Sunset for RALPH: Alice Declines a Trip to the Moon

Ralph Kramden sported a scraggly beard and was more portly than ever, but the humor hadn’t changed a bit: “Bang! Zoom! To the moon!” the bus driver from Bensonhurst screamed at his wife, Alice, in a performance attended by hundreds of fans in New York. But it was a sad occasion as well. The convention of RALPH, the Royal Assn. for the Longevity and Preservation of the Honeymooners, was also the group’s farewell tribute to the live, 1950s TV comedy. Art Carney’s son, Brian, played Ed Norton, wrestler Lou Albano stepped into Jackie Gleason’s shoes and actress Joyce Randolph revived her almost-35-year-old role as Trixie Norton. A very pregnant soap opera star Lauren-Marie Taylor appeared as Alice Kramden. There were lessons in improving your “Pow! Right in the kisser!” a “You’re the greatest!” kissing contest and a crowd of “Honeymooners” look-alikes. Pete Crescenti, RALPH co-founder and co-president, said that after six conventions, “we discovered it wasn’t easy coming up with new angles.”

--At first, the elderly exercise enthusiasts at the Salvation Army class in Evansville, Ind., didn’t cotton to their aerobics instructor. After all, Super Sally sounded cold, machine-like: “Twist your elbows. Now your wrists. Shake your arm. Sit up straight and put your feet on the floor. Roll your head. Now I’m going to be coming around and checking on you.” But today, Super Sally, a robot, is more warmly accepted. Nurse Sharon Miller said: “It took them a few minutes, then they thought it was cute.” Maggie Slover has grown to love the robot, who is programmed to call out names of the participants. “It just gives me a better mood and everything,” she said. Ethel Moore, 72, called Super Sally “something different and fun. I’ll try anything once.” “Daisy, get behind your chair and kick your leg,” the robot barks at Daisy Herron, 73, who giggles and answers: “I am, I am--hah!”

--Did Christopher Columbus have inside information when he set sail and found the New World? Explorer-anthropologist-author Thor Heyerdahl has his suspicions--so much so that he will undertake a three-year study to determine the link between Columbus’ expedition and early Norse explorations in North America. “Columbus and Leif Erickson were both Christians, and they both had contact with the Vatican at two different periods,” Heyerdahl said. “Columbus got lots of information from the Vatican.” Because of the information he had, Columbus should be viewed as an expert planner rather than an irresponsible adventurer, said Heyerdahl, who is renowned for his voyages in the primitive sailboats Kon-Tiki and Ra.