Article recalls once rampant illegal drug scene in various sections of New York City; streets are quieter but drug dealers are resorting to more subtle and sophisticated schemes of decoys, coded messages anf false business fronts; photos (M)

Where Has Your Neighborhood Drug Dealer Gone?

Profile of Bernard Arnault, French deal maker who haeds LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, largest luxury products company in the world; $6-million company's famous brands range from Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton to Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot; breakdown by segement; photos; chart; graphs; 48-year-old Arnault has built business largely by mastering both worlds of products and hardball financial negotiations; interview; his current attempt to block merger of Grand Metropolitan PLC and Guinness, drink companies in which Arnault has holdings, reviewed (M)

The King of Posh

Janny Scott Coping column on storage problems of New York City apartment dwellers and salvation in form of Vandam Mini Storage on Varick and Vandam Streets; drawing (M)

Contemporary Citadels Of Stuff

Floyd Norris Market Watch column on latest tumble in Dow Jones stock average; suggests not trading on summer Fridays (S)

Let's Just Close the Market On Fridays

Contagion of despair among many of young people of mostly white, mostly Irish South Boston discussed in light of recent suicides of six young men and hospitalization of some 70 other suicidal youths, most of them male; suicides have spurred extraordinary public self-examination in neighborhood that has long maintained code of silence about private troubles; map; photos (L)

For Old South Boston, Despair Replaces Hope

 Death Defies Alps Climbers  Despite the popcorn machines at 12,000 feet, scaling the vertiginous Alps can be lethal. In six weeks, 25 people have died on the French side of the Mont Blanc range. Page 3.    A Scramble for Shelter  Tight budgets have made substandard housing for workers a problem across the national park system, one the Government is struggling to address. Page 32.

INSIDE

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column on Tom Kite, who will be captain of US Ryder Cup team and hopes to be a player on team as well, which would break precedent; Kite is tied for second in Professional Golfers' Association Championship after three rounds; photo (M)

Captain Kite Could Be A Player

New York Jets defeat New York Giants, 17 to 27, in exhibition game; photos (M)

Parcells Wins Game of Nerves And Nostalgia

Artists' children who themselves become creative artists have advantage of living in homes where arts are practiced and encouraged and face challenge of carving out own artistic identities; comments by pianist Leon Fleisher and son Julian, jazz singer, playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote and daughter Hallie, actor and producer, and mixed-media artist Betye Saar and her daughters, Alison and Lezley, both visual artists; photos (L)

When Creativity Runs In the Family

Consultants say employers are responding to workers' demand for freedom to choose own doctors, hospitals and other services by offering them wider variety of health care, sometimes at higher cost to workers; find few signs that employers provide higher quality care than they have since proliferation of cost-sensitive managed-care plans began in 1990's; note managed care has displaced fee-for-service coverage for all by 18 percent of workers; say employers are providing more access to preventive care; graph (M)

WORKERS GETTING GREATER FREEDOM IN HEALTH PLANS

Status of telecommuting assessed; Catherine Rossback discusses giving up working at home because she had no structure to working day and felt isolated, whereas Jenny Nelson, mother of three young children, says she enjoys flexibility of working for AT&T; from her Manhattan home; photos; 42 percent of companies have telecommuting arrangements, but only seven percent of their workers ever telecommute; analyst Christena Nippert-Eng says one in five arrangements fails, becuase employees have unrealistic expectations and employers are afraid of losing control; Dr Charles Grantham notes dearth of accurate data on number of people working at home in various ways; formal arrangements developed by Merrill Lynch and AT&T; explained (M)

For Stay-Home Workers, Speed Bumps on the Telecommute

For 126 years, Mrs. O'Leary's cow has been blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire, which consumed a third of the city and killed 300. But an amateur historian has decided it's time for a new look at the evidence.  

