Perched on a familiar tenement stoop, she reads from a book called Sam. The story is about a black boy who has no one to play with, and the narrator --who has more children of her own than the TV director could possibly cram onto the set--shows poignant understanding of the problem. One day in February, the children's show will open: "This is Ethel Kennedy on Sesame Street." ... "The call of the running tide," wrote John Masefield, "is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied." Actually, for Britain's late poet laureate it was mostly a call to the rail. Describing his chronic seasickness in a 1918 letter just acquired by Columbia University, Masefield appended a cartoon sketch of himself lying in open-mouthed nausea on his bunk, with the caption: "O captain, stop this misery!" ... He flew the 230,000 miles to the moon, and back. Now Lunar Explorer Alan Bean is as earthbound as a turtle. For a minor infraction of flight regulations while taking off in his T-38 from Ellington AFB, near Houston, the Apollo 12 astronaut has been grounded for 30 days. ... Wildlife conservationists have declared open season on Gina Lollobrigida. They protest that one of her maxicoats must have used the pelts of ten wild tigers, and that there are only 600 members of the endangered species left. In other words, as an expert put it, "One woman is wearing one-sixtieth of the world's tiger population." Then a final word: "The right place for a wild animal's coat is on a wild animal's back." Said Gina: "I didn't kill anything. They were already dead." ... The crowds at Courchevel, in the French Alps, were tickled rose by the tireless enthusiasm of Skier Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Apparently undistracted by the resort's apres-ski attractions, Canada's Prime Minister swooped 20 miles down a glacier run through virgin snow, braved subfreezing temperatures, high winds and unavoidable falls in heavy crust. Instructors gave his style a B to B+, "tres joli," his spirit straight A's. "I thought of coming last year," said the sportsman, "but the general was still here." Not General Winter, either. ... Making more like Mrs. Miniver than Myra Breckinridge, Raquel Welch, of all people, plans to recite the treacly ballad The White Cliffs of Dover ("In a world where England is finished and dead, I do not wish to live") against a bucolic English background for her upcoming TV spectacular. After that, it is off to Mexico to belt out Good Morning, Sunshine in front of an Aztec temple. The whole Welch spectacular will take 2 1/2 months to complete in six locations, all in the name of Raquel's favorite tipple, Coca-Cola. ... With no training beyond two years of high school, he was successful as a surgeon, a psychology professor, a deputy prison warden and a zoologist. Little has been heard from Ferdinand Waldo Demara since Tony Curtis portrayed him in the 1961 film The Great Impostor. Now he has turned up as the pastor of a small Baptist Church on an island in Puget Sound, near Seattle. His flock of 30 has heard rumors about the Rev. Dr. Fred Demara, as he styles himself, but finds him "a tremendous man." Why not? Demara, now 47, has had previous, if less official roles as Trappist monk and Skid Row evangelist. ... Country music's Woodward Maurice ("Tex") Ritter (Hillbilly Heaven, Boll Weevil) threw a ten-gallon hat into the ring and announced his designs on the U.S. Senate seat held by Tennessee Democrat Albert Gore. The old cowboy would be no Capitol Hillbilly: he has a degree in political science from the University of Texas and once studied law at Northwestern. As for the campaign, Tex says firmly: "I'll discuss the issues. Of course, I'll always have the guitar in the car if somebody wants to hear something." ... "I have given you to be a light unto the nations," proclaims Isaiah 42:6. And since Isaiah is the favorite prophet of that light unto Israel, David Ben-Gurion, a Swiss company used 42-6 as the title of a film on the patriarch's life. It was the first movie that Ben-Gurion, 83, had ever sat all the way through. Said he: "It's almost like it was." ... If Katharine Hepburn could make it in Coco, why not Lauren Bacall in Applause? So the voice coaches are hard at work, and Bogart's widow will open next April as the song-and-dance star of a new musical. The hoofing will be easier: Bacall misspent 13 years studying to be a ballerina.

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