July 30, 1993

THERE is no accounting for taste. Particularly one's own. This bittersweet revelation came to me unexpectedly while walking along the beach at Gurney's Inn Resort and Spa in Montauk, L.I. Experience told me that Gurney's, a splendid pile of a resort constructed like an ocean liner, wasn't my kind of place. But love is unpredictable.

On Fridays, television and radio news and listings now appear at the end of section D, with Home Video. Today, pages D15-16.

President Clinton's national service bill tonight appeared headed for passage after three Senate Republicans abandoned their party's filibuster of the legislation and a fourth said he would join them. Senator Bill Cohen of Maine had voted earlier today with his party when it defeated cloture, a motion to end debate, by a single vote. But tonight he said of the Democrats, "They are going to get cloture, and I'll vote for it."

Killing linked to Washington and Japan, from Crichton novel. Slick but tangled.

The flowers were fake, the books borrowed and the stiff poses could have been from "Family Feud." But the faux homey set on a White House stage had a real political purpose: to give a human dimension to President Clinton's fight for an economic plan that is being derided as taxing and spending. Arrayed in awkward tableaux on sofas, love seats and chairs were three families who described themselves as both working and poor. With coaxing from the President and his wife, Hillary, the families spoke in poignant terms about how a Federal tax credit was helping them escape the depths of poverty.