His father, Emperor Hirohito, is Japan's most famous Sunday marine microbiologist; his brother, Prince Yoshi, is a cytologist; and his son, Prince Hiro, is a confirmed admirer of the elephants at the zoo. With science all around, Crown Prince Akihito himself is no slouch when it comes to ichthyology. He has just finished a treatise on the shoulder blades of the goby fish, and used his 30th birthday press conference to announce a tonic devised to restore the appetite of his wife, Princess Michiko, still ailing after a March abortion. The "particularly effective delicacy," said the prince, consists of strips of grilled eel laid over a bowl of rice with hot green tea poured all over it.
In a somber ceremony witnessed by Brother Ted, 31, and Sister Jean, 35, New York International Airport (Idlewild) was officially rededicated as John F. Kennedy International Airport. There were a few brief speeches and a patter of applause as the 3-ft.-high J.F.K. initials were unveiled prior to being installed atop the International Arrivals Building. It was a "fitting memorial," allowed former President Harry Truman, 79, two days later. But even so, continued H.S.T., Americans in their grief are in too much of a hurry to rename everything, "including the pups and cats. After things settle down, we'll get the right one in the right place, and that will be in Washington."
An alert Gunsmoke director spotted his name and sent for his photograph. As easy as that, William Hickman Hill Jr., 19, grandson of the late Tom Mix, was off to Hollywood. He has now finished playing a drifter in a forthcoming TV episode in hopes that his grandpap's talents were hereditary. At least some of them seem to be, because "Hick" is already a pretty fair rider and roper, used to do it for a living as foreman on his father's Laredo ranch. "Back home in Texas, I made $5 a day," he says. "But here I make $250." So he figures he'll try acting for a while. "If I don't make it," he shrugs, "I can always find something to do—even if I'm flat busted."
"I feel wonderful," beamed Jack Ruby, 52, after he appeared before Dallas Judge Joe B. Brown for a bail-bond hearing in the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. And that was the tone of the whole affair. Judge Brown had outraged Ruby's defense attorney, Melvin Belli, by ruling that TV cameras would be out of court when Ruby comes to trial in February. But then the judge went ahead and hired his own public relations firm. "Decorum will be maintained," trumpeted the first release.
Though it does not pass to the next generation, Britain's title of life peer gives the holder all the other noble rights, including a seat in the House of Lords. And that sits fine with Dora Gaitskell, widow of Labor Leader Hugh Gaitskell. The new Baroness Gaitskell sees the distinction "as a tribute to my late husband." But, she adds, thinking of her interest in education and prison reform, "it is also a way for me to get back into active politics."