DOES ONE NEED to breathe in order to create? The returns are mixed. To Barbara Raskin, now working on Out of Order, a sequel to her 1973 novel. Loose Ends, "August is a terrible month for writers." Out of Order is still "lots of pieces of paper in a loose-leaf notebook - but it's gone quite quickly until August."
Maybe things would go better at the beach? She and her husband, Mare, who is wrestling with a political treatise entitled The Common Good, and two writing friends took off for a week at Rehonoth - a sort of mini-chautauqua-sur-mer.
Larry McMurthy has a Hollywood novel, but he's letting it sit. "It's being revised. Eventually it will get done. But not now."
Herman Wouk has found survival through toil. Somewhere undisclosed, "in the country," finishing the sequql to The Winds of war , he scarely speaks to his family, accepts no phone calls, and communicates with outsiders through his secretary - by mail. "I am working harder than I ever have in my life," my terse message reads, "so I can't tell you anything about the August blahs."
Some have made a clean break for the hill stations. Ward Just not only cut out for Vermont; he's even left Vermont - to go fishing. David Wise having "been through six presidents" and five books number five, The American Police State , came out last November has headed west, to teach political science for a year at the University of California in Santa Barbara. His next book idea, he says, "will just come in with the waves."
Here in the sweltering lowlands, there are unexpected stirrings of life. Fred Graham, of CBS News, endures a summer of shameless delight. The Alias Program , his second book will be out September 6th.And what well-known movie person wants to do the film? Alberto Grimaldi, of Last Tango in Paris , that's who. "That was a great, lecherous movie," Fred says, in a tone between smirk and gloat, "and I have lovely liquid lunches with Grimaldi, deciding who is going to play what role."
The book tells the true story of the head of a San Francisco fashion house who got involved in a lawsuit, and when his opponents investigated him they found that he was not a dress designer at all, but a Mafia courier from Brooklyn.
"I take his story to describe the Justice Department's witness protection program - how it works," Fred explains. "It's one of the most interesting unreported stories in Washington."
He did his writing early in the morning and late at night, with a day on the job in between, "It was a race between finishing the book and divorce. But it was fun to do. My first book about the Supreme Court was just torture. But this one wrote itself."
In another quarter, two pairs of former fact people have discovered in separate but equal ways that fiction is closer to the truth than facts.
The dazzling revelation came to Marvin Kalb of CBS and Ted Koppel of ABC on a Kissinger Middle East shuttle trip, as they stood outside King Faisal's palace in Riyadh. They fell to musing about how little their fact-filled diplomatic reporting conveyed of the fantastic locations, personalities and cross-currents that they both sensed beneath the surface of events.
So they jointly embarked on a novel, In the National Interest , due in November. There will be a big chunk of it in the November Playboy. It's been bought by the Literary Guild. They have "a very good deal" on paperback rights with Fawrett. They're "surprised and delighted."
Their story concerns a televsion diplomatic correspondent and a crafty secretary of state, who "respect one another, but their responsibilities are drawn into collision." There is a "genuine romance" between the correspondent and the CIAs station chief in Beirut, but it is "trampled by the requirements of their jobs."
Sometimes you can really say things in nonfiction," Marvin Kalb concludes. "If anyone is interested on shuttle diplomacy and manipulator of events, the novel gives more insight into his techcique than reporting."
Ien Watterberg and Ervin S. Duggan, both former L.B.J. speech writers took to windering, after they left the White House, what would have happened if Hubert Humphrey had broken with Lyndon Johnson over Vienam and run as a dove. "We decided the only way to express that idea was through fiction," Watterberg says.
Their novel Against All Enemies , out early in October, describes such a turn of events "in the indeterminate future," and Ponders whether any American president, after Vietnam, can respond to a foreign policy crisis with troops without domestic turmoil.
They, too, have a love story to tell, between the speech writer-narrator and a female reporter, an attractive alternative to Allen Drury's Anna Hastings. "I found myself falling in love with her." Ervin Duggan says. "She takes over the book. She is so rich and vivid and real."
Well, at the outset of the work - until a scene a Sans Souci persuaded then to make the change - she was a he. And he sort of resembled Max Frankel, of The New York Times.
It rained this week, after a dry winter, and today the Senate Appropriations Committee will consider giving the National Park Service $4.5 million to repair the leaking roofs, terraces, walls and floors of the John F. Kennedy Center for the performing Arts.
This is not to be thought of as simple cause and effect - Hey, it's raining indoors. let's close up those holes.
Leakage problems at the Center began to be noticed shortly after the building was built. The Department of Justice has a lawsuit against the architect pending in the Court of Claims. And with the increase, every year, of the interior damage - the buckling ceilings, ruined exhibits, dampened concertgoers - there has been an increase in the estimated repair bill.
And in the meantime, nasty stains have formed and are spreading on mirrors and on marble. Chandelier stems have corroded and carpeting has been ruined. The kitchen is leaking into the Concert Hall corridor. Service, garage and crawl space areas, filled with large pans to collect the water, are believed to present electrical hazards.
Exterior walls and overhangs are cracking. The Hall of Nations' marble is stained. An exhibit in the IBM "America on Stage" was ruined. Archives of the Center, including records and photographs, have been damaged, some of them destroyed.
Audiences in the Concert Hall have been trained on, as have people standing under the main canopy of the entrance.
Meanwhile, under the waterproof dome of the Capitol, there is continuing disagreement over who should get the check for the repair work. Legislation to fix the leaks died last session over this question, and it many yet hold up the work during this spring's rains.
The problem arises from the dual nature of the Kennedy Center, as a memorial maintained by the Park Service and as a cultural center run by a board of trustee.
The House of Representatives has proposed giving the money to the Kennedy Center board which would, in turn, contract the Park Service to do the work. A supplemental appropriation proposed in the House was removed last Wednesday on a point of order.
The Senate's supplemental appropriation gives the money directly to the Park Service in what its most revehement supporter believes will clarify the division of authority at the Center.
"How many years has that roof been leaking?" asked Sen. James McClure (R-Idaho). "The Kennedy Center has a tendency to neglect these problems until they're forced to act. Maybe there are other structural problems that should be looked into. If the Kennedy Center won't, then the federal government ought to. The Kennedy Center hasn't discharged its responsibility to act. We could force the Park Service to act, if they did not, in a much more direct way."
The Kennedy Center chairman, Roger L. Stevens - who happened to be on the Hill during the worst part of the rain - said it only began to act after finding that the Park Service was not doing so. "We are not in charge of maintence," he said, "but rather than fight over who should get the money, we went after it ourselves."
The Senate and House have agreed to go into conference over the matter, but no meeting time has yet been agreed upon.
The Kennedy Center has advanced about $100,000 to do emergency repairs on the roof and the ceiling of the Grand Foyer, which threatened to drop rainwater and plaster flakes into people's drink during intermission.
But the engineer who fixed the ceiling gave the Center a written guarantee that the place would not disintegrate again for "at least two weeks."
On the surface, it would seem that the Edison High School girls basketball team was lucky to win the state title last week.
They won by flawlessly executing a defense they had only used twice before. They had to beat two previously undefeated teams on consecutive nights. And their coach, Steve Gutekunst, says that two years ago he "tried to think of reasons not to take the job" because he had never "been good enough to play on a basketball team."
Gutekunst feels Edison's intensity, itelligence and experience against stiff Northern Virginia competition during the regualr season prevailed.
Leading by only 20-17 at the half in the final game against Norview, Gutekunst's team had to neutralize their opponents' superior inside strength.
"I decided to throw in a full-court zone press," Gutekunst said. "We had used it in our first game of the season and then in our last. I had wanted them to use it in the second quarter, but only one girl did and she caused two turnovers herself. I figured if one girl did that, the press should be effective."
It was, enabling Edison to burst into a 44-23 lead after three quarters on the way to a 50-38 victory.
