August 20, 1995

It was in the middle of a war in an impoverished peasant country that Prisoner No. 3597 was first arrested, tortured and locked up in a closet-sized cell. This week Prisoner No. 3597 was finally freed, exactly 43 years and 10 months from the day he was imprisoned, after earning the unhappy status of the world's longest-serving known political prisoner. He recovered his old name, Kim Sun Myung, and faced a changed world.

I DID not come here only for the waters; I wanted to sight Salman Rushdie, Michael Jackson, Marvin Davis's chair. I wanted an authentic Hamptons experience of my own, perhaps in an air-conditioned limo on the way to a scorching beach, instead of just reading about it in the gossip columns while waiting for a refrigerated subway car on a microwaved platform. "You really think Rushdie was here?" asked the best-connected person I know here. This was on the phone.

MAKING IT WORK 3 Hope Cooke, the former Queen of Sikkim, deciphers the secret codes of the landscape of New York. NEW YORKERS & CO. 4 In Ridgewood, the Street Gang Barber Shop makes a killing in hair design. (Tasmanian Devil, anyone?) MOVIE CLOCK 12 What's showing at the local movie houses, today through Thursday. PLAYING IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD 14 Andean Bears in Flushing; New York's network of bridges at the Transit Museum; the jazz saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera. GOOD EATING 14 A tour of SoHo; the serene Honmura An; the colorful Barolo. SOAPBOX 15 "You're my daughter": the tale of a bus stop. And letters.

A STEPHANIE MILLS song washes over the room's exposed brick walls as clusters of denim-clad people strain to be heard over the din. Every bar stool is occupied, every corner clogged, forcing people headed upstairs to the dining room to navigate the crush. The Shark Bar on a typical Friday night.

IT is the busy season on the green in Litchfield. Tourists and residents alike crowd the business district with its Colonial revival brick facades and flowering window boxes as they go about their errands, shop in upscale clothing stores, art galleries and antiques shops, or pop into one of several restaurants for a leisurely meal. But halfway down West Street, there is one building that looks out of place. At the Litchfield County Agricultural Center, built in 1890, the flower boxes are barren, the paint is peeling off the white pillars and the faded orange drapes open onto empty rooms. A handwritten sign on the door says: "Cooperative Extension has moved." Visitors are directed to a new location some 10 miles away. For many in the town of 7,365 in the Northwest Corner, the forlorn building represents a threshold. Officers of the Greater Litchfield Preservation Trust, a group that purchased the building last year, expected to sign a 10-year lease with Talbots, the women's clothing store chain based in Hingham, Mass., late last week. There are no chain stores on the green now. The town's few such stores are about a half mile away in newer shopping plazas.

EVERY two years the Democrats say they're going to do it -- and the Republicans say they won't. Historically, the Republicans have been correct. The differing opinion is over which party will capture the County Board of Legislators. When Westchester voters go to the polls on Nov. 7, they will not have countywide elections to determine, other than in judicial races that usually draw little attention. But what they decide in the 17 individual county legislative races will determine whether -- as has been the case for more than 30 years, since the Board was created -- the Republicans will control the Board.

Mike Tyson's return to the ring tonight lasted less than a round as he halted the enthusiastic and inexperienced Peter McNeeley on a compassionate disqualification. The end came after only 1 minute 29 seconds and followed his second knockdown, when McNeeley's manager, Vinny Vecchione, jumped into the ring to halt the bout. The confused McNeeley got up and started to run around the ring, not believing this madcap week of fun was over.

Echoes of Bronx Shooting The fatal shooting of two Bronx men in January has been kept alive by gnawing questions of why the police fired so many shots, particularly into the victims' backs. Page 35. How Much School Fat? Mayor Giuliani wants less bureaucracy in New York City schools, but there may not be enough fat to produce reductions big enough to suit him. A news analysis. Page 35. A Blues Shrine Threatened A New Orleans music institution, Tipitina's, is up for sale, a casualty of more comfortable -- and commercial -- nightclubs. Page 18. Tyson Wins Quickly In his first bout since his prison term for rape, Mike Tyson knocked out Peter McNeeley in the first round. SportsSunday, section 8. (Some copies went to press before the fight.) A Rolling Window on America The Golden Age of railroads is gone, but for some the allure remains. Campbell Walker, 3, watched the switching of engines in Washington D.C. A photo essay, page 20.

Thunder Gulch took a mighty stride toward the 3-year-old championship today and even the title of Horse of the Year when he won the $750,000 Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course by four and a half lengths over Pyramid Peak. The star of the D. Wayne Lukas barn, who began the year in exile in Florida, added the "summertime Derby" to his victories in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, the Florida Derby, the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Swaps. It is a record that he achieved after opening the season as second-string to his stablemate Timber County and as the blue-collar horse of the deepest string in the country. Now, he is rich and famous and ready to challenge the renowned 5-year-old Cigar for Horse of the Year.

After complaints from banks that have seen their share of student loans drop sharply, Republicans have changed the accounting rules to make it easier for Congress to kill off the banks' competition -- a Federal program that makes direct loans from the Treasury. The Republican-led House of Representatives has also voted to reduce the amount the Department of Education can spend supervising the system of Federal guarantees for banks that make student loans -- a program that has frequently had management problems. The Senate has yet to act on the House proposal.

TO understand the fall and rise of the European car in America, consider the case of Volvo and the cup holder. The year was 1990. With its American sales plunging, Volvo, the Swedish auto maker, was developing a new, make-or-break model, the 850. It asked eight dealers in the United States to confect a "no apologies car," with all the equipment their customers would want. The dealers demanded a sleeker look and splashier colors inside and out, and, they declared, they simply had to have cup holders.

At least 11 times in the last year, air traffic control centers have stumbled or broken down completely, robbing controllers of the tools they use to keep airplanes separated and on course, sometimes leaving them completely deaf, mute and blind. The main problem, everyone agrees, is that some computers that help controllers track airplanes are at least 25 years old and long past due for replacement, but updated technology has been delayed because contractors have not been able to write the software for new equipment. Even though the Federal Aviation Administration is facing a difficult stretch, until new systems are designed, tested and installed it is doing something surprising with maintenance: cutting back. It is also letting equipment go unattended on night shifts, eliminating training for technicians and cutting back on hiring, so that in some busy air traffic control centers half the technicians are eligible to retire.