F R O M T H E Pa G E

F R O M T H E PA G E S O F

Sunday October 18, 2009 8 p.m. in New York Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

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fear of swine flu Pakistan Targets Militant Stronghold impacts rituals of everyday life In offices, churches, hospitals, college dorms and schools, the fear of swine flu has ushered in new standards of etiquette that can be, in turns, mundane, absurd and heartbreaking. Students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., are being asked to refrain from playing beer pong, a communal drinking game, after an outbreak of illness that officials feared might be swine flu. Roman Catholic parishioners of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., have been instructed by the bishop not to shake hands at the sign of peace, and wine is not being offered for the sacrament of Holy Communion. And when 5-month-old Danica Deneault was admitted last month to a hospital in Providence, R.I., her older siblings were not allowed to visit as hospitals and health care systems in Rhode Island and more than a dozen other states have prohibited children from visiting patients. (Some exceptions are made for terminally ill relatives.) Health officials worry that children might spread the swine flu virus to patients and staff members. The new round of precautions, officials say, is less rushed and more thoughtful than the scramble last spring that accompanied the new bug’s arrival. The pressure, something like an imperative, is for all of society to just do something, anything, to stave off the dreaded flu. According to the experts, little changes may have an outsize impact when it comes to keeping the population healthy. As Halloween approaches at Rudd Equipment in Louisville, Ky., Yolanda Ray, a personnel manager, wants to make sure everyone takes precautions while not completely killing the fun. “Bring in candy, make it festive,” she said she told the employees. “But make sure it is individually wrapped.” (NYT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan moved large contingents of its troops into the militant stronghold of South Waziristan on Saturday, the army said, beginning a long-anticipated ground offensive against militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban in treacherous terrain that has stymied the army in the past. The operation is the most ambitious by the Pakistani Army against the militants, who have unleashed a torrent of attacks against top security installations in the last 10 days in anticipation of the assault. The militants’ targets included the army headquarters where planning for the new offensive had been under way for four months. The United States has been pressing the army to move ahead with the campaign in South Waziristan, arguing that it is vital for Pakistan to show resolve against the Qaeda-fortified Pakistani Taliban, which now embraces a vast and dedicated network of militant groups arrayed against the state, including some nurtured by Pakistan to fight India. American officials have said

the fighting there would probably not substantially help the American and NATO effort in Afghanistan because most militants who cross the border to fight there are from a different area in Pakistan and because the Taliban stronghold within South Waziristan is not directly along the border. But if successful, the operations could put pressure on Al Qaeda, a pivotal supporter of the Taliban in Afghanistan, providing training and strategic planning. The front in South Waziristan was the fourth operation by the army against the Taliban in a year, and the campaigns in the less remote parts of the country’s tribal areas have shown that guerrilla tactics can bedevil an army trained in conventional warfare against its archenemy, India. In Bajaur and Mohmand, two tribal areas close to the provincial capital, Peshawar, and far less mountainous than South Waziristan, the army has been forced to launch repeated air attacks against persistent Taliban attacks, even though much of the area was declared cleared of militants almost a year ago. Civilians

who fled Bajaur and Mohmand have been unable to return, and towns flattened by the army have remained in ruins. Even in the Swat Valley, where the military was able to make most cities safe enough for residents to return, the army was unable to knock out the leadership. In Washington, senior American military officials were closely monitoring the long-awaited offensive, with some expressing skepticism about how extensive a ground campaign the Pakistani Army would actually carry out. “This is going to be much tougher than their offensives in Swat and Bajaur this year,” said one top American officer. “We just don’t know how committed the army will be.” Still, Obama administration officials said Saturday they were pleased Pakistan at least decided to go ahead with the offensive. Some voiced concerns immediately after the death of Baitullah Mehsud, the country’s public enemy No. 1, that the Pakistani military would let up in its counterinsurgency efforts.  JANE PERLEZ

Fellow Inmates Help Ease Pain of Dying in Jail COXSACKIE, N.Y. — Allen Jacobs lived hard for his 50 years, and when his liver finally shut down he faced the kind of death he did not want. On a recent afternoon Jacobs lay in a hospital bed staring at the ceiling. A hospice worker, Wensley Roberts, ran a wet sponge over Jacobs’ dry lips, encouraging him to drink. “Come on, Mr. Jacobs,” he said. Roberts is one of a dozen inmates at the Coxsackie Correctional Facility who volunteer to sit with fellow prisoners in the last six months of their lives. He recalled a day when Jacobs had started crying. Roberts tried to console him. Then their experience took a turn unique to their setting, a maximum-security prison. Roberts said he told Jacobs to “man up.” Jacobs, in prison for passing forged checks, cursed at him, say-

ing, “‘I don’t want to die in jail. Do you want to die in jail?’” “I said no,” said Roberts, who is in prison for robbery. “He said, ‘Then stop telling me to man up.’ And then he said that I’m his family.” American prisons are home to a growing geriatric population, with one-third of all inmates expected to be over 50 by next year. About 75 prisons have started hospice programs, half of them using inmate volunteers, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. There are challenges unique to the prison setting. Some dying patients, for example, divert their pain medication to their volunteer aides or other patients, who use it or sell it, said Kathleen Allan, the director of nursing at Coxsackie. But she added that the inmate volunteers bond with the patients in a

way staff members cannot. John Henson, 30, was sentenced to 25 years to life at Coxsackie for breaking into the home of a former employer in a robbery at age 18 and beating the man to death. Before joining the hospice program in 2001, he said he had given little thought to the consequences of his crime. Then he found himself holding another inmate’s hand as his breathing slowed toward a stop. When the nurse declared the man dead, Henson broke down in tears. “I was just thinking about why I’m in here and the person’s life that I took,” he said. “And sitting with this person for the first time and actually seeing death firsthand, my hand in his hand, watching him take his last breath, just caused me to say, ‘Wow, who the hell are you? Who were you to do this to somebody else?’”  (NYT)

International

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Migrants Going North Now Risk Kidnappings TECATE, Mexico — Getting to “el norte” has never been a cakewalk. Along with long treks through desert terrain, death-defying river crossings and perilous rides clinging onto trains, there have always been con men and crooked police officers preying on migrants along the way. But Mexican human rights groups that monitor migration say the threats foreigners face as they cross Mexico for the United States have grown significantly in recent months. Organized crime groups have begun taking aim at migrants as major sources of illicit revenue, even as the financial crisis in the United States has reduced the number of people willing to risk the journey. Migrants may typically be poor, but they have usually notified friends or relatives in the United States that they are on their way. To kidnappers, those contacts are golden. “They beat me and kept beat-

ing me until I handed over my telephone numbers,” said a Salvadoran immigrant, interviewed at a center for migrants in Reynosa, just across the border with Texas. In many ways, the man’s account was typical. A study by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission released this year found 9,758 migrants who had been kidnapped as they tried to cross the border into the United States between September 2008 and February 2009. The commission noted that migrants were typically terrified to report such crimes out of fear of being deported by Mexican immigration authorities and that the actual number of victims was probably much higher. The stories the commission heard in interviews with victims were alarming. There were frequent rapes of female migrants. Fierce beatings were carried out. As a lesson to other captives,

the kidnappers killed some migrants who did not hand over the telephone numbers of their relatives. The amounts demanded ranged from $1,500 to $10,000, sizable sums on top of the several thousand dollars that the migrants had already paid smugglers to make the crossing. Human rights workers say Mexican migrants are not singled out by kidnappers as often as foreigners, mostly Central Americans, but also Ecuadoreans, Brazilians, Chileans and Peruvians. The foreigners are more vulnerable, less familiar with their surroundings and less likely to report what happened to them to the authorities, advocates say. Complicating the problem, migrants complain that the police are sometimes in league with the kidnappers, rounding up victims and handing them over to kidnappers for a fee.  MARC LACEY

