always the danger that government will abandon its " neutral " role in dealing with the nation 's diversity of religions . This is evident in the perennial call for more prayer in the public schools . Prayer in a religiously plural society must inevitably be nonsectarian or content neutral and hence becomes an aspect of civil religion . For many people of faith , generic , watered-down prayers are a sacrilege , and they would prefer no prayer to bland prayer crafted to unify and offend as few of the listeners as possible . <p> It is hard to be against anything that can help to unify ' America . Civil religion should not be neglected out of hand ; it might have a significant role in bringing the American people together . But Christians must never allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . As John Swomley has written , the " god " of civil religion can be " a very small and exclusive deity , a friend to American power and prestige , and the object of a national folk religion with little claim to truth . " <p> V <p> Another available option toward unifying the country , more palatable to " progressives " than to the " orthodox , " is simply to affirm that religious pluralism is real , that people understand ultimate concerns differently , and that the freedom to disagree on fundamental religious questions is not in itself undesirable -- in short , recognizing that we will never create an earthly " utopia , " and that we must lay aside divisive religious questions and concentrate on seeking to unify politically around a core of more secularly-oriented concerns such as peace , justice , liberty , and equality . Adherents of this approach might be called " Pluralists . " <p> Many Christians would object to this alternative on the grounds that God 's main concern is the salvation of all people , that He " desires @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowledge of the truth " ( 1 Tim . 2:4 ) . Why not , they would argue , use all available means , including political means , to bring about what is God 's will ? The answer to this is to recognize that Christ taught that spiritual goals and political goals are not synonymous . In Matthew 22:21 , Christ said that Christians are to " render to Caesar the things that are Caesar 's ; and to God the things that are God 's . " Christ here was affirming that spiritual commitments are to be distinguished from political commitments . <p> Christ perfectly modeled this distinction between spiritual and temporal ends . He never advocated the overthrow of the Roman government , or even its adjustment , in favor of a more theocratic order . He never identified Himself with any particular form of government , nor did He even remotely suggest that it was the duty of human government to aid His mission . Christ was amazingly unconcerned with much of what falls under the rubric of politics . He preached against tyranny and oppression , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men to Himself and it was apparently a secondary matter to Him what specific form of government ( monarchy , democracy , etc. ) men live under . The temporal was for him far less important than the eternal ; thus He focused on the spiritual rather than the physical aspects of Kingdom building . The idea of a " Christian " nation , it seems , was foreign to him . <p> If Christ was largely unconcerned with many of the details of politics and far more concerned with soul winning , perhaps Christians should be too . Christians in America , it seems , frequently become too concerned with the need for government to become identified with Christian principles . Many Christians wrongly believe that Christianity will flourish in a more Christian political environment . History shows the opposite to be true . Christianity grew more rapidly than at any time in history in the first three centuries after Christ 's death when Christians were persecuted for not bowing the knee to Caesar . Christians understandably sought more favorable political conditions for themselves . By the fourth century , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it by means of outright persecution ; the emperor Constantine placed it on a neutral basis with other religions in 313 A.D. , and in 380 A.D. Theodosius made it the official religion of the empire . The faith thereafter lost much of its vitality , distinctiveness , and vigor , owing to its preferred political status . Merged with government , Christianity became consumed with temporal affairs -- armies , police , crime , taxation , commerce , economics , etc. -- and less focused on the mission outlined for it by Christ and the apostles . In its witness , the Church gradually began to rely less on the power of its spiritual message than on the power of the sword to enforce its political will . The persecuted had turned persecutor . More recently , much the same phenomenon occurred in China following the Communist Revolution in 1949 . An immediate crackdown on religion that lasted some twenty-five years resulted in the greatest spread of Christianity to have occurred in China before or since . <p> I would hope not to be misunderstood here . I am not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , politics is part of the moral universe , and Christians are rightly concerned with morality . In their daily lives , Christians are to be Christian citizens , not merely Christians . But because the Bible does not require that political and governmental affairs be Christian , those who are Christians are free to join with non-Christians in our democratic form of government to make laws that from the perspective of the American people as a whole , not from the perspective of their own interpretation of the Bible , best ensure the common good . In this process , negotiation and compromise are not dirty words , and Christians should be satisfied with laws that fall short of biblical standards as they understand them . Biblical standards may dictate the contributions that Christians make toward the formation of laws , but Christians do not fail God if the negotiated product , even laws on such controversial areas as abortion , school prayer , and homosexuality , do not meet their standards . The goal , even duty , of Christians should be to assist the government in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a shared morality , not to set up a Kingdom of God on earth . <p> Meanwhile , Christians should vigorously pursue the spiritual mission of the Church , which is to do good to all people ( Galatians 6:10 ) , and to spread the gospel ( Matthew 28:19-20 ) . They might call upon the government to assist them in the first task , but not in the second . They can expect government to assist those who struggle against the common enemies of man -- tyranny , poverty , disease , and war -- but to expect the government , or to attempt to use the government . to spread the gospel is a perspective that is absolutely foreign to the Bible . In fulfilling the first task , Christians participate with other citizens who share membership in our nation . In fulfilling the second , they look only to the Christian community , what the apostle Peter called a " holy nation " ( 1Peter 2:9 ) . This approach pays a healthy respect to the principle of separation between church and state . If Christians want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to make America a religious state with the authority to define its religious character in ways that might impede their ability to determine God 's truth for themselves and to share it with others . <p> VI <p> Many of Hunter 's " orthodox " are victims of the rising tide of American nationalism , which seeks to express itself in terms of religious faith and which would make Christianity in America a culture religion or tribal faith . As James E. Wood , Jr . has said , " To be a good American and a good Christian are not one and the same and can never be . Americanism can never be synonymous with true Christian faith . God and Christianity are not something our nation can possess or which can be contained within our national life ; nor is God some national resource we can harness or use to serve our national interests . God remains always above culture and nation , which are under His divine judgment . The mere claim of any nation that it is on God 's side is of no real consequence at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blasphemy than godliness . " To give to Caesar that which belongs only to God is surely one of the great profanations of modern man . The genius of the American tradition is the affirmation that authentic religious faith is a voluntary thing . True religious commitment does not issue from political initiative or legislative decree , but only from the voluntary responses of free men to God 's calling . <p> Christians should never take pride in being engaged in a culture war . The very language of culture war is self-defeating . It pushes people into opposite camps instead of encouraging them to seek areas of common ground . The " us against them " approach hardly lives up to the love and compassion that Christ called His people to live by . Christians are better off encouraging all Americans to be full and equal participants in the political process , not to see who wins , but to share in crafting a government that best serves all of the people . It was Reinhold Niebuhr who said that it is the achievement of democracy , not a sectarian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public philosophy . In the end , Christians ' greatest priority should be the gospel , not creating a Christian state . The result might be a more but never completely Christian culture , but one achieved through persuasion , not law . <p> By DEREK H. DAVIS <p> 
##4000054 Section : Features Research sheds new light on the origin of humanity 's most intimate quadruped ally <p> The poor dog , " wrote poet Lord Byron in a flight of emotion , " in life the firmest friend , The first to welcome , foremost to defend . " And certainly , few animal lovers would care to differ . The dog , after all , is commonly referred to as man 's best friend , and unquestionably serves a wide range of human purposes . Thanks to artificial selection , there are dogs that guard houses and dogs that herd livestock , dogs that locate game birds for shooting and dogs that retrieve game birds that have been shot , dogs that pull sleds and dogs that sit languidly in human laps . <p> Clearly , the relationship between dog and human runs deep in our culture and our psyches . No surprise , then , that the origin of the domestic dog has long been a matter for speculation and inquiry . But now , new techniques of molecular biology are allowing researchers to trace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways previously unavailable to traditional wildlife biologists , taxonomists , and archeologists . Investigators are making great strides in understanding the origin of the domestic dog , even though results are often subject to dispute and controversy , as might be expected of research on a creature that is genetically complex . <p> " No other species is so diverse , " says Robert Wayne , a University of California-Los Angeles evolutionary biologist who has just completed the largest study ever on dog genetics and evolution . " Dogs are a model for how rapid morphological change might take place in a natural population . " They also offer clues as to how genetic vigor can be maintained in domestic species . <p> One of the key questions of dog evolution focuses on the source : From what wild creature did the domestic dog arise ? Charles Darwin suggested that the close relationship between wolves , coyotes , and jackals-all of which can interbreed-so muddies questions of which species yielded the dog that " we shall probably never be able to ascertain the dog 's origins with certainty . " Austrian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1950s by suggesting that some dog breeds may derive from jackals , others from wolves . Other biologists have proposed that dogs sprang from coyotes . Archeological evidence collected at ancient human homesites does not help , because the bones of animals in the process of domestication generally do not reveal intermediate steps between wild forebears and modern domestic animals . <p> New genetic evidence marshaled by Wayne and his colleagues lends strong support to the wolf advocates . As Wayne 's team reported in the 13 June Science , they analyzed mitochondrial DNA from 140 domestic dogs representing 67 breeds and five crossbreeds , then compared the dogs ' sequences with DNA from 162 wolves collected at 27 localities worldwide as well as with DNA from five coyotes and eight Simien , two golden , and two black-backed jackals . <p> " The genetic data strongly suggest that the wolf is the progenitor of the domestic dog , " Wayne says . Dog gene sequences differ from those of wolves by at most 12 nucleotide substitutions , whereas dog sequences differ from coyote and jackal sequences by at least 20 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " very different genetically from wolves and dogs , " Wayne says . <p> Identifying these genetic differences did more than establish the wolf as ancestor to the domestic dog . It also yielded further conclusions about dog evolution that surprised even Wayne himself and engendered dispute with other experts . <p> Based on studies of canid bones found at human archeological sites , researchers have traditionally placed the domestic dog 's origins at about 10,000-14,000 years ago . As discussed in the Science article , Wayne and his colleagues ' molecular data indicate that the dog actually is much older . Wayne 's lab did a smaller study of wolf and dog nuclear DNA which showed that the two animals differ by only 1-2% of their gene sequences . Because fossil data show that wolves and coyotes , which differ genetically by 7.5% , diverged approximately 1 million years ago , Wayne calculates that the genetic difference between wolf and dog suggests that they separated about 135,000 years ago . If his conclusion is correct , then the dog is by far humanity 's oldest domestic animal . The second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10,000 years ago . <p> Such a surprising assertion has inevitably spawned controversy . If wolves and dogs diverged when Wayne suggests , some experts ask , then why does the archeological record fail to show morphological differences between wolf and dog fossils until about 14,000 years ago ? Wayne guesses that a phenotypic divergence between the two animals began only after humanity converted from hunter-gatherer cultures to more agricultural societies about 10,000-15,000 years ago , imposing new selective regimes on dogs . <p> Darcy Morey , an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville whose doctoral dissertation focused on the evolution of humankind 's relationship with the dog , disagrees with Wayne 's interpretation of the evidence . " How could so fundamental an ecological change occur between wild and domestic populations without altering the animals ' size and form ? " Morey asks . <p> Wayne 's research is " an elegant study , " geneticist Stephen O'Brien says , but it presumes that the mitochondrial DNA clock runs at a constant rate through time . " That might not be correct , " says O'Brien , chief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Frederick , Maryland . O'Brien , who has done genetic studies on wild and domestic cats , says that calculating precise dates is difficult , particularly if altered sex ratios or population bottlenecks affect a species ' evolution . <p> Wayne agrees that mitochondrial DNA , which evolves rapidly and at uneven rates of change , gives only a rough estimate of the evolutionary relationship between species . But , because mitochondrial DNA does mutate rapidly , he believes that it is the best currently available method for gauging genetic change . He admits that his study may inflate the date of origin for the domestic dog , but he contends that his evidence is nevertheless correct in indicating that the dog did arise long before the date ascribed to it by archeological evidence . Wayne plans to test micro-satellites , a set of fast-evolving nuclear genes , to confirm the mitochondrial DNA results . Wolves become dogs <p> Regardless of when wolves came into the human domain , the relationship wrought fundamental changes on the wolf , remolding the wild animal . Most notably , dog skulls , teeth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An adult dog with the same head size as an adult wolf has a 20% smaller brain , says Ray Coppinger , a professor of biology at Hampshire College in Amherst , Massachusetts , who has spent years studying dog evolution and behavior . And an adult dog of the same weight as an adult wolf has a 20% smaller head . Also , some physical traits that do not appear in wolves are common in dogs , including a sickle-shaped tail , floppy ears , and piebald color patterns . <p> Dogs and wolves differ in their behavior as well . For example , female dogs usually come into heat twice yearly , but wolves only once . Moreover , many adult dogs beg for food , a behavior typical of wolf puppies but not of adults . Dogs greet and lick their human masters the way wolf pups do their elders . <p> Some of the physical traits characteristic of certain dog breeds , such as floppy ears and rounded profiles , do appear in wolves , but only as pups . This appearance of youthful wolf traits in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immature . <p> A hunter trains his laborador retriever by throwing decoys that the dog is ordered to return . By modifying through artificial selection the innate behavior of the dog 's wolf ancestor , such as the urge to chase prey , humankind has produced a domestic animal of many abilities . <p> Morey suggests that retention of juvenile morphological and behavioral traits by adult dogs was due to natural , rather than artificial , selection . Presumably , dog domestication began when humans captured wolf pups and raised them as pets . In the wild , mature wolves leave the natal pack to seek mates and start their own packs , or they challenge the dominant animals in their packs and take over . Animals that did this to human masters would likely be killed , giving them little opportunity to contribute to the gene pool of the domestic dog . <p> The wolves that survived in the human environment and gave rise to dogs probably were individuals that preserved into adulthood the submission that wolf pups demonstrate toward adult wolves . This selection for submission presumably led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that successfully adapted to life in the shadow of humankind . " The consistent appearance of these traits in dogs living within so many different human cultures suggests that selection pressures broader than cultural ones brought about the changes , " Morey says . <p> Coppinger suspects that the genetic changes that allowed behavioral adaptation to the human environment led as well to the morphological changes characteristic of dogs , because some physical and behavioral changes may be genetically linked . Wayne agrees . " A lot of characters are linked genetically , " he says . " One change can affect various characteristics . Some things , like skull length , are controlled by many genes . If you change one gene or group of genes , that can affect several characteristics . " Whether the theory holds true for dog behavior and morphology remains to be proved , Wayne adds . <p> One experiment conducted in Russia in the 1960s and 1970s supports Coppinger 's ideas about a link between morphological and behavioral changes . D. K. Belyaev deliberately bred silver foxes , a subspecies of the red fox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Institute of Cytology and Genetics , was seeking to develop animals suitable for fur ranching . <p> Belyaev observed that female silver foxes that were less aggressive than average and that lacked a fear of humans-necessary traits for tameness-also came into estrus and bore young independent of seasons . " The reorganization of the genetic basis of reproduction ... might have evolved through selection for certain behavioral responses , which may be especially characteristic of the early stages of domestication , " Belyaev wrote in the journal Genetics and Physiology in 1977 . <p> More telling still in terms of a genetic linkage between behavioral and morphological traits is the fact that , during 20 generations of selective breeding for tameness , Belyaev 's foxes developed morphological traits familiar among domestic dogs but not found in wild canids : hooked tails , drooping ears , twice-a-year breeding , and , in some cases , black-and-white piebald coats . The question of where <p> The subject of dog evolution is rich with unanswered questions , a garden of inquiry for the evolutionary biologist . In addition to determining which wild species yielded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out on his genetic studies , had hoped that his research would help to locate the area of the globe in which dogs first appeared . But when he tried to link dog gene sequences to those of living wolf populations , he failed . He could not even determine whether dogs sprang from wolves once or several times . <p> One expert contends that no single point of origin exists . Stanley Olsen , a retired anthropologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson and author of the 1985 book Origins of the Domestic Dog , says that fossil evidence from hundreds of human archeological sites in Europe , the Near East , and Asia suggests that dogs evolved from different wolf populations in different places at different times . Olsen believes that large dogs may have derived from the large wolves of northern Europe , whereas small ones came from Asian and Near Eastern wolves . <p> Yet another study further complicates the issue by proposing three separate dog lineages . Ben Koop , a biologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia , has been researching the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The ancestors of these animals crossed the dry Bering Strait with humans during the most recent Ice Age . <p> Using phylogenetic analysis on museum specimens of these Native American dogs , Koop com-pared the specimens ' mitochondrial gene sequences with those of museum-specimen and living wolves , coyotes , and foxes and of living domestic dogs . He found that gene sequences from the Native American dogs grouped together . The Native American dogs were more closely related to wolves than to domestic dogs , possibly because wolves and Native American dogs interbred occasionally . <p> Similarly , Koop found that all domestic dog breeds form a single group distinct from that of Native American dogs . That suggests , he says , that domestic dogs have a single , rather than multiple , origin , but arose apart from Native American dogs . But Koop also found an exception-the Arctic elkhound apparently evolved separately from all other dog breeds . It is the only breed known to have done so . <p> Koop 's research , by suggesting three dog lineages , so complicates theories about dog origin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " I 'm confused . It 's new data that provides a new perspective , but it clouds the issue . You have to remember we have preliminary results based on what DNA we can get out of old museum hides . The material we had was pretty beat up . " <p> Wayne 's studies suggest that the dog 's complicated evolutionary history has yielded an animal of great genetic diversity . Even recognized dog breeds show remarkable genetic variation . Part of this diversity , Wayne thinks , stems from intermittent breeding that occurred between dogs and wolves even after domestication , providing raw material for artificial selection under human control and giving the dog great evolutionary plasticity . <p> The role that backcrossing with wolves played in the dog 's genetic vigor may serve as a model for artificial selection , Wayne 's work suggests . Domestic plants and animals whose feral forebears are now extinct can not avail themselves of genetic enrichment from wild populations , presumably putting a limit on how much they can be modified by artificial selection in the future . " Consequently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ article , " the preservation of wild progenitors may be a critical issue in the continued evolution of domestic plants and animals . " <p> ILLUSTRATIONS <p> By Jeffrey Cohn <p> <p> Jeffrey Cohn , a Maryland science writer , is a frequent contributor to BioScience . <p> 
##4000055 Section : Features Can genetics research help us to develop a picture of extinct creatures that left no fossils ? <p> One of the great conundrums of evolution concerns an event known as the Cambrian Explosion , an outburst of evolutionary productivity that , in about 20 million years , gave rise to all modern animal phyla some 550 million years ago . This event firmly roots all living creatures not only in that ancient time , but also in the darkness of a scientific mystery . All known Pre-Cambrian animal fossils-which admittedly are few in number-are of creatures of such simplicity that investigators from paleontologists to evolutionary biologists do not understand how they could have given rise to the more complex phyla of the Cambrian . Most of these species probably existed at the organizational level of modern jellyfish , in which fewer than a dozen specialized cell types form a conglomerate that functions as a single organism . More advanced animals , such as mammals , are composed of as many as 200 different cell types and many distinct tissues . <p> The fact that Pre-Cambrian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Cambrian Explosion suggests that more complex animals occurred in the Pre-Cambrian than the fossil record indicates . Some indirect evidence supports this possibility , including fossilized burrows and grooves in Pre-Cambrian ocean substrates that resemble the tracks of crawling worms . <p> What these more complex creatures were may never be known , but new evidence from developmental biology , based on the study of genes that play pivotal roles in early development in a wide spectrum of animal species , is providing some clues . " It 's doing paleontology without fossils , " says Sean Carroll , a molecular biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Wisconsin-Madison . " We 're drawing a picture of something no one has ever seen . " <p> Carroll and his colleagues are using the techniques of molecular biology to chart a time crucial to the history of life . In a sense , the team is practicing genetic paleontology , sifting through the genetic machinery of modern phyla to find genes that offer clues about what certain unknown extinct creatures were like in a fossil-poor past . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their work on the genes that control the development of appendages has provided a new perspective on the common ancestor of modern living things , the nadir of the Cambrian explosion . A Pre-Cambrian survivor <p> The gene on which Carroll and his team have focused is called Distal-less , or Dll . This gene directs cells to create organs that bud off from a main body axis , including such appendages as legs and antennae . For example , developmental biologists have long known that Dll controls the development of the distal portion of insect limbs , that is , the portion farthest from the body . The gene encodes a homeodomain protein , one of a family of transcription factors that , among other functions , act to define body axes in vertebrates and invertebrates . The Dll protein in turn activates other genes that govern limb formation . However , the pathway by which Dll controls downstream genes remains unknown , says Jennifer Grenier , a researcher in Carroll 's lab . <p> Dll itself is turned on by the two genetic pathways that control formation of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's expression also is governed by homeotic proteins . For example , in Drosophila , Dll expression for legs and wings occurs in the thoracic limb-forming disks , but expression in the abdomen is repressed by homeotic proteins . As a result , these segments lack appendages . <p> Scientists have known for a long time about the role of Dll in insect limbs . However , Carroll and his colleagues discovered only two years ago that the gene occurs broadly in other animals , initiating the development of appendages in crustaceans , as Carroll 's team reported in the 24 November 1995 Science . Now , as described in the 13 May 1997 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , Carroll and his team have shown that Dll is more pervasive within the animal kingdom than anyone has previously suggested . This finding yields new understanding about the origin of appendages and about the Pre-Cambrian precursor to modern phyla . Excavating a gene <p> To test for the activity of the Dll gene and its orthologs , collectively known as Dlx , the research team used Dll homeodomain antibody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is broadly reactive across phyla . The researchers found Dll expression in the distal portion of the developing antennae and lobopods-primitive locomotory appendages-of the onychophoran species Peripa-topsis capensis and in the antennae and the distal portions of all developing parapodia-short processes on the segments of some annelids-in the polychaete Chaetopterus vario-pedatus . The gene also is expressed in the footlike ampullae of larval ascidians , in the siphons of adult ascidians , and in the spines and larval tube feet of sea urchins , which are echinoderms . <p> The team found Dll or its orthologs expressed in all six phyla that they tested , Carroll says , including three deuterostome phyla-chordates , enchinoderms , and urochordates-and three protostome phyla-arthropods , onycho-phora , and annelids . Because deuterostomes and proto-stomes differ fundamentally in the way in which their eggs undergo cleavage , they probably took separate evolutionary pathways hundreds of millions of years ago , suggesting only the most tenuous relationship between the two groups . This discovery raises the question of why such distantly related animals would use the same genetic mechanism for producing such divergent outgrowths . <p> These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the formation of appendages , suggesting an ancestral link among them that dates to the Pre-Cambrian era . Clockwise from top , an onychophoran , a polychaete , an ascidian , and an echinoderm . <p> The researchers offer two answers to this question : Either each phylum independently coopted Dll genes for appendage formation from some other function , or Dll expression along the proximodistal axes arose only once , long ago , in some unknown creature that was the common ancestor of all modern phyla . Carroll and his colleagues lean toward the second explanation because , by requiring only one adoption of Dll to appendage formation , it is the more parsimonious explanation . <p> In taking this view , the researchers are suggesting a major change in the interpretation of appendage origin . Prior to the development of modern molecular biology , comparative anatomy was the primary means for investigating such elements of evolution as the origin of appendages . These traditional studies-which , for example , compared the anatomy of a vertebrate 's leg with that of an insect 's leg-long ago led to a consensus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ independently of one another . For example , a bird 's foot might be homologous to that of a dinosaur , but no one would suggest that a bird 's foot is a homologue of a spider 's leg . <p> And yet , Carroll 's studies indicate a direct genetic link between a spider 's leg and a bird 's , or a human 's . The Dll expression patterns suggest that the fundamental genetic mechanism for appendages arose once in an ancestor common to all six phyla . The fact that Dll is common to all six phyla that Carroll and his colleagues studied also suggests that the mechanism arose a long time ago . " This stuff , " says Carroll , " was in place by the Cambrian Explosion . " And that being so , then perhaps the unknown common Pre-Cambrian ancestor of modern phyla was not the simple , perhaps tubular , but definitely featureless creature that scientists have long speculated that it was . Perhaps , instead , it had appendages after all . <p> In the Proceedings article , Carroll and his colleagues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organ or simple locomotory appendages . This may have given it a tremendous advantage over limbless competitors hunting limbless prey . If so , appendages-and the Dll gene-may have been the foundation of an evolutionary arms race that led to the Cambrian Explosion . The appearance of appendages for feeding , swimming , predation , respiration , and other functions might have sped evolution along in what Carroll calls a " snowball analogy-as early life diversified , you get more roots for further diversification . " A different point of view <p> Carroll and his colleagues admit that they are making a leap in suggesting that the common , Pre-Cambrian ancestor of today 's phyla may have borne appendages . The idea that the creature might have had an outgrowth such as antennae would , as developmental biologist Brian Hall of Dalhousie University in Halifax , Nova Scotia , pointed out in the 4 July Science , " have been a total heresy 10 years ago . " But the idea now is becoming increasingly acceptable in the face of the genetic evidence . <p> But not acceptable to everyone . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For example , Nipam Patel , a University of Chicago and Howard Hughes Medical Institute biologist who studies the genetics of limb formation , says that even if the gene occurred in a Pre-Cambrian common ancestor , " What the gene was used for is still hard to decipher . " The application of a gene can vary from organism to organism , he points out . <p> For example , in the protochordate amphioxus , Dll is expressed in the epidermis and the central nervous system . However , in vertebrates-whose five or six Dll homologues probably orginated from an ancestral gene that resembled the Dll of amphioxus-the gene is expressed in the mesoderm , although it is not expressed there in amphioxus . So , although it may occur across six phyla , Patel says , " we still do n't know what Distal-less does in these different organisms . " And , he says , we certainly can not know how the gene functioned in a long-extinct species . <p> The dark-rimmed oval at the top of this photograph of a mouse embryo is a limb bud . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also plays a role in limb formation in a wide range of other phyla , as revealed by recent research at the University of Wisconsin and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute . <p> On a note of caution , Carroll 's team suggests in the Proceedings report that one explanation for the variety of Dll expressions may be that the gene pre-dates the appendage-bearing common ancestor and that the gene initially may have been expressed in the central nervous system before a genetic shift caused it to become involved in appendage formation . " This suggests , " the team writes , " that genetic components required for the genetic machinery for appendage formation evolved long before these structures arose . " The gene was then , they suggest , coopted for limb development sometime in the Pre-Cambrian and has been fulfilling that role ever since . <p> Carroll accepts that although his research provides rich food for thought and speculation , in the end how Dll was expressed in the Pre-Cambrian ancestor of modern phyla will remain unknown until fossil evidence appears . The wait for the fossil may be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fossilization among Pre-Cambrian animals , the role of Dll in that lost era may remain forever shrouded in mystery . <p> By Roger L. DiSilvestro <p> 
##4000453 Section : EDUCATION POLICY <p> There is no question that the cost of a college degree is increasing rapidly . An oft-cited 1996 study by the General Accounting Office found that tuition and fees at public institutions have increased some 234 percent since 1980 while family income and the general inflation rate have increased only about 80 percent over the same period . Costs at private colleges and universities have fared little better , increasing more than 220 percent . <p> Many reasons have been given for the increasing costs of higher edition . Some of the most persuasive include the increased demand for college degrees , higher overhead costs associated with increased faculty research , recent reductions in state support of public institutions , and federal student aid programs that indirectly subsidize schools . These all are important factors that increase costs ; however , there is another reason not often mentioned . Colleges and universities , particularly elite private universities , exercise a certain degree of monopoly power that allows them to charge each individual student a higher price than would be the case otherwise . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ costs . However , the emphasis is placed on the last one , the monopolistic power of schools . The Reasons for Increasing Costs <p> Increased value of a college degree . The most important reason college costs have escalated is that the value of a college education has increased . In fact , according to the General Accounting Office the average college graduate earned about 43 percent more than the average high school graduate did in 1980 . Today , the difference in earnings between these same two groups is more than 70 percent . Therefore , more and more families are finding it necessary to send their children to college so they will have a better opportunity to succeed in the job market . At the same time , the college age population in general has increased . This increased demand for higher education has driven up the price of college just as increased demand for any commodity drives up the price if that demand is not met with a sufficiently increased supply . <p> Increased research at universities . Another factor affecting tuition costs at many colleges and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a college or university today is largely a function of the publishing prowess of the institution 's professors . Publishing requires research , which requires time . This means that professors are doing less teaching and more research . Fewer hours at the lectern for each professor means either that course and class selection are reduced , which forces students to take longer to finish a degree , or that more professors are required on staff , which forces the institution to spend more for salaries . Charles Sykes made this point in his excellent 1988 book , Profscam . Either way , the result is higher fixed or overhead costs , which typically are passed on to students and parents through higher tuition and fees . <p> Reduced state funding for public institutions . In addition , the current era of fiscal austerity in government has meant slower growth in state budgets , which often has meant slower growth in financial support of public universities . According to Department of Education statistics , state government funds accounted for 46.3 percent of public institution revenues in 1980 . By 1993 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been the only recourse for public institutions simultaneously faced with increased demand and shrinking state support . <p> Federal programs that facilitate family debt . Federal programs meant to assist students facing steep college costs have themselves added to the rise in tuition . Starting with passage of the Higher Education Act of 1965 , the federal government has guaranteed student loans extended by private banks . The Student Loan Marketing Association ( Sallie Mae ) was established in 1972 as a government-sponsored enterprise to establish a secondary market in student loans . In addition , a limited direct government loan program was established in 1993 . These loan programs not only facilitate indebtedness , but also boost the scale of that indebtedness by encouraging steeper tuition increases . As Thomas Donlan recently wrote in Barron 's magazine , " The faculty and staff Can vote themselves higher salaries and more resources if the only consequence is that students and parents just have to sign on the dotted line to borrow some more money . " With federal debt assistance so readily available , schools have no incentive to control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Increased demand , increased research , and reduced state funding all affect the " sticker " price of a college degree -- the advertised tuition that a school charges . However , federal programs ( and to a lesser extent private scholarships and institutional aid ) that subsidize students directly affect not only the sticker price of college but also the actual price paid by a student and his family . Most students and their families do not pay the full sticker price just as few people pay the full sticker price for a new automobile . In fact , thanks to subsidized loans , institutional scholarships , state subsidies , and federal grants , schools can usually get away with charging each student a different price . Thus , the same education typically costs every student a different amount . <p> The ability to charge different students different prices is known in economic terms as price discrimination . Only firms with monopolistic power are able to engage in price discrimination . The result of price discrimination is that colleges are able to charge each student exactly as much as he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem fair and financial aid is often touted as " leveling the playing field , " the fact is that price discrimination rarely benefits any consumers , even those with low incomes . To understand this it is important first to understand the basis of every economic transaction that takes place in the marketplace . <p> Everyone who takes part in any economic transaction does so because he believes he will be better off after the deal than before . Why otherwise should he engage in the trade ? For example , if you , the student , decide to purchase a semester of classes at a particular school for $10,000 then you have made a decision that at present that semester of classes is worth more to you than holding on to the $10,000 . If this were not the case then you would be better off holding on to the cash or making another purchase . The extra value you receive from that transaction -- above and beyond the $10,000 paid -- is known as your consumer surplus . <p> The university is making exactly the same calculation on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transpires then the school has obviously decided that the $10,000 in cash is more valuable than not spending the time and resources to offer the classes . The excess value on this side of the ledger is known in economic terms as producer surplus . This example helps illustrate that a transaction will transpire only when both the purchaser and the seller receive some surplus value from the deal and conversely , an economic transaction will always occur if there is a surplus to be gained by both the consumer and the producer . <p> Of course , the actual amount of surplus enjoyed by the consumer or producer is difficult if not impossible to measure in most individual market transactions . However , it generally is true that a consumer will receive a greater surplus in a competitive market ( one served by many producers ) , than in a monopolistic market ( one served by a small number of producers ) and a producer will enjoy a larger surplus in a monopolistic market . This is because in a competitive market the consumer can switch from one producer to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he is receiving . Competition among producers lowers prices and thus increases consumer surplus at the expense of producer surplus . Firms that have monopolistic power , however , need not compete with other producers as much and are able to retain a larger surplus for themselves . In short , monopolistic producers have the luxury of determining exactly how much an individual will pay for their services and charging precisely that amount . Consumers have little choice but to pay the monopolist 's price . <p> What , then , is the lesson for higher education ? Colleges and universities have greater monopolistic power today than ever before . This fact came to the forefront in 1991 when a group of Ivy League schools were investigated by the Department of Justice for collusion in setting their tuition prices . In short , these schools agreed that they would no longer offer merit-based scholarships and would offer financial aid on the basis of need only . Thus , the schools involved agreed to end economic competition for talented students . The Department of Justice broke up the Ivy League cartel . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exercise of monopolistic power by schools of higher learning . <p> In fact , the power of the monopoly has spread beyond a small number of elite institutions and has been widely adopted by more ordinary colleges and universities . In part , this expansion is attributable to a failure to meet the increased demand for higher education with a commensurate increase in supply . It is difficult to build a new college or university . And so the same number of schools is serving an increasing number of students . This will eventually even out as new colleges are created and gain a reputation in the marketplace , but that will take time . <p> More directly and of greater concern is that federal student aid has enabled monopolistic practices by schools . Colleges and universities are able to increase the sticker price beyond the reach of most students and then reduce the actual price charged individual students by offering them various bundles of financial aid . Thus , each student is offered a different price that matches almost exactly what he or she is willing to pay . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is decreased and the school 's ( producer ) surplus is increased . In the end , students will benefit less from the education because colleges and universities have captured more of their consumer surplus . This " captured consumer surplus " may be a greater percentage of the family 's income than would have been paid under competitive circumstances . Or , it may mean that the student receives a lower-value education ( from his or her perspective ) . For example , the student may have to endure larger class sizes or more graduate student led classes . <p> Additional producer surplus means that schools may engage in activities that would not be possible in a competitive market . For example , schools may be able to operate academic programs that advance a certain political agenda favored by the school 's administrators even if that agenda has been discredited in the real world . The existence of an educational monopoly may thus help explain why so many schools continue to preach the benefits of communism despite that political and economic system 's complete failure in the former Soviet Union @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ schools offer certain administrators and tenured faculty . In a less manipulated system , competition would discourage such excesses . All of these activities benefit the school establishment at the expense of students . <p> Despite the obvious fact that more students will be worse off given the monopolistic power of universities , some believe that a system of high sticker price and redistributive financial aid is socially beneficial because it helps those students from low income families . However appealing this may sound , it is simply untrue . Remember that the nature of any monopoly ( in this case colleges and universities ) is to reduce the consumer surplus of all customers not just the wealthy . <p> This hypothesis has been borne out by the data . David C. Rose and Robert L. Sorensen , in a 1992 article in the Southern Economic Journal found " that while institutions that appear to inflate their tuition do make larger aid awards , their awards are not large enough to reduce the average net price paid by needy students . " What is more , the University of St. Louis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expended on increased administrative overhead , faculty salaries , and stipends for graduate students , rather than lower tuition costs for needy students . Again , the beneficiary of monopoly power is the school and not student . Implications and Conclusions <p> Most of the factors driving up college costs are natural market forces and , left to themselves , they will produce the most efficient and socially beneficial outcome . The increased value of a college degree that has led to increased demand for higher education eventually will be met by increased supply . When that happens we can expect to see tuition prices fall naturally . <p> Similarly , an overemphasis by universities on research will be corrected as students seek out schools focused on teaching . Those universities that have forsaken students through increased class size , increased tuition , or reduced professorial teaching will see their enrollment fall off and shift to schools that focus on the students . As this happens , research universities will either have to return to teaching ( which would reduce costs ) or lower their tuition to attract more students . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ result of taxpayer desire for greater fiscal restraint . Depending on one 's view this may or may not be a problem . In either case the issues involved are too great to be covered here . It is enough to say that the residents of each state must decide for themselves their own priorities and where the cost of public higher education fits among these priorities . <p> What 's left then is federal student aid and the monopolistic power it grants to colleges and universities . Unlike the other factors affecting higher education costs , federal subsidies will not correct themselves , will not lead to an efficient and socially beneficial outcome , and -- in the end -- will hurt far more students than they will help . It is ironic that the American academy , typically the loudest voice against " capitalist excess " and an eager supporter of egalitarianism , shamelessly raises prices and otherwise profits from monopolistic practices . It should thus come as no surprise that this academic monopoly lobbies in Washington as hard or harder than anyone , because the redistributive policies of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Everyone , that is , except the student . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Survey for higher education <p> By John S. Barry <p> <p> John S. Barry is an economic policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation , 214 Massachusetts Avenue , N.E. , Washington , D.C. 20002 . <p> 
##4000455 The greatest threat to academic freedom today comes from within . The barbarians are not at the gates ; they are inside the walls . As Benno Schmidt , then president of Yale University , said in a 1991 address : <p> The most serious problems of freedom of expression in our society today exist on our campuses . ... The assumption seems to be that the purpose of education is to induce correct opinion rather than to search for wisdom and to liberate the mind . <p> The same year , retiring Harvard president Derek Bok expressed a similar concern : <p> What universities can and must resist are deliberate , overt attempts to impose orthodoxy and suppress dissent . ... In recent years , the threat of orthodoxy has come primarily from within rather than from outside the university . <p> Since that time , others have documented the political intolerance and abuse of academic freedom on campus . The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbill University finds that over 384 colleges and universities have speech codes or sensitivity requirements that threaten academic freedom . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campus newspaper theft -- with little or no punishment for the perpetrators . <p> The political harassment of individual professors has been documented not only in such books as Lynne V. Cheney 's Telling the Truth , Dinesh D'Souza 's Illiberal Educations , and Richard Bernstein 's The Dictatorship of Virtue , but by the federal courts as well . Faculty members , even such tenured professors as Donald Silva at the University of New Hampshire , Michael Levin at the City University of New York , Graydon Snyder at the Chicago Theological Seminary , and Dean Cohen and Joseph Conlin in California , have been removed and punished , in some cases illegally , for violating the norms of political correctness . The decisions in Cohen . v. San Bernardino Valley College ( 1996 ) , Jeffries v. Harleston ( 1992 ) , and Silva v. University of New Hampshire ( 1994 ) are particularly telling in this regard . <p> That the primary threat to academic freedom would be internal is an extraordinary development . It does not seem to have been anticipated by anyone . The classic statements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nor is that surprising . Systematic threats to academic freedom have always been external . When the American Association of University Professors was founded , the primary threat was religious orthodoxy imposed by church hierarchies . The McCarthy era reinforced the idea that universities needed very high legal and institutional walls to shield them from severe outside pressure . The recent historical study Zealotry and Academic Freedom by Neil Hamilton , examines a number of critical periods when academic freedom was threatened . Only the current threat -- known popularly as " political correctness " -- has been internal . <p> Current rules protect academic freedom about as well as the Maginot Line protected the French . They were developed with a single-minded focus on possible external threats to academic freedom . The external marauder approaches Fortress Academe with risk . Built on the high ground of educational ideals , surrounded by the moat of " institutional autonomy , " its walls are buttressed by Tenure , Faculty Prerogatives , and Union Contracts . Like slings and arrows , charges of McCarthyism and yahooism shower down upon the reckless intruder . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What happens when the intellectual freedom of politically unfashionable colleagues or students is threatened by other professors , whose outrageous behavior is itself protected by tenure and " departmental autonomy " ? <p> It is important to understand how dramatically the situation has changed . Academic decisions have always been subject to faculty politics , tyrannical senior professors , and departmental cliques . No matter how hard they try to be fair , professors are only human . Their own political , intellectual , and personal tastes sometimes influence their judgment . Traditionally , professors at least believed it their duty to be fair , to set aside personal and partisan bias , and to judge colleagues ' and students ' work solely on its intellectual merit . <p> In the postmodern age , everything is stood on its head . Professors who once preached objectivity now celebrate subjectivity . The measure is not truth but power -- especially the power of one 's race , class , and gender . The aim is not to educate the young to think for themselves but to transform them into " change agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> The British philosopher Jeremy Bentham once disparaged a view by calling it " nonsense on stilts . " Postmodernism is " nonsense on stilts without the stilts . " While they were knocking the props out from under everyone else , postmodernists undermined themselves as well . For the whole defense of academic freedom rests on the pursuit of truth , on the idea that it is possible to judge ideas with some degree of objectivity , rationality , and evidence . As the AAUP 's classic 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure declares , " Freedom in research is fundamental to the advancement of truth . " John Dewey put it more bluntly . " The university function is the truth-function . " <p> The postmodern attack on truth and objectivity has cut the ground out from under academic freedom . If there is no truth but only power , why protect academic freedom ? If everything is political , why should academic decisions be made by faculty rather than politicians ? <p> In fact , postmodernists are aware of these implications . In her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Study , Betty Jean Craige argues : <p> The discipline -- and the academic world generally -- can not use the notion of academic independence from politics to support academic evaluation by academics after it has shown society 's intellectual activity to be inseparable from its political activity . <p> She concludes : <p> Since we can no longer contend that our scholarly activities ... imply no ideology , since we can no longer contend that the academy can operate free of political pressure , and since we can no longer believe that truth is not socially influenced , we must claim academic freedom and tenure on the relativistic grounds of social value : it is for the continued health of the country that our society should grant us , its academic intellectuals , the freedom to seek understanding of the world , to publish the results of our research , and to teach what we know to our students . <p> Similarly , in his contribution to The Future of Academic Freedom , Richard Rorty rejects the idea of grounding academic freedom in the pursuit of truth or any other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some complicated local folkways " that " insulate colleges and universities from politics and public opinion . " Such folkways should be judged , not on whether they are founded on sound principles , but " by the good they seem to be doing . " We should stop giving " epistemological " defenses for such practices but instead give " sociopolitical justifications . " Unfortunately , Rorty seems completely insensitive to the dangers inherent in changing the mission of the university from the epistemological goal of truth-seeking to the sociopolitical goal of improving society . The repression of intellectual freedom on campus today is primarily in pursuit of sociopolitical goals . <p> But this is precisely what some professors want . In his article , " There Is No Such Thing as Free Speech and It 's a Good Thing Too , " Stanley Fish argues that free speech is " not an independent value but a political prize . " If free speech principles are being used by your political opponents , you should " contest their relevance to the issue at hand ; but , if you manage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them with a vengeance . " When someone argues against speech codes , says Fish , " the only question is the political one of which speech is going to be chilled . " ( Italics in the original . ) <p> On this view , Fish and his allies can punish dissenting faculty and students at will . If anyone off campus objects , however , they will accuse the outsiders of violating academic freedom . Fish 's view not only destroys academic freedom on campus , it undermines any reason for the rest of society to respect academic freedom and institutional autonomy . If everything is political , then , in a democracy , are n't legislators surely more qualified than English professors to run a university ? <p> The internal threat to academic freedom presents us with two pressing tasks -- one practical and one at the level of principle . At the practical level , we must find a way to defend those professors , as well as students , whose academic freedom is threatened by other professors who disagree with their views . Current notions not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oppressors by shielding them from review . When the threat to academic freedom is internal , alumni and other friends of the university must rise in its defense . Slogans such as institutional autonomy that derive their legitimacy from the unpoliticized search for truth can not be allowed to provide a cloak for undermining academic freedom . Faculty and admistrators show little or no concern about the epidemic of campus newspaper thefts , often declining even to denounce it . On such matters of policy , alumni should vigorously enter the debate on the side of intellectual freedom . <p> The role of trustees is especially important in this regard . Trustees set policy . They have a fiduciary obligation for the academic , as well as financial , well-being of their institutions . When they fail to protect academic freedom , trustees are defaulting on their most important duty . In the past , trustees could do their duty simply by not interfering . Occasionally , they had to stand up against external threats . <p> Today , the role of trustee is more difficult and , arguably , more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the campus maintains a genuinely open intellectual environment when faculty and administrators fail to do so . Campus newspapers should be protected . Speakers should not be disinvited . Tenure decisions contaminated by intellectual intolerance should be reviewed and , if necessary , reconsidered . Policies should be adopted to encourage intellectual openness in departments and other campus units . <p> In the long run , we may need to reconceptualize the rules protecting academic freedom . The Maginot Line doctrine was simple : Draw a line between internal and external and defend it . This is a jurisdictional model : it does not matter what is done to the individual as long as it is done by the authorized people in the authorized way . <p> We need to explore nonjurisdictional ways to define the rights that constitute academic freedom . We do not allow a professor to be robbed , plagiarized , harassed , or discriminated against so long as it is done by his or her own department according to the procedures described in the faculty handbook . We have rules and procedures for protecting these rights from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way that is not solely dependent on the inside/outside distinction , we should be able to devise procedures to protect these rights as we have others . <p> Finally , we must rise to the philosophical challenge . We must return to our intellectual moorings . We must recapture the classic understanding of intellectual freedom . We must reaffirm the search for truth that unites us in a community of free minds . Milton and Locke , Jefferson and Mill , Lovejoy and Meiklejohn taught us well . They knew that no fanaticism , no ideology , no political passion has the right to suppress free minds in the pursuit of truth . It is a lesson we dare not forget . <p> By Jerry L. Martin and Anne D. Neal <p> <p> Jerry L. Martin is president of the National Alumni Forum and former acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities . Anne D. Neal is vice president and general counsel of the National Alumni Forum and former co-editor of Communications Lawyer , published by the American Bar Association . <p> 
##4000456 A university worthy of the name stands at the apex of civilization . It is a community in which rational persuasion and recourse to artistic , spiritual , and intellectual achievement takes precedence over the appeal to brute force . More than any other institution , the university exhibits the victory of persuasion over force . How ? By asserting and defending academic freedom for every member and student . Academic freedom is both a description of the ideal way of life within a university community , and a basic right claimed by all members of that community . Academic freedom helps liberate the community of scholars from domination by unqualified but powerful members of society ( or , more often these days , from other members of the academic community itself ) . It is recognized by its essential , civilized attributes : self-restraint ; respect for freedom , independence , and difference ; and delight in the high , difficult , and subtle search for truth and the art of rational inquiry and persuasion . <p> All members of the academic community are entitled to exercise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ required to respect and support the conditions on which the exercise of academic freedom depends , and to respect and defend the academic freedom of others . <p> Students , no less than faculty members , have a right to academic freedom . Good students want the right to invite a provocative public figure to their campus . They want to hear all points of view and to argue with those who present them . They want to attend lectures by professors free to express their own views and not merely the safer views of others . They want the university to extend the full rights of citizenship in the academic community to all students . They want the right to experiment with ideas and movements and to gain wisdom through relatively harmless undergraduate excursions into folly . In the words of Clark Kerr : " Ideas should not be made safe for students , but students should be made safe for ideas . " <p> This essential point about who belongs to the academic community , and therefore who has a right to academic freedom , is often misunderstood . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has led to confusion of the role and function of academic freedom with that of tenure . Where tenure functions properly , as a rising expectation of continuity or permanence ( rather than in a corrupted form , as sinecure ) , it has protected academic freedom . But tenure is clearly not necessary to its existence . How could tenure , held only by some , be the basic weapon in the defense of a right claimed by all members of the academic community ? Students and nontenured faculty have a right to academic freedom and must exercise that right to be worthy of their responsibilities . The best nontenured faculty members assume the risks of speaking their minds to the best of their knowledge and competence quite without the protection of tenure . <p> But tenure , even when elevated to the status of sinecure , fails to guarantee the exercise of academic freedom . Some professors with virtual sinecures are more concerned with salary advances or with administrative appointments or merely with the approbation of colleagues than with the faithful exercise of their academic duties . <p> Academic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ courage is present , academic freedom will be exercised with or without tenure ; where courage is absent , the sound and vigorous exercise of academic freedom is impossible . And when tenure becomes virtually a sinecure , it encourages irresponsibility -- not academic freedom , but academic license . Thus , tenure may inhibit or corrupt , as well as enhance , the realization of academic freedom even by tenured faculty . <p> Tenure has , of course , been moderately useful in protecting established scholars in their intellectual deviance from the conformists of their discipline . But limiting the vigorous defense of academic freedom to the ranks of the tenured faculty has unfortunately left the nontenured faculty exposed . Infringement by tenured professors of the rights of the nontenured to develop their intellectual interests according to their own professional judgment -- that is , the censuring of the nontenured faculty from the standpoint of doctrinal orthodoxy as defined by the senior professors of a department-represents by far the most serious and most frequent violation of academic freedom in our colleges and universities . <p> Any professor can cite numerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for example , departments dominated by logical positivists and linguistic analysts have frequently denied appointment or promotion to young philosophers with primarily historical or metaphysical interests , no matter how able . In psychology , experimentally oriented departments have frequently refused appointment or promotion to clinical psychologists ; clinically oriented departments have denied appointment to experimentalists ; and departments dominated by behaviorists have sometimes gotten rid of experimentalists and clinicians who would not accept the reductionist formulas of behaviorism . Political science departments have frequently been captured by Marxists or Straussians who attempt to impose an orthodoxy on the members of their departments . And English departments all too frequently reject creative writers -- novelists , poets , playwrights -- who do not produce the usual critical cliches for the usual scholarly journals . <p> Lately a new test has been imposed in many departments : submission to the intellectual orthodoxies that go broadly by the name of " deconstructionism . " Even so profoundly gifted a literary critic as Christopher Ricks may find himself ostracized by colleagues in the English department if he proves a heretic in this regard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a description of the demands sometimes made by senior professors of their younger colleagues . Too often the senior professors demand nothing less than conformity or deference to their own prejudices . Anything so exciting or dignified as the resistance of Newtonian physicists to the disturbing implications for Newtonian theory of the Michelson-Morley experiment is rarely involved . Rather , I have in mind the all-too-common decision by senior professors to remove an able young person whose outstanding teaching and scholarly promise expose their own deficiencies . Resentment is not merely an academic vice , but the academic vice . <p> If we recognize that the guild masters impose doctrinal orthodoxy , and that senior professors demand deference from their juniors , we must then recognize that these are genuine infringements of academic freedom , and that academic freedom is severely restricted for all but the most courageous or naturally conformist of the nontenured faculty . The American Association of University Professors has never defended academic freedom from this common and more subtle coercion practiced by academics themselves or even recognized that such coercion , though a common occurrence , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nevertheless , a place for doctrinal bias . A school of theology , for example , has every right to restrict faculty appointments to believers . But if a department or college exercises the right to a doctrinal bias in the pursuit of its educational goals , it should openly admit the restrictions it places on academic freedom and inform faculty members and the general public of these limitations at the time of their appointment . <p> How are nontenured faculty -- the younger faculty with minimal claims to tenure -- to be protected from intellectual censorship ? I acknowledge the difficulties inherent in the problem . It seems clear , nevertheless , that some review procedure , ensuring that assessments include responsible but non-mainstream points of view , is essential in protecting younger faculty from the doctrinal censorship of their own colleagues . In such reviews , administrators have an essential role to play . A vigorous dean can often prevent the dismissal of an able young scholar , simply by insisting that members of his department justify their decision . By appealing to the national and international community of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scholars and critics outside the department and the university itself and by presenting student evaluations of his or her teaching , the dean can see that academic justice is done . The dean in possession of such evidence is in a position to accept the recommendation of the department , to persuade the department to change its decision , or to be justified in overruling it . <p> Because of the central role of the faculty in establishing the quality of an institution , it is the highest obligation of the administration to minimize mistakes in granting or denying tenure . Mistakes in either direction impose serious losses on students . <p> On the other hand , there is no reason to defend the intellectual novelty of individuals who can not present deviant ideas in a way that is reasonably convincing to fair-minded and competent critics . But in the appointment of faculty , we can rarely expect to be absolutely certain of the soundness of any decision , for the recognition of talent is an aleatory science . <p> What conclusion should we draw from this ? We must recognize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loyal and effective service . We must also recognize the institutional need to remain solvent , innovative , and educationally effective . Administrators and faculties must develop a tenure policy and procedures that serve these essential needs . If the AAUP wishes ever again to play a relevant role in academic life , it will have to recognize the folly of its misadventure with trade unionism and reestablish the morally authoritative , almost judicial , position once held . Failing this , it can play no part . <p> The turmoil of the late 1960s and early 1970s made it clear that the chief threat to universities is not from outside assaults on academic freedom . Today , there is virtually no interference or restriction on the actions or opinions of professors by politicians , boards of trustees , or influential business leaders . <p> Sadly , it is now more likely that attempts to suppress the academic freedom of a professor or a visiting speaker will come from within the campus . Led by those who have been called " tenured radicals , " many universities adopt repressive speech codes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students and faculty on such campuses disrupt speakers whose views they oppose , they do so without risk of being disciplined . Only in dealing with conservatively oriented student publications do such administrations take action , and then only to suppress , rather than defend , freedom of thought and expression . <p> The major threat to academic freedom today is from its misuse by professors and students who engage in what can only be accurately described as academic license . When the exercise of academic freedom degenerates into academic license through a professor 's , or a student 's , disregard for the rational procedures essential to the search for truth , which is the work of the scholar , academic freedom is lost and the integrity of the university is compromised . The price of academic freedom , therefore , is eternal vigilance . <p> By John Silber <p> <p> John Silber is chancellor of Boston University in Massachusetts . <p> 
##4000061 Section : Features Elegant experiments confirm long-held theory of cellular aging <p> They have found a way to re-verse the aging process , " Tom Brokaw proclaimed on the NBC Nightly News on January 14 , 1998 . Brokaw was referring to experimental results from researchers at Geron Corporation , in Menlo Park , California , and at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas . The work showed that providing normal somatic cells with the enzyme telomerase extends the length of their chromosome tips ( telomeres ) and renders them immortal , yet healthy . <p> Although the reported results were not quite as dramatic as the fountain of youth that Brokaw evoked , they did confirm the long-held theory that telomeres function as a cell division clock , ticking down time as they shorten . And as years of discoveries coalesce into the burgeoning field of telomere biology , potential medical applications are already on the horizon in such diverse areas as diagnosing cancer , slowing degenerative diseases of aging , and making organ transplants safer . <p> Human telomeres are made up of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known that telomeres , long thought to protect chromosomal integrity in some vague way , erode with each cell division , ultimately reaching a threshold length that signals division to cease . For many somatic cell types , an end to cell division means not death , but rather the onset of a defined differentiated , or specialized , state . Telomere shortening seems to be the normal default option for most somatic cells . By contrast , cells in the germline and in highly proliferative tissues , such as bone marrow and the epithelium of the small intestine , continually replenish their chromosome tips . So do most cancer cells , which are notorious for having long telomeres and active telomerase . <p> Chromosomes keep from shrinking in some cells , including cancer cells , thanks to telomerase , a ribonucleoprotein with three components : a catalytic protein portion with reverse transcriptase activity , an RNA template , and an associated protein called telomeric repeat binding factor . The RNA template contains the sequence CCCUAA , the reverse complement of the TTAGGG DNA that forms the telomere . Reverse transcriptase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ template . And the telomeric repeat binding factor brings the chromosome tip , the RNA template , and the reverse transcriptase physically together , so that six-nucleotide DNA repeats can be added to the chromosome end . This cellular machinery is essentially a built-in telomere factory that is turned on only at certain times and in certain cells . <p> The sequences at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes , called telomeres , are composed of hundreds or thousands of short DNA repeats . The telomeres of the human fetal lung fibroblast chromosomes shown here , which are made up of repeats of the DNA sequence TTAGGG , were stained with a fluorescent probe . Thoughts on telomeres <p> The 1980s and 1990s have seen the elaboration and dovetailing of the molecular details of the telomere story . But the saga began many years earlier , with several seemingly unrelated observations made by some of the heavyweights in the history of biology . <p> Cytogeneticists first noted the importance of telomeres in the first half of the century , when they observed that chromosomes that lost their tips stuck together and vanished @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of telomeres in Drosophila in 1938 , and Barbara McClintock did so a year later in corn . In 1961 , Leonard Hayflick contributed information that would prove to be pivotal in telomere biology : He found that cells in culture divide a finite number of times , usually 40-60 . This number became known as the " Hayflick limit . " <p> A decade after the discovery of the Hayflick limit , Alexey Olovnikov , a senior researcher at the Institute of Biochemical Physics and the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow , proposed that telomere shrinkage is a countdown to cellular senescence . In 1973 he published " A theory of marginotomy : The incomplete copying of template margin in enzymatic synthesis of polynucleotides and biological significance of the phenomenon , " in the Journal of Theoretical Biology . What that mouthful means is that chromosome tips whittle down because DNA polymerase can not copy the very end of one of the replicating strands , the so-called lagging strand . Consequently , the chromosomes would shorten at each round of replication . Olovnikov wrote : " Marginotomy causes the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more and more shortened end-genes .... After the exhaustion of telogenes the cells become aged . " Olovnikov explains that , as he proposed in his 1973 paper , " The telomere shortening could serve as a counting mechanism , which , like a molecular bookkeeper , counts the number of cell doublings already performed . " A bacterium avoids the problem of shrinking chromosome tips , he also noted at the time , because its chromosome is a circle . <p> Soon after Olovnikov 's prescient hypotheses were published , James Watson published similar ideas . However , Watson 's description of the " end-replication problem " referred to the replication of the ends of linear bacteriophage DNA , and not to aging . Nevertheless , " the telomere field has always cited Watson , since his was the prediction of chromosome shortening that people in the United States knew about , and were testing , " relates Carol Greider , of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine . " I did not know of Olovnikov when I discovered telomerase , nor did others , " Greider says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were aware of his work . <p> But Calvin Harley , now vice president for research at Geron , knew of Olovnikov 's work and spread the word by describing and referencing it in a 1991 publication in Mutation Research . " Experiments have validated his predictions , " Harley says . " But Olovnikov did n't know the biochemistry of DNA replication very well and could n't describe it . He was thinking about aging . Conversely , James Watson carefully defined the end-replication problem , and wrote nothing about aging . " Many telomere biologists now concur that both of these researchers deserve credit for identifying the phenomenon of telomere shrinkage . Experiments reveal how telomeres shrink <p> Olovnikov suggested that an enzyme might maintain chromosome ends . " But molecular tools were needed to prove this idea , " Harley says . A living system in which to explore telomere behavior came in the form of the ciliated protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila . This pond organism provides an enriched system for probing telomeres because when it forms sex cells , its chromosomes fragment and then replicate , generating about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cell has just 92 telomeres . ) In 1978 , Joseph Gall and Elizabeth Blackburn , then at Yale University , found that telomeres in T. thermophila consist of many short DNA repeats . By the mid-1980s , Blackburn , at the University of California-Berkeley , and Greider , then a graduate student in Blackburn 's lab , had discovered and described the enzyme that extends telomeres , naming it telomerase . <p> Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein complex that keeps the ends of replicating chromosomes from shrinking in continually dividing cells , such as those in the the germline and in highly proliferative tissues . This cartoon depicts the components of telomerase : the RNA component , shown as a pink ribbonlike structure , which includes a template region ( shown as AUCCCA ) that binds to the single-stranded portion of the telomeric DNA repeats ( shown as TAGGGT ) ; the catalytic component , a reverse transcriptase ( yellow oval ) that copies the RNA into DNA ; and telomerase-associated proteins ( orange ovals ) . <p> In 1986 , Howard Cooke , at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noting that the tips were shorter in somatic cells than in sperm cells . By 1989 , Robert Moyzis and coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory identified the human telomere repeat as TTAGGG , and in 1990 , Harley , Greider , and Bruce Futcher found that the telomeres of human somatic cells shorten as the number of cell divisions increases , although those of cancer cells do not . <p> In the early 1990s , several observations solidified the link between telomere shortening and aging . In 1992 , Richard Allsopp and colleagues at Geron reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( 89 : 10114-10118 ) that children with the rapid-aging disorder Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome have unusually short telomeres . In 1993 , shorter-than-normal telomeres were found in people with Down 's syndrome , and 3 years later , they were also found in people with Werner syndrome , an adult-onset rapid-aging disorder . Cells from people with these disorders literally race through their allotted divisions , accelerating life at the cellular level as the body ages ahead of schedule . ( People with Down 's syndrome have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease . ) <p> In 1995 , Geron researchers and Greider 's group at Cold Spring Harbor reported in Science ( 269 : 1236-1241 ) that they had cloned the RNA template component of human telomerase -- an 11-nucleotide sequence that includes the critical CCCUAA that encodes the telomere repeat . They and others subsequently measured the amount of RNA template in various tissues , finding greater abundance in tumor cell lines and germline tissues than in somatic cells . <p> Researchers also probed the origins of the telomerase system by searching for clues in reverse transcriptase , an enzyme that is not unique to telomerase . RNA viruses use reverse transcriptase to copy themselves into DNA in host cells , and retrotransposons also use the enzyme . A retrotransposon is a piece of moveable DNA that transcribes itself into an RNA intermediate when it changes location , and then reverse transcribes itself back into DNA when it inserts at a new location in a chromosome . <p> The fruit fly has retrotransposons rather than typical telomeres at its chromosome tips . " If a retrotransposable element wanted to use as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effectively take over the role of telomerase . This is what has apparently occurred in Drosophila melanogaster , " says Thomas Eickbush , of the University of Rochester , in New York . He discussed the evolutionary relationship between retrotransposons and telomerase -- that is , which came first -- in 1997 in Science ( 277 : 911-913 ) . Eickbush suggested that , in early eukaryotes , telomeres originated from retrotransposons , which a retrovirus perhaps supplied , and that the unusual telomeres of Drosophila reflect a more recent takeover of somatic cells by retrotransposons that preferentially insert at chromosome ends . Revealing the role of telomerase <p> Two key experiments reported in late 1997 and early 1998 further strengthened the connection between telomere shortening and cell senescence , while indicating that the enzyme 's role in cancer causation is complex . One investigation removed telomerase in knockout mice and observed the onset of senescence . The other work , which made the nightly news , added telomerase to human cells in culture and demonstrated extension of the cells ' proliferative lifetime . <p> Mice in which telomerase was eliminated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telomerase RNA component gave Greider and her colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor , the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City , and Quest Diagnostics , Inc. , in Teterboro , New Jersey , the opportunity to ask what life would be like without telomerase . The researchers created these knockout mice , then observed them and analyzed several highly proliferative tissues through six generations ( Cell 91 : 25-29 and Nature 392 : 569-574 ) . <p> As the researchers had expected , the knockout mice did not fare well . Overall , the lack of telomerase compromised chromosome stability and the integrity of cells that normally divide often . Their telomeres became shorter than normal , their chromosomes broke , and some nonhomologous chromosomes fused to form translocations . The animals ' fertility plummeted , reproductive organs shrank , and highly proliferative tissues , such as testis , spleen , and bone marrow , degenerated . These results therefore confirmed that telomerase is important for maintaining highly renewable tissues . Interestingly , cells cultured from the knockout mice could still become cancerous . This result showed that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that is consistent with the fact that cancer development is often a multistep process requiring the participation of several genes . <p> In the 16 January 1998 issue of Science , Harley and colleagues at Geron , and Woodring Wright , Jerry Shay , and colleagues at Southwestern Medical Center , reported the effects of adding the gene that encodes human telomerase reverse transcriptase to normal human cells in culture . These experiments used cells important in human disease and aging -- retinal pigment epithelium , fibroblasts , and vascular endothelium . Slowed metabolism of retinal epithelium can cause age-related macular degeneration . Fibroblasts in aging skin make less collagen and elastin and more collagenase , causing wrinkles . And overgrowth of the endothelium that forms capillaries and lines blood vessel interiors contributes to atherosclerosis . <p> The results of adding telomerase to these cells were striking -- the cells regained their proliferative potential , ignoring the Hayflick limits . " For the first time , we showed that if you highly specifically modulate telomere dynamics , you can see the predicted effect on cell lifespan . It proves the causal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> The fact that most cancer cells have active telomerase and long telomeres led to the hypothesis that telomerase is required for tumor growth , with telomere shortening in normal somatic cells having a tumor-suppressing function . However , although many of the cells to which the researchers added telomerase reverse transcriptase churned out the enzyme at levels similar to those of cancer cells , signs of cancer have not appeared , and the cells seem normal despite ignoring the Hayflick limit . " After a year , the cells have not progressed to cancer . They have normal karyotypes , pass all the cell cycle checkpoints , and do not cause tumors when injected into nude mice which lack immunity and are used to test tumor-forming potential . They divide at a reasonable rate , and they have a youthful appearance , " Shay reports . <p> The fact that the telomerase-bolstered human cells do not become cancerous , and that telomerase-deficient mice can still get cancer , is not as contradictory as it might seem . It just shows that telomerase is neither necessary nor sufficient to cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past 20 years , it is that a lot of different insults are required to transform a normal cell to a cancerous cell . By simply adding telomerase , you 're only affecting one factor . As long as the other pathways are intact , there is no reason to expect an increase in cancer incidence , " Shay says . Telomerase may enable a cell to ignore the Hayflick limit , or directly or indirectly destabilize chromosomes , which in turn could activate an oncogene or deactivate a tumor suppressor gene that is part of the pathway to cancer . " Now we have to see how telomerase fits into all the other aspects of cancer that are controlled by other genes , " Shay adds . Eclectic applications <p> With the components of telomerase clearly identified , and the enzyme 's function elegantly demonstrated , the next stage in the continuing tale of telomeres will be developing clinical applications . <p> Because telomerase is critical to maintaining cellular stability and cell division , altering this enzyme 's activity may have varied uses . In basic research using cell cultures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human cells that are not cancerous , but would proliferate , " Shay says . In clinical applications , new understanding of telomerase function could lead to more sensitive cancer diagnostics and make transplants safer , treat AIDS , and perhaps even rejuvenate aging tissues . <p> Measuring telomerase levels , for example , can be used to track cancer progression . In one study , 12 of 16 children with neuroblastoma and high telomerase activity in their cancer cells died , whereas only 2 of 60 children with low telomerase activity died . " About 85 percent of tumors contain this marker , and use of telomerase as a cancer marker is already a routine procedure in some oncological centers , " Olovnikov says . A polymerase chain reaction-based assay called TRAP ( telomeric repeat amplification protocol ) can spot a single telomerase-producing cancer cell among 10,000 healthy cells , and a technique using fluorescent in situ hybridization ( FISH ) and flow cytometry , called " flow-FISH , " can measure telomere length . Clinicians may someday manipulate telomerase level or activity as a way to treat cancer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be worked out first . <p> New understanding of telomere biology may also solve a vexing problem with bone marrow transplants : Something about the transplant process seems to rev up the mitotic clock , accelerating the aging of donor cells . Robert Wynn and colleagues at The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester , UK , reported in the 17 January 1998 issue of The Lancet that telomeres in transplanted bone marrow cells are shorter than those in normal bone marrow cells in either the donor or the recipient . Rosario Notaro and coworkers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City reported in the 9 December 1997 issue of PNAS that the more cells that are transplanted , the less the telomeres shrink . It is as if transplanting only a few cells stresses them in their effort to repopulate the recipient 's marrow , and in response the cells age faster than normal , the researchers suggest . <p> The rapid aging of transplanted tissue may explain the increased risk that bone marrow transplant recipients face of developing blood cancers years later , Shay suggested in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marrow transplant is supposed to be all stem cells , but this is not completely so . Ten to 15 years later , a recipient may develop leukemia because the transplanted cells did not have the proliferative capacity of a true stem cell , " he says . Inserting telomerase into the donor bone marrow cells before the transplant may help to extend the cells ' lifetimes . <p> A similar approach of extending cellular life with telomerase might be used to treat AIDS , but in this case the patient 's own cells would be used . The human body has enough hematopoietic ( blood-forming ) stem cells to last a lifetime , but as HIV kills more and more T cells , the stem-cell population has to work overtime to replace them . The hematopoietic system may eventually shut down . " Telomere biology might be part of the AIDS story , " Shay says . Instead of transplanting bone marrow from donors , hematopoietic stem cells could be taken from a person at the early stage of HIV infection . The cells would have their telomeres extended in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ falls as the infection progresses , he or she can receive the stored stem cells , which may replenish the T-cell supply . <p> Telomere biology may also be exploited to address signs of aging . A blast of telomerase might keep fibroblasts in the skin 's dermis layer at a more youthful stage , in which they synthesize collagen and elastin rather than collagenase . Reactivating collagen and elastin production from within might be an alternative to injecting bovine collagen to plump out wrinkles . <p> Further in the future is the possibility of using autologous ( self ) cell implants to renew selected tissues that degenerate with age , approaching Tom Brokaw 's view of telomere biology as providing a fountain of youth . Olovnikov speculates that " such cells will be treated in vitro with telomerase activity-containing viral vectors . Artificially elongating their telomeres will preserve these cells ' ' normalcy , ' so they will not senesce . Such cells might be used to renew the inner parts of blood vessels , cells of the pancreas , or even normal postmitotic cells such as cardiocytes and neurons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much in the future . As Shay sums up , " We ca n't make people live forever . There 's nothing wrong with fantasizing , but there are too many interesting short-term benefits of the research to focus on . If we can develop tissue-specific therapies , if we can correct certain problems , then maybe we will live longer . " <p> By Ricki Lewis <p> <p> Ricki Lewis is the author of several life science textbooks published by McGraw-Hill and is working on a book on scientific discovery . <p> 
##4000066 Section : Education <p> We recently conducted an in-formal survey of 222 students in various biology classes at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville . All were biology majors , ranging from freshmen to seniors , and all had been taught about the fern life cycle at some point in their academic careers . We asked the following question : " If you have ever been taught anything about ferns , please indicate two or three things that distinguish them from other plants . " Forty-two percent of the respondents indicated that they remembered little or nothing about ferns , 40% said that ferns reproduce by spores , and 21% remembered something distinctive about ferns : their fronds ( leaves ) or the fact that they form fiddleheads . Fewer than 10% mentioned anything about free-living haploid gametophytes , diploid vascular sporophytes , swimming sperm , or alternation of generations . The results , although perhaps not representative of all institutions or settings , were not surprising . This level of understanding is what one might expect from someone with only a passing interest in ferns and no formal education @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempts to educate these students ? Did they teach them the wrong thing ? Does anyone really need to know anything about ferns anyway ? <p> It is not surprising that students have such a minimal level of knowledge and understanding , considering that most students do not find plants in general very interesting . In many students ' eyes , plants simply do not do as much as other , more familiar organisms or those that " move around and do things . " Lack of interest in plants may be especially true for ferns and other " lower " plants because they are less important in students ' everyday lives than " higher " plants , such as angiosperms . This lack of familiarity is no doubt reinforced by the difficulties of mastering the high-content biology curricula that confront most students . <p> Given this situation , is it necessary to even attempt to include organisms such as ferns in the biology curriculum ? We contend that it is both necessary and worthwhile because ferns uniquely demonstrate basic phenomena that are absolutely essential for an adequate understanding of many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that can work well in the classroom and provide enough interest to motivate students . In this article , we introduce the use of C-FernTM , a cultivar of the fern genus Ceratopteris , as a dynamic and captivating organism that really does move around and do things in the classroom . C-Fern in the classroom <p> Although C-Fern can be used as a superb example of a plant life cycle and alternation of generations , its potential goes far beyond these uses : It can be used to expose students to many broadly applicable biological principles ( Renzaglia and Warne 1995 , Renzaglia et al . 1995 ) . In addition , C-Fern is useful in a variety of classroom situations , from the traditional laboratory to full inquiry-based approaches and independent student research . Using low-power microscopy , students can observe and discover growth and development from a quiescent single-celled spore , an active sexual process involving pheromonal control of sexual differentiation , differentiation of sexual organs and vegetative structures , release of large numbers of swimming sperm , chemotaxis , fertilization , and early embryo development -- all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . C-Fern can also be used to demonstrate population dynamics and to present basic Mendelian principles in a unique fashion . It is an easy , effective , user-friendly , inexpensive , resilient , reliable organism that can be used at a number of educational levels . <p> C-Fern is a derived cultivar of the homosporous fern Ceratopteris richardii ( Hickok and Warne 1998 ) . According to recent molecular and morphological analyses , Ceratopteris belongs to the family Pteridaceae ( Hasebe et al . 1995 , Pryer et al . 1995 ) , although it was previously placed in the Parkeriaceae ( Lloyd 1974 ) and even the Schizeaceae ( Mickel 1974 ) . Known by the common names of water sprite or triangle water fern , Ceratopteris is an aquatic to semiaquatic plant that is widely distributed in the tropics of both hemispheres and is frequently cultivated as an aquarium plant . <p> Ceratopteris has been used successfully for a number of years in basic research applications ( Hickok et al . 1987 , 1995 ) . These have ranged from studies of the responses of the wild type @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Warne et al . 1995 ) to continuing investigations into the nature of the genetic control over sexual differentiation ( e.g. , Warne and Hickok 1991 , Banks et al . 1993 , Banks 1997 ) . Advantages for its use in research include a relatively short life cycle that can be completed under highly controlled conditions ; a rapid differentiation process in the haploid generation , which results in spore germination and development of sexually mature gametophytes within 2 weeks ; efficient mutagenesis and selection techniques ; and simple genetics , which result from the ability of haploid gametophytes to self-fertilize , yielding , in a single generation , sporophytes that are homozygous at every locus . These and other features also make C-Fern exceptionally useful in teaching applications . Major developmental events <p> Major C-Fern developmental events are depicted in Figure 1 . The single-celled haploid spores , which have an average diameter of approximately 120 MUm , are quite large in comparison to those of most ferns and are easy to observe and handle . Dry spores can lie dormant for many years . However , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spore imbibition requires approximately 24 hours and is followed by the initiation of spore germination , which is a light-requiring event that is normally controlled by phytochrome and other photoreceptors ( Cooke et al . 1987 ) . A mutant stock , dkg1 , that does not require light for the initiation of spore germination is also available ( Cooke et al . 1995 ) . <p> Figure 1 . Major C-Fern developmental events . The sporophyte is not necessarily shown on the page at the same scale as the spore and gametophytes . Whereas the spore is approximately 120 MUm in diameter , the sporophyte can vary from actual size shown on the page to many times larger , depending on culture conditions and age . <p> Cultures that are free of contamination are easy to initiate and maintain . Axenic cultures , although not essential for successful growth and observations , allow experimentation without the uncontrolled effects on growth and differentiation that may be associated with fungal or bacterial contaminants . Large numbers of spores can be sown on petri dishes containing a simple mineral nutrient agar ( Hickok @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easily and rapidly , but presterilized spores are also available commercially . The lack of sugars and other carbon sources in the nutrient medium is an advantage in maintaining uncontaminated cultures for long-term manipulations and observations . Cultures maintained near 28 degreesC under continuous lighting ( **26;609;TOOLONG dot ) msup-2 ( multiplication dot ) ssup-1 ) show optimum rates of development . For rapid development , temperature is more critical than light fluence . This dependence allows convenient temperature regulation of cultures by adjusting the distance between the cultures and the light source . Keeping culture plates within a plastic greenhouse tray covered with a transparent dome helps control temperature ( internal temperature can be more than 2 degreesC higher than external temperatures ) and moderates fluctuations in humidity to reduce culture drying . <p> Under optimal conditions , germination occurs 3-4 days from starting the cultures ( DFS ) . At 4-5 DFS , small green tongue-shaped gametophytes with clear , threadlike rhizoids can be seen emerging from the cracked spore coat . These young gametophytes are sensitive to light . If cultures are grown under adequate light , gametophytes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 . However , if cultures are placed in the dark following light initiation of spore germination , a dramatic etiolation response occurs . The basal cells of the developing gametophyte grow up to several times their normal length , and the normal expansion of other cells in the tip of the gametophyte is inhibited ( Murata et al . 1997 ) . A mutant stock , det30 , is available that shows a much reduced etiolation response . The distinct responses of wild-type spores dramatically demonstrate the requirement of light for both normal spore germination and early gametophyte development . Interestingly , when older gametophytes are transferred to dark conditions , they do not show the etiolation response . <p> Sexual type is determined at 3-5 DFS , although distinct phenotypic differences are not evident until 7 DFS or later ( Banks et al . 1993 ) . The presence of both sexual types within a population is caused by asynchrony in spore germination . Gametophytes that germinate early and develop first become hermaphroditic , whereas later-developing gametophytes become male . This sexual distinction is regulated by a pheromone ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ influences the development of later-germinating gametophytes so that they become male . Although the C-Fern antheridiogen has not been isolated and structurally identified , studies using inhibitors of gibberellin biosynthesis have demonstrated that this compound may share a biosynthetic relationship to gibberellin ( Warne and Hickok 1989 ) . Several mutant lines with altered sexual differentiation responses have been identified ( Warne et al . 1988 , Banks 1997 ) ; these include the her mutants , which show insensitivity to antheridiogen and develop only as hermaphrodites , and a newly identified him mutant , with a highly increased male response . <p> By 10 DFS , hermaphrodites and males are clearly different in a number of features . Males lack a meristem and show determinate growth , whereas hermaphrodites possess a meristem ( called the notch meristem ) and grow indeterminately . Males are thumb shaped , approximately 1 mm long , and are covered by many small round antheridia on their surface . Each antheridium consists of spermatogenous cells ( giving rise to 16 sperm at maturity ) surrounded by a cup-shaped basal cell , a doughnut-shaped ring cell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . By contrast , hermaphrodites are obliquely heart-shaped , 2-3 mm in diameter , and possess both antheridia and archegonia . An archegonium consists of cells that form a short neck that protrudes from the surface of the essentially two-dimensional gametophyte and an egg cell that is located within the gametophyte at the base of the neck . Archegonia are located directly behind the notch meristem , and the few antheridia of hermaphrodites are located initially on the margins and subsequently throughout the body of the gametophyte . <p> Both male and hermaphrodite gametophytes reach initial sexual maturity at approximately 10 DFS . If water is added to a mature culture , many sperm are released from the antheridia and swim about actively in search of a receptive archegonium containing an egg . Sperm show a positive chemotactic response to the cellular contents that are discharged from the neck of a receptive archegonium , typically one per hermaphroditic gametophyte . Large masses of sperm rapidly locate and surround the receptive archegonium . Fertilization results in a diploid zygote , which develops rapidly into a young embryo . By the third day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after a successful fertilization , the notch meristem of the hermaphrodite ceases to divide and dedifferentiates into vegetative tissue . Further cell expansion modifies the shape of the gametophyte somewhat , but no further growth occurs . This dedifferentiation response is very rapid and most likely involves a signaling pathway between the gametophyte and the zygote or young embryo . This signal is effective only within a fertilized gametophyte and does not affect meristem activity or subsequent development in adjacent unfertilized gametophytes within a culture . Embryo development progresses rapidly and continuously to the formation of initial leaves and roots of the sporophyte , during which time the gametophyte gradually senesces and dies . <p> Young sporophytes with well-formed leaves and roots can be easily grown under a variety of conditions -- in a greenhouse , in mini-terraria made from plastic drink bottles containing a commercial potting mix , or even submersed or floating in a freshwater aquarium . Sporophytes show a heteroblastic progression of leaf development , beginning with small entire leaves and gradually progressing to more highly divided leaves that ultimately become fertile . This progression can be modified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The fertile leaves contain sporangia on their inrolled lower margins ; within each sporangium , four large spore mother cells undergo meiosis to produce a total of 16 haploid spores . Viable spores can be obtained from mature sporophytes at 90 DFS or later , depending on culture conditions . At maturity , spore production is continuous . Because C-Fern lacks the persistent rhizome that characterizes many perennial ferns , it is shorter lived and grows more like an annual . Mature sporophytes can be maintained in the greenhouse for well over 12 months , and the presence of small vegetative buds that produce plantlets on leaves allows an individual sporophyte to be propagated indefinitely . Student-based applications for the classroom <p> C-Fern development provides many opportunities to illustrate a variety of fundamental biological principles . It also provides an accessible and dynamic representation of a plant life cycle . The use of C-Fern is especially well suited to an inquiry process , in which students devise questions and seek answers to them without being told the " right " answer ahead of time . Classroom use is enhanced by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Materials , supplies , and extensive written and electronic support materials are easily available ( see box page 1036 ) . The following examples of specific applications demonstrate the broad utility and flexibility of this plant in education . <p> Development . What controls sexual differentiation in gametophytes ? After students have discovered that there are two sexual types within a population of C-Fern gametophytes , the questions of " Why ? " and " How ? " arise naturally . Figures 2 and 3 illustrate a series of experiments , with representative results , that were designed entirely by students enrolled in an undergraduate course in which C-Fern was used as an unknown organism that students were asked to investigate ( Claudia Melear , Leslie Hickok , Thomas Warne , and John Goodlaxson , unpublished manuscript ) . It is important to emphasize that these experiments were student initiated , with little input from the instructors . The course was a realistic experience in learning the process of science . It took several weeks of observation and testing before the final versions of the experiments depicted in Figures 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , improve on , and carry out multiple experiments within a short time was a great advantage in this approach . Moreover , in using this approach , the process of discovery was considered by the educators and eventually by the students to be much more important than the ultimate answers . <p> As detailed above , sexual type in C-Fern gametophytes is not under direct genetic control , even though within a large population a consistent ratio of male and hermaphrodites can be observed . Without prior knowledge , how could one distinguish between genetic and environmental control ? One approach is shown in Figure 2 . The multispore culture at the top was the context within which students initially became aware of the two sexual types . Subsequent experiments devised with pair and isolate cultures led them to the conclusion that control of sexual type was not genetic and that it was instead determined by some sort of interaction that was occurring in the populations . That is , because spore isolates always resulted in hermaphrodites , all spores must have the capacity to develop into hermaphrodites ( i.e. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the mixed results in the pair cultures suggested that some environmental variable was important . <p> Figure 2 . Student-designed experiment to determine if control of sexual type in gametophytes is genetic . Multispore ( top ) , pair ( middle ) , and isolate ( bottom ) cultures were established with spores and scored for gametophyte sexual types after 10 days . Gametophytes are represented as obliquely heart-shaped hermaphrodites and smaller thumb-shaped males . X indicates that an outcome was not observed . Relative responses are represented by relative numbers of each sexual type . <p> Figure 3 . Student-designed experiment ( bioassay ) to determine if control of gametophyte sexual type is regulated by a chemical signal . Petri dishes were not preinoculated ( top ) or were preinoculated with a mature male ( middle ) or a hermaphrodite ( bottom ) . After 10 days , the preinoculate was removed and spores were sown . Sexual types were scored after 10 additional days . Gametophytes are represented as obliquely heart-shaped hermaphrodites and smaller thumb-shaped males . Relative responses are represented by relative numbers of each sexual type @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ development of the two sexual types , the students hypothesized that it might be a chemical signal -- but from where , and with what specific effect ? Figure 3 illustrates their experimental approach to addressing these questions . Because the cultures were axenic , the signal was most likely coming from the gametophytes themselves . Thus , by pre-inoculating cultures with mature gametophytes , the students could determine if the male or hermaphrodite , or both , was the source of the signal . From these experiments , they concluded that a chemical signal was coming predominantly from hermaphrodites and that it influenced the differentiation of later-germinating spores and young gametophytes so that they developed as males . In essence , these students had developed a rather sophisticated bioassay to test for the presence of this suspected chemical agent . They did not use the term bioassay , nor were they told what experiment to do or how to conduct it . Again , it was a process of pure discovery by inquiry . <p> Population effects and interactions . With the information and understanding gained from these initial experiments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What effects do density and other environmental variables have on development ? " Representative experiments designed to provide answers are illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 . These examples do not show actual experiments that were designed by students ; instead , they represent generalized types of experiments that could come out of extended student inquiry . <p> Figure 4 . A representative experiment to determine the effect of population density on gametophyte sex ratio ( i.e. , on mating strategy ) . Cultures were established at different spore densities , and gametophyte sexual types were scored after 10 days . Gametophytes are represented as obliquely heart-shaped hermaphrodites and smaller thumb-shaped males . The size of the male and hermaphrodite symbols at right indicate the relative proportions of these sexual types . <p> Figure 5 . A representative experiment to determine the effect of population density on sporophyte growth ( competition ) . Cultures were established at different densities ( as in Figure 4 ) ; after 10 days , gametophytes were watered to produce a population of sporophytes . Gametophytes are represented as obliquely heart-shaped hermaphrodites and smaller thumb-shaped males @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a y-shaped vascular strand ) attached to hermaphroditic gametophytes . Average sizes ( lengths ) of the first leaves at each density were determined 14 days after water was added ( i.e. , after fertilization ) . <p> Figure 4 illustrates an experiment to determine the effect of culture density on gametophyte sex ratio , or , put another way , on mating strategy within populations . By establishing cultures with different spore densities and then determining the resulting proportions of males and hermaphrodites , it becomes evident that high population densities result in relatively more males , whereas lower densities result in a higher proportion of hermaphrodites . The observations can be easily extended to natural situations and to evolutionary considerations . Figure 5 is an extension of the type of experiment depicted in Figure 4 , requiring only that the cultures of different densities be watered to allow fertilizations and to generate populations of sporophytes . This experiment looks at the effect of population density on sporophyte development and illustrates the concept of competition for limited nutrients . In all of the above examples , student data collection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exercises . This hands-on involvement is facilitated by the ability to work with large populations within a small space ( standard density is more than 300 gametophytes in a 60 mm petri dish ) and with minimal equipment . <p> Genetics . To a teacher , basic principles of Mendelian genetics may be simple and elegant , but students rarely feel the same way . The use of C-Fern to demonstrate the principle of segregation and the result of random fertilizations can provide students with a better understanding of a genetic concept as basic as the use of a Punnett square . Because some traits can be observed in both the gametophyte and sporophyte generations , C-Fern can be used in an active exercise that demonstrates a " living " Punnett square . Figure 6 illustrates such an exercise with the cp ( polka dot ) mutation . This recessive mutation results in a visually striking phenotype associated with the clumping of plastids around the nucleus , which gives a distinct polka dot appearance to cells in both haploid gametophyte ( cp ) and diploid sporophyte ( cp/cp ) tissue ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from an F1 hybrid sporophyte ( Cp/cp ) , students can directly describe the gametophytic phenotypes and determine the segregation ratio resulting directly from meiosis in the F1 hybrid sporophyte . The outcome of random fertilizations that produce the F2 sporophyte generation after water is added to the culture can then be predicted . Subsequent analysis of the F2 population ratio , with F1 gametophytes still attached , provides a solid visual exercise in both hypothesis formation and testing . <p> Figure 6 . A " living " Punnett square generated from an F1 hybrid heterozygous for the cp ( polka dot ) mutation . Both hermaphrodites ( obliquely heart-shaped ) and males ( smaller and thumb-shaped ) serve as sperm sources ( top ) ; only hermaphrodites serve as egg sources ( left ) . F1-derived gametophytes show 1:1 ( Cp:cp ) segregation . F2 sporophytes show 3:1 ( Cp/-:cp/cp ) segregation and are represented as single first leaves ( each with a y-shaped vascular strand ) attached to hermaphroditic F1-derived gametophytes . Wild-type F2 sporophytes attached to polka dot F1 gametophytes are heterozygous ( Cp/cp ) . <p> Biochemistry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complete understanding of biology . Yet many students , especially at the introductory biology level , see little relationship between the two except for the required memorization of structures , pathways , and cycles . Figure 7 shows the chemical structures of the stereoisomers L-and D-malate ( L-malate is the common Krebs cycle intermediate ) . Although the concept of stereoisomers and biological relevance can be difficult to demonstrate , the use of the chemotactic behavior displayed by C-Fern sperm can be an effective approach . Using a drop of liquid and a stereomicroscope , sperm can be easily and repeatedly observed to be positively attracted to L-malate , in comparison with D-malate or a control . This attraction can be related to the natural process of chemotaxis that is associated with the chemical discharge from mature archegonia , which can also be shown to elicit a strong positive response . Students can also investigate whether other components of the Krebs cycle also attract sperm and whether pH and temperature are important modifiers of that attraction . <p> Figure 7 . Structures of L- and D-malic acid . <p> Plant growth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cytokinins , exhibit specific effects on development , sexual differentiation , and growth of Ceratopteris gametophytes and sporophytes ( Hickok and Kiriluk 1984 , Hickok et al . 1995 , Leslie Hickok , unpublished data ) . Contrasting and comparing the effects of these growth regulators in C-Fern and higher plants can be an effective approach in exercises dealing with plant differentiation and development . Not just another life cycle <p> The examples in this article illustrate only a few of the ways in which C-Fern can be used in the classroom as a dynamic and interactive system with which to investigate basic biological principles . Many extensions or elaborations of these examples are possible . The ability of students to rapidly gain familiarity with the organism and to easily manipulate it in culture can lead to original thinking and experimentation . Because of its ease of use , simplicity , reliability , and speed , C-Fern can be used to involve students in the processes of science , rather than in only learning the facts and terms associated with " just another life cycle . " Resources <p> C-Fern spores @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , growth medium , and culture supplies are readily available through the Carolina Biological Supply Company , as is the extensive C-Fern Manual ( Hickok and Warne 1998 ) containing detailed culture instructions , illustrations , teaching applications , and a bibliography on the biology of C-Fern . A web page ( www.bio.utk.edu/cfern/ ) and e-mail address ( cfern@utk.edu ) further enhance educational access for both teachers and students . Acknowledgments <p> Supported in part by NSF-DUE grant 9651045 to Leslie G. Hickok and Thomas R. Warne . 
##4000067 Section : AIBS News <p> On 9 July 1998 , AIBS repre-sentatives met with the leaders of two dozen professional societies in the life sciences to discuss their undergraduate education initiatives . The workshop , " Collaborations in Undergraduate Education , " was sponsored by the Coalition for Education in the Life Sciences ( CELS ) through a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation . AIBS was represented by education committee member John R. Jungck , Executive Director Richard O'Grady , and then-AIBS education committee chair ( see article below ) Gordon E. Uno . Participants exchanged information about undergraduate education activities supported by their societies , discussed the types of programs that are well suited to sponsorship by individual societies or clusters of societies , and identified potential coordinating roles for CELS . <p> Jungck , who is also a CELS steering committee member , introduced the participants to a new CELS monograph , Professional Societies and the Faculty Scholar : Promoting Scholarship and Learning in the Life Sciences . Jungck advocates using peer review as a mechanism by which to honor undergraduate teaching as a professional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been the cornerstone for establishing the credibility of scientific research , seems highly appropriate as the review process for legitimating , developing , and assessing pedagogical knowledge production and practices , " he said . He applauded the leadership displayed by AIBS through its regular inclusion of peer-reviewed articles on biology education in BioScience . <p> The workshop participants emphasized the role of introductory biology courses in serving the vast majority of US college students . " A challenge for our faculty is to define what we want our students to know , to value , and to do , " Uno said . " What will help our students acquire scientific literacy ? We need to address content , attitudes , and the constellation of skills that include critical thinking , inquiry-based investigations , data analysis , and interpretations . " <p> Participants also discussed the CELS " Issues-Based Framework for Bio 101 , " which gives guideposts toward biological literacy for an educated citizenry . CELS invited the professional societies to modify this framework by identifying concepts in their own disciplines that are critical for literacy , and also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One suggestion was that CELS coordinate a traveling display of biological and curricular materials that can be exhibited by the professional societies at their annual meetings . The materials would be drawn from the expertise and resources of many professional societies and provide coherence to the diversity of topics in the biological sciences . <p> Workshop participants noted that through member society relationships with groups including BioQUEST , the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study , BIOSIS , the National Association of Biology Teachers , and the Association of College and University Biology Educators , AIBS has sustained a reputation for bringing science educators and scientists together to share their expertise . O'Grady remarked that professional societies have a special responsibility to value the junior , often nontenured , undergraduate instructors who teach biology courses for nonscience majors . " Our professional societies need to encourage and recognize their teaching accomplishments , " noted O'Grady , " lest we lose them and their students from biology . " <p> Professional Societies and the Faculty Scholar can be viewed at the CELS Web site , www.wisc.edu/cels . This 87-page report highlights the contributions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actions to improve teaching and learning . The Web site also provides information for ordering bound copies of the monograph and contains the " Issues-Based Framework for Bio 101 . " <p> AIBS is a sustaining member of CELS , a coalition of professional societies committed to enhancing life sciences undergraduate education . For more information about CELS , e-mail Louise W. Liao , CELS program director , at cels@macc.wisc.edu . AIBS EDUCATION COMMITTEE CHAIR APPOINTED <p> AIBS is pleased to announce the appointment of Jean Wyld as the new chair of the AIBS Education Committee . AIBS President Gary Barrett and President-Elect Gregory Anderson appointed Wyld to the position vacated by Gordon E. Uno , who recently became Program Director ( Biology ) of the Course and Curriculum Development Section , Division of Undergraduate Education , at the National Science Foundation . Uno continues to serve as a member of the committee . <p> Wyld received her PhD in systematics and evolutionary biology from the University of Connecticut in 1980 and later spent a year as an American Council on Education fellow in the office of the Executive Vice President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administrator at Colby-Sawyer College in New London , New Hampshire , and since 1993 has been Dean of Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Biology at York College in York , Pennsylvania . <p> Wyld says , " It is my hope that the Education Committee of AIBS can help K-12 teachers and college and university faculty gain greater recognition for their creative efforts in the classroom . Working with our member organizations , it may also be possible to enhance existing opportunities for the publication of this kind of scholarship in biology . " <p> Wyld may be contacted at Academic Affairs/Advising , ADM-16 , York College , York , PA 17405-7199 ; 717/815-1231 ; fax : 717/849-1607 ; e-mail : jaw@ycp.edu . Contact information for all AIBS board , council , and committee members can be found at www.aibs.org or in the AIBS Membership Directory and Handbook that members received in July 1998 . NRC report : life sciences training and employment <p> A new report from the National Research Council ( NRC ) , " Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists , " examines the changes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and postgraduate life scientist training and subsequent employment . The report finds that the number of people with life science PhDs increasingly exceeds the number of jobs available . The NRC report suggests that universities limit growth in the number of graduate students and refrain from developing new programs . <p> According to the report , between 1975 and 1995 the number of PhD recipients who had permanent positions in academia , industry , and government 9-10 years after receipt of their doctorates fell from 87% to 73% . During the same 20-year period , the number of PhD recipients with permanent positions in those sectors 5-6 years after receipt of their PhDs fell from 89% to 61% . <p> The NRC report refers to the widening time gap between receiving a PhD and obtaining a permanent position as a " holding pattern , " which is contributed to by a 42% increase in PhDs awarded between 1987 and 1996 that was not accompanied by a parallel increase in employment opportunities . The increase in PhDs awarded occurred mainly in biomedical fields , although biologists in nonbiomedical fields are also experiencing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dimensions , Causes , and Implications of Recent Trends in the Careers of Life Scientists , which conducted the study and prepared the report , it is " unlikely that conditions will change enough in the near future to provide employment for the large number of life science PhDs now waiting in the holding pattern . " <p> In response to declining job security and lower salaries , many life scientists have turned to alternative careers , such as law , science writing , science policy , and secondary-school teaching . But the NRC committee is not convinced that alternative scientific careers hold as much opportunity as was once anticipated . Instead , it says , " the challenges for the life-science community are to acknowledge that it is the structure of the profession that has led to declining prospects for its young and to develop accommodations to maximize the quantity and quality of the scientific productivity of the future . " <p> The five primary recommendations made by the NRC committee are : Restrain the rate of growth of the number of graduate students in the life sciences ; Disseminate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Improve the educational experience of graduate students ; Enhance opportunities for independence of postdoctoral fellows ; and Evaluate alternative paths to careers in the life sciences . <p> The full text of the NRC committee 's report , " Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists , " is available on the National Academy Press 's Web site , www.nap.edu . Bound copies are available for $39 ( discounts available when purchased online ) from NAP , 2101 Constitution Avenue , NW , Washington , DC 20055 ; 202/334-3313 . A publication of related interest , Guide to Non-Traditional Careers in Science , by Karen Young Kreeger , is available from AIBS for $29.95 . To order , call 202/628-1500 , ext. 253 , or e-mail : jkolber@ aibs.org . <p> 
##4000466 Section : SYMPOSIUM : The Effects of ; Multiculturalism on Scholarship <p> The papers here presented were originally delivered at the seventh conference of the National Association of Scholars in New Orleans , Louisiana , as part of a panel that convened on the afternoon of 12 December 1997 . <p> Over the centuries , philosophy has been seen in many ways : as a midwife to the birth of ideas , as queen of the sciences , as an owl flying at dusk , as a ladder to be kicked away upon reaching enlightenment , and as a large-scale map relating the small-scale maps of the sciences . The image suggested by philosophy 's role in recent changes in the academy is Typhoid Mary-one who infects others while avoiding serious illness herself . Many ideas that underlie the politicization of the university had their origin in philosophy . Yet philosophy has largely managed to escape politicization . I <p> Let 's begin by distinguishing two kinds of multiculturalism . Diane Ravitch has defined pluralistic multiculturalism as the quest to enrich our common culture , making it more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I am a strong advocate of this kind of multiculturalism . Philosophy has often been conceived and taught as something created by Socrates in fifth-century B.C. Athens and developed over the centuries in Western Europe and North America . That picture is misleading and incomplete . The Buddha , Confucius , and Lao Tzu all predate Socrates. ( n2 ) Though one could argue that none are truly philosophers-none concerns himself primarily with establishing conclusions by careful definition and argumentation-rich philosophical traditions have grown from their work and , indeed , were growing from their work by the time of Aristotle. ( n3 ) Study of these traditions not only expands one 's sense of the questions that can be asked and the answers that can be given but also dispels the quasi-Hegelian sense of inevitability that often accompanies the study of the history of philosophy . <p> In its effects on philosophy as a discipline , however , multiculturalism has not primarily been pluralistic . It has encouraged scholarship on other cultures , but those effects are small compared to the effects of politicized multiculturalism -- or illiberal multiculturalism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which sees scholarship and the curriculum as a means to political change . <p> I have argued in other places that multiculturalism is a classic bait-and-switch operation. ( n4 ) The arguments are always for pluralistic multiculturalism-unless addressed to the already converted ! -- but the actual goal is the political transformation of the university . One could have guessed this from the comments of two Stanford activists , quoted by D'Souza eight years ago : <p> We 're not saying we need to study Tibetan philosophy . We 're arguing that we need to understand what made our society what it is . Forget Confucius . We are trying to prepare ourselves for the multicultural challenge we will face in the future. ( n5 ) <p> But what does pluralistic multiculturalism in philosophy offer ? Confucius , Tibetan philosophy , and the like ! Now Confucianism and Buddhism are central to the worldviews of much of Asia 's population , and Asian Americans are some of the nation 's fastest-growing ethnic groups . Interactions with Asia are of vital political and economic importance . Studying these philosophies might therefore seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will face in the future , " if that is what is at issue . But they have no obvious political implications . So , interest in them is limited . II <p> The dominance of illiberal multiculturalism over its pluralistic alternative is evident in patterns of philosophical research . I have examined the number of publications reported in each of the past ten years in The Philosophers ' Index on various topics -- some pluralistic , some political -- to judge the actual effects of multiculturalism on philosophical research . There has been an increase in scholarship devoted to non-Western philosophy , but it has been modest , and , in several areas , there are signs of its being short lived . <p> Consider first issues of quantity : <p> Japanese philosophy : The average number of publications from 1991-1996 was 2.3 times the 1987-1990 average . <p> Buddhism : The number of publications is up 77 percent since 1987 . <p> Chinese philosophy : The number of publications is up 55 percent from 1987 , but is down 32 percent from its 1991 high . <p> Indian philosophy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1987 , but is down 35 percent from its 1991 high . <p> African philosophy : The number of publications is below 1987 , but the high was fairly recent , in 1994 . <p> So much for the philosophical stock quotations. ( n6 ) <p> Issues of quality are harder to judge . Some of the scholarship on nonWestern philosophy has itself been politicized . David Hall and Roger Ames , for example , find Confucian thought remarkably similar to that of " such thinkers as Foucault , Derrida , and the American pragmatist Richard Rorty. " ( n7 ) They take Confucius 's talk of the mandate of Heaven as referring to " the specific environing conditions that set up the viable possibilities in a particular social setting or historical epoch " ( 12 ) . This is the opposite of standard readings , according to which the Will of Heaven is transcendent : the decree of God , the moral order , or , in Chu Hsi 's words , " the operation of Nature which is endowed in things and makes things be as they are . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ construal is something like Arthur Schlesinger , Jr . ' s , citation of the words of the Declaration of Independence , " We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights , " as establishing the Founders ' relativism . To paraphrase Allan Bloom , people advancing arguments like these must think their audience will believe anything. ( n9 ) But there is more than silliness behind them . Hall and Ames maintain that the mandate of Heaven is purely contingent and context-relative to discredit the notion of rights and to justify the suppression of the democracy movement at Tiananmen Square. ( n10 ) <p> Still , scholarship on non-Western philosophy generally remains solid . Increased attention to non-Western traditions is a good thing , a positive effect of multiculturalism . The number of publications remains small , and key texts often have not even been translated into English or any other modern European language , let alone interpreted . There is historical and philosophical work of real significance to be done . III <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the political effects of multiculturalism . Overall , in 1996 there were 34 percent more publications on non-Western philosophy than there were in 1987 . Compare the following more political topics : <p> Racism : Up 587 percent from the 1987-1990 average . <p> Diversity : Up 1000 percent from 1987 ( even from 1993 ) . <p> Feminism : Up 341 percent from 1987 . <p> Gender : Up 392 percent from 1987 . <p> Moreover , feminism has ten times the number of publications for racism , and more than all areas of non-Western philosophy combined. ( n11 ) <p> Ten years ago , feminism had about as many publications as Indian and African philosophy combined . In 1996 , it had about four times as many as those two combined . Here is another way of looking at it : In 1996 , there were forty-five more publications in non-Western philosophy than in 1987 . There were 148 more publications in feminism . Add in racism , diversity , and gender , and there were 234 more . Politicized , illiberal multiculturalism has had far greater effects than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go far wrong in saying that multiculturalism in philosophy has mostly meant feminism . <p> This is odd . Women do not have a distinctive culture . Moreover , since women do not form a " discrete and insular minority " -- or , in this case , majority -- the effects of past discrimination are not inherited by the next generation of women . It seems a stretch , therefore , to include feminism under the heading of multiculturalism at all . Nevertheless , women outnumber minorities , Sanskrit specialists , Sinologists , and others . IV <p> What is wrong with feminist philosophy ? I can give only the sketchiest answer here , and I hasten to say that feminist philosophy is not all politicized . The earliest philosophers to work in feminism , especially , have done some significant research . But , as I have argued elsewhere , multiculturalism is best seen as a form of mercantilism. ( n12 ) As always , in protected industries , quality declines from a lack of competition . That has happened in feminist philosophy . <p> A great deal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The goal is political change , not truth . Now this is not always fatal ; one may have political motivations to seek the truth . It is always dangerous , however , for the same political motivations can lead one to ignore or suppress the truth . What makes it especially dangerous in this case is that feminist research is characterized by a lack of empirical evidence and argument . There is , in fact , a marked hostility to science. ( n13 ) Entire books have been written on child development , family relations , and so on , by people who not only have never done any empirical research on these topics themselves but who also have no familiarity with the relevant empirical research done by others . <p> Much feminist philosophy exhibits what Thomas Sowell calls " the vision of the anointed. " ( n14 ) Researchers display a bipolar view , with dichotomies between oppressor and oppressed , " targets " and " mascots . " There is no sense of tradeoffs and complexities . Social problems are attributed to the heteropatriarchy without any felt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are heralded as " radical reconceptions " of traditional notions . <p> Most puzzling of all to analytic philosophers are wild forms of argument found in feminist and other politicized research . Many of these are not original with illiberal multiculturalists , but have their roots in Marx , Freud , Heidegger , or various postmodernists . <p> Argument from authority : A says that p <p> Therefore : p <p> ( This works only if A is a canonical figure such as Marx , Foucault , Derrida , and Rorty . It is strengthened if the premise has the form " A has argued that p " or even " A has shown that p , " as in " Rorty has shown that truth is relative to an interpretive community . " If A is a target figure such as Locke or Adam Smith , of course , such language is inappropriate , and one may instead conclude Not p . ) <p> Raising the question : A has called p into question . <p> Therefore : Not p <p> ( " Derrida has called into question the assumption @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meaning is impossible . " ) <p> Argument from interests : Asserting that p could serve the interests of someone I dislike ( a " target " ) . <p> Therefore : Not p <p> ( " Saying that women earn less than men because women interrupt careers to have children , work fewer hours , obtain fewer degrees in technical areas than men , and the like of course serves the interests of successful men in the workforce who do not want their own privileges to be challenged . So , those are not the real reasons for women 's reduced earnings . " ) <p> When the revolution comes : p would not change some feature of the status quo , but q would . <p> Therefore : q and Not p <p> ( " Lacan 's understanding of the development of the child 's self-concept in the mirror stage tends to leave contemporary social/sexual roles unchallenged , while Kristeva 's radical reconception of the mirror stage provides the ground for contending that contemporary roles are oppressive . So , Kristeva 's revolutionary account of the development of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reactionary account . " ) <p> Reductio ad anything : X is analogous in some respect to Y. <p> Therefore : X is really Y <p> ( The locus classicus of this is Marx , for whom anything analogous to class struggle is really an instance of class struggle . It appears in Freud , where the reduction is to sexual drives , and in Foucault : " Schools and hospitals are analogous in some ways to prisons . Prisons are means of social control . So , schools and hospitals are means of social control . " Compare the argument in a recent history article : " The dominance of whites over blacks in the slave South has many parallels to the dominance of men over women . So , the phenomenon of slavery is best understood as an instance of sexual oppression , in which Africans were forced into the role of woman . " ) <p> Causes in the air : X is conceptually related to Y. <p> Therefore : X causes y. ( n15 ) <p> ( In Freud , " The rat man 's fear of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his father . So , his fear of rats is caused by his fear of his father . " Or , in Kristeva , " The hostility , fear , and sense of alterity that men have for women is structurally similar in some ways to the sense of alterity the weaned child develops for the mother 's breast . So , weaning is the cause of sexual discrimination . " ) <p> In isolation , these arguments are obviously silly . In context , however , and embedded deeply in layers of nearly unintelligible prose , they are hard to identify and evaluate . It is no accident that much politicized philosophy is written in an intentionally opaque style . That , however , is not the full story . When intelligent scholars make such intellectual moves , one must apply a principle of charity and consider the possibility that they are not advancing arguments at all . Many feminists think of themselves as applying the hermeneutic method , that is , as creating interpretations rather than constructing arguments . If those interpretations do not aim at truth and employ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not clear why the rest of us should pay attention . V <p> Despite the increase in politicized scholarship , the effects of multiculturalism on philosophy have been limited . Philosophy has not gone the way of English ; we have not returned to the cave . There are a number of positive signs . Even at four times its 1987 level , Feminism still has fewer entries in the Philosophers ' Index than God-and less than one-third the number for Logic . Class-related topics are declining . Marxism is the topic of 56 percent fewer publications than in 1987 . Postmodernism is down almost 50 percent from its 1993 high , as is deconstruction . These are the topics of 209 fewer publications than in 1993. ( n16 ) The field 's top journals-The Journal of Philosophy , Philosophical Review , Ethics , Philosophy and Public Affairs , Mind , Nous , and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , as judged by circulation , acceptance rate , and prestige-publish little or no politicized work . A much smaller percentage of work in politicized fields is in refereed journals ; much more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inroads at top graduate departments . Of the top thirty Ph.D . programs in philosophy , 75 percent have no one on the faculty who lists feminism as an area of specialization . The few politicized Ph.D . programs rank low in national surveys . Politicized job candidates fare relatively poorly . According to American Philosophical Association statistics , ( n17 ) in 1995-96 there were : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> The only area worse than the politicized areas of feminism and Continental philosophy is philosophy of religion . ( People still write about God , but can not get jobs doing it . ) That logic is near the top , and politicized areas near the bottom , is very good news for the discipline . VI <p> Despite philosophy 's success at containing illiberal scholarship , there are worrisome signs . Politicized works that can not find places in top or even middling refereed journals nevertheless find outlets . Feminists and others have created their own journals . They have come to dominate certain publishers who increasingly offer book contracts before seeing a manuscript . They even actively solicit authors-a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has little market in philosophy itself but a much larger market in English , women 's studies , and related areas . The areas that philosophy has infected are thus reinfecting philosophy . In politicized areas , there is an ethic of lavish praise for other politicized researchers in book reviews , referee reports for publishers , tenure and promotion reviews , and so on . <p> The result , as Barry Smith has pointed out , is that people working in politicized areas can increasingly create sham curricula vitae filled with sham publications-items that would never have been published in more mainstream , respectable channels or , in some cases , that have not yet been written . Promotion files are padded not only with sham CVs but also sham review letters . It is thus possible for people to take paths quite apart from traditional academic evaluation to create the appearance of academic achievement . <p> There are few effective checks on this process . Those who try to point out the sham face the response , " People in that area give the work high marks . Surely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ itself . " This tends to win out in tenure and promotion committees , many of whose members hail from politicized areas of the humanities or social sciences . <p> The fact is that it is much easier to create an impressive-looking CV in politicized areas than in traditional areas of scholarship . This creates perverse incentives for younger scholars , especially women , many of whom gravitate to politicized fields , much to their professional detriment . The path looks easy but , as the job data mentioned above illustrate , the appearance is deceptive . Philosophers who see through the sham realize that effective evaluation of researchers in politicized areas has become impossible ; the safest response is not to hire them in the first place . But graduate students often lack information about the job market until it is too late . VII <p> Why has philosophy withstood the assault of illiberal multiculturalism as successfully as it has ? I can not go into a full explanation here . Part of the story is that contemporary analytic philosophy takes science as a model . Hans Reichenbach , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noted that analytic philosophy has not only frequently taken science as a subject matter , viewing scientific investigation as an epistemic ideal and largely replacing traditional epistemology with the philosophy of science , but also itself stresses precision , mathematical formalism , and argumentation . Philosophy has withstood political attack for many of the same reasons that science has done so . <p> A deeper reason is that , as Allan Bloom noted , multiculturalism challenges the possibility of philosophy . The illiberal multiculturalists are neo-Sophists . Western philosophy was born in Socrates 's struggle against such Sophists as Protagoras . Anything that suggests that there is no truth , or that truth is in the eye of the beholder -- in Protagoras 's words , that knowledge is perception , that man is the measure of all things -- is antithetical to philosophy itself . Without truth , as Protagoras , Socrates , Plato , and Nietzsche alike saw , there is only power-something philosophers notoriously lack . <p> Please address correspondence to Academic Questions/NAS , 575 Ewing Street , Princeton , NJ 08540-2741 ; **25;561;TOOLONG . <p> 
##4000467 Section : SYMPOSIUM : The Effects of ; Multiculturalism on Scholarship <p> The papers here presented were originally delivered at the seventh conference of the National Association of Scholars in New Orleans , Louisiana , as part of a panel that convened on the afternoon of 12 December 1997 . <p> In the past fifteen or twenty years , a massive shift has occurred in the attention of literary scholars . Scholarly effort has increasingly moved away from traditional areas of study to the literature of Latin America , the Caribbean , Sub-Saharan Africa , and the Indian subcontinent , with some attention to the literature of the Islamic world and Asia in general . This body of work is often grouped together , somewhat misleadingly , under such rubrics as " Third World " or " postcolonial " literature . In surveying this development , it is hard not to form the impression that many critics are turning to non-Western literature just to get away from Western . This brand of scholarship often seems linked to politically correct developments in the curriculum , such as the imposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I will refer to as postcolonial scholarship often seems rooted in an animus against Western culture and specifically its literary classics . Postcolonial critics seem to operate with the assumption that if a work is non-Western , it must be good , and the less Western the better . These critics seem particularly attracted to works that articulate anti-Western views , that question the values of Western civilization and champion non-Western alternatives . This attitude explains the specifically postcolonial element in this critical project , the focus on literature from areas formerly colonized by European nations . This literature often takes the form of attacks on European imperialism , turning the tables on the old colonial masters in a motif that has come to be known , somewhat facetiously , as " the Empire Strikes Back . " ( n1 ) Critics are especially interested in works that rewrite classics of colonial literature , which seemed to embody a sense of European superiority . A good example of this kind of work would be Salman Rushdie 's Midnight 's Children , which among other things rewrites Rudyard Kipling 's Kim . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critics from the West . Much of postcolonial criticism is explicitly or at least implicitly Marxist , centering on the concept of exploitation . Third World literature is viewed as primarily expressing the reaction of postcolonial peoples to having been exploited by their former European masters . This approach turns the field into a branch of Oppression Studies , the dominant mode of radical academics today . Third World authors are often championed as the ultimate voices of the oppressed , exploited in terms of race , class , and gender , with the added twist of having been subjugated by colonial masters . At the same time , the Third World often supplies critics of Western civilization with an imaginary site for the kind of anti-Western utopia they dream of . Everything the First World does wrong , the Third World supposedly does right . It is socialist rather than capitalist , communitarian in spirit rather than individualistic . Particularly in the case of ecologically sensitive areas like rainforests , the Third World purportedly respects the environment , rather than trying to dominate it as the West does . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ produced new forms of barbarism in the West , will be cancelled out in the non-Western world , and humanity can return to , or at least finally achieve , the harmony with nature that Western rationality , in its Faustian quest for power , fatefully disrupted . In short , many postcolonial critics use the Third World and Third World literature as a more or less blank screen on which to project their hatred of the West and their desire to see its civilization subverted and somehow repudiated . In this sense , much postcolonial criticism is in fact monocultural rather than multicultural . It advances a simple and single-minded anti-Western view that it tends to impose uniformly on all Third World literature . <p> Despite all these problems with postcolonial criticism , I want to argue that it does not have to be automatically and unthinkingly anti-Western . And just because the majority of practitioners in the field are currently misguided does not mean that the field itself is illegitimate . It seems to me that literary scholars who oppose the radicalization of their discipline are making a serious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the academic left . Properly rethought and reformulated , the study of literature from the Third World could serve as a powerful counterweight to some of the most harmful trends in contemporary criticism . And the fact that all non-Western works are not automatically good does not mean that none of them are good . In fact , much of the best literature in this century has come from outside Europe and the United States . The so-called boom in Latin American fiction is probably the best-known example of this phenomenon . One need only cite the names of Jorge Luis Borges , Gabriel Garcia Marquez , Mario Vargas Llosa , Julio Cortazar , Alejo Carpentier , Guillermo Cabrera Infante , Carlos Fuentes , Jose Donoso , and so on , to give some idea of how much Latin America has contributed to world literature in roughly the past half century . But similar contributions could be cited from writers in Africa , Asia , and Australia . Traditional literary scholars should be alert to good and great writing no matter where it comes from . We must not act like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telescope . If new stars are shining in the literary firmament , we should be among the first to spot them , not the last . <p> And there are reasons why we should in fact expect to find superior literature being written under new regimes around the world . In many ways , the literary tradition in Europe and the United States shows signs of being played out , of having reached a kind of postmodern impasse . Authors in Europe and the United States often display a strong sense of being latecomers on the literary scene , of coming at the very end of a long literary tradition that stretches all the way back to Homer in ancient Greece . Acutely self-conscious about their authorial roles , Europeans and Americans often get wrapped up in convoluted literary strategies , focusing on their own concerns and problems as writers . " Another novel about a novelist struggling to write a novel about a novelist struggling to write a novel " -- that has become the sad refrain of the contemporary literary scene in Europe and the United States . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self-absorption of contemporary European and American authors . Third World writers often view themselves as coming at the beginning of a literary tradition , rather than at the end . This is true even in a country like India , which has a literary tradition that stretches back farther than that of any European country . It is precisely the postcolonial situation that gives Third World authors a sense of freshness about what they are doing ; national liberation becomes a form of artistic liberation as well . Here the classic text is again Rushdie 's Midnight 's Children , which correlates its own genesis as a narrative with that of modern India on 15 August 1947 , when the country achieved its long-sought independence from Britain . <p> Another reason writers like Rushdie or Vargas Llosa seem more energized than their European or American counterparts is that they are taken seriously by the communities for which they write . European and American authors often seem to have retreated into the academy ; even if they do not earn their living from university positions , they write with academic critics in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Third World writers generally have a greater sense of their social responsibility , often seeking out a role in building a new cultural identity for their people in a postcolonial situation . Being taken more seriously by a community sometimes carries a fearful price tag , as Rushdie has learned , but it also gives greater vitality to writers ' work , as they deal with issues of more than merely personal and artistic significance . <p> This situation leads to a paradox in the contemporary critical scene . Often the same people who complain about the empty gestures and easy nihilism of postmodern literature in the West also complain about postcolonial literature , even though it offers an alternative to postmodernism . To be sure , many critics have argued for a connection between postmodernism and postcolonialism , and many postcolonial authors , like Rushdie , clearly have learned and adopted much from the techniques of postmodern fiction . But postmodernism and postcolonial literature are in many respects at odds , if only because the situation of postcolonial authors demands that they seek out subject matter other than themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sterile postmodern self-reflexivity. ( n2 ) As the Rushdie affair showed with unusual clarity , postcolonial authors are confronting issues that truly matter to people around the world , issues that engage their deepest passions . Who ever cared enough about anything Thomas Pynchon wrote to want to threaten his life ? <p> Thus the study of postcolonial literature may offer a way out of the impasse of postmodern criticism . Though many of the most prominent postcolonial critics would identify themselves as postmodernists and poststructuralists , the way they treat non-Western as opposed to Western authors suggests otherwise . When critics today deal with Western literature , they tend to proclaim the death of the author ; they aggressively disregard what an author might have intended in his work , and instead substitute various forms of reading against the text to bring out meanings the author never intended . But these critics read texts from the Third World in the opposite way , as shown by the return of the concept of " voice , " so much despised by Jacques Derrida and his deconstructionist followers . Third World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oppression of their people and to " voice " their opposition to a hegemonic Western culture . Somehow in contemporary criticism non-Western authors are allowed what is denied to their Western counterparts , namely their own voices . Postcolonial critics treat Third World authors as having intentions and carrying them out successfully in their works . That is what it means to talk about the empire striking back or writing back ; it implies the return of the author , often with a vengeance . When Rushdie is said to rewrite a Kipling work , he is being credited with having a conscious literary strategy . We should be exploiting this contradiction in contemporary criticism , the fact that traditional works are approached with untraditional methods , which deny the principle of authorial intention , whereas untraditional works are often approached with traditional methods , which indeed focus on the Third World author as occupying a definite " subject position " and expressing his distinct subjectivity . <p> Moreover , an open-minded confrontation with postcolonial literature will reveal that the image of it fostered by postcolonial critics is distorted and misleading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not programmatically anti-Western in their books ( their public pronouncements on specific political issues may be a different matter ) . Some of them , like Rushdie , demonstrate a complex understanding of how Western culture has contributed to non-Western . Rushdie is particularly fascinated by the way encounters between East and West have created hybrid cultural phenomena , richer and more complex than any one nation could have produced on its own. ( n3 ) By the same token , some postcolonial authors have proven to be among the most incisive critics of postcolonial regimes . The Nigerian author , Chinua Achebe , for example , has produced a series of novels , from No Longer at Ease to Anthills of the Savannah , that indict the corruption and cynicism of dictatorial governments in Africa with unparalleled insight and authority . Reading the novels of Rushdie and Achebe , one does not encounter what many postcolonial critics would lead one to expect : neither kneejerk condemnation of Western culture nor uncritical celebration of non-Western culture . Rather these authors offer a thoughtful examination of the problematic interaction of Western and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and negative aspects of both sides . <p> In that sense , writers like Rushdie and Achebe offer examples of true multiculturalism . It is a sad commentary on much of postcolonial criticism that Rushdie and Achebe , and even more so Vargas Llosa and V.S. Naipaul , have fallen out of favor and are now more likely to be condemned than praised by scholars in the field . Because these authors do not tell the story of the Third World many postcolonial critics wish to promote -- because they do not support the myth of a non-Western world unequivocally superior to the Westsome scholars dismiss them as inauthentic , not true representatives of the Third World but rather paid lackeys of the West. ( n4 ) That is why it is imperative not to abandon the field of postcolonial studies to academic radicals , and thus allow them to construct and perpetuate a false image of literature around the world in accord with their anti-Western agenda . Postcolonial criticism has paradoxically blinded itself precisely to the multiculturalism of authors like Rushdie , Achebe , Vargas Llosa , and Naipaul ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their way between conflicting cultures . Fortunately there are signs that the field is finally opening up to an appreciation of the genuine multicultural possibilities inherent in the postcolonial situation . I would cite the brilliant book by Michael Valdez Moses of Duke University , The Novel and the Globalization of Culture ( New York : Oxford University Press , 1995 ) , which does the best job I know of charting the interplay between Western and non-Western elements in the writings of authors such as Conrad , Achebe , and Vargas Llosa . <p> Thus I find myself in the odd situation of someone who generally supports the traditional canon but who also advocates multiculturalism in literary scholarship , but only if it is real multiculturalism and not the sham that prevails in most postcolonial criticism today . I am in favor of studying literature from all over the world , provided it measures up to genuine aesthetic standards and is not praised simply because it is non-Western in origin . In fact , viewed dispassionately , the best literature from Latin America , Africa , and Asia will stand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Sometimes we must recognize that non-Western authors are dealing with different circumstances or facing different artistic problems , and we must adjust our criteria accordingly . For example , Rushdie 's novels do not have the linearity of many European narratives , but that is not the result of his inability to tell a straightforward story from start to finish . Rather , the cyclic patterns in his fiction reflect the cyclic structures of Hindu myth , which he must in fact employ if his novels are to mirror the distinctive consciousness of his Indian characters , who are influenced by their Hindu heritage . Moreover , Midnight 's Children in effect stages a debate between Western ideas of linear progress in history and Eastern ideas of historical cycles ; the tension between linear and cyclic patterns in the narrative is thus entirely appropriate . If one fixates on the principle of linear narrative as the only criterion of merit in fiction , Rushdie 's novels will be found wanting . But if one appeals to a more basic aesthetic principle , recognized since Aristotle , namely the principle of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrative in Rushdie will be found to be an aesthetic success . Many of what may at first appear to be odd aesthetic principles within the work of non-Western authors turn out to have parallels in the work of canonical Western authors . Joyce and Beckett , for example , adopted cyclical forms in their fiction as well , and often for the same reasons that Rushdie does . <p> Only if we allow for the possibility of such cross-cultural comparisons , of applying the same broad standards to products of different cultures , can we keep the study of postcolonial literature genuinely multicultural . Many postcolonial critics want Third World authors to serve as simple spokesmen for their nations , to give expression to some kind of authentic native culture , preferably uncontaminated by contact with the West . The last thing such critics want is any suggestion that Western culture has contributed to non-Western . And yet the very existence of postcolonial literature is evidence of the fruitful interchange between Western and non-Western cultures all around the globe . After all , many of the best postcolonial authors have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Spanish . This has often been a controversial decision ; some authors , like the Kenyan novelist and playwright Ngugi , have argued passionately in favor of postcolonial authors writing in their native tongues . But his arguments have been ably countered by authors like Achebe and Rushdie. ( n5 ) They defend their writing in English because it gives them access to a wider audience , even within their own countries . Moreover , Achebe and Rushdie argue that they are not surrendering to their old colonial masters by writing in English because they do not write the King 's English . Rather , they create a hybrid tongue , mixing native vocabulary and speech rhythms with English . In their hands , English thus becomes something genuinely multicultural . But let us recall that English has always been a richly multicultural language . Ever since the days of the Norman Conquest , it has mixed an " imported " French with a " native " Anglo-Saxon and has always been willing to adopt elements from other languages , including Latin and Greek . In the nineteenth century , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delights in pointing out how many of our seemingly ordinary English words have Indian origins : bungalow , thug , mogul , pundit , loot , verandah , dungarees , cummerbund . The list goes on and on. ( n6 ) The history of the English language is a good reminder that culture fundamentally is multicultural ; one culture is always assimilating elements from another . But that means that trying to deny the Western contribution to non-Western culture is a futile and self-defeating gesture . <p> In sum , even as a staunch supporter of the traditional literary canon , I welcome the study of Third World literature and the development of postcolonial criticism . All I ask is that this field become genuinely multicultural in its approach . That would involve recognizing the true complexity of how cultures operate and develop , and above all refusing to straitjacket postcolonial authors as the simple spokesmen for , and hence the captives of , hypothetical pure native cultures . That in turn means allowing for the possibility that Third World authors may be critical of the native cultures they supposedly represent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Western culture , which in many cases is at least one of the sources of their own brilliant achievement as writers . <p> 
##4001062 Section : Creative Controversy <p> In keeping with the policy of the Humanist to accommodate the diverse social , political , and philosophical viewpoints of its readers , this occasional feature allows for the expression of alternative and dissenting views on issues previously broached within these pages . <p> FEW VALUES , if any , have more widespread acceptance today in the United States than tolerance . Religious tolerance is especially lauded and has had its staunch supporters in this country since early in the colonial period . Today , although some advocate it more strongly and more often than others , people of nearly all beliefs and political persuasions can be heard arguing in favor of tolerance . The principle seems inherent in a pluralistic , democratic society . <p> In its most basic sense , tolerance means respect for the practices and beliefs of others -- whether or not we agree with them . What thinking person could disagree with such an idea ? No community or culture could exist , and neither could coexist , without some tolerance . A major reason the idea has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respect for others . <p> Those today who most frequently and strongly advocate tolerance usually do so based on the idea that truth is relative ; no one person , group , or culture -- the argument goes -- has a monopoly on truth , so one can believe what one wants but can not impose that belief on someone else . By maintaining your own truth without seeking to force it on others , you are showing the respect characteristic of a tolerant person . <p> This relativism is applied in many areas . We say that what is right for the Christian is n't necessarily right for the Muslim , Buddhist , agnostic , and so on . Similarly , the tolerant view on abortion says it 's fine to believe abortion is wrong but it 's intolerant to tell other women it 's wrong for them . Or if you are against interracial marriage then do n't marry someone from a different race , but do n't try to stop someone else from doing so . The tolerant view says that if you find homosexuality unappealing then do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being homosexual . <p> At first glance these arguments are appealing ; so apparently respectful of others , they appear obviously valid . They seem democratic in the sense that they endow equality of opinion and preference . They seem self-effacing in that they claim your belief is as legitimate as mine . They seem impartial . So on the surface toleration appears to be a fair-minded , democratic , modest approach that looks at the world based on the ideal of respect for others . No wonder its virtues are so frequently acclaimed . <p> But might there be a few problems in this outlook ? For one , at some level it seems to tell people how they can and can not act -- for example , by saying one can disagree with abortion but can not stop others from having one . This circumscription of behavior can be especially problematic in the case of evangelical Christianity , an area in which tolerance is perhaps most often discussed . <p> Evangelicalism is the belief that salvation is the most important moment in life and that leading others to salvation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say , fine , believe in Jesus but do n't try to impose your belief on me . But if you take the proselytizing out of evangelicalism -- which is what advocates of tolerance desire -- what exactly are you tolerating ? Not much . Instead you are telling people they must act in accordance with your relativistic outlook . <p> A typical expression of this view occurred a couple years ago in a Washington Post story on the decision of the Southern Baptist Convention " to intensify its efforts to convert Jews to Christianity . " Rabbi Eric Yoffie , president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and frequently quoted in the Post , decried this " direct attack , " saying , " We 've been moving toward a position where all major faiths recognize the fundamental integrity of each others ' beliefs . " Well , as stated in the article , Southern Baptists believe that " all people need a personal vital relationship with Jesus Christ . " Where is Yoffie 's respect for , his tolerance of , the belief of those fifteen million people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not act -- in essence saying that he 'll be glad to tolerate evangelicals as long as they do n't evangelize . <p> Conservative Christians have often pointed out this double standard , arguing that fair-mindedness should be applied to their beliefs as well as everyone else 's . I believe they have succeeded . The media today seem much more objective toward , more tolerant of , evangelicals than ten years ago . In fact , traditional Christians have succeeded so well that they often condemn even simple criticism as an act of intolerance . They have been effective in part because they have seized on tolerance 's internal contradiction of telling people how to act in the name of being hands-off . <p> In addition to telling people how to act , the ethos of tolerance also tells people what they should and should n't think . First , you should think your truth is relevant to you but not necessarily to someone else . Second , you should realize that no single group of standards is valid for everyone . Third , you should believe it is inappropriate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do . <p> Not only do these three ideas violate the avowed standards of tolerance by telling people how to think , they are also self-contradictory . Supposedly principles of relativism , they are all absolute , all pertinent everywhere at all times . In other words , they all exemplify the very thing they refute . The first is a truth applicable to everyone ; the second is one standard that encompasses all other standards ; the third says you 're wrong to tell me I 'm wrong . <p> However wonderful it sounds then , in practice , tolerance as it is espoused most commonly today seems to me a specific , absolute world view -- one that seeks to impose its way on everyone . In this world view there are clear ideas of right and wrong ; but calling them right and wrong contradicts the relativistic , self-effacing , impartial notions that supposedly govern thought and action . As a result , the issue is side-stepped : rather than saying I 'm right and you 're wrong , I have to say I 'm tolerant and you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appears in another Washington Post article by Donna Britt . A regular columnist for the newspaper , Britt wrote a thoughtful and sometimes poignant article about the effects of television on young people . In discussing the difference between Teletubbies and South Park , Britt asks , " Why do we show America 's tiniest children worlds glistening with love and tolerance , and so often older kids the opposite ? " <p> The rest of the article is largely about why we should n't tolerate South Park . " Some things , " Britt argues , " should n't be said out loud in public . " Is n't this exactly what Jerry Falwell says about Teletubbies ? Falwell does n't want to tolerate indications , however subtle , of homosexuality ; Britt does n't want to tolerate publicly aired adult jokes . <p> The rejoinder Falwell constantly hears -- if you do n't like it , change the channel -- is conspicuously absent from Britt 's article . Many defenders of tolerance , I believe , would say this is because Falwell takes exception to something harmless ( even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the other hand , has characters who express intolerance of ethnic and religious differences . But this is exactly the point : the argument is over right and wrong , over different definitions of what is positive and what is harmful . <p> The fact remains that both Falwell and Britt are objecting to what they find offensive . Falwell at least admits he 's arguing about right and wrong . Too often , supporters of tolerance dodge this fact . In essence , however , they are saying that some things are okay and some are n't and they 'll tell you which are which -- Teletubbies okay ; South Park not -- and if you disagree , it 's not that they 're right and you 're wrong but that you 're intolerant . <p> Aggression in the guise of tolerance has been a common feature in the United States since its inception . Maryland is often lauded for being the first colony to pass legislation allowing freedom of religion . But the 1649 Act of Toleration was an assertive measure , a preemptive strike enacted by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . This minority was n't saying , " We will tolerate you , " but , instead , " You have to tolerate US . " <p> A similar thing happened in Massachusetts in the late seventeenth century . As the colony became more diverse -- as Quakers and Baptists grew in numbers , as a group of merchants arose with inclusive standards of church membership and with ties to English Anglicans -- many began to desire an end to Congregational Puritanism 's dominance in politics and religion . British rule passed an act of religious toleration and made Massachusetts drop the requirement of church membership for voting and holding office . <p> It is just as valid to call this an act of intolerance . It was an assertive measure aimed at old-style Puritans , telling them how they could and could n't act . In essence , the Crown was saying it would no longer tolerate Puritans ' persecution of Baptists and Quakers and exclusion of liberal Congregationalists and Anglicans . Was it a good thing -- was it right -- that Puritans were made to stop boring holes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Of course . But was it tolerant ? Not any more than it was intolerant . <p> Which brings up a more fundamental point : intolerance is just as important and just as necessary as tolerance . You 'll not hear anyone extol the virtues of intolerance , unless , say , politicians speak of drug offenses . But advocating tolerance without qualification is ludicrous . <p> Do I tolerate my child 's world view by letting her eat all the candy she wants ? Do I tolerate female genital mutilation , a long-standing tradition in many cultures ? If it 's 1960 , do I tolerate the cultural tradition of systematically denying civil rights to African Americans ? Should we tolerate a woman getting paid seventy cents for doing the same work for which a man gets a dollar ? These questions are presented in the extreme , but this is because tolerance is touted so broadly and praised so absolutely . There are all kinds of things we do not and should not tolerate -- and for good reason . <p> The issue , then , is not that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't tolerate . The question -- like it or not -- is what is right and what is wrong . And when we admit this , we have to admit we 're on the same playing field as fundamentalists , chauvinists , and racists . Racism , for example , is wrong , but not any more intolerant than anti-racism ; the racist wo n't tolerate black equality , and I wo n't tolerate racism . <p> Tolerance , then , as praised and practiced by those who preach it most , is often a mask for aggression -- an attempt to impose a fairly specific world view on society . It may be a good world view , but it is n't more tolerant than any other . <p> This is why one so often hears it said that people who advocate tolerance are the most intolerant . I do n't believe this to be the case , but I do believe the criticism has validity in that it points to a rather glaring hypocrisy : the hands-off , permissive connotation in the word is the very mechanism that triggers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ words , much of what passes for tolerance epitomizes the exact thing it condemns . <p> By no means am I suggesting that tolerance is unimportant and should be discarded . Although most of this article has been criticism of an element of discourse I find too prevalent -- especially in the media and academia -- it was my own search to understand real quality tolerance that led to the criticism in the first place . In our diverse society , tolerance is a positive value that allows us to minimize our differences and to gain strength from them . <p> But we must have the integrity to acknowledge that tolerance itself , or the lack thereof , is not the crux of the matter . The real question is what to tolerate . In fact , simply admitting that this is the question is an act of tolerance ; rather than trying to snatch the moral high ground by talking tolerance/intolerance , it allows that even fundamental disagreement may -- not necessarily , but may -- occur on the same moral plane . <p> In accepting this principle I would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than wag my finger in their face for trying to impose their beliefs on me . They are , after all , acting out of what they believe is a concern for my spiritual well-being . It is remarkable how tolerant a fundamentalist -- or just about anyone else , for that matter -- can become if his or her own opinion is offered a little respect in the first place . In the end , perhaps tolerance is much more valuable and effective when judiciously applied and when practiced instead of preached . Editor 's note : <p> The Southern Poverty Law Center , in the interest of reducing racism and ethnic conflict , offers a highly regarded public school curriculum entitled " Teaching Tolerance . " Yet this same organization seeks new laws against certain intolerant groups . Is n't that showing intolerance of intolerance ? And is n't that a contradiction ? Dr. Hazell explores this sort of question -- arriving at some counter-intuitive conclusions . <p> By J. Eric Hazell <p> <p> Eric Hazell has a Ph.D . in early U.S. history from the University of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor of English and history . He is also a historian and archivist at the Naval Historical Center in Washington , D.C. , and co-authored " Panacea or Pipe Dream ? Contracting Out Naval Research and Development Since World War II , " which will appear in a forthcoming issue of U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings . <p> 
##4001063 Section : THE POPULAR CONDITION <p> I 've never been much for elaborate conspiracy theories , but sometimes I have to step back and wonder . If I were a modern-day despot in the United States who wanted to prevent the kind of discontent that might lead to revolt , what better system could I ask for than the one presently at work ? <p> In U.S. schools , the curriculum is -- with few exceptions -- a blissfully romantic inculcation of " the American way . " Textbooks rarely impugn anything " American , " and when they do it is usually a qualified admonishment of " a great man " or " necessary " conquest . Thus , even after it was verified that Thomas Jefferson did more than write great documents at his slave-run Monticello , the majority of the nation 's writers were quick to race to the icon 's rescue , exhorting us to never forget the majestic democracy he and his fraternity designed . The result is that , almost two centuries after his death , we still fail to remember or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ propagated while ruling over the fledgling nation . <p> Of course , the unabashed campaign to promote patriotism and satisfaction with the status quo is certainly not limited to the peccadillos of the framers of the Constitution . When U.S. students study the Spanish-American War , are they simply inundated with heady stories about Teddy Roosevelt 's heroic charge up San Juan Hill or is there time to talk about the genocide that quashed the independence movement in the Philippines ? Is there time to broach the topic of imperialism and how the propaganda mill in the United States worked to promote a singular truth in citizens ' minds ? History , Howard Zinn reminds us , is not an objective science but a human construct -- an artifact that is created as a way to shape opinion and truth . " There is always a tendency , " Zinn says in his 1990 book The Politics of History , " to see history from the top , " but such an approach invariably leads to passivity , to an acceptance of the status quo as the best of all possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experience , they enter the " real world " with a plethora of lofty stories about our venerable heroes and storied history . As the officially ascribed " good guys , " Americans are the survivors of a heroic battle with the iniquitous forces of communism . Precious little is written about the United States ' pandering to big business , the orchestrated fight against organized labor , or the concerted effort to keep minorities in their place . Such omissions lead to romantic monoliths , to myths about the Roaring Twenties or the blissful fifties . Few of us ever hear about segregation or the unequal tax burdens imposed upon the poor and middle class . " The class nature of the American economy is reflected in the tax structure , but this is hidden from those without time or training to study taxes , " argues Zinn . <p> After graduation from school -- where students have been given a generous helping of the superiority of capitalism , Christianity , and the rightness of American political wars -- one moves on to a virtual deluge of mind-numbing routines , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be specially designed to preclude any critical analysis or political action . Consider , for example , the lives of average college students who enter the classroom with aspirations of learning to reflect upon and dissect their world . <p> I recently did a series of informal surveys with my sophomore writing class , asking them to evaluate a societal injustice they would like to expose and possibly remedy . I suggested topics like racism , classism , gender bias , or the moronic content of day-time television -- anything was an option . Incredibly , a majority came to me with few ideas about what to write . When I devoted a class session to the reality of an unequal tax system , students defended the idea of a flat tax , knowing that they -- as struggling students -- would clearly be the victims of this regressive plan . Later , when I broached the idea of racism among the students , even the African Americans waxed rhapsodic about the empowerment they felt . This , it should be noted , while affirmative action was being dismantled in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> The United States , for most of my students , is a curious utopia -- and this , I believe , is a result of a system that promotes passivity , intellectual indolence , and self-loathing , a system that massages its populace with mindless talk shows and courtroom melodramas where rather pathetic people are displayed for derision and pseudointellectual analysis . It really matters little whether one views the exploits of Ricki Lake , Jenny Jones , or Jerry Springer . In each case , one is confronted with a deluge of tawdry melodramas , devoid of meaning and intended only to titillate and lampoon . The upshot for those who crowd the television for these travesties is an acceptance of their place as silly and rather ridiculous people . <p> Yesterday it was the entertaining fight between unfaithful lovers . Today it is the struggle over interracial relationships . Tomorrow it will involve sordid details about women fighting over other women 's husbands . Together they fulfill a need to wallow in a collective misery while reinforcing the insignificance of the people whom they exploit . This , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ machine that begins in elementary school and runs unabated throughout one 's life . It is an education not unlike the racist minstrel shows , where African Americans were made the butt of jokes and the knowledge of their marginal status was reinforced . The only difference is that today it is in a courtroom and it is Judge Judy who is pontificating about the " sad lifestyle " of one of her victims . <p> Continued exposure to such mindless entertainment , argues Herbert Marcuse , becomes a kind of drug or candy for the oppressed populace -- replacing feelings of discontent with a deluge of mind-numbing situation comedies , sporting events , and glitzy commercials . In short , the media culture discourages the masses from thinking beyond the confines of the present by sweeping them up from reality and delivering them to a land where hegemonic ideas about wealth and beauty are seemingly just beyond their fingertips . In his 1968 book One Dimensional Man , Marcuse suggests , " The irresistible output of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits , certain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less pleasantly to the producers and , through the latter , to the whole . " Propaganda in the Schools <p> All of this inculcation begins quite innocently , as kids march into kindergarten classrooms and begin to be acclimated into the " system . " Teachers stand before the class and do what teachers have clone since the first Puritan school : indoctrinate and socialize . Education is supposed to be objective and disinterested , but in fact it is quite effective at promulgating very specific ideas about discipline and " truth . " <p> The act of reading is an interesting example . For centuries , not only the content but the method of reading has been scrupulously monitored by conservative politicians who understand the significance of reading to the perpetuation of national obedience . If conservatives have their way , students will consequently learn valuable lessons about the top-clown process of U.S. education , its teacher-centeredness , and the dependence they should feel for an authority figure . <p> Today , a popular argument among conservative educators like E. D. Hirsch is for " cultural literacy , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mores of the educated white elite . It is a plan that conveniently makes Shakespeare cultural literacy while rendering the practices and literature of other communities wrong or inferior . Again , the scheme is clear : if the power elite can standardize their way of life and make the subjugated aspire to reach it as a sign of success , they can rule by intellectual oppression rather than military force . Thus , when Hirsch speaks of cultural literacy , he dresses it in garb that makes it seem less like oppression than altruism . <p> In a recent essay on the question of multiculturalism and bilingual education , Hirsch chooses to call his goal to standardize the curriculum " Americanization " -- a curriculum that is " rudderless " and " romantic . " In his January/February 1999 Clearinghouse essay " Americanization and the Schools , " Hirsch suggests that " all American children need to be Americanized in a deeper sense than merely learning common American attitudes and lingo from T.V. and the streets " ; they need a " common school " where universal sentiments are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Attractive sounding ? Of course . But when readers probe beyond the egalitarian rhetoric , they find a mission to standardize the public school in a way that would virtually silence the divergent voices that populate our schools and animate our nation . <p> When Hirsch speaks of common knowledge as a way to foster scholastic success , he is really asking that schools institutionalize a system that replicates and enforces his values : traditions and mores of the white elite male . For Hirsch and his friends , education is not a process that is socially constructed by real people but a law or creed that is given to passive recipients for their benefit . Like the television viewer , then , learning becomes less about discovery than listening . It centers on obedience and fealty , submission and docility -- all qualities that work well in a despotic system . <p> Thus , one is not surprised to see Tom Monaghan , the founder of Domino 's Pizza , donate $50 million of his fortune to establish a law school in Michigan that teaches " objective verities " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see the powerful attempting to establish and institutionalize their version of truth . <p> Indeed , the key to controlling people is not through overt repression but through subtle persuasion . Hegemony is best practiced through official and supposedly objective channels , such as school , church , and law . When the dominant group can successfully persuade the subjugated that they deserve their inferior status -- and that it is supported by holy works , academic scholarship , and legal decisions -- they tend to become more docile and malleable . They tend to see such repression as inevitable rather than unjust . Thus , as Karl Marx and Frederich Engels argue in their 1974 book The German Ideology , " A ruling class is compelled ... to represent its interest as the common interest of all members of society ... to give its ideas the form of universality , and represent them as the only rational , universally valid ones . " <p> And so , in a society that searches for ways to cosmetically change oppression and inequality so that they seem less like injustice and more like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nietzsche 's caveat that " there are no truths , only interpretations . " Equally significant is iconoclastic educator Paulo Freire 's call for all people to engage in praxis so that theories of liberation and democracy become a reality rather than simply an essay in an academic journal . <p> Perhaps all this does n't constitute a conspiracy , but it has all of the trappings of a despotic system -- one that maintains power by misinformation and control , something that is too often blamed on those other nations U.S. history books love to demonize . The question now is how can we identify and change the injustices if we are programmed to accept them ? <p> By Gregory Shafer <p> <p> Gregory Shafer is a professor of English at Mott College in Flint , Michigan . <p> 
##4001064 The Earth becomes home to six billion humans this year . In 1960 , there were three billion and in 2030 there could be eight billion to nine billion . With nearly all the increase occurring in the poor countries of <p> Africa , Asia , and Latin America ; with 585,000 women dying annually from complications of pregnancy and childbirth ; and with twenty million unsafe abortions taking place each year , governmental members and nongovernmental organizations ( NGOs ) of the United Nations decided to take action and organized the UN International Conference on Population and Development ( ICPD ) . <p> The initial gathering was held in Cairo , Egypt , September 5-13 , 1994 . By all accounts the conference was a remarkable achievement , hailed as a model of cooperation between UN officials , governments , NGOs , and aid agencies . Remarkably , some 179 nations reached consensus on a progressive sixteen-chapter Programme of Action . Some twenty delegations , however -- cardinal among them the Holy See ( as the Vatican is called at the UN ) and some Muslim countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . These concerns were based upon institutionally held religious convictions . <p> According to the Women 's Environment and Development Organization , the ICPD Programme represented " a seismic shift in the thinking on health and population policies . It challenged traditional family-planning approaches that focused on averting births rather than human well-being . It affirmed women 's unencumbered right to reproductive choice and freedom . " A few specifics of the Programme include : integrating population , production , and consumption dynamics into sustainable development policies providing universal reproductive health services by 2015 developing policies and programs that support sexual education prevention of the abuses of women and girls , including prostitution and female genital mutilation the use of technology and international cooperation to foster science-based development policies the education and empowerment of women to make reproductive decisions . <p> The numerous action recommendations situated reproduction in the wider context of economic opportunity and exploitation . The Programme clearly demonstrated the philosophy that individual moral action must be understood as the result , rather than the cause , of cultural , political , and , above all , economic policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ follow-up conference was scheduled , to be held June 30-July 2 , 1999 , at UN headquarters in New York City . In preparation for Cairo Plus Five , a forum was held at the Hague March 22-April 1 of this year . It was there that the first serious signs of trouble surfaced and almost sabotaged Cairo Plus Five . Although delegates were n't supposed to renegotiate the text of the Programme of Action , a coalition of Catholic and Muslim states effectively tried to do just that . Throughout the review , the Holy See , Algeria , Argentina , Chile , Guatemala , Egypt , Libya , Morocco , Nicaragua , and Sudan raised arguments and objections about the terms choice , sex education , and especially parental consent . Most of their objections dealt with proposals on the health impact of unsafe abortion , the provision of sexual health education and services for adolescents , and safe and effective contraceptive and family-planning methods . China and some of its allies also raised objections to parts of the Programme . <p> Frustrated delegates , especially NGO observers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this small band of right-wing states that had raised the same objections at the 1994 gathering . Unless consensus could be reached on a final document to be presented in New York , Cairo Plus Five would fail and all the advances made previously would be lost . Because the consensus method of decision-making ( in contrast to voting ) was used , it became possible for a small group of delegates to prevent the overwhelming majority from proceeding with the preparation of a final text . In addition , more than 100 representatives from conservative and anti-choice organizations -- including the International Right to Life Federation ( a Rome-based coalition ) , Opus Dei , Human Life International , and the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute -- lobbied government delegates in an effort to derail the Programme of Action . <p> They almost succeeded . The Hague forum failed to produce a final document by its March 30 deadline . The deadline was extended to April 1 , but it did n't help . Things became so strained that a demonstration -- a violation of traditional " gentlemanly " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . If nothing improved , Cairo Plus Five would fail . <p> Immediately upon my arrival in New York on June 30 at Cairo Plus Five ( I was serving as an alternate delegate for the American Humanist Association ) , I sensed something was terribly wrong . I had been attending UN conferences as an NCO delegate for various organizations since 1978 and could tell something was up . I soon learned that a final Programme of Action was still being negotiated and that a group of Catholic and Muslim delegations was working to impede the progress of the conference . <p> Many of the 400 registered NCO delegates ( representing 300 organizations ) were furious , and an air of desperation could be felt . " We might lose everything , " one delegate said . " Why ca n't they focus on all the good that came out of Cairo ? " I met an old friend in the hallway and she said to me , " I 'm so ashamed to be a Catholic . The Vatican -- especially as an observer state -- has no right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Five had two simultaneous tracks of sessions : the UN General Assembly and the Committee of the Whole . The first included the scheduled testimony of 191 nations , five observers , and five NGOs . Initially only fifty passes were made available for the NGOs at the General Assembly , despite 400 available seats , but a protest eventually yielded more . The second track was the Committee of the Whole , consisting of meetings of both large and small groups of NGOs and others . Since it was not possible to attend both tracks in their entirety , I listened to only a few General Assembly speakers and then attended the committee meetings . ( The General Assembly speeches and other relevant documents are available on the United Nations Population Fund website : www.unfpa.org ; select ICPD+5 . ) <p> There was considerable drama at the various NGO meetings since , as of July 1 , there still was no final document to be presented to the General Assembly for a vote . So when the NGOs learned they would be not be allowed to make presentations to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we sent a unanimous resolution to Didier Opertti , president of the General Assembly Special Session . The resolution observed that NGOs had been " crucial to the implementation of the Cairo+5 process " and resolved that " the President and the Bureau of the General Assembly Special Session assure that NGOs have an opportunity to speak in a Plenary Session . " Three eventually did . <p> A second event on July 1 that signaled the NGOs ' dissatisfaction with the obstructive practices at this gathering was the terse but extremely direct remarks of Daniel C. Maguire , professor of theology at Marquette University , delivered before the Committee of the Whole . Maguire is a Catholic theologian trained at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and is president of the Religious Consultation on Population , Reproductive Health , and Ethics , an international NGO consisting of over 100 theologians of the world 's major and indigenous religions . He accused the Vatican of " misrepresentation of the Catholic traditions and teachings on abortion , " stating that the Catholic church " has always housed a pro-choice , as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cited as an example St. Antoninus , archbishop of Florence , " who in the fifteenth century defended a woman 's right to abortion if needed to save her life . " Maguire called upon Vatican officials to " stop their dogmatism , a dogmatism that offends many Catholics and most of the world 's religions . " He concluded by urging the Vatican to " surrender its privileged position at the United Nations . " The Holy See is the only religion that has Permanent Observer status at the UN . Maguire 's intervention was greeted with hearty applause . <p> A third event that day -- by far the most dramatic -- was the release of " An Open Letter to the Vatican , " initiated by women NGOs from Latin America and the Caribbean . In a series of direct and biting questions , they pressed the Vatican for answers : How can a church that holds life as a fundamental value be unmoved by the deaths of thousands of women , many of whom leave orphaned children ? Why do Vatican representatives insist that only parents can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sexual health of young people when it is widely known that many cases of sexual abuse , particularly incest , take place in the heart of the home ? Given that the Vatican is not a nation-state , is not involved in the implementation of the Cairo Programme of Action , and , by its very nature , does not have women or children or sexual or reproductive problems , why is the Vatican delegation interested in blocking advances in contraception , sexual education , and HIV prevention that are beneficial to millions of women , especially to millions of the world 's poorest women ? Why do Vatican representatives to this conference , who speak about the problems of migrants and allocation of resources and who insist on respect for national sovereignty , seek to impose their religious ideas and moral rules on a world that is plural and diverse in its beliefs ? <p> This letter was originally signed by forty-seven Latin American and Caribbean organizations , from Mexico to Chile . Eighty-one other international NGOs from the women 's coalition also supported the letter . <p> One of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , led by Frances Kissling , who has long been a critic of Vatican policy on women 's reproductive rights ( including birth control and abortion ) and social justice issues . Her leadership at Cairo Plus Five was very evident , and it was obvious that she and her organization enjoyed a great deal of respect and support from the NCO delegates . Kissling invited me to a luncheon at the UN for progressive religious NGOs . Several of the seventeen people present -- including Buddhists , Muslims , Catholics , Protestants , and Jews -- lamented the fact that so often all religions are tarred with the same reactionary brush as the Vatican on population and development issues . Participants noted that in various traditions , such as Muslim and Catholic , there is a wide array of viewpoints on women , birth control , and abortion . Indeed , as one of the NCO plenary speakers stated , " The biggest Catholic countries are in consensus about what compassionate Catholicism means " and that today " the Holy See can no longer speak for most Catholics . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Cairo Plus Five -- dawned , a final Programme of Action had not yet materialized . Clearly concerned that the Vatican 's obstructive practices might affect the success of this and future conferences , a letter signed by a vast majority of the NGOs was addressed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan . The letter stated : <p> Regrettably , a process designed to be a review and appraisal of the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action has become a reassessment of the fundamentals that were resoundingly agreed and firmly established in Cairo .... We believe that the review and appraisal mandated by the General Assembly has been diverted from its original intention during the preparatory process that led to the conference . <p> The letter concluded by asking the secretary-general to hold a " consultation " to review Cairo Plus Five and what impact it would have on the World Summit of Social Development and the Beijing Platform for Action . Diplomatically speaking , this and our previous letter to Didier Opertti constituted an almost open rebellion . <p> So how many battalions did the Vatican have at this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a few but , by July 2 , the coalition of Catholic and Muslim delegations had collapsed . The Vatican 's alleged numerous NGOs at the conference surfaced visibly in force ( about twenty representatives ) only at a press briefing held with the U.S. Department of State across the street from the UN . But by late that afternoon , a final Programme of Action was approved . In the end , only Argentina , Nicaragua , and a few NGOs -- such as Right to Life International , the Catholic Family Rights Institute , and the Sovereign Military Order of Maltamstood with the Vatican to express " reservations " about the final document . Even the Muslims supported the Programme . The Vatican 's battalions were in retreat -- and bitter retreat at that . <p> In a most interesting final intervention , Archbishop Renato R. Martino , head of the Holy See delegation , actually accused others of seeking to undo the ICPD . He observed that negotiations at the Hague forum took <p> a step backward , placing unbalanced emphasis on population issues at the expense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it particularly disconcerting that some delegations , mainly from Western states , have sought in these negotiations to undo the careful balancing needed between adolescents ' need for privacy and confidentiality with parental rights , duties , and responsibilities-prior rights as affirmed in the Declaration on Human Rights . <p> After noting the Holy See 's reservations to the approved final document , Martino stated , " This does not mean that the Holy See can simply walk away from the work begun in Cairo , the work proceeding here and which will continue into the future . " But " walk away " is just what a great many NGOs want the Vatican to do . <p> So was Cairo Plus Five a success ? By all accounts it was . In his summary remarks to the General Assembly , Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowhury of Bangladesh , president of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the special session , noted that reaching consensus had been " extraordinarily difficult " because delegates " repeatedly ran into contentious issues " in the course of negotiations . He noted that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempts , and gives direction on how to proceed for achieving more . " Specifically , Chowhury noted that Cairo Plus Five led to a <p> focus on attaining more in our efforts for equality and empowerment of women ... emphatic pronouncements for women 's rights ... strong language for enduring discrimination against the girl child ... benefits of public-private partnership and collaboration with civil society . <p> Translation : the progressive forces won . <p> In the General Assembly , nation after nation affirmed the final Programme of Action and many commented on their own programs to limit population growth through development . NGOs -- especially women 's organizations -- overwhelmingly supported Cairo Plus Five and can take real satisfaction in knowing that , although the job has only begun , it is off to a good start . <p> And , above all , it will continue . <p> By Joseph J. Fahey <p> <p> Joseph J. Fahey is professor of religious studies and former director of the Peace Studies Program at Manhattan College in New York City . He serves , with Beth Lamont , on the NCO @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> 
##4001065 Section : Creative Controversy <p> In keeping with the policy of the Humanist to accommodate the diverse social , political , and philosophical viewpoints of its readers , this occasional feature allows for the expression of alter . native and dissenting views on issues previously discussed within these pages . <p> HUMANIST MANIFESTO II , first published in 1973 , outlines a humanistic world vision to help guide humankind toward the future . Building on the dramatic advances in science , technology , and evolving social and political changes , the manifesto declares that the next century should be the " humanistic century . " Among the seventeen principles affirmed is a call " to transcend the limits of national sovereignty and move toward the building of a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate . " As we rapidly approach the new millennium , we need to examine the factors influencing the current international environment and seek to answer the following question : is the world community poised to make the next century the humanistic century ? THE QUESTION OF CULTURE <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a world order based upon a transnational federal government that would appreciate diversity , cultural pluralism , and pride in national origin -- in effect , a global government grounded on a system of world law . Is this actually a feasible notion in today 's international environment ? With the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War , the bipolar -- and arguably more stable -- world in which we had grown accustomed to living ceased to exist . In its place is a much less predictable , more multipolar world -- one with many new actors now playing on the world stage . <p> Each of these actors possesses a unique cultural identity . But whose culture ? Culture -- or civilization , if one prefers -- encompasses the basic ways of a people that resist alteration and remain significant to following generations . Culture includes the shared norms , values , language , history , science , art , and religious views of a group . And unlike the relatively youthful nation-state system around which our modern world affairs revolve , many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ humankind in the post-Cold War environment , Samuel P. Huntington hypothesizes in his summer 1993 Foreign Affairs article " The Clash of the Civilizations " that the fundamental source of future world conflict will primarily be cultural and between groups of different civilizations -- not exclusively between nation-states . Cultural identification does n't necessarily confine itself neatly within the borders of the established states but may transcend state borders , as is the case in the Balkans , or may include several nation-states , such as the Arab civilization . <p> How might culture be a source of future conflict ? The reasons are varied and may include differing views over politics , economics , and ethnicity , just to name a few . Perhaps the most compelling source , though , is religion . Each culture produces its own fundamental views of religion , and many of these views are the result of centuries in the making . <p> In the history of humanity , perhaps no other catalyst has generated the level of violence and conflict as has religion . Although differing religious views in and of themselves may @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a look around the globe at several contemporary conflicts gives one pause to reflect otherwise . For instance : Catholic and Orthodox Christians fighting in the Balkans , both of them fighting Muslims ( and , most recently , Orthodox Christians carrying out near genocide against Muslims in Kosovo ) ; Muslims and Hindus fighting in India ; Muslims and Christians fighting in Egypt , Algeria , Azerbaijan , Indonesia , and Nigeria ; Christians and Muslims fighting in Lebanon ; Sunni Muslims and Shiites fighting in Iraq ; and Shiites and Baha'is fighting in Iran . The list goes on . <p> Cultural clashes and the seeming inability of humanity to overcome them present a daunting challenge for the future . In his winter 1996 Washington Quarterly article " Conflicts After the Cold War , " Joseph S. Nye Jr . maintains that cultural clashes can occur at three levels : over transnational identity , such as religion ; over national identity , as in Russia ; and on subnational identity based on linguistic , religious , or ethnic divisions , as in Africa or the former Yugoslavia . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , solutions to reduce this cultural strife at all three levels must first be found . IS WAR REALLY OBSOLETE ? <p> Humanist Manifesto II proclaims that the world community must renounce the resort to violence and force in solving international disputes and declares war and the use of weapons of mass destruction obsolete . Unfortunately , the world remains a very dangerous place and conflict abounds . In international relations theory , there are primarily two world views that help explain conflict : realism and liberalism . Realists assert that conflict results as states struggle with one another over power and security concerns in an anarchic world -- a world where there is no higher authority or ultimate arbiter . They claim that human beings have an instinctive desire to dominate each other and believe the furthering of national interests is supreme . Leery of international institutions or the idea of collective security , realists seek to tilt the balance of power in their favor . <p> Liberals , on the other hand , contend that conflict is not only influenced by power struggles but determined by the domestic structure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the belief in the democratic ideal . In effect , democratic states do n't go to war with one another ; rather , they rely on negotiation and dialogue to solve differences . Liberals believe international commerce and trade promote peace and maintain that international institutions increase the cooperation between nation-states . <p> According to the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict , following the thawing of the Cold War in the years 1990-1997 , there were thirty-nine major world conflicts in which at least 1,000 deaths occurred in any one year . Although most scholars and policymakers agree the potential for global conflict has significantly lessened in today 's international environment , they also agree that great uncertainties still abound . Many world " hot spots " exist that could quickly escalate into small-scale or regional war . <p> For example , striving for self-determination , twenty million Kurds -- the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state -- are vying for a Kurdistan homeland carved from the countries of Iran , Iraq , Syria , and Turkey . In the former Soviet Union , Chechnya @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and much anxiety lingers . The Arab-Israeli dispute remains a tinderbox in spite of extraordinary efforts to mediate events . India and Pakistan , the newest members of the nuclear club , have fought three wars and the Kashmir issue is still unresolved . Tensions continue to be high on the Korean Peninsula-as well as between China and Taiwan . Iraq remains a threat to its Middle East neighbors . The crisis in the Balkans and collapse of states in central Africa also give great pause for concern . <p> Always a contentious issue because of their horrific destructive potential , chemical , biological , and nuclear weapon concerns are of particular interest in today 's world . On the subject of nuclear weapons , John F. Spoko writes in his winter 1996-1997 Foreign Policy article " The Changing Proliferation Threat " : <p> The familiar balance of nuclear terror that linked the superpowers and their client states for nearly 50 years in a choreographed series of confrontations has given way to a much less predictable situation where weapons of unthinkable power appear within the grasp of those willing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , terrorist groups , religious cults , ethnic minorities , disaffected political groups , and even individuals appear to have joined a new arms race toward mass destruction . <p> Fearful of being on the receiving end of an attack , nuclear-capable nations are going to be hard-pressed to completely eliminate their arsenal of weapons due to their perceived deterrent value . On the positive side , since 1989 the stockpile of Russian and U.S. nuclear warheads has been reduced by half , and when all three strategic arms reduction treaties ( START ) are implemented , roughly 80 percent of their strategic nuclear arsenals will be gone . Since both nations have signed the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty , calling for the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons , the START treaties are a key milestone in achieving a major principle of Humanist Manifesto IL <p> Unfortunately , the same can not be said of chemical and biological weapons . Known as the " poor man 's nuke , " these weapons do n't require the level of sophistication to manufacture as do nuclear weapons and , although many nations ( including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the outlook for their total elimination in the near future is far bleaker . Any rogue nation or faction that so desires can easily obtain weapons of this sort . <p> Is war really obsolete ? In theory , yes ; in reality , no . But this question does give rise to a third international relations world view : idealism , or globalism . Idealists view the world as a global community . Within the community , global institutions are formed leading to cooperation , security , and collective action . They believe in the universal rule of law and the rights of individuals everywhere . If this world view can ultimately be achieved in the next century , conceivably war may then become truly obsolete . SOVEREIGNTY AND NATIONAL SECURITY <p> Perhaps the biggest challenges in fulfilling the aims of Humanist Manifesto II are the issues of national sovereignty and national security . In the foreseeable future , it is difficult to imagine the international security environment evolving in such a manner that nations , such as the United States , would actually give up some degree of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world community is steadily moving in the direction of more cooperative intergovernmental relationships -- including the increased interaction of nongovernmental organizations , transnational corporations , and academia -- the circumstances to transcend the limits of national sovereignty have not yet been achieved . <p> Humanist Manifesto II maintains that it is a planetary imperative to reduce the level of military expenditures and direct this money toward more peaceful purposes . As the world 's only remaining superpower , the United States maintains a sizable military force . Yet according to recent polling data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research , nearly 75 percent of Americans feel the level of defense spending should remain at its current level and an additional 17 percent think it should be increased . It is important to note , however , that , as a result of the post-Cold War " peace dividend , " the United States , like many other nations , has already substantially reduced its defense expenditures and shifted this revenue into domestic and social programs . <p> Fundamental to humanist philosophy , and essential in the humanistic century @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ central premise in the guarantee of global human rights is a more open and democratic world . Promoting democracy abroad is one of three core objectives President Clinton says the United States seeks through its national security strategy . As a world leader , the United States must play a major role in spreading democratic ideals throughout the world , but can the democratic ground already won around the globe be maintained if the U.S. military does n't remain strong ? Can international security organizations fill the vacuum if the armed forces of the United States and other democratic nations are marginalized by further reductions in force and capability ? CONCLUSION <p> Is the world poised for the humanistic century ? In my opinion , not as described in Humanist Manifesto II and not in the immediate future . As the manifesto states , not everyone who endorses its content agrees with every detail . I 'm not convinced that we have reached a point in human history where the best option is to transcend national sovereignty . The world remains a dangerous and capricious place with widely divergent ideological and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ differences and achieve a greater degree of harmony must be demonstrated before we can move forward . <p> Perhaps humankind 's best course of action is for the world 's democratic states to maintain as much dialogue as possible with other nondemocratic states . The recent addition of three former Warsaw Pact nations -- Hungary , Poland , and the Czech Republic -- to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization demonstrates how the spread of democratic values and political and economic freedom can help lead the world in a direction more in line with humanist thought . It is in this sense that the next century has the potential to be the humanistic century . <p> Editor 's note : In our September/October and November/December 1998 issues , we published a twenty-fifth anniversary symposium on Humanist Manifesto II that analyzes the document and suggests changes . Then , in our July/August 1999 issue , we boldly proposed that humanity can end war in the next century . Now we publish an alternative viewpoint that calls into question not so much the value but the feasibility and likelihood of such humanist ideals setting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kenneth O. Lynn <p> <p> Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth O. Lynn is an eighteen-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and currently serves on the faculty of its Air Command and Staff College teaching in the international securities and military studies department . The views expressed here are solely his and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Air Force . Humanist Manifestos I and II may be downloaded from the American Humanist Association 's website , www.humanist.net , in accordance with copyright laws . <p> 
##4001066 Section : CIVIL LIBERTIES WATCH <p> On June 17 , by a 248 to 180 vote , the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill permitting states to display the Ten Commandments in public schools . At a press conference , a cosponsor of the bill , Georgia Republican Bob Barr , said that if the Ten Commandments had been posted at Columbine High School the April 20 massacre never would have occurred . The bill 's primary sponsor , Alabama Republican Robert Aderholt , called it " a first step " in " reinstilling the value of human life . " <p> This ridiculous measure has now gone to the Senate , where its chances of actual passage are slim . And I 'm sure most readers know that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled definitively that it is not permissible to post the Ten Commandments in public schools . <p> So how is it possible that 248 members of the House could do a thing like this ? How is it that these legislators , along with more than a billion people across the globe ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Universalists ) , firmly believe that the basic guidelines for civil society are encapsulated in these ten biblical pronouncements ? Perhaps more to the point , where could anyone get the absurd idea that the Ten Commandments instill " the value of human life " ? <p> Yet it is because of these widely held beliefs that civil libertarians must exert the energy and suffer the frustration of repeatedly countering government advocacy of the Ten Commandments on obvious church-state separation grounds . And that 's why I think it 's time to change our strategy and challenge the actual content of this and similar proposals involving scriptural injunctions . <p> The truth is that none of the commandments have anything positive to say about the value of human life . Not only does the Decalogue not teach this , it bluntly tells people to devalue their own lives , as well as the lives of their fellow human beings . The blatantly obvious and straightforward presentation of this message in the Ten Commandments leaves me convinced that the reason millions of people accept religionists ' false claims about them is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ripe for correction by freethinkers . Who better to focus the light of reason and common sense on the true nature of religious doctrine ? <p> To begin , then , the Bible itself contains at least two different versions of these " rules written in stone . " There are also numerous English translations from the original Hebrew . These deviations present serious problems in and of themselves . To keep this simple , I 'll quote the Protestant King James Version and the wording of the commandments as found in Exodus 20:1-17 . ( A variant wording appears in Deuteronomy 5:6-21 while a significantly different Ten Commandments shows up in Exodus 34:1-28 . ) And I 'll number the commandments the way Christians do instead of the way Jews do , assuming they 've been revealed to us in their order of importance . <p> The first commandment states : " Thou shalt have no other gods before me . " Now that seems pretty clear . The most important requirement for living a moral life on Earth is that we bow down before one particular god and no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into the age-old arguments , pogroms , and religious wars over which god is the " true " god , it instructs us , first and foremost , to abdicate our freedom , our self-responsibility , our very lives to some invisible supernatural entity . Yes indeed , the value of human life certainly resonates in this one ! <p> The second commandment , in short form , reads : " Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image . " But in the Bible it goes on : " or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above , or that is in the earth beneath , or that is in the water under the earth : Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them , nor serve them . " While there are many interpretations of these directives by various religious factions , let 's assume the simplest meaning : " Do n't make images of anything and do n't worship images of anything . " Now why should this be the second most important moral principle for all humanity to follow ? Robert Ingersoll noted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Killing art is hardly a way to promote the value of human life . <p> God establishes a special punishment for disobedience of this commandment that , amazingly , never shows up in any of those tidy schoolhouse lists of the Ten Commandments . This is a particularly foolhardy omission given the extreme consequences of insubordination . As part of his commandment , God says , " For I , the Lord thy God , am a jealous God , visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me " -- this is the stick , followed by the carrot -- " and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me , and keep my commandments . " <p> Yes , indeed , instilling the value of human life is obviously what 's going on here ! All the way down to and including the innocent great , great grandchildren of anyone who disobeys this all-important commandment of human morality . What could be more obviously godlike and supremely just than inflicting a family curse on four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ art and maybe even admired them . And , gosh , is n't jealousy an exemplary emotion for a perfect God to so proudly proclaim ? <p> The third commandment states : " Thou shalt not take the name of the do n't say " Christ Almighty ! " We must n't be uttering any of his proper names in any context other than respectful reverence-since proper decorum here is so critical to the morality of all humanity . <p> Knowing the origin of this commandment , and the previous one , is helpful here . That origin can be found in sympathetic magic , where an image or name of a person is believed to carry part of her or his soul . Any injury to the image or denouncement of the name is thought to produce a consequent injury to the person . By making it taboo for people to create graven images or to utter curses against names , enemies are denied powerful , secret weapons . Some ancient peoples went further , believing that natural disasters were caused by misusing the names of gods . <p> The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Remember the sabbath day , to keep it holy . " But there 's much more to it that must be examined : <p> Six days shalt thou labor , and do all thy work : But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any work ; thou , nor thy son , nor thy daughter , thy manservant , nor thy maidservant , nor thy cattle , nor thy stranger that is within thy gates : For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth , the sea , and all that in them is , and rested the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day , and hallowed it . <p> If the worst this commandment did was promote the silliness of " creation science , " we could consider ourselves fortunate . But Violation of this commandment could prove fatal . <p> Throughout the Old Testament , many acts prohibited on the sabbath are specifically spelled out -- along with the penalty , which is death by stoning . Numbers 15:32-36 recounts one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day . " So every seventh calendar day , you must do no work . Your animals must do no work . Even your slaves must do no work . Yes , that 's what manservants and maidservants were -- slaves . ( This is one of two times slavery is tacitly endorsed in the actual body of the Ten Commandments . ) Clearly , this commandment joins the first three in instilling the value of human life ! <p> The fifth commandment reads : " Honor thy father and thy mother : that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee . " The land referred to is the " Promised Land , " which was the bond between the " Chosen People " and their God . There fore , any breakdown in the family , in tribal solidarity -- especially if caused by a family member following other gods or marrying outside the faith -- could theoretically jeopardize the tribe 's right to the land and , hence , its relationship with the deity . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was death ( see Deuteronomy 13:6-11 ) . <p> In Leviticus 19:3 we are told that everyone is to fear their mother and father in the same way they fear God . Parents thus become vice-regents of the Almighty . No exceptions to the fifth commandment are noted , so even severe physical , emotional , or sexual abuse at the hands of one 's parents would n't alter one 's responsibility to " honor " them . <p> Now we 've made our way down to the short " shalt nots " that most people think of when the subject of the Decalogue comes up . These are the sixth , seventh , and eighth commandments . Thou shalt not : kill ( unless , of course , God tells you to , which he frequently does in the Bible ) ; commit adultery ( which , though punishable by death in Leviticus and Deuteronomy , has been interpreted differently by different sects -- given all the philandering by biblical heroes , the polygamy practiced by some of the Israelites , and the use of harems by biblical kings ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the previous two , is problematic because God does n't supply any guidelines for applying it . But if we turn to Proverbs 6:30-31 , we find the punishment harsh and absolute : " Men do not despise a thief , if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry ; But if he be found , he shall restore sevenfold ; he shall give all the substance of his house . " <p> The ninth commandment says : " Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor . " If you think this embodies a basically sound moral principle , note the last three words . They make it clear that this commandment was n't designed for universal application . <p> Under Talmudic law , only a fellow Hebrew was a neighbor . Indeed , as Joseph Lewis wrote in The Ten Commandments , " All the Commandments belong in the same category and were promulgated for one purpose -- to prevent injury to the clan and to promote tribal solidarity . " One could willfully violate the commandments where " foreigners " were concerned . Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to apply the ninth commandment more broadly , it still fails to enjoin general lying or advance general honesty . This is because , taken literally , it only prohibits false testimony against another person . There is no commandment against lying , per se . <p> Finally , we come to the tenth commandment . In short form , it reads : " Thou shalt not covet . " But the verse goes on to say , " thy neighbor 's house ... thy neighbor 's wife , nor his manservant , nor his maidservant , nor his ox , nor his ass , nor any thing that is thy neighbor 's . " Again , this only relates to one 's " neighbor " ( and it constitutes another tacit endorsement of men owning wives and slaves ) . <p> But suppose we actually applied it more generally , what then ? Why , it would fly directly in the face of the basic underpinnings of capitalism . Where would our great supernation be without that fundamental longing to possess the things other people have ? Has it occurred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would virtually require the United States to adopt a communist or socialist economic system ? Furthermore , this commandment seeks to create and punish " thought crime . " But how are we to determine whether a person has actually engaged in this covert crime of coveting ? <p> Well , there you have them -- straight from the divinely inspired word of God -- the ten moral principles by which all humanity should live , the best and obvious way to instill the value of human life in American youth . Like Ingersoll , I 'm amazed at just what a pathetic list of " moral guidelines " we find here and ca n't help thinking how easily it could have been better . As Ingersoll put it : <p> If Jehovah had been civilized , he would have left out the commandment about keeping the Sabbath and in its place said , " Thou shalt not enslave thy fellow men . " He would have omitted the one about swearing and said : " The man shall have but one wife , and the woman but one husband . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ images and in its stead would have said : " Thou shalt not wage wars of extermination , and thou shalt not unsheathe the sword except in self-defense . " If Jehovah had been civilized , how much grander the Ten Commandments would have been ! <p> It 's time for someone to say this again . So long as no one challenges the content of religious pronouncements like the Ten Commandments , we 'll continue to divert time and energy from important matters to counter the attempts of conservative religionists to force biblical law on American society . The Ten Commandments are immoral and unfit for teaching to children in any decent society . Humanists and freethinkers , of all people , should have the consistency and bravery to say so . <p> By Barbara Dority <p> <p> Barbara Dority is president of Humanists of Washington , executive director of the Washington Coalition Against Censorship , and cochair of the Northwest Feminist Anti-Censorship Task Force . <p> 
##4000077 Research on Kona slope shows promise for native ecosystem recovery <p> A half-dozen black feral goats looked up with a start as Robert Cabin emerged from the stand of trees . Wild and wary , they had been scrounging for food in the rough lava field on the Kona slope of the island of Hawaii . <p> " There 's the enemy right there , " said Cabin ( pronounced CAY-bin ) , a plant ecologist with the US Forest Service 's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry , in Hilo . Almost before he got the words out , the goats turned and darted over a ridge and out of view . <p> Goats , pigs , and other feral ungulates , or hooved animals , are " the enemy " on the Big Island and elsewhere in Hawaii because these alien ( nonnative ) species wreak havoc on forests and other ecosystems , eating native plants and digging up soil . Ungulates are a major reason Hawaii is the extinction capital of the United States . With less than 1 percent of the US land mass , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation 's endangered and rare species . More than 1000 native Hawaiian species are known to be extinct . <p> The particular ecosystem that concerns Cabin is the tropical dry forest . The dry forests of Hawaii receive about 20 inches of rain a year , while rain forests can get about 10 times as much . On the Hawaiian Islands , feral ungulates , cattle ranching , alien grasses , and other biological insults have eliminated 90 percent of the state 's original dry forests . By comparison , about 40 percent of Hawaii 's rain forests are gone . <p> But here at a region called Kaupulehu , Cabin and fellow biologists and conservationists have begun an important demonstration project for reclaiming Hawaii 's degraded dry forests . The demonstration site is protected from ungulates by a fence . In just a few years of research at the site , the biologists have begun to assemble much-needed information about how degraded forests respond to fencing out the enemy and about what other steps may be necessary for restoring the forests . <p> " We 're standing among all kinds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cabin said in June as he led a journalist through the upper part of the site . The upper part , called Kaupulehu mauka , is separated from the lower section by the main highway running upslope from the resort area of Kailua-Kona . The scene is sobering . Kaupulehu mauka , a mere six-acre fenced area , is one of the few remnants of the hundreds of thousands of acres of tropical dry forest that once blanketed the lowland leeward slopes of all the Hawaiian Islands . Many of these areas are slowly degrading , victims of alien animals and plants and the rogue fires that come with them . <p> Yet in just 3 years of weed whacking , spraying with herbicide , and other toil on these sun-baked slopes , Cabin and his colleagues have seen signs that the forest-with a little help-can restore itself . At the study site , native tree seedlings , shrubs , and vines are rising anew out of the shallow soil and rough lava amid dead , gray clumps of the invasive African bunch grass known as fountain grass ( Pennisetum setaceum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ natives are popping up here and there , regenerating on their own , " Cabin said . A devastated ecosystem <p> The devastation of dry forests is a common story everywhere in the tropics . They have succumbed to a modern-day crescendo of extinction that began with the original human settlement and grew with Western contact , large-scale ranching , and a rising tide of development . In Hawaii 's case , habitat degradation by alien ungulates was-and still is-the crowning blow . <p> Dry forest is one of the Hawaiian Islands ' most culturally important and critically endangered habitats . Native Hawaiians use plants from the forest for everything from medicines to building materials . Throughout the tropics , dry forest regions often were the first to be settled and their resources the first to be consumed . That was largely because these areas were the most hospitable in terms of climate and disease and offered fertile soil and accessible resources . <p> Hawaii 's native species , which evolved amid the oceanic isolation of the mid-Pacific islands , did n't need to adapt to a wide range of natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Thus , they were particularly vulnerable to disturbance by late-arriving alien species . Dry forest species were among the hardest hit , mainly because the forests were so accessible as habitat . " What 's left today are these tiny little fragments of dry forest , and we 're standing in one of the best in the state , " Cabin said . " It 's just this little bread crumb of what was . " <p> Behind him , down the parched slope to the North Kona beach resorts nearly 2000 feet below , spread an ecological desert , a barren carpet of black lava and sandy-colored alien grass dotted with single trees , many of them nonnative . Despite what today seems like an austere environment-hot and dry-North Kona , like the lowland dry side of all the Hawaiian islands , was once among the most species-rich areas in the state . <p> To try to reverse the all but completed trend of dry-forest destruction , a group of scientists , conservationists , and volunteers formed the North Kona Dry Forest Working Group in 1993 . The group is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizations , botanical gardens , and native Hawaiian and other local residents . Lisa Hadway , formerly a researcher at the National Tropical Botanical Garden ( NTBG ) , on Kauai , is coordinator . <p> The working group is confronting one of the fundamental challenges of conservation biology : restoring a native ecosystem without quite understanding how it functions , much less the precise details of what species and ecological linkages it contained before degradation began . Researchers know little about Hawaii 's dry forests , especially about how the ecosystem operates across the Kona landscape 's patchwork of different lava flows . <p> This challenge typifies the so-called Nero dilemma of conservation biology . Conservation biology project leaders can choose to make immediate tactical decisions about a conservation problem before they know all of the problem 's complex dimensions and range of solutions , or they can wait until all the data are in-that is , like Nero , they can fiddle while Rome burns . But the North Kona working group believes it has the tools to stop fiddling and start fighting the fire . Through research , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ endangered and rare species , mainly plants , can be recovered once the overall structure of the forest is restored . Kaupulehu still supports small populations of the endangered plants kauila ( Colubrina oppositifolia ) , uhiuhi ( Caesalpinia kavaiensis ) , aiea ( Nothocestrum breviflorum ) , kokio ( Kokia drynarioides ) , and hala pepe ( Pleomele hawaiiensis ) . <p> " This project is a wonderful example of integration of scientific experimentation and on-the-ground management , " says Marie Bruegmann , a biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service ( FWS ) in Honolulu and one of the working group members . " The work that Bob Cabin and Lisa Hadway are doing with research grant funding gives us a scientific basis for making management decisions . While members of the group do n't always agree on what should be done or how , we work through these issues and continue to make progress . " <p> The group 's work includes " outplanting " hundreds of individuals of federally endangered dry forest species-that is , transplanting nursery-raised individuals to protected areas . The work is funded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ FWS , NTBG , and other sources . In July , FWS added $72,000 to boost the effort , hoping to provide habitat for the endangered Blackburn 's sphinx moth ( Manduca blackburni ) , the state 's largest native insect . Fences and fires <p> The spot from which the goats fled was at the uppermost edge of Kaupulehu mauka , just beyond the fence . From this location , the meaning of an ungulate-excluding fence for native species in Hawaii was clear : On one side were at least some signs of native plant life ; on the opposite side , seemingly nothing . <p> The site was chosen by the working group largely because it had been fenced 40 years earlier by the Territory of Hawaii , protecting it from damage by feral ungulates . " It 's not entirely clear why they fenced it , " Cabin said . " Somebody just took it upon themselves to do it . Now this is one of the only dry forest pieces that 's been fenced for any length of time in the state . " <p> The fence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paving , and other forms of clearing that destroyed dry forest elsewhere . But it was luck that kept the site from succumbing to fire . In the past few years , dozens of fires have raged across the North Kona slopes , taking with them many of the last few fragments of dry forest . Fountain grass , an extremely flammable and invasive alien species , is the primary culprit in Hawaii 's relatively new history of fire , a history that has been devastating to dry forest remnants . <p> Researchers believe that fires were rare in the past , and that most were probably ignited by lava , not lightning . Without the grass-layer fuel of today , those fires that did occur were probably quite localized . Native plant species therefore did not need to adapt to fire , so today they do n't recover from it easily , if at all . Even if the plants do come back , they must contend with goats , fountain grass , and other invasive alien species . In short , a fire today generally spells the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forest down there burned a couple years ago last fall , " Cabin said , pointing down the slope and to the north . " There was a huge fire on this whole side of the island . It jumped the highway in several places and burned a lot of the last pieces left . " Kaupulehu mauka was spared because it borders a lava flow dating from 1801 that serves as a natural firebreak . <p> Kaupulehu mauka was rife with fountain grass until 1996 , when Cabin and his colleagues began a campaign to wrest it out . " That and fire breaks are a big part of what we do now , " he said . " It 's just to keep this area from burning . When it has n't burned for a while and there 's been rain , the fountain grass can be neck high . And it 's just as dry as tinder . So when the winds pick up , it 's just a tremendous tinder box . " Overcoming rodents and grass <p> The research arm of the working group began its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The study , the results of which were published in Conservation Biology in April 2000 , was conducted by Cabin , Hadway , Stephen Weller and Ann Sakai of the University of California- Irvine , David Lorence and Tim Flynn of NTBG , and Darren Sandquist of Stanford University . <p> The biologists began by comparing regeneration of canopy trees in the preserve with that in an adjacent , unfenced area that had been grazed continuously . They found the unfenced area all but devoid of trees and shrubs . The preserve had many older trees of several native species , but a census found almost no native canopy tree seedlings in the study plots of the protected site-this after more than 40 years of potential recovery time . <p> Cabin and his colleagues suspected that native tree regeneration had been kept in check largely by small alien animals and fountain grass . Three species of nonnative rodents thrived on the site : the mouse ( Mus musculus ) , black rat ( Rattus rattus ) , and Polynesian rat ( Rattus exulans ) . And fountain grass covered the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ level . <p> The researchers proposed that these invasive alien species played a major role in suppressing canopy tree regeneration-the rodents decimating the natural rain of seeds in the plot and the grass smothering any seedlings that might have successfully run the rodent gauntlet and sprouted . <p> To test these ideas , they placed bait traps with rodenticide throughout the six-acre site . They also painstakingly weed-whacked all the fountain grass , sprayed each remaining clump six separate times with a grass-specific herbicide to kill any newly emerging grass , and pulled out as many clumps as possible . They recorded subsequent developments within the reserve and in the adjacent unprotected , untreated area . <p> By 1996 , the grass was reduced to only 10 percent of the pretreatment cover . Detailed rodent population data were not collected , but the researchers observed a general decline in activity by rats and mice , resulting partly from the rodenticide and partly from drought , they believe . <p> By 1997 , canopy tree seedlings had taken a dramatic hold in the preserve . For example , the number of seedlings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is so hard that native Hawaiians once used it for house rafters , jumped from zero in 1996 to 838 a year later in the site 's 53 study plots . <p> The main conclusion of the study is that the dry forest needs a helping hand in overcoming not only damage done by ungulates but also the choking effects of fountain grass and , possibly , damage from seed-consuming rodents . " Removing ungulates is a necessary and critical first step , but it is not sufficient in itself , " Cabin said . " Putting up a fence and walking away wo n't cut it . You 've got to do more . " Indeed , spraying and clump pulling continued , and by mid-2000 the grass covered only 4 percent of the site . <p> The regeneration heartened working group members and local resident volunteers , who , along with school groups , began to flock to the site to help plant seedlings and pull fountain grass on weekend work parties . " We had a lot of trees that people who had lived here all their lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We thought , ' Hey , this is it . You fence it , you get rid of the fountain grass , you poison the rats , and the system recovers . ' We got all excited . " <p> But rain had been plentiful in 1997 , and when a severe drought hit the next year , regeneration slowed dramatically . The researchers realized that with the original forest and its lower layer of shrubs and herbaceous plants long gone , the site had lost its " microclimate protection , " as Cabin put it . In other words , the preserve was still extremely vulnerable to periodic regimes of hot , dry weather , and when it comes to restoration , " shade matters , " Cabin said . <p> " We 're realizing now that it 's more complicated than we ever thought , and we 've got to do more , depending on the weather , " he said . The biologists have begun a series of experiments comparing regeneration in plots with and without drip-line irrigation . <p> Meanwhile , they are monitoring invasion by other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as much as the native plants do . In the study published in April , the researchers found 16 nonnative plants new to the preserve . " One of the species that 's really come in heavy in some places is this guy , " said Cabin , walking over to a milkweed plant and pulling it up . Milkweed was brought to Hawaii by an aficionado of monarch butterflies , which rely on milkweed as a host plant . " You 'll see monarchs flittering all around here , laying their eggs , " Cabin said . " The plant looks pretty innocent here , but there are places up the road where it 's just ' milkweed forest , ' where it 's 12-feet-high solid milkweed . " <p> For about 2 years , the biologists studied the invasion of milkweed , thistle , and other alien plants at the site to document how they competed with native species . " On the one hand , it would be really fascinating to just step back and see the natives and the alien species kind of fight it out , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Cabin said . " But from a restoration and political point of view , this forest is too valuable to do that . " So the working group now removes nonnative plants as frequently as possible . Searching for new methods <p> Below the highway , in the lower part of Kaupulehu , the working group in 1995 began work at a second site , a 70-acre dry forest patch known as Kaupulehu makai . <p> The focus at this site is larger-scale restoration demonstration and experiments . Group members want to show that dry forest can be protected from fire and restored using economical methods . Row after row of test plots spread across the site , around which a large fence and firebreaks have been constructed . Among other experimental variations , some plots have been irrigated , some covered with shade cloth , some outplanted with native tree seedlings , and some directly seeded . <p> " We want to come up with coarser , more efficient , bigger-scale projects , " Cabin said . The researchers hope that such projects will help the working group persuade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . At least one local rancher has shown interest in the group 's activities . But members acknowledge that building relationships with local landowners will be difficult , largely because of the history of polarization between many ranchers and environmentalists . <p> The working group has organized field trips to Kaupulehu for schools and local residents . Interest has grown , but the project must still overcome a widely held attitude that restoring the system is hopeless . That 's why demonstration is so important . <p> Despite learning much , the researchers admit they have a long way to go . Basic questions they are studying include the role of soil organisms and the physiology of key tree species , to better understand the ecological factors involved in regeneration . On a more practical research level , they have studied whether spraying herbicide from helicopters can kill fountain grass on a large scale ( it ca n't ) and whether the controversial approach of turning over the fountain grass-choked landscape with a bulldozer might give native plants an advantage . <p> Beyond these questions of how to restore the Hawaiian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : What exactly was the Hawaiian dry forest ecosystem ? If the biologists ca n't answer this question , how can they be sure that , if left alone , the system will regenerate into what it was before ? " Because nothing is left of any size , we do n't know what the model is to restore to , and that 's a big problem , both biologically and philosophically , " Cabin said . " Should you just do what works ? Should you try to restore in some image of what you think was here ? " <p> He bent down and pulled at another clump of dead fountain grass as vehicles whizzed past on the highway a hundred meters or so above him . " You could n't create a perfect replica of what was here if you wanted to , " he said . " The system has changed . The soil is all fountain grass litter . The dispersal agents in this system-the birds-are gone . Rats are here to stay . For me , as a pragmatist , I say forget about trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extinctions right and left , we 've got new species that are here to stay . Let 's do what works . " The important point , say working group members , is that the dry forest can come back . <p> Table 1 . Federally endangered dry forest species to be outplanted in the Kaupulehu preserve . PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Robert Cabin , US Forest Service plant ecologist , examines ilima ( Sida fallax ) at the Kaupulehu preserve on the Kona slope of Hawaii . This and other native species have begun to take hold in the preserve since Cabin and his colleagues removed nonnative fountain grass . <p> Native vines like the awikiwiki ( Canavalia hawaiiensis ) have made a strong comeback since nonnative fountain grass has been removed from the experimental plots . <p> Lisa Hadway ( left ) , North Kona Dryland Forest Working Group coordinator , collaborates with Susan Cordell , US Forest Service plant physiological ecologist . <p> Experimental plots at Kaupulehu , on the Kona slope . Within this fenced area , the North Kona Dry Forest Working Group is trying to learn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forests . Covered plots are testing the effect of shade on seedling growth . <p> US Forest Service technicians Don Goo ( left ) and Alan Urakami have worked closely with Cabin and others on the restoration project . <p> By William Allen <p> <p> William Allen is a science writer with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch . He was a Hewlett Foundation journalist-in-residence in June at Environment Hawaii , a public affairs newsletter based in Hilo . Allen 's first book , Green Phoenix : Restoring the Forests of Guanacaste , Costa Rica , will be published in January . <p> 
##4000078 The biological diversity within soils and sediments may be orders of magnitude greater than that above the surface , but it has not been fully documented in any system ( Anderson 1995 , Wall Freckman et al . 1997 ) . In soils , only an estimated 10% of protozoa and 5% of mite species have been taxonomically described ( Brussaard et al . 1997 ) , and in marine sediments , Snelgrove et al . ( 1997 ) estimate that just 0.1% of species are described . <p> Although the identity of the vast majority of species in soil and sediments is unknown , we do know that assemblages of species ( " functional groups " ) regulate vital ecosystem processes such as decomposition of wastes , renewal of soil fertility , and purification of water ( Brussaard et al . 1997 , Palmer et al . 1997 , Snelgrove et al . 1997 , Covich et al . 1999 , Groffman and Bohlen 1999 , Snelgrove 1999 ) . A major scientific challenge is to evaluate the significance of the great diversity of life in soils @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . For example , we must identify " keystone " species ( those species that have a disproportionately large effect on ecosystem functioning ) and how soil and sediment biodiversity and the ecosystem functions they regulate respond to environmental or disturbance gradients . <p> In 1995 the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment ( SCOPE ) established the Committee on Soil and Sediment Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning ( SSBEF ) to synthesize available information and identify gaps in knowledge and research needs in this area . The first meeting of the SSBEF committee revealed the great extent to which activities of organisms dwelling within soils and sediments or the litter layer ( here defined as below-surface biota ) involve physiological or ecological interactions with organisms in above-surface habitats ( e.g. , the vegetation , the water column , or even the watershed for freshwater sediment organisms ) . These cross-surface interactions include decomposition of leaves by invertebrates and microbes in soils and sediments , nutrient cycling from below-surface bacteria to macrophytes and phytoplankton , mutualistic interactions between mycorrhizae and plants , and predator-prey interactions . Importantly , this interconnectivity appeared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in all three domains : terrestrial , freshwater , and marine ( Wall Freckman et al . 1997 ) . However , the significance of biological diversity for this connectivity , and whether the ecological and physiological connections couple the biodiversity above and below the surface of soils or sediments , could not be ascertained at the first workshop . Synthesizing knowledge of the connections between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity was considered a priority to be addressed at a second workshop , since it would help to yield information on keystone species and interactions in ecosystem processes assess the extent of species specificity and , conversely , species redundancy in ecosystem processes , allowing improved estimates of the processes ' susceptibility to biodiversity loss yield a more accurate picture of overall biodiversity patterns and hotspots , which are currently defined primarily by biodiversity above the soil or sediment surface identify beneficial associations between species , functional groups , and biodiversity across the soil or sediment surface that could aid land management and restoration techniques improve our estimates of global change scenarios by increasing predictive understanding of how global changes occurring above @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities <p> The papers in this special issue result from the second workshop of the SCOPE SSBEF committee in Lunteren , The Netherlands , 11-16 October 1998 , at which over 40 ecologists and taxonomists with expertise in soils and marine and freshwater sediments assembled to synthesize knowledge on the linkages between biodiversity above and below the surface of soils and sediments . The first three papers reveal , for terrestrial ( Hooper et al . 2000 ) , freshwater ( Palmer et al . 2000 ) , and marine ( Snelgrove et al . 2000 ) domains , some evidence for correlations between biodiversity above and below the surface ( e.g. , similar biogeographical trends or responses to disturbance ) . They identify four primary mechanisms , shared across all domains , that can directly couple functional groups and , to a lesser extent , species above and below the surface . However , the authors also report some evidence against , and mechanisms that may limit , correlations between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity . The final three papers predict that global change will exert large effects on biodiversity within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sediments ( Lake et al . 2000 ) , and marine sediments ( Smith et al . 2000 ) by altering resource supply from above the surface and disrupting specific biotic interactions . By analyzing the feedbacks between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity , the papers provide a more complete framework for assessing scenarios of global change than do studies that examine above-surface or below-surface responses alone . Correlations between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity <p> Whether patterns of above-surface and below-surface biodiversity are correlated across space and time will depend on similarities in their response to environmental gradients or disturbance and the nature of interactions among biota across the soil and sediment surface . Some factors will promote correlations whereas others will limit their expression ( Box 1 ) . In all domains , participants found evidence both for and against correlations in above-surface and below-surface biodiversity ( Box 2 ) . Comparisons of biodiversity patterns are hampered by extremely limited knowledge of below-surface biodiversity , especially at large spatial scales and particularly in sediments . Ecological mechanisms <p> Across terrestrial , freshwater , and marine domains , four primary mechanisms were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interface may influence biodiversity at the other : Resource supply : Primary producers and decomposers play a vital role in connecting above- and below-surface organisms through resource supply . Timing , amount , and quality of these resources can be key variables determining community composition across the surface interface . In general , the presence of a resource across the interface enhances biodiversity relative to when the resource is absent . However , an overabundant supply of a resource , or toxic substances associated with some producers , can decrease diversity of the consumer community across the surface interface . For example , toxic algal blooms can reduce diversity of sediment biota ( Palmer et al . 2000 , Snelgrove et al . 2000 ) , and terrestrial plant community diversity may decrease with enhanced nutrient availability ( Hooper et al . 2000 ) . Physical and structural habitat heterogeneity : Organisms such as macrophytes , burrowing animals , and large animals that wade , wallow , or dig can increase the structural heterogeneity of soils and sediments , which is generally believed to increase the biotic diversity of soil-and sediment-dwelling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diversity of some functional groups . For instance , as Snelgrove et al . ( 2000 ) report , the roots of seagrasses can exclude burrowing organisms . Excessive disturbance to soil and sediment can also reduce below-surface structural heterogeneity and biodiversity . Organism interactions : Predators , herbivores , and symbionts directly connect functional groups or species across the soil or sediment surface . These interactions may increase , decrease , or result in no change in biodiversity across the surface . Hooper et al . ( 2000 ) note that in terrestrial domains , predation can reduce the abundance of dominant animal species across the interface , allowing subordinate species to flourish . Snelgrove et al . ( 2000 ) suggest that in marine domains , predation may reduce species biodiversity by eliminating slow-growing and rare species but note that exclusion experiments in some communities have shown predator and prey communities across the marine sediment surface to operate relatively independently . Cross-surface migration : Many organisms within soils and sediments migrate across the soil or sediment surface , at short time scales from minutes to hours ( e.g. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their life cycle ( e.g. , larvae of many terrestrial insects reside in soils or freshwater sediments while their adult , reproductive phases live above-surface ; conversely , larvae of bivalves and hydrozoans occupy the water column while their adult form settles on the sediments ) . At each side of the interface , they will influence biodiversity directly by their presence and indirectly by their interactions with other organisms . Snelgrove et al . ( 2000 ) and Palmer et al . ( 2000 ) emphasized the importance of these migrations in linking biodiversity above and below the surface of sediments . <p> These four mechanisms will involve direct biotic interactions among organisms across the surface interface , or indirect biotic or abiotic stages ( Palmer et al . 2000 ) operate at various degrees of specificity , defined by Hooper et al . ( 2000 ) as one-to-one ( 1:1 ) species linkages ( e.g. , specific mutualism , parasitism , and predation , or supply of key resource by one species to another ) ; one-to-many species linkages ( e.g. , when one species or functional group supplies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) ; or many-to-many linkages ( e.g. , where high diversity at one side of the surface supplies diverse resources that promote high diversity at the other side ) operate to increase , decrease , or have no effect on biodiversity across the soil or sediment surface <p> Specific examples of how particular species , functional groups , or communities on one side of the soil or sediment surface influence those on the other through these mechanisms are provided in the first three papers in this issue . They yield many more examples of connections from above-surface to below-surface biota than vice versa , probably reflecting our biased knowledge of , and research focus on , mechanisms that originate above the surface . Most studies cited were of interactions in which the presence of a particular species or functional group provides a resource that can support a suite of organisms across the surface ( one-to-many interactions ) . Less was known about the extent to which biodiversity above and below the surface is linked by species-specific couplings ( 1:1 interactions ) , or whether high species diversity on one side of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many-to-many interactions ) . <p> Important differences in the processes connecting biota above and below the surface of soils and sediments within and across domains were also revealed . For example , in shallow vegetated aquatic habitats , biota above and below the sediment surface are coupled through inputs of complex organic matter , structural effects of macrophytes on sediments , and refuge from predation offered by the canopy . However , in deeper nonvegetated aquatic habitats , these effects are absent . In marine and freshwater habitats , filter-feeding bivalves living both in and on the sediment can exert strong effects on biota in the water column , altering their abundance and composition , stripping phytoplankton from the water column , and shifting the entire nutrient status and functioning of the ecosystem . Filter feeders , or an analogous functional group , are absent from soils . <p> Across the three domains , there were also considerable differences in the spatial and temporal scales at which the cross-surface linkages operate . Above-surface and below-surface biota may be most tightly coupled in terrestrial ecosystems , where exchange of nutrients and particles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to aquatic domains . In freshwater ecosystems , sediment biota are routinely affected by nutrients and particles from organisms in distant parts of the watershed or upstream ( Wagener et al . 1998 , Palmer et al . 2000 ) . In the open ocean , above-surface and below-surface systems are essentially decoupled , with virtually no production near the sediment and very slow and dispersed exchange of nutrients and particles across the sediment-water interface . Furthermore , in the deep sea , very few predators span the entire water column from surface to sediments , and most remain close to the sediments ( Snelgrove et al . 2000 ) . For oceans , information on above- to below-sediment linkages declines with depth , probably reflecting both fewer linkages and our poor knowledge of these inaccessible habitats . Impact of global change on connections between above- and below-surface biodiversity <p> Recent syntheses have predicted large effects of global change on biodiversity ( Sala et al . 2000 ) , but they primarily considered biodiversity above the surface of soils and sediments . In this issue , Wolters et al . ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Smith et al . ( 2000 ) predict that climate change , land use change ( including change in use of aquatic habitats ) , atmospheric change , and biotic exchange ( primarily introduction of invasive species ) will exert large direct and indirect ( resulting from physiological and ecological connections to the altered above-surface biodiversity ) effects on biodiversity in both soils and freshwater and marine sediments ( Box 3 ) . Across the domains , there are some similarities and some differences in the mechanisms by which the global change drivers may exert their effects . <p> Climate change . Below-surface biodiversity will be influenced by direct abiotic effects of climate change on soils and sediments , including alterations in temperature , wet-dry and freeze-thaw regimes , precipitation , terrestrial runoff , ocean circulation patterns , and sea-level rise . Across all domains , altered abundance , composition , and distribution of above-surface communities with climate change was predicted to have large effects on below-surface communities by altering timing and amount of organic inputs to below-surface decomposer food webs and by disrupting species-specific symbiotic interactions . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concentrations may affect the abundance and composition of soil and freshwater sediment decomposer communities by inducing altered physiology of plants and composition of plant communities and thus altering organic inputs . Elevated CO2 was not predicted to have large effects on marine sediment biodiversity . Atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributes to acidification of soils and freshwater sediments , reducing the abundance and diversity of their biota through direct toxic effects or interactions with altered above-surface biota . The effects of atmospheric inputs on soil and sediment biodiversity can be magnified through interactions with other global change drivers . For example , atmospheric nitrogen deposition contributes to nonpoint source nitrogen pollution and eutrophication of aquatic ecosystems , which can dramatically alter sediment community composition and reduce biodiversity . <p> Land use change . Across all domains , land use change will affect soil and sediment biodiversity through habitat loss , increased disturbance , chemical inputs , and interactions with altered above-surface biota . Conversion of natural ecosystems to agriculture affects soil and freshwater sediment biodiversity through all of these mechanisms . Freshwater sedimentary habitat and biodiversity is dramatically reduced by appropriation of water @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biodiversity through disturbance and removal of key predators , and aquaculture increases chemical inputs . <p> Biotic exchange . Invasive species can influence soil and sediment biota directly though interactions such as predation and competition or indirectly by altering resource inputs and physical habitat . Across all domains , there was evidence that invasive species have already dramatically altered the trophic structure of some ecosystems and reduced the biodiversity in their soils and sediments . Predicting the impacts of invasive species at local scales is complex , however , and they may increase or decrease species richness . Nonetheless , invasions clearly displace native species and thus , at landscape scales , pose a great threat to diversity by homogenizing the Earth 's biota . <p> The articles in this issue yield more examples of how the effects of global change on above-surface biota will feed back to influence below-surface biota than vice versa . This is largely because global changes are enacted primarily above the surface , and below-surface communities are somewhat protected from their direct effects . The discrepancy may also reflect our much greater knowledge of global change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> In general , Lake et al . ( 2000 ) , Smith et al . ( 2000 ) , and Wolters et al . ( 2000 ) predict that global change will weaken connections between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity , decoupling current associations between species and functional groups on either side of the surface . In particular , each driver of global change has great potential to alter the transfer of chemical resources from above-surface to below-surface habitats . Altered abundance , composition , and distribution of above-surface communities will change timing and amount of organic inputs for decomposition , which may decouple linkages to below-surface detritivores . Each global change driver also has great potential to disrupt specific cross-surface interactions such as predation , mutualism , or parasitism by reducing abundance or competitiveness of , or eliminating , the above-surface component from the ecosystem . In the short term ( tens to hundreds of years ) , we predict , the decoupling of current cross-surface biotic assemblages will reduce above-surface and below-surface biodiversity at patch to landscape scales . However , in the long term , new species @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ described in more detail in this special issue , indicate that in terrestrial , freshwater , and marine ecosystems , the same four primary mechanisms are important for connecting biota above and below the surface of soils and sediments . They also present evidence that connections between functional groups across the soil and sediment surface can be highly specific , and the presence of a particular functional group on one side of the surface can depend on that of another across the surface . The lack of species-level data from soils and sediments prevents generalizations about the species specificity of interactions across the surface . Some highly species-specific interactions are noted , such as parasitism of plants by nematode species ( Hooper et al . 2000 ) and the requirement of some freshwater bivalve species for particular fish species as hosts ( Palmer et al . 2000 ) . However , the species specificity of symbiotic associations can vary greatly , and many mutualists , parasites , and predators have broad host ranges . <p> There was also evidence from all domains that a high species diversity of producers can increase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , chemical composition among plankton ) and promote high species diversity of consumers ( e.g. , detritivorous invertebrates or bacteria ) on the other side of the soil or sediment surface . However , in some instances , composition of producers rather than their diversity may determine resource heterogeneity . <p> The evidence for some species specificity in cross-surface interactions and for linkages between producer and consumer diversity suggests some degree of coupling between biological diversity above and below the surface of soils and sediments . However , we lack detailed information on which species are coupled and on the extent of this coupling . This limits our ability to : identify keystone species and ecosystem processes that cross the surface ; restore functioning communities ; and determine whether maps of biodiversity distributions and hotspots based on above-surface biodiversity hold true for the highly diverse below-surface biota , and are thus accurate assessments of overall biodiversity distribution . Research priorities to increase our understanding of the coupling between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity must include assessing the extent of species specificity in biological interactions between above-surface and below-surface organisms determining whether resource @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with their chemical composition independent of species richness directly comparing species richness and distributions above and below the soil and sediment surface <p> Using knowledge of global change effects on above-surface biota and of ecological links between above-surface and below-surface biota , these articles predict that there will be widespread disruption to current species assemblages and reduced biodiversity both above and below the soil or sediment surface , in time scales relevant to today 's decisionmakers and managers . Despite the important implications of such changes for natural resources and ecosystem functioning , direct studies of global change effects on below-surface biodiversity are rare , especially for freshwater and marine sediments ; such studies must be a research priority . We urgently need more information on how altered above-surface and below-surface biodiversity will affect ecosystem functioning . As Wolters et al . ( 2000 ) describe , ecosystem processes that are distributed continuously across a broad suite of organisms may persist if species are lost . However , ecosystem traits that are discontinuously distributed among a few species will be very sensitive to species loss . A challenge for the research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regulate vital ecosystem functions the vulnerability to global change of the species or functional groups involved in these interactions the sensitivity of the ecosystem function to any changes in species or functional group composition and richness <p> This synthesis highlights the fact that soils and sediments are a dynamic habitat , connecting the ecology , physiology , and biological diversity of above-surface and below-surface domains . Understanding the composition and functioning of ecosystems and their response to global change will require that these linkages be routinely considered , because no domain exists in isolation ; indeed , large portions of the Earth are an interface between domains . Box 1 . Mechanisms that may promote or limit correlations between above-surface and below-surface biodiversity <p> Promoting factors Above-surface and below-surface species or functional groups show similar ( possibly independent ) responses to environmental gradients are influenced by similar historical , biogeographic , and evolutionary factors are connected by physiological and ecological interactions that promote biodiversity across the surface Limiting factors <p> Above-surface and below-surface species or functional groups respond to different environmental gradients respond to environmental conditions at different spatial and temporal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ different historical , biogeographic , and evolutionary factors may be regulated by trophic dynamics at the same side of the soil or sediment surface , rather than from the other side are sampled by different methods that examine biodiversity at different scales are connected by physiological and ecological interactions that reduce biodiversity at the other side of the soil or sediment surface may be regulated by factors that depend on composition of resources from across the surface independent of taxonomic diversity Box 2 : Evidence for and against correlations between biodiversity patterns above and below the surface of soils and sediments For Diversity of several marine pelagic animals ( Angel 1997 ) and sedimentary bivalves , gastropods , and isopods ( Rex et al . 1993 ) generally show similar trends with latitude ( decreasing with increasing latitude ) and depth ( greatest at intermediate depths ) , based on minimal data . Disturbance from land use change decreases species richness and abundance for plants and soil-dwelling termites ( Eggleton et al . 1997 ) and nematodes ( Freckman and Ettema 1993 , Wasilewska 1997 ) . Forest floristic and mollusk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Mayhill 1999 ) . Against Deep-sea sediment nematode biodiversity patterns do not conform to the latitudinal patterns for pelagic and other marine sediment taxa described above ( Lambshead et al . 2000 ) . Plant diversity increases toward the equator , but diversity within some soil taxonomic groups does not-e.g. , earthworms ( Brussaard et al . 1997 , Lavelle et al . 1995 ) , nematodes ( Boag and Yeates 1998 ) , and mycorrhizae ( Allen et al . 1995 ) . At the continental scale , richness of termite genera corresponds more closely to net primary productivity than to tree diversity ( Eggleton 2000 ) . At the plot scale , Amazonian soil macrofauna diversity was positively correlated with plant biomass but not with diversity ( Barros 1999 ) . Box 3 : Primary drivers of global change and mechanisms by which they affect soil and sediment biodiversity Climate change <p> All below-surface domains Altered temperature , wet-drying , freeze-thawing cycles Increased disturbance from extreme climatic events Altered physiology and distribution of above-surface biota <p> Freshwater sediments only Altered volume and timing of water flow and fragmentation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loading <p> Marine sediments only <p> -- Sea level rise Atmospheric change <p> Soils and freshwater sediments only Altered physiology of terrestrial vegetation and composition of organic matter inputs Direct effects of increased nitrogen levels Acidification <p> Freshwater and marine sediments only <p> -- Eutrophication and resulting anoxia Land use change <p> All below-surface domains Altered chemical inputs ( e.g. , pollution from industry , fertilizers , and aquaculture ) Altered physical disturbance ( e.g. , through cultivation and development in soils , and fishing and dredging in sediments ) Altered composition of terrestrial vegetation and organic matter inputs <p> Freshwater and marine sediments only Direct extraction of above- and below-surface biota from fishing Eutrophication and resulting anoxia <p> Freshwater sediments only <p> -- Altered volume and timing of water flow and fragmentation of water bodies Biotic exchange <p> All below-surface domains <p> -- Invasion of exotic species above- or below-surface , altering competitive abilities and resource supply Acknowledgments <p> The second workshop of the SCOPE SSBEF committee was generously supported by an anonymous US foundation ; the Ministry of Public Housing , Physical Planning , and the Environment ; and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Netherlands . The SCOPE SSBEF committee is a component of DIVERSITAS , the international program of biodiversity science . We thank the participants in the workshop for their intellectual contributions and collaborations across diverse fields to address the issues in this series of papers . We also thank Drs . Jill Baron , Alan Covich , and Mark Dangerfield for their thoughtful reviews of earlier versions of this manuscript and Lily Huddleson for her administrative assistance for the workshop and assistance with preparation of the manuscript . 
