Contributors

PRISCILLA PAINTON, editor of TIME's Nation section, has unflappably presided over a raucous political year. Most recently she guided our coverage of the midterm elections, which culminated last week in the surprise resignation of Speaker Newt Gingrich. Born to American parents in Rome and educated in Paris, Painton always brings a fresh eye to political journalism, including her reporting on the campaigns of Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton. "I love American politics," she says, "because the facts constantly contradict the conventional wisdom." Of the dozen cover stories she has edited this year, Painton is most proud of two that did not come out of Washington: on the state of feminism and on gay politics. "One was meant to be an argument starter, and the other examined the complexity of gay issues. I'm interested in covering things that people really talk about."

RON STODGHILL II, TIME's midwest bureau chief, traveled last week from his Chicago base to Minnesota, where he met with Governor-elect and former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura. Stodghill interviewed Ventura two days after the election and discovered the unlikely victor still in a state of shock. "I don't think he's given much thought to what he'll do next," says Stodghill. "But it will be a thrilling experiment to watch--to see a year from now what compromises he'll need to make to be an effective leader." Stodghill, who came to TIME last year from Business Week and has written cover stories on the Promise Keepers and sex education, reports that Ventura is nonplussed about his first major transition, moving from his suburban Minneapolis ranch to the confines of the Governor's mansion. "He says he's looking forward to all the free food."

BELINDA LUSCOMBE's article this week on the resurgence of 1950s architecture and design allowed her to explore a genre that has played an unusual role in her life. "My mother made a cake for my wedding in the shape of Le Corbusier's 1955 chapel in Ronchamp, France," she says. "It was the subject of my husband's thesis. My thesis was on the poetry of Matthew Arnold--lousy cake material." Fortunately for us, Luscombe veered away from poetry, and her native Australia, to land at TIME, where for three years she has employed her characteristic wit to write the popular People page. This week she takes on a new role as editor of TIME's Notebook section. Her predecessor, Jamie Malanowski, becomes a senior writer at our sister publication ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY.

While traveling in Australia last summer, our art critic, Robert Hughes, saw an exhibition titled "New Worlds from Old: 19th Century Australian and American Landscapes" and read press coverage of it, which included a review by Patricia Macdonald in Australian Art Collector. After the exhibition moved to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Conn., Hughes' review ran in our Nov. 2 issue. His first three sentences were very similar to the opening sentence of Macdonald's article. "To my embarrassment I seem to have cannibalized it, but it was entirely unconscious," says Hughes. "I apologize to Ms. Macdonald and to TIME's readers."