February 21, 1996

THROUGH blizzards, gentle storms, slush, midwinter blues, transportation delays, leaking roofs, flooded basements, stalled cars, bouts of flu, gray rain and even faint glimmers of spring, there has been one incontrovertible comfort: soup. This is the word from the nesting zone, where uncounted numbers have been holed up for weeks, counting their containers of stockpiled soup and doling out sustaining portions to lucky recipients.

A candlelight vigil is scheduled for tonight at the site where a black teen-ager, Lawrence Meyers, was fatally shot by a white housing police officer a year ago. The shooting, ruled accidental by the Passaic County Prosecutor's office, prompted demonstrations by some black residents. Tonight's ceremony had been intended to celebrate the mending of relations between the police and the community in the months since the shooting, the Rev. Alfred E. Steele, pastor of the Seminary Baptist Church, said yesterday. But that relationship was tested again on Feb. 13, when a 28-year-old black man was shot to death, also by a white housing police officer. "This is just ironic that it happened at the time that it did," Mr. Steele said.

Patrick J. Buchanan eked out a razor-thin victory in the Republican Presidential primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday, defeating Senator Bob Dole with a fiery anti-Washington message that left Mr. Dole struggling to reignite his campaign. Former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee followed Mr. Dole with a strong third-place finish, in an outcome that kept the Republican field muddled and shook the Senator, who only weeks ago was viewed by many in his party as its inevitable Presidential nominee.

With the whole nation listening intently, New Hampshire roared once more tonight and delivered a stentorian message that promises confusion for the Republican Party for months to come. This small, remote state, so difficult to please, so prone to surprise, converted Patrick J. Buchanan from a candidate of protest into a front-runner of sorts. After months of grueling work, Mr. Buchanan, Senator Bob Dole and Lamar Alexander established themselves definitively as the prime contenders, finishing very closely bunched. But most politicians were hard pressed to predict how the contest would unfold in the weeks ahead or to guess the outcome.

For the first time since the fiscal year began last October, Newark and Jersey City have received Federal money for clinics and AIDS services groups. But both came up short compared with last year because of the budget battle.