October 31, 1993

MAKING IT WORK 3 Each night, Vera Kitt and six fellow travelers board an outcast train. Their mission: to clean the subway tracks. NEW YORKERS & CO. 4 Amid loud music and cheap beer, a bar owner prowls his empire, where everyone knows his name. PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 15 North Carolina in Gramercy Park; the Far East in Flushing Meadows. MOVIE CLOCK 16 What's showing at the local movie houses, today through Thursday. GOOD EATING 18 Ethnic Pleasures, Elmhurst to Astoria: when you crave a good parrillada, a tasty taramosalata, or a vibrant hummus. SOAPBOX 21 Four ordinary New Yorkers discuss the mayoral candidates, the issues and life in the city. Plus, "Eye of the Beholder."

A little song, a little dance, a little pesto on your pants. It is lunch time at Frank's Pizza in Port Washington, where the zingers are as pungent and plentiful as the garlic. Although it serves arguably the best pizzeria food in town, there is more to Frank's than meets the eye or the palate.

GEORGE M. C. FISHER flunked one major test of chief executive leadership last week: that of managing a graceful transition of power. Motorola Inc., its customers and competitors, and Wall Street were all stunned by the announcement Wednesday that the 52-year-old scientist-turned-manager was leaving the prospering electronics giant immediately to take over the helm at the embattled Eastman Kodak Company. Mr. Fisher left Motorola with a number of high-stakes initiatives hanging fire. The company's PowerPC microprocessor, jointly developed with I.B.M. and Apple Computer at a cost of over $1 billion to challenge the Intel Corporation's hammerlock on microchips for personal computers, is just beginning production. Iridium, its plan to build and launch 66 satellites to create a telephone network in the sky, is in its formative stages. And Motorola is wrestling with the need in most of its businesses to become more global, more deeply involved in consumer markets and more skilled in software design.

JOE the Jet fan had come home too late once too often. His roommate, Elizabeth, was steaming. "I've had enough!" she roared. "I'm throwing you out of this house right this minute."

BRINGING a final cease-fire to an election season marked by fiercely fought negative campaigns, Long Island voters will cast ballots on Tuesday to fill top elected positions and dozens of lesser posts in Nassau and Suffolk. If past patterns hold, only about half of registered voters will go to the polls in a year when no Federal or statewide offices are at stake. Polls in both counties will be open from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M.