At 96, Stern-Faced ‘Iron Pants’ Is Known as ‘Grandpa’

--The stolid, humorless diplomat who helped Josef Stalin assert Kremlin dominance in Eastern Europe is now a doting grandfather who lives in quiet retirement in a Moscow suburb closed to foreigners, according to the Soviet press. The first news story in a generation about Vyacheslav M. Molotov, the tough right hand of Stalin who was sent into political limbo 30 years ago and is now a 96-year-old pensioner, appeared in the weekly Moscow News on Wednesday. “I am happy in my old age. I wish to reach the age of 100,” said the man who became known as “Iron Pants” during long service as foreign minister that made his stern visage as familiar to the world as Stalin’s. The Moscow News article skirted politics and did not delve into the past of the man who helped V.I. Lenin forge the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Molotov said the highlights of his life now are Saturday visits by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. “Then, everything goes back to life around me,” he said. “My friends do not forget me either . . . . I keep abreast of all events . . . . It is a pity my age and health prevent me from taking an active part . . . . The older you are, the more you want to be useful to society.”

--A Louisville, Ky., judge wasn’t about to let driving go to the dogs, so he rejected the arguments of a blind man who contended that he could not be charged with drunken driving because his pet dog was operating the car. William David Bowen, 34, had surrendered his driver’s license several years ago when his sight deteriorated and he was pronounced legally blind. He told the court that his Alaskan malamute had been trained to identify the changing traffic lights and bark a signal. The car went seven blocks before Bowen was stopped by police officers, Jefferson District Judge James C. Nicholson said. Bowen finally pleaded guilty to drunken driving and driving without an operator’s license and was sentenced to time served in jail while he awaited trial.

--Jim Heiar made history by buying two six-packs of beer--the first person to make such a purchase in Richland Center, Wis., in 53 years. Residents voted nearly 2 to 1 in an April referendum to end the municipality’s status as the last dry city in Wisconsin, overturning a booze ban dating from 1933.