NOTEBOOK

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, CHARLOTTE FALTERMAYER, JANICE M. HOROWITZ, LINA LOFARO, MICHAEL QUINN, JEFFREY C. RUBIN, ALAIN L. SANDERS, MARK THOMPSON

VERBATIM

"[Ross Perot] is one of a kind, and to me, a very good friend. But I want Bob Dole to be President of the United States." --James Stockdale, Perot's 1992 running mate, in the San Francisco Chronicle

"He's made his own bed. He's basically a man without a community now." --Johnnie Cochran, on former rival and best-selling author Christopher Darden

"When he gets his salary he puts it in his breast pocket, and since I iron his suits, I take it. If the salary is not in his pocket, he may have spent it on holiday or birthday presents. I never ask." --Naina Yeltsin, on husband Boris, President of Russia

"I see no real reason why it should be in Germany at this moment." --Peter Bull of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, sniffing at a claim that a death mask residing in Darmstadt is the only authentic image of the Bard of Avon

WINNERS & LOSERS

THE BUDGET BALLET

[WINNERS]

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON A sweet victory, plus $400 million for his national service program, long a G.O.P. bete noire

REPRESENTATIVE CHRIS SMITH Stalwart anti-abortionist gets cuts he sought in aid to overseas family-planning programs

SENATOR MARK HATFIELD Once: the doghouse for anti-balanced budget vote. Now: the spotlight as budget negotiator

[LOSERS]

SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH Aimless between the rock of a resurgent White House and the hard place of G.O.P. freshmen

REPRESENTATIVE ROBERT DORNAN His wildly unpopular effort to oust HIV-positive military troops is ousted from budget accord

SENATOR TED STEVENS Wins bitter battle for increased logging in Alaska, but Clinton wins right to waive it. He will.

EUREKA!

With earthquakes, riots, recession and residents fleeing en masse, the past few years have been tough for the Golden State. But now there's some good news: after a sluggish slog through 2% and 1% growth in the early '90's, the nation's most populous state is also among the top ten with the fastest growing incomes.

1995 per capita income: $23,699 Increase from 1994: 6% Rank: #10

FAREWELL TO LAND MINES?

Land mines could go the way of mustard gas--at least for U.S. forces--starting in 1999 if a new, highly restrictive policy on the buried bombs is endorsed as expected this week by the Pentagon's regional commanders. The move has been spurred by a worldwide humanitarian campaign for a global ban on such weapons, which kill or injure 500 people a week, including many children. A U.S. ban seems certain to be enacted, though opponents are still arguing over details. Possible exceptions to any blanket prohibition on American use of mines include their deployment in the Korean Demilitarized Zone or in the event of a Persian Gulf war. Pentagon officials, having already backed away from a 2010 deadline for ending most mine use as being too late, want the ban to take effect in 2001. But the White House wants to perpetuate a yearlong ban on U.S. antipersonnel land-mine use, pushed through Congress last year by Senator Pat Leahy and set to take place in 1999. Says an Administration official: "If we can live without mines in 1999, we can live without them forever."

WITH DEFENDERS LIKE THESE...

It could not have been easy for Bernhard Goetz, left--dubbed the "subway gunman" by New York City tabloids--to hear himself referred to in a courtroom as "a nerd, a geek, a peckerwood and a cracker." The author of these epithets: Goetz's own lawyer, Darnay Hoffman, right, pursuing the tactic of insulting one's client before the opposition can. It didn't work: a jury found Goetz liable to the tune of $43 million in the civil lawsuit growing out of his gunning down of four menacing panhandlers in 1984. Other examples of "Don't say that about my client--I'll say that about my client!":

"She spent money. No question about that...She is a world-class spender. She is a world-class shopper." --Gerry Spence, successfully defending his client Imelda Marcos in her 1990 trial on racketeering and fraud charges

"I don't believe Ms. Helmsley is charged in the indictment with being a tough bitch." --Gerald Feffer, unsuccessfully defending hotelier Leona Helmsley in her 1989 tax-evasion trial

"The evidence will show Mr. Davis is guilty. I won't be asking you to acquit Mr. Davis; I won't be asking for any kind of reduced charges. I won't be offering excuses." --Barry Collins, in the continuing trial of Richard Allen Davis in the kidnapping and murder of Polly Klaas HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--A simple breath test--mostly blowing air into a bag--can allow patients to know if their ULCER is caused by the bacterium H. pylori. Breath that contains a chemical metabolized by H. pylori signals a positive result. The treatment: antibiotics.

