Bly

WASHINGTON -- A great era in journalism is passing, I fear. I lament its loss.It was the era of undercover reporting.I knew it well; it had a glorious history. Our grandchildren will study it the way they study Prohibition, the Wild West or the band Paul McCartney played in before Wings.They will read about Nellie Bly, alias Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, who went undercover for the New York World to expose the awfulness inside a mental asylum a century ago.Or they will read about Upton Sinclair, who went to work in the Chicago stockyards to expose deplorable working conditions.

NEW YORK -- There is not a deerskin-covered drum in sight. Nor any papier-mache animal masks to inspire visitors with their fierce primitive maleness.A half-dozen years after Robert Bly and his followers stomped into the light of the national campfire, urging "sensitive," "soft" males to get in touch with their inner wild man, it would seem the most visible legacy of the "men's movement" is the macho-lite persona of the television star Tim Allen on "Home Improvement."Bly, whose snow-white hair and best-selling book "Iron John" once made him an avuncular father figure to millions, was ensconced in a New York University residential high-rise, in boxy white rooms furnished like a graduate-student apartment.

When speaking of the nation's journalism history, journalists usually make references to such legendary reporters as Edward R. Murrow or Walter Lippmann.Rarely are women mentioned.Partly with this in mind, Brooke Kroeger, a former foreign and national reporter, decided to write the first extensively researched biography of Nellie Bly.Bly had been the subject of several thin volumes, mainly children's books. But after reading this treasure -- which is carefully documented with personal letters, court records, newspaper articles, photographs and other material -- I find it rather bewildering that no major biography had been written before about this journalism and corporate- boardroom pioneer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

THE men's movement, symbolized by Robert Bly's best-selling book, "Iron John," may not be such a good thing for women, argued Jill Johnston in a recent issue of the New York Times Book Review:"Bly, like Jung before him, is caught up in the 'archetypes' of the masculine and the feminine. Men and women are defined by a given nature, fixed and unalterable, cast as opposites . . . in a system reflecting the political status quo . . . . Bly never grasped, it seems, the core concept of feminism, that the attributes of masculinity and feminity are cultural fabrications, rooted in a caste system in which one sex serves the other.

Coach: Debbie Barnes, sixth yearAssistant Coach: Donna FlemingLast year's record: 7-8 overall, 6-6 in the Central Maryland Conference, 1-5 in the countyTop returnees: Seniors, Stacy Buck, Susan Barnes, Brooxxe Bly, Amanda BuchananTop newcomers: Juniors, Kristie Parker, Holly Stevens, Kelley Wachter, Beth Bonde; sophomores, Erica Bouthner, Nicole Carter, Erin Windsor, Melanie Zahn.Coach's comments: "It's going to be a young team. Their attitude is great, but it's probably going to be a rough season."

Los Angeles--The quest. The campfire. Male bonding. The manly man. The masculine psyche.Such terms are not what we think of as the language of prime-time television. But we're going to be hearing them a lot this fall, as some of our favorite male characters in hit comedies and dramas explore what it means to be a man in the '90s.Craig T. Nelson, of "Coach," said Monday his character will be trying to get in touch with his feelings through the works of poet and best-selling author Robert Bly, often called the father of the "men's movement."

Toward the very end of his book about mythology and men, Robert Bly finally turns to math. The genetic difference between men and women, he notes, amounts to just over 3 percent.Nevertheless, he says, ''I think that for this century and this bTC moment it is important to emphasize the 3 percent difference that makes a person masculine, while not losing sight of the 97 percent that men and women have in common.''His mathematical observation is something of an apologia to a book that is unabashedly about differences.

No matter what kind of business you are in, marketing consultants say now is the perfect time to revise your strategy. Companies that retrench now have a better chance of surviving, if not flourishing, in a slack economy."