What was already one of the splashiest Palm Beach seasons in years suddenly got even splashier when Jacqueline and Aristotle Onassis steamed in from Haiti on their 325-ft. yacht Christina to visit Rose Kennedy. Hidden behind her usual oversize sunglasses, with a kerchief pulled low on her forehead, Jackie cut the press dead. Ari, tanned and shirtless, waved, smiled and carried on from the deck. Later Ari showed off his Greek dances at a party. Jackie said they were Greek by way of Argentina --Ari's home for a number of years. Ari was too busy dancing to hear.

After hours of frolicking and rollicking, who should emerge from his disguise as the king of Dartmouth College's Mardi Gras Ball but CBS Newsman Walter Cronkite. Elaborately robed, crowned and masked, Cronkite was the guest of Dartmouth President John Kemeny, who last year presented him with an honorary degree. Unmasked, Cronkite said, "It's nice to be able to fool everyone one night of the year when there are some politicians who claim we do it every night."

World War II ended for Shoichi Yokoi, 57, only last year when the former Japanese imperial army corporal was found hiding out in the jungles of Guam. Now a prosperous tailor in Nagoya, Yokoi brought his new bride Mihoko, 45, back to the island for their honeymoon. Visiting his cave hideout, a favorite spot with tourists these days, Yokoi asked: "How could I have wasted all those years in this dirty hole?" Trapped in the jungle for a couple of steamy hours because of helicopter trouble, Yokoi muttered that he simply "hated the looks of the jungle" and couldn't wait to get back to Japan.

For a relaxed night at the White House, the President invited 250 guests to join him for an evening with Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Davis, a notably lapsed Democrat, reminded his audience of the moment in Miami Beach when he locked the President in a now famous bear hug at the Republican National Convention: "Where else but in America could one grown man hug another grown man and get invited to his house?" Another of Nixon's friends, Businessman C.G. ("Bebe") Rebozo, observed, "It's funny but President Nixon and Sammy Davis Jr. are a lot alike --in a very different way." -

Dr. Robert Atkins, a thin, balding cardiologist and author of the runaway bestseller Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, was suddenly out of the fat and into the fire. His "revolution" involves eating virtually no starches or sugars. Such a diet supposedly stimulates a group of fat mobilizers, one of which is FMH, a hormone that Atkins claims governs the release of stored fat from body deposits. Now the American Medical Association Council on Foods and Nutrition charges that the diet is "neither new nor revolutionary" and that "no such hormone as FMH has been established in man." Atkins responded that his experience with 10,000 patients proves the diet works and is healthful. With 750,000 copies of his book in print, Atkins was counting more than calories.

Sir Rudolf Bing, 71, the former general manager of the Metropolitan Opera whose laser-beam wit has terrorized and delighted the music world, seems to have decided that he can take the knocks onstage as well as give them off. After signing up to play three performances for the Met's youthful rival, the New York City Opera, Bing explained how he was chosen for a nonsinging, nonspeaking role in a new production of Hans Werner Henze's The Young Lord: "Julius Rudel [the director] called me and said, 'In the opera, there is an old lord who is elegant, arrogant and distinguished. I think you are just right for the part.' " Mused Bing: "The only other time, I appeared onstage were to announce in front of the curtain that Mr. [Franco] Corelli would not sing tonight. And I did that often enough."

After being gunned down in front of his Northwest Washington house on January 30, Senator John Stennis, 71, was well on the mend. "The old man is in good spirits," said one of his medics at Walter Reed General Hospital. "He's still got plenty of fire. He blew his stack when he heard about the Arabs killing the American ambassador!" Stennis will have to spend another month or so in the hospital before he is ready for discharge, but he is already thinking about Senate business. At his suggestion, Senator Stuart Symington presented a resolution on committee funding to the Senate Rules Committee.

Clifford Irving and his wife Edith, architects of the Howard Hughes autobiography hoax, were united again in a way: both were behind bars, albeit separated by 4,000 miles and stone walls. Clifford was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in the Lewisburg, Pa., federal prison last August; he has since been transferred to the Danbury (Conn.) prison, after alcohol was found in his possession. Last week in Zurich, a three-judge Swiss court sentenced Edith to two years for fraud and forgery, including signing "H.R. Hughes" to three checks totaling $650,000. She complained that "this joke of the century destroyed Cliff's and my career." They, Edith claimed, face debts and legal claims of $750,000, with the IRS ready to add another $500,000 in back taxes.

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