The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 91

THE PALM BEACH POST TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2002 MSL 2D Liz Smith Find good traits of son's new wife Internet mail cheers the troops Trump defeats Clinton at golf The course was soaked, but that didn't stop Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton from playing 18 holes Saturday at Trump International Golf Club. Sources at the club report the group, which also included Democratic Na Willie takes diet on the road again ear Ann Landers: uur zyear-old son Readers: Today's column will be recently married a woman who works as a stripper in a nightclub. I told him point-blank I different. I want to thank you for making OperationDearAbby.net a tremendous that as long as she continues in this disgraceful job, we do not care to be associated with her. success.

Because of your generosity, our troops have received more than 375,000 messages. i THINK people should watch my life and do the opposite," says country western star Willie Nelson. But Willie is less into marijuana i My son insists we include this woman in our family gatherings, but I refuse. I have never approved of girls who take their clothes off for money, and I will not be forced into it now. My younger sons, who are high school students, are deeply embarrassed by their brother's new wife.

If this girl would find a respectable job, we would mats tne equivalent of more than five tons of letters. (Heaven only knows how many trees have been spared because they weren't needed for paper.) And the Department of Defense tells me that the tional Chairman Terry McAulrffe, had a great time, even if the Prez did not have his best round. Clinton shot an 82, an enviable score to most duffers, but to the owner went the spoils. Trump had the best score card of the day, a 71. No word on how many Mulligans were taken.

On Sunday, the rain closed Trump International, canceling Trump's round with Bob Kraft, Dear Abby Abigail Van Buren and Jeanne Phillips Ann Landers Thorn Smith fhese days, so it could be said he on A Weed Watcher's Diet" down in Austin, Texas. Appearing recently on Jay Leno's show, Willie took some kidding from the TV host about his new, scaled-back habits and thin appearance. Willie opined: "I laid off pot for about three months during the holidays to give my lungs a rest, and now I just try to do everything in moderation. I watch my backside in the music videos to get an idea to see how much weight I need to lose. You can save money on the scales." Well, most of us aren't seeing a lot of music videos of our backsides, but still, Willie's moderation diet is a good idea.

If Willie sees himself "beefing up," he cuts out sugar for three weeks. "When I'm on my strict diet, I stick to bacon and eggs, and I drop potatoes, my main dish." WHAT IS IT with actors and wild animals? We know Julia Roberts made African documentaries. Now Meg Ryan, who stars in Kate Leopold, has a Nature series about elephants on PBS. She says they're her favorites since childhood. Meg went to Thailand in search of a rare white elephant She prepared for the arduous trip by learning how to ride the great beasts.

"They say about elephants that they never forget," says Meg. "My feeling is, it would be horrifying. I mean, I'm happy to forget a lot. Let's face it, you really want to live a peaceful life. If you remembered everything, how peaceful would you be? I've always heard that elephants are terrified of mice.

I like that about them. They're loyal. know that from Dr. Seuss." RANDOLPH ITCH 2 A.M. TOM TOLES number of "hits" that's visits to the site has topped 25 million.

I'll share a sample of the messages that were received from young readers (spelling and grammar preserved) Dear Soldier I'm glad you are perfecting us. But I'm sorry your away from your family near Christmas. I hope you are o.k. and I hope you can see your family again. If you watch football, the Small Bears won the championship.

The Raiders are in second place. It was a good game, it was 18 to 12. 1 hope you win the war. If you don't die can you please write me back? I'll write to you again. P.S.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We're thinking of you. Memphis (Third Grade) From a girl to her brother who's in the Army: Dear Timmy: I want to fill you in on what has been going on. First of all, Mom and Dad have split up. Now Dad has someone else named Theresa.

Her little girl is one of my friends. Me and Mom now live in an apartment. I am in forth grade now. I even have my own locker. I go to the same school, but now I'm getting into an after school program.

Thank you for risking your life for us. Your sister, Andrea Dear Serviceman: I'm 13. I'm a very nice girl. I like to sing, dance, play video games, talk on the phone and listen to my CD player. Thank you for protecting our country and my family.

You left your home to fight for us. Thanks to you, a lot of people are still alive. You put your lives in danger and that is really brave. You should get a gold medal. I felt really sad when I heard terrorists bombed New York and the Pentagon and killed so many innocent people.

