She Lands Pilgrim at Plymouth

--It might not be every woman’s dream, but Marsha Padilla of Woods Cross, Utah, was married on Thanksgiving Day on the Mayflower--to a pilgrim. Padilla, 37, and Allen Pilgeram--as in pilgrim--exchanged their vows aboard the Mayflower II near Plymouth, Mass. The couple were married by Judge Linda Steeves of Plymouth in the main cabin of the Mayflower II, a copy of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock in 1620 and which is part of Plimoth Plantation museum. “It just started out to be a nice quiet wedding, and it’s been blown out of proportion, creating a lot of commotion here,” said Pilgeram, 47, a pilot for Western Airlines. His bride works as a corrections officer at the Davis County Jail in Utah. About 1,400 people celebrated the event in Plymouth’s Memorial Hall, with the community’s traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey and trimmings, and, of course, a special wedding cake. The wedding marked the couple’s third anniversary, since they first met over the telephone three years ago on Thanksgiving. “I always thought it would be . . . great to marry a Pilgeram on the Mayflower on Thanksgiving,” Padilla said.

--Speaking of pilgrimages, this year Santa Claus will be arriving in Guatemala in a tractor-trailer rig. Elton Blair of Uniontown, Ohio, today starts his annual pilgrimage to the Central American country, loaded with food, medical supplies and toys for needy families. Blair, 56, became aware of the Guatemalans’ plight after making a trip there in 1980 to assist in the building of dormitories. “That’s when it all started,” he said. “I really cried when I went into some of those homes.” The next year, Blair started his missions of mercy, and he’s been making the trip each year ever since. Because the project has gained such momentum and donations have grown, this year’s journey, which is expected to last two weeks, will take on the look of a caravan, with two other trucks and a car joining Blair’s rig. Blair quit work as a trucker two weeks ago because he said he did not have enough vacation time to make the trip. His wife, Carmel, 55, is also glad to be out of work. She was laid off from her job as a production worker at a local factory. “I thank God I have been laid off, because this is the biggest truckload we’ve had, and there’s so much to do,” she said.

--An Amsterdam city court had the right solution to Erno Rubik’s problem. Rubik, inventor of Rubik’s Cube, had sought to block the publishing of a solution to his latest puzzle, Rubik’s Magic, and the court ruled in his favor. Mondria, a Dutch publishing company, has been ordered to recall the books. The Hungarian-born Rubik said he plans to publish his own book on the solution.