His Cloud Rained on Her Career

The cloud hanging over spying suspect Felix Bloch has cast its shadow over his wife, and she has resigned as executive director of a charitable foundation. An official of the American Austrian Foundation said that the FBI’s investigation of the allegations against her husband had damaged Lucille Bloch’s effectiveness on the job. No charges have been filed against Bloch, who has denied any wrongdoing. “Just imagine the terrible pressure and the problem she is having,” said Thomas J. McGrath, a Manhattan lawyer who serves as the foundation’s secretary. “I’m sure every time she turns around, they say, ‘Oh, you’re that man’s wife.’ ” Bloch, formerly the No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna and a veteran of 30 years in the Foreign Service, has been under surveillance since June. The Justice Department began the probe after Bloch was photographed handing a briefcase to a suspected Soviet agent in a Paris restaurant, U.S. sources have said. The foundation, which is moving from Washington to New York, runs programs including fellowships in Austria for journalists and sponsors cultural events.

--They met to try and come up with a metaphor for our times--something to rival the “Roaring ‘20s,” the “Dark Ages,” and the “Age of Enlightenment”--but the task proved daunting. “Everybody was satisfied but no final metaphor, alas, emerged,” Bernard Levin, chief columnist for The Times of London, said of the 60 intellectuals who attended the third annual Conversazioni on Culture and Society, in Boston. After dissecting political changes in the Soviet Union, the influence of religion on world events and cultural illiteracy, several conferees proposed metaphors. Levin, in his presentation, pointed to the drug epidemic and the collapse of form in the arts to coin the “Age of Disorder.” American economist Walt Rostow talked of the European Community’s plans for dropping border restrictions and suggested “Age of Regionalism.” While neither was adopted, Levin applauded the attempt. “The whole idea is that we thrash out these things,” he said.

--Former President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev are no longer being considered for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, a leading Norwegian newspaper reported. The Oslo-based Nobel committee makes no official comment on candidates for the award, but Norwegian media reports have proved accurate in the past. The panel is to name the peace prize winner on Oct. 5. The conservative daily Aftenposten said the five-member committee had ruled out Reagan and Gorbachev in a meeting this week.