Table of Contents

10 QUESTIONS: NBC sportscaster Bob Costas on his Greek roots and his favorite Olympic sport 10

LETTERS 14

NOTEBOOK

Hurricane Charley stages a surprise; the Pentagon begins to calculate the length of the postwar; Ralph Nader's homeless problem; Peggy Noonan's homecoming 17

MILESTONES 21

NATION

BOWING OUT N.J. Governor James McGreevey's revelation that he is gay is only half the story. The other half is rooted in the intrigue of state politics 22

EXCLUSIVE: Pakistani and U.S. officials focus on a summit of terrorism's elite 28

BACK IN THE GAME: Porter Goss was a spy, but does he have the instincts to reform the CIA? 28

WORLD

SHOWDOWN Both the U.S. and Muqtada al-Sadr have much at risk in the battle for Najaf 30

VIEW FROM BAGHDAD: A Q&A with Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi 32

SOCIETY

SMOKE 'EM OUT The U.S. is fuming as BC Bud, a potent strain of marijuana, flows across the border from Canada 36

MODERN FATHERHOOD: An exclusive Spike TV poll shows that dads today feel overextended and underappreciated 38

BUSINESS

CYBERTALK Maverick Jeffrey Citron is shaking up the Web phone business 42

AD ON: ABC tries to update the old corporate-sponsor model 41

COVER

SAVING THE BIG CATS Forget king of the jungle. Lions and other cats are barely surviving. But there are ways to rescue them 44

OUT OF THE WILD: Some cats weren't meant to be tamed 52

OLYMPICS 2004

AND THEY'RE OFF! The spectacle, the centaurs, the scandal! the summer games in athens kick off with a ceremony honoring ancient greece and a modern dust-up over doping 58

ARTS

JULIA CHILD: Joel Stein on the life of the pioneering TV chef 64

A MANDARIN MASTERPIECE: Zhang Yimou's Hero has romance, action and ravishing images 66

TIME TRAVEL: History repeats itself in the crafty new novel Cloud Atlas 67

YOUR TIME

STYLE: A store that sells (designer) leftovers; American jewelry gets its own museum show 71

TECH: A stereo that learns its owner's taste; Laverne & Shirley on DVD 72

LIVING: The sequel to a graphic novel about life in Iran; restaurants that help with portion control 74

PEOPLE: Great Danes of Hollywood; Mike Wallace makes news 77

ESSAY: Charles Krauthammer on the stem-cell debate 78

COVER: Photograph by Frans Lanting--Minden Pictures