Newsweek articles from February 2005

Newsweek archives from February 2005

Conventional Wisdom; PRE-SUPERBOWL EDITION.(Brief Article)
February 5, 2005... Boston fans in an unfamiliar zone: Championships galore. Meanwhile, the Iggles are the new Red Sox. Here's hoping for a close one. CW T. Brady + Old: Pats' two-time champ QB is underrated. New: Perfect leader will lead team...

Downer of a System; Refighting the battle of filmmakers vs. Hollywood.
February 7, 2005... ***** CORRECTION: In "Downer Of A System" (Feb. 7) we incorrectly stated that Orson Welles acted in "Wuthering Heights." He did not. ***** Byline: David Gates It's gratifyingly romantic to see the history of Hollywood as a...

No Principle, Just Interest; The Bush administration is in luck; it has embraced magical thinking about spending just as many citizens have done the same.(Column)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Anna Quindlen You didn't need to be a political consultant to predict the likely linchpins of the president's State of the Union address. Safeguarding Social Security, the entitlement program whose cost accounts for a fifth of the...

Manhattan Project; Christo and Jeanne-Claude, legendary for wrapping the Reichstag in silver cloth, are about to raise the curtain on a new spectacle in Central Park.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Peter Plagens On the morning of Feb. 12, when New Yorkers start walking, jogging and bicycling into Central Park, they'll be greeted by a remarkable sight. Some 7, 500 bright saffron "gates"--each 16 feet high with a curtain of...

Fine Tuning a New Act; For 25 years, BET has faced no rivals catering to African-Americans. Now there are new players in the field, and BET's parent is pushing for an upgrade.(Black Entertainment Television)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts TV has stretched the "makeover" genre of shows from humans to houses to entire towns. Now the Black Entertainment Television network is going a step further: making over itself. In January it unveiled a new...

A New Way on CEO Pay; The execs on trial got big bucks to act like owners, but Krispy Kreme's new boss is paid by the hour. Hmmm.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan When it comes to paying someone to run your company, it's dollars to doughnuts that Krispy Kreme's new chief executive, Stephen Cooper, is a sweet deal for shareholders. Instead of gobbling all the stock options he can...

Scoring Big in the Takeover Bowl.(naming rights for sports parks come into play)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan Listen up, fans. This is Super Bowl week, prime season for pro football, and it follows a prime week for corporate takeovers. These events aren't unrelated, even though experts can earnestly explain the business reasons...

Mail Call.(Letter to the Editor)
February 7, 2005... Our Jan. 24 cover article on the advent of President Bush's second term drew a predictably strong response. Bush detractors questioned what one reader called the "extreme makeover" of the president by his aides. "For his first term, Bush was...

Unmasking the Insurgents; Shadow war: The elections won't stop the bombers, but quality intel--and luck--might help.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Rod Nordland, Tom Masland and Christopher Dickey (With Babak Dehghanpisheh in Baghdad and Mark Hosenball in Washington) He wasn't supposed to live, and the way he tells the story today, this "suicide bomber" wasn't quite ready to...

Washington: A Grim March of Missteps; U.S. forces went into Iraq with no coherent strategy to run an occupied country--or defeat an insurgency.
February 7, 2005... Byline: John Barry and Michael Hirsh Rule one for fighting an insurgency: military might alone won't work. You need a political strategy. That means the local population must be given reasons to turn in the insurgents: security, jobs, a...

Elections Are Not Democracy; The United States has essentially stopped trying to build a democratic order in Iraq, and is simply trying to gain stability and legitimacy.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Fareed Zakaria By the time you read this, you will know how the elections in Iraq have gone. No matter what the violence, the elections are an important step forward, for Iraq and for the Middle East. But it is also true, alas,...

Strains With America; A key ally and the world's top nuclear inspector speak out about war, diplomacy and the role of a superpower.(Interview)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Lally Weymouth The United States is not well liked around the world these days, mainly because it is seen as a bully that doesn't listen to its friends. Administration officials say that's the price of strong leadership. But they...

The Editor's Desk.(contents )(Editorial)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Mark Whitaker Baghdad was in lockdown. As Sunday's Iraqi elections approached, private traffic had been banned, and police were looking out for everything from apparently pregnant women wearing suicide-bomb vests to wheelchairs...

