BIRD'S EYE
Why Encouraging Daycare Is Unwise
By Karl Zinsmeister
Children need parents, not experts.

SIDELIGHTS
News Scraps
Pet diet pills. Knuckle-dragging intellectuals. Kenneth Starr, College Democrat.

SCAN
Short news and commentary
Peggy Noonan on the Lite Presidency. The folks who brought you the Unabomber.Unduing the Nanny State. California teaches African Americans in Cantonese.Castro's subjects walk the streets. Unsung women. Gambling government.Emasculating the military. "Stop me before I conceive again."

INDICATORS
Numbers etc.
Edited by Karl Zinsmeister
The bad news: Our public school disaster is deepening. The good news: Americans have started to notice.

"LIVE" WITH TAE
Randall Wallace
By John Meroney
Randall Wallace, the man behind Braveheart and The Man in the Iron Mask, talks about Leonardo DiCaprio, Mel Gibson, and his crusade to bring bravery, moral strength, and honor back to the movies.

TRANSCRIPT
Paul Johnson Explains America
The distinguished British historian Paul Johnson surveys American history.

IN REAL LIFE
First-person America
• Detective Ray Wisher nearly catches a .38 caliber hollowpoint bullet.• Farmer Blake Hurst battles incompetent road warriors.

ENTERPRISING
A Real-life Test of the Beef Against National Bookstores
By Eli Lehrer
A real-world test: Do chain bookstores reduce variety and choice?

THE ECONOMIST
Escaping a Dairyman's Dilemma
By Gerard Bourgeois
A family dairy farmer reports that government "help" threatens to put him out of business.

FLASHBACK
The Un-American Game
By Bill Kauffman
Multicultural soccer is making headway among American youth.Patriots, arm thyselves with baseball bats.

HOLLYWOOD REPORT
Who Loves Lawyers?
By John Meroney
Only Hollywood could make heroes out of lawyers.

BOOK TALK
Reviews of New Books
• R.W. Bradford—The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymore Hersh• Richard Kostelanetz—Who Killed Classical Music? by Norman Lebrecht• John Hillen—Making the Corps by Thomas E. Ricks• Martin Morse Wooster—The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-city Neighborhood by David Simonand Edward Burns• Michael Platt—Shane by Jack Schaefer

DIGEST
Summaries of Important Research
Edited by Martin Morse Wooster
What downsized government?...high-tech pork...two cheers for advertising...zoning rights and wrongs...save the tigers.

THE MAIL
Reader Responses
Country music at Yale. Carrot-and-stick welfare reform.A New Yorker learns to love Nashville. Gen X optimism.