##4000667 Ravelstein , by Saul Bellow , Viking . <p> IN Diana Trilling 's memoir The Beginning of the Journey she tells a story about Saul Bellow to illustrate the effect that Lionel Trilling had on people . Lionel , she writes , <p> always retained a certain air of unassailability . There were people whom this seemed to disturb . In middle life , he lectured at the University of Chicago , and Saul Bellow , who taught there and with whom he had become pleasantly acquainted in the early fifties when Bellow was writing The Adventures of Augie March , invited him to have a drink after his talk . For their drinking place Bellow chose a bar in a desperate quarter of the city ; it was the gathering place of drunks and deadbeats , a refuge of people who had been irreparably damaged by life . What other explanation of Bellow 's choice could there be than the wish to test Lionel 's ability to handle himself in such surroundings ? <p> We may know what she means , we may be able to imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complicity in this description is , as it were , part of the problem . And it is a problem that Saul Bellow has been unusually alert to in his fiction . It is the problem of culture , and particularly so-called high culture , as a version of pastoral ; but a version of pastoral that can be made to look unassailable because of the apparent complexity and subtlety and depth of its inclusions . A strangely modern version of pastoral , because it persuades us to forget that pastoral is what it is . At its worst it is a refuge masquerading as a profound engagement . If despite Diana Trilling 's rhetorical question this scene seems emblematic in more ways than one -- of two antagonistic Jewish ( and not only Jewish ) aspirations , of the composure of the cultured versus the disarray of what they hide from , of the need to know people by testing them rather than by taking them on their own terms -- it is partly because it stages so neatly the preoccupations , the obsessions , of both Trilling and Bellow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ravelstein of Bellow 's title is no exception -- are always wholeheartedly assailable , and above all attentive to other people 's airs ( and often their graces ) . And they are always men who live somewhere in themselves , in a desperate quarter ; and are , as everyone is , irreparably damaged by life . But unlike almost everyone else , they are astonishingly articulate , and learned , and poignantly moving and amused about their various predicaments . However abject , they luxuriate in words and things ( Humboldt , Bellow wrote , " spoke wonderfully of the wonderful , abominable rich " ) . Ravelstein , the great teacher dying of AIDS , is in this tradition of Bellow 's grandly destitute , and is at the center of what is , remarkably , one of Bellow 's finest novels . <p> Trilling is always trying to persuade us ( and presumably himself ) in his criticism that the culture he values is n't , and should n't be , a retreat from anything . And Bellow 's fiction , one way or another , has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of culture and learning . For Bellow the drama has n't been only about connecting the prose and the passion , but more about seeing what the deadbeats and the professors make of each other . As both of them are sticklers for the noble life -- and are keen to tell us what we should be doing to ennoble our lives -- they are determinedly stylish about the crude and the vulgar ( in this sense Trilling 's composure and the brash eloquence of Bellow 's heroes are mirror images of each other ) . They are , in their quite different ways , both enthralled by , and at their most fascinating about , sophistication . <p> Writing in Sincerity and Authenticity about how the novelists of the nineteenth century were " anything but confident that the old vision of the noble life could be realized , " Trilling refers to Bellow 's Moses Herzog . " When , for example , " Trilling writes , <p> a gifted novelist , Saul Bellow , tries through his Moses Herzog to question the prevailing negation of the old vision and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we respond with discomfort and embarrassment . And the more , no doubt , because we discern some discomfort and embarrassment on the part of Mr. Bellow himself , arising from his sufficiently accurate apprehension that in controverting the accepted attitude he lays himself open to the terrible charge of philistinism , of being a defector from the ranks of the children of light , a traitor to spirit . We take it as an affront to our sense of reality that a contemporary should employ that mode of judging the spiritual life which we are willing to accept and even find entrancing when we encounter it in Shakespeare 's romances . <p> As terrible charges go , one might think , there are probably worse ones . And yet , as ever , Trilling has located , in his elegant , Freudian way , a conflict . Or at least some kind of paradoxical tension in Bellow 's work . If it is old-fashioned , if not actually regressive , to assert the value of the achieved and successful life , what else can be asserted in its stead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a phrase Allan Bloom , the putative original for Ravelstein , uses with reference to Shakespeare 's romances -- of these romances affront our contemporary sense of reality , then what forms of disarray are we going to put our money on ? <p> Ravelstein , the political philosopher and worshipper of Eros , has devoted his life to teaching the best that has been thought and done about the ordering of the soul and the ordering of the polis ; and he is now dying of AIDS . And he has asked his older close friend , a writer called Chick , to write his biography , the final testament to an achieved and successful life . Or rather , the contemporary genre in which the notions of success and achievement are both assumed and put into question . More than any of Bellow 's other books , Ravelstein seems like a wholly successful example of an utterly implausible genre : a contemporary , Jewish Platonic dialogue . Like the tricky romance of taking Trilling to that bar -- wondering whether it would end in tears , or just what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in this novel to explore the ways in which people are informed , in the most various senses of this word , by the people they love and admire . It is " the promise Chick had made years ago to write a short description of Ravelstein and to give an account of his life . " And as a kept promise of sorts -- the book we read is an account of preparing to write this biography -- it is an ironic vindication , against the grain of modern biography , that a short description of somebody , done with sufficient skill , can be an account of their life . Bellow intimates not ( quite ) that all biographers are failed novelists , but that all biographies are failed or ersatz novels . <p> The novel Ravelstein is , in other words , not a biography of someone called Ravelstein , nor of someone called Allan Bloom . It is a fiction about biography . And the much publicized connections made between Bellow 's close friend Bloom and Bellow 's ( and Chick 's ) subject Ravelstein are to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it were , integral to Bellow 's sense of , or joke about , biography in this book . Ravelstein , we are told on several occasions , loved listening to classical music played on " original instruments " : and what , we are made to wonder in a book about someone who wonders about virtually everything , does " original " mean ? What is involved in this fantasy of origins ? If Ravelstein is " like " Allan Bloom or " based on " Allan Bloom , he is also , unsurprisingly , like Moses Herzog , like Humboldt . And they are all , in their way , originals : original instruments , original voices . <p> It is one of Ravelstein 's projects to divorce his students -- who are always his devoted proteges -- from what used to be called their backgrounds . " He hated his own family and never tired of weaning his gifted students from their families . His students , as I 've said , had to be cured of the disastrous misconceptions , the ' standardized unrealities ' imposed on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and originality are at odds with each other ; he persuades his students to disown , as he has done , their supposed histories . But even though Ravelstein is , by definition , no Freudian -- and , as a committed European , no Emersonian either ( although Thoreau , as we shall see , puts in some interesting appearances ) -- his biographer-to-be , Chick , as he is aptly named , has a more familiar , literary-Freudian cast of mind . So he reads Ravelstein in a way Ravelstein would never read himself ; that is , through a particular canon of literary allusions . " His lot , his crew , his disciples , his clones who dressed as he did , smoked the same Marlboros , and found in these entertainments a common ground between the fan clubs of childhood and the Promised Land of the intellect towards which Ravelstein , their Moses and their Socrates , led them . " Bellow has always been able to pack a sentence ; and at its worst this can give his writing a kind of studied fluency , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down . But here , as everywhere in Ravelstein , there is no straining for effect in writing about a character who is , for all intents and purposes , doing virtually nothing but that . " Crew " refers us to Milton 's Satan , and " disciples " refers us to Satan 's rival ; " the Promised Land of the intellect " seems to marry Jerusalem and Athens . Ravelstein , we are told , was " Homeric , " a lover of Plato ; a Jew who devoted his life to Athens until he began dying , when he turned back to his forefathers . Chick , though , is not the kind of person who thinks along Jerusalem and Athens lines . If he is anything , in this debate that Bellow has so shrewdly staged , he is literary rather than political . And Bellow , of course , is mindful of what is at stake in such distinctions . <p> There is , in Ravelstein 's view , something childish about the way the literary tend , as it were , to overpersonalize things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are often at pains to conceal : that writing about someone turns too easily into writing on their behalf . That biographers can be sly when they use their nominal subjects as novelists use their characters , as a way of saying something . Ravelstein is Chick 's opportunity to voice his misgivings about the literary life , and the literary life story . <p> But Ravelstein might have argued that there was a danger of self-indulgence in it . Either you continue to live in epiphanies or you shake them off and take up trades and tasks , you adopt rational principles and concern yourself with society and politics . Then the sense of coming from " elsewhere " vanishes . In my case Ravelstein 's opinion was that distinctiveness of observation had gone much further than it should and was being cultivated for its own strange sake . Mankind had first claim on our attention and I indulged my " personal metaphysics " too much , he thought . <p> As " Ravelstein might have argued ... " ends up as " he thought , " Bellow conveys just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of their own in our words ; that we are always speaking and writing from other people 's points of view , on their behalf . And often speaking in their voices back to them . That we might be full of other people -- engaged in endless mutual biography -- makes a more private sense of self difficult to account for . For Chick the privacy of the self is the self : " my feeling was that you could n't be known thoroughly unless you found a way to communicate certain ' incommunicables ' -- your private metaphysics . " For Chick 's Ravelstein , private metaphysics , " intimate metaphysics , " is the pastime of people intimidated by the publicness of public life . " A man , " Ravelstein believed , " should be able to hear , and to bear , the worst that could be said of him . " Being assailable is the point and not the problem . You make yourself out of what the world makes of you , and what you can make it make of you . It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a willingness to let the self-esteem structure be attacked and burned to the ground was a measure of your seriousness . " In other words , for Chick 's Ravelstein shame is a protection racket . <p> So , much play is made in this novel by Ravelstein and Chick and Bellow of Chick 's New England retreat in the country . In his " fieldstone house " with its " old maples and hickory trees " Chick hears very little about what other people think of him . But he has to bear what Ravelstein thinks and that , in a sense , is what Ravelstein is there for . And why , by the same token , Ravelstein has chosen Chick as his biographer . Chick always wants to hear what Ravelstein has to say , and he enjoys bearing it . Ravelstein , who is bored by the country , comes to see Chick out of curiosity ; not curiosity about the country , but curiosity about Chick 's pleasure in it . " He had come to the country to see me , and the visit was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Why did I want to bury myself in the woods ? " For Ravelstein this is quite literally a kind of death-in-life ; and the preoccupation with death , the worry about it , he considers definitely " bourgeoisie . " The " great-souled " live in the knowledge of death , but they do n't distract themselves with the terrors or the attractions of it . So for him , " the drama of the season lacked real interest . Not to be compared to the human drama ... to lose yourself in grasses , leaves , winds , birds , or beasts was an evasion of higher duties . " Thoreau 's " woods " that keep turning up in this book -- " I was not out of the woods , " Chick remarks as he begins to recover from his own near-fatal illness towards the end of the book -- are for Ravelstein a false solution to the problem of politics , to hearing and bearing what other people say about us ; and how this informs what we can hear and say and think about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be alive , and to be alive is to be in circulation . And once we are around other people our composure is on the line . " To lose your head , " Ravelstein believed , " was the great-souled thing to do . " It is only with other people that the great temptations of discretion and indiscretion are available . <p> And yet if Ravelstein were more of an allegory than it is -- and occasionally it seems like more of an allegory than it is -- there would be a simple schema at its heart . There is the solitude of Walden , and Ravelstein dying of AIDS : AIDS as the worst consequence of a certain kind of free association ; private intimate metaphysics -- burying oneself alive and working out how to get out and how not to -- as the worst ( or best ) consequence of withdrawal . Ravelstein , believing what he believes , and dying in the way he is dying -- " a serious person , not comfortable with himself , " as Chick says with Bellow 's infallible ear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at once an ultimate form of contemporary nobility , and a test of his fastidiousness as a writer . Ravelstein 's " tact " about his own homosexuality , and his contempt for certain contemporary manners -- " He despised campy homosexuality and took a very low view of ' gay pride ' " -- is matched by Chick 's curious blandness about the whole subject . And both Ravelstein and Chick conspire in Bellow 's familiar idealization of a certain kind of woman ( what analysts refer to as the wished-for mother of infancy -- Chick 's young wife , Rosamund , for example , is someone with whom " there was no subject raised which she did n't immediately understand " ) . In writing about Ravelstein 's homosexuality , Bellow takes the Greek tragedy approach : the terrible things happen offstage . <p> We are led to believe that Ravelstein has got up to all sorts of unmentionable things , but the main relationship in the book , with a much younger man called Nikki , is rather more of the loving and caring sort . Nikki is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is strongly drawn and , as usual with Bellow , remarkably vivid in his brief appearances , there is overall something overstylized about what we are allowed to see of Ravelstein 's more passionately fraught life . This is particularly striking given how often Chick refers to and reiterates Ravelstein 's devotion to the god Eros , to a virtual religion of longing and desire . You get the feeling that Chick ( and perhaps Bellow ) have Platonized Ravelstein 's homosexuality rather more than Ravelstein would always have wished . It is not that there is n't enough fist fucking in the novel , but that there 's a great deal of theorizing about the shady concealments people live by , and with : a too refined distrust of refinement . A gay bar , you imagine , would be a bar that Chick would not be keen to go to . <p> In generational terms Ravelstein 's age would have made a certain kind of discretion the order of the day . And yet Bellow 's sense of propriety , which is invariably accurate , serves another purpose here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ love between men -- and especially the hero-worshiping kind -- and the love between the generations . And yet it is one of the curious effects of his fiction to make it virtually unthinkable that two men could actually desire each other rather than , or as well as , admire or look after each other . In Bellow 's fictional world homosexuality is not so much invisible as implausible . And this again is where the putative connection between Ravelstein and Allan Bloom is also a cover story . Whatever Bloom 's attitude was toward homosexuality , or indeed to his dying of AIDS , Bellow is still making his own decisions as a novelist about Ravelstein . And he keeps reminding us , throughout the novel , that biographies are rather like novels , and that this book , Ravelstein , is not a biography , but a story about a man who wants to write one . " I am bound , " Chick tells us , " as an honest observer to make plain how Ravelstein operates " ; and he is referring both to the inevitable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this book , also called Ravelstein , operates . What Chick calls Ravelstein 's " endlessly diverting character " is never observed operating sexually , so to speak ; what is observed -- and Bellow writes with astounding tenderness about Ravelstein 's ill body -- are the terrible results of Ravelstein 's secret ( at least to Chick ) erotic life . Ravelstein may be diverting , but Chick is diverting us . <p> The complications that homosexuality throws Ravelstein into -- both the character , and the book itself -- are pertinent because Ravelstein is a novel peculiarly troubled by evasiveness . As a fictional character , Ravelstein , like many of Bellow 's heroes , is someone forever exercised and energized by other people 's concealments and duplicities . Bellow 's heroes unmask their fellow men and women by force of character , through a kind of demonic intuition . They are never programmatically suspicious -- they are never Freudians or Marxists -- they have , rather like novelists , idiosyncratic powers of divination . So Ravelstein is often getting Chick to face various facts -- a key word @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he idealizes the naivete of Eros , the primal intelligence of longing , while exposing the pernicious naivete of everyday life . Chick , for example , fails to spot the fascists among his acquaintances , refuses to see that his wife has put a hex on him , and so on . Ravelstein is an expert on moral cowardice . " Why does the century , " he asks , " ... underwrite so much destruction ? There is a lameness that comes over all of us when we consider these facts . " It is part of Ravelstein 's " teaching-vaudeville " to assail and assault Chick with the plain facts of the time : the fact , say , that Jews have to live with the knowledge that quite recently a significant number of powerful people wanted to wipe them out entirely , and nearly succeeded . And yet the great glaring facts , the " world-historical ringside seats " that these Bellow heroes promote with such amazing eloquence , keep running up against the centering image of the book , Ravelstein 's increasingly dying body . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ awkward moment , " destroyed by his reckless sex habits . " We should n't evade the big questions , but we should n't use the big questions to evade the other questions . Bellow has always had a truth-comes-in-blows sensibility , but in Ravelstein there is a new uncertainty about which blows matter and why . And a strong sense that there is a difference between talking , however grandly and wildly and wisely , about recklessness , and living recklessly . <p> If Ravelstein turned out to be his last novel , it would be an extraordinary valediction . But we should hope that it is n't because Bellow is beginning to say new -- and to use one of his words -- serious things about , among many other things , evasion and recklessness . Evasion is not news , but our evasion of recklessness is . <p> By Adam Phillips <p> 
##4000672 Of No Country 1 Know : New and Selected Poems and Translations , by David Ferry , University of Chicago Press . <p> The Eclogues of Virgil : A Translation , by David Ferry , Farrar , Straus &; Giroux . Naive and Sentimental Cowboys <p> WALT WHITMAN in conversation , circa 1890 : " You know Eakins ? the painter : he was sick , run down , out of sorts : he went right among the cowboys : herded : built up miraculously ... he needed the converting , confirming , uncompromising touch of the plains . " <p> In 1886 , the year he painted Whitman 's portrait , Thomas Eakins was fired from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for allowing his students to model for each other in the nude , boys as naked as girls . His Western journey , begun in late July of 1887 , was meant to clear the nastiness of the so-called " loincloth incident " from his spirit . He headed for the Badlands , where Theodore Roosevelt had found strenuous sustenance a few months earlier . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future paintings . Dogs , guns , horses , saddles , broad-brimmed hats , cowboys -- these were the subjects his camera found . <p> They were found in turn by David Ferry , in the fourth of a series inspired by Eakins called " Photographs from a Book : Six Poems , " first published in Strangers : A Book of Poems ( 1983 ) and now republished in Of No Country I Know . The first two triplets of five : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Look up this picture in Gordon Hendricks 's The Photographs of Thomas Eakins ( 1972 ) , and you 'll see that Ferry has taken liberties in his ekphrasis , as his endnote carefully , almost legalistically , concedes : " Several of the photographs evoked in the poems are related to photographs reproduced in ... Hendricks . " In his poem , Ferry has conflated two of Hendricks 's captions : Plate 134 is " Cowboy in Dakota Territory , " while the following picture , another cowboy , is captioned " Unidentified man in Dakota Territory . " It is possible that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Badger Company Ranch -- more likely it was shot near the B-T Ranch , Eakins 's tamer-sounding base in the Badlands . In short , Ferry has invented an ideal Eakins photograph , and an ideal cowboy , " a hero/Who has read nothing at all about heroes . " <p> Ferry 's poem is a sort of free translation of the Eakins photograph , and what he 's after is a certain state of mind and of language . PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Ferry defines the cowboy 's perspective negatively , with his sequence of four prominently placed " withouts " : " without/The amazement of self ... without mercy ... without the imagination that he is/Without mercy . " Friedrieh Schiller , in one of the defining distinctions of the romantic movement , named this untrammeled condition of mind and of art the " naive , " which he associated with the poets Homer , Aeschylus , Shakespeare , and Goethe . In Schiller 's view , these poets had direct access to nature -- indeed , they were nature . Unreflecting , confident , realistic -- they wrote what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along with the writers Kleist and Klopstock , in the opposing camp of the " sentimental " poets . Tending towards elegy , the sentimental poets have lost touch with nature , and have as their dubious reward a sense of higher , more " ideal " things . ( Among American poets , Whitman is naive , Dickinson sentimental . ) " They touch us by ideas , not by sensuous truth ; not so much because they are nature as because they are able to inspire enthusiasm in us for nature . " <p> With a final " without , " Ferry associates the naive point of view with the camera , PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> In his deadpan phrasing ( " Plate 134 . By Eakins . ' A cowboy in the West ' " ) and in his accumulation of realistic detail ( " His hat , his gun , his gloves " ) , Ferry tries to adopt the naive point of view of the camera . But the project is doomed , and in the tension between naive and sentimental lies the life of the poem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elegant enjambed triplets rather than Whitman 's cascading catalogs -- and in its diction . The cowboy may not know what is " to the East of him , " but Ferry does , just as he knows all about heroes and mercy and the amazement of self . And all this awareness , which Schiller , with no derogation , would call sentimental , comes together in the " Heartbreaking canteen . " The only heart that can be broken here is Ferry 's , for we know -- since Ferry has convinced us -- that the cowboy 's heart is invulnerable . <p> There is no canteen in Eakins 's photograph . Where you 'd expect to find it , on the broken , sun-bleached ground , there 's a reclining dog peering out sleepily at the camera . The cowboy himself , to my eye , looks more self-conscious and pleased with himself , in every way more " sentimental , " than Ferry wants him to be . Clearly visible on the cowboy 's hip , in a picture in which many other things are n't , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his rather foppish chaps . ( Eakins reveals in a letter that he had his cowboy shave before he photographed him . ) The cowboy 's cool stare recalls James Dean in the familiar photographs from his ranch in Indiana . Eakins is evoking an idea of the cowboy as dandy . <p> Ferry 's is a strong misreading ; he wants his cowboys to be " uncompromising " like Whitman 's , and the evidence to the contrary breaks his heart . We can see the same split in Stephen Crane , a writer that the art historian Michael Fried has compared to Eakins . " Damn the east ! " Crane wrote in the fall of 1895 , before setting off for Nebraska . " I fell in love with the straight out-and-out , sometimes-hideous , often-braggart westerners because I thought them to be the truer men .... They are serious , those fellows . When they are born they take one big gulp of wind and then they live . " Crane fell in love with naive cowboys , but put sentimental ones in his stories . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Comes to Yellow Sky " is Eakins 's cowboy as dandy : <p> A man in a maroon-colored flannel shirt , which had been purchased for purposes of decoration and made , principally , by some Jewish women on the east side of New York , rounded a corner and walked into the middle of the main street of Yellow Sky . In either hand the man held a long , heavy blue-black revolver .... And his boots had red tops with gilded imprints , of the kind beloved in winter by little sledding boys on the hillsides of New England . Hairy and Shaggy Horses <p> David Ferry was born in Orange , New Jersey , in 1924 , a few miles from where Crane , another Jersey man , is buried . I know there are readers who have followed Ferry 's career all along the way , from the poems collected in On the Way to the Island ( 1960 ) and Strangers : A Book of Poems ( 1983 ) on to the late flowering of his work during the past decade . But for many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ epic ( a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award in poetry in 1993 ) , then of Horace 's odes , and most recently of Virgil 's eclogues . Concurrently , he published a terrific book of poems and translations called Dwelling Places ( 1993 ) . This late cluster of books has in common an abiding concern with a single theme , the same question that was bothering Schiller two centuries ago . In poem after poem , translation after translation , Ferry asks : What have we given up in relinquishing our intimacy with the natural world , with our ever diminishing inheritance of " wildness " ? Even in the supposedly classical poems of Horace and Virgil , Ferry is attuned to moments of vulnerability and second-guessing . His Rome is not the braggart Empire of Lowell 's Vietnam-era Near the Ocean , but a nervous realm of partying citizens and unsettled farmers ( Eclogue 9 : " A stranger came/To take possession of our farm , and said : /I own this place ; you have to leave this place " ) . <p> Why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like to look -- at wildflowers , Schiller wondered , or at streams and mossy stones , birds and animals , children at play ? It ca n't just be their beauty of form , Schiller maintained , but must be a satisfaction " not aesthetic but moral . " We love in them " the tacitly creative life , the serene spontaneity of their activity , existence in accordance with their own laws . " And Schiller concluded , in an italicized sentence , " They are what we were ; they are what we should once again become . " When I read the first stanza of Ferry 's wonderful " When We Were Children , " a translation of a late thirteenth-century lyric PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> -- I think of Schiller 's devastating remark : " Our childhood is the only undisfigured nature that we still encounter in civilized mankind , hence it is no wonder if every trace of the nature outside us leads us back to our childhood . " <p> Or consider Ferry 's horses , in a translation of Jorge Guillen 's " Unos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about Eakins 's cowboy , the " naive " perspective of the horses is defined by an accumulation of negatives : " Motionless ... untroubled ... Silently ... before the beginning of anything human ... unyokes ... show no sign/of understanding ... Know nothing ... obliviousness . " <p> Many readers will recognize this poem of Guillen 's from an earlier translation by Richard Wilbur , of which I will quote only the first quatrain for contrast : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> I know nothing much about the biographies of these two poets , Ferry and Wilbur , except that they are roughly the same age -- their late sew enties -- and attended Amherst College , the Amherst of Frost and Brower , during the 1940s . What I have to say has nothing to do with how or whether their lives have overlapped and everything to do with the lapping of their language , in these dueling versions . You ca n't take a stab at Guillen 's horses without knowing that Wilbur has been there before , circa 1960 , and staked out the territory pretty firmly . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's horses are radically constrained in their " barbed enclosure , " weighed down by their shagginess , their " thick and cumbrous manes . " Even their inactivity weighs on them ; they are , in the second quatrain , " Doomed to be idle , /To haul no cart or wagon , wear no bridle . " They " fatten like the grass . " Their compensation for their imprisonment is Keatsian soul-building : " Soul is the issue of so strict a fate. /They harbor visions in their waking eyes , /And with their quiet ears participate/In heaven 's pure serenity . " Like many sonnets , this one , at least as Wilbur translates it , encodes its own definition : " Pent in a barbed enclosure which contains , /By way of compensation , grazing-land . " Another version of why nuns fret not . <p> When we turn back to Ferry 's version , it 's as though the horses have grazed a little longer , and cleared more of the ground . What a difference between their unyoked ease grazing in the field and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eleven lines to Wilbur 's full-sonnet fourteen , Ferry 's version of Guillen is less a retranslation than a translation of a translation . The English of Wilbur is what Ferry does not write in . For Wilbur 's hammering rhymed and " pent " quatrains , Ferry substitutes rhymeless and loose pentameter couplets ( with Stevens , subject of Ferry 's Amherst thesis , again as liberating model ) . And Ferry 's language is striking in what it lets in : the colloquial " There are " ( an unimaginable opening for Wilbur ) and chiming " growing there " two lines later , picked up in the final " grazing there . " The loose , easygoing enjambments looping from couplet to couplet ( " Silently growing there in the light of the natural/Morning " ) are foreign to Wilbur 's form and meaning . Really , these are two different poems in just about every way that counts . One way to put the difference is this : Ferry 's horses , hairy and unyoked , retain their naturalness , their naivete . Wilbur 's shaggy prisoners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heaven they dimly sense . <p> Enkidu is the wild man , hairy and unyoked . Call him naive . And call his occasionally shaggy companion Gilgamesh , who knows both civilization and the charms of wildness , sentimental . The selections from Gilgamesh included in Ferry 's Of No Country I Know concern the death of Enkidu , and Gilgamesh 's lamentations for his partner . Here we can see how , for Ferry as for Schiller , elegy emerges from this conflict of wild and tame : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Am I the only reader who hears in those dosing lines an echo of another famous elegy , Rilke 's familiar " Herbsttag , " translated by Ferry and included in Of No Country I Know : " Will write long letters ; wander unpeacefully , /In the late streets , while the leaves stray down " ? <p> The figure of the " wild man " is everywhere in Ferry 's recent work , though whether the wild man in his various European and American guises led Ferry to Enkidu or whether Enkidu led him to his feral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opening epigram , " Strabo Reading Megasthenes , " to Dwelling Places : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> I love this epigram but ca n't quite say why . I 'm drawn to the arresting clash of " flowers blooming " and " faraway roasting meat , " to the fussy scholarly evocation ( " According to Megasthenes ... with which to eat " ) of a " natural " existence , and to the deft and barely noticeable rhyme of " eat " and " meat . " Stupid Questions <p> Ferry 's quest for the wild man 's guileless perspective , Enkidu 's point of view , has led him to build whole poems around innocent questions . Some of the grandest , most familiar poems in English -- " Ode on a Grecian Urn , " " Among Schoolchildren , " Elizabeth Bishop 's " Filling Station " -- use questions conspicuously . But Ferry 's ubiquitous questions , in early and late poems , are striking for their naivete , as in this early poem , " My Mother 's Dying " : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> These are lovely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But the questions every other line verge on the faux-naif , especially on rereading . I 've come to prefer the bolder patterning and thematizing of questions in Ferry 's great ( and to my mind pretty much definitive ) version of Baudelaire 's sonnet " The Blind People , " which begins : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> The unmaking of the sonnet as Frost and Wilbur conceived it escalates here . The enjambments are even more vigorous than in the Guillen sonnet , really yanking the lines into a single snake of a poem . As with the casual use of " there " in Guillen 's horses , I 'm struck here by the boldly colloquial placement of prepositions : " they walk in this ridiculous fashion through " ; " a denial I walk through " ; " What are they looking up at the sky for ? " There 's an angry edge to the questions that speaks of experience rather than innocence . <p> Sometimes a whole poem of Ferry 's will circle around questions , implied rather than explicit , as in his recent and very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photograph gives rise to the poem , this one a snapshot of a family outing in New Jersey in 1916 , " a picture taken years before I was born . " Ferry tugs a few secrets from the stance and expressions of the various figures grouped around a car : his aunt Sis Nellie 's " frustrated sexuality turned/Into malice abetted and invigorated/By the cultural verve and ignorance of the place " ; his grandmother 's bad teeth " As seen by the conformation of her mouth , /Smiling without opening the lips " ; his vulnerable infant sister . He 's intrigued by his father 's straw hat in this wintry scene , but puzzled most of all by his mother : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> One of Ferry 's Eakins poems , the sixth , is based on a photograph of another excursion into the Jersey countryside , with Eakins -- his bulging paunch reflected in the water -- and two other naked men ( like three of Whitman 's twenty-eight bathers grown up ) staring towards the camera . The ending is strikingly like that of " At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ river is hard to see//In the washy blankness of the light ; the sallow/Flat South Jersey landscape , treeless almost , /almost featureless , stretches vaguely beyond . " The cowboys , the horses , the blind , the wild men , the children -- all of them traffic in the blankness of the sky . And this blankness yields , in the end , to an ordinary afternoon in New Jersey . The family photograph , in which all the features are familiar , is stranger for Ferry , more ultimately foreign , than anything he found in Eakins . The concluding line provides the title for Ferry 's " new and selected poems " : " of no country I know . " It sums up , in its awkwardly confident uncertainty , all the quests and questionings , sentimental and naive , of his distinguished body of work . <p> By Christopher Benfey <p> 
##4000675 Darwin 's Worms , by Adam Phillips , Basic Books . <p> Darwin and Freud live in many of our reflective reveries , shape our assumptions , bear down on what we think of our origins or how we think of our wishes and worries . In schools across America the teaching of evolution has become a subject of fierce controversy ; every weekday afternoon Oprah and her television guests recite their psychopathology , even as the newspapers , through advice-giving columnists , have made our dreams , our moments of yearning , a fit subject for daily discussion . For Adam Phillips the result has been a decisive cultural shift that informs the way we think about the world and our prospects in it . " We can see Darwin and Freud , " he tells us , " as among the people involved in taking God out of the picture , leaving us with nothing between us and nature . " Such an observation is meant to remind us that past existentialist outcries of anxiety , fear , and sorrow were prompted not only by personal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that have become for so many of us a believable reality , buttressed by scientific observation : a biologist 's scrutiny of Brazilian jungles , and indeed , the attention he gave to his own native soil , to its worms which make all the difference , he learned , in how the grass grows ; and a physician 's surmises about the reasons his ailing , recumbent patients think and feel and dream as they do -- a one-time clinical office become a mirror to the minds of millions . <p> Phillips links Darwin to Freud as if they were brothers under a modern skin of skepticism with respect to the received religious and philosophical pieties of the nineteenth century and before . He calls them " naturalists -- great natural history writers , " but they were also powerfully engaging , suggestive essayists who favored a dramatic presentation of our long ago human struggle to survive and prevail ( Darwin ) , and of our everyday effort to keep our wits about us , to keep our mood and manner reasonably solid and equable , no matter what distractions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and deeds ) put in our way ( Freud ) . Both these observers of the human scene became not only analytical commentators , determined to pursue their speculative forays , but insistently persuasive rhetoricians whose say became a kind of secular gospel . Phillips frankly calls their work " scandalous , " by which he means their books " disfigured people 's cherished ideals , and so compelled people to revise their hopes for themselves . " He stresses the writer 's charm , the conceptualist 's infectious imagination evident in both Darwin and in Freud : they " made it very difficult for us not to use a certain kind of vocabulary when we refer to ourselves ; words like sexuality , competition , childhood , the past , became compulsory in our self-descriptions . " <p> The two were idiosyncratic seers , willing to go it alone , not lodged in the universities or in politics , where many get to address faithful followers . Their written ideas appealed to readers prepared to break with the past -- the religiously sanctioned versions of the distant past , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it . Darwin gave us a new past , one plagued by grasping yet vulnerable animals , among which he numbered emerging humankind . For him our life today is a climax of sorts -- all those accidents and incidents that became , over millennia , the fateful emergence of a particular species : we the heirs of random chance and favoring circumstance ( hardly the decisive biblical story of lordly creation , willfully executed for reasons no one can ever know , since God 's ways are not ours to know , never mind investigate ) . Freud gave us a no less mysterious earlier time , obscured by clouds of forgetfulness , ever hovering over us , blurring our memories . He attended closely our ways of talking , our stray musings , our surprising dreams , vivid and pointed enough to stay alive in a morning 's awareness . It was Freud 's distinct genius to figure out the expressive purpose of those daydreams and nightmares , to use them as narrative clues , to see their recurrence , their symbolic insistence , as a telling revelation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wounds shunted aside but granted continuing power -- a secret hold on our brain 's workings , so the world 's first psychoanalyst realized as he tried to comprehend fixations of attraction and fear : a mental life that simply wo n't let go of us , no matter the press of custom and law and , not least , biblical commandment . <p> " My father worried about his patients a lot , " Anna Freud once remarked , and then revealed a surprising candor less easy to acknowledge , because it broke ground with the cherished posture of the selflessly hard-working doctor : <p> He worried about what would happen to him , his reputation . I was one thing to treat greatly troubled patients ; it was another thing to explain their complaints and symptoms -- their ways of thinking and acting -- to everyone else , the so called " normal " people in Vienna and elsewhere . Some of his patients were written off , as it is put in English , but it did n't take long for him to be dismissed , ostracized ! @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ books , but I 'm not sure even his enthusiastic admirers back then or now , have realized how determined , how stubborn , he had to be -- maybe words like " brave " or " courageous " do apply here , because he became who he 's now known to be because he dared stand up for his ideas , and I 'd add , stand up to certain people . <p> There she stopped , even as she was promptly asked to be specific , to spell out the nature of the reproving opposition her father took on . A smile , as if she wanted her listener to know that her answer was unnecessary -- it had become part of history 's lesson . Finally , a brief , understated comment , wryly made : " In the universities , in the churches , what The Interpretation of Dreams , The Psychopathology of Everyday Life , had to say all fell on deaf ears . " <p> We know Adam Phillips as one of Freud 's eventual followers -- he is a distinguished psychoanalyst and essayist -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Darwin , literally in time , but also as an excited , believing reader . Now Phillips brings together these two intellectual giants , writes of them cogently and suggestively , summons his ready , clear-headed capacity for sharp comparison of ideas , for penetrating psychological interpretation , conveys to us more than we may have known about them , and , in so doing , echoes what Anna Freud was indirectly putting on the record : the challenge that psychoanalysis once presented to religious and secular authority , even as Darwin , to this day , stirs fear and resentment in certain American communities . Here were two thinkers who had to be battlers -- or else they 'd have hedged their writing , cut and trimmed it to suit the principalities and powers of their time . We meet sides of them , through Phillips , that others have been less inclined to emphasize : Darwin 's effort , late in life , to understand the manner in which worms spend their lives ensuring the productivity of his beloved England 's topsoil ; Freud 's worry , early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ naught at the hands of future biographers -- his worry , really , that he would never be given his due . <p> Darwin and Freud are , of course , credited with much today . They were ambitious intellectual leaders , anxious to survive the constraints of mere mortality ; they were dying to live and live -- to survive over the centuries through the faith others would put in their proposed hypotheses . Phillips comes at them as a knowing , appreciative ironist who wants to give us some pause , some new thought , a surprise or two that jolts us from the easy passivity of latter-day exaltation , which is a kind of burial call for past historical personages . He brings to life these two thinkers , brings them close to the modern-day reader -- enables us to comprehend the manner of their emergent eminence . The book 's very title awakens us , and soon enough we are amused , stirred by the Darwin who would turn from his adventurous storehouse of observed factuality and speculative historical reconstruction , enabled by those Brazilian forests and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his book 's title has it ( The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms , with Observations on Their Habits ) , a daily miracle takes place : the lowly worm ploughs the land , accomplishes so very much , while big-shot human beings , so much " higher " on their own scales of capability and performance , take no notice -- and thereby miss something of great importance to their own welfare . Phillips becomes properly , instructively elegiac as he salutes those worms which commanded Darwin 's late-in-life attention : " They were inadvertently generous ; not designed for altruism . Not intentionally collaborative ; but the way they straggled for survival had spin-offs for other parts of nature . " <p> In Darwin 's hands the worm becomes a benefactor : an instance that affirms the prophetically leveling claim of the preaching Jesus , who paid the price for such sweeping radicalism -- that " the last shall be first , and the first last . " We think of Darwin as a challenger of biblical platitudes , and so this book has him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ studied at Cambridge University , and surely the biologist who never missed a trick as he contemplated nature had good cause to enjoy its casual modesty , its sly turns of fate , as it asserted various possibilities , not the least of which Darwin , spellbound , had come to witness with awe -- a smart man nodding appreciatively at the dumb worm . The point , by implication , was that we mighty ones now and then might stop exalting ourselves by looking upward to heaven , as the place where miracles are granted us , and , instead , cast a glance downward and nearby , where inadvertent magic happens daily -- here heralded ( through the form of the worm as a mighty doer ) by an author who wants to bring us closer to the " reality " his profession 's founder kept espousing as important for us to heed . <p> No question , in that regard , Freud was ever the practical striver , anxious to doff his hat to Realpolitik . For others he claimed the necessity of an obliging deference to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enforced them , and thereby molded our aims and misgivings , our loyalties and our aversions -- the " they " children keep mentioning , the burgher mothers , fathers who raise their voices , use their hands , make clear what has to be , and therefore what is . Still , even the practicality of perceived power , much embraced by readers and professional colleagues , as well as the young , can only go so far . In no time , an open-minded visitor can arrive , turn critically away from established viewpoints , report unfavorable news to others , who , however , even as declared admirers , can turn so very adverse . In a sense Freud knew in his bones that the more he became revered , the more tempting it would be for others to belittle him , mock him -- become challengers to his orthodoxy , even as he had taken on the powers-that-be of conventional psychiatry . <p> The Freud in Darwin 's Worms is the young conquistador ( so he once called himself ) already worried about his future biographers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ misinterpretations or their willful errors of judgment . The brilliant neuropsychiatrist who claimed to have learned the secrets of others , and who narrated them tellingly in his articles and books , might himself be inaccurately understood and described -- so he worried , as Phillips reminds us , to the point that the very art and act of biography became regarded as suspect by the one who had become so accomplished at figuring out the lives of others , and who , at the end of his life , wrote of Moses , no less , and of his monotheism . Like Darwin , Freud could look at religion with decided disfavor ( as in The Future of an Illusion ) , yet feel impelled to give it an almost awed attention , his Judaism a voice within him that very much wanted expression . So it went for these two shrewd and earthy iconoclasts , their scientific breakthroughs no bar , ultimately , to their spiritual memories , a legacy each would have to address by implication , notwithstanding the clear-headed rationality , the preoccupation with palpable reality , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> By Robert Coles <p> 
##4000971 A few hours after the terrorist events in New York City , Washington , D.C. , and Pennsylvania , the Bush administration concluded without waiting for supporting evidence that " Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization were prime suspects . " George Tenet , director of the Central Intelligence Agency , stated that bin Laden has the capacity to plan " multiple attacks with little or no warning . " Secretary of State Colin Powell called the attacks " an act of war , " and President Bush confirmed in an evening televised address to the nation that he would " make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them . " Former CIA Director James Woolsey pointed his finger at " state sponsorship , " implying the complicity of one or more foreign governments . And in the words of former National Security Adviser Lawrence Eagleburger , " I think we will show when we get attacked like this , we are terrible in our strength and in our retribution . " <p> Meanwhile , parroting official statements , Western @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directed against civilian targets in the Middle East . In the words of William Saffire writing in the New York Times : " When we reasonably deter mine our attackers ' bases and camps , we must pulverize them -- minimizing but accepting the risk of collateral damage -- and act overtly or covertly to destabilize terror 's national hosts . " <p> The following examines the history of Osama bin Laden and the links of the Islamic jihad ( holy war ) to the formulation of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and its aftermath . <p> Prime suspect in the September 11 , 2001 , hijackings , branded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an " international terrorist " for his role in the African U.S. embassy bombings , Saudi-born Osama bin Laden was recruited during the Soviet-Afghan war " ironically under the auspices of the CIA , to fight Soviet invaders " -- so reports the August 24 , 1998 , London Daily Telegraph . According to Fred Halliday in the March 25 , 1996 , New Republic , " The largest covert operation in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in support of the pro-communist government of Babrak Kamal . And Ahmed Rashid writes in the November/December 1999 Foreign Affairs : <p> With the active encouragement of the CIA and Pakistan 's ISI Inter Services Intelligence , who wanted to turn the Afghan jihad into a global war waged by all Muslim states against the Soviet Union , some 35,000 Muslim radicals from 40 Islamic countries joined Afghanistan 's fight between 1982 and 1992 . Tens of thousands more came to study in Pakistani madrasahs . Eventually more than 100,000 foreign Muslim radicals were directly influenced by the Afghan jihad . <p> The Islamic jihad was supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia , with a significant part of the funding generated from the Golden Crescent drug trade . Steve Coil writes in the July 19 , 1992 , Washington Post : <p> In March 1985 , President Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166 ... which authorized stepped-up covert military aid to the mujahideen , and it made clear that the secret Afghan war had a new goal : to defeat Soviet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ withdrawal . The new covert U.S. assistance began with a dramatic increase in arms supplies -- a steady rise to 65,000 tons annually by 1987 ... as well as a " ceaseless stream " of CIA and Pentagon specialists who traveled to the secret headquarters of Pakistan 's ISI on the main road near Rawalpindi , Pakistan . There the CIA specialists met with Pakistani intelligence officers to help plan operations for the Afghan rebels . <p> The CIA 's covert support was provided indirectly , using Pakistan 's military ISI as a " go-between . " Washington had concluded that , for these covert operations to be " successful , " it must not reveal the ultimate objective of the jihad , which was to destroy the Soviet Union . The CIA played a key role in training the mujahideen by channeling CIA support through the ISI , which integrated the guerrilla training with the teachings of Islam . As Dilip Hiro of the International Press Service explains : <p> Predominant themes were that Islam was a complete socio-political ideology , that holy Islam was being violated by the atheistic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should reassert their independence by overthrowing the leftist Afghan regime propped up by Moscow . <p> The CIA 's Milton Beardman stated , " We did n't train Arabs . " Yet according to Abdel Monam Saidali , of the Al-aram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo , bin Laden and the " Afghan Arabs " had been imparted " with very sophisticated types of training that was allowed to them by the CIA . " Beardman confirmed that Osama bin Laden was n't aware of the role he was playing on behalf of Washington and reported bin Laden as saying , " Neither I , nor my brothers , saw evidence of American help . " <p> Motivated by nationalism and religious fervor , the Islamic warriors were therefore unaware that they were fighting the Soviet army on behalf of Uncle Sam . And while there were contacts at the upper levels of the intelligence hierarchy , Islamic rebel leaders in theater had no contacts with Washington or the CIA . With CIA backing and the funneling of massive amounts of U.S. military aid , the ISI had developed into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , India Abroad , as a " parallel structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of government . " The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers , bureaucrats , undercover agents , and informers , collectively estimated at 150,000 . <p> Meanwhile , CIA operations had also reinforced the Pakistani military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq . According to Diego Cordovez and Selig Harrison , as quoted in an International Press Service review of their book , Out of Afghanistan : The Inside Story of the Soviet Withdrawal : <p> " Relations between the CIA and the ISI had grown increasingly warm following Zia 's ouster of Bhutto and the advent of a military regime . " ... During most of the Afghan war , Pakistan was more aggressively anti-Soviet than even the United States . Soon after the Soviet military invaded Afghanistan in 1980 , Zia sent his ISI chief to destabilize the Soviet Central Asian states . The CIA only agreed to this plan in October 1984 .... " The CIA was more cautious than the Pakistanis . " Both Pakistan and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a public posture of negotiating a settlement while privately agreeing that military escalation was the best course . <p> The history of the drug , trade in Central Asia is intimately related to the CIAs covert operations . Prior to the Soviet-Afghan war , opium production in Afghanistan and Pakistan was directed to small regional markets . There was no local production of heroin . However , with CIA intervention , that changed . Alfred McCoy 's study , " Drug Fallout : The CIA 's Forty Year Complicity in the Narcotics Trade , " in the August 1997 Progressive , confirms that , within two years of the onslaught of the CIA operations in Afghanistan , <p> the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands became the world 's top heroin producer , supplying 60 percent of U.S. demand . In Pakistan , the heroin-addict population went from near zero in 1979 ... to 1.2 million by 1985 -- a much steeper rise than in any other nation .... <p> CIA assets again controlled this heroin trade . As the Mujahideen guerrillas seized territory inside Afghanistan , they ordered peasants to plant opium as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaders and local syndicates under the protection of Pakistan Intelligence operated hundreds of heroin laboratories . During this decade of wide-open drug-dealing , the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Islamabad failed to instigate major seizures or arrests .... U.S. officials had refused to investigate charges of heroin dealing by its Afghan allies " because U.S. narcotics policy in Afghanistan has been subordinated to the war against Soviet influence there . " In 1995 , the former CIA director of the Afghan operation , Charles Cogan , admitted the CIA had indeed sacrificed the drug war to fight the Cold War . " Our main mission was to do as much damage as possible to the Soviets . We did n't really have the resources or the time to devote to an investigation of the drug trade .... I do n't think that we need to apologize for this . Every situation has its fallout .... There was fallout in terms of drugs , yes . But the main objective was accomplished . The Soviets left Afghanistan . " <p> In the wake of the Cold War , the Central Asian region @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it continued to produce three-quarters of the world 's opium , representing multibillion-dollar revenues to business syndicates , financial institutions , intelligence agencies , and organized crime . The annual proceeds of the Golden Crescent drug trade -- between $100 billion and $200 billion -- represents approximately one-third of the worldwide annual turnover of narcotics , estimated by the United Nations to be of the order of $500 billion . <p> With the disintegration of the Soviet Union , a new surge in opium production unfolded . According to UN estimates , the production of opium in Afghanistan in 1998 to 1999-coinciding with the buildup of armed insurgencies in the former Soviet republics -- reached a record high of 4,600 metric tons . Powerful business syndicates in the former Soviet Union allied with organized crime to compete for strategic control over the heroin routes . <p> The ISI 's extensive intelligence military network was n't dismantled after the Cold War , and the CIA continued to covertly support the Islamic jihad through Pakistan . New undercover initiatives were set in motion in Central Asia , the Caucasus , and the Balkans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a catalyst for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of six new Muslim republics in Central Asia , " reports the International Press Service . <p> Meanwhile , Islamic missionaries of the Wahhabi sect from Saudi Arabia had established themselves in the Muslim republics , as well as within the Russian federation encroaching upon the institutions of the secular state . Despite its anti-American ideology , Islamic fundamentalism was largely serving Washington 's strategic interests in the former Soviet Union . <p> Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989 , the civil war in Afghanistan continued unabated . The Taliban was being supported by the Pakistani Deobandis and its political party , the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Islam ( JUI ) . In 1993 , the JUI entered the government coalition of Prime Minister Benazzir Bhutto . Ties between the JUI , the army , and the ISI were established . In 1995 , with the downfall of the Hezb-I-Islami Hektmatyar government in Kabul , the Taliban not only instated a hardline Islamic government but , according to Ahmed Rashid , also handed control of training camps in Afghanistan over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support of the Saudi Wahhabi movements , played a key role in recruiting volunteers to fight in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union . Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that " half of Taliban manpower and equipment originates in Pakistan under the ISI . " <p> In fact , it would appear that , following the Soviet withdrawal , both sides in the Afghan civil war continued to receive covert CIA support through Pakistan 's ISI . In other words , backed by Pakistan 's military intelligence , which in turn was controlled by the CIA , the Taliban Islamic State was largely serving U.S. geopolitical interests . The Golden Crescent drug trade was also being used to finance and equip the Bosnian Muslim Army ( starting in the early 1990s ) and the Kosovo Liberation Army ( KLA ) . In recent months there is evidence that mujahideen mercenaries are fighting in the ranks of KLA-NLA terrorists in their assaults into Macedonia . <p> No doubt , this explains why , until recent events , Washington had mostly closed its eyes to the reign of terror imposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's rights , the closing down of schools for girls , the dismissal of women employees from government offices , and the enforcement of the Sharia laws of punishment . <p> With regard to Chechnya , the main rebels -- Shamil Basayev and Al Khattab -- were trained and indoctrinated in CIA-sponsored camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan . According to Yossef Bodansky , director of the U.S. Congress 's Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare , the conflict in Chechnya had been planned during a secret summit of HizbAllah International held in 1996 in Mogadishu , Somalia . The summit was attended by Osama bin Laden and high-ranking Iranian and Pakistani intelligence officers . According to Levon Sevunts in the October 26 , 1999 , Montreal Gazette , the involvement of Pakistan 's ISI in Chechnya " goes far beyond supplying the Chechens with weapons and expertise : the ISI and its radical Islamic proxies are actually calling the shots in this war . " <p> Russia 's main pipeline route transits through Chechnya and Dagestan . Despite Washington 's perfunctory condemnation of Islamic terrorism , the indirect beneficiaries of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are vying for control over oil resources and pipeline corridors out of the Caspian Sea basin . <p> The two main Chechen rebel armies -- estimated at 35,000 strong and led respectively by Commander Shamil Basayev and Emir Khattab -- were supported by Pakistan 's ISI , which also played a key role in organizing and training the Chechen rebel army . Sevunts writes that , in 1994 , <p> the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence arranged for Basayev and his trusted lieutenants to undergo intensive Islamic indoctrination and training in guerrilla warfare in the Khost province of Afghanistan at Amir Muawia camp , set up in the early 1980s by the CIA and ISI and run by famous Afghani warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar . In July 1994 , upon graduating from Amir Muawia , Basayev was transferred to Markaz-i-Dawar camp in Pakistan to undergo training in advanced guerrilla tactics . In Pakistan , Basayev met the highest ranking Pakistani military and intelligence officers : Minister of Defense General Aftab Shahban Mirani , Minister of Interior General Naserullah Babar , and the head of the ISI branch in charge of supporting Islamic causes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ High-level connections soon proved very useful to Basayev . <p> Following his training and indoctrination stint , Basayev was assigned to lead the assault against Russian federal troops in the first Chechen war in 1995 . His organization also developed extensive links to criminal syndicates in Moscow , as well as ties to Albanian organized crime and the Kosovo Liberation Army . In 1997 and 1998 , according to Russia 's Federal Security Service ( FSB ) , " Chechen warlords started buying up real estate in Kosovo ... through several real estate firms registered as a cover in Yugoslavia . " <p> Basayev 's organization has also been involved in a number of rackets including narcotics , illegal tapping and sabotage of Russia 's oil pipelines , kidnapping , prostitution , trade in counterfeit currency , and the smuggling of nuclear materials ( see " Mafia Linked to Albania 's Collapsed Pyramids " in the February 13 , 1997 , European , as well as the January 4-5 , 2000 , Itar-Tass ) . Alongside the extensive laundering of drug money , the proceeds of various illicit activities have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapons . <p> During his training in Afghanistan , Basayev linked up with Saudi-born veteran mujahideen commander Al Khattab , who had fought as a volunteer in Afghanistan . Barely a few months after Basayev 's return to Grozny , Khattab was invited in early 1995 to set up an army base in Chechnya for the training of mujahideen fighters . According to the BBC in September 1999 , Khattab 's posting to Chechnya had been " arranged through the Saudi-Arabian based International Islamic Relief Organisation , a militant religious organisation , funded by mosques and rich individuals which channeled funds into Chechnya . " <p> Since the Cold War era , Washington has consciously supported Osama bin Laden , while at the same time placing him on the FBI s ' most wanted list as the world s foremost terrorist . While the mujahideen are busy fighting the United States ' war in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union , the FBI -- operating as a U.S.-based police force -- is waging a domestic war against terrorism , operating in some respects independently of the CIA which has , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covert operations . <p> In a cruel irony , while the Islamic jihad -- featured by the Bush administration as " a threat to America " -- is blamed for the terrorist assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon , as well as the hijacking of the fourth plane downed in Pennsylvania , these same Islamic organizations constitute a key instrument of U.S. military-intelligence operations in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union . <p> In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11 , the truth must prevail to prevent the Bush administration , together with its " coalition " partners , from expanding on a military adventure that threatens the future of humanity . <p> By Michael Chossudovsky <p> <p> Michel Chossudovsky is a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa , Canada , and director of the Centre for Research and Globalisation . This article is adapted with permission from his Web posting at **34;550;TOOLONG html . <p> 
##4000972 To terrorists and their sympathizers worldwide , the World Trade Center symbolized W the global nature of corporate money and power -- a seemingly neverending expansion of capitalism , siphoning funds and resources from people everywhere and fostering gaps in wealth the likes of which the world has never before seen . The Pentagon symbolizes the U.S. military 's protection and enforcement of this global system . Because much of the resulting poverty and suffering exist in the Muslim world , Osama bin Laden has had less difficulty recruiting his minions . The resultant widespread discontent fuels terrorism -- a reality brought home to the developed world on September 11 , 2001 . <p> Fortunately , there is another movement growing alongside those of global capitalism and terrorism . This movement -- the anti-global-capitalism movement that awakened in Seattle in November 1999 -- unlike violent terrorism , should n't be viewed as a threat to the majority of the global village . Rather , this rapid mobilization should be welcomed and encouraged . For the ultimate threat to humanity is economic globalism . <p> Today 's globalism and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think and act in terms of human consequences . This globalism has bullied and seeped its way into every nook of humanity , and the results are scary : loss of democracy , human rights violations , rapid environmental degradation , expanding inequality . The anti-global-capitalism movement is n't afraid of globalization ( it is itself a global phenomenon ) ; rather , it fears globalization as designated according to the imperialistic goals of a few rich people . The aim of the growing unrest -- from Seattle to Washington , D.C. , to Quebec City to Genoa and beyond -- is to shift the focus of globalization to benefit all of humanity . New World Order = Old World Order <p> The brand of globalization being pursued by the financial and trade institutions ( Inter national Monetary Fund , World Bank , World Trade Organization ) that has become the target of mass protest continues a centuries-old trend of colonialism in the developing world that supposedly ended in the twentieth century . When oppressed natives forced European countries , depleted by the devastation of two world wars , out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of outdated human rights abuses such as slavery , theft of resources , and genocide . The Old World Order gave way to the New World Order . <p> Unfortunately , the greed that was the impetus of brutal imperialism never left us . Thanks to decisions made by the financial elite behind closed doors , the New World Order mirrors the cycle of the Old World Order . Forced labor has given way to sweatshop labor . Military uniforms have been replaced ( usually ) by fancy Italian suits and cell phones . Resource extraction has expanded , as the conquistadors ' search for gold today includes oil , timber , rubber , and even fresh water . Instead of the churches of yesterday 's brand of imperialism , now McDonald 's and Starbucks assimilate the savages . Genocide persists as indigenous peoples across the globe fight to survive . In an even more troubling trend , inequality is reaching heights never achieved during the Old World Order . Do n't Believe the Elite <p> In order to understand the movement , it 's necessary to decode " elite speak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representing the ultra-elite five corporations that own the national media in the United States , have yet to generate critical analysis of the movement surrounding these huge protests . The New York Times ' Thomas Friedman , in typical fashion , dismissed an issue , which sparked fire in the bellies of millions , when he wrote , " To be against globalization is to be against so many things -- from cell phones to trade to Big Macs -- that it connotes nothing . " What he was really saying is : " Do n't mess with a good thing . Myself , my friends , my coworkers , and especially my bosses profit tremendously from the current system . " <p> We must also ignore the " wisdom " of our so-called elected leaders . During every meeting of world leaders , behind huge police barricades , George W. Bush ( or Bill Clinton ) addressed the media with these words , " To be against free trade is to be against poor people . " The elite British publication the Economist continually echoes these sentiments . In an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the worst scenario for the world 's poor would be if the protesters had their way and the process of corporate-controlled globalization was stopped . Due to the United States ' lack of access to independent voices in this prolonged era of media consolidation , it is no wonder most Americans do n't understand the movement . And yet it continues to grow . The Washington Consensus <p> The United States is the sole superpower in the world and thus enjoys undue influence on the global village 's economic and political aspirations . This influence has a name : the Washington Consensus . Washington , D.C. , has the necessary tools at its disposal to ensure that policies will be in place worldwide to benefit the interests of its constituents . Anyone familiar with the role of money in U.S. politics understands that the constituents of our political system are n't average , ordinary citizens . The United States government primarily works for corporate interests . Primary shareholders and CEOs have the ear of almost all national politicians and the economists of the international financial institutions . WTO : Democracy 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of three men , appointed by the richest countries in the world . It 's the arm of the Washington Consensus that controls trade in the world . While its stated aim is to allow trade to exist sans artificial barriers , the WTO ensures that " free trade " will benefit corporate interests . A casual examination of its record will horrify anyone who believes in the advantages of democracy . <p> A country that joins the WTO must abide by the rulings of the tribunal or face severe economic punishment . This allows the Washington Consensus to breach the sanctity of another nation 's domestic policy . For example , a vast majority of Europeans are against genetically modified ( GM ) foods . They are primarily worried about the health and safety implications , as genetically altered products are introduced to the market without proper testing . The effects of a large number of GM foods are unknown . Also , European small farmers are anti-GM because U.S. corporations ( Monsanto being the largest and most ominous ) are establishing a monopoly on the product and driving many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States have already suffered the effects of these monopoly conditions , as the small American farm is almost nonexistent . <p> The European Union , unable to ignore the clamor of the people , created laws making it exceedingly difficult for GM foods to find a successful niche in the marketplace . In Europe , GM foods must be labeled as such -- a measure that has been fought tooth and nail in the United States . The United States took its case to the WTO on behalf of its constituents ( like Monsanto ) , and the WTO ruled that Europe had created a barrier to free trade : Europe either had to capitulate or pay exorbitant fines . European countries , being less financially strapped than most , agreed to pay the fines rather than outrage the masses . Less fortunate countries do n't enjoy that luxury . <p> Within South Africa lives the largest population of AIDS victims in the world . In a country as poor as South Africa , AIDS medicine is far too expensive . While U.S. AIDS patients ( those lucky enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and living longer lives thanks to a combination of expensive drugs now available , South Africans continue to be ravaged by the epidemic . These drugs , trademarked by U.S. pharmaceutical companies but developed thanks to public subsidies , cost more than the average South African is able to earn in a week . For years , the pharmaceutical companies did n't lower prices due to concerns that the drugs would be illegally imported via the black market back to the United States , rupturing their hold on the U.S. market . In the meantime , millions died of the disease throughout Africa . <p> In 1995 , then-president of South Africa Nelson Mandela legalized the generic reproduction of these drugs . Al Gore , the U.S. vice-president at the time and a recipient of huge campaign contributions from pharmaceutical interests , took the matter to the WTO , which predictably ruled in favor of the United States and the pharmaceutical corporations . It was n't until 1999 , thanks to worldwide public outcry , that the WTO overturned its decision . Who knows how many lives could have been saved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the victim of WTO rulings , as well . The state of Massachusetts , following the lead of many towns and counties nationwide , voted to stop doing business with the brutal military dictatorship of Myanmar ( Burma ) . Any corporation using Burmese labor or resources was n't allowed to sell its goods in the state of Massachusetts . This is an example of voter activism that has gained momentum in the last few years . <p> Japan , however , on behalf of Mitsubishi , Toyota , and other corporations , threatened to take the issue to the WTO . The European Union , conveniently forgetting its sovereignty issues with GM foods , followed the Japanese lead . U.S. state and local governments are unable to defend themselves against WTO policy , so Massachusetts was forced to rely on the Clinton administration . Since Clinton was the quintessential big business president , the Massachusetts law was doomed . The National Foreign Trade Council ( fronting a group of major corporations ) has taken Massachusetts to federal court , making it an issue of state versus federal powers . If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it will be hollow . Clinton or Bush ( or Gore , for that matter ) is not an issue here -- all of them side with the WTO and its corporate interests . <p> The quality of the environment is also at risk . The United States ' Clean Air Act -- intended to ban the use of gasoline that releases too many pollutants into the air -- is no longer valid . Venezuela , a major oil and gas producing country , took the United States to the WTO . It seems the Clean Air Act was a trade barrier , unfairly discriminating against Venezuelan gas that did n't meet U.S. standards . The WTO ruled in favor of Venezuela and against clean air . Gas that is less safe and more toxic is now allowed to be pumped into our millions of cars . <p> Species of the world must also be aware of economic globalism and its tools . The Endangered Species Act prohibits the sale in the United States of fish which have been caught in nets that do n't allow for the release of endangered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Malaysia , and the Philippines -- homes to many fishing companies that have yet to invest in the more expensive , safe nets -- took the case to the WTO , which ruled in favor of fishing interests . Keeping sea turtles alive is a barrier to free trade . At the WTO Seattle protests , many of the environmental activists dressed in sea turtle costumes -- they were the only sea turtles with a voice . IMF and World Bank : Financing Destruction <p> If the WTO is economic globalism 's tool to ensure that trade goes according to plan , then the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are the strong arms of finance that benefit the global elite . These two institutions have two major functions : create a risk-free environment for predatory , speculative financing and open world markets to investors . The IMF and World Bank are part of the Bretton Woods system established in 1944 to devise rules of investment in the postwar era . One priority was to limit and control the movement of capital , understanding that unregulated flow of money across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Bretton Woods was dismantled by the Nixon administration in the early 1970s . Before this , most capital flowed in order to benefit economic growth and development . Now it is estimated that 95 percent of capital is speculative , which results in quick returns for the investors and dangerous instability for markets worldwide . This instability led to the Asian crisis of the late 1990s , the near collapse of the Mexican economy , and market volatility in the wake of the terrorist attacks . <p> The huge amounts of money that are lost by lending institutions when an economy crashes are then subsidized . The private banks that lent billions in unwise speculative loans to Asian countries prior to the collapse were operating risk free . The IMF and World Bank loaned the crisis-stricken countries huge amounts of money ( generated from the taxes of the rich countries ) at very high interest rates , insisting private bank repayment be their first priority . The poor people of the poor countries must then bear the brunt of repaying these loans . Taxes are raised and austerity measures are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extracted from poor country to rich country . Your Domestic is Our Policy <p> Austerity measures are how the Washington Consensus ensures that the domestic policy of other countries measures up to the needs of foreign investors . Social programs , such as health care and public education , are dismantled so taxes can be funneled into repaying the debt . The indebted countries are then forced to privatize their public resources . Energy is deregulated at a cost that makes the California crisis laughable . Communal property , including farmland , is sold to corporations . Exporting agriculture then becomes the number one priority . <p> In Brazil , for example , almost the entire country 's fertile soil was sold to corporate agribusiness . Now much of the land is used to raise cattle that are exported to the North American fast food culture . The Brazilian people , deprived of their land , either wind up in huge , overcrowded slums in cities like Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro or they penetrate further and further into the rainforest , destroying the delicate natural ecosystem . It is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ include forcing indebted countries to rid themselves of pesky labor laws . This is how horrible conditions in modern-day sweatshops are allowed to exist . In the neverending race to the bottom , companies such as Nike and the Gap search for factory locations where they can pay the least possible wages and where unions are n't allowed to exist . In the process , the manufacturing base in the United States is destroyed . As reported in the Washington Post , most of the record one million people added to the ranks of the unemployed in the United States during August 2001 were from the manufacturing industry . This race to the bottom is increasing rates of inequality like never before . Even the Economist , which ironically touted the course of globalization , recently admitted that inequality has skyrocketed in the past decade . Of course , it also attempted to argue that inequality does n't matter . <p> For those of us who believe issues of economic equality do matter , the lending policies of the World Bank and IMF are immoral , not to mention illegal . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cancelled -- a major argument of many in the anti-global-capitalism movement . One could argue that , beyond debt cancellation , those who profit due to this immoral system should pay reparations . The theft of land and labor should be a punishable offense . Awareness and Responsibility <p> While the anti-global-capitalism movement continues to grow , most U.S. citizens remain tragically unaware . The story is different in many of the poorer countries . Despite a general lack of power , citizens groups throughout the developing world are standing up to the dangerous effects of economic globalism . In India , indigenous communities have successfully denied IMF dam projects that threatened to displace thousands . In Bolivia , there have been huge citywide strikes ; earlier this year , the capital , La Paz , was shut down by a general strike protesting the high cost of living and the displacement of indigenous communities due to IMF projects . <p> Water has also become a huge issue . On April 8 , 2000 , citywide protests shut down Bolivia 's third largest city , Cochabamba . People were protesting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the increase of the cost of water beyond what the typical Bolivian could afford . <p> U.S. groups , such as San Francisco 's Global Exchange , are getting people from developing world countries together with concerned Americans , creating what they call " people-to-people ties . " The awareness created is beneficial . Those involved in the movement in the developing world , when asked how people in the United States can help their cause , repeatedly reply , " Change your country . " Change in the United States -- something its citizens can control -- would be the greatest benefit to those feeling the consequences of economic globalism ; after all , it is the United States that is leading the charge of the all-consuming corporate globalization . This is something Americans could previously ignore . In light of September 11 , this does n't seem to be the case anymore . <p> The more people become aware of the issues , the more progress is made toward the eventual goal of eliminating the dehumanizing and wasteful reign of global capitalism . In this regard , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever-increasing global awareness . <p> People who search for a single solution to the challenges of economic globalism will be disappointed with the overall anti-global-capitalism movement . The most zing aspect of it is the diversity of ideas it stimulates . But there are some common goals . Real , participatory democracy is an aim of everyone involved . It is assumed within the movement that people know best how to shape their own economic and political institutions -- not the capitalists whose priorities are to increase profit at any cost . Localism is a huge facet of the movement ( explaining the reemerging success of farmers ' markets ) . The microbrewery mission statement sums up this intent : " Think globally , drink locally . " <p> While decentralization of the global financial institutions is one goal of the anti-global-capitalism movement , globalization of ideas can be extremely beneficial . The movement 's most significant victory was undermining the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment ( MAI ) , a multinational agreement that would have given investors even more power over government . This success is owed to a huge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Internet . <p> Most in the anti-global-capitalism movement believe that to measure economies solely according to resource and monetary accumulation is anti-human . Quality-of-life indicators are becoming a part of the global discussion -- another success credited to the movement . Rather than measure the success of an economy according to gross domestic product ( which includes , among other anti-human measurements , the cost of weapons building and pollution cleanup expenses ) , quality-of-life indicators measure an economy by how well the people are doing . These take into account infant mortality rates , hunger rates , literacy rates , and the like . Redefining the world according to people , not profit , is the ultimate objective . <p> As the United States scrambles to punish the perpetrators of terrorism within its borders , the anti-global-capitalism movement will need to up the ante . It ca n't let violence define a worldwide mobilization to end the brutality of the current economic system . It also ca n't let governments mistake protesters for terrorists in the almost certain crackdown on civil liberties . There is a huge difference between terrorism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ main perpetrator , the United States . However , the anti-global-capitalism movement seeks to create a world that does n't feel so powerless that it resorts to terror -- neither the terror witnessed in New York City and Washington this past September nor the state-sponsored terror the United States uses to promote global capitalism . <p> By Andrew Hartman <p> <p> Andrew Hartman is a gradute student of history at George Washington University in Washington , D.C. A freelance writer , his articles have appeared in the Humanist and Clamor magazine . <p> 
##4000973 Section : the ghosts of war <p> An autumn chill settled grey and dreary over he harbor as water churned between the U.S.S. Leonard Wood and its ratty old pier . New York City 's spires jutted from misty shrouds as wind sliced into the matching cap and coat Mom had bundled me in that morning . Then , while our ocean liner 's bow cut through the bay , gulls circling its stern screeched warily at a blast from the ship 's horn . Looking back , it was a lonely , ominous sound . <p> Our first night out , the ship plunged through foaming Atlantic swells that sent Mom to bed with what she called " terminal mal de mer , " but dawn broke on a tranquil ocean and balmy skies . After entering the Panama Canal , my father , a U.S. Army doctor with orders to the Philippines , took us on a shopping spree in Cristobal . I got a toy gun , and Mom picked a Chinese rug from a rack that soared to the shop 's ceiling like in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rug around a wooden peg then had it stowed in our cabin ; but when the sun struck our porthole just right , I would peel back its fringes and the deep blue nap glistened as if it had been kissed by a morning dew . At last it was unrolled in our new house on a sunny street bordering the parade ground , two blocks from Wheeler Field , but I digress . <p> While the Leonard Wood 's wake melted into a slate green Pacific , its wireless operator translated the dashes and dots of a communique to my father from the War Department . Did we know it was a reprieve , a call from the governor 's office to our executioner ? Not then , but our destination had been changed from Manila to Honolulu , Hawaii . If that spinning ball had n't dropped into just the right slot , my children would never have been born . <p> What followed our arrival in Hawaii were breezes perfumed by fragrant tropical flowers , tasty avocados falling from a tree in our front yard , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ read to me from A. A. Milne 's Pooh Bear series , and I would tag along some golf course with my father and Maxy . <p> We still had horse soldiers in those days . Major Maxy Noble , a West Pointer , cavalry officer , and my father 's best friend , would drop by our house for " one " beer , then he and Dad would spend lazy afternoons in the backyard , swapping lies and cussing Franklin Delano Roosevelt . But every time he knocked on our lanai 's screen door , Maxy gleamed and glittered . A saber dangled from his left hip and silver spurs spun on cavalry boots that held a spit-shine like I 've never seen since . A Sam Browne belt 's diagonal strap ran across his chest to disappear under a khaki epaulet . But mostly it was the hat . Its leather noose rose jauntily from just below his dimple , hugging square jaws up to a wide brim with a dome circled by gold braid and tassels on its front . Shazzam ! He was Captain Marvel , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> A pat on the head from this swashbuckler would be enough for most pre-TV preschoolers , but it got better , much better . I told you there was a parade ground across our street . The U.S. Cavalry drilled there ; twice a month Maxy would lead three columns of mounted , steely-eyed soldiers to " troop the line . " Awestruck , I squatted on a curb with the neighborhood kids , waiting for him to spur his steed toward us , then with practiced dexterity he 'd reach down and I 'd vault into space . Straddling his charger I 'd clasp that Sam Browne belt while we cantered to a reviewing stand amid pennants popping in tropical breezes . A metallic whisper of steel and sunlight glinting on his saber was a prelude to his crisp command , " Eyyyes , RIGHT ! " His blade would flash , tip freezing at a perfect forty-five-degree angle to the ground quivering with hoofbeats , and every head in the trailing columns snapped right . After the last trooper cleared the reviewing stand , Maxy would wheel his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me to the peanut gallery . His horse would slow when we approached my pals , and Maxy would lower me into a sprint , usually resulting in an end-over-end tumble . But I 'd rise like a victorious phoenix ; these kids were now my troopers ! <p> Then the long shadow fell across my world : Maxy and his band were ordered to Manila . I wept when he left because the elegance of our island dissolved like wisps of rising smoke . Even though other people inhabited my life , Maxy Noble was gone . <p> Under the avocado tree , if I faced our front door , the Momms lived on our left . Captain Momm , a signal officer , was built like a tank : short , wide , and with a nose like a cannon . His wife Anna , lithe and stately , saw darker visions that I yet understood . My mother said her parents were white Russians and that during the revolution there a Red Army firing squad had forced her to watch their execution . No wonder her smile seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to our right . I do n't remember his name or rank , but she and her daughter have tugged at my memory for six decades . Jewell and Billie Jewell . On weekends , if I got up early enough , Jewell Walker served fluffy pancakes or magic waffles , dripping in Log Cabin syrup , with crispy bacon as an extra . Sometimes Billie Jewell -- a worldly , older woman of twelve , with glowing cheeks and honey-colored hair -- would attend . I adored her . <p> A couple of months after Maxy sailed , Miz Walker took me to a circus and , when we got home , Adams was there ; that meant my parents were going out . Adams was an orderly at my father 's dispensary and had this marvelous scar on the back of his right hand where a tattoo had been removed . As my parents drove away in our grey 1938 Olds , a swooping fighter plane rattled the rafters -- no rare occurrence , since our house had been built in Wheeler Field 's flight path . Adams fed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and was telling me about his scar for the zillionth time as I fell asleep , not knowing or caring that the next day 's dawn would change history . <p> BOOM ! When I leapt from bed , sunshine sparkled n rattling panes . BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! " Pat ! " Mom screamed . " Did a plane hit the house ? " <p> My father looked out the bathroom window . " Plane hell , " he yelled . " It 's the god-damned Japs ! " <p> By this time , I was in Mom 's bed . " Everybody downstairs , " Dad ordered . " Hurry ! " Our stairwell featured a tall window facing Wheeler Field , where the Army Air Corps had fighter squadrons . " They 'll make short work of these bastards , " Dad snarled . But as we clattered down our stairs , the window , sill to sill and side to side , showed only billowing black smoke lined with flashes of orange . Dad pushed us into an alcove under the stairs , tried @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radio . An announcer 's excited voice confirmed that Hickam and Wheeler Fields were under attack , as was Pearl Harbor . When Dad returned to the stairwell , he wore a braided cap . " There 'll be a lot of wounded boys , Helen . " <p> " You ca n't leave ! " Mom wailed . But he did . On foot . Dodging and weaving between buildings all the way to the hospital -- if he 'd taken our Olds , Japanese bullets would have riddled him . Minutes later , Jewell and Billie Jewell bounded across the backyard and pounded on our kitchen door . Mom let them in , then calmly set her coffee pot on a burner to heat . <p> The bombs were closer now . And louder . They really whistle on the way down , you know , and their explosions rattled our house like earthquakes . The radio reported that ships were blazing in the harbor and columns of smoke were drifting over the airfields . Then suddenly our lanai door banged and Anna Momm , eyes flashing like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When she yanked our couch away from the wall and scrambled behind it on all fours , Mom shrugged , then Jewell followed her into the kitchen . Billie Jewell was crying in the alcove under the stairs when I jumped onto the couch and peeked over its back ; Anna was curled up , sobbing and shaking so hard I was afraid she 'd shatter . <p> As I ran for the kitchen to tell Mom , the roar of a plane shook our walls ; she was carrying her coffee pot .... The howling engine became chattering machine gunfire ! A window over our sink exploded into spraying glass and wood , knocking the pot from her hand and slamming it against a wall as Jewell 's screams ricocheted through the plane 's exhaust fumes . <p> The rest of the morning we huddled in our living room , listening to a radio tell us to boil the water we cooked with or drank , and reporting death and casualty counts . Bombs still whistled , sometimes closer , sometimes more distant . A house up the street was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desperate moans from behind the couch . With childish bravado , I found my toy gun which fired small corks , then watched patiently from a window for planes emblazoned with red circles , but my corks would n't reach . If only Maxy .... <p> That afternoon my father returned with two gas masks -- I spied them when he walked in . They were grotesque : bluish-grey rubber with black hoses and round glass eyes staring vacantly . He was trying to fit one on me when Mom asked how he 'd gotten them . He said they had belonged to soldiers who had been killed that morning . Blood pounding , I fled , but he told Mom to do it because there could be an invasion that night . When he returned to the dispensary I wondered if I 'd ever see this aloof , pensive man again . <p> Fouled by smoke and flame , twilight glimmered across my tropical paradise while large army trucks , covered from cab to tailgate by arched brown canvas , lumbered down our street . They stopped for grim-jawed military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ block , and when our time came an MP lifted me into the truck ; shadowy specters loomed under its canvas so I snuggled next to the cab , shivering against its cool metal . Finally , at the main thoroughfare , our truck joined a convoy and the MP told us we were being taken to an abandoned schoolhouse in the mountains . It was dark now , and after awhile I noticed a strange orange flicker on the canvas , then a wisp of wind caught its flap , blowing it back from the cab . In that instant I saw what our priest once described at mass as a flaming hell . <p> Pearl Harbor was on fire ! Dark superstructures swayed gently on a flame-laced tapestry while other vessels , listing severely , had cables running to less damaged ships . That was the United States ' smoldering Pacific fleet ! And the water was burning ! The truck flap dropped quickly but its revealed vision had seared my brain . It is what " Remember Pearl Harbor ! " still means to me . <p> We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American clipper for San Francisco . During the flight , I watched two officers with stars gleaming on their shoulders , particularly the one crying . Years later I learned who General Short and Admiral Kimmel were : the army and navy 's ranking Hawaiian officers . Kimmel 's tears must have been about what history now considers the unfair , fingerpointing allegations the men would face at the end of their journey . <p> I 've often wondered about the Momms . Did that aristocratic woman ever recover from two of the twentieth century 's versions of politics run amuck ? And I hope Adams survived to have children who pestered him , as I had , about his scar . I thought about the Walkers -- particularly Billie Jewell . Incredibly , I spotted her in a San Francisco department store and bolted from Mom 's side . She was mad until she saw Jewell . They hugged , then cried , then we took the same taxi and Billie Jewell sang along with the songs on the radio -- she was very sophisticated . They dropped us at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arkansas . I wish I could see them all once again . <p> Mom waited until after the war to disclose Maxy 's fate , and at the risk of political incorrectness , I 'll share it with you . The Imperial Japanese Army captured him when the Philippines fell . He obviously irritated some savage among that infamous horde , because he was lashed to a tree , facing the sun , then his eyelids were sliced off . After he went blind , they cut him down and decapitated him . The bastards . <p> Many of that war 's heros now sleep in eternal repose , but it 's said they once bore witness to the passing of our nation 's innocence . Some gallantly paid the full measure so that my children and your children might see and smell and touch this place and time . Now in night 's nestling silence , I still dream of a tropical sunset with palm trees filtering that last glow of a long forgotten sky . Silver taps , echoed mournfully by a ghostly bugler , drift across a flag-draped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crowd to salute Maxy and his comrades all . Then if you listen very , very closely , " Eyyyes , RIGHT ! " whispers from the universe . <p> By Ralph Patterson <p> <p> Ralph Patterson , an attorney from North Little Rock , Arkansas , and a freelance writer , has smelled the gunpowder of courtrooms for over three decades and served three terms in the Arkansas state senate . <p> 
##4000974 Hermina Morita has a grand vision for Hawaii 's energy future . A state representative , Morita chairs a legislative committee to reduce Hawaii 's dependence on oil , which accounts for 88 percent of its energy and is mainly imported on tankers from Asia and Alaska . In April 2001 , the committee approved a $200,000 " jumpstart " grant to support a public/private partnership in hydrogen research and development , tapping the island state 's plentiful geothermal , solar , and wind resources to split water and produce hydrogen for use in fuel cells to power buses and cars , homes and businesses , and military and fishing fleets . <p> The grant grew out of a consultant study suggesting that hydrogen could become widely cost-effective in Hawaii this decade . The University of Hawaii , meanwhile , has received $2 million from the U.S. Department of Defense for a fuel cell project . Possibilities include Hawaii becoming a mid-Pacific refueling point , shipping its own hydrogen to Oceania , other states , and Japan . Instead of importing energy , Morita told a San Francisco @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be capable of producing more hydrogen than we need , so we can send the excess to California . " <p> Leaders of the tiny South Pacific island of Vanuatu have similar aspirations . In September 2000 , President John Bani appealed to international donors and energy experts to help prepare a feasibility study for developing a hydrogen-based renewable energy economy . The economically depressed and climactically vulnerable island , which spends nearly as much money on petroleum-based products as it receives from all of its exports , hopes to become 100 percent renewable-energy-based by 2020 . Like Hawaii , it has abundant geothermal and solar energy , which can be used to make hydrogen . And like Hawaii , it hopes to become an exporter , providing energy to neighboring islands . " As part of the hydrogen power and renewable energy initiative we will strive to provide electricity to every village in Vanuatu , " the government announced in its October 5 , 2000 , issue of Environment News Service . <p> Hawaii and Vanuatu are following the lead of yet another island , Iceland , which amazed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world 's first hydrogen society . Iceland , which spent $185 million -- a quarter of its trade deficit-on oil imports in 2000 , has joined forces with Shell Hydrogen , DaimlerChrysler , and Norsk Hydro in a multimillion-dollar initiative to convert the island 's buses , cars , and boats to hydrogen and fuel cells over the next thirty to forty years . The brainchild of a chemist named Bragi Arnason and nicknamed " Professor Hydrogen , " the project will begin in the capital of Reykjavik , with the city 's bus fleet drawing on hydrogen from a nearby fertilizer plant and later refilling from a station that produces hydrogen on site from abundant supplies of geothermal and hydroelectric energy -- which furnish 99 percent of Iceland 's power . If the project is successful , the island hopes to become a " Kuwait of the North , " exporting hydrogen to Europe and other countries . " Iceland is already a world leader in using renewable energy , " announced Thorsteinn Sigfusson , chair of the venture , in March 2001 , adding that the bus project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's first hydrogen economy . " <p> Jules Verne would be pleased -- though not surprised -- to see his vision of a planet powered by hydrogen unfolding in this way . After all , it was in an 1874 book entitled The Mysterious Island that Verne first sketched a world in which water -- and the hydrogen that , along with oxygen , composed it -- would be " the coal of the future . " A century and a quarter later , the idea of using hydrogen -- the simplest , lightest , and most abundant element in the universe -- as a primary form of energy is beginning to move from the pages of science fiction and into speeches of industry executives . " Greenery , innovation , and market forces are shaping the future of our industry and propelling us inexorably toward hydrogen energy , " Texaco executive Frank Ingriselli explained in April 2001 to members of the Science Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives . " Those who do n't pursue it , will rue it . " <p> Indeed , several converging forces explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advent of greater competition in the energy industry are part of the equation . But equally important motivations for exploring hydrogen are the energy-related problems of energy security , air pollution , and climate change -- problems that are collectively calling into question the fundamental sustainability of the current energy system . These factors reveal why islands , stationed on the front lines of vulnerability to high oil prices and climate change , are in the vanguard of the hydrogen transition . <p> Yet Iceland and other nations represent just the bare beginning in terms of the changes that lie ahead in the energy world . The commercial implications of a transition to hydrogen as the world 's major energy currency will be staggering , putting the $2 trillion energy industry through its greatest tumult since the early days of Standard Oil and Rockefeller . Over 100 companies are aiming to commercialize fuel cells for a broad range of applications -- from cell phones , laptop computers , and soda machines to homes , offices , and factories to vehicles of all kinds . Hydrogen is also being researched for direct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are spending between $500 million and $1 billion annually on hydrogen . Leading energy suppliers are creating hydrogen divisions , while major carmakers are pouring billions of dollars into a race to put the first fuel cell vehicles on the market between 2003 and 2005 . In California , twenty-three auto , fuel , and fuel cell companies and seven government agencies are partnering to fuel and test drive seventy cars and buses over the next few years . Hydrogen and fuel cell companies have captured the attention of venture capitalist firms and investment banks anxious to get into the hot new space known as ET , or energy technology . <p> The geopolitical implications of hydrogen are enormous as well . Coal fueled the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rise of Great Britain and modern Germany ; in the twentieth century , oil laid the foundation for the United States ' unprecedented economic and military power . Today 's U.S. superpower status , in turn , may eventually be eclipsed by countries that harness hydrogen as aggressively as the United States tapped oil a century ago . Countries that focus their efforts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left behind in the rush for tomorrow 's prize . As Don Huberts , chief executive officer of Shell Hydrogen , has noted : " The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones , and the oil age will not end because we run out of oil . " Access to geographically concentrated petroleum has also influenced world wars , the 1991 Persian Gulf War , and relations between and among Western economies , the Middle East , and the developing world . Shifting to the plentiful , more dispersed hydrogen could alter the power balances among energy-producing and energy-consuming nations , possibly turning today 's importers into tomorrow 's exporters . <p> The most important consequence of a hydrogen economy may be the replacement of the twentieth-century " hydrocarbon society " with something far better . Twentieth-century humans used ten times as much energy as their ancestors had in the thousand years preceding 1900 . This increase was enabled primarily by fossil fuels , which account for 90 percent of energy worldwide . Global energy consumption is projected to rise by close to 60 percent over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are projected to increase by approximately 30 and 40 percent , respectively . <p> Most of the future growth in energy is expected to take place in transportation , where motorization continues to rise and where petroleum is the dominant fuel , accounting for 95 percent of the total . Failure to develop alternatives to oil would heighten growing reliance on oil imports , raising the risk of political and military conflict and economic disruption . In industrial nations , the share of imports in overall oil demand would rise from roughly 56 percent today to 72 percent by 2010 . Coal , meanwhile , is projected to maintain its grip on more than half the world 's power supply . Continued rises in coal and oil use would exacerbate urban air problems in industrialized cities that still exceed air pollution health standards and in megacities such as Delhi , Beijing , and Mexico City , which experience thousands of pollution-related deaths each year . And prolonging petroleum and coal reliance in transportation and electricity would increase annual global carbon emissions from 6.1 to 9.8 billion tons by 2020 , accelerating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , coastal flooding , and loss of small islands ; extreme weather events ; reduced agricultural productivity and water availability ; and the loss of biodiversity . <p> Hydrogen can not , on its own , entirely solve each of these complex problems , which are affected not only by fuel supply but also by such factors as population , over- and underconsumption , sprawl , congestion , and vehicle dependence . But hydrogen could provide a major hedge against these risks . By enabling the spread of appliances , more decentralized " micropower " plants , and vehicles based on efficient fuel cells , whose only byproduct is water , hydrogen would dramatically cut emissions of particulates , carbon monoxide , sulfur and nitrogen oxides , and other local air pollutants . By providing a secure and abundant domestic supply of fuel , hydrogen would significantly reduce oil import requirements , providing the energy independence and security that many nations crave . <p> Hydrogen would , in addition , facilitate the transition from limited nonrenewable stocks of fossil fuels to unlimited flows of renewable sources , playing an essential role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needed to avoid the most severe effects of climate change . According to the World Energy Assessment , released in 2000 by several United Nations agencies and the World Energy Council , which emphasizes " the strategic importance of hydrogen as an energy carrier , " the accelerated replacement of oil and other fossil fuels with hydrogen could help achieve " deep reductions " in carbon emissions and avoid a doubling of preindustrial carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere -- a level at which scientists expect major , and potentially irreversible , ecological and economic disruptions . Hydrogen fuel cells could also help address global energy inequities -- providing fuel and power and spurring employment and exports in the rural regions of the developing world , where nearly two billion people lack access to modern energy services . <p> Despite these potential benefits , and despite early movement toward a hydrogen economy , its full realization faces an array of technical and economic obstacles . Hydrogen has yet o be piped into the mainstream of the energy policies and strategies of governments and businesses , which tend to aim at preserving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy , and its emphasis on expanding fossil fuel production , serving as the most recent example of this mindset . In the energy sector 's equivalent of U.S. political campaign finance , market structures have long been tilted toward fossil fuel production . Subsidies to these energy sources -- in the form of direct supports and the " external " costs of pollution -- are estimated at roughly $300 billion annually . <p> The perverse signals in today 's energy market , which lead to artificially low fossil fuel prices and encourage the production and use of those fuels , make it difficult for hydrogen and fuel cells -- whose production , delivery , and storage costs are improving but look high under such circumstances -- to compete with the entrenched gasoline-run internal combustion engines and coal-fired power plants . This skewed market could push the broad availability of fuel cell vehicles and power plants a decade or more into the future . Unless the antiquated rules of the energy economy -- aimed at keeping hydrocarbon production cheap by shifting the cost to consumers and the environment -- are reformed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> One of the most significant obstacles to realizing the full promise of hydrogen is the prevailing perception that a full-fledged hydrogen infrastructure -- the system for producing , storing , and delivering the gas -- would immediately cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build , far more than a system based on liquid fuels such as gasoline or methanol . As a result , auto and energy companies are investing millions of dollars in the development of reformer and vehicle technologies that would derive and use hydrogen from these liquids , keeping the current petroleum-based infrastructure intact . <p> This incremental path -- continuing to rely on the dirtier , less secure fossil fuels as a bridge to the new energy system-represents a costly wrong turn , both financially and environmentally . Should manufacturers " lock in " to mass-producing inferior fuel cell vehicles just as a hydrogen infrastructure approaches viability , trillions of dollars worth of assets could be wasted . Furthermore , by perpetuating petroleum consumption and import dependence and the excess emission of air pollutants and greenhouse gases , this route would deprive society of numerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes from fossil fuels . Over the long run , this proportion needs to be shifted toward renewable sources , not maintained , for hydrogen production to be sustainable . <p> In the past several years , a number of scientists have openly challenged the conventional wisdom of the incremental path . Their research suggests that the direct use of hydrogen is , in fact , the quickest and least costly route -- for the consumer and the environment -- toward a hydrogen infrastructure . Their studies point to an alternative pathway that would initially use the existing infrastructure for natural gas -- the cleanest fossil fuel and the fastest growing in terms of use -- and employ fuel cells in niche applications to bring down their costs to competitive levels , spurring added hydrogen infrastructure investment . As the costs of producing hydrogen from renewable energy fell , meanwhile , hydrogen would evolve into the major source of storage for the limitless but intermittent flows of the sun , wind , tides , and Earth 's heat . The end result would be a clean , natural hydrogen cycle , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hydrogen , with the latter used in fuel cells to produce electricity and water -- which then would be available to repeat the process . <p> There are no major technical obstacles to the alternative path to hydrogen . As one researcher has put it , " If we really decided that we wanted a clean hydrogen economy , we could have it by 2010 . " But the political and institutional barriers are formidable . Both government and industry have devoted far more resources to the gasoline- and methanol-based route than to the direct hydrogen path . Hydrogen receives a fraction of the research funding that is allocated to coal , oil , nuclear , and other mature , commercial energy sources . Within energy companies , the hydrocarbon side of the business argues that oil will be dominant for decades to come , even as other divisions prepare for its successors . And very little has been done to educate people about the properties and safety of hydrogen , even though public acceptance -- or lack thereof -- will in the end make or break the hydrogen future . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more secure path to hydrogen point to an essential -- and little recognized -- role for government . Indeed , without aggressive energy and environmental policies , the hydrogen economy is likely to emerge along the more incremental path , and at a pace that is inadequate for dealing with the range of challenges posed by the incumbent energy system . Neither market forces nor government flat will , in isolation , move us down the more direct , more difficult route . The challenge is for government to guide the transition , setting the rules of the game and working with industry and society toward the preferable hydrogen future . <p> This catalytic leadership role would be analogous to that played by government in launching another infrastructure in the early years of the Cold War . Recognizing the strategic importance of having its networks of information more decentralized and less vulnerable to attack , the U.S. government engaged in critical research , incentives , and public/private collaboration toward development of what we now call the Internet . An equally , and arguably even more , compelling case can be made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that best limits vulnerability to air pollution , energy insecurity , and climate change . Investments made today will heavily influence in what manner and how fast the hydrogen economy emerges in coming decades . As with creating the Internet , putting humans on the moon , and other great endeavors , it is the cost of inaction that should most occupy the minds of our leaders now , at the dawn of the hydrogen age . <p> By Seth Dunn <p> <p> Seth Dunn is a research associate at the Worldwatch Institute , where he is a member of the climate/energy team and for which he has written extensively . He holds a B.A. in history and studies in the environment from Yale University . This article is excerpted from Hydrogen Futures : Toward a Sustainable Energy System , published as paper 157 by the Worldwatch Institute ( www.worldwatch.org ) . <p> 
##4000975 Physician-assisted suicide is among the most hotly debated bioethical issues of our time . Every reasonable person prefers that no patient ever contemplate suicide-with or without assistance-and recent improvements in pain management have begun to reduce the number of patients seeking such assistance . However , there are some patients who experience terrible suffering that ca n't be relieved by any of the therapeutic or palliative techniques medicine and nursing have to offer , and some of those patients desperately seek deliverance . <p> Physician-assisted suicide is n't about physicians becoming killers . It 's about patients whose suffering we ca n't relieve and about not turning away from them when they ask for help . Will there be physicians who feel they ca n't do this ? Of course , and they should n't be obliged to . But if other physicians consider it merciful to help such patients by merely writing a prescription , it is unreasonable to place them in jeopardy of criminal prosecution , loss of license , or other penalty for doing so . <p> Many arguments are put forward for maintaining the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outweighed by two fundamental principles that support ending the prohibition : patient autonomy-the right to control one 's own body -- and the physician 's duty to relieve suffering . <p> Society recognizes the competent patient 's right to autonomy -- to decide what will or wo n't be done to his or her body . There is almost universal agreement that a competent adult has the right to self-determination , including the right to have life-sustaining treatment withheld or withdrawn . Suicide , once illegal throughout the United States , is no longer illegal in any part of the country . Yet assisting a person to take her or his own life is prohibited in every state but Oregon . If patients seek such help , it is cruel to leave them to fend for themselves , weighing options that are both traumatic and uncertain , when humane assistance could be made available . <p> The physician 's obligations are many but , when cure is impossible and palliation has failed to achieve its objectives , there is always a residual obligation to relieve suffering . Ultimately , if the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the patient -- and only the patient -- who can judge whether death is harmful or a good to be sought . Marcia Angell , former executive editor of the New England Journal of Medicine , has put it this way : <p> The highest ethical imperative of doctors should be to provide care in whatever way best serves patients ' interests , in accord with each patient 's wishes , not with a theoretical commitment to preserve life no matter what the cost in suffering .... The greatest harm we can do is to consign a desperate patient to unbearable suffering -- or force the patient to seek out a stranger like Dr. Kevorkian . <p> Let 's examine the key arguments made against physician-assisted suicide . First , much weight is placed on the Hippocratic injunction to do no harm . It has been asserted that sanctioning physician-assisted suicide " would give doctors a license to kill , " and physicians who accede to such requests have been branded by some as murderers . This is both illogical and inflammatory . Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment -- for example , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accepted by society , yet this requires a more definitive act by a physician than prescribing a medication that a patient has requested and is free to take or not , as he or she sees fit . Why should the latter be perceived as doing harm when the former is not ? Rather than characterizing this as " killing , " we should see it as bringing the dying process to a merciful end . The physician who complies with a plea for final release from a patient facing death under unbearable conditions is doing good , not harm , and her or his actions are entirely consonant with the Hippocratic tradition . <p> Second , it is argued that requests for assisted suicide come largely from patients who have n't received adequate pain control or who are clinically depressed and have n't been properly diagnosed or treated . There is no question that proper management of such conditions would significantly reduce the number of patients who consider suicide ; any sanctioning of assistance should be contingent upon prior management of pain and depression . <p> However , treatable pain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common reason , why patients seek to end their lives . Severe body wasting , intractable vomiting , urinary and bowel incontinence , immobility , and total dependence are recognized as more important than pain in the desire for hastened death . There is a growing awareness that loss of dignity and of those attributes that we associate particularly with being human are the factors that most commonly reduce patients to a state of unrelieved misery and desperation . <p> Third , it is argued that permitting physician-assisted suicide would undermine the sense of trust that patients have in their doctors . This is curious reasoning ; patients are not lying in bed wondering if their physicians are going to kill them -- and permitting assisted suicide should n't create such fears , since the act of administering a fatal dose would be solely within the control of the patient . Rather than undermining a patient 's trust , I would expect the legalization of physician-assisted suicide to enhance that trust . I have spoken with a great many people who feel that they would like to be able to trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unrelieved suffering -- and making that possible would give such patients a greater sense of security . Furthermore , some patients have taken their own lives at a relatively early stage of terminal illness precisely because they feared that progressively increasing disability , without anyone to assist them , would rob them of this option at a later time when they were truly desperate . A patient contemplating suicide would be much less likely to take such a step if he or she were confident of receiving assistance in the future if so desired . <p> Fourth , it is argued that patients do n't need assistance to commit suicide ; they can manage it all by themselves . This seems both callous and unrealistic . Are patients to shoot themselves , jump from a window , starve themselves to death , or rig a pipe to the car exhaust ? All of these methods have been used by patients in the final stages of desperation , but it is a hideous experience for both patient and survivors . Even patients who ca n't contemplate such traumatic acts and instead manage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weak to complete the process without help and therefore face a high risk of failure , with dreadful consequences for themselves and their families . <p> Fifth , it is argued that requests for assisted suicide are not frequent enough to warrant changing the law . Interestingly , some physicians say they have rarely , if ever , received such requests , while others say they have often received requests . This is a curious discrepancy , but I think it can be explained : the patient who seeks help with suicide will cautiously test a physician 's receptivity to the idea and simply wo n't approach a physician who is unreceptive . Thus , there are two subsets of physicians in this situation : those who are open to the idea of assisted suicide and those who are n't . Patients are likely to seek help from the former but not from the latter . <p> A study carried out a few years ago by the University of Washington School of Medicine queried 828 physicians ( a 25 percent sample of primary care physicians and all physicians in selected medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Of these respondents , 12 percent reported receiving one or more explicit requests for assisted suicide , and one-fourth of the patients requesting such assistance received prescriptions . <p> A survey of physicians in San Francisco treating AIDS patients brought responses from half , and 53 percent of those respondents reported helping patients take their own lives by prescribing lethal doses of narcotics . Clearly , requests for assisted suicide ca n't be dismissed as rare occurrences . <p> Sixth , it is argued that sanctioning assisted suicide would fail to address the needs of patients who are incompetent . This is obviously true , since proposals for legalization specify that assistance be given only to a patient who is competent and who requests it . However , in essence , this argument says that , because we can t establish a procedure that will deal " with every patient , we wo n't make assisted suicide available to any patient . What logic ! Imagine the outcry if that logic were applied to a procedure such as organ transplantation , which has benefited so many people in this country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open the door to physician-assisted suicide we will find ourselves on a slippery slope leading to coercion and involuntary euthanasia of vulnerable patients . Why so ? We have learned to grapple with many slippery slopes in medicine -- such as Do Not Resuscitate ( DNR ) orders and the withdrawal of life support . We do n't deal with those slippery slopes by prohibition but , rather , by adopting reasonable ground rules and setting appropriate limits . <p> The slippery slope argument discounts the real harm of failing to respond to the pleas of real people and considers only the potential harm that might be done to others at some future time and place . As in the case of other slippery slopes , theoretical future harm can be mitigated by establishing appropriate criteria that would have to be met before a patient could receive assistance . Such criteria have been outlined frequently . Stated briefly , they include : The patient must have an incurable condition causing severe , unrelenting suffering . The patient must understand his or her condition and prognosis , which must be verified by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been presented to and considered by the patient . The patient must clearly and repeatedly request assistance in dying . A psychiatric consultation must be held to establish if the patient is suffering from a treatable depression . The prescribing physician , absent a close preexisting relationship ( which would be ideal ) , must get to know the patient well enough to understand the reasons for her or his request . No physician should be expected to violate his or her own basic values . A physician who is unwilling to assist the patient should facilitate transfer to another physician who would be prepared to do so . All of the foregoing must be clearly documented . <p> Application of the above criteria would substantially reduce the risk of abuse but could n't guarantee that abuse would never occur . We must recognize , however , that abuses occur today -- in part because we tolerate covert action that is subject to no safeguards at all . A more open process would , in the words of philosopher and ethicist Margaret Battin , " prod us to develop much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already make in what are often quite casual , cavalier ways . " <p> It seems improbable that assisted suicide would pose a special danger to the elderly , infirm , and disabled . To paraphrase John Maynard Keynes , in the long run we are all elderly , infirm , or disabled and , since society well knows this , serious attention would surely be given to adequate protections against abuse . It is n't my intention to dispose glibly of the fear that society would view vulnerable patients as a liability and would manipulate them to end their lives prematurely . Of course , this concern must be respected , but the risk can be minimized by applying the criteria listed above . Furthermore , this argument assumes that termination of life is invariably an evil against which we must protect vulnerable patients who are poor or otherwise lacking in societal support . But , by definition , we are speaking of patients who desperately wish final release from unrelieved suffering , and poor and vulnerable patients are least able to secure aid in dying if they want it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some good luck , find a physician who is willing to provide covert help ; the poor and disenfranchised rarely have access to such assistance in today 's world . <p> Eighth , it is argued that the Netherlands experience proves that societal tolerance of physician-assisted suicide leads to serious abuse . Aside from the fact that the data are subject to varying interpretation depending upon which analysis one believes , the situation in the Netherlands holds few lessons for us , because for many years that country followed the ambiguous practice of technically prohibiting but tacitly permitting assisted suicide and euthanasia . <p> The climate in the United States is different ; our regulatory mechanisms would be different -- much stricter , of course -- and we should expect different outcomes . The experience of Oregon -- the only one of our fifty states to permit physician-assisted suicide-is instructive . During the first three years that Oregon 's law has been in effect , seventy terminally ill patients took advantage of the opportunity to self-administer medication to end protracted dying . Despite dire warnings , there was no precipitous rush @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the uninsured were n't victimized ; almost all of these seventy patients had health insurance , most were on hospice care , and most were people with at least some college education . There were no untoward complications . The Oregon experience is far more relevant for the United States than the Dutch experience , and it vindicates those who , despite extremely vocal opposition , advocated for the legislation . <p> Ninth , it has been argued that a society that does n't assure all its citizens the right to basic health care and protect them against catastrophic health costs has no business considering physician-assisted suicide . I find this an astonishing argument . It says to every patient who seeks ultimate relief from severe suffering that his or her case wo n't be considered until all of us are assured basic health care and financial protection . These are certainly proper goals for any decent society , but they wo n't be attained in the United States until it becomes a more generous and responsible nation -- and that day seems to be far off . Patients seeking deliverance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future developments that are not even visible on the distant horizon . <p> Finally , it is argued that the status quo is acceptable -- that a patient who is determined to end his or her life can find a sympathetic physician who will provide the necessary prescription and that physicians are virtually never prosecuted for such acts . There are at least four reasons to reject the status quo . First , it forces patients and physicians to undertake a clandestine conspiracy to violate the law , thus compromising the integrity of patient , physician , and family . Second , such secret compacts , by their very nature , are subject to faulty implementation with a high risk of failure and consequent tragedy for both patient and family . Third , the assumption that a determined patient can find a sympathetic physician applies , at best , to middle- and upper-income persons who have ongoing relationships with their physicians ; the poor , as I 've already noted , rarely have such an opportunity . Fourth , covert action places a physician in danger of criminal prosecution or loss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be unlikely , that risk certainly inhibits some physicians from doing what they believe is proper to help their patients . <p> I believe that removing the prohibition against physician assistance , rather than opening the flood gates to ill-advised suicides , is likely to reduce the incentive for suicide : patients who fear great suffering in the final stages of illness would have the assurance that help would be available if needed and they would be more inclined to test their own abilities to withstand the trials that lie ahead . <p> Life is the most precious gift of all , and no sane person wants to part with it , but there are some circumstances where life has lost its value . A competent person who has thoughtfully considered his or her own situation and finds that unrelieved suffering outweighs the value of continued life should n't have to starve to death or find other drastic and violent solutions when more merciful means exist . Those physicians who wish to fulfill what they perceive to be their humane responsibilities to their patients should n't be forced by legislative prohibition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to these very sensitive problems . However , I believe that reasonable protections can be put in place that will minimize the risk of abuse and that the humanitarian benefits of legalizing physician-assisted suicide outweigh that risk . All physicians are bound by the injunction to do no harm , but we must recognize that harm may result not only from the commission of a wrongful act but also from the omission of an act of mercy . While not every physician will feel comfortable offering help in these tragic situations , many believe it is right to do so and our society should not criminalize such humanitarian acts . <p> By Peter Rogatz <p> <p> Peter Rogatz , M.D. , M. PH. , is a founding board member of Compassion in Dying of New York , a member of the Ethics Committee of Hospice Care Network ( Long Island and Queens ) , and a member of the Committee on Bioethical Issues of the Medical Society of the State of New York . He previously served as professor of community and preventive medicine at the State University of New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4001269 ABSTRACT . The authors performed 2 experiments investigating the influence of the belief that a vehicle crashed on witnesses ' estimates of the vehicle 's speed . In Experiment 1 , participants saw a video of a civilian car being driven , after which they were assigned to 1 of 2 conditions . The 1st group was told that the vehicle subsequently crashed ; the 2nd group was not told that the vehicle crashed . The results indicted no differences between the 2 groups on a number of factors , including estimates of the vehicle 's speed . Experiment 2 was identical except that the video showed a police car using flashing lights and sirens . Participants who had been told that the car had crashed overestimated speed , the likelihood of a crash , and the likelihood of someone being killed . Participants who were not told that the vehicle crashed estimated the speed of the vehicle accurately . Confidence in their estimates of speed was not significantly different between the 2 groups . Results are discussed with regard to police investigations of road accidents . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , police , speed , witness <p> THE POLICE MUST INVESTIGATE vehicle accidents and , if necessary , initiate prosecutions against drivers who have caused crashes . In such investigations the police are typically interested in determining the speed of a vehicle . The reason for this is that speed is one of the most important causes of car crashes . Shibata and Fukuda ( 1994 ) analyzed the data from 33,821 traffic accidents for various risk factors , including driving without a license , consumption of alcohol , speed , and the use of a seat-belt . Speed was the most important risk factor for fatalities . <p> The police rely on a number of sources , such as skid marks and the location and extent of damage to a vehicle , to determine the speed of a vehicle that has been involved in a collision . However , in the majority of cases the most important source of evidence is an eyewitness ( see Kebbell &; Milne , 1998 ) . Therefore , it is important for the police to know how much reliance they can place on eyewitness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found that witnesses can be reasonably good . For example , a recent study involved mock-eyewitness estimates of the speed of civilian and police cars . Witnesses were remarkably accurate , typically estimating less than 3 miles per hour ( 5 kmph ) above or below the actual speed of the vehicle ( Barnecutt , Pfeffer , &; Creswell , 1999 ; Froyland , Ainsworth , &; Pfeifer , 1998 ; Marshall , 1966 ; Semb , 1969 ) . <p> Nevertheless , in real police investigations witnesses may fare less well . An extensive body of research shows that eyewitness memory is susceptible to distortion . The reconstructive nature of memory means that post-event information may be incorporated into memory and witnesses can be confident in inaccurate information ( Ayers &; Reder , 1998 ; Smith , Kassin , &; Ellsworth , 1989 ) . This possibility is illustrated in a study by Loftus and Palmer ( 1974 ) in which participants were shown a film of a car accident . Later they were asked , " About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " smashed " with one of the following words : " collided , " " bumped , " " hit , " or " contacted . " Although the words all refer to the coming together of two objects , they differ in what they imply about the speed and force of impact . <p> Participants who received the " smashed " version estimated the speed at 40.8 mph ( 65.7 kmph ) , whereas those given the " contacted " version estimated the speed at 30.8 mph ( 49.6 kmph ) . Furthermore , participants who received the " smashed " version were more likely to answer yes to the question " Did you see any broken glass ? " even though there was no broken glass . In fact , leading questions can have an influence even if they are very subtle . Loftus and Zanni ( 1975 ) found that even a change in the wording of the question from " the " to " a " increased the proportion of witnesses who were misled ( e.g. , " Did you see a broken headlight ? " or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Fortunately , the use of leading questions can be minimized , and many police officers are trained to interview eyewitnesses in a manner that reduces the use of such questions ( Kebbell , Milne , &; Wagstaff , 1999 ) . Nevertheless , a witness 's account may be biased by suggestive post-event sources of information that are not introduced by a police officer . In most instances , when a witness is interviewed concerning a vehicle , it is because that vehicle has been involved in some sort of collision . The very fact that a witness knows that the vehicle has crashed may encourage the witness to attribute the crash to the speed of the vehicle , and this may cause the witness to overestimate the speed of the vehicle prior to the crash . <p> Also , the fact that a vehicle has been involved in a crash may alter eyewitness beliefs about the way that the vehicle was driven . Although speed can be a major factor in causing crashes , other explanations are possible and for some , the driver is not responsible . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side street without seeing an oncoming vehicle . Research by Hendricks et al . ( 2001 ) into 723 crashes involving 1,284 vehicles suggested that 15.1% were caused by such errors . <p> Alternatively , mechanical failures such as a tire blowout or brake failure appear to be responsible in 4% to 13% of cases ( Treat et al. , 1979 ) . Consequently , in this study , we wanted to determine whether the belief that a vehicle crashed would influence eyewitnesses ' estimates about how well that vehicle was driven . The implication is that drivers who were driving perfectly safely may be falsely remembered as driving dangerously simply because they were subsequently involved in a crash . EXPERIMENT 1 <p> To address the idea that knowledge that a vehicle crashed may potentially influence witnesses ' estimates of speed and the dangerousness with which a vehicle was driven , we conducted an experiment to manipulate the knowledge that a vehicle crashed . We hypothesized that witnesses who believed that a vehicle had crashed would estimate the speed of the vehicle to be higher than those who did not know @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that witnesses who believed that the vehicle had crashed would remember the way the vehicle was driven as being more dangerous . Method <p> Participants <p> Participants were 33 prospective undergraduate students ( 8 men and 25 women ) . The average age of participants was 22.45 years ( range 17-56 , SD = <p> 11.30 ) . <p> Materials <p> A 1-min video was shot from a stationary position at the side of a street to produce plausible security camera footage . The beginning of the film showed the street and then a car being driven down the street at a constant 49.7 mph ( 80.0 kmph ) toward and then past the camera . We obtained from police files photographs of a crashed car and a not-crashed car identical to the one in the video in terms of color , make , and model . The crashed vehicle had sustained heavy frontal damage consistent with hitting another vehicle . <p> Procedure <p> We tested the participants in groups of up to 6 . Upon arrival they were seated at a distance of approximately 2 m from a 21-in. television/video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are about to see was filmed by a security camera . Please watch carefully . " The participants were then randomly assigned to one of two conditions . <p> Car not crashed . In this condition we asked participants to watch the film , after which they were shown photographs of a " not-crashed vehicle . " We then asked them to read an unrelated magazine article as a filler task for 5 min before completing a questionnaire . The questionnaire required that they estimate the speed of the vehicle and provide a confidence judgment of the accuracy of their estimate . We asked them to rate their confidence judgments on a 10-point Likert-type scale ranging from pure guess ( 1 ) to absolutely certain ( 10 ) . We asked them " How dangerous was the way that the vehicle was being driven ? " Responses were given on a 10-point Likert-type scale ranging from not at all dangerous ( 1 ) to extremely dangerous ( 10 ) . We asked them " How likely was a crash ? " and " How likely was the driver to kill someone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scale ranging from not at all likely ( 1 ) to extremely likely ( 10 ) . We then showed the participants pictures of a not-crashed vehicle and told them that this was what the car looked like after it came to a halt . <p> Car crashed . This condition was identical to the not-crashed condition with the exception that after watching the film we told participants , " Immediately after this video was taken this vehicle was involved in a crash . Here are some pictures of the vehicle after the crash . " We then showed them pictures of the crashed vehicle and told them that this was what the car looked like after it came to a halt . <p> After taking part in this experiment , all participants were debriefed . Results <p> Table 1 shows the means and standard deviations for mock witnesses ' estimates of the speed at which the vehicle was traveling and their perceptions of how dangerously it was being driven . A t test revealed no significant difference between conditions in mock witnesses ' estimates of speed , t(31) = 0.33 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the vehicle , t ( 15 ) = 4.10 , p < .01 , and t ( 16 ) = 2.82 , p < .05 , respectively . <p> We found no significant differences between the two conditions in the confidence with which they reported the accuracy of their estimate of the vehicle 's speed , t(31) = 0.19 , ns . Similarly , we found no significant differences between the two conditions on ratings of " How dangerous was the way that the vehicle was being driven ? " t(30) = 0.41 , ns , " How likely was a crash ? " t(31) = 0.87 , ns , and " How likely was the driver to kill someone ? " t(31) = 0.69 , ns . Discussion <p> The results of this experiment contradicted our hypothesis that a belief that a vehicle crashed would increase witnesses ' perceptions of a vehicle 's speed . In fact , the results showed that participants in both conditions significantly underestimated the speed of the vehicle . The results also demonstrated that knowledge concerning the outcome of an event need not necessarily @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being driven . In this case , participants who believed that the car had subsequently crashed rated the vehicle as being driven as safely as participants who believed that the car had not been involved in an accident . We return to these issues in the general discussion . <p> However , these findings do not necessarily mean that knowledge that a vehicle crashed has no influence on eyewitness estimates . For instance , anecdotal evidence from police accident investigators suggests that witnesses grossly overestimate the speeds of police vehicles when flashing lights and sirens are used and a crash occurs . This seems plausible because , in most instances in real life or in films and television , flashing lights and wailing sirens are used when a vehicle is traveling at high speed . Consequently , the fact that flashing lights and sirens are so firmly associated with vehicles traveling at high speed , combined with the belief that a vehicle crashed , may cause eyewitnesses to overestimate a crashed vehicle 's speed and rate more negatively the way the vehicle was driven ( Ayers &; Reder , 1998 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ determine whether the belief that a police vehicle crashed while using flashing lights and sirens increases mock witnesses ' speed estimates . The object of this experiment was to manipulate the knowledge that a police vehicle crashed . We hypothesized that witnesses who believed the police vehicle had crashed would perceive the speed of that vehicle and other estimates of dangerousness to be higher than those who did not believe the vehicle had crashed . Method <p> Participants <p> Participants were 41 prospective undergraduate students ( 6 men and 35 women ) whose average age was 26.37 ( range 17-69 , SD = 15.09 ) . <p> Materials <p> We constructed a video identical to the previous one except that the vehicle used was a police model of the civilian vehicle and was shown with lights flashing and sirens sounding . Again , it was driven at a constant 49.7 mph ( 80.0 kph ) . We obtained from police files a photograph of a crashed car and a not-crashed car identical to the one shown in the video in terms of make , model , and color . For consistency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photographs in both experiments . The crashed vehicle was in fact a police car ; however , in Experiment 1 the photographs were processed using Adobe Photoshop to remove all visible police markings . Thus , the damage to the police vehicle ( Experiment 2 ) and civilian vehicle ( Experiment 1 ) in the crashed conditions was identical , eliminating a potential confound between experiments . <p> Procedure <p> We used the same method as in the previous study with the exception that the vehicle used in the film was a marked police car with flashing lights and sirens . Thus , in one condition ( police car not crashed ) , participants watched a film in which a police car with flashing lights and a siren drove down a street . They were then shown a picture of a police car not crashed . In the second condition ( police car crashed ) participants watched the same video but were subsequently shown a picture of a crashed police vehicle . Results <p> Table 2 shows the means and standard deviations for mock-witness estimates of vehicle speed . Participants in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the not-crashed condition , t(39) = 2.89 , p < .01 . Also , whereas participants in the not-crashed group were , on average , very accurate in estimating the speed of the vehicle , t ( 16 ) = 0.41 , ns , the crashed group significantly overestimated the speed of the vehicle , t(23) = 4.58 , p < .001 . However , despite the fact that there were clear differences in the accuracy of their speed estimates , no significant differences were found between the two conditions for witness confidence in the accuracy of these estimates , t(39) = 0.55 , ns . <p> Considering participants ' perceptions of how dangerously the police vehicle was being driven , those in the crashed condition did not rate the vehicle as being driven more dangerously than those in the not-crashed condition , t(39) = 1.46 , ns . However , drivers were rated as being significantly " more likely " to crash , t(39) = 4.09 , p < .001 , and significantly " more likely to kill someone " by those in the crashed condition than by those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ < .001 . Discussion <p> In this experiment , the belief that a police vehicle with flashing lights and sirens had crashed caused witnesses in the crashed condition to overestimate the vehicle 's speed , estimating the vehicle to be traveling significantly faster than participants in the not-crashed condition did . Whereas participants in the not-crashed condition of this experiment were accurate in their estimations of the speed of the police vehicle , those in the crashed condition significantly overestimated the speed of the car . Nevertheless , those in the crashed condition were just as confident in the accuracy of their estimate as those in the not-crashed condition . In addition , participants in the crashed condition of this experiment reported that they thought the car was more likely to be involved in a crash and to cause a fatality than did participants in the not-crashed condition . GENERAL DISCUSSION <p> The results of the two experiments were mixed . The hypothesized effect of knowledge that a vehicle crashed causes witnesses to overestimate vehicle speed was not supported in Experiment 1 . This result suggests that for accidents involving civilian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vehicle simply because they know it crashed . However , we found a significant effect in Experiment 2 . The obvious , and only , difference between the two experiments is that in Experiment 2 we used a police vehicle with flashing lights and sirens . One possible explanation of this result may be that witnesses in the crashed police car condition are aware that police drivers are highly trained and therefore unlikely to crash under normal conditions . Given this knowledge , mock witnesses may have reasoned that for a highly trained police driver to crash he or she must have been traveling at high speed . <p> Alternatively , or additionally , because witnesses are likely to associate police lights and sirens with high-speed pursuits , they may overestimate speed . Thus , the overestimate of speed is explicable within an activation-based framework in terms of source of activation confusion ( Anderson &; Bower , 1973 ; Reder &; Schunn , 1996 ) . The concept of " high speed " is activated by the knowledge that a vehicle crashed and the use of flashing lights and sirens . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vehicle , the activation of this concept influences their memory for the speed of the vehicle and they give high estimates . Unfortunately , this is likely to be an unconscious process and witnesses can be unaware that this has occurred ( Kelley &; Jacoby , 1996 ) . <p> This latter point is supported by the confidence judgments . In the crashed police car condition , whereas mock witnesses significantly overestimated the speed of the police vehicle , they were no less confident in this condition than in the uncrashed police vehicle condition . This is an important finding because confidence is often used to infer accuracy ( Fox &; Walters , 1986 ; Leippe , Manion , &; Romanczyk , 1992 ) . For instance a witness who says , " I 'm absolutely certain the car was doing 100 miles per hour " is more likely to be believed that one who says , " I thought the car was doing 60 miles an hour but I 'm not sure . " The practical implication of this finding is that confidence in the speed of a vehicle can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , if a number of witnesses provide estimates of a vehicle 's speed , an investigator should be careful about simply relying on the most confident witness . <p> Returning to the issue of speed estimates , mock witnesses in both conditions of Experiment 1 underestimated the speed of the civilian vehicle , whereas those in the uncrashed condition in Experiment 2 , with the police car using lights and sirens , were accurate , and the witnesses in the crashed condition overestimated the speed of the vehicle . Although accuracy was not the focus of this experiment and the fact that the stimuli was presented via videotape rather than witnessed in real life reduces our ability to generalize , these findings suggest that witnesses ' speed estimates can be influenced by factors other than the actual speed of the vehicle , can vary greatly , and should be treated with caution . <p> In Experiment 1 no difference was found between " How likely was a crash ? " and " How likely was the driver to kill someone ? " The absence of significant effects in Experiment 1 shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to crash and likely to kill someone because they believed the vehicle did crash later . However , in Experiment 2 significant differences were found between the two conditions . Participants in the crashed condition rated the driver as being more likely to crash and more likely to kill someone . This shows that witnesses ' reports concerning the way a vehicle was driven can be influenced by flashing lights and sirens and the belief that a vehicle crashed . Again , reasons for these reports are likely to be source of activation confusion . <p> Nevertheless , no significant effect was found between the crashed and uncrashed conditions concerning remembered dangerousness . Even flashing lights and sirens and belief that a vehicle crashed did not cause remembered dangerousness to increase . However , in our film the vehicle is simply driven down a straight road at a constant speed . Perhaps if the vehicle had been driven in a more ambiguous manner , for instance , if the vehicle had to swerve to avoid a pedestrian , then witnesses ' estimates of the perceived dangerousness of the way that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offer the potential for considerable future work . Research into the use of heuristics in recall is relevant here . This work shows heuristics are particularly likely to be invoked when ( a ) there is little time to engage in systematic analysis , ( b ) individuals are overloaded with information , and/or ( c ) there is little available information ( Macrae , Hewstone , &; Griffiths , 1993 ) . Potentially , police cars with flashing lights at night are more likely to command attention , and other cues are unavailable to determine speed . Hence , the distortions we have found here with police vehicles may be exacerbated by nightfall . <p> Similarly , eyewitnesses ' memory of the driving of vehicles other than police vehicles may be influenced by reconstructive memory processes and a belief that the vehicle crashed . For instance , many people have stereotypes concerning the driving of New York taxis that may mean blame is more likely to be attributed to the taxi driver in the event of a crash than to another driver involved in the crash . These issues demand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have shown that belief that a vehicle crashed has no influence on witnesses ' reports of the way a civilian car is driven , but when a police car with flashing lights and sirens is supposedly involved in a crash , witnesses are likely to overestimate the speed , the likelihood of someone being killed , and the likelihood of a crash . The implication is that anecdotal reports from police officers who have been involved in accidents when they had lights and sirens on may well be correct . The lights and sirens and knowledge that a crash occurred may lead witnesses to overestimate speed . Of course , it should be kept in mind that in real cases police officers may minimize their speed to prevent disciplinary measures . Nevertheless , these results suggest that witnesses ' descriptions of crashes involving police vehicles using flashing lights and sirens should be treated with caution . <p> The authors thank the British Academy for the award of a postdoctoral fellowship to the first author that partly supported this work . We would also like to thank Edith Cowan University for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Western Australian Police Service for their help in constructing the materials used for this experiment . <p> Address correspondence to Mark R. Kebbell , School of Psychology , James Cook University , Townsville , 4810 , Queensland , Australia ; mark.kebbell@jcu.edu.au ( e-mail ) . TABLE 1 Participants ' Estimates of Speed , Confidence , and Other Factors Concerning the Dangerousness of the Way a Civilian Vehicle Was Being Driven PREFORMATTED TABLE TABLE 2 Participants ' Estimates of Speed , Confidence , and Other Factors Concerning the Dangerousness of the Way a Police Vehicle Was Being Driven PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4001270 ABSTRACT . Longing can be defined as a blend of the primary emotions of happiness and sadness . These primary emotions are experienced very early by children , and the meanings of the words happiness and sadness are also known by children early in their verbal development . To find out at what age children are able to understand and use the more developed concept of longing , the authors interviewed 74 preschoolers ( 4- and 5-year-olds ) in Norway and Sweden about their experiences of longing . Chi-square analyses showed age and sex differences in knowledge of the concept , and some differences between categories of longing were also significant . Results showed that young children 's ability to understand and use the concept of longing appears to be limited and that girls seem to mature earlier in this respect than boys do . <p> Key words : children , emotional development , emotions , longing <p> LONGING has usually been defined as a blend or a mix of the primary emotions of love and sadness , and it is also considered an emotion of second-or higher-order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1999 ) . It is also an emotion with a character of its own . In a study of emotion families , Shaver , Schwartz , Kirson , and O'Connor ( 1987 ) found longing to be the only emotion in one of the subclusters . The experiencing of mixed or opposite emotions comes relatively late in a child 's development . By the age of 9 , children acknowledge that one situation can provoke two opposite emotions , whereas younger children usually do not admit that more than one emotion at a time can be experienced ( Harris , 1993 ; Whitesell &; Harter , 1989 ) . <p> Age effects in training children to acknowledge mixed emotions were reported by Peng , Johnson , Pollock , and Glasspool ( 1992 ) , and 6- to 7-year-olds were found to benefit more from such training than 4- to 5-year-olds . Holm , Classon , Greaker , Karlsson , and Strmberg ( 2000 ) found that 6-year-old children have experienced several dimensions of longing . Because 4- and 5-year-olds can use the word longing , we wanted to find out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ light on the development of longing as a mixed emotion . In this study we wanted to discover whether 4- and 5-year-old children can understand , use , and describe the concept of longing and relate it to their own experiences . In studies of children 's experiences of the concept of longing , the term love has been replaced by the more appropriate term happiness ( Holm , 2001 ; Holm et al. , 2000 ) , and that is also the case in this study . Method <p> Participants and Procedure <p> Do 4- and 5-year-old children know what longing is ? Have they experienced it themselves ? How do they feel when they are longing ? What do they do ? Are they longing for something when they are at home ? In preschool ? Do they talk about their longing with someone ? These were questions that we asked 74 Norwegian and Swedish 4- and 5-year-old preschoolers in an attempt to find out if and how children in these age groups experience this particular emotion . Twenty-two Norwegian children ( 15 girls and 7 boys ) and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were interviewed individually during ordinary days at their preschools . Thirty-one of the children were 4 years old , and 43 were 5 years old . <p> Thirty-two children listened to a story about a boy who was longing for his playmate ( a girl ) and talked a little about the story before the interview questions were posed ; 22 listened to the story afterwards ; and the story was not read at all to 20 of them . The interviews were written out and analyzed by all three authors , independent of each other , before the results were summarized . Results and Discussion <p> No effect of the story conditions " before " versus " after " versus " no story " were found . No nationality differences were found in any of the answers . Some children did not answer all the questions , and some answers had nothing to do with the question posed . The reasons for not answering all questions were mostly lack of interest ( wanting to go back to some activity ) or lack of understanding . <p> To find out if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longing , we posed the question " Do you know what longing is ? " The answer was no from 38 children and yes from 28 . Twenty of these latter children said that it is longing for someone . An age and sex difference could be seen , namely , that the yes answers came from the 5-year-old girls from both countries in all but 5 cases . A chi-square analysis of the yes and no answers from the 5-year-old girls versus the rest of the sample , ? ( 1 , N = 66 ) = 22.05 , p < .001 , showed that the 5-year-old girls ' answers differed significantly from those of the rest of the children who answered the question . <p> This result might be expected because girls often are verbally and emotionally more mature than boys ( Brody &; Hall , 1993 ) . Girls may be more observant of their own feelings , something that can be seen in results regarding sex differences in homesickness ( Zimmerman &; Bijur , 1995 ) . Some age differences in the depth of understanding of emotions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Garrattoni , and Venturini ( 2000 ) and by Lagattuta , Wellman , and Flavell ( 1997 ) . <p> Sixteen of the children answered no to the question " Have you ever been longing ? " All of the remaining 58 who answered yes also told the interviewers what they had been longing for . Earlier research has shown that children usually describe emotional states by describing what induces it ( Cartron-Guerin &; Reveillaut , 1980 ) . Twenty-seven had been longing for family members , 8 for playmates , 11 for things , 7 for occasions , and 5 for animals . Of the whole sample , 47% had been longing for persons and 31% for nonpersons . <p> A chi-square analysis of differences among the five different categories of longing showed that longing for family members was significantly more common than longing for something else , ? ( 4 , N = 58 ) = 27.16 , p < .001 . The pattern for yes and no answers on this question was different from the answers to the first question . Most children obviously had been longing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not know what longing was . <p> " How do you feel when you are longing ? " was answered with " I do n't know " by 21 of the children . Another 21 mentioned something negative like " not good , " " a little sad , " " no fun , " and " dreary . " Twelve mentioned something positive like " good " and " happy . " The difference between these groups was not significant . Five children had experienced both positive and negative feelings ( e.g. , " I am a little happy in the beginning , but then I become sad " and " When I am longing for my uncle I am happy , but not when I am homesick " ) . <p> On follow-up questions , 13 children answered that longing could be both happy and sad . Ten of them were girls ; 8 were 5-year-olds and 2 were 4-year-olds . This indicates an age-and sex-dependent growing awareness of the dual nature of longing ( see , e.g. , Holm , 1999 ) . Thirty-seven children ( half the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one sad , one neutral , and one happy -- to help them decide what longing feels like . Fifteen children chose the happy face , and 15 chose the sad face . Seven chose the neutral face . Three children pointed to two or three faces , and they were excluded from the analysis . The age and sex differences among the three groups -- happy , sad , and neutral -- were not significant . <p> The answers to the question " What do you do when you are longing ? " showed that 38 children were active , most of them playing . Only 5 were passive , just waiting and doing nothing . Nine did not know or did not answer . A chi-square analysis showed that the difference among the groups was significant , ? ( 2 , N = 52 ) = 37.42 , p < .001 . Activity as a means of distraction from the emotion of homesickness has been reported by Thurber and Weisz ( 1997 ) and as a distraction from the emotion of longing by Holm et al . ( 2000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Are you longing for something when you are at home ? " Six were longing for parents and relatives , 9 for playmates , 9 for playing and toys , 2 for animals , whereas 15 of then said " Nothing " or " I do n't know . " The difference was significant , ? ( 4 , N = 41 ) = 11.08 , p < .05 . In answer to the question " Are you longing for something when you are at preschool ? " 6 children said they longed for parents and relatives , 7 longed for playmates , 4 wanted to play , 5 longed for home , and 17 responded that they longed for nothing or said " do n't know . " The difference was significant , ? ( 4 , N = 39 ) = 14.21 , p < .01 . A relatively large proportion of the children did not seem to be longing in these contexts or were not aware of such feelings . <p> Twenty-six children were also asked , " Do you talk to someone when you are longing ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; 7 said playmates ; 6 said brothers , sisters , and relatives ; 1 said my pet and myself ; 2 children did not know . Almost all the children talked to some person , and there was a significant difference among the categories , ? ( 4 , N = 26 ) = 10.53 , p < .05 . <p> One conclusion we reached from the results of this study is that it may not be fruitful to interview such young children , as we did here , because sex-and age-limitations to the understanding of longing exist in these young children . The levels of verbal , cognitive , and emotional development in these age groups make the proportion of potential candidates for direct interviewing limited . Several of the children in this study answered only a few of the planned questions , and that limited the value of the statistical analyses . Perhaps interviews that take place in some other context than in the preschool may extract more answers and yield better results . <p> We did not find any differences between the countries , probably because these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in countries that differ considerably may show other results ( e.g. , Jolley , Zhi , &; Thomas , 1998 ) . We did find an age-and sex-related result . The girls ' answers often were longer than the answers given by the boys . A comparison of the answers to the first two questions indicated that most children have experienced longing , but not all children seem to be able to use the concept or describe it verbally . <p> Part of this research was made possible by a grant from the research program The Reflecting Citizen , School of Education and Communication , Jnkping University . <p> Address correspondence to Olle Holm , School of Education and Communication , Jnkping University , Box 1026 , 551 11 Jnkping , Sweden ; olle.holm@hlk.hj.se ( e-mail ) . <p> 
##4001273 ABSTRACT . The authors examined how patriarchy , sexism , and gender influence Turkish college students ' attitudes toward women managers . Turkish undergraduate students ( N = 183 ) from Middle East Technical University completed questionnaires measuring attitudes toward women managers as well as attitudes toward the concepts of hostile and benevolent sexism and support for patriarchy . Participants were of upper-or middle-class Turkish backgrounds . The results showed that male participants exhibited less positive attitudes toward women managers than did female participants . In addition , participants who held more favorable attitudes toward patriarchy and who scored high on hostile sexism also held less positive attitudes toward women managers than those who held less favorable attitudes toward patriarchy and who scored low on hostile sexism . A regression analysis showed that support for patriarchy and hostile sexism was more important for explaining less favorable attitudes toward women managers than was benevolent sexism . <p> Key words : attitudes , benevolent sexism , gender differences , gender stereotypes , hostile sexism , patriarchy , women managers <p> PERCEPTIONS OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARD WOMEN as managers have received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dubno , 1985 ; Schein , 1975 ) and in other countries such as Nigeria ( Adeyemi-Bello &; Tomkiewicz , 1996 ) . Our purpose in the present study was to explore the issues of attitudes toward women in top managerial positions in Turkey . We examined how gender differences , patriachy , and hostile and benevolent sexism influence attitudes toward women managers in a sample of Turkish college students . <p> Gender stereotypes are responsible for workplace discrimination and for negative attitudes toward women as managers ( Eagly &; Mladinic , 1994 ; Heilman , 1995 ) . According to traditional Turkish gender roles , men are dominant , independent , competitive , and capable of leadership , and women are submissive , dependent , caring , and good at domestic tasks and child rearing ( Geis , 1993 ) . Gender stereotypes in a society are often responsible for prejudice and discrimination against women . Thus , the idea of patriarchy , which refers to a structural control by men over political , legal , economic , and religious institutions ( Goldberg , 1993 , cited in Glick &; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and to behave in a discriminatory manner toward women in many areas of their lives . Johnson ( 1995 ) even suggested that the product of the patriarchal traditions of men 's right to control their women can be called patriarchal terrorism and involves systematic violence , economic subordination , threats , and other control tactics . <p> Sexism , an important social-psychological concept relevant to patriarchy , is created by patriarchy and may be an important factor in the exclusion of women from the workplace . Sexism is a negative attitude or discriminatory behavior based on the presumed inferiority or difference of women as a group ( Cameron , 1977 ) . As social psychologists argued , persistent sexism and patriarchy encourage a belief in the superiority of men and promote the idea that men deserve to control and receive more resources than women control or receive . In patriarchal and sexist cultures , the women are assigned to domestic roles , whereas the men are associated with career , authority , and leadership ( Eagly &; Mladinic , 1994 ) . <p> Glick and Fiske ( 1997 ) argued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a product of the patriarchal tradition combined with men 's dependence on women for sexual reproduction . Modern sexists might reject any sort of discrimination toward women , but they might have ambivalent affection for women . A woman can be seen as a saint or a strumpet . These two views create ambivalent sexism , termed hostile and benevolent sexism . <p> Glick and Fiske ( 1996 ) defined hostile sexism as traditional prejudicial attitudes toward women ( e.g. , anger , resentment , antipathy ) , characterizing women as inferior , and justifying male power and traditional gender roles . Hostile sexism can be accepted as a subtle way of measuring support for male dominance , competitive gender differentiation ( devaluing women ) , and hostile sexuality ( e.g. , anger at women for using sexual attraction to manipulate men ) . <p> Benevolent sexism " is a set of interrelated attitudes toward women that are sexist in terms of viewing women stereotypically and in restricted roles but that are subjectively positive in tone and also tend to elicit behaviors typically categorized as pro-social or intimacy-seeking " ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Protective paternalism ( protecting or helping women ) , complementary gender differentiation ( favoring women ) , and heterosexual intimacy ( feelings of personal need , intense affection for and admiration of women ) are the three underlying sources of benevolent sexism . A cross-cultural study on hostile and benevolent sexism in 19 nations by Glick et al . ( 2000 ) showed that in the countries that were highest in sexism ( Cuba , Nigeria , Turkey ) , individuals tended to reject hostile sexism but were less likely to reject benevolent sexism , whereas in countries that were more egalitarian ( England , Australia , the United States ) , individuals tended to reject both hostile and benevolent sexism . <p> In short , hostile and benevolent sexism might influence individuals ' attitudes toward women managers differently in Turkey . Glick , Dibold , Bailey-Werner , and Zhu ( 1997 ) found that men 's hostile sexism scores were correlated with negative evaluations of career-oriented women , whereas benevolent sexism scores correlated with favorable evaluations of homemakers . <p> Patriarchy , Sexism , and Women Managers in Turkey <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role differences . The institutions of marriage and the family are highly patriarchal ( Kandiyoti , 1995 ) . Men are the dominant sex and are expected to control the home . The husband is culturally accepted as the ruler of the family and is regarded as the formal authority to whom the wife and children must ultimately respond . The husband 's role is authoritarian , and he assumes responsibility for maintaining the family structure by whatever means he feels are justified . The wife 's role is taking care of the family and remaining dependent on her husband to protect the family structure . In short , the Turkish people still generally value patriarchy ( e.g. , Kagitibasi , 1981 ) . <p> Sakalli ( 2002 ) demonstrated that sexism was an important factor in understanding prejudiced attitudes toward stigmatized groups , suggesting that sexist Turkish individuals were more likely to hold negative attitudes toward stigmatized groups such as homosexuals . In terms of an ambivalent sexism model , Sakalli showed that the concept of hostile sexism was an especially important influence on negative attitudes held toward stigmatized groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home in paid jobs since the 1950s ( zbay , 1995 ) , but their jobs have been mainly in the areas of education , health , and secretarial work , relevant to the gender role stereotype . Women also have had opportunities to work in middle and top managerial positions . According to the General Department of Women 's Status and Problems ( 1996 ) , the percentages of middle to top management positions , respectively , held by women were 80% for a chief position , 15% for a division director position , 3.7% for a department head , and 0.12% for a general director position . Kabasakal , Bocacigiller , and Erden ( 1994 ) found that the percentage of women employees in 64 organizations was 43% , with 26% in middle management and 3% in top management . Overall , consistent with other countries , all these numbers suggest that Turkish men are still seen as " first choice " for managerial positions . <p> There have been some studies on perceptions of women managers in Turkey . ifti ( 1979 , cited in General Department of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turkish men were seen as more devoted to their work , more reliable , more precise , and harder working than women managers . Women employees were seen as more compliant than were men employees . Some research in Turkey has shown that women 's lower representation in managerial positions has resulted from the definition of work based on gender , the organizational culture that has created a barrier for women 's advancement in their career ( Atabek , 1994 ) , and patriarchal stereotypes ( Berberoglu &; Mavis , 1990 , cited in General Department of Women 's Status and Problems , 1996 ) . <p> Consequently , all these studies have indicated that the managerial position is defined in terms of the masculine stereotype and therefore is seen as more suitable for men . This situation creates a barrier for women who want to advance . Therefore , attitudes toward women as managers need to be studied in detail , as it appears that there has not been any research conducted on attitudes toward women managers in Turkey . <p> The Purpose of the Present Study <p> In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sample of Turkish college students . We focused on students because young Turkish students are tomorrow 's employees and managers . We hoped they would provide us with information about future conceptualizations of women managers in Turkey and about future behavior toward women managers , because attitudes influence behavior ( Ajzen &; Fishbein , 1977 ) . In addition , and different from earlier studies in the United States and other countries , we explored how hostile and benevolent sexism may influence attitudes toward women managers . On the basis of results of earlier studies on attitudes toward women managers and leaders , patriarchy , and hostile-benevolent sexism , we formed the following predictions : Consistent with earlier research suggesting that women have more positive attitudes toward women managers than do men ( Adeyemi-Bello &; Tomkiewicz , 1996 ; Heilman , Block , Martell , &; Simon , 1989 ; Schein , Mueller , &; Jacobson , 1989 ) , we expected Turkish women to show more positive attitudes toward women managers than Turkish men . We expected the participants who scored high on support for patriarchy to have more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on support for patriarchy . Similarly , because hostile sexism can be accepted as a subtle form of patriarchy ( Glick &; Fiske , 1997 ) , we expected participants who scored high on hostile sexism to have more negative attitudes toward women managers than those who scored low on hostile sexism . We expected that patriarchy and hostile sexism would explain the negative attitudes toward women managers more than benevolent sexism would . Method <p> Participants and Procedure <p> The participants were 183 ( 92 men , 91 women ) Turkish undergraduate students from the Middle East Technical University who attended elective courses in general psychology and an Introduction to Social Psychology . Data for 4 participants were excluded because their questionnaires were incomplete . Mean ages were 21.28 years ( SD = 1.75 ) for the men and 20.67 years ( SD = 2.10 ) for the women . The participants were of the upper or middle class . They participated voluntarily and were given extra credit for completing the questionnaires . <p> Materials <p> To measure attitudes toward women as managers , we developed a new 18-item questionnaire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was appropriate for Turkish culture and was also timely . All the items were rated on a 6-point scale ranging from 1 to 6 . Higher scores reflected positive attitudes toward women managers . <p> Factor analysis showed that the data explained 70% of the total variance . The first factor measured participants ' general approval and trust of women managers ( eigenvalue = 11.48 ) and accounted for 63.82% of total variance . A few sample items were " I support women to be managers " ; " I would not like to be directed by a women manager at my workplace " ; and " I trust women managers . " <p> The second factor measured participants ' attitudes toward the methods women managers use to reach management levels ( eigenvalue = 1.14 ) and accounted for 6.34% of the total variance . Sample items were " Women use their attractiveness to be promoted in their job " and " There are many tactics that women use to move up in their career . " Cronbach alphas for the whole scale , for the first , and for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respectively . We performed a test-retest analysis , which showed a high correlation between the first administration of the scale and the re-administration of it ( r = .90 ) . <p> To illustrate the convergent validity of the newly constructed scale , participants also completed the Women as Managers Scale ( WAMS ; Peters , Terborg , &; Taylor , 1974 ) . WAMS results were highly correlated with results on our scale ( r = .85 , p < .001 ) , suggesting that our scale is able to measure constructs similar to those measured by the WAMS . <p> We used the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory ( Glick &; Fiske , 1996 ) to measure sexism . The scale includes two main dimensions : hostile sexism ( e.g. , " Feminists are making entirely reasonable demands of men " ; " Most women interpret innocent remarks or acts as being sexist " ) and benevolent sexism ( e.g. , " Men are complete without women " ; " A good woman should be set on a pedestal by her man " ) . Cronbach alphas for the whole scale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and .78 , respectively . Participants indicated agreement with each item on a scale ranging from 1 ( indicating nonsexist ) to 6 ( indicating sexist attitudes toward women ) . <p> We developed a 4-item scale ( a = .85 ) to measure patriarchy . The items were " Women 's careers should not come before marriage and family " ( a = .88 ) ; " Family structure is influenced negatively if the woman works " ( a = .85 ) ; " Women should not find a job and work before taking consent of their husbands " ( a = .84 ) ; and " The most important responsibility of women is to look after their children and to take care of the home " ( a = .75 ) . <p> The scale explained 69.61% of the total variance . Participants indicated agreement with each item on a scale from 1 ( indicating low support for patriarchy ) to 6 ( indicating high support for patriarchy ) . The patriarchy data were used as an independent variable . The participants who scored lower than the median @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patriarchy ; the participants who scored above the median were considered to have high support for patriarchy . Results <p> We calculated the correlations between variables in the study , patriarchy , hostile sexism , benevolent sexism , and attitudes toward women managers . Hostile sexism ( r = -.64 , p < .01 ) , and patriarchy ( r = -.68 , p < .01 ) were significantly correlated with attitudes toward women managers . However , benevolent sexism was not significantly correlated with attitudes toward women managers ( r = -.11 , ns ) . <p> We used median splits so that patriarchy and hostile sexism could be treated as independent variables . The participants who scored lower than 2.50 in support of patriarchy or 3.5455 in support of hostile sexism were accepted as low in support of patriarchy and hostile sexism . Those who scored higher than the aforementioned medians were accepted as high in support of patriarchy and hostile sexism . We then performed a three-way multiple analysis of covariance ( MANCOVA ) , using benevolent sexism as the covariant , to examine , by gender , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; Mdn = 2.50 ) and hostile sexism ( low vs. high ; Mdn = 3.5455 ) influenced attitudes toward women managers . The results of the MANCOVA showed that the main effects of patriarchy , F ( 1,161 ) = 19.36 , p < .05 , ? = .10 ; hostile sexism , F ( 1,161 ) = 16.37 , p < .05 , ? = .09 ; and gender , F ( 1,161 ) = 13.86 , p < .05 , ? = .07 , were statistically significant . <p> The participants who scored high in support of patriarchy held less positive attitudes toward women managers ( M = 3.87 , SD = 0.96 ) than did others who scored low in support of patriarchy ( M = 5.08 , SD = 0.74 ) . Participants who scored high in hostile sexism also held less positive attitudes toward women managers ( M = 3.90 , SD = 1.00 ) than did those who scored low in hostile sexism ( M = 5.09 , SD = 0.70 ) . In addition , the men held less favorable attitudes toward women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than did the women ( M = 5.10 , SD = 0.71 ) . See Table 1 for the complete statistics . <p> To examine the third hypothesis , we performed a multiple regression analysis . The regression analysis showed that , taken together , support for patriarchy , hostile sexism , and benevolent sexism accounted for 58% of the variance in attitudes toward women managers , F ( 3,166 ) = 78.79 , p < .01 . As expected , support for patriarchy and hostile sexism was more important for explaining less favorable attitudes toward women managers than was benevolent sexism ( see Table 2 ) . Discussion <p> The purpose of the present study was to explore attitudes of Turkish college students toward women managers . We explored the effects of gender differences , patriarchy , and hostile and benevolent sexism . Consistent with earlier studies in other countries ( e.g. , Dubno , 1985 ; Farmer &; Waugh , 1999 ) , male participants held less positive attitudes toward women managers than did female participants , perhaps because of the women 's psychological identification with their own career @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other researchers , women are less sexist than men ( Glick &; Fiske , 1996 ; Swim , Aikin , Hall , &; Hunter , 1995 ) and show more tolerance toward stigmatized groups such as homosexuals ( Sakalli , 2002 ) . Consequently , it was not suprising that the women held more positive attitudes toward women managers than did the men . Thus , our first hypothesis was supported . <p> Our second hypothesis was also supported . Participants who had high scores on support for patriarchy held less positive attitudes toward women managers than did those with low scores on that issue . And participants who scored high on hostile sexism held less positive attitudes toward women managers than did those who scored low on hostile sexism . As expected , our regression analysis showed that support for patriarchy and hostile sexism were more important for explaining less favorable attitudes toward women managers than was benevolent sexism . The result was consistent with the findings of Glick et al . ( 1997 ) that hostile sexism , but not benevolent sexism , predicted negative attitudes toward career-oriented women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power , the economic subordination of women , and traditional gender roles ( Glick &; Fiske , 1997 ) , participants who accepted patriarchal ideology were naturally against women working in managerial positions . <p> Benevolent sexism also represents sexist beliefs , but it includes behaviors typically categorized as prosocial or intimacy seeking ( Glick &; Fiske , 1996 ) . Because benevolent sexism covers protective paternalism ( protecting , helping women ) , complementary gender differentiation ( favoring women ) , and heterosexual intimacy ( feelings of personal need , intense affection for and admiration of women ) , the correlation between benevolent sexism and attitudes toward women managers was not significant in the present study ( r = -.11 ) . <p> As suggested by Glick et al . ( 2000 ) , individuals who live in sexist cultures such as Cuba , Nigeria , and Turkey might not recognize benevolent sexism as a form of sexism , even though they immediately recognize hostile sexism , and the result might be a nonsignificant relationship between benevolent sexism and attitudes toward women managers . However , people who live in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are more likely to recognize benevolent sexism as a form of sexism and reject it along with hostile sexism ( Glick et al. , 2000 ) . <p> Consequently , there may be a significant correlation between sexism and attitudes toward women managers in other countries that are less sexist . In other words , studies conducted in less sexist countries might have different results from the present study ; benevolent sexism may be strongly relevant to negative attitudes toward women managers in less sexist countries . <p> In the future , researchers should focus on how hostile and benevolent sexism might influence attitudes toward women managers in other cultures . Such studies and their application to real life might help individuals , both women and men , to recognize the paradox of the concept that " women are wonderful , but still we ca n't hire or promote them . " Individuals might learn the distinction between hostile and benevolent sexism and the importance of benevolent sexism to gain acceptance ( rather than resistance ) in low-status groups and sexist cultures . <p> Address correspondence to Nuray Sakalli-Ugurlu , Psychology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Orta Dogu Teknik niversitesi ) , 06531 , Ankara , Turkey ; nurays@metu.edu.tr ( e-mail ) . TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations for Attitudes Toward Women Managers PREFORMATTED TABLE TABLE 2 Regression Analysis Summary for Patriarchy , Hostile Sexism , and Benevolent Sexism Predicting Attitudes Toward Women Managers PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4001274 ABSTRACT . To investigate the relationship between worry and sense of humor , the author administered the Worry Domains Questionnaire ( WDQ ; F. Tallis , M. Eysenck , &; A. Matthews , 1992 ) and the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale ( MSHS ; J. A. Thorson &; F. C. Powell , 1993 ) to 140 undergraduates . Worry was negatively related to sense of humor . Results of a stepwise regression , using the WDQ as the criterion and the MSHS factors as predictors , showed that the humor production factor of the MSHS loaded negatively on Step 1 and the coping with humor factor loaded positively on Step 2 . The results are discussed in relation to W. E. Kelly and M. J. Miller 's ( 1999 ) cognitive model of worry and worry as a coping strategy . <p> Key words : anxiety , coping , humor , worry <p> WORRY , a sequence of negative , sometimes seemingly uncontrollable thoughts ( Borkovec , 1994 ) is a commonly experienced phenomenon . Indeed , Tallis , Davey , and Capuzzo ( 1994 ) found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ once every day . Despite the obvious transitory nature of worry , much of the recent research has approached this phenomenon as a trait , or a propensity to worry . For instance , commonly used measures of worry , such as the Worry Domains Questionnaire ( WDQ ; Tallis , Eysenck , &; Mathews , 1992 ) , have test-retest reliabilities that indicate they measure trait worry ( Tallis , Davey , &; Bond , 1994 ) . <p> Researchers investigating the characteristics of individuals who have a propensity to worry ( trait worriers ) have reported that worriers , when compared with nonworriers , tend to report more physical discomforts , obsessional symptoms , boredom , depression , stress , anxiety , perfectionism , and pessimism ( Borkovec , Robinson , Pruzinsky , &; DuPree , 1983 ; Chang , 2000 ; Jung , 1993 ; Kelly &; Markos , 2001 ; MacLeod , 1994 ; Starcevic , 1995 ; Tallis &; de Silva , 1992 ) . It is noteworthy that although worry is a sympton of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder ( GAD ; American Psychiatric Association , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For instance , Davey ( 1993 ) reported that worry and anxiety account for separate variances in coping . Worry is more often associated with active cognitive coping , whereas anxiety is associated with avoidant coping , which indicates that worry and anxiety are separate constructs . <p> Kelly and Miller ( 1999 ) proposed a cognitive model of worry that is helpful for conceptualizing individual differences in worry . They suggested that trait worriers ' assumptions about themselves and the world in general are dysfunctional . More specifically , worriers have developed three primary underlying beliefs : ( a ) Everything is potentially dangerous ; ( b ) they should be able to find a perfect solution to every problem and/or avoid potential negative consequences ; and ( c ) they are inadequate or helpless to protect themselves or solve their problems . <p> Hence , worriers attempt to cognitively evaluate situations and their abilities to protect themselves in or from those situations . It follows that the combination of worriers ' beliefs that they should be able to solve their problems and their inadequacy to solve problems elicits a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ underlying beliefs about themselves and the world in general determine individuals ' information processing and characteristic ways of thinking and behaving ( i.e. , personality ) . <p> Perhaps because of the unpleasant traits and experiences associated with worry ( i.e. , anxiety , depression , pessimism ) and the feelings of inadequacy characteristic of many worriers ( Kelly &; Miller , 1999 ) , positive attributes have rarely been examined in relation to worry . One would expect that worry would be conversely related to positive traits , and this is often the case . For instance , Chang ( 2000 ) reported that worry is negatively related to life satisfaction . However , worry is not always negatively related to positive behaviors or traits . Kelly and Ashley ( 2001 ) found that worry was negatively related to excessive alcohol use . Individuals who were less likely to worry were more likely to engage in excessive alcohol consumption . <p> It appears that , despite the negative connotations of worry , it may serve some positive functions . Davey ( 1994 ) found that worry often functions as an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ positive which has not been examined in relation to trait worry is sense of humor . <p> Martin ( 1998 ) defined sense of humor as comprehension , appreciation , and creation of humor . Consistent with this general definition , Thorson and Powell ( 1993 ) suggested that a sense of humor consists of several elements , including recognition of oneself as humorous , recognition of others ' humor , appreciation of humor , a propensity to laugh , a perspective that allows an appreciation of life 's absurdities , and the use of humor to cope . Humor , according to McGhee ( 1979 ) , incorporates a general attitude of playfulness and a coinciding ability to play on ideas . The cognitive ability to manipulate and reframe ideas playfully enables individuals with a sense of humor to view unpleasant events as funny instead of frightening , annoying , or stressful . It is not surprising , therefore , that individuals with a greater sense of humor do not endorse depression , loneliness , negative mood , and social inadequacy ( Cetola , 1988 ; Moran &; Massam , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sarmany-Schuller , &; Hampes , 1997 ) and endorse task motivation , cheerfulness , self-esteem , trust , and social dominance ( Hampes , 1999 ; Kuiper , McKenzie , &; Belanger , 1995 ; Overholser , 1992 ; Ruch &; Carrell , 1998 ; Thorson &; Powell , 1996 ) . <p> Several researchers have documented the fact that a sense of humor moderates , or reduces , negative or unpleasant affect . For example , Yovetick , Dale , and Hudak ( 1990 ) found that individuals scoring higher on sense of humor report less anxiety than individuals scoring lower on sense of humor even when placed in an anxious situation . Newman and Stone ( 1996 ) reported that humor leads to decreased self-reported tension and decreased physiological activity associated with stress . Labott and Martin ( 1987 ) indicated that coping by using a sense of humor buffers the effects of negative events on mood states . Brown and Keegan ( 1999 ) found that humor also relieved boredom . Hence , possessing a sense of humor tends to moderate stress and anxiety and allows individuals to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Although there have been increases in both the humor and worry literatures , both of these topics continue to be relatively neglected by researchers . At the time of this writing , I found no published investigations of the relationship between worry and sense of humor . Therefore , my purpose in this study was to examine this relationship . On the basis of the previous literature establishing the fact that high worry and a low sense of humor have both been related to negative psychological outcomes and that individuals with a greater sense of humor are better able to thwart negative thinking and affect , I hypothesized that worry would have a significant and negative relationship to sense of humor . Method <p> Participants <p> Participants were 140 individuals ( 89 women , 51 men ) enrolled in undergraduate courses at a mid-sized , southwestern university . Totals do not always equal 140 , however , because some data were missing . The average age of the sample was 23.8 ( SD = 8.0 ) , ranging from 18 to 57 . There was no significant difference between the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .82 . The majority of participants identified themselves as Caucasian ( 63.6% ) . Other ethnicities included African American ( 12.1% ) , Latino ( 7.9% ) , and Asian American ( 12.9% ) . Five ( 3.5% ) respondents did not identify their ethnicity . <p> Instruments <p> I assessed worry with the Worry Domains Questionnaire ( WDQ ; Tallis , Eysenck , &; Matthews , 1992 ) . The original WDQ included 30 items assessing six domains of worry . However , I found one domain ( social concerns ) to be highly related to social desirability . Hence , in this study I used the 25-item WDQ , which does not include the social concerns domain presented by Tallis , Davey , and Bond ( 1994 ) . The 25-item WDQ measures a tendency to worry across five general worry domains , including relationships , lack of confidence , aimless future , work , and financial . <p> The WDQ begins with the statement , " I worry ... " Sample items include " that others will not approve of me , " " that I can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I might make myself look stupid . " I presented the WDQ items with a 5-point Likert-type scale on which individuals described their experience as not at all to extremely in agreement with individual items . I summed the responses from the appropriate items to create the worry domains and a total WDQ score . Test-retest reliability ( r = .79 after 4 weeks ) , internal consistency ( a = .92 ) , and validity of the WDQ have been found to be satisfactory ( Tallis , Davey , &; Bond , 1994 ) . <p> I measured sense of humor using the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale ( MSHS ; Thorson &; Powell , 1993 ) . The MSHS is a 24-item questionnaire that assesses humor across four factors : Humor Production , Coping With Humor , Humor Appreciation , and Attitudes Toward Humor . Participants rate each item on a 5-point Likert-type scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree . Sample items include " I can say things in such a way as to make people laugh , " " Coping by using humor is an elegant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who generate humor . " The MSHS was developed through a series of factor analyses from a pool of 124 items . Thorson and Powell ( 1993 ) reported that the four factors remained stable across several large samples . They also reported a coefficient alpha of .92 for the full MSHS . <p> Procedure <p> After the participants had given informed consent , I administered the WDQ and MSHS in random order . The participants also completed a demographics survey that solicited information about age , gender , and ethnicity . They then completed the questionnaires in a group setting . Specific information regarding the nature of the study was not disclosed until participants returned the questionnaires . Results <p> Means , standard deviations , and internal consistencies of the WDQ , MSHS , and their respective subscales are presented in Table 1 . A simple regression was calculated using total WDQ scores as the predictor variable and total MSHS scores as the criterion . WDQ scores accounted for 3% of the variance in MSHS scores . This result was significant , F ( 1,138 ) = 4.37 , p @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that higher worry scores were related to lower MSHS scores ( = -.18 ) . <p> Because of the lack of previous research in this area , I used an exploratory approach to investigate the relationships among the WDQ domains , MSHS factors , and total scores for both scales . Because of its ability to investigate the " best fit " relationships among different variables ( Hair , Anderson , Tatham , &; Black , 1995 ) , I calculated a stepwise multiple regression to identify which types of worry were most related to sense of humor . I used the five WDQ domains as predictor variables and the total MSHS scores as the criterion . The relationships domain was the sole WDQ domain entered on a step accounting for 4% of the variance in total MSHS scores . There was a significant negative relationship between the relationships domain and worry , F ( 1,138 ) = 5.62 , p < .02 , = -.20 . <p> Next , to identify which aspects of sense of humor most related to worry , I calculated another stepwise multiple regression using the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the criterion . The Humor Production factor , entered in Step 1 , accounted for 9% of the variance , which was significant , F ( 1,138 ) = 13.59 , p < .0001 , and again negative ( = -.47 ) . The Coping With Humor factor , entered in Step 2 , accounted for an additional 5% of the variance . The increase in variance was significant , F ( 1,137 ) = 7.37 , p < .006 . The beta weights indicated that worry was positively related to coping with humor ( = .28 ) . <p> I calculated separate stepwise multiple regressions using the five WDQ domains as predictor variables and each MSHS factor as the criterion . For the humor production factor , the confidence domain of the WDQ was the only significant predictor , accounting for 10% of the variance in humor production scores , F ( 1,138 ) = 16.06 , p = .0001 , = -.32 . For each of the subsequent regressions , using the remaining MSHS factors as the criterion , I found no WDQ domains that accounted for significant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results of this study supported the hypothesis . That is , worry has a significantly negative relationship to sense of humor . Thus , it seems that individuals with a sense of humor are less likely to worry . This finding is consistent with previous research in which lower scores on sense of humor were related to negative psychological outcomes ( Nezu , Nezu , &; Blissett , 1988 ; Overholser , 1992 ) and with the finding of Cann , Holt , and Calhoun ( 1999 ) that humor moderates the negative outcomes of stressful events . Russell and Davey ( 1993 ) found that worry appears to occur often as the result of stressful life events . Hence , a sense of humor might moderate the relationship between stress and worry . Researchers should explore this possible moderating effect . <p> The multiple regression results indicated that the Humor Production factor of the MSHS largely contributed to the negative relationship between worry and sense of humor . An understanding of the personality of worriers provides a partial explanation for this result . Because of the fears and inadequacies of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ model , one might assume that worriers would be less likely to participate in risky situations in which they feel unprotected or inadequate . <p> The hesitation of worriers to participate in risky situations appears to also include social situations . A commonly reported characteristic of worriers appears to be a fear of negative social evaluation . Pruzinsky and Borkovec ( 1990 ) found that worriers reported significantly more self-focused attention and social anxiety for publicly displayed aspects of themselves than did nonworriers . Thus , worriers would likely avoid placing themselves in risky social situations that might result in a negative evaluation by others . <p> The production of humor may appear to worriers to be a risky situation that could elicit negative evaluation by others . The relationship found between the confidence worries domain of the WDQ and humor production partially supports this possibility . If worries about confidence hinder individuals from producing humor , it might be expected that worriers would question their ability to produce humor in such a way that others would find favorable . Future research is necessary to determine whether a fear of negative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A similar explanation might be made for the relationship between worries about relationships and humor . That is , individuals who worry about disrupting , or losing , relationships might be less inclined to use humor for fear that others will not approve of their humor . <p> One interesting finding was that coping with humor was positively related to worry . This result can be partially explained by the functions of worry . For instance , after accounting for anxiety , worry , as measured by the WDQ , has been described as an active cognitive coping mechanism ( Davey , 1994 ) . Hence , if worry and humor both serve as coping mechanisms , it is less surprising that worry and coping with humor are positively related . <p> The results of the present study have implications for the treatment of worry . Previous research indicates that humor is helpful in decreasing negative affective and cognitive states ( Cann et al. , 1999 ; Moran , 1996 ; Moran &; Massam , 1999 ; Newman &; Stone , 1996 ) . Therefore , increasing the production of humor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reduce worry and other unpleasant affective states , such as depression , which often coexist with worry ( Starcevic , 1995 ) . Furthermore , there is evidence that humor might be more effective in reducing unpleasant psychological outcomes among worriers than among individuals who are not prone to worry . Newton and Dowd ( 1990 ) reported that using therapeutic interventions involving absurdities is more effective with individuals reporting less sense of humor ( such as worriers ) than with individuals who have a greater sense of humor . Using respectful humorous therapeutic interventions , increasing the production of humor , and facilitating a more playful , humorous perspective among clients may prove to be helpful techniques for counselors working with worriers . <p> The relatively low percentage of shared variance between worry and sense of humor should be noted . For instance , although the results were as predicted -- a significant negative relationship was found between worry and sense of humor-the percentage of shared variance between the WDQ and MSHS was somewhat low ( 3% ) . However , the statistical significance of the results indicates that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Johnston , 1981 ) . The amount of shared variance ( 10% ) between humor production ( of the MSHS ) and confidence ( of the WDQ ) also suggests that a meaningful and predictable relationship exists between these two variables . Moreover , the high internal consistencies of the scales ( see Table 1 ) suggest that the scales were not greatly affected by error variance ( Nunnally , 1978 ) . Thus , it is likely that the relationship between the two variables in this study is stable and relatively free of error variance . <p> The present study has several limitations that should be considered by future researchers . For instance , the results are based on a college student sample . Therefore , the clinical implications noted in this discussion are tentative . Studies involving clinical samples should be conducted . Also , in the present study I used only one instrument to measure each construct . Future research should include additional measures of worry and sense of humor . <p> In addition , there are some statistical limitations of the present study . For instance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as they sometimes are prone to an inflated risk of capitalizing on chance relationships specific to the sample ( Judd &; McClelland , 1989 ) . Although I believe the use of a stepwise regression was warranted because of the exploratory nature of some analyses used in this study , future studies should include different regression approaches in an attempt to replicate and expand the findings of the present study . <p> Future research should include larger , more diverse samples to attempt to replicate the findings of the present study . A further exploration of the relationship between humor production and worry may provide useful information for understanding reasons worriers report less sense of humor and production of humor . For instance , one question for future research is whether lower humor production among worriers is the result of a fear of negative evaluation or the result of another as yet undetermined factor , such as social inhibition or self-focused attention . More research is also needed to experimentally evaluate the clinical efficacy of using humor as a therapeutic technique for worriers . <p> The author would like to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article . <p> Address correspondence to William E. Kelly , who is now at the Graduate Department of Counseling , George Fox University , 12753 S.W. 68th Avenue , Portland , OR 97223 ; wkelly@georgefox.edu ( e-mail ) . TABLE 1 Means , Standard Deviations , and Internal Consistencies of the WDQ , MSHS , and Subscales ( N = 140 ) PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4001278 ABSTRACT . The Emotional Stroop ( ES ) task ( I. H. Gotlib &; C. D. McCann , 1984 ) has been proposed as an experimental measure to assess the processing of emotion or the bias in attention of emotion-laden information . However , study results have not been consistent . To further examine its reliability for empirical research , the authors of this study administered the ES task to 33 participants on 2 separate occasions separated by 1 week . Results indicated that retest reliabilities for reaction times ( RTs ) derived from the 3 separate emotion conditions ( manic , neutral , and depressive ) across the 1 week interval were very high . However , consistent with previous research , the reliabilities were very low for the interference indices ( manic and depressive ) . These low reliabilities reflect the very high intercorrelation between the RTs derived from the 3 conditions . The authors concluded that a better indicator of the reliability for this task is the individual RTs from each emotion condition . <p> Key words : emotion , emotional Stroop , reliability , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ &; McCann , 1984 ) is based on the original Stroop task ( Stroop , 1935 ) , which has previously been used to examine attentional processes and the well-known interference or Stroop effect . Results from studies employing the Stroop task have revealed that participants require a longer time to name the color of a stimulus when the word is incongruent than when it appears as a solid color square . That is , they have trouble saying " blue " when blue ink is used in printing the word " red . " <p> Researchers are beginning to focus on the abnormal processing of emotion or attention in emotion-related ( e.g. , affective ) disorders ( Austin et al. , 1999 ; Franke , Maier , Hardt , &; Frieboes , 1993 ; Hill &; Knowles , 1991 ; Kinderman , 1994 ; Lemelin &; Baruch , 1998 ; Tarbuck &; Paykel , 1995 ) . To assess the processing of emotional information in psychiatric disorders , such as depression , researchers may adapt traditional cognitive tests ; the Stroop task has been adapted for research examining the processing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Williams &; Nulty , 1986 ) <p> The ES task differs from the Stroop task in that emotional- and neutral-content words are presented instead of color-incongruent words and the interference effect is a result of emotional content rather than incongruence of color . Williams , Mathews , and MacLeod ( 1996 ) hypothesized that the ES task measures attentional bias because depressed individuals perform poorly at color naming when the words have a depressed content than when the words have a neutral or manic content . Response latencies from depressed individuals are longer when the stimulus material is negatively valenced than when the material is neutral or positively valenced ( Kindt , Bierman &; Brosschot , 1996 ; Segal , Gemar , Truchon , Guirguis , &; Horowitz , 1995 ; Siegrist , 1997 ; Williams &; Nulty , 1986 ) . <p> It has been assumed that the emotional modification of the cognitive paradigm allows the measurement of inhibition of emotional information in much the same manner as the original cognitive paradigm measures inhibition of cognitive processes ( Kindt et al. , 1996 ) . However , this has not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processing emotional information is qualitatively different and that such information follows a different neural pathway than emotionally neutral ( cognitive ) information . <p> Results from previous studies using the ES task have been inconsistent ( Williams et al. , 1996 ) and may reflect the fact that it is not a reliable measure . Reliability of the ES task has been investigated in only two previous studies ( Kindt et al. , 1996 ; Siegrist , 1997 ) , with negative results . Kindt et al . Found the reliability of emotional content words to be low ( r = .19 and .25 ) . This finding was replicated by Siegrist using self-relevant words ( r = -.04 ) . <p> A possible threat to the validity of these two studies is the confounding problem in the analysis of reliability of difference scores . This is the paradox for the measurement of change ( Murphy &; Davidshofer , 1994 ; Overall &; Woodward , 1975 ) . The paradox occurs when two variables are highly correlated . The reliabilities of the difference scores for these variables are then always low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scores are assumed to be made up of true scores and error scores . If two scores are highly correlated , then the true scores must overlap considerably . Therefore , there will be hardly any difference between the true scores , and the difference seen will be almost entirely due to measurement error . <p> Independent of this possible paradox effect , there were a number of minor problems in these previous studies that could be corrected in future research . First , although supposedly healthy controls were used in both studies , the researchers did not take into account the emotional condition of the participants , as there was no assessment of their emotional state . Second , the Kindt et al . ( 1996 ) study retested participants 3 months after the initial testing , although Carmines and Zeller ( 1979 ) recommended that retesting should be conducted no later than 1 month after the initial testing . Another potential problem is in the selection of the emotion-laden and non-laden words . Hill and Knowles ( 1991 ) attributed the lack of consistent findings to the selection of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Gotlib and McCann ( 1984 ) and Gotlib and Cane ( 1987 ) were the best types of words to produce an interference effect . Neither of the two previously published studies used the recommended emotional adjectives from the Gotlib studies . <p> Our aim in the present study was to examine the test-retest reliability of the ES task using the Gotlib adjectives . Of particular relevance to this objective was an assessment of the reliability of the interference effects . We examined the paradox within this context . We formed the following hypotheses : If the variables are not highly correlated , the low reliability will indicate that the test should not be used in future research examining emotional processing in either nonclinical situations or for disorders of emotion . If there is low test-retest reliability but the main variables are highly correlated , this will indicate that the test-retest statistic is not appropriate for this task . A high test-retest reliability for the interference effect may indicate that the methodological differences between the present study and the two previously reported studies account for these differences and that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processing . Method <p> Participants <p> Participants were 33 members of the staff or student body at Swinburne University or acquaintances of the investigators ( 19 women and 14 men , with a mean age of 27 years SD = 5.54 ) . We screened all the participants for any medical or psychological illnesses by having them complete a standard mental health questionnaire , and all provided informed written consent to participate . The research was approved by the Swinburne University Human Research Ethics Committee . All participants were of White European origin . <p> Materials <p> The task we administered was based on the ES task developed by Gotlib and McCann ( 1984 ) and consisted of color words presented on a computer screen using Arial Black font , size 72 . In total , 120 words were selected from the list supplied by Gotlib and McCann . Of these words , 40 were depressive , 40 were neutral and 40 were manic . We presented the words in one of four colors ; red , green , white , and blue . The object of the task was for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as possible . We administered the Beck Depression Inventory II ( BDI-II ; Beck , Steer , &; Brown , 1996 ) at both Time 1 and Time 2 to exclude any potential changes in mood over the testing interval . <p> Procedure <p> We tested the participants on two occasions , 1 week apart . We seated them approximately 1 m in front of a computer screen with headphones and a microphone to record response time ( RT ) for the ES task . We instructed the participants to say the color of the presented word as quickly as they could because we were recording their RTs . The words were presented for 1.5 s . Between each word presentation there was a blank screen for 250 ms and a fixation cross for 1 s . To minimize order effects , we gave half the participants the depressive words first , followed by neutral words , and finally the manic words . The remaining participants received the words in the opposite order ( i.e. , manic , followed by neutral and depressive words ) . Results <p> BDI-II scores ranged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 and 2 , respectively . The mean BDI-II score for Session 1 was 2.88 ( SD - 3.27 ) and for Session 2 , 2.19 ( SD- 2.74 ) ; these means reflected very low scores on this scale . A two-tailed t test indicated that the change in the mean score was not significant , t(31) = 1.71 , p > .05 . <p> The mean RTs ( from Session 1 to Session 2 ) were stable over time ( Table 1 ) . Correlations were also computed from RTs in the neutral , depressive , and manic conditions at Time 1 and Time 2 . For neutral words , r = .80 , p < .01 ; for depressive words , r = .80 , p < .01 ; and for manic words , r = .77 , p < .01 . These correlations indicate that the RTs derived from each of the emotional conditions were consistent over time . For each category of words , the correlation was positive . <p> As stated previously , the ES task is an interference task . Hence , test-retest reliability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the reaction times ( RTs ) . To calculate the reliability of the interference effect , we subtracted the RTs for the emotional words from the neutral words ( e.g. , depressive interference RT depressed - RT neutral , and manic interference RT manic - RT neutral ) for both Time 1 and Time 2 . Test-retest reliability correlations for the interference effect of the ES words were r = .24 , p > .05 , for depressive words and r = -.11 , p > .05 , for manic words . These correlations were nonsignificant and unacceptably low for the purposes of test-retest reliability and indicate the lack of reliability for depressive and manic interference effect . Thus , the interference effects from Session 1 are not comparable to the interference effects seen at Session 2 . <p> We conducted a further analysis on the RTs to examine the paradox for the reliability of difference scores . The correlations of RTs of emotional words with neutral words are contained in Table 2 ; all the correlations were positive , significant , and very strong , and r values were .90 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the emotional words were strongly correlated with the RTs of the neutral words . Discussion <p> Our major aim in the present study was to examine the test-retest reliabilities of the three emotion conditions as well as the interference indices . The interference indices had been previously hypothesized to reflect the bias in processing emotion-laden words . Our results indicated high test-retest reliabilities for the RTs derived from each emotion condition separately but low test-retest reliabilities for the interference indices . <p> Because the reliability of the interference indices was very low , additional analysis were conducted to confirm the paradox . The low test-retest reliability for the interference indices may have been because of the paradox of using change scores when two measures are highly correlated or , in fact , because of the very low reliability of the interference indices . RTs from all three conditions ( depression , neutral , and manic ) were highly correlated in the present study , indicating that test-retest reliability may not be a valid statistic to use in establishing the reliability of these indices . Perhaps it would be more suitable to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ words in the individual emotion conditions . These findings are consistent with past studies examining the reliability of the ES task ( Kindt et al. , 1996 ; Siegrist , 1997 ) . <p> The modification of the present study using the Gotlib list of words produced test-retest correlations for RTs derived from the different emotion conditions similar to those reported in the two previous studies examining the reliability of the ES . The correlations previously reported were by Kindt et al . ( r = .65 to .84 ) and by Siegrist ( r = .84 to .91 ) . <p> For both these previous studies ( Kindt et al. , 1996 ; Siegrist , 1997 ) as well as the current study , participants were recruited from a university population . The results of the present study indicate that the poor test-retest reliability of the interference effect of the ES is most likely to be due to the " paradox of measurement change . " It is now important for researchers to determine how these interference reliability scores compare with scores in clinical populations , especially given that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in depressed and anxious individuals ( Williams et al. , 1996 ) . <p> It is only possible to conclude from the present study that the ES task is reliable when measuring RTs derived from the different emotional conditions . Because of the difficulties in the analysis of difference scores , the reliability of the interference effects remains unknown . Nevertheless , because the RTs derived from the different conditions were highly correlated , it would be sensible to suggest that the interference produced by the ES is also likely to be highly reliable . <p> Address correspondence to P. J. Nathan , Brain Sciences Institute , 400 Burwood Road , Hawthorn , Victoria 3122 , Australia ; pnathan@bsi.swin.edu.au ( e-mail ) . TABLE 1 Means and Standard Deviations for Reaction Time ( ms ) for the Different Stimulus Categories for the Emotional Stroop Task PREFORMATTED TABLE TABLE 2 Correlations of Emotional Words and Neutral Words for Reaction Time at Sessions 1 and 2 PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4000550 Whenever I read about another episode of college cheating , I think of a scene in Rounders , a movie about two high-stakes poker buddies who have known each other since high school . One is a character played by Matt Damon . He 's a poker genius , someone who calculates odds with lightning precision and makes precise inferences from the betting . The other , played by Ed Norton , is a shady character who 's just finished a prison term . He 's also a superb poker player . But his specialty is systematic cheating , dealing surreptitious winners -- " hangers , " in poker slang : cards dealt from the middle or bottom of the deck -- to himself or his partner . <p> Norton 's crooked dealing allows them to clean out a bunch of rich kids in a college game . The two buddies then locate a weekly high-stakes game played by off-duty state cops . The cops , unlike the college kids , are n't suckers . Norton is caught dealing a hanger , and a moment later the camera @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bloody and bruised from the beating they 've just been given by the other poker players . <p> There are , it seems to me , two levels to this scene . The first is the obvious one : a weekly poker session is what is called a zero-sum game . If you and I have both put our stakes into the pot , your cheating means that you are , in effect , stealing from me . It 's a situation in which everyone has a personal stake in seeing that everyone else stays honest . <p> The second is less obvious . At a certain deep level of social consciousness , there 's an almost intuitive sense that cheating threatens the whole set of relations that allow groups to function . Children know this instinctively . They react loudly against other children who cheat at games . <p> This is where the parking-lot scene in Rounders tells us something about college cheating . It 's essential that Norton was caught red-handed in a private game , one in which everyone had a stake in seeing everyone else obeyed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as though by moral instinct , why cheating is always an ugly practice . When you change this essential element , everything else changes too . <p> In the days when university grades were given out as an honest measure of academic and intellectual performance , cheating on exams or papers was a lot like the poker game in Rounders , a situation in which everyone was immediately aware that people who cheated were mocking or disvaluing the achievement of those who were acting honestly . <p> Today , all this has changed . It 's the cheaters who are in control of the moral climate in which exams are given and papers assigned , and students who act honorably are very nearly paralyzed by a diffidence or timorousness about calling public attention to what is going on . <p> A lot of the explanation of why this change has occurred , it seems to me , has to do with grade inflation , which by taking away all legitimate standards of actual performance has turned cheating into a matter of " beating the system . " To understand how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ private poker game in Rounders , the practice of card-counting in casino blackjack . In 1962 , drawing on an analysis published by a group of statisticians , Edward O. Thorp published his famous book Beat the Dealer , teaching people a way to beat the odds in a Las Vegas casino . ( As the game proceeds , a player who has memorized which cards have been played knows by inverse inference what cards remain in the deck -- a deck rich in 10 's and Aces shifts the odds dramatically in favor of the player , a deck with lots of 5 's and 6 's shifts them in favor of the house . ) <p> The casinos have gone to great lengths to deal with card-counters . Dealers use multiple decks . Known card counters are banned from the casinos , their pictures kept on file by security personnel . In return , some card counters are suing , claiming that , since they 're not doing anything technically illegal , such banning is unjust . <p> While the courts are deciding the issue , card counting has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important about college cheating . In the period directly after Thorp published Beat the Dealer , many card counters went to casinos along with friends who knew they were using the card-counting system . These friends , who had not taught themselves card-counting methods , usually stood beside the card-counters , playing blackjack in the regular way . But none felt cheated when the card-counter won large sums of money by beating the odds . If anything , they felt admiration : the card counter had n't taken anything away from them -- he 'd only " beaten the house , " put one over on an impersonal system that was , in a sense , the opponent of every player in the casino . <p> It 's the notion of " beating the system , " one suspects , that accounts not only for the widespread cheating that goes on in colleges and universities today , but also the demoralization of the honest students who might otherwise be counted on to resent the way the dishonesty of their peers insults their own attempts to learn by study and hard work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the climate in which cheating is perceived as beating the system . <p> In writing about higher education , the rise in grade inflation and the rise in college cheating are usually treated as separate phenomena . Cheating , in fact , is usually thought to be a problem mainly at lower-level institutions , where either public pressure for " democratic " education or the urgent need of smaller private colleges to keep their enrollments up brings in large numbers of students unable to do college-level work . <p> Grade inflation , on the other hand , is thought to be the special problem of the most selective colleges and universities : it 's at Williams and Harvard and Yale , whose entering classes are filled with students who have never seen a grade lower than A in their lives , that the pressure is supposed to be greatest . When Harvard announced last year that more than half of its undergraduates were getting either an A or an A-in their courses , nobody was surprised to hear that such " good " students were getting such high grades . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as research for an article she 's writing for a campus publication reveals a quite different story . With one of the most talented student pools in the nation , New Jersey has a very high number of students who go off to the Ivies or good liberal arts colleges like Williams and Amherst . What the survey revealed in case after case -- and with evidence that was not merely anecdotal , but could be independently checked -- is that many of these New Jersey high school students had cheated their way into the most selective colleges in the country . <p> That 's surprising enough , but not , perhaps , astonishing . What 's astonishing is the frequency with which cheaters boasted openly about what they 'd done to their high school classmates . In one interview I read , a student talks about an A paper she 'd written for an AP History course . The following semester a classmate , another AP student taking the same course from another teacher , asked to see the paper , " to help her think about the topic . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the paper , word for word , and when it came back with an A , showed it to its author with a conspiratorial air , as though they 'd been partners in getting away with something . ( The plagiarist is today attending Harvard . ) <p> It 's the brazenness of the cheater 's behavior , it seems to me , that reveals the hidden relation between grade inflation and widespread cheating . In a world where students are given A 's for the most token effort , and where teachers have stopped trying to swim against the tide and give A 's just to avoid trouble , one student 's cheating does n't take anything away from another student 's grade . Like the card counter in blackjack , the cheater is , after all , just beating an impersonal system . <p> In a world where A 's are reserved for the top few students in any class , on the other hand , where B+ and B are reserved for those whose work is genuinely above average , and where those whose work is average for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the local community college -- receive C+ or C , the general attitude of students toward cheating is more likely to be like that of the cops in Rounders : to cheat is to take away from others credit they 've honestly earned through talent and hard work . <p> In the days when I myself was trying to hold out against grade inflation , I 'd give a little talk at the beginning of the course about why inflated grades hurt everyone , teachers and students and higher learning as a total enterprise . I 'd begin by putting a certain sentence on the board and asking the class what was wrong with it . The sentence was this : <p> Every student in this room is taller than the height of the average student in this room . <p> " What , " I would ask , " is wrong with that sentence ? " Some would look a bit puzzled , but most would get the point instantly : " It 's a contradiction in terms , " " Whoever wrote that does n't know what ' average @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than everybody else . " Then I 'd ask , with as much outward innocence as I could muster , " But what if it were a really tall group . What if it were an NBA team , with everybody at least 6-feet-5-inches tall ? " And the students would get impatient : " That does n't change anything -- it 's the average we 're supposed to be talking about . " Then , looking resigned , as though I did n't quite grasp their point but felt myself to have been shouted down by their collective sense of logical outrage , I 'd put another sentence on the board : <p> Every student in the course got an A for the course . <p> " Now , " I 'd say , with an air of spurious puzzlement . " Is there anything wrong with that sentence ? " And this time , invariably , I would get blankness . Not assumed blankness , or embarrassed blankness , or nervous blankness , but genuine incomprehension . Even the brightest students in the class would honestly not see that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sentence was logically analogous to the first . It was then that I realized that grade inflation represents not simply a local problem in American higher education , but an Alice-in-Wonderland irreality that has all of us , students and professors and administrators , under its spell . <p> It was n't until my student began working on her survey of cheating at Rutgers , though , that I began to understand the deeper sense in which grade inflation promotes cheating . This is where what I called the second level of the Rounders episode comes into play . In the first instance , I grant , pure self-interest is what 's likely to make students intolerant of cheating in any situation where grades reflect actual performance . If your cheating directly harms my chances of getting into medical school or law school or one of the top philosophy programs in the country , I 'm much more likely to tell you to stop . <p> Still , there 's another way of looking at the matter . If I catch you plagiarizing your work from the web or getting high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply want to tell a professor or a dean that I 'm doing my own work , and I want to be measured only against other students who have done theirs . <p> If you look closely , you 'll see that this response is only incidentally an example of what might be called zero-sum outrage , where I 'm angry because your gain equals my loss . Instead , it 's much closer to the reaction that takes us to the second or " ethical " level of the Rounders example . At this level , what makes one angry is a deeper sense that cheating dishonors the very pursuit in which some people are trying their best , working as hard as they can , and taking the objective measure of their performance -- whether it 's a C+ in a calculus course or a 3:18 time in a marathon -- as a true assessment of their accomplishment . <p> Perhaps the worst consequence of grade inflation , in other words , is that it hides or masks the ethical dimension of cheating , even from the honest student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to anything we might want to think of as a genuine intellectual community . I thought of this recently when , in quite another context , I was reading Anthony Kenny 's A Life in Oxford . Kenny , as many readers will know , is an Oxford philosopher who began his career as an ordained Catholic priest . His gradual estrangement from Catholicism is recounted in A Path from Rome , to which A Life in Oxford is an autobiographical sequel . <p> The moment that caught my attention was this . After he has applied for and achieved laicization , married , and taken up a position at Oxford , Kenny -- by now an agnostic -- continues to attend Catholic Mass . But he does so as a non-Catholic , always careful to limit his participation in the liturgy to those portions that do not imply either religious belief or membership in the Church . His reasoning seems to me exactly appropriate to the subject of grade inflation and cheating : " to recite the Creed or receive Communion would be , in my view , not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but also an insult to the seriousness with which these actions are undertaken by believers . " <p> There we have , in a nutshell , a logic that brings to light the real moral ugliness of academic cheating . To cheat on an exam or plagiarize a paper is not simply to try to receive credit for work that is beyond one 's own capacity . It is to insult the seriousness with which students who act honorably are taking their university education as a process of personal and intellectual development . In the same way , the dean or " Office of Student Services " who treats cheating as a mere slip or trivial inadvertency is telling every real student on the campus -- the students whom any university worthy of the name ought most to value , encourage , even cherish -- that he or she is valueless , nothing more than another anonymous unit on the endless and indiscriminate assembly line that , at very many schools , passes today as higher education . <p> It 's only when everyone is operating within a system that reliably @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that one perceives the true moral degradation involved in cheating . It 's only then that the marathoner who has undergone ten months of arduous training will have no hesitation about telling the race officials that the person who finished ahead of him cut through the woods , or that a student who 's put an enormous amount of time into getting an honorable C+ in calculus will get up and tell a classmate copying answers from a friend on the midterm to knock it off . <p> It 's easy enough to see that the cops who beat up the card cheats in Rounders were at some level motivated by self-interest . It 's harder to see that , beyond that , they were instinctively acting to preserve a certain rudimentary moral contract implicit even in weekend card games . It 's not unreasonable , I think , to ask that university administrators , by putting an end to grade inflation , do what they can to raise the ethical level of their institutions at least to the level of ordinary folks who get together to play a game of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ University of Virginia Medical Center employee in a staff meeting , quoted approximately below , was enough to prompt the university 's president to issue a strongly worded press release , to impel the medical center CEO to investigate the incident for racial insensitivity , to incite a hasty " Protest against Racism at U. Va and the U. Va . Medical Center after a Recent Racial Incident " by the staff union , to result in " follow-up " measures for the employee , and it was grounds for the chairman of the NAACP to declare , " My first impulse is that this should be a dismissible infraction . " : <p> I ca n't believe in this day and age that there 's a sports team in our nation 's capital named the Redskins . That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called the " N-Word " would be to blacks . <p> By William C. Dowling <p> <p> William C. Dowling is a professor of English at Rutgers University . He is author most recently of The Senses of the Text : Intensional Semantics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) . <p> 
##4000551 PREFORMATTED TABLE -- A. A. Milne , Winnie-the-Pooh <p> <p> In a promising gesture of diversity , the Modern Language Association has been welcoming community colleges ( CC ) into its conference agendas . Since this sector constitutes the majority of college teachers , and a silent one at that , it could furnish valuable perspectives to the Association . <p> What are these perspectives ? To begin with , take the average CC teacher : The vast majority are agreeably personable and people-oriented , articulate and communicatively disciplined , even after years of service , because the nature of their teaching orientation demands that attitude . How many at the university level can boast so consistent an attitude ? <p> Yes , but do CC instructors publish , it might be asked ? Actually some of us do . Besides , at a time when so much of current humanities publication is of frankly questionable scholarly value , what is the practical difference between that and no publication at all ? <p> CC teachers are practical because their institutions were designed to be so . Here at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sounds and smells of the Vocational Technology shops one passes with pleasure on the way to class . And by the air conditioning plant , which elsewhere would be hidden bashfully from view , and which is here glass-encased to be enjoyed by connoisseurs for its gleaming industrial craftsmanship . Benjamin Franklin , the craftsman-intellectual par excellence would have felt at home here . This is practicality , rootedness in community . But also savvy : Laney knows the dirty little secret of our so-called techno-information age : Highly-paid traditional crafts are going begging , and can only barely be filled by massive , and often not very legal , immigration . <p> What then would draw the practical-minded CC instructor in search of professional enlightenment to the MLA convention ? As a language teacher my own natural interest in Washington lay in suitable sessions , such as the Foreign Language and Culture session . Naturally I looked for practical suggestions and helpful hints for teaching these , especially for the continuing practical problem of adequately testing for culture in a typical language course . Unfortunately I found none of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bewail in a general way the misfortune of oppressed minority cultures . Now , even being sympathetic to the causes , I could not help feeling baffled and even patronized : What environment did these speakers come from ? Had they ever been in genuine touch with the objects of their study ? <p> And then it struck me : These were university staff , obviously from an environment different from my own . Here at Laney where the absolute majority of students are from the official minority categories -- a fairly accurate microcosm of Oakland as a whole -- sensitivity to them and their practical needs are a natural part of our practical reality , as part of the CC mission in general . And yet how is it that I as a white male feel vastly more appreciated here than at the elite , overwhelmingly white , private university ( Stanford ) where I also taught extensively ? The difference is ideology : Whereas at that university 's humanities division white males as a group are welcome only if they are avowed stereotypical Marxists and cultural revisionists , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for whatever direct practical contribution I can make to each individual 's learning process . How truly rewarding for a teacher ! <p> Here then is the Achilles heel of so many universities : most reality is seen primarily in terms of theory , stand-offishly and sterilely , with too little input from practicality . This is especially true with regard to ideology . Marxism , for example , so often presented as a Rousseauesque utopian vision of perfect social equality and perfect economic justice by government fiat , is on the surface truly attractive -- in theory . And teaching it to gullible post-adolescents who have never participated significantly in any normal economic life is heady stuff . Not that these should be shielded from getting to know it . Quite the contrary . But how ethical is it not to tell these same students the terrible truth that the actual totalitarian practice of Marxism has cost the lives of an estimated 100 million people in the course of the twentieth century , surpassing even Fascism ? On a purely human level must it not be asked , how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , live with himself asserting that Stalin succeeded , and that Mao did not go far enough in his agenda ( Marxism , 250 ; Ideologies , 2 : 207-8 ) ? Yes , capitalism , if unrestrained , can , and often does , " kill " the soul , but it does not as a rule deliberately target the bodies , not least because it needs them as consumers . Intellectual purists might call this cynical , because they miss lofty visions of youthful sophomoric idealism , but sane common sense also finds it surprisingly practical . Why ? Because it is this attention to mercantile practicality that has saved democratic capitalism , even as admittedly imperfect as it is , from the horrific practical consequences of idealistic but deadly totalitarian Rousseauan utopias . And while Marxists-Leninists like Marcuse and Jameson might dismiss this crucial difference with an amazing verbal sleight-of-hand as democracy 's " repressive tolerance , " it has allowed even them to live and indeed thrive very well personally , has it not ? <p> Students at most universities are intellectually vulnerable . In a manner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a wide scale are divorced from their families at the age of eighteen and thrown together with equally naive peers , often stranded in isolated suburban or country settings ( " farms " ) away from the gritty life experience of city centers . Here an artificially academic lifestyle and correspondingly utopian narrowness of life experience exclude the rich vicissitudes of ordinary personal and public , commercial life . Thus intellectually captive and reality-deprived , young students can become easy prey for conscienceless ideological raptors , who set upon them with more or less refined subtlety . It is an irony of history that the traditional land-grant colleges , originally designed to protect students from the " vices " of city life , have now in many cases become intellectual ghettoes , ideological traps , propaganda camps for proselytizing impressionable youngsters , closer in spirit to the ominous " reeducation camps " of totalitarian regimes than to traditional humanities departments , judging by the curricula . Thus the university experience , which was originally designed to broaden a person 's outlook , is now in danger of being more narrowing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> CC students are luckier in this sense . They are for the most part commuters , many with demanding jobs . Daily contact with family and real life are the norm rather than the exception . Ideas learned at school stand at least a minimum chance of being tested at home or at work on a constant basis . Parents of all social backgrounds would be wise to start off their offspring at a CC first until they become mature enough to judge a university experience more critically . <p> Academic remoteness from reality is particularly evident in the epistemologically disastrous presentational jargon of literary and cultural studies . Average visitors to so many MLA convention sessions may be excused for feeling that they have arrived at a sort of Baudelairean " temple o de vivants piliers / laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles . " Honestly , how difficult would it be to require all presenters to state their central thesis clearly in one or two sentences ? But then how many current presentations could survive such a practical test ? We CC teachers work hard to hone our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowledge as democratically accessible as possible . This requires us to be truly centered as individuals . The current fad of deliberate cultivation of communicational " decenteredness " runs entirely counter to our mission . To use a blunt but honest old adage , the use of " dollar words for nickel concepts " strikes us not only as elitist and antidemocratic , but simply as fraudulent . <p> There is , of course , a reason for this deliberately equivocating language that makes so much of MLA-English sound like a bad translation of notoriously undigestible Hegelian and Heideggerian German , mediated through the artificial , pretentious French of Foucault and Derrida . It is the deliberate goal of undermining the primarily Western empirical language and thought as bourgeois " false consciousness , " the disenfranchisement of the common sense of free thinking individuals , all to one end : Namely , so that radical intellectuals may seize control of public discourse and become Foucault 's " masters of discursivity , " who , priest-like , define and control for the rest of us all truths beyond all ordinary facts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come to pass . <p> What damage such radical , dogmatic opposition to empirical truth can wreak on an individual is tragically illustrated by Foucault 's personal fate . He died because he refused to acknowledge the empirical evidence of the danger of AIDS . And when he did recognize it , and himself contracted it , he refused to communicate this fact to his sexual partners , with consequences that " can only be surmised " ( Tallis , 3 ) . <p> On an institutional level , what does this epistemological development portend regarding the quality of humanistic studies ? For the cause of any kind of serious science it is plainly a disaster , as the steep decline in useful empirical scholarship indicates , thus threatening to return American literary scholarship to the level of the pre-1950s . Tell-tale signs are such simple things as the vanishing footnote , that instrument of straightforward verifiability and in-depth research . Already a new generation of young critics is establishing itself , one that has little concept or appreciation of plain facts , as current MLA presentations attest . And these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ universities . Moreover , this is the first generation whose view of the world is shaped not only by the massive absorption of television images , but whose informational universe is , in addition , circumscribed largely by the concept of cyberspace . Together these two worlds reduce the perception of reality to the epistemological level of cartoons , devoid of the experiential complexity of ordinary life , producing the kind of existential naivet that incidentally shows up in the amply proven fragility of the " dot.com " economy . Add to this a constricting , mind-numbing set of narrow ideologies , and a vision of the twenty-first-century humanist emerges that can easily make one shudder . <p> This endangerment of the empirical at the university level aggravates a process already under way in American society as a whole , due to the significant social changes of the last decades . As the bulk of American economy and population has moved away from farming , crafts and manufacturing , it is losing the sense of making " real , " tangible , objectively verifiable things , and with it an important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , high schools over much of America used to include in their curriculum shop classes that taught skills involving hand/eye coordination . These stimulated the brain and instilled in many teens , even the college-bound like me , an appreciation of the value of craftsmanship , and with it a sense of empirical achievement at an early age . Most of these programs have been abandoned with short-sighted fervor in favor of , at best , esthetically narrow computer classes . So now many teens , already largely growing up in experientially narrow , sterile suburbs where their imaginative outlet is limited to unrealistic , manipulated media portrayals of reality , seek illusory achievement in a neurotic , narcissistic sex-and-drugs culture . But worst of all they grow up without a balanced sense of the overall importance of the empirical in daily life . <p> The challenge of the new century then is to maintain the empirical tradition . At the university level , this calls for a philosophy of the authentically experiential to counteract the deleterious effects of excessive theory , one which asks , for example : What is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never directly experienced his subject : such as that of a Marxist who has never experienced the effects of communism on his own body ? And as all the new technologies begin to predominate and impose new conditions on our lives we need to ask once again those age-old humanist questions on the most basic level : What is reality ? What is the purpose of each individual human life ? At present , American universities are not equipped for this challenging task , because the narrowness of ideological conformity , combined with an uncautious trust in technology , that characterizes the once best of them from Stanford on the West Coast to Harvard and Yale in the East , makes any factual exploration of these questions close to impossible . This is because the empirical epistemological tools that are the hard-won fruits of Western philosophy and culture are now being openly disavowed , if not totally demonized , by the anti-enlightenment forces inside Western culture itself . So strong is the attack on empiricism that not even the " hard " sciences are spared , as the spectacular Allan Sokal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , anti-Western cultural revisionism is that it is not at all an American homegrown phenomenon , but paradoxically a European import . It is actually a by-product of a long tradition in European civilization , which has always been accompanied , as by a Jungian shadow , by elements of nihilistic philosophy , always lurking and poised to erupt in times of crises . Goethe , a wise European , ingeniously summed it up in the character of Mephistopheles : " I am the spirit that always negates , " ( Faust I , line 1338 , my translation ) . As such , it was imported to America in a moment of spiritual weakness , of Faustian soul-searching , during the Vietnam War upheavals when many here were ready to listen to gifted Mephistophelian pied pipers from Europe . It is a spirit of doctrinaire hardness , forged in the harsher climate of an older civilization , and immeasurably amplified by the massive bitterness , inhumanity , and suffering of twentieth-century Old World events from which my own family were refugees . For the more individualistic , optimistic , newer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which has never experienced misery on that scale ( no , not even the 9/11-trauma comes close ) , it is simply not practical . <p> Stepping out of the conference halls in Washington , I felt once again the fresh breath of reality . Fortunately , we are in a profession the consequences of whose works are mercifully not immediately evident in the outside world . These are the liberal arts , after all , reasonably detached from immediate material impact . In Washington , the MLA-buses still ran smoothly , regardless of what was being said inside the halls of the convention . Their drivers strove to be on schedule and did not insist on " indeterminacy . " Passengers happily crowded in without suffering from " contiguity disorder . " And could one imagine a traffic system that was culturally determined , with separate traffic lanes and traffic signs for black , white , gay , straight , feminist , or male chauvinist cultures ? And speaking of traffic , would you entrust your car to a " deconstructionist " mechanic ? Finally , on the streets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in " commodity fetishism " at Washington 's classier stores , and counting their change without complaining about " empirical bias . " <p> On the last day of the convention , I decided to explore the authentic Washington , this city named for a deserving individual who acted in tune with the demands of his time , admittedly had luck on his side , and overall discharged himself of what he saw his historical responsibility with humane dignity . And yet , this is also the man whose achievements are now , against all facts , severely marginalized in a number of current history texts , as a result of an ideology heavily represented at the MLA . Truly , listening to many of the sessions , how many attendees at the convention would have liked to see this city renamed , imitating modern European examples , " Karl Marx City ? " Or perhaps more up-to-date and American : " Jamesontown ? " <p> My exploration of Washington took place in the most authentic way possible -- on foot . The city is actually a government island surrounded by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ line from the center in many directions , one can soon very easily find oneself in a neighborhood that is predominantly African American . Indeed , after one lengthy bracing walk , I clearly seemed to be the only Caucasian within immediate sight . Stopping in the cold crisp air for a hot coffee , I chanced to exchange some conversation with the cashier , smiled , and received a smile in return : A splendidly ordinary encounter ! And as I stood on the sidewalk , relishing the steam from my cup rising in the cold air , it suddenly occurred to me : What if others had done what I had just done ? What if the thousands of devoted cultural theorists , with their cultural sensibilities honed to the nth degree , had on this almost final day of the millennium dropped their academic stand-offishness , fanned out over this significant city , and just once made actual practical contact with the objects of their sympathy , a simple , human , non-dogmatic , nonpolitical contact ? What a sensation ! Could one have imagined the possible news @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spectacular Practice . " " Whispers of Millennial Fraternization . " " Alle Menschen werden Brder ? " <p> But it did not happen . A once-a-millennium opportunity had come and gone . And the cold hung heavy over Washington . The Fall 2003 Newsletter of the University of Michigan 's Program in American Culture describes the current research of assistant professor Nadine Naber . <p> Dr. Naber is also developing her dissertation , " Arab San Francisco : On Gender , Cultural Citizenship , and Belonging , " into a book manuscript . The book locates Arab American identities at the intersections of hegemonic U.S. nationalisms and Arab cultural re-authenticity , a term she coined to refer to the gendered and sexualized nationalist discourses produced in the context of bourgeoisie Arab immigrant politics . Dr. Naber 's book highlights diasporic Arab identities as sites for contesting the forces of assimilation , acculturation , and racism , while exposing a variety of oppositional locations ( such as queer Arab , Muslim student activism , inter-racial dating/marriage and radical Arab feminism ) that are often rendered invisible by the neo-colonialist discourses of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> 
##4000552 This is a tale about impairment of academic freedom that I experienced while teaching in the MBA program of a respected business school . The management department chair restricted my use of Saul Alinsky 's Rules for Radicals ( n1 ) in a course called Conflict and Negotiation . The political correctness movement has come full circle when it restricts the use of books , like Alinsky 's , that advocate civil rights . Because of this self-contradiction , I conclude that left-wing diversity advocates are just point men and women for university administrations aiming to make universities more market driven . <p> My claim is that political correctness furthers the marketing and molding of universities to what Thorstein Veblen calls pecuniary purposes in two ways. ( n2 ) First , political correctness itself constitutes a production goal that forestalls a less manageable target , namely academic freedom . Once in the door , the more manageable political correctness target can be transformed into other market-driven targets , and likely will be . In our free economy , institutional survival depends on meeting market demand efficiently , so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a political choice , market responsiveness will in the end replace it . <p> Second , the replacement of academic freedom with political correctness helps to teach students that the efficiency of conformity ought to trump costly free inquiry and debate . In turn , reflexive conformity makes MBA graduates ever more marketable to corporations , which benefit from it . Fear of disagreeing with politically correct ideas is good training for the workplace . MBA graduates who are psychologically compliant reduce firms ' training and turnover costs . In turn , the inculcation of conformity has become a key goal in MBA programs , which increasingly mandate uniformity and predictability in instructional methods . <p> But nonconformity and variation are sine qua non for academic dialogue . The reason is that instruments can not be refined to measure and control the uncontrollable . Creative dialogue or idle curiosity , as Veblen put it , can not be managed as a production process . Combine the incapacity to measure true academic quality with asymmetry in power between university administrations and faculties , and application of pecuniary purposes and total quality management @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> George Ritzer colorfully terms the process of introducing efficiency , calculability , predictability and control into a wide range of social institutions McDonaldization , because the pattern echoes McDonald 's standardization of its menu and processes. ( n3 ) Efficiency , calculability , predictability and control minimize unpleasantness and risk . Much as amusement parks provide a safer alternative to trips abroad , so the establishment of quality targets causes education to be watered down , for example , through preferences for safely standardized text books and the full-scale standardization of courses . In MBA students ' post-1984 undergraduate education , ethics , diversity , conflict and morality must come , as Ritzer puts it , pre-sliced , pre-cut and pre-prepared , or else dialogue threatens therapeutic targets important to sensitive markets . Warning labels on offensive ideas need to be provided . Such narrowly defined customerization is of course inconsistent with academic freedom , but entirely in line with political correctness . <p> It was enough that several students found Alinsky 's book to be racist even though Alinsky was writing about his activities as a civil rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understood or read the book . One student complaint was enough for the chair to encourage me to limit my using it in the classroom , for in a McDonaldized business school the customer is always right . Context <p> During the summer of 2002 , I taught as an adjunct professor in the full-time MBA program of a respected business school in which I have taught intermittently since 1996 . Different from the recent past , when I have taught as an adjunct in the evening program ( where the students are somewhat older and are currently working ) , this semester I was teaching in the full-time program , where the young-adult MBA students graduated from college in the late 1990s and seek jobs similar to the jobs that the evening students already have . <p> Adjunct teaching in the MBA program has from time to time supplemented income from my full-time teaching career at Brooklyn College , a component of the City University of New York . Although I have taught as a part-time adjunct in the MBA program for seven years ( with student ratings evidencing my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prepared for changes among MBA students since I last taught in the full-time program in the late 1990s . <p> The course I was teaching , Conflict and Negotiation , arises from the work of labor relations scholars , who argue that there are several kinds of negotiation , most importantly the integrative and distributive . In integrative negotiation , the parties aim to expand the opportunity set , and in distributive , the parties aim to divide the spoils . Saul Alinsky and Rules for Radicals <p> The incident involved the reading I assigned from Saul Alinsky 's Rules for Radicals . The book is about Alinsky 's experiences as a civil rights agitator. ( n4 ) <p> In the 1940s , Alinsky was active in the Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood of Chicago , the setting of Upton Sinclair 's The Jungle. ( n5 ) In his organization work he encouraged the joint efforts of youth groups , businesses , and churches , and emphasized the resolution of hostilities among working class ethnic groups . He worked closely with striking stockyard workers , who were associated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lewis as well as the Catholic Church . Building on ideas he learned from Lewis , he formed the Industrial Areas Foundation in which he refined his organizational tactics . In the 1940s , he wrote Reveille for Radicals , which codified his ideas and was a bestseller. ( n6 ) Alinsky emphasized that organizers could facilitate , but that local people had to lead . His concepts constitute a potential solution to the breakdown in pluralism and the emergence of the brokerage of special interest groups that economists , political scientists , and journalists have pondered with distress . <p> In the 1950s , Alinsky became involved in organizing African American communities , and helped to create the Temporary Woodlawn Organization , which was the " first time that a black community in Chicago had , through sheer political power , won a major role in shaping an important urban-renewal program . " ( n7 ) After his departure from the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council , Alinsky attempted to counteract the racism that emerged in this and other working class white community organizations by proposing quota systems to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has since been termed affirmative action. ( n8 ) Then , in 1965 , Alinsky was invited to Rochester to help organize a civil rights protest movement against Eastman Kodak . These later civil rights activities are discussed in Alinsky 's Rules for Radicals . <p> In his analysis of race relations and the civil rights movement , Charles E. Silberman writes of Alinsky : <p> Alinsky has been attacked at various times as a communist , a fascist , a dupe of the Catholic Church , the mastermind of a Catholic conspiracy ( Alinsky is Jewish ) , a racist , a segregationist , and an integrationist seeking to mongrelize Chicago . His supporters are equally immoderate in their praise. ( n9 ) <p> What better author to include in a course called Conflict and Negotiation ? Classroom Incident <p> In discussing Alinsky 's ideas on conflict , in which I mentioned his activities in labor and community organizing and did not mention any race issues , a student privately raised a concern with me during the class break that Alinsky was a racist . I replied that I could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Rules for Radicals is about Alinsky 's civil rights activism , but I would be happy to discuss her concerns during class time if she would raise them in class . She agreed to raise them . <p> My suggestion of an open discussion reflected my concern for academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas . My approach was consistent with the university 's policy " Academic Freedom and Tenure " which appears in the Faculty Handbook that was first adopted more than forty years ago . According to the handbook : <p> Academic freedom is essential to the free search for truth and its free expression . . Freedom in teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the teacher in teaching and of the student in learning . Academic freedom imposes distinct obligations on the teacher . . Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject , but they should not introduce into their teaching controversial matter that has no relation to their subject . <p> Indeed , the American Association of University Professors ' 1967 Statement on Rights and Freedoms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inquiry and expression " in the classroom . Furthermore , " students should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion . " ( n10 ) In fact , I make it a policy to reward students with extra credit toward their grades when they disagree with me in class or in their written assignments , and I did so in this case . The courage to debate is among the highest virtues . It seemed to me instinctively , and continues to upon reflection , that open debate is the best and most tolerant way to handle a student 's concern . <p> In explaining her view to the class , the student referred to an indented quote in the chapter on tactics ( 136 ) , which follows 135 pages of Alinsky 's discussions of his activities in civil rights protests and other politically correct social action . In the indented quote , Alinsky describes a tactic in which African American victims of housing discrimination picket to get " Jones " to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the slum landlord 's residence . Their picket signs , which said , " Did you know that Jones , your neighbor , is a slum landlord ? " were completely irrelevant ; the point was that the pickets knew Jones would be inundated with phone calls from his neighbors . <p> Jones : Before you say a word let me tell you that those signs are a bunch of lies ! <p> Neighbor : Look , Jones , I do n't give a damn what you do for a living . All we know is that you get those goddam niggers out of here or you get out ! <p> Jones came out and signed . <p> The student indicated that Alinsky 's use of the " n-word " in this context suggested racism on his part . She said that she had " shown the passage to her roommate and other friends and they had agreed that the passage was racist . " <p> I told the student that she had considerable courage to raise the issue , but that given the context in which the book was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his fight with racism , that Alinsky wrote in a period that was rife with racism , and that much of Rules for Radicals was about his experiences in fighting discrimination , I did not agree that Alinsky 's book expressed any racism . <p> The student then replied that there were many students in the class who would n't understand the context in which Alinsky wrote because they were from foreign countries . " The book is full of racism . For instance , he uses the word ghetto instead of blighted urban area , " she argued . <p> I replied that such terminology did n't likely exist in Alinsky 's day , and it did n't make sense to ask him to use politically correct bureaucratese from the 1990s . " If we limit ourselves to books written in the 1990s , we will be stuck with Gwyneth Paltrow , " I said sarcastically . I became frustrated as I sensed that the student had scanned the book for political incorrectness after noticing that Alinsky was writing about race issues . <p> As we discussed the topic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least a few of whom had read the book , disagreed with her . Several of her fellow students made suggestions about how to accommodate the student 's concerns . One suggestion was that I should warn future classes that the " n-word " is in the book in advance of assigning it . <p> Another student , however , supported an outright ban and said that , " the business school should n't be teaching racist material . " <p> I replied that , as far as I knew , I was the only instructor who uses Rules for Radicals in the business school ( it is used elsewhere in the university ) and that under ordinary standards of academic freedom , instructors ' choices in teaching are independent of the university 's policies . <p> I was surprised that the class as a whole was unaware of basic concepts of academic freedom and was unwilling to express views that differed from the politically correct one . In the post-1984 university , an accusation of racism is tantamount to a conviction ; for anyone , including an instructor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is racist automatically condemns the arguer . My students , educated in post-1984 elite universities , knew this better than I did . <p> As a postmodern business instructor , I am responsive to group dynamics ( that is my field , more or less ) and so I agreed to consider warning the class before assigning the book again . I also said that I would consider dropping Saul Alinsky from future teaching altogether because the book might be too " advanced . " I said this despite feeling in my gut that I was compromising academic freedom and pedagogic standards . <p> I also mentioned that the film Harlan County , USA , that we were to watch during the next class , also includes the " n-word " just as Alinsky uses it -- in depicting a racist opponent . <p> The young woman who raised the issue was one of three African American students in the class of about forty students . One of the other two said that he was n't bothered by the word 's being in the book but he agreed with the student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the word 's being in the book before assigning the book in the future . <p> After class , a young woman ( and later two other students ) privately told me that many students had disagreed that Rules for Radicals is racist and that the book " definitely should not be dropped . " I asked her why she and her camp did not voice this view during the class discussion , and she replied that they were afraid of being accused of racism . <p> I had never before met this level of fear of expressing opinions in a classroom . Nor had I previously heard students make claims that reflected such a poverty of understanding of basic concepts of academic freedom . Students were unaware that my views as a professor were separate from those of the university . The political correctness movement seems to have done a hatchet job on awareness of academic freedom . The degree of fear , conformity , and lack of awareness of the academic process is something I had not encountered before , at the business school or anywhere else . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book and shown Harlan County , USA three times at Brooklyn College , where about 20 percent of my students are African Americans ( Brooklyn College is wonderfully diverse ) , as well as four previous times at the business school , without prior incident or complaint . <p> The course proceeded largely without incident . When the semester ended , the third black student in the class , an African diplomat attending the business school full time , approached me privately and , thanking me profusely , said that this was the best single course he had taken while at the business school . Meeting with the Department Chair <p> At the end of the semester , but before I submitted the final grades , the departmental chair summoned me to her office to offer me future summer teaching at the business school ( which I went on to do ) . After inquiries about possible teaching arrangements and my teaching interests , she told me that the Conflict and Negotiation course was to be redesigned into a half-semester module and that it was to become a required course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the sections would now consist of identical content . In other words , Conflict and Negotiation was to be McDonaldized . <p> After discussing reappointment , the chair surprised me by changing the subject entirely . She raised the Saul Alinsky complaint . She told me that a ( white ) student , not the student who had first raised the issue in class , had come to her office to complain that I had been teaching from a racist book . The chair told me that she had asked the student to show her the racist book , and was surprised when she saw that it was Alinsky 's Rules for Radicals . She told me that she had read the book as an undergraduate in a political science course at an Ivy League university and that Alinsky was " Mr. Civil Rights . " She said that she had been astonished that the student thought that Alinsky was a racist . She told me that the student had then told her that the " n-word " had appeared in the text . She proceeded to ask me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " <p> Following , as it did , immediately after a discussion of contract renewal , the implication was , of course , that " doing something about it " was related to contract renewal . I was surprised and angered about the question , but responded as carefully as I could , as I wanted the contract to be renewed . I also was surprised that the chair seemed to be unconcerned about this student 's adoption of a Red Guard-style informant role , a role style that the political correctness movement seems to have encouraged among post-1984 graduates . <p> I asked the chair whether she really had read the book , and she replied that she had . She added that she understood what I was doing in the course , and that Alinsky 's tactics involved throwing opponents ' book of rules back at them in a conflict situation . She made it clear that she did not seriously believe that Alinsky 's book was racist . <p> I retorted that then she must understand why I found it hard to believe that the student who complained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ word appeared on page 136 in an indented quote , I scarcely knew it was there , and how could someone have found the word without having grasped the book 's meaning ? <p> She answered , " Well , maybe you did n't assign the part of the book that explained Alinsky 's views . " In fact , I had assigned the entire book , but said in class that the students should emphasize the chapters on ethics and tactics in their reading . Might not a student read more completely before complaining above my head ? Anyway , Alinsky 's point of view is evident from those two chapters alone . <p> The chair then added , accusingly , " You discussed racial issues in class , and some explanation is needed . " <p> I replied that I did not bring up racial issues . Maybe I had made a mistake in asking the student to discuss the matter openly , but that seemed like the right thing to do ( it still does ) . The student had raised the issue , and so the issue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't upset with the way the discussion went , " I said . <p> The chair rejoined , shaking her head and adopting the tone of a child therapist scolding an inept parent , " Well , she did feel uncomfortable -- for the rest of the semester . Maybe it was n't a good idea to discuss the subject . " <p> I repeated that she had come to me with a complaint , and we discussed it in the class , spending forty minutes on her point . I was n't sure what else I could have done . <p> She then said in an exasperated tone , " You have to understand that we attract so few black students here in a city that has a large black population and we need to worry about their concerns . " <p> I agreed that the small number of African American students in the business school was a cause for concern . <p> The chair again asked , " What do you plan to do about the complaint ? Have you thought about warning the class in advance ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . One of the students had suggested doing that . But perhaps I 'll just drop the book altogether . I am not interested in a to-do . There are plenty of alternative books that cover conflict and distributive negotiation tactics . " It had become obvious to me that no matter what I said , I stood accused ( hence convicted ) of racism . If I capitulated and agreed , then I would be able to make amends . If I continued to argue , then I would stand accused and possibly lose the thousands of dollars of salary for two summer classes . <p> When I said that I would drop the book , the chair nodded approvingly and smiled . " Oh , you 're thinking of dropping it . Good , " she concluded , adding that she had another meeting to attend . Conclusion <p> Perhaps the chair was concerned that I had been insufficiently responsive , insufficiently therapeutic , and not customer targeted . Remember , not a single racist word was uttered by anyone in the class . The sole issue was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other elaborate ideologies , political correctness is easily misinterpreted and transmuted , and the dictates of managerial expediency make misinterpretation a certainty . Administrators ' needs for power and their overriding concerns with maximizing endowments and tuition revenues guarantee that subtle arguments about speech codes will be easily forgotten . <p> The chair responded to a student 's misguided complaint by restricting my teaching and creating a rule that could not have possibly reflected an underlying concern for racist speech . Ultimately , and perhaps unconsciously , her response was a market-driven one . She believes that certain target markets are under-exploited ; she received a complaint from a member of that target market ; and she called on me to help resolve the marketing and quality problem . Sadly , such a pattern tends to replicate itself . As administrators institute control in the name of political correctness , the McDonaldization of higher education proceeds apace . Courses will be standardized and speech codes implemented . The McDonaldized institutions arising from the patterns that political correctness has instigated will remain in place long after the race issue has been forgotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4000553 Grutter <p> As of this writing the response by conservatives , classical liberals , and constitutional and academic traditionalists to the revolutionary Grutter v. Bollinger decision continues to be stunningly weak , even as the dominant liberal culture is presenting the decision 's redefinition of America as a fait accompli . It is notable , for example , that in a list of elements constituting " the core of a civil society as understood in the West " that America hopes to install in Iraq , reporter John Burns of the New York Times includes " entrenched individual and group rights " ( emphasis added ) , a formula that would have been inconceivable prior to the Grutter decision . New York Times , 14 December 2003 , " There Is No Crash Course in Democracy . " <p> One factor that might explain the lack of effective conservative protest against Grutter is that in the same week that the decision was handed down , along with its companion decision in Gratz v. Bollinger , the Supreme Court also issued its landmark ruling in Lawrence v. Texas . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rules , " First Things ( October 2003 ) , devotes the better part of his attention to Lawrence and , although he deplores the decision in Grutter , does not grapple with its implications . Commentary published a symposium , " Has the Supreme Court Gone Too Far ? " ( October 2003 ) , which also takes both Lawrence and the affirmative action decisions under purview , with some respondents focusing mainly on the former . Strong entries come from William Bennett , Robert Bork , and Lino Graglia , but the overall tone of the symposium is disconcertingly mild , featuring as it does a number of legal experts who see no problem with Grutter whatsoever , as well as a number of past affirmative action opponents who unaccountably fail to argue with any urgency against it here . The overall impression is that Grutter is just another regrettable Supreme Court decision , like many others we have had over the years , and not something of any particular significance . The casual attitude is also suggested by the symposium 's title : " Has the Supreme Court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ question . On the other hand , Carl Cohen in the letters section of the January Commentary presents a superb refutation of the arguments supporting " diversity . " <p> Another possible factor in the anemic conservative and traditionalist response to Grutter is that racial preference opponents , never having imagined that the Court would actually inject racial discrimination into the United States Constitution , were simply confounded by the decision and did n't know how to reply . ( As Justice Thomas pointed out in his dissent , previous Supreme Court findings permitting racial preferences had been on narrow , specific grounds . ) Thus the stalwart Stanley Kurtz confesses that " after the Michigan decisions , the battle seemed lost and I did n't have the heart to look into the matter any further . " But he goes on to say hopefully , " I was wrong . . We opponents of affirmative action have only lost that battle if we think we 've lost . Look closely at the Michigan decisions and you 'll see any number of ways in which we can still pare back -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Kurtz 's argument hinges on the expectation that large schools will find it inordinately hard to attain the desired group proportionality without recourse to the more blatant forms of racial preference that were repudiated by the Court in Gratz . " Affirmative Signs : Preferences Wo n't Be on Campus Forever , " NRO ( 17 November 2003 ) . Peter Kirsanow makes a similar point . " Still Unconstitutional , " NRO ( 30 September 2003 ) . <p> Yet another possible factor in the passive response to Grutter is simple denial , namely the inability of those who have staked a large part of their intellectual capital on their vision of America as a country " dedicated to a proposition " to accept that the proposition has been radically altered to encompass group rights . Finally , for more than a few , there is the perceived need to avoid a divisive political battle over civil rights while the country is in the midst of a contentious war on terror and is attempting to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq . It is important to keep in mind , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the law fails here , in perhaps the most optimal conditions on the face of the earth and in the history of man , and must be buttressed by group guarantees in order to pacify various minorities , it can scarcely be hoped that the Experiment will succeed in primitive countries with far less developed common cultures and traditions of citizenship than our own . <p> Even without undertaking arduous legal battles , it is important for adherents of individual rights not to let themselves lapse into silence , but to be crystal clear about what has happened and to keep it before the public mind . In this regard , one heartening sign of energy in the anti-racial preference camp is , of all things , the Affirmative Action Bake Sale movement , supported by Alan Kors 's Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and run by courageous young " cookie rebels " who are keeping the controversy alive on campuses throughout the country . Numerous articles on the bake sales can be found on the web , and a good summary is offered by Wendy McElroy , " The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) . <p> Certainly the pro-racial preference forces have not been resting on their laurels . On the contrary , they have been been busy as bees dissecting the potentialities of Grutter and planning their next steps . An organization with the belligerently thuggish name By Any Means Necessary , devoted the plenary session of its national conference to " Our Tasks for the Next Period " on 8 November 2003 . Harvard University sponsored a forum called " Moving Beyond the Supreme Court Decisions " on 31 October-1 November 2003 . The Jurist , an unofficial website emanating from the law school at the University of Pittsburgh , featured " The University of Michigan Affirmative Action Admissions Cases : A Jurist Online Symposium . " Echoing Justice O'Connor 's climactic passage in Grutter , these discussions all stressed the need to extend affirmative action beyond the university into virtually every area of society , including housing , the workplace , and the professions , and to defeat any and all individual civil rights initiatives , such as the one being promoted by Ward Connerly in the state of Michigan . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in part by Bill Lann Lee , former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Clinton administration : <p> " Our responsibility as educators can not end with admitting a diverse student body . . We also need to make sure that the process begun in college and law school carries through to the workplace . . We need to ask , as responsible bar associations and legal employers are doing , why we do n't have more nonwhite judges and law firm partners . We need to inquire about the climate for nonwhite lawyers in their workplaces , in court , and with clients . As leaders of our communities , we also need to take responsibility for the discrimination in housing , education , and the workplace that surrounds us all . Prejudice is individual , but the best tools for combating bias are collective . <p> The symposium also features critics of Grutter , such as Peter Schuck , author of Diversity in America : Keeping Government at a Safe Distance ( Belknap Press , 2003 ) . Academic Restoration ? <p> A New York University student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of intercourse before her video-making class but was prevented from doing so by the college administration . Will wonders never cease ? " Keep the Sex R-Rated , N.Y.U. Tells Film Students , " The New York Times ( 4 December 2003 ) . <p> " Topsy-Turvy , " Victor Davis Hanson in National Review ( 13 October 2003 ) . After an astute and comprehensive summary-analysis of what has gone wrong in the contemporary university , Hanson declares that students today " are more than ever questioning their professors ' ideology , " and therefore concludes that " much of our present academic pathology is the cargo of a particular generation , one that is slowly making its way out of the university . Its influence is felt most acutely today as it reaches the apex of power , but as this generation nursed on campus protest passes -- and it soon will -- there is reason to hope that it may not have replicated itself and so will be remembered as a sad artifact of our recent history . " Would that it were so , but we have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and have discovered again and again that reports of the demise of the degraded academy have turned out to be quite premature . In fact , this too hopeful attitude may well be responsible for the complacent dismissal on the part of many conservatives and conservative institutions of the significance of recent academic trends and their effect on our society as a whole , as factors contributing to increasing passivity in the face of the politically correct agenda . Scholarship <p> In Proust , Mann , Joyce in the Modernist Context ( Catholic University of America Press , 2003 ) , Gerald Gillepsie , Professor Emeritus at Stanford and past president of the International Comparative Literature Association , argues provocatively that these three giants of twentieth-century literature transcend modernist fragmentation and discontinuity to attain holistic vision . Important Issues <p> " Degree in Debt , " Angie Cannon , Reader 's Digest , November 2003 , is an informative discussion of this too neglected topic , the burdensome debt young people and their families often incur nowadays in order to secure the college degree . Is n't it ironic that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many of its workers as poorly compensated adjuncts , but has also managed to make its product so expensive as to put its " consumers " in debt for half of their adult lives ? <p> Amanda Paulson , Christian Science Monitor ( 10 December 2003 ) , " Religious Upsurge Brings Culture Clash to College Campuses , " reports on the rising interest in evangelical Christianity at Northwestern University . Other reports have noted similar movements at places like Harvard and M.I.T. Lest anyone think this portends an automatic shift toward traditional social values , however , Phillip Johnson offers this caution on an Internet news list dealing with religious questions : " The great universities all adopted a dogmatic naturalism in the century after 1859 , and turned thereafter to the romanticism of the Sixties and then the relativism we call postmodernism . . The current upsurge in Christian witness will become permanent only if epistemic naturalism is effectively challenged . " Johnson 's insight seems borne out by Alan Wolfe 's new book , The Transformation of American Religion : How We Actually Live Our Faith ( Free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America has been reduced to therapeutic individualism and that even evangelical Christianity is now comfortably mainstream and generally quiescent in the culture wars . The Great Tradition <p> Steven Lenzner and William Kristol , " What Was Leo Strauss Up To ? " Public Interest ( Fall 2003 ) is a valuable summary of the work of this influential thinker . The reader learns of " Strauss 's rehabilitation of the classical understanding of ' regime . ' To understand political life in terms of regimes , " the authors continue , " is to recognize that political life always partakes of both the universal ( principles of justice or rule ) and the particular ( ' our ' borders , language , customs , etc . ) . " <p> It would be most helpful if Straussians began to emphasize this second aspect of the master 's thought , unknown to many of us who admire him for his critique of historicism . Post Grutter , it is clear that " signing onto a slate of universal propositions " is not enough for America to retain its character or even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention to particularism is the outstanding critique Michael Novak makes of the United States District Court 's decision against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore , who installed a large monument of the Ten Commandments in the state courthouse . Taking issue with the decision 's reasoning that the monument violated the First Amendment in that it accorded a special role to Judaism and Christianity in the nation 's understanding of civil and political rights , Novak argues that the specific right of religious freedom guaranteed by the United States Constitution is based on Judeo-Christian concepts not replicated in any other religion . " The Ten Commandments Controversy , " Imprimis ( December 2003 ) . Notable Publications <p> A Reader for the Politically Incorrect ( Praeger 2003 ) , edited by George Zilbergeld , is a useful compendium of important anti-PC essays . <p> My Brother 's Keeper : A Memoir and a Message by Amitai Etzioni ( Rowman and Littlefield , 2003 ) . Professor of sociology and founder of the influential communitarian social movement , Etzioni tells his life story and explains the evolution of his beliefs . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Network , which publishes a quarterly , The Responsive Community . <p> In " Death of the Liberal Arts : A Special Report from the Independent Women 's Forum , " Melana Zyla Vickers examines the first-year offerings of a number of prestigious liberal arts colleges -- among them Williams , Amherst , Swarthmore , Carleton , and Wellesley -- and concludes , " Even at the best liberal arts colleges , freshmen ca n't obtain a sound education in history , literature , and other fundamentals of civilization . " Available from the IWF . In Closing : <p> " The Importance of the Humanities to Democracy " was the 2002 McDermott Lecture at the University of Dallas , given by Dr. Bruce Cole , Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities , available from the University of Dallas , Braniff Graduate School of Liberal Arts . Dr. Cole discusses the initiatives that the Endowment is undertaking to combat decline in the comprehension of American ideals . One of the initiatives , called " We the People , " will give grants to enhance the teaching , study , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ People is also the title of a high school textbook , one of the publications of the Center for Civic Education , the organization commissioned by the Department of Education and by Congress ( most recently under the Goals 2000 and the No Child Left Behind legislation ) to create the national standards in civics and government that are virtually mandated in K-12 education throughout the country at the present time . The textbook asserts that America 's founding principles arose from an eighteenth-century context , and suggests that we need to evolve toward newer ideas , as embodied in documents such as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The standards are discussed at length in Alan Quist 's Fed Ed , published by the Maple River Education Coalition and noted in last issue 's B &A.; Let us hope that the NEH 's We the People will counter the effects of that of the CCE . <p> Apropos of the idea of political " evolution , " a recent issue of the monthly newsletter of the Claremont Institute , The Proposition offered this magnificent quotation from Calvin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in our present context : <p> About the Declaration of Independence there is a finality that is exceedingly restful . It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776 , that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day , and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern . But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter . If all men are created equal , that is final . If they are endowed with inalienable rights , that is final . If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed , that is final . No advance , no progress can be made beyond these propositions . If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness , the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward , but backward toward the time when there was no equality , no rights of the individual , no rule of the people . Those who wish to proceed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They are reactionary . Their ideas are not more modern , but more ancient , than those of the Revolutionary fathers . <p> Compiled , with Commentary Carol Iannone <p> 
##4000556 23 June 2003 was a dark day for the United States of America . On that day the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Grutter v. Bollinger , allowing preferences in admissions to the University of Michigan Law School based on race and ethnicity and for the purported goal of securing the educational benefits of diversity , a purpose deemed a " compelling state interest " by the Court . Writing for the majority , Justice O'Connor accepted the Law School 's claim that a " critical mass " of minority students had been achieved not through quotas but through " individualized review , " even though the number of minorities accepted each year exactly tracked their various proportions of the admissions pool , as was pointed out in the dissent written by Chief Justice Rehnquist . <p> On the same day , in Gratz v. Bollinger , the Court disallowed the automatic awarding of bonus admissions points to minorities in Michigan 's undergraduate division as constituting a quota system . This hardly compensated for Grutter , however , which effectively overrides the Fourteenth Amendment and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been the bedrock of the American ideal . ( See Edward J. Erler , " The Michigan Affirmative Action Cases : An Historical Perspective , " Imprimis , September 2003 . ) The following are some of the notable responses from opponents of racial preferences . A number of them appeared in National Review and National Review Online . Both have shown an especial and welcome interest in this crucial discussion . ( See the editorial , " Travesty : The Court Failed to Do Its Duty , " National Review , 14 July 2003 . ) <p> " Not in my most nightmarish speculation about what the Court might do regarding these cases did I envision that the justices of the highest court in the land would actually accord ' diversity ' not only equivalent status to the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment , but to make the latter subordinate to the former , " writes Ward Connerly ( " Murder at the Supreme Court , " National Review Online , 26 June 2003 ) . He continued , " Let it be said that when given a chance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 23 , 2003 five justices consigned them to another generation -- or , perhaps , a term of indefinite duration -- of virtual enslavement to the past . " <p> Another commentator who sees the dire implications of the decision is Peter Wood ( " Affirming Faction , " National Review Online , 27 June 2003 ) . Wood lamented the " bad news , " adding ominously that " just how bad it is has yet to register with many people . " <p> Wood 's observation is borne out by Peter Kirsanow ( " Michigan Impossible : Grutter compliance may be a problem , " National Review Online , 1 July 2003 ) , who reports that a " review of post-Michigan commentary reveals a gathering consensus among conservatives to just ' move on . ' " Kirsanow paraphrases the thoughts of his conservative colleagues : " We fought the good fight and lost -- maybe it 's time to take a different tack , such as racial-privacy initiatives , and hey , if they do n't fly , maybe in 25 years it 'll all be over anyway @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and not only because of the naivete regarding what was merely a tentative , toothless suggestion of a 25 year limit to affirmative action on the part of the Court in Grutter . Even more astounding is the bland complacency with which these conservatives countenance the obviation of the " proposition " that " all men are created equal , " the proposition that many conservatives ( and liberals too ) have insisted constitutes the very definition of America . Now that the " proposition " has been overruled , one would have expected widespread alarm rather than the kind of supine quiescence that Kirsanow reports . <p> Marcia Coyle ( " Battle Over Affirmative Action Expected to Expand , " The National Law Journal , 11 July 2003 ) , quotes the reaction of Michael Greve of the American Enterprise Institute and co-founder of the Center for Individual Rights , the organization that led the battle against race-based admissions policies in Texas , Washington , and Michigan . " I just think this was a complete wipeout , " Greve declared . <p> " What happens in the litigation community @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drum up money for this and harder to persuade people this is a righteous fight . I personally would not think there 's enough oomph behind this movement now to say , ' Let 's hold the Supreme Court to what it pretended to be saying , ' " that is , insistence on " narrow tailoring " and " individualized review " of all applicants . <p> Abigail Thernstrom , quoted in the same article , agrees : " It 's a total defeat . It really does n't matter if there is a Supreme Court resignation . This is a momentous decision rewriting the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the Supreme Court is not going to overturn precedent with abandon because there is a new justice . " <p> Unfortunately , the estimable Greve may himself be partly responsible for helping to craft the CIR platform against affirmative action that failed to convince the Court . ( Although the purported educational benefits of diversity had been challenged in friend-of-the-court briefs , these were not part of the plaintiff 's own arguments . ) In an article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Is on the Rocks , " 20 April 2001 ) , Greve accepted the importance of diversity as an educational ideal but endeavored to show that affirmative action is not needed in order to obtain it . CIR 's legal affairs director , Curt Levey , wrote a similar article ( " Diversity on Trial , " National Review Online , 11 June 2001 ) . They both suggested lowering standards for all applicants , de-emphasizing objective criteria like SAT scores , and , as Greve put it , employing " individualized file review that makes it impossible to trace racial discrimination . " <p> John J. Miller ( " ' Diversity ' . D'oh ! " National Review , 28 July 2003 ) argues that CIR made a mistake in relying only on equal protection and the consequent unconstitutionality of race preferences and in not challenging the validity of diversity as an educational ideal in itself . Miller cites Peter Wood : " I say this more in sadness than in anger , but CIR made a tactical error " in not confronting " the diversity argument . " <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UPI Legal Affairs Correspondent ( in a UPI release published on 25 July 2003 ) : " The whole idea of diversity as a compelling state interest was not litigated . . They believed they could win on a 14th Amendment ( equal protection ) analysis . " <p> Nevertheless , not everyone is ready to give up . Miller suggests some strategies for resistance , and in the same issue of National Review in which Miller 's article appears , John O'Sullivan ( " Affirmative Action Forever ? " ) outlines some ways in which opposition to affirmative action might arise , one of them being that continued mass immigration will bring the proportion of the minorities eligible for preferences to over half the population in the coming decades , thus greatly increasing the burden on the unprivileged groups . <p> For his part , Kirsanow , a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights , believes that " Michigan renders preference programs extremely vulnerable to legal assault . " And the CIR is ready to continue the fight . Curt Levey is quoted in the Coyle article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there will be a lot of litigation on the narrow tailoring grounds . The Court said you ca n't use race in a mechanical way and it should not be a decisive factor . Those are vague terms so we 're going to have to litigate in the lower courts to make sure that is a meaningful distinction and our victory in Gratz is not for nothing . " <p> Taking a different tack , Ward Connerly has begun a Civil Rights Initiative in the state of Michigan to outlaw racial discrimination and preferences in public institutions . ( " Taking it to Michigan : Announcing the ' Michigan Civil Rights Act , ' " National Review Online , 8 July 2003 ) <p> Unfortunately , Henry Payne ( " Putting Preferences to a Vote , " National Review Online , 10 July 2003 ) , is obliged to report the thuggish behavior displayed by preference supporters during the press conference at which Connerly introduced the measure . Payne 's article also exposes the sense of absolute , apodictical entitlement on the part of minorities that affirmative action has encouraged . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Choice : Michigan Republicans Confront Ward Connerly , " National Review Online , 17 July 2003 ) , gives a dispiriting reminder that President Bush and the GOP support diversity as racial proportionality and will oppose such state initiatives as Connerly is sponsoring as " divisive . " Despite the fact that his administration actually argued against Michigan 's admissions policies in both cases , President Bush declared after the decisions were handed down : " Today 's decisions seek a careful balance between the goal of campus diversity and the fundamental principle of equal treatment under the law . " Additional responses to Grutter <p> Carl Cohen ( " Winks , Nods , Disguises -- and Racial Preferences , " Commentary , September 2003 ) . The man who first exposed Michigan 's discriminatory admissions practices and expresses his consternation and surprise that the Supreme Court has given constitutional validity to racial discrimination . <p> John Perazzo ( " Rewarding the Unqualified " Frontpagemagazine.com , 3 July 2003 ) illustrates the large disparities in qualifications between the preferred and the non-preferred groups admitted to various selective schools . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Grutter , " National Review Online , 1 August 2003 ) draws attention to the little noted dissent of Justice Kennedy in Grutter . Unlike the other dissenters , notably Justices Scalia and Thomas , Kennedy is a firm supporter of affirmative action who nevertheless found that " the concept of critical mass is a delusion used by the Law School to mask its attempt to make race an automatic factor in most instances and to achieve numerical goals indistinguishable from quotas . " <p> In an exchange of letters in the New York Review of Books ( 14 August 2003 ) , Stanley Rothman and Ronald Dworkin discuss Rothman 's recent survey countering the claim that diversity enhances the educational experience . ( Rothman 's survey is summarized in the Public Interest , " Racial Diversity Reconsidered , " Summer 2003 ) . Rothman 's final rejoinder , not printed by the NYRoB , can be found at NAS Online Forum <ttp : // n a s . o r g / f o r u m b l o g g e r/f o r u m a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exchange is important for revealing the intellectual sloppiness and duplicity of which preference supporters are capable . Other <p> Steven Malanga ( " Union U. , " City Journal , Summer 2003 ) , exposes the radicalization of yet another academic field , labor studies , now promoting a one-sided political agenda , recruiting students as pro-union activists , and turning the idea of liberal education on whatever is left of its head . <p> Alan Quist , Fed Ed : The New Federal Curriculum and How It 's Enforced ( published by the Maple River Education Coalition , 2002 , and available from EdWatch.org or Amazon.com ) outlines how this widely used and virtually mandated curriculum created by the Center for Civic Education at the behest of the federal government is subverting American constitutional ideals and purveying global , multicultural , socialist , and group-entitlement concepts instead . <p> Compiled and Commentary by Carol 
##4002466 Key words : inquiry tasks for adolescents ; problem-centered social studies ; concerns and interests of young adults <p> At least since John Dewey published his classic works ( Dewey 1916 1938 ; 1933 ; 1938 1963 ) , teachers have been urged to engage students by using thinking and inquiry tasks that reflect real-world concerns and interests . Subsequent to the appearance of Dewey 's discussions of that pedagogical stance , the National Council for the Social Studies published The Problems Approach and the Social Studies in 1955 and issued a revised version , Problem-Centered Social Studies Instruction : Approaches to Reflective Teaching , in 1971 ( Gross and Muessig 1971 ) . More recently , social science education specialists published research-based theoretical articles providing scholarly justifications for the use of inquiry activities in social studies classes , especially activities that have students using the methods of social scientists ( Mayer 1998 ; VanSickle and Hoge 1991 ) . Since 1990 , authors of numerous articles have recommended the use of problem-centered instruction in secondary social studies classes ( e.g. , Benoit 1998 ; Gallagher 2000 ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hughes 1994 ) , including classes for students with learning disabilities ( O'Brien 2000 ) . During that period , other authors have recommended that for secondary social studies classes , teachers should consider a relative of problem-centered instruction -- the case method ( Guyer , Dillon , Anderson , and Szobota 2000 ; Wasserman 1992 ) . Other social science education experts writing on the promotion of thinking and inquiry about real-world concerns and interests in secondary social studies classes have referred to " authentic instruction " ( Foster and Padgett 1999 ; Newmann 1990 ) . Still others have built their preferred methods around social issues ( Evans 1998 ; Rossi 1996 ; Shaver 1992 ) . At present , an entire book is in print on the use of cooperative problem-solving methods in secondary social studies classes ( Hickman and Wigginton 1999 ) . Another available book features the use of problem-based learning in social studies classes from the elementary grades through college ( Moye 1998 ) , and one is in print on the social issues approach ( Evans and Saxe 1996 ) . In short , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teachers respond to John Dewey 's recommendation that teachers engage students by using thinking and inquiry tasks reflecting real-world concerns and interests . Challenges in Using Inquiry Methods <p> Widespread support for Dewey 's recommendation does not easily translate into widespread , sustained application of the recommendation , however . Researchers who have investigated the use of problem-centered instruction in social studies classes ( Ehman , Glenn , Johnson , and White 1992 ; Saye and Brush 1999 ) point to the time demands on students and teachers , the need for and frequent lack of relevant prior knowledge on the students ' part , and the importance of expert guidance for students during the problem-solving process , even when much guidance is built into computer-based activities . Even enthusiastic supporters of issues-oriented instruction in social studies classes point to the challenges faced by users of the approach ( Rossi 1995 ; Rossi and Pace 1998 ) . In fact , authors of recent articles focus specifically on ways to overcome barriers that discourage social studies teachers from applying inquiry methods centered on real-world concerns and interests ( Evans , Avery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Like most of the authors cited above , we are firm believers in the use of thinking and inquiry tasks that reflect real-world concerns and interests and are committed users of such tasks in our university classrooms . Because of our interest in the method , we are disappointed to see the relative infrequency with which teachers use thinking and inquiry tasks that focus on real-world concerns and interests in secondary social studies classes . We recognize , however , that the ill-structured tasks meant to typify problem-based learning can create substantial instructional challenges for teachers . We recognize , too , that the controversial issues recommended for issues-centered instruction can create unpleasant conflict in teachers ' lives . <p> We believe , however , that many teachers can move toward the more complex forms of thinking and inquiry methods and those forms that more realistically simulate the actual work of social scientists . In many secondary social studies classes , the teachers may have to begin with thinking and inquiry tasks that are relatively modest in complexity and that perhaps require only textbook information and classroom time to carry them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and do not pretend to be historians , political scientists , or psychologists . In this article , we identify several types of thinking and inquiry tasks that focus on concerns or interests of adolescents but do so at varying levels of complexity and require students to use a range of informational resources . The types of tasks discussed are less complex than the ill-structured tasks recommended by proponents of problem-based learning and the case method , and the tasks put less demand on the thinking and investigation skills of students than the tasks typical of those two instructional approaches or of issues-centered instruction . <p> To begin our discussion , we must emphasize a fact of which veteran secondary teachers are fully aware : Anticipating whether a certain thinking or inquiry task will tap into a concern or interest of a specific adolescent is virtually impossible without knowing the individual very well . The available research on the concerns and interests of young adults may be reassuring for social studies teachers who have incorrectly predicted the effectiveness of a creatively constructed thinking or inquiry task with a certain secondary student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ example , that the typical concerns and interests of young adults vary with their age ( Hendry , Glendinning , and Shucksmith 1996 ) , the influence of their parents and socioeconomic status ( Kasser , Ryan , Zax , and Sameroff 1995 ) , and societal circumstances ( Easterlin and Crimmins 1991 ; Ovadia 2003 ) . In short , no simple , unchanging guidelines can be developed for creating thinking and inquiry tasks that can reliably capitalize on concerns of specific secondary students . To design such tasks , teachers must draw on what they can learn about individual students and about specific groups of students . Tasks Reflecting Students ' Concerns and Interests <p> Despite that caveat , we present in figure 1 several types of tasks that can take advantage of the concerns or interests of adolescents . To understand the information in figure 1 fully , the reader must refer to the appendix of this article . We drew on our experiences with secondary students to identify the types of tasks and to construct the sample tasks illustrating those types . During the process of developing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 1990 ) , " The Personal Relevance of the Social Studies , " in which he offers a " personal-relevance framework " by which he categorizes typical human goals . He sorts them first into four general motivations -- sense of security , sense of affiliation , sense of competence , and sense of influence -- and then into five areas of life -- human relationships , occupation , health and safety , personal development , and finances . Even after we had developed most of the suggested task types and examples , we found his framework helpful for creating additional thinking and inquiry tasks to tap into the concerns of adolescents . <p> The reader should examine the figure and the appendix before continuing with the article . We wrote the sample tasks using sentence structure and vocabulary that we assumed readers of The Social Studies would understand . For some secondary social studies classes , modifications in the sentence structure and vocabulary are needed . <p> We do not mean the types of uses of social studies content and the sample tasks that we present to be definitive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them to illustrate the content uses on which social studies teachers can build instruction . The sample tasks need not be like academic or professional applications of course content or resemble academic or professional tasks . The tasks can have a personal use and have a high probability of being viewed as relevant to adolescents , even if the students are not concerned about the content as academic content . We are impressed by many of the thinking and inquiry tasks suggested in the teacher 's edition of current secondary social studies textbooks , but we find that most of the tasks involve uses that would seem realistic primarily to academic specialists in the subject area , to professionals in careers related to the subject area , or to students who are already intensely interested in the subject area . We believe that all students should be exposed to such uses but that they also should be allowed and enabled to see that social studies content can be used in ways that they recognize as relevant . Features of Effective Use of Inquiry Methods <p> We do not intend this article @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inquiry tasks in secondary social studies classrooms . The articles and books we cited provide excellent discussions of that nature . We also recommend helpful articles and books with no specific subject area focus by Beamon ( 2002 ) , Fogarty ( 1997 ) , Lambros ( 2004 ) , Krynock and Robb ( 1999 ) , Renzulli ( 2000,2001 ) , Souders and Prescott ( 1999 ) , and Torp and Sage ( 2002 ) . Although we do not propose an overall framework for incorporating thinking and inquiry tasks into secondary social studies instruction , we suggest several features that are also recommended in the discussions of many experts on problem-based learning and related instructional approaches . One suggestion is that in secondary classrooms , small-group collaborative inquiry , rather than individual inquiry , often leads to better inquiry products and better learning . Collaboration usually capitalizes on the " five heads are better than one " phenomenon , which leads to high-quality inquiry products . Students in a small group can learn from others ' explanations of tasks , concepts , and larger ideas and from others ' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and inquiry tasks , teachers should offer options from which students can choose . For example , a teacher could include as options a selection of tasks from the teacher 's edition of the course textbook and several of the teacher-created tasks presented in this article . Allowing students to choose the tasks that they will carry out increases the chance that they will be interested in the topics , that they have the investigation skills needed for the tasks , and that they have useful prior knowledge . Those three circumstances can produce the motivation and capabilities required for successful task completion . Nevertheless , even when students work in groups on tasks involving topics of interest to them and on tasks for which they have relevant investigation skills and prior knowledge , they need to be monitored by the teacher to provide guidance and other support . <p> We believe that the successful use of thinking and inquiry tasks by a secondary social studies teacher who has not already incorporated problem-based learning , the case method , issues-centered instruction , or a related approach into her or his classroom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ needs to develop the requisite management skills and procedures before considering large-scale use of one of the approaches . Moreover , the students need to develop their thinking , investigation , and collaboration skills , which are essential for successful participation in the approaches . One reason we believe in the types of thinking and inquiry tasks presented in this article is that the teacher 's and student 's skills improve through such tasks and can eventually be applied to the types of tasks typically recommended by proponents of problem-based learning , the case method , issues-centered instruction , and other inquiry approaches for social studies classes . Although the sample tasks presented here are low to moderate in complexity and in the demands placed on students ' thinking and investigation skills , the use of such types of tasks can lay the foundation for successful use of more complex and more demanding thinking and inquiry tasks . FIGURE 1 . Some realistic uses of social studies content by adolescents and young adults . <p> Types of Examples and Social Studies Subjects to which Those Apply <p> -- Developing and maintaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , SOC 5 , SOC 6 , WH 1 , WH 3 , WH 4 <p> -- Speaking knowledgeably and positively about one 's ethnic , religious , or socioeconomic heritage -- PSY 2 , SOC 3 , USH 6 , WH 5 <p> -- Helping another individual whom one wants to help -- GOV 2 , GOV 4 , PSY 1 , PSY 2 , PSY 5 , SOC 6 <p> -- Taking a stand on an issue about which one feels strongly -- ECON 4 , GOV 3 , PSY 4 , SOC 4 <p> -- Talking with one 's young children about issues that bother them -- GOV 5 , SOC 3 , PSY 3 , USH 5 , WH 5 <p> -- Deciding how to vote in an election or other balloting -- ECON 3 , SOC 4 , USH 4 <p> -- Taking full advantage of travel opportunities -- GEO 1 , GEO 2 , GEO 3 , SOC 1 , USH 1 , USH 3 , WH 1 <p> -- Enjoying a movie that has special appeal -- GEO 4 , PSY 6 , SOC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one 's monetary resources wisely -- ECON 1 , ECON 2 , ECON 5 , ECON 7 , PSY 7 <p> -- Staying out of avoidable financial or legal trouble -- ECON 6 , GOV 1 , PSY 7 , SOC 5 <p> Note . The abbreviations in the figure refer to the sections of the appendix : ECON for economics , GEO for geography , GOV for government , PSY for psychology , SOC for sociology , USH for U.S. history , WH for world history . The numbers refer to the tasks listed in the sections of the appendix . <p> 
##4002468 Key words : economics and September 11 , 2001 ; economics and terrorism ; economic approach to modern problems <p> To many Western observers , the behavior of people in the Middle East is a mystery . The area is the scene of brutality and seemingly senseless acts of violence . Why has there been so much turmoil there for so long ? A brief review of past events helps to establish the context of the problem . Partition of Palestine <p> The United Nations voted in 1947 to partition Palestine , the British mandate , into two states -- one for Jews and one for Palestinian Arabs . Through political pressure , the Jewish state assimilated large tracts of land belonging to Palestinians and through intimidation forced three hundred thousand Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes and land and to become refugees . <p> In 1948 , when the British gave up Palestine and the United Nations divided Palestine , Israel became an independent state . Palestinian refugees mounted protests in an attempt to get back their land and homes . Through the efforts of provocations on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used its army to attack the Palestinian Arabs . Facing death , seven hundred thousand more Palestinians fled their homes and land in terror . Israel promptly announced that it would annex the newly vacated land as a part of the new nation . <p> Angered by that act by Israel , the neighboring Arab countries attacked Israel so that the seven hundred thousand Palestinian refugees could return to their homes and land . The five attacking countries were also former British colonies , and therefore their newly formed armies were ill equipped and poorly trained . By contrast , the United States was committed to the defense of Israel and gave Israel the military equipment and financial means to fight the war successfully . The Israeli forces prevailed in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 . With the military victory of 1948 , Israel had the political advantage in negotiations over Palestine , and the 1 million displaced Palestinian Arabs became permanent refugees . <p> Angered and demoralized by the events of 1948 , the Arab League refused to recognize Israel as a state and demanded that all Palestine refugees be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Israel had the upper hand militarily and that the United States gave Israel $4 billion a year in military and financial aid , the Arab League recognized that the imbalance of power favoring Israel would remain indefinitely . Retaliation against Israel began to take different forms . Because of their frustration at the political advantage that Israel and the United States had in the region , protesters resorted to acts of terror , which became widespread in the Middle East . Other Events Affecting the Turmoil in the Middle East <p> In 1953 , the United States helped Iran 's military stage a coup , overthrowing the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq , whom the United States feared might be a communist threat . The United States then reinstalled the hated Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as the Shah of Iran . <p> In 1968 , Arab militants hijacked an El Al flight from Rome to Tel Aviv . That was followed by decades of hostage taking , hijackings , and assassinations , which characterized the strategy used by Arab militant groups . <p> In 1972 , eight Arab commandos from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Munich Olympic Games . <p> In 1973 , the Nixon administration provided Israel with the means of producing an atomic bomb . <p> In 1979 , Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini led a revolution in Iran , overthrowing the U.S.-supported Shah of Iran and taking sixty-six Americans hostage for fifteen months . <p> In 1983 , a truck bomb exploded at the U.S. marine barracks in Lebanon , killing 241 soldiers . The United States subsequently withdrew from Lebanon . <p> After the Iranian Air Flight 655 with 290 passengers was accidentally shot down by the USS Vincennes missile cruiser in Iranian waters in 1986 , the crew of the Vincennes was rewarded with military medals for their bravery . <p> In 1993 , the World Trade Center in New York City was bombed , killing six . <p> In 1996 , a truck bomb exploded outside U.S. military barracks in Saudi Arabia . <p> In 1998 , bombs exploded outside U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania . The United States linked the bombings to Osama bin Laden . <p> In 2000 , the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen 's Aden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ act . <p> On September 11 , 2001 , hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City , killing more than two thousand people , and another into the Pentagon , headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense . A fourth plane bound for either the White House or the Capitol crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its target . The United States linked Osama bin Laden to the attack . An Economic Analysis <p> Those seem to be senseless acts . In many cases , the terrorists themselves died in the attack . How can such behavior be considered rational ? Explaining such behavior is troublesome if one teaches high school economics . After all , the most basic assumption of economics is that people act in their own best interest . Paul Heyne , well known for his textbook The Economic Way of Thinking , states : <p> The theories of economics , with surprisingly few exceptions , are simple extensions of the assumptions that individuals take those actions they think will yield them the largest net advantage . Everyone , it is assumed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spendthrift , saint or sinner , consumer or seller , politician or business executive , cautious calculator or spontaneous improviser. ( 1994,5 ) <p> It is nearly impossible to reconcile the behavior of terrorists with the behavior of the rational , self-interested individuals whom Heyne and many others associate with the economics approach . Should economics teachers suggest that economic theory applies to all sorts of people , at many times and across many cultures , but that some people in the Middle East are somehow a special class exempt from basic economic theory ? If people in the Middle East are not exempt from economic theory , what should a high school teacher say ? How would an economist approach the problem of Middle East terror ? Specifically , let us consider the events of September 11 , 2001 . How Were the Terrorists Organized and Financed ? <p> The al Qaeda network is headed by the Emir General ( Osama bin Laden ) and his immediate lieutenants , Ayman Al-Zawahiri ( al-Jihid ) and Mohammed Atef ( Military Operations ) . Other leaders have assigned roles in areas dealing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the media . The al Qaeda network is largely a decentralized operation , with individual terrorist cells playing key roles . <p> Al Qaeda has established several key alliances . Among the most important are the following : <p> -- Al-Jihad ( Egypt ) : assassination of Sadat in 1981 <p> -- Hamas ( West Bank/Gaza ) : ongoing attacks against Israel <p> -- Hezbollah ( Lebanon ) : bombing of the U.S. embassy in 1983 <p> -- GIA ( Algeria ) : planned millennium attacks <p> -- Harakat-al-Mujadi : completed terrorist actions in Pakistan <p> -- Abu-Sayyaf : completed terrorist actions in the Philippines <p> Al Qaeda could not survive without sources of funds and protection . Osama bin Laden was able to launch al Qaeda in part with funding from his own personal fortune and businesses , which have been estimated to be worth $150 million . ( Considering that al Qaeda likely spent no more than $200,000 on the entire September 11 operation , bin Laden 's fortune can support numerous acts of terrorism ) . To survive , al Qaeda and similar groups need the help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can shelter them from apprehension and allow them to conduct business . Afghanistan and Iraq were widely regarded as states willing to harbor terrorist groups . Additional sources of funds come from Islamic charities and individual wealthy families in the Persian Gulf . Drug trafficking also contributed to al Qaeda 's income . Rational Behavior <p> The organization and finances of al Qaeda suggest that terrorist acts are planned by rational people who lead terrorist groups . Those leaders seek to benefit even while some of their followers are destroyed . They view their actions in much the same way as military leaders view war casualties -- as a price to be paid . <p> The organization and finances of al Qaeda also reveal that the actions of al Qaeda are influenced by the existence of goals . They are making choices that , given available information , they hope will go farthest toward achieving those ends . The long-term goals of al Qaeda include the following : <p> -- The liberation of Saudi Arabia and other countries from U.S. troops <p> -- The replacement of pro-Western regimes with militant Islamic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Muslim control over holy places in Jerusalem <p> To accomplish its long-term goals , al Qaeda identified the United States as the primary enemy . Following its goal-orientated behavior , al Qaeda made meticulous plans , arranged for logistical support , and aimed for efficiency in its execution of specific acts of terrorism . It took several specific actions that were intended to destabilize the <p> U.S. economy and reduce U.S. influence in the Middle East . In that sense , then , the actions of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda appear to be rational rather than the result of some form of psychosis . Economic Analysis of Criminal Behavior <p> For a deeper understanding of the economics approach to terrorism , let us turn to related areas of economic theory and research . Economists for many years have studied human behavior in areas beyond the production of goods and services . Economists , for example , have studied behavior in such areas as dating , voting , fertility , obesity , racial discrimination , and criminal behavior . <p> We decided to examine how the economic analysis of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ acts , after all , can be viewed as simply another form of criminal behavior . Terrorists , like other criminals , violate laws and hurt innocents as they pursue their aims . <p> Sociologists and other intellectuals have argued that the root causes of crime are to be found in such things as racism , poverty , discrimination , lack of jobs , and globalization . In that line of analysis , little can be done in the short term to change criminal behavior . Actions that should be taken include expanding the rights of the accused , reducing sentences , expanding probation , and tightening restrictions on police . <p> Gary S. Becker , the Nobel Prizewinning economist from the University of Chicago , approached the problem of criminal behavior differently . He applied the economic way of thinking to criminal behavior . Becker and Becker ( 1997 ) state that criminals , like everyone else , respond to incentives in predictable ways . For example , more college students go into computer science and chemical engineering when earnings and other advantages are rising in those fields . Those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ costs . <p> Similarly , from the 1950s until the 1980s , more people were induced to commit crimes because they were responding to incentives . The incentive structure had changed to reward more criminal behavior . That was a period when judges issued less severe sentences and many convicted criminals never actually served time . As a result , crime became a more attractive " occupation . " <p> From his research , Becker concluded that ways had to be found to change incentives influencing criminal behavior . Becker and Becker ( 1997 ) point out that the revival of the economic analysis of crime led to actions that reduced crime levels . As the probabilities of apprehending criminals and punishing those convicted increased , crime began to decline . Studies revealed that crimes of passion as well as crimes against property were reduced by making punishment more certain and severe . <p> Becker 's studies can be applied to the behavior of terrorist groups such as al Qaeda . The key is to begin with a focus on incentives to terrorists . A case can be made that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incentives that rewarded terrorist behavior . The United States used almost no military response in the wake of several terrorist attacks , including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center , the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania , and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole . Groups such as al Qaeda watched the American response carefully . The lack of action provided an incentive to commit additional acts of terror . <p> Can swift and decisive action deter terrorism ? At first glance , common sense would suggest that that is the case . Empirical studies offer some additional specific evidence . Enders , Sandler , and Cauley ( 1990 ) studied the effects of metal detector technology on the number of skyjacking incidents . They found that the fall in transnational skyjacking was statistically significant after such technology was in place . <p> But the difficulty of applying direct retaliation as the complete solution to terrorist behavior lies within the nature of terrorism . In many acts of terrorism , the perpetrator is a suicide bomber . The planners and leaders are unknown or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sovereignty . Another way to approach incentives for terrorists is to deal directly with the root problems that cause the terrorism . For example , U.S. troops on the Muslim holy ground of Saudi Arabia have caused much of the animosity toward the United States ; so much so that the United States is very quietly removing U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia . Internationalizing the Old City of Jerusalem and all the holy shrines in Israel under the UN would be another step to ending a great deal of religious animosity and a major cause of terrorism . Why the World Trade Center Buildings and the Pentagon ? <p> Al Qaeda sees plainly that the United States is the financial supporter that keeps Israel strong . The United States gives Israel and Egypt each $4 billion a year in aid . On almost every major building in Israel , one can find plaques filled with names of contributors from the United States . Moreover , the United States is a symbol of much of what Muslim terrorist groups such as al Qaeda are against . A strike against the strongest military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and globalization was viewed as a fundamental goal . By attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon , al Qaeda wanted to make Americans take notice of what the United States was doing wrong in the Middle East . <p> A strike on the United States had a practical side as well ; it was a good target . As an open system with the basic freedoms of a democratic society , many of the protective screens against terrorism were simply not in place . Air transportation policies were designed to help business travelers and tourists get to their destinations with a minimum of hassle . Those policies were not focused on the dangers posed by a purposeful , determined , ruthless , and well-trained group of terrorists . Technology and communications are well developed in the United States , which also made it easier for the terrorists to plan and execute their operations . The Economic Impact <p> The terrorists who planned the attacks of September 11 , 2001 , understood that New York City is the financial center of the United States , the home of the dominant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporations maintain their headquarters there , making the city the heart of the foreign exchange market and a vital link in international trade relations . <p> The shock of the September 11 attacks may well have done more damage than even al Qaeda had imagined possible . An economy that was already showing signs of weakness moved further into recession . The psychological effects of the attacks adversely affected consumer spending . Air travel dropped at the same time as oil prices increased . That double whammy produced great difficulties for the airline industries , which soon sought and received help from the federal government to remain in business . <p> Other industries were affected as well : <p> -- Insurance companies faced with large payouts raised worries about rate increases . <p> -- Manufacturers worried about disruptions of supplies began to rethink " just-in-time " inventories and other efficiencies that depended on quick and uninterrupted transportation . <p> -- Concerns increased about the stability of future energy supplies . <p> Because of concerns that the events of September 11 would further contribute to an emerging economic recession , the federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ swiftly approved , which included spending for homeland defense and rebuilding New York 's financial district . Subsequently , a $60- to $75-billion stimulus package was approved , which included a $15 billion relief package for airlines . A Teaching Suggestion <p> How might a high school economics teacher approach September 11 with his or her students ? We offer this suggestion . Pose the following mystery to the class : <p> A basic assumption of economics is that people act rationally , in their own self interest . On September 11 , members of al Qaeda led suicide attacks that killed more than two thousand people , including the terrorists themselves . How can terrorist acts , such as those of September 11 , be viewed as rational and self-interested ? Is n't terrorism the work of irrational zealots ? <p> Remind the students of some of the key points of the economic way of thinking , such as the following : <p> -- People choose . They try to select the best combination of benefits and costs . <p> -- People 's choices involve costs . <p> -- People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pose the following true or false statements to the class , and allow the students to discuss their responses : <p> 1 . Terrorist groups such as al Qaeda are poorly organized groups of misfits . <p> False . Encourage several responses from the students , but point out that al Qaeda was , in fact , a well-organized network with a leadership structure and a decentralized approach . <p> 2 . Terrorist groups such as al Qaeda have only a vague sense of purpose . <p> False . Stress that al Qaeda had a set of goals , including removing all United States presence from Saudi Arabia and destroying Israel . <p> 3 . Terrorist groups , like criminals in the United States , respond to incentives in predictable ways . <p> True . After several student responses , stress the analysis of criminal behavior by Gary S. Becker , who claims that criminals and even terrorists respond to economic incentives . <p> Ask the students to solve the mystery . The economic way of thinking suggests that terrorist groups such as al Qaeda are acting in a rational and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that inspire them and many others . The failure of the United States and others to respond swiftly to earlier terrorist attacks or to address the concerns in the Middle East raised by the Arab community as a whole helped provide an incentive for further , more dramatic attacks . The failure to act eventually resulted in severe economic damage . It set the stage for retaliation against governments that support terrorist organizations , including Afghanistan and Iraq . Conclusions and Further Resources <p> Economics is usually associated with matters having to do with the operation of markets and behavior in the private sector . Pioneering economists over the past several years have expanded the scope of the economics approach to include such social behavior as crime , dating , fertility , voting , and so forth . This article , influenced by the work of economists such as Gary S. Becker , illustrates how an economics approach can be applied to terrorist acts and used in high school economics classes . <p> High school economics teachers who are interested in similar approaches should visit http : //www.ncee.net/ and examine a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 2003 ) . The curriculum has forty-five lessons for teaching high school economics and seven new economic mysteries that apply the economic way of thinking to such things as couch potatoes and voter turnout . <p> 
##4002469 Key words : content standards ; experiential education ; service-learning ; social studies ; science ; archaeology <p> Experiential education , developed more than a century ago , is a guide for instructors interested in helping students capture the meaning of their learning experiences . John Dewey ( 1963 ) in Experience and Education emphasized that events are present and operative but that what concerns us is their meaning . Dewey judged the quality of an educational experience by its intellectual and moral benefits to the student and the long-term benefits to the community . For example , students may learn about ethics , character , and citizenship through the planned study of archaeology , but it is the instructor who is responsible for creating the situation , conditions for further growth of curiosity , and desire and purpose ( Moe , Coleman , Fink , and Krejs 2002 ) . <p> Lewin ( 1952 ) proposed that personal development occurs through the successful realization of goals achieved by a process of trial and error or through experimentation . That approach is a contrast to the one in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to achieve . Experiential education is different from the traditional education of the nineteenth century because of an added emphasis on subjective and objective knowledge in the process of creating knowledge through action and its emphasis on social rewards ( National Society for Experiential Education 1997 ) . Experiential education includes different types of individualized and group learning experiences . A popular form of experiential education is service learning , which aims to enhance students ' understanding through active participation in community activities . According to Florida International University ( 2004 ) , the goals of service-learning projects for young adults include the following : <p> -- To enhance student learning by joining theory with experience and thought with action <p> -- To assist students to see the relevance of the academic subject to the real world <p> -- To develop an environment of collegial participation among students , faculty members , and the community <p> -- To increase the civic and citizenship skills of students <p> -- To develop a richer context for student learning <p> -- To give students greater responsibility for their learning <p> Today , service-learning requirements @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) . The National Service-Learning Cooperative ( 2002 ) defines service learning as a method of teaching and learning method that connects meaningful community-service experience with academic learning , personal growth , and civic responsibility . <p> According to a National Household Education Survey , 80 percent of public high schools offered service-learning opportunities during that year ( Mintz and Liu 1994 ) . Two-thirds of American schools arranged service work for students in grades six through twelve , matching opportunities with volunteers . Twenty-one percent of schools required that students complete a specific number of service hours before graduation . More than one-half of secondary students participated in service learning in 1999 ( Kleiner and Chapman 1999 ) . <p> To assess the benefits of engaging students in service learning , Eyler and Giles ( 1999 ) surveyed more than 1,500 students selected from twenty institutions of higher education to determine cognitive outcomes of service-learning projects . Students reported enhanced understanding of course material , new awareness of complexity of personal and social issues , and practical ability to apply course content . Higher quality service-learning experiences fostered development of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participation in volunteer archaeology field work enhances students ' understanding of the scientific method as applied to the study of human history . Ten important principles of good practice provided direction to program planners and educators ( Cooper 2003 ) . <p> Relationship of Service-Learning Experiences to Discipline-Specific Standards Service learning is compatible with general and discipline-specific educational standards ( Moe , Coleman , Fink , and Krejs 2002 ; Cooper 2003 ) . The National Education Goals for the year 2000 emphasized preparing students for responsible citizenship , including involving America 's students in community service activities ( Brown 1998 ; Kleiner and Chapman 1999 ) . Specific social studies and science standards are compatible with planned experiences for student service learning . The National Council for the Social Studies ( NCSS 2003 ) promotes a set of curriculum standards and performance expectations . Three of the ten thematic strands are particularly relevant to experiential education through archaeology projects : culture ; time , continuity , and change ; and people , places , and environments . The culture strand includes " experiences that provide for the study of culture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , continuity and change includes " experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time . " Finally , the strand of people , places and environments includes " experiences that provide for the study of people , places , and environments . " States may elect to use those strands as a guide in the development of local curricula . Table 1 contains selected content standards for the disciplines of social studies and science that were approved by the Alabama State Board of Education to guide classroom and field instruction . By using a combination of instructional methods ( lecture , reading and writing assignments , laboratory and field experiences ) , teachers increase the likelihood of achieving those content standards . <p> Archaeology offers a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary learning ( Mamola and Bloodgood 2002 ) . According to Cooper ( 2003 ) , " teaching archaeology enhances students ' proficiency in critical thinking and reveals to them the process of historical interpretation . " Archaeology service learning is distinctive from volunteer work because " it affords active learning through workplace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is certainly possible for groups of middle and high school students to learn about social studies and to participate in outdoor recreational activities . With planned classroom activities , teachers can introduce students to the scientific method and have them apply research skills during their study of the past inhabitants of a specific region . <p> Many states offer volunteer archaeology field experiences through universities , archaeological and anthropological societies , and museums . These are ideal opportunities for student field trips and parent-child excursions . Social studies teachers may help parents to understand the connections between field work and reaching standards for student achievement . For instance , the Alabama Museum of Natural History has formed partnerships with high school history teachers and guidance counselors to recruit and select student participants for its summer field school . <p> Archaeology projects vary according to the instructional goals of the social studies classroom teacher . Although not all teachers can supervise off-campus visits to observe archaeologists at excavations or conservation sites , they can develop a WebQuest student research project ( see online examples and template for teachers at http : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ WebQuest in 1997 ( DiscoverySchool.com 2003 ) . Her aims were to facilitate student group work to research the similarities between Roman civilization and our own and to explore how Roman civilization has influenced us . Medieval Japan Newspaper WebQuest ( Heath n.d. ) is another example of a social studies research project for teaching students about the culture of a past civilization . An Educator 's Experiences <p> During the summers of 2001-03 , my children and I participated in three different archaeology field expeditions held in three southeastern states . The first was a joint field school venture in the George Washington National Forest , conducted by the USDA Forest Service ( FS ) and the Archeological Society of Virginia . The second summer , we were at an FS laboratory school in the DeSoto National Forest in coastal Mississippi . The third was hosted by the University of Alabama Museum of Natural History at San Estevan in remote southwestern Alabama . That was the site of a former settlement established on the frontier of the Mississippi territory in the early nineteenth century . <p> Our family 's primary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become self-sufficient when apart from modern conveniences and technology . We successfully combined family camping vacations with volunteer fieldwork -- learning while recreating . Our secondary goal was to satisfy university and high school community service-learning requirements . We accomplished all goals . <p> The natural scenery of each site was spectacular . Hidden Valley is nestled in a secluded area near the resort villages of Warm Springs and Hot Springs , Virginia . On our way to the field site , we visited Falling Springs Water Fall , described by Thomas Jefferson as one of the great natural wonders of Virginia . After days of fieldwork , tired muscles found relief in the Jefferson Baths , hot mineral springs used for healing for centuries . <p> In Mississippi , we cavorted in warm clear lake waters adjacent to our tent site at the conclusion of each day in the laboratory . The campsite was in Flint Creek Waterpark , part of the Pat Harrison Waterway District . The Tombigbee River flowed adjacent to the Alabama site . During our free time , we swam in a clean and refreshing lake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the Oligocene and Eocene eras . <p> While hiking along fields and rocky river beds in each state , we came upon diverse fauna : buck deer , does and fawns , rabbits , turkey , turtles , one splashy beaver , an elusive mountain cat , frogs and salamanders , and a myriad of insects . We gladly joined other archaeology volunteers to share fellowship , meals , stories , songs , and games . The Passport in Time Program <p> Passport in Time ( PIT ) is an exciting volunteer archaeology and historic preservation program of the Forest Service . Individuals and families learn through experiential field and laboratory work that can last several days or weeks . Throughout the year , PIT volunteers learn to survey and excavate archaeological sites , rehabilitate rock art and historic sites , gather oral histories and archival data , and write interpretive brochures for future visitors . PIT sites are numerous across the national forests , grasslands , and prairies managed by the USDA Forest Service . The print and online PIT newsletter features stories about past projects , future opportunities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2001 ; USDA Forest Service , Southern Region 1998 ) . <p> Gordon Peters , the founder of PIT , taught field schools at FS sites in Minnesota . Naturalists from lakeside resorts brought guests to see archeologists at work , and that became a popular outing . In response to requests from the naturalists and FS interpretive specialists , Peters agreed to continue his fieldwork and invite volunteers to participate . " That was the beginning of something beautiful ! " Peters said ( Passport in Time 2001 ) . <p> In 1989-90 , the project expanded to FS sites in Minnesota , Wisconsin , Michigan , and Utah . In 1991 , archaeologist Mike Beckes convinced FS administrators to recognize PIT officially as a national program . Since its inception , PIT projects have been conducted in 117 national forests in thirty-six states . Many of those sites would not have been thoroughly investigated without the efforts of dedicated adult and youth volunteers . According to the program 's officials , " Volunteers have helped to stabilize ancient cliff dwellings in New Mexico , excavate a 10,000-year-old village site @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , clean vandalized rock art in Colorado , survey for sites in a rugged Montana wilderness , and excavate a nineteenth-century Chinese mining site in Hell 's Canyon in Idaho " ( Passport in Time 2001 ) . University of Alabama Field School <p> The University of Alabama Museum of Natural History sponsors a related archaeology field school . The museum 's origins date from 1831 with the establishment of its first natural history specimens . The museum collections were reestablished in 1872 after destruction by fire during the Civil War . Today , holdings include the only meteorite known to have struck a human ; fossils ; and rocks and minerals from the Coal , Dinosaur , and Ice Ages ; there are also changing exhibits . Moundville Archaeological Park , a 320-acre National Historic Landmark , was added to the museum in 1929 . Moundville contains more than twenty preserved fourteenth-century Indian mounds ( Hall 2003 ) . <p> For the past twenty-five years , high school and college students have worked under the close supervision of museum staff members , experienced student peer leaders , and contract archaeologists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The first field school site was Moundville Archaeological Park . The University of Alabama Field School was established for two purposes : to increase high school students ' interest in sciences and to recruit bright and talented students to enroll at the university ( Hall 2003 ) . The mean age of student volunteers is fourteen years . Adult volunteers are welcome to work cooperatively with the target audience of high school students . Readers can learn more about past expeditions at http : **33;4372;TOOLONG . Participants <p> Volunteers for the three projects came from many states -- Alabama , Colorado , Florida , Georgia , Mississippi , Ohio , Texas , Virginia , West Virginia , and the District of Columbia . High school and college students worked in small field teams that varied in size from four to twelve members , depending on assigned tasks . All teams in Virginia , Mississippi , and Alabama included youths and adults working together . Each age group benefited from the perspectives of the other . <p> The adult volunteers were a diverse group of retired seniors , a lawyer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school and college teachers enjoying a different type of vacation . The naturalist and historians were Alabama state employees who sought to develop more effective teaching strategies for history and science , engage youth in conservation projects , and encourage future college enrollment . Most team leaders were experienced college students . Team members shared equal responsibility to maintain safe , clean , and secure campsites and excavation areas . <p> American volunteers felt fortunate to share our natural wonders and culture with international graduate students who hailed from the United Kingdom , Northern Ireland , and New Zealand . Those students were participants in a cooperative residency program with USDA Forest Service . Principles of Good Practice <p> Program sponsors incorporated ten important principles of good practice into the archaeology service-learning projects : intention , planning , orientation , clarity , authenticity , monitoring , reflection , evaluation , recognition , and continuous improvement ( National Society for Experiential Education 1997 ) . Social studies teachers and their students can apply these ten principles to judge the merits of similar projects that offer service learning or course credit outside planned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ educators was to define specific learning and knowledge that they intended students to gain from service-learning projects in social studies . Two aims were to have students gain appreciation and interest in the sciences , natural history , and archaeology and to learn to apply the scientific method to planning and conducting excavations of prehistoric and historic sites . Service-learning projects may vary from single day visits to a historic site to extended fieldwork lasting several days . <p> The University of Alabama Museum of Natural History sponsors an archaeology field school . The museum dates from 1831 , and its holdings include the only meteorite known to have struck a human . <p> Sponsors began planning more than one year before the expeditions began , selecting and mapping sites , obtaining test auger samples , meeting local residents , and obtaining required federal and state permits . School site partners in each state ( teachers and administrators ) helped to determine which grades and classes would visit ongoing excavations . Although several schools wanted to bring entire grades to visit field sites , administrators limited the number of student observers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ artifacts and possible injuries to students . <p> Six months before summer expeditions , sponsors were busy hiring and training team leaders , promoting program participation among schools , and soliciting volunteer applications from adults and students . Planning steps during the spring included obtaining medical and personal information from volunteers ; gathering release-from-liability forms ; mailing maps and driving directions ; assembling equipment , tools , and foodstuffs ; and securing approval for high school course credit . The month before their arrival at the expeditions , the student and adult volunteers received written and electronic material as an orientation to the history of the site . Teachers will find that books with a regional focus on archaeology are useful to orient students ( Mamola and Bloodgood 2002 ; Samford and Ribblett 1995 ; Zschomler and Brown 1996 ) . <p> On the way to the Alabama site , we joined the members of the Alabama Archaeological Society in Montgomery , the capital . The curator of the Native American and antebellum collections led the group in a private tour of the extensive collections of the state archives , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lived in the area of excavation . That was a rare opportunity not usually offered to students or the general public . <p> Ongoing communication was essential to achieve clarity of purpose . Oral presentation and written materials presented volunteer expectations , responsibilities , project timelines , and projected outcomes of archaeology fieldwork . Working at the Site <p> When we arrived at field sites in Virginia , Mississippi , and Alabama , the project sponsors oriented the volunteers to the natural history of the field site and the lifestyles and descendants of early inhabitants . We learned the results of past work and viewed samples of artifacts that we were likely to discover . In Alabama , the students toured a local county museum with a collection of artifacts . <p> Sponsors and educators presented protocols and procedures to follow when excavating or identifying and preparing artifacts for laboratory study . Those included methods of dry and wet screening , reporting significant finds , preserving all artifacts , and protecting excavation sites ( Mamola and Bloodgood 2002 ; Hall 2003 ; Passport in Time and Archaeological Society of Virginia 2001 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to apply the scientific method to archaeology fieldwork . Experienced college students or adult volunteers supervised the work of the youngest students . Our tasks varied from careful excavation to identification and classification of human and natural artifacts . <p> Historic artifacts were identified , labeled , recorded , and separately bagged . All artifacts were separated as lithic ( stone or rock ) , ceramics , bone , and historic ( metal , wood , brick , glass ) . Lithics were separated , weighed , labeled , and bagged . Fine details of pottery fragments were examined , such as the grain size , type of temper , hardness , surface decoration , average thickness , surface and interior colors , and rim type . <p> The Tools We Used <p> Students and adults used simple tools and keen observation skills . Their equipment included shovels , trowels , five-gallon buckets , wheelbarrows , tarps , scale , wire mesh screen , saw horses , graph paper , rulers , plumb bobs , measuring tapes , stakes and string , camera , artifact sizing boxes , classification guides , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Because several tools required practice for accurate use , students worked beside project leaders to minimize errors of identification and curation . <p> Monitoring and Evaluation <p> All volunteers were monitored by project leaders , professional archaeologists , historians , and **26;4407;TOOLONG . Levels of monitoring included on-site review by team leaders and peers , individual reflection of tasks completed ( Cooper 2002 ) , comparison of results to field guides , and a daily presentation to share discoveries with project leaders and members of other teams . Project leaders ensured that volunteers were hydrated and protected from the elements , and outdoor work was halted in the event of lightning and thunderstorms . <p> Leaders repeated instructions as often as necessary , giving detailed explanations about the importance of protocol and ethical practices . Project leaders and professional archaeologists corrected our errors , a level of careful supervision rarely offered to volunteers in other settings . Team members cooperated , asked questions , and celebrated achievements . The student and adult volunteers became more confident with each day 's efforts and learned to help one another with difficult tasks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ completed simple evaluation forms on which they reflected on their experience and offered suggestions to the sponsors for improvement . Each volunteer wrote of expedition highlights , satisfaction with orientation and training , and changes he or she would make as project leader . <p> Outcomes <p> It was challenging to focus our attention on a single plot of earth , five feet wide by five feet long , or to work in a small station within a field laboratory . The hot southeastern summer days and a tropical storm during the Alabama expedition were distractions while in the field . Some of the younger volunteers were unused to long periods of outdoor labor and needed adult encouragement and rest breaks . <p> We uncovered evidence of habitation by early Native Americans at the Virginia and Mississippi sites and remnants of a frontier hotel at the Alabama site . We marveled at simple objects that were crafted six centuries ago -- stone handtools , biface points , and pottery indented with plant material and thumbnail imprints . Alabama team members excitedly shared artifacts of early nineteenth-century frontier life : teeth and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and cattle ; Spanish and early American coins ; an intricate compass ; hand-painted porcelain ware ; silverware ; carved and polished oyster shells ; clay marbles ; buttons of brass , bone , and clay ; pipe stems and bowls ; stoneware ink jars ; dark , thick glass bottles ; and wafer-thin window glass . <p> Student and adult volunteers relaxed as they worked , sharing jokes and anecdotes . There was friendly competition between teams trying to find the most surprising artifacts . We shared new discoveries and searched field guides for information about their production and use . Daily team meetings permitted us to share discoveries , ask questions of the experts , record our observations , and view natural history specimens . Conclusion <p> Project sponsors followed the ten principles of good practice for the experiential education archaeology projects ( National Society for Experiential Education 1997 ) , which social studies teachers can apply when selecting local projects for student participation . Participants received many rewards . Recognition by the Forest Service included awarding each participant a patch , button , and PIT Passport to document @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the PIT moose logo . The University of Alabama 's recognition packet included a CD-ROM of digital images taken during the field camp , a personal note of thanks , and an invitation from the camp director to return next year . Some students earned high school and college credit through program participation in Alabama and Mississippi . For many , the intangible rewards were the more important ; they had acquired a new sense of kinship with prehistoric and historic residents of the southeast and a deeper understanding of human history . Recreation through active learning had afforded them exceptional opportunities for history to come to life . <p> Outdoor exploration was a healthy alternative to students ' sedentary pursuits on summer vacation . All arose at dawn and worked a full day . Teens and adults were considered equal members of field and laboratory teams , performing the same meaningful tasks . Teenage volunteers gathered and packed supplies . Project sponsors taught them to maintain neat and safe campsites . Each shared in meal preparation . Many seemed to thrive on the increased responsibility and the extra attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and adult volunteers . We marveled at how hot summer days passed quickly when we were intensely engaged in the process of discovery . <p> Student and adult volunteers learned to appreciate the tedious and dedicated work of professional archaeologists while honing skills of classification , measurement , and recording artifacts . Several students remarked that experiential education encouraged them to consider archaeology , paleontology , or another field science as potential career choices , which was one of the project 's aims . <p> Friendships were formed with the other volunteers and professional archaeologists as we shared lunch in the field and dinner at the campsite , swapped stories and discoveries , and studied the scientific method and natural history . Volunteers at each site posed for group photos and enjoyed evening games , stories , skits and songs . We found it difficult to leave at the end of each project , and we definitely plan to participate in other field schools . TABLE 1 . Selected State Content Standards by Discipline Compatible with Experiential Learning in Archaeology PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> 
##4002470 Key words : poetry and social justice ; poetry and the social studies ; poetry and cultural diversity <p> As a teacher educator committed to raising issues of racial , economic , and gender equality and those related to an appreciation for diversity , I find poetry to be a powerful resource in social studies methods classes . When preparing preservice teachers for elementary and middle school levels , I find that poetry can often capture their attention and address controversial issues in a meaningful , less-threatening manner . Poets frequently share their personal experiences with cultural diversity , racism , sexism , or classism in short , potent phrases . Poems often affirm women and cultural groups that are less valued in our society , praise individuals who resisted oppression , or portray the harm resulting from prejudicial comments or discriminatory actions . For example , in my social studies methods class , when we read " Harriet Tubman " by Eloise Greenfield ( Hudson 1993 ) , we discuss Tubman 's spirit and courage to resist slavery through her leadership in the Underground Railroad . When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alma Flor Ada ( Ada 1997 ) , we consider the importance of farm workers who , for little pay and at great personal risk , provide many of our foods . After a decade of using poetry appropriate for children and youth as a social studies resource , I continue to be impressed with how much teacher-education students are moved by poetry when they seem untouched by more objective resources . I hope , of course , that those students will consider the power of poetry when they address multicultural social studies themes in their own classrooms . Achieving the Goals of the Social Studies Methods Course through Poetry <p> As a methods teacher , I emphasize Sleeter and Grant 's ( 1999 ) conception of a multicultural , social reconstructionist approach to social studies . That orientation affirms cultural diversity , fosters equal opportunities , and challenges social stratification . The poems " I , Too , Sing America " and " Merry-Go-Round , " by Langston Hughes , document and challenge racial segregation and inequality during the first half of the twentieth century ( Clinton 1998 ) . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I Look Like a Girl ( 1999 ) , by Sheila Hamanaka , affirm children 's cultural diversity and girls ' strength . With a multicultural , social reconstructionist approach in the methods class , I also address such social issues as racism , sexism , and classism ; integrate the experiences and perspectives of women and men from different cultural groups ; include students ' life experiences , especially those that revolve around issues of oppression ; and encourage students to think critically and analyze different perspectives . The poetry in Janet Wong 's Good Luck Gold and Other Poems ( 1994 ) and Jane Medina 's My Name is Jorge : On Both Sides of the River ( 1999 ) provide personal perspectives of racial prejudices , discrimination , and blatant racism . Readers of those poems consider the racism inherent in teasing , stereotyping , and labeling . <p> Another important goal of the course is to encourage preservice teachers to read critically and develop critical literacy . As the teacher , I recognize that my students ' individual experiences , as well as their gender , social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other reading and their participation in discussions ( Edelsky 1999 ) . I encourage critical literacy by asking preservice students to consider the social issues in their readings , even if they prefer to ignore them . Although I avoid imposing my own critique ( Edelsky 1999 ) , I select readings , including poetry , that specifically raise those issues and affirm cultural diversity . Poems from Wachale ! Poetry and Prose about Growing Up Latino in America ( Stavans 2001 ) , I , Too , Sing America : Three Centuries of African American Poetry ( Clinton 1998 ) , Pass It On : African American Poetry for Children ( Hudson 1993 ) , and Rising Voices : Writings of Young Native Americans ( Hirschfelder and Singer 1992 ) are excellent catalysts for class discussion of such topics . Why Read Poetry in Elementary Social Studies ? <p> For elementary teachers who must meet the national social studies standards ( National Council for the Social Studies 1994 ) , emphasize literacy within the curriculum , and face limited time for teaching social studies , I recommend poetry to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least one of the ten thematic strands of social studies ( see Vardell 2003 for suggested poems for each thematic strand ) . Teachers committed to a multicultural , social reconstructionist approach may select poems that are not only congruent with this orientation but also address the thematic strands of culture ; time , continuity , and change ; individual development and identity ; individuals , groups , and institutions ; power , authority and governance ; and civic ideals and practices . Teach the Social Studies Standards <p> The poems in Thirteen Moons on Turtle 's Back : A Native American Year of Moons ( 1992 ) , by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London , and The Earth Under Sky Bear 's Feet : Native American Poems of the Land ( 1995 ) , by Joseph Bruchac and Thomas Locker , reveal the important similarities and the diversity among Native American cultures . They address the thematic strand of culture by expressing various Native American nations ' beliefs about the natural world . <p> The theme of time , continuity , and change is illustrated in the collection of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Difference , by Ann Whitford Paul ( 1999 ) . The poems commemorate brave actions taken by fourteen famous and ordinary young women who lived during various eras from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries in the United States . The poems compiled by Lillian Morrison in More Spice Than Sugar : Poems about Feisty Females ( 2001 ) also honor the accomplishments of women in U.S. history , such as Amelia Earhart , Rosa Parks , Sojourner Truth , and Molly Pitcher . <p> The theme of individual development and identity is explored in Francisco X. Alarcn 's bilingual English and Spanish poems in Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems ( 1997 ) , From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems ( 1998 ) , and Angels Ride Bikes and Other Fall Poems ( 1999 ) . Alarcn 's poems describe his childhood memories of his family , family activities , their visit to Mexico , and their daily life in Los Angeles as Mexican Americans . The poems in Meet Danitra Brown , by Nikki Grimes ( 1994 ) also address individual development and identity by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one another when others disparage their skin color , body shape , and eye glasses . <p> The thematic strand of individuals , groups , and institutions is incorporated in the bilingual English and Spanish poems from My Name Is Jorge ( Medina 1999 ) , which describe a Mexican American boy 's struggles in school in the United States . The poems raise awareness of the harmful effects of school on English language learners when teachers mispronounce their names , other students make prejudicial comments about ESL class , and others disparage the students ' first language . <p> With power and authority , poems from Under the Quilt of Night ( Hopkinson 2001 ) illustrate escaping from slavery on the Underground Railroad , the legalized racism inherent in slavery , and the conflicts between slave owners and slaves and the abolitionists who broke the law by helping slaves escape . The poem " Midway , " by Naomi Long Madgett ( Hudson 1993 ) , also depicts a slave 's determination to escape from legalized slavery , and the poem " Harriet Tubman , " by Eloise Greenfield ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's commitment to disobey the law and risk her own safety to escape from bondage and lead others to freedom . <p> Poems that illustrate civic ideals and practices include Elegy on the Death of Csar Chvez ( Anaya 2000 ) and I , Too , Sing America : Three Centuries of African American Poetry ( Clinton 1998 ) . The book-length poem about Csar Chvez treats Chvez 's resistance to injustices endured by farm workers and his efforts to organize migrant farm workers to fight for better conditions . A number of poems from I , Too , Sing America : Three Centuries of African American Poetry explore the injustice of slavery , legal racial segregation , and racial inequalities in the United States . Langston Hughes 's title poem , " I , Too , Sing America , " and " Merry-Go-Round " are especially powerful in their protest of racial segregation . Use Social Studies Instructional Time Wisely <p> The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act has a negative influence on social studies instruction . As elementary teachers teach the tested subjects of reading and mathematics , attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Some elementary and middle school teachers report shortening social studies lessons or integrating reading and writing with social studies ( Editors 2003 ) . Elementary teachers with whom I have contact regularly complain about the lack of time to teach all of the requirements . Poetry can be a valuable teaching tool for helping them solve that problem . Fortunately , reading poetry consumes less time than reading trade books and frequently is more engaging and offers more insight than reading a textbook . Although poetry should remain a supplemental rather than a primary resource for social studies , poetry 's strength lies in its brevity , focus , rich vocabulary , emotion , imagination , and various perspectives ( Vardell 2003 ) . Poetry may show human reactions to historical or current events , historical complexities , and the shared consciousness of an era ( Meadows 1999 ) . Poetry can provide unique insights and descriptions of the world around us , increasing our understanding and awareness of our world ( Donaldson 2001 ) . Carefully selected poems can be read , reread , and discussed during brief instructional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ significant multicultural , social reconstructionist social studies concepts . Develop Literacy during Social Studies <p> Reading poetry is also appealing to elementary social studies teachers because it promotes literacy , an important life skill for students and one of the tested subjects mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act . Reading poetry aloud provides opportunities for elementary students to read for meaning , discovery , and enjoyment ; develop fluency and expression ; and acquire an appreciation for poetry as they learn about important social studies content . During group discussions about poetry , children practice summarizing important ideas and explaining their interpretation of the poems in light of their own experiences and prior knowledge . Rather than ask students for a " correct " interpretation , the teacher can help students build plausible , personal interpretations of poems related to the social studies topic under study . <p> Elementary teachers may also promote critical literacy by introducing poetry that provides diverse perspectives on social studies topics and raises social issues . They can encourage students to examine poems for their point of view , biases , and issues of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own interpretations of the poems ' meanings , justify those interpretations , and make connections between the poems and their own lives ( Creighton 1997 ; Edelsky 1999 ) . Teachers may also raise ideas and issues that the students overlook during the group discussion , always allowing for diverse responses to those ideas and issues ( Edelsky 1999 ) . Suggestions for Using Poetry in Social Studies <p> Select Poems Deliberately <p> When selecting poems , I recommend that teachers are careful to meet multicultural and social reconstructionist social studies goals , promote reading skills and critical literacy , and make wise use of instructional time . The most appropriate poems contain accurate historical facts and perspectives , provide authentic voices , are developmentally appropriate for students , and fit classroom time constraints ( Danks 1995 ) . Elementary teachers focusing on diversity among families as a social studies topic may choose " When Annie Was Adopted , " " Half-Whole-Step , " and " My Father " from Fathers , Mothers , Sisters , Brothers : A Collection of Family Poems ( Hoberman 1991 ) and " Mom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1994 ) . Those poems illustrate different family structures , including single-parent , adoptive , and blended families . In the bilingual English and Spanish poem " Mi Abuela , " Christina Muniz Mutchler explores traditional and nontraditional roles of mothers and grandmothers . Carmen D. Lucca addresses family structure in " I Helped My Mom Not to Be Late for Work , " part of the collection called Love to Mam : A Tribute to Mothers ( Mora 2001 ) . In Daddy 's Arms I Am Tall : African Americans Celebrating Fathers ( 1997 ) contains poems that portray the various roles and qualities of African American fathers . Delia Spotted Bear , a teenage member of the Crow Nation , illustrates family closeness in her poem " My Family " in Rising Voices : Writings of Young Native Americans ( Hirschfelder and Singer 1992 ) . The Way a Door Closes ( Smith 2003 ) contains several poems from the perspective of an older son , addressing the challenges that families face when a parent loses a job . The family portrayed in the poems is a multigenerational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same for any family . The poems are brief and portray various perspectives . ( For an annotated bibliography of poetry resources appropriate for teaching about diverse families from different cultures to elementary and middle school social studies students , see my Web site , http : **34;4435;TOOLONG . ) <p> Strategies for Reading Poetry <p> Before reading a poem aloud , the teacher needs to provide students with background information on the poet and the period when the poem was written . Books of poetry often contain brief biographies of the authors , or the book 's publisher may have additional information about the author on its Web site . For more extensive author information , teachers can consult the Academy of American Poets Web site at poets.org or complete an Internet search . When introducing the time period in which the poem was written , I suggest that teachers encourage children to relate the year to themselves and their families and that teachers ask questions such as " How old were you when this poem was written and originally published ? How old were your closest family members ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this poem was written ? " With older elementary students , teachers can draw out their background knowledge of the important national , state , and community events of that time period and offer additional information on the historical and social context of the poem . <p> To ensure that all students engage in the poetry exercise , the teacher needs to vary the format for reading aloud ( see Vardell 2003 for descriptions of different methods ) . In my social studies methods class , I read poems aloud to preservice teachers at different times during the semester as a means to introduce or reinforce a topic . We also read poems together , choral fashion , or I divide the class into two large groups , with each group reading alternating stanzas . For large group readings , I usually display the poems through a computerized presentation program . The use of different colors for alternating stanzas helps the groups identify which stanzas to read . The students also read poems with a partner or read individually from a book of poetry . If they read with a partner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the poem to the rest of the class . When I ask preservice teachers to read poetry aloud , I allow them to prepare for the reading so that they are comfortable with word pronunciation or the meaning of a word or phrase . <p> Strategies for Discussing Poems <p> After we read a poem aloud , students try to explain the meaning of the poem 's important vocabulary and significant ideas . Because so many preservice teachers have had experiences with giving only the " correct interpretation " of poems and their symbolism , I stress that they are free to offer their own interpretation . To encourage greater participation , I ask them to share their ideas with a partner before offering them to the class . When addressing the issue of inequality and struggles for equality in social studies , I have the students read " I , Too , Sing America " and " Merry-Go-Round , " by Langston Hughes ( Clinton 1998 ) , both of which illustrate racism and racial segregation during the first half of the twentieth century . I encourage students to explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " sit at the table " in " I , Too , Sing America . " I have them describe the location of the " Jim Crow section " on a merry-go-round , bus , and train in " Merry-Go-Round . " I advise the preservice teachers that they should build on the ideas that the children offer and should add a brief explanation of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation before the 1960s civil rights movement . <p> One can find racial inequality for Native American people portrayed in the poem " Indians , " by Ophelia Rivas , a Tohono O'odham teen , in Rising Voices : Writings of Young Native Americans ( Hirschfelder and Singer 1992 ) . After reading the poem aloud , young students need to review their knowledge of Columbus , the Pilgrims , and Vikings and their roles in U.S. history . They also need to explain the meaning of the phrases " we are treated as though we do n't belong here " and " we are treated as though we just got here . " <p> To promote critical literacy and an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ teacher can have students offer their interpretations of the poems , the issues or themes raised in them , poetry 's contributions to understanding social studies content , and the connections between the issues in the poems and in the students ' own lives ( Creighton 1997 ; Edelsky 1999 ) . For example , the teacher may select poems that portray women 's challenges to racial and gender inequality -- " Ai n't I a Woman , " by Sojourner Truth , " Harriet Tubman , " by Eloise Greenfield , and " From Elizabeth Blackwell , " by Eve Merriam , which are in More Spice Than Sugar : Poems about Feisty Females ( Morrison 2001 ) . After reading the poems aloud , the children can explain what they learned from the poems and what led to their interpretations . The teacher needs to encourage different explanations and reasoning from the students . Once students express their initial responses to the poems , the teacher can have them focus on the issues raised in the poems and their relevance to social studies and students ' lives . For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the following questions : <p> What rights were the three women fighting for , and what is their importance ? <p> What did you learn about the issue of equality in the United States ? <p> How do these issues affect your own life ? <p> During the discussion , the teacher may add his or her own ideas , guarding against those ideas receiving more attention than the students ' views . <p> Another aspect of critical literacy is a careful analysis of the poets , including their backgrounds , for writing realistic poetry about the poem 's theme or social issue , the author 's purpose for writing the poetry , and the point of view and biases portrayed in the poem ( Creighton 1997 ) . When we read poems portraying racial stereotypes and discrimination , such as " Waiting at the Railroad Caf , " " Math , " and " Noise " from Good Luck Gold and Other Poems ( Wong 1994 ) , I explain to the preservice students that the author is Janet Wong , whose father immigrated from China and whose mother immigrated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up in Los Angeles . Given that background , I encourage students to question if we can believe that the author is describing real experiences and can explain why Wong might have written about them . We discuss problems of a teacher 's stereotyping students on the basis of race , gender , or family background ; the harm resulting from racial discrimination through teasing ; and strategies for coping with racial discrimination . Finally , I ask the preservice students to identify the author 's perspective and any biases they notice in the poems . Sometimes we address the possible bias against European Americans and the advancement of the status of Chinese-Korean-Americans in some of Wong 's poetry . Conclusion <p> For elementary teachers who have limited time for social studies but must address the national social studies standards and promote their students ' literacy development simultaneously , poetry is a valuable resource . Teachers can read and discuss poems during brief instructional periods , while still engaging children and helping them learn significant social studies content . From my decade of experience reading poetry aloud in my social studies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of preservice teachers and motivates them to think about multicultural , social reconstructionist ideas . They are often surprised that poetry is a credible supplementary social studies resource . Most preservice students appreciate the engaging language , personal tone , and deep emotions found in poetry that are missing from social studies textbooks . Poems make abstract issues of cultural diversity and racial , economic , and gender injustices real . Poetry definitely offers rich learning opportunities . I hope that the poetry read in my methods class will inspire the preservice teachers to address those issues later in their own classrooms and challenge injustices in their daily lives . <p> 
