Gerry House

Alexander Cockburn is right about the foot-dragging of British Prime Minister John Major (Commentary, March 7). The 17 months between the IRA cease-fire and the recent London bombings were marked by one maneuver after another by Major to stall peace talks on Northern Ireland. No doubt hard-liners in the IRA took the intransigence to mean that their cease-fire would never elicit a quid pro quo from the British. In late January, the prime minister rejected a call for all-party peace talks by the Mitchell Commission, the prestigious international body headed by the former U.S. senator from Maine.

Detective Mark Fuhrman, as a member of the LAPD, obviously was not always concerned with the constitutional rights of all citizens. But when he needed to, Fuhrman did not hesitate to invoke his constitutional rights by asserting his 5th Amendment privilege (Sept. 7). How ironic. JON WHITE Duarte If Fuhrman can exercise his 5th Amendment rights and Johnnie Cochran states this is proof that he planted evidence, then do we assume that O.J. Simpson exercising his right not to testify means he is guilty of both murders?

Material witness: When Madonna took the stand to testify against the man accused of stalking her . . . * "To avoid publicity, the singer went to the courtroom incognito: She wore clothes." (Alan Ray) * "Hesitant to appear, Madonna agreed only after the judge promised he'd place her in handcuffs and a muzzle." (Jerry Perisho) * "She refused to be sworn in but did offer to play a quick game of Truth or Dare."

In the dusky chill of a November evening, two Vietnam veterans--Bill Robinson, weary and stoic; Richard Douglas Grisham, tense and watchful--chat before settling down for the evening on bus stop benches, each on his own side of Harbor Boulevard. For the rest of the night, the pair will keep an eye on each other, sleep occasionally and watch for the police. It is a routine they have adopted after countless nights of being turned away from the county's overburdened homeless shelters.

Lyn Gerry's house begins near where the pavement ends on a hilltop overlooking Highland Park. The road is narrow, flanked by leafy green trees and handsome wooden houses. A worn white Honda, dotted with bumper stickers, is parked out front near a jumble of firewood, dozens of empty plastic bottles and a rain-speckled placard that reads, "Bill Clinton = War Criminal." It's a harsh assessment. But then again, in the eyes of the Clinton administration, Gerry is something of a criminal, too.

IT'S EARLY ON A WEEKDAY AFTERNOON IN Nashville, a green and leafy minor league city right square in the northern middle of Tennessee, and a lot of folks here are in a damn good mood.