It’s an Up-Scale Waterfront Dive

Tired of looking out over the ocean from one of those luxurious hotel rooms? Well, now you can look out into that ocean from a luxurious hotel room. In Key Largo, Fla., a new mini-hotel, Jules’ Undersea Lodge, will soon be open for tourists with a bent for the deep. Named for the French science fiction writer Jules Verne, the five-fathoms-deep lodgings offer tethered guests an opportunity to explore the lagoon and observe parrotfish, angelfish and snapper. The hotel, which offers amenities such as stereo, TV and microwave ovens, also provides scuba gear, should a 30-foot swim to the surface be required in an emergency. “We don’t want people going down, changing their clothes and then going out to the disco,” said Gary Gerberg, 42, a film producer and director from Hawaii who is one of the developers. “I’d like to think this is for doctors and lawyers and honeymooners. This is a chance for people to explore inner space.”

--It seems that Mother Nature may have to settle the 2-week-old battle between the sparrows of Stillwater, Okla., and town officials. The latest publicized effort to get rid of about 2,000 sparrows nesting in downtown trees by feeding them corn has failed. Get the birds used to eating corn, the thinking goes, and then officials, under the guidance of federal wildlife authorities, can switch to poisoned corn. But the sparrows aren’t taking the bait. “Apparently, either the birds read the paper or got wind of the program, because they haven’t been eating the corn,” City Manager Carl Weinaug said. “So, we haven’t really proceeded with poisoning yet, because it wouldn’t do any good.” Cannon fire, rubber snakes and owls placed in trees also failed to frighten off the birds. The birds’ droppings are a nuisance and health hazard in the city, said Weinaug, who added that cold weather just might send them on their merry way.

--Guy Hunt, Alabama’s governor elect, will soon take up the reins of power, but, on most weekends, he will do a little moonlighting--as a country preacher. Hunt insists that being governor--the state’s first Republican chief executive since Reconstruction--will not keep him from continuing to serve the Mount Vernon Primitive Baptist and Gum Pond Primitive Baptist churches of Leeds, Ala. Over the weekend, he married Bart Connell and Donna Haas, and the bridegroom said that Hunt’s presence added “a little flavor” to the ceremony. “It’s not so much Guy Hunt the governor, but Guy Hunt the man--he’s something special.” During the campaign, little mention was made of Hunt the preacher. “You don’t wear it on your sleeve. The way you live your life shows your religion,” Hunt said.