##4002471 Section : CLASSROOM Success Stories <p> Key words : trade books and teaching ; using a trade book to teach geography ; geography for fourth graders <p> Teachers are notorious for purchasing children 's literature . They seek books that entice students into the act of reading , support curricular objectives , and teach civic and moral lessons . Depending how it is used in a particular unit , quality literature can often bring subject areas to life for teachers and students . A book can be a powerful tool that supports learning in many ways . <p> For quite a few years , I conducted an interdisciplinary project called Travelmates with my fourth graders ( McCarty 1993 ) . The Travelmate unit was a way for fourth graders to " see the world " and yet never leave their classroom . Students sent out stuffed animals armed with a classroom pictorial dogtag , a letter of introduction , and a journal to record their traveling adventures . Once the travelmates were out the door , traveling with family members or friends , the fun began for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aruba , Belize , or San Francisco became common activities after mail delivery . Connecting Curriculum through Literature <p> A storybook that I felt would support this project as the Travelmates were touring the world was Anita Lobel 's book called Away from Home ( Lobel 1994 ) . The book has minimal text but is extremely rich with beautiful illustrations and wonderful use of alliteration . Lobel 's alphabet book sat on my shelf for over a year until I was asked to teach a demonstration lesson in social studies with my fourth grade students for a dozen teachers from Poland who were visiting the local university . I thought Ms. Lobel 's book would be perfect because the limited text would make the interpreter 's job less difficult . A description of the book printed in Instructor began as follows : <p> The curtain rises on an international cast of 26 boys , each of whom acts out a city scene against a backdrop depicting a famous sight : David dances in Detroit , Upton unpacks in Uxmal , and Xavier xylophones in Xian . ( Freeman 1993 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began the lesson by reading the book . My elementary students and Polish teachers alike laughed at some of the scenes . Our guest teachers even started chattering when they heard " Keith kicks in Krakow " as we progressed through this alliterative-designed alphabet book . The interpreter explained later to the class that the city of Krakow was in Poland and that the scenery depicted on the page of the book was the very beloved centerpiece of the city . All of the teachers from Poland had visited that place at one time in their lives . <p> The lesson proceeded with teams of students and Polish teachers working together , using atlases to locate four or five of the twenty-six cities mentioned . One member of each team came forward to record the location ( state or country ) of the city on a previously prepared transparency with a vertical listing of the alphabet followed by a corresponding city and a blank space on which to write the city 's location . Then another team member located the city on a large world map while the others located the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ team was as successful as the student teams in sharing that information orally . Extending Students ' Learning <p> I was pleased with the results of the lesson and congratulated the students for their efforts after the teachers left . I was stunned , however , by what my students said next : " Mrs. McCarty , we have to do more with this book . " <p> I replied in a laughing tone , " Like what ? " I thought the students were going to give me some flippant response that we all might enjoy . <p> " We have to create our own book , just like this author did , " Chris said in a very serious tone . <p> I paused for a moment . I really liked it when my students arrived at the conclusion that they needed to extend their learning . I had often encouraged such student thinking , but I started to ponder the following points : We only have three weeks of school left , and we have many curriculum objectives to complete . Can I really add one more thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to listen sometimes with my heart and not my head to students ' requests . I responded after that brief reverie , " What are you thinking ? " <p> The students started chattering away , brainstorming ideas , planning a design , being creative with their ideas . Then a hand shot up . " We ca n't create just one book . We have to make two ! " <p> " Why is that ? " I inquired . <p> " This book located cities around the world . Since we 're in fourth grade and have studied U.S. geography this year , we need to create a book that just features cities in the United States . We need to design this in addition to one that shows cities around the world , like Ms. Lobel 's book , " Domini promptly stated . <p> I had to agree with that thought . I considered how this could pull together some of the learning we had acquired this year . " How could we accomplish two books before school ends ? I do n't want to start this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> As a class , we decided that we would set aside our Writers ' Workshop stories , which each child was working on , and turn our efforts toward this class writing activity . We took a vote . The response was unanimous . Students knew that as they finished their work on the collective books , they would have time to go back to their other stories that were in various stages in the writing process or could continue to work on them on their own time . With a Plan of Action , Work Begins <p> We now knew the time frame that we had each day to work on the project . Next we needed to determine the design of the two books . After a brief class discussion , the group decided that we would follow the exact alliterative format that Lobel followed in her work . We talked about the meaning of that . Every sentence would need to be structured with a person 's first name , an action verb , and a prepositional phrase that ended with the name of a city that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first letter of the proper noun and verb . We practiced with a few names in the class : " Domini dived in Dallas " and " Lauren leaped in Little Rock . " The children were eager to use their own names in designing the book and wanted to write and illustrate the pages containing their names . That would work just fine . <p> Now we needed to determine where we could find assistance to begin the process . We had had some previous practice on word usage , so one of the students said that we would need a thesaurus . Another stated we would need a dictionary . Lauren wanted to know , " How are we going to find these places around the world ? " Then one student reminded everyone , " Remember the atlases we 've been using for Travelmate postcards when they return ? That 's what we can use . " The students thought that was a good idea . <p> From the back of the classroom , Andrew said , " We 're going to need to know something about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agreed , so Andrew and a couple friends marched off to the library to ask the librarian to help them find some books on the clothing or architectural designs found in different places around the world . That idea led the class to a discussion about " culture " and how we could represent culture appropriately through our illustrations . <p> We were ready to assign letters of the alphabet to different students so we could begin the production process . We divided the number of pages needed for two books by the number of students and assigned the appropriate number of pages to each person , making sure each had the letter of either his or her first or last name . Among the resources we used to discover more about people , places , and action verbs were books with babies ' names that some children brought to class . From those books , the children found such names as Xerxes , Ursula , Odel , or Zeeman . <p> My job as the facilitator was to design a template for the stage backdrop that would be used for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We designed it similar to Ms. Lobel 's book , just in a smaller version . We made a dummy copy so that the children could visualize how the final book would appear . Progressing toward Publication <p> In less than two weeks , the class had created exciting sentences by using thesauruses , dictionaries , and atlases . They illustrated and colored their artwork , trying to pay close attention to cultural details in the clothing or architectural designs that were unique to a particular country . We placed the artwork on template sheets designed to create two books . <p> The children worked collaboratively . Some had had more experiences that could help the others make better decisions in their artwork or word choice . The discoveries made during this process were incredible . For example , when Nick was designing the M and N pages in the international book , a classmate whose family had hosted a foreign exchange student from Japan the year before suggested that Nick use the Japanese name " Miura . " Nick liked the name and chose the action verb " married " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ draft design , he showed Miura in a white wedding gown . A student commented that that was not the outfit that Japanese women wore when they got married . Nick went back to the drawing board and found a book about the Japanese culture that showed a bride in a fancy kimono . His illustrated page had a background map of Japan with a Japanese woman wearing a fancy kimono . His sentence was : " Miura married in Maebashi . " That location is a city in Japan , near Tokyo . <p> The children were creative with their ideas . Brittanie wrote , " Brittanie boxed in Broken Hill . " Because Broken Hill is located in Australia , she drew a picture of herself and a kangaroo with boxing gloves located in a boxing ring ( fig. 1 ) . Another child wrote , " Yolanda yelled in Yorkton . " Because Yorkton is located in Canada , and the students knew that a popular sport in Canada is hockey , the child drew a person dressed in a hockey jersey with skates , hockey stick , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simpler . Stephanie drew a young boy dreaming with a bubble that said , " I wonder ... " and wrote , " Isaac imagined in Iglesias " ( Italy ) . With each of their sentences and illustrations , the children conveyed a unique story . Finishing Details <p> As a group , we decided to make our book as real as possible . We designed a cover page , a copyright page , and a dedication page . We had different committees working separately on each book . Although one book focused on the world and the other on the United States , both committees decided that the title and author credits had to include Ms. Lobel 's name . Each book was called Away from Home II , with author credits given to " Anita Lobel &; the Fourth Grade . " <p> The children liked the information contained on the original copyright page about the watercolor and gouache paints and the Leawood text type . They decided to imitate that format and use the following information on their copyright page : " Colors and markers were used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York . " They dedicated both books to Anita Lobel and her work on the original book Away from Home and to all the children around the world working toward peace . I thought that was a fitting way for the children to pay tribute to the author 's work . One group also placed their school pictures on the copyright page so that anyone reading the book would know the children who wrote the book . <p> The children needed to add one more page to the books . Ms. Lobel ended her book with an index page that was a quick resource for children trying to locate the cities used in the text . We had compiled similar information for our books as we wrote the text by having each child responsible for his or her respective place . Examples from the index page in the international book include the following information : <p> Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay , a country in South America . <p> Broken Hill is in the country of New South Wales in Australia . <p> Jakarta is a city in Indonesia on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Greece on the European continent . <p> The U.S. book index seems less exotic , with its more familiar examples such as the following : <p> Iowa City is the old capital of Iowa . <p> Orlando is a city that is growing rapidly and is a popular winter resort in Florida . <p> Portland is located on the northern border of Oregon . ( If you found the Portland in Maine , that 's cool too . ) <p> Quincy is located in Massachusetts near Boston . Conclusion <p> We laminated the pages of both books so that the work could be better preserved . The students were extremely proud of themselves and felt as if they were real authors . Some children asked for a copy of the book that they helped create . I supplied them with black and white copies . Others wanted copies of the dummy draft with text so they could draw their own illustrations over the summer vacation . Because of all their work , I decided that the children deserved a copy of the masterpiece in any form they desired . After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the children and me . We had become explorers , researchers , adventurers , tourists , and word sleuths . We also became more culturally literate and more aware geographically of what an exciting place the world can be . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : FIGURE 1 . Brittanie 's design for the alphabet book of international cities . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : FIGURE 2 . Yolanda 's design for the alphabet book of international cities . <p> 
##4000950 FIRST OF A SERIES The Stain of War on Culture <p> " MA SA LAA CH'OOL ? " ARE YOU HAPPY IN YOUR HEART ? " SA LIN CH'OOL . " YES , I AM HAPPY IN MY HEART . <p> War does n't just disappear with the signing of a peace treaty and the onslaught of reconstruction efforts . 0To understand the true cost of any armed conflict , we must first consider the lingering effects of war one , five , ten , or twenty years from its official end . <p> THE MULTICOLORED VILLAGES of Chicaja and Maribach adorn the verdant Guatemalan hillsides that overlook the merging of the Chicaja and Cahabon rivers . Even before I arrived and met the thirty families that lived there , the exquisite greeting used by the Q'eqchi ' people captivated me . Language is like a mirror : a reflection of culture and lifestyle formed by the nuances of syntax and semantics . " Words only cover the experience of living , " author Barbara Kingsolver wrote , and the pure poetry of the few Q'eqchi ' phrases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people I would soon meet . <p> As the bustling cobblestone streets of Cahabon faded into the distance , we were moved to silence as we walked . Lush jungle trees formed a thick canopy above the footpath that was woven even tighter by the proliferation of tropical foliage and airplants growing in every imaginable crevice . Being familiar with the edible and medicinal qualities of plants native to my northern latitude , I was struck with the wealth of invaluable resources this diverse rainforest could surely provide its residents . We wound deeper into the low mountains , crossing the streams and rivers that divided the landscape until we came to the modest thatched roof hut of our hosts , twenty-four-year-old Candelaria , her husband Ramon , and their four young children . <p> My husband and I traveled to Chicaja and Maribach in 2001 to meet with Julia Weidmann , an international human rights witness with the Guatemalan Accompaniment Project . Guatemala 's civil war was perhaps the longest and most unspeakable war of modern times . Many events contributed to the start of the war , among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be sold out from under them to insatiable multinational companies . For thirty-seven long years villages were pitted against each other -- the indigenous people were terrorized by their neighbors who themselves were threatened into participating in a conflict that , in many ways , had little relevance to the sustenance of their way of life . The war 's impact became increasingly personal for the villagers : shattering families , forcing children into early adulthood , and sending unknown numbers of refugees away from their lands forever . The war officially ended in 1996 but the wounds of a decades-long war do n't heal with the mere signing of a paper . Atrocities continue even today , hence the need for international witnesses . <p> Early in our visit we noticed that the population of the twin villages was significantly skewed towards the younger ages -- there were very few elders . Candelaria described how she had become a chaq'na , or little mother , at age seven when her parents were massacred in the war , leaving her as the primary caregiver for her young siblings . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ families north into Mexico and the United States . For many surviving older adults the spilling of so much innocent blood on their native lands had forever altered them . When the war finally ended they did n't return to that haunted place as those who had been younger during the most intense fighting did . <p> We quickly learned that the steamy jungle mid afternoons were fit for little more than seeking shelter inside the hut and performing low-energy chores such as shucking corn and playing with the babies . We practiced our Q'eqchi ' with Candelaria , and she asked us to teach her some Spanish words and phrases . We laughed together as we tried to make our tongues produce the foreign cadence of unfamiliar languages . Candelaria 's youngest child Aura toddled around the inside of our circle and cooed at our efforts . <p> " You like my baby ? " Candelaria asked Weidmann . <p> " Yes , how could I not like her ? " Weidman 's response was genuine . <p> " You can take her home with you . " Candelaria 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't sure she had understood the message . She leaned forward to clarify . <p> " Home to America . " <p> An expression of surprise rushed across Weidmann 's face . " I could n't raise her . I ca n't speak Q'eqchi ' well enough to teach her her own language . " <p> " I do n't want her to learn Q'eqchi ' . I want her to speak Spanish . " <p> Our hearts were heavy as the aim of her request became clear to us . Candelaria wanted a better life for her child , not the difficult life the village entailed . And speaking Spanish was a key that opened up many opportunities in the mountain towns and allowed individuals to stand up for their rights . <p> The Q'eqchi ' communities were quickly eroding and becoming more isolated with each passing year . And each year it became more essential for the indigenous population to learn Spanish . Yet with the death of any language also comes the passing of a culture . And the thought of removing this beautiful way of life from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Our days in Chicaja and Maribach were shaped by the vibrant colors of the Mayan culture . The women wore traditional woven skirts with patterns depicting the life-sustaining corn plant and Mayan gods . Women and men alike used a narrow sling of fabric over their heads to transport everything from ebony-haired babies to canvas bags full of black beans . A few women still wove colorful strips of fabric using traditional backstrap looms . Spicy red chilies were spread across sheets of corrugated metal to wrinkle in the sun until they were dry enough to store . <p> These tidbits whetted our appetites for deeper cultural teachings from our hosts . We asked the men , " What plants in the forest can the people harvest for food and medicine ? " They shook their heads in response . " What plants should be avoided ? " Again they indicated that they did n't know which plants . Weidmann , who had been living as a member of the village for nine months at that time , asked for permission to interview community members . When several of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the lullabies that you sing to your babies ? " They looked at one another with uncertain glances . " Do you tell your children the nursery rhymes and tales that your families passed down to you ? " They could n't name any . The Guatemalan civil war had not only decimated the few generations that had endured it but it had irreversibly interrupted the entire history of a culture and a way of life . It would take more than a peace agreement to stop the events that had already been set in motion . <p> Our interview with the village women continued . Weidmann gently asked what the reasons were for fighting the war . The war clearly had a greater impact on this community than any other single factor . The women turned towards each other and talked together in mumbled phrases and blank looks . They adjusted the babies at their breasts and seemed to wait for someone other than themselves to give an answer . Finally one spoke up and said , " We do n't know . " In that moment I felt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same time , my heart was filled with respect for these strong Mayan people holding fast and beginning anew despite an outside world that seems resolved to tear them apart . Certainly much of their history as a people had been taken from them but the ancestral strength and determination that runs through their veins can never be destroyed . Like the great Mayan temples of Tikal that still tower above the jungle in the north , the modern-day Mayan people will likewise endure . <p> Two years later I met with Weidmann again near her San Francisco home to reflect on our experiences in Maribach and Chicaja . Why does war most heavily affect the poor ? Is it possible to separate language from culture ? Can a culture once lost be restored ? How does life persist in spite of intense suffering ? <p> Surrounded by the lush gardens in Golden Gate Park we read to one another from Michael J. Caduto 's book , Earth Tales from Around the World . In the introduction Caduto wrote , " stories are the heart and soul of many cultures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe in " As we read to one another from the book of ancient tales we came to understand that stories also serve as a means to help us make sense of life 's senseless situations . The following story , " The First Bats , " as retold by Caduto , is from the Jakaltec-Maya ( Guatemala and Mexico ) . It 's a tale of the first mice , their discontent with a terrestrial existence , and how , as individuals , they either maintained their status or evolved and changed . <p> " It is time , " said the Creator . The mice began to chatter . <p> " Anyone who can jump across this ravine and land safely on the other side will be given wings and the power of flight . " <p> One at a time , the mice ran to the edge of the chasm and leaped into the air . Many fell short and remained mice thereafter . Those who reached the other side grew thin wings of skin . Their tails fell off and the tiny claws grew long and curved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dark caves in the mountains . <p> When all of the mice had jumped , the Creator spoke to them one last time . " Now it is done . Those of you who are still mice will eat seeds and nuts . You can make warm nests and finish them with a soft lining . You can nest in the trees or wherever you find a good space for a home . From this day forth , the rest of you will now be known as Sotz ' , the bats . The mouse 's night will be your day . Some of you will eat mosquitoes , others will eat fruit and still others will drink blood . No longer will you live in cozy nests . By your sharp claws you will cling upside down from the roofs of the caverns , nchach'en . " <p> The mouse , Tx'ow , saw that Sotz ' , the bats , too , were not entirely pleased with their lives . That is how mice came to be content with the gifts they received when first created . <p> For @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is far from over . Each community member will make a myriad of individual decisions that will ultimately affect the whole : they will determine which language or languages to learn and speak , they will embrace or separate from the dominant Latin culture , and they will arrive at the best land management decisions to protect their farmlands . These decisions belong to individuals but they will meld together to create a distinct flavor and form the backbone of the modern-day Mayan community . As we discovered in " The First Bats , " regardless of a community 's gifts there will also be feelings of discontent . But in spite of the choices that are made and the obstacles that present themselves , the extraordinary people of Maribach and Chicaja model a spirit of indescribable hope and determination -- qualities that the rest of the world can only aspire to possess . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) <p> By Michelle Bargo <p> <p> When not living abroad , Michelle Bargo resides in Cincinnati , Ohio . She is a freelance writer with a master 's degree in @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4002772 Section : Comments Today 's Insurgents in Iraq Are Tomorrow 's Terrorists <p> When the United States started sending guns and money to the Afghan mujahideen in the 1980s , it had a clearly defined Cold War purpose : helping expel the Soviet army , which had invaded Afghanistan in 1979 . And so it made sense that once the Afghan jihad forced a Soviet withdrawal a decade later , Washington would lose interest in the rebels . For the international mujahideen drawn to the Afghan conflict , however , the fight was just beginning . They opened new fronts in the name of global jihad and became the spearhead of Islamist terrorism . The seriousness of the blowback became clear to the United States with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center : all of the attack 's participants either had served in Afghanistan or were linked to a Brooklyn-based fund-raising organ for the Afghan jihad that was later revealed to be al Qaeda 's de facto U.S. headquarters . The blowback , evident in other countries as well , continued to increase in intensity throughout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 2001 . <p> The current war in Iraq will generate a ferocious blowback of its own , which -- as a recent classified CIA assessment predicts-could be longer and more powerful than that from Afghanistan . Foreign volunteers fighting U.S. troops in Iraq today will find new targets around the world after the war ends . Yet the Bush administration , consumed with managing countless crises in Iraq , has devoted little time to preparing for such long-term consequences . Lieutenant General James Conway , the director of operations on the Joint Staff , admitted as much when he said in June that blowback " is a concern , but there 's not much we can do about it at this point in time . " Judging from the experience of Afghanistan , such thinking is both mistaken and dangerously complacent . COMING HOME TO ROOST <p> The foreign volunteers in Afghanistan saw the Soviet defeat as a victory for Islam against a superpower that had invaded a Muslim country . Estimates of the number of foreign fighters who fought in Afghanistan begin in the low thousands ; some spent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amounted to a jihad vacation . The jihadists gained legitimacy and prestige from their triumph both within the militant community and among ordinary Muslims , as well as the confidence to carry their jihad to other countries where they believed Muslims required assistance . When veterans of the guerrilla campaign returned home with their experience , ideology , and weapons , they destabilized once-tranquil countries and inflamed already unstable ones . <p> Algeria had seen relatively little terrorism for decades , but returning mujahideen founded the Armed Islamic Group ( known by its French initials , GIA ) . GIA murdered thousands of Algerian civilians during the 1990s as it attempted to depose the government and replace it with an Islamist regime , a goal inspired by the mujahideen 's success in Afghanistan . The GIA campaign of violence became especially pronounced after the Algerian army mounted a coup in 1992 to preempt an election that Islamists were poised to win . <p> In Egypt , after the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981 prompted a government crackdown , hundreds of extremists left the country to train and fight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against the Soviets to lead a terror campaign that killed more than a thousand people between 1990 and 1997 . Closely tied to these militants was the Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman , " the Blind Sheikh , " whose preaching , according to the 9/11 Commission , had inspired Sadat 's assassins . Abdel Rahman 's career demonstrates the internationalization of Islamist extremism after Afghanistan . The cleric visited Pakistan to lend his support to the Afghan jihad and encouraged two of his sons to fight in the war . He also provided spiritual direction for the Egyptian terrorist organization Jamaat al-Islamiyya and supported its renewed attacks on the Egyptian government in the 1990s . He arrived in the United States in 1990 -- at the time , the country was regarded as a sympathetic environment for Islamist militants -- where he began to encourage attacks on New York City landmarks . Convicted in 1995 in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center , Abdel Rahman is serving a life sentence in the United States . But his influence has continued to be felt : a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Luxor that left 58 tourists dead and almost crippled Egypt 's vital tourism industry was an effort by Jamaat al-Islamiyya to force his release . <p> The best-known alumnus of the Afghan jihad is Osama bin Laden , under whose leadership the " Afghan Arabs " prosecuted their war beyond the Middle East into the United States , Africa , Europe , and Southeast Asia . After the Soviet defeat , bin Laden established a presence in Sudan to build up his fledgling al Qaeda organization . Around the same time , Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops arrived in Saudi Arabia . The U.S. military presence in " the land of the two holy places " became al Qaeda 's core grievance , and the United States became bin Laden 's primary target . Al Qaeda bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 , nearly sank the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000 , and attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 . Bin Laden expanded his reach into Southeast Asia with the assistance of other terrorists who had fought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hambali , who is the central link between al Qaeda and the Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah , and Ali Gufron , known as Mukhlas , a leading planner of the 2002 Bail bombing that killed more than 200 people . ON-THE-JOB TRAINING <p> The Afghan experience was important for the foreign " holy warriors " for several reasons . First , they gained battlefield experience . Second , they rubbed shoulders with like-minded militants from around the Muslim world , creating a truly global network . Third , as the Soviet war wound down , they established a myriad of new jihadist organizations , from al Qaeda to the Algerian GIA to the Filipino group Abu Sayyaf . <p> However , despite their grandiose rhetoric , the few thousand foreigners who fought in Afghanistan had only a negligible impact on the outcome of that war . Bin Laden 's Afghan Arabs began fighting the Soviet army only in 1986 , six years after the Soviet invasion . It was the Afghans , drawing on the wealth of their American and Saudi sponsors , who defeated the Soviet Union . By @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far more potent than the Afghan Arabs ever were . <p> Several factors could make blowback from the Iraq war even more dangerous than the fallout from Afghanistan . Foreign fighters started to arrive in Iraq even before Saddam 's regime fell . They have conducted most of the suicide bombings -- including some that have delivered strategic successes such as the withdrawal of the UN and most international aid organizations -- and the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , another alumnus of the Afghan war , is perhaps the most effective insurgent commander in the field . Fighters in Iraq are more battle hardened than the Afghan Arabs , who fought demoralized Soviet army conscripts . They are testing themselves against arguably the best army in history , acquiring skills in their battles against coalition forces that will be far more useful for future terrorist operations than those their counterparts learned during the 1980s . Mastering how to make improvised explosive devices or how to conduct suicide operations is more relevant to urban terrorism than the conventional guerrilla tactics used against the Red Army . U.S. military commanders say that techniques @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Finally , foreign involvement in the Iraqi conflict will likely lead some Iraqi nationals to become international terrorists . The Afghans were glad to have Arab money but were culturally , religiously , and psychologically removed from the Afghan Arabs ; they neither joined al Qaeda nor identified with the Arabs ' radical theology . Iraqis , however , are closer culturally to the foreigners fighting in Iraq , and many will volunteer to continue other jihads even after U.S. troops depart . IN BAGHDAD AND IN BOSTON <p> President George W. Bush and others have suggested that it is better for the United States to fight the terrorists in Baghdad than in Boston . It is a comforting notion , but it is wrong on two counts . First , it posits a finite number of terrorists who can be lured to one place and killed . But the Iraq war has expanded the terrorists ' ranks : the year 2003 saw the highest incidence of significant terrorist attacks in two decades , and then , in 2004 , astonishingly , that number tripled . ( Secretary of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror . " An exponentially rising number of terrorist attacks is one metric that seems relevant . ) Second , the Bush administration has not addressed the question of what the foreign fighters will do when the war in Iraq ends . It would be naive to expect them to return to civilian life in their home countries . More likely , they will become the new shock troops of the international jihadist movement . <p> For these reasons , U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East , as well as the United States itself , are vulnerable to blowback . Disturbingly , some European governments are already seeing some of their citizens and resident aliens answer the call to fight in Iraq . In February , the Los Angeles Times reported that U.S. troops in Iraq had detained three French militants -- and that police in Paris had arrested ten associates who were planning to join them . In June , authorities in Spain arrested 16 men , mostly Moroccans , on charges of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States indicted a Dutch resident , Iraqi-born Wesam al-Delaema , for conspiring to bomb U.S. convoys in Fallujah . These incidents presage danger not only for European countries , but also for the United States , since European nationals benefit from the Visa Waiver Program , which affords them relatively easy access to the United States . <p> But it is Saudi Arabia that will bear the brunt of the blowback . Several studies attest to the significant role Saudi nationals have played in the conflict . Of the 154 Arab fighters killed in Iraq between September 2004 and March 2005 , 61 percent were from Saudi Arabia . Another report concluded that of the 235 suicide bombers named on Web sites since mid-2004 as having perpetrated attacks in Iraq , more than 50 percent were Saudi nationals . Today , the Saudi government is exporting its jihadist problem instead of dealing with it , just as the Egyptians did during the Afghan war . A SWITCH IN TIME <p> American success in Iraq would deny today 's jihadists the symbolic victory that they seek . But with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dealing with the jihadists in Iraq now-by limiting the numbers entering the fight and breaking the mechanism that would otherwise generate blowback after the war . <p> The foreign jihadists in Iraq need to be separated from the local insurgents through the political process . Success in that mission will require Iraq 's Sunni Arabs to remain consistently engaged in the political process . Shiite and Kurdish leaders will have to back down from their efforts to create semiautonomous states in the north and the south . But the prospects for these developments appear dim at the moment , and reaching a durable agreement may increasingly be beyond U.S. influence . <p> To raise the odds of success , the United States must deliver more security to central Iraq . This means securing Iraq 's borders , especially with Syria , to block the flow of foreign fighters into the country . The repeated U.S. military operations in western Iraq since May have shown that at present there are insufficient forces to disrupt insurgent supply lines running along the Euphrates River to the Syrian border . Accomplishing this objective would require @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well-trained Iraqi troops . For the moment , neither of those options seems viable , and so additional U.S. soldiers should be rotated out of Iraq 's cities and into the western deserts and border towns , transitioning the control of certain urban areas to the Iraqi military and police . <p> Foreign governments must also silence calls to jihad and deny radicals sanctuary once this war ends . After the Soviet defeat , jihadists too often found refuge in places as varied as Brooklyn and Khartoum , where radical clerics offered religious justifications for continuing jihad . To date , some governments have not taken the necessary steps to clamp down on the new generation of jihadists . Although the Saudis largely silenced their radical clerics following the terrorist attacks in Riyadh in May 2003 , 26 clerics were still permitted late in 2004 to call for jihad against U.S. troops in Iraq . The United States must press the Saudi government to end these appeals and restrict its nationals from entering Iraq . In the long run , measures against radical preaching are in Riyadh 's best interest , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be as painful for Saudi Arabia as the blowback from Afghanistan was for Egypt and Algeria during the 1990s . <p> Finally , the U.S. intelligence community , in conjunction with foreign intelligence services , should work on creating a database that identifies and tracks foreign fighters , their known associates , and their spiritual mentors . If such a database had been created during the Afghan war , the United States would have been far better prepared for al Qaeda 's subsequent terror campaign . <p> President Jimmy Carter 's national security adviser , Zbigniew Brzezinski , once asked of the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan : " What is most important to the history of the world ? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire ? Some stirred-up Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War ? " Today , the Bush administration is implicitly arguing a similar point : that the establishment of a democratic Iraqi state is a project of overriding importance for the United States and the world , which in due course will eclipse memories of the insurgency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war in Iraq is already breeding a new generation of terrorists . The lesson of the decade of terror that followed the Afghan war was that underestimating the importance of blowback has severe consequences . Repeating the mistake in regard to Iraq could lead to even deadlier outcomes . <p> By Peter Bergen and Alec Reynolds <p> <p> Peter Bergen is a Schwartz Fellow of the New America Foundation and the author of Holy War , Inc. : inside the Secret World of Osama bin Laden <p> Alec Reynolds is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University 's School of Advanced International Studies . <p> 
##4002773 Section : Comments Washington Battles the World <p> As historic documents go , the statement issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on June 30 was low-key even by American standards of informality . No flowery language , no fountain-penned signatures , no Great Seal of the United States -- only 331 words on a single page . But the simplicity of the presentation belied the importance of the content , which was Washington 's attempt to settle a crucial problem of twenty-first-century global governance : Who controls the Internet ? <p> Any network requires some centralized control in order to function . The global phone system , for example , is administered by the world 's oldest international treaty organization , the International Telecommunication Union , founded in 1865 and now a part of the UN family . The Internet is different . It is coordinated by a private-sector nonprofit organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN ) , which was set up by the United States in 1998 to take over the activities performed for 30 years , amazingly , by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over who controls the Internet has simmered in insular technology-policy circles for years and more recently has crept into formal diplomatic talks . Many governments feel that , like the phone network , the Internet should be administered under a multilateral treaty . ICANN , in their view , is an instrument of American hegemony over cyberspace : its private-sector approach favors the United States , Washington retains oversight authority , and its Governmental Advisory Committee , composed of delegates from other nations , has no real powers . <p> This discontent finally boiled over at the UN 'S World Summit on the Information Society , the first phase of which was held in Geneva in December 2003 ( the second phase is set for November in Tunis ) . Brazil and South Africa have criticized the current arrangement , and China has called for the creation of a new international treaty organization . France wants an intergovernmental approach , but one involving only an elite group of democratic nations . Cuba and Syria have taken advantage of the controversy to poke a finger in Washington 's eye , and even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , calling the existing system of Internet governance a form of neocolonialism . <p> How did such a welcomed technology become the source of such discord ? Everyone understands that the Internet is crucial for the functioning of modern economies , societies , and even governments , and everyone has an interest in seeing that it is secure and reliable . But at the same time , many governments are bothered that such a vital resource exists outside their control and , even worse , that it is under the thumb of an already dominant United States . Washington 's answer to these concerns-the Commerce Department 's four terse paragraphs , released at the end of June , announcing that the United States plans to retain control of the Internet indefinitely-was intended as a sort of Monroe Doctrine for our times . It was received abroad with just the anger one would expect , setting the stage for further controversy . MASTERS OF THEIR DOMAIN NAMES <p> One of the most cherished myths of cyberspace is that the Internet is totally decentralized and inherently uncontrollable . Like all myths , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heavy dose of wishful thinking . It is true that compared with the century-old telephone system , the Internet is a paragon of deregulation and decentralization . In four critical areas , however , it requires oversight and coordination in order to operate smoothly . Together , these areas constitute the " domain name system " of addresses , with which users navigate the Internet and send e-mail . <p> First , there are domain names , such as www.foreignaffairs.org . Somebody must decide who will operate the database of generic names ending with suffixes such as " . com , " " . net , " " . info , " and others ( a privilege that promises handsome profits ) . Also , someone must appoint the operators of two-letter country-code suffixes ( such as " . cn , " for China ) . <p> Second , there are Internet Protocol numbers , the up-to-12-digit codes , invisible to users , that every machine on the network needs to have in order to be recognized by other machines . Due to a technical decision made when the network was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with mainframe computers-the system was set up to accommodate only around four billion potential Internet Protocol numbers , far fewer than are now necessary . Until the Internet is upgraded , accordingly , Internet Protocol numbers must be allocated sparingly-and carefully , since accidentally duplicating them creates mayhem for routing Internet traffic . <p> Third are what are called root servers . Some form of control is needed in the actual machines that make the domain name system work . When users visit Web sites or send e-mail , big computers known as root servers match the domain names with their corresponding Internet Protocol numbers in a matter of milliseconds . The database is the world 's most important Rolodex . Yet due to a technical hiccup that occurred when the network was young , there can be only 13 root servers , some of which provide data to mirror sites around the world . As a result , somebody must decide who will operate the root servers and where those operators will be based . Because the system evolved informally , the root servers ' administrators are diverse , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. military , and private companies . Today , all told , ten root servers are operated from the United States and one each from Amsterdam , Stockholm , and Tokyo . <p> Fourth and finally , there are technical standards that must be formally established and coordinated to ensure the Internet 's interoperability . They entail more than just the addressing system and involve everything from how routers send traffic to parameters so that video flows smoothly . Ultimately , the standards let the Internet evolve . <p> If all this sounds outrageously technical , that is because it is . And it is the reason why , even after the Internet had become a mass-market medium , most diplomats and foreign policy experts remained largely unaware of these issues . But although the management of the names , numbers , root servers , and standards that constitute the Internet 's infrastructure -- what techies call " Internet governance " -- seems nerdy , it can have an important impact on mainstream policy issues . For instance , countries that place restrictions on the types of domain names that can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of registrants of addresses with generic suites such as " . com " and " . net " are made publicly available online , which jeopardizes people 's privacy . Telecom operators need access to Internet Protocol numbers to deploy services , making them a major asset for companies and an economic interest of countries . Technical standards can be designed either to foster openness or to permit censorship and surveillance . In short , the Internet , before it is physically constructed from routers and cables , is made up of values . And the domain name system is the central chokepoint where control of the Internet can be exercised . <p> For most of its history , the Internet has been administered by Woodstock-era American engineers and academics . As a result , the network has embodied the philosophy of that community : a political and economic liberalism led to openness on a technical level . The open infrastructure ( with nonproprietary standards that let any network connect to any other , hence the " inter-net " ) has fostered free expression , low-cost access , and innovation . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made the Internet nonbureaucratic , particularly compared with state-run monopoly telecom carriers . And the fact that the Internet 's networks carry streams of data rather than mainly voice calls has kept it outside of the purview of traditional telecom regulators . <p> To be sure , the Internet 's openness begets big headaches : it is difficult to track spammers , and the system is tremendously vulnerable to hacking . But the open network is like the open society -- crime thrives , but so does creativity . We take for granted that the Internet we enjoy today continue to have these characteristics , but this is hardly certain . It all depends on who controls the domain name system and what priorities they choose to set . THE TANGLED WEB THEY WOVE <p> Until 1998 , the Internet was overseen almost exclusively by one man : Jon Postel , a computer science professor at the University of Southern California . As a graduate student in the 1960s , he was among the handful of engineers who built the Internet . For the next 30 years , he managed it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Projects Agency , which funded the Internet 's initial development . <p> Postel made seemingly technical decisions such as who should get to operate a country-code domain . Although it may seem odd that national address suffixes ( such as " . uk , " for the United Kingdom ) were allocated to private individuals rather than government bodies , such was the case . In its early days , the Internet was so new and strange that there was usually no appropriate national organization to hand a suffix to . Besides , governments , and particularly their monopoly telecom carriers , more often hindered communications development than helped it . By the mid-1990s , however , it became clear to the small coterie of officials in the United States and elsewhere who were aware of the matter that the Internet could no longer be administered by a single individual . But who or what would replace him ? <p> After a bitter series of negotiations among the business community , governments , and nongovernmental organizations worldwide , the Clinton administration helped broker a compromise and established ICANN in 1998 . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Internet to flourish , it seemed appropriate that the new organization be based in the private sector . This would make it more responsive , more flexible , and less prone to bureaucratic and political squabbling . The negotiations were so tense that Postel suffered a heart attack as they were ending and never lived to see the birth of the successor organization he was instrumental in creating . <p> ICANN was an experiment , a bottom-up , multi-stakeholder approach toward managing a global resource on a nongovernmental basis . Indeed , in its early days it was often touted as a model for other issues that require the unified action of numerous groups from government , industry , and civil society , such as treating communicable diseases or handling climate change . ICANN 'S private-sector status , moreover , has helped keep the Internet free from political interference . When in 2002 members of the Federal Communications Commission were asked by their counterparts at Chinas Ministry of Information industry why Taiwan had been allocated its own two-letter domain ( " . tw " ) , the commissioners could pass the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Yet from the start , ICANN was plagued by controversy . Critics charged that it lacked transparency , accountability , and legitimacy . Civil-society groups felt it was in the pocket of the domain name registration businesses it was designed to regulate . Businesses felt it was overly governmental . And foreign governments felt powerless before it . As many developing countries woke to the Internet 's importance , it struck them as outrageous that the Internet was essentially run by a nonprofit corporation whose 15-person board of directors was accountable to the attorney general of the state of California and under the authority of the U.S. government . Even the U.S. Congress criticized it , hauling the group into tense hearings regularly . Haft a decade after it was founded with such optimism , the organization was mockingly referred to in tech-policy circles as " ICAN N'T . " <p> All this came to a head in 2003 , during the preparatory meetings for the World Summit on the Information Society . Washington had been able to deflect criticism of ICANN in bilateral discussions but proved unable to block @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officials mildly supportive of ICANN were replaced by senior representatives from foreign ministries , officials less familiar with the details of Internet governance but more experienced in challenging U.S. power . Watching the United States go to war in Iraq despite global opposition , these diplomats saw ICANN as yet another example of American unilateralism . What would prevent Washington , they argued , from one day choosing , say , to knock Iran off the Internet by simply deleting its two-letter moniker , " . ir , " from the domain name system ? Surely the Internet ought to be managed by the international community rather than a single nation . <p> Governments worldwide sought to dilute the United States ' control by calling for a new arrangement , and in November 2004 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed a 40-person working group to address questions of Internet governance . Washington had planned to grant ICANN autonomy from its oversight in 2006 . But the more other countries clamored for power , the more the United States reconsidered its policy of relinquishing control . Ultimately , it came down to national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Internet 's continuing to function as it had , decided it was not prepared to risk any changes . So , as the UN working group was preparing to release its report ( which , unsurprisingly , favored transferring authority over the Internet to the UN ) , the U.S. government made a preemptive strike . In the brief Commerce Department statement , Washington announced its decision : the United States would retain its authority over ICANN , period . THE OPEN NETWORK AND ITS ENEMIES <p> Power , before it comes from arms or wealth , emanates from ideas . The Internet has emerged as a piece of critical information infrastructure for every nation . Developed countries increasingly rely on it for their economic livelihood and basic communications ; developing nations recognize it as a way of linking people together , enabling commercial relationships , and generating the transparency and civic dialogue that undergird democratic governance . Information technology can also strengthen the hand of authoritarian regimes , but there seems little doubt that in its current form the Internet 's general influence is progressive rather than regressive . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but the group 's work has ensured that the network operates smoothly so that these benefits can be realized . As the overseer of the domain name system , the United States has taken a liberal approach in keeping with its liberal values . There is no guarantee that an intergovernmental system would continue on such a course , and so even committed internationalists ought to be wary of changing how the system is run . <p> This is especially so since the very countries that most restrict the Internet within their borders are the ones calling loudest for greater control . As other countries sharpen their diplomatic knives for the final round of the summit in Tunis in November , the dispute is echoing an earlier battle at UNESCO in the 1980s over the so-called New World Information and Communication Order , which led the United States and the United Kingdom to pull out of the organization . Then , it was the Soviet Union , its satellites , and the developing world that called for controlling media activities and funding the development of media resources in developing countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the Internet , as well as financial aid to overcome the digital divide . <p> Washington 's new position shrewdly mixes a few carrots in along with the big stick . It formally acknowledges that countries have " sovereignty concerns " about their national two-letter address domains-a mealy-mouthed nod toward granting countries control over them , which is only appropriate . Although this will invite problems , such as with Taiwan 's " . tw , " these can be sidestepped -- just as the allocation of telephone " country codes " to territories does not confer diplomatic recognition , neither does the allocation of country domains need to . Washington also supports the continued discussion of broader Internet governance issues in multiple forums , which could restrain the creation of a cumbersome and monolithic Global Internet Policy Council ( which was among the UN working group 's proposals ) . It may also keep politicians from trespassing on ICANN 'S more purely technical areas , which could harm the network . <p> Nevertheless , although the new U.S. position may be the least bad alternative in the short term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ term . For the moment , there is little other governments can do to rebel . Unless they feel their concerns are being addressed , however , they are likely to try to set up a parallel naming and addressing system to compete with ICANN-sanctioned domains . Technology abhors homogeneity ; differing technical standards are the norm rather than the exception . The ongoing scuffle over the creation of Galileo , Europe 's challenge to Washington 's Global Positioning System , is one example ; the battle over third-generation mobile-phone standards is another . The danger , however , is that two different addressing systems on the Internet may not interoperate perfectly . If it wants to preserve and extend the benefits the Internet currently brings , Washington will have to come up with some way of sharing control with other countries without jeopardizing the network 's stability or discouraging free speech and technical innovation . <p> Ultimately , what is playing out is a clash of perspectives . The U.S. government saw the creation of ICANN as the voluntary relinquishing of a critical source of power in the digital age @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to maintain its hegemony by placing Internet governance in the U.S. private sector . Foreign critics think a shift to multilateral intergovernmental control would mark a step toward enlightened global democracy ; Washington thinks it would constitute a step back in time , toward state-regulated telecommunications . Whether and how these perspectives are bridged will determine the future of a global resource that nearly all of us have come to take for granted . <p> By Kenneth Nell Cukier <p> <p> Kenneth Neil Cukier covers technology and regulatory issues for The Economist . <p> 
##4002774 Section : Comments Yielding to Balkan Reality <p> Amid the unraveling of Yugoslavia that began in the early 1990s , the United States and its European allies have staunchly defended multiethnic society in the Balkans . The military interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo , the ongoing peacekeeping missions there , the hundreds of millions of dollars given annually in economic aid-these sacrifices have been made to preserve the individual states that once constituted a federal Yugoslavia and to prevent bloodshed among the numerous ethnic groups that populate them . Now , however , the time has come to let pragmatism triumph over principle -- and move derisively toward independence for Kosovo . <p> The most important piece of unfinished business in the Balkans is the final status of Kosovo , the southern province of Serbia , which has been under international trusteeship since NATO 'S intervention in 1999 . Anxious to scale back its obligations in the region and confronted with growing impatience among Kosovo 's population , the international community is finally gearing up for negotiations over Kosovo 's political future , as provided for under UN @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kosovo is an ancestral homeland and the site of many important Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries , insist that the area remain under Serbian sovereignty . Broader opposition to separating Kosovo from Serbia stems from concern about the potential precedent that would be set by redrawing boundaries along ethnic lines and the likely impact this move would have on the integrity of the borders of Macedonia , Montenegro , and Bosnia . <p> Nevertheless , harsh realities on the ground make independence for Kosovo the only viable option . In the current state of limbo , relations between the Albanian majority , which is mostly Muslim , and the Serbian minority , which is mostly Orthodox Christian , have reached the boiling point . The Albanian leadership in Pristina , which governs Kosovo in an uneasy partnership with UN authorities , wants nothing to do with Belgrade . Kosovo has already left Serbia 's orbit . And throughout the area , walls of hostility divide ordinary Albanians and Serbs . In spirit as well as fact , multiethnic society is nowhere to be found . <p> Pretending otherwise and denying or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and is therefore the greater of two evils . The formal separation of Kosovo from Serbia instead offers the best hope for rebuilding moderation and tolerance among ethnic Albanians , making it far more likely that they will eventually live in peace with Serbs , Roma , and the other minority groups among them . A HOUSE DIVIDED <p> Driving from central Serbia into Kosovo already feels like crossing a national boundary , and a militarized one at that : Serbian border guards , then a no man 's land , then a border control staffed by Kosovo police as well as UN and NATO personnel . In the no man 's land , drivers change their license plates ; cars with Serbian tags will sometimes be attacked in Kosovo , and those with Kosovar plates are equally at risk in Serbia . <p> In Kosovo , signs abound that the area has been poisoned by intercommunal violence . NATO troops , armed UN guards , and members of the Kosovo Police Service are ubiquitous , keeping the palpable ethnic tensions in check . Serbs live in fortified enclaves , their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war , two of Kosovo 's largest cities , Pristina and Prizren , were home to tens of thousands of Serbs . They are now virtually Serb-free . A few smaller towns , such as Orahovac , have maintained their multiethnic character , but the Serbs there live in isolated ghettos , set off from Albanian neighborhoods by a block or two of burned-out homes . Serbs rarely venture into the Albanian section of town , fearful of abuse or worse . <p> Roughly 90 percent of Kosovo 's population of some two million is ethnic Albanian , and most of the rest of the population is Serbian . This ethnic imbalance was long in the making , a result primarily of successive Serbian exoduses to the north during the Ottoman era and , more recently , higher birthrates among Albanians . Since World War II , political power has shifted back and forth between the two communities . In Tito 's Yugoslavia , Kosovo 's Albanians enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy . Beginning in the late 1980s , Serbia 's nationalist leader Slobodan Milosevic tightened Belgrade 's grip , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Milosevic responded to armed Albanian resistance with a campaign of ethnic cleansing that began in 1998 , kilting at least l0,000 Albanians and driving hundreds of thousands from their homes . <p> After NATO 's intervention and the eventual withdrawal of Serbian forces , ethnic Albanians exacted their revenge . During the war and the retribution that followed , at least a thousand Serbs were killed , while tens of thousands fled ; their ransacked homes , stores , and churches still mar the landscape . To this day , Albanians continue to dish back the ethnic discrimination they suffered during the 1990s . In many Serbian enclaves , no one holds a steady job ; the communities rely on handouts from aid organizations and from Belgrade . As one Serbian resident of Orahovac told me in July , " We do n't call this life , we call it an imitation of life . " <p> Although outbreaks of actual ethnic violence are now uncommon , Serbs remain on guard . In March 2004 , Albanians rioted across Kosovo , leading to widespread attacks on Serbs , forcing thousands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in repairing intercommunal ties . This past August , two Serbs were killed in a drive-by shooting . <p> The communities are so polarized that simple dialogue is hard to find . In a conversation with Serbian residents in Lipljan , one of the few multiethnic towns left near Pristina , a participant invited passing Albanians to join the discussion . One after another scurried away . " Most Albanians are no longer willing to have contact with us , " a Serb commented . In Prizren , about 35 miles southwest of Lipljan , one of the few remaining Serbs there explained that she still meets with Albanian friends behind closed doors . " But in public , they pretend not to recognize me , " she lamented , " as it is not good for Albanians to be seen with Serbs . " <p> By any measure , the political conditions in Kosovo fall well short of the standards that the international community has set as preconditions for moving to final-status negotiations . Serbs do not enjoy freedom of movement , one of the main reasons that only a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The process of decentralization meant to empower local communities has proved stillborn . Political and legal institutions have yet to mature , stymied by infighting among political parties , crime and corruption , and patronage systems deeply embedded in the clannish structure of Albanian society . Poverty is pervasive , with unemployment topping 5o percent even among ethnic Albanians . An inadequate power supply makes for daily blackouts , and Kosovo 's uncertain political stares leaves it unable to attract the foreign capital it needs to invest in basic infrastructure . <p> The case for independence , however , rests not on Kosovo 's readiness , but on the lack of realistic alternatives . Ethnic Albanians are now in command , and they are adamant about breaking away from Serbia . As Kosovo 's prime minister , Bajram Kosumi , made clear in his office in Pristina , " The people of Kosovo will decide their own future . . If Kosovo does not become independent , there will be serious consequences . " Kosovo 's Albanians have reached their limits ; the atrocities and injustices of the past , combined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but impossible to envisage the continuation of Serbian sovereignty . Unfortunately , continued sovereignty is exactly what the Serbian government has in mind . BLIND ALLEYS <p> " Less than independence , more than autonomy , " Serbia 's president , Boris Tadic , explained in a meeting in Belgrade . Under his formula , Kosovo would largely manage its own affairs but remain nominally a part of Serbia and forgo diplomatic representation abroad . " The independence of Kosovo is unacceptable for me , and for all of Serbia , " he insisted . Tadic and his advisers fear that an independent Kosovo would imperil not only the Serbs living there , but also the course of democracy in Serbia itself . " Independence will drive a stake through the heart of Serbian democracy , " one of Tadic 's top aides said . The president agreed , noting that " if independence is imposed on Serbia , we will once more become a black hole of the Balkans . The Radicals extreme nationalists will be elected . And they will stay in power for a generation . " <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hostage to Serbia 's inability to trust itself to behave responsibly . The United States and its European partners were too timid in confronting Serbian nationalism throughout most of the 1990s , and much blood was shed as a result . The international community should not make the same mistake today . Serbia 's darker instincts need to be extinguished , not accommodated . <p> It is true that extreme nationalists might come to power in Serbia in the wake of Kosovo 's independence . But if Belgrade becomes more belligerent , turns its back on the war crimes tribunal operating in The Hague , and veers away from integration into Europe , Serbs will only find their country more isolated and impoverished . By making clear that the nationalist agenda has been leading the country down a blind alley , Serbia 's loss of sovereignty over Kosovo could well result in the strengthening of Serbian centrists . <p> Rather than threatening doomsday scenarios if Kosovo becomes independent , Serbia 's leaders should be doing just the opposite : talking about life after separation and preparing the public accordingly . Yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic , has publicly endorsed letting Kosovo go . Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and President Tadic , both of whom have the nationalist credentials necessary to call for moderation and compromise , have failed to rise to the occasion . <p> Instead , the Serbian government has encouraged Kosovar Serbs to boycott elections in the province and distance themselves from Pristina , only intensifying the Serbian minority 's political isolation . Belgrade has played down Serbia 's culpability in the ethnic violence of the 1990s , tolerating nationalist myths and strengthening popular belief in the inviolability of Serbia 's territorial claims . Belgrade is correct to worry about how Kosovar Serbs would fare after independence , but its behavior has done little either to strengthen its case for keeping Kosovo in the fold or to ready its citizens for the impending loss of their southern province . MAKING THE INEVITABLE TOLERABLE <p> As it eases Kosovo away from Serbian sovereignty , the international community should make independence contingent on three conditions . First , Pristina must make substantial progress on putting in place the essentials of a functioning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ must strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law , clamp down on corruption and crime , and redress widespread poverty and unemployment . <p> Second , Pristina must do much more to ensure the well-being of those Serbs who choose to stay put . Many Serbs intend to quit Kosovo if it becomes independent simply as a matter of principle . To encourage them to remain , ethnic Albanian leaders will need to capitalize on the prospect of independence to promote tolerance and protect minority rights . Reviving multiethnicity will become easier as Kosovo formally moves beyond Belgrade 's reach , enabling Albanian moderates to neutralize militant voices . As Ruzhdi Saramati , a former brigade commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army , put it in a meeting in Prizren , " Independence will help end extremist elements within the Albanian community . " <p> As part of its effort to safeguard minority rights , Pristina should also agree to put Christian sites throughout Kosovo under international supervision . Well over a hundred churches and monasteries have been destroyed or damaged since 1999 , many of them during the 2004 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guarded by NATO troops and barbed wire . To ensure that they remain secure and accessible , these sites should be given international protection for the indefinite future . <p> Third -- and most controversial -- the international community should reconsider its blanket opposition to the partition of Kosovo , indicating instead that it is prepared to accept partition provided that Pristina and Belgrade both consent . From the Ibar River north to the boundary with Serbia proper , Kosovo is populated almost exclusively by Serbs . The area is about 15 percent of Kosovo 's territory and contains about one-third of its Serbs . Pristina makes no pretense of governing the region , which in most respects remains functionally a part of Serbia . <p> Granting northern Kosovo to Serbia while the rest of the province becomes independent would relieve Pristina of the futile task of trying to assert control over a region that , come what may , intends to maintain its links to Belgrade . In Mitrovica , the areas main city , Albanian and Serbian communities already reside on opposite sides of the Ibar , making it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other parts of Kosovo . As long as Pristina is disabused of any hope of swapping northern Kosovo for Albanian enclaves in southern Serbia , partition would also represent a compromise of sorts , enabling Belgrade to claim that it has not been left empty-handed . As one of President Tadic 's advisers stated , " If we are looking for a compromise solution , partition seems to be the easy way out . " <p> Many in the international community insist that the partition of Kosovo along ethnic lines would send a dangerous signal , condoning ethnic segregation and fueling fragmentation elsewhere in the Balkans . This argument is not without merit . It would have been best if the peoples of the former Yugoslavia had been able to live together amicably in a unitary state . The breakup of Yugoslavia certainly violated the civic values on which multiethnic society rests -- as would the independence and partition of Kosovo . But when the best outcome proves impossible to achieve , the imperatives of stability ultimately require compromising the principle of multiethnicity . Just as these imperatives provide a compelling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it be necessary for Kosovo itself to be partitioned in order to bring peace to the region . <p> Furthermore , Kosovo 's situation is unique : its independence , and even its partition , is unlikely to trigger further unraveling in the Balkans . With or without the territory north of the Ibar , Kosovo 's independence promises to stabilize Macedonia by forestalling the radicalization of its ethnic Albanians and neutralizing Albanian extremists throughout the region . Even if it does not , it is Macedonia 's treatment of its Albanian minority that will do more to stabilize ( or destabilize ) the country than developments elsewhere . And although ethnic tensions continue to bedevil Bosnia , its future , like Montenegro 's , will be little affected by Kosovo 's ultimate political status or boundaries . <p> It is well worth keeping the option of Kosovo 's partition on the table , therefore , especially if doing so would provide Belgrade with sufficient inducement to make a deal . The international community should also be prepared to sweeten the pot by offering Serbia more economic assistance , relief from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pathway to membership in NATO and the European Union . <p> Securing Kosovo 's independence will ultimately require the approval of the UN Security Council . Russia and China , both of which struggle with separatist movements at home , are unlikely to relish an outcome that effectively embraces secession along ethnic lines . But neither country has compelling interests in the Balkans . Russia 's affinity for its Slavic brethren in Serbia is of minimal political consequence , and both Moscow and Beijing are intent on maintaining good relations with the United States and Europe . It is difficult to imagine that either Russia or China would make serious trouble over the future of a small tract of land that has no oil , no nuclear weapons , and a GDP of less than $3 billion . <p> The peaceful separation of Kosovo from Serbia will require sustained and adept diplomacy from the international community , courageous leadership from Belgrade , and tolerance and good governance from Kosovar Albanians -- all commodities that have been in dangerously short supply . Nonetheless , Kosovo 's independence is the best hope for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Balkans , defeating the remnants of extreme nationalism in Serbia , and laying the foundations for a Balkan politics that focuses on the opportunities of the future rather than the wrongs of the past . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Mopping up : NATO peacekeepers in the ruins of a Serbian monastery , Kosovo , August 8 , 2005 <p> By Charles A. Kupchan <p> <p> Charles A. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations . His most recent book is The End of the American Era : U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the Twenty-first Century . <p> 
##4002775 Section : Reviews &; Responses Review Essay Who Says Democracies Do n't Fight ? PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> Seldom if ever has the hostility between academics and the U.S. president been so pronounced . Of course , political scientists always seem to complain about the occupant of the White House , and Republicans fare worse than Democrats : Herbert Hoover was called callous , Dwight Eisenhower a dunce , Richard Nixon evil , Ronald Reagan dangerous , and George H.W. Bush out of touch . But professors have consigned George W. Bush to a special circle of their presidential hell . And the White House seems to return the sentiment . <p> According to the academics , Bush 's chief transgressions have had to do with foreign policy , especially the Iraq war -- a mess that could have been avoided if only the president and his advisers had paid more attention to those who devote their lives to studying international relations . <p> The irony of this argument is that few other presidents -- certainly none since Woodrow Wilson , a former president of the American Political Science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tied their foreign policies more explicitly to the work of social science . The defining act of Bush 's presidency was grounded in a theory that the political scientist Jack Levy once declared was " as close as anything we have to an empirical law in international relations , " namely , that democracies do not fight one another . <p> The theory , which originated in the work of the eighteenth-century philosopher Immanuel Kant and was refined in the 1970s and 1980s by several researchers working independently , has , since the 1990s , been one of the hottest research areas in international relations . Although some skeptics remain and no one agrees about why exactly it works , most academics now share the belief that democracies have indeed made a separate peace . What is more , much research suggests that they are also unusually likely to sign and honor international agreements and to become economically interdependent . <p> The administrations of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton made frequent appeals to the theory in public , and it seems to have informed their support for democratization in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration , however , has gone much further in its faith in the idea , betting the farm that the theory holds and will help Washington achieve a peaceful , stable , and prosperous Muslim world as , over time , Iraq 's neighbors , following Iraq 's example , democratize . The United States ' real motives for attacking Iraq may have been complex , but " regime change " -the replacement of Saddam Hussein 's gruesome tyranny with a democracy-was central to Washington 's rhetoric by the time it began bombing Baghdad in March 2003 . <p> Why has a president who set his defining policy around one of political science 's crown jewels come in for so much venom from the same academics who endorse the idea ? After all , a host of peer-reviewed journal articles have implicitly supported the president 's claim that a democratic Iraq would not threaten the United States or Israel , develop weapons of mass destruction , or sponsor terrorism . Are professors simply perpetual critics who refuse to take responsibility for the consequences of their ideas ? Or does Bush hatred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to break with its predecessors and alter the authoritarian status quo in the Middle East was admirable . But the White House got its science wrong , or at least not completely right : the democratic peace theory does not dictate that the United States can or should remake Iraq into a democracy . In Electing to Fight : Why Emerging Democracies Go to War , the veteran political scientists Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder make two critical points . Not only is turning authoritarian countries into democracies extremely difficult , much more so than the administration seems to have anticipated . The Middle East could also become a much more dangerous place if Washington and the rest of the world settle for a merely semi-democratic regime in Baghdad . Such an Iraq , Mansfield and Snyder imply , would be uncommonly likely to start wars -- a bull in the Middle Eastern china shop . Unfortunately , such an Iraq may also be just what we are likely to end up with . ILLIBERAL DEMOCRACIES <p> At first glance , the realists ' critique of the Iraq war is easier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Indeed , realism -- which holds that a country 's type of government has no systematic effects on its foreign policy -- is enjoying a revival in Washington these days , precisely because of the war . According to the realists , the best way to have dealt with Saddam would have been not to overthrow him but to use coercive bargaining : to have threatened him with annihilation , for example , if he ever used nuclear weapons . <p> Even the democratic peace theory , however , does not necessarily prescribe the use of force to transform despotisms such as Iraq into democracies . Indeed , by itself , the argument that democracies do not fight one another does not have any practical implications for the foreign policymaker . It needs an additional or minor premise , such as " the United States can make Iraq into a democracy at an acceptable cost . " And it is precisely this minor premise about which the academy has been skeptical . No scholarly consensus exists on how countries become democratic , and the literature is equally murky on the costs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be free . <p> This last part of the puzzle is even more complicated than it first appears . Enter Mansfield and Snyder , who have been contributing to the democratic peace debate for a decade . Their thesis , first published in 1995 , is that although mature democracies do not fight one another , democratizing states -- those in transition from authoritarianism to democracy-do , and are even more prone to war than authoritarian regimes . Now , in Electing to Fight , the authors have refined their argument . As they outline in the book , not only are " incomplete democratizing " states -- those that develop democratic institutions in the wrong order -- unlikely ever to complete the transition to democracy ; they are also especially bellicose . <p> According to Mansfield and Snyder , in countries that have recently started to hold free elections but that lack the proper mechanisms for accountability ( institutions such as an independent judiciary , civilian control of the military , and protections for opposition parties and the press ) , politicians have incentives to pursue policies that make it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such places , politicians know they can mobilize support by demanding territory or other spoils from foreign countries and by nurturing grievances against outsiders . As a result , they push for extraordinarily belligerent policies . Even states that develop democratic institutions in the right order -- adopting the rule of law before holding elections-are very aggressive in the early years of their transitions , although they are less so than the first group and more likely to eventually turn into full democracies . <p> Of course , politicians in mature democracies are also often tempted to use nationalism and xenophobic rhetoric to buttress their domestic power . In such cases , however , they are usually restrained by institutionalized mechanisms of accountability . Knowing that if they lead the country into a military defeat or quagmire they may be punished at the next election , politicians in such states are less likely to advocate a risky war . In democratizing states , by contrast , politicians know that they are insulated from the impact of bad policies : if a war goes badly , for example , they can declare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ press , and so on . Politicians in such states also tend to fear their militaries , which often crave foreign enemies and will overthrow civilian governments that do not share their goals . Combined , these factors can make the temptation to attack another state irresistible . <p> Mansfield and Snyder present both quantitative and case-study support for their theory . Using rigorous statistical methods , the authors show that since 1815 , democratizing states have indeed been more prone to start wars than either democracies or authoritarian regimes . Categorizing transitions according to whether they ended in full democracies ( as in the U.S. case ) or in partial ones ( as in Germany in 1871-1918 or Pakistan throughout its history ) , the authors find that in the early years of democratic transitions , partial democracies -- especially those that get their institutions in the wrong order -- are indeed significantly more likely to initiate wars . Mansfield and Snyder then provide several succinct stories of democratizing states that did in fact go to war , such as the France of Napoleon III ( 1852-70 ) , Serbia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 2000 , and Pakistan from 1947 to the present . In most of these cases , the authors find what they expect : in these democratizing states , domestic political competition was intense . Politicians , wing for power , appeased domestic hard-liners by resorting to nationalistic appeals that vilified foreigners , and these policies often led to wars that were not in the countries ' strategic interests . <p> Although their argument would have been strengthened by a few comparative studies of democratizing states avoiding war and of flail democracies and authoritarian states starting wars , Mansfield and Snyder are persuasive . In part this is because they carefully circumscribe their claims . They acknowledge that some cases are " false positives , " that is , wars started by states that have wrongly been classified as democratizing , such as the Iran-Iraq War , started by Iraq in 1980 . They also answer the most likely objections to their argument . Some skeptics , for example , might counter that Mansfield and Snyder get the causality reversed : it is war or the threat of it that prevents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ democratizing states become involved in more wars simply because their internal instability tempts foreign states to attack them -- in other words , that democratizers are more sinned against than sinning . Analyzing data from 1816 through 1992 , Mansfield and Snyder put paid to these alternative explanations . Bad domestic institutions usually precede wars , rather than vice versa , and democratizing states usually do the attacking . <p> Where does Electing to Fight leave realism , the dominant theory of international conflict ? The quantitative data support the realist claims that major powers are more likely to go to war than minor ones and that the more equal are the great powers , the more likely are wars among them . But democratization makes war more likely even after one takes these factors into account . Furthermore , the case studies suggest that democratizing states very often lose more than they gain from the wars they begin , which implies that they do not respond to international incentives as rationally as realism would expect . That said , notwithstanding its preference for viewing states from the inside , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense that it assumes that politicians and other actors are rationally self-interested . Their self-interest simply involves building and maintaining domestic power as well as external security -- and sometimes trading some of the latter in order to gain the former . <p> The authors ' conclusions for foreign policy are straightforward . The United States and other international actors should continue to promote democracy , but they must strive to help democratizing states implement reforms in the correct order . In particular , popular elections ought not to precede the building of institutions that will check the baleful incentives for politicians to call for war . Mansfield and Snyder are unsparing toward well-intentioned organizations that have pressured authoritarian governments to rush to elections in the past -- often with disastrous consequences . As the authors show , for example , it was organizations such as the World Bank and the National Democratic Institute that pushed Burundi and Rwanda to increase popular sovereignty in the early 1990s -- pressure that , as Mansfield and Snyder argue , helped set off a chain of events that led to genocide . Acknowledging their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his 1968 book Political Order in Changing Societies ) and Fareed Zakaria , Mansfield and Snyder have written a deeply conservative book . Sounding like Edmund Burke on the French Revolution but substituting statistics and measured prose for rhetorical power , the authors counsel against abruptly empowering people , since premature elections may well usher in domestic upheavals that thrust the state outward against its neighbors . BACK IN BAGHDAD <p> This brings the conversation back to Iraq , and in particular the notion that the United States can turn it into a democracy at an acceptable cost . in effect , Mansfield and Snyder have raised the estimate of these costs by pointing out one other reason this effort may fail -- a reason that few seem to have thought of . Forget for a moment the harrowing possibility of a Sunni-Shiite-Kurdish civil war in Iraq . Set aside the prospect of a Shiite-dominated state aligning itself with Iran , Syria , and Lebanon 's Hezbollah . What if , following the departure of U.S. troops , Iraq holds together but as an incomplete democratizer , with broad suffrage but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its own citizens better than the Baathist regime did . Its treatment of its neighbors , however , might be just as bad . <p> Although Saddam was an unusually bellicose and reckless tyrant , attacking Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990 and engaging in foolish brinkmanship with the United States , as Mansfield and Snyder imply , a democratic Iraq may be no less bellicose and reckless . In the near future , intensely competitive elites there -- secularists , leftists , moderates , and both Shiite and Sunni Islamists-could compete for popularity by stirring up nationalism against one or more of Iraq 's neighbors . And Iraq lives in a dangerous neighborhood . Already , Iraqi Shiite parties have been critical of Sunni-dominated Jordan ; Iraqi Sunni parties , of Shiite-dominated Iran ; and Iraqi Kurdish parties , of Turkey . <p> One hopes that the White House contemplated this scenario prior to March 2003 . Whether it did or not , the possibility must be considered now , by U.S. civilian and military leaders , academics , and U.S. allies who agree with those academics . If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ young , incompletely democratized states , the stakes of Iraq 's transition are higher than most have supposed . They are high enough , in fact , that those who called so loudly in the 1990s for an end to UN sanctions because Iraqis were dying but who are silent about the Iraqis who are dying now ought to reconsider their proud aloofness from the war . An aggressive Iraq , prone to attack Kuwait , Iran , Saudi Arabia , Syria , or Israel , is in no one 's interest . The odds may be long that Iraq will ever turn into a mature democracy of the sort envisaged by the Bush administration . But those odds are lengthened by the refusal of those states in Europe and the Middle East that could make a difference actually to do so . <p> By John M. Owen <p> <p> John M. Owen IV is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia and the author of Liberal Peace , Liberal War : American Politics and International Security . <p> 
##4000152 Section : Articles <p> We quantified the threats facing 488 species in Canada , categorized by COSEWIC ( Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada ) as extinct , extirpated , endangered , threatened , or of special concern . Habitat loss is the most prevalent threat ( 84% ) , followed by overexploitation ( 32% ) , native species interactions ( 31% ) , natural causes ( 27% ) , pollution ( 26% ) , and introduced species ( 22% ) . Agriculture ( 46% ) and urbanization ( 44% ) are the most common human activities causing habitat loss and pollution . For extant species , the number of threats per species increases with the level of endangerment . The prevalence of threat types varies among major habitats , with overexploitation being particularly important , and introduced species particularly unimportant , for marine species . Introduced species are a much less important threat in Canada than in the United States , but the causes of endangerment are broadly similar for Canadian and globally endangered species . <p> Keywords : endangered species ; threats ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are altering the natural world at an unprecedented scale , causing global extinction rates to rise by an estimated three or four orders of magnitude ( Pimm et al . 1995 , May and Tregonning 1998 ) . A worldwide effort to slow or stop this loss of biodiversity is under way , including identification of biodiversity " hotspots " ( Myers N et al . 2000 , Roberts et al . 2002 ) , development of a global protected area network ( Rodrigues et al . 2004a , 2004b ) , prevention of the spread of exotic species ( Myers JH et al . 2000 , Pimentel et al . 2000 , Blackburn and Duncan 2001 ) , and reduction of overexploitation ( Bodmer et al . 1997 , Rosser and Mainka 2002 , Brashares et al . 2004 ) . <p> Information about which species are at risk and what factors threaten their existence is of central importance to planning a successful strategy to slow the loss of the world 's biota . Numerous studies have investigated the threats to endangered species in the United States ( Czech and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ et al . 1998 ) . Collectively , they identify habitat loss , followed by introduced species , as the most common cause of endangerment . It appears , however , that there is strong geographic variation in the causes of endangerment . For instance , in China , overexploitation , not habitat loss , is the major threat to endangered vertebrates ( Yiming and Wilcove 2005 ) . Furthermore , most of the world 's imperiled amphibians are declining for unknown reasons , probably related to disease and climate change ( Stuart et al . 2004 ) . Given such regional variation in patterns of threat , a national conservation strategy needs to be informed by analyses conducted at a national level , recognizing that not all species on national lists will be endangered globally . <p> The Canadian parliament recently passed the country 's most important endangered species legislation , the Species at Risk Act ( SARA ) . Under SARA , the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada ( COSEWIC ) is charged with producing , updating , and maintaining an official list of species @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COSEWIC are reviewed by the minister of the environment before being granted protection under SARA . But although work is under way to identify Canada 's endangered species , until now no attempt has been made to quantify the threats facing these species , with one notable exception : Kerr and Cihlar ( 2004 ) used remote sensing data to correlate agriculture and agricultural pollution with endangered species density in Canada . However , this analysis was unable to assess the importance of other threats , such as nonagricultural forms of habitat loss and pollution , introduced species , overexploitation , native species interactions , and natural causes . <p> Here we quantify the major threats to Canada 's endangered species . We categorize these causes of endangerment at a broad scale to illustrate general trends and to investigate whether the threats differ among major taxonomic groups or habitat types . We use finer-scale categories of habitat loss and pollution , divided into functional categories of human activity ( agriculture , extraction , urbanization , infrastructure , and human disturbance ) , to determine the ultimate causes of species endangerment . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with those in the United States ( Wilcove et al . 1998 ) and worldwide ( Baille et al . 2004 ) . Data source and collection <p> Data on the threats ( also called " causes of endangerment " ) to Canada 's extinct , extirpated , endangered , threatened , and special-concern species ( hereafter referred to simply as " endangered " ) were gathered from COSEWIC ( 2006 ) . Following COSEWIC 's definition , we considered a " species " to be any indigenous species , subspecies , variety , or genetically or geographically distinct population of wild flora or fauna . Data were gathered in June 2005 , at which time COSEWIC had identified 500 endangered species from 12 taxa : vascular plants , freshwater fishes , birds , terrestrial mammals , reptiles , marine mammals , molluscs , amphibians , lepidopterans , marine fishes , mosses , and lichens ( table 1 ) . <p> Information provided by COSEWIC was gathered from three sources : ( 1 ) COSEWIC species status reports , ( 2 ) COSEWIC species executive summaries , and ( 3 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports and executive summaries are written by independent authors and reviewed by COSEWIC 's Species Specialist Groups . As part of its work on species at risk , the CWS ( 2006 ) summarizes the original COSEWIC reports . When the authors of a report identified a threat as " potential " or " hypothetical , " we did not include it as a known threat . We made no attempt to differentiate between historical and current threats , nor between major and minor threats , as this information was almost always unavailable . We were able to gather data on the threats facing 488 endangered species ( 98% ) . Of the remaining 12 species , 8 had only hypothetical or potential threats , and 4 had no identified threats . <p> Following the threat categories recognized by IUCN ( World Conservation Union ) , we grouped the threats to endangered species into six broad categories : habitat loss , introduced species , overexploitation , pollution , native species interactions , and natural causes ( table 2 ) . To provide a more detailed account of the threats to Canada @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ table 3 ) ; this was possible for 398 of the 488 species included in this study . <p> COSEWIC status reports are the best source of information on the threats to Canada 's endangered species . However , these reports have at least two limitations . First , the authors may have biases toward listing some threats over others , biases that may differ between taxa or major habitat types . Second , although COSEWIC compiles and analyzes the best available data for each species , its sources are often not of an experimental or even a quantitative nature . We can make no assumptions about how these limitations have influenced our findings . <p> A one-way analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) was used to test whether the average number of threats per species differed among levels of endangerment . Chi-squared tests were used to test for differences in the frequency of the broadscale threats among habitat types , between Canada and the world , and between Canada and the United States . In general , alpha was set at 0.05 for two-tailed tests , but was corrected to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between Canada and the world , and to 0.01 when comparing Canada and the United States . All analyses were done using SPSS 7.0 ( SPSS 1997 ) . Threats to endangered species <p> Habitat loss , affecting 84% of species , is the greatest threat to endangered species in Canada ( figure 1 ) . Introduced species ( 22% ) , overexploitation ( 32% ) , pollution ( 26% ) , native species interactions ( 31% ) , and natural causes ( 27% ) all affect much smaller proportions of species . Surprisingly , pollution and introduced species , both of which are widely believed to be major causes of species endangerment ( Wilson 1992 ) , are less important than either native species interactions or natural causes , neither of which are even listed as potential threats in similar studies ( Wilcove et al . 1998 ) . <p> Figure 1 . The percentage of endangered species in Canada ( n = 488 ) identified by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada in June 2005 as threatened by habitat loss , introduced species , overexploitation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Few species ( 30% ) are threatened by only a single cause of endangerment . On average , endangered species face 2.2 of the 6 broadscale threats . The number of threats facing a species varies significantly among levels of endangerment ( ANOVA : F ( 3,484 ) = 5.79 , p = 0.001 ) , increasing from special concern to threatened to endangered species ( 1.99 , 2.22 , and 2.44 , respectively ) . The combined category of extinct and extirpated species has the fewest threats ( 1.94 ) . Because 57% of extinct and extirpated species have not been sighted in the past 50 years ( COSEWIC 2006 ) , the paucity of identified threats for these species is most likely attributable to our lack of knowledge . <p> The relative importance of a threat type varies strongly among taxa ( table 3 ) . While habitat loss is important for all taxa , it is much less of a threat to freshwater fishes , marine fishes , and marine mammals . Overexploitation is the most prevalent threat for marine mammals and marine fishes ( affecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ important threat for reptiles and terrestrial mammals ( affecting 65% and 47% , respectively ) . Pollution is the second-ranked threat for freshwater fishes ( 51% ) and also threatens a similar proportion of amphibians ( 53% ) . Like Richter and colleagues ( 1997 ) , we found that nonpoint sources ( e.g. , siltation and nutrient inputs ) are the most common form of freshwater pollution . Native species interactions are the second most important threat for birds ( 46% ) , terrestrial mammals ( 47% ) , and lichens ( 57% ) . Natural causes are the second most important threat for amphibians , affecting 58% of species . Over half of Canada 's endangered amphibians are found only in the southern part of the country , within 100 kilometers of the US border ( COSEWIC 2006 ) ; Canada may represent the northern edge of these species ' range . This probably makes them especially susceptible to natural causes of endangerment , which include such factors as severe weather and inherent biological limitations . <p> The fine-scale threat categories in table 3 provide more detailed information on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 28% ) and agriculture ( 27% ) are the most common causes of habitat loss . Competition ( 10% ) and predation ( 6% ) are the major mechanisms by which introduced species endanger native species . Intentional harvest ( 22% ) , followed by bycatch ( 9% ) , is the most important form of overexploitation . As with the broadscale categories , these trends vary greatly among taxa . Human disturbance , typically some form of recreational activity , is the greatest cause of habitat loss for vascular plants , affecting 42% of species . Bycatch , affecting an astonishing 78% of endangered marine fish , is the most important cause of overexploitation for these taxa , whereas road kills ( 41% ) are one of the most important threats for reptiles . Threats by habitat type <p> To determine whether the prevalence of threat types varies among habitats , we grouped species by their primary habitat and compared the threats facing these groups . We attempted to define each of the 488 endangered species with threat data as being primarily a terrestrial , freshwater , or marine species @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use for each species from Wright and Wright ( 1957 ) , Scott and Crossman ( 1973 ) , Wheeter ( 1975 ) , Straley and colleagues ( 1985 ) , Godfrey ( 1986 ) , Argus and colleagues ( 1987 ) , Banfield ( 1987 ) , Gleason and Cronquist ( 1991 ) , Behler and King ( 1998 ) , COSEWIC ( 2006 ) , and CWS ( 2006 ) . Sixty species commonly used more than one habitat type and were therefore excluded from the analysis , including 16 birds , 13 amphibians , 9 reptiles , 5 marine mammals , 4 freshwater fishes ( anadromous ) , 5 marine fishes ( anadromous ) , 4 terrestrial mammals , and 4 vascular plants . Of the remaining 428 species , 231 were defined as terrestrial , 154 as freshwater , and 43 as marine . <p> The relative importance of the six major threat categories differs significantly among habitat types ( figure 2 ; ? = 127.42 , degree of freedom df = 10 , p < 0.001 ) . Habitat loss is the major cause of endangerment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ habitats , whereas overexploitation is the major cause in marine habitats ( 88% ) . The second most important threat in the terrestrial habitats is native species interactions ( 35% ) , whereas pollution is the second most common threat in freshwater habitats ( 45% ) . Habitat loss is the second most important threat ( 50% ) in oceans , primarily because vessel traffic degrades habitats for marine mammals and commercial fishing damages benthic habitats for fishes and invertebrates . Affecting only 3% of marine species , introduced species seem to be an infrequent threat in the marine environment , presumably because the long-distance dispersal that often occurs in oceans means that oceans have fewer endemic species than do terrestrial habitats ( Davis 2003 ) . <p> Figure 2 . The percentage of Canadian terrestrial ( n = 231 ) , freshwater ( n = 154 ) , and marine ( n = 43 ) endangered species that are listed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada as threatened by habitat loss , introduced species , overexploitation , pollution , native species interactions , or natural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempt to link human activities , the ultimate causes of endangerment , to the proximate causes of endangerment shown in table 3 . The proximate threats of habitat loss and pollution -- habitat degradation affect 453 ( 93% ) of Canada 's endangered species . We divided the causes of these threats into five functional categories of human activity : urbanization , agriculture , human disturbance , extraction , and infrastructure . In total , there was sufficient information to determine the sources of habitat degradation for 341 species . <p> Agricultural activity ( 46% ) and urbanization ( 44% ) are the most prevalent ultimate causes of endangerment in Canada . Surprisingly , human disturbance ( 35% ) is a more common cause of habitat degradation than either extraction ( 33% ) or infrastructure development ( 28% ) . The most commonly cited forms of human disturbance were vessel traffic for marine animal species and either all-terrain vehicle use or pedestrian trampling for many terrestrial plant species . <p> Kerr and Cihlar ( 2004 ) found that land use is an excellent predictor of endangered species density in Canada . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but not on urbanization , human disturbance , extraction , or infrastructure . In our analysis , the relative importance of these nonagricultural categories of land use as a cause of endangerment is surprising . A possible explanation may be that urbanization , agriculture , human disturbance , extraction , and infrastructure development are highly associated causes of endangerment in space ( Czech et al . 2000 ) . Hence it may be difficult to conclude from remote sensing data whether it is agricultural activity alone or one of its associated threats , or both , that is actually endangering species . Comparisons with the world <p> We compared the threats facing endangered species in Canada with the threats facing globally endangered species , using data from Baille and colleagues ( 2004 ) . Summarizing data provided by IUCN , Baille and colleagues ( 2004 ) catalogued the threats facing 3829 globally endangered species of amphibians , birds , and mammals . When comparing our results with theirs , we included only these three taxa ( n = 148 ) . In their analysis , Baille and colleagues ( 2004 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our study , we combined their category " human disturbance " with " habitat loss . " We also combined " persecution " and " incidental mortality " with " overexploitation . " In our study , when a pathogen was not identified as being introduced , it was assumed to be native and included as " species interactions " To match our study , we combined Baille and colleagues ' ( 2004 ) " disease " and " changes in native species dynamics " to form " species interactions . " Finally , we retained only " natural disasters " from our original category " natural causes . " <p> The prevalence of threat types differs significantly between Canadian and globally endangered species ( figure 3 ; ? = 38.42 , df = 5 , p < 0.001 ) . While habitat loss is the most prevalent threat both in Canada ( 79% ) and globally ( 87% ) , it affects a slightly greater proportion of globally endangered species ( ? = 7.865 , df = 1 , p = 0.005 ) . Introduced species affect a similarly small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 16% ; ? = 0.47 , df = 1 , p = 0.49 ) . Overexploitation threatens significantly more endangered species in Canada than globally ( 46% and 23% , respectively ; ? = 43.68 , df = 1 , p < 0.001 ) . The differential importance of overexploitation in the two studies can largely be explained by the relative importance of the three taxa in the two studies . Baille and colleagues ' ( 2004 ) study included proportionately more amphibians and fewer mammals than did our study . If we adjust our taxa to the same relative frequency as those in Baille and colleagues ' ( 2004 ) study , there is no significant difference in the importance of overexploitation to Canadian ( 26% ) and globally ( 24% ) endangered species ( ? = 0.815 , df = 1 , p = 0.367 ) . Natural disasters affect significantly more endangered species in Canada than globally ( 16% and 9% , respectively ; ? = 8.86 , df = 1 , p = 0.003 ) , perhaps because many of Canada 's endangered species exist at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2004 , Warman et al . 2004 ) and are therefore more susceptible to severe weather events . <p> Figure 3 . The percentage of endangered species in Canada ( n = 148 ) and worldwide ( n = 3829 ) that are affected by habitat loss , introduced species , overexploitation , pollution , native species interactions , and natural disasters . Comparisons with the United States <p> We compared the threats facing endangered species in Canada with those in the United States , using data from Wilcove and colleagues ( 1998 ) . In their study , Wilcove and colleagues cataloged the threats facing 1880 imperiled species , subspecies , and populations of vertebrates , invertebrates , and plants . However , their categories of threat differed from ours ; they did not include native species interactions and natural causes as potential threats , but instead included disease , which was found to affect only 3% of species . To permit direct comparison between the two studies , these categories were excluded . <p> Habitat loss and introduced species are the leading threats to imperiled species in the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( figure 4 ) . While habitat loss is equally important in both countries ( ? = 0.42 , df = 1 , p = 0.52 ) , the importance of introduced species as a cause of endangerment in the United States contrasts strongly with our results , which identify introduced species as the least common broadscale threat in Canada ( ? = 113.74 , df = 1 , p < 0.001 ) . We believe the heightened importance of introduced species in the United States can be explained by the large number of Hawaiian species included in Wilcove and colleagues ' ( 1998 ) analysis and the widespread effects of introduced species on the islands . For instance , the authors included 456 Hawaiian plants and birds , of which 99% were threatened by introduced species . Excluding Hawaiian species , the importance of introduced species did not differ significantly between the United States ( 31% ) and Canada ( 27% ) for plants and birds , the only taxa for which data are available ( ? = 1.22 , df = 1 , p = 0.27 ) . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 488 ) and US ( n = 1880 ) endangered species that are affected by habitat loss , introduced species , overexploitation , and pollution . <p> Aside from disease , Wilcove and colleagues ( 1998 ) found overexploitation to be the least important threat in the United States , affecting only 17% of imperiled species ( figure 4 ) . This contrasts strongly with Canada , where we found 32% of species to be threatened by overexploitation ( ? = 51.13 , df = 1 , p < 0.001 ) . While this discrepancy may be due in part to real differences between the two countries , we believe it is largely attributable to the definition of overexploitation . Wilcove and colleagues ( 1998 ) included only overharvest , to the exclusion of bycatch , persecution , and accidental mortality . Redefining our category for consistency with theirs , we find that overharvest threatens only a slightly higher proportion of endangered species in Canada than in the United States ( 22% and 17% , respectively ; ? = 6.83 , df = 1 , p = 0.009 ) . Conservation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wilcove et al . 1998 , Baille et al . 2004 ) , showed that habitat loss is the greatest threat to endangered species in Canada . Affecting 94% of terrestrial species , habitat loss is caused primarily by agricultural and urban land conversion . The establishment of terrestrial protected areas is a common and effective response to protect species from habitat loss ( Balmford et al . 1995 ) . Unfortunately , much of the habitat used by Canada 's endangered species exists on private land ( Barla et al . 2000 ) . To protect these species , landowners will need to be compensated for encouraging the persistence of endangered species on their property ( Polasky et al . 1997 ) , which is explicitly recognized in Canada 's new endangered species legislation ( SARA 2006 ) . On the negative side , SARA provides less habitat protection for terrestrial species than the United States ' Endangered Species Act ; in Canada , critical habitat for endangered species is strictly protected only on federal lands , accounting for only 4% of the terrestrial habitat south of 60 north latitude @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all migratory birds and aquatic species receive habitat protection under SARA . In addition , a " safety net " process can provide habitat protection for species not on federal lands . <p> We found that overexploitation was the second most common threat in Canada , in contrast with other researchers ' findings for the United States and for the world . Moreover , overexploitation was the most important threat facing Canadian marine species . To protect these species , there is a strong initiative to establish a system of marine protected areas , both in Canada and globally ( Balmford et al . 2004 ) . Unfortunately , most analyses suggest that 20% to 30% of oceans need to be protected to sustain world fisheries in the remaining habitat ( Balmford et al . 2004 ) . This is an ambitious goal , given that only 0.5% of oceans are currently protected , compared with 11.5% of terrestrial habitats ( Meir et al . 2004 ) . <p> Introduced species are the least important threat in Canada . This contrasts strongly with the findings of previous studies ( Wilcove et @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with popular opinion ( Wilson 1992 ) . However , when Hawaiian species are excluded , introduced species are about equally important in the United States and Canada . Furthermore , introduced species are rarely a threat to Chinese ( 3% ; Yiming and Wilcove 2005 ) or globally threatened species ( 16% ; Baille et al . 2004 ) . It appears that introduced species may be a less important threat , at least on continents , than previously thought . <p> Natural disasters and natural causes emerge as more common threats in Canada than globally . This surprising result does not mean that natural processes alone are major threats to Canada 's biodiversity . Of the 237 species for which either natural disasters or natural causes are listed as threats , only 15 species are threatened by no other cause . On average , these 237 species are threatened by 1.6 other broadscale threats and 2.5 other fine-scale threats . <p> Many endangered species in southern Canada have stable core populations in the United States ( Bunnell et al . 2004 , Warman et al . 2004 ) . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is what efforts , if any , should be made to protect these endangered peripheral populations . Peripheral populations are thought to be more susceptible to extinction and therefore harder to conserve ( Hoffman and Blows 1994 ) . However , recent studies have shown that under conditions of range contraction , core populations appear to suffer extirpation first , leaving only peripheral populations ( Channell and Lomolino 2000 , Laliberte and Ripple 2004 ) . Determining the value of peripheral populations will prove critical for conservation policy in Canada . <p> In general , our findings present few major surprises . There are important differences in the causes of endangerment in Canada among major habitats and taxa , but many of the marked differences among regions of the world are more apparent than real . Finally , most species are affected by more than one threat , with the number of threats increasing with the level of endangerment . Effective conservation strategies must be able to address multiple threats simultaneously . Acknowledgments <p> We thank the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada and all of its contributing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ species in Canada , without which this research would not have been possible . We are grateful to David M. Green , Katsky Venter , Michelle Nol , and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript , and to Jaiseema Seyan and the students of Biology 457 at Concordia University , who initiated this research project . Our research was financially supported by a Discovery Grant to J. W. A. G. and an Undergraduate Student Research Award to O. V. from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada . Table 1 . The number of species in each taxon listed as extinct , extirpated , endangered , threatened , or of special concern by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada , June 2005 . PREFORMATTED TABLE Table 2 . Definitions of broadscale and fine-scale threat categories . PREFORMATTED TABLE Table 3 . Summary of the threats facing endangered species in Canada , expressed as the percentage of endangered species affected . PREFORMATTED TABLE 
##4000951 ( Contributions from " Soledad Cross History " published at www.aclusandiego.org made with permission of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. ) 1954-1990 <p> The annual Thomas Guide published by Thomas Brothers Maps refers to the landmark as the " Mount Soledad Easter Cross . " Easter Sunday 1954 <p> With the permission of the San Diego City Council , the Mount Soledad Memorial Association ( MSMA ) dedicates the cross on Mount Soledad as a tribute to veterans of World War I , World War II , and the Korean Conflict . 1989 <p> On May 31 Philip Paulson and Howard Kreisner file a lawsuit claiming the religious symbol 's presence on state land violates provisions of the U.S. and California constitutions . They do all of their legal research and writing as well as court presentations without legal representation . <p> A small plaque dated November 11 that recognizes the site as a memorial to veterans is mounted to the fence surrounding the base of the cross . 1991 <p> On December 3 U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Thompson Jr . rules in favor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cross is permanently positioned inside a public park and maintained at taxpayers ' expense . Kreisner resigns from the case shortly after the ruling and the City of San Diego Historical Site Board designates the cross and the surrounding park as historical sites . 1992 <p> On June 2 San Diego voters approve Proposition F , which allows transfer of ownership of a portion of Mount Soledad Natural Park to a private , non-profit corporation for maintenance of a historic war memorial . 1993 <p> The city appeals the 1991 district court decision to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals , which upholds the decision , ruling that the mere designation of the cross as a war memorial is n't enough to satisfy the " no preference clause " of the California Constitution . The City and County of San Diego thereupon petition and are granted a hearing en banc ( a vote by the entire twenty-eight judges of the court ) . They lose by a unanimous decision . 1994 <p> The city sells 224 square feet of land at the base of the cross to the Mount @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states its intention to keep the cross as part of its proposed war memorial and the city does n't solicit or consider bids from any other prospective buyers of the land . <p> On October 10 the City and County of San Diego petition the U.S. Supreme Court with a writ of certiorari . The Court declines to hear the appeal . 1996 <p> Though it has become a tradition for Christian groups to hold Easter sunrise services at the cross site , this year University of California at San Diego Political Science Professor Peter Irons is the first to secure the permit for that date and proceeds to conduct a controversial but well-attended secular sunrise event for people of all religions and no religion . 1997 <p> On September 18 Judge Thompson rules that both the negotiated sale of the cross site to the MSMA and the size of the plot sold violate two separate provisions of the California Constitution . Thompson writes : " Both the method of sale and the amount of land sold underneath the Mount Soledad cross do not cure the constitutional infirmities outlined in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again attempts to sell the land to a private group . Five bids are submitted , including one from the Freedom From Religion Foundation . The bid from the MSMA ( the highest ) is accepted and a half-acre of land around the cross is sold for $106,000 . <p> Paulson receives the " Freedom Fighter Award " from the Rationalist Society of St. Louis . 2000 <p> On February 3 Judge Thompson upholds the 1998 transfer . Paulson appeals , and the ACLU joins the appeal as his co-counsel . <p> The MSMA constructs six concentric granite walls around the base of the cross designed to hold plaques purchased by individuals wishing to honor a veteran 's military service . An American flag , small pillars , and brick pavers are also installed to honor community and veterans ' groups and supporters of the memorial . All told , the MSMA will spend over $900,000 on the improvements and sell over 1300 plaques. 2001 <p> In August a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms Judge Thompson 's ruling . 2002 <p> Paulson 's petition for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The case is reargued on March 21 before an eleven-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit . <p> On June 26 the court finds that the city 's sale of the cross to the MSMA violates Article XVI , section 5 , of the California Constitution , which prohibits government from affording any financial advantage or subsidy to religion . <p> The city again appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court , which again declines to hear the case . 2004 <p> The La Jolla American Legion Post 275 , which created the MSMA , votes unanimously to support moving the cross to the nearby Mount Soledad Presbyterian Church . The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce lobbies the city council to support the move . In exchange for Paulson dismissing his suit , the parties agree to move the cross to the church , allowing the MSMA to maintain an interest in the war memorial and replace the cross with a nonsectarian symbol appropriately recognizing all veterans . <p> The settlement terms are presented to the city council on July 27 but the council conditions its acceptance on the outcome of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters . Proposition K specifically asks voters to give the city authorization to sell a portion of Mount Soledad to the highest bidder . <p> On November 2 voters reject Proposition K by a large margin . <p> Two members of Congress , Randy Cunningham and Duncan Hunter , slip a rider into a $300 billion appropriations bill to designate the memorial a national monument , specifically requiring the continued presence of the cross . This allows the federal government to accept a yet-to-be-offered donation of the land from the city and directs the National Park Service to help maintain it . A restraining order temporarily bars the transfer to the federal government . <p> On December 19 Paulson is named 2004 Atheist of the Year by American Atheists California . 2005 <p> On March 8 the San Diego City Council votes against a proposal to transfer the land to the National Park Service . <p> A petition signed by over 100,000 San Diego County residents causes the City Council to reconsider its decision to transfer the land . On May 16 , after rejecting in a 5-4 vote a proposal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Council votes 6-3 to include a ballot measure in the forthcoming special Mayoral election . <p> Paulson files a pre-election challenge in state court , claiming the proposed transfer violates the California Constitution . <p> On July 26 voters approve Proposition A to transfer the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial property to the federal government . <p> On September 3 , in response to Paulson 's challenge , Superior Court Judge Patricia Yin Cowett issues a temporary restraining order barring the transfer . Lawyers on each side present their arguments on October 3 . A key issue is the status of the area as a secular war memorial , given that it was n't developed as a memorial until ten years after the first lawsuit . <p> An October 1 New York Times article reports that , because San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre personally opposes fighting to keep the cross , he brought in a lawyer from a conservative Christian legal advocacy group to make the city 's case . " It 's clearly unconstitutional , " he declares , adding that the case has gone on for so long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rulings . " It 's like San Diego does n't recognize the need to comply with the law as a fundamental principle . " <p> On October 7 Judge Cowett finds the ballot measure unconstitutional . Her ruling states : " Maintenance of this Latin Cross as it is on the property in question , is found to be an unconstitutional preference of religion in violation of Article I , Section 4 , of the California Constitution , and the transfer of the memorial with the cross as its centerpiece to the federal government to save the cross as it is , where it is , is an unconstitutional aid to religion in violation of Article XVI , Section 5 . " <p> In December Philip Paulson 's lawyer James McElroy asks a San Diego Superior Court judge to order the city of San Diego to pay his legal fees for the October victory . 2006 <p> On January 13 Judge Cowett rules that the city must pay for McElroy 's fees , but exactly how much is yet to be determined . The city plans to appeal . <p> On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mount Soledad cross must be removed from the property within ninety days or the city of San Diego will be fined $5,000 a day thereafter . <p> In a May 4 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune , William Kellogg , president of the MSMA is quoted as saying the group is prepared to have the cross moved to private property nearby and place another fitting symbol for veterans at the memorial . " We feel it 's very important that the cross be saved , " he says . " The location of the cross is not the primary issue . " In the same article , Paulson 's attorney James McElroy says , " It 's time to end seventeen years of litigation and it 's time for the taxpayers to end footing the bill for futile litigation . " He also reports receiving numerous death threats , one as recently as the day before , as a result of handling the case . <p> On May 11 Mayor Jerry Sanders asks President George W. Bush to use the power of eminent domain to take the city-owned property on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ May 23 the San Diego City Council votes 5-3 to appeal Judge Thompson 's May 3rd order to remove the cross . <p> Mayor Sanders announces on June 2 that the city has filed an appeal of Thomson 's order . The city also asks that the appeal be ruled on by June 8 , after which they will comply with the order if the appeal is n't granted . <p> On June 21 a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declines to step in and suspend the $5,000 daily fine that will be imposed on the city if the cross is n't removed by August 1 . <p> On June 26 San Diego County Congressmen Duncan Hunter ( R-52nd ) , Brian Bilbray ( R-50th ) and Darrell Issa ( R-49th ) introduce HR 5683 , a bill to preserve the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego , California , by providing for the immediate acquisition of the memorial by the United States . <p> On July 3 Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy issues a temporary stay in favor of the city and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> On July 7 , in a four-page decision , Justice Kennedy grants the City of San Diego 's request for a stay pending a ruling on the city 's appeal . <p> On July 19 HR 5683 passes in the House of Representatives by a vote of 349-74 . <p> On August 1 the Senate approves ( through procedural " unanimous consent " ; not a recorded vote ) an eminent domain plan to transfer the cross and the land underneath it to federal control . Plaintiff Paulson seeks a court-ordered injunction and stay by stopping the transfer until all legal issues have been adjudicated in the courts . <p> On August 11 Paulson and newly named Plaintiff Steve Trunk file a new lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Southern California . U.S. District Court Judge Barry Moskowitz agrees to rule and decide by September 2006 if both the land transfer and the presence of the cross on federal land are unconstitutional . <p> On August 14 President Bush signs HR 5683 . <p> On August 21 the ACLU , representing the Jewish War Veterans of the United States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld , charging that the continued display of the Mount Soledad cross on federally owned land unlawfully entangles government with religion . The suit asks the Court to order the cross ' removal . <p> In a September 1 story , the San-Diego Union-Tribune reports that Paulson was diagnosed on July 31 with terminal liver cancer . Paulson says doctors estimated he has four to twelve months to live if chemotherapy is unsuccessful . <p> On September 3 Paulson receives the 2006 Humanist Pioneer Award from the American Humanist Association and the 2006 Church and State Award from Americans United for Separation of Church and State . <p> On September 7 the House Judiciary Committee approves the Public Expression of Religion Act , HR 2679 , first introduced in September 2005 . The bill heads to the House floor for a full vote while similar legislation is pending in the Senate ( S 3696 ) . These bills would bar courts from awarding attorney 's fees to prevailing parties bringing suit under the establishment clause , and would make it much more difficult for citizens to challenge governmental @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The spirit behind this action was clearly articulated in a July 26 New York Sun article in which Rees Lloyd , a lawyer and unit commander with the American Legion , was quoted as saying , " I 'm appalled at the notion that the ACLU or any other purported public interest law firm would be suing veterans ' memorials and then seeking taxpayer-funded attorney fee awards .. The ACLU has lost all moorings and common sense and rationality and proportionality .. It 's become the Taliban of American liberal secularism . " <p> On September 26 HR 2679 passes in the House of Representatives by a vote of 244 to 173 . <p> By Philip Paulson <p> 
##4000952 IN THE MONTHS AFTER the 2004 election , when the red states were said to have voted on the basis of their " moral values " many observers noted that the sleazy television shows and movies so energetically denounced by the traditionalist and Christian right tended to get their highest ratings in the same parts of the country most populated by such people . ( They noted , as well , that some of the family pathologies that traditionalists decry are found at high rates among these most vocal proponents of " family values . " ) <p> Some took this as a clear indication of the hypocrisy of conservatives : what they denounce , they also secretly enjoy . They are n't as concerned about morality , this critique declared , as they pretend to be ; while they maintain a posture of devotion to righteousness they 're indulging their forbidden impulses in hidden ways . <p> Jimmy Swaggart writ large . <p> But I do n't think " hypocrisy " is the most illuminating way of seeing this phenomenon . Not if hypocrisy is understood as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes from looking at the matter of " moral structure . " <p> From my discussions of morality with religious traditionalists , I 've gleaned that many of them assume that people who do n't believe in their firm and strict moral structures -- people who do n't believe in God , the Ten Commandments , or inviolable and absolute rules of moral conduct -- must be living lives of sin and debauchery . They ca n't understand ( and often seem unwilling even to believe ) that people like Humanists might be living the kind of well-ordered lives , as hard-working and law-abiding citizens responsible and dedicated to their families , that they themselves strive to live . <p> Their failure to understand how nonbelieving " liberals " can live moral lives is actually the reverse side of the same coin from the liberals ' imputation of hypocrisy to those red-staters who watch Desperate Housewives and may also have disordered family lives . <p> These misunderstandings stem from the failure of the two groups to recognize their differing moral structures . DIFFERENCES IN THE LOCUS OF CONTROL <p> A student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America 's Moral Crisis " came up with the most apt image . It did n't matter much to her whether her society has a lot of enforced rules . She 's got her moral beliefs firmly inside her -- a kind of endo-skeleton , she called it . <p> We had been talking about the distress American traditionalists have felt at the erosion of a social consensus about the straight-and-narrow path . For them , she said , morality seemed to be a kind of exo-skeleton . This was her image to capture their reliance on external moral structures -- laws , punishments , and so forth -- to keep them within the moral confines in which they believe . <p> In that perspective , the assumed anomalies or hypocrisies of certain traditionalists make greater sense . <p> It becomes clear why such people -- possessing intense moral concerns combined with a reliance upon external moral structures to keep their own forbidden impulses in check -- would support a state that enforces moral rules and a social culture that stigmatizes those who violate those rules . It really is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around them fails to be clear in its rules and strict in its enforcement . <p> For one whose moral structure is cast in that exo-skeleton form , the absence of external moral authority seems necessarily to imply the outbreak of moral anarchy . That 's the logic implied by the famous line falsely attributed to Fyodor Dostoevski : " If God does not exist , everything is permitted . " It 's what lies behind the fear that if gays are allowed to marry , marriage generally would somehow be threatened , including the sanctity of one 's own . <p> To the liberal with the endoskeleton structure , both of those seem like logical non sequiturs . And , logically , perhaps they are . But they bespeak a psychological reality . If the outside structure breaks down , who knows what one might do ? <p> Liberals have often failed to understand how the loosening of society 's moral standards , rules , and sanctions can be genuinely threatening to the moral order of those with the exo-skeleton structure . They have n't appreciated the plight of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help in doing it . <p> Likewise , many liberals have responded with anger , unleavened by understanding , to the tendency of some traditionalists to try to impose their moral views on others . It is their dependence on the strength and integrity of the external moral order that drives many " exo-skeletons " to crusade to make the whole world around them conform to the moral system to which they themselves are striving to adhere . The unspoken and generally unacknowledged need is : please , society , be morally strict enough to keep me on the straight-and-narrow path . INTEGRITY AND HYPOCRISY : THE CHALLENGE TO THE EXO-SKELETONS <p> These fears of traditionalists reflect a lack of integration -- the morality not fully integrated into the psyche . <p> St. Paul lamented : " For the good that I would I do not : but the evil which I would not , that I do . " Truly , he wanted to do the good . But it is not entirely true that the evil he did was something he wanted not . For a part of him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it . <p> So was Paul a hypocrite for doing what he declared himself to be against ? And are the red-staters hypocrites if they indulge -- perhaps more even than the liberals -- the forbidden desires ? <p> Well , yes and no . Yes , in that they are n't practicing what they preach . And that does represent a lack of integrity . But the " dishonesty " involved is not about lying to others so much as it is a natural outgrowth of the identification with only a part of the self , the moral part , with a concomitant sense that the other part , with the forbidden desire , is the not-I . <p> So that is the hypocritical part : the failure to embrace the whole truth about the self -- that is comprised not only of the " righteous " part but of the " sinner " part as well . <p> If the moral order of the surrounding society weakens , the person with a moral exo-skeleton is genuinely threatened -- not just regarding his conduct , but also even regarding his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Those of us with the endo-skeleton structure -- who can live moral and orderly lives even if we live in an " anything goes " society -- can reasonably be tempted to feel superior to those with the exo-skeleton dependency on the moral sanctions of a more straight-and-narrow society . <p> And indeed there are theories of moral development according to which the internalization of moral order is a more " advanced " form of moral development . <p> But , at this point in our nation 's history , we can see that the quest for advanced consciousness has many dimensions , and neither side of America 's divide has aced the course . This is part of the cost of our cultural polarization -- two forms of moral blindness , very different from each other but also two sides of the same coin . <p> Just as the cultural right has damaged the United States because of its failure to acknowledge its inner sinner , the left has damaged the nation through its failure to recognize its inner moral structure . <p> This was one of the greatest shortcomings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply tore down a great many of our society 's moral structures and assumed that all would be well . We had half-baked theories of human nature , and of society , that justified " letting it all hang out " and " doing our own thing " and " if it feels good , do it . " <p> History has shown that we were naive . Not all has been well . Indeed , I would argue that this naive miscalculation is part of what has led , ultimately , to the rise of the more destructive forces from the right , embodied by the administration of George W. Bush . LIVING OFF OF OUR MORAL CAPITAL <p> What many in the counterculture did , I believe , was to look at themselves in their " liberated " state and imagine that they saw human nature in its pristine condition . But in reality , most of the middle class youth -- brought up in the 1940s and ' 50s -- who comprised the counterculture had already internalized a great many of the disciplines , moral and otherwise , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could engage in the cultural revolution of liberation and then go on to become effective , middle class , liberal professionals with well-ordered lives . <p> The loosening of the moral structures of society has impacted , rather , the heirs of the counterculture -- younger people who did n't form their characters in the tighter environments of the 1940s and ' 50s but in the culturally looser decades since . <p> Veteran teachers have long complained that each successive wave of students shows signs of a loosening in discipline of various kinds . The culture has grown trashier , the demands of society have become less stringent , the culture of indulgence has grown deeper -- and all this has led to a visible cultural decline . <p> Of course many of those who carried with them the older structures have managed to raise children whose lives are also fairly well ordered . But even there it is a diminishing cultural capital that we are living off of . And I expect that among the endo-skeletons -- in the absence of some kind of cultural renewal -- the necessary forms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to attenuate . <p> But it is on the other side of the cultural divide -- in the realm of the exo-skeletons -- that the loosening of the moral order has proved most dangerous . <p> It is n't only that the cultural right , more dependent on the external restraints , becomes more likely to succumb to forbidden impulses -- like sailors come to port . More dangerous for society is that the particular nature of the right 's moral vision -- its relative harshness and its punitiveness -- transforms the impulses of the human animal into something darker . <p> Fragile orders tend also to be harsher -- tyranny being seen as the surest means to avoid anarchy . And , accordingly , a moral order that is less internalized , being more fragile , tends also toward harshness . <p> Thus the morality of the exo-skeletons tends to denigrate the human nature it seeks to control . This morality also tends to be more punitive in its approach to control -- glad to invest big sums in a brutal prison system ( whether or not such punishments actually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ condoning the torture of enemy combatants , passionately committed to the death penalty , and building its worldview around a highly punitive Lord of the Universe . <p> And the harsher the morality -- the more the interaction between cultural demand and human nature is conducted in the form of war -- the more the feelings inside the human being turn toward rage ( at the wounds inflicted ) , toward a desire for power ( to counteract the powerlessness of being small in a world that has declared war on you ) , and toward a lust for vengeance ( for all the punishment and rejection inflicted ) . <p> The harsh morality of the cultural right thus engenders within the human spirit a kind of wolf . It is a wolf such as Shakespeare described in Troilus and Cressida : PREFORMATTED TABLE <p> And the same harsh morality that goads this wolf into life will also -- when it is intact -- help confine that beast to its cage . <p> The loosening of the cage of the nation 's social morality had one meaning , therefore , among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's exoskeletons . It is as though a boat was tipped by the left , but it was the right that got wet . <p> It was n't just the natural id that was loosed on the cultural right , but also unleashed were those impulses that their subcultures harshness had made dark . We in the counterculture who wanted to liberate , for example , the natural sexual energies of the human creature also , unwittingly , weakened the checks on the lust for power , on greed , on self-aggrandizement . <p> Morality , it turns out , is of a piece . And so is our culture . <p> And so it could be said the wolf has now broken from its cage . Draped in the national flag , it prowls society from the precincts of power , fooling enough people into thinking that what it 's bringing is order . RECONSTRUCTING THE CAGE <p> In any event , there are better options for order . But their realization is a significant cultural achievement . Good order in the human realm does n't happen except through wise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twofold . It is n't only to remove that wolf from power but it is also to help reconstruct the cage -- those structures of morality that kept it in check . Ideally , we 'd do much better than merely " reconstruct " the moral cage of an earlier era . That would be an improvement over this loosening , which has unleashed these dark forces . But still better would be to find a better means of containment , or perhaps even a more harmonious form of domestication that does n't need to abuse the creature it brings into the social fold . That old order was far from ideal . <p> The counterculture recognized the oppressiveness of the old order but it failed to realize that a truly beneficent revolution is n't accomplished by the storming of the Bastille . And it failed to recognize that the movement of a culture to its next , more advanced form is a long-term and difficult process . <p> What is needed this time around is n't a wanton rejection of the old structures , replacing them with nothing . As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us together . <p> We must understand , that is , that the moral endo-skeleton is not nothing . It is something achieved through human development . And , more , we need to understand that the endo-skeleton does n't come from nothing . It is the internalization of the order the growing human encounters around him or her . <p> And no skeleton at all is a recipe for falling apart . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) <p> By Andrew Bard Schmookler <p> <p> Andrew Bard Schmookler is the creator of the website www.NoneSoBlind.org . He is also the prize-winning author of The Parable of the Tribes : The Problem of Power in Social Evolution and Debating the Good Society : A Quest to Bridge America 's Moral Divide . He can be reached at andythebard@comcast.net . <p> 
##4000953 DR . JOSEPH L. " JOEL " ANDREWS spent two weeks in the New Orleans area in December 2005 as a physician volunteer for the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Programs . Three months after the hurricane had hit , he witnessed firsthand the storm 's devastating effects on residents in the city 's various communities . <p> MY FIRST NEW ORLEANS HOUSE CALL is one I will certainly never forget . I was working in the Red Cross office in Metairie when I received an urgent request to help evaluate a very agitated man in Mid City . I left the office immediately and drove south on Interstate 10 to North Carrollton Street . <p> I met Arlo , a retired psychologist and Red Cross volunteer mental health worker from California , in the parking lot of an abandoned Burger King . Arlo had visited a client , Floyd S. , the previous day at the request of a Red Cross emergency crew . Floyd had told the crew that he would die if he did n't receive his medications soon . Arlo had found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of schizophrenia , manic-depressive disorder , and hypertension , along with other medical conditions . <p> I followed Arlo down a side street . The wooden houses on this block had received major hits , both from Hurricane Katrina 's high winds and from the storm 's floodwaters . Most sported bright blue FEMA tarps , designed to stop water from leaking through roofs whose shingles had been torn off by Katrina 's strong winds . Tall debris piles littered sidewalks on both sides of the street , blocking some access points . Cars were coated with dried flood muck . <p> Arlo and I entered the shotgun-style house where Floyd was staying . Although the building was elevated about four feet off the ground , the flood surge had done its dirty business . The house smelled dank from muck and mold . Filthy clothes and furniture were strewn haphazardly in the front room . Horizontal brown lines on the walls about four feet above the floor were evidence of the levels that earlier flooding had reached . Clearly , no one had done any cleanup here in the three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a bed in the back room of the house . We asked him to come out to the front room , which he did reluctantly . I asked him to sit and settled down across from him on a filthy rocking chair . Then I tried to take a medical history . Floyd told me that he was fifty-three , but his unkempt gray dreadlocks , lined face , jumbled speech , and unruly white beard gave him the appearance of a man twenty years older . <p> I ascertained that Floyd had n't taken his psychiatric or blood pressure medicines in more than three weeks , since he was unable to get his prescriptions filled . The more we talked the more manic and incoherent Floyd became . Then he stood up and ran out the door . <p> Arlo and I went outside and saw Floyd talking to three men on the front porch of a house a few doors down . We approached the men , who told us that Floyd became increasingly agitated when he could n't take his meds . Neither his wife nor his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so he often came to them . The men sometimes brought food to him , and Earl , a tall man in yellow Lakers sweatpants , said that he had occasionally paid for Floyd 's medications in the past . Agreeing that he needed immediate hospitalization to get him back on his medications , Arlo and I took Floyd back to his own home . <p> Standing in the street , I used my cellphone to call East Jefferson Hospital ( in suburban Metairie ) to talk to the emergency room doctor who had written Floyd 's prescriptions three weeks earlier . He was n't there , so I called the hospital 's record room in an effort to learn more about Floyd 's diagnoses and treatments . The clerk there told me she could n't release any information unless I faxed her a release signed by the client . I told her I did n't have access to a fax machine and there was no way I could get this man to sign a release in his current condition . The clerk hung up . <p> I then called the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who could provide transportation to the hospital . Five minutes later a squad car pulled up , then another , and then another , until finally a squadron of six police cars blocked the street . A posse of twelve New Orleans police officers emerged from their cars and walked toward us . They chatted amiably to each other , like attendees at a law enforcement convention . When they asked if Floyd was armed , we said we did n't think so . A stocky officer frisked him , then snapped handcuffs around his wrists . Understandably , Floyd 's demeanor worsened as he sat forlornly on the front steps . <p> I asked a police officer , " Why all the cops and the cuffs ? " <p> " For a show of force , " she replied . " The cuffs are because recently an officer got shot in a similar situation . " Six squad cars then departed . One hauled away a handcuffed and now severely distraught Floyd . <p> Two days later I returned to Floyd 's neighborhood with Tim , another mental health worker @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blacks and whites , clustered on the street in front of his house . One man in preppy attire , definitely out of place in this neighborhood , identified himself as a mystery writer . He said he 'd come to reclaim a book that he had previously lent to Floyd . The writer sported a pair of hiking boots hanging by their laces around his neck . He 'd brought them for Floyd , he said , who was currently shoeless . <p> Floyd 's neighbors told us that the police had taken him to Ochsner Foundation Hospital in Jefferson . They brought him back at three o'clock in the morning with more paper prescriptions but without any actual drugs . <p> We found Floyd on the steps of a ramshackle religious shelter several blocks away . As I climbed the steps , Floyd smiled , greeted me by name , and started singing " Somewhere Over the Rainbow . " Why that ? I thought . Then I remembered . The first time I met Floyd I had introduced myself as " Dr. Andrews . You know , like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shoulder and told him that it was really Judy Garland who sang The Wizard of Oz song ; that Julie Andrews had starred in The Sound of Music . Floyd just kept singing " Over the Rainbow " anyway . He looked pleased with himself . I too was pleased that he was in a better mood and " with it " enough to smile and reach out to make some social connection . <p> During my two weeks making home visits in New Orleans I saw firsthand Katrina 's effect on people . I also saw the storm 's effect on infrastructure , especially in the most heavily damaged Lower Ninth Ward , where powerful waves from the breached levees had pulverized wooden houses and left only splintered timbers . <p> I visited sections of New Orleans with moderate house damage , such as Mid City and Lakeview and the suburbs of Metairie , Kenner , and Westwego . Many of these neighborhoods still had no electric or water services . When I visited these houses with Molly , a Red Cross caseworker , I discovered that most of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been depleted by months of living as evacuees . After returning to New Orleans these homeowners dipped further into savings to rehabilitate their gutted homes , often at the mercy of scarce and expensive contractors . <p> The evening after Floyd sang to me on the porch , I attended a panel discussion by the Health/Social Services Committee , part of Mayor Ray Nagin 's Bring Back New Orleans Commission . The news was n't good : thirteen of seventeen public health clinics were destroyed by Katrina , only two of New Orleans ' eleven hospitals were then open , and most doctors offices were still closed . Most patient records were destroyed or lost . Most evacuees had moved elsewhere without their medications , prescriptions , or records . And about 50 percent of evacuees had no health insurance . The New Orleans healthcare system , always shaky , now lay shattered in Katrina 's wake . There were no medicines for Floyd and thousands of other residents of New Orleans because these residents had close to nothing -- no money , no insurance , no telephone , no transportation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher lauded the residents of New Orleans for their " resiliency and commitment . " He noted , however , that the trauma and violence many children endured during Katrina made it likely that they , as well as many adults , would experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder , increasing their tendency toward violent behavior as they grew older . <p> Next , the chairs of six subcommittees ( Primary Care , Specialty Care , Hospitals , Public Health , Environmental Health , and Social Services ) presented their proposals for improving health in New Orleans . They noted sadly that Louisiana had placed forty-ninth out of fifty states in measures of the quality of healthcare before Katrina . Their wish lists that night included measures that did n't exist before the storm , such as improved cooperation and coordination between hospitals , universal access to all health facilities , and better evacuation plans to prevent a similar catastrophe . <p> I noted two important shortcomings with the hundred or so proposals on these planners ' wish lists : no mention was made about how all these desirable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a timetable for when they would actually take place . <p> Several days later I made my way down unlit corridors leading to a warren of small rooms in a building on Burgundy Street , not far from the French Quarter . I was making a house call on Clara D. , an eighty-seven-year-old lady living alone with her black dog , Girlie . A former shrimp factory worker , Clara had been evacuated to nearby Kenner after Katrina ; she had returned to her cluttered two rooms only a short time before we met . <p> In addition to multiple health problems , Clara was most worried about her lack of finances . She received $579 a month from Social Security and $75 in food stamps , which she said would soon decrease . Her rent was $400 a month . Little was left to pay for medical care and drugs . And , like most elderly shut-ins in the Big Easy , Clara had no phone , no transportation , no doctor or clinic , and no accessible pharmacy . <p> I spent more than thirty minutes on my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to no avail . Each published resource number I called accessed only a recorded message , which merely listed many more numbers to call . No actual services were provided . I felt like shouting , " We need services , not numbers ! And we need them now ! " <p> Despite the optimistic dreams of its healthcare planners , New Orleans still has a long way to go to create an effective medical care infrastructure to provide equitable delivery of high-quality healthcare for all . Only one half of pre-Katrina hospital beds are usable . Six of nine hospitals remain shuttered . Of the ninety healthcare clinics that existed pre-Katrina ( where most of the poor got their care ) less than twenty are functioning now . Nursing home beds are scarce . <p> Much has been said and written to explain the catastrophe that was New Orleans before , during , and after Katrina : inadequacy of the levees , lack of evacuation planning and execution , slowness of government agencies such as FEMA to respond to the emergency , and so on . <p> What can we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Orleans ? <p> As previously stated , Louisiana was ranked forty-ninth out of fifty states in healthcare outcomes before Katrina . Post-Katrina plans abound to improve its healthcare system , but the essential ingredients -- adequate funding , careful planning , and coordination -- are still questionable . Clinics , private practices , hospitals , pharmacies , and patient transportation all still need strengthening over a year later . <p> The fact that many poor New Orleanians , mostly blacks , remained for days or weeks in a severely flooded city because there were no means to evacuate them came as a surprise to many Americans . The fact that many elderly , frail people were left behind to die unnecessarily was a cause for shame throughout the United States . Can widespread poverty be addressed successfully in a city that has lost half its population and many more jobs ? It will require the political will , careful and coordinated planning , much work , and much money to remedy . <p> Perhaps city officials and healthcare planners should figure out how to more effectively harness the underappreciated strengths demonstrated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and ill . The compassion and care , demonstrated so admirably by Floyd 's neighbors every day , might well help to address the significant challenges the city now faces in bolstering healthcare . <p> Finally , will important lessons be learned in time ? If another powerful hurricane occurs , will the New Orleans healthcare system be strong enough to withstand the new strains placed on an already overburdened system ? This issue must be faced here and now , not somewhere over the rainbow . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) <p> By Joseph L. Andrews , M.D. <p> <p> Dr. Joseph L. " Joel " Andrews of Concord , Massachusetts , is a practicing internist and a Lecturer in Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston . He is also a freelance writer and author . <p> 
##4000957 QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROPER place of religion in a democracy and the separation of church and state remain in the news . In the United States , legal and social battles about the proper place to draw the line between religion and government are being waged around the issues of abortion , gay marriage , faith-based social services , and other well-publicized flash points of conflict between sacred beliefs and secular authority . And with the political influence of religious conservatives evidenced in the 2004 presidential election , the issue of religious influence on affairs of state is likely to remain a matter of importance and controversy for the foreseeable future . Thus the secularism and church-state separation of liberal democratic theory are under renewed attack . So reexamining the principles underlying secular government becomes not simply a matter of leisurely philosophical speculation but one of extreme political and practical urgency . <p> The principle of separation of church and state is essential for providing for and preserving both religious freedom and the long-term continuation of the peaceful stability of a well-ordered , liberal democracy -- where human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ goods and where more human freedom is recognized as better than less . But leaders of what is commonly called the religious right have been attempting to tear down the Jeffersonian wall of separation between church and state ( as did many religionists in Thomas Jefferson 's own day ) . So it is necessary to clarify what is at stake in this struggle . <p> Many people do n't realize that the phrase " separation of church and state " is n't found anywhere in the Constitution of the United States . The celebrated First Amendment simply places a prohibition on Congress by saying that " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion , or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . " This language severely limits the actions of the federal government but says nothing about limitations on state governments or on religion itself . On the contrary , for many alive at the time of ratification , one intention of the restraint on Congress appears to have been to give state governments free rein in religious matters . It was n't until 1868 , when the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that states were constitutionally required to be religiously neutral . <p> While various Supreme Court decisions have since used the language and imagery of the " wall of separation between church and state , " the phrase originated in the famous letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury , Connecticut , Baptist Association during his first term as president in 1802 . In this letter he also wrote that " religion is a matter which lies solely between man &; his god . " This was a principled position : later in his Autobiography he made it clear that his thinking included " the Jew and the Gentile , the Christian and the Mahometan , the Hindoo , and infidel of every denomination . " Jefferson had the genius to recognize that the fundamental issue of religious freedom extends beyond the simple mutual toleration of different Christian denominations for each other . <p> Before examining the importance of the separation of church and state in liberal democratic theory , it is necessary to clarify two important presuppositions of that theory . The first is a certain view of human nature @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first ) is the distinction between the private lives of citizens and the public arena in which legislation or public policy is proposed , debated , and then either approved or defeated . <p> Liberal democratic theory is committed to a general philosophic view of human nature that can be traced to the Enlightenment . Are human equality and human freedom intrinsic goods ? Is it the role of government to protect and nurture these goods ? Does the ultimate source of legitimate political authority lie in the citizens of a republic ? Liberal democratic theory answers in the affirmative and views humans as rational beings capable of determining and regulating their own social , economic , and political affairs . The " liberal " aspect of liberal democratic theory takes its meaning from the philosophical rather than the political usage of the term -- a meaning that is derived from " liberty . " Both Immanuel Kant and Thomas Jefferson endorsed this view of human nature . Reacting against the dominant Christian theological view that human nature was fundamentally corrupt and in need of divine guidance and deliverance from itself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human beings as fundamentally rational and profoundly educable . Knowledge resulting from free , unfettered inquiry was viewed as providing not only the basis for understanding the natural world but also for humans understanding themselves , including their social and political selves . Thus human beings came to be regarded as embodying the ability to consider and value the common good and to provide for the social and political arrangements that improve the human condition . The notion of self-government had to be proceeded by the belief that human beings are capable of self-government . <p> Clarifying the distinction between the private lives of the citizens of a democracy and the public arena in which public policy and legislation are debated and formulated is crucial to liberal democratic theory . John Locke made clear , for example , in A Letter Concerning Toleration , that the business of the civil magistrate and the business of the church must be completely distinct . Locke maintained that " the only business of the church is the salvation of souls " and the only circumstances in which the state has an interest are those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ injury . <p> The distinction between public and private life is one Jefferson used as the crux of his justification for his wall separating church and state . Not only is religion a private matter in Jefferson 's view , there are also pernicious effects due to the mingling of private matters of religion and public affairs of state . James Madison concurred , claiming that the papal system , wherein church and the state are n't separated , represents " the worst form of governments . " The wall of separation was thus intended to prevent what Thomas Paine later called the " adulterous connection of church and state . " <p> At the time the U.S. Constitution was framed there was considerable debate amongst the various states concerning whether government should establish recognized connections between religion ( i.e. , Protestant Christianity ) and the state or whether it should explicitly disestablish such connections . Some delegates , insisting that the United States was a Christian nation , tried but failed in an attempt to include such recognition in the Constitution . Given the pressure from various religious groups and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it is an often-overlooked act of statesmanship of enormous proportion that the delegates to the Constitutional Congress were able to set aside their own particular beliefs in the framing of the document . The de facto separation of church and state created in the Constitution by this absence of references to Christianity or other religions was widely and strongly criticized by many religious leaders at the time . Debates in state legislatures concerning adoption of the Constitution were often heated , with much concern expressed about religious freedom and with several states insisting that a guarantee of religious freedom be included in a bill of rights . This debate led to the First Amendment in 1789 . The movement toward complete disestablishment of religion in all of the states was a slow , gradual , multifaceted process that involved Congress , the Office of the President , the Supreme Court , and state legislatures and continued until the mid-twentieth century . Indeed , some might say it still continues today . <p> But if a democratic government is to nurture and maximize human freedom then it must provide constitutional protections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including religious beliefs . In order to do this , a constitutional democracy needs to provide constitutional guarantees that prohibit civil penalties , denial of civil privileges , or granting of special civil privileges on the basis of religious beliefs ( or lack thereof ) on the part of any citizen . <p> Locke 's words are still directly on point in this regard : his claim that " it is above all things necessary to distinguish exactly the business of civil government from that of religion " provides a mechanism to put an end to the otherwise endless religious controversies in a pluralistic society that prevent the peaceful and smooth functioning of a well-ordered society . The fundamental claims that are to be incorporated into the constitution must be justifiable to all citizens , and this can not be done if the justification appeals to one set of religious beliefs rather than another . In order to construct a constitution on principles that all citizens will agree to , one must appeal only to human reason . This is the lesson that is preserved in philosopher John Rawls ' Principle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which considers such matters as " who has the right to vote , or what religions are to be tolerated , or who is to be assured equality of opportunity , or to hold property . " <p> However , not everyone agrees that the fundamental constitutional issues should be debated and decided by appeal only to reason . For example , Nicholas Wolterstorff maintains that the separation of public civic life from private religious life discriminates against religious believers by requiring them to act politically while denying or ignoring their religious beliefs , and that setting their religious beliefs aside in such circumstances might very well be contrary to or a violation of those religious beliefs . This situation generates a paradox for liberal democratic theory , according to Wolterstorff , since liberal democratic theory is based upon the fundamental commitment to equality and freedom ; however , for the religious person , such a commitment might be based upon religious belief . In his view , by denying the religious person the right to appeal to religious belief to justify the most fundamental principles of democracy , liberal democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person , and the religious person would presumably be denied the freedom to act upon his or her religious belief . <p> To respond to Wolterstorff 's criticism of the separation of public civic reason and private religious belief , it is necessary to be clear about exactly what his complaint is . In order to generate the apparent paradox , it appears that Wolterstorff must be claiming that the religious person 's commitment to equality and freedom is based solely and exclusively upon religious belief . Ought a person be allowed to appeal to religious belief as the exclusive justification for valuing equality and individual freedom on the constitutional level and would the failure to allow such an appeal be paradoxical to liberal democratic theory ? The answers to these questions become apparent when the questions are generalized . <p> Of course a person might hold a belief p on religious grounds , but p might also be justified to others on non-religious grounds in a manner that appeals to reason . The Principle of Political Legitimacy would require the religious person in such a situation to translate the basis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public reason in order to justify p to others . If p is a claim that can be justified only by an appeal to some religious authority or tradition , which does not play the same justificatory role for others , then according to the Principle of Political Legitimacy the religious person has no right to expect the adoption of p on the constitutional level . If p is some belief supportive of liberal democratic theory , then it initially appears that the part of liberal democratic theory that endorses individual freedom would be undermined since the religious person would be denied the freedom to promote ( and perhaps establish ) p on the basis of religious belief alone . However , if there is no general prohibition against the introduction of p solely on religious grounds and p is a belief that is contrary to or incompatible with the fundamental values of equality and freedom , then it would be impossible to provide constitutional guarantees for those fundamental values . Different people might come to the public table of constitutional debate with different religious agendas , based solely on religious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the hurdle of the same kind of intractable disagreements that had plagued Western Europe for centuries during its religious wars . <p> To jumpstart the process of framing a democratic constitution , the private religious beliefs of those doing the framing must be set aside . And this is exactly what the framers of the Constitution of the United States were able to do . <p> Now compare this to the current situation in Iraq . In the latter case we have a modern-day laboratory experiment of an attempt to develop a democratic government and frame a constitution . What is to be the role of Islam in the resulting structure ? The Shiites and the Sunnis each want a piece of the pie , as do the non-Arab Kurds , while members of the Baath Socialist Party have been denied participation . The situation is strikingly similar to the one that faced those responsible for drafting the U.S. Constitution . <p> There are , of course , other important issues to be resolved in Iraq . But in order to provide for a peaceful , stable , well-ordered society , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the relationship between religion and whatever kind of state emerges from the process . If the expectation is to arrive at a result that is comparable to the liberal democracy of the United States , then the answer to the question of what the relationship should be between religion and the state must be the same . The only general and permanent guarantee of religious freedom and protection of religious minorities is a constitutional separation of religion and government . Thus the shadow of Thomas Jefferson looms large over the process of drafting the constitution for a democratic Iraq . If the eventual result is to be a democratic government that values and protects individual liberty and equality , then the answer to the question of what governmental role Islam is to have is clear : none . <p> There are two differences between Christianity and Islam that are worth explaining , since they are directly related to the two philosophical preconditions of liberal democratic theory . First , as a result of the Protestant Reformation , Protestantism recognized and adopted the view of human nature discussed above , according to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . In contrast to Roman Catholicism , Protestantism became non-hierarchical and , one might say , more democratic . Second , much of Protestant Christianity ( although certainly not all of Protestantism , such as the Puritans ) came also to separate theology from politics and religion from the everyday civic lives of individuals . This is why the distinction between the private , individual religious life and the public , civic secular life , which is crucial for Jefferson 's separation of church and state , became possible . <p> This crucial separation is n't a part of early Islam , nor is it to be found in Orthodox Judaism or Confucianism ( nor , one might add , in Roman Catholicism , early Protestantism , and many forms of American Christian fundamentalism ) . Moreover , there is little optimism that the distinction can be drawn for Islam in a way that separates religion from political or civic life , since Muhammad gave laws that explicitly connect theology with politics . The significance of the lack of this distinction for the prospects of a peaceful , well-ordered liberal democracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now insist that Iraq must be an Islamic country just as many fundamentalist Christians now insist that the United States must be a Christian country . <p> Indeed , the separation of religion and state , the separation of the spiritual and the secular , which is essential to liberal democratic theory , is the very source of what some Muslims take to be the corruption of Western democracies . Such a separation is not only unacceptable to them but is regarded as complete anathema to Islamic thought . Thus the separation of religion and state is not only regarded as a political mistake , it is regarded as a theological mistake as well . In this regard , perhaps ironically , fundamentalist Islam , Orthodox Judaism , and fundamentalist Christianity have much in common . <p> On the constitutional level , there can no more be an Islamic democracy than there can be a Christian or Orthodox Jewish democracy . A religious liberal democracy is an oxymoron . A liberal democracy designed to protect and maximize human freedom and to provide for equality of opportunity and treatment must not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is this prospect of secularization that most threatens some fundamentalist Muslims , since secularization is seen as posing a direct threat to their religion . <p> Because one of the most basic philosophical preconditions for a liberal democracy is establishing the wall of separation between religion and state , the future in this respect does n't look promising . To date , Turkey is the only previously Islamic country that is now a democracy . And recently , devout religious believers have forced some concessions and compromises from the state that raise questions about the long-term viability of Turkey 's democracy . Although Israel is often blithely referred to as a democracy , it is n't a liberal democracy but a very limited one -- a closed democracy -- in which democratic guarantees are prescribed for a limited subset of citizens . For example , the state of Israel does n't recognize any civil ceremony for marriage . Only the Orthodox Jewish ceremony is recognized as legal , and no inter-religious marriages are allowed . <p> To best ensure that a society is secure , stable , and peacefully well ordered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protected from the incursion of religion in all forms and on all levels . It does n't take a religious jihad to threaten a liberal democracy ; it only takes allowing the " the first experiment on our liberties , " as Madison writes -- the first wedge of religion into the structure of the state . <p> Certainly not all fanatics are religious , but the ones who are tend to operate on the same principle : that some religious belief or claim must be placed in the position of ultimate authority . The religious fanatic who opposes abortion by bombing abortion clinics acts on the same principle as the religious fanatic who burns an embassy in protest of so-called blasphemous cartoons published in the embassy 's home country . Both are resorting to violence to damage the state in order to prompt a change in its laws or policies on the basis of some religious belief . Both are religious fanatics acting upon religious beliefs that are immune to reason . The only difference is in the magnitude of the attacks and the number of victims . Both are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Among those who at present debate the relationship between church and state , there would undoubtedly be more agreement about the necessity for the separation on the constitutional level than there would be about the necessity for the separation ( and the meaning of separation ) within a constitutional democracy . Once a democratic constitution is in place , as the long history of conflicts and court decisions in the United States makes clear , fixing the boundaries between religion and the state becomes trickier . On the legislative level , where individual laws and public policies are determined , what is the proper role of religious beliefs ? There must be additional restraints operative that establish a prima facie obligation upon citizens to refrain from appealing to privately held religious beliefs in the public forum in which the affairs of state are conducted . The difficulty will be in justifying restraints upon appeals to religious beliefs given the constitutional guarantees of the disestablishment of religion ( that is now taken as prohibiting any governmental endorsement of religion ) and the free exercise of religion ( that is now taken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ According to Robert Audi in his book Religious Commitment and Secular Reason , a citizen in a liberal democracy has a prima facie obligation to appeal only to secular reason or to be sufficiently motivated only by secular reason to support or oppose legislation or policy in the public arena . If a person is originally motivated solely by religious belief or has a religious belief as the sole reason for advocating or opposing a particular action by the state , then that belief or that reason needs to be reformulated into a rationale or an argument that appeals to human reason . <p> Perhaps the most significant feature of religious reason , and perhaps the feature from which all the other differences between religious reason and secular reason derive , is the oft-touted claim by believers that religious reasons carry an infallible supreme authority that guarantees the truth of such claims against all potential epistemic defeaters . However , allowing appeals to such religious reasons , held to be infallible , in the public arena where laws and public policies are made , would result in what Audi calls a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the death , " that is , an epistemic dead end from which there is no retreat or escape . This would obviously threaten the peaceful and well-ordered stability of a liberal democracy . <p> But , is not disagreement and conflict simply one of the prices to be paid for a liberal democracy ? There are numerous cases where the free exercise of religion and privately held religious beliefs have apparently come into conflict with public reason . The followers of Christian Science , for example , often refuse conventional medical treatment for their minor children on the basis of religious beliefs . Some fundamentalist Muslim parents force female circumcision upon their minor daughters on the basis of religious beliefs . Gay marriage and abortion are opposed by many on the basis of religious beliefs . And some support the public display of the Ten Commandments on government property on the basis of religious beliefs . <p> In each of these cases , the proper approach is to separate the religious interest from the civic interest and to require , in those cases where the religious interest is said to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civic concern be put in nonreligious terms . Most importantly , in a pluralistic , liberal democracy this must be done in a way that guarantees equal protection , in this case religious parity , for all . <p> How might equilibrium amongst competing religious beliefs and equal protection ever be achieved unless a wall of separation between church and state is maintained ? The simple , straightforward answer is that it can not . Equal treatment and the establishment of religion are inversely proportional . To the extent that one religion is given preferential or privileged treatment , others are denied equal treatment . <p> Locke maintained that citizens should be allowed free exercise of religion except in cases where such exercise harms society or poses the possibility of social harm . It is certainly permissible for people to believe whatever they prefer on whatever grounds they choose in their private lives . However , if those same beliefs are used as the basis for legislation or public policy , it is easy to see that a line has been crossed where the introduction of private religious beliefs into the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exercise of religion to the public arena threatens to destroy the underlying theoretical framework of the very democratic guarantee of the free exercise of religion itself . In a liberal democracy the exclusion of religion from the government arena is the only way to provide for the peaceful stability of a well-ordered society that protects the free expression of religion in the private lives of citizens . <p> By James F. Harris <p> <p> James F. Harris is Haserot Professor of Philosophy at the College of William and Mary . He is the author of numerous articles in both domestic and foreign journals and the books Against Relativism : A Philosophical Defense of Method and Analytic Philosophy of Religion . <p> 
##4020261 A political traditionalist critiques our pseudo-conservative president <p> In 1954 the celebrated American historian Richard Hofstadter offered his explanation for McCarthyism in an essay he contributed to THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR titled " The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt . " Looking back on his essay 11 years later , Hofstadter noted : " I have written nothing else of comparable brevity that aroused more attention or drew more requests for quotation or reprinting . " <p> Seeking to understand the underlying social psychology of McCarthyism , Hofstadter borrowed the term pseudo-conservative from the philosopher Theodor Adorno to designate Americans who cloaked their " serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life , traditions and institutions " in the guise and rhetoric of conservatism . Hofstadter , who studied alternative explanations for political conduct , hypothesized that the dissatisfaction of 1950s pseudo-conservatives was based on a fear of loss of status common to open societies where social mobility is relatively fluid . <p> Compounding their fear in the McCarthy era was anxiety generated by the post-World War II nuclear arms race , which created a doomsday scenario in the minds of many Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " alienated groups began describing themselves as conservative because the term appeared to identify them as being diametrically opposed to the forces riley perceived were threatening both their lives mad their social positions . As Hofstadter pointed out , however , from a strictly political perspective there was nothing authentically conservative about their arguments . In the first place , they were trying desperately to overturn the status quo of New Deal America -- not to conserve it . Furthermore , they adhered to an ideology of anti-intellectualism , substituting feelings and emotions for the rational discourse that for millennia has characterized the history of Western conservative thought . " The pseudo-conservative tends to be more than ordinarily incoherent " about political issues , Hofstadter wrote . The result , he maintained , was a politics that emphasized unarticulated psychological impulses over reasonable analysis -- a politics of the gut , in other words , rather than of the mind . <p> Another reason Hofstadter considered McCarthyism to be a form of pseudo-conservatism had to do with the rage with which it expressed its opposition to the American political system and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political philosophy is analogous to conservatism as a personality trait . Both stress moderation , practicality , and prudence . " Look before you leap " and " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush " might well be their credos . As Hofstadter reminded readers of THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR , however , McCarthyism had virtually nothing " in common with the temperate and compromising spirit of true conservatism in the classical sense of the word . " <p> Today another form of pseudo-conservatism threatens American institutions . Under the administration of George W. Bush , our public policy has for six years been shaped by those who discount reason to practice a politics of largely inchoate sentiments . <p> In order to recognize the counterfeit quality of the pseudo-conservatism that Hofstadter identified , as well as the " compassionate conservatism " Bush sometimes espouses , one has only to turn to the political philosophies of Aristotle and Edmund Burke . It is in their works , notably Aristotle 's Politics and Nicomachean Ethics and Burke 's Reflections on the Revolution in France ( 1790 ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be found . At the heart of Aristotle 's and Burke 's thinking is a belief in the existence of natural law , a set of moral ideals that gives meaning to such terms as honor , integrity , justice , and courage . Neither Aristotle nor Burke possessed much faith in the rationality and morality of human beings . They feared that without the guidance that natural law provides , humans would forfeit their opportunities to lead virtuous lives and establish just governments . Because Aristotle and Burke considered them to be universal , these moral ideas were meant to apply to every human relationship -- including economics . <p> Aristotle and Burke supported private property and free enterprise on the basis of the distinguishing characteristic of human beings -- the possession of a soul that makes it possible for us to exercise free will and become unique individuals . One of the advantages of private property , they taught , is that it helps us to develop and manifest our individuality as well as to express one of their most cherished ideals , generosity . If people did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be a largely empty virtue . But Aristotle 's and Burke 's support for private property and free enterprise was not unlimited . The standards of natural law require owners to treat workers the same way they would like to be treated if the roles were reversed and challenge merchants to provide consumers with a fair product at a fair price . <p> From this perspective , what makes the Bush administration an example of pseudo-conservatism is its dogmatic commitment to laissez-faire policies that deny the relevance of universal ideals and that rely primarily on market forces to guide economic activities . In its pursuit of laissez-faire economic policies , the Bush administration has relaxed banking standards , introduced no-bid government contracts , allowed private corporations greater access to public lands , and refrained from limiting monopolistic practices . It has sought , furthermore , to reduce governmental responsibility for the welfare of its elderly citizens by advocating the privatization of Social Security accounts . <p> By assuming that some form of economic justice will result from the relatively unchecked selfishness of individuals and corporations , the policies of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of human behavior . Reinhold Niebuhr 's The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness ( 1944 ) echoed Aristotle 's and Burke 's rejection of unlimited economic freedom for its smug optimism . Only people who think of themselves as " harmless egotists , " Niebuhr remarked , could fail to understand that when the " economic process is left severely alone either the strong devour the weak , in which case monopoly displaces competition , or competition breeds chaos in the community . " <p> Consistent in its inconsistency , the Bush administration celebrates economic freedom while acting to curtail other basic American freedoms , such as privacy , religion , speech , and press . The same government that hesitates to apply explicit moral standards to economic behavior has had few qualms about restricting the Fourth Amendment right against warrantless searches , loosening rules on the confidentiality of medical records , supporting faith-based initiatives that cause citizens to subsidize religions to which they do not belong , ordering librarians to divulge information on material checked out by patrons , and attempting to influence the content of National @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its approach to sexual issues . Among the manifestations of pseudo-conservatism that Hofstadter observed in 1954 was the vindictive quality of the policies it espoused . By opposing abortion as well as convenient access to birth control , the administration has demonstrated a punitive attitude toward sexual conduct . <p> Another serious disconnect between the Bush administration and traditional Western political conservatism is its foreign policy . Although Aristotle and Burke believed in universal ideals , they were not idealists . Instead , they practiced a politics of prudence that seeks to adjust immutable natural laws to constantly changing situations and circumstances . The unique value of prudence , Aristotle wrote , is its ability to ensure that governments do the right thing at the right time " in the fight way . " Burke called prudence " the first of all virtues " because it alone can teach governments how to bring " power and right " into harmony . Indeed , Burke 's famous criticism of the French Revolution was based upon his appreciation of political prudence . <p> Although Burke promoted the ideal of free government as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of prudence taught him that societies are organisms that require great care in order to endure and flourish . They can be modified , consequently , only with considerable thought and patience . At the end of the 18th century , France had been living under feudal autocrats for centuries . When the revolutionaries ignored their past and tried to introduce a historically unprecedented level of " liberty , fraternity , and equality " into their society virtually overnight , Burke predicted that death and destruction beyond anything the French had ever experienced would soon transpire . <p> Burke favored the American Revolution , on the other hand , because he judged Americans , as former English men and women , to be seeking to adapt traditional English ideals of self-rule for their new home . He considered their Coal to be a relatively moderate one that would serve to lay a firm foundation for the evolution of free government in the United States . Burke explained this in his Reflections : <p> I flatter myself that I love a manly , moral , regulated liberty as well as any gentleman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or blame to anything which relates to human actions , and human concerns , on a simple view of the object , as it stands stripped of every relation , in all the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction . Circumstances ( which with some gentlemen pass for nothing ) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour and discriminating effect . The circumstances are what render every civil mid political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind . <p> By Aristotle 's and Burke 's theories of evolutionary change , the Bush administration 's decisions to invade and occupy Iraq were clearly imprudent . A number of explanations have been offered to justify these policies . One was that Saddam Hussein possessed nuclear weapons . Another was that he was in league with Al Qaeda terrorists who attacked the United States on 9/11 . The latest is that we need to remake Iraq into a democracy that will serve as a political role model for the rest of the Middle East . Although the first two explanations have been discredited by the thorough investigations of several bipartisan congressional committees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by them . This strategy calls to mind Hofstadter 's observation that pseudo-conservatives are suspicious of reasonable analysis and often rely on knee-jerk reactions to reach policy decisions . <p> As Bush 's former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill revealed in Ron Suskind 's book The Price of Loyalty ( 2004 ) , the president in 2001 -- for reasons that were never explained fully and seemed like a snap judgment at the time -- informed his cabinet that he was thinking seriously about overthrowing Saddam . It was especially shocking to O'Neill that Bush announced his convictions about Iraq only 10 days after his inauguration and a full eight months before 9/11 . " Conviction is something you need in order to act , " O'Neill said . " But your action needs to be proportional to the depth of evidence that underlies your conviction . " <p> The third explanation is even more bewildering from a traditional conservative point of view . Iraq has never come close to being a democracy . The Iraqi people have never been free and rarely have shown an inclination to fight and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , therefore , the administration 's vision of a democratic Iraq is reminiscent of the mistakes made by the French revolutionaries . Both acted as if dreams can easily be translated into political reality . Both upheld the ideal of freedom , but neither was able to adapt that ideal to the specific circumstances they encountered . Both were unable to appreciate the staggering costs in human lives and property that are unavoidable when radical change is pursued over a very short period of time . <p> The Bush administration 's attitudes toward the national debt and the environment represent another break with the Western conservative tradition . Aristotle 's and Burke 's writings remind today 's generations that we have a moral responsibility to leave the world a better place for our descendants . This is why , Walter Lippmann explained in Essays in the Public Philosophy ( 1955 ) , " young men die in battle for their country 's sake and why old men plant trees they will never sit under . " After six years of a supply-side economic policy that increases government spending but declines to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration has left our children with a national debt of more than $8 trillion . By refusing to ratify the international Kyoto Protocol on global warming , deciding against requiring automobile manufacturers to raise fuel-efficiency ratings , withdrawing funds from the EPA , FEMA , and the Corps of Engineers , and discouraging wetlands-preservation projects , the administration may have set the stage for future environmental catastrophes on the order of Hurricane Katrina . Our children will have to cope with these disasters . <p> Other similarities between Bush administration policies and Hofstadter 's description of pseudoconservatism include : hostility toward the United Nations ; a penchant for amending the Constitution ; an insistence on political conformity ; an inability to make subtle distinctions between international players , which is required for effectiveness on the world political stage ; and a reliance on the populist rhetoric of anti-intellectualism . John Bolton , Bush 's U.N . ambassador , has taken the position that the institution is largely irrelevant . The Bush administration has supported amendments to the Constitution regarding flag burning and homosexual marriage . Americans who want to set a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as traitorous " cut-and-runners . " The failure of Senator McCarthy and his followers in 1954 to recognize that communist regimes in the Soviet Union , China , Yugoslavia , and Vietnam were different seems similar to the Bush administration 's insistence that organizations such as Al Qaeda , Hezbollah , and Hamas are all part of a unified group of " Islamofascist " terrorists . Furthermore , the Bush administration 's approach to such issues as creationism , placing replicas of the Ten Commandments in public places , and the Terri Schiavo debacle contains a good deal of anti-intellectual populist rhetoric . <p> Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Hofstadter 's 1954 AMERICAN SCHOLAR essay is its ability to explain more than 50 years later why traditional conservatives tend to get so exasperated with the Bush administration . Traditional conservatives -- of whom I am one -- consider themselves loyal citizens who want to believe that their president knows what he is doing . So we keep trying , with little success , to appreciate the logic of his budget deficits , incoherent foreign policies , attacks on constitutional rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hofstadter teaches us is that these policies were never meant to be understood logically in die first place . As he wrote in a later essay , " Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited -- 1965 " : <p> As a rule , pseudo-conservatism does more to express emotions than to formulate policies . It is in fact hard to translate the claims of its policies into programs or concrete objectives . and for the most part the proponents of such politics , being less concerned with the uses of power than with its " alleged misuse , do not offer positive programs to solve social problems . The operative content of their demands is more likely to be negative : they call on us mainly to prohibit , to prevent , to censor and censure , to discredit , and to punish . <p> Despite the brilliance of Hofstadter 's analysis , there is a major difference between pseudo-conservatism and its traditional counterpart that he neglected to discuss . Aristotle 's and Burke 's pessimistic view of human nature , their belief in a system of natural law that sets moral parameters for human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appreciates the difficulties involved in translating morally preferable ideals into politically feasible policies , and their commitment to moderation and caution are major components of traditional conservatism 's emphasis on doubt and limits . Traditional conservatives believe that the universe imposes profound restrictions on what individuals and governments can accomplish . They adhere , according to Noel O'Sullivan in his book Conservatism ( 1976 ) , to a " philosophy of imperfection , committed to the idea of limits " that regards human beings as " imperfect , dependent " creatures who are " doomed to make the best of things by the more modest policies of compromise and accommodation . " <p> The Bush administration , however , has not consistently recognized doubt and limitations . Despite the burgeoning national debt , the administration declines to heed the advice of fiscal conservatives either to raise taxes or seriously reduce public spending . Despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina , the administration persists in ignoring the warnings of prominent scientists about the destructive effects of global warming . Despite former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki 's concern that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the administration went ahead with its preconceived plan for a diminished force . With a certainty bordering on arrogance , the administration has behaved as if it believes the national debt somehow will disappear , nature will heal global warming on its own , and Iraqis will soon come to their senses , welcome Americans as their saviors , and conclude that democracy is preferable to secular or religious tyranny . <p> Certainty in the face of strong evidence to the contrary is the hallmark of ideological thinking . Ultimately , it is the ideological quality of Bush administration policies that classifies them as pseudo-conservative . Whereas ideologues advance one doctrinaire solution to every problem regardless of the circumstances , traditional conservatives expect political leaders to adjust their convictions to the situation at hand . Whereas ideologues prefer to deal with political abstractions , traditional conservatives seek to practice a more practical form of politics that operates , in Burke 's words , on a level of " the more or less , the earlier or the later , and on a balance of advantage and inconvenience , of good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traditional conservative limits and doubts has been the administration 's adherence to a strategy for presidential leadership that it calls the " doctrine of the unitary executive . " Among the people who participated in the formulation of this doctrine were Bush appointees Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Justice Samuel Alito . Gonzales helped to develop it when he served as Bush 's White House counsel ; Alito , when he was a lawyer in Ronald Reagan 's Justice Department . To the administration the " doctrine of the unitary executive " means that the executive branch can interpret laws any way it wants -- even if its interpretation differs markedly from the directives of Congress and the Supreme Court . <p> Although this doctrine represents an egregious violation of the separation of powers , the president has used it with impunity . Bush has claimed that he will disregard laws prohibiting warrantless wiretapping of domestic phone calls . He has said that he intends to ignore the provisions of the Patriot Act with which he disagrees . When Bush announced that he vehemently opposed the Military Commissions Act being considered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and torture enemy combatants , Congress caved in to the president 's pressure and virtually granted him the power to interpret the Geneva Convention as he sees fit . <p> With the two-term presidential limit in effect and the end of the Bush administration in sight , can we expect that pseudo-conservatism is about to run its course ? Do the recent midterm election results indicate that moderate Americans have grown disillusioned with pseudo-conservative policies ? Only for the time being , Hofstadter would maintain . Just as McCarthyism was followed by the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater and George Wallace , Richard Nixon 's " Silent Majority , " the Reagan presidency , and the current administration , it is inevitable that another version of pseudo-conservatism will appear on the American political scene . <p> As long as citizens remain fearful of their status in society and as long as Americans continue to dread attacks from powerful enemies committed to the destruction of their country , Hofstadter warned , the specter of pseudoconservatism never will completely vanish . In 1954 , he prophetically noted : " We do live in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has already shown us the ugliest capacities of the human spirit . . These considerations suggest that the pseudo-conservative political style . is one of the long waves of contemporary American history and not a momentary mood . " <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Richard Hofstadter described pseudo - conservatives of the 1950s . <p> By Ethan Fishman <p> <p> Ethan Fishman , professor of political science at the University of South Alabama , is the author of The Prudential Presidency . <p> 
##4020266 He was washing E 's body before calling the mortician when he had another thought : Where 's the fire . <p> The longer he thought , the more he saw that his chore was not readying her for burial , but finding how to keep her above ground . He had to be able to see her , that was not negotiable , and with all the to-ing and fro-ing of the hospice people in the last months , he 'd like very much to keep outsiders outside , where they belonged . What he needed was a comprehensive tutorial , a how-to . <p> He kissed her cool forehead , covered her with a sheet and left for the library . <p> The librarian at the reference desk directed him to Egypt , and there he spent the afternoon . <p> The basic principle was dryness . This was something he could wrap his mind around . A step-by-step thing to do . Problem . Solution . That 's what his life had been made of ; was what , besides her , he had loved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notes , checked on her . No change . Then he watched a show on autopsies he 'd TiVo 'd . The coroner said some bodies they dug up in crime investigations were " mummified . " The secret , as he 'd discovered at the library , was to keep her dry . <p> But what about what 's inside ? <p> He read deeper in the Egyptians . Deep for a layman , not to mention pretty grisly . A slit in the side , through which the organs are to be withdrawn . The problem of packing material absorbed the rest of the night and most of the next several days . <p> He was busy , occupied in reinventing the tools of the Egyptians , and then applying them to real flesh . Problems , solutions . He breathed shallowly as he worked , ignoring time . The blood let -- who would 've thought that she had so much left , after all that suffering . He did everything the Egyptians had done , except for the grey matter , which they 'd extracted through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one point her whole body sighed . He took a break then . Important to keep the alternatives clear : burial or burning . That 's what they 'd do to her , what they could hardly wait to do . Put her where he could n't see her . <p> She 'd died at home . It 's how she wanted it . They never pretended she was n't dying . He 'd asked if she had any preference : burial or cremation . That 's how they were with each other . <p> " Oh for Pete 's sake , " she said . " Leave it at the curb . I 'm sick to death of it . " <p> Well I 'm not , honey , he 'd said . <p> But she just turned away . Very unsentimental , right to the end . <p> He returned to the hardware store . They did n't have the needles he needed , and referred him to a sewing store in the mall . <p> The stitching was slow going . On the left side , just like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so himself . He admired his handiwork until , struck by the resemblance to a Peeping Tom , he went in search of the right garment . <p> The pink thing was a favorite , but she looked ashen when he draped it across . He found a white negligee she used on trips . <p> What it is , he said , lifting her shoulders to slip the negligee down , is that we 're one person . Where you go , I go . <p> He paused to regard her on the guest bed . It could be any ordinary day . She could have said , " Just a little lie down and I 'll be right as rain . " She liked naps . <p> He studied her feet , decided to leave them bare . They looked like marble . The stiffening made her seem smaller . A small hard house of bone . She was in there , though . He could feel it . <p> He glanced at the window . Dark again . His brain felt burnt-out and he smelled of ozone , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went to bed . <p> Too lonesome in the queen-size , he dragged the comforter across the hall to lie down next to her , but her stillness kept him awake . She seemed to give off cool the way she used to give off heat . <p> He returned to their bed . It would be easier if he could see her . When he raised his head , all he saw was her feet . It was n't right , the guest bed . Not personal or special . <p> It came to him in the night , as his inventions usually did . The pool table . Elevate her . More like a proper . bier . They 'd gotten it when they were first flush . No sooner was it through the door than he 'd replaced the granite with a plastic he 'd read was better than stone , then re-laid the felt , just because he could . This makes it light enough to move . <p> But too bulky to move alone . Who would help and not ask questions ? <p> Then he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the inventions set him free . Clyde never asked questions . <p> Clyde and his wife bred cats . He 'd been to the house . Cats were everywhere like ants , and the smell made your eyes water . The oddest thing was Clyde 's wife looked just like one , with green eyes and a pink triangular nose . <p> Clyde immediately responded to his e-mail . He 'd just come home from Vegas and was sorry as hell to hear about his wife , though he knew she 'd been real sick . And sorry too that they 'd never got together as couples like they 'd meant to . <p> Clyde came over and studied the pool table . He ran his hand over the felt and said , " Pretty nice to live like King Tut . " This was so close to mummifying as to amaze his host , but then , everyone knew about King Tut . <p> Clyde lifted the table edge , gauging the heft . " Got to be one of yours . Light as a feather . " <p> He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I wish I could think of that stuff . Awkward size , though . Where to , boss ? " <p> He said there were two flights to hump it up . Clyde sighed , " Let 's do ' er . " <p> " Which way ? " he asked when they got upstairs . Only a flicker of curiosity in his eyes as they passed the closed guest door . <p> They set it next to the queen-size . " Now that 's what I call decadent , " Clyde said . " Pool table right next to the bed . " <p> But the table was wrong . The green felt top was like AstroTurf , too bright in the room , which she had done up in pastels . It would n't work with the way her skin was looking . He 'd think of something later . <p> He led Clyde downstairs and they had a beer and talked office politics . Clyde said he 'd keep in touch , and maybe they could shoot some pool or whatever . Watching the car pull away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cage . He did n't envy Clyde , even if his wife was alive . <p> Next day he went to Bed , Bath and Beyond , and was waited on by a man with black splotches on his hands that could pass for decay . But this guy was young . Then he got it . An AIDS survivor . <p> The man said he was Ray . How could he help ? <p> Since Ray would know about suffering , not to mention death , he almost unloaded on the spot , and waited for it to pass , blinking at shelves of pillows that reached to the ceiling . <p> Then he told Ray he needed a spread , and read off the dimensions of the pool table . <p> Ray frowned . " I 'm trying to imagine what a bed that size looks like . " <p> I 'm an inventor , he explained , which satisfied Ray , who trotted all over and brought back a comforter . Floral . That 's how she 'd done the bedroom . Floral pastels . Silky to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could melt . <p> Ray was looking sideways at him . " Is it for yourself ? " <p> Well yes and no , he said , and squinted at Ray , taking his measure . <p> What would you say if I told you it 's for my dead wife ? That I 'm keeping her so I remember who she is , which is everything . You know , like a mummy . <p> " Well I 'd say , Bonne chance , " said Ray . <p> Well thank you , he said , and then put a hand over his eyes , which had welled from out of nowhere , a knot in his throat . <p> Aisle Three , a voice came over the loudspeaker . Then something garbled . The squeak of a cart going by . <p> Now he put his hand on his chest and moved it clockwise , which helped . Pulled out a handkerchief , blew his nose . Ray was standing with his head bowed . <p> Ray said , " I 'm just going to nip in back and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worse for wear . " He disappeared , returned . " You know what ? I have another idea . What about a featherbed ? " A featherbed ? <p> " Follow me . " <p> He followed Ray to another section where sound was suctioned off by yards of foam and feathers . Bedspreads hung from shelves . <p> Ray pointed to a bed . " Try her out . " <p> He sat on the bed . The give seemed infinite . <p> Ray frowned . " I hope you do n't think I 'm trying to run up the sale . But , it 's the ultimate kindness , do n't you think ? " <p> I 'll take a king , he said . <p> " Coming right up , " said Ray , and vanished again . <p> He perched on the display bed , and thought of the coffin racket . The funeral industry . Another clerk went by and smiled but he did n't smile back . He seldom did . His parents , who 'd been farmers , had n't either . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been very helpful , he said to Ray . <p> " Give her my best , " said Ray . " And happy trails . " <p> With the featherbed beneath her she floated on a cloud . And the comforter was great . She looked like she was dreaming on a field of flowers . <p> He marked the two-week anniversary on the calendar . Halfway through the drying-out period recommended by the Egyptians and not a scent from her , not a whiff . Things were coming along nicely . <p> Then the worst happened . He forgot not to pick up after placing a pizza order , and there , on the other end of the line , was the whisky-voice of the sister , H , down in Palo Alto . <p> They were n't close , but H was older and took a supervisory interest . For instance , H believed that her baby sister , in her " heart of hearts , " had wanted kids . This was because H could n't seem to stop having them , until nature put a foot down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> The last time he 'd talked to H was right after she 'd died , before he stopped answering the phone . She 'd asked if she could do anything , which others had also asked . Evidently there was something to be done , but nobody knew what that was . <p> Around this time , casseroles had begun appearing on the porch . Casserole was n't a real word , he 'd looked it up ; it was like naming pie after the pan you cooked it in . <p> So he 'd asked H what to do with all those casseroles . <p> " I 'm sure they mean well , " she 'd said . <p> Now she cut to the chase : " What 's going on up there ? Do n't you ever check your messages ? When 's the service ? Time is marching on , Arnold . " <p> He blinked at the ceiling , imagining E on her featherbed . I had her cremated , he said . <p> " What ? You what ? " <p> Cremated . <p> " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blood relation ? Are you there ? " <p> Cremation was what she wanted , he said . <p> " I knew her before you were even in the picture , and she was terrified of fire . What have you done with my sister ? " <p> Her ashes are on the bookshelf in the den even as we speak . They were still warm when I picked them up from the funeral people . <p> " They were not , do n't say things like that . " <p> A silence . <p> " Are you there ? What about a service ? " <p> She did n't want one . <p> " That tears it . I 'm coming up there . I got an open ticket . " Her voice rumbled on , a locomotive headed down the track . <p> I 'm going away . To Hawaii . On the red-eye . <p> " Hawaii . Now I 've heard everything -- " <p> He held the phone away and thought of E upstairs again , looking peaceful , maybe even amused . <p> H was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ absolute worst . a bookshelf , like a bowling trophy . " <p> Enough . He hung up . <p> Clyde e-mailed asking him bowling . He wondered if this was ESP or simple coincidence , and settled on the latter . Clyde and his wife had bowled forever . <p> Clyde 's wife was small and quiet , Clyde large and bombastic . <p> He enjoyed their banter . He enjoyed the smells of rubber and wood and sweat . He 'd somehow forgotten bowling . Movies , that 's another one . <p> Afterward , they went to a place with Naugahyde booths . Clyde ordered French dip and his wife a Caesar . Suddenly famished , he ordered both . They told him about cats . The shows , the illnesses , the kitty mills . <p> In the parking lot , Clyde said , " How you hanging ? " His wife said , " Yes , how are you doing ? Such a hard thing . " <p> He said he was keeping her and found that to be working . So he did n't forget @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The wife said , " I think it 's the voice you forget . Faces you have pictures of . " <p> That 's a good point , he said . I 've got her on the answering machine . I 'm glad you mentioned it , because I forgot . <p> As soon as he got home , he played her voice on the machine . He 'd almost forgotten that she had such a sweet voice , with a little break in it that was all hers . There were also messages up the yin-yang . Later . For now , he fixed a bowl of Pecan Frenzy and listened again . <p> He fell asleep in the chair , and woke at daylight . The house was very still . He thought of her upstairs all alone , and went up . <p> He was n't sure what he 'd hoped the effect would be after a night apart , but she did n't look real anymore , and the whole scene struck him wrong . <p> He sat on the queen-size and thought of graves . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Photos of the person buried there . They 'd reminded him of stakes with pictures his mother had stuck in garden rows . <p> It was as if a veil had been placed over her face . She also seemed to be sinking . And then he thought , What if she means to . What if was the engine that started the inventions . <p> But his ideas had given them such a good life , it was hard to think another way . He went to bed and slept all morning . <p> He awakened facing her . She had changed again . She was going , that was clear , and he was no more important to her now than air . His throat closed as it had in Bed , Bath and Beyond . <p> He turned away , curled his body , clasping his hands between his knees . He lay until his breathing was regular and his fingers stopped hurting . <p> He sat up and looked at her . That 's it , he said . Do what you have to , Ellie . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ picked up the phone . <p> By Lois Taylor <p> 
##4020267 Roy had a job changing tires and pumping gas two days a week after school at the Flying Horse service station on the corner of Peterson and Western . This was during the winter when he was sixteen . The three other weekday afternoons , and also on Saturdays , he worked at the Red Hot Ranch , a hot dog and hamburger joint . Roy had taken the gas station job in addition to his long-standing employment at the Ranch because his mother had had her hours reduced as a receptionist at Winnemac Hospital . His sister had just begun grammar school and they needed the money . Roy knew that his mother was considering getting married again -- for what would be the fourth time -- as a way to support them , a move he wanted desperately to avert or , at the least , delay . None of his mother 's marriages had been successful , as even she would admit , other than two of them having produced Roy and his little sister . They were her treasures , she assured them ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worthwhile . <p> Domingo and Damaso Parlanchn , two Puerto Rican brothers , owned the Flying Horse . They were good mechanics , originally from San Juan , who had worked for other people for fifteen years and saved their money so that they could buy their own station . They were short , chubby , good-humored men in their forties , constantly chattering to each other in rapid Spanish . The Parlanchn brothers paid Roy a dollar an hour and fifty cents for each tire he changed , half of what it cost the customer . Damaso could patch a flat faster than Roy could get it off the car and back on again , and do it without missing a beat in the running conversation with his brother . Domingo was the better mechanic of the two , the more analytically adept . Damaso was superior at handling the customers , able to convince them they needed an oil change or an upgrade of their tires . <p> It was no fun changing tires in January in Chicago . The temperature often fell well below zero degrees Fahrenheit and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knuckles and cut fingers . Prying loose frozen lug nuts was Roy 's greatest difficulty , until Domingo showed him how to use an acetylene torch to heat the bolts before attempting to turn them with a tire iron . " Cuidado con la lanzallamas , " Domingo told Roy . <p> One snowy afternoon about a quarter to four , just before dark , a black-and-white Buick Century ka-bumped into the station on its rims and stopped . All four tires were flat . Roy could see that they were studded with nails . Two burly men in dark blue overcoats and Homburg hats sat in the front seat . They did not get out , so Roy went over to the driver 's side window and nodded at him . The man rolled down the window . He was about forty-five years old , had a three-day beard and a four inch-long scar across the left side of his lips . The man in the passenger seat looked just like the driver , except for the scar . <p> " How fast fix ? " asked the driver . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , sir , " said Roy . <p> " Not possible fix ? " <p> " I 'll ask my boss , but I doubt it . You 're riding on your rims . We 'll have to check if they 're bent . " <p> " Go ask boss . " <p> Roy trudged through the thick , wet snow to the garage , where Domingo and Damaso were working over a transmission on a 1956 Ford Apache pickup . <p> " There 's a guy here who needs four tires replaced . Looks like he drove over a bed of nails . " <p> " Tell him he can to leave it , " said Damaso . <p> " And coming back at Mete horas , " Domingo added . <p> The wind ripped into Roy 's face when he removed his muffler from around his mouth to convey this information to the driver of the Buick . Roy 's eyes stung ; they watered as he waited for the man to respond . <p> " Can not they fix now ? " <p> " No , " said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> The driver spoke to his companion in a language Roy could not readily identify . The wind whined and shrieked , making it difficult for Roy to hear anything else . <p> " We wait , " the driver told him . " Can fix sooner . " <p> Roy shook his head . " Maybe you 'd better try another station . But you 'll damage your wheels . " <p> The man produced a fifty dollar bill and shoved it at Roy . He held it between two black leather-gloved fingers . " This extra . Okey dokey ? " he said . " You give boss . " <p> Roy accepted the bill , marched back to the garage and handed it to Domingo . <p> " The guy says this is on top of the cost of replacing the tires , if we can do it now . " <p> " Tell him drive in muy despacio , " said Domingo . <p> After the man had done this , following Damaso 's signals to pull up into the other bay and onto the lift , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> " We stay in , " said the driver . <p> " No es posible raise car with you inside . Insurance no good if you fall . " <p> The driver held out another fifty . Damaso took it . He nodded to Domingo , who activated the lift . <p> " Lock doors ! " Damaso shouted up at the men . " And no move ! " <p> Roy pumped gas for several customers while the Parlanchn brothers worked on the Buick . The sky had gone dark and snow kept falling . Before the Buick pulled out of the station on four new Bridgestones , it stopped next to Roy . The driver rolled down his window . <p> " Yes , sir ? " said Roy . " Is everything okay ? " <p> " All okey dokey , " replied the driver . " You young boy , work hard bad weather . How much Spanish men pay you ? " <p> " Buck an hour and two bits a flat . " <p> " Slave wage , " said the man . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extended toward Roy his black gloved left hand between two fingers of which protruded another fifty-dollar bill . Roy took the money and stuffed it into one of the snap pockets of his brown leather jacket . <p> " Thank you , " he said . " Where are you guys from ? " <p> " You know Iron Curtain ? " <p> " I 've heard of it . " <p> " We are from behind . " <p> After the Buick had gone , Roy went into the garage . <p> " Strange hombres , si ? " said Domingo . <p> " The driver gave me a tip , " Roy told him . " I do n't know why , though . " <p> " He give us a hundred extra , " said Damaso . <p> " The Buick had diplomatic license plates , " Roy said . " They 're Russians , I think . " <p> " Must be they are trying to be more friendly , " Domingo suggested , " since they been forced to take missiles out of Cuba . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mother had had a boyfriend from Havana , a conga drummer named Raul Repilado . She had met him in Coral Gables , Florida , when she and her third husband , Sid Wade , the father of Roy 's sister , were vacationing at the Biltmore . Raul Repilado 's band , the Orquesta Furioso , was appearing at the hotel . Raul had come to Chicago a couple of times to see Roy 's mother , the last time during the winter . Before leaving , the conguero declared that he would never come back to such a terribly cold place , even for a beautiful woman . Roy could n't wait to tell his mother that he 'd made an extra fifty bucks that day . <p> By Barry Gifford <p> 
##4020269 Section : Up Front ABSTINENCE-ONLY ABSURDITY GLOBAL SEX/PRESS FREEDOM/THE RISE OF UNCERTAINTY SEEN AND HEARD ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS REPORT CLASSIC HUMANIST <p> IN LATE OCTOBER 2006 New Jersey became the fourth state to reject federal funding for sex education programs . -hanks to Bush administration mandates , accepting the federal money would have required the state to abandon its existing comprehensive sex-ed curriculum , and instead rely exclusively on abstinence-only programs . But though New Jersey 's decision and similar ones by California , Connecticut , and Maine are encouraging , not every state has the luxury of turning down federal dollars . And that 's bad news for those concerned about reproductive health . <p> While the U.S. government will spend over $241 million in federal funding on abstinence-only programs in 2007 , there 's good reason to doubt the effectiveness of the Bush administration 's preferred approach . A recent General Accountability Office study concluded that abstinence-only programs suffer from a lack of oversight and found little evidence that they succeed at preventing teen pregnancy . Another study , released in 2004 by Rep. Henry Waxman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abstinence-only curricula supported by the Department of Health &; Human Services ( HHS ) contained false , misleading , or distorted information about abortion , contraception , and gender roles , and routinely presented religious beliefs as scientific fact . The results of the Bush administration 's promotion of abstinence-only curricula speak for themselves : the nation 's teen birth rate , teen pregnancy rate , and abortion rate all remain the highest in the industrialized world . <p> A closer look at the abstinence-only programs that have received federal funding suggests further cause for concern . In 2004 the HHS Capital Compassion Fund announced over $58 million in grants to " grass-roots , faith-based " organizations , including groups like Catholic Charities of Kansas City and Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska . Among the many examples of abstinence-only programs being run with federal dollars by groups with explicitly religious missions is the Silver Ring Thing ( SRT ) . SRT -- which urges teens to pledge to refrain from sex until marriage and to make a public show of their commitment by wearing a symbolic silver ring -- is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ company , the John Guest Evangelistic Team , works , according to its website , " to communicate the message of Jesus Christ to the unchurched through creative , media-based and one-on-one evangelism . " <p> A review of other abstinence-only sex-ed programs only further reinforces the religious undertones being utilized in public schools . The Why kNOw ? program directly paraphrases 1 Corinthians 13:4 to describe the true meaning of love : " Real Love is patient ; is kind ; does not envy ; does not boast ; is not proud ; is not rude ; is not self-seeking ; is not easily angered ; keeps no record of wrongs ; does not delight in evil ; rejoices with the truth ; always protects ; always trusts ; always hopes ; always lasts ; and never fails . " Why kNOw ? also quotes the Song of Songs as a " historical book " and states that " though the origin of the name ' French Kissing ' is unknown , King Solomon should take credit for the act . " The curriculum also places heavy emphasis on studying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ students plan their own weddings , complete with details on which flowers they would use , who would be in their bridal party , and , of course , which ( heterosexual , virginal ) person they would wed . The program teaches youth that the traditional lifting of the veil shows that " the groom is the only man allowed to ' uncover ' the bride , " and demonstrates her respect for him by illustrating that she has n't " allowed any other man to lay claim to her . " <p> Promoting marriage and discouraging premarital sex through fear and false information remains a benchmark of abstinence-only sex education . The Heritage Keepers program repeatedly cites research suggesting that married people have better sex -- and many of these statistics are attributed to Glenn T. Stanton , director of global insight for cultural and family renewal and senior analyst of marriage and sexuality at Focus on the Family . <p> The WAIT ( Why Am I Tempted ? ) Training program also depends heavily on moralistic , pro-marriage information to promote abstinence . The WAIT curriculum includes a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tape , symbolizing a woman , on a man 's arm to show that after several " uses " ( sexual acts or partners ) the tape is less clean and perfect . Finally , the teacher is instructed to attach the tape to another male volunteer and ask , " If this process gets repeated too many times , do you think it will affect this person 's marriage ? " <p> Such games are n't unique . Why kNOw ? includes a game that compares a stuffed animal named " Speedy the Sperm , " which represents a sperm cell , and a penny , used to symbolize HIV . By this reasoning , students are meant to see that if a condom fails 14 percent of the time with something as big as Speedy , it clearly can not effectively prevent the spread of HIV -- which is a thousandth of the size . Despite repeated and conclusive evidence showing that condoms available in the United States do n't have holes ( if they do , the entire batch is discarded ) , and that the real reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why kNOw ? continues to teach youth that condoms are useless , apparently believing that this will discourage them from having sex . Predictably , research suggests that young people who believe condoms do n't work simply use protection less often -- they do n't engage in sex at a lesser rate . <p> Clearly , we do our young people a great disservice by continuing to use such misleading and dangerous curricula . The Bush administration 's reliance on abstinence-only sex ed confronts advocates of a more comprehensive ( and effective ) approach with a strategic challenge : How can we promote healthy sex education without being viewed as morally deficient ? Like it or not , many parents remain anxious that comprehensive sex ed takes what they view as one of their most sensitive parenting tasks out of their hands , and puts it into those of teachers and administrators whom they may not trust . Even the most widely effective and highly promoted comprehensive sex-ed programs , such as " Making Proud Choices " and " Draw the Line/Respect the Line , " still include decision-making skills that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to teach their children themselves . Public health educators must find a way to maintain or at least respect parental control and personal choice while stressing the need to provide effective factual information to teens . <p> By Heidi Bruggink <p> <p> Heidi Bruggink holds a B.A. from Harvard University and is the legal coordinator for the Appignani Humanist Legal Center in Washington DC . <p> 
##4020270 THE UNITED NATION 'S HIGH-LEVEL Group for the Alliance of Civilizations recently issued its final report , which included ambitious and important recommendations to bridge the divide between Western nations and the Muslim world . The group 's twenty eminent members were brought together by Secretary General Kofi Annan and included the former president of Iran , Seyed Mohamed Khatami ; Archbishop Desmond Tutu ; and Andr ' Azoulay , advisor to King Mohammed VI of Morocco . <p> The recommendations of the High Level Group form a holistic approach to alleviating global inequalities and bridging the Western-Islamic rift . Recommendations include : education that expands a sense of a common humanity , media literacy skills , and empowering initiatives directed towards youth and other groups ; international exchanges with diverse participation ; measures that address the challenges of migration ; and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals , " the urgency of which can hardly be overstated . " ( The report also notes that without a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , the horrible violence in Iraq , and intensifying violence in Afghanistan , efforts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only limited success . " ) <p> The Alliance report describes-highly progressive measures involving education and youth . In essence , the measures fully support the pursuit and understanding of one 's own religious , ethnic , and national identity , coupled with knowledge and respect for cultural diversity in the world . To achieve this balance , a range of initiatives and programs are suggested . For example , multipolar perspectives at universities and research centers are encouraged , including courses such as " world history " and " history of humanity " Also , just as the Millennium Development Goals call for , the report strongly recommends expanding access to education , particularly in developing countries and for girls who , more often than boys , are pulled out of school due to factors of poverty . <p> The Alliance group additionally suggests that service-learning programs should be connected whenever possible to degree and certificate programs . Pedagogically , we know that most of us learn by doing , and service learning allows people to thoughtfully address serious social challenges that afflict communities . Such programs have been shown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the communities that benefit . The experiences can be transformative for youth , giving them a better sense of what they wish to dedicate themselves to in the future and opening them up to the lives and trials of other people . For communities , service-learning programs are often the catalyst for positive and collaborative social action . <p> This leads to another important recommendation in the report , which is to involve our youth in decision-making processes in " community councils , youth organizations and governing bodies of civil society organizations and institutions " The report states that , " youth unemployment is two to three times greater than national unemployment levels worldwide . " The economic participation of youth involves teens beginning to work part-time and during summers to have the opportunity to develop practical skills that can enhance their futures . School-based career guidance and assistance to youth enterprises , for example , can help promote youth employment . Globally , the Middle East and North African region have the lowest rate of youth employment ( 40 percent versus 54 percent worldwide ) . There is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in their communities so they can express their innovative and helpful ideas and develop the means to achieve them . In essence , young people need to feel a real stake in their communities so that they can be productive contributors and partners in the Alliance of Civilizations , and incorporating them in decision-making processes is necessary for this to be achieved . <p> I suggest that the participation of local communities , including youth , in the identification and management of development projects throughout the Muslim world , which is an approach consistent with the Millennium Development Goals and the recommendation of the Alliance , will significantly decrease the divide with the West . Participation in community development involves all members of villages , neighborhoods , and regions , who together define their priorities for projects ( in education , health , economic development , environment , and other areas ) and a plan of action to achieve them . <p> Participatory activities are often utilized to help local people analyze and discuss their social conditions from a range of perspectives as part of the decision-making process for projects . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a group of citizens working towards social change in their community engaged in a series of development planning activities that incorporated the use of visuals , charts , and mapping . They determined that a community center for their youth was the most important goal and are currently taking important steps toward its construction . In the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco , local communities most often rank potable water , irrigation , and projects for women and youth to be among the top development priorities . <p> Participation in community development responds directly to the " guiding principles " expressed in the Alliance report : " Poverty leads to despair , a sense of injustice , and alienation that , when combined with political grievances , can foster extremism . Eradication of poverty would diminish those factors linked to economic marginalization and alienation and must therefore be aggressively pursued . " Communities planning local development in a participatory way base projects on the self-described interests of the local people , which works against alienation . The fact that communities determine and have ownership of the projects provides the basis for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and environmental benefits in extremely diverse contexts . <p> The participatory approach likewise takes the form of democratic governance that the Alliance encourages : " To be successful , democratic systems must emerge organically from within each society 's culture , reflecting its shared values and adapted to the needs and interests of its citizens . This is only possible when people are free and feel in control of their destiny ? ' The participatory process is democracy that emerges from within because it grows from dialogue and interaction among local community members and is driven by their own needs and interests . <p> Participatory community development also relates to observations in the report of the impact of the international system on diverse nations and cultures , as well as internal factors in Muslim societies that inhibit development . Many feel , the report states , that the " international system offers greater conformity and homogenization of cultures , complete with the dislocation of families and communities brought about by urbanization , the negation or appropriation of traditional lifestyles , and environmental degradation . " We have learned from experiences around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and uneven effects of globalization is diversification of production and income . Diversification requires new development projects and building decision-making skills of people and communities to better enable them to adapt to changing conditions . Participatory activities help people base their decisions on a range of perspectives and information , leading to development projects that are thoughtfully designed and expand the ways human needs are satisfied . <p> The Alliance report contends that , " all Muslim societies would benefit from increased dialogue and debate to identify those factors internal to their own societies which have inhibited their development and full integration into global political , economic , and intellectual communities , and to generate ideas on how to overcome these barriers . " Participatory development can help in this regard because as community members determine priority projects , they analyze social , economic , environmental , historical , technical , and institutional factors that affect their lives and prospective projects . Not only does this analysis and dialogue further public understanding of internal barriers , but is in itself an indigenous democratic reform process that helps to overcome those barriers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stresses civic and human rights education and a movement away from thinking in exclusive terms . Participation in community development advances this kind of education for diverse communities as they create and pursue a common agenda for social development and change . If facilitated throughout the Muslim world , its effect can be a true alliance of civilizations . Seen and Heard <p> " This book IS for corporate America . " -E.O . Wilson at the Washington National Cathedral , responding to the question , " When will you write a book like The Creationfor corporate America ? " 9/20/06 <p> <p> We do n't make peace with our friends ; we make peace with our enemies . And you ca n't deliver the message without talking . " - Madeleine Albright addressing the Woman 's National Democratic Club . 9/26/06 <p> <p> " Darwin matters because evolution matters . Evolution matters because science matters . Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age , an epic saga about who we are , where we came from , and where we are going . " -Michael Shermer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Case Against Intelligent Design , at the Cato Institute . 10/12/06 <p> <p> " Technically I 'm agnostic about God , but in the same way that I 'm agnostic about fairies and pink unicorns . " -Richard Dawkins at Politics &; Prose bookstore in Washington , DC. 10/24/06 <p> <p> By Jason Yossef Ben-Meir <p> <p> Jason Yossef Ben-Meir is president of the High Atlas Foundation ( **27;1345;TOOLONG ) , a U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to the rural community development of Morocco . He teaches sociology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque . <p> 
##4021962 It is essential for graphic designers , especially high school technology education students , to understand why and how to effectively transform data into graphics to both engage the viewer and communicate information.Introduction Design is a hot area in communications technology , but can students effectively communicate the graphic design they create ? In particular , learning to communicate through graphic representations is essential for technology education students . Jacques Bertin ( 1983 ) argued the case that graphics , through scientific visualization and information design , can be a powerful communication tool . Graphic communication falls into its own area , separate from mathematics , musical , and verbal communications . Understanding the nature of graphic communication--a form of communication that is both atemporal and spatial--forms one of the key foundations for communicating scientific and technical information . It is essential for graphic designers , especially high school technology education students , to understand why and how to effectively transform data into graphics to both engage the viewer and communicate information . Communication technology is an important area in technology education when preparing students for twenty-first century @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world of communications means learners know how to create , print , and present graphics . A crucial part of this process is effectively encoding information in a graphic form . Understanding how cognitive and perceptual processes influence how we interpret graphics is a part of this literacy . Being aware of the cognitive principles underlying visual perception is beneficial to students when designing graphics ( Haber &; Wilkinson , 1982 ) . Visual perception has a close relation to human memory and establishment of association . The cognitive architectures and processes that determine levels of association of how information is managed by the brain are important . The mind is neither a camera nor a computer , and visual perceptual knowledge is a valuable source of information to strengthen design . One of the important findings from cognitive and perceptual research is how we process and understand color . Three color models are most commonly used in the production of graphics : red , green , blue ( RGB ) ; cyan , magenta , yellow , and black ( CMYK ) ; and hue , saturation , and value @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color model that comes closest to mimicking how humans perceive color . A ninth grade student comparing HSV to the other color systems is likely to say it 's easier to know what the end result of a color change will be when using this model . The VisTE project at North Carolina State University ( Clark &; Wiebe , 2005 ; Wiebe , et al. , 2006 , 2007 ) has focused on creating units for middle and high school students that use graphics to communicate concepts in math , science , and technology . This project used Standards for Technological Literacy ( STL ) ( ITEA , 2000/2002/2007 ) as a guide to develop activities that helped students learn how to effectively communicate with graphics . A number of the VisTE activities focus on understanding how to effectively use color models like hue , saturation , and value ( HSV ) . Comparing properties of color through various color models and how graphic communication problems can be solved through color helps teach students to look beneath the surface of a graphic and strengthen their skills in communications . These @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- Standard 10 . Students will develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting , research and development , invention and innovation , and experimentation in problem solving . -- Standard 17 . Students will develop an understanding of and be able to select and use information and communication technologies . That is , students will engage their knowledge of the cognitive and perceptual properties of color and the technology used to produce color graphics to problem-solve ways of communicating information graphically . The following example project extends these principles and looks at how color knowledge can be developed in the communications technology classroom.Project Overview A student once commented upon completion of a project that what was seen on the screen was not what he saw on the printed page : " Everything changed . " What happened ? Students often discuss how the colors on the screen are not always what appear on paper . What does this mean ? Are n't the colors on the screen the same as the colors from the printer ? What would cause a difference ? Color is a very important part of design @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ class is essential to communicate true images and products . Color is a powerful element that " can draw attention and produce a strong emotional and psychological impact , " ( Prust , 1999 ) . In this activity , students are going to learn how to generate a consistent image throughout the production process . Assessing the image from the monitor to the printer is key to learning how to effectively communicate the intended message . To accomplish this task , establishing a basic understanding of calibrating color through visual perception is needed . Part of this process is understanding " the difference between various color systems . " As Armstrong ( 2004 ) states , " Monitors , scanners , digital cameras , etc. deal in visible light , " RGB ( red , green , and blue ) , and should not to be confused with the standard primary colors : red , yellow , and blue . RGB color is called additive because it is created by adding varying intensities of red , green , and blue light to black ( on a computer screen this equals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vary from 255 ( full intensity ) to 0 . If each color channel has 256 variations of red , green , and blue , then over 16 million different colors are possible from these combinations . This range of possible colors comes close to describing all possible visible light colors . In fact , most RGB color-generating technologies ( e.g. , computer monitors ) can only display a subset of these colors , called a color gamut . Printing , on the other hand , deals in light reflected off of or through inks , which creates a narrower color gamut . CMYK colors are secondary , opposite colors of RGB . Cyan absorbs red light , magenta absorbs green light , yellow absorbs blue light , and black ( K ) controls the overall level of light absorption . The degree of absorption varies on the amount of CMYK colors that are visible . CMYK is known as subtractive because the colors displayed are the result of subtracting varying amounts of red , green , and blue light . The range for RGB is a bit different than CMYK @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visible light color gamut . In addition , the conversion from RGB color to CMYK color and vice versa is not exact . This is because neither color system is based directly on how humans perceive color . This information brings about the question , " How does one get the version of the image from the monitor and the one from the printer to match ? " The answer is plain and simple : iterative adjustment . Within the realm of colors is another system of color commonly seen in a graphics software color picker ( method for choosing image color using a tool that looks like an eye dropper ) : HSV . HSV ( hue , saturation , and value ) is the system that comes closest to how we " see " and compare colors . One freshman student alluded in a class conversation that it is an easier model to understand because one can compare and relate to it ; the colors are true to how he sees them . Hue is the rainbow aspect of color , explaining where a specific color lies on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a circle where the starting and ending color is red . Red is at 0 degrees , yellow is at 60 degrees clockwise with green , cyan , blue , magenta , and red again . Saturation describes how pure a color is . If a color seems to have no gray in it , then it is said to be highly saturated . The more gray present in a color , the less saturated it is . The value goes from 0 , neutral , straight gray color , to 100 , strong , pure color . Value is brightness , lightness , or intensity--in other words , how much light is coming from the color.Description of Lesson At our high school , students learn about visual perception and the changes between RGB , CMYK , and HSV color systems through a series of lessons leading up to a cumulative project . Students use the lessons to gain an understanding of color calibration ( refining colors to be true between monitor and printer ) and visual perception and to apply these lessons to a final project . Students are first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at monitor and printer images . Students discuss the meaning of HSV and use it to describe the differences between colors on screen versus the printed versions . For the final project , students begin by scanning a headshot photograph . Once the image is scanned , students place the image into an illustration program and begin working . Using various tools in the program , students create a two-dimensional , vector-based image similar to the underlying photograph . Rather than having a bitmap image where every pixel is a different color , the vector-based illustration program creates regions of solid color . This process is often called posterization and requires students to visually interpret the color they are seeing in a region in the photograph and pick a single color that represents the collective perception of this region of pixels . Posterization is , in a way , a scaffolding technique that limits the number of colors and regions in the graphic that the student needs to analyze . Therefore , the student is able to focus on both the essential characteristics of a single color , comparisons of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collective impact of all of the colors in the image or region . When done , students print a first draft of their re-creation of the photo . The next step is to adjust colors with the HSV color model . Using the HSV scale to adjust color is an efficient way of managing colors for the projects in this class . The colors used in HSV can be clearly defined by human perception , which is not always the case with RGB or CMYK . Matching and sharing colors can easily be done in most medium to high-end graphics software packages . When working with the illustration software , the knowledge of color calibration is invaluable . The instructor needs to show students how to use bars of color , known as test strips , in the margins when experimenting with colors . These test strips represent systematic shifts in hue , saturation , value , or a combination of these scales . They provide benchmarks against which students can adjust their colors . A test strip allows the user to more easily see variations in hue , saturation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a range of colors quickly ( like a paint swatch or package of crayons ) without needing to continually print to achieve the perfect color . Test strips leverage perceptual and cognitive limitations of human vision by presenting groups of color simultaneously in the field of view . In this way one does n't have to hold a color in memory and compare it to a different color at some later point in time . It also does n't require an individual to mentally transform a color from a numeric value in a color model specification dialogue box into a visual image of the color . By systematically making single adjustments , like hue only , students can focus on the perceptual impact of small shifts in color and understand the differential effects of shifting each of the three different qualities of color : hue , saturation , and value . By and large , this process is the most direct way for students to be able to effectively communicate using the language of color.Assessment Assessments are done informally and formally throughout the entire lesson . Informal assessment through observation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the material . Peer , self , and teacher observations are used in the lesson . Peer evaluation is done almost daily through casual conversation and questioning . Students are to casually ask each other questions , such as how to use a tool or opinions on the look of an object . Teacher observations are also used to evaluate student progression . Walking around the room and being easily accessible creates a comfortable learning environment . Deadlines are another informal type of assessment as students are asked to print what is currently on the screen . Deadlines allow student designers and instructors to see the status of a project . Formal assessments are more detailed and typically involve a grade . For this lesson , printing the portrait project created in the illustration software generates an artifact for formal assessment . When printed , it is easy to assess color calibration through the hair , eye , and skin color in the illustration . This evaluation is guided by the rubric provided at the beginning of the project ( see Figure 1 ) . The rubric outlines a structured checklist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also , presentations are a type of assessment since they are graded as noted in the rubric . The presentation also provides the student designer time to explain how hue , saturation , and value calibration were achieved throughout the process of creating the illustration.Project Conclusion This lesson was designed to investigate color using HSV and better understand how we use graphic technologies guided by our perception of color to effectively communicate the intended message . Students build upon their cumulative knowledge and previous experience to develop their ability to describe , interpret , evaluate , respond , and produce . Learning the HSV color system along with the use of color strips is an effective and informative problem-solving method to make iterative adjustments to color when working on graphic communication projects . By the end of this lesson , students are expected to understand the relationship between the three components of the HSV color model in order to accurately calibrate color , produce test strips , and create a final product . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Figure 1 . Rubric for final project.References 
##4022051 Dropsy is an old word for an older problem . Afflicted , you begin to swell--first your ankles , then your legs . Walking gets difficult , even sitting becomes painful . Then the swelling gets so bad your skin splits open . The commonest cause is heart failure . Think of the revolving door of an office building . As the door gets older it turns more slowly . Eventually people have to queue , spilling out onto the street . As your heart gets feebler , your blood queues up in the same way . Under that pressure , your veins leak fluid , which builds up between cells , pooling wherever gravity directs . Because we have a double circulation system , there 's a double problem . Unable to get into a weakly pumping right ventricle , ready to go to the lungs , deoxygenated blood backs up in your extremities , and fluid collects in your tissues . You swell from the feet upwards . And instead of being pumped out to the body from your left ventricle , oxygenated blood backs up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spaces where air should be . You get breathless . Doctors used to try to relieve dropsy , which today we call edema , by making holes in people 's bloated legs to let the fluid out . That could help , a little . Anything that reduced the amount of fluid in your body , even leeches and bloodletting , could make you feel better . Welcome to the world of medicine that Dr. William Withering knew in the late eighteenth century , a scintillatingly brilliant time that crackled with new discoveries , political revolutions , and the excitement generated by the birth of the Enlightenment . Yet Withering lacked the charisma of his era . He was raised in a medical family in Shropshire , England , in 1741 , and after four years ' apprenticeship to a local physician , he went to Edinburgh to get his degree . There were the typical diversions : he golfed , published bad poetry , and learned to play the bagpipes . He loathed , in particular , the botany he was forced to study . Nevertheless , he completed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hospitals around Europe . Unfortunately , Withering 's trip ended early . His traveling companion , a healthy young man of his own age , developed a skin infection in Paris . " An abscess grew upon his shoulder , a fever came on , the wound gangren 'd and yesterday he died , " wrote Withering , who lived in a time when death came suddenly and doctors were impotent . IN 1767 WITHERING began to practice . One of his first patients was seventeen-year-old Helena Cooke . She liked drawing flowers . While she lay sick in bed , Withering scoured the countryside to find her fresh subjects , apparently moved by her charms to overcome his antipathy toward botany . It turned out to be the start of two lifelong relationships : Withering married his patient and acquired a lasting fondness for plants . In 1775 worldly opportunity called on the young couple , arriving in the overwhelming shape of Erasmus Darwin , pockmarked , rotten-toothed , and enormous . He had as great an appetite for food and free love as for science and verse . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his poetry about the sex lives of plants , he is best known these days for his grandson Charles . ) Darwin recognized the young Withering 's intellect and helped him secure the position of town physician for Birmingham . Combined with Darwin 's friendship , the post brought membership in a remarkable club : the Lunar Society , named for its habit of meeting at full moons to make traveling home safer . The Lunaticks , as they called themselves , men like Matthew Boulton , Joseph Priestley , and Josiah Wedgwood , were the leading British scientists and entrepreneurs of the day . While his friends manufactured Britain 's industrial revolution , Withering lived conservatively . His son described him as methodical , known more for " steady sense and correct judgement than for the flights of fancy or the eccentricities of genius . " His letters are fabulously dreary . But for all his lack of glitter , Withering was sharply observant . When his opportunity for major discovery came , he jumped : Engraving of Dr. William Withering made in 1801 , two years after his death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerning a family receipt for the cure of the dropsy . I was told that it had long been kept a secret by an old woman in Shropshire , who had sometimes made cures after the more regular practitioners had failed . This medicine was composed of twenty or more different herbs ; but it was not very difficult for one conversant in these subjects to perceive that the active herb could be no other than the Foxglove . ANY OF SOME TWENTY PLANTS in the genus Digitalis , foxglove had been used as a medicine by hosts of people , from ancient Greeks to medieval Welsh . During the Middle Ages in Western Europe , it was believed to cure a whole range of diseases for which it is actually useless . In the mid-1600s , for example , the herbalist Nicholas Culpeper recommended foxglove for treating epilepsy . It does n't . Foxglove . also had obvious problems . In the sixteenth century , a botanically misguided Dutch chef fed his guests a foxglove omelette . Their consequent diarrhea and vomiting were a good demonstration of the plant 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you die . In the seventeenth century , forty years before Withering , a Frenchman investigated foxglove 's effects on a turkey . " He did not attempt to perch , " ran his poignant report on the poultry , " he uttered plaintive cries . " The bird stumbled drunkenly for a few days , refused to eat , and died . At medical school I was taught the blunt truth that only inactive drugs are without side effects . Taking a pill is like thumping the side of a misbehaving television : you might bang the right piece into place , but you might make things worse . Withering knew this ( minus the television analogy ) , worrying that " the lives of men " could be " hazarded " by his new drug . His understanding of medical science evoked the modernity of the Lunar Society . It was not enough , he realized , to compile only encouraging stories . It would have been an easy task to have given select cases , whose successful treatment would have spoken strongly in favour of the medicine , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Truth and Science would condemn the procedure . I have therefore mentioned every case in which I have prescribed the Foxglove , proper or improper , successful or otherwise . Altogether Withering wrote up 163 cases of dropsy in which he used the plant , and the majority of those patients ( no doubt the ones whose dropsy was caused by heart failure ) got better . Swollen legs reduced in size , breathing was eased . Noting that patients produced copious amounts of urine as they began to improve , Withering suspected that digitalis extract worked as a diuretic , causing excess fluid to be lost as urine and so reducing the amount of work the heart needed to do . " It charms the shape less monster into man , " Erasmus Darwin wrote in his poem about it . Praise even came from the other side of the world : a physician from New Hampshire wrote congratulating Withering and asking for help in seeding the flower in America . In 1790 , with the Revolution raging in France , Withering diagnosed himself with tuberculosis . Over the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friend was struck by how weak he became : " The flower of English physicians is indeed withering . " ( Medicine has progressed over the centuries , but puns are as bad as ever . ) In October 1799 he died . His memorial tablet was carved with a plant of the genus Witheringia on one side and , separated by a terrifically bad poem , a foxglove on the other . Hand-colored illustration of a foxglove species , Digitalis purpurea , drawn by James Sowerby . It appeared in the six-volume collection Flora Londinensis , published in the/ate eighteenth century--around the time of Withering 's experiments with foxglove as a human drug . HEARTS ARE WELL EVOLVED , but not miraculous . That means compromise and ultimate failure . Let 's say that you hope to manufacture something with a lifetime guarantee , a watch , for example ; you would engineer it to last a hundred-odd years , not a thousand . Evolution is equally careful about not wasting resources . Therefore no body part outlasts the rest , or not by much . Even our solid skeleton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medicine follows a similar aim , hoping to keep any organ from failing too far ahead of the rest , thus extending our healthy lives and compressing our decay into the fewest possible days . The heart , however , often proves difficult to save , as muscle cells do n't divide--at least , not abundantly enough to regenerate healthy tissue . If you exercise them , heart muscle cells might get bigger , but few or no new ones will be made . So as you age , they can die off gradually--particularly under the stress of high blood pressure , diabetes , or coronary artery disease--or , in the case of a heart attack , die off suddenly and potentially catastrophically . Either way , the heart never grows back . Foxglove--or digitalis , as the pharmaceutical compounds derived from it are commonly called--works not by directly causing increased urination , as Withering thought , but by making the heart beat more strongly and efficiently . The trouble is , drugs that increase the strength of the heart 's beats do n't make it grow new muscle ; they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any coach will tell you that if you push any athlete too far , you risk collapse . When an aging heart fails and begins to pump less blood , our bodies make a mistake . They notice the reduced flow , but presume we 're bleeding or dehydrated . Evolutionarily , surviving blood loss and dehydration is more critical than extending old age . So , when the body detects a lack of blood flow , it assumes that a lack of blood is to blame . In response we get thirsty and our kidneys reduce urine output . By drinking more and peeing less , our bodies compensate for a loss of fluid that has not occurred--as a result , we end up with too much . Having to pump more fluid is exactly what a failing heart needs least . Withering correctly observed that digitalis made people feel better , yet could it have been killing them just the same ? Neither Withering nor anyone long after him took a systematic look . In 1997 , nearly two centuries after Withering 's death , a medical trial came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allocated to digitalis or a placebo for more than three years . The results : for every thirty-nine people taking digitalis for a year , one avoided a hospital admission . The effect on mortality ? Zero . Digitalis is neither the lifesaver people had imagined nor the killer some suspected . IT HAS TAKEN TWO CENTURIES TO go from hailing digitalis as a miracle cure to wondering if using it makes any sense at all . Some doctors feel that the harms are hardly worth the benefits . Others continue to prescribe it liberally , as though it really is a lifesaver . Yet for certain patients , digitalis remains modestly effective , making them feel and function better than any razzle-dazzle new synthetic drug . And that , even if they do n't live longer , is no small thing . Dropsy Courting Consumption is the title that artist Thomas Rowlandson gave to this illustration , published in 1810 . The corpulent man on bended knees could have been among the many who suffered from heart problems ; his body contrasts with the shapely statue of Hercules in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resident and a tutor at the University of Oxford . His first book , Digging Up the Dead ( 2007 ) , profiles the pioneering surgeon , body snatcher , and revolutionary democrat Astley Cooper , who incidentally trained John Keats as a surgeon . Burch lives in a village in the Cotswalds with eight ducks and 500 of his countrymen . 
##4022179 The downfall of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago gave mammals an incredible opening , and they ran for it , rapidly becoming the dominant land vertebrates . Among those to emerge were the earliest carnivorans ( members of the order Carnivora ) , whose living representatives include the cats and closely allied families , such as hyenas and mongooses , as well as dogs and closely allied families , such as bears , weasels , and seals . As their name implies , most carnivorans eat meat , and even those that are n't carnivorous--such as the giant panda--can be recognized by the last upper premolar and first lower molar on each side of the mouth . Those teeth are specially adapted for shearing , and are known as carnassials . Only in some species , such as seals and sea lions , have the carnassials evolved into simpler forms . Back when mammals got their big break--during the Paleocene epoch , which lasted ten million years--conditions around the globe were warm and humid . And the epoch that followed , the Eocene , was marked by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were quite hospitable to life . Surging into prominence , flowering plants diversified and created lush forests all over the Earth . In North America , where tree canopies sheltered a growing number of primates and other forest-dwelling mammals , the earliest carnivorans arose . From there they spread to Eurasia , over land bridges that then existed to Europe or near the present-day Bering Strait . Mostly the size of small foxes , or smaller , the carnivorans were adapted to life in and around trees , probably preying on invertebrates and small vertebrates . They lived in the shadow of the generally much larger hyaenodonts , a group of mammalian predators that had come on the scene earlier but which later became extinct . When did the carnivorans split into their catlike and doglike divisions ? No one knows exactly ; it may have been 50 million years ago or even earlier . By 40 million years ago , however , the first clearly identifiable member of the dog family itself , the Canidae , had arisen in what is now southwestern Texas . Named Prohesperocyon wilsoni , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it as a canid . Fittingly enough , these include features of the teeth--including the loss of the upper third molars , part of a general trend toward a more shearing bite--along with a characteristically enlarged bony bulla , the rounded covering over the middle ear . Based on what we know about its descendants , Prohesperocyon likely had slightly more elongated limbs than its predecessors , along with toes that were parallel and closely touching , rather than splayed , as in bears . In an artist 's reconstruction of a savanna in western North America about 15 million years ago , a pack of Aelurodon ferox ( in the canid subfamily Borophaginae ) pursues a three-toed horse of the genus Neohipparion . In such an open landscape , both predator and prey were driven to evolve stamina and speed . The dog family thrived on such limb adaptations , which helped support a cursorial , or running , lifestyle in response to a changing environment . And none too soon , for the subsequent epoch , the Oligocene , between 34 million and 23 million years ago , started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Antarctic continent for the first time , while in mid-latitude North America , conditions became progressively dryer and seasonal variations more pronounced . The lush , moist forests of the late Eocene gave way to dry woodlands and then to wooded grasslands , with large areas of open grassland developing by 30 million years ago . Mammalian herbivores began to evolve teeth adapted to eating grass ( so-called high-crowned teeth , which continue to erupt as the chewing surfaces are worn down ) . For both predators and prey , the ability to run and survive in an open , exposed landscape became crucial . To a large extent , the history of the dog family is a story of how a group of cursorial predators evolved , through speed and intelligence , to catch changing prey in a changing landscape . The canids are one of three modern families of carnivorans notable for including top predators , species capable of hunting down prey several times their own size . The other two are the cat family ( the felids ) and the hyena family ( the hyaenids ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a body-size threshold of around forty-five pounds beyond which a mammalian predator must begin to tackle larger prey in order to get enough energy . Chris Carbone , a senior research fellow in biodiversity and macroecology , and colleagues at the Institute of Zoology , the research division of the Zoological Society of London , have suggested that small predators can sustain themselves on invertebrates and small vertebrates because of their low absolute energy requirements . Soon after its beginnings 40 million years ago , the dog family ( Canidae ) diverged into three main subfamilies , each of which dominated in turn . The figure illustrates major branching points , with the width of each lineage representing its species diversity through time . All three subfamilies coexisted for a long time . Two ( the Hesperocyoninae and the Borophaginae ) became extinct in turn , but the Caninae , with thirty-six species , is going strong . ( Portraits of the selected species shown above are not drawn to the same scale . ) In 1871 , pioneer vertebrate paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope formulated the principle that in animals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sizes . With the help of our colleagues Blaire Van Valkenburgh , a functional morphologist at the University of California at Los Angeles , and John Damuth , a biostatistician at the University of California , Santa Barbara , we have examined the canid fossil record with that idea in mind . We have concluded that , indeed , larger and larger species have repeatedly evolved in many lineages . Consequently , many species have independently passed the threshold where they needed to take down large prey . Features of their jaws and teeth show that the larger canid species have also tended to become hypercarnivorous , that is , more purely meat-eating . The cat family and the hyena family similarly evolved hypercarnivorous top predators . ( One might think the bear family , the ursids , should be added to this list , but only the polar bear is hypercarnivorous , and it is a rather atypical member of the family . Most bears are omnivores . ) It 's only a slight oversimplification to say that felids almost invariably approach their prey in stealth and try to pounce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contrast , have a decidedly different tactic , one suited to their ancestors ' lifestyle on the open plains . In that setting , surprise attack is seldom achieved ; it is less important to subdue the prey in the shortest possible time than to outrun and exhaust the quarry . Lacking retractable claws , a powerful weapon for most felids , canids rely more on social hunting when sheer numbers and coordinated hunting strategies rather than sophisticated weaponry to overwhelm them . Hyaenids are more closely related to cats , yet they more strongly resemble canids , both behaviorally and anatomically . They kill their prey by consuming them alive , rather than by delivering a killing bite on the neck as felids do . They too are persistent pursuers rather than stalkers that ambush prey , and they tend to be highly social hunters . The similarities are a good example of convergent evolution , an understandable outcome when one realizes that for much of their evolutionary history , the two groups were not direct competitors but were facing similarly open environments . Canids were at first confined to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did canids become so diverse ? From Hesperocyon , a descendant of Prohesperocyon , the family experienced its initial radiation in tile early Oligocene , about 34 million years ago , splitting into three major subfamilies : the Hesperocyoninae and the Borophaginae ( both extinct lineages known only from fossils ) , and the Caninae , whose descendants survive today . But it is at first only among the hesperocyonines that we see some really dominant dogs , capable of hunting prey larger than themselves . They were the size of small wolves and equipped with teeth specialized for ripping into raw meat , comparable to those of modern African hunting dogs . The early borophagines , on the other hand , were all smaller and tended toward less predatory lifestyles . And biding its time was the Caninae subfamily , comprising only a few inconspicuous species ( we 'll avoid calling them " canines , " a term that is usually used in a narrower sense ) . A young adult Eucyon davisi , about the size of a living coyote , approaches one of its parents in a submissive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the subfamily Caninae may have arisen when such youngsters remained in their parents ' territory and helped raise pups . The genus Eucyon lived in North America from about 9 million to 5 million years ago . Altogether , by about 30 million to 28 million years ago , twenty-five species of canids roamed western North America , a peak of diversity within a continent unequaled before or since by any single family of carnivoran . The dog family was making its mark . Meanwhile , the hyaenodonts and other archaic predators had begun to decline , and they were eventually overtaken by the successful carnivorans . North American herbivores , the potential prey for canids , steadily diversified during the first half of the following epoch , the Miocene , which lasted from 23 million to 5 million years ago . That was thanks not only to evolution but also to immigration of Eurasian native species via land bridges . The herbivores reached an all-time peak of diversity around 15 million years ago , and perhaps not coincidentally , canids experienced a second peak of diversity ( some twenty species @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ borophagines were the ones to flourish . The hesperocyonines were on the verge of extinction , while the Caninae continued to keep a low profile . Among the factors driving canid evolution was the increasing speed of the grazing herbivores , which in turn was a response to being preyed upon in open habitats . The well-known illustration of this process is how members of the horse family essentially came to run on the tips of their toes , evolving longer toe bones and eventually losing their lateral digits . Even though canids were getting faster , they also had to adjust to competition from new carnivoran immigrants , including members of the cat family ; false saber-tooth cats ( which were catlike but not true felids ) ; large mustelids ; and giant bear dogs ( family Amphicyonidae ) . Bone-cracking became a specialty of the new borophagine species that arose at the time , suggesting that they regularly scavenged carcasses--a kind of resource that is easier to locate in a more open environment . The ability to consume bones may have arisen as a byproduct of group feeding among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as much food as quickly as possible , ate bone ( or swallowed meat plus bones indiscriminately ) . The Caninae lineage , present from the early Oligocene , finally made its big move during the late Miocene , as the open grasslands continued to expand . One distinctive feature of the subfamily , which had slender , elongated limbs , is that the front and hind big toes became progressively smaller , and ceased to be functional . This cursorial feature , not found in the other two canid subfamilies , became an advantage when the landscape opened up . By the late Miocene , early precursors of the modern " true " foxes ( tribe Vulpini ) had emerged , as well as a genus , Eucyon , that was ancestral to the tribe Canini . The latter group comprises the " canines " in the narrow sense of the term , and includes dogs , wolves , coyotes , jackals , certain foxes , and other species . An adult Hesperocyon gregarious , a canid species that could have been ancestral to all three major canid subfamilies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The scene is set in western North America between 40 million and 34 million years ago , when early canids , like most other members of the order Carnivora , were still evolving in a forested environment . A key development in Caninae history was the spread of the subfamily out of North America , beginning about 7 million years ago , when some groups crossed the Bering land bridge into Asia . With the exception of a single species in the middle Miocene of China , hesperocyonines never escaped the dog family cradle , nor did any borophagines . Records of the Caninae appeared in Europe first , and almost immediately thereafter in Asia and Africa . The first member of the genus Canis--to which the gray wolf , coyotes , jackals , and the domesticated dog belong--loped onto the scene about 6 million years ago . During the subsequent epoch , the Pliocene ( 5.3 million to 1.8 million years ago ) , a further opportunity opened up for the Caninae . About 3 million years ago , the Panamanian Isthmus formed , linking North and South America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ native predators , and the Caninae were part of that success story , radiating explosively out of a few lineages in Central America and southern North America . Members of the subfamily constitute the largest group of carnivoran predators in South America today . Indeed , with eleven species , South America is home to almost one-third of the entire canid diversity on the planet . Just as the intercontinental flux led to a new peak of diversity among the canids--one that continues through the Pleistocene epoch and down to the present time--so , too , did it influence the array of prey . Ancestral horse species , which had lost their two outer digits but retained three , were eclipsed in North America by single-digit horses . By Pliocene to early Pleistocene times , the modem horse genus , Equus , had spread to Eurasia and South America , along with members of the camel family ( mostly llamas and their extinct relatives ) , which , like canids , had been confined to North America during much of their existence . While the Caninae subfamily thrived , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bone-cracking dogs , which became extinct by the end of the Pliocene . The third canid expansion brought dogs into contact with hyaenids , which , with one brief exception during the Pliocene , had never expanded into North America . By the Pliocene , however , the competitive landscape had changed significantly for both families , and their members were n't fighting for the same fare . The foxes and jackal-like dogs that arrived in the Old World were much smaller than most hyaenids , which by now were all large , bone-cracking animals . A solitary Borophagus diversidens defends its prey from a pack of Canis lepophagus , Such a confrontation , whose outcome could go either way , may have been common a few million years ago . A bone-crushing species , B. diversidens was the last of the borophagines , whereas the would-be robbers were members of the ascendant genus Canis , whose living examples are the coyote , gray wolf ( including the domestic dog ) red wolf , Ethiopian wolf , black-backed jackal , golden jackal , and side-striped jackal . If we look around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ursids , mustelids , and others--we see that each has a balanced spectrum of small and large species , but not the hyaenids . Apart from the aardwolf , which is a highly specialized termite-eater , there are only three living species of hyenas , all large carnivores . In the major carnivoran families , if the large-size species become extinct in the future , smaller forms could evolve to replace them . But if the large hyenas one day become extinct , their great evolutionary lineage will end . Climate change kicked into high gear during the Pleistocene epoch , whose alternating cold , dry ice ages and warm , humid intervals was a tumultuous time for all animal and plant evolution . Many mammal species on the northern continents ( North America and Eurasia ) , particularly herbivores , attained giant sizes as an adaptation to extreme cold . Large body size helped not only to conserve heat , but also to store more fat to cope with winter weather . Woolly mammoths , giant deer , and woolly rhinos roamed Eurasia , and the woolly mammoth , mastodon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dire wolf reigned supreme in North America . Most such megafauna became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene , about 10,000 years ago . But the gray wolf , Canis lupus , is one of the few exceptions , and remains one of the most successful large canids in the world . From about the beginning of the Pleistocene the genus Canis has had a continuous presence in Eurasia , along with various species of fox and raccoon dog . Gray wolves are present beginning about 1 million years ago . Early humans--Homo erectus , H. neanderthalensis , and H. sapiens--must have competed with some larger species of canids , because they shared a broadly similar hunting ( and scavenging ) lifestyle . By the end of the Pleistocene , the inevitable close encounters between modern humans and wolves--in the Middle East or Europe , or possibly China--resulted in the first domestication of a canid . If one counts the domestic dog as a highly specialized adaptation for cohabiting with humans , then canids have achieved ultimate success in occupying nearly every corner of the world--in all sizes , shapes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) calls for its pack as a herd of mammoths ambles past . The scene is based on fossils found in the Rancho La Brea tar pits , which trapped animals between 20,000 and 10,000 years ago . Story by Xiaoming Wang and Richard H. Tedford ; Illustrations by Mauricio Anton Xiaoming Wang began researching the evolution of the canid family for his doctoral dissertation and then spent several years at the American Museum of Natural History in New York , studying canid fossils under the guidance of Richard H. Tedford . Wang produced a monograph on the canid subfamily Hesperocyoninae , and the two , along with paleontologist Beryl E. Taylor , produced another on the Borophaginae . The three will soon complete one on the Caninae . Wang is a curator in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County . Tedford , one of the foremost authorities on the evolution of the Carnivora , is now a curator emeritus in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum . 
##4022275 Fin-de-sicle Vienna may have flowered and faded more than a century ago , but the era remains a ubiquitous presence in the city today . Even if you do not visit the Belvedere Palace to see Gustav Klimt 's The Kiss , simulacrums of that embrace will accost you from posters , notebook covers , and caf menus . Emerge from the subway , and in all likelihood the sign announcing your stop will be the handiwork of fin-de-sicle architect Otto Wagner . The Caf Landtmann menu will not just let you know the price of a black coffee , but also inform you that Sigmund Freud was once a regular patron . Karl Kraus , Austria 's H. L. Mencken during the early 1900s , declared that the streets of Vienna are " paved with culture . " His aphorism holds true today--and the culture is tattooed with the words and images Kraus dissected a century ago . The fin-de-sicle fixation is , to be sure , played up for tourists . But it is not just for foreign consumption . The Viennese apex of modernized thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lasted through World War I , is enshrined in the national consciousness . Gustav Mahler may have had a stormy tenure as the general director and conductor of Vienna 's Imperial Opera ( he was forced out in 1907 after a decade ) , but last summer the Wiener Staatsoper schedule was a virtual homage to the composer . The Museum Quarter , which holds the majority of the city 's Egon Schiele expressionist paintings , is a meeting point for the city 's hipsters ; during the warm months you can spot kids on skateboards beneath banners of the Viennese artist 's portraits . Tourists may dominate the weekend crowd in the Belvedere Palace galleries , but Vienna 's dozens of museums would n't stay afloat if locals did n't religiously attend special exhibits and revisit the collections . The fact that the Viennese--indeed , Austrian--identity is so interwoven with the fin-de-sicle epoch has more than aesthetic implications . When culture is largely defined as the appreciation of a body of art , literature , and music that flourished decades ago , the national patrimony becomes something not just to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feel like a living museum rather than a modern metropolis . And while some residents lament the relentless looking backward , many of Austria 's policies seem bent on maintaining a version of the country that does n't look so different from its glory days . The desire to freeze a society in time , rather than to allow it to change and innovate , has helped cultivate a xenophobic streak in the central European state . At least , it seemed that way to me last spring when I was living in the city , researching immigration practices . Austria makes it very difficult for a foreigner to settle within its borders ; its legal restrictions are some of the toughest in Europe . In conversations with the Viennese , I was struck by how often even young people defended this draconian approach . Aside from concerns about immigrants taking advantage of the country 's generous welfare benefits , the rationale for the keep-them-out policy centers around Austria 's small population ( just a little over eight million ) and the fragile national culture . " If we let people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one historical researcher said to me . " We would be overrun . " Austria is hardly the only country loath to accept foreigners . It is perplexing , however , that a country so enamored of its permissive fin de-sicle incarnation would cling to such an exclusionary view . Sipping coffee at Freud 's old haunt and admiring Klimt 's gold-flecked paintings , the Viennese may preserve a surface that looks a lot like the turn-of-the-century city . But the modern Viennese do not embrace the values that made the creative outpouring possible . The artistic pioneers of the late 1800s were n't hidebound by tradition ; instead , they were committed to embracing risk . And the city that created groundbreaking art , literature , and music was not homogeneous . Quite the opposite : it was a mix of outsiders--Jews , Czechs , and Hungarians--who created and financed advances in an extraordinary culture . " Diversity and immigration made that age possible , " Bernhard Perchinig , an analyst at the Institute for European Integration Research , told me . Glance over some of the names of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory holds up . The revolutionary thinkers Sigmund Freud and Ludwig Wittgenstein were both Jews , as were the writers Stefan Zweig and Arthur Schnitzler . Mahler was a Bohemian Jew . The expressionist painter Oskar Kokoschka was Czech on his father 's side . And while the era 's two superstar painters--Klimt and Schiele--were Austrian-born and not Jewish , Vienna 's Jewish bourgeoisie underwrote their work . It is not an accident that Klimt 's most famous portraits were of Jewish women . His paintings often hung in the parlors of Jewish homes , at least until the onset of World War II . Why Austrians misconstrue the origin of their fin-de-sicle culture is murky , but the country 's role during World War II is certainly part of the explanation . Austria had a long history of anti-Semitism even before the Anschluss , the 1938 annexation by Nazi Germany . ( An Austrian by birth , Hider , for example , admired Viennese Mayor Karl Lueger 's verbal fusillades against Jewish residents when the future fhrer lived in Vienna in the early 1900s . ) It 's therefore not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racial purity and nationalism . After Austria joined the Third Reich , a number of Hitler 's countrymen vigorously participated in the Holocaust . High-ranking Nazis like Adolf Eichmann grew up in Austria ; under his supervision 170,000 Austrian Jews were stripped of their jobs and fleeced of their possessions . Before the outbreak of the war , some 65,000 Jews were able to flee ( after giving up almost everything they owned ) . For the most part , those who remained were slaughtered in concentration camps . Today , only an estimated 7,400 Jews reside in the country . Austrians never had to deliver a comprehensive public accounting and repentance for this stained past . For Cold War geopolitical purposes , the Allies pronounced the country " Nazism 's first victim " after the war . The former members of the Third Reich seized on that appellation with gusto , drawing grumbles from some of Nazism 's true victims . " The Austrians are brilliant people , " Jewish Viennese migr and Hollywood director Billy Wilder is often quoted as saying . " They 've made the world believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wilder did n't have to stop there . While Freud and Kokoschka are now among the innovators claimed as cultural royalty , they were forced to flee to England to save their lives on the eve of World War II . ( Kokoschka was deemed " degenerate . " ) The composer Arnold Schnberg decamped to Los Angeles , and **30;148;TOOLONG Stefan Zweig had already escaped from Austria to Great Britain . Jews , who had paid for and patronized so much of the city 's innovative art , were essentially expunged from Austrian soil . Given that so many of Vienna 's impressive creative citizens and their benefactors were ruthlessly persecuted , some historians have questioned whether modern-day Austria can legitimately claim Vienna 's fin-de-sicle movement as its own . The city 's fin-de-sicle strutting does have a shameless streak . But to be fair , Vienna 's institutions and ethos did play a role in nurturing one of the most extraordinary creative moments in modern history . Then , as today , appreciation for the arts was at the core of the city 's identity . Viennese coffeehouses did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to intermingle and stay culturally attuned . Perhaps more important , most of these men stood apart from Viennese society but were nonetheless eager to gain recognition , and that made for a potent alchemy . Alienation is often a spur to creative expression . When these artists found existing norms of painting , literature , and social thought too confining , they pushed the boundaries . Today , the Viennese continue to patronize the coffeehouses and avidly peruse the newspapers ' swollen arts sections . Many of the Austrians I met during my three-and-a-half-month stay in the city made a point of alerting me to a lecture on Freudian psychology or sharing their opinions about the current hot-ticket theater production . There 's no question that Vienna is still steeped in the arts . But so often participation in the prevailing cultural life entails revisiting some aspect of the Golden Age . Martin Prinzhorn , a professor at the University of Austria and an independent art critic , says that looking back has been a part of the country 's makeup since the end of the First World War . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it has produced interesting work , particularly in the last decade , " he explains . " But nostalgia can suck the air out of Vienna 's artistic space . The newer artists are oftentimes overshadowed by what was produced in the past . " Fin-de-sicle Vienna was infatuated with contemporary artists , not former generations of creative pioneers . In his memoir , The World of Yesterday , Stefan Zweig remembered how in pre-World War I Vienna esteem for artistic movers and shakers cut across social classes . The day the city 's most prominent theater actress died , even the Zweigs ' cook dissolved into tears . " This old , semi-illiterate cook had never once been to the fashionable Burgtheater , " Zweig recounted , " but a great national actress was the collective property of the entire city of Vienna , and even an outsider could feel that her death was a catastrophe . " When artists are treated as demigods , it is understandable that ambitious young men ache to join their ranks . Given that foreigners and Jews were never completely integrated into high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sons and daughters were particularly eager to establish a toehold in creative realms . For one thing , some of the more formal career paths were essentially off-limits . Freud once aspired to a military career but opted against it partly because Jews could not serve as officers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire . There were few formal barriers to becoming a novelist or artist , Achieving prominence in these spheres , moreover , offered entry to a ratified world . The World of Yesterday describes how every young writer dreamed of having a play produced in one of Vienna 's prestigious theaters because it guaranteed a " sort of lifelong nobility .. One virtually became a guest in the Imperial household . " In the Vienna of a hundred years ago , passersby did n't comment on spotting a minister-president , but the sight of an actor or opera director on the Ringstrasse would set people buzzing . Aside from providing an environment that exalted artistic accomplishment , Viennese institutions supplied creative young people with unusual opportunities to prepare for and hone their crafts . The city 's gymnasiums ( elite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ curricula produced graduates well versed in Western history , philosophy , and literature . Notably , Jews constituted a disproportionate portion of these schools ' enrollments . According to the historian Steven Beller , Jews accounted for 10 percent of Vienna 's population , but they made up about one-third of the gymnasiums ' student bodies . More important than the formal education system was Vienna 's informal university : the coffeehouse . As American cultural historian Carl Schorske describes in Fin-de-Sicle Vienna : Politics and Culture , the intelligentsia in Paris , London , and Berlin did n't mingle much . Vienna 's coffeehouse culture , in contrast , nurtured a cohesive creative class . Zweig recalled the long hours he spent in wood-paneled cafs as integral to his development as a writer . The witty aperu was highly prized in these settings ; relaxed chats , or even deep personal conversations , were not the purpose of these social circles . But if the occasional barb made the gatherings uncomfortable , it also prodded these men ( they were , almost without exception , men ) to become more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just in coffeehouses that these innovators crossed paths . Dip into the history of the era , and you may be convinced you 're reading about an extended , dysfunctional family . Consider this particular series of associations : Gustav Mahler and his wife , Alma , saw Freud for marriage counseling . After Gustav 's death , Alma became Kokoschka 's lover . The so-called wild painter of the fin de sicle was a protg of the architect Adolf Loos , who helped secure commissions for Kokoschka early in the painter 's career . The two men socialized with Arnold Schnberg , who had a separate , painful connection to another prominent Viennese painter : Schnberg 's wife , Mathilde , left him for the artist Richard Gerstl ( who committed suicide in 1908 after Mathilde returned to Arnold ) . These interactions and bed hoppings may seem trivial , but they left a mark on Vienna 's cultural patrimony . Schnberg 's compositions , for example , changed significantly during his personal crisis , which marked the period when he established himself as an atonal pioneer . It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proved formative . Schnberg regarded Karl Kraus as an inspiration--Kraus who , from the pages of his newspaper Die Fackel ( The Torch ) , launched a four-decade campaign against everything he considered hypocritical and artificial in Austrian society : " I have learned more from you , perhaps , than a man should learn , if he wants to remain independent , " the composer confided to his literary counterpart . Loos encouraged Kokoschka 's experimentation in a more concrete way : when sitters refused to buy the painter 's portraits , the architect purchased them . Unsurprisingly , Freud forged the broadest influence . His theories on the subconscious are , for example , glaringly present in Zweig 's novella Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman , which details an elderly woman 's unsettling encounter with a younger man . Freud himself discerned a kindred sensibility in Arthur Schnitzler , whose plays about bleak sexual exploitation and personal trauma convulsed Viennese society . " I have gained the impression , " Freud wrote his fellow doctor-turned-writer , " that you have learned through intuition . everything that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ persons . " By the time Hitler marched into Vienna in 1938 , Freud had become an international celebrity . In his 80s and suffering from cancer of the jaw , he did not heed early warnings to leave the city , confident that his advanced age and prominence would protect him . After the Gestapo arrested and interrogated his daughter Anna , however , the Freuds fled to London , vowing never to return to Austria or to Germany . " Like you , I have an indomitable affection for Vienna and Austria , " the doctor wrote to a friend . " But unlike you , I know her abyss . " It was at the Caf Landtmann that I read about Our Vienna , an expos two Austrian journalists had published on looted Jewish property . Even the brief summary of the book made for intriguing reading . The synopsis detailed how many of the cultural landmarks I 'd admired for weeks--like the Prater Ferris wheel , which is showcased in the 1949 film The Third Man--had been expropriated from Jewish families . Intrigued , my husband and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ copy in an English-language bookstore . While I knew the route , we made our way fitfully , because men in 18th-century dress interrupted us every few feet , flogging tickets to a classical music concert . They were n't the only relic of an earlier age patrolling the streets . Horse-drawn carriages , or fiacres , clopped by , carrying photo-snapping tourists . When loudspeakers beg-an blasting Mozart 's Don Giovanni , it felt like we had entered a " kitsch time machine . " Vienna : City of the Past " even had a soundtrack . The costumes , music halls , and carefully marketed museums all help to cultivate a thriving tourist industry . But as nay husband and I made our way to a less-trafficked part of the city , it occurred to me that the preserved-in-amber ethos came with a price tag . I had sampled many of Vienna 's creative offerings during my stay , visiting museums and the opera and attending the occasional lecture . But aside from a small gallery show featuring the work of sculptor Franz West , everything I had seen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past , and sometimes the distant past . The publicly applauded version of the city 's history is , of course , airbrushed . When I asked for a copy of Our Vienna at the bookshop , I glimpsed the antagonism a more honest appraisal can engender . The bookseller , who had just been friendly to patrons seeking the latest Lonely Planet guide to Vienna , met nay request with an icy stare . " We do not have that book , " she replied . " Could you order it ? " my husband pressed , with a smile . She shook her head : " Not possible . " I never did track down a copy . The book I ended up re-reading compulsively was Zweig 's remembrance of the city of his youth . In The World of Yesterday he morosely speculated on what the future held for Vienna : " Only the coming decades will show the crime that Hider perpetrated against Vienna when he sought to nationalize and provincialize this city . " Zweig never saw the postwar version of the metropolis ; he committed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year before . But if he had lived to see present-day Vienna , he may have been puzzled as well as disillusioned . Trappings of the culture Zweig was so immersed in are still present . The " spiritual supernationality " that he prized , however , is no longer in evidence . It could be that the city 's turn-of-the-century artistic productivity was the equivalent of a cultural comet : It is extraordinary for a movement like that to emerge once , and no one should expect a repeat appearance . Still , the Austrian preoccupation with its prior incarnation and fear of a more diverse society has lessened the odds of another cultural apocalypse . Vienna is still saturated in the arts , but the country 's most fearless , productive , and creative years almost certainly lie decades in the past . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : In Vienna 's first district , a 1902 drugstore faade with angels by artist Oscar Laske PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Mozart selling candy in Vienna By Alexandra Starr Alexandra Starr was a Milena Jesensk fellow at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##4022362 Sabah , the second largest state in Malaysia , is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo and borders the larger state of Sarawak to the southwest . The western part of Sabah is generally mountainous and contains the three highest peaks in Malaysia . The jungles of Sab'ah are classified as rainforests , with a tropical climate that provides a vast array of animal and plant species : an environment that seems ideal for creating biodiversity , which in turn provides exotic photographic opportunities . Four separate trips were taken to Sabah , encompassing a total of six weeks . The first trip was based in Kota Kinabalu , and allowed the exploration of the foothills of Kinabalu National Park and Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary . The second trip was in the company of professional wildlife photographers and visited Sepilok , the Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary at Labuk Bay and Turtle Island , which are essentially tourist destinations . There are two ecosystems of Sabah that were explored : the heart of the tropical rainforest , exemplified by Danum Valley and the riverine system offered by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diverse species , and promise of unique images in a tropical rainforest , one has to get " down and dirty " or certainly hot and sticky . In May 2006 , several photographic colleagues from Singapore stayed at a guesthouse near Sukau on the Kinabatangan River . Twice daily , early morning and late afternoon , the group settled down in motorized boats with tripods set up and big lenses ready for the riverbank action . The participants glided up tributaries and into ox-bow lakes in search of that definitive shot . Bearded pigs swam across the river in front of the boat , river otters peered curiously from the mangrove mud , and colorful kingfishers plunged into the river ahead in a blur of iridescent blue and orange . Sharmas , babblers and pittas called from the forest floor while monkeys crashed noisily through the bush overhead One of the major targets in the late afternoon shoot was the Proboscis Monkeys Nasalis larvatus . Though easily seen during the day filling their potbellies with vegetation , these largish monkeys were skittish and moved away from the lenses . A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jungle during the day and emerge along the riverbank around half an hour before sunset . The monkeys seem to transit from tree to tree with a careful assessment of distance , and then risk a reckless leap into space hoping that there was foliage to grasp at the end of the void . Mother monkeys held closed-eyed youngsters close to chest , while making tree-to-tree leaps . The onset of the evening seemed to act like a multi-targeted tranquilizer , as the hyperactive troupe would slow down and select a perch where they could spend the night in the cooler conditions above the river . The Proboscis Monkey is an endangered reddish-brown Old World monkey that is only found in Borneo . There is much debate as to the function of the large protruding nose of the males . It appears to have a role in sexual selection , as females prefer big-nosed males . The proboscis monkey is endemic to coastal mangrove , swamps and riverine areas . It lives in small groups of 10 to 32 animals and is both a proficient climber and swimmer . There are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of these can be seen along the Kinabatangan River . Early morning or just before dusk is a good time to see the birds and get those typical flap-flap-glide flight shots as they cross the river in search of a fruiting tree or a roosting place . Fruiting trees on the rivers edge also attract wild orangutans . The first visit to the Kinabatangan River produced six sightings of solitary orangutans . What a buzz it was to see these great apes in the wild . The orangutans are two species of great apes known for intelligence , long arms , and reddish-brown hair . Native to Indonesia and Malaysia , the orangutans are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra , though fossils have been found in Java . Vietnam and China . The name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan , meaning " person of the forest . " Orangutans are the most arboreal of the great apes , spending nearly all of the time in trees , and at night , fashion nests from branches and foliage on which to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ females generally come together only to mate , Mothers stay with the babies until the offspring reach an age of six or seven years . What is so emotional about seeing orangutans living free is that they appear to be on the brink of extinction . Sabah , once home to some of the world 's most biodiverse forests , was largely logged out during the 1980 's and 1990 's , but some parts of the state still support wild populations of endangered orangutans . World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) estimates that there are some 30,000 to 40,000 orangutans left in the wild threatened by habitat loss , poached for bush-meat and the illegal wildlife trade . Presently Borneo 's remaining forests are giving way to oil palm plantations . Oil palm ( Elaeis guineensis ) is a financially attractive plantation crop because it is the least expensive vegetable oil and produces more oil per hectare than any other oilseed . In the current environment of high-energy prices , palm oil is seen as a good way to meet increasing demand for biofuel as an alternative energy source , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ green rash . On the second visit to the Kinabatangan River the Borneo Pygmy Elephants ( Elaphus maximus horneensis ) were spied . The Pygmy is a sub-specie of the Asian elephant found only in north Borneo ( east Sabah and extreme north Kalimantan ) . The Borneo elephant became isolated from other populations of Asian elephants 18,000 years ago when land bridges disappeared . Compared with other Asian elephants it is smaller , with larger ears , a longer tail and comparatively straighter tusks . It is relatively tame and passive . The group succeeded in mooring the boat in the midst of one small herd that was bathing and cavorting on the rivers edge . Sadly the Borneo elephant is also on the critically endangered list , suffering from habitat loss , disrupted migration routes and depleted food sources . Amongst the colorful birds encountered along the river 's edge were two species of Broadbill : the Black and Red Broadbill and Black and Yellow Broadbill . The former species build their pendulous nests overhanging the water and during the nesting season a number of these can be observed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yellow Broadbills are more secretive in locating nests but have a very distinctive call reminiscent of an electric generator starting up . A fruiting tree can be a magnet for many different species of bird as well as several mammals . In the quest for food scraps , bearded pigs have become adapted to human proximity . When the electricity generator is switched off late at night Sambar deer move under the cover of darkness onto the grassy areas to graze . Malay civets , clouded leopards , slow loris and the unique flying lemur may be seen in the beam of a spotlight at night . During the day a juvenile male orangutan moved noisily through trees quite close to the complex dining room . Long-tailed and Pigtailed macaques could also be seen foraging on the ground and clambering through the trees . Further down the road the tall roadside grasses had been flattened by a herd of Bornean elephants . There are a number of jungle tracks that require tougher trekking but provide visual rewards for the species that can be encountered : bearing in mind that leeches lurk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The male Great Argus pheasant described eloquently in the diary of Charles Darwin cavorts and calls for female attention in selected display grounds cleared on the jungle floor . The male bird has a call like an emergency siren and will cunningly usurp the trekking track , converting it into a bachelor 's pad . While observing the Great Argus another pheasant , the colorful Crested Fireback pheasant , made a brief appearance . Various members of the colorful pitta family can also be encountered on the more remote jungle tracks while small Barking Deer graze on the jungle floor or in small clearings . Consider Sabah for a photographic destination . Transport is reasonable and day-today living is relatively cheap . A good local guide with knowledge of what photographers require is recommended and be prepared to spend a suitable amount of time in an area to get good shots . Borneo , in spite of its problems , is unique in terms of flora and fauna . It is to be hoped that there will be a more judicious stewardship of the forest in future years to avoid the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BLACK &; WHITE ) : Rehabilitated orangutan PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Crimson Sunbird ( male ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Blue-throated Bee-eater PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Long-tailed Macque feeding PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Orangutan mother and baby PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Lesser Green Leaf bird ( male ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Black and Red Broadbill pair PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Asian Darter PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Monitor lizard ( juvenile ) PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Bornean Pygmy elephant PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Red-eyed Bulbul By Graeme R. Guy , EPSA , Singapore 
##4070650 Ten years ago , I wrote a book that argued for a new vision of Southwestern prehistory : Chaco Meridian : Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest . I still believe its premise--that something I call the Chaco Meridian played an essential role in the life of the ancient Puebloan people--but it 's due for an update , even if many of my colleagues still are n't completely convinced of the idea . <p> The Chaco Meridian is a north-south line at approximately 108 degrees longitude . Beyond the fact that all longitudes converge at the North Pole , there 's nothing inherently important about 108 degrees . In the American Southwest , however , the line runs through or very near several extremely important sites : Chaco Canyon , Aztec Ruins ( both in New Mexico ) , and Paquim ( just across the border in the Mexican state of Chihuahua ) . Each of these sites , in its time , was by far the biggest and almost certainly most important regional center in the Southwest . The population of each was probably between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large for the Southwest . And they followed one another as major centers in a tight sequence : Chaco from A.D. 850 to 1125 , Aztec from 1110 to 1275 , and Paquim from 1250 to 1450 . <p> It occurred to me that the bim-bam-boom sequence of Chaco , Aztec , and Paquim may have had something to do with history . That is , the lockstep series of rises and falls was probably not a matter of chance . Perhaps the collapse of one city somehow set off the rise of the next , with ruling elites moving from the old capital to the new . <p> We already had a pretty good idea that Chaco and Aztec were historically related . Lewis Henry Morgan , the " father of American anthropology , " figured that out in 1878 . The tree-ring dating was precise--Aztec immediately followed Chaco . Both had " Great Houses , " massive , geometrically exact , multistory buildings that transformed conventional Pueblo architecture into monumental edifices . The ancient Pueblo people left us another compelling clue : the " Great North Road , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ north from Chaco Canyon to Aztec Ruins , just a hair east of 108 degrees longitude . My friend and colleague John Stein , of the Navajo Nation Chaco Protection Sites Program , established that many of the linear Chacoan features we called " roads " were , in fact , monuments--history written on the land--linking later Great Houses back to earlier ones . Stein called these " roads through time . " The Great North Road was a sacred pathway that connected 11th-century Chaco Canyon to 12th-century Aztec Ruins . <p> Back in the mid-1990s , several of my colleagues and I thought that Chaco was the capital of the 11th-century Pueblo world , and that in the 12th century Chaco 's rulers moved due north and rebuilt their city at Aztec . That sort of thing is not unknown in human history . Early Chinese capitals shifted following the principles of feng shui , the practice of aligning structures to ensure a harmonious flow of energy . <p> But ours was a minority view . Terms like " capital " and " city " and the idea of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were not welcome in Southwestern archaeology . Most of us working then were trained to study the Pueblo past not as history , per se , but as a series of human adaptations to the sometimes difficult , often changing Southwestern environment . We were trained to treat ancient Pueblo societies like cultures in laboratory petri dishes : sprinkle the right amount of rainfall on the proper soil and up popped pueblos . That approach made a certain amount of sense , of course , because the Southwest is indeed a desert . <p> This emphasis on adaptation and environment led archaeologists to think locally : almost every cultural development was a local adaptation to the immediate environment . In retrospect , I think we overemphasized the desert and undervalued the history--the political decisions made by rulers ( and , perhaps , challenged by commoners ) that may or may not have made adaptive " sense . " <p> There was far more to the ancient Southwest than a grim struggle for food . Life at Chaco , for example , was not a precarious , hand-to-mouth existence . The Chacoans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( many from distant lands ) and important people ( perhaps a few from distant lands ) . Scarlet macaws from the Maya jungles and copper artifacts from western Mexico shared pride of place with elaborate seashell jewelry and eye-popping quantities of turquoise from faraway mines . You ca n't do that sort of stuff if you 're wondering where your next meal is coming from . And the city lasted two centuries as the economic , political , and ritual hub of a region the size of Ireland--definitely bigger than a petri dish . <p> In 1995 , I sat down to write an article , or maybe a book , arguing that our separate petri dishes actually existed in one large terrarium , a single ecosystem in which history--human political decisions--was more important than adaptation to the environment . The terrarium was really big : North America . And there was plenty of history south of the border , with Mesoamerican kings and wars and rises and falls . For some : reason , we seldom thought about those kinds of historical events in New Mexico . <p> I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ North Road as an illustration of large-scale history in the ancient Southwest , so I set out a big map of the region and dotted in a few key sites . I knew Paquim would come up ( one old theory held that Chaco was actually a colony of Paquim ) , but it was off my map . The latitude and longitude put it--whoops ! --due south of Chaco and Aztec . Hmm . The more I thought about it , the more I thought it might be possible the sites were connected . The old theory that linked Chaco and Paquim was based on good data but bad dating . With new dating , it became clear that Paquim came long after Chaco ( so Chaco could n't have been a Paquim colony ) , but immediately after Aztec . If they could move Chaco to Aztec , why could n't they move Aztec to Paquim ? <p> Well , it is a long , long way . The paltry 50 miles between Chaco and Aztec scared most Southwestern archaeologists--it was way bigger than our standard petri dish . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that far ! To me , that was part of its appeal . The whacking great distance from Aztec to Paquim reduced Chaco-to-Aztec to a chip shot . The idea was too good to pass up , so I wrote a book , Chaco Meridian , in which I argued that ruling elites from Chaco Canyon first moved north to Aztec Ruins and a century later south to Paquim , reestablishing their capital along 108 degrees longitude , a north-south line that linked the old with the new . <p> The press liked Chaco Meridian because it was novel , it was news . Many of my archaeologist colleagues , however , resented it because the press liked it . But when the academic reviews appeared , they were surprisingly good . I expected my argument to be shredded , but of the dozen reviews I 've seen in journals , from American Anthropologist to Journal of Field Archaeology , only one was negative and it was very polite . ( I told the reviewer--an old mentor--that his review was " firm but fair . " ) <p> Of course I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ objected to Chaco Meridian 's argument ( fair enough ) . My Paquim proposition in particular was roundly rejected by archaeologists working in Chihuahua , who had no use for Chaco elites . But even more archaeologists objected to the book 's breezy tone--much like this article . Not fair , but okay : I was n't writing for them , anyway ; I was writing to subvert their students , tomorrow 's professors . <p> In fact , the move from Chaco to Aztec has come to be accepted by most , but not all , archaeologists . So half of the original argument apparently convinced my colleagues . Far fewer bought my idea that the Chacoan elites eventually moved to Paquim . And there the matter seemed to rest . <p> BUT IN 2004 , a site far to the north , well beyond the points on the old Chaco Meridian , got me hopping-up-and-down excited again . I was driving to the Pecos Conference , a yearly gathering of Southwestern archaeologists , and had time to stop by the Animas-La Plata Project ( ALP ) . Just south @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ done ahead of the construction of a dam and reservoir . Jim Potter , the project director for the cultural resources firm SWCA , Inc. , showed me around . I was immensely impressed by the size and complexity of the pit-house sites , which dated to the eighth century A.D. There was nothing in the ALP area immediately before the eighth century , and nothing after . It was a big--but short-lived--bang . <p> From the east end of the ALP area to the west end , a distance of some eight miles , there were more eighth-century sites than in any other area in the northern Southwest . It was a continuous blur of houses and villages : not of urban density , but taken together a very large , impressive settlement . In the middle of it all stood Sacred Ridge ( an old local name for the site ) . ALP excavators found things on Sacred Ridge that no one had ever seen at eighth-century sites , such as the 10-foot-wide base of a two-story tower . Nobody built towers in the eighth century ! The ALP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ era , and at its core stood phenomenal architecture . <p> I walked through the ALP sites and wondered where we were exactly . A glance at a map showed the area was due north of Chaco Canyon , due north of Aztec Ruins , and due north of Paquim . Well , not precisely due north--Sacred Ridge is actually a few miles east of Pueblo Bonito , Chaco 's biggest great house . ( As I argue in Chaco Meridian , we should n't expect modern precision from people doing naked-eye engineering with a string and a pole . ) I 'm pretty sure Potter and his colleagues were aware of that fact and , understandably , they do n't want to go there , given Chaco Meridian 's somewhat controversial reputation . But I do . <p> The ALP sites jogged my memory of another , even earlier big site , back at Chaco Canyon . The " Chaco " of Chaco Meridian was the grouping of stone-masonry Great Houses of the 11th and early 12th centuries , like Pueblo Bonito . But there had been strange doings at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sixth and early seventh centuries , Shabik'eschee Village and another unnamed pit-house site ( known as 29 SJ 423 ) flourished in the canyon . These sites were not visually spectacular ( scores of shallow depressions , each representing an ancient pit house ) , but they were big , indeed the biggest pit-house sites of their times in the Pueblo region . Each had more than 80 houses , and each had a Great Kiva , an underground ceremonial chamber that was a rarity in the sixth century . The next largest sites of that period had about 20 pit houses ( and those are hailed as prodigies ) , and 99 percent of the sites of Shabik'eschee 's time were made up of only one or two houses . <p> Shabik'eschee had been excavated and published in the 1920s . It was a famous anomaly , not a secret or a surprise ( like ALP ) . But between Shabik'eschee 's end in the seventh century and the late-ninth-century beginning of the Great Houses , Chaco Canyon was abandoned . This had always been an obstacle to linking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the newly excavated ALP sites filled that gap . In Chaco Meridian , I wrote that the center shifted , first north and then south . A picture was emerging in which that north-south movement reached even farther back in time . Each Pueblo era , from A.D. 500 to 1275 , had a single , central , large , complicated site , and each was on or very near the Meridian : Shabik'eschee/423 in the sixth and seventh centuries ; Sacred Ridge and the ALP complex in the eighth century , followed by the succession of Chaco , Aztec , and Paquim . All these sites were located from 107 degrees 50 feet longitude to 108 degrees--an east-west wobble of only a few miles on a line of 475 miles , from Sacred Ridge on the north to Paquim on the south . <p> Shabik'eschee , Sacred Ridge , Chaco , Aztec , and Paquim--five unique points in a line , each the biggest and most important site of its respective era . The chances of that happening by accident are miniscule . There has to be history--human decisions and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CENTURIES , the center of the Pueblo world bounced back and forth over ( only ) 80 miles , from Chaco Canyon to Sacred Ridge and back again--and then to Aztec Ruins . The southern extension to Paquim is still a matter of doubt and debate , I admit . But the new data from Shabik'eschee and the ALP complex give me some confidence that the Chaco Meridian was real , and that it meant something to ancient Pueblo people . <p> What exactly did it mean ? I do n't know--yet . To understand the Meridian , we need context . None of these sites sat alone in the Southwest . There were thousands of smaller Pueblo sites in every time period , and each period had its own complicated history and geography . Beyond the Pueblo region , there was the remarkable Hohokam civilization in southern Arizona , and of course there were Mesoamerican cultures far to the south . We will never understand Shabik'eschee , Sacred Ridge , Chaco , Aztec , and Paquim without looking far beyond the sites themselves and beyond the Southwest--think about the whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : COLORADO , NEW MEXICO , MEXICO <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : University of Colorado archaeologist Stephen H. Lekson at Chaco Canyon , an ancestral Puebloan site he believes is linked to three other major centers in the Southwest . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : American settlers thought it was built by Mesoamericans , but Aztec Ruins in northwestern New Mexico was a major 12th-century A.D. Puebloan town . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : The 14th-century A.D. mud-brick buildings of Paquim ( now in the modern Mexican state of Chihuahua ) stood up to four stories high . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Pueblo Bonito was one of the massive , multistory buildings called " Great Houses " that were first built at Chaco Canyon in the ninth century . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A large circular depression is all that remains of an underground ceremonial chamber at the pit-house site of Shabik'eschee in Chaco Canyon . <p> By Stephen H. Lekson <p> Stephen H. Lekson is a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder . His latest book , A History of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in early 2009 . <p> 
##4070652 IT 'S EASY TO THINK that the $13.2 billion-a-year spent in the United States on cosmetic enhancement amounts to an abnormal obsession with beauty . Noses are modified and breasts are reshaped to correct perceived flaws , but most procedures are aimed at making us look younger . Liposuction and tummy tucks remove the fat that accumulates with age and childbirth ; face-lifts and poisonous Botox injections paralyze and stretch wrinkled skin smooth . What a person hopes to see in the mirror reflects what his or her society values most , in our case , youth . <p> The ancient Maya also went to extreme lengths to transform their bodies . They invested vast amounts of wealth--and endured unspeakable pain--to make themselves beautiful . Through their artwork and the study of their physical remains we can begin to understand what motivated their search for physical perfection . What did ancient Maya men and women hope to see when they looked in their pyrite mirrors ? <p> Perhaps the men wanted to look like K'inich Janaab ' Pakal ( Pakal the Great ) , who ruled the city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 612 until his death in 683 . Few ancient Maya remains have been as thoroughly studied as Pakal 's . His tomb within Palenque 's Temple of the Inscriptions provides a clear view of the standard of beauty to which ancient Maya men aspired . A stucco head wedged under his sarcophagus and a mosaic jade mask on his face convey idealized notions of his appearance . But what did he look like in real life ? <p> From my first visit to Palenque in 1975 , and throughout my nearly 30-year career as a Mesoamerican art historian , I 've been asking questions about this man who made Palenque a force to be reckoned with and then built his own great funerary pyramid , a ruler whose descendants worshiped him as a deity . <p> Pakal 's bones and teeth were recently restudied by Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina of the Autonomous University of Yucatan , and they can now tell us more about his physical appearance . First , Pakal was taller than most ancient Maya men , standing just over five feet four inches . And unlike most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of disease or malnutrition . Pakal received the typical cranial modification for someone born into an elite family . Shortly after birth , while his skull was still soft and growing , his mother applied a binding device to his forehead so that his cranium grew into a long , tapered form , smartly indented above the brow line . <p> As a king , Pakal was expected to personify several important deities . In stone carvings , his clothing and adornments reflect associations with the gods of rain and lightning , but his body was shaped to resemble the Sun and Maize gods . Pakal 's mother may have hung a bead between his eyes when he was a baby so that he would become permanently cross-eyed , a trait associated with the Sun God . <p> The Maya believed that because they had to squint to look at the sun , the Sun God also squinted back at them . Crossed eyes would have given Pakal the appearance of squinting . Also like the Sun God , he had filed teeth in the shape of the letter " T @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the center of his face . At the time of his death , Pakal had lost two molars and periodontal disease may have given him some pain , but the 24 teeth in his mouth had not a single cavity . <p> The earliest image of Pakal , a profile carving on an oval tablet found in his royal palace , emphasizes his flattened forehead . His simply rendered body reveals a slim physique . Pakal also had luxuriant hair , which he wore in thick , layered tresses trimmed to blunt ends in the front and tied in the back . His hair flopped forward like corn silk surrounded by leaves at the top of a healthy maize plant . Because each kernel on a cob requires a strand of silk to be pollinated , abundant corn silk pointed to a healthy cob of maize--and Pakal 's hair indicated his maize-like perfection . <p> Images of him suggest he wore a nosepiece to extend the long , tapering line of his nose into his forehead . How the nosepiece was worn is not known , but it seems to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defeated captives depict them with prominent foreheads and round or snub noses , while the victorious lords are shown with the bridge of their noses meeting their foreheads in an unbroken line that sometimes extended all the way to their hair . <p> ACCORDING TO THE POPOL Vuh , the creation story of the K'iche Maya , creator gods formed human beings out of masa , the same maize dough the Maya still use to make tortillas and tamales . The typical maize plant yields one healthy ear ; others ripen only as nubbins or succumb to the maize fungus , Ustilago maydis . Like the plant , the Maize God surrounded himself with dwarves and hunchbacks , symbolizing imperfect ears of maize--embodiments of the ugly and deformed . Maya rulers also associated with dwarves and hunchbacks . <p> The Maize God lived for only a single season--growing and ripening , then harvested and planted once again as a tiny kernel in an eternal cycle of death and rebirth . Although Pakal surely grew wrinkled in old age , depictions of him and most Maya elites always retain a youthful appearance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he is shown with his hair styled like the Maize God and a burning torch protruding from his forehead like K'awiil , a lightning deity worshiped by Palenque 's royalty . Once they laid the dead king within the sarcophagus , his attendants placed a mask bearing the Maize God 's features made of small jade tesserae , like individual maize kernels , onto his face , giving him the appearance of eternal youth even in death . In this sense he was planted like a maize kernel at the base of the Temple of Inscriptions . Pakal both lived and died as the Maize God . <p> MAYA STANDARDS OF BEAUTY based on the Maize God applied to women as well as men . Pakal , for example , is shown on the lid of his sarcophagus wearing the Maize God 's jade skirt . It is the same skirt his mother is shown wearing on an oval tablet from the royal palace at Palenque . Women 's skulls were also bound into elongated shapes , and they filed their teeth or drilled holes in them to hold inlays @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another fashion that men and women shared was painting their bodies with abstract designs . <p> In one of the extraordinary murals at Bonampak in southeastern Chiapas , a servant daubs paint on a royal dancer . Males glisten with red from the neck down , while women have red paint only on their faces . The complementary patterns appear to be one of many localized fashions in body painting that extended across the Maya world and that involved a variety of colors and designs . When Pakal 's body was prepared in an elaborate embalming process , his skin was treated with alternating layers of red and black pigments , most of which were concentrated on his trunk . As Tiesler and Cucina have determined , the red paint consisted largely of the toxic mineral cinnabar , or vermilion , with a little hematite and iron ore in the mix . <p> Blue-green was considered the most beautiful pigment , perhaps because it was associated with jade , the most valuable material of ancient Mesoamerica . Blue shades ( see " Sacred Maya Blue " ) were associated with sky @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not only as the source of sustenance but also as the sacred material from which humans were formed . Unlike almost all else in the tropical rain forest , jade was permanent and thus made the ideal funerary offering . It evoked the Maize God , permanence , and the essence of beauty . Reduced even to a single bead , jade could germinate and yield the tender maize once again , the Maya believed . <p> BEAUTY WAS ENHANCED BY piling On elaborate jade jewelry or by wearing fashionable clothing . Paintings at both Bonampak and Calakmul , along with sculptures at Yaxchiln and Piedras Negras in southern Mexico , confirm women 's interest in fashion . Those of high status wore gauzy cotton dresses over contrasting underskirts , brocaded dresses cinched at the waist , and patterned shifts and blouses draped over wrapped skirts . By about A.D. 700 , women gained political and economic power , and this may have been reflected in their clothing . Two of the most prominent ancient Maya women , the queen of Yaxchiln , Lady Xook , and the queen of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patterns in their clothing . The stone carvings commissioned by Lady Xook for her building on the site 's main plaza show her wearing three different outfits in a conspicuous display of her taste in fashion . Beaded dots of face paint or scarification are similar to other artistic representations that symbolize elegant speech or song . <p> Both queens were somewhat hefty , a testament to their wealth and status . Most elites ate a refined diet , as their teeth reveal , including cacao , or kakaw , as the Maya called it . Cacao beans served as ancient Mesoamerica 's standard means of exchange . Eating chocolate was like eating money itself . Chocolate was one of the rare Maya foods rich in fat , so fat signaled wealth and power , if not beauty itself . <p> IMAGES OF BEAUTY also provided moral lessons for the Maya . Stylized funerary figurines from the island of Jaina , off the Yucatan Peninsula , show two typical examples of female beauty . One , probably a young Moon Goddess , emphasizes a voluptuous , youthful figure/often bare-breasted . Her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of blue pigment . Her hair is parted and twisted into a headdress of cotton cords , indicating her role as a patron of weaving ; her face is highlighted with pigment or tattooing , usually in a dotted pattern near the mouth . <p> Young and beautiful , the Moon Goddess frequently accepts the embrace of a companion . In some cases it is an anthropomorphic rabbit who was thought to live in the moon , but often the companion is a creator god depicted as an old man , whose collapsed toothless face is , like hunchbacks and dwarves , the antithesis of beauty . In some figurines he is seen lifting her skirt or touching her breast . Here the Maya artist seems to draw attention to the woman 's wayward behavior , perhaps as a moral commentary . <p> The second type of female figurine is more enigmatic . She wears a draped blouse over a wrapped skirt , and in many cases a heavy necklace that required a counterweight down her back . The front of her face is framed by sharply trimmed bangs . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through a bead , hanging over her bangs . Her face is sometimes marked with prominent striations representing scars or tattoos extending from her lip line almost to her ears . She works at her loom , prepares food , or sits modestly with hands on the knees of her crossed legs . She is a paragon of industry and probably virtue , since she is never seen cavorting with old gods or the odd mammal . <p> BEAUTY WAS A WAY to display social , if not moral , value among the ancient Maya . The wealth they invested and pain they endured to create bodies that reflected their social beliefs make our modern-day obsession with beauty seem less excessive . Like us , the Maya indulged in self-deception about appearance , preferring to let artistic depictions conform to their ideals rather than reality . Although hearty and robust for an old man of 80 , Pakal 's depiction never aged ; he remained a youthful Maize God , just on the cusp of maturity . The Maya saw what the Maya wanted to see when they looked into their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few daubs of red paint , and the youthful vigor of agricultural fertility . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : An ancient Maya ruler checks his reflection in a pyrite mirror while an attendant applies red paint to his backside . On the far left , a woman wearing a star-patterned dress holds what could be the ruler 's death mask . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A stucco bust of Janaab ' Pakal shows his hair styled to look like the foliage at the top of a healthy maize stalk . His skull was artificially elongated to resemble the top of a corncob . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Pakal 's jade burial mask . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : These pieces of a mosaic mirror come from the city of Abaj Takalik in southwestern Guatemala . The mirror has lost its shine , but would have been a must-have accessory for the fashionable Maya nobleman or woman on the go . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A painted figurine from Jaina Island shows an aged creator god and the Moon Goddess in a lascivious embrace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the city of Yaxchiln portrays the powerful Lady Xook with tattoos or scars around her mouth to symbolize singing or eloquent speech . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A mural from the city of Calakmul depicts a woman wearing an expensive blue dress edged with a pattern of glyphs . Her servant wears only a plain gray dress . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : This dwarf figurine from Tikal , Guatemala , may depict the antithesis of beauty , but he would have been spiritually important as a companion of the Maize God . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A ruler named " he who scatters incense " gazes in a mirror and accepts an offering of cloth and food . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A stucco sculpture of Kan B'alam II , a king of Palenque , shows him wearing a headdress symbolizing the Maize God . <p> by Mary Miller <p> Mary Miller is the author of The Art of Mesoamerica and dean of Yale College . <p> 
##4070653 THE NORTH SEA deserves its tempestuous reputation . It pounds England 's eastern coast , reshaping and sometimes taking large bites from it . The medieval town of Dunwich ( DUN-itch ) thrived on that coast from the 11th to the 14th century . Built on fishing , shipbuilding , trade , and religious patronage , its economy was one of the largest in the land . Over the centuries , the sea ate away at the town , reducing it to its present state , a seaside village of fewer than 200 . Despite legends of a sunken city , the prevailing wisdom has been that the sea ground almost all of medieval Dunwich to sediment , and buried it or carried it away . Some divers have long suspected otherwise , as they occasionally encountered tantalizing clues such as stone blocks , but it was not until 2008 that there was proof , courtesy of multibeam and side-scanning sonar , that Dunwichs major buildings--churches , chapels , and monasteries--lay ruined but still in place below the whitecaps . However , because of the North Sea , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another planet . <p> Dunwich was probably the site of a Roman fort and Saxon settlement before it became a major port city . The Domesday Book , a great survey of English wealth in 1086 , listed it as one of the 10 largest towns in England , with three churches and yearly royal taxes of 68,000 herring . It was the seat of the first bishop of East Anglia , and at its height had 20 religious buildings , including homes for the Knights Templar and the monastic orders of the Blackfriars and Greyfriars--all in a square-mile town with a population between 3,000 and 5,000 . <p> But according to David Sear , a geomorphologist at the University of Southampton , " it was a bit of a duff place to build on , really . " The harbor area was often inundated , and the rest of the town was perched on a crumbly cliff 20 to 30 feet above a narrow beach . As early as 1086 , major losses of land had been documented . A cooling of the climate in the 13th century brought more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . A storm in 1287 claimed a quarter of the city , including three churches ; another in 1328 took hundreds of houses . " The problem with Dunwich is amplified because it started off so big , " says Sear . " It sort of grew too large in the wrong place . " Storms also blocked Dunwichs port , despite the citizenry 's best efforts to keep it clear , crippling its economy . The erosion claimed both land and population ; churches abandoned for lack of parishioners eventually dropped off the cliff . The last fragment of the town 's medieval prosperity , All Saints Church , toppled between 1904 and 1919 , and even today bones from its churchyard cemetery tumble out of the cliff face . " It is a haunting place , and on a winter 's day , one could say , a bit sinister , " says Stuart Bacon , an amateur archaeologist and expert on the area . " It is also a very romantic place with the sun shining and the city under the sea . " <p> Bacon learned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city . " The North Sea is very hostile in all senses , he says . You can almost feel the hostility when you 're out there . " Sediment in the water means there is not enough visibility to read a watch or air gauge , but Bacon persisted and soon found the well-documented remains of All Saints , a tight scatter of large stone blocks a few dozen yards from the beach . He devised techniques to help him dive blind , feeling around with gloveless hands and a metal rod , determining what kind of stone he found by sound and vibration . But navigating and relocating sites were constant problems . " You 've got to imagine a site potentially occupying a square mile , into which you drop down and sort of fumble around in the dark until you 've found something , " says Sear . " And what 's amazing is that Bacon did actually find stuff . " <p> One day in 1973 , Bacon had a yard or two of visibility , the best he has ever encountered . He swam out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was hard to get a sense of the extent of them , but he believed they came from St. Peter 's , which fell from the cliff around 1680 . He found the site again several times over the years , encountered more stone , and retrieved artifacts , including a quarter-ton chunk of a tomb lid , now in the small Dunwich Museum . " All the time I was being told there was nothing there and I was proving the opposite , " he says . But there was no way to establish how much of a structure or the town itself survived , or relocate sites reliably . <p> SEAR IS NEITHER AN ARCHAEOLOGIST nor a diver . Rather , as a geomorphologist , he studies how sediments move in riverbeds or along the coast . " It 's one of those rare occasions where one 's passion and one 's research interests intersect , " he says . His fascination with Dunwich began when he was a child of five and his family vacationed there every summer . At low tide , he clambered on some exposed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local legends , like the old smuggler 's tale that on stormy nights , the peals of Dunwich 's church bells can still be heard . <p> The assumption that the town 's ruins were gone , except for the more recently lost All Saints , was still common , despite Bacons finds . " That 's not an unreasonable assumption if you do n't know anything about sediment dynamics , " Sear says . The ruins of Dunwich , he thought , should still be roughly where they fell from the cliff because there was not enough wave or tidal energy to move massive pieces of stone and mortar . <p> In 2006 , Sear approached Bacon with the idea of cutting through the dark world with multibeam and side-scanning sonar , acoustic technologies that can provide high-resolution depth readings and some indication of the hardness of the seabed . Sear had the GeoData Institute at Southampton superimpose and stretch historic maps of Dunwich over images of the modern coastline to determine targets . He then contracted EMU Ocean Surveys to spend two days in May 2008 mapping the entirety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like mowing your lawn , " he says . <p> The first-ever 3-D map of the seabed off Dunwich showed that two-thirds of the medieval site is covered by thick sandbanks . Fortunately , a natural tidal channel cuts through the site , scouring out a sort of valley on the seabed . In this area , Sear identified a number of promising sites where hard material stood a yard or so above the soft sand . Religious buildings would have been among the only in town built with stone--a relatively rare commodity in that part of England--while the rest were made from timber . Two of the sites lined up with churches on Sear 's maps : St. Peter 's and St. Nicholas 's , which went over around 1480 . Most important , the survey provided GPS data , so the sites Bacon once stumbled across could be mapped and relocated . " The question was , could you make the reports of ruins into something coherent ? " says Edward Martin of the Suffolk Archaeology Service , which was not directly involved in the research . " That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survey . " <p> Working by feel , divers reported wall-like surfaces , flat stone , and beveled edges , and brought back samples with what appears to be mortar on them . Confident he has found the churches , Sear now has proof that such stone structures can remain in place and more or less together on active coastlines , and established a working method for places with miserable diving conditions . <p> THE OLDEST ACCURATE MAP of Dunwich dates to 1589 , and shows the location of St. Peter 's . However , by then several religious buildings and perhaps half the town were already gone . We know there were quite a lot of churches , but we do n't know the full extent of the town , " says Martin . " There 's about half of it missing and we know nothing about how it was formed , its arrangement . " <p> Sear is most interested in this period , the remains of which probably lie under the offshore sandbar , around 380 yards from the beach . Specifically , he wants to map the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ main church ( St. John 's , lost around 1540 ) , and harbor area . <p> To do this , he needs funds to test sub-bottom profiling equipment , which passes a sonic signal through soft material like sand to reflect off underlying stone . In addition , to examine St. Peter 's and St. Nicholas 's in more detail , Sear wants to use higher-resolution multibeam sonar and a Didson sonar device , a diver-held or submarine-mounted short-range sonar that can provide detailed images even in zero visibility , like night-vision goggles for a dark underworld . There could be anything down there--from artifacts to carved surfaces--and this technology is how they will find it . Designed for examining naval mines and ship hulls , the Didson system has yet to see wide use on archaeological sites , according to the manufacturers , but the eerie , high-resolution images it can provide suggest it soon will . <p> Peter Murphy of English Heritage , which provided some of the funding for Sear 's research , says that little work has been done on such fully submerged sites in England @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raise awareness of how coasts change over time . In that sense , the exploration of medieval Dunwich is perhaps a glimpse of the future of coastal archaeology , as ancient sites and even modern structures are increasingly subject to rising sea levels , increased storm frequency and intensity , and greater erosion . Techniques for getting a look at these zero-visibility sites--from metal bars to high-resolution handheld sonar--might become indispensable tools . What we lose in legends of sunken cities might come back as clear knowledge of the past . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Coastline <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Multibeam sonar shows clumps of hard material standing above the soft , sandy floor of a tidal channel . More of St. Nicholas 's , which toppled over the cliff around 1480 , may lie under the sand . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : The North Sea is not kind to divers . It is cold , inhospitable , and nearly pitch black . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : What divers can see of the lost churches , just 30 or 40 feet from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ An engraving and a series of photographs of All Saints Church illustrate the fate of most of the medieval city of Dunwich--a progressive descent over a cliff and into the North Sea . The last fragment of All Saints was relocated to the yard of a surviving 19th-century church . The rest lies under the waves . 1785 <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : 1903 <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : 1905 <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : 1912 <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : 1920 <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : In 1979 , diver Stuart Bacon found this quarter-ton chunk of a tomb lid . A life-size bronze knight once rested on it , but the stone had probably been salvaged from one church and reused in another . <p> by Samir S. Patel <p> Samir S. Patel is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY . <p> 
##4070654 WHATEVER 19TH-CENTURY RAILCAR MAGNATE George Pullman took with him to the grave is likely to remain a mystery . Fearful that Labor-movement extremists would desecrate his corpse , Pullman left instructions that his lead-lined casket be covered in tar paper and asphalt , and laid in a massive vault of concrete reinforced with steel rails in Chicago 's Graceland Cemetery . Over this tomb stands a towering Corinthian column with the name " Pullman " carved in its base . Fortunately , the historical record beneath the other monument bearing his name , the town of Pullman , is far more accessible . In what is today Chicago 's far South Side , archaeologists are unearthing the remnants of a model community . Built to be " beautiful and harmonious , " it was intended to be a place where , in the words of its founder/strikes and other troubles that periodically convulse the world of labor would not need to be feared . " <p> " This site affords opportunities to study the daily life of workers as well as class distinctions in this richly textured 19th-century @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ professor and chair of DePaul University 's anthropology department . It is also important to the present-day residents of Pullman , many of whom are intimately acquainted with the town 's history and worked to save the neighborhood from demolition in the 1960s . " It provides a chance to examine a rare instance of a working-class community of today rising up to save itself from the wrecking ball , " she says . <p> Pullman was designed with 900 " worker cottages " made of solid brick , more than 95 percent of which are still occupied today . In the center of town was a grand complex of commercial and industrial buildings , anchored by a corporate administration building topped with an iconic wood-framed clock tower . The town was also artfully laced with parks and gardens . <p> The London Times was not alone in hailing Pullman as " the most perfect town in the world , " at least until a nationwide economic depression compelled the town 's founder to lay off one-third of his workforce and slash the wages of the remainder by an average of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homes , not to mention food and other necessities , workers walked off the job in the summer of 1894 . Their appeal to the fledgling American Railway Union , led by Eugene V. Debs , resulted in the union calling on its members to stop handling any trains that included Pullman cars . As Pullman all but monopolized passenger railcar operations , train traffic virtually came to a halt across the country . <p> Refusing to negotiate any kind of settlement , Pullman won the battle but lost the war . The strike petered out after a few months , due in no small part to aggressive intervention by the federal government . Public opinion , however , had turned against Pullman for his hard-line stance on his workers . A federal strike commission likewise laid much of the blame at Pullman 's doorstep , and the Illinois Supreme Court ordered him to sell off the residential sections of his town , his self-proclaimed " greatest work . " George Pullman died of a heart attack on October 19 , 1897 . His factory continued producing railroad cars until the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of industrial interests . <p> IN 1998 , a few years before DePaul launched an anthropology program with an emphasis on historical archaeology in Chicago , a homeless man had heeded the voices in his head that told him to set fire to the Pullman administration building . Although the clock tower was destroyed in the ensuing blaze , many of the original administration building 's 125-year-old masonry walls survived . Before reconstruction of the building began , site superintendent Mike Wagenbach wanted to make sure the effort would not destroy the sites subsurface historical record . In 2004 , DePaul visiting professor Bill Middleton took 16 students to Pullman to conduct targeted excavations at what is now the Pullman State Historic Site . <p> Middleton and his students found very little in the areas that would be impacted by the reconstruction , which allowed the work to proceed . The following summer , Baxter began working at the site . Laboring in the shadow of the recovering administration building , her 22 students spent five weeks learning to survey , map , excavate , record , process , and document @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the underground tunnel through which power from an immense Corliss steam engine--the most powerful in the world at the time--was distributed to the manufacturing buildings and steam heat was channeled to public buildings and select residences . <p> Pullman has proved to be a gold mine for industrial archaeology . The one-of-a-kind Corliss , standing 40 feet tall and weighing 700 tons , was a big hit at Philadelphia 's 1876 Centennial Exhibition , for which it was initially constructed . Housed in a glass-fronted building in Pullman , it was just as big an attraction there until it was cut up for scrap when the company was electrified in 1910 , about the same time it made the transition from manufacturing wooden railcars to those made of steel . <p> Baxter is equally interested in the sociology of the workplace . " It seems obvious , but it 's often overlooked in industrial archaeology . People actually worked in factories , " she says . In 1892 , Pullman employed more than 6,000 workers ; about one-quarter were American born , and the rest came from nearly 30 different countries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her students to consider . <p> On this front , too , Pullman does not disappoint . Outside two of the remaining factory door openings of the administration buildings north assembly shop wing , which survived the fire , the DePaul students found food refuse and fragments of ceramic cups and plates . Baxter surmises that lunch breaks were informal affairs , much as workers today might step outside for a smoke . Even more telling are the differences between two separate break areas . In one , unmarked 19th-century whiteware and cuts of meat ( evidenced by the animal bones ) are of a distinctly cheaper quality than that found in the other , suggesting that workers may have socialized according to class . <p> Even within a town that claimed to promote Utopian ideals , there were significant distinctions among Pullman workers . Beyond ethnic and religious differences , highly skilled craftsmen , including woodcarvers , cabinetmakers , blacksmiths , brass finishers , millwrights , and patternmakers , earned top dollar while unskilled laborers earned , in many instances , less than half that . And where an employee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she could afford to pay in rent . High-wage earners tended to live in the largest , fanciest , and most expensive residences clustered around the town center . Low-wage earners lived in houses and multifamily dwellings , which , moving away from the town center block by block , grew steadily smaller , more plain , and less expensive to rent . The overall effect was a hierarchy of housing that roughly paralleled worker wages . <p> REGARDLESS OF THEIR PLACE in the town 's pecking order , workers would have passed by the largest and most ornate home in Pullman every day . Occupied by company manager H. H. Sessions , it was directly across the street from the main factory gate . According to an 1886 map , it was the only residence with a carriage house . A 1909 fire insurance map refers to the detached structure as a garage . Aside from one exceptionally poor-quality photograph , no other documentary evidence or living-memory exists of the two-story garage , though the house still stands . <p> Excavating the site--for many years an informal parking area for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refer to as the Sessions House--students discovered the previously undocumented limestone foundation of the carriage house . Measuring about 30 feet long by 20 feet wide , it bore a cutout large enough to receive power and steam from the Corliss engine , indicating that the building was heated . Befitting the buildings function , students found numerous **26;1408;TOOLONG artifacts , such as bits of horse tack and related finery . They also unearthed household items and remains of plumbing , suggesting a caretaker was in residence . <p> The most intriguing discovery , however , came before the students even started digging . Atop the site were heaps of displaced soil , which Baxter learned had come from the home of Kris Thomsen , two doors away . Like many Pullmanites , Thomsen can recite the history of his house chapter and verse , from the impeccably restored gem that it is today , to its central role as a speakeasy during Prohibition , to its original function as the home and office of John McClean , the company physician . In preparation to install footings for a new back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Thomsen 's contractors excavated several buckets of soil and got rid of them where they thought no one would notice . <p> Fortunately , Baxter noticed and had her students sift through the dirt . In addition to an intact glass medicine vial , they found a cornucopia of personal items , including thimbles , glass marbles , hairpins , dish fragments , and even a small-caliber bullet casing . Most curious of all was what Baxter described as a disproportionately high concentration of buttons ; primarily shell buttons common in the late 19th and early 20th centuries . <p> Company records reveal that McClean treated 4,155 injured factory workers over a 10-year period beginning in 1884--an average of more than one a day . The majority of injuries were serious enough to result in the loss of at least two days of work . " In your typical 19th-century industrial accident , " Baxter points out , " your arm or hand is caught up in a belt or some piece of heavy machinery and it 's not pretty . " McClean , a former Civil War battlefield surgeon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he would have had to cut the clothing off the injured limb . The cloth , disposed of with other household trash in the large backyard , would have rotted away over time , but the buttons remained as reminders of the danger inherent even in so advanced a manufacturing setting as Pullman . <p> ON A BRIGHT , UNSEASONABLY MILD SUNDAY in late July , Baxter scheduled a public archaeology day as part of the 2008 field school . The event was particularly meaningful to the present-day residents of Pullman , including those who rose up in the 1960s when a local chamber of commerce recommended demolishing the entire 19th-century town for real-estate development . " That really got everyone in an uproar , " remembers George Ryan , who has lived in Pullman every one of his 88 years . " We had this big rally , people were standing up , yelling . We loved our community . For us , there was no better place to go . " Pullman was and is still a largely working-class community , but over the years residents have obtained city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ preserve several key public buildings . <p> Twenty-five people showed up for the public archaeology day to carry on the legacy of community activism . Each volunteer was assigned to one of several student-led teams excavating the foundations of walls of the well-documented Arcade Building , one of the nation 's first indoor malls . In its heyday , the three-story structure housed dozens of shops , along with a post office , the Pullman Bank , a 1,000-seat theater , and an 8,000-volume library . <p> Among the amateur archaeologists was Andy Bullen , who lives in one of Pullman 's original " executive " houses with his wife , Linda . He developed and maintains the Pullman Virtual Museum ( www.pullman-museum.org ) , an online digital catalogue of images from several of the region 's archives . " To see the size of the foundation stones gives you this gut sense of the scale and mass of the building that you ca n't really get from pictures , " he says . " To stand on the sidewalk where the federal soldiers stood before the strike of 1894--personally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the great chain of continuity . " <p> As part of the 2008 field school , Baxter also had her students excavate a couple of present-day backyards , finding the remains of a previously undocumented root cellar and a smattering of personal items , including doll parts and china sherds that hint at the lives of 19th-century Pullman workers and their families . <p> -But after two seasons , Baxter feels she 's just scratched the surface . " The story of Pullman is not a simple one . It 's not just the autocratic patriarch versus his unhappy workers . It 's much more complex than that , much more subtle . But I need to investigate more . " <p> Pullman residents ca n't wait for her return . " With more archaeology , more study and information , " says Arlene Echols , who loved every minute the students spent excavating the backyard of her worker 's cottage , " we 'll all be better stewards of our historic homes , better stewards of our present community . " <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , site director Jane Eva Baxter , Jennifer Norman , and Michael Marshall . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Shell buttons like these were found in the home office of company physician John McClean . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : The town of Pullman ( ca. 1898 ) failed as a Utopian community . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : The last-known photograph of its founder , George Pullman ( ca. 1895 ) . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : The Arcade Building ( ca. 1885 ) , one of the first indoor malls in the United States . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : An 1890s view of the interior of the Arcade Building . <p> PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Pullman factory workers ( ca. 1949 ) labor on a railroad car . <p> by Arthur Melville Pearson <p> Arthur Melville Pearson is a freelance writer in Chicago . <p> 
##4070655 A SURPRISE DISCOVERY on the outskirts of Rome . Five containers hold unidentified bodies . Four of them are children . A woman 's body is missing . The police are called in to investigate . Who are these people ? What is their relationship to one another ? How did they die ? But this is not a modern crime scene , it 's a remarkable archaeological discovery--five ancient Roman marble sarcophagi that escaped looters for more than 1,800 years with their lead seals intact . Archaeologists are working with scientists from the police Crime Scene Investigation unit to tell the personal story of a wealthy suburban family , and a broader one about the ancient Roman countryside . <p> During renewal projects aimed at transforming an area of the town of Tor Cervara into a shopping destination , a bulldozer uncovered the tops of two underground tombs . Construction work stopped immediately and Stefano Musco from the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome was called to investigate . Inside the first , rectangular tomb , he found the cover and part of the base of a badly broken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , nine-foot-wide circular tomb , he saw niches holding five sarcophagi dating to the third century A.D. " To discover unviolated sarcophagi is particularly rare and very fortuitous for an archaeologist , " says Musco . Since the early 1990s , when several unopened second-century A.D. sarcophagi were discovered at Vallerano , south of Rome , none have been found in the countryside around the city . And according to Musco , very few examples have been found anywhere in Italy , the best known being the Tomb of the Athlete in Taranto ( " Tomb of the Unknown Jock , " ARCHAEOLOGY , September/October 2008 ) , and some from the late Etruscan period ( second century B.C. ) at locations such as Perugia and Cortona in central Italy . <p> Musco and his team cleaned and conserved the sarcophagi before taking them in specially constructed wooden crates to the National Museum of Rome to be studied . The five sarcophagi included a larger one for a mother and father and smaller ones for children . The largest held the remains of a 25- to 30-year-old man . The others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and nine years old . The wife 's body was missing and Musco thinks the broken sarcophagus in the other tomb may have held her remains , suggesting she died after her husband and children . Musco admits that when he first opened the parents ' sarcophagus , he was a bit disappointed , imagining that there would be grave goods inside . " I hoped that the man would have a ring on his finger that would attest to his high rank in society , " he says . Such a ring would normally be found on the finger of a noble , senator , or high-ranking official . " But since it was absent , " Musco adds , " I do not think this was a noble family ; he was not a consul or a magistrate . This family was tied to commercial production--they were rich enough to have a good burial , but not well off enough to include a lot of items in their sarcophagi . " <p> Musco 's team kept looking . In the sarcophagus of one of the children , probably a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , parts of a second doll , and a pair of child 's gold earrings . Fewer than 10 ivory dolls have been found in Italy from the entire Roman imperial period , and according to Maria Rosaria Barbera of the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome , this doll is particularly refined because it would have had movable limbs . It is also the latest Roman doll of such quality ever found . Ancient Roman dolls , like modern Barbie dolls , represent adult females , with hairstyles that imitate those of the imperial family , allowing Barbera to date the doll to the Severan age ( A.D. 193-235 ) . Because of high infant mortality rates in antiquity and a generally less sentimental view toward children than we have today , burials with valuable artifacts from a child 's life are extremely rare . Often items made from precious materials such as ivory would usually be passed on rather than buried with a deceased child . The other children 's sarcophagi were empty but for their bones . According to ancient-toy expert Emilia Talamo , the presence of the ivory dolls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Who was buried in the sarcophagi ? About a quarter-mile from the tombs are the remains of an ancient villa rustica , including walls that date the villa to the first century B.C. , wells , and irrigation channels . There were two types of villas in the Roman countryside--residential villas , where aristocrats spent time away from the city , and villae rusticae , working farms that produced fresh goods for the city . The extensive water supply makes it clear that the one at Tor Cervara was not a leisure property . " The people buried in the sarcophagi could have been the family connected to the villa . Perhaps they were the last members of a line who had lived in this area for a long time , at least from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D. , " says Musco . <p> The remains are currently being studied in both a laboratory belonging to the scientific investigative unit of the Carabinieri ( military police ) and another one supervised by David Caramelli of the University of Florence , an expert in ancient DNA . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state of preservation--like the sarcophagi , they were damaged by high acid levels in the ground . Giampietro Lago , the director of the investigative unit 's biology section , adds that there is a large risk of exchanging modern DNA from people handling the bones before they came to the lab . But Musco and Caramelli hope that with both teams working on the DNA , and with the police 's experience with complex crime scenes , they will eventually be able to identify the gender of the children , the family relationships between the deceased , and the causes of death . <p> Meanwhile , the sarcophagi are on display in the National Museum of Rome , which Musco visits from time to time . " I never forget that I have a mystery to solve about the identity of these people , " he says . " Sometimes I really think of them as my family . My dream would be to at least give them a name . " <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Workers stabilize the walls of an underground tomb in the Italian town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( COLOR ) : The largest sarcophagus was intended to hold the bodies of a husband and wife , although when it was opened , only the husband 's body was found inside . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Archaeologists were shocked to discover that not only had the tombs in Tor Cervara never been broken into , but that the five sarcophagi had their lead seals intact . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : One of the children 's sarcophagi contained an extremely rare third-century A.D. ivory doll . <p> PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Lieutenant Elena Salata examines bone dust from one of the family members buried in the sarcophagi . <p> by Marco Merola <p> Marco Merola is ARCHAEOLOGY 'S Naples correspondent . <p> 
##4080550 Kai Bird 's formative years in the Middle East were not exactly the stuff of Leave It to Beaver : he learned to check his shoes every morning for scorpions ; had to negotiate Jordanian , UN , and Israeli checkpoints on his way to school ; went to sleep on occasion to the rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns ; was evacuated from East Jerusalem to Beirut during the 1956 Suez War , and again from Cairo to Greece in the 1967 war ; and had a girlfriend whose jetliner was hijacked and blown up by Palestinian terrorists in 1970 . Oh , and his mother used to play Joan Baez and Bob Dylan songs on the guitar in her Riyadh home with Salem bin Laden , Osama 's older brother . That 's fodder enough for an engrossing memoir . But Bird has loftier goals . A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has made a career of going mano a mano with the dead white males of the eastern Establishment , he wrote this book " in large part to understand why the Middle East of my childhood seems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Crossing Mandelbaum Gate is a gesture of atonement for a stone left unturned : for much of his career , Bird pointedly avoided grappling with the region . The book also encompasses Bird 's attempt to confront larger questions of identity , whether those embedded in the cultural miscegenations of the modern Middle East or those embedded in the jumbled allegiances of a boy plucked out of Oregon to tag along in the baggage train of Pax Americana . I can understand the inclination to avoid reckoning with the Middle East . Even as a Foreign Service Officer , and later as the executive editor of Foreign Policy magazine , I thought of the strife between Israel and its neighbors as a second-tier incubus that sapped the energy and attention of American policymakers and an intractable , insiders-only dispute that defied rational discussion . Bird 's book has n't entirely cured me of that view . But with its engaging and insightful reminiscences of growing up in Jerusalem , Dhahran , and Cairo , its sharp portraits of half-forgotten figures like Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Sharett ( whose diplomatic efforts were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Bird 's own quest to make peace with his past , Crossing Mandelbaum Gate is a compelling corrective that can force even reluctant readers to look at the Middle East anew . One of the book 's more powerful aspects is its evocation of the Nakba , or " catastrophe , " the term that Palestinians use to describe their uprooting with the foundation of Israel . Bird 's family moved in 1956 to East Jerusalem , then under Jordanian control , where his father , Eugene , was an American vice consul . While his parents had friends and acquaintances on both sides of the line dividing Jerusalem -- the book 's title comes from the single open crossing -- they felt keenly the plight of the Palestinians , many of whom had been ousted from their homes in 1948 . As Bird 's mother wrote in 1957 , " I feel no sympathy for Zionism whatsoever and none for the Israeli society . " For Bird , the losers of Israeli independence were not faceless refugees , but people like his family doctor , a Christian , Arabic-speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken over by Israelis . In one of the book 's more poignant moments , Bird recounts the story the doctor tells when , a half-century later , he returns as an American citizen with his daughters to visit his old house . An Israeli woman living there , knowing the neighborhood story of how the doctor had planted an apricot seed as a young child , hands him a fruit from that tree . Bird also usefully highlights the tangled and in many ways toxic history of relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia . When his family moved to Dhahran in 1962 , they joined 2,500 Americans ( almost all of them members of the Arabian American Oil Company , or ARAMCO ) , who represented the largest single community of Americans overseas , complete with bowling alleys , swimming pools , Girl Scout troops , Little League teams , and hootch stills in every pantry . As one longtime resident observed , " Dhahran was a utopia . " But the presence of so many cloistered Americans , who generally were more of the ugly than the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And that was long before Osama bin Laden began inveighing against the kingdom 's decision to welcome tens of thousands of American troops in the run-up to the Gulf War . ) Moreover , as Bird makes clear , the U.S. tendency in its relationship with Saudi Arabia to put oil before democracy , and to side with royalists over reformers , " would lead to many unsavory consequences for ... both the Americans and the Saudis . " In May 2007 , Bird visited his old compound in Dhahran . The four-foot rock wall that once surrounded it had grown to 15 feet . Gurkhas patrolled the perimeter , protected by machine guns and security gates : " My childhood home -- where I had once freely wandered in and out , completely unsupervised , a child unfettered -- was now an armed fortress under siege . " As Bird sees it , the failure to support reform in Saudi Arabia is one of many U.S. missteps in the region . Others include the U.S. reneging on its promise to help fund Egypt 's Aswan Dam and , more damningly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a preemptive strike on Egypt in 1967 , which Bird labels a " calamity " for the United States . The war not only led to the expulsion of 24,000 American expatriates across the Middle East and massive anti-American demonstrations , but also weakened secular leaders like Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and paved the way for the ascendancy of political Islam . But many of the " what-might-have-beens " that Bird singles out rightly involve regional protagonists -- everyone from Nasser to lesser-known figures like Abdullah Tariki , the progressive Saudi petroleum minister who helped create OPEC but was forced into exile when he accused Crown Prince Faisal of corruption , or like Hillel Kook , the iconoclastic ex-Irgun member who fought in his later years to turn Israel into a secular Hebrew Republic . Some of Bird 's historical narrative may at times feel potted , but his explorations of such characters illuminate the complexity of circumstances on the ground .. In one of the last segments of the book , Bird provides a convincing rejoinder to those who may feel that his pro-Palestinian sympathies blind him to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his Jewish wife 's parents , who both barely escaped the Holocaust in Austria and Italy ; is as gripping as it is moving . As Bird later points out , it is the inability of both Israelis and Palestinians to overcome their competing sense of historical victimhood that ultimately sustains the current impasse . But Bird stretches poetic license past the plausible when he calls the Nakba and the Shoah " the bookends of my life . " ( A la Tonto , a Palestinian and a Jew might say , " What do you mean ' your life , ' white man ? " ) And he gets a bit carried away with the powers of insight supposedly Conferred on him as an expatriate . ( " It is given to him to see both sides , " he intones of himself as a child -- a sentiment that I never attained or aspired to in more than a decade living overseas , including a chunk of my childhood in Japan . ) Still , give him credit for having written a powerful and unflinching book . Crossing Mandelbaum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the world 's most troubled neighborhoods , but it at least brings understanding a little closer . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : Kai Bird as a boy in Giza , Egypt , in 1958 Review by James Gibney James Gibney is a deputy managing editor of The Atlantic . 
##4080552 I am standing in a room containing enlarged photographic portraits of about a dozen children , each labeled by name plus other identifying details obviously provided by relatives . One label tells about Francine , age 12 . Favorite sport : swimming ; favorite food : eggs and chips ; best friend , her elder sister Claudette ; cause of death : hacked by machete . Several displays describe the final moments of siblings . Killed by a " grenade thrown in their shower " where they were hiding , reads one label . A woman sobs in the next room ; there , spotlights direct the eye to display cases containing skulls in rows and leg bones in piles . Over the sound system , a woman murmurs something mournful over and over in Kinyarwanda , the language of Rwanda . I step out into the sunshine . Today is my second full day in Rwanda , and I am visiting the Kigali Genocide Memorial on a hill overlooking Rwanda 's capital city of Kigali . I have come here as part of a research project on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oslo , Norway . During my stay , I will interview representatives of local nongovernmental organizations , international development agencies , human-rights groups , reconciliation specialists , and private citizens . The Kigali memorial features a garden where a flame burns to commemorate the 100 days in 1994 when Hutu killers murdered 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hum . I had expected something dramatic at the mass graves of the murdered Tutsi . Instead , the graves are unremarkable large slabs of concrete bordered by lush garden plantings of roses , hibiscus , and birds of paradise . Perhaps 60 Rwandans , all dressed formally , pass by . Some carry small bouquets of roses , some wear purple ribbons on their chests -- the official color for genocide commemoration . Most of the women wear elaborate ankle-length , traditional dresses and head wrappings made from colorful geometric-patterned fabric . I erroneously assume they are part of a tour group . Down a walkway I catch sight of a young man carrying a cross and behind him six other men carrying a coffin draped in a purple cloth . About 25 more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steps toward a wide dirt field : a mass grave . While a new American embassy was under construction in Kigali -- it opened in February 2008 -- workers discovered the remains of a dozen or so genocide victims on the site . Those remains , like others still being found in the city and nearby a decade and a half after the mass killings , are brought here for burial . More than 250,000 people are interred at this , the main national memorial . As you would expect , the memorial landscape is somber , and visitors speak in hushed , respectful tones . Still , I can only manage to view the memorial with a certain feeling of remove . Despite more than 10 years of research into the politics of the genocide , I find it almost impossible to conceive of the horrors of the killings and the hatred that propelled them . Intolerance and hostility in Rwanda date at least from 1918 , when Belgium colonialists arrived and accorded the Tutsi favored status , deeming them to be racially superior to the Hutu . Three years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tutsi king . Once in power , the oppressive Hutu government engaged in periodic killing campaigns against the Tutsi minority , causing hundreds of thousands to flee the country . In 1990 , an army of Tutsi exiles invaded from Uganda and nearly toppled the government . Both parties reluctantly signed a United Nations-brokered peace deal in 1993 . During the lull in fighting , Hutu leaders meticulously planned the genocide , launching their mass killing program in April 1994 . Today , the Hutu make up 85 percent of the population ; the Tutsi just 14 percent . With the exception of genocide survivors , who were all Tutsi , the people I encountered were reticent to identify themselves as Hutu or Tutsi , probably because of laws restricting discussion of ethnicity . My driver , Mr. Jean , a middle-aged man with an honest face and a strong inclination toward gospel music , asks if I saw the entire memorial . " Yes , " I answer , " and it made me very sad . " " Now you have seen our big mistake , our big mistake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take this , and I ca n't ask for clarification became I speak little French . We speed along dusty streets thronged with people who are shopping , visiting friends , waiting for a minibus . Mr. Jean delivers me to my hotel in time for dinner . Alone , I am absorbed in Dostoyevsky . I wonder if the great Russian could have imagined someone reading The Brothers Karamazov in such a place . In his story , the young aspiring monk , Alyosha , fervently claims , " There 's a great deal of love in mankind , an almost Christ-like love . I know that myself , Ivan . " The embittered older brother responds , " Well , I know nothing of it so far , and ca n't understand it , and the mass of mankind are with me there . The question is , whether this lack of ability to love is due to men 's bad qualities or whether it 's inherent in their nature . " Later in Ivan 's story , the Grand Inquisitor accuses Christ : " But Thou didst think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of course , though rebellious by nature . Look round and judge ; fifteen centuries have passed , look upon them . ... I swear , man is weaker and baser by nature than Thou has believed him ! " ( The Anglican Archbishop of Rwanda , Emmanuel Kolini , later echoes the Grand Inquisitor when he tells me that the genocide highlighted the " weakness of mankind . " He laments that during the buildup to the killing , people were " walking away slowly from God . " ) The day after I visit the memorial , I meet with a UN worker and describe what I had witnessed . She says the government strongly encourages families to disinter their loved ones and reinter them in the mass graves , even if the family members would prefer not to . The government also recently adopted the terminology the genocide of the Tutsi rather than Rwandan genocide . What does this say to the families of the politically moderate Hutu who perished ? Subsequently , a pastor tells me that the phrase is accurate : The Hutu victims were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tutsi , not because of their Hutu identity . Still , I wonder . During the genocide , an army of Tutsi exiles swept in from neighboring Uganda , defeated the killers , and took over the government . In the ensuing 15 years , the minority Tutsi government , called the Rwandan Patriotic Front and led by President Paul Kagame , has made strides in improving infrastructure , health , and the economy . Every Rwandan I meet shows great pride in the country -- both its natural beauty and its remarkable recovery . Recovery has come at a cost , however . The Kagame regime has extended its control to every aspect of the country . To discuss ethnicity or to question the official interpretation of the genocide is to risk a prison sentence if the government labels such speech as divisionist . Press freedom barely exists . Many insist that such strict measures are necessary to prevent future atrocities ; how can you have a one-person , one-vote democracy when the majority tried to eliminate the minority and nearly succeeded ? Others whisper that the country is now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surface . The ostentatious wealth of a tiny minority of government officials and business people makes an ugly , perhaps dangerous , contrast to the poverty of most Rwandans , including Tutsi survivors of the genocide . " No one knows what will happen if Kagame takes his foot off the brake , " a U.S. government official admits to me . I am sitting on my hotel balcony on Sunday morning three days after my arrival . From a Catholic church somewhere beyond the garden comes the sound of robust , a cappella , harmonic singing . Set to words in Kinyarwanda , the singing has been going on , almost uninterrupted , for four hours , and I wonder what prompts such religious fervor and what it signifies . Is it a cathartic experience ? How has it changed since the genocide ? Officially , Rwanda is said to be 56 percent Roman Catholic , 26 percent Protestant , 11 percent Adventist , and 5 percent Muslim , but some Protestants insist that Catholics really represent no more than 40 percent . I ride by the church of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me that many people perished there . The priest colluded with the killers , Anatole says , and then escaped and is now living in France . I know that Catholics are generally viewed by government partisans as complicit in the genocide . Despite the political indelicacy , I ask those I meet how someone could hack a neighbor to death with a machete . Everyone at first expresses moral incomprehension . Many Protestants elaborate with references to the devil , or the spirit of evil , as a motivation for the genocide . They cope with the horror by isolating the evil spirit from the perpetrator . Archbishop Kolini , with whom I spoke in his office at the Anglican cathedral in Kigali , said that before and during the genocide , " the church opened the door to the devil . " But , he adds , people have a choice about saying no to the spirit of evil ; Satan is not an excuse . Here again , Dostoyevsky has something to contribute . In the novel , Ivan converses with the devil , who has taken the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In explaining the problem of evil , the devil dryly observes that " Nothing human is beyond the possibility of Satan . " As a follow-up to my machete question , I ask Rwandans " Who is human ? " Some of the answers trouble me . Archbishop Kolini interprets Saint Paul to claim that one must have love to be human and that , through repentance and reconciliation , perpetrators can " become human . " But that implies that there is a category of people who are not human . I receive a more universalist answer from Pastor Antoine , an Anglican priest who survived the genocide . We sit in a churchyard , where he is participating in a reconciliation training session for clergy , and he explains that all people on the planet are fully human and must recognize the humanity in each other , even though it might be more psychologically palatable to describe , for instance , a sadistic rape and murder as inhuman , animalistic , or monstrous . Reconciliation . I repeatedly encounter the word in Rwanda . Researchers write about it . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What is reconciliation and how do we know it when we see it ? The term is overused . From nonprofit organizations and church groups , I hear heartwarming and astonishing stories about mothers of murdered children forgiving the killers , rape victims absolving their attackers , genocide survivors marrying perpetrators . I suspect that these remarkable reconciliations represent a very small proportion of the traumatized population . Widespread reconciliation is not imminent . Yet my cynicism dissipates when I meet Christians who devote their lives to increasing that minuscule number of healed and reconciled people . Josephine , a gentle , soft-spoken woman who founded an organization that trains church members in trauma healing , is one of them . She tells me she lost many loved ones in the genocide and yet refuses to pass judgment on perpetrators or to build a hierarchy of suffering . In contrast , other Rwandans make disturbing comparisons such as She was raped and her child was killed , whereas this one was only raped . Even if Josephine represents a minority of one , her compassion offers a precious example to Rwandans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mr. Jean and I make an excursion to another genocide memorial . This one is a Catholic church in the small town of Ntarama , about 20 miles outside Kigali . Along the road , women carry on their backs sleepy babies , snugly wrapped in bright-patterned cotton . Men , women , and children tote bundles of bananas , large sacks of grain , loads of firewood on their heads . Children in blue school uniforms run and play close -- very close -- to the road . Arriving at Ntarama , we read a sign explaining that 5,000 Tutsi perished in the small church and surrounding territory where they had flocked for sanctuary . Inside , daylight filters dimly through small , high windows . As my eyes adjust to the light , I can make out wooden benches , about eight inches off the ground , that had served as pews . Hanging from the walls and rafters are the tattered , bloodstained clothes of the victims ; their bones are arranged on shelves . Rows and rows of skulls predominate . Some of the skulls are tiny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the opposite wall are the possessions the victims had brought with them to their refuge , including mattresses , cooking pots , utensils . Above the bones , a sign in Kinyarwanda reads , " If you knew me , and you knew yourself , you would not kill me . " I methodically take photos from several angles , sign the guest book , make a donation , and wonder at my own lack of emotion . After about 30 minutes , we leave . The shock wears off the next day , a Sunday . Again on my balcony , I hear the voices from the neighboring church . The music grows more ardent : drums beat , congregants clap rhythmically , women launch into an African-style descant . I shut my eyes and again see the rows of skulls and the pitiful collection of cooking pots , shoes , and blankets piled in the corner . The fervent churchgoers , both Tutsi and Hutu , have lived through the genocide experience , I realize . Every day , they live with their own particular memories of the horror @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the director of a Christian reconciliation organization , tells me about still another genocide memorial , at the town of Murambi , a couple of hours south of Kigali . He and all his family lived there in 1994 . As the genocide began , the government requested villagers from nearby to come for protection to the Murambi school . Leaders claimed that they could n't protect the Tutsi from the killers if they were scattered in the countryside , so people came voluntarily , trusting the government . Michel 's entire family was there . During the night of April 21 , the military , supported by Hum locals , attacked the school with guns and grenades . All who tried to escape were hacked to death . According to the Rwandan government , 27,000 Tutsi were murdered . The following day , the government brought in bulldozers to pile up the bodies and bury them , a clean-up operation that created a mountain of corpses , most of which were left basically intact . You could still identify individuals . The 800 bodies at the Murambi genocide memorial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lime , so that the victims stayed in the exact position in which they died -- for example , warding off a blow . Michel must have been elsewhere at the time or he would have been killed . I do n't ask . I will be driving near Murambi , but I wo n't visit . Each genocide memorial seems to outdo the other in horror , and I am feeling creepy about the possibility of becoming a genocide tourist . Some human rights groups object to gruesome displays like Murambi , saying they stir up hate toward Hutu residents . Indeed , Hutus , notably children left homeless because their parents are imprisoned , receive no sympathy or assistance . Their shame and poverty is met with indifference . And there are hundreds of thousands of Hutu who experienced the hell of the refugee camps in Zaire and are treated with suspicion . One traumatized former refugee tells me that she lost a year of her life in those violent and disease-ridden camps . Others report being hunted by the Rwandan Patriotic Front and living in the forest without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suffering goes mostly unacknowledged . Tutsi survivors find scant resources to address post-traumatic stress , depression , guilt , or suicidal impulses . People involved in counseling and reconciliation describe a national trait of reserve and unwillingness to show emotion . Many people carry around their internal wounds for years ( or perhaps forever ) without sharing them . Reconciliation specialists also explain that listening to someone else 's sorrows does not come naturally to Rwandans . Even tears are rare . As I prepare to leave Rwanda , I feel the stress that the political culture imposes , even on a visitor . Freedom of speech barely exists , and the stifling effect on me as a political scientist is hard to describe . People are afraid to talk politics ; I am circumscribed in the questions I can ask . Some interviewees emphasize that their mildly critical comments are off the record . Others ask me point-blank to put down my pen while they talk . Those are the forthcoming ones . Before I came here I was dubious that I would react as had other researchers who told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rwanda . I now understand . Mr. Jean picks me up at the hotel for one last driving assignment . He is suffering from la grippe today , but he did n't call in a substitute driver . When we get to the airport he heaves my 50-pound suitcase out of the trunk and wheels it into the terminal . Then he faces me , and it 's clear he 's been rehearsing some English words of farewell . He earnestly asks God to bless me and says he will pray for my safe journey and to greet my family for him . He tries to express something else about our days together , but ends up saying that next time I come his English will be much better . I promise to practice my French before my next visit . We shake hands vigorously in a strangely emotional parting . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : In Ntarama , rows and rows of skulls and hones attest to nearly 5,000 who died in and around a Catholic church . By Sarah Kenyon Lischer Sarah Kenyon Lischer is an assistant professor of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dangerous Sanctuaries : Refugee Camps , Civil War , and the Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid . In this letter , she has changed the names of some Rwandans to protect their privacy . 
