The Christian Science Monitor back issues from August 2000:
Parties reign, in independent age: Voters increasingly register 'independent,' but two parties buoyed by money and fired-up voters.(USA)
Aug 01, 2000 ... At first blush, it might seem like America's two big political parties are under siege - and maybe even lumbering toward extinction. After all, this is the era of independent voters. It's the era of Jesse Ventura commandeering Minnesota's governorship, of Ross Perot snagging ...
Whats New.(Features)(Learning)(The Notebook)
Aug 01, 2000 ... Another blow for affirmative action SAVANNAH, GA. - A federal judge said last week that the University of Georgia's admissions program is unconstitutional because it discriminates in order to admit more black students. Judge Avant Edenfield rejected the university's arguments ...
Young voters find voices in their own political conventions.(Features)(Learning)(The Notebook)
Aug 01, 2000 ... The right to vote comes at age 18, but many politicians do little to woo young voters. With only about 32 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voting in the last presidential election, there is a pervasive image of youths as apathetic, disengaged, and unworthy of candidates' attention. ...
Back-seat boys.(Features)(Learning)
Aug 01, 2000 ... Walk the halls of most American schools and you can easily spot them. Members of their ranks are the most likely to drop out - and to excel in important areas. Increasingly, they're targeted as troublemakers at the same time that many are tapped as leaders. They're likely to be ...
Boy talk in full throttle.(Features)(Learning)(Chalk Talk)
Aug 01, 2000 ... The buzz is on about boys. Take a look at the titles in the bookstore. The newest treatise to take on how boys are doing in American society is Christina Hoff Sommers's "The War on Boys." Her book joins others: "Real Boys' Voices" (William Pollack), "Raising Cain" (Dan Kindlon ...
Professors try to keep up with cyberage: Columbia University's new media center helps technophobic teachers create multimedia lectures and course Web sites.(Features)(Learning)(Colleges & Universities)
Aug 01, 2000 ... For college professors, it used to be enough just making sure office hours were held on time, or that long lectures were spruced up with a good joke - and a pop quiz. But now they're finding that tech-savvy college students expect multimedia presentations in class, interactive ...
Digging for signs of pollution - with a mouse and a hard drive.(Features)(Learning)(Colleges & Universities)
Aug 01, 2000 ... Environmental-science students at Barnard College in New York have found learning means putting on a "consultant" hat and investigating contamination at an old factory site. But rather than drive 50 miles and pull on work boots, students need only point their Web browsers to the ...
Teaching boys that 'all the answers are within'.(Features)(Learning)(K-12)
Aug 01, 2000 ... To Ray Johnson, boys would benefit from more movement in school - and a new sense of what it means to be male. "There's always pressure on boys to be 'the man,' " with its connotations of power and conquest, says Mr. Johnson, principal of the Paul Robeson Academy in Detroit. ...
Half the class didn't graduate, but our high school did its part.(Features)(Learning)(K-12)(On A Campus)(Students View)
Aug 01, 2000 ... We did it in white this year. The traditional royal-blue caps and gowns were cast aside. Not that it mattered much. For some parents in my economically disadvantaged neighborhood, their child's graduation was such an accomplishment that they wouldn't have cared if the outfit was a flannel ...
Storming Hollywood.(The Home Forum)(Kid Space)
Aug 01, 2000 ... In the 1980 movie "The Empire Strikes Back," Luke Skywalker, lost and confused on the desolate planet Hoth, is blasted by a frigid blizzard. Well, not exactly. While some of the footage was shot in snowy Norway, cast members spent much of their time in a toasty ...
Success story: Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life.(The Home Forum)(Today's Article On Christian Science)
Aug 01, 2000 ... It was the day of the interview. I'd been preparing for two weeks. I'd studied the institution's literature. I'd prayed. But I was feeling anxious. This interview would affect my future. I knew it was important to get my thought straight and settled before going. So I prayed ...
A cooling-off in long-overheated Kashmir: Attacks on Indian forces persist; one rebel group pursues terms for talks.(World)
Aug 01, 2000 ... It has earmarks of a shift in South Asia's biggest problem - the violent 11-year uprising in Kashmir. In the space of a few days, a diplomatic logjam has broken. Indian officials and the most prominent militant group in Kashmir have agreed to a cease-fire and talks about the ...
Justice a foreign term in Kosovo: Foreign judges are one way the UN is establishing civil order, more than a year after taking control.(World)
Aug 01, 2000 ... The day after one of Kosovo's first war-crimes trials has begun, Judge Christer Karphammar feels close to quitting, and not for the first time. Mr. Karphammar, a dapper Swede, is one of six foreign judges brought to Kosovo to help restore confidence in a judicial system that ...
