SALON Issue#8: www.salon1999.com

Welcome to the front page for SALON's Issue #8 for February 24-March 8, 1996. If you've come here via a bookmark and wish to read the current issue of SALON, you can go there now -- and please reset your bookmark in the future to point to "http://www.salon1999.com".

Photograph by W. Garschagen

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FEATURES

Carolyn Chute's Wicked Good Militia By Dwight Garner
The author of "The Beans of Egypt, Maine" is leading an army of grave, silent woodsmen in a backwoods campaign against corporate greed.

The Thrill is Gone By Dan Shafer
A baseball fan's lament

The Salon Interview: John Updike.
The last great American man of letters talks about the movies, presidential adultery and the literary life, past and present.

No Coloreds Need Apply By Sheila Peabody
When a scrupulously leftist academic needs a housecleaner, Jim Crow wields the mop.

Duty-Free Art By Sallie Tisdale
Jesse Helms says artists must be socially responsible. So do many of the shocking artists he reviles. They're both wrong.

Independence Daze By Scott Rosenberg
Declaring the Internet a sovereign entity sounds alluring -- until the electricity bill comes due.

Liberalism Lives! By Andrew Ross
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne says that America's most influential political movement only looks dead.

DEPARTMENTS

A SALON editorial: Table Talk Returns. Editor David Talbot invites all readers to join the conversation.

Smoking Gun: The Fragment of Serpentine Marble. By Don Cushman
This issue's Five Minute Mystery excavates a murder in the Egyptology Department. Be the first to send us the solution to the crime and win a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books & Music.

Word by Word: Anne Lamott's Online Diary
Culinary experiments of the very young.

Lit Chat: A.S. Byatt
The author of "Angels and Insects" and "Possession" explains how a Victorian mansion resembles an anthill and D.H. Lawrence got it all (well, a lot of it) wrong.

21st. By Howard Rheingold
Will our lust for technology convert us into something other than human? Howard talks with "Escape Velocity" author Mark Dery, one of the most intelligent critics of cyberculture.

Verbivore. By Richard Lederer
SALON's word wizard votes for his favorite political malapropisms and calls for presidential anagrams. The winner receives a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books & Music.

The Listress. By Amy Wallace
The Long Arm of the Law. The first person to successfully match wits with The Listress wins a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books & Music.

REVIEWS

Movies

"Fargo" By Laura Miller
The Coen Bros. new crime drama is Bergman Lite.

Books

"Backward and Upward: The New Conservative Writing"
By Gary Kamiya
David Brooks' anthology of right-wing writers fails to dispel conservatism's serious fun problem.

Music

Rust Never Sleeps. By Sam Hurwitt
Punk forefathers Iggy Pop and Lou Reed show their age.

Strand of Pearls. By Cynthia Joyce
"Strand," the new album by the Spinanes, proves that Rebecca Gates is not just another Angry Woman Rocker.

SALON Picks: Maya Angelou's "Miss Calypso" and "Derek Jarman's Garden."

SNEAK PEEKS

Short reviews of the most intriguing new books, including Will Self's new story collection, A.M. Homes' disturbing tale of an imprisoned sex offender and the confessions of an Ivy League bookie.

COLUMNS

Ill Humor. Ian Shoales asks if being in a coma is any excuse for not getting online.

The Awful Truth. Our City Kicks Your City's Ass. New York newbie Cintra Wilson turns treacherously on her former home, L.A.

COMIX

Tom Tomorrow: This Modern World.
Carol Lay: Story Minute
Keith Knight: The K Chronicles
Ruben Bolling: Tom, The Dancing Bug

TABLE TALK

Your table is ready! Join the conversation in our new, improved Table Talk.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Valentines and vituperation from our far-flung readers.

HELP WANTED

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WELCOME CENTER

What is SALON? Our statement of purpose
Who is SALON? Profiles of the staff
How to use SALON
A brief history of salons
Contributors

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