Mayor Gives Attire Short Shrift

It didn’t seem too unusual when the middle-aged man strolled into City Hall wearing a short-sleeve shirt, sandals and suspenders holding up a pair of shorts around his considerable girth. But, unlike the other thousands of tourists visiting the Portland landmark, he went directly into the mayor’s office, unencumbered by the usual security obstacles. All this was for good reason: He’s Bud Clark, the city’s chief executive. And, in his official capacity, the mayor decreed “Dress as You Please Day” to help city employees loosen up--ties and collars, that is. “They constrict the flow of blood,” Clark said. “I think people work better and think better if they have no constrictions around their body.” The word spread quickly. Banks, major businesses and other government agencies let their workers observe the decree. And Clark has been interviewed by more than 30 television and radio stations nationwide. “I don’t care what they think about how I dress as long as they spell Portland right,” he said, wearing one more thing: a big grin.

--While the soda wars were bubbling over on Earth, the challengers and classics were falling flat in space. Shuttle Mission Commander Gordon Fullerton said in Houston that neither Coke nor Pepsi aboard the flight earlier this month was very enjoyable. The drinks, contained in two experimental designs of space beverage cans, were warm and full of fizz and froth. Fullerton, delivering the official verdict, declared: “I can’t extrapolate to any great desire to have them.”

--Jazz great Ella Fitzgerald was listed in good condition at George Washington University Hospital with an apparent respiratory problem. The 67-year-old singer, whom doctors described as “in good shape,” nevertheless canceled performances next week in Chicago and Kansas City. Hospital officials did not say when she would be released.

--This was no ordinary Cadillac. It seated eight, had a made-to-order interior design and featured a special security system--with a sticker price of $100,000. But it was up against no ordinary reporter. During the vehicle’s unveiling at a jet-set hotel in Marbella, Spain, an inquisitive journalist “fiddled with a button” and caused the Cadillac to snap itself shut--with the keys inside, said Dina Cosson, owner of the luxury Hotel Marbella Dina-Mar, where the car comes with the 2,000-square-meter penthouse suite that includes a putting green and 24 telephones. Needless to say, no coat hangers were needed to get the keys. Proprietors flew in a mechanic from Madrid to unjam the doors. Why not a U.S. mechanic for an American car? “That would be frightfully expensive,” Cosson said.