Gutekunst, a music teacher at Mark Twain Intermediate School, said that two years ago he looked into the possibility of coaching Edison's junior varsity girls team.
"Another coach on their staff took that job, but I was told by the school that someone was neeeded to coach the varsity. I was scared to death of the job because I had heard of their talent," he said.
Nevertheless, Gutekunst accepted, began watching a lot of games, and got help from Edison's boys coach, Tom Wriston, and other friends. The team suffered several key injuries and went 8-7 last year.
Senior Kim Albany, Mimi Walters and Pauline Landes from this year's 21-3 team are all being sought by colleges, including William and Mary and Virginia Tech.
No starters will return next year for Edison, a problem that should test Gutekunst's coaching ability even further. But he doesn't seem worried.
FAIRFAX HIGH SCHOOL - Senior Lene Jordan has received a golf scholarship to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Jordan, 18, has played on the Fairfax High School golf team for two years. The only other girl on the team is her younger sister, Michelle.
"We have to play from men's tees," said Lene. "Of course, the boys are much stronger and that's a big difference. But that's about it. I have a good short game and I get on people's nerves because I'm consistent. I stay on the fairways and don't make mistakes."
Jordan has been working at her golf game "for about six years." She has won several national and local titles including the Tournament of Champions for Virginia and Maryland, the Washington Junior Girls Tournament, runner-up in the Virginia Girls Championship and the Army-Navy Country Club Championship, among others.
"I decided on Brigham Young because it has a fine golf program and it's close to a lot of good skiing in the winter," Jordan said.
MARSHALL HIGH SCHOOL - Basketball coach Bobby Joe Smith has been named coach of the Virginia All-Stars when they play the Maryland All-Stars in the annual Capital Classic all-star game to be held at the Capital Centre on March 30.
The House of Delegates moved today to increase state regulation of the insurance industry, with bills that legislators said stemmed in part from the state's recent calamitous experience with savings and loan associations.
In one bill, the House, by a two-vote margin, refused to allow insurance companies to continue setting their own rates without prior approval by Insurance Commissioner Edward J. Muhl.
The measure -- written to extend the insurers' current practice of setting rates -- was written by the same legislative task force that drew up stricter bills.
It missed gaining a 71-vote constitutional majority with 69 delegates voting in favor and 58 delegates voting against, and is expected to be taken up again in the House Friday.
Del. Gary Alexander (D-Prince George's), led the protest against extending the law, which was enacted two years ago, arguing that in the wake of the state's savings and loan crisis, Maryland should be regulating its industries more, not less.
"Your constituents, the ratepayers in the state, the insurance-buying public, spend $4 billion a year to insurance companies in the state of Maryland," Alexander said in a speech on the House floor. "I think they are looking for regulations to protect them."
Alexander was joined in his opposition to the bill by the majority of the Baltimore city and Prince George's County delegations as well as most of a more narrowly divided Montgomery County delegation.
The House today also approved several measures giving the insurance commissioner greater regulatory authority.
One such bill is aimed at controlling the industry equivalent of insider-dealing and requires the commissioner to review transactions between different financial divisions of an insurance company.
The bill also bars insurance companies from investing in securities controlled by executives of the same company, and allows the commissioner to review changes in insurance company ownership.
Del. Michael Gordon (D-Montgomery) said that legislative concern over the savings and loan crisis was a "major factor" in today's vote.
"It was very important to emphasize the fact that what has happened with S&Ls is also happening with the insurance industry in this state," he said.
Del. Caspar R. Taylor Jr. (D-Cumberland), vice chairman of the House Economic Matters Committee, defended the legislation to allow insurers to set their own rates and said the competitive rating system, which is in effect in 25 states, is effective in keeping rates down.
However, even as the votes were being tallied in Annapolis, Muhl was holding hearings in Baltimore to determine whether sufficient competition actually exists in some types of insurance to give consumers adequate choices.
While representatives of some of the state's leading insurers argued that the so-called "open competition" system is working, consumers from a variety of fields disputed that view, saying that sources of insurance are drying up, leaving only a few companies dominating each market and charging rates many consider too high.
From Prince George's County: David Bird, Susan Buswell (D), Gerard Devlin (D), Nathaniel Exum (D), Christine Jones (D), Frederick Rummage (D), Charles Ryan (D).
The St. Mary's County Planning and Zoning Commission voted Monday night to recommend a small farmstead subdivision near Oakville on part of a larger property undergoing inspection for evidence of munitions buried there in the 1950s. The proposed development still must be approved by county commissioners.
The five 15-acre lots--called McIntosh Subdivision Section 2----are located in the southern section of a 792-acre tract of land owned by Virginia developer Robert S. Gollahon, of King George. Gollahon also is proposing to build 153 houses and several larger farmsteads on his property. The land fronts on Route 235 south of Oakville and is flanked by Friendship School Road and McIntosh Road in Hillville.
Recently, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) told county officials that state records indicate that a munitions cleanup of the site in the early 1990s may not have been completed. The former owner of the land, Thiokol Corp., a division of Cordant Technologies Inc., sold the site in January to Gollahon. In the 1940s, the site was owned by a defense contractor that manufactured detonators.
A Waldorf-based company specializing in cleanup and disposal of old munitions sites found more than 1,300 pounds of munitions detonators between 1992 and 1994 and disposed of them. But an official of the company, Human Factors Applications, told The Washington Post that in 1994 the cleanup was halted by Thiokol officials before it was completed. Thiokol officials dispute that version of events, saying the work was stopped because reports indicated the cleanup was completed.
"There is clearly a disparity over the status of the property," wrote Thomas M. Russell, former director of the county's Office of Environmental Health, in a report to planning officials. "The Gollahons believe the property has a clean bill of health. MDE believes that there is the potential for additional areas contaminated with ordnance."
Although the Planning and Zoning Commission approved the five 15-acre farmsteads, the rest of the development will remain on hold until state and county officials comb through "selected spots" in the northern section of the site where the rest of the subdivision would be built.
"There were detonators on that property and they were removed. . . . It's been searched and cleared," said John Norris, a representative of Gollahon and his development firm, Southern Resources Management.
Norris said workers using electromagnetic detection systems walked the sites in question last week and found "four nails and a piece of tin."
"There were selected spots that were deficient in [MDE] record-keeping," Norris said. He said Gollahon and Thiokol are working together to inspect the site again and review records of the earlier cleanup.
Quentin Banks, a spokesman for the MDE, said his agency raised concerns about the areas of the site that still may contain detonators, but the final green light on safety will have to come from the state fire marshal.
Norris told Planning and Zoning Commission members "there will be a finalized report on your table" when final review of the rest of the McIntosh Subdivision comes before them.
Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan (D) kept quiet last week as the County Council unanimously called on Major League Baseball to return to the District.
Last week, the county Web site's home page displayed a photo of Duncan throwing out the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game July 9. Some saw the visit -- and the placement of the photo -- as a sign that Duncan thought a team in the District was unnecessary.
"Baseball in the Washington area is long overdue," he said. "But it's up to baseball to decide where in the area it should go."
Northern Virginia is another region competing for a baseball team, and some observers believe putting a team there would draw less business away from the Orioles. By not supporting the District, Duncan could win points with Baltimore voters and Orioles owner Peter Angelos, a major Democratic Party power broker and campaign contributor. It is also an attempt to one-up Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D), Duncan's likely rival in a 2006 primary to determine who will challenge Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R). O'Malley, in an attempt to expand his base, recently supported the idea of baseball in the District, which did not please Angelos.
"This is a way of showing that he [Duncan] isn't just tied to local interests and that he can reach out to the entire state," said Matthew Crenson, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. "I think he is doing the same thing that O'Malley is doing."
That's the hope, at least, of Montgomery County Council member Howard A. Denis (R-Potomac-Bethesda). On Tuesday, he introduced a bill to allow John Styer to sell shaved ice on the streets of downtown Bethesda.
