HOME / other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

McFunerals

By Jeremy DerfnerUpdated Friday, May 26, 2000, at 9:30 PM ET

Economist, May 27

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The cover story says that Israelis and Palestinians can compromise on water rights, refugees, and land distribution (East Jerusalem in particular), but Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak need to show more leadership by working out a deal on their own and making their people accept it. … A piece argues that venture capitalism is growing too fast. Venture capitalists, fueled by a get-rich-quick mentality, no longer bother to mentor new entrepreneurs.

New Republic, June 5

The cover story wonders how the Russian government can fix Russia when the Russian government is Russia's biggest problem. A foul stew of useless bureaucrats and brutal cliques, the government prevents the president from accomplishing much. … An article questions the sincerity of Arianna Huffington's new lefty populism, but applauds it anyway. The former conservative doyenne has the flair to make important people listen, and she has done wonders for the causes of campaign-finance reform and helping the poor.

Harper's, June 2000

The special anniversary issue celebrates 150 years of Harper's. … An essay by Tom Wolfe decries the political correctness foisted on us by "Rococo Marxists" such as Judith Butler and Stanley Fish. Since World War I American intellectuals have been telling Americans their society is cancerous, and now that society is doing better than ever, they fall back on ever-more ridiculous charges. … An essay by a funeral director worries that the New Economy is destroying the family-run funeral home. A few multinationals are buying up funeral homes across the country and cold-calling people to hard-sell burial plots. The McFuneral is replacing the intimate family ceremony.

Atlantic Monthly, June 2000

The cover story asks if Harvard turned Ted Kaczynski into the Unabomber. When he arrived there in the late 1950s, he encountered an intellectual "culture of despair" in which professors taught that science would destroy civilization and that science rendered morality meaningless. Kaczynski also participated in a social experiment in which he was subjected to intense stress and criticism. His Unabomber manifesto may be the rational outgrowth of his Harvard experience.

New York Times Magazine, May 28

The cover story recounts the fatal love affair between an Army private and a pre-op transsexual. Barry Winchell was beaten to death by a fellow soldier for dating Calpernia Addams, who lives as a woman but is genitally male. Her relationship with Winchell was socially heterosexual and sexually homosexual. Gay rights activists have turned Winchell's murder into a cause, forcing Addams to renounce her complicated identity and become a man again. … A piece examines the Asian-immigrant culture of Silicon Valley. Tens of thousands of Asians are employed by Valley computer companies and hold temporary H-1B visas. They work all day, and their fortunes rise and fall with the Nasdaq.

Time, May 29

The Memorial Day cover story reprints the last letters home from American soldiers who died in four 20^th-century wars. … A companion piece says that while traditional war memorials (Grant's Tomb) are grand and glorious, new ones (the Vietnam Memorial) are ambiguous, inviting all the vexing questions that death and tragedy raise. A critic prefers the old memorials because they tell us what those who gave their lives died for.

Newsweek, May 29

The cover story explores recent advances in understanding female sexuality. More complicated than male erectile dysfunction, female sexual dysfunction has many varieties and seems to have physical and emotional causes. Doctors are just starting to experiment with drug therapies, but a big study released last week found that Viagra didn't help women. … A piece laments that though DNA tests have freed 72 inmates from prison in recent years, only two states (Illinois and New York) give prisoners the right to use the latest tests. Pre-trial DNA tests in 18,000 cases have proved 26 percent of primary suspects innocent. Such revelations are fostering doubts about the criminal justice system, especially the death penalty. … An article profiles hard-core white rapper Eminem, a k a Marshall Mathers, a k a Slim Shady. Sure, he threatened to kill his wife on his last record, but his "sociopathic façade masks the lingering hurts of his Dickensian childhood."

U.S. News & World Report, May 29

An article asks why Gore is falling far behind Bush in the polls even as he improves as a campaigner. Answer: Bill Clinton overshadows Gore, who just can't seem to make voters like him. … The cover story calls Winston Churchill "the Western world's last great hero." His courage and oratory kept Britain's heart in the war, and his brilliant diplomacy ensured U.S. support. … An article reports that drug traffickers are terrorizing Haiti. Most government officials are on the take, while the honest ones have been murdered. Half of Haiti's children are malnourished, yet tens of millions of dollars in cocaine have passed through the country this year.

The New Yorker, May 29

An article on first impressions and job interviews says experiments show we make judgments based on personableness in seconds. Interviewers tend to hire if they connect with an interviewee, but people who connect still don't actually know each other. A new school of "structured interviewing" helps eliminate this arbitrariness, but most employers like the fool's errand of trying to find the magical spark with an applicant. … A piece on Internet search engines praises Google as the model engine of the future. As more and more information becomes available on the Web, it is harder and harder to find it. Most search engines match keywords to search terms, but often yield horrible results. Google finds pages based on how many other pages link to them, measuring popularity to deliver more useful results.

Weekly Standard, May 29

The cover story criticizes the repudiation of Zionism in Israel. In the past decade Israelis have been giving up the idea of a Jewish state because they are tired of being permanently under siege. A growing number believe Zionism was a sin committed against the Palestinians. Such relativistic Western thinking could doom Israel to destruction. … An article claims the organizers of the Million Mom March were political pros, not stay-at-home mothers. The smaller, pro-gun Second Amendment Sisters rally held the same day was a real grass-roots affair.

Vanity Fair, June 2000

An article profiles anti-hacking computer whiz kid John Vranesevich, who turned his hacking hobby Web site into an online security company when his hacking friends became too destructive. Now despised in the hacking community, he prowls the Internet tracking down hackers for the feds. … A piece recounts the Christie's and Sotheby's auction house price-fixing scandal. Former Christie's CEO Christopher Davidge may have turned over smoking-gun evidence in order to ruin the art-collecting blue bloods who never accepted his middle-class roots.

Talk, June/July 2000

A piece chronicles how Boston's biggest mobster, "Whitey" Bulger, manipulated the FBI for 20 years. Bulger was an informant who gave little useful information but who used his access to FBI information to take over the Boston underworld and escape arrest. Now Bulger is among the FBI's 10 Most Wanted, and 18 agents are charged with breaking the law or FBI regulations in their dealings with him. … The cover story answers all your questions about actress Angelina Jolie. Affair with her brother? No. Affair with actor Billy Bob Thornton? Yes. Mutilating herself with knives? Not anymore.