LEAD: Their eyes, do they twinkle? Their dimples, how merry? Are their cheeks like roses? Is each nose like a cherry?

Ranking Santas: Grading Their Beards and the Twinkle

BUSINESS DIGEST: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1987

LEAD: The New York City Planning Commission refused yesterday to grant retroactive approval for additions to a mid-Manhattan skyscraper that have resulted in a building 11 feet taller than originally permitted by the planning body and the Board of Estimate.

PLANNERS REJECT A TOWER THAT IS 11 FEET TOO TALL

LEAD: Amid growing uncertainty that he can raise the money, Paul A. Bilzerian, the Florida investor, extended his offer yesterday to buy the Singer Company for $50 a share, or $1 billion in cash, until 5 P.M. tomorrow.

Amid Doubt, Bilzerian Extends Bid for Singer

LEAD: Dave Righetti and the Yankees are expected to announce today an agreement on a three-year contract worth a guaranteed $4.5 million, a source familiar with the negotiations said last night.

Righetti Expected to Sign 3-Year, $4.5 Million Pact

LEAD: Three candidates for New York City Schools Chancellor were formally recommended to the Board of Education yesterday, with the choice essentially between two of them, according to people involved in the search.

3 Recommended For Schools Chancellor

INSIDE

LEAD: Congress, taking a final step toward carrying out the 1988 budget compromise and rushing to adjourn for the year, approved a $17.6 billion deficit-reduction bill early today, including $9 billion in new taxes.

CONGRESS PASSES BILL TO CUT DEFICIT

LEAD: CONCLUDING a decade of debate over financing and technical details, a consortium of West European nations has at last committed itself to building a telescope so powerful that it is likely to dominate astronomical research well into the 21st century.

European Telescope Will Be Biggest

LEAD: As a farmer in the early 1970's, Wayne Angell enjoyed driving to Kansas City, Mo., just to watch wheat prices soar in trading at the Board of Trade.

The Role of Commodities in Inflation

LEAD: Hundreds of thousands of Arabs inside Israel joined others in the occupied territories today in a general strike protesting Israel's handling of a wave of protests.

A GENERAL STRIKE BY ISRAEL'S ARABS DISRUPTS COUNTRY

LEAD: Rescue ships and helicopters searched the sea south of Manila today but reported no trace of 1,500 people missing and presumed drowned after a passenger ferry and an oil tanker collided Sunday night.

Searchers Find No Trace of 1,500 From 2 Ships Sunk in Philippines

LEAD: Seeking to bolster its profits, the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company has begun charging a fee for withdrawals made through its cash machines and, according to banking industry officials, has planned to dismiss 2,500 employees by the end of March.

Banks Add Charges, Cut Jobs

LEAD: WHEN Peter Sheldon chipped his first fossil trilobite from some rocks in Wales a decade ago, two American scientists were transforming standard evolutionary theory with a radical idea. Well-established species, they argued, tend to change little or not at all as the eons pass; most real evolution takes place in rapid bursts at the rare moments when new species are born.

The Pace of Evolution: A Fossil Creature Moves to Center of Debate

LEAD: ''Miss Pearl, where did you put the wiggly worm?'' Jean Batcheller was sure Pearl Curran would know. At 65, Miss Pearl Curran -the youngest worker at the Master Crafters shop here - knows every item's life story, not to mention where it's hidden.

Our Towns; Elderly Hands Help Brighten Holiday Season

LEAD: Wherehouse Entertainment Inc., apparently thwarting a hostile tender offer from Shamrock Holdings Inc., said today that it would be acquired for $14 a share, or about $118 million, by an affiliate of Adler & Shaykin Inc., a New York leveraged buyout firm.

Wherehouse To Be Acquired

LEAD: Trying to isolate itself from the worldwide spread of AIDS, China has adopted rigorous measures, including blood tests for foreigners and Chinese who return from abroad and renewed efforts by the police to prevent casual sexual contacts between foreigners and Chinese.

China Taking Stringent Steps To Prevent the Entry of AIDS

LEAD: Three white teen-agers were convicted last night of manslaughter and assault charges stemming from an attack that led to the death of one black man and the severe beating of another in Howard Beach, Queens, a year ago.

3 in Howard Beach Attack Are Guilty of Manslaughter

LEAD: Both the Government and the contras reported heavy fighting today in a major guerrilla attack in northeastern Nicaragua, but otherwise the two sides offered conflicting accounts.

Both Sides Report Heavy Fighting In Rebel Offensive in Nicaragua

LEAD: The United States and other leading industrial countries appear to have agreed on a declaration endorsing a halt in the decline of the dollar but making no lasting commitments to stabilize it, foreign economic officials said today.

Group of 7 Expected to Back Halt in the Dollar's Decline

LEAD: The stock market collapse has added ''substantial uncertainty'' to the future of New York City's economy, but it will not hurt as seriously as some economists have been predicting, according to a report issued by the State Comptroller.

JOB OUTLOOK RATED CLOUDY IN NEW YORK

LEAD: GIVEN voice by computer technology, adolescents with Down's syndrome are overcoming difficulties in hearing and speech to express unexpectedly vivid and intense thoughts and feelings.

The Poignant Thoughts Of Down's Children Are Given Voice

LEAD: Bernadette McLaughlin lives on the east side of this city, Margaret Puryear on the west. The two women share a deep nostalgia about a lost past and fears about the future. But they inhabit separate worlds, divided by far more than the Saw Mill River Parkway, the concrete barrier that runs between them.

Yonkers Anguish: Black and White in 2 Worlds

LEAD: The former chief economist at Citibank, Leif H. Olsen, has emerged as the first choice of the White House to fill the vacant seat on the Federal Reserve Board, Administration officials said today.

2 Candidates Lead Field For Fed Post

LEAD: James A. Harmon, an investment banker who has served on the board of Ames Department Stores Inc. since 1967, was named chairman yesterday, succeeding Herbert Gilman, one of three brothers who founded the chain.

Wertheim's Chairman Gets Key Job at Ames

Zackary Grant Britton, known professionally as Zach Britton until February 2019, is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees.

Zack Britton, American baseball player

Zack_Britton

Ederzito António Macedo Lopes, commonly known as Eder, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Éder, Bissau-Portuguese footballer

Eder_(footballer,_born_1987)

Luca George Prodan was an Italian-Scottish musician and singer, best known as lead vocalist of the influential Argentine alternative rock band Sumo. He is widely considered one of the country's most important artists.

Luca Prodan, Italian-Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist (born 1953)

Luca_Prodan

Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the east. The capital and largest city is Harare, and the second largest is Bulawayo.

In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi.

December 22, 1987

Headlines from December 22, 1987

Ranking Santas: Grading Their Beards and the Twinkle

BUSINESS DIGEST: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1987

PLANNERS REJECT A TOWER THAT IS 11 FEET TOO TALL

Amid Doubt, Bilzerian Extends Bid for Singer

Righetti Expected to Sign 3-Year, $4.5 Million Pact

Billboard 200

Dirty Dancing

Bad

Faith

Whitesnake

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Notable Births

Notable Deaths

Historical Events

Historical Context for December 22, 1987