It’s Just a Garden-Variety Dispute

--The daisies have bloomed again in Stephen Kenney’s front yard, and the Queen Anne’s lace is reaching for the sun along with the other wildflowers. But they’re weeds to some of the neighbors in Kenmore, a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb. Kenney, who is facing more than $12,000 in fines for refusing to cut the growth of asters, cornflowers, gentian and other species on his lawn, is making a “sociopolitical statement” protected by the First Amendment, a New York Civil Liberties Union attorney told a judge. Patrick Wesp said Kenney, 31, a doctoral student and admirer of naturalist Henry David Thoreau, was really convicted of “radical deviation from the norm” when he was found guilty in village court last September of refusing to obey a municipal order to cut his lawn and a $50-a-day fine was imposed. But Thomas Viksjo, the village lawyer, arguing against the claim of constitutional protection for Kenney’s actions, said: “The average person in all likelihood would not, just by looking at the lawn, know what it was that Mr. Kenney was trying to express.” Judge Joseph S. Forma said he would rule later in the case.

--Call Me Buckie, a 9-year-old quarter horse, didn’t win any ribbons at the Devon, Pa., Horse Show, even though he had a little help from the world of science. Call Me Buckie “is the only horse in the world with a permanent pacemaker,” said Virginia Reef, a cardiology specialist at the New Bolton Veterinary Center. “We brought him here to show that he can go back and perform the way he once did. We didn’t expect him to win. Plus, we thought it would be fun,” said the veterinarian, who implanted the device in March and was in the saddle for one of two events in which the horse participated. She implanted the pacemaker after drugs failed to correct a heart condition that made the horse faint in his stall. The device, an advanced model with a variable speed feature, was donated by the widow of a man who had it for two weeks before dying of respiratory complications.

--A dentist in Bonn was ordered to pay the equivalent of $1,500 to a patient who was left without any “joy of kissing” after a tooth was pulled three years ago, court officials said. Denis Ferrand, an employee at the French Embassy in the West German capital, said that when he tries to kiss, he feels “either nothing or only a burning sensation” because of nerves damaged in the operation. Ferrand’s lawyer told the Bonn District Court that the problem had reduced his 51-year-old client’s chances of remarrying. The court cited an expert opinion that Dr. Hans-Joachim Fot had erred in not sufficiently informing his patient of the risks involved.