Sinatra, New Jersey in Harmony

--After a 14-month absence spurred by an insulting remark by a state official, Frank Sinatra sang loud and clear that “Mack is back in town” before a sell-out Atlantic City casino audience in his home state. Sinatra quickly launched into his set, including numbers by Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. He also performed “Mack the Knife,” and was given the biggest ovation of the evening when he sang the last lyrics: “Mack is back in town.” In August last year, Sinatra, a Hoboken native, vowed never to perform again in New Jersey after Casino Control Commissioner Joel Jacobson called him an “obnoxious bully” after Sinatra argued with a casino employee over the proper way to deal cards.

--The U.S. Navy base on Adak Island in the Aleutians is about to come under attack. McDonald’s is establishing a fast-food beachhead on the treeless, windswept island 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The company expects the first assault wave of Big Macs to hit the beaches next month. “It’s definitely a remote location,” said Robert Thompson, construction executive. “I was out there three weeks ago and they had just got HBO (Home Box Office cable television). That was the big craze on the island.” When the ships are in, there are about 5,000 people on Adak, most of them military personnel and their families, said base spokesman Lt. Kevin Ball. But Ball said not everyone is excited that the golden arches would soon reach the outpost. “There are those of us who really wanted a Burger King or a Wendy’s,” he said.

--Drama major Chris Enss needed help with tuition at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Otherwise, she would have been forced to drop out of college. She stood in line 2 1/2 hours on each of three days without getting into the university Financial Aid Office. The lost time further frustrated the sophomore because it kept her from working part time as a singing telegram messenger. But that gave her an idea. To get to the head of the line, she donned her professional costume--a top hat and tails. Carrying balloons, she walked into the Financial Aid Office and won an immediate audience with student loan counselor Bruce Anderson. “The whole place went crazy,” Enss said as she sang a song and delivered the balloons donated by her employer, Bananagrams Singing Telegrams, and got her student loan application processed in five minutes. Why the theatrics? “I’m just a college student struggling to make it in this world. I don’t have wealthy parents supporting me. It’s just me on my own and I needed that money.”