Today's Story Line:.(World)
Aug 01, 2000 ... Peace is often an incremental process. The sudden agreement this past weekend by Indian officials and Kashmiri independence groups to talk is progress. That one of the most-feared militant groups has agreed to a temporary cease-fire is yet more cause for hope. But the hard work of ...
Zimbabwe peace still stalled by land seizures: Six weeks after elections, Mugabe remains set on ousting white farmers.(World)
Aug 01, 2000 ... When an upstart opposition party seized nearly half of the parliamentary seats up for grabs in June's elections, President Robert Mugabe received quite a wake-up call. And the rest of Zimbabwe - regardless of politics - held its breath, hoping four months of violence would come to a halt. ...
Russia's Intellekt firm sends message in a bottle: Moscow company gets patent for 'glass containers' and claims everyday bottlers owe royalties for its 'invention.'.(World)
Aug 01, 2000 ... In Russia's volatile commercial climate, few could have foreseen that the latest tempest would erupt in a bottle. A Moscow company has thrown Russian businesses - breweries especially - into tumult by successfully patenting "glass containers," including the lowly bottle. ...
Wild rides and waiting games in remote Afghanistan: Journalists attempting to reach a mountainous hideout near the front line find the sole transport is a rickety Russian relic.(World)(A Letter From)(Taloqan)(Afghanistan)
Aug 01, 2000 ... Mercenaries posing as English teachers need not apply. Neither should globe-pedaling bicyclists. The Afghan consul in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, is adamant: No visas for foreign adventurers. Exceptions are made, however, for venturesome foreign journalists. Within minutes ...
The Cheney I know.(Opinion)
Aug 01, 2000 ... When I heard Dick Cheney's secretary had called to tell me that he wouldn't be able to meet with the Monitor's breakfast group at the GOP convention, maybe I should have sensed that something big was up. Only a short time before he had let me know that he was eager to be our guest and ...
Philadelphia parallel.(Opinion)
Aug 01, 2000 ... And so after an agonizing four months, we have arrived here to thaw out Campaign 2000. More than 2,000 Republican delegates and 15,000 journalists have come to watch our presidential race - locked in the deep freeze since George W. Bush and Al Gore secured their respective ...
Gaudy spectacle, yes, and a civic affirmation: An unconventional view of America's conventions from a past poet laureate.(USA)(The Poetry Of Politics)
Aug 01, 2000 ... In the last couple of days here in Philadelphia, I have had little American flags waved at me by greeters, one of them dressed in an elephant costume and another one in an American eagle suit. I have seen many thousands of computers and pizzas, millions of miles of cable, and a great army ...
And for every child, a TV in the bedroom.(USA)(Plugged In)
Aug 01, 2000 ... The first few times she asked for a TV in her bedroom, Mara Mellstrom's dad said "no." So she kept asking, in that unwearying eight-year-old way. Now, on the desk beside her bed, sits a Sony TV with cable, a VCR, a drawer full of videos, and two remote controls. ...
McCain delegates back Bush but hold out hope for 2004: Since his run ended, he's been as visible as ever. He'll address convention tonight.(USA)(Republican Convention 2000)
Aug 01, 2000 ... John McCain, it seems, is everywhere. He's riding his bus - the journalist-packed Straight Talk Express - into Philadelphia. He's doing more book-signings. He's all over television. He's addressing the so-called "shadow convention," an alternative gathering here focused on ...
For Bush, a bigger battlefield.(USA)(Republican Convention 2000)
Aug 01, 2000 ... As the Bush campaign sees it, the battleground for the Oval Office just keeps getting bigger. Karl Rove, the boyish-looking manager of the Texas governor's first presidential bid, is exuding nothing but confidence here in Philadelphia, rattling off some of the 20 or more states ...
Growing concern about Web sites for kids: banality: Efforts to increase kids' access to the Net have largely overlooked question of content.(USA)
Aug 01, 2000 ... One of the newest and most popular "babysitters" for children this summer is the Internet. Yet as teenagers become more immersed in new digital media, a growing number of experts are pushing for more challenging and appropriate content. The issue isn't sexually ...
Getting past 'the Schwinn mentality'.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Jerry Slack, owner of the Cycle Loft in Burlington, Mass., has been in business for 25 years. He's seen bike sales ebb and flow, styles change, and technology improve. At no time, he says, has the news been better for buyers. "The $250 bicycle is twice the bike it ...
