Scorecard

MOTES AND BEAMS IN ALBANY

A few weeks ago, when it appeared that tickets for the New York State lottery might be sold by vending machines, we took exception to the suggestion that the machines should be put in such decorous joints as subway platforms, rather than in bars "where every drunk can operate the machine." Now that the machines are out altogether—the lottery tickets probably will be sold by banks—Governor Rockefeller feels that determining the winners by means of a horse race (or races), as has been proposed, might not be such a seemly idea, either. "I prefer the fishbowl method," he said last week. "You don't get involved with the tracks.... Having an honest lottery that doesn't get involved with corruption is of overriding importance."

Assembly Speaker Anthony J. Travia disagreed. Horse races were O.K. by him. But, he said, "I am reluctant to use harness racing. That would make me feel squeamish. I prefer the flats."

Of course, as far as we know, neither Rockefeller nor Travia breathed a word about abolishing or cleaning up the infamous sports, which last year provided the state with $74,124,441 (flats) and $67,771,137 (trots) in tainted money.

May we suggest an alternative that strikes us as being incorruptible? Why not base the winning tickets on the figures of the vote for such offices as governor and assemblyman?

A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU

Forty million Frenchmen can't be wrong. Ah, but last week in Paris the birth of the 50 millionth Frenchman was announced, which means that 10 million can. And at least one of them is—the genie who drew a map of Europe for the 1968 Winter Olympic Committee.

With nothing but a few boundary lines, the mapmaker demonstrated once more the truth of the French adages that 1) France is always one war behind time and 2) the French know nothing about geography. Published in a slick French-English-German Olympic Committee booklet, the map shows Poland minus all the territory east of the Oder-Neisse line, which she recovered from Germany after World War II, and grants independence to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Soviet republics since 1940. In a word, the Olympic Committee's map, the center of which is, naturellement, Grenoble, pictures Europe as it was in 1938.

A BEAUTIFUL RED

One day last week, when most New Yorkers were enjoying unseasonable 67� weather, Johnny ( Ice Cube) Sineno called Vic (Doc) Boff at his place of business, Victor Boff Nutritional Aids, the oldest health-food store in New York. "I'm sick," Ice Cube said. "I'm disgusted." Boff, in turn, allowed that the weather was so terrible he was thinking of going home and taking a cold shower of "15 minutes duration."