The Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield, Massachusetts • 9

Our Berkshires "'MAW 2, 7 AttirT 'Meet me at the fair' By Richard Ntudey Tough, vulnerable, equal, better The Berk shire Eagle, Wednesday, September 24, 1997 2A9 By Ellen Goodman WHAT It WE FIND 50t1t ENEMY WOMEN Ot.CIIER5? CAN WE HARA55 THEM 5ERC)EANT? NOPE. 1.15T 81.A5T 'EM 1 i i 1 i ----7 'Meet Wednesday, Our Berkshires 11, I LC' 1 Tough vulnerable, equal, better ti, di- By Ellen Goodman 0 Viti IN 1 c.r.,a 1.... 1 4, i WII AT It WE FIND 50ME ENEMY WOMEN 8, 4, NX.DIER5? CAN WE 0.40.0.4, hARA55 ThEll, 0 5ERGEANT? -I IZ. 1 1.1 ---7 47As E' 7 me at the fair' 111 eet By Richard Ntudey 8 'EM il' 11 ,4 001 4 ..3 NOPE 1.15T Ai I.A5T 0 Orli 4 I 01111, ow 1 a "AO a. exhibit, A .4 l' 0 l''.

Our affluence has detached us from the old realities of life and the community that went along with them. Our affluence has detached us from the old realities of -I' lif and the 1 I i 1 '1 i 1 1 1 1,. 1 BOSTON 1 THERE IS THAT moment in "GI. Jane" when a battered and bruised, buzz-cut and buff Demi Moore walks into the ladies room at the local bar. She has just survived another brutal test in training to become the first female Navy SEAL, and she looks it.

Moore is washing her hands and basking in her acceptance as one of the boys, when a civilian woman takes one look at her bashed face and says to her, "It's none of my business, honey, but I think you should leave the bastard." It is one of those wonderful misperceptions that says it all. The woman assumes that Demi has taken it from a man when she has taken it like a man. What looks like a victim, feels like a victory. This was just one of the colliding female images that sped across my own internal screen as this movie rushed to its predictable conclusion. Tough.

Vulnerable. What is it that we admire now in women? What do we want for our daughters? The ability to play by and win by the male rules? To write their own rules? To be equal? And to what or whom? We have been through weeks of transforming attention to womanhood. From Di the death to Di the CD, we've seen an astounding number of women who identified with the post-prince charming life of this young mother. We've heard the word icon the symbols for programs on the computer desktop and for gods in a church altar used to describe her. In the midst of all the psycho that has been babbled since her tragic death, we heard repeatedly how the world's reaction signals the power of an emerging female principle.

It marks the death of stoicism and the takeover of sensitivity. The Mars of the stiff upper lip is giving Way to the Venus of expressed feelings. Yet in the same month, Demi has been the box office hit, and a new class of women at the last male educational bastions of VMI and The Citadel has chosen to test their endurance the rat lines and hell In another hint at the duality, two of the original four women at The Citadel "left the bastard" last year alleging sexual harassment. Two others go on. Which are the survivors, which the heroines? What do we make of the woman suspended from VMI for slugging an upperclassman this year? As if this weren't complex enough, in the wake of the sex scandals and reports, the Army BOSrON 1 THERE IS THAT moment in "GI.

Jane" when a battered and bruised, buzz-cut and bp.ff Demi Moore walks into the ladies room at the local bar. She has just survived another brutal test in training to become the first female Navy SEAL, and she looks it. Moore is washing her hands and basking in her acceptance as one of the boys, when a civil- ian woman takes one look at her bashed face and says to her, It's rTne of my business, noney, Dut I think you should leave the bastard." It is one of those wonderful misperceptions that says it all. The woman assumes that Demi has taken it from a man when eh a hne tnkpn it likv mnn in all this a set of mixed messages about the changing roles in society. The confusion is not just in the regal and military ends of the spectrum.

