March 27, 1992

DANIEL BARSHAY has a deceptive walk. With no evidence of strain, he glides along in the passing lane of million-footed Manhattan's high-speed sidewalks. It is the walk of a man who believes that his feet, wherever they are pointed, are taking him toward a delightful surprise. It is the walk of Walt Whitman. For 13 years, Mr. Barshay has been absorbing the poet's persona as his full-time job. The transformation is more or less complete. Its public dimension is the one-man show that Mr. Barshay performs before diverse audiences across the country. In May he will bring it to New York City as part of the two-and-a-half-month celebration, organized by the Museum of the City of New York, that began yesterday on the 100th anniversary of Whitman's death.

Releasing the J.F.K. Files Trying to quell suspicions fanned by the movie "J.F.K.," lawmakers proposed releasing almost all files on the Kennedy assassination. Page A14. 5 Found Slain in Queens Three women and two men were found shot to death in a private house in Cambria Heights. The police have no motive for the killings. Page B1. Rethinking the Sales Tax With the recession, officials in the region are re-examining their dependence on the sales tax, finding it an unreliable revenue source. Page B1. A Painting With a Past After its origin was questioned by dealers and auction house experts, a painting was withdrawn by Sotheby's from a sale next week. Page C3.

In the 1980's, when conspicuous consumption was elevated to an art, county and state governments around the New York region enjoyed a spectacular stream of revenue from sales taxes, with receipts routinely rising more than 10 percent a year. But when the recession hit, that stream slowed to a trickle, contributing to fiscal crises in Hartford, Albany and Trenton. In New York, for example, where sales taxes bring in about a fourth of the state's revenue, state sales-tax receipts fell $323 million between 1990 and 1991, to $5.4 billion.

The adult mammalian brain, long thought to be incapable of repairing itself, possesses a pool of immature cells that can be coaxed to divide into new nerve tissue, scientists have found. The discovery is the first compelling evidence that the adult brain retains the potential to generate fresh nerve cells, a talent ordinarily limited to the embryo. Although the result is extremely preliminary and is still limited to experiments on mice, many scientists said it had broad implications for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's, as well as spinal cord injuries.

Step into Dwight W. McGuirk's Ford showroom these days, and he will tell you that like lots of auto dealers his mark-up over invoice is $500 at most and sometimes as little as $200. The number is so small -- and sales have been so slow lately -- that it is a monthly scramble for Mr. McGuirk to finance the $3 million worth of cars and trucks on his lots, pay his three salesmen and keep the roof over his showroom from leaking. In fact, he cannot do it all even though what he pays for his cars and trucks is slightly less than the much talked about "invoice price" that many car buyers believe is the dealer's cost. His profit margin can pay the salesmen, but there has not been enough to fix the roof as well. When it rains hard, the water trickles onto a patch of plastic draped on the hood of a blue Taurus sedan parked near the American flag.

Five people were found shot to death last night in a row house in Queens, a block and a half from the Nassau County line and less than a mile from Belmont Park Race Track, the police said. A police spokesman, Officer Ralph St. Just, said that the police had not identified the victims, three women and two men, and did not know when or why they had been killed. The bodies were found in the two-story brick house at 225-26 Murdock Avenue in Cambria Heights.

Bankers and financial advisers continued scrambling yesterday to shore up the imperiled Olympia & York empire, a spokesman for the company and several analysts in Toronto said. The company is trying to arrange fresh bank loans and to extend maturing debt to meet short-term cash needs. Olympia & York is negotiating with the Bank of Nova Scotia, which has a $220 million first mortgage on the Scotia Plaza office tower in Toronto, one of the Toronto-based company's many holdings, for a one-year extension on an interest payment due next week. The tower is one of the Canadian assets with unencumbered equity, and the banks are likely to try to divide it up as collateral for undersecured loans.

The head of a Canadian air crash inquiry said today that the crash at La Guardia Airport on Sunday night that killed 27 people could have been avoided if warnings in a report on a similar accident in Canada three years ago had been heeded. The official, Justice Virgil P. Moshansky of Alberta's highest court, made the comment as he issued a voluminous final report on a crash of a Fokker F28 jet in Dryden, Ontario, on March 10, 1989. The report blamed ice on the wings in part for the crash that killed 24 people.

Challenging one of Congress's political sacred cows, the Defense Department today proposed eliminating 140,000 military reservist positions in the next two years to balance cuts already made in the shrinking active armed forces. Lawmakers have traditionally shielded the National Guard and service Reserves from deep cuts, partly because of the economic benefit their constituents reap from the part-time salaries and local armories.

The chairman of the Democratic Party issued an unusual rebuke yesterday to one of his party's two remaining candidates for President, saying Edmund G. Brown Jr. has "crossed the line in terms of inappropriate attacks" against Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas. In an interview, Ronald H. Brown, the party chairman, said he wanted to maintain his neutrality but was compelled to speak out against what he described as the former California Governor's "scorched-earth policy" of verbal assault on Mr. Clinton's record and character.

Here, as everywhere, it is just off the highway. It is a great concrete box in an asphalt field and, with just a glimpse, a traveler can almost smell the scent of cinnamon and french fries that fills shopping-mall air everywhere. It has been five years since the mall sprouted here, one of the climate-controlled selling palaces opened in the New York City area during the 1980's that left the region with, some experts say, the greatest concentration of giant shopping malls anywhere and helped foster a new suburban culture on the outskirts of the nation's most urbanized center. Some Survive, Some Thrive Within a 90-minute drive of Times Square there are now 48 of them, with an average of almost a million square feet each, which means there are 2.4 square feet of mega-mall for every man, woman and child in the region.

Edward H. Fleischman, the senior commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission and its most vocal in-house critic, abruptly resigned today. He cited frustrations over his limited impact on the agency and many sharp disagreements with its chairman, Richard C. Breeden, over policy issues and the management of the agency. Mr. Fleischman, one of three Republicans on the five-member commission and a 1986 Reagan appointee, has nevertheless been the agency's staunchest critic during the Reagan and Bush years. He often argued for a much more limited role for the agency, leaving the markets to run and police themselves.