NEWS LITE : LENO'S TEEN SIN OFF SCHOOL BOOKS.

Jay Leno won't have to worry about his suspension from high school 30 years ago - he's been officially pardoned.

Leno was showing off in 1968 when he floored the gas pedal in his '65 Buick Gransport and left smoky black marks and a shrill squeal of tire in the parking lot of Andover High School in Massachusetts.

Principal Phillip Wormwood was infuriated and suspended the future ``Tonight Show'' host for three days.

``My mother would always bring it up as if it were a horrible crime,'' Leno said Friday. ``What could be worse? Nothing! I mean, burning rubber in a parking lot? Can't imagine anything as bad as that!''

On Thursday, retired history teacher David Robichaud arrived in Burbank to announce that Principal Wormwood had reconsidered his punishment.

Robichaud gave the lantern-jawed comedian a certificate from the school declaring the suspension null and void, and even took part in some of the talk show's skits.

After the ceremony, Robichaud told Leno he still owed him a final term paper. Later in the broadcast, as Leno said good-bye to Robichaud, the retired teacher got into his rental car and peeled out of the ``Tonight Show'' parking lot.

Because his former teachers were such good sports, Leno said he and Microsoft will contribute $250,000 in computer software to the Andover school system in his Massachusetts hometown.

Viagra leaves singer less than impressed

Sorry, hon, I've got a headache.

Julio Iglesias, a Casanova in his own right, admits to trying the libido-enhancing potion Viagra. ``I've taken it twice,'' he told L'Express, the French magazine. ``The first time it gave me a headache. The second time it didn't activate very much. I make love better than I did in the past. But only in my head,'' he said. The 55-year-old crooner has three grown kids and is awaiting the debut of his second with Dutch model Miranda Rijnsburger, 33.

Reagan's daughter now self-mocking

Even Patti Davis got fed up with her whiny image and complaints about dad Ronald Reagan. In front of a community college audience Thursday in Schenectady, N.Y., she did a whining impression of the old Patti:

``Hi, I'm Patti. My mother's very controlling and my father just bombed Libya. Don't expect very much of me. I have issues.''

Davis, 45, wrote several books about her family.

`Matlock' star turns defender of wildlife

Andy Griffith has donated 319 acres of wetlands for preservation.

The ``Matlock'' star gave the land to the Nature Conservancy, which controls nearly 3,300 acres in the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia.

``I'm pleased to help protect our country's natural heritage and to contribute to the good work of the Nature Conservancy,'' the 71-year-old Griffith said Thursday.

The tract is inhabited by black bear and other wildlife. It includes bald cypress and tupelo trees.

Kids in global bow to Suzuki

Thousands of children - some as young as 3 - are tuning up for concerts worldwide this weekend to honor Shinichi Suzuki, who believed hearing and playing music early would help children love music and become abler adults.

Yusuf Taufique, 4, was among the youngsters playing at a rehearsal Friday at a Washington concert hall. He has played for a year, and was practicing a variation, written by Suzuki for the violin, of the tune ``Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.''

He likes playing and he likes preschool. That led to a concern: ``I'm going to be late for school,'' he said at the morning practice.

The concerts in Suzuki's honor - many with hundreds of young musicians - are planned for 125 U.S. cities and in more than a dozen other countries including Japan, Germany, Brazil and Argentina. Paris had one last May and London's is scheduled in the Royal Festival Hall on Oct. 25.

They honor what would have been the 100th birthday of Suzuki, who died at his home in Japan on Jan. 26.

The Washington concert Saturday by 400 youngsters will attack, among other works, Antonio Vivaldi's violin concerto in A minor.

It will be a mass attack.

Carolyn Barrett, who heads the Washington-area group of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, said as many as 100 violinists, including her 8-year old granddaughter, will join in the solo part. Only a piano will accompany them. In the usual violin concerto performance, a single violinist plays against a big orchestra.

``It's important for young people to learn to play together,'' explained Barrett, who teaches at the Suzuki Music Studio in suburban Reston, Va.

The Suzuki method emphasizes getting a student to enjoy music by hearing it in a family atmosphere, playing it as early as possible, playing it with others - and only later learning to read it.

Barrett, who studied with Suzuki, tells of his stopping in the middle of a piece and delivering the solemn statement: ``All Japanese children speak Japanese.''

Asked why that seemed important, he explained that children learn their language by hearing it spoken around them - and that music could be learned the same way. Some teachers of foreign languages use a similar method, called ``total immersion.''

Ten-year-old Allison Taylor of Germantown, Md., who's in the fourth grade, is a third-generation Suzuki student; her mother and grandmother both learned that way.

``I played `Silent Night' in school,'' she said, adding proudly, ``in my church, too.''

Musicians contend, with some scientific support, that playing music improves a student's work in other subjects, such as math and science. Some studies have indicated that, but other scientists are skeptical.

OK, who ordered a fish taco?

A Coney Island hot dog will head to the West Coast, or a California fish taco will be shipped East, depending on who wins the World Series.

The Series was set to begin Saturday between the San Diego Padres and the New York Yankees, and as is the tradition, politicians from competing states have placed some friendly wagers. To the victor go the spoils, and perhaps some indigestion, too.

California Gov. Pete Wilson has put up a fish taco (a popular item at the Padres' stadium) and a pizza by renowned chef Wolfgang Puck against New York Gov. George Pataki's wager of a Coney Island hot dog and a New York-style pizza pie.

The two Republicans also bet each other a bushel of state-grown apples and a case of wine, which also will be provided from the losing state.

``This is San Diego's year,'' Wilson said.

Pataki replied: ``If he really thinks the Padres can beat the mighty Yankees, he truly is California dreaming.''

Besides food, Wilson bet the quivering novelty gizmo called Earthquake in a Can against Pataki's figurine of the Statue of Liberty. And each governor offered the other tours of either the San Diego or Bronx zoos.

However, Pataki drew the line at playing one of the hapless swimmers rescued weekly from the California surf on television's ``Baywatch'' if the Yankees lose.

Also getting in on the action were New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

Giuliani wagered New York Metropolitan Opera tickets and a New York-style strawberry cheesecake against Golding's surfboard and swim trunks.

New York has won the World Series 23 times. The Padres have never won in their 29-year history. The team made it once in 1984, but lost to the Detroit Tigers. Oddsmakers favor New York to win.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1) Young students of the Suzuki method of learning music rehearse for a concert in Washington, D.C.

Khue Bui/Associated Press

(2) GRIFFITH