Notebook

By Tam Gray, Michele Orecklin, and Jessica Yadegaran

WINNERS & LOSERS

[WINNERS]

GEOFFREY FIEGER Kevorkian lawyer is Dem nominee for Michigan Gov. Would the doc get to downsize government?

JERRY SEINFELD Warm welcome on Broadway may open opportunities. Jerry in Oklahoma? In The King and I?

GEORGE BUSH CIA Building named for him. Fitting for one who needed a decoder to be understood

[& LOSERS]

MIKE BARNICLE Columnist charged with stealing George Carlin's jokes. Good Lord, is that a hanging offense?

MODERN LIBRARY Judges of Top 100 novels admit flaky selection procedure produced spurious results

SADDAM HUSSEIN Ceases cooperation with U.N. inspectors. Note to Bill: Wag the Dog now out on video

BAD GUYS

HIDE AND SEEK Law enforcement has been tracking Eric Robert Rudolph for six months. So what? At least seven onetime members of the FBI's Most Wanted List have been on the lam more than 20 years, notably alleged murderer Joseph Maloney, on the run almost 31 years.

SIGN LANGUAGE

WRITTEN IN THE STARS Many observers think Aug. 17 will be a hard day for Bill Clinton, but that's not what the stars say. "It looks like it's going to be a piece of cake," says Jerome Rainville of the American School of Astrology. "Clinton has no planets opposing him, and Mercury and Venus are in alignment. On the 16th he will be getting good advice. He will have Sun sextile Jupiter, which gives vision and ideas. On the 17th he will be very cool, not uptight at all." What about Ken Starr? "Things look difficult. He's got Mars conjuncting his natal Saturn. He'll feel tired, obstructed, like he's not getting anywhere. Starr has a Saturn sun; he's a person who needs recognition. Clinton is a Leo, and Leo is like the Sun. It blinds us."

CONTEST CORNER

A WINNER! About 500 people accepted our challenge two weeks ago to write a parody of a nursery rhyme that dealt with a subject in the news. In a close competition, Cheryl Georgeson of Lincoln, Neb., prevailed, and will collect a coveted Notebook T shirt. Her entry parodied "Mary Had a Little Lamb":

Clinton had a little fun Intern fun, it was dumb Clinton had a little fun It was against the rules.

The intern told a friend each day Her calls were taped along the way Hearing what she had to say Starr's mouth began to drool.

Clinton swore an oath that he Had no sex with Lew-in-sky Then she got immunity Oh, fate can be so cruel!

Can't escape the public eye A stand-up guy, he'll testify Did he ask someone to lie? If so, it wasn't cool.

Clinton had a little fun, A little fun, a smoking gun Current odds are 10 to 1 In the impeachment pool.

ANNOUNCING NOTEBOOK CONTEST #2, in which readers are asked to consider the new Alfred Hitchcock postage stamp, shown here, and then design a stamp, depicting some current figure or event, that the Postal Service might reasonably issue in the year 2050. Fax your entry to (212) 467-1010, e-mail it to [email protected] or mail it to TIME Notebook Contest #2, Room 2321B, Time & Life Building, New York, N.Y. 10020.

NUMBERS

40: Percentage of respondents in a January 1998 poll who believed the Lewinsky matter was "of great importance to the country"

22: Percentage who think so now

$52,000: Secretary of Defense William Cohen's decorating bill for his Pentagon office, $14,000 of which was spent on "Aries blue" carpet

$22,000: The amount he went over budget

$350,000: Anthony Edwards' salary per episode of ER, the No. 2-rated show last season

$1 million: Paul Reiser's salary per episode of Mad About You, rated 27th

$400 million: Amount Disney offered the NHL for the rights to broadcast hockey games on ABC and ESPN for the next five years

45: Percentage increase the offer is over the amount Fox paid in 1994

24: Percentage NHL TV ratings have dropped since 1996

Sources: New York Daily News; Nielsen; Pew Research Center; New York Post; Bloomberg News