Public Life

That the media -- defined broadly as including everything from television, radio and the Internet to compact discs, cell phones and video games -- engulf us every day is hardly news. That American journalism is in a state of flux and undergoing historic change also is hardly news. However, the significance and impact of each of these cultural truths is news and is the subject of two new books, both worth reading. One is written by a prominent intellectual and the other by two top editors of The Washington Post.

THE TROUBLE with Teddy is that he's like the little girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead. When he's good, he's better than anyone else, but when he's bad -- oh, boy!When he finally opened his mouth during the Judiciary Committee hearings on Anita Hill's charges against Clarence Thomas, he tied it all up with a ribbon. He said with considerable ire that he hoped we would not be hearing any more about perjury or racism, that instead of trying to divert attention the committee should concentrate on sexual harassment.

NEW YORK -- By any measure, except as confirmation of Bill Clinton's campaign skills, the 1996 presidential campaign has been the lousiest most of us can remember. Maybe Bob Dole can make it worthwhile by getting down and dirty.The challenger probably cannot save himself by pointing out that this president has always had a sort of winking relationship with the truth, or at least with the whole truth or nothing but the truth, and will also do most anything to win a campaign buck or a focus-group smile.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Buck O'Neil looks old, and that's new. Though he's 94 years old, and almost 95, he has all his life been young and vibrant and alive. There was this time we were in a hotel ballroom in Gary, Ind. It was before a luncheon of some kind. A barbershop quartet began singing, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho." Before the first verse ended, Buck jumped into the middle of the group. He sang in his rich baritone. He danced in step. "That sounded like old times!" he shouted when the song ended, and sweat made his face shine in the chandelier lights.

He's moved into some of the choicest real estate in the U.S. Capitol, all crystal chandeliers and gilt-framed mirrors a stone's throw from the rotunda. He's gotten more publicity in the past six months than during his previous four decades in public life - most of it positive. But Steny H. Hoyer says the biggest change in his life since Democrats won control of Congress and chose him over a spirited challenger to become House majority leader was the sudden rush of power. "I used to wake up in the morning and wonder what's going to happen that day," he said during an interview wedged between a dizzying round of meetings, press conferences, floor appearances and phone calls with dignitaries.

Boston. -- It was not a pretty sight. A gaunt Bob Packwood fighting on the Senate floor for his political life. A newly righteous Bob Packwood arguing against the ethics committee's attempt to subpoena all his diaries.''Is there humor in them? Sure,'' he said to the collection of senators who were present, accounted for, and utterly miserable. ''Is there nasty comment about some of you when I got mad at something? Sure. Are there warm comments? You bet. They're personal beyond all measure.

It has happened to Jerusalem, to Beirut, to Belfast and London. It happened again in Japan. And now it is happening here.Experts on the mass psychology of terrorism warn that the whole country has been victimized by the Oklahoma city blast, and is headed for a painful bout of survivors' syndrome.The experts call it "homicide bereavement" on a grand scale. For the Oklahoma City survivors and their loved ones, it differs from normal grief by being a more extreme terror, anger and loss of faith, said a Washington psychiatrist, Stefan Pasternack, who has treated terrorism victims in Israel, England and the United States.

In his first interview since a photo surfaced showing him smoking from a marijuana pipe, Michael Phelps said yesterday that the intense public scrutiny has him contemplating whether he will swim in the 2012 Olympics. Phelps, who said that he "clearly made a mistake" and that the past week has been both embarrassing and uncomfortable for him, spoke with The Baltimore Sun inside Meadowbrook Aquatic Center after finishing his daily workout. While he still has goals he wants to achieve in the sport, he said, he's going to discuss it with his family and his coach, Bob Bowman.

There were hats, of course, straw boaters at the aquarium and Preakness-worthy confections in Mount Vernon. Then there was the quirkier haberdashery, like a purple top hat one man in Federal Hill swept off as he bowed with a flourish when William Donald Schaefer's casket passed by. There were tribal shout-outs — "Edgewood Street!" one guy kept booming, except he wasn't on Edgewood Street but just proud to hail from it — and old campaign buttons and faded photos and, most of all, memories hauled out of the collective basement of a city that almost pathologically hoards them.

The voters of the city of Washington will decide Tuesday whether to punish their mayor politically for his misconduct. But a federal judge has decided already to punish the mayor under the law for being a bad example in office -- and, most significantly, to punish him even for crimes of which he was not convicted.The six-month jail sentence imposed on Marion S. Barry Jr. at the end of his drug crimes trial is stirring a debate that may linger well beyond Tuesday. Even if the mayor is defeated in his bid for a City Council seat and departs from public life (at least for the time being)