THE difficulties of putting together a cover story such as this week's on General Maxwell Taylor involve many familiar obstacles--the limitations of national security, the wariness of bureaucrats, the imposed silences on Pentagon brass, the guardedness of friends, and the prudence of enemies. All these are known hazards, and TIME'S Washington Bureau Chief John Steele had little trouble coping with them, as he dispatched Hugh Sidey to explore White House angles, Neil MacNeil to sound out Capitol Hill reactions, and Military Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rinehart to report on the general himself.

Rinehart boned up by looking up old Taylor comrades in the 101st Airborne Division and reading not only Taylor's own book, but more than a thousand pages of military testimony before congressional committees. Then he set forth to interview his subject, who proved courteously cooperative--but busy. The very fact that made General Taylor cover-worthy this week--his role in the vital decision-making on Berlin--also made him inaccessible to interviewing for long stretches of time. Rinehart's final interview with Taylor was conducted at a brisk semi-dogtrot through Arlington National Cemetery. The general likes to start his day at Fort Myer, Va., with a mile and a quarter of "walking." Rinehart tagged along, trying to scribble a note or two on the run. "As we burst out of the cemetery," reported Rinehart, "the general's waiting car was a happy sight for the rest of the trip. When we reached the White House, young (59) ex-Paratrooper Taylor smiled at visibly wilted, old (31) ex-Navyman Rinehart, who is more used to aircraft carrier wardrooms, and said, 'Nice invigorating way to start the day, isn't it?' "

TIME, bringing all things, finds some of its news in the Pentagon, or in Bizerte; other news is made in concert hall or scientist's laboratory. But some of our best result from a story idea that just pops into a writer's head, and which he then sets out to develop. Such an idea was TIME'S much-discussed story last year on non-books. This week's Education section has another such inspired exploration of a familiar but unrecognized phenomenon. Education Editor Robert Shnayerson got to thinking about the proliferation of organizations whose initials add up to a message--from CARE to CORE to SHAPE--and discovered that if the Greeks didn't have a word for it, they might have: acronyms. All this adds up to a recommended story this week, "The Acronymous Society." The way things are going, there will soon have to be a new society called BANE, for Ban on Acronymic-Named Enterprises.

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