October 22, 1999
BEARISH ANALYSTS ARE SILENCED ON WALL ST.
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHE bears are dead on Wall Street. I'm not saying that the bear market is dead. You can tell from yesterday's stock action that pessimism is alive and well. In...
SUMNER: I'LL KNOCK MEL'S BLOCK OFF
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amViacom Chief Sumner Redstone is showing Mel Karmazin who's the boss. Redstone said yesterday that his company will go ahead with plans to unload Blockbuster - despite his soon-to-be No....
TOPS CHOPS FIFTH AVE. STORE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTops Appliance City plans to close its Fifth Avenue store, as it short-circuits its electronics business and bets its comeback on major appliances. Surrendering to the brutal competition in the...
IBM WARNING GIVES THE DOW BIG BLUES - GERSTNER LOSES $68.7M IN STOCK MARKET BLOODBATH
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amIBM chief Lou Gerstner was singing the Big Blues yesterday after his personal fortune dropped $68.7 million when the stock plummeted on warnings of lukewarm earnings through the year 2000....
RUSHDIE BOLTS HOLT FOR RANDOM
October 22, 1999 | 4:00am"Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie has jumped publishing houses once again, landing back inside Random House with a multimillion dollar contract to write four novels and a collection of essays...
PONZI PLAY SACKS PROS - GIANTS' HILLIARD AMONG THE JOCKS MASTER-SCAMMED
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amGiants wide receiver Ike Hilliard and as many as six other professional athletes have lost untold sums of cash to a huge Ponzi scheme run out of a South Florida...
NO-FIDDLING-AROUND FANTASTIC BLUEGRASS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amIT didn't seem like the evening could possibly amount to much, not when a scalper standing outside Town Hall Wednesday actually tried to give away tickets. But had he been...
EK'S FLASHY 'CARMEN' IS SHORT ON SPARKLE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHE 54-year-old Swedish choreographer Mats Ek is currently the rather elderly enfant terrible of European dance - a man who alternately horrifies and titillates critics and funding sources with very...
OUT & ABOUT AGAIN - ETHERIDGE BACK WITH NEW CD & GARDEN GIG
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amAFTER a three-year retreat from music, Melissa Etheridge, who's sold more than 25 million albums since her 1988 self-titled debut, is back with a new disc and an upcoming concert...
SHUE SURE DOESN'T SHINE IN 'MOLLY'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00am'MOLLY" is a moist, heavy-handed vehicle for Elisabeth Shue, who's been looking for a suitable follow-up ever since she hit the jackpot with her Oscar-nominated turn as a hooker in...
PRODUCERS ABANDON 'MAN' HUNT
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amONE of the most eagerly awaited plays of the new theater season has been scrapped because the producers can't find a suitable male lead. "The Unexpected Man," by Yasmina Reza,...
FANGS FOR NOTHIN'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00am'BATS" sucks. And I don't mean blood. Not especially scary or funny, this lame comedy-thriller wastes a decent cast in a plodding tale about giant, genetically engineered bats that wreak...
KISS-FM MAKES HER A MILLIONAIRE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA RETIRED Housing Department worker from Queens yesterday won $1 million - one of the biggest contest prizes ever given out here - in a KISS-FM radio call-in contest. Dorothy...
THIS 'FEVER' WILL LEAVE YOU COLD
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHE 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever" had flash, excitement, a crackling youthfulness, a pulsing Bee Gees score and John Travolta. Alas, it also had a stupid plot (Tony Manero leaves...
CRAZY FOR 'ALABAMA'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amNO one can accuse Antonio Banderas of playing it safe with his movie directing debut, "Crazy in Alabama," which showcases his wife, Melanie Griffith, as a mad husband-murderer against the...
'THREE TO TANGO' NOT JUST 'FRIENDS'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00am'THREE to Tango" starts badly - with an awful title sequence and a couple of manic opening scenes. But it then falls into the right gear and turns into a...
BRYANT'S CANDID KATIE COMMENTS IGNITE A.M. TV WAR - NO LOVE LOST
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amIF disliking Katie Couric is a crime, then Bryant Gumbel is guilty. And if disliking Bryant is a crime, a lot of people are guilty, including Katie. The question is:...
NOT AN IMPRESSIVE 'BODY' OF WORK
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amBODY Shots" is a slick, lurid and pretentious movie that pretends to say something important and sophisticated about sex and love among 20-somethings in contemporary L.A. But the vulgar, tone-deaf...
