The Real Trouble With The

The Difficulty With Becoming A Patient Is That As Soon As You Get Horizontal, Part Of Your Being Yearns, Not For A Doctor, But For A Medicine Man.

The Federal Building's Large Ceremonial Courtroom, Reserved For Show Trials, Is Veneered In Executive Teak. Bench, Counsel Tables, Jury Boxes, Entrances, And Exits -- All Are As Formally Arranged As An Elizabethan Stage. Only The Drama Is Shapeless, At Least To Those Of Us Who Have Never Seen A Trial Before. We See Only Random Movements, Sequences, Comings And Goings, No Form Or Agenda Apparent. To Us The Action Is Less Like Watching A Play Than Watching An Aquarium.

At Gatling-gun Tempo Word-perfect The First Time Out. The Journalistic Equivalent Of A High-wire Front Somersault Without A Net.

Ballet's Image Of Perfection Is Fashioned Amid A Milieu Of Wracked Bodies, Fevered Imaginations, Balkan Intrigue And Sulfurous Hatreds Where Anything Is Likely, And Dancers Know It.

Rumor And Gossip, Like Sound Itself, Appear To Travel By Wave-effect, Sheer Preposterosity Being No Barrier.