To Our Readers

By Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor

CATHY BOOTH, our West Coast Bureau Chief and a 14-year TIME veteran, tells us that the warmth actor Tom Hanks often projects on the screen has a genuine source. "He's incredibly charming and very intelligent," she says. "He's able to shift effortlessly from Jerry Lewis imitations to why the D-day invasion was such a mess." Booth and Los Angeles correspondent Jeffrey Ressner, a regular on the Hollywood star patrol who met with the actor on the set of his new film The Green Mile, say Hanks is polite even while firmly refusing to answer questions about his family. "He wants his private life to be private," says Booth, "and you have to respect that."

MARGARET CARLSON, our Washington Columnist, works in a city where everyone's private life, especially the President's, is much too public these days. We were particularly pleased to receive her latest contribution, part of our cover package, as Carlson wrote it wearing a neck brace, a souvenir from a bruising encounter she had with a car while crossing the street last week. (No, the driver was not an angry Congressman.) "Bad timing on my part," Carlson says. "If you're going to get run over, you should find a week when the President's not being impeached." You can catch Carlson and collar on CNN's The Capitol Gang, where she's a regular panelist.

DOUG WALLER AND ELAINE SHANNON, two correspondents based in Washington, report this week on the CIA's and FBI's mostly clandestine campaign to thwart terrorist attacks backed by Osama bin Laden. "Obviously, these things are difficult to uncover because so much is done out of public view," says Waller, who has spent a decade tracking foreign policy. Says Shannon, who has covered law enforcement for 20 years: "This story is the result of spending a long time cultivating sources and breaking through walls of secrecy."

ANDREA DORFMAN was uncovering the past in two stories she reported for this week's issue: one on an ancient skeleton found in South Africa, the other on the ruins of Teotihuacan in Mexico. "So much information is still unknown about who we are and where we came from," says Dorfman, who counts archeology as one of her passions. "As long as researchers continue to find information that adds to our understanding, I think people will be fascinated." The head reporter for TIME's science sections, Dorfman joined us in 1985 after working at a scientific magazine with Michael Lemonick, who wrote this week's stories.

One last note: the phone number provided for holiday gift subscriptions in last week's issue was incorrect. We apologize for this mistake. The correct number is (800) 438-1155.

Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor