October 22, 1994

David Treadwell, the Giants' place-kicker, laughs when he talks about the strange things kickers can do to balls in the National Football League. One recipe calls for the brand-new Wilson balls to be baked like pizzas in an oven and another for the balls to be tumbled in a dryer like a load of laundry. The point is to make kicking easier and the ball travel farther. "I've heard about guys putting the ball in a sauna," Treadwell said this week. "Some guys would take weights and drop them on the ball to soften it. It's ridiculous the extent some kickers will go through to work the football."

Saying it might cost her re-election, Senator Dianne Feinstein today declared her opposition to a hotly disputed California ballot proposal aimed at stemming the flood of illegal immigrants across the state's southern border. "It raises state and Federal constitutional issues and makes no provision whatsoever to deport illegal aliens and reduce their number," the Democratic Senator said of the proposal, which on Thursday won the support of Representative Michael Huffington, her Republican challenger in a closely contested race.

A visitor to this well-informed and well-heeled hamlet, where party affiliations stand in near balance, might wonder these days if the Democrats are the women and the Republicans are the men they married. Men talk passionately about taxes and the business climate, many saying Gov. Mario M. Cuomo has been bad for both. Women talk passionately about education and abortion rights, many saying they don't trust State Senator George E. Pataki.

A Selloff in G.M. Stock General Motors stock continued to slide after a week of setbacks for the company, including a big loss in North America. The stock fell 12 percent in two days. Page 39. Houston Spill Continues Thousands of gallons of oil from the rupture of at least two major pipelines have spilled into the waters near flooded Houston. Page 8. Golf Greens Gouging Asia Booming economies across Asia have led to a rush to build golf courses on some of the last stretches of Asian wilderness. Page 3.

President Clinton said today that he would travel to Damascus during his trip to the Middle East next week to coax Syria toward peace with Israel, despite concerns that he would risk criticism for visiting a country linked to terrorism. At a news conference in which he vigorously defended the Administration's foreign and domestic policies, Mr. Clinton said he was going to the Middle East because it was important "to stand with our friends at this moment when they're standing up for peace and the enemies of peace are trying to derail them."