Women are now told to be proud of their bulging biceps and scornful of the male inability to ask directions. They can't cry at the office but want men to cry at home. They believe in equality but don't know what kind. Many men, on the other hand, in and out of the military don't think women will be equal until they are the same as men. But these men are themselves under pressure to be different.

Some loved Princess Di because she was vulnerable; others because she was a survivor. Some watched G.I. Jane because she was a Demi-star; others because she was buff. Which way is our society going? Every which way. Maybe that signals greater individual freedom to follow your own star.

Maybe it's simple and utter bewilderment. But when some still wrangle over a unisex policy for umbrellas, it gets pretty stormy out there. The Boston Globe of mixed meschanging roles is not just in ilitary ends of omen are now of their bulging NI of the male irections. They )ffice but want ome. They be-but don't know he other hand, military don't be equal until as men.

But hemselves un! different. rincess Di bealnerable; othvas a survivor. G.I. Jane beDemi-star; othas buff. )ur society go way.

ignals greater om to follow Lybe it's simple derment. But wrangle over a umbrellas, it out there. Globe ladies' guilds. There was in the crowd an unaccountably large proportion of red-faced persons one might have thought drunk if one hadn't known the place was teetotal. Going home on sweltering fair days, late in the afternoon you could count on seeing at least one flushed scrawny customer reeling along the state road in the direction of Bostoh, or perhaps sprawled against a roadside maple, sleeping it off in a patch of poison ivy.

Every year people reported things being stolen off the clothesline during fair week; we were convinced the racing brought shady characters to town you had to watch out for. has instituted new orders. On the one hand sensitivity training for the men, while on the other hand higher physical fitness standards for women. And if you want to put an umbrella over all this, remember that the military still has a double-umbrella standard. Men in uniform can't use them, women can.

I don't want to confuse Di and G.I., cinema and verite. Demi Moore's last role after all was as a feminist stripper. But in the great cultural morph, we surf through both news and fiction for our cultural images. Are these images telling our daughters to tough it out? To proudly achieve the male standard? To win admiration by shaving your head, doing one-armed push-ups and surviving abuse if that's what it takes? Or are we telling them to hold to a different standard? To insist that princes mourn in public and presidents share their feelings? It is clear that the bona fide job qualifications for becoming a Navy SEAL or raising a prince are quite different. But there is NEW LEBANON, N.Y.

LAST WEEK a student in a freshman writing course handed in an essay recounting her Memories of going to Cummington Fair as a child. Her description of the fair was so evocative that it set off in my mind a train of recollections of the annual fair I attended grow, ing up, That fair, like Cummington's, was still primarily an exhibition of country life dairy cows, sheep, swine, poultry, knitting, needlework, crocheting, baking, preserving, vegetables, fruit, flowers run by the venerable Agricultural and Horticultural Society, which, come to think of it, is where I learned the words "agricultural" and "horticultural." The name was painted in gilt letters on a long black board hung above the entrance steps to the main hall, a large, gaunt, two-story shingled building on a grassy mound that stood empty and forlorn all the year except for the one week of the fair, which originally was held in mid-to-late September, but over the years had been edged backward until it got permanently snagged on Labor Day. By the time I came along, "horticultural" and "agricultural" had been stretched to include pari-mutuel horse racing (the sanitized term for that road to flaming ruin right up there next to drinking and womanizing betting.) There were six races round the dirt track every afternoon, the finish line right in front of the splintery plank-and-shingle grandstand which would be filled with ladies in summer dresses and cigared gentlemen in straw hats, the dusty and ticket-littered standing-room in front crowded elbow-to-elbow with hot and sweaty strangers from who knew where who got most astonishingly excited as the nags galloped by, their hooves tossing damp lumps of dirt aloft. Between races they would disperse to the canvas hot dog stands and the pie-andlemonade tents run by church LAST 1 freshman 1, in an 1. Memories mington I 5 Her des i so evocati 1 si mind a 1,1 the annw ing up.

