Iconoclast

As different as these three books are - memoir, photograph collection and political discourse - each examines the past as a way to explain the present. Out Came the Sun By Judith Scott Academy Chicago Publishers / 260 pages / $17.95 With her corn-silk blonde hair, blue eyes and round cheeks, Emily Katherine Scott seemed perfect. But she was disabled "across the board - developmentally, cognitively, neurologically, and psychologically." That diagnosis was only the beginning as Judith Scott (a Montgomery County high-school teacher and aerobics instructor)

There has been a lot of talk recently about the glass ceiling, the invisible barrier that women and minorities knock their heads against when they try to move up in their organizations.The executive ceiling is real -- and really low. In a 1990 analysis of 31,187 managers of 94 Fortune 1,000 companies conducted by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, 16.9 percent were women and 6 percent minorities. Among 4,491 top-level executives, 6.6 percent were women and 2.5 percent minorities.

London--The 1960s is a major movement in fashion everywhere today, but especially here.In their current incarnation of the '60s spirit, the most successful designers have softened the sharp edges and blunted the aggressive thrust of clothes of that time. If you listen carefully, you can catch an echo of the protest, but many of the clothes shown in the spring collections here last week are simply gentle and relaxed. Only the very short hemlines remain."It's the '60s adapted for the '90s," Arabella Pollen tried to explain.

Faster Than the Speed of Light, by Joao Magueijo. 288 pages. Perseus Publishing. $26. In 1905 Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity, and thus was born one of the most famous and influential formulas in the history of science: The story Joao Magueijo tells in his insightful new book concerns the "c" of Einstein's equation, the symbol for the speed of light, and how just maybe the great physicist got it wrong. "If there's one thing every schoolboy knows about Einstein and his theory of relativity, it is that the speed of light in a vacuum" -- 186,000 miles per second for those who haven't cracked a textbook recently -- "is constant."

SEOUL, South Korea - They were stunned, disappointed and embarrassed by the impeachment of President Roh Moo Hyun, but at least there was no street violence. That was seen as some good news for South Koreans in the wake of one the ugliest episodes in the 10 years of full democracy here. The risk of violence had to be considered real because of the long tradition of angry demonstrations in South Korea. About 10,000 Roh supporters marched peacefully, however, near the National Assembly on Friday night.

WASHINGTON - After months of being viewed by Democrats as an improbable if persistent candidate, Howard Dean has erased questions about his staying power and has forced his rivals to alter their strategies to counter his increasing influence on the race, according to party leaders, strategists and even rival campaigns. Over the space of a week, Dean lined up two important labor endorsements and became the first Democrat to withdraw from the public campaign finance system. That strategy, though potentially risky, will allow him to outspend his rivals and further establish himself as an unconventional driving force in the primaries.

In the nearly nine years since rock iconoclast Frank Zappa died of prostate cancer, former band members and musically talented fans have tried, with mixed degrees of success, to duplicate the eclectic Zappa concert experience. Few come as close to pulling it off as Project/Object, a band fronted by Zappa fan and guitarist Andre Cholmondeley. Formed in 1990, Project/Object has grown from a New Jersey bar band with a small cult following to a viable Zappa cover band that began touring nationwide last year and developing a larger cult following.

ROME -- Alberto Moravia, a sharp-eyed Roman storyteller who became the grand old man of contemporary Italian literature, died unexpectedly here yesterday in his apartment overlooking the Tiber. He was 82.A prolific and controversial figure whose literary career spanned six decades, Mr. Moravia died within a few minutes of first feeling ill during his morning bath, his family said. His doctor, who had proclaimed him fit after a physical exam Monday, said he suspected a stroke as the cause of death.

"W.S. Gilbert: A Classic Victorian and His Theater," By Jane W. Stedman. Oxford. 373 pages. $30The trouble with Gilbert and Sullivan is that people think they know them. A few catch phrases (when you call some pompous higher-up a pooh-bah, you're paying tribute to Gilbert), tunes to sing in the shower, jokes about hundred-year-old social controversies. At the end of the 20th century, why should anyone care?There's no answering that without trying to see Gilbert and Sullivan at full length, so to speak, and in context.

CBS and Fox have wasted no time sniping at each other over interpreting NFL ratings, and the real season doesn't even start for three weeks.In case you've forgotten, Fox has lifted broadcasts of the NFC from CBS, where they had rested for 38 years, for a crisp $1.25 billion over the next four years.CBS numbers cruncher David Poltrack lau- nched an attack late Monday, claiming Friday's Fox broadcast of the San Francisco-Denver game, which garnered a 6.5 rating and a 13 share in national Nielsen ratings, was 20 percent below a San Francisco-San Diego game last Aug. 28.(Let's pause for the first official "On the Air" numbers explanation: Each national rating point equals 942,000 homes, while shares measure the percentage among homes where a television is in use.)