FIVE years ago my brother and I spoke regularly .

Five years ago we drank together , teased each other without mercy and , occasionally , even expressed feelings of affection .

After 9/11 we did not .

My brother is a 20-plus-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department , a former marine with a degree in history whose politics are conservative .

He is four years older and quite a bit larger than me .

I am a 20-plus-year veteran of big-agency advertising , a creative director turned fiction writer whose politics , not surprisingly , do not lean conservatively .

Until five years ago , this was not such a big problem .

There were plenty of other things to talk about , and we knew that despite our differences , there was still much to appreciate about each other .

On Sept . 11 , 2001 , I was in Boca Raton , Fla . , on business accompanied by my wife , my 3-year-old daughter and my mother-in-law -LRB- yes , my mother-in-law came on business trips with us back then -RRB- at , of all things , a sales convention for a yogurt company .

At 9 a.m. , we were granted a 10-minute respite from the executive Vince Lombardi-isms and the Roman Colosseum-inspired motivational décor .

The first thing I did was check the messages on my personal communications device du jour , because in 2001 , I was convinced that the more I checked the quotidian drivel it contained the more it seemed that my ad agency , yogurt convention , frequent-flier-miles-financed-family-business-trip life mattered .

But this time what the messages told me were hardly drivel .

I immediately called New York to check on my brother who was not supposed to be working , but with firefighters you never know .

He was n't working .

He 'd soon go to the site , but luckily he would n't be one of the 343 firefighters killed .

For the next hour , I 'm fairly sure that he watched what I watched , that he looked away when I looked away , and I am fairly sure that at 9:59 a.m. , when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed , he felt exactly what I felt .

What we all felt .

I am also sure that those were the last pure , nonpoliticized thoughts any of us would have about that day , and the last time that my brother and I would feel the same way about anything for some time .

Renting a car and driving home was our only option .

At first I wanted to push through , to rush the family home .

`` To what .

`` my wife asked .

`` To have our daughter watch her parents sit paralyzed in front of a television set .

`` So we took our time , taking a scenic , non-traditional route back to New York .

I got my information from fellow travelers and National Public Radio .

I found comfort in the measured voices of `` All Things Considered , '' solace in `` I love New York '' signs in Georgia , inspiration in the words on Jefferson 's tombstone at Monticello , near Charlottesville , Va . , which noted that he was also one of the fathers of religious tolerance in this country .

Meanwhile , my brother was getting his information from rescue workers and fellow firefighters .

Because of his military background , his job in the years before the attack had included training recruits at the Fire Academy at Randalls Island .

His job in the months ahead would be to coordinate funerals .

Dozens of funerals .

For friends and friends of friends , each with a story more tragic than the last .

Late at night on Sept . 14 , my family slept as I drove through Pennsylvania .

With no NPR to be had for the time being , I listened to sports guys weighing in on the Northern Alliance , D.J. ` s explaining the tenuous Pakistani-Afghani relationship .

With each passing mile , more and more proselytizing and hate seeped into the views of the syndicated giants .

Driving near Port Jervis , N.Y. , a state trooper pulled alongside our car and shined a spotlight inside while the rest of my family was sleeping .

Four strangers in a red rental car with Florida plates .

Suspects .

To think that 9/11 drove a stake between my brother and me is as naïve as thinking that it drove one through the country .

Red and blue staters had been at each other 's throats for a while , and my brother and I had clashed on and off over lots of things for years .

But this took it farther .

He had been affected by it in ways I could not imagine .

Of the 343 firefighters killed , he knew dozens .

No one that I knew had died .

Within a week , I would go back to work .

For more than a year , he would go to funerals and I imagine that in addition to grief , a man with my brother 's courage and sense of duty must also have been dealing with a serious case of survivor 's guilt .

But did that make his opinions -- which had become increasingly angry and pronounced -- right .

Over the last five years we 've disagreed about everything from the 2000 and 2004 elections to the war in Iraq , radical Islam and of course , the liberal news media .

For a while we tiptoed around politics but when we were together everything seemed political .

For a while we did n't speak at all .

But lately we 've been talking .

I care too strongly for him to let politics destroy our relationship and I think he feels the same .

The other day I called him .

He had just gotten home from the hospital where a fellow firefighter , Lt . Howard Carpluk Jr . lay in critical condition from injuries suffered when the floor had given way in a burning Bronx building .

Another firefighter , 25-year-old Michael Reilly , who had served in the Marines in Iraq , had already died .

My brother told me he was there near Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the doctors gave them an update .

-LRB- Lieutenant Carpluk died the following day . -RRB-

My brother sounded tired .

After some time , while discussing Labor Day plans , I told him that I 'd been invited to discuss my book on a conservative talk show in Boston and joked that I feared an ambush .

He told me to tell them that my brother was a New York City firefighter , and maybe they 'd go easy on me .

James P . Othmer is the author of the novel `` The Futurist . '' .

Summary: Op-Ed article by James Othmer describes ways in which his relationship with his brother , veteran New York City firefighter who worked at World Trade Center site , changed after 9/11 .


