<IEER_DOC type="NEWSWIRE" fileid="" collect_date="" collect_src="" src_lang="" content_lang="" proc_remarks="IEER document translation">
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0213 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:18:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
<b_enamex type="PERSON">SUSAN SPICER<e_enamex>, THE QUIET STAR OF <b_enamex type="LOCATION">NEW ORLEANS<e_enamex>
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">NEW ORLEANS<e_enamex> _ In a town famous for its flamboyance, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Susan Spicer<e_enamex>
is the city's stealth chef. Unlike <b_enamex type="PERSON">Emeril Legasse<e_enamex> or <b_enamex type="PERSON">Justin Wilson<e_enamex>,
she speaks softly, has no desire to build a restaurant empire and
serves neither Cajun nor Creole food.
	   But if she is quiet and self-deprecating, the food at her
restaurant, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex>, shines, and she is widely regarded as one of
the cooking luminaries of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New Orleans<e_enamex>, and of the nation as well,
as she is routinely cited in surveys of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">America<e_enamex>'s best chefs. Her
intimate restaurant in the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">French Quarter<e_enamex> is packed nightly with
locals as well as tourists who appreciate her uncluttered cooking,
which relies on the goodness of the ingredients and her captivating
approach.
	   Her food reflects her wide-ranging interests: She has lived in
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">France<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Holland<e_enamex>, and has traveled throughout most of the
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Mediterranean<e_enamex> and the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">United States<e_enamex>. From her mother, who is
Danish, she learned variety.
	   ``She was as likely to serve fried chicken as curry,'' Ms.
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> said. But some of Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex>'s food also mirrors a <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Louisiana<e_enamex>
sensibility. She uses oysters to stuff roasted quail, and encrusts
rabbit with pecans and serves it with a sauce made from Cajun tasso
ham. Her Thai spicy shrimp, on the other hand, is brilliantly
seasoned and authentically Thai, with beautifully balanced flavors.
The presentations are simple and straightforward. No towers of food
and other show-off architecture.
	   Success came quickly to Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> when she opened her own
restaurant in <b_timex type="DATE">1990<e_timex>, but it was not before years of casting about
for a career. Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex>, <b_numex type="MEASURE">45<e_numex>, considers herself a late bloomer. She
claims to have failed at everything else she tried.
	   ``I was a cocktail waitress, and I was fired, and I was a bad
secretary,'' she said, a small smile playing around her mouth. ``So
I could be considered a change-of-career person if I had ever had a
career. I was a child of the <b_timex type="DATE">60s<e_timex>, and I was restless. I started
cooking at <b_numex type="MEASURE">26<e_numex>, but I was always looking for a creative outlet.
Nothing came easy.''
	   She began her culinary career in <b_timex type="DATE">1979<e_timex> by apprenticing herself to
a French chef in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New Orleans<e_enamex>. Then she spent <b_timex type="DURATION">four months<e_timex> working at
all the stations in a Parisian restaurant kitchen, knowing that
when she returned to <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New Orleans<e_enamex> her boss expected her to become
the chef of a restaurant he was opening. She said she didn't feel
she was qualified, but the decision was out of her hands.
	   ``Being a chef when I felt I wasn't ready was pretty
stressful,'' she said. ``Everyone I hired I thought knew more than
I did. I was really kind of afraid a lot of the time. So I left and
went back to <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Europe<e_enamex> and worked here and there.''
	   She returned to <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New Orleans<e_enamex> a <b_timex type="DURATION">year<e_timex> later and, in <b_timex type="DATE">1986<e_timex>, was the
opening chef at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bistro<e_enamex> in the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Maison de Ville hotel<e_enamex>, where she
stayed until <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex> became a reality. It was an immediate success,
turning a profit within <b_timex type="DURATION">six months<e_timex>.
	   Even though <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex> has a national reputation among the
cognoscenti, and even though she feels ``pretty confident'' about
what she is doing, Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> thinks she has a long way to go.
	   ``<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex> is still evolving,'' she said, on a recent afternoon as
she cooked some of her favorite dishes in the cooking-school
kitchen of her shop, which she recently opened. ``You have to stay
fresh. I want to keep it that way. I don't think I have enough
energy to inject into <b_numex type="CARDINAL">five<e_numex> different projects.''
	   She is determined to keep growing as a cook. ``<b_numex type="CARDINAL">One<e_numex> of the things
I'm good at is putting flavors together,'' she said. ``I have good
instincts about food and wine, probably from being adventurous at a
very young age. I can sit in my office and put a menu together. But
in terms of technique, I would like to be more confident.''
	   Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex>, who has dark blond hair and intense pale blue eyes,
describes herself as shy, but she does not go unnoticed: people
always remember her because of the band she wears across her
forehead when she cooks. Except, of course, in the presence of a
reporter, when the headband moves to the back of her hair, and any
leftover hippie traits are disguised.
	   Those who have seen her conduct a cooking class describe her as
lively and funny, sharing intimate secrets of her private life,
talking about her younger boyfriend, for example, who is also the
manager of her shop. She describes this mingling of her personal
and professional lives as ``a pretty dangerous thing to do,''
adding in an offhanded manner that she is ``past the point of
worrying about getting married.''
	   Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> came to cooking in spite of her father and because of
her mother. ``My dad had really high hopes for me scholastically,''
she said. ``I did well in school. I skipped a grade when I was a
kid, and he wanted me to be some sort of engineer, something less
earthy than a cook. I wanted to go to the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Culinary Institute of
America<e_enamex>, but he didn't want to pay for it.''
	   Despite the lack of the architectural plates that are so in
vogue today, despite the fact that the food is neither Cajun nor
Creole and that the chef does not have a television cooking series,
not even a cookbook, Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex>'s patrons have come to trust her.
``I think we keep it interesting enough without intimidating
people,'' she said.
	   Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex>'s understated style is apparent, too, in the look of
her new shop called <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Spice Inc.<e_enamex>: clean and spare. The shop is taking
off, even though its location makes Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> an urban pioneer.
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Spice Inc.<e_enamex> opened late last year in a warehouse district on its way
to gentrification. The grungy exterior of the historic Cotton Mill
Building provides no clue to her airy shop on the first floor.
	   Sunlight streams in through floor-to-ceiling windows. The
loft-like decor _ exposed metal pipes, light woods, a painted
cement floor _ provides the background for enticing displays of
prepared foods like sesame-crusted tuna, Thai green curry chicken
and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Shorty<e_enamex>'s macaroni and cheese as well as an ample selection of
fruits, vegetables and cheeses. The shop makes its own
European-style bread; it is the first to do so in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New Orleans<e_enamex>, Ms.
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> said.
	   <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Spice<e_enamex> could not look more different from <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex>, which is in the
heart of the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">French Quarter<e_enamex> in a <b_numex type="MEASURE">200-year<e_numex>-old Creole cottage with
French jalousie doors. The restaurant has <b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> intimate dining
rooms, with ceiling fans, terra-cotta walls, crisp white linens and
lighting that makes everyone look good. A glassed-in garden room
looks out on an incredibly romantic brick-walled garden. Yet, for
all its charm, it is as understated as the owner.
	   ``I'm not looking to provoke,'' Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Spicer<e_enamex> said. ``I'm not an
envelope-pusher. I'm glad there are people who do that, but
essentially I just want it to taste good.''
<ANNOTATION>
	   (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)
</ANNOTATION>
	   Recipes adapted from <b_enamex type="PERSON">Susan Spicer<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Bayona<e_enamex>
	   GRILLED DUCK BREAST WITH PEPPER JELLY GLAZE
	   Time: <b_timex type="DURATION">30 minutes<e_timex>
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">8<e_numex> boneless duck breasts, about <b_numex type="MEASURE">6 ounces<e_numex> each, skin on, trimmed
of fat
	   Coarse salt
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 teaspoon<e_numex> freshly ground black pepper
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 teaspoons<e_numex> chopped fresh thyme
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 teaspoons<e_numex> chopped fresh rosemary
	   For the pepper jelly glaze
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 tablespoons<e_numex> chopped shallots
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE" alt="cup">} cup<e_numex> sherry vinegar
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">3 cups<e_numex> well-seasoned chicken or beef stock
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">3 tablespoons<e_numex> hot pepper jelly
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 tablespoons<e_numex> unsalted butter
	   Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">1<e_numex> jalapeno, seeded and finely minced, optional.
	   1. Wash and dry duck breasts. Mix together salt, pepper, thyme
and rosemary. Sprinkle the mixture over the skin side of the
breasts, and refrigerate for <b_timex type="DURATION">several hours<e_timex> or let stand about <b_timex type="DURATION" alt="hour">{
hour<e_timex> before cooking.
	   2. Make the glaze: combine the shallots, vinegar and stock in a
small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until liquid
is reduced to about a <b_numex type="MEASURE">cup<e_numex>. Whisk in the pepper jelly, and then the
butter. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the jalapeno, if
desired. Add more vinegar if sauce is too sweet.
	   3. Grill or saute skin-side down for about <b_timex type="DURATION">6 minutes<e_timex>; then turn
and cook about <b_timex type="DURATION">2 minutes<e_timex> longer, depending on how rare you want the
breasts. Remove from heat; let stand about <b_timex type="DURATION">2 minutes<e_timex>; then, slice
on the diagonal into <b_numex type="CARDINAL">5<e_numex> or <b_numex type="CARDINAL">6<e_numex> pieces and arrange on plate, skin side
up. Spoon glaze over the top.
	   Yield: <b_numex type="CARDINAL">8<e_numex> servings.
	   SMOTHERED GREENS
	   Time: <b_timex type="DURATION">20 minutes<e_timex>
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 tablespoons<e_numex> unsalted butter
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 tablespoons<e_numex> olive oil
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">2<e_numex> medium onions, chopped
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">12 cups<e_numex> assorted greens _ like mustard, broccoli rape, collard,
kale, turnip _ stemmed, washed and chopped
	   Chicken stock, if needed
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">4 teaspoons<e_numex> cider vinegar
	   Salt and freshly ground black pepper
	   Hot sauce, optional.
	   1. In a large nonstick saute pan, melt the butter with the oil.
Saute onion for about <b_timex type="DURATION">5 minutes<e_timex>, without coloring.
	   2. Stir in the assorted greens, and cook over medium-high heat,
until the vegetables are wilted and tender, about <b_timex type="DURATION">8<e_timex> to <b_timex type="DURATION">10 minutes<e_timex>.
If mixture becomes dry, add a little chicken stock.
	   3. Stir in the vinegar, and season with salt and pepper and hot
sauce, if desired.
	   Yield: <b_numex type="CARDINAL">4<e_numex> servings.
	   SWEET POTATO PUREE
	   Time: <b_timex type="DURATION">1 hour 5 minutes<e_timex>
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 pounds<e_numex> sweet potatoes or yams
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1{ tablespoons<e_numex> unsalted butter
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1{ tablespoons<e_numex> molasses or honey
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE" alt="teaspoon">[ teaspoon<e_numex> grated nutmeg.
