NOTEBOOK

By ELIZABETH L. BLAND, NADYA LABI, LINA LOFARO, JAMIE MALANOWSKI, KATE NOBLE, ALAIN L. SANDERS AND JOEL STEIN

WINNERS & LOSERS

PLAYING ROUGH AND CRYING FOUL

[WINNERS]

JESSE HELMS Senator No won't say si to former Governor Weld. So, Bill, how do you say hardball in Spanish?

STEVE CASE AOL honcho gets CompuServe, clobbering Microsoft. Maybe there really are profits online

PETE ROSE O.K., they're talking. What are the odds he'll be reinstated?

[& LOSERS]

DONALD FOWLER Hard money, soft money? All that's known is that his poorly policed D.N.C. was into funny money

MOHAMMED AL FAYED Paparazzi no longer prime suspects. Watch for the Ritz to buy Breathalyzers

THE ARMY Report says sexual harassment is as common as salutes

SUCCESSOR SAINT

Years ago, the expression was "He's not a bad guy, but he's no Albert Schweitzer." Mother Teresa then replaced Schweitzer as the gold standard of goodness. Who will succeed her? Tom Hanks could, Jimmy Carter would want to, but we place our bets on the Dalai Lama or Nelson Mandela.

MJ INDUSTRIES: ANNUAL REPORT

DEAR SHAREHOLDERS: With last week's announcement of our new venture with Nike and my own decision to one day take over as CEO, our company is well positioned for exceptional growth. Our projected earnings this year from salaries and endorsements are $100 million, a 90% increase over last year. Note from the sectors and divisions shown below that we are well diversified, with deals involving just about everything an agent could possibly think of.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS Whether on the phone, Internet or whatever new medium the future brings, MJI will be there.

WorldCom CBS SportsLine

AUTOS & ELECTRONICS More traditional businesses also fit our strategy.

Rayovac batteries Chicago Chevyland dealers

APPAREL & ACCESSORIES The Jordan line should have sales of more than $250 million in 1998, when many analysts say it will be third in overall basketball apparel.

Nike Bijan Fragrances Oakley sunglasses Wilson Coach leather products Hanes underwear

FOOD & BEVERAGE Our research has produced exciting findings that indicate the consumer eats virtually every day, often more than once.

Ball Park franks Gatorade Wheaties Michael Jordan's Restaurant

SPORTS We will continue to focus on our core business while maximizing our brand extensions.

Chicago Bulls Upper Deck trading cards Michael Jordan Golf Center

FILMED ENTERTAINMENT We have achieved cross-plug synergies.

Space Jam CBS-Fox Home Videos

GAMING We closed down our gaming division after losses of $165,000 in golf bets in 1991-92.

ALAS! GREED NEVER DIES

The death of the Princess of Wales is bringing out the best in many people, but not everybody. Last week an ad appeared in the Wall Street Journal offering for sale a dress that had been bought at the Christie's auction of Diana's clothes. The purchaser paid $25,300 but has reportedly turned down $150,000. In Macau a Volvo dealership used a photograph of Diana in an ad touting the safety of its cars (Volvo canceled its contract). Finally, in Boston, three masked men tried to steal two dresses of Diana's that were in the window of a boutique. An armed guard thwarted them, and the dresses are to be auctioned off, as planned, one for an AIDS charity called Community Servings.

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

VITAL STATISTICS U.S. research, prevention and treatment programs paid off in 1996. HIV/AIDS deaths declined 26%, the teen birthrate dropped 4%, and life expectancy reached a record 76.1 years.

TAKE HEART New hope for post-bypass patients. Treating the common reclosing of vein grafts with stents instead of angioplasty lowers the risk of complications.

THE GIFT OF LIFE Women who give birth in their 40s have a greater chance of living to be 100 than those who don't. The ability of late mothers to reproduce may indicate a slower aging process in such women and serve as a marker of longevity.

Sources: CDC; Jefferson Medical College; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

THE BAD NEWS

BLOOD APPEAL The summer doldrums have taken their toll on blood supplies.Two-thirds of the American Red Cross's blood regions are reporting less than a two-day stock of type-O blood. Donors must be healthy, 17 years or older and weigh 110 lbs. or more.

THIN BONES Reducing the incidence of osteoporosis fractures may be especially important. Women with such breaks are 75% more likely to be hospitalized later for other reasons.

PERCEPTIONS Women are badly misinformed about their risk of cardiovascular disease. Only 8% believe it is their top health threat, while in fact twice as many die from it as die from cancer.

Sources: American Red Cross; University of California, San Francisco; American Heart Association

MARKETING

WHAT'S NEXT--ADS ON YOUR FINGERNAILS? Next week the Fruit Label Co. will paste ads for the video of Liar Liar on 6 million apples in Los Angeles and New York City. A Lost World ad is due Nov. 3. Tasty? No. Annoying? Yes.

10 YEARS AGO IN TIME

Malfunctions and mishaps have plagued MIR of late, but its 1986 launch caused U.S. space experts to think America had been "Sputniked" again. An Oct. 5, 1987, cover story in TIME explored the Soviet domination in space.

Superimposed on the map, a line traced the orbit of the Mir space station...The audio feed came through with startling clarity, as if Cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko were standing in the next room. "The work here is very interesting," he said. "It brings us a lot of satisfaction."...Warns James Oberg, an expert on the Soviet space program: "If the Soviets can aggressively exploit this operational advantage, they can make us eat space dust for a long time to come."...Says [Stepan] Bogodyazh [of Glavkosmos]: "There will be a Mir 2." Explains Alexander Dunayev, head of Glavkosmos: "Space stations weigh up to several dozen tons. What's needed are stations that weigh several hundred tons. We should...build big structures out there, not tens of meters but kilometers across, multifunctional platforms. Cosmonauts may...live there permanently. And from these structures, there may be flights to other planets."

NUMBERS

10,000 tons: Weight of flowers left in memory of Diana at the royal palaces

33.3 million: Number of Americans who watched Diana's funeral between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m.

$237 million: Amount that had been donated to Diana's memorial fund by the end of last week

$100 million: Least possible amount of Tom Clancy's new contract, for two novels and assorted spinoffs

$5,000: Clancy's advance for The Hunt for Red October in 1984

2: Clicks on Senator Patty Murray's Website to get from statement on protecting salmon to recipe for marinated salmon

$5 billion to $8 billion: Personal wealth of Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko at his death

10%: Percentage of roads in Zaire that were paved before he took power and that are still paved

50%: Percentage of children in that country who die before age 5

Sources: Bureau reports, Nielsen Media Research, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, World Wide Web, World Factbook