May 12, 1996

The metamorphosis of AT&T has begun. The 40,000 job cuts that have made the company a symbol of corporate downsizing and the restructuring that is splitting it into three parts have thrown one of the New York region's largest private employers into a state of deep flux. Departments are being split across corporate lines, separating friends who worked together for years.

Anthony Mason, who like many of his teammates had his head shaved before the playoffs began, showed up for work yesterday with a new inscription on his scalp: "We've Got Faith." But then, the Bulls still had Michael.

The owners of Pierre Deux Antiques -- the two Pierres who gave the fabric importing company known for its country French cottons its name -- have decided to rent out three large apartments over their West Village shop, and to furnish them with Provencal antiques and fabrics. The two men, Pierre Moulin and Pierre LeVec, have lived in the mid-19th-century brick town house at 369 Bleecker Street, at the corner of Charles Street, for 30 years. They met in 1949 and went on to found the Pierre Deux furnishing company, which they sold several years ago.

YOU must be trying to catch God's eye in that hat," an elderly woman said to me recently in playful homage to my Sunday-go-to-church hat.

OVER the last five years, a high school teacher here, 38 years old, has been on the job for only a year and a half, but has drawn a salary for all but a few months. Why? The answer to this riddle, laughably simple for any Italian employer, is: The woman is a mother with two babies who has taken full advantage of every last clause in one of Europe's most generous maternity leave packages. "In both cases, I suppose I should have returned to work earlier than I did," said Carla Starita, a teacher of literature and philosophy and mother of Gaia, 4, and Elisa, 1, "but I think it isn't right to leave one's children after a few months. Many of my colleagues went back to work early and their children didn't die, but this was my time to have children, and I believe during those occasions, it is right to use all the opportunities that are offered to you."