Career Intervention: Robert De Niro; One of the most influential actors in history seems to be just following the money now. Yes, we're talkin' to you.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Sean Smith The crisis : "Meet the Fockers" was the hit of the holiday season and has now grossed $250 million, but it only highlights the fact that Robert De Niro, two-time Oscar winner and star of culture-defining movies such as...

Struggling to Pay the Mortgage on My Mind; Saddled with loans and tied to my lender for 30 years, I'm an indentured servant at 7. 4 percent.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Anna Marrian (Marrian lives in New York City.) They fly out of my mailbox every winter like a swarm of locusts. Computer-generated loan-consolidation mailers promising relief from the student-loan blues. A recent flier delivered to...

Bush's Hard Sell; He should be playing offense at the State of the Union. Instead, Bush faces fire from his troops on Social Security.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Richard Wolffe, Tamara Lipper and Holly Bailey Just five days before delivering the first State of the Union of his new term, President Bush dispatched his senior aides to ask his party for some unusual advice about the landmark...

The End of 'Pay To Praise'; There's a paradox at the heart of the media revolution. The most trusted news (by those who consume it) is often the most biased.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Jonathan Alter Abe Rosenthal, the legendary former editor of the New York Times, once said that if you screw the elephants, you can't cover the circus. Rosenthal wasn't just talking about reporters having sex with their sources...

Crossing Over: Bush's Other Battle; He hopes his guest-worker plan will fill jobs and build the party. But is the GOP onboard?
February 7, 2005... Byline: Holly Bailey and Daren Briscoe Rep. Tom Tancredo was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on his way to the Capitol one Friday morning in April 2002 when his cell phone rang. Though the caller ID read unidentified, Tancredo had no...

Newsmakers.(James Cameron)(Interview)
February 7, 2005... Byline: David Ansen; Devin Gordon Q&A: JAMES CAMERON In 1997, he was the king of the world. Then he literally went off the deep end. "Titanic" director James Cameron's second ocean-life documentary, "Aliens of the Deep," is in IMAX...

Perspectives.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources: New York Times, Newsday, Associated Press, New York Times, New York Daily News, The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, New York Daily News, Reuters, Associated Press, New York Daily News "I want to touch the...

White House Fears That the Enemy Is... the CIA.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Mark Hosenball Administration politicos cite a series of developments during last year's campaign as evidence that CIA careerists were out to get President Bush. First, not long before the Democratic convention in Boston, CIA bin...

And It's On To 2008!(Democratic party possibilities for 2008 election)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: HOWARD FINEMAN John Edwards and Evan Bayh are trying different paths to 2008. Edwards is moving his family back to North Carolina. (His wife, Elizabeth, is said by aides to be responding well to chemotherapy for breast cancer and...

Drawing Fire for His Toasty Attire.(Dick Cheney's coat at Auschwitz memorial)
February 7, 2005... Byline: ELISE SOUKUP When Dick Cheney was sworn in Jan. 20 as vice president, he braved Washington's frigid weather and wore a perfectly handsome overcoat (as did ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist). So where was the coat last week...

Log Off, Restart.(Virtual Case File)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: MICHAEL ISIKOFF FBI Director Robert Mueller will have to tell frustrated senators next week what's gone wrong with the bureau's computer overhaul. The project--known as Virtual Case File--has been central to Mueller's plans to...

Follow the Tour Glide.(Segway tour companies)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Elise Soukup When the Segway--the self-balancing, electric-powered "human transporter"--debuted in late 2002, it was breathlessly expected to revolutionize personal travel. That's yet to happen. (Likely the last time you saw one on...

Light Up and You May Be Let Go.(workplace smoking rules)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Karen Springen Workers for Weyco, a health-benefits administrator in Okemos, Mich., can now be fired for smoking--on or off the job. The company plans to randomly test workers at least once a year. As a business that pays claims...

All-Night Booking.(Harvard library hours)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: William Lee Adams It's 1 a.m., Jacqueline Roberts has work to finish, but Harvard's last library has closed. So she heads to her dorm's laundry room, where the hum of dryers offers less noise than two roommates. "The only thing...

'Beyond the Legend'.(Churchill Museum to open in London)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Ginanne Brownell London's cabinet War Rooms were once top-secret underground headquarters where Winston Churchill and his government operated during World War II. This week rooms closed to the public will open when Queen Elizabeth,...

