The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 27

1 SECTION Comics Gardens bis B-113, 24 LifestyU Merles tad Theater B-1S-23 Television 28, 2T 1 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6 a A V' Fuel shortage leaves area women cold v' wmteir as V' Sin It A. try on the stuff, that's the first question they ask," Pearlstein said. "We tell them they can take the thermal underwear home to try it on or they can carry it to the women's department and use a changing room there," he explained. Modell's manager added that sweater sales have increased nearly 300 per cent in comparison to last year for both men's and women's 'models, which range in price from $2.99 to $15. At Bloomingdale's in Hackensack, the sale of sweaters has not increased appreciably since last year, but customers have been asking for flannel pajamas.

All sorts of people' have flannel pajamas, of course, but not in great quantities," a Bloomingdale spokesman said. "In normal years, the only people asking for flannel pajamas would be older persons who tend to get colder. Now all sorts of people ask for them." By ADRIAN PERACCHIO Staff Writer Next time you see a shapely girl strolling along with the smug gait of those who: think their pantsuits fit impeccably, take a good look at her legs and ask yourself: does she or doesn't she? Does she wear long johns? If she does, she is not alone. Women in Bergen County have been flocking to the men's-wear sections of some department stores to try on and buy thermal underwear a lighter, warmer, and less bulky version of the traditional long johns. Since long underwear hardly fits in the couturiers' scheme of things horrid things?" a boutique manager drawled, acid dripping from his voice), the, run on long Johns can only be attributed to the fuel crisis.

Customers, worried about frigid winter nights, are snapping up flannel pajamas and nightgowns and have depleted the stock of sweaters in a large department store. "Our sales of long underwear have increased tremendously," said Samuel Pearl-stein, general merchandising manager of White-Modell's in Lodi. Sweater sales at Sears, Roebuck and Co. in Hackensack, Lord and Taylor in Para-mus, and Ohrbach's, also in Paramus, have swelled 25 per cent or more over last year. Store managers said one of the reasons for the booming sweater sales is the current fashion trend, which has boosted wool sweaters.

They all agree, however, that the fuel crisis plays a large part in the customers' preference. "I only have four sweaters left in our heavier sweaters," said Mrs. Jane Guelich, manager of the women's sportswear department at Lord and Taylor. "They have cleaned us out. I desperately need sweaters," she added.

Sweaters at Lord and Taylor range from $16 to $38. Long johns and heavy sweaters are also selling briskly at Sears. "We are doing 20 per cent better than last year on sweaters, and our prices are about on the same level as last year," said Lawrence V. Marolda, men's department manager at Sears. "Long johns are also selling better.

According to fashion magazines, sweaters are a big thing this year, bur the fuel crisis is adding to it, that's for sure." Mrs. Emily Knothe, women's department manager at Sears, said slacks are selling in larger quantities than normal. "We are selling more sweaters, I guess about 30 per cent more than usual, and we See WINTER, Page B4 1 on- ''r 'Our sales have doubled' "Our sales to date this year have more than doubled in thermal underwear, and it's women who are buying them. They go right to the men's department and they want to Cirb model sweaters at left while above Iris Prosniti of Prozys Main Army and Navy Store at 121 Main Hackensack, displays I long john such as those being bought by I women in anticipation of a heatless winter. 'Serpico': policeman's story By JOHN CRITTENDEN Movt Critic as you probably blow from reading about reading, the current-bestseller is about an honest cop.

And if you have a long memory, you may remember reading about him in the papers a couple of years ago. Frustrated in his attempts to spur the N.Y.P.D. into cleaning its own house privately and quietly, he took his sweeping accusations of departmental corruption to The New York Times, which published them, and that led to- the appointment of the Knapp Commission. It was a long road that Frank Serpico walked as a policeman, from his first day on the beat when he got a free sandwich from a deli a small, casual bribe for not ticketing cars double-parked outside to the day he left the force some five years later, lucky just to be alive. He had almost died from a bullet in the head that he got during a drug bust that he thinks could very easily have been a setup engineered by his fellow cops who hated and feared him for what he had told.

He now lives in Switzerland. In a very real way, unfortunate-" ly, it is because it was such a long road that the movie version of "Serpico which opened yesterday at the Baronet and Forum theaters in Manhattan, seems less and less credible as it goes along and, ultimately, less interesting than it has every other right to be. One begins wondering, somewhere near the three quarters mark, why Serpico kept plugging along. If graft, sometimes running into hundreds of dollars a month per man, bothered him so much and if corruption was such a power-See Page B-20 Al Pacino waits in hallway to arrest drug addict in "Serpico. Memory loss linked to brain disease Old age or deadly viroid? i.

1 The evidence now available is that the infectious agent responsible for the disease is even smaller than a virus. Working with an infection in potatoes called potato spindle tuber disease, Dr. Theodore O. Diener of-the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Virology Department at Belts-ville, Md.

discovered that the potato disease was caused by an infectious organism smaller than a virus. He called it a viroid. Viruses consist of nucleic acid (a complex' acid found in all living cells) and protein. Vi-roids seem to contain ribonucleic acid without the protein. It is believed that the viroids also cause ku-ru, a disease found only among members of a certain primitive tribe in New Guinea known to have practiced cannibalism.

The disease was passed from generation to generation because the cannibals ate the brains of their victims. Cannibalism may have ceased, but the disease it spread has not. not only their memories, but all their mental powers as well. They also develop muscle spasms and weakness. Within a few months they rapidly go downhill from relatively good health to total helplessness and, eventually, death.

Destruction of brain cells -The medical term for this is Creutzfeldt-Ja-kob disease, named for the two doctors who did the original research into it Autopsies of its victims have shown extensive destruction of brain cells. For a long time it was confused with normal senility. But there now is evidence that it is caused by a viroid the slow-acting virus which may have been present in the body for as long as 50 years. Viruses are so small that 100,000 of them placed side by side would measure up to the thickness of a dime. But what damage they cause! By JUSTIN L.

FAHERTY MkKc Wrttw One of the earliest signs of senility is loss of memory. Every family has seen it in the older generation. Which may remind" you of the story of the elderly professor who tells bis class: "There are three things that happen when you get old. The first is you lose your memory." He pauses, then says: "I've forgotten what the other two are. Science now has come up with the idea that you didn't just acquire this loss of memory at a venerable age, that, it may have had its beginnings anywhere from 30 to 50 years before it became noticeable.

The cause, the experts say, may be a viroid, a viruslike form of life linked to potatoes and cannibalism. They call it a slow virus. There are certain elderly and even younger people who suddenly and rapidly begin to lose HI i 9.