December 1979
In This Issue
Explore the December 1979 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Love Canal and the Poisoning of America
"Industry has shown laxity, not infrequently to the point of criminal negligence, in soiling the land and adulterating the waters with its toxins." So says a recent report from a House investigative subcommittee. The report adds that as deposits of dangerous industrial wastes proliferate, the authority charged with eliminating the hazards, the Environmental Protection Agency, has done little to search out such sites and compel offending companies to clean them up. Meanwhile, as much as 35 million tons of toxic waste continues to be improperly disposed of every year, and, charges one environmental watchdog group, another year and a half may pass before the EPA puts proper regulations into force. There may be as many as 34,000 seriously hazardous waste dumps spotted about the country. The article that follows documents the miseries and losses induced by only one such man-made horror, the infamous Love Canal dump in Niagara Falls, New York.
The Atlantic Puzzler
The Ivory Coast: Le Folklore, La Prospérité: The French Influence Hangs Heavily Over This Former Colony, but the Ivory Coast Has Shrewdly Exploited Foreign Investment, and Its Own Fertile Land, to Build the Fastest Growing Economy in Africa
The French influence hangs heavily over this former colony, but the Ivory Coast has shrewdly exploited foreign investment, and its own fertile land, to build the fastest growing economy in Africa.
The Computer Router
Some Other Poison Pits
Edward Hopper's Most Interested Vision
Now recognized as one of America’s foremost artists, Edward Hopper made his living as a mediocre illustrator and produced great art, particularly his etchings, on the side. Some of them, the author believes, are “the finest things ever created on American soil.” A few are reproduced on the following pages.
The St. Dominick's Game
Organized Labor: Changing of the Guard
Aphorist, jazz buff, collector of modern art, Lane Kirkland doesn’t fit everyone’s image of a labor leader. This fall, however, he stood ready to inherit the AFL-CIO empire from its retiring president, George Meany.
Vietnam: The Camera Lies: Someday Moviemakers May Capture the Essence of the Indochina Tragedy and Its Impact on Our Society, but So Far They Have Failed, as Have Many Writers. Our Media Man Explains Why
The Case for Alcohol
Whatever one’s moral position on alcohol, the facts about it—and its consumption— demonstrate that it can be boon as well as bane. Evidence is mounting, says the author, that moderate drinking, however defined, may confer benefits that the abstainer, the heavy drinker, and the ex-drinker do not share.
The Cormorant in Its Element
Big Business Talk
The language of the boardroom is full of shameless puns, coinages from Marxist rhetoric, and borrowings from popular psychology. But if you want to get along with Big Business types, become a Got, or accumulate kilobucks, here’s what you have to know.
Markings
Letter From Prague 1968-1978
The Statue
(Ever so slightly after Miguel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, José Lezama Lima, Juan Rulfo, etc., etc.)
The Inner Game of Pinball
The Buddhist Caves of Ajanta
Charmed Lives
Karma Cola
Princess Pamela
Astronomy of the Ancients
Corot
The Boer War
W. H. Auden
Venice
Saloons of the Old West
By Me, William Shakespeare
Penguins
Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner
