At 11, He’ll Have Flying Start on Career as Astronaut

--Eleven-year-old John Kevin Hill may need three cushions to reach the controls on his airplane, but he has set his sights considerably higher: He’s hoping to become the youngest pilot to fly across the United States. John Kevin, of Arlington, Tex., and his flight instructor, Mike Fields, will begin the record-setting 3,500-mile flight aboard a four-seat, twin-engine Cessna today in Los Angeles, with stops planned in Loveland, Colo., and St. Louis before touching down July 1 in Washington. Because John Kevin cannot legally fly without an instructor until he is 17, Fields will be on board as a backup. The sixth-grader has logged 150 hours of flight time since he began flying at age 9. Today’s flight should be a piece of cake for the young veteran. Last year, he and Fields made a 7,000-mile flight across the northwestern United States and Canada. And his long-range plans? To become a shuttle astronaut.

--Betty Burns’ penchant for flowers has blossomed into a thriving backyard business. For 25 cents a stem, hopeful suitors or husbands in the doghouse can step inside her white picket fence and gather their own bouquets from her 17 flower beds ablaze with larkspur, asters, tiger lilies, cosmos, snapdragons, zinnias and dozens of other varieties. Burns, who opened her Norman, Okla., business four years ago, thought there might be a market for garden flowers as opposed to florist flowers, which, she explained, are grown in a carefully controlled environment to preclude any flaws. A garden flower, she said, “is grown willy-nilly and if it has a bug hole in it, well, that’s all right.” Scattered throughout the garden are tables and chairs, where neighbors and friends sometimes picnic. And there’s a special flower bed especially for children. “What are children always told in a garden?” Burns asked. “Don’t touch! It’s a shame.” In Burns’ garden they can not only touch, but pick the flowers, for a penny a stem.

--Popular Italian television hostess Enrica Bonaccorti wasn’t sure if she should be outraged or flattered. A burglar who broke into her Rome home stole three clocks and some collector’s coins but left behind a love note. Bonaccorti returned home to find a playing card depicting the queen of hearts taped to her bathroom mirror and the words “You are more beautiful” written on the glass in lipstick. The thief also left behind Bonaccorti’s jewels.