The Christian Science Monitor back issues from March 2000:
Adobe domes rising; A texas builder Works to gain acceptance for adobe as a timeless, low-cost building material.(Features)(Homefront)
Mar 01, 2000; ... To Simone Swan adobe is a timeless material. Her mentor, famed Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy, saw it as beautifully utilitarian, pulled from the earth by many hands and shaped into adobe bricks for solid, low-cost homes built by the people who would live in them. ...
Finding community in cyberspace.(Features)(Homefront)(Neighbor To Neighbor)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Is the Internet turning me into a social misfit? That's what I wondered after hearing about a study from the Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society at Stanford University. It reported that those of us who spend more than five hours weekly checking our e-mail or surfing ...
What to do when your orchid won't bloom.(Features)(Homefront)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Q I've had an orchid for three years. It looks fine, but it has never bloomed. It looks healthy and grows new arms, but I would like it to bloom. - V.G., Springfield, Ill. A "It is always difficult to make suggestions about orchid care without knowing exactly what ...
What Organic Gardening editor digs.(Features)(Homefront)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Which will it be: organic or nonorganic? Sooner or later, everyone with a lettuce patch or a vine of tomatoes has to face this decision. Except for Maria Rodale. As a third-generation organic gardener, whether to zap bugs with insecticides or pick them off by hand was never a question. At ...
Diet du jour: Who wins? Who loses? Americans spend $50 billion a year on weight-loss plans and products.(Features)(Homefront)(Connections)
Mar 01, 2000; ... It's that time of year, when signs of spring abound. Dirty snowbanks have melted. Canada geese are returning to suburban golf courses. And women's magazines are heralding a new season with - what else? - diets and promises of quick weight loss. "Drop 10 pounds by spring," ...
Duck - Better than at Chez Magnifique.(Features)(Homefront)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Duck has never flown in America. Not in the kitchen anyway. Yet in many parts of the world, Asia especially, it is the poultry of choice. A bickering gaggle of ducks being herded between rice paddies in rural Thailand or Bali is a common sight guaranteed to put the brakes on any ...
Duck Recipies.(Features)(Homefront)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Sam Choy's Award-Winning Roast Duck In "Sam Choy's Island Flavors" (Hyperion, $27.95), the popular Hawaiian chef writes: "Roasting duck the traditional Chinese way is a lot of work, but I've found an easy way to do it that I think tastes just as good. It's like a shining star on ...
Good news can change a family.(Features)(Homefront)(Parenting)
Mar 01, 2000 ... "Why isn't my laundry done? I told you I need to wear my blue shirt tonight! You never listen to me! What have you been doing all day?" My son's angry face confirmed what I suspected, but had been avoiding. I had become a servant in my own home; my children were the rulers. ...
Our front stoop was stupendous.(The Home Forum)
Mar 01, 2000 ... The other day I overheard a student in my school shouting down the hallway to someone: "I'll leave the envelope out on my stoop!" I immediately went up to her and asked what part of New York or New Jersey she was from. She looked surprised. "How did you know?" she asked, and ...
Toward a heartfelt peace.(The Home Forum)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Thousands of people are involved in peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo. It is an ongoing and complex task to make the region secure. Yet movement toward stability and peace in any part of the world, no matter how difficult or fragile it may seem, is welcome news. Even if deeply-held ...
Mom's advice pierces the mist.(The Home Forum)
Mar 01, 2000 ... I was driving on a rain-swept road with one genuinely depressed, teenage son. I forget just what it was all about, but as I recall, our son seemed to have ample reason for his gloom. Things were definitely not going well, and nothing I could do or say seemed to lighten his dejection. ...
Wired Berlin may import tech experts; Schroder's Feb. 23 proposal to bring in foreign computer workers raises hackles.(World)
Mar 01, 2000; ... A dearth of qualified computer specialists is prompt-ing Germany to confront a pillar of its national identity: that it is not "a country of immigrants." In a case of global business interests challenging parochialism, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder touched off a furor this past ...
'Orphans' of border crossings; As border tightens, Mexicans coming to US now leave kin behind permanently, eroding sense of family.(World)
Mar 01, 2000; ... Sitting on his bunk in a nursing home on the edge of this Mexican border town, Jesus Valenzuela talks of how he has been left behind by his family. In his six months at La Divina Providencia, after being shifted from the care of one family member to another, and finally to a ...
How one entrepreneur beat corruption.(World)(Calling Africa)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Corruption has become somewhat of a cliche in Africa. So, few Zimbabweans were surprised when a league of crooked cronies sought to destroy an honest businessman like Strive Masiyiwa. What shocked people most was that the upstart entrepreneur repeatedly fought back - and won. ...
NATO's spotty record in Bosnia; Four Bosnian Serbs went on trial Feb. 28 at The Hague for war crimes. But most accused remain free.(World)
Mar 01, 2000; ... When international peacekeeping troops in Bosnia captured Mitar Vasiljevic last month, his arrest was trumpeted as an important coup for the NATO-led Stabilization Force, or SFOR, charged with detaining war criminals. Mr. Vasiljevic, a Bosnian Serb, was notorious among Muslims ...
Today's Story Line.(World)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Recruit or fall behind. A shortage of high-tech workers is forcing Germany to come to grips with prejudices about foreigners. Meanwhile, Europe's poster boy for xenophobia, Jorg Haider, resigned as head of the Freedom Party. But he's not likely to disappear from Austrian ...
Austrian leader bows out - for now; Jorg Haider said he would resign as party leader Feb. 28. Few think he's really gone.(World)
Mar 01, 2000; ... Opponents at home have dubbed it a savvy bid aimed at an eventual run for Austria's top political post. Abroad, it was met with everything from open skepticism to a wait-and-see attitude. Far-right politician Jorg Haider announced Feb. 28 that he intended to step down as head of ...
Peruvian squatters get attention at election time; With seven weeks until he runs for a third term, President Fujimori promises land to the poor.(World)
Mar 01, 2000; ... A doubled-over straw mat and some blue plastic is what Maria Salazar has called "home sweet home" ever since she and 1,200 other families occupied the lot near Libertadores High School in the city's Villa El Salvador district last month. Alongside Ms. Salazar's makeshift home ...
Sitting still for foreign affairs.(Opinion)(Column)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Most every major American and Canadian city has a foreign-policy council. It's a good thing. "The American public needs to be encouraged to pay more attention to world affairs," says William Vocke, past president of World Affairs Councils of America (WACA). ...
The sky is falling in Alaska - is anyone watching?(Opinion)
Mar 01, 2000 ... Just when I thought there were no more big surprises, that someone always knew something about everything, a flaming fireball bursts through the clouds over Haines and streaks across the sky in plain view, before spinning out like a bottle rocket over the mountains, and blowing up ...
Asian nuclear chain reaction.(Opinion)
Mar 01, 2000 ... These are not happy days for global arms-control advocates. This summer, the Clinton administration may approve the deployment of a national missile-defense system - a move that could prompt a renewed arms race with Russia and China. Last fall, the US Senate stunned the world with its ...
McCain's bid: Grand New Party; His reformist message may steer the Republicans leftward - toward a key bloc of 'Jacksonian' populists.(USA)(Election 2000)
Mar 01, 2000; ... Win or lose, John McCain might change the face of the party of Lincoln more profoundly than any Republican figure of the past 20 years. In 1980, Ronald Reagan remade Republicanism by bringing in "Reagan Democrats" - blue-collar social conservatives, many of them Roman Catholic, ...
California poised to give big boost to gambling; State voters are expected to pass a measure March 7 expanding tribal casinos.(USA)
Mar 01, 2000; ... Sequestered by rocky hills from the sprawl of San Diego, this orchard-quilted expanse of glades and gorges could double for the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant. From a dusty backyard, where children play beneath line-drying clothes, Carla Nejo can just see the riverside park ...
Clinton rethinks Iraq sanctions; Humanitarian concern stirs criticism, but many defend sanctions as a prod for weapons monitoring.(USA)
Mar 01, 2000; ... After punishing Saddam Hussein for nine years, the Clinton administration is coming under increasing pressure to amend its sanctions against Iraq. Efforts to lift or change the sanctions are gaining momentum both abroad and in the US Congress, where 70 lawmakers recently signed ...
Superior crops or 'Frankenfood'? Americans begin to reconsider blase attitude toward genetically modified food.(USA)
Mar 01, 2000; ... If genetic engineering portends a revolution in the way the world eats, Americans have not seemed to notice. While Europeans took to the streets in protest, consumers in the United States calmly digested tomatoes designed to ripen slowly. While Asians and others passed labeling ...
Taking satiric aim at computers.(Features)(Ideas)(Whatever...)
Mar 02, 2000 ... As a satirist, Henry Beard finds the computer an easy target. "If you have ever read a computer manual, you have my deepest sympathies," he says of the perplexing exercise. Mr. Beard's specialty is writing humorous dictionaries. He has tackled dictionaries for ...
