Notebook

WINNERS & LOSERS

[WINNERS]

TEDDY FORSTMANN Puts up his money and joins Michael Ovitz and John Walton in funding school vouchers

MIKE WALLACE & CO. 60 Minutes graybeards stifle bid to clone the show. Self-imitation isn't flattering--or shrewd

DENNIS RODMAN Warm gesture overshadows antics as he pays for Texas racial-murder victim's funeral

[& LOSERS]

MARIAH CAREY Dunned by chauffeur, splits with Derek Jeter. Dream lover come rescue me? Now's the time

SINBAD Comedian's talk show canceled as Magic Johnson's debuts. Yes--Sinbad had a talk show!

SUSAN B. ANTHONY Suffragette gets little support to put her back on the $1 coin. Yes--Anthony's on a $1 coin!

COURT COMPOSURE: MUSIC TO DRIBBLE TO

Basketball seasons come and go, but for "The NBA on NBC," the theme song remains the same. That brash melody that leads viewers in and out of commercials is called Roundball Rock, and it was composed by New Age instrumentalist extraordinaire John Tesh. Ever agreeable, Tesh says he doesn't mind that his best-known, and perhaps most hummable, creation is rarely attributed to him. "It happens to other composers as well, and I love hearing it." Tesh says he wrote the tune while in Europe; without a tape recorder or piano, he called home and sang it onto the answering machine, then submitted it under a fake name. According to Tesh, the song is the same pace as a fast break--120 feet a minute. "When I had to decide what the tempo was, I taped a whole bunch of games, then turned off the sound on the TV to make sure the tempo matched. This song would not work for golf." He says he is thinking of doing a rap version of the song next year. Asked whom he was rooting for in the finals, Tesh replied, "Seeing as I get royalties each time the song is played, I just root for more basketball."

CHRONICITY

CLOCK WATCHING Last week the board of directors at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the hands of its Doomsday Clock ahead five minutes--to nine minutes before midnight. We asked Bulletin editor Mike Moore what makes this clock tick:

Q: It's been several weeks since India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons. Why have you waited until now to move the clock?

A: This was the first board meeting since those tests, but we had been thinking about moving the clock long before that situation. The arms-reduction process between the U.S. and Russia has stalled, which is of great concern.

Q: Could we ever find the clock at, say, 10:30 p.m.?

A: The starting point for the clock was designed to be a quarter to midnight. When we moved it to 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, it was in a burst of optimism. If we found things were so good that we could move it to 10:30, we'd just retire it.

Q: What about 11:15?

A: No, we'd just retire the clock.

Q: Do you consider other possible earth-ending events, such as approaching asteroids?

A: The clock is a metaphor for world tensions; it's not an environmental clock. We don't consider asteroids and such.

EXPLOITING OUR LEADERS