November 8, 1991

HE is "the oldest living man in Gloucester, Mass.," a crotchety retired high-school teacher who never married. She is the warm-hearted young widow, also childless, who answers his ad for a live-in housekeeper. He is Jewish. She is Catholic. He is a chilly intellectual. She is a sentimental slob. He likes Mozart. She likes Phoebe Snow. He has a hearing aid. She has a big mouth. So it goes, and goes and goes and goes, in "Park Your Car in Harvard Yard," the Israel Horovitz comedy that has parked Jason Robards and Judith Ivey at the Music Box Theater on Broadway, one of New York's most merciless tow-away zones. The play is one of those one-set, two-actor, odd-couple contraptions that periodically seduce producers in search of low budgets and high returns along the lines of "Same Time, Next Year" or "Educating Rita." This particular example is only five minutes old before the audience is sure that the playwright can only be heading in one of two directions: either one of his characters will die in bed, or both of them will have sex there. In the evening's sole burst of ingenuity, Mr. Horovitz nearly pulls off both these denouements, though the advanced age of Mr. Robards's teacher requires that the carnal climax be achieved by proxy.

Magic Johnson, one of the most popular and accomplished players in basketball history, said today that he had been infected by the virus that causes AIDS and that he would retire immediately from the Los Angeles Lakers. Speaking in composed, straightforward terms, Johnson said at a news conference at the Great Western Forum, where he played with the Lakers for 12 seasons, that he learned only the day before that he was infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.

With Gov. Jim Florio standing on the sidelines, Democratic and Republican leaders began an angry feud today over who would be first to repeal the $2.8 billion tax increase the Governor pushed through the Legislature 16 months ago. The Democrats who provided all the legislative support for the increase, the biggest in the state's history, said they might repeal it before the Republicans take control of both the Senate and the General Assembly in January.

Maxwell Stock Plummets Despite pledges by banks of ongoing support for Maxwell Communication, the debt-laden publishing company's shares dropped 39 percent in trading in London. Page D1. Weicker's Different Air Breaking with 11 other Northeastern states, Governor Weicker said that Connecticut would not accept strict new standards on automobile emissions. Page B5. U.S. Weighs Haitians' Fate Nearly two hundred Haitians seized while fleeing are being kept aboard Coast Guard cutters while the United States considers their fate. Page A3. Civil Rights Bill Goes to Bush With only an echo of the job-quota debates that held it back for two years, a major civil rights bill won final passage in the House. Page B8. Gene Tierney Dies The elegant actress whose beauty bewitched a tough detective in "Laura" is dead at 70. Page D19.

The third and most speculative part of the Treasury's $38 billion quarterly refunding auctions got the best reception of the three from investors yesterday as the wide gap between long-term and short-term interest rates created demand at the sale of $12 billion worth of 30-year bonds. The bond auction came on the heels of disappointing auctions of new 3-year and 10-year notes, and that had created concern among many market participants about who might be willing to venture a bid on the new 30-year securities. The longer out in time the securities go, the riskier they are to hold because their value could decline if inflation heated up, driving up interest rates, but yesterday the higher yield on the long-term bonds attracted buyers.