The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 14

2B TODAY THE SUN TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1985 EVENTS NAMES AND FACES "I'm being very cautious," she said, after two broken engagements. "I'm sure I will remarry once more, but only once more, and boy. It's going to be right. I'm taking no chances." Johnson, Eastwood: 'most wanted 1988, most Michigan residents say they would be sur-' prised. A Detroit News poll published Sunday 66 percent of the respondents says they did not think he would seek the presidency.

Veteran comedian Jerry Lewis says he doesn't think much of today's young comics, mainly because they are too cerebral and because of their coarse language. "Some of the language they choose to use My father used to say, 'If you have to use four-letter words, work In a Mr. Lewis, 59, said during a stop in Sun City, Ariz. Arms race talk Dr. Victor Sldel.

of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. will speak on "Destruction before Detonation: The Impact of the Arms Race'on Health and Health Care" and the summit meeting at Geneva at 5 p.m. Dec. 3 in the Turner Auditorium, Rutland and Monument streets. A reception will follow.

Call 235-7760. Surviving diabetes The American Diabetes Association will hold a survival skills program from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Dec. 4 at the Towson Library, 320 York Road.

Call 486-5515. Movie benefit The Baltimore County General Hospital Foundation will sponsor its seventh annual movie benefit at the Senator Theater, featuring the film "White Nights," beginning with a champagne hour at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5. No tickets will be sold at the door.

Call 521-2290. Today's past Actors Don Johnson, Clint Eastwood and Dudley Moore and singers David Bowie and Sting have been chosen by Harper's Bazaar magazine as among the 10 "most-wanted divorced men." Others Included fashion designer Calvin Klein, actor-playwright Sam Shep- grri nrnHnrer-Hirertor Woman in Belushi case ordered to stand trial A Los Angeles Judge yesterday ordered a former backup singer to stand trial on a charge of second-degree murder In the 1982 drug overdose death of comedian John Belushi. Cathy Evelyn Smith, 38, who has acknowledged Injecting Mr. Belushi with "speedballs" of cocaine and heroin, wept quietly after Municipal Judge James Nelson ordered her to appear for arraignment Dec. 10 in Superior Court.

"Surely Mr. Belushi issued the Invitation In this dance, but it is an inherently dangerous dance," Judge Nelson said just before he ruled. Ms. Smith's attorney, Howard Weitzman, contended that someone else or the comedian himself had provided and administered the fatal dose to Mr. Belushi, star of television's "Saturday Night Live" and such movies as "Animal House." Taylor sees another marriage Seven times a bride, Elizabeth Taylor says she is sure she'll probably walk down the aisle once more but she won't rush into anything.

"I think maybe I'm finally growing up. and about time." Miss Taylor, 53, said in an interview published In the December issue of Vanity Fair. "Being alone doesn't frighten me." TODAY IN HISTORY: NOV. 26 In 1789, a day of thanksgiving was set aside by President George Washington to observe the adoption of the U.S. Constitution.

In 1716, the first lion to be exhibited in America was shown to the public in Boston. In 1825, the first college social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, was formed at Union College In Schenectady, N.Y., In 1832, public streetcar service began in New York City. The fare: 12'a cents. The streetcar was the horse-drawn John Mason, unveiled 12 days earlier. BIRTHDAYS: TV commentator Eric Sevareid is 73.

"Pea-. nuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz is 63. Singer Robert Goulet is 52. Actress-singer Marian Mercer Is 50.

Singer Tina Turner is 47. Impressionist Rich Little is 47. From Wire Reports Thanksgiving dinner DON JOHNSON George Lucas and actor William Hurt, with baseball player Steve Garvey the only athlete. The magazine did not say how it chose the men. The list was published with accompanying photos In the December issue.

Glimpses If Lee Iacocca, chairman of the Chrysler throws his hat In the ring as a candidate for president in Manna House will serve a Thanksgiving Day dinner at St. Mark's Lutheran church. 20th and St. Paul streets, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. The dinner is free.