Styer, 53, a gym teacher at Rock Terrace High School in Rockville, has spent the past four summers selling cones of ice drenched in sweet syrups. His pushcart has become a fixture at the Bethesda Barnes & Noble.
But last month the county revoked his license, saying the county code does not specifically allow pushcart vendors. That decision was rescinded this month, but Denis wanted to make sure that regulators couldn't shut Styer down again.
The proposed amendment to the county code would allow a vendor to sell goods "from a pushcart or other slow-moving vehicle." A public hearing on the bill is tentatively scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sept. 14.
Denis said he introduced the measure because of widespread support for Styer and his wares. "I had people calling me to say, 'Save the ice man!'" Denis said. "And that's what I'm doing."
A group of local biotechnology executives gave a chorus of dire predictions when they took to the steps of the County Council Building on Tuesday morning.
Dyan Brasington, president of the Technology Council of Maryland, Richard Parsons, president of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, Jonathan Cohen, president and chief executive of 20/20 GeneSystems, and other local business leaders discussed what they believe will happen if the County Council approves legislation July 27 that may result in county employees and retirees obtaining lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada.
They laid out long-standing arguments about how drugs imported from Canada are not closely regulated and are potentially unsafe. They implored the council not to resort to a "risky" -- and illegal -- proposition, when the county had yet to see the full savings of a mail-order prescription service. They also argued that the bill would "send a chilling signal" to venture capitalists and pharmaceutical companies that Montgomery County was a "hostile regulatory environment," where local officials endorsed "price controls" over the "innovation" of life-saving drugs.
Many of the groups represented had expressed their positions before. The point of Tuesday's gathering was to amplify that message. As Parsons put it: "These people are the experts. You should listen to them."
Not everyone in the biotech industry agrees. Greg Lennon, a research scientist and former top executive for several Maryland biotechnology companies, said he was a little "ticked off" when he received an anti-importation e-mail drafted by the technology council and addressed to County Council member Steven A. Silverman (D-At Large). "It assumed because I work in biotech that I agree."
Lennon did send the e-mail, but not before making some changes. "I actually believe that it is in the common interest to allow such importation. The local biotech industry will not be meaningfully harmed," he wrote.
"Any individual company going to venture capitalists for money will stand on its own merits," he said in an interview. "If we believe in a free market, then consumers should be able to go where the prices are cheapest."
Calling their suspect a scam artist with a great story, Rockville police have arrested a 36-year-old resident and charged her with theft.
Although Cheryl Denise Kenyon of Charles Street in Rockville stole less than $500 from her victims, she had "for weeks, if not longer" been telling the same sob story -- that "her mother had been in a bad car accident in West Virginia and she needed gas money to go see her," Rockville police said in a statement.
Kenyon came to the attention of police last week when a 75-year-old man who lives on Allison Drive in Rockville reported that a thirtysomething woman with long blond hair knocked on his door and told the story. He told police that when he unlocked his door, she suddenly ran to her blue Jeep Cherokee and left.
The next day, police said, Kenyon knocked on a neighbor's door, telling the story to a generous 44-year-old victim, who gave Kenyon $12 and then took her to a cash machine and gave her another $20. The victim developed doubts about the story and called Rockville police, whose officers cooperated with Montgomery County police in looking for Kenyon and her SUV.
When caught, police said, Kenyon confessed that her mother had not been in an accident and said she would give the money back. But she didn't have it because she used it to buy cocaine, police said.
Kenyon was also charged with possession of crack cocaine, which police found on the floor of the Cherokee. She has been held at the Montgomery County Detention Center since July 16 on $10,000 bail and was unavailable for comment.
Secretary of Defense William Cohen has made the potential use of biological or chemical agents by terrorist groups or individuals his personal signature contribution to the national security debate in the past several years.
"Terrorist groups and even religious cults will seek to wield disproportionate power by acquiring and using these weapons that can produce major casualties."
"We have begun to treat the threat of chemical and biological weapons as a likely -- and early -- condition of warfare."
"Most ominous among these threats is the movement of the front line of the chemical and biological battlefield from foreign soil to the American homeland."
Nothing supports these propositions. They are exaggerated and alarmist. They are probably even dangerous and counterproductive, since they virtually solicit and induce precisely what they portray as fearing. They trumpet a perception of U.S. national vulnerability to chemical and biological weapons, whether or not that is actually the case. They therefore are likely to stimulate the interest of other states and terrorists in such weapons.
No agency of the U.S. government has prepared a threat analysis that provides indications that these events are imminent or even likely. Instead, various analysts have provided vulnerability projections and scenarios, which are always easy to concoct in the abstract. Vulnerability can neither be denied nor disproved.
In his most recent contribution in your paper ["Preparing for a Grave New World," op-ed, July 26], Cohen wrote:
"Also looming is the chance that these terror weapons will find their way into the hands of individuals and independent groups -- fanatical terrorists and religious zealots beyond our borders, brooding loners and self-proclaimed apocalyptic prophets at home."
It is possible that Cohen offers these fantasies in response to the first concerted expressions of expert opinion in recent months, in conferences and publications, which argue that the past years have seen exaggeration on this subject approaching hysteria.
Cohen referred to the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo group, whose 1995 use of the chemical nerve agent Sarin in the Tokyo subway killed a dozen people and injured several thousand. It was subsequently learned that this same group had made a substantial effort to produce biological weapons as well, and this event released the flood of fearsome scenarios and projections regarding chemical and biological terrorism. The quality of the Sarin produced by the Aum group was poor. Nevertheless, the group's efforts to produce a chemical weapon could be considered a qualified success. Insofar as biological agents are concerned, however, their efforts were an absolute failure.
The group had unlimited funds to procure whatever equipment was necessary. They had a small group of trained professional scientists in their organization. They had four years in which to work, undisturbed. They attempted to produce two agents -- anthrax and botulinum toxin -- both usually considered relatively simple to work with.
Either the advice reaching the secretary of defense and other senior officials on this subject is extraordinarily poor, or they are intentionally disregarding real-world experience. The portrayal of this subject by senior government officials is grossly exaggerated, and the government's policy is accordingly based either on faulty assessments or no assessment at all.
Two diabetics taking the new oral insulin-enhancing drug Avandia had severe negative reactions to the medication, doctors reported.
The two Pennsylvania men suffered liver failure or poisoning after several weeks on the drug, and recovered after it was discontinued, the doctors wrote in today's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The Food and Drug Administration and the drug's manufacturer, SmithKline Beecham, were informed of the reactions, and both concluded the drug remains safe and effective. A spokesman for SmithKline said it was unclear whether the two cases had anything to do with Avandia.
The director of the FDA's Office of Drug Evaluation, John Jenkins, said the agency has received other reports of liver toxicity related to use of Avandia from doctors and patients, but that none had been confirmed.
"Based on what we have seen, we are not contemplating any changes to the labeling, or any warning to patients or physicians," he said.
Another popular oral medication for diabetics, Rezulin, has been associated with severe liver failure in dozens, if not hundreds of diabetics since it was approved in 1997. Both Rezulin and Avandia are thiazolidinediones, a class of compounds that helps diabetics by boosting the body's ability to absorb insulin, thereby lowering blood-sugar levels.
According to one of the journal authors, Robert H. Diamond of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, the case he described occurred soon after Avandia was approved by the FDA in May. He was especially concerned when he saw what appeared to be liver failure in a diabetic taking Avandia because of the history of liver toxicity in Rezulin users, he said.
"We wanted to put the case study out there because there is the potential that there could be this toxicity again from the drug," Diamond said. "We wanted clinicians to be aware of this, and to engage in a dialogue about it."
SmithKline spokesman Brian Jones said his company believes the two cases do not necessarily point to problems with Avandia. Regarding one of the Pennsylvania cases, Jones said SmithKline researchers and three outside experts concluded the man's liver injury was the result of a heart problem rather than Avandia.
