LEAD: WHEN all taxes and commuting expenses are figured in, homeownership costs about the same in New York City as it does in the suburbs, according to a new study that tested the common belief that it costs more in the city.

Comparing Costs: City vs. the Suburbs

LEAD: A griffin - a mythical animal that is half eagle and half lion - still looks down from the facade of the Griffin, an 18-story building in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, as it has since 1931. But inside the Art Deco structure, at 101 Lafayette Avenue near South Oxford Street, kitchens are being remodeled and new tenants are arriving as the result of a co-op conversion that was declared effective this month.

Ft. Greene Conversion: Griffin Co-op

LEAD:  Slow Motion for VCR's The video cassette recorders will be whirring away at this week's annual Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, but VCR sales may be starting to slow, or even flatten.

PROSPECTS

LEAD: LEO DUROCHER and Ron Hunt had not snapped at each other across a diamond in 14 years, but it all came back to them quickly.

Sports of The Times; The Lion Roars A Little

LEAD: THE REST OF THE WORLD may see Japan as a nation of workaholics, but not Juzo Itami.

ZEN AND THE ART OF NOODLE MAKING

LEAD: EARLY this year, the State Senate's President, Richard Wong, and the chairman of its Ways and Means Committee, Mamoru Yamasaki, presented legislation to buy an idyllic island off Oahu for $8 million. But before the lawmakers had a chance to vote on the measure, a Japanese investor bought the property for $8.5 million.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: Honolulu;
Japanese Buy An Idyllic Isle

LEAD: Disregarding the protests of defense lawyers, a judge in the Bronx refused yesterday to declare a mistrial in the fraud case of former Labor Secretary Raymond J. Donovan.

MISTRIAL REJECTED IN DONOVAN CASE DESPITE PROTESTS

LEAD: Sprawling shingle-style houses from the 1870's and 1880's still dot the coast in shore communities of the Northeast. Typically, such a house is ''a generous, expansive, organic building unified under one great roof,'' according to Turner Brooks, an architect from Starksboro, Vt., who has taken certain design elements from the shingle style and used them in a group of single-family homes in Bellport, L

Porch-Wrapped: Adapting a Style

LEAD: Having long enjoyed water rates that were among the lowest for major American cities, New Yorkers are about to see the first in a series of increases that by 1996 will almost triple the typical homeowner's water bill.

NEW YORK TO FACE FISING WATER BILLS

LEAD: The Soviet Union has announced that it is halting commercial whaling, and its last whaling fleet is heading home from its final season in the Antarctic.

SOVIET SAYS IT IS GIVING UP COMMERCIAL WHALING

LEAD: The Detroit Pistons, trailing the Eastern Conference final series by 2-0, returned to what Isiah Thomas called ''my house'' today and trounced the Boston Celtics, 122-104.

PISTONS HAND TROUBLED CELTICS A TROUNCING

LEAD: OFFICIALS and residents of this city got a chance last week - perhaps their last - to express opposition to development plans for Liberty State Park.

LIBERTY PARK MARINA OPPOSED

LEAD: WHEN the renovated Cudahy Tower opens for sales in June, it will offer the most-expensive condominiums this blue-collar city has ever seen. And, if the naysayers are right, prices may come down quite a bit by the time the units are sold.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: Milwaukee;
Will $500,000 Condos Sell?

LEAD: A STATE experiment designed to ease prison overcrowding by releasing selected prisoners is saving taxpayers money and reducing recidivism, according to a study to be released soon by Rutgers University.

SUPERVISED RELEASE OF PRISONERS TRIED

LEAD: AS another season gets under way, Long Island golfers who play on public courses are sure to face more hazards in their pursuit of the sport even before any balls are shanked off the fairways.

MORE GOLFERS TEE OFF ON LESS LAND

LEAD: THE two missiles fired by an Iraqi pilot last Sunday spread havoc far beyond the fiery destruction aboard the United States frigate Stark, where 37 crew members were killed. Also severely damaged in the attack were longstanding assumptions about the American Navy's global responsibilities and capabilities and about the Reagan Administration's military plans for the Persian Gulf region.

BLOOD AND OIL

LEAD: JUDGING BY ITS FASHION, COLOR and ornament, as William Shakespeare might have put it, the ''Comedy of Errors'' now previewing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater would seem to be quite the merry demolition of the Bard. After all, this is the vaudeville version of ''The Comedy of Errors'' -the production that transforms Shakespeare's town of Ephesus into a circus's winter quarters, where characters polish their acts while performing their lines.

THREE-RING SHAKESPEARE

LEAD:  MORE DIE OF HEARTBREAK  By Saul Bellow. 335 pp. New York: William Morrow & Company. $17.95.

AN INSTINCT FOR THE DNGEROUS WIFE

LEAD: The Mets shook down fond memories of the old Brooklyn Dodgers in Shea Stadium yesterday in their annual reunion and salute to the past. But they had the devil's own time shaking down any fond memories of themselves from last year, which is something they have been struggling to do all season.

WELCH STOPS METS

LEAD: New York City's moratorium on the demolition or alteration of single-room occupancy buildings is meant to preserve inexpensive housing. Owners of long-vacant large S.R.O.'s can get exemptions, but only if they file applications with the city by Friday.

S.R.O. Moratorium: Exemptions Deadline

LEAD: CLASSMATES vividly remember their first glimpse of Paul A. Bilzerian at Harvard Business School's opening session in 1975. ''Everybody was wearing jackets and ties,'' said Mark Filippell, an investment banker and former classmate. ''It was the first day and no one knew what to expect, and this guy sticks his head in five minutes late.

A SCRAPPY TAKEOVER ARTIST RISES TO THE TOP

LEAD: Some Central Intelligence Agency officers have recanted previous statements and are telling the agency's investigators about contacts with the contras and their private supporters that may have been improper, according to Reagan Administration officials.

OFFICERS OF C.I.A. NOW SAID TO TELL OF TIE TO CONTRAS

LEAD: A BENCHMARK event emphasized the new realities in the Middle East last Sunday when the Israeli Foreign Minister met secretly with the Soviet Ambassador in Washington to solicit the Kremlin's thinking on the Arab-Israeli peace process.

MOSCOW SEEKING TO EXPLOIT U.S. DIFFICULTIES IN MIDDLE EAST

LEAD: EIGHTEEN months generally elapse nowadays between the time a publisher accepts a manuscript and its appearance in book form - the gestation period of an elephant. During that year and a half of waiting, a writer is visited by every emotion in the funhouse, from rosy anticipation to exultation, megalomania, brooding, dread, cringing humility, avarice, guilt and, finally, stolid acceptance.

WAITING FOR THE BOOK: STORMS BEFORE THE CALM

LEAD: The Beekman Country Club, a 27-hole public golf course in East Fishkill, N.Y., is about to develop a loyal following. Time Equities and Empire State Land Company are in contract to buy the golf course as well as adjoining tracts - 563 acres in all - for a vast residential development.

427-Unit Development: Golf Just a Chip Shot Away

Guillaume Latendresse is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He was selected in the second round, 45th overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. Lantendresse also played for the Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators.

May 24, 1987

Headlines from May 24, 1987

Comparing Costs: City vs. the Suburbs

Ft. Greene Conversion: Griffin Co-op

PROSPECTS

Sports of The Times; The Lion Roars A Little

ZEN AND THE ART OF NOODLE MAKING

Billboard 200

The Joshua Tree

Slippery When Wet

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Licensed To Ill

Graceland

Notable Births

Historical Context for May 24, 1987