Notebook: Dec. 15, 1997

WINNERS & LOSERS

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

[WINNERS]

DAVID STERN Scores with public for curbing exactly the type of indulged superstar the NBA itself created

LORNA WENDT Corporate wives of the world unite! Wins 20 mil in assets, but the whole deal in p.r. battle

STEVEN SPIELBERG Affirmative action tie-in & White House sleepover for Amistad

[LOSERS]

WINNIE MANDELA Talk about an Iron Lady. “Never apologize, never explain” is a bad policy. Plus, lose the jewelry

LARRY LAWRENCE What war record? Arlington burial is on shaky ground. Someone should have dug deeper

NEWT GINGRICH Freebie to Mother England on Atlantic Richfield’s nickel

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

SUCK IT UP Pediatricians now say babies should be breast-fed for at least a year–rather than just six months. Doing so should help them fight ear infections, diarrhea and other infant ailments. While that’s great for babies, it’s tough on moms: feeding takes 6 hours a day.

NO, IT’S HEARTBURN A new blood test–coupled with an electrocardiogram–helps doctors quickly assess whether a patient with chest pains is really having a heart attack. The test measures troponin, a protein released by damaged heart muscle.

ZAPPING CANCER A new kind of radiation that uses proton beams may be better at treating some cancers than conventional X rays.

Sources: Pediatrics; New England Journal of Medicine; Radiological Society of North America

THE BAD NEWS

ALL IN THE FAMILY Children whose parents have had heart disease may be setting themselves up for the same fate. By the time they become young adults, they’re much more likely to be obese, have high cholesterol and show early signs of atherosclerosis.

BREATHING UNEASY A common asthma treatment, the steroid inhalant beclomethasone, is great at reducing the frequency of attacks, but it may have a downside: a study finds that in kids with mild asthma, the drug may delay growth slightly.

BLOCK THE BLOCKER? Calcium-channel blockers for hypertension, already thought to raise cancer risk, may also lead to memory loss.

Sources: JAMA; New England Journal of Medicine; Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

NUMBERS

$500,000,000: Michael Eisner’s estimated profit from last week’s sale of Disney stock options granted to him in 1989

$24,638,642: Total earnings of Walt Disney Productions in 1955

4: Percentage of total stock options exercised that Eisner donated to charity

100: Percentage of children in the U.S. ages 5 to 8 whose Disney World admissions costs Eisner’s profits would cover

$95 million: Cash remuneration Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani received this past October

$375,000: Amount Occidental agreed to pay in 1995 for damage to birds and fish after dumping toxic waste in Love Canal

3%: Pay increase for average U.S. worker in fiscal year 1996

54%: Pay increase for average top executive in 1996

1,000: Approximate number of people on Wall Street receiving a bonus of more than $1 million this year

Sources: AP, Reuters, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Walt Disney Corp., Moodys Industrial Manual, New York Times