That fa i was still 1 of countr sheep, SIA i needlewoi preservin flowers Agricultui Society, IA it, is whe. "agriculti tural." Th gilt letter hung abo to the ma two-story grassy m( and fork) for the which or mid-to-lat the yea' backward nently sru By the "horticull tural" ha( elude par (the saniti to flamin, ne)d to ing bet There 1 the dirt 1 the finish the splint grandstar filled wit dresses a in straw ticket-littE front crc with hot from who most ast( the nags hooves to dirt aloft. Betweei disperse 1 stands A NEW LEBANON, N.Y. LAST WEEK a student in a freshman writing course handed In an essay recounting her memories of going to Cum- mington Fair as a child. 5 Her description of the fair was '1 so evocative that it set off in my the open windows wearing their "official" badges, fanning and conversing, scaring off like flies any urchins who had even a remote thought of molesting an exhibit, town priestesses perpetuating the rites of genteel social relations which dated back to pre-car and pre-telephone days when women from one end of town seldom had the opportunity to visit with those from the other end and catch up on news of one another.

"The Fair" brought them together in a way that made them feel uplifted "refined," and recognized for their refinement. "The Fair" as I knew it was the last gasp of an old custom. The agriculture-based life had vanished, though its folkways lingered on through the Depression and World War H. All of a sudden "The Fair" was irrelevant to real life; it had become quaint, a curio. President Payne of Williams is right in his view that the post-war '50s, not the celebrated '60s, were the "truly radical and transformative decade of 20th-century American culture and society." Now we go to fairs as nostalgia freaks.

What were once serious necessities of life sewing, baking, preserving, raising fine vegetables and animals are now options for fun and personal self-fulfillment. Our affluence has detached us from the old realities of life and the community that went along with them. This coming weekend is the Autumn Fair at Hancock Shaker Village. There, friends and neighbors of the Berkshires will be showing their jams, jellies, and pickles, their breads, biscuits, and pies, their heirloom fruits and vegetables (open pollinated-varieties that existed before 1850.) Even that bane of a farm boy's life spreading manure has been transformed into fun; there will be a manure-throwing contest. The weekend will do what old-time town fairs used to do: give people who meet too seldom a chance to get together and catch up on one another's news.

the open windows wearing their ngscaring "official" badges, fanning and conversi, off like flies any urchins who had even a remote thought of molesting an town priestesses per- petuating the rites of genteel social relations which dated Cheers to the FDA DA By Robert Reno Serious farming in town had long since gone under, but some vestigial urge or not-yet-whollyspent habit kept filling the paper-covered tables of the Exhibition Hall with old white crocker plates of "three cucumbers, salad" or "five string beans, pole type" or "three apples, summer, one variety" as the premium list prescribed, and the glass-topped cases in the women's department up on the second floor with samples of aprons, potholders, quilts, mittens, and pies and cakes "with one slice removed" and weary rows of mustard pickle and bread-and-butter pickles and chow-chow and piccalilli and corn relish and jams and jellies and small chipped saucers of fancy candies. In those days it was a mark of social distinction for women to be asked to serve on The Committee; they sat proudly by Newt was livid, practically went bananas. 9 livid, ly went Richard Nun ley is a regular Eagle contributor. NEW YORK PHYSICIANS LAST year wrote 18 million prescriptions for two drugs that now appear to cause leaky heart valves in nearly one-third of the people who swallow them, pulmonary hypertension in a few cases and brain damage in laboratory animals. It takes a public fiasco like this every few years to remind us why supposed new miracle cures must not be rushed to market and why Newt Gingrich's threats to castrate the Food and Drug Administration and turn it into the lap spaniel of the pharmaceutical industry put -the public at greater risk than any regulatory sins the zealous FDA bureaucrats might have committed.

The FDA has felt the rough side of Newt's tongue on a number of occasions but never for being too quick to approve drugs like Redux and Pondimin, the weight-reduction potions that were withdrawn from the market last week at the FDA's urgent request. Fitting end for grandstanding Weld By Eileen McNamara BOSTON xilinvet G0101011 VMO COI al MAIASS0011 Is HE gone yet? Is it safe to turn on a televi sion or to open a newspaper without encountering another installment of Mr. Weld Goes to Washington? It's been quite a performance, really. William Weld. as naive waif, an innocent abroad in a land of raw, political opportunism.

