Modern-day Delilah: No

Loosely Speaking by Nancy Gaines

We all know 29 Newbury as the place where hairdressers pop in at all hours for food, folks, and fun. Usually it is also a place to separate business from pleasure. But last week, when Liberty Mutual man Josh Davis made a crack about Ecocentrix receptionist Jules Bogdanski's clown-red hair, Bogdanski retorted, "Have you looked in the mirror lately?" After 15 minutes of cajoling, a shears-wielding Bogdanski persuaded Davis to let her cut off his ponytail. A changed man, Davis finished the experience the next day with a gratis trim at the salon from stylist John McKenna.

Art imitates life (except the good guys always win) There must be something about rubbing shoulders with crooks that brings out the literary detective in the good guys. Recent times have brought us Mackerel by Moonlight from former federal prosecutor (and retired gov) Bill Weld; just-published The Agent, from onetime state assistant attorney general George V. Higgins; The Son of John Devlin, about local law enforcement, by Charlie Kenney, the former Globe reporter who covered it all; and now Dead Low Tide, by Jamie Katz, a current assistant attorney general. Whereas Weld chose to write about a crook-chaser quite dissimilar to himself, Katz's protagonist, Dan Kardon, is (like the author) a local middle-class lawyer specializing in the environment. The fallible and charming Kardon, who solves a Cape Cod murder involving lethal toxic waste, will reappear in a sequel coming from HarperPaperbacks this spring. The Watertown author, age 46, says he thinks environmental cases, "like the labor cases of the 1930s," are the hottest litigation issues of the day. Yes, he knows Jan Schlichtmann; yes, he read and loved A Civil Action; no, he hasn't seen the movie. Although he doesn't yet know what his future will be because his boss, Scott Harshbarger, has been replaced by Attorney General Tom Reilly, he says he'll keep practicing environmental law and writing novels. Katz will give a reading January 18 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Give him a hand

Ever-upbeat political consultant Michael Goldman tried to keep private the debilitating extent of his rheumatoid arthritis, which was so bad a year ago that his hands were virtually crippled. But the deterioration was so dramatic that he volunteered for a clinical trial at Brigham and Women's Hospital under doctors Jonathan Coblyn and Michael Weinblatt, involving what might be a miracle drug. Although it turned out Goldman was one of the patients taking the placebo, as a guinea pig he became eligible for the real thing -- the new drug Enbrel, which the FDA has now fast-tracked to benefit the country's 2 million sufferers. Channel 5's Chronicle features Goldman's story this week. Ironically, the piece was not pitched by Goldman, who's sometimes criticized for getting more publicity for himself than for his clients. It came about because Chronicle producer Mark Mills, a Goldman pal, noticed his friend's visible improvement. (On the other hand, Goldman did tell us what Chronicle was doing. . . . )

Guess that means the go-go dancers will be clad in Gucci G-strings

Unhappy with attendance at Club Q's Thursday gay night, managers of the Sage family-owned nightspot atop the Kenmore Square Howard Johnson's have brought in some mono-named new promoters, Scott and Woody. In a move to attract a more sophisticated image and compete with the popular Thursday nights at Machine (in the Fenway's Ramrod) and Campus, in Cambridge, they've renamed the place Lava and dubbed gay night "Mankind." A spokesman said they want to draw in the Newbury Street chic set "who dress up when they go out."

Native intelligence

Smirks are being exchanged around town at the timing of Mike Barnicle's return to Channel 5, precisely on the heels of editorial director Marjorie Arons-Barron's departure for a top job at BankBoston. The fact that the station isn't hiring someone to replace Arons-Barron "certainly frees up a good chunk of change to bring back Barnicle," one media mogul predicted just days before it occurred. . . . And, in the so-to-speak comings and goings department, TV newsman John Henning, who has worked at all three of Boston's top stations, was at WHDH decades ago -- when it was Channel 5 -- but is not there now, as we misstated in a previous column. He is, of course, at WBZ Channel 4. . . . As former state rep Andrew Natsios readies for his return to Beacon Hill, this time as Governor Cellucci's secretary of administration and finance, we can't help remembering the last time we ran into him. Natsios, appointed by pal Andrew Card, the former Bay State pol who became George Bush's secretary of transportation, ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) when 1992's Hurricane Andrew hit Miami. Frustrated residents, bemoaning the delays and confusion surrounding delivery of federal disaster relief, speculated out loud when Natsios finally hit town (in Card's wake) that that's all they needed -- a third Andrew.