Love's labors flossed
Inventor Sean Dix wanted to revolutionize the way we get rid of plaque. Now he's in jail for threatening Ted Turner's life.
By Rebecca Segall
Hello kitties
In a country that favors group-feeling over individualism, two fashion-based subcultures, "egg girls" and "little gals," cause a big stir.
By Malena Watrous
The hero who never looked down
The exemplar of everything good and bad about his time, John Lennon will forever loom over the unsettled legacy of an ambiguous age.
By Gary Kamiya
The Britney place
Spears is the flight attendant without a plane, the girl next door to a house never built.
By Merle Kessler
A bod for sin
Jacqueline Tellalian has spent her life in a wheelchair. And she still doesn't understand why men see it as a mechanical monster that threatens their manliness.
By Jennifer Kornreich
Lust and bullets at Rumba Beach
If Chaucer had retired to a trailer in Margaritaville, would he spend his evenings watching Fellini movies? He might.
By Carlos Amantea
Liberte, egalite, 36C
Why was a pneumatic Victoria's Secret model chosen as the embodiment of the French Republic?
By Debra Ollivier
The blues according to Peter Guralnick
For decades his writing has celebrated traditional blues music, but it's his brilliant Elvis biography that has made him almost a household name.
By Alex Halberstadt
James Nachtwey's "Inferno"
Pictures from an exhibition -- in hell.
By Douglas Cruickshank
They think I'm a spy! An American in Belgrade finds that real life isn't nearly as interesting as the one her Serbian neighbors imagine for her.
By Laura Rozen
Plus: Our list of The Best of Brilliant Careers 2000
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