February 1981
In This Issue
Explore the February 1981 print edition below. Or to discover more writing from the pages of The Atlantic, browse the full archive.
Articles
Of Sex and the Catholic Church
When the bishops' synod on the Christian family convened in Rome last fall, there were hopes that the Church would reform its position on such crucial issues as birth control and divorce. But, despite pleas from liberal prelates around the world, the Vatican-dominated synod reaffirmed the precedence of law over compassion.
Labor: What's a Job Worth?
Why should the garbage man make more than the schoolteacher? Labor experts are responding to such questions with an effort to establish standards of “comparable worth" among various occupations.
The Atlantic Puzzler
Back to the Gold Standard?
True believers in the intrinsic worth of gold feel that the precious metal may soon be restored to its historic role as the basis for all currency, that doomsday draws near for printing-press dollars. Oddly enough, a return to the gold standard would cost the gold bugs a lot of money.
Teaching a Stone to Talk
Wherever there is stillness there is the still small voice, nature’s old song and dance … A meditation on silence and other matters.
Art
Rite of Passage: A Memoir
Metaphors of Women
A Trip to the Seaside
Czechoslovakia: The Party Is in Control
A stagnant economy and oppressive monitoring by Communist functionaries have reduced the once buoyant Czechs to frustration and resignation.
Untitled Poem
Hurdle Mills, Nc
Quarry
Amnios
February
A Needle Bed
Unwanted Immigrants: Cuban Prisoners in America
The last of America’s Cuban refugees, some 6000 strong, still live a closely guarded life on an Army base in western Arkansas. If some harbor criminal impulses, many others want only the chance to fit into the quiltwork of American life.
Tomcat
The Ward Essaymatic 5000
Life in the Fast Lane
Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf
The Life of John O'Hara
Other People's Worlds
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Ellis Island: And Other Stories
The Cheer
Ambition: The Secret Passion
The Strange Destiny of Rupert Brooke
Cleaning House
The Dictionary of Imaginary Places
Ways of Escape
American Genesis
Washburn College Bible
Earthly Powers
The Tale of the Shining Princess
Death Under Par
The Find of a Lifetime
A World Like Our Own
I Saw Tokyo Burning
