NOTEBOOK

By BY CHARLOTTE FALTERMAYER, LINA LOFARO, ERIN F. MCKINNEY, JEFFERY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND SIDNEY URQUHART

INSIDE THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Last Week the National Archives disgorged 28,000 documents from the Nixon era. Among them, TIME's Hugh Sidey found a Dec. 11, 1970, memo from Nixon suggesting a letter be written to Sidey and sent by "one of our people" posing as an admirer. Excerpts from the memo:

"Dear Mr. Sidey, My must reading includes every week your perceptive and brilliant columns ... However, I wonder if you really are portraying an accurate picture of this man? From your columns I would get the impression that he was introverted, humorless, rather plotting [sic] and not particularly exciting in his conduct of the Presidency ... I think for your own credibility you ought to correct the image you have left. I don't mean that I like him (frankly I would have to classify myself as a Lindsey [sic] Republican ...) I feel this so strongly, because I detest Vice President Agnew and am repelled by his attacks on the press. [But] if millions of people on television see Nixon as he is, and then read a column by a respected journalist like you which appears to be patently biasted [sic] against him, the very dangerous Agnew theme ... will gain much credance [sic] ..."

TOBACCO FASHIONS: VENI, BIDI, VICI

This is the little cigarette that could: it came, it saw, it conquered. The trendiest smoke on college campuses these days emanates from Indian imports called beedies (from the Hindi bidi). About half the diameter of regular cigarettes and hand rolled in tendu (Indian ebony leaves), they look slightly like microcigars. Beedies, however, pack a much more powerful punch: up to 8% nicotine, versus the 1% to 2% in American cigarettes. The imports are composed of a species of tobacco different from that most commonly used by U.S. manufacturers. They also come in flavors: clove, menthol and even strawberry. Popular brands include Mangalore Ganesh and Kailas. Despite the buzz that beedies deliver, FDA analysis finds they contain no hallucinogens. Says Suresh Ralapati, a native of India and a tobacco scientist at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms: "Perhaps the fact that they look like joints interests the young people." Beedies cost from $2.50 to $3 per pack of 20. (A pack of unfiltered Camels can range from $1.25 to $3.15.) Why the expense for such tiny smokes? In 1994 the ATF reclassified beedies as cigarettes rather than cigars, thus imposing a tax rate about 10 times as high as was previously charged. Though they may have cult status in America, beedies have little cachet back in India, where more than 800 billion are smoked each year. They remain what they have always been, says Ralapati, "the poor man's cigarette."

LOCAL HEROES

ED GOLDSTEIN, 63; WARREN, N.J.; founder, the Valerie Fund When his daughter Valerie was battling cancer, Goldstein and his family were forced to take her to New York for treatment unavailable in their home state. After her death at age nine in 1976, he started the Valerie Fund, a money-raising endeavor that has spawned New Jersey's largest network of pediatric- oncology centers. "We wish we didn't have to grow, but unfortunately the disease runs rampant," he says. "We hope someday to go out of business."

HAROLD ROSEN, 81; LOUISVILLE, KY.; crime-prevention activist A former real estate executive, Rosen in 1986 founded pro-power, a volunteer group of fellow retirees who act as consultants to more than 200 nonprofit agencies. Since 1993 he has focused its efforts on Project KidCare, a national child- photo-identification program targeted at parents to prevent and aid in missing-children cases. Says Rosen: "I'm a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, so children's safety is close to my heart."

31 YEARS AGO IN TIME

The Right-Hand Man

"Officially, Bill Moyers is only one of seven White House special assistants to the President. In practice, he is Johnson's No. 1 aide...'Of every ten ideas that cross L.B.J.'s desk,' says a colleague, 'five must be Bill's.' He is the editor who hands out assignments to several speechwriters and gives their effort the penultimate polish (Lyndon, naturally, has the final say)...Perhaps the greatest measure of the President's faith in his judgment was the role he played when Lyndon Johnson underwent surgery...Somebody had to be empowered to decide whether to transfer the...presidency to Vice President Hubert Humphrey in case of a crisis. That somebody was Moyers." --Oct. 29, 1965

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

Brian Bosworth, 31; Los Angeles; former pro-football player One of the most controversial athletes in recent times, Bosworth was an All-American linebacker at the University of Oklahoma when he and 20 other college players tested positive for anabolic steroids in 1986. Bosworth claimed he took the steroids to rehabilitate his sore shoulders. The incident did not prevent the Seattle Seahawks from signing him to a 10-year, $11 million deal in 1987, then the richest rookie contract in history. Football's rebel enhanced his hip image by sporting a gold earring and blond Mohawk haircut. The athletic career of "the Boz," however, was as short-lived as it was meteoric. He retired at 25, sidelined by a shoulder injury. He segued into a quieter career, acting. In January he will star in Lawless, a new private-detective series set in South Beach. Says he: "I am very much an extrovert when it comes to being in the spotlight. I need that attention to kind of rev my motor."

--By Charlotte Faltermayer, Lina Lofaro, Erin F. McKinney, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart