A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

 ? What 's real and what 's propaganda ? And just how far will Clinton 's enemie

s go ? Falwell wants to have it both ways . He produces the tape . He appears at

 the end of it and implores `` God-fearing '' people to write their members of C

ongress and demand full hearings . But when asked on CNN if he believed Clinton 

was a murderer , Falwell said , `` We 're simply saying these charges are being 

made , look at them and determine what is true . I am making no charges whatsoev

er . '' You know , it 's too bad Falwell missed out on the McCarthy era . Of cou

rse , McCarthy missed out on VCRs .

 ZZ Top went back to basics for its new album , `` Antenna . '' But the accompan

ying tour is the most elaborate in the quarter-century of the `` little band fro

m Texas . '' `` This time , we 've outdone ourselves for sure , '' says Frank Be

ard , the band 's drummer . `` It 's really a cool production . It kind of follo

ws the ` Antenna ' theme of the album , and we 've got elevators , moving cranes

 , sidewalks and cyberlights now. ... '' Cyberwhat ? `` Spots . Instead of follo

w spots , it 's all automated now . Any little move you make , everybody sees it

 , '' he explains in his drawl . `` You have a little transmitter in your hat . 

If you just stand still , move your head back and forth , you can see the lights

 do the same thing . '' And if you tossed the hat into the audience , the spotli

ght would follow it as well ? `` Yeah it would , '' says Beard , who , despite h

is name , is the only cleanshaven member of the trio , rounded out by Billy Gibb

ons and Dusty Hill . `` That would be a good gag . Except you 'd lose the transm

itter , which costs about $ 1,000 . '' Replacing the spotlight operators , who s

it precariously amid the light rigging on stage , is only natural for the band ,

 which , on its 1983 `` Eliminator '' tour , appeared to kill off a lighting ope

rator at the show 's climax . It makes you wonder whether there ever will be a p

oint ZZ Top willn't be able to top itself . `` I don't know , '' Beard says . ``

 It 's rough for us not to do so much . It 's always been a ZZ thing or a Texas 

thing . We sit around saying , ` We could do this ; we could do that , ' and som

eone else would get fired up . And we 'd end up going on tour with buffaloes and

 steers . '' People still talk about the menagerie that went out on the road wit

h the elaborate 1975 `` Worldwide Texas Tour : Takin ' Texas to the People . '' 

Besides the hoofed animals , it also involved two rattlesnakes , tarantulas and 

buzzards . But everybody was just as happy to see the animals go , Beard says . 

