October 26, 1995

TOOLS were a part of life when I was a boy in blue-collar Brooklyn after World War II. Men carried their tools to work in the dark mornings, jammed into leather belts, or slung over shoulders, or gripped in gloved hands against the cold. They carried those tools with a certain pride, like prizefighters with gym bags; they were symbols of work and skill. In the evenings, the subways were salty with the aromas of perspiration and labor and the men planted their backs against the doors, with their tools at their feet. In memory, those working men were all hard and courteous, but grave, even solemn; more likely, they were simply exhausted. But one memory is absolutely clear: no kid ever told them to get out of the way.

After weeks of hints and barbs, Jerome B. York, Kirk Kerkorian's strategist and spokesman, presented his list of demands today to the Chrysler Corporation, asking the company to: appoint him to its board, give Mr. Kerkorian veto power over two more directors, and weaken its antitakeover provision to permit Mr. Kerkorian to buy more stock. Further, Mr. York, who declared he was acting "in a spirit of compromise," requested that the company form a committee to study whether its target of accumulating a $7.5 billion cash cushion was excessive, as he contends. And he asked that Chrysler adopt rules that limit its ability to issue preferred stock - which could weaken Mr. Kerkorian's voting power - and prevent it from paying greenmail, a premium paid for an investor's holdings by a company who fears a takeover by the investor.

With the rain, over the mountains, came the plague. First, it struck the horses and the donkeys, leaving them dazed and then wild, spinning dizzy before falling dead to the ground. A few weeks later, whole villages were besieged by soaring fevers, aching muscles, vomiting and diarrhea. Some shook with convulsions, furiously whipping and kicking the air, and gnawing their lips. They cursed the people who loved them. They sank into comas, and they died.

The City Council yesterday overwhelmingly approved a far-reaching package of restrictions on X-rated video stores, peep shows and topless bars in New York City, rejecting the concerns of civil libertarians and siding with residents who complained about the proliferation of sex businesses in their neighborhoods. If they withstand the court challenge that opponents have promised, the new rules will sharply reduce the number and location of sex shops and theaters in parts of the city, particularly in neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn where many such businesses have opened in recent years.

State education officials are renewing efforts to get Englewood, Tenafly and Englewood Cliffs to settle their 10-year feud about desegregation of Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood. On Oct. 31, Jay Doolan, the State Education Department official who presided over five stormy hearings on proposals to form a regional school district, and Dr. Harry Galinsky, the former School Superintendent of Paramus, will "discuss ways to bring the parties together and ways to solve this voluntarily," said Peter Peretzman, a spokesman for the State Education Department.