September 1, 1995

Their paths crossed in New Orleans 35 years ago by accident, or perhaps through fate: a 6-year-old walking through a screaming mob to integrate a public school and a young psychiatrist whose way into the city that day was blocked by the disturbance. The child was Ruby Bridges, whose adult life after the anger and danger and drama of integrating William Frantz School all by herself sometimes seemed as still as a torpid summer day in New Orleans.

In outbuildings of the great pilgrimage temple at Puri in eastern India, as at many other such sites throughout Asia, monkeys rule. Cheeky and aggressive, they make it plain that the territory is theirs and theirs alone, and visitors who neglect to carry an appeasing morsel or a sturdy stick trespass at their peril. Such precautions might seem to be in order even at the Asia Society these days because of the smart, atmospherically installed exhibition titled "Monkey," which takes the ubiquitous presence of these animals in Asian art as its theme.

For years, accounting firms have done much of the heavy lifting involved in corporate takeovers and mergers, but then watched enviously as their investment banking brethren on Wall Street got most of the fees for handling the deals. Now one of the Big Six accounting firms, KPMG Peat Marwick, is fighting back. The firm has created a new company, called KPMG Baymark Capital, that will compete with securities firms to advise corporations and help arrange mergers, acquisitions and other deals. And this week KPMG Baymark obtained a broker-dealer license from the National Association of Securities Dealers. KPMG Baymark is now free to go ahead, although it is still possible that the Securities and Exchange Commission might raise some warning flags.

The energy conservation audit may soon become a practice remembered only by nostalgia buffs. New Jersey's three utilities have decided that home visits to educate customers about insulation are no longer needed because many residents already understand the benefits of conserving energy. Public Service Electric and Gas Company and Jersey Central Power and Light of Morristown said they want to reduce the number of energy audits they conduct from 44,000 this year to fewer than 8,000 by 1997.

Brokering an end to the 40-month-old Balkan war could be a crowning triumph for President Clinton's often-criticized foreign policy. But it would also create a perilous new situation militarily, to say nothing of the potential political problems for a President entering a difficult election year. The peace plan offered by the United States would put thousands of American troops on the ground in Bosnia for more than a year, trying to keep bitter enemies apart in a region that has repeatedly turned peacekeepers into targets, hostages and combatants.