Still Rusty. In Sacramento, Lawrence B. Garcia sued the Citrus Heights Fire Department for $12,530 damages, charged that firemen he had permitted on his property to practice had let their fire get out of control and burn down his home.

Spectator Sport. In Atlantic City, 17 days after he had skipped out on a $75 board bill at the rooming house of Mrs. Margaret Robbins, Angelo Pellegrini, 55, dropped by municipal court to watch the sentencing of offenders, was spotted and arrested by Detective Captain James Pike.

Eleventh Hour. In Barquisimeto, Venezuela, when Central Hospital opened its new maternity ward, Zayda de Barrios, 30, checked in as the first patient, promptly gave birth to her tenth, eleventh and twelfth children.

Gaucherie. In Pasadena, Calif., after she had testified in an uncontested divorce action that her husband had blackened her eyes 50 times, broken her glasses 150 times, broken her collarbone, broken her nose and kicked a hole in her leg, Mrs. Emma L. Kincaid was asked if she found this upsetting, replied: "Well I'll tell you, it certainly embarrasses you."

The Realist. In Kyoto, Japan, unfrocked for working in a pinball parlor and pawning temple images, Buddhist Monk Sabaichi Okuno remarked: "Even a monk has to eat."

Lesser Evil. In Portsmouth, Ohio, Judge Lowell Thompson dismissed a drunken-driving charge against Robert Fortenberry, 32, after hearing Fortenberry's explanation: in his home state of Georgia, police confiscate an auto if liquor is found in it, so rather than lose his new car after a traffic mishap, he drank the half-pint of whisky he had under the seat.

Vicious Circle. In Warwick, Va., the city planning commission gave top priority to "how to improve the attendance of members of the commission," but failed to act for lack of a quorum.

For Short. In Rio de Janeiro, the Panair do Brasil airline reported that it had issued a ticket to a Europe-bound woman passenger under the name Maria Cunha, rather than the name she had given them: Maria Teresa Francisco de Assis da Concepqao da Rocha Filomena das Necessidades do Sagrado Coragao de Jesus Pereira da Cunha.

Neoclassic. In Mount Vernon, N.Y., thieves broke into the brilliantly floodlighted second floor of Genungs' department store, removed the store's safe from its conspicuous place by the windows, substituted a painting of the safe on plywood, battered the real safe open and escaped with $10,000.

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