If you want to be listed in this column, write two weeks in advance to: Events Features Department, The Sun, Baltimore 21278. BRIDGE: ALFRED SHEINWOLD Redford and wife split; 'Vice' may move up an hour LIZ SMITH West dealer East-West vulnerable NORTH 984 S7AQJ6 WEST EAST QJ1075 1087 A63 S107543 982 0863 J654 ty K2 K. half of the show did very well indeed against "Miami Vice." Perhaps the pastel-and-palm tree cop show would find "Dallas" a more formidable opponent than networkers think. THE PENNS, Madonna and Sean, were as darling and down-home as ever when they caught the super-sophisticated "Tango Argentina" last week. Mrs.

Penn blew pink bubble gum bubbles throughout the wonderful dancing and music onstage, and Sean mostly kept his famous face hidden In the Playbill. The Taylor Elizabeth rushed off to Paris just for the fun of it," but I hear that when Herself returns, we will receive some news about a big project she is taking on for big bucks. (Well, she hasn't worked for small bucks since way back before Diane Keaton has a new love. He is artist Steven Gianakos, who de THE ROBERT REDFORDS have finally resolved their longtime marriage difficulties and are separated: however, they are not legally separated. Lola is remaining in their Fifth Avenue apartment In Manhattan and probably will spend a lot of time In Vermont, as has been her habit In recent years.

Robert Is said to be looking for a place to roost. Insiders deny that he has rented Michael Bennett's penthouse while the famous director spends a year in London directing the musical "Chess." The Redfords remain friendly and civilized, naturally. PEACOCK FEATHERS: Rumors are flying at NBC that the network's programmers may move their hot one "Miami Vice" to one hour earlier on Fridays, putting it opposite "Dallas" in an effort to malm the CBS rival. "Miami Vice" has already done its damage its current opposition, CBS's "Falcon Crest," which I happen to think is the best-written, scribes himself as "an erotic blas-phemist." Hmmm, well, OK, Steve, if that's how you want to think of yourself. These two were dancing the night away at NYC's Palladium for the Leo Castelli party; Diane's new fashion statement? A turban and pearls.

At this same bash, rocker Rod Stewart and Kelly Emberg gave the lie to tales that they've had it with one another. Looks iike they haven't had enough yet. The first preview of Sam Shep-ard's play, "A Lie of the Mind," ran from 8 p.m. until 12:50 a.hCWell, not bad they cut at least 70 minutes off the original play. VETERAN columnist James Bacon and the L.A.

Herald-Examiner have come to a parting of the, ways after 17 years of Jim's reportage on all the great Golden Oldies of the movie biz. Tribune Media Services 1 OAJ752 AQ932 West North East South Pass Pass Pass 10 14 Dbl Pass 3 Pass 30 Pass 3 NT All Pass Opening lead -Q Today's hand, played during the match between the Netherlands and Germany in the 1985 European Championships, shows how the experts pick off a singleton king in real life. At both tables, North doubled one spade for takeout (a bidding convention used by many tournament experts), and South ended at three no-trump. At both tables, also. East took the ace of spades and led a low spade to South's king.

The German declarer then led the king of hearts to dummy's ace and tried the diamond finesse. Down one. At the second table, Dutch star Eddy Roosnek saw that he mightn't have to rely exclusively on the diamond finesse. There was an extra chance if he had good luck In clubs. Roosnek therefore led the ace of clubs and was rewarded when the king fell.

He overtook the king of hearts, cashed two more hearts, then led the ten of clubs for a finesse. When this held, he repeated the finesse and took five clubs, three hearts, one spade and one diamond. 9: You hold: 984 0Q10 9 7A9J6 1087 best-acted of all the nighttime soaps. Should the time switch take place, "Miami Vice" would then be a strong lead-in for some other NBC show to try to further dismantle "Falcon Crest." But CBS merely blinks its eye at such threats. Insiders there say when "Dallas" returned this season with a two-hour opener, the second Partner bids one diamond, you respond one heart, he bids two clubs, and you bid two diamonds.

He then bids two spades. The opponents pass. What do you say? Bid three diamonds. You don't really know what partner Is doing. If he Is suggesting notrump, you certainly can't encourage him since you have no help in spades and have already told your whole story.

