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Until a few years ago, Debra Potter made sure that her family could cruise the Caribbean, watch the NFL on big-screen TV and keep her elderly mother and in-laws at home in comfort. She did so by earning $250,000 a year selling more insurance than almost anybody else in the state of Virginia, virtually all of it disability and health policies that she thought put a safety net under middle-class and affluent families such as her own.

Kyle Abbott couldn't wait for tonight's All-Star game. Not that the Philadelphia Phillie rookie left-hander will play in it. Heck, he probably won't even watch it on television or listen to it on the radio. Nope. What Abbott wants out of this three-day break in the major league schedule is to catch a break himself, a brief respite from the miserable season he has endured thus far. Abbott, once a top prospect in the Angels' organization, is living a pitcher's nightmare.

Ian Thorpe of Australia powered to his second world record in three days Tuesday in the World Championships at Fukuoka, Japan. Michael Phelps of the U.S. also smashed a world record, breaking his mark in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:54.58. Thorpe's two records are his 10th and 11th in individual long-course events. He won three Olympic gold medals at Sydney, Australia, last year and already has three world titles at Fukuoka.

Jay Southard waits just south of mile marker 1313 on the Alaska Highway. It's early June, and the temperature at 8 p.m. is in the 40s, with a raw wind running off the Alaska Range, which rises, iron-colored and veined with snow, in the near distance. Southard is not looking at the mountains, but at the highway running through the center of the town of Tok, keeping an eye out for a red Ford van carrying eight Mexican mushroom pickers.

When Circuit Court Judge John Michela and Death Row convict Joe Burrows warily faced each other in a Kankakee County, Ill., courtroom on Sept. 8, it was by no means their first encounter. In the spring of 1989, Michela had presided over Burrows' two trials on first-degree murder charges. The first trial had ended in a deadlocked jury; the second had ended in Burrows' conviction. The same two eyewitnesses--a small-time cocaine dealer and a scared, dim 22-year-old--had composed the sum of the state's case at both trials.

I never cease to be amazed at the naivete of the American traveler abroad. Jo Giese's idea of staying at a B&B in Europe is that she automatically is invited to become a member of the family who owns the B&B and to share in their intimate family life ("Bed & Breakdown," April 9). In reality, in Europe a B&B is a way for families to supplement their income by renting out rooms in their home for a fee. Breakfast is included since most restaurants in Europe do not open until lunchtime. So, the B&B idea is you get a bed to sleep in and breakfast so that you can continue your travel.

The March 29 article on Prop. BB school repair bonds suggests to me three basic problems: 1) too much bureaucratic pollution, 2) not enough locomotion and 3) too much slow motion. While nothing is going on, the students and the teachers are assuming the guilt of the administration. What a sad situation. MAL GOODMAN, Huntington Park

My wife and I just returned from a week's stay at the House of Blue Ginger, a B&B at 47-504A Lulani St., Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744 on Oahu. We confirm Jerry Hulse's tip in an earlier column. It is a marvelous alternative to staying in Waikiki. HELEN AND GERALD LERMAN Culver City

Regarding Charles Solomon's "Paperbacks" review of "Mississippi History" (Oct. 30), please be advised that "Yarbrough's fictional Delta town of Indianola" is, indeed, not fictional but an existing town. Further, it is where famed blues singer B.B. King is from! LAWRENCE COHN, BEVERLY HILLS