Bright & early on her 18th birthday, starry-eyed Post-Debutante Brenda Diana Duff Frazier hopped out of bed, answered the telephone, told newsmen: "It's going to be a very quiet day. I'll probably lunch with mummy (Mrs. Frederic Watriss)*and go to the theatre with my grandmother, Lady Williams-Taylor, but that's all. I haven't decided yet what I'll wear." She was still undecided at noon when a Postal Telegraph songster arrived with flowers and caroled Happy Birthday To You.

Neville Chamberlain for once ventured out without his umbrella. It rained.

Told by newsmen that Columnist Westbrook Pegler had suggested he go back to work, Labor Martyr Tom Mooney brandished a paid-up A. F. of L. Molders Union card, snapped: "During eight years of that hell [22 years in San Quentin Prison] I peeled potatoes. . . . Maybe that writer of scurrilous stuff may classify what he does as work."

Kudized last week: Grover Aloyslus Whalen, honorary LL. D. from New York University (punned orotund Candidate Presenter Harold 0. Voorhis: "Veritably, may we say of this man of the World of Tomorrow as did John Dryden say of Alexander of Macedon, 'None but the Brave deserves the Fair' ") ; Explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd, Doctor of Fortitude and Faith, from Pennsylvania's Beaver College. (During the ceremonies, Dr. Byrd's head proved too big for his hood, which had to be unstitched.)

After conferring an honorary doctorate of laws upon Salvation Army General Evangeline Booth, Columbia's aged Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler* called her "Doctor." She bridled: "I'm a military woman. Call me General." Playful old Dr. Butler then referred to her as "Doctor General." Said General Booth: "Just call me Evangeline."

Catnapping in her bedroom before her evening performance of The Philadelphia Story, stormy, eel-hipped Actress Katharine Hepburn woke to see a burglar about to loot her dressing table. She shrieked: "What the hell are you doing there?", leaped out of bed. The burglar, scared witless, hurtled down the stairs, Miss Hepburn after him, escaped in a waiting car. No jewels were missing.

Going ashore from a friend's ketch, the Blue Moon, for a visit in friendly Maine (one of the two States which wanted him for President), Alfred Mossman London slipped, cracked two ribs. He got himself strapped up, continued his cruise.

For Krohler Manufacturing Co., Iowa Painter Grant Wood designed an overstuffed, tasseled, neo-Victorian chaise longue (see cut). Blurbed Painter Wood: "This chair was conceived in comfort and dedicated to the principle of utter relaxation. I hope you like it." With each chair goes a color reproduction of his Woman With Plants.

A midge-sized Negro bootblack named Charles McFarland tried to get $3,000 damages from ex-Fisticuffer Jack Dempsey. His story: because he inadvertently tickled Dempsey's ribs while adjusting his coat, Dempsey fetched him a belly blow, damaged his already ulcerated innards. Dempsey's successful defense: "If I had socked this little guy he wouldn't be here to tell his story. And if I have to pay him $3,000 I feel that I should be entitled to one punch at him."

To fill one of the biggest jobs in U. S. education, the presidency of Brooklyn College-(salary: $15,000), New York City's Board of Higher Education elected Economics Professor Harry David Gideonse, renowned opponent of University of Chicago's President Robert Maynard Hutchins' education theories. Gideonse last year quit Chicago, has since taught at Columbia's Barnard College.

In Dayton, Ohio, 67-year-old Orville Wright, who with his late brother Wilbur Wright flew the first airplane (at Kitty Hawk, N. C., 1903), took a 30-minute ride on the DC-4, biggest U. S. commercial landplane; his first flight in ten years. Said he: "It was a wonderful and delightful experience."

Italianate Englishman Max ("The Inimitable Max") Beerbohm, 61, lighter-than-air essayist who wrote his last book, Around Theatres, in 1930, was among those elevated to a knighthood on King George's birthday honors list. Forgiven, if not forgotten was his 40-year-old gibe: "Knighthood is a cheap commodity these days. It is modern Royalty's substitute for largesse and it is scattered broadcast. Though all would sneer at it, there are few whose hands would not gladly grasp the dingy patent."

* For mummy it has been a trying year. Pleaded she in Surrogate's Court: "It will cost approximately 50% more for maintenance than prior to the infant's coming out. Your petitioner has no money of her own." The court spotted her an extra $52,000 out of Daughter Brenda's $154,000 income (from an estate held in trust until Brenda is 21).

* Who told news photographers at Columbia's commencement exercises to keep 85 feet away from him. (Photographers covering the King and Queen's tour were allowed to come 65 feet nearer royalty.)

* Brooklyn (coeducational) is one of New York City's four huge municipal colleges. The others: City College (for men), Hunter (for women), Queens (co-educational).

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