`` We traded 'em in on dancers , '' he says , mentioning another ZZ Top trademar

k . `` They 're easier to keep . '' With the dancers in the '80s came a slicker 

ZZ Top style , some amusing videos and a bigger-than-ever career with the blockb

uster `` Eliminator '' and `` Afterburner '' albums a time when its music was sh

amelessly augmented by synthesizer programs . And , as depicted in the new book 

`` Sharp Dressed Men '' by one-time crew member David Blayney ( Hyperion ) , Hil

l once pretended to play synthesizer on stage for `` TV Dinners , '' while the r

eal sound was on tape , fed by the sound crew . Beard says the band has been usi

ng sequencers on stage for years , and it 's no big deal . `` You can sit there 

and push one note and play a whole song , '' he says . `` What 's more valid ? I

f you have a machine that you can program the whole thing , and punch one button

 and it will sit there and go , ` dadda , dadda , dadda , dadda , ' or if you 'v

e got somebody up there off to the side of the stage with two fingers going ` da

dda , dadda , dadda , dadda ' ? What difference does it make ? '' There 's a lot

 less of that pulsing synthesizer sound on `` Antenna '' and in the new show . B

ut not because it was planned that way . `` When we first started our writing se

ssions for this record , we went into our little funky rehearsal studio down in 

Houston , '' Beard says . There , using drums , bass and guitar , they were surp

rised at how quickly the songs came . `` It was like : ` Hey , this is a lot les

s work doing it this way than it is messing with that piece of equipment over th

ere . ' So we wrote the whole record that way . We didn't use the synthesizer as

 a main instrument on anything , '' Beard says . `` It 's easier to sit down and

 play and make up songs than to make up songs and then to program them . '' It m

akes for less trouble on stage , too , where the trio can stretch out on songs r

ather than be tied to a disembodied synthesizer track . Still , the group will t

hrow in some of those '80s synthesizer favorites , Beard says . `` It 's gotten 

to the point where we 're going to make somebody mad every night anyway . We 're

 going to leave off somebody 's favorite . Last tour , we didn't do ` Cheap Sung

lasses , ' and people were on us the whole tour . So this tour we 're doing ` Ch

eap Sunglasses , ' but there 's something else that got left out . That comes fr

om being around forever . '' ( Optional add end ) Of course , many bands would e

nvy such fad-dodging longevity , which has been extended by a five-album deal wi

th RCA at a figure that 's been reported to be from $ 30 million to $ 45 million

 . The band did it in part by capitalizing on the video form . The band 's lates

t has it appearing as vampires in a `` Thriller''-style clip for `` Breakaway ''

 that 's also its most expensive . Once more , it will likely include visual clu

es as obvious to fans as the sound of Gibbon 's guitar : a car , a set of keys ,

 a group of models , a hand signal . `` For some reason , '' Beard says , `` whe

n we started making videos , all we did was try to show what we were into . We a

lready had a red car . So we thought , ` Let 's put the red car in the movies . 

' It all just seemed to work out together for us where it became a rock 'n' roll

 icon . It wasn't like we 're super smart and we thought : ` Let 's build a car 

, and hire some girls . ' We had the car , and there were some girls hanging aro

und , and we thought : ` Shoot , they 're prettier ' than we were , let 's featu

re them , and we 'll just kind of watch . '' Most of all , they tried to keep th

ings light . `` ZZ 's always been a fun band , more or less , '' Beard says . ``

 I don't like people who take themselves too serious and get up there and shake 

their hair and that kind of thing . I think if you watch a ZZ Top video , you 'r

e going to smile somewhere in it . That 's all we care about . ''

 WASHINGTON Thomas J. McCullough of Albuquerque is as excited as any World War I

I veteran about the series of stamps that the Postal Service started issuing in 

1991 to mark the 50th anniversary of the war . But he 's got one big problem : N

ot many people seem to be using the stamps for postage . McCullough , a retired 

sergeant first-class , uses them on all his mail and adds an urgent message abou

t the stamps to all his envelopes . `` No one heralds their presence You must as

k ! '' reads McCullough 's plea . `` Pearl Harbor was real . WWII did happen , h

istory is in these stamps . Buy , save , use make them your ` Stamp of Approval.

 ' '' . Nevertheless , the Postal Service is pleased with profits from sales of 

the stamps . Unlike McCullough , most people who have purchased the World War II

 commemoratives have been putting them in scrapbooks rather than on envelopes . 

`` Hardly any veteran knows that ( the stamps ) exist , complained McCullough , 

78 . Postal officials sell out so quickly `` you can't get 'em , '' he said . St

amp art director Howard Paine , who has overseen the Postal Service 's five-year

 effort to commemorate the war , admits to being troubled by the paucity of stam

ps being used for postage . To Paine and many other stamp artists there is no hi

gher accolade than seeing their stamp designs on an envelope . That is proof , t

he artists say , that the public accepts their work and appreciates the subject 

celebrated on a stamp . But few people at Postal Service Headquarters will conce

de to worrying about whether stamps are used as postage . Since a stamp saved is

 29 cents profit for the cash-strapped agency , the World War II stamps have bee

n a big hit there . The World War II stamps are not as big as the Elvis Presley 

stamp , which hit $ 35 million in profit , but Azeezaly S. Jaffer , the Postal S

ervice 's top stamp official , calls them an unqualified success . According to 

Jaffer , the first three sets of World War II stamps have yielded between $ 7.5 

million and $ 10 million profit each . That 's enough to prompt Jaffer and other

s to try to devise plans for a sequel . `` I think the stamps have been really e

xciting. .. . There has been a tremendous outpouring of interest , especially fr

om veterans groups , '' Jaffer said . `` I don't see a lot of World War II stamp

s on mail , which tells me that people are buying these stamps and keeping them 

. '' On June 6 , the Postal Service will release 10 more stamps to commemorate t

he war . As American officials gather in France to mark the 50th anniversary of 

the D-Day landing at Normandy , Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is scheduled