"The cases remain unresolved for us; we do not believe there is conclusive evidence to link the problems to Avandia," he said. "But the key point is that there have been no reports of death directly associated with Avandia, and both of these patients [in the journal article] resolved successfully."
Both Avandia and Rezulin have been popular with the estimated 14 million diabetics in the United States, most of whom have what is known as Type 2 diabetes. It has been especially useful for diabetics who did not respond well to other treatments. Avandia is used by more than 350,000 diabetics in the United States, according to SmithKline.
Because of the adverse reactions to Rezulin, the FDA has required stricter monitoring of patients taking it. The drug was taken off the market in Britain in 1997, and the number of prescriptions written for Rezulin in the United States declined more than 10 percent over the last year, according to IMS Health, a company that gathers pharmaceutical statistics.
The arrival of Avandia had been eagerly anticipated last year because it did not cause any liver damage in studies involving more than 4,000 patients before it was approved. FDA officials say it is common for some patients taking a new drug on the market to have unexpected reactions.
Ralph Lauren’s sumptuous 50th anniversary show was the great American Dream merchant at his finest - The Washington Post
NEW YORK — At the end of his 50th anniversary show in Central Park, Ralph Lauren cried, and the audience stood and applauded. At the beginning of the elegant dinner that followed, Oprah Winfrey toasted the powerful symbolism imbued in his work, reflecting not only his own American success story but that of so many others. By the time guests drifted off toward the hazy lights of the city, they had the undeniable sense of how big, how defining and how magnetic fashion can be.
Lauren has long said that he was not interested in creating clothes that go in and out of style. There is, of course, a difference between a garment that always seems timeless vs. one that appears to exist in a bubble. Lauren hasn’t always made that distinction clear.
He has a studied approach to style — the jeans wrecked just so, the collar flipped at a prescribed angle, the boots weathered but not scuffed, the model’s stubbly beard grown out to a precise 5:01 p.m. shadow. If there is ease on his runway, it’s often the self-conscious sort, as if the models are silently telling themselves: breathe in, breathe out, smile, now swing your arms.
Friday night, it was a different story. Perhaps it was the joy in the occasion, or perhaps the sheer scale of the show during this city’s Fashion Week prevented it from being so taut. Maybe it was the range of models, from several gray-haired men — and one similarly mature woman — to children and one sleeping toddler, who injected energy and humanity. Grizzled men with flowing hair showed off giant tweed blazers and mountain-man hats. Nimble young women strolled along in silver fringed skirts and crewneck sweaters. Jeans and black-tie, cowboy style in the city. Costumes for life, yes. But it looked like a life that one might want to live.
It was impossible to absorb the endless details of nubby tailoring, patchwork velvets, leather bombers, ski jackets, flannel shirts, denim overalls, heirloom cardigans and charming children’s clothes that, although a bit too posh for the playground, would look spectacular on the family Christmas card.
These clothes were inviting, aspirational and beautifully made. And although they weren’t breaking any new ground, they underscored what has already been built. It was impossible not to marvel at that feat of construction — a fashion house erected on a foundation of sheer stubborn optimism about the power of dress.
The story that Lauren was telling as models poured down the steps of Bethesda Terrace was one of breadth, depth and influence. It was about what we strive for professionally; how we yearn to belong; our passion for big-sky freedom; and our enduring belief in the promise of bootstrap capitalism. His work ranges from the formality of banker stripes to lumberjack plaids. And it was invigorating to see it en masse, as an all-encompassing universe.
The spectacle was less about clothes and more about the narrative. It was an assessment of a long-standing story about American fashion as both a business and a part of our popular culture.
The guests also included the many designers who have worked for Lauren, who have been inspired by him or who simply have admired his ethos: John Varvatos, Jeffrey Banks, Thom Browne, Carolina Herrera, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan.
The diversity reflects the many roles that Ralph Lauren plays in the culture. He hasn’t just shaped his own company. He has helped to shape an entire industry. There are designers such as Varvatos whose work represents a kind of stripped-down, rock-and-roll iteration of Ralph Lauren. Browne draws upon Lauren’s ethos of classicism and tailoring. Other designers subvert Lauren’s preppiness. They copy his lifestyle business model by branching into housewares, furniture or restaurants. So much of what is now common practice, Lauren pioneered.
The audience defines what Ralph Lauren is: a dream factory, a billion-dollar publicly traded company, one of the original pillars of Seventh Avenue, a philanthropic organization, a cultural touchstone, a husband, a father and a guy from the Bronx with a love for the movies, the usual human insecurities and an abundance of ambition.
In her toast to the designer, Winfrey described a moment early in her professional life when she began to feel that she was making headway in her career. She was coming into her own. She was making money. She stocked her bathroom with Ralph Lauren bath sheets — not bath towels, but luxurious, indulgent, enormous bath sheets. They symbolized having accomplished something, having gained entry, perhaps just a toehold, into the American clubhouse of success.
Guests attend a dinner in Central Park after the Ralph Lauren 50th anniversary show. (Diane Bondareff/AP)
The vintage footage reminded guests that he brought racial diversity to his runway — and to his advertising — before doing so became a rallying cry, long before there was social media and the capacity to tweet a company into submission.
The waiters served cocktails, the guests mingled, and the rain held until everyone was seated for dinner under rows of white canvas umbrellas. There was filet mignon from Lauren’s ranch, mini chocolate cakes and key lime cheesecakes for dessert. And in the distance, a view of this city that served as a reminder of why Hollywood, small-town dreamers and ambitious strivers can’t shake its allure.
The Kate Spade brand lives on, in the bright, sparkly spirit of its founder. And yes, there are handbags.
BEIRUT — The Middle East is bracing for an incoming American president who seems intent on radically reordering the regional balance of power, heralding new uncertainty and perhaps new turmoil for a part of the world already engulfed in multiple wars.
So vague and contradictory were many of the pronouncements made by President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail that governments and analysts are puzzling out which ones he meant and how he would be able to implement them all.
According to the more consistent of his statements, and conversations his advisers have had with analysts and officials, however, Trump will seek to bring about a significant recalibration of the existing order in the Middle East — in favor of Russia, away from Shiite Iran and to the benefit of Turkey and the Sunni Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Some of his declared goals are not so very different from Obama administration policies that were set aside or unfulfilled because they proved too difficult to accomplish — such as the failed push to cooperate with Russia against terrorist groups in Syria and the expectation that Arab states will do more, and pay more, for regional security.
President Obama said the Iran deal is an example of the gap between rhetoric and reality during a news conference Monday, Nov. 14. (The Washington Post)
Others mark a major departure, notably the threats to renege on the Iran nuclear deal, President Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement, and suggestions that Trump will cut support for Syrian rebels and align the United States with the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The blitz launched against Syrian rebel-held territory on Tuesday by a newly assembled Russian flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean offered a taste of what may lie ahead. The attacks came hours after Trump spoke on the phone for the first time with Russian President Vladimir Putin about ways to improve U.S.-Russian ties, including a settlement for the crisis in Syria that will likely free up Russia to crush the rebellion against Assad’s rule.
Yet other positions are hard to reconcile, such as Trump’s promises to do more to fight the Islamic State while also pledging to further disengage the United States from adventures abroad. Will Trump be an isolationist, continuing the risk-averse instincts of Obama? Or an interventionist, more in the mold of George W. Bush, whose global war on terrorism took the United States into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
He will be a bit of both but radically different, too, predicts Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser with Washington-based Gulf State Analytics, who has discussed the future of the region with Trump’s advisers in recent months. Trump’s chief priority, he said, will be to fight the Islamic State, while outsourcing the rest of the region’s security to Russia and to Arab states.
“There is the potential for a chaos factor,” he said. “But the idea now is to shake up the arrangement of nation-states in the region in order to move forward and allow them to police themselves.”
Words like “moderate” and “democracy” won’t feature in a Trump administration’s Middle East vocabulary, he added. “We are now engaged in realpolitik.”
