South-Central L.A.'s Small Miracle : At 5-Foot-7, Mark Mcmillian Beats the Odds to Become a Starting Defensive Back in the NFL By Mark Mcmillian, \f7 and \o7 Mark McMillian, 24, was born and raised in South-Central. McMillian is a starting defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, and at 5-feet-7, one of the smallest starters in the National Football League. He did not begin playing organized football until he was a senior at Granada Hills' Kennedy High School. He was a Junior College All-American at Glendale College before receiving a scholarship to Alabama. The Eagles selected McMillian in the 10th round in the 1992 draft and he quickly moved from the special teams to the starting lineup in his second season. McMillian says he would like to be a role model for inner-city youths, but because he attended a high school in the Valley, he rarely is asked to speak at local school functions or charity meetings. He hopes to bring his message of working hard to achieve one's goals back to South-Central, which he considers home. McMillian was interviewed by Sean Waters.
Republican Sweep, Clinton's Change of Heart May Aid the State By Michael J. Boskin, former chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, is Tully M. Friedman professor of economics and senior fellow, Hoover Institution, at Stanford University
Why Fruitcake? By Margaret M. Johnson, \f7 and \o7 Johnson is the author of "Cooking With Irish Spirit" (Wolfhound Press), which will be released in March.
Christmas Eve in Bruculinu : A Feast Grows in Brooklyn By Vincent Schiavelli, \f7 and \o7 Schiavelli is a well-known character actor and the award-winning cookbook author of "Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table" (Birch Lane Press: 1993).
Boland, Hayden--Legislative Sweethearts? By Scott Harris, \o7 Address TimesLink or Prodigy e-mail to \f7 YQTU59A \o7 (via the Internet: \f7 YQTU59A@prodigy.com)
Chechnya Remakes Russian Politics By Gregory Freidin, \o7 Gregory Freidin, chairman of the Slavic department at Stanford University, is co-author of "Russia at the Barricades: Eyewitness Accounts of the August, 1991, Coup" (M. E. Sharpe Publishers)\f7
The Politics of Hope ('Boys Town') vs. the Politics of Fear ('Disclosure') By Sidney Blumenthal, \o7 Sidney Blumenthal is the special political correspondent of the New Yorker and the author of a number of books on politics, including "The Rise of the Counter-Establishment: From Conservative Ideology to Political Power" (HarperCollins)\f7
DREAM FACTORIES : Cartoon Character By Aaron Betsky, \o7 Aaron Betsky, curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is the author of "Building Sex," to be published this spring by William Morrow\f7