Survival of the fittest / Hicholson Baker -- Trucking through the AIDS belt / Ted conover -- Does Homer have legs? / David Denby -- Tracks and ties / Andrew Dubus III -- Out of one's tree / Stanley Elkin -- Skunk dream / Louise Erdrich -- The Frankest interview yet / Ian Frzier -- The last shot / Darcy Frey -- Death in Venice / Adam Gopnik -- Cordelia's dilemma / Stephen Jay Gould -- Mirrorings / Lucy Grealy -- Can an ape tell a joke? / Vicki Hearne -- Alien Soil / Jamaica Kincaid -- Escape from Moscow / Mark Kramer -- The turn / William Langewiesche -- Ivy day in the empty room / James A. McPherson -- Lots / S. Oso -- Rushdie in the Louvre / Cynthia Ozick -- Striptease / Lauren Slater -- Chatwin revisited / Paul Theroux -- The disposable rocket / John Updike.