Despite Useless Legs, His Spirit--and Body--Soar

--Clark Harrison tucked his wheelchair behind the pilot’s seat and roared off on a monthlong solo flight from Atlanta to Alaska that he hopes will inspire paraplegics to take their search for independence to the skies. “In my wheelchair, I can’t even get over a curb. I go slowly and laboriously . . . . But, when I get in my airplane, I’m like Superman. I can leap tall buildings with a single bound,” Harrison said before departing on an 8,641-mile round-trip flight to Anchorage. The 60-year-old real estate salesman, banker, politician and writer has been paralyzed from the chest down since he was shot in the spine by a German sniper in World War II. He took up flying five years ago and has logged more than 500 hours in his single-engine Piper Cherokee 140, adapted to be flown by hand controls. A founding director of Atlanta’s Shepherd Spinal Center, Harrison has taken per-mile pledges to raise money for the specialty hospital, the South’s leading rehabilitation center for persons with spinal cord injuries.

--Days after their decade-old romance appeared on the rocks, America’s two giant pandas surprised National Zoo keepers in Washington with a record triple tryst, zoo spokeswoman Kate Taub said. The matings between Ling-Ling, the female, and her partner, Hsing-Hsing, came after the zoo had all but given up hope that the nation’s most watched animal couple would reaffirm their relationship this year. Panda keeper Beth Frank said she believed the sudden flurry of panda love was helped along by injections Ling-Ling received in mid-June of a fertility drug--follicle stimulating hormone--used on humans and some animals to activate ovulation.

--About 150 persons marked the first day of Michigan’s new seat-belt law by watching Gov. James J. Blanchard buckle the Capitol in Lansing into 500 yards of brown burlap, billed as the world’s largest safety belt. “What we really want is for every day to be buckle-up day,” said Blanchard, who said the new law takes “a giant step toward reducing the terrible toll that is being exacted on the highways.” About 20 protesters gathered later to blast the new statute, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday and requires all drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat belts or face $10 fines. The penalty jumps to $25 on Jan. 1. About 10 other states have similar laws on the books.