Christmas Gift for Wife All Wrapped Up in Confusion

--Somewhere in Texas a lucky Santa is wondering how his gift of kitchen implements turned into a blue fox jacket. And in Willow Park, Tex., there’s Jerry Rhodes, who bought that jacket for his wife but wound up with nothing but a receipt for it. “I’d like to have seen that man’s face when he opened that box,” Rhodes said. The story begins Christmas Eve, when Rhodes took the fur to J. C. Penney’s to be gift-wrapped. He had bought it at another store in the same Fort Worth mall. Rhodes said he was told the job would take 30 minutes. But when he returned 30 minutes later, he was told it would take another 10 minutes. And then another five minutes. And then five minutes more. Then, Rhodes said, the woman waiting on him went home sick--and that was when he started feeling a little ill himself. The gift-wrap employees huddled in a back room for several minutes, he said, emerging only to stare strangely at him. Finally, a Penney’s operations manager explained that Rhodes’ package had been confused with a similar package belonging to another customer who had left kitchen tools to be wrapped. Penney’s reimbursed Rhodes $600 for the coat, but he was unable to find another. Instead, Rhodes’ wife opened a card Christmas Day with a receipt for a fur coat and a long explanation of what happened. The couple went shopping together for a replacement.

--British singer Simon Le Bon of the group Duran Duran married model Yasmin Parvenah in London. “It was a very ordinary, family affair,” registrar Leoni Richardson said of the wedding, which was attended by a few close friends. The couple met when Le Bon telephoned the bride’s modeling agency for a date after seeing her picture.

--Former President Richard M. Nixon says the Chicago Bears will win the Super Bowl. Nixon discussed his picks during a trip to Lebanon, N.H., to visit former U.S. Sen. Norris Cotton. “Of course, my heart is with the Jets and Giants,” said Nixon, who lives in New Jersey. “But my head tells me the Bears will win. If the Dolphins and the Bears play the Super Bowl, the Bears will win.” The Super Bowl will be held Jan. 26 in New Orleans.

--Rock ‘n’ roller Jerry Lee Lewis filed for divorce from his sixth wife, contending she stripped their Memphis, Tenn., home of his gold records, family heirlooms and furniture and left him with only his piano. Kerrie Lewis, who married Lewis in April, 1984, refused to comment on the suit. “Let Mr. Lewis do all the talking,” she said.