##4080558 Here are three essays dealing with computers . I intend that to sound sort of like " here are three essays dealing with ritual " or " here are three essays dealing with kinship " -- to sound as if it were entirely unsurprising to open up a copy of Anthropological Quarterly and see three essays about computers , alongside three on social organization , religion , or pragmatics and ideology . It should be entirely unremarkable by now that computers are involved in the social and cultural life of the people and processes anthropologists study , everywhere in the world ( digital divides notwithstanding ) . It should be clear by now that the interactions and uses by which people make meaning , act , or build societies is as inextricably linked to software , networks , computers , devices , and infrastructures as we insist it is to kinship or social organization . In all honesty , we should be well past the time when we need labels such as " digital life " or " the anthropology of the virtual " or " online sociality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the one hand , it will not do to simply suggest that computers make no difference to the social and cultural lives of humans , and that we ought to go on as if information and communication technologies are simply a diacritical mark on otherwise fundamental features of human life . On the other hand , it can not change everything . The requirement to say what difference computers make to things like sociality , knowledge , language , or human life in general is not met by appending the word " digital " to whatever noun or verb commands more immediate attention ; but nor can the difference be approached as if it were one problem among many , parceled out after the fashion of area studies , or divvied up as if it were one qualifying field exam alongside others ( which we nonetheless know to be a frequent occurrence ) . Often such a problem can only be addressed by demonstration , and this is what makes the three essays gathered here so valuable . Each of them is , in its own subtle way , struggling with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ towards anthropology , yet bring it to bear on a problem whose significance is widely felt , over-analyzed , and poorly understood . The essays collected here do not seek to forge a new subfield , or to simply apply anthropological concepts to new objects like Facebook friends or cell-phone users ; they do not seek to radically reinvent the methods , fieldsites , or topics of anthropology ; and despite being written by people immersed in the technical details of software and networks , they are not any more inter- or trans-disciplinary than many other anthropological studies underway today . Instead , what they do is something that should be familiar to any anthropologist : they form concepts out of rich empirical fieldwork and try to rectify them against those realities . They criticize approaches to problems and concepts forged in other places and in other times ; and in doing so they leave open the possibility for future criticism that might take account of the changing technical conditions of our world ( Strathern 2006 ) . Each delivers good ethnographic value , explicating and orienting readers to very specific @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case what difference the difference engine makes . This is not special or new in any threatening sense ; rather it is simply what anthropology looks like today . These three essays each take on one of the peculiar burdens of anthropology : the ongoing remediation of the concept of culture . Culture , as a concept and as a feature of anthropological thought is both broken and yet impossible to leave behind . Within the discipline , it has been through so many changes , so much re-use and modification , and so much critique , that it seems impossible to see in it the distinctive form it might once have had ; and yet , there are no other serious nominees for the position it holds . Even more burdensome is the fact that all around anthropology , other disciplines wield this concept ( and the associated claim to investigate it via ethnography ) with abandon . Much of this work is conducted without much awareness of its peculiar failings , difficulties , and critiques . In information studies , in management , in consumer research , in public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a salience and a power it seemingly no longer possesses for scholars trained in the heart of anthropology . But even more troubling , very little of this work shows a grasp of the particular strengths of the concept either . Analyses of the " culture " of computing or the internet , to say nothing of its appearance in every microlocation from corporations and gymnasiums to gorilla troupes and hair salons , seem empty of theoretical force , barely distinguishable from norms and customs in some 19th century sense ; such analyses certainly almost never attain the heights of systematicity or recursivity we associate with the exemplary works of the discipline . The burden these essays bear is therefore a double one : first , to show that the objects of study chosen are adequate to some concept of culture , and second , to transform that concept in ways that will ( one hopes ) influence and remediate the ways neighboring disciplines employ and rely on this complicated notion . These articles all try to preserve the cultural at the expense of cultures -- by finding diverse ways to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " as a constitutive dimension of human life , as one of the planes -- an open plane , to be sure -- of which it is always composed " ( Rabinow et al . 2008:106 ) . But they also raise the stakes for this concept by struggling with the question of how to work over the manifest importance of software , networks , and computers without going too far . There is obviously no shortage of work on this topic : the range of disciplines and methods brought to bear on the topics of information technology , computers , software , and networks is disturbingly large . One should ask : why is there so much written on this topic ? Then one should ask : why is so little of it any good ? In part , the answer is that , for some reason -- call it a cultural reason -- we are driven to see computerization and its incumbent technologies and social formations as so profoundly cutting-edge , so new , so revolutionary , that we lose sight of what might really be new about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing new about them but scale and speed -- is just as much a part of this cultural reason . Both the Californian enthusiasm of the technophile and the Edwardian reserve of the technophobe seem to signal the disappearance of any sufficiently rigorous concept of culture -- even as the repetition of the term and the proliferation of its sites seem to go on unhindered . Or to put it differently : why are both computers and cultures everywhere today ? In anthropology , studies of online interaction , virtual worlds , and computer-mediated communication have , over the years , made various moves towards thinking through the concept of culture , but not much theoretical work has emerged . There are the widely read reviews by Escobar et al . ( 1994 ) and by Wilson and Peterson ( 2002 ) , and seminal works by Miller and Slater ( 2000 ) and Hine ( 2000 ) ; and there is an increasingly large set of works in media anthropology that focus on the use of discussion , online interaction , and communication as part of larger issues like diaspora @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Axel 2004 ; Barker 2008 ; Bernal 2005 ; Larkin 2008 ; Lysloff 2003 ; Ginsburg , Abu-Lughod , and Larkin 2002 ) . Of the theoretical works in anthropology that provide a basis for rethinking the concept of culture , Michael M.J. Fischer 's article " Worlding Cyberspace , " more than any other , attempted to move the discussion towards worlding as a way to distinguish it from bounded space and placebased versions of culture ( Fischer 1999 ) . The essays here continue what Fischer initiated , especially Golub 's contribution , which very clearly positions its approach as a general attempt to understand how worlds of any kind form , in order to gain purchase on the question of what difference the computer makes to this process . Beyond this limited list there are plenty of contributions to the " ethnography of online communities " -- but few I would suggest that push forward the theoretical and conceptual challenges of understanding both the proliferation of studies of computing , and their inability to account for this proliferation culturally . The three essays collected here should therefore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . All of them emerge from the heart of anthropology ( all graduates of the University of Chicago no less ) , and all of them are erudite , widely read scholars with extensive fieldwork experience in more than one area . That they have turned their attention to the issues explored here is no doubt connected to the general cultural desire to understand the meaning of computers , but it also emerges from a deep engagement with some of the central strengths and weaknesses of the anthropological analysis of culture . It is worth trying to bring these out a bit more sharply here . There are a series of moves towards specifying the role of the cultural addressed in these essays . There is a first move involved in trying to achieve purchase on these new phenomena , and that is to literally make up a new culture . This is something to which Golub objects in studies of the " virtual worlds " where the success of past anthropology is used to legitimate the treatment of virtual worlds as bounded wholes -- places with local everyday life , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that is not there . Such a move is not wrong methodologically -- however , it creates an expectation , or hypothesis , that these worlds are both separate from and similar to the realclothes worlds we have always studied . This move generally excuses researchers from having to look closely at the distributed inhabitants in their real-clothes bodies ( which is admittedly time-consuming and painstaking work that does not feel very new ) and also from the necessity of engaging with the technical and economic conditions of possibility for these worlds ( which it must also be admitted , can take some of the fun , though not the interest , out of researching them ) . Rather than seeing virtual worlds and online environments as built on top of or extruded from existing worlds , organized in particular ways , much of the work in online ethnography both inside and outside of anthropology prefers to make up a culture instead , often implicitly , without giving it much thought . Only Tom Boellstorff 's recent book makes an explicit experiment of this move , reflecting on the implications of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Boellstorff 2008 ) . And it is in making an experiment of it that it is possible to attempt to hold apart the methodological decision from the epistemological ( or ontological ) claims that might be made about these worlds . A great deal of non-ethnographic work , for instance , relies on just this kind of confusion in order to treat online worlds and games as " laboratories of human behavior " ( e.g. the work of Edward Castronova ) . However , as Golub points out here , virtual worlds are built out of existing ones , and the previously existing actual worlds are necessary but not sufficient grounds for the emergence of the new " virtual " worlds -- which is to say , they are not a simple mirror or iteration of general human culture . And despite the manifest excitement with which scholars have approached these cases as novel and interesting , few seem to have actually taken on the task of characterizing this novelty -- this supplementary or extra " worlding " that takes place -- and instead have treated it as a variation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know . There is a second move in the analysis of online , networked cultural life , which is to return to behaviors and practices as themselves constitutive of a fieldsite . Here , it is not the boundedness of space or place that gives meaning to everyday life , but the nature of mediated interaction itself . In part , this is what Coleman attempts to capture through the analysis of hacker sociality . This move happens in opposition to the first one , invoking the necessity of looking at the dual sociality created by mediated communication -- both online and in person -- as that which makes it distinctive . In this respect , the camps and conferences that are a frequent feature of hacker 's lives ( and which are spreading to other domains as well ) are an effect of this dual sociality and not a face-to-face practice that precedes it . The " cultural " plane of hacking therefore is not place/spacebased but a zone of pragmatic stability that emerges out of multiple modes of interaction . These stabilities of practice are sustained and repeated in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiple modalities of communication and collaboration involved in creating software and networks . Hence , the object of " hacker sociality " comes to look similar in form to objects like rituals , carnivals , or feasts ( and thus the turn to theorists like Turner and Bakhtin as resources for understanding them ) . The question remains , however , what difference does online software-mediated interaction make to this formation of pragmatic stabilities ? Coleman answers that it is the very details of technical practice -- hacking , coding , designing , tinkering , writing licenses -- which provides the content of these ritual-like pragmatic stabilities , and hence remediates the cultural as something endemic to ( and located only in the practices of ) this community of individuals . Finally there is a third and lateral move , which is away from culture and towards " social imaginaries . " A focus on social imaginaries ( especially those such as the public sphere and the economy ) at first rejects the " cultural " as a meaningful word , but without sacrificing the complex combination of ideal and material @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than many cultures ( each distinct ) , social imaginaries come in only a handful of historically ramified forms tethered to global secular modernity of the last 400 years or so ( Taylor 2004 , Kelty 2008 ) . A focus on " social imaginaries " as a replacement for culture can then be employed to analyze public spheres , democratic deliberation , and diasporic identities , both in person and via new media technologies . Such a move can push analysis so far beyond the question of information technology that it disappears or ends up making little or no difference to the case under consideration . Frequently this leads people to ask , for instance , whether the Internet is a public sphere ( usually in the sense given by Habermas ) or whether new forms of political speech ( blogging , chat , IM , Twitter ) change the dynamics of mass media politics , frame issues in new ways , and include , or exclude , people in new ways . Such questions are obviously productive , but they ignore the specificity -- the cultural specificity -- of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dominic Boyer 's piece demonstrates , the analysis of social imaginaries really only gets interesting when some version of the cultural is retained . Understanding the production and movement of social imaginaries itself requires a cultural analysis of the people , practices , places , and techniques that make them go . Practices of journalistic knowledge-making are a crucial component of the formation of imaginaries and are themselves under assault from the very proliferation of information technologies , software , and networks . It is the cultural features of journalism that structure the way an imaginary of the public sphere takes shape -- not just the content that circulates , as we say , " in the public sphere . " New technological possibilities , disastrous financial arrangements , and new forms of writing , blogging , tweeting , and chatting are all transforming the organizations , the life-worlds , and the practices of the people who make journalistic knowledge and make it circulate . It is therefore incumbent on us ( anthropologists , as well as the journalists in Boyer 's account ) to ask how this reformed consciousness determines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the words that circulate , or by the ( recursive ) technological layers that give it form , but also by the self-understanding of the actors who occupy it . What at first might seem a contradiction -- that social imaginaries replace the concept of culture , yet analyses of social imaginaries are only interesting when they retain a cultural analysis -- is in my understanding a response to the other two moves : making up worlds and treating embodied techniques and practices as the site of culture . For a cultural analysis to work , there must be more at stake in understanding the role of networked information technologies than simply treating them as one more kind of place where human behavior occurs , or as one more form of life among many . Rather , the technical and epistemic practices of well-chosen groups of people -- journalists in Boyer 's case -- must be explored if one wants to understand the difference that new technologies make to human behavior . Indeed , it is Boyer who comes closest to embarking on a cultural understanding of the ubiquity of attempts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " cybernetic-informatic consciousness " that he uses to link journalists and anthropologists together opens a door to understanding why computers and cultures are equally everywhere today -- and maybe for some surprising reasons that have a lot to do with the mid-century successes of both cybernetics and anthropology . Cybernetics ' fortunes look a lot like culture 's -- overused , diffuse , heavily critiqued , yet nonetheless compelling in their most rigorous forms . Cybernetics ' dissemination looks a lot like culture 's -- taken up across nearly every discipline , attenuated by circulation , unpoliced by classic disciplinary modes of ownership and exclusion . One might re-think , therefore , the critiques of ethnographic authority in the 1980s through this lens . They can be read not as critiques of the culture concept , or of the pretensions to scientificity ( they certainly were in some quarters ) , but as critiques of the authority of the concept of culture ( or of science more generally ) . What these critiques proposed was the impossibility of authoritative knowledge about the social world ; what they brought about was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that point real , authority of the concept of culture . It is for this reason that these essays should be seen as part of a project of reconstruction -- not only of the concept of culture , but of culture and computers together . If some analysis of the cultural is still central here -- both to anthropology and to a rich understanding of the transformation of the world by information technology -- then it might just be that these essays are at the cutting edge , not for their focus on technology , but for their stubborn insistence on saving and refining the concept of the cultural itself . What is also clear , however , is that such a task is intimately tied to the practice of anthropological fieldwork and that each of these papers in different ways seeks to demonstrate the difficult work that is necessary for the concept of culture to be of any use at all . There is , for instance , a difference between really studying the lifeworld of hackers , as they live and breath , and simply treating them as cloistered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are , which is nonetheless both very interesting and not easy to elicit ) . There is a difference between playing an online game once or twice and writing an essay about that experience , and spending two years creating two level 80 healers , raiding on weekends , and developing strong emotional bonds with a collection of other game-players in order to understand the nature of action and worlding . There is a difference between reading a bit of Habermas and loudly proclaiming the epochal changes wrought on our public sphere by the decline of newspapers and actually talking to journalists about their practices . Golub 's contribution , for instance , does not shy away from the details of World of Warcraft , the way many articles by lawyers do ( just to pick on those who can take it ) . Legal analysis of these games eschews detailed description , either because it seems way too geeky to do so , or more likely because it is seen as irrelevant to the argument being made ( which in many circles of legal studies today is a deliberately thin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Golub must demonstrate the details of this lifeworld in order to make his case that players in WoW deliberately break down and limit the sensory aspects of the game in order to achieve other goals . What he demonstrates thereby is not the sensory realism of these games , but their social realism -- the ways in which the game facilitates , and perhaps transforms , affectively intense social bonds . Coleman 's contribution does something similar , by showing in detail the nature of hacker embodiment and sociality across both the lived experience of the conference or hacker camp and the everyday interaction online . This analysis of conferences as an innovation of virtuality , not something that precedes them , has general applicability . It has long been true of scientific and scholarly fields ( Diana Crane 's famous " invisible colleges " and the essential role of the scientific congress and yearly conferences ) , but is now also true of many other fields , from security guards to struggling musicians , where people develop social bonds according to professional and work affinities , not geographical or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ congresses , and festivals to enhance their careers and make new relationships , to experience fun and exhaustion , and to enhance storytelling and history-making . It will be only a matter of time before Facebook conferences emerge in the same fashion -- not as a re-connection of old friends , but as a new form of cultural life . Do we still need a " digital " anthropology to understand such a transformation ? Yes and no . In the end , it may be that ( as Boyer suggests ) anthropologists have been thinking through these issues along -- at least since Gregory and Mary were invited to the Macy conferences , if not beginning with Boas . Computer programmers are fond of the saying : " Garbage in , Garbage out . " It 's a way of saying that no matter how carefully or precisely one focuses on the computer itself , if one puts bad data in , one will get bad data out . The same might be true of anthropology . If the problem of culture and the cultural remains anthropology 's most lasting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Culture in , Culture out " should be our mantra and our warning . REFERENCES Axel , Brian Keith . 2004 . " The Context of Diaspora . " Cultural Anthropology 19:26-60 . Barker , Joshua . 2008 . " Playing with Publics : Technology , Talk and Sociability in Indonesia . " Language &; Communication 28:127-142 . Bernal , Victoria . 2005 . " Eritrea On-Line : Diaspora , Cyberspace , and the Public Sphere . " American Ethnologist 32:660-675 . Boellstorff , Tom . 2008 . Coming of Age in Second Life : An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human . Princeton University Press . Escobar , Arturo et al . 1994 . " Welcome to Cyberia : Notes on the Anthropology of Cyberculture and Comments and Reply . " Current Anthropology 35:211-231 . Fischer , M. M.J. 1999 . " Worlding Cyberspace : Toward a Critical Ethnography in Time , Space , and Theory . " In George Marcus , ed . Critical Anthropology Now : Unexpected Contexts , Shifting Constituencies , Changing Agendas , 245-304 . Santa Fe : SAR Press . Ginsburg , Faye D. , Lila @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Worlds : Anthropology on New Terrain . Berkeley : University of California Press . Hine , Christine . 2000 . Virtual Ethnography . London : Sage Publishers . Kelty , Christopher M. 2008 . Two Bits : The Cultural Significance of Free Software . Durham : Duke University Press . Larkin , Brian . 2008 . Signal and Noise : Media , Infrastructure , and Urban Culture in Nigeria . Durham : Duke University Press . Lysloff , Rene T. A. 2003 . " Musical Community on the Internet : An On-line Ethnography . " Cultural Anthropology 18:233-263 . Miller , D. , and D. Slater . 2000 . The Internet : An Ethnographic Approach . Berg Publishers . Rabinow , Paul , George E. Marcus , Tobias Rees , and James Faubion. 2008 . Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary . Durham : Duke University Press . Strathern , Marilyn . 2006 . " A Community of Critics ? Thoughts on New Knowledge . " The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12:191-209 . Taylor , Charles . 2004 . Modern Social Imaginaries . Durham : Duke University Press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . 2002 . " The Anthropology of Online Communities . " Annual Review of Anthropology 31:449-467 . By Christopher Kelty , University of California , Los Angeles 
##4080566 ON FIRST IMPRESSION , the temple-fortress complex of Chankillo seems like the result of bad ideas and an extreme surplus of free time . From the outside it appears to be defending nothing more important than a sandy hillside where northern Peru 's Atacama Desert meets the Andes . The Casma River runs down the valley floor three-quarters of a mile away , giving life to a vein of green vegetation in the unrelenting beige of the desert . More than 2,000 years ago , the people living nearby left their villages to build three concentric walls totaling more than a mile in length , some of them 30 feet high and more than 20 feet thick , around a stone temple devoted to the sun . Any modern general would have been severely disappointed in Chankillo 's fortifications . The difficulties of defending the place seem so great that some archaeologists have questioned whether it was a fortress at all . The first problem is that despite being on a hill , Chankillo does not command the high ground . The hilltop is northwest of the fort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sling stones onto defenders manning the fortress 's outer walls with little fear of counterattack . Second , the fort has no source of water or place to store food during a siege . As if that is n't enough , the outer wall has five gates to defend , and the second and third walls each have four gates . Rather than putting these entrances in places where the terrain is steep or difficult to cross , they are located where it is easiest to walk or run up the hillside . The temple at Chankillo was built sometime between 400 and 200 B.C. , around the same time a religion that seemed to unify the region was starting to decline . The Chavn cult was first identified at the ancient city of Chavn de Huntar 75 miles east . The cult may have provided a politically stabilizing influence throughout much of northern Peru . As the religion lost its influence , however , localized groups began developing independent religions and probably political systems as well . " The collapse of Chavn ... may have been followed by increased conflict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Peru . " Combat and weaponry were known before , but only at this time does conflict rise to the scale of true warfare . " It was the beginning of the end of a time period Andean archaeologists call the Early Horizon . Very little is known about the people who built Chankillo . Not much archaeology has taken place outside the fortress , and the villages where the builders lived have not yet been discovered . But like many people from across northern Peru at this time , they began to feel threatened by neighboring groups and built hill forts . Those forts , however , are often located in places that would not have protected their crops or homes . Chankillo and other Early Horizon fortresses are raising questions about the use of violence in ancient Andean societies . GHEZZI LEADS ME TO a gate in the complex 's outer wall . Even as the wind scours me with grains of sand and the sun threatens to peel the ears off my head , I can at least be glad that I did n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of 100 pounds , as people did thousands of times to build the fortress walls . Ghezzi has been excavating Chankillo since 2001 and through his investigation he has developed some surprising insights into how these buildings were used . " I think you have to turn around and think of the gates as defense mechanisms and not weaknesses , " says Ghezzi . " The gates contain an element of surprise . " He leads me through one of them . It is basically a narrow tunnel in the 20-foot-thick wall . As we exit the gate , we are confronted by another wall and a choice of turning left or right into a narrow passage where defenders could hurl stones or spears onto us from parapets above . Anyone making it out of the corridor would end up in a no man 's land between the first and second walls with no options but retreating or running along the wall to attack the next gate . Ghezzi believes that Chankillo was a temple first and a fortress second . The location of the gates would have allowed easy access @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ locations so that the complex could be defended by a relatively small number of warriors . A small number of clay figurines discovered at the site gives Ghezzi a clear picture of the equipment that the warriors at Chankillo used . The figurines are about six inches tall and wear crescent-shaped ornaments in their noses . Their necks and shoulders are covered with striped cloth . The way the figurines are decorated makes it easy to imagine that pageantry was an important aspect of battles fought here . Andean warriors protected themselves with quilted tunics and rectangular shields , and armed themselves with spears and spear-throwers , slings , and maces with stone heads . " The technology of warfare developed quickly , much like in the rest of the world , but then remained stable for a very , very long period , " says Ghezzi . Andean cultures never invented the techniques necessary to make iron and bronze , which probably limited the development of new and deadlier weapons . " The weaponry that an Inca warrior carried is very similar in general terms to that of a Moche @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The lack of a water source at the site might also be an important indicator of the way wars were fought in this region . " You are going to have to store a lot of water out there if you are going to garrison Chankillo , " says John Topic , an expert on Andean warfare at Trent University in Ontario , Canada . " Maybe you do n't garrison these things and when you want a battle you arrange it . " Ghezzi agrees that the strategies and tactics of warfare at Chankillo and other fortresses dating to the same time period were probably influenced by the religion and cosmology of these ancient civilizations . Conquest probably meant something entirely different to the rulers of Chankillo than it does to people today . " It does n't seem as though the control of territory is the actual purpose , " says Ghezzi . " The focus seems to be on controlling the main symbols of society as they are expressed through ceremonial architecture . " The purpose of the fighting at Chankillo may have been to capture and control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the people in the Casma Valley . " In much later periods in the Andes , the control of populations was far more important than the control of any other resource , " says Ghezzi . " It 's an economy that has no money ; therefore , access to labor is the most important thing . " Being able to control holy places and the gods who occupied them provided rulers with the means to control people and their labor because they could intercede with gods to ensure better harvests and more wealth for the community . According to Ghezzi , warfare between two groups was seen not as a battle between men , but a struggle between gods . " The battle is a representation of who has a stronger god , and the one who has the stronger god then has the right to dominate the losing society , " says Ghezzi . Ritual warfare was common among the Inca , according to historic accounts , and ritual combat called tinku battles still take place in certain parts of the Andes . Tinku battles are fought between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same or related communities . " If you win , your group is better , " says Topic . " If you win consistently , people will find ways to change their allegiance from one side to another . " The architecture at Chankillo may indicate that the community that used the fort separated itself into moieties . " At Chankillo , inside those walls there are two separate towers that are side by side but are separate from each other . " In the past , people were killed during tinku battles and their deaths were believed to serve an important purpose . " The universe consists of multiple levels , and energy flows from one level to another and it 's that flow of energy that keeps the world functioning . That flux of energy requires death , " says Topic . The Quechua word " tinku " refers to the meeting of two complementary halves to create a larger whole . It can refer to the confluence of two rivers , the pairing of a man and woman , or , in this case , the joining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warriors in battle are engaged in an almost sexual act where the product is death , in much the same way that a man and a woman have sex to produce a new life . " People are participating in warfare , in part , to reproduce the world , " says Topic . The practice of ritual warfare such as tinku battles has probably changed over the past 2,400 years , but Ghezzi believes that it provides a good general framework for the methods and motivations of warfare at Chankillo . " Perhaps it was n't necessary to have a confrontation of two armies , " says Ghezzi . " Perhaps it was a confrontation of relatively small groups for the possession of these religious centers or even the religious artifacts contained in them , and if that is captured then the defeat is conceded and the victorious party gains access to labor , probably some kind of taxation , women , or the right to control this or that resource .... You go to the head and then you control the rest of society . " If the purpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than another , sneak attacks and siege warfare might have been counterproductive . How does one god defeat another if only one side shows up to the fight ? Staged battles may have been necessary to gain a legitimate right to rule over a group of people , and that was probably the most important thing for societies where vast amounts of labor were necessary for creating food and wealth . According to Ghezzi , " the territory without the population is worthless . " WE MAKE OUR WAY across the rubble-filled spaces between the walls , moving through two more gates on our way to the buildings at the heart of the temple-fortress to see what made Chankillo a place worth defending . The remains of two round buildings , which Ghezzi has not yet excavated , occupy the hilltop . South of them lies a 21,500-square-foot pile of rubble that was probably the spiritual center of an entire culture . The bases of massive stone pillars still rise out of the pile , so Ghezzi named the building the Temple of the Pillars . Far below us , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rise with 13 rectangular towers on top of it looking like a row of teeth badly in need of braces . The remains of square buildings lie to the east and west of the ridge . Ghezzi interprets the buildings as observatories with the towers on the ridge serving as an artificial horizon . The line of the towers curves in a way that makes only 12 of them visible from the eastern observatory . Ghezzi has determined that standing in the observatory and marking the place where the setting sun crosses the line of towers would allow priests to divide the year into 12 months lasting 28 days , which would correspond with the time between full moons . To make this calendar of lunar months correspond with the solar year , a 13th month needs to be added every fourth year . To do that , the astronomer priests at Chankillo would move to the western observatory where all 13 towers are visible and mark the passing days by watching the rising sun cross the line of towers . Ghezzi points out a small notch in the temple wall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notch aligns with the towers and the observatories . On the summer solstice the sun would set behind the temple , aligning with the notch in the wall and the gap between the 12th and 13th towers , indicating the date had a special significance for the people of Chankillo . This astronomical alignment may have been what made the temple 's location so important . The ability to control the calendar -- in effect , controlling time -- could have provided a source of power for whoever ruled Chankillo . Unlike the round buildings , the temple floor is covered by an evenly spread layer of stones from the collapsed walls and fallen pillars . The footing is treacherous enough that we walk along the remains of the temple walls . When the walls of Chankillo were finally breached the attackers took special care to destroy the temple thoroughly . " Destroying a ceremonial site may have been a way of destroying the legitimacy of a group , " says Elizabeth Arkush , an Andean warfare expert at the University of Virginia . The conquest of the temple not only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroyed an entire faith . " Very often when you captured a deity or a sacred place you waited a while and you saw what happened . If you had good luck that deity , or huaca , might be on your side and there was no point in destroying it , " says Topic . " If , on the other hand , it was obvious that the huaca was not on your side , then you went out and destroyed it . " PHOTO ( COLOR ) : In northern Peru , a 2,400-year-old temple-fortress complex overlooks a small ridge topped by a series of towers that served as an astronomical observatory . How the complex was built and conquered is changing ideas about the origins of warfare . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Archaeologist Ivan Ghezzi stands atop the ruins of a gate in Chankillo 's outer wall . Invaders would have had to run through this narrow , now rubble-filled , corridor while being attacked from above . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Fragments of a vessel found at Chankillo reveal the equipment and dress of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them using shields and spear-throwers . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : The temple-fortress of Chankillo was built in the third century B.C. The rectangular building , called the Temple of the Pillars , may have been the spiritual and political center of the region . PHOTO ( COLOR ) By Zach Zorich Zach Zorich is a senior editor at ARCHAEOLOGY . Correction In " Fall of a Sacred Fortress " ( May/June ) , we state that Chankillo is located where the Atacama Desert meets the Andes ( page 31 ) . The site is actually located in Peru 's coastal desert , between the Andes and the sea . 
##4080568 The full moon casts a warm glow across the dirt plaza of Ranchos de Taos and the adobe walls of the church of Saint Francis of Assisi , made famous by the paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe . Inside the parish hall , archaeologist Sunday Eiselt of Southern Methodist University ( SMU ) faces a small crowd . She 's a little nervous . Eiselt is about to ask the residents of this conservative Hispanic community near Taos , New Mexico , for permission to dig up their backyards and the floors of their centuries-old homes . Today , the area is known as a ski town and a magnet for both the super-rich and hippie artists , but the community was founded in the 17th century , and is one of the oldest in the country . " We 're not here to dig and leave " Eiselt says once the audience is settled . " We want you to tell us where to look and what to look for . " She emphasizes that the Taos Collaborative Archaeology Project can only move forward with the community 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the project is part of a broad-based effort to investigate the history of Taos ( see " Whiskey Rebellion " page 42 ) . Locals begin to ask questions about the excavations and eventually offer suggestions on where to look . Father Francis Malley , the parish priest , promises to announce the project in next week 's mass and put it in the church bulletin . Everyone is enthusiastic , which probably has something to do with the project 's surprising goal : instead of ancient ceramics or prehistoric fire pits , Eiselt and her SMU students are looking for toys . Some of the discoveries they 've already made cover a folding table in the back of the room : jacks and marbles , a doll 's head , part of a tiny teacup , a gray Lego plank . Residents gather around when the meeting is over and point out items they recognize . One woman identifies a scrap of gauzy fabric as a doll 's veil . " We did n't have dolls until the 1960s , " she says . " We used homemade toys before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's lives have changed in the past 150 years , the project is revealing an often overlooked aspect of society and showing that " Barbie dolls and bubble gum wrappers can be part of archaeology , too , " says Eiselt . She is interested in how the introduction of American consumer culture and a changing educational system affected the lives of Hispanic children in the area , where Catholic and Presbyterian parochial schools existed alongside American public schools/The introduction of American wage labor economies in the early 20th century brought many economic benefits , but at a cost , " she says . It also changed the way children were raised , and this should show up in children 's material culture over time . A purely historical approach to this change is n't enough , Eiselt says . " Archival documents pertaining to children are selective , " and written by adults with their own biases toward children , especially their own . Archaeology contributes a different perspective by looking at the objects children actually interacted with , as well as direct evidence of their activities . As a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are " active cultural agents who can have major influences on society . " THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD is a very new field , " says Jane Eva Baxter of DePaul University 's Department of Anthropology , one of the few experts on the subject . In the past , archaeologists have seen children as passive recipients of culture , and assumed they were either invisible in the archaeological record or a source of randomizing " noise " that distorts adult patterns ( an idea with which many parents would agree ) . But concentrating on children " forces us to question our own assumptions about the past in ways that adult archaeology does n't , " says Baxter . Rethinking assumptions about who contributes to a culture is a positive shift , she adds , considering that people under the age of 15 , one common definition of childhood , make up about a third of most cultural groups . Previous archaeological investigations into childhood have involved reexamining sites excavated for other purposes . Baxter herself has examined toys , clothing , and other related items excavated from 19th-century American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nevada , and a plantation in Jefferson Parish , Louisiana , among others . She wrote the first archaeological dissertation focused on children . Her work shows that children 's behaviors leave identifiable patterns in the archaeological record through the distribution of child-specific artifacts . For example , the grouping of toys at some sites showed that kids had specific places to play , some where adults could watch them and others out of sight . Boys ' and girls ' toys were more segregated in urban environments , suggesting children played separately , while the toys were more mixed in rural settings . Baxter says Eiselt 's project may be the first excavation to focus explicitly on childhood . " One way society creates value is through kids , how they 're treated and raised , " Eiselt says . " They can tell us things we ca n't get otherwise . " Children 's tendency to accept new technologies and push the bounds of tradition more readily than adults is n't just a modern phenomenon . Archaeologists are just starting to recognize that children are a source of innovation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affect how we understand technological and social change over time . This is especially useful in understanding the culture of northern New Mexico , where Native American , Hispanic , and Anglo populations have mixed and clashed for centuries , and where many children are the product of the blended society that results . Eiselt 's project encompasses Ranchos de Taos and three other tiny communities , mainly Hispanic , that surround Saint Francis . She first came to the Taos area to study the relations between Native Americans and Hispanics , but when her initial test pits resulted in a surprising number of toys , she decided to change her focus . Excavations are now geared toward investigating the two cornerstones of childhood : school and play . IN 2008 AND 2009 , students excavated at two houses . One , on the Ranchos de Taos plaza , belongs to Guadalupe Tafoya , executive director of the Questa Chamber of Commerce . The other , in the nearby community of Talpa , is owned by her brother , Felipe . By Guadalupe Tafoya 's estimate , her family has lived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tree-ring dates from her home 's ceiling beams go back to 1827 . The houses packed-earth floors yielded hundreds of childhood artifacts dating at least to the 19th century , including miniature versions of stone tools used to grind wheat or corn . A handmade clay horse still bears the mark of a tiny fingernail , and may even be prehistoric , but most of the items date to the 20th century , from Depression-era train wheels to an eye from a stuffed animal and a doll-sized set of binoculars . Fragments of crayons , chalk , and pencil lead suggest art and education became part of play at home . Child-care relics include diaper pins , a strainer spoon , and a small bottle that once held Skuft Shine for Children 's Shoes . Tafoya endorses the project wholeheartedly , even if it means large holes in her living room floor for weeks at a time . " I think it 's very important , " she says . " Children are not recognized for their contributions to society . But you learn about a society or culture through children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their kids . " In excavation units outside Tafoya 's home , students found plastic coins , a bicycle pedal , and a cowboy pendant , probably from a necklace . They also excavated about 20 community dump sites scattered around the study area . A metal toy gun , pieces of a plastic rocking horse , and a red Power Rangers figure show how toys have evolved through the 20th century . " In many cases , we can date them to specific years based on the manufacturing dates provided by the toy companies , " Eiselt says . It 's already clear that kids in Taos had more toys in the modern era , starting in the 1950s . Children in the 19th century had few toys , almost all homemade , or they went without . In the mid-20th century , manufactured toys and other children 's goods flooded Taos , in large part through the secular education system . Many Anglo schoolteachers were from outside the community . " They brought new songs and games and toys to occupy children during recess , " says Eiselt . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system was instituted , the children played with clay , corn husks , and flowers . Communal toys and games such as jacks and marbles were gradually replaced by toys allowing more solo play , such as with dolls and Legos . This may reflect a larger shift in the economy of the area , in which children moved from being members of a rural workforce to more educated , individualized , and indulged roles within the family , with more leisure time . The 1950s were a period of great change in this isolated community . In the midst of a postwar boom , the economy was shifting from rural agriculture to wage labor . Both the availability of affordable plastic toys and the arrival of department stores to replace mail-order catalogs and locally run stores affected children directly . " Basically , I think we 're documenting what happens when ' modernity ' hits a village and starts affecting how children are raised , " Eiselt says . To deduce the cultural effects , she says , it 's essential to consider the cultural models children 's items embody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with a message . Look at Barbie -- she 's not just a doll . She 's an icon of feminine beauty , which acknowledges a narrow range of feminine ideals . " With a little sleuthing , one student traced a truck wheel to a company whose motto was " Structo Toys Make Men Out of Boys . " One of the greatest effects of modern changes at Ranchos de Taos was the homogenization of the educational system . Although parents welcomed the arrival of Anglo schools , they also fought -- unsuccessfully , it turned out -- for control of what and how their children were taught . Eiselt hopes that excavations at the Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic parish school , which closed in 2006 , will clarify her hypothesis that the institutionalization of education began a process that parents today would recognize : the gradual convergence of education and entertainment , the start of the era of " edutainment . " If she and her team find a number of toys at the school they might be able to track an increasing link between education and play @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to study is looking less and less valid , Eiselt says . " Our work will show that it is complex but not impossible to study children , and that new perspectives on cultural contact and change are possible through the study of children 's lives . " Kids ' play is n't pointless and random , she says . It 's an opportunity to act out adult roles , and it can shape attitudes that are carried into adulthood . By looking at childhood directly , archaeologists hope to complement historical accounts and create a richer picture of a crucial but overlooked segment of society . " Children do n't write their own memoirs , " Eiselt says . " We think they have something to say . " She is already amazed at how the community has embraced the project . " Anything relating to childhood has some sort of magical , instant appeal . Everyone relates to it . Everyone was a child once . " PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Taos Collaborative Archaeology Project members Pipad Krajaejun , and Allison McCabe excavate a house in Ranchos de @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Depression-era toy train wheel were found under the packed-dirt floor . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Archaeologists excavated mass-produced toys , such as this torso from a Lego figure and a teddy bear eye , that postdate the 1960s . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : A glass heart and a Jack are both difficult to date , but were found within a foot of the surface , suggesting they were manufactured relatively recently . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : Archaeologists pitch in during the annual mud replastering of the church of Saint Francis of Assisi , one of painter Georgia O'Keeffe 's most well-known subjects . PHOTO ( COLOR ) : This Leslie-Henry Young Buffalo Bill toy pistol ( 1955-60 ) was found during excavation of a historic-period dump site . PHOTO ( BLACK &; WHITE ) : A 1943 photograph of children playing in a community south of Taos is one of hundreds that project archaeologists are scrutinizing , even as they analyze excavated artifacts such as these two " peewee " marbles . PHOTO ( COLOR ) By Julian Smith Julian Smith is a frequent contributor to ARCHAEOLOGY @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summer . 
##4088950 Culture &; Civilization </p> pre-formatted table ONCE philosophers , theologians , and poets asked the question : What is man ? These days , cognitive scientists have taken over the job . Want to know what makes humans unique -- why we create music , worship God , fall in love , provide for our children , feel despair ? Ask the brain scientist . Earlier modern revolutions in human understanding made their leaders and explicators world famous , even to those who had no idea what those leaders and explicators were talking about -- think of Freud or Einstein . That kind of fame has not yet come to the captains of the cognitive revolution , as cognoscenti sometimes refer to the transformation in scientific thinking about the human mind . The wider public , the same sort of people who once tossed about the terms " Oedipus complex " and " theory of relativity " after reading about them in Time , is largely unaware of the cognitive revolution . </p> The field is often said to have originated in the 1950s , when the linguist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rules giving us the ability to generate infinite numbers of phrases and sentences . But it took decades of methodological and technological advances -- the MRI machine , which gives scientists the power to watch the brain in action , came into wide use only in the 1990s-for the field to gain a real cultural presence . Public ignorance of the brain theorists in their midst can also be chalked up to the fact that cognitive science is not a single , unified discipline . It encompasses ethology , evolutionary psychology , computer science , neuroscience , behavioral economics , anthropology , and even chemistry . </p> And finally , not many people who understand the amygdala and hypothalamus also write about them in ways the public can understand , much less enjoy . Most of what we hear on the subject veers between impenetrable academic papers and gee-whiz , **33;33197;TOOLONG enthusiasm . ( As I write , the American Museum of Natural History in New York is advertising an exhibit called " Brain : The Inside Story . " " Play Computer Brain Games ! ... Walk Through a Giant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- Oliver Sacks , Malcolm Gladwell , and Jonah Lehrer ( the author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist ) -- who have written gracefully and knowledgeably about cognitive science . But their work hardly adds up to a cohesive picture of the field . </p> David Brooks 's new book , The Social Animal , tries to fill that gap and offer a thoroughgoing portrait of what brain science can tell us about contemporary American culture and politics . Brooks , the New York Times columnist and author of two previous books of " comic sociology , " is not entirely successful at the hugely ambitious task he has set for himself ; it 's hard to imagine anyone who could be . Nevertheless , he has written a fascinating interpretation of a discipline with immense power over our current way of thinking . </p> Brooks is especially interested in what cognitive science can tell us about success and happiness in our own society . To explore that question -- and to keep us scientifically challenged readers happy -- he attempts his own experiment , a literary one . Rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us with a test case in the upbringing , education , and development of a fictional couple named Harold and Erica , blessedly successful members of America 's educated class . </p> Harold grows up in a stable , loving home , gets a degree in global economics and foreign relations , runs a historical society , writes commercially successful biographies and histories , and works for a D.C. think tank . Despite a mentally unstable single mother , Erica will start her own consultancy business , become the CEO of a media company , and take a high-level staff position for a successful presidential candidate . Brooks may take things too far when he has her become secretary of commerce , but you get the idea : these are meritocratic stars . </p> What can the cognitive revolution tell us about people like this ? Brooks begins by reviewing infant brain development . Adapted by millions of years of evolution , the infant brain intuits patterns and creates models out of the galaxies of sensory data exploding around him . This learning is an actual physical process . The baby @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through connections called synapses . Humans develop hundreds of trillions of those synapses ; one scientist imagines them as " a football stadium filled with spaghetti . " The neurons store information . This means that experience is actually written into the baby 's -- in this case , Harold 's -- brain . </p> Yet for all his innate cleverness , child Harold is a bit of a wild man . He is easily distracted and bounces from one thought to another like one of his rubber balls . This is where nurture makes the difference . The bedtimes , the daily routines , and the nightly homework insisted upon by a determined mother teach Harold the orderliness and self-control that will bring him success in school and in life . His parents are well-off , but they do n't just provide him with computers and private schools ; as Brooks demonstrates in detail , " they pass down habits , knowledge , and cognitive traits . " </p> Indeed , like all humans , Harold and Erica are " social animals . " By this , Brooks means something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ together . The brain is actually molded by interactions with other people . Human infants are born with " mirror neurons " ; that 's why babies imitate the faces and sounds of those around them . Infants also internalize the attentiveness of their mothers . In the 1950s , the British psychologist John Bowl-by theorized that children of mothers attuned to their own moods are more resilient and develop greater capacity for emotional bonds , and there is now abundant research suggesting they are more likely to thrive as students , spouses , and parents . Parents themselves unconsciously imitate the patterns of their own childhood , patterns that have been handed down over generations . Erica 's mother 's family is Chinese , for instance , while her father 's is Mexican . They do not explicitly teach the girl their values and different habits of sociability ; but unconsciously , Erica so successfully assimilates these attitudes that they come to feel as natural as breathing . </p> In Brooks 's telling , then , cognitive science yields a brain nothing like the mechanical and autonomous information processor stripped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discipline influenced by artificial intelligence . Humans are inevitably and beneficially guided by emotions and unconscious associations . Most of us already suspect that subterranean life drives our sexual and romantic desires . Experts fill in the details . When encountering the opposite sex , hormones like testosterone and oxytocin bathe our brains ; when we fall in love , we get high on dopamine , much the way addicts do on cocaine . Cognitive scientists believe because we are driven by a brain adapted to the early human environment , men equate female beauty and " fertility cues " -- symmetrical features , full lips , and a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.7 , the approximate dimensions of both Playboy bunnies and prehistoric fertility goddesses . Since men can tend towards violence and promiscuity , women are less visual and more guarded when choosing a mate . Both women and men prefer kindness in a spouse , but women are aroused by male status -- though Brooks does not apply this rule to Erica , whose ambition and achievements far exceed her husband 's . </p> Unconscious feelings are not limited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ climb through the world of business and politics , Brooks is sharply critical of technocrats , planners , management experts , IQ hawks , and even writers of the French Enlightenment for their excessive faith in human rationality and calculation . Reason is not like a " captain sitting in the cockpit making decisions , " he writes . Moral emotions and intuitions , some of them innate , some of them a product of individual experience , some primitive , some culturally adaptive , saturate the most methodical decisions . Policymakers generally fail to factor in subjective life . Experts have assumed we could educate kids about the risks of drugs and unprotected sex , for instance , so they could make " good decisions . " But the good decider " has rigged the game " ; her judgment is already infused with moral leanings that reduce temptation . </p> Brooks wields his trademark comic sociology to mock modern society for overvaluing professional achievement and academic prestige . In one hilarious riff , he describes " the Immortals , " older plutocrats who ride mountain bikes on roads near @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of beautiful younger women . The result is a " weird genetic phenomenon in which their grandmothers looked like Gertrude Stein but their granddaughters looked like Uma Thurman . " Our heroes , Harold and Erica , are better than this . The aging Erica realizes that her ambition has made her neglect the " deeper " sides of herself , and so she sets out to educate her emotions , traveling , listening to music , reading novels , and ( in another stretch ) taking up woodworking . Pondering his life , the elderly Harold is humbled to recognize that he , that is , " the voice in his head , " the knowing , conscious self , is as much servant as master of his being and that the individual is part of a " never-ending interpenetration of souls . " </p> In other words , Brooks sees cognitive science as a source of wisdom about who we are and how to live . What is man ? He is genes and hormones and ever-firing synapses , to be sure . But he is also evolved emotion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theologians view man as locked in a battle between reason and emotion , civilization and instinct , society and the individual , or as Freud might have put it , the conscious and the unconscious , the ego and the id . The Social Animal concludes that these conflicts are illusory . Instead , reason is informed by moral emotions , civilization channels instinct , culture sculpts the individual , and the unconscious educates the conscious . Human flourishing is not found by the triumph of one side over the other ; happiness is holistic . Likewise , Brooks sees no necessary divide between science and religion . " The brain was physical meat , " Harold , his mouthpiece , realizes in his last days , " but out of the billions of energy pulses emerged spirit and soul ... . The hand of God must be there . " </p> This final observation will doubtless make some scientists ' brains explode , to choose a relevant metaphor . The scientific community has not always greeted Brooks 's columns on the kinder , gentler , and more spiritual brain with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political animus , or genuine misinterpretation on the layman 's part is hard to determine . Suffice it to say that his approach to the field is unusual . Cognitive scientists are almost by definition materialists ; many of them believe that the brain 's evolved physical activity puts an end to the idea of a soul . It 's no accident that a number of today 's most vociferous atheists are comrades in the cognitive revolution . Sam Harris is a neuroscientist , Richard Dawkins an evolutionary biologist , and Daniel Dennett a philosopher much influenced by cognitive studies . </p> Some criticism of The Social Animal will be deserved , regardless of the book 's scientific accuracy . Brooks 's novelistic format tries to marry humanities and science , but the experiment has mixed results . At its less satisfying moments , The Social Animal reads like the 4 a.m. mind-racing of an idiosyncratic honors grad student ; using insight from cognitive science , he expounds on love , politics , Plato , charter schools , Coleridge , Alexander Hamilton , the intensity of life in the Middle Ages @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrative method Brooks has chosen leads him to gloss over uncertainty . Cognitive science is a young , changing discipline subject to human error and ambition ; only recently , a Harvard evolutionary biologist has been accused of fabricating data about animal cognition . More generally , some research cited in the book might follow thousands of subjects over a period of years , while others ask a series of questions of a couple of dozen college students on a single afternoon . Brooks does n't warn us about the latter . </p> Perhaps the field 's greatest uncertainty is the question of how brain activity relates to consciousness , or the mind/body problem . Scientists can explain how different parts of the brain operate when we perceive , think , remember , or desire . They can watch those parts of the brain in action . What they ca n't do is tell us how all that activity adds up to an " I , " a unified , aware self . Through Harold and Erica , Brooks avoids confronting this failure . Creative license gives him the power to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ </p> Cognitive science is radically reshaping the way we think about ourselves , and The Social Animal offers unique insight -- and comfort -- about the conclusions it draws . </p> KAY HYMOWITZ is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute . Her new book , Manning Up : How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys , will be published this month by Basic Books . </p> " Indeed like all humans , Harold and Erica are " social animals . " By this , Brooks means more than that people like to hang out together . The brain is actually molded by interactions with other people . " </p> Man has been viewed by philosophers and theologians as locked in a battle between reason and emotion , civilization and instinct . The Social Animal concludes that these conflicts are illusory . </p> Reviewed by KAY HYMOWITZ , Senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute </p> 
##4088951 CONSERVATIVES , ELITES , AND POPULISM </p> ON FEBRUARY 19 , 2009 , when the finance commentator Rick Santelli indulged in a rant against the newly unveiled " stimulus " bill on the CNBC cable network and called for a demonstration in Chicago modeled on the Boston Tea Party , he fired a shot heard round the country . Santelli 's diatribe was focused on the fact that Americans who had played by the rules , had saved much of what they had earned , and had paid their bills on time were being required to bail out fellow citizens who had gotten caught short in purchasing a domicile they could not afford or while speculating in real estate . In the weeks that followed , ordinary citizens spontaneously gathered in towns and cities across the continent to organize Tea Parties in protest against what they took to be an unjust redistribution of wealth from the industrious and the rational to the greedy and improvident . The mainstream media treated them with contempt , and most Republicans kept their distance . Leading Democrats denounced them as frauds and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when the president of the United States used the obscene epithet " teabaggers " to refer to them , however , the adherents of what was coming to be a full-fledged movement -- the Tea Party movement -- stood firm . And in the course of the summer of 2009 , as Americans began to grow fearful of the scope and intrusiveness of the Obama administration 's health-care proposal , that movement 's numbers grew . In August 2009 , when congressmen and senators held town halls to discuss the proposed bill , ordinary Americans showed up in droves ; and , to the evident dismay of their representatives , they bluntly spoke their minds . </p> By January 2010 , when the unknown Republican Scott Brown defeated the well-known Democrat Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts race for the seat in the Senate once occupied by Ted Kennedy , it was clear that the Tea Party movement was destined to become a powerful force not only within the Republican Party but in the country as a whole , and patronage-minded Republican senators and congressmen who hoped to be re-elected in 2010 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were not quick to do so soon came under fire . A three-term senator from Utah who failed to take note was denied his party 's nomination for re-election at the state 's Republican convention . A senator from Alaska , the scion of an entrenched political dynasty and a member of the Republican leadership , suffered the same fate in her party primary . In Delaware , a popular nine-term congressman who had served two terms as governor lost his party 's senatorial primary to an insurgent who had never held political office . In Kentucky , the same fate met its secretary of state . In Florida , a former-state senator came from nowhere ( the first poll had him at three percent ) to force a popular sitting governor to abandon his quest for the Republican senatorial nomination . And in the Republican senatorial primaries in Colorado and Nevada , Tea Party-backed insurgents defeated a lieutenant governor and a former party chairman . </p> It is perfectly understandable that Republican regulars were thwarted in the primaries , that Democrats were defeated in the midterm elections , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of political influence should find these developments disconcerting . It is equally understandable that those who find unpalatable either the Tea Parry 's approach or some of the more colorful and/or questionable candidates to emerge victorious as a consequence of its rise might consider this leaderless and inchoate force 's impact worrisome or even frightening . In point of fact , however , this sort of upheaval is nothing new . Such forces have risen periodically throughout the history of the United States and have their antecedents in 17th- and 18th-century England . </p> IN HIS 1748 Spirit of Laws , the great political philosopher Montesquieu attributed the recurring turmoil that had long beset England to the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature . The Tudors for the most part had been able to sidestep the problem in the 16th century because Henry VIII and his children had sufficient wealth in the lands he had seized from the Catholic Church to cover most of their needs . But their Stuart successors in the 17th century found that those resources had been largely exhausted ; and to cover their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were compelled to have frequent recourse to Parliament for revenue . </p> To their dismay and that of their ministers , what soon came to be called " the Country " rose up in high dudgeon time and time again to denounce on the floor of the House of Commons what was perceived as favoritism , corruption , arbitrary rule , conspiracy , and papist predilections on the part of a Court thought to be intent on encroaching on the rights of ordinary Englishmen and the prerogatives possessed by Parliament . These tensions produced the English civil war of the 1640s , the execution of Charles I in 1648 , the rule of the Rump Parliament and the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s and 1650s , followed by the Restoration of the monarchy in 1658 , which was in turn followed 30 years later by the Glorious Revolution . </p> By the time Montesquieu arrived in England , things had settled down . The political tensions that had periodically given rise to turbulence and bloodshed were now being resolved peacefully through electioneering and balloting , and monarchs now found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ confidence of Parliament and were not simply tools of the Crown . </p> Montesquieu found the dynamics of English politics both instructive and amusing . " The hatred " that had long existed between Court and Country he regarded as a permanent feature . This hatred " would endure , " he observed , " because it would always be powerless , " and it would be powerless because " the parties " inspired by the separation of powers would be " composed of free men " who would be inclined to switch sides if either the executive power or the legislative power appeared to have " secured too much . " </p> The English were a commercial people who lived in what Montesquieu called " a republic concealed under the form of a monarchy . " The regime under which they were reared , being neither republican in the classical sense nor genuinely monarchical , did little to inculcate in them a spirit of self-sacrifice and even less to inspire in them a love of honor and glory . Instead , it left Englishmen to their own devices ; and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to succumb to the restlessness and anxiety that Montesquieu called inquietude . In such a nation , he remarked , the charges lodged by the party that stood in opposition to the executive branch " would augment even more " than usual " the terrors " to which a people so disposed were naturally prone , for they " would never know really whether they were in danger or not . " </p> Ordinarily the legislature , which enjoyed the confidence of the people , would be in a position to moderate their fears . " In this fashion , " Montesquieu noted , when " the terrors impressed " on the populace lacked " a certain object , they would produce nothing but vain clamors &; name-calling ; &; they would have this good effect : that they would stretch all the springs of government &; render the citizens attentive . " </p> And if the terrors fanned by the party opposed to the English executive were ever " to appear on the occasion of an overturning of the fundamental laws , " he observed , " they would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long , one would see a frightful calm , during which the whole would unite itself against the power violating the laws . " </p> Moreover , he added , if such " disputes took shape on the occasion of a violation of the fundamental laws , &; if a foreign power appeared , " as happened when the arrival of the Dutch political and military leader William of Orange in 1688 triggered the Glorious Revolution , " there would be a revolution , which would change neither the form of the government nor its constitution : for the revolutions to which liberty gives shape are nothing but a confirmation of liberty . " </p> Over the past generation , historians have tended to interpret the American Revolution similarly as a clash between Court and Country . The pattern described by Montesquieu was duplicated in colonies such as Virginia , Maryland , Massachusetts , and New York in the 17th and 18th centuries . Moreover , the charges leveled against King and Parliament by the American colonists in the period stretching from 1762 to 1776 were a compendium of those lodged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ; the opponents of the Long Parliament , the Rump Parliament , and Oliver Cromwell ; the proponents of the Glorious Revolution ; and those who subsequently became disgruntled under the rule of William of Orange following his installation as William III and the creation of William and Mary , Anne , and their Hanoverian successors George I , George II , and George III . </p> The same pattern manifested itself also in the political disputes that followed the founding of the United States . To be sure , when Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized the first American political party , they did not accuse Alexander Hamilton and those who came to be called the Federalists of papist predilections . But they did assert that the economic program proposed by Hamilton in his capacity as George Washington 's secretary of the treasury amounted to a conspiracy to overthrow republicanism in America and consolidate power in the hands of an irresponsible executive indistinguishable from a monarch . That is why Jefferson spoke of the election of 1800 and his own ascendancy to the presidency as a second American revolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sprang up against the so-called " Tariff of Abominations " shortly after its passage in 1828 . Andrew Jackson articulated much the same argument in the battle he undertook in his second presidential term ( 1832-36 ) against Nicholas Biddle 's proposal for a rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States , and so did Abraham Lincoln and his fellow Republicans in their quest in the late 1850s against what they called " the slave-power conspiracy . " </p> One could hear echoes of these earlier controversies in the campaign mounted against the railroads and banks by the People 's Party in 1892 ( the force widely considered the originator of what has come to be called " populism " ) , in the presidential campaign undertaken by the insurgent Democrat William Jennings Bryan in 1896 against the tight-money fiscal policies that he said were crucifying America on a " cross of gold , " and in Franklin Delano Roosevelt 's assertion at the Democratic Convention in 1936 that " a small group " of economic royalists was intent on concentrating " into their own hands an almost complete @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money , other people 's labor-other people 's lives . " And , of course , it is a similar suspicion that has given rise to the Tea Party movement . </p> Consider what Barack Obama and the Democrats did over the past two years -- with their so-called stimulus , health-care reform , and reform of financial regulation . Each initiative involved the passage of a bill more than a thousand pages in length that virtually no one voting on could have read , and no one but those who framed it could have understood . Each involved a massive expansion of the federal government and massive payoffs to favored constituencies . And each was part of a much larger project openly pursued by self-styled progressives in the course of the last century and aimed at concentrating in the hands of " a small group " of putative experts " an almost complete control over other people 's property , other people 's money , other people 's labor -- other people 's lives . " Without quite knowing whom they are evoking , Tea Partiers are inclined to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do not put a stop to what is going on , " for too many of us life " will be " no longer free " and " liberty no longer real " -- for otherwise the bureaucratic busybodies ensconced in Washington will deprive us of the means by which to " follow the pursuit of happiness " as we see fit . </p> The only difference is that FDR 's assertions demonizing the " economic royalists " were demonstrably false , and when the Tea Partiers make comparable claims today , they are , alas , telling the truth . </p> American liberty is more fragile than we are inclined to suppose . The Framers of the Constitution were well aware that the republics of ancient Greece and those of medieval and early modern Italy were situated on diminutive territories . They knew that Rome 's expansion had eventuated in Rome 's loss of liberty , and they understood why Montesquieu had initially argued that a republic could not be sustained on an extended territory . A government set at a considerable distance from the people over whom it rules @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of sight and out of mind , beyond reach and beyond control . This the Framers understood . They took heart , however , from the French philosopher 's suggestion that a federation of small republics could overcome this geographical imperative . They were reassured by his tacit acknowledgement that , by way of the separation of powers , the " republic concealed under the form of a monarchy " that had emerged in Great Britain had overcome this imperative as well . And they themselves observed that the religious and economic diversity that had followed from America 's territorial extension were successfully subverting the force of faction . </p> In the early 1790s , however , when James Madison began thinking about the political consequences inherent in the ambitious program of economic development charted by Alexander Hamilton , he had occasion to reconsider Montesquieu 's warning . He believed that " a consolidation of the States into one government " was implicit in Hamilton 's assertion of federal prerogatives . And he feared that such a consolidation would neutralize the expedients suggested by Montesquieu and instituted by the Framers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , which , it must be owned , is the natural propensity of every government . " </p> First , Madison thought , the separation of powers could give way to centralized administration of the sort that typified despotism . If federalism were subverted in this way and the national government by one means or another took over the prerogatives of the states and the localities , the legislature situated in the new nation 's capital would quickly prove to be incompetent " to regulate all the various objects belonging to the local governments , " and this " would evidently force a transfer of many of " those objects " to the executive department . " </p> Second , Madison contended , because the state and local governments are close to the people -- in sight and in mind , within reach and control -- they and not the federal government are the natural instruments of civic agency . If , however , they were made to be dependent on and subject to the national government , they would cease to serve this function , and the sheer size @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ popular political action . It would prevent the exercise of " that control " on the national legislature " which is essential to a faithful discharge of its trust , since neither the voice nor the sense of ten or twenty millions of people , spread through so many latitudes as are comprehended within the United States , could ever be combined or called into effect , if deprived of those local organs , through which both can now be conveyed . " In such circumstances , Madison warned prophetically , " the impossibility of acting together , might be succeeded by the inefficacy of partial expressions of the public mind , and this at length , by a universal silence and insensibility . " It was the absence of effective popular checks that would leave the national government to a " self directed course " </p> Madison , Jefferson , and their heirs in the Jacksonian period were arguably wrong about the political consequences implicit in the program proposed by Hamilton in the 1790s and revived by Henry Clay in the late 1820s . Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans implemented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American System , and that policy did not have the consequences that Madison , his associates , and their heirs feared . But the prospect that Madison imagined is , in fact , the prospect the world 's most venerable democratic republic now faces . </p> Over almost a century , under the influence of the Progressives and their heirs -- the proponents of the New Deal , the Great Society , and Barack Obama 's New Foundation -- we have experienced a gradual consolidation of power in the federal government . Legislative responsibilities have been transferred to administrative agencies lodged within the executive -- such as the Environmental Protection Agency , the Federal Communications Commission , and the vast array of bodies established under the recent healthcare reform -- and these have been delegated in an ever increasing number of spheres the authority to issue rules and regulations that have the force of law . </p> In the process , the state and local governments have become dependent on federal largesse , which always comes with strings attached in the form of funded or unfunded " mandates " designed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Civic agency , rooted as it normally is in locality , has withered as the localities have lost their leverage . The civic associations so admired by Alexis de Tocqueville have for the most part become lobbying operations with offices in Washington focused on influencing federal policy , and many of them have also become recipients of government grants and reliable **34;33232;TOOLONG of federal policy . </p> The Tea Party movement is , however , testimony to the fact that all is not lost . When confronted in a brazen fashion with the tyrannical impulse underpinning the administrative state , ordinary Americans from all walks of life are still capable of fighting back . It is easy enough to mock . Like all spontaneous popular movements , the Tea Party has attracted its fair share of cranks : it would have been a miracle if it had not attracted those who are obsessed with the question of Barack Obama 's birth certificate or the heavy-handed and ineffective procedures adopted by the Transportation Security Agency . </p> BUT IT should be reassuring rather than frightening to the American elite that at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nervous and watchful when a presidential candidate who has presented himself to the public as a moderate devotee of bipartisanship intent on eliminating waste in federal programs suddenly endorses " spreading the wealth around " and on the eve of his election speaks of " fundamentally transforming America . " It should be of comfort to them that a small-business owner in Nebraska believes he has reason to express public qualms when a prospective White House chief of staff , in the midst of an economic downturn , announces that the new administration is not about to ' let a serious crisis go to waste " and that it intends to exploit that crisis as " an opportunity to do things you could n't do before . " And it should be a source of pride to elites that the philosophical superstructure of the United States demonstrated extraordinary durability when a significant number of their fellow citizens refused to sit silent after an administration implied the inadequacy of the founding by promoting itself as the New Foundation , and after the head of government specifically questioned the special place of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " </p> Most important , it should be humbling to those elites that ordinary American citizens choose spontaneously to enter the political arena in droves , concert opposition , speak up in a forthright manner , and oust a host of entrenched office holders when they learn that a system of punitive taxation is in the offing , when they are repeatedly told what they know to be false -- that , under the new health-care system that the administration is intent on establishing , benefits will be extended and costs reduced and no one will lose the coverage he already has -- and when they discover that Medicare is to be gutted , that medical care is to be rationed , and that citizens who have no desire to purchase health insurance are going to be forced to do so . </p> In 1776 , when George Mason drafted the Virginia Declaration of Rights , he included a provision reflecting what the revolutionaries had learned from the long period of struggle between Court and Country in England and in America : " that no free government , or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but by a firm adherence to justice , moderation , temperance , frugality , and virtue and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles . " What we are witnessing with the Tea Party movement is one of the periodic recurrences to fundamental principles that typify and revivify the American experiment in self-government . </p> These developments are never exclusively salutary . The people sometimes err , as Montesquieu understood and as , I believe , has happened with considerable frequency in our nation 's past . But as Thomas Jefferson observed in the wake of the rebellion mounted by Daniel Shays in 1786 , if the " turbulence " to which popular government is " subject " is regrettable , " even this evil is productive of good . It prevents the degeneracy of government , and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs . " In Europe , Jefferson explained , " under the pretence of government , they have divided their nations into two classes , wolves and sheep . " He feared that the same would in time happen in America . If the people in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ affairs , you and I , " he wrote to one correspondent , " and Congress and Assemblies , judges and governors shall all become wolves . " </p> From the outset , Jefferson feared that in this country the government would eventually find its way to what his friend James Madison would later call a " self directed course ! ' It was with this unwelcome prospect in mind that he asked , " What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve their spirit of resistance ? " In the end , then , one does not have to agree with the Tea Party movement in every particular to welcome its appearance . </p> PAUL A. RAHE is a professor of history at Hillsdale College and the author , most recently , of Montesquieu and the Logic of Liberty and Soft Despotism , Democracy 's Drift . </p> BY JANUARY 2010 , WHEN THE UNKNOWN REPUBLICAN SCOTT BROWN DEFEATED THE WELL-KNOWN DEMOCRAT MARTHA COAKLEY IN MASSACHUSETTS , IT WAS CLEAR THAT THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT WAS DESTINED TO @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ WHEN JEFFERSON AND MADISON ORGANIZED THE FIRST AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTY , THEY ASSERTED THAT HAMILTON 'S ECONOMIC PROGRAM AMOUNTED TO A CONSPIRACY TO OVERTHROW THE REPUBLIC . </p> WITHOUT KNOWING IT , TEA PARTIERS ARE EVOKING FDR . THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT FDR 'S ASSERTIONS DEMONIZING " ECONOMIC ROYALISTS " WERE FALSE , AND WHEN TEA PARTIERS MAKE COMPARABLE CLAIMS TODAY , THEY ARE , ALAS , TELLING THE TRUTH . </p> THE TEA PARTY PROVES THAT WHEN CONFRONTED IN A BRAZEN FASHION WITH THE TYRANNICAL IMPULSE UNDERPINNING THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE , ORDINARY AMERICANS FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE ARE STILL CAPABLE OF FIGHTING BACK . </p> IT SHOULD BE HUMBLING TO ELITES THAT ORDINARY CITIZENS CHOOSE SPONTANEOUSLY TO ENTER THE POLITICAL ARENA IN DROVES AND OUST A HOST OF ENTRENCHED OFFICE HOLDERS . </p> By PAUL A. RAHE , Professor of history at Hillsdale College </p> 
##4088952 CONSERVATIVES , ELITES , AND POPULISM </p> ONE OF THE MANY strategic errors made by the Obama administration in the early days of 2009 was its decision to take on talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh -- though it was , perhaps , hard to blame the president and his people for trying . After all , they were riding the wave of a big electoral win and feeling pretty invincible , with large majorities in both houses of Congress and a messiah in the White House , and Limbaugh had just stunned the country , days before Obama was inaugurated , by summarizing his feelings about the new president in four simple words : " I hope he fails . " Limbaugh impatiently brushed aside the happy talk about compromise and bipartisan cooperation and scoffed at the claim that Obama was a pragmatic , post-ideological , post-partisan , post-racial conciliator and healer . Instead , he saw every reason to believe that Obama would aggressively pursue a leftist dream agenda : an exponential expansion of government 's size and power , a reordering of the American economic system , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power . Limbaugh was not alone in such views , but he was the only major figure on the right willing to stick his neck out at a time when the rest of the nation seemed dazed into acquiescence by the so-far impeccably staged Obama ascendancy . </p> Such was the mood of the moment that it seemed a sullen breach of etiquette to utter any such criticism . In any event , the White House quickly concluded that Limbaugh 's statement was a rare blunder and that hay was to be made of it . What better way to sow division among the Republicans , and confine them to a tiny corner of American political life , than to identify Rush Limbaugh as the " real head " of their party and brand him as an unpatriotic extremist and sore loser -- or , in the light-touch description of longtime Clinton adviser Paul Begala , as " a corpulent drug addict with an AM radio talk show " ? If they could succeed in this angle of attack , they would kill two birds with one stone , marginalizing their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ embarrassment and internal squabbling . Each Republican would face a choice of embracing the glittering " new age " of Obama and gathering a few scraps from beneath the Democratic table or following Rush into the fever swamps of an embittered permanent minority and getting nothing at all . </p> THE DEMOCRATS ' strategy backfired . Limbaugh 's vocal opposition to the stimulus package , which he dubbed " Porkulus , " helped galvanize a unanimous Republican vote in opposition -- an astonishing achievement of partisan unity that would be repeated in subsequent lopsided votes on health care and other issues -- and would lay the blame for these failed policies entirely on the Democrats ' doorstep , culminating in a huge and decisive electoral pushback against the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections . The question of whether Limbaugh was or is the " real leader " of the Republican Party suddenly became far less interesting to the White House and its friends in the media , perhaps because the answer was turning out to be something different from what they had expected . Limbaugh had goaded them into elevating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other putative " leaders , " they blinded themselves to the spontaneous and broad-based popular revolt that was rising against them . </p> In retrospect , the amazing part of the story is how thoroughly the White House misunderstood Limbaugh 's appeal , his staying power , and his approach to issues . It also points to a curious fact about Limbaugh 's standing in the mind of much of the American media and the American left . Even though they talk about him all the time , he 's the man who is n't quite there . By which I mean that there is a stubborn unwillingness , both wishful and self-defeating , to recognize Limbaugh for what he is , take him seriously , and grant him his legitimate due . Many of his detractors have never even listened to his show , for example . Some of his critics regularly refer to him as Rush " Lim-bough " ( like a tree limb ) , as if his name is so obscure to them that they can not even remember how to pronounce it . </p> In short @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he clearly is . Instead , he is dismissed in one of two ways -- either as a comic buffoon , a passing phenomenon in the hit parade of American pop culture , or as a mean-spirited apostle of hate who appeals to a tiny lunatic fringe . These two views are not quite compatible , but they have one thing in common : they both aim to push him to the margins and render him illegitimate , unworthy of respectful attention . This shunning actually works in Limbaugh 's favor because it creates the very conditions that cause him to be chronically underestimated and keeps his opposition chronically off-balance . Indeed , Limbaugh 's use of comedy and irony and showmanship are integral to his modus operandi , the judo by which he draws in his opponents and then uses their own force to up-end them . And unless you make an effort to hear voices outside the echo chamber of the mainstream media , you wo n't have any inkling of what Limbaugh is all about or of how widely his reach and appeal extend . </p> The influence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rush Limbaugh is unarguably one of the most important figures in the political and cultural life of the United States in the past three decades . His national radio show has been on the air steadily for nearly 23 years and continues to command a huge following , upward of 20 million listeners a week on 600 stations . The only reason it is not even bigger is that his success has spawned so many imitators , a small army of talkers such as Sean Hannity , Mark Levin , Michael Savage , Laura Ingraham , and so on , who inevitably siphon off some of his market share . He has been doing this show for three hours a day , five days a week , without guests ( except on rare occasions ) , using only the dramatic ebb and flow of his monologues , his always inventive patter with callers , his " updates , " song parodies , mimicry , and various other elements in his DJ 's bag of tricks . </p> He is equipped with a resonant and instantly recognizable baritone voice and an unusually @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of political issues and political personalities , and -- what is perhaps his greatest talent -- an astonishing ability to reformulate complex ideas in direct , vivid , and often eloquent ways , always delivering his thoughts live and unscripted , out there on the high wire . He conducts his show in an air of high-spiritedness and relaxed good humor , clearly enjoying himself , always willing to be spontaneous and unpredictable , even though he is aware that every word he utters on the air is being recorded and tracked by his political enemies in the hope that he will slip up and say something career-destroying . Limbaugh the judo master is delighted to make note of this surveillance , with the same delight he expresses when one of his " outrageous " sound bites makes the rounds of the mainstream media , and he can then play back all the sputtering but eerily uniform reactions from the mainstream commentators , turning it back on them with a well-placed witticism . </p> There are countless examples of his judo skills at work , but perhaps the most spectacular was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sought to humiliate Limbaugh only to have the humiliation returned to him threefold . Limbaugh had a caller who complained that the mainstream media would not interview " real soldiers " in Iraq but instead sought out the disgruntled . Limbaugh , in agreement , cited the case of Jesse MacBeth , an Army enlistee who had failed to make it through boot camp but lied about his lack of real military service in order to speak credibly at anti-war rallies . Limbaugh called MacBeth , accurately , a " phony soldier . " But his statement was quickly pulled out of context by Media Matters , one of the Democratic groups that monitors Limbaugh 's every word , and was reframed as a swipe at all soldiers who had misgivings about the war . Limbaugh was denounced in the House for " sliming " the " brave men and women . " Reid used the occasion to address the Senate and deplore Limbaugh 's " unpatriotic comments " for going " beyond the pale of decency " and then wrote a letter to Limbaugh 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Reid overplayed his hand . Far from running from the controversy , Limbaugh embraced it . He read Reid 's letter on the air , revealing it for the dishonest and bullying document it was , and then , in a stroke of pure genius , announced that he would auction it on eBay and give the proceeds to a military charitable foundation . The letter was sold for $2.1 million , and Rush matched the contribution with his own $2.1 million . Reid could only express his pleasure that the letter had done so much good . He had been flipped onto his back . </p> GIVEN Limbaugh 's talents and achievements , one would have thought that even his detractors would have an interest in knowing more about him : who he is , where he came from , and why he has acquired and kept such a large and devoted following . But in fact , there has been a remarkable lack of curiosity on that score and little incentive to go beyond the sort of routine demonization that only strengthens him . It was not until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and work , by the journalist Zev Chafets , appeared in print. * As Chafets reports in the book 's acknowledgments , it was not easy finding a publisher willing to take on such a book , unless it had the words " idiot " or " liar " in the title , since , as one friend explained it to him , " I have to go out for lunch in this city every day . " So call it a politically correct lack of curiosity , then ; but whatever the reason , it has meant our missing out on a fascinating story of a very American life . </p> But not missing out entirely , since much of the story comes across in Limbaugh 's own account of himself on his show . Anyone can figure out from listening to the show that he was and is a quintessential radio guy , a product of that fluid , wide-open , insecure , enterprising , somewhat hardscrabble , somewhat gonzo world of the AM radio disc jockey , in which salesmanship and showmanship were two names for the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were the most predictable element of life : " packing and unpacking , town to town , up and down the dial " in the words of the theme song of WKRP in Cincinnati , the 1970s TV sitcom that captured some of the knockout zaniness of that world . Limbaugh was smitten early and permanently with the romance of radio and never really wanted to do anything else with his life , including bothering to go to college , let alone taking on his birthright , the leadership of the family law firm . </p> It was a business one could learn only in the doing . While still in high school , he started working at KMGO-AM in his hometown of Cape Girardeau , Missouri , spinning discs in the afternoons under the name " Rusty Sharpe . " Later , he was " Jeff Christie , " morning-drive DJ on WIXZ-AM in McKeesport , Pennsylvania , where he hosted " The Solid Rockin ' Gold Show . " There was a move to Kansas City , where he would eventually begin dabbling in political discussion , and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ footsteps of the unpleasantly provocative Morton Downey Jr . and was able to do politically oriented talk as a solo act without guests and using his own name , finally developing the bombastic Limbaugh persona ( " El Rushbo " with " talent on loan from Gawww-duh " ) and the familiar epithets ( " Feminazis " and " Environmentalist Wackos " ) applied to his designated opponents . In Sacramento , he perfected his formula and proved a great success , tripling Downey 's already sizable audience and attracting the attention of syndicator Ed McLaughlin , who in 1988 brought him to WABC in New York to do The Rush Limbaugh Program , 21 years after those first broadcasts back at KMGO . </p> On arriving in New York , Limbaugh immediately set to work building his affiliate network and his general visibility , charging forward indefatigably on all fronts at once . He wasted no time plunging the show into the 1988 presidential campaign , branding Michael Dukakis " The Loser " and assigning him update theme music drawn from the Beatles ' " I 'm a Loser , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not what I appear to be , " a dig at the Massachusetts governor 's futile effort to disguise or downplay his liberalism . He began giving one-man " Rush to Excellence " tours around the country . These efforts paid off very quickly . By 1990 , the radio-show audience had hit 20 million ; his first book , The Way Things Ought to Be , was released in 1992 and sold 2 million copies in six weeks , making it at that point the fastest-selling volume in publishing history . </p> But he really hit his stride with the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 . The two men seemed to have an elective non-affinity , perhaps because they were both baby-boomer know-it-alls from the same general region of the country ( Limbaugh from southeastern Missouri , Clinton from Arkansas ) , and perhaps because Limbaugh 's unprecedented and growing influence was so intensely and visibly annoying to the ambitious young politician . Clinton , after all , had come into office borne on a wave of mainstream hosannas , and expectations were high after the 12-year Republican control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be a serious obstacle to him every step of the way , proving to be a major force in rallying public opinion against Clinton 's own healthcare overhaul and helping to lay the groundwork for the anti-Clinton 1994 electoral tsunami . The newly elected Republicans even made him an honorary member of the freshman class of 1995 , an honor he coveted , even though he has always thought of himself as a conservative rather than a Republican . </p> For some time , the early Clinton years represented Limbaugh 's high point . Clinton pushed back , effectively ( if outrageously ) associating Limbaugh and talk radio with the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and winning re-election in 1996 in a walk , running against an aging and ineffective Bob Dole . That did not mean that Limbaugh let up , and the events surrounding Monica Lewinsky in 1998 gave him a rich new target , as did the electoral chaos of 2000 . But a cluster of personal issues , including charges relating to the abuse of prescription drugs and a catastrophic loss of his hearing , all seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There was a noticeable ebbing of energy in the show at times , and it was not immune to the fracturing effect the Bush 43 presidency had on conservatives , with internal differences emerging on issues ranging from the prescription-drug entitlement to the Iraq war to immigration reform . </p> But all that seems to have changed , and Limbaugh clearly has the wind at his back again with a newly growing audience . Like the radio guy he is and always will be , he is a survivor . He has wisely chosen to avoid television for the most part after a syndicated television show successful with audiences ( and produced by Roger Ailes in the early 1990s in a warm-up for Ailes 's unprecedented triumph as the creator of the Fox News Channel ) proved less so with advertisers . Events , too , have moved his way . The abject failure of the John McCain campaign vindicated many of Limbaugh 's longstanding complaints about the more moderate wing of the Republican Party . And the rise of Obama has proved nothing less than a godsend for him -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opportunity it presented . </p> OCCASIONALLY , Limbaugh will talk on his show about radio , past , present , and future , and you understand that his great success is no accident . Able to draw with minuteness on more than four decades of work experience , he has achieved a comprehensive and detailed grasp of the technical , performing , and business dimensions of the industry , all of which give him an unmatched understanding of the medium and its possibilities . But it is more than a wonk 's understanding . He has a deep-in-the-bones feeling for what is magical about radio at its best -- its immediacy , its simplicity , its ability to create the richness of imagined places and moments with just a few well-placed elements of sound , its incomparable advantages as a medium for storytelling with the pride of place that it gives to the spoken word and the individual human voice , abstracted from all other considerations . He probably also understands why he himself is not nearly so good on TV , faced as he is with the classic McLuhanesque problem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He also understood why predictions of radio 's demise have repeatedly been proved wrong , why AM radio has lent itself particularly well to the kind of simple and easy interactivity on which talk thrives , and why the movement of talk radio into the AM band would have the same revitalizing effect there as an urban homesteader turning a decrepit old townhouse into a place of elegance and commodity . AM radio was supposed to have died off years ago due to its weak and tinny sound . But the takeover by talk in the early 1990s , primarily due to Limbaugh , managed to transform a decaying and outdated infrastructure into the perfect vehicle for the medium 's own aspirations . </p> It could not have happened without the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 . Interactive talk of one sort or another had been around since the earliest days of radio , and there had been , of course , plenty of local talk shows , mostly conservative in flavor , on many stations . But the Fairness Doctrine kept them within bounds , obliging stations holding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a controversial issue and to provide coverage to issues of local importance . They imposed these requirements on the ground that channels were limited and so it was necessary to ensure that they served the larger public interest . </p> But with the vast and rapid growth of cable and satellite television and radio and other new media , this requirement no longer made any sense . The doctrine was abolished , and the way was opened for a show like Limbaugh 's to go into national syndication . His show could never have been sustained with the doctrine in place , a fact that has helped fuel the occasional expressions of Democratic interest -- most recently coming from Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois -- in its reinstitution . </p> It would be hard , though , to accomplish that without sparking something like an actual revolt in this country . Talk radio is , implicitly , talk-back radio -- a medium tuned into during times of frustration , exasperation , even desperation , by people who do not find that their thoughts , sentiments , values , and loyalties are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media . Such feelings may be justified or unjustified , wholesome or noxious ; but in any event they are likely to fester and curdle in the absence of some outlet in which they can be expressed . Talk radio is a place where people can go to hear opinions freely expressed that they will not hear elsewhere , and where they can come away with a sense of confirmation that they are not alone , are not crazy , and are not wrong to think and feel such things . The existence of such frustrations and fears are the sine qua non of talk radio ; it would not exist without them . </p> But that is not all . Without Limbaugh's/influence , talk radio might well have become a dreary medium of loud voices , relentless anger , and seething resentment , the sort of thing that the New York screamer Joe Pyne had pioneered in the 50s and 60s -- " go gargle with razor blades , " he liked to tell his callers as he hung up on them -- and that one can still see pop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it might have descended to the sometimes amusing but corrosive nonstop vulgarity of a Howard Stern . Limbaugh himself can be edgy , though almost always within PG-rated boundaries . But what he gave talk radio was a sense of sheer fun , of lightness , humor , and wit , whether indulging in his self-parodying Muhammad Ali-like braggadocio , drawing on his vast array of American pop-cultural reference points , or , in moving impromptu mini-sermons , reminding his listeners of the need to stay hopeful , work hard , and count their blessings as Americans . In such moments , and in many other moments besides , he reminds one of the affirmative spirit of Ronald Reagan and , like Reagan , reminds his listeners of the better angels of their nature . He transmutes the anger and frustration of millions of Americans into something more constructive . </p> The critics may be correct that the flourishing of talk radio is a sign of something wrong in our culture . But they mistake the effect for the cause . Talk radio is not the cause , but the corrective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Rush Limbaugh , along with others of his talk-radio brethren , a problem of long-standing in our culture has reached a critical stage : the growing loss of confidence in our elite cultural institutions , including the media , universities , and the agencies of government . The posture and policies of the Obama presidency , using temporary majorities and legislative trickery to shove through massive unread bills that will likely damage the nation and may subvert the Constitution , have brought this distrust to a higher level . The medium of talk radio has played a critical role in giving articulate shape and force to the resistance . If it is at times a crude and bumptious medium , it sometimes has to be , to disarm the false pieties and self-righteous gravitas in which our current elites too often clothe themselves . Genuinely democratic speech tends to be just that way , in case we have forgotten . </p> *Rush Limbaugh : An Army of One , Sentinel , 240 pages . </p> Wilfred M. McClay is the SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Report of our Death was Greatly Exaggerated ' : The Conservative Resurgence " appeared in the November 2010 issue . </p> EVEN THOUGH THEY TALK ABOUT HIM ALL THE TIME , HE 'S THE MAN WHO IS N'T QUITE THERE . THERE IS A STUBBORN UNWILLINGNESS TO RECOGNIZE LIMBAUGH FOR WHAT HE IS , TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY , AND GRANT HIM HIS DUE . </p> ANYONE CAN FIGURE OUT FROM LISTENING TO THE SHOW THAT HE IS A QUINTESSENTIAL RADIO GUY , A PRODUCT OF THE WIDE-OPEN , INSECURE , ENTERPRISING , HARDSCRABBLE GONZO WORLD OF THE AM DISC JOCKEY . </p> LIMBAUGH REALLY HIT HIS STRIDE WITH THE ELECTION OF BILL CLINTON IN 1992 . THE TWO MEN SEEMED TO HAVE AN ELECTIVE NON-AFFINITY , PERHAPS BECAUSE THEY WERE BOTH BABY-BOOMER KNOW-IT-ALLS . </p> TALK RADIO IS TALK-BACK RADIO -- A MEDIUM TUNED IN TO BY PEOPLE WHO DO NOT FIND THAT THEIR THOUGHTS , SENTIMENTS , VALUES , AND LOYALTIES ARE FAIRLY OR EVEN MINIMALLY REPRESENTED IN THE " OFFICIAL " MEDIA . </p> WITHOUT LIMBAUGH 'S INFLUENCE , TALK RADIO MIGHT WELL HAVE BECOME A DREARY MEDIUM OF @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ IT MIGHT HAVE DESCENDED TO THE CORROSIVE NON-STOP VULGARITY OF A HOWARD STERN . </p> By WILFRED M. McCLAY , SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga </p> 
##4088953 IN NOVEMBER 2010 , British retirees Paul and Rachel Chandler were released after a year of captivity at the hands of Somali pirates . " We are happy to be alive , happy to be here , desperate to see our family , and so happy to be amongst decent , everyday people , " a smiling Mrs. Chandler told journalists in Mogadishu . The Chandlers are the lucky ones . Right now , more than 600 foreign nationals remain in captivity in Somalia . Since most are crewmembers on commercial merchant vessels , the price of their freedom will most assuredly be higher than the reported $1 million exacted as ransom for the Chandlers ' release . Even more troubling is the growing body of evidence that these pirate ransoms may be funding the next generation of Islamic militants in the graveyard of the last large-scale U.S.-led intervention in Africa . </p> In 2008 , Somali pirate militias were reported to have collected up to $150 million in ransom payments . The total of ransoms paid in 2010 will surely dwarf those of previous years . Key @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ location , opportunity , and profits . For the Somali perpetrators of hostage terrorism , piracy is a low-risk , high-reward enterprise made possible by multiple targets of low-hanging fruit : unprotected , slow-moving commercial vessels . Based primarily in the Puntland region of northeastern Somalia , pirate militias are tactically positioned to disrupt navigation in the Gulf of Aden , one of the world 's most important strategic waterways . Twelve percent of the world 's oil passes through the Gulf , which links the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean . Flanked on one side by Somalia and on the other by Yemen , the Gulf is the main maritime corridor through which Middle Eastern oil reaches the West . It is also one of the busiest sea-lanes in the world . </p> Somalia 's pirate militias pose a threat not only to worldwide commerce but also to global security . As Somali pirates gain strength at sea , they strengthen their position on land . A fragile transitional government propped up by the international community is under threat from two directions . From the south , the al-Qaeda-backed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Transitional Federal Government in the cause of global jihad . In the north , pirate militias have all but wrested control of the province of Puntland from the central government . The potential for collaboration between the cash-strapped but powerful al-Shabaab and the wealthy , strategically positioned pirate clans of the north makes Somalia a new frontline in the global war against Islamic terrorism . </p> Somalia , a simmering cauldron of anarchy for two decades , has been credibly described as hell on earth . Since 1991 , when the authoritarian regime of General Mohammed Siad Barre fell , Somalia has been gripped by internal warfare . Hundreds of thousands have been killed in the ongoing internecine conflict between clans and Islamic militants , and more than 1.5 million have been displaced from their homes . In the absence of any coastal authority to protect Somalia 's fishing rights , and faced with ecological disaster in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami , fishermen in the northern province of Puntland began turning to piracy as a means of survival and retribution . Reports document Robin Hood-like accounts of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caught by foreign trawlers in Somalia 's territorial waters . But what they found in the safes of commercial vessels was far more valuable than the marine catch in the hold , and so the criminal cottage industry expanded . Pirates began preying on other seafaring vessels , hijacking larger boats for use as " motherships " to go after bigger targets : internationally flagged commercial freighters and tankers hundreds of miles out at sea . </p> Somalia 's pirates are not merry bands of lucky amateurs . They are organized militias with informants in foreign ports , and networks of ransom negotiators , money launderers , and arms runners abroad . Moreover , there is mounting evidence of collaboration between militant Islamists and pirate militias . While al-Shabaab initially viewed pirate militias as dangerous territorial rivals , they have begun to enter into a tentative alliance . Pirates supply al-Shabaab with cash and smuggled weapons in exchange for training and the use of ports in al-Shabaab-controlled territory . Al-Shabaab operatives , many educated abroad in al-Qaeda training camps , are able to provide pirates with the advanced tactics needed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ global shipping companies . </p> Somalia 's pirates and jihadists may seem like strange bedfellows . To pirates , hostages are worth more alive than dead ; a dead hostage will not fetch a hefty ransom payment . But to organizations like al-Shabaab , hostages are frequently worth more dead than alive . The torture and execution of hostages makes for chilling physiological " psyops " against infidels and serves as a rallying cry to fellow jihadists . But with ransoms of upward of $10 million being paid out to pirates , it is only logical that a cash-starved al-Shabaab would also turn to piracy as a source of revenue for their costly insurgency . </p> As the interests of pirates and jihadists converge in Somalia , the similar challenges they pose become all the more clear . Both groups are effectively stateless and lawless . They engage in active hostilities without regard for the laws of war or the protection of civilian life and property . For these reasons , pirates have existed in a legal category unto themselves for more than 2,000 years : hostes humani generis , enemies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and its terrorist affiliates as hostes humani generis have failed , international law as it applies to pirates remains largely unchanged . The trouble is that the modern state system lacks the resolve to apply it . Whereas the Romans used to crucify pirates and the Carthaginians used to flay them alive , the UN Security Council 's crowning achievement in its campaign against piracy is a recent report detailing the successful " business model " adopted by Somali pirates ( or , as the report termed them , " shareholders " ) . With enemies like these , who needs friends ? </p> From a legal standpoint , pirates exist in a state of war against all . Consequently , every state has a right under international law to prosecute pirates in its domestic courts . However , not every state has the political or judicial will to exercise universal jurisdiction over pirates . Since 2009 , the international community has foisted the burden of prosecuting Somali pirates on Kenya and the Seychelles , thus preferring to treat a global threat as a local nuisance . Australia , Canada , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ European Union contributed funds to establish a high-security courtroom in Kenya for the purpose of bringing captured pirates to justice . The courtroom opened in June 2010 . Five months later , the High Court of Kenya at Mombasa put a quick end to the international community 's strategy of judicial outsourcing by ruling that it lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate acts of piracy committed beyond Kenya 's territorial waters . </p> It is not difficult to imagine why , purely as a matter of judicial policy , the Kenyan courts would disavow jurisdiction . No matter how secure a courtroom the international community wishes to build in Nairobi , it will not protect Kenya from the overflow of violence and terrorism from Somalia . More than 100,000 Somalis have sought refuge in Kenya , and al-Shabaab has sworn jihad against the Kenyan government . For Western powers to demand that a vulnerable state wage a judicial war against piracy on their behalf is , to put it politely , unreasonable . For the West to do so while its own nationals languish in captivity is , to put it bluntly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ international community has ignored Somali piracy altogether . The U.S. Navy and the European Union Naval Force have been conducting active operations to deter and repress Somali piracy . Reports of their successful interruption of pirate attacks abound , from 2009 's dramatic rescue of the captain of the Maersk Alabama by Navy SEALs to the successful protection of humanitarian aid ships by the European Union 's naval contingent . But without sufficient support on land , many of their victories at sea have been Pyrrhic . When pirates are captured , they are generally handed over to local East African authorities that lack either the capacity or the will to prosecute them . Though in October 2010 , the Somali government and the African Union Commission asked the UN Security Council to impose a full blockade on the Somali coast to curtail piracy and the influx of foreign fighters and weaponry , Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded with only a pledge to continue international engagement in Somalia with a ' light footprint . " But as conditions in Somalia deteriorate , it is hard to imagine a lighter footprint than the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State Department 's response to piracy off the Horn of Africa has been no more decisive . Secretary of State Hillary Clinton summarized the U.S. government 's approach to the crisis as follows : " We may be dealing with a 17th-century crime , but we need to bring 21st-century solutions to bear . " She was only half right . The " solutions " being brought to bear by the United States and the international community are decidedly au courant : institutional reports , diplomatic conferences , and multilateral handwringing . But the underlying problem is hardly as quaint as the secretary of state suggests . Instead of cutlasses , muskets , and cannon , these pirates are armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles , automatic weapons , and rocket-propelled grenade launchers . They are backed by regional magnates willing to front the resources necessary to fund and sustain a hostage-taking operation , providing everything from food to cell phones to qaat , a local narcotic . </p> The ambivalent legislative response by the United States government to piracy has likewise been confounding . At present , ransoms paid to pirates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Horn of Africa . It is assumed that companies will simply insulate themselves against such costs with insurance . A recent Congressional Research Report offers something that looks disturbingly like money laundering as an option for dealing with piracy . It suggests that the federal government might opt to reinsure shipping companies in the event that private insurance proves insufficient to cover the cost of ransoming mariners . So while the federal government will not pay ransoms directly , it might pay shippers to pay insurers to indemnify ransom payments to pirates . Although maritime insurance rates have so far increased tenfold in response to Somali piracy , the federal government apparently does not think this cost sufficiently high to warrant intervention . The pirates of Jefferson 's time on the shores of Tripoli should have been so fortunate . </p> Yet as ties between Somali pirates and al-Shabaab grow closer , it will become impossible for the U.S. to treat ransom payments as mere transaction costs . In April 2010 , President Obama issued an executive order banning the transfer of funds to a list of named individuals and one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The named entity is al-Shabaab . </p> Piracy off the Horn of Africa is not just a maritime problem . It is a problem of lawlessness that begins on land , moves out to sea , and is felt the world over . The response of the international community in dealing with it has been wholly inadequate . In fact , in the absence of a coherent response to the problem of piracy , Somalia 's Transitional Federal Government has begun accepting donations from an as-yet-unnamed Muslim state for the establishment of a military force to combat piracy in Puntland . Punt-land , which is believed to be rich in natural gas and oil deposits , is a strategic area for more reasons than piracy alone . The mysterious nature of these donations is somewhat troubling , as it could hinder the growth of a transparent , independent government in Somalia . </p> At this point , however , the absence of any effective legitimate authority in Somalia is a greater threat to the growth of transparent , independent government in that country than anything else . Piracy and al-Shabaab @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1990s and early 2000s , and now they are fueling a new fire . Two forms of hostage-terrorism -- one for profit and one for ideology -- are finding common ground in their mutual utility . Allowing this connection to proliferate will not only shatter any hope of a free and stable Somali state ; it will also create a new sanctuary from which Muslim extremists can project jihad abroad . And all the while , the humanitarian crisis in Somalia continues to deepen . </p> The spread of piracy has been treated more as a nuisance to be endured rather than as a deadly cancer that must be extirpated for the sake of both Somalia and the rule of law . For all the lip service that has been paid in Washington and other capitals to this issue , addressing it has never been any government 's priority . That must change . The absence of decisive Western leadership has allowed the problem to fester . Somali piracy has become one of the most dangerous fronts in the struggle against the financing of international terrorism . Pirates must now be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ operatives . </p> There must be a recognition that the beginning of the solution here , as it has been with every past successful campaign to wipe out an outbreak of piracy , whether in the Caribbean or along the North African coast , is to be found in a military response . While a full-scale blockade of the entire Somali coast may not be practicable , even with a reinforced Western naval presence in the area , stepping up the scale and the frequency of patrols will begin to lower the odds that are presently stacked in favor of the pirates . </p> Equally important is the need to create a reliable judicial process that will prosecute captured pirates and impose sentences that will signal to ordinary Somalis that piracy is no longer a livelihood with great rewards and few costs . To accomplish this , an international tribunal for the adjudication of captured pirates must be established. * </p> The presence of a well-funded , ably staffed international tribunal to adjudicate acts of piracy will render the efforts of multinational naval patrols all the more effective . The streamlining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the overall incidence of piracy and , in so doing , cut off one of al-Shabaab 's funding streams at its source . The international community will thereby begin to eliminate two of the greatest threats to the establishment of stable , legitimate , independent government in Somalia . Above all , it will break down the stranglehold that al-Shabaab has on humanitarian aid and make possible a material improvement in Somalia 's ongoing humanitarian crisis . </p> More than a decade of half-measures and hand-wringing on the part of the international community has done little to improve the lot of Somalia or ensure the freedom of the seas in its environs . If anything , conditions in the state continue to deteriorate while the world looks on . But the cost of this feckless response to piracy has been greater than the damage to one country or even the toll it has exacted on international shipping . Allowing Somalia to become the stronghold of what must increasingly be seen as a new variant on the Islamist terrorist network that is already in a state of war with the West would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ link between these two forces is not soon broken , the consequences will be incalculable . Seen from the perspective of an Islamic world that is testing the will of the democratic West to prevail over terrorism , the spectacle of captured pirates being allowed to slip through the cracks of international law is proof that Islamists are poised to prevail . Just as the " broken windows " theory of urban policing illustrates the importance of not letting any crime go unpunished , so the West must see piracy as a potent threat that must be vanquished and not merely a series of human-interest stories about released hostages ; otherwise the problem will only fester . Even worse , despite the unique nature of Somalia 's problems , the West 's inability to cope with the pirates will come to be seen as a new model of success for terrorism . </p> The international community has at its disposal many of the tools needed to clear the way for Somalia 's rehabilitation ; it has only to find the resolve to use them effectively . Continued maritime patrols on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the critical first steps in this process . But until Western political leaders recognize that Somali outlaws are not merely an annoyance but a deadly peril to international law and stability that must be defeated at all costs , we must expect that the toll of blood and treasure exacted by this new breed of pirate will continue to grow . </p> * The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea , a UN organ established pursuant to the Third Law of the Sea Convention ( LOSC ) , is the most logical umbrella organization for such a tribunal , as it already has jurisdiction over acts of piracy under the LOSC . While it has yet to exercise that jurisdiction in matters relating to Somali piracy , the Hamburg-based tribunal is well equipped to do so . </p> TARA HELFMAN teaches law at Syracuse University College of Law . Dan O'Shea established and served as the coordinator of the Hostage Working Group at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq . He is the president of Daniel Risk Mitigation Inc. , a fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The authors would like to thank Wing Commander Paddy O'Kennedy of EU NAVFOR for providing them with current data on the capture and arrest of pirates . </p> Pirates supply al-Shabaab with cash and smuggled weapons in exchange for training and the use of ports in al-Shabaab-controlled territory . Al-Shabaab also trains the pirates in tactics . </p> The " solutions " being brought to bear by the United States and the international community are au courant : institutional reports , diplomatic conferences , and multilateral handwringing . </p> Piracy has been treated as a nuisance to be endured rather than as a deadly cancer to be extirpated . Pirates must now be treated with all the seriousness with which we treat al-Qaeda . </p> By Tara Helfman , Law at Syracuse University College of Law and Dan O'Shea , President of Daniel Risk Mitigation Inc . </p> 
##4088954 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a Communist . But you knew that , did n't you ? Our 16th president 's bicentennial birthday , celebrated in 2009 with great fanfare , brought forth traces of an oddly far-left Lincoln , an image harking back to American Communism 's mid-20th-century heyday . </p> A special edition of PBS 's Bill Moyers Journal featured actor Sam Waterston reciting Lincoln-related literary passages . Viewers were treated to the words of Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass , and also to lines from " Homage to Neruda , " Allen Ginsberg 's adaptation of an ode to Abraham Lincoln by the Stalinist poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda . " Let the Railsplitter awake ! " cried Waterston . " Let Abraham come back , and lift the axe in his city against the new slave-makers ! " </p> Few recall this 1948 poem equating modern capitalism with slavery , which is probably all for the best , aesthetically speaking . Historically speaking , the poem is an entree into a not entirely forgotten time : the Popular Front period of the 1930s and 1940s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before -- or since , for that matter -- radical leftism and flag-waving patriotism went hand in hand in America . Though the merger was the result of an edict issued from Moscow , it was one that American Reds ( to use the terminology of the time ) enthusiastically embraced . To be sure , such thinking -- and the curious promotion of Lincoln and the American Founders that went with it -- had a limited shelf life . It waned as our World War II ally , the USSR , became our Cold War adversary . And yet , strange to say , nearly two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union , the cultural emanations of its admirers live on . </p> The Lincoln bicentennial demonstrated this . Trotted out for the 2009 celebrations was a 1942 radio opera about the martyred president 's cross-country funeral cortege . Folk singer Pete Seeger , age 89 and once one of the country 's most prominent Communist Party members , was on hand at New York 's Riverside Church to introduce students from the Aaron Copland School of Music @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with music by Earl Robinson , a self-described " working-class Communist composer . " Better known was another piece from 1942 , Aaron Copland 's Lincoln Portrait . Originally composed to urge the Allies to victory over Hitler 's Germany , the Lincoln Portrait graced the bicentennial programs of half a dozen orchestras around the country . Copland , a beloved American composer , had a rather Red 1930s , having belonged then to the Workers ' Music League and the Composers ' Collective , an offshoot of the International Music Bureau of the Communist Party of the United States of America ( CPUSA ) . </p> As the historian David Herbert Donald once noted , all political groups in the United States , wherever situated on the ideological spectrum , must set about " getting right with Lincoln " or resign themselves to marginalization . Few tried harder than the CPUSA to get right with Lincoln . </p> IT IS an interesting irony that at patriotic points in our collective calendar , we often tap into the pop culture of the Popular Front period to express our national ideals , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " freedom " and " equality , " idolized one of the most unfree and unfair governments in history . Younger generations may wonder -- at least the conservatives among them occasionally do -- about the vaguely left-wing inflections of this tune or that revival of a Broadway show . A look back at this episode in American culture will dispel the mystery . </p> Utopian dreams are attractive , in any age , to those who traffic in ideas . The 20th century seems to have had more than its share . From the moment the Bolsheviks triumphed in Russia in 1917 , they sought the support of European and American intellectuals . Calamity assisted their efforts . Western democracy 's failure to prevent the untold carnage of 1914-1918 and the Great Depression a decade later prompted an unusually large number of intellectuals to cast a hopeful eye toward the Soviet experiment . The socially conscious novel , play , concerto , and song came into vogue in the 1930s . The previous decade 's big works of fiction had been about flappers and others in the " smart set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about banks depriving poor sharecroppers of their land ( The Grapes of Wrath ) . </p> Many if not most " socially conscious " artists and writers , while sympathetic to Marxism , did not join the CPUSA . Its orbit widened , but it was still exotic . Communists saw a chance to break out of the political wilderness when in 1935 Moscow sought to broaden the Party 's appeal by declaring a " united front " or " popular front " against the rise of fascism . The head of the CPUSA , Earl Browder , responded with an ambitious program of implementation . His widely distributed pamphlet announcing that " Communism Is 20th Century Americanism " inspired his fellows to pitch their politics to the mainstream by identifying the workers ' revolution with American history , American ideas , and American political heroes . A coterie of liberals was receptive to an invitation couched in such affirming and familiar terms . To them , a broad coalition against the rising threat of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy seemed to make sense . </p> Browderism 's first public-relations manifestation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Comintern in 1936 to fight against Francisco Franco 's forces , were dubbed " the Abraham Lincoln Brigade " -- or , as they called themselves , " the Lincolns . " By 1939 , Browder 's campaign was in full swing , with the CPUSA convening Lincoln-Lenin rallies and setting up adult-education centers : the Tom Paine School in Philadelphia , the Samuel Adams School in Boston , the Abraham Lincoln School in Chicago , and the Jefferson School of Social Science in New York . -That year , Howard Fast -- a winner of the Stalin Peace Prize who would later break with the CPUSA -- published Conceived in Liberty : A Novel of Valley Forge , followed a little later by Citizen Tom Paine . The conceit was that , since America and the Soviet Union were hostile to Old World aristocracy , the next step was natural : to imply a strong kinship between the American and Russian revolutions . </p> Musicians and songwriters did their part , rummaging through American history and legend for fodder . Both Valley Forge and Gettysburg were in " Was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by Walter Lowenfels , a staffer of the official CPUSA newspaper , the Daily Worker , and Pete Seeger 's mentor , the singer Lee Hays . Aaron Copland made extensive use of folklore in his ballet Billy the Kid . Copland brought into the classical repertoire that epic contest between the hammer-wielding laborer and the mechanized drill , " John Henry . " ( His version is still popular : the conductor of a youth orchestra in Florida cheerfully introduced it to a recent audience as " a political statement about McCarthyism and the oppression of the machine . " ) The above-mentioned Earl Robinson -- whose best melody is " Joe Hill , " a perennial favorite of the labor movement , about a union organizer who was executed on a murder charge -- recorded old tunes like " Jefferson and Liberty " and composed new ones about John Brown , Horace Greeley , and Molly Pitcher , the water-carrying heroine of the War of Independence . </p> Robinson ( 1910-1991 ) was a Seattle-born composer , arranger , choral director , and performer on piano and guitar , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the 1930s and Hollywood in the 1940s . Throwing himself into what he called " our efforts to Americanize the movement , " he ended up creating two classics of the golden age of radio . His " Ballad for Americans , " a sensation when it went out over the CBS network in 1939 , gave Bing Crosby a major hit on Decca Records . It was featured at the 1940 Republican National Convention and appeared in the MGM movie Born to Sing , in a production number choreographed by Busby Berkeley . Robinson 's " The House I Live In , " recorded by , among others , Paul Robeson , Eddie Fisher , and Connie Francis , became the theme song of a famous Frank Sinatra movie short for which Sinatra and Robinson shared a special Academy Award in 1946 . Abel Meeropol , a CPUSA member who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Allan and later adopted the two sons of convicted Communist spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg , helped write the lyrics . </p> Part of Robinson 's Americanization crusade was to make himself -- at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lincoln . However , to review some of the music he wrote or co-wrote is to see that " getting right with Lincoln " did n't necessarily mean getting Lincoln right . " Abraham Lincoln , " pairing Alfred Hayes 's folksy lyrics with Robinson 's incongruously modernist-sounding melody , traces Lincoln 's life in six stanzas . " A great big giant of a man was he , yes sir ! " goes this odd folk song from 1938 . Robinson recalls in his memoir scouring the CPUSA pamphlet announcing the Popular Front and discovering , to his delight , a passage that General Secretary Browder had excerpted from Lincoln 's first inaugural address : " This country with its institutions belongs to the people who inhabit it ... . Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government , they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it , or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it ! " This became the song 's refrain . ( The exclamation point was added . ) </p> No , it is n't particularly catchy when set to music . Highlighting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fellow travelers -- of putting Lincoln on the side of mass insurrection . In fact , the president-elect had meant something else : that the right of revolution was reserved for those whose rights were being denied by their government , and the slavery defenders who seceded from the Union did not qualify . ( In that same speech , Lincoln declared : " Plainly , the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy . " ) The song " may have gone a little beyond Lincoln 's original intention , " Robinson sheepishly admitted . He recalled Orson Welles , the film director who was at the time a bigwig in theater and radio , introducing a choir performance of " Abraham Lincoln " at a CPUSA fundraiser and heralding it as a thrilling example of " militant music . " The assembled listeners " almost fainted , " said Robinson , upon hearing the 16th president portrayed as a government-toppling radical . </p> A revolution-friendly Rail Splitter was also on display in The Lonesome Train , the folk cantata that was broadcast over the radical radio station @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In this 25-minute radio opera -- with music by Earl Robinson and words by Millard Lampell , based on material from Carl Sandburg 's biography of Lincoln -- a spectral President Lincoln passes among humble denizens of towns and cities across the United States . It was the ubiquitous Waterston in the role of Lincoln who spoke the following line in the WBAI production : " Well I 'll tell you ma'am , it seems to me the strongest bond of human sympathy , outside your family of course , should be the one uniting all working people of all nations , tongues and kindreds . " </p> This plug for international proletarian solidarity was fashioned from Lincoln 's words . Again , it is telling to restore the words to their context in Lincoln 's 1864 " Reply to the New York Workingmen 's Democratic Republican Association . " He was talking about a tragic incident known to his correspondents : a public disturbance that saw laborers murdering other laborers . " It should never be so , " wrote Lincoln . " The strongest bond of human sympathy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all working people , of all nations , and tongues , and kindreds . " </p> What you would never suspect , hearing Robinson 's cantata , is that President Lincoln evoked this agreeable image of the " strongest bond " to admonish the recipients of his letter . He went on : </p> pre-formatted table This remarkable passage -- ample demonstration that not all " men of the people " are fans of the class struggle -- held little interest for Robinson 's friend Lee Hays of the Almanac Singers , who was the one to suggest the " strongest bond " sentence be put in the cantata . According to Robinson , he and Hays and their cohorts " thrilled to the apparent Soviet success in collectivizing agriculture . " They were not in the business of acknowledging the Lincolnian view ( which is also a Washingtonian , Madisonian , and Lockean view ) that one 's labor is a form of private property and that diligent labor leading to the accumulation of property is an essential of a free society . American Communists celebrated Lincoln for ending slavery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his anti-slavery view . </p> Such a purist was Robinson that he tried to stop his own works from being performed by politically incorrect people ( such as those odious Republicans at their convention ) or at politically incorrect times -- namely , when the CPUSA turned pacifist , suspending its anti-Fascism campaign from August 1939 until June 1941 in deference to Stalin 's non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler . Carl Sandburg tired of Robinson 's insertion of the Party line into musical pieces on which the two men collaborated . The poet finally groused to the composer that the latter bore no resemblance to Eugene V. Debs , who was admirable for having refused to " take orders from the Moscow Vatican . " </p> In the 1950s , Robinson ran afoul of the counter-subversives . Anti-Communists protested the use of a recording of The Lonesome Train in suburban New York schools . The FBI tailed him , and he was blacklisted , which meant few would hire him for artistic projects . But if his Lincoln work got him in trouble , it also eventually came to his rescue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least to the extent of being the toast of Springfield . Illinois 's Republican governor Otto Kern summoned him that year to be official historian for the cultural program that the state of Illinois put on for the centenary of Lincoln 's death . Robinson got other big-historical-moment sorts of assignments every so often : he was commissioned to create a " documentary musical record " of the astronauts ' landing on the moon in 1969 . And during the United States 's bicentennial , his composing-talents were in great demand . That chapter of his memoir is entitled " 1976 : My Year . " </p> The prominence accorded Communists like Robinson during the 1940s and 50s owed much to the efforts of Pop Front liberals . Movers and shakers like the radio writer , director , and producer Norman Corwin had put Robinson and others to work at major media outlets . The fellow-traveling Corwin was a programming powerhouse at CBS , where he produced Robinson 's Ballad for Americans and The Lonesome Train . Corwin , who recently turned 100 , was a household name before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most enduring work is the oft-performed stage play The Rivalry , about Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas . That play was written in 1958 , well after his Pop Front ardor had cooled ; he broke with the Communists when they supported Kim Il-Sung 's invasion of South Korea . </p> It was during the fight against Hitler 's Germany that Corwin 's morale-boosters filled the airwaves -- from We Hold These Truths , a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights that aired just after Pearl Harbor , to the special program that CBS rushed onto the air on May 8 , 1945 , Victory-in-Europe Day . " Corwin 's ' little guy ' was American for ' proletariat , ' " says the narrator of I Married a Communist , the Philip Roth novel set in the Popular Front era . He was talking about the famous V-E Day program , which was called On a Note of Triumph . </p> It began : " Take a bow , GI . Take a bow , little guy . The superman of tomorrow lies at the feet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it kids . This is the day . All the way from Newburyport to Vladivostok , you had what it took , and you gave it . And each of you has a hunk of rainbow ' round your helmet . Seems like free men have done it again ! " </p> The show was rebroadcast a week after V-E Day by popular demand . Roth would praise its script as " poeticized vernacular " and the " high demotic poetry that was the liturgy of World War II . " But not everyone liked On a Note of Triumph . Writing in Harper 's magazine at the time , the historian Bernard de Voto called it " windy , opaque , pretentious , and in the end , false . " Not debatable , in any case , is that it is a prime example of Pop Front-ese . Note the pairing of a New England port with a Russian port . And the false implication that the terrible losses inflicted on Russia by the German war machine were the sacrifices of a free people rather than a people oppressed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ historian David Everitt writes in his 2007 book , A Shadow of Red , Norman Corwin 's anti-fascism , laudable in itself , spilled over into a wartime infatuation with the Soviet Union . Everitt points to the Corwin-directed program " Concerning the Red Army , " which ended in a paean to Josef Stalin . And to the Corwin series Passport for Adams , in which an American journalist visiting Russia was assured by Soviet officials that German prisoners of war were being looked after with tender care when , in fact , only a tiny percentage survived captivity . Everitt , as he quotes from that 1943 script , waxes sardonic : " ' We treat them humanely because we believe in human dignity ... and in international law , ' says this representative of the nation that invented the Gulag . " </p> Yet Corwin would emerge nearly unscathed from the postwar backlash against Communism . Red-hunters called him out for his pro-Soviet views , but he was not , according to his biographer , denied gainful employment as a result . After radio , he wrote for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the University of Southern California . Those claiming him as a role model have included Philip Roth , Ray Bradbury , Robert Altaian , Norman Lear , Larry King , and Charles Kuralt , who said , of the writers of his generation , that " we are children of Corwin . " Writing well into his 80s , he was still the go-to guy when a major event like Y2K rolled around . As 1999 drew to a close , National Public Radio broadcast his " Memos to a New Millennium , " with Walter Cronkite narrating Corwin 's 28-minute summation of the previous thousand years of human history . </p> Even more prone to turn up on somber or important occasions is the work of Aaron Copland . Although his Lincoln Portrait was yanked from the program at President Eisenhower 's inauguration for political reasons , his Fanfare for the Common Man was performed at President Reagan 's inauguration . In the sensitive time after the attacks of September 11 , Bob Dylan began his concerts by piping in recorded excerpts of Copland . </p> " One picks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " says Abe Lincoln in the play that Norman Corwin wrote on the centennial of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 . Many mid-20th-century American artists and writers did not pick carefully . Corwin , though , righted himself by choosing the democracies over the North Koreans in 1950 , and Copland was another who separated himself from a Popular Front that was foundering on the shoals of the Cold War . Their political profiles resolved quietly into that old-school media liberalism that is so familiar to us today . It 's a liberalism whose adherents think of patriotism as not altogether a bad thing , so long as it is in the right -- by which they mean the left -- hands . </p> The zealotry that characterized the Popular Front , the capture-the-flag fervor that ended up embedded in our popular culture , is an unrepeatable phenomenon . Michael Moores , Tony Kushners , and Oliver Stones there may be , but we are not likely ever to see creative types strap on the yoke of political-party discipline the way the Pop Fronters did . Nevertheless , the effects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political attitude common in the films , plays , and broadcast media of today is a descendant of the rigid leftism that once ruled the arts . The contemporary view does not entail blindly defending an evil empire as of old . It does , however , define equality as economic leveling and wisdom in international affairs as U.S. deference to others . The Red-tinged Lincoln who popped up during his bicentennial may be a weird apparition , but he tells us more about our own world than we may realize . </p> LAUREN WEINER has written on the history of American Communism for First Things , the Weekly Standard , the Baltimore Sun , and many other publications . </p> Communists saw a chance to break out of the political wilderness when in 1935 Moscow sought to broaden the Party 's appeal by declaring a " popular front " against the rise of Fascism . The CPUSA responded with an ambitious program . </p> Highlighting this passage had the virtue -- for Communists and their fellow travelers -- of putting Abraham Lincoln on the side of mass insurrection . In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Communists were not in the business of acknowledging the Lincolnian view that one 's labor is a form of private property and that diligent labor leading to the accumulation of property is an essential of a free society . </p> Norman Corwin would emerge nearly unscathed from the postwar backlash against Communism . Red-hunters called him out for his pro-Soviet views , but he was not denied gainful employment as a result . </p> The effects of this long-past historical moment are still felt . The political attitude common in the films , plays , and broadcast media of today is a descendant of the rigid leftism that once ruled the arts . </p> By Lauren Weiner </p> 
##4119575 News Focus </p> Writer David C. Holzman first heard about ecosystem services in current presidential science advisor John P. Holdren 's class " Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems " at the University of California , Berkeley , in winter quarter , 1975 . The late Lee Schipper , Holzman 's original mentor on energy issues , had recommended the class </p> Healthy ecosystems provide us with fertile soil , clean water , timber , and food . They reduce the spread of diseases . They protect against flooding . Worldwide , they regulate atmospheric concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide . They moderate climate . Without these and other " ecosystem services , " we 'd all perish. 1 </p> One hallmark of the history of civilization is an ever-increasing exploitation of ecosystem services coupled with substitution of technology for these services , particularly where ecosystems have been exploited beyond their ability to provide. 2 Agriculture is a hybrid of exploitation and substitution that enabled people to live in greater , denser populations that drove further exploitation and substitution . Modern plumbing made close quarters far less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ break down sewage , and to substitution with expensive sewage treatment technologies . Exploitation of fossil fuels led to a slew of modern conveniences , including fishing fleets that are so effective at catching their prey that they threaten fisheries globally 3 , 4 All this exploitation strained ecosystems , but in the past , when the population was a fraction of what it is now , these strains were local rather than global phenomena . </p> In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ( MA ) , 5 a sweeping survey conducted under the auspices of the United Nations , found that approximately 60% of 24 ecosystem services examined were being degraded or used unsustainably. 6 " Every year we lose three to five trillion dollars ' worth of natural capital , roughly equivalent to the amount of money we lost in the financial crisis of 2008-2009 , " says Dolf de Groot , leader of the Research Program on Integrated Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Wageningen University , the Netherlands . </p> The value of ecosystem services typically goes unaccounted for in business and policy decisions and in market prices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at all , they are perceived as free goods , like clean air and water . So it 's not surprising that much of the degradation of ecosystems is rooted in what the President 's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology ( PCAST ) , an independent group of U.S. scientists and engineers , describes as " widespread underappreciation of the importance of environmental capital for human wellbeing and the absence of the value of its services from the economic balance sheets of producers and consumers . " 7 PCAST and other groups are working to build recognition of ecosystem services and , importantly , to valuate them -- that is , calculate values for these services to help policy makers and resource managers make rational decisions that factor important environmental and human health outcomes into the bottom line . </p> An Idea Whose Time Has Come ? In July 2011 PCAST called upon the federal government to assess quadrennially the condition of the nation 's ecosystems and the social and economic value of services they provide . The goal was to improve methods for evaluating those services and to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gather new information in a format that interested parties can easily use. 7 </p> But the concept of valuating ecosystem services is not new . John P. Holdren , now science advisor to President Barack Obama , introduced it to students in his class " Quantitative Aspects of Global Environmental Problems " at the University of California , Berkeley , in the 1970s . He emphasized that technological substitutions for ecosystem services are often costly , sometimes to the point of impracticality , and that sometimes an incomeplete understanding of how they function makes such substitutions impossible . Geoengineering to mitigate global climate disruption in the face of increasing emissions , for example , is widely viewed as extremely risky , because the climate is so complex . </p> In 1997 Robert Costanza , Distinguished University Professor of sustainability at Portland State University , Oregon , and colleagues first estimated that ecosystem services worldwide are worth an average $33 trillion annually ( $44 trillion in today 's dollars ) , nearly twice the global GNP of around $18 trillion ( $24 trillion in today 's dollars ) . 8 Although the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was widely praised for drawing attention to the value of ecosystem services , says Rick Linthurst , national program director of the Ecosystem Services Research Program at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) . </p> Payments to preserve ecosystem services date to at least the early 1980s , when the United States implemented wetland and stream credit banking , 9 but the idea really took off in the mid 1990s . For instance , in 1996 Costa Rica began paying landowners $42 per hectare per year to preserve forest. 10 At the time , that country had the highest deforestation rate in the world ; now it has among the lowest , says Gretchen C. Daily , Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University . </p> China responded to a devastating drought in 1997 , followed by massive floods in 1998 , by inaugurating various payments for ecosystem services and a policy for conserving areas that are important sources of ecosystem services . These are known as Ecosystem Function Conservation Areas . Among the benefits : soil erosion fell sufficiently to cut sediment in the Yellow River by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sequestration rose by an estimated 1.3 billion tons between 1998 and 2010 , says Jianguo Liu , the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and University Distinguished Professor of fisheries and wildlife at Michigan State University . But he adds that some benefits probably came at the expense of natural capital elsewhere in the world , as declines in forest cutting coincided with a rise in imported timber . </p> In 2010 the World Bank launched a program to help countries incorporate the value of ecosystem services into their accounting systems with an eye toward managing ecosystems to maximize economic benefit. 11 Colombia , beset for several years by unusually persistent and damaging rains , is one of five pilot countries working with the bank . </p> Elsewhere , Norway is paying Indonesia $1 billion to preserve rainforest for carbon storage and sequestration to limit the impacts of climate change. 12 And in Vietnam , an investment of $1.1 million in mangroves , which protect coastal regions from flooding , saved $7.3 million annually that would have gone to maintaining dikes. 1 </p> A number of agencies of the U.S. federal government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assembling a national atlas that can overlay visual information , like that used in Google Earth , with ecological and economic analyses to reveal variability in ecosystem service provision . The agency also has pilot programs in four regions of the United States enabling interested parties to project different resource-use scenarios into the future to help guide decision making now. 13 </p> And in 2007 environment ministers from the G8+5 countries 14 agreed to begin analyzing the global economic benefits that derive from ecosystems and biodiversity , and to compare the costs of failure to protect these resources with the costs of conserving them . In the ensuing years , the resulting initiative , The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity ( TEEB ) , 15 has produced a series of reports for decision makers at the international , national and local levels aimed at enabling practical responses . </p> Another leader in guiding decision makers on payments for ecosystem services is the Natural Capital ( NatCap ) Project , cofounded by Stanford 's Daily in 2006. 16 NatCap has created software called InVEST ( Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social benefits , so that decision makers can explore the implications of alternative land-use scenarios . For any given piece of real estate , InVEST can take existing data on various ecosystem services -- each of which may fall under a different field of study -- and provide one consistent platform for assessing all of them together , to determine the optimal use(s) of that land , says Heather Tallis , lead scientist of NatCap . For example , " trade-off curves " can reveal how much timber can be harvested before causing major profit loss to hydropower , flood damage , or loss of biodiversity . The tools are available free through NatCap. 17 </p> NatCap 's consulting group is currently working on numerous projects within the United States and with 15 other countries in Africa , Latin America , the Pacific , North America , and Asia . Foremost among those countries is China , which is spending a total of around $100 billion -- more than any other country -- to preserve forestlands through logging bans , to buy farms that are perched unsustainably on steep slopes for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chinese government will shift farmers either to more sustainable locations or to other occupations , says Daily . NatCap is using InVEST to assess how many resource-intensive livelihoods -- in farming , forestry , herding , and other fields -- could be supported sustainably in a certain area under given practices , and to evaluate how shifting inhabitants to an alternative mix of livelihoods would impact natural capital and ecosystem services . This helps inform the investments needed to enable desired shifts , as well as to ascertain who will benefit and who will be hurt by the shifts , and to determine appropriate compensation , says Daily . </p> Assigning a Dollar Value Ecosystem services are valued , ideally , by how much human welfare they can provide . The most convenient measure of welfare is dollars , although at this early stage of development of the science , that is not always a practical measure . </p> Values for provisioning services see sidebar , " What Are Ecosystem Services ? " are relatively easy to determine . The simplest and least controversial methods to assess value draw on existing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the NatCap Project at the World Wildlife Fund U.S. office . For example , coastal and marine ecosystems support the production of fish . The value of this service can be assessed based on revenues , a function of the price and quantity of harvested fish . </p> Thus , the value of the provisioning service is equal to how much all of its current and future production is worth today -- what economists call its " present value . " The further into the future the production lies , the lower the present value of the service . That 's because money invested today in a safe investment , such as a Treasury bill , almost certainly will grow . If Treasury bills are earning 3% , $100 invested today will become $103 a year from now , $106.09 two years from now , and so on . That means that $106.09 two years from now is no more valuable than $100 today . </p> Many ecosystem services , such as scenery , recreational value , and most regulatory services , including those moderating infectious disease , lack a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asking people what they would pay for a particular service , says Stephen Polasky Fesler-Lampert Professor of ecological/environmental economics at the University of Minnesota ; this is called " stated preference . " Another method , " revealed preference , " involves determining values from related actual purchases , such as the money people spend to travel to bucolic tourist destinations , or the extra cost of a house with a water view over a similar nearby house without the view . </p> Another valuation technique is estimating " replacement cost . " This is the cost of the least expensive technical fix as a replacement for an ecosystem service . For example , New York City recently paid landowners in its watershed more than $1 billion to change their farm management practices to prevent animal waste and fertilizer from washing into the waterways . In doing so , the city avoided spending $6-8 billion on a new water filtration plant and $300-500 million annually to run it -- the replacement cost of the natural filtration provided by waterways. 1 " Protecting the watershed along with the ecosystem service it provides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eight billion dollars because that is the cost of replacing the service , " says Polasky who notes that the value of clean water is far higher still . </p> The value of an ecosystem service depends on local and/or regional socioeconomic conditions as well as supply and demand . Thus , the value of clean water is much higher in New York City 's watershed , where it serves 19 million people7 than it would be in , say , Alaska , says Polasky . </p> When it comes to valuating ecosystem services , the economics is the easy part -- easy being a relative term . The major difficulties have more to do with the fact that ecology is a relatively young science , and there is much that we do n't yet understand about it , says Polasky , echoing colleagues . " Nature is probably the most complex system we know of , " Daily explains . </p> Huge Error Bars and Heroic Assumptions Part of the problem , generally speaking , is that the multiple uncertainties about how ecosystems do what they do add up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are often based on " heroic assumptions " that do n't stand on much data , says Lisa Wainger , a research associate professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science . </p> For instance , scientific understanding of feedback among the many ecosystem services remains wanting -- " If you have more carbon in soil , are plants better able to take up nitrogen ? " asks Polasky , as one example . A good deal of ecological uncertainty stems from a lack of information about basic natural history . The PCAST report notes that " groups of organisms likely to be most important in ecological terms , such as species that determine soil fertility , promote nutrient cycling , or consume wastes are among the least familiar and least visible -- e.g. , fungi , nematodes , mites , insects , and bacteria . Populations of ecologically dominant marine organisms , most of which are either invertebrates or microbes , are just as poorly understood . " 7 </p> Climate change magnifies all these ecological uncertainties . It 's " the mother of all externalities , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the University of Sussex , " larger , more complex , and more uncertain than any other environmental problem . " 19 Over the rest of the century , global climate shifts are likely to be the biggest driver of ecosystem change and may greatly reduce Earth 's carrying capacity , according to PCAST. 7 </p> It also remains difficult to link changes in the delivery of ecosystem services to changes in human welfare . " There are many mysteries about which species confer what dynamics to ecosystems or what benefits to people , " says Daily . " We really do n't know how much biodiversity is needed to sustain and fulfill human life . " </p> But more precise knowledge of the economic value of those ecosystem services that can easily be valuated " would not , in itself provide insight into what fraction of the benefit would be lost in consequence of a given type or degree of ecosystem disruption , " according to the PCAST report. 7 There are thresholds in ecosystem function beyond which carrying capacity plummets . History and prehistory are littered with thresholds breached @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's desertified Middle East ( probably due to mismanagement of irrigation , says Daily ) to the deforestation , extinction of all wild land birds , and human population collapse on Easter Island. 2 One of the biggest fears about the impact of climate change is that global thresholds will be breached , but the ability to predict such with anything approaching precision is currently beyond ecological science . </p> Progress Despite the challenges , considerable progress has been made over the last decade toward improved techniques for linking changes in ecosystem services to changes in human welfare . Part of that improvement is due to modeling methods , including InVEST , as well as to greater numbers of ecological studies , and part is due to improvements in the data , says Polasky . The field has been boosted by the revolution in GIS ( geographic information system ) technology and so-called spatially explicit data : " We now have very good images that enable us to know the heights of plants and elevations of terrain , and really good sensors that show us what 's on the ground , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monitoring . If we increase the deforestation upriver , we can monitor the sediment downriver . That 's been a huge help . " </p> Health &; Ecosystems : Analysis of Linkages ( HEAL ) , 20 a consortium of more than 25 conservation and public health institutions , has embarked on the first rigorous , systematic attempt to measure the human health impacts of changes in a variety of natural systems . HEAL 's projects are designed to evaluate what are thought to be key connections between the environment and health . Examples include the relationships between subsistence hunters ' sustainable access to wildlife and their children 's nutritional needs ( particularly as related to iron and key micronutrient deficiencies ) ; between upland deforestation on islands such as Fiji , erosion and waterborne diarrheal diseases in children , and downstream coral reef health and productivity ; between deforestation patterns and malaria in the Amazon and other major forest systems ; between landscape fires in Sumatra and smoke-related cardiopulmonary illness in the broader region downwind ; and between fishers ' access to Marine Protected Areas , food security , income @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ having a " sense of place " related to coastal resource security . </p> Perhaps most importantly , says Steve Osofsky , HEAL coordinator and director of health policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society , the project seeks to quantify all these types of relationships related to communicable diseases , noncommunicable diseases , nutrition , and the social and psychological dimensions of health . In Osofsky 's words , " If it can not be measured , it can not be managed . " </p> The ultimate goal of valuating ecosystem services " is to improve human well-being overall , " says Daily . She cautions that there will always be people who lose out in any policy decision . However , she says , " The aim is to design these investments in natural capital so as to advance human development and alleviate poverty at the same time . This is the Holy Grail . " </p> REFERENCES AND NOTES 1 . TEEB.The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Local and Regional Policy Makers . Geneva , Switzerland:The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study , United Nations Environment Programme ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2012 . </p> 2 . Diamond J. Collapse : How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed . New York , NY:Viking Adult ( 2005 ) . </p> 3 . Tibbetts J. The state of the oceans , part 1 : eating away at a global food source . Environ Health Perspect 112(5):A282-A291 ( 2004 ) ; http : **33;73399;TOOLONG . </p> 4 . Tibbetts J. The state of the oceans , part 2 : delving deeper into the sea 's bounty . Environ Health Perspect 112(8):A472-A481 ( 2004 ) ; http : **33;73434;TOOLONG </p> 5 . The MA represents the work of 1,360 experts from 95 countries . The reports focus on the connections between how changes in ecosystem services -- usually involving deterioration -- affect human well-being , and , based on these findings , call into question the ability of ecosystems to sustain future generations . </p> 6 . Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board . Statement of the MA Board . Living Beyond Our Means : Natural Assets and Human Well-being . Washington , DC and Nairobi , Kenya:World Resources Institute and United Nations Environment Programme ( 2005 ) . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ </p> 7 . The President 's Council of Advisors on Scence and Technology ( PCAST ) . Report to the President . Sustaining Environmental Capital Protecting Society and the Economy . Washington , DC:White House Office of Science and Technology Policy , Executive Office of the President ( Jul 2011 ) . Available : http : **114;73509;TOOLONG accessed 6 Mar 2012 </p> 8 . Costanza R , et al . The value of the world 's ecosystem services and natural capital . Nature 387(6630)253-260 ( 1997 ) ; http : **29;73625;TOOLONG . </p> 9 . EPA . Wetlands Fact Sheet : Mitigation Banking Factsheet website Washington , DC:U.S . Environmental Protection Agency ( updated 12 Jan 2009 ) . Available : http : **44;73656;TOOLONG accessed 6 Mar 2012 </p> 10 . Snchez-Azofeifa GA , et al . Costa Rica 's Payment for Environmental Services Program : intention , implementation , and impact . Conserv Biol 21 ( 5 ) : 1165-1173 ( 2007 ) ; http : **45;73702;TOOLONG . </p> 11 . The World Bank . Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services ( WAVES ) : A Global Partnership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nov 2011 ) . Available : http : **29;73749;TOOLONG accessed 6 Mar 2012 . </p> 12 . Norad . Real-Time Evaluation of Norway 's International Climate and Forest Initiative . Contributions to National REDD+ Processes 2007-2010 . Country Report Indonesia . Oslo , Norway : Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ( 2010 ) . Available : http : **135;73780;TOOLONG accessed 6 Mar 2012 </p> 13 . EPA . Ecosystem Services Research : National Atlas website , Washington , DCU.S . Environmental Protection Agency ( updated 1 Mar 2012 ) . Available : http **35;73917;TOOLONG nattional-atlas.htm. accessed 6 Mar 2012 </p> 14 . The G8+5 includes the heads of government from the G8 nations ( Canada , France , Germany , Italy , Japan , Russia , the United Kingdom , and the United States ) , plus the heads of government of five emerging economies ( Brazil , China , India , Mexico , and South Africa ) </p> 15 . TEEB website , Geneva , SwitzerlandThe Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study ( TEEB ) , United Nations Environment Programme ( 2012 ) . Available : http : //www.teebweb.org/ accessed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( NatCap ) Project is a partnership among Stanford University , the University of Minnesota , the Nature Conservancy , and the World Wildlife Fund . </p> 17 . Natural Capital Project website , Stanford , CA:The Natural Capital Project ( 2012 ) , Available : http : **42;73954;TOOLONG accessed 6 Mar 2012 . </p> 18 . Liu J , et al . Ecobgical and sotioeconomic effects of China 's policies for ecosystem services , proc Natl Acao Sci USA 105(28):9477-9482 ( 2008 ) ; http : **36;73998;TOOLONG . </p> 19 . Tol RSJ . The economic effects of climate change . J Econ Perspect 23(2):29-51 ( 2009 ) ; http : **32;74036;TOOLONG . </p> 20 . One Health Commission . Health &; Ecosystems : Analysis of Linkages http : **108;74070;TOOLONG 6 Mar 2012 . </p> 21 . Daily GC , et al Ecosystem services : benefits supplied to human societies by natural ecosystems . Issues Ecol 2:1-16(1997) ; http : **64;74180;TOOLONG . </p> 22 . Chivian E , Bernstein AS . Embedded in nature : human health and biodiversity . Environ Health Perspect 112(1)A12-A13 ( 2004 ) ; http : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and communities : evidenced-based nature contact recommendations . Int J Environ Health Res 21(1):41-61 ( 2011 ) ; http : **41;74280;TOOLONG </p> 24 . Keesing F , et al . Impacts of biodiversity on the emergence and transmission of Infectiousdiseases . Nature 468 ( 73241:647-652 ( 2010 ) ; http : **32;74323;TOOLONG . </p> 25 . Myers SS , Patz JA . Emerging threats to human health from global environmental change . Ann Rev Environ Res 34 223-252 ( 2009 ) ; http : **50;74357;TOOLONG . </p> 26 . Riotetts TH , et al . Economic value of tropical forest to coffee production . Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(34)12579-12582 ( 2004 ) ; http : **36;74409;TOOLONG </p> By David C. Holzman </p> David C. Holzman writes on science , medicine , energy , economics , and cars from Lexington and Wellfleet , MA . His work has appeared in Smithsonian , The Atlantic Monthly , and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute . </p> </p> 
##4119576 News Innovations </p> Exposures that cause chronic diseases usually take place years , perhaps decades , before disease is diagnosed . Biomarkers collected at single points of time therefore can not tell the whole story of how disease occurs in an individual . For that , one must look to the " exposome , " or the compilation of exposures experienced over an individual 's lifetime . But efforts to link environmental exposures to disease have been stymied by the difficulty of accurately measuring those day-to-day exposures and the substances that are present in people 's bodies . </p> The term " exposome " was initially coined in 2005 by Christopher Wild , 1 who now directs the International Agency for Research on Cancer , in recognition of the failure of genetic factors to explain most variability in human diseases . The exposome concept reflects the reality that people are exposed to potentially health-impairing agents from both pollution and nonpollution sources , including industrial chemicals , combustion emissions , radiation , heat/cold , noise , and food . The exposome also includes behavioral factors , such as activity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's expo-some includes his or her microbiome , 2 or vast personalized assembly of commensal microbes . All these exposures and factors can vary over the course of a day , not to mention over the weeks , months , and years that make up a lifetime . </p> In the last few years , tools and methodologies have begun to emerge that hold promise for more easily capturing information about at least some of the environmental exposures that an individual may come into contact with over the course of his or her lifetime . The new tools come from a wide range of disciplines -- some of which fall outside the usual domain of environmental health -- and they are already helping researchers amass data on real-world exposures . These tools also hold promise for conducting studies that uncover unexpected links between environmental exposures and disease . </p> Several of the most promising tools and approaches were discussed at a workshop of the National Academies ' Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions committee in December 20ll. 3 Some of these tools are already helping researchers get a handle on how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease and cancer , says Steve Rappaport , director of the Center for Exposure Biology at the University of California ( UC ) , Berkeley , who organized the workshop . </p> Measuring External Exposures Tools for measuring the exposome are aimed at assessing exposures that take place both outside the body ( the " exposure dose " ) and inside ( the " absorbed dose " ) ; both are important for determining whether an environmental agent causes actual harm , says Linda Birnbaum , director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ( NIEHS ) . For example , as some studies have shown , such as research involving measurements of arsenic in soil , house dust , and urine , " a big increase in external exposure may not necessarily result in a major increase in internal exposure . At the same time , if you ca n't tell where an internally measured chemical came from , it 's impossible to prevent the exposure . </p> Some of the new tools for measuring external exposures capitalize on the fact that the majority of the world 's citizenry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 5 Cell phones already contain components that make them suitable for collecting key information associated with environmental exposures , points out Michael Jerrett , an associate professor in the Environmental Health Sciences program at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health . These instruments include ambient light meters , Global Positioning System sensors , and accelerometers , which measure movement . The latter two instruments can indicate when people travel by motor vehicle , which can be a major source of exposure to air pollutants , he says . </p> In an unpublished pilot study in Barcelona , Jerrett has been testing cell phones ' suitability for tracking environmental exposures . Students ' movements , as tracked by cell phones and other wearable devices , are overlaid on models developed by the city 's Energy Agency and others to predict air pollution levels . Jerrett says measurements collected via cell phones compare quite favorably with those taken by equipment that has traditionally been used to measure personal exposures , which was often the size of a backpack . </p> Another way that cell phones can help researchers is by interfacing with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is the Bluetooth-enabled SensPod monitor , which collects data on ozone , carbon monoxide , carbon dioxide , nitrogen oxides , noise , and ultraviolet radiation . In Copenhagen , Jerrett says , a network of individual cyclists travel through the city with SensPods mounted on their bikes . The monitors inform the cyclists about their personal exposures as they move through the city , and the data can be uploaded to an application that compiles them into a pollution map . Users can pair their SensPods with an Android smart-phone via a mobile application that lets the two devices communicate and share data with the larger network of SensPod users . People in more than 20 countries in Europe , Asia , and North America are using the mobile sensors , according to Sensaris , the company that makes the devices. 6 It 's no stretch to imagine investigators using these devices for research purposes . </p> Among the investigators working to expand the array of chemicals that can be detected by handheld sensors is Non-gjian ( NJ ) Tao , director of the Center for Biosensor and Bioelectronics at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a wireless , wearable device the size of a cell phone that is capable of sensing petroleum-derived hydrocarbons , such as benzene , toluene , ethylene , and xylene ( all of which are known or suspected human carcinogens 7 ) . Field-testing at an Arizona State waste management facility showed that the sensor could detect acid vapors associated with waste management , including phosphoric acid and hydrochloric acid . Tao says his devices have proven sufficiently sensitive to detect benzene , toluene , ethylene , and xylene at concentrations of 1 ppb , comparable to commercially available detectors . </p> The tests Tao has conducted to date may be useful for evaluating personal exposures because they can generate results similar to those shown by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitoring systems . At the same time , the handheld devices can identify peaks the stationary monitors might miss . Tao is gearing up to begin pilot-testing the monitors in epidemiologic studies . </p> Another important aspect of personal exposure revolves around individuals ' levels of exertion . Stephen Intille , an associate professor in the College of Computer and Information Science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , led the development of the Wockets system , a wearable device capable of recording people 's physical activity . Such data are important to exposure assessment because physical exertion can change the dose of pollution a person receives . In one study , people driving a car or riding in a bus inhaled about 4.5 L air per minute , whereas subway riders inhaled 10 L/min , people walking inhaled 23 L/min , and cyclists inhaled 37 L/min. 8 </p> Intille 's Wockets are different from consumer-targeted wearable activity monitors , such as heart-rate monitors and pedometers , in that they provide continual data on the type , intensity , duration , and location of the wearer 's upper- and lower-body physical activity for months at a time . They also collect data on compliance so that researchers know whether the monitors are being used . The Wockets were initially designed with input from a group of self-described " non-technophile " volunteers aged 22 to 82 to ensure they are easy enough for even the least tech-savvy study participant to use . Intille 's team has also created " reminder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prompt participants to comply with research protocols . He hopes to have collected enough data to verify that the Wockets work as promised by the end of 2012 . </p> Because the data from personal sensors such as the ones Sensaris produces can be posted online in near real time , it sets the stage for what Jerrett calls " participatory sensing networks " fed by inputs from wired citizens . ( Although the Wockets data also are available very quickly , access to these data will be strictly controlled by the researchers , Intille stresses . ) Whether the data come from individuals or centralized monitoring stations , they have great educational potential , Intille says -- people participating in the network could learn about potential exposures associated with any given point in space and time , and having detailed data on exposures may also enable researchers to design interventions to reduce exposures , which could be programmed into smart devices . </p> " It 's one thing to know where people are exposed or how much people are exposed to , but once you know that as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help them change their exposure levels , " Intille says . For example , smart technology might reveal when small changes in behavior ( such as staying farther away from the cars ahead of you in traffic or walking a slightly different route ) could effect significant changes in exposure to pollutants that exacerbate asthma , he points out . However , Intille and Jerrett agree that important privacy issues need to be worked out before these concepts can be fully realized . </p> Internal Exposure Data A major advantage of focusing on the internal exposome is that you do n't necessarily need to know exactly what you 're looking for in order to find something important to human health , Rappaport says . " By comparing complex patterns of chemical signals detected in the blood of healthy and diseased persons , it is possible to pinpoint particular chemicals whose levels are higher or lower in the people with disease , " he explains . This , he says , holds promise for helping scientists ferret out and characterize the heretofore unknown risk factors that underlie a large portion of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expo-some data include efforts using blood plasma , urine , feces , and cells from inside one 's cheek or nostril . Some of these technologies already exist for other purposes . For example , Rajeshwari Sundaram , an investigator at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , points out that over-the-counter fertility monitors used by couples seeking to become pregnant can be useful for collecting hormonal data from women of child-bearing age . Sundaram is involved in the National Institutes of Health 's Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment ( LIFE ) study , which is using the monitors to capture daily changes in levels of reproductive hormones in a group of women who are trying to become pregnant . The LIFE study , which also involves men , is investigating how exposure to a variety of endocrine-disrupting compounds affects hormonally driven issues such as semen quality , time to pregnancy , infertility , pregnancy loss , gestation duration , and birth size. 9 </p> Another project under way to collect internal exposome data is headed up by Avrum Spira , a pulmonologist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the human airway as signatures of internal exposure to smoke from tobacco and cooking fires . The group is currently focused on studying airway expression of the small noncoding RNA sequences known as microRNAs , or miRNAs , which regulate the genetic response to smoking. 10 Spira 's group 's work is based on the hypothesis that cigarette smoke and other inhaled exposures alter epithelial cell gene expression throughout the respiratory tract11 and that variability in this gene-expression response is associated with risk for developing lung disease. 12 One of the group 's ongoing projects is to identify novel miRNAs in the airway that may ultimately serve as biomarkers for detecting lung cancer based on a sample that can be easily captured through the nose or mouth . The team is also investigating whether exposure to burning biomass , such as through cooking fires , alters gene expression in these cells . </p> One of the most unexpected findings to result from an internal exposome investigation was published last year , when a group led by Stanley Hazen , head of the Cleveland Clinic 's Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation section @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disease risk played by consumption of choline and other nutrients in concert with the micro-biome. 13 According to Hazen , the microbiome is particularly important because it is a filter of what he calls our largest environmental exposure -- what we eat -- and is a major contributor to our internal exposure . </p> Hazen is the principal investigator in a clinical study that is following more than 10,000 patients in a bid to identify small molecules in blood plasma and related pathways that predict an increased risk for major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks . By studying samples from 150 randomly selected people who experienced a heart attack or stroke in the three years following enrollment , together with age- and sex-matched control subjects , Hazen 's group detected a host of candidate compounds associated with cardiovascular risk . </p> The investigation revealed that when animals and people consume diets rich in choline ( a compound abundant in meat , poultry , and eggs ) , their gut microbes can transform the choline to trimethylamine . Trimethyl-amine is rapidly metabolized in the liver to trimethylamine iV-oxide ( TMAO ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accelerated thickening of the artery walls due to accumulation of cholesterol , compared with mice with lower TMAO levels . Hazen 's group further demonstrated that a cocktail of broad-spectrum antibiotics could suppress intestinal flora in mice and prevent production of atherogenic TMAO from the choline in ingested egg yolk lecithin. 13 </p> Hazen also reported that in a group of nearly 2,000 cardiovascular disease patients and controls , plasma TMAO levels predicted the future risk of cardiac events independent of traditional risk factors . 13 This suggests that a person 's microbiome profile could affect his or her heart-attack risk as much as or more than diet . It also could help explain why some people can get away with eating cholesterol-rich diets and others ca n't -- maybe those with gut flora that are poor at making TMAO are at less risk from eating high-fat diets , Hazen says . Although choline is an essential micro-nutrient crucial for brain development , many people may be getting too much of it , adds Hazen , in part because of the widespread use of lecithin in commercial baked goods to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 other examples where researchers have used an untargeted " omics " screening approach -- such as that used by Hazen 's group -- to identify potential markers of disease , Rappaport says . " By accumulating the biologically active chemicals from these studies in a library of potential environmental hazards , future investigators will be able to determine whether these chemicals are involved in a host of diseases whose origins are currently unknown , " he says . </p> Managing the Data To truly characterize the exposome , however , these internal and external measurement modalities must be integrated . Although external exposures do n't lend themselves to the untargeted omics approach that has led to recent advances involving the internal exposome , Rappaport stresses that air and water pollution and other external factors , such as exercise and stress , contribute to human diseases and must be controlled . " This will require more and better methods for simultaneously monitoring multiple targeted external stressors and , in time , for combining external measurements with internal exposomes , " he says . </p> The ability to compare samples taken before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ obvious advantage to studying the exposome . Rappaport says investigators can move the science forward by developing prospective cohort studies that collect data on external stressors while also obtaining and storing blood or other biospecimens for future measurements of internal exposomes . </p> Accordingly , Nathaniel Rothman , head of molecular studies at the National Cancer Institute , says the 40 -- 50 general prospective cohort studies currently under way throughout the world have a variety of biological samples and history information available that scientists may be able to use in future exposome studies . Studies where repeat samples have been taken may prove especially useful , he notes . Birnbaum adds that the NIEHS maintains a huge library of biological specimens from studies conducted by intramural investigators . Suzanne Fitz-patrick , senior science advisor in the Office of the Chief Scientist at the Food and Drug Administration , points out that the samples collected during drug trials may be available for use by other researchers , too . Paul Elliott , chairman of epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial College London School of Public Health , says the United @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for drug testing in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to invest in what he called " exposomic " research . </p> Chirag Patel , a postdoctoral research fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine , thinks the comprehensive connection of environmental factors to disease is now possible using the high-throughput analysis methods common in genome-based investigations . His proof of concept for such so-called environment-wide association studies used blood serum and urine samples from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey ( NHANES ) cohorts from 1999 through 2006 . In 2010 his group reported unexpected associations between type 2 diabetes and environmental exposures to heptachlor epoxide and ? -tocopherol. 14 They also found associations with polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCBs ) -- which have previously been linked to this form of diabetes -- and with pesticides . Investigators elsewhere have hypothesized that these chemicals might increase risk of obesity and metabolic diseases . </p> More recently , Patel 's group used the same techniques with NHANES data to screen for associations between environmental chemicals and blood lipids. 15 The preliminary findings suggest that higher levels of triglycerides and lower levels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with higher concentrations of fat-soluble contaminants such as PCBs and dibenzofurans . Patel says these associations merit more investigation , although he also makes it clear that the potential for confounding and reverse causal biases needs to be investigated via longitudinal and followup studies . That is , because the studies are cross-sectional in nature , it is entirely possible that the associations are a consequence of disease rather than a cause . </p> In the longer-term future , Patel envisions a time when improvements in our ability to measure both the internal and external exposomes will enable investigators to assess hundreds to thousands of different factors in connection to specific diseases or health states . To use that information to discover associations with disease , he foresees that new analytical and informatics methods will be required . This was an issue in early genomics studies , and it eventually led to a proliferation of new statistical techniques and the field of bioinformatics , he points out . </p> Birnbaum , for one , is cautiously optimistic about the promise of environment-wide association studies . " Genetic factors are inherently less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We may need some additional tools to deal with the environment . While bioinformatics is doing a great job now with the genetic information , I think we have a long way to go , and we need a lot more bioinformatics approaches and understanding to deal with the wealth of information that will come from the exposome . " </p> A person 's exposome is the sum total of the many exposure factors that fill the days , months , and decades of that person 's lifetime -- the exposures to chemicals , radiation , heat/cold , i noise , food , stress , and other environmental agents ; the health behaviors and activities ; and the unique profile of commensal bacteria that make an individual an individual . </p> Physical exertion is an important consideration when measuring exposure , because activity levels can affect how much of a pollutant a person inhales . In one study of different travel modalities , people riding bicycles inhaled more than 8 times as much air per minute as people driving cars and half again as much air as people who walked. 8 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to exercise less -- rather , smart technology may someday advise travelers on small behavioral tweaks ( such as falling behind the traffic ahead or taking a slightly different route ) that could significantly reduce exposure to pollutants . </p> The microbiome is particularly important because it is a filter of perhaps our largest environmental exposure -- our diet . Moreover , different intestinal bacteria can convert contaminants into new forms that may be more or less bioavailable than the original compound . Variations in individuals ' microbiomes could help explain why different people have different levels of susceptibility to environmentally influenced diseases . </p> REFERENCES AND NOTES 1 . Wild C. Complementing the genome with an " exposome " : the outstanding challenge of environmental exposure measurement in molecular epidemiology . Cancer Epidemiol Biomar Prev 14(8)1847-1850(2005) ; http : **30;72823;TOOLONG EPI-05-0456 </p> 2 . Betts K. A study in balance : how microbiomes are changing the shape of environmental health . Environ Health Perspect 119(8):A340-A346(2011) ; http : **33;72855;TOOLONG </p> 3 . Emerging Technologies for Measuring Individual Exposomes workshop , Washington , DC , 8-9 Dec 2011 . Washington , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : **63;72890;TOOLONG accessed 5 Mar 2012 </p> 4 . Kavanagh P , et al . Urinary arsenic species in Devon and Cornwal residents , UK . A pilot study . Analyst 123(1):27-29 ( 1998 ) ; http : **29;72955;TOOLONG </p> 5 . The World in 2011 : ICT Facts and Figures website , Geneva , Switzerland:lntemational Telecommunication Union ( 2011 ) . CTFactsFigures2011.pdf accessed 5 Mar 2012 </p> 6 . Sensans . Discover our SensPods website , Crolles , France Sensaris ( 2012 ) . Available : http : **44;72986;TOOLONG 5 Mar 2012 </p> 7 . NTP . Report on Carcinogens , 12th Edition . Research Triangle Park , NC:National Toxicology Program , U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ( 2011 ) . Available : http : //ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/ roc/twelfth/rod2.pdf accessed 5 Mar 2012 </p> 8. de Nazelle A , et al . Improving health through policies that promote active travel a review of evidence to support integrated health impact assessment . Environ Intl 37(4)766-777 ( 2011 ) ; http : **41;73032;TOOLONG </p> 9 . Buck Louis GM , et al . Heavy meatals and couple fecundity , the LIFE Study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2012 </p> 10 . Schembri S , et al . MicroRNAs as modulators of smoking-induced gene expression changes in human airway epithelium . Proc Natl Acad Sci 106(7):2319-2324 ( 2009 ) ; http : **35;73075;TOOLONG </p> 11 . Spira A , et al . Effects of cigarette smoke on the human airway epithelial cell transcriptome . Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(27)10143-10148(2004) ; http : **35;73112;TOOLONG </p> 12 . Spira A , et al . Airway epithelial gene expression in the diagnostic evaluation of smokers with suspect lung cancer . Nature Med 13(3):361-366 ( 2007 ) ; http : **27;73149;TOOLONG </p> 13 . Wang Z , et al . Gut flora metabolism of phosphatidylcholine promotes cardiovascular disease . Nature 472(7341)57-63 ( 2011 ) ; http : **32;73178;TOOLONG </p> 14 . Patel CJ , et al . An environment-wide association study ( EWAS ) on type 2 diabetes mellitus PLoS ONE 5(5):e10746 ( 2010 ) ; http : **41;73212;TOOLONG </p> 15 . Patel CJ , et al . Systematic evaluation of environmental factors : persistent pollutants and nutrients correlated with serum lipid levels . Int J Epidemiol ; http : **30;73255;TOOLONG online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ S. Betts has written about environmental contaminants , hazards , and technology for solving environmental problems for publications including FHP and Environmental Science &; Technology for more than a dozen years . </p> 
##4119660 Objectives . We better defined the distribution and determinants of coal workers ' pneumoconiosis ( CWP ) among US underground coal miners . </p> Methods . We obtained chest radiographs from the mobile unit of an enhanced surveillance program begun in 2005 by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health for underground coal miners . B Readers classified them for presence of pneumoconiosis . </p> Results . Miners from 15 states participated ( n = 6658 ) . The prevalence of CWP was higher in 3 states ( Kentucky , 9.0% ; Virginia , 8.0% ; West Virginia , 4.8% ) than in 12 other states ( age-adjusted risk ratio RR = 4.5 ; 95% confidence interval CI = 3.3 , 6.1 ) . Miners in these 3 states were younger and had less mining tenure , but advanced CWP ( category ? 2/1 ; RR = 8.1 ; 95% CI = 3.9 , 16.9 ) and progressive massive fibrosis ( RR = 10.5 ; 95% CI = 3.8 , 29.1 ) was more prevalent among them . Advanced CWP and progressive massive fibrosis were more prevalent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ irrespective of mining region , than among workers at larger mines . </p> Conclusions . Enhanced surveillance results confirmed the persistence of severe CWP among US coal miners and documented the health consequences of inadequate dust control for miners in parts of Appalachia and at smaller mines . ( Am J Public Health . 2012 ; 102:S279-S283 . ) </p> In the early 2000s , during the routine analysis of surveillance chest radiographs of underground coal miners , the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ( NIOSH ) began observing several aberrations in the frequency and severity of radiographic abnormalities among underground coal miners in the United States . Specifically , the overall prevalence of coal workers ' pneumoconiosis ( CWP ) appeared to be increasing , and NIOSH identified geographical clustering of CWP and observed rapid progression and increased disease severity , including progression to the most severe and fatal stage , progressive massive fibrosis ( PMF ) . 1 2 </p> In response to these occupational health findings , NIOSH , with support from the US Department of Labor 's Mine Safety and Health Administration , established and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ECWHSP ) . ECWHSP , using a mobile examination unit in areas in which rapidly progressing CWP had been identified , 1-4 further assessed the initial surveillance findings , better defined the scope and magnitude of the problem and identified potentially remediable causes of the continuing development and progression of lung disease among underground coal miners . </p> Our focus was ECWHSP 's radiographic findings consistent with CWP among miner participants . Specifically , we examined the radiographic patterns among this group of at-risk miners and investigated potential explanatory factors such as mine location and size . </p> METHODS Characteristics of the ECWHSP have previously been described , 5 and information about the program , including methods and survey sites , is publicly available. 6 In brief , chest radiographs were taken in a mobile examination unit at or near mine sites and according to NIOSH-specified procedures , and they were classified by B Readers 7 for the presence , profusion , and type of lung parenchymal abnormalities consistent with pneumoconiosis using the 2000 revision of the International Labour Office 's International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses. 8 The mobile examination @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radiographs. 9 We restricted the analysis to the most recent radiograph available for each individual . All participants provided informed consent . </p> We defined the presence of CWP as a profusion of small pneumoconiotic opacities classified as 1/0 or greater or as PMF , according to the International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses. 8 We defined the presence of PMF as the recording of any large opacity interpreted as being consistent with massive fibrosis ( i.e. , Stage A , B , or C ) . On the basis of previous work , we included as a severity indicator r-type opacities , which have previously been used as a surrogate for silica exposure. 10 A radiograph was determined to show r-type opacities ( rounded opacities between 3 and 10 mm in diameter ) when the B Reader indicated r-type opacity as either primary or secondary . Multiple readings were available for each radiograph . To determine simple CWP profusion and presence of PMF , we used the NIOSH final determination , a summary measure derived from multiple classifications using a standardized procedure. 2 To evaluate small opacity size and shape @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Data were available for September 2005 through October 2009 . Complete information on small opacity profusion , mine location , and employment size ( mine size ) was required for inclusion in the study . </p> We obtained mine name and location from each participating miner and determined the number of miners at the mine from reports submitted by mine operators to the Mine Safety and Health Administration . To calculate risk ratios , we categorized mine size by quartiles using the data for miners with CWP . In addition , we aggregated the data for the 3 states with highest CWP prevalence ( Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia ) and compared them with data for all other regions . This aggregation provided an approximately equal number of observations for both groupings . Because miner age is known to be associated with the presence and severity of CWP , we adjusted all disease risk ratios for miner age using log binomial regression . We compared median miner age using the Wilcoxon rank sum test . We used SAS version 9.1 ( SAS Institute , Cary , NC ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ participants from 416 mines located in 15 states . The number of radiographs collected from miners in each state is presented in Figure 1 . The unadjusted prevalence of CWP varied by region and was highest in Kentucky ( 9.0% ) and Virginia ( 8% ) but did not differ between them ( P = .51 ) . CWP was found in 4.8% of the radiographs of miners from West Virginia , which significantly differed from its prevalence in Kentucky and Virginia ( risk ratio RR = 1.8 ; 95% CI = 1.4 , 2.3 ; P&lt; .001 ) . The prevalence of CWP in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia as a group was 4 times as high as its prevalence in the other 12 states ( age-adjusted RR = 4.5 ; 95% CI = 3.3 , 6.1 ) , although miner age ( all miners ) was similar in both ( Table 1 ) . </p> In addition to the increased prevalence of overall CWP , significantly elevated age-adjusted risk ratios were associated with other outcomes , including a higher prevalence of advanced disease ( small opacity profusion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ = 3.9 , 16.9 ) , PMF ( RR = 10.5 ; 95% CI = 3.8 , 29.1 ) and r-type opacities ( RR = 7.7 ; 95% CI = 3.8 , 15.4 ) in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia than in the 12 other states . </p> FIGURE 1-Prevalence of coal workers ' pneumoconiosis by state , sorted by prevalence : Enhanced Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance Program , 2005-2009 . </p> Mine Size We noted a decreasing trend in CWP prevalence as mine size increased ( Figure 2 ) . However , the effect of mine size was confounded with region because the distribution of mine size differed between regions . For example , Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia had significantly more mines with fewer than 100 employees ( 46.7% ) than did the 12 other coal mining states ( 15.1% ; P&lt;.001 ) . </p> We stratified the outcomes by region ( Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia or the 12 other states ) , which showed that the prevalences of CWP , PMF , r-type opacities , and small opacity profusion of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and West Virginia were significantly associated with smaller mines , although not in a linear fashion . For example , the prevalences of r-type opacities and small opacity profusions of category 2 or higher were similar in mines with fewer than 40 miners , mines with 45-78 miners , and mines with 79-155 miners , but not in mines with more than 155 employees ( Table 2 ) . Small numbers of miners prevented a full analysis of all outcomes in the 12 other states , but the evidence showed a greater risk of overall CWP for miners in smaller mines ( RR = 6.8 ; 95% CI = 3.3 , 14.1 ) . </p> TABLE : TABLE 1-US Coal Workers ' Pneumoconiosis by Region : Enhanced Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance Program , 2005-2009 </p> Region Total No . CWP , No. ( % ) RR ( 95% CI ) Age of Miners , Years : All , Mean ( Median ) Age of Miners , Years : With CWP , Mean ( Median ) 12 states 3137 50 ( 1.6 ) Ref 47.2 ( 50.0 ) 53.8 ( 55.0 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 11.0 ) 45.1 ( 46.0 ) 50.4 ( 51.0 ) VA 648 52 ( 8.0 ) 6.0 ( 4.0 , 9.1 ) 47.4 ( 49.0 ) 51.1 ( 51.0 ) WV 1981 94 ( 4.8 ) 3.0 ( 2.1 , 4.3 ) 47.6 ( 51.0 ) 53.6 ( 53.0 ) KY , VA , and WV 3521 226 ( 6.4 ) 4.5 ( 3.3 , 6.1 ) 46.9 ( 50.0 ) 51.9 ( 52.0 ) </p> Note . CI = confidence interval ; CWP = coal workers ' pneumoconiosis ; RR = risk ratio . RR comparisons are given for Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia rather than prevalence of CWP as for the 12 other states included in the analysis ( AL , AR , CO , IL , IN , MD , NM , OH , PA , TN , UT , WY ) . </p> FIGURE 2-Prevalence of coal workers ' pneumoconiosis by mine size ( number of employees ) , unadjusted for age and region : Enhanced Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance Program , 2005-2009 . </p> Miner Age Consistent with the known epidemiology of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severity . Miners working in the larger mines ( &gt; 155 miners ) were slightly older ( median age = 51 years ; median tenure = 24 years ) than miners from smaller mines ( ? 155 miners ; median age = 48 years ; median tenure = 23 years ) . The median tenure of miners with CWP was equivalent among those mining in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia , but it was not equivalent with that of miners in the 12 other states ( 30 years ) . However , miners with CWP in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia were younger ( median age = 52 years ) than miners in the other states ( median age = 55 years ; P = .01 ) , although overall the age of the workforce in the 2 regions was the same ( both median ages = 50 years ) . </p> DISCUSSION We present an updated picture of pneumoconiosis prevalence and severity in US underground coal miners as documented through active radiographic surveillance using a mobile examination unit stationed at or near working mines . We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NIOSH-administered Coal Workers ' X-ray Surveillance Program . Our findings have confirmed recent reports that the prevalence and severity of pneumoconiosis is higher among miners in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia than among miners in other parts of the United States. 1 3 4 10-12 </p> Irrespective of mining region , CWP is also more prevalent and severe among workers from smaller underground mines than among those from larger mines. 5 </p> Although mine size is associated with disease incidence , size per se is not the issue ; rather , the issue is factors associated with size . Small mine size brings with it the potential for limited knowledge of , and resources for , dust reduction and disease elimination . Although larger mines can employ trained industrial hygienists and purchase state-of-the-art dust suppression measures , small mines may not have such opportunities . </p> The ECWHSP results have shown that not only is the disease burden greater in smaller mines , but also miners with CWP in smaller mines are younger than those in larger mines . Similarly , in some regions of the country , disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finding that is not unique to NIOSH radiographic surveillance . Wade et al. 13 examined state compensation data between 2000 and 2009 and found that among compensated West Virginia miners , the average age at which PMF was recognized was younger than 53 years . In that study , PMF was observed in miners as young as 40 years . Given miners would have to have begun developing PMF at a younger age than when it was first identified , these findings are of great concern and demonstrate the need for further research to determine the causes . </p> Strengths and Limitations Our results have several strengths and limitations . Among the strengths are that the data were collected by a dedicated group of trained personnel in a single mobile examination unit using uniform equipment and procedures throughout the study period . All radiographs were interpreted by a minimum of 2 B Readers . All data were quality checked at the time of acquisition and verified by means of double data entry . Because participation in the monitoring program is voluntary , potential bias is a concern if those with radiographic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to participate in the medical surveys . However , we are unaware of any evidence of differential participation between those with and those without radiographic evidence of pneumoconiosis . Meaningful differential participation by disease status seems unlikely : Recruitment efforts were directed at all miners , regardless of disease status . Moreover , miners are probably unaware that they have pneumoconiosis , at least in the less severe stages of the disease , because it often presents without symptoms . </p> TABLE : TABLE 2-Prevalence of US Coal Workers ' Pneumoconiosis and Progressive Massive Fibrosis and Indicators of Severity by Region and Mine Size : Enhanced Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance Program , 2005-2009 </p> KY , VA , and WV : Sample Size ( n = 3521 ) , No . KY , VA , and WV : No. ( % ) KY , VA , and WV : RR ( 95% CI ) Other Statesa : Sample Size ( n = 3137 ) , No . Other Statesa : No. ( % ) Other Statesa : RR ( 95% CI ) </p> CWP &lt; 40 miners 477 56 ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 5.9 ) 6.8 ( 3.3 , 14.1 ) 45-78 miners 728 67 ( 9.2 ) 3.7 ( 2.6 , 5.4 ) 210 3 ( 1.4 ) 1.8 ( 0.5 , 6.1 ) 79-155 miners 792 61 ( 7.7 ) 3.3 ( 2.3 , 4.9 ) 212 7 ( 3.3 ) 3.0 ( 1.3 , 6.9 ) &gt; 155 miners 1524 42 ( 2.8 ) Ref 2529 29 ( 1.2 ) Ref PMF &lt; 40 miners 477 7 ( 1.5 ) 2.3 ( 0.9 , 5.9 ) 186 2 ( 1.1 ) 45-78 miners 728 17 ( 2.3 ) 3.5 ( 1.6 , 7.5 ) 210 1 ( 0.5 ) 79-155 miners 792 10 ( 1.3 ) 2.0 ( 0.8 , 4.7 ) 212 0 ( 0 ) &gt; 155 miners 1524 11 ( 0.7 ) Ref 2529 1 ( 0.04 ) R-type opacityb &lt; 40 miners 477 14 ( 2.9 ) 5.1 ( 2.3 , 11.5 ) 186 4 ( 2.2 ) 45-78 miners 728 25 ( 3.4 ) 5.7 ( 2.8 , 11.9 ) 210 2 ( 1.0 ) 79-155 miners 792 25 ( 3.2 ) 5.6 ( 2.7 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miners 1524 10 ( 0.7 ) Ref 2529 1 ( 0.04 ) Profusion ? 2/1 &lt; 40 miners 477 12 ( 2.5 ) 3.2 ( 1.5 , 7.0 ) 186 8 ( 4.3 ) 45-78 miners 728 20 ( 2.8 ) 3.3 ( 1.7 , 6.6 ) 210 1 ( 0.5 ) 79-155 miners 792 23 ( 2.9 ) 3.7 ( 2.7 , 11.6 ) 212 0 ( 0 ) &gt; 155 miners 1524 14 ( 0.9 ) Ref 2529 0 ( 0 ) Profusion ? 2/1 and PMF &lt; 40 miners 477 16 ( 3.4 ) 3.8 ( 1.9 , 7.5 ) 186 8 ( 4.3 ) 45-78 miners 728 29 ( 4.0 ) 4.2 ( 2.3 , 7.8 ) 210 1 ( 0.5 ) 79-155 miners 792 25 ( 3.2 ) 3.6 ( 1.9 , 6.7 ) 212 0 ( 0 ) &gt; 155 miners 1524 16 ( 1.1 ) Ref 2529 1 ( 0.04 ) </p> Note . CI = confidence interval ; CWP = coal workers ' pneumoconiosis ; PMF = progressive massive fibrosis ; RR = risk ratio . Mine size cutoffs were based on quartiles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ? 1/0 . </p> aAL , AR , CO , IL , IN , MD , NM , OH , PA , TN , UT , and WY . </p> bWe determined ft-type opacities from the most recent classification of the radiograph . We calculated risk ratios using log binomial regression and adjusted for miner age . RRs are not presented for indicators of severity for other states because of instability in the estimates owing to small numbers . </p> Findings from the ECWHSP were similar to those from the Coal Workers ' X-ray Surveillance Program and showed very similar tenure-specific prevalence of radiographic abnormalities ( data not shown ) . Our results were also quite consistent with published findings based on multiple data sources. 1 3 4 12-16 We should note that because the ECWHSP is restricted by federal mandate to currently employed coal miners , the findings likely represent the minimum burden of pneumoconiosis among miners and ex-miners in the areas sampled . </p> Conclusions Although the total magnitude of disease burden remains somewhat uncertain , what is known about the state of coal miner health in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2005-2009 data from only the active surveillance program , identified 276 working miners with CWP , 77 with advanced disease , and 49 with PMF . As highlighted recently in commentaries by Loomis and Seaton , 17-19 in a contemporary mining industry , widely available dust control technologies should entirely protect miners from developing severe pneumoconiosis . Our results starkly emphasize the need for improved dust control measures and the continuing importance of active health surveillance for US coal miners . </p> Reprints can be ordered at http : //www.ajph.org by clicking the " Reprints " link . </p> This article was accepted August 21 , 2011 . </p> Acknowledgments We thank the Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance Program team , the B Readers , for their participation in this study and all of the miners who with their participation made the study possible . A. S. Laney acknowledges R. P. Fagan and I. C. Hall for their suggestions on literary voice and tone . </p> Human Participant Protection This study was conducted with the approval of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . All participants provided informed consent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Petsonk EL , Sokolow LZ , et al . Rapidly progressive coal workers ' pneumoconiosis in the United States : geographic clustering and other factors . Occup Environ Med. 2005 ; 62(10):670-674 . </p> 2 . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Pneumoconiosis prevalence among working coal miners examined in federal chest radiograph surveillance programs-United States , 1996-2002 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003 ; 52(15):336-340 . </p> 3 . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Advanced cases of coal workers ' pneumoconiosis-two counties , Virginia , 2006 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2006 ; 55(33):909-913 . </p> 4 . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Advanced pneumoconiosis among working underground coal miners-Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia , 2006 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2007 ; 56(26):652-655 . </p> 5 . Laney AS , Attfield MD . Coal workers ' pneumoconiosis and progressive massive fibrosis are increasingly more prevalent among workers in small underground coal mines in the United States . Occup Environ Med. 2010 ; 67(6):428-431 . </p> 6 . National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . Enhanced Coal Workers ' Health Surveillance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ //www.cdc.gov/ **42;10369;TOOLONG . Updated March 9 , 2011 . Accessed May 5 , 2011 . </p> 7 . National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . Recommended practices for reliable classification of chest radiographs by B Readers . Available at : http : **44;10413;TOOLONG **32;10459;TOOLONG . Updated May 24 , 2011 . Accessed May 5 , 2011 . </p> 8 . International Labour Office . Guidelines for the Use of the ILO International Classification of Radiographs of Pneumoconioses . Geneva , Switzerland : International Labour Office ; 2002 . </p> 9 . Approval of roentgenographic facilities . 42 CFR &Sect; 37.42. ( 2002 ) . </p> 10 . Laney AS , Petsonk EL , Attfield MD . Pneumoconiosis among underground bituminous coal miners in the United States : is silicosis becoming more frequent ? Occup Environ Med. 2010 ; 67(10):652-656 . </p> 11 . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Changing patterns of pneumoconiosis mortality-United States , 1968-2000 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2004 ; 53(28):627-632 . </p> 12 . Suarthana E , Laney AS , Storey E , Hale JM , Attfield MD . Coal workers ' pneumoconiosis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ implementation of the 1969 Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act . Occup Environ Med. 2011 ; 68(12):908-13 . </p> 13 . Wade WA Petsonk EL , Young B , Mogri I. Severe occupational pneumoconiosis among West Virginia coal miners : 138 cases of progressive massive fibrosis compensated between 2000 and 2009 . Chest . 2011 ; 139(6) : 1458-1462 . </p> 14 . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Coal workers ' pneumoconiosis-related years of potential life lost before age 65 years-United States , 1968-2006 . MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2009 ; 58(50):1412-1416 . </p> 15 . National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . Work-Related Lung Disease Surveillance Report 2007 . Morgantown , WV : Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health ; 2008 . DHHS ( NIOSH ) pub . no. 2008-143 . </p> 16 . National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . Coal Mine Dust Exposures and Associated Health Outcomes : A Review of Information Published Since 1995 . Atlanta , GA : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ; 2011 . Current Intelligence Bulletin 64 . DHHS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loomis D. Basic protections are still lacking . Occup Environ Med. 2010 ; 67(6):361 . </p> 18 . Loomis D. Time for global occupational health . Occup Environ Med. 2010 ; 67(3):145 . </p> 19 . Seaton A. Coal workers ' pneumoconiosis in small underground coal mines in the United States . Occup Environ Med. 2010 ; 67(6):364 . </p> By A. Scott Laney , PhD , A. Scott Laney are with the Surveillance Branch , Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Morgantown , WV. 1095 Willowdale Road , Mail Stop HG900.2 , Morgantown , WV 26505-2888 ( e-mail : alaney@cdc.gov ) . ; Edward L. Petsonk , MD , Edward L. Petsonk are with the Surveillance Branch , Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Morgantown , WV. ; Janet M. Hale , BS , Janet M. Hale are with the Surveillance Branch , Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , Centers for Disease @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wolfe , BS , Anita L. Wolfe are with the Surveillance Branch , Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Morgantown , WV. and Michael D. Attfield , PhD , Michael D. Attfield are with the Surveillance Branch , Division of Respiratory Disease Studies , National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , Morgantown , WV . </p> 
##4119665 CPD </p> Employees who suffer from anxiety-driven panic attacks will require extra support in the workplace . Lisa du Plessis and Walter Brennan outline a case study that describes the type of help available and the involvement of occupational health in the treatment process . </p> When cable fitter John Jenkins had his first panic attack , he immediately thought that he was dying . Without any kind of warning , he developed pains in his chest and he could not breathe . He was working alone that day and quickly threw his tools into his van and was at the accident and emergency ( A &E); department within minutes . Investigations showed that Jenkins ' heart was fine ; he was medically sound . </p> However , when he had his second panic attack four days later , he was in the middle of a meeting with six colleagues . Again , he experienced chest pains , sweating and his whole body began to shake . He abruptly left the meeting and locked himself in the toilet for 15 minutes , before getting a taxi to A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attack and was adamant that the hospital had got its diagnosis of " panic and stress " totally wrong . </p> His supervisor had taken note of Jenkins ' behaviour and when he asked him if he was ok , Jenkins put on an act and claimed that he was desperate for the bathroom and that he was feeling absolutely great . </p> The next day , Jenkins had his worst panic attack , while installing some cable in a trench in the middle of a busy shopping area . He was left gasping for breath and needed two of his colleagues to lift him out of the trench and lay him on the floor . An ambulance was called and he was taken to hospital once again . More exhaustive testing showed no physical pathology . However , he was becoming anxious , which was represented by : difficulty concentrating ; agitation ; frequent urination ; avoidance of meetings and colleagues ; loss of appetite ; irritability ; and insomnia . </p> Jenkins had always been a worrier ; even as a child he could recall worrying about his parents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feared that danger was just around every corner . </p> He visited his GP , who asked him if he was experiencing any difficulties at home or at work , or if he was feeling stressed about any other matters . Jenkins explained that his job was always stressful and challenging , but he had always been able to cope with the pressure as he had worked for the company for almost 20 years . His GP diagnosed panic attacks and stress , offered him a prescription of oral medication for benzodiazepines and recommended that he come and see the counsellor based at the practice . </p> Both were refused by Jenkins and he continued to work . However , his colleagues began to notice that he had gone from being cheerful and funny to serious and barely communicative . Jenkins ' supervisor called him into his office to discuss his welfare and performance . Jenkins again put on an act of denying any problems before finally breaking down and weeping . He told his supervisor that he was convinced he was either about to die or go completely mad and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his manager would tell his colleagues about his " breakdown " and that he would be labelled a " nutter " . </p> Jenkins ' supervisor reassured him that nobody would hear anything about this from him and that he was n't the only member of the team to experience emotional distress . </p> Jenkins found this information comforting . He was advised to visit the comapny 's occupational health adviser ( OHA ) . </p> Reluctantly , he met with the OHA , who explained how the occupational health department worked and that the service was ultimately about making him feel better and working well again . </p> Psychoanalysis As part of an overall assessment , the OHA conducted brief anxiety and depression questionnaires , known as psychometrics . </p> The PHQ-9 is a nine-item depression scale of the Patient Health Questionnaire . The PHQ-9 is a powerful tool for assisting primary-care clinicians in diagnosing depression , as well as selecting and monitoring treatment . </p> Jenkins made it clear that he would not take any medication and that he did not want to go off sick , as he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and probably be sacked . </p> The OHA emphasised that mental health issues are far more common than many people believe and that the company was very much aware of how important employee wellbeing - both physical and emotional - is to the company . </p> Jenkins was asked by the OHA if he knew anything about cognitive behavioural therapy ( CBT ) . He admitted that he did not ; he also stated that he did not like the sound of it . The OHA gave Jenkins a brief outline of CBT . He then made a referral to a qualified cognitive behavioural psychotherapist approved by the company . </p> Jenkins was offered 10 sessions of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy and was diagnosed by the psychotherapist with panic disorder without agoraphobia . </p> What is panic disorder , with or without agoraphobia Panic disorder remains a major health problem and is associated with high levels of disability and medical care , compounded by difficulties accessing appropriate treatment ( Craske and Barlow , 2006 ) . </p> Initially called agoraphobia with panic attacks and later renamed panic disorder ( PD ) with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , PD is one of the most researched anxiety disorders due to its high rate of lifetime prevalence ( about 5.1% of adults in the US ; anecdotally , this figure is estimated to be around 4% in the UK ) . </p> In order to be diagnosed with PD , a patient must have suffered recurrent and unexpected panic attacks over a minimum period of one month , followed by persistent concern about having additional attacks . Panic attacks are commonly accompanied by uncontrollable fear , worry about the implications of the attacks ( eg losing control or having a heart attack ) , or a significant change in behaviour relating to these symptoms . </p> Many people with the disorder attend A &E; believing that they have heart problems . According to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ( NICE ) : " For people who present with chest pain at A &E; services , there appears to be a greater likelihood of the cause being panic disorder if coronary artery disease is not present or the patient is female or relatively young " ( NICE , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is one of the major orientations of psychotherapy ( Roth et al , 2005 ) and represents a unique category of psychological intervention because it derives from cognitive and behavioural psychological models of human behaviour that include , for instance , theories of normal and abnormal development , and theories of emotion and psychopathology . </p> Cognitive therapy is based on the clinical application of the more recent , but now also extensive , research into the prominent role of cognitions in the development of emotional disorders . </p> The approach usually focuses on difficulties in the here and now , and relies on the therapist and client developing a shared view of the individual 's problem . </p> This leads to identification of personalised , usually time-limited , therapy goals and strategies , which are continually monitored and evaluated . </p> The treatments are inherently empowering in nature , the outcome being to focus on specific psychological and practical skills ( eg reflecting on and exploring the meaning attributed to events and situations and re-evaluation of those meanings ) that are aimed at enabling the client to tackle their problems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ utilisation of such skills is seen as the main goal , and the active component in promoting change with an emphasis on putting what has been learned into practice between sessions ( " homework " ) . </p> Thus , the overall aim is for the individual to attribute improvement in their problems to their own efforts , in collaboration with the psychotherapist . Cognitive and/or behavioural psychotherapists work with individuals , families and groups . </p> Patient details and referral Jenkins is a 40-year-old married man with a 17-year-old son and works full time as a cable fitter for a large telecommunications company . The referrer reported that Jenkins had recently experienced panic attacks while at work and this was impairing his psychological wellbeing and occupational functioning . </p> Presenting problems of the patient Jenkins reported that he was experiencing symptoms of panic attacks , anxiety and worry , which he felt were spontaneous and started four to six weeks earlier . </p> Broad cognitive behavioural assessment and mental state examination Jenkins ' assessment and formulation of his problems took place over two appointment sessions . He attended the psychotherapy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview and self-report questionnaires . </p> The assessment and examination considered issues such as initial observations about Jenkins and his environment , including the relationship with his family and colleagues . </p> His " affect " ( mood ) was assessed along with how his anxiety physiologically affected him , including feelings of muscle tension , headaches and tingling in his fingers . </p> The behavioural component of his condition meant that Jenkins was worrying excessively ; he would not work alone in case he had another attack and he kept seeking reassurance from his colleagues and his wife when anxiety symptoms increased . </p> An assessment of Jenkins ' cognition showed good attention and concentration during both assessment and treatment , though he made statement such as : " If I do n't worry , something bad might happen to my son . " </p> Treatment component Jenkins attended 10 sessions of CBT and completed the full course . </p> * Session one </p> This included setting specific treatment goals ( these should be specific goals that can be measured ) and formulating Jenkins ' problem in a cognitive behavioural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ </p> * Regulate sleep pattern - sleep from around 11pm until 7am , with less than one hour of wakeful periods in the night . * Achieve a healthy lifestyle , ie eating and exercise - attend the gym three times per week on the way to work and eat less fatty/ high-calorie foods . * Socialise with friends without worrying about son and experiencing an anxiety rating of 3/10 or less . * Reduce/stop panic attacks . * Reduce worrying to no more than 30 minutes daily . * Feel happier - rate mood as at least 6/10 four days per week . * Stop seeking reassurance for panic/anxiety symptoms ( no attending hospital or asking his wife/ colleagues for reassurance when feeling anxious ) . * Attend and engage in work meetings with an anxiety rating of no more than 3/10. * Attend lone-worker jobs and complete with an anxiety rating of no more than 3/10 . Clark 's model of panic ( Clark , 1986 ) was used to diagnose Jenkins ' problem . </p> * Session two </p> This involved socialisation to the CBT model and psycho-education @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ educate the client and help them gain an understanding about how CBT actually works and treats problems . It is also where the client is made aware that homework will be given at each session and how CBT is collaborative . Psychological education was focused around panic disorder , how it develops and why is does not go away . It is very important to revisit the formulation to highlight what behaviours and thoughts maintain the problem . Jenkins became aware that he had a fear of fear . A diary was introduced for Jenkins to record panic symptoms . </p> * Session three </p> This session focused on anxiety management . It is important that when treating panic disorder , Jenkins should really understand how the survival/fight/flight response works . </p> It is a lesson in human biology relating to the client 's problems . This helps with misinterpretation of anxiety symptoms that are a key factor in panic disorder . Jenkins was able to see how his body was preparing to run or fight as he prepared for what he thought was a dangerous situation . </p> * Session @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is a behaviour technique used in CBT . It refers to carrying out exercises that bring about the physical sensations of a panic attack , such as hyperventilation and high muscle tension . </p> This was effective in provoking a wide range of panic-like sensations , such as dizziness , feeling hot , increased heart rate , tightness in the chest and visual changes . It was useful to challenge misinterpretations of these sensations , such as heart attack or fainting , and for building tolerance of anxious feelings . </p> * Sessions five to seven </p> In these sessions of relaxation and exposure , Jenkins was taught how to utilise a relaxation technique called progressive muscle relaxation , where specific muscle groups are tensed and relaxed . </p> * Sessions eight to nine </p> In these cognitive restructuring sessions , Jenkins was educated about thoughts/beliefs and thinking and how this affected his behaviour and mood . Within the session , unhelpful thinking habits ( cognitive distortions ) were reviewed . This enabled the identification of several of these habits that Jenkins experienced on a regular basis . </p> * @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relapse by identifying the helpful changes that he made during therapy in all areas ( thoughts , feeling , behaviours , physical sensations and relationships ) . It also identified signs of relapse and what to do to prevent symptoms returning or how to treat Jenkins ' symptoms quickly , similar to an action plan of what to do . </p> Conclusion Jenkins was initially resistant to CBT and often the first five minutes of each session would be about restoring his belief in the treatment . Eventually , his gradual improvement enabled him to meet his treatment goals and his psychometric scores reached sub-clinical levels . </p> The occupational health team at Jenkins ' company supported him as he gradually returned to work over a three-month period . </p> One of the most important areas of growth for Jenkins was the knowledge and confidence that while anxiety could not be prevented , it could now be understood and managed . </p> The OHA trained to deliver the Mental Wealth Programme ( Brennan , 2005 ) and introduced it as a general mental wellbeing option for employees within the company to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staff feeling well mentally . </p> Jenkins was able to return to all of his duties after six months and continued to utilise the skills acquired as part of his homework during CBT . </p> His employers also ran a training course on the Health and Safety Executives six Management Standards ( Health and Safety Executive , 2004 ) for dealing with stress for managers and supervisors . </p> Author note : the name and occupation of the case-study subject have been changed . </p> CPD Continuing Professional Development Study Time 3hrs* </p> Our learning for life service helps you use the journal for CPD-related private study . One article in each issue is accompanied by a set of questions and answers . These have been devised by education and healthcare consultant Greta Thornbory and are designed to help you reflect in a structured manner on what you have learnt . </p> *Some of the articles in our continuing professional development section display a STUDY TIME logo . The number displayed beside this is the number of hours that we estimate reading and reflecting on the article itself and any recommended @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CPD quiz : Mental health case study Lifelong learning and continuing professional development ( CPD ) are the processes by which professionals , such as nurses , develop and improve their practice . </p> There are two ways to address your CPD : formally , by attending courses , study days and workshops ; or informally , through private study and reflection . </p> Reading articles in professional journals is a good way of keeping up to date with what is going on in the field of practice , but reflecting on what you have learnt from the articles is not always easy . </p> These questions are designed to help you identify what you have learnt from studying the article on the previous three pages . They will also help you to clarify what you can apply in practice and what you need to explore further . </p> 1 Which of the following was NOT one of Jenkins ' panic attack symptoms ? </p> a ) Agitation and irritability b ) Avoidance of meetings and colleagues c ) Urinary retention d ) Loss of appetite </p> 2 What psychometric test @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ b ) HAD c ) LSAS d ) PHQ-9 </p> 3 How many sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy was Jenkins offered ? </p> a ) 6 b ) 8 c ) 10 d ) 12 </p> 4 What was the psychotherapist 's diagnosis ? </p> a ) Panic disorder without agoraphobia b ) Panic disorder with agoraphobia c ) Agoraphobia with panic attacks d ) Anxiety and depression </p> 5 What is the active component in promoting change between sessions ? </p> a ) Prep b ) Homework c ) Legwork d ) Groundwork </p> 6 Which of the following do cognitive behavioural therapists NOT work with ? </p> a ) Individuals b ) Families c ) Groups d ) Babies </p> 7 When did Jenkins ' symptoms begin ? </p> a ) One week earlier b ) Two to four weeks earlier c ) Four to six weeks earlier d ) Three months earlier </p> 8 In the context of psychotherapy what does the term " affect " mean ? </p> a ) Mood b ) Result c ) Influence on others d ) Influence on the environment </p> 9 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to carry out exercises that bring about the physical sensations of a panic attack ? </p> a ) Inception b ) Role play c ) Interoceptive d ) Neurophenomenology </p> 10 What programme was the OH adviser trained to deliver ? </p> a ) Mental Wealth b ) Healthy Lifestyle c ) Health Awareness d ) Mental Awareness </p> ANSWERS </p> * c - One is much more likely to have frequency than retention . * d - These are all different psychometric tests . Take some time to explore each one and its value for use in an OH setting . * c * a * b - All of these words were defined in a thesaurus as relating to " homework " ; the key to successful cognitive behavioural therapy is the work the individual has to do between sessions with the therapist. * d * c * a * c - Explore these different words and their relevance to cognitive behavioural therapy and other psychotherapies. * a -You can read Walter Brennan 's 2005 article at : **75;110966;TOOLONG The Mental Wealth course is available at : www.oliverbrennan.co.uk Online @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a charity that helps people to take charge of their mental health . It provides information and advice , training programmes , grants and services through a network of local Mind associations . The charity carries out it 's work to help people who experience mental distress to live full lives and play their full part in society . </p> * **70;111043;TOOLONG </p> The Centre for Mental Health aims to help create a society in which people with mental health problems enjoy equal chances in life to those who do not suffer from mental ill health . It focuses on criminal justice and employment , with supporting work on broader mental health and public policy . </p> * www.mindfulemployer.net </p> Developed , led and supported by employers , the Mindful Employer initiative is aimed at increasing awareness of mental health at work and providing support for businesses in recruiting and retaining staff . It provides some useful resources to signatories such as the " Line Managers ' Resource " , which offers managers comprehensive guidance on dealing with employees with mental health issues . It also has a section on cognitive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This is the website for the British Association for Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies . It has lots of information about CBT and other therapies , as well as details about training courses , events , etc . </p> * **59;111147;TOOLONG </p> This website gives access to a fact sheet on CBT from the Royal College of Psychiatrists . </p> * **31;111208;TOOLONG </p> This website provides more information on the Health and Safety Executive Management Standards on stress . </p> * www.mhfaengland.org </p> Mental Health Fist Aid ( MHFA ) England was developed and launched in 2006 by the Department of Health . In September 2009 , it became registered as a community interest company ( registration no. 7021392 ) . The company is limited by guarantee Lie it has no shareholders ) and is at the heart of a network that is growing across the UK . It is also part of an expanding international movement around the world , which currently involving 16 countries . A community interest company ( CIC ) is one that " seeks to operate for the benefit of the community rather than for its owners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the owners of the company or other such group . All assets and profits must be used for the community that is specified . This can be through allocating profits or providing services . ALL CIC 's must meet a ' Community Interest Test ' to become one . " The community interest that is core to MHFA England is to " increase mental health Literacy of the whole population " . </p> * www.smhfa.com </p> This is the website for MHFA Scotland . </p> * www.mhfa-wales.org.uk </p> This is the website for MHFA Wales . </p> References &gt; American Psychiatric Association ( 1980 ) . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . Third edition . Washington , DC . </p> &gt; BABCP ( 2012 ) . British Association of Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies . </p> &gt; Bienvenu OJ ( 2006 ) . " Lifetime prevalence of panic disorder is about 5% in the USA " . Evidence-Based Mental Health ; 9 ; 114 . </p> &gt; Clark DM ( 1986 ) . " A cognitive model of panic " . Behavior Research and Therapy . 24:461-470 . </p> &gt; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind " . Occupational Health ; February . </p> &gt; Craske MG , Barlow DH ( 2006 ) . Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic : Therapist Guide . Fourth edition . New York , NY : Oxford University Press . </p> &gt; Kroenke K. Spitzer RL ( 2002 ) . " The PHQ-9 : a new depression and diagnostic severity measure " . Psychiatric Annals ; 32:509-521 . </p> &gt; National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ( 2007 ) . Clinical Guideline 22 ( amended ) : " Anxiety : management of anxiety ( panic disorder , with or without agoraphobia , and generalised anxiety disorder ) in adults in primary , secondary and community care " . </p> &gt; Roth A , Fonagy P ( 2005 ) . What Works for Whom : A Critical Review of Psychotherapy Research . Second edition . The Guildford Press , London . </p> By Lisa du Plessis and Walter Brennan </p> Lisa du Plessis is a BABCP-accredited cognitive behavioural psychotherapist and is the director of Sunflower CBT in St Albans , Hertfordshire . </p> Walter Brennan is a training consultant and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oliver Brennan Training Ltd . </p> 
##4119666 Postsecondary Education </p> Using the Summary of Performance to Enhance Transition Planning The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act requires that local education agencies provide a transition summary document to all special education students who graduate with a regular diploma or reach the maximum age for services . Although state compliance with this requirement is almost universal , is this process being used effectively to enhance postschool outcomes for students with disabilities ? There is an array of practices that school district and state education agency personnel can implement to make this document more helpful to students , bridging the " documentation disconnect " between secondary school and postsecondary education and employment , enhancing self-determination skills , and fostering improved adult success . </p> When students with disabilities transition to postsecondary environments , such as education or employment , they move from the mandates of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act ( IDEA , 2006 ) to the protections of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 ( ADAAA , 2009 ) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ( Section 504 , 2006 ) . To receive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Section 504 require that an individual document the existence of a disability that substantially limits a major life function . Postsecondary programs and employers can -- and do -- set varying standards in relation to the comprehensiveness and the recency of this documentation . Traditionally , such documentation has comprised evaluations conducted as part of the special education eligibility determination and updates as required under the IDEA . </p> However , IDEA regulations do not require routine testing and evaluation . If the individualized education program ( IEP ) team determines that " no additional data are needed to determine whether the child continues to be a child with a disability , and to determine the child 's educational needs " ( 34 C.F.R. 300.305 d1 ) , formal assessments for reevaluation may be deemed unnecessary . Recently , there has been increasing focus on the use of informal assessments ( e.g. , response to intervention , curriculum-based assessment ) , limiting the use of traditional psychoeducational evaluations . In addition , IDEA clearly indicates that an " exit evaluation " for students leaving high school is not required ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 2011 ) . These changes may result in students transitioning to postsecondary programs with outdated documentation of their disability , which may negatively impact their eligibility for services and accommodations in postsecondary environments . </p> However , IDEA does offer the local education agency ( LEA ) a potentially powerful tool to help students bridge this gap as they shift from secondary to postsecondary environments : the summary of performance ( SOP ) . IDEA requires LEAs to develop a summary statement of " academic achievement and functional performance " for students with disabilities who are exiting special education due to graduation or reaching the maximum age of eligibility for services , and this statement must include " recommendations on how to assist the child in meeting the child 's postsecondary goals ( 34 CFR 300.305e 3 ) ) . This type of information is particularly important because psychoeducational evaluations do not address postsecondary expectations . Although this legislation specifies minimum requirements , it is critical that teachers , families , agencies , and most importantly the students , work collaboratively to create a comprehensive SOP that will lead to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leave the substantive details of the SOP to states and local school districts , and there are significant variations in how states and districts operationalize the SOP . Despite these variations , the true spirit of these tools must both reflect best practice and meet the needs of students with disabilities and their families to ensure a successful transition . </p> Current Status of SOP Implementation The National Association of State Directors of Special Education published a policy analysis on state education agency ( SEA ) response to the SOP ( Sopko , 2008 ) . The study found that 30 SEAs had developed an SOP form , but not all required LEAs to use their form . ( The study did not detail the contents of the form created by the states . ) Madaus et al . ( 2011 ) recently reviewed SEA web sites to identify the elements included in each state 's SOP form . Of the 43 state forms examined , 88% were in compliance with the three core SOP requirements specified in IDEA 2004 ( i.e. , a statement of academic achievement , a statement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the student meet postsecondary goals ) . Although this data is generally encouraging , it is unfortunate that seven of the states did not have SOP forms that met the minimum requirements of IDEA -- and only about half of the states ' SOPs could be described as comprehensive . In addition , both Sopko ( 2008 ) and Madaus et al . ( 2011 ) have noted that many states are not mandating LEAs to use the state-approved form . This raises questions about the utility of the SOPs being used in districts and schools throughout the country . </p> Precisely because the IDEA regulations do not specify what should be included in an SOP , the National Transition Assessment Summit ( NTAS ) was convened in 200S . This group included representatives from many national disability organizations including secondary , postsecondary , state departments of education , local education agency personnel , and consumers . NTAS developed a model SOP intended to direct the field toward best practice for this document ( NTAS , 2005 ; Shaw , Madaus , &; Dukes , 2010 ) . The Nationally Ratified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been endorsed by the Council for Exceptional Children ( CEC ) , several of its divisions , and other national organizations such as the Council for Learning Disabilities , the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education , and the Learning Disability Association of America . NTAS encouraged SEAs and LEAs to adopt the template or adapt it to meet their specific needs . Madaus and colleagues ' ( 2011 ) recent analysis of 43 states revealed 21% of the states have adopted the NTAS model SOP template and attributed their form to this source ; 40% of the states fulfill the NTAS template guidelines such as attaching disability documentation . </p> The U.S. Department of Education , in the regulatory comments accompanying the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA , noted that state and local officials should have the flexibility to determine appropriate content for a student 's summary , which must be based on the student 's individual needs and postsecondary goals ( 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.305e 3 ) . However , this flexibility must be balanced with the need to assure that students with disabilities , upon leaving high school , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcomes . States or districts that do not employ a comprehensive SOP should consider reviewing and implementing model forms from other states or districts ( see box , " SOP Resources " ) . </p> Implementing and Developing the SOP Although not stated in the IDEA regulations , it is recommended that the SOP be the responsibility of the IEP team , just as are other transition planning components ( NTAS , 2005 ) . The IEP team should determine who should be involved in developing the initial SOP draft , set a timeline for completion , and approve the final SOP . Although the SOP may be the culminating event in the student 's transition process , it can also be developed over time with meaningful input from the student . </p> If the SOP is developed as an element of transition planning across time , consider the following recommendations : </p> * Review the SOP at regular intervals with the student ( e.g. , during annual IEP review ) to foster an understanding of progress over time and future transition needs to be addressed . </p> * Develop an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ necessary transition assessment data -- and develop a timeline for accumulating this information . If the contents of the portfolio are transferred annually to a working SOP , it promotes integration and use of the results . </p> * Whenever possible , have the student lead the SOP discussion during transition IEP meetings to further promote self-determination . </p> * Involve various stakeholders ( e.g. , student , family , special and general educators , school psychologist , school counselors ) in developing the SOP to promote a team approach . </p> Madaus et al . ( 2011 ) reported that many LEAs have implemented productive approaches to distributing the SOP to students . Some have formal exit interviews where the contents of the SOP are discussed and the document is given to the student . Others give the SOP to the student at a face-to-face meeting or send it by mail . Regardless of how this is accomplished , it is critical that the SOP process involve the student . </p> The Importance of the SOP The SOP should be viewed as a critical step in a student 's transition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be in compliance with IDEA . A well-constructed and thorough SOP can serve as a teaching tool that provides students with an opportunity to practice self-determination and to develop an awareness of their disability , strengths , and needs ( Shaw , 2009 ) . It can be part of a deliberate and comprehensive transition plan that is initiated with a determination of the student 's postsecondary goals which are delineated from and based upon age-appropriate transition assessments , as mandated by IDEA . The student 's secondary curriculum and transition plan should then be targeted toward reaching these goals . Ongoing data collection , both formal and informal , helps to measure progress toward meeting postsecondary goals , and it is precisely this data that provides the foundation upon which the SOP is developed ( Madaus &; Shaw , 2007 ) . </p> The SOP addresses two audiences . The first is the student ; the SOP can serve as a tool that students use to help access postsecondary supports under the ADAAA and Section 504 . To enhance the value of the SOP in this regard , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understandable , and useable document that facilitates successful postschool student outcomes in terms of employment and/or postsecondary education . It should describe strengths , skills , needs , and strategy use in language that promotes the provision of appropriate postschool accommodations . In order to capitalize on the potential use of the document as a student-led tool , the narrative should be written in positive , person-centered language . Students , in collaboration with secondary professionals , can begin preparing the SOP during their first year of high school and update it every year , so that the SOP becomes part of a student-driven transition portfolio . Alternatively , the SOP can be used as a senior-year capstone experience in which the student participates in its completion as part of a graduation project . Self-determination should play a central role in whatever SOP approach is chosen . Self-determination can be reflected in the process by having the student focus on meaningful postsecondary goals , reinforcing student knowledge of the disability , its impact on performance as well as strengths , and involving the student in identifying accommodations that have improved school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are a potential second audience for the SOP . A well-constructed and comprehensive SOP can provide postsecondary professionals with current , comprehensive , and meaningful information about the student 's strengths and potential accommodations required ( Madaus &; Shaw , 2007 ) . The ADAAA has changed the emphasis in postsecondary disability documentation from a determination of disability status to a focus on the need for supports and accommodations based on the functional impact of the disability . An SOP that indicates what accommodations , compensatory services , and supports have been effective to ameliorate deficits will be particularly useful to postsecondary education disability personnel and employers ( Shaw , Keenan , Madaus , &; Banerjee , 2010 ) . More important , by effectively implementing this mandate , school personnel will address critical accountability issues related to employment and postsecondary education outcomes ( Shaw , Madaus et al. , 2010 ) . At the postsecondary level , the student alone is responsible for self-identification as someone with a disability , presenting documentation to support that claim and requesting postschool accommodations from employers or education personnel . A comprehensive SOP is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ SOP Part 1 : Background Information The first section of the SOP , following the NTAS model SOP template ( see Table 1 ) , should include the student 's demographic information , identified disability , and date of diagnosis . The most recent evaluation data should be attached to the completed SOP ; this is particularly important for students going on to college . The institution 's disability services office may require evaluation data to determine eligibility under ADAAA ( Dukes , 2010 ) . </p> Part 2 : Student 's Postsecondary Goals Students and their families should lead the determination of postsecondary goals and dictate what information will be highlighted in sections of the SOP . By law , the goals should address education or training , employment , and independent living as appropriate ( Kochhar-Bryant &; Izzo , 2006 ) . The goals included in Part 2 of the SOP are a reflection of the measurable postsecondary goals the student and family articulated during the IEP transition assessment process ( Dukes , 2010 ) . </p> Part 3 : Summary of Performance This section is designed to include @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ functional skills . It is critical that this section of the SOP highlight the student 's strengths , needs , preferences , and interests . An SOP that merely repeats the test scores that are included on the attached disability documentation loses a valuable opportunity to explain the student 's strengths and needs . Data included in this section of the SOP should reflect the postsecondary goals previously specified . For example , if the student and family have indicated employment as a goal , then the vocational , employment , and career areas become particularly important , as well as social , environmental access , and mobility areas . A wide array of formal and informal data sources should be used in Part 3 to highlight the student 's strengths and needs . </p> Part 4 : Recommendations to Assist the Student in Meeting Postsecondary Goals This section highlights suggestions for accommodations , adaptive devices , assistive services , compensatory strategies , or support services for the purpose of enhancing access to postsecondary education or employment . Be especially careful when completing this section . Employers and postsecondary institutions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and students and families need to be aware that the suggested accommodations and supports are only recommendations . Postsecondary agencies make independent decisions based on situation-specific variables in their respective settings ( i.e. , speed is not an issue for that job so extended time is not needed , or a different accommodation is being used to ameliorate that deficit ) . </p> Part 5 : Student Input Encouraging students to participate in developing the SOP can foster understanding of their disability and their need for supports and accommodations . It also promotes self-determination as we specifically seek to " hear " the student 's voice in the development of the SOP document . Given that self-determination is associated with success in both employment ( Wehmeyer &; Palmer , 2003 ) and postsecondary education ( Field , Sarver , &; Shaw , 2003 ) , this is a vital part of the SOP process . Remember , it is the student 's responsibility to communicate needs to service providers in post high school settings . Postsecondary personnel will be particularly interested in the student 's perspective given that he or she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point of contact when requesting postschool supports . </p> Final Thoughts The SOP is designed to apply to students with a range of disabilities transitioning to diverse postsecondary environments . In some cases , the data included will be curriculum-based , and supplemented with formal evaluations . In other cases , the opposite may be true . For example , for students transitioning to higher education , the Part 3 summary of academic and cognitive skills may be the most important portion of the document . For those seeking employment , consideration of the vocational , social , and independent living skills categories in that same section may be the most critical in the transition to adult life . This information has often not been available in traditional psychoeducational evaluations . </p> A comprehensive SOP is not a new set of evaluations and assessment data ; it is a summary of existing data and of performance in academic and functional areas ( Madaus , Bigaj , Chafouleas , &; Simonsen , 2006 ) . The SOP offers students , in collaboration with high school professionals , the opportunity to summarize current @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that have assisted the student in the secondary environment . This discussion of accommodations and modifications should focus on those that have been used effectively . A comprehensive SOP with this sort of information will provide both employers and service providers in postsecondary institutions insight into the student 's present level of performance and functional limitations that can be used to promote postschool success . </p> Summary of Performance ( SOP ) Resources * The U.S. Department of Education 's IDEA web site includes a questions-and-answers page related to secondary transition , with information specifically about the SOP . Visit http : //idea.ed.gov &gt; Part B ; enter " secondary transition " into the Search box . </p> * The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center web site ( http : //www.nsttac.org/ ) has video resources , webinars , FAQs , references , and a bibliography . </p> * The Vermillion Association for Special Education 's web site ( http : **35;133367;TOOLONG ) includes a white paper rationale for the purpose of a standardized SOP , a PowerPoint presentation , and a standardized , fillable SOP ( Word document ) with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ </p> * The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction 's web site ( http : **49;133404;TOOLONG ) offers an SOP Fact Sheet , a sample SOP , and a sample of a completed SOP . There are also directions for completing the form . </p> * PRO-ED 's Summary of Performance System ( Patton , Clark , &; Trainor , 2009 ; visit http : //www.proedinc.com and enter SOPS into the search engine ) is a computerized system for developing a comprehensive and appropriate SOP . </p> * The Oklahoma State Department of Education has an example of an SOP that features student involvement at http : **73;133455;TOOLONG </p> * The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability 's Assessment Quick Reference Guide , which describes formal and informal assessments , standardized testing , and the process of collecting transition information , is available at http : **54;133530;TOOLONG </p> Table 1 . Components of the Summary of Performance ( SOP ) pqp Note . The NTAS model SOP can be accessed at http : **34;133586;TOOLONG ? Section = Home &CONTENTID; = 6031 &TEMPLATE; = /CM/ContentDisplay.cfm &CAT; = none </p> References ADA Amendments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be codified at 42 U.S.C. 12101 ( 2009 ) . </p> Dukes , L. L. , III . ( 2010 ) . Gathering data to determine eligibility for services and accommodations . In S. F. Shaw , J. W. Madaus , &; L. L. Dukes III ( Eds . ) , Preparing students with disabilities for college success : A practical guide for transition planning ( pp. 167-201 ) . Baltimore , MD : Brookes . </p> Field , S. , Sarver , M. , &; Shaw , S. ( 2003 ) . Self-determination : A key to success in postsecondary education students with learning disabilities . Remedial and Special Education , 24 , 339-349. http : **28;133622;TOOLONG 5030240060501 </p> IDEA Regulations , 34 C.F.R. 300 ( 2006 ) . </p> Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004. 20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq . ( 2006 ) . </p> Kochhar-Bryant , C , &; Izzo , M. ( 2006 ) . Access to post-high school services : Transition assessment and the summary of performance . Career Development for Exceptional Individuals , 29 , 70-89. http : **34;133652;TOOLONG 0020601 </p> Leconte @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , vocational , and transition assessment : Implications for the summary of performance . Career Development for Exceptional Individuals , 29 , 114-124. http : **41;133688;TOOLONG </p> Madaus , J. , Bigaj , S. , Chafouleas , S. , &; Simonsen , B. ( 2006 ) . What key information can be included in a comprehensive summary of performance ? Career Development for Exceptional Individuals , 29 , 90-99. http : **41;133731;TOOLONG </p> Madaus , J. W , &; Shaw , S. F. ( 2007 ) . Transition assessment : Introduction to the special series . Assessment for Effective Intervention , 32 , 130-132. http : **41;133774;TOOLONG </p> Madaus , J. W. , Shaw , S. F , Miller , W. , Banerjee , M. , &; Vitello , S. ( 2011 ) . The Summary of performance : The reality and the possibility . Learning Disabilities : A Multidisciplinary Journal , 17 , 33-38 . </p> National Transition Assessment Summit . ( 2005 ) . Nationally ratified summary of performance model template . Retrieved from http : **62;133817;TOOLONG </p> Patton , J. R. , Clark , G. M. , &; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ performance system Computer software and manual . Austin , TX : PRO-ED . </p> Rehabilitation Act of 1973 , 29 U.S.C. 701 et seq . ( 2006 ) . </p> Shaw , S. F. ( 2009 ) . Transition to postsecondary education . Focus on Exceptional Children , 42(2) , 1-16 . </p> Shaw , S. F , Keenan , W. R. , Madaus , J. W , &; Banerjee , M. ( 2010 ) . Disability documentation , the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act and the summary of performance : How are they linked ? Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability , 22 , 142-150 . </p> Shaw , S. F , Madaus , J. W. , &; Dukes , L. L. , III ( Eds. ) . ( 2010 ) . Preparing students with disabilities for college success : A practical guide for transition planning . Baltimore , MD : Brookes . </p> Sopko , K. M. ( 2008 , March ) . Summary of performance : Brief policy analysis . Alexandria , VA : National Association of State Directors of Special Education . </p> Wehmeyer , M. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Adult outcomes for students with cognitive disabilities three years after high school : The impact of self-determination . Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities , 38 , 133-144 . </p> TEACHING Exceptional Children , Vol. 44 , No. 5 , pp. 6-12 . </p> Stan F. Shaw ( Connecticut CEC ) , Senior Research Scholar and Associate Director , Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability , University of Connecticut , Storrs . Address correspondence concerning this article to Stan F. Shaw , Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability , Neag School of Education , University of Connecticut , Storrs , CT 06269 ( e-mail : stan.shaw@gmail.com ) . </p> Lyman L. Dukes III ( Florida CEC ) , Associate Dean , College of Education , University of South Florida , St. Petersburg . </p> Joseph W. Madaus ( Connecticut CEC ) , Director , Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability , University of Connecticut , Storrs . </p> 
##1001767 Sassafras : The drifter and the kid New Orleans Magazine ; Sep 1990 ; 25 , 1 ; ProQuest Newsstand ## Sassafras THE DRIFTER AND THE KID/By Don Lee Keith F ver since the bus had left the Baton Rouge depot , Little Ben had slept fitfully , flouncing this way and that , occasionally pawing at his father 's faded-denimed legs close by . Then , as the Scenic-Cruiser eased off the expressway and approached the New Orleans terminal , the sandman finally worked his magic , and the kid in cowboy boots was at last still , peaceful . Big Ben whispered to his son when the bus stopped , but he got no response , so he lifted the boy gently and got in line with the others headed toward the door . They were off the bus and on the concrete boarding ramp when Little Ben awakened with a quick stretch . He looked up and spotted the large clock near the ceiling of the covered walkway . He pointed to it and said , " Tick-tock . " " That 's right , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past nine . Sixteen hours from Dallas on a Greyhound . He slid the boy off his shoulder and they proceeded hand-in-hand into the waiting room , between the phone clusters , past the gift shop with white ceramic elephants in its windows , and finally out and into the city of strangers . They paused for Big Ben to pull the little guy into a worn , sleeveless sweatshirt . The shapeless , oversized garment drooped like a blanket . They got directions from a craggyfaced man who stood , whistling , by a newspaper rack , and within a half hour , the Bens ? Big and Little ? were midway through their foggy trek toward that night 's lodging . It had rained earlier and most likely it would rain later , but squeezed curiously into the gap between those two wets was a plug of gauzy moist ? a thick , gossamer cloud that had simply squatted on St. Charles Avenue from the Circle on up . At every other street or so , Big Ben would switch his son to the other shoulder . He assured @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hummed the only tune he could think of , " I 'd Waltz Across Texas With You . " They passed a restaurant with plaster lions at the entrance , and the boy began to whimper . And so , father and son left the sidewalk and took to the grassy middle space that had tracks down its center . Traffic on both sides moved timidly , headlights turning pavement into ebony mirrors . Streetlamps wore hoods of palest saffron . And meanwhile , the surrounding silverness confused distances , twisted perspectives , lulled senses . Finally to their left were the lighted windows with flowercolors . Big Ben hoisted his rider high and seated the boy astride his neck . This should be Washington Avenue , he thought , so he summoned a bit of untapped vigor and moved almost skippingly from the center tracks , edging curbward . That 's when a savage clanging tore through the mother-ofpearl mist , and a yellow beacon came thrusting toward them . It whushed by , perilously near , and the man went rigid , incapable of backing back farther from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then was gone . A slight rigor had shaken the boy . He had reached silently for Big Ben 's forehead , and his tiny boots had clutched in unison at the man 's chest . Then , all at once , the man lifted the boy down and into his arms , holding tight , and they were walking along a side street , waiting at a red light , passing a white-walled graveyard . They came to a street without trees and turned right . The man saw it half a block away , the red shield aglow through the fog . Salvation Army Men 's Lodge . His hope quickened . At first , the men next morning at this haven for the broken and the broke viewed the boy with caution , unaccustomed as they were to having a 20-month-old youngster at their breakfast table . Any attention they paid him was indirect ; they studied him with side glances . They camouflaged their curiosity , but by mid-morning after the two Bens ' first night at the lodge , the story was known . When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inquiries to determine identity and to be sure kidnapping was not involved . As proof , the father had produced his wife 's death certificate . The boy 's mother had died in childbirth , and the young father , still in his early 20s , had insisted on keeping his son . He had supported the infant by washing dishes at a Dallas restaurant until last week , when he was laid off . He expected to find employment in Gulfport , where his sister lived , but New Orleans was as far as he could get on the money he had . He had written his sister and was hoping to hear . The first thing Little Ben did after breakfast was to totter forth to the front of the TV viewing room , his cowboy boots clicking on the linoleum tiles , and point assuredly toward the clock above the television set . " Tick-tock , " he declared . After that , the few men who had watches let him listen to them while sitting on their laps , then lent the watches to others who had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bens got fresh , clean clothes , but no word from Gulfport . When the men lined up that night for supper , one fellow with a portable radio shared the earphones with Little Ben , and the result was a drop in the popularity of television but a rise in the popularity of watching kids listening to radio . And still , no word from Gulfport . The next morning Little Ben ambled out into the back yard area of the lodge and promptly discovered the meaning of wonderful . It was a wonderful visitor to the place , a wonderfully frisky , wonderfully loving , wonderfully whitewhiskered , green-eyed , gray-all-over tomcat that smiled ( sometimes ) . The boy pointed to it and said , " Tick-tock , " and rubbed the animal 's tummy when it rolled over . That night the Bens were n't at supper . There had been word from Gulfport . Afterwards , not very many guys stayed up to watch TV . And in the sleeping dormitories , nobody had much to say . If the thought of the kid crossed anybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next day 's doings in the back yard area were enough to make one visiting tomcat which smiled ( sometimes ) figure that he belonged there at the Salvation Army Men 's Lodge . That day he got fed four different times by four different gentlemen , all who rubbed his tummy and all who called him " Tick-Tock . " is ## 
##1001850 Rodriguez 's myopia Masliah , Leo Triquarterly ; Spring 1990 ; 78 ; Research Library ## Rodriguez 's Myopia Leo Masliah Rodriguez came into the waiting room . Its only furnishings consisted of some long sofas and a small table , on top of which there stood a lighted lamp ; the lamp was topped by a pale yellow lampshade featuring a picture of a boat . In the picture four rough-looking men each held an oar ; three of the oars were largely submerged . The fourth , which stood out most clearly in the picture , appeared to be made of cedar . In its lower section -- where it was widest -- someone had made some fairly deep cuts that resembled a human face , albeit somewhat confusedly ; it was difficult to determine whether that form had been sought intentionally or whether it was a mere figment of the imagination , evident only to the observer inclined to see it . The face seemed to be that of an Indian ? most notably in the region of the cheeks , from the center of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The lines on the left cheek depicted a Portuguese or a Spanish galleon , with its sail strained to the breaking point , as if by the force of a strong wind . A tiny lookout , stationed at his observation post , seemed to wave his arms , eager to advise the crew of their possible proximity to land . The captain , standing on the deck , remained absorbed in his own thoughts , oblivious to the gesticulation of the lookout . Nor did he seem to notice a map that lay close by one of his boots , strangely unaffected by the wind which persisted in its struggle to break the resistance of the solid sails . It was a map of Africa surrounded by long lines indicating the circumnavigational routes . One of these routes , marked in bright red , ended at a spot on the coast of what is today known as Nigeria . The tiny piece of continent designated by the end of the red line was occupied by a minuscule drawing in colors , almost certainly typical of a village in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was emerging in squatting ## position , due to the scant height of the space not obstructed by the thatched roof and walls . Next to the hut a woman , seated and with her legs crossed , could be seen inserting a fish into an almost cylindrical opening in the earth . A few inches away was a ceramic jug containing some leftover food that failed to obscure entirely the folk scene adorning the interior surface of the receptacle . It pictured a hunting party : a group of aborigines chasing a deer . Their weapons were surely the same ones they used for intertribal combat ; otherwise there was no possible explanation for the large shields they carried , all of them bearing colorful illustrations on their external surfaces . Some of these illustrations had been damaged , perhaps by enemy lances in recent skirmishes ; but on one of the shields the layer of pigments derived from plant matter had apparently survived intact . The painted areas , the outlines of which were not very sharp , at a distance nevertheless took on the exact shape of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ civilization of invaders and not to the civilization of the creator of the shield , its design had been reproduced to perfection : the handle featured a golden cross , on which a Christ of pallid complexion lay dying . A soldier of the Empire , who seemed to spring from the handle of the saber , stood gallantly at the side of the Redeemer ; in his right hand he held a parchment containing incomprehensible annotations , no doubt purely a product of the painter 's imagination . The only decipherable element on the parchment was a drawing at the top , comparable to a letterhead . It represented the mythological character Perseus , his eyes fixed on a mirror to avoid the icy gaze of the Gorgon , who stood behind him . However , the image in the mirror was not Medusa 's face but a landscape , perhaps the environs of the temple , reflected on the shiny surface through one of the rare openings in its main facade . The landscape consisted of an endless expanse of open field , devoid of trees or any other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in which there appeared only the majestic figure of a gigantic bird , its wings fully spread . The bird was in every respect similar to an airplane ; its small eye -- the only one visible -- could easily have been the side window of a cockpit . Additionally , the creature 's small pupil , which contained a blemish at the top perhaps as a result of some eye infection , was the very picture of a pilot 's head covered by a visored helmet , in the center of which a golden glimmer evoked the insignia of the air force of a neighboring country . This insignia was comprised of three juxtaposed logotypes , shaped respectively like a ship , an airplane and a railroad -- the concomitance of those three objects symbolizing recognition of the brotherhood of all the national transportation networks . The locomo-## tive standing on the railroad tracks displayed the emblem of the staterun company to which it belonged : the sketchy shape of a building behind big letters spelling out the company 's name . Without a doubt , the building was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the schematic quality of the design failed to express that too clearly . One window on the top floor of the edifice was scarcely visible . Judging by what little could be seen , it did n't belong to an office or to any room ; it only opened onto a corridor , dotted with two rows of doors of diffuse outlines . One of the doors appeared to be open , although it was still possible to discern on the brass plaque identifying it the name and position of a high-ranking public official . Inside the room , the only thing Rodriquez could make out -- and that with great effort -- was a painting that occupied almost a third of the surface of the wall . But it was impossible to see what that painting contained . Disappointed , he directed his gaze elsewhere . 
##1001851 Something big Nelsen , Robert S Triquarterly ; Spring 1990 ; 78 ; Research Library ## Something Big Robert S. Nelsen With her hand , the mother pulled the boy toward the bathtub . The boy felt as though he were a bull , a bull being dragged by the horns through the yellow ooze of the fly dip out back beside the bulls ' corral . This was the boy 's first bath in this new house ; he had arrived just a week ago . The boy had walked up the lane to the house and had stared into the house through the screen door until the mother opened the door and motioned for him to enter . At the screen door , the boy had been silent , and there before that bathtub , the boy was silent still . The boy looked at that bathtub perched on top of iron eagles ' feet . Looking at the bathtub and its eagles ' feet moved the boy closer to the mother . The mother walked around behind the boy , and the boy could feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The boy could feel the mother press her body against his back , wedging him between her soft legs , wedging the boy from his feet to where his head fit into where the mother 's legs stopped . The boy was five years old . " Off with your clothes , " the mother said in a singsong voice . " That 's law number one of the bathtub laws . " The mother quickly stripped the boy of his shirt and stockings and threw the shirt and stockings toward the clothes hamper . One stocking missed going into the clothes hamper and stuck to the outside of the clothes hamper . The boy 's eyes moved from the stocking back to the bathtub , and he knew that this time he would do something more than lighting a fire , maybe stealing something big . With the boy wedged between the mother 's legs from his feet to where his head fit into where the mother 's legs stopped , the mother undid the buttons on the boy 's pants . Her hand stopped as it reached into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his bare penis , and discovered that he ## was wearing no underwear . The mother quickly withdrew her hand and coughed , or at least the boy thought that it was a cough he heard . The boy felt the mother pry his body from her body . The mother turned the boy to face her . The boy could see red in the moon-shaped cheeks and thick neck of the mother . The boy did not know how many bathtub laws existed , but he was certain that one of the laws , just like the laws at the other six houses in which he had lived , would say wear underwear . With his pants still unsnapped , the boy looked up at the mother 's round face framed by her home-cut gray hair , and he smiled at her . The mother did not frown , but the mother did not smile either . The boy continued smiling . Smiles usually worked for him . " Take off your pants , and turn on the cold water , " the mother said . The boy obediently took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Naked , the boy sat down on the edge of the bathtub , his bare feet dangling in the air above the bathtub 's eagles ' feet . The boy looked around the bathroom for something to steal , for something big . Finding nothing except for a half-empty bottle of perfume that could not possibly be worth stealing , the boy looked to see if the mother wore a ring that he could steal , but he saw that she did not . " Feel how deep the water is , " the mother said , her voice cutting through the noise of the water squirting from the cold-water spigot and splashing against the cold water colored yellow by the bathtub 's ruststained porcelain . " An inch of cold water is all you need . That 's what law number two of the bathtub laws says . " The boy turned and sniffed at the yellowed water . The water smelled to him as though it were stewed-cabbage water . The boy stuck his two hands in the water , and with the two hands flat on top of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of them . The water , the boy guessed , must be close to an inch deep . The boy took his hands from the yellow water and showed the mother one finger , meaning that the water was one inch deep . " That 's perfect , " the mother said . " Turn it off . It 's time for law number three . Add an inch of hot water to the cold water . " The boy bent down and turned on the hot water . With the hot water splashing against the cold water already in the bathtub , the boy stared at the mother , and the mother stared back at the boy . Since the day that the boy had stared into the house through the screen door , the mother had referred to herself as Mother ; the boy , on the other hand , had never offered a name or any other words for that matter . The boy dropped his stare from the mother 's eyes to the swirling water in the bathtub . As soon as he saw the water , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for something big to steal . Again seeing nothing worth stealing , the boy knew that he would have to go outside to steal something big , something like a horse or a bull or a tractor or a dog or maybe one of the neighbor 's sheep . The boy 's hands , feeling the depth of the water , moved down and then up the cracked , yellowed porcelain of the bathtub . The boy held up two fingers this time for the mother and turned off the hot water . " Get in and lie down , " the mother said , " and get yourself good and wet . That 's law number four . Five says stand up and soap your body , every inch of it . Then , after you are all soaped up , six says lie back down in the water and wash all that soap off your body . I 've got some washing of my own to do . You 're on your own till I get back . " Lying there in the yellowed bathtub water , the boy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ door close behind her . Quickly , the boy stood up and lathered his body with soap . Then the boy lay down in the bathtub and spread his legs wide . With soap bubbles from his body floating in the water around him in what looked to the boy like soap islands , the boy took hold of his penis and pretended that his penis was a bull 's horn , and he shoved his bull 's horn up and through one soap island after another . Again and again the boy shoved the bull 's horn up through the water , ramming it clean through , bursting the soap islands into disappearing pieces . The boy heard what he thought was a cough again and turned to see the mother beside the bathtub . The boy saw the red in the round cheeks and stout neck of the mother , the red that the boy had seen in the cheeks and neck of the mother when she discovered that he wore no underwear . The boy sunk into the yellow water to be out of sight of the mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make his naked body even bigger . The mother said , " What do you think you 're doing ? Stop . Stop it right now . Not in my house you do n't . " The boy watched the mother take a step toward him and then turn and leave the bathroom without saying anything more . The boy listened to the door close , hearing it close softer than he expected . The boy rolled over in the bathtub and felt as though now he were a bull stranded in the yellow ooze of the fly dip out back beside the bulls ' corral . The boy gripped his bull 's horn and rammed the horn against the bottom of the bathtub . In return , or so it seemed to the boy , the bathtub rammed back at the bull 's horn . Again , even harder , the boy rammed the bull 's horn against the bottom of that bathtub . The bathtub rammed back against the boy so hard that he hurt all the way from his ## horn to his spine . Faster and faster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and faster and faster the bath rose up and rammed itself against the boy . With tears in his eyes , the boy rolled over back upright in the bathtub . Today , the boy decided , today had to be the day to steal something big . The boy decided that he could not steal a horse or a bull or a tractor or a dog or even one of the neighbor 's sheep today because he could not think of a place where he could hide anything that big , not today . But the boy did think of the neighbor 's raspberries , and the neighbor 's strawberries , and the neighbor 's tomatoes that he could steal today , things that he could eat and would not have to hide . The boy stared at the bathtub that had hurt the boy from his bull 's horn to his spine . The boy doubled his fist , and , just as he was about to punch the bathtub , he heard the bathroom door open and the mother begin talking . " O.K. , only two more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " and you are going to like both of them . Law number seven says baths do n't have to last more than ten minutes , and law number eight says you only have to take one bath a week . See , you 're done and you did n't even drown . " Smiling , the mother turned and left the bathroom , this time without closing the door . The boy jumped out of the bathtub and wiped the towel once over his hair , once over his front and once over his back . Freed from the yellow water of the bathtub , the boy thought only of the neighbor 's garden with its raspberries and its strawberries and its tomatoes . From the clothes hamper , the boy took his shirt , pants and stockings , pulling the one stocking from where it was still stuck on the outside of the clothes hamper . The boy did not bother with underwear . Outside the screen door , the boy grabbed his boots , and he stamped his feet into his boots there on the front porch in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inside the house . In his boots , the boy ran to the horse 's pen next to the bulls ' corral and the fly dip . The boy climbed into the horses ' pen and I laid himself down in the dust hole that the horses used to dry themselves off . Over and over the boy rolled in the dust hole , just as he had seen the horses roll around in the dust hole after being unsaddled . The boy stood up , and he spat into his hands and rubbed the spit into the dust covering his face . " Bathtub , " the boy shouted , " die ! Stay away from me and my dirt , or I 'll cut your eagles ' feet off . " The boy ran to the barn and he unhooked two of the milk buckets that hung on nails pounded into a wooden beam in the room where the ## mother separated the cream from the milk . The separating machine beside the boy glittered as spotless stainless steel glitters . The boy , the boy ready to steal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , looked at the separating machine and dashed out of the barn . Outside , the boy swung the milk buckets over his head . The milk buckets glittered at the boy as the mother 's separating machine in the barn had glittered at the boy . The boy put the milk buckets close to his legs to stop the buckets from glittering , and he walked down the lane . The heels of his boots raised no sound , but looking behind himself , the boy saw the heels kick spurts of dust into the air . Seeing the spurts of dust and then looking back down the lane toward the neighbor 's garden and seeing one of the neighbor 's black sheep grazing right next to the garden made the boy laugh . The top strand of barbed-wire fence in front of the neighbor 's garden buzzed when the boy touched it . The boy tossed the mother 's two milk buckets over the barbed-wire fence , and , on his back , the boy began wiggling under the barbed-wire fence . Halfway between the mother 's land and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on one of the wire barbs , unsnapping the snaps on his shirt and opening the shirt up . The boy 's bare chest shone there before his eyes , a clean bare chest , a bare chest cleaned by that bathtub and its bathtub laws . The boy twisted his head , looked at the neighbor 's garden , unhooked his shirt from the barbed wire and wiggled the rest of his body onto the neighbor 's land . The boy grabbed the milk buckets and ran to the raspberry bushes . The raspberry bushes were bare . The strawberry plants were bare too , and even the tomato vines were bare . The boy sat the milk buckets in the garden 's dirt and dropped quickly to his hands and knees . On all fours , the boy searched for something big to steal . Up and down the rows he went on his hands and knees until he finally found a partial row of cabbages and a small patch of unweeded radishes . The boy pulled up a handful of radishes , looked at them , and tossed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cabbage plant and wiggled back and forth until , with a popping sound , the cabbage tore loose in the boy 's hands . The boy placed the cabbage in one of the milk buckets . The cabbage covered the shiny bottom of the bucket and came halfway up the sides . The boy straddled another cabbage , wiggling it , pulling on it until it tore loose in his hands , and then he tossed the cabbage into the other milk bucket . The boy threw the milk buckets with the cabbages in them over the barbed wire fence , and he wiggled underneath the bottom strand of barbed wire back onto the mother 's land . The boy took hold of the stainless-steel handles of the milk buckets , and , swaying from side to side ## and swinging the buckets out in front of him , he walked back up the lane to the bulls ' corral next to the yellow ooze of the fly dip . With the cabbages in his hands , the boy used his elbows to climb the pole fence . On top , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and took his pocketknife from his pocket . The boy cut into one of the cabbages and laid the pieces of cabbage on the pole that he was sitting on , squeezing the pieces with his legs so that they would not fall to the ground . The boy stabbed his hand and fingers with the pocketknife , and the boy dripped the blood from his hand and fingers onto the cabbage between his legs , turning the cabbage red with blood . With his bloodied hand , the boy tossed the blood-red cabbage to the bulls . The bulls sniffed at the blood-red cabbage and soon began eating the red pieces . The boy cut into the other cabbage and placed it between his legs on the pole and stabbed his other hand and fingers and dripped the new blood onto that cabbage , turning it the same blood red . The boy tossed the blood-red cabbage to the bulls , and placing his bloodied hands on top of his head as though they were bull 's horns , he watched the bulls below him fight over the cabbage . @ 
##1001852 Story of my weight Calcagno , Anne Triquarterly ; Spring 1990 ; 78 ; Research Library ## Story of My Weight Anne Calcagno Until the other day , I did not know my feet had become so crookedly misshapen and wide . I told myself my socks were unnecessarily thick ; the weather too hot ; it stood to reason my shoes were squeezing me . That was n't true . The things I owned or faced had n't twisted on me : it was me . I had changed without knowing it because I had n't looked my way for a long time . With my eyes focused away from me , I 've lived out my days in an interlude . Because when I suddenly saw the width of my warped feet , my eyes next traveled up the length of my legs , noticing mottled bruises like disheveled leaves rotting on my legs -- I have distractedly smashed into things . I moved to cover them , saw the back of my hand , vein-swelled and colorful , too , like a cabbage leaf . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slack as silk . I was stunned ; as if it all happens in one day , the pieces lined up : I am not young . It feels as if I have always been fat . I married twenty-three years ago , have been overweight for twenty . Over time , I lost all personal perspective , grew overwhelmed in reaction to wide-eyed glances : when you 're fat you 're a focus . In public places , like the supermarket , they observe you until you ca n't get away from being your own prisoner . Wheeling my cart around , I peered at as much as I could , before fleeing . I 've been an exaggeration of cells , a reduced woman . My short blond hair curls into squat corkscrews , tips up ; sometimes , when the perm is running out , I look bristling . Yet , when the harried supermarket cashier glances up , I 'm the one whose eyes roll into her lap . This is how it is to be an anomaly . Yet , the point is : the other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by widening corns , and it became terribly clear : like other women , conclusively mortal , I am going by degrees . No one is a constant picture . ## My disfigurement was a private affair . I ate and many things became mine . My consumption accumulated , giving me the appearance of having more years than my actual age . For many years , with a lot of effort , I still could have peeled off these layers and reached a young person . But it is too late . Time went ahead and did some real altering . I am forty-one and look like hell . I 've watched my failure . But my feet , the other day , were n't a continuation of this exaggerated flesh that haunts me . They were life and the broad response of time . I do n't know why I saw this . Age is an invisible train charging through the dark , wearing down the rails . Gradually , I 'd been feeling in need of repair . I grew to have more bent space inside . I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I done ? My husband , perhaps two weeks before I looked at my feet , became aware of his own wearing-down . He began to feel his life erasing , tried to leap back from the movement of the train , the foreshortening of horizons . He grappled to stop losing things . He remembered me differently ; supple , eighteen , my eyes on the gravel , lifting up very quickly to notice he was there . I was like a leaf . He could have picked me up and taken me anywhere , kept me in his pocket , or pressed in a book . The other week , a martini in his hand , he said , " You were sweet and your ankles were thin , hon ' . Now you 're close to a heart attack . " " What 's happened now ? " I asked . " For Chrissake , Susan , you 're wasting your life . Listen , I do n't want to watch you do this any more . Lose some weight . I 'll buy you dresses . We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my life , Susan . We 've been waiting too long to do this . " " Harry , how did this come out of the blue ? " I ventured . " Do n't you understand what I 'm saying ? " he replied . Harry is growing bald and his remaining disconnected hairs stood straight up with the lamplight gleaming behind them . He had finished his drink . He stared at me . We were in the middle of a movie episode and I was a girl in bright dresses , and he was a young dapper ready to love . But he was catching on fire with the lamplight gleaming around his head and shoulders . Harry invested himself in this rejuvenative idea , insistent . He had not talked to me much in a long time , yet now he repeated himself . " You lose some weight . I 'll buy you dresses . What about the good old days ? " These must have been in the beginning of our marriage . Being a salesman , he started going away . Absence became a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a wide plateau ; crushing the good old days , he says . I ca n't remember the good old days . Five years ago , I did start to work . The newspaper ad looked for ## someone " willing to learn . " I am a secretary for an escort service , on the top floor of an old undecorated building . They call it a modeling agency . This is the way it 's done : hidden and glorified . I believed the disguise for a long time because that 's what you see looking up at you in the yellow pages . You have to read the fine print to figure out the code . And I did n't see it . Strangers in town get lonely , perhaps greedy . They call my boss , Rose , willing to pay . I file the accounts . An array of girls in tight colorful dresses and hose , with foreign accents or long hair , always in high heels , comes to the office dependent and warm , wanting more than they have . I give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if I am neutral practice for a man . I watch silent but accustomed . I keep thinking I 'm to give them something , but I ca n't find it . I have come to believe in the heart of every woman there is a secretary ; she wants to assist . These women are so different from me in their way of serving ; each is a bird full of plumes and her red fingernails hand me back the forms . But she is a secretary . And I am . I tried to explain this idea to Harry a while back . " Hell , call them something better than secretaries . You ca n't get help like that from Kelly Girls ! " His hand slaps his knee with gusto . In the beginning , I was happy because of the way he enjoyed his own jokes . " It 's serious , " I said . " So many servants in the world . " " We all need people to rely on , sweet cakes . That 's what you forgot about when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I found out the girls were n't models , I was amazed . Harry visited me at the office a couple of times to peek at photos . " Act like I 'm an important account , " he said . In the meantime he had a few salesman 's affairs , things in motels he lately informed me of . He was explaining his decision to help me regain the shape he met . Upset , he confessed , he could not make love to shapeless flesh ; he pursued women with angles and curves until it bored him . " I ca n't remember one face , " he said . " You know that 's pretty sad . " " Why did you tell me that ? " I said . " Because when you try to understand yourself you need a confidante . When you tell someone else your sins , you 've got a responsibility to change . Now you 'll make me change , hon ' . " " I never wanted to know everything about you , " I said . " Ca n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Harry has always wanted the woman he loves to be so riveting that the envious stares of others around him will , like a magnetic force , keep him gravitated to her . I grew into a monstrosity . But the way they stared at me spun him away . ## After Harry confessed , I could n't get rid of what he had told me , and how my weight had ruined my life . Two weeks later , on a glazed and flat day , my feet caught my attention . I stared . Minute by minute I grew amazed , because my realization was unprecedented . I paused for some time . Looking at my feet , I saw that age had bitten into them . It did n't appear hesitant to finish its meal . And I do n't know why but then I knew that my hands , my eyes , my cartilage -- all of me -- was tied close to the same sounds and ways of others , held to the globe . I am what always happens in time , and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now I am in common . The only thing is : I do not want to become the shape of a woman Harry chased . If I am ever thin I will not have thrown off dead weight ; my husband will have pressed it into a thin red lining right under my skin ; that is what memory is like . Harry stormed into our house with yesterday 's picture in mind and stuck it on me . I am very full and he has decided I 'm just beginning . But no one can be emptied out . Never before has my aloneness been made so clear . There are other fat women like me ; I see them in the pastry aisles . But I am in myself alone . Harry has been out of town , on a job , for three days . At lunchtime , I went to the Red Cross shoe store and selected bright green comfort-fit pumps . Their sharp little heels protruded like horns from two tender cocoons . It was me and the geriatric ladies all belonging in the store together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Things have blown open around me as if I had suddenly stepped over the horizon into a rushing wind : it lifts my hem , pulls my hair into disorder , swirls up my sleeves . Walking to work in this pictured disorder I 've realized I want someone to talk to , to explain this disarray . I feel newly in existence , terribly sensitive , sick of confinement . What is this ? An older woman . Unlike before , I 'm impelled to watch myself as a part of everyone . I know the women Harry slept with were likely to spend an hour getting ready to go out for coffee . He looked for this , having found me incapable of it . It was n't for him to see that their ardent self-description is an embroidery of hunger . When these women are as young as the escorts I work with , they feel the pulse of their generation clicking in their heels , and they toss and turn looking for something . They stretch into life like branches , to grow . My husband , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; instead , he felt out his advantage . Their limbs were octopus tentacles he could feast on . And when they were older did n't the women still seem to be looking for an answer ? By habit , they allow their men to imagine that they are waiting to be shown life . The men ## become accustomed mostly to devouring them blind . The women do n't ask for change . They do n't like change . They want to remain beautiful and wanted . Over the years it takes more and more time . Today , a girl walked into the office , rather tall in a red coat . Her hair was bleached , curling down her shoulders , her nose pointed , her mouth plump as a rosebud . She reminded me of a picture of the women at Louis XVI 's court in France , women in high hair and lace , with red cheeks , women decadent in their life , who at the end of the world said : " Let them eat cake . " I wondered if she knew about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world less than men ? " I asked . She looked at me and her eyes turned very thin . " Are you kidding ? Every one of those men had a mom , and if those moms had n't been preparing men for the world the men would n't be able to handle anything . " She looked at her red fingernails . " It takes a woman to know , " she said . Then she leaned close to me . " I know how to baby men , too , " she said . " Do n't do it , " I said . " Shit . I do n't have much time . Is this an interview ? " She pulled her hose up , tightening them , first up her ankles , then along her thighs . " They look at photos before the interview , " I said . " I look good , " she said . Then Rose called the girl into her office . I made a collect call to my friend Rema , whom I 've known since childhood . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Rema , thank God you 're home . Can you listen now ? " " Well , tell me . " " It just hit me like a ton of bricks that I have n't given myself a look in years . Who 've I been ? " " You 've been living , honey , " Rema says . " Where did you get this idea you have to stare at yourself all the time , to live ? That can hold you up . Plenty of people go nuts . " " No . We do n't have this idea straight , most of us : you have gold running in your veins , up to your heart ; if you see that , you begin to catch it . " " Some people might feel that way , " she says . " Sure some do . What 's been happening ? " Her voice is patient as lake water . " I ca n't understand myself why everything has changed , " I say . " Everything seems on fire . It makes me so nervous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says , " That 's how it is : you ca n't tell when the next thing is going to happen . " After work I like to walk a few extra blocks to the bus for exercise . ## 11 People are so busy running home , I 'm unnoticed . Today , the yellow leaves were falling and breathing themselves into the wind , mingling a bitter scent of regret . I 've noticed each winter comes by advance of many tantrums ; the trees toss their heads , the grasses shake , disheveled , blown up , turned brown . Today , the leaves scurried over , wildly dancing between my feet while an endless blue blanket looked down , selfcontained . All at once , something darted at my feet . I pressed myself up against a wall . My heart nearly leapt out of my mouth . It was a squirrel now staring at me , flicking its tail , a yard away , raising itself on its hindquarters . It began to gesture at me by way of masticating though it had nothing in its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this communication , chewing a mock meal , under the understanding that I had something to give them . And I do understand hunger . But I had nothing for them . On the bus going home I saw animals in people 's faces : a lynx , goats , the flamingo , a saddened spaniel . But they wo n't show their hunger . It saddens me to know I walked around for years in trepidation of myself without knowing or remembering about this hunger in others . I tried to hide my own but they saw it on my body . I peered out a small window which never opened . Every day circled me like gauze , and I was mummified into the years . My husband called it a disgrace . My heart closed like a little stone . Harry is ravenous for taut flesh yet now age flicks him around in its large jaw , tugs at his skin , decomposes his bones . He is amazed , denying so much hunger . I never had the brazen confidence to deny life 's big appetite , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Yet life and time are always tapping in your ear to confide in you . Occasionally , I would be startled by sounds like a foreign song ; vague , remarkable music . I placed it far away . But chords were rising through me , to describe me . This is how potential approaches you : in no one else 's language . If you grasp it , other people sense it . It begins to announce itself . Like a song , you ca n't exactly say you see it . Mine rose up through my feet . I looked down at myself and saw the silent onslaught of years , the wide general thing represented in my feet . This is n't my failure . I have a double dimension of weight : one fat made me hide , but this can have grace because it 's everyone 's mirror . The night before Harry left on his present trip , he visited the supermarket . Lettuce , trim-fit dinners , broccoli , tomatoes , celery and crackers returned with him . He looked as happy as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : " Here we go ! Now we 're ready , are n't we ? " It was as if a beetle began crawling inside my stomach . ## " The thing I want to tell you , honey , is that this is n't just about taking off pounds ; it 's about building a whole new spirit . A spic-and-span streamlined one , Susie . I can hardly wait . " I looked straight at him . " What I 'm concerned with is my spirit . But you ca n't get it with celery . How could you go looking in the supermarket ? " Harry 's eyes retracted quick as crabs . " You 're a coward ? " he asked me . " Are you ? Shit , you 're the biggest disappointment in my life . " He turned around to the kitchen sink and spat in it . Then he grabbed the porcelain edge as if he was saving it from falling off the wall . " You 're going to ruin our life , " he shouted . I have my age . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more and more chairs . All my veins are pulsing more fiercely , and this work , through time , has slackened my skin , interspersed it with magnets and marbles . This is an accumulation I must tend to . Life surreptitiously crowded in me . I want to walk through my markings , to pick them up as on a cafeteria line , then to have so full a dish I 'll be stunned by it . Age is a sort of overeating . I 've noticed many of the escorts from my office fear life will pass them by . They fling themselves into the world to be touched . Life has walked through me and , like a town square , I have been mute through the walkings , have been the vessel , not the subject . I see that though I did not pay attention to the way life was changing me , I can not say it passed me by . It passes no one by . I must try to tell them this . Age draws itself on the flesh and time becomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happen and let your mind become a blank slate , but the flesh wo n't play chameleon . It stabilizes you , and imprints the artifacts of your route ; they 're yours . I am rising , heavy and powerful as an old seal , independent in my digestion , awake . ## 
##1001853 The address Minco , Marga Triquarterly ; Spring 1990 ; 78 ; Research Library ## The Address Marga Minco " Do you still know me ? " I asked . The woman looked at me , inquiring ; she had opened the door a crack . I came closer and stood on the front step . " No , " she said , " I do n't know you . " " I 'm the daughter of Mrs. S. , " I said . She kept her hand on the door as though she wanted to prevent it from opening further . Her face did n't betray any sign of recognition . She kept looking at me silently . Maybe I 'm wrong , I thought , maybe she is n't the one . I had only seen her once in passing , and that was years ago . It was quite likely that I had pushed the wrong doorbell . The woman let go of the door and stepped aside . She was wearing a green hand-knitted sweater . The wooden buttons were slightly faded from laundering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and again hid partly behind the door . But now I knew that I was at the right address . " You knew my mother , did n't you ? " I asked . " Did you come back ? " said the woman . " I thought that no one had come back . " " Only I , " I said . In the hall behind her a door opened and closed . A stale smell came out . " I 'm sorry , " she said , " I ca n't do anything for you . " " I 've come here especially on the train . I would have liked to speak with you for a moment . " " It 's not convenient now , " said the woman . " I ca n't invite you in . Another time . " She nodded and carefully closed the door , as though no one in the house should be disturbed . I remained on the front step for a moment . ## The curtain of the bay window moved . " Oh , nothing , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " I looked at the nameplate once more . It said " Dorling , " with black letters on white enamel . And on the doorpost , a little higher , the number . Number 46 . While slowly walking back to the station , I thought of my mother , who had once , years ago , given me the address . It was during the first half of the war . I had come home for a few days , and it had struck me right away that something had changed in the rooms . I missed all sorts of things . My mother was surprised that I 'd noticed it so quickly . Then she told me about Mrs. Dorling . I had never heard of her before , but she seemed to be an old acquaintance of my mother 's whom she had n't seen in years . She had suddenly turned up and renewed the acquaintance . Since that time she had been coming regularly . " Every time she leaves she takes something home with her , " my mother said . " She took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ antique plates which hung over there . She really had a tough job lugging these big vases , and I 'm afraid that she hurt her back with the dishes . " My mother shook her head with compassion . " I would never have dared to ask her . She suggested it herself . She even insisted . She wants to save all my beautiful things . She says that we 'll lose everything when we have to leave here . " " Have you arranged with her that she 'll keep everything ? " I asked . " As though that were necessary , " my mother exclaimed . " It would be an insult to agree on something like that . And think of the risk she takes every time she leaves our house with a full suitcase or bag ! " My mother seemed to notice that I was n't totally convinced . She looked at me reproachfully , and after that we did n't speak of it again . Without paying too much attention to the road I had arrived at the station . For the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ familiar districts , but I did n't want to go further than absolutely necessary . I did n't want to torment myself with the sight of streets and houses full of memories of a cherished time . In the train back , I saw Mrs. Dorling before me again , the way I had met her the first time . It was the morning after the day my mother had told me about her . I had gotten up late , and as I went downstairs I saw that my mother was just seeing someone out . A woman with a broad back . " There is my daughter , " said my mother . She motioned to me . The woman nodded and picked up the suitcase which stood under the coatrack . She was wearing a brown coat and a shapeless hat . ## " Does she live far ? " I asked after seeing how laboriously she left the house with the heavy suitcase . " On Marconistraat , " said my mother . " Number 46 . Do try to remember . " I had remembered . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going there . During the first period after the liberation I felt no interest at all in all that stored stuff , and of course some fear was involved . Fear of being confronted with things that had been part of a bond which no longer existed ; which had been stored in cases and boxes and were waiting in vain until they would be put back in their places ; which had survived all these years because they were " things . " But gradually everything had become normal again . There was bread which was steadily becoming lighter in color , there was a bed in which you could sleep without being threatened , a room with a view which you got more and more used to every day . And one day I noticed that I was becoming curious about all the possessions which should still be at that address . I wanted to see them , touch them , recognize them . After my first fruitless visit to Mrs. Dorling 's house , I decided to try it a second time . This time it was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked whether her mother was home . " No , " she said , " my mother is just on an errand . " " That does n't matter , " I said , " I 'll wait for her . " I followed the girl through the hall . Next to the mirror hung an oldfashioned menorah . We had never used it because it was much more cumbersome than candles . " Would n't you like to sit down ? " asked the girl . She held open the door to the room and I went in past her . Frightened , I stood still . I was in a room which I both knew and did n't know . I found myself among things I had wanted to see again but which oppressed me in the strange surroundings . Whether it was because of the tasteless manner in which everything was arranged , because of the ugly furniture or the stuffy air , I do n't know , but I scarcely dared look around me anymore . The girl moved a chair . I sat down and stared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I rubbed it . My fingers got warm from rubbing . I followed the lines of the design . Someplace on the edge there should be a burn hole which had never been repaired . " My mother will be back very soon , " said the girl . " I had already made tea for her . Would you like a cup ? " " Please , " I said . I looked up . The girl was setting out teacups on the tea table . She had a broad back . Just like her mother . She poured tea from a ## white pot . There was a gold edge just around the lid , I remembered . She opened a small box and took some teaspoons out of it . " That 's a lovely little box . " I heard my own voice . It was a strange voice . As though every sound in this room had another ring to it . " Do you know much about that ? " She had turned around and brought me my tea . She laughed . " My @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more . " She pointed around the room . " Just look . " I did n't need to follow her hand . I knew which things she meant . I kept looking at the still-life above the tea table . As a child I had always wanted to eat the apple that lay on the pewter plate . " We use it for everything , " she said . " We 've even eaten from the plates which hang on the wall . I wanted to . But it was n't anything special . " I had found the burn hole at the edge of the tablecloth . The girl looked at me inquiringly . " Yes , " I said , " you get used to all these beautiful things at home , you hardly look at them anymore . You only notice when something is not there , because it has to be repaired , or , for example , because you 've lent it to someone . " Again I heard the unnatural sound of my voice , and I continued : " I remember my mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That was very long ago , and I must have been bored that day , or maybe I had to stay home because I was ill , for she had never asked me to do that before . I asked her which silver she meant , and she answered me , surprised , that she was of course talking about the spoons , forks , and knives . And that was of course the odd thing , I did n't know that the objects with which we ate every day were made of silver . " The girl laughed again . " I bet you do n't know that either , " I said . I looked at her intently . " What we eat with ? " she asked . " Well , do you know ? " She hesitated . She walked to the buffet and started to pull open a drawer . " I 'll have to look . It 's in here . " I jumped up . " I 'm forgetting my time . I still have to catch my train . " She stood with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like to wait for my mother ? " " No , I have to leave . " I walked to the door . The girl opened the drawer . " I 'll find my way . " When I was walking through the hall I heard the clinking of spoons and forks . At the corner of the street I looked up at the nameplate . It said Marconistraat . I had been at Number 46 . The address was right . But ## now I no longer wanted to remember it . I would not go there again , for the objects which in your memory are linked with the familiar life of former times suddenly lose their value when you see them again , torn out of context , in strange surroundings . And what would I do with them in a small rented room in which shreds of blackout paper were still hanging along the windows and where in the narrow table drawer there was room for just a few dinner things ? I resolved to forget the address . Of all the things I should forget , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##1001864 The Texas principessa Goyen , William Triquarterly ; Spring 1990 ; 78 ; Research Library ## The Texas Principessa William Goyen Who would 've dreamed that I would get the Palazzo ? Well let me try and stay on what you asked me about before we were so rudely interrupted ? by me . That ever happen to you ? Start out to tell one thing and get off onto another ? Well let me try and stay on what you asked me about . Welcome to the Palazzo . The Texas Principessa had married a Naples prince of an old line . Hortense Solomon ( we called her Horty ) was herself of an old line -- of dry-goods families . Texas Jews that had intermarried and built up large stores in Texas cities over the generations . Solomon 's Everybody 's Store was an everyday word in the mouths of Texas people and an emporium ? which was their word -- where Texas people were provided with everything from hosiery to clocks . The Solomons , along with the Linkowitzes , the Dinzlers and the Myrons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their faith by traveling rabbis in early days , and later they built synagogues and contributed rabbis and cantors from their generations -- except those who married Texas Mexicans or Texas Frenchmen . These , after awhile , melted into the general mixture of the Texas population and ate cornbread instead of bagels and preferred barbecue pork and tamales to lox and herring . That ever happen to you ? Let 's see , where was I ? Oh . The Naples prince , Renzi da Filippo , did not bring much money to the marriage because the old line of da Filippos had used up most of it or lost it ; or had it taken from them in one way or another -- which was O.K. because they had taken it from somebody else earlier on : sometimes there is a little justice . That ever happen to you ? Renzi was the end of the line . Someone who was the end of a line would look it , would n't you think so ? You could not tell it in Renzi da Filippo , he looked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and handsome in that burnt ## blond coloring that they have , sort of toasted -- toast-colored hair and bluewater eyes and skin of a wheaty color . He was a beauty everyone said and was sought after in Rome and London and New York . Those Italianos ! About all he had in worldly goods was the beautiful Palazzo da Filippo in Venice , a seventeenth-century hunk of marble and gold that finally came into his hands . Had Hortense Solomon not given her vows to Renzi in wedlock , Palazzo da Filippo might have gone down the drain . It needed repair in the worst kind of way -- all those centuries on it -- and those repairs needed a small fortune -- which Horty had a lot of . As soon as the marriage was decided upon , there was a big party . The Prince was brought to Texas and an announcement party was thrown , and I mean thrown , on the cold ranch river that flowed through the acres and acres of hot cattleland owned by the Solomons . The gala stirred up socialites as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the rich , famous and titled flew in on family planes . Horty Solomon ? which was very hard for Italians to say so they called her La Principessa di Texas -- started right in with her plans for fixing up the Palazzo . The plans were presented in the form of a little replica of the Palazzo used as a centerpiece for the sumptuous table . Two interior decorators called The Boys , favorites of Horty 's from Dallas , exhibited their color schemes -- a lot of Fuchsia for Horty loved this favorite color of hers . " You 're certainly not going to redecorate that Palazzo " ( they said Palazzo the way she did , so that it sounded like " Plotso " ) , " you 're certainly not going to furnish it out of Solomon 's Everybody 's Store ! " The Boys declared to Horty as soon as they heard of her plans to redo the Plotso da Filippo . " Nor , " said they , " are you going to make it look like a West Texas ranch house . We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fuchsia appointments ! " When Palazzo da Filippo was in shape , the Texas relatives poured in . The Palazzo was crawling with them , young and old . The Palazzo could have been a big Texas house . Black cooks and maids from East Texas mingled with Italian servants . The Venetians loved it . " Viva la Principessa di Texas ! " they cried . Those Italianos ! Here I must inform you something of which you were asking about , that on his very wedding night in a villa in Monaco ( the beautiful Prince gambled on his wedding night ) the beautiful Prince Renzi burst a blood vessel in his inner ear and succumbed ( the newspapers ' word for it ) . He just plain died in his wedding bed is what it was . You were asking about how he died . Vicious talk had it that the only stain on the nuptial ( newspapers ' word ) ? only stain on the nuptial sheets came from the Prince 's ear . Crude . The poor bride , who had been married before -- a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stunned . Poor Horty . Tragedy dogged her , as you well can see . I myself have never experienced the death of a husband but I have experienced two divorces and let me tell you they are similar , they are like a death . They are no fun . My last divorce was particularly nasty . Thank God there was no issue , as the Wills said . Both my husbands were without issue . Issue indeed . That 's a joke for the last one , who issued it to Old Granddad instead of me -- mind as well say it ; and excuse the profanity -- that one had little issue except through his mouth . . . when he threw up his Bourbon . Crude , I know . But that 's mainly the kind of issue he had . That ever happen to you ? Let 's see where was I. Oh . Anyway , this left me in London , quite penniless ; tell you why I was in London some other time . Do n't have time for that garden path now -- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take a detour from . But the thing of it is , this is how Horty Solomon got the Palazzo da Filippo , which is what you were asking me about : under the auspices of a sad circumstance -- a broken blood vessel leading to death ; but a tragedy leading to a new life for her . And for me , as you will soon hear the story ( that you were asking about ) . Anyway , Horty went on with her plans for the Palazzo , now all hers . As I said somewhere -- I ca n't tell a story straight to save my life , my mind races off onto a hundred things that I remember and want to tell right then , do n't want to wait . That ever happen to you ? Anyway , as I said somewhere , Texans flooded into the canals of Venice because of the Principessa : Venezia was half Texas some days -- and loved it . And if you 've ever heard a Texan speaking Italian , you wo n't believe the sound of it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ football players ? Horty had given them a stadium in Lampasas ( they called her Cousin Horty ) ? Junior League ladies , student concert pianists ( Horty was a patron of the Arts , as you will see more about ) , and once a Rock group ? they had that Grand Canal jumping , and some seventeenth-century tiles fell , I can tell you . And maybe something from even earlier , a Fresco or two from the Middle Ages . And talented young people who wanted to paint or write came over to the Palazzo , to write in or paint in , or practice a musical instrument in ; and they accepted . See what she did ? Palazzo da Filippo jived , that was the word then ; it was in the nineteenfifties . That joint jumped , as they said . I said back there that I was going to tell you why I was in London . Or did I ? Ca n't remember . Just try to remember something with all this noise around here . Italians are noisy , sweet as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where was I ? Oh . London . Well , forget London for the time being -- if I have n't already told it to you . Just keep ## London in the back of your mind . Now where was I ? Oh . Well , you have asked me to tell you what you are hearing -- the story of the Texas Principessa , my old schoolmate and lifelong pal , that you asked about . After the Prince 's death , Horty pulled herself together and got the Palazzo together -- a reproduction of Palazzo da Filippo was engraved on Renzi 's tombstone with Horty 's changes incorporated ( which , of course , I thought was rather nifty , would n't you ) ? and Horty pleaded with me in April by phone and cable to come stay . " Come and stay as long as you want to , stay forever if you 're happy in the Palazzo ; just come on , " Horty said , long distance , to me in London . Horty loved to have people in the house . This does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sometimes I 've seen it happen that a motorboat would arrive and disburse a dozen guests and a week later depart with the same guests and not one of them had ever seen the Principessa . Horty would 've confined herself off in her own apartment in the far right top wing and there remain in privacy . Simply did not want to have anything to do with them , with her guests . " That 's Horty , " everyone said . They 'd had a grand time , gone in the Principessa 's private motorboats to Torcello , to lunch at the Cipriano , to cocktails at other palazzos , been served divine dinners with famous Italians at the da Filippo . But no Horty . She usually -- she was so generous -- gave expensive presents to her guests to get them to forgive her . Once she gave everybody an egg -- a sixth-century -- B.c. ! ? egg of Chinese jade . Amounted to about a dozen eggs . Somebody said the retail value of those eggs was about one hundred and fifty dollars apiece . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ April and May I came . Horty at once announced to me that there was no room for me at the Palazzo ! She was getting crazy over painters . She 'd become more and more interested in painting , Horty did , but that 's no surprise because she always seemed to possess a natural eye and feeling for painting , not so curious for an heiress to generations of garment salesmen , even though you might so comment . For Hortense Solomon inherited good taste and a tendency for her eye to catch fine things when she saw them . Though there were Brahma bulls leering through the windows of the Solomon ranch in West Texas , what those bulls saw inside was fine china and Chippendale , silver and crystal and satin and silk . Those bulls saw the handiwork of a chic decorator and an elegant collector ; not every bull sees that . So a seventeenth-century palazzo in Venice was not so far a cry for Horty to fix up . Well , here was I living over at the Cipriano where Horty , who could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banished me -- to a terrific suite , I ## must say , and footed by her -- and here was I coming across the Canal every day to observe the goings on at the Palazzo . Frankly I was glad to have me a little distance from the commotion . Well-known artists came to live in the Palazzo da Filippo and to set up studios there and in the environs . Horty patronized them . Gave them scholarships as she called them . A few were very attractive , I must say , some very young -- Horty 's eye again . The Venetians adored La Principessa di Texas . They appreciated her for unscrewing the horse 's outfit from the horse sculpture in her garden on the Grand Canal when the Archbishop passed in his barge on days of Holy Procession . The Principessa had commissioned the sculpture of a beautiful horse possesed of some wild spirit , with a head uplifted and long mouth open in an outcry . On it sat a naked man , again possessed of some wild spirit , seemed like , and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . You did not see the rider 's outfit but the horse 's was very apparent , and the Principessa commissioned the sculptor -- a then-unknown but handsome sculptor -- to sculpt one that was removable . Which seems to apply to a lot of men that I have known -- where was it ? A lot of them seem to have removed it . Put it in a drawer someplace . Or mind as well have . Where was I ? Oh yes . The horses 's outfit . On high holy procession days the Texas Principessa could be seen on her knees under the belly of the horse with grasping hands , making wrenching movements . The Italians coined a phrase for it . When they saw her going at the horse as if she were twisting a light globe , they said to each other that La Principessa di Texas was " honoring the Archbishop . " The community generally appreciated her decency for doing this ; some felt that the Archbishop should give her a citation . And a few called her a castrator -- in Italian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it right but you know what I mean ; and of course a few from home in Texas said she was a dicktwister -- had to put their nasty mouths into it . Crude . Where was I ? Oh . An American painter came to visit Horty one afternoon . He was showing in the Biennale , which is what they call the show of paintings that they have every year . Horty and the painter drank and talked about his painting . When the Principessa turned around from making another double martini for the American painter -- she hardly gave it to him when she had to whirl around and make another one -- pirouette is what you had to do when you made drinks for that man . Unless you just made a whole jug and gave it to him . Anyway , she whirled to find him urinating in the fireplace . The Principessa was so impressed with the American painter -- imagine the audacity ! ? that famous summer afternoon that she asked him to stay . He stayed -- over a year , it turned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paintings in the Palazzo gallery ; they have become very sought-after and the painter very famous -- though dead from alcoholism not so many years after that . More proof of the ability of discovery that the Principessa had , which is what an article about her recently said . And of the tragic cloud that kept lurking over her life . Even with all her money and the good that she did people , that cloud lurked . And of course it got her , as you well know . Because Horty 's dead . As you well know . Which is what I started out to tell you the details about when you asked me . Well , it was when we were lunching on the terrazzo of the Palazzo . One of those gold June days that Venice has . I 'll go right into it and not dwell on it : Horty was bitten by something , some kind of terrible spider , and blood poisoning killed her before we knew it . Guess where the spider was ? In a peach . Living at the core @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orchards of the Meditteranean . Horty cried out and fainted . We 'd all had a lot of champagne . By the time we got her to the hospital she was dead . Doctor said it was rank poison and that Horty was wildly allergic to it . When she broke the peach open out sprung the horrible black spider . I saw it in a flash . And before she knew it , it had stung her into the bloodstream of her thigh , right through pure silk Italian brocade . I 'll never eat a peach again , I 'll tell you . All Venice was upset . The Archbishop conducted the funeral himself . Horty 'd left quite a few lire to the Church . We forgot to unscrew the horse 's outfit , but when the funeral procession passed by , all the gondoliers took off their hats . Those Italianos ! And I am the new Principessa -- except of course I am not a Principessa . But the Italians insist on calling me the new Principessa . The Palazzo is mine . Who ever dreamed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was opened back in Texas they read where Horty had given the place to me ! I almost had a heart attack . The will said " to my best friend . " But what in the world will I do with a Palazzo ? I said . I have not the vast fortune that Horty had . But you have all the paintings of the famous dead American , they said . Sure , the family have all fought me for the paintings of the dead American painter . Just let somebody find something good and everybody else tries to get it . Like a bunch of ants . That ever happen to you ? They could n't care less about the Palazzo . But the paintings are something else . The Museum has offered half a million dollars for one . I will not sell yet . And that man that peed in the fire died drunk and broke . Ever hear of such a thing ? But they say the pollution is just eating up the paintings . And the Palazzo . So far I 'm safe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ town is sinking . Venice is a ## little lopsided . I do n't know where to go . I hardly know how I got here . Sometimes I think , who am I , where am I ? That ever happen to you ? But the Texas Principessa is a saint in Venezia . Better not say anything in this town against Horty , I 'm telling you . Those Italianos speak her name with reverence and the Archbishop says her name a lot in church . I have offered the horse to the Church , without outfit , but the Archbishop suggested -- he 's so cute , with a twinkle in his eyes , those Italianos ! ? the Archbishop suggested that it cavallo stay where it is . Because it is an affectionate monument for the townspeople , particularly the gondoliers . They point it out to tourists . I hear they 're selling little replicas near the Vatican . The sculptor is very upset . He 's made many more sculptures ( not of horses ) but nobody ever paid much attention to any of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our lives all crazy ? Some days I ca n't believe any of it . Sometimes I want to go home but I hear Texas is just as crazy . Anyway , that 's the story of Horty Solomon da Filippo , the Texas Principessa . Which is what you asked me about , is n't it ? But one more thing . Next morning after the funeral I saw below the terrazzo something sparkling in the dew , something pure silver with diamonds and rubies and emeralds -- like something Horty would 've worn -- and I saw that it was a gorgeous web . And there in the center , all alone , was the horrible black insect that I am sure was the one that had lived at the heart of the peach that killed the Texas Principessa and brought the Palazzo to me . How could something so ugly and of death make something like that . . . so beautiful ? I had the oddest feeling , ca n't describe it . That ever happen to you ? Well , that 's the story , what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##1001872 My mother is the surviving half of a blindfold trapeze act , not a fact I think about much even now that she is sightless , the result of encroaching and stubborn cataracts . She walks slowly through her house here in New Hampshire , lightly touching her way along walls and running her hands over knickknacks , books , the drift of a grown child 's belongings and castoffs . She has never upset an object or as much as brushed a magazine onto the floor . She has never lost her balance or bumped into a closet door left carelessly open . It has occurred to me that the catlike precision of her movements in old age might be the result of her early training , but she shows so little of the drama or flair one might expect from a performer that I tend to forget the Flying AvaIons . She has kept no sequined costume , no photographs , no fliers or posters from that part of her youth . I would , in fact , tend to think that all memory of double @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were it not for the fact that sometimes , as I sit sewing in the room of the rebuilt house in which I slept as a child , I hear the crackle , catch a whiff of smoke from the stove downstairs , and suddenly the room goes dark , the stitches bum beneath my fingers , and I am sewing with a needle of hot silver , a thread of fire . I owe her my existence three times . The first was when she saved herself . In the town square a replica tent pole , cracked and splintered , now stands cast in concrete . It commemorates the disaster that put our town smack on the front page of the Boston and New York tabloids . It is from those old newspapers , now historical records , that I get my information . Not from my mother , Anna of the Flying Avalons , nor from any of her in-laws , nor certainly from the other half of her particular act , Harold Avalon , her first husband . In one news account it says , " The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or temperature gave any hint of the sudden force with which the deadly gale would strike . " I have lived in the West , where you can see the weather coming for miles , and it is true that out here we are at something of a disadvantage . When extremes of temperature collide , a hot and cold front , winds generate instantaneously behind a hill and crash upon you without warning . That , I think , was the likely situation on that day in June . People probably commented on the pleasant air , grateful that no hot sun beat upon the striped tent that stretched over the entire center green . They bought their tickets and surrendered them in anticipation . They sat . They ate caramelized popcorn and roasted peanuts . There was time , before the storm , for three acts . The White Arabians of Ali-Khazar rose on their hind legs and waltzed . The Mysterious Bernie folded himself into a painted cracker tin , and the Lady of the Mists made herself appear and disappear in surprising places . As the clouds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , shouted his introduction , and pointed to the ceiling of the tent , where the Flying Avalons were perched . They loved to drop gracefully from nowhere , like two sparkling birds , and blow kisses as they threw off their plumed helmets and high-collared capes . They laughed and flirted openly as they beat their way up again on the trapeze bars . In the final vignette of their act , they actually would kiss in midair , pausing , almost hovering as they swooped past one another . On the ground , between bows , Harry Avalon would skip quickly to the front rows and point out the smear of my mother 's lipstick , just off the edge of his mouth . They made a romantic pair all right , especially in the blindfold sequence . That afternoon , as the anticipation increased , as Mr. and Mrs. Avalon tied sparkling strips of cloth onto each other 's face and as they puckered their lips in mock kisses , lips destined " never again to meet , " as one long breathless article put it , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cone , and howled . There came a rumble of electrical energy , drowned out by the sudden roll of drums . One detail not mentioned by the press , perhaps unknown-Anna was pregnant at the time , seven months and hardly showing , her stomach muscles were that strong . It seems incredible that she would work high above the ground when any fall could be so dangerous , but the explanation-I know from watching her go blind-is that my mother lives comfortably in extreme elements . She is one with the constant dark now , just as the air was her home , familiar to her , safe , before the storm that afternoon . From opposite ends of the tent they waved , blind and smiling , to the crowd below . The ringmaster removed his hat and called for silence , so that the two above could concentrate . They rubbed their hands in chalky powder , then Harry launched himself and swung , once , twice , in huge calibrated beats across space . He hung from his knees and on the third swing stretched wide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pregnant wife as she dove from her shining bar . It was while the two were in midair , their hands about to meet , that lightning struck the main pole and sizzled down the guy wires , filling the air with a blue radiance that Harry Avalon must certainly have seen through the cloth of his blindfold as the tent buckled and the edifice toppled him forward , the swing continuing and not returning in its sweep , and Harry going down , down into the crowd with his last thought , perhaps , just a prickle of surprise at his empty hands . My mother once said that I 'd be amazed at how many things a person can do within the act of falling . Perhaps , at the time , she was teaching me to dive off a board at the town pool , for I associate the idea with midair somersaults . But I also think she meant that even in that awful doomed second one could think , for she certainly did . When her hands did not meet her husband 's , my mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the wrong side , she could have grasped his ankle , the toe-end of his tights , and gone down clutching him . Instead , she changed direction . Her body twisted toward a heavy wire and she managed to hang on to the braided metal , still hot from the lightning strike . Her palms were burned so terribly that once healed they bore no lines , only the blank scar tissue of a quieter future . She was lowered , gently , to the sawdust ring just underneath the dome of the canvas roof , which did not entirely settle but was held up on one end and jabbed through , torn , and still on fire in places from the giant spark , though rain and men 's jackets soon put that out . Three people died , but except for her hands my mother was not seriously harmed until an overeager rescuer broke her arm in extricating her and also , in the process , collapsed a portion of the tent bearing a huge buckle that knocked her unconscious . She was taken to the town @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they kept her , confined to her bed , a month and a half before her baby was born without life . Harry Avalon had wanted to be buried in the circus cemetery next to the original Avalon , his uncle , so she sent him back with his brothers . The child , however , is buried around the corner , beyond this house and just down the highway . Sometimes I used to walk there just to sit . She was a girl , but I rarely thought of her as a sister or even as a separate person really . I suppose you could call it the egocentrism of a child , of all young children , but I considered her a less finished version of myself . When the snow falls , throwing shadows among the stones , I can easily pick hers out from the road , for it is bigger than the others and in the shape of a lamb at rest , its legs curled beneath . The carved lamb looms larger as the years pass , though it is probably only my eyes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me blurs and distances sharpen . In odd moments , I think it is the edge drawing near , the edge of everything , the unseen horizon we do not really speak of in the eastern woods . And it also seems to me , although this is probably an idle fantasy , that the statue is growing more sharply etched , as if , instead of weathering itself into a porous mass , it is hardening on the hillside with each snowfall , perfecting itself . It was during her confinement in the hospital that my mother met my father . He was called in to look at the set of her arm , which was complicated . He stayed , sitting at her bedside , for he was something of an armchair traveler and had spent his war quietly , at an air force training grounds , where he became a specialist in arms and legs broken during parachute training exercises . Anna Avalon had been to many of the places he longed to visit-Venice , Rome , Mexico , all through France and Spain . She had no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Avalons , trained to perform from a very I wonder if my father calculated the exchange he offered : one form of flight for another . For after that , and for as long as I can remember , my mother has never been without a book . Until now , that is , and it remains the greatest difficulty of her blindness . Since my father 's recent death , there is no one to read to her , which is why I returned , in fact , from my failed life young age . They toured Europe before the war , then based themselves in New York . She was illiterate . It was in the hospital that she finally learned to read and write , as a way of overcoming the boredom and depression of those weeks , and it was my father who insisted on teaching her . In return for stories of her adventures , he graded her first exercises . He bought her her first book , and over her bold letters , which the pale guides of the penmanship pads could not contain , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . I came home to read to my mother , to read out loud , to read long into the dark if I must , to read all night . Once my father and mother married , they moved onto the old farm he had inherited but did n't care much for . Though he 'd been thinking of moving to a larger city , he settled down and broadened his practice in this valley . It still seems odd to me , when they could have gone anywhere else , that they chose to stay in the town where the disaster had occurred , and which my father in the first place had found so constricting . It was my mother who insisted upon it , after her child did not survive . And then , too , she loved the sagging farmhouse with its scrap of what was left of a vast acreage of woods and hidden hay fields that stretched to the game park . I owe my existence , the second time then , to the two of them and the hospital that brought them together . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of us asks for life . It is only once we have it that we hang on so dearly . I was seven the year the house caught fire , probably from standing ash . It can rekindle , and my father , forgetful around the house and perpetually exhausted from night hours on call , often emptied what he thought were ashes from cold stoves into wooden or cardboard containers . The fire could have started from a flaming box , or perhaps a buildup of creosote inside the chimney was the culprit . It started right around the stove , and the heart of the house was gutted . The baby-sitter , fallen asleep in my father 's den on the first floor , woke to find the stairway to my upstairs room cut off by flames . She used the phone , then ran outside to stand beneath my window . When my parents arrived , the town volunteers had drawn water from the fire pond and were spraying the outside of the house , preparing to go inside after me , not knowing at the time that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . On the other side of the house , the superannuated extension ladder broke in half . Perhaps the clatter of it falling against the walls woke me , for I 'd been asleep up to that point . As soon as I awakened , in the small room that I now use for sewing , I smelled the smoke . I followed things by the letter then , was good at memorizing instructions , and so I did exactly what was taught in the second-grade home fire drill . I got up , I touched the back of my door before opening it . Finding it hot , I left it closed and stuffed my rolled-up rug beneath the crack . I did not hide under my bed or crawl into my closet . I put on my flannel robe , and then I sat down to wait . Outside , my mother stood below my dark window and saw clearly that there was no rescue . Flames had pierced one side wall , and the glare of the fire lighted the massive limbs and trunk of the vigorous old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was built , a hundred years ago at least . No leaf touched the wall , and just one thin branch scraped the roof . From below , it looked as though even a squirrel would have had trouble jumping from the tree onto the house , for the breadth of that small branch was no bigger than my mother 's wrist . Standing there , beside Father , who was preparing to rush back around to the front of the house , my mother asked him to unzip her dress . When he would n't be bothered , she made him understand . He could n't make his hands work , so she finally tore it off and stood there in her pearls and stockings . She directed one of the men to lean the broken half of the extension ladder up against the trunk of the tree . In surprise , he complied . She ascended . She vanished . Then she could be seen among the leafless branches of late November as she made her way up and , along her stomach , inched the length of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Once there , swaying , she stood and balanced . There were plenty of people in the crowd and many who still remember , or think they do , my mother 's leap through the ice-dark air toward that thinnest extension , and how she broke the branch falling so that it cracked in her hands , cracked louder than the flames as she vaulted with it toward the edge of the roof , and how it hurtled down end over end without her , and their eyes went up , again , to see where she had flown . I did n't see her leap through air , only heard the sudden thump and looked out my window . She was hanging by the backs of her heels from the new gutter we had put in that year , and she was smiling . I was not surprised to see her , she was so matter-of-fact . She tapped on the window . I remember how she did it , too . It was the friendliest tap , a bit tentative , as if she was afraid she had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she gestured at the latch , and when I opened the window she told me to raise it wider and prop it up with the stick so it would n't crush her fingers . She swung down , caught the ledge , and crawled through the opening . Once she was in my room , I realized she had on only underclothing , a bra of the heavy stitched cotton women used to wear and step-in , lace-trimmed drawers . I remember feeling light-headed , of course , terribly relieved , and then embarrassed for her to be seen by the crowd undressed . I was still embarrassed as we flew out the window , toward earth , me in her lap , her toes pointed as we skimmed toward the painted target of the fire fighter 's net . I know that she 's right . I knew it even then . As you fall there is time to think . Curled as I was , against her stomach , I was not startled by the cries of the crowd or the looming faces . The wind roared and beat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . I slowly wondered what would happen if we missed the circle or bounced out of it . Then I wrapped my hands around my mother 's hands . I felt the brush of her lips and heard the beat of her heart in my ears , loud as thunder , long as the roll of drums . 
