Notebook
By Harriet Barovick, Tam Gray, Daniel Levy, Lina Lofaro, Jodie Morse and Joel Stein
WINNERS & LOSERS
[WINNERS] REP. J.C. WATTS JR. First black QB at his high school and now No. 4 on the G.O.P. team. But no toasts; he doesn't drink
ANDREW MORTON Di's biographer nabs another book on troubled femme whose leader-lover doesn't love her
JOE BUCK & TIM MCCARVER Heard calling ball game in the background of the Tripp tapes, scoring biggest audience ever
[& LOSERS]
EDGAR BRONFMAN JR. Firing studio chief Frank Biondi won't raise stock price--or sell all those plush pigs if Babe can't fly
TOM WOLFE His book is paying the tailor, but at the National Book Awards, Updike took him to the cleaners
SONNY BONO Widow tells tales on him after he's gone. She's a politician. She's learned to leak
AND WE THOUGHT THIS IDEA WAS A TURKEY
Back by popular demand (or, at least, lack of popular complaint) are the turkey hands kindergartners are drawing this week, as rendered by the rich, famous and the Secretary of Agriculture. Question: Is Jerry Springer being his nonconformist provocative self, or did he just not get the concept?
CONTEST CORNER
ANOTHER WINNER! In Notebook Contest #5, we asked readers to design a balloon for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Of the many John Glenns we received, that sent in by Terence Dungan of New Paltz, N.Y., was the loftiest. "It's...like watching your favorite grandfather go up into space," he says.
NOW FOR NOTEBOOK CONTEST #6 We want your 1998 nondenominational keepsake ornament. Actual ornament preferred, but photo or diagram will do. Mail it to TIME Notebook Contest #6, Room 23-21B, Time & Life Building, N.Y., N.Y. 10020, fax it to 212-467-1010 or e-mail your entry to Notebook@time.com
COMING ATTRACTION
FRAME GRAB Fans braved lines, drove miles and paid full price to see the 140-sec. trailer for the new Star Wars movie. The only thing the trailer is missing is a poster. Not any more:
"It tells you everything and nothing at the same time." --ROGER EBERT
"Two minutes' worth of loud, fun entertainment." --JOEL SIEGEL
"The force is still with George Lucas." --JAMES B. MEIGS, PREMIERE
60-SECOND SYMPOSIUM
HI HANDSOME, THIS IS MONICA... WHAT'S YOUR CREDIT-CARD NUMBER?
When the tapes of Monica Lewinsky's voice were released last week, people wondered how that ordinary-sounding voice did so much for Bill Clinton. So we asked some professionals if they thought Monica's voice would work for phone sex.
Darlene, 800-238-LIVE I think so. Yeah. She just needs to be a little softer. Men like different things. There are definitely men who would get off on her voice. I'm sure if she tried she would have a very cute voice.
Monica, 800-SEX-FRIEND No. It doesn't sound sexy to me. It was a little bit too whiny. I think she's a tramp.
Eternity, 888-250-HEAT Gee whiz, I don't know. I probably wouldn't rate her very high. I wouldn't totally say she couldn't. She talks a little too fast; she'd have to slow her voice a little, slow down the pitch a little bit.
Ginger, 800-952-LIVE Kind of, sort of. She's kind of in the middle. She's not soft enough. But if she's an actress and knows how to be a little sultry, kind of.
NUMBERS
$27,582,539.48 Amount a Las Vegas-area woman won playing a slot machine, a record take
$16,895,210 Total assistance provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, for Hurricane Mitch as of Nov. 18
26 Percentage the National Institutes of Health increased its spending on spinal-cord injuries since Christopher Reeve's accident in 1995
5.3 Percentage NIH increased its spending on multiple sclerosis during the same period
4:5 Ratio of people suffering from spinal-cord injuries to people suffering from multiple sclerosis
84 Percentage of African Americans who believe the U.S. is a better country than most others
91 Percentage of white Americans who believe the same
70 Percentage of all Americans who believe minorities get treated unfairly
Sources: AP, U.S. Agency for Int'l. Dev./Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Public Agenda