'THE BEST MAN' WINS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTAKE "The Big Chill," replace the characters with black professionals and drop out the politics and Motown score, and you've more or less got the frequently hilarious "The Best Man."...
SCORSESE KNOCKS 'EM 'DEAD'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amDOWNBEAT and at times strangely slow-moving despite all its beautifully shot high-speed ambulance rides, "Bringing Out the Dead" is as technically brilliant as you would expect from a film directed...
I LEARNED MY LESSON THE HARD WAY
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHERE is a very good reason why nowhere in state records will you see my name or photograph on a driver's license. Like so many misguided souls who search for...
HIGH-TECH U.S. SPY POST DRAWS INTERNATIONAL IRE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amAn ultra-secret U.S. listening post in the moors of northern England is at the center of an international storm over whether the U.S. government is spying on businesses and ordinary...
POLL: SUBWAY SHOULD GO THE DISTANCE - IF WE DON'T PAY
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amNew Yorkers overwhelmingly support building a Second Avenue subway line that would run the length of Manhattan to The Bronx - but they don't want to be charged extra for...
NEW ARSENAL IN WAR ON BREAST CANCER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amResearchers yesterday detailed startling gains in the war against breast cancer - including plans for "smart bombs" that kill cancer-causing genes and federal approval of a powerful new drug. They...
SCOUT LEADER CHARGED WITH KID-PORN
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA Long Island Cub Scout leader pleaded not guilty yesterday to collecting child porn off the Internet, authorities said. Cops nabbed Nicholas Williamson, 41, of Valley Stream on Wednesday and...
IT'S OFFICIAL: WEST NILE CAUSED ENCEPHALITIS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amFederal and city health officials yesterday confirmed the West Nile virus caused New York's terrifying- and deadly - encephalitis outbreak. The virus - never before seen in this part of...
ELIZABETH DOLE'S PAINFUL LESSON - YOU NEED CONFIDENCE IN A GENUINE MESSAGE TO WIN THE WHITE HOUSE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amIN the world of Republican politics, Elizabeth Dole has always occupied a peculiar place. She has reached the highest levels of government by serving as a Cabinet secretary in two...
CARDINAL SKIPS SMITH DINNER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amJohn Cardinal O'Connor skipped the Alfred E. Smith Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria last night - but was in everyone's thoughts. The affair is famous for drawing top politicians and providing...
NO QUESTION HE'S A CHAMP - BLIND QUIZ-SHOW WHIZ BUZZES HIS WAY TO COOL 70G
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amHe's made quiz-show history even as he made $70,000 this week on "Jeopardy!" Who is Eddie Timanus? In the category of TV Quiz Show Firsts, the 31-year-old blind sportswriter for...
P.A. STAFFERS COP PLEAS IN MEGABUCK KICKBACK SCHEME
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amFour Port Authority employees have been sentenced for accepting thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors in a sweeping construction-industry probe, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau announced yesterday. In all, 31...
N.Y. GALS: WE'D LET YANKS GET TO FIRST!
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amEveryone knows the Yankees have the strongest bullpen and heaviest hitters in the American League. But for legions of female fans, the Bombers' butts are as spectacular as their bunts,...
ROCKETS RAIN TERROR ON CHECHNYA CAPITAL
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA massive missile attack last night on the Chechen capital of Grozny struck an open-air market and a maternity hospital, killing scores of people, including mothers and newborn babies. Severed...
BUSH BIO PULLED AFTER AUTHOR IS ID'D AS SLAY PLOTTER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA publisher yesterday yanked a book that made unsubstantiated drug charges against GOP front-runner George W. Bush after learning the author did time for a murder plot - and lied...
FORBES RIPS GEORGE W. FOR SKIPPING GOP DEBATE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amWASHINGTON - George W. Bush's Republican presidential rivals lock horns tonight in their first major debate, with Steve Forbes' top aide bashing Bush's no-show. On the eve of the debate,...
DEMOCRATS GAGGING ON 'FIRST LADY' PIZZA ADS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amFirst Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has a bad taste in her mouth over a Pizza Hut commercial, hitting the airwaves tomorrow, that chews her up as a carpetbagger. It turns...
CITY SHUTS BX. YOUTH HOME AMID DRUG SCANDAL
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amThree house parents at a city-operated foster home were busted yesterday on drug charges after a nine-month probe uncovered "outrageous conduct" - prompting officials to shut the Bronx facility. "This...