	   1. Preheat oven to <b_numex type="MEASURE">375 degrees<e_numex>. Scrub potatoes, and bake on
lowest rack for <b_timex type="DURATION">45 minutes<e_timex> to <b_timex type="DURATION">1 hour<e_timex>, until potatoes are soft.
	   2. Cool slightly, remove skins and mash with butter, molasses
and nutmeg. Heat through, on top of the stove or in a microwave
oven, and serve.
	   Yield: <b_numex type="CARDINAL">4<e_numex> servings.
	   STRAWBERRIES WITH PINK PEPPERCORN SAUCE
	   Time: <b_timex type="DURATION">20 minutes<e_timex>
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE" alt="cup">\ cup<e_numex> sugar
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">2 tablespoons<e_numex> Cognac
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 tablespoon<e_numex> balsamic vinegar
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 teaspoon<e_numex> concentrated pomegranate juice or molasses
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 teaspoon<e_numex> pink peppercorns, lightly crushed
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 pint<e_numex> strawberries, washed and stemmed (<b_numex type="MEASURE">1 cup<e_numex> diced, the rest
sliced).
	   1. Place the sugar in a small pot with <b_numex type="MEASURE">1 tablespoon<e_numex> water. Stir
to dissolve. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and simmer
until a deep caramel color. Watch carefully because mixture can
burn easily.
	   2. Remove from heat, and carefully pour in the Cognac and
vinegar. Put back on low heat and swirl mixture to dissolve
caramel. Remove from heat and stir in the pomegranate juice or the
molasses, the peppercorns and the diced strawberries, and cook over
low heat for <b_timex type="DURATION">one minute<e_timex>. The sauce will be thick and syrupy.
	   3. Cool, and carefully stir in remaining strawberries. Serve
over vanilla ice cream, mascarpone or panna cotta.
	   Yield: <b_numex type="CARDINAL">4<e_numex> servings.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0215 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:18:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
FOR THE LAST `SEINFELD,' FAMILY ONLY
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">LOS ANGELES<e_enamex> _ The entertainment industry thrives on a thinly
disguised hierarchy of exclusivity. Even well-known producers and
directors fight ferociously _ through their agents or assistants,
of course _ for tickets to major events. Still, ``Seinfeld,'' <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">NBC<e_enamex>'s
enormously successful sitcom and cultural icon, has trumped the
crowd. The taping of the final segment of the final episode of the
show, which is shutting down after <b_timex type="DURATION">nine years<e_timex>, is shrouded in dense
secrecy and is proving all but impossible to get into.
	   ``I've gotten <b_numex type="CARDINAL">89 million<e_numex> calls about it,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Alan Horn<e_enamex>, the
chairman of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Castle Rock Entertainment<e_enamex>, the company that produces
``Seinfeld.'' ``Shameless? Yes, people are shameless about trying
to get in. But it's just a family affair, you know, people who've
been connected to the show and families.'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Horn<e_enamex> said he was taking
his wife, his <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> children and another relative.
	   About <b_numex type="CARDINAL">250<e_numex> people have been invited to watch the final taping on
<b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex>, all of them connected in some way to the show or its
stars: <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jerry Seinfeld<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Julia Louis-Dreyfus<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jason Alexander<e_enamex> and
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Michael Richards<e_enamex>. ``It's closed,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Elizabeth Clark<e_enamex>, the
spokeswoman for <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Castle Rock<e_enamex>. ``Nobody outside the immediate show is
going to be allowed in.''
	   Adding to the aura of secrecy, no scripts are being circulated.
Indeed, those who have received scripts have had to sign
confidentiality agreements, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Horn<e_enamex> said. No one involved would even
discuss the contents of the episode, which is to be broadcast on
<b_timex type="DATE">May 14<e_timex>. The show is expected to attract <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of the largest
television audiences ever. As a result, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">NBC<e_enamex> has reportedly sold
advertising at <b_numex type="MONEY">$2 million<e_numex> for a <b_timex type="DURATION">30-second<e_timex> spot; that is roughly
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">four<e_numex> times the show's usual rate.
	   Security will be extremely tight at <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex>'s taping, and
already the producers are bracing for a heavy cordon of television
cameras and news crews at the gates of the studio, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">CBS Studio
Center<e_enamex> in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Studio City<e_enamex>.
	   Since the last ``Seinfeld'' episode will be an <b_timex type="DURATION">hour<e_timex> long (<b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of
the few bits of information the people involved would disclose), it
is being taped over <b_timex type="DURATION">several nights<e_timex>, not the <b_timex type="DURATION">one night<e_timex> typical for
most shows. The script has been written by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Larry David<e_enamex>, who created
the show with <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jerry Seinfeld<e_enamex> but left <b_timex type="DURATION">two years<e_timex> ago to work on
movies and other projects. The episode will feature the regular
cast along with several guest stars who have appeared in previous
episodes.
	   But it is not even clear exactly what the audience will see on
<b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> evening. There have been rumors that the concluding
moments of the episode will be taped at another time. There is <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex>
rumor that the select audience will be shown a tape of a decoy
ending, a fake intended to throw snoops off the track in case
anyone at the event discloses the story line. (A whole fake script
was circulated on the Internet by an unknown author.)
	   The television series, which, in a reflection of the times
proudly proclaims that it is a show about nothing, is enormously
popular and a huge source of profits for <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">NBC<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Castle Rock<e_enamex>. Even
though no new episodes will be produced after <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex>,
``Seinfeld'' is already proving a great success in syndication.
	   The show, at <b_timex type="TIME">9 p.m.<e_timex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Thursdays<e_timex>, has been a mainstay of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of
the most popular nights on network television. Already there are
concerns about whether <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">NBC<e_enamex> will be able to replace ``Seinfeld''
with anything that could draw as large, young and affluent an
audience.
	   But for <b_timex type="DURATION">one night<e_timex> at least, that will be a distant thought.
<b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> night will be given to entertainment and the bragging
rights of those who will be able to claim they saw it firsthand.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0220 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:30:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
`THE PLAYERS CLUB': PREDICTABLE SOAP
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   The rapper <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ice Cube<e_enamex> makes his directorial debut with ``The
Players Club,'' a hearty throwback to the formula behind <b_timex type="DATE">'70s<e_timex>
blaxploitation films: sex, violence, cash, trash and flash. Set in
what is euphemistically called ``a gentleman's club,'' it
constructs a <b_numex type="PERCENT">100 percent<e_numex> predictable soap opera around clean-cut
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Diana Armstrong<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">LisaRaye<e_enamex>), who is a college student and single
mom. ``All this dancin', and finals was just around the corner!''
she complains, articulating the film's central dilemma: <b_enamex type="PERSON">Diana<e_enamex> is
wholesome and nice, but she has to strut her stuff at the club for
fiscal reasons. She uses <b_enamex type="PERSON">Diamond<e_enamex> as her nom de strip.
	   In a film that sees its biggest moral distinction between
dancing at the club and moonlighting at bachelor parties, song
titles on the soundtrack include ``Shake Watcha Mama Gave Ya,''
``Show Me da Money,'' ``Whores in the House,'' ``We Be Clubbin'''
and ``You Know I'm a Ho.'' And yet for all its leering this is as
soapy a film as ``Soul Food,'' defending the empowering benefits of
exotic dancing yet worrying about good girls gone wrong. In a
spirit of exploitation that invokes the heyday of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Pam Grier<e_enamex>, it
also manages to turn <b_enamex type="PERSON">Diamond<e_enamex> into a pistol-packin' mama and work in
a catfight or <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ice Cube<e_enamex>, who plays a minor heavy and flaunts his trademark
scowl, also throws in some broad humor, as when <b_enamex type="PERSON">Diamond<e_enamex>'s nemesis
(<b_enamex type="PERSON">Chrystale Wilson<e_enamex>) shows up at a bachelor party full of white
policemen and starts spanking them in honor of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Rodney King<e_enamex>. Campy
moments and a luridly colorful look (with cinematography by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Malik
Sayeed<e_enamex>) may give this no-flair, no-frills B movie a healthy video
afterlife some day. There's something to be said for a cautionary
tale in which <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> chastened ex-stripper winds up selling shoes.
	   PRODUCTION NOTES:
	   `THE PLAYERS CLUB'
	   Written and directed by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ice Cube<e_enamex>; director of photography, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Malik
Sayeed<e_enamex>; edited by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Suzanne Hines<e_enamex>; music by <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Hidden Faces<e_enamex>; production
designer, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dina Lipton<e_enamex>; produced by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Carl Craig<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Patricia
Charbonnet<e_enamex>; released by <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">New Line Cinema<e_enamex>. Running time: <b_timex type="DURATION">103 minutes<e_timex>.
This film is rated R (under <b_numex type="MEASURE">17<e_numex> requires accompanying parent or
adult guardian). It includes much profanity, partial nudity and
suggestive situations.
	   With: <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bernie Mac<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Dollar Bill<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Monica Calhoun<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Ebony<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jamie
Foxx<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Blue<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">A.J. Johnson<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">L'il Man<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ice Cube<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Reggie<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Alex
Thomas<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Clyde<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Faizon Love<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Peters<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Charles Murphy<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Brooklyn<e_enamex>),
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Chrystale Wilson<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Ronnie<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Tracy Jones<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Tina<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Terence Howard<e_enamex>
(<b_enamex type="PERSON">K.C.<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Larry McCoy<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">St. Louis<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ronn Riser<e_enamex> (Professor <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mills<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dick
Anthony Williams<e_enamex> (Mr. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Armstrong<e_enamex>), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Badja Djola<e_enamex> (the Doctor), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Tiny
Lister<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">XL<e_enamex>) and <b_enamex type="PERSON">LisaRaye<e_enamex> (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Diamond<e_enamex>).
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0221 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:32:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
`DREAMER': MIRROR IMAGE OF <b_enamex type="PERSON">MARTIN LUTHER KING<e_enamex>
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Charles Johnson<e_enamex>, whose last novel, ``Middle Passage'' was a
historical reconstruction of slavery, has turned to more recent
history in ``Dreamer,'' an imagined account of the last days of the
Rev. Dr. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Martin Luther King Jr.<e_enamex> They are days filled with evil
premonitions of the tragedy that was to strike when <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> was
assassinated in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Memphis<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Tenn.<e_enamex>, <b_timex type="DURATION">30 years<e_timex> ago.
	   The story shifts from <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s interior monologues to the
reflections of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s principal narrator, a shy, self-conscious
<b_numex type="MEASURE">24-year<e_numex>-old acolyte of <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> named <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew Bishop<e_enamex> who, in the words
of the woman he loves, talks like a thesaurus. <b_numex type="CARDINAL">One<e_numex> of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s
themes is <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex>'s growth from a kind of intellectually precocious
late adolescence to full manhood; indeed, one suspects that <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex>
is modeled on <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s youthful self.
	   But <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s narrative is aimed principally at the appearance
of an entirely fictional character, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym Smith<e_enamex>, a global wanderer
and striver after redemption who bears an uncanny physical
resemblance to <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>.
