Klein's World

Ah, Holland, the dear nether Netherlands, one of the few places in the world where you can walk into a coffee shop, plunk down some guilders, and enjoy such delicacies as space bon bons and rich hash brownies. Now Dutch tolerance has reached new heights: In Rotterdam, you can go to a protestant church and buy crack cocaine and heroin.According to Reuters, the Reverend Hans Visser, whose church has been a shelter for drug addicts for the past 15 years, invited dope dealers to come off the street and peddle their goods in his chapel. Visser's view is that where there are drugs addicts, there will always be pushers. He says that there had been problems with dealers sneaking into the shelter and causing trouble, so he invited them in, with two conditions: no violence, and no mixing the drugs with dangerous chemicals."My aim is decriminalization," Visser said. "That is the only human policy."On a macabre note, last week Baron Marcel Bich died in Paris at 79. Baron Bich deserves at least a moment of silence, if not a monument in the shape of a cigarette lighter at Place Vend?„?me in Paris, because he was the founder of the Bic pen empire.After World War II, Baron Bich used all his savings to buy a small factory where he started to manufacture disposable ball point pens. No one had heard of such things at the time, but by the end of the 1950s, reporters and schoolkids were taking notes with Bic pens across the globe. In the 1970s, the company branched out and started making disposable razors and lighters. "Let me flick your Bic" became a standard pickup line in night clubs throughout the world by 1979. Luckily the Baron's son Bruno is taking over the empire. Baron Bruno Bich. Has a nice ring to it. Basketball fans around the world are gritting their teeth and lacing up their shoulder pads because the National Basketball Association finals have finally begun. This year, the New York Knicks face the Houston Rockets.The good news is, two of the best centers in the league -- Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon -- will do battle. Neither has won an NBA title, and both are hungry. The bad news is, both teams play bruising, boring basketball. Great defense, no offense. Don't be surprised if you see games in which there are more rebounds than points scored. My prediction: Houston in six.And finally, we swing back to drugs. Don Johnson, the star of the stylish 1980s television series "Miami Vice," will be taking a month off from acting while he tries to cure some of his personal vices. According to his publicist, Johnson has been admitted to the Betty Ford Center for alcoholics and drug addicts in Rancho Hallucination -- sorry, Rancho Mirage, California, where he will remain for about a month. This nameless publicist would not specify what Johnson will be treated for; the Reverend Visser was unavailable for comment.