York Post

James T. McCain, 83, a longtime civil rights activist, died Thursday in Columbia, S.C., after being hospitalized with pneumonia for several weeks. Mr. McCain was field secretary of the Congress of Racial Equality from 1957 to 1966, responsible for several Southeastern states including South Carolina. He taught students about nonviolent protest during that time and helped aspiring voters register and arranged sit-ins. "I remember one night when he pulled me out of a social event in Sumter, and we drove to Rock Hill to get someone out of jail, one of the Freedom Riders," said Ernest Finney, retired South Carolina Supreme Court chief justice who became CORE's legal counsel in South Carolina.

NEW YORK -- What's in the Daily News? I'll tell you what's in the Daily News. Story about a Brooklyn highway crew goofing off while the city "suffers through its worst pothole season in memory!" That's what's in the Daily News. What's in the New York Post? I'll tell you what's in the New York Post. Story about a local mob boss getting rubbed out because the other mob bosses didn't like what they're now calling his "Fairy Godfather" lifestyle. That's what's in the New York Post. What's happening all over?

THE REVIEWS ARE IN, AND THEY GLOW "... Hairspray is, above all, Nice. This may be regarded as faint praise in New York, capital of Type A personalities. But Nice, in this instance, doesn't mean bland. Think of it spelled out in neon, perhaps in letters of purple and fuchsia. That's the kind of Nice that Hairspray is selling. And it feels awfully good to pretend, for as long as the cast keeps singing, that the world really is that way." -- Ben Brantley, New York Times "OK, so the new musical Hair- spray doesn't offer a cure for cancer, or the nose-diving Dow for that matter, but if the infectious jubilation currently spritzing from the stage of the Neil Simon Theater were bottled and sold across the country like, say, hair- spray, consumer confidence would not be a problem.

LOS ANGELES -- The baseball world has turned upside down. The New York Yankees are now the quiet, professional team that has gained the grudging respect of everyone looking up at them in the standings. The Los Angeles Dodgers -- who used to fit that description right down to their matching T-shirts -- have undergone a personality change so profound, they might as well switch to pinstripes.New ownership has brought a strange new direction to one of baseball's most staid franchises. How else to explain the three weeks of turmoil that began with the blockbuster Mike Piazza deal and did not subside even after general manager Fred Claire designated disgruntled Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo for assignment and pulled out of the Randy Johnson sweepstakes?

The New York media had more fun at the Orioles' expense yesterday in the wake of Tuesday night's brawl with the Yankees and the Orioles' terrible slump. A few samplings:Former Sun writer Buster Olney, New York Times: "Not running )) out ground balls and fly balls is something the Orioles are doing very well these days. Making bad decisions is something the Orioles are doing very well these days. If it could be said that Baltimore is out of contention for the AL East title, that the Orioles are dead, then everybody at Yankee Stadium was having a good time dancing on their grave."

Mary Lillian Wills, 82, who won an Academy Award in 1962 for her costumes in "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm," died Feb. 13 in Sedona, Ariz. She designed costumes for more than 50 major films.Robert Herman, 82, a physicist who began his career by predicting radiation echoes from the origin of the cosmos and later developed a field called traffic sciences in which statistics can be used to predict traffic jams, died of lung cancer Feb. 13 in Austin, Texas.Archer Winsten, 92, who spent half a century writing movie reviews for the New York Post -- but only, he insisted, because he found the job a pleasant enough alternative to actual work -- died Friday in Moreau, N.Y.Pub Date: 2/23/97

COULD ALIEN BEINGS from another galaxy come here and obliterate human civilization? If so, would this be covered by our homeowners' insurance? These troubling questions are on the minds of the millions of people who are being exposed this summer to the spectacle of grotesque, repulsive, inhuman creatures that would stop at nothing in their determination to dominate the Earth. I am referring, of course, to the Democratic and Republican conventions.But the public was also troubled by the blockbuster motion picture "Independence Day."

NEW YORK -- No one alive has more experience handicapping the Preakness than former Baltimore resident Rose Hamburger, who at the age of 105 touts horses for the New York Post under the moniker "Gamblin' Rose."She has seen all 11 Triple Crown champions, beginning with Sir Barton in 1919."I'll bet you never saw a woman 105," Hamburger said recently, her eyes sparkling as she greeted a visitor to her three-room Greenwich Village apartment. "Would you like a little sherry?"Dressed colorfully, made up impeccably, Gamblin' Rose asked her live-in companion to pour her guest a bit of sherry.

NEW YORK -- Imagine being so good at tennis that no matter how well you play or how big your margin of victory, it is not news.You can breeze through matches at a Grand Slam tournament like the U.S. Open.You can lose an average of only three games a match over 10 sets and five rounds, embarrass the likes of No. 10 seed Zina Garrison Jackson, blow off quarterfinalist Amanda Coetzer and all anyone does is yawn.If this is happening to you, then your name is Steffi Graf.The only response to Graf's run to today's semifinal match against Jana Novotna has been that of business as usual.

NEW YORK -- Imagine being so good at tennis that no matter how well you play or how big your margin of victory, it is not news.You can breeze through matches at a Grand Slam tournament like the U.S. Open.You can lose an average of only three games a match over 10 sets and five rounds, embarrass the likes of No. 10 seed Zina Garrison Jackson, blow off quarterfinalist Amanda Coetzer and all anyone does is yawn.If this is happening to you, then your name is Steffi Graf.The only response to Graf's run to today's semifinal match against Jana Novotna has been that of business as usual.