April 17, 1994

Recently, a spate of scientific articles has appeared on the subject of beauty. Evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists, it seems, are hot on the trail of proof that there are geometric features in a woman's face that may be universally perceived as beautiful, and that a man's ability to perceive this beauty and appreciate it may be a matter of natural selection. Just when women thought they were escaping the tyranny of appearance, now this. But that's the bad news. The good news is in what the scientists mean by beauty. And they are only talking about female beauty; studies of male appearance are not yet complete.

APRIL Tyler opened an interest-bearing checking account at Chemical Bank eight years ago, and now has thousands of dollars in an individual retirement account there, too. But the relationship took a nose dive last month when Chemical announced that it was closing 50 branches, doubling the minimum balance required for "free checking" and sharply increasing fees for checking accounts that fail to make the cutoff. For Ms. Tyler, the changes mean a choice of tying up $7,500 between her two accounts or paying at least $9.50 a month in extra charges.

FOR about 18 months, the police in New York have been cracking down on people who drive into Manhattan to make drug purchases and then head back home to the suburbs. Officers have not only arrested people as suspected drug buyers but also seized dozens of cars, most of which have turned out to be registered in New Jersey. So now, the police say, many determined drug buyers from New Jersey have started doing what other commuters do who are wary about driving into New York. They are taking buses and trains.

The advertisement for a secretary in a Moscow newspaper listed computer skills, typing, English and German as necessary qualifications. It also specified that applicants should be 18 to 25, 5 foot 7 and have long hair. "There will be a contest," it said. The advertisement was just one of scores placed every day that list youth and sex appeal as job requirements. It was also among the more courtly. Some Russian employers include another prerequisite in their advertisements: "bez kompleksov," or "without inhibitions." Everyone in Russia knows what that means.

A British jet-fighter trying to strike against Serbian tanks that were attacking the besieged city of Gorazde was shot down today, apparently by a Serbian surface-to-air missile, United Nations spokesmen said here tonight. The abortive air strike, part of a last-ditch attempt to save Gorazde from falling to the Serbs, came in response to Serbian tank attacks on the city's center today. Among other targets, the Serbian artillery struck a local hospital, injuring several patients and prompting United Nations officials to threaten immediate air strikes unless the Serbs held their fire, a spokesman, Maj. Dacre Holloway, said.