W. Robert Connor (Photo: Kent Mullikin)

t seems to be part of my job description that I spend a lot of time in airports. They are not very nourishing places, either gastronomically or intellectually. When I finish my pizza, I sometimes stare at the array of magazines in the newsstands, looking for something to sustain me. Typically I find a few news magazines, a half dozen on golf, at least a dozen devoted to the development of abdominal muscles, more still on how to make money in the stock market, and still more on how to spend it on computer equipment. If I'm lucky, I may find the Atlantic on a shadowy top shelf somewhere, but I'm more likely to go away without having found much to sustain me.

Tell us, please, what you think about Ideas. Does it, as one inept colleague wrote in endorsing a book proposal, "fill a much-needed gap"? Do you derive sustenance from it? Does it fly at 28,000 feet? Has a particular article captured your imagination, or offended you deeply? Drop me a note or an E-mail message at connor@ga.unc.edu, or give your advice to our versatile editor at jppnhc@aol.com. We'll be interested in your reactions.

W. Robert Connor, Director