To the Editor : In a Sept . 3 letter -LRB- `` New York Is Bike-Friendly '' -RRB- , Ryan Russo , the Department of Transportation 's director for street management and safety , states that he and his colleagues `` have to work hard to win local support for the bike lanes , as there is often significant community board and elected official opposition to these plans . ''

We have been working for two years with Queens Community Board 9 to establish a bike path on the long-abandoned city-owned former Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Beach Branch right of way .

Returning it to public use as a greenway would seem to be a no-brainer , especially considering it was on the city 's 1997 greenway master plan .

The city , however , has been less than helpful .

Last year the Department of City Planning obtained funding for a feasibility study for this proposal , but could not go ahead because they were unable to secure a required `` implementation partner , '' even though they approached the obvious choices : the Parks Department and Department of Transportation .

We ourselves were rebuffed in a meeting with officials from the Parks Department , who suggested that we assume full responsibility for conducting a study and amassing the funds for implementation .

Mr. Russo has our support .

Do we have his .

Jordan Sandke Richmond Hill , Queens The writer is chairman , Rockaway Beach Branch Greenway Committee .

To the Editor : It 's great that the Department of Transportation is adding bike lanes to the streets of the city .

Now if it could just persuade cyclists to use them instead of ignoring red lights , riding the wrong way on one-way streets , or on the sidewalk , and in general behaving as if traffic regulations do not apply to them .

David Vaughan East Village .

Summary: Letters from Greenway Committee Rockaway Beach branch chairman Jordan Sandke and David Vaughan on Ryan Russo 's September 3 letter on difficulty in winning local support for bike lanes in New York City .


Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his schools chancellor , Joel Klein , believe there 's a great deal of savings to be had in restructuring the financial operations of the school system -- $ 200 million is a frequently quoted number .

To obtain it , Mr. Klein has awarded a $ 15.8 , 18-month no-bid contract to a management consulting firm to do the overhauling .

Mr. Bloomberg , who took control of the city 's schools four years ago , has always invited a `` buck stops here '' accountability for his efforts .

We 're going to be waiting to see how well he and Mr. Klein deliver on his promise to make this questionable deal pay off .

As of right now , the arguments that the contract could not be put out to competitive bidding seem thin .

Mr. Klein 's choice was the consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal , a New York-based group that has stepped in to reorganize everything from the government of Orange County , Calif . , to the company that makes Twinkies .

The firm also has experience working with school systems in St . Louis and New Orleans .

The city 's Public Advocate , Betsy Gotbaum , is demanding an investigation of the consultants ' previous work with those two educational systems .

That 's not unreasonable , but even if the work in St . Louis and New Orleans went well , finding ways to save money and streamline systems in a medium-sized city with completely dysfunctional schools is very different from working in New York , with its $ 15 billion budget , 1.1.

million students and 80,000 teachers .

For all its problems , New York 's system has also been the target of reform efforts by several different chancellors over the last decade .

Many of the more obvious fixes have been made .

But Mr. Klein , who first hired Alvarez & Marsal for a few months of work that was paid for by private donations , quickly signed the firm for the big project , which is being paid for by taxpayers and involves more money than all the department 's no-bid contracts awarded in the last fiscal year .

He says the firm has already produced savings that has sent nearly $ 50 million to the schools for the hiring of more than 300 teachers and other workers .

As they 've tackled a myriad of education problems , Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein -- who both lack previous education management experience -- have frequently shown a lack of respect for the education department 's own experts .

While both men clearly have the schools ' best interests at heart , it 's sometimes hard to tell whether their eagerness to reach outside for help is based on real need or a simple impatience with people who do n't fit the corporate model .

And in the past they have not always been right .

In 2003 , they rushed a no-bid contract to put Snapple soft drinks in the schools , a deal criticized by Comptroller Bill Thompson .

It produced only a fraction of the profit promised .

In the not-so-long-ago bad old days , whenever the Department of Education wanted to enter into a contract over $ 50,000 , an approval required a request for bids , a public hearing and a vote by the school board .

Nobody wants to go back to that cumbersome process again .

But in this case , the mayor and his schools chancellor have n't done the argument for expediency much good .

The City .

Summary: Editorial questions Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein 's decision to award $ 15.8 million , 18-month no-bid contract to Alvarez & Marsal to overhaul financial operations of New York City school system .


STEPPING out of the 207th Street subway stop in Inwood , the last station on the A train , visitors from downtown Manhattan -LRB- that is , anywhere else on the island -RRB- can be forgiven for thinking they have reached the end of the earth .

A mosaic on the station wall commemorates the end of the city 's longest subway line with the words `` At long last . ''

And while the apartment buildings , at five or six stories , are just as tall as the ones beyond Inwood , the sky seems somehow bigger , or at least closer .

Outside the station , the narrow strip of neighborhood is surrounded by river and parkland .

Looming at the corner of Isham and Cooper Streets , behind a statue of Christ with a lamb on his shoulders , is the 70-year-old Church of the Good Shepherd , made of thick stone blocks that look as if they have risen out of the earth themselves .

That is not what happened , of course .

