Economist , March 21 (posted Saturday, March 21) The cover editorial assesses Japan's current recession, which has so far been mitigated by the country's great accrued wealth. Keys to ending the downturn: instilling consumer and investor confidence, increasing public spending on "modern infrastructure" (computers, telecoms), reducing government corruption, and cutting corporate taxes. The editors think a full-bore crisis could be the best thing for Japan's economy, giving it a fresh start. ... An article says Britain, reversing itself, now welcomes U.S. intervention in the Northern Ireland peace process. Irish-Americans, no longer naive backers of the terrorist Irish Republican Army, have come to support compromise. President Clinton has condemned all violence and formed ties with both Catholic and Protestant leaders. ... A story claims bacteria cause more ailments than scientists had previously realized, including stomach ulcers, hardening of the arteries, and some forms of arthritis. (A sidebar recommends cooking with lots of spices, which can kill the little buggers.) New Republic , April 6 (posted Friday, March 20) A cover story by longtime affirmative action opponent Nathan Glazer acknowledges that racial preferences may be necessary. Why? 1) Diversity profits institutions by introducing unfamiliar viewpoints, and 2) despite the civil rights movement, blacks still lag far behind in key job qualifications (test scores, grades, etc.). ... The editorial blasts the Vatican's recent apology to Jews. The statement is too self-absolving, deflecting blame away from Catholics: It should have expressed abject contrition. ... An article assesses the plague of allegedly post-feminist TV shows. Ally McBeal , Veronica's Closet , and Dharma and Greg all pretend to be models of "do-me feminism," with sexually confident protagonists. But the heroines are actually insecure, weak, and define themselves in terms of men. New York Times Magazine , March 22 (posted Thursday, March 19) A fascinating story profiles the nonretarded 8-year-old daughter of two retarded parents. She will soon be smarter than her mom and dad but is having trouble in school--no one can help with homework, and she's picked up the slurring, stilted speech patterns of her parents. Until recently, retarded adults were routinely sterilized, even though they usually give birth to developmentally normal kids. ... The cover story claims that Big Alcohol is just as reprehensible as Big Tobacco and even more powerful. The difference: The alcohol lobby can stress liquor's ancillary health benefits and proudly point to the "Know When to Say When" ad campaign. Like the tobacco companies, the alcohol industry panders to kids: Joe Camel has nothing on the Budweiser frogs and lizards. Time and Newsweek , March 23 (posted Tuesday, March 17) Weeks after cover stories in Rolling Stone and Spin , the newsweeklies catch up with the hit animated TV show South Park . Newsweek 's cover story argues that South Park successfully balances crudity (singing, dancing stool samples) with inspired lunacy and sweetness (naive 9-year-olds). Time , which runs an inside feature, thinks the show has slacked off lately and is running out of ideas. Time 's cover story is pegged to the release of testimony in the Paula Jones case. It sketches out a pattern of Clinton aides attempting to convince multiple Clinton alleged paramours (Dolly Kyle Browning, Monica Lewinsky, Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey) to keep silent. Time claims that friends say Willey's "calm demeanor masks a surprising volatility ... one never knows when she may decide to end [a] friendship over some perceived slight." Newsweek 's main story focuses on Linda Tripp, who says the notorious "talking points" looked to her like the work of Clinton adviser Bruce Lindsey. A sidebar breaks news that Clinton donor Nathan Landow chartered a plane to fly Willey to his estate. Willey claims Landow used her two-day stay at the estate to badger her into saying "nothing happened" with Clinton. U.S. News & World Report , March 23 (posted Tuesday, March 17) The cover story exposes chicanery in the death business. Funeral homes lie to the bereaved and grossly overcharge for caskets and services. U.S. News offers tips to cut costs (don't die), and covers a growing movement: do-it-yourself embalming and burial. ... A profile of Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan claims he will soon inherit News Corp. Lachlan rides motorcycles, sports big tattoos, and has yet to demonstrate his father's financial genius. His one major venture--an Australian rugby league--lost News Corp. at least $300 million. ... A