	   As a result, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> earns a role as a stand-in for <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> at a time
when his life was clearly in danger. But <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>'s presence gives
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s novel the ambiguous, Conradian eeriness of all stories
about the doppelganger, the double, the mirror image and the
opposite, the reminder of the invisible person who lies behind the
mask.
	   These themes are rich, and they are developed by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> with
his usual stylishness. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> has lived his life shadowed by <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s
fame and his status as a kind of living saint. In <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s vision,
that experience has made him both jealous and driven, admiring and
vengeful.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> reminds us that <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> was a minister as well as a leader
of the struggle for black rights, and ``Dreamer'' is full of
theological reflections. The biblical story of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Cain<e_enamex>, whose
sacrifice was rather inexplicably rejected by <b_enamex type="PERSON">God<e_enamex>, resounds through
the novel as <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> asks why he has been cursed even as blessings
pour down on <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>.
	   ``That was my stuff,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> tells <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex> after the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> of them
have listened to <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> speak at a church. ``Not things I've ever
said, but stuff I've felt. Like my spirit is trapped in his, which
is so much clearer and bigger and cleaner.''
	   In other words, there are numerous folds to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s
psychological intrigue. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> himself is a powerful character,
eloquently irascible, morally deep.
	   And yet ``Dreamer'' is not a complete success, despite the
consistently high quality of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s writing. In the end
especially, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> seems to lose control of his doppelganger
theme. Instead, ``Dreamer'' turns to a muddled theme of betrayal
involving an unlikely pair of federal agents and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>.
	   The betrayal seems, at least by virtue of its timing, linked to
<b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s assassination, though this is far from clear. It is as
though <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> himself did not know quite what to do with the
forces he has set into motion.
	   His recourse to a kind of unresolved and implausible mystery
leaves the reader with a sense of incompleteness, anticlimax. And
while that might be an intentional reflection of the deeper
incompleteness of real life, a lesson in the unresolvability of
things does not seem to have been <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s purpose.
<ANNOTATION>
	   (STORY CAN END HERE _ OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)
</ANNOTATION>
	   The action of ``Dreamers'' takes place mostly in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Chicago<e_enamex>, where
<b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>, having achieved major victories in the South, has arrived to
campaign against Northern forms of racial discrimination.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex>'s <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> is tired and tearful and assailed by doubts. He
wonders in particular if he has overestimated the spiritual
capacity of blacks and whites alike, whether they are capable of
understanding his ``deeper, esoteric message about freedom,''
namely that ``to gain the dizzying heights of the mountaintop, the
self's baggage had to be abandoned in the valley.''
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym Smith<e_enamex> arrives at <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s door in the midst of these
ruminations. ``He was the kind of Negro the movement had for years
kept away from the world's cameras,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex> says of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>'s
appearance: ``sullen, ill-kept, the very embodiment of the blues.''
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> volunteers to be <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s stand-in, a role he has been
unhappily playing most of his life anyway. When <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> refuses, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>
tells him, ``I figure if I'm catchin' hell 'cause of you, I might's
well catch it for you instead.'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> agrees to arrange training
for the destitute <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex> so he can be part of the movement, and he
assigns <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Amy<e_enamex>, the unreciprocating object of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex>'s
desire, to take care of him.
	   The story unfolds against a background of increasing urban
violence and challenges to <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> from younger, more militant blacks
within the ranks. ``Dreamer'' in this sense takes on a time-capsule
flavor.
	   This is sometimes contrived, for example, when <b_enamex type="PERSON">Amy<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex>
find themselves berated as ``house niggers'' by an ex-con named
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Yahya Zubena<e_enamex> who has found poetry and black power in prison. But
the main character remains <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>, whose homophonic resemblance to
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Cain<e_enamex> is made explicit as <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> returns again and again to his
biblical theme.
	   ``I began to see _ as if a veil had lifted _ the tortured shadow
of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Cain<e_enamex> everywhere, within me and without, his many cultural
reincarnations parading through my mind like frames projected on a
cyclorama,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Matthew<e_enamex> tells us.
	   ``It was said that Western man himself was <b_enamex type="PERSON">Cain<e_enamex>, cursed with the
burden of restlessness and the endless quest for selfhood. Down
through the centuries, his name was spelled differently in
different times. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Caym<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kaym<e_enamex>, even <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>, were etymological
variations on it.''
	   So <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s double, is <b_enamex type="PERSON">Cain<e_enamex>, but he is everyman as well,
within and without. Near the end, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>, asked by a pair of rather
woodenly constructed <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">FBI<e_enamex> men to turn from double to double agent,
disappears. Soon after, <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex> is assassinated.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> seems to be saying something about the collective
failure to climb to the mountaintop as well as collective
responsibility for <b_enamex type="PERSON">King<e_enamex>'s death. That is no doubt true, but it is
also a nostrum, a commonplace sort of wisdom. And it is unmoored
from the deeply personal and individual mystery that <b_enamex type="PERSON">Chaym<e_enamex>
presented at the outset.
	   PUBLICATION NOTES:
	   `DREAMER'
	   A Novel
	   By <b_enamex type="PERSON">Charles Johnson<e_enamex>
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">237<e_numex> pages. <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Scribner<e_enamex>. <b_numex type="MONEY">$23<e_numex>.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0223 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:56:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
`MEISTERSINGER VON NURNBERG': IN NEED OF INSPIRATION
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">NEW YORK<e_enamex> _ When the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Metropolitan Opera<e_enamex> first presented the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Otto
Schenk<e_enamex> production of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Wagner<e_enamex>'s ``Meistersinger von Nurnberg'' in
<b_timex type="DATE">1993<e_timex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Schenk<e_enamex>'s work, though conservative, was evocative and
colorful, and <b_enamex type="PERSON">James Levine<e_enamex>'s conducting was spacious and nuanced.
When the production was brought back <b_timex type="DURATION">two seasons<e_timex> ago, the
production was even more humane, and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Levine<e_enamex>'s conducting more
luminous.
	   ``Die Meistersinger'' returned on <b_timex type="DATE">Monday<e_timex> night. The original
reason for bringing it back was that the great bass <b_enamex type="PERSON">James Morris<e_enamex>
was planning to sing his first <b_enamex type="PERSON">Hans Sachs<e_enamex>, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of opera's longest
roles, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Wagner<e_enamex>'s wise shoemaker, a widower in medieval <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Nurnberg<e_enamex> and
the most beloved member of the town's guild of master singers.
	   But <b_enamex type="PERSON">Morris<e_enamex> withdrew last <b_timex type="DATE">fall<e_timex>, and the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex> had to come up fast
with a replacement. In <b_enamex type="PERSON">James Johnson<e_enamex>, an American bass making his
house debut, the company had a creditable <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex>. Moreover, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Levine<e_enamex>'s
intricate and organic work seemed even deeper this time around. The
orchestra playing on <b_timex type="DATE">Monday<e_timex> positively glowed.
	   Yet onstage there was a sense of a production thrown together
and lacking inspiration, and the likely cause was the jokey and
intrusively busy stage direction of <b_enamex type="PERSON">David McClintock<e_enamex>. ``Die
Meistersinger'' is a comedy, but a tender, insightful and, at
times, troubling comedy, not the antic fest it sometimes seemed
here.
	   Take, for example, the depiction of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Beckmesser<e_enamex>, the town clerk.
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Beckmesser<e_enamex> may be laughable, but he must be endearingly laughable.
His dream of marrying <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eva<e_enamex>, the daughter of his fellow master singer
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Pogner<e_enamex>, by winning the guild's annual song contest, and his
scheming to outmaneuver <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex> show him to be hapless, not nasty or
stupid.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Hans-Joachim Ketelsen<e_enamex>, the German baritone, sang the role
splendidly but was not helped by the stage direction. When his
nighttime serenade to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eva<e_enamex> is mischievously interrupted by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex>'
cobbling, a pouting <b_enamex type="PERSON">Beckmesser<e_enamex> struts about the street in circles,
his hands linked behind his back, a cartoonish and cliched idea.
The aches and pains he suffers from the town brawl set off by his
serenading were inanely overacted.
	   Aside from the directorial slips, there were some vocal rewards,
especially from the musicianly tenor <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ben Heppner<e_enamex>, who had a
triumphant evening reprising the daunting role of the young knight
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Walther<e_enamex>. His voice sounded rested, free and thrilling. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Johnson<e_enamex> has
a sturdy though not exceptional voice, and stamina. He could have
projected more of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex>' dignity had he not been directed to act
like a bully, shoving <b_enamex type="PERSON">Beckmesser<e_enamex> around at will, and flinging <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eva<e_enamex>
at <b_enamex type="PERSON">Walther<e_enamex> (<b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> times!), which the fatherly <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex> would never do.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eva Johansson<e_enamex>, a Danish soprano making her <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex> debut, made a
lovely <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eva<e_enamex>, but the girlishness of her characterization was too
aggressively projected, and at full volume her voice tended to turn
harsh and wobbly. The Danish tenor <b_enamex type="PERSON">Gert Henning-Jensen<e_enamex> made his
debut as <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex>' apprentice, <b_enamex type="PERSON">David<e_enamex>, and with his boyish looks and
balletic agility he looked the part. But his voice was hard pressed
in places. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Wendy White<e_enamex> was sympathetic as <b_enamex type="PERSON">Magdalene<e_enamex>, and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Hans Sotin<e_enamex>
was a stentorian <b_enamex type="PERSON">Pogner<e_enamex>.
	   The amassed sound of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex> chorus greeting <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sachs<e_enamex> in the final
scene will not be easily forgotten. If only the antics of the stage
direction could be cleaned up. It almost makes you long for <b_enamex type="PERSON">Robert
Wilson<e_enamex>'s glacial staging of ``Lohengrin.''
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0224 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 17:57:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
CREATING `THE LAST BOOK' TO HOLD ALL THE OTHERS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">CAMBRIDGE<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Mass.<e_enamex> _ In the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Laboratory<e_enamex> at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Massachusetts
Institute of Technology<e_enamex>, they are working on a project they call
``the last book.''
	   This may sound ominous to book lovers. After all, the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Lab<e_enamex>
devotes itself mainly to computers. Looking at a computer means
reading an electronic screen, which is decidedly not the way most
people want to read a book, particularly the last one.
	   Reading text on a computer screen is confining and tiresome. You
can't see where you are or how far you have to go. You can't leaf
through the pages to compare parts of the text or to see what your
eye finds at random. You can't comfortably carry a computer screen
around with you, to bed, to the beach or to the bathroom.
	   You can't collect computer screens, or bind them beautifully in
vellum, or display them on shelves in the spirit that the English
novelist <b_enamex type="PERSON">Anthony Powell<e_enamex> evoked when he titled <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of his volumes
``Books Do Furnish a Room.''
	   But hold everything! The news is far from grim. The book of the
future described to me on a visit to the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Lab<e_enamex> is really a
book, just like ``Goodnight Moon,'' ``Paradise Lost'' or the
Gutenberg Bible. It has a binding that could be made of leather if
you wanted, and <b_numex type="CARDINAL">hundreds<e_numex> of pages you can turn <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> at a time or
riffle through. You'll be able to carry it around with you, to bed,
to the beach or to the bathroom.