 to join President Clinton and other U.S. officials aboard the aircraft carrier 

USS George Washington off the Normandy coast and dedicate the fourth set of Worl

d War II stamps . Separate ceremonies will be held in Washington and 13 other ci

ties that day to celebrate the new stamps . The official first-day cancellations

 will come from the USS Normandy , a guided missile cruiser , which is to be amo

ng the U.S. ships off France June 6 . It will be only the third time that a U.S.

 stamp will have been dedicated outside the country , according to the Postal Se

rvice . The first two were at stamp shows in 1978 and 1988 in Canada . The Norma

ndy cancellation will be available at the National Postal Museum in Washington ,

 where a ceremony with Secretary of Defense William J. Perry will commemorate th

e release . The stamps also will go on sale June 6 at Fort Dix , N.J. ; Salt Lak

e City ; New York City ; Clarksville , Tenn. ; Bangor , Maine ; Fort Campbell , 

Ky. ; Charleston , S.C. ; Virginia Beach and Richmond , Va. ; and three Texas lo

cations : Fort Sam Houston , Lubbock and San Antonio . Like the other stamps in 

the series , this year 's set is being sold in special sheets that feature a col

or map of the world highlighting the events that occurred 50 years ago . Titled 

`` 1944 : Road to Victory , '' this year 's stamps salute the Normandy invasion 

, retaking of New Guinea , bombing raids , airborne unit assaults , submarine wa

rfare in the Pacific , the retaking of Rome , the attack on Saipan , the Red Bal

l Express speeding supplies to the front , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , Bastogne a

nd the Battle of the Bulge . To encourage more people to save the stamps , Jaffe

r is planning to introduce a special `` Stamp Folio , '' a souvenir booklet that

 will hold all five sheets planned for the series . Booklets with the first four

 sheets will be sold by the Postal Service for $ 14.95 . The stamps were designe

d by Bill Bond of Arlington , Va. , who painted all 50 stamps in the series . Th

e Bureau of Engraving and Printing used offset and intaglio presses to create th

e latest stamps .

 Individuals interested in securing the USS Normandy first-day cancellations of 

the World War II stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office an

d place them on address envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope 

and mailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , World War II Stamps , Postmaster , 900

 Brentwood Rd. NE , Washington , DC 20066-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarke

d by July 5 .

 The Chevrolet Corvette Club was upset . They misunderstood . They just didn't g

et what I wrote recently about the way many people react to folks driving Corvet

te convertibles and coupes . I wrote that there appears to be an undercurrent of

 public hostility toward Corvette drivers . This was from personal experience an

d empirical observation . I get into a Corvette and cops follow me , folks cut m

e off , women avert their eyes . God forbid that I cut someone off while driving

 a Corvette . I get the Ignoble Salute like nobody 's business . ISn't nothin ' 

