Cynthia
Pollock Shea,in World Watch (May-June 19881,
1776 Massachusetts Ave. -
N.W.,Washington,
D.C. 20036.
In 1983 the state of New York passed a law mandating deposits on bever- age containers. But while the state could find buyers for the millions of aluminum cans and glass bottles returned consumers, industry could not find new uses for old plastic. The result: Plastic bottles continued to be buried in landfills.
However, as time went on, the secondhand plastic market-in New York and elsewhere-steadily...
artificially reducing pulpwood prices, has also dis- couraged the use of recycled paper. Until Congress and the White House end such contradictory policies, Shea warns, "the federal government pro- motes the continuation of a throwaway society."
's "Becoming Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Gather" Sharon O'Brien, in American Quarterly (Mar. 1988), Johns Hopldns Univ. Press, 701 West 40th St., Baltimore, Md.
During the 1920s, Willa Gather (1873-1947) was one of the major...
all classes of folk. The wealthy paid two dollars for a box seat, or one dollar for the pit; craftsmen and servants could buy gallery seats for a quarter. However, Garcia's succes- sors courted the rich. the time the Astor Place Opera House opened in 1847, the well-to-do were favored with reserved seating, and a dress code that required men to wear fresh waistcoats and kid gloves. The view from the inexpensive seats was obstructed by a chandelier. "The fashionable world is now completely organized,"...
opera audiences, such as withholding applause until after an aria was completed, added to the general sense of self-esteem. Salting a conversation with such "high-sounding" Italian phrases as can-tina or parlando allowed operagoers to feel superior-a verbal "distanc- ing" technique also used for centuries lawyers who cited tidbits of Latin. Old New York patricians, McConachie suggests, came to believe that only those "who could get through an Italian opera without a social...
Phyllis Birnbaum, and "Japan's Working Wounded: In Limbo the Window" by Daniel Master, in Across the Board (June 1988), The Conference Board, 845 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10022.
Americans, who work an average of 1,800 hours per year, are among the West's most industrious employees. The Japanese do better: 2,100 hours per year. A mere 27 percent of all Japanese workers enjoy a two-day weekend, and a move to reduce the 48-hour workweek was opposed not only by executives but also by wage...
John M. Kramer, in Problems of Communism (Mar.-and Drugs Apr. 1988), U.S. Information Agency, 301 4th
St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547.
For decades, the Soviet Union refused to admit that any of its citizens consumed illegal drugs. As late as May 1984, the Moscow journal New Times claimed that "not a single case" of addiction to amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, or LSD had ever been recorded in the country.
Kramer, a political scientist at Mary Washington College, writes that Soviet attitudes...
various means. Some illicit drugs are homegrown; collective farmers can double their incomes selling poppies on the black market. As in the West, some drugs are stolen from hospitals and pharmacies. Five hundred people were indicted early this year for such thefts from Ministry of Public Health facilities. Despite strict Soviet frontier controls, smugglers provide another source of supply, particularly in Turkmenistan, which borders on Afghani- stan and Iran.
Belatedly, the Soviets have begun to...
Merril Stevenson, in The Economist (May 28, 1988), 25 St. James
St., London SW1A lHG, United Kingdom.
On April 25, 1974, Portuguese strongman Marcelo Caetano was ousted in a military coup, restoring democracy after 42 years of dictatorship Caetano and his predecessor, Antonio Salazar. Within two years, most Portuguese colonies, including Angola and Mozambique, had gained inde- pendence; at home, dozens of private companies were nationalized, work- ers' wages increased dramatically, and six provisional...
Shai Feldman at a colloquium sponsored the Wilson Center.
Recent Arab uprisings in the occupied ter- ritories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip may stir Israelis to look beyond national security "to the essence of the state's pur- poses and its grand strategy."
Feldman, a Wilson Center Fellow and senior research associate at the Jaffee Cen- ter for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv Uni- versity, suggests that his fellow citizens might do well to reconsider the principles formulated by th...
Lyn Ragsdale, in The Journal of Poli- tics (Aug. 1987), Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. 32611.
Presidents frequently seek to sway the public with major speeches broad- cast during prime time on network television. But do these broadcasts permanently affect public attitudes toward major issues?
Ragsdale, a political scientist at the University of Arizona, studied the 93 prime-time speeches (including State of the Union messages but ex- cluding inaugural addresses) given Lyndon Johnson, Richard...