* Dear Family: Lawyer John Cicilline said...

* Dear Family: Lawyer John Cicilline said Monday in a Boston court that the Mafia is in some ways comparable to the Elks Club. He was speaking on behalf of his client, reputed New England mob boss Raymond (Junior) Patriarca. Cicilline said a Mafia induction ceremony was similar to an Elks Club meeting. “We have men who gather together to discuss an organization, its rules, its philosophy,” Cicilline said. But what about the oaths to kill defectors? Cicilline said such ideas are protected by constitutional guarantees to free speech.

* Playing Favorites: Instead of Chicago patronage, politics and race, the issues were chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. New TV commercials for Edy’s Grand Ice Cream are a spoof on Chicago’s well-known Council Wars. “Order, please,” commands the chamber speaker (an actor) in one ad as the real-life aldermen argue. “Yeah, order more vanilla,” responds Roman Pucinski. Alderman Edward Burke prefers blueberry, Lawrence Bloom can’t decide between chocolate and vanilla. “I love ice cream,” said peach partisan and dieter Danny Davis. “But I have to be careful.”

* Order in the Court: The U.S. Supreme Court may be increasingly conservative, but at least one liberal isn’t ready to retire. “I’m still enjoying myself,” said Justice William J. Brennan. His 84th birthday is today. In March, doctors treated a bronchial infection with antibiotics. “I had a bad reaction, lost a lot of weight,” but “I’m going to stay” on the bench, he said. That stay has lasted through 34 years and eight Presidents.

* German Minimalism: West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl returned Monday from an Austrian spa where he lost 16 pounds from a diet of tea, milk and bouillon. His weight is now 235 pounds. Kohl said he felt a little “strained” as he joined a political meeting.