February 23, 1992

When J. Carter Brown surprised almost everyone last month and announced his resignation as director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, he brought to a close a chapter in the evolution not only of his own institution but of all American museums. Such was the impact of his tenure that before Mr. Brown assumed his post in 1969, the image of an art museum was one thing, and today it is something else. Although he was hardly alone in reshaping that image, his contribution was vital. The quiet gallery that he took over has become a strutting giant on the international stage, a purveyor of major traveling exhibitions and a center for the study of the visual arts. With its glamorous addition designed by the architect I. M. Pei that doubled the institution's physical size, and its wide array of educational and scholarly programs, the gallery is an exemplar of what museums aspired to become during the expansionist 1970's and 80's. And the brilliant and energetic Mr. Brown has come to epitomize the museum director.

Pierre Toussaint has been dead 139 years. But the way he lived his life is now the subject of a heated debate among American Catholics that reveals much about the modern-day church's complicated and sometimes awkward relations with its black parishioners. For Pierre Toussaint was born, and chose to stay, a slave. At a time when slaves were rebelling in his native Haiti he was accompanying his owners to New York, where they lost their fortune but not his loyalty. By day Toussaint the coiffeur would earn money powdering and pomading the heads of New York society. By night, he would don his crimson uniform and return to wait on his invalid owner, quietly supporting her household.

In a disclosure that runs counter to the Pentagon image of a war that was run with extraordinary precision, a new Defense Department report says a failure to communicate target restrictions in the Persian Gulf air war resulted in heavier damage than was intended to Iraq's civilian infrastructure. The breakdown in communicating the targeting guidelines to tactical air units led to greater damage than planned to Iraq's electrical generating plants and is one of a number of problems that are coming to light a year after the decisive victory over Iraqi forces. The report, which was commissioned by Congress and is circulating in the Pentagon in draft form, is the Defense Department's most comprehensive effort to assess the military lessons of the war.

A few weeks ago, giving the toast at an annual Sony reception here, Norio Ohga almost sounded like a man who had forsaken electronics for the glitter of Hollywood. The 62-year-old president of the Sony Corporation talked for 15 minutes without once mentioning the Walkman, the video camcorder, or any of the other gadgetry that propelled his company to huge profitability and tremendous growth in the 1980's. He made only a cursory mention of his pet technological project, Sony's billion-dollar bet on high-definition television. What he did talk about were Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment -- once better known as Columbia Pictures and CBS Records.

WHEN Josman left her three young daughters in Guyana in 1989 to move to New York, chicken there cost $25 a pound and unemployment was high. She said she felt that her family's future was in America. Her plan was that of thousands of Guyanese women who before her had journeyed north with big dreams but few skills. She would find a job as a live-in housekeeper with a family willing to sponsor her so that she could become a legal permanent resident of the United States. She would then be entitled to a "green card," the alien-registration card, now actually pink, that is an immigrant's passport to a new life in the United States.