Western Officials Press Karzai on Election Audit KABUL, Afghanistan — Western officials have been pressing Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, to accept the results of a U.N.-led audit, in a last-minute effort to smooth what has become an increasingly contentious election process. A ruling on the extent of fraud in this country’s Aug. 20 presidential election is expected Sunday, and if Karzai’s vote slips below 50 percent as expected, a second round would be required. Western officials say privately that Karzai seems to be balking at accepting the results. Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Commit-

tee, met with Karzai at least twice on Saturday and separately with his main competitor, Abdullah Abdullah, stressing “the necessity of a legitimate outcome.” Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France went to Kabul and pressed both candidates to “respect” the audit process, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Among the American officials working the phones were Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain also called Karzai. The spokesman for Karzai’s

campaign, Wahid Omar, denied that Karzai was rejecting the outcome of the audit but said that the campaign was concerned that the process was “being overshadowed by political discussions.” Three of the five members of the committee that is conducting the audit are U.N.-appointed experts, but the final results will be announced by the country’s Independent Election Commission, whose top officials are allies of Karzai. A runoff could serve to bolster the legitimacy of the election and of the government it eventually produces.  SABRINA TAVERNISE

Russia Sees Chinese Party as Template for Governing MOSCOW — Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party. Or at least, the one that reigns next door. Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding

China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed. United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power. In truth, the Russians express no desire to return to Communism as a far-reaching MarxistLeninist ideology. What they admire, it seems, is the Chinese ability to use a one-party system

to keep tight control over the country while still driving significant economic growth. It is a historical turnabout, given that the Chinese Communists were inspired by the Soviets, before the two sides had a lengthy rift. The Russians are acutely aware that while Russia has endured many dark days in its transition to a market economy, China appears to have carried out a fairly similar shift more artfully.  (NYT)

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in brief Britain Deports 50 Iraqi Refugees Britain deported 50 Iraqi refugees to Iraq, but the Iraqi authorities who boarded the plane here allowed only nine of them to get off, and then sent the rest back to Britain, officials confirmed Saturday. During the episode on Thursday, the nine refugees allowed to get off the plane were those who agreed to do so voluntarily and who could prove that they came from southern or central Iraq, according to the minister of displacement and migration, Abdul Samad Sultan, in an interview on Saturday. Practically speaking, that meant that Arabs could stay but Kurds could not.  (NYT)

Arms Embargo A West African regional bloc imposed an arms embargo against Guinea on Saturday, accusing the military junta there of “mass human rights violations” during antigovernment protests last month. International pressure has increased for Guinea’s military leader, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, to step down since government troops fired on protesters at the national stadium on Sept. 28. More than 150 people died and thousands more were wounded, according to a local rights group. The government put the death toll at 57. A communiqué from the bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, cited “the atrocities that have been committed” and said it was imposing the embargo under the bloc’s convention on small arms and light weapons.  (Reuters)

Rally for Pardon About 17,000 people rallied in Bangkok on Saturday to demand that the Thai government move forward with a petition for a royal pardon for former Primer Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in 2006. Thailand has deployed 2,000 police officers and invoked a harsh internal security law to ensure that the rally in front of the government offices does not turn violent. (AFP)

national

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Frustrated Liberal Lawmaker Seeks Balance WASHINGTON — Rep. Earl Blumenauer should be experiencing the most fulfilling days of his more than 35 years in public service. The liberal Democrat from Portland, Ore. — known for his bowties, his Trek bicycle and a pragmatic brand of progressivism — embraced Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy early in 2008 and campaigned hard alongside him, steadily gaining confidence that the young senator from Illinois was the ideal liberal remedy to eight years of conservative dominance. Now political reality has set in, testing Blumenauer’s faith that Obama’s election and big Democratic majorities in Congress would yield quick advances in the progressive agenda. Instead of forging ahead, Blumenauer, 61, finds himself fighting to retain one of the touchstones for liberals this year, a

public insurance option in the health care overhaul, and is watching his hopes of curbing global warming grow cold in the Senate. Blumenauer, a seventerm congressman, is bracing for a tough vote on sending more troops to Afghanistan while he frets about the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay remaining open. “It has been a hard landing for a lot of the people that I represent,” Blumenauer, referring to his largely liberal constituency, said as he assessed the first months of the Obama administration. As health care legislation moves to the floor with other major issues close behind, the question for Blumenauer and those who share his ideology will be whether they relent on some of their core beliefs to support less satisfying compromises, despite being in what, on the surface, is a commanding political position.

“It is still something that I am struggling with,” he said. Blumenauer is just one example of what might be called the Frustrated Left, a substantial caucus of Congressional Democrats who dreamed that Obama would usher in a new era of liberal problem-solving only to see Congress and the new administration collide with the old problems of partisanship, internal disagreement and the challenge of mustering 60 votes to get just about anything done in the Senate. While Congressional leaders try to appease moderate and conservative Democrats who can provide the crucial votes for passage, more liberal Democrats from safer districts sometimes simmer, feeling that they are being taken for granted while it is assumed they will get on board when the time comes.  CARL HULSE

Los Angeles Prepares for Clash Over Marijuana LOS ANGELES — There are more marijuana stores here than public schools. Signs emblazoned with cannabis plants or green crosses sit next to dry cleaners, gas stations and restaurants. Cannabis advocates claim that more than 800 dispensaries have sprouted here since 2002; some law enforcement officials say it is closer to 1,000. Whatever the real number, everyone agrees it is too high. And so this, too, is taken for granted: Crackdowns on cannabis clubs will soon come in this city, which has more dispensaries than any other. For the first time, law enforce-

ment officials in Los Angeles have vowed to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries that turn a profit, with police officials saying they expect to conduct raids. Their efforts are widely seen as a campaign to sway the City Council into adopting strict regulations after two years of debate. It appears to be working. Carmen A. Trutanich, the newly elected city attorney, recently persuaded the council to put aside a proposed ordinance negotiated with medical marijuana supporters for one drafted by his office. The new proposal calls for dispensaries to have renewable permits, submit to criminal re-

cord checks, register the names of members with the police, and operate on a nonprofit basis. If enacted, it is likely to result in the closing of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries. Whatever happens here will be closely watched by law enforcement officials and marijuana advocates across the country who are threading their way through federal laws that still treat marijuana as an illegal drug and state laws that are increasingly allowing medicinal use. Thirteen states have laws supporting medical marijuana, and others are considering new legislation.  SOLOMON MOORE

Obama Lashes Back at Health Insurance Industry WASHINGTON — President Obama mounted a frontal assault on the insurance industry on Saturday, accusing it of using “deceptive and dishonest ads” to derail his health care legislation and threatening to strip the industry of its longstanding exemption from federal antitrust laws. In unusually harsh terms, Obama cast insurance companies as obstacles to change interested only in preserving their own “profits and bonuses” and willing

to “bend the truth or break it” to stop his drive to remake the nation’s health care system. The president used his weekly radio and Internet address to challenge industry assertions that legislation will drive up premiums. “It’s smoke and mirrors,” Obama said. “It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar.” Rather than trying to curb costs and help patients, he said, the industry is busy “figuring out how to avoid covering people.”

