POST-ADOLESCENT ANGST ON THE WAY OUT FOR JEWEL

E.L. Doctorow joined a select list of writers when he was presented with the prestigious Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award in Tulsa, Okla.Doctorow, author of eight novels including "Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate," "Big as Life" and "Loon Lake," credited his practice of writing in the seclusion of his attic in New Rochelle, N.Y., for his prolific success.

"I sit at a desk, I face the wall," Doctorow said Friday. "If you sit facing the wall, the only way out is through the sentences."

Doctorow, 67, wouldn't say what the topic of his current work-in-progress is but said it takes place in contemporary times, not in the past like many of his other novels.

POST-ADOLESCENT ANGST ON THE WAY OUT FOR JEWEL

With a new album out, a best-selling book of poetry on store shelves and a role as a Civil War widow in the upcoming film "Ride With the Devil," Jewel has more than enough success to satisfy the post-adolescent worries that fueled her first album -- and her poetry.

"I'm starting to get over myself," the 24-year-old singer told Rolling Stone magazine. "All that poetry was written from 15 to 22 or something. It's very self-absorbed: 'What is love? What isn't love? I'm noticing that poetry doesn't seem to interest me anymore."

WORK IMITATES HOME LIFE FOR HEAD OF ROCK MUSEUM

Terry Stewart, the new head of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum has an important qualification: He's an avid collector of musical memorabilia.

Stewart has one of the nation's largest collectors of rock 'n' roll items in his collection that includes more than 200,000 vinyl records, a wooden marquee sign from the Apollo Theater in Harlem and Buddy Holly's homework.

"My house looks exactly like the inside of this building," Stewart said Thursday in Cleveland, when his hiring was announced. "Most of the stuff in my house is in my will to be left here."

SUPERMAN HAILS PROGRESS IN FIXING DAMAGED NERVES

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Paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve is encouraged by global efforts to get damaged nerves to regenerate.

"In the few years I've been injured, instead of hearing what are we going to do, I'm hearing of patents, FDA trials, how to humanize antibodies which we know work in rats. And that dialogue is very satisfying to hear," Reeve said Friday at a groundbreaking for a new neuroscience lab at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. "I'm so grateful we have a worldwide effort going on."

Among those present was Sang Lan, the young Chinese gymnast paralyzed at the Goodwill Games.

The Center for Collaborative Neuroscience is scheduled to open in fall 1999. The $3.2 million facility is intended to bring together researchers from all over the world, with Internet and video-conferencing capabilities.

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