The WOVEN FIGURE : CONSERVATISM AND AMERICA'S FABRIC

The sixth collection of George Will's syndicated op-ed columns finds the iconic conservative pundit complaining about abuse of the battered-woman syndrome defense and other "excuses" offered up in courts, overglorification of multiculturalism, the double entendres on Friends in the months before the 1996 presidential election, and an assortment of other manifestations of declining cultural values. ("When parents cannot watch early-evening television with their children without wincing, their distress will take on political coloration, and the winner of the nation's premier political office is apt to be he who best exemplifies credible disgust with what distresses them.") He also finds rays of hope, such as Eugene F. Rivers, a Jesuit who ministers to the people of Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the diligence of Cal Ripken: "On September 6, [1995] the nation was mesmerized by the spectacle of a man going to work, as usual. He works between Second and Third in Baltimore."