BY HARRY RING
Finally, organic nicotine -Looking for a smoother smoke? Check out Natural American Spirit coffin nails. "Made from 100 percent chemical-additive-free, whole leaf natural Virginia tobacco and nothing else."

Oops - Treasury Secretary Rubin, in a speech on the American record in international affairs, inadvertently boasted of "the defeat of capitalism."

Why would that be? - Two polls found that the more Canadians earn, the more they trust the justice system. Quebecois trusted the courts the least.

Mind your manners - Anticipating a settlement, a striking unionist inquired of Miss Manners how to deal with those who crossed the picket line to return to work - how, without being rude, make clear that all is not forgotten and forgiven. Miss Manner recommended impeccably correct coldness and, as the ultimate put-down, addressing them by titles and surnames.

Sharp cookies - Two companies have a lock on the cookies which are key to Girl Scout operating budgets. Price cutting on the $2.50-a-box cookies is verboten, but increases are OK. In Jackson County, Georgia, Ashleigh Bratek, 8, sold 2,552 boxes. She was denied the computer she thought she had won when officials learned she sold some at the basic price instead of the $2.75 the council had set. Her family is filing an anti- trust suit.

They don't have money to burn - The 1969 DC-9 ValuJet that went down did not have flame-retardant cabin materials required on passenger planes built since 1990. Older passenger planes don't have to meet this standard unless their interiors are completely refurbished. More than half of them don't include flame retardant materials. The commonly used plastic trim can burn three times faster than newer materials.

She thought it was arts and crafts - Talk-show host Kathie Lee Gifford insisted she knew nothing of the superexploitation of workers at sweatshops turning out her products.Wendy Diaz, 15, who worked for one of Gifford's Honduran suppliers, said she and others, some as young as 12, worked 13 hours a day for 31 cents an hour. She added they suffered physical abuse and sexual harassment.

Why bother, they know what side the boss is on - Martin Kettle, a columnist for the British Guardian, observes: "...here's a funny thing. Many of the British journalists who write regularly about Northern Ireland go there very rarely indeed, if they go there at all."  
 
 
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