Judge Commits Robery in Court

--Lawyers in Judge Richard Feder’s court in Miami sported flowing, knee-length black robes in an experiment designed to bring dignity and decorum to the Dade County Circuit Court. “Judge, if you spin around in these things, do you go up in the air?” asked attorney Guy Bailey. “Yeah, like Mary Poppins,” Feder replied. Feder brought a box of the county-purchased $50 robes to the courtroom and instructed the lawyers to “pick out one that fits.” He hopes they will remind spectators and trial participants that they are in a serious environment. “When they walk into a British courtroom, they are hushed, reverent and respectful. When they walk into an American courtroom, they are reading a newspaper, eating an apple--it’s not a movie theater,” Feder said. At first, the lawyers inadvertently swished papers to the floor with the voluminous sleeves and caught the hems on the arms of their chairs when they stood up. But, by midday, most seemed to have adjusted. “I will abide by any ruling the courts impose,” Bailey said, “but I would prefer not to wear a powdered wig.” Feder lamented: “Everybody wants to know when the wigs are coming.”

--President Reagan should smoke a pipe to keep from making hasty decisions in the hijack crisis. It soothes the nerves when there’s nothing you can do anyway, explained California state Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), a former Los Angeles police chief. “I’d recommend that he take up pipe smoking, and just sit there and smoke his pipe,” Davis said at a news conference in Sacramento. Before Davis came to the Legislature, his views on summary justice for hijackers won him the nickname of “Shoot-’em-at-the-airport-Ed.” But Davis said that violence used in haste can be dangerous. “That action they took in Philadelphia where people were killed and two city blocks burned down didn’t turn out to be very productive,” he said.

--”Whenever I feel bad, I haul off and holler, and it makes me feel good,” said James Grastie Jr. Letting loose with ear-splitting screams is a relaxing hobby, he says. Clad in bib overalls, a worn felt hat and sunglasses, Grastie clutched the microphone and emitted sounds like a wild animal last weekend in Spivey’s Corner, N.C., to win the 17th Annual National Hollerin’ Contest. Ginger McLamb of Linden, N.C., swept honors in the women’s hollerin’ competition with a loud rendition of “Dixie,” and the names of her four children, screamed just as she always does when she announces dinner time on the family tobacco farm. More than 5,000 persons gathered for the contest and other festivities. “Back on the farm, it (hollering) was used as a tool,” said 1970 champion Herman Oliver. “You’d holler to your neighbor if he needed help, or you’d holler a distress call if you got lost in the huckleberry bushes, and when dinner was ready, your mother would holler you in.”