New York Politicians Show Good Taste in Muffin Vote

When the students at Bear Road Elementary School in North Syracuse, N.Y., began lobbying to make the apple muffin the official muffin of New York state, many of them thought they had bitten off more than they could chew. “It was just a school project,” said Danny Carroll, 10. “I thought we would just go to Albany and then come back and . . . have the Senate not vote for it.” But Danny--and many state lawmakers--underestimated the persuasive powers of the “Apple Muffin Gang.” After writing each of the state’s 211 legislators to promote their bill and making four lobbying trips to the Capitol (not to mention handing out bushels of free muffins), the students savored the sweet taste of victory. After passage by the state Assembly and the Senate, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo signed the bill that makes the apple muffin one of the state’s official items, along with the rose (state flower), bluebird (state bird), beaver (state animal) and apple (appropriately, state fruit).

--The thoroughbreds paced and preened as a gaggle of spectators flocked to the rails to cheer on their favorites. The gate opened and with a chorus of quacks, the race was on. Spend a Duck was going strong and Milk and Quackers began swimming to the outside, but in the end it was Gertrude who paddled to victory and a $1,000 purse. So went the Beakness, just one of the races sponsored by the Duck Downs Racing Assn. in Schuylerville, N.Y., where owners pay $200 a season for the privilege of owning a racing duck and the prospect of winning purses ranging from $25 to $5,000. The ducks are trained to swim toward their daily food whenever an Elvis Presley song is played. Why Elvis? “We started them with (an) alarm clock, but then they couldn’t hear it. So then we went to a boom box,” trainer Clifford Douglass said. “I tried Elvis ‘cause I like Elvis--and the ducks, they liked him too.”

--Her name isn’t Daniel, but the Rev. Beverly Best is counting on her faith to get her through the wedding ceremony of lion tamer Baron Julius von Uhl and his assistant, Linda Pritchard. The couple are tying the knot in a lion cage with six male lions acting as attendants. Best, a minister of the Universal Church of God in Hazel Park, Mich., agreed to perform the ceremony after other ministers declined.