American Notes ANNIVERSARIES

At Vermont's Middlebury College, they swear it started this way. Back in 1939, five Middlebury undergrads suffered a flat while driving through Nebraska. As two boys wrestled with the tire, a third found a discarded pie tin from the Frisbie Pie Co. near a cornfield. Above his head a lightbulb went on. He threw the pie tin into the air and yelled, "Frisbie!" History was made.

Well, maybe. There are quite a few people around the country who claim to have invented the aerobatic platter. But the legend is so treasured at Middlebury that last week, while observing Frisbee's 50th anniversary, the college unveiled a bronze statue of a dog jumping to catch . . . a Frisbee. Says Middlebury President Olin Robison: "Our version of the story is that it happened all over America, but it started here."