January 19, 2003

American military's long-held but little-known practice of using drugs to keep its weary forces awake and alert, or to help them sleep, becomes focus of attention at military hearing into deaths of four Canadians in airstrike by two American pilots in Afghanistan; Air Force Maj Gen Dan Leaf says decision to take pill is made by individual pilot in the air; lawyers for two American pilots, Majors Harry Schmidt and William Umbach, say men felt compelled to take amphetamine Dexedrine or be scrubbed from their mission, and that drug may have clouded their judgment on night of bombing last April; case brings new scrutiny of amphetamine use in military, although defense's central argument is that pilots should not be held responsible because they were not informed that ground fire they spotted near Kandahar was Canadian military exercise; government argues that Schmidt ignored order to hold his fire, and that Umbach, lead pilot, failed to exercise good leadership; photo (M)

Anemona Hartocollis Coping column on troubles that ensue for tenants when Con Edison is forced to shut off the gasin an apartment house for safety reasons; drawing (M)

Gretchen Morgenson Market Watch column questions validity of current share price of Verizon Communications; cites Friedman Billings Ramsey telecommunications analyst Susan Kalla's opinion that company's business is eroding and its stock is overpriced despite compelling 4 percent dividend; graph of share price since June 2002 (M)

MY son is planning to be Steven Spielberg when he grows up. To this end, he has read every Spielberg biography he can find, has added his own English essays to the existing literature and has a framed poster from ''Saving Private Ryan'' hanging on his bedroom wall. (Yes, we let an 11-year-old see an R-rated movie; please don't send angry e-mail messages. It's tough to argue with a child who wants to increase his knowledge of camera angles and special effects, and who has already read the screenplay.) Because technology moves as fast as it does, Evan even has a head start on The Man himself. When Mr. Spielberg was 11, all he had to work with was a Super 8 camera; his editing method was to film in sequence. Evan is equipped with a borrowed Canon ZR50MC digital camcorder and the iMovie 2 film-editing software that came with our iMac computer.

Michael Cunningham article on screen adaptation of his novel The Hours, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore; photos (M)