March 12, 1995

He was the lone wolf of tennis. And in a way he still is. In the years before the best tournaments were opened, in 1968, to the best pros, Richard (Pancho) Gonzalez was the best tennis player on what was known as the "pro tour," opposing Rod Laver, Lew Hoad or Ken Rosewall in Madison Square Garden occasionally but more often appearing in one-night stands in dimly lighted arenas and armories all over America.

WHEN he ran for Mayor of Glen Cove two years ago Thomas R. Suozzi railed against the municipal incinerator, calling it a "fiscal and environmental time bomb." Now that he is Mayor, he is doing all that he can to make sure that the incinerator does not reopen. The incinerator was closed in August 1991 by order of the State Department of Environmental Conservation because its emissions exceeded state regulations.

THE GOWNS SHIMMER. THE STRAUSS WALTZ begins. The figures sweep across the dance floor. The music suggests a world of heedless frivolity. But then the camera closes in. The faces of the dancers are swollen, gashed, suppurating, bloody. The thin smiles of the women dissolve into scars; the music dissolves into discord. "Everything spins in a circle," says the Croatian director Lordan Zafranovic, who narrates this troubling scene from "Decline of the Century," his epic 1993 documentary on Balkan bloodshed. "The sky, the earth, the sun and moon, people, and the waltz. So do sickness and humanity, interweaving."

OVER a lifetime of accomplishment, Henry Wittenberg became an Olympic wrestling champion, decorated police officer, college professor, bird-watcher and fitness expert. But he wouldn't give professional wrestling a tumble. "I was a wrestler," he said. "I wasn't an actor. To my knowledge, professional wrestling hasn't been legitimate since about 1910."

A NEW Rolls-Royce entered the world last week, trailing Wordsworthian clouds of superlatives: The Bentley Azure is the biggest, heaviest, most expensive convertible in the world. And, save for the new Ferrari F50 roadster threatening to upstage it in Palexpo Hall, the site of the Geneva Auto Show, the Azure is the most powerful open-top car in production, with 390 thoroughbred horses under the hood and more than 550 foot-pounds of torque.