I think whoever was in charge of the bombing should be killed. You are heroes and nobody will ever forget you. Kyana, Canoga Park, Calif. So, Dear Readers, I hope this sample was ample and you enjoyed them as much as I did. Thanks to the Department of Defense, OperationDearAbby.

net is year-round. It serves all branches of our armed forces. All messages are relayed to our troops via a secure military site so they can be beamed to a ship in the middle of the ocean or a submarine under the sea or downloaded to a cave in Afghanistan. Dear Abby appears daily. Write to her in care of The Palm Beach Post, P.O.

Box 24700, West Palm Beach, Fla. gladly include her in our lives. Are we unreasonable, or do we have the right to expect something better? Stuffy Dad In Kansas Dear Dad in Kansas: This girl is now a member of your family, like it or not, and you must find a way to accept her. It is OK to dislike her line of work and hope that she will find another job; however, it is NOT OK to alienate your son and ignore his bride because you disapprove of her. If your son has a problem with his wife's job, it's up to him to let her know.

Meanwhile, try to find something to admire about the woman, and focus on that aspect of her personality. You will be teaching your other children a lesson in tolerance and giving a demonstration of graciousness. Dear Ann Landers: I'm a stickler when it comes to thank-you notes. I make a point of sending one every time I receive a gift or someone does something nice for me. I prefer handwritten notes instead of the pre-printed store-bought ones.

My husband's grandmother feels otherwise. Last year, Granny sent me a birthday present. I sent her a fairly lengthy handwritten note, telling her how much I enjoyed her gift, where I had placed it in our home and other information. Granny complained to my mother-in-law that I was a cheapskate and an ignorant girl. She said I could afford a nice store-bought card and should be ashamed of myself for sending her a handwritten note.

Granny's family is well-brought up, and I am from the poor side of town. Have I breached some rule of etiquette of which I am unaware? I will be happy to send Granny a store-bought card if this is what she prefers, but I want to know whether I am doing the right thing. Too Personal in Flint, Mich. Dear Too Personal: I don't know what part of town Granny's family comes from, but they obviously missed the lesson on thank-you notes. It is always correct to send a personal, handwritten note.

If you send a pre-printed, store-bought card, you should write a personal note inside. Because Granny prefers the store-bought variety, however, send her those, and don't make an issue of it. Ann Landers' column appears daily. Write to her in care of The Palm Beach Post, P.O. Box 24700, West Palm Beach, Fla.

334164700. owner of the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots and resident of Breakers Row. Trump, who owned the New Jersey Generals in the United States Football League way back in 1991, was looking forward to the golf, but Kraft proved a classy guest, dropping off a Patriots helmet at the Mar-a-Lago Club. 10-goal players in tight match OK, most folks have seen Tiger Woods dribble a golf ball on the blade of a club. Tink, tink, tink Big deal.

Saturday afternoon Adorfo Cambiaso did the same thing with a polo mallet, which has a head about an inch and a half in diameter while racing downfield at a full gallop. He whiffed on his shot, but it didn't matter. That's polo. Ten-goal polo. Or in Saturday's case, 80-goal polo.

For the fourth time in history, eight top-rated 10-goal players (there are a mere 12 in the world) gathered at Royal Palm Polo in Boca Raton for the Rob Walton Challenge. Cambiaso's team, Total Body Rehabilitation, won in overtime, 10-9, on a goal by Marcos Heguy. However, it was Marcos' younger brother, Bautista, who won the MVP bridle. He had flown in from his home in Argentina that morning, and was a fill-in on the Bud Light team. The play was nonstop, with pinpoint 120-yard passes and sharp-angled neck shots commonplace, much to the delight of nearly 2,000 fans.

"The only sad thing is that it's too short and we play only one time," lamented Wellington's Memo Gracida, in his 21st year as a 10-goaler. The game, post-match dinner and auction raised an estimated $150,000 for the Polo Players Support Group, which helps seriously injured players and grooms. Despite the athleticism of Cambiaso and the Heguys, the sport takes its toll. Saturday morning, George Rollins, playing for Crab Orchard, was struck in the head with a mallet. He was fortunate 15 stitches and he was back in time for the big match.

For all involved after the super match, Sunday's rain, which washed out all the competitive matches, provided a return to reality. "We had a chance to mellow out and get ready to watch 22-goal polo again," auctioneer Tony Coppola said Monday. thomsmithpbpost.com I GOT AN ELECTRIC CAR, 7 but wow i HAve to wait 1 T1U.THEV COVBR. THE I sVZL vvmTH METAL CEILlNGy Horoscope Morning Monologue Place bids for toy Mercedes online by JOYCE JILLSON The Olympic cauldron was lit Friday by the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team famous for beating the Soviet Union in a stunning upset.