	   The key to this book is something called electronic ink, or
e-ink, which can be applied to the page from within instead of by a
press. Being developed by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Joseph Jacobson<e_enamex>, an assistant professor
at <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">MIT<e_enamex>, with the backing of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Things That Think<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">News in the
Future<e_enamex>, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> business consortia of some <b_numex type="CARDINAL">75<e_numex> companies, this e-ink
consists of microscopic spheres, each about <b_numex type="MEASURE">40 microns<e_numex> in diameter,
or about <b_numex type="CARDINAL">half<e_numex> the thickness of a piece of paper. Each sphere is
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">half<e_numex> black and <b_numex type="CARDINAL">half<e_numex> white. These spheres can be applied by the
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">millions<e_numex> to paper and then flipped over electronically to either
their black sides or their white sides to produce what looks like a
traditional printed page.
	   As envisioned at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Lab<e_enamex>, the book pages will each have
fine wires carrying electricity to flip the dots in the direction
of a computer concealed in the book binding. The user will scroll
through a list of book titles displayed on the book's spine. If the
user selects ``Ulysses,'' the computer will make the text appear on
the book's pages by flipping the appropriate spheres to their black
or white sides.
	   As the capacity of the book's memory grows, whole libraries may
be installed. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> foresees being able to store the entire <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">U.S.
Library of Congress<e_enamex>, whose holdings number more than <b_numex type="CARDINAL">17 million<e_numex>
volumes. A user might also be able to assemble a book from multiple
sources to fit special needs. Illustrations might be animated.
E-ink could also make it possible to receive broadcasts that
typeset themselves to create instant newspaper.
	   Yet the book would still have the familiar advantages of a book,
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> says. You could unplug its power and carry it anywhere.
The display would be designed to sense the presence of a stylus, or
pen, so that you could underline or write notes on it. You might
even be able to dogear the book.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> greatly admires the traditional book. ``After all,'' he
added, ``if books had been invented after the computer, they would
have been considered a big breakthrough. Books have <b_numex type="CARDINAL">several hundred<e_numex>
simultaneous paper-thin, flexible displays. They boot instantly.
They run on very low power at a very low cost.''
<ANNOTATION>
	   (STORY CAN END HERE _ OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)
</ANNOTATION>
	   Every book ever published in a single volume? The mind boggles
and a <b_numex type="CARDINAL">dozen<e_numex> questions form. Will this really happen? How soon could
the last book be available? ``A prototype with just a few pages
could be put together in <b_timex type="DURATION">two<e_timex> to <b_timex type="DURATION">three years<e_timex>, with <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">400<e_numex> pages
taking a <b_timex type="DURATION">year<e_timex> or <b_timex type="DURATION">two<e_timex> longer,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> said.
	   (It should be pointed out that <b_timex type="DURATION">two years<e_timex> ago, in a description
of his project published by the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Lab<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> stated that a
prototype would be available in ``about <b_timex type="DURATION">two years<e_timex>,'' meaning <b_timex type="DATE">1998<e_timex>.
What I actually saw at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Media Lab<e_enamex> did not approach even <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex>
page.)
	   ``We have already demonstrated the fundamental new parts needed
to make it,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> continued. ``Since there are many different
projects that can be enabled by this underpinning technology,
exactly when it will be combined to form a book is not yet clear.
But an important point is that these are technologies that are
easily manufactured and not phenomenally expensive.''
	   How much will it cost then? <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> says the volume will
probably retail for <b_numex type="MEASURE">$2<e_numex> to <b_numex type="MEASURE">$4 per reusable page<e_numex>, or <b_numex type="MONEY">$500<e_numex> to <b_numex type="MONEY">$1,000<e_numex>
for a book that is every book, although he is working on ways to
reduce costs even further. ``It would be nice to have a cost so low
that you could lose the book without worrying about it too much,''
he added. ``I believe that will be possible.''
	   What about the cost of the contents? Books in the public domain
could be downloaded for nothing, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jacobson<e_enamex> says. For new works and
books still in copyright, a system of royalties could be set up in
which texts would be encrypted and readers would buy the access
code by Internet, phone or wireless transaction.
	   Some questions remain unanswered. What are the implications for
the publishing industry? Already any writer can post a book on the
Internet. But books will still need to be edited and promoted. What
about libraries? Bookstores? Remainders? Used books? First
editions? Rare books? Copies inscribed by the author? Autographing
parties? What, in heaven's name, is to become of the dearly beloved
book borrower?
	   Will books no longer furnish a room? It looks as if they won't,
unless, like me, you will still insist on having certain titles on
the shelf, to remind you of their existence and your promise to
yourself to read them some day.
	   The likes of us will have to keep on collecting old-fashioned
books. Or maybe resort to displaying those Potemkin villages of
books on our shelves, rows and rows of our favorite titles in
colors that match the furniture and the pets.
	   Just <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of them will be real and removable from the shelf. It
will contain not hollowed-out pages with a gun or a whisky flask or
cash or diamonds, but a treasure far greater: at the touch of a
button, any book ever written. And when it is removed, family
members will be free to ask a question that might once have
reflected a certain benightedness: ``Hey!'' they'll be able to cry
out. ``Who's using the book?''
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0236 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:18:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
HEAVY RAIN IN THE PLAINS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   Radar estimates of rainfall over eastern <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Nebraska<e_enamex> and southern
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Iowa<e_enamex> exceeded <b_numex type="MEASURE">5 inches<e_numex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> as an intense low-pressure system
stalled over the middle <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Mississippi Valley<e_enamex>. This disturbance will
slowly move east <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> as a new center of low pressure forms
farther to the south in western <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Tennessee<e_enamex>. Rain will taper off
across the Middle West, but drizzle and low clouds will persist in
the central and northern Plains.
	   A wedge of cool air will occupy the Northeast as clouds and
light showers move into southern <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New England<e_enamex> ahead of a warm front.
Developing onshore winds will keep the North <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Atlantic<e_enamex> Coast cooler
than seasonal levels. Some sunshine along with breezes from the
southwest will bring very mild air to the Middle <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Atlantic<e_enamex> region.
	   Thunderstorms will form into a cluster over the interior
Southeast as a jet stream disturbance interacts with very humid air
moving inland from the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Gulf of Mexico<e_enamex>. Hail and damaging
straight-line winds are possible with a few of the storms. A cold
front pushing eastward across the lower <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Mississippi Valley<e_enamex> will be
followed by sunny and pleasantly warm weather in the southern
Plains.
	   Cool, moist air will cover most of the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Rockies<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Pacific<e_enamex>
States as jet stream disturbances move steadily east from the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">North
Pacific<e_enamex>. Snow levels will decrease a <b_numex type="MEASURE">few hundred feet<e_numex> in the
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Cascades<e_enamex>. Patches of rain will dampen northern <b_enamex type="LOCATION">California<e_enamex> and
western <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Oregon<e_enamex> as low pressure moves slowly inland.
	   The Southwest will be sunny and a bit warmer, but clouds will
arrive later in the day.
	   Focus: Capital Snow
	   A <b_numex type="MEASURE">tenth of an inch<e_numex> of snow fell at <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ronald Reagan Washington
International Airport<e_enamex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Dec. 9, 1997<e_timex>, the first and last time it
snowed in our nation's capital this season. The modicum of snow
matched the mark set in the <b_timex type="DATE">1972<e_timex>-<b_timex type="DATE">1973<e_timex>, which had held the exclusive
title as the least snowiest winter of record. Curiously, there were
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">16<e_numex> days with a trace of snow this season, compared to <b_numex type="CARDINAL">12<e_numex> days with
a trace of snow in <b_timex type="DATE">1972<e_timex>-<b_timex type="DATE">73<e_timex>. The chances of a late <b_timex type="DATE">spring<e_timex> snow in
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex> are slim. After <b_timex type="DATE">April 15<e_timex>, there has been only <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex>
occurrence of measurable snow since weather records began in <b_timex type="DATE">1887<e_timex>.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0248 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:35:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">SMITHSONIAN<e_enamex> CLOSES BOOK AND RECORD UNITS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   The <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Institution<e_enamex> in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex> has shut down <b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex>
divisions producing books, records, and videos, most notably the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Collection of Recordings<e_enamex>, which has issued widely
praised albums of jazz and popular music.
	   Officials said on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> that they hoped to continue offering
some of the recordings but the announcement of the cutbacks,
particularly of the recordings, were met with widespread alarm and
disappointment by scholars and collectors.
	   In a memo dated <b_timex type="DATE">March 31<e_timex>, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> undersecretary <b_enamex type="PERSON">Constance
Berry Newman<e_enamex> announced the closing of the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> divisions and the
loss of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">10<e_numex> jobs at the institution, which has <b_numex type="CARDINAL">6,500<e_numex> employees
overall. The memo's contents were reported on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> by <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">The
Washington Post<e_enamex>.
	   Most significant was the closing of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Collection
of Recordings<e_enamex>, which has been an invaluable resource for scholars
and the public for a <b_timex type="DURATION">quarter-century<e_timex>. Best known for recordings
like the ``Collection of Classic Jazz,'' which has sold more than a
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">million<e_numex> copies since <b_timex type="DATE">1973<e_timex>, the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> recordings have received
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> Grammy awards and been nominated for <b_numex type="CARDINAL">11<e_numex> others.
	   ``I think it's unwise, and it surprised me quite a bit,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dan
Morgenstern<e_enamex>, director of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Institute of Jazz Studies<e_enamex> at <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Rutgers
University<e_enamex>, said of the decision. ``They had a certain cachet, and
did some very good things. I can't believe the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex>, which
is the closest thing we have in this country to a national museum,
is so poverty stricken they can't keep this going.''
	   But officials at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> said the closing of the
recording division reflected problems with its distribution system,
which relies largely on direct mail, more than discontent with its
mission. They said they hoped to offer some recordings in the
future if the operation could be made economically feasible.
	   ``What we eliminated was the current method for distributing
these recordings,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Robert Schelin<e_enamex>, acting managing director
of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Press/Smithsonian Productions<e_enamex>, which oversees the
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> divisions that were cut. ``The curators and historians will
still be in place. What we're really re-evaluating is the
mechanisms for producing and distributing this kind of work.''
	   Also closed were <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Books<e_enamex>, which specialized in a small
number of mass-market books sold through direct mail, and a small
video production division.
	   The decision leaves intact the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Institution Press<e_enamex>,
the main book publishing arm of the museum. <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION"><b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex><e_enamex> Books,
which was closed, had <b_numex type="CARDINAL">15<e_numex> titles, mostly glossy illustrated books.
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Institution Press<e_enamex> has <b_numex type="CARDINAL">800<e_numex> scholarly and general
interest titles, which are primarily sold at bookstores and museums
rather than through direct mail.
