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

his is an industry that is struggling desperately for survival , '' he said . ``

 We are in no position to be thinking about buying large numbers of $ 200 millio

n airplanes . Where are we going to raise that kind of money ? '' ( Begin option

al trim ) Instead of a supersonic jet , airlines may opt for a proposed 600-pass

enger super-jumbo plane that Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are studying . It woul

d involve much less technical risk and may be more adaptable to different routes

 . The Air Transport Association , the trade group representing U.S. airlines , 

has not raised the supersonic jet as a priority , a spokesman said . And the pro

gram is not even mentioned in McDonnell 's or Boeing 's 1993 shareholder reports

 . ( End optional trim ) NASA officials , however , believe any reservations abo

ut the supersonic planes are myopic . Just build the plane and `` the market wil

l be there , '' claims Louis J. Williams , director of the supersonic program at

 NASA . Commercial air travel is growing at 8 percent to 10 percent per year , h

e said , and international travel growth is paralleling the explosion in interna

tional trade . ( Begin optional trim ) Weary business travelers would flock to a

 supersonic jetliner that promises to reduce jet lag . If executives can get to 

Tokyo or Paris , conduct business and board a return flight on the same day of t

heir departure , they may never have to adjust to a different time zone . `` Fro

m the traveling public 's perception , I am not sure we have done much for them 

in the past 20 years , '' said Sam Gilkey , head of GE 's effort to develop a su

personic engine . `` This plane offers more to the public than a 600-seat plane 

you hear so much about . '' Still , even in an industry where companies firms be

t their survival on each new product , the supersonic plane carries unique risks

 . It will require entirely new high-technology materials , computerized jet eng

ine controls and even new research into human behavior . For example , when pilo

ts land the jet , instead of looking out the window , they would rely on `` synt

hetic vision '' that would resemble a video game screen . NASA and industry offi

cials believe they have licked a long-standing concern that a fleet of supersoni

c commercial jets flying through the stratosphere would seriously degrade the oz

one . In recent years , NASA has invested $ 500 million into research on superso

nic jet engines that would cut pollution by controlling combustion and fuel air 

mixture . ( End optional trim ) Aviation has always had unique public support . 

It occupies a special place in American history and plays a key role in the U.S.

 economy . Commercial aircraft are America 's leading export . At issue is wheth

er the NASA research program will give the U.S. the dominant technological posit

ion internationally . With the lead role , U.S. industry would then be in a posi

tion to decide when to launch production of the jet . `` I believe it is the mos

t critical manufacturing decision this country will make in the next 10 years , 

'' Harris said .

 The following editorial appeared in Wednesday 's Washington Post : That 's a to

ugh indictment that was handed up against Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , Tuesd

ay . It was sometimes said in the course of the two-year investigation by the U.

S. attorney 's office here that the veteran congressman would never commit offen

ses as petty as those in which he was said to have been involved . But taken tog

ether , and if in fact they occurred as described , the alleged offenses are any

thing but petty ; they can't be put in the everybody-does-it category either . R

ostenkowski , who as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has been an 

extremely effective and valuable member of Congress , is of course entitled to t

he presumption of innocence . He has elected , as is both his right and style , 

to contest the charges rather than accept a profferred deal that would have sent

 him to jail . That may be an indication he thinks he can win , but he has ackno

wledged that he likely faces an uphill fight . The case against Rostenkowski wil

l be described already has been as in part the case against Congress . That 's b

ecause he has become emblematic of a particular congressional lifestyle . But in

 fact the charges against him have to do only peripherally with that lifestyle .

 He is not accused of having taken gifts or golfing trips or funds from interest

 groups , though he has certainly done his great share of that over the years . 

Rather , he is accused of having gone to sometimes extraordinary lengths to make

 personal use of his House office accounts public funds and , to a lesser extent

 , of accumulated and surplus campaign funds . Over the years he is accused of h

aving taken a large amount , but of having squeezed it out a small amount at a t

ime . That 's not the public 's image of a congressional committee chairman . Un

der the House Democratic rules , Rostenkowski now must relinquish his chairmansh

ip . It is set to go to Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla . The conventional wisdom has b

een that Gibbons isn't up to the job isn't shrewd or forceful enough and that th

e president 's health-care reform proposal could well be the first casualty . We

 think that 's a little premature : not the health-care prediction Who knows wha

t will happen to that ? but the prediction as to Gibbons . There was a similar c

lucking sound when Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , succeeded former Sen. Lloy

d Bentsen of Texas as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee before last year 

's budget battle ; too flaky , said the critics and the budget passed . We even 

remember a few disparaging remarks when Rostenkowski ascended to the Ways and Me

ans chairmanship ; too crude , they said , and now they lament the loss of his t

oughness . The critics who said that the Justice Department in a Democratic admi

nistration couldn't be counted on to prosecute a leading congressional Democrat 

were also wrong . We have no idea how the Rostenkowski case will turn out ; the 

defense has yet to be heard from . But whatever occurs , the case hasn't been de

flected for political reasons . That 's already an impressive result .

