‘Winners’ Pucker Up to a Porker

A couple of residents of Rush Springs, Ala., will get a chance to go hog wild this weekend during the Watermelon Festival. One of the main events will be the Kiss-A-Pig contest, which will take place immediately before the crowning of the 1987 Rush Springs Watermelon Queen. Festival chairman Mike Blades said that jars labeled with the names of potential kissing contestants are being passed around by members of the junior class. “You make a donation for the person who you’d most like to see kiss a pig,” he said. “I guess you’d say they’re going to be the guinea pigs for the Kiss-A-Pig contest.” Proceeds from the contest will help the students pay for their annual junior-senior banquet and other school activities, he said.

--Bob Keeshan, television’s beloved Captain Kangaroo, was discharged from a Houston hospital and vowed to use the extra years given him by heart surgery to improve the welfare of America’s youth. Keeshan, 60, did a quick jig for reporters to show how strong he was feeling after triple-bypass surgery July 23 at Methodist Hospital. “I’ve probably been given another 20 years of my life,” he said. “I’m very committed to America’s young people and I feel they are in greater jeopardy than ever before, so I have a lot of work to do.” He will rest for six to eight weeks, but then will resume speaking engagements, Keeshan said.

--The arrival of 24 chefs for world leaders has stirred up a lot of culinary excitement in New York. In honor of retiring White House Chef Henry Haller, members of Club des Chefs des Chefs are having their annual gathering in the United States. And what do chefs do when they get together? They eat. They were treated to lunch at the Water Club overlooking the East River, where Chef Guy Peuch admitted to being nervous as the guests downed his American delicacies, such as soft-shelled crabs and apple-rhubarb pie. The chefs will attend the $500-a-plate benefit dinner for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation at the Waldorf Astoria tonight. Other activities will include sailing on Publisher Malcolm Forbes’ yacht, lunching with an Amish family in Pennsylvania and a meeting with President Reagan. The full schedule probably will not faze men such as Otto Goebel, chef to Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. His average day at the palace means cooking for just the family--about 150 people. Yet Bao Lingzhu, chef of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, can top that. He and his staff of 400 have prepared dinner for 5,000 people. “But it was 10,000 for cocktails first,” he added.