A battle wrapped in lore, surrounded by myth.(Features)(Books)
Mar 02, 2000 ... THE GATES OF THE ALAMO By Stephen Harrigan Alfred A. Knopf 581 pp., $25 Had the Battle of the Alamo never happened, there might not be a Texas today. But more important than being deprived of the Lone Star State, America would also be deprived of a momentous metaphor. ...
Childless adults ask, 'Why am I minding the kids?'.(Features)(Books)
Mar 02, 2000 ... THE BABY BOON: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless By Elinor Burkett The Free Press 272 pp., $25 Elinor Burkett belongs to the fastest-growing demographic group in the United States - childless adults. But during the 1996 presidential campaign, as Bob Dole and Bill ...
Very clever headline goes here.(Features)(Books)
Mar 02, 2000 ... A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF STAGGERING GENIUS By Dave Eggers Simon & Schuster 375 pp., $23 I hadn't planned to review David Eggers's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" until Yvonne, an editor here in national news, pointed out a flattering author profile in The Boston ...
What's New.(Features)(Ideas)(Whatever...)
Mar 02, 2000 ... TECHNOLOGY Download blues CHICAGO - Computer systems in American colleges are becoming clogged. Students are downloading too much music from the Internet. To counter the jam, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has banned access to Napster, a site that ...
Strange Webfellows.(Features)(Ideas)
Mar 02, 2000 ... The people who probe and measure markets have reached a startling conclusion about the New Economy: It's lighter than the old one. It takes less physical matter to generate a dollar of economic output than it did 20 years ago. That fact has set analysts pondering a second ...
Win win.(Features)(Ideas)(Soundings)
Mar 02, 2000 ... Our cover story is about the Internet. "Again," I can hear readers groan. "Not the Web." Sorry, there really is no escaping coverage of the Net phenomenon. Less than 10 years ago, there were 50 Web sites. Today there are more than 50 million. Nor is there any ...
So little time to stargaze; As lines lengthen for larger telescopes, researchers lament the lack of access.(Features)(Ideas)
Mar 02, 2000; ... Combing the far reaches of space for new discoveries can be like looking for a matching sock in a dark closet. Now, larger and more complex telescopes, an astronomer's version of the penlight, have made many new discoveries possible. But some researchers say that the pursuit of ...
Pardon me, sir, your luggage is radioactive.(Features)(Ideas)(Bandwidth)
Mar 02, 2000 ... When the radioactive "alarm" on the belt of US Customs Inspector Ray Mace went off, he was puzzled, he says. With the possibility of criminals and terrorists trying to smuggle nuclear weapons or materials into the United States, many customs inspectors now wear the detectors. But this was ...
Sounding the alarm on Sudan.(Features)(Ideas)(Religious Persecution)
Mar 02, 2000 ... The story has slipped from TV screens, but it remains by far the world's greatest humanitarian crisis. While attention focuses on Kosovo and Chechnya, the people of Sudan, Africa's largest country, struggle with an ethno-religious conflict that has spawned more war-related deaths (2 ...
Australia's lyric poet plays a public role.(Features)(Books)
Mar 02, 2000 ... If Shelley was right when he wrote, "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world," it may be apt that Judith Wright, one of Australia's most distinguished poets, now lives in her nation's capital, not too far from Parliament Hill. Once upon a time she almost had a ...
The world's most elusive dolphins.(Features)(Books)
Mar 02, 2000 ... JOURNEY OF THE PINK DOLPHINS: An Amazon Quest By Sy Montgomery Simon & Schuster 317 pp., $26 In "Journey of the Pink Dolphins," nature writer Sy Montgomery takes us on a rich odyssey both real and mythical in search of these elusive creatures. Dolphins and humans ...
The joy of fishing badly.(The Home Forum)
Mar 02, 2000 ... A question keeps knocking at the door of my consciousness, a question I have been unable to answer. It's not one of those deep "issues of life" questions. It is simply this: How did such a lousy but enthusiastic fisherman - who also trained his sons and daughters in the art of fishing ...
The art of capturing fishness.(The Home Forum)
Mar 02, 2000 ... These wood-engravings by Agnes Miller Parker were made for popular novelist and short-story writer H.E. Bates's autobiographical "Down the River" (1937). At one point, Bates writes eloquently about fishing and fishermen. His illustrator (who made 83 engravings for the book) takes the ...
