NOTEBOOK

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, DANIEL EISENBERG, LISA GRANATSTEIN, TAM GRAY, ANITA HAMILTON, JANICE HOROWITZ, LISA MCLAUGHLIN AND ALAIN SANDERS

WINNERS & LOSERS

FRIGHT-NIGHT STORIES--LIVE!

[WINNERS]

THE VAMPIRE LOVER STRIKES! Anne Rice's novel Violin makes its debut in the Top 10. Maybe the truly spooky just want to read

LET'S DO THE MONSTER MASH! Clinton and Congress rein in the scary IRS. Or do they only think so? See IRS 2: The Audits

ELVIS: THE UNDEAD! Danish candidate wants to rename city hall Graceland

[& LOSERS]

ATTACK OF THE KILLER CHICKEN! Thorough cooking can save us from bacteria-ridden fowl. Arnold will play Colonel Sanders in the flick

WHEN GALAXIES COLLIDE! A stunning smash-up in space. E.T. may want to phone home, but is anybody left to answer?

CRASH OF THE CONDOMS! 57 million recalled. Somehow "Oops" just doesn't cover it

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

NO PATCH, NO CATCH Taking a pill may help smokers kick the habit. In a study, 25% of those who used the antidepressant bupropion quit smoking for at least a year--about the same success rate as the patch.

YOUR SPITTING IMAGE Researchers have figured out how to analyze DNA in saliva to identify susceptibility to gum disease. As a result, doctors may one day use saliva instead of blood to detect a host of gene-based diseases.

HEART IN YOUR MOUTH At the first sign of a heart attack, take an aspirin. If everyone heeded that advice, 5,000 to 10,000 deaths could be prevented each year, a report concludes.

Sources: New England Journal of Medicine; Journal of Immunological Methods; Circulation

THE BAD NEWS

NOT IN GOOD TASTE After age 70, most adults lose some sense of smell, a study finds. Taste often goes too. Result: food tastes bland, and many elderly run the risk of malnutrition--or accidental poisoning.

TOXIC TEA? Kombucha tea, touted as a health tonic, may cause dizziness, nausea or even liver damage. Commercial brands are fine. The problem is with teas made from scratch--which requires fermenting Kombucha mushrooms at home.

SHORT TEMPERS, SHORT KIDS Researchers find that kids who live in psychologically stressful situations--with chronically arguing parents, say--may be twice as likely to be short for their age.

Sources: JAMA; Journal of General Internal Medicine; Archives of Disease in Childhood

TIME CAPSULE

Old or new, in New York City or Bilbao, the buildings of the GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM have been the talk of architecture. A Manhattan Guggenheim sampler from TIME, Nov. 2, 1959:

"A war between architecture and painting, in which both come out badly maimed," declared Art Critic John Canaday on Page One of the New York Times. "The most beautiful building in America," retorted Critic Emily Genauer in the New York Herald Tribune. "A building that should be put in a museum to show how mad the 20th Century is," editorialized the New York Daily Mirror... Thus in a babel of discord, and six months after his death, Frank Lloyd Wright's last major work, the $3,000,000 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum...opened to the public last week... What first visitors saw, as they walked through the newly opened doors, was a huge, sudden space that swirled breathtakingly to the high dome. This, they recognized, was a building whose closed outer face deliberately belied the soaring drama of its interior... [L]ooking across the well at the opening show of 134 paintings and sculptures...most were forced to concede that the great curved ramps provided the most dramatic setting abstract art has ever had."

NUMBERS

$1,000,000: Amount per day that the Justice Department wants to fine Microsoft for antitrust violations

$4,000,000: Amount that Microsoft earned per day in 1996, including weekends and holidays

71: Percentage of Christians who believe that Jesus will return to earth

11: Percentage of Christians who believe his return will be sometime around the year 2000

25: Percentage of viewing audience watching the 1997 World Series

56: Percentage of viewing audience that watched the 1980 World Series

20: Number of people executed as witches in 1692 during Salem witch trials

200,000: Number of tourists who visit Salem, Mass., each October for the Haunted Happenings carnival

$3.95: Cost of a bottle of Haunted Air in the gift shop of the Salem Witch Museum

Sources: New York Times, AP, Sports Illustrated, USA Today