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- GRAPEVINE, Page 13
-
-
- By JANICE CASTRO
-
- Good News for Shoe Shops
-
- What a difference a year makes. IMELDA MARCOS will be
- among the guests at the inauguration of new Philippine President
- Fidel Ramos this week. Marcos, who wasn't welcome at home a year
- ago, won a very respectable 2 million votes in the recent
- presidential election (to Ramos' 5.3 million). Ramos, who is
- inheriting a more stable situation than Cory Aquino did six
- years ago, seems eager to heal old wounds. He is expected to
- offer amnesty to communist, Muslim and military rebels. And he
- is rumored to be planning to end the government's campaign to
- seize the Marcos billions. Last week the official charged with
- retrieving the "hidden wealth" recommended a compromise with
- Imelda to split the proceeds, if recovered, of a fortune in gold
- bullion said to be stashed in Switzerland.
-
- Here Comes the Judge
-
- Ever since Alan Dershowitz struck out, Leona Helmsley has
- been pining away in Danbury federal prison. Not for long, if
- ROBERT BORK has anything to say about it. Judge Bork, a Supreme
- Court nominee who was spurned in 1987, will argue her tax-fraud
- case before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York
- City at the end of the summer. As Solicitor General for
- Presidents Nixon and Ford, he spent four years arguing cases
- before the Supreme Court. But why would a distinguished legal
- scholar and jurist want to take an assignment like the Helmsley
- case? Explains the judge: "In the law, it's where the rubber
- meets the road."
-
- Lost in Space: Common Sense
-
- Political correctness has invaded space! NASA and the
- EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY have buckled under fussbudget accusations
- that Buck Rogers terminology is sexist. As a result, NASA will
- no longer refer to "manned" flights but will describe the
- missions as "habitated" and "unhabitated," or "crewed" and
- "uncrewed." Says a NASA spokesman: "We have been ordered to
- delete any reference by sex, on the grounds that `manned' flight
- is crude and `crewed' is p.c." Even so, some sociologists are
- still not satisfied. They prefer "space flight by human beings."
- Female astronauts find these linguistic aerobics foolish. Says
- one: "Common sense is the victim of all this rhetoric."
-
- News of Their Own
-
- WOMEN DELEGATES to the Democratic National Convention in
- Manhattan this month will get plenty of news about female
- candidates and women's issues, thanks to the Getting It Gazette,
- a daily that will be published by a group of feminists during
- the five-day convocation. The title is a play on the cry heard
- round the nation during the Clarence Thomas hearings: "They just
- don't get it!" Four thousand free copies of the hot-pink
- hand-out will be distributed every morning. In addition to
- profiles of women candidates and analyses of key issues, the
- Gazette will include guides to inexpensive restaurants and the
- best ladies' rooms in Manhattan.
-
- Campaign Quiz
-
- Q: What will George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot be
- doing on the Fourth of July?
-
- 1. Vacationing at an undisclosed location
-
- 2. Attending the Daytona 500
-
- 3. Don't know
-
- 4. Celebrating with an egg toss, wheelbarrow race, parade
- and barbecue in the tiny town of Faith, N.C.
-
-
- A:
-
- 1: Clinton
-
- 2, 4: Bush
-
- 3: Perot
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