High-Flying Romantic Has His Proposal Shot Down

--Ains Phillips asked a pie-in-the-sky question on an airplane banner, but his girlfriend’s answer brought him back to earth in a hurry. Phillips, of London, won a day’s use of a light plane and an advertising banner in a radio contest. He used the prize to send the following message to his longtime girlfriend, Jackie Jones: “Squid--Will you marry me? Bighead.” The banner trailed over central London for two hours. But the answer, delivered over live radio, was less than enthusiastic. Capital Radio disc jockey David Jensen telephoned Jones at the bank where she works to get her response, but a colleague of hers told him: “It appears Jackie has locked herself in the loo and won’t come out. . . . The answer must be negative.” Said Phillips: “I knew she wasn’t too keen on surprises, but I didn’t think she’d react like this. . . . I’m a very romantic guy, and she does mean a lot to me, but I feel a bit of a wally today.”

--Bruce Springsteen’s hit song “Glory Days” deals with people living in the past, and the rock star jokingly dedicated it to Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino during a concert there. Marino, who set a slew of National Football League passing records last year, went to see Springsteen’s show after having the worst game of his career, losing to the Houston Oilers, 26-23. Springsteen snickered as he made the dedication, but Marino faced the music. “I thought it was pretty neat that he did that,” Marino said. “I don’t think he knew I was there.”

--Una Loy Clark, the widow of the world’s first permanent artificial-heart recipient, and William J. Schroeder, who is still living with his Jarvik-7 pump, rode in a carriage at Churchill Downs, Ky., to raise money for Louisville’s Metro United Way “cardiac walk.” Clark, whose husband, Barney, died in 1983 after 112 days with the experimental device, also met with Dr. William C. DeVries’ other surviving heart patient, Murray P. Haydon. “I must tell you, it was an overwhelmingly emotional experience,” Clark said. “I had a very hard time.”

--The first Arab astronaut says his space ride strengthened his belief in the need for world peace. “On the first and second day of the flight, we were all noticing our countries, saying, ‘That’s my home,’ ” Prince Sultan ibn Salman al Saud of Saudi Arabia, who rode on the shuttle Discovery last June with French and American crew mates, said in Dallas. “By the third day, you only see continents. By the fifth day, you see only the Earth--it becomes one place, your home. . . . It’s an amazing feeling.”