wrong with the car and there probably isn't much wrong with Corvette drivers . I

t 's a public perception thing . Corvettes , generally speaking , are seen as ma

cho , aggressive , unfriendly . People respond accordingly . But how different i

t is to be behind the wheel of a 1995 Volkswagen Cabrio . I drove one for a week

 and made lots of friends . People waved . Women winked . Cops passed me by with

 nary a notice . I even gave the Cabrio the Ultimate Motorized Public Acceptance

 Test . I inadvertently cut someone off in traffic in the District of Columbia a

nd braced myself for some shouted expletive . But all I got was : `` Hey , man ,

 you tryin ' to mess up that nice car ? '' I apologized . The dude waved . Nice 

, friendly reaction . Nice , friendly car . Background : Cars are about more tha

n performance , as measured in 0-to-60 times , cornering ability , horsepower , 

torque and that type of stuff . Cars are also about attitude , which is somethin

g that VW 's engineers and designers understand . From the very first Beetle rag

top in 1955 to the current Cabrio model , VW 's people have given us simple , em

braceable convertibles , cars that seem to run on optimism as much as fuel . It 

's a joy to be in these things on a great day , tootling along with the top down

 . Of course , the guts are there in the new front-wheel-drive Cabrio albeit not

 in strong enough measure to please wannabe race car drivers . The car runs with

 a two-liter , in-line four-cylinder engine , rated 115 horsepower at 5,400 rpm 

. Maximum torque is 122 foot-pounds at 3,200 rpm . Standard brakes include power

 front-discs/rear drums with anti-lock backup . A roll bar is standard ( I prefe

r to have it there ) . Dual air bags are standard , but VW jettisoned the glove 

box to get the passenger bag in . The standard transmission is five-speed manual

 ; a four-speed automatic is optional . The six-layer , vinyl-coated , convertib

le cloth top is manual , but it works faster and better than many power models a

t a substantially lower cost . Finally , the new Cabrio has an overall stiffer b

ody than its predecessors and more interior space than a substantially pricier B

MW 325i convertible . Complaints : No glove box . Practically nonexistent trunk 

at 7.8 cubic feet . Yo , somebody at VW forget something ? Praise : Ease of use 

. Overall quality of design and build . Ample rear seat room for two `` normal s

ize '' adults . Great fun at an almost reasonable price . Head-turning quotient 

: Body beautiful by Karmann Coachworks , with rounded exterior , teardrop headla

mps and high rear end . Way more cheers than jeers . Ride , acceleration and han

dling : Firm , but comfortable ride . Crisp handling and good acceleration for n

ormal drivers . Excellent braking . Mileage : About 26 miles per gallon ( 14.5-g

allon tank , estimated 367-mile range on usable volume of required regular unlea

ded ) , five-speed manual model , running mostly highway and driver only . Sound

 system : AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with optional compact disc player , Vo

lkswagen Premium sound system . The first VW sound system I 've actually enjoyed

 . Price : Base price is $ 19,975 . Dealer 's invoice on base model is $ 18,161 

. Price as tested is $ 21,710 , including $ 1,345 in options and a $ 390 destina

tion charge . Purse-strings note : Compare with any subcompact convertible . For

 that matter , compare with some luxury convertibles including those from Audi ,

 BMW and , ahm , Chevrolet .

 COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France Their graves run in parallel ranks on the bluff abo

ve the bloody shingle called Omaha Beach , where so many of them fell . Row upon

 row of headstones fill the American cemetery here , more than 9,000 all told , 

each bone-white , each precisely 39 inches tall , each emblematic of a young lif

e forfeited for a greater good . The grass has been clipped , the hedges trimmed

 , the marble scrubbed . And now the fallen wait amid the tranquility of this ha

llowed ground for the return of their comrades . Fifty years after the Normandy 

landing , they await a last reunion of the quick and the dead . Normandy : the l

egend long ago transcended the event itself , joining those other three-syllable

 battles Trafalgar , Gettysburg , Stalingrad whose names evoke valor , sacrifice

 and the steel-on-steel clash of irreconcilable adversaries . The invasion on Ju

ne 6 , 1944 , is now woven into the warp and woof of our national mythology . It

 opened the majestic final act of what was known in an earlier age , without emb

arrassment or irony , as the Great Crusade . It also marked , as historian H.P. 

