IN the harvest of news each week, much of what TIME'S editors deal with lies quite properly in the realm of the expected: a long-awaited event to be reported and analyzed, a continuing question to be updated and more thoroughly understood. Yet the spice of journalism--for both editors and readers--is the unusual: a fascinating personage, a surprising relationship, a shocking conflict, an unexpected and intriguing proposition. A sampling from this week's issue:

> "Never trust anyone over 30" has become a rallying cry of today's radical youth. Yet there is one oldster the youngsters do listen to--at least for now. He is 42, looks a little like an elf on a high, and has already had one whiff of the infernal (see BOOKS, COVER STORY, "The Dentist's Chair as an Allegory of Life").

> An Elliott 503 computer may at first appear to be a curious tool for the serious Bible student. In this case, though, it seemed the only way to resolve a centuries-old dispute (see RELIGION, "Isaiah and the Computer").

> Everybody has heard of Educator Laurence Peter's "Peter Principle," which holds that employees advance until they are promoted to their level of incompetence. Now comes a corollary, the "Paul Principle," that is causing top management more grief than inflation does (see BUSINESS, "The Agony of Executive Failure").

> Psychologists have long talked about love-hate relationships between parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister. The conflict has a further category: man v. nature, and the struggle is coming to a head in one state that has always seemed the epitome of indefatigable nature (see ENVIRONMENT, "Cloudy Sunshine State").

> Tass, the Soviet news agency, is keeping an extra sharp watch on homage to Lenin during the leader's centennial year, and it believes it has spotted an increased interest in the master's works among the youth of an American city far from the Kremlin walls (see THE WORLD, "The Drive to Make Lenin a Secular Saint").

> Baby Patrick Fiorello Ginsburg has a most unusual code number. It is J64:Med23:G 13 and, in one man's brave new world, it will determine not only what Patrick eats and learns but also what his privileges and punishments will be (see BEHAVIOR, "Rx for Democracy").

There is a period of history that rests in lirnbo--long enough ago so that memories tend to get foggy, yet too near to attract the historian's serious attention. Even last year belongs in that category. What of man's first lunar landing? Initial disengagement from Viet Nam? Student radicalism? Growing dope addiction among the very young? Chappaquiddick? The Women's Liberation Movement? With this in mind, the editors of Time-Life Books, in conjunction with TIME'S editorial staff, have produced "1969, The Year in Review," 240 pages long, with more than 200 photographs--one-third of them in color. The book not only examines the major news events of 1969 but also places them in the broader perspective of the entire past decade in a fast-paced blend of photography, reportage and specially prepared byline articles. The volume will not be sold in bookstores, but is available to readers for $6.95, plus shipping costs, from:

Time-Life Books

Time-Life Building

541 N. Fairbanks Court

Chicago, Ill. 60611

The Cover: Portrait in tempera by Isadore Seltzer.

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