You can only repeat your preference for diamonds and let partner say what (if anything) he has in mind. Los Angeles Times Syndicate Boardless board games Gifts are going high-tech GAMES, from IB Hon of Great Neck. N.Y. Along with its regular line of educational cassettes that teach everything from Chinese cooking to baseball, they have added several VCR game titles. "America is beginning to build a so CD player for audiophiles By Andrea Pawlyna For music lovers who want state-of-the-art audio technology, a compact disc player is the Item to buy this Christmas.

At prices averaging for basic models, the machines offer listeners unparalleled sound quality. Even usually phlegmatic Consumer Reports magazine was effusive in its praise when it reported on CD players in its June issue. We were simply not prepared for the uniformly excellent performance of these players. By every criterion we used, theyj were far superior to any sound-reproduction device we have ever tested," the magazine enthused. Marketed since 1983, compact disc players represent a modern revolution in sound reproduction.

Instead of a diamond stylus resting on a spinning vinyl record, CD players use a laser beam and microprocessors to decode musical Information from a 4V4-inch compact disc. This means, unlike vinyl records, which tend to deteriorate from excessive playing, compact discs can't be harmed by repeated use. As a result, consumers have been gobbling up CD players In record quantities. "Consumer acceptance of CD players has been even more rapid than for VCRs or TV." says Allan Schlosser, a spokesman for the Electronic Industries Association. It took 1 1 years before a million color television sets were sold in a single year and six years for VCRs.

But compact discs are expected to reach that level in 1986, four years after they hit the market, he adds. More than a dozen brands are now available, among them models sold by Sony, RCA. Sanyo. Quasar, General Electric and Toshiba. Sony, following on the success of its Walkman tape player, has also come out with Discman, a portable CD player.

The quarter-pound unit sells for $300 and was recommended by Consumer Reports as "a basic no-frills player at an extremely competitive price." For now, choosing a CD player is a matter of selecting the desired features. Some models, for instance, allow programming songs In the playing order desired. Others have remote control units. A less common feature lets you jump to an "index" point on a particular track to listen to a favorite musical passage. By the end of the decade, industry observers expect CD players will offer both recording and playback capability.

The technology for this already exists; however, the cost of manufacturing the new units is still prohibitively high. mosphere Is also behind MCA Home Video's Max Maven's Mind Games, a cassette featuring a magician performing clever tricks that involve the viewer, and Party Games, an hour-long variety romp featuring comedian John Beiner as the host. Each is priced at $39.95. But more in line with the spirit of board games are the dual entries of Parker Brothers, the people who produced America's first board game. Mansion of Happiness, in 1843.

Their VCR Clue and Rich Little's VCR Charades, both at $39.95, may well represent the best and the worst In this category. Though other companies have tried mystery games, few have topped the old Parker Brothers standby Clue. Yet VCR Clue manages to capture the flavor and light tension of board game Clue, using the video medium to a delightful advantage. Up to 10 players view unfolding chapters in the Investigation of a murder at the Boddy mansion. In between the witty scenes starring a host of no-name actors, players trade clue cards which may tell them, for instance, "The woman who wore the red dress In scene one committed murder in the room with murals on the wall." If you remember who wore the red dress and which room had the mural, you've put together part of the mystery.

The winner is the first to name not only whodunit, but to whom, in what room, with what weapon and, while they're at it. which of the 10 characters' identities were assumed by which players. This is easily the best VCR game on the market, but be warned. It's a challenging memory game and the lengthy rules require a careful reading. It also helps to have a remote button on your VCR.

Keeping your TV as center stage in one of these games is a lot clumsier than gathering around a game board. Ironically. Rich Little's VCR Charades includes a game board, but it is a contrived attempt to jazz up a party game that can be played for free and without all the trappings added here. The idea Is to guess the charade Rich Little Is performing, and beat a team of players shown on the video-cassette. First of all you need a willing suspension of disbelief that those video players don't already know the answers.

Secondly, there is the real problem that Rich Little can't hear you when you're trying to guess a word he is pantomiming. The game really suffers when he points a finger to a video guesser. signaling his guess of a word is correct. But you can't always see which player he's pointing to and you have no idea which shouted guess Is correct. The most deadly criticism of this game, though, was directed by a young play tester at the corn ball humor of Rich Little and the feigned excitement of those video players.

