June 5, 1992

Polish Cabinet Dismissed The Polish Parliament dismissed the Government after Interior Ministry officials distributed a list of reputed Communist collaborators. Page A7. Health Care Compromise The judge who struck down New Jersey's way of financing health care for the poor offered to back off if state officials stepped in. Page B1. Budget Woes in Trenton First, New Jersey learned its budget gap wasn't so bad. Then, it learned its bond rating might be worse. Page B4. A Trade Crisis Averted An 11th-hour agreement provided ways for the U.S. to increase its sales of computer chips in Japan. Page D1. Love Me Slender The people have spoken. They prefer the younger, slimmer Elvis as the image on a new stamp, and the Postal Service will comply. Page A10.

CERTAINLY it's no secret that literature begets more literature. "Ulysses" would not exist without "The Odyssey." "Mourning Becomes Electra" would not exist without the Oresteia. The Greek legend of Pygmalion, told in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," was retold by John Marston and W. S. Gilbert before it was immortalized by George Bernard Shaw and, more recently, transformed into "My Fair Lady" and "Pretty Woman." "Romeo and Juliet" begat "West Side Story." And even "The Honeymooners" helped give birth to "The Flintstones."

The Bush Administration's multibillion-dollar assistance package for Russia is stalled in Congress, as election-year politics and the Los Angeles riots have sapped much of the enthusiasm for the foreign aid legislation. Both Administration and Congressional leaders say the bill will not be passed before President Boris N. Yeltsin's meeting with President Bush on June 15 -- as Mr. Bush had requested in April -- and that they do not know when, or if, it will be approved.

When a share of Pennzoil is purchased, the buyer gets effective ownership of Chevron stock worth nearly $59, plus a stake in Pennzoil's businesses. But Pennzoil trades for less than $50 a share. Does that mean that the market thinks the rest of the company built by J. Hugh Liedtke is worthless? Not exactly, but it is clear that Wall Street has big doubts that the Pennzoil Company will ever realize much benefit from its stake in the Chevron Corporation.

ANARCHY reigns at the local multiplex. People talk with impunity. They comment. They narrate. They respond. They exhort. They laugh too hard and sigh too heavily. They slurp sodas, munch on four-course box lunches, jingle their pocket change and crinkle cellophane candy wrappers. These cultural criminals view silence as an opportunity to gossip about their friends, provide their very own dialogue or introduce actors as they appear on screen. "That's Robert Redford. . . . That's Robert Duvall. . . . Oooh, that's Glenn Close," one astute woman shared with me while watching "The Natural." She was suffering from Army Archerd's Virus, a malady contracted from overexposure to the Hollywood columnist's long-winded Oscar-night star introductions.