Time

TO OUR READERS 4

LETTERS 6

CHRONICLES 9

MILESTONES 15

THE ECONOMY: Signs of a Real Recovery 18

What's ahead for inflation, interest rates, jobs and growth

MONEY ANGLES: Plastic Ploy 20

How to use your credit card to borrow below prime

THE ADMINISTRATION: The House That Hillary Built 22

A look at how the Clintons did business back in Arkansas

CRIME: On the Third Day of Christmas... 24

Bombs go off in western New York as part of a family vendetta

WELFARE: Untangling the Safety Net 25

Reform is paradoxical -- saving money can be very expensive

Panhandling: Vouchers for beggars

NORTH KOREA: Do They or Don't They? 28

If Pyongyang has nuclear weapons, it's a different ball game

MIDDLE EAST: Stalled but Still on Track 31

Israeli and Palestinian talks stutter toward resolution

RUSSIA: Zhirinovsky's Tour de Farce 34

The barnstorming politician gets booted from three countries

THE POLITICAL INTEREST: The Case for a Bigger NATO 36

Why Eastern Europe should join the military alliance

RELIGION: The Incredible Shrinking Jesus 38

A trinity of books tries to debunk the Christ of the Gospels

ETHICS: Old Enough to Be Your Mother 41

Two postmenopausal women stir a debate on late motherhood

COVER: Las Vegas, U.S.A. 42

Booming with three new mega-hotel-casinos, the hypereclectic fantasy-theme city now seems mainstream. But that's because the rest of America has become more like Vegas.

ARTS & THE MEDIA

< Profile: Watch out, Waller. Best-selling author Michael Crichton has a new novel about sexual harassment 52

Television: The Menendez case gives Court TV a boost 56

Theater: A fresh staging misses My Fair Lady's magic 57

Cinema: Farce and tragedy for some grumpy old men 58

Got a bizarre family? Gilbert Grape's is odder by far.

Wim Wenders soars with his Wings of Desire sequel

From France, love and jealousy pianissimo in The Accompanist

Music: Best American orchestra? It's the Cleveland 61

PEOPLE 63

ESSAY 64

Cover: Photograph of the Luxor Hotel by Dan McCoy/Rainbow. At left is a fountain with a projected laser image.

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published weekly for $61.88 per year, by Time Inc. Principal Office: Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y., 10020-1393. Reginald K. Brack Jr., Chairman; Joseph A. Ripp, Treasurer; Harry M. Johnston, Secretary. Second-class postage paid at New York, N.Y., and at additional mailing offices. (c) 1994 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. TIME and the Red Border Design are protected through trademark registration in the United States and in the foreign countries where TIME magazine circulates. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TIME, P.O. Box 30601, Tampa, Fla. 33630-0601. For subscription queries, call Customer Service at 1-800-843-TIME (8463).