United States Culture

Moviegoers are being deluged this summer with blockbuster sequels, churned out to capitalize on ready-made audiences. Come September, they'll see much the same phenomenon on their TV screens, and for much the same reason. Three popular television series owned by MCA-TV will be revived for national syndication this fall: "Lassie," "Dragnet" and "Adam-12." MCA-TV has also given the nod of approval to a second-season renewal of "The Munsters Today." ABC, meanwhile, is reviving "Kojak" with Telly Savalas for its "Mystery Movie" series, which already sports Peter Falk in new "Columbo" episodes.

In the solemn, wood-and-marble chambers of the U.S. district courthouse here, a federal judge is weighing one of modern America's most vexing questions: What is the true meaning of a velvet Elvis? Nothing says kitsch better than a fuzzy, black, air-brushed painting of the King. But when does campy fun infringe on the trademark image of a rock 'n' roll legend?

The ranks of single people have skyrocketed over the last three decades. The marriage rate in the United States was 8.3 per 1,000 adults in 1998, a University of Michigan study found, the lowest since 1958. Since the advent of the birth control pill and the feminist movement, the proportion of women ages 25 to 35 who have never been married tripled since 1970. Some adults never marry, a rate that has jumped from 16% to 23% since 1970.

Paul Bauer is a white man. Quite a white man. So white he has freckles. So white his beard has grown in orange. "You won't see me on the beach during daylight hours," he says. "I'm just as pink as can be." He is proud of his whiteness, but not in a white-pride way. No, definitely not. Bauer is troubled by the bad deeds his white ancestors did. And his ancestors were whiter than most. Four hundred seventy-seven years ago, one of them set foot on Plymouth Rock.

By most accounts, it started five years ago with the release of "The Big Chill"--the film that introduced a whole new generation to Vietnam Angst, free love and such '60s classics as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" way before those dancing raisins did. Other trend watchers point to New York fashion designer Stephen Sprouse's revival of neon-bright miniskirts in 1984 as a key influence.

Ehud Barak, a mike on his lapel and pancake makeup on his cheeks, toured a food-processing factory here and then posed for pictures with the Bamba Baby, a man dressed in fuzzy blue diapers and fuzzy orange slippers. "The Bamba Baby for Barak," Israel's most decorated soldier proclaimed, mugging for the cameras alongside the factory mascot.

Influential political figures whose intense battle against gangsta rap helped pressure Time Warner Inc. to unload its rap music label have a new target: daytime TV talk shows. At a Washington press conference Thursday, William J. Bennett, the nation's former drug czar and current co-director of Empower America, and Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) launched a campaign to get rid of the televised talkfests that they claim debase American culture and cause harm to children.

The United States has by far the highest rate of gun deaths--encompassing murders, suicides and accidents--among the world's 36 richest nations, the first comprehensive international look at gun-related deaths found. The U.S. rate for gun deaths in 1994 was 14.24 per 100,000 people. Japan had the lowest rate, at 0.05 per 100,000. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was published Thursday in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

If only minimalist Oliver Stone wouldn't equivocate. Just so there's no mistake, Stone is annoyed, right? He's no fan? His just-released "Natural Born Killers" satirically attacks mass media and the violence-numbed culture it's helped shape?

I AM SITTING ALONE IN MY CAR, IN FRONT OF MY parents' house--a middle-aged man with a boy's secret to tell. What words will I use to tell them? I hate the word gay , find its little affirming sparkle more pathetic than assertive. I am happier with the less polite queer .