Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. PREFACE xiii
4. Aliens 1
5. Baby Jessica Grows Up 7
6. History: How American Myths Are Made 10
7. If You Want To Humble an Empire 13
8. Fighting for Life 50 Floors Up, with One Tool and Ingenuity 18
9. U.S. Airways Flight 1549: Old Hands on the River Didn’t Have to Be Told What to Do 19
10. Anthrax 22
11. The Everyman Who Exposed Tainted Toothpaste 25
12. When the Terror Began 29
13. Saboteurs: The Nazi Raid on America 35
14. A Knock on the Door 41
15. Tiananmen Massacre 44
16. Finding Respite from Worries 50
17. My Father’s Closet 52
18. A Backward Glance 58
19. Silk Parachute 61
20. The Road Block 63
21. Burning My Father 66
22. A Moving Experience 68
23. The Lure of the Frozen Lake 73
24. True Love Is Made of This 78
25. The Greatest Penn Success Story 80
26. A Pit Bull Who Provided Lessons in Loyalty and Unfailing Love 84
27. A Sign: It’s Jesus, or a Lunch Bargain 85
28. The Two Lives of John Favors ’72: A Political Activist Becomes a Monk in the Hare Krishna Movement 88
29. In Albania, a Girl Who Became a Man 94
30. The North Korean Film Festival: No Stars, No Swag, but What a Crowd! 97
31. Title Infl ation: How Hollywood Watches Our Wallets 101
32. Ice Accommodations 104
33. The Renaissance of the Marais 110
34. Walking to Vermont 114
35. Between a Woman and Her Doctor: A Story about Abortion 120
36. Baby’s First Helmet 124
37. After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive 129
38. A Hostage Crisis Hits Latin America 135
39. Children Caught in the Immigration Crossfire 141
40. A Father’s Promise 145
41. McKinley High School 151
42. A Believing Principal Leads a Battle to Save a Sch 157
43. Edison’s Big Loss 161
44. Yodobashi No. 6 163
45. Sports: The Glue for Lost Kids 169
46. Curtis Williams—Victory and Ruins 172
47. Arson Science—To Their Rescue? 180
48. Stinging Tentacles Offer Hint of Oceans’ Decline 185
49. Chernobyl: The Danger Persists 188
50. Alaska: Oil’s Ground Zero 194
51. Arctic Rush 199
52. The X Files 206
53. Internet Gamblin 211
54. Seeking New Ways to Nurture the Capacity to Report 217
55. Role Model: Sarah McClendon 222
56. Remembering a Friend: Ed Bradley Was a Gift to Journalism 223
57. Whose Media Are We? 226
58. The West and the Arab World: The Case of Media 233
59. Don’t E-mail Me 236
60. Millions of Women Weep 237
61. The Lessons of Cain 238
62. A View to a Kill 241
63. Cuba: The End of the End of the Revolution 247
64. Guantánamo 253
65. The Promise 259
66. Gaza Notebook: The Bullets in My In-Box 262
67. A Gaza Diary 266
68. In Horses, a Personal Refuge 273
69. Hints of Lives Are All That Remains 274
70. Now They Execute Polite Shuffles: There’s a Strange Sameness in the Stories of Baath Party Members in Iraq 275
71. In Land of Ruin, a House of Stone Shelters Delight 276
72. Iraq: Transformation Bypasses the Heartland 278
73. Hezbollah Fighter Strove to be a Martyr 281
74. Hezbollah Fighter Strove to be a Martyr 284
75. Bosnia’s Elite “Disappeared” 289
76. Stone Age Ways Surviving, Barely 295
77. Oshima Journal: After 90 Years, Small Gestures of Joy for Lepers 297
78. Ella in Wonderland 300
79. On Writers and Writing: D. H. Lawrence Frees the Slaves 302
80. Max Perkins: Editor of Genius 305
81. The Prince 311
82. Diary of a Bad Year, by J. M. Coetzee 316
83. Beowulf and Fate Meet in a Modern Poet’s Lens 317
84. John Leonard 321
85. Growing by Degrees 323
86. Pop Music: The Durability of Doo-Wop 326
87. On the White Side of Crossover Dreams 330
88. Something in the Air 333
89. The Sonata Seminar 339
90. Alex Ross 342
91. A Battalion of One’s Own 345
92. Injured in Iraq, a Soldier Is Shattered at Home 351
93. Connections 357
94. Trevor Manuel and the Liberation of Nelson Mandela 363
95. Jerry Brown Still Wants Your Vote 368
96. ”I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired” 372
97. Fannie Lou Hamer 378
98. The Fourth of July 381
99. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 385
100. INDEX 391