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Who Shall Live And Who Shall Die?
Masterpiece Theatre and the Politics of Quality
PBS: Behind the Screen
After the NEA

"Then Alex Clarendon added a fund-raising luncheon for building fund donors of $100,000 or more, featuring Baron and Madame Karl Baritsch. But she knew that the chief reason that Clarendon held such an iron grip on the museum presidency was that he knew how to slurp up every last available penny in contributions." Chapter Ten: Grisaille ...

Is the best representative of American civilization in the 20th Century the transplanted son of an English iron-worker who just celebrated his 92nd birthday, a man who changed his name (he was born Alfred) to Alistair Cooke. . . ?

The capital of Israel has survived war and terrorism, but our Jerusalem correspondent wonders if the city's charms will be able to withstand a planned 50-story tourist attraction . . .

Is it curtains for American civilization? Morris Berman seems to think this is the worst of times. Our own Alice Goldfarb Marquis says, maybe not so fast . . .

American TV news shows only exceptional events -- or events that take place for the benefit of the media, especially Palestinian boys throwing stones. When TV cameras leave, they leave. None of them wants to risk dying "off screen"...

"There will be no constitutional crisis because there is a deep commitment to legalism in American political culture. When the dust finally settles, the American people will accept as the next president whichever name -- Bush or Gore -- emerges from our constitutional and judicial processes and institutions..."

"I have consulted on the design and evaluation of vote counting machines. The gold standard of 'what the machine should have registered' was the opinion of persons recruited from the available staff, doing just what used to be done in all polling places, eyeballing the ballots. The consistency of interpretation by pairs of humans is much better than that of the machine..."

This excerpt from an important book by a University of Leeds researcher defines a new field of scholarly inquiry: the developing subculture of the World Wide Web...

The letter read: "The Baritsch collection was formed by an evil man and for an evil reason. To break the pall of evil that obscures these beautiful works, justice demands that something good be done..."Chapter Nine: Portraits

The media have so far failed to cover the story of how the Palestinian Authority intimidates journalists through threats of physical harm. CNN, The New York Times, NPR, and ABC World News Tonight must report this if it is to be stopped and reversed...

"What distresses me and Mordechai, most of all, is that there is no one here who presents to the world the truth of what is going on. We don't have any public relations person who sets straight the Palestinian propaganda and distortions that go out to the world..."

To millions watching the NBC television series, the Dixie Pig is just another Bar-B-Que joint, but to the natives of Alexandria, Virginia it is something more than that....

"What a magical day," said Rachel, cracking her fortune cookie. "It says, 'A fat purse cannot regain a lost appetite.' That must be the restaurant owner's personal proverb. What's yours?" Helmut frowned. "Who knows this morning what will happen tonight?" he read. Chapter Eight: Underpainting (Continued)....

When Helmut Rosenfeld mentions the proposed sale of the pictures, Rachel explodes in fury. Chapter Eight: Underpainting....

Author Harvey Wheeler fondly remembers his own encounters with two recently departed Hollywood literary figures...

Don't worry about George W. Bush's finger on the button. Fail-Safe author -- and Nader supporter -- Harvey Wheeler says he can bring Bush up to speed in no time, using a remedial reading course...

The recent explosion of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis reveals the structure of the "peace process" contained an inner flaw that required only pressure on the right point to collapse it...

According to The Idler's Jerusalem correspondent, Yasser Arafat's broadcasts are making one thing perfectly clear: "The message isn't `We want 90 percent of the West Bank,' but, `We want it all and there is no room here for both Jews and Arabs.'"

BACK ISSUES

(At the request of readers, in order to speed up the home page connection, older stories from The Idler are moved into this section at the end of each month. Stories may also be found by using the search box in the left-hand column).

Table of Contents for 2000, Volume II The Idler, v.II, January - October 2000.

Table of Contents for 1999, Volume I The Idler, v.I, 1999.