NOTEBOOK

By LISA GRANATSTEIN, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, NADYA LABI, LINA LOFARO, EMILY MITCHELL, MEGAN RUTHERFORD AND ALAIN L. SANDERS

WINNERS & LOSERS

I DID IT MY WAY

[WINNERS]

TONY BLAIR Tony. Tony. Tony. No. 10 becomes Blair house. He did it Bill's way: run to the middle

ANONYMOUS Volunteerism rules: unknown woman gives millions to Grand Forks. She did it the right way

FRANK SINATRA J.F.K. cut him off, but a G.O.P. Congress votes Ol' Blue Eyes a medal. He finally got his way

[& LOSERS]

ANNE HECHE No movie star benefits from such public displays of affection. She did it Ellen's way, with feeling

JAMES HEIPLE Baby Richard judge is censured for pulling rank to dodge traffic tickets. He did it the wrong way

THE RAMSEYS O.K., they talked to the police, then the press, but once again they did it the strange way

THE LONGEST DAYS

Newly confirmed Labor Secretary Alexis Herman discovered last week that it pays to tough it out through even the most protracted Senate confirmation battles. Below, a look at Cabinet-level nominees who cooled their heels the longest:

DAYS NOMINEE POST PRESIDENT ON HOLD OUTCOME

A. MITCHELL Attorney WILSON 183 Confirmed PALMER* General Aug. 29, 1919

LEWIS Commerce EISENHOWER 152 Rejected STRAUSS* Secretary June 18, 1959

RICHARD Attorney NIXON 113 Confirmed KLEINDIENST* General June 8, 1972

ALEXIS Labor CLINTON 113 Confirmed HERMAN Secretary April 30, 1997

ANTHONY CIA CLINTON 99 Withdrawn LAKE Director April 18, 1997

LAMAR Education BUSH 87 Confirmed ALEXANDER Secretary March 14, 1991

*Served as interim or acting appointee during part or all of waiting period.

Source: Senate Historical Office

SORRY, WRONG NUMBER

Customers who signed up for the service of a Christian Right long-distance company may soon see some of their monthly payments transferred to a prominent pro-choice group instead. In January, Planned Parenthood began garnishment proceedings against AmeriVision Communications Inc., the parent company of LifeLine, a phone service that bills itself as a moral alternative to what it describes as "pro-gay, pro-liberal values" carriers like AT&T and MCI. LifeLine diverts 10% of payments to a cause checked off by its 1.2 million customers. Last year it raised more than $10 million for charities that include several Christian Coalition groups, the American Family Association and Operation Rescue-National. In May 1994, Planned Parenthood was awarded $1.01 million in damages by a Texas jury that ordered Rescue America, Operation Rescue-National and their leaders to pay for protesting and harassing clinic doctors, staff and patients during the 1992 G.O.P. Convention in Houston. Now Planned Parenthood hopes to seize at least half that amount from Operation Rescue via LifeLine and other sources.

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--To the StairMaster! Providing some of the best evidence to date, a major study finds that four hours of exercise a week can cut by 37% the risk of BREAST CANCER in women under 45. Why? Even moderate workouts seem to reduce the production of estrogen, the hormone linked to the cancer.

--Relief at last. For the first time, women in the U.S. can take a single-dose medication called Monurol for common but painful URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS. With other drugs, three to 10 days of treatment is required, so not all women complete the course.

--AIDS immunity? An experimental vaccine made of genetic material has protected chimps from becoming infected with HIV for more than a year.

THE BAD NEWS

--Talk about RUNNING nowhere fast. Men who consistently jog 40 miles or more a week still put on pounds as they age--about 3.3 lbs. per decade, plus about 3/4 of an inch on their waistlines. How to avert the girth? Tack on more and more miles each year.

--Low nicotine, high risk. Though cigarettes have less tar and nicotine nowadays, SMOKERS nevertheless face a greater risk of dying from a smoking-related illness than they did 30 years ago. Reason: to get their fix of nicotine, they smoke more cigarettes and take deeper drags.

--Kids, the blues can take your breath away. A report suggests that feelings of despair may predispose ASTHMA-afflicted children to an attack.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: New England Journal of Medicine; Forest Laboratories; Nature Medicine BAD NEWS: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; National Cancer Institute; Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

32 YEARS AGO IN TIME

Prime Mimickers

Tony Blair, who borrowed strategies from Bill Clinton, is not the only British Prime Minister to learn electioneering from an American President: "[Harold] Wilson brought a transatlantic zeal to the election campaign. His Bible was Theodore H. White's The Making of the President, his bedside reading the speeches of John F. Kennedy, his handbook Larry O'Brien's campaign manual. As he crisscrossed the country, he studded each of his orations with at least one Kennedy idea or phrase...Labor's election manifesto read like the New Frontier, with its promise to get the nation moving again along 'a new way of life that will stir our hearts, rekindle an authentic patriotic faith in our future'...It was a carefully wrought blueprint for victory."

--April 30, 1965