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Breathtaking Spring Makes Hassle Fade
by Mark Simon, San Francisco Chronicle
This is why we live here.

When 300 Baud Was The Bomb
by N.Z. Bear, Salon
Once upon a time there was no Internet. And it was good.

The Socialist Economics Of College Tuition
by Peter Scheer, Slate
Why elite universities charge $38,000 per year, and why they don't expect you to pay it.

Skeleton Keys
by Libby Copeland, Washington Post
Smithsonian anthropologists unlock secrets in bones of ancestors and crime victims.

It's All About Finesse
by Meg Hourihan, megnut.com
I knew if I were a chef, I'd approach things in a similarly obsessive and perfectionistic, yet Zen-like, manner.

Been There, Smashed That
by Douglas Cruickshank, Salon
From porcelain machine guns to plates commemorating hideous disasters, artist Charles Krafft's grimly satirical work sheds strange light on an age when terror is rattling our teacups.

Crash Culture
by P. Smith, Salon
Who is to blame when a 22-year-old 747 falls from the sky?

Can Lifestyle Mavens Make A City Boom?
by Rob Walker, Slate
What's worked in Austin (or Dallas, for that matter) is more complicated and harder to duplicate than The Rise of the Creative Class sometimes implies.

A True Woman Of Mystery
by Jennifer Frey, Washington Post
The original Carolyn Keene — the first, and best, of the ghostwriters, the one who gave Nancy Drew her personality and her keenness, her independence and her spunk — is exactly what we'd hope to find. Her name was Mildred Wirt Benson, and she died Tuesday night in Toledo at the age of 96.

A Cost-Free, Not Carefree, Education
by Theola LabbÈ, Washington Post
3 D.C. students struggle to adjust at college in rural Maryland.

In Old Austria, The Shock Of The New
by Alastair Gordon, New York Times
A surge of young Viennese architects are instigating a debate over how best to create a modern presence without obscuring the masklike facades and enigmatic surfaces of the city's atmospheric past.

Wired Now Looks As Good As It Is
by Michael Prager, Boston Globe
There are graphic designers who would tell you that what they do is every bit as important as the content they're presenting - a tough proposition to accept. But the new Wired might help make their case.

Who Was Kipling?
by David Barber, The Atlantic
Kipling's life-story, lest we forget, wouldn't be nearly so compelling if it weren't so rife with contradictions.

Uncounted Viewers Are Hiding In Public — For Now
by Brian Lowry, Los Angeles Times
The late spring and summer have long been a time for vacations, barbecues, baseball and NBA playoff games, but those activities also coincide with TV viewing that isn't captured by traditional ratings methodology.

How To Tell The New York Times From The Weekly World News
by Timothy Noah, Slate
Which one peddles flying-saucer pics it doesn't own at $375 a pop?

Unapologetic 7 Up
by Rob Walker, Slate
This is not even an admission that it ever was interpreted negatively, just that it's possible that it might have been. That's some unapology.

Mega Hurts
by Paul Farhi, Washington Post
If Clear Channel is a colossus, it's a colossus under the gun.

10th Grade, Four Courses And Dessert
by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, New York Times
From latchkey city dwellers to rural princesses and suburban cowboys, teenagers across the country are cooking and entertaining with an enthusiasm their elders would envy.

New York's Other Restaurant Rows Suffer, Too
by Jayson Blair, New York Times
In the city's restaurant industry, places outside Manhattan are among those suffering the most from the recession and from Sept. 11.

Frozen In Time
by Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle
Enola Gay's navigator takes atomic artifacts to auction block.

I'd Prefer Not To
by Tom Bissell, Salon
My list includes Toni Morrison, Henry James, Faulkner and Beckett. Why are there some great writers we just cannot read?

Here Comes The Buns
by Janelle Brown, Salon
THe posterior has, intentionally or not, recently become the focal point of fashion and pop culture alike: The butt crack is the new cleavage, relcaimed to peek seductively from thepants of supermodels and commoners alike.