##1002054 Beyond the Garden <p> He knew he wanted to taste to that fruit as badly as she did . On his own , he would have come round to it in time , terrified though he was by his father 's commands . But since her arrival , he had lost the habit of fetching his own food . Instinctively , it seemed , she gave him part of whatever fruits she picked for herself , till it came to seem instinctive in him to wait . ( Besides , he enjoyed watching her climb the trees . ) Very possibly , he admitted in the privacy of his heart , he had been waiting for that very fruit . <p> So from the moment he betrayed her to his father - the thundering , awesome voice that must come from an equally awesome shape , or shamelessness - he felt slightly ashamed , an unfamiliar , unwelcome feeling . Ashamed not of eating but of the telling . Of course his father would have found out ( he knew everything yet seemed to relish humiliating him by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shifty guilt each time he looked at her or touched her , a guilt more particular and acute than a vague , encompassing guilt he felt in his father 's presence . And she certainly did n't make things any easier : Docile acceptance was not in her nature , in the beginning , at any rate . She railed and stormed about loyalty , and said being a helpmeet worked both ways , he utterly failed to understand her being with him and all it implied .... Like his father , she had words at her command , piercingly direct words , and the more she spoke the worse he felt . <p> Well , let her complain . There were things she could n't begin to comprehend . What it was to have such a father , for one . How would she like to have awakened , all alone , to the sound of a voice that covered you like a tide , that could n't for a moment let you forget it was the source , that whatever you did and used and enjoyed came from his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was abundantly clear where she came from ( it was going a bit far , he thought sullenly , to remove his rib while he innocently slept - you 'd think a man could call his body his own ) , his ambiguous origins made him uneasy . That the voice was his father , everything 's father , was plain enough . Yet he was told too that he came from a handful of dust . Hardly reassuring to be made of dust . At the moments of his greatest strength , when he sported with the animals or swam across the stream , he would suddenly remember , Dust , and shiver with intimations of crumbling , dissolving . And could she feel how heavy a burden it was to live up to his father 's image ? For those were the cryptic words he must live by - made in his image - yet how could a creature of dust aspire to such grandeur ? By constant striving and self-discipline , that was how ; by measuring every action against the example of that mighty voice . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In her view , he worried far too much over his relation to his father . Why not concentrate instead on his relation to her , a notion that struck him as sacrilege . She just was n't important enough in the scheme of things , delightful as it might be to play with her and end up , more often than not , in an embrace . Did his father indulge in such lush joys ? Inconceivable . Well , it was one thing to yield briefly , which was no doubt what his father had intended , and quiet another to take it seriously : hardly in that sober image . <p> So he had heeded his father 's voice and told the truth , as he was taught to do ( if threats were a valid form of teaching ) , and they were cast out of the garden to a colder , craggier place , where he could never hear the voice approach without anxious trembling . They were poor , as warned , but the work did not trouble him - in truth , the idleness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to suspect he was made for more than leisure , that he had the resources to achieve something , perhaps great things . Look at all his father had done ! Surely if he was made in his image , he might accomplish something by his labor . If work was his curse he was prepared to endure it , even enjoy it . <p> He did n't grasp the nature of her curse until he saw it enacted . Here was no curse but a blessing . Of all the stupendous things , of all the examples of his father 's inventiveness , this was the most miraculous . She heaved and moaned and tossed while he , standing helplessly by , thought at first that it must be Death , so far only a baffling , dread word . At last , out of all her heaving , came another exactly like him . Her wails stopped immediately and she laughed in astonishment . But something nagged at his own astonished joy . Why had his father given this great power to her ? Could she possibly be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dust and she of firmer stuff ? As for the child , it had what neither of them had ever known , a mother . Everyone - father , wife , child , seemed more privileged than he , mere dust and motherless . All that distinguished him were his strength and his will to work . <p> The next year there was another like him , and he marveled anew . The others were like her ; perhaps for that reason he did not note them down in the records he had begun to keep , or perhaps it no longer seemed so miraculous . Besides , he began to have the discouraging feeling that they belonged more to her than to him , what with her carrying them and nursing them and the long hours spent in their company while he was at work . He sensed her gradually turning away from him and toward them . She still came to him when he wanted her , but not with exclusive attention ; it was possible she loved them more . And just as these thoughts came to trouble @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> It was he who discovered them , and who heard the older one saying those unimaginable , unforgivable words to the great voice , which thundered more terrifyingly now than when they had left the garden ages ago . When it finally withdrew , leaving him to gaze at his sons , on one defiant , confused , and ashamed , the other a mangled body on the grass , he understood he had lost them both forever . He grieved mightily , his first wrenching grief . He grieved , yet having known resentment and frustration , he saw dimly how a man might strike out with dumb force . <p> He grieved and mourned them both , but her grief was inconsolable . Once so lavish with words , now she had none to hold what she felt . Anger , spite , deceit , yes , she was familiar with many ugly things by now , but this was beyond her grasp . The life oozed out of her as it had out of the boy , though she still breathed and moved . She lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? she replied when he tried to rouse her . And seeing her grown older and sad beyond reach , he knew there would be no more children ; that power had left her , or else the will to use it . <p> No one remained but his daughters , who looked almost as she had when she first appeared . Up to this moment he had regarded them simply as tender children to take care of , who could help with the work when they grew strong enough . Now , with unease , he found himself watching as they moved through the house or the fields , precisely as he had once watched her , bewitched by every nuance of contour and movement . Would it be so very wrong ? It was nothing his father had specifically forbidden . On the contrary , had n't he ordered them to be fruitful and multiply ? <p> In time he bred a long line of sons and daughters , whose vices multiplied with their numbers . After her shock at the first brutal act , none of it surprised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but with mute disapproval . She did not often rebel at the way things went - but her silence was worse than her occasional open rebellion . Her silence haunted him , and her yielding , with its tacit skepticism , he found unbearable : His own skepticism was hard enough to bear . <p> Her silence cast it pall over the numberless projects absorbing his every waking hour . For his talent , he had discovered over many seasons , was for invention : He made machines - massive and powerful , delicate and intricate - that could perform miracles never dreamed of in the garden . Perhaps even his father had never dreamed of them , although that was hard to say : He was no longer in close touch with his father , speaking to him only with unavoidable , and in a perfunctory way . Strange to say , his father seemed content to do the same . <p> The machines could control the elements , channel water , cut through rock , and tear through sky . They were his whole delight , they swelled his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own body . He learned she had not accomplished that first miracle , ages back , no her own . She could never have done it without hi , . The discovery made him look on her with a kind of contempt , a satisfying contempt that eased his secret doubts and timidities . It was a relief to feel it , for he had been eaten by envy from the start , or at least from the moment he knew the shame of betraying her . Now the shame had found a safe casing ; it could be sealed in contempt like a bitter nut in its shell . <p> In his new arrogance , he was willing enough to cede to her the domestic sphere , so lacking in grandeur . But after much thought , he decided that even there , it was his part to invent the machinery and hers to operate it , under his guidance . Such an arrangement , he reasoned , was more or less similar to the way the babies were produced . It was , come to think of it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . How pleased he was to have solved the riddle of how to live up the image after all , and how laughably easy it was . The solution had been there all along - to treat her as his father had treated him . <p> His program worked in disconcerting ways , though , perhaps because he was not his father but only an image . He invented countless things to save her travail , but since he never attempted to use them , he found himself at her mercy - waiting for her to prepare his food and stitch his clothes , keep his worldly affairs in order and educate the children in his own image . From the largest matter down to the lowliest ice-cube tray , for instance , whose cubes he awaited for her to extract - he felt powerless . And exasperated , no matter how efficiently she went about her business . Indeed , the more efficient she was , the more he was exasperated . <p> There was only one thing to do . Tentatively , in secret , he approached the machines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ procedures . And he found that with practice and application , with patience of a sort he had believed , contemptuously , was patience of a sort he had believed , contemptuously , was alone and a slavish virtue , he was able to fend for himself , to handle his affairs as well as have food and clean clothes at his pleasure ; he could even wheel the babies in their carriages and teach them what they needed to know . By his own humble efforts he could do all manner of extraordinary things . <p> And thus Adam , though he would never free himself of the giant shadow of his father 's image , at least managed to free himself from the skills of Eve . Once this happened , she began to glance at him with a keener interest , for she too had long nursed a mute contempt for his theories , his evasions . She still could not countenance what he sanctioned in his sons , and she would never care much for his father 's treats and bravado , but since he was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ welcomed him , and grew spirited and beautiful once again . <p> Illustration ( The Fall of Man , 12th century Byzantine illumination ) <p> 
##1002058 This Thing Between Men and Women <p> " He said he 'd pay a dollar an hour , " my mother coaxes . " While Marie 's on her honeymoon , he just has to have some help with the store . " <p> " What about his other girl , what's-her-name ? " <p> " Oh Colleen could n't stay alone in the house with Sam while Marie is gone . It would n't be proper . She 's going home for the week , but she 'll be back when Marie and her husband come back . " <p> Sam 's girls are sisters , country girls he hired three years ago to cook and clean and help run the store . <p> " You mean Marie and her husband are going to live there too ? " <p> " Sam said it would only be temporary , until they can find a place . Besides , Marie 's husband is a sailor , so he 'll be gone most of the time . " <p> Sam is six-foot-three , three inches taller than my father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sam stands up straighter , though , and is not as bunchy around the middle . When Sam comes to see my father , they go to the basement and talk in hushed tones , sorting papers at my father 's desk . My mother wo n't let me go down there when they 're talking . <p> " Your father would be out of business if it were n't for Sam , " my mother reminds me . " He 's never been able to manage his affairs . Sam 's a good friend to help your father and if we can help him back somehow we should . " <p> " How is he helping Dad ? " I do n't discuss the business with my father anymore , not since I stopped going with him in the truck . <p> " Sam lent your father a lot of money , " my mother says . " The candy companies would n't sell to him anymore until he paid his bills . Sam 's your father 's partner now , but I do n't think he 'll make much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ruin him . " " Is Sam rich ? " <p> " He 's comfortable , " my mother pronounces the word carefully . " He has his store and his house , all paid for . And his car , a brand new 1959 Pontiac . " <p> I want to ask why Sam is doing this but I do n't . There is something doglike about Sam , with his brown eyes shining behind his glasses , his swarthy complexion , and his big hands covered with black hair . I 'm not sure I like him . When he says " I do n't got " instead of " I do n't have , " little shudders run down my back . <p> " A dollar an hour is good pay , " my mother urges . " That 's almost as much as Annette earns at Zeller 's . " <p> At fourteen and three-quarters , I 'm not old enough for a real job like Annette 's . Right now I have to babysit a whole evening for a dollar . <p> " Okay , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " <p> My first day at Sam 's store is a Friday , the day before Marie 's wedding . My father brings me over in the truck . <p> " This is a good opportunity for you , Nicole , " he says . " You can learn some valuable things about business if you pay attention . " I think of Sam and my father , talking in the basement . " But do n't tell anyone you 're under sixteen , " he says . " It 's against the law , and Sam could get in trouble . " <p> The truck farts and lurches down the street ; my father holds the steering wheel with both hands . His knuckles are red and puffy . I think of all the money he borrowed from Sam Dugas . <p> The store itself is only slightly larger than our living room ; I had expected something huge and extravagant . It is , however , meticulously clean , much cleaner than any of the stores I saw when I used to go with my father on his rounds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the tile floor gleams like Sam 's new Pontiac . <p> " You work the cash register like this , " Sam says , bending over me and pressing the small keys with his big fingers . He speaks with an Acadian accent like my uncles in Digby County do , thudding his th 's , as if his tongue is so thick and heavy he ca n't make it do what he wants it to do . His white shirt is open at the collar and his sleeves are rolled up . A faint smell of spicy cologne drifts over from his neck . <p> " When the kids come in to buy candy , watch them , " Sam tells me . " Sometimes they put things in their pockets " -- " tings , " he says , der pockets . " He looks down at me through the bottom half of his bifocals and winks , as if it 's a game to catch them at it . <p> I like Sam more today , I decide , watching him bustle around his store , adjusting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest . <p> " I got some business to take care of , I 'll be back later , " he tells me midmorning , and I wonder if he is going to see my mother . A few times times a week he parks his big white Pontiac right by the fire hydrant in front of our house . " I was just passing by and thought I 'd drop in and say hello , " he says , rattling the keys in his pocket and grinning like a porpoise . " Come in , come in , " my mother brightens , hurrying off her apron . " No , I ca n't stay , " he says , " I 'm parked in front of the hydrant . " <p> Sometimes he takes my mother for rides . My mother loves to go for rides , and we do n't go in the truck on Sundays anymore . " That big white Pontiac rides so smoothly , " my mother coos , " and it has air conditioning . It 's just like standing by the shore , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 're out they stop at Sunnyside for a lobster roll . My mother loves lobster rolls . Once I went along , just to see what it was like . It was boring . <p> From behind me , through the partially open door that leads to Sam 's house , I can hear two female voices . I look in now and then , curious to see the two sisters , one of whom is about to marry a sailor . I can tell right away which is the bride . She 's plump and has thick legs and thin , curly permed hair . Her sister looks at her with great cow-eyes . I wonder what it would be like to live in someone else 's house , cooking and cleaning , taking care of someone else 's store . <p> At noon Sam comes in for a few minutes -- " How are things going ? " -- then goes back out . The bride 's sister brings me an egg salad sandwich and a glass of milk . " If it gets right busy , just yell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Her hands are large , and a film of dark hair covers her arms . When she goes back into the house , she doses the door behind her . <p> All afternoon the customers come , in twos and threes . Little boys wanting a loaf of bread or a pound of baloney . Their hands hover over the penny candy , treading the air like hummingbirds . I hold them back with my eyes . The middle-aged women ask : " Are you the new girl ? " and smile and call me dear . <p> Then he comes in . He stares at me from the corners of the store until everyone else is gone . <p> " So , " he says , leaning a tanned arm on the counter . " Sam has a new helper . " <p> I nod . <p> " I 'm glad he decided to get a pretty one for a change , " he says , moving his eyes over me . The r 's on his tongue roll like a purr and the words , the strange way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ edges . <p> I lean back on my stool and shrug , giving him a closed-lip smile . <p> " What 's your name ? " he asks , leaning farther toward me . His hair and eyes are brown like chestnuts , and I am trying to figure out what he wants . Perhaps he has a gun and wants to steal the money in my register . <p> " Nicole , " I tell him , " What 's yours ? " That way I can tell the police later , if I have to . <p> " Steffan , " he says , smiling broadly , pleased that I asked . " Well little Nicole , do you have a boyfriend ? " <p> I fold my arms in front of my chest and lie : " Yes , lots of them . " <p> " Lots of them , " he repeats , rolling his eyes . " And do you let them kiss you ? " He says kiss as if it had five s 's , curling his lips forward as if he is kissing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " I tell him . <p> He laughs . Throws his head back and laughs from somewhere deep in his chest . His hands , resting on the counter , have long slim fingers . Piano hands , Mother Murphy at school would call them . " Oh you 're a frisky one , " he says , still laughing . " I 'll bet they have a good time with you . " <p> Two old ladies come in then , followed by a girl and her younger brother . Somewhere between wrapping a soup bone for the old ladies and helping the little boy pick out five cents worth of penny candy , I notice that he has gone . <p> In a little while , Sam appears . He unpacks a box of potato chips and rearranges the candy counter . <p> " How did things go ? " <p> " Fine . " I do n't tell him about the man . <p> The next day Sam meets me at the store wearing a dark blue suit . " The reception 's right after mass , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ready . " He smells intensely of cologne and fidgets with the cans of salmon and haddock . <p> The door to the house is still closed . I picture a table with a heavy white cloth , a tall wedding cake in the center , plates of dainty sandwiches surrounding it . And I imagine Colleen and Marie in some corner bedroom , Colleen zipping up the back of her sister 's wedding dress . I wonder what it would be like to be a bride , putting on clean underwear , hooking my stockings on to my garters on the morning of my wedding . <p> Around noon the room behind the door floods with thick rustlings and muffled voices . Sam pops into the store , and the door drifts open behind him . I catch a glimpse of Marie . Her face is pink and soft , and her eyes are shining . She looks pretty , I think , with her white dress and lacy hat . A man stands beside her -- it must be the sailor -- touching her elbow , her waist , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hair is short and blond -- I ca n't see his face . The back of his neck is red and pockmarked . <p> All afternoon the store is busy , people buying pork roasts and whole chickens for tomorrow 's big Sunday dinner . Sam puts a big white apron on over his suit and helps for a while , then goes back into the house . A lot of cars start up all at once , then the house gets quiet . <p> " Did you see Marie ? " my mother asks , when I get home . " Did she look nice ? " " Yes , " I say . <p> " Sam dropped by for a minute after they 'd all gone . He told me it went well . " <p> I picture Sam and my mother standing in the doorway , discussing Marie 's wedding . When my father comes home , my mother does n't mention that Sam stopped by . <p> On Sunday afternoon , Sam comes over to see my father . I watch them talking by the truck . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ground . Later they go down to the basement . <p> When Sam comes back up , my mother smiles , " It must be strange being all alone in that house , now that Marie and Colleen are gone . " <p> " Oh it 's not so bad , " Sam says . He leans toward her as he talks , the corners of his thick mouth fluttering foolishly . <p> On Monday afternoon the store is quiet . Around four o'clock , he comes in . He studies the labels on the soup cans until the woman with the two children leaves . <p> " And how is my pretty little Nicole today ? " he asks . <p> " I 'm just fine , " I answer . " But I 'm not your little anything . " <p> " Oh but I wish you were , " he says , leaning so far over the counter that I can feel his breath . I am suddenly aware that there is no one home next door . <p> " You 'd be so much more fun @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He looks at me smiling , inviting me to ask . <p> " Oh ? " I try not to look too interested . <p> " She 's around twenty , fiery like you but not as sweet . " He says sweet the way he said kiss the time before , holding the word in his mouth like a piece of hard candy . " She was nice for a while , but then she bit me . " He points to a bluish mark on his bottom lip . " Can you imagine that ? " <p> For some reason this strikes me as enormously funny . I start to laugh . <p> " You would n't do that though , would you ? " <p> I ca n't stop laughing . I look at the blue mark on his lip and the laughter ripples up and down my spine , my legs . <p> " Would you ? " His left eyebrow arches into a question mark . <p> At six , Sam comes back and closes the store for a while to take me home . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says . " I can save you that long bus ride . " <p> He opens the door of his Pontiac to let me in , then shuts it behind me . Inside it 's all red and smells of leather . Music bubbles softly from the radio and the car feels hushed and cozy , like the inside of a confessional . <p> " So how do you like working in the store ? " Sam asks . <p> " I like it fine . You were right about the little boys , though . " <p> " What do you mean ? " <p> " Their hands . You have to watch their hands . " <p> Sam laughs . His mouth falls open and his whole body jiggles . <p> " Your mother told me you 'd be a good worker and she was right . " He looks at me out of the corner of his eye to see my reaction . I think of my mother , sitting where I am sitting , next to Sam in all this cozy redness . It seems different today @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ My mother really likes your car , " I tell Sam . " She likes it when you take her for rides . " <p> Sam 's mouth twitches in pleasure . His eyes shine behind his glasses . " A woman as beautiful as your mother deserves some fun now and then . She 's a good woman to stand by your father during all his troubles . " I picture my mother standing beside my father . Then I see her where I am now , riding in the big white Pontiac , her voice tinkling like little bells . <p> The next few days are the same . My father and one of the boys bring me over in the truck . Sam pops in and out . At noon he brings me fish and chips from Willman 's . Late in the afternoon , he appears . When people come in he goes to the shelves and examines labels ; after they leave he leans on the counter and tells me things . <p> " Your eyes are the color of chicory flowers , " he purrs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your skin , so white , so delicious . " He shows me the pink tip of his tongue . Part of me wishes he would n't come . Part of me waits for him . <p> When Sam comes in , he slips out . <p> " What are you going to do with all your money ? " Annette asks me at supper . <p> " I do n't know yet . " <p> " If you want , I could buy some stuff for you at Zeller 's with my discount . I got a new lipstick today for only 26 cents . Normally , they 're 49 . " <p> Annette 's new lipstick is light pink , and when I try it on it looks nice . Later , when no one is looking , I slip into my mother 's room . I rub off Annette 's lipstick and put on my mother 's . It 's bright red . I study myself in the mirror for a few minutes , combing my hair one way , then another . Then I take two socks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my bra . I stare at the woman in the mirror . There 's a creaking noise on the stairs . I pull the socks out and wipe my mouth , feeling suddenly ashamed . <p> Friday is my last day . All day I feel restless and queer . Marie and her husband are back -- Marie comes into the store to get things : a bottle of Javex , a loaf of bread , a can of haddock . I watch her move around , bend and reach for things . A new bride . <p> Around four o'clock , he appears . I pretend not to notice him standing by the pop bottles watching me with his big eyes . <p> " I could take you for a ride tomorrow night , " he whispers . " We could go up to Citadel Hill , watch the sunset . " He opens his hand as if he is offering me something . <p> " I do n't think so , " I say . I have a sudden urge to tell him I 'm only fourteen and three-quarters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my mother , as if I were a prize he wanted to win . <p> " That 's so sad , " he says , the s 's curling out of his mouth like steam . <p> Just before closing time , Sam counts out $56 into my hand . " Make sure you keep it somewhere safe , " he says , winking . " I 'll drive you home , though , just in case . " I have never had so much money , all at once . I fold it in two and put it in my purse . <p> Outside , thick fingers of fog are rolling in from the harbor . <p> " It 'll be thick like chowder by nine , " Sam says . " We 'll hear the foghorns for sure tonight . " <p> We turn the corner onto Robie Street , and I see two sailors , each holding a woman by the hand . We stop for a light , and they cross in front of the car . One of the sailors puts his arm around the woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of fog surround them like tongues . I see his dark shape and the red of her dress . <p> Tomorrow , when he comes to the store , he will find me gone . He will wait by the meat case , pretending to study its contents , then buy a quart of milk , wondering if I 'm in the back room somewhere . A few days later , he will remark to Marie or Colleen , " That other one , does n't she work here anymore ? " " No , " they will say . " She was only temporary . " He will not ask where I live , and they will not tell him . <p> The street lights blink on suddenly , and the fog wraps itself around them , until they are muffled and dim , like secrets . Somehow I know I could have asked him for things , and he would have given them to me . <p> Illustration ( Groceries ) <p> 
##1002073 Waltz of the Fat Man Alvaro Rios , Alberto The Kenyon Review ; Summer 1991 ; 13 , 3 ; Research Library ## ALBERTO AL VARO RIOS WALTZ OF THE FAT MAN ices house trim was painted blue , good blue , deep and neat , with particular attention to the front door , that it should stand against spirits . He kept the house in repair , and hired a gardener in the three seasons , spring and summer , a little in autumn . In this place it was a gray wind after that , a time for planting things in the ground to save them , or to hide them . His personal appearance suffered nothing from the attentions to his house , as Noe kept on himself a trim mustache and a clean face , neat clothes for which he thanked Mrs. Martinez , patronizing her for a quarter of a century . From ironing his clothing , she knew the shape of his body more than he did , and for her consequent attention to detail in that regard he was appreciative ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moving a little to the left along his right leg , the minor irregularities and embarrassments . And he was doubly thankful as she never said a word to him about it . His was a body full of slow bones , after all , and Noe moved as if long fish swam in a small place . He did not think himself fat , but he felt himself heavy , in a manner he could not explain to anyone . His body to be sure was overweight , but he did not feel it to be something of the stomach or thighs ; rather , it was a heaviness that came from the inside out , manifesting itself to the world as the body of a fat man . On his best days , Noe could make that weight look like muscles . On his best days he could make his stomach go into his chest and his shoulders , and people would believe anything he had to say . Noe had a business as a butcher , but it was too much for him , a sadness cutting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , purely for social reasons . It was a civic service , and he wanted to do good things . But it was not a good choice , given what he desired , which was simply to be part of the town . To be sure , people patronized his shop , and took him up on his offer of extra services and niceties , but they did not finally stay very long to talk , not in the way they stayed for coffee and to warm themselves at the baker 's . He could see them in there , with their mouths open and their eyes rolling along a line of laughter . He could not say why the townspeople were like this , exactly . Perhaps it was his full size , or something about his looks , or about being the butcher in a ## 8 THE KENYON REVIEW town and being too good at his trade . But , the whole of his life was that no one cared much for him , or even spoke to him very much , and when he attended wakes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he left indentations in the kitchen linoleum , which would not go away . Noe knew that , though he tried not to be , in the people 's minds he was simply an irritation . In whatever part of the town he walked , people spoke behind their hands , and pointed when they did n't think Noe could see them . But his eyes were fat as well , and because of that he could see more . When Noe danced , he wore a blue suit , and was always alone , always at the same place outside of town , by the river reeds . He danced with the wind , which was also cruel like the women of the town , but the wind at least did not have a face . He locked the trunks of his arms with the branch arms of the black walnut trees , which also like the women of the town did not bend around to hold him , did not invite him to another , softer room . But neither could these arms of a tree leave Noe so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cruelly to the half-hot tongues of the weeds so that they might talk about him , and make their disapproving sounds . When he danced this dance he let out with a small noise his thin girl , which he kept inside himself . This is what had made him look fat , the holding in , the keeping in of the noise inside himself , his desire to freely speak his needs as a human being in the company of other human beings . This was his thin girl . And Noe would let her out and they would dance the dance of weddings into the night . Noe took to wearing his blue suit to the shop , because he thought he looked better . He did this in case someone would look at him , and think the better of him , think him something of a fine man after all . Then his plan of the blue suit grew into a great deal more , taking as he did the wearing of his suit as some small license . It was the license , he thought , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ imagined to be the secret work of a regular man in the company of a regular woman . When he shook the hands of women , he did so vigorously , hoping to see movement on their bodies , some small adventure to take his breath , some nodding yes , some quiet dance of the upper body . This first adventure of a man . His was a modest plan , and worked a little . The shaking of the hands was , however , the most Noe did . It gave to him so much , and he thought the ## intimate movements of a woman to be so loud , there in front of everybody , that he could go no further . But it is why Noe attended wakes so faithfully as well , sometimes as if they were the whole of his social life : how in comforting a bereaved wife he could -- properly and in front of everyone so that there was no question of propriety -- kiss her on the cheek . Even then , after the hour of praying for the deceased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time his moment was at hand , his attempt at kissing was a dizzied missing of the mark . His lips to the cheek were so clumsy and so fast that the kiss was more of something else , something not quite anything , something in keeping with his life after all . The butcher shop through the slow years began to change , as did Noe himself . He had taken up in his house the collection and caring of clocks , because , he said to himself , they had hands , and in so many clocks was a kind of heaven , a dream of sounds to make the hours pass in a manner that would allow him to open up shop again the next day . His nighttime dream became a daytime dream as well . He did not keep them , could not keep the clocks , finally , only at home . Along with Noe in his blue suit , the shop also began to find itself dressed differently , hung with clocks , first one , a plain dark wood , and then two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two hands for him . There was a blue clock . Cuckoos and 28-day , anniversary clocks to the side of the scale , large-faced numbers where once there had been letters in the sections of an illustrated cow . What Noe knew and did not say was that here was the anniversary Mariquita , the schoolhouse Mariette , Marina the singular blue , Caras with her bird tongue . Armida had hands that sometimes rose outstretched to the two and ten like the blessing arms of Christ , and sometimes lowered to the five and seven of desire , one hand shorter , in the act of beckoning him , a come here , Noe . A come here , I 've got something to tell you , Noe , come on , do n't be afraid . This was no butcher shop , the townspeople would say to themselves , not with clocks . One or two clocks maybe , but not so many as this . It would not have been so bad , except that he was the only butcher in town , and people had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opened as to whether or not there was perhaps a law , some ordinance , prohibiting such abuses of the known world , but no one could find any reference that applied to the walls of a butcher shop , other than cleanliness . And of that , there could be no discussion . Noe did not neglect the clocks , and therefore did not neglect the whitesheeted bed of his walls . I0 THE KENYON REVIEW One evening in winter as Noe was closing up his shop , having wound the clocks for the night and having left just enough heat in the stove that they would not suffer , he heard the blue clock falter . So much like a heartbeat had the sounds of the clocks come to be for him , that he was alarmed and stumbled in his quickness to reach the clock , though it could not move and was not falling . It called to him nonetheless as a wife in pain might call to her husband : honey , it said , please . He reached it too late , he thought , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at himself . He tried winding the clock again , thinking the unthinkable , that perhaps he had missed its turn in his haste to leave . But that was not it : the spring was taut , and there was no play . He took it down from its nail , and looked at it from different angles in his hands , but he could see nothing extraordinary . There was no obvious damage , no one had dropped it without telling him and rehung it , no insect had been boring into its side . Its blue was still blue , without blemish . He took it to the counter and measured out some butcher 's paper in which to wrap it , deciding that he would take it home to see to its difficulty . He put string around it and made a good blanket of the paper , which should comfort , he always said , what was inside . As he picked it up he could hear the workings move , and he resolved to be wary of its delicacy . He need not have done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were his own mother . He put the clock in the crook of his arm , closed and locked his door , took a deep breath in the cold air , hunched his shoulders and began his walk toward home . He had errands , but they could wait . And he was , in any event , the last of the merchants to close for the evening , so he would have been out of luck anyway . Save for the clock , this was how his evenings most often came to an end , the closing of the door and the walk toward home . An occasional voice greeted him , and he returned the hello , but it was the conversation of single words , friendly enough , and that was all . Some theorized later it was the soldiers who were common in those days and who hung around with nothing better to do , that it was they who had been paid , because they never did anything for nothing , but would do anything for something , those soldiers from that kind of army . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which any charges could be drawn , in much the same manner that nothing could be legally said about what Noe had done to his butcher 's shop . You get back what you give , someone was later reported as having said , someone but not anyone in particular . That 's how it was told to the captain of the police . ALBERTO ALVARO RIOS I I Noe was walking home with his package , which no one could have known was the blue clock . No one but perhaps the soldiers , and only then if they had been nosy enough to have been watching through his window , which had been recently broken and was full of cardboard patches , easy enough to hide behind . The package 's aspect was of a ham or a roast of some sort , a good rabbit , something simple and natural in the arm of a big man walking home to dinner . Darkness had set and the moon was new . He cast no shadow and made his way quickly as he left the last of the downtown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resembling something closer to a woody mulch , and through him passed a moment of gardens from sometime in his life , gardens he had passed through , or that his mother had kept . It was a simple feeling , and brought a prickling to his skin . He next passed by the stand of walnut trees and wild oleander which was white-flowered in the summer . The oleander called to him , Noe . At first it was so quiet he said to himself he did not hear it , Noe . Noe , the oleanders said , louder this time , and he stopped to look . Though it was dark and the moon was hidden , he was not afraid . His size was such that he had never been made to be afraid , not at a moment like this . It was , if one could read his face , a curiosity , this sound which was reminiscent of his name . It was like the mulch and his mother 's garden , and it gave him a prickling of the skin once more . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and turned to it , saying who was there , what did they want , that perhaps he could be of some service . No one answered , so he reached his free hand into the leaves and moved them around . He heard the sound and then saw what seemed like , in the dimness , a rabbit , running into the underbrush . Ha , he said , and let it go . He turned again to walk , pulling his coat back up onto his neck . Noe . It was a whisper , this time he was sure . Not a voice , but more of a breath . A half-breath , but unmistakable in its enunciation . As a child , Noe might have crossed himself , and as he was sometimes his own mother , he had the impulse , but he just stood there , once more . He put down the clock in order to enter the oleander more fully , and see what was what , but he found nothing , only branches and the small noises of startled birds and lizards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ package , though he concentrated with his eyes and with his hands . It was not there . A voice whispered once more , Noe . You know me , it said , you know who I am . Noe no longer moved around . He listened , and he waited . Noe . He did know the whisper . He had in fact heard it many times . He knew the whisper more than the voice of his neighbor , whom he had seen a thousand times . I2 THE KENYON REVIEW He would not have believed any of it had this not been the blue clock . Marina his blue , who had made so many places for herself in his life . Not big places , but so many , her hair color on the trim of his house , the color of her eyes in his suit , and so on . She was the blueness inside him , the color of his appetite , the color both of what filled him and what he needed more of . Marina , he said . Noe . He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Noe did not answer . You can love me if you love me like a horse , said the whisper . Can you be a horse , Noe ? Can you show me how you are a horse ? Noe stood there , quietly . He stamped his foot , gingerly at first , unsure and sure at the same time . Is that it , Noe , is that all the horse you are ? Noe stamped his foot harder , and made a noise with his nose , and partway through his mouth . Yes , Noe . And are you more of a horse still ? If this were anything but his blue clock , Marina , he would have gone , and given the moment up as the ghosts of this place . Or children , or who knew what . But he could not . And then he heard the laughter of the soldiers as they could no longer contain themselves camouflaged so well otherwise in the oleanders . He heard the laughter , but did not bother with it . He turned and went home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home once before , from his family . He had to . One thing and another , right or wrong , these things did n't matter . It was simply too much to stay . He had in some manner become an exponent to a regular number . He was ordinary times ten or times twenty , always too much . And his desire carried an exponent as well . He wanted everything to be nice , to be only the Golden Rule , but times ten , and that is too much . He had no sense of himself , and yet he was everything . In that sea of mathematics he had drowned a sailor 's death . And now he had to go away again . The tide had come up , and caught him once more . He sold what was left of his business at a loss finally to Mr. Molina , who had a scarred face and who wanted to do the work . There was an art in the cutting , and it took Noe , because he was a courteous man , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Molina , who had had no idea there was so much . ## And that same night Noe bought a brown horse and rode it as far into the following days and weeks , as far into the future as he could because he could not wait to see what was there . He arrived at the circus , and in it he made his life again . But he almost did not make it . A man and a sparrow ? each puts a shoulder to the wind , each to his own intention : a sparrow to fly , a man to run . Noe on this night was in between , and even with his weight he felt himself lifted , as if he were in league with angels at the edge of heaven , not quite deserving , but sneaking in with some help through a back door , hoping to go unnoticed again , as he had felt when he had come to this town . But it was not heaven , these places . He stopped because the circus people were the first to wave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as if this were the place , and they knew him , and they had been waiting , and what took him so long , had he not heard them calling into the night for him . But they had called him without telegraph or telephone . Something stronger . His mustache curled up from the wind and his body , which had sometimes seemed fat , was hardened , tense in that moment from the cold which had made him hold his breath and flex his muscles for the whole distance of the ride . He arrived as a beast , almost , something crazed and unshaven , out of breath . Or as a beast on top of a man , as if the horse itself was more human , and asking for help . His was a body full of slow bones still , but if it had taken his lifetime up to now to be slow , now the other foot was coming down , and it was fast . It was the other half of himself now , for the rest of his years . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in that moment of dust kicked up and of noise , he began his real career , this life with a whole company of half-size men , two-bodied women , and all the rest of the animals who danced . 
##1002156 It was a dark and stormy night . The wind howled about the lofty eaves of the stately mansion belonging to the only descendant of the fabulously wealthy banker-industrialist , the late G. B. Cashcrammer . Could we but peer into the mind of the aforementioned heiress this foul evening , we might see it in a very agitated state . The lady in question nervously paced the parqueted floor of the drawing room , stopping periodically to tilt her ashen face and to cock her delicate shell-pink ear , to listen , as it were , for some wildly anticipated sound amidst and engulfed in and under but separate somehow from the muffled drumming of the rain and the sibilance of the wind in sonorous polysyllabic tribulation . At last it came : the insistent clamor of the downstairs doorbell . She quit the drawing room , quickly gliding through a dark hallway hung with rich tapestries and draperies of deep purple , and breathlessly descending the stairs , she flung open the massive oaken door . It was he , his modest roadster parked in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the red feather that she loved so well . " Hullo ! " he called cheerily . " Darling ! Come in , my poor darling ! " He swept off the hunting hat , exposing a great leonine head which under ordinary circumstances would have been luxuriantly hirsutulous , but the thick wavy mane , unfortunately , now hung limp and wet about his face , spoiling his entrance . She , however , seemed not to notice in the least , but flung her creamy white arms about him and covered his wet face with kisses . The face belonged to her lover , the impossibly gifted but penniless Ernest Penn Wielder . " Judith ! Judith ! Judith ! " he murmured , chucking her small , stubborn ivory chin playfully and tenderly . After a longish interlude of breathless passionate kisses , they ascended the stairs arm in arm , once again traversed the dark hallway hung with tapestries of deep purple , and emerged once more into the cheery coziness of the luxuriously appointed drawing room , where a roaring fire blazed in the great marble @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , its blue metal barrel glinting in the firelight -- a loaded rifle . They stood before the fireplace in silence , each drinking in the delicious presence of the other . Then her mood turned dark . " Ernest , we must n't . . . we must n't break it off or do anything rash until we 've explored every avenue , " she said ambiguously . " Is there a viable solution ? " he responded ironically . " Judith , I 'm leading a life of quiet desperation without you . " He moaned . " Why , why , must your father have stipulated in his will that you would be cut off without a cent if we married ? " " Married each other , " she corrected . " Darling , I 've told you , he could never bear literary people . " " Oh ! " he shot back angrily . " I feel we are somehow caught in a web of good and evil ! " " Yes , yes , I , too , feel that paradox . But there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mere formula . " " We have experienced total alienation , with no shock of recognition , no moment of truth , no catharsis , no redemption , no salvation to bring about final regeneration and peace . " She looked at him helplessly . " So I 'm leaving , " he declared abruptly . " Show me to the door ? " " Oh , I could n't possibly go back through that purple passage again , " she groaned . " No ? Then I 'll go alone . " " Oh , darling , please do n't leave me , " she remonstrated pleadingly . " Is n't there something we can do ? " There was a caesura . He reached into the inner breast pocket of his tweed jacket and pulled out his plot wheel . He studied it , gave it a few twirls , then threw it disgustedly into the fire . " I 'm afraid we are hopelessly trapped in a world we never made . " " Haunted by a house we never built . " " Without a room of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " she repeated emphatically . " You have found the right word and not its second cousin . " " Thank you . " His inflexible jawline softened in the firelight . " Do you remember how we met ? " " Darling , how could I ever forget ? That rainy day -- bumping into each other in Brentano 's -- while browsing the same bookshelf -- you with an armload of books . . . . You dropped them ? " " Yes , and ? " " ? and I helped you pick them up . Our eyes met . Do you remember ? " " Yes ? " " ? and afterwards at the little tea room next door -- we dashed over in the rain -- and spent the whole afternoon ? " " ? discussing ? " " Carl Jung ! " she interposed . " And indulging in gay repartee . And I found out that you lived in the middle of a writers ' block in Greenwich Village . And when the rain stopped I invited you up to my townhouse for cocktails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and yes you said yes I will Yes . But then you came to your senses like the gentleman you are and vowed you would never use your poetic license to go beyond the boundaries of good taste with me ? " " Those are my lines , " he interjected , suddenly angry . " You are shifting the point of view to yourself . I wo n't let you ! " " I 'll shift the point of view if I bloody well want to . " " No , you wo n't ! " " Oh , really ? " she queried . " Watch me . " There was a pregnant caesura . " Well , show me , do n't tell me . Do something . Give a gesture . " " Why ? " " Because actions reveal character . " " Oh , you and your Aristotle and your Krapp 's English ! " she expostulated bitterly . " Sometimes I think Father was right ! " At the mention of her detested forebear , he lost his head , and anger blinded his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her furiously . " Darling , we 're quarreling . Ernest , why must you do this ? " she queried gutterally . " Because , " Ernest countered earnestly , " we must earn our climax . " She broke away . " It 's no good , darling . You should never have thrown away your plot wheel . " He stared at the mantle as if he had not heard her . She drew herself up to her full stature . " It 's all over , " she opined . " Opined ! That does it ! " he ejaculated , and strode to the fireplace . ( They had moved away from their former positions near the fireplace in their frantic struggle . ) He took down old Colonel Bayard Cashcrammer 's bayoneted Rebelbloodstained , dark , war-scarred firearm from its time-honored position . ( It may seem strange to the uninitiated reader that there was a rifle over the fireplace of the elegant drawing room , but that , dear reader , was the Cashcrammer way . ) " What are you going to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I am going to fire it at you , " he reiterated patiently . Her hands flew to the white column of her throat . " But why , why , must you fire it ? " she pursued . " Because , " he rejoined hoarsely , his voice half-choking on the words , " because it 's there . " 
##1002169 From Farewell to Ogres Imbuga , Francis Literary Review ; Summer 1991 ; 34 , 4 ; Research Library ## FRANCIS IMBUGA From Farewell to Ogres Scene One ( Excerpt ) Dawn , at the shrine of the god of rain , now turned into an asylum for the mentally tired , or active ; for a small fee . Downstage centre is a grass-thatched hut . To stage right of the hut , standing on an anthill with her back turned to us , is Kadesa , priestess of the shrine . To a well-synchronized accompaniment of drums and other musical instruments , particularly the flute , Kadesa holds communion with her god in a private language . The prayer is suddenly interrupted by Mude 's entry . The drums and the flute gradually stop . There is brief silence before Kadesa turns to address the intruder . KADESA : I see a thing dressed like a man . I feel the cold blood of an ogre in my presence and I ask myself , what does it want ? What is this thing doing above the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ god of lunatics , I have not come to play games . If I were you , I would obey the orders from above , abandon this shrine and save the face of my god with a dignified retreat . KADESA : Orders from above ? Did I hear you say orders from above ? Mude , it is a foolish bat that thinks because it sees at night , God was thoughtless to create the light of day . Orders from above indeed . Where is above to you ? Where is above for a burrowing mole ? MUDE : It is three seasons now since the last sky-water touched the soil of our land . Dry thunder tears the sky as our crops and animals shrink from the sun 's rays . But Kadesa stands here , still praying for sky-water . When , Kadesa ? When will your god answer your prayers ? I say your god abandoned you the day you began giving shelter to lunatics at this shrine . KADESA : Christians pray for rain , Moslems pray for rain , even your fellow ogres pray @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these shall we blame when the rains fail ? Names . What of names ? You call us lunatics , we call you ogres . Who is to blame for these names we hurl like spears at each other ? MUDE : This was a sacred shrine once . A place of prayers and prayers alone . Your old man communed with his god and our prayers were answered . Famine was unheard of in this land . But that was before you came . ## From Farewell to Ogres ? Imbuga ## KADESA : That was before you became ogres . That was before you killed him . MUDE : That was before he died . And if I were you , I would not open old wounds . KADESA : You fear flies , is that not so ? MUDE : Flies ? What flies ? KADESA : When old wounds are opened , will flies not come for the feast ? MUDE : I do n't know what you are talking about . It seems you too are as crazy as your patients . That is why your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was meant to be sacred ground , but you have now turned it into a sanctuary for lunatics and other delinquents . Creatures that talk faster than they think . Or do you deceive yourself that we do not know who visits you in the thick of night ? KADESA : Mude , pastor and messenger of ogres , your feet are indeed on sacred ground . Do not invite the wrath of my God in broad daylight . This is a shrine of life , blessed with the air of healing . I can not turn away those whom your masters have made sick . They come during the day and they come at night , but they do not come stealthily . No , they do not come secretly , as is the practice where you have come from . Save your time and mine . Tell me what your masters wish to tempt me with , this time . MUDE : Their patience is running out . My masters will no longer sit and watch as the people 's thirst threatens to snatch the ground from under their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such vast natural resources to waste . You must heed their word and prepare to move peacefully to another sight . KADESA : Spittle in the sand . MUDE : What ? KADESA : Your masters ' threat is spittle in the sand . Is it the lack of rain or my patients they are worried about ? Go tell them that my patients and I will not play scapegoats in their game of hate . Go tell them that their troubles are not from the sky above . Go tell them that their troubles are not a thing that the passing wind merely picked along the way . Go tell them that they sowed their tribulations in the soil of their people and manured it with their own actions . Go remind them that a man who refuses to listen in life will not hear dirges of honor on his deathbed . ## MIDE : And who do you suppose is on his deathbed ? KADESA : That is not for me to say , I am a mere mortal . Yet I must tell you that I know the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . MUDE : Come Kadesa , everyone knows your roots and leaves lost their potency the day your husband died . Your husband was the medicine itself . KADESA : I can only speak , but I can not force my words into your ears . The ears of the mighty are small . That is why you and your masters have failed to answer my question : who between us defecates before our forefathers ' eyes ? I who shelter the sick and tired from their kith and kin or you who invite ogres from the north to dig up your forefathers ' graves and bare their bones ? What did he hire the strangers for ? MUDE : They are not strangers . They are helpers , friends who have come to construct a new shrine for the god of rain . They are here to lay pipes that will carry the anticipated sky water from the mountain down to the people . That is why you and your rain scouts must prepare to vacate this site before the sunset of the day after tomorrow . ( Musical instruments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doubt that your masters have the power to enlist the services of their friends from up north . Only let them remember that no one here nor up north knows the skies as well as my twin scouts whom you have blindfolded and tied their hands behind their backs . Only their father before them could listen to the whispers of the wind and tell what secrets it shared with the clouds above . Only my twin scouts know the pregnancy of each and every cloud in the sky . Free their hands and eyes if it is rain you want . They are innocent . MUDE : Of course they are innocent , Kadesa . Who said your twins are guilty of anything ? The only reason they are being held is for their own protection against the wrath of the people . The people know that your twins are partly responsible for this drought . And their decision not to defend themselves over this matter is not helping them either . KADESA : So my twins are not guilty of anything , yet you want them to defend themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no contradiction . A father is not expected to apologize to his children every time he makes a slight mistake . KADESA : Four months away from here , from me and the presence of their God , and you still call it a slight mistake ? Mude , go deceive some other person . What is it you fear about my twins ? Why do you people From Farewell to Ogres ? Imbuga ## keep harassing me over this matter of sky-water knowing well that it is not the real reason for your panic ? Speak Mude , what is it you people fear about my twin scouts ? MUDE : Your twin scouts will be set free as soon as arrangements for their safety are made . We have no reason to hold them any longer if they agree to move to another sight . The people want you to move quickly so that you give the scouts from up north a chance to search the skies for water . In fact , the new scouts are said to have already spotted skywater sitting on the horned mountain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do not split my sides with laughter ! Since when has the gift of sky-water been snatched from our creator 's goodwill ? Why this sudden impatience with our own ways ? Why these naked lies about the drought and my twin scouts ? Will you and your masters devour your own brood for temporary pleasure and satisfaction ? Because you have found new lips to pray for you ? MUDE : You can still pray for rain if you so wish . But you will have to do it somewhere else , not here . ( Musical protest . ) KADESA : You and your masters are mad . You have been bewitched . Somebody has conspired with your shadows and turned your heads into watermelons . When we get our water direct from above , we drink it and our tongues know it is water they have tasted . Now you say your masters and their friends have found alternative water from the mountain up north . Whose is it ? Do they know what abomination , what impurities they bring into their people 's water-pots ? Go tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tell them to open their eyes and look in the direction of tomorrow . Tell them to open their eyes and look in the direction of our neighbors , all our neighbors . We are the only ones left , and we shall not make the same mistake . Do they want to return our lives into the hands of ogres so soon ? MUDE : I am only a messenger , Kadesa . I can not now enter my master 's head and answer your questions for him . KADESA : Go tell him to speak to the god of rain , if he has the tongue to do so . I have no more to say . Besides , it is time to save lives and not to think of death . My patients will soon be here . You better make way . ( Sudden barking of dogs . ) MUDE : That will be them . KADESA : Them ? Who ? MUDE : The new rain-scouts . Sometimes they use dogs to smell the rain . They call it technology . ( Kadesa splits the air @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indeed ! My sons should have been here to hear that . So the water which your masters want to bring to our people has a smell ? MUDE : Well , I said it is technology , and you ca n't always question these things . I say the happy end to the current drought here will justify the means . ( Bizia , one of Kadesa 's patients , rushes in excitedly . ) BIZIA : Big mother , strangers ! And what a big fool Matia is ! ( Mude retreats , finds a place and sits with his back to the audience . ) Who is he ? KADESA : Mude , a messenger from the palace . BIZIA : ( still excited ) Mude ? What a foolish name . Well , what does he want here ? This is no place for strangers . How are we expected to make rain with strangers snooping around ? KADESA : We do n't make rain Bizia , we pray for it . BIZIA : It 's no good praying to our God with such , such . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here ! KADESA : Bizia ! Come here . Look me in the right eye . What do you see ? BIzIA : I see me , Big mother . KADESA : Good , now watch your tongue , lest you abuse yourself . And stop trembling like a female mosquito . What kind of strangers are you fleeing from ? BIzIA : A man . A hooded man with a woman who . . . well , with a wife . KADESA : A wife ? BIZIA : I do n't know . Yes , a wife , I think . She is heavy . Very heavy , and he is ashamed of it . . . I think . And they are coming this way , led by Matia . I told you he is a fool . KADESA : And who is looking after the other patients ? BIZIA : Well , I will rush back . But I had to come and report . We must do something , Big mother . We must stop them . It is taboo , is n't it ? I mean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , can we ? KADESA : Perhaps they are merely passing by . BIZIA : Merely passing by ? Big mother , I know a dangerously pregnant woman when I see one . I tell you , her time has come . Her time is here . KADESA : Then go and help them to bring her here . BIZIA : What ? Here ? From Farewell to Ogres ? Imbuga ## KADESA : Yes . She is sick . BIZIA : Sick ? Who said she is sick ? She is pregnant ! And this is Holy ground . KADESA : Go and help the others to bring her right here ! BIZIA : Me ? Now this is getting too far . KADESA : ( shouting ) I said go and help the others to bring her over ! ( They stare at each other briefly . Bizia turns and exits . Mude turns and speaks to Kadesa . ) MUDE : The young man was right you know . This is sacred ground . KADESA : Sacred ground , yes . This shrine is for life , not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ song of life. ) 
##1002171 From Up from the Lake , an Autobiographical Account George , Michael T Literary Review ; Summer 1991 ; 34 , 4 ; Research Library ## MICHAEL T GEORGE From Up from the Lake , An Autobiographical Account BUT AUNTY REFUSED TO BE CONSOLED . She silently wept away her grief . This was the second time in her short married life she had shaken hands with grief . So why must she not weep ? The first time had been two years ago . At that time , she had a very beautiful girl of about three , her firstborn . It was at that time that she had started her career as a teacher for the Catholic mission . Then , they had been living with her parents in the same town ( or , more correctly , village ) . The missionaries used to give them gifts on every public Christian feast day . The gifts took the form of bales of clothes or , sometimes , loads of other very basic amenities . Anytime she got these gifts Aunty would dole them out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ morning , two years ago , she had received some Easter gifts of clothes and several cartons of tinned butter oil . As she usually did , she shared them out to all and sundry . One of her uncles came a bit too late . As a result he missed getting any " supply . " He then went up to her and , in the hearing of several others , proclaimed , " So , woman , you counted me out of your precious bounty , eh ? " Aunty could n't believe that she had failed to give this man some of the gifts . But before she could make an answer , or even try to make amends , he went on , " As if I should n't eat butter oil ! Anyway , I want no more of it . But be sure that you shall pay for this insult . My wrath , once awoken , can not be easily cooled ! " As if he were the Almighty himself ! He then strutted to his house . One of the women present , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a great king of darkness ? greatly feared for Aunty , but when she voiced this , Aunty made light of it . Two days elapsed after this episode . Suddenly , on the night of the third , Yema , Aunty 's three-year-old , took to bed with a high fever . All attempts at herbal curation only ended in bringing the child back lower than square one . Upon this Aunty took her to the nearest clinical post , Sumbuya , about ten miles away . Her feet had barely touched the hospital threshold when the child fell into a coma , sweating profusely . The nurse in charge immediately administered an injection , but the drug flowed out as soon as the needle was withdrawn ; nothing would make the drug stay in Yema 's body . The nurse then had to resort to tablets and syrups , all of which the patient threw up instantly . Failing all attempts at even initial medication , the hospital staff found it pointless to admit their new ## patient . Thus Aunty had to go back . It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night . And since she could catch no vehicle , a kindly priest going that way offered her a ride back . About two miles from their destination a loud clanging of bells was heard and a great shadow hovered over the vehicle . With the sound of mighty wings flapping , the shadow disappeared and , simultaneously , the car 's engine went dead , violently throwing the vehicle into sinister darkness . A shudder went down Aunty 's spine as a sound between a gasp and a sigh escaped the child . The priest strangled a curse , murmuring in its stead a prayer , to which Aunty replied " Amen . " Torch in hand , the priest examined the engine and , finding nothing amiss , tried to restart it . But it coughed , sputtered and died out again . No amount of coaxing could bring it to life . Another shiver went through Aunty 's frame and the priest 's face was bathed in cold sweat . He cursed violently and asked Aunty to accompany him in singing a canticle . In their song they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ muster , while Aunty interspersed them with saints of her own making , such as Mbavai , Kokatoa ( her great forefathers ) and several others , for , she said , it was not only Europe that could brew saints . Once again the priest kicked the starter and this time , it came true . The lights shone brightly . As they resumed their journey strange nocturnal catcalls and whistles rent their vigil . As they neared the village the strange shadow resumed its hovering . Letting the engine run under remote control , the priest wanted to see the creator of the shadow . So he stepped out lightly . But it vanished again . This time the engine gave a low-pitched whine , spurted thrice , but before it could fall silent , the priest struck a benediction . The engine responded loudly and clearly . When she reached home , Aunty sat in grave meditation , interrupted only by a chuckle from the child . A heavy wind blew , and a rustle of twigs was heard overhead , followed by a loud bellow and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and convulsions seized her . At about an hour to dawn a faint hooting of owls was heard . Soon a flock of these heralds of darkness alighted upon Aunty 's roof . Instantaneously her uncle 's threat flashed through her mind and she rushed to his house . With a loud moaning she woke him up , " Oh Uncle . . . " she started sobbing . As if he had been expecting her , he answered drowsily . " It is now already too late to do anything . The child 's fate was decided yesterday . I am sorry to say I can not help in any way now . " His voice had a mocking edge to it . Oh vile witchery ! Envy it is ! What uncle that will not forgive his niece 's misconduct ? Oh woeful day ! " Name your price , uncle . But spare my child , my firstborn child , " she wailed . " Oh Aunty . . . oh-oo-oo-oo ! " The fearful shriek from Gaardie , Aunty 's ward , pierced her heart like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lake ? George ## home and was just in time to perceive the last breath leave Yema ' s nostrils . The child let her head roll , no longer of this world . An intensive calm then befell the entire village . Rain clouds immediately blurred the horizon . But the drops would not fall . They held in their place as if regarding the macabre spectacle vilely sacred . Suddenly , as if upon a cue , the whole village burst forth in lamentation . The funeral dirges of all sorts were uttered in a thunderous heart-melting outcry . Everyone , from the oldest grandsire to the littlest child , wailed . Some cried from a feeling of genuine sympathy , some in mockery , and some from wicked ghoulish satisfaction . Oh Yema , pride of Tisa 's soul and apple of Aunty 's doting eye ... oh thou art turned corpse today . Fare thee well . If ever a mortal played a hand in thy demise leave him to the Great Avenger , the Almighty . Trouble not his sleep nor haunt any of his activities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a place for me for , lo , I am in thy wake . Large flocks of various nocturnal birds of prey joined the hooting owls , all making music in their various tongues , bidding adieu to the departed soul . An old woman commented to Aunty that the presence of these winged mourners boded no good . Therefore , she thought it wise for Aunty to leave this town immediately , even if for only a few days . Aunty might have rejected this piece of advice , but she had now had warnings once too often . In fact , some two hours after the burial , Aunty 's young baby boy started shrieking violently and crying much as if he were beholding some strange sight . His temperature rose suddenly . Aunty realized that her enemy , whoever that was , had just begun his vile job of murdering her innocents . She , therefore , prevailed upon Tisa to gather their few belongings , and they fled the town in the priest 's car . The nocturnal birds escorted them to the accompaniment of hoots and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four miles distance . That was what drove them from her home , and a home indeed ! Quaint it was , was n't it ? Recollections of this particular episode had always plunged Aunty into a morose mood . Tisa 's arrest had come as the second major unhappy occurrence in her otherwise serene life . Why , therefore , must she not weep ? 
##1002172 The Search for the Gold Finger Okafor , Chinyere Literary Review ; Summer 1991 ; 34 , 4 ; Research Library ## CH1NYERE OKAFOR The Search for Gold Finger OKEKE , OKAFOR , OBAZE , OSAZUwA , all were lined up in the presence of Chief Igbinovia , the security agent . " Doctor Okeke , sit down , " ordered the Chief . " Which of you took Dr. Okeke 's ring ? " he quickly added . None of the suspects moved or said anything . The chief sat down , brought out a file from the drawer , opened it and started writing . Actually , he was not using the file . He was pretending to be busy by sketching one of the faces in front of him . Okafor started squeezing his fingers and balancing his weight on each leg in turn . Osazuwa and Obaze were immobile with their eyes focused straight ahead . Suddenly the chief looked up , and shouted : " You ! You ! ! You look like a thief ! ! ! " " I am not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I did not say that you are a thief . I said that you look like one . See , see ! Your eyes are too sharp , like the eyes of a seasoned pickpocket ! ! " " I am not a pickpocket . I no be small boy . I don old , " defended Okafor , a man of about twenty-five years who looked considerably older . To augment his defence , he added , " I get wife . I am married with children so my eye don old , no be small pickin im eye . " The way this illogical argument was delivered in a mixture of pidgin and standard English could have evoked laughter in a less serious situation , especially as the young old-man ended his speech by balancing his body on his two legs for the first time since he entered the room , as if to dare anybody to challenge the logicality of his point that was not clear . The chief resumed his paperwork . After a while , the chief resumed his intimidation tactics . " You ! " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other . " You ! You are given an honest job by the government ! ! You betray the trust by stealing ! ! ! If somebody is working in your Mamma 's house and you lose your finger , will you give that person a job again ? " He did not give anybody a chance to comment before he quickly added , " That is how you betray the trust . " As he stood up , he said , " I do not have more time to waste on you . If you have swallowed it , the X-ray will show it ! Full stop ! ! " It was Osazuwa who spoke up this time : " As I never shit today , I think the X-ray fit show everything . Me I never eat since morning . I never steal for my life . My Christmas salary . . . I fit sacrifice am . " " Wetin you go do with your Christmas salary ? " asked the chief scornfully . " My money . Mmh . I be Bini man - o . I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finish the sentence but squeezed his face in such a way that the big scars on his face assumed different shapes , his mouth curved downwards towards the chin and his eyes buldged , especially when he prolonged the word " go " for emphasis . " I ## be bini man - o , " he stressed before continuing . " I go use my salary find the head of this finger , a be na ring . I go do am . " " You go consult juju eh ? " asked the chief scornfully . " I go find di person who hold the finger , a bi na ring . Me , I go find am . " From his quiet corner , Dr. Okeke said , " When you find out , all I want is my ring . My college ring . I left the rank and glamour of my position in the army to study and wear that ring . Now somebody is going to sell it for chicken ten naira or so . " " Which of you came out last from that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again to extricate himself from guilt . " We were not working in Dr. Okeke 's office , Osazuwa and me . It was only Obaze who was working there . " " So you did not enter the room ? " " We entered , " replied Okafor , " but it was only to assess the faulty air conditioner . " " Dr. Okeke was with us that time . " He added facing Dr. Okeke , whom he asked , " Oga , you entered your office with us and Obaze was there when we left . " " I leave una - o . I go wash my hand - o . I be strong Christian - o , " shouted Obaze . " Shut-up ! All the atrocities in this country are committed by Christians and Muslims . A pagan has never ruled this country , " declared the chief who quickly queried Obaze , " How you go wash your hand when you never finish work ? " " I just dey wash like that . " " Like wetin ? " asked the chief @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too much , so I just dey wash small small as I dey work . " The chief was begining to get the hang of it all . If the two , Okafor and Osazuwa entered together with the doctor , assessed something and left , then the one who stayed longest had the best opportunity of finding and taking the ring . However , it would not take a thief who knew his onions much time to pinch a golden ring from a reading table . The chief then decided to change tactics . " Dr. Okeke , how much does that ring cost ? " " I bought it for one hundred and twenty dollars in 1971 . It is not just the monetary value of the ring that is important . The emotional value is even more important plus the fact that even if you give me the money , you can never find that ring to buy . So , what I want is my ring and that is that , period ... That ring has become part of me . Anybody who sees me knows that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on my body . So , you must find it o - o . " Though delivered harshly , Dr. Okeke 's appeal was very touching . The Chief allowed everybody to take in the implications of that plea before he spoke . " A law book I bought for one pound ten shillings in 1970 now cost one hundred and ten naira , that is about e -eh ... thirty five times what it cost me in 1970 . And now if you calculate the present cost of a ring that used to cost up to one hundred and twenty dollars , we 'll be talking in thousands . I do n't know the present rate of the dollar to naira . " This analysis has revealed two facts to the culprits . One , that the chief also studied law and therefore had friends who were lawyers and magistrates and therefore he could deal with them . Two , The Search for the Gold Finger ? Okafor ## the amount of money involved was tremendous . Okafor was swinging his head from side to side at the realization of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knew that he could never even think of the great amount involved in the ring let alone pay for it , if they were levied . Osazuwa 's eyes were focussed on his folded arms as if he was deep in thought . The Chief 's harsh voice alerted everyone and drew the attention of every ear and eye . " What I want to do now is to have the three of you thoroughly beaten up . Then you will tell the truth . After that I 'll send you to Okhoro where you 'll spend the Christmas with the Police and probably spend that your salary . " He pressed the bell promptly and a security man entered . " Take these men to the . . . " He did not finish the sentence before Obaze cut in , trembling at the prospect of receiving the police treatment he had heard about so much and dreaded like poison . " Sir , maybe . . . maybe Oga go let us go for im office again go search for the ring again . I never go cell since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and eyes focussed on Dr. Okeke , who appeared to be the only one then to save the suspects from the much dreaded Okhoro Police Cell . He pitied them , especially the innocent ones , but he also wanted his ring and he was sure they ransacked every nook and corner of that Office while searching for the ring . It would be a miracle for that ring to materialise in that office and Dr. Okeke did not believe in miracles . Back in the office , Dr. Okeke just sat in the ante-office usually occupied by his secretary . " Og , come inside now . " " Why am I coming in ? Go and search . When you finish , we go to Okhro police . " Okafor , Obaze and Osazuwa trooped in followed by the security officer . After some time , Dr. Okeke went in to see what was happening . " Have n't you finished yet ? Let 's go to Okhoro , " he ordered them , even though he had no intention of going anywhere else for he was very tired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " exclaimed Osazuwa squinting his eyes , bending his waist , and straining his neck like a chicken suffering from jaundice . " Wetin my eye dey see so ? " he asked . Without waiting or expecting a reply , he used his right hand to shade his eye even though it was not sunny in the room . All eyes were then on him observing his monkey antics . " Something de shine for yonder . See wetin e be dey shine so . " It was Obaze , standing near the book shelf , who turned and picked up the ring which was lying beside the ink pot on top of the shelf . " Is this your ring , Sir ? " " Yes ! My ring . It is . Glory be to God , " shouted Dr. Okeke , who did not believe in miracles . Obaze , the Christian , knelt down , raised his hands and shouted , " Osalobua . " Mr. Okafor demanded , " Who was it that was searching that shelf just now ? " 
##1002251 Lady 's suffocating . Robert ca n't stand to have the windows down because the air blowing into the car bothers his eyes . The fan is on but only at the lowest speed , as the sound distracts him from driving . Lady 's head is getting heavy , and when she blinks she has to raise her eyelids by an effort of will . The heat and dampness of her skin give her the sensation of a fever . She 's beginning to see things in the lengthening moments when her eyes are closed , things more distinct and familiar than the dipping wires and blur of trees and the silent staring man she sees when they 're open . <p> " Lady ? " Robert 's voice calls her back , but she keeps her eyes closed . <p> That 's him to the life . Ca n't stand her sleeping when he 's not . But he 'd have some good reason to wake her . Never a mean motive . Never . When he 's going to ask somebody for a favor he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ calls back the next day and says how great it was to talk to them , he enjoyed it so much he forgot to ask if they would mind doing something for him . Has no idea he does this . She 's never heard him tell a lie , not even to make a story better . Tells the most boring stories . Just lethal . Considers every word . Considers everything . Early January he buys twelve vacuum-cleaner bags and writes a different month on each one so she 'll remember to change them . Of course she goes as long as she can on every bag and throws away the extras at the end of the year , otherwise he 'd find them and know . Not say anything -- just know . Once she threw away seven . Sneaked them outside through the snow and stuffed them in the garbage can . <p> Considerate . Everything a matter of principle . Justice for all , yellow brown black or white they are precious in his sight . Ca n't say no to any charity but forgets to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ self . Who 's that actress I like so much ? What 's my favorite fish ? Is calm in every circumstance . Polishes his glasses all the time . They gleam so you can hardly see his eyes . Has to sleep on the right side of the bed . The sheets have to be white . Any other color gives him nightmares , forget about patterns . Patterns would kill him . Wears a hard hat when he works around the house . Says her name a hundred times a day . Always has . Any excuse . <p> He loves her name . Lady . Married her name . Shut her up in her name . Shut her up . <p> " Lady ? " <p> Sorry , sir . Lady 's gone . <p> She knows where she is . She 's back home . Her father 's away but her mother 's home and her sister Jo . Lady hears their voices . She 's in the kitchen running water into a glass , letting it overflow and pour down her fingers until it 's good @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fill and sets the glass down , then walks slow as a cat across the kitchen and down the hall to the bright doorway that opens onto the porch where her mother and sister are sitting . Her mother straightens up and settles back again as Lady goes to the railing and leans on her elbows and looks down the street and then out to the fields beyond . <p> Lordalmighty it 's hot . <p> Is n't it hot , though . <p> Jo is slouched in her chair , rolling a bottle of Coke on her forehead . I could just die . <p> Late again , Lady ? <p> He 'll be here . <p> Must have missed his bus again . <p> I suppose . <p> I bet those stupid corn-pones were messing with him like they do . I would n't be a soldier . <p> He 'll be here . Else he 'd call . <p> I would n't be a soldier . <p> Nobody asked you . <p> Now , girls . <p> I 'd like to see you a soldier anyway , sleeping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around . Oh , general , do n't make me march , that just wears me out . Oh , do I have to wear that old green thing , green just makes me look sick , have n't you got one of those in red ? Why , I ca n't eat lima beans , do n't you know about me and lima beans ? <p> Now , Lady ... <p> But her mother is laughing and so is Jo in spite of herself . Oh the goodness of that sound . And of her own voice . Just like singing . General , honey , you know I ca n't shoot that nasty thing , how about you ask one of those old boys to shoot it for me , they just love to shoot off their guns for Jo Kay . <p> Lady ! <p> The three of them on the porch , waiting but not waiting . Sufficient unto themselves . Nobody has to come . <p> But Robert is on his way . He 's leaning his head against the window of the bus and trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and had to run to catch this one because his sergeant found fault with him during inspection and stuck him on a cleanup detail . The sergeant hates his guts . He 's ignorant trash and Robert is an educated man from Vermont , an engineer just out of college , quit Shell Oil in Louisiana to enlist the day North Korea crossed the parallel . The only Yankee in his company . Robert says when they get overseas there wo n't be any more Yankees and Southerners , just Americans . Lady likes him for believing that , but she gives him the needle because she knows it is n't true . <p> He changed uniforms in a hurry and did n't check the mirror before he left the barracks . There 's a smudge on his right cheek . Shoe polish . His face is flushed and sweaty , his blouse soaked through . He 's watching out the window and reciting a poem to himself . He 's a great one for poems , this Robert . He has poems for running and poems for drill and poems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corn-pones start getting him down . <p> Out of the night that covers me <p> Black as the Pit from Pole to Pole <p> I thank whatever Gods may be <p> For my unconquerable Soul . <p> That 's the poem he uses to fortify himself . He thinks it over and over even when they 're yolling in his face . It keeps him strong . Lady laughs when he tells her things like this , and he always looks at her a little surprised and then he laughs , too , to show he likes her sass , though he does n't . He thinks it 's just her being young and spoiled and that it 'll go away if he can get her out of that house and away from her family and among sensible people who do n't think everything 's a joke . In time it 'll wear off and leave her quiet and dignified and respectful of life 's seriousness -- leave her pure Lady . <p> That 's what he thinks some days . Most days he sees no hope at all . He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his father , and when he imagines what she might say to his father he starts hearing his own excuses and apologies . Then he knows that it 's impossible . Robert has picked up some psychology here and there , and he believes he understands how he got himself into this mess . It 's rebellion . Subconscious , of course . A subconscious rebellion against his father , falling in love with a girl like Lady . Because you do n't fall in love . No . Life is n't a song . You choose to fall in love . And there is a reason for that choice , as there is a reason for every choice , if you can get to the bottom of it . It 's as simple as that . <p> Robert is looking out the window but he 's not really seeing anything . <p> It 's impossible . Lady is just a kid , she does n't know anything about life . There 's a rawness to her that will take years to correct . She 's spoiled and willful and half-wild @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . And she 's Southern , not that there 's anything wrong with that per se , but a particular kind of Southern . Not trash , as she would put it , but too proud of not being trash . Irrational . Superstitious . Clannish . <p> And what a clan it is , clan Cobb . Mr. Cobb a suspender-snapping paint salesman always on the road , full of drummer 's banter and jokes about Nigras and watermelon . Mrs. Cobb a morning-to-night gossip , weepily religious , content to live on her daughters ' terms rather than raise them to woman 's estate with discipline and right example . And the sister . Jo Kay . You can write that sad story before it happens . <p> All in all , Robert ca n't imagine a better family than the Cobbs to beat his father over the head with . That must be why he 's chosen them , and why he has to undo that choice . He 's made up his mind . He meant to tell her last time , but there was no chance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand . She 'll cry . He will be gentle about it . He 'll say she 's a fine girl but too young . He 'll say that it is n't fair to ask her to wait for him when who knows what might happen , and then to follow him to a place she 's never been , far from family and friends . <p> He 'll tell Lady anything but the truth , which is that he 's ashamed to have picked her to use against his father . That 's his own fight . He 's been running from it for as long as he can remember , and he knows he has to stop . He has to face the man . <p> He will , too . He will , after he gets home from the Army , from this war . His father will have to listen to him then . Robert will make him listen . He will tell him , he will face his father and tell him ... <p> Robert 's throat tightens and he sits up straight . He hears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ else has noticed . His heart is kicking . His mouth is dry . He closes his eyes and forces himself to breathe more slowly and deeply , imitating calm until it becomes almost real . <p> They pass the power company and the Greyhound station . Red-faced soldiers in shiny shoes stand around out front smoking . The bus stops on a street lined with bars and the other men get off , hooting and pushing one another . There 's just Robert and four women left on board . They turn off Jackson and bump across the railroad tracks and head east past the lumberyard . Black men are throwing planks into a truck , their shirts off , skin gleaming in the hazy light . Then they 're gone behind a fence . Robert pulls the cord for his stop , waits behind a wide woman in a flowered dress . The flesh swings like hammocks under her arms . She takes forever going down the steps . <p> The sun dazzles his eyes . He pulls down the visor of his cap and walks to the corner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives two blocks down , where the street gives out into fields . There 's no plan to the way it ends -- it just gives out . From here on there 's nothing but farms for miles . At night Lady and Jo Kay steal strawberries from the field behind their house , dish them up with thick fresh cream and grated chocolate . The strawberries have been stewing in the heat all day and burst open at the first pressure of the teeth . Robert disapproves of reaping another man 's labor , but he eats his share and then some . The season 's about over . He 'll be lucky if he gets any tonight . <p> He 's thinking about strawberries when he sees Lady on the porch , and just then the sweetness of that taste fills his mouth . It surprises him . He stops as if he 's remembered something , then comes toward her again . Her lips are moving but he ca n't hear her , he 's aware of nothing but the taste in his mouth , and the closer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , his hand goes out for the railing . He takes the steps as if he means to devour her . <p> No , she 's saying , no . She 's talking to him and to the girl whose life he seeks . She knows what will befall her if she lets him have it . Stay here on this porch with your mother and your sister , they will soon have need of you . Gladden your father 's eye yet awhile . This man is not for you . He will patiently school you half to death . He will kindly take you among unbending strangers to watch him fail to be brave . To suffer his carefulness , and to see your children writhe under it and fight it off with every kind of self-hurting recklessness . To be changed . To hear yourself and not know who is speaking . Wait , young Lady . Bide your time . <p> " Lady ? " <p> It 's no good . She wo n't hear . Even now she 's bending toward him as he comes up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brush away the smudge he does n't know is there . He thinks it 's something else that makes her do it , and his fine lean face confesses everything , asks everything . There 's no turning back from this touch . But she ca n't be stopped . She has a mind of her own , and she knows something Lady does n't . She knows how to love him . <p> Lady hears her name again . <p> Wait , sir . <p> She blesses the girl . She turns to the far-rolling fields she used to dream an ocean , this house the ship that ruled it . She takes a last good look , and opens her eyes . <p> Tobias Wolff is the author of This Boy 's Life : A Memoir . He is currently working on a book of short stories to be published by Knopf . <p> 
##1002253 The last man on Earth knew not that he was . Nor would he have cared . He had met very few other humans in his life , and none since his woman coughed herself into silence . How long ago that happened , he did not know either . He kept no count of years , nor of anything else . She lay blurred in his memory , but so did most that was more than a few days past . Day-by-day survival took all his wits and strength , such as they were . <p> She had not been the last woman . That one had died in Novosibirsk . To her it was nameless ; the crumbling buildings simply provided dens and fuel against the winters , with a stock of rats and other small game for her to trap . Her family had laired there until , one by one , sickness or accident overtook each and they became food for the rest . A brother lived long enough that his feeble attentions got her pregnant , but it was a stillbirth and she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When she fell and broke a leg she was helpless and starved to death . The small creatures cleaned her bones . <p> The last man was likewise born in what had been a city , in his case Atlanta . He fled it when a gang of cannibals arrived and settled in to stalk its streets and hallways for meat . Several generations ago their sort had been common , but the prey dwindled fast . These few soon perished in various ways . By that time the last man was elsewhere , and thus missed the satisfaction of learning about their fates . <p> In his wanderings he came upon a girl , equally footloose . She fled , terrified . Having eaten more recently , he was able to run her down . But then he was not ungentle , and afterward she accompanied him willingly . He meant a slight added measure of food and protection . <p> She had no name and few words , which she seldom used . His childhood had been more fortunate , leaving him with some language and scraps of tradition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until , lurching and croaking , he and his mate found a swamp . Although risen sea level brought a salt tide upstream twice a day , the water was not too brackish to drink . In and around it , fish , frogs , snakes , insects , worms , roots , tubers , and leaves furnished a meager diet if the pair worked hard at their gathering and trapping . They were unaware of the lead , mercury , and organic toxins not yet broken down . <p> Indeed , had anyone spoken to them of contamination , they would have stared uncomprehending . Plankton , krill , soil requirements , ecological balance , the food chain , its broad and vulnerable base , ozone , greenhouse effect , famine , nuclear warheads , positive feedback , mass extinction were noises they had never heard . Their world was what it was , hot , harsh , mostly parched and bare , scoured by rains that turned the rivers to mudflows and uncovered bedrock to the sky . So had it been and always would be . Once upon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Once upon a time , " and related stories of a fabulous age ; but as life grew harder and people scarcer , such tales seemed gibberish and were forgotten . <p> The girl became a woman before she really took sick -- neither had ever been healthy -- and died . Her infrequent couplings with the man had had no issue . He mourned in a mute fashion . Unsure what to do about the body , he finally dragged it behind a fallen tree at a distance from the brush shelter in which they had dwelt . Whenever he revisited the site , he would squat silent and shyly stroke her skull . In time , boggy ground and thorny overgrowth hid the skeleton , but he continued to eat the grubs he picked out of that log with a certain reverence . <p> Otherwise he lived dumb . His name and most else dropped out of memory . Gaunt , rachitic , rotten-toothed , plagued by recurrent fevers and jaw-clattering chills , he endured for years . He made crude tools , traps , snares out of wood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find . Fire was a lost art , but on the rare cool nights he kept warm between layers of bracken . He paid no attention to the mosquitoes that beclouded and feasted on his nakedness ; as for ticks and leeches , he plucked them off and swallowed them , ignoring the festering sores where their heads were stuck . <p> In due course his skin cancers shed their seed into his bloodstream and devoured him from within . All he knew was that he felt increasingly wretched , until he could not crawl more than a few of his own lengths in any one day . <p> Yet at the end a delirious yearning came upon him . Just outside the shelter was a small boulder . He had , in fact , chosen the location because this was a convenient surface on which to crack shells and crania or split reeds for their pith . Now he crept there on all fours . The sky burned pitiless blue overhead . A cypress , dead and bleached white , offered no shade . The edge of the swamp , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Rain had fallen during the night and a depression in the cracked red clay held a little water . The man sucked its siltiness dry . His thirst still smoldered , he was crusted and he stank , but his eyes cleared somewhat and he dragged his carcass onward to the rock . Several stones that he had collected lay around it . He took a wedge-shaped one in his left hand and a blunt one in his right . Blow by blow , he chiseled a mark into the boulder : as it happened , an X , unless it was a cross falling down . He could not have done this were the material not soft limestone , and even so , the mark was barely visible . For a spell he stared at it . The breath rattled in his lungs . He crumpled , sprawled , and breathed a while longer , then no more . <p> The undertakers sought to him , ants across the ground , insects from the air . They too had no way of knowing that this was the last man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The continents were more brown than they were green ; rare was the sight of silver slenderness cleaving the seas ; but the desert appearance was deceptive . Only the least hardy animals and plants were extinct . They included the larger sorts and those that humans had considered beautiful , but this was of no serious biological consequence . Bacteria , protozoa , and other microscopic organisms had always outweighed as well as outnumbered everything else alive . Some parasites and disease germs died out with their hosts , but most species found the new conditions to their advantage and proliferated . Tough , scrubby grasses , shrubs , and trees made do . Freed of their warm-blooded predators , many invertebrates underwent population explosions . Amphibians had suffered badly , but various kinds of fish and reptiles survived and started to increase . The same was true of certain birds and lesser mammals , especially rodents . Conspicuous among these were the rats . They had declined after the civilization that nourished them ceased to be , but adapted well to the wild , for they were intelligent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and moon wheeled on their ancient ways . Rain torrented , light blazed , oxygen and acids gnawed . In every crack or corner where a bit of dirt had drifted , seeds arrived , rootlets thrust forth , stalks lifted , and within a year masonry was breaking apart into finer and finer fragments . Termites and dry-rot fungi feasted for a century or more on wood , but when a house fell down it was lichen and moss , grass and thistle that reduced the harder parts . <p> Of course , much resisted . Steel-framed buildings reared as before , perhaps hollowed out but their exteriors merely blotched . The Pyramids of Egypt withstood the flood when the Aswan Dam broke and defied every weather . An explorer would have seen a few other such anomalies scattered around the planet . Small objects held on in large numbers , gemstones , goldwork , ceramics , inert plastics . <p> Time passed . Within a century the bones of the last man were gone , dissolved , taken back into nature . The mark he scratched on his headstone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chemistry proceeded . Impurities were transformed or diluted to harmlessness . The ozone layer thickened again . Excess carbon dioxide reacted with exposed rock to form carbonates . Resurgent plant life took up more . Greenhouse effect diminished and Earth cooled . <p> This actually happened rather fast . High temperatures had evaporated vast quantities of ocean water . Much of this fell as snow on mountains and the polar regions . Not all of it melted in summer . The glaciers grew . They locked up most of the water vapor that is also an important greenhouse gas . Temperatures dropped further . Geologically speaking , the new ice Age came overnight . <p> Glaciers penetrated Europe until they had buried what was left of Bordeaux , Berlin , Warsaw , and St. Petersburg . Local sheets in the Alps accounted for their share . In North America , ice engulfed the reaches once called Alaska and Canada ; the Great Lakes froze to make a foundation for cliffs sheer above the sites of Detroit and Chicago . Except at high altitudes , Asia was too dry for this , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear , like South America apart from the Andean heights . The Pacific experienced mainly a fall in sea level sufficient to rejoin Australia to the Indonesian islands ; but icebergs often hove above the Tasmanian horizon . <p> At its mightiest , the glacier in Europe or North America bulked a mile thick . Wind whistled over its wrinkled emptiness , driving snow or a glitter of crystals ; crevasses shone a lovely mysterious blue , but the sun alone beheld . In summer at its edge , streams rushed down the cliffs and out of the caves , down to gurgle among stones , make the ground a bog , and lose themselves in the tundra that stretched on southward . Here grew lichens , mosses , now and then a tussock of grass or a clump of dwarf willows . Mosquitoes bred their billions , darkened the air and sawed lt with their whine . Then the brief season ended , pools stiffened , snow fell anew , starts crowded darkness out of utterly clear nights . <p> Interstadial periods occurred , when for millennia at a time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lay warm , mist baked out of it , life swarmed in from the south , wildflowers , berrybushes , evergreens , seeding , growing , spreading , until a forest stood with its crowns like an ocean beneath the wind and flying creatures clamorous above . But the glaciers returned , froze the woods to death , crushed them underfoot , ground and scattered further the works of man . <p> This Ice Age lasted three million years . <p> They were by no means evil years for living things . On the contrary , Gaia flourished as she had not since the Pleistocene . Rain belts , forced equatorward , quickened the deserts . The erosion that washed soil down the rivers into the seas nourished them . Meanwhile its forces weathered rock and carried in organic matter to make loam , which roots anchored . Plants and animals multiplied , died , decayed , formed humus to support a life more rich . Volcanoes and ocean trenches brought minerals up from the depths ; currents and winds spread them , microbes concentrated them , larger species used them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feet , the sky with wings . Below the tundras and beneath the ranges , forests ran from shore to shore , save where grass billowed or marshes choked on their own abundance . <p> Evolution worked onward . Species diversified , more and more as increasing fertility opened opportunities . Those that were gone never came back , but new ones took their places . Sometimes , to some degree , they resembled the old . Broadleaf trees bore nuts and fruits , flowers bloomed like bits of rainbow , creatures had descendants bigger than themselves , such features as horns or fingers reappeared . However , an anatomist would have found essential differences ; the likenesses were as superficial as those between fish , ichthyosaur , and whale had been . <p> After three million years , secular changes in Earth 's orbit and axial inclination , together with geological and geochemical action , terminated the Ice Age . The glaciers withdrew to the poles and mountaintops . The woods advanced northward and southward over the tundras . They demolished the few shards of human artifacts above ground which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and rain and frost did not finish yielded to natural acids or the microbes that had " learned " to eat otherwise resistant synthetic materials . <p> The middle latitudes kept a little evidence of man . <p> The violence of earthquake , eruption , and tsunami had brought many works low , but this was as nothing compared to the patience of weather . There were hills , though , some quite big , where burrowing animals still came upon things that nature could not have made ; in them , the soil usually had a high iron content . The Sphinx was long gone but identifiably artificial stumps of the Pyramids stood in the desolation that had encroached again after the rain belts moved back north . Early on , several tombs in the Valley of the Kings had filled with sand , which during the wet epoch hardened into stone . It preserved their contours and hints of their murals . Similar freaks of circumstance persisted in other corners of the world , far apart . <p> And then there were the fossils , not simply bones and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and petrified . They existed both ashore and at sea ; countless minor items and several almost complete ships lay deep in the silt on ocean bottoms . Other remnants were not , strictly speaking , fossils . A coffee mug , a jade ornament , a metate , a faceted diamond , or the like could stay as it was , encysted in stone , indefinitely . Not every relic dated from historic times . Strata held fugitive memories of the Neolithic , the Paleolithic , or eras even older , a jawbone , a brainpan , a flint pounded to shape by Neanderthal or perhaps Pithecanthropus . <p> Beyond the clouds were clearer traces . <p> No artificial satellite or piece of debris had continued in orbit around Earth past a century or two . Residual friction dragged them down , to flash as meteors or drift as dust . Whatever struck ground fell to the forces that gnawed at everything else . A few bits had escaped the planet , to course about the sun on eccentric tracks of their own , but collisions with asteroidal gravel annihilated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and wheel tracks off the moon . Crashed probes , abandoned vehicles , used-up robots , and discarded gear were left , untouched by air , water , or life . The stony rain wore them away , but slowly , slowly , perhaps one really damaging strike in a hundred thousand years . <p> Destruction went a little faster on Mars , which kept a wisp of atmosphere and was nearer the asteroid belt , but only a little . Jupiter had almost instantly reduced all that reached it , and Venus had done so within decades . <p> Time passed . Occasionally during the next thirty million years the ice advanced , but never very far , and each retreat went deeper back . At last none remained except on Antarctica and the tallest mountains . Swollen , ocean drowned many islands and coastal plains . Otherwise it was benign , the source and guardian of climates that held steady from tropical rain forests to the mild northern and southern fringes of the continents . <p> Life forms evolved , had their day , and yielded to successor breeds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some radiated into fresh kinds while some kept virtually unchanged for periods that ran into the hundreds of millions of years . From the rats arose creatures that grazed , creatures that preyed on them , creatures that took to the air and became raptors more fearsome than any bird . One branch of the rat family went into the trees and developed hands of a sort . Certain among these returned to the ground and grew large and brainy . None ever put fire to use nor any tool more complex than a carefully chosen stone or a stick sharpened with the teeth . Another branch became aquatic and gained flippers , but the truly gigantic sea beasts were originally birds . <p> A variety of Octopodidae got to outliving their own procreation , and thence to caring for their young and a lifespan that lengthened as generation followed generation . Ultimately there were beings whose tentacles worked rock , shell , bone , and coral . They had language , although its symbols were gestures and color changes . They hatched ignorant and weak , but learned from their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ societies which practiced religious rites and subtle arts . Yet being confined to salt water , they never went technologically beyond their equivalent of the Stone Age . One by one , in different manners around the world , their cultures adapted so well to local conditions that innovation ceased ; caste systems congealed ; the biography of an individual was predetermined within narrow limits and in elaborate detail from the egg to the disposal . Having abolished natural selection for itself , intelligence atrophied . The species grew less and less able to cope with any change in environment . Twelve million years after it came into existence , it was extinct . To be sure , this was a considerably longer run than humankind had had . <p> As for the vestiges of that earlier race , geological vicissitudes pursued them . A river would change course , a land mass rise or sink , a fossil come to light and thus to erosion . For example , a set of footprints was once laid down in muddy ground that got covered over and lithified as shale . After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Rain filled the prints , algae greened the puddles , the stone flaked and crumbled . In less than a century it had completely lost those traces left by the shoes of George Washington . <p> A few things stayed entombed and lasted immensely longer , fossilized tools or teeth , roadbeds or graves . But the planet querned . Crustal plate shifted ponderous about . When Africa sundered from Asia , the marks of the Pharaohs disintegrated . North America , colliding with northeastern Asia , raised a mountain chain and ground every token of man in those parts to molecules . Seabed relics slipped down subduction zones to be cycled through moltenness . So it went , while the years mounted into the billions . <p> No living things witnessed the end . Since first it condensed from primordial gas and dust , the sun had been brightening . Temperatures on Earth kept remarkably stable . In part this was due to chemistry and physics . More heat evaporated more water , much of which recondensed as clouds and deflected sunlight . Rock exposed by falling sea level @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gas , carbon dioxide , and bound it . Life was a potent force too . Plants tied up their own carbon , which often stayed in place when they died , were buried , and turned into peat or coal . Plankton exuded substances that contributed to cloud formation . Animals helped maintain the balance , cropping vegetable matter and each other lest one kind overrun the world . <p> Yet at last the input became overwhelming . The tropics steamed dry , wildfire consumed their jungles and savannahs , scorching winds blew the ashes off and left hardpan desert . Soon the higher latitudes went the selfsame way . Vertebrates died rapidly beside the vegetation that had sustained them ; the toughest insects hung on for a span ; finally the microbes succumbed . <p> Primitive , sorely depleted life lingered in the oceans , but not for long . The concentration of water vapor in the atmosphere passed a critical point , and a runaway greenhouse effect set in . The seas began to boil . It took a little time , but by one billion A.D. Earth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultraviolet photons that split them apart . Their hydrogen escaped to space , the oxygen united with materials below . Carbon dioxide , roasted out of limestone , stoked the furnace further . The planet did not quite change into a twin of Venus , but the difference was trivial . <p> Volcanoes continued to vomit huge quantities of water from the mantle . It too was lost . Deprived of that lubricant , plate tectonics ground to a halt . Besides , the radioactive elements whose energy had driven the process were giving out . <p> You could not say that continental drift ceased . Lacking oceans , Earth really had no more continents , just massifs in the basins . Unblocked by ozone , actinic radiation spalled them ; wind sanded them ; sometimes a large meteorite smote them . Without water , oxygen , and life , erosion went very slowly . Even after four billion added years , a few mesas stood above silicate wastes . A few rocks contained a few fossils , including bits of degraded organic matter that an observer who knew what to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> When the seas departed , the sun and moon generated less tidal friction . Earth turned more leisurely than aforetime , but it did not go into locked rotation with either body . The distance of the moon varied according to the interplay of celestial mechanics , now greater , now lesser , but it neither crashed into the planet nor wandered free . By five billion A.D. meteoritic bombardment had completely , unrecognizably mingled all human-fashioned things on it and on Mars with their regoliths . <p> That was the approximate time when the sun left the main sequence and swelled to gigantic size . Surface temperature declined until it shone red , like a dying coal , but the whole output was monstrous . At its greatest radius , it ate Mercury and Venus and filled almost half the sky of Earth . The globe glowed , sand fused into glass , the last faint fossils melted and the last biotic molecules broke into their olden elements . <p> Now the sun collapsed . It ended as a white dwarf , hellish hot , its mass crushed into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toward oblivion . But this is epilogue and incidental . Nature had already erased from the Solar System every spoor of humanity . We might as well never have been . <p> Many light-years away , on widely divergent courses , Pioneer 10 and 11 , Voyager 1 and 2 , and perhaps some small sister spacecraft fared among the stars . <p> Poul Anderson is the author of such classic novels as Brain Wave , Tau Zero , and Three Hearts and Three Lions . His next novel , Fireball , will be published by Tor Books in the spring of 1993 . This is his first appearance in Omni . <p> 
##1002254 " What were those dull bonks I heard this morning ? " <p> Jason and Mopsy had just come down to breakfast , and I threw up my hands in mock dismay as she put that old , old question to me . <p> " Why , Mopsy , do n't tell me you have n't read my travel articles ! Shame on you ! Those were the famous thudding church bells of Viborra ! ' Thunk , thunk , thunk , ' they say . ' Welcome , Mopsy ! Welcome to Viborra ! " <p> The poor girl went pink and the dining hall of the PanLupus Hotel erupted into good-natured laughter . The diners laughed and the waiters laughed and so did Ugo , the jolly old elf at the buffet table , who was sprinkling a bit of this and a bit of that into his tangy and oh so scrumptious herring paste -- a Viborran delight called huegma . <p> Nonresonant church bells ? Freshly pounded huegma smeared on warm buns straight from the oven ? Romantic moonlight rides in circular boats not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with unfamiliar vegetables on display -- so knobby and streaky ? Narrow cobbled streets ? Bargain belts -- and purses too ? Great fun at breakfast ? <p> Well , yes , and these are just a few of he joys awaiting the traveler who finds his way to this lovely old colonial city nestled in a sapphire cove under a cerulean sky on the Sea of Tessa -- known locally as Da Magro , or " the Burning Sea . " <p> We had arrived the night before on a high-wing Tessair Fokker -- I and my new chums , Jason and Mopsy Crimm . With my port-of-entry know-how I soon had us cleared through customs -- a painless business on the whole . The Crimms were dazzled by my moves as I pushed in ahead of others , jumping this line and that one . With a wave and a knowing wink I steered them quickly through all the control points . There was one awkward moment , when the Propriety Officer caught sight of Jason 's hideous jogging shoes . But then the officer -- doing a priceless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and comfy on long flights ) , and the poor man was all but speechless . <p> " Chick Jardine ! " he sputtered . " Winner of five gold Doobie Awards for travel writing ! How I envy your powers of description , sir ! " <p> After that , as you can imagine , the city was ours . <p> This brings me , however , to my one teeny caveat for you folks planning your first trip to Viborra . Be advised that the Ministry of Fitness and Propriety maintains a Vigilance Desk at the airport . If the duty officer there perceives you to be a lout , rich or poor , he will assign you to the Morono Palace , a magnificent hotel for louts on the eastern beach , or mud flats , just across the Bal River from Viborra proper , regardless of any previous arrangement you have made . As a registered lout ( stamped thus on your visa in luminescent orange ink -- LOUT ) , you will be somewhat restricted in your movements , to the eastern beach and to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nimmo , or the Plaza of Louts . You will also be fitted with and made to wear an orange plastic wristband for ready identification . <p> But not to worry . The guests at the Morono Palace have loads of fun in their own way , and prices are considerably cheaper in that district -- particularly on belts , yo-yos , fishnet tank tops , heavy woolen shower curtains , and tortoise-shell flashlights . You can even watch these unique torches being made in ancient workshops , where the delicate craft of shell-routing is jealously guarded and passed on from father to son . And the central dining hall at the Morono is a show in itself , with its famous rude waiters cavorting comically about in striped jerseys as they insult the guests , and with its Morono Mega-Spread , a free-for-all salad bar 188 feet long . Then , blazing and blaring atop the Palace , there is the legendary Club Nimmo , reputed to be the world 's loudest nightclub , with music and hilarity and flashing lights twenty-four hours a day . <p> " No , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caught her making a move toward the bud vase on our breakfast table . " Smell , but do n't touch . That delicate white blossom is not so innocent as it appears . That , my dear , is an artu flower from the volcanic highlands , and it exudes a toxic alkaline resin that can blister the fingers . A defense mechanism , you see . " <p> It was all coming back to me , remarkably enough -- a torrent of Viborran memories and lore , on this , my first visit to the old city in many years . I thought how lucky the Crimms were to have scraped acquaintance with me , for I seldom reveal my identity to ordinary people on my jaunts around the world , knowing and hating the fuss chat always follows . My helpful tips to less experienced travelers are strictly confined to my prizewinning magazine articles and my widely syndicated newspaper column , and when I hear star-struck people murmuring around me ( they having spotted my trademark turquoise jacket ) , I go all deaf and ignorant . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gravitate to one another . In our chat on the Fokker it came out that Jason and Mopsy , far from being ordinary , had appeared on the covers of nine popular financial magazines in the past year , posed in front of their restored Victorian house , with expensive new silvery cars parked in the driveway . Mopsy showed me the most recent cover , and an amusing photo it was , too . Jason , his arms straining under the load , is standing behind a red wheelbarrow that is filled and indeed spilling over with documents representing his sensible budgets , wise investments , and long-range tax-planning strategies . At his side is our little gamine , Mopsy , with a sheaf of CDs and tax-free municipal bonds spread fanwise and peeping out ever so coyly from her bodice . She confided to me , with pardonable pride , that of all the grinning young couples ever to appear on the covers of these magazines in front of their restored Victorian houses , she and Jason were judged to have the least-blemished shutters and the most beautifully complacent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worth knowing , and the feeling was mutual , to put it mildly . Can you picture the scene at the airport when the officer spilled the beans -- that I was award-winning syndicated columnist Chick Jardine ? The Crimms were addled with delight ! <p> It also turned out that none of us was paying for any thing . Plane fare , hotel rooms , meals -- all free . I never pay , on principle , as a guest of the world , and the ever-calculating Crimms , who read forty-one financial newsletters each month , had managed to get in on the ground floor of something called the Ponzi Travelbirds , through which society , as Early Birds , they will enjoy free travel for life , at the expense of all Late Birds joining the club . Need I say it ? My kind of folks ! <p> After breakfast we were off for a day of adventure under the azure vault of the sky , with yours truly acting as cicerone . We clambered up the winding stone staircase to the topmost battlement of the old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our way down narrow cobbled streets to the Thieves ' Market , and we took a bus ride to the Crispo Lupus Windmill Plantation . There is little to see on that barren hilltop -- a tangle of copper wire and seven or eight rusting steel towers with broken windmill sails . Not one watt of electricity was ever generated by the project . But I knew this little excursion would be a treat for the Crimms . Back home they could entertain their friends with the story of how they had ridden on a ramshackle bus in a tropical country -- with pigs and chickens aboard ! <p> We inspected the bushes at the National Arboretum , running mostly to prickly , grayish xerophytic scrub . We toured the Arses Lupus Mask and Wig Factory downtown . We admired the slavering ferocity of the women gnawing on leather ( to soften it ) at the Arses Lupus Belt and Purse Co-op . We descended ( watch your head ! ) into the dark , dripping dungeons of Melanoma Prison , now a horror museum complete with shackled skeletons artfully laid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that infamous hole you will need a candle , on sale at the reception desk for fifty pilmiras . Luckily , I had my own penlight , and the alert Crimms neatly got around the fee by exchanging some little foil-wrapped bricklets of butter ( lifted from the hotel buffet ) for their candles . <p> Then once again out into the shimmering light of day , and under a sky of that heartbreaking shade of delft blue you will find nowhere else in the world , we took a pleasant stroll along the bayfront promenade . We ate flavored ices and watched the children clubbing rat fish in the shallows . <p> Jason was fascinated by the Viborran coins , light as fine pastry . ( Even the money is fun in Viborra ! ) I explained that they are minted from a curious alloy of chalk and aluminum , or actually baked , on greased sheets , in government kilns , and that , unlike all other coins in the world , they float . The 500-pilmira pieces are particularly buoyant , and these huge gray discs are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dusty surface somewhat like that of a butterfly 's wing . This creepy feeling or quality of dry slipperiness is held in great esteem by Viborrans , and they have a word for it -- rhampa , which translates not only as " free of asperities " but also as " charm , " " magic , " " felicity , " " a leap of the heart , " " brutal cunning , " " inner certitude , " or " a sudden white spikiness , as of a yawning cat 's mouth , " according to context . If you wish to say " Thank you " or " Is it not so ? " or " Beat it ! " or " The bill , please , " you can never go far wrong with the all-purpose phrase " Ar rhampa palayot , " delivered with a servile bob of the head . <p> " Our free tub ride ! " Mopsy cried out , as she looked at her watch . " It 's almost noon ! Are we far from the tub docks ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her against using such derisory terms as " tub " and " bucket " around the fishermen . These proud fellows do not laugh at jokes about their small leather coracles -- called moas . Mopsy had her coupon ready . Through clever booking -- all their trips are planned in detail a year in advance -- the Crimms had received from Tessair a free bottle of skin lotion and a book of valuable coupons , one of which entitled them to a free moa ride in Viborra Bay on any weekday before noon , between April 20 and December 5 . <p> Hearty singing told us that the fishing fleet was coming in -- and with a good catch ! The little round vessels , painted in soft pastel colors and decorated with painted human eyes , gyrated and jostled against one another like bumper cars at the fair as the men struggled to bring them in against the current . Steering a moa , or indeed making it go at all , in a particular direction is a difficult art to master . <p> And noon is not , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moa out into the Burning Sea . The sun at meridian is a fearful thing in Viborra . We paddled frantically and our goatskin craft kept spinning around and around in place . There was no breeze . Stinging sweat blurred our vision . ( But nights can turn cool in Viborra , so be sure to pack a sweater or light wrap . ) Still , you must make the effort , because the only proper way to see the Melanoma Memorial is from the sea . <p> This is a colossal equestrian statue of the late President Eutropio Melanoma , rising up against a cobalt sky at the end of a long mole , or breakwater . Fabricated of ferro-concrete on site , and standing as high as a nine-story building , it commemorates the long rule ( more than forty years ) of the beloved old President . It is a robust , lumpy work ( what one art critic has called " the apotheosis of portland cement " ) , and a grand tribute to the man 's political genius and " The Year of the Edict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Year of Decision . " The horse is rearing up in a fine capriole , and the presidential sword ( giver of victory ) is pointed out to sea . A black rubber raven ( bird of prophecy ) is perched on his shoulder . <p> The old President was elected over and over again by acclamation and is still fondly remembered here for his disheveled hair and clothing , for his dramatic and alternating acts of mercy and cruelty , and for the mischievous teasing of his ministers , some of whom he made give their reports while running alongside his moving Packard , with the window glass only partly rolled down . He also undertook to teach lawyers humility , giving his Supreme Court justices the choice of working for three months of the year in the nitrate mines or serving for three months on road-repair crews , wearing red vests and flagging traffic . <p> At the Cafe Tessa , a waterfront bar where dissident jugglers and poets meet to grumble and conspire , you will hear that it was the old man 's simple tastes in food @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people . One of his favorite amusements was to prowl stealthily about the grounds of the presidential mansion with a garden hose , squirting water on cats and servants , and taking gopher colonies by surprise with sudden inundations of their little underground apartments . At night , after a light supper of a single warmed-over bean cake , he liked to retire to the ballroom for an hour or so of running his fist up and down the white keys of a piano . <p> Something of a prodigy , Melanoma consolidated his power early on , as quite a young man , by disposing of all likely claimants to the office of chief executive . His father and his infant sons he garroted personally . With his brothers , uncles , and nephews , for whom he felt less natural affection , he was more severe , condemning each of them to a protracted , popeyed death in leather harness , dragging ore carts out of the nitrate pits . But he had overlooked someone in his planning , and so the Melanoma era came to an appalling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his only legitimate daughter , Arses Melanoma Lupus , plunged a white-hoc poker into the sunken belly of the ascetic old man . The puncture was mortal . Arses 's husband , Crispo Lupus , then succeeded to the presidency , after a brief scuffle with guards on the veranda of the mansion . <p> Elderly firebrand poets at the Cafe Tessa , whose subsidies were sharply cut back by the new administration , will tell you that Crispo Lupus lacks rhampa and a masterly hand ; that he neglects his duties ; that he is not a man of bold strokes , of deeds you could sing . They say he does nothing but fool about with his hunting birds , leaving the much feared Arses in full and very active command at the mansion . Under the Lupus regime , the poets say , the people of Viborra have actually become shorter and uglier , and everybody 's hair has gone all gummy . Whatever the truth of the matter , it is certain that Lupus has never captured the hearts of his countrymen in the way hat Melanoma @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the listings in the telephone directory were alphabetized . <p> Anyone can direct you to the cafe Tessa , which is situated near the base of the natural rock pinnacle known as the Needle of Desolation , and just around the corner from another downtown landmark , the Arses Lupus Black Pavilion , or the Dark Hall of the People . This very modern structure , with lots and lots of darkish glass , is something of a barren shaft itself , rising up in bleak splendor under the gentian bowl of the sky . The thing fairly takes your breath away , and in Chick Jardine 's humble opinion there is nothing in New York to touch it for sharp angularity of line and blankness of aspect . <p> It is here , in the spacious atrium of the Hall , that Carnival season begins each year with the auction of public offices and preferments . Nimmo Lupus , the playboy son of Crispo and the imperious Arses , presides over the bidding in the red silk robes of Grand Chamberlain , to which is affixed the golden sunburst badge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these state occasions by his youngest son , Bungo Lupus , a cute toddler , who , all decked out in a little policeman 's uniform , sits dozing on his father 's knee . One frequent bidder told me that he took the limp Bungo at first for a dummy ! The poets say that Bungo has the same weak eyes as Nimmo . <p> So -- Carnival in Viborra . Should you go ? Yes , but be prepared for something a little different . The revels in Viborra proper are nothing at all like those in Rio and New Orleans . There are no gala parades or balls . The people simply go out at night wearing dog masks or dog helmets and mill about in darkness and eerie silence . They take measured steps and move in slow tidal fashion up and down the narrow cobbled streets . Now and then they stop and look at one another , nose to nose , without speaking , rather like dogs , for some little time . And when the shuffling stops -- such stillness ! The ceremony , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I have been unable to find out when or how it started , or just what the point of it is . The Long March of the Dogs , they call it , though there is no canine friskiness about the thing ; it is really more like a shambling procession of cattle . Bring comfortable walking shoes . Leave your dog helmets and dog masks at home , as they will only be confiscated at the airport . Only those made in Viborra ( with longish snouts ) and certified by the Central Committee can be worn in the March . <p> Things are livelier , of course , across the Bal in transpontine Viborra , where , every night at midnight , there is the celebrated Stampede of the Drunks , around and around the Plaza of Louts . It is not for everyone , this stumbling , boisterous race , but to say you have run with the international drunks on the River Bal -- well , take it straight from Chick Jardine , few travel claims confer more prestige these days . Your application for the Stampede @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fee , must be made to the Central Committee six months in advance . <p> All other events are open to the public . Everyone ( with orange bracelet ) can join in the frolic around the fountain and in the reflecting pool and along the narrow cobbled streets radiating out from the Nimmo Arch . Wear casual clothes . Beware the melon ambush . Take care when rounding corners or you are likely to have a watermelon or some rotten and unfamiliar vegetable smashed down on your head -- with what seems to me unnecessary force . Stay well clear of those roving gangs of hooded urchins who call themselves the Red Ants ; they will seize you and gag you and truss you up and scrawl Red Ant slogans across your belly and then toss you about on a stretched bull hide . Keep a sharp lookout for boulders and burning tires rolling down the hillside streets . There is a certain amount of capering around bonfires . After the first night the streets are littered with putrefying vegetable fragments . There are one or two deaths each night @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent years the season has been spoiled a bit by nightly typhoons , which are sometimes followed by predawn tsunamis . The poets claim that something has gone wrong with the prevailing winds , and they blame the unholy Arses and her practices in necromancy . Despite this , the merrymakers still come in swarms , and I must caution you that there is a lot of shameless overbooking in Viborra during Carnival . You may be forced to double up in your hotel room with unsavory strangers , and sleep in shifts . " Hot bunking , " as we call it in the trade . Three years ago , I am informed , the Morono Palace was so jam-packed with louts that the hotel itself subsided eight : and a half inches into the mud . <p> Poor Mopsy was ready to drop . it was just after one in the morning and we were weary and stuffed . We were fairly waterlogged with oysters . But we still had a gratis supper coming , and the dining hall at the Pan-Lupus did n't open until 2:00 A.M. ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Viborra before about 2:30 A.M. This by way of showing you do not have to rise early . ) <p> What to do ? Fighting off sleep , and determined not to be done out of any meal that was due us , we gave each other playful slaps and dashed cold water in our faces . We went to the bar to kill some time and found it filled with English travel writers in suede shoes and speckled green suits . What a scene ! They were laughing and scribbling and asking how to spell " ogive " and brazenly cribbing long passages of architectural arcana from their John Ruskin handbooks , which are issued with their union cards . <p> " Look , that sod Jardine is here too ! " one of them shouted . Then he and the others came crowding around , seething with bitter envy of me and my Chick 's Wheel of Adjectives , a handy rotating cardboard device , which , at $24.95 , was such a super hit with the travel journalists at our winter conference in Macao . Mopsy feared for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heaped childish ridicule on my cluster of lapel pins , tokens of numerous professional honors . A serene and scornful smile soon sent them reeling back in confusion . <p> We left them there , stewing in resentment and muttering over their pink gins , and ac two on the dot we were standing first in line outside the dining-hall doors . From campaniles all over town the bells of Viborra were striking the hour , with paired thuds and thumps of slightly different pitch . I was explaining how these strange dead bells are cast from a curious alloy of pumice and zinc when Mopsy silenced me with a raised hand . <p> " No -- listen , " she said . " Those -- bells . They seem somehow to know we 're off tomorrow on the morning Fokker . They seem to be -- saying something . " <p> " But I do n't understand , " said Jason . " How do you mean , Mopsy ? Just what is it they -- seem to say ? " <p> " Those -- sounds on the wind . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they seem to say . ' Come back , Mopsy ! Come back , Jason ! Come back , Chick ! Come back to the sparkling shores of the Burning Sea ! Come back in time to a more gracious and all but forgotten way of life in the enchanting old city of Viborra nestled snugly in a sapphire cove ' neath the vast rotunda of an indigo sky ! " <p> 
##1002256 A major supporter of Black art and culture , Johnson Publishing Co. has supported Black writers by publishing young writers in Black World magazine and in the books of the Johnson Publishing Co . Book Division . The company continues that effort in the Gertrude Johnson Williams Literary Contest , which awards $10,000 in prizes every year for the best original short stories . The contest , named for the publisher 's late mother , is designed to stimulate interest in writing and to raise the level of consciousness and hope of African-American writers and readers . " We at EBONY , " Publisher John H. Johnson said , " have noted the relative scarcity of Black writers . We want to encourage the abundance of talent we believe exists . " The 1992 winner , reprinted here , attracted wide attention . The author was Mary B. Smith , a schoolteacher who lives in Elkins Park , Pa. , with her husband , Snowden . They have three children . <p> Mrs. Brown , the terror of the eighth grade , had just finished testing her last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lanky , molasses-colored boy appeared . On his head sat a blue cap with the visor tilted rakishly over one ear . His tan shirt , at least three sizes too big , was tucked carelessly into black pants whose legs sagged like deflated balloons and crumpled over a pair of scruffy white sneakers . In one hand was an envelope . <p> Davida Davis gasped . " Oooh . Country done come to school . " <p> Mrs. Brown frowned at her disapprovingly , then signaled the boy with an arthritic forefinger . " Come in , sir . " <p> The boy shuffled to a desk in front of the tiny room , where he slumped , arms folded , legs crossed at the ankles , and balefully eyed the girl sitting at the teacher 's elbow . <p> " Seven point O. Very good , " Mrs. Brown entered the score on Davida 's record . " Last time it was six . Keep it up and you 'll be on grade level by the end of the year . " <p> Puffed with pride , Davida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the class . " She picked up her bookbag , hesitated , then leaned toward the teacher and whispered behind her cupped hand : " Miss Brown , that boy live ' round my way . He baaad . He be cuttin ' school , playin ' cards and figh -- . " <p> The boy 's voice rumbled deep in his chest . " You better not be talkin ' ' bout me , girl . " <p> Now , Mrs. Brown belonged to that genus of teacher who had no fear of young rowdies . As his tough-sounding words fell on her ears , her round , dusky face hardened ; her short , grizzled hair seemed to stand up like the ruffled feathers of an agitated setting hen . <p> She dismissed Davida with a flourish , then , eyes narrowed , she rose slowly , folded her arms and leaned toward the boy sitting across from her desk . <p> " Young man , " she said in her deep voice , " my name is Mrs. Brown . In this room students do not threaten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ glared at the teacher ; his eyes met a piercing glare that had deflated a thousand belligerent egos . His eyes wavered , then fell . <p> After a measured silence , the teacher spoke . " Now , I believe that envelope you 're carrying is for me . " Eyes still on the boy , she sat down . " You may bring it to my desk -- after you remove your headgear . " <p> The boy snatched off his cap . " ' Scuse me . I forgot . " <p> Mrs. Brown waved him to the chair next to her desk , opened the envelope and drew out a scribbled note : ' Gerald King . 15 . Disc/transf . No recs . TRUANT . Test/placement G.8 . ' <p> Annoyed , she tapped the note . She had been too busy to eat and had delayed her lunch until this last period of the day . She thought of the turkey-raisin sandwich in her locker and her stomach muttered . She looked over at the sullen boy who was now staring dejectedly at the floor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back the next day , he might not return for weeks . And the sandwich would keep . She pushed the note under a corner of her blotter , then wrote his name on a blank 3X5 card . <p> " Well , Gerald , you seem to need a reading test . " <p> " What for ? " The boy 's leg began to jiggle . <p> Nervous , Mrs. Brown wrote on the card . " We like to know something about you before we assign you to a group . " <p> " In the other school they put me in class right away . " <p> Without answering , Mrs. Brown handed him a book from a pile on her desk . " Read up to page five . " <p> Opening the book as if he expected it to explode , the boy peeked in , then pushed it away . " This is a baby book . " <p> Obstinate , wrote Mrs. Brown . " Why do you think that ? " <p> " It 's skinny . And ai n't nothin ' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mighty oak from an acorn grew . " She held out a card with 10 words listed in large print . " Read these . " The boy ran a shaky hand over his head . " Oh , man . " <p> " Ca n't read them either , huh ? " Pre-primer , she wrote . <p> He swelled up , " I can re -- , " then subsided beneath the teacher 's steady gaze and muttered . " I just do n't have my glasses , that 's all . My mom got to get me some new ones . " <p> " Tell it to the Marines . " Mrs. Brown shook the strip under his nose . " Read any word you can . " <p> The boy drew his head back and studied the words . He pointed . " Is . " He pointed again . " The . And this one 's A. " <p> " Yippee . " Mrs. Brown wrote the three words on the card . " When 's the last time you 've been to school . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' about me . " <p> Mrs. Brown tapped the slip of paper on her blotter . " This note says you 're a truant . " She wrote a problem in long division on a sheet of paper and handed it to him . " Do this . " She watched the boy closely as he worked the problem . <p> " That was easy . " <p> Reasoning O.K. , Mrs. Brown wrote on the card . Now it was time to prick him , see if there was anything in him but hot air . She looked over at him slyly . " You say arithmetic is easy , but you ca n't read . Now what does that mean , that you 're too dumb to do both ? " <p> " No ! " The boy 's eyes flared , then cooled . " My grampa said I was smart . He the one showed me how to figure . How to drive , too . " <p> Sensitive , she noted . " Where 's your grandfather now ? " <p> The boy shook his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little prodding , he told her about a six-year-old boy whose teenaged mother left him on a tobacco farm in South Carolina where they were living with her parents . There was pride in his voice as he talked about helping his grandfather with the hoeing , planting and harvesting , sometimes even driving the truck to town with the crops whenever the old man got sick . " That 's why he taught me how to figure . So nobody could cheat me , " he said shyly . After his grandmother died , he missed a lot of school and fell behind . It seemed important for him to be with his grandfather , so he stopped going . Then two years ago , his grandfather died and he ran the farm by himself for a year . It was a tenant farm , and when the owner found out about his grandfather 's death , he contacted the boy 's mother . " So I had to come live with her . " He sighed . " But I sure was doin ' better down there than I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brown . " You ca n't do better if you get kicked out of school for misbehaving . " <p> Gerald hung his head . " Them kids laughed at the way I talk and called me ' country ' . So I fighted them . But they kept on , and I kept on , so the principal sended me here . " <p> " Every school has enough home-grown hoodlums . " <p> " I ai n't no hoodlum , ma'am . " The boy spoke with quiet dignity . " Else I would n't be here today . " <p> " Maybe . Or maybe you 'd be in a family court . " <p> " No ma'am . I come on my own . So my mother and stepfather stop arguin ' over me . " <p> Mrs. Brown regarded the boy 's scowling face , his slumped shoulder , his work-hardened hands trembling on his thighs . Her heart tightened . Her stern face softened . Now here was a boy with a logical mind , mother wit , determination . But he was caught in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not want to be freed . Was she to late ? She would find out . Face set , voice hard , she said , " Sit up , sir . Look at me . " <p> Facing her sheepishly , the boy hitched his body up . <p> Mrs. Brown looked deep into his eyes and said , " You are 15 years old and you are illiterate . " She paused to let that awful word sink in . " You ca n't read . Can you ? " <p> The boy 's eyes filled . " No ma'am . " His voice was husky . <p> Mrs. Brown almost relented , but she had trod this path for many years . Her voice was soft . " Others can . " Now urgent . " Why ca n't you ? " <p> The boy frowned , then pressed his lips together and stared at the floor as if he would find the answer there . At last he shrugged . " It just seem like ai n't no system to it . " <p> That answer did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ similar ones . " Well there is . In fact , we have an easy one here , " she paused significantly . " But a lot of kids do n't want to learn it . That is , at first . " <p> The boy eyed her suspiciously . " How come ? " <p> " They say the other kids laugh at the books they use . " <p> " Then they stupid , " snorted Gerald . " They be laughin ' at ' em anyway ' cause they ca n't read the real books in class . " <p> " But not for long . " Mrs Brown leaned forward . " A few years ago a boy named Alfred came here in the seventh grade . He read worse than you . His mother moved around a lot , so he 'd been in sixteen different schools before he got to this one . He was never in one school long enough to learn how to read . " Mrs. Brown tapped the book that Gerald had rejected so disdainfully a few minutes earlier . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ book in one period . " <p> Gerald 's eyes widened . " This book ? " <p> " Alfred piled right on through it and seven others in three months . He pulled up from reading no grade to fourth grade in half a year . And when he left here in the ninth grade , he was reading like a champ . " She sat back , reminiscing . " Of course , Alfred was smart . " <p> " I could do the same thing . " <p> " Alfred was logical , too . He could figure things out -- " Mrs. Brown snapped her fingers -- " like that . " <p> " Me , too . And I can do arithmetic good . " <p> " And Alfred was determined . He was serious . Once he came to school with the flu and we had to send him home . " <p> " When grampa died , I ran the farm all by myself . " <p> " Pooh , " scoffed Mrs. Brown . " If you had stayed on that farm , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gets your age , " she continued , " if he wants to learn how to read , he has to have a thirst . Like a camel that smells water after a long trip across the blazing sands of the Sahara Desert . Learning to read is frustrating . Some days you get so mad , you want to quit . Now , this boy Alfred I mentioned , he loved music . He wanted his own saxophone . But it cost money and his mama had three other mouths to feed . So he had to get a job . Well , the man who owned the supermarket told Alfred if he learned to read he 'd give him a job . See ? " <p> Gerald was now on the edge of his seat . " I got a good reason for learning to read , Miss ! " <p> " You told me . " Mrs. Brown closed one eye like an old hoot owl . " To stop your parents from arguing about you . " <p> " That 's why I came today . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I want to learn to read . " He patted his pocket , then withdrew a small white booklet . " This is the real reason . " On her desk he laid a driver 's manual , stained and creased from folding . " My stepfather , he fix TVs and vacuum cleaners , and he say since I can already drive , if I get my license , I might can go with him sometimes . I got to learn to read so I can git me a license when I turn sixteen . " <p> Soberly , intently , tented fingers pressed against her lips , Mrs. Brown regarded Gerald like a cat watching a fledgling 's first attempts at flight . " That might do . " <p> " Please , Miss ! I know I can read that book today . " <p> Mrs. Brown eyed the clock . " We 'd be here after school ! " But at the boy 's pleading look , she opened her desk drawer and pulled out a work packet of white squares and a set of capital letters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her head as if in doubt . " I usually take three days with the regular kids . " <p> Gerald hitched his chair closer to the teacher . " I 'm ' a learn this system today . " <p> Mrs. Brown placed a big red M on her desk . " First of all , letters have sounds . This is Em . Listen . " Mmmmm . " She rubbed her stomach . " Like mmmm , good . Next we blend the letters with little words . " She laid a white square in front of Gerald . " The word on this card is AT . " She laid the M in front of the card . " Now say the sound of Em , mmmm , then say AT . " She pushed the M toward the AT card , " And you get mat . " <p> Gerald was flabbergasted . " Like a mat in gym class ? " <p> " A little word , " said Mrs. Brown , " but it can grow . Mat . MATCH , " more intensely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blinked . " Why , that 's easy ! " Soon he had blended most of the letters with the AT card . " What 's next ? " <p> Mrs. Brown dealt him five AT cards , " We play cards . " <p> " Cards ? " <p> " To reinforce what you just learned . And , " she winked archly , " to spice things up a little . " She dealt herself five AT cards and piled the red letters on Gerald 's desk . <p> Then the teacher with a witch 's fingers and the boy with a farmer 's hands played cards . How she laughed to see that boy grunt and gasp and spit as he struggled to make lips , tongue , and teeth produce those little words . <p> With less effort did Hercules defeat Anteaus . <p> Finally Mrs. Brown tapped the book on Gerald 's desk . " Read page one . " <p> Nervously , Gerald smoothed the page . " Nat . Nat ... is ... ay cat . " Following his long brown finger , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nat ... is ... ay ... FAT ... cat . " He looked up . For the first time he smiled , grinning as if he had just read the first page of a Dickens novel . " He sound just like my cat . He orange and real fat . And lazy . You like cats , Miss Brown ? " <p> At 3:20 Mrs. Brown was making a notation on Gerald King 's card . ' 2/19 . Read 30 pages , Book 1 . ' <p> There was a light tap on the door and Davida Davis appeared in the doorway with a sheepish look on her face . " I come to say I 'm sorry for actin ' up when that boy come in . " <p> " You 're forgiven . " <p> " He took a Book 1 . I just seen it in his back pocket . " <p> Mrs. Brown chuckled . " Rolled it up , did he ? " <p> " Yuup . When you gave me that book last year , I felt so stupid . I was n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how that real smart boy named Alfred pulled up four grades in a half a year , and I said I could , too . Remember ? " <p> Mrs. Brown smiled down at Gerald 's card . " I remember . " <p> 
##1002258 We do not breathe alone , " Albertina Woods solemnly proclaimed . I sat at her feet , a conjurer 's apprentice , squatting outside her paling two-room sea island house set in a small clearing surrounded by ancient oaks and cypresses dressed in silvery moss . The house gaped at the narrow dirt road and the rolling sea beyond . At the end of a honeysuckle and wild grape-lined path , a sagging three-step porch held both our weights . <p> I had waited all of my life for this moment . <p> I had traveled a staggered line leading to Albertina Woods after seven years of searching for that one particular , absolute truth , the one truth I would be able to set the rest of my life by . <p> I was certain Albertina Woods possessed knowledge of this truth . Inside my pants pocket glowing like a soft burning light , the yellowed newsprint was folded into a careful square . That news article was the singular match , the flame leading me to this old woman , this broken-down porch . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beautiful revelation , " Albertina Woods continued , as if each word spoken were a seed planted in soft yielding earth . " Did you know this ? " she asked . I shook my head slightly . <p> " Those newspaper people always overlook everything else I tell them . They just want to talk about the pink dolphin . But you make sure you get the story right , " she said . <p> I nodded my head , giving her a small gift of reassurance as I bent over the yellow tablet I held in my trembling lap . She reached down and stroked my nervous hands . I looked into her eyes and felt no more fear . <p> Was it true what they said about Albertina Woods ? She did not look like a woman who 'd had innumerable lovers . She was tall at eighty-eight , strong-voiced with wrinkleless skin the color of palmetto berries , her laughter , a strong dark wine . <p> Still , it was hard to imagine her rail-thin body as once bewitchingly seductive . <p> She turned her fading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lips to reveal proud white teeth , her own . She slowly shifted her weight on the smooth planks of the porch until the fabric of her festival-colored dress pulled tight across her thighs . Albertina 's hair covered her head in thin white strips . Her fingers were warm , sinuous . <p> " You think a witch can not have lovers ? You think an old woman like me has never known how to ride ? " <p> I turned my face from her hot question , turned and stared at the flowers in her yard , their blossoms like large vermilion heads nodding in the slow southern breeze . <p> " All the time they came around me , begging : make me clean , help me get clean deep down in my soul , Albertina . They came inside this body , my praise house , with the hope that they 'd wash themselves and be released . " <p> She stopped for a moment . Her dress fell between her legs outlining her narrow thighs in sharp relief . I looked away from those thighs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with her moist fingers , sensing my discomfort . <p> " You will have to look at this power , daughter . Look at this power so your soul will be released . " <p> Albertina looked at me and sighed . <p> " You came for the dolphin , did n't you ? Like all the others . " <p> " Some say you had one for a lover , " I said , a question rising behind my eyes . <p> Albertina stared at me . She nodded her head as if she had made up her mind about something . <p> " I could n't work with everybody . One man I refused went to Uncle Friday , the rootworker , and asked for a hand . " <p> " A hand ? " I asked . <p> " A hand , a charm . The man planted the hand under my porch . I never was able to find it . People stopped coming around me looking for comfort . That was all I ever gave . Comfort . I had to make my own hand to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been placed on me . Still , no one would come . Not a solitary soul . Soon , I began to believe I was supposed to breathe alone . Thought breathing alone was the way it should be . Like you , daughter . " <p> She paused and looked at my folded hands , as if blessing the tools in my lap : pencils , paper , pens , tools I used to reconstruct the lives of unknown others . Lives broken . Shadowed . Winged . I did not want to show her my scars , the deep broken parts of myself . They had said her eyes could reach into your soul and hear things . I curled my shoulders , pulled my body back into itself . <p> " Echoes , " she said , her dark eyes scanning my body . " The echoes brought him to me . " <p> " Him ? " I asked <p> " The dolphin you came to hear about . " <p> So , the stories I had heard about Albertina Woods were true . <p> " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he buried under my porch brought my spirit down . Low down . He put the hand down and when I laid in my bed at night I could feel a snake crawling inside my belly , a great snake moving inside my bones . Something had grabbed my soul , grabbed my soul and crushed it into the ground . No one would come around . No one would have anything to do with me . I 'm talking about loneliness now . A deep hurting kind of empty . You know what I mean ? " she asked . <p> I thought about the luminous blue inside me , the great shimmering gap that had brought me here . I nodded my head . <p> " Before the hand , I was a big black red-winged bird . Nothing could hold me down . But when the hand got hold and the snake moved inside me , it seemed as if I could n't do anything to get off the ground . My hair stood on my head like antennae to God . " <p> I reached for Albertina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like fragile birds . <p> " A woman can die without touching . Without hugging . Without love . The hand told me to go into the water , into the liquid darkness . Into a blue so deep it was black . " <p> She stood . I stood . I held her hand as she crept down the three sagging porch steps as if she were once again descending into that water , that wide-lipped sea waiting beyond . <p> " I touched the bottom . The bottom of that blue-black sea . Dragged my feet through mud slick as silk . Creatures wrapped their limbs around my legs , barnacles clung to my skin like crusty jewels . I was as low as I could possibly descend . <p> " Then I felt a sound coming . A sound moving inside my body like raindrops on a tin roof , Click Click Click CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK Click Click Click . <p> " I turned my head and looked into the obsidian eyes of the dolphin . He looked into my eyes , heard my breath rising , heard the struggle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his body beneath almost translucent skin . He had as many scars as we do , daughter . Scars from brushing against life . He brushed his body against mine . Took one of his fins and slowly rubbed my belly . <p> " I did n't want to breathe anymore . I closed my eyes and felt the clicking enter my body . Click Click Click CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK Click Click Click . It seemed as if the clicks were saying : Breathe . Slow . Like me . <p> " The dolphin rubbed my belly again . Low down . Deep down . Then he was inside my body alongside the clicks , moving , pulsing , breathing air into my lungs , the breath of Life , air he would blow through the crescent-shaped hole on his back once he reached the surface of this black sea . <p> " We became water , pink and black water , and we merged inside a voluptuous silence , then turned into one shining muscle of pleasure inside the undulating midnight sea . <p> " The dolphin 's breath pushed the snake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power of the evil hand . " <p> Albertina stopped her story and turned back toward the porch . <p> " Was that the only time with the dolphin , that one time in the water ? " I asked . She looked at me and smiled . <p> " He visits my bed from time to time , " she said . <p> " What is it like , then ? " I asked . <p> Albertina Woods clasped me inside her birdlike arms . " It 's like loving yourself , " she said , holding me as the dolphin must have held her , slow , tight , sweet , until I felt , rather than heard , the sounds of multitudes breathing , the sounds of all living things breathing . And hope rose inside me like a silvery-skinned flower or a fish who has suddenly sprouted wings . <p> " You are never truly alone , you know . Here , " she said , pressing me against her breasts which were not much larger than my own . <p> " Here , " she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Charlotte Watson Sherman is a Seattle-based , award-winning short story writer . Her first novel " One Dark Body , " will be published in 1993 by HarperCollins . <p> 
##1002260 Suppose you lived in another dimension -- one where money really did grow on trees , and parents were made out of money after all . Awesome ! You 'd get everything you wanted , and be thrilled with it all . Or would you ? When our heroes , Ramsey and Elena , hit the mall , they find that it takes more than money to be a good shopper : It takes time and some serious consumer savvy . Let 's join them at Megamall . <p> THE CHARACTERS <p> RAMSEY , teenage shopper <p> ELENA , his friend <p> HERB , the Security Guard and our narrator <p> MRS . STARR , MR . FITT , Salespeople <p> SCENE I <p> SPACEY 'S DEPARTMENT STORE <p> HERB : Here come Ramsey and Elena -- again . Ramsey 's great-aunt sent him a generous birthday check . He 's planning to spend $150 on new clothes and food and supplies for his birthday party . Elena is here as an advisor . <p> RAMSEY : I need a new shirt . Something different . <p> MRS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sold one just like it to A Big Movie Star this morning . It would make you look like a movie star , too . And it 's only $57.99 . <p> RAMSEY : Awesome ! It glitters ! It shines ! And it 's that hip label , Trendy Teen ! <p> ELENA : Wait a minute ! That shirt 's kind of loud -- you might get sick of it . And it requires dry cleaning . That 's expensive . <p> RAMSEY : But money is no object . <p> ELENA : Your birthday money wo n't last forever . And look at these seams . They 're coming apart . And the buttons are falling off . Who cares what movie star has bought it ? Before you buy something , you have to make sure it 's well made . <p> MRS . STARR : Over here you 'll find our lower-priced shirts for the discriminating shopper . <p> RAMSEY : This one looks nice . It 's not as flashy , but it wo n't go out of style quickly . And look , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on tightly . I 'll take it ! <p> MRS . STARR : That will be $25 . <p> RAMSEY : I guess movie stars do n't always know best ... I also need pants . What about these banana-yellow ones ? They 're on sale for $2.99 -- marked down from $90 . <p> ELENA : That 's because nobody wants banana-yellow pants ! And they 're not even your size . Cheap clothes are no bargain if they just sit in your closet . How about a pair of good jeans for $40 ? These are cool . You 'll wear them with lots of different shirts . <p> SCENE II <p> SNEAKER PALACE <p> HERB : Ramsey and Elena resume their quest for sneakers . <p> RAMSEY : Cool ! Exploding Swivel-Tops ! In neon green paisley ! <p> MR . FITT : They are the finest running shoes on the face of the earth ! Every Olympic athlete wears them ! If you wear them , your running will improve dramatically ! <p> RAMSEY : Well , I do n't really run , but maybe with these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much are they ? <p> MR . FITT : They 're on sale for $127.99 . <p> ELENA : That 'll bring you over your limit . Besides , look at the soles -- they 're peeling away from the shoes . ( to Mr. Fitt ) If he has a problem with the shoes , can they be returned ? <p> MR . FITT : Of course ! But you have to send a copy of your receipt and three copies of your grandmother 's immunization record to our New Zealand office . <p> RAMSEY : What do you have that 's cheaper ? And that 's good for walking ? <p> MR . FITT : How about these aerobic cross-trainers ? They 're on special for $59 . <p> RAMSEY : They look good . And they fit perfectly . <p> ELENA : They seem very sturdy . And the plain white will go better with your clothes than those paisley Exploders . <p> RAMSEY : I 'll take ' em . Can you throw in a pair of neon shoelaces ? <p> SCENE III <p> GOOD EATS FOOD @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the party . How about these little bags of chips ? <p> ELENA : If you buy those little bags , it will cost you over $5 for 8 ounces . That 's about 62 cents for one ounce . If you buy two big bags , which will give you about 16 ounces , it will only cost $3.50 . That 's about 22 cents an ounce . You 'll also get twice as much , and you 'll have less waste . <p> RAMSEY : Great ! I guess it pays to buy big bags . Let 's get some ice cream pops . <p> ELENA : Hold on ! You 'll have to buy one pop for each person . Why not get four quarts of ice cream ? You get different flavors , and everyone can take what they want . It 's also a lot less expensive . <p> RAMSEY : Cool ! Great idea ! Let 's go to Pam 's Party Place for some plates and cups . <p> SCENE IV <p> PAM 'S PARTY PLACE <p> HERB : Ramsey really got his money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see how he does at the party store . <p> RAMSEY : Wow ! Paper plates and cups with pictures of that supercool rock group , Flash Flood , in gold embossed leaf ! <p> ELENA : But you only get four plates in a package , and they ca n't even be reused . <p> RAMSEY : Hmm ... Well , if I buy these solid color plastic ones , I get 12 to a package , and I can wash them when we 're finished ! <p> ELENA : Good choice . Let 's get two packages . <p> RAMSEY : Hey ! A flourescent tablecloth ! <p> ELENA : No , look more carefully . The packaging is fluorescent , but the tablecloth is plain white . Why not use one from home ? <p> RAMSEY : You 're right . Might as well save some money . <p> SCENE V <p> IN THE MALL <p> HERB : Moments later , they leave the store with food and supplies for the party , and money left over . <p> ELENA : You 'll have to write to your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> RAMSEY : She 'll be really surprised . Last year , she got mad when I used her check to buy a dancing radio in the shape of a soda can . Money sure goes farther when you know how to shop . <p> QUICK SHOPPING TIPS : <p> 1 . Do n't be lured by gimmicks think twice about claims that famous people have bought the item or that pair of sneakers will make you jump higher . <p> 2 . Look beyond high prices and fancy labels Pay attention to how well an item is made and if you really need it . <p> 3 . Is it really a bargain ? Is it damaged ? Will you use it ? <p> 4 . Learn to comparison shop . Compare brands , store prices , warranties . Look around before you buy . <p> 5 . Do n't let a salesperson pressure you . If you need time to think things over say so . Its your decision and you have to live with your purchase , the sales person does n't . <p> 
##1002264 Mothers &; Daughters : Healing the Patterns of Generations <p> Early one Sunday morning my four-year-old daughter , Veronica , was twirling around the bedroom , displaying her vibrant , plump body . Her face radiated total self-confidence . As Veronica finished dressing , she matter-of-factly queried , " Mommy , I 'm cute , are n't I ? " I smiled and hugged her . As Veronica hugged me back , she said , " Mommy , you 're cute , too ! " <p> I felt tears rushing to my eyes . They were tears of love , but also of remembered pain . I wished that my mother had accepted me as beautiful in my entirety , including my body . In Veronica 's mind , there was no question that her mommy was beautiful . In my mother 's mind , I would be beautiful only if I lost weight . <p> For the most part , my relationship with my mother has been loving . We have shared our interests in reading , sewing , cooking , and attending plays . I have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and she has understood . But my weight has always been an area of conflict . <p> Perhaps that is because my mother has struggled with her own issues about body size . While I was growing up , she vacillated between not caring about her weight and needing to just lose X number of pounds . I soon realized that being chunky was n't okay . <p> As I grew older , life 's increasing demands and stresses pounded on my self-confidence . I started using food as a pacifier of my anxieties . As my weight shot up , I started to hear fat clichs and pleas from my mother : " Boys will never look at you if you 're fat " ; " You 'd look better in black " ; " You 'd be so pretty if you 'd only lose some weight " ; " Do n't eat too much " ; " You do n't need that ice cream " ; " If you would lose some weight , then you could wear clothes like your sisters wear . " <p> My mother tried @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the family doctor , who prescribed a diet . She encouraged and advised me in all my weight-loss endeavors . She even steered me into my career as a dietitian , hoping that I could change my eating habits and lose weight . At the time I did it to please her , but as I began to study I found nutrition quite interesting . <p> Although my knowledge about nutrition increased with each degree , I continued to yo-yo up and down in my weight . <p> After graduate school I moved from Minnesota to California , where there were more job opportunities for me . I enjoyed the challenge of starting a new life , but I really missed my family . Once again , I started to use food to quell my anxieties and loneliness . <p> This time , however , I fought back before my bingeing got totally out of control . I joined the local health club , which had weight-lifting machines as well as aerobic classes . I also worked on eating more nutritious foods and cutting down on sweets . Gradually , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up my body , lost some weight , and improved my eating habits . I felt healthier than I had for a long time . <p> Despite that , I still did n't have much self-confidence about my large body . Then I met Ignacio . Ignacio admired my round plumpness and viewed me as sexy and desirable . He helped me feel good about my body because he accepted and loved me as I was . When I felt depressed , sometimes I 'd talk about diets and losing weight . He would tell me that I was fine just as I was . Other times , he would try to tease me out of my mood by calling me his gordita ( little fat one ) or another silly name . He attempted to make me feel better , but ultimately , I needed to accept myself . <p> A few years after Ignacio and I were married , I became pregnant and our daughter , Veronica , was born . She came screaming and kicking into this world with a beautiful , plump 9-pound , 6-ounce body . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ babies . I did n't worry about her body size until she became a toddler . That was when the specter of my old issues about fatness started to darken our mother-daughter relationship . <p> By the age of two , Veronica was a round-faced , plump Campbell kid . She was the mirror image of myself at that age , which created a sense of dj vu when I looked at her . <p> Around that time I read a research paper on the development of obesity in children . It said there was a strong relationship between the weights of mothers and daughters . If the mother was large , the child was more likely to be large . It also found that fat preschool children were at risk of becoming fat teenagers . I started to worry about Veronica 's future . Would it be similar to mine ? The ugly clothes , the rejections , and the people who hurt me more than helped ? To my horror , I caught myself admonishing her with my mother 's words . <p> I blamed myself for Veronica 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I had control of my weight , then Veronica would be slim . A few months later , while visiting my parents in Minnesota , the crowning blow fell . My mother and I were discussing my weight loss , and she said , " I always wondered how you could be credible as a dietitian when you were so fat . " I felt devastated . I did n't confront her or stand up for myself . I just felt awful . <p> I went back home with my mother 's words ringing in my ears . I spent a lot of time thinking about how my weight was still controlling my sense of self-esteem . I did n't want to spend my life living from diet to diet . I did n't want to poison Veronica 's positive view of her body and herself . I especially did n't want Veronica to waste time having self-doubts and continually dieting or thinking that she needed to . Finally , I did n't want to continue depending on my mother 's or other people 's opinions to validate my own sense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to deal with my insecurities and to nurture my relationship with Veronica . I realized that first I needed to pay more attention to myself . I had to clean up my own excess baggage ( past memories and fears ) and work on accepting myself as I was . I read everything that I could on developing a positive self-image . I did n't lose weight . Instead , I took every opportunity to nurture and feel good about me . I went for long walks and did special things for myself : I got facials and haircuts , bought clothes , and spent many quiet moments by myself . <p> I also worked to stretch my inner self . I actively pursued jobs and projects that interested me and explored new opportunities . As a dietitian , I have taught classes , published a newsletter , worked in research , written articles , and counseled clients . One of my most enjoyable experiences was teaching classes for a nearby health club . I loved teaching there because I was able to stress self-acceptance and making healthy food choices . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ healthy image , and my students and I had a wonderful time . Right now I divide my time between my family , volunteer work as a nutrition consultant at a Head Start program , and writing . <p> Veronica is now four years old , and I have tried to build a strong relationship with her . I focus on loving her for who she is , and I encourage her to explore new interests and new possibilities . <p> I have set certain goals for myself in relation to her . I do n't expect to always succeed , but I am going to do my best . Here are some of my goals : <p> 1 To give Veronica a strong sense of herself . To help her identify and develop her strengths and learn to be patient with herself as she practices what is more difficult for her . To give her some space so that she can explore on her own , too . <p> A few weeks ago our family went to the park . Veronica was fearlessly climbing jungle gyms and swooshing down steep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard on her rear at the bottom . Ignacio said , " Are you okay ? " After determining that she was fine , he said , " You really came off that slide fast . Good thing that you have a little extra padding back there . " Veronica giggled , and then triumphantly marched over to the spiral slide and climbed up again . Ignacio 's example continues to encourage me in my parenting goals . <p> 2 To help her feel emotionally strong . Crying and other expressions of all feelings are allowed and encouraged . <p> 3 To help Veronica develop tenacity . I would like her to always try , even if others say that she wo n't be able to do something . After a good try , however , she can reassess the situation , pat herself on the back for trying , and then move forward or go in another direction . My past tenacity has helped me to achieve many things that I value in life , and I want to pass this on to her . <p> 4 To teach her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deny herself , nor does she need to feel unworthy in any way . I encourage her , instead , to live life to its fullest and to shoot for the sky in her dreams . <p> 5 To expose Veronica to a wide variety of activities -- in sports , literature , music , and other areas . Ignacio and I have very different tastes in music , so Veronica is exposed to a lot of different styles , including ranchera and salsa . <p> We all love baseball , so whenever possible , we participate in or watch games . And I 'm encouraging Ignacio to teach Veronica how to play his favorite sport -- soccer . I think that she definitely displays the spunk and instincts to be a good player . Veronica and I do a lot of walking , an activity that we have both enjoyed since she was very young . <p> 6 To assist her in putting food in its proper perspective . Food should nourish the body and please the palate . Veronica and I are working on being more open to trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and will amaze me by telling me what new food she tried that day . Her ending statement is usually , " And Mommy , it was really good ! " <p> 7 Finally , to learn from Veronica about how to be a mother who helps her daughter feel good about herself -- a mother who supports rather than obstructs , who encourages rather than limits , and who loves her child for who she is rather than what she or others would like her to be . <p> As I go into the living room for a short writing break , I glance at Veronica , who is mimicking the gyrating movements of a dance troupe on TV . She stops gyrating to inquire , " Mommy , I really dance good , huh ? " I reply , " Yes , Veronica , you really do ! " <p> As for my relationship with my mother , it is still loving . I have always admired my mother 's independence and emotional strength , and I hope to pass those qualities on to Veronica . But we have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways , we 're like two boxers tensely circling each other before the start of a match . We 're both waiting to see who will be the first to shake hands . <p> I did detect a slight softening in my mother 's attitude when we last spoke long distance . I told her about RADIANCE and how the articles promoted a positive self-image and discussed the accomplishments of large women . She surprised me by saying that it sounded great . She also commented that she knew many successful people who were large . I replied that being large did n't affect your knowledge or competence , even in health-related occupations . She agreed and mentioned a large nurse who was competent and had a wonderful rapport with her clients and their families . <p> After I hung up the phone , I found myself wishing that we could have settled our conflicts about weight once and for all . Unfortunately , a problem that spans more than thirty years ca n't often be taken care of in one conversation . <p> I still intend to have a long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dietitian , and our past weight conflicts . I want to resolve those issues so that we can enjoy and nurture our relationship . Perhaps sharing this article with her will be a step in the right direction . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> 
##1002573 FINAL FORM <p> I filled a bowl with water , wet my hands , and ran them over the surface of the cold clay , pushing my fingers into it , wondering what shape it would take . I thought of a rock encrusted with mollusks , but I was tired of marine life . I had already attempted a sea urchin the day before yesterday and a fish last week . " I like your people , " Phillip had said . " Make it a person . " <p> " I 'm already making a person , " I had said , touching my swelling abdomen . Lately , when I was sculpting , my stomach got as dirty with clay as my hands and forearms . The clay would soak through my shirt and fasten it to my skin like papier mch . Sometimes I gave up and worked topless . " You 're teaching the kid art through osmosis , " Phillip said one day when he came into the Light Room to find me creating happily , naked from the waist up , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> But this morning , the Light Room was chilly , and I kept my t-shirt on as I worked the clay , coaxing the moisture through it with the pads of my strong fingers . What shape today ? Would I destroy it , telling my self that it was all wrong , that I could never be happy with this as my last piece ? <p> I did n't think I could be a good artist and a good mother at the same time . I did n't particularly like to leave the phone hooked up when I was working ; how could I deal with a baby crying , or a small child wanting attention when I was trying to concentrate ? Phillip had offered to help out , but I thought I would be happier if I gave up my work completely for a while . <p> That decision of course , had been easier to make six months ago . Finding out that I was pregnant happened to coincide with a total lack of inspiration in my work . I had been a too happy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a child would be the end of my creative life . <p> Then one day , a month ago I thought of my last piece : an abstract form in which I used different techniques to create alternately rough and smooth surfaces . It was far from being my favorite piece . Could I happily raise my child with that on my coffee table as the last symbol of my talent ? <p> One more piece - the perfect piece . I was n't inspired , just driven . I knew I had to create something : I did n't know what . <p> At three-thirty , I put the clay in a plastic bag and went upstairs to take a nap before Phillip came home . When I woke up , it was dark outside , and I could hear the news on TV in the living room . I dragged myself to the kitchen to find Phillip digging through the refrigerator . " I 'm sorry I did n't get to the store , " I said . <p> Phillip stood up suddenly , whacking his head on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said . " Did you have any luck today ? " <p> " No . " I said , yawning as I lowered myself into a kitchen chair . " I tried to make a cat . " <p> " Oh , no . You told me to stop you if you ever ventured into cute ' . " <p> " It was n't that kind of a cat , " I said humorlessly . <p> " Jane , " Phillip said , " do n't put so much pressure on yourself . " <p> " It 's just so frustrating ! " I burst out suddenly . " I feel the clay and nothing comes to me . I never had to decide what to make before ; it just happened , and now , nothing 's happening . " <p> I could feel the lack of creativity drying up every part of my life . It was the baby , sucking all the fluid from my body down into my stomach , and when it left me , it would take everything , leaving only a dry nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't good for anything but guiding a baby 's mouth to her breast . I was thirty-six years old , too old to be a mother for the first time . But it was too late to go back . <p> On the following morning , my mother came over without calling . I knew she was still sizing up the situation . On the one hand , she was thrilled that she would finally have a grandchild ; on the other , she did n't like that my method of giving her one involved a forty-eight-year-old Japanese man to whom I was not married . <p> " I brought you an article , " she said , rifling through her purse , past lipsticks and used Kleenex and a pack of Trident gum , to finally extricate a newspaper article that had been cut out with pinking shears . " It says that the healthiest babies are born to women who gain at least thirty-five pounds . " <p> " Thanks , Mom , " I gestured to her to put the article on top of the cabinet by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me . My obstetrician says I 'm gaining plenty of weight . " <p> " I hope you are n't working too hard , " she said . <p> " I 'm not . " <p> " You look tired . " <p> " I 'm seven and a half months pregnant . Of Course , I look tired . " <p> My mother walked around the Light Room and glanced out the window . The only make-up she wore was magenta lipstick , and from what she was wearing , she must have come straight from the gym . " How is the nursery coming ? " she asked . <p> " What ? Oh , the nursery . Well , Phillip has been working on it . " <p> " Oh , " she said tightly . I looked up . " That 's nice of him . " <p> " He 's been terrific ... " <p> " Mmmm ... " my mother said . " I think ... well , I hear , anyway , that being pregnant is easier when you 're younger , like in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Well , I 'm not in my twenties , okay ? " <p> " Oh , Janie , clam down . I just wanted to tell you . " She laughed in that really grating way . " Anyway , I have to go ... now you get plenty of rest and take care of yourself and I 'll call you next week . I can let myself out . Bye , bye ! " <p> " Bye , Mom . See you later . " I looked down at my stomach and wondered why the person who gives the most to you inevitably becomes the most irritating person you know thirty years later . " Just think , " I told my stomach , " someday I 'll be driving you crazy , too . " <p> " I was thinking about taking some time off work , " Phillip said . It was about three weeks later , and he was standing in the doorway , watching me work . <p> " What for ? " <p> " You know , after the baby 's born ... @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do your work . Professors are supposed to take sabbaticals , right ? " <p> " And how long will you take ? A month ? A year ? Or just until I get all this out of my system ' ? " <p> " I just want to help you , " he protested . " You act like I have to interest in this kid at all . I 'm getting old , and this is probably the last chance I 'm ever going to get . " <p> " Oh , please , " I said . " You 'll be fertile for another thirty years . " <p> " In thirty years , I 'll be close to eighty . I do n't want to start another kid . I waited too long already . " <p> " Oh , for God 's sake . " <p> " Listen , I want to say something , and I do n't want you twisting my words around an jumping all over me . There 's a baby inside you . If you do n't take care of yourself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 'm telling you , you are n't taking care of yourself . You 're working too hard and you 're not getting enough sleep . " He grabbed my hand . " Were n't you the one who told me that artists do n't have to suffer ? " <p> " You act like I 'm intentionally torturing our child . I just want it to be proud of its mother . " <p> " Why would n't it be ? You 've made a million beautiful things . " <p> " Well , I want to make a million and one ! " I yelled . Phillip left the Light Room with a frustrated sigh . I pounded the clay with clenched fists as I listened to him turn on his music in the other room . " Wagner sucks ! " I hollered , intentionally mispronouncing the name . " He 's just a jerk , " I told the baby , who suddenly gave what I thought was a violent kick . " Owww , " I said . " Take it easy . " But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrenching pain , and I doubled over . " Oh , no , " I thought . " No , no , baby , " I whispered , tapping myself on the stomach , " no , no , please , not yet . " <p> The pain ended . The baby quiet , I stared out the window . My obstetrician had told me it could be any time now . I would n't tell Phillip , of course , until I absolutely had to : it would n't do any good to have him fussing around me any longer than necessary . After a few minutes had passed , there it was again . First a pulling , stretching that began as the tiniest sensation into the distinct feeling that this kid was about to climb out of me , whatever it took . Oh , God , what was that Lamaze thing ? I had n't gone to the classes , only see the women on TV . " Hoo hoo , hee , hee . " I breathed , but it did n't work . <p> It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one last time . The pain , that was it . A woman being turned inside out , a baby pushing , clawing its way into the world : it was bloody and horrible . I loved it . I formed the woman 's head in a matter of minutes , with its hair fanned out around it , and its lips screaming . No , it was silent ! It had no mouth at all , or eyes ; all the agony was in the arch of the neck . Again and again , the pain rattled through me like an old train . And the body was like a cage , with the baby hanging from the top bars , one hand thrust toward the sky , only it kept falling . In fact , the whole thing kept caving in , but I did n't have time to put in supports , because there was another contraction , tying me in knots . Okay , so the baby could n't hang from the top ; it would stand on the bottom and reach through the bars , out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legs , because Phillip was at the door , " Are you hungry ? " he asked . <p> " No , " I barked . <p> " What 's that ? " he asked , coming into the room to examine my work more closely . <p> " It 's nothing . " I stood up and my water broke all over the floor . <p> " Oh , my God ! " Phillip yelled . " Contractions ? " <p> " Yes , but ... " <p> " For how long ? How close together are they ? " <p> " I do n't know . I have n't been paying attention . I ca n't go yet , Phillip , I 'm almost done ... " It came again , and I clutched my stomach . <p> Phillip grabbed my arm , " That 's enough , Jane . I mean it . " <p> " Let go of me ! I 'm going to finish this ! " But this time the pain was unbearable . I stiffened and arched my neck like the woman I had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helped me to my feet and ushered me into the bedroom to lie on the bed while he called the obstetrician to find out what to do next . <p> Colette had one big clump of soft , black baby hair and pale , yellowish skin ; her dark brown eyes were almost round . She was perfect , and fat , too - a fact I relished . Phillip held his breath whenever he held her , saying that he guessed he was just too old to be a first time father , but I slid into motherhood pretty comfortably . I did n't go back to work , not really . There just was n't enough time . The baby slept most of the time ; when she was awake , I wanted to be with her every second , kissing her toes , tickling her , and taking endless pictures to send to faraway relatives , especially Phillip 's eighty-five-year-old mother in Florida , who was planning a trip to meet her granddaughter in the summer . When Colette was asleep , I went crazy cleaning things ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suddenly a deadly threat . <p> It 's difficult to avoid an entire room in your house , and soon I found my way back into the Light Room , stealing an hour here and there while Colette was napping . I was n't really making much of anything : bookends and a tiny set of furniture for the shelves in the nursery , and an ethnically accurate little bride and groom to sit on top of the sheet cake at Phillip 's and my small wedding , which took place two months after Colette was born . Eventually , the bassinet ended up in the Light Room , and that 's where she slept while I worked on small pieces . " Day , trips , " Phillip called them . I simply could n't be as focused as I had been before . Anything that could n't be finished during the course of a nap had to be abandoned . <p> In May , when Colette was six months old , I was looking through the cupboards in the Light Room when I came across my unfinished childbirth piece @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I were in the hospital , but I had thought he 'd just thrown the thing away . I pulled it out and set it carefully on the counter-top , holding it at arm 's length . It was very crude , but the arch of the neck was as expressive as I had intended . Without supports , the cage/stomach had collapsed , and the unfinished child needed only antennae to resemble an insect . At the time it had seemed so right , but now it only made me angry at how wrong I 'd been . I picked it up and dropped it into the garbage can with a crash . <p> There was a thin wail behind me . I sighed ; she 'd only been sleeping for a hour or so . I knelt down next to the bassinet and tried to get her softly and stroking her face , but she was too alert , so I picked her up and sat back down to my work table . Balancing her in my lap , I began to work once more . " You 've @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Torso of woman making a pot ) <p> 
##1002653 Just this morning , as summer dragged to its sizzling end while the newspaper ads proclaimed ( with crazy Labor Day sales of cheap hotdogs , charcoal , and cola ) that the fun was about to be over , Danny announced to Janet that he absolutely had to get away before school began again . He had , in fact , just sat down at the computer to type his class assignments when he suddenly leaped from his chair and declared that a room at the Sahara cost only $25 ( he picked up the paper and waved the ad at her ! ) , that it was cheaper to go there than to stay at home running the air conditioner , and that he was entitled to a little fun after having spent the entire summer painting and wallpapering the bathroom . They had n't been to Las Vegas in ten years ; not since the three girls had gone to a nearby Girl Scout camp . Shocked at his tone , she did n't quibble . He had n't spent the entire summer wallpapering the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slumped in front of the television watching reruns ; he had peered , daily , into the girls ' empty bedrooms , grumbling that they would doubtless leave their junk there for the next 15 years and how could he ever plan to knock out a wall between two of the rooms and make himself a darkroom ? Indeed , for the last week or two her husband had n't been himself , had n't been her cheerful , balanced , reasonable Danny . ( Janet was never reasonable or balanced , so it did n't alarm her when she found herself flying into rage or sinking into depression . Actually , she was often pleased with all the entertainment , the variety of emotion , with which she consistently provided herself ! ) But Danny 's declaration made her heart leap his tone frightened her . She packed her bag in a hurry . Not much was needed for two days -- two dresses , one sweater , a bottle of aspirin , ear plugs . Hesitating , trying to decide if this trip was going to have that aspect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ French perfume and a pink lace nightgown Danny liked her to wear . Their room was on the 23rd floor overlooking the Strip , the Landmark , Circus Circus , the Wet ' n Wild water slide . They were in the new tower. , where the elevator climbed upward at jet speed , where the king-size bed was firm and covered with a beautiful bedspread , where the choice of TV , room service or complimentary Gideon Bible waited for them . Janet flopped down on the quilted spread and held out her arms to Danny . " A loaf of bread , a jug of wine , and us in a hotel , " she said . " What else could we desire ? " " Do you know where my eyedrops are ? " Danny said . " I feel as if I have sand under my lids . " They played blackjack all evening . Rather , Danny played and Janet hung over the back of his chair , squinting at his cards and trying not to count on her fingers to see if each hand was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'd decided he 'd won or lost a hand the dealer had long since swept away the cards and the bets ( or paid them off ) . Janet was fascinated by the dealer 's hands ( " Nancy from Tacoma , Washington , " said the pin on her shirt ) , by the authority in those slender fmgers . Though the woman chewed gum , and looked wild-eyed under what seemed a long blond wig , her fingers were like a surgeon 's -- powerful , accurate , knowing -- as they dealt cards , threw out chips and raked them back , poked 20- and 100-dollar bills into the lucite slot , and shuffled the contents of the shoe when the cards got too low . At one point Nancy-from-Tacoma extended the yellow card with which to cut the deck to Janet , and Janet felt deeply touched , as if she 'd been chosen for an honor . Yet she did n't take a seat , did n't bet two dollars a hand ( sometimes five ) along with Danny . She did n't want to fmd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was bad . At 10 P.M. she suggested they might need dinner , although she was n't even sure herself that she was hungry . Danny won four hands in a row . His pile of chips stood tall . " Please , let 's eat , " she begged him . " We really need to . " " I think I 'm having luck , " he said . " I ca n't stop now " " All right , I 'll see you around later . Somewhere . Sometime ! ' She thought her hurt tone would capture him , but no -- freed , he did n't give her a glance . Janet wandered alone into the red maw that was the casino . Flashing lights beckoned to her , and she approached the spinning reels , spinning wheels . " Let me make you rich , " a man in casino uniform called out , standing alone at his Wheel of Fortune . " Do you guarantee it ? " Janet asked . " I 'd like a guarantee " " No guarantees , honey , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loose and get yourself some action . " When her money ran out , she wandered out to the pool and sat on a beach chair where she examined the unnatural temperature announced on the unnatural tower of light that rose above her into the heatheavy night . How strange this city was : a fortress of brightness and artificially cold air in a barren , sterile desert . The image of hell came to her . Why did anyone come here ? In every one of the inhabited hotel rooms -- thousands and thousands of lit , draped , carpeted rooms -- couples like her and Danny were here for their chance at luck . Janet jumped off the beach chair . She 'd been on her own long enough . Where in heaven 's name was Danny ? He had dragged her here , he ought to check on her now and then . She rushed back inside , braced for the flood of noise and light and stale air . She began to scan the casino for him . Suddenly every man at every blackjack table looked like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and none of them . Maybe he had left her ! She 'd read of such things : men going out for a loaf of bread and never coming back . Maybe he 'd slipped out of the casino and taken off for Salt Lake City on a Greyhound bus . She might never see him again ! Perhaps it had all become too much for him , being married to her for so many years , supporting three children , sending them to college , going to his job every day , working on the house ( " wallpapering all summer ! " ) . It was no easy deal , taking care of the complicated life they 'd rigged for themselves . When she finally spotted Danny curved horseshoe-like over the table , his back arched with tension , she knew something was not right with him . How had she missed the signals ? She heard herself sob aloud with relief . His body , and he in it , was the most precious form on Earth to her . She tapped him on the shoulder . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was frightened . " She saw that his pile of chips was nearly gone . He had two dollars left . His face was haggard , his eyes reddened by smoke . " Look , maybe that 's enough for now ; ' she said . " Come outside with me and rest awhile . " ## Two lovers were now on the beach chair Janet had vacated . They were facing each other , kissing each other , clinging together in order not to fall off . " I was on that very beach chair just a few minutes ago , " Janet said . " Alone , " she added . Danny stared after her pointing finger . His gaze was glazed , unfocused . She waited till some semblance of understanding slowly came into his eyes . " They 're kids , " he said . " Honeymooners , maybe . " " You and I could have a little honeymoon here , " Janet suggested . " We could forget gambling and go up to our room now " " I had a run of bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said . " I 'd like to play a little longer . " " You ca n't play all night . You 're exhausted ! " She paused . " Danny , is something wrong ? What 's wrong ? " " Nothing , " he said quickly , the way a guilty child might say it , and then he hung his head . " What 's going on ? " Danny shrugged . He looked over at the young couple . " A test , " he said . " What ? " " At the doctor 's . " Lights flashed in front of her eyes . She thought a person might feel this way just before she fainted . Danny swallowed . He stared at the pool . " The doctor said it 's wise to have it at my age . This is when the trouble starts . When you 've gotten this old . " " Oh , Danny , you 're not old ! " " Statistically I am . It 's the same test President Reagan had . They put a lighted tube @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .. " No , it 's routine , " Danny said . " I have an appointment next week . " " It 's scary , is n't it ? " Janet said . " You 're scared . " " Yeah , " Danny admitted . " I do n't want to do it . " She wanted to tell Danny she understood ; she herself was now having a mammogram every year . She knew the sense of what it was like to have your life broken up into yearly segments from which you would emerge free or sentenced . Some of her friends had already had bad news . Real luck was n't winning a jackpot . It was a clean bill of health for another year and the news that you still had an ordinary , difficult , precious life . " And if something 's wrong , " she said carefully , " I 'll be there for you . " He pressed her shoulders tightly . " You 've always been there for me , " she said , " but you 've never asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to be Superman . " Oak Run presents our exciting new maintenance-free Courtyard Villas . Private , spacious and carefree ! Or choose from 9 new single-family home designs . Either way , you 'll enjoy resortstyle living in an adult community with golf , swim club , tennis , security and much more . Priced from the $50 's to the $100's. ## She took his hand and led him to a pair of deck chairs . They sat down side by side . Danny took a deep breath and lay back , staring at the sky . " Look ! " he cried . A pair of birds were coming down from above , shooting down like stars and landing soft as silken feathers on the still surface of the water . Light from the tower played on the iridescent feathers of their necks . " Amazing ! " Danny said , finally . " Beautiful , " Janet whispered . " Lucky we were here to see it . " Danny patted his chair , inviting Janet to join him . She came into his arms and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " she said . Inside the casino a slot machine went off like a cannon . There were shouts and loud hurrahs . They faced each other and , at the same moment , laughed . 
##1002667 SADIE STORIES <p> Alice told me another story some years later when we were both mothers a few times over . Her elder son , the baby born and nursed that dog-pack summer , was never strong . Around six years old , he 'd become very ill with some kidney thing she never divined , and Alice all but lived in hospitals . <p> The hospitals were special children 's centers ; in them , children died every day , and before their bodies were cool , other sick children were in their beds . When Alice came home , she was paler than ever , and she said it would take her forever to forget the children 's faces . When she was home , home was a tiny house outside the village , where she lived with the two body , Sadie and the cats , Moose and Max and Bill . She got divorced quite a while before I did . <p> My three girls and her boys were playing in her yard while she told me this one . That oldest boy had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rubber bags taped to his belly to empty him , all tucked under his T-shirt . He was only home on a kind of leave because they needed his bed , but he looked fine there in the yard . <p> Sadie slept at our feet . We were sitting on towels in the sun , trying to get tan and drinking whiskey sours . Alice 's legs were stretched out on the grass , and we both laughed at how they reflected the sunlight ; they were so blindingly pale . I still like to sun with Alice - she makes everyone else look healthy and brown . Even now , I can almost feel that sun warming my back and legs the way it did when Alice told <p> Sadie and the Death of Toad <p> Sadie had nine puppies in her first and only litter , and every single one of them was different . Two were black , one with short fur , one long ; two brown , one curly , one straight ; two tan , one fluffy , one flat ; three mixed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fuzzy . Two of their fathers we knew : a black standard poodle belonging to the owners of the farm and a mixed something named Tyler . The vet said there were probably more : I suspected the dog pack . Anyway , the pups were all sort of cute and all sort of ugly , and we gave them away to anyone at all . <p> Expect for the nearly prettiest : a golden tan male who actually looked a little like a Lab , except thinner , more delicate . We kept him to keep Sadie company after she got fixed . But she barely even let that poor pup breathe on his own . Sadie was top dog , and she just stomped every bit of spunk out of that pup . He quaked along behind her , belly to the ground , wherever she went . He ate last , peed last , slept last . We named him what he was : Toad . <p> ( Of course , Alice was still on the farm when this one happened ; she just did n't tell it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ - I knew at the time that Toad had come along , but she had no story about him until later when , I think , she needed it . ) <p> Well , Sadie did take Toad out into the fields with her . She showed him how to hunt woodchucks , but she never let him have a bite of one until it had been dead for about three weeks and was stiff as leather . She still pushed him off the porch whenever she was feeling even halfway testy , and she raised her lip if he came anywhere near the water bowl before she 'd slobbered it all over the floor . <p> But whenever Sadie went anywhere , Toad followed . They had the run of the farm . Well , one night , Sadie and Toad went off somewhere and did n't come back by morning . I did n't really miss them because I was making breakfast for my sister from New Jersey and her husband and their four kids who 'd been visiting for a week and their four kids who 'd been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The did go , finally , in their station wagon , and I settled in with a cup of tea , when , shit , back they all came and piled out of the car and stood there on the lawn . The kids were bawling . <p> I went out on the porch . They hemmed and fidgeted , and my sister finally said that Toad was dead out there on the edge of the highway and Sadie was sitting there with him - sitting straight up in front of his body , staring into space . They 'd called her and even held out a piece of one of the bologna sandwiches we 'd packed in with their lunch , but she would n't come . <p> So I got John from the barn ( her husband - on the farm they were still married ) and he got the truck . We went out , leaving my sister with six bawling kids , my two having joined right in . Their description was absolutely correct . Toad was certainly dead , although outwardly perfect . In fact , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and was lying flat , with dignity . <p> I got out of the truck and put my arms around Sadie 's neck . " He 's dead , Sade , " I said . " Do n't you bother . " She would n't move , though , until John heaved Toad into the rear of the truck , then she climbed into the front seat and came home . <p> Back home , she climbed out of the truck and went , once again , under the porch . New hole , just as deep . She took no interest in the funeral we staged for the kids , and she would n't eat for two days . On the third day , though a UPS man sprayed mace at her when she growled at him from under the porch . She just sprang out in living fury and knocked him flat . I had to pull her off his chest , and for awhile it was touch and go as to whether he 'd sue . Anyway , after that , Sadie felt much better , and she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ misses Toad . I think of her , sometimes , sitting by that road , helpless , his body behind her : She 's a farm dog ; she knows what death smells like . She knows he 's gone . But she sits watch all night , and I think she wishes she 'd been a better mother . <p> We nodded wisely into our drinks and watched our children play in the sun . Alice wiped her eyes with the edge of the towel . I never saw her , before or since , cry for her son 's pain or those children 's faces or all the times she left her younger boy with whatever neighbor she could talk into keeping him in those years lost to hospitals . But she cried over that spineless Toad , and even Sadie sighed in her sleep . <p> III <p> Many years later , Sadie died , when Alice still lived in that little house , after all of our children were grown or gone . Sadie had lived an unusual twenty-three years , but she had cancer and arthritis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leg was all twisted from a fox trap . <p> One day , finally , Alice had to call John , even though they 'd been divorced for years , and ask him to bring his shotgun over . Sadie 's tumor had grown right out through her skin , and she was in terrible pain . So John carried Sadie out to the edge of the yard . He put her on her blanket and put the gun to her old black head , and he says ( Alice , for once in her life , did n't watch ; she went to the library . ) Sadie looked up once at that gun , then she laid her head down and gazed politely toward the woods . <p> He pulled the trigger , wrapped her in the blanket , dug a hole ( new hole , much deeper ) , put her in , then threw in her water dish and her last woodchuck skin , and covered her up . Then he went home . He says he shook for hours , but he still believes that a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own dog when the time comes . Alice came back later that day and planted daffodil bulbs on the dug-up spot , and they still bloom like crazy every April , even now , twenty-some years later . Now and again , we go to visit the spot , in spring . <p> But Sadie did n't really stay dead : She rose in Alice 's stories . Here 's our current favorite , as told in Alice 's two-room apartment , no yard , no garden . Life has slimmed considerably , without the children or the men we expected to end our lives with . But right now it does n't seem to matter . Alice is in the rocker , long white hair on small white shoulders . Her hands are folded in her lap and her legs are curled , and she 's telling <p> Sadie Outsmarts the Whippersnapper <p> I was taking a walk with Sadie . She was nineteen years old and one mess . Did that dog smell ? Yes , lord , and she 'd had the cancer for a while and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kept on folding under her when she was trying to walk . It would look as if she 's just suddenly decided to sit down , bang , one her ass . Sadie played it that way , of course . She 'd just sit there , nonchalant , as if she 'd meant to take a little rest just on that spot , and she 'd look around , taking real interest in the view , until she was ready to heave herself up again . Walks with Sadie took a long time . <p> This one day we were going up the hill outside the village , where the road follows the creek . The road goes along the crest of the hill with the creek running fast some twenty yards or so below . Anyway , Sadie was huffing and farting , falling and sitting there in the dust and having one godawful time . I turned around to take her home . <p> It was so hopeless . She trailed along about a hundred yards behind me , clearly humiliated . Then , last straw , along @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circle Sadie , all friendly and bouncy , racing round and round that old exhausted dog . Just really running circles around her - I 'd never seen that expression so true . <p> Well , I wanted to cry . I looked back there and saw Sadie , barely able to stand , growling at the little bitch who paid her no mind , just kept on frolicking round and round . Finally , Sadie started to move . She inched forward while the pup circled madly , enjoying the game . Yapping , bounding , barking - the worst kind of annoyance you can imagine . Sadie ignored her , just kept walking real slow , in a kind of sideways shuffle . <p> I picked up a strong to throw ( Alice holds up a white arm ; it trembles ) , to chase that bitch off . But then I knew . I saw Sadie 's strategy and just stopped my arm , midway . Sadie was moving in tiny slow steps closer and closer to the edge of the hill . And the silly pup was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It took a very long time , but finally it worked , just as Sadie planned . She stood quivering on the very edge of the hill , and the bitch , in a last vast sprinting circle , went right on over that edge and rolled down through bramble and thorn to the creek , where she plunged , wet and whining and thoroughly shamed . <p> And I swear , I swear to every god that lives , that Sadie trotted all the way home , and she never fell once . <p> Oh how that dog lived . <p> Article copyright Governors State University and Helen Hughes . <p> Article copyright Governors State University and Helen Hughes . <p> 
##1002670 LESSONS IN VASTNESS . <p> She frowns and cricks her neck , rearranges her bulk , again and again , shifting her weight first from one haunch and then to the other . I avert my eyes ; read a sign on the fence across from the bus stop . Poor thing , I think , she must be uncomfortable . She sighs . Her great mesa of a belly heaves in what I take to be discomfort . Poor thing , I think again , fancy lugging that great weight around . I find myself looking at her again ; something about her reminds me a little of my Aunt Jeanie , What a pity . Like Aunt Jeanie , this woman could probably be pretty if she were n't so fat . I sit up straighter on the bench , suck in my belly , and count to ten , regretting the Almond Joy I ate this afternoon . <p> Judith , following my eyes , shakes her head , a sneer shadowing her lips as she whispers , " How can a person have so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing about fat , anybody 's fat , whether it truly exists or not . Hers , mine , her mother 's , even strangers ' . I love Judith . I appreciate her concern for my health . But I had to wonder when she put our seven-week-old dachs-hund on a diet . <p> Judith hisses at me . " How can you even look at her , Kim ? " <p> The fat lady shrugs her shoulders , rolling them around and around , first to the front , then to the back . She moves her lips as she crosses her huge thighs beneath her . Plate tectonics - the phrase nudges its way into my head and I lean forward , curious to hear her words . Sitting there , cross-legged , the woman looks almost gracefull for all her bulk , one dimpled hand on each hillock of a knew . She grimaces and then grins at me . " Of course I go and miss my bus when I have n't been bale to do my yoga for the past few days . Bad timing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deeply . <p> Judith 's eyes widen and her eyebrows spike . I know that look and I hate to see it , even directed at someone else . But this time I have to agree with what I assume she must be thinking . Yoga ? I just ca n't see it , this woman the size of India , posturing and breathing like a Punjabi . <p> As if she 's read my mind , the woman laughs and shakes her head as Judith 's nostrils flare . " Yoga 's the key , you know , to withstanding any stress . It 's gotten me through bus rides in third world countries , a few hangovers , even visits from my lover 's family . " <p> I do n't know what to think or say , so I just smile politely and refold my newspaper . <p> Then I hear her rhythmic breathing . She tilts her head from side to side , a small smile beginning to settle across her florid face . Aunt Jeanie . I have n't thought of her in years . Judith @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't know what to make of her . None of them has ever met anybody with so many rules . They 're all back in Illinois , so I do n't have to give them much thought . But this fat lady reminds me of Aunt Jeanie . Jeanie - always dying to dance at family weddings , but her husband refuses . Says the two of them would look ridiculous . Once I asked her to dance with me ; I could n't believe how well that woman could polka . <p> When the driver pulls up , Judith and I follow the fat lady onto the bus . Her orange blouse wrinkles across her massive hips like a sunset over Arizona . I can feel Judith 's revulsion , see her newly remembered resolve to give up ice cream bars and fettuccine as she emphatically turns her head away from the woman 's body , afraid she might catch obesity just by looking . <p> Sometimes I think Judith makes so many rules just so she can feel disgusted when she breaks one . Nobody matches Judith for motivation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ herself . I bet she 'll dig out her Danskins and head for the spa as soon as we get home . As we get off the bus at Canterbury Square , I see the fat lady on the bench at the back of the bus , eyes closed , knees akimbo , her belly heaving in slow , rhythmic swells . Her monumental fingers curl a smile in her lap . <p> I was right about the spa . In fact , Judith insists we both go . <p> " I saw that candy wrapper in your briefcase , Kim , " she says as she tosses me my sweatpants . " You 're gon na have to work if you do n't want that fat roll to reappear above your waistband . " <p> I pull on my sweats , grumbling , " So when did love handles lose their allure ? " <p> After workouts , we eat a dinner of shrimp salad ( dressing on the side ) , two slices of melba toast , and Voslau mineral water . What I like best about Judith 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feels she has been " good . " Sure enough , after dinner , Judith suggests we treat ourselves to fresh strawberry daiquiris at the Blue Note . <p> To my surprise , the fat lady is there , her arm a small continent on the shoulder of her partner . Her hair is moussed . Her nails and lips are carmine , as are her shoes . I watch her pay the waitress for three glasses of water and a gin and tonic for her friend . She smiles up at the waitress , who seems to know her . " We plan to dance until the band goes home , honey . So be sure to keep us in water , ya hear ? " <p> Suddenly I realize I do n't want Judith to notice the fat woman . So I direct her attention to the stage , laugh unusually vigorously at her jokes , point out the new neon sculpture above the bar . But my efforts to protect the woman are futile . She seems to conspire against herself , sabotaging any chance of being inconspicuous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and golden across the promontories of her breasts . She laughs out loud , of glee , as she pulls her partner into the middle of the empty dance floor . My sweetheart sucks her teeth with scorn . <p> I wave at the waitress , order two more drinks . Judith wants popcorn . She hesitates , then remembers how good she 'd been at the spa and dinner . She can afford a little treat . As long as it 's not buttered , it 's no great sin . But no distraction is big enough to keep her from staring at the fat lady . She shakes and shouts , whoops out loud as she heaves her groin in thunderous counterpoint to the bass player 's thumping rhythms . <p> Judith coughs on a handful of popcorn . She splutters , " Would you just look at her ? How can she flaunt her deformity like that ? " <p> I do n't know why , but I blush . When Judith declines to dance , I suggest we go home . <p> Back at the condo , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the curtains and wallpaper , Judith eats a bowl of celery and carrots , painstakingly calculating calories consumed , calories spent in the past day . She does n't even need to consult her calorie counter ; she know it all be heart . As she shrugs my lips off her shoulder , the ruffles of her Laura Ashley nightgown strike me as incongruously soft across the starkness of her breastbone . Arsenio smirks from his usual spot just beyond the end of the bed . Then he starts in on Roseanne Barr . <p> Groaning quietly , I escape something I ca n't exactly name , but I know it 's hard and vicious and contrary . I pull an eyelet pillow across my face , its softness and bulk somehow comforting . Suddenly I see that fat lady on the dance floor as Judith and I left the club . Her hands were like islands around her partner 's waist , their bodies joined and moving to the rifts of the saxophone . <p> Judith chortles at Arsenio 's poison , punctuating the crunching veggies as she lies so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fullness of the pillow , I visualize sequins sparkling over the vital cosmos of that woman 's body . I imagine her as she kissed her partner , exploding galaxies of passion visible there between them , a smile as big as the universe on her fleshy lips . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Illustration ( A heavy woman ) <p> 
##1002674 I wish I had a movie camera , because then I could start this story at the beginning , where all stories should but usually ca n't start -- at the beginning of the day , on a flower , I 'd watch with you , we 'd both wait the minute or the hour that it takes for the flower to open , a rose let 's say , so we can visualize it , a white rose , a white rose that opens with the sunrise and reflects the sun 's color and reveals on each petal a single word , you can make out a couple though not all of them , sister , you read , and died and August , but you ca n't see all the words , nor how they fit together , until I stop the camera and pull the petals from the flower and lay them end to end , in other words , until I write this story 's first line : Martin died in August ; in September , my sister was married , and already something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a flower . <p> And whose beginning is this anyway ? Mine ? My sister 's ? The beginning of her new life , she called it on the phone . Most of summer 's humidity had burned from the air when she called . The telephone was hot against my ear , through the open window came a haze of heat , and as she told me about her new life , I wondered what her old one was , and why it ended , but I did n't tell her this , I just pulled loose threads from my cut-offs and dropped them to the ground six floors below . She says , So I do n't even have to ask if you 're coming , just when , right ? I think of an old joke -- coming ? I 'm not even excited -- but I settle for , Next week , and then she puts my father on and he asks me when I 'm going to start my new life , and I laugh and let him insist on buying my ticket even though I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 23 , and I have Martin 's money too , now , but I do n't tell him that . And I do n't remember him hanging up , only the phone 's unh unh unh unh , and then , after I unplugged it , its silence . <p> The lesbian who booked my flight remembered my destination , not my name . Hi , Aruba ? she said . I nodded , smiled , sat in the chair her finger pointed to . This time I 'm going to another state , I said . I She waited , finally asked , Which one ? Kansas , I said . You 're from Kansas ? Yes , how 'd you know ? Only people from Kansas go to Kansas , especially in September . Soon enough she handed me a ticket . Here you go , one Emerald City Express . We laughed . She caught me with a question on my way out . Wedding , she asked , or funeral ? She laughed again . Both , I said , and did n't laugh , and left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home . <p> The Emerald City Express takes its time ; from New York I fly to Kansas City , from K.C. to Wichita , from Wichita to Garden City , and there my mother and my sister greet me as I get off a plane whose single prop blows hot dry air through my body . My mother kisses me and says , Three years . Susan just stares , at my mouth it seems , and I wonder if my smile is that forced . Then Susan coughs and says , Lord , but are n't your teeth white ? Who'd 've ever thought you who never brushed your teeth would end up with such white ones ? The teeth-brushing part is n't true : I brushed every day , twice a day , just not very well , and I had a fiercely satisfied sweet tooth which I 've since lost ( when Martin went macro two years ago I did as well ) . This is what goes through my mind , not these words but their images , and other images too , of my childhood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oreos and milk after school , and driving me to the dentist ( this wo n't hurt a bit ) , and sixteen cavities later , driving me home ( an ice-cold milk shake will make your mouth feel much better ) , and then these images give way to New York and Martin pulling organic vegetables and brown rice from a shopping bag ( they think that diet has something to do with it ) . I remember all this -- the mind works fast , it does n't take too long , but it takes long enough -- and my own forced smile is reflected on their faces : three identical smiles , as it 's my mother that Susan and I take after . I laugh and I resist the urge to say , Who'd 've ever thought a lot of things would happen ? and instead I lean forward and kiss Susan , which surprises her , and I pick up my suitcases , one containing underwear and socks and T-shirts and shorts and all the letters Martin ever sent to me , and the other some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turns cool , and all the letters anyone -- except me -- ever sent to Martin , and I say , Congratulations . <p> Martin died in August ; in September , my sister was married . Martin died early in the month , on the third to be exact , at a little after 3 in the morning , in the hospital . My sister 's wedding is on the 30th , so really , two months , not one , separate these events . That 's time enough to process a lot of information , and that 's what I did , turn it into information , like a computer does : Martin is dead , I told myself . My sister is getting married . Turning it into two discrete units like that made it easy for me to believe they had nothing to do with each other . And do they have anything to do with each other ? Should they ? Should I have said , Susan , my lover just died , I want to attend your wedding but frankly , I 'm not up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a while , can you postpone it ? But of course that raises an entirely different issue : telling my family -- whom I love , and whom I 've come to depend on more and more as the world seems to make less and less sense -- that I 'm gay . It 's not them I depend on , not exactly , but my memories of growing up with them , how sane everything was then . And my family loves me too , but there are some things they do not accept and -- and , yes , I 've tried , I 've approached the subject a hundred different ways , and every time I see my mother start to smooth her hair , my sister rub her flat palms across the tops of her thighs , my father push his hand under the lip of his stomach that hangs over his belt and scratch , I stop . There 's just nothing I can do about it . I 'll sit in the back seat , I said , when my mother offered me the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seat and I 'll look at the backs of your heads as you talk to each other about the bridesmaids ' dresses and last-minute alterations and this other man , Galen , the groom , who was due the next day from Chicago , where he was on business . It was easy to be quiet in the back seat , to think about all this and yet not mention any of it , to look at those two , at their perms , at the gold highlights etched through the brown hair on both of their heads , and on mine too ( the brown , not the gold ) . Susan , I said , Did you do Mom 's hair ? Susan is a cosmetologist . Yes I sure did , she said , and I 'm going to be doing Galen 's for him tomorrow too . This seems to be a new thing with Susan -- the inclusion of extra words at the beginning and middle and end of everything she says , so that it takes her twice as long to say something as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ask her about this . I did n't say , Why do you feel the need to talk talk talk about nothing nothing nothing at all ? I only said , It looks nice , and then I said , I 'm tired , and I lay down on the back seat , closed my eyes , and thought about Martin , my husband , my dead husband . <p> Dinner : an implosion . Meanings conflate , and everything becomes confused . Blurred , maybe blurred is a better word . My father and my mother and my sister and I sit around the kitchen table , which is circular , like a compass , and I , tucked into a corner of the room , feel like I 'm at its bottom , where S should be , and my father is at N , my mother at E , my sister at W , and during dinner I make what I will come to consider a mistake . I remember that we had a dog once , a gray German shepherd named Bashful , who was anything but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until I slipped her pieces of meat , and who died when I was 5 or 6 . I 've always said that a person who does n't talk at dinnertime has something on his mind , I heard my mother say , and -- oh , Mom , why 'd you do it ? Could n't you have been a little less caring for once , left well enough alone ? I looked up from my mashed potatoes at her . Who me ? I said . No , nothing 's on my mind , I said , and I thought just then ( maybe it was the potatoes ) of the way Martin used to be able to shoot a stream of cum three feet into the air . Our first time together , it flew over his shoulder and splashed on my pillow . ( My ex used to call me Tex , he told me . Why ? I asked . Because I was always shooting over my shoulder . ) Now my father said , Aw , come on , John , you have n't said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an earnestness to his words that put me off . I looked at my plate again , then at my mother . Food 's great , I said . Do n't try to change the subject . What 's wrong ? I just looked at her . It was like the compass needle had somehow managed to swing away from north and was pointing at me , like an arrow . Cum was flying in front of my eyes like carbonated milk , landing on the roast , in the gravy , mixing right in with the creamed broccoli . Hey everybody , my sister announced from the West Coast , I 'm gon na be walking down the aisle in a couple of days , this is my day , maybe we could maintain a more cheerful atmosphere ? My head snapped in her direction . All of a sudden I wanted to spit . Does n't she know , I thought , ca n't she tell ? My sister sat back , visibly frightened , and I felt the hardness in my face , realized then that of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I had n't told her . That 's when it happened . I had to make up some excuse , something , explain myself . <p> My dog died . <p> The words trotted out of my mouth like little animals themselves . They pranced across the table and licked up Martin 's cum . I looked at Everyone , one at a time , my sister , my father , my mother . They all looked confused , and just a little scared . My dog died , I repeated . I had him for a really long time , I guess that 's why I 'm acting so strange . After a moment my mother broke the silence . I 'm sorry , dear , she said , and then they all picked up their forks again , their knives , they cut their meat and brought food to their mouths , and they were quiet for the rest of the meal . I guess they , too , all had things on their minds . <p> This story was originally conceived for but not published in Dale @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Strauss &; Giroux ) . Peck has also contributed to Out , Outweek and QW . <p> 
##1002677 Later , when she was much much grown , Ogyaanowa was to ask herself what she would have preferred if she had been consulted : <p> staying in their room and watching her parents fight ; or sitting outside at the dining table , pretending to eat porridge and hearing them quarrel . <p> Actually , that morning , no one had consulted her . She had had to eat the porridge as part of having to get ready to go to school . She wished she did n't have to go to school . She wished she had already gone to school . She wished , maybe , she had n't had even to wake up . She did n't know that morning that she was thinking of these things . All she knew was that she was very unhappy . <p> Just ask anybody . There are many thoughts that come into our minds which we are not aware of , at the time we are doing the thinking . Feelings can be even worse . <p> Ogyaanowa did n't feel like eating any porridge that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of porridge fell off the table . The bowl , which was plastic , rolled away , building a solid line of porridge on the floor . Ogyaanowa started to cry . <p> The commotion that was coming out of her parents ' room was terrible . They had turned the radio on , thinking the noise from it drowned their voices . It did n't though . True , if you were trying to listen from where Ogyaanowa was sitting , you would n't have been able to make out the words ; although you would also have known that something was going on that was not quite normal . But for the child this had become quite regular . At least , that is what she might have said if anyone had asked her about it , and if she had had a more grown-up language . <p> When Esi opened the door to the bedroom , she was quite surprised to see Oko still in bed . <p> Strange , she thought , for a man who takes his work as seriously as he does . <p> She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dressing table , took what she would need , and brought the things to her side of the bed ; some cream for her skin , a deodorant stick , a very mild toilet spray . She sat down , and picking these one by one , she started getting her body ready for the day . <p> As for the day , it was very young ; but already the breeze that was blowing was maturely hot , as expected . In the course of it , for the next ten hours or so , there might be slight variations in temperature , a centigrade down , a few fahrenheits up . No one would take notice . <p> As she picked this up and poured a bit of that into her palm and rubbed it on parts of her body , Oko looked at her . Lying down and watching her go through the motions of dressing was a pleasure he was fully enjoying this particular morning . It occurred to him then , as it had occurred to him on countless other mornings before , that Esi had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ schoolgirl ways . <p> For a teacher in a coeducational school , and soon to be a headmaster of one , this is a very dangerous thought indeed . He scolded himself . <p> Esi was a tall woman . That fact made a short man of Oko , since people mostly expect any man to be taller than his wife , and he was the same height as her . She was quite thin too , which gave her an elegance that was recognized by all except members of her own family . When she was younger and growing up in the big compound with her cousins and other family members of the extended family , she had had to be extremely careful about starting a quarrel with anyone . Because no one lost the chance to call her beanpole , bamboo , pestle or any such name which in their language described tall , thin , and uncurved . <p> I love this body . But it is her sassy navel that kills me , thought Oko , watching the little protrusion , and feeling some heating up at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's mother could have read his thoughts , she would have told him that that dainty affair had nearly killed her daughter . For , instead of healing after a couple of weeks , like any baby 's , Esi 's had taken its time , going almost septic at one point . Meanwhile , as every old lady in the village reminded her throughout her childhood , Esi had been such a grouchy , wailing infant , her tummy had normally looked liked a pumped balloon . So that even when the navel healed , it still stuck out . <p> Soon the bedroom filled out with a mixture of scents . <p> " Are n't you getting up at all this morning ? " Esi finally asked . Following her question , relief flooded through her like the effect of a good drink . For these days communication between them had ground to a halt , each of them virtually afraid of saying anything that might prove to be potentially explosive . And these days nearly everything was . <p> She need n't have worried . Oko had , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and misunderstandings were behind him . Even hopefully behind them both . In any case , he had decided to give the relationship another chance . <p> If you are being honest with yourself , you would admit that you have always given this relationship a chance , he told himself . <p> Thinking of how much he had invested in the marriage with Esi , and how much he had fought to keep it going made him feel a little angry and a little embarrassed . With all that going on in his head , his penis , which had by then become really big and hard , almost collapsed . But since his eyes were still on Esi 's navel , the thing jerked itself up again . <p> He had always loved Esi . And what was wrong with that ? <p> " It 's not safe to show a woman you love her ... not too much anyway , " some male voice was telling him . But whose voice was that ? His father 's ? His Uncle Amoa 's ? He was n't sure that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course those men and their kind hid their hearts very well . They were brought up to know how . On the other hand , they were also brought up too well to go around saying anything crude . No , it must have been one of his friends from boarding school days . They were always saying things of that sort . " Showing a woman you love her is like asking her to walk over you . How much of your love for how heavy her kicks . " And were they wrong ? Look at Esi . Two solid years of courtship , six years of marriage . And what had he got out of it ? Little . Nothing . No affection . Not even plain warmth . Nothing except one little daughter ! Esi had never stated it categorically that she did n't want any more children . But she was on those dreadful birth control things : pills , loops or whatever . She had gone on them soon after the child was born , and no amount of reasoning and pleading had persuaded her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least one more ... a boy if possible . But even one more girl would have been welcome . <p> The fact that his mother and his sisters were always complaining to him about the unsafety of having an only child only made him feel worse . One of them had even suggested that he did himself and them the favor of trying to be interested in other women . That way , he could perhaps make some other children " outside . " The idea had n't appealed to him at all . In fact , for a long time , the thought of sleeping with anyone other than Esi had left him quite cold , no matter how brightly the sun was shining , or how hot the day was . Yet , what was he to do ? Esi definitely put her career well above any duties she owed as a wife . She was a great cook , who complained endlessly any time she had to enter the kitchen . Their home was generally run by an elderly house help , whom they both called " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with her job as a data analyst with the government 's statistical bureau ; its urban development , that is . <p> Good God , what on earth did that mean ? <p> He knew she was very much respected by her colleagues and other people who knew the work she did . So she could not really be trying so hard to impress : leaving the house virtually at dawn ; returning home at dusk ; often bringing work home ? Then there were all those conferences . Geneva , Addis , Dakar one half of the year ; Rome , Lusaka , Lagos the other half . <p> Is Esi too an African woman ? She not only is , but there are plenty of them around these days ... these days ... these days . <p> Esi rose , picked up her tubes and bottles to return them to the dressing table . Oko 's voice stopped her . <p> " My friends are laughing at me , " he said . <p> Silence . <p> " They think I 'm not behaving like a man . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the declaration . <p> " Are n't you saying anything ? " Oko 's voice was full of pleading . <p> " What would you like me to say ? " she spoke at last , trying very hard to keep the irritation out of her voice . <p> " You do n't care what my friends think of me ? " he pressed . <p> When she spoke again , the irritation was out , strong and breathing . " Oko , you know that we have been over this so many times . We all make friends . They either respect us for what we are , or they do n't . And whether we keep them or not depends on each one of us . I can not take care of what your friends say to you , think of you , or do to you . " <p> " I need my friends , " he said . <p> " I also need mine , " she said . <p> " Opokuya is a good woman , " he said . <p> Esi yawned , groped for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Oko snatched the watch from her , and threw it on the bedside table on his side of the bed . <p> " What did you do that for ? " Esi demanded . <p> For an answer , Oko flung the bed-cloth away from him , sat up , pulled her down , and moved on her . Esi started to protest . But he went on doing what he had determined to do all morning . He squeezed her breast repeatedly , thrust his tongue into her mouth , forced her unwilling legs apart , entered her , plunging in and out of her , thrashing to the left , to the right , pounding and just pounding away . Then it was all over . Breathing like a marathon runner at the end of a particularly grueling race , he got off her , and fell heavily back on his side of the bed . He tried to draw the bedcloth to cover both of them again . <p> For some time , neither of them spoke . There was nothing else he wanted to say , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not for a while . <p> What does one do with this much rage ? This much frustration ? This much deliberate provocation so early in the morning , and early in the week ? <p> She could go back to the bathroom and clean herself with a wet towel , just standing by the handbasin . She could go and run a full bath again and briefly soak her whole self up . Either way , she could be out of the house in another half an hour , drop Ogyaanowa at her school , and be only a little late for work . Or she could forget about going to work altogether , wait until Oko had got himself up and taken the child to school , and then have a good cry . She preferred the latter option , but dared not take it . Not show up at work at all the whole day ? And a Monday too ? Impossible . It was bad enough that she was going to be late . A woman in her kind of job must be careful ... <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . He was already feeling like telling Esi that he was sorry . But he was also convinced he must n't . He got out of bed , taking the entire sleeping cloth with him . Esi 's anger rose to an exploding pitch . Not just because Oko taking the cloth left her completely naked , or because she was feeling uncomfortably wet between the thighs . What really finished her was her eyes catching sight of the cloth trailing behind Oko , who looked like some arrogant king as he opened the door to get to the bathroom before her . She sucked her teeth , or made the noise which is normally described , inadequately , in English as a sucking of the teeth . It was thin , but loud , and very long . In a contest with any of the fishwives about ten kilometers down the road from the Hotel Twentieth Century , she would have won . <p> One full hour later , she was easing her car into the parking lot of the Department of Urban Statistics . The car came to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keys from the ignition , dumped them irritably into her handbag , got out of the vehicle with an unconscious and characteristic haste , and literally ran to her office on the third floor of the building . This morning , she did not even bother to find out whether the lift was working . Since if it was , it would have been maybe only the sixth or seventh time the whole year , and most probably the last time before the end of the century . <p> Once in her office , she sat down , first to get her breath back . Then she just sat , uncharacteristically doing nothing at all . She became aware that she was in no hurry to do any work inside her office , or go out and meet anybody . In fact , she was rather surprised at the degree of lethargy she was feeling . She could not remember when last had she felt so clearly unwilling to face the world ... and then with a kind of shock , she realized that in spite of the second bath she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feeling fresh or clean . <p> Clean ? It all came to her then . That what she had gone through with Oko had been marital rape . <p> " Marital rape ? " She began to laugh rather uncontrollably , and managed to stop herself only when it occurred to her that anyone coming upon her that minute would think she had lost her mind , which would not have been too far from the truth . In fact , her professional self was coldly telling her that she was hysterical . And is n't hysteria a form of mental derangement ? At that she got up and went to lock the door . <p> She could hardly remember what commitments were on her schedule for the day . Yes , there was some data analyzing she and her colleague had to do for the Minister . But that , mercifully , was for three o'clock that afternoon . <p> Marital rape . She sat down again , this time almost making herself comfortable . As if the state paid her to come and sit in her office to try @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her was full of disapproval , while the other -- a kind of brand-new self -- could not have cared less . <p> Marital rape . Suddenly , she could see herself or some other woman sociologist presenting a paper on : <p> " The Prevalence of Marital Rape in the Urban African Environment " to a packed audience of academics . Overwhelmingly male , of course . A few women . As the presentation progresses , there are boos from the men , and uncomfortable titters from the women . At the end of it , there is predictable hostile outrage . <p> " Yes , we told you , did n't we ? What is burying us now are all these imported feminist ideas ... " <p> " And , dear lady colleague , how would you describe ' marital rape ' in Akan ? " <p> " Igbo ? ... Yoruba ? " <p> " Wolof ? ... or Temne ? " <p> " Kikuyu ? ... or Ki-Swahili ? " <p> " Chi-Shona ? " <p> " Zulu ? ... or Xhosa ? " <p> Or ... @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't she some long time ago said in an argument that <p> " you can not go around claiming that an idea or an item was imported into a given society unless you could also conclude that to the best of your knowledge , there is not , and never was any word or phrase in that society 's indigenous language which describes that idea or item " ? <p> By which and other proof , the claim that " plantain , " " cassava , " and other African staples came from Asia or the Americas could only be sustained by racist historians and lazy African academics ? Both suffering from the same disease : allergy to serious , honest research ... African staples coming from the Americas ? Ha , ha , ha ! ... Incidentally , what did the slaves take there with them by the way of something to grow and eat ? ... What a magnificent way to turn history on its head ! ... She told herself that when it came to poor history getting turned on its head , there was too much of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anyway ... <p> But marital rape ? No . The society could not possibly have an indigenous word or phrase for it . Sex is something a husband claims from his wife as his right . Any time . And at his convenience . Besides , any " sane " person , especially sane women , would consider any other woman lucky or talented or both , who can make her husband lose his head like that . <p> What does she use ? So well-known stuff ? It must be a new product from Europe or America .... You know how often she travels . " Ei , Esi Sekyi ... and she always looks so busily professional ... and so booklong ! " <p> And here she was , not feeling academic or intellectual at all , but angry , and sore .... And even after a good bath before and after , still dirty .... Dirty ! ... Ah-h-h-h , the word was out . <p> She put her head on her desk . She must have dozed off for a minute or two . She woke up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind cleared , she realized that she had made a decision . <p> Ama Ata Aido is a prominent Ghanian writer , playwright , and poet . Her books include " No Sweetness Here " ( Longman , U.K. , 1970 ) and " Our Sister Killjoy : Or Reflections from a Black-eyed Squint " ( Longman , U.K. , 1977 ) . <p> 
##1002753 Man is the only risible animal . <p> -- Aristotle <p> When the Dublin police came knocking on Gertie Doyle 's front door one day to inform her that her husband Tom had been run over in O'Connell Street by a number 44A bus and was dead on admission to Jervis Street Hospital , Gertie wanted to die herself . She took to running in circles . My Ma and my Aunt Flo had to restrain her from running in circles and from screaming for the Sacred Heart of Jesus to help her . My Ma and my Aunt Flo helped her . Flo was Gertie 's best friend ; they had grown up together , made their First Holy Communion together and had been married together in a double wedding . Their children had all been born around the same time . Gertie and Flo planned it like that ; their husbands were lovely men ; they never knew what to think . <p> My Aunt Flo kept me busy helping Nora , Gertie 's eldest daughter , with the housework and the smaller children , while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which seemed to be an impossible task ; every time they let her go , she ran in circles . Eventually , Flo sent for Doctor O'Donnell to take a look at Gertie , in case she was going out of her mind , with the running in circles and calling for divine aid . Doctor O'Donnell gave Gertie a small white tablet and instructed Flo to give Gertie one more tablet every three hours until all eight tablets were gone , which Flo did . <p> By eleven o'clock that night , all eight tablets were inside Gertie and she was still running in circles , although I must admit that the circles had somewhat slowed down . My Ma said that pills and grief should be kept apart . My Auntie Flo said that medical science had advanced to the point where it knew what to do in cases of extreme grief . My Ma set out a hot cup of tea for Gertie , on the table and announced that if Gertie ever wanted that tea , that she was going to have to stop running around in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five minutes . There is something about the Irish and tea , even in emergencies ; it is not as sacred to them as whiskey , but it comes a very close second . <p> They buried Tom three days later , after an inquest . The inquest was unnecessary in everyone 's opinion , because we knew the driver of the bus had never intended to run over Tom . Tom himself could not benefit from an inquest , but the authorities had to have one . My Da sniffed when he heard about the inquest . When my Da sniffed and said nothing , we knew we were powerless . <p> The funeral took place at Glasnevin Cemetery on a Saturday morning . Gertie made a show of herself , jumping into the grave every chance she got . She held everything up . The priest got tired of intoning in Latin , he had to start the prayers for the dead four times and he ran out of holy water . He cast his eyes up toward the sky when , for the fifth time , during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the grave again , got all tangled up with the ropes and had to be extricated by the pallbearers . We were all glad to get home when it was over . <p> On the way home , I heard all the adults extolling the virtues of the dead man , giving him credit for all sorts of things that were not really to his credit ; he had not been a saint , but you 'd think he was St. Francis of Assisi the way they went on about him . I think they were all grateful that he was the one who was hit by the bus and not them . <p> As time went by , we naturally expected Gertie to go through a period of grief and she did . This period , however , extended itself . She was inconsolable . She sat and cried nearly all the time although thanks be to God she gave up running in circles and screaming for the Sacred Heart . It was expected that Gertie would become involved with her children , taking them to school and telling them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do that . All she did was sit and cry or prevail upon my Aunt Flo to accompany her to Glasnevin Cemetery , where Gertie kept endless vigils by her husband 's grave . <p> Flo kept trying to involve Gertie in knitting woolen stockings and vests for her children for the coming winter but Gertie would have none of it . She insisted that her knitting needles reminded her of Tom . She had knitted cardigans for him on those same bone needles ever since they had met as teenagers . That had been almost twenty years before . Gertie had invested a lot of memories in those needles . When my Ma suggested that it might be better if the needles were thrown away , Gertie went into fresh floods of tears , declaring that she did n't have the heart to throw them out , they held so many memories of Tom . She could n't use them for the same reason . There was no sense or logic to Gertie , she was driving my Ma to drink . Flo had the patience of a saint with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then , into the lives of those around her . My Ma said one day , that Gertie might benefit from a good kick . Father O'Sullivan from the parish church said that God was taking care of Gertie in His own way . I do n't know what kind of a way that was , because she was not getting any better . It could have been that maybe she was n't giving God a chance to get through , but either way , there was no improvement . Even at Mass , kneeling with Flo , Gertie would bow her head and cry , alternating between accepting the Will of God and asking Him , in a loud whisper , why all this had happened to her ; what had she done to deserve it ? Emotionally , in religion , she fed her grief and of course it grew . <p> Gertie lost her direction completely that summer and into the following autumn . She pined for Tom so much that we began to think that she would indeed die away after him . The gravediggers at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stood so often and so still , by Tom 's grave . Flo and Gertie never laughed or joked or gossiped sitting at the kitchen table , smoking cigarettes and drinking tea together , the way they had done for years . There was no pulling Gertie out of her grief ; the spirit of her laughter was gone . <p> September came . The days grew shorter and the rain fell colder . The children came home from school in the dusk and gathered after tea in the closes and doorways , swapping comics and talking about Halloween while the fog blew in from the sea and crept about them . Gertie 's children did not understand what had happened to their mother . The eldest girl , Nora , complained to me , that when her mother cooked , the food had a different flavor than it had when her father had been alive . Gertie 's grief must have been getting into her cooking . At this rate , said Nora , they 'd all be dead in a year . <p> The situation continued over the summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the end of November . My Aunt Flo stood by her friend faithfully and assured us that if only Gertie could survive until the new year , that she would be fine after that . We never knew where Flo got her guarantees . <p> One Saturday afternoon , a dim slate-gray misty day with a wind from the north tearing our faces off , Gertie took it into her head to visit her husband 's grave . It was a perfect day for grief , a typical time for tears and morbidity . Gertie sent Nora over to my Aunt Flo to tell her that she was going to the cemetery and would Flo go with her ? My Aunt Flo pursed her lips and sighed as she buttoned up her coat and tied a headscarf on her head . Anyone could see that she thought this was a bit too much to ask on such a day , but she never said a word . I think she was offering it up to God . He must have been delighted with the sacrifice ; Flo had been very comfortable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sharing a pot of tea , chatting up her husband , my Da , Ma , and myself , with the prospect of a very cozy evening ahead of her . <p> After Flo had left , my Uncle Paddy emptied the teapot dregs into the fire with a vengeance . I thought he was going to throw the whole teapot into the fire , but he did n't . He shook his head and went into the kitchen to read the newspaper . <p> It must have been about half past four when Gertie and Flo arrived at the cemetery . The place was deserted except for the two women . They were probably the only two people who would be in a cemetery on such a day , so late in the afternoon with a cold mist blowing and swirling about the tombstones and dead leaves shivering and whispering on the ground . Flo said she thought she 'd never get out of the place soon enough , it was so eerie . <p> They arrived at Tom 's grave . As usual , Gertie at once became absorbed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Flo moved away slowly , not wanting to look at the spectacle again , of Gertie in this state . She moved down through the aisle of graves and Celtic crosses , trying to take her mind off Gertie by reading the inscriptions on the gravestones . She leaned over to read one : <p> Mary Patricia Keenan <p> Beloved Wife of James Patrick <p> Keenan <p> Born Dublin , 1900 <p> Died Dublin , 1923 <p> Peter Augustine Keenan <p> Beloved Son <p> Born Dublin , 1923 <p> Survived Three Hours <p> God , thought Flo , what a tragedy for that poor man , losing his young wife and son in the same year , probably on the same day . She shivered and pulled the collar of her coat up around her neck for warmth . What a miserable bloody place to be in . She wished Gertie would shut up , the sound of her sobbing was being carried on the wind , making Flo very uncomfortable . <p> All of a sudden , Flo heard a rustle from the tombstone . She told us later that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with fright . She looked down and froze . Something was crawling slowly across the grave . The mist was too heavy to see clearly , but there was definitely something coming out of the grave . Flo tried to scream . A strangled yell rang out over the cemetery and Flo turned to run . She was so confused that she ran in a circle . Something gray and hairy brushed past her legs and she screamed for Jesus to save her . She was sure that the baby Keenan 's ghost had come up out of its grave and was looking for its mother . <p> The rabbit that Flo was screaming about , hopped down through the graves . It was trying , no doubt , to get away from Flo as fast as it could , being as terrified by her as she had been by it . <p> Flo heard a laugh . Now someone had told her once that the devil always laughs at you before he takes your guilty soul to hell . She thought that Satan had come for her . If there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much fear to turn it into full-fledged panic and this is what happened to Flo . All of the guilt Flo had , for whatever infractions she had committed in her innocent life , rose up within her and she realized that the time had come to pay . Not even Jesus could save her now . She ran in another circle , still praying .... <p> Flo stopped suddenly . She knew that laugh and it did n't belong to Satan . It belonged to Gertie . It had been so long since Flo had heard that laugh , that she had not recognized it . She stood still , unable to believe her ears , trying to recover from her fright and her surprise at the same time . Gertie was laughing . Gertie was , in fact , in hysterics . At Flo 's scream , she had looked out of her misery in time to see the rabbit hopping away , disappearing into the mist , and to hear Flo screaming for help and running around in a panic . She had laughed . This was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost a year and brought the spirit of laughter back into her . <p> Gertie Doyle laughed until the tears of mirth ran down her face and mingled with the tears of sorrow she had so recently shed for her dead mate . She leaned across his tombstone . Her handbag fell from her arm and her headscarf slipped from her head . She fell to her knees with laughter , onto his grave and called to her dead husband to look at that mad Flo , thinking that a rabbit was the devil himself , come to get her . She declared to him that she had never , in all her born days , seen anything so bloody funny . Gertie cried with laughter ; she cried and laughed at the same time until the two became one thing , and then something else . She thought she would die laughing . <p> Flo arrived , breathless , beside Gertie , grabbing her , gasping with fear , still , and incoherently trying to explain what had happened . This only served to send Gertie off into fresh peals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of looking at Gertie before she gave a giggle herself . In another minute , the two women were totally into it , convulsed with laughter , unable to stop , holding one another up , grasping each other 's hands , begging each other to stop , or they 'd die , there in the graveyard . Gertie Doyle gasped out through her laughter , that they would n't have far to carry them after they found them ... their laughter rang out across the gloom of the cemetery and out over the walls , up into the trees and twilight sky ... it rang around the grave of Gertie 's husband and its tears fell upon the soil covering him . <p> It was almost pitch dark before the two women finally left the graveside and made their way , still laughing , through the huge gates . They laughed all the way home on the bus and told the bus conductor what had happened . He laughed so hard , he forgot to take their bus fares . The people on the bus , who had n't even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . They were laughing and they did n't even know what they were laughing at ... laughter was everywhere and people were helpless with it , over Flo and her rabbit . <p> Flo and Gertie arrived home at six o'clock , just as the Angelus was ringing . My Uncle Paddy was about to cook his own tea . He had to put down the frying pan and listen to what had happened and he laughed heartily when he heard the story . Even my Da laughed out loud when he heard , and he was n't even a laugher . We all sat around the fire , talking and laughing about it until almost seven . The story would never be forgotten , indeed , it would gather more humor as time went on . <p> Suddenly , Gertie caught sight of the clock on the mantelpiece . She jumped to her feet , and buttoning up her coat , declared matter-of-factly , that she really had no time to sit and chat ; she had a family of her own waiting for her at home to be fed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be put to bed . Then she had ironing to do . We would have to excuse her , but she had to go , thanks very much for the tea and the laugh . <p> Flo walked to the front door with her . We could hear them laughing as they said good-night and as Gertie closed the front gate , Flo called out to her to watch out for any rabbits on the way home . The last thing we heard was Gertie 's laugh as she ran down the road home . <p> My Aunt Flo came in and sat down by the fire . She smiled and shook her head . She looked at her husband . He smiled back at her . We were all smiling . My Da sniffed . Then he smiled , too . <p> " That 's that " he said . <p> And it was . Gertie never again grieved for Tom , or if she did , we never saw it . She came back to herself . She picked up her bone knitting needles again and knitted double time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were well fed , warmly dressed , and happy . Flo and Gertie sat again at the kitchen table , smoking cigarettes and drinking tea like they had done before . They gossiped about the neighbors and laughed about the things their children said . They went to Mass together , they did their shopping together , and their world together became what it had been before . <p> One day Flo asked Gertie why she never went any more to Glasnevin Cemetery , to visit Tom 's grave . <p> Gertie said that she really did n't need to go anymore . <p> That was one thing my Aunt Flo never understood . <p> I doubt very much if Gertie Doyle understood it either . <p> McKenna Byrne , born and raised in Ireland , is a prizewinning poet and fiction writer now based in Chicago , Illinois . <p> 
##1003056 Granite Dreams . <p> At night , spirits sometimes rises from the river and , spreading their wings , disappear into the desert . When this happens , the nocturnal creatures stop their movement , and all the players in the mystery fall deadly silent . <p> Or so Hortense , the postmistress , had believed for forty years . Ever since that night almost a lifetime ago , when Nathan had disappeared at the river 's edge . She had been witness to the spirits ' capers and had locked their secret deep inside . <p> She was seventeen at the time , and Nathan and she had just been married . It was n't a marriage of love and hope . In her mother 's eyes , and in the eyes of all the other people living in the small town bordering the desert , there was no other remedy . She was pregnant . <p> It had been Nathan 's idea to take horses down the river for a honeymoon trip . " We can follow it out of the mountains and onto the desert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 've always wanted to go out there , and I guess this is my last chance . My daddy says there 's good fishing and hunting , and no one 's around . It 'll make a great place to spend a week . " <p> Hortense had always dreamed of going to Paris or London or even Budapest for a honeymoon . She had nurtured the dream since childhood . Though she desperately wanted to see the world outside the desert , she doubted it would ever happen . She had no idea at all what sort of dreams Nathan might have had about life . <p> He gave his horse a kick and started down the trail . Hortense followed with the pack horse . <p> It was early spring , and a shower hand turned the bare desert into a riot of life . For miles , blossoms screamed orange and red . Willows and cottonwood and tamarack grew along the river bank , and creatures were hiding behind the fresh growth . <p> Hortense and Nathan rode on silently . Occasionally , one of them would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down at the river , but they did little talking . Hortense could already see that their relationship had been defined by the desert and the small town which scraped an existence on its border . The thought did not make her happy . This was not her vision off what life should be and especially what her life should be . <p> She watched Nate riding the horse in front of her , his rifle hanging from its case on the side of the saddle , and she wondered again what had caused her to sell her dreams . <p> Late in the afternoon , after the mountains had faded in the distance and the horizon had ceased to look real , they stopped to rest at the water 's edge . The landscape shimmered in the heat as though it were all part of an immense Monet canvas . A single cloud drifted overhead . <p> Nathan climbed off his horse and stretched his legs . He pointed at a beach alongside the river . " We 'll camp there tonight , " was all he said . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up the bank was the broad gravel beach . She stared at it for a while and imagined seeing this setting as a picture in a gallery in New York City . <p> " Come on , Tense . Snap out of it . The night will catch us without a camp . " <p> She looked at him and smiled before getting down from her horse . Nate was already taking the gear from the pack horse . " I 'll gather wood while you unpack . " <p> At the river 's edge , she found a large boulder to sit on and carefully took off her boots . The water flowed right under her feet ; she watched its muddy surface for some time , dreaming of another life , before slowly trusting her feet to the water . <p> The sky had turned to a deeper twilight when Nation again called her name . He had his arms full of driftwood and looked around before letting it fall to the ground . " Are you okay ? " he asked . " It 's getting late . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do n't you start the fire . " <p> It was almost dark before she snapped out of it . The water had turned her feet cold . She put her socks and boots back on before returning to camp . Nate must have started the fire because it was burning next to their unpacked gear . The tent was set up but there was no sign of him . He must have gone back into the bush , looking for more wood . He would be back soon . While she waited , Hortense opened the packs and began preparing dinner . <p> Some time later , she heard the first sound . It was somewhere off in the bush . At first , she expected it was Nathan coming back , so she did n't pay it much attention . She continued with her chores . <p> Nathan , however , did n't appear . <p> Hortense turned and listened . In her mind , she had s picture of him crouching behind a bush waiting for her to walk nearby so he could jump out and scare her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how long it would take him to get bored and make another noise . She counted to fifty , all the time imagining his face out there in the bush . In the corner of her eye she thought she saw something move . She whirled around , expecting to catch Nathan sneaking up on her . <p> Nothing was there . <p> She went back to her cooking , putting the camp pan on the coals and throwing the meat in . Across the river a doe came down to the water 's edge and quietly drank . A breeze filled the air , softly at first , coming up from the river , carrying the smell of an unknown something . She searched the campsite with her eyes and then turned to the brush . She walked across to the horses and looked around There was n't any sign of Nathan . Twilight was filling the sky . <p> She called out his name . Shadows moved across the river and through the camp . With each passing moment , the shadows grew deeper . It seemed that Nate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . She was n't sure how long he had been gone . She called his name again . <p> The first hint of fear touched her in the silence after her voice finished echoing off the cliff on the far side of the river . The only sounds were those of insects and the flow of the river . <p> She walked down to the river and went along the bank . In the sand were footprints , but it was much too dark to follow them . The trail , if that were what she were on , disappeared in the gloom . All around her the brush was thick and impregnable . <p> Again , she called Nathan 's name and listened . Her voice reverberated from the rock cliff and then echoed back and forth down the river . She called out another time and then another . Still there was only the river and the insects . <p> Scared now , she ran back to the camp . Twilight had turned into night . Long shadows crept out from the fire and danced through the bushes . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of view . In the darkness , she could n't tell whether they were larks or bats . <p> On the way back , she lost her footing . Twice she slipped on the river bank . The second time , she careened down and into the water . The current grabbed at her an tried to pull her away . A branch flashed by and she grabbed hold . Something large like a body brushed against her leg and was gone in the water . <p> She pulled herself up the bank and stood soaking wet before turning and running back to the camp . Sitting down , she tried to steady herself . She did n't cry . Her clothes dripped water and her boots sloshed . She looked around for a sign of Nathan , but he still had n't appeared . <p> But he had been back . At her feet was a fresh load of wood back to camp and then left again . " Nate ! " A chill went down her spine . <p> " Nate ! " Slowly , she got up and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it had n't been there before . <p> The surrounding desert was unusually quiet . For a moment she could n't even hear the eternal sound of the river . For just a moment , she thought to ride back to town . <p> Not something she could see , or even hear , but she felt a sensation she had never felt before . The unknown feeling came from all around , but more than anywhere it seemed to be coming from the other side of the river . She almost thought she could see something standing in the dark on the far bank , watching . <p> She hurriedly picked up another piece of wood for the fire . There was a cry - the cry of a human baby . The sound was distinct . There was no doubt . It was coming from somewhere on the water . A chill again ran down her spine . <p> The cry came again . This time she located the direction as coming from up river . She could hear it clearly , and then there was another cry , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though it were out in the middle of the river , right in front of her , strapped to a raft . It cried and then there was another cry , this time closer and then another . It sounded as thought it were out in the middle of the river , right in front of her , strapped to a raft . It cried out once more , and then there was silence . She threw the piece of wood on the fire , wishing she had enough wood to light up the entire desert . <p> The baby had passed . The cries were further away , drifting down the river . Retreating . She could n't see it . She could n't see anything . A mist was rising from the river and filling the darkness . Even with the added wood , the fire seemed to put out less light . The shadows approached her from every direction until the firelight seemed only a sickly puddle that hesitated and threatened to disappear . <p> For a moment , she was n't sure where she was . There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , faded into a general whisper and finally left just the rumbling of the river . <p> While she had been distracted by the crying , something had silently swam across the river . Now , instead of watching from the far bank , it was on her side . She distinctly felt its presence not far from where she stood . Again , She thought of running for the shelter of town . <p> The haze separated for just an instant , and in that space , something short straight up into the air . It moved above her and began to billow out like nothing she had ever seen . She stood , transfixed , as it climbed higher until it towered over her head and leered down at her . <p> She did n't move . She stood and stared , her feet locked to the ground in terror . <p> The mist swirled and formed a huge looming body with dozens of arms waving in all directions . On the ends of the fingers were eyes which blinked and twinkled as they circled her head . It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything she had ever imagined . She almost expected it to speak . <p> Instead , it just loomed closer and closer , sending its arms around and around until the desert had disappeared and there were just the eyes . Then , as abruptly as it had risen from the river , it disappeared . She was left alone , standing beside the dimly burning fire , feeling small and insignificant and lost . <p> She turned back to the fire and saw the food had cooked . Very little time had passed , just seconds . Somewhere in the direction of the mountains a coyote called , a signal for the entire desert to come to life again . The air was cooling , and the creatures were moving out of their deep burrows to prowl the desert floor . <p> Another person might have gotten on her horse right then and run for help . She would have called out her missing husbands ' name as she slowly retreated to the horse , and then she would have headed the horse down the trail and left the spot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and staring into the fire . When she was finished eating , she went down to the river and washed the dishes . <p> When she returned to the fire , she noticed the flames had burned down . There was n't much wood left . She sat by the glowing embers and listened . After a while , she got up again and went back to the horses . She checked the three of them and made sure they were fed before leading them down to the river for water . <p> She watched carefully as they drank . Nothing was unusual . The moon had come out over the distant mountains and filled the sky with orange . The river flowed by . Nothing unexpected . When the horses finished drinking , she walked them back up the hill . Before turning back to the fire she took Nathan 's rifle from his saddle . <p> The night had turned chilly . The stars had come alive . She took off her outer clothes and climbed into the bag , the rifle right next to her . <p> Several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ big going through the brush on the other side of the river . She listened as the sound disappeared , and then went back to sleep . <p> Again , the sound woke her . This time , it came from up the river , right along the shoreline , moving through the brush . It was n't an animal . Animals do n't make that much noise if they can avoid it . The sounds were conscious and deliberate . <p> She sat up slowly . The fire had burned down to only a few coals . The moon had risen in the sky and was now white . A spark shot up from the fire , flared , and disappeared . <p> Whatever was down at the river was making no effort to hide its movements . It was coming steadily toward her . She cradled the rifle in her arms and waited . Down by the river , a branch was torn from a tree . With it came abrupt silence . The thing could not have been more than a hundred paces away when it stopped and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the dark waiting . Another hour passed before she again heard movement . She must have dozed again , when suddenly she jerked awake as something fell into the water . Again , silence . <p> She strained her eyes , but she could n't make out anything in the dark . It must be standing in the same spot where she had watered the horses . It was moving very slowly . she was n't sure if it could see her , but she fumbled with the rifle , nervously putting a round into the chamber . <p> She raised the rifle . She could barely see the outline of something . Then it stood up -- it stood up like a man and it stumbled once and fell to the ground before standing again . She knew it was n't Nate . It stumbled straight toward her . It was something evil , something that ruined lives , something that forced people to swallow their dreams . It took several more steps and then fell and let out a loud , painful cry . <p> She pulled the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a scream that was cut off , and then there was silence . It sprawled there on the ground not moving . When the fire briefly flared up , Hortense could see the blood and its face . <p> She did n't move . She sat still , while the light faded and she was alone in the dark . <p> After a while , the desert animals started stirring again . The insects filled the air , and she could hear the river . It took her a long time to break the trance . All the while she stared at the body , half expecting it to rise into the sky and disappear . <p> Nothing happened . Nothing . <p> Finally , she got up and approached the corpse . She could n't see it very clearly , but all the while she kept the rifle ready , waiting . Nothing moved . The spirit was dead . She could see it was motionless on the ground . <p> She watched it silently for some time before she came to realize what it meant . In the morning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She tied the lead of Nathan 's horse to her own and headed away from the river and back down the trail . From a rise over the river , where the trail came out on a rocky prominence , she stopped and turned around . <p> There was nothing there . She could barely see the ashes from the campfire . The spirit was longer on the ground . During the night , it had returned to the river . She had dragged it down to the water 's edge and , after wading out into the swift current , let it go . She watched it float down the river and quietly disappear below the surface . <p> She stood up on the hill , examining the scene behind her and thinking about what she would say when she returned home . She could see them coming back out here and looking for Nathan . She could see all the people down there walking along the river bank , searching through the underbrush . she knew that they would be wasting their time . <p> She shook her head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be nothing left . He was gone . <p> It was n't until then she allowed herself to cry the first tears at the loss and of her new life . She waited until the tears stopped flowing , and as the sun rose higher into the desert air , briefly let her thoughts fly to Paris and London before giving her horse a kick , beginning the long journey before her . <p> Article copyright Governors State University and Helen Hughes . <p> Article copyright Governors State University and Helen Hughes . <p> Illustration ( Horse with rider leaving at slow pace ) <p> 
##1003066 The Moon Over Crete : Part Five <p> The story so far : Eleven-year-old Lily learns that her flute teacher , Mrs. Zinn , can time travel to the past . Lily convinces Mrs. Zinn to take her to ancient Crete , where women and men are true equals ... before invaders destroyed their culture ! Mrs. Zinn warns Lily not to tell about the coming invasion , because it 's too dangerous to change history . But Lily loves Crete , her new friend Mashi , and Mashi 's family so much , she is determined to warn the Queen . <p> Last time , at the start of the Autumn Festival , Mrs. Zinn surprised Lily by saying they would return home to the present the next day . As part Five opens , the Festival is ending and Lily has made up her mind . <p> The sun was in the west as people streamed out of the palace . Finally , among the last trickle of people . Mrs. Zinn wandered out arm-in-arm with Phyra , the head priestess . Lily was almost afraid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it would be too late . <p> " Mrs. Zinn ! I have to talk to you ! " <p> " Phyra , I 'll talk to you later , " Mrs. Zinn said . She put her arm around Lily and gave her a little squeeze . Lily realized again how nice it was to be taken seriously . Mrs. Zinn would stop talking to Phyra for her ! <p> " Mrs. Zinn , we ca n't leave Crete yet . " <p> " Why not ? We 've been here a long time already . " <p> " Well ... " Lily was n't sure if she should tell Mrs. Zinn the real reason , but she needed Mrs. Zinn 's help . So she decided to tell Mrs. Zinn her plan . <p> " I have to warn of the invasion . They 'd never believe me alone and besides , I ca n't speak Cretan well enough , " Lily pleaded . <p> " Lily , I ca n't do that , " Mrs. Zinn replied sternly . " I 've taken a vow not to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them we may cause more harm than good . " <p> " Then I do n't want to go home , " Lily said , Looking into Mrs. Zinn 's eyes . " I want to stay . Mashi and her parents said I could live with them . " <p> " But Lily ! " Mrs. Zinn leaned forward and her brow was wrinkled . " Wo n't you miss your parents ? Do n't you miss your friends ? <p> " I guess I 'd miss them for awhile . But I have new friends here . And I can go wherever I want . I can say anything I want . I can be friends with boys and they do n't make fun of me . And I get to do grown-up things , like go dancing . " <p> Mrs. Zinn looked at her quietly . Lily was glad she 'd thought of this solution to her problem . Her heart felt lighter already . <p> The next day , as Mrs. Zinn prepared to leave , she was still telling Lily the disadvantages of staying in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see a movie , and most of all , she 'd miss her parents . <p> " Here 's what I 'm going to do , " Mrs. Zinn continued . " I 'll take this handful of seeds with me and sprout them . Then I 'll come back when they 've grown . An equal amount of time will have passed here in Crete . Then you can tell me if you want to come home . " <p> Lily ran her finger over the small round seeds . " Are you sure it will work ? What if they do n't sprout ? " <p> " If you 're worried about that , you 'd better come with the now . But I ca n't take you back unless you want to go and you put your mind to it . And yes , there is chance that it wo n't work . <p> Lily thought about this possibility . Was she really sure she wanted to stay ? Mashi was so happy that Lily was staying . But still - what if Lily never saw her parents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Lily ask , " what will you do ? ' <p> " If I come back using the green coin we used to get here this time , " Mrs. Zinn explained , " I 'll arrive at the same time as we did before . But because you wo n't be with me , it would be like you were at home with your family . You would never have been in Crete or know about the trip . " <p> This logic was a little confusing to Lily . But she knew she did n't want to lose her memory of Crete . " Then do n't go that , Mrs. Zinn . " <p> " I wo n't . In fact , I plan to leave the coin here . I 'm taking other things from today back home - so I could come back to this particular time - although I suppose you would never want to go home at this time . " <p> Lily thought she understood this too , and nodded . " Mrs. Zinn , ca n't you stay just a few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it would only be to give you more time to figure out how to tell the Queen what you know . And I want no part of that . " Lily knew she was right . There was no solution but to let Mrs. Zinn go . <p> " I 'll leave now . " Mrs. Zinn stood up . She looked hard at Lily one last time . " Good luck . " Mrs. Zinn said Softly <p> Lily sat straight up in bed and screamed . Mashi jerked awake and rolled over . <p> " What 's wrong ? Lily , wake up ! " <p> Mashi 's parents , Inasha and Edani , ran in . Lily sat up , looking bewildered at the crowd in her bedroom . " What happened ? " <p> Inasha held Lily . " You were screaming . Did you have a dream ? " <p> Lily blinked for several seconds . She took a deep breath . " Yes . A bad dream . " <p> " Tell us what it was , " urged Inasha . " It 's not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Well , " Lily began . " I was down at the dock with Mashi . We were adults . Suddenly , we felt the ground shake . The sky got darker , and I looked out to sea and saw a huge ship . It was so big , it blocked the sun . Its sails looked red - like they were dyed with blood . And there were people on the ship-they huge too , with They had dirty hair and beards , and they were pointing giant swords and arrows at us . <p> " Then suddenly , we were on the ship , in a small dark room . The giant men shouted , " We are going to kill you all and destroy your palace ! Your Goddess ca n't protect you ! ' Mashi and I were crying and calling to the Goddess , and- " <p> Inasha gasped and Lily looked up . Inasha 's eyes were wide , and her face was white . <p> " That 's enough for now , Lily . " Inasha 's voice was shaking . <p> Mashi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mean ? Is that going to happen to us ? " Mashi 's eyes were terrified . Edani was clutching Inasha 's hand . <p> Inasha stood up . " Mashi , I want you to be strong . Fear never solves anything . Help Lily remember her dream . " Inasha and Edani left quietly . <p> The next morning . Inasha took Lily to a quiet orchard to talk . " Lily , " she began , " what you saw in your dream - it was n't just scary for you alone . You received that dream from the Goddess . She is telling us something through your dream . <p> " I do n't want to alarm you , but since you were chosen for this dream , I 'll tell you the whole story . The Goddess has been sending us this message for many years . The priestesses received visions that our palace would be destroyed , that people who did n't care about the Goddess would come and kill us . People do n't know about these visions because the Queen is keeping it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I know-I work in the palace , and I talk to the Priestesses . " <p> Lily was confused and stunned . " Does Mashi know this ? Does Edani ? " <p> " No . I do n't talk about it with anyone . I will wait until the Queen is ready . " <p> Lily had carefully planned her strategy - thinking up what the dream would be about , planning a night to scream . She thought Inasha would believe a dream . That way , Lily would n't have to go into the whole story of how she was a time-traveler and knew about the destruction . Lily was delighted that her plan had worked so well . <p> But now Lily understood why - Inasha knew all along ! Even the Queen knew ! And they still had n't been able to prevent the invasion . Yet , to tell them , Lily had risked never going home again . Her head was spinning . She did n't know what to do . <p> " Come on , before you forget your dream . " Inasha @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Where are we doing ? " Lily scrambled up after her . <p> " We 're going to tell the Queen . Do n't be scared , " Inasha added when she <p> Map ( Knossos ) <p> 
##1003067 BUSINESS FROM THE heart <p> It 's 3 A.M. There is a soft knock on the front door . A large , pretty thirty-three-year-old woman with dark brown eyes rouses herself from sleep on the couch . She gently wraps a sleeping child in a blanket and carries the child into the arms of her father . <p> " Thanks , Dezirae , " he whispers , " you 're a lifesaver . " The child does n't stir and will wake up in her own bed . <p> The woman is Dezirae Rose -- a wife , mother , and the owner-operator of Rose Day-Care , located in the small town of Bristol , Tennessee . <p> Bristol , nestled in the Great Smoky Mountains , lies on the Tennessee-Virginia border . A quiet town , Bristol has been hard hit by the recession of recent years . A major steel manufacturer was only the first in a series of plant closings and layoffs -- from coal mining equipment to government missile production . In the past seven years , more than five major manufacturing and production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is run out of the Rose home , a restored one-hundred-year-old Victorian giant located in a quiet Tennessee neighborhood with a gorgeous view of the mountains . Dezirae shares her home with her husband of fifteen years , David , and their two children , eleven-year-old Christopher and seven-year-old Tiffany . <p> " Are 3 A.M. pickups the norm ? " I ask . <p> " Well , " Dezirae smiles , " both her parents were laid off their previous jobs and were lucky just to find work . There was no one to keep their little girl . Someone gave them my name , and I just could n't turn them away . " <p> Not turning anyone away has become Dezirae Rose 's trademark . " This is my business , " she says , brown eyes flashing , " and I 'll run it my way ! " <p> And that way is from her heart . Rose 's dream of starting her own child-care business began after she took a staff job at a large day-care center in Nashville . <p> " I decided that this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few changes . We the staff were told not to get too personal with the children . Can you believe that ? " She laughs . " How can you not get too personal with children ? My idea of a day-care center is that it 's not just a preschool , not just a baby-sitter , but a place a child enjoys coming to . Another home . Instead of saying I go to day care , ' the children I keep say , I go to Dezirae 's . ' And that feels good . " <p> During the day , the Rose house takes on a festive air as children run along the full-length front porch . As we sit down on the front steps , Rose lifts a toddler onto her lap . " This is home for them as much as their real home with Mom and Dad . Some of these kids spend more time here than at their home . Their parents work hard to make ends meet . If parents do n't have to worry about their children during the day , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could understand that . This is my way of helping out others , others not as fortunate as I am . This is my dream . " <p> Rose took the first steps to forming her business just after the birth of her second child . " It seemed like the perfect time . Christopher was starting school , and when Tiffany was born I just could n't go back to nine-to-five . I wanted to be there when Tiffany learned to walk , and I wanted to be there when Christopher got off the school bus . I started out small , of course , and began by caring for two toddlers . " <p> At the same time , Rose 's husband , David , decided to go back to college . <p> " He gave me even more incentive to make my business work , " says Rose . " I knew it was going to be difficult , timewise and financially . But going back to college was David 's dream -- it was important to both of us . After four years he graduated , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a year of caring for one or two children , Rose applied for her State of Tennessee child-care license . Health department and fire department inspections plus a truckload of paperwork followed . The Rose Day-Care center officially opened in 1987 , with seven children . <p> " It is n't all playtime , " says Rose . She also helps the children learn numbers , letters , and colors in preparation for school . " When my first one left for kindergarten , I cried as much as his mother , " she recalls . <p> Although Rose now has a small staff , during our interview several young voices called out for something only Rose could get , or to kiss a boo-boo , or just to come and get a hug . <p> Janice , one staff member , recalls one child 's joy on returning from a trip to the store with Rose ( a special privilege ) with a new pair of tennis shoes . Rose replies with a shrug of her shoulders . " Single mothers have it so rough . This little boy really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little -- great ! " <p> The Rose Day-Care is not the only day-care center in Bristol , but it is one of the few that tries to work with parents and their schedules . <p> " If Mom or Dad is running late , I do n't charge a big extra fee . I try to be flexible . I understand . It 's that understanding that keeps parents from abusing my flexibility . " <p> " But , " I have to ask , " is that any way to run a business ? " <p> Rose just laughs . " Look at those faces ! I 'm in the best business in the world ! " <p> As if her day-care center is n't work enough , Rose is also active in the Foster Relief and Foster Parents Program . Foster Relief provides outside " friends " like Rose to help children and their new foster parents adjust to one another . <p> " My neighbor became a foster parent , and I became her relief worker . When things got tough , she would call me for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working for Foster Relief , Rose and her husband became foster parents themselves , opening their home to a sixteen-year-old girl . " She is one of the family now . It is one of the most rewarding things I have ever done . " <p> Smart decorating separates the day-care area from the family area of the house . The fenced-in backyard is a child 's paradise with slides , swings , and an assortment of riding toys . <p> Of all the children I see playing on this warm spring afternoon , two look strikingly like their caregiver . They are , of course , Christopher and Tiffany , Rose 's very own children . <p> I ask Christopher what it 's like having so many other children around . " There 's always someone to play with . My room has my private things in it , so that 's off limits to others . It 's fun and Mom 's home when I 'm sick or when I need help with my homework . " <p> " Mom 's always home , " echoes Tiffany . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began this whole thing . She just thinks they 're all brothers and sisters . Sometimes we have a squabble or two , but I suppose it 's a lot like having a large family . Except most of these go home in the evenings . David and I like to spend time with our own ' children . They do require some extra attention because of what I do , but we 're pretty much like any other family . " <p> Born in Alabama , Rose describes a happy childhood with three sisters and one brother . " My parents divorced when I was small , but I adored my stepfather . We kids were into everything . My poor mother ! I was a real tomboy ! " <p> The tragic death of Rose 's older sister in an automobile accident pulled the family even closer together . " That was so hard . It hurts to remember . I was young , but I remember everything like it was yesterday . My sister was only sixteen years old . " <p> After she was diagnosed with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surgery , but she never let that stop her . " My mother had been through so much , I was n't about to let her down . I was up and around in no time . The doctors all said it was a miracle . But when you 're nine , you care more about climbing trees than miracles . " <p> Today Rose is still on the go . The Rose family enjoys camping , biking , and Little League games with son Christopher . Tiffany has just started second grade and gotten involved in her own activities . " It 's gotten so busy around here ! It 's hard to believe that some people think just because you 're large , you 're not active . Believe me , I keep going all day long ! " Even the couple 's evenings out are active : their favorite entertainment is a night of dancing . <p> Rose never feels uncomfortable talking about her size . " Why should I ? David is trim and the children are average size , but weight has never been a cause @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 've had our ups and downs , like any couple . My weight was never the reason . David gets upset only if I talk about cutting my hair ! " <p> Rose 's only complaint is her difficulty in finding attractive , workable clothing . " I have to be comfortable . And even though I may end up playing on the floor with a toddler or rolling in the grass , I still like to look good . We do n't have a shop for large women in town , so most of my shopping is done through catalogs . " <p> A child hops by , and Rose returns to the topic of work . " We do n't make a lot of money , but we 're having fun . The day-care center recently became incorporated , and now has a board of directors and an accountant . It has taken hard work and long hours , but I would n't trade my life for anyone 's . I 'm doing exactly what I want to do . That 's exciting ! " <p> Rising from our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " You 'll have to excuse me now . One of the children has a birthday soon , and I have a party to plan . " <p> As I walk to my car , a group of waving hands at the door sends me on my way . I wonder which child has a birthday coming up , and I ca n't help but think , Gee , lucky kid ! <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Photo ( Dezirae Rose ) <p> 
##1003070 MIRROR <p> I hate my body ! From my uncooperative curly locks to those petulant sprouts of hair growing on the tops of my big toes , I find fault after endless fault . <p> My lips are too thin , my chin too elongated , and my nose has the appeal of a circus sideshow . I liked my eyes ... that is , before they mutated from marine blue to green during my high school years . Just on my head alone , one seventh of my total height , I find five serious mistakes to which I fall victim . Shall I go on ? <p> These broad shoulders loom ridiculously past the point considered femine . My wrists shamefully reveal my extra-sturdy bone structure , my long fingers end quickly and bluntly instead of tapering with grace . My fragile fingernails with slenderizing potential offer me no disguise -- they break off despite multiple coats of colored lacquer , hardener , acrylic , and silk . <p> Although you may nod your head in recognition , you may not realize with whom you are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pounds , one might easily understand my savage discontent . But for the most part , I 've given up my laundry list of complaints . The only reason I bring it up now is to share its absurdity : the truth is that I bellowed these lamentations when I was merely 1 fleshy inch from Time magazine 's so-called perfect body . <p> My laundry list continued : In an age when most women felt their breasts needed augmentation , I vainly offered to share my abundance , for I truly believed that as a 36C , I was overstuffed . My 23-inch waist was fine , I thought , but barely fine ; actually I would have preferred 22 . When I stood erect with ankles together , the uppermost part of my thighs also touched -- another sour note in my song . <p> An old high school memory finds me hot with embarrassment when a male classmate shouts rather loudly , " God ! Look at those muscles in her legs ! " Quickly tucking them out of sight , it never occurs to me that his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , those toe hairs . Fortunately , my ever-loving sister brought to my attention their need for frequent inspection and pruning . Imagine that being yodeled over the hilltops ! <p> I learned much later that mine was not a particularly unusual self-concept for a thin woman to develop . And I did not pathologically starve myself as an anorexic , nor binge and purge myself as a bulimic . <p> Women who have been heavy all their lives often erroneously believe that the life of a thin person is carefree , concerned only with , " Which skimpy bikini shall I wear today ? " Yet , owing to a fractured self-esteem , I tortured myself much more back when I had a slender figure than I do now at twice the size . <p> So disturbed was I at the age of twenty by the relatively small bump on the bridge of my nose ( I say this now in retrospect ) , that I succumbed to the plastic surgeon 's knife and had it remodeled . I do n't know if I can say with certainty that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- after all , I picked it myself ( just a little rhinoplasty humor ) . More than anything , though , the surgery simply allowed me to move the focus of discontent from my nose to what I saw as other glaring bodily defects . <p> By age twenty-two I got an inkling that something was amiss when , before breakfast , before getting dressed , and , above all else , before anybody saw me , I raced to the bathroom to remove the smudges of yesterday 's mascara and quickly apply a new layer . Stopping in middash one morning , the unconscious reason for my hasty ritual rose to my awareness : I was extremely uncomfortable with my natural appearance . At that moment I became determined to make peace with my reflection in the mirror . The first step was to do away with makeup for a while . That year I learned to relish the everyday freedom that comes with " the natural look . " I can cry without streaks , sleep without smudges , and , yes , fearlessly face the world every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same time , I also recognized how I used the bathroom scale as a mood meter . Often I would wake up feeling great , but after stepping on the scale , my good mood would foul . Throwing the scale away was one of the best things I did on behalf of my sanity . I no longer ride that roller coaster . Now I wake up free to feel the spontaneous happiness of awakening from a good night 's sleep . <p> During my various sizes of thin , however , I made the same diet gyrations countless others have , including the ski team diet ( grapefruit and poached eggs , I believe -- it made me pass out cold one day from anemia ) and Weight Watchers ( I lost 30 pounds and gained 90 -- gee , that worked well ) . <p> Following this dramatic leap in size and the birth of my daughter , I read Diets Do n't Work by Bob Schwartz and began to come to my senses -- but not completely . Three-quarters of the way through the book , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be 1 ) fat and unhappy , 2 ) thin and unhappy , 3 ) fat and happy , or 4 ) thin and happy . " The problem is , the book does not stop there . The focus is geared toward people who opt for the last choice , to be thin and happy . And what sane person would choose any other path , right ? <p> Choosing to be thin and happy , I turned to the final section , " The Thin Life . " But there I was instructed to give myself permission to love myself exactly the way I was . I wondered , How can I con my psyche into believing that I love myself exactly as I am while maintaining my covert desire to be thin ? Nor could I bring myself to say , " I 'm a thin person " while a robust woman stared out at me from my mirror . In spite of this , the book helped reinforce my suspicion that diets were n't the answer for me . <p> During the next year , I ventured @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be healthier . I read several informative books and abruptly changed my eating habits from traditional American beef-centered fare to tofu , beans , and rice , telling myself all the while , I am not on a temporary weight-loss diet ; I am changing my habits permanently and for the better . Then I asked myself a good question : What is better ? <p> Why , better is more fruits and vegetables , which offer a natural source of vitamins , minerals , and fiber . Better is whole grains combined with legumes , which , I read , offer a more complete amino acid balance with my protein and are cheaper than beef . Better is the lack of cancer-causing additives and preservatives . <p> I could n't , however , avoid the haunting notion that I was trading preservatives in my hot dogs for pesticide residue on my apples . And to buy organically grown foods , I recognized , would have been prohibitively expensive and inconvenient beyond my tolerance . And finally , I admitted to myself , after losing twenty-five pounds , that my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I gained seventy pounds back . Another rousing success . <p> But would n't you know , right about the time I thought I had given up diets forever , Oprah had been quietly losing weight on Optifast and , with deceptive suddenness , burst on the scene a new woman ! The local news reported that the Optifast program in my area was deluged with new business and had a month-long waiting list . Would I succumb to yet another diet program ? <p> It was n't long before the down side to apparent success rolled in . One report that stuck with me was of a woman who successfully reached her goal weight , only to be told she would need to sustain a ridiculously low calorie intake for the rest of her life to maintain her newfound thinness . You can guess how well that went over . <p> Still , I could n't entirely free myself from the idea that some diet , somewhere , might work . With my last burst of dietetic motivation . I lock-stepped into a Nutri/System clinic and was introduced to a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filling out the health forms , and giving me a tour of the facility and a taste of a lackluster wafer she called a delicious cookie , we sat in her small cubicle to discuss what really mattered here : money . <p> Apparently I had come just at the right time . A big sale was in progress . Even so , my fawn-eyed counselor quoted a still-too-high fee . When I balked at this amazing , low-low-price , she asked a rather curious question : " Well , just how much can you afford to pay ? " I thought , Where am I , on " Let 's Make a Deal " ? With all the respect I could muster , I politely said , " You sound like a used car salesperson . " <p> Visibly shaken , she replied , " You know , I really hate this part of my job . I am a counselor . I teach the behavior classes . I told them I did n't want to sell ; they said it was n't selling . " Her voice trailed off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hand and told her I needed time to think it over . <p> " You wo n't come back , " she sadly predicted . " Few people who leave without signing up do . " <p> Probably because those people had time to regain their senses , I thought , as I made a hasty exit . <p> In the next few days I asked myself question after question . Is acceptance from society worth the pain I put myself through ? Is the pressure to be thin really coming from society ? What exactly is this " society " that has such a hold over me ? <p> Society , broken down into its separate components , is nothing more than just folks . We 're a collection of individuals with our own sets of opinions and morals , which usually vary from person to person . I know this when I look at the changing patterns of my own personal growth . <p> Women may lament , It 's a man 's world . African-Americans may say , It 's a white world . Fat people may believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can see from my two-hundred-plus-pound point of view , we all belong to one minority group or another . <p> When I take responsibility for how I feel , despite the acceptance or rejection of others , " societal pressure " evaporates . Instead , I see that the pressure I feel really comes from within . This is great , because I can learn to change my own thoughts ; I have very little power to change the minds of others . Besides , the " societal acceptance " I should have experienced when I was thin never really made me happy . The truth was that I could n't look directly into my own eyes while standing alone before my mirror . <p> Only once since I turned my back on Nutri/System have I been tempted again to consider the blood-stained path leading to The Thin Life . Watching my husband diet and lose weight , I wondered if I should join him . I worried , Will another woman find my newly slender mate attractive ? Will he leave me ? Will our thirteen-year relationship suffer ? <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " I love you , " I said , " but I will not diet for you . If there are consequences to this , I will face them . " <p> Feeling stronger now , I turn away from the life of diets and perpetual dissatisfaction . When I stopped perming my hair , I discovered that it grew out in natural and relaxed curls . And my thin lips ? Well , unsullied by collagen injections , my husband says they are a pleasure to kiss . <p> Most important , when I stand before my mirror and look deeply into my soft green eyes , I see a person I can live with . The corners of my mouth are upturned in a pleased expression . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> 
##1003071 My Mother 's Daughter <p> I turned thirty this past year . At twenty I expected thirty to be the end of fun , vitality , adventure , prettiness , and desirability . <p> As I approached thirty , with two pregnancies behind me , I weighed 230 pounds . But I had finally grown up enough to be comfortable with who I was . At least I thought so . <p> For my thirtieth birthday , my mother offered to pay my enrollment fees and first month 's dues at a prominent national weight-loss chain . For added incentive , she said my thirty-first birthday present would be a new wardrobe . My mother is not wealthy . I knew the diet clinic and shopping spree would be financed by plastic , which meant my mother was willing to make payments on this gift . It was n't something to be offered or taken lightly . And yet the last thing she said to me gave me a jolt . She said , " You do n't want to spend your thirties like you spent your twenties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the right to tell me how I should live my life ? It 's true she gave me life , but at some point the responsibility for living it has to be mine . <p> I reflected on her comment , and I became more incensed as the insult became clearer to me . During my twenties , I married a wonderful man , and soon after I gave birth to two perfect little girls . <p> I grew my hair out , stopped biting my nails , paid off a couple of cars , and bought some nice furniture . I read a lot of good books and held down some interesting jobs . It 's true that I meant to finish my formal education and did not . It 's also true that we wanted to buy a home and did n't manage that . But I was rather pleased . At thirty I could see life as a continuous process , not a sprint race . But my mother 's comment made me feel as though none of it really counted , because I was fat . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Once , a few years ago , I had needed a haircut in a hurry and my regular stylist was unavailable . So I decided to try a new beautician . She was very new and very young , but she did a great job . My hair is my one vanity . It 's thick and shiny and a glorious chestnut color . After my hair was finished and the new stylist was holding the mirror up for me to view all the angles , she asked me if I was on a diet . It was n't quite the rude question it might appear to be . I 'm very outgoing and we had spent the previous hour talking about everything under the sun . So I told her no , not really . Without thinking , she replied , " That 's a shame . You have really gorgeous hair . " <p> Where does this prejudice come from ? Maybe these people have n't thought it out , but at least subconsciously they seem to believe that pretty faces and great hair are wasted on big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theme yourself , whether you have perfect nails or violet eyes , or whatever feature is your outstanding feature : " But you 've got such a pretty face .... " <p> I 'm still waiting for someone to say that a size 3 figure is wasted on a woman with acne scars or that perky C-cup breasts are of no use to a woman with alopecia . Of course that would be narrow-minded and mean-spirited . We are all individuals . <p> I shocked a friend recently when I said that I would not trade bodies with a famous celebrity she idolizes , that I would not trade my breasts and hair to have the star 's flat stomach . It 's true that you can buy breasts ( if you 're willing to take the risk ) . But hair ! You can not buy beautiful hair . <p> I wished that my mother would offer to take me shopping at my current size . The morning after our talk , I stood looking forlornly before my open closet door at such a meager wardrobe I did n't want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and- four-year-old daughters , so our budget was restricted . Also , I did n't need work clothes , only mommy clothes . In fact , I still had a few maternity clothes left for the days I scrubbed floors and bathrooms . <p> It was then that the horrible realization hit me . Every time I went shopping or looked through a catalog , I put off buying myself anything . Or I purchased the minimum I could get by with and still be decently clothed . My mother had taught me well , and I had absorbed her attitude . I put off buying because I wanted to wait until I had dieted down a few sizes ! I was treating myself like a second-class citizen , denigrating myself with the subconscious attitude that pretty clothes would be wasted on me in my current size . <p> Soon I will be thirty-one years old . Every week I go buy something new . Some weeks it is just a few pairs of panties ( sexy ones ! ) or a lacy bra . Sometimes it is a major purchase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perfect polo shirt , so I picked out one in every color I like , seven of them ! <p> I 've always enjoyed good health , but lately I find I have extra energy with the release of some emotional baggage . My house sparkles . My children enjoy my involvement with them , as opposed to my supervision of them . Last month I wore my remaining maternity outfit to refinish a dresser and then happily discarded it . <p> Treating myself this way has had a ripple effect , like a stone skipped across the surface of a pond . Because I am well dressed now , I do a more elaborate makeup application . My manicures are more frequent . My husband has been acting like a newlywed . I resized my wedding ring so I could wear it again , which led my husband , in turn , to observe our tenth wedding anniversary with a beautiful row of diamonds for the other hand . <p> Last week at McDonald 's one of the other parents came and sat by me while our children took advantage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ except that this time it was a father who engaged my conversation . When it became clear that my children had a father in their lives and home , this man told me wistfully that my husband was a very lucky man ! <p> I was surprised and flattered to find that I had sparked someone 's romantic interest without losing a pound . All that time I went without a wedding ring and no one noticed , and now someone was trying to overlook it ! And the only thing that had changed was my attitude . <p> When I left McDonald 's , I felt gorgeous . There 's nothing like flirting to give you a little sizzle . But perhaps the most positive change from my new attitude is in my ( gulp ! ) eating habits . Because I am not " going to go on a diet " someday soon , I am not in a rush to eat all the cheesecake and Oreos I can before they become forbidden . I can have whatever I want . Sometimes what I really want is baked fish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be thirty-one years old . If the next year is only half as good as this past one , I will be ecstatic ! Hurrah for the thirties ! Somehow forty does n't sound so scary lately . And if my mom asks me what I 'd like for my birthday this year -- hmmm , I could use some scintillating perfume . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> Article copyright Radiance . <p> 
##1003078 WHERE TO START ? Maybe with the sign of the cross or a magic charm . I 'm a superstitious person , and getting more and more so . Only people enjoying prosperity , people on a run of good luck , make fun of superstitions . But the longer one ' s life , the leaner it becomes . Towards the end it gets more and more necessary to knock on wood , spit three times , to make one 's benedictions surreptitiously . <p> And I 'm attempting something here a little absurd . For many years I 've stuck to writing a story -- that powerful chain that can hold together the most wild and wooly words . Whenever I have been carried away by excessive ambition -- and strayed away from stories and started toying around with personal essays or whatever you might call them -- each time I 've ended up in abject defeat . In light of this , with great superstitious dread , I have continued to latch on to plot , to action and drama . The story leads me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writer . <p> But it got boring . It 's as simple as that . It got boring like a monotonous , automatic action carried out for years , so I thought it might be nice to write something from time to time , from whim to whim and chance to chance . And , as bad luck would have it , my little case of boredom came at a time when fellow novelists and other drudges in this toilsome profession -- when hacks everywhere had started to abandon stories on the sly as if they were pushing out ballast no longer of use to anyone , though carried along to who knows where just in case . <p> But it would be even nicer if one could write the truth , the whole truth , about one 's times , one 's contemporaries , one 's self . But this is impossible for many reasons . I do n't know how to write for the drawer . To count on future generations takes either terrible humility or a crazed self-pride . I have no basis whatsoever to think that in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my books , much less want to rummage around in my house , which by then will have burned maybe three times . If I still have some desire or other to write , it 's only the desire to correspond with those of my own age , those whom I know like the back of my hand , those whom I despise and hate and still must love , because after all I know no others . <p> Thus , I can only manage to write about these times of ours in the broadest of terms , about people warily and without name , while to write about myself just is n't worth it , for it is too easy to fall into the trap of a nasty self-preening egotism , in which sturdier literati than I have strangled themselves . My biggest regret is the matter of writing the truth about my contemporaries . I could have had a field day . All these levels of crap we carry around like the layers on an onion . Some even look like old artichokes . Truth is a basic instinct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last sip of air , our deathbed absolution . <p> I realize the obligations I have towards my reader , which out of a false sense of pride I am going to call my confidant . I know what people like to read . I know that pages covered with small type , unfestooned with frequent breakages of paragraphs and unembellished with waterfalls of dialogue would scare off the most tenacious . I know that it is boring to wade through a bunch of thoughts when they are not all that golden . And when they are golden , one can still get stuffed , even at times to choke . <p> And so I promise reading both lively and full of surprises . This will be , in spite of everything , a book of spills and chills . I open it here on the first day of a new year . We shall poise in expectation of what the next wave of life will bring us . There are many different things to wait for , and the intuition of this old witch doctor from the Wilno woods murmurs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ myself together like rarely , perhaps like never before in my life . And this life of mine will lay the story line down for this chronicle , position the tracks for these trials and tribulations , extricate this drama that is all the more interesting because it is authentic , concocted right before your very eyes . <p> Already the whole idea seems to me banal , not worthy of further effort . At some point , last summer or maybe later , as with a convict 's hard labor , I trudged my way through wonderful , kindhearted America ; at some point in this previous and already nonexistent year came the invigorating notion , and I grabbed onto it like a drowning man does a straw or the way a man going blind gazes at a lamp . But the following winter , the more I started moving around , or more properly , started creeping around the edges of this abominable white sheet of paper , around my own private gallows , the more my courage weakened and my ambition waned . <p> So here I sit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mine knocks over a piece of furniture by accident , another hammers at a wall with a hole punch , a throttled wife on another floor shrieks out , and then a short silence , a moment of peace in an overworked city . <p> Something must be done . Fate has entangled me . No , not fate , but a very common occurrence , some social contract or even a sociable one , something tangled me up in this business that I carry out so amateurishly , though I must bear all consequence like a professional . Something must be done . I have to keep on filling with unreadable script one yellowed page after another , since I love to write on the back of others ' old manuscripts . But this is something we both share . Curiosity drives me , too . Maybe not like before , but curiosity nonetheless -- curiosity about what all of this means . What I mean , what you mean , what this ragged ball surrounded by poisoned clouds means , this ball from which each and every second our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves away for a split second just to plummet back down onto the great big pillar of eternal fire like falling stars on an August night promising the fulfillment of human dreams . <p> From " A Thursday , No More , No Less " ( 1 ) <p> I enter The Spatif ( an actor 's club ; i.e. , a bar ) . It 's a big room , and there 's not much of a crowd , so I stand in the doorway hesitating . Right then a man tears himself away from a window table and cuts across the room towards me with upraised hands . I recognize the silvery hair and dignified face . It 's an important personage of Warsaw high society . Bushy eyebrows worthy of a great royal chancellor ascend high on the noble forehead . He is surprised and delighted by our meeting . I am only startled . He comes up to me ceremoniously , takes me in his arms in the old Polish manner . Curious , a few revelers crane their necks in our direction . A bunch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the solemn spectacle . Meanwhile the royal chancellor rocks me in his old man 's arms and kisses me on the mouth in the old Polish manner , calling out in a voice you could hear up and down the Aleje Ujazdowskie . <p> " Oh , I love , love you . Your Kolumbowie(2) was the most beautiful book I have ever read . Ach , I cried and cried , my son . It moved me for life . You 're a wizard , I tell you , a genius . Our greatest writer . Roman , please , allow me to call you by your first name . " <p> " By all means , " I say , keeping my composure . " It would be a pleasure . " <p> " Forgive me , Roman , that I accosted you so abruptly . It 's just that the moment I laid eyes on you I could n't resist . Bravo , my boy ! A man wants to keep on living , reading such prose . " <p> " Thank you very much for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep working , " I say , moved just a little . <p> The royal chancellor then wraps his arm around me as if we were bosom buddies . <p> " And what are you working on now , Romie boy ? " <p> " A collection of stories . " <p> " That 's so wonderful . Keep on with your writing , my dear . Will you sit down and join us ? " <p> " Thank you , but I only dropped in for a moment . I 'm looking for someone , " I say will all humility . " Work awaits . " <p> " Yes , write , write . The whole country awaits . " <p> I get kissed on both cheeks again and , like a thief who has stolen more than he can carry , I back out of The Spatif almost on my hands and knees . <p> Another time I 'm lost in thought , climbing up the stairs at the Writers Union to the Warsaw branch . Swooping down on me is Zofia Bystrzycka ( a novelist and member @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my arm , her fervor quite plain . <p> " It ' s good we have caught you , " she says in a tizzy . " You were n't at the last meeting of the committee . " <p> " I could n't . An illness at home , " I inform her with deep sadness . <p> " There is , you know , that certain matter involving Comrade So-and-So . We need to know your opinion . It 's very important . " <p> " Throw him out , " I interrupt her , brooking no compromise . <p> " How 's that ? " Bystrzycka asks , dumbfounded . " Throw him out ? " <p> Then Zofia Bystrzycka starts to look me over in evident distress . Her bottomless eyes start to grow rounder and rounder . <p> " Oh my , my , " she cries out aghast . " You 're not Comrade Drewnowski ! Oh my , my , I 've made a mistake ! " <p> And she escapes down the stairs , leaving me standing there , lost in bitter revery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get an affidavit . I go in the literature department , a little disconcerted by the thing I have to arrange , when almost at once I am greeted with a surprise . The department director , a Mrs. Kowalska , raises her head from her books and instantly lights up . <p> " Welcome , " she says with great feeling . " Everything is in order . It 's ready . " <p> Although no babe in the woods , I fall into a pleasant befuddlement . She must have had a premonition , the dear angel , I would come in today for my affidavit . But from force of habit I have to ask . <p> " What 's ready ? " <p> " The money order , of course . " <p> " But I 'm not here for money . " <p> " How 's that ? Were n't you just in here yesterday asking that I have it ready for today ? " <p> " Uh oh , I see that you 've mixed me up with somebody else . " <p> " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Mr. Witold Filler , true ? " <p> " No . My name is Konwicki . " <p> Mrs. Kowalska freezes . I await quietly while she blushes red all over . <p> " I beg your pardon , really I do , " she mumbles under her breath . <p> " But what for ? I 'm pleased that you would confuse me with such a prominent figure -- though not universally liked . " <p> " My God , I beg your pardon . I 'm so sorry , " Mrs. Kowalska mutters , her spirit broken . <p> And I add -- not without boasting : " Not at all . I get mixed up all the time with Andrzej Rumian the satirist , with Mr. Kalisz the film audio engineer , and with a certain Warsaw parish priest . " <p> You 're probably curious how it feels to be a certain fellow about average in height , a little stooped over , neither blond nor brunet , in nondescript glasses , with insipid physiognomy , without good looks , but with no visible infirmities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there inside such a fellow , how he can bear up under -- or even better , how he can bear around with him -- such a blank surface , which disgusts you sometimes and sometimes evokes a type of fleeting compassion , a blank surface which to your intellect might even look agreeable at some other time . <p> Well , my dear confidant , a person with age gets used to his exterior till in the end he feels responsible , as if once , at the very beginning of time , he carefully and after long deliberation chose it for himself . You , my beloved confidant , reproach your homely neighbors for how they look as well , disliking them for their wrong choice , their bad taste . <p> So how do I feel ? I wear this surface around with me like clothes from a Care package after the last war . I have a distance towards it as if it were a thing obtained by allotment , something somebody gave me one day and one day will take away . It 's my cap @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that is positive . <p> It seems to me that it 's not even mine , that it 's borrowed from somebody else . But at the same time in no way do I disown it ; gladly will I rise up in its defense , even to the very end -- though , in all honesty , I 'm also not all that particular about it . Sometimes I carry it with pride , succumbing to the delusion that to carry it is a more ambitious thing than to carry some other . Sometimes I regard it with malicious satisfaction when someone of importance to me feels repulsed for no apparent reason . Sometimes I am the one who is irritated , and then , just to tick it off , I imagine I am a tall and slender brunet with a captivating smile . <p> In a word , we live with ourselves loyally , but without love , without peaks or ravines , in a resignation-filled symbiosis , with a mutual understanding that these biological and metaphysical necessities are inescapable . <p> From " Saturday , the First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an actor twenty-four hours a day . Wojtek is always an actor . Wojtek Siemion loves to recite poetry every free moment . He loves to declaim poetry for friends , passersby , even children . <p> When we were making Salto , one evening Siemion was eating supper in the Wroclaw Journalists ' Club . After dinner he mounted the orchestra podium and started declaiming Galczynski . He recited the entire evening . The room slowly emptied . Finally there was left only one group of a dozen or so gathered at some pushed-together tables . Siemion left the podium and approached the party . He was reciting only for them , for them and them alone , like a gypsy violinist , orbiting the pushed-together tables slowly . <p> Around midnight one of the revelers sheepishly turned around to the artist and spoke with an apologetic smile . <p> " We 're Russian . We do n't understand . " <p> From " How Sweet It Is to Be Maciej Slomczynski " -- Maciej Slomczynski , translator of Joyce " <p> I flew over this America like a bird @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each time a different airline . Sometimes I flew for two hours , sometimes forty-five minutes , from Denver to Cheyenne only a quarter of an hour , and from such a perspective America looked small . A Belgium . At the most -- Poland . And certainly not diverse . Everywhere was the same , everywhere flat single-story homes scattered around the hill of the downtown . The real American America . If it ' s said that the cities of southern Asia are Americanized , what does this say about the cities of America ? <p> So I carried away an overwhelming sense of smallness . Even Manhattan as seen from New Jersey seemed tiny , a cozy little isle . <p> I romped through New York as if it were Lodz . Every few steps I met someone I knew . Never in Warsaw did I meet so many acquaintances in just a few days . <p> But by then I already had in my pocket my return plane ticket . Already I knew that in a determined amount of time I would fly off for home and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , my eyes cold and calculating , so that I would remember and in this remembering I could demonize myself , enlarge and idealize myself . And the perverseness of the lens of memory undoubtedly decreased the images , cheapened them so that there ended up being confiscated any baggage of mental souvenirs , any romanticized contraband for the unknown life that lay ahead . <p> I trudged from one corner of America to the other in order to meet Czeslaw Milosz . I do n't like making the acquaintance of famous people whom I respect and admire . I prefer to know them on my own terms , as if in secret . From books , from the screen , from sound . I am completely satisfied with such acquaintance and friendship . <p> But with Milosz it 's a little bit different . My relationship to him , this illustrious contemporary poet , contains elements of superstition and even a reverence bordering on the sacred . When I frequently gaze upon him through his books , through the barbed-wire entanglements of his poems , in my head are the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chill of fear at forgetting the bottomless swamps in the middle of the forest which has no beginning and has no end , I have shivers inside me as if at a witch 's coven , but one driven out from among our oak trees and onto a foreign airport runway . <p> At one time I disliked Milosz not even knowing him . I heard the invective and insult hurled at him and lazily believed the slanders . Actually , I did know him a little already , because I did the copyediting for his Zagary reportage in Odrodzenie. ( 3 ) At the time he even fascinated and allured me , though later I forgot . Maybe I forgot on purpose , since he was for me -- though perhaps only for me -- in those essays a bit too squirish , too clever , and immediately I smelled in him a dandy or a teacher 's pet , the kind who have plagued me my entire life <p> And so I draped myself with distaste , and maybe even with contempt I listened with approbation to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of putting up ideological resistance , I reached for the volume of Milosz 's essays . I read on , doing battle with the book to the very end , a life-and-death struggle . Sweaty , out of breath , my spine cracked opened , I was vanquished but did not surrender . And then afterwards came the poems , and then Native Realm , which I read like the Bible , like my own birth certificate , like my own medical chart , a book I 've read around seven times and know practically by heart but still ca n't repeat to anyone else , but which allows me to understand myself and my own fate -- imperfect , unbegun , unfinished . <p> I went through the throes of love and repulsion with this man , calling as if from that other world . Slowly , even I do n't know when , I adopted myself in his family , bound myself up with a usurped kinship . I started to toot his horn a little , to adopt various poses , to make chummy faces . <p> And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I die . He 's a dandy and a teacher 's pet . A know-it-all and unpleasant snob . But thank God , thank Dewajtis , thank the devil , that he is at all . Whether he likes it or not , I ' 11 still suck from him the bitterness of our herbal brews , dewyne po trys , ( 4 ) supporting my own feeble life . <p> Across the breadth of America I swept towards him in secret , to kneel to the ground and for a moment to be silent in his presence . I never ceremoniously announced my arrival , I never wrote or called in order not to raise a big fuss . I wanted to meet him in a low-keyed , dignified manner , as on a journey where one expects nothing from a venerable stranger but his greetings . I crept then in agony across this legendary continent to the legendary and already beloved by me San Francisco Bay and its many visions , while on the way I turned over in my mind and acted out all at once a thousand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In my thoughts a thousand times I offhandedly telephoned Milosz , a thousand times I bashfully approached him in the yards of Berkeley , a thousand times I greeted him in splendid Lithuanian or Belorussian . I imagined all his wisecracks and rejoinders , all the possible ways he could behave . <p> But there 's only one thing I did n't foresee . That he would simply avoid meeting me . It 's probably for the best .... <p> From " Saturday with Pain " <p> I 'm a foreigner in transit . I 'm only passing through . But somewhere else , on any other continent , in any other country , I 'm even more passing through . Here I can bear my own life in transit better than anywhere else . I 've become used to this spot , though I have n't grown down in it . I have n't sunk down roots , I have n't joined the bloodstream , I have n't synchronized my rhythm to the rhythm of the place . <p> Once I worked myself up in order to join in your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and temperament . For you as well as me I faked pasfaces and gestures , ardor and temperament . For you as well as me I faked passionate commitment and emotional participation . But nothing came out of it . For you , or for me . <p> I 'm on the road . I no longer remember where I come from . I do n't know where I 'm going . But I do n't despise your life , I do n't take lightly your feverish , chaotic , inconstant ideas and moods . I do n't look down with superiority on your persistent struggles and chronic hungers , insanities and apathies . I treat them with respect , although they do n't touch me at all . At times I 've even desired to intervene , to come to your aid , but you did n't want this -- wrongly understanding me , my life , my intentions . But let me assure you . I 'm with you as much as I can be , which in terms of human values constitutes a lot . I 'm with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may only be a neutron in the vast molecule of truth . I 'm with you when you shed blood , this sprinkling of life-giving matter , and you spill it for a freedom which may mean servitude for others . I 'm with you when you rip apart the shackles of your animal nature , the bonds keeping all your screws from coming loose . <p> Passing through , remaining here in transit , there 's nothing -- note this well -- from you that I require , nor do I set forth any demand . I 'll never even set the record straight about what you may think or say of me . I am , but it 's as if I was n't there . I 'm not about to confiscate your homes , your jobs , your medals , your places in pantheons , your creative material , your faiths , hopes , wives , or lovers . But hold your horses -- I 'm beginning to exaggerate . <p> TRANSLATOR 'S NOTES <p> 1 Most of the remaining part of the section " Thursday . No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Kalendarz i klepsydra , translated by Joanna Rostropowicz Clark , can be found in Contemporary Authors . Autobiography Series , ed . Mark Zadrozny , vol. 9 ( Detroit : Gale Research , 1989 ) . 123-35 . <p> 2 Kolumbowie is a book by another Polish author . Roman Bratny . <p> 3 Zagary was the name of a literary review founded in 1931 by a group of young poets and essayists who were students at the University of Wilno . The name later came to designate the group as well . According to Czeslaw Milosz in his The History of Polish Literature ( Berkeley : University of California Press , 1983 ) . the name was " borrowed from the Lithuanian for ' brushwood , ' or , in a more local meaning . for dry twigs half charred in fire but still glowing " ( 412 ) . The journal lasted until 1934 . <p> 4 Dievaitis in Lithuanian means a pagan god , especially a younger one or a helper of god . Lithuanian devyni po tris. or trejos devynerios , refers to a three-herb bitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##1003157 Helen and Frida The Kenyon Review ; Summer 1994 ; 16 , 3 ; Research Library ## ANNE FINGER HELEN AND FRIDA ' M lying on the couch downstairs in the TV room in the house where I grew up , a farmhouse with sloping floors in upstate New York . I 'm nine years old . I 've had surgery , and I 'm home , my leg in a plaster cast . Everyone else is off at work or school . My mother re-covered this couch by hemming a piece of fabric that she bought from a bin at the Woolworth 's in Utica ( " Bargains ! Bargains ! Bargains ! Remnants Priced as Marked " ) and laying it over the torn upholstery . Autumn leaves -- carrot , jaundice , brick -- drift sluggishly across a liver-brown background . I 'm watching the Million Dollar Movie on our black and white television : today it 's Singing in the Rain . These movies always make me think of the world that my mother lived in before I was born , a world where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ padded shoulders as if they were in the army . My mother told me that in The Little Colonel , Shirley Temple had pointed her finger and said , " As red as those roses over there , " and then the roses had turned red and everything in the movie was in color after that . I thought that was how it had been when I was born , everything in the world becoming both more vivid and more ordinary , and the black-and-white world , the world of magic and shadows , disappearing forever in my wake . Now it 's the scene where the men in blue-jean coveralls are wheeling props and sweeping the stage , carpenters shouldering boards , moving behind Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood and Donald O'Connor as Cosmo . Cosmo is about to pull his hat down over his forehead and sing , " Make ' em laugh ... " and hoof across the stage , pulling open doors that open onto brick walls , careening up what appears to be a lengthy marble-floored corridor but is , in fact , a painted backdrop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : not just from the mottled sofa I 'm lying on , but also from the orange wallpaper that looked so good on the shelf at Streeter 's ( and was only $1.29 a roll ) , the chipped , blue willow plate : everything 's black and silver now . I 'm on a movie set , sitting in the director 's chair . I 'm grown-up suddenly , eighteen or thirty-five . Places , please ! Quiet on the set ! Speed , the soundman calls , and I point my index finger at the camera , the clapper claps the board , and I see that the movie we are making is called " Helen and t 2 THE KENYON REVIEW Frida . " I slice my finger quickly through the air , and the camera rolls slowly forward toward Helen Keller and Frida Kahlo , standing on a veranda , with balustrades that appear to be made of carved stone , but are , in fact , made of plaster . The part of Helen Keller is n't played by Patty Duke this time ; there 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one hundred minutes , no grainy film stock , none of that Alabama sun that bleaches out every soft shadow , leaving only harshness , glare . This time Helen is played by Jean Harlow . Do n't laugh : set pictures of the two of them side by side and you 'll see that it 's all there , the fair hair lying in looping curls against both faces , the same broad-cheeked bone structure . Imagine that Helen 's eyebrows are plucked into a thin arch and penciled , lashes mascaraed top and bottom , lips cloisonned vermilion . Put Helen in pale peach mousseline de soie , hand her a white gardenia , bleach her hair from its original honey blond to platinum , like Harlow 's was , recline her on a Bombshell chaise with a white swan gliding in front , a palm fan being waved overhead , while an ardent lover presses sweet nothings into her hand . I play the part of Frida Kahlo . It is n't so hard to imagine that the two of them might meet . They moved , after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ radical : Helen Keller meeting Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford , joining the Wobblies , writing in the New York Times , " I love the red flag ... and if I could I should gladly march it past the offices of the Times and let all the reporters and photographers make the most of the spectacle .... " ; Frida , friend of Henry Ford and Sergy Eisenstein , painting a hammer and sickle on her body cast , leaving her bed in 1954 , a few weeks before her death , to march in her wheelchair with a babushka tied under her chin , protesting the overthrow of the Arbenz regime in Guatemala . Of course , the years are all wrong . But that 's the thing about the Million Dollar Movie . During Frank Sinatra Week , on Monday Frank would be young and handsome in It Happened in Brooklyn ; on Tuesday he 'd have gray temples and crow 's feet , be older than my father ; on Wednesday , be even younger than he had been on Monday . You could pour the different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick fold with the smooth edge of a spatula , the way my mother did when she made black-and-white marble cake from two Betty Crocker mixes . It would be 1912 , and Big Bill Haywood would be waving the check Helen had sent over his head at a rally for the Little Falls strikers , and you , Frida , would be in the crowd , not as a five-year-old child , before the polio , before the bus accident , but as a grown woman , cheering along with the strikers . Half an inch away , it would be August 31 , 1932 , and both of you would be standing on the roof of the Detroit Institute of the Arts , along with Diego , Frida looking up through smoked glass at the eclipse of the sun , Helen 's face turned upwards to feel the chill of night descending , to hear the birds greeting the midday dusk . Let 's get one thing straight right away . This is n't going to be one of those movies where they put their words into our mouths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is n't going to blink back a tear when the doctors tell her they ca n't cure her after all , saying , " and I thought I was going to be able ## to get rid of these , " gesturing with her ridiculous rhinestone-studded , cats-eye dark glasses ( and we think , " Really , Jane , " ) ; she 's not going to tell Rock Hudson she ca n't marry him : " I wo n't have you pitied because of me . I love you too much , " and " I could only be a burden , " and then disappear until the last scene when , lingering on the border between death and cure ( the only two acceptable states ) , Rock saves her life and her sight and they live happily ever after . It 's not going to be A Patch of Blue : when the sterling young Negro hands us the dark glasses and , in answer to our question " But what are they for ? " says , " Never mind , put them on , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stone Medusa gaze , grateful for the magic that 's made us a pretty girl . This is n't Johnny Belinda ; we 're not sweetly mute , surrounded by an aura of silence . No , in this movie the blind women have milky eyes that make the sighted uncomfortable . The deaf women drag metal against metal , oblivious to the jarring sound , make odd cries of delight at the sight of the ocean , squawk when we are angry . So now the two female icons of disability have met : Helen , who is nothing but , who swells to fill up the category , sweet Helen with her drooping dresses covering drooping bosom , who is Blind and Deaf , her vocation ; and Frida , who lifts her skirt to reveal the gaping , cunt-like wound on her leg , who rips her body open to reveal her back , a broken column , her back corset with its white canvas straps framing her beautiful breasts , her body stuck with nails : but she ca n't be Disabled , she 's Sexual . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ midst of a row with Diego , cropped off her jet black hair ( " Now see what you 've made me do ! " ) , and has schlepped herself to the ball in one of his suits . Nothing Dietrichish and coy about this drag : Diego wo n't get to parade his beautiful wife . Now she 's snatched up Helen and walked with her out here onto the veranda . In the other room , drunken Diego lurches , his body rolling forward before his feet manage to shuffle themselves ahead on the marble floor , giving himself more than ever the appearance of being one of those children 's toys , bottom-weighted with sand , that when punched , roll back and then forward , an eternal red grin painted on their rubber faces . His huge belly shakes with laughter , his laughter a gale that blows above the smoke curling up toward the distant , gilded ceiling , gusting above the knots of men in tuxedos and women with marcelled hair , the black of their satin dresses setting off the glitter of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's drunken roar , will be added later by the Foley artists . Helen 's thirty-six . She 's just come back from Montgomery . Her mother had dragged her down there after she and Peter Fagan took out a marriage license , and the Boston papers got hold of the story . For so many years , men had been telling her that she was beautiful , that they worshiped her , that when Peter declared himself in the parlor at Wrentham , she had at first thought this was just more palaver about his pure love for her soul . But no , this was the real thing : carnal and thrilling and forbidden . How could you , her mother said . How people will laugh at you ! The shame , the shame . Her mother whisked her off to Montgomery , Peter trailing after 4 THE KENYON REVIEW the two of them . There her brother-in-law chased Peter off the porch with a good old southern shotgun . Helen 's written her poem : What earthly consolation is there for one like me Whom fate has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I shall have confidence as always , That my unfilled longings will be gloriously satisfied In a world where eyes never grow dim , nor ears dull . Poor Helen , waiting , waiting to get fucked in heaven . But not Frida . She 's so narcissistic . What a relief to Helen ! None of those interrogations passing for conversation she usually has to endure ( After the standard pile of praise is heaped upon her -- I 've read your book five , ten , twenty times , I 've admired you ever since ... come the questions : Do you mind if I ask you : Is everything black ? Is Mrs. Macy always with you ? ) No , Frida launches right into the tale of Diego 's betrayal , " ... of course , I have my fun , too , but one does n't want to have one 's nose rubbed in the shit ... , " she signs into Helen 's hand . Helen is delighted and shocked . In her circles , Free Love is believed in , spoken of solemnly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do away with the sordid marketplace of prostitution , bourgeois marriage , where women barter their hymens and throw in their souls to sweeten the deal ; Helen has read Emma , she has read Isadora ; she believes in a holy , golden monogamy , an unfettered , eternal meeting of two souls-in-flesh . And here Frida speaks of the act so casually that Helen , like a timid schoolgirl , stutters : " You really ? I mean , the both of you , you ... ? " Frida throws her magnificent head back and laughs . " Yes , really , " Frida strokes gently into her hand . " He fucks other women and I fuck other men -- and other women . " " F-U-C-K ? " Helen asks . " What is this word ? " Frida explains it to her . " Now I 've shocked you , " Frida says . " Yes , you have .... I suppose it 's your Latin nature .... " I 'm not in the director 's chair anymore . I 'm sitting in the audience of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 'm twenty-seven . When I was a kid , I thought being grown-up would be like living in the movies , that I 'd be Rosalind Russell in Sister Kenny , riding a horse through the Australian outback or that I 'd dance every night in a sleek satin gown under paper palms at the Coconut Grove . Now I go out to the movies , two , three , four times a week . The film cuts from the two figures on the balcony to the night sky . It 's Technicolor : the pale gold stars against midnight blue . We 're close to the equator now : there 's the Southern Cross , and the Clouds of Magellan , and you feel the press of the stars , the mocking closeness of the heavens as you can feel it only in the tropics . The veranda on which we are now standing is part of a colonial Spanish palace , built in a clearing in a jungle that daily spreads its roots and tendrils closer , closer . A macaw perches atop a broken Mayan statue and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ queen / I am queen . " A few yards into the jungle , a spider monkey shits on the face of a dead god . Wait a minute . What 's going on ? Is that someone out in the lobby talking ? But it 's so loud Dolores del Rio strides into the film , shouting , " Latin nature ! Who wrote this shit ? " She 's wearing black silk pants and a white linen blouse ; she plants her fists on her hips and demands : " Huh ? Who wrote this shit ? " I look to my left , my right , shrug , stand up in the audience and say , " I guess I did . " " Latin nature ! And a white woman ? Playing Frida ? I should be playing Frida . " " You ? " " Listen , honey . " She 's striding down the aisle toward me now . " I know I filmed that Hollywood crap . Six movies in one year : crook reformation romance , romantic Klondike melodrama , California romance , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chicle workers , romantic drama of the Russian revolution . I know David Selznick said : I do n't care what story you use so long as we call it Bird of Paradise and del Rio jumps into a flaming volcano at the finish . ' They could n't tell a Hawaiian from a Mexican from a lesbian . But I loved Frida and she loved me . She painted What the Water Gave Me ' for me . At the end of her life , we were fighting , and she threatened to send me her amputated leg on a silver tray . If that 's not love , I do n't know what is ? " I 'm still twenty-seven , but now it 's the year 2015 . The Castro 's still there , the organ still rises up out of the floor with the organist playing " San Francisco , open your Golden Gate .... " In the lobby now , alongside the photos of the original opening of the Castro in 1927 , are photos in black and white of lounging hustlers and leather queens , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the women 's room a few years later ( " If they can send men to the moon , why do n't they ? " Underneath , in Braille , Spanish , and English : " In the 1960s , the development of the felt-tip pen , combined with a growing philosophy of personal expression caused an explosion of graffiti .... Sadly unappreciated in its day , this portion of a bathroom stall , believed by many experts to have originated in the women 's room right here at the Castro Theatre , sold recently at Sotheby 's for $5 million .... " ) Of course , the Castro 's now totally accessible , not just integrated wheelchair seating , but every film captioned , a voice loop that interprets the action for blind people , over which now come the words : " As Dolores del Rio argues with the actress playing Frida , Helen Keller waits patiently ? " A woman in the audience stands up and shouts , " Patiently ! What the fuck are you talking about , patiently ? You ca n't tell the difference between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The stage is stormed by angry women , one of whom leaps into the screen and begins signing to Helen , " Dolores del Rio 's just come out and ? " " Enough already ! " someone in the audience shouts . " Ca n't we please just get on with the story ! " 6 THE KENYON REVIEW Now that Frida is played by Dolores , she 's long-haired again , wearing one of her white Tehuana skirts with a deep red shawl . She takes Helen 's hand in hers , that hand that has been cradled by so many great men and great women . " Latin nature ? " Frida says , and laughs , " I think perhaps it is rather your cold Yankee nature that causes your reaction .... " And before Helen can object to being called a Yankee , Frida says , " But enough about Diego ... " It 's the hand that fascinates Frida , in its infinite , unpassive receptivity : she prattles on . When she makes the letters z and j in sign , she gets to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . She so likes the sensation that she keeps trying to work words with those letters in them into the conversation . The camera moves in close to Helen 's hand as Frida says , " Here on the edge of the Yucatan jungle , one sometimes sees jaguars , although never jackals . I understand jackals are sometimes seen in Zanzibar . I have never been there , nor have I been to Zagreb nor Japan nor the Zermatt , nor Java . I have seen the Oaxacan mountain Zempoaltepec . Once in a zoo in Zurich I saw a zebu and a zebra . Afterwards , we sat in a small cafe and ate cherries jubilee and zabaglione , washed down with glasses of zinfandel . Or perhaps my memory is confused : perhaps that day we ate jam on zwieback crusts and drank a juniper tea , while an old Jew played a zither .... " " Oh , " says Helen . Frida falls silent . Frida , you painted those endless self-portraits , but you always looked at yourself level , straight on , in full @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is tilted , played over by shadows . In all those self-portraits , you are simultaneously artist and subject , lover and beloved , the bride of yourself . Now , here , in the movies , it 's different : the camera stands in for the eye of the lover . But you 're caught in the unforgiving blank stare of a blind woman . And now , we cut from that face to the face of Helen . Here I do n't put in any soothing music , nothing low and sweet with violins , to make the audience more comfortable as the camera moves in for its close-up . You understand why early audiences were frightened by these looming heads . In all the movies with blind women in them -- or , let 's be real , sighted women playing the role of blind women -- Jane Wyman and Merle Oberon in the different versions of Magnificent Obsession , Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark , Uma Thurman in Jennifer 8 , we 've never seen a blind woman shot this way before : never seen the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ way it does here . We gaze at their faces only when bracketed by others , or in moments of terror when beautiful young blind women are being stalked . We 've never seen before this frightening blank inward turning of passion , a face that has never seen itself in the mirror , that does not arrange itself for consumption . Lack = inferiority ? Try it right now . Finish reading this paragraph and then close your eyes , push the flaps of your ears shut , and sit . Not just for a minute : give it five or ten . Not in that meditative state , designed to take you out of your mind , your body . Just the opposite . Feel the press of hand crossed over hand : without any distraction , you feel your body with the same distinctness as a lover 's touch makes you feel yourself . You fold into yourself , you know the rhythm of your ## breathing , the beating of your heart , the odd independent twitch of a muscle : now in a shoulder , now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patient hunger . We cut back to Frida in close-up . But now Helen 's fingers enter the frame , travel across that face , stroking the downy mustache above Frida 's upper lip , the fleshy nose , the thick-lobed ears . Now , it 's Frida 's turn to be shocked : shocked at the hunger of these hands , at the almost feral sniff , at the freedom with which Helen blurs the line between knowing and needing . " May I kiss you ? " Helen asks . " Yes , " Frida says . Helen 's hands cup themselves around Frida 's face . I 'm not at the Castro anymore . I 'm back home on the fold-out sofa in the slapped-together TV room , watching grainy images flickering on the tiny screen set in the wooden console . I 'm nine years old again , used to Hays-office kisses , two mouths with teeth clenched , lips held rigid , pressing stonily against each other . I 'm not ready for the way that Helen 's tongue probes into Frida 's mouth , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ giving pleasure as in finding an answer in the emptiness of her mouth . I shout , " Cut , " but the two of them keep right on . Now we see Helen 's face , her wide-open eyes that stare at nothing revealing a passion blank and insatiable , a void into which you could plunge and never , never , never touch bottom . Now she begins to make noises , animal mewlings , and cries . I will the screen to turn to snow , the sound to static . I do not want to watch this , hear this . My leg is in a thick plaster cast , inside of which scars are growing like mushrooms , thick and white in the dark damp . I think that I must be a lesbian , a word I have read once in a book , because I know I am not like the women on television , with their high heels and shapely calves and their firm asses swaying inside of satin dresses waiting , waiting for a man , nor am I like the women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what else can there be ? I look at the screen and they are merging into each other , Frida and Helen , the dark-haired and the light , the one who will be disabled and nothing more , the other who will be everything but . I ca n't yet imagine a world where these two might meet : the face that does not live under the reign of its own reflection with the face that has spent its life looking in the mirror ; the woman who turns her rapt face up toward others and the woman who exhibits her scars as talismans , the one who is only , only and the one who is everything but . I will the screen to turn to snow . 