Kayak polo makes a big splash: The weekend warriors of this century-old European sport, now catching on in the US, merge skills from soccer, hockey, and water polo.(Features)
Aug 02, 2000 ... J. Ambrosetti was strolling by a lake in his native Rome when he noticed something curious: Men smashing into one another in kayaks while fighting over a yellow ball. He just had to try it. "[In Italy] everyone plays soccer," says Mr. Ambrosetti, now a student at the ...
Boxed mixes give a boost to cake baking.(Features)(Homefront)(Interview / Anne Byrn)
Aug 02, 2000 ... When Anne Byrn wrote an article asking for recipes that started with doctoring up cake mixes, the response was so large that it was obvious she'd struck a chord. Confirmation followed in the form of brisk sales of "The Cake Mix Doctor," her 454-page compilation of recipes and ...
Darn Good Chocolate Cake.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... "This is a good summertime cake," says Ann Byrn. "It's not fussy. There's no frosting, and when you eat it warm from the oven, with the chocolate chips melted inside, it's really good." 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain devil's food or dark chocolate-fudge cake mix 1 ...
Fresh Orange Cake.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Cake: 1 package (18.25 ounces) yellow cake mix with pudding 1 cup fresh orange juice 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/4 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest 4 large eggs ...
This car breaks for lemonade: Summer's favorite thirst quencher.(Features)(Homefront)(Food)
Aug 02, 2000 ... I make it a habit to stop at every lemonade stand I spot. It's not just that I still recall the thrill of customers patronizing my own childhood stands, or that I can't resist making some kid's day. Those are both strong motivating factors. But ultimately, I just love the stuff. On a ...
Strawberry Lemonade.(Features)(Homefront)(Food)
Aug 02, 2000 ... 1 cup strawberries, hulled 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 cup fresh lemon juice 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups cold sparkling water Cut the strawberries into pieces, put into a blender and puree. Mix the sugar into lemon juice. Add the sparkling water and the ...
How to entertain kids on a car trip? Reach for Rubberneckers.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Ten points for spotting an "adopt a highway" sign. Five points for waving your foot and getting a response from someone in another car. Five points if you pass a cemetery. And 10 points if you see a driver singing. Reach 100 points before anyone else in the car, and you win ...
Lawn care during the dog days of summer.(Features)(Homefront)(Diggin' It)
Aug 02, 2000 ... In many parts of the United States, these are the dogs days of summer - when heat and lack of rainfall cause your lawn to look as droopy as most gardeners feel. What can you do to help that parched-looking lawn? Start with simple things: *Don't fertilize; it ...
State of the spokes: Kids still ride, but less than they used to. Cycling faces competition from other sports - and from the car culture.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Maybe the most underutilized object in the typical American garage is the bicycle. Almost every youngster has one, but they're used less than in the past, a fact that concerns biking advocates. "Imagine a generation of kids in which half didn't learn to ride a bike as children," ...
Selective spousal hearing.(Features)(Homefront)(Neighbour To Neighbour)
Aug 02, 2000 ... A gardener friend looked over my flower beds and made a pronouncement: Two shrubs were too big and must be moved in autumn. I expected my husband, who was standing nearby, to balk at the idea. "Once it's in the ground, it stays" is his motto, and because he is chief hole-digger ...
Wanted - a bill of rights for air travelers.(Features)(Homefront)(Connections)
Aug 02, 2000 ... On the last Sunday afternoon in July, in this season of record air travel, O'Hare Airport is approaching meltdown. Countless flights are being delayed or cancelled, apparently because of thunderstorms from Texas to the East Coast, testing the patience of thousands of passengers. ...
Gender-bending glitter is gold for my son: Kathy Briccetti lives with her family and a bottle of nail-polish remover in Berkeley, Calif.(Features)(Homefront)(Parenting)(A Mother's View)
Aug 02, 2000 ... As I helped my four-year-old son, Morgan, pull off his sand-filled shoes and soiled socks after preschool, I noticed clear glitter nail polish on his toenails. I glanced at his fingernails and saw that they were lacquered too. "Who put polish on your nails?" I asked him, keeping ...
Hannah settles into her into her newlife.(Features)(Homefront)
Aug 02, 2000 ... One year ago, Hannah's life changed dramatically when she was adopted from an orphanage outside Moscow. The Monitor covered her journey from Russia to Massachusetts, as she joined the Rocklein family: parents Mary and Bob, and their daughter, Abby. Hannah, who arrived pale, ...