Legal Weapons, Too
by Teresa Wiltz, Washington Post
For actor Danny Glover, his role as an activist is a lifetime's work.

Mastering Arabic's Nuances No Easy Mission
by Valerie Strauss, Washington Post
Arabic is among the most difficult languages to learn and that the college environment isn't ideal for learning it.

Where Soccer Is King, A Popular Revolt
by Larry Rohter, New York Times
An unpopular coach, a roster missing the country's most consistent scorer and a fetid, seemingly endless corruption scandal have combined to put Brazilians in a sour mood.

Judy Blunt Took Bleakness And Ran With It
by Blaine Harden, New York Times
Judy Blunt lived as a ranch wife for 30 years, then worked 10 years to get her story down on paper. The resulting book is now stirring up trouble in the ranch land of Montana.

Turning The Tables On Music
by Elizabeth Armstrong, Christian Science Monitor
'Scrtching' records to create new sounds has become wildly popular. But are scratchers really musicians?

Up In The Air
by Adam Gopnik, New Yorker
The strange thing is that this magician wasn't doing anything magical. He was just standing there.

Meet The Gamma Girls
by Susannah Meadows, Newsweek
They're not mean. They like their parents. They're smart, confident and think popularity is overrated. What makes these teens tick.

L.A.'s Harbor Town Still Funky After All These Years
by Mickey Ellinger, San Francisco Chronicle
This is no cookie-cutter beach town. Military installations have become artists' studios and youth hostels; motorcycle clubs ride at sundown; visitors can eat local lobster and watch fishermen mending their nets. Part of the appeal is the grit showing through the polish.

Beware The Poet In The Windstorm
by Kathleen Kelleher, Los Angeles Times
Is it possible to be happily married and stray? Or does such a thing happen only in the movies?

Eminem: You Just Have To Love The Guy. Sorry.
by David Segal, Washington Post
Eminem isn't feeling the love. Oh, we've tried to give him the love, we really have.

Atlanta's Growing Thirst Creates Water War
by Douglas Jehl, New York Times
Atlanta's dizzying growth is at the heart of a water rights dispute among Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

Romancing The Rose
by Hazel White, San Francisco Chronicle
When I started out innocently wondering why so many people love roses, I didn't think I'd be writing about bees and sex. And I didn't think it had anything to do with me. I wasn't one of the people besotted with roses.

Literary Road Trip
by Mimi Avins, Los Angeles Times
When an author goes on a book tour, a media escort is firmly at the wheel.

The End Of The Affair
by Walter Kirn, New York Times
Could it be that the great role reversal failed and that the Hollywood-Washington nexus of the 90's that gave us George magazine, Bill Clinton rocking the vote on sax and the brief but curiously intense Warren Beatty-for-president episode has come undone at last?

For Teenagers Natonwide, It's New York And It's 1904
by Tara Bahrampour, New York Times
For hundreds of young women in their teens and early 20's, the film "Newsies" struck a chord, spawning a cult following that spans the United States and extends even to Europe.

The Wonders Of Genetics Breed A New Art
by Steven Henry Madoff, New York Times
If art in the broadest sense peers into the mysteries of life, then an art dedicated to the structure of life itself is of momentous relevance.

Baseball More Ready For Openly Gay Athlete Than Rest Of Society
by Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star
History has proved you can integrate a locker room than a church, a restaurant or a toilet stool.

For TV Networks, It's A Family Affair
by Paul Farhi and Lisa de Moraes, Washington Post
The hot new trend of the next television season is an old one straight out of TV's flickering past: programs about families, for family audiences.

A Postmodernist Of The 1600's Is Back In Fashion
by Sarah Boxer, New York Times
A puckish question was raised on Thursday night at New York University. "Was Athanasius Kircher the coolest guy ever, or what?"

America's Best Shot
by Jeff Z. Klein, New York Times
Suddenly, Clint Mathis is the man everybody wants.