Beyond a woman's intuition.(The Home Forum)
Mar 02, 2000 ... A while back, my wife and I were considering a possible cross-country move for our family. Since I'm self-employed and the sole income-producer in our home, it was neither a choice forced on us by an employer, nor a question of one spouse's career over the other. We wondered, simply, if ...
Pro-basketball player Manute Bol.(The Home Forum)
Mar 02, 2000 ... Manute Bol, the 7 ft., 7 in. Dinka tribesman who blocked shots for a living in the NBA, is now trying to stop a civil war in his native Sudan. Bol's cousin spotted Manute's potential when he saw his picture in a newspaper. He told Bol he should use his height to play ...
Russia counters claims of abuse; While gaining on rebels, Moscow this week allowed a senior European official, and others, into Chechnya.(World)
Mar 02, 2000; ... The paint at Chechnya's most notorious pretrial detention center is so fresh that it rubs off on visitors' coats. As the Chernokozovo camp opens to foreign observers and journalists this week, there is no sign of bruises on prisoners - and barely a speck of dirt. The ...
Today's Story Line.(World)
Mar 02, 2000 ... As flood waters continue to rise in Mozambique, the race to save lives continues on two fronts: rescue and aid to refugee camps. Russia ramps up its publicity efforts amid a stream of reports about soldiers abusing Chechen civilians. Made in the shade. Mexican coffee ...
Renovating Winnipeg's image as 'arson city' A new police task force and real estate developers give Winnipeg a facelift.(World)
Mar 02, 2000; ... "Burn Me Next." This bit of graffiti spray-painted across the vacant house at 311 Manitoba Avenue, in Winnipeg's North End, adjacent to one already torched, gave new meaning to the phrase "handyman's special." But where many Winnipeggers saw another arson waiting to ...
Want to strut your samba at Carnival? Go online! International hip-shakers meet the mouse-clickers this week at Brazil's biggest dance party of the year.(World)(A Letter From)
Mar 02, 2000; ... The samba beat at Rio's famous Carnival will have an international sound to it this year thanks to the Internet. Poles, Finns, Argentines, and Japanese are to shake their hips in "Unidos do Mundo," an Internet-based samba school that will become the first-ever international ...
German currency leaves its mark across the Balkans; Technically part of the euro, the mark remains popular at home and elsewhere.(World)(Money Matters)
Mar 02, 2000; ... International peace-keepers had barely arrived in Kosovo last June, when entrepreneurs in the regional capital, Pristina, started reopening their shops. I was not particularly surprised to see that the prices were all in German marks, since the mark is the currency of choice in the ...
Tenaciously, Mozambicans hang on; Some 5,000 people were rescued as of yesterday; 100,000 await help.(World)
Mar 02, 2000; ... Churning flood waters rose around Helena Simiao and her eight-year-old grandson as they clung to the upper branches of a tree for one horrifying night and day, singing hymns and praying. "We sang the whole night through," recalls Mrs. Simiao. "There were many people in other ...
Made in the shade: java that saves forests.(World)(Environment)
Mar 02, 2000 ... If this summer you spot a Townsend warbler or some other migratory song bird in your garden, you might want to thank Chiapas coffee grower Marino Bravo Gutierrez. Mr. Bravo, whose coffee bushes now sit beneath a canopy of bird-hosting native trees, is one of several hundred ...
Huck's unvarnished truth.(Opinion)
Mar 02, 2000 ... Julian Bond and Kweisi Mfume have done a great job rescuing the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It's solvent after almost crumbling under a $3.2 million debt. Membership is up. And, maybe most importantly, it has let young blacks know that, as ...
What if we 'shake a rod' and no one trembles?(Opinion)(Column)
Mar 02, 2000 ... In 1815, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Not in our day, but at no distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power and teach us that the less we use our power, the greater it will be." ...
Leading a one-man charge for diversity; Clinton's point-man on race takes on racial profiling, corporate America, and Hollywood.(USA)(Interview / Ben Johnson)
Mar 02, 2000; ... Every Wednesday, many of the White House staff stop what they're doing and plunk down in front of a TV to watch a fictionalized version of their lives - NBC's hit drama "The West Wing." Some say the show captures what they do even better than they do. Ben Johnson is not among them. ...
Twilight of the insurgencies? Ever the maverick, McCain may have alienated too many Republicans to win.(USA)(Election 2000)
Mar 02, 2000; ... By the time this week's Mini Tuesday primaries rolled around, John McCain looked as if he needed a day off. The Arizona senator was on the attack - surging forward, as insurgents are wont to do - but he didn't seem to know when to stop. He was less than truthful about his ...
