January 15, 1995

THE LIGHTS BURN NEARLY ROUND THE clock in Suite 1200 of the Marathon Building, on the southeast corner of Paramount Pictures' back lot. Down a lost corridor is a white metal door and a sign that reads "1200," nothing more. Inside is a jumble of offices and work stations that smell of today's Thai takeout and yesterday's pizza. Clusters of people locked in intense discussions move along the few narrow walkways like human bumper cars. But there is laughter, and status updates are likely to be shouted across the nearest partition rather than written as memos. The task at hand is the creation of United Paramount, a new broadcast television network that was but an idea 18 months ago.

Not like a lion, not like a lamb, more like a slug: winter is arriving inchmeal in the New York City region. But people seem determined not to be caught off guard this time. They were out buying fleece-lined boots in August and snow blowers before Halloween. Towns shipped in road salt early and often. Sleds, snowshoes and neoprene masks are selling briskly, store owners say.

"Congressional reform" may be the most overused oxymoron since "loyal opposition," but there has been a staggering amount of change on Capitol Hill in the 10 days since the 104th Congress convened. It is not just the new rules, or a new agenda in which cutting welfare replaces expanding health care. It is not even that Republicans are in charge of both houses. After all, it has been only 40 years since that last happened.

A MUD puddle transformed my relationship with the Land Rover Defender 90. A pool of water on an off-road driving course known as "the Mounds" near here appeared only a few inches deep as I approached it in the four-wheel-drive Defender 90 sport-utility vehicle. I shifted into the lower of its two gear ranges and engaged the differential lock for maximum traction. I held the accelerator constant.

With more than half of California declared a disaster area after the punch of a 10-day storm, water experts are questioning why this state remains stuck in a predictable cycle: devastation in a known flood area, followed by Federal relief, then rebuilding in the same places. Today, the storms for the most part started to abate after causing 11 deaths and more than $300 million in damage. Thirty-four of California's 58 counties have been declared Federal disaster areas.