 HOLLYWOOD The Tabloid Gossip Column. .. . OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS !! ! Coming next W

ednesday night on CBS is `` A Busch Gardens/Sea World Celebration , '' an hourlo

ng summer vacation tip being produced for the Anheuser Busch Theme Parks . It ha

s the same taint as `` Treasure Island , '' an alleged children 's special set i

n the new Treasure Island park at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas . The hotel 's p

arent firm , Mirage Resorts , was the sponsor of this NBC hour last January . Co

ntinuing on this grimy path , ABC 's June 15 special , `` The Lion King : The Mu

sical Special With Elton John , '' is produced by the Wrightwood Group in associ

ation with Disney Television . John wrote the music and Tim Rice the lyrics for 

`` The Lion King , '' an animated movie from Disney that opens in New York and L

os Angeles June 15 , the same day as the TV special and three days after the Jun

e 12 premiere of `` The Making of ` The Lion King '' ' on the Disney Channel . T

his `` documentary '' has three additional airdates this month . And oh yes , We

dnesday finds CBS airing `` Movie News Hot Summer Sneak Preview , '' a program t

hat profiles/promotes four coming Disney films . And what a coincidence ! It was

 produced by Disney 's Buena Vista Pictures in association with the Wrightwood G

roup . -0- BODY PARTS !! ! What sexy Hollywood Goddess of the '50s and '60s was 

ogled and graphically displayed from head to toe on TV recently ? Read on . `` T

hose stunning eyes .. . that beauty mark .. . that platinum hair. ... '' Yes , a

dded the pitchwoman on cable 's QVC channel , `` no one would dazzle quite like 

Marilyn Monroe . '' She added : `` Whenever you see a book on Marilyn or a photo

graph , you stop and gaze . There is just something about her. ... '' To prove i

t , the QVC camera moved slowly down Marilyn 's curvaceous body . No , not the r

eal Marilyn , stupid , Marilyn the 11.5-inch-tall vinyl doll , the one that your

 friends `` will admire , '' the pitchwoman promised , `` when they come over to

 your house . '' Yes , what an exciting prospect : Featured in your living room 

or greeting guests in your entry , your very own `` fully poseable '' Marilyn Mo

nroe doll . `` She '' is a limited edition with a certificate of authenticity . 

`` This is a certificate you definitely want to hang on to , '' said the pitchwo

man . Just in case your admiring friends doubt you . And who are the buy-by-tele

vision zealots who would call QVC to order Marilyn ? Probably the same ones who 

swooned over the next doll featured on QVC , Sleeping Beauty . `` She has this i

ncredible wig that 's so long and so shiny , '' the pitchwoman said . `` You cou

ld feel comfortable taking a doll brush and brushing it out . '' Ooooooh . But n

ot in front of Marilyn . She might get jealous . -0- PRETTY FACES !! ! Who is lo

oking just marvelous in Tunis tonight ? Deborah Norville , that 's who in the de

but of the CBS News magazine show , `` America Tonight , '' which she co-hosts w

ith Dana King . On Tuesday , Norville showed up on the syndicated `` Regis & Kat

hie Lee '' series to promote her opening story about the adventures of a mother 

who recovered her kidnaped daughter in Tunisia . After watching a clip of Norvil

le doing a stand-up , Regis Philbin was mightily impressed . Proving he 's more 

than just a pretty face himself , Regis weighed in on the proliferation of newsm

agazine shows , telling Norville : `` That 's the beauty of what you 're doing .

 You can go over there and do these stories at a fraction of the cost and more r

ealistic than Hollywood . '' At last , a textbook justification for news : Not o

nly cheaper than Hollywood , but also more realistic .

 It 's no accident that David Byrne 's new solo album is titled simply `` David 

Byrne . '' After more than a dozen albums with Talking Heads and on his own , th

e singer-songwriter , called `` Rock 's Renaissance Man '' in an '80s Time magaz

ine cover story , has made his most personal work . Gone is much of the emotiona

l shield Byrne held up during the Heads days , when he was the wry , detached ob

server of human foibles and fads . Gone , too , are most of the elements of worl

d music that characterized his two earlier solo collections 1989 's `` Rei Momo 

'' and 1992 's `` Uh-Oh . '' In the new album , Byrne , 42 , speaks with a new d

irectness on topics ranging from innocence and love to morality and death in way

s that are frequently both disarming and endearing . Before leaving New York on 

a European tour with his new band , Byrne spoke about the album and how the AIDS

-related death two years ago of his sister-in-law , designer Tina Chow , helped 

push him toward a more personal tone in his music . Q : What about the expectati

ons surrounding someone whose work has been as heralded as yours ? Is it somethi

ng that inspires you to do better , or does it burden you ? A : It is a little b

it of both . The burden part goes along with the whole Western myth of progress 

... . That every year we have got to come up with something new .. . something t

hat has to be exciting . That is what causes you to end up with all these dispos

able trends .. . these styles and stuff that one just replaces the other . You e

nd up pushing artists just to innovate for the sake of innovation , which is kin

d of futile in the end . On the other hand , the ( expectation ) is good because

 it gives people a kick in the ass .. . and makes them try to set a standard for

 themselves because they know people are watching . Q : What was the starting po

int in the new album ? A : Probably the song `` Buck Naked . '' I wrote it when 

my wife 's sister was dying of AIDS and so was kind of born out of that grief an

d confusion ... . Trying to explain what was happening to our little daughter . 

I think that kind of acted as a catalyst . Q : The interesting thing is that it 

's not just the lyrics that are more intimate or personal , but the whole feel o

f the record the bareness of the arrangements . How did that come about ? A : Du

ring the tour , I would often just play the new material with an acoustic guitar

 in front of an audience . I would introduce the material that way and kind of w

ork it out for myself ... . How to sing it .. . what attitude to take , all that

 kind of stuff . Afterward , people often said the strength of the writing came 

across a lot more that way .. . the meaning of the song . So , I decided to stri

p the band down to sort of the essentials .. . leaving in only what was needed t

o just embellish the song a little bit . Q : Did part of you resist being so per

sonal in the music ? A : Oh , that 's a constant thing I think . Plus as a write

r , it is easy to fall into traps of writing what you know how to do .. . what y

ou can do kind of easily . And , with me , it wasn't the personal kinds of songs

 . It was more those funny , quirky little songs . Q : It 's also safer to write

 as the observer , isn't it ? It 's not like you 're revealing yourself . A : Ye

s . If the song is real personal , it 's not just that they don't like the songs

 , which you can easily accept , but that they don't like you . Q : What about d

uring the Heads days ? .. . Were there some songs that were very personal ? A : 

Oh , there were plenty . Songs like `` Cool Water '' and `` Naive Melody '' come

 to mind first . In those days , however , they were mixed in with others so the

y didn't stand out . They didn't kind of announce themselves as being completely

 different from the rest of the stuff . In my case , I think I have gotten far e

nough away from ( the Heads days ) that I don't care what people say so much , w

hich gives you this incredible freedom to lay it on the line and say what you th

ink ... . I just wanted to write something from the heart .. . something about m

y own experiences and feelings .. . the kind of music that I look for when I lis

ten to other artists and am moved by their work . ( Optional add end ) Q : In th

e new `` Sad Song , '' you say , `` But it 's the truly sad people who get the m

ost out of life . '' What do you mean by that ? A : People want the world to be 

a Hallmark card place , but that 's really disgusting . There is no richness to 

life without both sides . Q : `` Self-Made Man '' is about a future society wher

e you can buy genes to really remake yourself . Are you optimistic or pessimisti

c about the future ? A : Yes , `` Self-Made Man '' is a kind of an exception in 

a way to the rest of the album .. . a completely imaginary scenario . It 's abou

t a possible future where instead of dealing crack on the black market , they ar

e dealing little vials of genes ... . Am I optimistic ? I 'm optimistic that the

re is still a lot of creativity out there .. . especially in other countries . T

hat is incredibly stimulating and exciting . Politically and economically , I 'm

 more of a pessimist . Q : How do you see yourself dividing your time over the n

ext few years ? Will you continue to be the `` Renaissance man of rock , '' open

 to film or stage or classical music projects ? A : Dividing my time between rec

ords and other things is important for me . It gives ideas time to kind of germi

nate while you are working on something else . It also keeps you from feeling li

ke you are on a treadmill . It keeps you open to new ideas and experiences . Tha

t 's what keeps you alive .. . artistically .

 In the coming days , we will celebrate the spectacular achievements , and honor

 the tremendous sacrifice , of D-day June 6 , 1944 . But the retelling of the ma

ssive invasion 5,000 ships , 20,000 vehicles , 150,000 soldiers on June 6 alone 

will be incomplete if we do not recall that D-day 's success was made possible b

y a counterintelligence operation so well-planned and coordinated that it remain

s to this day a standard of excellence . British security forces were remarkably

 successful in detecting German spies sent to infiltrate the United Kingdom . So

me were hanged , some imprisoned , but a number were turned into double agents b

y MI5 , British counterintelligence . Through these double agents , the Allies l

earned what Nazi intelligence wanted to know and by inference , Nazi strategic d

esigns . They also became part of an elaborate network of real and fictitious sp

ies ( the `` double-cross system '' ) that was used to feed false and misleading

 intelligence back to Berlin , including supposed plans and preparations for the

 Allied invasion of France . A second critical element was the British ability t

o intercept and decode many Nazi military , diplomatic and intelligence communic

ations . With assistance from Polish and French intelligence before the war and 

also from German security officials who refused to believe their codes had been 

broken , British cryptologists cracked `` Enigma , '' Germany 's sophisticated e

lectro-mechanical enciphering machine . Known as `` Ultra , '' the decoded Germa

n messages became the most closely guarded secret of the war . Double agents in 

place and Enigma broken , the infrastructure was set for a grand deception . The

 Allies had two goals : to mask the initial assault on Normandy and to buy time 

to gain a foothold in coastal France . The ruse they came up with was the linchp

in of the invasion strategy . First , they had to persuade Hitler that the invas

ion would not take place at Normandy , but to the north at Calais . This was log

ical , since Calais is at the narrowest part of the English Channel . In the mon

ths leading up to D-day , what appeared to be a massive Allied buildup was deplo

yed across from Calais in eastern and southeastern England . German reconnaissan

ce planes spied this assemblage of tanks , barges and aircraft , but did not det

ect that most were made of plywood , paint and tarpaulin . Nor , because of artf

ul Allied security , did they detect the building of the massive , man-made `` h

arbor '' for use at the Normandy beaches . And finally , German intelligence int

ercepted supposed Allied radio communications that were really the phony chatter

 of a nonexistent army over which a real U.S. general , George Patton , presided

 . Because of Ultra , the Allies knew that Hitler had swallowed the bait . But i

t was not enough to simply shield the June 6 assault . Success depended on persu

ading Hitler that Normandy was a feint to mask the `` real '' assault at Calais 

. The Allies made a bold gamble . They provided the Germans advance notice of th

e Normandy invasion 's beginning . British double agent Juan Pujol Garcia code-n

amed Garbo tipped his German handlers of the landing hours before the first wave

 of men and equipment hit the beach . Too late to do the Germans any good , Garb

o 's warning cemented his credentials as a top spy , setting the stage for a mor

e critical step in the deception effort . By June 9 , 1944 , German generals wer

e clamoring for reinforcements in Normandy . Hitler initially complied . But the

n Garbo urgently reported that all of his agents all fictitious creations of MI5

 were convinced that Normandy was a diversion . The real strike , Garbo insisted

 , would still be at Calais . Hitler read Garbo 's cable and rescinded the order

 to reinforce Normandy . For critical weeks after D-day , Hitler continued to ho

ld in reserve more than a quarter-million German soldiers , awaiting the much-an

ticipated Allied attack at Calais . So what is the lesson for today to be drawn 

from D-day ? At a minimum , it challenges the notion that `` spy wars are a side

show of passionate interest to the actors , but of marginal significance for nat

ional policy '' as stated in a recent New York Times editorial . More broadly , 

the brilliance of Allied strategists , analysts and operators involved in D-day 

's plans is a reminder that governments that take counterintelligence seriously 

hold a sometimes crucial advantage over those that don't .

 When plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day were being developed , th

e question arose of what role the Germans should play in the rituals of remembra

nce . They had been the enemy in 1944 , the defenders of Hitler 's wicked regime

 . But for most of the last half century they have been allies , not enemies . A

n invitation should have been extended and accepted in recognition of shared par

ticipation in the tragedy of the war and of Germany 's escape from Nazism . An i

nvitation need not have been a denial of the evil inflicted by Hitler . It would

 have created an opportunity to recall the deeper meaning of D-Day without assig

ning guilt to survivors who at the time were mostly in their teens and 20s . But

 the idea was not widely welcomed on either side . German officials and veterans

 have understandably displayed little eagerness to join the party in honor of th

eir defeat . And those embarking on a vacation trip to the land and time of what

 writer Studs Terkel called `` the good war '' had little appetite for the ambig

uities of a German presence . The issue raises interesting questions of how and 

why great battles are remembered and whether a distinction ought to be drawn bet

ween the celebration of a particular battle and that of an entire war . The Amer

ican mood for D-Day , 1994 , is a combination of nostalgia for a simpler age , w

hen the moral and political purpose of war was clear , justifiable congratulatio

n for a complex task successfully and quickly completed , and the fun of relivin

g a tremendous adventure . There will be wreath layings and memorial services , 

but the occasion is not primarily for mourning or meditation on human folly . Bu

t there are other ways of remembering . Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 re

affirmed deep philosophical values . Nov. 11 , 1918 , Armistice Day , was long c