NOW IT'S AIDS INC.

Here's what I find most shocking about AIDS: it has become comprehensible. Friends have been dead for 15 years. Worthy organizations like the American Foundation for AIDS Research and Gay Men's Health Crisis (G.M.H.C.) own buildings with serenity gardens, and the red ribbon symbolizing AIDS awareness appears on mugs, Christmas-tree ornaments and beach towels while remaining a fashion challenge for Oscar-night actresses in strapless gowns. Elizabeth Taylor and Sharon Stone impressively share the fund-raising crown; Sharon was barely a B-movie starlet when the epidemic began. AIDS awareness has become ubiquitous, and the possible new breakthrough in protease cocktails has somehow become...