The Rehearsed Apology
Closed mid-February 1990 · On stands late February 1990
The Front
Index of the Freeze
Numbers of January — heating-oil futures, unemployment-line lengths in three Rust Belt cities, the average hold time on the magazine's own subscriber line
Field Notes: The Overcoat Count
A tally of which overcoat length the office actually wore to work in January, against what the department stores were selling
The Essay
The Executive Who Apologizes on Television
A furniture essay on the corporate apology as a rehearsed genre, tracked through a decade of CEOs reading from cue cards
The Foreign File
Prague, the Second Winter
A stringer's dispatch on a government still learning its own paperwork, one ministry at a time
The Feature Well
The Understudy's Decade
A profile of a Broadway standby who has covered four leading roles without ever getting a marquee credit
The City
Subject: A service piece on the last of the city's manual elevator operators and the buildings still keeping them on
The Back
Books: A review essay on the season's diet and self-help lists · Art: A gallery note on a co-op's group show of first-time exhibitors · Film: Short notices on February's studio also-rans