Appearance
1976Year Blue Cross and othep health plans in several states, including New York, will offee Millions‐
of subscribers in selected groups the opportunity to obtain at the plan's expense a second professional opinion before undergoing nonemergency surgery. BLUE CROSS ACTS TO LIMIT SURGERY
1934Year Death ERNEST FITZGERALD,
of Successful Real Estate Man Maryland Was Blind,
1980Year The Six Symmetries of a Triangle
Of Such as This Is Group Theory Made
1976Year Pitney-Bowes repts '76 3d-qr results will include charge of $10-million to wind up unsuccessful joint venture with Alpex Computer Corp to make point-of-sale terminals
of sum, $5.5-million is after-tax effect of co's recent payment of $11-million to Alpex settling lawsuit Alpex brought after Pitney dissolved joint venture in '73; other charge-offs noted (S) Corporation Affairs
1994Year FOR centuries, travel writing possessed a stunningly simple rationale: the world was big, and almost no one ever got to see it. Explorer, anthropologist, geography teacher and raconteur all in one, the travel writer was a paid importer of experience who delivered the exotic right to the home table, like so much tropical fruit in winter. Norman Lewis's new book, AN EMPIRE OF THE EAST: Travels in Indonesia (John Macrae/Holt, $25), sets itself squarely in this generalist tradition. Mr. Lewis, an Englishman and seasoned travel writer, provides a classic narrative of manners, history and scenery from the land of more than 13,000 islands. Here are "splendid" views of palm-fringed lagoons
of Sumatran rice paddies where storks and egrets delicately step; of sinister mangrove swamps and a mosque abandoned to the jungle. Fruit bats, wings tied with twine, hang from roadside trees, sold to make a stew used as a cure for asthma. (Mr. Lewis gives this a miss, but makes up for it by breakfasting on chopped octopus and strawberries.) Of Indonesians, we learn that they will twist themselves into knots to avoid being the bearers of bad news; that their sense of humor tends to the slapstick; that traditional hunting rituals feature a shaman conjuring up the spirit of a monkey and apologizing for its imminent death. TRAVEL
1981Year When it comes to the country-food reminiscences of Edna Lewis, memory can make a person's mouth water. Memories, for instance, of warm springmorning breakfasts of river shad, fence-row asparagus and strawberries
of summer lunches of pan-fried barnyard chicken and cream gravy; of autumn picnics of field pheasant and wild-hickory-nut cookies; of winter suppers of Bay oyster stew and home-cured sausages. ONE OF THIS COUNTRY'S MOST POPULAR GATHERINGS, WITH A REGIONAL FLAVOR