"This looks like we accidentally got somebody's home rnovj from the Fotomat," he said. GIFTS, from IB season's heavy artillery Is expected to be in sales of compact disc players and video cassette recorders. VCR prices, In particular, have dropped to for basic models, down from last year's prices. Among the latest advances In VCRs are stereo hi-fi models, which deliver true high-fideltty sound but usually cost $800 or more. Sony's Super Beta VCR models, which offers 20 percent better picture resolution over conventional TVs and costs from $550 to $1,000, Is being matched on the VHS side by JVC's HO, (High Quality) model, at $850.

By the end of 1 985. close to 30 percent of households will own a VCR. Mr. Schlosser estimates. "Sales are very strong.

They're 60 percent ahead of last year," he adds. One dealer says customers have very definite buying patterns when it comes to VCRs. They're buying $250 or 1 ,000 models. What's in the middle doesn't offer that much more for the price," says Thomas Champion, owner of Atlantic Video Center on East Lombard Street. VCRs and their offshoots, video cameras and camcorders, come In three formats VHS, Beta and 8 millimeter.

In years to come, it is expected that the smaller, lighter 8mm format will eventually dominate the market the way VHS does now. Home video cameras have come a long way since the heavy, cumbersome two-piece models of a few years ago. Streamlined and more automated, the camera-plus-video cassette recorder models are still a pricey 1 1 .800. Many of the new one-piece camcorder models now weigh six pounds or less, and the cost is a bit less 1 ,250 and up. Lightest of all Is Sony's Handy-Cam, which weighs a mere 2 pounds and comes with a portable playback unit.

It costs $1,795. Panasonic's Omnimovie camcorder ($1,650) features a fully automated unit that can be connected directly to a TV set for playback. Compact disc players, the darlings of the audiophile set, are selling so fast that many stores fear that they will exhaust their supplies before the end of the Christmas shopping season. The machines use a low-powered laser to read digitally encoded information from a 4-inch music disc. The sound they provide is flawlessly reproduced, with none of the hisses, crackles or pops that beset other types of recorded music.

When the first CD player was introduced by Sony in 1983. the price was $900. Since then, list prices have fallen dramatically to as low as $300. -Everything Is dropping fast. When you lower prices, you're opening up your market." says Wayne Zuchowski.

a spokesman for Toshiba America Inc. Since the sound on virtually all models is uniformly excellent, the Digital TVs, with clearer pictures, have begun attracting consumers. types of features offered may well become the critical factor in any buying decision. Toshiba, for in- stance, has a "double drawer" compact disc player that can accept two discs at a time. Its 30-track random memory can be programmed to play songs in any order.

The price: $500. Pioneer sells a deluxe $1 ,200 compact disc, system that's combined with a laser video disc player for those who want to listen to music and play their favorite movies on TV. In the television department," shoppers have a wide variety of stereo, projection and digital models from which to choose; Stereo sets are selling briskly as more stations broadcast programs in stereo. The extra circuitry, ampiifi- ers and speakers on stereo should add about $100 to a set's cost. Zenith, a stereo pioneer, is promoting a $1,000 27-inch color stereo model that comes in a metallic high-tech cabinet.

Digital TVs, with their sharper, clearer pictures, also have begun attracting consumer interest. Toshiba has a 1 ,300 20-inch digital color TV that can display a picture Insert from one channel while another channel Is being watched. Sony's $1,400 25-inch digital TV goes a step further with Its "Home Management Helper" feature. Birthdays, appointments and other events can be programmed into the TV. When the dates arrive, a reminder appears on the screen.

Large-screen projection TVs have become increasingly popular as picture quality has steadily improved. Mitsubishi is among the leaders with 36-. 40-. 45- and 50-Inch rear projection screens at prices that range from $2,400 to $3,600. Rear projection models, in which images are beamed onto the screen's surface, have an advantage In that they eliminate the bulky apparatus of front projection sets.

