November 24, 1994

AFTER a rough start to a rough morning, Ntozake Shange is settling down. She has been ill all night and still does not feel well. She's grumpy at being asked to meet at her home instead of at a restaurant and annoyed that a photographer showed up 10 minutes early. But Ms. Shange, the playwright and poet whose play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf" was a hit of the 1976-77 Broadway season, has a new novel to talk about, so she puts all that aside and turns on her charm. Extending a manicured hand, she reintroduces herself. "Let's start again," she says. "Hi. I'm Zake." Then she pours everyone a cup of amaretto coffee and, heading toward the bathroom, announces that she will return once her makeup is applied.

WITH her June Allyson-style blond bob and don't-dawdle gait, Irene Bender wears her 74 years lightly. She still swings a mean golf club. "But whether anyone would consider it 'playing' is debatable," she said with a self-deprecating laugh. This week, so that her daughters and sons-in-law can "play their games and drink their cocktails," Mrs. Bender will have a Thanksgiving sleep-over in her newly renovated house. The guests? Her five grandchildren, who range in age from 3 to 9 years. "She's a zippy broad," said Mrs. Bender's daughter Barbara Flanagan, a general contractor and architecture critic. "But eventually, everybody slows down."

Senator Dole's agreement with President Clinton on GATT raises a possibility that when the Republicans take over Congress, gridlock may not necessarily be inevitable. News analysis, page A29.

COUNCIL CREATES AGENCY TO WATCH POLICE The New York City Council voted to create the first permanent, independent agency to monitor corruption in the Police Department. The agency would have far more investigative powers than Mayor Giuliani had wanted. A1. D'AMATO ALLY HEADS PATAKI TRANSITION Governor-elect Pataki named Joseph N. Mondello, the Nassau County Republican leader and a loyal ally of Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, as chairman of his transition team. A1.

For 30 years, Manfred G. Bass has dreamed up and guided the creation of the balloons and floats of Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It is the only job Mr. Bass, a 59-year-old artist, has ever held, and the only one he ever really wanted. "It's a work of love," he said, as he matter-of-factly fastened his official metal parade badge to his canvas overalls with industrial rivets, as always. "It's what makes the world go round. They're all giant toys, you know?"