	   All <b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> of the divisions that are closing are part of
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Press/Smithsonian Productions<e_enamex>, which has lost <b_numex type="MONEY">$10.8
million<e_numex> over the last <b_timex type="DURATION">two years<e_timex> and is expecting a <b_numex type="MONEY">$2-million<e_numex> loss
this <b_timex type="DURATION">year<e_timex>, officials said. The total <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> budget is <b_numex type="MONEY">$552
million<e_numex>.
	   The move does not entirely end the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex>'s role in the
recording industry. <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Folkways Recordings<e_enamex>, which has distributed folk
and archival recordings for more than a <b_timex type="DURATION">decade<e_timex> as part of the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex>, remains.
	   Officials left open the possibility that the jazz, country and
pop recordings done by the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Collection of Recordings<e_enamex>
could continue, perhaps under the imprint of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Folkways<e_enamex> label.
	   In her memo, Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Newman<e_enamex> said an analysis would continue of the
continuing operations to ``explore ways in which the dissemination
of scholarly works through a recordings and a production program
can continue in some form.''
	   A <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Institution<e_enamex> spokesman, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Linda St. Thomas<e_enamex> said on
<b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> would like to find a way to continue
some of the recording functions, but that it was too early to tell
in what form and to what degree that might play out.
	   Officials said the decisions were made against the backdrop both
of the financial needs of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> and the changes in the
marketplace that have buffeted many direct-mail operations.
	   ``My understanding is that as the direct-mail environment has
eroded overall for all businesses, those projects became more and
more difficult to sustain,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Peter Cannell<e_enamex>, director of the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian Institution Press<e_enamex>, the surviving publishing arm.
	   He said employees at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian<e_enamex> viewed the cutbacks with
conflicting feelings.
	   ``It's a decision that is in some ways sorry to see,'' he said.
``But on the other hand, any business or institution has to be able
to change with the times, and that's what we're doing here.''
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0256 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:46:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
<b_enamex type="PERSON">BLAIR<e_enamex> IN <b_enamex type="LOCATION">ULSTER<e_enamex> IN BID TO RESOLVE SNAG IN TALKS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">BELFAST<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Northern Ireland<e_enamex> _ British Prime Minister <b_enamex type="PERSON">Tony Blair<e_enamex>
flew into <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Northern Ireland<e_enamex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> in an urgent effort to remove
a serious snag in the peace negotiations between Protestant and
Roman Catholic political leaders in this mostly Protestant British
province.
	   ``I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex> said on
arriving at <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Hillsborough<e_enamex>, a government residence south of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Belfast<e_enamex>,
for a meeting with <b_enamex type="PERSON">David Trimble<e_enamex>, the Protestant unionist leader
who raised the new obstacle on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> morning.
	   ``It's right to try,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex> said. ``I'm here to try.''
	   Although his office insisted that <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex> had been scheduled to
arrive in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Belfast<e_enamex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex>, it was believed here that his arrival
had been moved up from <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> in response to the potential new
crisis.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> said a set of proposals given to the negotiating parties
early <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> was unacceptable, a rejection that was widely seen as
a melodramatic tactic to take the initiative in peace talks.
	   But the tactic could backfire and push the talks to the brink of
a collapse, which would probably turn the melodrama into the
tragedy of widespread violence by the main Catholic and Protestant
guerrilla groups, which are now observing cease-fires. Sectarian
violence has killed more than <b_numex type="CARDINAL">3,200<e_numex> people in the North since <b_timex type="DATE">1969<e_timex>.
	   The deadline for an agreement intended to end <b_timex type="DURATION">800 years<e_timex> of
sectarian violence in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ireland<e_enamex> has been set for <b_timex type="TIME">midnight<e_timex> <b_timex type="DATE">Thursday<e_timex>.
And former <b_enamex type="LOCATION">U.S.<e_enamex> Sen. <b_enamex type="PERSON">George Mitchell<e_enamex>, D-<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Maine<e_enamex>, the chairman of the
talks, said <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> morning that the deadline would not be extended
and that his job was virtually over after nearly <b_timex type="DURATION">two years<e_timex>.
	   The prime minister arrived hours after the latest, and most
serious, obstacle to agreement was advanced by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex>, the leader
of the Protestant <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Ulster Unionist Party<e_enamex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> said the proposals, which were put forward by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mitchell<e_enamex>
and have not been made public, were biased in favor of the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex>
Catholic parties, the mainstream <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Social Democratic Labor<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Sinn
Fein<e_enamex>, the political wing of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Irish Republican Army<e_enamex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex> sought to reassure Protestants by noting that it was
British and Irish policy that there will be no united <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ireland<e_enamex> _ the
ultimate goal of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">IRA<e_enamex> _ unless it is approved by a majority. The
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Northern Ireland<e_enamex> majority is likely to remain Protestant well into
the next century.
	   Once <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> makes his own proposals in the next <b_timex type="DURATION">two days<e_timex>, the
predictable reaction would be rejection by <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Sinn Fein<e_enamex> and possibly
the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Social Democrats<e_enamex> and a rush of last-ditch negotiations to get a
compromise agreement by <b_timex type="TIME">midnight<e_timex> <b_timex type="DATE">Thursday<e_timex>.
<ANNOTATION>
	   (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)
</ANNOTATION>
	   The Catholics would seek support from the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Irish Republic<e_enamex>'s Prime
Minister <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bertie Ahern<e_enamex>, while Protestants look to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex> to argue for
them.
	   The Catholics want an agreement that would increase their
political power in a new elected lawmaking assembly that would be
part of the drastic changes in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Northern Ireland<e_enamex>'s political
structure that is envisioned in <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mitchell<e_enamex>'s proposals. They also
want a new cross-border <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">North-South Council<e_enamex>, with ministers from
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Northern Ireland<e_enamex> and the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Irish Republic<e_enamex>, that would be authorized
to make binding decisions in the North's affairs. Now, the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Irish
Republic<e_enamex> has only a marginal consultative role.
	   Protestants bristle at these demands, seeing them as a way for
the Catholics to create a united <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ireland<e_enamex>, free of British control
and run from <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Dublin<e_enamex>.
	   The <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mitchell<e_enamex> proposals are known to cover these new government
bodies. Protestants want weaker bodies that would be controlled by
the Protestant majority that would elected to the new assembly.
	   In a telephone call to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Blair<e_enamex>'s <b_enamex type="LOCATION">London<e_enamex> office, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> said, he
said of the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mitchell<e_enamex> proposals, ``Before contemplating alternate
proposals, I wish to know from you and the Irish government if you
are prepared to consider radically different measures.''
	   The principal Protestant complaint with the Irish government, a
sponsor of the talks with <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Britain<e_enamex>, is that the Irish have refused
to specify how they would tone down <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ireland<e_enamex>'s constitutional claim
to sovereignty in the North.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ahern<e_enamex>, who was in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Dublin<e_enamex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> for his mother's funeral,
did not immediately comment on <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex>'s rejection of the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Mitchell<e_enamex>
proposals.
	   The rejection was partly motivated by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex>'s need to stave
off the vehement criticism by the Rev. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ian Paisley<e_enamex>, who has kept
his <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Democratic Unionist Party<e_enamex> out of the talks.
	   As <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> was stating his rejection, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Paisley<e_enamex> was haranguing him
in television interviews as a traitor who was selling out to
Catholic terrorists. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Paisley<e_enamex> compete for Protestant
votes in general elections. In a new northern assembly, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex>
would be a likely candidate for prime minister.
	   ``You can't negotiate by stunts,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Seamus Mallon<e_enamex>, deputy
leader of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Social Democrats<e_enamex>. ``This is no stunt,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jeffrey
Donaldson<e_enamex>, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Trimble<e_enamex>'s <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Unionist Party<e_enamex> allies. ``This is for
real.''
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0258 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:47:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION" status="opt">TREASURIES<e_enamex> SHOW SLIGHT DECLINE
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">NEW YORK<e_enamex> _ The prices of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex> securities were slightly lower
on <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> in quiet trading, as some investors sold <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION" status="opt">Treasuries<e_enamex> to
make room for new supplies from issuers like the South Korean
government and <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Federal Loan Home Mortgage Corp.<e_enamex>, known as <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Freddie
Mac<e_enamex>.
	   The price of the <b_timex type="DURATION">30-year<e_timex> <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex> bond declined <b_numex type="MONEY">9/32<e_numex> to a price
of <b_numex type="MONEY">104<e_numex>, and its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, rose
to <b_numex type="PERCENT">5.84 percent<e_numex>, from <b_numex type="PERCENT">5.82 percent<e_numex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Monday<e_timex>.
	   In its first international bond sale, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Korea<e_enamex> began selling <b_numex type="MONEY">$3
billion<e_numex> of global bonds in a move that could have wide implications
for the country's financial institutions and corporations hoping to
tap the global debt market.
	   The sale could also serve as an indicator of investors' appetite
for the debt of other Asian nations hurt by the region's financial
crisis.
	   In the first of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> parts, the government is selling <b_numex type="MONEY">$1 billion<e_numex>
in <b_timex type="DURATION">five-year<e_timex> notes with an estimated yield of about <b_numex type="PERCENT">8.99 percent<e_numex>,
or <b_numex type="PERCENT">350 basis points<e_numex> more than a comparable <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex>, and <b_numex type="MONEY">$2 billion<e_numex>
of <b_timex type="DURATION">10-year<e_timex> notes at an estimated <b_numex type="PERCENT">9.14 percent<e_numex>, or <b_numex type="PERCENT">362.5 basis
points<e_numex> over <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex>. A <b_numex type="PERCENT">basis point<e_numex> is <b_numex type="PERCENT">one hundredth of a
percentage point<e_numex>.
	   Though the actual pricing will not occur until <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex>, market
participants said there was strong demand for the bonds.
	   Meanwhile, in another big sale, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Freddie Mac<e_enamex> priced <b_numex type="MONEY">$5 billion<e_numex> of
a <b_timex type="DURATION">10-year<e_timex> note through underwriters <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Goldman, Sachs &AMP; Co.<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Merrill
Lynch &AMP; Co.<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Salomon Smith Barney<e_enamex>, at a price to yield <b_numex type="PERCENT">5.849
percent<e_numex>. Like the South Korean issue, it appears to have been a
success. The offering comes just <b_timex type="DURATION">one week<e_timex> after a <b_numex type="MONEY">$4-billion<e_numex> sale
by the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Federal National Mortgage Association<e_enamex>, or <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Fannie Mae<e_enamex>.
	   With yields on <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex> securities at low levels, strong demand
for these corporate and global issues came as no surprise. Such
issues are attractive to those who do not expect further large
gains in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">U.S.<e_enamex> government securities without further proof that the
economy is slowing enough to keep inflation contained.
	   In the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex> market, traders said they expected continued
sluggishness for the next <b_timex type="DURATION">few days<e_timex>, as the market may have risen
too much last week.
