Economist, March 1

(posted Saturday, March 1)

The cover editorial--headlined, of course, "Hello, Dolly"--rejects alarmist The Boys From Brazil theories about cloning, declaring that "careful application of biotechnology" can be enormously beneficial: "The fact that new technologies feel scary or strange should not be enough to rule them out." A related article praises the utility of genetically engineered animals, and notes that scientists have been using them for almost 20 years. Also, a story concludes that East Asia's economies are in excellent shape, despite recent drops in their growth rates. And the Economist interviews President Clinton about foreign policy: He says the United States "can't afford to isolate China."

New Republic, March 17

(posted Friday, Feb. 28)

"The Madness of Speaker Newt" chronicles Gingrich's decline: Newt's Republican "revolutionaries" are abandoning him; his advisers are recriminating over who's to blame for his collapse; and potential successors are jockeying for position. Gingrich's own mood swings prompt one anonymous GOP congressman to quip that "a good dose of antidepressants might help, if he isn't on them already." A pair of articles catalog Mexico's drug corruption--especially its crooked drug czar--and scold the Clinton administration for ignoring it. Also, TNR publishes an appreciation of teachers' union chief Albert Shanker, whose advertorials appeared in the magazine for a quarter-century.

Harper's, March 1997

(posted Friday, Feb. 28)

An article deplores modern libraries for buying too many expensive, hard-to-use computers and too few books: "Unique, anomalous, unconventional knowledge" is being lost. (And the worst part: Libraries aren't even silent anymore!) Another article calls the rebuilding after the 1991 Berkeley Hills fire an "architectural disaster." Grotesque, overdesigned mansions have risen where beautiful, modest houses once stood. Also, a writer spends a sunless winter in Greenland: She drinks a lot.

New York Times Magazine, March 2