Notebook: Feb. 10, 1997

WINNERS & LOSERS

RECKONING WITH THE PAST

[WINNERS]

MISS UNIVERSE Adios, avoirdupois. Venezuelan Alicia Machado breaks into sweat to regain winning form

OLD DOMINION Virginia finally retires minstrel-era song as official state tune. Don't carry me back anymore

MIKE DITKA Can you Bear it? Chicago's Iron Mike leaves sportscasting to coach New Orleans Saints

[& LOSERS]

PAT BOONE The bland plays on as pop music's white sheep goes heavy metal in a new album

DAVID LETTERMAN NBC balks at lending old Late Night clips for Dave's anniversary show on rival CBS

IMELDA MARCOS Unpaid $200,000 electric bill may cause power shutoff at husband's air-cooled crypt

BY THE BOOK

To the growing list of popular "how to" manuals, add this release from the CIA, recently made public under a Freedom of Information request from the Baltimore Sun. The agency says it no longer follows the rules of the 124-page 1983 "human-resource" handbook, used to train security forces in Latin American countries, which includes passages on mental torture:

A threat is basically a means for establishing a bargaining position by inducing fear in the subject. A threat should never be made unless it is part of the plan and the "questioner" has the approval to carry out the threat. When a threat is used, it should always be implied that the subject himself is to blame by using words such as, " You leave me no other choice but to... " He should never be told to comply "or else!"

The threat of coercion usually weakens or destroys resistance more effectively than coercion itself. For example, the threat to inflict pain can trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation of pain. In fact, most people underestimate their capacity to withstand pain. In general, direct physical brutality creates only resentment, hostility, and further defiance.

HISTORICAL WIT

President Clinton tried out some new material on Jan. 25 at the Alfalfa Club's private dinner--an annual opportunity for Washington power brokers to wine, dine and be deliciously unkind. Some off-the-record excerpts:

"We decided we were going to be more proactive about managing our place in history. This week at the White House we operationalized the Posterity War Room... I haven't seen Ira Magaziner this pumped in years. We will take our case to the media... Mike McCurry is going on A&E Biography. Erskine Bowles will be on the History Channel... My media team is busy putting together spots that will go negative on James Buchanan and Warren Harding... And James Carville has announced that he is making a full-scale assault on the scholars at the Heritage Foundation.... The Posterity War Room has already put together a comparative fact sheet... I want to share some of it with you: 'Bill Clinton added 1.5 million acres of land to our national parks. By his own admission, George Washington was personally responsible for the deforestation of cherry trees. Bill Clinton reduced crime on our streets; Thomas Jefferson's Vice President shot a guy! Bill Clinton has signed more nuclear disarmament than James Madison, Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk combined.'"

HAIL TO THE CHI