Rumors

Take one dead deputy mayor of New York, mix in two lawyers, an accountant, another politician, a psychiatrist and a television cook and you have the recipe for Neil Simon's farce, "Rumors," which opens Saturday at Colonial Players on East Street in Annapolis.Simon has been shrewdly observing and portraying the middle class with wisdom and wit since 1961 in a string of hits that includes "Come Blow Your Horn," "Barefoot in the Park," "The Odd Couple," "Biloxi Blues," "The Goodbye Girl" and "Brighton Beach Memoirs."

When Neil Simon writes a play, the audience is sure to get a laugh, and his 1990 comedy-mystery, "Rumors," is no different.Directed by Liberty High School junior Cheryl Kuehne, 10 drama students will perform "Rumors" at the Eldersburg school tonight, tomorrow and next weekend."

MOSCOW -- Confronted with a new spate of rumors about President Boris N. Yeltsin's health, his chief of staff went on television tonight to rebuke the political opposition, saying it was fomenting tensions during Mr. Yeltsin's working holiday on the Black Sea."The opposition's leaders try to push society to a breakdown, spreading rumors stating that the President's health has allegedly worsened or that a coup is being prepared," Sergei Filatov, Mr. Yeltsin's chief of staff, said in an interview on the main nightly news program.

Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes and the Myth of the Slut, by Emily White. Scribner. 219 pages. $22. In the intricate caste system of the American high school, there is one person deemed absolutely untouchable and yet said to be touched by everyone: the slut. In Fast Girls, Emily White has undertaken a cultural investigation into this notorious teen-age label. How does a girl become known as the class slut? Why do rumors fly that she serviced the football team -- at a party she didn't even attend?

Ravens owner Art Modell vehemently denied rumors yesterday that his team is pursuing a trade for disgruntled Cincinnati wide receiver Carl Pickens.Pickens, still considered one of the NFL's premier wideouts, has been designated as the Bengals' franchise player, and has threatened to sit out the 1999 season as a result. Because of his franchise-player status, he was unable to test the free-agent market this year.Pickens has refused to sign a one-year tender with the Bengals and has said repeatedly that he wants out of Cincinnati.

You know the feeling. A hot-shot car roars past, nearly crowding your vehicle off the road. You fume, helplessly, wishing there were a simple way to report the driver.Now, for the 180,000 residents and workers of Fort Meade, there is.Dialing 677-RUMR puts a caller in touch with an answering machineat the provost marshal's office -- which supervises the military police on post. Among other things, the rumor hot line takes anonymous reports of errant drivers, including military police, on the base.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Discarding rumors that Todd Marinovich had failed an NFL drug test last December, Harbor Municipal Court Judge Susanne S. Shaw dismissed all drug charges against the Los Angeles Raiders quarterback yesterday after determining he had successfully completed a yearlong diversion program.Marinovich, 22, was arrested in Newport Beach last year for misdemeanor possession of cocaine and marijuana. Shaw cleared his record and absolved him of any further charges for completing the diversion program as a first-time offender.

WASHINGTON -- Rumors of marital infidelity involving high political figures have taken many casualties over recent years, and threatened the credibility of others.Gary Hart came a cropper with them in 1987 and 1988 and Bill Clinton is still plagued by them as he navigates through a second term in the White House.But from Michigan now comes a case where such rumors have led, not to the abandonment of a political career, but rather plans to extend one.The politician involved is two-term Republican Gov. John Engler, 48, reported last year to be on the short list as GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole's running mate and the subject of early speculation as a Republican presidential contender in 2000.

MOSCOW -- For two days running, rumors that a top national leader had been incapacitated have swept Moscow.Wednesday, the story was that Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev had been shot. Yesterday's rumor was that Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin had dropped out of sight because he was seriously ill.The first rumor proved unfounded, and so did the second. But besides sending shivers through world financial markets, both rumors symbolized a growing feeling here that no one is in charge in a time of tumultuous changes.