Not believable, of course, but entertaining. sure is a funny town," Weld opined this week, hayseed-style, as if he himself had not worked in the city during the Reagan administration. Weld was that fellow praising Attorney General Ed Meese as a "fair-minded, right-minded when he accepted the job as head of the criminal division in the U.S. Justice Department. Weld was the same fellow denouncing the same boss as unethical when he signed two years later.

That was either the last time Bill Weld acted on principle or the first time he displayed the total lack of principle that become the hallmark of his political career. sion or t( without installmen Washingto It's been really. Wi: waif, an i land of ra ism. Not but entertE town," We hayseed-st, had not wl ing the Re Weld wa Attorney "fair-min person" job as he vision in partment. fellow de boss as tu signed two That wal Bill Weld the first ti total lack come the I cal career.

1Fll 1-r? Ly co 0 0 1 IFILYM lif No 15 4, 1 th 0 A e( 4 0 4LN 0-07, i 4 4 PA? A 13 oz millions to develop them and said, in effect, let us now make billions in profits on them so we can reinvest in even better drugs, some of which may even work. The drugs withdrawn from the market last week were hardly regarded as much beyond the first generation of weight reducers. More sophisticated, better-targeted drugs now in the pipeline offer greater hope for a safe and effective cure for obesity. Redux, for all its popularity, was no magic bullet. Among the claims for it were that, in a one-year study, 40 percent of patients lost more than 10 percent of their weight.

A 10 percent weight reduction is not enough to make a seriously obese person slim. Hell, people have been known to lose 25 percent of their weight in a year by the simple and cheap method of eating less food. And presumably, 60 percent of the patients in the study didn't lose more than 10 percent of their weight. Such a failure rate hardly puts Redux in a class with such historic breakthroughs as aspirin, penicillin, or even Ex-Lax. Still, some doctors built whole practices around giving out Redux and others meekly succumbed to the demands of patients who were only slightly overweight or who were convinced it was the miracle that would painlessly save them from obesity.

And yet this is a product of such uncertain safety that as recently as 1995, an FDA advisory panel voted 5-3 against approving it for the market. The panel later reversed itself and voted to approve the stuff by a one-vote margin, not exactly an impressive endorsement. We can only guess how much these scientists felt under threat and pressure from Gingrich and his generous friends in the pharmaceutical industry. Even now there is legislation pending in Congress to severely weaken the FDA's role as gatekeeper for such drugs as Redux and Pondimin. Among other things, it would allow drug companies to aggressively market their products for uses other than those for which the FDA has approved them.

It would let private laboratories take over much of the FDA's own testing for the safety and effectiveness of new drugs. Many of these private outfits already have rich commercial relationships with the drug companies. This is a case where it might be better to have a fox watch the hen house than to let the chickens police themselves. lop them and us now make on them so we even better hich may even thdrawn from week were as much be-generation of More drugs now offer greater and effective Redux, for all as no magic claims for it ne-year study, ents lost more It their weight. ht reduction is Ike a seriously rL Hell, people rn to lose 25 'eight in a year and cheap less food.

And )ercent of the Idy didn't lose Tcent of their failure rate ux in a class breakrin, penicillin, ors built whole I giving out meekly sucemands of pa-only slightly rho were cone miracle that save them I yet this is a ncertain safety 3 1995, an FDA ted 5-3 against le market. The sed itself and the stuff by a not exactly an )rsement. We )w much these ier threat and ngrich and his in the phar17. is legislation ess to severely role as gate-rugs as Redux Among other allow drug aggressively ducts for uses for which the ved them. It laboratories of the FDA's the safety and new drugs.

private outfits commercial Lth the drug a case where to have a (cot use than to let themselves. I don't know whether Newt took these pills but he might well have been among the millions of overweight Americans who were victims in this sad affair. I'm not suggesting he may have been brain-damaged but he ought to think again, if he can, about having called David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner and an admirable public servant, "a thug and a bully" for being overly cautious in approving new drugs and medical devices. Gingrich also said that "the FDA is a bureaucracy that has overreached on a number of fronts. It is weakening American job creation and weakening the introduction of new medications." When the FDA moved last year to take a more active antismoking role, Newt was livid, practically went bananas.

