Notebook

By Harriet Barovick, Tam Gray, Lina Lofaro, Daniel Levy, Michele Orecklin and Flora Tartakovsky

WINNERS & LOSERS

[WINNERS]

CHERYL MILLS Not much riding on her first big courtroom appearance--just the President--and she aces it

ST. LOUIS Founded by Catholics, but just getting its first visit from a Pope. St. Paul is still waiting

GEORGE LUNDBERG A.M.A. in talks to rehire axed editor after calls from doctors and interest from 60 Minutes

[& LOSERS]

JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH Scandal widens; two I.O.C. members resign. That $14,000 sword from Nagano is hanging over his head

FIBER Study suggests it does little to prevent colon cancer. And the box it comes in tastes better

STEVEN SPIELBERG His submarine-themed eatery, Dive, turned out to be one, and it had to be given Das Boot

UPDATE

PILOT DISCORD ON NO. 111? When Swissair flight 111 crashed off Nova Scotia last fall, many experts were surprised that the pilots turned out to sea to dump fuel--a standard emergency tack but one that may have given the plane's suspected wiring problem enough time to force the craft down. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that a preliminary summary of a cockpit recording showed that co-pilot Stefan Lowe suggested landing immediately but was overruled repeatedly by Captain Urs Zimmermann, who focused on the procedural checklist.

STILL DEAD, THOUGH Pol Pot died of an overdose, not a heart attack as Cambodian officials claimed last April, according to the Far Eastern Economic Review. The late dictator swallowed tranquilizers and antimalarial pills upon discovering that a Khmer Rouge comrade, Ta Mok, planned to turn him over to the U.S. for trial. Ta Mok offered to make Pol Pot available in March, the article by journalist Nate Thayer claimed. But U.S. officials declined, saying they needed more time to prepare to arrest and try him.

ROLE MODEL

LISTEN UP Chief Justice William Rehnquist may want to bring the libretto next time he goes to a Gilbert and Sullivan show. He has said that he put four gold stripes on his robe in imitation of a costume he saw on the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe. Bad choice. The Lord Chancellor describes his duties this way:

The constitutional guardian I Of pretty young wards in Chancery. All very agreeable girls--and none Are over the age of twenty-one. A pleasant occupation for A rather susceptible chancellor!

--With thanks to Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC

THE GAP

BOOK II In June the late Ralph Ellison's Juneteenth will come out, 47 years after his Invisible Man. Other tardy second novels:

TOM WOLFE 11 The Bonfire of the Vanities ('87), A Man in Full ('98)

JOSEPH HELLER 13 Catch-22 ('61), Something Happened ('74)

DOROTHY WEST 47 The Living Is Easy ('48), The Wedding ('95)

HENRY ROTH 60 Call It Sleep ('34) A Star Shines Over Mt. Morris Park ('94)

FALCONRY

Defying the expectations of even their fans, the Atlanta Falcons are in the Super Bowl. This means the Dirty Bird Dance could become the Next Big Thing. Here, prominent Georgians show you how to do the Bird.

1 Hop to the right with elbows raised, like REP. KATHY ASHE.

2 Hop to the left. Jerk right elbow down like JAMAL ANDERSON, the Bird's creator.

3 Copy COACH DAN REEVES and hop right, pushing right elbow from body.

4 Hop left, jerk left elbow down, again like ANDERSON.

5 Finish like THE REV. WILLIAM SHEALS. Hop right, push left elbow away from body. Flap arms and keep hopping.

NUMBERS

98 Number of times Bill Clinton's State of the Union address was interrupted by applause

1 Number of people who stood up to applaud after Clinton vowed to fight the Y2K problem

$6.7 billion Estimated value of the merger between Excite and @Home

$181.2 million Combined net loss, after costs, of the two companies in 1998

98% Proportion of secretaries, stenographers and typists who are women

10% How much less women in these professions get paid than men

$70,000 Amount in inducements Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates offered two African I.O.C. members

2 Number of I.O.C. votes by which Sydney beat Beijing in the contest to be host to the 2000 Olympic Games

Sources: The State of the Union Address, USA Today, New York Times, Excite, Inc. News Release, @Home Network News Release, National Committee on Pay Equity, CNN, AP

60 SECOND SYMPOSIUM

We were so alarmed to hear that Pluto might be demoted from "planet" to "trans-Neptunian object" by the International Astronomical Union that we asked our famed astrologers for their reactions:

ATHENA STARWOMAN, Vogue: Anyone who understands astrology holds high regard for Pluto. It rules sex, power, hidden forces and the subconscious: the astrological force that brought about Bill and Monica's fateful alliance.

MICHAEL LUTIN, Vanity Fair: Too small to be a planet? Nonsense. Planet or iceball, Pluto has the power to bring about life-changing transformations. It can turn jerks into geniuses, so there's still hope for the scientists.

KATHARINE MERLIN, Town & Country: I think it will continue to hold its own in the astrological community. Curiously, Pluto is the "planet of transformation," so maybe this is entirely in keeping with what it symbolizes astrologically.