The Paulist Fathers , an order of Catholic priests , were there from 1911 on , there for the church 's construction , for its opening , for baptisms , weddings , funerals and everything else .

Everything , that is , until 10 days ago .

Shocking many parishioners , Paulist leaders announced in April that in the face of staffing problems , they would be leaving Good Shepherd behind .

The decision led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to assume control of the struggling Good Shepherd School next door , replacing the principal , who had worked there for more than 20 years .

The archdiocese has replaced the Paulists in the mostly Latino parish with members of the Capuchin Franciscan order , many of whose priests speak Spanish .

The shift was first reported in The Manhattan Times , a bilingual weekly newspaper .

For James Hamilton , a 34-year-old parishioner who is a member of the church 's men 's club and its Knights of Columbus chapter , the surprise was doubled .

Late last year , he served on a committee aimed in part at helping the Paulists decide which of their churches to leave .

At the time , the order decided to remain in Inwood .

`` We would have understood more last year if they had made the decision as part of a process , but they decided to stay , '' Mr. Hamilton said last week .

`` We were very shocked when this abrupt turnaround came : ' By the way , we 're leaving . '

`` The man who made the surprise announcement at Sunday Masses in April , the Rev . John F . Duffy , president of the Paulist Fathers , said it came with '' a tremendous sense of sadness `` but was unavoidable .

The order has dwindled to only 150 priests in the United States , Canada , Rome and Jerusalem , down from a high of 262 in the early 1960 's .

And because the order 's priorities include evangelization and interfaith relations , he said , the everyday business of running churches is too time-consuming .

`` The pastoral demand is such that you may have no time to do anything outside of parish work , '' Father Duffy said .

`` Or , as in this case , you may think that in a couple more years you may not even be able to do the parish work adequately . ''

The archdiocese hopes that the change in administration will also help shore up the school , which runs through eighth grade .

According to Father Duffy , the school is in debt , and enrollment has dropped to barely 200 students , down from more than 1,200 in the mid-70 ` s .

At noon on Wednesday , the sixth day of the Capuchin priests ' residence at the church , the Rev . Martin Curtin , the new pastor , celebrated Mass for about 60 people .

They were scattered about the pews in the church 's cavernous interior , under an arching stone ceiling .

Father Curtin was still moving his things to the church from his previous post in East New York , and the other priests in his order were moving from East Harlem , where their previous church , Our Lady Queen of the Angels , was awaiting final word on whether it will close .

The words Father Curtin read , from the Gospel of Luke , were a goodbye of a sort that felt familiar , from Jesus to a group of his loyal followers who had tried to stop him from moving on .

`` He said to them , ' To the other towns also I must proclaim good news of the Kingdom of God , ' '' Father Curtin read , `` ` because for this purpose I have been sent . '

`` Street Level | Inwood E-mail : streetlevel@nytimes.com .

Summary: Street Level column on decision by Paulist Fathers , order of Catholic priests , to leave Church of the Good Shepherd in Inwood section of Manhattan .

Summary: Archdiocese of New York , assuming control of church and school , has replaced Paulists with members of Capuchin Franciscan order .

Summary: Photo .


Gussie Moran felt pretty before Maria Sharapova did .

Cheekily pretty , for 1949 .

In the face of a Wimbledon ban on all but the whitest attire , she flashed color and lace -- under her white hemline , on her naughty knickers .

So began a decades-long line of ball-bashing beauties dressed by Ted Tinling with an eye toward putting a little after-hours into the afternoon .

The glittery black cocktail number modeled by Sharapova in the last two weeks is less the latest mutation in the evolution of the tennis outfit than a return to the play-and-then-party frock of earlier generations .

Which dress , then , belongs with which decade and player .

It 's no longer a cinch to tell . a . -RRB- 1966 .

Tinling may have loved to dress the Brazilian champion Maria Bueno most of all .

`` She was an actress , '' he said in an interview with The Washington Post in 1989 .

`` I would leave her alone for a few minutes and she would do her poses in front of the mirror and please herself about how the dress was going to look on her . ''

Bueno won the Wimbledon singles title three times .

b . -RRB- 1981 .

Tracy Austin wore this Tinling dress when she beat Martina Navratilova to win her second United States Open singles title .

c . -RRB- 1971 .

Virginia Wade , the last Briton to win a Wimbledon singles title -LRB- in 1977 -RRB- , was a Tinling gal too . d . -RRB- 2006 .

Do all Marias like to `` feel pretty , '' like the `` West Side Story '' Maria whose song accompanies Sharapova 's new Nike commercial .

Maria Kirilenko , seeded No . 20 in the current Open , wore this pretty dress , designed by Stella McCartney for Adidas , before curtseying out in the third round .

Answers : 1 .

b . 2 .

d . 3 .

c . 4 .

a MARY JO MURPHY The Basics .

Summary: Women 's tennis outfits have evolved over past four decades .

Summary: Photos of tennis dresses designed by Ted Tinling and Stella McCartney for Adidas .


OVER the last year , as Iran , Iraq and Lebanon have dominated headlines , hopes of gaining firmer control of a largely forgotten corner of the war on terrorism -- the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region -- have quietly evaporated .

