The sweet smell of smart sweat

Loosely Speaking by Nancy Gaines

Breaking tradition by invoking tradition, Harvard is capitalizing on the current penchant for stylishly shabby "preworn" clothes with a precedent-setting licensing agreement to sell sportswear modeled on classic Ivy League athletic uniforms. Think JFK in his football outfit. Or, for that matter, George Bush in his baseball suit, since archrival Yale is in on the act, too. Tired of battling trademark infringement -- from the Harvard Clinic in Peru to Harvard Eggs in Korea-- the university has taken the rare step of officially sanctioning a line of apparel to be marketed here and in Europe by the firm Pangea. It will feature, among other items, logo-emblazoned sweatshirts with prestretched cuffs and caps with faded visors and scratched brass buckles, aiming to look like the "scholar-athlete" wear of the 1930s and '40s that you might have found in grandpop's attic. In addition to Harvard and Yale, the clothing line, due to hit the market this winter, will feature casual neoclassics of the Sorbonne, Oxford, Cambridge, and the University of Milan.

Not exactly your basic ladies-who-lunch crowd Restaurateurs Michela Larson and Jody Adams of Rialto are close to finalizing a deal to open a new spot this spring in Chestnut Hill's Atrium mall. To be called Red Clay, the restaurant will feature "casual food like I make at home," says nationally celebrated superchef Adams. The kitchen will have beehive ovens, with dishes baked in terra-cotta pots (hence Red Clay), affording a comfortable, homey, but, of course, gourmet cuisine. Adams, Larson, business partner Karen Haskell, and developer Dick Friedman (owner of the Charles Hotel, which houses Rialto) are said to have invested some $750,000, with about the same amount being raised from individual backers. Some evincing interest include a roster of local female powerhouses such as stockbroker Sheryl Marshall, real-estate executive Lois Kunian, Boston Ventures' Martha Crowninshield, Fidelity's Beth Terrana, and Harvard's Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

Raybo's out again -- and none the worse for it

It was, admittedly, a stretch. Lawyers for a Roxbury man who spent seven years in jail on an attempted murder conviction that was overturned last year tried to sue former mayor Ray Flynn as the ultimate top cop in a system allegedly gone bad. Christopher Harding's civil-rights suit against the city claims that police-department indifference to misconduct landed him in jail. And that such behavior could be traced to former police commissioner (now Boston city councilor) Mickey Roache's inability to discipline bad cops like the ones who helped convict Harding. And that this theory was supported by the picture painted of Roache in former police commissioner Billy Bratton's book, Turnaround. And that Roache was in that position because Flynn played favorites in naming his boyhood pal commissioner. Federal District Court Judge William Young disagreed. Flynn was thrown out as a defendant last week.

The million-dollar machine

Should you happen to be rolling down I-95 and spot something in the next lane that looks like it should have Han Solo at the wheel, look fast. With a top speed of 230 mph, car-mogul Herb Chambers's McLaren F1 may go by in a blink. But it'll still be hard to miss. There are only seven of the British-made 627-horsepower sports cars in the US, and only 63 in the world. And there won't be more coming, since McLarens are no longer produced. Joining the ranks of the Jaguar XJ220, the Ferrari F40, and the Porsche 959, the McLaren provides owners with far more speed than they could possibly know what to do with -- but then, that's the point.

With a price tag of a cool million, the joy is definitely in the joystick. The sculpted body houses a V12 engine with 48 valves, 550 pounds of torque, and some 280 horsepower more than a Corvette. Dealership owner Chambers, whose name is synonymous with the Beemer and Benz set, and who's owned Ferraris and Rolls-Royces, knew when he bought the McLaren earlier this year that it wouldn't exactly be a commuter runabout. Chambers rents an airport runway for $500 when he wants to road-test the supercar, but he also occasionally manages to drive it between his Connecticut home and Boston businesses. Not only is it his favorite toy, says Chambers, but it's a sound investment, considering the publicity it attracts when it is displayed at his dealerships. Yet first and foremost, the car is an extension of Chambers's passion for automobiles -- "I wouldn't go out and buy a painting for a million dollars," he says. If you think about it that way, Picasso starts to look awful dull.

Coals to Newcastle

Local doctors familiar with the clinical research that brought us Viagra say colleagues are on the brink of another whopping breakthrough: Viagra works as an antidepressant. And it's not a "chicken and egg" reaction, explained one. The mental uplift occurs in patients who had no need for the physical one.