On being there, then and now.(The Home Forum)
Aug 02, 2000 ... I was standing on the beach outside Salalah, Oman, at what felt like the end of the earth. Behind me were the coconut palms, mangoes, and papaya trees of what seemed like a lush tropical island, but was in fact the southern rim of the most arid peninsula in the world. In front of me was ...
Father's help, even there: Originally printed as an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel.(The Home Forum)(Today's Article On Christian Science)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Fatherhood goes way beyond the popular stereotypes of either Mr. Mom or Deadbeat Dad. Or simply the status one attains by fathering a child. It's more than a legal definition or even a biological connection. Fatherhood originates in the profound spiritual relation that God, the ...
Heart speaks to heart across a cultural divide.(The Home Forum)
Aug 02, 2000 ... She taught me about friendship, even though a friendship between us seemed unlikely. But then, a friendship between an Arab and a Jew always is. Our cultures are longstanding enemies, the Montagues and the Capulets of the Middle East, distant cousins separated by a centuries-old rift. ...
Putin tries big shift in military strategy: Russian president this week toppled Army old guard. Defense minister may be next to go.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken his first whack at reforming his nation's formidable military establishment. On July 31, Mr. Putin either fired or forced the retirements of 10 top Russian military officers. Analysts say many of those Putin targeted were allies of ...
As British inch toward meters, some feet drag.(World)(Weighty Issue)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Britain is producing a new breed of protester, and Steven Thoburn is leading the field of these "metric martyrs." Like his father before him, Mr. Thoburn operates a market stall in Sunderland, northern England. The family business has been in operation for more than 50 years. ...
Serb vote holds hope for change: Opposition parties see possibilities - though slim - that Sept. 24 vote could bring Milosevic ouster.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... For the past year, Serbia's democratic opposition has been demanding, in countless protests across the country, for elections for a new president and federal parliament, along with regional and city governments. On Sept. 24, they'll get their chance against the unpopular ...
Today's Story Line.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Russia's President Putin seems fully focused on following through with his campaign promises to bring the former superpower into the 21st century. He's tackled much of the unfinished business of the Yeltsin era - a bloated central-government bureaucracy and regional disintegration. Now, ...
A model of stability, Uganda debates 'no-party democracy' Relative peace and economic reform highlight its lack of multiparty politics.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... A month after a referendum that was supposed to direct Uganda's political future, the country is still trying to grapple with a difficult choice: whether to allow political parties to operate. Although a multiparty system is something that most Westerners take for granted, here ...
Economic policy keeps Museveni in West's favor.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Since the end of the Cold War, Western nations have usually been quick to condemn African leaders who mess around with the fundamentals of democracy. Although Uganda has banned political-party activity for the past 14 years, President Yoweri Museveni is praised by Western politicians, ...
Brief chronology of the metric system.(World)
Aug 02, 2000 ... 1670: Gabriel Mouton, a French vicar, is credited with originating the metric system. 1790: Thomas Jefferson proposes a decimal-based measurement system for the US. 1792: The US Mint is formed to produce the world's first decimal currency. 1795: France ...
A gilded age that touches all.(Opinion)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Crime's down. Wages are rising. Blacks and Hispanics are finding jobs more easily. Governments are racking up budget surpluses. The so-called "crisis" in the Social Security system is fading. Welfare rolls are shrinking. House ownership is rising. These are just a few of the ...
Fear and loathing in the 'stans'.(Opinion)
Aug 02, 2000 ... From the heart of Eurasia, the world looks scary. Five impoverished states left behind when the Soviet Union collapsed find themselves in the middle of a fundamental geopolitical realignment. The "stans," as they're called when reporters and diplomats tire of tongue-twister ...
And the veep war begins.(Opinion)
Aug 02, 2000 ... The way Bush surrogates have been beating up on vice president Al Gore's folks here, you'd think that "Gore 2000" was some new HBO adults-only show. George W.'s opponents are running a "sleazy" campaign, a "dirty" campaign, they say. You get the feeling that if George W. Bush's ...
A supporting cast in the spotlight: Bush's kitchen cabinet includes the old guard from California as well as a new clique from Texas.(USA)(Republican Convention 2000)
Aug 02, 2000 ... When George W. Bush arrives in Philadelphia on Thursday and finally seizes the Republican Party for his own, the moment will mark the rise of a new generation of his family - and the emergence of members of a new generation of GOP strategists and advisors. Not since Ronald ...
'Drum thumps' from the stump: An unconventional view of America's conventions from a past poet laureate.(USA)(The Poetry Of Politics)
Aug 02, 2000 ... People say they have trouble understanding poetry. Some say it is modern poetry that they can't understand or enjoy - implying, as the critic and poet Randall Jarell once pointed out, that they frequently spend an evening reading the works of Milton. But what about politics? ...
