June 20, 1993

YOU like to think of yourself as a member in good standing of the biosphere. You recycle, now that it's the law. You try to buy organic grapes and try not to buy plastic bags. You even give money to the National Resources Defense Council, though you're a little behind on your Amicus Journals. But you and Sting see eye to eye on the rain forest, and that's important. You believe in compost as a concept, and even though you voted for Al Gore, you nodded when former Environmental President George Bush said in 1992 that buying cotton instead of synthetics would "restore America's moral fiber." No, you're not the arch-druid, but between your naked self and the world it's strictly natural fibers, right down to your briefs. You're green.

Internal auditors examining two sets of books kept by Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield have found new discrepancies showing that losses on the company's "high-risk" accounts were exaggerated by $51 million in reports filed with New York State regulators in 1989 and 1990. Last week, the company acknowledged exaggerating its losses by at least $28 million in 1991. The false reports to the state apparently started about the time Empire, the nation's largest nonprofit health insurer, began an intense lobbying campaign for sweeping changes in state insurance law. The campaign was based on the premise that Empire was unfairly burdened with high-risk customers. These were generally the oldest and sickest New Yorkers, whom the for-profit insurers were not required to take, but they also included self-employed people and others who could not get insurance elsewhere.

At a time when low occupancy and low room rates have made many New York hotel owners wish they could leave the business, Delmonico's Hotel, on Park Avenue and 59th Street, is getting back in. Delmonico's, built as a 550-room hotel in 1929 and converted to a 170-unit apartment building in 1972, has spent $5 million to reinvent itself again, this time as a 130-suite hotel. "You can still earn more on a hotel than on an apartment building," said Joseph Kaminski, the 28-year-old general manager of Delmonico's, which is owned by Elizabeth Kleinhans.

THERE are nights Harold Thomas lies in bed, kept awake by the words that still scream through his head, words he heard for years over the paging system at the Miller Brewing Company plant in Fulton, N.Y. A production supervisor in the packaging department, Mr. Thomas has no idea whose voice it was, calling him: "Harold, the . . . ape, Thomas." But by early 1991, he had grown so distraught that a psychiatrist advised him to take a leave. Upon his return almost a year later, a voice rang out over the paging system, "Welcome back, Harold, but you're still a nigger."

AS the classroom day drew to a close recently at the Morris Street Elementary School in Danbury, Karen Miller's kindergarten was the scene of controlled chaos. Twenty children scrambled for their backpacks, grabbed a last-minute snack of green grapes and lined up at the door. But Ms. Miller's duties did not end when she walked her boisterous charges to the lobby. Fifteen minutes later, she had an appointment across the street for a parent-teacher conference at Ashley Harvey's house. The girl's parents, Robert and Jo Harvey, ushered Ms. Miller into their living room, where Ashley settled into her mother's lap on the sofa. The adults discussed Ashley's anxiety about leaving her mother in the morning, her growing interest in spelling and her readiness for first grade. Before leaving, Ms. Miller read Ashley the story "City Mouse, Country Mouse." Such visits are not unusual for Ms. Miller and two other kindergarten teachers at Morris Street. They are participating in an innovative program in the Danbury schools that aims to increase parental involvement, as well as providing more full-day kindergartens and preventing older students from dropping out. Over the last nine months, Ms. Miller has visited all her students' homes at least once. Sometimes she brings an interpreter; many parents are immigrants from the Dominican Republic, South America and Asia. Although most students walk to the neighborhood school, parents seem happier to meet the teacher on their own turf. "School doesn't seem to have happy memories for them," Ms. Miller said. Last year, after being designated by the General Assembly as one of 12 urban priority districts, Danbury received $1 million from the state for the current school year, to try to reduce the number of students who drop out. The other priority districts are Bridgeport, Hartford, Meriden, New Britain, New Haven, New London, Norwalk, Norwich, Stamford, Waterbury and Windham. The state program manager, Carol Chapin, said that the districts were given a total of $10 million for 1992-93, and that legislators budgeted $11 million for 1993-94. District officials were required to develop three-year programs, with grants to be determined annually. Previously, the choice of priority districts was based on test scores and the number of children from families on welfare. In Danbury, only one child in nine comes from a welfare home. But the new rules automatically included the state's eight largest cities, based on the 1990 census. Smaller districts are eligible for aid if they have large numbers of children from families on welfare.

The unveil ing of a new basketball monument call it Beyond Magic -- was sabotaged Friday night in Chicago. When the curtain was raised, there stood the intruder, with the maniacally comic veneer of Jack Nicholson and an eerily familiar message. "Heeeere's Chuckie," roared Charles Barkley.

De Klerk Seeks Black Vote President F. W. de Klerk of South Africa began a campaign for votes from blacks, saying it symbolized his party's rebirth as a rainbow coalition of peaceful moderates. Page 10. U.S. Captured Soviet A-Arms

One nice thing about being a Wall Street underwriter is that mostly you get to sell what investors are dying to have. These days, that is a category that includes junk bonds and real estate investment trusts. At its best, the job of the lead underwriter is to decide which eager buyers will be allowed to hand over their money. But sometimes underwriters must sell what buyers don't covet. That is when they earn their living, as Morgan Stanley is doing now in trying to sell the new food stock that RJR Nabisco announced in March. The offering is due late this week.

AS it turns out, Mastercard International isn't leaving Manhattan after all. Instead, the fast-growing interbank organization, which has been bursting out of its headquarters space at 888 Seventh Avenue, at 53d Street, will spread out across some 350,000 square feet at 1345 Avenue of the Americas, the old Burlington House at 55th Street. New York City gets to keep 450 jobs now and a promise of more than double that number before the decade is out. Mastercard gets as much space as it needs at an excellent price, gets its name on the door of a Class A building in central Manhattan and doesn't have to put any employees through the enervating process of relocating.

By reducing its quarters from three buildings to one, the Hetrick-Martin Institute in Manhattan is going to be doubling its space. The 14-year-old institute, which offers education, counseling and support services to lesbian and gay teen-agers, plans to move this fall into 17,000 square feet on the third floor of 10 Astor Place, at Lafayette Street. As part of the institute, the Harvey Milk School will move to Astor Place from its current home at 401 West Street. The institute's other programs and offices are operated at 24 Horatio Street and 80 Eighth Avenue.

AFTER seven holes in Thursday's first round of the United States Open at Baltusrol, Tom Watson was already four over par. But walking to the eighth tee, a voice said reassuringly, "We were four over in the first round at Pebble Beach, too." We.

When Cuban refugees began arriving here 30 years ago, Ruth Page was working as a seamstress in a tailoring and cleaning shop, and she says she had no strong feelings one way or another about the Spanish-speaking people. But when she lost her job to a Cuban, her attitude changed. Now Mrs. Page remains resentful,and worried about the still-growing Hispanic presence in Miami. So when the Dade County Commission met last month to consider abandoning a requirement that all county business be conducted in English, she was one of several black Miami residents who attended the meeting to speak out.