With a happy smile for photographers and a friendly dig for Dick, a thin but chipper Pat Nixon checked out of a Long Beach, Calif., hospital last week, 16 days after suffering a partly paralyzing stroke at nearby San Clemente. Doctors worried about lingering high blood pressure, but said the outlook for a "full or nearly full recovery" was excellent. Flanked by Daughters Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower, the former First Lady, 64, waved from her wheelchair and told well-wishers: "I feel fine, but I'm a little frightened about the driver." No need. With a steady hand, the former President guided her safely to a limousine.

"It's making many of her dreams come true," said Larry C. Flynt, 33, self-promoting publisher of the trashy skin mag Hustler, as he announced that he will be married in a Methodist church next month to Althea Leasure, 22, who was indicted with Flynt earlier this year on charges of obscenity and engaging in organized crime. The bride, who is the associate publisher of Hustler, will wear an ivory dress and veil, and her bridesmaids will be in red. The couple will live in a $375,000 Tudor mansion in Bexley, Ohio, a staid suburb of Columbus, where the good citizens have not exactly rolled out the welcome wagon.

In fact, they recently showed up in force at a zoning commission meeting and protested successfully against Flynt's plans to build a wall around his home. On second thought, a wall around the Flynts' pleasure dome might not seem out of place. When a neighbor complained that Flynt was the type who might start offering lollipops to the girls who attend a school across the street from the mansion, he enthusiastically endorsed the notion. "I'll probably be out there on the first day of school, giving them out," he said. "That's how I get my kicks."

sb-

It was, no doubt, the fulfillment of many a barber's fantasy. Into the shop came Ringo Starr, covered, as always, with hair. First he wanted his beard taken off, then his mustache. Then Ringo said, "Might as well keep goin'." When the deed was done--in Monaco, where Ringo now lives--the 36-year-old ex-Beatle percussionist was as hairless as a drum. The star was nervous at first, but he quickly found his baldness an advantage. "It's cooler, like," he explained. "This Riviera sun was goin' to me brain."

sb

"I'm just an ordinary woman from a ranch who wants to see the amazing agricultural development in this arid land." Thus did Lady Bird Johnson, widow of the 36th President of the U.S., describe herself at the start of a six-day visit to Israel last week. One of the first objectives for Lady Bird and daughters Lynda Robb and Luci Nugent required a two-mile hike over dirt paths through Independence Forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Their destination: a wooded area dedicated to Lyndon Baines Johnson, where Lady Bird planted a pine sapling and Luci watered it. The former First Lady also met with Israeli President Ephraim Katzir and dropped in at the Hebrew University Library. Being a good guest, Lady Bird observed: "There are more books in Jerusalem on my husband than in Washington."

sb

Every few days or so, it seems, there's a new case of a Congressman involved with somebody who doesn't like to type. Last week brought the conviction of Representative Allan T. Howe of Utah, who was given a fine of $150 and a suspended jail term of 30 days for propositioning two police decoys in Salt Lake City. And the Washington Post recounted the adventures of Robert Leggett, 50, a California Democrat, who already has a wife (and three children), plus two children by a former Capitol Hill secretary, a situation that obliged him to get a $14,000 advance on his congressional salary of $44,600. Seeking sympathy and understanding, Leggett says he found it three years ago in the company of Sook Nai Park ("Suzi") Thomson, 45, a Korean-born naturalized citizen who works as an aide to House Speaker Carl Albert. Thomson, a svelte divorcee, entertains handsomely on a salary of only $14,750, a circumstance that some Washington observers attribute to her contacts at the Korean embassy, including several officials believed to be intelligence agents. The Koreans might be interested in the fact that Leggett is a member of the Armed Services Committee and has access to classified documents. But Thomson insists that her Korean contacts are purely social ("They all look alike to me"), and Leggett denies any wrongdoing more serious than adultery. Said he: "I may have egg on my face, but not gravy."

sb

By the end of Amy Carter's recent stay in New York, she was pretty tired of having to be dressed up all the time and having to answer reporters' questions about why she raised the prices at her lemonade stand. More to her taste was a visit to the Children's Television Workshop studio where The Electric Company, one of her favorite shows, and Sesame Street are made. The eight-year-old swapped autographs with such Electric Company characters as Jennifer of the Jungle, J. Arthur Crank and Easy Reader, tried on a gorilla costume, and watched a show being taped. In the prop room, she even tried out the trash can that belongs to Sesame Street's Oscar the Grouch. Amy's verdict on the studio: "This is the best."

sb

Go to war? Nothing could be further from his mind, insisted Uganda Dictator Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dado, 48. Despite recent hints that he might attack neighboring Kenya because of its alleged support of the Israeli raid that freed hostages held at Uganda's Entebbe Airport, Amin went on last week to proclaim: "Uganda will never attack Kenya because Kenyans are our brothers in blood." It turned out that he was speaking literally. Said Amin: "I have fathered two sons from a Kikuyu [Kenya's largest tribe] girl called Wanjira. Their names are Njuguna and Njoroge." The 280-lb. Big Daddy, a Muslim polygamist, has sired some 20 children by five Ugandan wives (he currently has two), but this was the first disclosure of his international relations.

sb

Having recently spent four weeks flying around in a blimp in Black Sunday, Swiss Actress Marthe Keller, 30, had no qualms about going up in a hot-air balloon for her latest picture, Bobby Deerfield. She plays a dying woman who teaches a race-car driver to live life to the fullest. That involves not just the balloon and a racing car but a Lake Como ferryboat and an auto-train that bores through the Simplon Tunnel. Co-Star Al Pacino, 36, was not happy about having to spend two days filming in the darkness of the tunnel--"two bad days," he grumbled--but that had to do with the tunnel, not Keller. "We hit it off right away," said she. "I've worked with some fine actors, and you know, it's like playing tennis. It's always better with a good player than with a bad one."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.