It was America's first Miracle on Ice. The second was in 1986 when George W. Bush switched to Diet Coke on the rocks. President Bush opened the Winter Olympics in Utah Friday. Spectators were frisked as they J.

entered a stadium nnged with troops and patrolled overhead by F-16 fighters. The president wanted to show the world that the terrorists didn't win. The Olympic ice skating competition began Saturday. The rink is surrounded by barbed wire, police dogs, troops and metal detectors. It sounds like a place where Tonya Harding could sell her body -4 STURROCK From ID is a tribute to New York, his adopted home.

Fire-engine red, with red-and-white accents, it comes equipped with a Zang Toi cosmetic bag stuffed with Bobbi Brown Essentials makeup. Luella Bartley, who won Elle magazine's Young Designer Award for 2000, created a black-studded, '50s-inspired car with pink pompons trailing from the rear bumper. Carmen Marc Valvo lined his steering wheel with faux white mink, and Betsey Johnson drew a picture of herself on the hood. A lieutenant with FDNVs Ladder Company 55 of the South Bronx combined images of Americana, painting hot-rod flames around the headlights and a waving Old Glory on the trunk. A handful of celebs also were designated decorators: Drew Barrymore dolled up a kelly green car with daisies, while Britney Spears appliqued her car with pink flowers and sat a blond fairy on the hood, and Rosie O'Donnell set off a mustard-colored grille with pea-green headlights.

Those wanting to bid on a baby Benz should visit www.ebay.com and search for "Mercedes Benz pedal car." All bids start at $175, and the auctions end Sunday. Puff goes the invitation Sean Diddy" Combs' PR machine probably wishes it had gotten better mileage out of its wallet-busting, white-handkerchief invites. Argus Hamilton Those born today: Success in love will put you in a premium position to sit back and enjoy life. By March, you'll kick into high gear so that you can accomplish an important personal goal by summertime. Today's Birthdays: Baseball Hall-of-Fame sports-caster Joe Garaglola is 76.

Basketball Hall-of-Famer Bill Russell is 68. Rock musician Ray Manzarek is 63. Author Judy Blume is 64. Actress Maud Adams is 57. Actor Michael Ironside is 52.

Rock musician Steve Hackett is 52. Actor-former talk show host Arsenlo Hall is 47. Singer Chynna Phillips is 34. Rock musician Jim Creeggan is 32. Actress Christina Rlccl is 22.

Aries (March 21-April 19). Some travel plans will be canceled due to weather conditions and priority shifts. Consider why it's so difficult to relax. Taurus (April 20-May 20). Achieve higher career status by studying the tactics of successful risk-takers, and follow their method.

Gemini (May 21-June 21). The whole team will cheer for you if you can clear up what others couldn't Persistence wins your crush's heart. Cancer (June 22-July 22). Get rid of the obstacles that block the path to what you want Your sweetheart will open up the floor for discussion. Leo (July 23-Aug.

22). New love potentials only see what you choose to project, and you are too savvy to show your insecurities. Virgo (Aug. 23-SepL 22). Put love first Accentuate positivity whenever you can; that's what will make you happy.

What causes you to feel uncertain confuses others as well. Answer a child's question. Libra (SepL 23-Oct. 23). Suppress your anxieties before completing a task at hand.

Be careful not to blame others for what you should handle. Scorpio (Oct 24-Nov. 21). Leave people alone don't chase anyone! A creative love interest pursues you. Play royalty in your own game.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Be realistic about a current attachment, though passion carries you away. YouH discover that you're open to ideas.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Money and work are both flowing smoothly, so enjoy it while it lasts. The masses would love your talent Aquarius (Jan.

20-Feb. 18). You are extremely productive; you'll wish you could get this much done every day. Travel will be blessed with great companions. Pisces (Feb.

19-March 20). A major change in your company may affect a business deal. Make good on short-term contracts. 5 ill 15' I to the guards for cigarettes. Air Force One was rocked by thunderstorms and lightning en route to Wyoming on Friday.

You can tell when a Republican's been bargaining for his life. The next day, President Bush announced massive funding for black colleges in his new budget. Bob Costas interviewed President Bush at the Olympics on Friday. The president said he feels great and spends an hour a day running. Today's hour was spent promising black colleges more money and increasing the ethanol subsidies for Iowa.

Carnival in Rio kicked off Friday night in the world's largest Mardi Gras party. It's a five-day orgy of drinking, nudity and carousing. It's a good thing John Ashcroft isn't Secretary of Defense, or Brazil would be on the target list. Enron's former CEO Ken Lay sold his interest in the Houston Texans, who begin play in the NFL next fall. He would have been a great owner.