The president’s attack underscores the sharp break between the White House and the insurance industry as the health care debate moves closer to a climax. When Obama took office, he and his advisers had hoped to keep insurers at the table to forge a consensus. But as the months passed, the strains grew — until this past week, when industry-financed studies attacking the Democratic plan signaled an open rupture.  PETER BAKER

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in brief Housing Uproar Education officials in North Dakota called Friday for an audit on the construction of a house for Joseph A. Chapman, president of North Dakota State University. Chapman resigned last week amid questions about the project’s huge cost overrun, from $900,000 to a total of more than $2 million. He said he had distanced himself from decisions about the construction of the home by the university’s foundation and had had little sense that costs were being exceeded until after the fact.  (NYT)

Obama Poster Shepard Fairey, the artist whose “Hope” poster of Barack Obama became an emblem of the presidential campaign, has admitted that he lied about which photograph from The Associated Press he used as his source, and that he then covered up evidence to substantiate his lie. The admission, made Friday, threw Fairey’s legal battle with the news agency into disarray. He and the A.P. have sued each other over use of the photograph. Complicating the legal battle, the freelance photographer who took the photographs, Mannie Garcia, filed court papers in July saying he was the one who owned the copyright of the 2006 photograph; Garcia’s assignment was to photograph Geroge Clooney, who was at the same event, and he contended that he never assigned his copyright rights to The A.P.  (NYT)

Body on Balcony The body of a man slumped over patio furniture on his balcony in Los Angeles was mistaken for Halloween decor and remained undisturbed for five days. Sheriff’s deputies were called Thursday to the complex in the Marina del Rey neighborhood and found the man, Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, 75, dead. He had been shot through the eye. Sheriff’s deputies believe he committed suicide. “It looked like somebody had thrown a dummy over the back of a chair,” said Austin Raishbrook, 33, who lives nearby.  (NYT)

Arts

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Earhart’s Mystique Takes Wing Again Fame is fleeting, but certain forms of it are stickier than others. More than seven decades after her death the aviatrix Amelia Earhart still fascinates. Called Lady Lindy for her willingness to attempt ill-advised, even foolhardy feats, she has been the subject of more than 100 books, and her name is plastered on bridges, Navy ships, museums and festivals. Now she is the subject of a biopic, “Amelia,” directed by Mira Nair, starring Hilary Swank and opening Friday, which reverently portrays a celebrity who remained remarkably irreverent and curiously humble until her death while trying to circumnavigate the globe. Her disappearance in 1937 and its attendant mystery account for some of the ongoing allure, but she endures because she was a pioneer whose adventures went beyond personal aggrandizement. Earhart took on the laws of nature (humans were not meant to fly) and the conventions of the time (adventure was a man’s business) and seemed to soar above both. “I want to do it because I want to do it,” she said, as a way to explain her desire to accomplish what no woman had. Nair, director of Indian-theme movies like “Salaam Bombay!,” “The Namesake,” and “Monsoon Wedding,” calls Earhart as America’s first modern celebrity. A hero of the protofeminist movement for her single-mindedness, Earhart was also commercially shrewd and aware that her fame had uses beyond her own gratification. As her flying exploits mounted, bringing hope and adventure to the dreary decade of the 1930s, Earhart wrote books, magazine stories, starred in newsreels, endorsed numerous products and designed her own line of clothing. But what put her in the cockpit of all those endeavors in the first place was an ability and willingness to fly airplanes, often over long distances, at a time when flying was considered a sport, and a risky one at that. “In the last week I have flown from Los Angeles to Italy, back to L.A., then a few days later I flew to Dubai, then Dubai to London, and in two days I will be flying back home,”

said Swank, who won best actress Oscars for her performances in “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Million Dollar Baby.” “We take all of that for granted, but people paid a price to make that a reality. Amelia Earhart found something that she loved, a passion, and went after it. All of us, especially women, are the better because of it.” Born in Atchison, Kan., in 1897, Earhart was the daughter of one of the first women to reach the summit of Pikes Peak, and her father, although crippled by alcoholism, was a lawyer and inventor. Earhart received her flying license in 1921, broke the women’s altitude record in 1922 and in 1928 flew as a passenger across the Atlantic, writing about it in “20 Hrs., 40 Min.,” which established her fame. After her solo flight across the Atlantic she became the first pilot to fly solo to California from Hawaii in 1934. But if her life was lived in a very bright light, her death remains a mystery. Earhart, who disappeared at 40 during a flight over the Pacific, has never been found. On July 2, 1937, Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, took off from New Guinea, about 22,000 miles into their effort to circumnavigate the earth. They aimed for Howland Island, a sliver of an island 2,500 miles into the Pacific. Almost everyone, even today, is aware that they never made it; they most likely ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean. The U.S. government spent $4 million (close to $60 million today) looking for her, the most it had ever spent on an air search and rescue, but the plane was never found. For the producers and creative team behind “Amelia,” the forces that compelled Earhart to take those risks are common, even if hers led to uncommon ends. “The more I read about her, the more I thought she is like I was,” said Nair, who comes from a small village in India. “Beyond the enigma of how she died, I’m hoping that people will see themselves in her decisions to set aside her fears and live her life to the fullest.”  DAVID CARR

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Sketching His Way Through Genesis Considering that barely a word has been changed from the original, the warning on the cover of a new, illustrated version of the Book of Genesis — “Adult Supervision Recommended for Minors” — might seem surprising. Until, that is, one reads the name of the illustrator: R. Crumb. Crumb is known almost as much for his bawdy underground comix featuring characters like Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural as he is for “Crumb,” the 1994 documentary about him. But he has been driven less by his sexual impulses in recent years and more by the 45 minutes he spends in seated meditation every morning in the medieval town house he shares with his wife, Aline (they became grandparents this month), in the south of France. One day 15 years ago, for no reason he can remember, Crumb decided he wanted to read the myths of ancient Sumer. Eventually he found a scholarly work that said some of the myths were similar to the stories in Genesis. He read Genesis closely, and the idea of illustrating it clicked. He told a literary agent friend that if he could fetch a big enough advance, he’d do it. W.W. Norton & Company came through with $200,000, which seemed enough; Crumb thought he could bang out the project in a year or two. It took four. As unlikely as it may seem, Crumb has become something of a Bible scholar. In a telephone interview from France, he bristled at a description of his book by his British publisher as “scandalous satire.” “I had no intention to scandalize the Bible,” he said. “I was intrigued by the challenge of exposing everything in there by illustrating it. The text is so significant in our culture, to bring everything out was a significant enough purpose for doing it.”  ALLEN SALKIN

