BIG DOINGS.(The Talk of the Town)(a lighthearted look at Americans and their summer activities)

So far, this has been a summer of outsized events--the summer in which Michael Moore proclaimed a buddy link (well, sort of) between the Bush and bin Laden families said to have been in place before 9/11, and in which the Boston police department prepared to close off forty miles of local streets and major roadways, including portions of Interstate 93, which snakes under and through the city, in advance of this week's Democratic National Convention, and also to deal with seventy-odd groups of protesters and demonstrators, almost including their own and members of the local firemen's union, who had been locked in a contract battle with City Hall. This summer, as we know, stock in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went up thirty-seven per cent the day Stewart was sentenced to five months in federal jail and five months of tasteful house arrest after her conviction for obstruction of justice and lying to investigators; and President Ronald Reagan, eulogized upon his death, was compared to Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. This was also the summer when the American League All-Star team, batting against Roger Clemens, the National League starter (three hundred and twenty lifetime victories, four thousand two hundred and twenty lifetime strikeouts, and a scintillating 10-3 won-lost record this year for his new team, the Houston Astros), humiliated the Rocket with six thunderous runs in the first inning, hitting for the cycle (single, double, triple, home run) in the process: a monster first-ever in the event. And now, right between the Conventions, here come the Olympic Games (with their one-and-a-halfbillion-dollar security budget, which will deploy seventy thousand-odd police and Army personnel at the various sporting venues), and then, of course, more of the campaigns (after the collection of a combined seven hundred and fifty-five million dollars by the two sides) and Election Day itself--reason enough for the rest of us to decide, like the gloomy Rick in "Casablanca," that "it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

Well, not so fast, Rick. Just back off there, will ya? That was then, this is now. Summertime, let's remind ourselves, is still the season for personal betterment and feeling swell. Here, as evidence, we present the recent doings and achievements of three and some more not-so-little friends and colleagues, easily compiled via telephone, e-mail, and fearless hallway interview. (Names have been concealed at the request of the C.I.A.)

Joaquin D., 30. Achievement: Gave up after fourteen hours of solo labor on his two-year accumulation of overdue taxes and hired a tax accountant recommended by an office pal. Conclusion: ...