AMERICANA: Dinner Time

It was, naturally, the season for strange visions—and Sputniks 1 and 11 made them more natural. From virtually every region in the U.S. last week poured frantic reports of U.F.O.s—unidentified flying objects. This time, as the U.S. Air Defense Command tabulated reports (no fewer than 128), the sightings from preachers, military personnel, engineers and just plain folks were not restricted simply to flying saucers. The pronouncements seemed to shape into a sort of celestial dinner pail: the objects resembled eggs, meat platters, pears—and, for dessert, ice cream cones and cigars....