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Dharma bum or bummer?--English professor Christopher Benfey writes at length on American poet Gary Snyder in the March 24 issue of The New Republic. Snyder, one of America's more respected poetic voices, is the quintessential West Coast Zen- and ecology-inspired writer who formed the model for one of the less endearing characters in Jack Kerouac's novel The Dharma Bums. Snyder, Benfey contends, displays at least two sides: on the one hand he is a self-appointed cultural commissar demanding that the West make radical changes in its direction, on the other, he writes some pretty good poems ... sometimes.

Tax reforms--John Fox, Washington tax lawyer and lecturer in the Complex Organizations Program, was quoted in a February 23 article in The New York Times about the likelihood of substantial federal tax reforms this year. In fact, Congress is considering a range of possible reforms, including cuts to capital-gains taxes, estate-tax liberalization, expanded IRAs, and educational incentives. Given the current bipartisan inclination to come up with meaningful tax reform, Fox believes that many of these proposals "would fly through" Congress, were it not for the revenue crunch at the federal level.