Rhino-Wrestler Settles for Draw

--Few can ever say they tried to tackle a charging rhinoceros and lived to tell about it. Dr. James Smith, an American wildlife expert, did just that, but he had little choice in the matter. In Katmandu, Nepal, to study small mammals, Smith, 46, was setting up traps when he saw a rhino charging his son, 4, near their campsite in the Royal Chitwan National Park wildlife preserve. Quickly, Smith, a professor at the University of Minnesota, grabbed the rhino and held on, despite being gored repeatedly. “I rushed toward Alex to pull him away, but there was no chance, so I rushed toward the rushing rhino,” Smith said. “I tried to tackle the rhino and twice I was over him, catching his head. I was probably gored about 14 times in 30 seconds.” Others at the camp whisked Alex away, safely stashing him up a tree. Smith, hospital officials said, is out of danger after suffering chest, leg and head injuries.

--Margaret Thatcher is not known as being nervously excitable or weak. Yet Britain’s longest serving prime minister in this century--she’s been in office 9 years--said in an interview with the Sunday Times of London that some men resent having a woman running the country. “Yes, it is rather patronizing. The best compliment they (men) can give a woman is that she thinks like a man. I say she does not, she thinks like a woman,” said Thatcher, who is known as the Iron Lady. “The House (of Commons) is still very much male-dominated, and there is something about them, a sort of ‘little woman’ thing. It would be all right . . . if I had followed Florence Nightingale.” Denying that her rule is authoritarian, Thatcher, 62, said: “A prime minister has a task of leadership. If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? All right, so I give a certain sound.”

--Bess Myerson has known of better times. In 1945 she was crowned Miss America, and in 1983 she was appointed cultural affairs commissioner in New York City. But on Sept. 14, Myerson goes on trial for allegedly conspiring to rig a divorce settlement for her millionaire boyfriend, Carl (Andy) Capasso. And now, the New York Daily News reported that Myerson, while serving as the city’s consumer affairs commissioner, had been charged in 1970 with shoplifting from Harrod’s department store in London. She paid the $100 fine in 1987--after being on Scotland Yard’s wanted list for 17 years. However, the case is far from closed, since she failed to disclose the arrest on an official background questionnaire before her ’83 appointment--and that’s a crime, authorities said. It was not known what was stolen.