	   The <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex> itself was an active buyer <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex>, purchasing <b_numex type="MONEY">$1.4
billion<e_numex> of coupon issues with maturities from <b_timex type="DATE">April 1998<e_timex> to <b_timex type="DATE">March
1999<e_timex>, lending some support to prices.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bill Gamba<e_enamex>, senior vice president and manager of bond trading at
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Cowen &AMP; Co.<e_enamex>, was struck by the low volume.
	   ``If the market were trading on <b_timex type="DATE">Saturday<e_timex> and <b_timex type="DATE">Sunday<e_timex> I couldn't
imagine it being slower than this,'' he said. ``There were many
players absent.''
	   Because the bond market will be closed for <b_numex type="CARDINAL">half<e_numex> of the session
on <b_timex type="DATE">Thursday<e_timex> and then closed for <b_timex type="DATE">Good Friday<e_timex>, many players have
already given up for the week.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Gamba<e_enamex> said he did not expect that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Treasury<e_enamex>'s <b_numex type="MONEY">$8-billion<e_numex>
auction on <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> of <b_timex type="DURATION">30-year<e_timex> inflation-indexed bonds would hold
any surprises for the market.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0271 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:55:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
THE HUMBLE <b_numex type="MONEY">PENNY<e_numex> WHISTLE FLIRTS WITH OVERKILL
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   I used to love the sound of the <b_numex type="MONEY">penny<e_numex> whistle. It's a well-nigh
perfect instrument: portable, cheap, and low-tech, with no moving
parts. It's easy to play yet capable of great subtlety; a skillful
player can make notes bend and quiver and sigh. And it immediately
invokes a long and precious tradition. The <b_numex type="MONEY">penny<e_numex> whistle and tin
whistle, with or without a mouthpiece, provide <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of the primal
sounds of Celtic music, plaintive in slow airs and dizzyingly
nimble in dance tunes. When a musician pulls a whistle out of a
pocket and joins in a melody, it's a surviving link to centuries of
homemade music.
	   But now it is my regretful duty to propose a ban on <b_numex type="MONEY">penny<e_numex>
whistle use anywhere outside a <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Guinness<e_enamex>-pulling pub, effective
immediately. A sweet sound is on the verge of curdling, and it is
time to save it from overexposure. There won't be any immediate
hardship. <b_timex type="DATE">St. Patrick's Day<e_timex> is well behind us, and ``My Heart Will
Go On,'' the whistle-topped hit from the ``Titanic'' soundtrack,
has been duly presented with its Oscar (and can look forward to a
Grammy next year). The ``Titanic'' album is berthed at No. 1, with
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Celine Dion<e_enamex>'s ``Let's Talk About Love'' at No. 2. When I heard a
tin whistle tootling through a blues, ``Broken Hearted,'' on <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eric
Clapton<e_enamex>'s new album, ``Pilgrim,'' it suddenly became clear: the
whistle is becoming the trendy sonic accessory of the late <b_timex type="DATE">1990s<e_timex>.
	   This happens to instruments, and it's not a pretty process. It
happened to the sitar (and then the electric sitar), to the Cajun
accordion and to panpipes. They are all now tainted by their abuse
at the hands of everyone from hippie bands to horror movie auteurs.
Rousted from their ethnic enclaves, the instruments' masters revel
in their new-found prominence. Then, too late, they realize that
they're only the flavor of the moment, and the moment never lasts.
	   At first the new sound is a novelty, an ear-catching break from
the usual guitars and keyboards; it leaps out of a radio speaker.
Then, in a matter of years or months, it's everywhere: first the
imitative bands, then the soundtracks and commercials, in a process
that keeps speeding up. As soon as they can retool, keyboard
manufacturers begin to include a pre-set simulation of the sound,
so that the local Top 40 band can start inserting it into songs. By
then, the sound is forever associated with its pop moment, the way
reverbed guitar spells early-<b_timex type="DATE">1960s<e_timex> surf music or staccato
synthesizers hark back to new-wave rock, circa <b_timex type="DATE">1979<e_timex>.
	   For years, the whistle hovered under the pop radar. When <b_enamex type="PERSON">Van
Morrison<e_enamex> sang with the whistle-toting <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Chieftains<e_enamex> in <b_timex type="DATE">1988<e_timex>, he was
simply claiming his Irish heritage. When <b_enamex type="PERSON">Paul Simon<e_enamex> put a whistle
solo in the middle of ``You Can Call Me Al'' on ``Graceland'' in
<b_timex type="DATE">1986<e_timex>, he was paying direct homage to South African kwela music,
another <b_numex type="MONEY">penny<e_numex> whistle stronghold. But there was no rush to latch on
to the sound. For nearly a <b_timex type="DURATION">decade<e_timex>, the whistle tootled on in easy
obscurity.
	   Then along came the corporate Celtic blockbusters of the late
<b_timex type="DATE">1990s<e_timex>, ``Riverdance'' and ``Lord of the Dance,'' with a whistle
skirling while ranks of vigorous step-dancers clattered away in
formation, something like an Irish ``Triumph of the Will.''
Simultaneously, in quieter realms, New Age music latched on to
Celtic music for its soothing, timeless drones and the gentle but
piquant tones of the traditional instruments. As ethnicity was
being rediscovered worldwide, the Celts were well prepared.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">James Horner<e_enamex>'s score for ``Titanic'' uses elements of both
``Riverdance'' muscle and New Age sweetness to lend a Celtic veneer
to its sweeping Romantic crescendos. (Perhaps the Celtic connection
is that the Titanic was built in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Belfast<e_enamex>.) And as the movie and its
score became omnipresent, the innocent whistle turned into
something else. It has moved from the unassuming context of a
ceilidh, an Irish jam session, to sail above an orchestra and to
parley with Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dion<e_enamex>; it has become an implement of coercive
tear-jerking. No doubt other arrangers, even now, are planning to
use it the same way.
	   TOO GOOD A SOUND TO LOSE, ULTIMATELY
	   Banned or not, the whistle will have its time, then recede. That
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Clapton<e_enamex> song, <b_timex type="DURATION">five years<e_timex> hence, will immediately signal ``<b_timex type="DATE">1998<e_timex>''
the way an electric sitar moans ``late <b_timex type="DATE">1960s<e_timex>.'' Of course, the
whistle won't disappear from traditional Irish groups, and the
thriving subgenre of Celtic New Age music isn't likely to rule it
out either. It's too good a sound to lose.
	   In the broader pop arena, meanwhile, the whistle will fade out
of earshot, probably soon after it turns up in a commercial for
some deeply inappropriate product. Producers will move on to the
next instrument: the elemental honk of the didgeridoo, perhaps, or
the mellow peal of the Indonesian trompong, a set of tuned gongs.
	   And then, in <b_timex type="DURATION">15<e_timex> to <b_timex type="DURATION">20 years<e_timex>, some sample-happy producer will get
the bright idea of placing the clear, airy tone of the whistle into
a mix. Someone else will notice it and add it to another track, and
it will spread the way <b_timex type="DATE">1970s<e_timex> wah-wah blaxploitation guitars are
showing up all over the place. Some people will remember the
``Titanic'' boom as simple nostalgia or forgiven kitsch. Certain
children will note their parents growing all misty-eyed and laugh
or join them with a tinge of self-consciousness. Hearing the sound
of breath through tin, they will imagine not the green fields of
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ireland<e_enamex>, but the whistle's days in the big time, amplified and
ubiquitous, when a humble instrument was touched by destiny.
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0272 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 18:56:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
`LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY': SURVIVING MISERY OF <b_numex type="CARDINAL">TWO<e_numex> WARS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">NEW YORK<e_enamex> _ <b_enamex type="PERSON">Werner Herzog<e_enamex> tells a real-life tall tale in ``Little
Dieter Needs To Fly,'' a documentary that describes enough
breakneck adventures for any action hero. But the swashbuckler who
is the film's subject, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dieter Dengler<e_enamex>, mostly describes his
exploits from memory. Now a garrulous extrovert living a
comfortable life near <b_enamex type="LOCATION">San Francisco<e_enamex>, he talks of extraordinary
early hardship and of the drive that sustained him. With a German
childhood seared by images of World War II, and with an American
military career that saw him shot down over <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Laos<e_enamex> in <b_timex type="DATE">1966<e_timex>, he has
many a hair-raising story to tell.
	   But as often happens in <b_enamex type="PERSON">Herzog<e_enamex>'s haunting documentaries, the
most interesting figure seems to be the one behind the camera.
Though <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dengler<e_enamex> is a practiced raconteur and has his story amply
illustrated here, it is <b_enamex type="PERSON">Herzog<e_enamex>'s occasional meditations on his
subject that linger.
	   ``As a child,'' the filmmaker says in voice-over, ``<b_enamex type="PERSON">Dieter<e_enamex> saw
things that made no earthly sense at all. <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Germany<e_enamex> had been
transformed into a dreamscape of the surreal.'' Starkly poetic
images of wartime destruction accompany that observation. Aerial
shots of voluptuous explosions in the jungle amplify <b_enamex type="PERSON">Herzog<e_enamex>'s idea
of what it must have been like for <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dengler<e_enamex> to be a fighter pilot:
``It all looked strange, like a barbaric dream.''
	   ``Little Dieter Needs to Fly,'' which opens on <b_timex type="DATE">Wednesday<e_timex> at the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Film Forum<e_enamex>, is <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of the filmmaker's least exotic works, but it
straightforwardly presents <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dengler<e_enamex>'s eventful history. He speaks of
having, as a boy, torn wallpaper off bombed-out walls so that his
mother could cook it, since there were nutrients in the glue. He
shows the camera how, even now, memories of being in a
prisoner-of-war camp lead him to keep <b_numex type="MEASURE">hundreds of pounds<e_numex> of
emergency provisions hidden under his house, just in case.
	   Returning to <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Southeast Asia<e_enamex> with a camera crew (<b_enamex type="PERSON">Herzog<e_enamex> enlists
villagers and water buffalo to stand impassively before the camera
and provide atmosphere), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dengler<e_enamex> describes his harrowing
experiences as a prisoner. ``They were just always thinking of
something to do to me,'' he says of his captors, from whom he
ultimately made a highly dramatic escape.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dengler<e_enamex> illustrates how to open handcuffs with a piece of wire,
tells of biting a snake in <b_numex type="CARDINAL" status="opt">two<e_numex>, even shares a black-tie reunion
dinner with the helicopter pilot who finally rescued him. And in
light of his many ordeals, his pleasant chattiness begins to seem
the film's strangest aspect. As <b_enamex type="PERSON">Herzog<e_enamex> puts it: ``He hides behind
the casual remark that this was the fun part of his life.''
	   PRODUCTION NOTES:
	   `LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY'
	   Produced and directed by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Werner Herzog<e_enamex>; director of photography,
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Peter Zeitlinger<e_enamex>; edited by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Rainer Standke<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Glen Scantlebury<e_enamex>, and
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Joe Bini<e_enamex>; released by <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Werner Herzog Filmproduktion<e_enamex>. At the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Film
Forum<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">209 West Houston St.<e_enamex> Running time: <b_timex type="DURATION">80 minutes<e_timex>. This film is
not rated.