Dramatic Improvement.(I-Caption enhances live theater)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: STEVE FRIESS For people who have hearing disabilities, live theater is often a frustrating experience. As jokes fly by and lyrics are sung, viewers are forced to ignore what they've missed or pester companions for a play-by-play....

Transition.(Philip Johnson)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
February 7, 2005... Byline: CATHLEEN MCGUIGAN PHILIP JOHNSON, 98 One of the most famous American architects of the 20th century, Philip Johnson will be remembered as much for the influence he wielded as the buildings he designed. In 1932, he and...

Competition's Quiet Victory; Tough business battles overshadow Reagan's tax cuts, Clinton's budget policies or new tech in explaining the prosperity of the 1990s.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Robert J. Samuelson What do AT&T, the civil aeronautics Board, steelworkers and Kmart have in common? Answer: all are victims of competition. Over the past four decades, the American economy has become vastly more competitive....

House Calls; Goodbye to long waits, inattentive physicians and all that. Special treatment can be yours--at a price.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Peg Tyre Two years ago, Fred Perenic decided the doctors in his health plan weren't worth a dime. "It was hard to get an appointment, and I never saw the same guy twice," says Perenic, 53, the president of a Detroit manufacturing...

A New Range War; A change in the law, and wild horses face slaughter.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Andrew Murr Corraled in a federal holding pen at Palomino Valley, Nev., a buckskin mare with the number 9598 cold-branded in code on its neck suddenly faces an uncertain future. When the 12-year-old was rounded up in November as...

Hip-Hop Grows Up; Marc Ecko branches out with clothes for skater punks with day jobs.(Marc Ecko's Cut and Sew collection)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Allison Samuels Fashion designer Marc Ecko had always been baffled by his passion for fashion. As a child growing up in Lakewood, N.J., he devoured comic books and videogames. So he was certain his future would include electronics...

'Traditional With a Twist'.(Bunny London designs)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: NICKI GOSTIN For nearly 20 years Debbie Bunn, 41, was a London makeup artist deftly dabbing powder on the likes of Kylie Minogue and David Bowie. A few years ago, when her pals began having kids, Bunn started to whip up little...

Mail-Order Misery; Charging abuse, imported brides are fighting back.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Daren Briscoe Nataliya Derkach just wanted a husband. In 1998, she was a 26-year-old college student in Kiev, divorced and disenchanted with the Ukrainian dating scene. Then she met Natasha Spivack, a Russian-American who runs...

Doubting Darwin; How did life, in its infinite complexity, come to be? A controversial new theory called 'intelligent design' asserts a supernatural agent was at work.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Jerry Adler (With T. Trent Gegax in Dover, Pa., Joan Raymond in Ohio, Jill Sieder in Atlanta, Jamie Reno in Santee, Calif., and Catharine Skipp in Miami) When Joshua Rowand, an 11th grader in Dover, pa., looks out from his high...

A Step Forward in The Voting Wars; Why has it taken so long to move toward uniform standards for electronic polling machines?(Voting Systems Performance Rating)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy The polling places in Iraq are front-and-center this week, but the jagged scars of our own election are still far from healed. Part of the problem is that, no matter what the count, many people do not trust results from...

Yellow Pages With Eyes on the Prize.(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy Amazon.com's search company A9 uses Google to comb the Web, but keeps innovating in other areas. The latest is the A9.com Yellow Pages. The company sent out specially equipped trucks with cameras and GPS receivers to...

The Miscarriage Maze.(Karen Springen)(Coming to Term)(Book Review)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Karen Springen Jon Cohen and his wife, Shannon, never thought much about fertility. Their first child, Erin, was conceived easily, and Shannon's pregnancy progressed without a hitch. But when the couple decided to try again four...

The Checklist; Our top picks for the week ahead.(Brief Article)(Column)
February 7, 2005... Byline: RAMIN SETOODEH Wacko Jacko, as Court TV kicks up its coverage. (A new documentary airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.) With jury selection underway, this case is shaping up to be a real... thriller. Groundhog.org for links to trivia...

An X-cellent ride.(Nissan Pathfinder)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Tara Weingarten I'm not the X Games type, and yet I feel pretty gonzo in the redesigned Pathfinder. Everything about this SUV is athletic: its angular physique and robust flared fenders; the beefy, cut, rubber side runners and...