An Ensemble With Many Homes Finds Another, This Time at the Met The name of a string quartet can echo the place of its inception, as with the original Budapest Quartet. You can find an ensemble named for virtually any composer who ever wrote a string quartet of consequence. And then there is the Pacifica Quartet, named, evidently, for a youthful pipe dream. “The original idea was to start and live in L.A.,” Sibbi Bernhardsson, the Pacifica Quartet’s second violinist, said during a recent conversation with two members of the quartet. Bernhardsson founded the group in 1994 with the violinist Simin Ganatra, a classmate at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio originally from Southern California, and Brandon Vamos, a cellist with whose parents Bernhardsson and Ganatra had studied. (The violist Masumi

Per Rostad, who grew up in the East Village, joined the quartet in 2001.) “Shortly after, we got a little residency in Chicago, at a school called the Music Institute,” Bernhardsson said. “So we moved to Chicago, but we were just too lazy to change the name.” That would have been the group’s only instance of laxity. For the four young players, home is Champaign, Ill., where they are on the faculty of the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. They also manage residencies at the University of Chicago and the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass. Those residencies establish a firm foundation in a busy schedule of international touring. “All the stuff that’s happening in Europe, it’s exciting to feel like things are expanding,”

Rostad said. “We just played in Australia, and we go to Japan once in a while. The sick thing is actually how many miles we fly a year. Even the cello used to be Executive Platinum.” On the evening of Oct. 24, the Pacifica Quartet will lay out yet another welcome mat, this one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it was recently named quartet in residence. Hilde Limondjian, the curator of the museum’s concerts, was urged to hear the Pacifica Quartet during its 18-concert Beethoven quartet series at Columbia University during the 2007-8 season. It was love at first hearing. “I was transported, and after all these years it doesn’t happen all the time,” Limondjian said. “When it happens it is so strong, so unforgettable, unmistakable.” STEVE SMITH

business

Sunday, October 18, 2009

An Economic Lifeline Not Made in the U.S.A. Nevada Ryan, 35, is from a family of crop-dusters. Her grandfather, father, mother — and Ryan herself — have all spent countless hours flying planes that drop plumes of chemicals on corn and cotton fields near her hometown of Sumner, Miss. Time spent as a child in those planes inspired her to get her pilot’s license and study engineering. But the kind of job she wanted could not be found when she was attending college in Mississippi during the 1990s. So, like many others, she left the area to find employment — going first to Charleston, S.C., then to Atlanta. In 2006, she heard of a chance to return to her home state, for a job at American Eurocopter, part of the EADS consortium, the European airplane and military equipment maker. EADS planned to build a second plant in Columbus, Miss., and make rescue helicopters for the U.S. Army. Ryan was hired as a

flight test engineer and flew to Germany for training. Asked how she and her co-workers felt about owing their livelihoods to a company based overseas, Ryan, 35, responded, “I don’t think anybody here has a problem with it.” As scores of companies are hemorrhaging jobs, closing plants and slashing compensation, foreign employers have become a lifeline for Ryan and millions of other Americans. While they haven’t been immune from the recession, foreign-owned companies in the United States have a work force of more than 5.3 million, or some 3.5 percent of all workers, and are spread across the 50 states in sectors from manufacturing to retail and publishing. If these jobs did not exist, the nation’s unemployment rate would be above 13 percent. Foreign companies may touch a nerve in American society and may still be an object of fear and distrust among many, who view

foreign investment as a threat to the American worker and way of life. But foreign investment isn’t simply about helping workers earn a weekly paycheck. Foreign companies that invest in the United States are having a significant impact on not only the lives of workers, but also the health of the American economy as a whole. When foreign companies open a factory or buy a business in a region they also stimulate local commerce and create a demand for more homes, shops, schools and restaurants. They contribute money to schools, parks and towns, and lure consultants and technicians who then provide more jobs. This ripple effect explains why governors, mayors and development officials are so eager for foreign investors. Without foreign investment, says Mitch Daniels, the Republican governor of Indiana, “we’d be a Dust Bowl.”  MICHELINE MAYNARD

How Private Can Electronic Data Ever Be? Time to revisit the always compelling — and often disconcerting — debate over digital privacy. So, what might your movie picks and your medical records have in common? How about a potentially false sense of control over who can see your user history? While Netflix and some health care concerns say they have been able to offer study data to researchers stripped of specific personal details like your name, phone number and e-mail address, in some cases researchers may be able to re-identify you by correlating anonymous information with the digital trail that

you’ve left on blogs, chat rooms and Twitter. Of course, you may be fine with that. On the other hand, you may not want strangers rummaging around in your history of movie selections or medical needs. For example, contestants in Netflix’s competition to improve its recommendation software received a training data set containing the movie preferences of more than 480,000 customers who had been “de-identified.” But as part of a privacy experiment, a pair of computer scientists at the University of Texas at Austin decided to see if it was possible to re-identify those unnamed movie

fans. By comparing the film preferences of some anonymous Netflix customers with personal profiles on imdb.com, the Internet movie database, the researchers said they re-identified some people because they had posted their e-mail addresses or other distinguishing information online. Steve Swasey, a Netflix spokesman, disputed the study’s conclusions. Nevertheless, some privacy advocates say the study raises questions about whether laws governing the security of electronic health records may offer incomplete privacy protection.  NATASHA SINGER

Broadband Now! But Some Just Don’t Want It Access to a fast Internet connection has become more than a convenience. It’s being enshrined in some countries as a legal right of all citizens. Finland, for example, announced last week that it was moving up its timetable to next year from 2015 for guaranteeing broadband access to all, according to YLE, the Finnish broadcasting company. Other countries have national plans to accelerate the diffusion

of broadband; America does not. So Congress has given the Federal Communications Commission a mandate to produce a plan by next February. We’ve actually done surprisingly well making a broadband connection accessible to a vast majority of American households. No less than 96 percent of households either subscribe to or have access to broadband service, according to an F.C.C. task force,

which presented a status report to the commission last month. The most interesting question here is the one that the F.C.C. can’t answer: Why have 33 percent of households that have access to broadband elected not to subscribe? A survey focusing on the nonadopters is under way, and it may reveal that there is an irreducible core of people who simply do not want to use the Internet.  RANDALL STROSS

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in brief An Early Peek Under the Tree Halloween isn’t even here yet, yet many retailers have Christmas on the brain. And no wonder: Holiday sales could spell the difference between recession and recovery for them. According to a new survey by the NPD Group, 30 percent of consumers plan to spend less money on holiday gifts this year than they did a year ago. Eleven percent plan to spend more, while 59 percent expect to spend around the same amount. Which companies will be the biggest beneficiaries of what looks to be a somewhat restrained giving season? Thirty-four percent of consumers surveyed planned to buy toys, followed by movies, books, electronics, accessories and music. No. 1 on the giving list? Nearly 50 percent of those surveyed said they planned to buy apparel. That means that makers of the dreaded Christmas sweater are likely to stay in business for yet another year. (NYT)

