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Former Federal Judge G. Harrold Carswell, who once aspired to a seat on the Supreme Court, was in a Florida hospital suffering from "nervous exhaustion and depression" last week and facing a court case of no grandeur. Carswell, 56, a 1970 Nixon nominee to the high bench whom the Senate rejected (51 to 45) after disclosure of his racist statements and mediocre court record, has been charged by a grand jury with "battery" and "attempting to commit an unnatural and lascivious act." According to State Attorney Harry Morrison, Carswell, now a Florida lawyer and bankruptcy referee, struck up a conversation with another man in a Tallahassee shopping center rest room that was under police observation as a homosexual meeting place. The pair, said Morrison, drove off in Carswell's car and parked in a wooded area where Carswell "actually and intentionally" touched his companion, a police undercover agent who responded by making an arrest. Carswell, who is married and has four children, has denied any wrongdoing.
Not many people would write "Dear Popo" or "Dear Eppie" for advice on love or etiquette, so the celebrated sisters became Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers when they went into the counseling-by-column business. But back in Sioux City, Iowa, last week they were Popo (Pauline Esther) and Eppie (Esther Pauline) Friedman again at the 40th reunion of their high school class. Abby was amazed that 300 of the 400 in the original class turned out: "I figured only the thin and the rich would attend." Did her old classmates seek Abby's advice? "Well, a few asked for my private address so they could send me letters."