Grandfather Godfather: Reputed New York mob boss...

Grandfather Godfather: Reputed New York mob boss John Gotti became a grandfather for at least the third time last week when a boy was born to John Gotti Jr. and his wife of three months, the New York Post reported. Gotti and his son arrived at the hospital with two bodyguards, entered the hospital through an emergency entrance and headed straight to the maternity ward, which had been cleared out by more security guards. Although the 26-year-old father was not present in the delivery room, both he and the elder Gotti left after admiring the still-unnamed baby for about 20 minutes.

Forget Valentine’s Day: The weekend that just ended was probably the most romantic of the year, no matter what the claims for a certain day in February. About 44,000 weddings were performed Saturday--the last chance for anyone bent on June nuptials--estimates Barbara Wilson, the National Center for Health Statistics official who keeps track of marriage and divorce statistics for the federal government.

A Literary Death: Author John Hersey is decrying Yale University’s announcement that it will shelve the 79-year-old “The Yale Review” as “symptomatic of what is happening in publishing, where money has become more important than words.” Other voices also have joined in the chorus of regrets that the journal fell victim to budget concerns. The magazine, the oldest literary quarterly in the country, has featured works by Eugene O’Neill, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Wallace Stevens and Leon Trotsky.

Dog Gone: An 18-year-old youth frustrated because he couldn’t bail his dog out of an animal shelter was arrested for breaking the 100-pound Rottweiler out of doggie detention. Shawn Buzbee was charged last week with burglarizing the Hillsborough County (Florida) Animal Control Shelter, said Sheriff’s Capt. James Walker. Sheriff’s officials say Buzbee sprang Brutus from detention because he had been told there was no way of getting his dog out before his observation time--for biting a 7-year-old boy--expired.