NOTEBOOK

By CHARLOTTE FALTERMAYER, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, LINA LOFARO, JEFFERY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND SIDNEY URQUHART

WINNERS & LOSERS

O.J. WALKED, AND NOW HE TALKS

[WINNERS]

JUDGE HIROSHI FUJISAKI Gets witnesses off stand fast with no-nonsense rulings. Can he work on Clinton's Inaugural?

KATO KAELIN Unlikely star returns with better hair, better clothes, better English (is the magic gone?)

THE JURY It's nice panel monitors its own reading. Must to avoid: possibly biased newsmagazine front matter

[& LOSERS]

ROBERT BAKER Lawyer for O.J. can't possibly fix things after that testimony, can he? As O.J. says, "Dunno"

ROBERT SHAPIRO Takes leave from CBS as client conflict crimps his O.J. analysis--now he's got scruples!

BRUNO MAGLI Yes, any publicity is good publicity, but would you want to be tied to phrase "ugly-ass shoes"?

BUBBA'S BACK

The election over, President Clinton is once again free to look goofy--at least when visiting the Pacific Rim. From left: going native in Australia; wearing a Philippine barong tagalog, a gift from President Fidel Ramos; sporting Thai academic garb during a ceremony at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University; and back in traditional American costume on an Australian beach.

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--Doctors have been prescribing the AIDS drug AZT for pregnant women who test HIV positive. New findings confirm AZT can cut by two-thirds a mother's risk of transmitting HIV to her child--even if blood levels of the virus are extremely low.

--The FDA has okayed the antidepressant Prozac to treat the eating disorder BULIMIA. Research indicates that in women who take the drug, the number of binge-eating episodes is reduced by two-thirds and vomiting sessions by one-half.

--Preliminary research suggests that postmenopausal women who have ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE diagnosed may benefit from estrogen therapy. The hormone appears to improve memory and attention span after even a single week.

THE BAD NEWS

--Talk about a headache. Using PET-scan imaging, researchers find that a CONCUSSION can cause cell damage that persists for several months in an area of the brain related to cognitive functioning. Patients, while not usually severely disabled, are often left with problems in performing difficult tasks.

--IN-LINE SKATERS who fail to wear wrist guards and elbow pads are 10 times as likely to be injured as those who don safety gear. That makes pads and guards as statistically protective as helmets are for bikers.

--Two government studies show that PERSIAN GULF WAR veterans are far more likely to suffer serious health problems--chronic diarrhea, memory loss, depression--than troops who did not serve in the region.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: New England Journal of Medicine; Eli Lilly & Co.; Society for Neuroscience meeting BAD NEWS: International Neuropsychological Society meeting; New England Journal of Medicine; New York Times

LOCAL HEROES

AMY, 35, AND PETER, 35, BARZACH; WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT; park developers

After their nine-month-old son Jonathan died of spinal muscular atrophy in 1995, the Barzachs organized a project to build a half-acre, wheelchair-accessible playground with the help of legions of volunteers and dozens of religious groups, companies and nonprofit organizations. Says Peter: "Jonathan's very short life had a meaning. This playground has a purpose for other people."

MICHAEL DERMODY, 46; RENO, NEVADA; real estate developer

Dermody founded the Children's Cabinet in 1985 to coordinate local agencies serving the needs of children in the Reno area. It now helps 12,000 people annually. "This is like a control tower for children's services," Dermody says. "Our concept enables children and families to get help faster and more efficiently." The model is being studied by other communities in Nevada, as well as in North Carolina and Colorado.

51 YEARS AGO IN TIME

Day of Judgment

"The men in Nurnberg's dock smiled more than they had for years. But most of them knew they would not live to see another spring in Germany. Some faced it with bravado--like ex-Fighter Pilot Hermann Goring, who gestured and postured and smiled his dimpled smile. Others tried to ignore it--like Colonel General Alfred Jodl, who, contrary to rules, hid his head at night under the blankets in his cell...Beyond the unhappy realization of having been on the losing side of a war, they could not quite grasp the meaning of the court's quiet, determined fairness, or of the hardworking prosecution's meticulous attention to detail. The Nazis had never done things that way." --Dec. 10, 1945

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

CABBAGE PATCH KIDS, toy-store phenomenon of the mid-'80s

They were born in 1978 when Xavier Roberts, then a 21-year-old art student, created the hand-stitched life-size dolls he called "so homely they're adorable." "Delivered" in Cleveland, Georgia, at a factory named BabyLand General Hospital, chubby-cheeked Kids of all ethnicities came complete with birth certificates and adoption papers. After Roberts signed an agreement with Coleco to mass-produce a smaller version of the dolls in 1982, they caused stampedes at toy stores, hitting annual sales of $600 million in 1985 before their popularity waned at decade's end. Now marketed by Mattel, the Kids, which sell for about $30, are back--and more lifelike than ever. Some are able to eat, sneeze and even hiccup. But hold on to the 1978 originals, which command "re-adoption fees" of up to $25,000 from collectors.