--A new method of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has pinpointed exactly where tiny TUMORS OF THE BREAST'S MILK DUCT are located in 95% of the women studied. Using mri, doctors can with greater confidence treat malignancies by removing a small amount of tissue in a lumpectomy, rather than performing a more invasive mastectomy.

--The ELDERLY ENJOY SEX. A Swedish survey of married folks age 85 finds that 22% of men and 10% of women report having sex.

THE BAD NEWS

--Make mine rare! People who chow down on meat that's cooked medium to well done appear more likely to develop STOMACH CANCER than those who favor rarer flesh. Reason: carcinogenic chemicals can form when animal protein is heated to high temperatures for long periods of time.

--PREGNANT WOMEN should avoid tobacco smoke--their own and other people's. The fumes can pass toxic compounds to the fetus, which may ultimately trigger childhood leukemia or other cancers.

--Researchers find that 95% of kids who develop ALLERGIES TO NUTS--a potentially life-threatening problem--suffer from asthma, eczema or hay fever. They warn children with any of these problems to lay off peanut butter and other nutty foods.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: American Journal of Gastroenterology; American College of Radiology National Conference on Breast Cancer; New England Journal of Medicine BAD NEWS: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research; Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research; British Medical Journal COMING ATTRACTIONS

LOWELL LIEBERMANN, 35; Manhattan, Composer "Haunted" as a teen by Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, Liebermann knew he had to set the novel to music one day. Two decades and three Juilliard degrees later, he will see his first opera (of the same title), for which he adapted the text from the 1891 original, premiere next week at the Opera de Monte-Carlo in Monaco. (Princess Caroline, president of the Monaco Spring Arts Festival, encouraged Liebermann's work, and the piece is dedicated to her.) The composer does sense an affinity, in part, with Wilde's portrait of misbehavior: "I don't feel in a way that I've created any of my pieces. They sort of take on lives of their own." MICHELLE CHALFOUN, 29; Manhattan, Novelist The movie rights to Chalfoun's first novel, Roustabout, have already been optioned by actress Winona Ryder. The novel, which hit bookstores two weeks ago, is the tale of Mat, a young woman who grows up alone in a circus after her mother abandons her. Mat is the roustabout of the title, a circus hand engaged in the unglamorous task of setting up the big top. It is a job Chalfoun knows from experience. On a whim, the dance major answered a help-wanted ad and worked on a tent crew for three years. She says, "I learned that I didn't really have any limits unless I put them on myself."

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

MENGISTU HAILE MARIAM, 59; Ousted Marxist President of Ethiopia From 1977 to 1991, he ruled supreme. Now he is Addis Ababa's most reviled criminal defendant. Five years after he was driven out of his country by rebels, Ethiopia's Red Terror despot is being tried on charges of murder and genocide--in absentia. The guest of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe since 1991 (apparently in gratitude for the help he gave Mugabe's independence struggle in the 1970s), Mengistu lives in luxurious exile in a government-supplied villa in an exclusive suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, safe from repeated extradition requests. He remains in virtual seclusion with his wife and at least one son, under strict instructions to keep quiet. According to some reports, Mengistu has purchased other properties in Zimbabwe, and serves as a "consultant" to the country's security services. The consultancy, however, may be of a very personal nature: late last year his tight 24-hour police protection foiled an apparent assassination attempt by two suspects.

26 YEARS AGO IN TIME

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

Challenging Yeltsin, Russian Communists are promising a return to the future. But the Soviet record at the beginning of the long Brezhnev era might be enough to give voters pause: "Soviet leaders are now facing their most alarming internal failure in years: a serious sag in the economy...In the Russian Republic...meat will be underproduced by 40% in 1970, eggs by 44%. Other drastic shortages will be in passenger cars, furniture, building materials and synthetic fabrics...[T]o order a pair of pants from a Soviet tailor shop...[n]o fewer than four magazine-size blanks must be filled out...[As for] the military, [it] will continue to demand a disproportionate share of the country's wealth." --May 4, 1970

--By Kathleen Adams, Charlotte Faltermayer, Janice M. Horowitz, Lina Lofaro, Michael Quinn, Jeffrey C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Mark Thompson