November 3, 1991

THE shape of government on Long Island will be in the hands of the Island's voters on Tuesday, when ballot box curtains open on row upon row of candidates for posts ranging from county executive to tax assessor. While there are no statewide or national contests, fiercely fought local races abound, and the stakes are nothing less than who will run the Island's 2 counties, 13 towns and 2 cities.

The 20-odd days between Thanksgiving and Christmas were once a magic time for America's retailers. Merchants could count on selling most of their goods at the full retail price and producing as much as half of their profits for the entire year. The pre-Christmas sale was anathema. Shoppers so improvident as to have waited until the last minute were punished with empty shelves. Absolutely no markdowns until December 26. And measured year to year -- with an occasional blip from a recession -- revenues marched ever upward, often posting double-digit growth. It's been at least four years since retailers enjoyed such a traditional Christmas. Some in the industry contend the glory days ended back as far as '84.

For years now, along the rolling bluffs in this Mississippi River city of Victorian houses and church steeples, nobody ever thought much about race and prejudice. Nobody ever had to. There were only a handful of black people in town. A resident could go for years without seeing a black. And besides, people thought, racism was something that happened in the big cities or the Deep South, not in a nice, quiet place like Dubuque.

Syria continued to balk today at direct talks with Israel on Sunday, but the joint Jordanian and Palestinian delegation went ahead with plans to attend a face-to-face meeting with the Israelis, and joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in pressing Syria to do likewise. "We will go even if Syria doesn't," said a spokesman for the joint delegation.

By all the old standards and stereotypes, the two high school seniors from New York City should have been perfect -- vulnerable targets for a college recruiting blitz. Maurice Brown and Robert Blackwell do not live with their parents, who have died or left home or had problems with drugs. Both teen-agers have notions about removing themselves, and their energized basketball games, from the gunshots that keep one of them awake at night. They are ambitious and cocky, perhaps a bit too certain their skills will overwhelm all obstacles.