Notebook
By Daniel Eisenberg, Jodie Morse, Michele Orecklin, Alain L. Sanders, Susan Veitch and Deborah L. Wells
WINNERS
KIRK KERKORIAN Billionaire raider sees his post-merger Chrysler stake treble to $5 billion. Gee, them that has do get
DAVID FALK The agent becomes the product: the middleman for Jordan et al. gets bought for $100 million
ADRIAN LYNE Showtime agrees to air his film version of Lolita. Pundits: you may start your thumbsucking!
& LOSERS
DAN BURTON Lucky Clinton. Not since Robert E. Lee has a man been blessed with such a series of inept enemies
MICKEY MANTLE FBI kept a file on the Yankee slugger. Did Hoover hope "switch hitter" meant something else?
HILLARY CLINTON Gives opinion on Mideast, gets Mission: Impossible treatment: "The White House disavows..."
STILL MISERABLES AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Primary Colors was supposed to be the Bill Clinton movie a clef of 1998, but the recently released Bille August film of Victor Hugo's 1862 epic Les Miserables, with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, may better parallel the President's saga.
LES MISERABLES 1862
Police inspector Javert suspects the mayor, Jean Valjean, is really a thief who broke parole many years before.
Javert lacks adequate proof to convict Valjean but declares, "If I force a trial, the evidence will be found."
Valjean's situation becomes complicated by his involvement with Fantine, a girl with a sexual history.
Searching for evidence, Javert calls for Valjean's business records and seeks information on Fantine's correspondence.
Years later, still pursued, Valjean instructs his daughter to tell Javert nothing about her past.
Javert tells Valjean he will never stop pursuing him.
LES MISERABLES 1998
Independent counsel Starr suspects the President, Bill Clinton, was really hip deep in fraud many years before.
Starr lacks adequate proof to convict Clinton, but thinks if he forces a trial on Webb Hubbell, the evidence will be found.
Clinton's situation becomes complicated by his involvement with Monica Lewinsky, a girl who may have made sexual history.
Searching for evidence, Starr calls for Hillary Clinton's billing records and seeks information on Monica's e-mail.
In January, Clinton was accused of instructing Monica to tell Starr nothing about their past.
Starr continues an investigation that has lasted more than four years.
HONKY-TONK STATESMEN
The Senate, Congress's upper house, one of the world's great deliberative bodies, last week saw an exchange that reflected its illustrious heritage. The issue: possibly anticompetitive practices of Microsoft Corp. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, home of Microsoft's competitor Novell, spoke first:
The media campaign surrounding the public release of Windows 95 was accompanied by a theme song. As I recall, it was the Rolling Stones' hit song Start Me Up. For...consumers, beholden to Microsoft for software products, I wonder whether the theme song for Windows 98 shouldn't be another Rolling Stones hit--Under My Thumb.
Senator Slade Gorton of Washington, home of Microsoft, responded later in the day:
When I hear Senator Hatch defending...lawyers of the Justice Department, I figure he has been listening to Sympathy for the Devil a little too much lately. There is another Rolling Stones song that describes what Microsoft does for its customers--a little hit called Satisfaction...[To everyone] who wants to stand between Microsoft and its customers, all I can say is, fellas, You Can't Always Get What You Want.
BRIEFING
UNENDANGERED LIST
Thanks to successful protection, the Interior Department is proposing to "delist or downlist" some two dozen species on the Endangered and Threatened Species List, including, clockwise, the bald eagle, gray wolf, brown pelican and Aleutian Canada goose. So will the list get shorter? Don't bet on it. Our breakdown of the list:
Year list was established: 1966
Size of current list: 1,135 species (466 animals and 669 plants)
Place with most species on list: Hawaii (298)
Place with fewest species on list: Washington, D.C. (3)
Oldest candidates for delisting or downlisting: bald eagle, gray wolf, Aleutian Canada goose, Columbian white-tailed deer, Hawaiian hawk and Pahrump poolfish, all listed since March 1967
Youngest candidate: Virginia roundleaf birch, listed since Nov. 1994
Candidates' average time on list: 19 years
Troubled species waiting to get on list: more than 100
Usual waiting time: up to a year
Rate of growth of list: about 85 species a year
Newest member on list: Preble's meadow jumping mouse, to be announced by the department this week
NUMBERS
6,093: Number of students expelled from public school last year for bringing a firearm to school
9: Percentage of all expulsions that occurred in elementary school
63: Percentage of children ages 7 to 10 who are worried that they may die young
71: Percentage of children who say the role of a boss on TV shows is usually played by a white actor
59: Percentage of children who say the role of a criminal on TV shows is usually played by a black actor
58: Percentage of Seinfeld fans who name Kramer as their favorite character
12: Percentage of Seinfeld fans who name Jerry as their favorite character
64: Number of players in first round of the NBA play-offs, out of 192, who were bald or had shaved heads
1: Number of players in first round of the NBA play-offs known to use Rogaine (the Utah Jazz's Karl Malone)
Sources: Department of Education; Children Now; Children Now; USA Today/CNN/Gallup; Rogaine
SIXTY SECOND SYMPOSIUM
With work well under way to bring a single European currency--the euro--into being next year, we asked several experts what European coin or bill they would miss the most
JAMES LAMB, president of Spink America, coin subsidiary of Christie's New York: "The French franc has been a well-designed and elegant little coinage that's always had a certain class."
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE CASTLE, chairman of the House subcommittee that's overseeing new U.S. quarters: "The French franc notes have elegant characteristics, stylish formatting, intricate watermarks and incorporate excellent history lessons."
PAUL SONG, V.P. of Sotheby's coin department: "The Italian 50,000-lira note, because of all the zeros and the portrait of Italian sculptor Bernini. The first time I visited Italy, I went to the Capitoline Museum and gave the guard a 50,000 note for 5,000 and was ripped off."
TOM WALLACE, editor of Conde Nast Traveler: "I will miss the Irish punt. There's nothing more satisfying than buying a pint with a punt."