Notebook: Jun. 30, 1997

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WINNERS & LOSERS

HOTSHOTS AND LONG SHOTS

[WINNERS]

MICHAEL MOORE So he's self-righteous, and the deal has cigarette holes. He's inhaling presidential fumes now.

WALT DISNEY CO. Company shrugs off Mickey Mouse boycott. Baptists can go to, er, church.

FBI Most Wanted terrorist captured. They finally got a man.

[& LOSERS]

AL GORE Clumsy walk-on at TV-ratings talks ends dialogue and earns him a P, for Putting His Foot in It.

MCDONALD'S Maalox, please. Court victory causes indigestion. Judge agrees they're unkind to cows.

AT&T CORP. You can't put Humpty Dumpty back together, says FCC head.

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

BRAIN FOOD A low-fat diet may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. A study of North America and Europe finds that Sweden--where fish is favored and fat is not--has the lowest incidence of Alzheimer's.

FERTILE FINDINGS When a woman's energy stores are low--which can result from dieting or exercising too much--levels of the hormone leptin start to fall, which may cause a drop in reproductive hormones. So before rushing to a fertility expert, try eating more and exercising less.

INOCULATION UPDATE The government estimates 20,000 lives a year could be saved if older adults got the pneumococcal vaccine.

Sources: Alzheimer's Disease Review; Endocrine Society meeting; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

THE BAD NEWS

CHOLESTEROL CONUNDRUM Young girls with high cholesterol (above 170) may not be able to correct the problem by slimming down. In girls, unlike boys, cholesterol levels seem to have nothing to do with body fat.

GIVE ME A SMILE Depressed mothers seem to give birth to babies with similar symptoms--elevated levels of stress hormones, few facial expressions and trouble sleeping. Their brain waves too mimic those of their depressed moms.

VIRULENT VIRUS A deadly illness caused by the hantavirus has spread from person to person in Argentina. Until now, scientists thought it was transmitted only by contact with rodent excrement.

Sources: Circulation; University of Miami School of Medicine; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

THINGS TO DO IN DENVER...

COLORADO'S CALLING A gathering of the world's industrialized powers? It's no big deal to Denver. Last week's Summit of the Eight was only one of many shindigs in the city this June (aside from the somber Timothy McVeigh trial). Some calendar highlights:

GROUP ATTENDANCE (EST)

USA Volleyball Junior National Championships (tournament) 25,000

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (symposium) 7,300

Summit of the Eight (world-leader photo-op) 7,000

International New Age (trade show) 5,000

Horizon House Publications (convention and trade show) 5,000

Collector Arms Dealers Association (gun show) 2,500

Christmas Early Bird Show (trade show) 1,500