The Press: Red-Eyed Woe

Each week some 5,000 woe-laden readers of the Chicago Sun-Times's Lovelorn Columnist Ann Landers—who is syndicated in 342 other papers—apply to her for solace and advice. They usually get it, sometimes right between the eyes: to the miss who asked how to treat her swain's offer to "get married or something," Ann snapped: "You should get married—or nothing." Last August one of Columnist Landers' greatest admirers, Sun-Times Executive Editor Larry Fanning ("This girl has something beyond mere shrewdness"), detached her for a venture into straight reporting. Assignment: Moscow.

Thrilled but undazzled, Columnist Landers—who is the wife of Ballpoint Pen Executive Jules Lederer—took...