Both parties scramble to 'define' Dick Cheney: Gore camp calls VP pick uberconservative. Bush sees an uberstatesman. Tonight, he'll speak for himself.(USA)(Republican Convention 2000)
Aug 02, 2000 ... In the week since Texas Gov. George W. Bush tapped Dick Cheney to be his running mate, a race has been on to define the man who hopes to be the next vice president of the United States. The Republican Mr. Cheney was hardly an obscure choice, widely viewed as one of Washington's ...
Nebraska's farmers pushed to brink: The state is a leader in combating drought, but it's being tested by the current dry spell.(USA)
Aug 02, 2000 ... It's a familiar cycle: Drought hits, cities ration water, and farmers watch as their crops shrivel. Everyone waits for the rains to come again. During the past few years, however, a handful of states have tried to break that cycle of helplessness. They've issued drought ...
Convention notebook.(USA)
Aug 02, 2000 ... Look who gets immunity In a game called "Political Survivor," Republican pollster Frank Luntz asked a focus group of 36 undecided voters to expel "from politics forever" anyone on his list of 10 political figures. First out: Pat Buchanan, Jesse Ventura, Jesse Jackson, Ted ...
Hearth in the fuselage, decks on the wings.(Features)(Ideas)(Whatever...)
Aug 03, 2000 ... "This old house" just took a new turn - this old plane. MaxPower Aerospace, a Smyrna, Tenn.,-based corporation, is building homes out of the bodies of discarded airplanes. Patented as a Wind Resistant Dwelling, home sweet home can now be a full-bodied Boeing 727 on ...
What's New.(Features)(Ideas)
Aug 03, 2000 ... ARCHEOLOGY China claims first 'royal flush' BEIJING - China was the first to invent paper money, the compass, kites, gunpowder, and perhaps even ice cream. Now add toilets to the list. Archeologists have discovered a 2,000-year-old toilet complete with ...
Big cats on a short leash: Many new owners are quickly overwhelmed by their exotic pets, and then, a cycle of mistreatment often follows.(Features)(Ideas)
Aug 03, 2000 ... Joe Parker points to Bubba, one of his bushy-maned lions resting peacefully in the sun in a large, outdoor enclosure. "Bubba spent a few years of his life in a crack house in Cincinnati chained by the neck," Mr. Parker says. Minutes later, Bubba sends out a thundering, ...
'Fearful symmetry'.(Features)(Ideas)(Soundings)
Aug 03, 2000 ... British poet William Blake caught the allure of big cats when he wrote in 1794: "Tyger! Tyger! burning bright/ In the forests of the night,/ What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?" Joe Parker, quoted in our cover story (right) about the private ownership ...
The double-edged lure of man-made reefs.(Features)(Ideas)
Aug 03, 2000 ... A few miles south of the Florida panhandle, 57 feet beneath the ocean's surface, lies a tugboat named Miss Louise. Flitting around her edges are schools of belted sandfish and gray snapper, with the occasional puffer or bright blue angelfish. Hundreds of sea urchins cling to the side of ...
Satellite quartet set to send weather reports from space when sunflares.(Features)(Ideas)
Aug 03, 2000 ... Space physicist James Burch says he and his colleagues "eagerly anticipate the arrival of severe solar weather" as the sun enters the peak of its 11-year sunspot cycle. They've been through it before. But this time new satellites will give them an unprecedented overview of what ...
Is there a woman in the house? Someday, behind a great president, will stand her husband.(Features)(Books)
Aug 03, 2000 ... MADAM PRESIDENT: SHATTERING THE LAST GLASS CEILING By Eleanor Clift and Tom Brazaitis Scribner 350 pp., $26 Can women in positions of elected executive power control their sexual impulses better than men? How would an American woman president handle an ...
When so much was owed by so many to so few.(Features)(Books)
Aug 03, 2000 ... THEIR FINEST HOUR: THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN By Tim Clayton and Phil Craig Simon & Schuster 320 pp., $27.50 In August 1940, the future of Western civilization looked bleak. Adolf Hitler's armies had overrun Poland, Denmark, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France in quick ...
The stars above and a thing called love.(Features)(Books)
Aug 03, 2000 ... THE LOST LEGENDS OF NEW JERSEY By Frederick Reiken Harcourt 312 pp., $24 Frederick Reiken's new novel reminded me of two chilling conversations I had with teen-agers. The first happened more than 15 years ago. A listless young woman I was tutoring ...