Evolution, Males, And Violence
by David P. Barash, Chronicle Review
The turth is that if we could eliminate or even significantly reduce male violence, we would pretty much get rid of violence altogether. The maleness of violence is so overwhelming that it is rarely even noticed.

The Mystery Of Language And Ideology
by Economist
When a change of government means a change of grammar.

What Spider-Man Can (And Can't) Do For Marvel
by Rob Walker, Slate
What does Spider-Man mean for Marvel, the beleaguered comic-book publisher where the web-slinger was born?

Explosive Analyst
by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
From his home in the mountains of Vermont, William Arkin seems to have mastered one of the great juggling acts of the multimedia age — persuading news organizations, advocacy groups and the Pentagon, through sheer smarts and a bulldog personality, to take him on his own terms.

Where The Rivers Run Extreme
by James Gorman, New York Times
A few days after I took a stab at white-water paddling, someone casually referred to it as one of the adrenaline sports. Ah, I thought, so that's what was going on.

Playing The Biggest Game In Town
by William L. Hamilton, New York Times
The four-day International Contemporary Furniture Fair is a new American design company's best crack at the big time.

A New Imprint Is Dedicated To Black Readers
by Martin Arnold, New York Times
Of the five imprints in major publishing companies committed to books on black subjects, Harlem Moon will be the only one to offer all its books as trade paperbacks.

Burger Secrets
by Theodore Dalrymple, New Statesman
If the Americans are the most technologically advanced nation in the world, can it be that they do not know so simple a thing as how to eat?

The Scientist Who Wrote Rings Around The Earth
by Joel Achenbach, Washington Post
A brilliant scientist who can write beautifully is an unusual creature, almost an evolutionary impossibility.

Before Silicon Valley, There Was San Jose
by Peter Hong, Los Angeles Times
Seeking out history, Asian and otherwise, in California's oldest city.

Will American Go For mLife?
by Steve Mollman, Salon
AT&T is pushing Japanese-style wireless services in the U.S. But until cellphones are as fun to use in New York as they are in Tokyo, a jaded market is likely to keep yawning.

The Unsinkable Optimism Of Walter Lord
by Ken Ringle, Washington Post
If Heaven exists, and there's justice in it, Walter Lord is finally aboard the Titanic.

How About Lunch, Dear? Bring Everyone
by Nigella Lawson, New York Times
It's not just that we feel more expansive at this time of year (though there is that) but that we fool ourselves, too — we allow ourselves to make the familiar mistaken assumption that easy-eating early summer food is easily cooked, that a relaxed afternoon in the garden means an equally relaxed morning in the kitchen.

History Has Not Yet Begun
by Frank Furedi, Spiked Online
Is this really the end of history? A growing consensus suggests that we are at the end of something.

Seclusion Has Left Lucas Out Of Touch
by Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
To be blunt, "Star Wars" doesn't need Lucas behind the camera any more than the James Bond series needed original 007 director Terence Young to survive.

When Le Film Hits Le Fan
by Stephen Hunter, Washington Post
In Cannes, days sand, smoke and serious cinema.

Want To Be A Male Model? Wear A Real Face
by Ginia Bellafante, New York Times
The cultural viability of the male model was born in the late 1970's and early 80's, and it is safe to assert that it has diminished to the point of near evaporation.

One Rail Trip, Many Sides Of Norway
by Bruce Bawer, New York Times
The train from Oslo to Bergen rolls up and down snowy mountains and into a colorful port city.

You Read Your Books And I'll Read Mine
by Judith Shulevitz, New York Times
Literature takes root in a rich and stubborn particularity, not in some powdery notion of communal uplift.

A Drought In Shanghai
by Ching-Ching Ni, Los Angeles Times
Once known as the Hollywood of China, the city is now a conservative center that's inhospitable to filmmakers.

Lock Up The Analysts And Throw Away The Key
by Damien Cave, Salon
An investor who followed expert advice lost $100,000. He wants vengeance, but history suggests he's not likely to get it.