On Tuesday , the Pakistani government signed a `` truce '' with militants who have resisted Pakistani military efforts to gain control of the region , which is roughly the size of Delaware .

The agreement , which lets militants remain in the area as long as they promised to halt attacks , immediately set off concern among American analysts .

Al Qaeda 's surviving leadership is suspected of using the border areas as a base of operation to support international terrorist attacks , including possibly the July 2005 London subway bombings .

Meanwhile , the Taliban leadership is widely believed to be using another border area to direct spiraling attacks in Afghanistan .

`` There 's a link with broader international terrorism , `` said Robert Grenier , the former top counterterrorism official for the Central Intelligence Agency .

`` There 's a link with what is happening in Afghanistan .

Al Qaeda , such as it is now , really has its center of gravity in the area . ``

Last week 's truce agreement covers North Waziristan , an area on the Pakistani side of the border .

After the Taliban fell in 2001 , senior Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to have fled there from Afghanistan and to other remote border areas in Pakistan .

The locations of Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri remain unknown .

But American officials suspect that they are somewhere along the border .

After two attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003 were linked to the tribal areas , Pakistani officials expanded the military effort to subdue the region .

But after suffering heavy casualties in 2004 and early 2005 , they began negotiating with local militants .

Last year , Pakistan signed a separate agreement with militants in South Waziristan , but the move failed to slow the killing of government supporters .

`` If you look at the number of deaths in the region , it 's not clear that they 've dropped , `` said Xenia Dormandy , former director for South Asia for the National Security Council .

Signing such truces , she said , `` is a potentially dangerous route to take because there is little pressure that you can bring to bear to make sure they can follow through on the agreements . ''

Two hundred miles to the south , the Taliban leadership is believed to have established a base of operations in and around the Pakistani city of Quetta , according to American analysts .

Afghan officials say the Taliban used the area to plan and carry out sweeping attacks in southern Afghanistan in the spring .

Pakistan has largely turned a blind eye to Taliban activities , American officials say , because it sees the group as a tool to counter growing Indian influence in Afghanistan .

The Pakistanis have longed viewed a friendly Afghanistan as critical to their survival and fears India may be trying to encircle their country .

At the same time , a separate uprising in Baluchistan province has tied up Pakistani soldiers .

Ethnic Baluch tribesmen complain that Pakistan 's military government is not sharing enough of the profits from natural gas exploration with the locals .

The killing last month of a charismatic tribal elder who was a rebel leader set off riots in several cities .

`` Pakistan is essentially trying to put down a civil war in Baluchistan , '' said Ms. Dormandy , now an analyst at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard .

`` At the same time , it 's trying to monitor its border with India , monitor the border of Afghanistan and bring down the Taliban and Al Qaeda . ``

In Afghanistan , NATO forces that took control of security in the south from American forces this summer have been surprised by the size and strength of the Taliban insurgency .

Roadside bomb attacks have doubled this year , and suicide bombings have tripled .

Yesterday , a suicide bombing in Kabul killed at least 2 American soldiers and 14 Afghan civilians .

All told this year , heavy clashes in eastern and southern Afghanistan have killed more than 100 American and NATO soldiers , roughly twice the number killed in the same period in 2005 .

Since Aug . 1 alone , 28 NATO soldiers have been killed .

Analysts say the problem in the border region is an explosive mix of conditions : a lack of government authority , a vast amount of weaponry and the rise of Islamic militancy .

Until the 1980 's , the area was ruled by local tribes , whose brute self-government kept the population isolated and impoverished but allowed for a degree of stability .

In the 1980 's , the American-backed anti-Soviet jihad unfolded in the region and began to wear away longstanding tribal structures .

Huge piles of weapons and cash empowered Islamist organizations to open dozens of training camps , hard-line mosques and conservative religious schools along the border .

In the 1990 's , the Taliban emerged there .

Today , said Mr. Grenier , the former C.I.A. official , the only way to increase government authority in the rural areas on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was to develop the impoverished rural areas over time .

`` But that 's a generational process , `` said Mr. Grenier , now a managing director at Kroll Inc . , a security firm based in New York .

This summer , local people interviewed in southern Afghanistan said they were unsure that the United States and NATO would remain committed to the long , expensive process of stabilizing the border region .

This year , the United States cut its aid to Afghanistan by 30 percent .

Al Qaeda and the Taliban are no doubt betting that time is on their side .

THE WORLD .

Summary: Pakistani government signs ` truce ' with militants who have resisted Pakistani military efforts to gain control of North Waziristan , lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region .

Summary: Agreement allows militants to remain in area as long as they promise to halt attacks .

Summary: American analysts are concerned because Al Qaeda 's surviving leadership is suspected of using border areas as base to support international terrorist attacks .

Summary: Taliban leadership is widely believed to be using another border area to direct attacks in Afghanistan .

Summary: Photo .

Summary: Map .


WHEN Steve Irwin died last week , the world lost an entertainer who could command an audience by jumping on crocodiles and manhandling snakes .