Microsoft Is Coy On Retail Plans SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Microsoft’s first store looks ready to open in an upscale Phoenix valley city in the next few days, as the software maker takes its first step in trying to match rival Apple’s successful venture into retail. Expectations are running high that its first store, in the Fashion Square Mall here, will open this week, to coincide with the launch of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system on Thursday. The site was still boarded up, but a peek through an open door revealed lights and shelving all ready for customers and a large, flat-screen display along the walls. Microsoft has been coy about its retail plans, and a company spokeswoman would not officially pin down an opening date beyond “the fall.” The chief executive, Steve Ballmer, teased reporters with an imminent opening on Friday, but also would not commit to a date.  (Reuters)

Crossword — Edited By Will Shortz

Sunday, October 18, 2009

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THE NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY MAGAZINE CROSSWORD PUZZLE 1

AHEAD OF THE CURVE

BY ELIZABETH C. GORSKI / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

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50 “Big” number in college athletics 51 Station 52 Year Columbus died 53 Letter-shaped construction pieces 54 New Deal inits. 55 “___ party time!” 56 Legal org. 59 Horse and buggy 60 Needing a massage, say 61 Be hung over, e.g. 62 Small island 63 Enchant 65 Miff 66 1970s TV production co. 67 Symbols like @ 68 “Green Violinist” 69 Gazes at 72 Like a bond you can buy with security? 73 Savor, in a way 74 “Frasier” role 75 Short swim 76 V.P. during the Cuban missile crisis 77 In order (to) 79 Lo-___ 80 “Today” rival, for short 81 Canadian-born hockey great

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ACR O S S

1 “Before the Mirror” 6 Turned off 15 Bête ___ 20 Westernmost avenue in Santa Monica, Calif. 21 Rewards of a political machine 22 Schindler of “Schindler’s List” 23 With 29-Across, holder of the works named in the nine italicized clues, celebrating its 50th anniversary on 10/21/09 26 One at risk of excommunication 27 California wind 28 Ready-go go-between 29 See 23-Across 35 Philharmonic sect. 36 45 players 39 2000s TV family 41 Many a school fund-raiser 46 “What’s going ___ there?” 47 One who works on a grand scale? 49 Game in which players subtract from a starting score of 501 A C H T

N O A H

G I S M O

A S N E R

E L S A S

M E A R A

C B E R

A R L O

G O R E

L E T O F F F O O W T E E G B O U N D Y I A P N E R L O W B A S Y

E W D J A E B U R R E M L A P E S W S U E W H I T O U T O N C D P O S T E E W I R D O C A H O E W I L D S T D O S C N W O O T U B S L O

I N N O T I M E A L L E E E A R L A P

N H O N E O M A S W E S C A N A D A B O R F T W A L E A E T A T B E A D E R R P A R E T R O E M A N N D U P S S S T S I O S I N G E T M A N I P P S F P O U L L U N E E T C

U N T A C K S A K U M O U R N I N G

S I L O P R E E R T A I S R E R A D I O T U T X G E R N A D S P S

A G N E W

D A D A

A M O K

M E N S

W H A I R E S T I N K O G R E H I D I T M P L E O R E D K I N G C I E L E N S O S P O T T O N E I C K S T O P S

Answer to puzzle for 10/11/09

82 “Eldorado” grp. 83 Perfectly timed 85 Like some YouTube videos 87 House call? 88 Landlocked European 90 Vintage Tonka toy 94 Water swirl 95 In need of blusher, say 97 “Composition 8” 98 Old credit-tracking corp. 99 Clytemnestra, to Agamemnon 102 Light planes 103 “Peasant With Hoe” 106 Subject of the Joni Mitchell song “Amelia” 108 Jazz standard whose title is repeatedly sung after “Honey …” 109 “May I ___ question?” 110 “Rebel Without a Cause” actress 118 Operatic prince 119 Grand 120 Controversial form that 43-Down used for 23-/29-Across 121 Like some traffic 122 Lummoxes 123 One who gets a lot of return business? 124 Verb with “vous” DOWN

1 Lepidopterist’s study 2 Pain in the neck 3 Poetic contraction 4 Enters leisurely 5 Gov’t investments 6 Part of some Bibles: Abbr. 7 Flight 8 Midori on ice 9 North end? 10 “… ___ should I” 11 Director Lee 12 Cross shape 13 Shell food? 14 “Seated Woman, Wiping Her Left Side”

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8

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

42

43

44

45

70

71

22 25 27

37

29

38

30

31

32

33

34

39

46

35 40

47

50

51 55

56

62

63

66

67

68

72

73 77

82

83

88

89 95 100

49

52

54

76

41 48

61

99

9

24

28 36

7

21

57

58

53 59

60

64

65 69

74 78

75 79

80

84 90

96

85 91

92

81

86

87

93

94

97 101

106

98 102

107

103

104 105

108

109

110

119

120

111 112 113 114 115 116 117

118 121

122

123

124

(No. 1018)

15 Like 43-Down’s design for 23-/29-Across 16 Org. setting workplace rules 17 Swedish company with a catalog 18 Drops from the sky 19 Gospel singer Franklin 24 Flambé, say 25 ___’acte 29 Castle security system 30 Bygone channel 31 “No seats left” 32 Use (up), as time 33 One for the money? 34 “Tableau 2” 36 Good lookers 37 Fated 38 With 43-Down, what 23/29-Across was 39 Player of one of the women in Robert Altman’s “3 Women” 40 Site of Spain’s Alamillo Bridge

42 Jewelry firm since 1842 43 See 38-Down 44 U.S.P.S. deliveries 45 Latin 101 verb 47 Drinks of liquor 48 Sixth-brightest star in the sky 51 “Mandolin and Guitar” 56 Start of a common run 57 Joy of “The View” 58 Showing surprise 64 Words from Charlie Brown 70 Dog-___ 71 Many a perfume 75 Epps of “House” 78 Shrub that may cause a severe allergic reaction 80 Leaden, in London 84 Angela Merkel’s one 85 Place for a stamp 86 Sorts 89 School popular in the 1920s

91 Autumn ESPN highlights 92 Sue Grafton’s “___ for Ricochet” 93 Common middle name for a girl 94 Scholarly 96 Code-cracking grp. 98 “Time out!” signal 99 Old defense grp. 100 Turkish bigwig 101 “The Antipope” 103 Early spring feast 104 Just love 105 Life preserver, e.g. 107 Spanish tidbit 108 Skinny 111 B.O. purchases 112 “Head and Shell” 113 Roman household god 114 Paris’s ___ SaintLouis 115 Medium strength? 116 “Huh?” 117 Viking ship item

Answers to this puzzle will appear in next Sunday’s TimesDigest, and in next Sunday’s New York Times. You can get answers to any clue by touch-tone phone: 1-900-289-CLUE (289-2583), $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5550.

G ET H OME D ELIVERY OF T HE N EW Y ORK T IMES . C ALL 1-800-NYTIMES

opinion

Sunday, October 18, 2009

editorials of the timeS

maureen dowd

The Public Plan, Continued

Fie, Fatal Flaw!