UNCORKED / South American Whites.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... Every year, Chile and Argentina export more wine to the United States. Though they're better known for reds, their whites are fast improving. Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc lead the pack, but look for Viognier, Torrontes and pinot gris. 88...

Ask Tip Sheet.(disposing of dead zoo animals)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Anne Taulane What happens to zoo animals when they die? --Stephen Mott, Joliet, Ill. When animals pass on to the big zoo in the sky, their bodies are typically cremated. In some cases, zoos save body parts for veterinary...

Surprise Surplus.(flu shot supply)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Jennifer Barrett Ozols If you're one of the millions of Americans who skipped a flu shot last fall so higher-risk patients could get theirs, you now have a second chance at immunity. Late last week the Centers for Disease Control...

No Place Like Home.(websites to help with home buying decisions)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Linda Stern Ever-escalating home prices can make today's housing decisions even more stressful. Should you upgrade to a bigger house now or just add on to your current one? Should you keep renting and save for a down payment, or...

Technology For That Long Shot.(Samsung's new Sports Cam Xtreme)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Peter Suciu Who has time to fumble for a camera while whipping down a black-diamond trail? Samsung's new Sports Cam Xtreme, available in March ($799; samsung.com for info), is an MPEG4 digital video camera with a lens that straps...

The Pigskin Pop Quiz.(Superbowl 2005)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Raina Kelley Problem: you're going to watch the Super Bowl with people who love the game, not the commercials--only you don't know a fullback from a tight end. Crib from Tip Sheet, and you'll sound like a pro even if you can't...

Breaking The Ice.(ice rinks around the US)(Brief Article)
February 7, 2005... Byline: TARA WEINGARTEN Beat winter blues by taking a spin around an outdoor skating rink. These are open at least through late February: New York Be one of the quarter-million skaters to slice the ice under the Manhattan skyline at...

Johnny Carson, 1925-2005.(Obituary)
February 7, 2005... Byline: David Gates Do you remember the sheepish look he used to get when he'd told a joke that didn't fly? The way he couldn't keep a straight face when he put on the stupid turban to do the stupid Carnac the Magnificent routine? The...

Passing for Muslim; A real-life shape-shifter's story is stranger than fiction.(The Orientalist)(Book Review)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Malcolm Jones The story of a Jew masquerading as a Muslim sounds like a bad joke. But the story of Lev Nussimbaum, who became Essad Bey and then Kurban Said, is hauntingly true. Born in 1905 in Azerbaijan, the son of a Jewish oil...

Social Security: A Daring Leap; President Bush makes his proposed private accounts sound like the opportunity of a lifetime. But the fine print shows they pose great risk for you--and the nation.(Cover Story)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan You've got to give President Bush an A-plus for the way he marketed the Social Security proposals in his State of the Union address last week. "If you've got children in their 20s, as some of us do, the idea of Social...

President Bush's Goal: 'A Brighter Future'; A White House official explains why the president is pushing ahead with his plan to overhaul Social Security.(Cover Story)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Allan B. Hubbard (Allan B. Hubbard is assistant to the president for Economic Policy.) Social Security is one of the magnificent governing achievements of the 20th century. Those of us in government have a moral obligation to...

Conventional Wisdom; Social Insecurity Edition.
February 14, 2005... Who's more nervous about Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security--aging boomers, cowering Dems or third-rail-fearing GOP's? CW Bush + Iraqi turnout gives him big mo for SOTU. Even though private accounts may not fly,...

Mail Call; A Roundtable of Hollywood's Hottest Stars.(Letter to the Editor)
February 14, 2005... Our Jan. 31 cover story on the 2005 Oscar contenders received decidedly mixed reviews. One reader "tired of the incessant celebrity coverage" wrote that he was "pleasantly surprised--delighted even--by the wit, wisdom and candor of the actors...

Harry Reid's 'Roulette'; Members of Congress are doing very well indeed under a plan comparable to the one President Bush would allow all Americans to participate in.
February 14, 2005... Byline: George Will A century ago, American progressives said they aspired to use Hamiltonian means to achieve Jeffersonian ends. They meant they would wield a strong federal government to promote equality. One of George W. Bush's aims...

What Sistani Wants; He refuses a new air conditioner, yet his office is Internet-wired. He wants women to take political office, but not to shake the hands of men outside their families. He is easily the most powerful man in Iraq. Yet he's an Iranian.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Rod Nordland and Babak Dehghanpisheh (With Eve Conant and Michael Hirsh in Washington, Sarah Sennott in London and Maziar Bahari in Tehran) It's interesting that most published accounts describe Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani as a...

Democracy: Pharaoh's Long Shadow; Will Bush really stand by Arab democrats? Egypt just jailed a leading reformer, and is now a test case.(George W. Bush)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Christopher Dickey (With Kevin Peraino in Amman) Just a few days ago, Egypt looked as if it might be edging toward greater economic, social and political freedoms--no mean achievement in a country older than the Sphinx, and just...

Hail to the Flip-Flopper; In a recent letter to a Civil War historian, President Bush wrote, 'Lincoln set the goal and stayed the course. I will do the same.'.(Abraham Lincoln)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Fareed Zakaria (Write the author at comments@fareedzakaria.com.) Last week's elections were a great day for Iraq, for the Middle East, for America and for one American in particular. George W. Bush rightly deserves credit for these...

Looking For A Few Good Spies; Washington calls the Iranian MEK a terrorist group. But some administration hawks think its members could be useful.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Christopher Dickey, Mark Hosenball and Michael Hirsh (With John Barry and Richard Wolffe) This is a terrorist cult leader? Maryam Rajavi is dressed in a Chanel-style suit with her skirt at midcalf, lilac colored pumps and a...

Your Retirement: How to Land On Your Feet; Your golden-years lifestyle depends more and more on investing smarts, luck and timing. Time to understand the new risks, and develop a plan to deal with them.(Cover Story)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn (With Temma Ehrenfeld, Ace Atkins, Jennifer Barrett Ozols, Pat Crowley, Le Datta Grimes, Nadine Joseph, Joan Raymond, Jamie Reno, Hilary Shenfeld, Ken Shulman and Catharine Skipp) Steve Griggs was feeling flush....

The Editor's Desk.(Editorial)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Mark Whitaker A number of readers have e-mailed me to ask why we did a cover story on Iraqi insurgents last week rather than the Iraqi voters who courageously went to the polls on Jan. 30 in the country's first free election in a...

Barry Hot; At long last, Manilow plays Vegas. Isn't it time we gave the man some respect?
February 14, 2005... Byline: Lorraine Ali The first time Barry Manilow played Carnegie Hall was in 1972, as pianist for the burgeoning cabaret star Bette Midler. It was quite a step up from the gay bathhouses they'd been playing to pay the rent. "I remember...

Courtship for Dummies; In this comedy, Will's a charmer. So what's the hitch?(Movie Review)
February 14, 2005... Byline: David Ansen Will Smith has spent the better part of his extremely successful career charming the pants off movie audiences. Until "Hitch," however, he's never gotten to charm the pants off a leading lady. This is his first flat-out...

They Needed to Know The World Cared; We went to Sri Lanka to give medical aid, but what mattered most to survivors was that we showed up.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Rebecca O'Connor (O'Connor lives in New York City.) When I first saw the horrific images of the Asian tsunami disaster, I was working the night shift at New York-Presbyterian hospital, where I am a pediatric nurse. I felt compelled...

Bush's Big Bet: Risking His Capital; He got the ball rolling at the State of the Union. But it's no ordinary fight. On trial: America's core belief in the social contract, and its faith in the private sector.(Cover Story)
February 14, 2005... ***** CORRECTION: Bush's Big Bet: Risking His Capital" (Feb. 14) quoted Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota characterizing his conversation with President Bush aboard Air Force One. In fact, the quote was from a source close to Conrad, not...

Roll Over, FDR This Could Work; Bush and his opponents could end up in the right place. FDR is rolling over in his grave, but he'll rest easy when this new deal is done.(Cover Story)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Jonathan Alter Call me Pollyanna. I think the political forces are now properly aligned to accomplish the impossible--to secure the solvency of Social Security for generations while avoiding the phaseout of the program that...

Policing Video Voyeurs; The Feds join the battle against perverts with cameras.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Kathryn Williams In the summer of 2001, Jolene Jang was enjoying an outdoor festival in Seattle when she felt a creepy guy standing close behind her. He was reaching into her backpack. When she confronted him, the man started to...

Big Brother's New Way to Watch You.(Global Positioning System)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: --Sarah Childress Police were nearly convinced that defense attorney Robert Moran was selling methamphetamines for the Hells Angels in upstate New York. But they couldn't prove it. The gang was too violent to infiltrate, they...

Staying in the Game; One day, he lost the election. The next, he found out his wife had cancer. John Edwards is hanging tough.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Melinda Henneberger I'm ok," former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards says, nodding determinedly, in a tone that makes clear he could be a lot better. It's been three months now since he lost an election one day...

Newsmakers.(Interview)
February 14, 2005... Byline: RAMIN SETOODEH, NICKI GOSTIN, DAVID GATES Eva Mendes She first gained notice in "Training Day," but now the gorgeous Eva Mendes lightens up in the romantic comedy "Hitch." She dished with NEWSWEEK's Nicki Gostin. You were...

Perspectives.
February 14, 2005... "As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you." President George W. Bush, in his State of the Union address, to Iranians living in what he called "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" "You and I, we have both...

FBI Computers: You Don't Have Mail.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball The FBI's computer woes got even worse last week when bureau officials were forced to shut down a commercial e-mail network used by supervisors, agents and others to communicate with the public....

Oil-For-Food: Scorching Report.(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Mark Hosenball United Nations diplomats hoped to give the benefit of the doubt to Benon Sevan, a senior U.N. bureaucrat who ran the Oil-for-Food Program under which Saddam Hussein sold Iraqi crude and used the proceeds to buy...

Books: Living History.(102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn)(Book Review)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Susannah Meadows "102 minutes," by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn, is an astounding reconstruction of what happened inside the World Trade Center between the time the first plane hit and the second tower fell. But the media have largely...

Transition.(Ossie Davis)(Max Schmeling)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Lisa Helem Ossie Davis, 87 It was fitting that the stately actor sat with his wife, actress Ruby Dee, at the 2004 Kennedy Center Honors in December, while actress Audra McDonald sang in tribute. Years ago, listening to Marian...

Parks: Ride That Discount.(Universal Studios sells fashion worn by film stars)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Ramin Setoodeh If you're the kind of person who'd get married at an amusement park, we've got excellent news. Now you can buy your wedding dress there, too. Universal Studios Hollywood just opened a new discount store with couture...

Civil Rights: A Televised Movement?(Eyes on the Prize)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Lisa Helem Tiffiniy Cheng met the Little Rock Nine--the students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark.--while watching the "Eyes on the Prize" civil-rights documentary in fifth grade. "I remember sympathizing with...

Grade-Grubbing: Bursting The Bubble.(grade deflation Princeton)(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Andrew Romano Kyoko Loetscher was crying. The Princeton lecturer had just told her 20 top Japanese students that only seven of them--down from more than half the previous year--would get A's. "This is absurd and unfair," she said....

Pizza: The Slice Man Cometh.(Ed Levine)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Bret Begun Ed Levine is a native New Yorker. Native New Yorkers tend to eat pizza like this: fold in half the long way, chew, repeat. But Levine, author of a new guidebook, "Pizza: A Slice of Heaven," does not eat pizza according...

Surveys: Happy V-Day! (Just Not in Pittsburgh.).(Brief Article)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Elise Soukup All you need is love--except on Valentine's Day, when a little cash also helps. But before you whip out the credit card, let the pollsters have their say. They report, you decide: The average guy will spend $218...

Snap Judgment.(Book Review)
February 14, 2005... Byline: MALCOLM JONES, ANDREW ROMANO, LISA MILLER The Geographer's Library By Jon Fasman A geographer-alchemist's library is looted in the 12th century. Fast-forward to the present: while researching the obituary of a local...

Snap Judgment: Movies.(Movie Review)
February 14, 2005... Byline: David Ansen, William Underhill Sharon Imaginary Heroes Directed by Dan Harris First-time writer-director Harris chronicles the collapse of an upper-middle-class family after the suicide of their golden-boy son. He leavens the...

How to Hook the Elusive Phisher.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy Ann Chapman thought it was strange that MSN, Microsoft's online service, was asking her to go to a Web site and re-enter her credit-card number. So she mentioned it to her son-in-law. He took the e-mail to his employer:...