By Guy D. Garcia

His deft political moves have made him one of the most valuable players in the Republican Party, but last week U.S. Congressman Jack Kemp, 49, was back on his home turf in Buffalo to attend the retirement ceremony of No. 15, which the former Bills quarterback wore when he led the team to consecutive A.F.L. championships in 1964 and 1965. After his name was added to O.J. Simpson's (No. 32) on Rich Stadium's Wall of Fame, Kemp donned his old jersey and watched his team end a 13-game losing streak by upsetting the first-place Dallas Cowboys, 14-3. "That's the last time I'll put it on in public," said Kemp. "I'm just a father and a fan now."

Jack LaLanne built his brawny business of spas and health products by preaching that "anything is possible through mind and body conditioning." Last week, to celebrate his 70th birthday in Long Beach, Calif., he put on what must be the definitive proof of the power of positive thinking. As a crowd of onlookers sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat, LaLanne, with his hands and feet bound, swam a mile through the city's harbor while towing 70 rowboats, each with at least one person inside. The feat took 2 1/2 hours, but the triumphant human tug emerged from the water saying that he had fulfilled "the dream of a lifetime."

As the founder of Investors Overseas Services nearly three decades ago, Bernie Cornfeld presided over a $2 billion financial empire that spanned the globe. Enter Robert Vesco, who in 1971 managed to gain control of the company before being charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with looting IOS of $224 million. Now Cornfeld, 57, has resurfaced with his own vitamin company, called Better Living Enterprises. The vitamins, he claims, will help poor sleepers and the overweight and even boost people's sex drives. Waving away suggestions that the virtues of his vitamins might be just a bit overstated, Cornfeld predicts, "Some may have doubts until they've tried it. But once they've tried it, they'll be hooked."

The small gathering at the Western White House in Santa Barbara included three of the President's children, Ron, Maureen and Patti, and his brother Neil Reagan. But as the Reagans celebrated with a traditional Thanksgiving meal last week, Michael Reagan, 39, was reacting to some remarks made to a syndicated columnist by his stepmother Nancy, who said that there has been "an estrangement" between Michael and his father for the past three years. In Omaha, where he was celebrating Thanksgiving with his in-laws, Michael denied any estrangement. Noting that he and his wife "have the only two grandchildren of the President," Michael, who was adopted during the President's first marriage, to Actress Jane Wyman, said of Nancy, "Maybe she's jealous."

Barbra Streisand's 1983 film adaptation of his short story Yentl, the Yeshiva Boy, produced a Hollywood extravaganza so removed from the original that he still finds the whole subject extremely painful. But that setback didn't dissuade Isaac Bashevis Singer, 80, from launching two new plays off-Broadway. A Play for the Devil is currently running in Yiddish at the Folksbiene Theater, and a dramatic adaptation of his story Shlemiel, the First just closed at the Jewish Repertory Theater. Singer, who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature, has no illusions about the differences between drama and literature, however. "I don't feel as experienced as a playwright as I am at writing stories," he admits. "Still, it's never too late to try."

--By Guy D. Garcia