Informed Sources: Oct. 18, 1993

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Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?

Washington -- After investing $42 million to integrate a long-range air- tracking radar system into its C-130 aircraft to help detect drug smugglers, the U.S. COAST GUARD concluded that the plane's $2.5 million annual maintenance and operational costs weren't worth it. So it decided to offer the plane to the drug-interdiction program at the Pentagon, the main agency charged with air and maritime drug detection. But because the Pentagon decided that "we already have better equipment," the plane was transferred to the Air Force to carry cargo.

Photo Opportunity Knocks

Washington -- When the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gathered for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's investiture, they assumed, not unreasonably, that PRESIDENT CLINTON would be late and they would have time for a photographer to take the traditional informal picture of the reconstituted group. But Clinton showed up early, making it impossible, as a matter of courtesy, to shoot a photo without him. Separation-of-power purists will have to wait for the formal court portrait, to be taken later.

Make Us Cry Until We Laugh

Los Angeles -- CHEVY CHASE's new late-night talk show on Fox has received excoriating reviews and horrendous ratings, but apparently that isn't punishment enough for Fox executives. When David Letterman's show was on NBC, Chase's brilliantly successful rival famously ridiculed the executives there; now executives at Fox have actually been calling for Chase to make fun of them on the air.