October 30, 1995

For what it was worth, the Jets didn't fall apart today. But they didn't win, either. And yet, the struggling players tried to take solace in coming close as a measure of how far they have come. Come close they did -- to the Colts' 7-yard line with two minutes remaining.

Russia's troubled democratic movement suffered a new blow today when the Central Election Commission barred the country's leading progressive party from taking part in the Dec. 17 parliamentary elections. Apparently violating an obscure provision of byzantine election laws, the Yabloko Party, led by Grigory Yavlinsky, who opinion polls repeatedly show is by far the most popular liberal leader, failed to provide letters from six people who had decided not to run for parliamentary seats as members of the party.

He wriggled out of straitjackets while suspended upside down 30 stories above the street. He escaped from Scotland Yard, made elephants disappear and walked through brick walls. But the magic of Harry Houdini did not stop when he died at 1:26 P.M. on Oct. 31, 1926. His career as the great self-liberator sparked hope among believers that he might reach across the grave and effect one final escape. So from the first anniversary of his death, thousands made the pilgrimmage to Machpelah Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens, where Houdini is buried, to try to make contact with history's most renowned trickster. There, members of the Society of American Magicians, of which the Master Mystifier was once president, would re-create part of his funeral ceremony and break the magician's wooden wand.

New York is one of only four states putting less state money into higher education this year than two years ago, according to an annual study by the Center for Higher Education at Illinois State University. A sluggish economy and budget cutting by the Pataki administration caused 1995-96 higher education appropriations to drop 4 percent this year compared with 1993-94. This year's expenditures are only 12 percent higher than 10 years ago. For both the 2-year and 10-year period. New York ranks 48th in the nation in growth of state funding for higher education. In both New York and New Jersey, state financing for student aid was down 4 percent from two years ago.

Two people, including a college student coming back home to Hackensack to see a high school football game, were killed in a car crash in New York City over the weekend. The dead were identified as Curtis Whitting, a senior at the University of Rhode Island, and Chris Stanford of Hackensack.