##1001251 The outer Cape in mid-October . A new tilt to the earth and its altered angle to the sun make for a suffusing clarity . Hopper 's light . With the tourists gone , the beaches have been reclaimed by gulls , and the road that traverses the peninsula is bare . At this time of year , delays occur behind school buses . <p> Telephone to his ear , Bernardin looks at the evolving geometry of the painting on the easel in his studio , and , filled with dread and sadness at what he is hearing , conjures up the face of Malcolm , who , according to a tearful Jocelyn , has just been pried dead from the wreckage of a head-on at the blinking yellow on Route 6 by something called the Jaws of Life . The woman who was Malcolm 's passenger has been taken to the hospital in Hyannis . The driver of the truck that crossed the center dividing line and struck them is unhurt . <p> " D' you know this woman ? " Jocelyn asks . <p> " Yes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rest of us do . " <p> Malcolm 's secret , Bernardin thinks . <p> " The hospital 's calling her Jane Doe . " <p> " I 'd better call the hospital , " Bernardin says . This enables him to hang up without answering further questions . <p> A nurse in the emergency room tells him that the Jane Doe brought in by the rescue squad is in serious but stable condition with head injuries . <p> " Her name is Ingrid Torquist , " Bernardin says . " She lives in Oregon <p> " Are you by chance a relative ? " <p> " A friend , " says Bernardin , going back two hours in time , when Malcolm and Ingrid stopped by his place on their way to Malcolm 's house to pick up her luggage before driving up to Boston , so she could take a plane to Portland and tell her husband that she was leaving him and coming back to live with Malcolm , whom she has always loved . They imparted this intention to Bernardin in breathless confidence . Like a couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's daughter , who is at college in Connecticut , and whom she just visited on the occasion of parents ' weekend , does n't know what 's afoot . <p> " Is Mrs. Torquist conscious ? " Bernardin inquires . <p> " Off and on . She 's been asking for someone named Malcolm . " <p> Malcolm of the grand , impulsive gesture , Bernardin thinks . " Tell her that Harry called , " he says . " Tell her I 'm going to contact her daughter and bring her to the hospital . " <p> A few minutes later , Bernardin finds himself talking to a dean of women , whose suspicions have been honed by the feminist times and the fact that Bernardin has forgotten Ingrid 's daughter 's Christian name . This is not an altogether surprising lapse , since he has only met her once , during the spring , when she and her mother spent a weekend at Malcolm 's while visiting various colleges in New England to which the daughter had been accepted . <p> " We 're very careful when granting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explains . <p> Bernardin wonders if he should offer to supply some character references . The only names that come to mind , however , are those of his art dealer in New York and some gallery owners in Provincetown -- none of whom are likely to inspire trust and confidence in the dean , whom he imagines to be thin-lipped . " Miss Torquist will remember me , " he says . " She and her mother and I had dinner last April at Malcolm Prescott 's house . " <p> His own memory of that improbably romantic evening -- he will learn later that it was the first meeting between Malcolm and Ingrid in twenty years -- remains vivid : Malcolm getting sloshed on bourbon while steaming lobsters in the kitchen ; Ingrid , languid as a cat in sunshine , watching from the table ; the daughter beside her absorbed in her impending choice of schools ; Bernardin unaware of having been invited for the same reason that Gatsby invited Carraway to tea with Daisy , but sensing that the occasion is momentous because of Malcolm 's elaborate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( past fifty ) seldom confide in one another about women , and when they do they tend to leave out the details-even when they 're as close to each other as Bernardin and Malcolm considered themselves to be . <p> Bernardin decides not to tell the dean that Malcolm has been killed in the car crash . There 's no point in upsetting Maria any more than necessary . <p> " Maria ! " he exclaims . " Maria Torquist . " <p> The dean does not respond to this evidence of recovered memory . She asks Bernardin for his telephone number and that of the hospital , and says that she 'll call back . When she does , an hour later , it is to tell him that everything has been arranged . Maria has contacted her father , who will fly east tomorrow . Meanwhile , she and her roommate are packing . They will arrive at the airport in Hyannis on a chartered plane at about seven o'clock that evening . <p> " I 'll be on hand to meet them , " Bernardin says . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replies . <p> There is windshield glass in the roadway at the blinking yellow , but the wreckage of Malcolm 's car and the truck that struck it have been towed away . The glass glitters in the flat trajectory of late afternoon light . Bernardin turns off the highway and drives out over Sansquit Neck to Malcolm 's house . Malcolm 's son , Ryan , who cooks at a restaurant in Chatham , opens the door and steps into Bernardin 's consoling hug . Beyond the young man 's shoulder , Bernardin sees two women whom he vaguely recognizes as neighbors , sitting on a sofa in the living room , beneath a wall on which one of his own watercolors and some of Malcolm 's photographs are hanging . Among the photographs are a battle scene taken at Pleiku and a female nude taken from behind . There are other people in the room Bernardin does not know . He does not see Malcolm 's wife , Helena , who suffers from schizophrenia and is in an institution . <p> " Has your mother been told ! " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from Boston . She 'll be here soon <p> " I 'm on my way to the airport to meet Ingrid 's daughter , " Bernardin says . " I came by to pick up her bags . They 're probably upstairs , " he adds , aware that even if Ryan has figured out about his father and Ingrid , grief may have prevented him from considering the delicate problem that the presence of her luggage might now present . <p> As they are putting Ingrid 's suitcases into Bernardin 's car , Ryan tells him that the police have called about her purse . A garageman found it in the wreck , after it was towed away . They 're holding it at the station . <p> The plane that taxis up to the chain-link fence in front of the terminal is small and improbably sleek . Maria smiles and waves at Bernardin as she alights . She is taller and more heavily boned and not as delicate as her mother , whose chiseled features and pale complexion remind Bernardin of a European actress , whose name , like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Her roommate is a solemn-looking redhead , who appears to have been crying . While the pilot is pulling their bags from the nose compartment , Bernardin tells Maria that a staff neurologist has been notified of her arrival and is waiting at the hospital . He suggests that she inquire about the advisability of transferring her mother up to Massachusetts General so she can be examined by specialists there . <p> The neurologist says that Ingrid is suffering from a severe concussion , a broken nose , and a dislocated knee . When Maria asks about the specialists at Mass . General , he says that he expects Ingrid to pull through without complications and that it would be unwise to move her now . Happily , a CAT scan has not revealed any dangerous swelling of the brain . <p> When a nurse takes Maria in to see her mother , Bernardin is left in the waiting room with the roommate , whose name is Alison . <p> " She 's been terrific about all of this , " Alison says . " I 've been more scared than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business , " Bernardin replies . He is thinking of how Malcolm would have hated the idea of people watching as he was being extracted from the wreckage by the Jaws of Life . <p> When Maria returns , she describes how Ingrid looks . " Both her eyes are black , and her whole face is black and blue and swollen , and she keeps crying out for Malcolm . The nurse and I tried to tell her he was dead , but she wo n't listen . She just keeps crying out his name <p> " She 's in shock , " Bernardin says , putting an arm around Maria 's shoulder . " It 'll wear off gradually . " <p> " But the way she keeps crying out his name . It 's so hysterical <p> " She 's in shock , " Bernardin explains again . <p> " I did n't even know she was coming here . I thought she was flying home from Boston . " <p> " The Cape 's only an hour or two out of the way . She probably wanted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a lot about the Cape , " Maria says . " She loved it here <p> She loved Malcolm here , Bernardin thinks . During the summer , twenty years ago ... " The police have your mother 's purse for safekeeping , " he tells Maria . " We 'll pick it up on the way to my place <p> The duty officer at the station , who sits at a desk that is bathed in glare , seems uncertain about his authority to release the purse . He telephones the chief , who lives close by . The chief -- short , stout , and in uniform -- arrives a few minutes later . Bernardin knows that to Malcolm 's mortification he and his men were called to the house on several occasions , when Helena got out of hand . He asks Maria a number of questions about her mother -- maiden name , date of birth , that kind of thing -- which means that he has probably examined the contents of the purse . In the end , he seems reluctant to hand it over . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> " Only that we prefer to return personal effects to an adult relative . " <p> " This young lady 's in college , " Bernardin says . " Her father wo n't arrive until late tomorrow , and when he does he 'll want to be with his wife <p> The chief gives a nod of understanding and instructs the duty officer to make out a property transfer slip for Maria to sign . While this is being done , he draws Bernardin aside . <p> " Rotten shame about Prescott he says . <p> " A sad business Bernardin agrees . <p> " Quite a photographer , was n't he ! " <p> Of war and women , Bernardin thinks . <p> " How 's the girl 's mother ? " <p> " In a state of shock . " <p> " Conscious ? " <p> " Pretty much . " <p> " You 'll see she gets the purse and not the husband ? " The chief has put unmistakable emphasis upon the feminine pronoun . <p> " If you think it 's best . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief tells him . <p> Malcolm 's house is ablaze with a false festivity of light . Cars have been parked every which way in the wild rose and bearberry that line the dirt drive leading to it . Inside , Bernardin introduces Maria and Alison to Helena and Ryan , who are sitting on the sofa in the living room . Maria offers words of sympathy to Helena , who blinks like a child struggling to stay alert at a party . " Should n't I know you ! " she inquires . <p> ' Maria 's mother was a friend of Malcolm 's , " Bernardin explains . <p> " She was hurt in the accident but she 's going to be all right <p> " Well , that 's good news Helena says . She pats the sofa cushion beside her that Ryan has vacated in order to take Maria and Alison off for something to drink . " Harry . Dear old Harry ( ' <p> Bernardin sits and takes her hand . " Helena , I 'm so terribly sorry <p> " Well , Harry , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I get you anything ? " <p> " I 'm not allowed to drink , you know . On account of my medication . Tell me about the girl you brought <p> " She goes to college in Connecticut . She and her roommate flew in this evening to visit her mother in the hospital . They 're going to spend the night at my place . " <p> " Guess what , " Helena says brightly . " It 's not her I thought I should know . It 's her mother . Did you ever hear about the first time she took a ride with Malcolm ? " <p> " That was a long time ago , " Bernardin tells her . <p> " Yes , it was , " Helena says . " Dear old Harry <p> When it seems right to leave , Bernardin fetches Alison and goes to look for Maria , whom he finds with Ryan in Malcolm 's study at the rear of the house . They are sitting in chairs , face to face and hands in hands , elbows on their knees @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ better when she sees your father , " Ryan is saying . <p> " Right now , she 's terribly upset about your father , Ryan . She knows something awful has happened , but she ca n't remember what " When you see her tomorrow , tell her we 're pulling for her <p> When Bernardin arrives at his house , he shepherds Maria and Alison inside and shows them the guest room in which they 'll be sleeping . Then he sits them down at a counter in the kitchen , puts a kettle on for tea , and goes out to fetch their bags , which are sitting in the car trunk next to Ingrid 's . Best for everyone to have gotten Ingrid 's bags out of Malcolm 's house , he tells himself , knowing that he has at least managed to spare Helena , Ingrid , and Maria some unnecessary pain , not to mention Maria 's father , who will have enough on his hands without having to confront head-on a truth there is no longer any reason for him to have to face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bernardin thinks grimly , as he reaches up to close the hatch . But just then he remembers what the chief has said about Ingrid 's purse . <p> Bernardin carries all the luggage into the house and sets it down in the guest room . Then he goes into the kitchen and makes tea for the two young women , whose faces reflect the fatigue he feels in himself . The three of them need to get some sleep , he says . Tomorrow will be a long and busy day . <p> Maria agrees , for she is anxious to return to the hospital early so she can be with Ingrid . Also , she must remember to get rooms for herself and Alison and her father at a motel near the hospital , and arrange for her father to speak with the neurologist and his colleagues . <p> Bernardin has been trying to think of how best to say what he has decided he should say . " I brought your mother 's bags inside , " he tells Maria . " You ought to go through them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Just to make sure everything 's in order <p> Maria gives him a look of puzzlement that is quickly canceled by a shrug . " If you think I should ... " <p> " In the morning will be fine , " Bernardin says . <p> He awakens to the sound of weeping , which is overlapped from time to time by a comforting voice , and , lying still in his bed , hopes it is a letter Maria has found and not -- as he suspects from what the chief has said -- a photograph . When the weeping shows no sign of abating , he climbs out of bed , pulls on his clothes , and goes into the kitchen to make some coffee . Alison joins him a few minutes later . <p> " I take it there was something in Ingrid 's purse , " he says . <p> " Yes , " Alison replies . " You knew all along , did n't you ? " <p> " I only guessed . " <p> " I do n't see why Maria had to find it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while Ingrid was lying half-conscious in the hospital ? " <p> " Whatever it was , was pretty explicit . Maria 's devastated . " <p> " That 's sex for you , " Bernardin tells her . " It 's always explicit , often devastating , but almost never tragic . " <p> " Are n't you being kind of cynical . " <p> " I 'm trying to keep things in perspective , " Bernardin replies . Good old Malcolm , he thinks . Plying his profession to the end ... " Why do n't you go get Maria so we can cheer her up ? " <p> When Maria comes into the kitchen , her eyes are red , but she has managed to compose herself . <p> Bernardin hands her a cup of coffee . " It must be a relief to find out your mother 's not a saint he says . <p> Maria laughs and starts to cry . <p> " Just think , " Bernardin tells her , " how much easier she 'll be to live with now . " <p> Maria wipes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Once they arrive at the hospital , Bernardin arranges for the motel rooms , keeps Alison company , fetches soft drinks , does what he can . In the evening , he goes out to the airport to pick up Maria 's father , who flies in from Boston on a commuter plane . Hervold Torquist is a slender man in his early forties , with deep blue eyes and an earnest Swedish accent . As might be expected , he has some questions . <p> " Have I understood correctly from Maria that Ingrid has been a passenger in this car that crashed ! " <p> " That 's right , " Bernardin says . <p> " Which has been driven by a friend of hers named Malcolm ? " <p> " Malcolm Prescott . A friend of hers and mine , and a fine photographer to boot . " <p> " I 'm sorry to hear he 's dead , " Torquist says . " Was he by any chance an older man . " <p> " My age , " Bernardin replies . " Middle fifties . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ men . " <p> " Is that so ? " <p> " Oh , yes . And something similar to this has happened once before , when Ingrid was friends with a composer of music , a man in his sixties , who took her all the time to see foreign films , until one day while they were watching one together , he dropped dead , just like that , of a heart attack <p> During the rest of the way to the hospital , Torquist informs Bernardin that he is a cabinetmaker and that things are hard on the West Coast because the recession there has lingered . When they arrive at the hospital , he thanks Bernardin for picking him up at the airport and for his kindness to Maria . <p> Three days later , Bernardin is standing before Helena and Ryan and several dozen mourners on a cliff above the Great Outer Beach . It is an unseasonably cold day with a brisk northwest wind -- the kind that migratory birds wait for at this time of year , before launching themselves toward the South Atlantic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stops blowing , Helena will be taken back to the hospital , Maria will return to college , Ingrid Torquist will fly home with the sun , and Malcolm 's ashes will have mingled with the sand . <p> Bernardin waits as some elderly latecomers are helped across the dunes and listens to Malcolm 's voice , not as it came to him over the telephone the day after the dinner party in April , when he first met Ingrid , but as if it is being carried on the wind . " You wo n't believe what 's happened , " Malcolm says . " D' you remember the woman I once told you about , the one in the bikini down by the pier that time , twenty years ago , when I came by in the Buick convertible and called out to her how beautiful she was , who slid herself onto the hood and sat there like some figurehead on the prow of a ship while I drove slowly through the whole damn town and out to the beach ? Well .. <p> The wind is blowing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shout if he is to be heard above it . <p> 
##1001259 I was fourteen that summer . August brought heat I had never known , and during the dreamlike drought of those days , I saw my father for the first time in my life . The tulip poplars had faded to yellow before September came . There was no rain for weeks , and the people 's faces along Eleventh Street wore a longing for something cool and wet , something distant , like the promise of <p> balmy October . Talk of weather was of the heat and the dry taste in their mouths . And they were frustrated , having to notice something other than the weather in their daily pleasantries . Sometimes , in the haven of afternoon porch shade or in the still and cooler places of late night , they drank and laughed , content because they had managed to make it through the day . <p> What I noticed was the way the skin of my neighbors glistened as they toiled in their backyards , trying to save their gardens or working a few more miles into their cars . My own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ darker and darker , my hair lightening , dispelling my assumption that it had always been a curly black -- the whole of me a new and stranger blend of browns from day after day of basketball on asphalt courts or racing the other boys down the street after the Icee truck each afternoon . <p> I came to believe that it was the heat that made things happen . It was a summer of empty sidewalks , people I knew drifting in and out of the alleyways where trees gave more shade , the dirt there cooler to walk on than any paved surface . Strangers , appearing lost , would walk through the neighborhood , the dust and sun 's glare making that place look like somewhere else they were trying to go . Sitting on our porch , I watched people I 'd never seen before walk by seemingly drawn to those rippling pools of heat glistening above the asphalt , as if something must be happening just beyond where that warmth quivered down the street . And at night I 'd look out from the porch of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scan the neighborhood , wanting to see some change , something besides the nearby rumble of freight trains and the monotony of heat , something refreshing and new . In heat like that , everyone sat on their porches , looking out into the night and hoping for something better to come up with the sun . <p> It was during such a summer , my mother told me , that my father got home from the third shift at the bottling plant , waked her with his naked body already on top of her , entered her before she was able to say no , sweat on her through moments of whiskey breath and indolent thrusting , came without saying a word , and walked back out of our house forever . He never uttered a word , she said , for it was not his way to speak much when it was hot . <p> My mother told me he left with the rumble of the trains . She was a wise woman and spoke almost as beautifully as she sang . She spoke to me with a smooth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of someone else , and it was strange to me that she might have wanted to cry at something like that but did n't , as if there were no need anymore . <p> She said she lay still after he left , certain only of his sweat , the work shirt he left behind , and her body calming itself from the silent insistence of his thrusts . She lay still for at least an hour , aware of two things : feeling the semen her body would n't hold slowly leaving her and dripping onto the sheets , and knowing that some part of what her body did hold would fight and form itself into what became me nine months later . <p> I was ten years old when she told me this . After she sat me down and said , This is how you came to me , I knew that I would never feel like I was ten for the rest of that year . She told me what it was to love someone , what it was to make love to someone , and what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , all three do n't happen at once . When she said that , I did n't quite know what it meant , but I felt her need to tell me . She seemed determined not to hold it from me . It seemed as if somehow she was pushing me ahead of my growing . And I felt uncomfortable with it , the way secondhand shoes are at first comfortless . Soon the pain was n't greater , just hard to wear . <p> After that , she filled my home life with lessons , stories , and observations that had a tone of insistence in them , each one told in a way that dared me to let ' it drift from my mind . By the end of my eleventh year , I learned of her sister Alva , who cut off two of her husband 's fingers , one for each of his mistresses . At twelve , I had no misunderstanding , of why , someday soon , for nothing more an a few dollars , I might be stabbed by one of the same boys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At thirteen , I came to know that my cousin Dexter had n't become sick and been hospitalized in St. Louis , but had gotten a young white girl pregnant and was rumored to be someone 's yardman in Hyde Park . And when I was fourteen , through the tree-withering heat of August , during the Watertown Blues Festival , in throngs of sweaty , wide-smiling people , my mother pointed out to me my father . <p> For the annual festival , they closed off Eleventh Street from the downtown square all the way up to where the freight railway cuts through the city , where our neighborhood ends and the land rises up to the surrounding hills , dotted with houses the wealthy built to avoid flooding and neighbors with low incomes . Amidst the summer heat was the sizzle of barbecue at every corner , steamy blues from performance stages erected in the many empty lots up and down the street , and , of course , the scores of people , crammed together , wearing the lightest clothing they could without looking loose . By early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the blues would have dominion over the crowd . <p> The sad , slow blues songs my mother loved the most . The Watertown Festival was her favorite social event of the year . She had a tight-skinned sort of pride through most days of the year , countered by the softer , bare-shouldered self of the blues festival , where she wore yellow or fiery orange outfits and deep , brownish-red lipstick against the chestnut shine of her cheeks . More men took the time to risk getting to know her , and every year it was a different man ; the summer suitors from past years learned quickly that although she wore that lipstick and although an orange skirt never looked better on another pair of hips , never again would she have a man leave his work shirt hanging on her bedpost . With that kind of poise , she swayed through the crowds of people smiling at many , hugging some , and stopping at times to dance with no one in particular . <p> When I was younger than fourteen , I had no choice but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make me shower and put on a fresh cotton shirt . You need to hear the blues , boy , a boy needs something to tell itself what 's good and what 's not . At fourteen , my mother approached me differently . She simply came out to the yard where I was watering her garden and said , You going ? and waited for me to turn to her , and say yes . I did n't know if I liked the blues or not . <p> We started at the top of Eleventh Street and worked our way downtown over the few hours of the festival . We passed neighbors and friends from church , my mother 's boss from Mills Dry Goods , and Reverend Riggins , who was drinking ; beer from a paper cup instead of a can . Midway down Eleventh , in front of Macky 's Mellow Tone Grill , I bumped into my cousin Wilbert , who had sneaked a tallboy of Miller High Life from a cooler somewhere up the street . A Zydeco band was warming up for Etta James @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intense heat and shared sips of that beer while we watched my mother , with her own beer , swaying with a man twice her age to the zip and smack of the washboard . <p> Etta James had already captured the crowd when Wilbert brought back a large plate of ribs and another beer . My mother came over to share our ribs , and Wilbert was silent after deftly dropping the can of beer behind his back . I stood there listening , taking in the heat , the music , the hint of beer on my mother 's breath . The crowd had a pulse to it , still moving up and down the street but stopping to hear the growl of Etta James 's voice . The sense of closeness was almost too much . My mother was swaying back and forth on her heels , giving a little dip to her pelvis every so often and mouthing the words to the songs . At any given moment , one or two men would be looking at her , seemingly oblivious and lost in the music . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closeness of the people . She was looking away from the stage , focusing on a commotion of laughter in front of Macky 's where voices were hooting above the music . She took hold of my shoulders and turned me towards the front of Macky 's . In a circle of loud men , all holding beer , all howling in laughter -- some shirtless and others in work clothes-stood a large man in a worn gray suit , tugging his tie jokingly like noose , pushing the men into new waves of laughter each moment . His hair was nappy like he had just risen from bed . But he smiled as if that was never his main concern anyway , and he held a presence in that circle of people which made me think he had worn that suit for just such an appearance . My mother held my shoulders tightly for a moment , not tense or angry or anxious , just firm , and then let go . <p> " There 's your father , " she said , and turned away , drifting back into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the stage , I felt obligated not to follow her . When I could see her no longer , I looked back to the circle of men and the man that my mother had pointed out . From the way he was laughing , he looked like a man who did n't care who he might have bothered with his noise . Certainly his friends did n't seem to mind . Their group commanded a large space of sidewalk in front of the bar . People made looping detours into the crowd instead of walking straight through that wide-open circle of drunken activity . The men stamped their feet , hit each other in the arms , and howled as if this afternoon were their own party I turned to tell Wilbert , but he had gone . I watched the man who was my father slapping his friends ' hands , bent over in laughter , sweat soaking his shirt under that suit . <p> He was a very passionate-looking man , large with his laugh , expressively confident in his gestures , and as I watched him , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lazy thrust of his which my mother told me had no passion in it at all . I wondered where he must have been all those years and realized how shocked I was to see the real man to fill the image my mother had made . She had made him up for me , but never whole , never fully able to grasp . I was thinking of his silence , the voice I 'd never heard . And wanting nothing else at that moment but to be closer , I walked towards that circle of men . I walked as if I were headed into Macky 's Mellow Tone , and they stopped laughing as I split their gathering . The smell of liquor , cheap cologne , and musky sweat hit my nostrils , and I was immediately aware not only that I had no reason for going or chance of getting into Macky 's , but that <p> was also passing through of a circle of strangers . I stopped a few feet from the entrance and focused on the quilted fake leather covering the door 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looked at that for what seemed a long time , because I was afraid to turn back into laughter . The men had started talking again , slowly working themselves back into their own good time . But they were n't laughing at me . I turned to face them , and they seemed to have forgotten that I was there . <p> I looked up at my father , who was turned slightly away from me . His mouth was open and primed to laugh , but no sound was coming out . His teeth were large , and I could see where sometime before he had lost two of them . Watching him from the street , I had only seen his mouth move and had to imagine what he was saying . Now , so dose to him , dose enough to smell him , to touch him , I could hear nothing . But I could feel the closeness of the crowd , those unfamiliar men , my father . Then he looked down at me . His mouth dosed , and suddenly he was n't grinning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up as my mother might have told me to do . I arced my hand out to slide across his palm , but he pulled his hand back , smiling -- a jokester , like he was too slick for my eagerness . <p> He reached in his suit jacket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses . Watertown is a small town , and when he put those glasses on , he looked like he had come from somewhere else . I know I had n't seen him before that day . I wondered when in the past few days he must have drifted into town . On what wave of early morning heat had he arrived ? <p> I looked at myself in the reflection of the mirrored lenses and thought , So this is me . <p> " Them 's slick basketball sneakers you got , " he said . " You a bad brother on the court ? " <p> I could only see the edge of one eye behind those glasses , but <p> decided that he was interested . <p> " Yeah , I am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you just watch . " And I was sure we 'd go inside Macky 's and talk after that . We 'd talk about basketball , and then he 'd ask me if I was doing well in school , and I 'd say not too hot , and he 'd get on me about that as if he 'd always been keeping tabs on me . Then we would toast to something big , something we could share in the loving of it , like Bill Russell 's finger-roll lay-up or the pulled pork sandwich at Round Belly Ribs or the fact that I had grown two inches that year , even though he would n't have known that . We might pause for a moment , both of us quiet , both of us knowing what that silence was about , and he 'd look real serious and anxious at the same time , a man like him having too hard a face to explain anything that had happened or had n't happened . But he 'd be trying . He 'd say , Hey , brother , cut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I might say , It 's cool , or I might say nothing at all but know that sometime later on , we would spend hours shooting hoop together up at the rec center , and when I 'd beaten him two out of three at twenty-one , he 'd hug me like he 'd always known what it was like to love me . <p> My father took off his sunglasses and looked down at me for a long silent moment . He was a large man with a square jaw and a wide , shiny forehead , but his skin looked soft -- a gentle , light brown . My mother must have believed in his eyes . They were gray-blue , calm and yet fierce , like the eyes of kinfolk down in Baton Rouge . His mouth was slightly open ; he was going to speak , and I noticed that his teeth were yellow when I saw him face to face . He would n't stop smiling . A thought struck me right then that he might not know who I was . <p> One @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's roll , bro , Tyree 's leavin ' ! " <p> He jerked free and threw his friend a look that made me stiffen . <p> The man read his face and then laughed nervously . " Be cool , nigger , break bad someplace else . We got ladies waitin ' . " <p> " I 'm cool , brother . I 'm cool .. I ' My father looked back at me . In the mix of the music and the crowd , which I 'd almost forgotten about , I could barely hear him . " I 'm cold solid He crouched down , wiped his sunglasses on a shirttail , and put them in my pocket . His crouch was close . Close enough for me to smell the liquor on his breath . Enough for him to hug me . Close enough for me to know that he would n't . But I did n't turn away . I told myself that I did n't care that he was not perfect . <p> He rose without saying anything else , turned from me , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where his friends were waiting . They were insistent on him hurrying , and once they were sure that he was going to join them , they turned down the alley . I did n't cry , although I would n't have been embarrassed if I had . I watched them leave , and the only thing <p> felt was a wish that my father , on this one day , had never known those men . He started to follow them , but before he left , he stopped to look over the scene there on Eleventh Street . He looked way up the street , to where the crowd thinned out , and then beyond that , maybe to where the city was split by the train tracks , running on a loose curve around our neighborhood to the river ; or maybe not as far as that , just a few blocks before the tracks and two streets off Eleventh where , sometime earlier than fourteen years ago , he might have heard the train 's early morning rumble when he stepped from our back porch . <p> 
##1001268 THE WANDERING STORY BEGINS in the mid-1800s in Russia with a gathering of young men , nobles of some sort , at a comfortable club of their provision in a provincial town miles from the social authority of Moscow . One senses the author 's habitual questioning of the entrenched habits of power or of what passes for it in such centers as Moscow , and there seems , tacitly , the thought that such concentrations are even more closed in upon themselves than are the smaller societies of those cities and towns more remote from such confident hubs . There is also the wondering disposition of an author on the edge of the late nineteenth century in Europe , hardly a moment of significant stability even if peculiarly hushed , muted by a curious containment of impulse , a waiting for a je ne sais quoi of whatever fact . <p> I had told the story any number of times , wondering how it had been so poised , first of all , how he 'd thought of it . These reflective , reflexive moments would seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of . How come it 's that way , etc . Dazzling . <p> But on this evening , which memory does not now describe except that it feels cold , fragile , one of the company has discovered himself as destitute , having lost at cards or some similar adventure all of his land and money . Why he has come to the club at all one may wonder , because he now becomes the butt of his fellows , who face him with increasingly sneering contempt and dismissal . All but one , that is , for the unfortunate bankrupt has not merely a champion but a stalwart friend , who steps forward to defend his vulnerable fellow and abruptly offers him the resources of his own estate , proposing they leave the surly company and go there at once . <p> This time he had contrived to gather us in a usefully unfamiliar place , the small town ambience of clustered nobility , or at least money . Yet one in the company was broke and all the others picked on him mercilessly , no doubt to break @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if one would have to break a way through , just to get into the building . <p> What is time in such worlds ? Only the next moment , or else a vast plain of almost undifferentiated accumulation , days , years , centuries , until all moves with an oozing solidity . It is the place of cause and effect but of such scale that an eyeblink resonates for endless hours and effects such a plethora of absolutely unthinkable results . " For want of a nail , a shoe was lost .... " Is it truly just the mind which thinks of things ? Nonetheless our story continues . <p> At this moment , then , another young man there , much as all , stands up and abruptly defends the indigent person , the bankrupt , saying that he now constitutes the erstwhile victim 's support . What does he say exactly ? Something like , come home with me , your troubles are over . <p> One thing settled , another soon begins . So the friend brought home and given a securing place quickly became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drama , which , one soon learns , is a complex but painfully vivid rapprochement with one of the household 's maids . This forthright person is an exceptionally handsome young woman who has but lately come into service and so feels no limiting habit of wary self-abasement . She is , in that sense , naive , yet not in the least unintelligent . The young man feels her equal to himself in every way , if not beyond him , in fact , in the capability of her independent manner of thinking . <p> But " there " there is no one one knows , no locating warmth or answer . She speaks from quite elsewhere , this familiar and final friend . She is not ever one or two or three . She does not divide by evens and odds . The kaleidoscopic manifestations might just as well be the fingers of one 's hands . What does one feel ? <p> No doubt there was a time when all of us , perhaps , were poised upon our own capabilities with just such a freshness , speaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or thinking to , how we might be heard . Then we were truly lovely , endearing , utterly human in our unintentional pretensions of a world of such openness . Even the clouds might speak clearly . <p> Impatient with all conversions of love , indifferent to whatever they have been implicated to mean , he will not see beyond the enclosing tunnels of his own various intentions , his plans for immediate action . He surveys his rested body as if it were a machine , well oiled , well designed , well equipped for the tasks he has in mind to give it . <p> Now , however , complications occur which have not been anticipated . There is much discussion with the ensconced friend , who has become the ear for all such ruminations , but neither can quite understand what has happened . The love was fierce , direct and passionate . The two had met whenever able to , fell directly upon each other as massive stones weighted by an irrevocable destiny . They both were seemingly in a state of profound and absolute love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be , in fact , its definition , that it was finally , if uncomfortably , everywhere one was . No high roads or low roads to lead elsewhere . He has followed the wrong career , so to speak . He might have been a highly proficient opera star or a bowler , taken in the washing or counted sheep . He looked only to the other for resolutions . Where was he ? <p> Yet what had so attracted him to her -- her remarkable clarity , her determined integrity of feeling -- now rebuffs him . She has thought of all that living which her love for him must necessarily preclude , all that might otherwise happen which she will never know now , because of him . Many persons have experienced the consternation of love 's obstinate enclosure , yet few have turned away because they would not accept such transforming delight as sufficient . So she is humble in such questioning , but she knows that a life simply with him must argue against the vast potential she senses it might otherwise prove . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaves him nonetheless . Instantly all his life becomes a vapid emptiness . <p> It seems much like crying in a graveyard , for the loss of a loved one . The very magnitude of grief , the densities of despair , the profoundly grounded shock of absences noted so repetitively must mean that one is one of many , as was the one now gone also . I can not believe you call me back just to tell me that , so often , so expectedly , with nothing ever added . <p> You must enter this moment as closely as possible in that no time will now separate you , no other place be so far from you , that this heartbreaking confusion , this insistently destructive turn of events , will not prove familiar . When one leaves , one leaves forever , be it by fact of death , or love 's absence , or a simple misunderstanding one only recognizes as such too late . With love so lost , one 's self is no more than a painful reflection , an abhorrent survival of that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doubt . " If she be not fair for me , what care I how fair she be ... " There are certainly other dispositions in this matter . Yet they are not ours particularly , not after such a long life with so many habits in it . Triangulation sometimes sounds at least like strangulation . What a sight to see she was . You too . <p> He himself wanders , almost crazed , from tavern to tavern , village to village , and soon becomes a peculiar presence of that vast tapestry of small towns and rivers , those echoing hills and valleys , the tenacious , small presences of the local , the enduring provincial fabric of place . One day he comes upon a horse fair and watches , half distracted by his manic preoccupation , while an old horse dealer , a Jew , is set upon by irate yokels who think he has cheated them with his close dealing . Defensively the trader prepares for their attack , which is unfortunately soon coming . The frustrated crowd now batters against him with fists and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grew old and died , literally . It is the simple reality of the story that engages one 's attention . Coming into the house , one knows where things are . One follows after , concerned that our friend may do himself some real harm , now that the old companion he had rescued earlier has gone , and also the vivid love who had burned his heart so deeply . I like the looks of the old horse trader , come in from some other tale no doubt , a familiar figure in these times . He knows far more than he finds reason to speak of . Trust him . <p> A complex sense of fairness and the same unthinking ability to respond again prompt the young man to act . Instantly he has thrust himself forward , into the surly crowd 's most volatile numbers , and here he pushes one , then another , calling upon them to stand back and stop their harassing of this innocent old man . Possibly it is his own fierceness now persuades them for they hesitate , confused by his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begin to slink off as he continues to shout at them , the trader at his side . <p> All the meannesses , the meagernesses , the pinched , small avoidances I had thought swept behind me here recollect . " Do I have perchance a debt to a man named ... " Most echoing the gray morning we awoke to find ourselves entangled against affectation or loyalty , struck again by the world 's defensive patterns . Do you remember how the boys feed bread with a fish hook in it to that old dog who waits each day for them as they pass on their way to and from school ? I think of you across the long years still waiting , etc . <p> Expectably the one he has rescued is grateful indeed . Who can say what his actual conduct has been ? In this close world such an outsider must of necessity be suspect and that generality itself no doubt serves to prompt a behavior unlike the common . Shrewdly he considers his benefactor even as isolated as himself . He must sense that for this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the singularity of his own life . Almost with foresight the trader thanks the younger man with the gift of one of his horses , a magnificent gray stallion , a dream of compact energies and astute breeding . It is his prophetic thanks for the wonder of their meeting , just in time . <p> There are no parallels , there are only repetitions . Off I ride on my cousin 's half-horselike gray pony across the farmer 's fields where the cows feed under the apple trees . They startle to see us come at them and begin themselves to run , some dragging tether ropes and chains . Vive le peuple ! There are so many stories still to tell . <p> So a new chapter begins , so to speak , and our hero is utterly possessed by his miraculous steed . Noble visitors to that remote landscape , themselves out riding to dispel the tedium , confront an unexpected arc of speed across their prospect , a rush of thundering hooves which carry the concentrated owner past them in a blur . All attempts to make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ horseflesh , fail . It is adamantly not for sale . Days now pass in the rigorous routine of the horse 's care and exercise . The obsessed owner all but lives in the stable except for those hours he spends in the saddle , pounding over the expansive wastes of valley and hill . <p> Yet when he had finally bought the stupid car and managed to get it back to his house without incident , he then tried to secure it within the far too small garage only to mistake controls in the process and so lumbered on through the rear end of the flimsy building out into the backyard where his vague companion stood hanging sheets , amazed . Together they watched an angel descend with gauzy wings and a severely sunburned forehead , impatient that their faith required its attendance when all else in the universe was so markedly more attractive . The dogs , meantime , sat on the sidewalk and laughed . <p> But then , one morning , he goes in usual fashion to attend his magnificent steed only to find it gone . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? Surely there must be a comforting explanation . Slowly , despairingly , he recognizes that the horse has been stolen , which has for many days been even unthinkable , yet nonetheless present in the back of his mind because of the intense and persistent interest in acquiring the horse all had shown . He tears at his body and clothing in anger . He confronts with rage all his staff . How has the horse been so let loose , in care and now in fact ? His despair becomes absolute as he ranges far and wide , asking questions of all he meets but never finding even a wisp of evidence as to the horse 's whereabouts . He applies to the old trader for advice but the man can only say that he will put out the word and report such findings as come of it . <p> No one ever said it could work out . You pay your money and you take your choice . Would it be better never to step outside the house . There are people who live whole lifetimes together , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speak , just write little notes like , " I am going to the doctor 's , " or " The upstairs toilet has backed up . " The small voice hardly of conscience says silently I love your big fat tits , your huge penis , but then I have little say in these matters . Those are unseemly thoughts at best . Think of the one that got away . <p> If the end of things were as expected , then the story would itself wander off , past the interval of initial friendship , the transforming love then following to lead him elsewhere , the sudden truncation of all he had thus come to look to , and then an old and vulnerable horse trader and the gift of the wondrous horse , then its loss , and thus the end . Many years have passed and that friend first met in all his vulnerability has long since died . The woman too may well be a grandmother . But this is quite another tale and so one day the old trader comes to the man 's house @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . By means of his extensive fellows in the trade the gray horse had been recovered and now all might be as before . <p> Maybe Lazarus would have preferred to let things be , however grateful he was reported as being . The stories of that book are finally buried under the apparent doctrine , which is , as all such , there to make a point . If it were the keys to the car , then welcome always their recovery . Yet if blame were to follow ? I have nothing more to say on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me . What sort of writer could that be . <p> The routine again begins , the procedures of the stable , the long rides over the adjoining estates and woods , and life returns almost as if the blood came back into a body . Daily he feels himself blessed by a bounty no human can ever feel deserved . Then a simple question comes , almost as if it too were a wanderer , a traveler from some distant place prompted by no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A neighbor , well meaning , one morning had asked him if he were finally certain that this was the horse which had been stolen from him . Of course , he said , how could it be otherwise ? The horse so performed , the color of its coat was just the right shade of gray -- what could be suspected as different ? But , said the man , it is a well-known fact that a young gray will show a distinct change of shading in that color after its yearly shedding . Is that so , he felt , and how could it be that he had not thought of it , having thought of everything else imaginable ? So , the reasoning went , if this horse is just that gray you remember , then it can not be your horse since that gray would now be not the same . But it was , of course , his horse . Who should know better ? No one , at last he had to realize . Now no one will ever know at all . <p> So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through the words of another person , an Englishwoman whose son then came to live in the house of one of my wife 's elder relatives , wherein both were eventually to die without the reminiscences one might well have hoped to have heard . Possibly the son 's being a writer argued the necessity of some other thing to say , some requisite distance . Our author speaks of none of them . But the mother 's sensitive listening had made his initiating words carry a formidable distance , like the faded country squire upon the great gray horse 's back . I may wonder why she thought to break it into two halves , like a cookie , but what after all do I know of her , except that she too cares ? The green trees grow more slowly . The river winds on . <p> Waldoboro , Maine 16 August 1992 <p> 
##1001270 In the village of Rossiniere , in Switzerland , Ann is handed a piece of gold leaf to eat . <p> " It 's good for the digestion , " Cecile tells her in her accented English . " It 's good against arthritis , too . " <p> Both girls laugh . Both girls are too young to worry yet about arthritis . <p> " I eat it all the time -- an expensive habit . My parents would be furious if they knew , " Cecile says as she goes back to the lamp she is restoring and to which she is applying the gold . Her strokes are quick and sure and she uses a curious instrument with an agate head to make the gold shine . <p> Ann shuts her eyes and puts the gold leaf -- a little gelatinous and more like mercury than gold -- into her mouth . The gold feels like paper and , because her mouth has gone dry , she has difficulty swallowing it . With an effort , she forces the gold down and feels its uneasy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> This is Ann 's first time in Switzerland and her first week in Rossiniere where she is living with Cecile and her family for the summer . Cecile 's family owns an antique store that specializes in Swiss hand-painted furniture , which they restore and sell . The painted furniture reminds Ann of American Quaker or Pennsylvania Dutch furniture , only it is more artful , more intricate . The armoires and chests in the Cottier 's store as well as in their house have elaborately painted scenes , landscapes with churches , castles , people , carriages , animals . The colors , too , are a surprise : bright mountain greens , vivid sky blues , startling blood reds , nothing like the more sober and muted Quaker and Pennsylvania Dutch colors . Ann 's bed in the Cottier 's house , for instance , is decorated with lush garlands of blue and red flowers that inspire her with an unaccustomed gaiety . Already , Ann claims that she sleeps better here than she does elsewhere . <p> " Funny , " Ann has told Cecile and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be , you know , kind of dour and sad . Instead , it 's very lively , it 's very -- " Unable to think of the proper word , Ann blushed , stopped . <p> In addition , Ann likes the Swiss furniture because each hinge , each fastening and joint , however old , still works simply and perfectly , and Ann says that , for the time being anyway , she prefers craftsmanship to invention . Also , she says she likes the fact that all the furniture is clearly dated . Josef et Marie-Therese Henchot -- 1785 is painted below the garland of blue and red flowers on the headboard of Ann 's bed so that she does not need to speculate or guess , or , in turn , be wrong . <p> Cordial and noncommittal with Ann , Cecile 's parents , M. and Mme. Cottier , too , right away include her in their routine with neither surprise nor , as far as Ann can see , any adjustments . Their lack of curiosity about her and her family , Ann attributes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first evening volunteered that she was a twin , Mme. Cottier did not immediately ask Ann if her twin were identical or fraternal , as everyone else always did . <p> Instead , the conversation around the Cottier ' s dining room table tends to remain general and devoid of those personal remarks and innuendos Ann resents in her own family ( although one time , Mme. Cottier did mention Cecile 's short -- no , shorn -- hair , and with a look of long suffering on her face said to Ann : " You should have seen her hair before Beautiful thick hair Now , she looks like -- how can I say ? -- one of those poor people , one of those victims " ) . <p> Mostly , however , the talk is about food . M. and Mme. Cottier discuss the quality of the Gruyere and whether it has aged properly , the butter and whether such-and-such a dairy is better than another or whether it has fallen off in quality ; they speak about the peaches and whether they are as good , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year ' s peaches , and Ann can not help but think of her own family 's meals and how everyone bolts down his food without a word , barely tasting it , as if eating were a chore rather than a pleasure . Still , Ann is amazed that such a banal topic proves inexhaustible and that even slim Cecile , who looks as if she ate nothing but celery stalks , joins in the conversation with enthusiasm and eats twice as much as Ann ever does . <p> In her hiking boots , Cecile 's slender legs look thinner , longer . Also , she is wearing short shorts . <p> Ann is wearing jeans . <p> " Where are we going ? " she asks . Then , since Cecile does not answer , Ann says , " I love to walk . " <p> Early afternoon in early July ; the road that runs through the village of Rossiniere is almost deserted -- too soon in the season yet for tourists -- only an occasional car passes them . Most of the cars in Switzerland , Ann @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ geraniums , she thinks . The window boxes of the chalets in Rossiniere are filled with geraniums , the blossoms are full , large . Gladioli , peonies still , sweet peas , snapdragons , and weedless rows of vegetables fill the gardens that border the road . In the last garden , an old woman dressed entirely in black is hoeing . Slowly , she straightens herself up and , leaning against her hoe , she watches the two girls , Ann and Cecile , walk past . No one says a word . <p> " I like your hair . Really , I do , " Ann says to Cecile . <p> Before Ann has a chance to say anything else , a car drives up -- no exception , the car is red -- slows down , stops , honks . The young woman sitting next to the driver rolls down her window and gestures with her hand . For a moment , Ann thinks she and the driver are friends of Cecile , but Ann can see out of the corner of her eye that Cecile has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the road and is crawling underneath it into the adjoining field . <p> " Ici , est-ce bien la route pour -- " the young woman calls out to Ann in halting French . <p> " Excusez-moi , Mademoiselle , mais nous sommes bien sur la route de -- " the young woman tries again a little louder while Ann continues to stare at her . No mistaking the young woman 's accent . <p> " Cecile " Ann starts to call out before she turns away . She can feel the eyes of the couple in the car on her as she crawls awkwardly under the fence . A barb snags the sweater she has tied over her shoulders , the wool tears as Ann pulls it free . <p> Cecile is halfway across the field . " Who were those people ? " Cecile asks Ann when Ann catches up with her . " Tourists , " she says before Ann can reply . <p> The field has not yet been mowed and it is filled with tall grasses and Queen Anne 's lace . The Queen Anne 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she reaches down and touches the tops of the flowers as she walks . Some of the flowers are pink . She is tempted to stop , to pick them . Ahead of her , Cecile has started to sing a song Ann recognizes immediately . <p> " Like no other lover -- " Cecile 's voice is loud , mock impassioned , her accent even more pronounced . <p> " Something in the way he moves -- " Ann starts to sing along with her . <p> " I love the Beatles , " Cecile tells Ann when they are finished singing . <p> " It 's a great song , " Ann agrees . She has almost forgiven Cecile . <p> In front of them , at the far edge of the field filled with Queen Anne 's lace , tall dark pines rise almost parallel to the side of the mountain . <p> Following the path up through the trees , Ann walks directly behind Cecile . The blue sky overhead is hidden from view by the tall dark pines and , except for the occasional snapping of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amazed how quickly the countryside has changed -- twenty minutes from the village of Rossiniere with its red geraniums , and they are in no man 's land , as remote , Ann thinks , as a jungle . Above them she can hear but not see a jet , no doubt a commercial airliner , and she imagines the passengers in their seats , perhaps sipping cocktails and admiring this view from above , feeling safe as they fly over Switzerland . <p> Looking ahead at Cecile , Ann worries about whether Cecile has ever gotten lost on a walk . The dark trees frighten Ann a bit and it might take hours , days even , Ann thinks , before someone would find them , especially , say , if one of them were to fall and break her leg . Cecile 's legs would snap in a trice they are so thin . <p> Ann also wishes that they would talk as they walk . So far , Ann knows very little about Cecile . Ann would like to know , for instance , if CEcile has ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a fellow student , an artist . He painted large abstract canvases filled with yellow bubbles . " Yellow is a difficult color . After van Gogh -- " Farah had shrugged his bony shoulders , given Ann a sad smile . Life , too , for Farah was difficult . In America on a grant , Farah was afraid he would be sent back to Libya , would have to stop painting . Ann sympathized -- it would be unfair . But when her parents found out about Farah , to hear them talk about it , Farah and Qaddafi were one and the same . Nothing Ann said could placate them . The angrier they got , the more determined she was to defend Farah , like a cause . Eventually , Farah did have to go back to Libya and Ann went to Switzerland -- a neutral country . But from Switzerland , Ann secretly fantasizes she can go to Libya -- it is a lot closer . This is a notion Ann clings to for her self-esteem and is not anything she has the courage to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trees , it is colder , windier . The sky , too , is no longer blue , but gray , almost white . Ahead of them , Ann sees a moraine of stones . The stones are loose and slippery and are covered with patches of last winter ' s crusty and now dirty snow . CEcile holds out her hand to Ann and together they cross the moraine . <p> " We are nearly there , " CEcile says . <p> Ann stops , both to catch her breath and to put on her sweater . As it turns out , the hole made by the barb is right over one of her breasts . Ann sees CEcile look at it and look away . <p> CEcile is pointing toward the rocks that form the top of the mountain . At first , Ann is afraid that Cecile means that they must climb up there . The rocks are steep , sheer . Then , all of a sudden , Ann sees something move . Then something else moves . As her eyes grow accustomed to looking , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them , at least . <p> The way the chamois stand , flat against the rocks , reminds Ann of those extinct villages she has seen pictures of in the National Geographic that are carved into and perched on the sides of mountains -- long ladders are strategically placed in front of dark doorways , windows , yet the villages look totally inaccessible . <p> " I was hoping they would be here for you to see , " says Cecile . <p> Standing quietly next to CEcile , Ann watches the group of chamois . They were absorbed in eating -- tufts of dried grass , moss , lichen growing on the rocks -- but now , as if sensing the two girls ' presence , the leader raises his head , looks around . Then , leisurely , not in any kind of a rush caused by fear , all the chamois start to move on . They jump further up the mountain , first one , then the next one -- the chamois look as if they are jumping almost at random , with no specific purpose except @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to another , Ann can see neither ledge nor foothold . They float gracefully in the air , feet tucked in , head and antlers contained , and land lightly and neatly , daintily . Occasionally , a chamois dislodges a stone and the stone rolls noisily down the rock face . <p> CEcile nudges Ann with an elbow . <p> The last chamois in the group lands on his knees . When he stands up , one of his front legs does not touch the ground . The leg dangles . <p> " Oh , my God , " Ann says . <p> The chamois 's broken leg crumbles underneath him as he lands on it again . Precariously perched on his knees , the chamois struggles to get back onto his three legs ; when he does , without pausing or hesitating , he jumps to another rock . Ann watches the chamois do this several more times -- jump , fall to his knees , get back on his feet , jump again -- as he tries to keep up with the other chamois . The other chamois @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pace nor in any way acknowledge that there is something wrong . It is almost too painful for Ann to watch , while , for the chamois , there seems to be no connection between his broken leg and his falling . He just keeps jumping -- jumping from rock to rock is what a chamois does , like breathing , Ann thinks . Even if something were to go wrong with one of her lungs she would still have to keep taking breaths . <p> " I 've never seen a chamois with a broken leg before , " CEcile says to Ann on their way back down the mountain . <p> " Terrible . He wo n't survive long , " Ann agrees . <p> And , in a rush of words , Ann tells CEcile about Farah , about how she met Farah , about how immensely talented Farah is and how he must be allowed to continue painting , about how her parents are prejudiced and have forbidden her to see him , about how much she loves him -- Ann has never loved anyone else the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , although as she says all this to CEcile , Ann does not feel so unhappy . On the contrary , she feels happy to be confiding in CEcile . <p> " I wish you could meet him , I am sure you would like him , " is what Ann is saying to Cecile as the two girls emerge from the trees and once again start to cross the field filled with Queen Anne 's lace . <p> " Shall we stop here for a minute ? " is how CEcile answers Ann . <p> Obediently , Ann sits down next to CEcile in the grass while CEcile busies herself picking the flowers within her reach . <p> " Last year , at just about this time , in July , a man gave me a lift in his car . I was hitchhiking . I always did -- it 's so safe here , " CEcile is saying . In her hand , she holds several long stalks of Queen Anne 's lace and she waves the flowers at Ann . " He was French , I think . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . A tourist . " CEcile shrugs her thin shoulders and gives a little laugh , at the same time that she starts to gently brush Ann 's brow with the bunch of Queen Anne 's lace . CEcile brushes Ann 's nose with the flowers , Ann 's mouth , Ann 's chin . " He was the reason I cut off my hair , afterwards . I did it myself . I did it with nail scissors . It took me all afternoon , my hair was so long . My parents did n't know . I never told them . " <p> The flowers tickle , but Ann does not move . Ann does not speak . Ann , probably , does not breathe as CEcile brushes Ann 's neck with the Queen Anne 's lace , and , lower down , as she brushes the place where the hole in Ann 's sweater is . <p> " We 'd better get home , " CEcile finally says , throwing away the bunch of Queen Anne 's lace and standing up , " or we 'll be late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is both worried and upset that the dinner she has been preparing will be spoiled , overcooked . M. Cottier is busy trying to choose the proper red wine to serve with the meal . When finally M. Cottier has opened the wine , a Dole , and they are seated at the table , CEcile tries to explain to M. and Mme. Cottier . <p> " You see , " CEcile says as she cuts into the duck 's pink breast , " it was my fault . I took Ann for a walk up the mountain and on the way home , we hitchhiked-I do it all the time -- and this man gave us a ride in his BMW . He was a tourist , a Frenchman , I think , or , maybe , he was a Belgian . " <p> Avoiding Cecile 's gaze , Ann lowers her head . She , too , busies herself cutting the duck meat . <p> " He would n't stop the car when we asked him to , " CEcile continues in an even voice . " He would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kept right on driving , is n't that right , Ann ? Lucky for us , the barrier was down at the railroad crossing , and Ann and I opened the door -- we were sitting in the back seat of the car -- and we jumped out . " <p> " CEcile , " Mme. Cottier says , " how many times do I have to tell you not to hitchhike ? You never know what sort of person is going to give young girls a lift . " Then Mme. Cottier says , " It is n't overdone , is it ? One must be so careful when one cooks a duck . One moment the duck is too rare , the next moment the duck is dried out . " <p> " I told you , did n't I , how I am a twin ? " Ann suddenly turns to and asks M. Cottier . " Peter , my twin brother , is exactly forty minutes older than me , and , actually , when I was born , my mother had no idea she was going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but my mother swears she did not have a clue . Neither did the doctor . My mother swears that after Peter was born the doctor thought she was through , he was taking off his mask , his gloves , he was about to leave the room , when , all of a sudden , one of the nurses called out after him : ' Wait a minute Here comes another one " <p> Without looking over at Ann , M. Cottier takes a sip of his wine and says , " I should have opened this bottle earlier , I should have let the wine breathe . " <p> That night , Ann does not sleep well . She does not sleep at all . Instead she tosses and turns in Josef and Marie-Therese Henchot 's pretty painted bed . Once when Ann opens her eyes she thinks she sees Josef Henchot standing next to the bed . With rough red hands that are more accustomed to milking cows , he is unbuttoning the row of small silver buttons on his short-sleeved black velvet peasant jacket that is exactly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to time . <p> The next morning during breakfast , M. and Mme. Cottier talk about an old armoire that has come up for sale . M. and Mme. Cottier say that they have had their eye on this particular painted armoire for a long time -- no one builds or paints armoires like this one anymore -- but the old man who owned it refused to part with it . <p> " What made him change his mind ? " Ann asks . <p> " He died , " Mme. Cottier answers , spreading more honey on her slice of bread . <p> The armoire , Mme. Cottier is sure , comes from Fribourg ; the armoire , M. Cottier is certain , has never been restored , and never in all his years of dealing with Swiss antiques has he seen an old armoire in such good condition ; the armoire , M. Cottier also says , should bring him at least one hundred thousand francs . <p> When he finishes his breakfast and gets up from the table , M. Cottier takes Mme. Cottier by the hand and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arm around Mme. Cottier 's waist , and , together , they do a little two-step dance . CEcile claps her hands . Then , standing up , she goes over to Ann and takes her hand . <p> " No , no , " Ann shakes her head , " I ca n't dance . " <p> Nonetheless , Ann lets CEcile pull her to her feet . <p> 
##1001272 The upper lip has two ridges side by side , forming between them a little gutter from the septum to the mouth . A quoi sert-il ? It must serve to lead the drippings of a runny nose to the mouth , I concluded as a child . <p> What thoughts one has . Is the voice that speaks in your head your own voice ? As you hear it when you speak , or as you try to make it sound to others ? <p> A woman once told me the voice in her head was not her voice . It said her thoughts but it was not her voice , she was quite sure . <p> Once I had three voices . The usual voice ; a second which disagreed in disgust ; and a rare third one , a voice of sickened exasperation which spoke only two words , shut up . <p> Frequently my father 's words are disapproving . When I am on the border of sleep I seem to hear him speak with preternatural clarity . His voice is not as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . One sentence only , of preternatural clarity . I ca n't quite make it out , or I am startled more awake and ca n't quite remember it despite its clarity . The experience is like starting at a noise you do n't hear and ca n't identify until afterward . The reaction first and the realization afterward . When you burn yourself , you do n't feel the heat until you 've already jerked back your hand . What is it he says ? Perhaps I only have an impression . something has been said . <p> What would run in your mind if you knew no speech ? What runs in animals ' ? Something -- they dream , after all . <p> Whose voice did that woman hear if not her own ? She was n't sure . Why could n't it have been hers then ? No , it was not . Of that she was sure . She could n't say what the difference was , how she knew it was n't hers . It was a voice she 'd never heard before . What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she feel about it ? It did n't frighten her but she thought it odd . It did n't disturb her or impede her thoughts but it was odd , was n't it ? It had not always been so . <p> At times she 'd pretend the thoughts it spoke were not hers at all , in order to amuse herself , or rather to let it amuse her . In doctors ' waiting rooms . On the ward . <p> Like me she was n't always aware of a voice at all , when busy and so on . And I know that sometimes there are no words at all , though I can not reflect on it . <p> Boredom makes us most aware of our voices . <p> Boredom and solitude . In grammar school when I had a runny nose I 'd try to wipe it unobtrusively with my hand . I did n't carry a handkerchief unless I had a cold , you see , and a runny nose could come unexpectedly . I 'd have to wait until my hand dried before <p> could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my hand but there were n't so many . One had to raise one 's hand to go to the bathroom for toilet paper . In itself this was humiliating enough , but with a runny nose , much worse , it seemed to me . I think I once coughed up a small handful of phlegm . I may have asked someone discreetly for a handkerchief but he had none , or I may have been too embarrassed to ask . Hard to believe , but I think I remember disposing of it by reswallowing . <p> Left alone I could amuse myself with my own fancies . One never was left alone . I developed a facade of attention which left my mind free to wander , and a mental record/playback which repeated the last sentence of what I was n't listening to if I was abruptly called to the present , but often there was n't enough freedom and I was horribly bored . My crotch would crawl , as it does when the bladder is full and must wait to be emptied . <p> She had dark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I think . Pleasantly unkempt . Tense and direct . <p> Perhaps I am confusing her with someone else . No . I remember her intensely . <p> I love her for our affinity . No , a dialogue of unlikenesses viewed similarly . Viewed with mutual understanding . Her views stimulated my own which were inspired fondly to proceed in parallel or tangent . <p> Fevers strangely alter the inner voice , amplify it . The inner voice fondly preserves past selves . When it comes to the fore , past selves may be evoked . <p> The woman with the dark hair 's husband died . One morning sometime afterward she awoke happy , she told me . She had forgotten . Within seconds his death came back to her as a sinking of the stomach , which then became an empty space somewhere within her . Finally her thoughts dulled : everything seemed as though without purpose . <p> The reaction first . <p> Her inner voice cast around listlessly for topics but none held any interest . Nevertheless it had to carry on . <p> She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for long after , she told me : I wish it were over , I wish it were over . Nothing more . She did n't know what she had meant , what it had meant , but it comforted her , she said , as if she were holding herself in her arms and rocking herself . <p> There were times later when she became angry with him for leaving . Resentful . Her eyes would prick , her throat lump . The corners of her mouth might tremble . <p> The resentment too comforted her , she said . At first ; later it made her feel ill . Nauseated . She felt a kind of disgust , a disgust for the face , the face of resentment that occupied her mind : its wordless stare , the face of a small boy who has been unjustly punished . <p> I have lost no one but I have thought of it often . It is much the same pleasure as imagining your own death . St. Augustine said of drama that men expected it to make them feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> As a small boy I feared any excess that people might disapprove , yet with courage I committed many . All children fear extremes , even their food must be bland . I wanted anonymous features -- nothing too long , too short , or too wide . My most painful feelings came from children 's torment of the striking . <p> Later we are only too happy to be striking . To catch the eyes of others . And merely to be different , unlike all those others , all those others who die . <p> All men are mortal , alle Menschen muessen sterben , my first text in German said . It startled me , where in English it might not have . Startled . Not the right word . The statement impressed itself upon me as the truth . <p> She was distractable . At times it was hard to talk to her . Her mind was on other things . It was unworldliness , except the other things that occupied her were trivial . The difference between distraction and absentmindedness is that the former @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things to Come , the small acts yet to perform . Brushing her hair back with one hand . It bushed forward , again in the way . Her eyes would dart from object to object as her thoughts moved among future acts . Perhaps she bit her lower lip , took the left corner of it between her teeth , or perhaps I only have the impression she did . An actress playing her would bite her lip . What ? she would say to your remark or question , what ? a bit too loudly and too quickly . What ? <p> Were it not for that note of desperation I 'd envy her , envy all those for whom life is too many things to do in too little time . It seems the opposite to me , you see . At the worst times there seems to be nothing to be done and even at the best too little . <p> I said I have never lost anyone so dramatically as she did , by death . My losses are to time . Mine disperse in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fog rolls behind me . <p> Yet fogs have always comforted me . Fog and certain secret phrases , incantations I use in desperate circumstances . The words lull . Fogs and myopia soothe . <p> Myopia , Myopia : a Racinean heroine . The sister of Somnos , who knits the raveled sleeve . There are those whose voices tell them puns . ( Myopiate . ) Perhaps on a full stomach . Late at night comes the neoclassic verse . Late at night and in certain states of drunkenness . <p> She told me she had ideas , thoughts , movements in the back of her mind which she could n't put into words . I know things that can not be put into words , she said : I try , but even to me they do n't sound right . <p> I found this hard to understand . I used to understand . I remember thinking myself in some woods , in the pine woods of my childhood , thinking I had thoughts for which I had no words . I almost had words for them , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she did : I knew things for which there are no words . I only think now that I thought the words would come because I know now that they have come . Or I am no longer capable of wordless thoughts . <p> Thoughts are only words to me now . Not merely , there is nothing mere about it . Perhaps I know only words now . What is an idea before it is words ? Nothing . <p> The mot juste . What does that mean ? I ca n't understand what that means anymore , though I think I used to know . One word means one thing and another means another . <p> Often I do n't know what I think about what happens . But it does n't seem to me I do n't know the words for what I feel , but that I do n't know what I feel . When I know , I know the words . <p> It 's true they may not come easily . It 's hard to dredge up the words that become what I am . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , not to bind upon them thongs which the things they are about elude . I feel this as if it were irresponsible , an indulgence to content myself with illusory form where there is real chaos . I find it perilous to exchange the real and confused for the clear but false : within me an Augustinian devil , drama , rapes chaste Night to beget Space and Time . <p> Can I feel without knowing the words ? <p> ( I may know the words . ) <p> Yes , it is possible but grows harder . I used to . She said she did -- I see no reason to doubt . It 's possible but harder all the time . <p> Perhaps thinking was easier for me than her . An easy gestation , a natural birth . But pregnant she felt her foetus a foreign growth , malignant . <p> How hard she lived I can not know . Is it easier to have another 's voice speak one 's thoughts ? <p> You may wonder at this dwelling without progress . This subject obsesses me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an underground cartoonist , saw people as cartoon characters , expressing themselves in thought balloons . Either during his breakdown or always . Himself too , I think . Thought balloons . I understand . During the years Henry Miller wanted more than anything to be a writer -- he thought in written sentences , fully punctuated , he has written . I have felt those periods . On acid I 've seen my life a cartoon , perhaps by her suggestion . Myself an animal . Each passerby becomes his totem . Miz Beaver 's tail waddles ' hind her apron . But I 've never seen a thought balloon . <p> Her husband died before I knew her , before I could 've met him . Because he wanted something so much then , that is why Miller thinks he used to be happy , though the man he describes could hardly have been happy . It is wonderful to want something . At the time it seems but a hole , but later one remembers it as an end . Realized or unrealized . <p> Objects distressed her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to need rearranging , cleaning , repair . She worried about them . <p> I am different . Things have been my consolation . They seem real . However unhappy my mind may imagine me ( or I may be , you see the problem ? ) , soap is still slippery , together with hot water it pleases the hands . <p> I 'd like to hold her now . A body is a thing . It is the only graspable of an unknowable . The most real part , do n't you see , to me it is the person . The soul is only its principles of organization , as Aristotle said . <p> I feel hysterical about these things . Passionate , without there seeming to be an object , without clear expression , principle of organization . The emotion then falls away in an emptiness , without purchase , dies away , a phantasm of the heart . Reaction without realization . After it passes there is nothing and it is hard to say what it was . <p> I feel alone now , without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vadiverunt ? Without them it 's hard to know what I think . <p> Where is she now ? I 'd like to talk to her again . I can see her clearly sometimes , not her but movements , movements which are her , brushing back a wing of hair with the back of a hand , perhaps the palm is greasy , over a stove perhaps , cleaning something , eye movements . <p> I remember no pictures , only outlines performing motions , videotape loops . <p> I see her with strange clarity here , often at night . Perhaps her face will come to me in a dream as faces do . It is something to hope for . <p> Motions become words , pictures can not . Words do not exist without a voice but a voice may without words -- perhaps I ca n't quite hear it or do n't remember them . Words are all the same but voices various . Voices . <p> They multiply . I no longer know which to trust . There is no end to these things , no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an incantation in the night , a timeless agony of never-ending voices speaking to me over and over words that I do not care about or important words that <p> can not hear . Is there no end to these things ? There is no end to these things . <p> 
##1001277 ... As I was saying , ladies and gentlemen , before that little unpleasantness : I have just been assured , by those in position to know , that this evening 's eminent " mystery guest " has arrived , and should be with us any time now . <p> Did I say " arrived " ? In the literary sense and on the literary scene , our distinguished visitor " arrived , " of course , with her first collection of poems , or at latest with her prizewinning second . On the international political scene , as the whole world knows , she arrived with a vengeance -- excuse the poor joke , not intended -- upon the publication of that more recent , truly epical poetic satire of hers whose very title it is dangerous to mention favorably in some quarters , though thank heaven not here . At least I hope not here ; that unbecoming ruckus just now makes me wonder . And as of just a short time ago , I 'm delighted to announce , she has arrived in our city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ introducing my introduction , I suppose we might say , while we await together the main event -- the most controversial poet of our dying century ( politically controversial , it 's important to remember , not artistically controversial , for better or worse ) is in midwhisk from the airport to our campus , to honor us by inaugurating this new lecture series . In that final sense , she should arrive here in the flesh -- the all too mortal , all too vulnerable flesh -- within the quarter hour . <p> In that meantime , I thank again the overwhelming majority of you for your patience with this unavoidable delay . It is owing , let me repeat , neither to any dilatoriness whatever on our visitor 's part nor to transoceanic air-traffic problems , but solely to the extraordinary security measures that , alas , necessarily attend and not infrequently impede the woman 's every movement . Who could have imagined that , at this hour of the world , a mere book , a mere poem , could provoke so dreadful a stir ? <p> Well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ am a writer , not of verse but of fiction : one whose " controversiality , " such as it is , is fortunately of the aesthetic rather than the political variety . And I must acknowledge that although it is my professional line of work to imagine myself into other people 's situations , I can not for the life of me imagine what it must be like for such a free , proud , articulate , sensitive , gregarious , impassioned , and altogether high-spirited spirit as our impending visitor 's to endure and even to go on making art under her constricted circumstances -- not to mention courageously putting herself in harm 's way by accepting from time to time such invitations as ours ( whose absence of advance publicity I 'm sure you appreciate , although you numbers suggest that word somehow got out despite our precautions ) . I shake my head ; I am awed , truly humbled . It was my good fortune to first meet and enjoy the company of out eminent/imminent guest some years ago , before the present storm of political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were happily just representative scribblers from two different countries sharing a lecture platform in a third -- and I heartily do not envy her present celebrity At the same time , for her sake if not for my own , I much wish that some Arabian-Nights genie could put me and every one of us who treasure artistic freedom and deplore murderous zealotry into our guest 's skin , each of us for just a single day , and she in ours , to give us the chastening , attention-focusing taste of terrorism and to give her , who must surely crave it , a bit of respite therefrom : a souvenir of the artist 's more usual condition of being blissfully ignored by the world at large . <p> But I was speaking of meantimes , was I not -- indeed , both of meantimes and of mean times , and of introductions to introductions . For some decades , as it happens , I have belonged to that peculiarly American species , the writer in the university . Indeed , it has been my pleasure and privilege for many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well as a full-time writer of fiction . As , again , some few of you may have heard , at the end of the current semester I 'll be retiring from that agreeable association ( my replacement has yet to be named , but I do n't mind confiding to you that we 're taking advantage of this new lecture series to look over a roster of likely candidates -- not including tonight 's visitor , alas -- to any one of whom I would confidently entrust the baton of my professorship ) . There is an appropriate irony , therefore , in its having devolved upon me , as perhaps my final public action is a member of our faculty , to introduce not only tonight 's extraordinary guest speaker but also this newly endowed " Last Lecture " series that her visit will so auspiciously inaugurate . <p> Valediction , benediction : I see therein no contradiction -- and while I 'm in the **35;94;TOOLONG mode , let me pray that to my valedictory introduction there may be no further interruption .... <p> So . Well . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impromptu brief digression on the subject of ... introductions . <p> The purpose of introductions , I have somewhere read , is normally threefold : first , to give late-arriving members of the audience time to be seated , as I notice a few in process of doing even now ; second , to test and if necessary adjust the public-address system for the principal speaker ; and at the same time ( third ) to give her of him a few moments to size up the house and perhaps make appropriate program modifications . Introductions , therefore , should go on for longer than one sentence -- but not much longer . And may Apollo spare us the introducer who either in the length of his/her introduction presumes upon the speaker 's allotted time , or in its manner attempts to upstage the introducee <p> But tonight , it goes without saying , is another story . We need not ask of it the traditional Passover question -- " How is this night different from all other nights ? " -- although that is the question that I urge apprentice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ main action of their stories . Why is it that Irma decides to terminate Fred today , rather than two weeks ago of next semester ? What was it about this satirical verse-epic of our visitor 's that provoked so astonishing and lamentable a reaction , which her scarcely less provocative earlier works did not ? You get the idea . I trust you 'll appreciate , however , that in all my years of introducing our visiting writers to their audiences , this is my maiden experience of being not so much an introducer as a warm-up act for " him who shall come after me , " as John the Baptist put it ( in this instance , her who shall etc . ) . The bona fide introduction that I had prepared -- short , short , I assure you , and not badly turned , if I do say so myself -- I am thus obliged to expand ad libitum like one of those talking heads on public television fund-raisers , either until there 's mutiny in the ranks ( but let it be more orderly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or else until our eagerly awaited guest ... <p> One moment , please . <p> She is ? Allah be praised for that ( No disrespect to that deity intended . ) <p> My friends : I 'm perfectly delighted to announce that the limousine of our so patiently awaited leadoff lecture-du-soir , together with its attendant security convoy , has reached the campus , and that therefore it should be a matter of mere minutes -- another ten or fifteen tops , I estimate and profoundly hope -- before I happily yield this podium to the Godot for whom we 've all been waiting . May that news update appease you while I now go straight to the matter of this series : <p> The anonymous benefactress who endowed " Last Lectures " ( she was , like our guest , a she ; that much I can tell you . Perhaps the muse ? ) throughout her long and prosperous lifetime was a perennial student , by her own description , and an inveterate " cultural attender , " ever present on occasions like these . In her advanced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some critical zest from the circumstance that , for all she knew , any given lecture or similar cultural occasion that she happened to be attending could feasibly be her last . It was her whimsical but quite serious inspiration , therefore , to endow handsomely a series of public lectures at this institution , with the stipulation that each speaker would be asked to imagine that this will be his or her valedictory presentation , her " last lecture " -- as , for all any of us knows , any given utterance of ours might well turn out to be . Thus would we hear our visitors ' " bottom line " sentiments , their summings up ; and thus by the way would the situation of the guest approximate that of the hostess -- who , I 'm sorry to report , went to her reward shortly after rewarding us with her philanthropy , and so can not attend , at least in the flesh , this first Last Lecture , nor any of those to follow it ( the interest on our muse 's endowment being generous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Do I dare point out -- indeed , I do so dare , for I knew this lady and her mordant wit well enough , once upon a time , to believe that she would enjoy the irony if she wee with us -- that tonight 's circumstances have matched donor and donee even more aptly than intended , inasmuch as both are now ... forgive me ... late ? <p> Well . <p> What ? <p> Aha . Gentlemen and ladies , ladies and gentlemen : She is in the building <p> Excuse me ? Okay ; sorry there : our distinguished visitor and her security entourage are approaching the building , it seems , although for several reasons I would prefer to say that she is " in the building " -- for are n't we all , come to that , in the process of building and of being built every moment of our active lives : a-building and a-building until the end , whereafter our building , we may hope , will survive its builder ? <p> Hum . <p> The end , I 've @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And having so said , with those words I end , not my introduction -- for our guest 's custody , as it were , has yet to be officially transferred from the state and municipal security people to our own , I 'm told , or to some combination of the two , or the three : a transfer now in progress elsewhere in this building even as I end , not my introduction of our visitor , whom I 've yet to begin to introduce , but my introduction to that introduction . No fitter way to do that , I hope you 'll agree , than with a few words about ... endings . <p> Endings , endings : where to begin ? I myself am not among the number of those Last Lecture whose distinguished names you 've seen on our posters and other advertisements ( all except that of this surprise inaugurator , for good and obvious reasons ) . I do n't mind declaring , however , that I could readily deliver a last lecture myself on the subject of endings . Further , that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not have done better than to begin with the opening exclamation of our Mystery Guest 's world-challenging verse-epic , which exclamation I shall take the liberty of Englishing thus : " An end to endings Let us rebegin " <p> As we wind up our century and our millennium -- this is Yours Truly speaking now , not our impending visitor , and you have my word of honor that the moment she enters this auditorium I shall beak off my spiel in mid-sentence , if need be , as Scheherazade so often breaks off her nightly narratives , and go straight to the very brief business of introducing her -- as we end our century and millennium , I was saying , it is no surprise that the " terminally malady " afflicts us . Of the End of Art we have been hearing ever since this century 's beginning , when modernism arrived on the stage of Western Civ . Picasso , Pound , Suavinsky -- all felt themselves to be as much terminators as pioneers , and where they themselves did not , their critics often so regarded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as well , for the artistic tradition that preceded and produced them . By mid-century we were hearing not only of the Death of the Novel -- that magnificent old genre that was born a-dying , like all of us ; that has gone on vigorously dying ever since , and that bids to do so for some while yet -- but likewise of the Death of Print Culture and the End of Modernism , supplanted by the electronic visual media and by so-called Postmodernism . And not long ago , believe it or not , there was an international symposium on " The End of Postmodernism " -- just when we thought we might be beginning to understand what that term describes In other jurisdictions , we have Professor Whatsisname on the End of History , and Professor So-and-So on the End of Physics ( indeed , the End of Nature ) , and Professor **25;131;TOOLONG on the End of the Old World Order with the collapse of the Soviet Union and of international communism . <p> In short and in sum , endings , endings everywhere ; apocalypses large @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ good-bye to the whales ; good-bye to the mountain gorillas and the giant pandas and the rhinoceri ; good-bye even to the humble frogs , one is beginning to hear , as our deteriorating ozone layer exposes their eggs to harmful radiation . Good-bye to the oldest continuous culture on the planet : the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq , in process of extermination by Saddam Hussein even as I speak . Good-bye to once-so-cosmopolitan Beirut and once-so-hospitable Sarajevo , as we who never had the chance to know them knew those excellent cities . The end of this , the end of that ; little wonder we grow weary of " endism , " as I have heard it called . <p> And yet , my patient-beyond-patient friends , things do end . Even this introductory introduction will end , take my word for it -- and I wish I could add " the better the sooner , " as one might sigh at the end of splendid meals , splendid sessions of love , splendid lives , even splendid long novels : those life-absorbing , life-enriching , almost life-displacing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might never end , yet savor the mote for knowing that they must . Yea , verily , I declare , things end ; our late muse/benefactress 's enviable life , our own productive lifetimes , and soon enough our biographical lives as well -- happily or haplessly , all end . As I like to tell my students ... <p> Excuse me ? <p> Very well , and hallelujah : She is proceeding at this very moment with her security escort through the several checkpoints between our improved safe-reception area belowstairs and our final staging area , just ... offstage , excuse that wordplay -- and will you gentlemen in the rear of the hall kindly return to your seats pronto and spare us all the indignity of once again marshaling our marshals , so to speak -- who , as that earlier demonstration demonstrated , are standing by . I thank you in advance . I thank you . Now , please ... <p> As I was saying : I advise my student apprentices to read biographies of the great write they admire , in order to be encouraged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attended their apprenticeship -- but I recommend they skip the final chapters of those biographies . For a writer , after all , the alternative " last-chapter " scenarios are almost equally distressing , quite apart from the critical reception of one 's works during one 's mortal span : either the end comes before one has had one 's entire say ( we recall John Keats 's fears that he might cease to be before his pen had gleaned his teeming brain ) -- What an unspeakable pity , so to speak -- or else one goes on being and being after one 's pen has gleaned et cetera : not so much a pity as simply pathetic . Therefore , say I to my coachees : skip the endings . <p> The biographical endings , I mean : the endings of the great authors ' life-stories . To the endings of those authors ' great stories , on the other hand , I urge and enjoin apprentice writers to pay the most scrupulous and repeated attention , for at least two reasons , of which it wo n't at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ share with you only the first before this endless introduction happily ends -- its happiest imaginable ending being that it never gets there , if you follow my meaning . <p> Reason One is that it 's in a story 's Ending that its author pays ( or fails to pay ) his narrative/dramatic bills . Through Beginning and Middle the writer 's credit is good , so long as we 're entertained enough to keep turning the pages . But when the story 's action has built to its climax and started down the steep and slippery slope of denouement , every line counts , every word , and ever more so as we approach the final words . All the pistols hung on the wall in act one , as Chekhov famously puts it , must be fired in act three . Images , motives , minor characters -- every card played must be duly picked up , the dramaturgical creditors paid off , or else we properly feel shortchanged on our investment of time and sympathy , the willing suspension of our disbelief . <p> There are , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by brilliantly defaulting on them : apparent non-endings that are in fact the best of endings , anyhow the most appropriate . We might instance the alternative and therefore inconclusive endings of Dickens 's David Copperfield and John Fowles 's French Lieutenant 's Woman ; the roller-towel ending/rebeginning of James Joyce 's Finnegans Wake ; the recombinatory " replay " ending of Julio Cortazar 's Hopscotch , to name only a few examples ; likewise the more immediately contemporary phenomenon of " hypertext " fiction : those open-endedly labyrinthine computer-novels that may be entered , transited , and exited at any of many possible points and waypoints . Such non-endings , I repeat , if managed brilliantly ( and a mighty if that is ) , can be the most apt imaginable , and ipso facto the most satisfying . <p> And the reason for that , my friends ( Reason Two of two , which I , for one , never imagined or wished that I would find myself giving voice to here tonight ) , is this : that every aspect of a masterfully crafted story , from its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of scene , its choreography , tone of voice , and narrative procedure , its sequences of images and of actions , things said and things left unsaid , details noticed and details ignored -- everything about it , in short , from its title to its ending , may be ( nay , will be ) a sign of its sense , until sign 2nd sense become , if not indistinguishable , anyhow inextricable . <p> Of this ground-truth , no apter demonstration can be cited , I trust you will agree , than our first Last Lecturer 's - <p> Will you please , you people there in the back ... What ? <p> What ? <p> Oh my . I say , there <p> As ... Dear me What now ? ... <p> As I ... As I was <p> 
##1001350 THE WHITE SNAKE . <p> Long ago , behind he Great Wall of China , there lived a young girl named Lien whose parents were carried off by bandits . The bandits had no use for a small girl child , so they left her in the deepest part of the forest . <p> The forest animals though Lien so beautiful that they only stared at her and never once thought of eating her . Instead , they began to teach her to speak their language . She called them Sister and Brother and learned many of their secrets . <p> Lien loved all the animals , but her favorite was a white snake . When Sun shone , the white snake followed Lien through the forest . When Moon rose , the white snake slept under her hand . If Lien asked for a pear , the white snake searched the boughs of the pear tree until it found the juiciest pear . And when Lien grew sad thinking of her family , the white snake entertained her with the Dance of the Green Ripples . The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and Lien taught the snake to do thing that no snake had known how to do since the beginning of time . <p> As Lien grew older , tales of the young woman and her white snake reached the ears of the Jade Emperor . Nothing would do but that he possess this white snake for himself . He sent messengers to bring him the snake and the young woman . <p> The white snake warned Lien that strangers were approaching the forest . " they come by the S-S-S-Silk Road , " hissed the snake . " That means they come from the Jade Emperor hims-s-s-self . " But Lien was curious about the Emperor and his splendid palace at the top of Flower Fruit Mountain . She was so curious that the snake could not convince her to hide from the Emperor 's messengers . And so it was that Lien and the white snake were pushed into the back of cart and taken before the Emperor . <p> The Emperor scarcely looked at Lien as he ordered her thrown into the dungeon . He has eyes for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Emperor commanded the white snake to work its magic . But without Lien to tell it what to do , the white snake was no different from any other snake . The emperor was furious when her realized that the snake would work no magic for him . <p> He ordered Lien to be put in a cage in the courtyard so that all his subjects could see what happened to those who tried to fool him . The white snake was put in a smaller cage nearby . <p> Lien-the proud forest girl-now spent her days in miserable cage . To pass the time , she made friends with the palace animals . Some of them brought her bits of food to eat . Others told her stories . The birds sang her to sleep , and the palace cats kept her warm at night . The only animals who were rude and unfriendly were the palace dogs-great , ugly beasts who snarled at her every time they swaggered past . <p> But all this time Lien was thinking . One day she whispered to her friend the white @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Once they think your are dead , they will toss you outside the palace gates . Return to the forest and gather our friends . Wait for me , all of you , outside the gates on the first night of the second moon . " <p> Lien watched the guards throw the white snake over the palace walls , and she knew it was time for the second part of her plan . <p> That night , when the fierce palace dogs passed her on their rounds , Lien was crying loudly . <p> " What 's that ? " said one of the dogs with a sneer . " The proud forest woman is crying ? " <p> Lien moaned , " I can not do it . If only the sun would not rise tomorrow . Oh , ah , who will save me ? " <p> The dogs listened to all this and were curious . " What is it that you can not do ? " they asked . <p> " Oh , ah , it is too dreadful , " groaned Lien . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , " The Emperor has ordered me to be further punished by eating a cartload of raw meat in the morning . " <p> " Raw meat ? " wondered the dogs . <p> " Aaaiiieeee , how will I bear it ? " cried Lien . <p> One of the dogs said boldly , " Why , you should not have to bear it . I will eat it for you . " <p> Lien said , " But , you see , the Emperor has ordered that the cartload of raw meat be put here inside my cage . " <p> The dog thought for a moment . " That is simple enough , " he said . " I will take your place . " <p> At that , the other dogs began to howl . " Why should it be you ? " they cried . " I do n't mind sitting in a cage to wait for a cartload of raw meat . " And they argued fiercely among themselves . <p> Finally Lien said , " Perhaps you could all fit in here . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " And that is what they did . The dogs freed Lien , and she looked them up in her place . <p> It was then the first night of the second moon , and at the palace gates Lien found the faithful white snake and her other animal friends . But they were not alone . With them were a woman and a man . <p> The story of Lien and the white snake , passed from one village to another , had reached her parents after they escaped from the bandits . They knew Lien must be their own daughter , lost to them so long ago , and they had been traveling for weeks to reach the palace . <p> After they all shed tears of happiness , Lien explained to her parents and her animal friend what they must do . <p> Without the dogs to give warning , the Jade Emperor and his court were rounded up by Lien and her animal friends . Before he quite knew what was happening , the Emperor found himself on a ship sailing for the farthest reaches of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who became known throughout China as the kind , clever Lotus Queen . And always by Lien 's side was her friend and advisor , the white snake . <p> Illustration ( Chinese girl under tree hand feeding bird ) <p> 
##1003653 The disaster was great for me and Scud . We were given time off school to help clear up the beaches . Not that we did much . There were experts fixing the birds . And there were men in orange suits spraying the sea with chemicals . Everyone in the town wanted to do something but no one could really do anything . There were some people standing around just crying . Old Bill Western from the market was crying -- me and Scud saw him with snot at the end of his nose , muttering " the birds , the birds " to himself like a poem . <p> Everywhere you looked there was oil and people in plastic suits . It was like the high season and for us and it was all excitement . " Let 's get oil on our shoes and leave trails through the streets , " we said ; " Let 's go into Seaview Gifts and mess up Phellp 's carpet ; " but they would n't let us on the beach . <p> The oil was good for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . They needed volunteers up at the estuary for a week 's work , and he went up there to help ; he packed his case and put on his galoshes and oilskins and he looked like he was going to war or something . <p> " I 'm not sure what I can do , but at least I can do something , " e said , and I was dead proud of him even though it was n't a real job . <p> When he was gone my mother was like a different person . She smiled and put on extra makeup and she gave me money to get sweets from Bunce 's . Me and Scud bought Superchews and then went down to watch the people cleaning up the beach and the birds being loaded into the caskets : they were limp and their eyes were white and they were quiet like they got such a shock that they forgot how to squork -- or maybe the oil had got inside their lungs or voice box or whatever it is that birds have . <p> It was bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that slick came to town things got better for me , and the black mood lifted off from house ; I could time it to the day that Da went to the estuary . The shouting and swearing stopped then . According to Mam , Da had these black moods although how she saw what colour they were I 'm not sure . But sometimes the mood got so bad that we all had to tread slowly around the house like we were walking in mud bog . But with Da gone for a week my mother cheered up and there was a holiday atmosphere . <p> Me and Scud went looking for the BBC and the newspaper men . We decided that we would give interviews and if they asked us we would say that the disaster was great for pocket money and parents and it gave out Das something to do . We 'd say that it made my mother happy and that we were given time off school and that we felt important what with the town being on the telly . Obviously we would say that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their feathers and the slick and everything but like my Mam says you should n't go on and on about it . <p> Scud found a newsman from London and he told him that they should send us food like they do for the Africans because we would n't have a damn thing to eat now because all we ate down here was fish , which was a lie because we ate chips and burge most of the time and the only fish we had was fish fingers . Scud was annoyed afterwards because the man said he was n't filming him ; and anyway he forgot to tell him that his Da knew that the reason for it was Arabs getting revenge for all the oil we blew up in that war . <p> Everyone around us was sad but we were happy like clowns . So we went round and laughed and shouted . Everyone was talking about it all the time and their faces were like sad cods and their favourite words were ruined and terrible and I could see the colour of their moods and like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came round to our house . Chaz owned the Royale guest house overlooking the harbor and he wore purple shirts . He always had a tan because in the winter he went to Spain and in the summer he worked here . Chaz came round and he was in the kitchen talking to Mam when I walked in . Chaz was taller than my Da and he had more money than Da but for all that I preferred my Da . <p> " Da 's gone to help the disaster , " I told him . " He 's living in billets and saving the birds . " " Hope he can save my bookings , " Chaz said . " I 've had three cancellations . " <p> Chaz had one of his shirts on and he gave off this smell like our bath after Mam had been in it . <p> I was thinking that if he was so worried why was n't he up in the estuary helping out , like Da . <p> " You should go up to the estuary , " I said to him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to run here , " my Mam said and I never knew why she called him Mr. Thomas to me when to him she said Chaz in private because I 'd overheard them once . <p> " Why do n't you go and watch telly , " my Mam said . " You might see Da . " And I thought that was a great idea so I went upstairs . <p> I watched the news on three channels and the disaster was first on two of them and second on the other but Da was n't on the news . They showed the estuary and there were thousands of men in suits like they were on the moon and I thought that Da was one of those men . <p> I saw the town and the estuary and interviews and dead birds and tractors in the sand and birds being washed and looking funny . God I never saw so many birds . It took all that oil to show us all the birds we had living here . After the last news I saw Chaz leaving downstairs and kissing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Da and thought he should get a medal or something for helping out like that . Stud 's Da could n't leave his shop , but Chaz Thomas could have helped if he was so worried about his guests . Da was there now probably up to his neck in oil and holding up a cormorant in one hand and a guillemot in the other and people cheering and saying , " Give him a medal , give him a medal . " <p> Over the next few days things calmed down a bit . There were n't so many people driving to the town to have a gawp at the sea and take photos . The television people left town and on the news they only had the disaster fifth and seventh . Even the papers did n't talk about it , except for locals ... but I suppose there was more important news what with bombs and the princess and whatnot and you ca n't bore people with the same old story . <p> In school Talbot got us to write a story about the disaster . I wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Miss Evans got us to draw the disaster and we put paint on our hands and made marks on white paper and it looked like oil . Then the headmaster told us to pray that the town would be all right by the summer , and I thought about Chaz 's guests but I did n't want to ask God for them . By the end of it all I 'd had it up to my head with that blinking oil . It was getting into every little conversation and sticking all over people and getting them down like birds and now the teachers were giving us lessons on it . <p> Mam 's cherry mood soon flew off and she was damn moody with me and it was because Da was coming back soon . She went out late one night and Da called and I was n't sure where Mam was so said she was probably talking to the BBC or something . <p> Da sounded like a different person on the phone . He sounded happy like his mood had flown off him and he talked and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out on a great adventure . He said they had rescued two thousands birds or something and that the tanker was bigger than Cardiff Arms Park . <p> I envied him being up there is the billets saving the world . <p> Me and Scud stayed cheerful and went down to the harbor and threw stones into the slick which was thick as treacle and moving nowhere like a pond . We tried to skim some flatties but they never bounced they just stuck there then . We walked back and saw a shark but it was n't it was a seal and it was dead and I felt sick and I thought about Bill Western crying in the street and I wanted to cry myself but I did n't because of Scud . Scud said that that stupid seal should have slid through the oil but he had n't . Whatever Da was doing up at the estuary it was n't making things any better , I thought . <p> I was a picture of town in County Clothes and the sand was gold and every was smiling and I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was stuck there like a black pond , and I thought that if I was a fish I would get out fast and swim to America or Devon . The disaster was n't on the new anymore although when Da called you 'd think it was still more important than the wars in the world and the princess and all the other news that was going on . <p> Chaz Thomas was round again . He was moaning about his guest house and how it would be a real disaster for him . Mam made him drinks and she kept sighting and saying to me how terrible it wad for Mr. Thomas and that he would be ruined . <p> Maybe that 's why she was being friendly to him , she felt sorry for him and maybe it was a disaster for him but he was n't a cormorant or a seal and he was still going to Spain for his holiday . I suppose you can kiss someone if you feel sorry for them . <p> At school Scud said that Chaz Thomas was in love with my Mam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pipe . He was n't mean when he said it he just told me and he went red . I said that Mam just felt sorry for Chaz Thomas because it was a real disaster for him . I was glad to see Da back . He came in the evening and he looked like the man on top of a mountain smiling and knackered and he was full of tales , he said . I listened to him and I wanted to know it all but Mam sent me upstairs to watch telly and she said she wanted to talk to Da . I thought that maybe she wanted to talk to Da about me or maybe tell him about Chaz 's bookings and how upset he was . <p> The next day at breakfast Mam was n't around and Da was quiet and his eyes looked like that cormorant I saw all white and staring fearful like he got a shock . Maybe the black mood had come back and I thought I would wash it off if I had the right chemicals and whatnot . <p> I asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spain . Then I saw that he was crying and thought that maybe he had seen too many dead birds . <p> " You did your best , Da , you did your best , " I told him . But he stayed like he could n't move . I guess that you had to be a grown-up to appreciate a disaster like that . <p> 
##1003656 MY MASTER 'S TEMPER were by spasms choleric , the spasms exacerbated by trespass , real or fancied , of his slaves , all of whom had had occasion to beg their fellows daub their backs with salve of rum and lard . Yet Dufay had raised up drivers to lash the hands to work , drivers on whom he palmed off most of the stewardship , that he might dedicate himself to advancement of universal knowledge . In sun and rain he tramped , far from the carries where his hands labored , peering under leaves , down burrows and up into nests to discover and name what creatures inhabited the wilderness parts of his domain . <p> An excellent draftsman , he delighted in sketching particulars of feather , fur and scale ; the curve of claws , of teeth and beaks ; the depths of eyes ; the stretch and shove of limbs . On sketching expeditions to the rockiest , most surf-pounded tips of St. Michel , he spied from blinds he had had constructed on narrow ledges , to watch the sea birds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spied on the slaves , yes , on his own wife and children , in like manner , but I never saw him loiter in the shadows of human habitation . ) <p> From the age of five , I , PIERRE-BAPTISTE , whom the whites called Goody , had been laboring in the carries , coughing from the fire that burned off the leaves , stepping and stooping to chop the canes and singing between my gritted teeth to keep the bone-grinding pace . One day , M'sieu was riding his mare past the gang , his cockaded hat abob on Yolande 's trot as he passed on his way to more tangled parts of our isle to sketch . His old servant trotted behind , one Christophe , called Long-Shanks , carrying the tools of his master 's art . Alas , this wornout soul , Christophe , keeled over . Without further adieu , he gave up the ghost and died . <p> " Hop to ! Do you not leave Long-Shanks asprawl to be chewed by dogs , " said M'sieu . " Yet let me have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wait on me at once , not again the tapered wrists of an aging yellow too refined to lift . " And , rueful , he doffed his hat to Christophe . <p> PIERRE was called from the gang then , to lay down his bill and serve the master as porter . Wriggling joyful I was , who had no notion what a world of fetching made a body servant 's work ! Though I was then a strapping youth of ten , they had not yet given me a pair of pants . So , on the first day I turned my eyes from the cane to follow Yolande 's tail , I did not look around me much , but only mulled over one single question : Would I get a pair of drawers ? And when I did , that very eve , and not coarse Osnaburg , but silk , however faded , I strutted like a cock , and capered to the piping of the cane flute , the first capers I had cut in a very long time , for my smock had ceased @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shrink and cower over Johnny Fish . <p> Yet the drawers they had given me were pantaloons from years before , very baggy and covered with tufted ribbon loops . And these stale fancies gave great merriment to Pamphile , the master 's son , and his stepmother , who swore they would grow my frizz to a full-bottom -- " he would need no curling iron , and his nits would lose themselves in the maze " -- and send me over the seas to court , to wait on the jades that yawned around the King . And they conceived a plot , to give me a name of antiquity , like a hero 's in a tragedy , but M'sieu stamped his foot and swore , " I 'll be damned if I learn a new name I must remember in the bush when I call on him to set a snare . " <p> At night , in the dark , I lay with the fancy pants on my bed . With my fingers I tugged at the fall , so it tore , and , when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what company was around . <p> " The stuff be so old it has rotted , " I allowed . <p> So they gave me some drawers more plain and recent . <p> Once I was decently covered , I straightened my back and willingly shouldered the master 's easel . I looked about me smartly , as he enjoined me over Yolande 's withers , " Observe the curious cunning with which Nature has devised the creatures . " <p> Dutifully , at first , I gaped at the mole , all fur and snout , with shovelly hands , that blindly hunches and wriggles a path like an endless pant leg to inhabit . How came he to St. Michel ? Did he tunnel under the sea ? Or was he pushing like a hungry root at Creation ? <p> The island had not the variety of creatures , allowed M'sieu , that are known on the continents ; yet creatures there were sufficient to preoccupy an inquiring philosopher , most particularly species of lizard and bird . And soon enough Pierre began to observe for the pleasure of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ green throat of one small lizard , puffed like a lady 's coyly dropped handkerchief , as the creature took the sun . All languor he lolled till he cast his tongue to snag a fly ! Servant no less than master marveled at the parakeets , their feathers brighter than flowers , cleaning themselves with their toes and hooking with their beaks the mites , smaller than lice , that inhabited the feathers ' underbrush . <p> And the white egret , and in season , the blue heron . <p> Then there were fishes , more multivarious than birds , a garden of flesh in the waters , impossible to catch and hold , their form their movement , their movement one with the water they had their being in , the salty tear-drenched garden of the dead my godmothers had told me of , where I did not want to linger , though I ate any fish my elders caught , for I knew they took the fish with gratitude , and were forgiven . <p> The master did not trust the waters any more than I , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seeds , waiting their time . Yet Dufay would not take off his shoes to wet his feet in the sea , let alone remove his clothes to wet his person . He did not like it , that was all ; he did not care for it , so he said . ' T was a slimy , endless chaos , he did not want it to impinge on his person . <p> Still , he must have fish to sketch and paint , if his natural history were to be complete . So it fell to me to catch these fish , yet without spoiling their form . So I must into the sea . If I would not do it , he would send me back to the fields . Yet I knew not how to comport myself in the sea . Nor did my master , yet he would teach me , by hypothesis , trying one expedient then another . <p> First , he had me dangled as bait on a rope he tied to a pole held by two very big men . And he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I learned to hold my breath . And he bade me agitate my arms and legs , like a human mill , and thus make myself an engine for motion in the sea . And when he saw my terrors had eased , he bade the two men throw me in , without the rope or the pole , so I must save myself with the motions I had learned . And in this manner I was trained to be nimble in the sea , to capture the fishes Dufay would sketch . <p> As I must paddle about with a spear in one hand , so I must keep the other , and both my legs , in motion , as an ox on a treadmill , to churn myself afloat . Yet -- could I quiet my heart that pounded loud in my ears as depths rose to claim me , could I bring myself to open my eyes -- then I saw , not the flesh-shrouded bones of the dead , but a paradise shimmering in veils of light . Surely the dead must be at peace in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forgiven for plucking blossoms of flesh , not to eat , but for M'sieu to paint . Yet , the longer I spent in the garden of the dead , the less fearsome seemed the prospect of death . Was I not floating in a bliss that laved me , luxuriant and enjoyable ? So Pierre splashed among his ancestors ' souls , visible only as movement in water , and he celebrated their sweet repose , free of the whites who feared to set foot in their domain . Seeing how Pierre smiled when he rose for breath , the master clapped his hands and patted his slaveman 's head . <p> " Good Goody , " he said . " Good boy . Do you fetch me the fish , one by one , I will capture their likenesses . " <p> Alas ! Though I popped to the surface with a speared fish for him to sketch , or even a live one , squirming to escape and smothering in air , there was no way to capture the gracile essence save by immersion . So much the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He did not revere the fish , and his stiff fillets , dull eyes already rotting , were not his truest portraits . He never even saw the hermaphrodite plants , with thick stalks and bright-petaled flowers , yet with roots emerging from the calyx , squirming and grasping at tiny fish , which they did feed into the calyx as hands would stuff a mouth . For M'sieu did not believe Pierre when Pierre spoke of them , and offered to bring one up , though it might be a pet of the dead . M'sieu did not believe a slaveman could discover creatures a master had not . " Tut tut ! " he said . <p> And it was not just the underwater creatures M'sieu so blindly eschewed . For he took apolectic fits at the sight of certain vermin , viz. , the legions of rats that encamped in his fields to commandeer cane . Monsieur refused to limn them , though most assuredly they be " principal fauna . " And I do suspect they are as dear to their Creator as any other creature . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , assuredly not when friends came to dine , but for a family dinner . Why not ? The creatures have fed on sugar ; their flesh is sweet . And as they eat so much of our crop , to eat them in turn is a sensible economy . Yet our Monsieur forebore this dainty for himself and his ; the old mistress -- the first one , the haughty and pious -- sent the slave-children into the fields , to hunt and catch the rats , that at very little cost to the whites we slaves might daily dine on flesh , and so keep up our strength , without our sweat smelling fishy , or any expense for pork or beef . At the same time , we would help to save the crop . <p> This scheme fermented among us great bubbles of resentment -- we to eat what the whites refuse as unfit ? Our people left the vermin corpses for pigs , preferring to feed our strength with fish leaping fresh to the net , the gift of death to life , and so much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we hung that mistress in effigy , her figure sewed of sacking stuff , with a block of wood for a missal in her paw . This straw mistress we roasted above our bonfire . When she burned , she gave out a satisfying , piteous plaint , for we had filled her body with rats and mice . <p> No more than pilfering vermin or invading insects were we slaves to be discovered in M'sieu 's chaste pencil-and-chalks or his fastidious ink-washes , unless we be those dim , tiny , bent figures seen from afar in rippling fields of cane . Front and center the feathered creatures , most especially those of a gaudy and brilliant plumage and distinguished profile , with warrior 's crest and aquiline beak . Dearer to Pierre the drab pelican , its beak a belly of fish , and after the pelican , among featherless creatures , the crab that skulked in the brush , till , spying an enshelled slime shuck off his outgrown house , Sergeant Crab nipped in to occupy . How quaint to see patrolling crabs reconnoiter tunnelish paths through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Were these the army of maroons , the runaway slaves the grown-ups spoke of in whispers ? <p> In time the habits of pirate crabs seemed no less strange than the CHARACTER OF M'SIEU himself . For though he deemed himself a well-bred man , he observed no niceties of deportment or dress . Indeed , by the time he threw me his breeches , they were out at the knee , his coat tattered streamers , so I would rather get my clothes , of lesser stuff , from the captain of the drivers , Master Squint , of whom more later . But as for M'sieu , he forgot to close up his fall when he pissed . When his servant was slow , and he took a fit of pique and dressed himself , he rolled one stocking over his breeches , buckled his cuff over the other . He consistently forgot to wind the watch he carried on a chain and ignored the beating of the dinner gong . <p> When his brother 's agents came from France , he bade me shave his head , though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him more than once . He would not pay a barber , you see . Yet over his wounds , his full-bottom snugged his head most accommodating , so he might have cut a good figure had he not dragged from his fraying cuff a huge nasty rag to wipe his nose after pinching snuff . And those come from France remarked , he had lost the habit of bowing , though surely he must have had it once . <p> He never took a man 's hand nor kissed a lady 's , but only nodded absently when presented -- did I say " kiss a lady " ? When sober , he fondled neither maids nor men and eschewed intrigues , though when he had drunk himself sodden amidst a crush of planters he indulged in the jovial pinch . And now and then took a woman without ceremony , as a dog smelling rut , and so had fathered a brat or two in the yard . <p> His visitors returned to France , his wig gathered dust on a stand , the hair of his head pushed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a depraved monk , so devilish wild he must wear his nightcap even on the steamiest nights so as not to fright the maids . Yet there were worse . <p> Had he kept his counsel , he might have been a tolerable master , save he exacted from those he lorded it over punctilios he himself foreswore . Madame , his second young wife -- the first had died in a fluxy sweat -- he bade dress and speak as a queen , though she minced through the pantry fearful of scorpions . Badgering the maids to scrape the mold off hanging meat , she must wear three sleeve flounces , and a sack , and a useless apron of lace , and a pinner with trailing lappets . She must be rouged and powdered , and patched and plucked , and teeter on high heels , her head dressed out with false curls . She must embroider perfect lilies on the household linens and read the scriptures every day as befitted a lady who , though born in these islands , had been schooled in a convent in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ catch her with her sleeves rolled , calling her " Rogue " and lambasting her as a slavey . <p> POOR MADAME ! She struck false notes on the pianoforte , the keys of which the air 's moistness had swollen from tune . Her thread often tangled as she passed and repassed her needle . M'sieu then pined for a wife who knew what to do with the keys at her waist . Indeed children tittered in their sleeves as she passed with her nose in the air . And though she could crack those keys on a servant 's skull , the smell of meat that had hung too long could not be masked with spice and wine . Yet again the bread was not too stale for willful jaw to crack ! It is true that stuffing poked from the chairs , but M'sieu himself had scored the silk with the rowels of his spurs , neglecting to call for his boots taken off . <p> If M'sieu 's wife were buffeted by his fits of discontent , consider : his slaves were entirely at his mercy . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with his hands did marvel at his master 's alternation between three states : the first , a profound , faithful and innocent regard for the animals he observed ; the second , an absentminded , brisk accord with his fellow human beings , including myself ; the third , a sudden and violent animosity toward all Creation , which consumed his bandy-legged , potbellied person and laid waste roundabout . Was the tyrant who snapped his quills and tore his paper the same who stood so still to lure a lizard the tomtits lit on his head ? In his rages he caned me and whipped me , yet still I pitied him . For , though a slave , I did live within myself a free man , master ; M'sieu the converse . <p> Yet HIS DRAWINGS were all control , more exact than Nature herself had been , so scrupulously did he render the shape of each lineament , each color shade or tint , each hillock and valley of musculature and quirk of physiognomy , so exactly did he capture the needle-prick stare of the hawk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose delicate and whiskery deliberations he forgave its resemblance to the loathed rat . <p> Yes , and the thorny brush , the bent of which reveals the wind ; the smoke tree 's haze of ground twigs ; the monstrous hairy sour-sap fruit ; the manchineel with its blistering milk , its horrible charmy apples -- ah , First Woman ! -- the amaranth , center stalks a fountain of blood ; the rocks and the stones , earth with its packings and crumblings , yes , so truly did M'sieu draw all these , so meticulously paint , with such accurately mix't colors , one might have thought him a devil , tempting poor sinners , take one hesitant , fateful step into the world of his creation , a world seeming purer than our own , in which each creature , nay each rock , turns always for inspection , if not its best side , then at least that side most expressing its essence . <p> The purity came from this effect : though Monsieur did limn the animals precisely in all proportions and attributes , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dapple of light , revealed and covered them . Were I to judge from the plates in books , the rendering of shadow , velvet and dense or hazy and dim , does give to the painted world its appearance of movement , suggesting alternation of day and night , and hence the round of seasons , the progress through shift and transformation to death , and thence to life again , from which no man can escape . Yet in the works of M'sieu , Creation is suffused in a pure , bright , even light , as if all creatures were light-struck cripples , caught in the terrible stillness before the palsy strikes , the storm breaks , the lava flows , caught in this moment as in Eternity , not the eternity of paradise , earned by the good , but a terrible stasis , the paralysis of Sun 's merciless glare . Ah , what be any man but damned who casts no shadow ? Shadow , shadow , the dark blot of being , stain of the blood waters , deep and heavy and old , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ashes drenching our bones . We who casts no shadow , is he not unquiet in quiet forever , dead in life and live in death ? Here is the paradox of the art of Dufay . Yet this be heady stuff , this paradox , argued in a vacuum tube , in the hand of Baron Skull , with the mercury long since run out . <p> In one other more mundane particular the art of M'sieu lacks verisimilitude : in the vine-swagged jungles that climb the mountainsides ; in the groves of mango and orange trees , flaunting their gauds of fruit ; among the tidy coffee trees ; the cutlass-leaved bananas ; the feathery palms ; deep in the cane carries ' green and landlocked sea , the island of St. Michel where abides Pierre be festooned with a florid plant called orchid , which displays itself in sun and shade , windward and leeward , high and low . M'sieu would not draw the brown-bagged blossoms , and cursed and stamped if he found but a grain of the pollen on his sleeve , calling for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AH ! If Buffon had come out from France , he would have seen in what respects his natural history of these islands be incomplete . Yet many an artful work was sent to France for engraving , and Pierre vaunted himself , he served a worthwhile master , though sorely the master tried his servant . <p> Those of HIS FINISHED WORKS M'sieu cherished too greatly to send forth , he locked in his old campaign chest , with several tattered standards and a sword he had worn in battles with Protestants before he came out to the Anduves . There in his chest he supposed his oeuvre would be safe from theft or spite or the depradations of rats or of armies . Alas ! The chest was not close-fitted . In the leathern interior damp took hold and bred up slimes to soften the paper , spoil the colors and blur the exact outlines of the images . This I discovered one evening in a damp season when the company sat till midnight smoking pipes and drinking toasts from a bowl of fired brandy . Forsooth , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ To cool the rebellious heat that rose in my head with the fumes of the burnt brandy the dissipates imbibed , I ventured into the keeping room to pick the lock of the campaign chest , as oft I did , for the sole purpose of examining , however furtively and briefly , the pictures and notes stored within , to renew my sense of my master 's worth . <p> And what a putrefaction did I spy and smell ! From the pigments on his pages there bloomed a terrible colony of proliferating , stunted monsters , regiments of blue and green and white spoilers , obliterating the limpid symmetries of M'sieu 's vision , as if creatures of shadow and orchid-dust mites , obscure vermin and hermaphrodite flora-fauna he had refused to draw , had vengefully mingled their juices and their rage , and given birth to generations of vileness so wicked their stench was worse than death . All was rotting , beyond rotting , and would soon be lost altogether , as I pray my own pages , in their careful confinement , will not . And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might fly from his trunk into the world , a greater plague than Pandora set free , and without any mitigating hope . <p> To stifle the slimy creatures , I hastily doused the oeuvre in a dusty particulate reserved for the wigs , which did whiten those heads and smother nits and might , the Gods be willing , sweeten the moldering pages in the chest . This good powder did possess a most pleasing scent , mixed of many magical essences of the several flowers of France , compounded with musk and orris root , It did indeed seem to stifle the odor like rancid cheese and stale piss that soured the chest . Yet before the slimes could flee the carnage , PIERRE relocked the chest . He sat by it then , guarding against my seepage from under the lid . And he listened for the master 's call . <p> 
##1003658 Sure , hysterically , I guess , I hid out again in the office stockroom so no one would see how I was . How messed up I was . Office air wore me out , every staple , every badly lit , Xerox-fumed breath I took . Since she 'd dumped me I could no longer look at my girlfriend , or anyone , without wincing straight in their face , whenever I passed one of them , the other beautiful record company people , in our tortured fluorescent-lit halls . I browsed and shook in my windowed stockroom , a lost closet crapped over with old , dead cassette tapes and warped albums overlooking fortyfour leaning blue stories of sickening , barely uninhabited air . Death herself breathed right before me on the other side of the glass -- out beyond her , Central Park with its carpet of trees , nearly night way up in Harlem . I put my hand coolly against the window , feeling the wind buffeting , trying to break in and get me . <p> Things were speeding up . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't like I 'd had some big crisis or anything , but the night before , I 'd slept just miserably , sweating , and woke all raw . Later that morning , on my way to work , I kept thinking the straphangers on the train were too aware of me , panhandlers , businessmen , all of them . I should say screw it , I thought , and go home . Maybe call in sick . But I fumbled around in my pockets , in my coat even , and I could n't find my damn keys . <p> I was so tired . . . for no reason it was starting to feel like one of those mornings that are so impossibly overwhelming , so nerve-wracked , you just want to pick up a gun . I could do something like that , I imagined , if I got thrown one more thing . <p> Around noon or so , I left the stockroom and went back to work . Then I watched as Maria , my moody , fellow tele-representative , walked my way down the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wad . We 'd had our dramas , but we had never gotten fully together , and so seeing her stung , I copied things , poisoning my skin with the inky fumes . Words crossed her lips as she saw me , and I sensed a surge of telepathized anger vibrating between us down that hall . Once , I even believed she might go so far as to practice acts of magic or evil spells upon me , she being , they said , a witch . Maria and I 'd had this halfhearted , sick flirtation , gazing at each other in meetings , or side by side , our arms brushing together in lust . Like me , I suppose she just needed to touch someone . <p> As she came nearer , one of my eyelids began jittering wildly-I could hear my pulse , and my lips felt the throbbing hot seed of a herpes sore . My God , I could hardly keep control of my body ! I smiled stupidly , and , ignoring her , turned to my work . I shoved the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my dread , refusing me . Maria came over . She poked at the copier once and it ran . <p> " Sure . Great , " I said . <p> " Stu wants you in the TV room , he said for me to say . " <p> " Yeah . I 'm gone already , " I said . <p> " No , he wants you now , ' he said , " she said . <p> " Wait . I meant like , I 'm there . I 'm gone . . . I 'm going already . " <p> " Huh ? " She dabbed her nose with her wad of tissue , sniffling . " No , now , ' he said . Our commercial 's on . " <p> " Right , see ? " I clumsily gathered my paperwork up as if done , piling thoughtless stacks . At the edge of things , I could sense something was smoldering , a fear coming . " But I meant it like , I 'm going . I 'm not even here , still , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " <p> I licked where my lips tasted hot from my herpes sore . " Wait a sec . Hold it a second , " I winced . <p> Like my mother , Maria took hold of my shoulder and I thought I would fall . <p> " Yeah , sure , " she said . " Would it kill you for once to say yes ? ' Is that so tough ? Or is it-is it just you always , always , always have to mess with me ? " she said . <p> My voice sounded thin to me , and being almost a solid month single , I was unsure how to talk to her , or how to be . I just wanted to become tiny and to sleep again . I pretended to walk somewhere necessary , and , rounding the corner to marketing I spotted our boss and the payroll guy , head-to-head . They laughed liked conspirators , whispering things . Nervous sweat soaked me , beading up wet on my face and neck . I was sopped with it ! I wiped at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why pretend it would ? <p> I hid . I knew I 'd never make it until five . I did n't know what was going on . For weeks , I had been waking and lying in my bed , still exhausted , denying the hideous white daylight which ruthlessly sucked me back into the world , me putting off opening my eyes again and fully returning to the land of the calm . . . my problems , my ex , Rebecca , tossing plates at me , me tossing them back . Truly , I did n't know what all was wrong . . <p> I had been having nightmares in which my stepfather beat me with his fists while I stabbed at him with a knife . Dark people choking and embarrassing me . Dreams where I woke up crying , or muttering things , totally unable to remember what it was that I had just then , shivering , dreamed . <p> Now I hid with the ghosts of those seventies bands in the stockroom-I should add that this was back when I worked the phone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we were mergered and swallowed whole . Sweet Melanie , Carly and dull Helen Reddy . Hiphuggered Cher . I could almost reach out and touch her , there in the air . In my window a floor-to-roof view of the city . We could all be free so quickly , I reasoned , troubled by these forgotten singers , and I leaned , distractedly touching at myself in front of the other tiny office people numb in the building across from me . But below them , and down diagonally from me through my window , two snickering guys stood silently waving up while a third pointed for the unseen laughing others to hurry and take a look . And did n't this seem it had all happened somehow before ? Over and over and over again ? No , not this specific humiliating incident , in the stockroom , but something uncannily like it . The onlookers always of course were different , yet more or less acted exactly the same . <p> I caught sight of the big , green FUJI FILM blimp careening then , trying to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and absolute bomb , but hobbling , piggish almost , as if caught on a piece of string . The wind tugging it . Its pilots obviously drunk and almost fishtailing themselves into the towering , lit-up Tishman Building , adrift in these skyscrapered winds . Beyond the green blimp rose a choir of granite spires , the knife-tipped Helmsley , the cake-like Plaza . All of us-everyone watching-wished the thing would explode . What arrogance ! What use was there even in trying in such a world ? <p> I saw , outside and across from my building in a window a story or two down , another dress-suited , lonely worker . An older , unfortunate blonde woman in her own glass office who watched the blimp , or who had started watching it , and no longer actually was , as she thinly sighed . Then she touched her tears . I saw her ! She was baring her heartunaware and alone , with this unrehearsed act , standing angly there , nibbling the arms of her glasses . . . her suffering she just took for granted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could read it all : she did n't still have a lover , that much was for sure . So what good was it ? What use then were all of her objects , that shitty vase ? <p> If only I could be there and touch her , I thought ! If only I could reach out and comfort her , whisper it , nuzzle those words in her hair . I know you . I know where you 're hurting , I said . <p> I thought if I could just come with her once . The doorknob clicked and I crouched by a file of old disco hits . One of my sort-of-friends , Donny , peeked the door open and slipped on in . " Beat me to it , man . Every day , someone 's done sneaked in here ahead of me . " A handsome and southem-voiced weightlifter , in a lousy band , Donny never seemed to much care . <p> " Whatever you 're doing , you 're caught , " he said . " What ? " I said . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kidding . " " Pretty crappy , huh ? " " Kind of . " <p> " I 'm just feeling sort of like , well . " <p> Donny closed us in . " So forget all this noise . What 's outside ? Hey , whoa , " he said . <p> My eyes wrenched up blurring with tears . <p> " Whoa , baby . You are really not feeling so good . " <p> " Exactly , yeah . You 've hit it right on the nose . " My mood flopped around like a tired child 's , and when Donny walked over to touch me I flinched at this animal shine in his eyes , like a dog or something . I saw for a split second how he might like to bite me , to rip my throat , like everyone did on my morning train . Donny crushed my arm . " Leave this crap . Let 's go upstairs and let me buy you a beer . " <p> " Our commercial 's on . I 've got to count when they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ himself having a criminal cast of mind , did not trust that the regional television commercials he paid for would ever truly play as the stations said , so we each took turns for him counting their airings , we underlings , Donny , Maria , and me . Donny flexed his neck muscles and walnut sounds popped in his body . He tugged my arm . " Huh , say , you jerkoff , let 's split . Let 's sneak upstairs to the bar for some beers . " <p> " What was that ? " <p> " What was when ? " <p> " No , you said .... Nothing , man . Never mind . Skip it . Well , first look if you see Maria . " " Maria . " <p> " She hates me . She does ! " I said . <p> He twirled the brown curls on his forehead . " No way , friend . Might turn me like into a lizard . " " A toad , you mean . " <p> " Toad , fucking rhino , whatever . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Texas . For Chuck E Cheese 's . I wonder , like , how would you . . . What if you shot it ? " he said . Something was wrong with my thinking . Our office girls , the blonde woman across from my window-if I could just touch her , I thought , I 'd be saved . What an utter mess . It 's not that I missed my old girlfriend . I missed all of them . I did n't trust women , but I could n't bear being alone . <p> Once , I had tried to ask Maria to lunch , but my nerves failed me . Now I regret those unlived bits of life . And I ask myself-if only I 'd talked to her , what would have eventually happened ? Where would all of our rendezvous have led ? To what secrets , what unrelieved hours of pleasure ? <p> Donny and I headed for the elevator down at the service hall . We passed office doors , desked workers wistfully glimpsing us , cloistered nuns , old guys erotically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that glance . Yes , it gripped my heart , everyone hiding their lives . We caught the big swaying elevator car to the bar at The Top of the Sixes . Donny clutched his crotch . " Do n't let it get to you . I piss on that job from up here , " he said . What a cruel trick-that elevator ! Inches away from my loafers , it fell away , the sheer , dropping black hole below us , so empty , that freon-cool , deep-shafted whistling air . <p> I felt queasy . <p> " Hey , I hope you 're not broke , " Donny said . Then a hundred floors . Me , I suspected dark entities chewed through each cable 's core . Grimy trolls , beings which squeezed from my consciousness . Yet if our elevator fell through the singing air , it would take only seconds to crush to our death . <p> Where would my girlfriend be then ? I did n't know what was still eating me-my chest trembled . After our fight with the dishes , Rebecca @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She was bleeding , the linoleum petaled with thrown scrambled eggs . Making love to her , I thought we were maybe made-up . We could talk it out . But weirdly , when I spoke to her , all I could make was this screechy slur . <p> I was obsessing on women at work , and projected these nervous and sex-filled imagined scenes , even now , shakily scouting the bar . The chromy lounge . Another insanely high view of Manhattan . The place was dead . Donny knew our young actor-waitress . They kissed hello , and she headed us off to a booth by the windows . Our first drinks were free . Donny said , " That girl 's Victoria . What a pair of lungs . Go ask who the other girl is , her barmaid friend . " <p> " Are you kidding ! Not me , man . I 'm way too tense . " " Aw , come on . Cheer up , " he said . <p> I was helpless . There was nowhere to hide . I looked down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were just sitting here , anyhow . " " We are , " he said . " But we 're in the catbird seat .... I think they 've just finished their shift . " " No way , " I said . " No ! I 'm not going . " <p> " O.K. , O.K. All right already , then . If I 'm not back quick , watch my drink , " he said . Then he left , and I never saw Donny again . I mean ever again . He was swallowed up . <p> While I waited around , hiding , my drinking arm was shaking like a starving pup , spilling gin , and tipping my glass by the window . When I looked down over our gray city , toy buildings , the miniature-golf-sized horizon reeled up , tilting wrong like a carnival ride . I threw back that blued icy gin . <p> It was nearly five , yet I could n't cool down my mind . Back at my desk hung this Post-It note left by Maria . You 're dead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , You are not here-4:10 ! Then I heard <p> Maria 's cough come across our thin cubicles . Around me , a few office phones bleated unanswered in a dozen dark offices and rang from the vacant desks . I was alone with her , trapped in our office . I knew I would see her before she arrived . In periphery , first her black dress , then the rest of her . <p> She dropped to the swivel chair next to my ratty desk , and naturally , I glanced up her legs as she slumped , as she crossed her legs , and tried not to look up her dress . <p> " Guess what , " she said . " Guess what I heard from Stu . " " Yeah , shoot , " I said . <p> " You 're up the river , I heard . To your neck in it . " " Boy , that is some kind of dress . " <p> She reached for her Post-It note , crumbling it up . She was flaming ! " A ten-year-old . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aleck ? " she said . I had n't fully caught what I 'd said . " What ? What ? " I said . " My dress , huh . " <p> I could n't look at her straight in the eye , and pretended I was staring at the doodled shapes scrawled on my desk blotter , panicking , my tongue feeling thick as clay . " What ? It 's nice , " I said , suddenly knowing some blush , or some gesture or muscular twitching might somehow reveal to her I was afraid , not of her-but of all of the signs of my fear itself . <p> " You asshole . Is that all is left in your head ? Christ , all you guys ! Is everything sexual ? " she said . <p> I looked at her shining black thicket of coiling hair . She leaned closer , until I felt where she breathed her cool breath on me , looming some . " What 's up with you , William ? You 're wigging out . You 're hitting on me-are n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " I said . <p> I did n't know what else to tell her . I could n't see what to say . Every second , yes , God , what connivance , what lies ! In between orders I Amexed , I had plotted the cloth-hidden arc of her breasts , and the rest of her . I imagined where her sex slanted up in her dress . I did that , the way that I do with all women . Every one of you . Only vaguely attached to my work . But now all the words muddled . I was caught . I could n't see what to say . My pulse rushing , roared in my head like the Xerox . I just grinned at her , nothing inside me but air ; that 's it , I thought . Me , an inflated man . <p> Maria leaned over me , whispering , her arm sliding warm on my shoulder , her words buzzing . " Look , why do n't we go out and talk somewhere . " She touched my hair . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to flirt with me , honey ? " she said . " I-got to run . I 'm kind of nauseous , " I said , unconnecting us . " I 'm holding you ? " <p> I gathered my briefcase and jacket . <p> " Wait , hold the elevator ! Let me go grab my coat , " she said after me . I told myself , not in a billion years , punching the door button , and every other elevator button that would close the door . I would n't have made it alone with her . Alone in the elevator 's box with her mind . <p> I felt as if I 'd been gnawed up inside of some giant mouth . Chewing sounds , everything wanting to eat . <p> What a nervous mess ! Out in the canyons of city air , I dodged all the office-trons staggering for home . Exposed , it seemed , as if Maria had intruded into one of my dreams . No way could I secretly lust for her now , having ditched her , and now that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Forty-second Street , I bought a paper to hide my face , and caught an express for the Village . If I could just get away by myself , I thought , I 'd be fine . <p> But dragging up from the stinking , dark steps of the subway , I saw this small crack buzzard scamming on Twelfth Street , perched in a doorway , thin as death . I sped up some , automatically regretting I had done it , and slowed my walk almost to calm , but the thin dude had already moved out of his doorway . He scooted up , saying things , when he was hardly close enough to be heard , " Sharp jacket , Slick . Say , let me ask you a question . Wait ! Wait a second . Excuse me , God damn you , a second , " keeping by me , looking up with these wild navigational glances . " Excuse me , wait ! Shit , ca n't I ask you a question ? You better'n me , Slicky ? " and such as that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him , I guess . Then he just snatches my arm like a crab . <p> " Whoa ! What the hell ? Jesus ! " I said . What was going on ? How did they sense when you 'd weakened some ? I could n't ditch him , could n't fend him off ; he clutched at the sleeve of my jacket , and side by side , both of us broke into a jog . <p> Unbelieving , I pulled us out into the traffic , yanking free of him . " Slick , look at here . You ai n't together . . . , " he said . I was running . <p> Near my neighborhood , one bum was bashing an older bum , throttling him . " Give me my dollar , " the younger one yelled . The air had a color , like something was on fire somewhere . Things were starting to fog . Peripherally , the buildings were smeared with a nauseous blur . I had stood on this comer a zillion times , yet for a second I forgot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Give me half of one . Give me my dollar ! " the younger bum begged . I almost vomited . <p> Then things began jelling back , and I sensed my girlfriend , her essence , a few blocks away from my home . I 'm right here , I said , and placed myself right where I was . I hid , and watched my apartment from beneath a thin dogwood tree . I was home now , but I could n't go through the door , through that darkenend hall . They could cut me down , strip me and shovel my heart out ; I did n't care . I could n't talk anymore . My arguments with my girlfriend were waiting upstairs , not physically her with her actual body , but a memory-her . The aftershock of hours of fighting . Our anger , it pressed every inch of the walls . What tension ! Our poisons would haunt up the air in there after Rebecca and I were long dead . <p> What else was it ? I felt in my pockets , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They 'd deserted me . On the intercom , when I buzzed our drunk super to let me in , all I could make was that weepy slur . I was so tired , with no chance to sit and be quiet somewhere . I had my problems . I got barely warmed . I do n't know what else to tell . <p> Sure , a child was n't dying . There were people in this world far worse off than me , and you could sit there , I guess , and honestly argue how I just wanted to feel someone 's mothering pity . " Ah , cheer up , " people said . I was really dumb . I thought I wanted to die . But I never did . I 'm like anyone . I 'm still here . I lived . <p> 
##1003662 I <p> A blond , blue-eyed child , about three years old , no one will know her exact age , ever , is sitting in the clay of a country road , as if she and the clay are one , as if she is the first human , but she is not . She is dressed in a boy 's shirt , sewn from Osnaburg check , which serves her as a dress . Her face is scabbed . The West Indian sun , even at her young age , has made rivulets underneath her eyes where waters run . She is always hungry . She works the clay into a vessel which will hold nothing . Lizards fly between the tree ferns that stand at the roadside . A man is driving an American Ford , which is black and eating up the sun . He wears a Panama hat with a red band around it . He carries a different brightly colored band for each day of the week . He is pale and the band interrupts his paleness . His head is balding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In his business , appearance is important . He is practicing his Chinese as he negotiates the mountain road , almost washed away by the rains of the night before . His abacus rattles on the seat beside him . With each swerve and bump , and there are many , the beads of the abacus quiver and slide . He is alone . " You should see some of these shopkeepers , my dear , " he tells his wife . " They make this thing sing . " His car is American and he has an American occupation . He is a traveling salesman . He travels into the interior of the island , his car packed with American goods . Many of the shopkeepers are Chinese , but like him , like everyone it seems , are in love with American things . He brings American things into the interior , into the clearing cut from ruinate . Novelties and necessities . Witch hazel . Superman . Band-Aids . Zane Grey . Chili con came . Cap guns . Coke syrup . Fruit cocktail . Camels . Marmalade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mirror make room on the shopkeepers " shelves . The salesman has always wanted a child . His wife says she never has . " Too many pickney in the world already , " she says , then kisses her teeth . His wife is brown-skinned . He is not . He is pale , with pale eyes . The little girl sitting in the road could be his , but the environment of his wife 's vagina is acid . And then there is her brownness . Well . And then he sees her . Sitting filthy and scabbed in the dirt road as he comes around a comer counting to a hundred in Chinese . She is crying . Has he startled her ? He stops the car . He and his wife have been married for twenty years . They no longer sleep next to each other . They sleep American-style , as his wife calls it . She has noticed that married couples in the movies sleep apart . In " Hollywood " beds . She prevails on Mr. Dickens ( a handyman she is considering bringing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hollywood " beds from mahogany . The salesman gets out of the car and walks over to the little girl . He asks after her people . She points into the bush . He lifts her up . He uses his linen hanky to wipe off her face . He blots her eye-corners , under her nose . He touches her under her chin . " Lord , what a solemn lickle ting . " He hears her tummy grumble . At the edge of the road there is a narrow path down a steep hillside . The fronds of a coconut tree cast shadows across the scabs on her face . He notices they are rusty . They will need attention . He thinks he has a plan . At the end of the narrow path is a clearing , with some mauger dogs , packed red-dirt yard , and a wattle house set on cement blocks . The doorway , there is no door , yawns into the darkness . He walks around the back , still holding the child , the dogs sniffing at him , licking at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blond and blue-eyed , is squatting under a tree . He is afraid to approach any closer , afraid she is engaged in some intimate activity , but soon enough she gets up , wipes her hand on her dress and walks toward him . Yes , this is her little girl , the woman says in a strangely accented voice . And the salesman realizes he 's stumbled on the descendants of a shipload of Germans , sent here as convicts or cheap labor , he ca n't recall which . There are to this day pockets of them in the deep bush . He balances the little girl in one arm , she weighs next to nothing , removes his hat , inclines his balding head toward the blonder woman . She lowers her blue eyes . One eye has a cloud , the start of a cataract from too much sun . He knows what he wants . The woman has other children , sure , too many , she says . He offers twenty American dollars , just like that , counting out the single notes , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything , always , and that he loves children and has always wanted one of his own but he and his wife have never been so blessed . The woman says something he does not understand . She points to a small structure at the side of the house . Under a peaked roof is a statue of the Virgin Mary , a dish of water at her feet . On her head is a coronet of lignum vitae . She is rude but painted brightly , like the Virgins at the roadside in Bavaria , carved along routes of trade and plague . Her shawl is colored indigo . " Liebfrau , " the woman repeats . He nods . The Virgin 's shawl is flecked with yellow , against indigo , like the Milky Way against the black of space . The salesman is not Catholic but never mind . He promises the little girl will attend the Convent of the Immaculate Conception at Constant Spring , the very best girls " school on the island . He goes on about their uniforms . Very handsome indeed . Royal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blue hatbands . He points to the band around his own hat by way of explanation . The royal blue will make his daughter 's eyes bright . This woman could not be more of a wonder to him . She is a stranger in this landscape , this century , she of an indentured status , a petty theft . He wonders at her loneliness . No company but the Virgin Mother . The woman extends her hand for the money , puts it in the side pocket of her dress . She strokes the head of her daughter , still in the salesman 's arms . " She can talk ? " " Jah , no mus ' ? " A squall comes from inside the darkness of the house , and the woman turns , her dress becoming damp . " Well , goodbye then , " the salesman says . She turns back . She opens her dress and presses a nipple , dripping , into the mouth of her little girl . " Bye , bye , " she says . And she is gone . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ girl makes no fuss , not even a whimper , as he carries her away , and he is suddenly afraid he has purchased damaged goods . What if she 's foolish ? It will be difficult enough to convince his brown-skinned wife to bring a white-skinned child into the house . If she is fool-fool God help him . Back at the car he tucks her into the front seat , takes his penknife and opens a small tin of fruit cocktail . He points to the picture on the label , the glamorous maraschino cherry . " Wait till you taste this , darlin ' . It come all the way from America . " Does she have the least sense of what America is ? He wipes away the milk at the corners of her mouth . He takes a spoon from the glove compartment . " You can feed yourself ? " She says nothing , so he begins to spoon the fruit cocktail into her . Immediately she brightens and opens her mouth wide , tilting her head back like a little bird . In no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eat too fast , sweetheart . Do n't want to get carsick . " " Nein , nein , " she says with a voice that 's almost a growl . She closes her eyes against the sun flooding the car . " Never mind , " he says , " we 'll be off soon . " He wraps the spoon and empty fruit-cocktail tin into a sheet of the Gleaner , putting the package on the floor of the back seat . Next time he will pour some condensed milk into the tinned fruit , making it even sweeter . There 's a big American woman who runs a restaurant outside Milk River . She caters to the tourists who come to take the famously radioactive waters . And to look at the crocodiles . She also lets rooms . She will let him a room for the night . In turn he will give her the American news she craves . She says she once worked in the movies . He does n't know if he believes her . He puts the car in gear and drives away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this how women feel ? he wonders , as he glances at the little girl , now fast asleep . What has he done ? She is his treasure , his newfound thing , and he never even asked her name . What will you call this child ? the priest will ask . Now she is yours . He must have her baptized . Catholic or Anglican , he will decide . He will have to bathe her . He will ask the American woman to help him . He will take a bathroom at the mineral spring and dip her into the famous waters , into the " healing stream , " like the old song says . He will baptize her himself . The activity of the spring , of world renown , will mend her skin . The scabs on her face are crusted over and there are more on her arms and legs . She might well have scurvy , even in the midst of a citrus grove . But the waters are famous . As he drives he alternates between making plans and imagining his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken leave of your senses , busha . She calls him busha when she 's angry and wants him to stand back . No , busha . Is who tell you we have room fi pickney ? He will say he had no choice . Was he to leave this little girl in the middle of a country road covered with dirt and sores and hungry ? Tell me , busha , tell me jus " one ting : Is how many pickney you see this way on your travels , eh ? Is why you do n't bring one home sooner ? Tell me that . Everybody wants a child that favors them , that 's all . She will kiss her teeth . If she will let him have his adoption , he will say , she can have the other side of the house for her and Mr. Dickens . It will be simple . Once he plays that card there will be no going back . They will split the house down the middle . That will be that . Like is drawn to like . Fine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advantages to being a traveling salesman in this place . He learns the island by heart . Highland and flood plain , sinkhole and plateau . Anywhere a shopkeeper might toss up , fix some shelves inside a zinc-roofed shed , open shop . He respects the relentlessness of shopkeepers . They will nest anywhere . You can be in the deepest bush and come upon a tin sign advertising Nescafe , and find a group of people gathered as if the shed were a town hall , which it well might be . Everything is commerce , he can not live without it . On the road sometimes he is taken by what is around him . He is distracted by gorges , ravines possessed of an uncanny green . Anything could dwell there . If he looks closer he will enter the island 's memory , the petroglyphs of a disappeared people . The birdmen left by the Arawak . Once he took a picnic lunch of cassava cake and fried fish and ginger beer into the burial cave at White Marl , and left a piece of cassava @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gazes at the remains of things . Stone fences , fallen , moss-covered , which might mark a boundary in Somerset . Ruined windmills . A circular ditch where a coffle marked time on a treadmill . As steady as an orbit . A salesman is free , he tells himself . He makes his own hours , comes and goes as he pleases . People look forward to his arrival , and not just for the goods he carries . He is part troubadour . If he 's been to the movies in town he will recount the plot for a crowd , describe the beauty of the stars , the screen washed in color . These people temper his loneliness . But now , now . Now he thinks he 'll never be lonely again . II The Bath is located on the west bank of Milk River , just south of where the Rio Bronte , much tamer than its name , branches off . The waters of the Bath rise through the karst , the heart of stone . The ultimate source of the Bath is an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sea . The relationship with the sea is suggested everywhere ; the limestone that composes more of the land than any other substance is nothing but the skeletons of marine creatures . " From the sea we come , to the sea we shall return . " His nursemaid used to chant this as he lay in his pram on King 's Parade . The water of the Bath is a steady temperature of 91 degrees Fahrenheit ( 33 degrees Centigrade ) . The energy of the water is radiant , fiftyfive times more active than Baden-Baden , fifty times more active than Vichy . Such is the activity that bathers are advised not to remain immersed for more than fifteen minutes a day . In the main building the bather may read testimonials to the healing faculties of the waters . These date to 1794 when the first bathrooms were opened . Lord Salisbury was cured of lowness of spirit Hamlet , his slave , escaped depraved apprehensions May 1797 , Anno Domini Mrs. Home was cured of the hysteria and loss of spleen December 1802 , Anno Domini @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anno Domini Septimus Hart , Esq. , banished his dread July 1835 , Anno Domini The Hon. Catherine Dillon was cured of a mystery February 1900 , Anno Domini The waters bore magical properties . Indeed some thought the power of the Lord was in them . The salesman 's car glides into the gravel parking lot of the Little Hut , the American woman 's restaurant . She named it after a movie she made with Ava Gardner and Stewart Granger . " A movie she made " sounds grandiose ; she picked up after Miss Gardner , stood in for her during long shots . She hears the car way back in the kitchen of the restaurant , where she 's supervising Hamlet VII in the preparation of dinner . Tonight , pepper-pot soup to start , followed by curried turtle , rice and peas , a Bombay mango cut in half and filled with vanilla ice cream . The American woman , her head crowned with a thick black braid , comes out of the doorway onto the verandah which runs around the Little Hut , and walks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , what have we got here ? " She points to the passenger seat in front . " What are you ? A kidnapper or something ? " She 's wearing a khaki shirt with red-and-black epaulets , the tails knotted at her midsection , and khaki shorts . The kitchen steam has made her clothes limp , and sweat stains bloom on her back and under her arms . Her feet are bare . She wears a silver bangle around one ankle . " Gone native " is one of her favorite ways of describing herself , whether it means bare feet , a remnant of chain , or swimming in Milk River alongside the crocodiles . Still she depends on the salesman to bring her news of home . " I 've got your magazines , your Jets , " the salesman says , ignoring her somewhat bumptious remark . It was late afternoon by now . A quick negotiation about a room for the night and then he would take his little sleepyhead , who has not stirred , to be bathed . He has great faith in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the American woman about a room . " There 's only one available right now , " she tells him . " I 've been overrun . The room is located behind the restaurant next to the room where Hamlet VII sleeps . The salesman , she remembers his name is Harold ( he was called " Prince Hal " at school , he told her ) , hers is Rosalind , is not crazy about sleeping in what he considers servants " quarters , and tells her so . " My daughter , " he begins . Rosalind interrupts him . " Look , this is all I have right now . You may as well take it . " He 's silent . " It 's clean and spacious , " she tells him , " lots of room for you , and for her . " She nods in the direction of the little girl . She ca n't help but be curious , aware from his earlier visits that he said he had no children , that his wife had turned her back on him , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for an import firm with being a pirate on the Spanish Main , right down to the ribbon on his hat and his galleon of a car . " Footloose and fancy-free , " was how he described himself to her , but Rosalind did n't buy it . He seemed like a remnant to her . So many of them did . There was something behind the thickness of green , in the crevices of bone ; she wore a sign of it on her ankle . " Very well , then . I 'll take it . " " You wo n't be sorry . " " I need to take her to the Bath presently . Will you come ? " " Me ? Why ? " " I need a woman to help me with her . " " I thought you said a woman to help me was your daughter . " " I did . " " What 's wrong with her ? " " Her skin is broken . " " Well , they have attendants at wrong with to help you . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a stack of Jets , pitcher of iced tea , and a break into the real world , Chicago , New York , Los Angeles , before the deluge of bathers , thirsty for something beside radioactive waters , descended on her . " It will be fine . Just do n't let her stay in too long . " " I wo n't . " " How much do I owe you for the magazines ? " " Not to worry . " " Well , then , the room is gratis . " That was fair . He felt a bit better . At the Bath a white-costumed woman showed him and the little girl into a bathroom of their own . She unveiled the child and made no comment at the sores running over her tummy and back . As she dipped the child into the waters an unholy noise bounded across the room , beating against the tile , skating the surface of the waters , testing the room 's closeness . " Nein ! Nein ! " the little girl screamed over and over again . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did not bubble or churn ; there was nothing to be afraid of . The salesman finally found his tongue . " What is the matter , sweetheart ? You never feel water touch your skin before this ? " But the child said nothing in response , only took some gasps of breath , and suddenly he felt like a thief , not the savior he preferred . " Nein ! Nein ! " she started up again , and the woman in white put her hand over his treasure 's mouth , clamping it tight , and holding her down in the temperate waters , rising up from the karst . She held her down the requisite fifteen minutes and then lifted her out , shaking her slightly , drying her , and only two bright tears were left , one on each cheek , and he knew if he got close enough he would be reflected in them . The woman swaddled the child in a white towel , saying , " No need to return this . " She glanced back , in wonder he was sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the waters were as magic as promised maybe he would not have to return . He lifted the little girl up in his arms and felt a sharp sensation as she sank her baby teeth into his cheek , drawing blood . The salesman had tied the stack of Jets tightly , and Rosalind had to work the knife under the string , taking care not to damage the cover of the magazine on top . The string gave way and the stack slid apart . The faces of Jackie Wilson , Sugar Ray Robinson , and Dorothy Dandridge glanced up at her . A banner across one cover read " Emmett Till , The Story Inside . " She arranged herself on a wicker chaise on the verandah and began her return to the world she 'd left behind . She took the photographs-there were photographs-released by his mother-he was an only child-his mother was a widow-he stuttered-badly-these were some details-she took the photographs into her-into herself-and she would never let them go . She would burn the magazine out back with the kitchen trash-drop it in a steel drum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'd give the other magazines to Hamlet as she always did-he had a scrapbook of movie stars and prize fighters and jazz musicians . The mother had insisted on the pictures , so said Jet . This is my son . Swollen by the beating-by the waters of the River **40;233;TOOLONG . Hamlet heard her soft cries out in the kitchen , over the steam of turtle meat . " Missis is all right ? " She made no answer to his question , only waved him off with one hand , the other covering the black-and-white likeness of the corpse . She did not want Hamlet to see where she came from . America 's waterways . She left the verandah and went out back . Blood trickled from the salesman 's cheek . " Is vampire you vampire , sweetheart ? " " What are you telling me ? " They were sitting on the verandah after dinner , the tourists having strolled to Milk River guided by Hamlet to watch the crocodiles in the moonlight . " Are they man-eaters ? Are they dangerous ? " one tourist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than you could possibly be of them , " Hamlet told her . The little sharp-toothed treasure was swaddled in the towel from the Bath and curled up on a chaise next to Rosalind . Tomorrow the salesman would have to buy her decent clothes . If he decided to keep her . But he must keep her . " I gave a woman twenty American dollars for her . " " What is she ? " What indeed , this blond and blue-eyed thing , filled with vanilla ice cream , bathing in the moonlight which swept the verandah . Not a hot moon tonight . Not at all . He rubbed his cheek where the blood had dried . " Her people came from overseas , long time ago . " They sat in the quiet , except for the back noise of the tropics . As if unaware of any strangeness around them . Silence . His wife would never stand for it . He might keep his treasure here . He would pay her room and board , collect her on his travels . A lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with his . Why was he such a damn coward ? Rosalind would never agree to such a scheme , that he knew . But no harm in asking . It would have to wait . He 'd sleep on it . But when he woke , all he woke to was a sharp pain in his cheek . He touched the place where the pain seemed keenest , and felt a round hardness that did not soften to his touch but sent sharp sensations clear into his eyes . When he raised his eyelids the room was a blur . He waited for his vision to clear but nothing came . The red hatband was out of sight . He felt the place in the bed where his treasure had slept . There was a damp circle on the sheet . She was gone . 
##1003672 Lena had never been completely comfortable with mirrors . Since she was a toddler , shc had lived in fear that anytime she looked into one , the glass would throw back more than just her reflection . Now , standing before her bathroom sink , she thought she caught a glimpse in the mirror of a figure standing behind her . She had to make herself turn and look directly into the spot where the figure had stood . It was empty . <p> I wish I had a mama or a grand I could trust to hear may sadness and not get upset , she thought . I 'd tell them just how hard it 's been . But she knew from experience that whenever she shared her sorrow and pain her fear and terror with anyone other than her best friend , Sister , the word spread so quickly through town she had to do extra duty to call everyone down . She knew no one ever intended to betray her confidence . But her sadness , it seemed , was just too heavy a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took the advice of her elderly friend Miss Annie Mae : She just told her troubles to the Lord . <p> Right then Lena said a quick little personal prayer . <p> And she did feel al bit more confident as she stepped into the shower , glancing boldly into the full-length mirror by the steam-room door as she did . She stood inside the stall and listened as the percussive thump of " Sexy Noises , " her best dancing-in-the-shower music , flooded the room . Even in the early Corning light , Lena could see the outline of her favorite juniper trees outside the glass shower wall . Her mind began to wander . <p> Suddenly an unexpected sound cut through the shower spray and the seductive music . " Ahem . " <p> Lena stopped shampooing her pul ) ic hair with a soapy white shower mitt and stood stock-still , the spray from the showerhead pelting her in the chest . <p> " Is there someone out there ? " she called over the sound of the shower 's water . She hit a button on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She listened . <p> She heard it again . " Ahem . " <p> My God , " Lena gasped . " Who is that ? Who is that ? She looked around the shower stall for something , some weapon with which to defend herself . All she had was a loofah on a light balsa stick : some pink and purple herbal soaps ; shampoo and condition ; a small plastic hip -- popotamus in a hat and tutu that her godchildren had given her ; and a short bristle-back brush . She grabbed the stiff brush , knowing it was a puny defense . <p> " I 'm not in this house all by imself , " Lena shouted toward the shower door , her voice cracking and giving away her fear and deception . There was a split-second pause , then came the reply . <p> " Lena , it 's me . Herman . " <p> Lena was speechless . She thought : Now who in the hell is Herman ? He said his name as if he were identifying himself for some official position . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said . " Herman . " <p> He had a real counttry sounding voice that had an unfamiliar , foreign taste to it , a little flat on some words but somehow smooth . He pronounced Herman as if it were " Hur-mon " with the emphasis on the first syllable . <p> " It 's me , Lena Herman . " <p> Lena started to open her mouth to scream , but she smacked her lips and felt the Sahara in there . So instead she turned the shower spigot to " C " and filled her dry mouth with cool water . It did n't help . She still could not find a voice . But she did like the sound of this Herman 's voice . <p> " Lena , I 'm a spirit , Herman said . <p> Oh God , she thought . It 's the ghosts and stuff . It 's starting again . <p> Herman kept right on talking . " Lena , I come cause you called me . I could n't ' a come if you hadn'a called me up , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " I sho ' looks forward to meetin ' ya . " <p> The invitation for Lena to step outside hung in the air like steam . Lena could n't help herself She was intrigued . Her heart was still thumping in her chest , but she dropped her " weapon " and moved toward the door . She could n't believe she was doing this , but she reached her hand out and grabbed the big white Turkish towel hanging on a hoop nearby . It felt a little like sticking her hand into a dark hole at an amusement-park fun house-frightening and exciting . <p> Snatching the towel inside the stall without looking outside , Lena breathed a shaky sigh of relief : But she also felt a thrill of exhilaration . She had to stop for a second or two to catch her breath . Then she tried to wrap the fluffy white towel around herself in the least seductive fashion she could . It did not work . No matter how she threw and wrapped and twisted , she managed to look cute . So she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , heavy wet braids free of excess water and took a deep breath . <p> Surprisingly , she was not scared . She thought back to meetings she had had with other ghosts when she was younger . How her heart had raced , how the hair on her arms had stood on end , how sometimes she had felt dizzy at the sight of a headless body or huge animal or a mist or vapor covering everything in its sphere . But this time was different . Lena felt just a little anxious , like before a blind date . Under her breath she muttered , " Well , Lord , " sounding like her dead Granddaddy Walter before he embarked on an adventure . She opened the shower door all the way , letting out a puff of steam , and stepped out . Lena halfexpected the door to make a creaking noise like in a haunted house when she closed it . She steeled herself for what she was about to see , but she did n't even flinch when she turned and saw him ... Herman had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> It was a face she had seen in the arrangement of leaves on a tree in the woods , a shape that was there in the sunlight , then gone in the shade . It was a face that she had seen in the clouds . It was a face that showed innate gentleness . <p> It was a face , she realized suddenly , that she had seen in her dreams . <p> Tina McElroy Ansa on the Spirit World <p> In the South of the 1950 's and 1960 's , where I was raised , Black folks talked all the time about spirits and hants , dreams and visions , feelings and ghost tales that were true . We planted by the signs of the moon , we named our children by the sudden tastes of the mother , we played the numbers by our dreams and we ended relationships by the twitch of a muscle or the ache of a scar . <p> I 've always thought that this spirit world of dead people who had been so close in life was something we should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I just wanted to wallow in it . So I opened myself up to God and the universe , and the spirit world came flooding back to me . <p> The older I get , the more connected I feel to the spirit world . Perhaps with the passing of loved ones from corporeal to spirit we see that the ribbon is not broken with death . I feel closer to my brothers now than when they were alive , and I talk with my extraordinary Auntie whenever I want and need to . And in my garden , I plant vegetables by the signs of the moon . <p> Footnote 
##1003675 he questions that were never asked may be the most important . You do n't think of this . You never do . When you were little , your mother used to tell you that asking too many questions could get you into trouble . You realize now that not asking enough has landed you in the same boat , in the same river of shit without the same paddle . You phone your mother long distance to tell her this and she says , " Well , two wrongs do n't make a right , dear , " and gives you a dessert recipe that is quoted as being Prince Charles 's favorite in the September issue of Royalty magazine . <p> Your success in breast-feeding depends greatly on your desire to nurse , as well as the encouragement you receive from those around you . -Brinkley , Goldberg , and Kukar , Your Child 's First Journey , copyright 1988 , 2nd edition , page 173 " Is there anything coming out ? " He peers curiously at the baby 's head , my covered breast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't tell , " I wince . " What do you mean , you ca n't tell ? It 's your body , is n't it ? I mean , you must be able to feel something , " scratching his head . <p> " Nope , only pain . " <p> " Oh . " Blinks twice . " I 'm sorry . I 'm very proud of you , you know . " The placenta slips out from between your legs like the hugest blood clot of your life . The still-wet baby is strong enough to nurse but can not stagger to her feet like a fawn or a colt . You will have to carry her in your arms for a long time . You console yourself with the fact that at least you are not an elephant , who would be pregnant for close to another year . This is the first and last time she will nurse for the next twelve hours . <p> " Nurse , could you please come help me wake her up ? She has n't breast-fed for five hours now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hair on it . You ca n't help but look at it a little too long each time you glance up at her face . The nurse undresses the baby but keeps the toque on . The infant is red and squirmy and you hope no one who visits says she looks just like you . <p> " Baby 's just too comfortable , " the nurse chirps . " And sometimes they 're just extra tired after the delivery . It 's hard work for them too , you know ! " " Yeah , I suppose you 're right . " " Of course . Oh , and when you go to the washroom , I would n't leave Baby by herself . Especially if the door is open . " The nurse briskly rubs the red baby until she starts squirming , eyes still closed in determined sleep . " What do you mean ? " <p> " Well , we have security , but really , anyone could just waltz in and leave with Baby , " the nurse smiles , like she 's joking . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yes . And you should n't leave valuables around either . We 've been having problems with theft and I know you people have nice cameras . " <p> You have just gone through twelve hours of labor and gone without sleep for twenty-eight . You do not have the energy to tell the nurse of the inappropriateness of her comment . The baby does not wake up . <p> Your mother-in-law , from Japan , has come to visit . She is staying for a month to help with the older child . You did n't breast-feed with him because he refused to . You tell her that the baby wo n't nurse and that you are getting a little worried . <p> " Your nipples are too flat and she 's not very good at breast-feeding , " she says , and angry tears fill your eyes . <p> " Are you people from Tibet ? " the nurse asks . <p> Breast milk is raw and fresh ( page 174 ) <p> You are at home . You had asked if you could stay longer in the hospital @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no . Your mother-in-law makes lunch for herself and the firstborn , but does not make any for you because she does not know if you will like it . You eat shredded wheat with NutraSweet and try breastfeeding again . <p> The pain is raw and fresh . The baby breast-feeds for three hours straight , and when you burp her there is a pinkish froth in the corners of her lips that looks like strawberry milk shake . You realize your breast milk is bloodflavored and wonder if it is O.K. for her to drink . Secretly , you hope that it is bad for her so that you will have to quit breast-feeding her . When you call a friend and tell her about the pain and blood and your concerns for her health , you learn , to your dismay , that the blood will not hurt her . That your friend had problems too , that she even had blood blisters on her nipples , but she kept right on breast-feeding through it , the doctor O.K. 'd it , and ohhh , the blood , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she went right on breast-feeding until the child was four years old . <p> When you hang up , you are even more depressed . Because the blood is not a problem and your friend suffered even more than you do now . You do n't come in first on the tragic nipple story . You do n't even come close . <p> " This is n't going very well . " I try smiling , but give up the effort . <p> " Just give it some time . Things 'll get better . " He snaps off the reading light at the head of the bed . I snap it back on . <p> " I do n't think so . I do n't think things are going to get better at all . " " Do n't be so pessimistic . " He smiles , trying not to offend me . <p> " Have you read the pamphlet for fathers of breast-fed babies ? " " Uhhhhm , no . Not yet . " Shrugs his shoulders and tries reaching for the lamp again . I swing out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Well , read the damn thing and you might have some idea of what I 'm going through . " <p> " Women have been breast-feeding since there have been women . " " What ? ! " <p> " You know what I mean . It 's natural . Women have been breast-feeding ever since their existence , ever since ever having a baby , " he lectures , glancing down once to my tortured breasts . <p> " That does n't mean they 've been enjoying it , ever since existing and having done it since their existence ! Natural is n't the same as liking it or being good at it , " I hiss . <p> " Why do you have to be so complicated ? " <p> " Why do n't you just marry someone who is n't , then ? " <p> " Are you hungry ? " My mother-in-law whispers from the other side of the closed bedroom door . " I could fix you something if you 're hungry . " <p> Engorgement ( page 183 ) The baby breast-feeds for hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ supposed to work . You phone the emergency breastfeeding number they gave to you at the hospital . The breast-feeder professionals tell you that Baby is doing what is only natural . That the more she sucks , the more breast milk you will produce , how it works on a supply and demand system , and how everything will be better when the milk comes in . On what kind of truck , you wonder . <p> They tell you that if you are experiencing pain of the nipples , it 's because Baby is n't latched on properly . How the latch has to be just right for proper breastfeeding . You do n't like the sound of that . You do n't like how latch sounds like something that 's suctioned on and might never come off again . You think of lamprey eels and leeches . Notice how everything starts with an " 1 " . <p> When the milk comes in , it comes in on a semitrailer . There are even marbles of milk under the surface of skin in your armpits , hard as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as solid as concrete balls and the pressure of milk is so great that the veins around the nipple are swollen , bulging . Like the stuff of horror movies , they are ridged , expanded to the point of blood-splatter explosion . <p> " Feel this , feel how hard my breasts are . " I grit my teeth . " Oh , my god ! " " It hurts , " I whisper . " Oh , my god . " He is horrified . Not with me , but at me . <p> " Can you suck them a little , so they 're not so full ? I ca n't go to sleep . " " What ? ! " He looks at me like I 've asked him to suck from a vial of venom . <p> " Could you please suck some out ? It does n't taste bad . I tried some . It 's like sugar water or something . " <p> " Uhhh , I do n't think so . It 's so . . . incestuous . " " We 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's sake . How can it be incestuous ? Do n't be so weird about it . Please ! It 's very painful . " <p> " I 'm sorry . I just ca n't . " Clicks off the lamp and turns over to sleep . Advantages also exist for you , the nursing mother . . . it is easy for you to lose weight without dieting and regain your shape sooner ( page 176 ) " You look like you 're still pregnant , " he jokes . " Are you sure there is n't another one still in there ? " <p> " Just fuck off , O.K. ? " <p> Your belly has a loose fold of skin and fat that impedes your vision of your pubic hair . You have a beauty mark on your lower abdomen you have n't seen for five years . You wonder if you would have had a better chance at being slimmer if you had breast-fed the first child . There is a dark stain that runs vertically over the skin of your belly , from the pubic mound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the bottom of your breasts . Perversely , you imagined it to be the marker for the doctor to slice if the delivery had gone bad . The stain is n't going away and you do n't really care because what with the flab and all , it does n't much make a difference . You are hungry all the time from producing breast milk and eat three times as much as you normally would ; therefore , you do n't lose weight at all , you just do n't gain on top of the residual fat you have already achieved . <p> " You should eat as much as you want , " your mother-in-law says . She spoons another eggplant onto your plate and your partner spoons his over as well . The baby starts to wail from the bedroom and your mother-in-law rushes to pick her up . <p> " Do n't cry , " you hear her say . " Breast milk is coming right away . " You want to yell down the hall , that you have a name and that it is n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prolactin , which causes the secretion of milk , helps you to feel " motherly " ( page 176 ) Just how long can the pain last , you ask yourself . It is the eleventh day of nipple torture and maternal hell . You phone a friend and complain about the pain , the endless pain . Your friend says that some people experience so much pleasure from breast-feeding that they have orgasms . You tell your friend that if that was the case , you would breast-feed until the kid was big enough to run away from you . <p> The middle of the night feed is the longest and most painful part of the breast-feeding day . It lasts from two to six hours . You alternate from breast to breast , from an hour at each nipple to dwindling half hour , fifteen minutes , eight minutes , two , one , as your nipples get so sore that even the soft brush of the baby 's bundling cloth is enough to make your toes squeeze up into fists of pain , tears streaming down your cheeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the clock prolongs your misery . You try thinking of SIM . The pain is so intense , so slicingly real , that you are unable to think of it as pleasurable . You realize that you are not a masochist . <p> Because you must sit down or lie down to nurse , you are assured of getting the necessary rest you need postpartum ( page 176 ) <p> You can no longer sit to breast-feed . You try lying down , to nurse her like a puppy , but the shape of your breasts is not suitable for this method . You prop her up on the back of the easy chair and feed her while standing . Her legs dangle but she is able to suck on your sore nippies . You consider hanging a sign on your back . " The Milk Stand . " <p> Your ass is killing you . You take a warm sitz bath because it helps for a little while , and you touch yourself in the water as carefully as you can . You feel several new nubs of flesh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you are growing a second , third , fourth clitoris . When you visit your doctor , you find out that they 're only hemorrhoids . <p> " I 'm quitting . I hate this . " " You 've only been at it for two weeks . This is the worst part and it 'll only get better from here on , " he encourages . Smiles gently and tries to kiss me on my nose . <p> " I quit , I tell you . If I keep on doing this , I 'll start hating the baby . " " You 're only thinking about yourself , " he accuses , pointing a finger at my chest . " Breast-feeding is the best for her and you 're giving up , just like that . I thought you were tougher . " " Do n't you guilt me ! It 's my goddamn body and I make my own decisions on what I will and will not do with it ! " " You always have to do what 's best for yourself ! What about my input @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raise our baby ? " he shouts , Mr. Sensible and **34;128;TOOLONG . <p> " Is everything all right ? " his mother whispers from outside the closed bedroom door . " Is anybody hun- " " We 're fine ! Just go to bed ! " he yells . The baby snorts , hiccups into an incredible wail . Nasal and distressed . " Listen , it 's me who has to breast-feed her , me who 's getting up every two hours to have my nipples lacerated and sucked on till they bleed while you just snore away . You have n't even got up once in the middle of the night to change her goddamn diaper even as a token fucking gesture of support , so do n't you tell me what I should do with my breasts . There 's nothing wrong with formula . I was raised on formula . You were raised on formula . Our whole generation was raised on formula and we 're fine . So just shut up about it . Just shut up . Because this is n't about you . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ breast-feed , I would do it gladly ! " he hisses . Flings the blankets back and stomps to the crib . <p> And I laugh . I laugh because the sucker said the words out loud . It is 3:27 A.M. The baby has woken up . Your breasts are heavy with milk but you supplement her with formula . At 5:15 , you supplement her again and your breasts are so full , so tight , that they lie like marble on your chest . They are ready . <p> You change the baby 's diaper and put her into the crib . In the low glow of the baby light , you can see her lips pursed around an imaginary nipple . She even sucks in her sleep . You sit on the bed , beside your partner , and unsnap the catches on your nursing bra . The pads are soaked and once the nipples are exposed , they spurt with sweet milk . The skin around your breasts is stretched tighter than a drum , so tight that all you need is one little slice for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it tears , spreading across the surface of your chest , directed by your fingers , in a complete circle around your entire right breast . There is no blood . <p> You lean slightly forward and the breast falls gently into your cupped hands . The flesh is a deep red and you wonder at its beauty , how flesh becomes food without you asking or even wanting it . You set the breast on your lap and slice your other breast . Two pulsing orbs still spurting breast milk . You gently tug the blankets down from the softly clenched fingers of your sleeping partner , unbutton his pajamas and fold them back so his chest is exposed . You stroke the hairless skin , then lift one breast , then the other , to lie on top of his flat penny nipples . The flesh of your breasts seeps into his skin , soft whisper of cells joining cells , your skin into his , tissue to tissue , the intimate melding before your eyes , your mouth an " 0 " of wonder and delight . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restless , a soft moan between parted lips . They are no longer spurting with milk , but they drip evenly , runnels down his sides . The cooling wet becomes uncomfortable and his eyelids flutter . He focuses on my face peering down and blinks rapidly . <p> " What 's wrong ? " he asks , voice dry with sleep . <p> " Nothing . Not a thing . How do you feel ? " " Funny , " he answers , perplexed . " My chest feels funny . I feel all achy . Maybe I 'm coming down with something . My chest is wet ! I 'm bleeding ! " <p> " Shhhhh . You 'll wake the baby , " I caution . Gently press my forefinger over his lips . <p> He was groggy with sleep , but he is wide awake now . Sitting up . Looks down at his chest , his two engorged breasts . He looks at my face . Then back at his breasts . <p> " Oh , my god , " he moans . " It 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worry . Everything is fine . Just do what comes naturally . " <p> A sudden look of shock slams into his face and he reaches , panicked , with his hands to touch himself between his legs . When he feels himself intact , relief flits his eyes to be permanently replaced by bewilderment . <p> I smile . Beam in the dim glow of light . Turn onto my side and sleep sweetly , soundly.Ms . <p> Footnote 
##1003677 These days everyone was a cuckold . And why not , when marriage was insufficient to satisfy most human need ? <p> ALL week Bill had been looking forward to this moment . He was about to fuck the daughter of the man who had fucked his wife . Lying in her bed , he could hear Celestine humming in the bathroom as she prepared for him . It had been a long time since he 'd been in a room so cold , with no heating . After a while he ventured his arms over the covers , tore open a condom , and laid it on a cardboard box that served as a bedside table . He was about to prepare another , but did n't want to appear overoptimistic . One would achieve his objective . He would clear out then . Already there had been too many delays . The waltz , for instance , though it had made him giggle . Nevertheless , he had told Madelaine , his pregnant wife , that he would be back by midnight . What could Celestine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shower ; and the wind cut viciously through a broken window . His wife had met Celestine 's father , Vincent Ertel , the French ex-Maoist intellectual , in Paris . He had certainly impressed her . She had talked about him continually , which was bad enough , and then rarely mentioned him , which , as he understood now , was worse . Madelaine worked on a late-night TV discussion program . For two years she had been eager to profile Vincent 's progress from revolutionary to Catholic reactionary . It was , she liked to inform Bill-using a phrase that stayed in his mind -indicative of the age . Several times she went to see Vincent in Paris ; then she was invited to his country place near Auxerre . Finally she brought him to London , to record the interview . When it was done , to celebrate , she took him to Le Caprice for champagne , fish cakes , and chips . That night Bill had put aside the script he was directing and gone to bed early with a ruler , a pencil , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was becoming particularly enthusiastic about Vincent , Bill had made up his mind not only to study the great books-the densest and most intransigent , the ones from which he 'd always flinched -but to underline in them , and even to memorize certain passages . The effort to concentrate was torment , as his mind flew about . Yet most nights-even during the period when Madelaine was preparing for an encounter with Vincenthe kept his light on long after she had put hers out . Determined to swallow the thickest pills of understanding , he would lie there muttering phrases he wanted to retain . One of his favorites was Emerson 's " We but half express ourselves , and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents . " One night Madelaine opened her eyes and said with a quizzical look , " Ca n't you be easier on yourself ? " Why ? He would n't give up . He had read biology at university . Surely he could n't be such a fool as to find these books beyond him . His need for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need for sleep . How could a man have come to the middle of his life with barely a clue about who he was or where he might go ? The heavy volumes represented the highest , surely , that man 's thought had flown ; they had to include guidance . The close , leisurely contemplation afforded him some satisfaction-usually because the books started him thinking about other things . It was the part of the day he preferred . He slept well , usually . But on the long night of the fish cakes he awoke at four and felt for Madelaine across the bed . She was n't there . Shivering , he walked through the house until dawn , imagining she 'd crashed the car . After an hour he remembered that she had n't taken it . Maybe she and Vincent had gone on to a late-night place . She had never done anything like this before . He could neither sleep nor go to work . He decided to sit at the kitchen table until she returned , whenever it was . He was drinking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the evening . If anyone offered him a drink before this time , he claimed it was like saying good-bye to the whole day . In the mid-eighties he 'd gone to the gym in the early evening . For some days , though , good-bye was surely the most suitable word . It was late afternoon before his wife returned , wearing the clothes she 'd gone out in , looking disheveled and uncertain . She could n't meet his eye . He asked her what she 'd been doing . She said , " What do you think ? " and went into the shower . He considered several options , including punching her . But he fled the house and made it to a pub . For the first time since he 'd been a student , he sat alone with nothing to do . He was expected nowhere . He had no newspaper with him , and he liked papers ; he could swallow the most banal or incredible thing provided it was in newsprint . He watched the passing faces and thought how pitiless the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it . He made himself consider how unrewarding it was to constrain people . Infidelities would occur in most relationships . These days every man or woman was a cuckold . And why not , when marriage was insufficient to satisfy most human need ? Madelaine had needed something and she had taken it . How bold and stylish . How petty to blame someone for pursuing any kind of love ! He was humiliated . The feeling increased over the weeks in a strange way . At work or waiting for the tube , or having dinner with Madelaine ( who had gained , he could see , a bustling , dismissive intensity of will or concentration ) , he found himself becoming angry with Vincent . For days on end he could n't really think of anything else , as if the man were inhabiting him . As he walked around Soho , where he worked , Bill entertained himself by thinking of how someone might get even with a type like Vincent , were he so inclined . The possibility was quite remote , but this did n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some satisfaction , if not credit . What incentive , distraction , energy , and interest Vincent provided him with ! This was almost the only creative work he got to do now . FEW days later he was presented with Celestine . She was sitting with a man in a newly opened cafe , drinking cappuccino . Life was giving him a chance . It was awful . He stood in the doorway , pretending to look for someone , and considered whether he should take it . Vincent 's eldest daughter lived in London . She wanted to be an actress , and Bill had auditioned her for a commercial a couple of years earlier ; he knew that she 'd obtained a small part in a film directed by an acquaintance of his . On this basis he crossed the cafe , introduced himself , made the pleasantest conversation he could , and was invited to sit down . The man turned out to be a gay friend of hers . They all chatted . After some timorous vacillation Bill asked Celestine in a cool tone whether she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hours . He did n't go home but walked about . When he was tired , he sat in a pub with the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past . He had decided that if he could read to the end of the book he would deserve a great deal of praise . He did a little underlining , which since school he had considered a sign of seriousness , but his mind wandered even more than usual until it was time to meet her . To his delight Bill saw that some men glanced at Celestine when they could ; others openly stared . When she walked to the bar , they turned to examine her legs . This would not have happened with Madelaine ; only Vincent Ertel had taken an interest in her . Later , as he and Celestine strolled up the street looking for cabs , she agreed that he could come to her place at the end of the week . It was a triumphant few days of gratification anticipated . He would do more of this . He had obviously been missing out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the flat , dressing , cooking , reading , searching for her glasses , he could enjoy despising her . He informed his two closest friends that the pleasures of revenge were considerable . He liked saying that the French were used to being occupied . Now his pals were waiting to hear of his coup . Celestine flung her keys , wrapped in a tea towel , out a window . It was a hard climb : her flat was at the top of a rundown five-story building in West Kensington , an area of itinerants , bed-sits , and students . Coming into the living room , he saw it had a view across a square . Wind and rain were sweeping into cracked windows stuffed with newspaper . The walls were yellow , the carpet brown and stained . The gas fire , which had several pairs of jeans suspended in front of it on a clotheshorse , gave off an odor , and heated parts of the room while leaving others cold . She persuaded him to remove his overcoat but not his scarf . Then she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ floorboards ; between an old sink and the boiler there was hardly room for the two of them . " I will be having us some dinner . " She pointed to two shopping bags . " Do you like troot ? " " Sorry ? " It was trout . There were potatoes and green beans . After , they would have apple strudel with cream . She had been to the shops and gone to some trouble . It would take ages to prepare . He had n't anticipated this . He left her there , saying he would fetch drink . In the rain he went to the off-license and was paying for a bottle of wine when he noticed through the window that a taxi had stopped at the traffic lights . He ran out of the shop to hail the cab , but after he opened the door , he could n't go through with it . He collected the wine and carried it back . He waited in her living room , pacing and drinking . She did n't have a TV . Wintry noises @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he 'd shared as a student . He was about to say to himself Thank God I 'll never have to live like this again when it occurred to him that if he left Madelaine , he might , for a time , end up in some unfamiliar place , with stained , old , broken fittings . How fastidious he had become ! How had it happened ? What other changes had there been while he was looking in the other direction ? He noticed a curled photograph tacked to the wall ; it looked as though it had been taken at the end of the sixties . Bill concluded that it was a picture of the hopeful radical who 'd fucked his wife . He had been a handsome man , and with his pipe in his hand , hair below his ears , and an opennecked shirt , he had an engaging look of self-confidence and raffish pleasure . Bill recalled the slogans that had then decorated Paris : " Everything Is Possible . " " Take Your Desires for Realities . " " It Is Forbidden to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ TV commercial . What optimism that generation had had ! With his life given over to literature , ideas , conversation , writing , and political commitment , ol " Vincent must have had quite a time . He could n't have been working constantly , like Bill and his friends . The food was good . Bill leaned across the table to kiss Celestine . His lips brushed her cheek . She turned her head and looked out across the dark square to the lights beyond , as if trying to locate something . He talked about the film industry and what the actors , directors , and producers of the movies were really like . Not that he knew them personally , but they were gossiped about by other actors and technicians . She asked questions and laughed easily . Things should have been moving along . He had to get up at 5:30 to direct a commercial for a bank . He was becoming known for such well-paid but journeyman work . Now that Madelaine was pregnant , he would have to do more of it . It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ screenwriting he wanted to do . It was dawning on him that if he was to do anything worthwhile at his age , he would have to be serious in a new way . And yet , when he considered his ambitions , which he no longer mentioned to anyone-to travel overland to Indonesia while reading Proust . . . and other , more " internal " things-he felt a surge of shame , as if it were immature and obscene to harbor such hopes ; as if , in some ways , it was already too late . He shuffled his chair around the table until he and Celestine were sitting side by side . He attempted another kiss . She stood up and offered him her hands . " Shall we dance ? " He looked at her in surprise . " Dance ? " " It will " ot you up . Do n't you . . dance ? " " Not really . " " Why ? We always danced like this . " He shut his eyes and " Why ? We always danced like this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bang in a nail with his She kicked off her shoes . " We danced like this head as if attempting to bang in a nail with his " I 'll illustrate you . " She looked at him . " Take it off . " " The kicked off her shoes . " We danced like this , " she said . " I 'll illustrate you . " She looked at him . " Take it off . " " What ? " " on a Chopin waltz , took his hand , and placed her other hand on his back . He looked down at her dancing feet even as he trod on them , but she did n't object . Gently but firmly she turned and turned him across the room , until he was dizzy , her hair tickling his face . Whenever he glanced up , she was looking into his eyes . Each time they crossed the room , she trotted back , pulling him , never unamused . She seemed determined that he should learn , certain that this would benefit him . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last . He fell back into his chair , blowing and laughing . " But after a week , who knows , we could get you work as a gigolo ! " IT was midnight . Celestine came naked out of the bathroom , smoking a cigarette . She got into the bed and lay beside him . He thought of a time in New York when the company had sent a white limousine to the airport . Drinking whiskey and watching TV as the limo passed over the East River toward Manhattan , he wanted nothing more than for his friends to see him . She was on him vigorously , and the earth was moving : either that , or the two single beds , on the juncture of which he was lying , were separating . He stuck out his arms to secure them , but with each lurch his head was being forced down into the fissure . He felt as if his ears were going to be torn off . The two of them were about to crash through to the floor . He rolled her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed her what would have happened . She started to laugh ; she could n't stop . The gas meter ticked . She was dozing . He had never lain beside a lovelier face . He thought of what Madelaine might have sought that night with Celestine 's father-affection , attention , serious talk , honesty , distraction . Did he , Bill , give her that now ? Could they give it to each other ? With a kid on the way ? Celestine was nudging him and trying to say something in his ear . " You want what ? " he said . " Surely . . . no . . . no . " " Bill , yes . " He liked to think he was willing to try anything . A black eye would certainly send a convincing message to her father . She smiled when he raised his hand . " I deserve to be hurt . " " No one deserves that . " " But you see . . . I do . " That night , in that freezing room , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she asked , for as long as she wanted-he had never kissed anyone for so longuntil he forgot where he was , or who they both were , until there was nothing that they wanted , and only the most satisfactory peace . He got up and dressed . He was shivering . He wanted to wash-he smelled of her-but he was n't prepared for a cold bath . " Why are you leaving ? " She leaped up and held him . " Stay , stay-I have n't finished with you yet . " He put on his coat and went into the living room . Without looking back he hurried out and down the stairs . He pulled the knob of the front door , anticipating the fresh , damp night air . But the door held . He had forgotten : the door was locked . He stood there . Upstairs she was wrapped in a fur coat , looking down the stairwell . " The key , " he said . " Old man , " she said , laughing . " You are . " She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ door , he mumbled , " Will you tell your father I saw you ? " " But why ? " He touched her face . She drew back . " You should put something on that , " he said . " I met him once . He knows my wife . " " I rarely see him now , " she said . She was holding out her arms . They danced a few steps across the hall . He was better at it now . He went out into the street . Several cabs passed him , but he did n't hail them . He kept walking . The rain was comforting . He put his head back and looked up into the sky . He had some impression that happiness was beyond him and everything was coming down , and that life could not be grasped but only lived . 
##1004257 Some history they did n't teach you in schoolbut it explains a lot ! <p> You just ca n't tell about History . I mean , things are changing so fast , it sometimes feels like the very past itself is not as solid as it used to be . At least that 's the take where I am . Or is that when I am ? The terminology is n't too precise . And here at AT &T; ( at least before it got broken up into a bunch of smaller , almost incoherent organizations ) , we engineers and scientists used to pride ourselves on lucid , accurate , precise , and correct terminology and language . However you say it though , one thing is clear to me : nothing is what it seems to be to all of you who work outside The Phone Company . History , least of all . Let me try to make that a little clearer . Have you ever had the feeling , during the last ten or fifteen years , that history just was not happening like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world 's bad guys just sort of gave up and went away without a fight ? How so many kinds of weird people and unusual ideas and outrageous political movements have sprung up , have even won elections ? How even the historians ca n't seem to agree on history any more , and how we argue about even our memories of recent events ? I 've got news for you : history has n't been what it should have been . It is n't even staying the same . And , my friends , that is truly scary . I first experienced It over thirty years ago , when I got into Bell Labs , and by deep thought and worthy deed and sincere action convinced The Powers That Ought To Be how I was fit to be one of them ( or at least on their team ) , and thus finally got my soul-grabbing alphabet soup of clearances . I accepted It with all my other duties , and took some pride in the fact that we in The Phone Company had undertaken such a cosmic task . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ THE Sixties , " they did n't arrive until about " 65 or so ) , and way back then we did as we were told . Well , more or less . Anyway , I did n't know the rest of the world knew anything about It until I happened to be at a drunken party at the 1985 World Sci-Fi Convention in Auckland Down Under . The room was jammed with sci-fi writers of all kinds , and as a guy fairly new to the field , I was kind of hanging out at the periphery , hoping my party trajectory would take me into an orbit that led ultimately to intersect with a Hugo winner somewhere , preferably a hard science type like Jerry or Larry or Charles or Greg or Hal or David or Poul . While I mused so , a tall , dark , and hairy author sidled up to me and whispered , " Where were you when the world changed , Arlan ? " I gulped involuntarily and he stared down at me as if I Knew Of course , I Did . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as innocently as I could , fighting down the urge to panic , " when Apollo landed ? " He shook his head . " No , not that . When Things Changed . " I could hear the Capital Letters , he was that good . His voice lowered even further , and I practically had to stand on tiptoes to catch his speech , even though I did n't really want to hear him say it . He was not a Company Man , after all . " I mean , Arlan , when all these alternate universes , alternate histories , started becoming our reality ? " Damn it , he Knew ! Inwardly I groaned ; this would mean stacks of reports to be filled out , and assessments of situations , and loads of other paperwork I did n't want to think about during the Sci-Fi Con . " Eric , I do n't know what you mean . You 're talking about the new markets in sci-fi novels , the alternate-history ones you 've started doing ? " Shaking his head , Eric snorted and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smoking-room section of the Sci-Fi professionals " party , where a heated debate was in progress . He shoved and squeezed , manipulating me into the heated core of the ongoing belligerence , and I found myself sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a bedful of various famous , and nearly so , sci-fi writers . One of them was obviously tipsy as well as loud , but fascinating for all that . " Hellfire , I can tell you when It All Changed-when Hinckley 's bullets missed Ron Reagan , right there in front of the Hinckley Hilton , downtown D.C. In the real world , George Bush became president in 19 and 81 and we did n't get this godawful arms buildup and the trillion-dollar Star Wars program that 's going to destroy the economy and the world . " Interesting thought , I thought , but way off base . Behind me a challenging voice chirped up , " No , in the real world , Lennon shoots Reagan . US declares war on Colombia . " " Colombia ? " somebody asked . " Hell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ makes him do it ! " The whole room roared in hilarity , marking the high point in the conversation , after which time the roomful of brilliant , creative , and weird minds latched onto other emerging subjects and the theory of How Things Had Changed evaporated into the stultifying mixture of smoke and air and body odor . I uncrossed my legs and motioned Eric to meet me outside , on the patio past the sliding glass doors . Outside , he picked up the conversation . " Arlan , there you go . They know it , too . We 've all of us sensed that things have changed . Trouble is , we just ca n't pinpoint exactly when . " I started to speak , but Eric held up a palm . " No , hear me out , really . I think we in the sci-fi field are just more attuned to alternate history , and I 'll be damned if I do n't think you and I and the rest of us " -he gestured toward the laughing crowd back inside the room- " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history or other weird timeline . " I breathed deeply , controlling my initial fears . He does n't Know . He 's only speculating . I took comfort in that thought , but a more disturbing one took its place . But he does feel it , they all do inside there . I shrugged mentally . I ca n't tell them , but they ought to feel lucky to be tn one of the Seven Known Alternities . What godawful things might be happening in all the rest of the Infinitude ? Let me interrupt here to tell you The Story : How Things Were , How Things Got Cross-Wired ( Literally ) , and How Things Came Apart . And ultimately , how that has to do with What We ( Used To ) Do At The Phone Company . Time:July 1964 . Scene : Bell Telephone Laboratories , Murray Hill , New Jersey . A secret chamber , half a mile below the surface , bright fluorescent lighting , walls daubed a dull light green . At the head of a class a lecturer speaks . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you , successfully completed all the intensive coursework , endured the extensive barrage of testing , and secured your comprehensive security clearances . " The neatly dressed preppie scientist-all dark suit , white Oxford-cloth shirt , shiny thin tie , and blond crew cut-smiled at his little wordplay and several of my class of ten new recruits nodded and returned the smile . I did n't ; I felt like we were on the verge of some spectacular revelation and I leaned forward to catch every word . " You have taken all the courses , you have understood the growth of the Bell System , all the way from Dr. Bell and Mr. Watson , through Mr. Vail , through the step-by-step Strowger switch up to today 's Electronic Switching System , the ESS Series that we are this very day installing for the first time . " Does anyone know why we have spent billions and billions of dollars to replace perfectly good seventy-yearold technology , switches that have operated almost failure-free since they were invented by that undertaker who wanted to ensure that no human operator would take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phone line ? " " To make more efficient the U. S. of A. phone system , " one greenhorn volunteered . An Indian . From India . " To make more money . " " To get calls through faster . " " To service the customers . " At each of these rapid-fire answers from the audience , the lecturer smiled and shook his head , pointing at yet another raised hand " You 're all correct , " he finally said , pacing up and down in front of the lectern , " those are good reasons , and each of them will happen . But , " he spun on his heel , splaying all ten fingers at us , " each of you is also Wrong . The real reason has to do with our vast wired network , the millions upon millions of interconnections we have made , the untold quadrillions and quintillions and octillions of possible interconnections among these customers that are possible . " His voice now a whisper , the lecturer turned and pressed a large red pushbutton on the wall behind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rough surfaced rear-projection screen . " I am now ready-you are now ready-to understand the whole truth behind The Phone Company . Why it must remain one unitary system , at least in the U. S. of A. , why we must maintain our interconnected network as the world 's leader . The rest of the world , backwards as they are , they 'll never catch up . And for us , that 's good . They wo n't get the Alter nities goodies like we do . " The class , me included , gasped as the rear-projection screen suddenly filled with the five words that changed our lives : There Are Seven Parallel Universes . The lecturer smiled at our gasping reactions . " How can there be ? " the Harvard man said , standing and pointing to make his point . " Simple , " came the answer , " the Many-Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics allows an uncountably infinite number of parallel universes , each stemming from tiny decisions in a mother world . Next question . " " How do we know this ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nerdish but shapely and attractive woman with the unlikely last name of Borg . The rear-projection screen faded its stunning revelation , replacing it with an image of thousands of overhead wires in 1890s New York . " Around the turn of the century , " the explanation came , " The Phone Company started getting complaints about unknown crosstalk-voices that should n't have been there-especially in New York . Close investigation by the Western Electric research team revealed that the strange voices were not coming from our subscribers , but from elsewhere . Where " elsewhere " was , they could n't tell . " But the situation grew more serious as we jammed more and more wires into a given city . Those early pioneers tried filters , everything , to cut down on the unwanted noise . It was only when they set up an experimental lab and talked to some of those other voices that we finally understood what was happening , that we were able to establish two-way communications with other alternate worlds , worlds of different histories . " We were spellbound , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , can you imagine what happened when Dr. Alexander Graham Bell , US citizen from Scotland , found himself speaking with Dr. Ing . Aleandre Lighthorse du Belle , citizen of the Confederate States of North America ? " We all sat gaping , stunned but not disbelieving . The wildest stories of science fiction were true ! Yet there was more to come . " But it was only when Bell Labs got into the picture in the 1920s that they found out bow it was all happeningthe real reason that there ever was a Bell Labs in the first place , you may have guessed . And the secret was , the enormous number of interconnections , the huge number of miles of bare wire all interconnected and switched together , somehow induced connections between our universe and several of the closest parallel universes . " The lecturer shrugged . " Again , this has something to do with the eigenvalue solutions of the Wave Equation , they say . Beyond that , you get into spinos and I ca n't answer anything . I just know that our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faster and better than ever before . " " Why only seven ? " Borg asked . " We surmise that only six alternate universes have been sufficiently wired up , like we are , to allow the parallel universe induction to occur . " Harvard man , still standing , turned to lecture the rest of us . " So , either those are the only six , or only six of an infinite number of parallel universes . Either of those possibilities is staggering . What a concept ! " The rest of that day was a wonder . We learned that all of the parallel-Universe analogs of The Phone Company had cooperated to share information among themselves . We got the deForest triode amplifier , we gave the Strowger switch ; we got a rather primitive version of solid-state physics ; we traded them Claude Shannon 's work on information theory . And on and on , up through masers and lasers and aerogels and virtual reality , a profitable collusion of seven cornucopias with secret knowledge . Based on the benefits of this arrangement , The Phone @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a monopoly in this country ; to break up such a scheme would have cost us immensely . And , to hedge against our foreign cousins finding such a treasure house , we sent secret emissaries abroad to ensure that no other country would ever be so wired as to access the alternate worlds . In the British Isles , for example , we made sure that the venerable Post Office would run their system . In all the other monarchies , we were able to whisper about the threat to security that unfettered telephony among the peasants might pose . After many years , only tiny Finland was able to construct any system comparable to ours . Fortunately for us , this little country never met the minimum parallel world induction requirements , and so no other nation ever found out about It-until . . . For most of this century , The Phone Company had It made , and the rest of the country along with us . But sure enough , somewhere along the line , we got too complacent and someone else caught on . We figure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his entourage went to Japan in the late 1940s to teach the defeated enemy how to manage quality in their reborn factories , teaching them all about Bell Labs " statistics . Some smart Japanese must have figured out our secret , because in the late " 40s they began wiring up Japan every bit as heavily as we had wired the US . " OK , so they 're coming aboard , so what ? " was the general line taken at our New York HQ . " Maybe we can learn something from parallel-Japans as well . " But those wise guys had learned our whole game , not just the technical side : they began to lobby inside our government to break our wired system apart , to make us fall below the parallel-worlds induction level . And they did , and it worked ; we in The Phone Company had failed to continue to convince the powers-thatwere of the benefits of our system . Personally , I do n't think some of them in Washington ever even believed we talked to other worlds . To make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what happened : on Jani ary 1 , 1983 , as required by law , the Bell System was divided into seven smaller " Baby Bells . " I was in a regional switching control office , watching the huge display screens as the long lines were physically separated at the switches . To my sorrow , as region after region of the US went dark , I could see the connections to the parallel worlds winking off , dissipating . Within minutes , all connections to the goodies and freebies of six other Alternate Phone Companies were severed , and for the first time in over eighty years , we at AT &T; were Alone . There is no need to detail the enormous personal sacrifice we all felt , especially those 20,000 persons who had lived their lives to maintain the nodal points where inter-universe communications had been taking place . They were , of course , laid off . No one ever revealed The Secret because they would n't have been believed , and jobs were scarce , and each one needed a good reference to find new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the story , at least the obvious parts . The Pacific Rim countries wired them selves up , pell-mell , putting in communications capacity they would never need , all in hopes of accessing the treasures of the parallel worlds . And by the mid- ' 80s , it became apparent they had made induction work : the enormous number of innovations in consumer products , in electronics , in just about every field , crushing our homegrown companies , causing unemployment and misery all over our land . Oh , in a few places where we had supercomputers and the alternate universes had them in the same place , we maintained a minimal set of contacts , so that places like Los Alamos and Sandia and NASA occasionally got the rare jewel of research information . But nothing really useful to society at large . This is , of course , the obvious part , something everyone could figure out , given the true picture of parallel worlds . But there were non-obvious , nonpublic consequences as well , things that we at AT &T; did n't find out till @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the newly independent Baby Bells went hell-bent for induction , each on their own , and were already prepared , secretly , at the cut-over date , . to maintain their own parallel induction capabilities . They did n't miss a lick , although there were problems . Trouble was , rather than having one large , coherent system , the induction was locally strong in some places , weak in others . Result was , some Baby Bells could access some of the usual six parallel worlds , but because of massive concentrations in some cities , other Baby Bells started picking up many more parallel universe systems . Some of those new worlds were really weird , I found out later . The information anybody over here got was sporadic , sometimes nonsensical ( ESP machines ? Inertialess drives ? Video games ? ) Some worlds had their inductive wiring systems jammed up in one or two regions ; there 's an Etowah Nation that talks in Cherokee to what used to be BellSouth ; a Republic of Fremont in the Bay Area only ; an Arabicspeaking parallel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which turns out to be a real mess . All of that occurred real quick-like on January 1 , 1983-the Real Day Everything Changed , when the alternate worlds began to get out of synch . There were bigger problems to come , though , much bigger . We had the seven Baby Bells wiring up to beat the band , and the Pacific Rimmers doing the same . You add to that the gargantuan increase in wiring our cable TV systems in particular , and by the late " 80s we were getting much too coupled to those other worlds . Sometime in that period , the past itself began to waver . Since Bell Labs had been mostly broken up into ineffectual consumer-product groups , and since nobody else cared too much about nationwide telephone network research , there has n't been anybody to study the problem , but the last I heard was this : because of the scattered concentrations of wiring interconnections , some kind of balance among the parallel worlds was upset . Things got chaotic ; result was , the past of World One ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ another world , and they all got mixed up , fairly randomly . We at AT &T; began tracking the manifestations-people who swore they 'd read that one famous person or another had died , but then found out it had n't happened . Things once lost turning up where they been searched for before , and vice versa . Anomalous artifacts in archaeology , weird lights in the sky , strange cults and sects , independent Presidential candidates , the whole works . And worst of all , a vague feeling permeating society that Something Had Changed . We at AT &T; grew horrified-sup pose last month 's long-distance calling charges got shifted to another world as well ? What if our past got shifted into some world with higher taxes ? An accountant 's nightmare ! We could n't have all our remaining investments at risk . So we got together with the other long-distance carriers and in unison we attacked the problem on all fronts , even got the Feds and all of their Labs involved . Suddenly , networking studies , neural nets , Al , became @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hypotheses , with possible solutions . What we found was , with the profusion of more and more electronic products , with more and more PCs and laptops , the problem is just getting worse . Pockets of past-shifting are occurring randomly all over the world ; business records , investment accounts , even genealogies are no longer solid . Historical " revisionism " is rampant , as different sets of scholars write on things they actually researched and remember , from sources that once were valid . Politics have changed so sharply that forty-year trends have reversed themselves ; one election the people want big government , the next , a smaller one ; and the most incredible politicians , ones who would ve been jailed in previous years , get themselves elected over and over again . ( Well , when the past changes , memories get confused and the populace responds accordinglyunpredictably . ) Actually , there is one solution to this situation , and all of us Phone Companies decided to do it a few years back , but it 's rather scary , too . With @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Know , we have been going full-bore to wire the whole world up in one unified network , to grow the Internet-with its information-rich video and sound version , the World Wide Web-so wide and far and fast that we will quickly warp our whole planet into one unified , stable history line , presumably a consensus past acceptable to most of us . The uncertainty is unnerving , but at least we 're better off than some worlds , at least we have a chance to stabilize our own past . And we Phone Companies here in World One are pushing as hard as possible , before another alternate world steals our history . Because as bad as our known history is , we could have done worse . In some of those unfortunate other worlds , various incarnations of Monopoly still reign : weird things called a World Soviet Union , a Unified World State , a Corporate Continuum , an Axis Hegemony , and Le Monarchie du Monde de Napoleon XII . And-in one particularly pernicious parallel universe , their version of the US government is even trying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communications chips , a secret way into the network so that Big Brother can subtly intervene electronically whenever it senses a threat to itself , and prevent its Phone Companies from stabilizing their world 's past . From that regime 's horribly perverse viewpoint , a changing past is preferable to an unknown past that might kick them out of power . Of course , you might expect such shenanigans from a world in which the US re-elects as a President some oversexed Yuppie yahoo . Thank the Eight Hundred Gods that in our own enlightened world , the Co-Regents are both ex-sci-fi writers who understand these kinds of things and are letting your Phone Companies , like us here at Alternate Telecoms &; Telechron , try to nail down the past once and for all . You just ca n't be too careful about History ! 
##1004261 After their mothers death , they had a terrible fight . Would they ever find a way to forgive each other or themselves ? <p> Do n't bother your mother . She 's not feeling well . " Dan 's voice penetrates my foggy brain like a disembodied spirit I hear Junie 's whiny reply : " But yoo put tnx much mayonnaise on my sandwich ! " " Eat it anyway , " Dan says . Score one for Dan , I think , and turn over in bed . Muscles scream in protest ; even my hair hurts . The bedroom door opens , and Dan stops to kiss me goodbye . " Jared left early for practice . I made Junie 's lunch , " he says proudly . Then he sighs . " Why do n't you let me call your sister ? " Standing above me with his back to the window , Dan seems to glow , a lanky angel in a suit . " Forget it , " I say . " I 've told you . I 'm never going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Have it your way . I 'll call around noon . " I wait until I hear his car leave the driveway , then stare morosely at the phone . Nly sister , Delores , a marketing consultant for a cosmetics firm , travels 80 percent of the year . When she 's home , she works out of her apartment in the next town . I know she 's home now because Dan bumped into her last night at the supermarket . " Delores just got back from Paris , " he told me when he came home . " She asked how you were . I said you were laid up with the flu . " " Why did you tell her I was sick ? " " Because you are , " hc said , with maddening male logic . " She asked if there was anything she could do . I told her I did n't think so . " He had that right . There is nothing Delores can ever do to make up for the things she said last November , after our mother died @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I WOULD HAVE NOTICED that she was getting worse ! Why did n't you do something ? " Delores and I were strolling on the beach , deserted except for an elderly woman and her dog by the water 's edge . " I did what I could , " I told her . " I called the doctor and explained that Mom was coughing . He said he would order a chest X ray . " " Which he never did ! You should have followed through ! " I stopped and looked at her . Delores was just four years younger than I , but her skillful use of makeup made her appear more like my teenage daughter . " I'hat week , however , when mirrors were covered in deference to the departed , Delores had to do without makeup , and her hair was limp . I noticed the little lines bracketing her eyes . She was 35 , and for once , she Iooked it . " Are you suggesting I 'm to blame for Slom 's death ? " I asked , incredulous . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you could have taken the time to- " " I ca n't listen to this , " I said , and began walking again . " When I called you before I left and told you to set up a meeting with the doctor , you said you did n't have time ! " " Well , I did n't ! " I turned , indignant . " I had four closings that week . I spoke to the doctor on the phone and I thought that was enough ... " My voice trailed off , and Iooked away . ( continued ) " Oh , please , you never had enough time for iom ! " I could feel tears building , but I was determined not to give in . " Well , I was the one with her when she died , while you were off in Copenhagen- " " And if I 'd been here , she 'd probably still be alive ! " Delores shouted . The woman at the water 's edge was staring at us openly . She appeared to te in her late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much my mother would have enjoyed such a day , watching the sea and the sky blend near the horizon . No longer able to control tears , I soled , " Well , at least I gave N lome something to be proud off I gave her grandchildren ! " Delores recoiled . " ' IThat 's it . I 'm going home ! " She stalked off ahead of me , and we walked the rest of the way in a silence that stretched from that day to this . . . THE PHONE RINGS , IT IS NINA , MY BOSS AT the real estate agency , wanting to know when I 'll be back . " I 'm feeling lbtter , " I lie . " Probably by the end of the week , " I tell her . " No sooner ? " she asks . " Because things are really hopping around here , " I remind myself that we need the money my job brings in , and that telling Nina to get a life would probably not be wise . " I 'll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I realize I 'm disappointed that it was n't Delores . This is pathetic , considering that I 've told everyone I have no intention of speaking to my sister again . My friends have tried to be loyal , yet fair . " It was a dumb thing for Delores to say , " they all agree , " but you were both overwrought . " Perhaps , but there are limits to what may be said in anger , and blaming me for our mother 's death qualifies as crossing the line . Pride is n't without consequences , however , for I have suffered a double loss . Now I have no one with whom to share memo rics of our mother , except in dreams . And in my dreams , Delores and I are children again , playing in our backyard . We push our dog , Rusty , in a doll carriage ; we aim for the sky on our swings while our mother smiles at us from her garden : " I love you ! " she calls to us from among the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spinnling , make my way over to the bathroom . Mornigs are when I miss my mother most . Lately , I 've read a lot of books with the word light in the title , books about peopIe who 've come close to dying and lived to tell about it I find them very comforting . " Death ends nothing , " the survivors insist . " ' Ihose who have gone on to the other side often come back to reassure the ones they left behind . Be open to them .... " I try like crazy to Inc open . In bed at night , my eyes search the darkness for ct glimpse of ghostly reassurance . But my mother has yet to appear . I believe this is because she is angry because I did n't , as Delores accused , follow up on the chest X raY . Delores , I berate myself , would have badgered the doctor to do the X ray , enabling him to spot the pneumonia that was to kill our mother within a week . THE SIGHT OF MYSELF FRIGHTENING @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creature who stares at me from the medicine cabinet mirror . " A nice cup of tea will make everything better . " A few weeks in the Bahamas would n't hurt , either , I think , as I survey the kitchen : breakfast dishes piled on the counter ; milk and juice cartons open on the table . I put on the kettle and try not to worry that Jared has forgotten his lunch . He 's 12 , and would rather starve than have his mother show up at school with his tuna sandwich . I remember how embarrassed I felt when my mother would appear in my classroom proffering snow boots after a surprise storm . Now , the memory brings me to tears . Outside , the sky is gray and threatening . Please , no more snow , I beg silently . I look at the calendar and count : five weeks to spring . On such an unpromising day , my mother would already be kneeling in her garden , impatiently probing the hard earth with her fingers . It irked her that neither @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Give it a chance , girls , " she would urge ever spring . " I know it 's hard work , but the rewards are worth it . " " Not me , " I would tell her . " I prefer the dirt to stay beneath my shoes . " Dolores would add , " Besides , who wants to put so mutch effort into flowers when they just die anyway ? " " Everything dies , " my mother would reply softly . " What 's important is the beauty we bring into the world while we live . " MY NOSE IS STUFFY AND MY HEAD ACHES . I want my mother . I want her to kiss my forehead and feed me homemade chicken soup . I want her to play Chinese checkers with me , and afterward read mc a storry about dancing princesses . Come to me , I plead . Tell me that you 're in a better place . Tell me you forgive me . The tea makes me feel semihuman . For the past two days , I 've been unable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the chaos around me . I go from room to room , picking up dirty socks and towels , and stagger with my brundle to the landry room . I start to load the washer when the doorbell rings . " Open up , Jen . It 's Delores , " I hear before I make it to the door . At nine-thirty in the morning , she is perfectly made up , her auburn hair cut in a sleek , new style . " You look awful , " she says . " You look great , " I acknowledge , letting her in . For an awkward moment , neither of us says a word , then we both speak at the same time : " Dan tells me you were in Paris- " " I met Dan last night at the market- " We chuckle self-consciously . There 's no denying it : I 'm glad to see her . " Dan said you had the flu . Why are n't you in bed ? " " I 've been there . For two days . " She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ really sorry , Jen . For that sniff I said on the beach . I did n't mean it I was feeling guilty , I guess , for not being here when she died . I 've wanted to call you a thousand times . " " Me too , " I sigh , and we hug . In the kitchen , Delores fixes us fresh tea with honey and lemon . She makes toast and cuts the slices into triangles , the way our mother used to . We talk a long time : about our mother , and what a loving person she was ; and about our dad , who died so long ago we hardly remember him . I wonder aloud if they 're Iooking down on us as we speak , reunited at last . Delores , a professed agnostic , says that although the idea of an afterlife is appealing , she is reluctant to suspend her disbelief . When I mention the books I 've been reading , she asks if I also believe that little men with heads shaped like lightbulbs are conducting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " I answer . " Give me a break ! " she shrieks , laughing . Then , " Speaking of bulbs , I 've brought some . They 're in the car . " " You brought me lightbulbs ? " " Not lightbulbs . Tulip bulbs . I bought them for blom when I was in Copenhagen . " She lowers her eyes . " I was going to give them away , but then I thought you might want them . " We both turn to the window . The gloomy morning has made my backyard distinctly uninviting . " I do n't know anything about planting tulip bulbs , " I say sorrowfully . " Neither do I. Who knows if this is even the right time of year , but I 'm willing to give it a shot . " Delores tries to persuade me to remain inside while she does the planting , but I wo n't hear of it . " I 'm feeling much better . " This is true , though I do n't know if it 's the tea or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Besides , this is something we should do together . " I zip myself into my down parka and wind a scarf around my neck , but the minute we step onto my back porch , the icy wind sets my head pounding again . We go to the section of yard that gets the most sun . Delores and I , each armed with a spade , drop to our knees and start to dig . Silently , diligently , we break the hard surface of the ground , depositing the bulbs into the earth . " I hope we 're doing this right , " Delores says after awhile . " I hope the silly thing grow . " " Of course they 'll grow . " Do n't ask me how , but I know they will . Smiling , I begin to understand what my mother found so irresistible : Gleaning beauty from the drab earth , season after season , in spite of the odds , is a tribute to hope . In a few weeks , I think , Delores and I will stand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colors , the graceful stems , the fragrant perfection of the flowers , we will sense our mother 's presence and know in our hearts that she will never really leave us . WE WORK FOR ABOUT AN HOUR BEFORE I begin sneezing . Delores looks tip from her digging . " I 'm not kidding , Jen , get into the house this minute ! I 'll finish up . " So I go . From the window , I watch my sister , bent against the wind , kneeling in that pose I know so well . " I 'm exhausted , " Delores says when she finally comes in . I ask if she 'd like to stay for lunch , but she says she has to go home and change for a date with a man she met last month . " He 's very nice , " she offers shyly . " Smart and normal . I think lore would have liked him . " " Really ? That 's great , Del , " I say . " Call me later , okay ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has finally begun to snow , but lightly , without conviction . I hardly even notice . 
##1004264 It was late in the evening . The private tutor Egor Alexeyitch Svoykin , so as not to waste time , went straight from the doctor 's to the pharmacy . <p> " It 's like going from a cowshed into a courtesan 's boudoir ! " he thought as he climbed the staircase , which was polished and covered with an expensive runner . " You 're afraid to put your foot down ! " <p> As he entered , Svoykin was struck by the aroma one finds in every pharmacy in the world . Science and medicine may change over the years , but the fragrance of a pharmacy is as eternal as the atom . Our grandfathers smelled it , and our grandchildren will smell it , too . As it was so late , there were no customers . Behind a polished yellow counter covered with labeled jars stood a tall gentleman , his head leaning sturdily back . He had a severe face and well-groomed sidewhiskers-to all appearances , the pharmacist . From the small bald patch on his head to his long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ licked clean , as if he were standing at the altar . His haughty eyes were looking down at a newspaper lying on the counter . He was reading . A cashier sat to the side behind a wire grille , lazily counting change . On the far side of the counter two dim figures puttered about in the semidarkness , mixing a multitude of strange potions . <p> Svoykin went up to the counter and gave the starched gentleman the prescription . He took it without looking at it , continued reading the newspaper article to the end of the sentence , and muttered , turning his head slightly : " Calomeli grana duo , sacchari albi grana quinque , numero decem ! " <p> " Ja ! " a sharp , metallic voice answered from the depths of the pharmacy . <p> The pharmacist gave directions for the drops in the same muffled , measured voice . <p> " Ja ! " came from the other corner . <p> The pharmacist wrote something on the prescription , frowned , and , leaning his head back , rested his eyes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ready in an hour , " he mumbled through his teeth , his eyes scanning for the sentence he had just finished reading . <p> " Ca n't I get it any sooner ? " Svoykin muttered . " I ca n't possibly wait that long . " The pharmacist did not answer . Svoykin sat down on the sofa and waited . The cashier finished counting the change , sighed deeply , and rattled his keys . One of the dark figures in the interior was pounding away with a marble pestle . The other figure shuffled about with a blue vial . Somewhere a clock struck with rhythmic care . <p> Svoykin was ill . His mouth was on fire ; there was a drawn-out pain in his arms and legs ; foggy images tumbled about like clouds and shrouded human figures in his heavy head . He looked as if through a veil at the pharmacist , the shelves of jars , the gas burners , and the cabinets . The monotonous pounding in the marble mortar and the slow ticking of the clock seemed to him to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ head . The disorientation and fogginess took over his whole body more and more , so that after a while , feeling that the pounding of the pestle was making him sick , he decided to get a hold on himself by striking up a conversation with the pharmacist . <p> " I think I 'm getting a fever , " he said . " The doctor says it 's a bit soon to tell what I 'm suffering from , but I 'm already feeling quite weak . Thank God , though , I had the good fortune to fall sick here in the capital and not out in the village , where there 's neither doctor nor pharmacy ! " <p> The pharmacist remained stock-still and , leaning his head further back , kept on reading his newspaper . He did n't respond to Svoykin with word or movement-it was as if he had n't heard him . The cashier yawned loudly and struck a match against his pants . The pounding of the pestle grew louder and more ringing . Seeing that no one was listening to him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and began reading the labels . At first all kinds of herbs shot before his eyes : Pimpinella , Tormentilla , Zedoaria , Gentian , and so on . Behind the herbs , tinctures flashed , -oleum 's , -seed 's , each name stranger and more antediluvian than the next . <p> " I wonder how much useless ballast there is on these shelves ! " Svoykin thought . " How much stuff must be kept in these jars just for tradition 's sake , but how solid and impressive it all looks ! " <p> Svoykin moved his eyes from the shelves to the glass cabinet next to him . He saw rubber rings , balls , syringes , jars of toothpaste , Pierrot drops , Adelheim drops , cosmetic soaps , hairgrowth ointment . <p> A boy in a dirty apron entered the pharmacy and asked for ten kopecks ' worth of ox bile . " Could you tell me what ox bile is used for ? " Svoykin asked the pharmacist , thinking it might be a handy subject for striking up a conversation . <p> Not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haughty face of the pharmacist . <p> " God , what strange people they are ! " he thought . " Why do they have science stamped all over their faces ? Looking at them , you 'd think they were lofty scientists , but all they do is sell hair-growth ointment and fleece you . They write in Latin and speak to one another in German . . . they act as if they 're medieval or something . When you 're in good health you never notice their dry , stale faces , but the moment you get sick , like me , you 're horrified that a sacrosanct profession has fallen into the hands of such rigid , unfeeling characters . " <p> Looking at the pharmacist 's motionless face , Svoykin suddenly felt the uncontrollable urge to lie down somewhere in the dark , as far away as possible , away from these scientific faces and the pounding of the marble pestle . The exhaustion of illness took over his whole being . He went up to the counter and , with an imploring grimace , asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hurry with my medicine ! I 'm . . . I 'm ill . . " <p> " It 'll be ready soon enough . . . excuse me , but there 's no leaning on the counter ! " <p> Svoykin sat down again on the sofa and , chasing away the foggy images in his head , watched the cashier smoke . <p> " Only half an hour has passed , " he thought . " I 'm only halfway through ... this is unbearable ! " <p> But finally the small dark chemist came up to the pharmacist and put down next to him a box with powders and a vial of pink liquid . The pharmacist read to the end of the sentence , slowly walked away from the counter , picked up the vial , and , holding it up to his eyes , shook it . Then he put his signature on a label , tied it to the neck of the vial , and reached for the seal . <p> " God , what are all these rituals for ? " Svoykin thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even charge you extra . " <p> The pharmacist turned around and , having finished with the liquid , went through the same procedure with the powder . <p> " Here you are ! " he said finally , without looking up at Svoykin . " Pay the cashier one ruble and six kopecks ! " <p> Svoykin put his hand in his pocket , took out a ruble , and then suddenly remembered that the ruble was all he had . <p> " One ruble and six kopecks ? " he mumbled , embarrassed . " All I have is one ruble .. . I thought a ruble would be enough . . . what am I going to do ? " <p> " I have no idea ! " the pharmacist said , picking up his newspaper again . <p> " Under the circumstances . . . I would be grateful if you would let me bring you , or maybe send you , the six kopecks tomorrow . . " <p> " I 'm sorry , we do n't give credit here . " <p> " What am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , get the six kopecks , and then you can have your medicine . " <p> " But . . . I 'm having difficulty walking , and I do n't have anyone I can send . . . " <p> " That 's your problem . " <p> " Well , " Svoykin thought . " Fine , I 'll go home . " He left the pharmacy and set off for home . To reach his apartment he had to sit down five or six times . He went inside , found some change on the table , and sat down on his bed to rest . A strange power pulled his head toward the pillow . He lay down for a few minutes . Foggy images like clouds and shrouded figures blurred his consciousness . For a long time he kept thinking he had to go back to the pharmacy , and for a long time he intended to get up . But the illness prevailed . The copper coins fell out of his hand , and the sick man dreamed that he had gone back to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 
##1004267 IN HIS EARLY TWENTIES IN MOSCOW , ANTON CHEKHOV ( 1860-1904 ) was a cutup , a carouser , a medical student , his family 's breadwinner , and a writer who had recently received the death sentence of tuberculosis . Literally feverish , he also became delirious to write-composing , among many other stories , these exuberant , dark , and presciently modern tales , which have never before been published in English . <p> fter we had finished the punch , our parents murmured a few words to each other and left us alone . " Go ahead ! " my father whispered to me on his way out . " Say the words ! " " But how can I declare my love , " I whispered back , " if I do n't love her ? " " No one 's asking what you want to do , you idiot ! " My father gave me an angry stare and left the garden pavilion . Then , after everyone had gone , a woman 's hand reached in the half-open door and snatched the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Well , there 's no escaping now ! " I thought , and with a discreet cough I said briskly : " I see that circumstances favor me , Zoe Andreyevna ! At last we are alone , and darkness comes to my aid , for it covers the shame written on my face .. . the shame pouring from the feelings with which my soul is ablaze . " Suddenly I stopped . I could hear Zoe Andreyevna 's heart beating and her teeth chattering . Her whole organism was trembling-I could hear and feel it from the way the bench was shaking . The poor girl did n't love me . She hated me , the way a dog hates the stick that beats it . She despised me , you could say , as only an idiot can . Suddenly I felt like an orangutan , ugly-even though I 'm covered in medals and honors-no better than a beast , fat-faced , pimply , covered with stubble ; alcohol and a perpetual cold have made my nose red and bloated ! A bear has more grace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intellectual qualities ! With her , with Zoe , I had pulled an immoral trick before she became my bride . I stopped in mid-sentence , because suddenly I felt deeply sorry for her . " Let us go out into the garden , " I said . " It 's stifling in here . " We went out and walked down the garden path . Our parents , who had been listening by the door , had managed to scamper into the bushes just before we appeared . Moonbeams played on Zoe 's face . Idiot though I was , I thought I could read in that face all the sweet pain of bondage . I sighed and continued : " The nightingale sings for its sweetheart . . . and I , all alone in this world , who can I sing to ? " Zoe blushed and lowered her eyes . She was acting to perfection the role she was expected to play . We sat on a bench by the stream , beyond which a church glimmered white . Behind the church towered Count Kuldarov 's mansion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loved . As she sat down on the bench she fixed her gaze on the mansion . My heart sank and shriveled with pity . My God , my God ! May heaven smile on our parents . . . but they should be sent down to hell , for a week at least ! " All my happiness rests on a single person , " I continued . " I feel deeply for that person . . . her perfume . . . I love her , and should she not return my love , then I am lost . . . dead . . . You are that person . Can you love me ? Huh ? Could you love me ? " " I love you , " she whispered . I must confess I almost died . I had thought she would dig in her heels , since she was deeply in love with someone else . I had relied on her passion for the other man , but things turned out quite differently . She was n't strong enough to swim against the tide ! " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into tears . " But , no , that ca n't be ! " I shouted , not knowing what I was saying , my whole body shaking . " How is it possible ? Zoe Andreyevna-do not believe a word of what I said ! My God , do not believe a word ! May I roast in hell if I am in love with you ! And you do not love me ! This is all nonsense ! " I jumped up from the bench . " We need n't go through with this ! This is a farce ! They are forcing us to marry for money , Zoe . What love is there between us ? I would rather have a millstone around my neck than marry you ! It 's as simple as that ! Damn ! What right do they have to do this to us ? What do they think we are ? Serfs ? Dogs ? We wo n't get married ! Damn them , the bastards ! We 've danced to their tune long enough already ! I 'm going to them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marry you-it 's as simple as that ! " Zoe suddenly stopped crying ; her tears instantly dried up . " I 'm going to tell them right now ! " I continued . " And you tell them , too . Tell them that you do n't love me-that it 's Bolnitsin you love . And I 'll be the first to shake Bolnitsin 's hand . I 'm fully aware of how deeply in love with him you are ! " Zoe smiled happily and came up to me . " And you 're in love with someone else too , are n't you ? " she said , rubbing her hands together . " You 're in love with Mademoiselle De Beux ! " " Yes , " I said , " Mademoiselle De Beux . She 's not Russian Orthodox and she 's not rich , but I love her for her mind and her edifying qualities . My parents can send me to hell , but I will marry her ! I love her , I think I love her even more than I love life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ca n't marry her , then I no longer wish to live ! I 'm going right this minute .. let 's both go and tell these fools . . . oh , thank you , my dearest . . . you have comforted me no end ! " My soul was flooded with happiness , and I thanked Zoe again and again , and she thanked me . And both of us , overjoyed , thankful , kissed each other 's hands , commending each other on our high-mindedness . I kissed her hands ; she kissed my forehead , the stubble of my beard . It seems that forgetting all etiquette I even hugged her ! And let me tell you , this declaration of non-love was sweeter than any declaration of love could be ! Joyful , rosy , trembling all over , we rushed to the house to tell our parents of our decision . As we crossed the garden we cheered each other on . " So let them shout at us ! " I said . " They can beat us , even throw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " We entered the house , and there , by the door , our parents were waiting . They took one look at us , saw how happy we were , and immediately called the butler . He brought in the champagne . I started protesting , waving my arms , stamping my feet . . . Zoe began crying , shrieking . . . there was a tremendous uproar , a rumpus , and we did n't get to drink the champagne . But they married us anyway . Today is our silver wedding anniversary . We have lived together for a quarter of a century . Initially it was terrible . I swore at her , beat her , and then out of regret began loving her . This regret brought with it children . . . and then . . . well . . . we just got used to each other . This very moment my darling Zoe is standing right behind me . Laying her hands on my shoulders , she kisses my bald spot . " Author Affiliation Peter Constantine is an Austrian poet and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spanish , Modern Greek , and Afrikaans . He lives in New York City . <p> 
##1004268 Night was about to fall . A crowd of coachmen and pilgrims was sitting in uncle Tikhon 's tavern . An autumn downpour with raging wet winds that lashed across their faces had driven them to seek refuge there . The tired , drenched travelers sat listening to the wind , dozing on benches by the wall . Boredom was written on their faces . One coachman , a pockmarked fellow with a scarred face , held a wet accordion on his knees : he played and stopped mechanically . <p> Outside the tavern door , splashes of rain flew around the dim , grimy lantern . The wind howled like a wolf , yelping , as if to tear itself away from its tether by the door . From the yard came the sound of horses snorting and hoofs thudding in the mud . It was dank and cold . <p> Uncle Tikhon , a tall peasant with a fat face and small , drowsy , deep-set eyes , sat behind the counter . In front of him on the other side of the counter stood a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and shabby but respectable . He was wearing a wrinkled summer coat covered with mud , calico pants , and rubber galoshes without shoes . His head , his thin pointed elbows , and the hands jammed into his pockets were shivering feverishly . From time to time a sudden spasm ran down his whole gaunt body , from his horribly haggard face to his rubber galoshes . <p> " For Christ 's sake ! " he said to Tikhon in his scratchy , broken bass . " Give me a drink . . . just a little one , that glass there ! You can put it on my tab ! " <p> " You bet I can ! Nothing but scoundrels in here ! " <p> The scoundrel looked at Tikhon with contempt , with hatred . If he could , he would have murdered him then and there . <p> " You just do n't understand , you lout , you numskull ! It 's not me begging-from deep within my guts , as you say in your peasant lingo ! It 's my illness begging ! Ca @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing to see ! Get out ! " <p> " You must understand ! If I do n't get a drink now , if I do n't assuage my passion , I 'm quite capable of committing a crime ! By God , I 'm quite capable ! You bastard , you 've been handing out drinks to drunkards for ages in your damn tavern ! And you 're telling me that till today you never gave a thought to what they were ? Sick people , that 's what ! You can chain them up , beat them , flail them-as long as you give them their vodka ! I humbly beg you ! I implore you ! I 'm demeaning myself . . . Lord , how I am demeaning myself ! " The scoundrel shook his head and spat on the floor . <p> " Give me money and you 'll have your vodka ! " Tikhon said . <p> " Where am I supposed to get money from ? I 've drunk it all ! This coat 's all I 've got left . I ca n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ underneath . . . d' you want my hat ? " <p> The scoundrel gave Tikhon his felt hat , whose lining was showing through here and there . Tikhon took the hat , looked at it , and shook his head . <p> " I would n't take this if you gave it to me for nothing ! " he said . " It 's a piece of shit ! " <p> " You do n't like it ? Then give me a drink on credit if you do n't like it . When I come back from town I 'll give you your fiver ! Then you can choke on it ! Yes , choke on it ! " <p> " You trying to con me ? What kind of a man are you ? What did you come here for ? " <p> " I want a drink . Not me , my illness ! Do you understand ? " <p> " Why are you bothering me ? The road outside is full of scum like you ! Go ask them in the name of Christ to give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the name of Christ is bread ! You swine ! " <p> " You can fleece them , the poor bastards , but me-I 'm sorry , I ca n't take their money ! Not me ! " <p> The scoundrel suddenly stopped , blushed , and turned to the pilgrims . <p> " That 's an idea ! You 're Christians ! Will you sacrifice a fiver ? I beg you from deep within my guts ! I 'm ill ! " <p> " Drink water ! " the small man with the pockmarked face laughed . <p> The scoundrel felt ashamed . He started coughing heavily and then fell silent . A few moments later he started pleading again with Tikhon . Finally he burst into tears and began offering his wet coat for a glass of vodka . In the darkness no one could see his tears , and no one took his coat because among the pilgrims there were women who did not want to see a man 's nakedness . <p> " What am I to do now ? " the scoundrel asked in a quiet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do ? I have to have a drink , or I might well commit a crime . . . even resort to suicide . . what am I going to do ? " <p> He began pacing up and down . <p> The mail coach rolled up , its bells ringing . The wet postman came in , drank a glass of vodka , and left . The mail coach drove on . <p> " I have something golden I 'll give you , " the scoundrel , suddenly deathly pale , said to Tikhon . " Yes , I 'll give it to you . So be it ! Even if what I 'm doing is low-down , vile-here , take it . I am doing this despicable deed because I 'm beside myself . . . even if I were brought before a court of law I would be forgiven . Take it , but only on one condition : that you give it back to me when I return . I 'm giving it to you before witnesses ! " <p> The scoundrel slid his wet hand inside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He opened it and glanced at the portrait inside . <p> " I should take the portrait out , but I have nowhere to put it-I 'm soaked . Damn you , take it with the portrait . But on one condition . . . my dear fellow . . . I beg you . . . do n't touch this face with your fingers . I beg you , my dear fellow ! Forgive me for having been so rude to you , for saying the things I said . . . I 'm an idiot . . just do n't touch it with your fingers , and do n't look at the face ! " <p> Tikhon took the medallion , inspected it , and put it in his pocket . <p> " Stolen goods , " he said , and filled a glass . " Well , fine ! Drink ! " <p> The drunkard took the glass in his hand . His eyes flashed , as much as his strength allowed his drunken , bleary eyes to flash , and he drank , drank with feeling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the portrait , he lowered his eyes with shame and went to a corner . There he perched on a bench next to the pilgrims , curled up , and closed his eyes . <p> Half an hour passed in stillness and silence . Only the wind howled , blowing its autumn rhapsody over the chimney . The women pilgrims were praying and soundlessly settling under the benches for the night . Tikhon opened the medallion and looked at the woman 's face smiling out of the golden frame , at the tavern , at Tikhon , at the bottles . <p> A wagon creaked outside . There was a rattling sound and then the thudding of boots in the mud . A short peasant with a pointed beard came running in . He was wet , wearing a long sheepskin coat covered in mud . <p> " There you go ! " he shouted , banging a fiver down on the counter . " A glass of Madeira ! Make it a good one ! " And rakishly swiveling around on one foot , he ran his eye over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are you ? Chicken feathers upon thine aunt ! Scared of the rain ? Ha ! Poor things ! Who 's this raisin here ? " <p> He went over to the scoundrel and looked him in the face . <p> " Oh ! Your Lordship ! " he said . " Semyon Sergeyitch ! Good Heavens ! What ? How come you 're hanging about here in this tavern in such a state ? What are you doing here ? Suffering martyr ! " <p> The squire looked at the peasant and covered his face with his sleeve . The peasant sighed , shook his head , waved his hands about in despair , and went to the counter to finish his drink . <p> " That 's our master , " he whispered to Tikhon , nodding toward the scoundrel . " Our landowner , Semyon Sergeyitch . Look at him ! Look what he looks like now ! Ha ! Just look at that ! What drink can do to you ! " <p> The peasant gulped down his drink , wiped his mouth with his sleeve , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Four hundred versts from here , from Akhtilovka. . . my folks were his father 's serfs ! Sad , ai n't it ! His Lordship was such a splendid gentleman . This horse here , the one outside , you see it ? He gave it me ! Ha ! That 's fate for you ! " <p> The coachmen and pilgrims started crowding around the peasant . In a quiet voice , over the noises of autumn , he told them the story . Semyon Sergeyitch remained sitting in the same corner , his eyes closed , muttering to himself . He was listening , too . <p> " It happened because of weakness , " the peasant said , gesticulating with his hands . " Too much good life ! He was a rich gentleman-powerful , in the whole province ! Eat , drink , cartloads ! How many times he drove past this very tavern in his carriage-you must have seen him ! He was rich ! Five years ago he was going through Mikishkinski on a barge , and instead of a fiver he gave the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Mainly because of a woman . He fell in love , head over heels , with a woman from town-he loved her more than his life . But he did n't fall in love with a shining falcon . She was a black crow . Marya Egorovna , that was that damn woman 's name , and with a strange last name too-you ca n't even pronounce it . He loved her and proposed to her , all God-fearing and correct . Then , they say , she said yes . After all , His Lordship was n't just anybody-he was sober and rolling in money . Then one evening , I remember well , I 'm walking through the garden . I look , and there they are sitting on the bench kissing . He gives her one kiss , and she , the viper , gives him two back ! He kisses her hand , and her , she blushes . Then she squeezes herself close to him , damn her ! I love you , she says , Semyon . . . and Semyon goes about like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fool . . . handing out a ruble here , two there , and me he gave this horse outside ! He was so happy ! He dropped everyone 's debts ! Then came the wedding . They got married all nice and proper . Then , as everyone 's at the dinner , she gets up and goes with the carriage into town to the attorney , who 's her lover . Right after the wedding , the harlot ! At the high point ! Ha ! Then he went nuts , started drinking ! Look at him ! He 's running around like a half-wit thinking of nothing but that harlot ! He loves her ! I bet he 's on his way to town just so he can get a glimpse of her . . . But the other thing , let me tell you , the thing that really ruined him , was his brother-in-law-his sister 's husband . The squire took it into his head to guarantee his brother-in-law with the bank-around thirty thousand he guaranteed ! They say the scoundrel of a brother-in-law knows how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and our master had to pay the whole thirty thousand ! A fool suffers for his foolishness ! His wife had children with her attorney , his brother-in-law bought an estate near Poltava , and our master wanders around from one tavern to the next like a fool , making us all listen to his moaning : Lost have I , dear brothers , my faith in mankind ! There is no one I can , how shall I put it , believe in ! ' Weakness , that 's what it is ! We all have problems ! So , what are we supposed to do-start drinking ? There 's this corporal we used to have in the army . His wife brings the schoolmaster to her house in broad daylightshe spends all her husband 's money on drink . And that corporal walks about grinning . The only effect was he lost some weight ! " <p> " The Lord does not provide everyone with that kind of strength ! " Tikhon said . <p> " Yeah , everyone 's strength is different , that 's true ! " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he finished the tavern was silent . <p> " Hey , you . . . how 're you feeling ? You unlucky man ! Here , drink ! " Tikhon said , turning to the squire . <p> The squire came up to the counter and drank the vodka with delight . <p> " Give me the medallion for a second , " he whispered to Tikhon . " Just one look and . . . I 'll give it back to you ! " <p> Tikhon frowned , and without saying a word handed him the medallion . The fellow with the pockmarked face sighed , shook his head , and asked for a vodka . <p> " Have a drink , Your Lordship ! Hmm ! Life is good without vodka , but it 's even better with it ! With vodka even sorrow 's not sorrow ! Drink up ! " <p> After five glasses the squire sat down in his comer , opened the medallion , and with clouded , drunken eyes looked for the beloved face . But the face was gone . It had fallen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The lantern flared up and went out . In the comer a woman pilgrim was mumbling in delirium . The fellow with the pockmarked face prayed aloud and then lay down on the bench . Another traveler came in . The rain poured and poured . It got colder and colder , and it seemed as if there would be no end to this vile , dark autumn . The squire was still staring at the medallion , looking for the woman 's face . The candle went out . <p> Spring , where are you ? <p> 
##1004269 a ) Election of new chairman of the Association . b ) Discussion of the October 2nd incident . c ) Synopsis of the activities of member Dr. M. H. von Bronn. d ) Routine matters concerning the Association . <p> Doctor Shelestov , the culprit in the October 2nd incident , is getting ready to go to the meeting . He has been standing for a long time in front of the mirror , trying to give his face a languid look . If he were to turn up at the meeting with a face that looked concerned , tense , red , or slightly pale , then his enemies would deduce that he was affected by their intrigues . If his face were cold , impassive , as if he had had a good night 's sleep , the kind of face that people have who are untouched by the toils and strife of life , then all his enemies would secretly be overcome with respect and think : His proud rebellious head doth rise higher Than the giddying heights of Napoleon 's monument . Like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he would arrive at the meeting later than all the others . He would enter the room quietly , languidly pass his hand through his hair , and without looking at a single person take a seat at the very end of the table . Assuming the pose of the bored listener , he would suppress a yawn , pick up a newspaper , and start reading . Everyone would be talking , arguing , boiling over , calling each other to order-but he would remain silent , reading his newspaper . Finally , as his name was repeated more and more often and the burning question turned white hot , he would lift his bored , weary eyes and say to his colleagues , reluctantly : " You are forcing me to speak . . . Gentlemen , I have not prepared a speech , so please bear with me-my words can not do this scandal justice . I shall begin ab ovo . At the last meeting some of our esteemed colleagues asserted that I do not conduct myself in an appropriate manner during medical consultations , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opinion that I need not proffer justifications , and that the accusations are nothing but unscrupulous ploys , I asked that my name be removed from the membership roster of the Association and subsequently resigned . Now , however , that a whole series of new accusations are being leveled against me I find , to my great regret , that I am forced to offer an explanation after all . With your permission , I shall explain . " At this point , carelessly twirling a pencil or a chain , he would say that yes , in actual fact it was true that during consultations he had sometimes been known to raise his voice and attack colleagues , regardless of who was present . It was also true that once , during a consultation , in the presence of doctors and family members , he had asked the patient : " Who was the idiot who prescribed opium for you ? " Rare was a consultation without incident . . . But why was this ? The answer was simple ! In these consultations he , Shelestov , was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . There were thirty-two doctors in town , most of whom knew less than a first-year medical student . One did n't have to look far for examples . Needless to say , nomina sunt odiosaone does not wish to name names-but as they were among themselves at the meeting , and he did not want to appear a scandalmonger , names would be mentioned . For instance , everyone was aware that our esteemed colleague von Bronn pierced the esophagus of Madam Seryozhkina , the official s wife , when he inserted a probe . At that point von Bronn would jump up , wring his hands , and cry out : " My dear colleague , you were the one who stabbed her , not I ! I 'll prove it ! " Shelestov would ignore him and continue : " Furthermore , as everyone is aware , our esteemed colleague Zhila mistook the actress Semiramidina 's floating kidney for an abscess and undertook a probing puncture . The immediate result was exitus letalis-lethal consequences ! Our esteemed friend Besstrunko , instead of removing the nail from the big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the right foot . I am also pressed to recall the case in which our esteemed colleague Terkhayantz catheterized the soldier Ivanov 's eustachian tubes with such vigor that both his eardrums exploded . I would also like to remind you that this very same colleague of ours , while extracting a tooth , dislocated the patient 's lower jaw and would n't reset it until the patient agreed to pay him five rubles for the procedure . Our esteemed colleague Kuritsin , who is married to the pharmacist Grummer 's niece , is running a racket with him . Everyone is also aware that the secretary of our Association , your young friend Skoropalitelni , is living with the wife of our highly valued and esteemed chairman Gustav Gustavovitch Prechtel . . . You will notice that I have delicately moved from discussing lack of medical knowledge to unethical behavior . I have no choice ! Ethics is our weak point , gentlemen , and so as not to appear a mere scandalmonger I will call to your attention our esteemed colleague Puzirkov , who at Colonel Treshinskoy 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was living with our chairman 's wife but I ! The effrontery of Mr. Puzirkov , whom I myself caught last year with the wife of our esteemed colleague Dr. Znobish ! Speaking of Znobish-Who is it that uses his position as a doctor and ca n't quite be trusted when treating ladies ? Znobish ! Who is it that married a merchant 's daughter for her dowry ? Znobish ! And as for our highly esteemed chairman , he secretly dabbles in homeopathy and receives money from the Prussians for espionage ! A Prussian spy-that is the ultima ratio ! " When doctors wish to appear clever and eloquent they use two Latin expressions : nomina sunt odiosa and ultima ratio . Shelestov would drop not only Latin words but French and German ones as well-whatever you want . He would steer everyone to clear waters , rip the masks off the intriguers " faces . The chairman would ring his bell till he was exhausted-esteemed colleagues would be flying up from their seats all over the place , yelling and waving their arms ; colleagues of every denomination would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Not batting an eyelash , Shelestov would continue : " And as for this Association , its current membership and organization being what it is , it is inevitably headed for destruction . Its whole structure is based exclusively on intrigues . Intrigues , intrigues , intrigues ! I , as one of the victims of a mass of demonic intrigues , consider myself bound to expound the following . . . " He would go on expounding , and his supporters would applaud and clasp their hands together in exultation . At this point , with an unimaginable uproar and peals of thunder , the voting for the new chairman would commence . Von Bronn and his cohorts would heatedly support Prechtel , but the public and the ethical group of doctors would boo them and shout : " Down with Prechtel ! We want Shelestov ! Shelestov ! " Shelestov would consent , but on condition that Prechtel and von Bronn ask his forgiveness for the October 2nd incident . Again there would be an unimaginable clamor , and again the esteemed colleagues of the Jewish faith would fall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Prechtel and von Bronn , seething with indignation , would end up resigning from the Association . Not that he would care ! Shelestov would end up as chairman . First he would clean out the Augean Stables . Znobish-out ! Terkhayantz-out ! The esteemed colleagues of the Jewish denomination-out ! With his supporters he would see to it that by January not a single intriguer would be left in the Association . The first thing he would do would be to have the walls of the Association 's clinic painted and hang up a sign saying " Absolutely No Smoking . " Then he would fire the medical attendant and his wife , and medicine would henceforth be ordered not from the Grummer pharmacy but from the Khryashchambzhitskov pharmacy . All doctors would be forbidden to perform operations without his supervision , etc ... And most important , he would have visiting cards printed saying " Chairman of the Association of Doctors . " Thus Shelestov dreams as he stands at home in front of his mirror . But the clock strikes seven , reminding him that it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ awake from his sweet thoughts and hurriedly tries to give his face a languid expression , but-alas ! He tries to make his face languid and interesting , but it does not obey and instead becomes sour and dull , like the face of a shivering mongrel puppy . He tries to make his face look firm , but it resists and expresses bewilderment , and it seems to him now that he does not look like a puppy but like a goose . He lowers his eyelids , narrows his eyes , puffs up his cheeks , knits his brow , but all to no avail . . . damn ! . . he can not get the right expression . Obviously , the innate characteristics of that face are such that you ca n't do much with them . His forehead is narrow ; his small eyes flit about nervously , like those of a cunning market-woman ; his lower jaw juts out somehow absurdly and stupidly ; and his cheeks and hair give the impression that this " esteemed colleague " has just been kicked out of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a rage , and begins sensing that his face is plotting against him . He goes out into the hall , and as he is putting on his coat , his galoshes , and his hat , he feels that they are intriguing against him too . " Cabbie , to the clinic ! " He hands the cabbie twenty kopecks , and the intriguing cabby asks for twenty-five . He sits in the droshky going down the street ; the cold wind beats him in the face , the wet snow flies into his eyes , the horse drags its feet . Everything is conspiring to intrigue against him . Intrigues , intrigues , intrigues ! 
