Whine Country: Votes were cast from New...

Whine Country: Votes were cast from New Jersey to California, and the winners were announced Monday in the National Whiner’s Day poll. Included were “Today” show host Bryant Gumbel for his memos knocking his colleagues; former First Lady Nancy Reagan for her autobiography; Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) for his political antics, and televangelist wife and makeup queen Tammy Bakker for her wails about her and her husband’s alleged mistreatment. But outpolling them all by an 8-1 margin was actress Zsa Zsa Gabor for her hyped Beverly Hills traffic case. Gabor was named the “Most Recognizable Whiner of 1989.”

No Noshing: Real life G-men (and women) are advised to pack a snack before a raid. Under a new General Accounting Office ruling, there will be no free coffee or doughnuts as the good guys stake out the bad guys. The ruling was issued after a January, 1986, task force of 3,150 FBI agents and New York City police and detectives met in a locked, drafty Brooklyn warehouse starting at 3:30 a.m. for a super-secret raid on organized-crime suspects. To make life more comfy, the FBI asked the Salvation Army to supply coffee, doughnuts and portable toilets--a service for which an FBI agent later turned in a $1,000 bill. FBI accountants bucked the expense item to the GAO, which said two years later that the cash shouldn’t have been paid for a non-emergency service.

Tom’s Retreat: NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw says he has bought an interest in a 4,000-acre Montana ranch. Brokaw said he has been looking for Montana property since 1981, when he filmed a special there and became enchanted. He is honorary chairman of Friends of Montana, a program of the Nature Conservancy. Just Cause: Actor Paul Newman made one of the largest donations ever received by the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund--$200,000--then promptly decided it was not enough and pledged another $50,000. “For 30 years I’ve lived in New York, and I feel I have an obligation to the well-being of the people who live there with me,” he said.