For the region’s strongmen, most of whom had fraught relations with the Obama administration, that is welcome news. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi have hailed Trump’s election as a chance to reset their badly frayed relationships with Washington.
Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf region, despite initial reservations regarding his views on Muslims, are mostly relieved to have a Republican back in the White House and are hoping Trump will be tougher on Iran than his predecessor was, analysts in the region say.
“Certainly, we are not expecting Mr. Trump to be worse than Mr. Obama was,” said Abdullah al-Shamri, a former Saudi diplomat and analyst. Most members of the royal family, he said, “are happy with the result. We are closer to Republicans psychologically.”
Assad’s government is exulting over Trump’s election because of his pledges to join forces with Russia against the Islamic State and Syrian rebels, according to Bassam Abu Abdullah, a professor at Damascus University who supports Assad. The expectation in Damascus now is that Washington will sever support for Syrian rebels, join in bombing them alongside Russia and perhaps restore diplomatic relations with Assad, he said.
“Absolutely this is good for Syria,” he said. “This means the U.S. will not be looking for regime change.”
Even Syrian rebels, who appear set to be big losers, are finding solace in the wide range of opinions expressed by his associates, said Bassam Barabandi, who works with the Syrian opposition in Washington and has met with Trump advisers. The prospect of collaborating with Russia is anathema to many Republicans, as was expressed in a statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Tuesday calling any attempt to reset relations “an unacceptable price for a great nation.”
Much will depend, Barabandi said, on whom Trump chooses for positions in his administration. Some members of his inner circle have been hawkish on Russia and others on Syria, including Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is heading Trump’s transition team and who proposed a no-fly zone in Syria, and Stephen Hadley, who has advocated using cruise missiles to rein in Assad.
Though Trump has disparaged Syrian rebels as “worse than the people,” the Syrian opposition is hoping to bring him around to the current administration’s view that the moderate Syrian opposition serves to counter the influence of extremists in areas Assad no longer governs, he said.
“The war on terror is very important to Trump,” he said. “I don’t feel his foreign policy will be very different from Obama’s. He is not interventionist. He is very much like Obama but in a different way. Obama has his own philosophy. Trump is a businessman, and he’s looking for where he can save money.”
Implementing all of these goals and satisfying all of these expectations without unleashing new conflicts and perhaps embroiling the United States even more deeply in the region’s rivalries will, however, be a challenge.
Iran is Assad’s closest ally in the war against Syrian rebels and provides the bulk of the ground forces confronting the anti-Assad rebellion. Assad’s army is depleted, Russia does not have troops on the ground, and it would be the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iranian-backed Shiite militias and Lebanon’s Hezbollah who would move into any areas reconquered by the regime, said Andrew Tabler of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
So, he asked, how does a Trump administration that wants to curtail Iranian influence also align itself more closely with Russia and Assad without empowering Iran?
“I don’t see how you do it,” Tabler said. “It’s in the cauldron of contradictions in his statements that I don’t see being resolved.”
Taking a tougher line with Iran could also further inflame tensions across the region, emboldening chief rival Saudi Arabia and prompting pushback against U.S. interests from Iran and its many regional proxies. That would put at risk U.S. troops deployed against the Islamic State in Iraq, in proximity to the Iranian-backed Shiite militias responsible for many of the bombings that killed American troops before the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.
Anti-American cleric ­Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Iraqi militia once fought U.S. troops, issued a veiled warning to that effect last week. He declared “eternal hostility” toward Trump, condemned the president-elect’s attitude toward Muslims and urged him to abide by existing U.S. international commitments.
“He does not know that his radicalism will in turn result in radicalism,” Sadr cautioned in a statement. If the United States changes its policies, he added, “we will not be silent, and we will resist it as before.”
Likewise, Turkish expectations that a Trump administration will reverse the Obama administration’s reliance on Syrian Kurds to fight the Islamic State may lift some obstacles in the war but throw up new ones, because Syrian Kurds control most of the front line against the militants in Syria.
Reconciling all of these conflicting goals is not impossible, said Imad Salamey of the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Trump might bring about reconciliation between Turkey and the Kurds, he said. And a Trump administration that stood up to Iranian military expansionism, in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, could persuade Saudi Arabia to acquiesce to Assad in Syria and bring about a broader regional reconciliation.
Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and commentator, described that as “wishful thinking,” at odds with Trump’s apparent determination to ally more closely with Russia.
“When his advisers show him the map, will he realize supporting Putin means supporting the Iranian agenda? And this is what Saudi Arabia is concerned about, to stop Iranian hegemony,” he said.
Perhaps the biggest losers, however, will be the ordinary people who have been agitating for more democracy in the region.
“For us, Trump’s election feels like a winter wind,” said Ahmed Saleh, an engineer who joined in the 2011 uprising in Egypt. “How can you hope for freedom when the most powerful man in the world doesn’t believe in our democracy?”
Hugh Naylor and Louisa Loveluck in Beirut; Mustafa Salim, Loveday Morris and William Booth in Irbil, Iraq; and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.
One of the mistakes people make in the heat of political argument is to charge the other side with hypocrisy. For example, Democrats have accused Republicans of being hypocritical because the Bush campaign went to federal court to try to block the hand counting of Florida ballots.
Where, all of a sudden, is the much-vaunted federalism of the GOP? Whatever happened to the idea that local matters should be left to the states? Nyah-nyah.
The problem here is that making the charge of hypocrisy itself has an underlying hypocrisy. Since, when, after all, do Democrats have a problem with going to federal court to right an injustice that state officials are perpetrating? What's the standard here, that only Democrats get to use the federal courts?
There is a similar problem for Republicans in relation to the disqualified military ballots. On one hand, the Gore forces' systematic effort to scrutinize absentee ballots from military personnel deployed abroad was a public relations disaster. First of all, Americans rightly think people in uniform deserve as much consideration as possible. The idea of targeting them for exclusion is extremely offensive. Second, the aggressive effort to see these ballots excluded flatly contradicts the rhetoric of the Gore campaign, which has held that the purpose of this entire exercise is to make sure that no one is disenfranchised. Mr. Gore may lose public opinion over this, and if he does, it couldn't happen to a nicer fellow.
But here's the rub. To denounce the hypocrisy of the Gore loyalists on this matter is to say that there are gray areas in which the requirements of justice outweigh a narrow reading of applicable law, as in the case of these ballots. That is a Gore argument for scrutinizing ballots by hand in an attempt to discern voters' intent.
Hypocrisy is, of course, rampant in politics. The most spectacular example of it in recent memory was the turnabout over the independent counsel law. During the Reagan and Bush administrations, Republicans chafed under the law and denounced it, while Democrats saw it as essential to the legal accountability of the executive branch. During the Clinton administration, Democrats chafed while Republicans put their trust in the law's operation. Fortunately, at the end of the day, both sides agreed to put the law out of our collective misery.
A better approach to judging consistency, I think, is the Other Foot Shoe test. It's necessarily speculative, but I think it's helpful. Suppose that following the mandatory machine recount, Mr. Bush were down by a few hundred votes out of 6 million cast in a state in which Mr. Gore's brother-in-law was governor and a Democrat held the office responsible for overseeing the election. The Electoral College outcome rests on how the state goes. For fun, we'll give Mr. Bush an edge in the national popular vote.
The fact is that a margin of less than 2,000 votes, let alone 300 votes, is too fine for any process to verify. I think there would be a prevailing conviction in the Bush camp that Mr. Bush was robbed. I think Mr. Gore would be struggling to use state law to lock in the result. I think the closeness of the outcome would have yielded bitterness and rancor on both sides. If it is in the nature of Democrats to sue over people's votes being excluded, it is in the nature of Republicans to complain that loose standards for voter registration result in ineligible people voting. I think Republicans would be in the habit of including references to the popular vote total in their remarks. I think Sen. Lazio would be introducing a measure to get rid of the Electoral College.
