Seinfeld will end this spring. Jerry Seinfeld reportedly turned
down a $110-million offer ($5 million per episode) to continue the show for one
more year, preferring to leave the audience wanting more. Critics appointed the
show to the pantheon of Zeitgeist landmarks, alongside I Love
Lucy , All in the Family , The 
               Mary Tyler Moore Show ,
and Dallas . The elementary spin: Seinfeld was about the things
that really concern Americans today, e.g., parking spaces and low-fat lattes.
The intermediate spin: Yes, but this shows how shallow and self-absorbed we
are. The advanced spin: The show mocked our shallowness and self-absorption.
The business spin: NBC will return to the ratings cellar. The New York
Times ' spin: "Americans have a fondness for eccentric New Yorkers." Fans
speculated on spinoffs featuring Seinfeld 's co-stars. Best suggestion
(from the Washington Post 's Tony Kornheiser): "SinnFeinfeld."
(12/29)
            

            Egypt's
supreme court upheld a ban on female genital mutilation . The country's
health minister banned the practice (removal of the clitoris and sometimes the
labia, often by family members using razors or knives) in 1996. Traditionalists
went to court, but the court rejected their argument that Islamic law
authorizes mutilation "as an individual right" beyond the reach of government.
Advocates of women's rights think the ruling will help defeat the practice
elsewhere, because Muslim countries regard Egypt as an authority on Islam.
(12/29)
            

            Hong
Kong began slaughtering more than a million chickens to stop the spread
of the mysterious "bird flu." The flu has sickened at least 12 people and
killed four. According to scientists, humans have no natural immunity to it,
but they also don't transmit it easily. Experts from all over the world have
flocked to Hong Kong to make sure the virus doesn't spread elsewhere.
(12/29)
            

            The
Minnesota Vikings staged one of the greatest playoff comebacks in
football history. After trailing the New York Giants 19-3 at the half, the
Vikings got the ball, trailing 22-13, with two minutes left in the game.
Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham, who had worked as a stonecutter last
year after falling out of football, answered the Giants fans' jeers with a
30-yard touchdown pass. The Vikings then recovered an onside kick by Eddie
Murray, the league's oldest player, who had been dumped by several teams.
Cunningham drove the team 56 yards, and Murray kicked a field goal with 10
seconds left to win the game by a point. Cunningham gave credit for the victory
to God. (12/29)
            

            

               Terry Nichols was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter
but acquitted of first-degree murder in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Experts explained the manslaughter verdict as a finding of recklessness, not
premeditation, but puzzled over how to reconcile this with the conspiracy
conviction. The prevailing theory: an awkward compromise among the jurors. Best
explanations as to why Nichols got off easier than Timothy McVeigh: 1) he
wasn't at the bombing and 2) he didn't act like a sociopath in court. Families
of the victims expressed outrage at the murder-charge acquittal. The catch:
Prosecutors get another chance to win a murder conviction and death sentence
against Nichols in state court. (12/24)
            

            A jury
ordered the producers of 
                  Melrose Place to pay actress Hunter Tylo
nearly $5 million for firing her because of her pregnancy. She had been hired
to play a husband-stealing vixen. Tylo's lawyers and some feminist leaders
called the verdict a victory for women everywhere and compared Tylo to Rosa
Parks and Susan B. Anthony. Pundits ridiculed the feminist spin, citing the
case's peculiar combination of glamour and sleaze. As a New York Times
editorial put it, "if there were ever a case in which pregnancy really did
jeopardize one's ability to do a job, surely this was it." The plaintiff's
argument: The show's producers treated Tylo like a "a piece of meat." The
defense argument: That was the job description. The punch line: She won the
case by looking sexy while pregnant throughout the trial, thereby convincing
jurors that she could credibly have played her TV vixen role while pregnant.
(12/24)
            

            A
French court convicted Carlos the Jackal of three murders and sentenced
him to life in prison. He has been linked to scores of other murders, in
addition to bombings and kidnappings. In his final speech to the jury, Carlos:
1) dismissed the prosecution as a Zionist-U.S. conspiracy; 2) declared, "There
is no law for me"; and 3) extolled his terrorism as a struggle against "the
McDonaldization of humanity." After the verdict, he raised a fist and
exclaimed, "