I Work

THE JAPANESE are not all wrong in their assessment of the work habits of Americans. They have noticed that we spend a lot of time at work but don't seem to be doing anything.I first noticed this pattern in the homes of depressed welfare women. They would "work" all day at cleaning up their houses, but nothing would get cleaned up. I noticed it again when I took my VCR to a very small shop for repairs and didn't get it back for two weeks. And although the owner complained to me that business was terrible, no one was doing anything whenever I walked by the store.

Bill Dorman, third-generation owner, Peoples Electrical Supply Co. Inc., Gay Street.The storefront sign says: "Vacations: the week of July 4th, Christmas week." Otherwise, Mr. Dorman, 47, is here 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, Saturdays 9 a.m. to noon, and "whatever time it takes left over to do the books." His 20-year-old daughter works here, too."It's a family business -- if you don't do it, it doesn't get done," he said. "I could leave right now [for the day] and have no problems but I'm taught the old-fashioned way -- you just work."

* Stu Rose, 30, of Ellicott City, works for ARC Research:Well, it exposed it in the workplace with all of the media coverage. You couldn't get away from it. I was kind of dismayed to see it publicized like it was. We never have that problem where I work.

William Baldwin has only done four films, and if you're under the impression that he has done lots more, it is only because of the Baldwin name.There are a few Baldwin boys lighting up the big screen these days, Alec, William and Stephen.Alec (''The Marrying man'') was first, and William gives his brother some credit for his choice of profession. ''I supposed he paved the way,'' he said. ''I was going to go to law school. At the time, I was more cerebral, then half-way through college, I decided I wanted to become an actor.

(Mike Royko is on vacation until Jan. 30. While he's away, we're reprinting some of his favorite columns. This one first appeared April 25, 1978.)THE YOUNG COUPLE had a bitter quarrel. From the angry words that drifted to others in Billy Goat's Tavern, the dispute seemed to be over whether he or she was the better racquetball player. She loudly declared that she was through with him forever and flounced into the night, leaving him to brood over his beer.After considerable brooding, he squared his shoulders and with a sob in his voice said: "I feel like jumping off the bridge and ending it all."

Mike Condon spends most of his free time -- like six nights a week -- in a hockey rink.Condon, 32, is a linesman in the American Hockey League, an off-ice official for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, a referee for collegiate games and a supervisor for youth and high school games."

Jean Hoblitzell grew up on a farm in Glyndon, and rode horseback through crisp, browning late-autumn fields, watching the sun set in a blur of purple.It's all there, in her quilts.Somewhat later, Jean Hoblitzell was an architect in New York, moving through a hard-edged urban grid of straight lines and jutting angles.That's all there, too, in the quilts.Ms. Hoblitzell, a contemporary quilt artist whose work is on display this weekend as part of a four-woman show at St. John's Episcopal Church in Glyndon, has a lot in common with those traditional quilters who created an art form out of scraps of cloths and thousands of tiny stitches.