And I think it would probably be over by now, because Mr. Bush would have conceded. Mr. Bush's lawyers would certainly have scoured the statute books to assess the circumstances in which a hand recount was possible. But I don't think Republicans could really have come up with anything like the "butterfly ballot" controversy let alone the campaign of mass hysteria about accidentally voting for the wrong person (which, I have no doubt, a few people in Florida actually did), and the street demonstrations. And I don't think Republicans would ever have been arguing for a do-over. They are not that good at demagogy.
Yet without that fracas, it's hard to get to the hand count at all. Would Bush lawyers have been imaginative enough to leap into their candidate's three best counties and demand a hand recount in other words, an opportunity to look for more votes citing only the flimsiest of pretexts? Confused voters? Or, because the area was strong for Mr. Bush, the fact that some ballots were spoiled (as some always are) was ipso facto evidence that people who entered the voting booth with the intention of voting for Mr. Bush had had their franchise revoked? I don't think so, but I'd be glad to hear from anyone who thinks I've got this wrong.
Back in the real world, if Mr. Gore is determined to continue, I can't see any reason Mr. Bush shouldn't fight him. If I'm wrong about my conclusion using the Other Foot Shoe test above, and Mr. Bush would not have conceded by now, I am quite sure by the same test that Mr. Gore would keep fighting.
Federal authorities have arrested two leaders of the Jewish Defense League on charges of conspiring to blow up a mosque, the offices of a U.S. congressman and the headquarters of an Arab-American group in Los Angeles.
JDL leaders Irv Rubin, 56, and Earl Krugel, 59, were taken into custody Tuesday night by members of the Justice Department's anti-terrorism task force in Los Angeles after an informant reportedly told investigators about the plot.
"We are here to announce the arrest of the two men alleged to be members of the Jewish Defense League who have been charged with conspiring to bomb Arab-American and Muslim targets in southern California," U.S. Attorney John Gordon said yesterday in announcing the arrests at an afternoon press conference.
Prosecutors said Mr. Rubin and Mr. Krugel are believed to have plotted an attack on the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, a Los Angeles suburb, and the offices of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles.
They said the two men also sought to blow up the San Diego-area office of Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican and an Arab Christian. Mr. Issa, the grandson of Lebanese immigrants who represents northern San Diego County, is on the House Committee on International Relations and supports Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
"I have no way of knowing why I have become the focus and target of these individuals," Mr. Issa said. "Like most Americans, my hope and wish is for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides who oppose a peaceful resolution, and instead choose violence."
Mr. Issa said that while the suspected plot involved members of the JDL, "I know that Jewish-Americans are appalled to hear of a plot like this originating in their community, just as Arab-Americans were appalled by the terrible attacks of September 11."
The government said in a complaint that Mr. Krugel told associates during a meeting that Arabs "need a wake-up call."
"The bombing plot developed to the point that explosive powder was delivered to Krugel's house last night," Mr. Gordon said. "At the time the powder was delivered, Krugel had in his house the remaining components needed to make the bomb."
Mr. Rubin and Mr. Krugel were booked in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, which carries a 30-year mandatory sentence.
Mr. Gordon told reporters investigators were notified of the suspected scheme following a series of meetings where the plot to bomb the King Fahd mosque and Mr. Issa's office was discussed. He said the original target had been the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, but that changed during a meeting last weekend.
The arrests came in the wake of pledges by Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III that the Justice Department would not tolerate retaliatory hate crimes directed at Arab-Americans.
They said the department and the FBI would aggressively investigate and prosecute violations of the federal hate crime laws. Since the September 11 attacks on America, the department has brought more than 50 hate-crimes investigations involving reported attacks on Arab-American and Muslim residents and institutions.
"It seems to us that given the timing, the government's action is part of an overreaction to the September 11 events," Mr. Morris said.
Tajuddin Shuaib, director of the King Fahd mosque, said he was "astonished" by the suspected plot, which came during Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims. He said the mosque had received no threats. As many as 1,000 people attend the mosque to pray during the Ramadan season.
"I can't understand why people would do such a thing. We are not against Jews. We are not against anybody. We are like any church or synagogue or temple," Mr. Shuaib said.
Maher Hathout, senior adviser for the Los Angeles chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the arrests had sent an encouraging message to the Muslim community.
"We can easily develop an attitude that [federal authorities] are out to get us," Mr. Hathout said. "But it seems they are out to get anyone who breaks the law."
The JDL, which claims 13,000 members, was founded in 1968 in New York by Rabbi Meir Kahane as an armed response to anti-Semitism. It also has lobbied for the punishment of Nazi war criminals and for the release of Jews from the former Soviet Union.
Mr. Kahane left the JDL in the 1980s. He was assassinated in New York in 1990. El Sayyid Nosair, 36, an Egyptian-born Muslim, was convicted in connection with the shooting.
SOFIA, Bulgaria Bulgaria's presidential election hung in the balance last night after several exit polls in the runoff vote showed Socialist Party leader Georgi Parvanov narrowly ahead of incumbent Petar Stoyanov.
Exit polls in the first round a week ago put Mr. Stoyanov ahead but proved wrong when the Central Electoral Commission announced the final results: 36 percent for Mr. Parvanov and 35 percent for Mr. Stoyanov.
DHAKA, Bangladesh Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior politician in Bangladesh's Islamist-allied ruling party yesterday, police said.
Three assailants entered the home of Babul Ahmed in the Mohammadpur district of Dhaka and fired three bullets into his chest after he refused to come out of his home yesterday morning, a local police official said.
He said Mr. Ahmed, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's general secretary in the district, was pronounced dead on arrival to a hospital.
The shooting comes two days after 60-year-old private college principal Gopal Chandra Muhuri was shot dead in a similar fashion at his home in the southeastern port city of Chittagong.
CARACAS, Venezuela Fifty-five inmates have escaped from a prison in eastern Venezuela by tunneling into sewage pipes and crawling to freedom, the biggest jail break so far this year in the South American nation, authorities said yesterday.
They said the inmates of La Pica prison, in the eastern state of Monagas, were awaiting trial on charges ranging from murder to rape and armed robbery, and were highly dangerous.
The prisoners took advantage of the disruption caused by an electricity blackout at dawn yesterday to make their escape, police said. So far, none of the escapees has been captured.
"The breakout took place in the early hours of the morning through a tunnel which led into the sewage system and emerged in mountains behind the prison," Angel Gonzalez, head of the National Guard in Monagas, told Union Radio.
SKOPJE, Macedonia A powerful explosion ripped through a city in northwestern Macedonia yesterday, and a shadowy ethnic Albanian militant group claimed responsibility for the blast.
Macedonian police said an explosive device was detonated near the market in Tetovo, but no one was injured.
"It was a strong explosive device of an unidentified type. Several shops were damaged," police spokesman Vasko Sutarov told the Associated Press.
Alban Berisha, a spokesman for a new militant group calling itself the Albanian National Army, told the Associated Press by telephone that his organization claimed responsibility for the bomb attack.
"This is a response to [Interior Minister Ljube] Boskovski's claims that we are nonexistent and a phantom organization," Mr. Berisha said.
LONDON At least 10,000 peace demonstrators, including politicians and leaders from Britain's Muslim community, marched through central London yesterday to demand an end to the war in Afghanistan, police said.
But organizers of the protest, Stop the War Coalition, said 50,000 people had turned out for the rally, which began in Hyde Park and continued on to Trafalgar Square.
Muslims held prayers for peace on mats placed on the park's grass while speakers told the rally that the apparent rout of the Taliban militia did not justify U.S. and British military action in Afghanistan.
"We are hoping to send out a clear message that [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair does not speak for Britain and we hope that message carries across Britain and across the world," said committee member Mike Marqusee.
NEW YORK Republican Bret D. Schundler goes into the New Jersey gubernatorial election on Tuesday badly trailing his opponent, Democrat James E. McGreevey, in most polls.