In the debate over health care reform, no issue has produced more fury and sound bites than the question of whether to include a government-run insurance plan. It is not indispensable, and its role would be limited. Even so, we strongly support inclusion of a public option — the bigger and stronger the better. That is the best way to give consumers more choices, inject more competition into insurance markets, hold down the cost of insurance policies and save money for the federal budget. Here are some of the basic issues to consider, and the current legislative state of play: Who Could Enroll? While critics rail against a government takeover of health care, the reality is that the vast majority of Americans — those who have access to health insurance offered by large employers — would not be eligible to enroll in a public plan. If Congress approves a public plan, it would be sold only on new insurance exchanges to people who now buy their policies directly from private insurers, work for small companies or are uninsured. People eligible to use the exchanges could choose from a menu of private plans and, we hope, a cheaper public plan as well. Subsidies would be provided to help low- and moderateincome people pay their premiums. Does it Make Insurance More Affordable? Most experts agree that a public plan should be able to provide insurance at a lower cost because it would have no need to earn a profit and could either demand or bargain for lower prices from health care providers. That should spur private insurers to find ways to hold down their premiums as well, at least on the exchanges. That would be good news for higher-income Americans on the exchange, roughly a fifth or

less of the total, who would pay all of the cost of their insurance. It would benefit few, if any, of the rest, namely the low- and moderate-income people who would receive government subsidies to help buy insurance. All versions of the legislation would require these people to spend specified percentages of their income toward the premium and a government tax credit would then pay the rest. The real savings would accrue to the government, which would then have to spend less money to subsidize purchases of lower-cost public or private insurance. What’s the Strongest Public Plan? That is apt to emerge from the House, where the Democrats need only a majority to pass legislation and are constrained only by the need to satisfy conservatives in their own party. The speaker’s office is considering three options. In the most robust, the public plan would pay hospitals and other providers based on Medicare reimbursement rates, typically lower than private insurance rates. That would allow the public plan to charge lower premiums than private plans, and save the government substantial money in reduced subsidies — more than $100 billion over the next decade. There is a danger that the low payments might push some hospitals, especially in rural areas, into deeper financial trouble. A Public Plan for Everybody? Too often insurance markets are dominated by one or two big companies. We believe that, after a breakin period, the insurance exchanges, with a public option, should be opened to virtually everyone covered by large employer-based plans. That would give the vast majority of Americans a bigger choice of insurance options than they now have at most workplaces — and a greater stake in pushing Congress to approve a strong public plan.

A Bit of Bipartisanship Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has long resisted climate change legislation, has joined the ranks of those pushing for a bipartisan agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions. We welcome his change of heart. Graham has sensibly decided that it helps neither the planet, the country nor his party to block efforts to solve the problem of global warming. Graham has held extensive conversations in recent weeks with Sen. John Kerry, one of the main sponsors of the Senate climate change bill. In last Sunday’s Times, the two wrote a joint Op-Ed article that sought to define a broad approach to the problems of climate change and energy independence that both parties and all Americans could rally around. In addition to supporting aggressive emissions reductions, the senators endorsed strategies typically associated with Republicans (nuclear power and “environmentally sensi-

tive” offshore oil exploration) and strategies favored by Democrats (including mandates for renewable energy sources like wind power). Some environmentalists hailed the new alliance as a “game-changer” that greatly increased the success of a climate bill. We hope so. Graham’s conversion could encourage Sen. John McCain and Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins — all past supporters of climate change legislation — to come forward again, and it could attract fence-sitters like Indiana’s Richard Lugar and Ohio’s George Voinovich. But opposition to mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions — the best hope for addressing the problem of climate change — remains fierce. And it is still a long climb to 60 filibuster-proof votes. What is fair to say is that the Kerry-Graham alliance has made it easier. They should keep at it.

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WASHINGTON — One singular leader who wrote elegantly about his ideals, was swept into the presidency and then collided with harsh reality had some advice for another. In an interview with Alison Smale in The Times last week, Vaclav Havel sipped Champagne and pricked Barack Obama’s conscience. Havel, the 73-year-old former Czech president, who didn’t win a Nobel Peace Prize despite leading the Czechs and the Slovaks from communism to democracy, turned the tables and asked Smale a question about Obama, the latest winner of the peace prize. Was it true that the president had refused to meet the Dalai Lama on his visit to Washington? He was told that Obama had indeed tried to curry favor with China by declining to see the Dalai Lama until after the president’s visit to China next month. Dissing the Dalai was part of a broader new Obama policy called “strategic reassurance” — softening criticism of China’s human rights record and financial policies to calm its fears that America is trying to contain it. The tyro president got the Nobel for the mere anticipation that he would provide bold moral leadership at the very moment he was caving to Chinese dictators. Awkward. Havel said, “It is only a minor compromise. But exactly with these minor compromises start the big and dangerous ones, the real problems.” Havel is looking at this not only as a moral champion but as a playwright. Obama (who, as Robert Draper wrote, has read and reread Shakespeare’s tragedies) does not want his fatal flaw to be that he compromises so much that his ideals get blurred out of recognition. The air is full of complaints that Obama has been too cautious on health care, Afghanistan, filling judgeships, ending “don’t ask, don’t tell” and rebuilding New Orleans; that he has conceded too much to China, Iran, Russia, the Muslim world and the banks. Senator Obama visited the Gulf region after Katrina, promising to “keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans.” He may be doing a better job than Brownie’s boss, but, as president, Obama didn’t make his first visit to New Orleans until Thursday. At the New Orleans town hall, Gabriel Bordenave, 29, complained about the slow pace of recovery. “I expected as much from the Bush administration,” he said. “But why are we still being nickel-and-dimed?” The president gave a technocrat’s answer about the “complications between the state, the city and the feds in making assessments of the damages.” “Now, I wish I could just write a check,” he added. When an audience member yelled “Why not?” he dryly noted, “There’s this whole thing about the Constitution.” The president should remember, though, that when you’re cooking up a more perfect Union, sometimes you’ve got to break some eggs.

sports

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Roughing Penalties: Protection or Overkill? Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning took such a hard hit to his left knee last week that it required medical attention after the game, even though Manning was wearing a brace when the contact occurred. New England’s Tom Brady was hit near his right knee two weeks ago with a glancing blow that did not even knock him off his feet, leaving him upright to turn and wave for a flag from the official nearby. Both hits drew roughing-thepasser penalties and illustrated how wide the range of unacceptable hits has become as the N.F.L. struggles to offer more protection to players they consider vulnerable to injury, especially quarterbacks. From the moment Brady spun around and encouraged the referee Ron Winter to throw his flag, there has been a debate about whether the N.F.L. — with

its emphasis on penalties for roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness — has gone too far to shield players, especially the marquee ones, from harm in a fundamentally brutal sport. “They’re trying to legislate hitting out of the game,” said the former quarterback Trent Dilfer, who as an ESPN analyst has taken issue with how heavily the people who play his old position are protected. “It’s affecting the outcome of games. The name on the back of the jersey has become more important than the team.” The N.F.L. makes no secret of its desire to protect quarterbacks, who are usually a franchise’s most important player. Through the fourth week of play, the most recent numbers available, roughing-the-passer penalties had increased only slightly, to 21 in 2009 from 18 in 2008, ac-

cording to the league. But unnecessary-roughness infractions — like the helmet-propelling hit Ray Lewis put on Chad Ochocinco last Sunday — have soared, to 64 from 51, reflecting a crackdown on everything from the wedge to chop blocks to blindside blocks on a defensive player’s head. If the current pace holds up, the N.F.L. would have about 80 roughing-the-passer penalties this season, a third more than last season’s number. The N.F.L. says it is not surprised by the spike. “We’re not going to let up in trying to protect the players,” Mike Pereira, the N.F.L.’s vice president for officiating, said. “The clear message is being sent — we’re going to protect the head and we’re going to protect the knees and we’re going to do that on those most vulnerable.”  JUDY BATTISTA

