An art review of the Masterpiece series by Joseph Epstein in the May 4-5 edition of The Wall Street Journal: "Surveying the Surging Immensity of Life". The masterpiece is 'Dead Souls' (1842), by Nikolai Gogol.

A book review in the May 5 issue of The Washington Post by Warren Cohen: "Taking the White House to task for its Middle East blunders". The book is ‘The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat’ by Vali Nasr, Doubleday, $28.95, 300 pp.

 In the same issue, a commentary by columnist Anne Applebaum:  "An Autralian 'pivot' ahead?"   'Australia, America’s test case in the Pacific'