January 17, 1993

A PLAN to protect ground water in nine areas covering about one-quarter of Long Island has moved to the center of the two decades of debate about limiting development over potable supplies. The plan, required by the Sole Source Aquifer Protection Act of 1987, a state law, was prepared by the Long Island Regional Planning Board and submitted to the State Environmental Conservation Department for approval in August. Environmentalists called the proposal insufficient, and developers said it was overly restrictive.

Any discussion of successful active quarterbacks in the National Football League invariably leads to the mention of Buffalo's Jim Kelly and Miami's Dan Marino. Talk about the best group of quarterbacks ever to enter the league at one time and the class of 1983, in which six quarterbacks were taken in the first round, is at the top of the list. Marino and Kelly are members of that group, as are John Elway of Denver, Ken O'Brien of the Jets, Tony Eason, who was selected by New England, and Todd Blackledge, who was chosen by Kansas City.

THE prospect of creating 5,000 jobs for the ailing Long Island construction industry has rekindled the drive to eliminate six Long Island Rail Road grade crossings in Mineola along what may be the deadliest one-mile stretch of track on the Island. Fifteen people have been killed in 14 accidents at the six crossings in the last 10 years, according to a spokesman for the L.I.R.R., Sam Zambuto. Among those was the railroad's worst crossing accident, on March 14, 1982, when nine teen-agers were killed by a train that ran into their van.

The restoration of the Moore Building in Oyster Bay, L.I., which housed Theodore Roosevelt's summer White House staff, has just about been completed. Work, which began in April after a storm damaged the home a few months earlier, included reconstructing cornices, restoring dormers and replacing, matching, customizing and cutting slates for the roof. The brick on the outside of the home was also repointed, and the paint on the outside was removed to show the original brick -- rose-red on the first floor and white on the second.

In a country whose new President imitates Elvis, it may well be time to pay homage to doo-wop. After all, Elvis and doo-wop started out at the same time to a like mixture of teen idolatry and adult approbation. Doo-wop's most resonant star, Frankie Lymon of the Bronx, sang with the passion of his tenement streets as much as Elvis embodied Memphis. And Lymon led a life even more drug-filled and tormented than the King and, not incidentally, died every bit as prematurely. But Elvis achieved sainthood, while Frankie Lymon's grave remained unmarked for years. Big surprise.

In a country riven by ethnic, religious and linguistic conflicts, Afghanistan's unity has always been precariously forged. Now, with the appearance of powerful regional leaders and the enfeeblement of the Government in Kabul, the partitioning of the country into three autonomous territories is becoming a fact of life. The disintegration of the country is evident in this northern city, where a former militia leader backed by two of Afghanistan's many ethnic groups controls the nation's strongest military force and is establishing virtually a separate state. The Uzbeks and Tajiks who support him make up about one-third of Afghanistan's 16.5 million people. Competition for Influence A second region, in the south and the east, is inhabited mainly by Pathans, who form nearly half of the country's population and who have traditionally dominated Afghan politics. That area includes the capital, Kabul.

WHEN you're in Melvin Reich's beat-up shop and just sort of gazing at the people lined up, you see a lot of clothing that seems to have nothing in common but actually does. The other afternoon there was an indigo dress, an ocher pair of pants, a woman's bright-orange coat that you had to wonder who would wear, a lime shirt and a tiny lavender sweater that was probably for someone no more than about 3. Try to get into any of these items and it would be awkward. They were without buttonholes. That alone was why they were here. "C'mon, move it up," Mr. Reich said. "You're looking awfully nice today. How you feeling?"

WHEN Manny Cardona came to Bridgeport 12 years ago, he had few prospects but many dreams. He had been a teacher in Puerto Rico and could not find a teaching job in Connecticut. But soon he met Cesar Batalla, the head of the Puerto Rican Coalition in Bridgeport, who had a feeling Mr. Cardona could work well with troubled young men. Mr. Batalla helped him land a job running a program for high school dropouts, and from there Mr. Cardona went on to direct a program for teen-age fathers at the Bridegport Y.M.C.A. that has received national acclaim and serves as a model in other cities. Last year, when Hillary Clinton visited the state, she dropped in on Mr. Cardona and the fathers, some as young as 13 and 14, whom he works with.

APARTMENT prices in New York City fell, for the most part, in 1992, but the overall rate of decline appeared to be smaller than in the last two years. There was a small increase in average prices for large, high-end properties in prime neighborhoods, but a steep drop among studios and one-bedroom co-ops, most condominiums and units in marginal areas. The easing in the overall rate of decline may indicate, according to many local brokers, that the plunge in prices that began in 1988 may have bottomed out. To be sure, this isn't the first time that brokers have heralded the end of the city's residential real estate recession. In the early months of 1991 and 1992, many of them predicted, incorrectly, that prices had reached their nadir and would soon rise.

Rising 53 stories out of the recession, comes the latest and tallest test of the emerging midtown market in Atlanta, an audacious $94 million Art Deco tower offering a bit of everything at Tiffany prices. The GLG Grand, completed this month by the Swedish developer G. Lars Gullstedt, amounts to a trial run for his plan for a mixed-use development, including a hotel, residential and commercial space, on 11 city blocks in the center of midtown.

If you want to change behavior, tax it. That, in its simplest form, is the case for taxing consumption, rather than income. "As a nation, we have been consuming too much and investing too little," Roger Altman, the nominee for deputy Treasury secretary, said at his confirmation hearing last week. "We're going to have to move in the direction of some new consumption tax."

THE vicious storm in December that produced huge waves pushed by hurricanelike winds destroyed 30 more houses along Dune Road and breached the barrier island at two points, creating inlets 500 feet and 300 feet wide. Of the smaller inlet, which continues to grow, Southampton Town Supervisor Fred W. Thiele Jr. said: "It's getting wider every day just from the tides, and we really don't know when the widening will stop. We're witnessing a dynamic of nature and what's happening right now is beyond our control."