IOC President JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH met for the first
time with USOC CEO NORM BLAKE in Rio de Janeiro for 45
minutes. Both described the meeting as "as positive step in
solidifying relations" between the IOC and USOC. Blake said
Samaranch "was engaging, very personable, had great eye
contact" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 5/25). Blake: I was more
impressed (with Samaranch) than I thought I would be" (USA
TODAY, 5/25)....In Palm Beach, Linda Rawls writes that
Pacers co-Owner MEL SIMON has signed a contract to sell his
"ocean-to-lake estate with 500 feet of beach front -- for
near his asking price" of $35M. Rawls: "If all goes well at
the July closing, the sale will easily set a county and
state sales record for a single-family home" (PALM BEACH
POST, 5/25)....In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes in a front-
page piece that as auto racing "heads into its biggest
weekend of the year ... tens of thousands of fans will
converge on" Mooresville, NC, which "has become home to the
nation's largest cluster" of NASCAR race shops. Sandomir:
"The passing of the grease-monkey image here in the booming
suburbs north of Charlotte mirrors Nascar's growth into a
juggernaut with total revenues of $1.56 billion this year"
(N.Y. TIMES, 5/25)....USA TODAY's Mary Beth Marklein writes
on the college engineering programs training future NASCAR
technicians. Marklein: "College-educated guys ...
increasingly are getting some of the most coveted jobs in
engine shops all over the North Carolina countryside, where
NASCAR was born." NASCAR's "phenomenal expansion has
outpaced the pool of qualified workers" and teams "want to
expand, but every hire has to be up to speed from the get-
go" (USA TODAY, 5/25)....WOODY HARTFORD sank a 100-foot putt
worth $1M at the launch event for News Corp.'s MAXIMUM GOLF
magazine at the Central Park Boathouse Tuesday night
(Maximum Golf)....The court case between MICHAEL JORDAN and
his former partners in MICHAEL JORDAN'S RESTAURANT continued
in Chicago yesterday. GENE SILVERBERG, former partner in
the venture, testified that DAVID FALK "ordered" Silverberg
to close the Chicago restaurant and remodel it to "match a
nationwide chain that Falk was thinking about opening."
Silverberg, on what Falk said to him and his brother, JOE
SILVERBERG: "He told me if we didn't conform to his wishes,
we would be crushed." He added that Falk and Jordan
"threatened to take away his Nike merchandise, start a
negative press campaign about him, and have Jordan shun the
restaurant" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 5/25)....David Letterman's
"TOP TEN TED TURNER PICKUP LINES." No. 2) How'd you like to
go to third base on Turner Field? ("Late Show," CBS, 5/24).
