IN reporting the fashion industry's plunge ' into midiskirts last year, TIME went out on a limb and predicted that leg lovers would somehow stage a counterattack. They have, and with a vengeance, as is made clear in this week's Modern Living section in a story and color pictures on fashion's latest sensation--the superbrief hot pants. The new phenomenon startles even devotees of the miniskirt. Reporter-Researcher Mary Themo, who provided much of the legwork for the story, is enthusiastic about the hemline's latest caprice and is looking for the "right pair" for her own wardrobe. Writer Johanna Davis has a few more doubts. Before starting to work on the week's assignment, she acquired a pair of satin patchwork hot pants and modeled them for her family. "I stood in what I thought was a fetching pose, sucking in my stomach and flashing a semigenuine smile," she recalls. "They just laughed." But Fashion Watcher Davis admits that she is usually not as trendy as the models and designers whom she covers. "I resisted pants for years until my mother, who is 73, began wearing pantsuits," she recalls. For hot pants, she sees a market that may not be mass but at least sounds appealing: "Tall, thin blondes in the summer." sb

TIME'S cover story this week deals with an institution a good many miles from Seventh Avenue but one that seems increasingly close to everyone: the Congress of the United States on the occasion of its 92nd opening and the selection of Carl Albert as Speaker of the House. Most of the reporting was done by Congressional Correspondent Neil MacNeil, who has covered Capitol Hill for 22 years, 13 of them for TIME. With the help of a network of contacts, MacNeil has developed an uncanny ability to spot trends developing; during the last Congress he was among the first to report Republican Senate Leader Hugh Scott's leadership problems, Richard Nixon's growing disenchantment with the Senate and Robert Byrd's budding chances to capture the post of Senate whip.

"It is the only branch of Government that is wide open," says MacNeil. "There are always talkative members. Most of them are open and gregarious. It's a place where an enthusiastic reporter can get fascinating stories all the time." To catch up on the latest thinking of Oklahoma's Albert, whom he has known well for years, MacNeil spent more than five hours interviewing the new Speaker. In New York, the story was written by Associate Editor Ed Magnuson, whose 23 previous cover stories have included Senator Harry Byrd Sr., William Fulbright and two of TIME'S recent cover appraisals of a Senate graduate--Richard Nixon.

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