In New Orleans, They Still Put the Squeeze on Shirley

--It’s been a long time since Shirley Temple Black danced and sang her way across the nation’s movie screens as “Little Miss Marker” and “The Little Colonel.” The former child actress, now 60, is starring in a somewhat different role this week, that of a first-time delegate from California at the Republican National Convention in New Orleans. Black has been mobbed by fellow delegates who fondly remember her as the little pixie with ringlets and dimples. “Fans,” she said, displaying a set of purple bruises on her right forearm. “They say, ‘You’re so cute,’ and they squeeze you. It’s the older fans, the people in my age group, mostly.” But Black, who was a U.S. representative to the U. N. General Assembly under President Richard M. Nixon and ambassador to Ghana and chief of protocol under President Gerald R. Ford, doesn’t really mind all the attention. In fact, she seemed slightly hurt when a young reporter who did not recognize Black interviewed her, then asked what her name was.

--The Democrats may claim the Kennedys as their own, but Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is married to Kennedy clan member Maria Shriver, professes to be a big fan of President Reagan. The actor and former Mr. Universe has been seen hanging around the GOP convention in New Orleans and attended a luncheon there sponsored by the National Rifle Assn.

--In a Sino-American summit of a different sort, a delegation from the Siberian city of Dickson will visit its sister city of Dixon, Ill., boyhood home of President Reagan. Dixon Mayor James E. Dixon said the Soviets, including Dickson Mayor Nikolai T. Kartamyshev, will visit the house where Reagan grew up, attend a reception at the local high school, and tour area grain and dairy farms.

--According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the dam on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg, Va., is 194 feet high and 8,850 feet long and impounds the river just upstream from the city to help make hydroelectric power and control floods. But according to the folks in Fredericksburg, the dam was never even built. It seems that the Salem Church Dam has existed since 1944--but only on paper, as an Army Corps of Engineers proposal. “The whole reason for the encyclopedia is accuracy, but we are dealing with 44 million words, and we sometimes do make mistakes,” said Larry Grinnell, a spokesman for Encyclopaedia Britannica. He said the error will be corrected “in the next update possible. . . .”