Youth Not Served by N.Y. Bar

The state of Florida has licensed him to practice law, but New York is saying no go to a 17-year-old, denying him permission to take the state’s bar exam because of his age. Indeed, the Court of Appeals has ruled that Steve Baccus will have to wait four more years, when he reaches the ripe old age of 21, to take the exam. Baccus was graduated from New York University at 14, attended the University of Miami law school and passed the Florida bar at 17 after receiving an age waiver from that state, making him the youngest lawyer in the country. The youth intends to file an appeal charging age discrimination in the ruling. “I think it’s crazy,” Steve’s mother, Florence Baccus, said. “It’s irrational. Here’s a young man who has a license to practice law in the state of Florida and he is not even allowed to take the bar exam in New York.” But, should justice be blind to Baccus’ appeal, he has cultivated options. He currently is studying for a master’s degree in computer science at New York University.

--A display of 100 cowboy boots along a Wyoming highway fence apparently has worn out its welcome. The Wyoming Highway Department decided the 2-year-old display, along a section of Highway 220 west of Casper, was “litter” and moved the boots to the city dump. Boot collector Norm Taylor, who owns the property adjacent to the fence, thinks the state officials are heels for removing his footwear. Taylor got the idea for his boot display from a mile-long stretch of boots he saw on fence posts in Nebraska. “One day, I went out and nailed up five or six pairs . . . . One thing led to another,” he said. He got most of his booty at garage sales, while other boots were given to him. “People would say they’d drive by and think of old granddad or uncle Bob,” he said. “You could almost see a history in each boot.”

--Beauty is in the eye of the beholder in the case of American heartthrob Rob Lowe, say two plastic surgeons who contend that the actor suffers from a facial deformity--his chin is too long. New York plastic surgeons Joel Friedman and Andrew Breiman say ex-Beatle Paul McCartney has the same minor deformity, and that other famous male beauties have less than perfect faces, including Bruce Springsteen (protruding lower jaw), O. J. Simpson (overdeveloped jaws), Mick Jagger (overgrown top jaw, a problem he shares with model girlfriend Jerry Hall), Sylvester Stallone (underdeveloped upper jaw and cheekbone) and Marlon Brando (receding chin). What’s the perfect face in a man? That honor, the two say, belongs to Paul Newman, Tom Selleck, Clint Eastwood, Billy Dee Williams, Harry Belafonte, Frank Gifford, John Forsythe, John Kennedy Jr., Tom Cruise and Ralph Lauren.