For Argentines, Coach Is a Legend and a Letdown BUENOS AIRES — After a 1-0 victory over Uruguay, Argentina’s soccer team qualified for the World Cup in South Africa next summer, despite growing doubts that coach Diego Maradona could lead it there. But Argentines also awoke to the realization that the team would still be coached by Maradona, 48, the soccer idol known worldwide simply as Maradona, whose brilliant playing career made him a national hero but whose erratic tenure as coach has become a source of national dread. Argentines fear that in one

downward swoop, they could lose two symbols of national pride: the glorious legend of Maradona as well as the nation’s standing as a global soccer power. Maradona is a flawed character, a substance abuser who struggled with the trappings of stardom and bristled at criticism. Since he took over the team, it has won four matches and lost four, despite having standout international stars. Then in a remarkable game on Oct. 10, a bit of the old luster returned. In a match against a scrappy Peruvian team, amid a blinding rain and ball-tossing

WEATHER

High/low temperatures for the 20 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) for the 18 hours ended at 2 p.m. yesterday. Expected conditions for today and tomorrow. Weather conditions: C-clouds, F-fog, H-haze, I-ice, PCpartly cloudy,R-rain, S-sun, Sh-showers, Sn-snow, SSsnow showers, T-thunderstorms, Tr-trace, W-windy.

U.S. CITIES Yesterday Today Tomorrow Atlanta 52/ 45 0 56/ 39 S 63/ 38 S Albuquerque 69/ 52 0 76/ 49 S 77/ 53 S Boise 76/ 48 0 69/ 51 S 58/ 48 C Boston 49/ 36 0 45/ 41 R 48/ 40 Sh Buffalo 45/ 37 0 50/ 33 PC 54/ 34 PC Charlotte 52/ 48 0.13 55/ 39 C 62/ 35 S Chicago 52/ 37 0 55/ 36 S 59/ 41 PC Cleveland 48/ 39 0.33 48/ 37 PC 58/ 34 PC Dallas-Ft. Worth 73/ 50 0 68/ 49 S 79/ 56 PC Denver 64/ 30 0 82/ 45 S 79/ 47 PC Detroit 48/ 33 0 51/ 31 PC 56/ 34 PC

Houston 76/ 55 0 Kansas City 51/ 42 0.03 Los Angeles 90/ 66 0 Miami 91/ 79 0.01 Mpls.-St. Paul 48/ 33 0 New York City 48/ 42 0 Orlando 73/ 60 0 Philadelphia 47/ 42 0.44 Phoenix 100/ 72 0 Salt Lake City 69/ 45 0 San Francisco 73/ 56 0 Seattle 61/ 57 1.01 St. Louis 52/ 39 0 Washington 47/ 43 0.83

wind, Martín Palermo chipped in the winning goal for Argentina in the final minute. On Wednesday, the team edged past Uruguay, and Maradona gloated at a post-match news conference, lashing out at journalists “who treated me like garbage.” Using sexual vulgarities, he also said, “All those that said anything against me, keep eating your words.” Gustavo Sorange, 47, a carpenter from General Juan Madariaga, southeast of Buenos Aires, said some of his friends were so disillusioned with Maradona that they rooted for Uruguay.  (NYT) 71/ 49 S 61/ 35 PC 80/ 65 PC 74/ 62 S 58/ 37 PC 43/ 41 R 68/ 52 S 44/ 41 Sh 99/ 73 S 74/ 51 S 63/ 56 PC 59/ 53 C 58/ 36 S 48/ 39 Sh

78/ 49 PC 67/ 49 S 74/ 62 PC 78/ 58 PC 60/ 46 PC 52/ 39 C 74/ 50 S 52/ 39 PC 96/ 73 S 68/ 54 PC 61/ 52 C 59/ 50 C 68/ 43 S 60/ 40 S

FOREIGN CITIES Yesterday Today Tomorrow Acapulco 94/ 77 0.12 91/ 77 C 86/ 75 PC Athens 67/ 61 0.28 79/ 59 S 79/ 57 S Beijing 72/ 46 0 64/ 45 S 54/ 41 S Berlin 47/ 37 0.09 48/ 37 C 50/ 36 S Buenos Aires 69/ 48 0 73/ 54 PC 72/ 54 Sh Cairo 102/ 73 0 100/ 79 PC 97/ 79 PC

Cape Town Dublin Geneva Hong Kong Kingston Lima London Madrid Mexico City Montreal Moscow Nassau Paris Prague Rio de Janeiro Rome Santiago Stockholm Sydney Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Warsaw

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in brief Texas and Fla. Win Enough about Colt McCoy and the Texas offense. The Longhorns knocked off rival Oklahoma on Saturday because of their defense. Aaron Williams knocked out Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford on a firstquarter sack, then he and Earl Thomas picked off backup Landry Jones in the fourth quarter to send No. 3 Texas to a 16-13 victory Saturday over the No. 20 Sooners. Meanwhile, A field goal in the final seconds lifted Tim Tebow and No. 1 Florida to a 23-20 victory over upset-minded Arkansas.  (AP)

Nadal Advances Rafael Nadal advanced to the Shanghai Masters final on Saturday after Feliciano Lopez became the ninth player to retire from the tournament. The unseeded Lopez said he woke up with a right foot infection, then twisted his right ankle on the last point of the first set. He was trailing, 6-1, 3-0, when he retired. The top-seeded Nadal will play in Sunday’s final against sixthseeded Nikolay Davydenko of Russia. (AP)

Man United in First Manchester United moved to the top of the English Premier League Saturday with a 2-1 home win over Bolton Wanderers, while Chelsea squandered a lead and lost by 2-1 at Aston Villa and Liverpool lost at Sunderland.  (Reuters) 70/ 50 0 57/ 36 Tr 52/ 39 0 92/ 75 0 91/ 79 0 69/ 62 Tr 54/ 45 0 72/ 37 0 78/ 55 0 46/ 27 0 50/ 46 0.39 93/ 81 0 57/ 46 0.02 42/ 36 0.06 75/ 70 0.08 58/ 41 0 69/ 45 0 43/ 37 – 68/ 54 0 70/ 59 0 47/ 32 0 61/ 58 0.87 42/ 32 0.01

73/ 52 S 59/ 48 C 46/ 36 PC 86/ 77 S 88/ 79 T 82/ 66 C 59/ 39 PC 66/ 43 S 64/ 50 C 45/ 28 C 45/ 36 PC 91/ 73 T 57/ 39 PC 43/ 37 C 86/ 70 T 61/ 48 S 70/ 46 S 46/ 34 PC 68/ 54 PC 75/ 61 S 48/ 30 S 59/ 48 C 46/ 32 PC

