It was billed as a celebration of country music: two hours of pickin' and singin' to benefit Washington's Ford's Theater. Just about all of country's constellations were there to shine: Cash, Clark, Fender, Gatlin, Hall, Mandrell, Milsap, Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys, the Oak Ridge Boys, Rabbitt, Rich, the Statler Brothers, Stevens, Tillis and West. Presiding over the show was country's foremost devotee. Jimmy Carter embraced Singer Dolly Parton, with First Lady Rosalynn Carter's approval. They were, after all, huggin' cousins. Parton's home town of Sevierville, Tenn, (pronounced Sev-yer-vul), was "as large and cosmopolitan as Plains, Ga." Country music, Carter told an urbane black-tie audience, "records the bad times and sad times, wasted lives, dashed dreams, the dirty dog that took advantage of you. But it also celebrates the good and enduring things in life: home and family, faith and trust, love that lasts for a lifetime, and sometimes love that just lasts one good time." And all that jazz.
The oldest ship in the U.S. Navy is the destroyer tender Dixie, still seaworthy after almost 40 years. That's nothing. The Navy's oldest active officer, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, is twice as old as the Dixie. Moreover, Rickover, the father of U.S. naval nuclear power, seems quite likely to outlast the ship. Convinced that the admiral, soon to turn 80, is not about to be slowed down by barnacles, Acting Navy Secretary R. James Woolsey last week announced that Rickover had been appointed to yet another two-year term. That will make him a six-decade salt.
He played the klunk as Colonel Klink, the inept P.O.W. camp commander in TV's forever rerunning Hogan's Heroes. Away from reel life, Werner Klemperer is anything but a Dummkopf. This week at New York City's Metropolitan Opera, Klemperer is definitely out of Luftwaffe uniform and appears in turban and robe as Turkish Pasha Selim, a nonsinging role in Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. The role is not a one-shot stop from the stalag for Klemperer. The son of famed Conductor Otto Klemperer, he has also narrated Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; next spring he will do the narration of Beethoven's Egmont with the New York Philharmonic. Klemperer remains fond of Klink. Those residuals still trickle in, after all, and then there is the renown. "Everyone at the Met is a Hogan's Heroes fan," he insists. "When I arrive for rehearsal, they say, 'Good morning, Colonel.' "
She clung to the side of the cable car with native insouciance, but San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein was demonstrably unhappy that she was not going anywhere. All 40 cars of the city's famed tourist attraction, a designated national landmark that clangs bells and climbs steep hills, have been taken out of service. Disintegrating tracks, pulleys, cables and turntables, alas, make the 106-year-old system more menace than treat to the camera-toting tourists who make up the bulk of its 14.5 million annual passengers. Temporary repairs are under way, but $41 million is required to rebuild the 10.5 miles of track properly. Feinstein hopes to collect the bulk of that fare from the Federal Government. Meanwhile, a few cars are ignominiously towed downtown each day for tourists to click at and cluck over.
On the Record
Sebastian Coe, Britain's 3:49 record miler: "I'm committed to the Olympics, but not looking forward to it. It's not what athletics is about. I consider world records more satisfying than medals. It's nice to feel I've run faster than anyone."
R. Peter Straus, resigning as Voice of America director, citing incompatibility with the White House: "One of the major problems with this Administration is that there is no reward for a job well done and no penalty for messing up."
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