LEAD: THE first action that Serge Sabarsky plans to take as new director of the Nassau County Museum of Fine Art in Roslyn Harbor is to cover the windows of the museum, the former Frick mansion.

For Troubled Nassau Museum, a New Start

LEAD: It is Moscow in the third summer of perestroika. The first-ever British audio fair is drawing to its dreary end. Niki Landau, a Polish-born publisher's representative, is closing down his stand when a beautiful Russian woman, Katya, approaches him and begs him to take a friend's manuscript back to London, and there hand it to a publisher named Barley (Bartholomew) Scott Blair.

'PERSONAL FOR MR. BARHOLOMEW SCOTT BLAIR, URGENT'

LEAD: When it comes to dividing up their teams for those color-against-color intrasquad games that traditionally mark the end of spring football practices, college coaches have used a variety of formulas.

Orangemen Show Colors

LEAD: Frank Lorenzo has been thinking of late about all the people who used to fly back in the days of People Express, when air fares were dirt cheap.

Lorenzo's Unlikely Plan for Eastern

LEAD: FOLLOWING the crippling accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear-power facility near Harrisburg, Pa., 10 years ago, the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a report detailing lessons learned from the event.

Shoreham Ordeal: Hard-Won Lessons

LEAD: In a company celebrated for its managerial conservatism and organizational discipline, R. Andrew Heller was regarded as a renegade.

The Niche That I.B.M. Can't Ignore

LEAD: I the book ''Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels,'' Jay Cantor's update of George Herriman's celebrated comic strip, the angry, brick-throwing Ignatz Mouse writes an indignant letter to Offisa Bull Pup that expresses his frustration with his two-dimensional status:

Comics as Inspiration: Are We Having Fun Yet?

LEAD: The scene, at a Red Lobster restaurant that opened recently here, is a cross between a pep rally and a pop quiz. A large room is filled with raucous students learning the basics of their trade - waiting on tables. Their enthusiastic teacher raises his clenched fists over his head, fires off questions and exhorts his students to answer as loudly as they can:

Why They Smile at Red Lobster

LEAD: TORRE DE SAN MIGUEL, a 20-year-old, 142-unit federally subsidized rental housing complex on St. Paul's West Side, which has a large Hispanic population, is taking a new step in a long comeback with a $3 million renovation.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: ST. PAUL;
Housing Project Revival

LEAD: WHILE executives and environmentalists at the Exxon Corporation spent last week in Valdez, Alaska, drawing the latest plans to clean up what they could of the nation's worst oil spill, a Federal grand jury in nearby Anchorage began the task of determining what crimes may have been committed.

Does an Assault on Nature Make Exxon a Criminal?

LEAD: Easy Goer won the $568,000 Wood Memorial Stakes at Aqueduct yesterday with a performance that may not have looked as impressive as his other triumphs but was actually at least as strong.

Easy Goer Up to Par In Wood

LEAD: The Corinthian Condominiums at 330 East 38th Street at First Avenue touts itself as one of Manhattan's most stylish apartment houses, its ads stressing its ''beautiful three-quarter-acre entrance plaza'' and ''sumptuous lobby.'' But 350 buyers of the building's 829 units have obtained a temporary restraining order to stop what they view as the developer's tampering with the entrance plaza and lobby.

POSTINGS: Buyers v. Developer; Branch at Root of Condo Suit

New York, New York/Magazine, Part 2*

LEAD: About 300 people dedicated to retaining examples of the architecture of the suburbs will hear tips about new legal and technical strategies when the Preservation League of New York State holds its 16th annual conference for three days starting Friday at Danfords Inn in Port Jefferson, L.I. Those attending - representatives of local governments and foundations, and amateur preservationists - will tour Long Island properties prominent in preservation and landmarking, and attend lectures.

POSTINGS: 3-Day Meeting on L.I.; Preservation Strategies

LEAD: The assault by Afghan guerrillas on the eastern city of Jalalabad was ordered by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Government at a meeting of civilian and military leaders in Pakistan, and in the presence of the American Ambassador, according to a Pakistani participant and other Pakistani officials.

PAKISTAN OFFICIALS TELL OF ORDERING AFGHAN REBEL PUSH

LEAD: Suddenly, the music of Brazil is the height of fashion among those in the United States and Europe who pride themselves on setting trends and defining tastes. The album ''Beleza Tropical,'' compiled by David Byrne of Talking Heads, is selling rapidly and getting extensive play in nightclubs and on college radio stations.

Brazilian Pop, Uneasy in the Spotlight

LEAD: THE story behind the Museum of American Political Life, set to open next week at the University of Hartford, could be titled ''The Little Museum That Could,'' for it was through perseverance that a comprehensive private collection of Presidential election memorabilia was saved from oblivion.

Building a Museum From Scratch

LEAD: Representative Bob Wise was crossing the street back home in Charleston, W. Va., a few days ago when a man stopped his car, rolled down his window and imparted some simple advice about a tangled controversy. ''Get Wright out of there,'' he said.

Testing the Wind on Wright, Democrats See No Storm Yet

LEAD: THE view from the back door of Pamela Keating's one-family home on 157th Street in Flushing, Queens, is of a big hole where two other single-family houses once stood. They were torn down last winter, and what will soon rise from the hole is a brick block of a building containing eight apartments.

Closing Loopholes to Save Neighborhoods

LEAD: THE 3-year-old sat giggling in her highchair, pretty and feminine in yellow taffeta, matching ribbons in her black hair. Then the vision changed. A visitor spotted the stick-thin legs dangling motionless beneath her - legs, adorned by white tights and Mary Janes, that have never walked or crawled.

Day-Care Center Comforts Children With AIDS

LEAD: FOR nine months, efforts have been under way in Yonkers to attract private developers to build 800 units of low- and moderate-income housing as part of a court-ordered integration plan.

Yonkers Office Woos Developers To Build Mixed-Income Housing

LEAD: SINCE 1797, when Long Island's first lighthouse was built at Montauk Point, the 12 tall beacons encircling the island pointed the way to safety for countless vessels.

Saving Lighthouses From Erosion

LEAD: A week of growing anti-Government protests turned violent for the first time on Saturday, spreading to the central Chinese city of Xian, where protesters attacked the provincial Government headquarters, injuring 130 officers and burning 20 houses, the official New China News Agency reported this morning.

VIOLENT PROTESTS REPORTED IN CHINA

LEAD: Cheap mortgages will again be available for families trying to buy their first homes when the State of New York Mortgage Agency opens a new round of lending on May 1. The agency has $144.8 million of new funds available, enough to provide loans to 2,000 first-time buyers of houses, condominiums and cooperative apartments.

POSTINGS: For First-Time Buyers; More State Mortgage Money

LEAD: THE Ambassador Hotel, long a symbol of Hollywood elegance, eccentricity and tragedy, has closed and probably will be demolished after being auctioned.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: LOS ANGELES;
Ambassador Up for Auction

Nicole Vaidišová Štěpánková is a Czech former professional tennis player.

April 23, 1989

Headlines from April 23, 1989

For Troubled Nassau Museum, a New Start

'PERSONAL FOR MR. BARHOLOMEW SCOTT BLAIR, URGENT'

Orangemen Show Colors

Lorenzo's Unlikely Plan for Eastern

Shoreham Ordeal: Hard-Won Lessons

Billboard 200

Like A Prayer

Loc-ed After Dark

Electric Youth

Don't Be Cruel

The Raw & The Cooked

Notable Births

Historical Context for April 23, 1989