September 19, 1994

If the Giants ever get in a crunch at quarterback, if Dave Brown for some reason gets knocked out of the game, the Giants should just line up little David Meggett and let him throw deep. Why not? In two seasons against the Washington Redskins, Meggett has thrown three passes -- all touchdowns. Who is that Montana guy again? The Redskins have been like that person who always falls for the practical joke no matter how obvious it is or how many times he's been suckered before. Last season, Meggett threw two touchdown passes on two attempts -- both on trick plays, halfback options to be specific. Then, today, the Giants, going for a 3-0 start, went back to the bag of tricks again.

That Jimmy Carter had a place on center stage in the final act of President Clinton's end game with Haitian leaders was a last-minute improvisation. Mr. Clinton had always intended to send one last emissary to persuade Haiti's military leaders to step down voluntarily, his aides said today. But it was only late last week, as he stood on the brink of an unpopular military operation, that Mr. Clinton decided to accept Mr. Carter's offer that he head the team that would try one last time to find a peaceful way out.

The fevered days of autumn have descended heavily upon the farmers of Russia. An unusually cold summer stunted their crops and late rains nearly washed them away. Now the frosts are only a few weeks off, and if they come any sooner the nation will suffer its worst harvest in three decades. "A lot in our country depends on the weather this autumn," Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin told a German television reporter recently, voicing the common concern that a particularly poor harvest will hasten the effects of an already visible farm crisis. "What happens in the fields also has its effect on the political climate."

President Clinton said tonight that the United States and Haiti's military leaders had reached a last-minute agreement to allow the ruling junta to step down voluntarily by Oct. 15 and then restore the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide as President. "This is a good agreement for the United States and for Haiti," Mr. Clinton said in a nationally televised address from the Oval Office at 9:30 P.M.

The candidate to watch in the California governor's race, the most important state election in the country this year, is None of the Above. Officially, the polls show that Pete Wilson, the stolid Republican incumbent, has taken the lead after a slow start, again demonstrating that he is the California master of the confound-the-experts political surge.

Network television begins its most turbulent season tonight. Prosperous though it is, the industry is shaken by upheaval at the local-station level, widespread changes in program schedules, intensifying competition for viewers and unnerving uncertainty about the ownership of at least one and perhaps more of the big three networks. "Chaos is a word you can apply," David F. Poltrack, executive vice president of CBS, said. "It is certainly going to be the most atypical season we've ever had."

Even with the apparent success of 11th-hour diplomacy in Haiti, American troops are to enter the country to pave the way for what the Clinton Administration considers one of the most crucial jobs: stopping reprisals and assassinations that officials fear will take place whether the coup leaders are forced out in an invasion or step down in negotiations. Loath to see American soldiers caught in a crossfire between supporters of the military and those of the deposed President, the Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Administration officials hope to hand off responsibility for law and order to an international police force of at least 4,000. The plan is to deploy the force just days after either an invasion or the voluntary resignation of Haiti's junta.

His places in Malibu and Park City, Utah, have been sold. So have the Los Angeles Kings hockey team he made a symbol of modern sports marketing, the Toronto Argonauts football team and the prize-winning race horses. The New York apartment and the Boeing 727 are in foreclosure, and the coin company that brought him a fortune in the 1970's went broke in May. Bruce P. McNall's fall has come fast and hard, mystifying his Hollywood friends, leaving bankruptcy lawyers and Federal investigators to sort through a tangle of assets and ending a tale of international intrigue and empire building as grand as any from the 1980's.

Veronica O'Rourke said her family's television viewing choices have long been a simple matter. "You've got three channels and you watch whatever one comes in that day," she said. The place with almost no television suddenly had as much as just about anybody in the world, with the added bonus of perfect reception -- and all free for the first three months. Arietta, a sprawling "town" of nearly 500 square miles peopled by 301 scattered souls, about 70 miles northwest of Albany, had become a company's demonstration site for a television technology that beams signals into individual homes by means of umbrella-sized satellite reception dishes.

So they're not perfect. In fact, the Jets, who had jumped off to a 2-0 season, gaining confidence and fan support, were a thoroughly beaten team today. They bowed to the surprisingly strong and undefeated Dolphins, 28-14.

Unbeholden to municipal unions like few mayors before him, Rudolph W. Giuliani strode into office talking tough to labor. He vowed to scale back New York City's municipal payroll and, perhaps most threatening of all to the unions, to put an end to work rules he derided as archaic. Now, after nine months as Mayor, Mr. Giuliani has put together a remarkable string of successes in his dealings with labor. And yet he has done so less by confrontation than by a more subtle form of persuasion.

Companies Since Borden agreed to be acquired by Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts, the anger of shareholders has deepened. Borden has had financial problems for years. Shareholders have been critical of management, and news of the deal did little to change minds. [ Page D1. ]