The House Tips Its Hat to O’Neill

Politics was put aside for a moment on Capitol Hill as a bipartisan crowd of about 250 House members threw a going-away party for Speaker Thomas P. (Tip) O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.), who is retiring after a record 10 years as Speaker. “It’s hit me now,” O’Neill, 73, said when asked if the realization of retirement had set in. The tributes in the House chamber for the 34-year House member came from both sides of the aisle. House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), who has sparred with O’Neill on many issues over the years, said: “I’d rather fight with someone who really believes in what they say than with some lukewarm pragmatist who believes what the headlines tell him to believe.” House Majority Whip Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) called O’Neill one of the strongest Speakers the House has ever seen, adding: “All the strong Speakers have been characterized by a passion for politics. It’s no accident that the House stands unusually high in the opinion of the American people.”

--Several years ago, she was one of the most recognizable girls in the country. But few people recognized the black-haired 19-year-old Brown University sophomore at the official dedication of former President Jimmy Carter’s presidential library and museum this week in Atlanta. Amy Carter sat with her brothers and their families during the dedication, but only those who got a close-up look realized she was there. Amy dyed her blonde hair coal black during her summer vacation, a family friend said.

--If Rubik’s Cube had you in a frazzle, Erno Rubik, the Hungarian architecture-professor-turned-inventor, has created yet another mind-boggling game. It’s the newly introduced Rubik’s Magic, an eight-paneled plastic rectangle, with each piece attached by a four-sided hinge. Printed across the panels, on both sides, are three rainbow-colored rings. The object is to manipulate the panels to form a ring pattern that resembles the Olympic Games symbol. “It seems impossible, but it’s not,” Rubik said. One can also try to form three-dimensional geometric shapes, including rectangles, triangles and parallelograms, by folding the panels.

--You’ve got to hand it to Desi Chavis, 31, of Sumner, Wash. Chavis, who is unemployed, won a 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit for keeping a hand clamped on it for 75 hours. He outlasted 21 other people in the endurance duel in Buckley, Wash.,--thanks to a bee. “After about 60 hours, it’s all mental,” Chavis said. The target of the bee’s affection was runner-up Janette Seling, 33, of Enumclaw, who was forced to yank her hand off the car.