Notebook: Apr. 29, 1996

VERBATIM

"I see the President and the First Lady are not here, probably someplace testifying." --Don Imus, being inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame

"[Madonna] said that she doesn't care if it's a boy or a girl, as long as it's bisexual." --Tonight Show host Jay Leno "At Fox News, we'll try to be first, but we promise to be fair...We may seek to develop another expert source of information regarding Cuba other than CNN's bureau chief and democracy consultant, Fidel Castro." --Rupert Murdoch, who plans to launch an all-news channel

"I'm disappointed...But I'm not going to run around like Dennis Rodman and head-butt somebody." --Greg Norman, who came in second in the Masters, the sixth major golf tournament he has lost in the last round

"Good riddance." --The Daily Mirror on the divorce of the Duchess of York

WINNERS & LOSERS

SQUAWK RADIO

[WINNERS]

DON IMUS Unburnt by his toasting of the First Family, he is inducted into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame

ALAN DERSHOWITZ Fired last month for calling talk-show rival Bob Grant a racist; vindicated by Grant's own firing

GORDON LIDDY Cruel rules: Syndicated felon enjoys p.r. coup calling brother of Unabomb suspect a "snitch"

[& LOSERS]

HOWARD STERN One fan too many: a gun-packing Sternophile who stalks, threatens and praises his idol

BOB GRANT Shock radio gets a shock of its own as Grant is dumped for mocking the death of Ron Brown

RUSH LIMBAUGH The backlash continues. Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot begins 13th week as best seller

TONGUE IN CHECK

Why do Bill Clinton and Germany's Helmut Kohl get along so well, as they did at last week's summit in Moscow? Maybe it's because the President speaks some German and the Chancellor some English. Other polyglots present at the conference: French President Jacques Chirac, who speaks English and some Russian; Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, who gets along in English, French and Spanish; and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who is fluent in English and French, his country's two official languages. That left the monolinguists--Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and British Prime Minister John Major--mostly at the mercy of interpreters, even for small talk. A rundown of other leaders with more than one idiom on their resume:

LEADER LANGUAGES

POUL NYRUP RASMUSSEN Danish, English, French, German Prime Minister of Denmark

ION ILIESCU Romanian, English, French, Russian President of Romania

SHIMON PERES Hebrew, English, French, Russian, Prime Minister of Israel Yiddish

HASSAN II Arabic, English, French, Spanish King of Morocco

P.V. NARASIMHA RAO Hindi, Telegu and several other Prime Ministerof India Indian languages, English, Spanish

JIANG ZEMIN Mandarin Chinese, English, President of China Russian, Romanian

KIM YOUNG SAM Korean, English, Japanese President of South Korea

FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO Portuguese, English, French, President of Brazil Spanish, Italian, German

NO THIRD CANDIDATE?