When Things Get Mushy, There’s No Place Like Nome

--Ladies and gentlemen, start your dogs. The race across 1,135 miles of Alaskan wilderness is once again under way. Sixty-one dog sled teams from seven countries are off and running in the 13th annual Iditarod race from Anchorage to Nome. The race, which nets the winner $50,000, commemorates the life-saving runs in the 1920s made by dog mushers carrying diphtheria serum along the former mail and gold shipment trail to Nome. Food for the racers will be air-dropped at 27 checkpoints, with radio operators, checkers, dog handlers and veterinarians on hand to lend assistance. The fastest time ever posted was 12 days, 8 hours, 45 minutes and 2 seconds, set in 1981 by musher Rick Swenson, who has won the event four times. “From Unalakleet to Nome you’ll pass a lot of people who have been pushing their dogs too hard--rookies and non-rookies,” said Susan Butcher, 30, who took second place honors last year for the second time in her seven races. “So, basically, to take care of your dogs is of number one importance,” she said. “And then to race . . . to Nome.”

--John Z. DeLorean is ready to tell “what went wrong” in an autobiography, which will be published by Zondervan Publishing House of Grand Rapids, Mich., one of the country’s largest Bible publishers. The company said that the book, titled “DeLorean,” will be in book stores by September. DeLorean, the former auto maker, became a “born-again Christian” while facing drug trafficking charges. He was acquitted last Aug. 16 in Los Angeles.

--Miss New Hampshire-U.S.A. Rhonda Niles, arrested in her dormitory room at Plymouth State College, N.H., on a charge of receiving stolen property from a fashion store, said she was giving up her crown--one week after winning it. “I have resigned due to personal reasons,” said Niles, 19, sitting with her parents in their home in Merrimack. “I just want to make a statement that I’m responsible for the misunderstanding and apologize to friends, family and the community as well as the pageant for any embarrassment, pain or anguish,” she said. Pageant officials said that the first runner-up, Janice LaCroix, 21, of Manchester, is expected to assume the title.

--David Crosby said he’s now set to resume his drug rehabilitation program. Crosby, 42, who founded the rock group Crosby, Stills and Nash, remains in jail on Rikers Island in New York after he was unable to post $15,000 bail. He disappeared from a court-ordered drug program at Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit, N.J., last week and was later arrested. “I have no intention of leaving again,” Crosby said.

--To Brian Corcoran, 17, of Falls Church, Va., the National Theater’s production of “42nd Street” in Washington was a smash hit. As tenor James Mellon hit a high note in the “Dames” number, the large chorus joined in, shattering Corcoran’s eyeglasses. “I jumped a little bit, but when I told my father sitting next to me, he could not stop laughing,” said Corcoran, who was in the fourth row at the time.