September 11, 2005

Steve Dougherty travel article on road trip along Highway 61, from Winona to Alexandria, Minn, as suggested in Bob Dylan's memoir, Chronicles: Volume One; photos; map (L)

Japan-China Rivalry Stirring a Crowded Sea China deployed five warships near a gas field in the disputed East China Sea on Friday, the latest escalation in the economic and military rivalry between Japan and China. The increasingly tense waters contain oil, gas and Taiwan, each of which is potentially explosive, and are of strategic importance to both countries and the United States. PAGE 4 A Day That Never Was The stories of the victims and those who witnessed the Sept. 11 terror attacks have been well documented. But what about the smaller stories, the stories of the small plans people had for that day? PAGE 33 Clijsters Wins First Major; Agassi Marches Into Final Kim Clijsters, who had lost in the finals of a major tournament four times, won her first Grand Slam event, beating Mary Pierce, 6-3, 6-1, at the United States Open. Andre Agassi became the oldest Open finalist in 31 years when he defeated Robby Ginepri in a five-set semifinal. The 35-year-old Agassi will play Roger Federer for the men's singles title today. SPORTSSUNDAY Is bin Laden Winning? Four years ago he was just a terrorist. Now he's an ideology. Plus: Why wasn't he captured at Tora Bora, and why can't he be caught now? A special 9/11 issue. MAGAZINE

MOST New Yorkers have a jolting memory of where they were on 9/11, when the twin towers tumbled, leaving Lower Manhattan in a black void for 10 minutes until the smoke and dust clouds began to clear. I couldn't witness the smoke, the dust, the debris. I was sitting in my lawyer's office on the Avenue Henri-Martin, in Paris, when his sister called from the States and told us about the attack. We turned on the television in time to see a jetliner swivel around the second tower as if it were performing a strange ballet.

Jessica Anderson still has months to go, but her family and friends are already hinting about invitations. Stephanie Bullock, due in November, thought she had decided on her mother, grandmother, the baby's father and two friends from work. But now her children are clamoring to join in, and she worries about slighting her boss. And with mere days left in her pregnancy, Tiffany Pena was still torn. ''I didn't have my mom there when I was conceiving, so why should I have her when I'm delivering?'' she asked. Just a generation after fathers had to beg or even sue for the right to be present, the door to the delivery room has swung wide open. Even the most traditional hospitals now allow multiple guests during labor, transforming birth from a private affair into one that requires a guest list. Like bridesmaids and pallbearers, the invitees are marked as an honored group of intimates. But few weddings or funerals involve nudity, blood or heavy anesthetics.

STEPPING off the Staten Island Railway at the absolute bottom of New York, visitors first see Lily's Tottenville Inn, a handsome mid-18th-century Victorian house and former hotel. Now a restaurant, the inn serves food and drink to the people of Tottenville along the waters of the Arthur Kill. Across the tracks from the inn, on Main Street, the theme of irreproachably grand houses continues, each at the center of a large, tree-filled yard fit for summer parties and hammock snoozing. Spacious columned porches and clapboard-covered walls are common, painted in tasteful shades of pale yellow and blue. Shops like the Scented Cottage on Amboy Road (slogan: ''A Real New England Gift Shop'') reinforce the theme of Tottenville as Victorian village.