VERY OLD BONES

By William Kennedy.
292 pp. New York:
Viking. $22.

Of Love Hidden or Misplaced

  Because of electrical problems in The Time's computer center, late news developments were omitted from some editions.

To Our Readers

WITH Los Angeles in flames and New York City on edge, Daria J. Cooper of Wyandanch joked with white co-workers at the bank in Melville where she works about the riots spreading to Route 110.

She said she was surprised when her colleagues believed her. "People were scared to death that Friday, terrorized," said Ms. Cooper, who is black. "They were ready to believe anything."

Blacks Say L.I. Problems Mirror Those in Los Angeles

  THEY are not among the most talented teams. They are not particularly attractive to watch. They do not think well on their feet. They cannot remember to get the ball to their best player.   For all that, these Knicks are the hardest-working team New York has seen in a while. They have got as much out of themselves as a mix-and-match transition team could expect and they should be respected immensely. The only thing is, it may not be enough.

Sports of The Times; Chicago Tries To Survive Bumper Pool

  The American economy, badly in need of bright spots, is gaining strength from an unlikely source: the third world, where purchases of American goods rose 15 percent last year.   Nonindustrialized nations have increased their purchases from American businesses and farmers to $146.79 billion last year. And this year they are expected to buy even more. The United States still runs a large, but shrinking, trade deficit with these nations through purchases of fruit and vegetables, steel and oil.

AMERICAN EXPORTS TO POOR COUNTRIES ARE RAPIDLY RISING

  It's crunch time for I.B.M., time to go head-to-head and toe-to-toe with the competition, and James Cannavino, for one, is pumped up for action.   Consider the broken-glass caper. A few months ago, Steven Ballmer, a cocky top executive of I.B.M.'s archrival in software, the Microsoft Corporation, paraded before thousands of employees in the Seattle Kingdome in a red Corvette. On the car's doors, in bold letters, was the word "Windows," the name of Microsoft's hugely successful software program, a product that has helped undermine the International Business Machines Corporation's supremacy in personal computers.

Slogging Up PC Hill at I.B.M.

GORDON THOMPSON is "packing the wagons and heading West." West is Bloomsburg, Pa., a three-hour drive away.

After 42 years on Long Island, Mr. Thompson is moving the mailing house that he founded, one of the country's major direct-mail operations, to a 10 1/2-acre rural site he described as "having the quality of life Long Island used to have in 1949, when it was a nice place to live, before the Long Island Expressway and the high cost of living."

Lower Costs Draw Companies Off L.I.

  Here in the air-conditioned sprawl of a Sunbelt office complex, Ross Perot is trying to reinvent Presidential politics. No one is quite sure where he is headed, but these days everyone is paying attention.   The Texas billionaire has won himself a nomination, of sorts, by taking his bid for the Presidency to the electronic primaries of Larry King, David Frost and Phil Donahue (a lot easier than slogging through Iowa and New Hampshire). Recent public opinion polls show him neck and neck for second place with Gov. Bill Clinton nationally, and at the head of the pack in Texas and California -- must-win states for Republican Presidential campaigns.

THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Political Memo; Perot Tries to Keep Pace With Force He Unleashed

  A week after the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of a black motorist and the start of this city's worst riots, a defiant and angry sign still stood at the foot of the most exclusive black neighborhood in town.   Beneath the stucco mansions with their sculpted lawns and satellite dishes, the sign said simply, "Guilty" in four-foot-high, hand-painted letters.

Riots Shook Affluent Blacks Trying to Balance 2 Worlds

  It made no difference to the Chicago Bulls that the Knicks battered and bruised them yesterday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. The Bulls were too focused and too determined to allow themselves to be beaten.   For the first time in the playoff series, Michael Jordan (32 points) and Scottie Pippen (26 points) combined to dominate offensively. For the first time in the series, the Bulls got more crucial offensive rebounds and claimed more loose balls. And for the first time in the series, Chicago took the upper hand.

Bulls Take the Dare Out Of Knicks

  Traditionally, residential real estate companies in Manhattan earned their bread and butter managing co-ops and the cream in their profits by brokering apartment sales. Managing a building gave them an inside track on its sales until the 80's, when rising apartment prices drew many independent brokers into the trade, and they began skimming the cream. That led some old-line companies to give up management as an unprofitable sideline, but now some firms are rethinking the pre-80's relationships.   A brokerage, Stribling & Associates, and its affiliate, Wells & Gay-Stribling, have formed a tie with Lawrence Properties, which manages 70 buildings with 5,000 tenant-owners. Now, when owners in those buildings want to sell, Lawrence will introduce them to Stribling brokers, and both firms will share in the commissions if Stribling finds the buyers. Asher Bernstein, president of Lawrence, said owners will not have to use the services of Stribling, but he thinks many will want to.

POSTINGS: Lawrence and Stribling; Manager-Broker Accord

  Built between 1891 and 1898, Public School 50 in Port Richmond, Staten Island, with its bell and clock towers, is a sealed-up, four-story landmark. But by the end of 1993 it is expected to help revitalize the community and provide housing for the low-income elderly as the 43-unit Parkside Senior Apartments. The ecletic-style building at 160 Heberton Avenue, last used in 1984 as an annex for its nearby successor, may also help bridge generations.   "Students and seniors will make good neighbors," said Joan Catalano, executive director of Northfield Community Local Development Corporation of Staten Island, which took on the $4.6 million project in 1987. "We're thinking of good neighbor programs including gardening, searching for students' roots and reading and tutoring."

POSTINGS: Staten Island Project; For the Aging, an 1890's School

  Like nearly everyone else in America, I have tuned in Johnny Carson after the following events:     A phone does not ring.    The person you were hoping to hear from doesn't call, so you turn to the reliable voice in Burbank instead.

So Long To Johnny, America's Sandman

  Is 359 Broadway a landmark?   Yes, said the Landmarks Preservation Commission, noting that every one of the five floors in the 140-year-old structure has a different kind of window ornamentation, making it "an important and usual example of the Italianate style." The commission also cited the fact that the celebrated photographer Mathew B. Brady had his studios there in the 1850's.

POSTINGS: Landmark Dispute; Brady's Broadway Studio

  I have little doubt that you will cry tears of heartbreak at "Falsettos," the William Finn/James Lapine musical at the Golden Theater. But long before the story it tells -- a story of friends, lovers and families in the age of AIDS -- takes the turn that is so rending, you may find yourself crying for another reason -- because artists are at work and their artistry is pure and beautiful.   Whatever the pleasures of "Guys and Dolls" and "Crazy for You," the reigning musicals of the current Broadway season, they are the pleasures of yesterday. Mr. Finn and a cast of seven gifted performers will tell you about today. They will tell you what it's like to live in the flux, to grab for certainties and have them crumble, to turn to a relationship for comfort only to discover that it has altered and comfort is no longer there. They will also show you that it is possible to hold to the ground, "when the ground keeps shifting," to forge new alliances that take the place of the old and to experience joy in what often seems an era of inconsolable grief.

An Ode to Joy on Broadway

  WITH the war on the streets of Los Angeles in a cease-fire, Americans caught their breath last week, turning to their President and their leading would-be President for insight, leadership and a plan for the future. What they got were old, relatively modest proposals and plenty of it's-not-our-fault, it's-their-fault finger-pointing.   There are times when such political bickering can be funny. If politics isn't going to be meaningful, it might as well be entertaining -- a sort of Presidential "Honeymooners." Ralph and Alice Kramden on the evening news.

Disaffection With National Leaders Sharpens in the Glare of Los Angeles

IN the wake of the dramatic reaction to the Rodney G. King verdict, marches and vigils on college campuses in Connecticut have given way to discussions among students, faculty members and administrators aimed at understanding and diminishing racism at their institutions. Specific topics have included harassment of minority students by their peers, the percentage of black professors and administrators and the need for increased financial aid. Despite attempts by colleges and universities to promote racial harmony -- including student orientation programs that attempt to reduce racism, sexism and homophobia -- students, faculty members and administrators said they still saw gaps among groups on campus that led to overt and subtle incidents.

At the University of Hartford, members of the African-American Student Association held a peaceful sit-in in the administrative offices and later engaged in a two-hour dialogue with the university president, Dr. Humphrey Tonkin. Students said they wanted to see more black professors among the faculty and voiced concern over the university's possible investment in South African companies.

After Los Angeles, Campuses Focus on Racism

THE crowd pressed closer around the circle, toward the hum of the electric shearing machine. "It takes me three minutes on the average to shear one sheep," Don Kniffen, of the agricultural college at Rutgers University, said later, "longer if there's a lot of lanolin in the wool to slow it down."

More than 3,500 people journeyed to the Fieldcrest Farm in Fairmount last month to pet lambs, buy yarn, watch spinners and weavers and consume a shepherd's lunch of soup and sandwiches. The occasion, the 18th annual gathering conducted by Harris and Betts Smith, Fieldcrest's owners, is one of a half-dozen sheep-oriented public events held annually in the state.