That O'Leary Cow: A Question of Guilt

American public, despite inconveniences resulting from teamsters strike against United Parcel Service, strongly backs strikers in their demands for full-time jobs and full-time pay; public has sided with management in most other recent strikes that grabbed national attention; public opinion experts cite growing view that management is less fair and less loyal to workers than in past (M)

In Shift to Labor, Public Supports U.P.S. Strikers

New York Liberty has trouble holding onto first place in Eastern Division of Women's National Basketball Association as season enters homestretch; is forced to cut Jasmina Perazic-Gipe, who at 36 was oldest member of team; photos (M)

Liberty Learning to Live Through Ups and Downs

Hundreds of Manhattan apartments and houses are not attracting buyers, despite strong market and reasonable prices, for reasons that are sometimes apparent but often obscure; examples discussed; photos (L)

Wallflowers In an Uptempo Market

ABC's new ads trashing both the process of hucksterism and the very product, television, discussed; message that television 'rots your brain, and that's just fine' has turned ads for new season into genuins pop culture event; other adventures in ad irony recalled; photos (M)

Now, Worse Than Ever! Cynicism in Advertising!

Millions of couples in medium-sized cities are bending China's population control rules by having second child; population program is becoming significantly looser in many places outside largest cities as economic growth erodes old system of controls, creating loopholes large and small; economic growth, rather than spurring population boom, seems to be reducing number of children born to millions of rural families breaking out of poverty, while some urban couples are opting not to have child; China's total population of 1.22 billion seems to be growing at just over 1 percent a year; map; photos (L)

Chinese Happily Break the 'One Child' Rule

Kia Motors America is opening its first dealerships in New York City metropolitan area, adding 34 outlets in New York, northern New Jersey and Connecticut to 273 established over three years in other regions; sticks to region-by-region expansion despite bankruptcy of parent Kia Group of South Korea; offers just two vehicles, sports utility and subcompact sedan, both priced below competitors; photo (M)

Kia, of Seoul, Heads to SoHo

Russian astronauts Vasily Tsibliyev and Aleksandr Lazutkin, returned from six disastrous months on space station Mir, denounce people who have dwelled publicly on mission's many failures, including Pres Boris N Yeltsin and individual members of press, news conference; Tsibliyev holds crew was unfairly blamed for problems; notes they remained on Mir when they should have abandoned stations at three different times; chronology of events; photo (M)

Russian Astronauts Insist Errors, While Human, Were on Earth

James G Cobb assesses 1998 Lincoln Navigator sports utility vehicle; table; photos (M)

3 Conspicuous Tons Of Consumption

Third round of Professional Golfers' Association Championship ends with Davis Love 3d and Justin Leonard leading the field with scores of 203, 7 under par; photos (M)

Suddenly, It's Just a Twosome

 F.Y.I.   2    MAKING IT WORK   3  Who's fringier than thou?: A split on the fringe of alternative theater in New York.

ALSO INSIDE

All of 435 apartments at 45 Wall Street, one of first office towers converted to residential use as part of New York City's Lower Manhattan Revitalization Plan, have been leased in just four months, more than 70 percent to individuals; only one corporation has leased block of apartments (S)

Tenants at 45 Wall St.: Just Folks, Not Firms

Thousands of demonstrators, many waving toilet plungers or Haitian flags, march through Flatbush, Brooklyn, to protest alleged police beating of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, including sexual assault on him with plunger handle, and Giuliani administration record on police brutality; break off from planned route and heavy police escort into crowded heart of neighborhood; demonstrators and police seem determined to avoid confrontation; heavy rainstorm disperses crowd; Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani lauds unidentified officer who came forward to aid in probe; photo (M)

THOUSANDS MARCH TO PROTEST POLICE

Exhibition at National Academy Museum, New York City, moved from Southampton's Parrish Museum of Art, focuses on 1858 building on 10th Street, New York City, and works of artists who rented studios there; photo (S)

August 17, 1997

Headlines from August 17, 1997

Where Has Your Neighborhood Drug Dealer Gone?

The King of Posh

Contemporary Citadels Of Stuff

Let's Just Close the Market On Fridays

For Old South Boston, Despair Replaces Hope

Billboard 200

The Art Of War

No Way Out

Men In Black--The Album

Spice

Middle Of Nowhere

Historical Context for August 17, 1997