How Bill Bradley faded from the game; His Democratic bid has foundered on tactical missteps and crossovers to McCain.(USA)(Election 2000)
Mar 02, 2000; ... This fall Thomas Keefe became "absolutely enthralled" as he watched Bill Bradley energize a packed conference room of seemingly complacent students with his vision for the future. Today the liberal Democratic activist from Albany still supports Mr. Bradley, but he's far from enthusiastic. ...
The prevalence of guns in grade schools; In recent years, more than 300 kids have been expelled for toting firearms.(USA)
Mar 02, 2000; ... The shooting of a Michigan six-year-old by a troubled classmate on Feb. 29 is a distressing signal that even elementary schools are not safe from the scourge of gun violence. Since last year's tragedy at Columbine High School in Colorado, most school administrators have focused ...
Protecting marriage or marginalizing homosexuals? An initiative on California's March 7 ballot to invalidate same-sex marriage is reverberating across the US.(USA)
Mar 02, 2000; ... The wording seems simple: "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." But behind the 14-word phrase - the shortest state initiative in history, now on California's March 7 ballot - is a firestorm of debate over gay rights and same-sex marriage ...
Sports 101.(Features)(Sports)(The Sporting Scene)
Mar 03, 2000 ... "The start of baseball always brings warm thoughts," says Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Kevin Young. The exhibition season opened yesterday with seven games in Arizona and Florida. Stars such as Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro ...
Acting president.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)
Mar 03, 2000 ... With presidential hopefuls popping up on everything from MTV (John McCain) to David Letterman's "Late Show" (Al Gore), it's hard to ignore the impact of the popular media on real-world politics today. But for most of television's history, politics has been considered "TV ...
'Millionaire' keeps changing TV.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Short Takes)
Mar 03, 2000 ... Its star, Regis Philbin, is said to be getting a new $20 million contract. A Fox follow-up show with a troubling twist, "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" provided well more than 15 minutes of (embarrassing) fame for everyone involved. "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" ...
The Monitor Movie Guide.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)
Mar 03, 2000 ... Red stars denote the reviews of Monitor movie critic David Sterritt unless otherwise noted. Ratings and comments by the Monitor panel ( blue stars) reflect the sometimes diverse views of at least three other moviegoers. Information on violence, drugs, sex/nudity, and profanity is compiled ...
'Planet,' 'Next' not out of this world; Comedies from big-name directors disappoint.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Movies)(Opening Today)
Mar 03, 2000; ... Parenthood is at the heart of two new Hollywood comedies, "What Planet Are You From?" and "The Next Best Thing," but viewers interested in old-fashioned family values will have to wade through a lot of irreverent humor before they'll find a hint of what they're seeking. What ...
Wrestling with sober stories, sans Hollywood's sugar.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Movies)
Mar 03, 2000 ... Hollywood is so hooked on happy endings and feel-good stories that other types of movies, brought to the screen by independent and international filmmakers, often do a better job of providing serious looks at the darker sides of life. Two new documentaries provide sober views of material ...
Good drama, not news reporting, is his goal.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Television)
Mar 03, 2000 ... For a guy selling politics to the American public, Aaron Sorkin is surprisingly modest about his own political savvy. "I'm not particularly sophisticated when it comes to political issues," he says. "I read the same newspapers as everyone else and that's really as far as it ...
Cracking the case of Sherlock Holmes.(Features)(Arts & Leisure)(Television)
Mar 03, 2000 ... Creepy as the title may sound, Murder Rooms: The Dark Origins of Sherlock Holmes is a fascinating fictionalized account of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first interest in criminal investigation. Despite a plot hole or two, it is well-made, eerie, and complicated - like so many of the Holmes ...
I watch the foxes, and they watch me.(The Home Forum)
Mar 03, 2000 ... It is late at night, time to go to bed. I'm too tired to watch another movie on the cable channel. Perhaps I should put the bag of garbage out tonight, in case the truck comes early tomorrow. There is always a risk in putting the garbage out the night before, because a creature ...
World Day of Prayer.(The Home Forum)
Mar 03, 2000 ... Today marks the 114th celebration of the annual World Day of Prayer - coordinated by Church Women United. Each year women of a different country prepare the service Indonesians organized this year's service, which is based on Jesus' words to a young woman whom he restored from death: ...