April’s No Fool About Numbers

--”I’m only 5 years old,” April Wear told the telephone operator. “If I were 16, I could do something. Just let me tell you something.” Emergency officials in Birmingham, Ala., have presented a special commendation to April, who dialed 911 after her grandmother suffered a potentially fatal reaction to an antibiotic taken after foot surgery. April didn’t know her grandmother’s address, but the 911 operator was able to get a phone number during the 18-minute conversation with the child and paramedics were dispatched. April’s grandmother, Joy Holt, 53, said she had had to dial 911 in the past for her own parents. “I guess April heard it and something just stuck,” she said. “I kept passing out and I could not breathe good,” and April realized something was wrong and ran for the phone. The grandmother said she usually baby-sits her granddaughter, but “I guess she baby-sat me that day.”

--The manager of a New York health food store claimed a new world’s record for somersaulting, rolling head over heels the entire 12-mile, 390-yard route of Paul Revere’s famous ride. “I’m happy that it’s over,” said Ashrita Furman, 31, who credited his spiritual mentor, the guru Sri Chinmoy, for the feat that carried him from suburban Lexington to Boston in about 8,800 rolls and 10 hours and 40 minutes. “It was definitely very hard. I’m quite sore and bruised,” Furman said. Furman is no newcomer to the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1980, he somersaulted around New York’s Central Park for 10 miles. He also holds world records for hand-clapping and milk-bottle balancing, according to the Guinness record book.

--Dodge Morgan, praising America as the land “where individual effort is champion,” sailed through pea-soup fog for a triumphant return to home port in Portland, Me., from a record-shattering solo trip around the globe. Morgan, 54, set the record at 150 days when he sailed into St. George’s, Bermuda, on April 11 in the 60-foot cutter American Promise, ending a voyage that began Nov. 12. A high school band and hundreds of admirers lined the Portland harbor, many waving American flags and blowing horns. A fireboat pumped water cannons and Morgan yelled to friends: “It feels great to be back home!”

--Ray County conservation agent George Hiser told his wife to “take your best shot” when the turkey came out of the woods. Not only did Marcia Hiser drop the first turkey at 40 yards, she hit a second one 15 yards behind it with the same blast. State regulations prohibit killing more than one turkey during the spring season, so Hiser gave his wife a citation for the second bird. “He has to do it,” said Marcia Hiser, who faces a $5 fine and court costs. “I know what his job is.” Prosecutor Ken Berra said in Richmond, Mo., “I hope the Hisers don’t eat the evidence. That’s all I need, and then I don’t have a case.”