CURRENT ISSUE

November 2003

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Features

Tumult and Transition in "Little America"

A quarter century of civil war over festering ethnic animosities has renewed questions about the U.S. role in the African nation

Seeing Sylvia Plath

A new movie rekindles curiosity about the poet's life, love and suicide at age 30

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Celestial Sightseeing

From Triton's active geysers to the Sun's seething flares, newly enhanced images from U.S. and foreign space probes depict the solar system as never before

"Olmec butterfly" rug by Isaac Vasquez of Oaxaca

Dream Weavers

In the Mexican village of Teotitlán, gifted artisans create a future from bright hand-loomed rugs

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Saving Atchafalaya

A more than 70-year effort to "control" America's largest river basin swamp is threatening the Cajun culture that thrives on it

Phillip Glass

Meet Phillip Glass

From opera halls to neighborhood movie theaters, Philip Glass attracts an enormous audience many of whom have never listened to classical music

Departments

Indelible Images

Magic Moments

A new book and a Paris arts center pay homage to photography's elusive 95-year-old grand master

Phenomena & Curiosities

Ouch!

A new finding that fish feel pain has set off a tortured debate about the ethics of angling

The Object at Hand

Antique Road Show

Before the Interstates passed the highway by, America got its kicks on Route 66

Points of Interest

Tribal Talk

Immersion schools try to revive and preserve Native American languages

People File

Crash Junkie

Flight instructor Craig Fuller scales mountains, combs deserts and trudges through wilderness to track down old airplane wrecks

Presence of Mind

The Pledge's Creator

What would the minister who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance make of the legal challenge to it?

Editor's Note

Flashbacks

Reconsidering JFK and Sylvia Plath

From the Secretary

New Hall on the Mall

A dazzling exhibition space celebrates mammalian diversity through re-creations of habitats on four continents

Books

Book Review: Veiled Threat

Reading Lolita in Tehran

The Last Page

Hooked on Aging

Our writer tries to just say no to getting older