January 3, 1992

IT was condition orange, shading to red. The room-service waiter at the Essex House was on his knees trying to free a tricky latch on the rolling breakfast table and remove its portable heating unit. But the thing wouldn't budge. He looked up, stricken, and said, "Oh, sir, I know, I am taking too long." The genuine anguish in his voice made it clear that I would be well within my rights to horsewhip him on the spot. And I wondered: What sadist is in charge of the hotel's training program? After a 20-month renovation costing more than $75 million, the Essex House on Central Park South has thrown open its doors. Once familiar to television viewers as the hotel where "Saturday Night Live" parked its guests, it was bought by Nikko Hotels International, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines, in 1985. In 1989, the company began a total overhaul of the 60-year-old hotel that has left only the Art Deco elevator doors intact. The reborn Essex House has new plumbing, heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, a new look (sumptuous and marbled), fewer and larger rooms and standards of service so high that the lesser staff walks in fear.

The Hertz Corporation effectively withdrew from a large part of the New York City car-rental market yesterday, announcing that it would impose surcharges of $15 to $56 a day on residents of Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx who rent cars anywhere in the metropolitan region. A surcharge of $3 would be added for Manhattan residents, with no extra charge for Staten Island residents.

The father of Magdalena Marrero's two sons stopped giving her money to support the boys in 1989, she said. Even so, she only reluctantly named him recently to qualify for welfare. The man was a heel, Ms. Marrero said, but she still felt guilty for turning him in to the welfare system, which she said had treated her "like a speck of dirt that doesn't mean anything."

One of Connecticut's most notorious murderers and another inmate at the state's maximum-security prison in Somers escaped on New Year's Eve. They briefly took two hostages here, stole a truck and have not been seen since. To prison administrators, this was an unfortunate and -- as of now -- an unexplained lapse.

The nation's industrial economy, stalled by declining orders and lower production, contracted in December for the third consecutive month, to its lowest level since May, the nation's purchasing managers said yesterday. The report was the first significant indication of the state of the economy last month. The survey by the National Association of Purchasing Management came as the Government reported that construction spending slowed in November and the nation's auto makers said their sales remained weak in mid-December. The Labor Department said that first-time claims for unemployment insurance fell during the third week in December, but economists noted that they were still at a recessionary level. Reading Indicates Contraction The association's monthly survey, conducted with more than 300 purchasing managers from a wide range of industrial companies, put its main index of economic activity at 46.5 percent in December, down from 50.1 percent in November. The association said the last reading below 50 percent was in May, when it was 45.4. A reading below 50 percent indicates that the economy is contracting while a reading above 50 percent indicates expansion.