BY HARRY RING
`Think of all the locker room jobs' - Last month, hundreds of Vietnamese villagers fought 600 cops who were trying to seize farm land on the northern edge of Hanoi for a luxury golf course, a joint venture of the government and a South Korean company.

Hey Clinton - At press time, D.C. hotel owners were balking on a commitment to pay triple time on Inaugural Day. The Hotel and Restaurant Employees union contract calls for double time for that day, and because it's also Martin Luther King day, the workers are entitled to an extra day's pay. The hotels, which are charging top rates and requiring a minimum four-day stay, say the workers are being "greedy."

No Helms-Burton indictment? - When the deal for a partial pullout of Israeli troops from Hebron was signed, Yasir Arafat broke out a box of Cuban cigars (Monte Cristo no less) for U.S. mediators who ignored the U.S. anti-Cuba embargo and lighted up.

Think you're crazy? - "The central problem of the past 30 years is that the poor are getting richer much, much faster than the rich are getting richer." - An Atlanta Journal-Constitution opinion piece by Jude Wanniski, who was an economic adviser for Ross Perot and also Jack Kemp.

Oral pollution - Tightened pollution standards "will raise taxes, stifle economic growth and mandate a lifestyle police," warned David Sykuta of the Illinois Petroleum council at a Chicago hearing on proposals that would assertedly strengthen federal air control standards.

Breath shallow - "Air pollution is responsible for hastening the death of 64,000 people a year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In Chicago, 80 percent of the air pollution is blamed on the steel mills ringing the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan - not on the snow blowers and motorboats and old automobiles that draw such attention..." - News item.

Handy to carry them out - Coca Cola Bottling of Oregon has been working temps as much as 19 hours a day. A company official told the state safety agency this was not excessive. He said the company was planning to buy new forklifts to lighten the workers burden.

Street - In England, there will be a test run on using street signs paid for by corporations and bearing their logos. The idea came from Bribex (?), the country's leading maker of street signs.

How about gloves and hair nets? - Mattel agreed to put warning labels on its Cabbage Patch dolls which "chew" plastic food. Children had their fingers nipped or got their hair snagged in the teeth. Mattel points out that none of the children needed medical care.

Your choice - All whiskeys, we now learn, contain cancer- causing aromatic hydrocarbons. But, the cheapest stuff contains less than big-ticket items like single malt scotch. An angry spokesman for the Scotch Whiskey Association retorted that several pieces of burnt toast contained more of the carcinogen than a glass of malt.  
 
 
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