Slings & Arrows

U.S.-born Lady Astor, trying to raise -L-400,000 in London for a settlement for international university women, denounced Hollywood's preoccupation with sex in "this modern striptease age." Said she: "I think it's terrible the way women are used for glamour ... Educated women are far more important to the world . . ."

Fleet Admiral William F. ("Bull") Halsey, 67, had a cataract removed from his left eye at Johns Hopkins Hospital. But a similar operation on his other eye, onetime Fullback Halsey decided, would have to wait until after the Army-Navy game.

Hollywood's well-turned Ava Gardner issued a firm announcement that she was "through with 'cheesecake.'" "For eight years," she said, "I did nothing but leg art ... I spent all my time . . . posing with practically nothing on. I've portrayed all the seasons, all kinds of weather conditions ... I deserve a change."

The tomb of Ulysses S. Grant on Manhattan's Riverside Drive was closely guarded over the weekend by damyankee police who had heard that North Carolina rebels, in New York for the Notre Dame game, were planning to hoist the Confederate flag over the shrine.

Work & Play

Federal Judge Harold R. Medina, 61, who thought he might be able to take it easy once the nine-month-long Communist trial ended last month, had met a slight delay: he tried to read 50,000 congratulatory letters, arranged for acknowledging them. Last week, after taking in the Princeton-Yale game, he and his wife set off for a three-month vacation at an unannounced destination. Said he: "I'm not going to make any speeches anywhere or run for anything. What I want to do most is to rest."

A new Italian magazine called Insieme (Together) announced in Rome that Countess Edda Mussolini Ciano, whose husband was shot by a firing squad in 1944 and whose father was killed by a mob in 1945, would be editor of its women's section. The editors said the magazine would stress "the exaltation of family life."

Mrs. Walter Giblin, wife of a Manhattan broker and a two-day-a-week volunteer worker at Memorial Cancer Center for the last eight months, had worked out a stock and true answer for patients who tell her: "You know, you look just like Constance Talmadge, the silent movie star." Mrs. Giblin's answer: "That's good, because I am."

After a month's visit in the U.S., Canada and Britain, India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru arrived back home just in time to celebrate his 60th birthday. Cheering crowds greeted him at the airport and along the route to a huge public meeting in Bombay, where he accepted from admiring countrymen a $30,000 trinket: a foot-long miniature of the Asoka Pillar (whose crest is the Great Seal of India), made of gold and twinkling with 60 diamonds.

After his famous ride, Paul Revere turned in a swindle sheet, according to Edward J. Cronin, Massachusetts secretary of state. An expense account, dated 1775, which Revere presented to the Boston Committee on Safety, was put on public exhibition last week by Cronin, who dug it out of the Commonwealth's archives. Among the items for which thrifty Revolutionary Revere asked reimbursement: carrying dispatches (at 5 shillings a day), expenses for self and horse, outlays for printing.

Hearth & Home

Vice President Alben W. Berkley and Fiancee Mrs. Carleton S. Hadley bore up remarkably well under the strain of a full pre-wedding week. Recovering from flu in a St. Louis, hospital, Mrs. Hadley made every minute count by approving the final details of her trousseau (a blue wedding dress and eight other new outfits). Barkley was a passenger aboard an Air Force B-17 that narrowly missed a collision with a blimp near Washington's National Airport. Meanwhile, word reached the Vice President that St. Louis streetcar motormen, passing the home of his bride-to-be, were calling: "All out for Barkley Square!"

Prince Charles, quietly celebrating his first birthday at Clarence House, had his accomplishments summed up for him by the British press, which unbent to the point of talking a little baby talk. The royal child weighs 25 Ibs., is tall for his age, has six teeth, already has taken his first steps, and has had his name put down for the Grenadier Guards. Only available quotes--considered adequate by most Britons--as his 40-lb. birthday cake was cut: "Papa; Mum-mum."

In Cleveland, Dr. Francis Everett Townsend, who for 16 years has plumped for pensions for old folks, offered a good reason for further plumping. After caring for his young grandson, Craig Alan, he saicT: "Babysitting is only that in name. With a two-and-a-half-year-old, it's mostly baby walking. I'm tired."

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