But Mr. Irwin , who was 44 when he was killed by a stingray on the Great Barrier Reef , was more than a showman .

For better and worse , as the star of `` The Crocodile Hunter '' and other nature programs he was the modern face of wildlife conservation .

`` I sort of see him as the ' Mutual of Omaha ' for Generation X , `` said Eric Dinerstein , chief scientist and vice president for science of the World Wildlife Fund .

Since 1992 , when he filmed his first wildlife special , Mr. Irwin had helped set the standard for a new genre of nature shows , one where the host shared the stage with the animals .

Mr. Irwin poked and grabbed crocodiles , snakes and other wild creatures , often seeming to defy death in the process .

His in-your-croc ` s-face approach was different from conventional documentary fare that typically kept the camera and the host at zoom-lens distance from the wildlife .

`` He 's a far cry from David Attenborough , `` said Thane Maynard , interim director of the Cincinnati Zoo and host of the National Public Radio program '' 90 Second Naturalist . ``

`` Steve Irwin 's more at the level of the kid 's wildlife program , laced with danger and adventure . ``

Jack Hanna , the longtime host of wildlife shows , said that Mr. Irwin 's program `` was a whole new thing '' when it first appeared on the cable channel Animal Planet in 1996 .

`` The Crocodile Hunter '' attracted younger viewers who might be bored by the staid style of `` Mutual of Omaha 's Wild Kingdom `` or an Attenborough documentary , but who would eagerly watch Mr. Irwin sloshing around with his charges .

`` You can either like how he does it , or not like it , '' said Mr. Hanna , who added that Mr. Irwin always laced his programs with information about animals and conservation .

Mr. Irwin 's approach was part of an evolution of how nature was portrayed on television , Dr. Dinerstein said .

`` Twenty years ago , you almost never saw the predator catch the prey on film .

Now , it 's a requirement . ``

Conservationists said that in his interactions with animals , Mr. Irwin seemed to know what he was doing .

But Steven Sanderson , president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society , said his biggest contribution was his enthusiasm .

`` One of the greatest challenges we face as conservationists is people do n't care , `` Dr. Sanderson said .

`` He really made people crazy about encounters with the wild . ''

But other than inspiring viewers to care about wildlife , what kind of conservation message did Mr. Irwin deliver with his antic showmanship .

`` There 's a circus-like atmosphere to it , `` said Eugene Linden , whose books on animals and intelligence include '' The Octopus and the Orangutan . ``

`` How does that make for conservation .

The implicit message is that animals are only interesting if they are dangerous or extreme . ``

Alan Thornhill , executive director of the Society for Conservation Biology , knows how that message can sink in .

When he was a teacher , Dr. Thornhill said , he used to travel with students to tropical rainforests .

Before leaving he would often get calls from parents concerned about safety .

`` They 'd have seen all the poisonous snakes on TV shows and they knew how dangerous it is , `` Dr. Thornhill said .

`` My response always was , ' Your child is safer with me in a tropical rainforest than he is driving on the freeway . '

`` Conservationists should be able to consider the merits of Mr. Irwin 's approach for a long time , as his shows will no doubt continue in reruns .

But like the animals they showcase , nature shows keep evolving .

That , Mr. Hanna said , is a problem .

Mr. Irwin 's success has spawned imitators who have taken his approach even farther .

In MTV 's `` Wildboyz , '' for example , the stars have been intentionally stung by a scorpion and bitten by a snapping turtle .

`` My big concern is the Steve Irwin wannabes , '' Mr. Hanna said .

`` I do n't know if that 's the thing we want to portray about conservation if it 's really blood and guts out there . ``

Animal Nature .

Summary: Steve Irwin was showman , entertainer and face of wildlife conservation for new generation .

Summary: Some conservationists say his biggest contribution was his enthusiasm .

Summary: Others say Irwin 's success spawned troubling imitators who do not have sufficient knowledge or consider safety .

Summary: Photo .


THE Web site for an outfit called Term Paper Relief features a picture of a young college student chewing her lip .

`` Damn ! '' a little comic-strip balloon says .

`` I 'll have to cancel my Saturday night date to finish my term paper before the Monday deadline . ``

Well , no , she wo n't -- not if she 's enterprising enough to enlist Term Paper Relief to write it for her .

For $ 9.95 a page she can obtain an `` A-grade '' paper that is fashioned to order and `` completely non-plagiarized . ''

This last detail is important .

Thanks to search engines like Google , college instructors have become adept at spotting those shop-worn , downloadable papers that circulate freely on the Web , and can even finger passages that have been ripped off from standard texts and reference works .

A grade-conscious student these days seems to need a custom job , and to judge from the number of services on the Internet , there must be virtual mills somewhere employing armies of diligent scholars who grind away so that credit-card-equipped undergrads can enjoy more carefree time together .

How good are the results .

With first semester just getting under way at most colleges , bringing with it the certain prospect of both academic and social pressure , The Times decided to undertake an experiment in quality control of the current offerings .

Using her own name and her personal e-mail address , an editor ordered three English literature papers from three different sites on standard , often-assigned topics : one comparing and contrasting Huxley 's `` Brave New World '' and Orwell 's `` 1984 '' .

