"GUCCI SOCIALIST" was not the term for Alfred Bingham. Instead of the nouveau-riche associations of such footwear, his own WASP New England radicalism was more "Brooks Brothers Bolshevik".

ROY JONES Jnr's second knock-down of the night prompted Otis Grant's corner to throw in the towel in the 10th round of their world light-heavyweight title fight in Connecticut. Jones was defending both his World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association titles.

Boxing: Briton misses golden opportunity to 'sell' unification fight with Holyfield after uninspired world title defence

THEY HAVE been there for weeks, this group of sad, distracted looking young men and women who sit on the pavement, just staring into the middle distance. They wait for people to come out of the smart office blocks, hoping that they will get just a little something to keep them going for another day.

I AM just back from the home of the brave and the land of the free with a question for John Prescott as he sweats out his new transport strategy. Has he given thought to slugs?

In the safety of American suburbia lurk trauma and tragedy. Douglas Kennedy takes a trip down those green streets

WHERE New England really resembles old England is in the question of size. In places such as Connecticut, you won't need to worry about driving for hundreds of miles along dead straight roads which fuse into far, misty horizons. From east to west Connecticut is barely 100 miles across and, from north to south, even less than that. The second smallest state in the land, it's of a size that Belgians would recognise.

The Big Picture: The Ice Storm

Former champion Wayne Levi and rookie Eric Johnson both scored six-under- par rounds of 64 on Thursday to share the first-round lead at the Greater Hartford Open in Connecticut.

Michael Ayers' world title frustration continued yesterday when the Tooting boxer's World Boxing Organisation lightweight bout against Russia's Artur Grigorian in Stuttgart on Saturday was called off.

Representatives from Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco plan to meet with unnamed opponents of the tobacco industry in the US next week to discuss details of a litigation settlement, including using company research in anti-smoking campaigns.

Hartford Whalers, Connecticut's only major league sports franchise, is to move, and will pay a $20.5m (pounds 13m) penalty to go at the end of the season, a year before its four-year contract expires.

The message was on the answering machine on our return home from Britain after Christmas. It was an invitation, discovered one day after the event, to attend a Tiger Cubs go-kart clinic at the house of a neighbour. We played the tape a few times more, but still we were baffled. A go-kart clinic?

The time: Summer 1988 The place: New York The man: Gene Wilder, actor and comedian