The Talk Of The Book World Still Can't Sell
by Warren St. John, New York Times
The most talked-about book in America, which raises the specter that women who sacrifice families for careers might wake up childless at 45, is hardly selling at all.

What 'Friends' Has That 'X-Files' And 'Ally' Lacked
by Caryn James, New York Times
There are no rules for how to keep a series alive except one: the show has to maintain the essential connection between the viewers and the characters on screen.

Star-Spangled Racket
by Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal
Oh, say can you hear, a singer ruining that noble song?

A Bittersweet Leave-Taking
by Duane Noriyuki, Los Angeles Times
An era is passing for Japanese Americans who once found livelihoods in gardening.

After The First 15 Minutes
by Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times
As a critique of high, not low, culture, Andy Warhol's work is just as relevant today.

End Of The Trail
by Brigid Schulte, Washington Post
When she heard her uncles were selling the Wyoming ranch that had been in the family for eight decades, she knew she had to be there for the final sheep drive.

Life Inside The Bubble
by Lynee Duke, Washington Post
The place that some have taken to calling the bubble, or even the Taj Mahal — the place where recovery workers can get a cup of coffee, a little comfort and even a hot shower after a day grappling in Hell — is slowly winding down.

The Man Who Retired
by Bill Zehme, Esquire
Ten years ago, the king of late night went away for good, vanished. The Garbo of American comedy. But now, just one last time, here's Johnny.

Little Asia
by Rona Marech, San Francisco Chronicle
Mission San Jose, so named for the shrill white church that proudly sits at the base of the hills, is nothing like the suburbs of the American imagination. Rather, it's a welcoming global village in the middle of the burbs.

What If?
by A.R. Torres, Salon
I used to ask myself what I could have done to save Eddie. Now I realize: I was asking the wrong person.

The Case For The Empire
by Jonathan V. Last, The Weekly Standard
The truth is that from the beginning, Lucas confused the good guys with the bad. The deep lesson of Star Wars is that the Empire is good.

Art With Whine & Cheese
by Natalie Hopkinson, Washington Post
We all have our rituals. Popcorn and a movie. Cracker Jack and baseball. Wine and cheese at art openings. But now we might have to hold the wine.

The Weight Of An Anchor
by Frank Rich, New York Times
In the twilight of Brokaw, Jennings and Rather, it is not at all clear that the nightly news program is history. Why network news still matters.

Bush Whacked
by Rachel Johnson, The Spectator
Why so many women are going all the way and saying no to pubic hair.

The Iron Chef - Raw Talent
by Russ Baker, Razor
Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto knows what he likes and it's the opposite of comfort food. In fact, the intense, Hiroshima-born gastronmic genius is the mortal enemy of anything remotely conventional in the kitchen or dining room. This makes it somewhat surprising that Morimoto's new restaurant in Philadelphia is attracting large crowds of diners who are probably mor efamiliar with the city's signature "cheesesteak" than with Morimoto brainstorms like Crab Brain Dip.

How Our Age Dumbed Down Even Invective
by Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal
The hateful things people say when words aren't allowed to hurt.

The Turth Is, Um, Where, Exactly?
by Aaron Kinney, Salon
With 10 episodes down and only the two-hour finale to go, the promise has not only gone unfulfilled but is also starting to look like a downright hoax.

In A Galaxy Far From Hollywood
by Sharon Waxman, Washington Post
George Lucas is a paradox: an independent moviemaker with billions to finance his own projects, a mom-and-apple-pie nostagic best known for creating futuristic fantasies. He's a visionary who abandoned Hollywood just when it most enthusiastically offered him the keys to the kingdom.

New York's Wildest Love Affairs
by Michael Crewdson and Margaret Mittelbach, New York Times
It's springtime again, and the curious mating habits of New Yorkers can be observed all over town.

In Praise Of Balance
by Peter Berkowitz, The New Republic
Isn't what presents itself as balance—in relations between the sexes, in politics, and in ultimate questions—really a mask for complacency or pandering or failure of nerve?