One discussing the nature of Ophelia 's madness in `` Hamlet '' .

And one exploring the theme of colonialism in Conrad 's `` Lord Jim . ''

A small sample , perhaps , but one sufficient , upon perusal , to suggest that papers written to order are just like the ones students write for themselves , only more so -- they 're poorly organized , awkwardly phrased , thin on substance , but masterly in the ancient arts of padding and stating and restating the obvious .

If they 're delivered , that is .

The `` Lord Jim '' essay , ordered from SuperiorPapers.com, never arrived , despite repeated entreaties , and the excuse finally offered was a high-tech variant of `` The dog ate my homework . ''

The writer assigned to the task , No . 3323 , was `` obviously facing some technical difficulties , '' an e-mail message explained , `` and can not upload your paper . ''

The message went on to ask for a 24-hour extension , the wheeziest stratagem in the procrastinator 's arsenal , invented long before the electronic age .

The two other papers came in on time , and each grappled , more or less , with the assigned topic .

The Orwell / Huxley essay , prepared by Term Paper Relief and a relative bargain at $ 49.75 for five pages , begins : `` Although many similarities exist between Aldous Huxley 's ` A Brave New World ' and George Orwell 's ` 1984 , ' the works books -LSB- sic -RSB- though they deal with similar topics , are more dissimilar than alike . ''

That 's certainly a relief , because we could n't have an essay if they were n't .

Elsewhere the author proves highly adept with the `` on the one hand / on the other '' formula , one of the most valuable tools for a writer concerned with attaining his assigned word count , and says , for example , of `` Brave New World '' : `` Many people consider this Huxley 's most important work : many others think it is his only work .

This novel has been praised and condemned , vilified and glorified , a source of controversy , a subject for sermons , and required reading for many high school students and college undergraduates .

This novel has had twenty-seven printings in the United States alone and will probably have twenty-seven more . ``

The obvious point of comparison between the two novels is that where Orwell 's world is an authoritarian , police-state nightmare , Huxley 's dystopia is ostensibly a paradise , with drugs and sex available on demand .

A clever student might even pick up some extra credit by pointing out that while Orwell meant his book as a kind of predictive warning , it is Huxley 's world , much more far-fetched at the time of writing , that now more nearly resembles our own .

The essay never exactly makes these points , though it gets close a couple of times , declaring at one point that `` the two works vary greatly . ''

It also manages to remind us that Orwell 's real name was Eric Blair and that both he and his book `` are misunderstood to this day . ''

The paper does makes a number of embarrassing spelling errors -LRB- `` dissention , '' `` anti-semetic '' -RRB- but William H . Pritchard , an English professor at Amherst , who read the paper at The Times 's request , shrewdly suggested that , in this day of spell check , they may have been included deliberately , to throw suspicious teachers off the track .

If confronted with such a paper from one of his own students , he wrote in an e-mail message , he probably would n't grade it at all but would instead say `` come see me '' -LRB- shuddering at the prospect -RRB- .

The Hamlet essay was a trick assignment , or perhaps a poorly worded one .

Ophelia 's genuine madness , as opposed to Hamlet 's feigned craziness , has become a touchstone in Shakespeare studies , especially among feminist and gender studies scholars who read in Ophelia 's songs and fragmentary utterances a coded response to the irrationality and sexual repression of the Elizabethan patriarchy .

The author of the four-page paper , supplied by Go-Essays for $ 127.96 , approaches the question more literally and concludes , not incorrectly , that Ophelia is literally driven crazy by her father , brother and lover -- or as the essay puts it : `` Thus , in critical review of the play , Ophelia mentally suffers from the scars of unwanted love and exploitation rather than any singular or isolated cause . ''

The paper goes on to repeat this point with so much plot summary and quotation from the text that it soars right to the assigned length .

It 's also written in language so stilted and often ungrammatical -LRB- `` Hamlet is obviously hurt by Ophelia 's lack of affection to his vows of love `` -RRB- that it suggests the author may not be a native speaker of English , and even makes you suspect that some of these made-to-order term papers are written by the very same people who pick up the phone when you call to complain about your credit card bill .

He added : `` If I had paid for this , I would demand my money back . ''

As it happens , a refund is just what Superior Papers offered , along with a 10 percent discount on a new paper .

Term paper writing is an arduous business , we need to remember , and we should n't expect too much .

As the author of the Orwell / Huxley essay says : `` It is so often that one wants something and in wanting romanticizes it , thus bringing disappointment when the end is finally obtained .

They serve as a reminder that it is necessary to have pain to compare with joy , defeat to compare with victory , and problems in order to have solutions . ``

Outsourcing Homework .

Summary: Web sites claim that college students can buy customized , ` completely non-plagiarized ' term papers online .

Summary: College instructors are becoming adept at using search engines to identify these papers .

Summary: Three papers purchased for article are found to be poorly organized and unsubstantial .


SOME debates are so polarized , with the competing sides so certain that any compromise would be dangerous , that it 's hard to imagine any middle ground emerging .

