Loyalty Can Go Only So Far--Not Even Out of Town

--Eastern Airlines’ effort to honor its most loyal passenger got off to a flying start, but it soon took a nose dive. The ceremony itself went fine. Joseph Leonard, Eastern’s executive vice president, presented a plaque to Miami insurance executive Michael Cohen to mark his 2,000th flight with the airline. Then, Dade Mayor Steve Clark gave Cohen a gold key. But after Cohen boarded the plane for a nonstop flight from Miami to New York, crew members discovered a mechanical problem in one engine. Another plane was summoned and Cohen finally got airborne--2 hours and 42 minutes late.

--Jessica Hahn made two appearances Tuesday--one before a federal grand jury in Charlotte, N.C., and the other in Playboy. A copy of the November issue of the magazine, which includes a 31-page interview and semi-nude photo layout of Hahn, became available as she concluded two days of testimony before the grand jury, which is reportedly investigating PTL ministry founder Jim Bakker and his top aides. Bakker resigned after it became public that he had a tryst with Hahn in 1980. In the Playboy interview, Hahn said: “This is supposed to be the year of the bimbos, right? So let’s start with the fact that I am not a bimbo. I know that’s how people see me, but I am not what I’ve been made out to be--someone without thoughts or feelings or explanations. I am a human being. I was done in. I was hurt. The public does not know that I was used and manipulated and hurt--physically and emotionally. . . . “ Hahn said she agreed to appear in Playboy in order “to tell my side of the story.” Hahn’s lawyer, Dominic Barbara, declined to say how much Hahn was paid for the interview.

--John Crosland has given up. After 27 years of trying to find a cure for his persistent hiccups, the Laurinburg, N.C., man has resigned himself to the problem. Since his hiccups began in September, 1960, Crosland has tried everything from homemade remedies to surgery to clip a nerve. Nothing has worked. “After 27 years I’m starting to get used to it,” Crosland, 51, said between hiccups. “The only time I don’t have the hiccups is when I sleep.” He’s not alone. The Guinness Book of World Records says Charles Osborne, 93, of Anthon, Iowa, has had the hiccups since 1922.