"The FDA has lost its mind," he said. "If you want an example of big government interfering, it would be the FDA picking a brand-new fight when we haven't won the far more serious fights about crack and cocaine and heroin." More recently, he called the FDA "the biggest job killer in America." Strange bow soon we forget it was a single meddlesome bureaucrat, Frances a Kelsey of the FDA, who held up approval of thalidomide against huge pressures and saved uncounted babies from the fate of hundreds of European children born deformed. It is also worth remembering how many supposedly miraculous hew tranquilizers and amphetamine-type diet pills came on the market in the 1950s. Most of these are now regarded as either crude, out of date, worthless, dangerously addictive or subject to widespread illegal abuse. But the pharmaceutical industry spent He was half-right last week about Washington being a very different place than Massachusetts.

His modus operandi here has been to co-opt his opponents. He made the man he once mocked as a petty pol the president of the University of Massachusetts. He named the man he once called an "intelloctual bully" chairman of state Board of Education. He thought he could romance North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms the same way he seduced Bill Bulger and John Silber. But the former governor had nothing but that vaunted charm of his to offer his nemesis on Capitol Hill.

-It turned out that Helms just didn't like Bill Weld. For seven years, Weld's considerable intelligence was less a factor in his political success than his easy charm. He was ctearly shocked that it did not work on Helms. Was he so shocked that he forgot that the democractic process includes the concept of He was about Was different setts. His has been nents.

He once mock president Massachus man he a loctual but Board of El He thouq North Ca Senator Je way he sed John Silb4 governor 11 vaunted el his nemesi! -It turned didn't like For seven erable inte factor in tban his ctearly sho work on He Was he forgot tha process inc we've been treated to this week. You do have to envy the man his supreme self-confidence. He got clobbered in his campaign for the U.S. Senate. He got rebuffed in his bid for a minor league federal post.

Does Bill Weld now quietly retreat to mull the price of pride, the sin of arrogance? He does not. He holds court to tell the public he has no plans, at present, to challenge Senator Edward M. Kennedy or to run for the presidency in 2000. Phew, aren't his potential opponents all relieved? You do not have to like Jesse Helms or his politics. But it is hard not to appreciate his candor.

Senator Helms knows who he is and what he stands for. Maybe during his forced hiatus from public life, William Weld would be well advised to learn the same about himself. The Boston Globe Means Committee meeting on Beacon Hill? Has he never watched a favored piece of legislation buried in i a "study committee?" The truth is that Massachusetts lawmakers have far more power than their national counterparts. The Massachusetts House speaker and the state Senate president appoint their deputies and committee chairmen. In the 160-member House.

that means 44 members are beholden to Speaker Tom Finneran for the extra pay in their checks every week. Does Weld think that Finneran pushed through rules changes this year that allow him to kill bills and to limit floor debate because he wanted to expand free and open discussion at the State House? Weld accepted Finneran's undisguised power grab without a word of protest, let alone the kind of sanctimonious outrage payback? Jesse Helms had nothing to lose by exacting a price for Weld's refusal during the Senate campaign last fall to say that, if elected, of course he would vote for Helms as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Weld's suggestion that Washington could learn a thing or two about democracy in action from Massachusetts was nothing short of hilarious. Our Massachusetts? Where governors hand out judgeships with lifetime tenure in the waning hours of their administrations? Where the term "Christmas tree" is a metaphor for pork-laden legislation gaveled through in the predawn hours? Weld was appalled, he said, to see how power is wielded by the legislative leadership on Capitol Hill. Has the former governor never seen the terrified supplicants lining up outside a House or Senate Ways and Newsday 1 A i 1.