##1004270 The post train races full speed from the HappyTrach-Tararach station to the Run-for-YourLife station . The locomotive whistles , hisses , puffs , snorts ; the cars shake , and their unoiled wheels howl like wolves and screech like owls ! Darkness is over the skies , over the earth , and in the cars . " Something-will-happen , something-will-happen , " the wagons hammer , rattling with age . " Ohohohoho ! " the locomotive joins in . Pickpockets and cold drafts sweep through the wagons . Terrible ! I stick my head out the window and look aimlessly into the endless expanse . All the lights are green , but somewhere down the line I 'm sure all hell will break loose . The signal disk and the station lights are not yet visible . Darkness , anguish , thoughts of death , memories of childhood , oh God ! <p> " I have sinned ! " I whisper , " I have sinned ! " I feel a hand slip into my back pocket . The pocket is empty , but still it 's horrifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to me . He is wearing a straw hat and a dark gray shirt . <p> " Can I help you ? " I ask him , patting my hands over my pockets . <p> " No , I 'm just looking out the window ! " he answers , pulling back his hand and leaning against my back . <p> There is a powerful , earsplitting whistle . The train slows and slows , and finally it stops . I get out of the car and walk over to the station buffet for a drink to bolster my courage . The buffet is bustling with passengers and train workers . <p> " A vodka , sweet and easy ! " the thickset chief conductor says , turning to a fat gentleman . The fat gentleman wants to say something but ca n't : his year-old sandwich is stuck in his throat . <p> " Poli-i-i-ce ! Poli-i-i-ce ! " someone outside on the platform is shouting , as in primordial times , before the Deluge , hungry mastodons , ichthyosaurs , and plesiosaurs would have bellowed . I go to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on his hat is standing outside one of the first-class cars pointing to his feet . Someone swiped the poor man 's shoes and socks while he was sleeping . <p> " What am I going to do ? " he shouts . " I have to go all the way to Revel ! Can you believe this ? " A policeman , standing in front of him , informs him , " It 's against the rules to shout here . " I climb back into my car , No. 224 . It 's exactly as it was : dark , the sound of snoring , tobacco and soot in the air-the smell of Mother Russia . A red-haired inspector traveling to Kiev from Ryazan is snoring next to me . . . a few feet away from him a pretty girl is dozing . . . a peasant in a straw hat snorts , puffs , changes position , and does n't know where to put his long legs . . . in the corner someone is munching , and loudly smacking his lips . Under the benches people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrinkly little old women come hobbling in with bundles on their backs . . . <p> " Here ! Let 's sit here ! " one of them says . " Ooh , it 's dark ! Temptations from Below ! Oops , I stepped on someone ! . . . but where is Pakhom ? " <p> " Pakhom ? Oh , good gracious ! Where has he got to now ! Oh , good gracious ! " <p> The little old woman bustles about , opens the window , and looks up and down the platform . <p> " Pa-a-a-khom ! " she brays . " Where are you ? Pakhom ! We 're over here ! " <p> " I have a pro-o-o-blem ! " a voice calls from outside . " They wo n't let me on ! " <p> " They wo n't let you on ? Cowshit ! No one can stop you , you have a real ticket ! " " They 've stopped selling tickets ! The ticket office is closed ! " <p> Someone leads a horse up the platform . There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! " the policeman shouts . " Get off immediately ! Nothing but trouble ! " <p> " Petrovna ! " Pakhom moans . <p> Petrovna drops her bundle , takes hold of a large tin teapot and quickly runs out of the car . The second bell rings . A little conductor with a black mustache comes in . <p> " You 're going to have to get a ticket , " he whispers to the old man sitting opposite me . " The controller just got on ! " <p> " Really ! Oh . . . That 's bad ! . . . What , the Prince himself ? " <p> " The Prince ? Ha , you could beat him with a stick , he 'd never come to do an inspection himself . " <p> " So , who is it ? The one with the beard ? " " Yes , him . " <p> " Well , if it 's him , that 's fine . He 's a good man ! " " It 's up to you . " " Are there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " <p> " I say , good for them ! Fast workers ! " <p> My heart constricts . I 'm a ride-hopper , too . I always hop rides . On the railroads the ridehoppers are those passengers who prefer to " inconvenience " conductors with money rather than pay the cashier at the station . Being a ride-hopper is great , dear reader . The unwritten rule is that ride-hoppers get a 75 percent discount . Furthermore , they do n't have to line up at ticket windows or take their ticket out of their pocket every few minutes , and the conductor is much more courteous to them . . . in a nutshell , it 's the best way to travel ! <p> " What 's the point of paying whatever , whenever ? " the old man mumbles . " Never ! I always pay the conductor directly ! The conductor needs money more than the railroad does ! " The third bell rings . <p> " Oh dear , oh dear ! " the little old woman whines . " Where on earth is Petrovna @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! We 've lost her ! We 've lost her , poor dear ! And her things are still here . . . what am I going to do with her things , with her bag ! Heavens above , we 've lost her . " ' <p> The little old woman thinks for a moment . " If she ca n't get on , she 'll need it ! " she says and throws Petrovna 's bag out the window . <p> The train sets off for Khaldeyevo , which according to my Frum tourist guide is no more than a common grave . The controller and the chief conductor enter , carrying candles . " Ti-i-i-ckets , " the chief conductor shouts . The controller turns to me and the old man : " Your tickets ! " <p> We shrink back , stoop over , rummage through our pockets , and then stare at the chief conductor , who winks at us . <p> " Get their tickets ! " the controller says to the conductor and marches on . We are saved . " Tickets ! You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nudges a sleeping young man . The young man wakes up and pulls the yellow ticket out of his hat . <p> " Where 're you going ? " the controller asks , twirling the ticket in his fingers . " This is n't where we 're going ! " <p> " You blockhead , this is n't where we 're going ! " the chief conductor chimes in . " You got on the wrong train , you idiot ! You 're supposed to be heading for Zhivoderevo , and we 're heading for Khaldeyevo ! Here 's your ticket back ! You should keep your eyes open ! " <p> The young man blinks , looks dully at the smiling crowd , and starts rubbing his eyes . " Do n't cry ! " people tell him . " You 'd better ask them to help you ! A big lout like you , probably even married with children , howling like that ! " <p> " Ti-i-i-ckets ! " the chief conductor shouts at a farmer with a top hat . " What ? " <p> " Your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ticket ? You need it ? " " Your ticket ! " <p> " I see . . . No , definitely , why not if you need it ! " The farmer with the top hat reaches into his vest , quickly pulls out a greasy piece of paper , and hands it over to the controller . <p> " What are you giving me here ? This is your passport ! I want to see your ticket ! " " This is all I have ! " the farmer answers , visibly shaken . <p> " How can you travel when you do n't have a ticket ? " <p> " But I 've paid . " <p> " What do you mean you paid ? Whom did you pay ? " <p> " The c-con-condunctor . " " Which conductor ? " <p> " How the devil am I supposed to know which c-con-condunctor ? Some condunctor , it 's as simple as that . . . You do n't need a ticket , he said , you can travel without one . . . so I did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we 'll discuss this further at the station . Madam , your ticket ! " The door creaks , opens , and to everyone 's surprise Petrovna enters . <p> " Oh Lord , what a hard time I had finding my compartment . . how 's one supposed to tell them apart , they all look the same . . . And they did n't let Pakhom get on , the snakes . . . Where 's my bag ? " <p> " Oh ! . . . Temptations from Below ! . . . I threw it out the window for you . I thought we 'd left you behind ! " <p> " You threw it where ? " <p> " Out the window . How was I to know ? " " Oh , thank you very much ! Who told you to do that , you old hag ! May the Lord forgive me ! What am I going to do ? Why did n't you throw your own bag out , you bitch ! It 's your ugly mug you should have thrown out the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! " <p> " You 'll have to send a telegram from the next station ! " the laughing crowd suggests . Petrovna starts wailing loudly and spouting profanities . Her friend , also crying , is clutching her bag . The conductor comes in . <p> " Whose things are these ? " he shouts , holding up Petrovna 's bag . <p> " Pret-t-t-y ! " the old man sitting opposite whispers to me , nodding his head at the pretty girl . " Mmm . . . pret-t-y . . . pity I do n't have any chloroform on me ! One whiff and she 'd be out ! Then I could kiss her for all I 'm worth ! " <p> The man in the straw hat stirs uncomfortably and in a loud voice curses his long legs . " Scientists , " he mumbles . " Scientists . . . you ca n't fight the nature of things . . . scientists ! Ha ! How come they have n't come up with something so we can screw our legs on and off at will ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me . . . Speak to the public prosecutor ! " the inspector sitting next to me shouts . <p> In the far corner two high-school boys , a noncommissioned officer , and a blue-eyed young man are huddled together playing a game of cards by the light of their cigarettes . <p> A tall lady is sitting haughtily to my right . She reeks of powder and patchouli . " Oh , how absolutely divine it is to be en route , " some goose is whispering into her ear , her voice sugary. . . nauseatingly sugary . . Frenchifying her g 's , n 's , and r 's . " One 's rapprochement is never as quick and as charming as it is when one is en route . Oh , how I do love being en route ! " A kiss . . . another . . . what the hell is going on ? The pretty girl wakes up , looks around , and unconsciously rests her head against the man sitting next to her , the devotee of Justice . . . but the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ halt . " The train will be stopping for two minutes ! " a hoarse bass voice mutters outside the railroad car . Two minutes pass , two more . . . Five minutes pass , ten , twenty , and the train is still standing . What the hell 's going on ! I get off the train and make my way to the locomotive . <p> " Ivan Matevitch ! Get a move on ! Damn ! " the chief conductor shouts from the locomotive . <p> The engine driver crawls out from under the locomotive , red , wet , a piece of soot sticking to his nose . . . <p> " Damn you ! Damn you ! " he shouts up at the chief conductor . " Get off my back ! Are you blind ? Ca n't you see what 's going on ? God ! Ahh . . . I wish you 'd all go to hell ! This is supposed to be a locomotive ? This is no locomotive , it 's a pile of junk ! I 'm not traveling any further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do ? " <p> " You can do whatever you like ! How about getting another locomotive-I refuse to travel on this one ! Do n't you understand ? " <p> The driver 's helpers run around the brokendown engine , banging , shouting . . . the station chief in a red cap tells Jewish jokes to his assistant . . . it starts to rain . . . I head back to my railroad car . . . the stranger in the straw hat and the dark gray shirt rushes by . . . he 's carrying a suitcase . God . . . it 's my suitcase ! <p> 
##1005076 Shelly and the Great Purple Hairstreak <p> " Got it ! " The milky-winged butterfly fluttered to the top of Shelly 's jar . Leaning against a tree , Shelly smiled as the sun warmed her face . <p> " Hey , Petey ! " she yelled to her brother as he squatted on the ground looking for rocks . " I caught a cabbage butterfly ! " she said , tucking the jar into her bag . She carefully stepped over an anthill . <p> " I found this ! " Petey held up a speckled stone . " I 'll have a great rock collection for the contest . " <p> " Hey , there 's Jamal 's kite ! " yelled Petey . Up , up soared the yellow kite , like a butterfly dancing in the wind . Jamal would enter his kite collection in the contest at the school tomorrow afternoon . Most everyone in the circle of houses was excited about the contest . And most everyone hoped to win a ribbon . <p> Dragonflies darted and two orange butterflies hovered overhead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caught a black swallowtail on thistles near the edge of the field . She found holly blues on clover leaves close to a cluster of maple trees . <p> " Shelly , will you keep these butterflies for tomorrow ? You 'd win a ribbon for sure . " <p> " No . I 'll release them today because butterflies do n't live long . Last summer , I kept an orange sulfur all night . But the next morning , the wings were ragged , and orange smudges stuck to the glass . It just crawled through the grass and hid under a leaf . " <p> Just then , the cabbage butterfly opened its wings . <p> " But I can find more tomorrow , " Shelly continued . " I once caught two butterflies on one flower . " They tromped through a patch of weeds . Something moved on a flower just ahead . <p> " Oooh . The wings are blue with little tails ! " whispered Shelly . <p> No , the wings were purple . Shelly stared . Could it be ? It was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to their field of thistles , clover , and mint . <p> She took a deep breath and crept toward the butterfly . Slowly , slowly she raised the jar . Then she lowered it . " Petey , it 's a great purple hairstreak . " Huge purple wings , streaked with black , shimmered in the jar . <p> " A hairstreak ! " she said softly . Shelly and Petey walked along slowly . <p> Deeper into the field , the mud was so sticky it spotted their shoes . Smuck-smuck . Petey poked his stick into a mud hole . Then ... Buzz . Zzit . Zzit . Wasps swirled from the hole . <p> Zzzzit . Shelly slapped at the insect buzzing near her face . Petey dropped his stick and ran . Shelly felt a prick and looked down . Three wasps were stinging her ankle . <p> " Ouch ! " <p> Shelly swatted at them as she tore through the field , scrambling through weeds and grass . Oh , I ca n't drop my bag , she thought . She ran across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " What 's wrong ? " asked her mother . <p> " Wasps ! " Petey gasped . <p> Shelly looked down : the wasps were gone , but her ankle was swollen . In the living room , she plopped on the sofa . <p> " This ice should reduce the swelling , " Mom said as she arranged an ice bag over Shelly 's ankle . " Let 's prop this foot on a pillow . Now , you need to stay out of the field tomorrow . " <p> " But , Mom , I have to catch butterflies for my collection . " <p> " Shelly , you stay out of the field , " she repeated firmly . " But , you can go see the other collections . " Shelly frowned as Petey pasted his speckled rock to a piece of cardboard . What can I do ? Shelly wondered . I have a cabbage white , holly blues , a swallowtail -- even a great purple hairstreak right now . She hugged her pillow and frowned . Maybe I 'll just keep them overnight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When she opened her eyes , the moonlight shined on the jars lining the floor . <p> " Oh , " she gasped , jumping from the couch . Are their wings tattered ? Peering into the jar , she could see the wings -- purple , yellow , blue , and white . These butterflies ca n't stay in jars all night , she thought . <p> The flashlight beam lit up just part of the field as Shelly limped along . She unscrewed the lids and shook each jar gently . The cabbage butterfly flitted like a tiny ghost in the white light . <p> The holly blues disappeared into the grass . The swallowtail darted away . Up , up , up flew the great purple hairstreak , shimmering blue then purple , circling the tree . She kept the light beam on it as far as she could , then it vanished into the darkness . <p> Back inside , she sighed . No butterfly collection . She set the row of empty jars near Petey 's crayons , tissue paper , scissors , and paste . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ square of tissue paper . Could I make a butterfly from this ? She tossed the paper up . It swished , then swayed , and finally touched the floor . She worked for a long time , cutting and twisting and pasting . <p> Hours later , it was time to get to the school . Petey balanced his collection of rocks , while Shelly clutched a box . Long tables held posters and bottles and rocks and hats and other things . Elaina carried in a tray of erasers shaped like vegetables and fruit . Sherman 's tooth collection filled a table . Dog tooth . Sherman 's baby tooth . Shark tooth . Grizzly bear tooth . Iris 's glass pigs posed on velvet squares , and stuffed pigs perched on the table edge . Wearing a collection of buttons , Martin skipped around . Simon 's caps came from all over : Seattle , Miami , Toronto , Detroit , San Juan . A diamond kite dangled above Jamal 's head . The box kite , as tall as Jamal , was propped against the table , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Jamal looked up . " Did you bring your butterflies , Shelly ? " <p> Shelly placed the box on the table . She lined up tissue butterflies one by one . Cabbage butterfly . Swallowtail . Holly blue . Great purple hairstreak . <p> Black spots on the cabbage butterfly looked like eyes . The swallowtail 's streaked yellow and black wings spread wide . The holly blue 's wings were tipped with ink . The largest butterfly glimmered : curved tails hung from the hind wings of the great purple hairstreak . <p> " Hmm . " Walking around the hall , the judge tapped her plastic clipboard . <p> The judge turned a page in a stamp album . Then she picked up a glass pig . She looked so closely at the butterflies that her nose almost touched one . The judge moved to the next table . Before long , she had stopped at every display . Finally , she marched to the middle of the room . <p> " Each collector will receive a ribbon , " she announced , holding up a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prize goes to the ... pig collection . " Iris beamed as she accepted the purple ribbon . " Second prize goes to the ... cap collection . First prize goes to the ... kite collection . " <p> Shelly clapped for her friends . <p> " Finally , we have two awards for unusual collections . One goes to the tooth collection . The last award goes to the collection of paper butterflies . " <p> Shelly squealed . " Yes ! " Waving the silky green ribbon above her head , she grinned . <p> At home , Shelly , Jamal , and Petey sat on the back porch sipping lemonade . <p> " Next year , " said Petey , " I 'm going to collect postcards . " <p> Shelly squinted at the holly blues and swallowtails dipping and dancing in the field . <p> " I 'll help you , Petey , " said Shelly . " And you can help me make a great purple hairstreak as big as Jamal 's kite . " <p> Illustration ( Girl and boy with butterflies and a flying @ @ @ 
##1005157 A famous writer 's journey from Oregon to Indiana is a lesson in sorrow for the loss of life on America 's roads . <p> A few miles east of home in the Cascades I slow down and pull over for two raccoons , sprawled still as stones in the road . I carry them to the side and lay them in sun-shot windblown grass in the barrow pit . In eastern Oregon along U.S. 20 , black-tailed jackrabbits lie like welts of sod-three , four , then a fifth . By the bridge over Jordan Creek , just shy of the Idaho border in the drainage of the Owyhee River , a crumpled adolescent porcupine leers up almost maniacally over its blood-flecked teeth . I carry each one away from the pavement into a cover of grass or brush out of decency , I think . And worry . Who are these animals , their lights gone out ? What journeys have fallen apart here ? <p> I do not stop to remove each dark blister from the road . I wince before the recently dead , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fence post , in the spontaneous aversion of my eyes , and pull over . I imagine white silk threads of life still vibrating inside them , even if the body 's husk is stretched out for yards , stuck like oiled muslin to the road . The energy that once held them erect leaves like a bullet , but the memory of that energy fades slowly from the wrinkled cornea , the bloodless fur . The raccoons and , later , a red fox carry like sacks of wet gravel and sand . Each animal is like a solitary child 's shoe in the road . Once a man asked , Why do you bother ? You never know , I said . The ones you give some semblance of burial , to whom you offer an apology , , may have been like seers in a parallel culture . It is an act of respect , a technique of awareness . In Idaho I hit a young sage sparrow -thwack against the right fender in the very split second I see it . Its companion rises from the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and sails off clean into the desert . I rest the walloped bird in my left hand , my right thumb pressed to its chest . I feel for the wail of the heart . Its eyes glisten like rain on crystal . Nothing but warmth . I shut the tiny eyelids and lay it beside a clump of bunchgrass . Beyond a barbed-wire fence the overgrazed range is littered with cow flops . The road curves away to the south . I nod before I go , a ridiculous gesture , out of simple grief . I pass four spotted skunks . The swirling air is acrid with the rupture of each life . Darkness rises in the valleys of Idaho . East of Grand View , south of the Snake River , nighthawks swoop the roads for gnats , silent on the wing as owls . On a descending curve I see two of them lying soft as clouds in the road . I turn around and come back . The sudden slowing down and my K-turn at the bottom of the hill draw the attention of a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from where the birds lie . I can tell by his step , the suspicious tilt of his head , that he is wary , vaguely proprietary . Offended , or irritated , he may throw the birds back into the road when I leave . So I wait , subdued like a penitent , a body in each hand . He speaks first , a low voice , a deep murmur weighted with awe . He has been watching these flocks feeding just above the road for several evenings . He calls them whippoorwills . He gestures for a carcass . How odd , yes , the way they concentrate their hunting right on the road , I say . He runs a finger down the smooth arc of the belly and remarks on the small whiskered bill . He pulls one long wing out straight , but not roughly . He marvels . He glances at my car , baffled by this outof-state courtesy . Two dozen nighthawks careen past , back and forth at arm 's length , feeding at our height and lower . He asks if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bird up to the house to show his wife . " She 's never seen anything like this " He 's fascinated . " Not close " I trust , later , he will put it in the fields , not throw the body in the trash , a whirligig. orth of Pinedale in western Wyoming on U.S. 189 , below the Gros Ventre Range , I see a big doe from a great distance , the low rays of first light gleaming in her tawny reddish hair . She rests askew , like a crushed tree . I drag her to the shoulder , then down a long slope by the petals of her ears . A gunnysack of plaster mud , ears cold as rain gutters . All of her does n't come . I climb back up for the missing leg . The stain of her is darker than the black asphalt . The stains go north and off to the south as far as I can see . On an afternoon traffidess , quiet as a cloister , headed across South Pass in the Wind River Range @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then try to wrestle the gravel-spewing skid in a straight line along the lip of an embankment . I know even as I struggle for control the irony of this : I could easily pitch off here to my own death . The bird is dead somewhere in the road behind me . Only a few seconds and I am safely back on the road , nauseated , light-headed . It is hard to distinguish among younger gulls . I turn this one around slowly in my hands . It could be a western gull , a mew gull , a California gull . I do not remember well enough the bill markings , the color of the legs . I have no doubt about the vertebrae shattered beneath the seamless white of its ropy neck . East of Lusk , Wyoming , in Nebraska , I stop for a badger . I squat on the macadam to admire the long claws , the perfect set of its teeth in the broken jaw , the ramulose shading of its fur-how it differs slightly , as does every badger 's , from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ car drifts toward us over the prairie , coming on in the other lane , a white 1962 Chevrolet station wagon . The driver slows to pass . In the bright sunlight I ca n't see his face , only an arm and the gesture of his thick left hand . It opens in a kind of shrug , hangs briefly in limp sadness , then extends itself in supplication . Gone past , it curls into itself against the car door and is still . Farther on in western Nebraska I pick up the small bodies of mice and birds . While I wait to retrieve these creatures I do not meet the eyes of passing drivers . Whoever they are , I feel anger toward them , in spite of the sparrow and the gull I myself have killed . We treat the attrition of lives on the road like the attrition of lives in war : horrifying , unavoidable , justified . Accepting the slaughter leaves people momentarily fractious , embarrassed . South of Broken Bow , at dawn , I can not avoid an immature barn swallow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slats of the grille . I stop for a rabbit on Nebraska 806 and find , only a few feet away , a garter snake . What else have I missed , too small , too narrow ? What has gone unde or past me while I stared at mountains , hay meadows , fencerows , the beryl surface of rivers ? In Wyoming I could not help but see pronghorn antelope swollen big as barrels by the side of the road , their legs splayed rigidly aloft . For animals so large , people will stop . But how many have this habit of clearing the road of smaller creatures , people who would remove the ones I miss ? I do not imagine I am alone . As much sorrow as the man 's hand conveyed in Nebraska , it meant gratitude too for burying the dead Still , I do not wish to meet anyone 's eyes . In Southwestern Iowa , outside Clarinda , I haul a deer into high grass out of sight of the road and begin to examine it . It is still whole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I soon discover , is fractured in four places ; the jaw , hanging by shreds of mandibular muscle , is broken at the symphysis , beneath the incisors . The pelvis is crushed , the left hind leg unsocketed . All but two ribs are dislocated along the vertebral column , which is complexly fractured . The intestines have been driven forward into the chest . The heart and lungs have ruptured the chest wall at the base of the neck . The signature of a tractor-trailer truck : 80,000 pounds at 65mph . In front of a motel room in Ottumwa I finger-scrape the dry , stiff carcasses of bumblebees , wasps , and butterflies from the grille and headlight mountings , and I scrub with a wet cloth to soften and wipe away the nap of crumbles , the insects , the aerial plankton of spiders and mites . I am uneasy carn , ring so many of the dead . The carnage is so obvious . In Illinois , west of Kankakee , two raccoons as young as the ones in Oregon . In Indiana another raccoon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn into the driveway at the house of a friend outside South Bend , it is evening , hot and muggy . I can hear cicadas in a lone elm . I 'm glad to be here . From the driveway entrance I look back down Indiana 23 , toward Indiana 8 , remembering the farm roads of Illinois and Iowa . I remember how beautiful it was in the limpid air to drive Nebraska 2 through the sand hills , to see how far at dusk the land was etched east and west of Wyoming 28 . I remember the imposition of the Wind River Range in a hard , blue sky beneath white ranks of buttonhook clouds , windy hay fields on the Snake River plain , the welcome of Russian olive trees and willows in western creek bottoms . The transformations of the heart such beauty engenders is not enough tonight to let me shed the heavier memory , a catalog too morbid to write out , too vivid to ignore . I stand in the driveway now , listening to the cicadas whirring in the dark tree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the driver 's side , and I lean down as if to speak to someone still sitting there . The weight I wish to fall I can not fathom , a sorrow over the world 's dark hunger . A light comes on over the porch . I hear a dead bolt thrown , the shiver of a door pulled free . The words of atonement I pronounce are too inept to offer me release . Or forgiveness . My friend is floating across the tree-shadowed lawn . What is to be done with the desire for exculpation ? " Later than we thought you 'd be " he says . I do not want the lavabo . I wish to make amends . " I made more stops than I thought I would ; " I answer . " Well , bring in your things . And whatever I can take ; " he offers . I anticipate , in the powerful antidote of our conversation , the reassurance of a human enterprise , the forgiving embrace of the rational . It waits within , beyond the slow tail-wagging @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sidebar Editor 's Note A writer has a certain handful of questions ; " Barry Lopez once said . " Mine seem to be the issues of tolerance and dignity " In his 7 novels and 4 books of nonfiction , including Arctic Dreams , which won a 1986 National Book Award , Lopez explores those questions through the lens of the natural environment . His poetic language joined with powerful ideas has made Lopez one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation . Sidebar A Closer Look What is the thesis of this essay ? I Where does Lopez state it ? How does the title reflect it ? Trace the theme of memory throughout the piece . What is Lopez saying about remembrance ? What is Lopez seeking at the end of the essay ? <p> 
##1005161 Cast of Characters <p> SCENE ONE Christmas Eve , London , 1843 Narrator : One would n't think Christmas Eve to be a time for ghost stories , but here , in the offices of Ebenezer Scrooge and his long-dead partner , Jacob Marley , our ghostly tale begins . Let me say again that old Marley was dead . This you must understand . Cratchit : Mr. Scrooge , sir , might I add some coal to the fire ? Scrooge : Absolutely not . Coal costs money . Does n't your coat keep you warm ? Cratchit : Not really , sir . Scrooge : Then I suggest you get a new one . Cratchit : But , sir . . . Scrooge : That 's enough , Mr. Cratchit . I suppose you 'll want the day off tomorrow . Cratchit : Yes , sir . Christmas is only once a year , sir . Scrooge : You want me to pay you for a day when you are not working ? You 'd better be here even earlier the next morning . Narrator : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fred : Merry Christmas , Uncle ! Scrooge : Bah ! Humbug ! Fred : Christmas a humbug ? You do n't mean it ! a Scrooge : I do ! What reason have you to be merry ? You 're not wealthy . Fred : Come , dear Uncle . What reason have you to be so gloomy ? You , with all your riches . Scrooge : Bah ! Humbug ! What is Christmas but a time of wasting money on things you do n't need ? If I had my way , every idiot who goes about saying " Merry Christmas " would be boiled in his own pudding . Fred : Uncle ! Scrooge : Nephew ! You celebrate the holiday in your way . Let me celebrate it in mine . Fred : But you do n't celebrate it . Scrooge : Let me not celebrate it then . But take my advice , celebrating has done you no good . Fred : There are many things that do us good without making us rich . Though holidays have never put a scrap of gold in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for having celebrated them . Cratchit : Yes , yes ! Scrooge : Quiet , Mr. Cratchit , or you 'll celebrate Christmas by looking for a new job . Fred : Do n't be angry , Uncle . Have Christmas Photograph <p> dinner with us tomorrow . Scrooge : Humbug . Fred : But why not ? Scrooge : That 's enough . Good day , Nephew . Fred : So be it . But I shall keep my Christmas spirit " til the end . Merry Christmas , Uncle ! Merry Christmas , Mr. Cratchit ! Cratchit : Happy New Year , Master Fred . Scrooge : There 's a ridiculous notion : My clerk , with barely enough money to feed his family , and a crippled child , too , talking about a happy New Year . I must be mad ! SCENE TWO Late that same evening Ghost Chorus : Owwooooh ! Narrator : Scrooge sat by the fireplace in his dreary house . He heard the door fly open and the rattling of chains . Scrooge : What 's that noise ? Narrator : Passing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ghost with death-cold eyes . Its head was wrapped in bandages . It had chains locked around its body . Scrooge : Pooh pooh ! I 'm not a man to be frightened by shadows . Marley : You do n't believe in me ? Scrooge : I do n't . Narrator : The ghost raised a frightful cry and shook its chains with an awful noise . Scrooge dropped to his knees and covered his face . Scrooge : Mercy , dreadful spirit . What is it you want with me ? Marley : Much ! I am the ghost of your partner , Jacob Marley . I must drag this chain and wander through the world forever ! Woe is me . Scrooge : But why are you chained ? Marley : Each link of this chain is a punishment for some kind deed I failed to do . Oh , why did I not show charity ? Photograph <p> Scrooge : But , Jacob , you were always such a good businessman . You made so much money ! Narrator : Again the ghost raised a cry and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kinder ! Ebenezer , do you know the weight of the chain you 're making ? It was as long as mine seven Christmas Eves ago . Imagine how long it is now . Scrooge : Jacob , what can I do about it ? Marley : Hear me , Scrooge ! You will be haunted by three spirits . Listen to what each tells you ! Expect the first when the clock strikes one . Ghost Chorus : Owwooooh ! SCENE THREE 1:00 A.M. Narrator : Scrooge awoke to find the first ghost , a gentle spirit in a long white gown . Ghost #1 : I am the Ghost of Christmas Past . I will show you your life as it used to be . Rise and walk with me . Narrator : They passed magically into Scrooge 's past . The ghost and Scrooge were suddenly standing inside an old warehouse . Ghost #1 : Do you know this place ? Scrooge : Know it ? I held my first job here . Why , it 's old Mr. Fezziwig . He was a decent man ! Narrator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a cheerful young man . Fezziwig : It 's Christmas Eve ! Yo ho , everyone ! No more work tonight . Clear the floor for dancing and fiddling and celebrating ! Narrator : Food was brought in . The music began . Everyone started dancing-including young Scrooge . Ghost #1 : Such a waste of money , this . Scrooge : A waste of money ? Look how happy everyone is . Fezziwig was always making people happy . Little things mostly . The way he looked at you , or a pat on the back . Ghost #1 : With whom do you dance ? You look so happy . Scrooge : Ah , Belle . It 's young Belle . Ghost #1 : You loved her , but did n't marry her . Scrooge : I first needed to seek my fortune . Ghost # 1 : You mean , you could earn no money by simply loving her . You chose wealth instead . Scrooge : Spirit , why do you torture me ? Show me no more . I do n't wish to see it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back in his bedroom . SCENE FOUR 2:00 A.M. Ghost Chorus : Owwooooh ! Ghost #2 : I am the Ghost of Christmas Present . You 've never seen the likes of me before ! Narrator : The second spirit was gigantic , and as grand and joyful as the season . Its eyes were clear and kind , yet they frightened Scrooge . Scrooge : Spirit , take me where you will . Let me learn from it . Ghost #2 : Look upon me ! You and I will go and see things as they are now . Off with us , then ! Narrator : The ghost and Scrooge appeared in the doorway of a small house . Scrooge : Where are we ? Ghost #2 : You do n't know the house of your own clerk-Bob Cratchit ? Come inside . The family is sitting down for Christmas dinner . Narrator : Tiny Tim hobbled to the table , using an old wooden crutch . Photograph <p> Tiny Tim : Mother , there never was such a grand goose as this ! Cratchit : Spendid , my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a small goose ! You 'd think it was a prize turkey . Ghost #2 : It 's all they can afford ! Not a very well-off family . Scrooge : True , but a happy one . Look how pleased they are-especially that Tim . Cratchit : A toast ! To Mr. Scrooge , the founder of our feast ! Mrs. Cratchit : The founder of our feast indeed ! I wish he were here now . I 'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon ! Cratchit : My dear ! Let 's not be bitter . Mrs. Cratchit : I 'll toast his health because it 's Christmas , but that 's all . Long life to him ! Merry Christmas to the stingy , unfeeling , unkind founder of the feast : Mr. Scrooge . All : Merry Christmas ! Tiny Tim : And God bless us , every one ! Scrooge : Tell me , Spirit . Will Tiny Tim live ? Ghost #2 : I see an empty seat . I see a tiny crutch with no owner . Scrooge : Oh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ghost #2 : If there is no change in his surroundings , the child will die . Ghost Chorus : Owwooooh ! Narrator : Scrooge looks sad as the ghost vanishes . Suddenly , another ghost appears . SCENE FIVE 3:00 A.M. Narrator : The third phantom was cloaked in a black robe . Nothing could be seen of him except one outstretched hand . Scrooge : You are the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come ? Narrator : The ghost did n't answer . It pointed its long , bony finger into the night . Scrooge : Ghost of the Future , I fear you more than the others . Narrator : The Spirit took Scrooge to a lonely cemetery that was covered in weeds . A coffin is being lowered into the ground . Scrooge : Whose funeral is this ? Why is no one here to mourn ? Tell me , Spirit , is there anyone in this town who cared for this man ? Passerby #1 : When did he die ? Passerby #2 : Last week . Passerby #1 : What was the matter with him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Passerby #1 : Little good his money did him . Passerby #2 : Not a single person to mourn him ! Passerby #1 : But think of all the money he saved with such a cheap funeral ! Passerby #2 : Ha ha ha ! Narrator : The phantom pointed toward the gravestone . Scrooge : Before I look , Spirit , tell me one thing . Can this future be changed ? Narrator : The Spirit gave no reply . Scrooge trembled . He looked upon the gravestone and read the words EBENEZER SCROOGE . Ghost Chorus : Owwooooh ! Photograph <p> Scrooge : No , Spirit . Hear me ! Can I still erase the name upon this stone ? I am not the person I was ! From this night on , I will be a kind and generous man . I will honor Christmas in my heart . SCENE SIX Christmas morning Narrator : When Scrooge awoke , he was so happy to see daylight that he laughed out loud . For a man that had been out of practice for so long , it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a boy . Scrooge : What 's today , my fine fellow ? Boy : Today ? Why , it 's Christmas Day . Scrooge : I have n't missed it ! Do you know the prize turkey hanging in the butcher 's window ? Boy : The one that 's as big as I am ? Scrooge : Yes , that one . I 'll pay you to go buy it and have it brought here . Boy : Yes , sir ! Merry Christmas , sir ! Scrooge : I 'll have it delivered to Bob Cratchit 's . They wo n't know who sent it ! And then I must join my nephew for dinner . Oh joy , I have n't missed Christmas ! Narrator : Scrooge spent the rest of the day spreading Christmas cheer and joyfully sharing his wealth . SCENE SEVEN The next day Narrator : Scrooge arrived at the office early . Cratchit entered , shivering from the cold . Scrooge : Mr. Cratchit , you 're eighteen and a half minutes late ! Cratchit : It 's only once a year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night . It wo n't happen again . Scrooge : I 'll tell you what , my friend . I 'm not going to stand for this any longer . Narrator : Poor Bob Cratchit . He was certain he was about to be fired . Scrooge : And therefore , Mr. Cratchit . . . I 'm doubling your salary ! Narrator : Cratchit was stunned ! Scrooge : Merry Christmas , Bob ! A merrier Christmas than I 've ever given before . And your salary is just a start . I 'll assist your struggling family any way I can . And Tim , whatever he needs , he 'll have it . Now , let 's warm up this place . Put some more coal on the fire , Bob Cratchit . Before you dot another i , let 's have more coal ! Narrator : Scrooge was better than his word . He became as good a man and as good a friend as the city knew . It was always said , if any man knew how to celebrate Christmas , it was Ebenezer Scrooge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tiny Tim : And God bless us , every one ! THE END Photograph Sidebar Illustrations by Russ Flint from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol in Prose ( Candy Cane Press , an imprint of Ideals Publications Incorporated , 1998 ) . Reprinted by permission of the publisher . <p> 
##1005162 Twelve-year-old Anita is a world-famous trapeze artist . There 's only one problem : She is terrified of heights . <p> Twelve-year-old Anita Rinaldi stood at the top of the platform , high above the circus audience . The spangles on her leotard sparkled in the spotlight . On a trapeze just below , her father , Tony , swung upside down from his knees , waiting to catch her . Anita took a huge breath , grabbed the bar of her trapeze , and launched herself into space . She did a front flip over the bar , let go , and sailed toward her father . Slap . Their hands came together . But Anita 's fingers were sweaty . She felt them slipping . I 'm falling ! she thought , a jolt of panic tingling through her spine . Her father grabbed her wrists with a viselike grip . " You 're all right , " he said . " Hold tight . " Anita 's heart raced as they swung back and forth like a pendulum . " Go ! " Mr. Rinaldi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flew through the air to the waiting trapeze . It slapped tight into her palms . She swung her trapeze back up to the platform , grateful to be back on solid ground . Her knees trembled under her . She watched her 14-year-old brother , Steve , who stood on the opposite platform . How she envied him ! He was so calm as he swung off the platform and sailed through the air . He swung down , released the bar , turned two back flips and straightened out to meet their father with perfect timing . A roar of applause exploded from the audience . Steve landed back on the platform and held the ladder steady while Anita climbed down . Her heart had calmed down and her knees were not shaking anymore . But now her stomach hurt . She felt ashamed . She was one of the Flying Rinaldis , the famous trapeze family . Her father had started training her when she was just 5 years old . From the start , her brother had a natural flair . But Anita had been terrified . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a struggle to hide her fear of heights . She thought it might get easier as she got older . But it did n't . In fact , her fear seemed to be getting worse . Anita , Steve , and her father walked onto the center ring . The spotlight followed them . They joined hands and bowed as the audience cheered . They were walking to their trailer , and Anita felt her stomach settle down . Another performance was behind her . The problem was that tomorrow she 'd have to do it again . And again the day after that . And on and on , practically forever . She glanced at her father . He loved the trapeze . And he wanted his childrento follow the family tradition . She would never want to disappoint him . " I 'm going over to visit Dr. Colby , " Anita said . She was the circus veterinarian . Anita was always happiest when she was with animals . Dr. Colby said she had a talent for making the animals calm . " Any house calls today , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " Doc said . " Emil says one of the tigers is n't feeling well . I was just heading over . " Anita picked up Dr. Colby 's medicine bag and carried it for her as they crossed the lot toward the tiger cages . Emil , the animal trainer , waved to them . He led them over to the tiger cage . " Konga has n't been herself all day , " Emil said , pointing to the huge Siberian tiger lying in the cage . Dr. Colby stood at the cage and studied Konga . So did Anita . She could see that Konga 's eyes looked dull and cloudy . " She 's probably running a fever , " Dr. Colby said . " I 'll need to tranquilize her so I can take a closer look . " Emil wheeled a special restraining cage up to the door of the tiger 's cage . They would lure Konga into the smaller cage , where Dr. Colby could examine her . Konga slowly made her way into the restraining cage , lured by a small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Colby crouched behind her . She raised a hypodermic needle ad aimed it at a hind leg . At that moment , two lions began to roar . Konga backed up into Dr. Colby , and roared savagely . Dr. Colby fumbled with the needle while Konga strained against the bars . Suddenly , the cage 's latch gave way and the door slipped open . Anita leaped forward to close it , but Konga struck out at her with her paw . The door swung wide open and Konga bounded through the opening . " Back , Konga ! " Emil yelled . The tiger crouched and sprang forward , knocking Emil to the ground . Anita heard a loud thump as Emil 's head hit the pavement . Konga rushed toward Dr. Colby , who dived out of the way . Then Konga ran off through the parking lot . " Anita ! Run and warn Security ! " Dr. Colby said . Emil was sitting up , holding the back of his head . " I have to help Emil , " Dr. Colby said . " Anita @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scooped up the hypodermic needle and ran off in the tiger 's direction . As she ran , she heard panic -- stricken voices shouting " Tiger ! A tiger is loose ! " People were scurrying in every direction . She saw two security guards running with their guns drawn . Anita raced past the clowns " dressing rooms . As she rounded the corner near her family 's trailer , she stopped short . There was her brother Steve . And behind him , in a silent crouch , was Konga . The tiger was ready to attack . Steve did n't even know Konga was there . " Steve ! " Anita screamed . Steve turned . His mouth fell open when he saw the tiger . " Run ! " Anita yelled . The tiger jerked her head in Anita 's direction , poised to leap , yet suddenly confused . Steve flew into the trailer and closed the door . Before he could lock it , the tiger sprang at the door and pushed it open . Steve cowered in the corner , his eyes wide @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through the doorway . The tiger was creeping toward Steve . " Konga , " Anita said sternly . She did n't feel afraid . She reached for a chair and brandished it in Konga 's face . Konga snarled angrily , swiping at the chair with her huge paw . One of the chair legs snapped off . Konga lashed out again , breaking off another leg . Anita dove to the floor and , with a swift upward motion , jabbed the hypodermic needle into Konga 's underbelly . She watched the tranquilizer take effect instantly . Konga 's legs went limp . She stumbled and slumped onto the floor . Steve ran and threw his arms around his sister . They heard anxious voices outside the trailer . Their parents ran in , followed by Dr. Colby . Security guards entered with their guns drawn . " Do n't shoot , " Anita said . " She 's knocked out for now . " The security guards threw a net over Konga . They gently pulled her out the door . Dr. Colby shook Anita 's hand . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a way with animals . And you 're cool under pressure . " " How 's Emil ? " Anita asked . " He 'll be all right . He 's lying down . " " Wait until he hears , " Anita 's father said . " I do n't need to hear , " Emil said , peeking in the door . " I saw ! Anita , do you realize how brave you are ? " Anita smiled . Brave . " If you ever want to give up the trapeze , I think you could have a great future working with animals , " Emil said . " If you ever want to work with me , let me know . " " I 'd love to , " Anita said , her face glowing . But then she glanced guiltily at her father . What would he think ? " Would you really like that ? " her father asked . Anita did n't say anything . " I still think you could be great on the trapeze . But only if you really want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anita nodded . Her father did n't look mad at all . He reached out and hugged her . " I was lucky to find something I truly love to do , " he said . " I want you to do the same . " " Well , think it over , " Emil said . He and Dr. Colby headed out the door . " Wait ! " Anita said . " I need to go with you . I want to see how is doing ! THE END Your Turn ! Anita 's Risky Move When Konga escapes , Dr. Colby tells Anita to run and get help . Instead , Anita rushes after the tiger by herself . She could have been seriously hurt ! Do you think Anita was wise to run after Konga ? What else might she have done ? How could she have helped catch Konga without taking such a big risk ? What would you have done in Anita 's situation ? Write down your answers . Author Affiliation About the Author and Artist Howard Goldsmith is the author of sixty children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2200 A.D. , and Sooner Round the Corner . Look for Howard 's newest book series , Science through Stories ( McGraw-Hill ) . David Catrow has illustrated 30 books for kids . His newest books are Rotten Teeth by Laura Simms ( Houghton Mifflin ) and There Was an Old Witch by Howard Reeves ( Hyperion ) . <p> 
##1005169 The Ghost of Pebble Beach <p> Rain poured down in sheets , and heavy clouds filled the sky like charred marshmallows . A torn-apart rowboat was sucked into the ocean and blown back onto the sand . Its eerie presence made my heart pound like the footsteps of a marathon runner . <p> I was glad to be inside our cozy home . Suddenly , something caught my eye . A man was standing on the pier . The wind and rain whipped his sand-colored hair and drenched his white , collared shirt . He faced the ocean with his shoulders slumped and his hands behind his back . <p> Surprised that anyone would stand outside in the storm , I cracked the door open and called , " Sir , would you like to come inside ? " My voice was drowned out by a roar of thunder . Again , I tried , this time louder , " Can you hear me , sir ? " Nothing . <p> I stepped inside . Who was that man , I wondered , and what was he doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the mysterious figure . I did n't know why , but somehow I wanted to find him again . Tomorrow , I decided . <p> The next morning , my 6-year-old brother , David , and I jogged out to the beach . The sun-baked sand was warm like a cake fresh out of the oven . It was hard to believe that just yesterday Pebble Beach had been ravaged by a ferocious storm . <p> " Hey ! " The friendly voice startled me , and when I whirled around , I was surprised to discover a smiling girl in a bathing suit heading toward us . She said , " My name 's Amy Edwards . You must be new . " <p> " Yeah , " I said , pushing my hair behind my ear . " We moved in about a week ago . My name 's Hannah . " <p> Amy nodded . " Wan na go for a Storm Walk with me ? " she asked . <p> " A Storm Walk ? " David and I asked in unison . <p> " Yeah , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , things from the sea wash up on shore . Afterwards , I sometimes go for Storm Walks and look for treasures on the beach . " <p> Soon we were strolling along . I told Amy about the forlorn figure I had seen the night before . She did n't know any more about him than I did . <p> David suddenly cried out , " Look ! " Amy and I turned and saw David looking into his hand . <p> " What is it ? " I asked , jogging over to him . <p> " A ring ! " he exclaimed . And he held it up for Amy and me to see . <p> The sun reflected off the ring , and its red ruby center glittered like the ocean . I read its inscription out loud : " With love from Chris -- 1977 . " <p> " Gosh , that 's quite a find , " said Amy . " You should sell it . I bet it 's worth thousands of dollars . " <p> David shook his head . " It 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " But David , " I reminded him , " boys do n't usually wear rings . Not unless they 're married . " <p> David thought about that . " Well , then , you can have it , Hannah . But you ca n't sell it . Okey-dokey ? " <p> I took the ring from him and replied , " You can count on me . " <p> " Did you find it yet ? " I asked Amy . It was the first day of school , and Amy and I were on a library computer , looking for a newspaper article on a research topic . Suddenly , the words " drowned " and " Pebble Beach " flashed on the screen . " Wait ! " I cried . " Go back ... look ! " We both read the article in horror : <p> Friday , October 13 , 1977 <p> Man , 20 , Drowns at Pebble Beach <p> -- PEBBLE BEACH , NJ 20-year-old Christopher Dalton was found dead last night . He had planned to go over to Starfish Bay where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give her an engagement ring . He took his rowboat across the bay despite the stormy conditions . This traumatic ending to their romance touched many people who joined in the search for Dalton . At 4 a.m. , rescue workers spotted the body and proclaimed Dalton dead from drowning , a victim of last night 's storm . <p> And then I saw it . A picture of a young man . Sand-colored hair . White , collared shirt . My mouth hung open like a cartoon character , and my mind raced , trying to picture the mysterious man on the pier . When I finally got control of myself , I laughed . Christopher Dalton was dead , so how could I have seen him ? It had been dark and rainy . Probably thousands of men at Pebble Beach wear white , collared shirts and have sand-colored hair . <p> But I knew that I had seen Chris . <p> Suddenly , my teacher said , " Hannah , you look like you 've seen a ghost ! " <p> All I could mumble was , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ David . He was watching some Disney movie called The Kid and the King . " Guess what ? " David asked . " This King gets too old to slay this dragon , so a kid has to help him finish his -- " <p> " Great , David , " Amy interrupted . <p> " Wait , keep going , " I said , an idea forming in my head . <p> " The kid has to finish the King 's mission , or something , and -- " <p> " David , you 're a genius ! " I cried . " Listen . This is what we have to do . We have to finish Chris ' mission and return the ring to Mary . " <p> " But how do we know if Mary 's still alive ? " Amy asked me . <p> " Math . It 's 1997 , and Chris died 20 years ago , at age 20 , the same as Mary . Which makes her ... " <p> " 40 years old , " Amy finished . <p> " Which means @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Here it is , " I said nervously as Amy , David , and I approached a small , yellowish house with a blue roof and blue shutters . It was fairly old ; in some spots , the paint was peeling like tired banana skin . <p> " You guys , she 's in the garden , " David pointed out . <p> " Let 's leave it on the doorstep , " I suggested . <p> " She 's coming ! " Amy screeched . " Hide ! " <p> I hastily placed the box on her doorstep and dashed to David and Amy 's hiding place . We watched as a woman wearing a white dress and a straw hat opened the box and picked up the ring . In awe , she placed it on her finger and smiled . She knew . Not how , but what . <p> David ran ahead of Amy and me on the path . The sky was dolphin gray , and it began to drizzle . By the time we got home , the drizzle had turned into a downpour @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noticed David 's head appearing and disappearing in the frothy ocean . His arms reached out of the foam . Waves crashed over his head , and he was screaming for help . <p> I ran to him , panic constricting my chest . Suddenly , I tripped over a rock and fell hard on my ankle . Pain shot up my leg . I could n't get up . <p> Amy raced into the water . She began to swim out to David , but a monstrous wave slapped her . She drifted back to shore . We watched helplessly as David began to slip under the swirling blackness . <p> Suddenly , I saw my brother being lifted . David was actually floating over to us . Just for those few seconds , when he was in the air , I could n't hear anything . It was a moment of silence . The second I saw David hit the sand , I let out a sigh of relief . <p> The three of us were stunned . I rushed over to David . He seemed fine . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I flew ! " <p> " How did you do that ? " I asked . <p> " Someone helped me . They carried me over to you . " <p> Suddenly , I looked over at the pier , and for half a second , I saw Christopher Dalton . When I blinked , he was gone . I knew that he was thanking me . <p> That was a long time ago . Mary is still alive . I often see her and wonder if she knows that we gave her the ring . No one believed Amy , David , and me , of course . Whenever someone asks , we just smile . I 've looked and looked for some time now , but I have never seen Chris again . <p> 
##1005250 from The Feast of Love <p> As a Jew , I am drawn in a suicidal manner toward the maddest of Christians . Kierkegaard , being one of the craziest and most lovable of the lot , and , therefore , dialectically , possibly the most sane of them all , is of compelling interest to me . All my life , I have tracked his ghost doggedly through the snow . Lonely , eccentric , and deranged , the man Kierkegaard ( 1813-1855 ) was drawn to philosophize about matters concerning which one can not acquire any certainty whatsoever . Kierkegaard worried continuously about the mode in which one might think , or could think , about two unknowns : God and love . These were for the hapless Kierkegaard the most compelling topics . They bound him in tantalizing straps . Of the two vast subjects about which one can never be certain and should therefore perhaps keep silent , God and love , Kierkegaard , a bachelor , claimed especial expertise . Kierkegaard 's homage to both was multifarious verbiage . He wrote intricately beautiful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> I learned Danish in order to read Kierkegaard . His picture is on the wall in my study . I can not write a word without his image up there , looking down at me . <p> As a member of the bourgeoisie , which is what I am , I live quietly in Ann Arbor , Michigan , a city of ghosts and mutterers . Everywhere you go in this town , you hear people muttering . Often this is brilliant muttering , tenurable muttering , but that is not my point . All these mini-vocalizations are the effect of the local university , the Amalgamated Education Corporation , as I call it , my employer . It is in the nature of universities to promote ideas that should not be put to use , whose glories must reside exclusively in the cranium . Therefore the muttering . There are exceptions , of course . The multimillionaire lawyers and doctors and engineers-how did they get into the university in the first place ? -live here among us in their , to quote Cole Porter , stinking pink palazzos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with horsepower . The warped personalities , like myself , like my prey Kierkegaard , walk hunched over and unnoticed , or we wait at the bus stops , managing our intricate and tiny mental kingdoms as the rain falls on our unhatted heads . We wait for the millennium and for Elijah . <p> I live next door to Bradley W. Smith . I see him walking his dog , also called Bradley . What is this , that a man should name his dog after himself ? The man runs a local coffee franchise , a modest achievement , in all truth . Megalomania can strike anywhere , I suppose is the point . <p> After he lost his second wife to another man , I decided to explain to him about Kierkegaard . In doing so , I first used the example of myself . <p> My wife is Esther , a tough bird , the love of my existence . She works as a biochemist for one of the local drug companies . It was Esther who years ago found out that the wonder medication Thalidomide deformed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took away toes and fingers and entire arms . If Esther 's mother had n't joined the Party as a young woman ( and who else but the Reds were trying to desegregate the public beaches in those days ? who else had a single social idea worth implementing ? ) , and had n't dressed Esther in red diapers , and had n't signed Esther up for the Party as a child , she would have been proclaimed , my Esther , from the rooftops . But somehow , in the shower of publicity , some measuring worm looked up her background , and , though Esther as a youngster was blameless , and not a Leninist but a reader of Trotsky , that was that . <p> We live , in all truth , a tranquil domestic life . We have a year or two to go before retirement . Mondays , Wednesdays , and Fridays , I cook dinner . My specialty is a beef burgundy , very tasty , you have to remember to cook it slowly , covered , of course , in the liquids so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tender . Tuesday and Thursdays are the nights when Esther cooks . We read , we talk , we play canasta and Scrabble . We feed the two goldfish , Julius and Ethel . They must live . <p> As is proper , the children-all grown-have left home . We have three . The oldest , our beautiful daughter , Sarah , is , like her mother , a biochemist . She is successful but , so far , unmarried . She would be a handful for any man . I mean this as praise and description . The middle one , Ephraim , is a mathematician and father to three wonderful little ones , our grandchildren . I have pictures here somewhere . Of the youngest , Aaron , who is crazy , I should not speak . And not because he blames me for the mess in his head . No : he deserves to be left alone with his commonplace lunacies-he calls them ideas-and given peace . He lives , it goes without saying , in Los Angeles . <p> After Kathryn , Bradley 's first wife-a woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ became a manager of a local coffee shop and subsequently bought the house next door . He became our neighbor . He moved into the haunted house adjacent to ours , haunted not by ghosts but divorce . There was a divorce dybbuk living inside the woodwork . Young couples would purchase that property , they would take up occupancy , they would quarrel , the quarreling would escalate to shouting and table pounding , they would anathematize each other , and , presto , they would move out , not together , but separately . They would scatter . Then back it would go onto the real estate market . Three couples we saw this happen to . <p> I should explain . At first sight , each time they arrived , they were fine scrubbed American pragmatists you might see photographed in a glossy magazine . Blond , blue-eyed Rotarians , fresh owners of real estate , Hemingway readers , they would unload their cheerful sunny furniture from U-Haul vans . By the time they moved out , they would have acquired mottled gray skin and haggard Eastern European @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the greenish appearance of owl-eyed Soviet refugees stumbling out of Aeroflot . Well , of course domesticity is not for every taste , but these young families emerged from that house bent and broken , like vegetables left forgotten in the crisper . <p> So , when Bradley arrived , alone except for his dog , we thought : The curse is over . The dybbuk will have to locate itself elsewhere . That was until Bradley met and married Diana . But I am getting ahead of myself . <p> This Bradley , an interesting man , invited Esther and me to dinner the second week he was installed in that house . A courageous gesture . He was not afraid of Jews . He served veal , which Esther will not eat . In the dining room , she picked at it delicately . She left small scraps of it distributed randomly around her plate . I said later , At least no ham , no pork , no shrimp mousse , no trayf . But Harry , she said , veal to me is like a frozen scream @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eat it , I said . So I do n't , she said . So ? <p> The man , Bradley , had a certain hangdog diffuseness characteristic of the recently divorced . But he was trying against certain odds to be cheerful . He asked me about my work , he asked Esther about her work , and he listened pleasantly while we did our best to explain . These topics do not provide good conversation . He listened , though . He had large watchful eyes . I was reminded of an extremely handsome toad , a toad with class and style and good tailoring . He seemed to be living far down inside himself , perhaps in a secret passageway connected to his heart . Biochemistry does not scintillate at the dinner table , however , nor do neo-Kantian aesthetics . Only when I mentioned Kierkegaard did Bradley perk up . From behind a locked bedroom door , his dog simultaneously barked . I assumed that the dog had caught sight of the dybbuk or was interested in Kierkegaard . <p> Prompted by his interest , I said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unlucky and boorish in love . He had fallen in love with an attractive girl , Regine Olsen , and then he had concluded that they would be incompatible , that the love was mistaken , that he himself was complex and she was simple , and he contrived to break the engagement so as to give the appearance that it was the young lady 's fault , not his . <p> He succeeded at least in breaking the engagement , in never marrying her . Cowardice familiar to many young men was probably involved here . Kierkegaard wished to believe that the fault lay with the nature of love itself , the problem of love , its fate in his life . From the personal he extrapolated to the general . A philosopher 's trick . Regine married another man and moved away from Copenhagen to the West Indies , but Kierkegaard , the knight of faith , carried a burning torch , in the form of his philosophy , for her the rest of his days . This is madness of a complex lifelong variety . He spent his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justify his actions toward Regine Olsen . He died of a warped spine . <p> Esther says that when I am seated at a dinner table , plates and food in front of me , I am transmogrified into a bore . Yak yak , she says . At the table she adjusted her watchband and raised her eyebrows to me . I felt her kicking me in the shins . Still I pressed on . <p> Soren Kierkegaard maintained that everyone experiences love , everyone knows what it is intuitively , and yet it can not be spoken of directly . Or distinctly . It falls into the category of the unknown , where plain speech is inadequate to the obscurity of the subject . Similarly , everyone experiences God , but the experience of God is so unlike the rest of our experiences that there , too , plain speech is defeated . According to Kierkegaard , nearly everyone intuits the subtlety of God , but almost no one knows how to speak of Him . This is where our troubles begin . <p> At this point I noticed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . She glanced toward Bradley , our new neighbor . Do n't lecture the boy , she meant . <p> I raised my voice to keep his attention . Speaking about God is not , I said , pounding the dinner table lightly with my fist for emphasis , the same as talking about car dealerships or Phillips screwdrivers . The salt and pepper shakers clattered . The problem with love and God , the two of them , is how to say anything about them that does n't annihilate them instantly with the wrong words , with untruth . In The Philosophical Fragments , Kierkegaard points out that the wrong words destroy love in a way that waiting for one 's lover , delaying consummation , never can . In this sense , love and God are equivalents . We feel both , but because we can not speak clearly about them , we end up-wordless , inarticulate-by denying their existence altogether , and , pfffft , they die . ( They can , however , come back . Because God is a god , when He is dead , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come back if He chooses to . Nietzsche somehow failed to mention this . ) <p> Both God and love are best described and addressed by means of poetry . Poetry , however , is also stone dead at the present time , like its first cousin , God . Love will very quickly follow , no ? Hmm ? Do n't you agree ? I asked . After God dies , must love , a smaller god , not follow ? <p> Uh , I do n't know . I 'll have to think about it . Do you want some dessert , professor ? Bradley , our new neighbor , asked . I got some ice cream here in the refrigerator . It 's chocolate . <p> A very nice change of subject , Esther said , breathless with relief . Harry , she continued , I think you should save Kierkegaard for some other time . For perhaps another party . A party with more Ph.D 's . <p> She gave me a loving but boldly impatient look , perfected from a lifetime of practice . Esther does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feels implicated . <p> Okay , I said , I 'm sorry . I get going , and I ca n't help myself . I 'm like a man trying to rid himself of an obsession . Actually , I am that man . I 'm not like him at all . <p> Esther turned toward Bradley Smith . Harry , she said , is on the outs in his department . He does all the unfashionable philosophers , he 's a baggage handler of Bigthink . What do you do , again , Mr. Smith ? You explained , but I forgot . <p> Well , he said , I 've just bought into a coffee shop in the mall , I have a partnership , and now I 'm managing it . This interested me because I 've always wanted to open a restaurant . <p> Also , he continued , I 'm an artist . I paint pictures . There was an appreciable pause in the conversation while Esther and I took this in . Would you like to see my paintings ? he asked . They 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there on the living room wall . <p> Esther appeared discountenanced but recovered herself quickly . The artwork he had indicated had a great deal of open space in it . The painting itself covered much of the wall . However , three quarters of the canvas appeared to be vacant . It was like undeveloped commercial property . It had n't even been compromised with white paint . It was just unfulfilled canvas . Perhaps the open space was a commentary on what was there . In the upper righthand corner of the picture , though , was the appearance of a window , or what might have been a window if you were disposed to think of it representationally . Through this window you could discern , distantly , a patch of green-which I took to be a fieldand in the center of this green , one could construe a figure . A figure of sorts . Unmistakably a woman . <p> Who 's that ? I asked . <p> The painting 's called Synergy#1 , Bradley said . <p> Okay , but who 's that ? <p> Just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were you thinking of ? <p> Oh , it 's just an abstract person . <p> Esther laughed . Bradley , she said , I never heard of an abstract person before . Except for the persons that my husband thinks of professionally . Example-persons , for example . <p> Well , this one is . Abstract , I mean . <p> It looks like a woman to me , Esther said . Viewed from a distance . As long as it 's a woman , it 's not abstract . <p> Well , maybe she 's on the way to becoming abstract . <p> Oh , you mean , as if she 's all women ? A symbol for women ? There she is , not a woman but all women , wrapped up in one woman , there in the distance ? <p> Maybe . <p> Well , Esther said , I do n't like that . No such thing as Woman . Just women , and a woman , such as me , for example , clomping around in my mud boots . But that 's not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do like it . <p> Thank you . I have n't sold it yet . <p> I like the window , Esther continued , and all those scrappy unpainted areas . <p> It 's not quite unpainted , he informed us . It 's underpainted . I splashed some coffee on the canvas to stain it . Blend-of-the-day coffee from the place where I work . It 's a statement . You just ca n't see the stains from here . <p> Ah , I said , nodding . A statement about capitalism ? Esther glared at me . <p> You want to see my pictures in the basement ? Bradley asked . <p> Sure , I said , why not ? <p> Only thing is , he said , there 're some yellow jackets nesting in the walls-or wasps-and you 'll have to watch yourself when you get down there . Careful not to get stung . <p> We 'll do that , I said . <p> About this basement and the paintings residing there , what can I say ? I held Esther 's hand as we descended the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , likewise , were on my mind . I did not want to have her stung and would protect her if necessary . Bradley had located his paintings along the walls , as painters do , on the floor , leaning . Each painting leaned into another like derelicts reclining against other derelicts . He had installed a fervent showering bath of fluorescent light overhead . A quantity of light like that will give you a headache if you 're inclined , as I am , toward pain . The basement smelled of turpentine and paint substances , the pleasant sinus-clearing elemental ingredients of art , backed by the more pessimistic odors of sub-surface cellar mold and mildew . <p> One by one he brought out his visions . <p> This , he said , is Composition in Gray and Black . <p> He held up , for our inspection , images of syphilis and gonorrhea . <p> And this , he said , is called Free Weights . <p> Very interesting , Esther said , scratching her nose with a pencil she had found somewhere , as she contemplated our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like acorns , from badly imagined and executed surrealist trees , growing in a forest of fog and painterly confusion that no revision could hope to clarify . <p> And here , he said , lugging out a larger canvas from behind the others , is a different sort of picture . In my former style . He placed it before us . <p> Until that moment I had thought the boy , our neighbor , a dumb bunny . This painting was breath-snatching . What 's this called ? I asked him . <p> I call it The Feast of Love , Bradley said . In contrast to his other paintings , which appeared to have been slopped over with mud and coffee grounds , this one , this feast of love , consisted of color . A sunlit table-on which had been set dishes and cups and glasses-appeared to be overflowing with light . The table and the feast had been placed in the foreground , and on all sides the background fell backward into a sort of visible darkness . The eye returned to the table . In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plates were dishes of the brightest hues , as if the appetite the guest brought to this feast was an appetite not for food but for the entire spectrum as lit by celestial arc lamps . The food had no shape . It only had color , burning pastels , of the pale but intense variety . Spooky magic flowed from one end of the table to the other , all the suggestions of food having been abstracted into too-bright shapes , as if one had stepped out of a movie theater into a bright afternoon summer downtown where all the objects were so overcrowded with light that the eye could n't process any of it . The painting was like a flashbulb , a blinding , cataract art . This food laid out before us was like that . Then I noticed that the front of the table seemed to be tipped toward the viewer , as if all this light , and all this food , and all this love , was about to slide into our laps . The feast of love was the feast of light , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sighed : Oh oh oh . It 's beautiful . And then she said , Where are the people ? <p> There are n't any , Bradley told her . <p> Why not ? <p> Because , he said , no one 's ever allowed to go there . You can see it , but you ca n't reach it . <p> Now it was my turn to scratch my balding head . Bradley , I barked at him , this is not like your other paintings , this is magnificent , why do you hide such things ? <p> Because it 's not true , he said . <p> What do you mean , it 's not true ? Of course it 's true , if you can paint it . <p> No , he said , still looking fixedly at his creation . If you ca n't get there , then it 's not true . He looked up at me and Esther , two old people holding hands in our neighbor 's basement . I 'm not a fool , he said . I do n't spend my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> I could have argued with him but chose not to . <p> And with that , he picked up the painting and hid it behind the silly ugly dumbbells growing like acorns on psychotic trees . <p> What a strange young man , Esther said , tucked in next to me , several hours later , sleepy but sleepless in the dark . Her nightgown swished as she tossed and turned . He seems so nondescript and Midwestern , harmless , and then he produces from the back of his basement a picture that anyone would remember for the rest of their lives . <p> Oh , I said , you could say it 's imitation-Matisse or imitationHockney . Besides , I said , light as a subject for contemporary paintings is passe . <p> You could say that , Esther whispered , but you would n't , and if you did , you 'd be wrong . <p> She gave me a little playful slap . <p> I only said that you could say that , not that you would . <p> You did n't actually say it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Esther said . I realized that she was agitated . I turned to her and rubbed her back and her neck , and she put her hands on my face . I could feel her smiling in the darkness . I could feel her wrinkles rising . <p> Harry , she said , it was a recognition for me , a moment of beauty . How strange that a wonderful painting should be created by such a seemingly mediocre man . Our neighbor , living in the Dybbuk House . How strange , how strange . Then she sighed . How strange , she said again . <p> Then the phone rang . <p> Do n't answer it , Esther quickly said . You must n't . Do n't , dear , do n't , do n't , do n't . <p> No , I must , I told her . I must . <p> I picked up the telephone receiver and said hello . From across the continent , on the West Coast , my son Aaron began speaking to me . In a voice tireless with rage , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Once again I was invited to hear the story of how I had ruined his life , destroyed his soul , sacrificed him to the devils and angels of lost ambition . In numbing fashion he found words to batter my heart . Indictment : I had expected more of him than he could achieve . Indictment : I had had hopes for him that drove him , he said , insane . Indictment : I was who I was . Crazy , sick , and inspired with malice , he described his craziness and his sickness in detail , his terrible impulses to hurt others and to hurt himself , as if I had not heard this story many times before , several times , innumerable times . Razors , wire , gas . He called me , his father , a motherfucker . Then he broke down in tears and asked for money . Demanded money . From the nothingness and everlasting night of his life , he demanded cash . I , too , was weeping with sorrow and rage , holding the earpiece tightly to my head @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Esther . Cupping my hand around the mouthpiece , I asked him if he had hurt anyone , if he had hurt himself , and he said no , but he was thinking about it , he planned every single minute in advance , he planned monstrous personal calamities , he needed help , he would ask for help , but first he had to have money now , this very minute , my money , superhuman quantities of it . Do n't make me your sacrificial lamp , he said , then corrected himself , sacrificial lamb , do n't you do that now , not again . I said , against my better judgement , that I would see what I could do , I would send him what I had . He seemed briefly calm . He breathed in and out . He pleasantly wished me goodnight , as if at the conclusion of an effective performance . <p> To have a son or daughter like this is to have a portion of the spirit shrivel and die , never to recover . You witness the lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eternity . Ethics is a dream , and tenderness a daytime phantasm , lost when night comes . Esther and I , eyes open , held each other until dawn broke . My darling wept in my arms , our hearts in ruin . We live in a large city , populated only by ourselves . <p> Kafka : A false alarm on the night bell once answered-it can not be made good , not ever . <p> 
##1005253 after Natalia Ginzburg Headnote " The following essay , He and I , " captures the seesaw of human companionship and love with a patience and sensitivity to interconnectedness that it is hard to imagine a male essayist attempting , much less equaling. " -Phillip Lopate <p> She is quintessentially French . I am , in the loosest sense of the word , American . She always feels cold . I am always hot . In the winter , even if it is n't chilly , she does nothing but complain about how cold it is . Even in late spring , there are large , fertile fields of goose bumps on her thin , beautiful arms , and I have known her , even in the Middle East in late June , to wear a woolen sweater around the house , to sleep in a lamb 's wool camisole in August . She speaks , since she does n't speak much , only one language well , though she seems to understand so much more than I do , even in the languages she does n't really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make myself understood in several languages , yet have trouble focusing on the conversations of others . She enjoys reading maps and navigating around in new places . I hate it , and quickly grow impatient and ornery . After a single afternoon in a foreign city , she will have mastered the public transportation system , be able to find her way to the centrum from the most desolate-seeming corners . I will get lost five meters from my own hotel , or-worse yet-a new apartment . She hates asking for directions , preferring to gaze patiently at an ( to me ) indecipherable map for many moments . When we get lost , I am quick to blame her . She blames no one , but busies herself looking for secondhand shops and fruit and vegetable markets in whatever neighborhood we are lost in . She loves old architecture , curved surfaces , rummaging among the trinkets and memorabilia of other people 's lives at flea markets , the scent of flowers and herbs . I am always impatient to get where I 'm going , missing virtually everything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever been able to love completely and unconditionally are my own disfigured face in the mirror and sitting at my desk making a kind of music exclusively with words . . . though I love my son , and sometimes her , in a different way , as well . She loves travel , unfamiliar places , a sense of the unexpected . I dream of living always in one place , burning my passport , etching an address in stone upon my doorpost , running for mayor in some town I will never again move from . I love to eat in restaurants-bad restaurants , good restaurants , even mediocre ones . She always wants to eat at home : fresh vegetables and better food , she claims , at one-fifth the price . She hates the way I do the dishes and leave a mess after cooking . I like , on occasion , to do the dishes and cook , though I 'm quite awful at the former , which I always do in too great a hurry , leaving all sorts of prints , smudges , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a late movie-preferably a slow-moving , melancholic one of the French or Italian sort-and to have a glass of wine or two with dinner . I prefer rather superficial , fast-moving American films , fall asleep almost the second I enter the theater for anything later than the 7:30 showing , and can drink , at most , a glass of white zinfandel in late afternoon . She has little patience for , or interest in , pleasantries among strangers , preferring to restrict her circle of acquaintances to those she is truly intimate with . I enjoy talking to the garbage collector , the mailman , making small talk with the meter reader and taxi driver . The greetings " How are you ? " and " Have a nice day " do not cause me to rail against the superficiality of America and Americans . She is shy ; I am not . Occasionally , however , her shyness rubs off on me , or , alternatively-as in the case of landlords who are trying to take advantage of us or rabbis who are too adamantly in favor of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in English , her vocabulary suddenly expanding to include words like " barbaric " and " philistine . " She has no respect for established authority , and thinks nothing of running out on student loans , disconnecting the electric meter , or not paying taxes . I , on the other hand , though I have the face of an anarchist , am afraid of established authority and tend , against my own better instincts , to respect it . As soon as I spot a police car in the rearview mirror , I assume I have done something terribly wrong and begin to contemplate spending the rest of my life in jail . She , on the other hand , smiles shyly at the police officer , who quickly folds up his notebook and goes back to his car . She likes goat 's cheese , garlic , a good slice of pate with a glass of red wine , tomatoes with fresh rosemary . I like sausages , raw meat , pizza , and gefilte fish with very sharp horseradish . She claims that I am a Neanderthal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who will die young of high cholesterol , rancid oils , and pesticides . She is refined , has a sensitive palate and a nose so accurate it can tell the difference between day-old and two-day-old butter . When we lived in Cambridge , Massachusetts , she spent many days in search of the perfect , vine-ripened tomato and just the right kind of basil for making pesto . She ca n't stand , for example , pine nuts that are rancid . " Rancid , " in fact , is one of the English words she uses most frequently . At the cinema she hates to sit too close to the screen , and-if we 're at home-refuses to watch movies on TV that are interrupted by commercials , claiming that it interferes with her " dream world . " I like to sit near the front of the theater and tell jokes during the movie . I like almost any movie , as long as it is superficial enough not to disturb my worldview . She prefers dark , slow-moving , romantic tragedies , set to the music of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days after , causing her to question , or reexamine , almost everything in her world . She remembers the names of films and actors , and prefers actresses who embody a kind of low-key sensuality and dark reserve . I adore those who are brazenly sexual and whore-like in their demeanor . If , for example , as in Roman Polanski 's Bitter Moon , there are two women , one of whom is subtly beautiful , sensual , and slightly tragic , the other who is vulgar , brazen , hedonistic , and rather shallow , it is always certain that she will prefer the first . I always prefer the second . On those rare occasions when we 've seen a film we both liked , she will , the next day-even the next month-remember every small detail of it : the weather in a particular scene , the shape of an awning , the way a blouse or a cloth napkin lay against the protagonist 's arm or lap . I , on the other hand , will remember nothing , not even the plot , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the night . Somewhat sheep-faced , I will ask her to remind me what the movie was about , who was in it . . . on occasion , even , what its name was , all.of which she will generously do , never even pausing to comment upon my infirmity . Though I am rather smart about books and literature , it is the rare film in which I am even able to follow the plot line , much less unravel the mystery , so that , after we leave the theater ( assuming I have n't fallen asleep ) , I will usually need her to explain to me exactly what happened , who was related to whom , and why , at the end , a photograph of one character 's daughter mysteriously showed up on the wall of a seemingly unrelated character 's living room . When she does , I am inevitably embarrassed about my simple-mindedness and lack of insight , a shortcoming she seems either oblivious to or willing to overlook . I either love or hate people , and find myself utterly incapable of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She , though often equally indifferent to the same people , always seeks to find something interesting and unique about them , a pursuit I have neither the time nor patience for . Something in even the most uninspiring of persons arouses , if not her conversation , then at least her curiosity , and-once she has been engaged with someone in any way-she retains a certain ongoing loyalty to them I can neither relate to or comprehend . Though far less extroverted than I am , she will carry on a correspondence with any number of people , in all sorts of countries , and keeps a list in her address book of all the birthdays of everyone she has ever known and liked . I consider every crisis a catastrophe , and will begin to fidget nervously and despondently whenever I am confronted with a late train , a rescheduled flight , or an incompetent waitperson . She considers each of these events a hidden opportunity , a portent from the gods , yet another manifestation of the world 's independence and revivifying fickleness . Though I have somehow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I am extremely lazy . My favorite activity , as Freud said of poets , is daydreaming , my buttocks wedged firmly in a chair . She is never idle , raising domesticity to an art form , a Buddhistic perfection in every ironed crease . Being a devotee of Bishop Berkeley 's formulation to the effect that , if you ca n't see it , it is n't there , I prefer neatness to cleanliness . My idea of housecleaning is to sweep the large dustballs under the bed , stuff plastic and paper bags sloppily into a kitchen cabinet , cover the bed hurriedly with a creased down comforter , cram my underwear ( freely mingling the soiled and the dean ) into a dresser drawer . She is almost maniacally clean , sniffing each of my shirts and socks daily to make sure they do n't need to be washed , vacuuming in corners , changing the pillowcases and sheets with the regularity of tides . I like to buy cheap things , particularly clothes , frequently wearing them once or twice until they fray in the washer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place to place without ever wearing them again . One of the things she seems to enjoy most is to go through my clothes closets , reminding me of all the cheap items I bought and never wore , or which I have worn once , washed , and which are now " totally out of shape . " She buys clothes almost never , but always things of good quality , preferring to wear the same few things ( always immaculately dean ) time and time again . I fancy myself a great dancer and a sex object . She thinks of herself as physically awkward and more sensual than sexy . I can type like a madman and , albeit reluctantly , use a computer . She considers a keyboard a postmodern artifact . I like to drive . She likes to navigate . On those few occasions on which she drives our car , I nag her relentlessly about shifting at the wrong speeds , or squeezing too hard on the brakes . When she navigates and we begin to lose our way , I immediately become so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Budapest , she threatened to get out of the car and go home on her own . In countries known for their dangerous drivers , she insists I do all the driving , an affirmation of my manhood I accept reluctantly , though I do n't object to being in control . I am the kind of person who can do many things at once , most of them rather middlingly . She does only one thing at a time , but always with a sense of perfection . I like to cook without recipes , freely mixing Marsala wine , mustard , artichoke hearts , candied ginger , maple syrup , and plums , hoping something capable of being digested will emerge . She always uses a recipe-except for things she has made before-but everything she makes is successful and delicious . I would have been a rock star , or a concert pianist-or perhaps , even , the proprietor of an illicit sex club-had I felt freer to follow my lyrical and immoral heart 's calling . She would have been a sister in a Carmelite monastery , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mother . I am a reluctant , though not unsuccessful , father . She could have been many things , all of them having something to do with taking care of others or using her hands : a nurse , a dentist , a carpenter , a potter , a refinisher of furniture , a restorer of antiquarian books . I , though I like to imagine otherwise , could probably have done only the one thing I am doing now : putting words to paper . I like to live part of my life in the if but only mode of wishful thinking and fantastical alternatives . She accepts the life that life has given her as her one possible destiny , without complaining . She does n't like to think of money-in fact , her refusal to think about it has , on occasion , gotten us into trouble . I , while I do n't like to think of it either , am usually left with the unpoetic task of having to worry about it . Since I have been with her , in fact , hardly a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . almost constantly . She , on the other hand , worries about many other unpoetic tasks in our lives which have nothing at all to do with money . I can imitate people from many countries , and with many different accents . She is too much herself to imitate anyone . I like to have some kind of music playing whenever I am not reading or working . She usually prefers silence , or only to have music on when she is actually listening to it . I will continue to eat even when I am no longer hungry , just for the pleasure of it . She eats only as much as satisfies her hunger on any occasion . I abhor all forms of table manners , eating with my fingers , chewing with my mouth open , taking food freely from others " plates , licking my fingers at the table , stuffing my mouth with large quantities , burping and passing gas . She never eats before being seated at the table , waits for everyone else to do likewise , chews only small morsels at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ such deliberate pleasure , that I have usually finished what is on my plate well before she is actually seated . Only twice in our eight years together have I observed her passing gas . Burping , never . As soon as I make a decision , I immediately , and relentlessly , tilt towards wanting the other alternative . She immediately accepts , and begins to implement , any decision she has made . She often says that I am a neurotic and " special " kind of person , that she feels that , living with me , this kind of behavior is the " statue quo . " Occasionally , when I am in one of my periods of manic reconsideration , she smiles slightly in her slightly smiling French way , as if to say , " Oy vey , what a case I am married to . " I like to eat on the street-frequently , and mostly greasy and unhealthy foods-which accounts for the fact that most of my clothes have grease and/or coffee stains on them , souvenirs of my animalistic habits she claims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all , I like to devour greasy Hungarian sausages at stand-up counters in Budapest . She likes to eat only " atable , " quietly , savoring every morsel of , say , pate with , preferably , a glass of red wine . Among the tastes in life I can truly not abide are pasteque , fennel , and every form of anise , all of which she has rather an affection for . I am often angry at others , friends , foes , and family alike , and like to hold , and nurse , these angers for as long as is humanly possible , until I can almost feel them eating at my liver , like an earthquake with numerous , sustained aftershocks . She is incapable of sustained anger or hostility and would , I believe ( perhaps already has ) , forgive me the most egregious deeds and betrayals , an attitude I have no desire to test to its limits . Even in her case , I like to remind her as often as possible of the ways she has disappointed and betrayed me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my betrayals and weaknesses . I never cry , even when I am truly unhappy , yet I have a tendency to grow teary-eyed whenever an athlete experiences some major triumph , or after the last out of the World Series , when the players all rush to the mound and hug each other . She cries easily , even at sentimental movies whose pandering to sentimental feelings she despises . I will take any kind of pill or medicine anyone recommends in order to relieve pain and discomfort . She prefers " natural " remedies . Although I am not terribly Jewish by religious conviction , I wanted to have our son circumcised when he was born . She felt it to be a pagan ritual tantamount to permanent disfigurement , and began assembling propaganda from various anti-circumcision organizations around the country which depicted vast armadas of mutilated children with heavily bandaged penises . She won . . . she usually wins . I think she is beautiful , but too thin , and am constantly after her to try and gain weight . She thinks she is less beautiful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beautiful arms . " When she was younger , in California , she wore her hair very short and looked like a kind of postmodern French punktress on her way to the wrong discotheque . Now , I think , she is much more beautiful and womanly , and , like I am , a bit older . When we met in Ecuador , she had rather gray hair and was wearing purple nylon pants and a yellow sweatshirt . She seemed , at first , more interested in reading her mail than in talking to me , a fact which I soon realized was due more to her shyness-and her passion for her mail-than to lack of interest in me . On the two-hour bus ride between Quito and Otavalo , across the equator , I slowly began to realize that she was quite beautiful , in an undemonstrative sort of way , and that night , as a way of getting myself into her room and closer to her bed in the hotel where she , her female traveling companion , and I were staying , I planned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discovered , as shy as she seemed , and it turned out I did n't need to do that . The next morning I remember her companion bringing two glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice to the room , along with coffee , and then our walking , hand in hand , above the town of Otavalo , where we finally sat in a small restaurant and her friend , Annick , took our picture . I looked very happy in the photo , though not too handsome . She looked happy , too , and quite lovely . We stayed in several very lovely , and inexpensive , small Ecuadorian hotels during those days , and I remember , not even a week after not having to borrow her toothpaste , looking down at her one night ( or was it afternoon ? ) and saying , " I think I love you . " " I think I love you , too , Gringo , " she replied . She used to call me " Gringo " in those days . I remember talking to her an awful lot back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compassionately , she always listened . I myself am not such a good listener , except on occasion , so that-along with the sweet way she always said " uh-huh , uhhuh. : " and " yes . . . yes " when I was telling her a story-it made a real impression on me . Back then , I do n't remember her being nearly as cold , or quite as thin . . . but , then again , we were in love and in Ecuador . Sometimes , now , when I realize we have been together for more than eight years and have a seven-year-old son , I think that this is one of the major miracles of my life . . . and I 'm sure she does also . I was so romantic then , that night in Otavalo , and so was she when , hardly a week later , she got on a plane from Quito to the United States and followed me to Boston . I remember her calling me , as we had planned , but suddenly having a sense that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me she was standing at a pay telephone across the street at Porter Square , I ran down the stairs , not even bothering to button my shirt or pull up my zipper , and took her into my arms and carried her halfway up to my fourth-floor , rent-controlled apartment . I was stronger in those days , and healthier , and so , maybe , was she . We were not so young , but very much in love , and there was a scent of laundry , somehow , wafting through my windows as we made love , on a mattress located on my study floor , for the first time in the United States of America . Now , as I write this , I am sitting in Israel , and we will soon be in Paris , then in Provence , and then back in the United States of America , the only country whose language I have truly mastered . I no longer live in that rent-controlled apartment , and that mattress , I am quite sure , is no longer on the floor . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowing eyes and beautiful smile and lovely French voice , and she is still , as a friend of mine once described her , " une chouette " -an owl . Which is a wiser , more deliberate animal than a fly . 
##1006250 Dear Stan , <p> Enclosed is Brush with Destiny , sure hope you like it . I 'd be kinda surprised if this was n't the first yam you 've ever gotten about housepainting in space . Chalk it up to many hours spent working on a four-color Victorian " painted lady , " and considerable musing on how much easier it would be if I could just float up to where I needed to be . Man , I hate ladders . <p> Far too consummate a professional to waste your valuable time trying to talk you into buying the enclosed ( an option I highly endorse , by the way ) I do want to buttonhole you for a few minutes . <p> You see , Sue-Ryn and I have gotten tangled up in something so bizarre it buries the needles in our personal Weird-O-Meters . These are internal devices which , I might add , years of doing Renaissance Faires have built up to Super Heavy-duty Industrial Strength . I know you 're busy , but trust me , I 'm talking about a world-shaking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attention and to prove that we 're talking capital " S " Serious Stuff , consider this : I may be taking a trip . A long trip . That 's right , me , the guy who tends to emulate the Sphinx , travel-wise . I may not be going anywhere this time , either , but I am not optimistic . It 's probably gon na happen . <p> This whole thing started one fall afternoon a couple months back . I was working over on the north side of the island , remodeling a kitchen . The phone rang twice , went silent , then started ringing again . That 's the signal Sue-Ryn uses to make me pick up when I 'm working at someone else 's house . So I answered . <p> " Hey , love , what 's up ? " I said . <p> " Steve , you better come home , " she said , sounding seriously freaked . " Right now. , <p> " What 's wrong ? " I was trying to sound calm , but inside my head a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from hurt relatives to vehicles in the ditch to exploding hot water heaters . <p> " We got- " A pause to collect herself . <p> " We got something really strange in the mad . " <p> My blood pressure drops a few points , but only a few , as audits , lawsuits , and disconnect notices suggest themselves under the heading of Bad Mail . Before I could ask more about it , she pleads with me to just come home right now , please ? <p> I tell her I 'm on my way . Shut down the radio and heat , lock up the place , jump in the Beast and roar home at flank speed . The whole time I 'm trying to guess what could creep her out so . A ten-thousand-dollar Visa bill ? A CadaverO-Gram ? Letter bomb ? Vile crap from some hate group ? <p> By the time I did a high-speed powerslide into the driveway I was pretty nerved up myself . I explode from the car , race to the house . " OK , I 'm here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I do n't know what I expected to see . I do know the sight that greeted me was n't one of the possibles chalked up in the smeary blackboard of my imagination . <p> Sue-Ryn 's standing there in the living room . Mail is scattered all over the floor . The object she was staring at with the fixed intensity of a cat watching an owl ( and which drew my eye toot-damnsweet ) was this envelope floating in the air before her at about eye level . <p> Yeah , floating . As in hanging there all by its own self . To make matters even more interesting , when I entered the room it turned in my direction and did this little mid-air curtsey , as if to say You made it ! Glad you came ! <p> I stop , blink , undergo a brief but intense reality crisis . I know I 'm seeing what I 'm seeing because it 's still several feet away . Birdwatching , I can spot stuff a mile off , but over the last few years it 's gotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tad fuzzy . <p> " It came in the mail , " Sue-Ryn says heavily , her voice making it sound like the title of a B-grade horror flick . <p> " Letters do that , " I answer as I make my way over to her . <p> " But not this . " <p> " No , not hardly . <p> " What do you think it is ? " <p> " Fan mail from some flounder ? " I joke weakly , quoting an old Bullwinkle line used a lot around our house . I get a laugh , but not much of one . <p> " I brought the mail in after Glenn came , " she explained as I reached her side . " Started sorting the orders and bills from the junk . When I touched this thing it changed color and floated right up out of my hand . I let out a yell , jumped back , tripped over Boomer . He 's still hiding under the kitchen table . " Our dog Boomer-whose middle name happens to be Underfoot-makes the Cowardly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it before ? " I ask , my mouth sort of running on automatic pilot . When you fix stuff for a living you ask this sort of question by habit . Chromatropic hovering mail was n't really on my been there , done that list . <p> " Plain white . " Now it was the most amazing-excuse me , astoundingblue I 'd ever seen , like distilled sky . <p> " Any idea who it 's from ? " <p> She just gives me The Look . You know the one a hapless boob of a husband collects when he asks his wife a dumbass question , one she considers so utterly boneheaded it 's not worth dignifying with any other response . <p> I duck my head meekly . " I 'll take that as a no . " After a few moments more spent considering our Mystery Mail I sigh and mumble , " Guess there 's only one way to find out . " <p> I reach out and gingerly close my fingets around the envelope . The second I do it lets out this low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a hammered dulcimer . <p> " What was that ? " Sue-Ryn asks nervously . It 's my turn to give her a milder version of The Look , one that basically says : How did I get to be the resident expert on floating musical mail ? <p> Back to the task at hand . The envelope does n't resist as I draw it closer , it comes along quietly . Like I said before , the color of the thing makes it seem like I 'm holding a chunk of distilled sky . It was n't made out of any kind of paper I 'd ever seen . Nor was it plastic , Tyvek , or any other material I 'd run across . The best I can do is say that it felt like silk , although it was n't cloth either . <p> On the front it read " STEPHEN L. BURNS &; SUE-RYN HILDENBRANDBURNS " in a nice sans-serif font . No address . Where the stamp or bulk mail permit should have been there was this hologram sort of thing . Remember those holographic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Space ones ? Those were pretty primitive ; you had to have the right kind of light and hold them jussssssst so to see them . Not this puppy A little tiny orange sun hung there half an inch off the envelope 's surface , pinpoint planets wheeling around it . I could even see even tinier moons wheeling around them . BTW it was n't our sun or our planets . <p> " Any return address ? " Sue-Ryn asks from behind my shoulder <p> " Nope . " I 'm still staring at the hologram , and suddenly it hits me . I can see every detail plain as day even without my reading glasses ! <p> " Nothing to show who it 's from ? " <p> I shake my head . " Not unless a version of Publisher 's Clearing House from the year 2200 and based at another star system has figured out how to send junk mail into the past . " Scary concept : twohundred-year magazine subscriptions . <p> My wife frowns , prettily . " What makes you think it 's Them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ implacable forces of evil that plague us with endless junk mail , and storm window or long distance carrier sales-calls at dinnertime . <p> I point to the top of the envelope . A line of print has appeared in glowing dots of ruby light . It scrolls across the envelope again and again like a marquee . What does it read ? You guessed it : <p> YOU MAY ALREADY BE A WINNER ! ! <p> " This is your department , my love , " I say as I try to hand it to her . She 's the one who fills in all the sweepstakes thingies . I take out the garbage . Division of labor is the secret to a successful marriage . <p> " That 's OK , " she replies , backing away . " You open it . " Her tone makes it pellucidly clear that as Guy of the House it 's my job to deal with anti-gravitic holographic mail . <p> Usually I just blow this sort of stuff off , sending it straight to the recycle bin . I figure I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or get smutched by a plummeting Chinese satellite than to win a million dollars . Now if first prize was three tons of steaming fresh manure directly delivered to your living room I 'd probably win for sure .... <p> But it is n't every day you get levitating junk mail . <p> " What the hell . " I light a cigarette , only a minor stall tactic , then turn the envelope over . On the back is this square of star-flecked blue-black , surrounded by animated script that reads : PRESS HERE TO OPEN . - Great , I think , mail that opens as easily as an aspirin bottle . <p> I take a puff of my smoke then touch the square . The envelope lets out another musical tone , then sort of moves in my hand and swims before my eyes . The next thing I know I 'm holding a letter sized sheet of amazing-excuse me , I keep doing that , astounding-blue whatever-it-is . Sue-Ryn and I exchange a How the hell did it do that ? look , then we both begin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still using me as a blast-shield . <p> " CONGRATULATIONS LUCKY EARTH LING ! " it begins . After a lead like that you have to keep reading . We did , anyway . <p> We are the Oronomno , and soon we will be visiting your lovely blue-green planet ! We come in peace , hoping to institute mutually beneficial diplomatic and trade relations between your people and ours ! We are a peaceful , funloving people , interested in and most excited by your various arts and social inventions ! For access to these great cultural treasures of yours we will offer various extremely useful technologies ! You will be so glad you met us ! We promise ! ! ! <p> By now you are most certainly thinking , This sounds good , but what has it got to do with ME ? ? ? You are , after all , an ordinary human reading a piece of unsolicited ( and no doubt perplexing ) piece of mail . Not an astronaut or diplomat . <p> Do n't worry ! ! We want to make unobtrusive , non-threatening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! ! Study of your folkways has shown us that this is a preferred method of locating and establishing contact with individuals who would be interested in what the contactor has to offer , of advertising goods and or services , and of stimulating interest in a Special One Time Offer Which this is ! ! This junk Mail Sweepstakes methodology of yours is a splendid invention , entirely new to us , and if it proves useful to us your race will of course be generously compensated for the concept ! Very generously ! ! Wait and see ! ! ! <p> Still , you are asking , WHY ME ? ? ? <p> Here 's why Because this is your LUCKY DAY ! ! ! <p> You are not alone ! Both in the universe , and in having been contacted by usf Several thousand of these offerings have been inserted into your mail system worldwide . Those who respondand we do hope you are one of them ! -will be automatically entered into a drawing for a wonderful , literally OUT OF THIS WORLD PRIZE ! ! ! @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dollars ? A fine luxury automobile ? Perhaps a high-performance watercraft ? A lifetime supply of citrus fruit ? No , lucky human , what we are offering is far more te ? 71fic than any offer you 've received before ! ! Of that we are certain ! ! Then what is it , you ask ? <p> We want you to be one of the one hundred lucky humans who win a fabulous FOUR DAY ALL-EXPENSE-PAID VISIT TO THE VIRTUAL ORONOMNO HOMEWORLD WE HAVE CONSTRUCT ED ON THE PLANET VENUS ! ! ! <p> Never heard of the place , you are most assuredly thinking Of course not ! We just built it last week ! Besides , this is why we are contacting you ! We want YOU to be among the first to taste some genuine old fashioned downhome Oronomno hospitality ! ! <p> Let us tell you , lucky earthling-and your lovely mate reading over your shoulder-the virtual Oronomno homeworld contains all the amenities of the original ! Once there you can shop in stores operated by our people and other races with whom we trade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most beautiful city ! Taste exotic foods such ditthral , roool pie , and y1o under glass ! Relax on the terrace of the splendid Hotel Ob , watching our orange sun set over the fuscia sands of the fabled Olmana Ocean ! Game in our casinos ! Watch exotic performances ! And when you decide to retire for the night , you can perform your race 's mating ritual in Hotel Ob 's zero gravity bedsuites ! There are thousands of out of this world wonders waiting to be experienced , but ONLY IF YOU RETURN YOUR ENTRY ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! <p> Why are we offering such a fantastical prize ? What 's the catch ? ? P <p> There is none ! ! Really ! ! We just want to meet YOU ! f Think of this as an intimate get-together we are holding so that your race and ours can meet face to face befor the Big Day arrives ! ! <p> So enter NOW ! ! ! There is no obligation ! No hidden costs ! No magazines to buy ! No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon ! ! ! ! ! ! ! <p> There under all that was another dark blue square , this one orbited by the phrase : " SOUNDS GOOD ! ! SIGN ME UP ! ! " <p> I read faster than my wife . I skimmed it a second time , looking for catches , and caught up with her at the end . <p> " Well , " I said in a bemused tone , <p> " We 've never been to Venus . " <p> " We never go much of anywhere , " she pointed out . There was this real flint note in her voice which seemed to suggest that Id been the reason we 'd passed up several previous chances to visit another planet and meet an alien race . <p> I stared at her . " You mean you 'd go ? " She bit her lip , then shrugged . " Sure . If you 'd go . " Meaning the decision was mine . <p> " Thanks , " I grumbled . My perfectly sensible natural inclination to avoid travel at all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , excuses , and considerations both practical and admittedly far-fetched were popcorning in my head . <p> Unfortunately it was n't quite that simple- My equally natural cynicism and pessimism sort of buttered the popcorn with the thought , Right , like you 're going to win . Sweepstakes odds-for an all expenses paid alien vacation giveaway@ no less ! -made it safe to exhibit a cheapjack largesse and say : <p> " Sure . What the hell . If we win I 'll go . " <p> I thought I was home free until last month . It was a crummy day , and I was working upstairs in my office when the mail came . I went downstairs , grabbed a jacket and ran out to get it from our roadside box . As I was gathering up the ads , magazines , and real mail , another floating letter leapt out of the pile and hung there in the air before me . We seemed to stare at each other , me with dismay , and it as smug as first class . If that was n't bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemed to avoid it . <p> I knew this could n't be good newsat least not what I would consider good news . So I just left it hanging ( so to speak ) and headed back for the house . <p> Stan , the damn thing followed me ! Some of these junk mail bastards can be satanically persistent , bombing you with an endless flood of multiple mailings . We 've all grown used to that . But this thing was the Hellhound of junk mail . When I saw what it was doing I started to run . it just moved faster , zipping along beside me . I tried to slip through the door and leave it outside , but the damn thing flicked past me . <p> Sue-Ryn had come down from her workroom and was standing by the bottom of the stairs . " Any good mail ? " she asked . <p> " Not hardly , " I growled , making a futile grab for the envelope . It evaded me and flew straight to her like a trained bird , landing gently in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then back up at me with a big grin . <p> " Guess what ? " she crowed . " We 're semi-finalists ! " <p> Last week another letter came . That 's right . We frigging won . <p> Tomorrow at two we 're supposed to have our bags packed and be ready to go . No UFO 's in the back yard , they 're going to beam us right out of our living room and straight to the front desk at the Hotel Oh . I ca n't even plead logistics as a reason to cancel at the last minute . According to the prize packet they will see that we are , and I quote : ' for our convenience expeditiously returned to our own space-time continuum at a point . 75 minutes after we depart ! " <p> OK , you 've read all this and you 're probably thinking : But this is wonderful ! How can Burns bitch about the chance to see both another planet AND the virtual representation of an alien civilization , hobnob with other aliens AND all of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of course , but when you get right down to brass tacks I 'd stir prefer to stay home . Even if I 'm only going to be gone .75 minutes as far as home is concerned . <p> No , while I 'm not crazy about meeting new people , neither am I afraid of meeting these aliens . They seem nice enough , although their Up With People enthusiasm may not wear well . Our winners ' packet had several pictures of them . You know that Furby toy ? Cross one of them with a Munchkin and you 've got your average Oronomno Joe . The Hotel Oh looks quite nice . <p> There 's only one thing about this whole thing , and about them , that frightens me . <p> These folks have matter transmission . Time control . They can build a pocket environment on Venus , for chrissakes ! They want to be liked . They want to be accepted . They want to trade . <p> We have just given this technologically superior race the concept of junk mail , and they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are . <p> I 'm going on this trip , I guess . I have reservations , but we have reservations . I 'll drop you a line at some future point to let you know how it went . <p> In the meantime , be warned and pass the word . <p> There 's an alien invasion coming . A benign invasion , but an invasion nonetheless . <p> Do n't bother watching the skies . <p> Watch your mail . <p> 
##1006258 Alex Ladd knew that hunky attorney Hammond Cross would be the perfect playmate .. and help clear her name in a murder case . But how would she clear her conscience ? Photograph Dangerous love " She trapped him in a web of deceit . <p> The capital letter E on the instrument panel of her car flashed red . Slic groaned with fustration . The last thing she wanted to do was stop and pump gasoline , but she knew from experience that when the guage on this car read empty , it was dangerously accurate . She pulled into the first gas station and filled up . As she was reaching to replace the gas-tank cap , another car pulled into the station . She was caught in the bright headlights and squinted against the glare . The car rolled to a stop only a few feet from her rear bumper . The driver turned off the headlights but did n't kill the engine before opening the door and stepping out . Her lips parted in wordless surprise . It was the man she 'd met @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She did n't move . She did n't ask him why he had followed her . She did n't do anything but stare at him . His hair looked darker now that the sun had gone down , not as tawny as it had appeared in daylight , when she 'd first locked eyes with him by the Ferris wheel . She knew his eyes were grayish blue ; she remembered that from their dance in the pavilion . Even though the band was horrible , they 'd fit together perfectly , the top of her head even with his chin , his hand resting on the small of her back , their thighs close as they moved slowly across the floor .... There was a reason she had broken away from him after the dance . He was a decent man . An honest man . She did n't want to draw him into a web of deceit . But still , she needed him . A night with him would be her perfect alibi . She had spotted him far earlier , that afternoon , in fact , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'd recognized him too . Hammond Cross , Charleston 's brightest legal light , assistant prosecutor in the district attorney 's office . He was always the one the TV Anchors interviewed when a local criminal case was going to trial . While he 'd come across as attractive on the screen , in the flesh he was irresistible . When she saw him at the hotel , she could n't believe her luck . Not that she 'd known that morning that she would need an alibi . She had sworn never again to be drawn into her brother Bobby 's wicked blackmailing schemes . But then fate had conspired against her . The man she was scheduled to meet -- the last cash pickup she was ever going to make for Bobby -- was lying unconscious on the floor of a hotel room . She did n't know what had happened , only that she could n't risk being tied to the scene of whatever horrific crime had occurred just moments before her arrival . She had a reputation and a career to protect -- and thanks to Bobby @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secret . She 'd followed Hammond from the hotel to the fair , intending to make him her alibi , without an inkling that emotions would enter into it . For several seconds they stared at each other across the hood of his car . Then he stepped around the open door . Her eyes followed his progress as he came toward her . The determination with which his jaw was set said a lot about his character . He was n't easily discouraged , and he was n't afraid to go after something he wanted . He did n't stop until he was standing directly in front of her . Then he cupped her face between his hands and lifted it toward his he bent down and kissed her . His lips were full and sensual and delivered what they suggested . His kiss was warm and sweet . He applied the perfect amount of pressure without making her feel overpowered or threatened . Her lips parted naturally . When his tongue touched hers , her heart expanded and her arms encircled his waist . He lowered his hands so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while the other drew her against him . He angled his head . The kiss deepened , his tongue probing . The longer they kissed , the more ardent it became . The he broke away . He was breathing hard . His hands resumed their previous position on either side of her face . " That 's what I had to know . It was n't just me who felt the attraction between us , " he said . She shook her head as much as his hands would allow it to move . " No , " she said , surprised by the huskiness of her own voice . " It was n't just you . " " Follow me ? " Protests died on her lips before she could even speak them . " I have a cabin not far from here . Two , three miles . " " I -- " " Do n't say no . " His whispered voice was ragged , impassioned . His hands pressed tighter . " Do n't say no . " Her eyes searched his , then she made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her immediately , turned , and strode back to his car . She dropped the gas cap in her haste to screw it back in . Finally getting it secured , she rounded her car and got in . She started her motor ; his car pulled up beside hers . He looked at her as though to make certain that she was as resolute as he , that she was n't going to bolt and disappear the first chance she got . Little did he know bolting was the furthest thing from her mind . When they reached the , cabin , Hammond got out and opened her car door . " Watch Your step ; it 's dark . " Taking her hand , he led her up a crushed-shell path . A porch lamp provided just enough light for him to slide the key in the lock . He pushed the door open and ushered her inside . Rather than smelling musty , like an infrequently used dwelling , the cabin smelled like freshly laundered linens . He closed the front door , separating them from the porch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reached for her and she came earn willingly into his arms , seemingly as eager for his kiss as he was for hers . Her mouth responded warmly to the thrusts of his tonge that stroked and tested and tasted her until he had to pause to catch his breath . Lowering his head , he pressed his face into her neck , while her hands closed around the back of his head and her fingers combed through his hair . He kissed his way to her ear . " This is crazy , " lie whispered . " Very . " " Are you afraid ? " " Yes . " " Of me ? " " No . " " You should be . " " I know , but I 'm not . " His lips rubbed against hers in a not -- quite kiss . " Afraid of the situation ? " " Terrified , " she said . This was true . She was getting in too deep emotionally . " I noticed you as soon as you entered the pavilion , " he confessed . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I did , " she murmured , feeling momentarily guilty . " We 're totally irresponsible , " Hammond said . " But I ca n't help it . " " Neither can I she sighed as his hands slipped beneath her blouse . Her head fell back as she offered her throat to his lips . Her breath caught and held when he fumbled with the front clasp of her bra , but she released a soft murmur of pleasure when his fingertips brushed her bare skin . Her hands moved over his back . Her palms skimmed over his belt , settled on his butt , and pulled him in to her . They kissed once more , a long , deep , provocative kiss . Then he took her hand again and pulled her along behind him as be felt his way across the living area into the bedroom . They fell across the bed , twining around one anotber with the , blind , mindless craving of new lovers . It was a night that would haunt him for days . When he woke the next morning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her face , it as coming to life under the skilled fingers of a police sketch artist .... ( 800 ) BOOKS NOW To order The Alibi ( Warner Books , $25.95 ) at 10 percent off the cover price , call Books Now at ( 800 ) 962-6651 , ext. 1105 ( be sure to mention Cosmo ) or go online at http : **28;79;TOOLONG . Whenever you order books seen in Cosmo from Books Now , we will donate 15 percent of sales to Literacy Partners , Inc. , an organization that helps millions of nonreading women gain the literacy skills they need to help themselves and their faries . JOIN THE CLUB Have you ever had ulterior motives for making a move on a man ? Let us know : Write Cosmo Book Club , 224 West 57th St. , New York , NY 10019 or E-mail cosmobooks@hearst.com. 
##1006259 From The Killing Game , a steamy tale of seduction ... <p> Eve told Joe that it was a mistake to take their friendship to the next level , but he was standing in the doorway of her bedroom and he would n't take no for an answer . Yet another victim : a woman named Debby Jordan . Joe was sitting several yards away from her gave site . As Eve approached , she could feel his gaze on her though she could n't see his expression in the darkness . Eve had known Joe for more than 10 years , their friendship deepening after all the cases they 'd worked on together . As one of Atlanta 's top forensic seulptors , she was often paired with Joe Quinn . But what had really solidified their friendship was the kidnapping and murder of her daughter , Bonnie , eight years earlier . In her mind , there was no question that she would't have survived that tragedy without Joe 's shoulder to cry on . But lately he 'd made it clear that his feelings were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Joe patted the ground beside him . " Sit down . " I did n't expect to come here . " She sat down and linked her arms around her knees , then gazed across the field at the red flag marking the grave . " She had two children ? " he asked . " Two little boys . According to the newspaper , she had everything . A good inarriage , family , friends . " She shook her head . " A madman chooses you at randorn and takes away everything . It 's not fair . " " That 's why we all have to live every moment as if it were our last and not close ourselves off . " He was no longer talking , about Debby Jordan . " I do n't close myself off , " Eve said . " I just choose what I want in my life . " " Then you should widen your selection . It 's pretty damn miserly . " " I 'm content with the way things are . I do n't want- " " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ su@ject she had n't wanted to bring out bi the open . God knows , she tried to push it away a hundred times with him . " I think you do want it , " He was n't looking -it her . " You 've had a few sexual relationships since Bonnie died . Nothing serious . That would have interfered with yourwork . " Joe had never spoken to her before about those fleeting relationships . She had n't even known he was aware of them . " It would interfere , " she said . " Then you 'll have to learn to deal with it , because I 'm here and I 'm serious as hell . I 've watched and I 've waited . Everything I 've done since I met you has been centered on you . I do n't know why . I never wanted it . " " You 're my friend , Joe . " " Forever . But I can be more . I can Please your body . " He paused . " And I can give you a child @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to even think of it , but it would be the one act that might heal you . " " Joe , it would n't work . " It will work . I 'll make it work . " He smiled . " My first goal is to get you to think of me as a sex object instead ofrs abrother . Shall I tell you how good I am in bed ? He was joking . Or was fie ? " No , I 'd rather show you . " His smile faded . " And I know this is n't the time or place . Thoughit seems as though we 've spent most of our years together balanced on the edge of a greave . " He reached over and touched her cheek . " You should thing about the fact that a good protion of the time when I 'm looking at you I 'm not seeing m ; y friend . I 'm seeing you in bed or on top of me or putting you hands on -- " He threw back his head and laughed . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Photograph Passion play : He showed her what she 'd been missing . <p> " Damn you Joe . " She felt as if her face were on fire . " I ca n't think about that . But she would . She would n't be able to stop herself from remembering his words . " Stop fretting , " Joe murmured . " Our friendship will always stay the same . I 'm not trying to take anything away from you . I 'm just trying to gibe us both more . " " You must think I 'm a selfish bitch , " she said . " You 've aready given me so much . Yot saved my sanity . I 'd give you anything you wanted if I was n't afraid I 'd endup hurting you . Sex is nothing . You 'd ask for more and I do n't know if I could give it . The boy who got me pregnant with Bonnie left as soon as I told him I would n't get an abortion . That was n't exactly- great training . I do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " " You can handle anything . " Yeah ? I have n't handled any sexual relationship since with great skill . " That 's because it was n't xxth me . " She laughed . " You arrogant bastard . " " Nothing but the truth . " fie pressed her head into the curve of his shouldcr . " Come on , let me take you home so you can get some sleep . " Once back at her place , she asked : " Joe ... Would yon mind staying oversleeping on the fold-out couch ? This serial killer has me all freaked out . You know , I ca n't stop thinking of Bonnie . He 's made it all come back , and I feel powerless all over again .... " She could n't help it , hut she felt tears burning at the corners of her eyes . " Shhh , " Joe mured , stroking her hair . " Of course I 'll stay . " Eve bronglit out some blankets and pillows , putting on a big show of making up the bed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bed . She reached over and turned out the light . " You should n't have clone that . I wanted to see you . " Joe was standing in the doorway , a dark figure silhouetted by the light in the hall . An unmistakably naked figure . " Joe , I do n't want to hurt your ego , " she said . I do n't want to hurt you at all . That 's why this ca n't happen . " " You want it to happen . " Eve hesitated . " Of course it 's crossed my mind . You made sure of that . " " And I mean to make the most of it . " He lifted the blanket . " Scoot over . I 'm coming in . " His naked thigh touched hers . She moved over . " It 's a mistake , Joe . " His hand covered her breast . " Never . " He ran his hand down her stomach ... searching ... finding her ... She could n't breathe . " Please . " " Do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " You 're riot kissing me now , " she said . " I 'll get around to it . I 'll get around to everything . " Her phone rang . Joe muttered a curse . She whispered , " Turn it off . " He started to get off the bed and then stopped . He moved back over her . " I promise you wo n't hear it soon . " She no longer heard anything but the beat of his heart against her ear . She did n't speak when it was over . He was silent a moment . " After 10 years , I think I deserve the words . Ten years . She felt tears sting her eyes . " If I were n't sure you 'd be completely impossible , I 'd tell you that you were pretty good . " " Pretty good ? You mean a stud , a stallion . Brad Pitt , Keann Reeaves , and Casanova rolled into one . Do n't be afraid to love me , Eve . I 'm not a helpless child who can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survive another 50 years . " " I 'm not afraid . " " The hell you 're not . " He lowered his head , his lips barely touching her own . " But that 's okay . You do n't have to say you love me. -1 can wait . " " I do n't love you . Not the way you want me to love you . " " I think you do . But if ou do n't , that 's okay too . " " It 's not okay , " she cried . " It 's all wrong , I 'm damaged . No one should know that better than you . " " You 're damaged ? I 'm the one who 's been obsessed for the last 10 years . " " It 's not the same . I can't- " " Shh . " He moved over her again . " Do n't think . Do n't analyze . Let everything fall into place . Enjoy .... " ( 800 ) Books Now <p> To order The King Game ( Bantam , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Books Now at ( 800 ) 962 -66 51 , ext. 1105 ( be sure to mention Cosmo ) or go online at http : , @/vw , books Whenever you order books seen in Cosmo , from Books Now , we will donate 15 percent of sales to Literacy Partners , Inc. , an organization that helps millions of nonreading women gain the literacy skills they need to help themselves and their families . JOIN THE CLUB Have you ever had a friendship catch fire ? Let us know : Write Cosmo Book Club , 224 West 57th St. , New York , NY 10019 or E-Mail . Footnote Adapted from THE KILLING GAME . Copyright ( c ) 1999 by Iris Johansen . Published by Bantam Dell Publishing Group . <p> 
##1006260 For a Black woman in bondage , keeping faith with her own heart and having her man and children near could be as elusive as freedom itself <p> AMID THE WEARINESS OF WORKDAY 'S END , Sarah-Bell savored the quiet of oncoming twilight . Lilting into the breezeless amber of the October evening , a mesmerizing wordless song flowed from her full , plum-colored lips as she plodded down the dusty lane . Her ankle-length , sweatsoiled skirt swished with each step . Beside Sarah-Bell , **29;28;TOOLONG one hundred-eighty-seven pound Jim One-Toe hobbled along , deftly dragging his maimed left foot . One-Toe smiled in admiration of the way Sarah-Bell ended each phrase of her improvised reel on a little upward swoop that just naturally made a man feel good . " Sarah-Bell , you sing so pretty . Can I be your man ? " Sarah-Bell furtively peeked over at One-Toe , smiled and immediately refocused her gaze on the last visible tip of the orange sun swiftly falling behind the nearly clean-picked field of cotton plants . " One-Toe , you know I got a man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the time , " One-Toe retorted . A quick grin flashed across the dimpled midnight of his handsome blue-black face . Almost two good moons had passed since anybody had seen Mule-Boy visiting Sarah-Bell . Gathering was most over ; Mule coulda been sold off by now-everybody knowed Master Gilmore over to the next plantation was good for sending you down the river at the drop of a hat . Sarah-Bell scrutinized the squinting sincerity in OneToe 's eyes . " It air ; t that he do n't . He ca n't co ... " Suddenly interrupting herself , she hiked up her skirt as she stepped around a fresh pile of horse droppings . Then , shooing away a fat green-and-black fly with a quick fan of her field-toughened hand , she picked up her thought , " ... and you could n't be with me every night neither , that is , if'n I was to even let you come by at all . " One-Toe was encouraged that Sarah-Bell was at least considering the merits of being with him . He spied a glimmer of interest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Naw . I do n't think so , One-Toe . I thinks I can wait . " " Yes , ma'am . " One-Toe was disappointed , but not discouraged . He had plenty days ahead to blow gently on the spark he glimpsed in Sarah-Bell 's pecan-shaped eyes . He reckoned harvesting the love of a woman like this was worth a long season of planting and weeding . " But if you was to get tired a waiting . I would come . You know I would . Like a bird to the nest . I would come to you every night I could . " " Photograph <p> " Which make you no different from my far-away man who come to me every night he can . " " Well , do n't forget I 'm closer to the nest . I can get to you quicker than him , even if'n I ai n't got but one good foots , " One-Toe joked . Sarah-Bell grinned as One-Toe made fun of his own infirmity . She liked his gentle humor but she did n't feel a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even a fine man like One-Toe . Sarah-Bell gracefully waved to One-Toe and spoke in a husky half-whisper as she strolled on , " Good night , brotha One-Toe . " One-Toe peered longingly at the broadness of SarahBell 's back and the ampleness of her hips . He looked til his imagination was as full as it could stand to be . One-Toe wanted that pretty-singing woman . He had seen a bunch of women who was face-prettier , but he had never heard no one or nothing what sang prettier than Sarah-Bell . One-Toe had been thinking so hard about holding SarahBell in his huge am-is , he missed catching sight of the White man , Chester Browne , squatting nearby her door . When her singing faltered and then abruptly fell silent , One-Toe quickly surveyed the area to see what disturbance had stilled Sarah-Bell 's song . One-Toe glared at Chester , who was the plantation overseer . Everybody knowed what a driverman in the lane after hours waiting by a woman 's door meant . One-Toe spat into the dust , turned and drug himself into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he heard the thudding shuffle of Chester 's horse moseying past the open doorway as Chester and Sarah-Bell rode out the lane . A high-pitched whinny from the horse taunted OneToe , but he refused to look up at the too-familiar abduction . One-Toe forcefully buried his face in the gritty dirt floor and stifled an urge to say something , anything-a word , a sound , her name . Chester was n't talking , and Sarah-Bell was n't singing . The chomp chomp chomp chomp of the sorrel 's hooves echoed against the mud-caked wall of One-Toe 's sleep space and reverberated inside his skull . Sarah-Bell 's silence tormented One-Toe . He would gladly let them ax-chop his good right foot if'n he could visit her -- Chester or no Chester . Naw , ifn he had a cooing dove like Sarah-Bell to share nights with , he would n't even dream of running again . An hour later Chester had finished his business . Since he never kept any washing water in his cabin , and Sarah-Bell had not even dared think about going down to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ herself with her skirt tail before she set off to walking back . Her general habit was to immediately forget the weight of the overseer as he flu-ashed into her , but Sarah-Bell found herself mulling over her plight . Her thoughts were accompanied by the crunch of her footfalls on the loamy trail . Maybe she should brave a trek over to Gilmore 's and plead with Mama Zulie for some womb-cleaning chawing roots . Sarah-Bell paused and fleetingly hugged herself I sure hope nothing that drastic is needed . Probably not . Her regular bleeding had just stopped a day or so ago . But even though she was aware that Chester 's drool could do her no hann , it sure was a mighty aggravation the way the taste of his kiss sometimes seemed to stay in her mouth for days . Luckily , on this particular night , he had mostly wanted to suck at her nipples rather than her lips . Plus , he was done quickly enough . It had n't been too long fore Chester dozed off and Sarah-Bell had been able to scoot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to walking the three quarters of a mile back to the lane . By the time she was most halfway there , Sarah-Bell had managed to bury Chester 's assault and summon up a plaintive song to soften the knot of jumbled sorrow resting heavy in the bottom of her stomach . Shortly , for the second time , the soles of Sarah-Bell 's thickly callused feet felt the well-worn familiarity of the lane 's path . She was welcomed back by the sleeping-sounds of her people . Snores . Whistles . Sobs . Groans . A few moans from someone sick , or from someone really tired , or maybe both . Sarah-Bell was too exhausted to stumble 50 more yards down to the creek for to wash herself She would do that in the morning . And though she was hungry , she was also too fatigued to gnaw on the piece of hardtack that was secreted deep in the pocket of her skirt . Right now she needed to lay down by herself and seek the solace of sleep so she could disremember the dog-odor of Chester 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Seems like smell and taste had more staying power even than the abuse of touch . Sarah-Bell 's sharp ears caught the faint sound of some animal moving in the woods . judging from the swift lightness of the rustling coming from the bushes , she guessed it must be a rabbit . An owl hooted . Sarah-Bell wordlessly empathized with the prey-run , brother rabbit , less you be somebody 's supper . Times like this Sarah-Bell wished she was brave enough to hightail it like One-Toe had done . Maybe she would make it to Mexico , which is where One-Toe said he had been headed . Sarah-Bell thought of what One-Toe had declared when they brought him back : Some gets away , some do n't . Getting free was worth the risk , worth losing some of a foot . She flinched at the thought of so permanent a loss . Even though she had survived more than her share of suffering , SarahBell still did n't know if she could stand one of her limbs being mutilated or cut away . Sarah-Bell was too drained to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't even crawl over to check on her children balled together in slumber beneath a patchwork spread of sackcloth and shirt pieces . No sooner had her darkhaired head nestled onto the curved comfort of her pillow-stone , than she was dead asleep . The next day , in the pale dim of half-dawn morning light , only one child sat where two usually fidgeted . Sarah-Bell 's heart dropped . " Where Suzee-Bell ? " " Them took her , " Johnny-Bell replied . Was no need to say who " them " was . Was no need to ask " where " they took her . We ai n't got nothing but each other , and they wo n't let us hold on to that , Sarah-Bell 's insides roiled with anger . Both man and God was unfair . Man for what he was doing . And God for allowing men to act the low-down way they did . Sarah-Bell knew Johnny-Bell would be next . She knew it just as sure as she knew a snake would eat an unprotected egg . Johnny-Bell was her fifth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " " Johnny ... " the child stuttered , frightened by the hissed intensity of his mother 's question . " Naw . Yo name Johnny-Bell . BELL . You Johnny-Bell . Yo brothers is Robert-Bell and Joe-Bell . Your sisters is Urzie-Bell and Suzee-Bell . No matter where they cart you off to , no matter what they call you by , you remember the name yo mama give you , boy . And if you ever hear tell of yo brothers or yo sisters , you go find " em if you can . But you remember " em even if you ca n't find " em . You remember yo people . You hear me ? " " Yes , ma'am . " The confused 4-year-old wet himself He had never heard his mother speak so harshly to him ; but he did n't cry . When she realized how hard she was shaking him , SarahBell softened her grip on Johnny-Bell 's shoulder . Her rage was n't making this crisis any easier for him . She could feel currents of fear in his little body , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Within seconds Sarah-Bell reined in her emotions , mustered up her fortitude and tenderly enfolded Johnny-Bell into the shelter of her bosom . They swayed in mutual anguish as she sought to rock away his fear and her grief . Instinctively she handled her predicament as best she knew how . Within seconds of hugging Johnny-Bell , SarahBell was breathing out a long-toned lullaby and anointing the reddish-brown hair of her son 's head with song-embellished kisses . And she did n't loosen her embrace until she heard the rooster crow for day . After emerging into the muted shine of daybreak , hand-in-hand , mother and child marched down to the water to bathe themselves . Word about Suzee-Bell buzzed through the small community . just before leaving for the fields , glassy-eyed and scowling , Sarah-Bell stood in the middle of the lane sullenly declaring her determination . " Y'all , hear me . Every time I have one , they take and sell em away . Sarah-Bell is through birthing , babies . No matter who lay down with me , ai n't no mo babies coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you bear me . Done . " And with the finality of her words resounding in everyone 's ears , Sarah-Bell whirled and commenced to trudging off to the field . One-Toe scrambled to catch up to her . Without breaking stride , Sarah-Bell closely examined OneToe 's unblinking gaze . Satisfied with what she saw , she gave a quick nod and gratefully accepted the respectful silence of his company . She started singing , quietly at first but more forcefully as they sauntered on . The irresistible refrain of Sarah-Bell 's song syncopated their gait . Together , they would face another day . Author Affiliation Kalamu ya Salaam is the founder and director of the Nommo Literary Society in New Orleans . He is also coeditor , with Kysha Brown , of the anthology Speak the Truth to the People ( Runagate Press ) and the moderator of the on-line literature forum CyberDrum ; his E-mail address is kalamu@aol.com . I sing because ... " originally appeared in the literary journal Anansi : Fiction of the African Diaspora . ( For a year 's subscription to the journal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New York NY 10025 . ) <p> 
##1006350 Cesar Chavez squeezes a bunch of grapes to kick off a grape boycott in New York . <p> ( Long live the cause ! ) Cesar Chavez was a hero to Mexican-American farmworkers . Read our play based on his life story . Scene 1 Narrator 1 : During the Great Depression , times were hard for most Americans . The stock market crashed in 1929 . Many banks closed down , and people lost their life savings . Narrator 2 : Families that were rich became poor . Families that were poor became penniless . Narrator 1 : In 1937 , the Depression hit the Chavez family . They lived on a farm near Yuma , Arizona . One afternoon , 10-year-old Cesar came home and found his father sitting at the kitchen table instead of working in the fields . His mother was packing their dishes and silverware . Cesar : What 's happening ? Mama , why are you packing ? Librado : We ca n't pay the bills . The bank has taken our farm . Cesar : No ! I do n't want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nobody in Yuma has any money . They ca n't buy what we 've grown . Cesar : But where will we go ? Librado : We 'll follow the crops . Cesar : What does that mean ? Librado : It means we 'll travel across the country . We 'll follow the trail of the different crops as they ripen . We 'll begin by picking cotton in Texas . Then , we 'll come back to Arizona , and then go to California to pick grapes . Juana : Go on and pack , Cesar . We have to leave soon . Narrator 2 : Cesar had to leave his friends and the only home he 'd ever known . Many families in the Southwest were forced to make the same choice . Narrator 1 : Workers who " migrated , " or moved , with the crops , came to be known as migrant workers . Scene 2 Narrator 2 : One year later , Cesar and his family were working on a farm in Califonia . Migrant workers were mistreated , overworked , and underpaid . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 : Sometimes whole families worked in the fields even the children . Cesar started working at a very young age . Librado : You have worked hard , Cesar . Once I collect our wages , I 'll take you to the movies . Cesar : Can I have popcorn ? Librado : Of course ! Narrator 2 : When he and his father arrived at the farmer 's house , Cesar noticed that the man 's truck was gone . Cesar 's father knocked on the door . There was no answer . Cesar looked inside the house . Cesar : There 's no one here . Librado : We 've been cheated ! The man moved away so he would n't have to pay us . Cesar : What are we going to do ? Librado : Nothing . There 's no law against this . We 're migrant workers . We 've got no protection . Photograph Migrant workers being driven to a farm for work . <p> Cesar : What do we do now ? Librado : We move on , and hope the next farmer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cesar grew up . He married and had a family of his own . It was 1952 . Narrator 2 : Migrant workers were still underpaid . They also risked their health working in the fields -- fainting in the hot sun , and inhaling the pesticides that were sprayed on the crops to keep bugs away . Narrator 1 : One day a man named Fred Ross knocked on Cesar 's front door . Fred : Are you Cesar ChAvez ? Cesar : Yes . How can I help you ? Fred : I 'm a member of a private agency that helps farmworkers . Migrant workers have been treated terribly for years . Cesar : You do n't have to convince me of that , Fred : I need your help . Can you arrange a meeting and invite every migrant worker in the area ? It 's time to put an end to bad working conditions . Narrator 2 : Cesar thought over what Fred Ross said . He thought of his father losing the farm . He thought of growing up in one filthy shack after another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fred : Oh , one more thing . You 'll have to do the talking . Cesar : What ? Me ? No way ! Fred : You know what it 's like to be a migrant worker . Who 's going to listen to me ? Cesar : I wo n't know what to say . Fred : Do n't worry . You 'll find the words . Scene 4 Cesar : My name is Cesar Chavez . Like most of you , I 'm a migrant worker . For too many years , we have suffered injustices brought against us and our families . It 's time for things to change ! Narrator 1 : Migrant workers in Cesar 's home got nervous . They knew that , unlike other labor workers , they had no union , no organized group , to support them . Diego : I do n't think the farmers would be too happy if they knew we were meeting . Pedro : He 's right . We should leave . Miguel : I have a family to support and feed . I ca n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not asking for . trouble . We 're asking for justice ! Narrator 2 : Several workers stood up and headed for the door . Cesar did n't know how to stop them . Then , he had an idea . Cesar : Wait ! You , there by the door . How old are you ? Pedro : Me ? Forty-five . Why ? Cesar : What would you say if I told you that you only have four years left to live ? Pedro : What ? You 're crazy ! Fred : No , Cesar 's right . According to statistics , the average migrant worker only lives to the age of 49 . Narrator 1 : The migrant workers looked at each other , and then returned to their seats . Cesar : Do you know why our time is so short ? Just think of our living and working conditions . Pedro : My living conditions are crowded and cramped . There are two families living in my shack ! Miguel : That 's nothing ! There are three families living with us ! Diego : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every night off the desert . That 's why my little Jose died last year . Miguel : Working conditions are just as bad . I cough all the time . It 's those pesticides . Diego : I 've fainted twice from working too long under the hot sun . Pedro : I ca n't always coughing . I 've fainted in the fields too , but I ca n't afford a doctor . Cesar : What 's have we done to be treated this way ? Nothing ! Diego , Pedro , Pedro , and Miguel ( together ) : Yes , that 's right ! Nothing ! We 're all being treated unfairly ! Worse than the bugs they spray ! Cesar : It 's time for things to change ! " Diego , Pedro , and Miguel ( together ) : But how ? What can we do ? We have no power . Cesar : We must organize and form a union ! Then the farmers will see what power is ! Diego , Pedro , and Miguel ( together ) : Yes ! i Viva @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Cesar and his family stopped working in the fields . He devoted all his time to la causa ( the cause ) . Many farmworkers banded together to fight for justice . Scene 5 Narrator 1 : By the year 1965 , with the help of many people , Cesar was successful in organizing a union for farmworkers . He and the workers petitioned , went on strikes , marched , and held rallies . Narrator 2 : In 1966 , they began a grape boycott . Cesar gained international attention , and he was interviewed on TV . Reporter : We are here in sunny California with Cesar Chavez and a local farmer . Mr. Chavez , can you tell us what 's happening here ? Photograph Cesar speaks to a reporter . <p> Cesar : We 're asking people not to buy or eat grapes . Reporter : But why ? Cesar : If people stop eating grapes , the farmers wo n't be able to sell their crops to anyone . Reporter : But that would make the farmers lose money . Why do you want to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years of loyal service , the migrant worker is still being mistreated . We demand better working and living conditions , and a guaranteed minimum wage . Farmer Wilson : It ca n't be done . We 'll go out of business . Scene 6 Narrator 1 : People from California to New York took part in the protest . All across the country , people stopped buying grapes . As demand for grapes dropped , so did the prices . This was devastating to the grape farmers of California . Narrator 2 : The grape boycott officially came to an end on June 14 , 1969 . The following year the migrant workers won ! They were given a contract that provided a wage increase and health insurance . It also included regulations against the use of certain pesticides which made workers sick . Narrator 1 : Cesar Chavez continued to fight for the rights of all farmworkers until the day of his death on April 22 , 1993 . A version of this play was first printed in Famous Americans : 22 Short Plays for the Classroom ( Scholastic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ READING ZONE Photograph Chavez speaks to union members in Washington , D.C. <p> READING ZONE Play Quiz Read each question about Viva La Causa ! Then , fill in the bubble next to the letter that is the best answer . 1 . The play Viva La Causa ! is mostly about LESSON 2 PLAY <p> PAGES 6-10 VIVA LA CAUSA : A play based upon the life story of Cesar Chavez ABOUT THE STORY : Cesar Chavez , a Mexican American hero , helps farmworkers get better working conditions by creating a labor union . VOCABULARY : boycott , to refuse to buy something or to protest ; migrate , move ; pesticide , a chemical used to kill insects ; petition , a letter signed by many people that asks officials for a change . OBJECTIVE : Students will understand problem and solution . BEFORE READING : Ask students if they have ever tried to solve a problem or difficulty . What was the problem ? What did they do to solve the problem ? Explain to students that most stories have a basic problem or difficulty the main @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ La Causa ! Cesar Chavez becomes a hero when he solves a problem for all farmworkers . DURING READING : Have students read the first two scenes . Have students underline the problem they find in Scene 2 . ( In Scene 2 , the problem of migrant workers being mistreated is introduced . ) Ask students to predict how this problem could be solved . Invite students to circle solutions for the problems of migrant workers when they are mentioned in the play . ( Scene 4 : a meeting of farmworkers , decision to organize and form a union ; Scene 5 : workers petitioned , went on strikes , marched , boycotted grapes , etc. ; Scene 6 : people from California to New York participated in the grape boycott . ) AFTER READING : Have students describe one social problem of the past or present . Ask students to discuss solutions for the social problem . For example , in the last issue of Action , students learned about Rosa Parks and the social problem of racism and segregation on buses . Rosa 's solution to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the bus and begin a bus boycott . PLUS : See Reading Zone : Play Quiz on p. 11 of the student edition and Succes Zone : Discrepancy Passages on p. 4 of the Teacher 's Edition . READING ZONE : PLAY QUIZ , R I I I.c ; 2. a ; 3. c ; 4. b ; 5. a ; 6. a ; 7. a ; 8. b ; 9. b ; IO.a . Action Skills Sheet SUCCESS ZONE Name : Date : VIVA LA CAUSA ! READING SUMMARIES FOR ACCURACY/DISCREPANCY PASSAGES How well do you remember what you read about Cesar Chavez ? Below are three different summaries of the play ; Viva la Causa ! Only one of them has completely accurate information . Two of the passages will have factual errors , such as " Migrant workers were farm laborers who were forced to work on one farm for years at a time : " That is incorrect because migrant workers followed the crops , moving from farm to farm . Carefully read each of the passages below . Underline any inaccurate sentences . In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next to the passage which is completely correct . Place an X next to the passages which have any incorrect information . I. Migrant families were often mistreated , overworked , and unfairly paid . It was common to find several families living in one shack . There were no set wages for migrant workers and farmers paid whatever they pleased . Cesar learned to pick crops at a very young age . When Cesar grew up , he became a successful organizer for farmworkers . He and the workers never petitioned or participated in strikes , rallies , or marches because it would have been too distracting for the workers . Cesar became famous for his work as the leader of a labor union . 2 . When Cesar Chavez was a child , his family lost their farm . They were forced to leave their home and follow the crops for work . They became migrant workers . Life was not easy for migrant workers . When Cesar grew up , he joined a movement to create a union that would protect migrant workers from mistreatment . He asked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Grape Boycott . However , the boycott failed and the migrant workers were denied a fair contract . 3 . Cesar Chavez grew up during the Great Depression . His family lost their farm and became migrant workers . Migrant workers were overworked and underpaid . They were also exposed to the hot sun and harmful pesticides . When Cesar became an adult , he got involved in a movement to create a union that would protect migrant workers from mistreatment . He led a grape boycott which caused many farmers to lose money . Finally , the grape boycott was a success , and the migrant workers were given a contract which offered a guaranteed minimum wage and banned certain pesticides . Sidebar CHARACTERS *Narrator 1 *Narrator 2 *Cesar Chavez ( SAY-zar SHA-vez ) a labor organizer Librado ( Lee-BRA-do ) Cesar 's father Juana ( WAH-na ) Cesar 's mother Fred Ross an organizer who helps farmworkers Diego migrant worker Pedro migrant worker Miguel migrant worker Reporter Farmer Wilson *Starred characters are major roles . <p> 
##1006351 Based on the movie starring Melissa Joan Hart and the novel , Girl Gives Birth to Own Prom Date by Todd Strasser <p> CHARACTERS *Narrators 1 &; 2 *Nicole Maris , a high school senior *Alicia. her best friend *Chase Hammond . Nicole 's neighbor , also a senior *Ray , Chase 's friend *Dave , Chase 's friend *Dulcie , Chase 's girlfriend Liz , Dulcie 's best friend Chloe . a popular girl Sue . a popular girl Dee Vine , a popular girl Brad Seldon captain of the basketball team Mrs. Maria , Nicole 's mom Mr. Hammond . Chase 's dad Mr. Rope assistant principal Joshua a college student Eddie , a popular boy *starred characters are major roles SCENE 1 Narrator 1 : Nicole Maris is one of the coolest , most popular girls in her school . She hangs with all the right people and wears all the right clothes . Narrator 2 She is getting dressed for school . Her phone rings . She hits " speaker " and keeps searching . Narrator 1 : Nicole 's best friend , Alicia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ready to go yet ? Nicole : Clothing crisis . I 'm headed for Mom 's closet . Alicia : Trouble with Operation Brad ? Nicole : We 've got exactly two weeks left and he still has n't asked me to the Centennial Dance . Basketball star or not , the boy needs to move faster . Did Bob Patton ask you ? Alicia : Yes . The answer was no . I ca n't go with him . The guy has no jump shot . Narrator 2 : Nicole 's next-door neighbor Chase Hammond is a member of the alternative , blackjeans-and-T-shirt crowd . He 's trying to eat his cereal , but there 's no milk . He goes into the backyard . His father is holding a pitcher of milk , talking to Nicole 's mom at the backyard fence . Nicole arrives at the same time , looking for her mom . Chase : Pops , can I take that milk off your hands ? Nicole : Mom , where 's your white halter top ? Photograph Melissa Joan Hart plays Nicole Maris , one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plays Chase Hammond , a member of the alternative crowd <p> Chase &; Nicole ( to each other ) : Oh . Hi . Mr. Hammond : Can you believe they 'll be in college next year ? Seems like yesterday they were playing in that tree house . Mrs. Maris : Nicole used to say she was going to marry Chase . Nicole : Mom ! Mr. Hammond : Once I found Nicole 's school picture in Chase 's pillowcase . Chase : Dad ! Milk . OK ? Mrs. Maris : You two used to do everything together . What happened ? Nicole : Junior high happened . SCENE 2 Narrator 1 : Chase and Nicole 's high school is unofficially nicknamed Time Zone High . At the school 's TV studio , Ray , the camera man , checks his gear . Sue , the anchor , prepares for the morning news program . Chase ducks his head in . Chase : Ray ! After school , behind the cafeteria . Be there . With camera . Ray OK , now beat it . We 're on air @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Time Zone High ! Our top story today - the school centennial . Two weeks to go , and excitement mounts . The senior-class bash promises to make history . Here 's Nicole Maris of the centennial committee . Nicole ( on the air ) : It 's a dance , a celebration , a once-in-a-lifetime moment - a perfect evening . Narrator 2 : After school , the centennial committee meets on the cafeteria patio . At the table are Time Zone High 's most popular girls : Nicole , Alicia , Chloe , Sue , and Dee . Chloe : How 's the budget looking ? Nicole : We 've still got over $16,000 . Chloe : Good . I 'm working on a deal to get a jumbo screen . Dee : Is everyone in the school invited to this thing ? Nicole : Sure . Sue : Maybe we should implement some quality control , like a dress code ? Look at them . Narrator 1 : Sue points at Dulcie and Liz , girls in black with dyed hair . A banner above them asks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " Narrator 2 : Nearby , at the top of a hill , Chase , Ray , and Dave stand around a stack of old tires . They look down at the school patio . Ray videotapes them . Dave : Why are we doing this again ? Chase : To protest sheep . Ray Check . To protest sheep . Dave : What , specifically , about sheep do we object to ? Chase : Not real sheep . The herding mentality . Our fellow students . Just look at them . Drinking moccachinos . Listening to Mariah Carey . Down with sheepism ! Narrator 1 : Chase tips the stack over . Tires roll down the hill and bounce wildly all over the patio . One bounces on the committee 's table , spilling drinks . The girls scream . The assistant principal , Mr. Rope , collars Ray , Dave , and Chase . Mr. Rope : Move it , boys . My office . You know the way . Narrator 2 : Meanwhile on the patio , Nicole and the rest of the committee are still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Losers Attempt Prank . Hundreds Unimpressed . Dee : Nicole , is n't Chase Hammond a friend of yours ? Nicole : Chase Hammond is a neighbor . That 's all . Narrator 1 : Meanwhile , at the table of girls in black . . . Liz : What a drag , Dulcie . Your boyfriend 's getting sent up the river . Dulcie : He 's not my boyfriend . Boyfriend implies possession . People do n't possess people . That 's slavery . Liz : Cool . SCENE 3 Narrator 2 : That night , Nicole and Alicia are at the basketball game , watching Brad Seldon run the court . Nicole : What 's taking Brad so long to ask me ? I 've got the perfect date all planned ! Narrator 1 : The girls watch as Brad runs the floor and scores . Nicole : He 's gorgeous . Alicia : He 's just someone to take a picture with . Nicole : So ? He takes a good picture . Alicia : Shallow . Nicole : Said the plate to the saucer . Narrator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are hanging out at the alternative-music spot in town , the Insomnia Cafe . Narrator 1 : Everyone there is dressed in black . Some college students set up a microphone . Liz : Ray , when are you going to do real news instead of all that school-spirit propaganda ? Chase : Ray 's got a plan . He plays their game for as long as he can stand it , and then one day . . . he takes over the station ! Narrator 2 : A college student steps up to the microphone . Joshua : I 'm Joshua Hill with the Animal Liberation Front , and I 'd like to tell you what 's going on at campus laboratories . Chase : No way . Let 's go . Dulcie : Wait . I want to hear this . Joshua : Medical research : That 's the two-word excuse for the animal abuse taking place in school labs . Dulcie : Why are n't you into this ? It 's important . Chase : Let 's just go , OK ? Dulcie : You think you 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tires ? What a joke . Narrator 1 : Suddenly , Dulcie 's conversation sounds serious to Chase . Chase : Wait a minute . Are we breaking up ? Dulcie : We 're heading in different directions . Narrator 2 : Back at the game , Brad dives for a loose ball and crashes into a cheerleader for the visiting team . Their eyes meet . Later , at a party , Alicia gives Nicole the scoop . Alicia Bad news : Adonis Jock Falls for Rival Spirithead . Nicole : Translation ? Alicia : That cheerleader - the one Brad landed on at the game ? He did n't just fall on her , he fell for her . Brad 's in love . He 's taking her to the Centennial Dance . Nicole : If I start crying , slap me . Alicia : Cry over this and you 're taking a cab home . Nicole : Fine . Leave me with the embarrassment of going to the biggest dance of my life alone . " Narrator 1 : Across town , Dave and Ray console Chase about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ta go . Narrator 2 : Dave 's been a designated driver for hire for over a year . But the only people who ever call for his services are the popular kids . The ones who ignore Dave , Chase , and Ray in school . Chase : You said you were n't doing the designated driver thing this year . Dave : It 's good for my college applications . Ray : That 's not why you do it . You want to be one of them . The popular people . Chase : They 're not worth it . They do n't invite you to their parties . Then some idiot gets drunk and they say , " Hey ! Let 's call Designated Dave ! " Dave : That does n't mean they should die in car wrecks . SCENE 4 Narrator 1 : Later that night , Chase 's phone rings . It 's Nicole . Nicole : Take me to the Centennial Dance . I 'm desperate . Chase : Gee , when you put it that way , how can I resist ? Nicole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be . Word 's out that Dulcie dropped you . Chase : Yeah . . . well . Nicole : Well , you have a tiny idea how I feel . I 'm going to be treated like the biggest loser ever at school . We can save each other from disgrace . Chase : What 's in it for me ? Nicole : If you have to ask , you 're not as smart as you think you are . Think Dulcie . Narrator 2 : The next morning , Chase meets Nicole at the backyard fence . Chase : If we try this , we have to agree to let each other out if it gets too weird . Nicole : OK . But we ca n't do this halfway if we want people to believe it . It 's got to feel real . If you really want Dulcie back , extreme measures are required . Chase : Define extreme . Nicole : To start , you ca n't wear all black . We need to clean you up . Chase : How far up ? Nicole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risks . Chase : Let 's do it . Narrator 1 : The next morning , Ray talks to Nicole at her locker . He 's secretly had a crush on her for years . Ray : Nicole , will you be my date for the dance ? Nicole : Sorry Ray , but Chase and I decided we 'd go together . Here he comes now . Narrator 2 : Chase 's long hair has been clipped fashionably short . He wears khakis and a collared shirt . He looks uncomfortable . Ray laughs hysterically . Chase : Great . I 'm a walking punch line . Nicole : We 'll see who gets the last laugh . See you after school . Narrator 1 : Nicole leaves . Ray : Explanation ? Chase : I thought it might make Dulcie come back . Ray : Seriously ? How ? Chase : I figure she 'll freak out when she sees me with Ms. School Spirit , Nicole Maris . SCENE 5 Narrator 2 : After school , Nicole takes Chase to a basketball game . Chase hangs out with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ halftime , a suspicious Alicia corners Nicole . Alicia : Very cute , making nice with your neighbor . Nicole : The boy cleans up nicely . Shocking , is n't it ? Alicia : Maybe . Or maybe you 're trying to make someone jealous . Nicole : Brad ? I 'm over it . Alicia : Sure . And Chase is suddenly this good friend nobody knew you had . Nicole : Maybe he 'll be even more . Narrator 1 : The next day at school . . Ray : Look , it 's Ken Doll . Dave : Careful . You could lose reputation points just being this close to us . Chase : Come on . I 'm pulling off the biggest scam of all time . Do n't you see ? I 'm in their world . Dave : It 's a scam , all right . . . but who 's scamming who ? Narrator 2 : Later , Chase and Nicole hang out with the cool crowd at a drive-in . This time , Chase is n't having a great time . Brad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his own X-Files Web site . Can you believe that ? Weird . Chase : His name is Dave . Brad : What ? Chase : Not Designated Dave . Just plain Dave . Eddie : OK . So it 's Plain Dave . Nicole : Chase ? Can I talk to you ? Narrator 1 : She takes him aside . Nicole : What was that about ? Chase : Dave saves lives and they make fun of him . Typical . Nicole : Is this more us-versus-them stuff ? Chase : If the glass slipper fits . Nicole : Can you honestly tell me you 've never made fun of my friends ? Eddie ? Brad ? Chase : That 's different . Nicole : How ? Chase : Forget it . I 'm out of here . Nicole : Do n't ! If they see you leave mad , it sets us back . Chase : It does n't set me back . So far , it 's all been about you . Your friends . Your turf . Nicole : You 're right . Let 's go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to The Pit , a small dance club where he hangs out . Chase sees his friends Liz and Dave . Chase : Hi - you know Nicole ? Liz ( sarcastic ) : Sure . From the slumber party last weekend . We painted each other 's toenails . Nicole ( sarcastic right back ) Right . We played Truth or Dare . You admitted liking Alanis Morisette before the record went platinum . Liz : I never liked her ! Dave : She got you there , Liz . Narrator 1 : Soon , Dulcie shows up with Joshua . Chase : So you 're going out with Mr. Animal Rights now ? Dulcie : Yeah . Chase : I did n't expect you to fall in love , Dulcie . Dulcie : I did n't expect you to fall into The Gap . Narrator 2 : After their date , Chase walks Nicole to her door . Nicole : I 've still got the letter you wrote me in seventh grade . You said you hated me . Chase : Burn it . I 'm sorry . Nicole @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got sick I could n't bear to go over to your house . I was too scared . When you started wigging out at school -- skipping class , pulling fire alarms , all that - I acted like I did n't know you . Chase : Forget it , OK ? I had a nice time tonight . Nicole : Me , too . SCENE 6 Narrator 1 : Monday , in science class , Nicole and Dulcie are lab partners . Dulcie : So , have you taught Chase to jump through fiery hoops yet Nicole : Why do you care ? Dulcie : I do n't . You 're welcome to him . I used to think he had social consciousness . Nicole : Is this about the animal testing thing ? Dulcie : Your concern is noted . Nicole : Dulcie . Chase 's mother died of cancer . Get it ? Animal testing . Medical research . Narrator 2 : The day before the Centennial Dance , Brad throws a party . Ray sneaks in and secretly tapes everything . Chase : What did you tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : She 's acting freaky around me . Nice , even . Nicole : I guess our mission is nearly accomplished . Chase : I guess . Narrator 1 : Later , Chase frowns and stares as Brad flirts with Nicole . Alicia taps Chase 's shoulder . Alicia : Who would have guessed that underneath all those black T-shirts of yours there was a heartbreaker dying to get out ? Chase : Right . Alicia : Just think - if Brad had n't fallen on that cheerleader , Nicole would have the guy she really wanted . Chase : Yeah . Just think . Alicia : Chase . Are you sure Nicole 's the one for you ? Narrator 2 : Seeing Nicole coming their way , Alicia grabs Chase and kisses him . Confused , Chase bolts . Nicole : Explanation ? Alicia : I wanted to see if what he felt for you was true . Clearly it is n't . I did you a favor . Nicole : The thank-you note is in the mail . You 're miserable and you do n't want to see me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'll find a new date . Nicole : You 're right . Brad is back on the market . Narrator 1 : Chase bangs his head against a wall . Dave drives up as Eddie staggers outside , leaning on Dee . Dee : Sorry , Dave . Eddie 's drunk , and I ca n't drive his car . Eddie : Shut up ! I do n't want any dumb chick driving my car . Narrator 2 : Dee looks at Dave , embarrassed . Dave : You 're walking , Eddie . Eddie : This is n't revenge of the nerds , Designated Dud . Narrator 1 : He knocks Dave down . Eddie : Get up and drive me home . As for you , Dee . . . Narrator 2 : Dee sprays Eddie with pepper spray . He screams as Dee and Dave drive away . Narrator 1 : The next day is Friday , the day of the big dance . Dulcie tells Chase she wants to get back together . Undecided , Chase sits next to Nicole in homeroom . Chase : Let 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were going to make this easy to get out of . Remember ? Chase : So that 's it ? It 's over ? Nicole : You need more closure ? Chase : I guess not . Narrator 2 : On their TV screen , Ray 's video masterpiece suddenly goes on the air . They see a stream of embarrassing images -- Chase banging his head , Eddie staggering drunk , Alicia cornering Chase , Dee spraying Eddie . At first , Chase is upset like the rest of the cool crowd . Then he looks at himself and laughs . SCENE 7 Narrator 1 : That evening , before the big dance , Dulcie and Chase are in Chase 's backyard . Chase : You ready for the dance ? Dulcie : Be serious . We 're going to the Insomnia . Decent music . No dress code . No stupid decorations . . . Chase ? Narrator 2 : Chase is surprised to see a limo pull up at Nicole 's house . Ray and Nicole get in the back and head to the dance . Chase : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the dance , Mr. Rope is center stage , with Mr. and Ms. Time Zone behind him . Mr. Rope : Now , to officially get the party going , I 'm proud to present Mr. and Ms. Time Zone . First up , Ms. Time Zone , Dee Vine , escorted by Dave . Ray Dave is with Dee ? Cool ! Photograph Explosive situation : Dulcie ( played by Ali Larter ) and Nicole are lab partners . Photograph Chase and Nicole : The real Mr. and Ms. Time Zone ? <p> Mr. Rope : And now , Mr. Time Zone , Brad Seldon , accompanied by Alicia . Nicole : Surprise , surprise . Narrator 2 : Alicia saunters over to Nicole and Ray at the punchbowl . Alicia : I 'm so sorry , Nicole . I really thought Brad would ask you . Nicole : He did . I said no . He was bummed , so I let him know you were up for grabs . Narrator 1 : Alicia stomps away . Nicole and Ray laugh . Ray : Nicole , I 'm sorry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the dance , so I volunteered to tape it for the news . I was going to blow it off , but . . . Narrator 2 : Ray turns Nicole so she can see Chase walking toward them . Nicole : You know it was all an act , Ray , that stuff between me and Chase . Ray : And it worked . You 're a great couple . See you . Chase : Where 's Ray ? I was going to ask if I could cut in for a dance . Nicole : Really ? Who are we making jealous this time ? Chase : Everyone , Nicole . Everyone . Understanding DRIVE ME CRAZY <p> Answers Sidebar Vocabulary words are highlighted in blue . <p> 
##1006358 Inventions can find applications quite different from what the inventor had in mind . . . <p> I would have got around to him all by myself , sooner or later . I 'd promised to do that , and I 'd made the promise to myself . It is not a good idea to break a promise you make to yourself ; it might just start you thinking that you 're not trustworthy-which is harmful to your mental health , whatever it may be . Roubor Transic , that unpleasant fellow , was definitely going to be a target marked For Destruction by Gerald Knave : Survivor-sooner or later . After all , the man had made his hobby into a very high-paying living , and his hobby was torture . Something , clearly , had to be done . But before I got around to it on my own-well , I 'd been busy-Marechal Field ran into me . He 'd planned to do that , and he 'd left his home planet , and all the lovely surroundings to which Marechal Field and all his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where I 'd been clearing up a small matter for an old-almost a senile-friend . I 'd been staying at a decent hotel in Barra , which is the planet 's one and only capital city , and I was not hard to find : why should I have been ? Marechal Field , fifty years old and an erect , soldierly figure of a man , with ice- blue eyes , large white mustachios and a shiny bald head , wasted no time at all in showing me the ransom note . It was short , to the point and almost completely unhelpful . Leave one million dollars in good metals in a locker in Gravesend Port . You will be watched . Do not set any guard on the locker ; or attempt to oversee it in any way . Whether or not you leave the ransom , your daughter Melissa will be RF turned to you . If you do leave the ransom , she will be returned alive , unharmed and in one piece . Roubor Transic " The torture business , " I said reflectively , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Field grunted . " There 's no time , " he said . " I see that , " I said . Transic had written almost a generic ransom note : no specific locker named ( well , Field would , it said , be watched ) , and no deadline set for payment . Only the name of the victim had been filled in . " When did you find out Melissa was missing ? " I said . It did n't sound like a useful question , but you have to start somewhere . Field ignored it . " I called him , " he said . aI needed time to get the moneyto turn it into metals-so I called him . He was-my God , Knave-he was very pleasant . " " He has a lot of ways of getting rid of his aggressions , " I said . It was n't a bad setup for a ransom demand : leaving the locker number open meant that Field had to be absolutely certain he was being watched when he dropped off the money ; that got Transic better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I could think of . And the open date put Transic in phone contact with Field without Transic 's having to initiate the call . " I suppose he did n't say anything incriminating over the phone , " I said . " He discussed the delivery of something for payment , " Field said . " I forget what . Oranges , I think . No , peaches . Oh God , he went on and on about how lovely this particular peach was . " That was Transic 's style : whenever you can safely stick pins in a victim , do so . " And you arranged a date , " I said . " I asked for ten days , " he said . " Transic gave me a week . I-I made arrangements immediately-and then I- " " You came to find me , " I said . " Maybe Transic had you followed every minute after the original note had been delivered . And maybe not ; no sure way to tell . Just by the way , how was the note delivered ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some postal office or other on the Reel . " Which was Transic 's planet of residence . All very simple , all very neatand as risk-free as a kidnap demand ever gets . " My God , Knave , " he said . " This is Roubor Transic . You 've got to help me . Melissa-she 's twenty-two , she 's just a kid . My God , Knave . A week with Transic- " " He wo n't harm her until day eight , " I said . " He wants his ransom-and he might be thinking ahead , to making a demand on someone else , somewhere else . So he 'd return the girl in good condition . " I was nowhere near as sure of this as I hoped I sounded , but Field nodded and looked a little relieved . " I suppose so , " he said . " Kidnapping-and the police can't- " " Once she 's returned , " I said , " she can complain to somebody . But it 's not likely to do any good . Transic will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bolitho , or on Earth , or God knows where . " " But- " " Transic tortures people , " I said . " Lots of other people know about that , though he 's been careful enough to avoid arrest-so far . And being on the Reel , that odd so-called pleasure planet where money makes most of the laws , helps a lot . " He said it again . " But- " " A man who has a reputation for torturing people , " I said gently , " can usually scratch up people who will swear to anything he wants them to swear to . " Field sighed . I was thinking fast , but I tried not to let it show . " I suppose so , " he said . " Knave- " " Will I help you ? " I said . " If I agree , you 're going to have to help me . " " Money is n't important , " he said . " Melissa-my God , Knave , she 's just a kid . In Transic 's clutches @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " " She 'll be fine , " I said firmly . " And I was n't talking about money . I 'll need things from you . Supplies . This is n't going to be easy . " " But you will -- " " I will , " I said . And felt doubtful about it , right then and there . Marechal Field was , as I may have implied , a very rich kind of fellow . He 's the Field of Field 's Fields ( try saying those six words five times fast without feeling like a damn fool ) , a company that might as well be alone in its area of expertise , small field work . Large fields-shielding for a building or a person or a ship , say-are common enough , but small fields are a little special : they 're the kind of thing that is perfectly possible in theory and only just barely possible in actual fact , for sixty or seventy perfectly good , and very lengthily technical , reasons . Field had found a trick or two for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for instance , or one particular bit of your lab equipment-or , in fact , anything . He was working , he told me ( I talked with him for quite a while that day , feeling that , once I 'd agreed to help , the flow of conversation would keep him calmed down-and after all , we had to do something while he was on and off the phone ordering wooden crates and the latest in human-sized shields and so on ) -he was working , at any rate , on a fascinating notion : fields small enough to be used as lubricating tools . " We can wrap individual ball bearings , for instance , " he said . " The field can be beamed from a distance-about a quarter-mile is the beam limit-and the generating equipment weighs less than most lubricants , for complex jobs . Beaming equipment miniaturized , of course . " " But it 's got to be more expensive than lubricants , " I said . " Yes and no , " he said . " Power costs are minor . And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speak-the generator , suitably instructed , has a good lifetime . Specify your field , specify location and shape and strength , specify thicknessjust name it-and the generator 's good for fifty years before maintenance check , minimum . It costs more than a can of lubricant-but you never have to buy a second can . " " Even so- " I said . " The first sales are going to be to people rich enough to want the novelty , and boast about it , " he said . " People who want it for their cars or planesthe generator 's really lightweight-or for some household device like a Robbie , or any mech . " " And rich enough so they wo n't mind the price , " I said . " We think there are enough people like that to make quantity production feasible , " he said . " And that lowers cost-which means price will go down , in a couple of years , and we can realty start selling the thing . " It sounded as if Marechal Field was going to have a brand-new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A million dollars in ransom was a drop in the bucket . But Melissa Field was n't , in fact , all that safe in Roubor Transic 's hands . And I had said I 'd help out . And there was that promise I 'd made to myself , too . But , as I 'd also said , it was n't going to be easy . The first step was the delivery , as from a third party who had no known connection either to me or to Field , of a crate of chains and manacles-a big , expensive wooden crate , full of perfectly good , even showy equipment-to Transic . The second was a flat-out , open assault on Roubor Transic 's combination home , office and torture dungeon-his large manor house on the outskirts of one of the cities on the Reel . A brave , thorough assault by Gerald Knave . It failed , of course . I was shielded , but there are ways to get through any shield , and Transic , as any sensible person might have figured , knew six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was always possible that Transic would decide on the simple answer , and kill his assailant out of hand . In that case , of course , all my worries would be over , so I did n't waste time wondering about the odds . And , when you did think about it , the odds were in favor of the more complicated answer : Transic , after all , not only tortured people for hire-to extract information or to persuade them to do whatever it was the client wanted done-but as a hobby , for its own sake . He liked it . Torturing Gerald Knave seemed like his most likely aim-if , of course , he could capture Gerald Knave . I made my valiant assault , and the assault made my capture possible . It was n't an hour after the assault-my best guess ; when Transic got through my shield , unconsciousness was bare seconds away-that I woke up . My surroundings were not a surprise , but they were certainly a shock , to every available sense . I have not seen many torture chambers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shows , where they 're sanitized . But this was the real thing . Transic was a traditionalist : the walls were stone , in large rough blocks , and the floor was stone too , with little gutters here and there to carry away whatever liquids were released when the place was in use . Lighting was electric , and not too dim-tradition is fine , but smoky torches are a damn nuisance to deal with , and half the time you ca n't see what you 're doing-and quite sufficient to show me a perfectly serviceable rack , a metal container on wheels filled with what I suspected were branding irons , an open closet full of whips and manacles , a knife or two lying around on the leather-covered benches-well , I wo n't do the whole list now , but none of it created feelings of delight in my bosom . The place echoed , and it smelled . Neither was a comforting fact , somehow . My mouth held a vaguely metallic taste I recognized as a very deep and basic fear . And I was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on one of the benches , looking unharmed but somehow forlorn . I was chained and manacled to one of the uncomfortably rough stone walls , with a depressingly good view of the rest of the torture chamber . There is an ancient cartoon , apparently very popular away back before the Clean Slate War . In a way , it expresses the ancients " whole attitude as regards war and many other unpleasantnesses . It shows two men , both of them spreadeagled on just such a stone wall , hands and feet manacled , fixed immovably . One of them is saying : " Now , here 's my plan . . I was fixed exactly like the fellows in that cartoon , except that I had no company ; the chamber was empty . Now , I thought to myself , pulling against the chains and manacles and discovering that they had no more give to them than I expected them to havehere 's my plan . . . At that moment the door openedwith a faint creak he must have had specially built-and Transic came in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against it , and looked across to me , on the right-hand wall . He smiled . " Greetings , Knave , " he said . " It 's quite a feather in my cap , getting you here . I wo n't say I hope you enjoy your stay , but I 'll say that I certainly will-and that it will be a much longer stay than you 'd like it to be . " His smile broadened ; he was actually beaming at me fondly . I was a feather in his cap , and he was going to be handling the feather very roughly . It was not a pleasant sight , that beam of his , any more than his speech had been a pleasant speech . His voice , for one thing , was a choked sort of tenor gurgle , of great volume but little precision ; he sounded as if he were always talking around an immense wad of something moist and sticky he could neither swallow nor spit out . And his looks gave me a notion of why he 'd taken up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ round , exactly , but full of unexpected swellings and concavities here and there . He looked deformed , without my being able to pinpoint any individual , particular deformity : he looked , to put it very briefly , as if he were hunchbacked all over . He was not bald ; baldness would have been an improvement . Hair stuck out on his head , on his elbows , on what I could see of his chest ( he was wearing an open-shirted jumper , in traditional black ) , in discouraged little clumps . It looked like a pale-brown kind of weed growth . His eyes were a pale blue . All in all , I could read his history in his looks , or I thought I could . If he 'd looked anything like that during his formative years , every human he 'd come in contact with had either laughed at him or run screaming away . He 'd taken up torture as revenge on a race of beings who 'd treated him so badly . They do say that to understand all is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . I understood what had made Transic what he was-or I harbored a reasonable guess at the notion-and the picture I had did not fill me with forgiveness . There was a little sadness for the unhappy childhood , but there was also the knowledge that there are , for six thousand reasons , a lot of unhappy childhoods-and comparatively few hobbyist torturers . Well , there we were , and there was nothing to do but play the scene out . " You 're going to regret this , " I said , and he beamed at me again . " I know I am , " he said . " I 'm going to regret its brevity . I 'd like to keep you here for-oh , say a couple of years . I understand you 're very fit and healthy-but I 'm afraid we wo n't be able to manage more than- , he reflected , grinning " -oh , say a week or so . " He took a couple of steps toward me . I did n't move-Hell , I was as fixed there as if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , " he said , beaming , " it will seem much longer . " I said : " It wo n't be a week . In fact , it wo n't be an hour . " " Bravado , " he said . aVery good , Knave . Very good , We 'll have to see how long the attitude lasts . " Then he stopped , apparently to think . " You 're here because of Melissa Field , are n't you ? " he said . " Why should I tell you anything ? " I said . He shook a finger at me . " Now , now , " he said . " In time-in a very short time , though it wo n't seem short to youyou 'll be ever so anxious to tell me all sorts of things . " " I doubt it , - I said . " Believe me , " he said . " But what 's the harm in your telling me that ? " None , of course . But I felt reluctant to do anything that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " I happened to be on-planet , " I said , " and I thought I 'd drop in . Just by the way , where is Melissa Field ? I suppose you had her father followed when he left to see me . " " Melissa is quite safe , " he said , and the grin lessened by fifty percent . " A shame , really . I have been thinking-once I collect the money , why go to all the bother of actually returning the girl ? She 'd while away an interesting few days , I 'm sure-and I do hate to be at loose ends . Would you believe it , Knave ? When I dispose of you , there wo n't be a soul here except for me and the Field girl . " As I 'd thought , the torture business had hit a slow patch . " No servants ? " " All mechanical , " he said , with a faint tinge of regret . " They dragged you in and chained you up , of course ; I do very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bow , God knows why . " You have no idea how hard it is to find good servants -servants who will respect your hobbies . " " I think I can guess , " I said . " But about Melissa Field " In a few minutes I 'll call them , and we 'll begin . Why be tiresome ? " he said , and shrugged . " She 's safe , and she 's somewhere about the place ; what more do you need to know ? She ca n't rescue you . In fact , nothing and no one can rescue you . " " You 're sure of that , " I said . " No one else is within a mile of my house , " he said . " Telltales inside would have told me if anyone except you had entered it . " " So we 're alone , " I said . He bowed again . " Quite . " " And if anyone came within a mile of this place- " " I would know at once , " he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crate full of equipment . " Field 's wooden crate , of course . I held my breath . " Rather a transparent ruse , though , " he said . " I did examine the nice chains and the manacles , and saw nothing wrong with them- " No surprise to me , as there had n't been anything wrong with them- " but I 'm sure they were gimmicked in some odd way or other . " He smiled . " If I 'd been such a fool as to use them on one of my subjects-on you , for instance- I 'm sure they 'd have broken , or dissolved , or somehow or other let you free yourself . " " Maybe they would , " I said , and tugged at my chains . Nothing moved . " So I did n't use them , " he said . UA very nice crate , though-I had my mechs put the whole thing in the basement-unopened and unused . Knave , I 'd thought better of you-it was much too transparent a ruse . " " Really @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manacles , and landed on my feet , a foot or so in front of the stone wall . Transic was staring at me as if I 'd grown a second head . I gave him very little opportunity to think things over ; I got over to him in three quick strides , and hit him once , square on the button . He went down in an untidy heap , and he was a Hell of a job to drag to the wall and fasten to the manacles . There was , of course , nothing wrong with the manacles . Or the chains . Transic found that out when he woke up himself , a good deal less than an hour later . I had one problem , but I did n't expect it to be serious , and it was n't . God knew how his mechs were keyed for defense , if they noticed some stranger poking around the various chambers ; I needed to get in and out fast , and Transic was going to help me . I 'd dressed while waiting for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did I started questioning him . I never had to use the whip I was holding ; I only had to finger it casually and look thoughtful . Torturers do not take well to even the threat of being tortured ; they feel they belong on only one side of that particular equation . The questioning period lasted about four minutes , and would n't have lasted that long if Transic had n't been so insistent about finding out how I 'd slipped out of the manacles on my wrists and ankles . " They 're built to close tightly , " he said , almost plaintively . " I 've used them so many times . . " It would n't have taken that long , either , if I had n't wanted the instruction codes for his mechs . He really did n't want to give those up , but the sight of that whip was too much for him ; he knew what it could do . And the manacles were just as good as he kept telling me they were . When I had what I needed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I do n't plan to be ; I was off-planet in an hour , and back on Bolitho , accompanied by a somewhat dazed but , thank God , wholly unhurt Melissa Field . I never did tell Transic how I 'd managed things . I did n't tell his mechs , either ; I simply reinstructed them . He 'll stay there , spread-eagled to his rough stone wall , for a time we might label as " Indefinite . " The mechs will feed him , keep him clean and reasonably healthy , and keep up the house itself . But I reprogrammed the recognition codes , and they wo n't treat him as Roubor Transic , nor will they obey any order he gives them . He 's Mr. X to the mechs , a casual human to be taken care of just as well as possible , but never , never released . I never told him a thing . But I 'll tell you-not that I have to , I should think . Marechal Field had buried a tiny transmitter in the wood of those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ though Transic 's house was big ; it was n't that big . The transmitter beamed small fields around my wrists and ankles . That 's all . The fields were thick enough to make the manacles a very loose fit , easy as Hell to slip out of , I had to stay there by holding the things with my hands until I was ready to get out . And Field has gone even further . Every bit of my ship that called for lubrication , once upon a time , is now enfielded , and I own what may be the showiest ship anywhere . If people ask how I got it , I have a variety of tales to tell them . I have a few tales about Roubor Transic , too-when I hear somebody wonder why he has n't been heard from lately . They all have him going on a long , long trip somewhere . Why disturb the fellow ? 
##1000056 Nellie wo n't be home for supper tonight . She died today . Her mother knows about it so she wo n't be worried . Instead , her heart is broken now and forever , because each day will be another day that her Nellie will not be in it . <p> Nine years old Nellie was on her way to school . There were only two streets to cross and she had promised her mother that she would be careful . <p> She had the light , he had the light . Like her mother had told her do , Nellie looked both ways . Like the driver had been taught , he looked both ways . What she did n't do was look behind when she left the curb . What he did n't do was look down from the cab of the truck when he made the right turn . He heard something but made nothing of it . After all , how much noise can a small nine year old make when she 's hit by tons of metal . <p> The trauma doctors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all but dead when the ambulance brought her in but they had to try , she was so young . Each physician had been exquisitely prepared through years of training to keep people alive when terrible events happened . All were unprepared when outcomes were poor , even when the outcome had little to do with them and all to do with what brought the patient to them in the first place . One after the other , all in green scrubs , they leave in silence . <p> Everyone in the hospital knows the terrible thing that has happened to this child . Only Mon Chow , Nellie 's mother , who speaks only Chinese and is new to this country , has yet to be told . She is at work in a factory and the police go to bring her to us . <p> Nellie had left this life for more than three hours before Mon Chow knew her child never made it to school . By the time she arrives at the hospital she knew something serious had happened . It was for us to tell her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lost a child ; we feel helpless and desperately need to feel better . And one of us speaks the words to this mother that we are all saying to ourselves . " Is there anything , anything that we can do ? Just tell us , let us know . " She wraps herself in her own arms , the left across her chest , the right holding onto her shoulder , face buried in the crook of her elbow . She rocks slowly back and forth , uttering a low and continuous moan . And , in her silence , we hear Mon Chow 's answer ; " My daughter , my Se Chen , my Nellie , I want my baby back . I Want My Baby Back ! Give Me Back My Baby ! " <p> How she knew to come I do not know . She left Nellie 's classmates to be here with this child who will never know she came . Pamela Wong , young contained , speaks English with an accent . She lets us know she speaks the family 's dialect . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ met and yet they have always known each other . " I am Nellie 's teacher . I am here . " There is no touching , no move to be close . Only a quiet : a calm , a presence . We bring her a chair . She sits next to the grieving mother . It is through her that we talk and it is through her silence that we learn that the comfort we can give is in being , not in saying , except when there is no choice . <p> " You know this was a terrible accident . Nellie is still here . She will look the way you remember her . We had to put a tube in her mouth to help her breathe and now we have to keep this tube in for the Medical Examiner . We need you to let us know this child is Nellie . We can show you a picture , or , we can bring you to her " . <p> The teacher speaks to mother and then to us . " Not now . She can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> " And you ? Then police tell us you can make the identification . " No words are spoken only the nod of her head . <p> A small room , a lifeless form on a gurney , completely covered with a sheet . The nurse folds it back , exposing Nellie 's head cradled in white . The only sign of what has happened is the tube in her mouth where the respirator was connected . We are all here in this little room with this little child who lies motionless , the teacher , principal , police sergeant and us . We ask the question that must be answered , even though the answer is known . " Is this Nellie ? " The principal answers with her tears , the teacher with a nod . The policeman writes in his black report book , " Pamela Wong , teacher of deceased , identification 11:15AM . " <p> " The eyes , they are open . " Pamela says . " There is a belief that this is a very bad thing . The soul is talking to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here . If Nellie 's mother knows about this belief , it will be very hard for her . " The nurse reaches for gloves knowing the answer before asking the question . " Should we close her eyes ? " Again , a nod . The nurse gently closes the lids but they do not stay shut . Pamela Wong , standing next to Se Chen , places her hand on the child 's forehead , moving it slowly down , closing the eyes , leaving her hand in place . " Se Chen , you can be at peace now . There is no longer anything to fear . There will be no more pain . You are safe now . It is time to close your eyes . Close your eyes for you , close your eyes for your mother . Be at peace , Se Chen . Go on your journey to peace . " Her calm and steady hand moves with the rhythm of her words , giving comfort to this child . If only she can hear it , feel it . " Sleep Se @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go . Our place is no longer with this child , it is with this child 's grieving mother . This morning she sent her Se Chen to school , now her child is in a white tiled room with all but her face covered by a sheet . Five hours have passed between then and now . She is ready to see her child and begin to say goodbye . <p> Author Affiliation 
##1000057 Nicole and I always said we had a lot going for us . <p> Nicole and I were like sisters . Neither one of us looked like the girls in the teen magazines , but we always said that we had a lot going for us . We had great hair , nice teeth , gorgeous eyes , and cute feet . So what if we were n't skinny ? We liked the way we were made . Life seemed so carefree until our high school years . It was at this time that everyone seemed so hung up on how they looked , and stuff that had never bothered us before now loomed up like a monster . Nicole and I had always had fun going into the petite department of our favorite store in the mall . We would hold up clothes and ask each other which arm the petite outfit would look good on . I remember Nicole asking me once if I did n't wish sometimes that I was skinny . My answer to her was : " And give up this beautiful body @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about your weight , do you ? " she asked . I did n't think much about it at the time , not until after Nicole started making excuses and avoiding me . I could n't figure out what I 'd done . I 'd call and leave a message , but she never returned my call . Nicole started hanging out with a new crowd , a " skinny " crowd . I told my mom what was going on , and she said , " Maybe she feels good hanging out with her new friends , and they 're helping her with her weight problem . Perhaps you should join them . " " Thanks , Mom , that 's all I need ; like I 'm not good enough the way I am . " I stormed out of the kitchen and cried myself to sleep . Looking at myself in the mirror the next morning , I saw that my eyes were almost swollen shut . I had messed up one of my best features-my eyes . I smiled to myself , saying , Well , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And looking down at my feet , I reassured myself that I did indeed have cute feet . It had been several months since I 'd seen or spoken to Nicole , so I was really surprised when she called me one Saturday night . She asked how things were going with me , and said she had been out of school for a few weeks . I asked if she was sick . " Nothing that 's contagious , " she answered . It was- so great to hear her voice again . I just wanted to reach through the phone and hug her . " My mom is gone for the weekend , " she said . " You want me to come over ? " I asked . " Duh , why do you think I called ? " she said , laughing . Nicole was watching for me by the window . She was wearing a huge blue robe-it must have been her mother's-and she had a towel wrapped around her head . There were dark circles under her eyes , and her face was really gaunt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had taken over chips , a pizza , and a six-pack of soda . " Pig-out night ! I bet this will make you feel better , " I yelled , showing her what I 'd brought . " Great , let me at it , " she said , pretending to bite into the frozen pizza . " Still a greedy little girl , " I said , grabbing the pizza from her and heading into the kitchen to put it in the oven . " We need ice cream with lots of toppings , " Nicole screeched . " Well , you might look sick , but at least you have a good appetite , " I said , laughing . We wolfed down the pizza , and Nicole went on to eat most of the chips and the ice cream . It was hard to believe that she could eat that much , since she was so sick . All at once she got up and ran into the bathroom . She was coughing , and it sounded like she could n't stop . I called to her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't answer , I went in . Nicole was kneeling on the floor and leaning over the toilet . There was blood coming out of her mouth . I tried to help her up . I could n't believe it , for when I put my arms around her all I could feel were bones . The towel slipped from her head , and it was full of hair . " What 's wrong ? What have you done to your hair ? " I asked , trying not to panic . " It 's all falling out , and my gums are always bleeding , " she cried , opening her mouth to show me her teeth , which were a yellowish-gray color . I felt myself getting weak , and I eased us both down to the floor . All I could think of was AIDS . " Who gave it to you ? " I whispered . " Gave me what ? " she asked , looking at me with eyes that no longer held any life . " AIDS ; it 's what you have , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trying to smile as she answered , " You nut , I 've never even had sex . No , it 's not AIDS . " My brain was screaming cancer , but I was too scared to say the word . The blood still trickled from her mouth , and when she tried to get up , she just crumbled in a heap . " We have to go to the hospital . " I was trying to sound calm , but I was shaking all over . I do n't remember the drive to the hospital , and when we finally got there , the receptionist did n't even question us . She immediately took Nicole and told me to wait . It seemed as though hours had passed before a doctor came over to me and said , " Nicole said you 're her sister , and she wants to see you . " The doctor opened the door to a dimly lit room . There were machines with different kinds of flashing lights . One was making a loud beeping sound . There were tubes and hoses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were my sister , " she said softly . I knelt down by the bed and took her hand . I was crying as I asked , " Why did n't you tell me you were so sick ? " " I was too ashamed , " she whispered . " Ashamed ? You 're not responsible for getting sick , you goof , " I said as I tried to hide my fear . She was crying as she said , " Yes , I am . At first I just wanted to lose a little weight . The girls all took laxatives , so I started , but I was always hungry . I started to binge , then I would purge . I just kept it up , eating , then throwing up . " Her voice was weak as she went on : " I knew that if you found out what I was doing , you 'd tell my mom . Everyone kept telling me how good I looked . It just seemed like such an easy way to get skinny . Then my hair started @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as soon as I eat , I have to throw it up ; it seems like nothing will stay down . I no longer have control over my own body . " " Well , you 're going to get better now , and I 'm going to help you . " I kissed her hand as I spoke . Nicole gave me a weak smile and said , " Remember what we had going for us ? Great hair , nice teeth , and gorgeous eyes . " You 're going to get them back ; you just wait and see , " I said , trying to swallow the lump in my throat . Nicole looked up at me , and it was as though we 'd never been apart . I had my best friend back . " You sure ? " she asked , as she closed her eyes . Nicole died that night , even before her mother could get there . When word got around at school about what had caused Nicole 's death , her so-called friends said that she must have overdone it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just thought she 'd found an easy way to get skinny . Some of us are not meant to be skinny . Now every time I look in the mirror I think about Nicole , and I 'm grateful for what I see , because it 's me. 
##1000058 Everyone thinks I 'm a good player except Travis , and now , thanks to him , I 've lost my confidence in me . <p> My hands were clammy as I made my way across the band room early in the morning of the first day of my junior year . Wow ! Am I actually shaking ? Get hold of yourself , Samantha , I thought . Why was I feeling this way ? I 'd practiced all summerI had even gone to three different music camps . You 're a good player , Sam . You sailed through that audition . I forced these thoughts into my head as I stopped and took a deep breath . Straightening up , I marched with purpose toward the list posted on the band room wall . There it was . Yes ! I did it ! I made first chair , I exclaimed to myself Only a junior , and I 'm the lead player of the trumpet section ! Thankfully no one else was around that early in the morning . That way no one witnessed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . I wanted to do handsprings , but I 'm not that coordinated , and I certainly did n't want to risk breaking my arm . After all , the lead trumpet player has to be in top shape for all the responsibilities of the marching season ! I floated around in sheer elation until later that morning when all the band members came wandering into the band room . Suddenly a certain someone caused me to come crashing back to earth . Travis Easton , a returning senior , sauntered over to the list posted on the wall . Ha ! I laughed to myself Look at him strutting across the room so confidently . He thinks he 's going to be first chair . I relished the look of pure jealousy that appeared in his beady little eyes the moment he saw that my name was on the top of the list . He came chugging up the steps toward me as fast as his chubby little legs would carry him . " Sam ! What are you doing in my chair ? " Travis fumed . " Your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Look , Sam , this position is mine . You just had dumb luck during auditions . For one thing you 're a girl , and a girl ca n't be the leader of the trumpet section . The job 's too tough . It 's man 's work . " " I guess it 's not your job either , then . " I could n't believe someone could be such a pig , even Travis . " Funny . And another thing , the first-chair player will perform a solo this year during the halftime show of the homecoming game . I 'm the better player , and I will play that solo ! " Travis spat out that last part with such venom and authority that I instantly began to worry . What if he 's right ? My audition could have been just a big fluke . No , it could n't have been . I really prepared for it . Everyone seems to think that I 'm a good player . Everyone , that is , except Travis , and now , thanks to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of school are always hectic , but this year they were absolutely frantic . To prove that he was a trumpet stud and to earn the honor of performing the homecoming solo , Travis engaged me in a number of challenges . The challenge is a procedure in which two people perform various pieces for the band director , who then decides which of the two players is better . You really have to prepare for these if you want to stay ahead . On top of this , my class schedule consisted of a number of advanced classes that required a lot of hard work . I usually spent my lunch break studying or reviewing assignments for one or more of my classes . " Hey , woman ! If we were n't such good friends , I 'd be afraid that you were snubbing me . I called you last night , but your mom said that you were too busy to talk . What were you doing , practicing kissing your pillow ? Or was it your teddy bear this time ? " my best friend , Tina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ honors chemistry books . Tina can always make me laugh . " I could n't do that ! I might hurt my lips , and then Travis would become first chair . " " Sam , are you still worried about that ? Look , you 've already won two challenges . " " But he 's challenged me again , Tina ! " I knew I was whining , but I did n't care . The stress of the situation was starting to get to me . " And you 'll win again , " she stated loyally . " You 're great . You play all the time . These challenges should be a piece of cake for you . " Some part of me knew that Tina had a point , but the other part of me was beaten down by anxiety . " Tina , if I do n't win this high school challenge , how am I ever going to become a professional musician ? And I really want to play that solo during the homecoming game . I 'd feel just like a professional performing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play that solo . If you relax and do n't stress out , you 'll be fine . You 're naturally a better player than Travis . " " I guess you 're right , but that 's another problem . I think Travis knows it too , and it really bothers him . I overheard him telling someone that he wants to major in music in college like his dad did . I bet the homecoming solo is really important to him or he would n't be acting like such a jerk . Maybe I should just lose the challenge . After all , he is a senior , and I 'm only a junior . I can play the solo next year . It might make it easier for me too . Last night I practiced until my little brother had to go to bed , and then I studied for chem until 1:00 in the morning . I 'm getting absolutely exhausted , Tina . " These thoughts stayed with me until the day of the final challenge , the challenge that would determine who would play the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I approached the band room , and instantly my stomach lurched . He is good , I thought . As I watched him from the back of the room , my heart went out to him . I could see how intense he was . Winning this challenge was really important to him . He 's not really that bad of a guy , I told myself . We 've always gotten along well until this year . He deserves to play the solo . Hey , wait a minute ! So do I ! I 'm good too . I love music , and I practiced hard all summer preparing for the lead position . And Travis is wrong . Females can have leadership positions . My thoughts were spinning as 1 glanced at the clock . In a mere quarter of an hour Travis and I would face off for the coveted lead trumpet position and the honor of playing the solo part . My pulse quickened . My palms were so sweaty that it was hard to hold on to my trumpet . I was finding it hard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things I had learned at music camp this summer was how vital the proper breathing technique was to good performance . How was I supposed to beat Travis if I could n't even breathe right or hold on to my instrument ? Maybe I was n't so good after all . Or maybe Travis was just supposed to win . I stepped forward and took a deep breath . Counting to the beat , I hit the first note hard and strong . My gaze drifted upward as I belted out the song . Hundreds of fans cheered and shouted in the crisp autumn air . Goose bumps covered my skin from head to toe . When the last note had faded into silence , I marched back into position . Looking over at Travis , I saw him actually wink at me ! " Good job , " he whispered as we continued our homecoming performance . 
##1000059 BEING IN HIS BROTHER 'S SHADOW WAS NOT ALWAYS EASY . <p> Jim , with his crutches under his arms , hobbled down the hallway to his brother Mark 's room and knocked on the door . <p> " I 'm busy , " Mark snapped . <p> " I 'll take just a minute , " Jim responded as he pushed open the door . <p> Mark looked up from the computer and frowned . He was playing the game Earth Orbiter and did n't want to be disturbed . " OK , shoot . You have 20 seconds . What 's the problem ? " <p> " No problem . Everyone has signed my cast but you , " Jim said , holding out a pen . <p> " A masterpiece , " Mark smiled as he admired the soccer ball he 'd drawn on the cast . <p> " Thanks , " Jim said as he shifted his broken leg to a more comfortable position . " It 's boring just sitting around with this cast on my leg . " <p> " That must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Mark said , looking at the cast . <p> " It was n't the turn that did it . <p> I ran over some gravel and lost my balance , " Jim replied defensively . Mark glanced up at the Clock . <p> " Wow ! Look at the time . I 've got ta go . <p> " How about showing me how to play Earth Orbiter ? " Jim asked hopefully . <p> " I have soccer practice now . Why do n't you go and see if your cyberpet is hungry ? " Mark said as he pushed his chair away from the computer . <p> Jim noticed that Mark left in such a hurry that he forgot to turn off the screen , so he sat down at the keyboard and watched the glowing monitor . The orbiter seemed to be suspended in space . He pressed the return key and the ship moved toward the docking bay . Working on the docking maneuver , he lost track of time and was startled to hear Mark 's angry voice in the doorway . <p> " What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " My computers off limits . " <p> " But you left the game on , and I thought it would be OK , " Jim replied . <p> " Well , it 's not , " Mark snapped . Jim went to his room and flipped aimlessly through the television channels . Reruns , reruns , reruns . He clicked off the TV later when he heard Mark bound up the stairs and slam the door to his room . <p> Jim hobbled down the hall to Mark 's room . On the door hung a sign that read " Enter at Your Own Risk . " Jim ignored it and knocked . <p> " I 'm still busy , " Mark called . <p> Jim opened the door and asked , " I just wondered if you would reconsider and let me play Earth Orbiter with you . <p> Mark deftly maneuvered the spaceship on the screen . " No , " he said , " I do n't have time to teach you . " <p> " Well , I do n't need your stupid game , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the room . <p> " Well , life 's tough . I have a lot of responsibilities and little time . The weather report says it 's supposed to rain tomorrow , which means that I 'll have to take time to bag the newspapers for delivery before my soccer practice , " Mark stated . <p> The next afternoon Jim hobbled out to the front porch and found the stack of newspapers for Mark to deliver . Laying his crutches aside , he sat down by the papers . Maybe he could help Mark and give him more time . He picked up a paper , folded it , and inserted it into an orange plastic bag . Slowly the mound of orange bags grew . As he worked he thought about the computer game . I sure wish Mark would let me show him that I can be a good player . <p> Jim was almost finished stuffing the papers when Mark arrived home from school . He looked at Jim sitting on the front porch and then at the orange mound of newspapers all ready for delivery . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his eyes widening . " Do you have a paper route now too ? " <p> Jim tossed the last orange bundle into the mound of papers . " No , I thought you needed some help so you would n't be late to soccer practice . <p> Mark let out a low whistle . " Wow ! I do n't know what to say . " " Well , maybe you could change your mind about playing Earth Orbiter with me , " Jim responded . <p> " Maybe so , " Mark said as he loaded the papers into the car . " We 'll talk about it when I get home from soccer practice . " <p> At least Marks maybe was n't a no , Jim thought . He played with his cyberpet until he tired of it and then surfed through more reruns on TV . Finally he heard the car stop in the driveway , and he hobbled to meet Mark at the kitchen door . " Are we on for a game tonight ? " Jim asked . Mark nodded his head in agreement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> " You 'll have to memorize some of the actions to use for certain moves , so pay attention , " Mark said , sliding Earth Orbiter into the disk drive . <p> " The object is to rendezvous with an earth orbiting space station . We 'll see if you 're a good pilot , " he added , handing Jim a joystick . Jim watched wideeyed as a picture of the earth appeared on the screen with a spacecraft poised for flight . <p> " Hit the return key , " Mark said . <p> Jim pressed the key , and the rocket booster ignited . <p> " Wow ! " he said as the spacecraft headed skyward . <p> " You 've reached minimum orbital altitude , " Mark said . " You can pilot it now by using the joystick . <p> Jim pressed the stick to the left . The spacecraft turned toward the orbiting station . <p> " Hey , that 's pretty good , " Mark said in amazement , " or maybe just dumb luck . Now try to get into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to go . <p> Jim followed his brother 's advice , and the craft reached the second orbit . <p> " Now we 'll try to hook up with the space station , " Mark said as he maneuvered the other joystick . <p> Jim watched his brother carefully as he piloted the craft into the space station . He wanted to do it himself but did n't dare ask . When the shuttle docked with the station , Mark whooped , " All right ! " <p> " That was great , Mark , " Jim said with genuine admiration . <p> " Here , you try it , " Mark suggested , taking the spacecraft back into orbit . <p> Jim watched in amazement as the space station continued to orbit around the earth . <p> " That 's where you 'll try to dock , " Mark said , pointing to a port on the moving station . " You have to make an orbit change to rendezvous with the station . It 's tricky , so do n't be disappointed if you miss . " <p> Jim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " Remember , go slowly and feel your way . " <p> Jim 's eyes never left the screen as he propelled the spacecraft along the lower orbit with the touch of a finger . <p> " Hit the return key , " Mark suggested . <p> Jim pressed return and found his spacecraft traveling in the higher orbit he needed for docking . <p> " Say , you 're pretty good , " Mark noted . <p> Jim continued to maneuver the spacecraft along the orbit until it approached the space station . <p> " Now , the docking is the tricky part , " Mark cautioned . " Want me to help ? " <p> Jim shook his head , feeling comfortable with his new role . For the rest of this game he was a space pilot . <p> " It 's not easy , " Mark cautioned again . <p> This is apiece of cake , Jim thought . Being copilot in his brother 's shadow was the hardest part . <p> Jim watched the spacecraft as it neared the rendezvous point . He rotated the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Mark gave out a low whistle . " I do n't believe it . Your first try and you 're docking like a pro . " <p> Jim beamed as he aligned the spacecraft for the docking port and carefully took it through the corridor . He piloted the craft into the dock hanger and then stopped its movement . <p> " Congratulations ! You 're quite a pilot , " Mark said as he stared at his younger brother . " Say , maybe we could do this often after soccer practice . " <p> Jim smiled . Being the younger brother was n't so bad after all . Maybe there would be more times like these that he could share with Mark . <p> 
##1000061 AT Christmas we went to my grandparents ' . <p> My grandparents lived outside New York City in a private park , a strange nineteenth-century hybrid between a club and a housing development . The park was enclosed by a thick stone wall , and at the entrance were a pair of stone gateposts and a gatehouse . As we approached the gate , a man would appear in the doorway of the gatehouse , sternly watching our car . Our father , who knew the gatekeeper , would roll down his window and say hello , or sometimes he would just smile and wave , cocking his hand casually backward and forward . The gatekeeper would recognize my father then and nod , dropping his chin slowly , deeply , in confirmation of an unspoken agreement , and we would drive through the gates into the park . <p> One year there was a new gatekeeper , who did not know my father . The man stepped out of the gatehouse as we approached and waved heavily at the ground , motioning for us to stop . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He 's new , " my father said , slowing down . " Never seen him before . " <p> My mother laughed . " He probably wo n't let us in , " she said . <p> My father pulled up to the gatehouse and rolled down his window . " We 're here to see my family , the Weldons , " he said politely . " I 'm Robert Weldon . " My father looked like his father : he had the same blue eyes , the same long , straight nose , and the same high , domed forehead . The gatekeeper glanced noncommittally at the car and then he nodded . He was still frowning , but now in a private , interior way that no longer seemed to have anything to do with us . He gave us a slow wave through the gates ; then he went ponderously back into the little house . <p> The four of us children sat motionless in the back . After our mother had spoken , we had fallen silent . Our faces had turned solemn , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Our knees matched . Our docile hands lay in our laps . We were alarmed . <p> We did not know why some cars might be turned away from the park gates . We had never seen it happen , but we knew that it must happen ; why else would the gatekeeper appear , with his narrowed eyes and official frown ? We knew that our car did not look like our grandparents ' car , or like any of the other cars that slid easily between the big stone gateposts without even slowing up . Those cars were dark and sleek . They looked fluid and full of curves , as if they had been shaped by speed , though they always seemed to move slowly . Those cars were polished : the chrome gleamed ; the smooth , swelling fenders shone ; and the windows were lucid and unsmudged . Those cars were driven sedately by men in flat black hats and black jackets . The drivers nodded to the gatekeeper . The passengers , who were in the back seat , never in the front next to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drove through the gates . <p> Our car , however , was a rickety wooden-sided station wagon , angular , high-axled , flat-topped . The black roof was patched , and the varnished wooden sides were dull and battered . Our car was driven by our father , who did not wear a black jacket , and next to him in the front seat was our mother . The two slippery brown back seats were chaotic with suitcases , bags of presents , the four of us children , and our collie , Huge . We felt as though we were another species when we arrived at this gate , and we wondered whether we would be turned away . The rules of entry and exclusion from the park were mysterious to us ; they were part of the larger , unknowable world that our parents moved through but that we did not understand . Fitting in was like the struggle to learn a language-listening hard for words and phrases and idioms , constantly mystified and uncomprehending , knowing that all around us , in smooth and fluent use by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system we could not yet grasp . <p> After we were through the gates that day , my mother turned to us . <p> " Well , we made it , " she said humorously . " They let us in this time . " She smiled and raised her eyebrows , waiting for us to answer . My mother was small and lively , with thick lightbrown hair parted on one side and held with a barrette . She wore her clothes casually , sweaters and long full skirts . <p> We said nothing to her . We disapproved of my mother 's levity , all of us : Sam and Jonathan , my two older brothers ; Abby , my older sister ; and me , Joanna . I was the youngest , and the most disapproving . <p> Inside the gates the road meandered sedately through the park , on the slopes of a small , steep mountain . Up on the top , along the ridge , the land was still wild and untouched . Deer moved delicately through the thickets , and we had heard stories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Down along the narrow paved roads all was mannerly , a landscape of wide snowy lawns , graceful flowering trees and towering shade trees , now all winter-bare , and luxuriant shrubberies mantled with snow . Unmarked driveways slid discreetly into the road 's docile curves . Set far back , even from this private road , were the houses : tall , ornate , gabled and turreted , half hidden by brick walls , stonework , and the giant old trees that surrounded them , they stood comfortable and secure within their grounds . <p> Our grandparents ' house was called Weldonmere . It was set below the road , at the bottom of a wide , sloping oval of lawn . The driveway traced a long semicircle , swooping from one corner of the front lawn down to the house , at midpoint , and then back up to the road again . Along the road stood a screen of trees : dogwoods , cherries , and an exotic Japanese maple with small , fine-toothed leaves , astonishingly purple in the summer . Down the hill , protecting the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beech , dark and radiant . Its dense branches , like a vast layered skirt , swept down to the lawn , and beneath them were deep , roomy eaves , where we played in the summer . <p> Weldonmere was white , with pointed Victorian gables and round neoclassical columns . At the front door was a big portecochere , and above it the house rose three stories to the scalloped blue-black slates of the roof . <p> MY father stopped the car under the porte-cochere , and we cascaded out . Huge darted alertly into the bushes , his long nose alive to a new universe . We children , following our parents through the brief shock of cold air , clumped noisily into the big square front hall . We stood among the suitcases on the Turkey carpet , blinking in the light of the chandelier . Our parents called out in a general and celebratory way . <p> " Well , hello ! You 're here ! " Grandpere appeared in the doorway to the living room . Grandpere was tall and dignified , with a neat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an officer , which he had been , or a rider , which he still was . About him was an air of order . He was always in charge . Grandpere carried his gold watch on a chain in his pocket , and he wore a waistcoat , which was pronounced weskit . He was a formal man , courtly but kind . Underneath the moustache was always the beginning of a smile . <p> " Hello , Robert ! Sarah , children . " His voice was deep , his manner ceremonial . He included us all in his smile , and he opened his arms in a broad welcoming gesture . <p> Grandmere appeared behind him . Grandmere was narrow and elegant . She wore a long dark dress , and her white hair was parted on the side . It started straight and then turned to dense , regular curls , pressed flat against her head . Her mouth was eternally bowed in a gentle smile . Grandmere was from Charleston , South Carolina , but her mother 's family had been from Baton Rouge , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think that English was common , which was why we called our grandparents " Grandpere " and " Grandmere . " <p> " Here you all are , " Grandmere said faintly . She sounded pleased but exhausted , as though we were already too much for her . She stood gracefully in the corner of the arched doorway , leaning her hand against it and smiling at us . We milled around , taking off our coats and being kissed . <p> Huge had come inside , and now held his plumy tail tensely up in the air , his head high and wary . Tweenie , Grandmere 's horrible black-and-white mongrel , snake-snouted , sleek-sided , plump , and disagreeable , appeared in the doorway behind her . The two dogs approached each other , stiff-legged , slit-eyed , flat-eared . They began to rumble deep in their throats . <p> " Now , Tweenie , " Grandmere said , not moving . <p> " Oh , gosh , " my father said from the other side of the hall . " Get Huge , will you , Sam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all took responsibility for our beloved Huge . We all began shouting , and pummeling his solid , lovely back , sliding our hands proprietarily into his feathery coat . " Huge ! " we cried , sternly reminding him of the rules , and demonstrating to the grown-ups our own commitment to them . Of course , this was hypocritical . We believed that Huge could do no wrong and was above all rules , and that Tweenie was to blame for any animosity-in fact , for anything at all . We thought that Huge was entirely justified in entering Tweenie 's house and attacking her , if he chose to do so , in her own front hall , like some Viking raider . Huge ignored our calls to order , shaking his broad brown head , his eyes never leaving Tweenie 's cold stare . I laid my head against Huge 's velvet ear . <p> " Huge , " I said , holding him tightly around the neck , " no growling . " <p> We did not touch Tweenie : she had been known to bite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said firmly , " Tweenie , come here . " <p> The authority in his voice quieted us all . Tweenie paid no attention , but Grandpere strode across the rug and took her powerfully by her wide leather collar . Tweenie 's growls rose suddenly in her constricted throat , and she twisted her head to keep Huge in sight as she was dragged away . <p> " Oh , dear , " Grandmere said gently . " Tweenie gets so upset by other dogs . " <p> Huge , unfettered and unrepentant , trotted triumphantly in small , swift circles on the rug , his tail high . <p> " Huge , " I said sternly , and banged on his back . I looked at my father for praise , but he was making his way toward us through the luggage . When he reached us , he grabbed Huge 's collar . <p> " Now calm down , " my father said sharply to Huge . Huge , who had never been trained in any way , ignored my father completely . My father pulled him in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ twisting his great shaggy body to get a last view of Tweenie 's smooth , repellent rump . Tweenie was being slid unwillingly , her feet braced , past the front stairs and past the little closet where the telephone was , through the small door behind the staircase which led into the kitchen quarters . <p> Grandpere opened the door . " Molly , " he called , " take the dog , will you ? " Without waiting for a reply he closed the door behind Tweenie and returned to us , brisk and unruffled . <p> " She gets upset , " Grandmere murmured again , smiling at us in a general way . <p> " We 'll take Huge up with us , " my father said . " Let 's get settled now-let 's get our things upstairs . " <p> We set off . The staircase was wide and curving , with a heavy mahogany rail and carved banisters . The steps were broad and shallow , and the red-patterned carpeting was held in place by brass rods . Lugging our suitcases behind us , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . On the second-floor landing was a door that was always closed . <p> ONE afternoon I had climbed the stairs by myself . When I reached that landing , instead of going on to the upstairs hall I stopped at the door and opened it , though I knew I should not . I looked in : a narrow hallway , with closed doors on either side . I stepped inside . It was hushed and dim ; everything seemed different there . The ceiling was lower ; the carpet was plain green and thin underfoot . I walked silently , on my toes , down the hall . I pushed open one of the doors and peered into a small bedroom . It held a painted wooden bed , a modest bureau , and a chair . Everything was perfectly neat . The window looked out the back of the house to the garage . The curtains at the window were limp , and the air seemed muted and dark . A clock ticked in the stillness . I stood without moving , looking at everything , staring into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pound , and when I heard someone coming up the back stairs from the kitchen , I fled to the front landing . <p> Later I asked my mother what was behind that closed door on the landing . She said it was the servants ' wing , and that we must never go in there , because it would disturb them . That was where they lived , she said . I did n't understand this : how could you live in a place like that ? How could a whole life be compressed into that small room with nothing in it , in someone else 's house ? <p> We had no servants in our own house . My father had been a lawyer in New York , like Grandpere , but he had given that up . He had left the law and the city , and moved to Ithaca in upstate New York , where we now lived . My father worked for the university , helping poor people in the community . I 'd heard him tell people about this change , and from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unusual , and that we were proud of it . <p> We lived outside town , in an old white-clapboard farmhouse . We had only one bathroom , and the house was heated by a big wood-burning stove in the middle of the living room . In the winter , after supper , we sat around the stove and my mother read out loud . While we listened , my father peeled oranges for us , pulling them apart , separating the succulent crescents and passing them to us , fragile and treasured . Then he would unlatch the heavy iron hatch on the stove and throw in the thin , bruised-looking orange peels . We heard the faint hiss as they gave themselves up to the red heart of the stove . We closed our eyes for a moment , listening , and feasting on the sweet fragrance of the peels . <p> At Weldonmere we slept on the third floor , Abby and I in one room , the boys in another . Our room overlooked the portecochere , and it had been our father 's when he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ foot , and an engraving of a Raphael Madonna and child , in velvety blacks . The boys ' room overlooked the back lawn and , beyond it , the small pond that gave the house its name . Our parents slept on the second floor , with Grandmere and Grandpere . We children were alone on the third floor , and we liked this . On Christmas Eve we felt boisterous and wild , and we did n't want the presence of our parents to constrict us . In the morning we were not allowed to go down the front stairs for our stockings until it was light , and on some Christmas mornings the four of us had sat lined up and silent on the landing , shivering , waiting for the first gray pallor of day to lighten the darkened rooms below . <p> THIS Christmas we had arrived late . The drive was a long one , and by the time we got there , Grandmere and Grandpere had already had dinner . Our parents were to have trays in front of the fire in the living @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , where Molly would give us something to eat . <p> Molly was Irish and fierce , with pale-blue eyes and a thick cloud of white hair . She had slim arms and slim legs , and a thick middle . Her hands and feet were small , and she moved fast . She wore a white uniform , a white apron , and white stockings , and lace-up shoes with thick low heels . She ruled the kitchen absolutely . We never did anything to make Molly mad . She would have our heads . That 's what she told us , shaking her own wild white head fiercely , and we believed her . <p> Molly had a husband named Bud , but he was a mysterious figure , like the bobcats ; we had never seen him . We did know Molly 's son , Richard , who was my grandparents ' chauffeur . He was fat , and moved slowly . We children had a poor opinion of him . We called him Ree-ard , which we thought was funny . When he was n't driving my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chair in the kitchen , near the back stairs . He took off his black coat and sat in his shirtsleeves , his white shirt vast and billowy . He looked like a lump , and sometimes Molly told him that , rounding on him suddenly from the big stove and laying into him without mercy . Molly might do that at any moment to anyone-erupt into a high , foamy rage , and say things with her fierce , thin Irish lips that you never wanted to hear . <p> IMG 
##1000062 Sometimes , even the most cautious investor can be deceived . But , with persistence and an auditor 's edge , the truth can be unearthed . <p> LUKE AND BERT WERE PARTners in a $4 million sportinggoods business . For the first 20 years , the business was very successful , but in the last three years , sales had decreased and margins dwindled . To help alleviate the decline in cash flow , the company 's attorney suggested that the owners look for a third partner who could invest s2oo , ooo and possibly add some management skills to complement the areas in which the others were weak . Across town , Ed heard about the sporting-goods opportunity through an attorney in the law firm where he worked as an accountant and thought it sounded like exactly what he was looking for . But because Ed had once been an internal auditor , his instincts told him to analyze this opportunity in detail before investing . Ed spent hours poring over the company 's reports . Although there were no audited statements , Luke and Bert @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and reviews prepared by a certified public accounting firm . Ed was also given copies of the business " tax returns for the last four years . While reviewing the documents , he noticed that one of the company 's largest assets was its inventory . When Ed met with the engagement partner of the CPA firm , he was assured that physical inventory tests were performed each year . Nevertheless , Ed asked for-and received-representation letters signed by both Luke and Bert attesting to the values of the inventory . After completing due diligence , the sale closed two months before the company 's fiscal year-end . Ed rolled up his sleeves and jumped into the business . He was working 6o-plus hours every week trying to learn everything about the business as quickly as he could . He knew it would take all the energy he had to turn this business around , but he was willing to make the effort . Although Ed 's expertise was in finance , Bert had been the company 's chief accounting officer for io years and was reluctant to turn that role @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ed concentrated on other areas such as human resources , training , and merchandising . Even though he was not in charge of the books , Ed began to notice some alarming discrepancies . He first became troubled when he realized that the company was inadequately prepared for its year-end inventory . No attempt had been made to relieve the general chaos of the merchandise ; count sheets were used , but areas were n't straightened up and like-items were n't grouped together . The physical inventory began when the business closed and lasted until the final item was counted-eight hours later . Every employee was expected to participate-at time and a half -- and temporary employees were hired from an agency . During the recount phase , Ed found one section that had been missed with more than $3,000 worth of product and another section with several empty product boxes . When the results of the inventory were tabulated , shrinkage was calculated at more than zo percent of the total inventory of $975 , ooo . That loss amounted to more than $200,000 , which more than wiped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business , not to mention any profit for the year . Ed was not just uneasy ; he was thoroughly confused . Because Ed had been an auditor , he was well-equipped to investigate the problem . He drew up an audit program to reconcile the inventory . Choosing high-dollar items , he began reconstructing the inventory . He used the prior year 's physical inventory report and traced purchases and sales in and out of the warehouse , reconciling each item to the report . One thing became evident early on-there were too many journal entries that showed increased physical unit counts at month-end . Because Bert was in charge of the financial aspects of the business and ultimately responsible for journal entries , Ed discussed the discrepancies with Luke first . Luke disavowed any knowledge of the fictitious entries , so Ed went to the accounting clerk who made the entries . She told him that she was only acting upon Bert 's instructions . According to her , Bert had falsified the inventory report so that it appeared to the bank as if there were enough merchandise to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a certain amount , Bert " invented " some to cover the covenant amount . If a bank auditor came in to check , Bert had a supply of empty product boxes that he could put on the shelf . Apparently , the bank 's auditor only counted boxes : He never opened or lifted any of them . Finally , Ed confronted Bert with the evidential material that he had gathered . At first , Bert denied all knowledge of the fraud . But because Ed had the facts to back up his assertions , Bert confessed that not only had he falsified the inventory , he 'd been doing it for a number of years . Bert admitted that the company had not been profitable for more than six years , and he had been falsifying inventory so it looked as though there was moderate income . It started because the company had a oneyear loss of around $30 , ooo and Bert was afraid that the bank would close them down . He began fabricating inventory , always thinking that the company would be able to make it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened . Because Bert had intentionally defrauded the new partner , Ed had Bert sign a waiver of rights against the company and its officers . Ed also asked for and received Bert 's resignation . Although he was unable to prove that the CPA firm was involved in the commission of the fraud , Ed had his suspicions . At best , the firm was negligent in the observation of the physical inventory . Ed discussed the problem with the firm 's engagement partner , and received the company 's withdrawal from the engagement as well as a refund of all monies paid them during the last two years . When Ed talked to the bank 's officials , they chose to change the covenants and allow Ed and Luke to work out the loan over an extended period of time rather than close the business and suffer the loss . The two new partners continued to run the business in a declining marketplace , but they were able to turn it around through cost-cutting measures . Eventually , Ed and Luke had an opportunity to sell the business . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his investment , too . LESSONS LEARNED * If top management is unprincipled , it is very difficult to conduct due diligence. * Audit tools are useful even to managers . * Cursory inventory observations are next to worthless . Boxes must be opened and product examined to ensure it matches the description . * If something makes you uncomfortable , do n't hesitate to investigate further . * Make sure you have all the facts before confronting someone you suspect of falsifying information . * Fraud perpetrators and those involved with a fraud may provide restitution . Please send your fraud findings to : COURTENAY THOMPSON &; ASSOCIATES 10,000 North Central Expressway Suite 1006 , Dallas , TX 75231 +1 ( 214 ) 361-8346 Fax : +1 ( 214 ) 361-0632 E-mail : CMT@ctassoc.Com Author Affiliation WILLIAM E. GRIESHOBER , CPA , CIA , is the small business advisor for Buffalo State College , Buffalo , New York . <p> 
##1000065 The year is 2028 . In a world still as dangerous as ever , airborne assault finally has supplanted amphibious operations as the primary means of projecting U.S. power abroad . The man who did the most to make this new warfighting strategy a reality speaks out about why and how it happened . <p> As late as the first decade of this century , the U.S. Marine Corps possessed a formidable amphibious warfare capability . Today , except for small-scale raids and stratagems , the Corps no longer embraces over-thebeach assault warfare . Many attribute the end of this NavyMarine Corps specialty to Army Lieutenant General Barry H. Smith . General Smith graduated from West Point in 1979 . He went on to lead an Army battalion in the assault on Gabes during the Tunisian conflict of 2002 . As a general officer , he led airborne divisions in the Second Gulf War and the South China Sea crisis . The record of his XVIIIth Airborne Corps " operations in the recent invasion of Yemen speaks for itself , and was a fitting end to a career @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the primary means to gain entry into a hostile country . Throughout his career , General Smith advocated a radical concept for forced entry by the Army-Air Force team that many say made traditional Navy-Marine Corps amphibious operations obsolete . Now retired , General Smith graciously allowed this interview to answer charges that it was his advancement of the Army 's XVIIIth Airborne Corps that relegated 20th-century-style amphibious operations to the history books . Editor : General , let 's start back in 2002 with the Tunisian conflict , since that seems to be the point where airborne operations began to eclipse amphibious methods of forcible entry . Why did the military use elements of the 82nd Airborne Division to recapture the port of Gabes in a scenario that seemed a textbook case for the Navy and Marine Corps amphibious ready groups ( ARGs ) ? Surely , the Marines easily could have handled the Libyan force that occupied the port . General Smith : Believe me , that one caught me by surprise as much as it did the Marine Corps . The Navy and Marine Corps had an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . There was a flare-up in Somalia ; an exercise in Lithuania ; a group standing off Yemen because of the demonstrations that ultimately resulted in the IranYemen Cross-Strait Alliance ; another Nigerian evacuation operation preparing to go ; and a possible evacuation operation in Bosnia . They the Navy and Marine Corps tried to pony up , but for the first time they found something had to give . They wanted the Joint Chiefs of Staff to advance the turnaround of the next-to-deploy units and emergency deploy the next ARG ahead of schedule . I tip my hat to their can-do attitude , but the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense would not allow it because of personnel tempo restrictions . Besides , the operation had to go down in a week-too soon for the ARG to make the transit . So the Joint Chiefs told the Army , " You said you can move that airborne army of yours anywhere , anytime . Make good on it ! " My infantry battalion was part of a brigade the 82nd dropped in the Libyan rear behind Gabes . We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had the port-long before our initial air-dropped supplies ran out . Once the port was open , the Navy supplied us for the next two months . The Navy 's maritime support gave the operation indefinite staying power . When the accord was signed , we all went home . Editor : And it worked just like that ? Smith : Oh , there were problems , but we worked them out . The biggest was the airlift organization . As you know , the C-130s and C-5s loaded the 82nd in North Carolina . It took a lot of coordination with the Air Force ; in fact , I would say they scrambled more than anyone . But teamwork , joint training among the officers in charge , and understanding other services made it possible . On the sixth day , after a good night 's rest , the " All Americans " had breakfast in Fort Bragg and lunch in Tunisia . Editor : Fair enough . Let 's move on to technology and revolutions in military affairs ( RMAs ) . You argue that your RMA in parachuting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Please explain . Smith : By the turn of the century , we were pretty far along in our ability to air drop battalions and brigades , even divisions . In this century 's first decade , small RMAs in airborne warfare gave the Army a cost advantage . Editor : Such as ? Smith : The Air Force built its C-17 , which gave it longer legs , shorter takeoff and land capability , and a heavier lift capacity . The same innovations were incorporated into the modified C-Ss . Because industry had the tooling and benches for these aircraft , production was relatively inexpensive . So we made many more of them . In addition , drop capabilities advanced . By 2012 , with Global Positioning System guiding vanes , gyro stabilization , and precision-guided heavy parachute pallets , we were dropping MIAl Abrams tanks , 155-mm howitzers , munitions , and supplies from 40,000 feet and placing them exactly where we wanted them . We would design templates tailored to the terrain and enemy positions , drop the force according to the templates , and within three hours @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the objective . These innovations were relatively inexpensive compared to what the Navy and Marine Corps needed to continue with amphibious warfare . Back in the late 1990s they had their advanced amphibious assault vehicle , the DD-21 , precision gunfire munitions , ship construction and modernization , the MV-22 , and mine countermeasures programs . These all were incredibly costly . Many , like the mine countermeasures project , still had a long way to gothis was high-tech stuff that required lots of research and development . Editor : Any other comments on RMAs ? Smith : Just one . It seemed to me back in the 1990s and the first decade of this century that the Navy and Marine Corps were hung up on the notion that a new way of conducting amphibious operations must be found to strengthen their operational maneuver from the sea warfare concept , and they looked to RMAs in this area . The Army and the Air Force , on the other hand , thought that the question was not how to conduct amphibious operations better , but how to get into the enemy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crusade to replace the Marine Corps " amphibious capability with the Army 's airborne ? Smith : I never once advocated a parochial campaign to advance the Army over the Marine Corps . The problem for the Marine Corps was that the airborne operation worked , just like split ARG operations worked in the decade before . In those austere days , once you made something work that offered economy , it became the way of doing business . I always have believed that the ArmyAir Force team can not go it alone . The eventual link with the Navy-Marine Corps at the port or beach is crucial to an operation 's staying power . Editor : You have been accused of parochialism because of your involvement in the planning during the Second Gulf War . There are accounts of you staunchly advocating the airborne over the Marines to get in country to Basra . Smith : I did fight strongly for the XVIIIth Corps to execute that mission , but only because it made sense . By that time , around 2010 , the Navy still had only about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then , this increased the marginal value of each ship ; the loss of even one was unacceptable . Mines still were a showstopper . Enemy mines got better and more plentiful , but our countermeasures efforts were little improved over premillennial capabilities thanks to budget constraints . The mission was similar to the one I conducted in Gabes , just on a larger scale , so I knew it could be done-especially with the new aircraft and heavy airdrop equipment we had just acquired . There were thousands of square miles of open desert to choose from for the airborne insertion , while the Marines would have to have gone across those beaches . The coast is a well-defined line , and the enemy had a fair idea of which beaches were the most likely avenues of approach . They had mined every square foot of oceanfront . Editor : The outcome ? Smith : Same as Gabes . It worked . Once we took Basra , we worked back to the gulf . Because we owned the land , the mine-clearing operation proceeded unhindered . Soon we had a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So if you did n't seal the fate of amphibious operations , what did ? Smith : There were many factors . First was cost . To build an amphibious force that was impervious to attack during landing was an expensive undertaking because of the equipment and technology required . Second was the way the ARGs began to deploy and operate . By the end of the 1990s , the State Department had the ARGs " ships running around the oceans like the Keystone Cops used to run around police cars . The tasking continued to get more complex-and more frequent . Ship-to-objective maneuver ( STOM ) was key to these new challenges . The Marines needed STOM-it allowed them to skip beachfront obstacles rather than waste time , energy , and lives fighting through them . Third , there was the fact that Americans do not like casualties , and the amphibious environment could not promise bloodless landings . STOM helped here , too . The airborne assault was not risk free , but because the selection of drop zones for insertion allowed greater choices , and the drops at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be greatly minimized . In the end , however , the single factor that terminated amphibious operations was the budget . Neither the Marine Corps nor the Army had any say in the matter . Editor : How so ? Smith : By the end of the last century , the military budget was spiraling downward . I forget the exact numbers , but by 1998 the defense budget was down 40% from its 1989 levels . Personnel were slashed as well , and there was no bottom in sight . Every year , Congress had another good reason why more could come out of the defense budget . That is what forced the split ARG deployment conundrum . Should we have been surprised ? By 1998 , only 46% of U.S. senators and 31% of our representatives had any military experience . These number continued to trend downward . Demographics worked against the military . Editor : That helps us understand why the budget went down , but again , how did that force the decision to cease amphibious operations ? Smith : It was hard to justify large defense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had to go . Any hint of duplicity of effort was anathema . Amphibious operations were history . But the capability never was lost because no one could think of a better way to rescue Americans from overseas embassies in evacuation operations . Operational maneuver from the sea and ship-to-objective maneuver had great utility in these and other military operations other than war . Believe me , these are no small matters . Because the capability never was lost , amphibious assault always was a potential threat that enemies had to consider . That is why during the South China Sea crisis , when we had shiploads of Marines ready to retake Luzon World War II style , the enemy had to honor the threat of amphbous assault . STOM and evacuation operations capabilities allowed us to use amphibious assault as an effective ruse . This was an incredible headache for the enemy because they knew they were just as vulnerable to invasion anywhere inland from the sky . The enemy 's situation was untenable . Amphibious operations never again will be used in the main attack . The Marines now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the decision on how to conduct forcible entry . Through joint training , coordination , and dedication , the services made it viable and lethal to the enemy 's cause . Author Affiliation By Commander Robert G. Hahn , U.S. Navy Author Affiliation Commander Hahn is assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Operations Directorate ( J-3 ) . <p> 
##1007451 Historical patterns repeat on many scales .... <p> It gets dark early this time of year , the time of the winter solstice , and it gets cold far too early as well . I feet that cold much more in my bones nowadays . It gets under my tunic and into my blood , no matter how many layers I wear Perhaps it comes with old age , as inevitable as the wrinkles on my face and the aches in my joints . But despite the chill , on this particular winter solstice night I stood outside among the ancient Temple ruins to watch the setting of the Sun . My daughter knew of my desire to stand out here on this particular night , as I 've tried to do every year since we finally returned to Earth . Some years I 've been too ill , and some years the harsh weather convinced me to stay inside . But I suspected that this solstice night would be my last . As the Sun finally disappeared below the horizon , I looked up at the stars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this holiday season one more time . The chill wind started to howl more fiercely , and dusty snow began pelting my face . I began to cough , so I hid my head deeper within my parka and walked back through the darkness to the shelter of my firmly dwelling , just a hundred meters away . The temperature started to dip far below freezing , but I did not regret my decision to come outside . After all , this night was special , and not just because of the solstice . This night was also the anniversary of our victory over the Leyens . The door of our home slid open slowly and got stuck , so I had to push it to get it to open all the way . My son-in-law had been meaning to fix it , but other , more necessary repairs had taken precedence . I walked inside and discovered my daughter standing in our foyer , waiting for me with a slight scowl . " Abba , " she said , cutting past me to push the door closed . The word @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hannah only calls me that when she 's annoyed . " Yes , daughter ? " I said with a smile . " You should n't go out at night . I was getting worried . We all were . " She helped me remove my parka and she ushered me towards the retaining fireplace , where a small log burned and gave off a mild heat . " I do n't have many more nights left , Hannah . Let me enjoy them . " " I was afraid you would n't come back , " she said softly She hung my parka in the closet . " We need you tonight . For the telling of the story . " " I know , I know . I 'm here , are n't I ? " She adjusted the kerchief that covered her hair . " Come . The others are waiting . " As we walked into the parlor , the smell of frying potato pancakes wafted in from the kitchen , filling my nose . My mouth watered . The smells mixed with the sounds of my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the floor where they played their game of spinning tops . An oil lamp bathed the room in a dull glow . As Hannah scurried past me to the kitchen , I tiptoed around the circle and settled in my easy chair , near the parlor fireplace . Just as I fell onto the cushions , my grandchildren looked up from their game . " Grampa 's here ! " little Jacob shouted , and he jumped towards me , laughing . A grandfather should n't play favorites , I suppose , but I 've always favored the youngest . Every new grandchild reminded me that the human race would go on . Jacob hugged me and tangled his fingers in my white beard . I picked him up and put him aside so I could grace each of my grandchildren with a hug . When I was done , the circle of children had reformed , gathered around me . Hannah came in from the kitchen , wiping her hands on a worn blue cloth . Her husband Shimon followed her in . The two of them sat in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I smiled back . " Jacob , " I said , " what night is it ? " " The first night of the Festival of Lights ! " he replied . I addressed the oldest , who was fifteen . " Shmuel , what do we do for the Festival of Lights ? " Shmuel had answered this question many times before . " We play the tops game . We eat potato pancakes and other fried foods . We light the candles . And we tell the story . " I nodded . " Do you want to hear the story ? " The children clamored for the tale , and so I began . The story begins long ago I said , back when I was a very young man . Almost as young as all of you . It was a bad time for the human race . Some of us had spread out among the stars , but most of us lived on Babylon , a planet many light-years from here . And no matter where we lived , none of those planets were home . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we left Earth . And the answer should strike fear into all your hearts . It was because of the Leyens . Many years ago , as many years before I was born as have passed since , the Leyens came to Earth and conquered our home . These pale , shriveled , large-eyed aliens came to each member of our race with a choice-either be driven into exile , or have our genes altered so we would become like them . The Leyens had no sense of morality , and no sense of individuality , and most of us rejected their misguided offer . Some of us were weak , though , and I spit on their memory . Those who became assimilated started taking the Leyen point of view , wondering why we were so attached to this ball of dirt we called home . They were the ones , these Leyen -- Human hybrids , who drove us into exile on the planet Babylon . And so , from my grandfather 's time until my own , we lived on a planet that we did not know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , winter , and autumn did not mean what they had here on Earth . We scraped out a life for humanity and wept for the world we had once known . One day , we heard news that filled us with both fear and joy . The Leyens were not the only aliens out there . Far from here , closer to the center of the Milky Way , the Leyens were fighting with another race , one that they had tried to assimilate but that had not grown as weak and complacent as we had . The war had come , and with it , our opportunity . My father , Matthew , the Governor of our planet of exile , called me to his office one morning and said , " Judah , this is our chance . " " What is ? " I asked him . He looked around the room as if checking for electronic spying devices . " At the cost of many lives , we 've managed to secure six Leyen ships capable of hyperspace . I 've heard that the Leyens have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hybrids have left . This is our chance to take our planet back . " You have to remember that I knew nothing of Earth , except what my grandparents had told me . Like my father , I shared a desire to go back , but I honestly never expected it to happen in my lifetime . So I calmly replied , " Really ? Take our planet back ? That 's wonderful news . " My father cocked his head at me . " I 'm glad you think so , Judah , because I 'd like you to lead the fleet . " That stopped me cold . " Father , " I said , " I 'm a physics teacher . I 'm not a soldier . " " None of us are soldiers , " my father replied . " But you are my son . Your name will inspire our people and lead us into victory . " I had never heard my father speak that way , and I thought I saw tears begin to well up in his eyes . He wiped his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he quickly stopped . " Will you do it , Judah ? " " Well , " I began , " I -- " The door opened , and one of my father 's aides interrupted us . " Governor Hammer , " he said with a nod . " Forgive the interruption . " " What is it , David ? " David glanced at me and said , " We 've just gotten a report confirming that the Leyens have temporarily abandoned Earth . It 's ours now if we want it . " " Thank you , David . " David left and my father turned back to me . " You see , Judah ? You do n't have to worry about being a soldier at all . Just lead the fleet back to Earth , and begin to recolonize home . " Father 's words convinced me , and I agreed to take on the task . He put me in charge of the most important ship of all , the largest and most powerful , called the Luminary . We jumped into hyperspace behind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Earth . And protect them we did . Because what we did n't know at the time was that the Leyens had set up a trap . My grandchildren , my biggest hope for you is that you never know the terror of a battle . Shortly after the jump into hyperspace , we discovered that the Leyens had expected us . They had left one ship hidden near Babylon , just in case , and when they saw our six vessels , that one ship came in behind us for a surprise attack . We were hit first , with a huge energy burst that knocked out our life support and lights for a moment . By the time my crew had gotten the systems working again , the Leyens were firing random bolts at our other five ships . Over the hyperspace radio , I ordered the other five vessels to hightail it towards Earth as fast as possible . The Leyens must have overheard , because their ship turned around and sped towards us . We came in fast and engaged the Leyens in a volley of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remember the number of times we hit them or the number of times we got hit ourselves . The Luminary shook constantly , the lights dimmed and brightened over and over , and the control panels expelled sweet-smelling smoke . Finally , with our last dregs of energy , we managed to hit the Leyen ship dead center , and it exploded in the eerie silence that accompanies such things in hyperspace . I felt exhausted ; sweat covered my face and a bloody gash cut across my cheek . But my father had placed me in command , so I had to secure the Luminary before getting some rest . My crew reported on the damage , which mostly sound ed fixable , until I got a call in from my engineer . " Captain Hammer , we need you down here . " I remember shaking my head in amusement at being called " Captain Hammer , " but after making sure that there were no other crises for me to deal with , I headed down to engineering . The Leyen hyperspace engine filled the chamber from top @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ engineer , a woman about my age named Rebecca , pushed a button on the side of the engine that popped out a cube the size of my palm . She took it and handed it over to me . " Here 's the problem , Captain . " I turned the cube around in my hands . " It 's the fuel pod . " " Look at it closely , " Rebecca said . " It 's fused . Inoperable . " I examined it ; sure enough , the normal bright glow of the fuel pod had dimmed to a milky-white paleness . I passed it back to her . " Why did it fuse ? We did n't run the ship that hard . " Rebecca nodded . " That last energy burst , the one that did n't shake the ship-it must be some new sort of weapon . My guess is that it targeted the engine chamber and sapped the fuel pod . " " Well , put in a replacement . " She shook her head and pushed a but ton to open up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ children , this is the part that you must understand . The Luminary was different from the other ships . The other ships could run for months on a standard fuel pod , but the Luminary used that much power in a day . Since we knew it would take eight days to get to Earth , we had brought eight extra fuel pods with us in the drawer . Only now , what Rebecca showed me was a drawer with only one working fuel pod . The other seven were as fused as the one from the engine , beyond repair . " Powerful weapon , " I said . " Yes . " " So what do we do now ? " Rebecca looked at me as if I were a fool . Come to think of it , maybe I was . " What do we do now ? " she parroted . " That 's what I 'm asking you . You 're the captain . " I nodded and stared off into the distance , while trying to think of an idea . " Can we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " Rebecca shook her head . " You ordered them forward , and they 've already gone far ahead . They 're out of hyperspace radio range . " " Maybe they 'll come back for us . " Unless they assume we 've been destroyed . " I thought some more . " Well , we have one working fuel pod . Let 's use it to go back to Babylon and get more . " Rebecca rolled her eyes . " There are no more , Captain . We took all the fuel pods we had . There was no reason to leave any behind . " " So , " I said . " We 'll just go home , then . We 'll let the other five ships retake the Earth . " Rebecca looked around the chamber for a moment , and then , staring at her feet , she said , " With all due respect , sir , that 's not a good plan . " " Why not ? " " Because the trap implies that the Leyens know we 're coming @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ waiting for us near Earth , our other five ships wo n't stand a chance against them . They need us . " I sighed . " Rebecca , you 're telling me that whatever we do , we 've lost . " " I 'm afraid so , sir , " she said . " Unless we can get one fuel pod to do the work of eight . " Children , the way Rebecca said that triggered something in my mind . I opened up the engine 's fuel compartmeet and studied the way the wires connected from the fuel pod into the rest of the engine . I had never seen a Leyen power converter before , but it looked similar to power converters we used on Babylon . I studied the electronics intently and came up with an idea . " Rebecca , " I said , " what if we hook up the wires so it does n't drain the fuel pod as quickly as usual ? What if we adjust the rate at which power is drawn ? Flip the wires around so the exhaust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " She bit her lip . " We 'd have to skirt very close to the laws of thermodynamics . But if we did as you suggest- " She punched a few buttons on a nearby computer panel , checked the result , and smiled . " We 'd have enough power from the one fuel pod to last us all eight days , plus a little more besides . " And that 's what we did . We arrived at Earth shortly after our other five ships , and just in time to set up a defensive perimeter around the planet . When the Leyens and the hybrids came back , in their weakened condition we managed to take them out ship by ship . Eventually they realized that it was n't worth it , and they left us behind to rebuild our lives the way we wanted . But my story , as always , ends with a warning . We may have been back home for decades now , but even today , we must still watch out for the Leyens . Their empire might be crumbling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they would assimilate us again if they had a chance . My story was done except for one final part of the ritual . All of the other children turned to look at little Jacob , the only one young enough to not remember the punch line . " Grampa , that was the story of the Great Miracle , right ? " " Yes , " I replied , smiling . " So what was the Great Miracle ? " " What was the Great Miracle ? " I laughed . " Is n't it miracle enough that we won our planet back ? " " Seriously , Grampa , what was it ? " Still smiling , I sighed . " The Great Miracle was that I was wrong . " " What do you mean , you were wrong ? " Jacob asked . " The technique I came up with for getting more power out of the fuel pod-it could n't have worked . After the battle had been won , we checked the power converter and discovered that it was the wrong kind . It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what I had thought was a sliding power scale actually only had two settings , on and off . The physics just was n't there . It should n't have worked . " Jacob looked confused . " But it did work , Grampa . " I smiled . " Ah , yes , it did . And that is why we call it the Great Miracle . Come , let us light the candles . " My children followed me over to the mantelpiece , where Hannah had already set up the candelabrum . We lit the eight candles using the flame of a ninth , and recited those ancient words , " Nes Gadol Hayah Po-A Great Miracle Happened Here . " Then my daughter called everyone else over to the table to eat the potato pancakes , while I went to my room for a rest . As I changed into pajamas , I gazed for a long time at the photo of Rebecca , the engineer I had met on the Luminary so long ago . I hoped she would be proud of the way I told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into bed when I heard a knock at my door , and little Jacob came in . " Grampa , is that a true story ? How can one fuel pod last as long as eight ? " He jumped onto the bed , sitting next to me . I tousled his hair , making sure not to knock off his skullcap , and sighed happily . " Grandson , I do n't know what to believe . But I do believe my senses . Look around you . We 're here , back on Earth , and we have a second chance to make things go right . " 
##1007458 When sexy surgeon Michelle Renard falls in lust with her-hunky patient Theo Buchanan , her seductive bedside manner leads to a pleasure prescription he 'll never forget . <p> Ever since Theo Buchanan , the studly lawyer from Boston , had started staying at Dr. Michelle Renard 's home , the sexual tension had been driving her crazy . They 'd met one month before when he 'd had an emergency appendectomy at the hospital where she was a surgeon . Michelle thought she 'd seen the end of him until her father , Jack -- who had been hanging around the hospital that week -- took a liking to Theo . He 'd invited him to a fishing competition in the small Southern town where Michelle grew up and still lived . Ever the matchmaker , her father had insisted that Theo stay at Michelle 's place . Theo had point-blank told her that he intended to get her into the sack , and that kind of smooth-operator attitude infuriated her . As much as Michelle wanted to tear his clothes off , she was n't about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was taking her to dinner , and she was n't sure she 'd be able to resist temptation much longer .... passionate persuasion " Did I mention you look pretty tonight " Theo said as they zigzagged their way to the bar in her father 's crowded restaurant . " I just threw something on , " she said , not letting him know that she had spent 20 minutes deciding on an outfit . Her father hurried over to them . " Theo , why do n't you go pour yourself a beer while I have a word with my daughter " Michelle followed her father into the storage room . " Is something wrong ? " " He 's gon na leave , that 's what 's wrong . This town needs Theo Buchanan . " Michelle knew Theo had been hanging out with her father and the local football team . Because Theo knew so much about the sport , the town now wanted to make him the new high school football coach . " Daddy , what do you expect me to do ? The man lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attorney . " " I think you could change his mind if you worked at it , " her father said . " How ? " she asked . " I 'm sure you 'll think of something , " he said . " Now go sit , and I 'll bring out supper for you and Theo . " Michelle did n't have a quiet moment for the next three hours . She and Theo had just finished eating when the restaurant got so busy that she had to help out . After the crowd thinned , Michelle sat at a table trying not to stare at Theo , who was at the bar . He looked adorable in his tee shirt and jeans . All she could think of was having sex with him . Pretty soon , he would go home ; just like her father , she wanted him to stay . Michelle was so busy worrying , she did n't notice him approaching her . " I 'm gon na get some fresh air , " he announced casually . As she watched him walk away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He had just pushed the door open and stepped outside when she went running after him . " That 's it , " she said , catching up with Theo outside in the moonlight . " You win . " He turned around . " What ? " " You know what I 'm talking about . This game we 've been playing , the flirting and innuendos . We 're going to have sex , Theo Buchanan . The tear-our-clothes-off , mind-blowing , scream-out-loud kind of sex . All night long . You name the time and the place , and I 'm there . " Theo stared at her with a devilish grin . Apparently , she 'd rendered him speechless . She folded her arms and demanded , " So ? What do you have to say to that ? " " Michelle , turn around . " She did as he said and that 's when she saw her father . He was standing in the doorway , definitely close enough to have overheard what she 'd just said to Theo . late-night liaisons On the drive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ humiliated . When they got back , they retreated to their bedrooms without so much as a good-night . Now Michelle could n't sleep because she was unable to stop thinking about Theo . She decided some late-night TV in the den might take her mind off her lustful thoughts , so she headed downstairs . " Michelle , what are you doing ? Its 2:30 in the morning . " He nearly scared her to death . Theo stood in his doorway , his arms folded across his bare chest . His hair was tousled and his face needed a shave . He had pulled on a pair of Levi 's but had n't zipped them . Michelle stared at the narrow opening between the zipper and swallowed hard . " I 'm sorry , Theo . I did n't mean to disturb you , but I ca n't sleep . Do you want to do something until I feel tired ? " " What did you have in mind ? " " I could fix you a sandwich , " she said . " Not tonight . I want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back into his bedroom , though . He took hold of her hand and tugged Michelle into her room . Once inside , he buried his face in her hair and whispered , " God , you smell good . " " I thought you wanted to sleep . " " No , " he corrected , then kissed that wonderfully sensitive spot below her ear . Her breath caught in her throat when his teeth gently closed on her earlobe . " I said I wanted to go to bed . " doctor feel-good His mouth covered hers in a long , passionate kiss that let her know how much he wanted her too . Her lips parted , and she felt a jolt of pleasure all the way down to her toes when his tongue went in search of hers . Her arms wrapped around his waist , and then her hands began to stroke and caress him . She could feel the hard muscles of his back under her fingertips , and when her hips began to move restlessly against him , she felt him tremble . She @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his hips . " Slow down , sweetheart , " he said . " We 've got all night . " And that was the problem . She wanted more than one night . She wanted forever , but she knew that was n't possible , and so she decided to take what she could get . They shared another hot , tongue-thrusting kiss , and then he pulled away , stepped back , and stripped off his jeans . The sight of his naked body overwhelmed her because he was so perfectly sculpted . She reached for the straps of her gown , but he stopped her . " Let me . " Slowly , Theo pulled her nightgown over her head and tossed it onto the floor . He picked her up in his an-as and carried her to the bed . His fingers circled her belly button , then moved lower . She sucked in her breath , " Wait , " she whispered . " You do n't like it ? " His fingers were magical . " Yes .. yes , but ifyou do n't stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . He was driving her crazy , teasing , preparing her for him . His head dipped , and he began to kiss between her breasts . He kissed each one , his tongue stroking her nipples until she was arched half offthe bed . He moved down her body , kissing every inch of her skin until she cried out with pleasure . Then he moved lower until his mouth was between her thighs . She clung to him as he brought her to a fevered pitch again and again with his mouth . But just when she was reaching the explosive brink , he stopped and pUlled away . When she thought she could n't take it anymore , he put his hands down there and began to stroke her once again . Consumed with the waves of pleasure still coursing through her body , she braced herself as he knelt before her and roughly parted her thighs . Then , at long last , he lifted her hips and sank himself deep inside her . She moved forcefully , arch ing up against him to take him deeper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again , then again and again and again . Theo wanted to tell her how perfect she was , but lie could n't get the words out . The intensity of the feelings rocketing through his body was too overpowering . She would n't let him slow down . He buried himself inside her , and with one final thrust , they climaxed while she held him close . It took a few minutes for both of them to recover . Finally , Michelle started to laugh . " Loving you is going to be the death of me , " she said as she traced the tiny scar from his appendectomy . " I can see the headlines now : Sex Kills Surgeon . " She leaned down and gently kissed the scar . " Do you do that to all of your patients ? " he asked . " It 's part of the oath I took . Kiss it and make it better . " " Want to know what my favorite thing about you is ? " Theo whispered . " What ? " she asked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ breast . If she had n't been so tired , she would have asked him why men have such an obsession with breasts . Then she suddenly realized just where his hand was pressed , and tears sprang into her eyes . He had placed his hand over her heart . Footnote Adapted from MERCY 2001 by Julie Garwood . Published by Pocket Books . <p> 
##1007467 It was just a year after her husband left , and Jillian and the kids were on their own . She wanted the holiday to be special , but she never imagined it would be a turning point in her life . By Toni Gerber Hope <p> JILLIAN PUT DOWN THE LAST OF THE GROCERY BAGS AND GLANCED OVER AT the answering machine . One call-she could guess who that would be . She pulled off her down parka and ski cap , hung them near the back door , then shook out her hair . She needed a haircut , she knew . When it was styled , Jillian 's straight brown hair had a nice swing , but now it hung limply against her neck . * She was right about the call . * " Hi , sweetie . It 's Mom . Where are you ? Shopping ? I thought you 'd be back by now . I 'm calling about Hanukkah . It 's next week . Remember ? " * Even when she was speaking to a machine , Jillian 's mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for some reason , choosing not to speak . Well , her mother was n't far wrong -- these days , all of their conversations were more or less one-way . " The first night is the ninth , " the voice on the machine went on . " I 've sent you some beautiful candles-dripless -- made in Israel . And presents for the children . Talk soon , dear . " Click . " Click , " Jillian muttered to herself . She knew she did n't have to call back . Her mother would try again . Meanwhile , she wanted to savor her time alone in the house , the few minutes until ten-year-old Jake returned from Saturday -- afternoon hockey practice , dropping his stick and gear on the kitchen floor , and his little sister , eight-year-old Annie , swept in from a birthday party , full of reports about her friends . December ninth , Jillian thought , glancing at the calendar . Actually , she had been planning to rip out the entire page of December . Now , if her mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . December 29 : the night Ken had told her he was moving out , the night he had said , " I 'm tired of family life . " " I did n't know that was an option , " Jillian had replied , surprising herself with her sarcasm . Ken had looked at her curiously but said little else as he packed a few items of clothing and some papers from his desk . " We 'll tell the kids in the morning , " he said . Photograph <p> So it was final , she thought , her mind filling with a million questions . But she wanted an answer to the only one that mattered-why ? And that , Jillian knew , Ken could n't tell her . " Fine , " she answered , " whatever . " OF COURSE , KEN HAD N'T BEEN TIRED of family life . He 'd been tired of her . Throughout the past 11 months , he had continued to be a devoted father . Every other weekend , he brought Jake and Annie to his apartment . When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the kids and Jillian as a group , cheerily , but carefully avoided Jillian 's eyes . She ached thinking of that dark December night and of the time since . At first , she had begged Ken to talk about it , to tell her what she had done , what had gone wrong . But all he could say was that he simply wanted to move on , that he did n't want to live the way he had been living . Even at marriage counseling-which he agreed to try once , probably so I could n't hold that over him , Jillian thought now-he had n't said any more than that . And she 'd been alone ever since , going to work every day in the community-relations department at the local hospital , picking up the kids from their after-school programs , putting dinner on the table , checking homework , signing permission slips , supervising bedtime , and then sitting numbly in front of the TV or crying quietly in the downstairs bathroom , so Jake and Annie would n't hear . The door burst open @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filled the kitchen . Jake stumbled in , dropping his bag and hockey stick at the door . " How was practice ? " Jillian asked , patting down her son 's fine brown hair . Jake shrugged her hand away ; he thought he was too old for her to fuss over him . But he smiled at her . " Good ! I made a great save . And the coach said if I keep stopping goals like that , I 'll definitely be a starter . " " That 's terrific , " Jillian said . Jake slumped onto A kitchen chair . " Are you gon na come to my games ? " he asked , looking not at her but across the room at the door . Jillian smiled at her lanky , athletic boy . She thought of all the games she had sat through with Ken at her side-soccer , T-ball , Little League . How many times had they cheered as Jake had made a great play , then turned and met each other 's eyes , so proud of this kid of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " she asked . " Yeah . I suppose so . " How would they manage that ? she wondered . Last spring , during Little League , they 'd been able to avoid the problem because Jillian had taken Annie to gymnastics on Saturday mornings while Ken went with Jake to the ball field . She thought of other divorced couples at games-sitting as far apart as they could , talking only if they absolutely had to , hurrying away the minute the game was over . She supposed she and Ken would do that now . Would everyone talk about them , the way she and her friends had whispered about those other divorced parents ? She could n't bear it . But , Jillian knew , she would bear it , just as she 'd managed to get through all those other awful moments of the past year . Her father was right-do n't look ahead . " Just take one day at a time , honey , " he kept encouraging her . " You 're doing great . " It was her mother who was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start , " as she so perkily put it . A fresh start that Jillian had n't wanted and did n't know what to do with . " SO , HOW ARE YOU ? " HER MOTHER asked , trying to sound casual on the phone . " Doing much these days ? " The evening had settled in around the house . In the living room , Jake and Annie lay on the couch , watching television . " If you mean besides working full-time , running a house , and raising two kids , " Jillian replied , " the answer is no . " " I just meant ... any parties ... you know , with the holidays coming and everything ... " her mother faltered . Jillian knew what she meant . " Well , there was the Bring a Dish from Your Ethnic Culture " dinner at the kids " school , " she said . " And did you meet anyone ? " her mother asked . " I mean , you know , " any ... divorced fathers ? " Was she kidding ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ early , six o'clock , so it was mostly moms there , " she explained . " But how are you and Dad ? " she asked . Better to change the subject , Jillian thought . She 'd once made the mistake of telling her mother that she 'd gone to a single parents " brunch at the synagogue , and the interrogation she 'd received made Jillian feel like she was 14 again . " So , what did you wear ? " her mother wanted to know . " Anyone ask for your number ? " The questions went on for weeks-and the implied accusations . " They could n't have all been jerks . " Maybe you should have worn something dressier . " Actually , Mr. Perfect could have been there and Jillian would n't have cared . She 'd only gone to that dreadful brunch so she 'd have something to report to her mother . And all she 'd gotten was more pressure . She did n't want to meet anyone . She and the kids were doing just fine the way they were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be OK , she told herself , believing it , as the week before Hanukkah went by . During school vacation , Jillian and the kids would fly to Florida , to her parents " house . But they were celebrating the first night of Hanukkah quietly-just the three of them . For the first time in months , Jillian set the table in the dining room . It looked pretty , with white candles set against a dark green tablecloth . The menorah was on the walnut sideboard , holding two candles-one for the first night and the special shamash candle to light it with . Jillian had been tempted to invite Ken-for the ki &; sake-but now she was glad she had n't . She certainly did n't need an ex-husband glowering at her from the end of the table , observing that the potato pancakes seemed a tad greasy this year . Was she sure the oil had been hot enough ? Or worse , not mentioning it at all because he would be on company behavior . The kids were so excited about their presents that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ table . The kids-they were so sweet , helping her make the potato pancakes . ( OK , so the oil was n't hot enough . ) And playing the dreidel game before dinner , " just " cause we always do , even if it is for babies , " Jake explained . As the little top spun and landed on a side , the children won or lost pennies , depending on which character from the Hebrew alphabet was facing up-gimel , nun , hay or shin-the letters that stood for each word in the sentence , which translated as : A Great Miracle Happened There . " It commemorates the miracle that the oil in the Temple of Jerusalem lasted eight nights when it was only supposed to be enough for one night , " Annie explained , as if they did n't all know the story . " And , " Jake piped up , " the miracle of the Jewish figh rers " victory over the Greek army . The Maccabees . That was the real miracle . " The real miracle here , thought Jillian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole meal and they have n't exchanged one angry word , and no crying ! The phone startled her . Surely it could n't be her mother . They 'd already talked twice , the kids had thanked her for their gifts , and she would n't call again to rehash the evening until much later , long after dinner was over . " Is this Jillian ? " a man asked , his voice deep , but a little tentative . " Who is this ? " she answered sharply . Would telemarketers be so low as to call on a Sunday night ? " My name is David Sandler . I got your number from your grandmother . " " My grandmother ? " Jill ian sputtered . " My grandmother died last summer . " Who was this guy ? " Oh , I 'm sorry . How awkward of me , " the man continued . " Do n't hang up . I 'm really not weird . And I do n't talk to the dead or anything . It 's just that when I was visiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jaffe , and she gave me your number . Told me that you were recently separated . I 'm sorry that she died , " he added . " She seemed like a lovely woman . " Jillian vaguely remembered her grandmother mentioning the incident . Ruth Sandler 's grandson . Very nice , not tall , but a mensch , Grandma had said , with the same first name as Jillian 's late grandfather , David . The mensch , however , had never called , and then Grandma had had a heart attack and another and had died in July . " Why are you calling now ? " she asked . " Well .. this gets even more awkward . I just was n't up to it , if you know what I mean . I .. I needed to become sane again . " " And are you sane now ? " Jillian asked , surprised that she was even curious . " Good question , " David answered . " My divorce really rocked me . They say you 're crazy for a year . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anniversary . " Has it been a year for you ? " David laughed . " Oh , now I 'm embarrassed . It 's been almost two years , actually . But I 've always been a slow learner . " He sounds nice , Jillian realized . Somebody I could talk to . " It 's rough , is n't it ? " she said softly . " Should we compare notes over dinner ? " David asked . " Next Saturday ? " Her stomach lurched . " Dinner ? " I 'd have to get a baby-sitter , she thought , and Jake has his science project , and .. " Or , if you 'd rather , we could just meet for a drink or coffee the first time , " David rushed on . " I could call you later this week to see . " WOW JILLIAN THOUGHT AS SHE WALKED back to the dining room . That was strange . " Who was that ? " Annie asked . Jillian sat down , noticing the menorah on the sideboard , still glowing . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " A friend of your great-grandma 's , " she answered . " Someone she met before she died . " The kids looked blank , so Jillian explained , telling them about the " nice man " and Great-grandma 's friend and , even though she had n't planned to , about the dinner invitation too . Amazingly , they seemed pleased . " Cool , " Jake said , then returned to his new video game . " Ooh , what 'll you wear ? " Annie asked , excited . " Can we go up to your closet and pick out an outfit ? Maybe your red silk blouse . You have n't worn that in ages . " She was right . Jillian never wore anything bright or dressy anymore . " Maybe , " she said , as they walked toward the stairs . Then , to her astonishment , she started laughing . WHEN THE PHONE RANG-ONE LAST time that night-Jillian was ready . " Guess what ? " she said to her mother , repeating the whole incredible story . " Are n't I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No . I 'd say he 's the lucky one , " her mom answered warmly . Jillian , still smiling as she went downstairs to straighten the dining room and pick up the gift wrap , stopped before the menorah for a moment . A miracle had happened , she thought . Maybe not as glorious as the Maccabean victory or as inspiring as the oil lasting for eight nights , but a miracle all the same . " Thanks , Grandma , " she whispered as she switched off the hall light and started toward the stairs . I will wear my red silk blouse , she thought as she walked up to her sleeping family . And I 'll get my hair cut too . Author Affiliation Toni Gerber Hope is Good Housekeeping 5 news director . She lives in New York City with her husband and son . This is her first short story . <p> 
##1007468 It came in an envelope , buried deep in my mother 's papersthe true story of my grandfather . Uncovering his secret changed my feelings about Christmas ... and other things . By Joanna Trollope <p> When my mother died , she left me a bookstore . In England , it would be called a bookshop , but I prefer the word store . It suggests a treasure house to me , a place full of riches and surprises . - My mother 's bookstore is in a town a hundred miles east of Seattle and a hundred miles south of the Canadian border . The town was settled by Scandinavians in the nineteenth century , and if it has a domestic symbol , it must be a coffeepot . The whole town is cray about coffe , addictec to it . There is a coffee shop , one of a national chain , opposite my mother 's bookstore , and all day long , people run in and out of it for pints and quarts of coffee in giant Styrofoam cups , carrying them back to their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ greed . Although she never said so , I believe my mother opened her store to console herself for disappointment in marriage . She was English and not of a generation to abandon a bad marriage . In any case , my grandmother had been a Catholic and a pious woman , and she had instilled in my mother that vows were vows . My grandmother died when my mother was 20-leaving her in the care of my grandfather , a good-natured , romantic man who managed a small , pretty little theater in northern England , in Yorkshire . He had no religion , my mother said , but he had dreams . Once , I knew , his dreams had gotten him into serious trouble , but of that my mother would say nothing . Sometimes I wonder if I take after him . I am not a religious woman in any way , but I have noticed that I occasionally give way to dreams . My most intense dream came when I was 24 and contemplating a move from Seattle to Boston to work in a publishing house @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fell in love with a man in our town who was married with three children . I had known him all my life , and I fell in love with a violence that quite terrified me . We had an affair , all one summer ; I shall never forget it . And then , suddenly , he told me it was impossible , it was over , he was leaving . He collected his wife and children and took off to North Carolina , where he vanished , like a stone thrown into a pool . I still can not look at weather maps on television with any equanimity when the forecaster 's hand sweeps over the southeastern states . <p> After the death of that dream , I moved from my own apartment back in with my mother , above the store . She redecorated my old bedroom and gave me customers to look after and shelves to dust and arrange . My father , by then , was living in a condo in Seattle . My mother had settled him there , along with his typewriter and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of one day becoming a renowned novelist , a chronicler of his time and the Pacific Northwest . It was those declarations that had once made my mother fall in love with him . And , I believe , it was those same declarations , after 20 years of talk , drink , and unfinished manuscripts , that finally set her teeth on edge . My mother had been determined to make a bookstore unlike any bookstore she had known in her English childhood . They were stiff , hushed places , she said , where one whispered as if in church and was not allowed to touch books without specific intention of purchase . My mother 's bookstore was in a converted dance studio-tangos were once taught there-and she divided the space with shelves to create a series of little rooms , where she placed armchairs and reading lamps about , even making a play area for children , with toys on a rug and a rocking horse . She made friends with her customers , and they brought photos to show her and batches of cookies and problems . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her customers . At Halloween , my mother would fill the store window with pumpkins and witches " hats . At New Year 's , she dressed it up for Scottish Hogmanay , with antlers and tartan ribbons . None of that I minded ; indeed , I applauded her enterprise . But at Easter and Christmas , I cringed . I pleaded with her every year not to give way to cheap sentiment , to superstition , but she took no notice ; she went ahead . Year after year , twice a year , I had to endure the spectacle of a pastel garden at Easter and a tacky manger at Christmas . My mother made the garden with mosses and spring flowers and included a cave built with stones that she collected on Sunday walks in the woods . The manger she 'd bought on her honeymoon in southern France , in Provence . It was made of clay , easily chipped and crudely painted . She set it up between two candles , in a bed of holly , and it caused me acute mortification . When @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I could either allow the store to remain exactly the same , a shrine to her memory , or make some changes . I decided on the latter . I am a better businesswoman than my mother was , and although I have inherited her love of literature , I am neither alarmed by technology nor opposed to stocking business and computer books , as she was . I cleaned up the store a little-I took away most of the armchairs because too many people had become accustomed to lunching in them , and I did not want my stock smeared with tuna and mayonnaise-and I organized book events to celebrate a prize-winning novel or a major biography or a breakthrough cookbook . I held seminars at lunchtime and poetry readings at night . I started a gift-wrapping service and opened discount accounts for local schools and companies . A few of my mother 's customers told me the store had lost its heart . I refrained from telling them that it was no longer losing money . It may not have been as full as it was when my mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and atmosphere-but I had three times the number of accounts . I had to hire a teenager to help with the packing and shipping . At night , when I finally closed the store and set the new security alarm , I would go up to the apartment and drink a single glass of wine-Merlot , usually-make myself something to eat , then settle down with a mug of coffee to go through my mother 's papers . It was an indulgence , a nightly fix as cherished as the Merlot . It took me almost a year and a half to sort through everything my mother had left-diaries , letters , photos , playbills , clippings , reviews , and notes and quotations scribbled on the backs of envelopes . " I ca n't tell you everything that 's happened to me , " she said before she died . " I 've forgotten half of it . But you will find everything you want to know . It 's all there . " I am a methodical person , and I discarded nothing before studying it . I read @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ labeled boxes . I put pictures into chronological order and slid them into albums . I made a history of the founding of the bookstore in a green file folder . I hoped it would be therapy for me , but it was the reverse . Every night , I longed to find something that would reconcile me to my mother 's passing , and every night , she rose before me , more vivid than ever , and I missed her deeply . I even feltunjustly , I knew-that she , with her English heritage , had left me stranded here , alone in a country which was my birthplace but to which , because of her , I could never quite belong . I also felt estranged from her Catholic upbringing . There were several rosaries in her drawers and a couple of prayer books , and above her bed had always hung a painting of a Madonna and child . I left all these things where I found them , but I would have preferred them out of the way . Just as I would have preferred my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scarcely in my lifetime even entered a church-not to have clung so blindly to these leftover trappings of a child 's past . It sometimes seemed to me like a dreadful falseness in a person otherwise so transparently honest . But we did n't talk about it . It was the only thing we did n't talk about . She said that there was no point ; she could see my mind was made up . Early in December we had some terrible rains . It was n't cold , but it was wild , wet , and windy , and the weather kept customers away . A businessman whom I supplied with computer books said that I should consider relocating to the new shopping mall outside of town . I told him I would then suffer from the proximity of a big chain bookstore that offered immense discounts , and he gave me a considering look . I could see he knew about the immense discounts already and was turning over his loyalty to me in his mind . When he had gone , I closed the store early and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet for my glass of wine , so instead I followed my mother 's lifelong habit and made a pot of tea . I took this with me into my living room , put on the lamps , and pulled the drapes against the wet black evening . Only one drawer of my mother 's papers remained , and I was dreading the task of sorting it . The drawer lay on the rug in front of the sofa . I knelt down and lifted out a heap of assorted envelopes . One of them was large and bulky . It had come from a bookstore in Piccadilly , London , and had probably contained a catalog . Now it had a white label stuck to it , not quite straight , on which my mother had written in her bold hand : About my father . I untucked the flap and held it open over the rug . A shower of papers fell out , newspaper clippings mostly , and a memo , badly typed on sheets of thin white paper , held together with a rusty clip . I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ English newspapers , some local , some national , and there were disturbing headlines : " Theatre Manager 's Theft " ; " Manager Defrauds Theatre " ; " Hand in the Box Office Till . " I picked up the memo . It had no heading , only a date : November 1956 . In 1956 , I was 12 , my mother 's bookstore was only two years old , and my English grandfather had been a widower for 16 years . I saw that the memo had been written and typed by my mother . She described my grandfather , so wedded to his theater that he was there seven days and six nights a week , dressed in a black evening suit with a starched white shirt and black bow tie , welcoming theatergoers into the foyer . She described herself , as well , going to the theater as a child with her father , standing on the empty stage , imagining an audience waiting for the show to begin . The theater belonged to the Town Council , which furnished a board of trustees made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a month , my grandfather reported to the board and wrestled with their lack of imagination , their deepseated philistinism . In the spring of 1956 , after 35 years of unremitting labor for the theater , my grandfather asked for a few months " leave of absence . He led the trustees to understand that he would be visiting his daughter and granddaughter in America . The trustees , much startled , agreed , as long as he found a temporary manager . He did find a manager , but he did not come to America . Instead , he went in search of a place that my mother said had been the dream passion of his life : He went , alone , to look for the seat of King Arthur , the site of Camelot . It took him three months . He rented a car and stayed in good hotels . He kept a comprehensive and scholarly journal which he bequeathed at his death to a northern university to assist those studying the legends of King Arthur and the works of the poet Tennyson . And while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , since my grandfather had n't troubled to conceal it-that the funds used to pay for this journey had been taken from the coffers of the theater . My grandfather was summoned before the trustees . He was perfectly open . He had no defense beyond his longing that had built to a craving to find the place that had so seized upon his mind . He was perfectly happy to repay the funds by working for no more than a pittance until the debt was cleared . He then stood and looked at those solid , practical faces and waited for certain dismissal and probable arrest . " And did you , " one trustee asked , " find Camelot ? " My grandfather admitted that he had failed . " Then we may assume you no longer believe in the possibility of its existence ? " My grandfather was deeply shocked . " Oh , no , " he said . " I believe as I ever did . " The trustees let him keep his job . " It was the only moment , " my mother wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he felt that their minds were in tune with his . " I put down the memo . My tea had grown cold . I sat there for perhaps half an hour and then I rose , rather stiffly , and went into the little room that my mother , in her English way , had always called the box room , where we kept the paraphernalia of our lives . I hunted among the bundles and boxes until I found a carton containing the little figurines for the manger from Provence . I carried it down to the store . There was just enough light coming in from the street for me to see . I cleared a space in the window display of Christmas cookbooks that I had arranged amid trailing vines of ivy and decorative pyramids of clementines and walnuts . Then I set out the Virgin Mary in her blue robe , Joseph in his brown one , and the baby in his bed of stiff painted straw . I added the shepherd to one side and the ox and ass to the other . I positioned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coming of Twelfth Night . Then I lit a low light in the window . It threw a pool of faint illumination over the figures and cast their shadows up against the books behind them . I stood and looked at the scene for a few moments then went back upstairs to pour myself a glass of wine . I am not , as I have said , a religious woman . But I knew then-and will now know forever-the curious power of possibility . Author Affiliation Joanna Trollope , a descendant of Anthony Trollope , is a best-selling author in England . She lives in Gloucestershire , England . Her latest novel is Next of Kin . <p> 
##1007550 From the saucy new novel Spin Cycle , by Sue Margolis ... Headnote Rachel was engaged to another man when she met Matt , a ripped and randy washing machine repairman . Would she risk her relationship to sample him between the sheets ? Photograph <p> Rachel could n't stop thinking about Matt , the hunky guy who 'd come by her apartment last week to fix her washing machine . She 'd felt the kind of connection with him she rarely experienced these days with her fiance , Adam . As she sat alone in her living room with a bottle of wine , she reached into her pocket and took out Matt 's business card . For five full minutes , she sat , drinking her wine and staring at the card , picturing his grin , his brown eyes , his hard body ... She started to smile . Just because she was about to marry Adam did n't mean she had to stop appreciating other guys . it was n't as if she 'd ever cheat on Adam . Besides , when she 'd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was away on business , awoman had answered the phone . Sure , the woman said she was the hotel manager , but Rachel was certain she could hear a shower running in the background . She pushed Adam out of her mind . She did n't want to think about him and the mystery woman in his room . All she wanted was to hear Matt 's deep , lusty voice . Her eyes focused on his work number . It was late , so if she called , his machine would pick up . That way , she could hear him without having to say anything . She stalled for a few seconds , daring herself to do it , then spurred on by the three glasses of wine she 'd consumed , she grabbed the cordless and dialed . " Hello , " the voice said . She waited for the message to follow , but it did n't . " Hello ? " he said again . It was him , not his answering machine . " Oh , er , hi , Matt , " she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , hi , Rachel . How are you ? " Her drunken brain battled to drink of an excuse for calling . " I ... um . you know how you said I could call you if my washing machine ever broke down ? Well , it 's making the most awful noise and I was wondering if you could take a look at it sometime .... There 's no hurry .... Now ? ! Um ... I 'll see you in half an hour , then . " dirty laundry trick Rachel stood in front of the washing machine and drank the rest of the wine in her glass . What would she tell him when he arrived ? There was n't anything remotely wrong with the washing machine . Short of sabotaging it , what else could she do ? Sabotage . She repeated the word aloud . Swaying slightly from the wine , she went into her bedroom , picked up a handful of quarters , and returned to the kitchen . She opened the washing machine door , tossed the coins on top of a load of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , knowing full well they would jam the damn thing . When Matt arrived in his crumpled shirt and grubby Levi 's , she could n't help but feel extremely horny . " Hi , " she said , laughing awkwardly as she let him inside . " Thanks for coming over so quickly . " " No problem . " He smiled . " I was in the neighborhood . " Rachel led him to the kitchen , finding it difficult to walk in a straight line because of the wine . Pointing to the washing machine , she said , " The moment I switched the thing on , it started making this clanking sound . " " Let 's take a look , " he said , putting his toolbox on the floor and listening to the racket coming from inside . " Sounds like there 's loose change caught up in it . Maybe you forgot to empty your pockets before you put in your last load . " " More than likely , " she said , smiling anxiously . He knelt down and opened the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " " Sure , " she said . She bent over to help him , and Matt 's hand moved toward the door at precisely the same time . They touched for a moment , and their eyes met for a moment longer . " Sorry , " she said , pulling her hand away . " Go on . You take it out . " As she watched him , she regretted telling him he could remove the laundry . First out was an old , saggy bra , followed by three pairs of granny panties . " Where should I , uh ... ? " Matt said , holding the wet underwear . She could feel her cheeks burning . " Oh , God . Sorry , " she said , nervously grabbing the load and tossing it into a laundry basket . While Matt knelt with his head in the drum , she asked him how he became a repairman . He told her it was n't something he 'd set out to do . " After I left college , I wanted to be an actor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So I got an engineering degree instead . After I graduated , I took a year off . A friend of my dad 's asked me to help him repair washing machines , and my year off sort of turned into a life career . But what I really want to do is put my engineering skills to some worthwhile practical use-like in one of the developing countries , where I could make a difference . Sorry ... I sound like a Miss Universe contestant . " She laughed . " No , you do n't . I think that 's a great idea . " All of a sudden , Rachel realized that the wine was making her feel nauseous . She was n't used to drinking so much , and she had n't eaten anything . While Matt wrestled with the machine , she sat on a stool and rubbed her forehead , " Rachel , you okay " he asked . " I 'm feeling a bit queasy . I think it might have been something I ate . " He went to the sink and poured her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking at him as she took the glass . Sick as she felt , she could n't help thinking he had the kind of sexy , boyish face that could melt her undies . He was just so hot . " Look , " he said , " go lie down while I finish up in here . " " No , I 'll be all right . I 'll just sit and watch . " As he worked , she sipped the water . Bit by bit , the nausea lifted , and drowsiness kicked in . Eventually , she could n't fight the overwhelming need to close her eyes any longer . She folded her arms on the counter , laid her head down on top of them , and passed out . unexpected seduction A few nights later , Rachel invited Matt to dinner to apologize for falling asleep on him . She had never done anything like that before and was totally embarrassed . He arrived wearing a trendy black coat over a ribbed charcoal polo shirt , carrying a bottle of wine . She thought about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it might make him feel awkward . Instead , she just smiled and took his jacket and hung it on the coatrack by the door . " Why do n't you come into the kitchen ? " she asked . " We can talk while I finish cooking dinner . " He followed her down the hall . " Mmm . Something smells good . " He uncorked the bottle as she opened the oven to check the roasted potatoes . " Oh , by the way , " he said , " I thought you 'd want these back . " He slipped his hand into the pocket of his khakis and took out a crumpled paper bag . She peered into the bag , which contained her white lace G-string . " How did you get ahold of this ? " she asked , blushing . Matt finished pouring the wine without answering . Finally , he turned to her , holding two glasses and smiling in a knowing way . -The other night ... " she said , " we did n't , did we ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was pretty wasted , but I 'm sure I would have remembered if we 'd ... you know .... " " Rachel , " he said , finally , " I 'm just teasing . I found the G-string in my toolbox . It must have fallen in accidentally . " " You jerk ! " she said , trying her best to sound annoyed but unable to stop giggling . " I mean ... for a moment there , I thought ... " " What ? " he said , still teasing her . " C'm on , " she said , casting her eyes down to the floor . " You know . " Matt set his glass on the counter and moved toward her . Placing his hand under her chin , he lifted her face so her eyes were level with his , then he kissed her . Her body froze as she thought about Adam and their committed relationship based on mutual trust and honesty . But then she thought about that woman in his hotel room , and unable to help herself , she wrapped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ You have no idea bow long I 've been wanting to do that , " he said . He pulled her toward him again and traced the outline of her lips with his tongue . As his tongue came deeper inside her , she felt a shuddering in her belly . She put her arms around his neck and moved her pelvis toward him . Rachel could feel his erection against her . He continued to kiss her , and as he did , she imagined his tongue between her legs . As he started running his hand over her butt , she got even more turned on . She could n't remember wanting anybody as much as she wanted him at that moment . Again , she found herself thinking about Adam . She knew she should put a stop to this now , but she could n't . As their kissing became more and more urgent , she was aware of him guiding her slowly across the room . Eventually , she felt her back against the cold metal of the washing machine . Still kissing her , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no return " Oh , my God , " he whispered , running his finger over her panties . <p> Somehow , he managed to lift her onto the washing machine and at the same time pull her skirt up to her waist . As he began stroking the insides of her thighs , she leaned back , gripping the edge of the machine for support . " Bring your legs up , " he whispered . She lifted her feet onto the top of the machine . Finally , when the ache between her legs was becoming unbearable , he gently pulled the crotch of her panties aside and pushed two fingers inside her . Deeper and deeper they went , feeling her , exploring her . Just as she was about to cry out and beg him to enter her , he bent down and began trailing his tongue over her most sensitive area . She arched her back and whimpered . " Washing machine man , " she said , her voice breathless , " I think you may just have found my G spot . " Whenever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pressure on her to a featherlight touch . Every so often , he stopped completely . Then he would push his fingers back inside her . As good as the feeling was , she eventually became aware that her position on top of the washing machine was n't ideal and that her back and legs were beginning to ache . As if reading her mind , he brought her legs back together and lifted her down to the floor . " Turn around , " he said . She turned and he made her bend over the machine . She was aware of him moving away and looking for something . Eventually , he found it and once again pulled up her skirt . A few seconds later , she cried out in delight as she felt him squirt cold hand lotion onto her butt , He began massaging it into her skin , occasionally running his finger from her wet behind to her front . She was just beginning to feel the quivering build up in her when he stopped . " I want to undress you properly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , brushing his hand aside , " you first . " Rachel kissed him and began slowly tracing the outline of his erection with her finger . After a few moments , she started feverishly undoing his belt and fly . He took off his sweater and tossed it onto the floor , revealing his ripped , muscular upper body . She tugged at his khakis then his boxers in a fumble of motion . She wanted to see all of him-now . His thick erection sprang forward , and she began to stroke him . She watched his stomach muscles quiver , felt his fingers digging into her shoulders . Then she knelt on the floor and ran her tongue over his belly and down through his dark hair . Matt gasped as she began licking the top of his erection . She carried on like that for a couple of minutes until finally , she took the entire length of him into her mouth . His whole body shuddered as her lips slid back and forth . " I think my legs are about to give out , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bed , " she said , and took him by the hand . When they reached the bed , Matt finished undressing her . He pulled her dress up to her belly and held it there with one hand . He placed the other hand between her legs . She lowered her head and let out a long , low breath that signified the pure joy she felt at that moment . He took two pillows and placed them , one on top of the other , in the middle of the bed . She knew what he wanted , so she lay across the pillows , on her front and kneeling , her butt raised in the air . She was aware of him on the bed behind her . He stroked her all over down there , occasionally rubbing her sensitive spot with firm , circular strokes , then pushing his fingers inside her . When he finally pushed himself into her , she cried out in delight at his slow , deep thrusts . The pleasure was so intense , she prayed that she would n't orgasm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to end . Again , she felt a quivering build up inside her . At the same time , his thrusts became slower and deeper . She was aware of him taking long gaps between each breath until they finally could n't take it any longer and both let go . And when it happened , wondrous as it was , she could not help thinking how much it reminded her of a washing machine in the final shuddering throes of its spin cycle . Photograph <p> Footnote Adapted from SPIN CYCLE ( C ) 2001 by Sue Margolis . Published by Dell/Random House . <p> 
##1007552 There is a relentless knock on my door . It 's Melanie the neighbor in Apartment 4E She talks without pause . She has been attacked . Wounded . I try to get the details ; she is almost hysterical . I fear if I interrupt her she may burst . My cat was in the hall . The cat attacked her . Melanie says she has been scratched . She shows me a small almost circular scabbed-over abrasion approximately the size of a pencil eraser head . <p> I ask , " When did this happen . " <p> She says , " Just now . " <p> I take a long pause . I say , " Melanie do you realize that Ashley has been declawed . " <p> She leans forward her voice deepens . " Just keep it in your apartment . " <p> Later that week I received an official call from Melanie , who is president of our co-op board . Our annual shareholder meeting is usually postponed for several months because it is so difficult to get everyone together . Melanie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a few days . <p> When I arrive at the meeting almost all the neighbors are there . Melanie introduces the purpose of the meeting . " The cat is a menace to the building and should be evicted . " She asks Bill to testify . <p> Bill says , " I was leaving my apartment and Ashley was in the hallway when I opened my door she was staring right at me . It was as if she was saying , Get back inside . " Several neighbors nod in agreement . <p> Melanie gives her impression of the cat : like an animal in the wild ready to pounce like you see on a nature show . <p> Connie tells of the two times she saw Ashley in the hall . <p> Linda is sitting quietly , her hand bandaged . <p> Amy is also very quiet . <p> They call for a vote . <p> Bill , Melanie , and Connie vote to evict the cat . <p> Linda , Amy , and I vote to allow her to stay . Everyone acknowledges that the doctors who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evict Ashley and so it is over . <p> I promise to keep Ashley in the apartment at all times . <p> Linda and Amy where prepared to vote to evict Ashley until a few hours before the meeting when Amy 's cat scratched Linda . Amy 's and Linda 's cats have claws and the cats occasionally sneak out into the hallways . Linda 's swollen hand forced them to acknowledge that my declawed cat was not the real threat . <p> Melanie 's behavior reminded me of the crazy ladies that lived in the neighborhood where I grew up . A crazy lady would talk until she worked herself into a trance . Then she would find someone to intimidate . She would put the evil eye on them and go into a rage . <p> When I was a child after I experienced this bizarre behavior I wondered if the stories of people being possessed by demons were true . I wonder what possessed Melanie . Melanie looks nothing like the crazy ladies from my neighborhood . She is a thin red headed well-dressed southern woman in her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Fortunately I had a friend who helped me . His name is Streeter . Two months before Melanie 's " the cat attacked me " story Streeter was hospitalized due to a car accident . When they released him , he was homeless . I invited him to live with me . <p> Streeter is a rugged , muscular , black man with a deep raspy voice . He could menace a person or make them laugh . For the past eight years he was living in the subway tunnels . <p> One day Streeter said , " We always go to your house . You never asked to see where I live . " We went to the tunnels . We walked to the end of the subway platform , descended a flight of steps , and entered a realm of rats , stagnant water , red dust , and the sound of trains clamoring in the distance . It is a place where demons are easily imagined . I was standing in a ditch below the tracks . The tracks were pitched and curved . The speeding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looked inside and saw ghostly flickering images of frozen people . <p> We kept walking until we arrived at a concrete bunker . This was Streeter 's home . It was filled with fat electrical cables . There where wooden pallets on the floor to keep him above the water . We sat down and Streeter told me about life in the tunnel . He called it living in the dark . He said there are rats as big as rabbits . Sometimes they would step on the third rail and get hit with several thousand volts of electricity . It would fry them and shoot their bodies up into the air . <p> He told me that after living in the bunker for several years he got lonely . He met a homeless woman and invited her to come and live with him . Streeter told her not to bring food into the tunnel . Food brings rats . If you spit , rats will come . One day he comes home and he smells chicken . The woman was up on a crate screaming . <p> Streeter says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rats . You 're feeding them . " <p> She got mad at him . A few weeks later he comes home and there she is with the police and they 're cleaning his place out . Streeter walked away and thought , " I 'm a man who found happiness in a sewer and then I met a woman . " <p> Of course Streeter was the crazy black cat that Melanie and my neighbors were trying to evict . They could n't directly protest my having Streeter as a roommate . He rarely saw my neighbors and was always a considerate guest . Also , I was with Streeter twenty-four seven . We ate together , took dance class together . I went to clubs in the village to perform and Streeter accompanied me . I did this because living in a co-op on the Upper West Side was culture shock for Streeter and Streeter was culture shock for my neighbors . <p> Once and only once Streeter and I passed Melanie on the staircase . Streeter was kind to her . I remember the shock and anger in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saw when she talked about Ashley the cat . I also saw the grace and dignity that Streeter had when confronted with Melanie . Streeter 's dignity stayed with me . Every time I saw Melanie I offered her whatever kindness I felt she could accept . <p> All the time I knew him I never saw him hesitate to help someone if he thought he could . He was homeless and he had drug demons . But he was a good friend . He kept the demons to himself . <p> Streeter lived with me until his leg was healed . I was painting and sculpting during Streeter 's convalescence . Several times I told him to pick up a brush and push some paint around a canvas . He said he could n't draw worth a damn . Finally he made a painting for me . He painted a picture of a rat and a roach on top of the Brooklyn Bridge fighting each other for control of the city . After that he made paintings of African masks , landscapes , and portraits . Streeter paints all the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each . He is living in his own apartment in Brooklyn . <p> Streeter and I have a good friendship . We have learned from each other . Whenever I am having a rough time I remember what Streeter said , " They 're your demons , stop feeding them . " <p> Author Affiliation 
##1007553 Characters <p> Olivia ( " O ) " Smith , 10th grader <p> Tom Smith , Olivia 's brother <p> Tanya Hernandez , Olivia 's friend <p> Bill Patterson , teenage smoker <p> Sam Hansen , Olivia 's boyfriend , athlete <p> Mrs. Smith , Olivia 's mother <p> Nikki Mason , teenage smoker <p> Tiera Thompson , Olivia 's former friend , and a current smoker <p> Steve Jordan , Sam 's friend <p> Narrator : Welcome to our play called " O 's Dilemma . " It 's about Olivia 's decision concerning smoking . <p> Scene 1 : TGIF ( It 's Friday afternoon and Olivia Smith has just come home from school . ) <p> Mrs. Smith : You look tired , O. Rough day ? <p> Olivia : No , just three tests and an oral report . Just another day at the park . ( pausing ) Are you kidding ? It was the worst day of the year ! <p> Mrs. Smith : I guess you need to relax . ( Pulls out a cigarette and lights it up ) <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jim 's party tonight ! I ca n't wait ! <p> Mrs. Smith : I hope all your friends are going . Should I call the Thompsons and offer to take Tiera with you ? <p> Olivia : No , that 's OK . I 'm not interested in having her as a friend anymore . ( pausing ) You see , Tiera has turned on me . ( Flash to the side where a group of friends , including Tiera , are lighting up ) <p> Mrs. Smith : What do you mean ? <p> Olivia : I mean she hangs out with the smokers in school . <p> Mrs. Smith : I 'm shocked ! I thought she was a jock ! She was the big star of your ninthgrade basketball team last year . <p> Olivia : Well , I guess she got stung by Nicotine Nikki , the biggest smoker in school . She hangs out with her crowd now , and that 's not my scene . Godzilla breath is not for me . ( Flash to Nikki getting a cigarette from Tiera ) <p> Mrs. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than I was . Nicotine is very strong , and smoking is a hard habit to break . What time does the party start ? <p> Olivia : He wants us over at 7 p.m . I sure hope Sam is there . I have n't seen him since this morning . ( Just then , Olivia 's brother Tom enters singing . ) <p> Tom : Love is a many splendored thing . Especially when Sam gives O his ring . <p> Olivia : ( pushing Tom ) Shut up , Tom ! You should be so lucky with the girls in your life . ( Tom and Mrs. Smith laugh and leave the room . ) <p> Scene 2 : <p> The Confrontation <p> ( Olivia and Tanya Hernandez are walking over to Jim 's house for the party . ) <p> Tanya : I 've been looking forward to this party . All of Jim 's cool friends are going to be there . <p> Olivia : Yeah , I know . But the only one I care to see is Sam . <p> Tanya : You 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . What more could you want ? <p> Olivia : I know ! He 's toy good to be true . <p> Narrator : Just as the girl 's turn the corner , they run into Bill Paterson and Tiera Thompson smoking cigarettes with Nikki Mason , the biggest smoker in school . <p> Tiera : Hey , O , want a cigarette ? It will keep you thin and sexy for Sam . <p> Niki : Yeah , he wo n't like it if you start to blimp out . <p> Olivia : I 'm not worried about that , because I exercise and watch what I eat . <p> Bill : Yeah , tell me about it . Are you going to eat carrots and celery at Jim 's tonight ? I doubt it ! <p> Tanya : Even if Olivia did smoke , why would she smoke with the biggest dorks in school ? ( Nikki pushes Tanya , and it looks like a fight is about to happen . ) <p> Olivia : ( shouting ) Hold it ! Calm down ! Let 's just go and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tanya : Yeah , I guess it wo n't be much fun if I get a black eye . ( Tanya and Olivia laugh and leave . ) <p> Scene 3 : The Party Narrator : The students arrive at Jim 's party . They are talking , listening to music , and dancing . Just then , Sam makes his grand entrance with his buddy Steve . They act like they do n't notice Olivia and Tanya . <p> Olivia : Why do those two always try to act so cool ? <p> Tanya : They want us to bow down to them like kings . Hey , O , let 's do it ! <p> Olivia : Do what ? <p> Tanya : Bow down to them ! <p> Olivia : OK ! I 'll do the talking first . <p> Narrator : Olivia and Tanya sneak up to the two boys and tap them on the shoulders . <p> Olivia : ( bowing , arms folded ) Welcome , your highness ! Can we be of service ? <p> Narrator : As Sam speaks , a smokey odor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : O , how you doing ? <p> Olivia : Well , I was doing great until I took a whiff of you ! I thought you were Addison 's star athlete ? Now you smell like my mom 's ashtray ! <p> Sam : Well , I just thought I 'd try a couple of cigs tonight . No big deal . Say , why do n't you come outside and have one with me . Then we can come in and dance the night away . What'ya say ? <p> Scene 4 : One Solution <p> Narrator : This is one way Olivia could handle the situation . <p> Olivia : Well , Sam , I was looking forward to being with you at this party . Now I 'm not so sure . <p> Sam : So was I. So let 's go out and smoke one together . Hey , your mother smokes -- and it 's no big deal for her . <p> Olivia : Yes it is-and I can do without the problems caused by tobacco . Let 's just have a great time together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do you say ? <p> Sam : O , I guess you 're right . You wan na dance ? <p> Olivia : I 'd love to ! <p> Scene 5 : Another Way <p> Narrator : Here is another possible solution . <p> Sam : Well , I just thought I 'd try a couple of cigs tonight . No big deal . Say , why do n't you come outside and have one with me . Then we can come in and dance the night away . What'ya say ? <p> Olivia : No , I really do n't want to . <p> Steve : Sam will really like it if you join him . <p> Olivia : I thought you two wanted to be basketball stars . They 'll never let you go out for the team if they find out you 're smoking . <p> Steve : Well , if you 're too chicken , Tanya will come with us . Right , Tanya ? <p> Tanya : Well , just one . Come on , O. Then we 'll all be together the rest of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be more popular with smelly clothes and dinosaur breath ? No way ! You can go , but I 'm going to dance . <p> Narrator : Sam , Steve , and Tanya go outside and Olivia stays at the party . <p> Scene 6 : <p> Third Solution <p> Narrator : Olivia might handle the situation this way . <p> Sam : Well , I just thought I 'd try a couple of cigs tonight . No big deal . Say , why do n't you come outside and have one with me . Then we can come in and dance the night away . What'ya say ? <p> Olivia : I 'm amazed you 're smoking , Sam . I thought you had dreams of playing college basketball like your dad . <p> Sam : My dad ? He almost played in college , but he got in trouble because of drugs . <p> Olivia : And you want to follow in his footsteps ? <p> Sam : Not really , but I thought you 'd think I 'm cooler if I smoke . <p> Olivia : No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to stop smoking for years ! I ca n't think of one good reason to smoke . Sam , stop now before it 's too late . <p> Sam : You 're right , O. Let 's go dance . <p> Scene 7 : After the Party <p> Mrs. Smith : Well , how was the dance , O ? <p> Olivia : Smoke-free , and that 's the way I want our house to be . <p> Mrs. Smith : Here comes the speech again ! <p> Olivia : We all want to try to help you stop , but we know you have to want to do it . <p> Mrs. Smith : OK , I 'll really try to stop , but I do need your help , O. <p> Olivia : I 've been waiting for you to say that ! The smokefree Smith family is at your service ! ( Olivia and her mom give each other a hug . ) <p> Sidebar 
