December 20, 1995

A City Council hearing on the child welfare system was derailed yesterday when the Giuliani administration refused to let the head of the Child Welfare Administration testify because she would not be speaking first. In response, City Council members voted to subpoena Kathryn Croft, the agency head, to force her to appear before them. It was the first time the City Council had subpoenaed anyone to compel his or her cooperation since 1990, when the revised City Charter granted the Council broader powers.

For financial markets, it was almost as if Monday never happened. Following one of the bigger one-day selloffs in recent years, stock and bond prices both snapped back smartly yesterday after the Federal Reserve lowered a key short-term borrowing rate by a quarter of a percentage point.

Rabin Slaying Trial Delayed

As if the Government of President Boris N. Yeltsin hasn't heard enough grim news this week, the figures from individual parliamentary races started to pour in today and the results were more of the same, only much worse. It now appears certain that Communists will control virtually a third of Russia's new Parliament, far more seats than even they had hoped for. If their close ideological soul mates in the Agrarian Party are included in the calculations, the figure is even higher.

After repeated humiliation and the death of 107 of its soldiers during the last four years, the United Nations peacekeeping mission to Bosnia is ending today, leaving a ravaged country tenuously at peace and the virtual certainty that another operation will not be attempted under such conditions. The messy deployment in Bosnia was the confused response to the outbreak of a European war, but what the United Nations learned is that peacekeepers cannot do their job if there is no peace to keep.

Ending weeks of suspense for several of the nation's powerful interest groups, President Clinton vetoed a bill late today that would have made it more difficult for shareholders to bring fraud suits against underwriters, corporate officers and accountants. The legislation would have fundamentally altered the system, in place since 1933, that was designed to discourage fraud in the securities market by relying on a blend of private and government sanctions. While the measure preserved all the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission to pursue fraud claims, it would have placed formidable obstacles before individual investors seeking to have their claims heard in court.

Adding new fuel to the budget debate, the largest suppliers of private health insurance supplements to Medicare said today that their premiums would rise by an average of about 30 percent next year. The increase was disclosed by the American Association of Retired Persons and the Prudential Insurance Company of America, which provides supplemental coverage to 3.1 million members of the association. Other companies are also raising premiums for these policies, which help fill gaps in Medicare by paying hospital charges, doctors' bills and other expenses not covered by the Government program.

TEDDY BERGMAN, a 12-year-old kitchen dynamo, makes orange roughy with curry sauce, red snapper with a carrot and garlic sauce and, when he is in the mood for red meat, a steak "sandwich" with sauteed portobello mushrooms standing in for the bread. Teddy says he can't remember when this fascination with cooking began, but he knows his first effort was salad dressing. Unlike many far more experienced cooks who cannot talk and cook at the same time, Teddy does both with skill.

Clement Clarke Moore, a prominent Protestant theologian and well-heeled developer of the farmland that became the neighborhood of Chelsea, thought he might be remembered as the author of his age's leading Hebrew dictionary. Instead, he became famous for a poem he wrote for his six children and was reluctant to sign until 15 years after it was written. That little poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," written in 1822, defined what Santa Claus would become, adding essentials like the sleigh and reindeer as well as the chimney as point of entry and exit. Not least, the poem set Santa's visit on Dec. 24 -- not Dec. 5, the eve of St. Nicholas's Day, as had been the tradition.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani signed legislation yesterday that raised pay for him and New York City's 63 other elected officials. It ended a political struggle that has undercut Mr. Giuliani's labor strategy, created new tensions at the Board of Education and subjected the Mayor to public outrage. Mr. Giuliani said he wanted the raises, including his own $35,000 increase, because they cleared the way for increases for scores of deputies, commissioners and other managers who have toiled without raises for at least four years. Article, page B3.

OH, for the days when partygoers knew what partygivers wanted them to wear. The invitations were straightforward. "Black tie" meant one thing, and "business attire" meant something else, and social X-rays did not fret about receiving a dressing-down for dressing up: there was no in between. Now, the lines of demarcation are blurry, the raised-letter wordings less exact. Consider the invitation to the recent reopening of La Cote Basque, the restaurant at 60 West 55th Street. It called for "city attire." What, exactly, is that? The restaurant said that "city attire" meant jackets and ties and that it wanted guests who R.S.V.P.'d to understand its S.O.P.: jackets and ties are always required there.

At downtown branch of Pottery Barn, two 20-somethings hovered between the ornaments and the tea-making accessories. One fondled the tree decorations lovingly. "Yeah, yeah, they're nice," her friend said, clutching a crumpled gift list. "But at this late date, we've got to focus. Keep your eye on the ball."