Town Flies Hostage Symbol for ‘Normal Teen-Ager’

True to the song of yesteryear, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree,” yellow ribbons have become the rage in Old Bridge, N.J. They’re emblazoned on cars, homes and, of course, trees--all in the name of “freeing” Heather Burdick, a 16-year-old girl that residents contend is being “incarcerated” against her will in the DeSisto School in West Stockbridge, Mass. Thirteen residents have sued Heather’s parents, charging that the girl has been “falsely imprisoned (and) subjected to cruel and unusual punishment” by being forced to attend the school for troubled adolescents. “She’s a normal teen-ager. I’m just the same as her, but I’m not sitting in that school,” said Theresa Griggs, 16, a friend of Heather’s and the daughter of two plaintiffs. “She may have had a beer in the woods . . . but nothing different than anyone else.” In court papers, David and Mary Burdick, who are separated, said that Heather needs to attend the school because she has had drug and alcohol problems, and because she exhibited “pre-suicidal” behavior while attending Madison Central High School in Old Bridge. After Heather ran away from DeSisto last summer, a judge ordered her back for two more years.

--J.D. Salinger, author of the classic “The Catcher in the Rye,” has remained in seclusion in Windsor, Vt., since 1965. But the prospect of an unauthorized biography, “J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life,” by Ian Hamilton, has brought the reclusive man of letters back into the spotlight. Salinger, 67, who also wrote “Nine Stories,” “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenter,” has gone to federal court to prevent the publication of the book, which quotes from 70 private letters written from 1939 to 1962. The letters, taken from several university libraries as well as files from Salinger’s former English publisher, reveal “long expressions of Salinger’s private opinions, philosophies, fantasies (and) criticisms,” court papers said. The suit, which charges copyright infringement and breach of contract, names the publisher, Random House, and Hamilton.

--To Britain’s Princess Diana, it was strictly an academic question. “Why shouldn’t men’s underwear be fun?” she asked during a visit to Courtaulds Leisure-wear, a design studio in England. She was said to be particularly fascinated by a pair decorated with a polo motif, obviously thinking of her polo-playing husband, Prince Charles. “Silk underwear for men must be the ultimate luxury,” Diana said. “It must be very comfortable to wear. Men don’t notice the difference between silk and cotton until their wives bring them home and they try them on.” Her interest was “purely academic,” design director Michael Rudman said.