Peacock’s Feathers Ruffled

General Electric Co. last week served notice that it wants people to toss out the adjectives “beleaguered” or “embattled” when they refer to its National Broadcasting Co. unit.

The point being made by GE is that NBC is in better shape than people give the network credit for, even with fewer and fewer people watching network television as cable and video alternatives expand.

Our suggestion is that GE carry its name campaign a step further by changing altogether what the letters “NBC” stand for.

Some possibilities:

* No Bailout Coming

* Nonsense Between Commercials

* News Blazes Concocted

* Network Buyer Cosby?

* Newsmagazines Bomb Constantly

* Need Better Comedies

* Nervous Bet on Conan

* Never Buy Cable

Apple Chief’s Core Philosophy

John Sculley, who last Friday stepped aside as Apple Computer’s chief executive, is arguably the closest thing the Fortune 500 has to a New Age guru.

In his 1987 book, “Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple . . . A Journey of Adventure, Ideas and the Future,” Sculley touted “new age business principles.” That prompted one reviewer of Sculley’s book to call him “the Shirley MacLaine of corporate America.”

Some of the more memorable Sculley-isms were his description of companies such as Apple as part of “third wave” businesses. That third wave is where “making a difference” matters most, and corporate culture can be described as some sort of “genetic code.”

He urges companies to create the kind of environments that help “jump-start memory, feeling, emotion.”

That third wave contrasts with the “second wave” that includes companies such as Pepsi, Sculley’s one-time employer. Sculley says that companies in the second wave are places where titles and rank are overly important and where “tradition” best describes corporate culture.

Blue Ribbon For Hype

When it comes to giving out awards, Pasadena seems to be on the cutting edge.

A few months back, a fortune teller in town was advertising herself as having been voted the top psychic in the Pasadena area.

Now ads for chiropractor Jo Ann Dorothy include a claim for having been awarded “Best Massage in Pasadena” honors.

Briefly . . .

Appropriate timing: Harvey Comics, the Santa Monica-based publisher known for “Casper the Friendly Ghost,” raised $9 million by going public on Friday--a “triple witching” day on the stock market because key stock index futures expired. . . . A student foreign exchange service promotes itself with the slogan “Global Warming.”. . . Among the unsung American heroes saluted in a new book called “Made in USA” are Isaac Dripps, inventor of the locomotive cow catcher, and Charles Goodnight, creator of the chuck wagon. . . . Headline on a 1990 Times item on a Pepsi ad campaign: “Pepsi to Needle Coke.”