Even when the team was trailing by 40 points the scoreboard would show them leading by 10. Argus Hamilton is the host comedian at The Comedy Store in Hollywood (argusargushamilton.com) The what, when and where the Sean John show at 8 p.m. Saturday at Cipriani's restaurant near Grand Central Station was embroidered in red on linen hankies. Each invite, the size of a generous table napkin, was folded inside an embossed black v. A v- velvet box, which included a tee-1 I ll ny pair of burgundy cuff links.

i Iti Cost: $60 an invitation. Num Daily bridge club by FRANK STEWART Combs i. ber sent: 1,000. You do the math. However, just before 9, security guards stepped up to dozens of shivering-in-the-New-York-night invitation holders including several members of the press anxious to give ink to the menswear inside and told 'em to scram.

The place was so packed that the show was closed even to those who had been assigned seats (which were cleverly written on the handkerchiefs MARK LENNIHANThe Associated Press A model wears a gold lace kimono with embroidered denim clamdiggers at the Baby Phat show. Farm spinoff. Its creative director is Kimora Lee Simmons, the stunning former model who is married to Russell Simmons, hip-hop impresario and the brains behind Phat Farm. Got all that? There I stood with other reporters as Beautiful Person after Beautiful Person was hustled in, 45 minutes of watching fashion junkies float by. Now, it's not that these were Famous Beautiful People; you expect to step aside for them.

These were Beautiful People whose sole claim to fame is dressing in a manner that renders them wildly, often ridiculously, eccentric: Tiaras. Bad dye jobs. Fur chubbies. I eventually won a spot in the back of the Baby Phat tent, where, from what I could see, the collection was a sort of Anna Sui-meets-Betsey Johnson mishmash of bohemian influences (a nice way of saying it looks like someone went thrift shopping), bold colors, bare midriffs and butt cheeks. For a second opinion, I asked someone in the front row, Lauren Ezersky, host of cable's Behind the Velvet Rope.

What did she think, given that she could see the models from head to toe? "It was kinda trashy, but a good kinda trashy," Ezersky said. The market for sequined hot pants is undoubtedly limited in Manalapan, but in pinched economic times, it seems a fashion house would want to wisely consider its publicity priorities, devoting a littlenore TLC to the notebook carriers, a little less so the tiara wearers. stacisturrockpbpost.com '2 South dealer Both sides vulnerable NORTH a 8 7 3 5 0 9 3 7 6 2 K. Simmons WEST j2 K10842 lo A72 943 EAST Q1095 973 0 Q6 J1085 "She shouldn't have gotten away with it" Dr. Ed Fitch, our club president, was blaming himself for a swing Minnie Bottoms had engineered against his team.

Minnie wears old bifocals and confuses kings and jacks. "She took the queen of hearts," Ed told me, "and led dummy's nine of diamonds. My partner played low putting up the queen was too much to ask and I took the ace." "Minnie thought dummy's king was the jack," I smiled. "She thought she was finessing against the queen." "I couldn't lead another heart," Ed said, "so I tried a club. Minnie won, went to dummy with a spade, led the king of diamonds and made an overtrick.

At the other South led a club to his hand at Trick Two and let the jack of diamonds ride. East won and returned a heart down one." "Why blame yourself?" I asked. "Bifocals or not Minnie's play was correct" "I should have ducked the first diamond," Ed said darkly. "She might have led a low diamond from dummy next" DAILY QUESTION You hold: J2K10842 4A72 9 4 3. Your partner opens one spade, you respond INT, and he next bids two diamonds.

The opponents pass. What do you say? ANSWER: Bid two spades. This will be a playable contract if partner passes. A "false preference" also preserves chances for game; if partner has extra strength, he can bid again. You can't speculate by bidding two carts, since partner might have to pass from fright despite a singleton heart laundering-instructions tag).

Arguing wasn't an option, with the NYPD standing by. This kind of thing is Fashion Week's most ridiculous hoop. Designer invites reporter to watches show. Reporter writes about show, designer gets name in paper. Readers learn more about designer, readers buy designer's clothes.

Designer makes money, which is then spent on more invitations and shows to which he invites reporter. But the cause-and-effect chain breaks down if the reporter is denied access. These thoughts percolated when I was dispatched to the standing-room-only line for the Baby Phat show on Saturday. Baby Phat is a Phat SOUTH 6 4 I-- 9AJ6 0 10854 A South West North East 1 NT Paa 2 Pass 2 0 Pass 3 NT All Pass Owning lead 4 2002 Tribune Media Services, Inc..