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Table of Contents


August 23, 1999 Issue

"I don't know about the rest of the country, but in New York, he's as famous as any celebrity. Plus, he's fun, he's charming, and he's emotionally up-front -- he doesn't play games."
-- Candace Bushnell on Alfonse D'Amato, from "Fonzie's Got A Brand New Bag"

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FEATURES
Fonzie's Got A Brand New Bag
BY JENNIFER SENIOR

After being trounced by Chuck Schumer, Al D'Amato might have been expected to spend some time licking his wounds. Instead, he's followed the Ed Koch plan for turning failure into triumph: never more than a cell-phone call from Washington, playing backdoor man–cum–consigliere to power brokers and serial canoodler to a bevy of comely lasses, unfettered by fusty conflict-of-interest rules, free to grab a ride on Donald Trump's jet. For the Fonz, life couldn't be better.

Central Casting
BY GUY MARTIN

What do Tom Brokaw, Sandra Doubleday, Robert Rubin, and Howell Raines have in common? They all get a kick out of casting a fishing lure the size of a golf pencil at an imaginary 24-inch window twenty yards out at sea while standing on the rocking bow of a small skiff at 7:30 in the morning. For this pleasure, they have Paul Dixon to thank.


THE URBAN OUTBACK
Tuscan Square
BY WENDY GOODMAN

Garden designer Rebecca Cole was so enchanted by the narrow, winding streets of Siena that she transformed the alley outside her Village duplex into an evocation of an Italian hill town.

Country Living
BY WENDY GOODMAN

How designer and TriBeCa shop owner J. Morgan Puett turned a clutch of 1850s farm buildings -- a barn, a horse shed, even a chicken coop -- into a country estate. Have a look around; just don't feed the bears.

GOTHAM
Drought schmought: rising water in Brooklyn and Queens
GOTHAM STYLE A 5,000-year-old skin-care regimen; the next small thing from Rebecca Taylor

DEPARTMENTS
The National Interest
BY MICHAEL TOMASKY

How welfare reform turned out to be a good thing for Democrat pols

Media
BY MICHAEL WOLFF

In the new world of children's publishing, books take a backseat to brands

MARKETPLACE
Best Bets
BY CORKY POLLAN

The iMac of bathroom scales; a total eclipse in your living room

Smart City
BY CHRISTOPHER BONANOS

Early electronica: radios and televisions that won't get grandpop all confused

Sales & Bargains
BY SHYAMA PATEL

The other blue jean: The look is denim, but who said it had to be Gucci?

THE ARTS
Movies
BY PETER RAINER

Steve Martin's Bowfinger affectionately spoofs Hollywood

Books
BY WALTER KIRN

In Faster, James Gleick looks at our need to speed things up

Classical Music
BY PETER G. DAVIS

A trilogy of operas set in Central Park boasts some big-name writers but lacks an inspired score

Dance
BY TOBI TOBIAS

Mark Morris's Dancing Honeymoon is a late-summer night's dream of easy living

Television
BY JOHN LEONARD

A Cooler Climate surprises; Halle Berry shines in Dorothy Dandridge

CUE

Intelligencer
(Gossip)

Classifieds
Strictly Personals