Sergeant Spanked

Mary Churchill, 19, youngest daughter of Prime Minister Churchill, got promoted to sergeant in the khaki-covered Auxiliary Territorial Service, went into action with her gun-predictor team against Nazi bombers over London. She also went to a dance in a London suburb. There she met U.S. Private and ex-Truckdriver Bill

("Feets") Adams, of Grand Rapids, Mich. When she twitted him on the size of his feet (14EE--largest issued by the U.S. Army), Private Adams turned Sergeant Churchill over his knee, gave her about 30 good-natured whacks. Said his buddy: "You know how new noncoms are." He added: "Feets is a big guy, six foot three in his socks, with hands to match. He just laid it on. She's a regular guy and, like her old man, can take it."

Oldsters

Half-blind Novelist Booth Tarkington, was awarded the [Theodore] Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal, commented on his 73rd anniversary: "I'm not old enough to glory in it, and I'm too old to be cheerful about it." Condoled his chauffeur, "You're looking good--for you."

On his 79th birthday, Henry Ford, who "never felt better," reiterated his hope for world federation, proclaimed women in industry frequently better than men.

From his log cabin in California's Siskiyou Mountains emerged 114-year-old Ned Rasper, a testy 85-lb. Karok Indian. He growled: "When I was a boy of 15 seasons, I saw my first white men. I thought they were some kind of new animal without skins, but they made signs so we fed them."

Ten years ago Sidney Zollicoffer Mitchell, retired Wall Street "wizard of the electrical industry," bought a cemetery plot, picked out a tombstone, lived on. Last week, at 80, he married Mrs. George Palmer, 62, of Old Lyme, Conn.

Honors

On his 70th birthday, Norway's King Haakon sent a present to ex-Minister to Norway Mrs. J. Borden Harriman: the Great Cross of St. Olaf, Norway's highest decoration.

A newly recruited Indiana naval air squadron named themselves the Lombar-diers, in honor of the late Cinemactress Carole Lombard (whom Hoosier Elmer Davis called "one of Indiana's greatest contributions to culture").

Lady Astor, Virginia-born M.P., whose outspokenness sometimes rivals that of her friend George Bernard Shaw, sometimes embarrasses her Virginia friends, blurted of Britain's Russian allies: "They are not fighting for us; they are fighting for themselves."

Frustration

Out of gas, Price Administrator Leon Henderson trudged with empty gallon can to a filling station. "Can't do it, mister," said the station attendant. "The gas has to be served in the tank of the car." Henderson: "I know, I know, I wrote those regulations. But they cover emergencies like this." Attendant (unmoved): "Read that last paragraph inside your book." Taxicabbing to his office, Administrator Henderson seized a copy of his 70-page book of regulations, heavily underscored the clause about such emergencies as his, sent the book, with his autograph, to the station attendant. Commented the latter, still unmoved: "I ain't selling any gas to anybody in a can. It goes in their tank, that's all."

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