How About A Nice, Big Bowl Of D’Amato Soup?

During his first campaign in 1980, U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, R-N.Y., handed out pamphlets containing his mother’s recipes.

Now, at his urging, Antoinette D’Amato has written a cookbook, “Cooking and Canning With Mamma D’Amato,” which hit the stores last week.

“He was on my back long enough so that I said OK,” she explained.

“These are not gourmet recipes, but timesaving recipes for working people. They are a simple way of coming home and cooking a nice meal in a half an hour. They don’t have all kinds of wines, creams or liquors in them.”

And Alfonse still stops by to sample her cooking - although he’s not big on making reservations.

“I never know when he’s coming in,” she says. “He just calls an hour before and says, ‘Mom, I’m hungry,’ and Mom cooks.”

Loose talk

Kansas City Star columnist Bill Tammeus, on the latest links superstar: “Tiger Woods may have a great future, but has he looked ahead? What’s he going to do when he retires? Play golf?”

He’s getting to be an enterprising old man

George Takei turns 57 today.

She checks the mail every day, but it’s just Bill’s

The delivery of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s spoken-word Grammy award for her recording of her book “It Takes A Village” has been delayed because her publisher, Simon & Schuster, didn’t return a form asking for her address, reports Entertainment Weekly. Clinton’s editor claims no one at the publishing house ever saw such a form.

But he told her that she’s risking her neck

CBS newswoman Paula Zahn is wearing a cervical collar after suffering whiplash in a traffic accident Tuesday, but viewers won’t notice. “My doctor has given me permission to remove it for 31 minutes when I substitute for Dan Rather on the ‘Evening News,”’ she said.

So, they’ll never have to guess if he’s coming

Tom Foley, move over: Sidney Poitier, who was raised in the Bahamas, has been named the island nation’s ambassador to Japan. While he’ll continue to act, the 70-year-old Poitier said, “There will be no time when I’m not available to fulfill my duties as an ambassador.”

Doesn’t he know the early birdie gets the worm?

President Fidel Ramos proclaimed Punctuality Week in the Philippines, then showed up an hour late for a morning Red Cross meeting. Aides said Ramos stayed up until 4 a.m. to watch Tiger Woods’ Masters win on TV.

He figured just not doing it was the right thing

In Spike Lee’s new book, “Best Seat in the House,” ex-senator and former New York Knicks forward Bill Bradley explains why he refused endorsement contracts as a player: “I felt these things were coming to me not because I was the best player on the team, which I wasn’t, but because I was white. So I just decided I’m not going to do it, and I never did.”

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino