Message-ID: <25635913.1075841877870.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 05:20:00 -0700 (PDT) From: web@theatlantic.com To: transatl@theatlantic.com Subject: Living With Baboons, Disappearing Hashish, and more... Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: The Atlantic Online X-To: TRANSATL@THEATLANTIC.COM X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \kate symes 6-27-02\Notes Folders\Rainy day X-Origin: SYMES-K X-FileName: kate symes 6-27-02.nsf TransAtlantic | The Atlantic Online | http://www.theatlantic.com April 27, 2001 + THIS WEEK ... "I joined the baboon troop during my twenty-first year. I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla." So begins Robert Sapolsky's new book, *A Primate's Memoir,* about the time he spent in Kenya's Serengeti over the past twenty years, researching the stress levels of a troop of baboons. This week, we're featuring an interview with Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford. Sapolsky's interests are wide-ranging, and our conversation with him covers everything from the shadows colonialism still casts on Africa, to the fallacy of free will, to why he only rates as a "pathetically low-ranking baboon." We've also included two excerpts from *A Primate's Memoir,* so you can get a sense of Sapolsky's witty and lively prose. Best, Katie Bacon Executive Editor The Atlantic Online + In ATLANTIC UNBOUND, The Atlantic's online journal ... Unbound Fiction A SIGN OF THE TIMES by Joan Wilking Apr 25 | "He's wearing one of Mom's old bathrobes, a cotton kimono, one she and Dad bought on a trip to Japan. He's barefoot. He's been barefoot and wearing the same kimono since I moved back in eight days ago. You can believe me. I'm keeping count." http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/fiction/2001-04wilking.htm Atlantic Abroad LOOKING FOR LEB RED by Velisarios Kattoulas Apr 25 | "When I arrived at the University of London in the late 1980s, the thing to take to parties was Leb Red--not a charming French table wine, but a pungent, murky brown hashish from Lebanon's Beka'a Valley. Regrettably, my fellow undergraduates majoring in Japanese were a bit square--several have since entered finance--and by the time I fell in with the anthropologists, Leb Red was nowhere to be found." http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/abroad/vk2001-04-25.htm Interviews ROBERT SAPOLSKY: OF MONKEYS AND MEN by Katie Bacon Apr 25 | "For these baboons, stress is entirely socially generated, so they really are good models for us. Study some marginal baboon population in some dying ecosystem and it would not be anywhere near relevant to making sense of which middle-aged executive gets heart disease. Our stress is created by our privileged cocooning from ecological stressors; likewise these baboons." The author of *A Primate's Memoir* talks about his years as a member of a troop of Serengeti baboons. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2001-04-25.htm Sage, Ink Apr 25 | SMALL-TIME CROOKS http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/sage/ss2001-04-25.htm A cartoon by Sage Stossel. ------------------------------------------------------- + In D.C. DISPATCH | from National Journal Legal Affairs ENACT A CIVILIZED CRIME BILL, FOR A CHANGE By Stuart Taylor Jr. Apr 26 | Letting defendants and convicts use DNA tests to prove their innocence isn't being soft on crime. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/taylor2001-04-26.htm Media THE CUTTING EDGE By William Powers Apr 26 | Strikingly, when journalists' jobs are lopped, the story doesn't get that extra touch of care and concern. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/powers2001-04-26.htm Political Pulse BUSH WINS 'LET'S MAKE A DEAL' By William Schneider Apr 26 | The American public put saving lives over saving face in Chinese standoff. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/schneider2001-04-26.htm Social Studies NOW IS THE TIME TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT RWANDA By Jonathan Rauch Apr 26 | With Clinton out of office, an honest inquiry into America's role during the genocide is at last possible. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/rauch2001-04-26.htm ------------------------------------------------------- + In POST & RIPOSTE | Forum Highlights "Word Imperfect" Is Roget's *Thesaurus* a tool for mediocrity and an agent for the decline of the English language? Weigh in on Simon Winchester's Centerpiece in the May issue. http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6fcbf "Exorcising Hollywood Demons" Which Hollywood cliches and conventions do you find most annoying? http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6fca2 "Russia Is Finished" Are Russia's days as a relevant world power over? Join the discussion on Jeffrey Tayler's May cover story. http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6fcc8 "Bush's First 100 Days" What do you make of Bush's performance so far? What effects do you predict he will have had on this country by the end of his term? http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee6fdf3 ... and much more. http://www.theatlantic.com/pr/ ------------------------------------------------------- THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY EDUCATION PROGRAM Teachers, put The Atlantic's quality to work in your classroom withour new Education Program. Affordable rates, FREE Teacher's Guide, and FREE instructor's copy with each qualifying order. 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