DAY ONE: MTBE. Remember that abbreviation. It is now part of your life if you are one of the estimated 100 million Americans who live near a gasoline station in the United States. MTBE stands for Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether, an oxygenate added to gasoline in the United States years ago which you can add to the list of suspected carcinogens you are ingesting daily. It's very likely in your drinking water, the water you cook with, the water in which you bathe....ROD AMIS, "Baby, Won't You Drive My Car" CULTURECAST: Fashion, esp. in dress, utters, perhaps, what cannot be so readily sculpted into words. Fashion, its colors, shapes, textures and forms, easily slinks into the symbolic, rather than strictly logical, lakes of the mind. Fashion etches itself into our minds often and deep... JENNIFER BLUE, "The Last Temptation of Fashion" MEMOIRS OF THE INFORMATION AGE: One would think that a profession devoted to reporting rapid change might have grown out of being surprised and would certainly have grown out of admitting to it; but, no. When the AOL TIme/Warner proposed merger was announced there were such shrieks of surprise that it might have been a chorus of chaperones beholding the arrival of Sir Percival Picaresque at the Bath Assembly Rooms. All around us the television companies, traditional, cable and satellite, are cosying up with each other and with the Internet service providers... KEVIN CAREY, "AOL" PLANETARY MADNESS: We continue our jaunt through the quirky and brilliant Aquarius-a-gO-gO; flaunt your most unique urges of self-expression. Mercury's winged spurs twirl as he rides unruly Uranus before the weekend. Both of these planetary players are mental giants; their connection in electric Aquarius arouses inspiration, innovation and white fever mania; belch a few prophecies... JENNIFER BLUE, "Current Forecast"

ON DRUGS: The Week Online with DRCNet (stopthedrugwar.org) has learned that Newsweek Magazine decided late Friday [14 January, 2000] to postpone publication of an excerpt of a Gore biography featuring eyewitness accounts of Al Gore's regular and continued drug use over a period of years. The drug use covers a period of Gore's life from his days at Harvard up until the very week he declared his candidacy for Congress in 1976, sources told The Week Online. The book, by Bill Turque of Newsweek's Washington bureau, quotes both named and unnamed sources, including John Warnecke, son of John Carl Warnecke ‚ architect of the John F. Kennedy grave site, and a long-time friend of the Gores. An exclusive interview with Mr. Warnecke follows this story... ADAM J. SMITH, "Newsweek Kills Gore Drug Story" POWERSSOUND: Cincinnati may not be famous for jazz, but rather for its professional sports (the Reds made a nice comeback in 1999, but the Bengals have a way to go). But jazz has always been a special part of the Queen City. In 1962 I worked as a copy editor at The Cincinnati Post and many evenings during those halcyon times were spent in one of three downtown night clubs, all of which featured jazz played by local musicians who achieved a measure of renown on the national scene.... BOB POWERS, "Cincinnati Sounds Great!" MY GLASS HOUSE: When I think back to Cairo in the 1970s, three images immediately come to mind: Standing at my window at 4:30 in the morning and listening to the blinded-canary call of the muezzin, the Call to Prayer, and watching white doves rise across the globular top of a minaret at sunrise. Allah Akbar! God is Great! I sing the Perfection of God, the Many-named, the Beneficent, the All-Seeing. The Perfection of God! ..... ROD AMIS, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways"

"...and the sign said,
"The Words of the Prophets
Are written on the subway walls,
The tenement halls.." --- Paul Simon


"Packed up and moved out after all
Bulldozed the house and watched it fall
That blessed sight I still recall!
I CAN SING MY SONG AGAIN!
IT DON'T HURT LIKE IT DID
(It hurts worse. Who do I kid?...)" --- Sheryl Crowe

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