The media event of the week in the US was the appearance in bookstores of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs, entitled LivingHistory. The pub-lisher, Simon & Schuster, paid her an advance of million, on the calculation that there would be an enormous market for the book (list price: .00), especially among people eager to hear Hillary's side of the sexual scandals in the Clinton White House. Bill Clinton's version will come out later, earning him a tidy million from a rival press.

　　Mrs Clinton is now a senator from New York, despite her lack of earlier connections with the state -- she was born and raised in Illinois and had her legal career in Arkansas. We see in the lower left of Pat Oliphant's cartoon that Hillary has lugged a pile of books in a carpetbag, the symbol, dating from the period after the US Civil War (1861-65), of opportunistic politicians on the move.

　　The senator is in a bookstore, promoting sales by signing copies of the text for buyers. Is publica-tion of the book a ploy to clear away unpleasant gossip and stir up interest before Hillary becomes a candidate for the presidency? She denies any wish to run in 2004, but Oliphant, like many observers, is not persuaded.

　　Probably America's greatest cartoonist now active, Oliphant is from Australia. We see a reminder of this in the lower right hand cor-ner. An Australian book buyer asks a tiny Hillary "Emma chizzit?" -- a humorous and accurate rendering of the broad Australian pronunciation of "How much is it?" Hillary mis-understands the buyer, who she assumes is stating her name, Emma Chizzit. ("Emma" is a fairly com-mon woman's name.) Hence the odd inscription.