Rescue Efforts Lift Poets' Voices From Fraying Tapes
by Stephen Kinzer, New York Times
At poetry centers around America, disintegrating tapes are being transferred to digital format in an effort to preserve recordings of many of the greatest 20th-century poets.

Cooking Like A 3-Star Chef In Your Own Home (Almost)
by Mark Bittman, New York Times
Not even a chef can cook like a chef outside his restaurant, no matter how accomplished a lsicer and dicer or how visionary an artist.

A Very American Movie
by Bruce Sterling, New York Times
"Star Wars" is authentic junk — or rather, it's an American melting pot.

The Art Of Suffering
by Julian Barnes, The Guardian
Few knew that for hte last 12 years of his life Alphonse Daudet, the popular 19th-century French novelist, was wracked by the effects of syphilis, which he described in a notebook.

The Royal We
by Steve Olson, The Atlantic
The mathematical study of genealogy indicates that everyone in the world is descended from Nefertiti and Confucius, and everyone of European ancestry is decended from Muhammad and Charlemagne.

Healthy Fast Food — For Adults
by Jennifer L. Huget, Washington Post
Not surprisingly, given public pressure and Subway's success, the other major chains have stepped up to the plate with health-conscious items of their own.

Squeezing In The Arts
by Steven Winn, San Francisco Chronicle
Bolstered by strong research that proves that learning occurs in many ways, school admnistrators look to nonprofit groups for the arts teaching and expertise squeezed by a generation of cramped budgets and new test-based priorities.

Meatmarket.com
by Heather Havrilesky, Salon
In the competitive world of online dating, singles brand themselves as sexy commodities. But what happens when the wrapping comes off?

The Rise Of The Creative Class
by Richard Florida, Washington Monthly
Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race.

At The Wheel, Laura Bush Shows She Can Shift Gears
by Ann Gerhart, Washington Post
Rather than being led by the West Wing, Mrs. Bush sticks to her chief passion, education, then uses her personal empathy over public tragedies to guide her actions.

Who's May Birth Father?
by Susan McClelland, Maclean's
Canadians conceived with donated sperm are demanding to know their genetic roots — but Ottawa isn't making it easy.

Hearing Voices
by Lance Hosey, Metropolis Magazine
Establishing an artistic identity may be essential for an architect, but it doesn't always result in better architecture.

Prep—School Novelist
by Dana Goodyear, New Yorker
A young first novelist meets his new peers.

Steam Cleaning
by Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
When it comes to sex, filmmaking is in an era that some call flat-out prudish. But a vanishing breed of directors is keeping the sin in cinema.

"24": Split Screen's Big Comeback
by Julie Talen, Salon
From Fox's "24" to Destiny's Child videos to Hollywood, the splintered aesthetic of multichannel storytelling — once the province of the '60s avant-garde — is suddenly everywhere.

Superhero Nation
by James Poniewozik, Time
The new, sensitive incarnation of the Webbed Wonder reminds us how America likes its superheroes: human.

High Time
by Jerry Adler, Newsweek
Despite the attacks on the World trade Center, buildings are reaching for the sky — at least in Asia and Europe. The trend is leaving U.S. developers in the lobby.

Choking At The Bowl
by Bryan Curtis, Slate
Why do men have trouble urinating at ballparks?

Columnist Andrew Sullivan Bites Paper; Paper Bites Back
by Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
Andrew Sullivan, the confrontational conservative columnist, has been attempting the high-wire act of writing for the New York Times while frequently whacking the Times for liberal bias on his Web site. Now the tightrope has snapped.

An Industry Insider's Gloomy Book Report
by Linton Weeks, Washington Post
The publishing industry, Michael Cader says, " is in a mathematical death spiral."

A 'Lucky Man' Puts His Celebrity To Work
by Mary Duenwald, New York Times
Michael J. Fox talks about his Parkinson's disease and the foundation he started to help find cures and treatments.