The argument over how to try the 14 terror suspects recently transferred from Central Intelligence Agency prisons to military custody at Guantánamo Bay seems to be one of them .

On one side is the Bush administration , which last week proposed that these suspects , whom it called the most dangerous in the war on terror , should be tried in military commissions under procedures that the White House asked Congress to endorse .

Under the Bush proposal , the trials would not resemble any civilian trials or courts-martial held in the United States .

Hearsay evidence and evidence obtained under coercion or duress could be admitted .

And suspects could be denied access to classified evidence , although it would be disclosed to their military defense lawyers .

On the other side of this debate are civil libertarians who insist that suspected terrorists ca n't receive fair trials unless they are given the protections of an ordinary court-martial -- including the right to exclude hearsay and coerced evidence and the right to see evidence against them .

So , what 's a fair trial and how much due process does it require .

Can the suspected terrorists be tried by a tribunal that lacks some of the protections that military defendants ordinarily demand .

Surprisingly enough , this is not a debate about what the law requires .

Short of endorsing cruel and unusual punishments for terrorists , Congress can set up whatever military commissions it likes .

`` The administration 's proposals , if adopted by Congress , would almost surely pass muster with the Supreme Court , `` said Peter Spiro , who teaches international law at Temple University .

`` Congress may not have complete carte blanche , but in the Hamdan case last June , four of the justices who voted against the commissions stressed that the president could always go back to Congress to get the authority he wanted . ''

The issue , then , is more about the court of public opinion : how a trial , without the customary procedural rights , would be perceived in the United States and abroad .

Inevitably , the military commissions , whatever form they take , will be compared to the Nuremberg trials in which Nazi war crime defendants were given due process -- up to a point .

`` At Nuremberg , there was no secret evidence and no closed proceedings that the defendants ' counsel was excluded from , although it 's not clear how much physical access to the evidence the individual defendants had , `` said John Barrett , who teaches at St . John 's University law school .

`` Hearsay and evidence produced by coercive methods were n't formally excluded by the Nuremberg charter , but the American interrogators did n't do rough stuff like water boarding -- although there might have been a corner or two cut that the coercion standard would find troubling . ``

Many want the United States to meet this Nuremberg standard , which they believe gave it authority and credibility over the next half century to serve as a global model of due process .

`` The trials should n't differ fundamentally from the fair trial provisions in any trial , especially when you have the potential death penalty or life in prison , `` said Richard Goldstone , the South African chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda .

`` To exclude a defendant from any part of the trial , or to withhold evidence from the defendant , seems to me , by any civilized standard , outside what is acceptable . ''

He added , `` The other objectionable provision is that evidence would be admitted even if obtained under duress or torture . ''

But other legal scholars say that this is a different time .

For one thing , they point out , the war is not over .

`` In a war situation , international commissions often use hearsay as long as it 's reliable , `` said Jack Goldsmith of Harvard Law School , who led the Office of Legal Counsel under President Bush .

Other scholars who defend the administration argue that national security can not be compromised .

`` The issue of access to classified information is pivotal , '' says John Yoo , who helped the Bush administration draft an earlier version of the proposed commissions and who now teaches law at University of California , Berkeley .

In his new book , `` War By Other Means , '' Professor Yoo argues that in the first World Trade Center bombing case in 1993 , prosecutors had to give the defense a list of 200 unindicted co-conspirators .

The list , he writes , was `` delivered to bin Laden '' `` and '' was later found during the investigation of the African embassy bombings . ``

Republicans in Congress are now negotiating with the Bush administration on a series of compromises .

The military commissions may operate closer to the Nuremberg standard , but give the administration some of the authority it seeks .

For example , one proposal would allow the use of hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion short of torture , while refusing to allow the use of evidence not disclosed to the defendant .

Could this satisfy critics .

Some legal scholars suggest that a trial conducted along these lines could have international legitimacy as well as meeting basic standards of due process .

Even Mr. Goldstone , the chief prosecutor for the U.N. tribunals , says that jettisoning the use of secret evidence would remove the `` most objectionable '' part of the proposal .

Professor Spiro of Temple University agrees .

`` The Republican moderates ' proposal would come a lot closer to satisfying international opinion , and in part because it 's coming from the Senate and not the administration , `` he said .

Still , the atmospherics of the trial , and the fact that the defendants face the death penalty , may make it harder for the verdict to be internationally accepted .

`` Guantánamo is now a rallying cry in Europe , so any trials that take place there will be tainted by that fact alone , '' Professor Spiro said .

`` The administration would be well advised to allow the proceedings to be televised to avoid the image of a show trial . ''

But televised proceedings might give the defendants a political platform to hijack the proceedings .

`` There 's always a danger that this will degenerate into a political circus , `` says Professor Goldsmith .

`` Slobodan Milosevic used the trial against him as a political platform , and Saddam Hussein is doing the same thing .

The more procedural rights you give the defendant , the more you allow him to continue the war by other means . ``

Professor Goldsmith says the debate about what a fair trial requires will continue throughout every stage of the terrorist trials -- from the initial indictments to the actual trials to the Supreme Court appeals that would follow any death sentence .