81/ 55 S 59/ 50 C 54/ 30 S 84/ 77 R 86/ 79 T 70/ 61 C 57/ 45 C 68/ 46 PC 70/ 48 C 52/ 28 PC 46/ 37 C 88/ 73 PC 55/ 41 PC 45/ 34 PC 86/ 72 T 57/ 45 S 77/ 45 PC 48/ 36 C 77/ 52 S 73/ 59 PC 52/ 30 PC 61/ 46 PC 46/ 30 S

sports journal

Sunday, October 18, 2009

9

Confounding Errors and Conspicuous Headgear in Playoffs This was bound to happen, as fore heading to California, where baseball pursues its love affair baseball actually makes sense at with Arctic Circle baseball. In this time of year. the capricious weather of auThe players, neither sissies tumn, fielders have been known nor complainers, understand to lose track of the ball that their stupendous Sports because of the sun, the salaries come from Of lights or the wind. playing postseason The Times But Erick Aybar of the games at times dictated Angels managed to lose by the television netGeorge track of a high pop-up on works. And the fans, beVecsey Friday night, craning ing fans, show up, wearhis neck to track the ball ing winter clothes. while wearing a bright red bala“Anybody can play this game clava under his bright red cap. with 70 degrees and it’s beautiPlayers do not ordinarily ful,” said Mike Scioscia, a Philly wear this garb for home games guy who manages the Angels in Orange County, Calif. To my and has been working in Califorbenumbed way of thinking, the nia most of his adult life. balaclava must have had some“When it’s going to be like it is thing to do with the gaffe. tonight,” Scioscia said Friday, The teams concluded their “you have to keep your focus, teeth-chattering opener Friday keep your focus defensively, night, with the Yanks beating and certainly on the mound the Angels, 4-1, in the American with whatever happens with the League Championship Series. pitcher and the catcher. Bring They faced the possibility of your game plan out there and exheavy rain Saturday night beecute it as well as you can.”

The Angels did not execute, particularly on a towering popup after the Yanks scored a run in the first inning. Aybar and third baseman Chone Figgins paid too much attention to each other and the ball dropped for a run-scoring single. Aybar said he did not hear Figgins, who appeared to be shouting for him to take the pop-up. A resident of the Dominican Republic, Aybar said he had never played in such cold weather (a windy 45 degrees). Asked about the coldest he ever felt at a game, Scioscia recalled catching for the Dodgers in the final game of the league series in 1981 in Montreal, with the roof locked in an open position. The Expos had two runners on and two outs in the seventh. “Fernando Valenzuela really pitched a gem,” he recalled. “It was a pop-up. I looked up and I was getting under it and catching it through the snowflakes. It was cold.”

According to weather reports for Oct. 19, 1981, the temperature at Mirabel Airport ranged from 39 to 50 with winds gusting from 16 to 25 miles per hour. Scioscia said weather can also be erratic during the regular season — “if you’ve ever been to Wrigley Field and that wind is blowing straight in.” It was not hard to miss the contrast. In the other league series, the Phillies were playing in Los Angeles — a day game, blue sky, 93 degrees — as a cold night fell on the Bronx. “We were like, wow, that weather looks pretty good compared to here,” said Joe Saunders, scheduled to pitch the second game for the Angels. “They’re there and we’re here. We have to take care of business here. We’ll get back there soon enough.” By then, Aybar may have mastered the art of catching a pop-up — with a stiff Bronx wind lashing at his balaclava.

New Homes and New Hope for Some Neglected Upstate Horses One horse is being retrained to become a hunter-jumper in Virginia. A half-dozen or so of his former neighbors rollick in the pasture and munch carrots in Pennsylvania. Seven more are being nursed backed to health by inmates at a New York prison. Then there is the aptly named Escapedfromnewyork, who is convalescing among champions and legends at a retirement home amid the plush bluegrass in Kentucky. They were all among the 177 horses found malnourished and neglected in April at the upstate New York farm of the prominent thoroughbred breeder and owner Ernie Paragallo. Over the last six months, the Humane Society/Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Greene and Columbia Counties, with the help of rescue groups and horse lovers from across the nation, has found homes for 96 of those horses. The agency has spent $82,000 treating, feeding and finding homes for the horses. Six horses were too sick to recover and were euthanized. The plight of the animals has touched the hearts and united a disparate group of horse lovers who have mobilized large-

ly through the Internet to give these animals a second chance. Paragallo, meanwhile, has been indicted on 35 counts of animal cruelty by a Greene County grand jury and faces up to two years in prison and $35,000 in fines if found guilty. He has denied that he starved and neglected his horses and is free on $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court this week, but no trial date has been set. “There has been an awful lot of hard work and imagination put in by strangers to save these horses’ lives,” said Ron Perez, the president of the Humane Society/ S.P.C.A. in Greene and Columbia Counties. The last of the adopted horses — a colt and two filly yearlings — left Friday from Paragallo’s Center Brook Farm in Climax, N.Y., for North Carolina. It is the first step on a path that embodies the creative thinking that has become the hallmark of horse rescue outfits. The horses’ new owners, Angelika Hala and Sean Kerr, are sending them to Paula Turner, who broke the 1977 Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, and is considered something of a horse whisperer for her patience in de-

veloping them mentally as well as physically. “We’d like to see if they can make it to the racetrack,” said Hala, who met Kerr, her fiancé, at the Claremont Riding Academy, a fixture of Manhattan’s West Side for more than 100 years. The couple have never owned racehorses; they rescued two mares that they have begun to breed. In fact, they had no intention of adopting three racehorses. They did, however, have a similar reaction to that of most adoptive owners: They were horrified at how badly they had been neglected. “We came to horses late in life and are just nuts about them,” said Hala, who lives in New York City and is a photo editor for a German magazine. “When we saw the colt and the two fillies with their ribs sticking out, there was no way we could pick one over or another. We just had to take all three of them.” Almost everyone smiles when telling stories of the 96 adopted horses. Christy Sheidy, the cofounder of Another Chance 4 Horses, which spread the word about the neglect at Center Brook Farm, told how Jennifer blossomed from a sickly mare into a

vivacious one. Jennifer grew so robust, Sheidy suspected she was pregnant. “She has gotten so round we just had her palpated, and she is open,” Sheidy said. “No baby.” In April, Escapedfromnewyork looked like a yearling when he arrived at Old Friends at Dream Chase Farm, the retirement center in Georgetown, Ky. He was actually 5 years old. He took up residence alongside thoroughbred icons like Sunshine Forever and Ogygian — and more than 50 other horses worth tens of millions of dollars on the racetrack. Among them was Escapedfromnewyork’s grandfather Fortunate Prospect. Still, Snake — the horse is nicknamed after the protagonist in the movie “Escape From New York” — has quickly become one of the star attractions for the thousands of horse lovers who go to the farm. “Snake has grown about 10 inches and gained about 200 pounds,” Michael Blowen, the farm’s president and founder, said. “The tragedy is that I think with his build and intelligence he would have made a very nice racehorse.” JOE DRAPE