Mother's Day Is No Rip-Off
by Joan Ryan, San Francisco Chronicle
There are many good reasons for Mother's Day, despite the naysayers who bemoan its commercialization.

The Obscure History Of Mickey Mouse
by Barbara Tannenbaum, Los Angeles Times
The man who first drew Disney's iconic character is not exactly a household name. But Ub Iwerks' granddaughter is out to change that.

Big Networks Show 'Sopranos' Respect
by Bill Carter, New York Times
A number of highly anticipated new offerings from cable television stations are being seen by the broadcast networks as real competitors.

Don't Get Angry At This Artist. He's Kidding. Seriously.
by Carol Vogel, New York Times
Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian Neo-Coceptual artist, aims to generate confusion with his life-size wax figures of a pair of policemen, propped upside down along a wall.

'Censorship Review — New Guidelines Needed'
by Tan Tarn How, Straits Times
The review of censorship should examine fundamental questions about the issueinstead of becoming just a poll of public opinion, said David Lim.

Remarks To The Graduating Class
by Ron Carlson, Washington Post
A message of hope and encumberment.

You Call This A Vacation?
by Stephanie Mencimer, New York Times
With American families increasingly spread out, many are using vacations to stay connected.

Manhanttan Mecca For Art Lovers
by Roberta Smith, New York Times
With its cobblestone streets and scattering of early-19th-century buildings, the meat-packing district can feel like working-class Paris, and it has a few bistros to match.

The Merits Of Meritocracy
by David Brooks, The Atlantic
Can self-fulfillment build character?

Performance Yesterday
by Adam Baer, PopPolitics.com
The de-humanizing of the country's best classical-music radio show.

Why The Evening News Is Worse Than "O'Reilly."
by Rob Walker, The New Republic
If the network news divisions think they are producing an evening broadcast so nobole that it deserves to be defended from the corporate huns, they're kidding themselves.

Bigfoot
by Jennifer Howard, Slate
The relentless march upward of the American shoe size.

Hallmark Of A Poet
by Linton Weeks, Washington Post
At 74, Maya Angelou greets a new line of verse and many old fans.

Celebrating Melbourne
by Susan Allen Toth, New York Times
Old-fashioned trams rumble along Melbourne's streets, passing modern skyscrapers, and restaurants sport globally ethnic menus.

The Journal's Shrinking Violets
by Jack Shafer, Slate
What's with the editorial page's annoying new tic?

Stirrups For Sissies
by Virginia Heffernan, Slate
The "Dummies" series is reborn on television.

At Yale University, Ivy Vs. Grass Roots
by Philip Kennicott, Washington Post
Every spring, Yale alumni elect one of their own to the university's decision-making body. The process is typically smooth and decorous. But once in a while, a democratic mess rears its head.

Pavarotti And Borrowed Time
by Anthony Tommasini, New York Times
If Luciano Pavarotti sings on Saturday night in "Tosca" (he canceled on Wednesday), it may be his farewell to the Metropolitan Opera and to staged opera.

Where Trains Rolled, Bicyclists Now Roam
by Jane Margolies, New York Times
Since the mid-1980's railroad rights of ways all across the country have been transformed into trails teaming with cyclists, in-line skaters and people in wheelchairs.

Silly Ideas
by Louis Menand, New Yorker
We don't tell people they can't vote because they keep choosing losing candidates. Democracy requires full partiicpation. Knowledge is the same.

He Totally Got It
by Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times
Ad man Jay Chiat spoofed and celebrated pop culture with a hip, West Coast style.

The Art Of Office E-Mail War
by David Miller, Salon
They don't call it a "killer app" for nothing. E-mail is corporate culture's favorite new weapon.

Top Ten New Copyright Crimes
by Ernest Miller, LawMeme
Watching PBS without making a donation. You know who you are, you cheap...

Driving Miss Tallulah
by Michael Lewis, Slate
A daughter resists the back seat.

New Yorker, American
by Robert A. George, National Review Online
The character is celebrating its 40th anniversary, but like any true archetypal hero, he always shows up just the right time with the right message.

