The French Paradox
BY LAURA FRASER
(02/04/00)

When I had responsibility for a large group of American college students in France for two years I noticed that they immediately gained a good deal of weight when trying French food. I concluded that the difference between the French and American rate of death related to diet was caused by heredity and genetics. The French are largely Celtic and Latin while most Americans have a healthy (unhealthy, actually) dose of Germanic and Slavic genes. We gain weight more than the lean French. American women when older look like milkmaids while the French women look like birds. Voila la difference!

-- Norman Ravitch

The French live a lifestyle that is different than ours. Thanks to the design of their cities and towns, French people can't always drive, or park next to, every place they need to go. We Americans have a tendency to walk only from the front door to the car, park in the closest spot possible to the store, and repeat the process as we go home. Then we sit in front of the TV all evening. As long as the American lifestyle remains sedentary, we'll be fat, no matter what we eat.

-- T. Farmer

The real answer probably has to do with the structure of French family and social relationships. In my view, the widespread alienation and decline of family intimacy in the U.S. probably contribute more to cardiovascular problems than McDonald's hamburgers.

I recall a landmark study in the U.S. that tracked coronary disease among a close-knit Italian-American community in Pennsylvania. Although the group gradually moved from a healthy, Mediterranean diet to a cholesterol-laden American fare, cardiovascular disease and heart attacks did not rise appreciably among the group until the sons and daughters of immigrants moved to America's large bustling cities where they no longer benefitted from the beneficial effects of their family and social support structures.

-- Richard Helm

MP3 free-for-all
BY JANELLE BROWN
(02/03/00)

Regardless of one's opinions about the evils of the major record industry, the fact is, any artist whose music is traded with programs like Napster is not getting paid for royalties. But Napster and their (current and future) stockholders reap profits from ad revenue, venture Internet music craze. Besides this obvious scam, the fact remains that most MP3 files don't really sound all that good. They either get compressed too much or too little, and they often don't sound like the artist intended them to. Companies like this are set up to make personal profit for the owners, not to help the artists.

-- Abbey Smith

Sounds like the same old story to me. The old guard, the RIAA, wants to maintain control over the distribution of recorded music. The avant guard, Napster, wants to take that control away. Napster may be really hip and cool right now, but the only difference I see between it and the RIAA is its newness.

What do the people who create music have to think about all this? At least, with the RIAA, musicians and composers - in theory - get paid when their recorded works are distributed. This doesn't seem to be the case with Napster. Would Napster object to musicians setting up a company to freely trade their personal collections of Napster software with other software aficionados? Or would they call that software piracy?

-- D.B. Morton

The RIAA just doesn't realize that if it would stop whining about the loss of control over distribution, it would come out on top. I use Napster religiously. But three times in the past week when I've downloaded and listened to a song I like, I've gone out and bought the CD. With corporate radio playing nothing but crap, this is how I learn about music I'd like to own. I'd wager that a lot of people are doing this, and it's only adding to the recording industry's bottom line.

-- Kasey A. Chappelle

"Rattling the Cage"
BY SUSAN MCCARTHY
(02/04/00)

This splendid article only vaguely hinted at the horrors of solitary confinement that were visited on chimpanzees at major, prestigious institutions of research in this country until an outcry was raised by animal-rights activists. I well recall Jane Goodall's description of her visit to the SEMA lab as "The worst day of my life."

Considering how poorly humans treat each other, it is perhaps unwise to hope for much anytime soon, in the softening of human beings towards other creatures. Still, the question is one that seems to persist, and has become more pointed with continued exposure. The real question seems to be not so much "What kind of animals are these?" as it is "What kind of animals are we?"

-- Dan Raphael

There is an ongoing group of experiments being done at the National Zoo on language aquisition with the cooperation of orangutans. I say "cooperation" because they are free to come and go between the lab and their home pens, utilizing an overhead cable connecting the two areas known as "The O Line." Sometimes they want to hang out at home, sometimes they want to go play with humans -- it is their choice. Granted, no part of the experimentation involves pain, but it was very refreshing to see animals giving the experimenters obvious consent to be experimented on.

It only saddens me that they do not give their consent to be kept in a zoo, but considering they are endangered in their homeland, perhaps it is for the best.

In addition, the reviewer seems to express a certain amount of contempt for the "rhetoric" of likening all humans to animals. I have news for him: we ARE animals. I, personally, do not find that notion at all insulting.

-- Cressida Lennox

Jonesing for votes
BY JAKE TAPPER
(02/03/00)

Your reporting on George W. Bush's visit to Bob Jones University is welcome. Such behavior is disgusting and should be treated as such by the press and the voters. However, it would be nice to see similar editorial outrage when Democrats -- from Bill Bradley to Al Gore to Hillary Clinton -- pay homage to racists such as Al Sharpton. Why the double standard?

-- David Bzdak

It seems George W. wants to have his cake and eat it too, be seen as "compassionate" by minorities and progressives while at the same time bobbing for votes in right-wing reactionary cesspools. Didn't his daddy tell him that trying to walk on both sides of the fence at the same time is liable to get him barb-wired in a very uncomfortable place ... the voting booth?!

-- Pauline Graham Binder