The New York Times

The Women's Movement

TOXIC SHOCK

I went dancing the night before in a black velvet Paris gown, on one of those evenings that was the glamour of New York epitomized. I was blissfully asleep at 3 A.M. Twenty-four hours later, I lay dying, my fingers and legs darkening with gangrene.

Grady's Gift

For "Grady's Gift," an account of the author's childhood friendship with his family's black housekeeper and the lasting lessons of their relationship.

First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10

A fourth-grade classroom on a forbidding stretch of the South Side was in the middle of multiplication tables when a voice over the intercom ordered Nicholas Whitiker to the principal's office. Cory and Darnesha and Roy and Delron and the rest of the class fell silent and stared at Nicholas, sitting sober-faced in the back.

RUNNING WILD; The Mississippi Reclaims Its True Domain

NO one alive has seen the Father of Rivers yawn this high or this wide. No one imagined the Mississippi or its relatives would take such liberties, consuming so many hamlets whole, or that, if they did, technology would be nearly helpless to stop them.

Cruel Flood: It Tore at Graves, and at Hearts

When the Missouri River barreled through town like white-water rapids this summer, and grain bins and City Hall and the Assembly of God church and houses and barns gave way and there were no telephones or electricity or running water, people in this tiny farm town thought they knew all about the power of nature.

David Gergen, Master of The Game

Forget PCB's. Radon. Alar

Another Battle of New Orleans: Mardi Gras

The little shotgun house is peeling and the Oldsmobile in front is missing a rear bumper, but Larry Bannock can glimpse glory through the eye of his needle. For almost a year he has hunkered over his sewing table, joining beads, velvet, rhinestones, sequins, feathers and ostrich plumes into a Mardi Gras costume that is part African, part Native American.

TERROR IN OKLAHOMA CITY: AT GROUND ZERO

In Shock, Loathing, Denial: 'This Doesn't Happen Here'

A Killer's Only Confidant: The Man Who Caught Susan Smith

The case of a lifetime is closed for Howard Wells. The reporters and the well-wishers have begun to drift away, leaving the Union County Sheriff at peace. He will try to do a little fishing when the police radio is quiet, or just sit with his wife, Wanda, and talk of anything but the murderer Susan Smith.

All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University

Oseola McCarty spent a lifetime making other people look nice. Day after day, for most of her 87 years, she took in bundles of dirty clothes and made them clean and neat for parties she never attended, weddings to which she was never invited, graduations she never saw.

Where Alabama Inmates Fade Into Old Age

Grant Cooper knows he lives in prison, but there are days when he cannot remember why. His crimes flit in and out of his memory like flies through a hole in a screen door, so that sometimes his mind and conscience are blank and clean.

Something's Got to Give

Big Brother Is Us

James Gleick article on privacy issues in technological age; notes information-gathering about individuals by Government and corporation computers has reached astounding level of completeness; holds peoples' concerns about such information compilation are greatest if they distrust Government (L)

I'll Take the Money, Thanks

James Gleick comments on movement to oppose extension of copyright law to electronic world; argues that on-line world can respect copyright, and eventually, it will; drawing (M)

Safe-Sex Lies

White Collars Turn Blue

Prof Paul Krugman article, written as though looking back from future, discusses economic transformations late 20th century economists failed to predict; cites virtual disappearance of white-collar workers, soaring prices of natural resources, key role of environmental protection, rebirth of big cities, eroding payoff of higher education and growing economic role of celebrity; drawing (L)

The Subversive

Michael Lewis profile of Sen John McCain and his drive for campaign finance reform; recalls how he survived years of torture in North Vietnamese prison camp and became involved in reform effort after facing ethics probe for accepting campaign funds from Charles Keating; photos (L)

How the Eggheads Cracked