December 20, 1999

Tens of thousands of travelers are stranded or delayed when fire in signal box shuts down Pennsylvania Station for more than four hours; fire, which authorities call suspicious, resulted in cancellation of more than 100 trains on Amtrak, Long Island Railroad and New Jersey Transit; no serious injuries are reported; photo (M)

Marge Piercy Writing on Writing essay on why she writes both poetry and fiction (M)

Genetic testing is being used to identify patients who will benefit from certain drugs, patients who will not and patients who will suffer troubling side effects; experts predict that the first application of such testing will be for more common diseases like asthma, arthritis, heart disease, high blood pressure and migraines, but that it will eventually be applied to virtually any drug for any disease; drug companies believe that drug prices could increase, but say that drugs will be so much more effective that they will be worth more to patients; photos (M)

LOOKED at one way, the surgeon general's new report is a comprehensive analysis of the sorry state of America's mental health care. Looked at another way, it is a primer in two political truisms: one, follow the money; two, beware every policy's unintended consequences. Consider the money trail: the report faults private insurance companies for failing to cover mental illness as much as physical ailments. But it fails to tell you that the federal government itself is guilty of the same stinginess. Medicaid, the government's insurance program for the poor, does not reimburse the states for the cost of treating most patients who need long-term care in state psychiatric hospitals.

Anthony Tommasini preview of John Harbison's new opera The Great Gatsby, to have premiere at Metropolitan Opera with Jerry Hadley and Dawn Upshaw in starring roles; photos; discusses challenge of creating operatic version of Fitzgerald's famous novel, with its Jazz Age setting (M)