Mr. McGreevey, the mayor of Woodbridge Township, has a commanding lead of 52 percent to 35 percent over Mr. Schundler, the former two-term conservative Republican mayor of Jersey City, in the latest Quinnipiac University poll among likely voters. Eleven percent are undecided.
A New York Times poll on Oct. 26 indicated that Mr. Schundler's pledge not to raise taxes and expand state financing of private schools the main theme of his campaign is not persuading New Jersey voters to vote for him. Most voters believe that taxes will be increased no matter who becomes governor, the survey shows. An estimated 21 percent of voters remain undecided in the poll.
Mr. McGreevey, 44, who came within 26,000 votes of defeating then-Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in 1997, began the race with a 19-point lead over Mr. Schundler.
Mr. McGreevey has attacked Mr. Schundler for his pro-life views and his proposal to allow residents to carry concealed weapons under certain circumstances. The Democrat has also charged that his adversary raised rather than reduced taxes while mayor of Jersey City. Mr. Schundler is widely credited with innovative reforms during his stewardship of the city after winning in 1993 with 68 percent of the vote.
Mr. Schundler has tried to paint his opponent as someone who will raise taxes. But Mr. McGreevey has refused to be cornered on the issue, calling instead for lower auto insurance and reduced property tax rates. Mr. Schundler has also espoused eliminating tolls on the Garden State Parkway.
Democrats perceive Mr. Schundler as so unpopular that even candidates for the state Senate are attacking him in daily radio commercials. There is a possibility, political observers say, that the State Assembly and Senate, controlled by the Republican Party for a decade, could fall to the Democrats.
There are about 4.6 million registered voters in New Jersey. About 1.2 million are Democrats and about 890,000 are Republicans. However, 55 percent of all registered voters claim no party affiliation, according to the state Division of Elections.
Cliff Zukin, professor of public policy at Rutgers University, said that overall there is little attention being paid to the race in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Mr. Schundler has been very critical of the state Republican Party's role in the campaign, charging that acting Republican Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco had "hurt the party" by withholding his support.
Pop sensation Britney Spears wanted to let the world know she doesn't have it all. . "My loneliness is killing me," Miss Spears confessed in her hit song, "…Baby One More Time."
In a society where so much emphasis is placed on mass communication, it seems surprising that loneliness could be a major American ailment. Despite the burst of community exhibited all over the landscape after September 11, Americans seem to have moved back to a pre-attack mode.
Society has "basically returned to the status quo," says Mary Jo Marchionni, a career and personal coach in Havertown, Pa., who counsels clients about the matter.
"It allows us to be isolated from activities that once required participating in the world, such as grocery shopping," she says. "Things that used to seem like chores, like shopping, now are the avenues for getting out to see people."
Pundits are now talking about the general loneliness experienced by many Americans who have not been able to connect. Individualistic lifestyles are fodder for loneliness, they say. Examples:
The handicapped man who, lacking any close friends, has amassed a houseful of books to keep him company.
The important CEO whose job takes him hundreds of miles from his family and who hangs out at the office on Sundays just to have some human contact.
"Some people are willing to accept the price of loneliness for the freedom that they think they have," says Paula Danzinger, counselor and educator at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.
"Loneliness is not so much about being alone as it is about feeling alone. The feeling of not being understood, of not being supported, of not being cared about, can cause a person to feel much lonelier than if they were actually alone."
Johann Christoph Arnold, a New York author and social critic whose book, "Escape Routes: For People Who Feel Trapped in Life's Hells," came out in February, says Americans cannot seem to depend on others for even the smallest things.
"To me, loneliness is one of the greatest hells today's man can live in," he says. "Forget about the Information Age; we live in the age of loneliness."
"The time we spend on the computer cuts down on the time we could devote to a spouse, child or co-worker who might be sitting right next to us," he says. "I wish the day would come that our technology would collapse, and instead of depending on the technology, we would depend on each other.
"Any act of love reaching out to anyone from the taxi driver to the stranger on the street will help to overcome loneliness in yourself," he says.
It's a medical fact that lonely people get sicker sooner, says Bruce Rabin, medical director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's health-enhancement program. People who have had a heart attack or stroke are at a greater risk of having another one if they have little social interaction, he says.
But isolation seems built into the American psyche. Some 16.4 million Americans work out of their homes.
And more Americans are living alone then ever before: 27 million one-person households, to be exact. Such a large population of single adults was unthinkable in previous centuries. Loneliness also exists among the married if their partner cannot or will not understand their needs.
"Most people do not know that loneliness is a problem until they feel it," says Gilda Carle, an authority on relationships and grief therapist in Yonkers, N.Y. "Our culture typically incorporates Band-Aids in the form of material things to get us to forget about ourselves."
"September 11 made people more aware of how they had been replacing their own loneliness with activities, upward mobility on the job and other things. Suddenly, we were shocked into admitting our vulnerability and our need for relationships."
Loneliness inspired James Huckenpahler, a local artist whose "Age of Loneliness" exhibit at the Fusebox Gallery in the District portrays the mood as a pervasive condition. His abstract digital monoprints simulate skin, each print being a combination of neutral colors with a textured image mimicking cracks, pores and blemishes.
The idea behind his prints is that human touch is utterly necessary to a lonely person. "The pioneer spirit and the ideas of rugged individualism inherent to American culture explain why we are more individual and less community-minded," he says.
Joseph Tecce, an associate psychology professor at Boston College, says the lack of human touch is the essence of loneliness.
"With all the cyber-richness of the Internet, its virtual reality cannot replace a warm smile, a firm handshake, or a reassuring hug," he says. "It is essential to connect with someone in conversation and to share good and bad feelings to ward off loneliness."
Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community," finds it ironic that "Most people watch [TVs] 'Friends,' rather then having friends."
People may be a little less lonely now, Mr. Putnam says, citing interviews conducted in November with 500 subjects. The same people were also interviewed in September 2000. When asked to identify the number of people they felt they could talk to if they were having a personal crisis, most couldn't think of anyone or only a few people.
The events of September 11, however, made those interview subjects realize that people they didn't consider close are actually individuals they can turn to in times of crisis.
The solitary have no one to blame, says the Rev. John McCloskey, director of the Catholic Information Center in the District. "People are as lonely as they want to be," he says.
Find dancing, live music, pancake suppers and trout fry, barbecued-chicken roast, maple-flavored dishes at most festival sites and formal seating for a spring lamb dinner. Country craft show and antiques, jewelry, photo and painting exhibition, pottery, baked goods and craft demonstrations. Ruins of Civil War breastworks and battlefields, Confederate and Union headquarters buildings.
The place is Monterey and vicinity in Highland County, Va., about 150 miles as the crow flies southwest of the White House (45 miles west of Staunton, Va.; the drive can take four hours or more from the District, depending on road selection).
Cold-weather clothing and sturdy walking shoes are suggested for visitors to three classic maple sugar camps, all within a few miles of downtown Monterey, because sugar camps are outdoors.
Eagle Sugar Camp at Doe Hill, a 200-year-old gem using old-fashioned wood-fired evaporators to make maple sugar products. Barbecue, brown beans and corn bread sold along with jugs of freshly made syrup. 540/396-6126 and [email protected]
Puffenbarger's Sugar Orchard at Blue Grass, a state-of-the-art camp using modern equipment producing maple products, with maple doughnuts for sale. 540/474-2771
Rexrode's Sugar Orchard in Hightown, a five-generation family producer using old-fashioned "open pan" system, as well as newer one. Maple products and ham sandwiches, chili dogs, maple-flavored cotton candy, fudge and popcorn for sale. 540/468-2725/2351
Sugar Tree Country Store & Sugar House in McDowell, a pre-Civil War country store with a large sugarhouse in the back. Myriad maple products, antiques, books and other collectibles sold, along with country ham, Brunswick stew and maple doughnuts. 800/396-2445 and www.sugartreecountrystore.com.