Two percent of households now own projection TVs and sales are growing. In telephones, the newest models are hands-free speaker phones such as $139.95 speaker phone which has one-touch automatic dialing for frequently called numbers. Smaller, more compact answering machines like Phone-Mate's "Answer Phone" featuring a tape-recorded voice that records the time and date of Incoming calls, also have been fast-moving Items. Cordless phones, at prices ranging from $69.95 to $199.95. have been making a comeback as quality has improved and new frequencies have made communications more secure.

cial life around a VCR," she said. "The VCR is changing America's leisure lifestyle." VCR games are not to be confused with the niw flood of computer games that test either your hand-eye coordination at shooting alien spaceships from the sky, or your mental prowess at playing football, leading an army into battle or trying to make millions in the stock market. VCR games require no computer and only a vldeocassette recorder and a television, which replaces the old game board as the focus of action. So far the few VCR games available closely follow established board games or parlor games already on the market, such as the VCR bingo game put out by Best Film and Video. Wait a minute, you say.

How could someone possibly make a vldeocassette out of bingo? All you'd have. It seems. Is a someone calling out numbers. That's exactly what you get with this Video Bingo game, a full color view of a bingo parlor numbers caller. Of course, notes Ms.

Winnick, you also get, in this deluxe version, a dozen bingo cards and markers. The cassette includes seven full sets of numbers being called, and while that might seem like a limited number of plays with the game, she noted you can get more bingo cards from any drug store and vary the game infinitely. The real advantage of a $29.95 video bingo game over the regular version you can get for peanuts or even make up for free is this: "With VCR Bingo you can't lose the bingo balls," said Ms. Winnick. "Otherwise, if you lose 0-72 and it rolls under the couch, that's the end of bingo." Good point.

The Great Neck firm also puts out a VCR trivia game in six categories ($19.95 each), ranging from general knowledge, sports, junior (for children 8 and up), movies and TV. books and literature, and an expert edition. In this game all players sit before their screen with paper and pencil in hand and write down the answers to questions posed on the cassette and supplemented by a film clip. "When you have a large group of people over for the holidays, you're not going to put on a movie." she said. "A movie Isn't conversation-stimulating.

And if you have more than eight you can't play a board game. And in board games, you're stuck to the board. If someone gets a lucky roll and answers six in a row. it's no fun for the others. This way everybody gets the same questions.

The crowd begins to come alive." Generating that ind of party at Short shrift to hijacking Neither CBS nor ABC felt compelled to call In Dan Rather or Peter Jennings on the story for similar reasons. ABC's vice president ol news coverage, Robert Murphy, said yesterday. "We made the Judgment that this story didn't merit the second-by-second demand for updates as it would have if there had more Americans or the American government involved." He admitted he was surprised that NBC had used Brokaw on the story. CBS's assistant Washington bureau chief, Peter Kendall, who handled much of the early coverage, said a key factor in the network's decision not to bring in Rather or expand the early coverage was that the aircraft was not American. Of course, exactly as many Americans were killed in this Incident as in each of the two previous hijack Incidents.

All the networks were hampered by the absence of an earth station in Malta, which made live pictures Impossible. That was one major difference In the Geneva story. In that case, when the event was entirely pre-planned, all three networks brought In their own earth stations as well as anchormen, top correspondents and key production CARTER, from IB which put anchorman Tom Brokaw on the story as early as 8 a.m. Sunday. But the decision to deploy him was at least partly a result of NBC's news department still feeling the burn from Beirut when Brokaw was allowed to remain on vacation for much of the crisis, an omission that subsequently came to embarrass the network.

NBC was also the only network to put on a special report following the late local news, but NBC stood alone there mostly as a result of the weekend TV schedule. Both CBS and ABC offer newscasts at 11 p.m. on Sunday, but relatively few local stations carry them at that hour. Neither Channel 13 nor Channel 11 does. (Channel 13 runs ABC's news at 3: 15 a.m.: Channel 1 1 doesn't carry the CBS Sunday news at all.) Both stations could have run the network reports at 1 1 :30 Sunday night, but neither did.

Channel 13 compounded this error by burying the Malta story In the category of "in other news" on its 1 1 p.m. newscast, after leading with some local AIDS stories In a blundering attempt to follow the local-station code of always leading with a locally generated story..