The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 21

Murders oston 10.8 MIXE BARHICLE in drop in 1984 Hefs affair with himself viai TEL. 1 ii: 'fiYYvV Couple views ruins of Toll House after New Year's Eve fire gutted Whitman restaurant. globe photo by barry alien The number of murders in Boston dropped by 10.87 percent in 1984 and most were "crimes of passion," Police Comr. Joseph Jordan announced yesterday. Preliminary year-end homicide statistics list 82 murders last year, compared with 92 in 1983 and 100 in 1981 and 1982, Jordan said in a statement.

Of 82 murders committed in 1984, police have solved 48, said Jordan. In more than ,80 percent of those cases, the victim and the murderer knew each other. "Murder is usually a crime of passion in this city," Jordan said. "The typical homicide, if there is such a thing, traces its roots to an argument or quarrel that simply got out of hand." Because of this, Jordan said, the only "practical tool" police can use to prevent murders is high visibility and rapid response to complaints, especially domestic violence calls, so arguments can be stopped before they turn violent. The year-end tally of homicide statistics shows that of all murders: 39 were committed with handguns.

Five were committed with shotguns. One was committed with a rifle. In 22 a knife was used and, in one, a machete. Seven were caused by blunt force (such as a bat or fist). Three were by strangulation.

Two were by automobile. One was by sodium intoxication. One was by arson. The statistics also show that of the 82 victims, 35 were black men, 26 were white men, seven were Hispanic men, six were black women, six were white women, one was an Asian man and one a Hispanic woman. The largest monthly total of murders 12 was committed in March.

Owners vow to rebuild Toll House Cookie birthplace destroyed by fire By David Chandler Globe Staff The Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, birthplace of the chocolate-chip cookie that bears its name, was destroyed early yesterday morning by a fire that broke out In the kitchen during a New Year's Eve party. Fire officials say a grease fire in the kitchen caused the blaze, which began about 1 1 :30 Monday night. Restaurant personnel tried to put the fire out themselves before firefighters from Whitman and four surrounding towns arrived at the scene, according to a Whitman policeman. The fire was brought under control at about 2 a.m., but the destruction imw ii ii ii iiiwiii irr i i MEmomcmu urns Pages 21-25, 23, 54, 84 The1Toll Hmrse irr-l965-- fT-OLL Hoy SEv Page 25- "GLOBE FILE PHOTO Survey: College hopefuls not getting best advice According to his own view of things, Hugh Hefner is one of the country's most unappreciated and overlooked natural resources. He has, he claims, done more to improve the quality of our lives than have a couple of Presidents.

Now, it's a pretty good bet that if you ask the first three or four people you bump into this morning what they think about Hugh Hefner, you'll get answers like this: "Who's Hugh Hefner?" or "Is he the guy who played Wyatt Earp?" or "Do you suppose he really you know?" Actually, Hefner is the publisher of Playboy Magazine. This is one of the books that is to sex connoisseurs what Mechanics Illustrated is to car buffs and Consumer Reports is to those constantly seeking the perfect Cuisinart. There are other skin magazines -Hustler and Penthouse that cater to similar appetites, but Playboy was the first to capitalize in a big way on nude shots of the female anatomy. Once it hit the market in 1953, no schoolboy ever again peeked at National Geographic. Today, Hugh Hefner is 57, wealthy, odd and happens to be head over heels in love: With himself.

Last week, there appeared a lengthy profile of the man in the Los Angeles Times. It seems that Hef (That's what all his long-time, close personal friends call the guy) is feeling maligned and is tired of being thought of as a porn publisher, enemy of feminists, an eccentric deviate and a couple other things. Hef, you see, is actually a beautiful guy. He's not at all what you might think. For instance, he is a serious historian.

Inside a room in his Beverly Hills mansion there are 353 bound containing every word ever written about Hugh Hefner- "Mr. Hefner's papers will go to the Smithsonian? his reseatch assisfant. Bob Colin, is quoted as saying. Hefner Is an efficient record-keeper. By his own estimate, he has had sex with thousands of women and seldom has sex with anyone older than 24.

"I like the teacher-student aspects of it." he maintains. He is" a great sleeper. He very rarely gets out of bed before 3 in the afternoon. He is a snappy dresser. He wears black silk pajamas nearly all the time, whether he's presiding over a meeting or greeting the mailman at the front door.

And he is a philosopher. He points out that, through Playboy, he is "dealing with the great moral jssues that society has historically refused to deal with No. Not the bomb. Not the color of your neighbor's skin. Not greed, intolerance, violence, economics or any of those minor matters but "the historic conflict between mind and body" to enjoy sex as "the most loving, civilized force on the planet." Hefner might have a point.

Unfortunately, he has an odd way of arriving at it in the pages of his magazine. Every month, among the scholarly articles, fascinating interviews, splendid fiction and pictures that only a few rabble glance at. Playboy runs these letters from readers. Supposedly, they are written by real people intent on sharing a recent sexual experience. Most of the letters are predictable: "I was recently driving north from Santa Barbara when my car broke down on a little-traveled back road.

