Fawn Hall

This is the time of year I call the doldrums ("a state of inactivity, stagnation or slump"), because it falls between the excitement, sentiment and exhaustion of Christmas and the starting over of New Year's Day. It is the time of year when we like to do our summing up, listing the best and the worst of the year, as if by assigning everything a number from one to 10 we could better understand it. In its doldrums issue (Dec. 28-Jan.

From the halls of the Iran- contra hearings to the shores of the Chesapeake, Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North has a new pastime: Sailing with his attorney. North's wife, Betsy, has received anti-feminist leader Phyllis Schlafly's "National Full-Time Homemaker of the Year" award. Rear Adm. John M. Poindexter has had a street in Odon, Ind., named after him. Secretary Fawn Hall has hired an agent, told all to Barbara Walters and been ticketed for eating a banana in a subway station. Robert C.

--Peeling a banana proved a slip in etiquette for Fawn Hall, with the Iran- contra figure facing a $10 fine for eating a piece of the fruit while waiting on a subway platform. Hall, cited after she was caught munching in the Washington subway system, which bans eating and drinking, ignored a transit officer who told her to stop consuming the forbidden fruit.

Former White House secretary Fawn Hall, who shredded reams of documents about the Iran- contra scandal, was given a $10 ticket for eating a banana in a subway station, a Metro spokesman said today. The spokesman said Hall was eating the banana on the platform of the Metro Center station--the city's busiest--just before noon Tuesday and refused to stop. Eating in subway stations is illegal. Hall says she will appeal the fine.

Two months ago, 22-year-old Elyse Hall was just another Valley girl working in a chiropractor's office and dreaming of Hollywood stars. That was before comedian Bob Hope plucked the wholesome-looking blonde from obscurity to play opposite him in an NBC special about the Iran- contra scandal scheduled to air tonight. Hall bears a likeness to another blonde who inadvertently became the talk of Washington some months ago when she confessed to shredding her boss's secret papers.

Fawn Hall, former secretary of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North, says "it would be great" if her ex-boss ran for President. In excerpts of a taped interview that will be broadcast tonight at 10 on ABC's "Barbara Walters Special" (Channel 7), Hall also says she "would be crushed" emotionally if North or his one-time boss, Rear Adm. John Poindexter, were indicted for alleged wrongdoing in conjunction with the Iran- contra affair.

TV has become society's electronic turnstile, a gangplank, a passage, the start of something big. That something may be access or entree, the means to instantly communicate with thousands, sometimes millions of viewers. The red light comes on, and you're immediately reaching the world. Or the payoff may be personal fame, wherein the messenger becomes the message. The terrorist kidnaping of now-free journalist Charles Glass and the exploding celebrity of Iran- contra figure Fawn Hall apply.

America hasn't seen the last of Fawn Hall--one of Hollywood's biggest agents is going to see to that. "She's got star quality," said William Morris co-chair Norman Brokaw, who said that yes, Hall had just been signed by his agency for exclusive representation. The blonde beauty will be personally represented by Ron Yatter, a William Morris senior v.p. who also represents Diana Ross, and, Brokaw said, he and Yatter "will explore all possibilities for her."

In a sampling of the nation's secretaries at a convention in Los Angeles, a majority judged fellow secretary Fawn Hall to have acted improperly in destroying government documents on orders from her boss. A total of 69% of the 120 secretaries responding to the written survey by the Office Professional magazine answered "yes" to the question: "In your opinion, did Fawn Hall, secretary to Lt. Col. Oliver North, do anything improper in the conduct of her job?"