FANS TURN OUT WAY EARLY IN BID FOR HOT TIX
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amDiehard fans flocked to Yankee Stadium yesterday to try to get seats - any seats - to the World Series when the games come to New York next week. "This...
COP SAYS SORRY, PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN 'DWI' DEATH
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA rising-star police captain accused of mowing down a construction worker on the Throgs Neck Bridge while driving drunk says he feels terrible about the senseless tragedy. "I'm sorry. I'm...
SLUGGERS GO TO BAT FOR FEDS - MAC, SOSA AID PROBE OF FAKE MEMORABILIA
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amThree of baseball's fiercest batters have turned into hard-hitting junior G-men to help the FBI crack down on the $500-million-a-year market for fake sports memorabilia. Sluggers Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire...
I'LL WIPE OUT CHILD POVERTY: BRADLEY
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amDemocratic 2000 contender Bill Bradley yesterday went to a Bedford-Stuyvesant church and vowed to cut child poverty in half in a decade, likening the challenge to JFK's pledge to put...
HILLARY WANTS A FEW MORE DOLLARS FROM 'FUNNY MONEY' FUND-RAISER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amWASHINGTON -Johnny Chung, a notorious figure in the 1996 Democratic funny-money scandal, was recently invited to a $10,000 fund-raiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted by moviemaker Steven Spielberg. "Is that...
SENATE AGAIN OKS BAN ON PART-BIRTH ABORTION
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amClinton vetoed the same bill in 1996 and 1997, and has promised he will veto it this time around. WASHINGTON - The Senate yesterday approved a bill banning so-called partial-birth...
THEY'VE GOT 'RIGHT' STUFF ALL WRONG
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amEVERY crackpot and his cousin is getting his day in federal court. The Ku Klux Klan. Khalid Muhammad. Dung and the Virgin. What about me? Recently, I asked Norman Siegel,...
SHEET HAPPENS: JUDGES OK MASKED KKK RALLY
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTwo federal judges set the stage last night for a confrontation between hooded Ku Klux Klan members and thousands of their opponents on the streets of Lower Manhattan tomorrow. The...
BANDITS ROB, SLAY BX. MEAT PACKER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTwo bandits last night shot and killed the owner of a Bronx meat packing plant - even though he gave them a box full of money, police said. The victim...
U.S. SURGEONS OPERATE ON CANCER-STRICKEN TUTU
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amSouth African Archbishop Desmond Tutu underwent surgery in Atlanta yesterday to determine if his prostate cancer has spread. The Nobel laureate and hero of the struggle against apartheid was reported...
NEW VP TURNS INDONESIA'S JEERS TO CHEERS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amViolent anti-government protests in Indonesia abruptly turned into celebrations yesterday when a popular opposition leader was named vice president. Megawati Sukarnoputri implored her zealous supporters to return Indonesia to normalcy....
HOLOCAUST FUGITIVE CAN"T APPEAL
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amFrance's highest court yesterday upheld the conviction of former Vichy official Maurice Papon for sending nearly 1,600 Jews to Nazi concentration camps. But there was no indication of the whereabouts...
QUAKE, RATTLE AND ROLL - JETS QUITE CAPABLE OF ROCKING RAIDERS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amAS devastating and demoralizing as last week's loss was, the Jets can take several positives into Sunday's game in Oakland. For one, the Jets played the young, talented Colts even...
WHY JOHNNY CAN'T READ DEFENSES
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amNEW YORK's on-going baseball postseason has helped obfuscate an otherwise nationally recognized fact: The NFL season has been a drag, one stalled-out game after another, weekend after weekend placed in...
NETS SHED NO TEARS FOR CAL
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTeam president Michael Rowe in a short, direct way best summed up the "reunion" tonight with former Nets coach John Calipari. "I'd be surprised if we had lunch together," Rowe...
WILLIAMS SHOWS SIGN OF PROGRESS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amJET NOTES Bill Parcells said yesterday that the reports he's gotten concerning hospitalized safety Kevin Williams indicate cautious optimism. "What I've heard through trainer [yesterday] morning was that they're hopeful...
FORMER GIANT BUST NEXT TARGET FOR JETS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amWhat exactly went wrong for Tyrone Wheatley before he got to Oakland is insignificant to the Raiders and the Jets. The Raiders don't even want to know, because Wheatley is...
