Gloomy words from Rocketeer Dr. Wernher von Braun, 55, darkened the tenth-anniversary celebration of the first U.S. satellite, the 31-lb. Explorer 1. Budget cuts, warned Von Braun at a National Press Club luncheon, were "dismantling the high competence" of the U.S. space effort and supplying funds "too low to maintain progress and momentum." All the same, noted Dr. William H. Pickering, 57, head of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it has been a zingy decade--notably in the space race with Russia. Pickering's box score: 500 satellites, 13 successful moon missions, 2,000 hours of manned flight and twelve hours of human excursion outside a spacecraft for the U.S., v. 250 satellites, eight moon shots, 530 hours of manned flight and 20 minutes outside a spacecraft for the Soviets.

He said after the Super Bowl that he was "going to take a long, hard look" at himself, and Vince Lombardi, 54, has the most piercing gaze in the game. What he saw convinced him to step down as coach of the champion Green Bay Packers after a nine-year reign during which he drove a hapless, last-place club to a record of 97 victories, 31 losses, four ties, six conference titles, five National Football League championships, and two triumphs in the Super Bowl. Lombardi will devote all his time to his other job as general manager of the profitable Packers (1966 net: $827,439), leaving the coaching to his longtime assistant, former Defensive Coach Phil Bengtson, 54.

Modifications in policy are as subtle for France's President Charles de Gaulle as the erosion of an Alp. Thus grandeur watchers saw a significance of sorts in his presence as host at an official farewell luncheon for U.S. Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen, 63. While "France does not constantly approve" of American actions, De Gaulle said, getting in a few pro forma licks, the two nations could nevertheless still rely on their "capital of reciprocal interest, attraction and admiration." De Gaulle then intoned a toast to Bohlen, who is returning to Washington as Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. "We have found you a diplomat of the highest order," he said. "I raise my glass in your honor, in honor of Franco-American friendship."

Maybe being married to Frank Sinatra has nothing to do with it, but Mia Farrow, 23, has bagged her first photographer--handbagged him, in fact: she clouted a press-agency cameraman in New Delhi with her purse. The poor fellow had been waiting for Mia outside her hotel, hoping to catch her as she wended her meditational way to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, her publicity-prone swami. One of the Yogi's henchmen intervened, an altercation ensued, and Mia teed off. The photographer came away with bruises and a lump, and the Indian press came away dubious about Mia's inner serenity.

As grandson of the founder of the world's most famous language school, Charles Frambach Berlitz, 53, has a name that means money in the bank. If he can use it, that is. At present, he cannot--not even to start a travel agency. Crowell Collier and Macmillan Inc., owner of the Berlitz schools and the Berlitz trademark, has got an injunction, and Charles is afraid even to write professionally under his own name. There is an old Spanish proverb, moaned Charles, who speaks 30 languages himself. "It says that Spanish is the language of lovers, Italian of singers, French of diplomats, and English the language of geese. Berlitz will become a sign language if my adversaries have their way."

What a comedown from the days when he was making like Topkapi and swiping such stuff as the 563.35-carat Star of India sapphire. This time Jack Murphy, 34, better known as Murf the Surf, garnered nothing but a batch of bandages for his bleeding head. Murf and a couple of buddies, said Miami police, broke into the home of a wealthy widow named Olive Wofford and demanded that she open the safe. Of course, said Mrs. Wofford, but couldn't she get her robe from the closet first? Sure, said the Surf, whereupon Mrs. Wofford stealthily pushed the alarm bell hidden in the closet. More than a score of cops quickly surrounded the house, nailing Murf as he tried to escape by diving through a glass door.

"C'est magnifique!" exclaimed French General Pierre Bosquet as he watched the suicidal charge of the light brigade. "Mais ce n'est pas la guerre." Presumably, he would have the same comment on the news that Elizabeth Matthew Lewis, 50, has been appointed to the faculty at the U.S. Military Academy--the first woman teacher in West Point's 166 years. A soft-spoken art librarian at the Point, Mrs. Lewis has now begun teaching art history to 15 cadets. "I'll promise not to wear a uniform," she told her first class, "if you promise not to salute."

A social worker who answered the telephone at Toynbee Hall, a grimy settlement house in London's East End slums, was a bit puzzled by the question. "Is there anyone you would snub if he offered to help as a volunteer?" asked the patrician voice at the other end of the line. "Anyone at all?" Assured that there was not, former War Minister John Profumo, whose dalliance with Call Girl Christine Keeler had helped to bring down the Tory government, showed up next day. "He was virtually a broken man," said a Toynbee Hall resident, "very nervous and jumpy, but he knuckled down to everything--dishwashing, decorating, dancing with old people, mending the fuses--the lot." In addition, Profumo, now 52, is helping to raise $1,200,000 for a new building. "He's remaking this place," said Bursar Doris Greening, "and it's nice to think we may have contributed something to him too."

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