Satanic Verses

Mrs. Onassis hospitalized for cancer treatmentJacqueline Kennedy Onassis was hospitalized for cancer treatment yesterday, a month after undergoing surgery for a bleeding ulcer."

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* Would you rather be sailing? Check out the live coverage of "America's Cup '92" racing, which began over the weekend, on the ESPN cable network.Viewers really seem to be aboard the big new America's Cup Class vessels dueling off San Diego for yachting's most prestigious international trophy. The feeling of being there is thanks to on-boat cameras, aerial photography and expert commentary from Jim Kelly, Peter Isler and Annapolis-based sailor Gary Jobson.If all goes according to plan, some 100 hours of live coverage will be shown by the end of the match race series in May. Included on the schedule are races at 3 p.m. today and every other day this week except Friday.

Gladys Cofiell had often talked about opening a shop to sell the dolls, clothes and other crafts she's been making for 20 years.Her son, David Wheeler, finally decided he'd heard enough talk.So he found a first-floor space at 34 N. Main St. in Union Bridge for his mother."He said, 'Mom, if I get you one [a shop], will you keep it supplied?' " said Mrs. Cofiell, 65, who now spends nearly all her time working at her Westminster home to turn out merchandise for the Union Bridge Emporium.In addition to Mrs. Cofiell's crafts, the shop sells "nearly new" items and the work of about 12 local artisans.

MY QUEASY stomach generally keeps me from attending Ku Klux Klan rallies and similar events which some brave souls attend just to see what the hatemongers are up to. Thus I didn't get to a recent gathering in Potomac, little more than a stone's throw from where I live.Something billed as an educational lecture was delivered there in the mosque of the Islamic Education Center by Yusuf Islam, a British subject formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens. Stevens/Islam was touring the U.S. to raise money for Muslim schools, and the Potomac meeting was his kickoff appearance.

Nobody Cares?The nation is facing an unprecedented $4 trillion national debt and a projected $400 billion deficit.Millions of Americans are out of work and the economy is in a prolonged tailspin and the Congress, paralyzed by wave after wave of scandal and divisive partisan politicking, has been unable to pass any meaningful legislation.Undaunted, our above-it-all Senate is making plans to spend $18 million to modernize its subway shuttle so that the ranks of the privileged can save a few minutes travel time.

NEW YORK -- Suddenly, and with no advance warning to the audience, Salman Rushdie emerged from his life in hiding last night and implored an electrified assembly at Columbia University not to forget that he remains hostage to an Iranian sentence of death."

Come this Valentine's Day, Ahmed Salman Rushdie, who yearns for love, will have dodged death for seven years. Now he is making a very public run for daylight.He speaks with disarming sureness of what drives him: The history of literature teaches us "that we cannot use persecution as an excuse not to do our work."That was far from obvious when, in 1988, Mr. Rushdie was sentenced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to die for his novel "The Satanic Verses." He spent the next two years in a state of despair and mental chaos.

Giants and Dwarfs: Essays 1960-1990.Allan Bloom.Simon & Schuster.395 pages. $22.95. A few years ago, a Baltimore columnist with no sociopolitical ax to grind and views far removed from Allan Bloom's remarked that when Americans of a certain age and class first meet one another, they always wind up talking about popular music and old television shows because that's the only common culture they're sure of having. Enough other people had noticed that fact, and found it shameful or even dangerous, to explain why Mr. Bloom's "The Closing of the American Mind" became one of the surprise best-sellers of 1987: A large public was waiting for it.The most Mr. Bloom can hope for with "Giants and Dwarfs" probably will be critical success.

JOHN C. DANFORTH, who is both a senator from Missouri and an Episcopal priest, has made a modest and worthy proposal that I'm afraid will go nowhere. In calling upon the leaders of church, mosque and synagogue to jaw, jaw, jaw rather than war, war, war, Mr. Danforth becomes a prophet -- but one, alas, who is crying in the wilderness.''The pope,'' urges Senator Danforth, ''should issue an invitation to an interfaith selection of widely recognized religious leaders'' who would declare that ''violence in the name of religion is contrary to the will of God,'' after which the cooperating clerics could set up ''a standing forum of religious leaders to address issues of religious violence.

PARIS -- The voices calling the Muslim radio shows each night are suggestive of insecurity, suspicion and fear."We have the impression that Israel is not giving the Palestinians in the West Bank gas masks as insurance against a chemical attack there, while Saddam Hussein is using captured Westerners as human shields," said Bruno, a caller to Radio Maghreb. "My question is, what is the difference between them?""The problem is, we feel this war as an attack by the rich on the poor," said Aisha, another caller.