Notebook

By David Bjerklie, Tam Martinides Gray, Daniel S. Levy, Belinda Luscombe and Alain L. Sanders

WINNERS & LOSERS

[WINNERS]

DOUG FLUTIE Can a sub-6-ft. QB really star in the NFL? Yeah, right--just as soon as a 77-year-old flies in space

THE GAP Sales up; stock soars and splits 3:2. Say, that Lewinsky promotion really worked!

VINCENT VAN GOGH Crowds pack D.C.'s National Museum of Art to see exhibit of his masterpieces

[& LOSERS]

BILL MAHER Calls Reagan "nuts," then dodges. It's one thing to be politically incorrect, another to be just mean

WARREN LITTLEFIELD Key NBC exec misses out on top job. But with post-Seinfeld NBC off 11%, maybe it's just as well

VINCENT VAN GOGH Hip in D.C., square in N.Y.C. Museum of Modern Art drops him: he's "no longer modern"

EARLY WARNING FOR SUMMER 1999

Next season's big swimsuit, if such a thing is possible, is the tankini, a tank top over bikini pants. The trikini, a name from the '70s, has been revived for a bikini with a shell top. But other daring new shapes from the fashion runways have yet to be named. So, well, here we go...

HARLEQUINI This suit is named after the pattern of the tan you get from wearing it

TINNIKINI Don't wear this spiky metallic number in the hot sun too long. And no hugs

BANKINI Prada's suit for the woman who never knows when she may need to shop

NOT-ENUF-FABRIKINI Yes, the suit is finished, and no, you don't get a discount for the missing bits

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: EERIE NEWS FROM ALL OVER

It may just have been the way the cosmos marks Halloween, but look at the scary stories in last week's news:

IN GAINESVILLE, GA., Hall County sheriff Bob Vass warned Ku Klux Klan leaders they would be jailed if they tried, by holding a march on Halloween, to evade a state law that forbids wearing masks or hoods to conceal a person's identity. "If they've got on a Klan robe and a Klan hat and any type of mask, including a Mickey Mouse mask, they will be arrested," said Vass. And then have to deal with Michael Eisner, he might have added.

IN BELLEVILLE, WIS., village officials attempted to postpone Halloween, a tradition that dates back to the Druids, because it conflicted with the town's UFO festival, which dates back to 1986. Protests ensued, and it was decided that adults dressed as Klingons could coexist with children dressed as witches (though not necessarily Klansmen dressed as Mickey).

IN PITTSBURGH, PA., the world's scariest bat mitzvah party was held. The Titanic-theme event featured 12-ft. smokestacks at the buffet table, a steerage section for children and a giant photo of the honoree's face superimposed on the body of--no, not a Klansman--Kate Winslet.

SUPEREGOS

HEY, THAT'S ME! Last week, Mike Costanza, a Long Island real estate agent and distant acquaintance of Jerry Seinfeld's, sued the actor and others for $100 million, saying Seinfeld used his name and portrayed him "in a negative light." This isn't the first time someone has seen himself in a character.

NAME Stephen Spender

COMPLAINT Poet said author David Leavitt stole parts of Spender's life from his autobiography, World Within World

UPSHOT Publisher issued new version of the novel

[NAME] Pryde Brown

[COMPLAINT] Photographer claimed the characters in the film Shoot the Moon were based on her and her ex-husband John McPhee

The case was settled

[NAME] Three U.S. officials

[COMPLAINT] Claimed that movie Missing defamed them by suggesting complicity in a death

[UPSHOT] A judge dismissed the case

[NAME] John Cerasani

[COMPLAINT] Mobster said the producers of Donnie Brasco portrayed him as a murderer

[UPSHOT] Fuggeddabowdit--judge threw out the suit

[NAME] Tony Twist

[COMPLAINT] St. Louis Blues hockey player said his name was used and defamed in Spawn comic

[UPSHOT] The case is pending

SCIENCE NOTES

EUREKA! A millennium-old manuscript, below, the oldest copy of a work by Greek mathematician Archimedes, sold last week at auction for $2.2 million. Works from other scientists also did well.

CHARLES DARWIN Estimated bid: $25,000-$35,000 Final bid: $79,500

LOUIS PASTEUR Estimated bid: $8,000-$12,000 Final bid: $27,600

SIGMUND FREUD Estimated bid: $40,000-$60,000 Final bid: $46,000

NUMBERS

$19,000 Amount Ken Starr spent per month for luxury apartments for staff

$30,517 Amount spent for a psychological analysis of evidence relating to the suicide of Vince Foster

$729,000 Amount Starr spent on five private investigators to supplement FBI evidence

$1,000,000 Amount spent on staff travel

2,500 Media personnel who covered the launch of Discovery last week

379 Media personnel who covered the launch of Friendship 7, in 1962

$2.15 Average profit currently earned per employee for every $1 spent on salary and benefits in the U.S.

$1.85 That amount, in 1995

1 Where Met Mike Piazza ranks among major-leaguers in salary

18 Where he ranks in overall ability, according to the official Elias Sports Bureau survey

Sources Los Angeles Times, NASA; Wall Street Journal; USA Today

NINE DEGREES OF SEPARATION

In 1962 John Glenn was an astronaut in the Mercury space program with...

...Virgil ("Gus") Grissom, who in 1965 flew in the first Gemini mission with...

...John Young, who flew in Apollo 10 and 16 and on shuttle Columbia with...

...Robert Crippen, who was in a 1983 Challenger flight with...

...Frederick Hauck, who flew on a 1988 Discovery shuttle mission with...

...Richard Covey, who in 1993 flew to fix the Hubble telescope with...

...Kenneth Bowersox, who flew on a 1995 Columbia shuttle flight with...

...Kent Rominger, who flew in a 1997 Discovery shuttle flight with...

...Curtis L. Brown Jr., who is now in command of Discovery, and crew member...

...John Glenn