I walked 3 miles, before I came to a house. 1 thought I'd ask to use the phone. "Six stewardesses and three high school cheerleaders answered the door. One of them was carrying a six-gallon drum of vegetable oil." Eight paragraphs later, the letter concludes with: Three weeks later; I went back to get my car but it had been stolen. It didn't bother me a bit." Years ago.

if you got a letter like that you'd probably call the postal inspectors or knock at the door of the letter writer and give him a good beating about the head and shoulders. But that was before Hef helped us to become less narrow-minded, more enlightened and to shrug off our hangups and our depressing male habit of thinking that "The Bunnies" are mere sex objects. "The publisher of Playboy magazine is essentially a very moral man. I have often said I am the most moral millionaire I know," says Hefner, a self-proclaimed feminist. Today, because I am liberated, too, I realize that Hef a beautiful guy is actually probably more of a feminist than Gloria "Steinem.

And I bet most women are thrilled with the great and positive steps Hefner has taken toward equality through the positive use of centerfolds, cartoons and advice. Just ask a couple. none of the major studies of secondary school had dealt with the crucial transition between high school and college. The fact that 60 percent of students who enter a college do not graduate from that institution was cited in initial reports of the study this fall as evidence that counseling is inadequate. Erdmann acknowledged in a phone interview, however, that attrition is caused by many other factors besides picking the wrong college.

But he maintains that there is abundant anecdotal information about mismatches between colleges and students. COLLEGE COUNSELING, Page 25 similar amount of time to college advising. To compound the problem, colleges are eager to recruit students from a dwindling pool and are flooding prospects with glossy brochures that are frequently long on glowing descriptions and short on factual information that can be compared with other colleges. "There is an information overload," study director David Erdmann said. "Kids can't cope with all they're getting." Erdmann, director of undergraduate admissions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., decided to look at college counseling because he felt that By Nina McCain Globe Staff Many of the high school seniors who are rushing to meet January and February application deadlines for the "college of their choice" are making the wrong choice, according to the preliminary findings of a study of college counseling in the nation's high schools.

After a survey of some 1100 public high schools, the National College Counseling Project concluded that many students do not get the kind of information and advice they need to pick colleges that fit their needs and abilities. In the first place, most catch only a fleeting glimpse of their school's college counselor. The average caseload tor a college counselor is 174 students and the average time spent with each student per year is 20 minutes, according to the privately funded survey. Not surprisingly, low-income and minority students get less help than the more affluent. The study found that 40 percent of the counselors in upper-income schools, whose students predominantly come from middle and upper-income families, spend half or more of their time on college counseling while fewer than 6 percent of the counselors in low-income schools, including poor community and inner-city schools, devote a Work malls: One-stop everything, 9-5 ay M)f nun' jt 3 New governor of R.

I. vows independence Associated Press PROVIDENCE Promising a new era of independence in state government, Edward D. DiPrete was sworn into office yesterday as Rhode Island's first Republican governor in 16 years. "The people of Rhode Island have called for change," th former Cranston mayor said during the inaugural ceremony. "Today, we open a new chapter in Rhode Island's history." DiPrete crushed his Democratic opponent.

General Treasurer Anthony J. Solomon, by a 20-point margin, buoyed by a battle cry for change in state government. During the campaign, DiPrete painted Solomon as part of a Democratic machine linked to special interests and unresponsive to the people. "We must have a government that stands behind us, not in our path," he said. The DiPrete administration takes over the reins of government with "no ties to the past" and will mold a government "where the public interest reigns supreme and the will of the people guides our every action," he said.

The softspoken 50-year-old chief executive, who campaigned on the theme of running the state like a business, stressed the need for Rhode Island to compete effectively in today's markets. Errands, shopping, job in one place By Jonathan Kaufman Globe Staff From 8:30 to 5 every working day, Catherine Lally's city is a nine-story office building in a guincy office park. At 8:30 a.m., Lally, an executive secretary at Howard Johnson's corporate headquarters, drives up to a parking space in a garage adjoining her building and drops off her 1-year-old daughter at a day care center on the first floor. She stops at a newsstand to buy a paper and takes an elevator upstairs to work. At noon, she goes downstairs for an aerobics class at a health spa and lunch at the company cafeteria.

She browses in the gift shop down the hall from the day care center, does her banking at a three-teller branch, occasionally buys a gift at the jewelry store. If she wanted, she could get her hair done at the beauty parlor, take a friend to an expensive restaurant on the seventh floor, book a vacation at the travel agency. Although the temperature may be below freezing. Lally never has to pui on a coat. The Boston skyline glistens in the distance, but she rarely feels the need to go there during the day to shop.

"There was a certain flair being in downtown Boston: something in the air." says Lally, who lives in Siough- Clerk Lisa Stevens of North Quincy shows jewelry to a customer in jewelry shop in Quincy's Sate Street South pmplex. globe staff photo byanet knott OFF1CE PARKS. Page 2 1 R.l. GOVERNOR. Page 22.