ROBINSON LOOKS TO BOOST DEVIL 'D'
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amDALLAS - Inch by inch, their chests slowly expanding after another humbling, deflating playoff debacle, the unbeaten-in-four Devils are gingerly recovering their confidence as contenders. Crucial times come quickly for...
PITCHING A WASH, SO HITTERS SHOULD DETERMINE WINNER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHE glamour of the 95th World Series revolves around rotations. The starting staffs for the Yankees and Braves are Fall Classics, totaling 13 Cy Youngs between them. It means you...
DOUGLAS IS STAYING FOR THE COMFORT
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amNET NOTES Sherman Douglas could have gotten more money and more minutes elsewhere. But the 33-year-old point guard put others factors ahead of dollars and playing behind Stephon Marbury when...
SURF'S UP FOR A CAST OF THOUSANDS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTHIS weekend, the October full moon will have surf jockeys lining the beaches and if the past week is any indication, the surf is definitely up for the fall run...
JORDAN'S A TORRE FAN; JORDAN SHOWS JOE RESPECT
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amSERIES NOTES Brian Jordan loved playing for Joe Torre as a young Cardinal and would have loved to play with the Yankees, who went down to the wire with the...
FOR OPENERS, TORRE CALLS ON ... ORLANDO'S MAGIC - JOE TAPS EL DUQUE FOR GAME 1 START
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amA year ago, he was part of the orchestra, a delightful back-of-the-rotation pitcher with a heartwarming tale about escaping Fidel Castro's Cuba and striking it rich in America. The fact...
BROWN MAY MISS SEASON
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amIt's hard to imagine how the Giants' offense - particularly Big Blue's running game - could get any worse. But soon, you won't have to imagine it; not after the...
KENT SAYS HE PLAYS SMART, NOT SCARED
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amGIANT NOTES Kent Graham was sacked five times on Monday night, including several that made him look rather timid, especially on out-patterns. But after yesterday's practice both the quarterback and...
MUCKLER RIPS INTO DISGRACEFUL RANGERS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amThe fallout from Wednesday's 5-0 no-show defeat in Philadelphia reverberated on the Rye ice yesterday with John Muckler naming names and shredding individual players in front of their teammates at...
JETER GETS COMFORTABLE WITH ROLE AS STAR
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amWhen Derek Jeter was a little boy, he was terrified of presenting oral reports in class. He'd practice over and over again in front of his parents, but the butterflies...
PICK SIX WORTH MILLION BUCKS
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amBelmont Park will guarantee a minimum Pick Six gross pool of $1 million tomorrow with a minimum net pool of $750,000. The designated $1 million Pick Six races will be...
YANK PITCHERS DON'T LOOK MAHVELOUS IN CAGE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amActor Billy Crystal took batting practice with the Yankee pitchers yesterday, and the swings of Andy Pettitte, David Cone and a slew of relievers were best summed up by Cone,...
CHECKETTS THE ONE WHO NEEDS TESTING; KNICKS HAVEN'T PULLED SPREE OFF MARKET
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amJEFF Van Gundy has every right to be angry about coaches being drug-tested. Just because the Players Association decided to furnish random specimens upon demand, as part of the NBA's...
KNOBLAUCH KNOWS HE'S REPLACEABLE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amTIME hangs heavy on Chuck Knoblauch's hands as he prepares to throw to first. He aims, to the displeasure of Yankee fans. As a batter, he can go to all...
ROCKER FINALLY SHUTS UP
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTA - The Braves' most impressive achievement of 1999 didn't come in conquering the Mets in a classic National League Championship Series. That only ranks second to the remarkable feat...
ANDRUW LOVES CENTER STAGE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTA - For a spell, it looked so easy for Andruw Jones and the Braves three Bronx autumns ago. Then 19, Jones smoked two home runs in the Braves' 12-1...
SERIES SNUB DOESN'T SIT WELL WITH SHANE
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amShane Spencer said he was tempted to just pack up and go home rather than sit useless on the bench. But the 27-year-old power-hitting outfielder, all but fed up with...
GALVIN WALKS AWAY A WINNER
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amVeterinarian Dr. Michael Galvin, whose patients include Horse of the Year favorite Behrens, emerged bloody but victorious yesterday from his long, bitter battle with the New York Racing Association. Ending...
A CHIP OFF THE OL' MICK
October 22, 1999 | 4:00amATLANTA - The youngster grew up in Baltimore and whenever the Yankees were in town he'd take the bus to Memorial Stadium. There he would see his hero in the...