photo essay looks at life in prison. The pictures are fascinating, though there aren't enough of them. The New Yorker , March 23 (posted Tuesday, March 17) A horrifying article describes the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, a guerrilla force of kidnapped children. Leader Joseph Kony--vicious, crazed, and charismatic--has captured and indoctrinated 12,000 Ugandan kids. In Kony's "Lord of the Flies world," the children become brutal, heartless killers. Sudan's government is supporting Kony in order to destabilize Uganda's government, which is backing Sudanese rebels. ... The requisite Linda Tripp profile (see Newsweek above) says she is obsessed with marital infidelity--her father was an adulterer--and has been embittered toward men since her divorce. She's also a gossipy busybody. ... The opening "Comment" claims that Rupert Murdoch's quashing of former Hong Kong Gov. Chris Patten's memoirs could prevent a Murdoch takeover of the Wall Street Journal . Murdoch covets the newspaper, but Journal readers would not tolerate it in the hands of a man who is so willing to suppress news for financial gain. ... Also, a rave for Primary Colors , "the smartest movie ever made about American politics." Primary Colors rejects the smarmy populist demagoguery of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington . Instead, it shows how politics is about choosing between imperfect, morally compromising options. Vanity Fair , April 1998 (posted Tuesday, March 17) Vanity Fair 's massive Hollywood 1998 issue has all the glamour and sycophancy you'd expect. Photo spread highlights: Boy-toy Matt Damon in a white sailor suit and cap, Sigourney Weaver reclining in head-to-toe mesh, Kate Winslet underwater, and a surprisingly plump Danny DeVito dressed as Alfred Hitchcock. ... An article on the graying of Hollywood says boomer studio execs no longer know which stars to bank on: Mad City (John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman) and Sphere (Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson) tanked, but teen flicks Scream 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer hit pay dirt. The piece also mentions that Steven Spielberg was in a deep funk after Amistad got jilted for Oscar noms. ... The issue digs up gossip from Hollywood's ancient history: A silent-film siren says Buster Keaton was "sexy," but Charlie Chaplin didn't know how to seduce women. Atlantic Monthly , April 1998 (posted Tuesday, March 17) In the cover story, evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson makes the case that human morality is "empirical" law that evolved biologically, not "transcendental" law that exists separate from human history. Wilson argues that natural selection created gene pools with certain moral traits, and these traits became the basis for our societal standards. ... An article attempts to explain William Shawn, the late, lamented, longtime editor of The New Yorker . The painfully shy Shawn once declined an honorary degree from Yale because of his fear of crowds. He published just one piece in The New Yorker under his own byline: " 'The Catastrophe,' about the destruction of New York by a meteor while the rest of the world went about its business as usual." Esquire , April 1998 (posted Tuesday, March 17) David Brock's apology, reported more than a week ago, hits newsstands. The once-conservative journalist atones for his 1993 American Spectator article on Bill Clinton's sexcapades, which mentioned a harassment victim named "Paula." Regretful for igniting the Paula Jones scandal, Brock admits the Spectator article was spurred by an "open political agenda." (For other possible Brock apologies, see "So Sorry" in Slate .) ... A story wonders if ESPN's SportsCenter can stay fresh and irreverent. SportsCenter gained fans by tweaking the sports establishment--now it is the sports establishment. ESPN: The Magazine , March 23 (posted Tuesday, March 17) Speaking of ESPN, ESPN: The Magazine , the much ballyhooed challenge to Sports Illustrated , makes its debut. ESPN goes with larger pages but far shorter articles than its rival. The effect: Sports news for Attention Deficit Disorder victims: lots of bite-sized items on very busy pages, lots of photo portraits of sports stars, none of SI 's in-depth features. ... Hoping to launch with a bang, ESPN breaks the news that the scoring record broken (in controversial fashion) by University of Connecticut basketball player Nykesha Sales may in fact still stand. Videotape shows that Sales was wrongly credited with two points in a previous U. Conn. game--she needs another two points to break the record for real. --Seth Stevenson