May 30, 1993

JOHN C. MALONE'S personal life has all the markings of a more genteel, slower time. Most days, he drives home from the office for lunch. And each year about this time, he leaves the Denver area to spend the summer at his retreat in Maine or on his sailboat. He usually makes the long trip to Maine by car because his wife, Leslie, does not like to fly. But in his business life, as head of Tele-Communications Inc., Dr. Malone is anything but genteel. "This is not touch football, this is tackle," he said in a recent interview in his office here. And he is almost always the fastest player on the field.

People who live in glass houses shouldn't draw crowds. At least, that's the feeling of planning officials in New Canaan, Conn., where the architect Philip Johnson last week decided that the next building he would put up on the bucolic estate centered on his famous Glass House would be used as a pottery gallery rather than a visitors' pavilion, as had been previously announced. Daniel A. Foley, the New Canaan Town Planner, said that a former member of the Planning and Zoning Board had informally contacted a National Trust for Historic Preservation official recently to convey concerns about traffic and parking problems that might be created if a visitors' pavilion were built on the property.

Bob Jones University, nestled here in the South Carolina hill country, is all butter-yellow buildings bordered by purple magnolia blossoms and a fountain sparkling with pink and blue-lighted spumes; the paint-box colors belie a serious house on serious earth. In a classroom where 20 female students sat recently, Bibles and notebooks stacked neatly before them, facing half a dozen headless dress forms draped in deft knockoffs of Todd Oldham and Donna Karan, Prof. Diane Hay of the home economics department was teaching one of her popular "safe beauty classes." Like all B.J.U. classes, this one begins with prayer. Mrs. Hay -- 61, tall, slender and elegant -- invoked God to help the girls absorb the lecture and guide them to ideal careers. Then she held up the image consultants' bible: "Dress for Success" by John T. Malloy. "I know you're familiar with this book," she said, "but what I want to talk about today is God's dress-for-success program."

Home again, it were as if the Bulls opened bottles of vintage red and white yesterday, and toasted championship teams of seasons past. It was in with the wine, out with the whine. By the time Michael Jordan scored a field goal in the first quarter today, the Bulls had a 13-point lead against the Knicks. By the end of the first half, Jordan had made two baskets and was still the most dominant player on the court. He had 9 assists and 12 free throws. By the end, Jordan had missed 15 of his 18 shots and the Bulls still breezed to a 103-83 victory. So much for the notion that he scores 50 or the Bulls don't beat the Knicks.

A proud team that had been criticized and scrutinized came crashing down on the Knicks today. And the Knicks cracked under the strain. Making a strong statement that they are far from finished, the Chicago Bulls pounded the Knicks, 103-83, this afternoon at Chicago Stadium in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference championship series. The victory cut the Knicks' edge to 2-1 in the four-of-seven-game series, with Game 4 to be played here Monday afternoon.