December 15, 1991

Less costly modular construction is often used for affordable-housing projects. But 68 two-family homes are being built from scratch in a project in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. Designed by Harden Van Arnam Architects of Brooklyn, the two-and-a-half-story homes will have red-brick facades and stoops. Alan R. Bell, one of the developers, said site-building was used, in part, so the homes could be designed to complement the neighborhood's architecture. The project, for families with incomes of $53,000 or less, is called Sojourner Truth Homes, after the 19th-century African-American abolitionist. It is going up on a three-block site off Malcolm X Boulevard (formerly Reid Avenue) and DeKalb Avenue. Each 2,700-square-foot home will have a three- or four-bedroom owner's unit and a two-bedroom rental unit.

Back in mid-September, when the leaves were still green and Desmond Howard's football season at the University of Michigan was just one game and four touchdowns old, he sat in a restaurant in Ann Arbor, Mich., and listened to a question that seemed as much of a courtesy as anything else. What do you think of your chances of winning the Heisman Trophy?

After she decides to investigate the murder that is the centerpiece of the new musical "Nick and Nora," Nora Charles carries a tiny notebook and gold pen with her at all times so she can jot down the incriminating facts and the telltale details. You would be well advised to do as much if you choose to catch what, as it happens, will be the final performance today. I realize that the scratching of a thousand pens on a thousand pieces of paper may create a distraction in the auditorium of the Marquis Theater. But I don't see how you are going to stay abreast of matters otherwise. It's 1937 in Hollywood, and Lorraine Bixby, the platinum-blond accountant who's been keeping the ledgers on Tracy Gardner's new motion picture, has just been "aced" in her bungalow. That's clear as can be. However, as the various suspects recount their version of events leading up to the fatal shot (or was it shots?), the musical gives us one contradictory flashback after another.

He is still asked on the street, "Hey, Riggo, how's Sandy baby?" And John Riggins must answer in all candor: "Don't know. Haven't seen her lately." And he still hasn't heard from her, either, even after sending a dozen roses as an apology to her at her Supreme Court office. The apology came after the last time -- the only time -- he saw her, almost seven years ago, in January 1985, when Riggins, then a star running back for the Washington Redskins and the hero of their 1983 Super Bowl victory, was seated across the table from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her husband, John, at the black-tie National Press Club dinner in Washington. Riggins, trying to make conversation while inebriated, called out: "C'mon, Sandy, baby. Loosen up. You're too tight."

ALINE LEFEBVRE recalled a comment made by her boss last December at a party for the fourth anniversary of News 12, the 24-hour cable news service. "He said, 'We may not pay you as much as the other stations pay, but we're not going to let you go,' " Ms. Lefebvre recalled. " 'You're secure here.' It was always one of the credos at News 12 that it was a place where you were safe."