Until quite recently dance in America was the ragged Cinderella of the arts . . .

trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.

Good drama should sandpaper the mind.

Natural villains are hard to come by, what with all the shrinks and social-scientist types threatening to understand everybody into the ground.

The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.

The law changes and flows like water, and . . . the stream of women's rights law has become a sudden rushing torrent.

The Federal Building's large Ceremonial Courtroom, reserved for show trials, is veneered in executive teak. Bench, counsel tables, jury boxes, entrances, and exits -- all are as formally arranged as an Elizabethan stage. Only the drama is shapeless, at least to those of us who have never seen a trial before. We see only random movements, sequences, comings and goings, no form or agenda apparent. To us the action is less like watching a play than watching an aquarium.