(MONEY Magazine) – ''The amount of debt is almost academic. Would you rather fall off the Empire State Building or the World Trade Center?'' -- ROBERT JOEDICKE of Shearson Lehman Bros., commenting on the $4.5 billion of debt that Texas Air Corp. will have after acquiring Eastern Airlines and People Express. ''It's not about love. It's not about sex. It's about money.'' -- ACTOR PAUL NEWMAN in the highly touted movie The Color of Money, summing up modern life by its lowest common denominator. ''His mother Mary feared for his safety in the park after dark. Eventually she was also concerned that he was not preparing himself for a career.'' -- REPORTER WILLIAM E. GEIST, writing in a recent story in the New York Times about Bob Redman, 22, who for much of the past eight years has lived in a series of 13 tree houses that he built in New York City's Central Park. %