November 9, 1998

Federal inquiry into New York City Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani's new welfare policies has prompted his administration to speed up granting of applications for food and medical benefits; Jason A Turner, city's Human Resources Administration Commissioner, says that starting this week, all people seeking such benefits will receive full applications on their first visit to Welfare office (M)

Allan Kozinn reviews New York City Opera's production of Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men; photo (M)

Article discusses growing controversy over allowing production companies to shoot television commercials in Montclair, NJ; while many town residents rent out their homes to television producers for $2,000 a day, others see melting of lines between residential and commercial in Montclair; photo; map (M)

Myrna Blyth, editor of Meredith Corp's More magazine, discusses publication's decision to deal with concerns of womankind that are not limited to youth; says as part of her editorial policy no model under the age of 40 appears in the magazine; dose of reality is helping sales to an aging American population; in last 18 months, several new magazines have also put this theory to the test; problem is that major advertisers are slow to invest in magazines that discuss ordinary conditions like aging or illness; some other nontraditional magazines include Mode, aimed at what publishers call the average-sized American woman--sizes 12,14,16 and beyond, and Mamm, magazine for women with cancer; magazine cover photos (M)

New York Mets announce that Steve Phillips, their general manager, is taking leave of absence to deal with an allegation of sexual harassment as well as repercussions of series of extramarital affairs; photo (M)

Tibetans nurture fervent desire to see Dalai Lama, their exiled god and king, return to Potala Palace, and political atmosphere in China seems more open to negotiations on issue than at any time in a decade; Dalai Lama is proposing new initiative that he hopes will lead to talks with Chinese leaders, and he is expected seek support for it when he meets with Vice Pres Al Gore during his current visit to Washington; map; photo (M)

Peter Marks reviews Warren Leight's play Side Man, which has moved to Broadway from Roundabout Theater and now has Christian Slater performing the central role; photo (M)

Robert H Lessin, former vice chairman with Salomon Smith Barney, started Wit Capital Corp, two-year-old private investment firm which aims to make itself method of choice for individuals interested in investing in young, fast-growing companies, most of them ventures related to the Internet; Wit came to the attention of the investment community in 1996 when it became fhe first company to sell stock directly to investors over the Internet; under Lessin's guidance, Wit seeks not only to invest in Internet economy, but also to get individuals involved in ground floor of initial public offerings by using Internet to build community of investors; Lessin photo (M)

New York Jets defeat Buffalo Bills, 34-12; photo (M)

Computing's Year 2000 problem has new wrinkle stemming from purported timekeeping flaw discovered in August 1997 by Prof Jace Crouch of University of Michigan. and subsequently described at length on the Internet by Michael Echlin, programmer with Atomic Energy Canada Ltd; timekeeping flaw, know as Crouch-Echlin Effect, was noted by Crouch in testing aged 286 machine for compliance, and showed odd malfunctions when he decided not to reset the date to current time since he was using computer for word processing and date it logged made no difference; Echlin, learning of Crouch's findings, set up experiments on several computers that suggested Crouch's problems were not isolated; Douglas de Lacey, who oversees computer systems at Cambridge University school, says jury is still out on what is happening; de Lacey reported encountering Crouch-Echlin effect on two aging computers of his own; some critics say claims by two men are reckless, noting Crouch and Echlin have set up small firm that markets software to identify and neutralize the problem; photos (L)

Placido Domingo says he regards his appointment as artistic director of Los Angeles Opera not so much as a new job but rather as an upgrading of his current work as artistic adviser to the company; sees no problem fulfilling responsibilities in Los Angeles while serving as artistic director of Washington Opera and continuing his singing and conducting engagements around the world; his value as fund-raising asset to both companies more than offsets any problems that might be caused by potential scheduling conflicts; photos (M)

Dallas Cowboys defeat New York Giants, 16-6; photo (M)