	   With: <b_enamex type="PERSON">Werner Herzog<e_enamex> (Narrator) and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Dieter Dengler<e_enamex> (himself).
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0289 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 19:13:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
<b_enamex type="PERSON">YELTSIN<e_enamex> STRIKES POSE OF POWER FOR HIS OPPONENTS
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">MOSCOW<e_enamex> _ In a meeting that was as much political theater as
substance, President <b_enamex type="PERSON">Boris Yeltsin<e_enamex> summoned his opponents to the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Kremlin<e_enamex> <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex> in an attempt to show that he has a steady grip on
the reins of power and to drum up support for his new prime
minister.
	   The much ballyhooed political round table took place in the
ornate St. Catherine Hall.
	   The president held center stage while <b_enamex type="PERSON">Sergei Kiriyenko<e_enamex>, the
youthful aide that <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> picked to be prime minister, sat by his
side.
	   The television cameras captured <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> as he served notice to
his critics that he had no intention of abandoning <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>. After
projecting an image of strength, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> portrayed himself as a
reasonable leader who would try to work with the
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communist<e_enamex>-dominated <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">lower house<e_enamex> of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">parliament<e_enamex>.
	   But the meeting itself was something less than definitive. After
the <b_timex type="DURATION">two-hour<e_timex> session ended, the back-room negotiating over the
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> nomination went on.
	   ``I think it was a purely cosmetic event,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yevgeny Volk<e_enamex>,
the director of the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Moscow<e_enamex> office of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Heritage Foundation<e_enamex>.
``What we are talking about is bargaining. In tactical terms,
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> conducted a round table so that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communists<e_enamex> and
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">nationals<e_enamex> could say their pressure on the government had been
answered.''
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Volk<e_enamex>, however, expressed the dominant view in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Moscow<e_enamex> that
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> would ultimately succeed in winning parliamentary approval
of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>'s appointment.
	   Indeed, the key question increasingly appears to be not whether
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> will be approved but what the cost will be in terms of
symbolic or substantive concessions by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> in new appointments
or programs.
	   To be sure, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> was not the only one striking poses.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Gennadi Zyuganov<e_enamex>, the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">communist<e_enamex> leader, declared after the
meeting that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communists<e_enamex> would not back <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>'s appointment
when his nomination comes before <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Parliament<e_enamex> on <b_timex type="DATE">Friday<e_timex>.
	   But that does not mean that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communists<e_enamex> are determined to
block the nomination indefinitely. Many political analysts believe
that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communists<e_enamex> are determined to appear resolute before a
national day of protest scheduled for <b_timex type="DATE">Thursday<e_timex>. And <b_enamex type="PERSON">Zyuganov<e_enamex> was
careful not to exclude the possibility that the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Communists<e_enamex> might
eventually acquiesce in the nomination.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Vladimir Zhirinovsky<e_enamex>, the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">nationalist<e_enamex> leader who is best known
for his clownish antics, said he would back <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> only on the
condition that he could pick some of the members of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex>'s new
government.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Alexander Shokhin<e_enamex>, the parliamentary leader of <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Our Home Is
Russia<e_enamex>, the political party founded by ousted prime minister <b_enamex type="PERSON">Viktor
Chernomyrdin<e_enamex>, also suggested his party should influence the
composition of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex>'s new team.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Grigory Yavlinsky<e_enamex> of the liberal <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Yablocko Party<e_enamex> was the most
adamant in the opposition to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>. He appears to be
calculating that the influence of his <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Yablocko Party<e_enamex> will increase
if he remains unambiguously in the opposition or if <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> falls
by the wayside.
	   The <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Parliament<e_enamex>'s first vote on the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> nomination is
expected on <b_timex type="DATE">Friday<e_timex>. Even if the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Parliament<e_enamex> rebuffs <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex>, the
president has indicated he will press again for the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Parliament<e_enamex>'s
approval and he has considerable leverage.
<ANNOTATION>
	   (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS)
</ANNOTATION>
	   If the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Parliament<e_enamex> rejects <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex>'s choice for prime minister
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> times, the president can disband the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">parliament<e_enamex> and call for
new parliamentary elections. Many parliamentary deputies are loath
to compete in such early elections and prefer to hold on their
posts and privileges as long as possible.
	   But <b_timex type="DATE">Tuesday<e_timex>'s meeting was designed to avoid a confrontation.
	   During the session, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> said he had considered several other
choices, including <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yegor Stroyev<e_enamex>, the head of the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">upper house<e_enamex> of
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">parliament<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Moscow<e_enamex> major <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yuri Luzhkov<e_enamex>, before settling on the
<b_numex type="MEASURE">35-year<e_numex>-old <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> praised <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex>'s professionalism and said that his
new government could include candidates from opposing factions.
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> is to propose a list over the next <b_timex type="DURATION">week<e_timex> of officials that
would serve in the new government.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> grandly declared that <b_timex type="DATE">1998<e_timex> should be ``a <b_timex type="DURATION">year<e_timex> without
confrontation,'' overlooking the fact that he had not bothered to
consult the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">parliament<e_enamex> of most of his own government before picking
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Kiriyenko<e_enamex> and ordering his surprise government shake-up''
	   ``I will not veto your decisions and you should abstain from
bans,'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Yeltsin<e_enamex> said. ``Let's try to get along this way.''
</TEXT>
</BODY>
</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0292 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 19:17:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
COMMENTARY: SHE GETS MAIL
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   <b_enamex type="LOCATION">CHICAGO<e_enamex> _ ``I'm in the middle of everything,'' said <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie
Lederer<e_enamex>.
	   She was speaking of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Chicago<e_enamex>, the hometown she loves, but she
could have been pinpointing her own spot on the cultural map. As
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Ann Landers<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie Lederer<e_enamex> has been the arbiter of Main Street
American mores since <b_timex type="DATE">1955<e_timex>, dishing out advice <b_numex type="MEASURE">seven days a week<e_numex> in
a column that the Guinness Book of World Records says is the most
widely syndicated in the world, with <b_numex type="CARDINAL">90 million<e_numex> readers in some
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">1,200<e_numex> newspapers. She receives <b_numex type="MEASURE">2,000 letters a day<e_numex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> _ no one calls her anything else _ isn't slowing down as
she approaches <b_numex type="MEASURE">80<e_numex> (on the <b_timex type="DATE">Fourth of July<e_timex>). I'd come to her palatial
apartment above <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Lake Michigan<e_enamex> to learn how she and her readers had
survived the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Clinton<e_enamex> sex scandals. ``I have the pulse of the
nation, so to speak,'' she said. Dressed in red _ and speaking in
the firecracker <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Chicago<e_enamex> newsroom rhythms of ``The Front Page'' _
she might BE the pulse of the nation.
	   A Democrat, she has kept her readers' trust by never endorsing
politicians _ or products or fads. While <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ronald Reagan<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jimmy
Carter<e_enamex> appointed her to boards and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bill Clinton<e_enamex> invited her to stay
in the Lincoln Bedroom (``No money connected _ I gave him
nothing!''), <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> will vouch for the private life of just <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of
the many presidents she has known: ``<b_enamex type="PERSON">Truman<e_enamex> is the <b_numex type="CARDINAL" status="opt">one<e_numex> I would bet
on _ that he was absolutely, totally faithful to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bess<e_enamex>.''
	   As for the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Clinton<e_enamex> accusations and revelations: ``I didn't know
what I'd get from readers. Would they be outraged? Would there be a
lot of anti-<b_enamex type="PERSON">Clinton<e_enamex> stuff? I was surprised _ there was so little
negative mail and such an outpouring of support. I have concluded
this is a very popular president. They're saying it's not our
business, and we don't care ... This is not just sophisticated <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New
York<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="LOCATION">California<e_enamex>. This is Middle <b_enamex type="LOCATION">America<e_enamex>. My column appears in a
lot of small-town papers _ <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Des Moines<e_enamex>; <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Muskegon<e_enamex>; <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Tyler<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Texas<e_enamex>.''
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Paula Jones<e_enamex>? ``The readers knew who was prompting her, who gave
her the makeover. They don't buy it. I say hurray for the American
public!'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Monica Lewinsky<e_enamex>? ``They feel sorry for her. They feel
she's a little long in the tooth to be chasing celebrities. She
isn't a teen-ager.'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Kenneth Starr<e_enamex>? ``He failed. He should go to
<b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Pepperdine<e_enamex> already.'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Linda Tripp<e_enamex>? ``She is the current villainess,
I tell you. I've had absolutely no positive mail about <b_enamex type="PERSON">Linda
Tripp<e_enamex>.''
	   But doesn't the public's refusal to condemn <b_enamex type="PERSON">Clinton<e_enamex> signal some
kind of moral collapse? <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex>, whose own marriage ended in divorce
in <b_timex type="DATE">1975<e_timex>, said: ``People are much more willing to forgive now. They
are more permissive. They are more realistic. This is the way life
is. Not all husbands are faithful ... I've been doing this <b_timex type="DURATION">43
years<e_timex>. The country has been going in this direction for some time.
I don't think it's just the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Clintons<e_enamex>. We're getting to be more
forgiving as a people. It's a good thing.''
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> also dismissed the notion that the nation's children had
been scarred by the nonstop talk of oral sex and adultery: ``It's
awfully hard to shock a kid above <b_numex type="MEASURE">8 years<e_numex> of age in this country
unless they're living in a glass bubble. The children know a heck
of a lot more than their parents think they do. I knew more than my
parents thought I knew.'' <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> attributes today's kids' knowledge
about sex to TV. She grew up in pre-TV <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Sioux City<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Iowa<e_enamex>, but her
father, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Abe Friedman<e_enamex>, owned theaters, among them a burlesque house.
``That's where my sister'' _ her twin, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Pauline<e_enamex>, who writes the
rival ``Dear Abby'' column _ ``and I got our sex education. We were
<b_numex type="MEASURE">15 years<e_numex> old and the girls in the chorus were <b_numex type="MEASURE">16 years<e_numex> old. We hung
out backstage because we liked them. We talked to them a lot, and
we heard PLENTY.''
	   In other words, I asked, you don't find the <b_enamex type="PERSON">Clinton<e_enamex> scandals
particularly momentous? <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> abruptly got up, went to an adjoining
room and came back with a big scrapbook. In it were photos of her
visit with American soldiers in a <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Saigon<e_enamex> hospital in <b_timex type="DATE">1967<e_timex>. ``War is
what's important,'' she said, turning the pages. ``This is what
counts _ not this other kind of stuff about <b_enamex type="PERSON">Linda Tripp<e_enamex>. Who cares
about <b_enamex type="PERSON">Linda Tripp<e_enamex>? The American people are pretty solid, they're
pretty savvy, and they know what's important. That's why they're
not screaming and yelling about <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bill Clinton<e_enamex> and some of these
females.'' Then <b_enamex type="PERSON">Eppie<e_enamex> put down the scrapbook to offer some advice.
``This,'' she said, ``is where you should end your column.''