Willmott wrote , `` the emergence of the United States as the major power in Wes

tern Europe '' and `` the end of the period of European supremacy in the world t

hat had existed for four centuries . '' Joseph Stalin , rarely given to effusive

 praise for his Western allies , declared that `` the history of warfare knows n

o other like undertaking from the point of view of its scale , its conception an

d its masterly execution . '' Military historian John Keegan , carefully calibra

ting the losses endured by the Third Reich in Russia and North Africa , conclude

d that Normandy `` ranked as the greatest military disaster Hitler had yet suffe

red in the field . '' It was epic , heroic and decisive . Normandy was all of th

ese things , and less . Significant as it was , the invasion came very late in t

he war , forcing the Soviet Union to bear the brunt of the fight in Europe for t

hree years and giving Moscow squatter 's rights to the eastern empire it would s

oon occupy . The Normandy campaign itself was marred by sins of omission and com

mission : intelligence shortcomings , questionable generalship , internecine bic

kering and friendly-fire casualties on a scale unseen before or since . Notwiths

tanding their ultimate success , the invaders failed to capture any of their ini

tial objectives on D-Day ; indeed , the critical crossroads city of Caen would n

ot fall for more than a month . For seven weeks , the opposing armies slugged it

 out toe-to-toe in fighting more reminiscent of static World War I combat with N

orman hedgerows substituting for Verdun trenches than the mobile warfare commonl

y associated with World War II . Foreshadowing the infamous epitaph from Vietnam

 `` we had to destroy the village in order to save it '' the liberators inflicte

d massive damage throughout Normandy ; by summer 's end , about 15,000 French ci

vilians would be killed and 200,000 buildings destroyed . German tenacity and ma

rtial prowess though crippled by an oafish Nazi high command were often underest

imated by the Allies , who ultimately prevailed through weight of numbers and ov

erwhelming firepower . As Max Hastings , whose `` Overlord '' is among the defin

itive accounts of the battle , wrote a decade ago , `` Whenever British or Ameri

can troops met the Germans in anything like equal strength , the Germans prevail

ed . '' Let none of it detract from the glory of those who fought and bled in go

od faith and good cause . Fifty years ago this week , men who had never read a l

ine of Shakespeare in their lives found themselves quoting `` Henry V '' to one 

another with bardic passion : He that outlives this day , and comes home safe Wi

ll stand a-tiptoe when this day is named . They return this week for most , it w

ill be a final return to stand once more a-tiptoe . -O- A generation before Norm

andy , Sir Edward Grey had likened the United States to `` a gigantic boiler : o

nce the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate 

. '' By 1944 , the boiler had been stoked again . Eleven million Americans were 

in military uniforms , including 2 million assigned to 90 combat divisions . Ame

rican industry was turning out war materiel at a stupendous pace . Much of this 

power was concentrated on the task of liberating Europe . But how best to do it 

? British leaders favored defeating Germany through a series of blows on the Thi

rd Reich 's periphery ; Washington believed Allied clout should be concentrated 

in one staggering punch . The American strategy prevailed . A plan for the invas

ion of Europe , code-named Overlord , was reviewed by President Franklin D. Roos

evelt , Prime Minister Winston Churchill and their top generals at a conference 

in Quebec in August 1943 and again during meetings in Cairo and Tehran that wint

er . The man chosen to lead the crusade had already commanded three successful a

mphibious landings . As a relatively junior officer in March 1942 , Dwight D. Ei

senhower had also drafted an early version of the attack plan , which called for

 an invasion of the continent in April 1943 by 30 U.S. and 18 British divisions 

1.5 million men who would land between Le Havre and Boulogne and drive toward An

twerp , Belgium . Eisenhower , historian Eric Larrabee wrote , `` came to Overlo

rd as though born for it . '' Homespun and self-effacing , Eisenhower also posse

ssed equilibrium , a deft political touch later described as `` hidden-hand lead

ership '' and charisma . `` He had only to smile at you , '' British Field Marsh

al Bernard Montgomery once admitted , `` and there was nothing you would not do 

for him . '' As supreme allied commander , Eisenhower was granted extraordinary 

autonomy when he established his headquarters in January 1944 in Bushy Park , ou

tside London . Yet it often took more than smiles to exert his will . The most s

erious confrontation involved the deployment of Allied air power . British and U

.S. air chiefs favored a relentless bombing campaign against strategic targets i

n Germany ; Eisenhower demanded that a substantial portion of the planes be dive