December 2000

Articles

• A New Way to Be Mad

  The phenomenon is not as rare as one might think: healthy people deliberately setting out to rid themselves of one or more of their limbs, with or without a surgeon's help. Why do pathologies sometimes arise as if from nowhere? Can the mere description of a condition make it contagious?

  Carl Elliott

• The Million-Dollar Nose

  With his stubborn disregard for the hierarchy of wines, Robert Parker, the straight-talking American wine critic, is revolutionizing the industry -- and teaching the French wine establishment some lessons it would rather not learn.

  William Langewiesche

• The Role of a Wine Critic

  An excerpt from the 1999 edition of Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide.

  Robert M. Parker Jr.

• The Dark Side of Wine

  An excerpt from the 1999 edition of Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide.

  Robert M. Parker Jr.

• Mistaken Identity? The Case of New Mexico's "Hidden Jews"

  Imagine descendants of Jews pursued by the Spanish Inquisition, still tending the dying embers of their faith among peasant Latinos in the American Southwest. The story has obvious resonance, and it has garnered considerable publicity. The truth of the matter may turn out to be vastly different, and nearly as improbable.

  Barbara Ferry and Debbie Nathan

• From Your Lips to Your Printer

  Finally, voice-recognition software that (almost) lives up to its promise to liberate those unable or unwilling to type.

  James Fallows

• The Culture Did It

  A semantic innovation gets us all off the hook.

  Cullen Murphy

• The Physics of Gridlock

  What causes traffic jams? The depressing answer may be nothing at all.

  Stephen Budiansky

• Obscure Objects of Lapsed Desire

  What is the value of a painting that has outlived its appeal? An exploration of what happens when art becomes stuff.

  Jeanne Schinto

• Family Christmas

  Part of what I felt was shame -- shame for something I didn't understand, shame for other people's misery, shame that it had lain naked and exposed before us, shame that we'd seen it.

  Roxana Robinson

• The Cosmopolitan Provincial

  Allen Tate's ambivalent, artificial relationship with the South

  Fred Hobson

• Defeat in Victory

  Jack Beatty

• Short Reviews

• Arts & Entertainment Preview

• White Nights in Siberia

  By local ferry down the Lena, one of Russia's great waterways

  Jeffrey Tayler

• Craftsman Cheese

  American makers of raw-milk cheese, having survived an unwarranted health scare, are creating products that rival Europe's.

  Corby Kummer

• 77 North Washington Street

• Letters

• The Almanac

• Word Watch

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