They Want to Put the ‘Smoking Gun’ in Right Hands

The American Medical Assn. has begun an unusual lobbying effort to extinguish tobacco advertising. It is urging its members to send death notices to members of Congress every time a patient dies of a disease linked to smoking. Dr. Robert McAfee, an AMA trustee, acknowledges that the notices--supporting a proposed congressional ban on advertising and promotion of tobacco products--are unconventional and perhaps grim but says: “People are dying at a rate of 1,000 a day. These cards can’t begin to match the real tragedy of that.” “Dear Representative,” the black-bordered post cards say, “I wish to inform you that one of your constituents, who was a patient of mine, has died. The death was due to the following disease. . . . “ A checklist includes lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. The “obituaries” end: “Please keep this person’s tobacco-related death in mind as you consider this issue.” Brennan Moran, spokeswoman for the Tobacco Institute, said: “It’s so tasteless that a doctor would use a patient’s death to lobby for something that is essentially a freedom of speech issue. . . . It’s rather sick.” McAfee counters that it is not a First Amendment issue, but “a life and death issue.”

--An 18th-Century wooden commode shaped like a sarcophagus sold for $37,400 at a New York auction of the furnishings from the East 66th Street town house of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. The ornate neoclassical Italian commode brought more than three times the value set by Christie’s auction house. An unidentified Italian collector bought the 52-inch-long, 36-inch-high antique. Among the other pieces sold were a Louis XVI gilt wood console table with a white marble top for $9,000, a rococo gilt wood side table for $6,500 and a late Renaissance carved walnut cabinet for $5,200. The sale brought the Philippine government about $81,000, minus an undisclosed fee for the auction house. The former Philippine president and first lady have been accused of looting their country of billions of dollars in cash and property.

--Two border-crossed lovers finally managed to tie the knot. An Italian man and an American woman exchanged vows in Windsor, Ontario, after a frustrating week separated by the U.S.-Canada line. The ceremony between Marcello Fontana, who tried to sneak past U.S. border guards to get to his wedding on June 6, and Erena Apolloni of Detroit was moved from Detroit to nearby Windsor. “There’s a lot of weight off my shoulders. It feels good,” said the bride, who had been left crying on the church steps the first time around.