Southernmost Maple Products in Bolar, a country store with a modern sugarhouse attached. Maple products and maple-cooked barbecue, pork skins, hot dogs and maple doughnuts sold. 540/468-2682
Practically impossible to get a room during the festival at a dozen or more nearby guesthouses, bed-and-breakfasts, a more modern roadside motel and the historic Highland Inn, whose prominent guests have included Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Gen. Erwin Rommel, Germany's "desert fox" of World War II, also is said to have stayed three months at the inn in the 1930s while studying the tactics of Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.
Last-minute visitors could look for lodging in nearby Staunton, a bustling university town 45 miles away over high mountains roads, with abundant hotel capacity.
The Highland Inn's restaurant is a Victorian room offering wine service and moderately successful hotel-quality food; entrees cost $9 to $23. Call for reservations 540/468-2143
High's Restaurant and the Maple Restaurant, both on Main Street across from the Highland Inn, are rustic country cafes, featuring inexpensive breakfasts, lunches and dinners. No reservations needed.
A complete listing of events, accommodations, maps, and other information is available at www.highlandcounty.org.
Irish Water is progressing with the replacement of 5.2km of ageing water mains in Kells, Co. Meath. These water mains are prone to frequent bursts and leakage and will be replaced with heavy duty polyethylene (plastic) and ductile iron pipes. The works to replace these water mains will commence next week, Monday, October 22nd and forms part of a larger project to replace 25km of aging water mains across 16 locations in County Meath.
The works in Kells will begin in the Gardenrath/Rockfield Housing estates followed by Gardenrath and R164 roads. This initial part of the works are scheduled to be completed in January 2019.
Following that works will progress towards Church Lane and adjoining streets. In total it is estimated that works will take 6 months to complete in Kells. The works will be carried out by Shareridge Limited on behalf of Irish Water.
In order to minimize the impact on residents, businesses and road users, the works will be carried out in short sections. Short-term necessary water outages will be required when existing customer connections are transferred to the newly built system.
Local residents and businesses will be contacted as the project develops and information leaflets will be issued prior to works commencing in their areas. Residents and businesses will be given 48 hours prior notice of any water outages.
Speaking about the project, William McKnight, Irish Water said, “This project will provide a more reliable water supply by strengthening and reinforcing the networks in these supply areas, reducing disruptions in supply improving water quality and reducing leakage. Upon completion, there will be significant improvements in network performance and levels of customer service in terms of efficiency and security of supply.”
We would like to thank the local community for their cooperation and understanding ahead of these important works.
Organic produce goes through process of Organic certification. Organic certification ensures that there is no use of chemicals in the whole production process in farmers field. Such organic certified food gets the organic labels. Organic labels also stimulate the consumer to view the product as having more positive nutritional value. The established organic label through such organic certification process develops a positive faith among the consumers.
Organic Agriculture as an assurance for quality life is being well justified with health benefits of organic foods. Too much use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in Agriculture has resulted in threats to human life. The consumers now days are more health conscious. The increase in number of morning walks by most of people in different aged group signifies their concern for health.
Along with regular exercises and body movements, they have shown equal concern on intake of healthy food .The organic food with its natural qualities and nutritional value is much in demand.
The organic certified produce with organic labels is the sign of satisfaction for the consumer.The organic way of producing agriculture crop put a check on the presence of harmful chemicals in harvested produce. This makes the harvested produce safer to health of consumers. Hence, Growing Agriculture produce in organic way is a sort of Value addition to harvested produce. This enhances the significance of adopting Organic agriculture.
Farmers’ adopting organic way of agriculture production not just ensures the health of consumers. They also ensure a healthy soil. The soil microorganisms are benefited by the use of organic inputs by the farmers. This enriches the soil biodiversity.This in turn ensures the sustainability in Agriculture.Along with sustainability, the biodiversity of soils ensures quality production that satisfies the consumers demand for safer and healthy food.
Earlier most of the farmers in want of quick and high production have never considered the significance of sustainability in agriculture. The farmers, especially in North western part of India have seen the ill fate of soil as a result of excessive use of chemicals in Agriculture. The conversion of productive land in to saline –Alkali soils made them to think sustainability as an important factor in Agriculture. The significance of organic labels has started penetrating the mind of farmers.
Realizing the importance of Organics in Agriculture, the farmers are focusing more on organic farm inputs and adopting organic Agriculture.The organic produce fetches better market price to the producers and ensures consumers satisfaction for health.
The use of decomposed cow dung is playing an important role in Agriculture. The decomposed cow dung contains almost all necessary nutrients required for the plant growth. In addition, it creates a condition congenial for growth of soil microorganism. It enriches the soil biodiversity.
Organic agriculture ensures all types of foods required by micro flora and other essential life forms. Sufficient dry organic matter for the small insects fully decomposed organic matter for microorganism and semi decomposed organic matter for the earth worms are required for the survival of diversified micro flora in the soil.
The use of organics has provided a natural environment for better flourishing of the soil biodiversity.The organic produce with organic labels certainly acts as consumers satisfaction for health.
The alternative investment fund services unit of SEI Investments, a provider of asset management and investment technology products, has appointed Michael Leahy as head of alternative investment operations. Leahy has 17 years’ operational experience, 11 of which were spent at Goldman Sachs’ hedge fund strategies group in Princeton, NJ.
IN the wake of J.P Morgan & Co.'s declaration two weeks ago that it intends to become the eighth partner in the EJV Partners L.P. (IMT, June 24), the firm's managing director Jean-Louis Bravard says his firm was motivated by a desire to increase its influence over the joint venture. At the same time, the firm--whose partnership still needs to be approved by the Federal Reserve Board--is involved in separate negotiations with the EJV concerning the distribution by the vendor of J.P. Morgan's
In this companion volume to John Bisney and J. L. Pickering's extraordinary book of rare photographs from the Mercury and Gemini missions, the authors now present the rest of the Golden Age of US manned space flight with a photographic history of Project Apollo.
Beginning in 1967, Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo chronicles the program's twelve missions and its two follow-ons, Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The authors draw from rarely seen NASA, industry, and news media images, taking readers to the Moon, on months-long odysseys above Earth, and finally on the first international manned space flight in 1975.
The book pairs many previously unpublished images from Pickering's unmatched collection of Cold War-era space photographs with extended captions-identifying many NASA, military, and contract workers and participants for the first time-to provide comprehensive background information about the exciting climax and conclusion of the Space Race.
"These 'Moonshots and Snapshots' provide a new perspective on NASA's Project Apollo. . . . Bisney and Pickering don't just focus on the iconic images that we all recognize; instead, they opened their lens to the machinery behind the missions (computers and other hardware), the astronauts' pranks, and the rank-and-file NASA workers who made it all happen."--Modern Notion Daily
"Pairs many previously unpublished images from Pickering's collection with captions that identify many NASA, military, and contract workers."--Quest
"In resurrecting many obscure photos the authors have provided a valuable, and highly desirable, compendium of outstanding pictures from an age when each flight saw the release of perhaps fewer than one-hundred stock shots."--Spaceflight
"Together, [Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini and Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo] are a treat for any space buff and, for the true believers, a reminder that even greater journeys may lie just ahead."--American Scientist
"J. L. Pickering and John Bisney have done it again! . . . Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo comes with SpaceFlight Insider's highest recommendation. It is an excellent follow-on to Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini: A Rare Photographic History as well as an exceptional addition to any space enthusiast's library."--SpaceFlight Insider
"John Bisney and J. L. Pickering have assembled a wonderful collection of rarely seen photographs that true space buffs will enjoy. The captions are worth their weight in space-fact gold."--Richard W. Orloff, coauthor of Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook
"If you think you've seen every cool photo from the pioneering days of NASA, think again! J. L. Pickering and John Bisney have combed the archives of photojournalists who covered the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab missions to create an extraordinary visual record that will delight and surprise even the most hard-core space enthusiast."--Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts