Social Register for 1998 describes itself as listing of 30,000 'prominent families'; waning of the WASP elite as a social and political force has greeatly reduced register's role as an arbiter of society; register is issued in November and May and is owned by Forbes Corp; photo (M)

The Social Register: Just a Circle of Friends

Interview with Capt Veronica Pettiford, who heads Salvation Army's operations in Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook areas of Westchester County, NY; photo (M)

Army's Bells Ring Beyond Christmas

New owners begin moving into low-cost, factory-built 'New Nehemiah' houses in East Brooklyn; houses sell for $73,000-$75,000, with $20,000 subsidies from city in form of no-interest loans repayable only when houses are sold at a profit; photos (M)

A Housing Program's Next Generation

Bedecking vehicles with greenery for Christmas is becoming increasingly popular; photo (S)

Sprucing Up the Car for the Holidays

New curved-glass facade is part of $14 million renovation of American Bible Society headquarters at Broadway and 61st St; photo (S)

POSTINGS: Part of $14 Million Renovation; Bible Society Reaches Out

Treetops, 110-acre estate spanning Stamford and Greenwich, Conn, is optioned for development as a luxury residential enclave (S)

POSTINGS: Developer Options Connecticut Gold Coast Estate; 110-Acre Enclave Of Luxury Houses

Campy lounge scene in New York City may soon lose its underground appeal because of overexposure, particularly because of the intense pseudo-swank merchandising campaign accompanying new James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies; photo (M)

007 in the Twilight of Lounge

Australian-owned Nautilus Minerals Corp has filed mining claim to rich mineral deposits in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Sea, first such claim to deep sea minerals; claim foreshadows possible rush to open oceans for metals and possible fight with conservationists; hot volcanic deposits are very different from icy manganese nodules that litter global seabed and first spurred dreams of mining deep; are much richer in precious metals and tend to lie closer to sea's surface; hundreds of expeditions have mapped such deposits, but no one has yet mined rocky outcroppings; company holds deep mining can be profitable and will eventually go global; map; photos (L)

First Move Made to Mine Mineral Riches of Seabed

Immigration and Naturalization Service, in unusual pilot program, has hired doctors, psychologists and even actors to teach its asylum officers how to better judge whether refugees are truly torture victims; program also helps INS officers hone their interview skills to get needed information without touching off onslaught of traumatic memories for refugee; photo (M)

Asylum Agents Learn to Assess Tales of Torture

The scandal is everywhere at the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation -- in the chitchat in employee lounges, in the news articles clipped by nurses.  

Columbia Healthcare Strives for New Image

 F.Y.I.   2    MAKING IT WORK   3  Displaced by celebrities, Victoria Drakoulis was the taxi's original voice.

ALSO INSIDE

Affirmative action dictated Pres Clinton's decision to bypass hostile Senate Judiciary Committee and name Bill Lann Lee as Acting Attorney General; problem he faced with nomination is emblematic of how much concept of providing minorities and women special breaks to compensate for discrimination dominates nation's obsession with race relations; photo (M)

Hand Wringing; Thinking About Race With a One-Track Mind

Arts are flourishing in newly prosperous Ireland; Irish artists, who once had to emigrate or face penury, are enjoying new freedom to express themselves while winning growing recognition abroad; photos (L)

The Arts Find Fertile Ground In a Flourishing Ireland

Article on all-new Audi A6 sedan; chart compares luxury imports; photos (M)

BEHIND THE WHEEL/Audi A6; A Wintertime Wonder Tries for a Hat Trick

Robert Lipsyte (Coping) column recalls interviewing David Berkowitz, perpetrator of the Son of Sam murders in New York City in 1970s; drawing (M)1

The Enigma of Murder

Retirees in Sun City, Fla, play softball into their 80's, overcoming variety of ills with aid of modern medicine; photos (M)

At 80, It Hurts Only When They Don't Play

Growing number of abortion clinics nationwide are offering abortions to women as early as 8 or 10 days after conception, before they have missed menstrual period; use technique pioneered by Planned Parenthood aide Dr Jerry Edwards; very early abortion further blurs line between contraception and abortion; photo (L)

A NEW TECHNIQUE MAKES ABORTIONS POSSIBLE EARLIER

Roosevelt Field shopping center, Long Island, NY, nation's seventh-largest mall, discussed in terms of way it reflects subtler demographic, financial and cultural swings of the country that best tell story of retailing in America during past 40 years--period during which malls have come to dominate shopping; over decades, Roosevelt Field's tenant lists and design, like malls in many American towns, has served as petri dish for suburban experience, which includes rise, fall and the rise of suburban department store, disappearance of the local merchant in face of relentless expansion by handful of national retailers, supplanting of homemaker by working woman as mall's prime target and breakdown of class distinctions in American tastes; photos; photos of Roosevelt Mall and its floor plans (L)

On Long Island, the Mall as History Book

Raising children today is a challenge, but even more so in neighborhoods where gangs, drugs and violence lurk just outside the door, and where working parents cannot always stand guard. The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund is giving teen-agers activities -- and adults -- to show the way.     Article, page 49.  

Teen-Agers And Trouble

Norwalk, Conn, community leaders seek to revitalize Wall Street area, also known as Norwalk Center, which has been declining for past two decades; photo (L)

A Wall Street That Needs Work

Proponents of creationism, long stereotyped as anti-intellectual Bible-thumpers, are winning new allies and hope of new credibility; while old breed consists of Biblical literalists for whom Genesis is ideal textbook, newer proponents are Christian intellectuals--some even scientists holding faculty positions at public and secular universities--who contend that living organisms and universe are so impossibly complex that omniscient creator must have designed it all on purpose; about-face by National Assn of Biology Teachers, which had long stood firm against religious fundamentalists who insisted that creationism be taught in public schools, noted; photo (M)

Christians and Scientists; New Light for Creationism

Patrick Ewing, New York Knickerbocker center, injures wrist as team loses to Milwaukee Bucks, 98-78; photo (M)

Horror Show For Knicks As Ewing Injures Wrist

Figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Ilya Kulik win Champion Series Final, Munich, Germany; Pasha Grishuk and Yevgeny Platov win ice dancing competition and Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze win pairs event; photos (M)

Lipinski Shakes Off Her Doubts (and Doubters) to Win an Olympic Preview

People who divide their time between New York City and Washington, DC, often experience jarring moments of cultural dislocation when making conversation in the two cities; focus in Washington is on politics and power, while money and culture dominate in New York; drawings (M)

Sorry, Wrong Conversation

Special Report: Working Under a Cloud discusses adverse impact of Government's huge fraud investigation of Columbia/HCA on company, its employees, its hospitals and their staffs; notes investigation has resulted in such things as hospital employees being hectored in stores with allegations of corruption to layoffs at Columbia's corporate headquarters in Nashville, resulting in increased anxiety among company's 285,000 employees; efforts of Thomas F Frist Jr, recently appointed chief executive of Columbia/HCA, to restore Columbia's reputation discussed; photos; graph traces 12 months of problems at Columbia/HCA (L)

HEALTH CARE'S GIANT: Working Under a Cloud -- A special report.; How Scandal Put an End To the Flag-Waving

Madelyn Cline is an American actress and model. She is best known for her roles in the Netflix teen drama series Outer Banks (2020–present) and in Rian Johnson's mystery film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022).

Madelyn Cline, American actress and model

Madelyn_Cline

Charles Patrick McAvoy Jr. is an American professional ice hockey defenseman and alternate captain for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected 14th overall in the 2016 NHL entry draft by the Bruins and is widely regarded as one of the best defensemen in the NHL.

December 21, 1997

Headlines from December 21, 1997

The Social Register: Just a Circle of Friends

Army's Bells Ring Beyond Christmas

A Housing Program's Next Generation

Sprucing Up the Car for the Holidays

POSTINGS: Part of $14 Million Renovation; Bible Society Reaches Out

Billboard 200

Sevens

Let's Talk About Love

Higher Ground

You Light Up My Life -- Inspirational Songs

R U Still Down? [Remember Me]

Notable Births

Historical Context for December 21, 1997