700 Sheep Farms Look to Scientific Breeding and Feeding

  Despite trillions of dollars spent over the years on thousands of different Government social programs, politicians and scholars are no closer to agreement today than they were a generation ago about the best ways to lift people out of poverty and make the cities better places to live.   Experts at universities and research institutes and in Government agree that if a consensus could be reached about which programs have worked, the country would embrace those solutions, regardless of cost. But enormous ideological and political differences inhibit such a consensus, and the gulf has widened in the aftermath of the riots in Los Angeles.

Concern, Cash, But No Accord On Urban Woes

  The good news, says Christine Williams, is that Chicago's residential developers appear to be holding their fire. None of the projected market-rate high-rise developments are moving into construction for the moment. The market neeeds time to absorb what is already built, she says.   Ms. Williams, vice president of the Real Estate Research Corporation, a consulting firm based here, has figures that show that new "luxury" residential construction has marched along at an average rate of 1,600 units a year over the last four years, recession notwithstanding. Five new projects with a total of 2,600 apartments have come on the market since the start of last year alone.

In Chicago, 'Terrific' Bargains for Renters

  "I AM a grown woman," June Berliner often says to herself. She was muttering it on a Friday night last month while driving from Beverly Hills to Sherman Oaks, Calif., in hot pursuit of a Chicchirichi packed in an egg carton. The night before, like a human hyena cunningly circling, she stalked the store entrance closest to the Swatch counter.    Like many so afflicted, Ms. Berliner lives in a constant state of dread, knowing that at a critical moment her sandal could get stuck in the escalator, slowing her down. "They make you want it so badly," she said.

Fueling A Frenzy: Swatch

  A cast-iron loft building at Prince and Greene Streets that was once home to an electronics manufacturer is to be rebuilt by a partnership that includes Ileana Sonnabend, an art dealer and gallery owner. The $2.5 million project has been designed by Kapell & Kostow Architects of Manhattan, following by 109 years the work of the original architect, Jarvis Morgan Slade.   "We're restoring the building, as opposed to renovating it," said the architect, Michael G. Kostow. Missing or deteriorated ornament will be replaced, including finials on the roof. Windows and storefront bays will be replaced. A fire escape on the Greene Street side will be removed and a new interior stairway will be constructed. The building systems -- elevators, sprinklers, electric service -- will be upgraded. Mr. Kostow said the work is scheduled to begin this summer and be finished next spring.

POSTINGS: New Role for SoHo Factory; Cast-Iron Loft Restoration

  Dave Magadan did not want to swing at one of Roger McDowell's nasty sinkers. That is what he told himself with two out in the ninth inning, with the score tied and runners on first and third yesterday at Shea Stadium. Just stay away from anything too low.    It would be difficult because McDowell earns his paychecks by tossing late-inning sinkers for the Dodgers and inducing grounders. Sometimes it is the only pitch he throws. McDowell threw a sinker and it was high. Then he tried another and it was outside for ball two. Eddie Murray roamed the on-deck circle as a possible pinch-hitter for the Mets. McDowell peered over at him.

Magadan Homer Sinks Dodgers

  If the numbers are not good enough, manufacture some better ones. And then sell stock.   That seems to have been the theory used by more than a few companies in the past year. The latest example of this damaging little trend surfaced at the end of last week when Fidelity Medical, a medical products company, admitted that it had overstated its sales in the most recent quarter by an immodest 50 percent or so. The chairman was booted out, and the shares plunged to $4, down 58 percent from what the company got six months ago in a public offering, part of whose proceeds went into the chairman's pocket.

Fraud Among The Buds This Spring

AROUND the time the crocuses came out and the first robins appeared, the state's last two ferries on the Connecticut River pulled out of their slips to ply the waters for another season, vestiges of another age.. 

For thousands of commuters and weekend sojourners who look to the ferries as a welcome though brief interlude from the irritations of highway travel, spring arrived April 1, when the ferries at Chester and Rocky Hill began running again. By the time the season ends on Nov. 30, the ferries will have carried 300,000 passengers, making an average of 60 trips a day, seven days a week, from early morning until dusk Each crossing takes about four minutes, just long enough to gather your thoughts.

May 10, 1992

Headlines from May 10, 1992

Of Love Hidden or Misplaced

To Our Readers

Blacks Say L.I. Problems Mirror Those in Los Angeles

Sports of The Times; Chicago Tries To Survive Bumper Pool

AMERICAN EXPORTS TO POOR COUNTRIES ARE RAPIDLY RISING

Billboard 200

Adrenalize

Wish

Totally Krossed Out

Classic Queen

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Historical Context for May 10, 1992