Family Weekly j
December 29,1963
the University of Heidelberg for
their joint study on the construc
tion of the atomic nucleus). A 57-year-old
mother of two, she is the
first woman to win the physics
prize since Madame Curie in 1903.
Her comment when told the King
of Sweden would award her the
prize, worth about $12,000: "Good.
I've always wanted to meet a king."
MR. AND MRS. ANDREW
FISCHER
Dr. James N. Berbos kept picking,
up several fetal heartbeats in his
patient, Mrs. Andrew Fischer of
Aberdeen S. D. "I suspected that
she might have triplets," he recalls.
So he ordered X-rays and discovered
that he was treating a 54,000,000-to-1
patient Mrs. Fischer was carry
ing quintuplets. Three days later,
on Sept 14, Dr. Berbos delivered
four girls and a son to Mrs. Fischer,
already the mother of five, within
72 minutes. "Nerve-wracking," said
the doctor. Mr. Fischer, a shipping
clerk, and his wife seemed to agree
but mostly because of the dizzy
ing surge of well-wishers, from
President Kennedy to promoters
wanting the quints to sell their
products. Before the family could
even name the fivesome, they had a
popular label. They were "The Million-Dollar
Babies," a conservative
estimate on how much they will
make as America's new darlings.
ANDRIAN AND VALENTINA
The bride wore white: ankle
length gown, double veil, gloves,
roses. The groom was so calm he
helped his tearful bride slip a
plain gold band on his finger. The
couple: Soviet cosmonette Valen
tina Teres hkova, 26, and cosmo
naut Andrian Nikolayev, 34. Val
entina had previously dodged
reporters' questions about her ru
mored romance by saying, "Every
woman hopes to marry someday."
When that day came, it was a spec
tacular one covered by Moscow
television. Acting as big daddy
(fathers of the couple were killed
in the war) was Nikita Khrush
chev, who proposed 20 or 21 toasts
(reporters lost count but noted that
Nikita only sips these days) and
quipped: "May the marriage be a
long one. May you have radar to
avoid all the obstacles of life."
SANDY KOUFAX
Interesting people are beset peo
ple. Sandy Koufax, lefty star of the
Los Angeles Dodgers, wanted to be
a basketball player; baseball scouts
grabbed him because he could throw
so hard (without any idea where
the ball would go). When Sandy
mastered control pitching, he in
curred a finger injury, and doctors
feared they might have to amputate.
But in 19G3 Sandy came back with
strike-out records and a no-hit
game. In September, the Dodgers
St. Louis series was the pennant
deciding one but, alas, Sandy's
turn on the mound fell on the Jew
ish New Year. Solomonlike manager
Walt Alston pitched Sandy out of
turn, and the fireballer sent the
Dodgers toward a World Series
sweep over the Yankees with a stun
ning shutout Headlined a Los An
geles newspaper: "HAPPY NEW
YEAR, SANDY!" At last it was.
J3L
SIR ALEC DOUGLAS-HOME
He started the year as Lord
Home, British foreign secretary,
and ended it as Sir Alec Douglas
Home, prime minister, having giv
en up his noble title for a seat in
the House of Commons. By any
name, he seemed a tepid cup of
English tea to Americans, who
wondered mostly why he pro
nounced his name "Hume." The
story goes that a battling Scottish
ancestor (the Home family dates
back to the 13th century) tried to
rally his warriors with the cry,
"For Home! For Home!" The fol
lowers misunderstood and ran
home. Since then the Homes have
preferred mispronunciation to dis
honor. Beneath Sir Alec's bland
exterior, however, courses- that
same fighting blood. Reluctant to
take the job at first. Sir Alec, once
committed, survived a bitter polit
ical struggle against far more am
bitious leaders. When word of his
victory leaked out from party head
quarters, London crowds shouted:
"It's Home! It's Home!" this time
nobody misunderstood.
JESSICA MITFORD
Jessica Mitford comes from a no
ble English family noted for getting
people's hackles up. Her father, for
instance, stirred British tempers by
sympathizing with Hitler. Jessica's
contribution to family tradition is
this year's best-selling book, "The
American Way of Death," which
studies alleged overcommercializa
tion in the undertaking industry.
(The cost of living, she says, rose
71 percent since World War II
while the cost of dying rose 100
percent.) Clergymen largely praised
the book for exposing "pagan cus
toms and trappings," but under
takers mourned that Miss Mitford
had castigated them with inaccurate
statistics and unfair interpreta
tions. Congressman James B. Utt
(R.-Calif.) went further. He ac
cused Miss Mitford of "Communist
front activities" and striking "an
other blow at Christian religion."
Her reply: "Red herring."
7Tn
Ml
Gemutlichkeit who smokes Brazilian
cigars, works with Beethoven music
in the background, and drinks cham
pagne and beer. But West Germans
wondered if an uncle figure like
Ludwig Erhard, a fervent anti-Nazi
handpicked by American occupation
forces to revive his nation's econo
my, would make a firm chancellor.
One who doubted it was Konrad
Adenauer, who at 88 was reluctantly
turning over the post to Erhard. "A
rubbery lion," Der Alte used to call
him and Ludi took the abuse good
naturedly. Would this "rubbery
lion" bend to the ambitions of
Charles DeGaulle who wants to in
crease France's influence in western
Europe at the expense of the U. S.?
Erhard lost no time in knocking the
"national egotism" typified by he
Grand Charles. It reminded NATO
leaders of a previous observation by
Herr Erhard: "I am an American
invention."
I IP
LUDWIG ERHARD
"Onkle Ludi" looks like a Dutch
uncle 220 pounds of rosy-cheeked
POPE PAUL VI
Giovanni Cardinal Montini chose
the name Paul when he succeeded
the late Pope John XXIII as su
preme pontiff of the Roman Catho
lic Church. It was a significant
choice. The question had been
whether the new pope would carry
on John's dream of apurturumo
an "opening" of the church to new
ideas of the modern world. The
name Paul hinted of the new pope's
direction it was St. Paul who rec
ognized the universality of the
teachings of Jesus and carried
Christianity beyond the confines
of a Palestinian sect. John had
dreamed that the Christianity
spread by Paul could once more
find a type of unity, and Pope Paul
VI lost no time in assuring the
world that he succeeded to this
ideal as well as to the Chair of
Peter. He said: "I long to make
mine the wish that spontaneously
and generously welled up in the
hearts of my predecessors, espe
cially John XXIII: come, let the
barriers that separate us fall!"
(Continued on page S)
Family Weekly. December 29, Ml S