Southland Fling Got Flying Start

--Clark Howard gives new meaning to the term frequent flier. Howard, 33, of Atlanta, traveled a total of 26,338 miles on 68 flights in 48 days to fulfill the requirements of an airline promotional package. The result? Twenty-five inner-city youngsters from Georgia arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday to begin a four-day Southern California fling that will include visits to Universal Studios, Disneyland and the San Diego Zoo. Eastern Airlines officials didn’t really think that someone would take them up on their 60th anniversary celebration offer of 60 free tickets to anyone making at least 60 flights totaling more than 25,000 miles in 60 days, said Carolyn Wills, a public relations consultant for the airline. But they didn’t count on Howard, who said he decided to earn the free tickets because he wanted the children to use them. The round-trip tickets for the 25 children and five chaperones would have cost about $9,000, according to the airline. Howard said he spent $2,110 for his 68 flights, choosing most of them for their low price tags. His most intense period of travel was eight flights a day between Atlanta and Columbia, S.C., or Charlotte, N.C., for four straight days.

--A Greek immigrant has chosen another way to spread his good will around. Every summer for the last 14 years, restaurateur Lou Pappan has thrown a picnic for thousands of senior citizens in Beaver Falls, Pa., his way of saying thanks for the U.S. relief packages he received as a child. This year Pappan served a crowd of up to 6,000 at a get-together that featured a bluegrass band, square dancing and contests. Pappan himself handed out silver dollars to all his guests. “I try to repay some of the dinners I had on the American people when I was in Greece,” said Pappan, 57, who was born in Makrakomi, Greece. Pappan said that during World War II American aircraft would drop boxes of food and clothing on his poverty-stricken village. “We got sometimes white sugar, sometimes brown sugar. We even received sometimes chocolate bars. It was a very big deal.”

--Ling-Ling, the female giant panda at the National Zoo in Washington, is probably not pregnant after all, disappointed zoo officials report. Ling-Ling, who has had four previous cubs but none that lived beyond four days, had exhibited strong signs of impending motherhood after mating with longtime companion Hsing-Hsing in April. But zoo spokesman Dr. Robert Hoage said her hormone levels have dropped and her behavioral changes have diminished. “We all had high hopes that a birth would occur last weekend,” he said.