Our Past, Cobwebs And All
by Blake Gopnik, Washington Post
Bless this mess of a museum. It's the stuff of history.

Steak Endures In Argentina's Lean Time
by R. W. Apple Jr., New York Times
Times are hard in Argentina, but parts of Buenos Aires, which used to style itself "the Paris of Latin America," still twinkle like the City of Light.

Clearing Things Up
by Sara Kelly, Philadelphia Weekly
Third-time novelist Steve Lopez left his heart in Philly.

The Matrix Reloads
by Jess Cagle, Time
It's high kicks, high tech and high concepts, as we peek inside the two Matrix sequels now shooting Down Under.

Hottest Food Trend In Marin Is Cuisine That Keeps Its Cool
by Rob Morse, San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area has a haute cuisine restaurant so hot it doesn't have a stove.

Shouting Matches
by Mark Leibovich, Washington Post
It is an odd dance of democracy, these spontaneous shout-o-ramas that break out at public rallies. Do they ever result in minds changed, or budged, or anything close to constructive exchanges of views? Ever?

When Giving Birth, Opting To Go It Alone
by Randi Hutter Epstein, New York Times
A close-knit network of parents are choosing do-it-yourself deliveries, demonstrating a dissatisfaction that many women perceive with obstetrics today.

"Invisible Man" At 50
by Greg Thomas, Salon
African-American intellectuals are still criticizing Ralph Ellison for his refusal to make art serve politics. And they're still wrong.

Playing The ID Card
by Steven Levy, Newsweek
Americans have never had to "show papers" to move around. Now they must choose betwen privacy and security.

And The Beat Goes On
by David Segal, Washington Post
Jane Scott, the oldest living rock music critic, rolls into retirement at 83.

How To Build Skyscrapers
by Robert Adam, City Journal
Like Aristotle's helmsman, today's traditionalist architects are responsible for the loss of the ship by abandoning the tiller.

What's Wrong With Being A Nice Guy? Plenty, According To A Local Therapist
by Cecelia Goodnow, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The end result is that a lot of male baby boomers and Gen-Xers grew up adopting a "female perspective on masculinity."

The 70's Are So 90's. The 80's Are The Thing Now.
by Simon Reynolds, New York Times
Pop cult revivals tend to arrive punctually after roughly 20 years, and the 80's ar ejust far enough away now to acquire the charm of remoteness.

Who's Ugly Now?
by Mark Steyn, The Spectator
Americans are more compassionate and law-abiding than violent and cynical Europeans.

Fight For Prime Times Bad For TV
by Tim Goodman, San Francisco Chronicle
It's all about counterprogramming, which is a fancy way of saying each network is trying to stick it to the others. We suffer the results.

A Narrator Leaps Past Journalism
by Vivian Gornick, New York Times
When I was writing a memoir, I discovered I needed a narrator who was me and at the same time not me.

Is Deceptive Portrait Tied To Shakespeare?
by Alan Riding, New York Times
Research findings about an Elizabethan portrait has reawakened speculation over the possible bisexuality of William Shakespeare.

The Oaxaca Connection
by Barbara Hansen, Los Angeles Times
Immigrants from southern Mexico have brought real moles, clayudas and avocado leaf barbacoa to L.A.

Hollywood Confidential
by Dave Barry, Washington Post
Cracking the dress code for a movie premiere.

I Am A Racially Profiling Doctor
by Sally Satel, New York Times
Illness isn't colorblind. So why is it taboo for doctors to take note of a patient's race?

Lighter Loads For Traveling Readers
by Bob Tedeschi, New York Times
Electronic books, which so far have been a boon mostly to ophthalmologists and other ministers to be weary eyed, have improved to become useful tools for some travelers.

Harry Potter And The Quest For The Unfinished Volume
by David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times
Although writers missing deadlines may be nothing new, with a phenomenon like Harry Potter even the failure to publish can be a momentous event.

