October 29, 1995

IF you have ever passed by Bethesda Fountain in Central Park on a weekend day, you have probably seen the Crows. Not actual large black birds, but four colorful puppets in double-breasted jackets, battered derbies and dreadlocks. They make up a quartet called the Crowtations, and just about every Saturday and Sunday they are in the park from midday until dark, lip-syncing rhythm-and-blues classics like "Cry Tonight," by the O'Jays, and "Superstar," by the Temptations.

Cigar rolled majestically, historically to his 12th straight victory yesterday when he won the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic in the mud at Belmont Park by two and a half lengths over L'Carriere, clinched the title of Horse of the Year and completed one of the most dominating seasons in modern racing. "He's done everything to rank him with the all-time greats," said Bill Mott, who trains the 5-year-old bay for Allen Paulson. "He is a super horse."

An Energetic Secessionist

ONLY FRAGMENTS OF people are visible through a very dirty window, but what uncommon fragments they are: a naked back and one long, giraffe-print glove; hips and a star-spangled G-string with dollars tucked into it; the profile of a woman having sex with a man; a woman's arm outstretched in front of a pair of male hands. With a kind of ragged classicism, the window dividers gracefully section off clues to sex and drug transactions. Merry Alpern, a 40-year-old photojournalist, took these photographs unobserved from another window across an air shaft. She was looking into the bathroom of a sex club near Wall Street in Manhattan. So are we. This project was selected to receive a grant by the peer-review panel of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1994, then vetoed by the National Council on the Arts, which reviews all recommendations. Collectors and museums (including the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco) nonetheless rushed to buy Alpern's compelling if unnerving pictures, which can currently be seen in a show called "Dirty Windows" at the Bonni Benrubi Gallery (52 East 76th Street, through Nov. 25) and in a book by the same name from Scalo.

WITH Election Day in nine days Suffolk County Executive Robert J. Gaffney appears to be far ahead of his Democratic challenger, Tony Bullock, polls and political analysts are indicating. The elections will also fill 18 seats in the County Legislature and choose town supervisors and council members. Voters will also elect eight State Supreme Court justices and three Family Court judges.