Interns

Sitting in a bare cubicle, with her reading glasses perched halfway down her nose and typing away on a laptop she'd brought from home, Lois Draegin looked a bit like the extra adult wedged in at the kids' table at Thanksgiving. This accomplished magazine editor lost her six-figure job at TV Guide last spring and is now, at 55, an unpaid intern at wowOwow.com, a fledgling website with columns and stories that target accomplished women older than 40.

President Clinton's opponents like to complain that his White House sometimes seems to be run by 19-year-olds. Today, they will be at least partly right. As part of the shutdown of the federal government forced by the budget deadlock between the President and Congress, most of Clinton's own staff has been deemed "nonessential" and will be taking the time off.