Check, Please
by Ann Marlowe, Salon
Some argue that the convention of men paying for women is a harmless gallantry, like holding a door open. I beg to differ.

Fallen Idols
by Economist
The world is falling out of love with celebrity chief executives.

The End Of British Invasion
by Mark Jenkins, Slate
Why can't Britpop crack the Billboard Hot 100 anymore?

Blueprint For Ground Zero Begins To Take Shape
by Edward Wyatt, New York Times
Crucial components of what will occur at ground zero appear to have already been settled upon by city and state officials.

Timeless Wyoming, At A Gallop
by Erica Goode, New York Times
On a rugged trip into the Old West, riders camp in snug tepees, test their stamina and learn to break the rules.

Web Master
by Maurice Martin, Baltimore City Paper
Tobey Maguire got the big bucks, but Dan Poole got to Spider-Man first.

The Internationlist
by Christopher Hitchens, LA Weekly
No one who has endured the agony of self-employment as a scribbler can possibly afford not to read George Orwell's "Confessions of a Book Reviewer."

Bye-Bye Bernie
by Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal
The curtain drops on the 1990s.

Crazy For Dysfunction
by Douglas Cruickshank, Salon
Somewhere along the line, we traded the Cleavers for the Osbournes. Family angst and social stigma are new tickets to fame and fortune.

On The Sidewalks Of New York
by Holland Cotter, New York Times
Like many natural beauties, New York is effortlessly photogenic. It has fabulous bones and hardly any bad angles.

10 Years Of Jay Leno Makes One Weak
by Robert Bianco, USA Today
A great platform goes to waste.

My Father's Brain
by Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker
What Alzheimer's takes away.

Stop Eating, Get High
by Mark Morford, SF Gate
Feeling toxic? War and bloat and Bush got you down? Maybe you should try fasting.

Bye-Bye, Dancing Baby
by Carina Chocano, Salon
Sure, she was scary-skinny and her skirts were too short. But don't blame the unfiltered neuroses of "Ally McBeal" for the crisis contemporary women (and men) face.

Roads Way Too Much Traveled
by Linton Weeks, Washington Post
Why would Robert James Waller, author of the phenomenally successful "Bridges of Madison County," push his luch by publishing a sequel? Let's do the math.

Suburbs In A New Light
by David S. Broder, Washington Post
The notion that suburbs are the key battlegrounds of American politics has become so accepted it is almost a cliche. But the anatomy of suburban life and suburban elections remains much harder to define.

Pitchers At The Fair
by Martin Arnold, New York Times
This weekend's national booksellers convention, the sales-pitch happening of the year, will highlight the importance of the publicist.

Being Green At Ben & Jerry's
by George F. Will, Newsweek
Some enviromental policies are feel-good indulgences for an era of energy abundances.

Cesar Pelli
by Brian Libby, Salon
The architect of Manhattan's World Financial Center — and of the world's tallest towers — discusses ground zero, the future of skyscrapers and how New York's skyline is handsomer than ever.

The F5: Mother Nature's Massive Twist Of Fate
by Joel Garreau, Washington Post
You can't determine that a tornado is an F5 — the most violent ever seen — by directly calculating its wind speed. You measure it by the destruction it leaves.

He Chose Cheese Steak Over Fancy
by Alex Witchel, New York Times
Life, the saying goes, is what happens while you're making other plans. Having figured this out, Gary Thompson, whose story has been shaped by World War II, Vietnam and most recently by Sept. 11, has stopped making plans and started making cheese steaks.

It's The End Of The Modern Age
by John Lukacs, Chronicle Of Higher Education
The theme is simple. It has to do with conscious thinking. We have arrived at a stage of history when we must begin thinking about thinking itself.

This Dark World
by SiÙn Simon, Spectator
It's a funny business, going blind. Not literally, of course. Or at least it's funny peculiar, rather than funny ha-ha. Perhaps the old school would call it rum. To be clear: it is interesting, but does not make me laugh.