November 12, 1995

With 500,000 cheering, flag-waving spectators lining the way and thundering drums and nostalgic Glenn Miller swing on the autumn air, tens of thousands of proud American warriors marched out of the past and up Fifth Avenue yesterday in New York's largest Veterans Day Parade since the end of World War II. Planes roared overhead, tanks rumbled by, cannons boomed salutes and church bells pealed across the city and the nation as huge Norman Rockwell crowds turned out and more than 33,000 marchers -- led by Medal of Honor winners and veterans of many conflicts -- joined the Nation's Parade, the official culmination of four years of celebrations marking the Second World War's 50th anniversary.

COUNTY EXECUTIVE Andrew P. O'Rourke's proposed 1996 budget, scheduled to be released this week, will include no increase in the amount of money the county raises from property taxes, but some property owners still may find themselves with either a tax increase or decrease. "The budget is a zero-tax-levy-increase budget," Mr. O'Rourke said during an interview in his office. "It reduces the total amount spent by government and it reduces the number of positions, I would say dramatically, in government, most of which has been achieved either through attrition or early retirement."

Before his final workout for today's New York City Marathon, German Silva of Mexico made an obliging stop yesterday along Central Park South at Seventh Avenue. It has become an unintended landmark, the spot where he made a wrong turn near the finish before recovering to win last year's race. "I was running the other day, showing some people the way, and I said, very seriously, 'I know the course well,' " Silva said. "Then I smiled. 'Well, most of the course.' "

WHOEVER meets my three daughters, no matter who it is, they'll say, you've done such a fabulous job with your daughters." Lillian Hirshleifer, the woman behind the look and style of Hirshleifer's Inc. in Manhasset, was speaking of the fourth generation of Hirshleifers -- Shelley Hirshleifer, Caryn Hirshleifer and Lori Hirshleifer Sills -- who bring their own personality and perception to the family's retail clothing business.

Monica Links gave up on trying to live in Central Park. After one run-in too many with the police, she moved two months ago to her current crate, set near festering garbage and rotting rags on an abandoned Hudson River pier. So far, no one bothers her there. Kelly and Joe Mullen used to inhabit the entryway of a private building at 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. Now, chased from there, they live in a kind of cave, fabricated largely from cast-off comforters, on another crumbling pier -- taking refuge, like Ms. Links, at the very edge of Manhattan.