July 26, 1991

Seizing on a potentially valuable political issue, Democrats in Congress moved to lengthen the time jobless Americans can receive unemployment benefits. Republican oposition was tepid as a Senate comittee supported one such bill and another was introduced in the House. Article, page A11.

Companies The seven regional Bell companies can now create information services like home banking and electronic shopping, following a Federal judge's decisiion to lift a legal restriction. [ Page A1. ] Companies already in the information business were disappointed by the decision. [ A14. ]

Three times a week, Isaac Bashevis Singer would walk into the Famous Dairy Restaurant, a narrow Jewish dining spot on West 72d Street near Broadway whose name bears no relation to its homespun clientele. "What's for lunch, Semkele?" the Nobel-Prize winning author would ask his regular waiter of 20 years, Sam Orenstein.

A year after Saddam Hussein sent tanks into Kuwait and fear and anger into the hearts of American motorists, the price storm is over and the cost of gasoline is at historic lows, when inflation is taken into account. A new study by Cambridge Energy Research Associates concluded that the pretax price at the pump is now the lowest since 1947, after adjusting for inflation. Even with a one-third increase in recent years in Federal and state taxes, which now average 36 cents a gallon, gasoline today is only about 8 cents a gallon higher than it was in 1988.

Private eye on a hot tin roof. Turner's sly and witty; the movie isn't.