Bush Has a Date With a Pyramid

President-elect George Bush apparently believes in planning ahead. He already has a date for New Year’s Eve--in 1999. Millennium Society officers say that Bush has committed himself to ushering in the next century from the Great Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, Egypt, at noon Greenwich Mean Time on that day. The society, founded in 1979 by Edward McNally, now a New York attorney, annually gives balls in cities around the world for the benefit of students selected to attend United World Colleges, a worldwide group of schools headed by Britain’s Prince Charles. The 1999 event will not be Bush’s first association with the society. In 1985, he prepared a statement that was read at its New Year’s Eve balls in Washington and Beijing. Bush said that he and his wife, Barbara, “fervently support the society’s dedication to education, international understanding and world peace.”

--Gov. Michael S. Dukakis may have come in second to Bush in the nationwide voting, but he would likely come out on top in a Massachusetts contest, a Boston Globe poll indicates. The newspaper said Dukakis would easily defeat Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn if Flynn ran in the next Democratic primary for governor. Despite state budget problems and his loss to Bush in the presidential race, the poll gave Dukakis 67%, to 27% for Flynn. Neither Flynn nor Dukakis has declared as a candidate in the 1990 race, but attacks on the Dukakis Administration from the mayor’s office have fueled speculation that Flynn may challenge the governor. The survey found also that Dukakis would defeat John Flood, a state legislator, by a similar margin.

--Another former presidential contender, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, has reached high office after all. He has been made a chieftain in the ancient city of Oyo in western Nigeria, Punch newspaper in Lagos reported. Jackson, who is on a tour of Africa, was given the title atun-ayese , which means “the man who makes the world a better place.” The civil rights activist was presented with a traditional staff of office and a calabash containing cola nuts and the symbolic akoko leaf, then donned a ceremonial gown. He called for closer relations between black Americans and Africans, saying: “It is not our color that makes us one, it is our common heritage.” Jackson, who arrived in Nigeria from Gabon, was expected to visit the black nations bordering on South Africa before he returns to the United States.