`` There 's a trade-off , `` he said .

`` You can clamp down on access , but you do so at the cost of the perception of fairness , and finding the right balance of fairness and control is very hard . ''

IDEAS & TRENDS Jeffrey Rosen 's latest book is `` The Most Democratic Branch : How the Courts Serve America . ''

Editors ' Note : September 17 , 2006 , Sunday An article last Sunday reported on the debate over how to try 14 terror suspects recently transferred to United States military custody .

The Bush administration has proposed that the suspects be tried in military commissions under procedures the White House has presented to Congress , including rules that would allow the admission of evidence obtained under coercion or duress .

Civil libertarians , on the other hand , say the suspects should get the stronger due-process protections of an ordinary court-martial .

The article included comment from Richard Goldstone , the South African chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda , who objected to the provision `` that evidence would be admitted even if obtained under duress or torture . ''

The administration disputes this characterization of the proposed rules , saying they do prohibit the introduction of evidence obtained through torture .

The article should have included this viewpoint , and should have reflected the fact that part of the debate is about how the term `` torture '' is interpreted .

Summary: Polarizing debate over how to try 14 terror suspects who have been transferred to military custody at Guantanamo Bay is not only argument between Bush administration and civil libertarians , but public opinion debate over how trial would be perceived in US and abroad .

Summary: Many people want US to meet standard of Nuremberg trials , which they believe gave it authority and credibility to serve as global model of due process .

Summary: Some legal scholars say trials should include usual fair trial provisions .

Summary: Others say this is different time and war is not over .

Summary: Photos .


In a directive whose logic is not always apparent , the Transportation Security Administration has spelled out what airline passengers can carry on board with them , what must be placed in checked luggage , and what ca n't go on the plane at all .

Knives must be checked but knitting needles and corkscrews are allowed in the cabin .

Up to four ounces of eye drops can be carried aboard , with fingers crossed that multiple terrorists wo n't combine their allotments to exceed the limit .

Laptops , digital cameras , mobile phones and other electronic devices are permitted , so never mind any warnings you 've heard that they could be used to trigger a bomb .

The bomb ingredients themselves , notably liquid explosives , will be kept out of the cabin by a ban on liquids , gels and lotions , except for small amounts of baby formula and medications .

The ban on liquids surely makes sense given the lack of a reliable , efficient way to detect liquid explosives on the passenger screening line .

But the other fine distinctions in this directive make us think the best approach would be a ban on virtually all carry -on items , or at least a limit of one small personal bag per passenger to tote travel documents , keys , vital medications , reading materials and any other minimal items that are allowed .

There 's a lot to be said for a drastic reduction in what can be carried aboard .

Passenger security lines would move faster if there were little or nothing for the screeners to screen .

Passengers could be boarded faster and more comfortably if they were n't clogging the aisles while stuffing bags in the overhead bins .

Most important , security would probably be enhanced .

If a terrorist somehow slipped onto your flight , he would n't have bomb materials with him , or much of anything else for that matter .

And his bags would get tougher scrutiny because the machines that screen checked luggage are said to be better at detecting explosives and other dangerous materials than the metal detectors and X-ray machines used for screening passengers and their carry -on bags .

The chief downside , from a security standpoint , is that a greater burden would be placed on the lines that screen checked baggage , which in some airports are already overstretched .

That raises the risk that screeners will rush checked bags through with inadequate scrutiny of the images of their contents , or that bags will back up and flights will be delayed to wait for them to be loaded .

Still , that should not be a problem beyond the ingenuity of aviation planners .

The handful of airports that already have big explosive-detection machines integrated into their baggage conveyor systems ought to be able to handle the load easily .

When we raised the possibility of a ban on most carry -on items a month ago , there was a chorus of complaints from travelers who count on using their laptops during the flight .

Or fear that valuable electronic devices might be lost , broken or stolen if checked .

Or resent long waits after a flight to get their checked bags .

Some travelers have already shifted to trains or automobiles for short trips and more will do so if the inconvenience mounts .

These are not trivial issues .

Airlines , already financially strapped , depend on business fliers who are the most likely to object to a change in the rules .

Airlines could head off some of these problems by , for example , storing valuable electronic devices in locked overhead bins where they ca n't easily be stolen , and hiring more baggage handlers to unload planes rapidly .

Separating people from their laptops during flights would be painful , although some people could surely use the time to go over reading material , or even revert to pen and paper .

A ban on most carry -on items need not be permanent .

Technologies that could screen passengers and their carry -on bags rapidly to detect known dangerous materials are under development , but it is uncertain when they might be ready .

Even then , sophisticated terrorists will always look for new tactics to evade detection .

For now , the surest way to keep dangerous materials out of the cabin is to keep virtually all materials out of the cabin .

Editorial .

Summary: Editorial calls for ban on most airline carry -on items until technologies are developed that can screen passengers and their carry -on bags rapidly to detect dangerous materials .

Summary: Holds that new Transportation Security Adm directive regarding carry -on is confusing and that virtual ban of carry -on items would speed passenger screening and enhance security .