##1008654 WHEN KIRSTEN AND LAUREL ARE SWEPT AWAY ON A TROPICAL VACATION . IT 'S TOTAL PARADISE-UNTIL THEY FALL FOR THE SAME GUY . WILL ONE CUTE BOY COME BETWEEN TWO BEST FRIENDS ? <p> On the plane ride to St. Thomas , I make two New Year 's resolutions . My first is to get a good tan . That is n't an easy endeavor since I 'm a strawberry blonde with pasty skin , so I always blotch and burn and look like I 've been scrubbing my face with steel wool . But for once in my life I 'd like to be the girl who returns to school after winter break with a caf&eacute; latt&eacute; complexion , wearing a white scoop-necked sweater to flaunt my tan . <p> I pump up the volume on my iPod and glance over at my best friend Laurel . She 's devouring honey-roasted peanuts as she flips through a magazine . <p> My second New Year 's resolution is even harder . In the next 12 months , I want to kiss a cute guy . A really cute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care about chemistry or conversation or even if he has an inflated ego . I just want my lips on his lips for long enough to qualify as an official kiss . <p> If anyone heard that back home in Buffalo , they 'd laugh themselves all the way up to the North Pole . " Kirsten Robbins ? " they 'd guffaw . " Where is she going to meet a hunk ? At a mathletes match ? At a science fair ? " OK , so maybe they would n't be that harsh , but it 's not like Laurel and I hang with the hotties . We 're honor-society girls , girls who organize car washes to benefit the swim team , girls who win " Most Likely to Be an Investment Banker . " Neither Laurel nor I have ever been kissed , but I just feel like if you 're going to start somewhere , why not try for the best ? Laurel is always saying I 'm hyper goal-oriented . Perfect for a future on Wall Street . <p> Laurel catches me looking at her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she asks , tossing the final peanut in her mouth . I 'm constantly reminding her that my name is Kirsten , but she 's called me Kiki since we were 6 , so it 's a hard habit to break . <p> " Not much , " I say , turning down my music . " Got a New Year 's resolution ? " <p> Laurel laughs . " I 'm just hoping I can get through this week without popping out of my bikini . That 'll make me happy for the entire year . " <p> " You 're going to look amazing . " <p> " Amazingly like a beached whale . " <p> Laurel has a remarkable ability to poke fun at whatever she 's insecure about . Laurel is n't a whale , but she 's definitely curvy , especially in the chest area . We spent the past three weekends at the mall , in pursuit of perfect bathing suits . Laurel 's swimsuit has serious underwire action and enough fabric on the bottom to ensure that she wo n't have a permanent wedgie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with my hair and moderately disguises the fact that , although I 'm 15 , I 've barely filled out . <p> I could n't believe it when my parents told me we were spending winter break on a Caribbean island . We usually visit my aunt in Missouri , where we eat Cheez Whiz , rent Adam Sandler movies , and my cousins call me " Sunken Treasure " for six straight days . <p> I could n't believe it even more when my parents told me I could bring Laurel . I 'm an only child , so I guess it 's for their benefit , too . Like they can play tennis or go out for a romantic dinner without feeling guilty about leaving me alone . They reserved two rooms at a place called the Frenchmen 's Reef Hotel . <p> I press my nose against the window and stare down at the white-capped ocean . The pilot announces that if we crane our heads we 'll see St. Thomas . Laurel squeals as she leans across me to gape out the window . I stare at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feels like a dream . I 'd pinch myself except I 'm so fair that I 'd bruise . A big , fat welt wo n't exactly help me achieve my New Year 's resolutions . <p> Our room overlooks the harbor , which is turquoise blue and dotted with massive cruise ships . In Buffalo , my bedroom window faces a neighbor 's rickety tool shed , which is buried in a snowdrift and dotted with dog poop . <p> When I commented on that to Laurel , all she responded was , " ' Nuff said . " <p> The air is warm and moist and sweet with flowers . <p> We wake up every morning and eat mangoes , papayas and cinnamon Danishes . My parents play tennis while Laurel and I stroll along the hotel 's beach . For the first few days , I wore hardcore sunblock . I got a decent base tan without turning into a blistery tomato . Now I 've downshifted to SPF 15 , so I 'm actually getting some real color . Laurel has promised to lend me her favorite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Her skin is several shades darker than mine , so she 's not that obsessed with the " ha-ha , I went to the Caribbean during winter break " tan . <p> Midday , we meet up with my parents and go on excursions to pirate 's towers and coral reefs and whatever else they read about in the guide books . <p> Every afternoon , we lie on thick white towels near the pool , doze in and out of consciousness , dip in and out of the cool water , and do some serious male-watching . There are hoards of cute guys at Frenchmen 's Reef , but most of them are older and either have girlfriends or are ogling the college girls staying here . <p> Except for Hubba Hubba Boy . <p> Laurel spotted him first . She had gone inside to get us bottles of Gatorade . I was dipping my toes into the pool and trying to determine whether I was sufficiently bronzed or should quit the SPF and let the sun shine in . That 's when I saw Laurel jogging toward me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 've seen him , Kiki ! " she squealed . <p> I cracked open my Gatorade and took a long swig . " Who 'd you see ? " <p> " The cutest boy in the universe . Boy of our dreams . Carrying his suitcase to the elevator . No girlfriend in sight . Hubba hubba , is he hot ! " <p> Later , as we were eating dinner with my mom and dad in the hotel 's restaurant , Laurel dug her fingernails into my thigh . Hard ! <p> " Hubba hubba , " she mouthed . <p> " Where ? " I mouthed back . <p> She gestured with her chin to a nearby table where a guy was breaking bread with some parent-looking types . <p> Hubba hubba is right ! He was around our age , maybe a few years older . He had strong arms and broad shoulders . His legs were toasty brown and hairy , but not too hairy . His calf muscles bulged . His spiky brown hair was perfectly tousled in the front . I could only see his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I could tell he was the whole package . A perfect 10 . <p> If I were n't in public and my parents were n't a few feet away , I would have drooled Niagara Falls all over my mixed green salad . <p> We named him Hubba Hubba Boy . We started spotting him all over the hotel . He was always alone -- playing a video game in the arcade , diving into the pool , sleeping in a lounge chair on the beach . Even though we never talked to him , Hubba Hubba Boy became our favorite topic of conversation . <p> " If you were stranded on a desert island , " Laurel said one evening as we were gazing at the lights reflecting on the harbor , " and could pick one person to have with you , who would it be ? " <p> " No offense , but I 'd choose Hubba Hubba Boy , " I said . " You could rescue us in the lifeboat . " <p> Laurel laughed . " No offense , but I 'd probably put you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Hubba Hubba Boy ! " <p> On our second to last day , we visited a spectacularly long beach called Magen 's Bay . Laurel and I were floating atop inflatable rafts . The water was so calm we were barely moving . <p> " When I marry Hubba Hubba Boy , " Laurel said , " we 'll live in Miami , drive matching red convertibles , and have three children named Hub , Hubbie and H.H. You can be our nanny . " <p> I laughed . I could feel the sun warming my eyelids . " When I marry Hubba Hubba Boy , we 're going to own a penthouse apartment in Manhattan , work on Wall Street and have a limo take us to dinner every night . We 'll hire you to be our chauffeur . " <p> " That 's my baby stockbroker ! " Laurel sang , rolling off her raft and splashing into the salty water . <p> That night , while Laurel was brushing her teeth , I stared out our window at the cruise ships docked in the harbor . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a boat , sitting on the deck , pointing out stars . It felt so real I could almost taste the Big Dipper . <p> When Laurel emerged from the bathroom , gargling with mouthwash , I did n't share that fantasy with her . Only two people can go on a honeymoon . <p> It 's New Year 's Eve day . We 're flying home tomorrow , unless we can convince my parents to quit their jobs , yank us from 10th grade and establish a permanent residence in the Caribbean . <p> We 're back at Magen 's Bay . It 's on the other side of the island from our hotel , but it 's worth the drive . My parents are sipping pi&ntilde;a coladas at the bar . Laurel and I are walking down the beach . I 've got my tankini on . Laurel is wearing a long T-shirt over her bathing suit . <p> I 'm looking out at the water , figuring out what jeans I 'll wear on the first day back at school , when Laurel gasps . <p> Suddenly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> " You 're staying at Frenchmen 's Reef , are n't you ? " he asks . <p> He 's grinning . He 's staring down at me . I 'm staring back at him . I ca n't speak . I ca n't blink . <p> " Yeah , " says Laurel . " But we 're going home tomorrow . " <p> " Where 's home ? " he asks . He 's still looking at me . <p> " Buffalo , " Laurel says . " What about you , where are you from ? " <p> He glances quickly at Laurel . " I 'm from North Carolina . " <p> " I 'm Laurel . This is Kiki . " <p> I feel my cheeks flushing . Kiki ! Kiki is a name for a puppy or a baby blanket , not a hot Caribbean goddess . <p> Hubba Hubba Boy grins wider . " Does she talk ? " <p> " Sorry , " Laurel says , " she 's a little weird sometimes . " <p> Weird ? I ca n't believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her . <p> Hubba Hubba Boy laughs . " Well , nice to meet you . " He starts down the sandy slope to the water , but then pauses and turns around . " Maybe I 'll see you in the ballroom tonight . A lot of people are going there for New Year 's Eve . " <p> " Cool , " Laurel says . <p> Laurel and I continue along the beach . I 'm about to chew her out when I glance sideways . She has a funny look on her face , something I 've never seen before . I decide to keep my mouth shut . <p> Laurel and I do n't mention Hubba Hubba Boy for the rest of the afternoon . <p> As we 're getting ready for the evening , I brush some mascara against my eyelashes and slide on some lip gloss . <p> " You look great , " Laurel says , flopping onto the bed . " And I 'm just one big whale who ca n't fit into her bikini . " <p> " No , you 're @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at her . <p> But I 'm not thinking about Laurel now . I 'm thinking about how Hubba Hubba Boy does n't know I 'm the No. 1 scorer on the mathletes team or that my science fair project on acid rain won the grand prize last year . <p> Hubba Hubba Boy is already in the ballroom when we arrive . He waves and motions for us to join him on the dance floor . Laurel sighs heavily . I toss my hair flirtatiously over my shoulder . The sun has streaked the front , so it looks more blond and less strawberry . <p> The three of us dance for five songs . Laurel is frowning as she shifts from side to side . I am busy concentrating on the spot where Hubba Hubba Boy has knocked his hip against mine six -- count ' em , six ! -- times . I have n't seen his hip knock against Laurel 's even once . <p> Suddenly , Hubba Hubba Boy leans down and says to me , " Want to walk over to the beach , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and ticklish against my ear . My stomach quivers . <p> I lean toward Laurel and whisper , " He asked if I want to walk to the beach . Is that OK ? " <p> Laurel winces a little . " But it 's almost New Year 's .... " <p> I ricochet my eyes between her and Hubba Hubba Boy . Tonight , there 's a seriously cute boy who might possibly want to kiss me . Tomorrow , we 're shuffling back to Buffalo , where it could be years before I 'm pursued by another hubbalicious guy . <p> " I 'll only be gone for a few minutes , " I say to Laurel . " I 'll be back before the clock strikes -- " <p> " Do whatever you want , " Laurel says , interrupting me . " Do n't mind me . I really do n't care . " <p> Laurel shrugs dismissively and exits the ballroom . I can see that she 's heading in the direction of the elevators . I glance at Hubba Hubba Boy . <p> " Still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I guess so . " <p> Hubba Hubba Boy takes my hand as we go through the lobby . He tells me that he plays soccer at his high school in North Carolina . I do n't think I 've ever even spoken with a soccer player , and now I 'm holding hands with one . <p> He asks if I play any sports . I decide not to tell him about mathletes . <p> He plucks a hibiscus flower from a bush and hands it to me . I tuck it into a strap of my dress . <p> There are several people on the beach , leaning against palm trees , sitting on the sand , wading in the ocean . <p> We 're partway down the beach when Hubba Hubba Boy turns and faces me . <p> " Ten minutes ' til the New Year ! " someone shouts from inside the hotel . <p> Hubba Hubba Boy tilts his head to the side . Just as he raises his hands to my cheeks , I think of Laurel . I remember how upset she looked leaving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to do the New Year 's resolution thing tonight , how can I when my best friend feels so bad ? And , hey , maybe there will be more cute boys in my future , but there 's only one Laurel . <p> I take a step backward . <p> " Everything OK ? " he asks . <p> " I have to find Laurel , " I mumble . " I 'm sorry . Thanks for the flower . " <p> I book through the lobby . People in the ballroom are pouring glasses of champagne . I forgo the elevator and run up two flights of stairs to our room . <p> I 'm huffing by the time I open the door . Laurel is sitting on the bed , her back to me . She quickly wipes her eyes and tosses a tissue on the floor . <p> " I 'm so sorry , " I say , sitting next to her . " I should n't have -- " <p> Laurel cuts me off . " No , that 's OK . I would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " <p> Our window is open . I hear people counting down from 10 to one . <p> " Kirsten ? " <p> " Yeah ? " <p> " I 'm sorry I called you weird before . " Laurel pauses . " I was just ... I could tell right away that he was checking you out , and it bugged me . I started worrying that this is how it 's going to be from here on out with you and me . " <p> " No way , " I say , pulling the flower from my dress strap . " You know that you 're the most important thing to me . " <p> We can hear people singing " Auld Lang Syne " outside . <p> " Happy New Year , Kirsten . " <p> " Happy New Year . " I reach over and hug my best friend . " Laurel ? " <p> " Yeah ? " <p> " You can always call me Kiki . " <p> " Good . " After a moment , Laurel grins and says , " So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my head . " I almost kissed him , but I bolted . " <p> Laurel squeezes my hand . " What are you waiting for ? Go get that kiss ! Just promise to give me the full report later . " <p> I stare out into the harbor . The cruise ships are gone , probably at sea for the evening . I twirl the hibiscus stem in my fingers . Maybe I 'll go find Hubba Hubba Boy . Maybe I wo n't . I do n't know . I have 12 months , after all . <p> Illustration ( Two friends on the beach ) <p> 
##1008655 We were a family of three women and a child , and only one job between us . So the holidays were coming a little late to our house .. and one essential ingredient might not be coming at all . By Laura Parker Castoro <p> It was a few days before Christmas , 1934 , and the difference between the haves and the have-nots along Terrell Avenue was never more pronounced . Passengers on the Lakeview streetcar took notice as they peered between the white-limbed sycamores that lined the avenue , home to the most prominent Negro families in Fort Worth , Texas . - Dr. Borders 's brick home boasted real evergreen wreaths with big red satin bows in every front window . Nearby stood the two-story colonial home of the millionaire banker Mr. William McDonald . That house , a bright , bold yellow with white columns , was the pride of the neighborhood . The McDonald Christmas tree , brilliant with tiny electric lights and dozens of ornaments , was so tall and wide , only part of it could be seen through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McDonald and his Fraternal Bank . It was the only bank in the city that did n't shut its doors during the Crash of " 29 . Now , five years later , he was still open for business over on Ninth and Jones , the Negro business section . Further along was Dr. Monkus 's home and the homes of schoolteachers and railroad porters and even a plumber . Every one of them had a Christmas tree . Then there were folks like my family . We rented the small , L-shaped frame house across from where Tennessee Street ran smack out of luck into Terrell Avenue . BROTHER MONKUS WAS WAITING FOR me as I came up the sidewalk from my best friend 's house . He was Dr. Monkus 's only son and " spoilt , " as Mama called it . Two years older than me , he was always finding ways to make my life a misery . All week he had been jeering at our decorations . " You ca n't have Christmas ! " he called as I passed . We had only one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of cardboard and covered with crinkled green paper . It did n't look much like a real wreath , but it had an electric light candle in the center . Mama plugged it in from six P.M. until eight P.M. Never a minute before or after . She 'd say , " Waste not , want not . " " Are we gon na have Christmas ? " I demanded as I walked into the kitchen . Mama looked up from stirring a pot . " What 's wrong , Eva ? " " Brother Monkus says Santa Claus wo n't be coming to our house , because we do n't have a Christmas tree . " Mama firmed her mouth . " We always have a tree , just not before time . " Mama ruled our little roost . She was really my grandmother , but I called her Mama ever since I could say the word . No one ever corrected me . That 's because she was " Mama " to my mother and to Aunt Vivienne , and we all lived together . Even an eight-year-old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ household . We were a family of three women and a child , and only one job among us . This year , Christmas was coming in drips and drabs behind the money . Brother Monkus had made me so mad , I almost did n't notice the aroma wrapping around my nose . " What 's that smell ? Chocolate ? " Mama rarely smiled . It was more like a lifting of seriousness . " You know better than to ask questions this time of year , " she said . " Yes , Mama . " But I had to smile . The Christmas baking had begun ! By tradition , three cakes were baked for Christmas : Mama 's Devil 's Food Chocolate , Aunt Vivienne 's White Cake with Caramel Icing , and my favorite , Mother 's Coconut Cake . Each had her own special recipe . No one else was allowed in the kitchen while the baking was being done . When there was extra money , there might also be white fruitcake and pound cake , even divinity . I did n't care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looked around but did n't see a coconut anywhere . " I 'm gon na ask Mother about something , " I said , backing out the door . " Your mother 's working . " I saw Mama untie her apron . " Go get my overcoat and gloves . You 're coming with me . " It was hard not to stop and open the door to Mother 's room as I went to fetch Mama 's coat . I could hear the treadle of the sewing machine rocking back and forth in rhythm to her foot and the jerky sound of the bobbin as the needle moved in and out of the cloth . Sometimes I was allowed to sit quietly and watch her sew . Mother was the creative one in the family . Everybody said so . Sewing was her specialty . She could make a dress out of anything , and give it style too . Once , she owned a dress shop downtown , but she lost it on account of the Depression . All the doctors " wives in town still came to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year there were fewer requests . Aunt Vivienne said folks were pinching pennies until President Lincoln squealed . Aunt Vivienne had the only regular job . She worked for Dr. Hedges and Dr. Hayward as their assistant . Mother , who was a little squeamish , said she did n't know how " Sister " could stand to watch people in pain . Aunt Vivienne answered , " No old blood or pus can scare me away from paying the rent . " Neither Mama nor Mother nor even Aunt Vivienne ever talked about being poor . Mama said it was n't dignified to call people who could pay for a roof over their heads " poor . " We were simply " economizing . " Mama had a lot of opinions about dignity . She told Aunt Vivienne it was n't dignified for a lady to drink beer and smoke cigarettes , two of Aunt Vivienne 's favorite pastimes . " Where are we going ? " I asked , after I brought Mama her coat . Mama bent down to wrap my muffler more securely around my neck @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face smiled . If there was shopping to do , everything would be all right . As we walked down Terrell Avenue hand in hand , people would speak and nod to us . Mama nodded to only those she already knew . With a narrow frame and ramrodstraight posture , Mama had an expression as serious as Judgment . Mother said that was because Mama had had a hard life . Mama 's hair was pewter gray . Scraped back in a bun when she did her chores , it was taken down nightly for one hundred strokes . Then it hung below her hips and made her look just like the witch in my storybook of classic tales . When I was small , I would hide and watch until the brush strokes were done , and Mama put back her prized tortoiseshell pins to hold her hair in place . Mrs. Jackson once exclaimed that Mama must have a lot of Indian in her , on account of that long straight hair . Mama never answered what she called impudent questions . Mostly it was her way of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gave people a start . After that look , most folks never bothered Mama twice . It was a long walk up to Rosedale Street on a gray winter day , but I did n't care one bit about the cold or the damp . As usual , we went first to the poultry market . Most times Mama picked out a fresh chicken . But this was Christmas . We were going to have turkey ! The poultry man tried to sell her on a particular bird , but Mama never let anyone make her choice for her . The cages were stacked one on top of another until they reached higher than a man 's head . Inside each was a whiteand-gray turkey squawking in complaint . Still holding my hand , Mama walked slowly up and down until she spied one she liked . Then she bent down and pushed two fingers through the wire mesh of the cage and squeezed the bird 's leg to see if it was as plump and tender as it looked . " You ca n't go by the plumage , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that tells the story . " When she found the right one , a tiny nod of satisfaction was her only comment . The poultry man put a tag on the turkey 's leg and gave Mama a claim ticket so we could pick it up later . A &P; was next . From a few days before Thanksgiving straight through Christmas , grocers stocked things seldom seen any other time of year : figs and dates , persimmons and pomegranates , filberts and walnuts , candied cherries and pineapple rings . Fresh oranges not seen since summer reappeared . And , once a year , there were coconuts . I walked impatiently beside Mama as she filled her basket with sugar and butter and cornmeal and then , in the vegetable aisle , big white onions that were flattish rather than round . Mama informed me that the flattish ones were sweeter . Finally , Mama turned to me and said , " You better go get a coconut . " " Yes , Mama ! " Coconuts fascinated me . It seemed impossible that what looked like an ugly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so white and crunchy sweet inside its hairy brown shell . I reached the coconut crate , but all I could see there was empty space . My stomach made a fist . Then I spied it , half covered by straw : the very last coconut . I was concentrating on it so hard that I did n't see the hand reaching past my head until it snatched up the coconut . " Hey ! " I looked up . Mrs. Margery Holmes , the plumber 's wife , was towering over me , and she was n't smiling . " Eva ! " I knew by the tone that it was Mama who had come up behind me . I whipped around . " Mama , she took our coconut ! " Mrs. Holmes stiffened . " I 'm sorry , Mrs. Anderson , but I saw it first . " " That 's not true , Mama . It 's ours . " But Mama just stood there silent while Mrs. Holmes clutched that little brown coconut to her bosom like it was a baby 's head . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somewhere else , child . " " But where ? " I was wailing now . I never understood why an adult 's word was better than a child 's . " She stole it ! " Mama took me by the arm and marched up the aisle to the checkout counter . People were watching us . I could feel their eyes like ants running across my back . But Mama did n't seem to notice . She put her things on the counter . " Do you have more coconuts in back ? " she asked the cashier . " No , ma'am . This close to Christmas , all we got is out . " Mama made a little sound like a sigh and then watched as he weighed her purchases . I had n't really cried , but my eyes felt like I 'd rubbed them with sandpaper as we walked out of the A &P; Mama paused to speak to the young man who was selling Christmas trees nearby . " I 'll keep you a good one back , " I heard him say . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without Mother 's coconut cake-I could not catch my breath just thinking about it . In silence we walked over to the Piggly Wiggly , the other grocer in our neighborhood . Mama made me wait inside the doorway while she went to the produce section . " They are all out . " That 's all she said when she came back . " Times are different . We 'll have to make do , " Mama said to Mother in explanation when we got home , I squeezed my eyes shut until they stung , trying to keep back the tears , but they came anyway . Mother held me while I cried . AUNT VIVIENNE ALWAYS BROUGHT FUN into the house . Today she came off the streetcar with a big fat grin . She wore a black tam over her bobbed hair that curled around her ears and deep red lipstick that made her mouth look like a juicy plum . I could n't wait to be old enough to wear lipstick . She never wore her nurse 's uniform home . Always changed into street clothes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brown bag . She snapped her fingers and pointed at me , saying , " How 's tricks ? " Most days this made me smile . Today I blurted out , " There 's no more coconuts at the A &P"; Aunt Vivienne glanced at Mother . " Thought you bought one last week , Sister . " Mother looked even sadder . " I was waiting to get paid . " Aunt Vivienne 's mouth pruned up . " You 'd think doctors " wives could afford to pay their bills on time . They sure nag you about getting things made on time . " Mother folded her lips in until they almost disappeared . She did n't have Mama 's steely dignity or Aunt Vivienne 's sweet-pickle snap . Mostly she had the patience of a saint . " I bet I know where to find a coconut , " Aunt Vivienne said with a sudden grin . " Now , Sister- " Aunt Vivienne seemed not to hear . " It 's Christmas ! " she said . " I 'll make divinity , " Mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a single thought : It would n't be the same . ON CHRISTMAS EVE , AUNT Vivienne worked a half day . She came home after lunch . When she spied me sitting on the sofa alone , she smiled and said , " Go get your coat . " A little louder she said , " Sister , I 'm taking Eva shopping . Back in an hour . " I seldom rode the streetcar , and we always crossed the street to go downtown . Today Aunt Vivienne hurried me toward the uptown stop . At the corner of Fabon and Terrell , the streetcar deposited the last of its Negro passengers before turning to head up the hill . Only " Coloreds " in uniforms of servicemaids , cooks , gardeners , or the occasional chauffeur-were allowed to travel up that hill to Riverside . Mama had told me , Never ride past Fabon . As Aunt Vivienne paid our fare , the driver gave her a hard look . She just went on past him and deposited herself and me in seats in the back , behind @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we jerked to a halt after making the turn onto Fabon . The conductor walked back to check his passengers . Aunt Vivienne did n't say a word , just let her coat fall open . She still had on her uniform ! He looked like he wanted to say something . But he did n't . As the streetcar began to chug up that shallow hill , I felt like we were the Lone Ranger and Tonto riding into enemy territory . What if we are caught , are caught , are caught , the streetcar wheels seemed to chatter on the tracks . Only Riverside did n't look like a hostile place . There were Christmas trees in the windows and wreaths on the doors , just like on our street . The houses were much the same , though I did n't see any as big as Mr. McDonald 's yellow colonial . By the time the streetcar stopped near the A &P,; I wondered why white folks made such a fuss over a neighborhood so much like ours . Aunt Vivienne marched me through the doors of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had ever done . Before we got more than ten feet inside , a man with a big pink face and a white apron stretched across his enormous waist was looming over us . " What you want , gal ? " " I been sent for a coconut for Mrs. Bright 's ambrosia , " my aunt said , sounding impatient . " You got any coconuts , mister ? " " Sure do , " the man answered and pointed to the rear . With me right behind her , she walked straight through the store to the produce section and picked up a coconut . She held it to my ear and shook it . " Plenty of milk ? " I nodded , eyes wide at my aunt 's audacity . When she had paid for it and we were back on the streetcar , Aunt Vivienne winked at me . We were safely back in our living room when she burst into laughter . " Fooled them good ! But we got to keep the secret of what we 've done . Forever . " Mama @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the smells of Christmas dinner in the air . Mother said , " What have you done ? " Aunt Vivienne held out the coconut . " What needed doing . " Mama gave her the look . LATER THAT NIGHT I COULD HEAR THE three of them talking softly . I usually liked listening to their voices in the darkness . But tonight their murmuring brought me no comfort as I snuggled under the quilt . I knew they were having a Discussion . Suddenly I heard Mama 's voice rise . " No need to go where we are n't welcome ! " " Too proud ! " Aunt Vivienne snapped back . That scared me . They never quarreled . Then I heard the screen on the front door bang shut . I went to the window . The bright flare from a match lit up the porch . After a few seconds , only the reddish glow of a cigarette remained . Aunt Vivienne rationed her cigarettes . She smoked one after breakfast . One on her lunch break . And one after dinner . Or , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For her to be smoking a fourth , she must have been upset . I SCRAMBLED BACK INTO BED AS Mother opened the bedroom door . She did n't say a word as she undressed . When she got under the covers , I rolled in close to her warm body . " Did we do wrong ? " " No . " Mother hugged me . " Mama 's just being stubborn , and Sister will provoke her . Mama 's right about one thing , though : A person who gives away her self-respect loses her most precious possession . " " How do you know when it 's lost ? " " Shame burns you right down to the soles of your feet . " I did n't feel any burning in my feet , not even a tingle . But I still had a worrisome feeling . " Are we going to have Christmas ? " " Of course . " Mother sat up . " But maybe Santa needs a little help . " I did n't ask what she meant as she got out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rustling sounds in the kitchen . I awoke early to put out my gifts . And there in the living room was a small tree lit with lights and tinsel and ornaments ! Soon we were all opening gifts . I had embroidered squares of linen from Mother 's trimmings box with pink rosettes and green French knots to make handkerchiefs for Mother , Aunt Vivienne , and Mama . Aunt Vivienne bought Mother a little silver locket and a new thimble . Mama got a pair of silk stockings and a new comb . Aunt Vivienne gave me a pair of bright red knit gloves to match the coat Mother made me with a velvet collar pieced together out of trimmings from Mrs. Hedges 's black velvet evening dress . Mama had made new clothes for my only doll , Peggy . Mother had fashioned a new lace collar for Mama 's best dress , and for Aunt Vivienne , a velvet tam and stole , which she wore to Christmas services . After church , the good white linen cloth was spread on the dining table . In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . We ate a delicious turkey dinner . Then it was time for dessert . First Mama sliced her Devil 's Food Chocolate Cake . I slid my plate forward for a piece . Then Aunt Vivienne made thin slices of her caramel cake , and I took a piece of it too . Finally , Mother came out of the kitchen bearing a three-layer cake with boiled icing . " Coconut cake ! " I cried . It was a sight as wonderful and rare as a snowball in Texas . Then I remembered and sneaked a peak at Mama . She just stared at it , her eyes hard and mouth tight . Mother put her cake on the table next to the others and said in a clear voice , " Christmas is about love . Sister , Mama , Eva , this is my gift of love to you . " Mama did n't say anything to that , but I saw the look in her eyes soften as she turned her gaze on me . " Next year we 'll buy that coconut early , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Save everybody 's dignity . " Sidebar Coconut White Layer Cake This recipe was given to me by my mother , who got it from my grandmother . -L.P.C. -LPC . Sidebar PREP 55 minutes plus cooling BAKE about 25 minutes MAKES 16 servings Sidebar CAKE 3 cups sifted cake flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups sugar 2/3 cup vegetable shortening 5 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/4 cups whole milk 7-MINUTE FROSTING 2 large egg whites 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon light corn syrup 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 2 cups flaked sweetened coconut or 1 fresh coconut , peeled and grated Sidebar 1 . Prepare Cake : Preheat oven to 350 deg F Grease three 9-inch round cake pans . Onto waxed paper , sift flour , baking powder , and salt 3 times . 2 . In large bowl , with mixer at medium speed , beat sugar and shortening 3 minutes or until light and fluffy . Add eggs , 1 at a time , beating well after each addition . Beat in vanilla . Reduce speed to low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ending with flour mixture . Beat just until smooth , occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula. 3 . Spoon batter into prepared pans . Stagger cake pans on 2 oven racks , placing 2 on upper rack and 1 on lower rack , so that pans are not directly Sidebar above one another . Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean . Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes . Run small knife around sides of pans to loosen layers . Invert layers onto racks to cool completely . 4 . While layers cool , prepare 7-Minute Frosting : In top of double boiler-or in medium stainless steel bowl set over 3- to 4-quart saucepan-over 1 inch simmering water ( double-boiler top or bowl should be about 2 inches from water ) , with hand-held mixer at high speed , beat egg whites , sugar , corn syrup , cream of tartar , and 1/4 cup water until soft peaks form and temperature reaches 160 deg F on candy thermometer , about 7 minutes . 5 . Remove double-boiler top from bottom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or until stiff peaks form . Makes about 3 cups . 6 . Place 1 layer , rounded side down , on cake plate ; spread with 1/2 cup frosting . Top with another layer and spread with another 1/2 cup frosting . Top with remaining layer . Frost side and top of cake with remaining frosting . Sprinkle cake top with some coconut . With hand , gently press remaining coconut into frosting on side of cake so it adheres . Sidebar * Each serving : About 320 calories , 5 g protein , 45 g carbohydrate , 14 g total fat ( 6 g saturated ) , 1 g fiber , 69 mg cholesterol , 215 mg sodium . Author Affiliation Laura Parker Castoro 's most recent book is Crossing the Line ( Berkley ) . She has published 32 romance novels under the name Laura Parker . <p> 
##1008764 Late night in early winter . The last hour of the long drive home . I tend to the thermostat , keeping the car warm enough for my sleeping family , but not so warm that my focus turns dull . Beyond the chilled glass to my left , green dashboard lights angle up toward the stars . <p> Distance defines our relations . My wife 's parents live five hundred miles away , what we have come to think of as a day 's drive . <p> When we arrive , she will hoist our son high against her chest and take him , murmuring his dreams , into the house . I will carry our long-legged daughter from our car to her room , where I will lay her gently on the bed we have made for her . <p> I remember being proud that I had n't fallen asleep . <p> " You go ahead and rest , ' my father told me . " I 'll let you know when we get there . " <p> But I had promised my mother I would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hugged my pillow , to keep warm . The truck 's heater was n't working . A good thing , according to my father ; it would have only made us drowsy . This was November , sometime between my birthday-which we had celebrated in an empty house , amid packed boxes-and Thanksgiving . Under my father 's influence , the past Christmas Eve , I had seen a reindeer 's red nose from my bedroom window ; with the same power of persuasion , he had convinced me , at least , that our move from Maryland to North Carolina-a place so far off it might as well have been wholly imaginary-was a great adventure . <p> When we finally left the highway , he said , " Home at last . " There at our exit were three big hotels and a restaurant called the Kountry Kitchen and another called Noah 's and a go-cart track . My attention lingered on the go-cart track , which was closed . It was after midnight , the latest I had ever been out in my life . <p> My father stopped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a piece of paper he had drawn from his shirt pocket . We turned left , and then right , and then there were no more hotels , no more restaurants-nothing but a curving road . The farther we went down that road , the more I worried about what my mother would think . She had made no secret of her opposition to the move ; rather , she had expressed this so strongly that I harbored the unspoken fear that she might not follow us . She was very much in my mind as we passed a small house with a chain-link fence strung with Christmas lights that somehow looked as if they had n't been taken down the winter before , and a collapsing larger house , with covered porches on three sides , and beside it a field populated by broken school buses and eyeless shells of trucks . ( To be honest : I 'm not sure how many of those things I took in that first night ; but they were there the next morning , when the overall impression of neglect and decay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just started to think that if we went far enough , we 'd get away from this kind of place , we 'd reach another road with bright lights and hotels and restaurants , when my father slowed down , then stopped , then backed up . <p> " Here we are , " he said . " Camelot . " He had told me his version of the legend of King Arthur on the ride . We had sung songs , and told riddles , and played games using the letters on billboards . My father could always be depended on to think of something interesting to do . On the edge of a field across from the entrance to the Natural Bridge , in Virginia ( which we did not see , as there was an admission charge ) , we ate sandwiches my mother had packed , and played a game he invented using two sticks and a crab apple . Later , while we drove , my father wedged a paper cup between the dash and the windshield and had me take shots with a crumpled cigarette @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were football fans , my father and I , but we would play any game that presented itself . <p> Rule number one , he liked to say : Keep your options open . My mother arrived two days later , in my father 's pickup truck . We had made a sign for the door-Welcome Home-but that did n't appear to register . Even before she went inside , I understood that the pizza we had watched the pizza man spin almost to the ceiling , the cupcakes for dessert , and the grocery-store flowers my father had arranged in a beer bottle on the tiny countertop would not be sufficient to create , for my mother , a mood of celebration . <p> The trailer park was not a park , as I had imagined , but a series of crude terraces cut into the side of a steep clay hill , with a gravel road up the middle and a security light at the top of a telephone pole . There were twelve trailers , six on each side , and the way they were placed on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could look down into someone else 's kitchen , living room , and bedroom . The most desirable spots were the two at the top , which were relatively private-though none of the trailers could have been more than twenty feet from its neighbor-and had the best view of the woods across the road . Our trailer was at the very bottom , which meant , my mother said as she stood in the doorway , not unbuttoning her coat , everyone could see in . A modest woman , she sewed our curtains closed . <p> I woke to a strange sound . Not a dog , not a cat ... There had been talk of bears , and I hoped to see one in exactly those circumstances : from under the covers , safe inside our trailer . When I heard the sound again , and understood what I heard , it became a glowing ember , a warm promise . <p> My parents , laughing . Not my father alone , which I was used to , or my mother 's polite acknowledgment of a joke , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was followed by other sounds , and an exchange I either heard through the thin wall or imagined . The result of my father 's insistence , my mother 's reluctance , was my father rolling from the bed , then shuffling out to where I sensed I should pretend still to sleep . <p> Did she know what he meant to do ? I doubt it . My father believed in asking for forgiveness , not permission . <p> He slid one strong arm under my knees , another behind my shoulders , and lifted . I fought to suppress a smile of anticipation , expecting to be carried in to share with them the wonderful discovery they had made , the cause of their laughter . I felt my rear end sag , my father 's knee rise to prop me up . My feet , then my head , bumped against the wall of the trailer , and then the door was open , cool air reached under my blanket . In two long strides we were at the door of his truck , I heard the click @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When my feet reached the far door , I understood this was n't the start of a late-night drive . I heard my father 's heavy step into the trailer , heard him return , and the passenger door opened once more . My head rose , then was lowered onto my pillow . Reaching under the blanket , he set in my hand the stuffed creature I slept with . <p> " Sweet dreams , " my father said , and shut the door . The first time I told this story , without a moment 's forethought , was ten years later . She had confided something about her own parents , and we were , after all , in the dark , in the back of her mother 's car . Her reaction surprised me , to the extent that I stored the memory in a room at the end of one of the long , turning hallways of the mind . <p> The moment we confine memories to words , images are obscured by the language , the understanding , we have now . To be as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I would write : <p> One-eyed kitten-white , stuffed , red stitches where a right eye would have been-on the open glove compartment door . ( My stage , where the kitten performed with a tire gauge and magnetic St. Christopher . ) <p> Dark shadows cast by the bright security light . <p> Some nights , loud adult voices from a trailer up the hill . Others , the long , low rumble of a freight train . <p> I tried to explain to that young woman , in her mother 's car , how it was that I did n't feel abandoned , or cast aside , but elated . My parents were happy ; I was playing my role , never opening my eyes when my father carried me out to the truck , or back to my room . But then I woke one dawn with the windows frosted over . The blanket had slipped , exposing my back to a chilled seatbelt buckle . <p> Huddled on the vinyl seat , wrapped as tight as I could get , I waited for my father to push @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the numbness of my ears and nose . Unable to deny my need , I made a plan : open the door silently , take long , barefoot strides across the gravel , use the bathroom , and return . But the instant I entered the trailer my mother awoke , began shrieking accusations at my father . Bundling me close to her chest , she carried me to their warm bed . <p> She intended comfort , but I felt crushing disappointment . If only I had sneaked back in . If only I had held out a little longer , my father would have been spared my mother 's anger , my mother spared her shame . <p> I can only guess how much time passed . My parents returned to their familiar relationship : my father exuberant , loud ( " Let 's all go dancing " " Let 's go down to the field and set off some fireworks " ) ; my mother quieter , more steady . She mended our clothes , and fed us , and took me for long walks along the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I could pet the horses and stare back at the newborn calves and take warm eggs from under his hens . She taught me songs like " Red Sails on the Sunset , " and " King of the Road . " Each time we went to the grocery store , she gave me a coin to use either on the noisy rides out front or on the clear-globed machines filled with worthless trinkets just inside the doors . My desire for those trinkets was as urgent as it was irrational ; I dreamed about the rides , the horse and ambulance and the blinking spaceship that rose , as one rode , until it angled toward the sky . Yet some days I dropped the coin into my pocket , remembering rule number one . <p> What I mean to say is , my mother was kind and generous and attentive . But my father shone with the brilliance of a sun . <p> He stocked vending machines with candy and crackers . It seemed to me the most marvelous job a father could have . Once we drove his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mother said ) floor of the panel truck , him telling stories about people he had met . My father knew everyone in the world , and introduced me to them , one by one . " I 've got the boss with me today , " he 'd tell his customers . <p> His plan was to own and manage a fleet of sandwich wagons . It may not sound like much of an ambition , but my father had the charm of a scene-stealing actor , and convinced people he was going places . My mother must have thought so , because she married him young , against her parents ' advice . She was independent , and serious , and had , I imagine , plans of her own . <p> One day , an envelope arrived which gave her so much pleasure she said we could do whatever I wanted-which was to make cheese sandwiches and have a picnic on the large flat rock in the middle of the river we sometimes walked to , which we did . The envelope , she confided , contained a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sender to be used by my mother to buy a car . This gift was a great mystery to me . Adding to the intrigue was the fact that , while she had known the envelope was coming , my father did not . That night , the news of the check and its intended use was the cause of prolonged debate . My mother did not cry , or curse-I never heard her curse . Rather , she grew quietly , darkly resolved . <p> I was a beneficiary of her insistence . In her yellow car we drove to the local branch library , and to the enormous central library , where my mother looked up one thing or another while I sat in a corner , happily lost in picture books and early readers . I never thought to ask what she was looking for . We also drove to the grocery store , where the women at the bakery gave me a tea cookie whether we bought anything from them or not , and took long rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway , where we hunted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a boulder and read while I tested the seaworthiness of leaves and sticks in a narrow stream . <p> She bought a magnet with my name on it , which she fixed to the dashboard directly ahead of the passenger seat . The letters were raised , in script , and as we drove I traced my name again and again . <p> Bedtime came , and I said I wanted to sleep in the truck . <p> I remember planning my announcement , and thinking the gesture heroic ; I remember its silent reception . <p> Finally , my mother asked me why . <p> Because it was fun to sleep in the truck . ( This was not entirely a lie . I had come to think of the vinyl bench seat , with its warm smell of my father , as more truly mine than any part of the trailer . ) <p> My mother suggested that sleeping in the truck was not a good idea . <p> I must have responded badly . My memory is of getting my way , and an extra blanket , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its intended effect . <p> My mother was not an extravagant woman , but in the spring we washed her car every week . She would vacuum and clean the trailer , then together we would haul the vacuum cleaner and sponges and a bucket of hot , soapy water outside . I wore shorts . I had never owned a bathing suit , and my mother did not approve of children of any age " running around without a stitch . " Some days she wore her old housecleaning clothes , but other times she wore a one-piece bathing suit , an outfit that made her fair game for both of us . For me , it meant that she would n't be angry if I accidentally turned the hose in her direction . She would shriek , and grab the nozzle from my hand and aim it at me , and we would take turns exclaiming at the cold water and hosing the other down . For my father , the bathing suit seemed to guarantee that he would pick her up , and call her Daisy Mae in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . It made her laugh , but my father 's arrival almost always meant an end to our fun . <p> I never wondered what the neighbors thought when they heard my father going out to his truck in the middle of the night . I do n't know that any of them ever saw me inside . <p> In my memory , during the months we lived there , it was nearly always night . Some nights he collected me in his arms hardly waiting for me to scoop up my blanket and pillow . Other nights he stood in the space between the open truck door and the cab , or better yet , held me aloft , and talked a beery cloud . One night he turned his back to the security light and the rental trailers on concrete blocks stacked on clay , and we stared up at a reddish dot in the night . " Mars , " he said . " You might live there one day . " For a moment we both imagined such a thing . At least , I did . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had always seemed like an observed heroic adventure , all rockets and thrusters and urgently shouted commands , that night I imagined life on Mars to be a quiet , solitary enterprise . <p> " Near the moon , " I said , silently equating moon with mother . <p> " That 's right , " he said . <p> Long after an introductory astronomy text set the record straight , the sense of the night that held sway over me was the one I gathered in my father 's arms . <p> The argument over my mother 's car may have seemed worse than it was , as I imagined myself in the middle of it . I do n't recall the expression on either of their faces , which suggests I was either standing outside , listening , or staring at the floor . She wanted to take the car to a service station ; my father wanted to do the work himself . It was a waste of money , he insisted . She claimed he would get distracted , or have to find a part at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for weeks . My father 's tendency to stop short of finishing his projects was indisputable . <p> Nevertheless , he disputed it , said he 'd be damned if he 'd pay some high school dropout to do a half-assed job ( a remark meant to cut deep , as my mother had not graduated from high school ) . She said she 'd pay for it herself , and if he did n't want to follow her she 'd hitchhike home , she would n't have any trouble finding a man who would give her a ride , and something about that must have convinced my father that there was no stopping her , because he relented . <p> I rode with him , absorbed in a book from the library . I opened the crisp cover wide and put my nose close to the pages , inhaling the scents of ink and paper and the hands of boys before me . I turned the pages carefully , admiring the bold lettering of the title . I could n't have been more than a page into the story when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the truck . <p> The scene in front of me remains perfectly clear . On the left side of the intersection , headed right , a blue pickup . On the right , a man in a straw hat getting out of a white sedan . And in the middle of the intersection , my mother 's car , with a horrible impression the width of the pickup truck 's bumper running from just ahead of the driver 's door to just behind it . Even before my father roared I saw , at the top of the door panel , a bright streak of red on the yellow paint . <p> Any number of people said it was a good thing I had gone in the truck . But the thought that pulsed through me for days , years , was that I should have been with my mother . It would have been such a small favor , to have ridden beside her . <p> In my dreams , she held out her hand . Night after night , I told her , " I 'm right here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much longer . You can imagine the conversations with relatives , my father 's grief We insisted on going it alone , and lasted perhaps a month . There was an excruciating drive back to Maryland , where we said what we both claimed , maybe even believed , were temporary goodbyes . Over the next few years there were regular visits , a much-anticipated trip to the beach . <p> I should admit here that I came to resent some of my father 's decisions , and let him know it . Every so often he would burst onto the scene , trying in a weekend to make up for months without a phone call . There was another wife , and a child . Then a third wife , and two children . Those choices soured some people 's impression of him . <p> I do n't believe my father is a bad or shallow man . He was young , and heartbroken , and committed to the belief that life should be lived as if every day were a great adventure . That attitude can be terribly appealing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two occasions even expressed , that my " new family " was the preferable one : a settled , loving couple , with energetic and companionable children . My mother 's brother , an amateur historian , encouraged intellectual curiosity in whatever form it took , bookish or less orthodox . My aunt is an industrious woman who believes boys should be able to replace a button and cook a decent meal , and girls had better be prepared to change a tire . The home they made was demanding , in the best sense , and supportive , and I mean for nothing I write here to imply a word of criticism of them , or anything but the deepest gratitude for all they have done for me . <p> And yet , inevitably , I have wondered what would have become of me if that other life , the one three of us began , had been allowed to continue . There might very well have been a different painful separation , other difficult times . I might have found my way into that same second household , under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ streak of romanticism when I imagine that my mother and father might have clung together , discovering solutions to their apparently contradictory desires and sacrifices , and that I might have completed my childhood in the family that made me , gone on to live the life I was meant to live . <p> For a long time I believed that if my mother 's accident had been avoided , if my foundation had been more solid , everything that followed would have felt more certain . But every foundation is , eventually , shaken . My grandparents are gone now . As is my uncle . More and more , I find my nights , and my days , illuminated by the light of dying stars . <p> Soon our daughter will be too big for me to carry . <p> Imagination , abhorring a vacuum , insists on filling gaps ; assumptions made years later insinuate themselves as fact . If these memories I have tried so carefully to record are not , strictly , true , what is this that I 've made ? <p> O my mother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bed , and then we tell ourselves the stories that will carry us to sleep . <p> Author Affiliation 
##1008767 Her eye followed the slim border of scrolled wood running the length of the bar 's chalet roof , then tracked down to the window which afforded a view of rows and rows of parked cars dull in the evening sun , and finally reversed direction across bare-topped surface to her raised forearm and bent wrist , resembling a still black swan in the round pond of table . There on her finger was the true point of attraction : a thick platinum ring with a diamond the size of her knuckle . She let her hand drop gavellike to the surface with a thud and eased back in her seat . Nursed a strawberry daiquiri and worried time like a bone . She 'd asked Les to meet her here , The Happy Medium , a bar down the street from the bank where she worked and where she 'd come every evening for the past week , taking her usual seat at the circular booth , away from the light , the door , and the draft . Faces waved with festive expressions . Voices ripped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or sentence would jet up above the general buzz , human insect noise . Everything was turning around inside her . Les had been making too many business trips of late , and even when he was with her , he seemed far away . Some difference in the way he held her , a softening of muscles and affection , his hands seemingly too awkward for her body . These past weeks she 'd gotten physically sick , sick with worry-headaches , chills , tics , and vomiting . She was convinced that someone was fishing in her private pond . <p> Hi , baby . <p> She had not seen him enter . He was forty minutes late . She looked up from her drink and saw him smiling that smile , like he 'd won a contest , smiling so that his long thin sharp lips caught the dim light and split clean through her anger . <p> Hi , she said . <p> Like a waiter awaiting a deserved tip , he stood tall and unmoving before her booth , giving her time to notice him , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his forearm . Honeybrown skin . A five-inch block of hair rising from the top of his head , like some object he was balancing there to improve his posture . He leaned forward-might the block of hair topple to the floor ? -kissed her on the cheek-a small burst of warmth from his lips-then moved with iron confidence to take his seat . Baby , what 's new ? His gray eyes saw without light . <p> Her hands closed around her glass . Bitch , she said . <p> He went stiff as a new deck of cards , the word raw and red on the parched linen of his shirt . <p> What ? <p> Just calling a spade a spade . <p> He sat there with his mouth open , his tongue rolling . Baby , I 'm sorry I 'm late , but <p> Are you squeezing somebody 's lemon ? <p> He laughed a low-breath laugh . What ? <p> Just answer the question . <p> The words seemed to fall heavy upon him . His shoulders dropped . He leaned forward in his seat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ held her breath , waiting . She knew exactly what he would say . Baby , you know you 're the one for me . He looked right at her with his gray eyes . The luck of my life . <p> The old feelings came back for a moment , like a quick glimpse of light behind a flapping curtain . She wanted to forgive him . <p> Why , we 're going to start a family . <p> She sipped her drink to renew her strength , then pinched and held the wings of her nose . When Les did n't react , she pulled out her black lace handkerchief and put it over her nose and mouth . <p> What 's wrong ? <p> Shit 's running out your mouth . <p> His eyes went red . Remember , baby . You 're the queen , but I 'm the goddamn king . <p> Once had a dog named King . <p> His eyes darted out of control . Fuck <p> She slapped him two times , palm and backhand , a doubleedged sword . Imprinted violence on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . The red mark instantly started to swell and lightened in color as it expanded . She slapped the diamond ring down on the table . Here . Squeeze this around your dick . <p> They 'd met a year earlier at the bank where she worked as a clerk . He had been shy and tentative at first , his handshake cool and damp . Then he started coming to her station every day with his smile , candy , cards , flowers , and compliments . She agreed to dine with him one afternoon . Found herself so deeply enjoying his company that she forgot to peruse the menu before the waiter arrived at their table with a bottle of wine , an Australian vintage of Less choosing . She asked him any question she so desired , and he answered with open pleasure , his laugh close and comfortable . She had to admit , he was quite a talker , and she found herself seizing upon the beauty of every phrase . If you would go high , use your own legs . Hope alone acquaints us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had grown comfortable enough to allow him to kiss her , a quick bird peck on the cheek . That first kiss buttered her up for more , so she took the further step of allowing him to visit her on Sunday mornings at her home , where he would take his polite place on the couch beside her and join her in watching her favorite pay-per-view religious service on cable TV . Nowhere did her feelings for him tell so strongly as in this setting . Who would have thought this man , in his neatly cut suit , sturdy and plain in style ? <p> The night he proposed , six months into their dating , he took her to a restaurant with a four-story marble waterfall , a thin moving sheet of wet force that fell to a basin with colorful , darting fish . They sat knees touching at a small cloth-covered table in the dim light of a glass-encased candle . And they enjoyed the best dinner she could recall . <p> Then he spoke to her with the rich sweet taste of Shiraz on his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the noise of rushing water . She could feel the strength of his love coursing through their knee contact . <p> I think it 's time . He held out the ring . I hope you want this as much as I do . He ran his tongue over his top lip , holding her gaze . Baby , let your love come through . We 'll have a big family . Googobs of kids . Heirs to our tea empire . Hell , we 'll be our own country . He was smiling hard , blinking moisture from his eyes . <p> A powerful current of feeling surged through her . She spoke , her voice escaping , struggling to get away to silence . <p> They spent the night in his gurgling Jacuzzi , her breasts floating on the water 's surface . <p> Nothing more to do with Les . Nothing more to do with Les . Nothing more to do with Les . She repeated the phrase over and over again to herself in the listening night . Forest gloom , country gloom , darkness which should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned over stones in her path , might there have been light underneath ? <p> She walked slowly , night with the holding force of water . No amount of effort could move her faster , step after heavy step , sapping her strength . Ah , streetlamps up ahead . Clouds of insects performing in spotted glare . Perhaps it had rained . Fish-shaped leaves stuck to lampposts and gutters too deep to see into . Heat reshaped her . She would never give thought to Les again . <p> She existed , was given substance and form by noises patterned around her . A shape slipped out of a doorway quick as an angel . Joined a congregation of more shapes at the corner and led them like a herd of dirty sheep to the liquor store across the street . She sang the sight away . <p> Just a closer walk with thee <p> Just a closer walk with thee <p> She heard squabbling birds she could not see . She stepped past , dodged ponds of aging piss . The neighborhood was changing . She would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ red light , her legs limp with relief . Today was Friday . My weekend is fucked , she thought with an honest heart . Fucked . And what about our other plans : the Bahamas cruisedouble-decker cocktails , a buffet of horizons , saddleless horses , and tensionless sea-or the weekend getaway to Virginia Beach ? <p> Green signaled her forward , and she sang long , silent , and sweet about past wrongs . Men tried and abandoned . Men never tried . Men she would never try . She firmly believed that it took two slices of like-grained bread to make a good sandwich . Imagine combining a slice of white bread and a slice of wheat , or a square slice and a French tube , or a bagel half and a kaiser <p> A car zoomed by so fast the air smacked together after it . She tongued smoke from her lips . <p> She recalled standing with a crowd of women in a musicjammed club , watching the French Tickler work his glittery hips . Long stilt-like beams of light walked on , over , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like a maze , so many twists and turns . Hours later , she saw him trying to avoid detection in the shadows outside the club . He was leaning against a parking meter but walked over without hesitation when her gaze caught his . I could n't help but notice you , he said . All those hundreds of women in the club , and there was your face , the calm in the storm . Please allow me , I 'm Horace . He held out his hand , and she shook it . And your name would be ? Well , Miss Sheila , I know this dime spot up the street where they throw down some serious grits and eggs . She rarely found herself dating men for looks alone , but he had been put together with care . Even in an old shirt-the tails hanging out-and faded jeans , his body gave off drawing force . And he stood high and tall , like a captain directing the world from the bow of his ship . She accepted his offer to breakfast , with doubts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for less than a month . In that short span of time , he made her voracious with the need to discover . They bounced on her firm mattress trampoline-like , licked TV glow from their skin , left their deep forms in damp earth and soft stone , lovers tracking each other in the dark by the sounds they made . She burned with the need to tell him something wonderful , something he 'd never dreamed could happen . <p> Then one night , he spoke her name with smooth , young girl lips . He was sitting in his favorite chair-a caneback-completely nude , body slick and glistening from an olive oil lotioning , his legs spread wide like a scissors , his thick thighs partly obscured in the darkness . He flexed and unflexed his fingers to rid them of stiffness . Babygirl , he said , why do n't you dance for me ? <p> And you ai n't even tell me , Toosha said , barely audible , a bad connection , hum and hiss and other voices low in the background , a ghostly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> I did n't want to be hasty . I had to make sure that Les was n't like all the others . <p> When can I meet him ? <p> Soon . <p> So he 's the one ? <p> Yes . <p> Girl , I 'm happy for you . <p> Thanks . She shut her eyes and pictured Toosha 's face . Dark skin . Fat cheeks . Little eyes like watermelon seeds . And two thin cornrows , dyed red , rising out the top of her head like TV antennae . Her head was shaved bald everywhere else . <p> What does Les do ? <p> He owns a teashop . <p> Say what ? A teacher ? Teachers do n't <p> No . He owns a teashop . A whole chain of them . The Sonic Chitlins Cafe . <p> Word ? I stopped at one just a few days ago . Downtown on Madison . Strobe lights ? Waitresses with short-short miniskirts ? <p> Yes . <p> Girl , he 's large . Hey , vast money-you ca n't beat that . Hope his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two-flat building was flanked by trees , where she could walk for hours on the hint of a path and never meet another human being . Layered branches groaned and cracked . Her shadow and the shadow of leaves like a jigsaw puzzle which moonlight tried to piece together . The grass underfoot was dry and brittle despite watering . Whatever troubled her veered away and nested somewhere in the trees among the unseen birds . <p> She entered her apartment to discover dull yellow urine percolating in the toilet . The toilet flushed angrily and sucked the air with it . She dropped to the tub and sat dizzy on the edge , eyes closed . Did Les have a key ? Had she given him one ? Had he cut his own ? <p> She rose in a dreamlike whirl and set the faucet running . Needed a bath after the heat , not a teasing shower . She allowed the water to run to appropriate temperature , rise to desired height , then climbed into the tub and sat down . Took white soap in her dark fingers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and slowly massaged her unmoving legs , her dark fingers rubbing , squeezing , pinching . That done , she lay back in the tub , stirring ripples before her , a succession of half-circles expanding one within the other . Water closed over her , up to her chin . She rested and so did the water , clear and still . <p> Sash knotted-she did not recollect leaving the bath , draining the tub , scrubbing it clean , drying herself thoroughly ( she had not dripped on the floor ) , or slipping on her terrycloth robe-she flopped down on the couch and reviewed her mail . Bills . Solicitations . And a card from Les postmarked from Mauritius two weeks earlier . She had n't realized until then that she expected to arrive home and find him at her front door seeking forgiveness , trying to sweet-talk her with wedding plans . Where it would be held , where they would honeymoon , where they would live after . <p> She tossed the mail aside and tried to think back to when she had her first serious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matter now ? ) Six months of courtship and fun . ( Or was it eight ? ) Then he began to talk business with his morning swallow of coffee . Downline options , digital capital , bipolar technology . Such talk developed a physical need for travel , and he answered this need with business trips-he was forever on his way out , flight bag draped over his shoulder , airline ticket in hand , and the back of his head as he stepped out the door-two or three every week . Baby , success is ninety-five percent ability and five percent luck . You have to take the bull by the horns . I 'm going international . China is pretty much sewn up , but I hear the Zulus like their tea . <p> Then one day while he was away on business , she decided to drop into one of his teahouses and have a cup of Royal Grey and perhaps ease her longing for him . She was less than a half-block from the cafe when she saw a man pop out the establishment with his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knew that man was Les , could identify him by the distinctive shape of his head . Les ! she yelled . The man did not turn around . Les ! The man quickened his step and disappeared around the corner with his woman . <p> The memory was bitter and offensive . No doubt , breaking up with Les was the best decision she had ever made . To reassure herself she picked up the phone receiver and tapped Toosha 's number . While she waited for the line to pick up , some other thought vibrated through her , nagging . <p> Hey , girl . <p> Hey . <p> How 's life treatin ' you ? <p> Just crying the blues and drinkin ' cheap liquor . <p> I heard that . She twirled the coiled cord around her finger . So what you up to tonight ? <p> Going out . <p> That figures . Friday and Saturday nights , Toosha sought her fortune in the clubs : Taste , The Cherry Blossom , Tragedy for Free , Strictly Business , Contending Forces , and Heroes . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who caught her fancy . A man would stay with her for a week or two before Toosha would say , See ya ! , and hop off to the next trick . <p> What you up to ? <p> Not much . <p> So how was your day ? <p> She tilted her head , shrugged , as if Toosha could see her . I broke up with Les today . <p> What ? <p> He 's an asshole . A bitch . <p> I thought you really liked him . What happened ? <p> Where do I begin ? <p> Tell me . <p> She told Toosha about her suspicions . Told her how Les had not even bothered to seriously address these suspicions . <p> It 's good you dropped him , Toosha said . Change your cross for a crown . <p> She said nothing . <p> In the meantime , why do n't you give French a call ? You know I do n't backslide . <p> Even for a night ? <p> You 're too much . <p> That 's what they say . Why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . No way . Last time they 'd gone out together , Toosha had flicked her tongue fast and dirty at some cute guy barely old enough to gain entry into the club . Once upon a time Sheila might have done the same . Indeed , she recognized in Toosha 's sexual exploits the workings of her own mind . Who would n't want to get all they could ? Human nature . But they were both months shy of thirty and ought to be too wise , too seasoned to be caught up in all that shuttling back and forth . <p> What you got to lose ? <p> You know that ai n't me , she said . <p> Sheila heard flesh give and stretch as Toosha tugged into her leather thong . She groomed and dressed-always the brightest colors-for three hours before she went out into the world . Do n't catch nothing . <p> I always make sure homeboy wear his raincoat . Rubber can take a lot of tear and wear . <p> Peace . <p> Peace . <p> She hung up the phone . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ couch . Then she noticed the room was completely dark , so she picked up the remote control and popped on the television . Blue flickering light brushed her legs feather-like , bare skin not covered by the robe . This same light penetrated her muscles like quills . Time curled around her . She saw without seeing and heard without hearing . The couch began to curve over her and under her , the jaws of a shell , and she felt her skin ossify . <p> The phone rang . <p> Is this Miss Jones ? <p> Yes . <p> Sheila Jones ? <p> Yes . <p> Well , today is your lucky day , Miss Jones . I 'm happy to inform you that you are the proud winner of a free plot at Greenview <p> She slammed the receiver to the cradle . The nerve of some people . A free cemetery plot . She stayed hunched over and silent , then she sensed an indistinct tingling and sought to identify it . Her finger . She looked down at it in the light and saw that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ second phantom ring . She scratched it , not feeling in the least out of anything . No more Les . No more Les . No more Les . She turned back to the TV and tried to pick up where she had left off . <p> Try our new fragrant ambrosia flavor . To drown <p> She switched the channel . <p> Would you kindly spin the wheel ? <p> She switched again . <p> The phone rang . <p> Soft whispered words . She yanked the phone cord from the wall . She saw through him instantly . She said it to herself with a clear little laugh . Outside the unshaded window the night spread clean and starless , while fingered branches held the moon in the sky . She felt a stab of uncertainty , not knowing what she had said , not knowing what she had meant , or might have meant . Blue light tingled at her toes like cold dark water . <p> A delay is not a denial . He was tiny there , a fuzzy dot , and as he drew nearer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he can return again . He seemed oddly helpless , pinned to his lectern by sharp watching faces . Is this not his promise ? He smiled his church smile . The crown outlasts the head . <p> She separated voice from body , dissected mouth from message . Ah , now she knew . It was the Reverend Martin " Spider " Thornhill , " God 's hardest-working servant " a clear-skinned man with red hair and freckles to match . She found nothing attractive about him . He was short , wide , and ugly , like a pit bull . <p> All history moves towards one great goal . His voice reverberated through the room so that she heard three or four voices . Exodus . The manifestation of God . <p> He said this merrily with light darting from his eyes , a true believer , taking no notice of his circumstances . She watched with increasing fascination and delight . The small figures of the congregation , choir , and pastor seemed trapped inside the TV , a luminous birdcage . And she sought to reach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into her hand and stroke it . <p> Jesus spoke from the cross , I have suffered many troubles and hardships in battle and tempest ; this will be only one more . <p> Spontaneous applause . <p> The hand of God is slow but sure . All days are His . <p> Light pulled like tape at her skin . And she touched herself all over to remain in place . <p> When your time comes and He takes you to his bosom , you must rise and follow , rise and follow . <p> She watched her legs waver in blue light as if underwater . Rising . <p> But with this spear I shall lift you up . Am I not a fisher of men ? The words altered his face , made something gentle happen . <p> Let us pray . <p> She bowed her head and clicked her eyes shut . Words tumbled through her skull . Lights flashing in the dark , broken bits of sparkle . She scratched her finger and repeated the words to herself , spoke them out loud-two voices in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ validity . <p> Amen . <p> Amen , she said-so loud she startled herself She opened her eyes as if from a kiss . <p> Let us pause for station identification . He stepped down off the stage . Tuxedoed men set up a large floral arrangement behind the lectern , all hue and fragrance . ( She pinched her nose . Thought to sneeze . ) Seven young girls with seven flaming-red afros set off slowly down seven aisles , moving in rhythm . Left foot step . Pause . Right foot step . Pause . Each wore a white dress and white gloves , one hand **25;1402;TOOLONG cloth-lined ( red ) silver collection plate at the shoulder , the other crooked behind the back , as if cuffed . <p> Author Affiliation 
##1008769 All this , " said Wayne the plumber , " was written down in the Bible five thousand years ago . " He was out on the deck taking a break from doing angioplasty on the pipes beneath my kitchen sink . Meanwhile , he was giving his assistant , John Pickles , a lesson . <p> " Hey , Wayne " I yelled from an upstairs window , " you 're wrong about the date . Most of the events in the Bible did n't even take place five thousand years ago . Solomon , for example , in all his glory , at best got going about three thousand years ago , and nobody wrote the diary of his activities until at least a century later . " <p> I should n't have got involved . But why not ? I was desperate to get in on a theological discussion , especially with Wayne . Wayne was a plumber , all right , but he was also a missionary in Ecuador . He returned to the States one year out of every five and ran the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the broken and burst pipes of the bourgeoisie . After that it was back to church in the poor places outside Quito , where conversion was his calling . <p> " Be that as it may , " Wayne shouted back , " I 'd have to see some evidence . " <p> Ah , evidence ! I had n't been subscribing to Biblical Archeological Review for nothing-although it was almost nothing given the generous terms of their initial subscription rate . But evidence is a paltry thing compared to passion , and this , I knew , was where Wayne would have me by the U-bolt . <p> It , and by " it " I mean my desperation , had begun quietly enough on a soft summer day in the first year of the new millennium C.E. ( I 'm being careful here ) . The traffic on Route 9 outside the Chestnut Hill Mall congested and fumed , but the SUV in front of me presented a hopeful bumper sticker very much in favor of Jesus . It had been a long time since I had really thought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of my people in the few but noisy and concentrated places that we occupied in the vast world , I had never given him a fair shake . <p> So I shook . In the historical , evidentiary direction , of course . It turned out from my excursion to the Newton Public Library , section 801.3 , that Jesus was n't just Jewish , he was really Jewish . Not only did he have no idea he was a Christian , he never imagined that he might become one . In addition , if I could work up the courage , I had some news to break to Wayne , and it was earthshattering . According to the two most eminent professors of Jewish Jesus , " son of God " was an Aramaic figure of speech . Digest that ! It meant nothing more and nothing less than " pious dude . " It was n't at all uncommon on the dusty streets outside Jerusalem for young studs to greet one other in the swish tongue of the day , with a friendly " Hey , son of God @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had known for some time how dangerous inspired language could be to the literal-minded . For example , my own lot , the Jews . Who told us to strap a little black box with a prayer inside onto our heads once a day ? Answer : no one . " And ye shall bind these words upon your forehead " clearly meant " Remember them . But no , a hundred years pass , and someone dreams up the apparatus . Soon enough he 's got a business going , and the leather guy is happy , so who wants to interfere with at least two men 's livelihoods ? <p> I was trying not to interfere with Wayne 's , but there was no turning back . After a quick refresher read-up in The Changing Face of Jesus by Gezer Vermes , pp. 12-25 , I went down into the kitchen . <p> " Okay , " I said , " how do you explain this ? The Book of John says that the Last Supper took place on the day before the Passover Seder , but the Synoptic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Yes , I know what they are , " Wayne said . He was patient with me . <p> " Well , they date it on the day of the Seder . You see what I 'm saying . They ca n't both be right . " <p> Wayne had his head under the sink . His legs were sticking out . <p> " John- " He was trying hard to project his voice , but I lost the rest of his sentence . <p> " It 's impossible , you see , " I continued , " that the Jews could have held a court hearing the following day , on Passover itself . <p> That was against the rules . So John must have got it wrong . ' <p> Wayne slid his pear-shaped body out from under the sink . His blond hair was flattened . He looked a little like Yogi Bear . <p> " The rules ? Impossible ? " <p> " Yes . " <p> " Well , did n't you ever hear of rules being broken ? " <p> He had a point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard to know what had gone down between pink dawn and rosy dusk on consecutive days two thousand years ago . I 'd probably have to go back to the library . <p> " All I know , " Wayne said , " is that we could do with someone like Jesus now . " <p> He stood up . He was a head taller than me , and he had a wrench in his hand . <p> I decided to leave the son of God issue until after he 'd fixed the pipes . <p> Wayne dropped the wrench into his toolbox . " Are you , " he asked , " by any chance a connoisseur of the ancient languages ? " <p> " I know a little Italian , " I replied . Wayne knew I was kidding . <p> " The Hebrew Aleph , " he went on ; " is a pictorial symbol of the shift from a hunting to an agrarian culture . The letter is made up of a bull 's horns and a broken ring . The taming of the bull , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far from my house in the village of Pifo who has a brass ring in his nose . I call him Aleph . " <p> " That 's fascinating , " I said . " So you do n't believe that Hebrew is a holy tongue ? " <p> " I believe in the Holy tongue of fire that is Our Lord Jesus Christ ! <p> " When do you think you 'll be done with the sink ? " I asked . <p> " This job , " Wayne said , " is quite complicated . It looks as if someone has been shoving Q-tips and rice down the waste disposal . It could take all day to unblock . " <p> It was dinnertime . My wife , Claire , and I were eating pad thai ordered in from Jamjuri . My son , Nick , had his own hamster food , three lettuce leaves and a crouton . He was starving himself in order to make weight for his first varsity high school wrestling match . <p> " Did you know ? " I began , " that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Wayne been round again ? " my wife interrupted . " I thought he was back in Ecuador . " <p> " Next month . He returns next month . " <p> " Maybe you should go with him . " <p> She had been harsh with me for two days , ever since she had overheard me on the phone telling a friend that I was in love with Helen Hunt . At the time she 'd got off a scathing " Yeah , like she 's gon na call you . " I thought that was the end of the matter , but it turned out it was just the beginning . <p> My son looked up from his leaves . <p> " Temptation Island tonight " he said . <p> " Disgusting , " my wife responded . " You 're just like your father . <p> And do n't you watch anything other than Fox ? " <p> " Yes , " he replied , " I watch Cribs , and sometimes there 's stuff on WB . " <p> I was thinking hard about the historical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aleph I did n't want to broach the subject in conversation . <p> The festival of Hanukkah was approaching , with its lovely candlelights not to be used for utilitarian purposes . I could have mentioned this at the dinner table , but that was to risk sounding like a religious fanatic , when in fact I was merely a sentimentalist and eclectic reader with too much time on his hands . Wrestling seemed safe . <p> " What weight are you going at ? " I asked Nick . <p> " One seventy . " <p> " And what do you weigh now ? " <p> " One seventy-five . " <p> He had the crouton speared on the end of his fork . <p> " Do n't you think , " he said , " that your friend Paul Vogel looks exactly like Osama bin Laden ? " <p> It was true , but Paul Vogel also looked like Kobe Bryant and Scottie Pippen . And a little kid in New York City had once approached him on a bus and asked if he was Jesus . <p> I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out of the pad thai while avoiding the noodles . <p> " According to the most unimpeachable sources , " I ventured , " Jesus was probably a Galilean Hasid , a pious wanderer , a miracle worker from out of the cold North . " <p> There was silence in the room , only the fridge muttered something in reply , buzzed up probably by my Nordic reference . <p> Eventually Claire said : " I 'm sure it 's hot in the Galilee , most of the time , anyway . " <p> I 'd expected this blow to fall , but anticipation did n't help to reduce its impact . These were serious times , and there was no excuse at all for flights of fancy in the service of a decent sentence . <p> " Are you going to come and watch ? " Nick asked . <p> " When 's the meet ? " <p> " Wednesday night . " <p> " I 'll be there " I said . <p> It was n't like I had anything else to do . I was recuperating from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gall bladder , which had decided to swell to bursting point , then spit tiny stones into the narrow channel that rushed deliveries to my liver , creating a blockage that not even Wayne could have foreseen . <p> The phone rang . <p> " You get it , " my wife said . <p> It was Paul Vogel calling from San Francisco . <p> " Hey , " I said , " we were just talking about you . The uncanny resemblance . ' <p> " Tell me about it " he replied . " I ca n't go out of the house . Half the neighborhood thinks I want to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge : ' " <p> " Did you think about shaving off your beard ? " <p> " What are you , the Taliban ? This is a free country . You can micromanage your own facial hair . " <p> " You 're right " I said . " That 's the beauty of America . " <p> We talked for a while about my scar , which was less a scar than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was thirty and a newlywed . <p> " They pulled the gangrenous gall bladder out through my navel , " I said . <p> " Helen might like to know that , " my wife put in without looking up from her plate . <p> The crowd around the wrestling mat was standing-room-only . <p> The bout in progress offered an uncontroversial intergender affair , for these are open prairie days in the wide United States such as the world has never known . A boy in the 19o lb. range had spread his arms to circle the girth of his female twin . As the view cleared before me , he threw her to the ground and began to twist her arm . Somehow , Atlas rose , lifted her rival up on her back , and shunted him all the way to the perimeter . " Good job , Teresa ! " the man next to me shouted . He was wearing a T-shirt that had the words Hombres de Acero printed above the yellow and black logo of the Pittsburgh Steelers . Teresa 's parents , her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the audience from our side cheered wildly . The wrestlers untangled , returned to the middle of the circle , and began to grab at each other again . <p> " It 's like watching a marriage , is n't it ? " said a skinny dad on my left whom I knew to be a recent divorce . <p> " Or Jacob wrestling with the angel , " I responded , but my interlocutor pretended that he had n't heard me , and I looked away as if I had n't spoken . <p> Okay , so it was n't only Jesus . Thoughts on religious matters were leeching onto my brain at an appalling rate , and this had been the case ever since my early dismissal from the hospital on the dual grounds of my body 's good behavior and pressure from Managed Care . <p> I lie . The trouble had begun even earlier , in the brown , unhappy hour before surgery . There I was half-asleep in the arms of Morpheus when my long-dead father stretched out his arm and clapped a silky yarmulke onto @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , glad , in a worst-case scenario , to meet my maker in the proper attire . Ten minutes later I was less appreciative when Norma , my still-living mother-in-law , showed up in the doorway of my hospital room . " ' Go in with a smile , come out with a smile ; that 's what my aunt Dixie used to say , " she said . Five milligrams of morphine performed the work that twenty years of therapy had failed to accomplish : " Go away , " I replied . <p> Back on the mat Teresa had pinned her man , his glistening hands flapped like fish on the hook and then went quiet : general uproar , the upspring of solid Teresa , slower rise of defeated opponent , quickly followed by a civilized handshake . It is finished . O strapping 190 lb. women of America , we who are about to die , salute you ! <p> Next up was Nick , whose opponent held him in a headlock for what felt like an hour . How much neck twisting can a boy take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his way toward the exit , the relentless gym lights shone on his bald spot , or perhaps the light emanated from his head . I could n't tell . When I looked back Nick 's noggin was still on his shoulders , and he was lifting one of his opponent 's legs in such a way that the boy was forced to hop backwards before crashing to the ground . <p> The ground . The muddy ground , so different from heaven with its whizzing planets , icy comets , and cold-hearted angels . We were watching the New England Patriots fight for a playoff spot . The TV , suicidally beautiful , was lit with the glow of fading December . Miami lined up . There was a minute to go . <p> " Do n't worry , " Nick said . " No team ever retrieves its own onside kick . " <p> " Jesus Christ , " I yelled . " Now you 've jinxed them . " <p> " No , " he said . " You jinxed them in the third quarter when you forgot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ' <p> The kick bounced up , and Fred Coleman hugged the ball . He sustained an enormous hit but did n't let go . <p> " Double jinx , " I said joyously . " It 's like two minuses making a plus . " <p> It was almost impossible to rid oneself of superstition , much harder than to break with God , whose behavior over the centuries had been truly unfathomable ( what was He thinking ? ) , and now , on account of 9/11 , the entire nation was crossing its fingers every time it crossed the street . That was an irony , of course , that even Wayne might have appreciated . The Fundamentalists had returned us to fundamentals . <p> " It 's mainly Christian , you know , " I said to Nick . <p> " What is ? " <p> The Patriots were hugging and smacking each other all over the field . <p> " Our superstitions : unlucky 13 , the apostles at the Last Supper ; touch wood , fingering a piece of the cross ; do n't walk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the cross . " <p> " Oh , yeah . " Nick twisted in his seat . <p> " Then there are the Jews with their spitting and evil eyes , and the blue lintels on Arab doorways to ward off trouble . Now bad things come in threes ' is a different story . It 's trench talk : strike a match and the enemy sees , light your cigarette and he takes aim , first puff and you 're smoke . " <p> " Hey , Mom ! " Nick called out . " Dad 's lecturing . " <p> At Foxborough Stadium the lights burned blue and yellow . A good number of the Patriots players pointed skywards and then clapped their hands to their hearts as a way of thanking God , who had helped them to victory while , in His picky way , choosing to send their opponents to ignominious defeat . It was axiomatic that in America for the last two decades at least , God , like everyone else , had developed a consuming interest in the worlds of sports and entertainment and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't seem to like losers much , and they never thanked him . <p> The TV went to commercial , there was a fireman 's helmet and then a flag and then the name of an insurance company . The insurance company had decided to show the helmet and the flag against a background of stirring music . My wife had a claim logged against this particular company on account of travel plans that she had canceled in order to better nurse Nick in his summer of mononucleosis eighteen months ago . She had taken out the policy to cover her fare , but the company was quite sure that Nick had a " preexisting condition " and did n't feel inclined to pay up . We were appealing . <p> Nick clicked the remote , and the screen went blank . The world was rocking off its axis . In order to help steady it , at least in the narrow confines of our TV room , I turned to the grounding subject of love . <p> " What happened , " I asked Nick , " to that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pierced eyebrow ? " <p> " Kiss and dismiss , " he replied . <p> A passenger jet , its engines screaming , passed over the house on its way into Logan . I thought I might step outside and put a little lamb 's blood on the lintel of the front door , but in the end I decided that , come spring , I would buy a ladder and begin to paint the house blue . <p> Author Affiliation 
##1008770 The time Anne left her husband , she went to France . She spent the first few days in Paris at an inexpensive hotel in the sixth arrondissement on rue Jacob . Her room was small and sparsely furnished ; the bathroom , too , was small , the shower produced a tepid trickle . Instead of looking out onto the busy street , the single window in Anne 's room gave out onto the back of the hotel , onto an empty courtyard where half a dozen large cats had convened to sun themselves-although it was late October and the days were getting shorter , darker . Right away Anne had planned to visit museums , churches , cathedrals , go to the top of the Eiffel Tower , but her first day in Paris she could hardly get out of bed . When finally she did , she stood at the window and watched the cats . She did not feel depressed so much as she felt absent . She did not think about her husband , George , or her daughters , or what they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explanation Anne had given before she left , was that the two girls were old enough to look after themselves and George would just have to cope with the groceries , the cooking , the washing , whatever Anne did all day . Making a vague fanning motion with her hand , Anne told George , she needed air . <p> The second day Anne roused herself and walked from Sainte Chapelle , to Notre Dame , to the Louvre ; the third day it rained , and Anne bought a lot of clothes : a dress , a suede jacket , a pair of trousers , two silk blouses , all of them expensive ; she charged them to George . She was also starting to feel lonely . ( Except for a fat man sitting at the next table in a restaurant who asked Anne if she recommended her canard a l'orange-not looking up from the magazine she was reading , Anne had answered a barely audible Oui-Anne had spoken to no one except salespersons and waiters . ) On the fourth day , a man followed Anne as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and although her heart was pounding and she was nearly running , Anne remembered a stupid joke she had once heard about an American tourist who , in her confusion , instead of calling the man on the Metro who pinched her cochon-pig-says to him couchons-let 's sleep together . Two hours later when Anne left the hotel again to have dinner , the man was across the street still waiting for her , smoking a cigarette . Couchons ! <p> The next morning , standing at her window and looking down at the cats in the courtyard-by then , Anne had a favorite , a big marmalade cat who except for an occasional wave of his tail lay motionless for hours on his side-she called her best friend from school , Nina . <p> At the Montpellier train station , Anne , her large suitcase at her feet , waited for Nina . As usual Nina was late , and Anne was reminded of all the times Nina had kept her waiting , in particular the time that had led to her meeting George since she could no longer keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nina indefinitely . At last Anne saw Nina . Her raincoat buttoned up the wrong way , she was running down the platform , waving . <p> " You look just the same , " Anne said , kissing Nina , who looked much thinner . Her red hair was streaked with gray . <p> " So do you , " Nina answered breathlessly . " Always tres chic . " <p> In college , both Anne and Nina had majored in French ; after graduation , Nina had gone abroad to study music and had fallen in love with a musician . <p> Anne shook her head , she suddenly felt like crying . " Your children ? " she asked instead . <p> " At home , with Michel . " Michel , the musician , was already married to someone else , to a woman named Eliane , whom he could not divorce ; Nina and Michel had two small children , a girl and a boy . " Here , let me . " Nina reached for Anne 's suitcase . <p> Embarrassed all of a sudden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she handed Nina her new jacket . " Take this instead , " she said . <p> " Oh , how beautiful . Nina stroked the suede . " I 'll have to borrow it from you . She smiled . They both knew that Nina was referring to the many times in college when Nina used to borrow Anne 's clothes . Sometimes , she would borrow them without asking . <p> " No , keep it , I mean it , " Anne said . As she opened the door to Nina 's car , a large white dog lying on the front seat raised his head . <p> " Git , July ! Get in the back , " Nina ordered the dog . " She followed us from the beach last summer , the children insisted on keeping her . Do n't go near her , she sheds . " The back seat of Nina 's car was littered with toys , a discarded sweater , a pair of shoes , food wrappers . " Do n't mind the mess , " Nina also said . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nina had been incapable of putting her own clothes away or back where they belonged-in the closet or in the bureau drawers . Nina left everything trailing on chairs or lying on the floor . But it was her sweetness more than anything else that had attracted Anne , and Nina 's selflessness-she had a kind of otherworldliness , a total lack of ego-was how Anne would describe her later . <p> " How many people live in however you pronounce the name of your village ? " Anne asked as Nina started up the car . The village Nina lived in was a few miles north of Montpellier . <p> " St. Guilhem-le-Desert , " Nina enunciated the name for Anne . " About two hundred , except on weekends and holidays , then it is more like two million people . The Cevennes has become a big tourist center for walking and climbing . Also , you would be surprised at the number of pilgrims . " <p> " Pilgrims ? " <p> " Yes , they come to worship a three-inch piece of the True Cross which Charlemagne @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knights , a man named Guilhem who built an abbey you can visit if you like . Now a community of Carmelite nuns lives where the original abbey-oh , I do n't mean to go on about the local sights . " Nina reached with one hand to touch Anne 's arm . " Tell me , " she asked , " how 's George ? " <p> " I think I 've left him , " Anne said , turning to the side window so that Nina could not see her face . " Nothing is settled yet . But go on , I like hearing about where you live . " <p> " There 's a castle we can visit , too , " Nina told Anne after a while . <p> " Oh , what a pretty village , " Anne exclaimed as Nina was parking the car . " It looks as if your house was built back in the Middle Ages . " <p> " It was . " Nina laughed . " There 's practically no heat in winter , and there 's just enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more like camping out . " <p> " I 'm just so happy to see you , " Anne said , getting out of the car and brushing at her skirt , which was covered with white dog hair . <p> Nina 's children , Sophie and Paul , were sitting at the kitchen table coloring in a book . Michel , a big man in a red wool check shirt , was wearing a headset and listening to music ; he did not hear Nina and Anne come in . <p> " Hello , cheri ! " Nina shouted . <p> Anne stood at the door and smiled at the children , who were staring at her . July , the dog , trotted past her , and Sophie , the little girl who was eight , got down from the chair and knelt in front of the dog and put her arms around the dog 's neck . <p> " Je t'aime , " she crooned . <p> Michel looked up , then he turned off the music and took off the headset . <p> Anne went up to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you , Michel . " <p> " How was your trip , Anne ? " he answered , his English heavily accented . Then Michel turned to the children . " Anne , here , went to school with maman when maman was a girl . " Michel spoke as if this was the first time Anne 's name had been mentioned in their family . " She lives in America , do n't you , Anne ? " <p> Anne nodded . <p> " Come , let me show you to your room , " Nina said . <p> Anne 's room was Sophie 's , and Sophie had been moved into Paul 's room . The bed was a narrow child 's bed , and the quilt on it was covered with faded figures of Babar . Once Nina had gone back downstairs , Anne set her suitcase at the foot of the bed and opened it ; all her clothes , sweaters , skirts , jackets , were carefully wrapped in tissue to keep them from wrinkling . There was no closet in the room , only a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the door , and Anne decided not to unpack after all . Instead she took out her flowered toilet kit and went down the hall to the only bathroom . When she tried to lock the bathroom door , she found the lock did not turn . <p> In the afternoon , Michel left to play in his band in Montpellier , and Nina drove Sophie to a ballet lesson . Anne stayed with Paul , who turned on an old black-and-white television to watch cartoons . The picture had a grainy quality she remembered from her own childhood . <p> When Anne woke up it took her a few seconds to remember where she was . " Paul ? " <p> " He 's here " Nina said from the doorway . " You fell asleep . " From the remarks of the two children , Anne realized that Paul had left the television and gone outside to pile stones on the side of the road . She was frightened all of a sudden . " I ca n't believe I did that , " she said . <p> " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " As the youngest , Paul has a highly developed sense of self-preservation , and there 's never much traffic on our street . Look how this fits me . " She twirled around in Anne 's suede jacket , then she mentioned dinner and said , " You must be starving , Anne . I told you , did n't I , that Michel is a vegetarian ? " <p> " Do you have anything to drink ? Some wine ? " Anne , after a while , asked Nina as Nina was boiling water for the spaghetti . <p> " Wine ? Oh , gee , I 'm sorry . I 'll ask Michel to get you some tomorrow . " <p> " It does n't matter . I just thought if you did-that 's all . Here , " Anne also said , " let me do something useful . " <p> As Anne was setting the table , she could hear Nina humming in the kitchen . Nina had a beautiful singing voice-when she sang , everyone said , Nina was transformed ; Nina became powerful , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and even though she was fairly certain of the answer , Anne called out to Nina in the next room , " Are you still singing ? " <p> That night in bed , underneath the too-flimsy Babar quilt , Anne kept all her clothes on except for her shoes , the room was so damp and cold . And disoriented , she did not sleep much . She heard Michel come up the stairs-by the luminous hands on her watch , which she had never bothered to change , it was ten o'clock in the morning on the east coast of the United States-and for a moment she confused him with George , about whom she had been dreaming . ( In the dream , she was in a crowded room , at a party perhaps , where George , who did not smoke , was smoking and offering everyone in the room a cigarette-a special blend , George kept saying in a boastful and unfamiliar way . ) Later , at seven and while it was still dark , she heard Nina get the children ready for school ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then she got up and dressed-she merely put on another sweater-and brushed her hair . On her way downstairs , she stopped in the bathroom . Wearing only the red check shirt , Michel was sitting on the toilet , looking through a magazine . <p> " Oh ! " Embarrassed , Anne quickly shut the bathroom door . Michel had barely glanced up . " Pas de probleme , " he said . <p> " How about a walk ? " Nina suggested when she got back later that morning . " We can go up to the castle , but it 's a bit of a hike . I 'll take July-good exercise for her . " <p> Rue du Bout-du-Monde-end of the world road , Nina translated for Anne-was the name of the road they were walking on , and it was so steep and narrow Anne was grateful that she had on her walking shoes . Even so , she kept slipping on the loose stones and pebbles . Around them , the countryside consisted of sharp limestone hills covered with impenetrable scrub and oak thickets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first met . I guess that 's why I did n't notice how steep it is , " Nina said with a little laugh . She had July on a leash , and the dog was pulling her . <p> " I imagine it helps to be a goat , " Anne said . <p> " A sheep , you mean . In summer , the place is filled with them . Each year the shepherds bring up their flocks , and you should see all the lambs- " Nina stopped . " But I really want to hear about you , Anne . " <p> " The two girls are all right , I guess , " Anne began in an expressionless voice . " They 're in school , they 're getting good grades , and they 've already decided on careers : Danielle wants to be a doctor , Joyce a lawyer . " <p> " And George ? Is there someone else ? " <p> Anne shook her head . " Sometimes , I wish there were . There 's nothing I can really point a finger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It 's just so trivial and predictable . And I guess it always boils down to the same thing-sex , which in our case is nearly nonexistent . I know , I know , I am being incredibly spoiled , but I want more , and I want it to be different . " <p> " Different is not necessarily better , " Nina said . <p> They walked on in silence ( except for Nina occasionally telling July to stop or to been until they reached the top of the ridge and the ruined castle-all that remained of it was the curtain wall and the sixty-foot-high keep faced with huge limestone blocks-but the view more than anything else drew them . The sheer drop from the cliff and the gorge hundreds of feet below . <p> " So what happened to Guilhem ? " Anne asked . <p> " After his wife died , Guilhem gave up all his worldly possessions and became a monk . He spent the rest of his life in a cell , fasting , praying " -far down in the village , a church bell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the legend , ' Nina continued , " when Guilhem died , all the church bells began to ring at once of their own accord without anyone pulling on the ropes . " <p> Again that night Michel left to play in the band , but at dinner Nina held up a bottle of wine . She poured Anne a glass , then herself a glass as well . " I know it 's funny , " she said , " most people , including my family , think that musicians drink , smoke , they think that musicians are completely dissipated , but Michel is n't like that . And he 's a wonderful father . " <p> Anne sipped more wine . " So , you 're really happy , Nina ? " <p> Nina shrugged . " Happy ? Sure , I 'm happy . I miss a lot of things . I wish Michel did not have to struggle so hard to get work . But I love him , and I love the children . " <p> Except for saying good morning and goodbye and making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had barely spoken to Michel . " You do n't mind not being married ? " <p> " I do n't think about it anymore . And , in a funny way , I like Eliane . Sophie and Paul like her , too . " <p> Again , that night , Anne could not get to sleep , but instead of tossing and turning under the too-thin Babar quilt , she turned on the light and read in a guidebook how first Guilhem captured the city of Nimes by hiding his soldiers in wine barrels and then how he lost the tip of his nose fighting off the pagans in Rome . Later , Anne woke up to find the light on in her room and , after a moment of confusion , to the sounds of Michel and Nina making love . Couchons ! Anne half-wished she had asked the man who had followed her in Paris-he was not bad-looking in a foreign sort of way-to have a drink with her ; it would have been easy . <p> " What kind of music do you play ? " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the children to school , and Michel was making coffee in the kitchen . " Rock ? " <p> Michel nodded . " Whatever people want to hear . Tu veux du cafe , Anne ? " <p> " I 'd love to hear you play , " Anne went on , handing Michel her cup . " Maybe , one of these nights . My husband-you should meet him- " she heard herself say , " he 's a great- " How to explain the word fan ? -Anne 's voice trailed off . <p> When Nina got back to the house , she had a headache , the start of migraine , she said . <p> " I hope it was n't the wine , " Anne said . <p> Nina shook her head . " I 'll be fine later . " She smiled at Anne , but her eyes were watery and unfocused . " I just need some sleep , " she said . <p> " Do n't worry about me , Nina . I 'll go for a walk , " Anne said . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? " she added too late -- Nina was halfway up the stairs and did not hear her . <p> " You can walk to the Grotte de Clamouse , " Michel told Anne after Nina had gone . <p> " The grotte ? Is it a cave ? " <p> Michel nodded . " It 's only three kilometers from here . I can start you on your way , if you like . Show you a shortcut , so you wo n't have to walk on the main road . " <p> " That 's very kind of you , " Anne answered . " I 'll just go and put on my walking shoes . " <p> When Anne returned downstairs , Michel was wearing a different shirt , a blue cotton dress shirt . <p> " Some of the caves are so far underground they have never seen the light of day , yet bunches of green ferns are growing inside them , " Michel told Anne as they set off through the village . " Also , you will see beautiful crystals in the shape of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " <p> " Aragoneat ? " Anne repeated after him . She felt stupid . She knew nothing about caves or crystals . <p> " Sometimes my father worked as a guide , he took tourists inside the caves . He had the good fortune to go on several exploratory expeditions with Martel . " When Anne did not answer , Michel continued , " Edouard-Alfred Martel , the famous , how do you say , speleogiste . " <p> " Ah , yes . Speleogiste . " Anne felt as if she were having a conversation with someone from another planet ; uncharacteristically , she was tempted to laugh . She bent her head so that Michel could not see her while she tried to compose her face . After a while , she asked , " Your father is from this region ? This region ? " Anne repeated it the French way . <p> They had reached the outskirts of the village , and instead of answering her , Michel pointed out a path which ran parallel to the main road . " One of the oldest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a boy I went every summer with my father when he took up the ships . " <p> " Yes . Sheep , Nina told me how- " Anne started to say when , without warning , Michel took her in his arms and tried to kiss her on the mouth . Letting out a cry of surprise , Anne shook herself free . <p> Anne had tied a scarf around her head . Now the ends of the scarf whipped around and hit her face , startling her . The day , which had started out mild , had turned chilly all of a sudden , and the wind had picked up . Fast-moving clouds hid the sun ; any moment it looked as if it was going to rain . No one else was on the path , which no longer ran parallel to the road but wound more and more steeply up the hillside , who knew to where ? And who would find her if she twisted an ankle or broke a leg ? There were no signs or markers , and Anne was angry at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the road instead . Also , she was angry at Michel . Fool , she thought , not sure whom she meant . Then she stopped so abruptly she almost lost her balance . She had been about to step on something that she could not immediately identify-a mass of dirty white wool . <p> A year to the day nearly after Anne left St. Guilhem-le-Desert , Nina died of a brain tumor-the cause of the headaches , Anne supposed . Michel had telephoned her at two o'clock one morning-eight o'clock in St. Guilhem-le-Desert-to let her know , and it took Anne , who was in bed asleep next to George , a while to understand who Michel was and what he was telling her . " What time is it there ? " she had said foolishly at the same time that she thought , or perhaps imagined , she heard bells ringing in the background . And what had Nina told her about the church bells ringing of their own accord ? Next , still only half-awake , Anne asked Michel if there was anything she could do for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with my wife , " Michel said . " Eliane . Perhaps this time we can work it out . " <p> The dead sheep had been lying right across her path-underneath the matted wool , Anne had seen a row of startlingly white rib bones , underneath the rib bones , she had seen the ground . The sheep must have been dead for quite some time . Anne had to step over the dead sheep or else go back down . <p> Author Affiliation 
##1008850 From 1943 to 1954 , women played baseball in the the All -- American Girls Professional Baseball League ( AAGPBL ) . The league grew to include ten teams . Players like Isabel Alvarez ( left ) were talented and competitive . The games thrilled baseball fans during World War II and in the decade after . <p> CHARACTERS YOUNG GEORGIA Georgia Baskin , a 14-year-old girl who loves baseball GEORGIA Georgia Baskin as a 16-year-old FLORENCE AND JENNIE Georgia 's best friends MR . AND MRS . BASKIN Georgia 's parents FRANKIE Georgia 's teenage brother PHILIP WRIGLEY president of the WIlliam Wrigley Jr . Chewing Gum Company and owner of the Chicago Cubs baseball team MR . MEYERHOFF a colleague of Mr. Wrigley 's MR . LARKEY AND MR . MCDONALD baseball talent scouts SOPHIE Sophie Kurys , a player on the Racine Belles HISTORIANS 1 &2; explain historical facts NARRATORS 1,2 , &; 3 tell the action of the play ANNOUNCERS 1,2 , &; 3 Scene 1 September 1941 A small town in upstate New York Narrator 1 : Georgia , Florence , and Jennie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia Baskin is on the mound ! She winds up , and here 's the pitch ! Narrator 2 : Georgia pitches the baseball to Jennie . Jennie : Youch ! Young Georgia : Sorry , Jen ! Just tryin " out my fastball . Jennie : Must be Frankie 's mitt . It gives you special powers . Young Georgia : Those special powers wo n't protect me if Frankie catches me using it . Florence : How did Frankie get Joe DiMaggio to sign it ? Historian 1 : Joe DiMaggio was the most famous baseball player in America . Young Georgia : Dad was visiting his brother in New York City . He went to Yankee Stadium and waited in the rain for Joe to appear . Jennie : Frankie 's so lucky ! Young Georgia : Dad should have given it to me . I 'm the one who loves baseball . Florence : Uh oh , there he is ! Jennie : Let 's scoot , Flo ! Narrator 3 : Georgia 's friends rush away as Frankie comes charging onto the field . Frankie : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Narrator 1 : Georgia throws the baseball up in the air , so high it seems to disappear into the clouds . She lines up the mitt to catch the ball , but Frankie yanks the mitt off her hand . Narrator 2 : The ball falls to the ground . Frankie : Real girls do n't play in the dirt . Scene 2 That night at the Baskins " dinner table Frankie : ... and I 've told her a million times not to use that mitt ! Mr. Baskin : Georgia , I 've told you you should be helping your mother after school . Mrs. Baskin : Georgia had finished her chores . Frankie : Take it again and I 'll ... Mrs. Baskin : Enough ! Do n't we have more important worries than a baseball mitt ? Narrator 3 : The family finishes supper in silence . Afterward , Georgia helps her mother with the dishes . Young Georgia : I 'm sorry . Mrs. Baskin : They 're not really so mad at you , dear . They 're tense is all . The news @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very worried . Historian 2 : World War II had erupted . Any Photograph World War II was a frightening time . Every week , thousands of young men left their homes to fight overseas . In 1939 , the U.S. Army had 190,000 men . By 1945 , it had 10.4 million . Photograph From 1936 to his retirement in 1951 , New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio was America 's most beloved player . He joined the Army during World War II . <p> day , America would be at war with Germany . Young Georgia : Will Frankie have to go fight ? Mrs. Baskin : Yes , I believe he will . Scene 3 January 1943 The office of Philip Wrigley in Chicago , Illinois Mr. Wrigley : Gentlemen , let 's face the facts . Our country is at war . Our best men are on the battlefields , not on the baseball diamonds . Our biggest stars have enlisted : Joe DiMaggio , Hank Greenberg , Ted Williams ... Historian 1 : America was now fighting Germany and Japan . More than 10 million American men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ major league baseball players . Mr. Meyerhoff : Sir , President Roosevelt himself told us baseball is important for Americans , especially now . Times are tough , and we need something to cheer about . Mr. Wrigley : Exactly my thinking . That 's why I want to start a new league . A girls " league . We 'll find the best girl players in the country , make up a few teams , and let em play ball . Mr. Meyerhoff : You really think Americans want to see their girls chewing tobacco and cursing at umpires ? Mr. Wrigley : Oh , we 'll make sure they behave like ladies . We 'll dress them up in fetching uniforms . Send them to charm school if need be . Mr. Meyerhoff : Brilliant . They 'll look like ladies . But they 'll play ball like gentlemen . Mr. Wrigley : Mark my words . Americans will love this . Scene 4 A few weeks later A high school playing field Jennie : Georgia , you are a star ! Did you hear your mother screaming in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see her smiling . She 's so worried about Frankie . Historian 2 : Like millions of young men , Frankie is a soldier fighting overseas . Florence : At least you have his DiMaggio mitt . And it sure is bringing you luck ! Jennie : Florence ! What a thing to say ! Georgia does n't care about the mitt . Florence : I meant as a way to think of Frankie ! Georgia : I do n't have the mitt anymore . I sent it to Frankie . I just hope he gets it . Photograph Women filled jobs in offices and factories . They built planes , tanks , and supplies that enabled the U.S. and its allies to win the war . When the war ended , many women had to give up their jobs to soldiers returning home . <p> Florence : Frankie wo n't have time to play baseball on a battleship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean . Georgia : The mitt will bring him luck . Jennie : That 's big of you , Georgia . Narrator 1 : Florence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two men call to her . Mr. Larkey : Georgia Baskin , right ? You 've got quite an arm . Georgia : Thanks . Mr. Larkey : I 'm Bill Larkey and this here 's Joe McDonald . We 're talent scouts for a new ball league . A girls " league , 100 percent professional . Mr. McDonald : Run by Mr. Philip Wrigley ! Mr. Larkin ( handing Georgia a piece of paper ) : This paper tells all the details . Tryouts are in Medford this weekend . If we like you , we 'll send you to a final tryout in Chicago . Mr. Larkey : Think about it . Georgia : certainly will ! Scene 5 The Baskin house at dinner time Mrs. Baskin : I 'm sending another package to Frankie tomorrow . Anything you want to add ? Mr. Baskin : I picked up a football magazine . Georgia : I want to tell him about the new baseball league . Mr. Baskin : A new league ? Narrator 2 : Georgia takes the paper from her pocket and smoothes it out on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Baskin : A girls " league ! Is n't that something ! Girls playing like professionals ! Georgia : A man from the league watched my game today . He said I should try out . Mr. Baskin : Nobody wants to watch girls try to play baseball ! Mrs. Baskin : They certainly line up to see Georgia pitch in the high school games . Mr. Baskin : Georgia 's 16 years old . She 's not going to traipse around the Midwest in some kind of carnival ! Georgia : Excuse me . I have a terrible headache . Narrator 3 : She gets up and goes to her room . Mr. Baskin : Girls playing baseball . If only Frank could hear this . He 'd have a laugh ! Photograph Philip Wrigley created the women 's league . Many doubted that fans would want to watch women play . However , the league was a huge success from the start . Photograph Women baseball players had to wear skirts and makeup . They could not have short hair . But the feminine -- looking players were tough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was one of the league 's original four teams . <p> Mrs. Baskin : Women are working in factories . Women are building airplanes and ships and guns . Nobody says that 's nonsense . Mr. Baskin : That 's different . Those women are helping us win the war . Mrs. Baskin : These are dark times , Charles . If our daughter has a chance to live her dream , I want her to take it . Mr. Baskin : But she 's so young . Mrs. Baskin : So is Frank . And he 's at war . Mr. Baskin : If you want to let our girl go , I wo n't stop her . Scene 6 May 1943 Wrigley Field , Chicago , Illinois Narrator 1 : Georgia aces her tryout in Medford and is invited to the final selection in Chicago . Historian 1 : Over 250 girls tried out in Chicago , but only 64 would be chosen for the four teams . Narrator 2 : After fielding trials , Georgia sits down on a bench next to another girl . Georgia : I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Have you been watching some of these girls ? A few have been to the Olympics . Georgia : From what I saw , you 're one of the best . Sophie : I 've never wanted anything more . Georgia : Me either . Narrator 3 : After three days of tryouts , Georgia calls home with some news . Georgia : Mom ! I made it ! I 'm on the Racine Belles ! Mrs. Baskin : Oh , Georgia ... Georgia : What 's the matter ? Mrs. Baskin : We got a telegram . Frank 's been injured . There was an explosion on his ship . Four boys were killed . Frank 's in a hospital in Hawaii . They do n't know if he 'll ... Georgia : I 'm coming home ! Mrs. Baskin : No you wo n't . You will take this chance and make the most of it . Scene 7 Three months later A playing field in Racine , Wisconsin Announcer 1 : That 's it , folks , another exciting game between our own Racine Belles and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wear skirts and makeup . They could not have short hair . But the feminine -- looking players were tough and highly skilled . The Racine Belles , right , was one of the league 's original four teams . Photograph The league had many superstars , including Dorothy Wiltse Collins , an ace pitcher on the Minneapolis Millerettes . Photograph Sophie Kurys ( a.k.a . " Flint Flash " ) stole 1,114 bases during her career as a player on the Racine Belles . <p> Announcer 2 : We had some big plays -- Sophie Kurys stole three bases . Dottie Collins Wilse hit a triple . And we had solid relief pitching by the youngster Georgia Baskin . Announcer 3 : Let 's have a big cheer for the teams . And God bless America and our troops ! Narrator 1 : The players are changing in the locker room . Sophie : I 've never had so much fun in my life . Georgia : When you stole home , my heart jumped out of my chest ! Sophie : They almost nabbed me ! Narrator 2 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her parents waiting outside . Georgia : Mom ! Dad ! Oh no ! Has something happened to Frank ? Mrs. Baskin : No , no , he 's doing fine ! They 've transferred him to San Francisco . Mr. Baskin : Frank sent something home for you . He asked me to deliver it myself . Narrator 3 : Mr. Baskin reaches into his bag . Georgia : The DiMaggio mitt ! I knew it would bring him luck ! Mrs. Baskin : Look at it , Georgia . There 's something different . Narrator 1 : Georgia studies the mitt . Her face lights up . Mr. Baskin : Mr. DiMaggio 's in the army , too . He 's stationed in San Francisco . He paid a visit to Frank 's hospital , and Frank got him to sign the mitt again . For you . Georgia ( reading ) : " To Georgia Baskin , a fellow pro . Keep playing in the dirt . Joe DiMaggio . " Her are two great stories about the AAGPBL : A Whole New Ball Game by Sue Macy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : The Story of the Young Women Who Won the World Championship by Doreen Rappaport and Lyndall Callan ( Dial Books ) . Photograph <p> 
##1009851 It feels so good to be home , to know I 'm standing on Indian soil . Strangely enough , even the night breeze mingling with pungent petrol fumes smells familiar , comforting , of where I belong . The sterile air of America still feels alien to my lungs . I breathe in deep lungfuls of air , the stuff that newspaper reports claim is toxin to the insides with its increased levels of SPM ( suspended particulars matter ) . But this is the air my lungs grew up on and I can now feel them working harder , almost in recognition . <p> Amma , in a **26;0;TOOLONG Kanjeevaram , no doubt carefully picked for the occasion , is at the Arrivals Lounge , more grey streaking through her dark hair coiled into a bun , faint lines around her eyes . Her smile is the same though , as soft and warm as the idlis she served me when I bounded in at the end of a long school day . <p> The drive home from Anna International Airport in Chennai is predictably filled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Niraj in May ; Usha has won a Cambridge scholarship ; great-aunt 's daughter Sunita is expecting her third baby , and her ma-in-law hopes it will be a boy this time ; Rukmini Athai 's arthritis is worse ; Balan the cook ran away with the maid-next-door ; and , Patti the neighborhood dog is having a new litter . Nothing has changed , I think to myself . And yet , everything has changed . <p> The neon signs advertising pizza parlors and fast-food joints speed past the car windows , winking furiously in crimson reds and fluorescent pinks , like overdressed whores soliciting customers ; festive coffee pubs/their names looped and curved in trendy typography are spilling over with scantily-clad teenyboppers ; long and tarred arcs in the sky , the city 's new flyovers , stick their necks out like extinct brontosaurs ; even old-fashioned petrol pumps , the sort that once stationed a surly attendant who reeked of petrol and had grease stains ground into his clothes and skin , are now transformed into new-fangled gas stations drenched in blazing white lights , with freshly painted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> But , wait a minute . Where is the paan shop , the box-like contraption round that corner where people headed for their after-dinner digestive ? What of its bald , pot-bellied owner , with lips stained red and chewing incessantly , who ponderously patted wet betel leaves dry ? I still see his fingers dipping into an entire row of sparkling steel containers full of mysterious chutneys and aromatic powders . He would fill the leaves with a little pinch from each , then twist and expertly fold the leaves into neat green triangles , all ready to be popped into the mouth . Where might that biscuit man of my boyhood have disappeared , the one who sat next to the shoe shop , the one who always gave me an extra butter biscuit that smelled of fresh sunshine , one I knew I could ill-afford even as my eyes feasted on the jar 's contents ? A garish , loud shopping mall sprawls there in indolent luxury . The biscuit man 's meager legacy lies buried and forgotten under it , like a rare coin . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ phone booth used to be ... how often had I rushed there , coins jingling in my pocket , to dial Asha 's number , my teen heart thumping , fingers trembling ... <p> " This is Chennai . " The driver bursts into my nostalgia . <p> " Yes , this is Chennai , " I repeat . <p> Not the Madras I left behind ten years ago . <p> I 'd followed the controversy of the Madras-Chennai re-christening faithfully on the Internet . Madras , the conservative heartland of India , was somewhat intimidated by the shrinking global boundary , and cowered like a common man in the presence of a striding giant . But commercial and economical considerations must eventually rule , and Madras was forced to come out of its shell to face , and participate in , a global market . No matter there is a group that holds the regional banner aloft with its strident voice of patriotism . It was this group , realizing that its known world was rapidly metamorphosing into a new identity that decided to seek refuge in roots . They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " as it has always been called in Tamil , the city 's native tongue . <p> I 'd paid little attention to the ramifications of this name-change . To me , the city would always remain Madras . The Madras of my childhood , the Madras of my carefree college days , the Madras I left behind to pursue the big Silicon Valley dream . Being confronted with the newness of its character was like walking into my living room to find the furniture all snazzily re-upholstered and rearranged and tripping over it . <p> This is n't Madras . This is Chennai . The cab driver was right . <p> " Why so quiet ? Missing America already ? " Amma 's question is accompanied by an affectionate pat on the cheek . Her hand feels cool but dry and papery . I zip back to the here and now from my mental meanderings , offer her a tentative smile , and wonder if she will ever understand that it is Madras I am missing . <p> The swank Ford glides to a smooth , noiseless halt outside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of glistening black paint they wear in welcome . I step out and my nostalgic senses drag in the combined fragrances of jasmine and incense wafting in on the moonlit night , tickling my nostrils and teasing my memories . <p> " Come , come , you must be hungry , " says Amma urgently , pointing the chauffeur to the bags . We step into the comforting old house and I feel it wrapping its huge arms around me . In minutes I hear Amma bustling about the kitchen , the clatter of ladles and plates signaling the setting of table for dinner . We share a meal , mother and son , after years and years of my frozen dinners and Chinese takeout fare . <p> " You have n't touched anything ! " she exclaims , a constant refrain of motherhood , sliding a spoonful of beans garnished with grated coconut onto my plate . The coriander-flavored rasam , the color of burnt sienna , has n't altered an ounce of its formula in Amma 's hands , I think to myself , admiring the consistency of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in ghee and let its tangy tomato-tamarind base work its magic on my starved taste buds , I drink my fill of it before mixing it into a small hillock of white rice Amma has heaped on my plate . <p> " You better go to bed early . You must be very tired . Besides , Radha Chithi and your cousin Aarthi are coming to see you in the morning , " says Amma as she stacks the sink with used vessels and gives the counters a gleam with her swab cloth . <p> " Aarthi ? She was in a short frock , her hair in oil-soaked pigtails the last time I saw her . " I laugh aloud at what must seem an absurd memory to Amma . <p> " The oily pigtails are gone but the frocks are still short . " I detect a tone of disapproval in Amma 's attempt at humor . <p> This is not my room . Not the one I grew up in . It 's practically unrecognizable . I stare at the cream distempered walls adorned with M.F. Hussain 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color that drain one 's wallet , and taunt the cerebrum . A spanking new Onkyo music system , seductively sleek and hi-tech , sits on a teakwood side table . The bed , my bed , is in black metal , the mattress draped in a richly embroidered eiderdown , its golden sunflowers and trailing vermilion patterns rather ornate . I can still feel the cool softness of the Bombay Dyeing cotton bed sheets against my skin , the ones I snuggled into as a little boy , and see their pleasing floral prints of years ago . I root around for a copy of The Sportstar for an update on the cricket world but the magazine rack standing in a corner proudly displays one glossy after another , lined neatly like well-groomed prize cats - Man 's World , Cosmopolitan , Time , Newsweek , and even a few back issues of Vogue . I slip into bed uneasy . Sleep eludes me . I lie awake and let my mind roam the known and safe bylanes and landmarks of memory . <p> I see a little boy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to tack up a poster of his cricket hero , Sunil Gavaskar . The cellotape stubbornly refuses to bind itself to the uneven surface of the wall . On the wall are other posters - of Viv Richards , Ian Botham , Imran Khan , and Kapil Dev . Champions who dominated the cricket world . A brown table sits near the window , a survivor , scarred with scratches , damaged with Rorschachian ink blots and littered with Amar Chitra Katha comics , their dog-eared pages and curling covers testimony to the number of reads they have been subjected to . A black school satchel lies carelessly flung in the middle of the room while the day 's once-white uniform has been hastily slipped out of minutes ago by someone in a great hurry to get to his four o'clock game of cricket in the maidan nearby . <p> An hour later , flushed with the success of the three wickets that won us the match , I have trouble anchoring my mind to a math problem . I twirl my canary-colored pencil distractedly , sucking on the pea-sized eraser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rumble . It 's those mouth-watering smells drifting from the kitchen . The sizzle of papads being deep-fried in oil ; curry leaves coaxed with a twist of the thumb to release their flavors into the sizzling broth ; powdered cumin and black pepper leaving murky trails on milky-white buttermilk . Ten minutes to dinner , I think to myself gratefully , wrestling with the Sumo - my math reader . <p> The springy soft mattress that accommodates the undulations of my frame is ironically branded Sleepwell . My mind is in the grip of feverish contradictions - a richly nostalgic childhood ; severing the umbilical cord ; reconnecting to a new cultural reality in America ; and , the eventual homecoming to a country that seems to remain whole and untainted only in my memory bank . My slide down the slope of oblivion is late and rather brief . <p> The eastern sunlight strides into my room like an irate class teacher and rudely drives away the last vestiges of sleep . It is eight o'clock . I blink in confusion and , for just a split second , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warm aroma of filter coffee steaming its way into my eager nostrils all the way from Amma 's old-fashioned kitchen . My taste buds respond almost in primeval fashion . Before long Amma 's footfalls grow louder in approach . In a moment her knuckles are thudding against my door . <p> " Chandru , get up . It 's late . Radha Chithi and Aarthi will be here soon . " I let her in and disappear into the bathroom . My morning ablutions are performed to the background chorus of pillows being plumped and sheets being crackled to life . <p> So tall he has grown ! And dark and handsome ! " Radha Chithi 's excited gushing has the expected result of puce on my ears . At 5 ' 7 " I suffer from no delusions concerning my height , especially upon my return from America where a six-footer is the norm . My caramel Indian skin earns me the " dark " sobriquet automatically , but my padded jaw-line , thinning hairline , and a waistline tending towards east and west do n't exactly combine well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on me with the force of an avalanche , gathers all of me into a suffocating embrace , and instantly knocks the breath out of me . I think back to the Radha Chithi I once knew . Demurely draped in soft , subdued cotton sarees with the pallu modestly drawn over her right shoulder , her tentative glances shaded by coyly fluttering eyelashes . Has she metamorphosed into this giggly , quivery creature , her corpulent frame wrapped in a fluorescent cotton-candy chiffon saree , with a blouse that looks like its front went bungee-jumping , spilling ample amounts of unsavory flesh over the edge ? The blouse has an " O " of missing fabric on the back , a surprised utterance at the daunting challenge of what it must conceal . Her jeweler must surely be riding a minor prosperity wave given the carats that decorate her - two nose pins , a chunky choker in a vice-like grip around her thick throat , a triple-tiered dome hanging from each ear , three gold studs curving up her ears , and gold bangles , a dozen of them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I helped your Amma stock her fridge with all the right stuff ! " Pointing to the Kellogg 's cereal boxes sitting atop the fridge , she swings the door open to reveal a one-liter bottle of Coke , a packet of Kraft cheese , a jar of French mustard , and an assortment of fresh juices in an array of mini cartons . " Just for you , " she bats her heavily made-up lashes to make a point . " I know how your food habits must have changed in America . Do n't worry . We get everything in India now . " She is obviously proud to play the role of knowledgeable food-provider to a man whose ways she presumes have become all-American . <p> " Hi ! " My senses , inundated with the millennium edition of Radha Chithi , recover , and I notice the person to whom the voice belongs . <p> " Aarthi ! You 've grown ! " <p> Dumb . Predictable . Unoriginal . All that a one-liner should n't be . And yet the words are out before I can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ looking healthy and hennaed , Aarthi is in a pastel blue spaghetti top and a pair of jeans she seems to have poured herself into . She looks every bit like a leaf blown off course by the winds of Western influence . <p> " So pretty , is n't she ? Aarthi is at your disposal , Chandru . She will show you all the new places in Chennai - coffee pubs , discos , malls , bowling alleys ... even the cinema theatres have become very fancy , you know ! " Radha Chithi cackles , delighted to be in step with the times . <p> " So how does it feel to be back after ten years ? " Aarthi 's perfectly penciled eyebrow arches and shrug accompany the question . <p> " Well ... I have n't had too much time to think about it ... but ... a lot has changed ! " <p> " You bet . It is n't the same old boring dump it used to be . Chennai 's hip now , y'know . And some of the discos are real groovy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can tell you . " <p> But I am , I want to tell her . I miss the old , stable beat Madras once moved to . <p> " So what 's your POA for today ? " Aarthi asks , running her slender , crimson-pointed fingertips through her freshly shampooed mane and a sweet smell of fruit pervades the air . <p> " I 've barely had time to think , actually . Woke up really late and have been lazy since . " I offer an excuse . <p> " Oh ! Take your time , Chandru . Relax . You 're on vacation . " Radha Chithi pinches my cheek affectionately and turns to Aarthi , " Come on , let 's go . I have a lot of shopping to do . " <p> " I 'll call you later , " says Aarthi and follows it up with ciao . " Maybe we can meet for some coffee . " <p> The neighborhood I am looking at through my window is so different from the one I imagined I would return to . The hundred-year-old @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , tall bushes with pink-and-white hibiscuses peeking from under dense leaf cover , and riotous masses of red bougainvillea , are now history . A huge truck is disgorging sand and cement bags in a furious roar in front of the skeletal framework of an upcoming apartment complex rising from its ashes . Construction workers , sun-burnt men and women with mud-streaked cloths coiled on their heads scurry about the place like busy ants , passing rusty trays of cement and pots of water in relay fashion . A thin emaciated child clad in nothing but a badly frayed underwear , her hair the color of coffee berry , plays in a mountain of sand , gooey yellow snot running down her nose . The hot air is thick with swirling clouds of powdery dust , a gray pall shrouding the place , almost mourning the passing away of the pretty bungalow that once graced this neighborhood . <p> " Raajaaaa ... " The familiar native accent draws me back instantly . I turn to find Ponni . Ponni , who is as much a part of our family as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Her ebony skin glistens , her face is creased in smiles , eyes crinkled affectionately at the corners . She stands before me and causes a cascade of memories to rush down . <p> Playing hopscotch with me when I was disallowed from playing with my gang for telling a lie ; cooling my raging fever down with a night full of cold compresses soaked in eau de cologne ; helping me climb the mango tree in the backyard to pluck clusters of the golden fruit ; sitting in the courtyard and making me follow the moon with my eyes as she told me tales of kings and queens ; scrubbing my muddy white shirt to a sparkle after my exploits on the school playground ; shelling peanuts for me when I was too lazy to . <p> The gold in her elaborate nose stud glitters in the sun as she circles my face in the air using both her palms . She starts at my forehead and ends at my chin and cracks her knuckles against her temples - a fond , comforting ritual to ward off the evil eye @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... " She lapses into the childhood name she gave me , drawing it out in syllables of deep affection . Her eyes shine with the unshed tears they cradle . I suddenly find it hard to swallow . She gathers my soft , white-collar hands warmly into her own callused , work-roughened ones . " Are you well , my Raja ? " Standing near Ponni and inhaling the scent of cow-dung cakes mixed with the jasmine that sits like a fragrant crown on the bun nestling at the nape of her neck , I feel deeply connected to a vital part of my growing years . And like a newborn calf 's frantic search for its mother 's teat , and its sense of relief upon finding it , I exhale serenely . <p> " You look the same , Ponni . Have n't changed in ten years ! " <p> She waves a hand , tossing the compliment away . " You always liked to tease poor Ponni . It is you who has not changed , Raja . " With the ease and comfort of familiarity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bags and suitcases around , and slashes at the furniture , duster in hand . " Move away , come on , let me clean up all this mess . I 'll make your room shine like a new coin , " she says , flicking me away along with the dust that lines the coffee table . I take in the soft , damp , crushed folds of the cotton sari tucked into her waist , the gold-flecked glass bangles that tinkle on her wrist , the thick toe rings that tap out a melody as she moves about on the mosaic floor , and the red dot , the size of a 50 paise coin , in the center of her forehead . <p> In a rush I feel it in my blood and bones . <p> I am home . <p> Article copyright India Currents . <p> 
##1009858 This new science-fiction story is written like a children 's book-but the events that occur are far from childish . This eerie story by Greg van Eekhout is included in the new young-adult science-fiction anthology New Skies . <p> Astronauts are people who ride rockets into space . They must train for a very long time before they go . Astronauts must be smart and brave . Will you be an astronaut ? The biggest rocket ever was the Saturn . V. On the launch pad it was taller than a 30-story building . Today 's rockets are smaller and lighter . Today 's rockets can be launched more than once . They have wings and can come back to Earth and land like airplanes .... Antonio is strapped into his seat . He is about to ride to a space station . Because there is no air in space , Antonio must wear a space suit . In the suit , Antonio can breathe and talk over radio .... The rocket is about to take off . There go the engines . 5-4-3-2-1 ! Lift off ! @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .... In space , astronauts speak Spanish . No matter what language you speak at home , you must learn Spanish if you want to be an astronaut . Habla espanol ? Mercury was America 's first manned spacecraft . It was smaller than a car and could hold just one man , all scrunched up . Gemini was more roomy and could take two men into orbit . And the Apollo spacecraft was even larger . It could take three men to the moon and back . On July 20 , 1969 , Apollo 11 brought the first astronauts to walk on the moon . There are no plants or animals on the moon . There is no water to drink or air to breathe . Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin conducted experiments and talked to people on Earth . They collected many moon rocks , but their spacecraft was lost while returning to Earth . Space exploration is dangerous . Astronauts must be very brave . Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made one giant leap for mankind . Will you be an astronaut ? Antonio 's rocket docks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kilometers above the Earth .... Antonio will remain on the space station Vigilancia for nine months . During that time , he will finally get to put all his training to use . He will use telescopes and other instruments to watch for incoming Asps . If he sees an Asp , he will track it with radio waves , and if it gets close enough he will blast it with the space station 's proton guns . Antonio has practiced doing this on Earth for a long time . He is very good at it . It is a great responsibility to be an astronaut , protecting Earth from Asps . Will Antonio be able to protect the Earth ? Find out in this excerpted version of the new short story " Will You Be an Astronaut ? " <p> Will Antonio be able to protect the Earth ? Find out in this excerpted version of the new short story " Will You Be an Astronaut ? " <p> If even a single Asp gets through , millions of people could die . How did Antonio become an astronaut ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from big cities and small cities , from mountains and jungles , from farms and refugee camps . Asps destroyed Mexico City , the place where Antonio 's parents lived . They had to move to the refugee camp where Antonio was born .... The Earth is beautiful . When Antonio has free time he looks through one of the space station 's windows . Antonio learned geography at school in the refugee camp , and he learned even more at astronaut school . He sleeps with a picture of Earth over his hammock . The Earth is the most important thing there is . Antonio sees blue ocean beneath white clouds . The Gobi desert is the color of a camel . The tip of Cape Horn is like a white polar bear . North America is green and brown , but parts of it are ash gray . Across Europe is a patch of ash gray . Across China is a patch of ash gray . The gray parts are where Asps have touched down . More than 2 billion people used to live where the patches are . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , no animals , and no plants in the patches . Over 2 billion people have died in the patches since people started going into space .... An astronaut 's most important job is to prevent people and animals from dying . An astronaut will do anything to save a life . On the space station , Antonio controls the guns .... From his chair , Antonio controls 20 guns at once .... Some astronauts will spend their entire time in space without ever firing a shot . But they 're still working . Firefighters are working even when there is no fire . Police officers are working even when nobody is committing a crime .... But now there is an alarm ! Robot detectors have picked up something .... An Asp is headed toward Earth . Antonio is ready . He is very brave . He waits for the incoming Asp to come close to his first gun battery . If he fires at the Asp and misses , the Asp will change course . Then it will be even harder to hit . Asps are like pieces of string @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few meters thick . They are like giant worms . They are disgusting . Sitting in his gunner 's seat , Antonio stares at his computer screen . He sees the Asp as a bright purple line . He tries to line up a red circle over the purple line . When the red circle is in the right place , Antonio can tell his guns to fire . The Asp moves quickly though , and it is hard to aim . It is important to hit the Asp in the correct place . Antonio wants to shoot it in a soft spot so it will break up into parts so tiny they 'll burn away as they fall to Earth . But if he shoots the Asp in the wrong place , in one of its hard joints , it will break up into several Asp segments and will be harder to kill . The red circle is on the purple line . Antonio squeezes the trigger . A signal is sent to his guns and they fire . Oh , no ! The Asp wriggles ! It is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Antonio 's job is harder now , but he does not give up . Being an astronaut means never giving up . He sends radio signals to his guns . He tries to line up four red circles over four purple lines . Number one is lined up . Antonio fires . It 's a hit ! ... Number two is lined up . Antonio fires . Right on the mark ! Number three is lined up . Antonio fires . It 's a bull's-eye ! Now number four is lined up . But only for a second . The red circle drifts away from the purple line . Antonio tries to aim his guns again , but he ca n't move the red circle at all . He hears a voice inside his head . We have descrambled your code , the voice says . We now control your guns . Thank you . Asps know how to send signals to Earth . They know how to speak over our radios and televisions . They can interrupt our shows . Recently , they have learned how to talk directly to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you . What did they say ? ... The Asp is coming toward Earth . If it gets through , everything where it lands will die . It will kill all the people and all the plants and all the animals . Antonio 's guns no longer work . The Asp has taken control of them . What can he do ? Antonio has an idea .... He unstraps himself from the gunner 's seat and floats to the space station 's navigation controls .... We will keep you warm , Antonio . We love you . Your favorite color is blue . Thank you . Antonio wants to listen to the Asp . It has a nice voice . It is a little like his mother 's . He wants to shut down the space station 's power . He believes the Asp will make him soft and warm . The Asp loves him .... Sometimes it is hard to do the right thing . Antonio fires some of the space station 's engines . He switches them on and off to steer the station . The space station moves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to avoid beams from guns , but it does not know that the space station itself is a threat . Through the window , Antonio watches the Asp come closer and closer . He thinks about his friends in the astronaut corps . He thinks about his mother and father back in the refugee camp . He would like to talk to them on the radio ... The Asp is moving in fast . It is huge . Antonio is afraid . But it is just a purple line , he tells himself . It is a purple line , and I am a red circle . He puts his hands behind his back . The Earth is so pretty from space . Astronauts are the smartest and bravest people there are . There is nothing an astronaut wo n't do to help people . Sometimes schools are named after astronauts who sacrifice their lives to protect our planet . What is your school 's name ? Will you be an astronaut ? Photograph Sidebar Was this story creepy enough for you ? For more spine-tingling science fiction pick up a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stories for teens edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden . THINK ABOUT IT : INFERENCE 1 . What do you think happened to Antonio at the end ? 2 . Why do you think the astronauts all speak Spanish ? 3 . Make up a list of " facts " about the fictional world described in this story . What year is it ? Where do the Asps come from ? Who are the children who will read this story ? <p> 
##1009860 On a fateful day in 1963 , a classroom copes with the death of John F. Kennedy . <p> Scene One Narrator 1 : It is Friday , November 22 , 1963 . In a seventh-grade history class , students are giving reports about U.S. presidents . John F. Kennedy is president in 1963 . Narrator 2 : Janice is finishing her report on Abraham Lincoln . He took office in 1861 . Janice : On April 14 , 1865 , President Lincoln was assassinated Scott : He was what ? Miss Shaw : Assassinated , Scott . That word is used to describe the murder of a leader . Scott : Oh . OK . Janice : ... Lincoln was shot as he watched a play at Ford 's Theatre in Washington , D.C. He died the next morning . Narrator 1 : Janice finishes and takes a seat . Miss Shaw : Thank you , Janice . Very nice report . Narrator 2 : Miss Shaw turns to the class . She directs a question at Mark in the back row . Miss Shaw : Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was killed ? Mark : Umm , I do n't know . I guess things just went on , the same as they did before . Wendy : ( raising her hand ) I have a question for Janice . What about Lincoln 's family ? Janice : Well , he had a wife and four sons . I guess they were very sad when he died . Miss Shaw : Abraham Lincoln was a hero to many people . I 'm sure they felt a great sense of loss . Scene Two Narrator 1 : A few minutes later , there is a knock at the classroom door . Miss Shaw answers the door . Another teacher is outside . The two speak for a moment . Narrator 2 : Miss Shaw returns to the room . She looks shocked and upset . Wendy : Miss Shaw ? What 's the matter ? Scott : Is something wrong ? Narrator 1 : Miss Shaw turns on the classroom 's new black-and-white television . She adjusts the TV 's wire antennas . Miss Shaw : There 's a horrible rumor going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : A soap opera is playing on the TV A moment later , though , the words " CBS NEWS BULLETIN " appear . The voice of news anchor Walter Cronkite is heard . Walter Cronkite : Here is a bulletin from CBS News . In Dallas , Texas , three shots were fired at President Kennedy 's motorcade . The first reports say that President Kennedy was seriously wounded Narrator 1 : The students gasp . Cronkite : More details have just arrived . President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas . Mrs. Kennedy jumped up and grabbed Mr. Kennedy . She cried out , " Oh , no ! " and the motorcade went on . Narrator 2 : The class is glued to every word . Cronkite : United Press says that the wounds for President Kennedy perhaps could be fatal . Repeating : President Kennedy has been shot by a would-be assassin in Dallas , Texas . Stay tuned to CBS News for further details . Narrator 1 : A commercial begins . TV announcer : It takes more than an instant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why Nescafe has come up with a Narrator 2 : Cronkite 's voice cuts into the commercial . Cronkite : Further details on an assassination attempt against President Kennedy in Dallas , Texas . President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas . Governor Connolly of Texas , in the car with him , was also shot . Photograph CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reports the news of President John F. Kennedy 's death . <p> Scott : What ? Why are they shooting everyone ? What 's going on ? Wendy : Shhh ! be quiet ! Cronkite : It is reported that three bullets rang out . The president , cradled in the arms of his wife , Mrs. Kennedy , was carried to an ambulance , and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas . The president was taken to an emergency room in the hospital . We will keep you advised as more details come in . Wendy : Miss Shaw , what 's happening ? Mark : Who did this ? Did they catch the guy ? What if he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dies ? Is someone going to start a war with us ? Miss Shaw : I do n't know ! I 'm sorry , but I just do n't know ! It 's terrible ! Scene Three Narrator 1 : Within moments , Cronkite is back on the air . For nearly an hour , the class watches the news . Narrator 2 : Someone hands Cronkite a piece of paper . He reads the note to himself and then begins to speak . Cronkite : From Dallas , Texas , a news flash , apparently official : President Kennedy died at 1 p.m . Central Standard Time , 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time , some 38 minutes ago . Miss Shaw : Oh , no . Oh , no . ... Narrator 1 : Miss Shaw covers her mouth with both her hands and begins to weep . Narrator 2 : On screen , Cronkite removes his glasses . He seems to lose his voice as he holds back a sob . He clears his throat and continues . Cronkite : Vice President Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proceeded . Presumably , he 'll be taking the Oath of Office shortly and become the 36th president of the United States . Photograph Above : Lyndon Johnson raises his hand as he is sworn in as the nation 's 36th president . John Kennedy Jr . salutes at his father 's funeral . <p> Narrator 1 : Miss Shaw covers her face as she cries . The students sit at their desks , too scared to move . A few of them get up to hug and comfort their teacher . Janice : Miss Shaw , are you all right ? Narrator 2 : Miss Shaw pulls herself together . She wipes her eyes with a tissue and nods . Miss Shaw : Yes . Yes , I 'll be all right . Thank you . Narrator 1 : Miss Shaw looks around at her students . Miss Shaw : This is ... this is a terrible day . None of you will ever forget this day for as long as you live . But still ... it 's going to get better . I promise . Narrator 2 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is eerily quiet . Scene Four Narrator 1 : For the next few days , people all over the country watch as much more news unfolds on television . Narrator 2 : Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president . President Kennedy 's flag-covered casket arrives in Washington , D.C. A man , Lee Harvey Oswald , is arrested for shooting Kennedy . On Sunday , November 24 , TV cameras roll while police move Oswald from one Dallas jail to another . In front of the cameras , a gunman , Jack Ruby , shoots Oswald to death . Narrator 1 : On Monday , Miss Shaw 's class watches President Kennedy 's funeral . They watch as the Kennedys " young son , John Jr. , salutes his father 's casket as it passes by . Narrator 2 : After the funeral , Mark gives his report on President Kennedy . Mark : At age 43 , John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the youngest man to be elected president . He was a hero in the Navy during World War II . His wife 's name was Jacqueline . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Their son , John Jr. , turns 3 years old today . Narrator 1 : Mark pauses for a moment . Mark : President Kennedy did a lot of great things for our country . He was the fourth U.S. president slain in office . The others to be killed were Abraham Lincoln , James Garfield , and William McKinley . Miss Shaw : Thank you , Mark . You know , the other day , someone said that after President Lincoln was killed , the country probably just went on , the same as it had before . Narrator 2 : The teacher smiles sadly . Miss Shaw : Well , I think that 's half right . After what has happened to us , I know we 'll never be the same as we were before . But still , I know we will go on . -Michael Ruscoe <p> What role did TV play in uniting the country as people learned about President Kennedy 's death ? Photograph Sidebar NEWS BULLETIN ! " President Kennedy was shot today just as his motorcade left downtown Dallas . " Sidebar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will ever forget this day for as long as you live . " <p> 
##1009861 In his about-to-be-published memoirs , a long-time friend of Trudeau recalls a man who could often be difficult Photograph It did n't take long to notice that Trudeau had a captivating effect when he entered a room Photograph It did n't take long to notice that Trudeau had a captivating effect when he entered a room <p> In a lifetime of mingling with everyone from Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Frank Sinatra , Leo Kolber has become one of Canada 's most powerful people . As a dose adviser to Samuel Bronfman and then to sons Charles and Edgar , Kolber ran the Bronfinan family trust for 30 years , and has been a Liberal senator for two decades . In this excerpt from his about-to-bepublished memoirs , Leo : A Life ( with L. Ian MacDonald , McGill-Queen 's University Press ) , he recalls his relationship with Trudeau : I FIRST MET Pierre Trudcau at the Grey Cup in Montreal in 1969 , the time he famously showed up wearing a cape for the ceremonial kickoff . I was chairman of Grey Cup Week , so my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Elizabeth Hotel , and Trudeau came to a party there . It was the first time I saw the effect Trudeau had on a room when he walked in . He immediately became the centre of attention . Since I was the host , he came over to chat . " You have my great sympathy for taking on this job , " I told him . " Why do you say that ? " he asked . " Because , " I said , " you are the chief executive of the country , running a huge organization , but you ca n't choose your own executives , the cabinet . They are essentially thrust on you , and you also have all these geographical considerations . " " That 's no problem at all , " Trudeau said . But I knew he had n't taken my point about the difference between running a government and managing a business . SOME 10 YEARS later , Marc Lalonde , Trudcau 's Quebec lieutenant , asked me to become involved in raising money for the Liberal party . " The Jewish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " How much do you want to raise ? " I asked . " Fifty thousand dollars , " he replied . " Tell you what , " I said . " You get Trudcau to come to my house for a fundraiser , and I 'll get you a hundred . " So Lalonde , the one person who could deliver Trudeau , did . " What do you expect me to do ? " Trudeau asked when he came . " I want you to mingle and pose for as many photographs as possible , because I 'll send these photographs as a memento , and this is what people will remember . " " What 's for dinner ? " he asked . So I told him-caviar to start , followed by a full-course dinner , top of the line . " Can we afford that ? " he asked . " I mean , can the party afford it ? " " We ca n't . I can , " I replied . " I 'm paying for it . Everything they pay goes right to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " That 's good . " We charged $1,000 a couple for those dinners-a lot of money in those days . But because it was Trudeau , we never had any trouble getting people to come . NOT LONG AFTER Lalonde asked me to help with fundraising , Trudeau invited me to lunch at 24 Sussex . It was the two of us at the small table in the alcove of the dining room that overlooked the Ottawa River . He took off his jacket , sat down to a huge hot lunch , and devoured everything . He told me he did n't have any particular agenda . " I wanted to get to know you a bit , " he said . " Do you have anything you would like to discuss with me ? " " Well , " I said , " you are the leader of the party , and I find that you are taking the party too far left . Your relations with the business community are lousy . And I do n't think that is very productive . " " You know , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but they are always tarring me with the socialist brush . " He gave me the example of Jean de Grandpre , his classmate from law school , later the founding chairman of BCE , who was always on his case . " I 've given up on them , " Trudeau said of the business community . " Prime Minister , " I replied , " I voted for you , I 'm a Liberal , and I 'm a businessman . " " Yes , I know all that , " he said . " Well , you certainly do n't have a mandate from me to give up on the business community . " So he smiled , and he said , " You are right . I will try harder . " He did n't , of course , but he was gracious enough to say that he would . Trudeau 's management , or rather his mismanagement , of Canada 's finances was one issue on which we agreed to disagree . After he left office , I had no hesitation in telling him that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I lobbied Trudeau , through two of his closest associates , to name me to the Senate . There is a tradition in Canada that the party bagman is appointed to the Senate , and there is also a tradition of ajewish seat from Quebec . I qualified on both counts , and besides , the Bronfmans were thinking of breaking up Cemp Investments and I thought the Senate would be an interesting place to spend part of my time . I , as it turned out , was the choice of the only person who mattered-the prime minister . We were in Palm Beach in December 1983 . I was getting home from a round of golf when Sandra rushed out to meet me . " You 've got to call the prime minister , " she said . " He 's calling you . " " I 'm inviting you to join the Senate , " Trudeau began . " But you 're not the first choice of the Jewish community . " " I 'm aware of that , Prime Minister . " " But you 're my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " Thank you , Prime Minister , " I replied . " I 'm honoured and delighted to accept . " Now that I was actually being appointed to the Senate , I wondered how time-consuming it would be . " How often do I have to go ? " I asked . Trudeau laughed . " Just show up once in a while , " he said . " It 's no big deal . " That was then , before senators were docked $250 a day for being absent . JUST A FEW WEEKS after my appointment , Trudeau took his famous walk in the snow on Leap Year Day and then announced his retirement . At the time , in 1984 , Trudeau was a vigorous 64 years old . He had enough to do , but he was no longer prime minister , and it was clearly not an easy adjustment to private life after so many years in power . Sandra and I kind of befriended him , inviting him on weekends to New York and , occasionally , London . In those days , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it did n't cost anything to invite Pierre . In New York , we would take a suite at the Regency or Plaza Amenee , and he would be our guest in the second bedroom . Once , when we all landed in London from Moscow , Pierre had a lovely room at the Dorchester . The hotel had sent up a bowl of fruit , and Pierre flashed that devilish grin of his and said , " This is what I 'll have for breakfast so I wo n't have to spend any money . " He was making fun of his reputation for being tight . But he was tight , as opposed to cheap , and there is a difference . As for accommodations , he could stay in a royal suite or a dungeon , it did n't matter to him . He could be on the road for weeks with a pair of jeans and a couple of T-shirts . Once , in the middle of nowhere , he did his own laundry and hung it from a tree . We travelled with Trudeau to Pakistan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Central America and the Galapagos Islands ; and finally Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . Trudeau always chose the destinations , and Sandra , Jack Austin , a friend and colleague from the Senate , and I always organized them . The one trip he had always wanted to take was the Trans-Siberian Railway . So I went to see the Russian ambassador in Ottawa , and he said that they would be honoured to receive Mr. Trudeau and that everything would be arranged . I told Pierre it was a go , and asked him who else he would like to invite . He suggested Bernard Lamarre , the head of Lavalin Engineering , and his wife , Louise ; and Paul Desmarais , the chairman of Power Corporation , who brought along his daughter-in-law Helene , who is married to Paul Desmarais Jr . Paul Sr. 's wife , Jackie , could n't come . The Orient Express it was n't . But because it was Trudeau , the Soviets put on three cars just for us . A brand new dining car and sleeping car with private @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ luggage and one for each of us . And Trudeau had an entire car . It must have gone back to the czar 's days because there was a large bedroom , full bathroom with a bath , and a full sitting room with a boardroom table . It 's a long journey , seven days and six nights . Trudeau was the only one with a bath , so we all had to ask him if we could use it . And he said , " OK , everybody can come and have a bath every day , but you have to clean up . " So we paraded into his car in our bathrobes and nightshirts every night and had our baths . At dinner and afterwards , Trudeau would talk about politics , the Canadian and world scene . And he would regale us with anecdotes of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter and all the people he had known at G7 summits , Commonwealth conferences , and bilateral visits . He said that Reagan , for example , was one of the nicest men he had ever met @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whenever he met with Reagan , the president had all his talking points on three-by-five cardshe was totally scripted . So if Trudeau asked him about nuclear disarmament , Reagan would fish a card out of his pocket and read the answer . If he did n't have an appropriate card , Trudeau said , he would tell you an anecdote about Hollywood . But he would never extemporize . Trudeau liked Jimmy Carter very much , but shared the view that he micromanaged the American presidency . Photograph Trudeau in his favourite garb-shorts and sandals-in the Galapagos Islands in 1990 ( top left ) ; hanging out with Charles Bronfman ( top right ) in the 1950s ; aboard a train with Sandra Kolber <p> On the long train journey across Russia , Trudeau often said what a great country it was , extolling the virtues of the Soviet system . " Pierre , " I said , " it may be the worst system that ever existed . " But the Russians took very good care of us , from the moment we stepped on the plane in Montreal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ informing us that as a special gesture in honour of Mr. Trudeau , Aeroflot was going to fly non-stop from Montreal to Moscow . " Does n't it usually ? " I asked . " No , " he replied , " normally we stop in Gander because the fuel there is cheaper . " IN THE SUMMER of 1989 , Jean Chretien was getting set to run for the Liberal leadership , and Trudcau was giving him a hard time about Meech Lake . He had even come to the Senate in the spring of 1988 , where he predicted that Meech would mean the end of Canada as we know it . As for the Liberal leadership , Trudeau made it quite clear to Chretien that , as he later put it , " my support is not unconditional " and might depend on Chretien 's position on Meech . I was raising money for Chretien and doing my bit for his leadership campaign , and he mentioned that Trudeau was giving him a hard time over Meech . " Do you want me to talk to him ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " " That would be a big help , " Chretien said . So I asked Trudeau if he would come to dinner at the house to talk about it with Chretien . I told him I 'd invite Marc Lalonde , Michael Pitfield , who had been clerk of the Privy Council under Trudeau , as well as Tom Axworthy , his former principal secretary , who was then working for Charles Bronfman at the CRB Foundation . Trudeau showed up late and wandered into the house wearing sandals , a grungy pair of shorts , and a T-shirt . He was pretty hard on the people around the table who were asking him to ease up in his opposition to Meech . Around 10:30 , he got up to leave . I walked him to the door . " Pierre , " I told him , " it 's very easy for you to be critical because you 're not running for anything . But Jean is running for the leadership , and you ought to support him . " He looked at me and said , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " OUR TRAVELS with Trudeau sadly came to an abrupt end in 1991 , after Sandra 's stroke . It happened that she later received the Governor General 's Award in recognition of her volunteerism . It 's an important honour , and a major black-tie event before 2,000 people and television cameras at the National Arts Centre . While she was incapacitated , her mind was still working quite well , and she wondered if Trudeau would introduce her , either live or on video . He had lunch with me and explained that there were some things he did n't do : he did n't do prefaces , he did n't do introductions . He wrote her a nice long letter of apology , but he would n't do it . There were other things he did n't do-he did n't visit hospitals and he never visited Sandra . That kind of cooled things between us . He did n't go to funerals either , though there were exceptions , such as the funeral of his closest friend , Gerard Pelletier . The last time I saw Pierre was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was giving a dinner in his honour . I flew up to Ottawa with Trudeau on a plane provided by Power Corporation , and it was a very memorable evening . By that time , it was clear that he was not himself . Less than a year later , in September 2000 , he died , and a grieving nation recognized what a different and remarkable leader he had been . In 1993 , when he brought out his autobiography , Memoirs , he signed my copy with an inscription I 'll always cherish : " Leo , intrepid companion of our travels . " I do n't know about the intrepid part , but I was privileged to be his companion on our travels . Copyright 2003 , Leo Kolber and L. Ian MacDonald . Reprinted by permission of McGill-Queen 's University Press . Sidebar TRUDEAU 'S mismanagement of Canada 's finances was one issue on which we agreed to disagree Sidebar HE SAID he did n't do prefaces , he did n't do introductions , he did n't visit hospitals and he did n't go to funerals <p> 
##1009862 Survival value and truth are not quite the same . . . . Your life will have more spark If your teeth glow in the dark <p> Your life will have more spark If your teeth glow in the dark My last ad campaign for Everbright Toothpaste had been a glorious success , but it had also driven me to quit Olsen &; Olsen in disgust . Which was why was now cruising the deep suburbs in my aging BMW , looking for the Center for Memetics Research . It took me half an hour to find it-a red-brick pancake of a building that might have once been a 1960s primary school , with those silly bubble skylights that seemed futuristic forty years ago . But there was no identification on the building , not even a street number . Three hours and six non-disclosure agreements later , I sat facing my new supervisor , Josh Raines . " Okay , " I said , " now can you tell me what it is that you do here ? " " We conduct research in memetics , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I guess that does n't really answer your question . Follow me . " He led me through a maze of dim linoleum corridors , stopping in front of a closed door , where a blue-gray glow spilled out the bottom . " This is our analysis center . " Josh pushed into the room . A bank of TVs , each one tuned to a different station , flickered on three of the walls , while a mound of books covered the fourth . A gangly scarecrow of a man-all elbows and knees-sat at a desk in the middle of the room , scanning a computer monitor and occasionally glancing up at the TVs . His gnarled hands danced on a keyboard . " Stan , " Josh said to the scarecrow , " I want you to meet our newest hire , Paul Glavin . He 'll be- " " Nice to meetcha , " said Stan . He jumped out of his chair and hopped around the room on bowed legs , staring briefly at each TV , his nose only inches from the screen . " Hee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . We got five hits on the late-night talk shows last night , and a few Internet splashes this morning . " " Stan is one of our trackers , " said Josh . " I think we even picked up a hit on Martha Stewart , " said Stan . " Man , that show 's hard to penetrate . It was the one Genesis launched last week-about using Crisco as bathroom caulk . Never did get anywhere with those bumper stickers you guys released-'What Would Martha Do ? " Have n't scanned the daily papers yet . Just need a few more cups of coffee . " He was like Jed Clampett on Benzedrine . " Stan 'll be retiring next year , " said Josh . " You guys ca n't put me out to pasture , " grumbled Stan , rubbing his white mustache . " I got more experience than anyone else here . I was watchin " for hits on Jack Paar on a little black and white TV before you were born . You need me . I was here when we launched pet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stan bounced out of the room , and Josh motioned for me to sit in his chair . " This is where we monitor the logosphere , " said Josh . " The what ? " " The logosphere-the realm where ideas propagate-newspapers , books , TV , the Internet , even bumper stickers and bathroom graffiti . Back in the " 5s and " 60s , the U.S. government did a series of secret studies in chemical and biological warfare . They would dump clouds of inert chemicals or harmless bacteria on cities and trace how they spread . We do the same thing with ideas . We develop new ideas , dump them into the logosphere , and see how they spread and evolve . " " But why all the secrecy ? " I asked . " Do you give the lab rats a blueprint of the maze ? " Josh thrust a sheaf of papers into my hands . " You 'll join the Genesis team-the people who create the ideas . " " But my background is in advertising , not philosophy . How do you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Oh , we do n't generate good ideas-that would corrupt the experiment . The whole thesis of memetics is that ideas prosper on the basis of their ability to spread . It has nothing to do with whether they 're true or false . To keep the experiment clean , we generate only bad ideas . " Josh pulled a fat book from the pile and tossed it to me . " Here , do you recognize this ? " I read the title on the dust jacket : Management Secrets of the Three Stooges : Are you a Moe , a Lurry , or a Curly ? " Of course I recognize it . It was required reading when I was at Stanford Business School . I think it even made the Times bestseller list . " " Well , we wrote it here , " said Josh . " One of our greatest successes . And remember all of that alien abduction stuff ? " " You did that ? " Josh beamed . " That was ours . " He began ticking off ideas on his fingers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 've ever heard of . And the idea that power lines cause leukemia . And the claim that Elvis is dead- " " But he is dead . " Josh arched his bushy eyebrows . " You 've got a lot to learn . " My first few weeks at the Center were a study in frustration . Every Friday morning I 'd give Josh a new list of ideas , which he would present to some sort of executive committee , and then on Monday afternoon he 'd come back with the bad news : my ideas were unoriginal , or they contained some grain of truth that would " corrupt the experiment , " or they simply were n't bad enough . " Just keep at it , " he would say . " You 'll get the hang of it . " After a couple of months , I got my big break . Josh was reading down the list I had submitted , giving me the usual critique . " ' Cheez Whiz prevents colon cancer . " The committee liked that one , but we tried @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is snooping on us by selling listening devices disguised as cantaloupes . " There 's actually an element of truth to that one , which I 'm not free to divulge . The Coffee Diet . Just drink three cups of coffee before every meal and watch the pounds melt away . " You 've been talking to Stan too much . But this last one is intriguing . " Teleastrology . " How is that supposed to work ? " " Well , astrology is based on the idea that your destiny is determined by the position of the planets and stars at the time of your birth . Teleastrology assumes that your fate is based on the television shows that were being broadcast at the instant of your birth . " Josh tapped his chin with his pen . " It 's certainly a bad idea . I think we 'll give it a trial run . Draw up a detailed description and we 'll send it over to the Release group . " Teleastrology proved more successful than I had dreamed possible . Within weeks I was writing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote a computer program to automate everything , and in three months we had a magazine , a website , and several home teleastrology kits . But when I saw the letters coming in to the magazine , I began having second thoughts . " DEAR TV SEER , TELEASTROLOGY HAS CHANGED MY LIFE . I WAS AN ACCOUNTANT IN MANHATTAN , AND COMPLETELY MISERABLE . ACCORDING TO MY TELEHOROSCOPE , I WAS BORN UNDER THE SIGN OF BONANZA , SO I HAVE A NATURAL AFFINITY FOR WIDE-OPEN SPACES AND LARGE MEN NAMED " HOSS . " I MOVED TO MONTANA , AND I LOVE IT HERE . TERI LEHRER " Josh was unimpressed with my doubts . " Sure , " he said , " ideas change lives . What 's the problem ? " " But people are taking this stuff seriously . I do n't think it 's right to delude them . " " Do n't get all holier-than-thou on us . I 've looked at your file , the stuff you worked on at Olsen &; Olsen . Do you remember a breakfast cereal called Xylem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I gather they were making it out of sawdust ? " " Well , it is a form of fiber- " " And what about Clear " n " Bright Shampoo , " the only shampoo with no artificial chemicals or additives ' ? " " That was completely true , " I said . " Sure-the shampoo consisted entirely of distilled water . And then there was that line of educational children 's toys : Baby 's First Sewing Machine , Baby 's First Bunsen Burner , Baby 's First Chainsaw- " " Okay , okay , but I quit the advertising business to get away from that kind of stuff . " " And you did get away from it . The work you 're doing here is part of the progress of science . And if that is n't good enough for you , you 're under a one-year contract . Now get back to work . " I trudged back to my office and slumped in my chair . In my absence , another mound of letters addressed to Teleastrology Monthly had piled up on my desk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last I understand why I 've failed at everything I ever tried-I was born under the sign of Gilligan 's Island " , " I have decided to marry a wacky redhead named Lucy . Where do I find her ? " " Can you help me ? I am doing a Ph.D . dissertation on the teleastrological effect of cable TV , specifically , the Golf Channel " . I jumped up and marched down the corridor to Stan 's office . I found Stan slumped over his desk , asleep , the cotton wisps of his hair brushing against a desk plaque that read , " I 'll give up FORTRAN when they pry it out of my cold , dead hands . " " Stan , wake up ! " Stan lifted his head and looked at me with one eye open . " Well , it 's the teleastrologer himself . Damn , it 's almost 3:30 . No wonder I fell asleep . Always need two cups of coffee after lunch . " " Stan , you 've got to help me . We ca n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ genie 's out of the bottle , you ca n't put it back in . Which reminds me-you ever watch I Dream of Jeannie ? Great show-you can catch the reruns on cable . Didja know that they never showed- " " Just do me a favor , Stan . If I can convince Josh that this stuff is true , it 'll void the whole experiment-they 'll have to end it . " Stan rubbed his threadbare head . " I 'm the best tracker they got . Why should I go messin " things up ? " " You are the best , Stan , and they 're going to kick you out the door just for being too old . Just like those TV guys cancelled , uh , Red Skeleton . " " Skelton , his name was Red Skelton . Yeah , he was the funniest guy on TV . And they booted Lawrence Welk for bein " too old , too . " " It just is n't fair , Stan . Do n't let them get away with it . Help me do this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stan tugged his mustache . " Well , I guess it would serve " em right . What do you want me to do ? " " Can you write a program to pull up telehoroscopes and personal histories for all of the Center employees ? Then I 'll line everyone up with the most accurate telehoroscope . It 'll convince Josh that teleastrology really works-he 'll have to pull the plug . Will you do it ? " " Probably take me few days . Better get some more coffee . " Stan sent me the telehoroscopes and personal histories-they were already correlated , saving me the work . And when Josh came to my office to look at the results , he did n't seem particularly flustered . " It happens maybe once or twice a decade , " said Josh , shrugging his shoulders . " The craziest ideas turn out to be true . My predecessor was shocked when they discovered that cigarettes really do cause cancer . Boy , that was a mess . " Josh pulled a memo pad from his pocket . " We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , maybe release some antagonist memes . It 'll die out in a year . " " It 'll die out ? You 're sure ? Even though you think it 's true ? " Josh shook his head . " You 're so hung up on this truth thing , Paul . Ideas do n't spread just because they 're true . Have n't you learned anything while you 've been working here ? " Josh turned to leave , but glanced back over his shoulder . " Next time , try to come up with something really bad . " I finished out the year at the Center and went back to Olsen &; Olsen-I guess there are some jobs worse than advertising . Things would have ended there , if I had n't been grocery shopping on a drizzly Saturday afternoon . As I wheeled my cart of frozen dinners through the check-out line , I caught a glimpse of Teleastrology Monthly . Splashed across the cover was Stan 's grinning face , below the headline , " Newest TV Seer Predicts Your Future . " I skimmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the print across the pages . I raced home in a rage and phoned Stan . " I saw the article . How could you do it ? " " It 's not what you think , " said Stan . " Look , I know the Center forced you out , and you probably needed the money . But how could you lie to so many people ? " " I 'm not lyin " to anyone . You saw the telehoroscopes I sent you . " " Yeah , so what ? You 're not making any sense . " " Didja ever look at your own telehoroscope ? I pulled it up with all the rest . That 's what really convinced me . " He hung up . I pulled up the program Stan had written to generate the telehoroscopes and typed in my own date and time of birth . The response was almost instantaneous : " Paul Glavin : born under the sign of To Tell the Truth . 
##1009865 There are two things people like to do with a new phenomenon ; understand it and use it . Sometimes it 's not wise to be too particular about the order . . . . <p> Barb Schoen stood at her kitchen counter and cursed the house flies buzzing around her head . It was always this way come August : long , hot , miserable days filled with the buzzing of black , sticky flies and only the hope of a cool shower to revive her . It made her wonder why she 'd ever claimed that summer was her favorite season . She must have had temporary amnesia at the time . In addition to the fly invasion , her nosey Aunt Lydia always insisted on visiting for two solid weeks during the doggiest of days . The old woman complained continually , especially about Barb 's cooking . The way Aunt Lydia fussed and picked at her food drove Barb crazy . It did n't matter what she prepared , it never met with her aunt 's approval . Going out was n't the answer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Barb in a restaurant . Barb still could n't face the staff at her favorite Mexican place , even years later . That was bad enough , but Aunt Lydia demanded constant personal entertainment from Barb and Barb 's husband Denny , and found the most imaginative of excuses to snoop through the medicine cabinet . Worse yet , she was due to show up for this year 's visit in two days . In a fit of pique , Barb waved the serrated kitchen knife in the air in front of her , slashing out at the hovering horde of flies . " Aaahhh ! " she yelled primally , taking another swing , but the thought that she might actually hit a fly disgusted her so badly that she quit . Blowing an auburn curl away from her left eye , she returned to the job of dicing the tomatoes she 'd just picked from her garden . It felt good to whack away on the red fruit , to just let go and chop like crazy and use her bottled-up , frustrated energy . " Jeez , Barb @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the screen door belatedly announced his arrival from the garden . Barb looked up at her husband and said , " What ? " He glanced at the red pulp on the chopping board and back at her . They 'd been married long enough to have developed their own non-verbal communication . She knew exactly what he meant-that he 'd caught her in the middle of a rage and did n't approve . She did n't care . " We 've got to do something about these flies or I 'll go crazy , " she said as she rinsed her hands . He set a basket of plump green peppers on the counter beside her . " Like what ? " " Do we have any bug spray ? " For a brief moment , the buzzing dimmed . She dried her hands then bent down to look under the sink . " We ca n't spray the house while we 're fixing dinner . " " I ca n't fix dinner while they 're dive-bombing me either ! " Denny gave her another of his looks , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now . " She gave him a look in return : " I 'm not kidding . " " I can get the vacuum and suck them up , " he said . " Eww ! " " Okay , tell you what . Let 's just eat outside and I 'll set up the tiki torches and citronella candles . " He headed outside . " Yeah , whatever , " she said to the slamming screen door . " But I 've got to do something , " she muttered . How can he not be bothered , she thought . She flicked her hand over the bowl that held the tomato pieces , making sure no flies had landed on them , then covered the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator . The fly-swatter hung from a magnetic hook on the side of the fridge . Barb gripped it with grim determination and slammed the business end down on the counter , barely missing the hairy little beast by the sink . She raised it in preparation for another blow , but her target @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the other flies . She looked around the kitchen and waved the swatter for good measure , but it looked like the flies had flown for cover . " That 's better , " she said aloud as she washed the peppers to add to the salsa . The heat of the day finally broke as Denny took the tuna off the grill . A cool , light breeze wafted the sweet scent of honeysuckle across the picnic table . At last , Barb allowed herself to relax as the gently moving air kept the flying intruders away . Once dinner was over and the Sun had slipped below the horizon , Barb and Denny set about cleaning up and settling in for a quiet Sunday evening . She stacked the dirty dishes and carried them inside , but she nearly dropped everything when she walked into the kitchen . A swarm of flies , even larger than the one this afternoon , greeted her . " Denny ! Did you leave a door open ? " she asked when he joined her . " Ca n't blame me , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the screen every time I went through it . " He set the dirty utensils in the sink and went back for the last of the glassware . As he stepped outside , Barb watched two more flies sneak in . " Damn ! " She flung her arms madly around , as if she were hacking her way through dense jungle vines . The allure of raw fish juice and vegetable scraps must be what attracted them . She scraped the plates clean and decided to take the trash out immediately to see if that would n't help . For a moment , while she concentrated on getting the food scraps into the trash , it seemed that all the flies congregated around her , buzzing furiously . The illusion disintegrated the moment Denny returned and the flies were everywhere again . " Here , let me , " Denny said , taking the trash can from her . " Thanks . " Barb rinsed the plates off for good measure and piled them into the dishwasher while Denny carried the trash outside . At least half of the swarm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Barb reached for the swatter again and got off one good swing before the rest disappeared . Where the hell did they go ? She looked around , squinting to see flies against the dark cabinets of the kitchen . Wait , there 's one ! She swung the swatter , but her intended victim flew right past her . She did n't see where it went . Another glance around satisfied her that the coast was clear . Barb slipped the swatter back to its hook and wiped down the counters . Her hands shook with exasperation . Maybe she 'd have another glass of wine . Shortly after the 11 o'clock news , Barb and Denny closed up the house for the night and she convinced him to let her go ahead and spray the kitchen . " Seems kind of silly to spray now . I mean , there 's nothing moving anyway . " " Maybe so , but I know they 're here somewhere . That many flies do n't just spontaneously leave . " " As long as it 'll make you happy . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then gave the baseboard a shot for good measure and put the can away . She hurried out of the room . " Phew . I feel like I need another shower . " " Make it quick . I 've got to get up early in the morning . " Barb skinned out of her clothes . They smelled like sweat , charcoal smoke , fish and bug spray . Yuck ! She 'd just run these down to the laundry room now rather than leave them in the hamper in their bedroom . This way she would n't wake up in the middle of the night with that stink in the air . Naked , she tiptoed in the dark to the basement and flung her clothes toward the washer . She 'd worry about being neat in the morning . As she made her way past the kitchen , the insecticide fumes invaded her nose , but it was the buzz that made her stop and turn the light on . Three or four big black flies buzzed in a holding pattern in the middle of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like escapees of a genetics experiment gone wrong ; the kind that thrived on chemicals and just kept growing bigger . Exasperated , Barb stomped into the kitchen and snatched up the swatter . She was determined to get herself a trophy . But like magic , the moment her hand touched the handle , the flies were gone . " Barb , are you coming to bed or what ? " Denny 's tired voice called out from the bedroom . He never could fall asleep until she came to bed , too . " Be right there , " she said . She could feel her heart rate pick up and her breathing quicken , which was n't good , considering what it was she was breathing . She dropped the swatter , slapped the lights off and hurried to the shower . She was n't sure how long she 'd been standing in the warm water , but it was long enough for her toes to feel wrinkled . There was a knock at the door . " Yeah ? " she asked over the rush of water @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a back wash ? " " Sure . " He slid the shower curtain open just enough to reach inside with one arm . She handed him the soap and turned her back toward him to lather . " Denny ? " " Yeah ? " She hesitated . How could she ask what was on her mind without sounding crazy ? " Promise not to laugh , but it seemed that every time I grabbed the fly swatter tonight , the flies vanished . " " Well , then use the swatter . " He handed back the soap and rubbed her shoulders . She leaned into his massage . " That 's not quite what I meant . I did n't have to even use the swatter . All I had to do was just reach for it . It was like they knew what I was going to do before I did it and they made themselves scarce somehow . " Denny did n't say anything to that . He finished his scrubbing and reached into the stream of water to rinse his hand off . " Denny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the towel before he looked up at her face and said , " You 're saying they 're psychic ? " " Telepathic , maybe ? " she asked back . " I think you need to get some rest . You worked hard this weekend getting ready for your Aunt Lydia 's visit . " He turned and left . She was tired all right , but she did n't think she 'd get much sleep . By the time she got up the next morning , Denny had already left for the office . It was later than she usually slept , but it had been near sunrise when she finally drifted off . Her dreams had been frustrating , as though she were searching for an answer to her problems and they danced just out of her reach . Just like the flies and her fly-swatter , she thought . As she entered the kitchen , she braced herself for the maddening buzz , but a solitary fly hovered over the sink where Denny had left a used coffee filter to finish dripping . Maybe the spraying helped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hung in the air , so she opened the windows a crack . With a sense of relief , Barb took her first shower of the day . Once she was clean , she remembered her dirty clothes from last night lying in a heap on the laundry room floor , so she gathered up the rest of the laundry and took it downstairs , too . That was when she discovered where all the flies had gone . They hovered over her clothes like a black cloud . She slammed the door to the laundry room to keep them from escaping to the rest of the house . She looked around for another swatter , or a newspaper to roll up , but except for the appliances and the clothing , the room was otherwise empty . She noticed that as she was actively looking for a weapon , the flies seemed to decrease in numbers , but the moment she gave up , they returned in force . What if she thought so hard as to believe that she held a swatter ? Would the flies go away ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ? Well , she had a captive audience . She concentrated on the feeling of a fly-swatter handle in her hand ; how the rubber-coated loop of wire felt snug in her palm , how her fingers grasped it . She imagined the heft and springiness of the tool , the snap of the thin , webbed plastic slapper when it hit a countertop . She could hear the whish of air as she wielded it against her enemies . She could read the words Plasti-Swat on one side of the molded red plastic and Made in Metropolis , IL on the other . The fly-swatter was real . Slowly , she opened her senses and brought her attention to the room around her . Her arm was poised to bring down mass destruction upon the invading hordes , but she was alone in the room . She checked the door leading back upstairs , but it was still closed tight . She did n't know where they went or how they did it and she did n't care as long as they stayed away from her . She went ahead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where she laid her " swatter . " Eventually , curiosity overcame her . She took the stairs two at a time and checked the kitchen . No buzzing . She toured the rest of the house . All quiet . She could hardly believe it . One final question nagged at her brain , so she returned to the laundry room and closed the door . Amid the humming and sloshing of the washing machine , Barb dropped the idea that she held the fly-swatter and instead , imagined a days-old garbage can full of rotting food . The stench of decomposing banana peels and tomato cores about made her gag . That did it . All around her , the flies were as thick as , well , flies . There was no garbage within fifty feet of the laundry room , and yet the flies were there . If they were n't clued into her thoughts , she did n't know how else to explain it . Once again , Barb held her trusty swatter in her hand , ready to cleanse her world of the black menace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its cycle and Barb tossed the clean clothes into the drier , then headed to the kitchen for a cup of coffee , and to think about this new-found power . She sat at the kitchen table , staring out at her backyard through the window . Her smile grew as she realized that she need n't be bothered by August flies ever again . Summer just got a whole lot more pleasant . Now , what to do about dear old Aunt Lydia . . . With thanks to Ray Wiebke. 
##1009869 Beyong being seriously old , Biddy was stubborn . Kwame knew it would take nothing short of genius to get his ailing friend to the hospital . <p> <p> The first time I saw Einstein was sitting right here on the front steps , " Biddy Owens said . " I was eating some ribs when he came and started sniffing around . Well , as skinny as he was , and the way he was shaking , I knew he was hungry . So I asked him what he wanted . " " Einstein 's a dog , " Kwame said . " And dogs ca n't talk . " " Everything talks , boy , " Biddy said , squinting one eye and looking down at the 12-year-old in front of him . " We just ca n't understand everything . When I asked Einstein what he wanted , he looked over toward the bones I had laid on the steps . Then he looked over at me . I knew he wanted one of them bones by the way his eyes spoke to me . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him . Einstein and I have been teammates ever since . " Kwame could see Biddy Owens and his dog , Einstein , being friends . Both of them looked like real neighborhood characters , as if they did n't belong anywhere in the world except on the stoop of 145th Street right there in Harlem . Wherever Biddy went , or sat , Einstein would be right next to him . Einstein could run and jump well enough , but whenever he went with Biddy , that dog would walk just as slowly as Biddy did , even stopping and resting along with him . Biddy was having trouble with his legs and had a lopsided way of walking . You could tell he was n't comfortable even when he was just standing still . Biddy 's white hair was gathered mostly on the sides of his head , and stuck out from underneath the old baseball cap he wore in summer and winter . His clothes were never really dirty , but they could always use some ironing , and once in a while there were holes in his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wore . But he always had a smile on his face and a story to tell . Most of the stories were about when he had played in the Negro Baseball League . Sometimes he brought his old scrapbooks out to show to the neighborhood kids . In the scrapbook were yellowed pictures of old baseball players and stories about how Biddy 's team , the Birmingham Black Barons , had done . Kwame liked Biddy a lot . He liked his dog , too . Einstein was a mixed breed . " He 's half bulldog , half terrier and half bloodhound , " Biddy Owens said . " I think you have too many halves in there , Biddy , " Kwame replied . " That 's why he keeps that tail of his wagging , " Biddy said . " He needs to keep one half in the air while he 's balancing the other two . " And then Biddy laughed and laughed at his little joke . Kwame did n't think the joke was that funny , but when Biddy Owens laughed that high little laugh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Once Kwame asked him why he had named the brown and white dog Einstein . Biddy said it was because he was the smartest dog he had ever seen . " Is that because he 's supposed to be able to talk ? " Kwame asked . " No , " Biddy said , " because he was smart enough to find a friend when he needed one . Now , you have to admit , that 's pretty smart . " Biddy Owens was old . Miss Esther , who lived over the bakery , said some people were old , and some were seriously old . " And that man is serious ! " she said . Biddy called himself a useful man . He would sweep up the sidewalks in front of the buildings and stores from John 's Fish Shack all the way to the corner even though it took him all morning . Women on the block , or at least on that end of the block , would often make breakfast for him , and more than one person would bring a little something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stories about how great the players had been when Biddy was in the Negro Leagues . Some of the stories were hard to believe , but they were still fun to hear . " I remember one time my team , the Black Barons , was playing against the Negro League All-Stars . Old Satchel Paige was pitching for the All-Stars and he was working on what he called his hesitation pitch . " " His name was Satchel ? " Kwame asked . " That was his name , and pitching was definitely his game ! " Biddy said . " Well , the score was pretty close , one to nothing in favor of the All-Stars . Then , in the ninth inning , with two out , Satchel loaded up the bases on purpose . " " On purpose ? " " Yes , he did . The next batter on our team was Willie Mays . And you know how Willie hated to lose . Satchel threw a fastball past Willie , and Willie just nodded because he was timing it . Then Satchel threw another fastball @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fast . When Satchel was throwing it right , his fastball was just a white blur and a pop when it hit the catcher 's glove . But Willie just shook his head and smiled , because now he thought he had the timing down just right . Then Satchel reared back and threw that hesitation pitch . " " Then what happened ? " " The ball came out of Satchel 's hand like a meteor pushed by lightning itself ! Then , just as Willie started to bring his bat around , that ball hesitated in midflight , did a dipsy doodle , backed up a little bit while Willie was finishing his swing , smiled as the umpire called strike three , then slipped across home plate as pretty as you please . " Everybody who heard that story moaned and groaned , but Kwame heard four people telling it themselves over the next few days . And whenever Biddy even looked like he might want to tell a story , people who had a few minutes would stop to listen to it . As funny as Biddy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was also kind of sad to see because of the way he limped when he walked . He was certainly far from his baseball-playing days . Leaning way over on his walking stick , Biddy would step forward on his right leg , and swing his left leg around . It was a hard way to walk , but Biddy Owens never complained . People on the block did n't talk about it much , either , not until the ambulance came one bright Saturday morning . An ambulance was not a big deal , but still people gathered around watching to see who had called for it . It turned out that it was Miss Esther . She lived on the same floor as Biddy and had heard Einstein barking and barking . He never barked at all in the house except when someone came to the door , and when Biddy had answered it or told him to " Hush ! " he would . Miss Esther went over to see what was wrong and called to Biddy . " You all right in there , old man ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came back the quick answer . Miss Esther listened for a while and later she said she heard something that sounded like dragging across the floor . She tried the door , found it unlocked and opened it . That 's when she saw that Biddy had fallen and was still lying on the floor . Einstein was sitting by his side , and when he saw Miss Esther he started whining . Miss Esther went over to see what she could do . There was a small cut on Biddy 's forehead , but it did n't look too bad . " What happened to- " Miss Esther was going to ask what had made him fall when she saw Biddy 's leg twisted under his body . She helped him turn over and lie flat . There was pain in the old man 's face , even as he was complaining when Miss Esther called for an ambulance . Kwame came as soon as word hit the street that it was Biddy Owens who had needed the ambulance . By the time he got upstairs , the emergency medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bandage on Biddy 's forehead , but it was his leg they were concerned with . They said he needed to go to the hospital and have it taken care of or he would be falling down a lot . " I 'm not going nowhere ! " Biddy said . " And if I do n't give my permission you ca n't take me nowhere . Not in these here United States of America , you ca n't . " " If you do n't know what 's wrong with your leg you need to find out ! " Miss Esther said . " Woman , I know what 's wrong with the leg . The doctors want to operate on it and put a steel pin in it like I 'm some kind of robot man , " Biddy said . " I do n't have time for all of that foolishness . All I need is to get some rest and I 'll be all right . Just all mighty right ! " " You were lucky this time , " the technician said . " Next time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . And with that leg I know there 'll be a next time . " Biddy gave the technician a mean look and sucked his teeth . Then , when the ambulance had left , he asked aloud , talking to no one in particular , just who did they think he was to just spend his time lying around in some hospital while poor Einstein was home starving to death . " That Einstein is nothing but a dog ! " Miss Esther said . " You are a human being . You have to worry about yourself , not some mixed-breed , floppy-eared mutt . " " The day when I stop worrying about my little buddy , " Biddy said , " is the day when I hope they bury me in the cold , cold ground . Einstein and me are on the same team . And you do n't let your team down ! " " You could put Einstein in a dog kennel for a few days , could n't you ? " Kwame asked . " Why would I put the dog in jail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face Kwame . " He 's not a criminal . And do n't you think I have n't looked into one of them high-priced dog hotels ? I can hardly pay my rent now and I know I ca n't afford $75 a week for Einstein when the doctor tells me I 'm liable to be in the hospital for three weeks . " Kwame did n't have an answer for that . He and Miss Esther had learned two things : how much it would cost to put Einstein in a kennel , and that Biddy had already been discussing the situation with a doctor . But the words of the emergency medical technician stuck with Kwame . Sooner or later , Biddy Owens was going to be in serious trouble . Kwame asked his parents how he could raise the money to help pay for the kennel , and they did n't have any idea . " That 's far too much money for somebody from this neighborhood to be giving away , " his father said . Kwame knew his father was right . But that did n't @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This time they had found Biddy Owens lying on the third-floor landing . At first they thought he was unconscious , but he was only asleep . He admitted reluctantly that he had fallen , could n't get up and had lain there all night . Kwame could not bear the thought of it-or something worse-happening again . He had an idea but had to clear it with his parents first . The idea seemed so good to him that he ran down 145th Street to his own building and up the three flights to apartment 3-S . " You 're talking about taking on a lot of responsibility , " Kwame 's mother said as she made dinner . She had already cut up a pile of onions and mushrooms for the stir-fry she had planned . " Dogs are funny . They get attached to an owner and they keep searching for him . They 're hard to control until they get used to you . If anything happened to Einstein while Biddy was in the hospital , you 'd feel terrible . " " But can I ? @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " As I said , we do n't have space for a dog in our apartment , but if you want to get up every morning and go to Biddy 's house to take care of him , I imagine we can put up with it for a couple of weeks . " Kwame could n't wait to tell Biddy the good news . It would n't cost him anything and Einstein would be just fine when he got out of the hospital . " And who is going to take care of you ? " Biddy asked . " I ca n't have you getting up that early in the morning and being tired out even before you begin school . Maybe next summer , when school is out , we can talk about it . " Next summer ? " Miss Esther said when Kwame repeated the conversation . She stood with one hand on her hip . " Is that what he said ? And this just the start of the school year ? What is wrong with that man ? " Kwame was beginning to believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hospital for the operation . He had one more idea . He had to ask his father and Miss Esther , and when they both said they would help , he went back up to see Biddy . " I think I 've got the answer , " Kwame said . " My father and I will build Einstein a dog house up on the roof . He can live in the doghouse while you 're gone and Miss Esther and I will take food and water to him every day . " " Boy , what are you talking about ? " Biddy leaned back and squinted both eyes . " Are you kidding me ? " " No , " Kwame said . " It 's the perfect solution . " " I got something to show you , son , " Biddy said . He held onto the table for support as he made his way across the room to the old wooden closet next to his refrigerator . He opened the closet and pulled out a big book . He told Kwame to come and get the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did so and waited until Biddy had got back across the room and sat heavily on the wooden chair . He watched as Biddy turned the pages of the book , which was filled with pictures of baseball players , some schedules , and even a pennant that was folded . Biddy opened the pennant and Kwame saw three B 's on it . " That stands for the Birmingham Black Barons , " Biddy said . " But that 's not what I wanted to show you . " Biddy turned the pages until he came to a picture of a bus . " There it is , " he announced proudly . " It 's just a bus , Biddy , " Kwame said . " No , it 's not ! " Biddy said . " That was our home when we were on the road . We lived in it and slept in it when we were touring . We did n't put one ballplayer up on the roof and another one under the bus . We were teammates and we stayed together ! Can you understand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant . It meant that Biddy was not going to the hospital to have his leg fixed as long as he could find an excuse not to do it . And that 's how things went for the next two weeks , with Kwame becoming more and more worried about Biddy being alone and maybe falling down and hurting himself seriously . Then he saw a story in the newspaper about the start of a baseball playoff game and how an old-time Negro League player was going to throw out the first ball . The player had not played on Biddy 's team , but Kwame still wrote to the New York Yankees , one of the teams that was going to play in the game . He told them about how Biddy had played in the old Negro Leagues , about Einstein and how much Biddy needed to have his leg cared for . He thought they might write Biddy a letter to encourage him to have his leg fixed . The answer had come in a phone call , and Kwame 's mother was the one who received it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Monday , when the Yankees had a day off ? " He 's always home these days , " Kwame 's mother had said . " His leg is too bad for him to even get up and down the stairs . " Kwame was sitting on Biddy 's front stoop when the limousine came . He had imagined a ballplayer coming in his uniform , but instead there were three ballplayers from the Yankees , a photographer , a league official , and an old black man who Kwame guessed was the man who had played in the Negro Leagues . Kwame introduced himself and they asked if he would take them up to see Biddy . He tried to look serious , not to show how glad he was that the big-league players had shown up after all , and that he might be able to help his friend , Biddy . Biddy was surprised when he opened the door and saw all of the people standing in the hallway , and even more surprised when he found out who they were . But he squared his shoulders back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they were all talking about baseball as if they had been friends for years . " Who 's this guy ? " The ballplayers were sitting around Biddy 's table looking at his scrapbook . Biddy looked at the picture and said it was Piper Davis , the Black Barons " shortstop . " I remember him . That boy could play some ball , too . " The other Negro League player was even older than Biddy . " Even if he did n't play for the best team in the league ! " Well , that got the two old men arguing while the young ballplayers it went through all the scrapbooks . The photographer took at least 50 pictures , some of them with Biddy and Kwame and the Yankee ballplayers . " So if we see about the dog , you going to have your leg taken care of ? " one of the Yankees asked as they were getting ready to leave . " Well , I guess you people are determined to put old Biddy in the hospital , " Biddy responded . " No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , " the Yankee said . " Is n't that what we do ? " " Yes , I guess it is , " Biddy said . " I guess it is . " So the Yankees had Einstein taken to one of the nicest kennels in New York while Biddy had his leg repaired . When it was all over , and he was back on 145th Street , he said it was n't a big deal , but he had been a little nervous about it . " You got a good heart in you , Kwame , " Biddy said . " And getting those ballplayers up here to work on me tells me you 're not as dumb as you look . I might rename you Einstein the Second . " Kwame smiled . He was n't sure he wanted to be named second to a dog , but Einstein was a special dog . After all , he had found a friend when he needed one . <p> Sidebar " You all right in there , old man ? " MIss Esther asked , Biddy replied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> Sidebar " we lived in that bus when we were touring , " Biddy said as he looked through the scrapbook. " we were teammates and we stayed together . " <p> Sidebar " I remember him . That boy could play some ball , too . " <p> 
##1010861 In spring , 2001 , the Femspec intern class at Cleveland State University organized a writing competition through English high schools , entitled " Xena comes to your high school for a day . " As the Girl Power guest editors we are pleased to have been able to select from those entries , Justin Scott 's story for inclusion in this issue . <p> Acknowledgment : The author wishes to thank Joann Houser of West Geauga High School for her guidance in the writing of this paper . <p> Xena hurled her mighty Chakram at her adversary to cleave the fiend in two ! But her aim was a little bit high and the beast dodged the projectile . The creature began to run , and Xena gave chase . " I must n't miss this time , " she thought to herself , " this time I must slice off his head . " Xena quickly caught up to the foul creature . The beast turned to face Xena -- a brave act to say the least . Xena saluted him and attacked , striking him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were not affecting the creature in the least ; it just stood there , not moving . Then suddenly : " Hey Xena ! Wake up ! " <p> Xena awoke to find herself standing atop Alicia 's desk in her third period study hall waving a banana in the air . She realized that she was not fending off the forces of evil , but merely challenging a fellow classmate . " I 'm very sorry , " Xena attempted to apologize . <p> " Yeah , whatever . Just do n't do it again , " replied her disgruntled classmate . <p> Xena went back to her seat , but on the way the bell rang , and she had to go to her next class . Xena had never really fit in at her school : she was what her other classmates had termed an " outcast . " She was different , somehow . She was n't quite sure how , she just knew that she was . <p> As she entered her fourth-period gym class , she saw all of the glaring stares telling her that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought that it was real this time . She had been sure that she was truly fighting that ugly black beast . Xena mindlessly went through gym class without even really thinking about their game of Lacrosse . She finished the rest of the day without event and got ready to go home . <p> The day was lovely . Xena walked slowly , admiring all of the new fall scenery . This was one of her favorite times of the year because of all the beautiful changing leaves . She came to the intersection that led to her street and paused . Normally , she would hurry home , but today she decided that she would go for a walk . " This is really beautiful , " she thought to herself . She was so busy admiring the trees that she did n't realize that she had wandered a little too far . " Where am I ? " she asked herself . Suddenly , a bright light shone around her and knocked her unconscious . <p> When Xena came to , she was lying down in the middle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that she could not see the top of its massive peaks . Xena pulled herself to her feet and discovered that she was extremely weak . With this in mind , she settled on only sitting down instead of standing , " I wonder where I am . " <p> What seemed like several hours later , Xena was still sitting on the floor mulling over what to do . Suddenly , a bright light shone all about her , and an angelic voice spoke . " I see you are as strong as they say you are . " <p> " Who are you ? " Xena demanded . <p> " All in due time , my child . All in due time . " <p> " At least tell me where I am , " suggested Xena . <p> " You are in the sanctuary of souls , " replied the voice . <p> This puzzled Xena , and she did not speak anymore . " Why am I here ? Where exactly is here ? " These questions and many more flooded through her brain . Something about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place it . The light suddenly grew and manifested itself into the form of a man . Presently Xena had the strength to move , and she stood up . " I 'm sorry about that , " apologized the being . <p> " Sorry for what ? " <p> " Never mind , it is of little consequence , " was the mysterious reply . " You may call me Rune . " <p> Rune ... that name seemed familiar as well . But again she could not place it . Why could n't she remember ? The memories seemed almost there . Infuriated , Xena fell silent . <p> " Now , to the business at hand , " started Rune . " You have been summoned here for a purpose . I , and several others , need your help . " <p> " .... " Xena was speechless . <p> " There is corruption in your place of education . This corruption is so vast that it endangers the very balance of the universe . We , the others and I , humbly request that you help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That 's crazy ! What can I possibly do ? I may dream occasionally about fighting , but those are only dreams . I ca n't fight ! Trust me , you have the wrong person , " angrily replied Xena , admittedly more than a little scared . <p> " I can assure you that I have found the right person . Are you not Xena ? " <p> " Well , yes , I am . But I do n't see what that has to do with ... " <p> " It has everything to do with our situation . You merely do n't understand ... yet . Trust me , it will all return to you . All of it . " <p> There was obviously something that Rune was hiding from her , but Xena , again , just could n't figure it out . She decided that she would now play his little game . She would ask him questions : she would find out what was going on : " So , let 's assume that I do have the power to pull this off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to look for . Is it one of the teachers ? Is that where the corruption is ? " <p> " I 'm afraid I can not fully answer that . I can tell you that the evil did not start with the faculty . It began elsewhere , but some of the teachers have been swayed to the evil side . They are weak of heart , but are not entirely evil , so you must not harm them . What the evil truly is , I do n't even know . That is what you must find out . But now I 'm afraid our time has run out , and I must bid you adieu . " <p> Sudden bursts of light filled Xena 's eyes , almost like when she would stare at the sun too long and look away . Then she was gone . <p> " Beep ! Beep ! Beep ! " Xena 's alarm clock rang the next morning . Xena awoke to find herself lying in her bed , still in her clothes . " It must have been a dream . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! " <p> Xena ambled downstairs and got ready to go to school . She ate breakfast , showered , and changed into new clothes . Xena 's mother , as usual , gave disapproving looks to her goofy eating habits . Her eating was a constant topic of " discussion " between her and her mother . Xena 's mother often accused her of eating like a " medieval woman . " " Oh , well , let her think what she will , " thought Xena . <p> Xena tried to not think about Rune and the odd encounter during the course of the day , but she could n't help it . She did n't look at all of her teachers the same way ; she found herself wondering if this teacher , or that teacher , was her enemy . " Stop it , " she ordered herself . " The whole experience was n't even an experience , it never happened ! " But she could n't stop herself ; she just kept on wondering . <p> The beast came again . It was its normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scales somewhat like a dragon . Also , it had large spikes covering almost its entire body . However , the worst aspect of the monster was its atrocious odor . But this time it acted different : the beast actually spoke . " I am the great beast Geo , and you 'll never defeat me ! It matters not if you receive your former powers , you will never be enough ! " <p> Xena woke with a start . This time she was not attacking a fellow student , rather she was just sitting in class . " What was that all about ? " she asked herself . That had never happened before , and this time the dream felt even more real . " Could this be related to what happened yesterday ? No , yesterday did n't happen ... it could n't have , " she frantically told herself . But she could n't even convince herself . This was real and it was happening , and she could n't think of what to do . <p> Xena went through the rest of the day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just could n't concentrate on anything besides Rune and this beast Geo , and the fact that even if this is real she did n't know where to start . " This is all so confusing ! Why is this happening to me ? What do you want from me ? Why ... " she started to ask herself . " Oh , this is useless . " She realized that she could n't answer these questions without a little snooping . " I 'll come back tonight when it 's dark . I should be able to find answers then . " <p> That night , Xena was at home putting on a thin layer of black nylon over her clothing so that she could hide better . " I do n't really know what I 'm doing , but I have to do it , " she bravely said . She finished her preparations and crept downstairs . Her mother was asleep on the couch with Jay Leno playing on the TV . " Good-bye more , " Xena whispered . It was then time to go . Xena @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had run the whole way . She decided to sit down right in front of the huge fluorescent school sign so she could catch her breath . With that done , she went inside . <p> The school was dark as midnight , which the time actually approached . Xena gave her eyes time to adjust to the dark , and went forward . She was scared , yes , but she knew she had a job to do . She had never been this brave before and this courage surprised her . " Oh , well , I must go on with no distractions , " she commanded herself . <p> As she slunk along the empty hallways she thought of all the years that she had spent here . She thought of how she had changed and how she would go on changing . Suddenly , a noise disturbed her , distracting her thoughts . " What was that ? " she asked herself . " I do n't know , but I should probably hide . " She ducked inside of an old broom closet just in time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through a crack in the door and recognized the woman as her French teacher , Madame Canzone . She knew that she could probably knock her out before she knew what hit her . But then Rune 's warning of not harming the teachers came back to her , and she decided not to attack . <p> Xena decided that her first target should be the principal 's office . In movies , this was always where the important stuff was . So she headed down the hall towards it , passing all of her teacher 's classrooms , wondering if they were corrupted . She reached the office and hesitated . " What if I 'm not prepared ? What if I ca n't take what I meet on the other side of this door ? No , I ca n't think like that , if I could n't handle it then Rune would n't have sent me , " she resolved . And with that she opened the door . <p> What Xena saw on the other side of the door astonished her . It was only the principal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lurking about to attack unwary students . This was disappointing , but she decided to investigate the room anyway . Again , her own bravery surprised her . Before this whole ordeal she would n't have been able even to open the door , much less investigate a dark room . She swept through the room , rummaging . All she found were folders containing grades and some old suspension point forms . This was really no help to her at all , and she was about to lose hope when she noticed an indentation in the floor . " That 's funny , " she said to herself . She walked over to the indentation to investigate and discovered that it was really a trap door ! " Well , only one way to find out what 's down there , " Xena said to herself as she opened the door and descended . <p> The ladder that led down from the trap door seemed to go on forever . Xena could n't even begin to see the bottom when her arms became tired . " I 'm never going @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than stop , her body kept going until she finally hit the bottom . Sweat was streaming down her face as she set her foot down ; she wanted to collapse , but her body would n't let her . " Ugh , that was hard , but I must continue . I must persevere . " <p> Xena began the journey down through the tunnel that was ahead of her slowly at first , but then picked up speed . She knew that the evil that she sought must be just ahead ; it had to be ! Suddenly , she heard voices just ahead of her , and stopped . " I heard that a student is down here with us , " exclaimed the first voice . <p> " How can you know that ? " inquired the second . <p> " The leader told me , " explained the first . <p> " Oh , so that 's how it is . Well how does it know ? You ever think of that ? How can it know ? " <p> " It 's psychic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this time Xena had recognized the voices of two of her favourite teachers . Not wanting to hurt them , she merely crept around them . " That was close , if I had n't stopped they would have caught me , " Xena thought . " Well I have to keep moving . " <p> She soon came to a wide-open area that seemed like it could house a giant . Unfortunately for Xena , she was exactly right ! There appeared to be a gigantic hulking mass in the opposite corner of the arena . She walked closer to see what this could be , and instantly recognized it . " This is the beast from my dreams ! " <p> " That is correct , little one , " came a " voice " in her head . <p> " What 's going on ? Who 's there ? How can you hear my thoughts ? " <p> " Oh , I thought you were the all-powerful Xena . I thought that my minions that I placed in your path would have allowed you to find out . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actual voice . <p> Suddenly , Xena understood . The teachers that she had escaped from before had let her go ! Then she realized that this was the creature that the teachers had called " the leader . " And also remembered that this creature was psychic . " So , you 're the one that I am supposed to defeat ? I see . We 've met before , so this should not be too difficult , " replied Xena cockily . <p> " I would n't celebrate so early if I were you ! In your dreams I was going easy on you . This time I will not . Hehehehe this should be fun ! " replied Geo , the great beast . <p> With that Geo ran at Xena . Xena , unsure what to do , ran as fast as she could in the other direction . A voice called out from above , " Xena ! " <p> With that a sword came hurtling through the air towards Xena , and she caught it with ease . " How did I possibly catch that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think , Geo , now a little less confident , charged at her . This time , rather than running , she sidestepped the advance , and cut Geo 's side as he went by . " What 's going on ? This feels so familiar . Have I fought before ? " Xena asked herself . <p> Squealing , Geo charged again . This time Xena met it head on and stuck her sword into the beast 's side . The great beast Geo then fell to the ground , never to get back up . Xena ran to its side and pulled her sword out of the beast 's flesh . And with a final squeal of defeat , Geo closed his eyes for the last time . The realization of what she had just done hit Xena like a brick , and she fell to her knees weeping with joy . Suddenly , she heard clapping . She turned to see Rune in his human form applauding her , " I could n't have done it better myself . " <p> " Why , thank you . It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> " Why , what do you mean ? " he jested . <p> " You know what I mean ! The sword , it was you , was n't it ? " <p> " Of course it was . Do you finally understand ? Do you know what it is that I 've been trying to teach you ? " <p> " I do n't think so . I only know that I was supposed to defeat this demon , " replied Xena . <p> " Here , maybe this will jog your memory , " as he tossed a circular object towards Xena . <p> It hit the ground at Xena 's feet . She hesitated for an instant , then knelt down to pick it up . She was at first confused , then the memories came searing back . She recalled this object from her dream , but had previously thought that she had merely imagined it . Then she remembered it all ! Remembered adventuring with her ally Gabrielle and fighting evil . Remembered that she was not just Xena . She was Xena , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back to you , " said Rune . <p> " Yes , I 'm beginning to remember . But one thing puzzles me . How did I get here , in this young body ? Because I am me , only about five years younger , " asked Xena . <p> " I 'm afraid that I 'm guilty there . You see , back in your time in your body you were injured . But someone brought you to my sanctuary , and naturally , I healed you . But then I saw who you are , and I knew that these people needed a heroine like you . So I turned back your internal clock , and sent you here , " replied Rune . <p> " So that 's why the sanctuary and you seemed familiar earlier , and that 's why I was able to fight ! I understand now ! Why did n't you just tell me earlier ? " <p> " That would have been way too dangerous . If I had just changed you back you might have rejected it . However , if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , then you could n't reject it . Understand ? " <p> " I believe so , but I would like to go back to my own time now , can you send me ? " <p> " Yes , I can . But are you ready ? " <p> " Yes , I am . I suppose that I always have been . " <p> " Then I will open a portal of time and space now . Stand back , " said Rune . <p> There was the sound of cloth being torn , and next thing that Xena knew there was a doorway in front of her . Through this doorway she saw her time and her old body sleeping . " Do I really want to go back ? " she asked herself . " Yes , I must . Good-bye , Rune . I will not forget you ! " <p> " Nor , I you . Farewell and godspeed ! " <p> And thus Xena , Warrior Princess , saved a small town school and the rest of the universe . She never forgot Rune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And with a broad smile on her face Xena entered the portal , and returned to her own time and body . <p> Article copyright Batya Weinbaum . <p> 
##1010866 " LOVE YOU , " she said . Cameras looked into her face and I looked into her eyes . For a moment I could really believe it . Anne never was that good at lying . A woman behind us started to cry , in the restrained way that some people do in public . <p> Now it was my turn . <p> We had n't rehearsed this . It was n't the kind ofthing one could rehearse . " I 've always loved you , " I said . It was the closest I 've come in my life to an apology . <p> Maybe that was why Anne looked so shocked . <p> The idea of matter so dense that even light can not escape from its surface goes back to the i8th century and the obscure English geologist John Michell . For seven years , Anne and I had survived a marriage like that . <p> Apparently children take on the attributes of their parents . Anne 's parents were natural observers , seeing everything from a single point . Mine were different . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ atmosphere . My father was the polar opposite . As if he 'd collapsed in on himself to create a black hole around which his five children continued to circle in a cold dark orbit . <p> " I 'm sorry , " Anne said . <p> It must have been obvious to the organisers that the situation was disintegrating around them , because someone pushed Lisa and Sammy forward , fresh-faced , slightly dishevelled and embarrassed in that pre-teen way . <p> " Bye , Dad , " they chorused , about as convincing as Joseph and Mary in a nativity play . <p> I kissed them both and ruffled their hair , a second before remembering they hated that . It said something for their best behaviour that neither even pulled a face . <p> " I 'll call , " I promised . <p> Wide eyes looked puzzled . <p> " That was a joke , " I wanted to say . Luckily Lisa got it in time to prevent me looking an even bigger fool than I felt . My father stepped forward , threw his arms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was n't as if we often saw eye to eye , then he surprised me . <p> " Good luck ... " He thought about what he 'd just said , in that dry mathematical way of his , and shrugged . " Not that luck comes into it , of course ... " <p> The launch passed in a blur after that . Everyone passes beyond the point of no return . We go from one lover to another , switch jobs or abandon friends when circumstance or necessity demands . Christmas is always bad . The year might change but the feelings do n't . <p> It began with an argument . <p> At least I think it did . <p> The fault was mine . <p> I kissed a girl at an office party , or she might have kissed me . The Norwegian Wood Defence beats Stockholm Syndrome any day . If in doubt , claim someone changed the parameters . <p> ( That was an obscure joke about music no one now remembers . Although I do : I remember everything . The only problem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and by the time I find the piece to fit , the jigsaw has changed and I can no longer remember the picture . ) <p> I kissed a girl , someone told my wife and I returned from a pre-Christmas shop to find my marriage being counted out on a carpet in the middle of the living room . The fight was over before I even knew it had begun . Oh , she took me back , media attention saw to that . Media attention , an increased pension and the fact I was about to leave her life altogether . <p> The Earth 's escape velocity is more than n kilometres per second ( roughly 40,000 kilometres per hour ) , that of the sun more than 600 kilometres per second . Where I was going had no escape velocity . At least , none within the bounds of physics as we understand it . A dozen people had died . The official total had been three , until the Chinese admitted they lost nine in the first year of trying . Beijing offered this information the day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Personally , I think they were just trying to put us off . <p> I ate the turkey , pulled crackers , drank enough brandy to make my head hurt . The sex was clumsy and Anne cried , telling me she did n't know how we came to this . So I lied and said these things happen and it did n't matter , but of course it did . We woke with hangovers , still wrapped in each other 's arms . <p> In one of those ironies of life . the sex improved and 1 found myself not minding the children 's questions , their endless mess . We ate meals together , I came back early from the laboratory . All right , I 'll admit it , the cameras following me probably helped . At night , alone together , Anne and I repaired what we had . It was like painting the rooms in a house you intend to abandon . Pointless , but the instinct was strong . <p> Our brief separation became a plus point . So difficult had been the decision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it . Anne 's bravery was mentioned ; my selflessness . Pundits in the middlebrow rags worried about the effect my decision would have on Lisa and Sammy . Since they barely saw me I assumed this would be rather less than most people imagined , although the two of them grew quite clingy once they realised I was going on a long journey . <p> If I 've got this right , a black hole holds in place a spherical surface that marks its boundary . Depending on how one looks at this , the event horizon is either entirely static , locked in place around a singularity , or hurtling outwards at the speed of light . Whichever , consider the Schwarzschild radius an irrevocable decision . Once reached , you really ca n't back out . <p> The launch was simple . I was put into a capsule and the capsule was put somewhere else . There were no flames , nada smoke , zero mirrors . Someone in Public Relations decided we needed a countdown . The same person probably came up with the silver aircraft hangar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did n't call it that , of course . In fact , we spent a lot of time telling other people they should n't call it that , but the name stuck . <p> I 've always preferred the older term , " frozen star " , for that state of seeming to exist while not actually existing , which describes the sphere around a singularity . Only once " black hole " got used instead , the original term never stood a chance . So it was with our gate . <p> We counted down from 120 , this being the number chosen by a focus group as representing the exact mix of excitement and suspense required . Anything less would not stretch the nerves of the world ; anything more and we risked boring them . One hundred and twenty seconds . The transference of a single human halfway across a galaxy and we had suits worrying that we might bore our audience . <p> Budget rounds can do strange things to people . <p> In fact , what happened inside the hangar was infinitely more complex than most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audience , who considered that paying taxes gave them a moral veto over what we did with our share of the money , we fudged things a little around the edges . Partly this kept the suits happy and partly it meant Anne and the children never really had to face what was about to happen . <p> I stepped into a shell , the door was shut and the shell swung towards the gate as countdown hit zero . It is not my job to decide if what happened next was dishonest , but radiation blue-shifts to very high frequencies . Not wanting me to get fried , the director had the shell reappear instantly in a hangar behind the one we used . Three weeks later , when the media had moved onto something else , what was left of me was reloaded into the shell and shifted to the real exit gate , a transient white hole near the centre of the galaxy . To complete the Schwarzschild geometry set one needs a black hole , a white hole and two universes linked at their horizons by a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is sufficiently large , the tidal forces are not really noticeable until after you cross the horizon . A smaller black hole , say one made from our sun , should such a thing be possible , would rip you apart long before you reached this . Hence the choice of my destination . A million solar masses gives a radius of roughly 3 million kilometres , about four times the radius of the sun and large enough to let me surf j ust above the horizon . ( Even with a hole exceeding 30,000 solar masses the tide at the horizon would be less than ig . ) <p> You will already know the mathematics behind the incredible expenditure of energy needed to keep me in position . At least I assume you do . If not , I should probably be talking to somebody else . <p> Everyone passes beyond the point of no return . We go from one job to another , change lovers or abandon families when selfishness or need demands . Leaving home is always bad . Thebundleofclothesinthe cardboard box , the half bottle of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anne does n't drink it anyway . The refusal to look back as the taxi draws away . Even after I returned home , what we had felt illicit . Something temporary that the coming year would fracture . <p> As it did . <p> I signed the original forms in anger sometime in late December , only to spend most of January explaining to Human Resources that " Yes I meant it ... IfI had n't meant it then I would n't have suggested it , would I ? " Looking back , I 'm pretty certain they knew the person I needed to convince was myself . <p> I signed waiver forms in early February , had two medicals and underwent psychiatric testing . Though how one can test the sanity of any man who volunteers to watch the ageing of the universe in fast forward , before dying himself , is beyond me . As I said , so much is absurdity . <p> By Valentine 's Day the launch was ready , and 10 days later I was passing 1.5 Schwarzschild radii , the last point at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything in free-fall orbit is drawn towards the singularity . Obviously enough , I kept the engine constantly on burn . <p> So now I dream and watch , sleep , wake and wonder what the difference is between these states . I work at slow speeds over long lengths of time , and always the sky above me changes while the horizon remains . Pairs consisting of an antiparticle and particle appear from nowhere , exist briefly , and cancel each other out . There is a suggestion that the mass behind the horizon evaporates . It seems to be happening because one of these two particles sometime fall beyond retrieval , letting the other escape . <p> Since we define a black hole as a region of space-time not in the causal past of any point in the infinite future , this gives an obvious problem . Not least because the universe appears to have no infinite future , recollapsing to a singularity in finite coordinate time . Next to this , my own slow wait for the black hole to evaporate and free me from this impossible orbit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ launch , I had supper with my father in London at a hotel off the Strand . We talked about the weather , the government , the under-funding of universities , things on which we knew we could agree . Outside the Savoy we shook hands , then embarrassed each other with a brief hug . An argument mended without ever having been mentioned . <p> I went home , called my mother-inlaw and asked if she could have the children for the night because I needed to talk to Anne . She came immediately , bundled the delighted children into her Volvo and drove away . Anne and I went to bed for two days . We talked of things neither of us could remember until we began to talk about them . Stupid things , little things . <p> She cried , asked if I could change my mind . I cried , said probably not . <p> At the end of the two days her mother brought Lisa and Sammy back and all three frowned at the unwashed plates in the sink , the empty wine bottles beside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were both still wearing dressing gowns . We tidied up , watched television , put the children to bed , tried not to mind the cameras that followed our every move . <p> " The kids will miss you , " she said . <p> For a moment I saw the sadness in her eyes . " I 'll miss them , " I promised . <p> Anne and I held hands as we walked out to face the press on that final day . I think even we were surprised by that . <p> Sidebar 
##1010867 Nat Turner and his fellow rebels plot their revolt . <p> Nat Turner and his fellow rebels plot their revolt . <p> INTRODUCTION As the 19th century began , the country was beginning to be pulled apart by the issue of slavery . In the North , abolitionists attacked slavery as evil . But many Southerners claimed that slaves were vital to their farm-based economy . Besides , these Southerners said , slaves were happy where they were . In 1831 , a troubled slave named Nat Turner helped to explode that myth . SCENE 1 Narrator A : Almost everything we know about Nat Turner comes from a confession he made to a white lawyer named Thomas R. Gray . The date was November 1 , 1831 ; the place , Turner 's jail cell . Ten days later , he would be executed . Nat Turner ( in his confession ) : Sir , to tell you why I am here , I need to go back to my infancy . Certain unforgettable circumstances laid the ground-work for the tragic events for which I am about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On October 2 , 1800 , Nat Turner was born a slave on the Southampton County , Virginia , farm of Benjamin Turner . Nat 's mother , Nancy , held on to her native African beliefs . Nancy : Old Bridget , I tell you the boy has spirit vision . Just yesterday , he was speaking to the other children of things that happened " before he was born ! Old Bridget : He is a special one . The markings on his head and body show he is designed for some great purpose . Narrator A : Unusual for the time , Nat 's master allows him to attend church with the whites . In the process of studying the Bible , Nat learns to read . Old Bridget : He 's been doing it from a young age , Master Ben . We gave him a book to keep him from crying-and he began sounding out the words ! Benjamin Turner : With such a restless mind , this boy will never be of use to anyone as a slave . Narrator A : Others around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ C E N E 2 Narrator B : Nat embraces Christian beliefs with fervor . By the time he is a young man , he is astounding many of those around him with his preaching . Nat Turner : And as I stood praying at my plow , the Holy Spirit spoke to me , saying , " seek ye the Kingdom of Heaven and all things shall be added given to you . " Female slave : God be praised . The Spirit speaks to him like the prophets in the old days . Narrator B : But nothing shields Nat from the cruelties of bondage . When he is 21 , he runs away from an overseer and hides in the woods . While there , he has a disturbing vision . Spirit : Nat , what have you done ? Nat Turner : Oh , Spirit , I am bowed down by this heavy weight . What is the purpose I am born for ? How can I fulfill my destiny as a slave ? Spirit : Seek not the things of this world but the Kingdom of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be shown your destiny . Narrator B : When Turner returns to the farm after 30 days , the other slaves are amazed-or suspicious . Male slave I : Why do you think he came back ? Do you think he really has those visions of his ? Male slave 2 : Tell you one thing-if I had his gifts , no way would I serve any master . Nat Turner ( in his confession ) : With the revelations made known to me , I began to direct my attention to the purpose for which I was intended . And I had a vision of spirits in battle and thunder in the heavens , and the sun was darkened . And a voice said , " This is what you are called to bear . " S C E N E 3 Narrator C : As the years pass , Turner suffers the injustices of slavery . In 1822 , his wife is sold away from him . Turner too is sold and , in 1830 , is living on the farm of Joseph Travis . Again , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : The Spirit said certain signs in the heavens would tell me when I should begin my great work . Then I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with my own hand . Hark Travis : Man , I know who those enemies are . They are the people who own us like property . Nat Turner : One day we will crush the evil serpent . And the first shall be last , and the last shall be first . REBELS and ABOLITIONISTS TIME LINE <p> Narrator C : In February 1831 , there is an eclipse of the sun . Turner believes this is the sign he has been waiting for , and he begins to gather fellow rebels . On Monday , August 22 , in the early hours before dawn , Turner and six others meet in the woods . Nat Turner : Is your freedom dear to you ? Will : Yes , and I will have it or lose my life . Hark Travis : We know what we have to do . Let 's start at Master Joseph 's house . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standing in Joseph Travis 's darkened bedroom . After Turner strikes Travis a glancing blow in his bed ... Joseph Travis : What ? Who is there ? What 's going on here ? Sally Travis ( frightened ) : What 's happening ? Oh , no ! Joseph Travis : Sally , run for your life ! Narrator C : Will quickly kills Joseph and Sally Travis with an axe . Nat Turner ( in his confession ) : The murder of this family five in number was the work of a moment . Narrator C : With this , the die is cast . The rebellious slaves now proceed from farmhouse to farmhouse , armed with axes and clubs and guns they pick up on the way . One by one , they kill all the white people they find , many still in their beds . SCENE 4 Narrator D : As the men make their fateful journey , their number grows to about 50 . The death toll also mounts , to 55 . Around midday , Turner and his men head to Jerusalem , the nearest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emergency army of citizens . Hark Travis : We ca n't face them head-on with their rifles . Our people are getting hit , and others are scattering . Nat Turner : Let 's circle around the militia and go on to town . Narrator D : But it 's the beginning of the end for the rebellion . Turner ca n't reassemble a large enough force to march to Jerusalem . The remaining rebels spend two nights on the run . Now , militia are everywhere , and with each confrontation , more men desert Turner . Finally , he is alone . Nat Turner is captured by Benjamin Phipps on October 30,1831 . <p> Nat Turner is captured by Benjamin Phipps on October 30,1831 . <p> Nat Turner ( in his confession ) : At this I gave up all hope for the present . On Thursday night , after getting provisions food and other supplies from Mr. Travis 's , I scratched a hole under a pile of fence rails in a field , where I concealed myself . SCENE 5 Narrator E : While Turner hides , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Virginia man : They say that an army of 500 slaves is marching out of the swamps right now , ready to butcher us all . Reporter ( in his newspaper article ) : It is believed that all the brigands bandits were slaves-and most , if not all of them , the property of kind and indulgent masters . Narrator E : On October 30 , a white man named Benjamin Phipps finds Turner still hiding near the Travis farm . Phipps takes the runaway slave into custody at gunpoint . Turner is soon hauled before a judge . Judge Jeremiah Cobb : Let the prisoner rise . Do you have anything to say for yourself ? Nat Turner : I plead not guilty because I do not feel guilty . I only did what I was destined to do . Cobb : Your hands are stained with the blood of the innocent , and the blood of a master . The judgment of this court is that you will be hung by the neck until you are dead , dead , dead ! Narrator E : In jail , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Turner ( in his confession ) : The beliefs I had from the beginning-even now , helpless and forsaken as I am , I can not rid myself of them . Now I am here loaded with chains , and willing to suffer the fate that awaits me . Narrator E : Turner is hanged on November 11 . In all , Virginia executes at least 55 people in connection with the rebellion . But Turner 's legend will only grow , and for years slaves and ex-slaves will speak in hushed tones of Old Nat 's war . " AFTERWORD Although Turner 's rebellion failed , its effects were later felt . Alarmed that other uprisings could follow , the South passed a number of harsh laws further restricting the movement of slaves . White mobs sought revenge by killing as many as 200 black people . But the rebellion also caused Virginia to briefly consider ending slavery . Ultimately , it chose not to , thus setting the stage for the larger drama soon to come-the Civil War . web THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER http : **37;129;TOOLONG Your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so , did slavery make him crazy ? Who was more to blame for what happened , Turner or his masters ? Sidebar CAST * Nat Turner : a slave Nancy : Nat 's mother Old Bridget : Nat 's grandmother Benjamin Turner ; Nat 's first master # Female slave Spirit : a vision that appears to Nat Turner #Male slaves 1 and 2 * Hark Travis ; a slave of Joseph Travis Will : a slave Joseph Travis : Nat 's second master Sally Travis : Joseph 's wife # Virginia man Repoter Judge Jeremiah Cobb : the judge at Turner 's trial Narrators A-E * indicates major character # indicates fictional character Sidebar A tortured man explains how he came to lead the bloodiest slave rebellion in American history . Sidebar " I Plead not guilty because I do not feel guilty . I only did what I was destined to do . -Nat Turner <p> 
##1010868 If you are interested in reading a play filled with singing bunnies , speeding cars , or happy children , you are reading the wrong play entirely . This play is filled with misery and woe , involving three clever youngsters , a terrible fire , a refrigerator , and man-eating leeches . We 're sorry to tell you that it 's based on the new movie Lemony Snicket 's A Series of Unfortunate Events , which is based on the books The Bad Beginning , The Reptile Room , and The Wide Window , by Mr. Snicket . IN THEATERS DECEMBER 17 <p> CHARACTERS Write your initials next to the character you 're going to read . *Lemony Snicket 1 , a mysterious narrator *Lemony Snicket 2 , a suspicious narrator *Lemony Snicket 3 , a shadowy narrator *Lemony Snicket 4 , a secretive narrator *Violet Baudelaire , the oldest Baudelaire sibling *Klaus Baudelaire , Violet 's younger brother Sunny Baudelaire , Violet and Klaus 's baby sister Sunny 's Translator ( since Sunny is so young , no one understands what she 's saying ) *Mr @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ actor and worse villain *Uncle Monty , a distant Baudelaire relative Stephano , someone disguised as a snake assistant *Aunt Josephine , a distant Baudelaire relative Captain Sham , someone disguised as a fisherman *Starred characters are major roles . SCENE THE FIRST SNICKET 1 : The play you are about to read is very unpleasant . It has no happy ending , no happy beginning , and very few happy things in the middle . SNSCKET 2 : That is because not many happy tilings occurred in the lives of the three Baudelaire children . Violet , the oldest , was one of the finest 14-year-old inventors the world has ever known . Photograph Klaus , Violet , and Baby Sunny get ready to hear some bad news . <p> VIOLET : When I tie my hair up with a ribbon , it means I 'm thinking of a new invention . SNICKET 3 : Her younger brother , Klaus , had read more books than most librarians . KLAUS : Never underestimate the power of research . SNICKET 4 : And Sunny , the baby , liked to bite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One day , the children were playing on the beach , when Sunny said something that stills makes me weep uncontrollably . SUNNY : Gack ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : ... which meant , " Look at that mysterious figure emerging from the fog . " KLAUS : Mr. Poe ? From the bank ? MR . POE : I 'm afraid I must inform you of ... an extremely unfortunate event . Your parents have perished in a fire that destroyed your home . SNICKET 2 : And just like that , the Baudelaire children became the Baudelaire orphans . MR . POE : " Perished " means " died . " KLAUS : We know what " perished " means . MR . POE : The bank will manage your inheritance until you come of age . In the meantime , you will be sent to live with your closest relative , Count Olaf , just 37 blocks away . KLAUS : I do n't think that 's what " closest " is supposed to mean . VIOLET : We do n't know any " Count Olaf . " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the first to call when he heard about the fire , and he offered to become your guardian on the spot ! AND he 's an actor . SCENE THE SECOND SNICKET 3 : The Baudelaires arrived at a run-down house with a mysterious tower that had an eye-shaped window . COUNT OLAF : Enter ! SNICKET 4 : If only the children had run away that instant . Unfortunately , they did the polite thing and went inside . COUNT OLAF : I am your beloved Count Olaf . I must say , you are a gloomy bunch . Why so bummed ? KLAUS : Our parents just died . COUNT OLAF : Oh yes . How VERY awful . Well , as long as you 're staying with me , you 'll do whatever I ask while I enjoy the enormous fortune your parents left behind . You will all sleep in one bed . VIOLET ( to Klaus ) : Maybe it 's not as bad as it seems . SNICKET 1 : It was as bad as it seemed . Count Olaf was vile and cruel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dangerous chores , including ladderless ceiling repair , toxic waste disposal , and dishwashing , until ... COUNT OLAF ( sweetly ) : Good morning , orphans ! Let 's take our first Sunday drive as a family ! SNICKET 2 : On the way , Count Olaf stopped for treats and left the children in his car . KLAUS : Violet , where did the locks go ? SNICKET 3 : If you have ever been locked inside a car parked on train tracks , you know it is not a very pleasant place to be . SUMNY : Uhoh ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : Especially when a train is approaching ! VIOLET : Klaus , please tell me you 've read something about trains . KLAUS : We need to switch the tracks . Look-there 's the switcher ! VIOLET : I 'd better tie my hair up . SNICKET 4 : In seconds , Violet had invented a device that shot out the car window and hit the track switcher ... SUNNY : Eyebulls ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : Bullseye ! SNSCKET 1 : The train that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were saved . Moments later , Mr. Poe arrived . MR . POE : Count Olaf , I just found Sunny in the driver 's seat of your car . Allowing an infant to drive is not good parenting . I 'm sending the Baudelaires to live with a more suitable guardian . COUNT OLAF ( to the children ) : No matter where you go , I 'll find you . I 'm going to get my hands on your fortune if it 's the last thing I do ! SCENE THE THIRD SNICKET 2 : The Baudelaire 's new guardian , Dr. Montgomery Montgomery , was a herpetologist ... SNICKET 3 : ... a word which here means " an expert in the study of snakes and reptiles . " UNCLE MONTY : Come in , Baudelaires ! Welcome ! Quickly , you must see my latest discovery ! SNICKET 4 : Uncle Monty led the children to his Reptile Room , where he kept all of his snakes , reptiles ... SUNNY : Ribbit ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : ... and three-eyed frogs . UNCLE MONTY : Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Do n't let Sunny get too close ! UNCLE MONTY : Do n't worry , Klaus . Incredibly Deadly Viper is a misnomer-or a " wrong name . " This snake is actually one of the friendliest creatures in the animal kingdom . SUNNY : Slickit ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : ... which meant , " It does n't even hurt when she bites me ! " UNCLE MONTY : You 're safe now , children . We have so much in common . I know what it 's like to lose those you love in a terrible fire . We 'll have a wonderful time together . SCENE THE FOURTH SNICKET 1 : It seemed like everything might be better for the Baudelaires . Uncle Monty was a very kind guardian . But then the bell tolled ... SNICKET 2 : ... an expression which here means " the doorbell rang , and it was a person whom the children recognized right away , even though he was in disguise . " STEPHANO : My name is Stephano . I am here to assist Dr. Montgomery in his work . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do n't know of any such incredibly handsome person . UNCLE MONTY : Children , who is it ? My new assistant , Stephano ! Thank goodness you 've arrived ! VIOLET : Uncle Monty , psssttt ! SNICKET 3 : The children tried to tell Uncle Monty that Stephano was an impostor . UNCLE MONTY ( whispering ) : I know , he 's a spy here to steal my discovery . We 'll talk tomorrow . SNICKET 4 : But sometimes even the most learned grown-ups are not very smart . By the next morning , it was too late . STEPHANO : Children , how terrible . Your uncle was killed by the Incredibly Deadly Viper , one of the deadliest snakes in the world . I should know . I discovered it . KLAUS : That 's a lie ! The Incredibly Deadly Viper is n't dangerous at all . You must have killed Uncle Monty ! SNICKET 1 : Mr. Poe arrived at Uncle Monty 's . STEPHANO : These children are in shock . But I 'd still be happy to be their guardian . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Nonsense . He does n't look anything like Count Olaf . Mr. Stephano has a mustache . SNICKET 2 : Suddenly , there was a scream so horrible it still gives me nightmares to imagine it . SUNNY : AAAHHHHH ! ! ! ! TRANSLATOR : AAAAHHHHHH ! ! ! ! ! MR . POE : The Incredibly Deadly Viper is attacking Sunny ! SNICKET 3 : But then Sunny began to giggle . She and the snake rolled on the floor playfully . MR . POE : That snake is harmless . STEPHANO : Egad . It appears my plot has been foiled ... by the baby ! SNICKET 4 : Unfortunately , by the time Mr. Poe turned around , Stephano had already escaped . SCENE THE FIFTH SNICKET 1 : The children 's next guardian , Aunt Josephine , lived in a house held up by rickety stilts on the side of a cliff overlooking Lake Lachrymose ... SNICKET 2 : ... a complicated description which here means " not a very good idea , because it would soon be hit by a hurricane . " AUNT @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ! But do n't use the doorknobs , they might explode ! And do n't go near the refrigerator , it could fall and crush you ! SNICKET 3 : I 'm sorry to tell you that Aunt Josephine was terrified of nearly everything-except grammar . AUNT JOSEPHINE : Grammar is the greatest joy in life , do n't you find ? I 've been so lonely since my husband , Ike , was killed ... KLAUS : Was it a fire ? AUNT JOSEPHINE : Oh , no . He was eaten by the Lachrymose Leeches while swimming . SNICKET 4 : The next day the children were shopping with Aunt Josephine when Violet confronted her own worst fear ... VIOLET : Umph ! SNICKET 1 : ... an expression which here means , " Count Olaf dressed as a peg-legged fisherman . " CAPTAIN SHAM ( to Josephine ) : Forgive me for bumping into your sister . AUNT JOSEPHINE : Sister ? I 'm her guardian . CAPTAIN SHAIVI : But you 're so young ! Captain Sham , at your service . SNICKET 2 : Like liver-flavored @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make you want to throw up . VIOLET : But he 's not- AUNT JOSEPHINE : Children , I 'm inviting Captain Sham home for dinner . KLAUS : It 's Count Olaf ! AUNT JOSEPHINE : Do n't be rude to our guest ! Captain Sham and I will meet you at home . SCENE THE SIXTH SNICKET 3 : When they got back , the children found nothing but a broken window , a sinking feeling , and a very upsetting note . KLAUS : It says she 's jumped out the window , and she willed us to Captain Sham ! But it 's filled with grammatical errors . VIOLET : Aunt Josephine would never make mistakes like that . KLAUS : Wait-it 's a code . She 's hiding in Curdled Cave ! SNICKET 4 : This is the part of the play where a hurricane hits Aunt Josephine 's house , and you should probably stop reading . SNICKET 1 : Unless you want to know about the beam that snapped ... VIOLET : Run for it ! SNICKET 2 : ... the refrigerator that fell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : ... or the doorknobs that exploded . VIOLET : No way ! SNICKET 4 : Helped by another clever invention of Violet 's , the children barely escaped before the house fell off the cliff . SUNNY : Phew ! SONNY 'S TRANSLATOR : ... which meant , " That was close ! Now let 's find Aunt Josephine . " KLAUS : I 've read a few books on sailing . SCENE THE SEVENTH SNICKET 1 : As you probably know , children should never sail alone through hurricanes . But these were special circumstances . AUNT JOSEPHINE : Children , you found me ! I knew you 'd figure out my code . Olaf forced me to write that note ! SNICKET 2 : Sailing back to town with Aunt Josephine seemed like a good idea ... SNlCKET 3 : ... until the flesh-eating Lachrymose Leeches attacked . AUNT JOSEPHINE : We 're doomed ! VIOLET : Wait-there 's a boat in the distance . COUNT OLAF ( on the boat ) : Hello , Baudelaires ! Looks like you need help ! KLAUS : Olaf ! You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aunt Josephine tells everyone what you did . COUNT OLAF : Oh , really ? SNICKET 4 : I 'm sorry to tell you that Count Olaf grabbed the children and left Aunt Josephine to the mercy of the leeches . SNICKET 1 : Are you sure you want to continue reading this play ? SNICKET 2 : Very well . Suddenly , another boat appeared . MR . POE : Children , is that you ? COUNT OLAF : I saved them from the leeches ! MR . POE : I was wrong about you , Olaf . You 've proven yourself . If it was n't for you ... COUNT OLAF : Do n't say it ! Even their enormous inheritance would be a constant reminder of my heartache . MR . POE : Oh , you would n't get the fortune if anything happened to the children . That only applies to blood relatives and married couples . COUNT OLAF ( quietly ) : I think I have an idea for a play ... SCENE THE EIGHT SNICKET 3 : The Marvelous Marriage starred Count Olaf and Violet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Olaf will get our fortune if he marries you . VIOLET : But Klaus , this is just a play in Olaf 's backyard ! COUNT OLAF : Except that Justice Strauss from the City High Court is playing the justice of the peace . KLAUS : But Violet 's only 14 . She ca n't get married ! COUNT OLAF : She can if she has the permission of her guardian . And who 's that ? Me ! VIOLET : I 'll never say " I do ! " COUNT OLAF : Really ? ( into a walkie talkie ) Drop her . SNICKET 4 : Count Olaf had hatched his most dastardly scheme yet ... SNICKET 1 : ... a phrase which here means " he was holding baby Sunny in a cage hung from the top of his tower . " VIOLET : No ! Please ! I 'll do it ! KLAUS ( sneaking away ) : I have to stop this ... What would Violet do ? SNICKET 2 : Fortunately , Klaus invented a large hook using an old umbrella and climbed Olaf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went on . SNICKET 3 : Unfortunately , one of Count Olaf 's henchmen was waiting for him at the top . SNICKET 4 : Fortunately , Klaus was victorious , a word which here means " the henchman fell out the window . " SNICKET 1 : Unfortunately , it was too late . Onstage , Violet had already said " I do " and signed the marriage certificate . COUNT OLAF : Fortunately , that concludes our play . VIOLET : Stop ! It was n't a play ! Count Olaf was going to drop Sunny if I did n't go through with the wedding ! SNICKET 2 : The crowd gasped in horror , just as you are probably doing right now . MR . POE : You monster ! SNICKET 3 : Up in the tower , Klaus realized that the eye-shaped window was a giant magnifying glass for focusing the sun and burning things . SNICKET 4 : He turned it on the marriage certificate , which burst into flames . COUNT OLAF : Wha- ? No ! ! ! SNICKET 1 : Count Olaf 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your hopes up . COUNT OLAF : You think it 's over ? It 's not ! SNICKET 2 : Olaf 's henchmen pulled him up by wires attached to his costume , and he escaped by floating high above the audience 's heads . M. POE : I 'm sure he 'll never bodier you again . SUNNY : Yeahrite ! SUNNY 'S TRANSLATOR : ... which meant , " I 'm not so sure about that . " VIOLET : Me neither . KLAUS : Me neither . SNICKET 3 : I 'm sorry to tell you that the Baudelaires " lives would continue unhappily , filled with unfit guardians , villainous scoundrels , and bad classroom plays . SNICKET 4 : Would n't you rather read something else ? Photograph <p> We 're sure you wo n't want to find out what happens in the rest of this series . It is all very unpleasant and there will be no happy endings . So please do n't read the other eight books in the Lemony Snicket series ! <p> Photograph Most Unfortunate : Count Olaf ( Jim Carrey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fraud who 's after the Baudelaire orphans " money . Sidebar VOCABULARY PREVIEW As you read , look for context clues to learn these words : dastardly * device * foiled guardian * inheritance rickety * scoundrel underestimate * vile * villainous Photograph Klaus ( Liam Aiken ) and Violet ( Emily Browning ) meet Monty 's pet snake . Sidebar Unfo9rtunate Fact : The deadliest snake in the world is the Australian Fierce Snake . The venom from just one of its bites could kill 100 people or 250,000 mice . Photograph Does Stephano remind you of anyone ? ! Sidebar Unfortunate Event : America 's worst hurricane hit Galveston Island , Texas , in 1900 . It killed more than 6,000 people , and was the worst natural disaster in U.S. history . Photograph Aunt Josephine ( Meryl Streep ) ca n't see through Captain Sham . Sidebar Unfortunate Fact : Jawed leeches have many small teeth that they use like tiny saws to cut into skin . Photograph Wicked Olaf forces Violet to say " I do . " Sidebar Unfortunate Fact : Paper bursts into flame when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Unfortunate Events : Lemony Snicket has written 11 books about the Baudelaire orphans . The most recent is The Grim Grotto . He does not recommend that you read it . <p> 
##1010950 Peter Pan-the boy who never grew up-is one of the most famous characters in fantasy fiction . Meet writer James M. Barrie , the man behind Pan 's creation , on his journey toward Neverland . Based on the new movie Finding Neverland , in theaters November 12 , starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet . ADAPTED FOR SCOPE BY RACHEL WAUGH <p> Characters Write your initials next to the character you 're going to read . *Narrator 1 *Narrator 2 *James M. Barrie , a famous playwright *Charles ftohman , producer of Barrie 's plays *Sylvia Davies , a young-widow *Peter Davies , Sylvia 's third son *George Davies , Sylvia 's oldest son Jack Davie Sylvia 's second son Michael DavieS , Sylvia 's youngest son *Mrs . Du Maurier Doo MOR-ee-ay , Sylvia 's mother Actor , an actor in Barrie'splay Peter Pan Doctor *Starred characters are major roles . SCENE 1 NARRATOR 1 : A hundred years ago , in 1904 , a dull play is being performed in a London theater . NARRATOR 2 : The playwright , James Barrie , watches from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his forties . NARRATOR 1 : The audience fidgets and sighs . JAMES BARRIE : It 's like a dentist 's office out there ! NARRATOR 2 : Barrie turns to Charles Frohrnan , the producer . BARRIE : I 'm sorry , Charles . I know you put a lot of money into this . CHARLES FROHMAN : We need a new play , James . BARRIE : But I do n't have any ideas ! FROHMAN : You will . Just remember that it 's called a play . Do n't take it so seriously ! NARRATOR 1 : Frohman pats Barrie 's arm . SCENE 2 NARRATOR 2 : The next morning , Barrie heads for Kensington Gardens , a large public park . He brings his dog , Porthos . NARRATOR 1 : Barrie sits on a bench and opens his writing notebook . Porthos chases a ball . NARRATOR 2 : Suddenly Barrie feels a tug on his pant leg . He looks down and sees a small boy . MICHAEL : Excuse me , sir . You 're stepping on my sleeve . BARRIE : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : I 've been put in this dungeon by evil Prince George . NARRATOR 1 : Barrie joins in the game . BARRIE : I could slide you a key through the bars . NARRATOR 2 : Another boy appears . GEORGE : Is Michael bothering you ? BARRIE : Are you Prince George ? I understand you 're very harsh . Photograph James Barrie ( Johnny Depp ) is a famous playwright looking for inspiration . Find out what happens when he meets a family and a special young boy named Peter . <p> GEORGE : Not really . A firm ruler , that 's all . BARRIE : What was Michael 's crime ? GEORGE : He 's my younger brother . BARRIE : Fair enough . NARRATOR 1 : Porthos comes running , followed by another boy . JACK : Can we play with your dog ? GEORGE : This is Jack . NARRATOR 2 : The boys " mother walks over . BARRIE : Hello , I 'm James Barrie . SYLVIA : The J. M. Barrie , the famous author ? How nice to meet you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these boys yours ? SYLVIA : Yes-and I have one more . Where 's Peter ? GEORGE ( pointing ) : He 's under that tree , sulking as usual . NARRATOR 1 : Porthos runs over and licks Peter 's hand . Reluctantly , Peter pats the dog 's head . JACK : He 's been sad ever since our father died . BARRIE : I 'm sorry to hear that . NARRATOR 2 : He looks at Sylvia with concern . She smiles bravely . SYLVIA : Come , boys . Perhaps we 'll see you here again , Mr. Barrie ? BARRIE : I look forward to it . NARRATOR 1 : Barrie watches Sylvia and the boys leave the park . He feels happier than he has in a long time . SCENE 3 NARRATOR 2 : Barrie meets the Davies family almost every day in Kensington Gardens . NARRATOR 1 : They pretend to be pirates , or Indian warriors . Peter refuses to join in the fun . NARRATOR 2 : One breezy day , Barrie brings a kite . GEORGE : Ooh ! Can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ string and runs hard , but the kite dives into the grass . PETER : You 're going to break it , George . BARRIE : It needs a tail . I have an idea . Porthos , come here , boy ! NARRATOR 2 : Barrie removes a gleaming bell from Porthos 's collar and des it to a scarf , then onto the kite . BARRIE : Michael , you try . JACK : He 's too little . PETER : He ca n't run fast enough . BARRIE : He can do it if we all believe in him . You hold the kite , George . Michael , are you ready ? NARRATOR 1 : Michael runs with all his strength . Suddenly the kite leaps up , nearly pulling him with it . MICHAEL : I 'm flying ! Hurray ! NARRATOR 2 : The other boys run alongside Michael . GEORGE : Listen to that bell tinkle ! NARRATOR 1 : Barrie looks up and sees sunlight sparkling on the tinkling bell . For a moment nothing exists for him except the tiny dancing light @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Finally , Barrie has an idea for his next play . SCENE 4 NARRATOR 1 : Barrie sits down with his notebook and starts writing . Peter comes over . PETER ( shyly ) : Are you writing about the kite ? BARRIE : Yes ! How did you guess ? PETER : Well , if I were a writer , I 'd write about today . BARRIE : Maybe you are a writer , Peter . You could start by keeping a journal . NARRATOR 2 : Peter is happy , but very surprised by this idea . NARRATOR 1 : Later , Barrie walks the Davies family home . NARRATOR 2 : Mrs. Du Maurier , Sylvia 's strict mother , opens the door . She frowns at Barrie . MRS . DU MAURIER : Sylvia , you look exhausted . Children , wipe your feet ! NARRATOR 1 : She takes a coat hanger from the hall closet . MRS . DM : Coat please , Michael . Now that I 've come to live with you , there will be some discipline around here ! NARRATOR 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the coat hanger . Barrie pictures her as a hook-handed pirate and smiles . MRS . DM : Goodnight , Mr. Barrie . BARRIE : Goodnight everyone ! See you tomorrow . NARRATOR 1 : Mrs. Du Maurier closes the door . MRS . DM : How ridiculous-a grown man playing with children ! SYLVIA : He 's a good friend , mother . NARRATOR 2 : Mrs. Du Maurier shakes her head in disapproval . Sylvia begins to cough . MRS . DM : You need to rest-now . SCENE 5 NARRATOR 1 : In the park a few days later , Sylvia and Barrie watch the other boys play while Peter writes in his journal . SYLVIA : You mean so much to them , James . Especially to Peter-he misses his father , but he holds everything in . BARRIE : He 's trying to grow up too fast . I know what that 's like . When my older brother died , it was the end of my childhood . SYLVIA : How sad . BARRIE : Oh , no . Only part of me had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had to grow up at all . That part lives in a place called Neverland . SYLVIA : What 's it like , Neverland ? BARRIE : One day I 'll take you there . SCENE 6 NARRATOR 2 : The next day Frohman reads the play Barrie 's been writing in his notebook . FROHMAN : The main character is a fairy ? BARRIE : No , the main character 's a boy who stays young forever . Tinker Bell is the fairy . NARRATOR 1 : Frohman looks skeptical . FROHMAN : But how does he stay young forever ? BARRIE : He just believes , Charles . He imagines life the way he wants it to be , and he believes in it enough that it all appears before him . FROHMAN : So all I have to do is imagine life the way I want it to be , and think about it long enough and hard enough , and the money we 'll need to produce the play will appear before me ? BARRIE : Are we going to do it then ? FROHMAN : Ask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it , sir ? NARRATOR 2 : Barrie smiles , knowing Frohman will produce the play . SCENE 7 NARRATOR 1 : Later , Barrie visits the Davies family . There 's a curtain hung across the living room , creating a stage . NARRATOR 2 : Peter stands nervously in front of the curtain . PETER : We have a surprise for you-our very own theater ! We hope you enjoy our play , " The Sad Tale of Lady Ursula , " by Peter Davies . Um , it 's really silly . BARRIE : I love silly plays ! NARRATOR 1 : Peter reads the play from a notebook just like Barrie 's . PETER : One morning , Lady Ursula went to church . NARRATOR 2 : George enters dressed as Lady Ursula . Sylvia and Barrie laugh . PETER : Suddenly , a gargoyle on top of the church came to life and swooped down on her . NARRATOR 1 : Jack , dressed as a gargoyle , jumps out . George screams . NARRATOR 2 : Barrie and Sylvia start laughing even harder . Sylvia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . BARRIE : Peter , water , quick ! Jack , call a doctor ! SYLVIA ( coughing ) : No ! No doctors ! NARRATOR 1 : Sylvia goes upstairs to rest . The younger boys go to bed . PETER : Do n't tell me it 's only a cold . BARRIE : I do n't know what it is , Peter . PETER : I 'm sick of grownups lying to me ! She told me my father was going to take me on a fishing trip , and he died the next morning . BARRIE : I wo n't lie to you , I promise . PETER : No , you 'll just make up stupid stories . Well I wo n't ! NARRATOR 2 : Peter grabs his notebook and begins tearing it up . Sylvia comes downstairs . SYLVIA : Peter , your play ! All this fuss about a little cold ! NARRATOR 1 : Peter silently walks upstairs . BARRIE : Sylvia , I 've noticed you coughing before . You ca n't go on pretending nothing 's wrong . You 've got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " into this family . You showed us that we can change things by simply believing they are different . BARRIE : We can change some things , Sylvia , but not everything . SYLVIA : I want to keep pretending , James , right up to the end . NARRATOR 2 : Barrie hugs Sylvia while she cries . SCENE 8 NARRATOR 1 : The next day , Barrie , Frohman , and a group of actors meet at the theater to begin rehearsals . The Davies boys come to watch . NARRATOR 2 : Barrie hands out copies of his new play , Peter Pan . BARRIE : Peter Pan will " fly " using this . NARRATOR 1 : Barrie holds up a leather harness , which is attached to a rope . The actor playing Peter Pan gulps . NARRATOR 2 : Another actor points to a page in the script . ACTOR : I think there 's a mistake here , Mr. Barrie . It says I 'm supposed to be the nanny . BARRIE : You 're not a human nanny . You 're a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fluffy dog suit 's for you . NARRATOR 1 : The actor wonders if he chose the right career . FROHMAN ( kidding ) : He could play Tinker Bell too . BARRIE : No-Tinker Bell 's just a light that moves around the stage . NARRATOR 2 : The actors look at Barrie as if he 's gone crazy . NARRATOR 1 : Frohman pulls Barrie aside as they read . NARRATOR 2 : Meanwhile , George secretly climbs into the harness . FROHMAN : Picture this : Opening night . Doctors , lawyers , and businesspeople , all dressed up . They 've paid a lot for their tickets . The curtain opens , and they see a guy in a dog suit and a boy swinging on a rope ! BARRIE ( sadly ) : You 're right . They 'll never understand . NARRATOR 1 : Suddenly Barrie has an idea . BARRIE : On opening night , I want 25 seats set aside . FROHMAN : Not paid for ? BARRIE : I want them scattered through the theater-two here , two there . FROHMAN : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 'll be filled . Do n't worry . GEORGE ( yelling from above ) : I 'm flying ! NARRATOR 2 : Everyone looks up as George swoops over the stage in the harness . NARRATOR 1 : The rope is too long . Crash ! George hits the floor with a crunch . His arm breaks . NARRATOR 2 : George holds his throbbing arm and tries to smile . GEORGE : I think I 've found a way to get us all to the hospital . BARRIE : Peter , take Jack and Michael home . Tell your mother to meet us at the hospital . SCENE 9 NARRATOR 1 : Sylvia finds Barrie in the hospital waiting room . SYLVIA ( angrily ) : Was this your idea , James ? BARRIE : What ? SYLVIA : George wo n't allow them to set his arm until I agree to be examined by a doctor . NARRATOR 2 : Barrie shrugs . He 's secretly pleased . BARRIE : I guess you have to , then . NARRATOR 1 : Sylvia goes to be examined . NARRATOR 2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the waiting room . DOCTOR : Mr. Barrie , I have some bad news . Mrs. Davies has only a few weeks to live . BARRIE : Oh no ! NARRATOR 1 : Full of sadness , Barrie takes Sylvia and George home . SCENE 10 NARRATOR 2 : It is the opening night of Peter Pan . At the theater , Barrie nervously looks around for the Davies family , but they 're nowhere to be seen . NARRATOR 1 : Sylvia lies in bed . She is very sick . PETER : Mother , can I do anything ? SYLVIA : Go and see the play . . PETER : I ca n't do that . NARRATOR 2 : Sylvia points to Peter 's notebook . He opens it and sees that she has stuck all the ripped pages back together . SYLVIA : I 've never been so proud of you , Peter . Please go tonight . NARRATOR 1 : Peter hurries to the theater . SCENE 11 NARRATOR 2 : At the theater , the Davies 's seats are not the only ones that are empty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BARRIE : The seats will be filled , Charles . FROHMAN : Really ? Or are you just .. : imagining it ? BARRIE : Look ! NARRATOR 1 : A group of children walk into the theater with wide eyes . FROHMAN : Where did they come from ? BARRIE : The local orphanage . Come on , kids ! You 'll love this play ! NARRATOR 2 : As the children take their seats , Peter hurries in . NARRATOR 1 : The play begins . The actor in the dog suit bounds on stage . ACTOR : Woof , woof ! NARRATOR 2 : The adults in the audience raise their eyebrows , but the children laugh and wave at the dog . NARRATOR 1 : seeing the children 's reaction , the adults smile and start to enjoy the play . NARRATOR 2 : Everyone gasps in delight when Peter Pan " flies " onstage . NARRATOR 1 : In the back of the theater , Frohman watches the enchanted audience . FROHMAN ( quietly ) : A genius . NARRATOR 2 : The play is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days later , Sylvia dies . At her funeral , Mrs. Du Maurier talks to Barrie . MRS . DM : You and I are now the boys " guardians . I do n't know if you have the strength to stay and care for them . BARRIE : You think I could abandon those boys ? MRS . DM : You would n't be just a playmate , you know . You would be responsible for them . BARRIE : I understand that . MRS . DM : You 'll have to talk to me every day . BARRIE : I did n't think it would be easy . NARRATOR 2 : Mrs. Du Maurier laughs , then becomes serious again . MRS . DM : Your first job is to comfort Peter . NARRATOR 1 : Barrie goes to Peter and puts an arm around him . PETER : I miss mother so much . BARRIE : You can still see her , Peter . PETER : How ? BARRIE : With your imagination . NARRATOR 2 : Peter smiles though his tears . PETER : Yes , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mrs. Du Maurier , and the children walk home , sadly , but together . Epilogue NARRATOR 2 : Today , 100 years after his first appearance , Peter Pan continues to show up in theaters , books , and movies around the world , reminding us of the important power of fantasy . NARRATOR 1 : According to Barrie 's wishes , his play will always support needy children . Every time Peter Pan appears , money goes to a children 's hospital in London , to which Barrie donated his copyright in 1929 . Sidebar VOCABULARY PREVIEW : As you read , look for context clues to learn these words : reluctantly * gleaming * discipline * skeptical * enchanted Photograph Barrie ( Johnny Depp ) realizes that the kite needs a tail ! Sylvia ( Kate Winslet ) helps him along . Sidebar PLAY POINT : The play Peter Pan was first produced in London , England , on December 27 , 1904nearly 100 years ago ! Photograph Michael gets ready to fly as George holds the kite up . Sidebar PLAY POINT : In 1911 , J. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Wendy . It is now also published as Peter Pan . Photograph Barrie shares his notebook with Peter . Sidebar PLAY POINT : Peter 's last name is borrowed from Pan , the mischievous Greek god of the woodland . Photograph Sidebar PLAY POINT : Barrie 's dog , Porthos , was a Newfoundland , but often appears in Peter Pan movies as a St. Bernard . <p> 
##1010951 A young hero of a new novel discovers a fantastic land deep below New York City . <p> When Gregor 's baby sister , Boots , crawls down a grate in the laundry room of their New York City apartment building , he has to follow . Together , they hurtle into the dark Underland beneath the city . There they meet gentle , human-size cockroaches and evil , giant rats . Huge bats are transportation for the strange humans of this sunless place . In this excerpt from the novel , Gregor meets a haughty girl with purple eyes . Will she be a friend or a foe ? As you read , notice the vivid adjectives and sensory details author Suzanne Collins uses to make this odd world spring to life . Hands down , she was the strangest-looking person Gregor had ever seen . Her skin was so pale , he could see every vein in her body . He thought of the section on the human anatomy in his science book . Flip one page , see the bones . Next , the digestive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ At first he thought her hair was gray like his grandma 's , but that was n't right . It was really more of a silver color , like blond hair with a metallic tint . The hair was woven in an intricate braid down her back and was tucked into a belt at her waist . A thin band of gold encircled the girl 's head . It could have been some kind of hair band , but Gregor had a bad feeling it was a crown . When Gregor meets Luxa for the first time , Luxa is playing a game with bats and balls-but it 's nothing like baseball ! <p> When Gregor meets Luxa for the first time , Luxa is playing a game with bats and balls-but it 's nothing like baseball ! <p> He did n't want this girl to be in charge . He could tell by the upright way she held herself , by the slight smile at the left corner of her mouth , by the way she managed to be looking down at him even though he was a good six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attitude . That 's what his mom would say about certain girls he knew . " She 's got real attitude . " She would shake her head , but Gregor could tell she approved of these girls . Well , there was having attitude and then there was just being a total show-off . Gregor felt sure she 'd done a fancy flip off the bat completely for his benefit . One flip would have been plenty . It was her way to intimidate him , but he would n't be intimidated . Gregor looked straight into the girl 's eyes and saw that her irises were a dazzling shade of light purple . He held his ground . Gregor did n't know how long they might have stood there sizing each other up if Boots had n't intervened . She plowed into the girl , knocking her off balance . The girl staggered back a step and looked at Boots in disbelief . Boots grinned winningly and held up a pudgy hand . " Ball ? " she said hopefully . The young queen of the Underland has a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knee and held out the ball to Boots , but she kept her fingers wrapped tightly around it . " It is yours if you can take it , " she said in a voice like her eyes : cold , clear , and foreign . Boots tried to take the ball , but the girl did n't release it . Confused , she pulled on the girl 's fingers . " Ball ? " The girl shook her head . " You will have to be stronger or smarter than I am . " Boots looked up at the girl , registered something , and poked her right in the eye . " Pu-ple ! " she said . The girl jerked back , dropping the ball . Boots scrambled after it and scooped it up . Gregor could n't resist . " I guess she 's smarter , " he said . It was a little mean , but he did n't like her messing with Boots that way . The girl narrowed her eyes . " But not you . Or you would not say such things to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : She was royalty . Now she 'd probably chop off his head or something . Still , he felt it would be bad if he acted scared . Gregor shrugged . " No , if I 'd known you were a queen , I 'd probably have said something a lot cooler . " " " Cool-er ? " she said , raising her eyebrows . " Better , " said Gregor , for lack of a cooler word . The girl decided to take it as an apology . " I will forgive it as you are not knowing . What are you called , Overlander ? " " My name is Gregor . And that 's Boots , " he said , pointing to his sister . " What 's your name ? " " I am Queen Luxa , " said the girl . " Louk-za ? " said Gregor , trying to get the odd inflection right . " What means this , what the baby says ? Pu-ple ? " she asked . " Purple . It 's her favorite color . And your eyes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explained Gregor . Boots heard the word and came over holding up her palms , which were still dyed purple from the marker . " Pu-ple ! " " I have never seen brown before . Not on a human , " said Luxa , staring into Boots 's eyes . " Or this . " She caught Boots 's wrist and ran her fingers over the silky , light brown skin . " It must need much light . " NO-SWEAT TEST PREP 1 . What does this metaphor mean ? " This girl was a walking circulatory system . " ( figurative language ) A The girl was walking in circles . B It was obvious she was a queen . C She looked like a page from Gregor 's anatomy textbook come to life . D She had a system for dealing with people from the Overland . 2 . Why does Luxa drop the ball ? ( cause and effect ) A She is shocked to see brown eyes . B She wants Boots to catch it . C Boots pokes her in the eye . D @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gregor feel about Luxa ? ( analyzing character ) A He thinks she 'll become a good friend . B He thinks she is arrogant and cold . C He dislikes girls in general . D He enjoys meeting royalty . Writer 's Toolbox Descriptive writing aims to show as well as tell . Find three places in this excerpt where Collins uses visual details to help readers see the Underland through Gregor 's eyes . You have been transported to another world . Your hosts want to know all about your school back on Earth . Write a paragraph describing everything you see , hear , smell , taste , and touch in a typical day ! TEACHERS : For a rubric on descriptive writing , see the Teacher 's Edition . Photograph Sidebar AUTHOR INFO Meet Suzanne Collins Suzannne Collins has written for children 's TV for years . Gregor the Overlander and its sequel , Gregor and the Prophecy of the Bane , are her first novels . Q. How did you get the idea lor Gregor ? A. I 'd been walking around New York City thinking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a boy falling down , down , down beneath the city and encountering a giant cockroach . Q. Why do you write for young adults ? A. Young people are the best audience possible . They will consider new ideas . Q. What do you like to read ? A. I am crazy about Greek mythology . The people and the gods experience a wide range of human emotions in a magical world . -David Marc Fischer <p> 
##1010953 PLAY : Understanding literary devices Headnote Rudy 's all ready for his first date-or is he ? Everyone 's giving him advice , but what he really needs is some cash to pay for dinner . Based on a play by the award-Winning YA author . Adapted for Scope by Rachel Waugh . <p> Rudy 's looking forward to his date with Patricia . So are his mom , his best friend , Alex , and his Uncle Juan ! Read on to find out what happens . <p> SCENE 1 NARRATOR 1 : It 's summertime and school 's out . Rudy and his best friend , Alex , are hanging out in Rudy 's backyard in Fresno , California . NARRATOR 2 : Rudy , a ninth-grader , has made a date with Patricia , who 's in eleventh grade . He 's nervous , so he asks Alex for advice . RUDY : What am I going to talk about ? She 's older than me and good-looking . ALEX : Just level with her . Tell her you 're sorry you look the way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marc Antony ? You 're no help at all . ALEX : Just joking , Rudy . Break the ice . Ask her what her favorite color is . I picked up that little secreto from Mama Rosa . RUDY : That lady who gives advice on the radio ? ALEX : That 's right . Just ask , " What 's your favorite color ? " RUDY : She wo n't think I 'm weird ? ALEX : No , she 'll say something like " green " or " pink . " RUDY : And I 'll tell her my favorite color is blue . ALEX : There you go . Just be cool . RUDY : Cool ... ALEX : Like an iceberg . SCENE 2 NARRATOR 1 : Rudy becomes pensive . RUDY : I ca n't believe Fm going out with a girl in the eleventh grade . Do you know what I was doing yesterday ? I was playing with G.I. Joes with my little cousin . Man , it was fun . G.I. Joe was beating up Ken , and Barbie was watching . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ RUDY : But I have another problem . I told Patricia I was taking her to Steaks , Steaks , and More Steaks . ALEX : Those burgers cost twice as much as McDonald 's ! RUDY : How much do you think I 'll need ? ALEX : At least $15 . RUDY : Fifteen dollars ! NARRATOR 1 : The friends think hard . How can Rudy pay for his date with Patricia ? SCENE 3 NARRATOR 2 : Patricia is at her friend Alicia 's house . ALICIA : You 're so lucky you have a date . PATRICIA : Rudy is taking me to Steaks , Steaks , and More Steaks ! ALICIA : Wow . You get a hamburger , and you get to fall in love , too . PATRICIA : He 's so considerate . He gives me extra chili beans when he serves me in the cafeteria . ALICIA : Wait a minute-Rudy 's the little kid who works in the cafeteria ? Is n't he in ninth grade ? PATRICIA : So ? ALICIA : So , he probably still carries his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are modern times , Alicia . Anyway , it 's just a date . Life is so strange ... a couple of years ago I was playing with Barbie and Ken , and making Ken kiss Barbie . ALICIA : Yeah , I had a Barbie too . My stupid brother cut all her hair off . How are you going to wear your hair on your date , by the way ? PATRICIA : I 'm going to get it done at the House of Beauty ! NARRATOR 1 : The girls continue talking about the big date . SCENE 4 NARRATOR 2 : That evening , Rudy and his mom are in the living room . RUDY : Mom , who was your first boyfriend ? MOM : I had only one boyfriend-your papi . RUDY : Mom , level with me . I was born 14 years ago . I know a lot . MOM : Why do you want to know these things ? RUDY : I 'm going out with a girl tomorrow . MOM : What ? ! RUDY : I told her I would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ borrow 15 bucks ? MOM : Hold on ! Who 's this girl ? RUDY : Her name is Patricia . She 's really , really cute . But she 's a little older than me . MOM : How much older ? RUDY : Well , she 's 16 . MOM : Sixteen ! RUDY : Come on , Mom , you 're older than Papi . MOM : But I look younger . RUDY : Much younger . How about 10 dollars ? I 'll pay you back when I get a job . MOM : Sure you will . You 'll get married and move away and never think of your mami ever again . RUDY : Mom , I 'm just going for a hamburger . MOM : If you go on this date , I want you to be a gentleman . RUDY : Was Dad a gentleman when you were dating ? MOM : Of course . Your papi is an upstanding man . Just like you . RUDY : Thanks , Mom . MOM : This is a good country . We 've built @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cement truck and I have my chair at the House of Beauty . And one day you 'll go to college . NARRATOR 1 : She examines Rudy 's hair . MOM : But first I think you need a cut ... NARRATOR 2 : Mom goes to find her scissors . SCENE 5 NARRATOR 1 : Rudy 's Uncle Juan wanders in strumming his guitar . He has long hair and a tie-dyed T-shirt . JUAN : Rudy-tudy ! ? Que ? as a ? RUDY ( glumly ) : Hey , Uncle Juan . JUAN : Why the long face ? RUDY : I do n't have any money for my date . JUAN : No problem , Rudy . Your Uncle Juan will help you . NARRATOR 2 : Mom returns with her scissors . JUAN : Hey , Sis , how are things ? Can you lend me a twenty ? MOM : First Rudy , and now you ! Juan , it 's about time you got a job . JUAN : I got a job . The money 's not for me , it 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Rudy 's mom opens her purse and gives Rudy a 10-dollar bill . RUDY : Thanks , Mom . MOM : It 's all clean . It went through the wash . It was in your papi 's pants . Rudy , get ready for your haircut . NARRATOR 2 : Rudy goes to the bathroom to wet his hair . MOM : Did you really get a job , Juanito ? JUAN : Sure ! I 'm playing guitar at Steaks , Steaks , and More Steaks . I start tomorrow ! * SCENE 6 * NARRATOR 1 : Down die road , a famous radio DJ named El Gato is at his microphone . A woman wearing a bright scarf on her head sits next to him . GATO : Hola ! Hello to everyone out there in radiolandia . Today we have a special guest 011 station Uno Dos Tres-the Doctor of Love , Mama Rosa . Mama Rosa , what makes opposites attract ? ROSA : The moon lining up with Venus ... GATO : That sounds pretty spacey . How about some romance tips we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If a woman is staring at a man while adjusting her purse strap , she wants money . GATO : Is that so ? ROSA : S , seor . And if a man is staring at a woman while she 's eating a burrito , it 's obvious he just wants her to cook for him . GATO : Wow ! This is valuable information . So , if staring is no good , how do we get people together ? ROSA : Bingo . GATO : What ? ROSA : That 's right . You meet the nicest people playing bingo . GATO ( surprised ) : Bingo . OK . Let 's have some music ... NARRATOR 2 : El Gato plays the love song " Te Amar. " * SCENE * NARRATOR 1 : At the House of Beauty , Rudy 's mom is combing the hair of her close friend and customer Estela . " Te Amar " plays in the background . MOM : What color do you want your hair this time ? ESTELA : Red . Redheads have more fun . MOM : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attitude . ESTELA ( angrily ) : I do n't have an attitude . My first three husbands had attitudes . I 'm as sweet as pie . MOM : I mean your personality . It does n't matter what you look like . Your inner self is what counts . ESTELA : If that 's true , what are you doing in the beauty business ? MOM ( laughing ) : Well , we all want beautyand , every now and " then , to fall in love . NARRATOR 2 : Mom puts a big squirt of dye on Estela 's hair . MOM : I 'll rinse this off in 10 minutes . NARRATOR 1 : Patricia enters the salon . MOM : Buenos das , seorita . PATRICIA : Buenos das , seora . MOM : Please sit down . PATRICIA : Thanks . Can you give me curls ? MOM : Of course . Let me guess , you 're going on a date ? Is he cute ? PATRICIA : Yes , and sweet . He does n't smoke or cuss . NARRATOR 2 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He sounds like a decent boy . PATRICIA : He is , but he 's younger than me . NARRATOR 1 : Mom rinses Patricia 's hair . ESTELA : Stay away from younger men . They usually have bad credit . MOM : Age is nothing . What 's important is personality . NARRATOR 2 : Mom rinses Estela 's hair , then begins winding Patricia 's hair around curling rods . PATRICIA : That 's what I told my friend Alicia . Rudy 's smart too , for a boy . MOM ( surprised ) : Rudy ? Does he go to Roosevelt High ? PATRICIA : How did you know ? MOM : A lucky guess . Are you sure you should go out with him ? He is younger . ESTELA ( making trouble ) : I thought you said it was OK to date younger guys ! MOM : Estela , go sit under the dryer . Does he have a nice family ? PATRICIA : Yes , but he says his mother is overprotective . MOM ( annoyed ) : Really ? Did he say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . Ouch ! NARRATOR 1 : Mom winds Patricia 's hair too tightly around the curler . MOM ( to herself ) : Already he 's forgotten his mami ! PATRICIA : What ? MOM : Never mind . NARRATOR 2 : Patricia sits under a dryer . Estela comes out from under the other dryer . Her hair is bright red . ESTELA : I like it . It 's got attitude ! NARRATOR 1 : While Patricia is under the noisy dryer , Mom and Estela make a plan ... * SCENE 8 * NARRATOR 2 : The next day is the big day . Rudy and Patricia walk into Steaks , Steaks , and More Steaks . Rudy turns away from Patricia and nervously counts his money . He quickly puts his wallet away as the waiter approaches . WAITER : Sir , " Miss , please take a seat . NARRATOR 1 : The waiter hands them menus . PATRICIA : How romantic . Look , a guitarist ! NARRATOR 2 : Rudy sees that it 's his Uncle Juan , who waves at him . Rudy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . RUDY : He 's OK .... That 's a cute cat pin you 're wearing , Patricia . PATRICIA : Thanks . I got it when I was 8 . That 's when we got my cat . RUDY : What 's your cat 's name ? PATRICIA : Novio Boy . RUDY : You mean , like , " Sweetheart Boy " ? PATRICIA : Yes , because lots of girl cats find him adorable . NARRATOR 1 : The waiter approaches . WAITER : Have you decided yet ? PATRICIA : I 'll have the Texas burger with jalapeno cheese , jumbo fries , a chocolate milkshake , a caesar salad with garlic dressing , and a large root beer . NARRATOR 2 : Rudy frowns at the prices on the menu . RUDY : Crackers and a small diet soda , please . WAITER : Thank you . I 'll be right back with your food . NARRATOR 1 : Juan strolls over to their table , playing a love song . He whispers hola to Rudy . RUDY ( whispering ) : Uncle , what are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my new job . Here , Rudy , this might help . NARRATOR 2 : He slips Rudy a couple of crumpled dollar bills . RUDY ( whispering ) : Thanks , Uncle . NARRATOR 1 : Rudy and Patricia chat as they wait for their food . * SCENE 9 * NARRATOR 2 : Alex appears in the restaurant , wearing dark glasses . He sits near Rudy and Patricia . NARRATOR 1 : Patricia 's beeper goes off . PATRICIA : It 's Alicia . I wo n't be long , Rudy . NARRATOR 2 : Patricia goes to the payphone . RUDY ( to Alex ) : She ordered everything on the menu ! And do n't look , but my uncle 's playing the guitar ! ALEX : So how 's the conversation going ? RUDY : I told her I liked her hair . ALEX : That 's good . RUDY : Then I said she had a big mouth , but in a good way . ALEX : OK , enough about her looks . Talk about her personality . Girls like that . NARRATOR @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's shirt pocket . RUDY : You 're the best , Alex . NARRATOR 2 : Patricia returns . At the next table , Alex ducks behind his menu . PATRICIA : Is he a friend of yours ? RUDY : Kind of . Patricia , you 've got a ... unique personality . I mean you 're not stuck up . You 're willing to go out with a boy who ... PATRICIA : What ? RUDY : Who still has his G.I. Joes . PATRICIA : Rudy , that 's cute ! NARRATOR 1 : The waiter brings their food . Patricia shares her burger with Rudy . * SCENE 10 * NARRATOR 2 : Rudy 's mom and Estela enter the restaurant . They see Rudy , but he does n't see them . NARRATOR 1 : Juan waves to the two women , and puts his finger to his lips . They sit behind Rudy , so they can hear everything . RUDY : Patricia , you look like a mermaid . MOM ( whispering to Estela ) : A mermaid ? RUDY : Your eyelashes blow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ romantico ! How romantic ! PATRICIA : Do you know those two women sitting behind us ? NARRATOR 2 : Rudy turns around and sees his mom . RUDY ( glaring ) : No , I never saw them before . PATRICIA : Let 's dance , Rudy . RUDY : I 'm too full . PATRICIA : Come on . No one 's watching us . NARRATOR 1 : Patricia tries to pull Rudy closer , but he struggles to keep her at arm 's length as his morn watches . NARRATOR 2 : When they sit down again , the waiter comes over . WAITER : Your bill , sir . RUDY : Thank you . NARRATOR 1:Rudy gulps when he sees the bill . But thanks to his mom , Juan , and Alex , he has just enough cash . PATRICIA : Next time , I 'll treat you . I had a lot of fun , Rudy . RUDY : Me too . You do n't mind that I 'm younger ? PATRICIA : Of course not . NARRATOR 2 : Patricia gives Rudy a kiss @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NARRATOR 1 : Everyone hurries over to Rudy 's table . RUDY : Mom , you were snooping ! MOM : What-are you ashamed of your mami ? RUDY : No , I just need some privacy ! JUAN : S. We have to give him a little space . MOM : She 's a nice girl . ESTELA : And pretty . MOM : My little boy is growing up ! RUDY : But she wiped me out for the rest of ninth grade . JUAN : You can pay me back later . ALEX : But me first ! RUDY : I 'm going to have a yard sale , so I can pay you all back . ALEX : What are you going to sell ? RUDY : My G.I. Joes-and my Ninja Turtle lunch box . ALEX : I 'll help you out . I 've got some stuff under my bed . RUDY : Thanks , man . ALEX ( winking ) : Hey , it 's tough being a " novio boy . " MOM : Let 's celebrate . Rudy survived his first date @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next to the character you 're going to read . *Narrator 1 *Narrator 2 *Rudy , a ninth-grader *Alex , Rudy 's best friend *Patricia , an eleventh-grader Alicia , Patricia 's best friend *Mom , Rudy 's mother *Uncle Juan , Rudy 's uncle *El Gato , a DJ Mama Rosa , a fortune teller *Este la , a friend of Rudy 's mom Waiter *Starred characters are major roles . VOCABULARY PREVIEW : As you read , look for context clues to learn these words : pensive * considerate * upstanding * obvious * unique Sidebar SPANISH GLOSSARY Use this glossary and pronunciation key as you go along : * secreto seh-KREH-toh , secret * Papi PAH-pee , Dad * Mami MAH-mee , Mom * uno , dos , tres OO-noh , DOHS , TRESS , one , two , three * seor/seora sen-YOHR , sen-YOH-rah , sir , ma'am * seorita sen-yoh-REE-tah , miss * el gato el GAH-toh , the cat *te amar TAY ah-niah-REH , I will love you * buenos dia : BWE-nos DEE-ahs , good morning ( hello ) * novio NOH-vee-oh , sweetheart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , what 's happening ? qu romntico ! KEH roh-MAN-tee-coh , how romantic ! * radiolandia RAH-dee-oh-LAN-dee-ah , radio land *Ay , muchacho ! EYE moo-CHAH-choh , Oh , boy ! <p> Alicia is surprised that Patricia 's date is only 14 ! Sidebar PLAYPOINT : Solo has published more than 30 books , including novels , short stories , and poems . He 's won more than 15 writing awards . <p> Uncle Juan shares his talent for music-and for borrowing money . Sidebar PLAY POINT : When Solo was 5 , his father died . His mother was left to raise her three children : Gary , his brother , Rick , and sister , Debra . <p> Little does Patricia know , her hairdresser is her date 's mother ! Sidebar PLAY POINT : One of Soto 's novels , Buried Onions , is being made into a major motion picture ! Watch for it in 2005 . <p> What is each character doing in this scene ? Sidebar PLAYPOINT : Soto 's most recent book , The Afterlife , is narrated by the ghost of a murdered @ @ @ 
##1011853 8:46 a.m . It is taking Annie longer to settle the twins in front of TV than she planned . Hannah wants her breakfast toast in triangles , while Esther does n't want hers toasted at all , but the bread is frozen , so Annie has laid Esther 's slices atop the warm toaster and bends towards the heat counting seconds , one one thousand , two one thousand ... She 's learned that precisely four seconds on each side will produce bread that is thawed but still cool , almost like fresh from the store . <p> Annie will not be going to the store today , nor taking the girls to pre-school although they 've asked why not -- what holiday is it ? -- will there be matzah balls ? Usually holidays have craft projects at school -- pink Mother 's Day cards just last week , surely Father 's Day cards in June although the teachers try to be sensitive . <p> " Bake now , " the girls insist , remembering helping make Hamentaschen for Purim back in March , while Annie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just choose . They stand in their underwear -- that 's as far as they 've gotten -- hands on hips , staring at Annie through slivered-almond eyes . They made unusual Queen Esthers at the temple Purim party -- honey-skinned Korean girls in a sea of frizzy hair and freckles . At the store , obnoxious people still stop to ask Are they yours ? <p> Neither girl has brushed her teeth , and Annie is still in what passes lately for pajamas , sweats and one of Bryan 's old Penn tees , wrapped in a ridiculous lacy robe she bought for the hospital one of the times they tried for a baby . The tee is paint-speckled , which would have pissed Bryan off . She sleeps in work clothes now , the line between asleep and awake comfortably blurred . <p> Annie is a quilter , but not like the quilts her great-grandma used to sew on the pedal machine in her basement tailor shop in East New York . Annie once quilted yards of silk she 'd painted with golden rooftops of Jerusalem . Another time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tags . Lately , she 's working on a series she calls list quilts , using fabric markers to sort her life into orderly lists , then covering all with intricate geometric patterns of stitching -- order from chaos . <p> 9:03 a.m . Annie finally makes her way to the living room , although living room seems a misnomer nowadays . Work -- once confined to what was the spare bedroom before the twins -- has taken over , quilts in various stages of completion , furniture pushed aside to make room for a cutting table and quilting frames , even a small printing press purchased with some of the money . <p> From her stool , Annie eyes the girls on the couch in what used to be the dining room , dismantled dining table in the basement now , holidays back at her mother 's . They have Sesame Street on TV -- she taped the 7:00a.m. show in anticipation . Their plates -- toast and non-toast -- spill crumbs onto the carpet . No breakfast for Annie today , just a glass of orange juice while she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ healing qualities of vitamin C. <p> By the time she 's retrieved the portable TV from the kitchen , located an outlet to plug it in , and clicked it on , she 's missed the beginning of the broadcast , does n't know who 's talking . She thought the hearing was scheduled to start at 9:00 but could have gotten that wrong . The man 's voice is steady and even , like the tiny stitches she begins adding to the layered muslin stretched before her , but his words pummel her body like falling bricks . <p> He 's talking about the South Tower , as if the delivery of the report has been synchronized to the actual events . And there is the video , which Annie has seen so often it is seared inside her eyelids , materializing when she closes her eyes in bed , trying for sleep . Like the photo of Bryan she 's scanned and digitized onto the fabric in front of her -- faded shades of brown , like a daguerreotype of one of her stern Russian ancestors . Bryan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miracle of cyberspace . Cyberspace is one of the things Annie used to have faith in , unlike her mother , who 'll send an e-mail then phone to see if she 's received it . <p> " Airplane , " Hannah calls out . <p> " Fuck , " Esther responds . <p> Annie opens her eyes . Have they caught sight of her TV ? Sesame Street was intended to hold their attention . No , it 's just the Count counting vehicles -- cars , trains , airplanes -- even Sesame Street is synchronized this morning . Esther has trouble with initial consonant blends , can not say truck . Fuck , Annie silently agrees . Fuck , fuck , fuck . <p> Smoke rises on TV , and flames , and indescribable things falling from great heights , as if any moment now the parachutes will open . And the droning voice : <p> They agreed to wait for the FDNY to arrive before determining whether to evacuate the South Tower . According to one fire chief , it was unimaginable , " beyond our consciousness , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this man with a face as blank as the TV screen if she crawled under her work table to yank the plug from the wall ? Where are Katie and Matt when Annie needs them , perky and reliable , Katie flashing her shiny-lipstick smile across the screen every morning ? How does she keep smiling like that , after all she 's been through ? <p> Annie tries to ignore the telephone . The machine will pick up after seven rings . They used to have it set on four . Before the girls , she and Bryan could always reach the phone by four rings , unless they were making love . What if it 's important ? Annie 'd say . What if it 's your mother ? Bryan would reply , lifting his tongue from her nipple or pausing mid-thrust . <p> Annie 's mother works at home , too , at her kitchen table , writing travel stories ( gleaned from the Internet , not from actual travel ) and comic essays that run next to real estate ads in the local weekly . She says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inordinate amount of time watching daytime television , calling Annie with tips from morning talk shows . <p> " Are you watching ? " Annie 's mother says now . <p> " I 'm trying , Mom . Until you called . " <p> " Do n't watch . You should n't even be home . You should be taking the girls to school , like an ordinary day . " <p> " Then why did you call ? " <p> " Because I knew you 'd be watching . " Her mother has become a font of mixed messages , questioning why Annie never went to temple Friday nights to say kaddish while simultaneously advocating mind over matter , positive thinking . <p> Annie hangs up , grasps her glass . There is vodka in her orange juice , just this once , and an ache beginning to form at the base of her stomach like she 's getting her period , her relentless period . <p> On an early list quilt , Annie commemorated the trip to Korea she and Bryan had planned to pick up the twins . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pampers <p> formula <p> ten-dollar bills <p> Travel : <p> 27 hours <p> 2 plane changes <p> 9 bottles water <p> 2 mini-bottles red wine <p> 2 sleeping pills <p> 11 bathrooms <p> 3 weeks in Korea ( unfamiliar as the moon ) <p> Except all this was imaginary , patched together from : <p> newspapers <p> TV <p> Internet chats <p> magazine articles in supermarket checkout lines <p> In real life , Annie and Bryan played it safe , paid an exorbitant amount -- highway robbery her mother said -- to have the twins delivered to JFK by adoption courier , a small neat woman with graying hair and an aura of calm , the epitome of a grandma . Here 's what Annie brought to the airport : <p> 2 car seats with pink gingham covers <p> Pampers , sizes 1 and 2 <p> 2 stuffed pandas ( a gift from her mother who seemed to think the girls were coming from China ) <p> 2 pairs of arms to hold her babies <p> And what she forgot : <p> Pampers newborns ( naturally , she guessed wrong ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for parents <p> extra pair of arms ( her mother 's , perhaps ? ) <p> " They 'll get used to us , " Bryan said that day , speeding home up I-95 , Annie in the back wedged between squalling wraiths in plastic seats . Hannah barfed , and Annie held out her hand to catch , nearly barfed herself . Then Esther pooped a yellow-green slime out her too-large diaper and down her legs , soaking the sleeper she 'd arrived in and her pretty gingham seat cover . <p> " What were we thinking ? " Annie cried . <p> " We 'll go one-on-one , " Bryan soothed . " Man-to-man defense . " <p> Then he swung into the Darien rest stop , carried Esther under her armpits to the men 's room , came back with her washed and swaddled in his T-shirt , her feet through the armholes , the big blue PENN upside down , PE up one leg , NN down the other . He stuck to the speed limit the rest of the way home , driving bare-chested , brown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the list below Bryan 's face on the quilt in front of Annie today : <p> 6 months ( how old the twins were when they came ) <p> 1 month ( how long they had Bryan for a Daddy ) <p> 2 years , 8 months , 11 days ( without Bryan ) <p> This is her attempt at facts , basic essentials , the truth . Except the minute she recorded the last -- in indelible ink -- it was already wrong , because it changes every day . What was that called back in high school algebra ? A variable , the number that always eluded her . <p> Around 9:15 a.m . A different man on TV now : <p> As we were about to exit the building through the turnstile , the security guard looks at me and says , " Where are you going ? " I said , " Well , I am going home . " " Why ? " " I saw fire-balls coming down . " " No , your building is safe and secure . Go back to your office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ words he says . He 's looking straight into the camera , his face real , not an illusion of cyberspace . He must have gone home , must not have believed . Annie picks up a marker , pens safe next to Bryan 's face , secure , a list of important s words ... <p> semblance <p> story <p> sham <p> In the un-dining room , Hannah sleeps on the couch , wet thumb slipped out onto her chin . Esther has gone to pee ; Annie listens for the flush . <p> " I thought you were going out , " her mother says , second call of the morning . <p> " Then why do you keep calling ? " Annie takes a slug of OJ , bitter and sweet . How long has Esther been in the bathroom ? " Estie ? " she hollers . " You all right in there ? " Hannah rolls over on the couch . Big Bird 's squeaky voice worries about something on the kids ' TV . Esther has diarrhea sometimes , does n't allow help wiping . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nothing 's wrong . I 'm hanging up now . " <p> " If you do n't want to talk , why do you keep picking up ? " Then , as if remembering who she 's talking to , " Do you want me to come over ? I could come . " She 's switched to her careful voice that makes babies sleep and repairmen come on time . <p> " Do n't come . " <p> Annie was alone that day , too , except for the girls . Alone is never quite the same after children . She 'd finally settled them into their swings in front of a Baby Einstein video , was just stepping into the shower when she heard the phone and ignored it , let the machine pick up . I 'm OK she heard Bryan say into the tape . Funny how any conversation that begins with I 'm OK must really mean I 'm not OK . By the time she reached the phone , there was only a dial tone and a trail of wet footprints across the carpet . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the same conflicting advice . " Is your TV on ? Do n't turn it on . Oh my God , did you see that ? Do n't watch . " And finally , " I 'll be there in five minutes , " even though on any other day the drive would take fifteen . <p> " What are you doing right this minute ? " her mother says now . <p> " Trying to work , but I 'm a little distracted . " <p> " By the TV , right ? " <p> " No , by you , Mom . Why are n't you working ? " Annie listens for the telltale tapping of her mother 's fingers on her kitchen-table laptop . " You 're not writing this down , are you ? " she says , " for one of your stories ? " <p> " Who 'd believe such a story ? " <p> The TV timeline , at first orderly , minute-by-minute , is now as chaotic and disorienting as when it really happened . The vodka in Annie 's orange juice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pierce her skin when she least expects it . <p> By 9:30 a.m. , a number of civilians who had failed to reach the roof and could not descend because of intensifying smoke became trapped on the 105th floor . <p> But then : <p> At approximately 9:07 a.m. , two chiefs commenced operations in the South Tower lobby . <p> Then : <p> At 9:50 a.m. , a ladder company had made its way up to the 70th floor ... <p> And then , somehow : <p> At 9:06 a.m. , the NYPD Chief of Department instructed that no units were to land on the roof ... <p> And then : <p> At 9:37 A.M. , a civilian on the 106th floor of the South Tower reported to a 9-1-1 operator that a lower floor -- " 90-something floor " -- was collapsing . <p> Outside , a lawnmower roars past . To the gardener , today is just another Tuesday . Annie raises the TV volume . If she can hear better , perhaps the words will make sense . Next to Bryan 's face she begins marking her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> He overslept after being up with the girls ' croup <p> His train broke down outside Grand Central <p> He stayed in Connecticut that day for a job interview <p> Bryan had promised to switch jobs closer to home , but had n't gotten around to it yet . <p> 9:59. a.m . The South Tower has fallen , windows peeling down like runs on a stocking . There 's a smell of something burnt in the air -- last night 's macaroni and cheese ? In the background , Elmo 's voice signals Sesame Street is ending . <p> Hannah appears in the doorway . Annie mutes the sound , ca n't tear her eyes from the un-muted picture . <p> " Where 's Esther ? " Hannah inquires . <p> " In the bathroom . " If Annie looks at her , she 'll have to turn the TV off . <p> " No she 's not . " <p> " Yes she is . " <p> " I just peed . She 's not . " <p> " The upstairs bathroom ? " <p> " No . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's glass . <p> " Later . " Annie gulps down what 's left of her drink . <p> " Front door 's open . " <p> If no one is in the house to see , does the picture flickering across the TV screen still exist ? <p> Annie is out the door , calling for Esther , before the needle she 's left swinging from its thread comes to rest . The lawnmower passes through the front yard , a thundering tractor trailing razor-edged blades spinning so fast you ca n't see them , but you know they 're there . Tom the gardener rides atop his perch , industrial earmuffs cradling his ears . " Esther ! " Annie shrieks , " Estieeeee ! " Tom does n't flinch , rides on past as if she does n't exist . <p> A tug on her robe and Annie scoops up Hannah . Before kids , could she have imagined the nearly weightless sensation of a sole three-year-old in her arms ? Hannah mouths words Annie ca n't hear , then touches a sticky hand to Annie 's cheek @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is Esther , two doors down , in Rita Rubin 's yard . Annie did n't know all the neighbors by name before that day . Rita Rubin has thinning hair , never the same after chemo , and a Chihuahua named Max . <p> Esther squats in Rita Rubin 's grass , a small brown boulder in white panties and undershirt . Intent on what she 's doing , she does n't see Annie and Hannah until they are upon her . She 's picking Rita Rubin 's fresh-planted pansies , plucking at the roots , counting ... four , five , a hundred ... " For you , Mommy , " she smiles , holding up a bouquet of velvety purple , yellow of the sun . <p> Bryan called twice that morning . Once to leave his I 'm OK message . A second time , which Annie grabbed on the first ring , to say he 'd gotten out , down all those stairs , but was going back up . " Do n't worry , " he said . " They said we 're safe here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Annie made her first list quilt two weeks later , on Yom Kippur , a list of sins her fellow congregants in temple recited aloud while symbolically beating their chests , asking God 's forgiveness : <p> For the sins we have committed against You with the <p> utterance of our lips <p> For the sins we have committed against You by <p> foolish speech <p> By deception and falsehood <p> By insincerity <p> By talebearing ... <p> Nearly three pages of sins , and more than a dozen involving words of the mouth . So many different ways to not tell the truth . Annie had sat in the pew next to her mother , Esther and Hannah squirming on her lap , unable to say the words . Then she went home and took out her fabric markers , began making a list . <p> 10:29 a.m . Annie carries Esther and Hannah home . " Hold on , " she says . They are heavy but balanced , arms wrapped around her neck . The sun glistens off the flat planes of their cheeks , the shiny black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are related to the Jews , the lost tribe . But then she also says Native Americans are the lost tribe . And she calls them Chinese and Indians because she 's just quoting her own grandmother , paying homage , not really believing . There 's truth , and then there 's story . <p> " Look , Mommy , " Esther says , letting go with one hand to point , as Tom the gardener rides his tractor up a ramp into the back of his truck . " Fuck ... one fuck , " she counts happily . <p> At just that moment Peggy the mail lady pulls up to deliver bills and catalogs into Annie 's box by the street ; she left a sinful chocolate cake in there one day back when everyone else was bringing casseroles . <p> Esther lets go with the other hand . Now she points with both hands , V for victory -- one towards Tom the gardener 's rig and the other , still clutching those pansies , at the postal truck . " Two fucks ! " she cries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her . <p> Article copyright Lilith Publications , Inc . <p> 
##1011862 Meet the amazing beast that made movie history . Photograph <p> Based on the original 1933 screenplay . Cast of Characters Narrators 1 and 2-people who tell the story Apple seller-man working at a fruit stand Ann Darrow-a poor , young actress Carl Denham-a daring filmmaker Jack Driscoll-an adventurer Natives-island people Chief-native leader on the lost island Scene 1 Narrator 1 : Night is falling in New York City . Next to a fruit stand , Ann Darrow reaches for an apple . Narrator 2 : The apple seller sees her and grabs her wrist . Apple seller : Ah-hah ! I 've got you , thief ! Ann Darrow : No , I did n't steal anything ! Narrator 1 : Two well-dressed men who are walking by see what is going on . One of them stops to help Ann . Carl Denham : ( to the apple seller ) Ah , forget about it , pal , she did n't take anything . Here 's a dollar and forget about it . Apple seller : Fine , but get her out of here . Narrator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who is looking very closely at her face . Ann : Thank you for helping me . Carl : Never mind that . Have you ever thought of acting in pictures ? Ann : ( surprised ) Why , yes , I have . Carl : Well , today is your lucky day , sister . My name is Carl Denham . I 'm going to make the greatest picture in the world ! Jack Driscoll : Aw , Mr. Denham , you 're not going to bring her with us , are you ? A boat on the ocean is no place for a pretty girl . Carl : I 'm the boss here , Jack , not you . Go wait on the boat . I 'll join you shortly . Narrator 1 : As Jack leaves , Carl stops him and whispers in his ear . Photograph Photograph O Too late ! Look ! " <p> Carl : ( whispering ) This is our lucky break , Jack . We need a woman to star in this picture , and we 're running out of time to find @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ walks away . Carl : ( to Ann ) What 's your name , little lady ? Ann : My name is Ann Darrow . Carl : How would you like to see that name in lights ? I can offer you money , adventure , fame , and a long sea voyage that starts tomorrow . Ann : I do n't know ; is it safe ? Carl : Sure , it 's safe . Ann : What do I have to do ? Carl : All you have to do is trust me . And keep your chin up . Narrator 1 : Ann nods , and they shake hands . It 's a deal . Scene 2 Narrator 2 : Ann and Jack are walking on the deck of a steamship in New York Harbor . Ann : I 've never been on a steamship before . Jack : You picked a heck of a way to start . Ann : Where are we going ? Jack : Mr. Denham is the only one who knows that . We 're just along for the ride . Narrator 1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vast ocean . Scene 3 Narrator 2 : Many days later , the same steamship pushes through a thick fog in a tropical sea . It 's impossible to see anything . Narrator 1 : A sailor calls out " land ho ! " A skull-shaped mountain rises from the mist . Carl : Ah-ha ! That 's Skull Mountain ; we 've found the lost island . Ann : How did you know it was here ? Carl : On my last voyage , we saved a canoe full of natives drifting on the ocean . They were trying to escape some horrible place . Ann : This horrible place ? Skull Mountain ? Carl : Yes . They all died of fever , but one of them used his last remaining strength to draw me this map . That 's how we got here . Narrator 2 : Carl holds up a map . It shows huge cliffs all around the edge of the island . The only way to get on or off the island is a small patch of sandy beach on one side . Narrator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what looks like a huge wall . Ann : Why is that wall there ? Carl : ( smiling ) Have you ever heard of Kong ? Jack : You mean the native legend about an all-powerful beast or spirit ? Carl : Every legend comes from some kind of truth , Jack . Ann : What kind of truth ? Is there really a beast behind that wall ? Carl : That 's what we 're going to find out , Ann . Jack : What if it 's dangerous ? Carl : That 's why we brought all these smoke bombs . We have enough here to put a herd of hippos to sleep , ( shouting to crew ) Get ready to row ashore ! Narrator 2 : Jack and Ann look at each other nervously as the crew lowers the rowboats into the black waters . Scene 4 Narrator 1 : The boats land on the beach . As the crew gets ready , a drumbeat starts up in the distance . Carl : Jack , where are those smoke bombs ? Jack : Right here , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a feeling we might need them . Jack : ( nervously ) Yes , sir . Narrator 2 : Suddenly , the crew hears a wild chanting in the jungle . Natives : ( chanting ) Kong ! Kong ! Kong ! Kong ! Carl : ( excitedly ) Come on , crew ; let 's go . What a picture this will make ! Narrator 1 : The chanting gets louder as the crew gets closer . Natives : ( chanting ) Kong ! Kong ! Kong ! Kong ! Ann : How exciting ! Jack : Yeah , real exciting . Narrator 2 : They reach a clearing in front of a huge gate . At the gate , there are two wooden posts where the natives are chanting . Narrator 1 : As soon as the chief sees Ann , he calls out to his warriors . Chief : Seize her ! Seize the woman with the golden hair ! Jack : Look out , Ann ! Narrator 2 : Native warriors quickly grab Ann and tie her wrists to the posts . They begin chanting again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kong ! Kong ! Jack : ( drawing his gun ) I 'll save her . Carl : Too late ! Look ! Narrator 1 : Jack looks up to see the mighty Kong crash through the jungle and stand at the gate where Ann is tied . The huge ape roars and plucks Ann up in the air . Ann : ( screaming ) Help me ! Narrator 2 : The native warriors run in terror . Carl : Quick , Jack , help me with the smoke bombs ! Narrator 1 : The two men light the smoke bombs and roll them under Kong . Narrator 2 : Kong breathes the smoke and falls to the ground , dropping Ann . Jack : ( running to Ann ) Ann ! Are you OK ? Carl : She 'll be fine . She 's asleep too . ( looking at Kong ) Can you believe the size of this beast ? Jack : I 'm taking Ann to the ship , and we 're getting out of here . Enough is enough ! Carl : Oh , we 're taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taking Kong too ! Jack : What ? Carl : Do n't you get it , Jack ? Do you have any idea how much money people will pay to see " King Kong " ? We 'll be rich ! Jack : How rich ? Carl : We 'll be the richest men in the world ! Scene 5 Narrator 1 : Ann wakes up in a cabin back on the ship . At first , she thinks the events were all part of a dream . Jack : Ann , are you OK ? Ann : I think I am . What happened ? Jack : We used the smoke bombs to save you . Narrator 2 : Carl comes into the cabin . Carl : Oh , good ! You 're awake . Glad to see you 're OK ; there was a lot of smoke back there . Ann : So there really was a giant monkey ? Carl : Yes . And now he 's on this ship . Ann : ( angrily ) What ? How could you ? Narrator 1 : She jumps out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Up on deck , the mighty King Kong roars angrily in a giant cage . When he sees Ann , he stops roaring and calms down . Jack : He seems to like you , Ann . Carl : He 's going to knock the socks off everyone in New York ! Narrator 1 : Ann nervously reaches out and touches Kong 's hand through the bars . Narrator 2 : Kong lets out a sad growl . Ann : I think he misses his home . Carl : He 's going to have a new home in New York . Get ready to be famous , Ann . When we get back , you and King Kong here are going to be a big hit . We 'll call you two " Beauty and the Beast . " Scene 6 Narrator 1 : Carl , Jack , and Ann are standing on a stage in a crowded New York City theater . The curtain is down . Carl : Ladies and gentlemen , behold the eighth wonder of the world : King Kong ! Narrator 2 : The curtain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kong sits in a giant steel cage , looking out at the audience . Newspaper photographers rush to the stage and start taking pictures . Jack : Those flashbulbs are awful bright . Ann : ( to the photographers ) Stop , you 're making him nervous ! Photograph O Is New York City ready for King Kong ? <p> Narrator 2 : The photographers do n't listen to Ann . They keep taking pictures . Ann : Stop it ! Narrator 1 : Kong sees Ann yelling and angrily breaks out of his chains . He roars and pushes the bars down . Carl : Everyone get back ! Jack : Look out , Ann ! Narrator 2 : Kong picks up Ann and breaks through the wall of the theater . Carl and Jack run after him . Narrator 1 : The giant ape rampages down Broadway and climbs up the Empire State Building . Carl : We 're sunk ! How are we going to save Ann now ? Jack : What about planes ? Carl : Right ! Eet 's get on the horn to the Navy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Building , Kong gently puts Ann down on a ledge . He strokes her hair with his giant hand . Ann : You do n't belong here , do you ? Narrator 1 : The sound of airplane engines fills the air . Navy pilots fire machine guns at the angry Kong . Ann : ( screaming at the planes ) Stop ! You 're killing him ! Narrator 2 : On the street below , Jack and Carl watch Kong swat at the airplanes . The mighty ape starts to look hurt . Jack : He 's going to fall ! Carl : Get everyone out of here ! Narrator 1 : People on the street run for their lives . Narrator 2 : On top of the Empire State Building , Kong wipes some blood from his chest and looks at Ann one last time . He lets go of the building and falls to his death . Ann : ( crying ) No ! Narrator 1 : People on the street gather around Kong 's body . Ann looks down from the ledge . Jack : Well , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Ann ) No . It was n't the planes . It was beauty that killed the beast . 
##1011869 Some things take lots of patience ! <p> He landed a small plane at the Mt . Forel spaceport , with a lot more runway than he needed . He 'd phoned ahead . I watched him for a while , making his way on foot along the three-kilometer path that leads down to the Draco Tavern . He took his sweet time , stopping to pan across the alien foliage with the video-camera bump on his forehead . When he stopped to rest , I went out to meet him . What the heck-the tavern was clean and in good repair and life was turning dull . This strip of land between the airlocks and the foothills is covered with strange plants , purple ground cover too dry to be moss , and big odd shapes that you might take for wind-shaped rocks . He was looking about him , delighted and a little awed , as he perched on one of the slow ones . This one looks like a rock wind-smoothed into the shape of an inverted boat . I was amused . " Thank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said . He was a blackhaired white American , medium height , with a smile that might have been ingratiating . The vid camera was a glittering dot on his forehead . " Matthew Taper . I 'm with CDC Network . I hope I wo n't keep you long . " " No problem . There are n't any ships in and I 've got lots of free time . " " Ah . Good . " He slid over to make room for me on the Type Two Slowlife . I sat . He had n't noticed a second invertedboat-shaped rock , this one 's mate , fifty meters further back . He pointed at a cube of clear yellow plastic set in the Draco Tavern 's wall . There was a shadow inside it : a dark aerodynamic shape like a large turtle with big clawed feet and a head partly retracted . Taper asked , " Is that an alien or a sculpture ? Or a hologram ? " " Alien , " I said . " Speedy , I 've been calling it . It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's an airlock ? Made of jelly ? " " They 're all airlocks , that whole line along the front of the tavern . For Speedy , we 've got this block of plastic ... not jelly , just memory plastic soft enough to deform . He 'll walk through it , but slowly , and it wo n't lose air in either direction . " " How many aliens have you got in right now ? " " Ten . Six are in Argentina , hunting . " " But you have to feed the rest ? " " I meant on Earth . There 's nobody actually in the tavern . " Taper 's eyes defocused : he was consulting notes . " You got a lot more with the first liner , with Thrill seeker . Five species , twenty individuals . That first landing must have been a thrill a minute . " I waved it off . " Oh , you can find anything you want about the first one . Let me tell you about the second landing . " " Were n't there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at them ... " That long ago , we did n't have much telescope coverage of the Moon . What we had was Spaceguard . Spaceguard was an effort by NASA and other political entities to track Near Earth Objects : that is , asteroid threats above one kilometer across . Map those and you might stand a chance of protecting the planet from a giant meteoroid impact . They 'd already found 90% of the candidates , they said . An object was found approaching the Moon 's dark limb . It blinked out as it entered the shadow . Another sky watcher caught the flare of what might have been its drive , but turned out to be riding lights . The skywatching community began talking to each other . Hundreds had it in view when the chirpsithra liner settled into orbit around the Moon , and they did n't tell a single disaster control office or newsman for nearly ten hours . They 'd done this once before , with an incoming asteroid that turned out to be a false alarm . Skywatchers talked to each other , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communication just had n't been established . But now the world was watching , and everything happened too slowly . The mile-wide soap bubble drifted in orbit around the Moon . A smaller boat budded loose and drifted toward Earth . It eased down through the atmosphere , taking more hours , following force field lines down to Earth 's magnetic pole . It settled at Mount Forel in Siberia , where the first ship 's boat had touched down the previous year . Everything we saw came via orbital cameras ; it was hours before camera crews could get on site . We saw aliens eleven feet tau and very slender , plated with dull red armor : the same chirpsithra species who had crewed the first ship . They emerged from the lander and began landscaping . Taper asked , " Was the Draco Tavern in place yet ? " " No , I had backers and a site , but there was nothing on it but posts and string . " " Pity . So what do you mean , landscaping ? " " That 's what it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and dirt and alien fertilizer . I was one of the first on site , and I could smell that chemical reek . " Cameras showed up , and newspersons , and UN officials . The chirpsithra went about their business . They planted some weird alien trees in the soil they 'd made , and then some structures that they brought out on big float plates . Like Japanese landscaping , we thought . " " I 'll run those records after I get home . " Taper waved around us . " Is this what you 're talking about ? This whole three or four square miles looks like alien gardening . " " Yeah . Those bigger trees were planted as saplings . Most of this layered mosslike stuff grew up over the next few years . The slow ones were already in place . There was plenty for the herbivores by the time they got hungry . " The chirps talked to me about the interspecies tavern I wanted to build . We settled on where to put it-right at the edge of the cultivated stretch . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves , and those were the first pieces of the Draco Tavern . They played diplomat and gave some interviews , and then they left . " Taper was having trouble catching up . " Slow ones ? " " Originally there were a dozen , " I said . " Six little half-eggs must have been food animals . They did n't move fast enough , and the Type One , Speedy , rolled over them and ate them during the first six or seven years . Two of the others went home on the next ship after snuffling around Siberia on tractors . They were the fastest . " After they left , Speedy was making visible progress toward the airlocks . It 's taken him twenty-six years to get into the jelly lock . He 'll be inside before Christmas . These others-do you see that tree stump with an indented top ? There 's water in the top , a little pond of his own , but you ca n't see that . He 's the slowest . These boat-shaped- " " Yeek ! " He rolled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does n't mind . I know them all pretty well . You can talk to them with electronic mail- " " They can use computers ? " " Sure , all of these slow ones are intelligent tool users . The computers they build work as fast as ours . To the slow ones , they 're instantaneous . To talk to them , you just trade letters . It does n't matter how slow they write . " I watched him working out how useless that would be to a newsman . I said , " Of course they need terrific protection against spam . Otherwise- " " Yeah . What do they talk like ? " " Here . " I fished out my translator and whispered a few instructions . It projected a screen , watery looking in the horizontal sunlight . HELLO ! I SEEK A COMPANION . I AM RICK SCHUMANN , HUMAN , HOPING TO BECOME A BARTENDER . CALL ME QUIZZICAL . HI , QUIZZICAL . IS THAT YOUR STRUCTURE BEING ERECTED ON THE TUNDRA ? YES , THAT 'S THE DRACO TAVERN . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , BUT IT HAS STOOD FOR SOMETIME . THERE WAS SOME DAMAGE TWO YEARS BACK . WE FIXED IT . I HOPE TO SEE THE INSIDE SOON . IT MUTATES LIKE DREAMS . BE WELCOME.THE JELLY LOCK IS FOR SLOW ONES . I SEE IT . SPEEDY IS ALMOST THERE . I SEE A FLUTTERING THAT MUST BE YOUR KIND 'S TRAFFIC . DO YOU KNOW THE CHIRPSITHRA ? THEY LIVE TOO FAST TO BE TRULY KNOWN , BUT THEY DO N'T DIE TOO SOON.AT LEAST WE MAY CONVERSE . ONE , KTATH Taper scowled . " Is that all ? " " Yeah . Quizzical is the Type Three , the one like a tree stump . " " Twenty-six years ? " " Understand , Mr. Taper , most of my visitors use oxidizing chemistry . Some are even faster than chirps and humans . One type burns like a fire . She was born in the tavern , and I only got to know her for a few hours . But that 's not the only way to live . " Reducing chemistry is very slow compared to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They watched the Draco Tavern grow up in front of them . They 'll see it turn to dust . They 'll be here a long time . " Taper rapped what I was sitting on . " This shell- " " They 're in pressure suits . So 's Speedy . They have to be protected from oxygen . " " They 're all streamlined , " he noted . " Even that tree stump has a teardrop silhouette , " turning his camera on Quizzical . I said , " Just being a slow one would n't slow down weather . Comes a hurricane , or a flood , they 'd just have to wait it out . " Taper asked , " May I talk to Speedy ? " " I 'll give you his e-mail address . Have you got a story now ? Or is it all too slow ? " " May I have the other e-mail addresses ? " " I 'll ask first . " Taper came back in January . This time he hurried through Siberia 's endless freezing night to reach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Siberia in winter is n't a habitable planet . The tavern was crowded ; a liner was in . He stood there taking it in for a few minutes , recording with the camera on his forehead . Then he hung up some of his gear and wove his way through the crowd and the divergent environments . Speedy was past the jelly lock and ten centimeters inside . Taper smiled down at the smoothed-out turtle shape . He ran a hand over Speedy 's head . Then he fished out a keyboard and began typing . I was at his elbow . " How 's it going , Mr. Taper ? Got a story yet ? " He laughed . " Not today . If I made a lifetime project of this , I might have something to show the execs . Mr. Schumann , this does n't take every minute of my time . I 've kept four interviews going for seven months without ever skipping lunch . When I 'm an old man , these guys could save my reputation . " " This last ship , " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Addresses ? " " They have n't logged in yet . Come back in the summer and I 'll introduce you . " WELCOME TO EARTH ! THANK YOU . WE ARE BRICKS , A MULTIPLE MIND . TAPER , A HUMAN . CAN YOU TELL us WHAT OF EARTH IS WORTH SEEING ? LOTS ! YOU COULD WATCH NIAGARA FALLS EAT ITS WAY WEST . WATCH REDWOODS GROW . RIDE A GLACIER. 