Word: somersets
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...London offices that we now inhabit look out on Somerset House, a masterpiece of 18th century design. The art treasures of the Courtauld Institute lie within its ornamented corridors, and its well-proportioned courtyards house handsome offices, restaurants and shops. Canaletto, along with other artistic admirers, painted a view of its sweeping façade along the Thames. When we look across the river at newer, uglier office blocks, we realize Somerset House represents a kind of perfection that succeeding generations did not - could not - improve upon...
...thought fills us with dread. That's because we were installed here a few months ago to improve upon something that is as close to perfection as you can get in the newsmagazine field. For 78 years, Time has been the Somerset House of newsmagazines: elegant, balanced, highly polished, a red-bordered icon recognized around the world. How could we dare to change it? Answer: carefully. With this issue we gingerly introduce some modest design flourishes and a few new departments. The former, like our recently restyled table of contents, will (we hope) look so appropriate you'll think they...
...fiddle with a formula that has worked for decades, we realize that change doesn't have to be bad. Just after we wrote this letter's opening paragraph, we did a quick Internet search. Turns out Canaletto had been dead for eight years when the cornerstone was laid for Somerset House. He had actually painted an earlier Somerset House, no slouch in the aesthetic department but not quite the graceful building that rose on its 16th century ruins. And the newer one itself has been altered substantially by subsequent architects and planners. See, you can improve on perfection...
...several instances led to such duplicities. Some believe that once the English spy Guy Burgess felt he had betrayed the idea of heterosexuality, it was an easy step to betray his country. He already felt like an alien at home. But the analogy is too facile. Real hypocrisy, Somerset Maugham once said, "cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a full-time job." I'm sure Robert Hanssen well understood that...
...Melvin, a professor in Phoenix, Ariz., who hired a coach at a friend's urging, credits coaching with turning her life around. Melvin, 46 and single, has lost 40 lbs., joined a dating service and is better organized on the job. "My coach holds me accountable," she says. Ann Somerset of Gaithersburg, Md., claims the clarity she gained from her coach enabled her to win a squeaker race for city council last year. He even helped her choose outfits...