A calendar of the triumphs, defeats and contortions of the human spirit during 1952.

JANUARY--Inside Man. On the central front, Korea, a captured Chinese soldier who wore several layers of underwear, two quilted uniforms, a double-breasted overcoat, new boots and winter cap, explained: "I'm a supply sergeant."

FEBRUARY--News. In Rio de Janeiro, after a snake bit him, Francisco Feliciano chased and caught the viper, bit it to death.

MARCH--Psychology Student. In Tulsa, Motorist Walter Mims explained to police why he had hit a woman driver: "She signaled she was going to turn right, and then she turned right."

APRIL--Extraction. In Chicago, Louise Springer confessed that she went for treatment to six dentists and, while they bent over her with the drill, picked their pockets for a total take of $2,000.

MAY--Art. In Karlsruhe, Germany, the Triumph brassiere firm invoked a law against plagiarizing works of art to sue a competitor for copying its patterns, lost its case when the judge ruled that "that which goes into a brassiere is a work of art, but not the brassiere itself."

JUNE--The Bite. In Hof, Germany, Brewery Worker Karl Wunderlich, 24, was convicted of breaking into a delicatessen after police fitted his teeth to marks left in the end of a 2-lb. salami.

JULY--The Question. In St. Joseph, Mo., the Rev. Adiel J. Moncrief lost his gold pocket watch while visiting with the congregation after preaching a sermon entitled: "What Time Is It?"

AUGUST--Seniority. In Covington, Ky., James Riggs, 95, told police who arrived to help his 65-year-old son take him home from a tavern: "I'll go home with you guys, but no runny-nosed kid is going to tell me what to do."

SEPTEMBER--Typo. In Philadelphia, when Inquirer Columnist Frank Brookhouser reported that Hubert B. Wolfeschlegelsteinhasenbergerdorff had registered to vote in the November elections, Hubert wrote in to say that his name was Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff.

OCTOBER--Fluid Capital. In Memphis, Goldsmith's Department Store accepted a check drawn on the "East Bank of the Mississippi."

NOVEMBER--Dark Victory. In Detroit, high school football player Alex Jones knocked himself out crashing head first into a steel post, later groggily explained: "I run faster with my eyes shut."

DECEMBER--Snug Harbor. In Mt. Clemens, Mich., when police asked Melvin Reno why he was driving his car on the sidewalk, he muttered: "I'm too drunk to be on the street."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.