Shed no more tears over John Connally. Bouncing back from bankruptcy, the onetime Texas governor and Nixon`s treasury secretary now is a consultant for Houston`s First City National Bank. That`s right-a bank, says fluff columnist Liz Smith, delighted by the irony of a bank seeking advice from a Texan humbled by an 8-figure shortfall. Connally must be recovering, says Smith; he recently donated $25,000 to his old Austin fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta.
ONE SMALL STEP FOR ORTEGA How times have changed. In Managua, home-away-from-home for the Evil Empire, American astronaut Jim Irwin and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega chatted in kinder, gentler fashion. Irwin, who is touring Central America with a Canadian Christian group, gave Ortega a Nicaraguan flag he had carried to the moon 18 years ago. ”We went to the moon in peace for all mankind. Our purpose in Nicaragua is to bring that peace of God for all the people of Nicaragua,” said Irwin, whose Apollo XV crew also carried flags of other United Nations members. Ortega replied, ” . . . I am convinced that the relations between our peoples and governments will be friendly and normal.”
`700 CLUB` GOES BLANK It may have been a first for Pat Robertson. His ”700 Club” program was yanked from the air because of objectionable material. Seems that programmers at Detroit station WKBD-TV hadn`t realized that graphic abortion scenes were included in the taped broadcast, so they aired it at 11 a.m. as usual. Midway through Monday`s program, it disappeared. Said program director Paul Prange: ” . . . The visual content was inappropriate for the midmorning audience, especially on a holiday when many children were home. . . .” The show was replaced by ”The Honeymooners.”
`IT`S MY BABY AND I`M SORRY` The news about birth from Rochester, N.Y., is good and bad. Tiffany Anderson, 16, who last week found a newborn girl on her back porch, now admits that she is the mother. ”I didn`t mean to lie, but I got really scared and didn`t know what to do or who to tell,” said Tiffany, who hid her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothes and confessing to overeating. She gave birth in the family`s bathtub last Thursday evening, then told her family that she found the infant wrapped in a towel and left in a box on the doorstep when she went out to quiet a cat. (Postscript: 7-pound Tiffany Kisha is doing fine. Mom is charged with a misdemeanor.)
A CONDOR LAYS AN EGG Biologists are whispering expectantly at the Los Angeles Zoo. After weeks of amorous but clumsy courting, a female California condor has laid an egg. The couple, a male named Cuyama and a female named Cachuma, are two of only 28 endangered California condors still alive (all in captivity; 14 at Los Angeles and 14 at the San Diego Zoo). Hopefully, the vultures, which are North America`s largest land birds with 9 1/2-foot wingspans, will reproduce enough so that some can be returned to the wild in a decade. Mike Wallace, curator of birds, said he`ll cop Cachuma`s egg Wednesday. ”If you remove the first egg as soon as it`s laid, they will recycle and go into another mating ritual, and within 30 days lay another egg,” Wallace said. Experts will know within 10 days whether the incubating egg is fertilized.
IT MUST BE THE OLIVE OIL Jeanne Calment was 39 years old when World War I erupted. She remembers meeting Vincent van Gogh, and he breathed his last in 1890.
Calment still smokes an occasional cigarette, adores chocolate and port wine, and attributes her smooth complexion to a daily facial with olive oil.
So who`s to argue with success?
Calment celebrated her 114th birthday Tuesday in Arles, France, where she lives in a nursing home. Her eyesight is failing, but she still walks unassisted.
For awhile, Calment was listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world`s oldest living person. Guinness recanted when folks found out last autumn about tobacco-chewing Carrie White of Palatka, Fla., who turned 114 last November.
In such cases, however, even ”close” deservedly is a cause for celebration.