Dead-Eyed Archer Takes a Bow

--Accomplished archers can hit their share of bull’s-eyes, but few can boast of making that rarity of rarities, a “Robin Hood.” Bowman Beloit (Bunk) Kinzer of Columbus, Neb., has, not one, but two Robin Hoods in his quiver. A Robin Hood--archery’s equivalent of a hole-in-one--is what archers call shooting an arrow and splitting one already in the target. Kinzer’s first Robin Hood occurred at a tournament two years ago. He got his second at an archery range last week, using aluminum arrows less than five-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and shooting at a target 20 yards away. “I was amazed,” he said. To give you an idea of just how rare a Robin Hood is, Kinzer competed at a two-day tournament last year in which 700 of the nation’s top archers participated. Each shot more than 60 arrows a day, for a total of more than 84,000 shots. Only one Robin Hood was registered, Kinzer said.

--It had laid on the floor next to a microfilm copying machine since the Town Hall was painted two years ago. But retired Portsmouth, R.I., Police Chief John T. Pierce had a “gut feeling” about the faded document in a cheap wood frame he had seen hanging on a wall there since 1948. He persuaded Town Clerk Carol Zinno to show it to a rare books dealer, James H. Thomson of Newport, and a Brown University historian, James H. Mathieson. Their conclusion: It is a rare early copy of the Declaration of Independence. After the declaration was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776, copies were sent to each colony. The General Assembly instructed a Newport printer, Solomon Southwick, to print duplicates for each town in the state. Only seven of those original Rhode Island copies were known to exist until the Portsmouth discovery, Mathieson said. The document could be worth between $800 and $9,500, depending on its condition, according to Christopher R. Coover, a manuscript specialist for Christie’s auction house. Zinno said she plans to raise funds to restore and preserve the historic manuscript. “I can’t ever recall being so excited about anything,” she said.

--Alvin Goffney, who had been in the Will County Jail in Joliet, Ill., since Sept. 27 on weapons charges, had served his time and was a free man. Trouble was, he didn’t want to leave. “You see, judge, I have a job to finish,” Goffney told an astonished Circuit Judge Robert Buchar. Goffney had been working on a painting crew redecorating the jail for about a month and needed four more days to complete the job. “Goffney has been very dedicated to his painting work here,” said Sgt. Brian Fink, a correctional officer at the jail. The judge granted Goffney’s request.