Reporters' Notebook

By Jodie Morse; Amanda Ripley

Church scandals and binge drinking occupied two of our journalists last week. Their thoughts:

JODIE MORSE, a staff writer, spearheaded the reporting for this week's story on women and drinking.

"The idea for this piece came to me when I was sitting in a hospital gown getting a regular checkup from my primary-care physician. She mentioned rising concerns about how aggressively some young women now drink. So when I got back to the office, I placed a call to Henry Wechsler of the Harvard School of Public Health, who has been studying the drinking patterns of college students for a decade, and learned of his study being released this week and its findings on the rise in frequent binge drinking at all-women colleges. Then I called several colleges to gauge their anxiety level. One school, Syracuse University, shared my doctor's worry and invited me to fly up to campus for a few days. Once there, I quickly learned I needed to brush up on my cocktail lexicon. Now I know never to order a 'cement mixer'--a popular, curdled blend of Baileys Irish Cream and lime juice--unless I'm buying a drink for someone I truly detest. I learned not only that many women drink heavily but also that many have put a good deal of thought into why. 'Women want to be able to move up in the world. We want a seat at the bar too,' a woman told me. 'When you drink, guys think you're cool,' said another. 'Of course, the definition of cool is to be more like themselves.' One student deferred to her recent women's studies class and held forth on the writings of Betty Friedan. By the time I got home, it was the end of a very long week, and all I wanted to do was sit back, unwind--and have a tall glass of ice water."

AMANDA RIPLEY, a staff writer, went to Chicago last week to learn what it is like to be one of the country's roughly 45,000 priests.

"Talking with priests at this particular moment in history is a little like visiting a sick relative you've never met. You dance around the obvious for a while and then eventually ask incredibly personal questions. In response, they waver between sadness, frustration, shame--and gratitude that someone finally wants to talk about their problems. The priests I met were demoralized by the pedophilia revelations and shocked that other bishops hadn't learned the lessons of Chicago, which had its own scandal a decade ago. They also spoke of another huge challenge in their jobs: they are an endangered species, after all. But spending the day with Father Michael Shanahan in his inner-city, Hispanic parish, I was convinced that he remains intensely relevant. The church is the most stable, trusted institution in that neighborhood. When we walked through the playground at lunchtime, little kids swarmed around him as if he were a rock star, shouting, 'Father Mike!' For the moment, he had the best job in America."