Bush Grandson Makes His Presents Felt in Armenia

--As President-elect George Bush headed for a few days of quail-hunting in Texas, his son, Jeb, and grandson, George, returned to the United States after spending Christmas delivering holiday toys to the youngest victims of the earthquake in Armenia. “It was very sad for me to see kids my age under rocks and pulled out and taken to the hospital, so I thought it was only fair to give presents and share,” said a weary George, 12, at New York’s Kennedy International Airport after a 12 1/2-hour flight from the Soviet Union. The two Bushes left the United States Christmas Eve aboard a chartered DC-8 cargo plane that carried 40 tons of medical supplies, clothing, toys and other goods to the victims of the quake that killed 55,000 people. George presented toys to patients at Children’s Hospital No. 3 in Yerevan.

--Today Sharon Elliott is a retired aerospace worker who lives in Mesa, Ariz. But 57 years ago she was known as the “Hatbox baby,” a newborn who was found in a hatbox in the Arizona desert on Christmas Eve 1931. Elliott was never told the unusual circumstances of her adoption until nearly half a century later. “My mother didn’t want me to find out,” she said. “It was such a shock after all these years--I couldn’t believe that during all that time it had been kept from me.” Edward and Julie Stewart were driving to Phoenix that long-ago Christmas Eve when a flat tire forced them to stop along the dusty desert highway about 10 miles west of Superior, Ariz. As Stewart changed the tire, his wife heard a cry and traced it to a black pasteboard hatbox about 100 yards off the roadway. Inside was a week-old infant with red hair and blue eyes. The story captured the public’s imagination, and for years afterward newspapers ran annual stories wondering whatever became of the baby. Sharon was adopted in 1932 by Faith and Henry Steig of Phoenix, and a judge ordered the records sealed. Still unknown is who left the baby in the desert and why.

--Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich has a chilling proposal. International Falls, Minn., is already known as the “nation’s icebox,” so, Perpich figured, why not take advantage of it? He wants to spend $2.2 million to lure companies there to do mechanical testing and help them promote their products as having withstood the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states. “International Falls is a cold place. So is Minnesota. Why not ‘fess up to it and capitalize on it?” said Richard Braun, chairman of the Governor’s Commission on Cold Weather Research. The request will be included in Perpich’s budget proposal.