</TEXT>
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</DOC>
<DOC>
<DOCNO> NYT19980407.0293 </DOCNO>
<DOCTYPE> NEWS STORY </DOCTYPE>
<DATE_TIME> 04/07/1998 19:18:00 </DATE_TIME>
<BODY>
<HEADLINE>
ANONYMOUS TRIBAL ARTISANS? LOOK AGAIN
</HEADLINE>
<TEXT>
	   As a freshman in college some <b_timex type="DURATION">30 years<e_timex> ago, I was a literature
major with a problem: I had a token science requirement to fulfill.
The solution? I took a course titled ``Primitive Art.'' It was
taught by the anthropology department, and classes were held in the
local museum of natural history, where African sculptures were
jumbled in with geological specimens and stuffed birds.
	   The status of those sculptures has changed over time. Today,
more often than not, they've found a home in art museums. African
art as a field of study is listed under art history, and no field
of research is more stimulating or innovative. And none carries so
heavy a burden of misconceptions.
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">One<e_numex> of these has to do with the identity of African artists.
Colonial collectors rarely took note of who carved the spectacular
statues and masks they shipped back to <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Europe<e_enamex>.
	   Modern ethnology, with which the study of African art still
overlaps, concentrates on social traditions and belief systems
rather than things, and seldom has an eye out for authorship.
	   For whatever reason, the idea has long been current in the West
that anonymity in art was a cultural norm in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex>. By this
thinking, African art is a collective, tribal phenomenon rather
than a vehicle for individual expression, and objects of a specific
type are _ making allowances for varying degrees of skill _
interchangeable.
	   This view is being challenged head-on by <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> exhibitions, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> in
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex> and the other at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Metropolitan Museum of Art<e_enamex> in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New
York<e_enamex>. Both shows argue that historically, certain traditional
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex> artists have not only developed distinctive styles but that
those styles were greatly prized within their communities, creating
a celebrity that often lived on long after the artists had died.
	   Of the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> exhibitions, ``Olowe of Ise: A Yoruba Sculptor to
Kings'' at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">National Museum of African Art<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Smithsonian
Institution<e_enamex> is, by its very nature, the more closely focused.
Organized by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Roslyn A. Walker<e_enamex>, director of the museum, it is a
retrospective of a single sculptor who was born around <b_timex type="DATE">1875<e_timex>, and
died around <b_timex type="DATE">1938<e_timex>.
	   <b_numex type="MEASURE">One-person<e_numex> shows of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex> artists are rare (the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Metropolitan
Museum<e_enamex>'s ``Buli Master'' show, organized by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Susan Vogel<e_enamex> in <b_timex type="DATE">1980<e_timex>, is
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of the few other examples). And Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Walker<e_enamex>'s exhibition is
truly precedent setting in being accompanied by a catalogue
raisonne of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex>'s work, the first major scholarly publication of
its kind ever devoted to a traditional African artist.
	   As the book itself suggests, biographical data on <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ise<e_enamex>
(pronounced o-lo-way of EE-say) is scant, mostly found in local
``praise songs'' composed in his honor and passed down orally
through his descendants, or in chance scraps of information
recorded by colonial visitors.
	   He was born in southwestern <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Nigeria<e_enamex> of Yoruba people, the ethnic
groups from which many African-Americans are descended. He spent
most of his life working in the court center of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ise<e_enamex>, though he took
commissions from clients as far as <b_numex type="MEASURE">60 miles<e_numex> away. He was expert in
a variety of forms of carving, from architectural decorations to
diviner's instruments to children's toys, all of which are among
the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">35<e_numex> objects in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex>.
	   <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> gained attention in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Europe<e_enamex> when an elaborate palace door
he had made was displayed in the British Empire Exhibition of <b_timex type="DATE">1927<e_timex>
and later acquired by the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">British Museum<e_enamex>. After World War II, an
English official saw a picture of the door and related its
distinctive style to work he had encountered in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Nigeria<e_enamex>. He alerted
the ethnographer <b_enamex type="PERSON">William B. Fagg<e_enamex> to his discovery, thus setting in
motion the investigation that has culminated in Ms. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Walker<e_enamex>'s show.
	   The <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">British Museum<e_enamex> door is not in <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex> for the exhibition,
which runs through <b_timex type="DATE">Sept. 7<e_timex>, but <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> others by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> are, each
carved with reliefs of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">dozens<e_numex> of figures arranged in horizontal
bands. The first door depicts the everyday bustle of court life:
the ruler, short but commanding, appears accompanied by <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> wives,
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> wearing a European-style top hat. A band of eager-to-please
musicians serenades him from above; a wrestling match is in
progress below.
	   The other door documents a specific event: the
<b_timex type="DATE">turn-of-the-century<e_timex> meeting between a British commissioner named
Captain <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ambrose<e_enamex> and the King of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Ise<e_enamex>. Here <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> cultures, closely
observed, come together. <b_enamex type="PERSON">Ambrose<e_enamex>, a childlike figure in a
cricketing cap, is toted in on a litter from the left. The king, a
prepossessing presence in a towering crown, arrives on a horse from
the right and greets his guest with a magisterially upraised hand.
	   Many of the characteristics of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex>'s personal style are here:
the unusually high relief carving, deep-cut and verging on the
<b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex>-dimensional; figures with limbs modeled and flexed to give an
impression of movement, and surfaces inflected with painterly
chipping and faceting.
	   All of these features are also found in the extraordinary
veranda posts that <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> produced for his royal patrons. Where
other artists working with this form carved their stacked-up
figures face-front and locked within the column, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> often twists
them in different directions, sets their limbs free in space and
enlivens them with personable details: a young king has the sweet,
alert face of a gazelle; a hunter, rifle in hand, wears his hair in
a thick braid, which curves out behind him like a bow.
	   Even more radical is the way <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> plays with visual and social
conventions. In several sculptures he reverses or blends gender
roles, giving male figures women's hairdos and dressing them in the
beaded girdles worn by brides.
	   Why he did so is a mystery, but one can assume that, like any
inventive artist intent on making a name for himself, he upset
expectations both to arrest the eye and to keep his public
wondering what on earth he would be up to next.
	   The show, which has been evocatively installed with mural-size
photographs showing the veranda posts in situ decades ago, ends
with some of the artist's smaller pieces, including wooden bowls
with cunningly wrought openwork bases and figural motifs seen
nowhere else in African art.
	   The bowls have none of the monumental flair of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex>'s posts and
doors, but they are his most frequently imitated work and are
unmistakable reminders of his self-consciously virtuosic and
original presence.
	   Originality is also the subject of ``Master Hand: Individuality
and Creativity Among Yoruba Sculptors,'' a compact think piece of
an exhibition at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex>, organized by <b_enamex type="PERSON">Alisa LaGamma<e_enamex>, assistant
curator for the department of the arts of <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Oceania<e_enamex> and the
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Americas<e_enamex>.
	   A visual essay on the question of authorship in African art, it
expands beyond the crucial figure of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> to touch on numerous
other Yoruba artists whose work can be identified either through
style or documentation.
	   <b_numex type="CARDINAL">One<e_numex> of them, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Areogun<e_enamex> (circa <b_timex type="DATE">1880<e_timex>-<b_timex type="DATE">1954<e_timex>), was <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex>'s near
contemporary. A door carved by him is installed for purposes of
stylistic comparison in the <b_enamex type="LOCATION">Washington<e_enamex> show, and the signature
image of figures zipping around on bicycles seen there can also be
spotted on a large divination bowl at the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex> as part of a tableau
of human and animals forms woven together in a vibrant chain of
activity.
	   Most of the other artists in ``Master Hand'' were born, like
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Olowe<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Areogun<e_enamex>, in the late <b_timex type="DATE">19th century<e_timex> and died in the <b_timex type="DATE">20th<e_timex>.
And collectively their work attests to the endlessly inventive
sophistication of Yoruba art, with its startling interweaving of
tradition and modernity.
	   That blend is everywhere. One sees it in a headdress, attributed
to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Onabanjo<e_enamex>, carrying a whole community of figures and touched with
baroque flourishes suggesting <b_enamex type="LOCATION">New World<e_enamex> influences carried back to
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex> by returning slaves. It is there in a helmet mask,
attributed to <b_enamex type="PERSON">Bamgbose<e_enamex> or <b_enamex type="PERSON">Areogun<e_enamex>, topped with the formidable
figure of a women flanked by children who reverently touch her
breasts. And again in the little dance mask with movable arms,
begun by the sculptor <b_enamex type="PERSON">Fagbite Asamu<e_enamex> in <b_timex type="DATE">1930<e_timex> and completed <b_timex type="DURATION">four
decades<e_timex> later by his son <b_enamex type="PERSON">Falola Edun<e_enamex>.
	   Directly across from the vitrine holding this mask is a video
monitor playing <b_timex type="DATE">1971<e_timex> footage of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Falola Edun<e_enamex> finishing his work on
it and then of the mask being worn in a dance, its role as a piece
of public art finally realized.
	   Seeing both the Yoruba artist and the sculpture he made ``live''
on tape is very moving, and serves as reminder of the restorative,
vivifiying impulse that lies behind the <b_numex type="CARDINAL">two<e_numex> exhibitions themselves.
	   The <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">Met<e_enamex> supplemented ``Master Hand,'' which runs through <b_timex type="DATE">July
12<e_timex>, with a symposium in <b_timex type="DATE">February<e_timex> on the question of authorship in
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">Africa<e_enamex> art. Among the speakers many individual voices sounded,
including that of <b_enamex type="PERSON">Olabiyi Babalola Yai<e_enamex> from the <b_enamex type="ORGANIZATION">University of
Miami<e_enamex>, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> of the many Yoruba scholars who are documenting and
interpreting their own art.
	   And appropriately, artists were on hand. The Nigerian sculptor
<b_enamex type="PERSON">Lamidi Fakeye<e_enamex>, who had given a carving demonstration in the museum
the day before, was in the audience. The symposium was rounded out
with the appearance of <b_numex type="CARDINAL">three<e_numex> contemporary Western artists _ <b_enamex type="PERSON">Jose
Bedia<e_enamex>, <b_enamex type="PERSON">Arturo Lindsay<e_enamex> and <b_enamex type="PERSON">Manuel Vega<e_enamex> _ all of whom live in the
<b_enamex type="LOCATION">United States<e_enamex>, but draw on Yoruba-derived African-Caribbean
religious traditions in their art.
	   It was an absorbing, exhausting day, <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> packed with fresh
information, contentious ideas (<b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> scholar suggested that the
issue of determining authorship in African art was a Western
obsession geared to museums and markets), and, inevitably, with new
misconceptions that only further research will set straight.
	   And it felt a very long way indeed from the dusty vitrines and
taxidermic science of <b_timex type="DURATION">30 years<e_timex> ago, when African artists were
barely spoken of as artists at all, and the energy of their work
was, for <b_numex type="CARDINAL">one<e_numex> unexpectedly captivated student, a transformative
secret just beginning to be revealed.
</TEXT>
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</DOC>
</IEER_DOC>
