Newsweek

Elizabeth Dobbs of Vista wonders what name will be given to the 1980s. From what she reads, she believes it will be known as the decade of the yuppies and striving for material success. It seems a bit early to be naming the '80s. We have about a year and a half to go. The century will not end until Dec. 31, 2000; but the '80s will end at midnight Dec. 31, 1989.

Shortly before Richard Manning, Newsweek's bureau chief in Johannesburg, was expelled from South Africa in June, 1986, he reported a cover story about the conflict there that so disturbed the Botha government that the issue containing it was banned. A national state of emergency, which remains in effect, had just been declared. "President P. W. Botha has turned a racist regime into a police state" was how Newsweek put it.

It seems impossible to believe that Princess Diana will appear far less often on the covers of magazines that have found reason to showcase her golden portraits time and again. But before Diana Mania gives way to a closer interest in her two sons and her enduring impact on the British monarchy, mass-market publications have been serving up pages and pages of coverage--with more to come--in response to public interest whose scope has stunned many editors.

Holy congruity! This week Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report each plastered their covers and insides with the colorful characters and sinful details of the scandals currently rocking the $2-billion TV preacher business. Newsweek pretty much sums up what the "Holy Wars" are all about on its cover: "Money, Sex and Power."

Perhaps Mitt Romney played it right when he was meek and contrite in response to the Washington Post's front-page allegations that he bullied a kid half a century ago in high school. Romney no doubt feels embarrassed by the charges, even if most of us struggle to understand their relevance or gauge their veracity. But the time is coming for Romney to get angry, very angry, with what is increasingly, quaintly called "the mainstream media. " The Post's decision to play up the story as if it were major news - front page, thousands of drably dull self-serious words piled high as if to justify the one buzzy nugget - is an embarrassment.

Talk about a national crisis. What if Americans faced dueling anthropoids of the year? Imagine the confusion, the crippling dilemma if Newsweek horned in on Time and anointed President Bush its Human of the Year for 2001. Would that invalidate Time's loudly tooted choice of New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani as Person of the Year to succeed 2000 winner Bush? Would newscasters and the rest of the media praise Newsweek? Or would they endorse Time, whose founder, Henry Luce, created this pedestal to recognize "the person or persons who most affected the news of our lives, for good or ill, this year"?

Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine featured an article on professional translators. Grandly titled "Across Literary Frontiers," the piece focused on such linguistic and literary marvels as William Weaver, who lyrically transformed "Il Nome della Rosa" into "The Name of the Rose." Without translators, Newsweek proclaimed, we would be deprived of the Bible, Dante and Tolstoy, Freud and Kafka.

For the last few months, Universal Pictures has been juggling a live grenade, hoping it won't go off. In the public eye, the studio's Ron Howard-directed film, "A Beautiful Mind," has been viewed as one of the favorites for this year's best picture Oscar. But behind the scenes, the studio has carefully been managing a campaign to prevent the movie from becoming a target of media attacks for the broad liberties it takes recounting the personal life of Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Forbes Nash.

A WEEK AGO I WOULD NOT HAVE EXPECTED M'Lissa to still be alive. But yes, according to a year-old Newsweek, she was not only alive but a national monument. She had been honored by the Olinka government for her role during the wars of liberation, when she'd acted as a nurse as devoted to her charges as Florence Nightingale, and for her unfailing adherence to the ancient customs and traditions of the Olinka state. No mention was made of how she fulfilled this obligation.

Colonoscopy: The very word sends shudders down the spine of anyone who has drunk "the drink" -- the concoction that cleanses the colon so the doctor can later examine it. I've enjoyed three different procedures with three different preps, and I've made it my mantra to minimize the misery: The appointment: Just pick up the phone. The test is far better than cancer would be. My first one was early, at age 45, because my mother died of colon cancer. Feel nothing but gratitude that such a preventive procedure exists.