Can You Repeat That?: Gregory Sendi, an...

Can You Repeat That?: Gregory Sendi, an admirer of William Faulkner, stood on the porch of the famed novelist’s estate Sunday in Oxford, Miss., to read some prose. But his words were not as profound as the moment might suggest. Sendi had the winning concoction in a Faux Faulkner Contest, and he read from his spoof: “And so the old colonel used them the only way he knew how, the spices eleven of them and the chickens themselves countless untold bucket- and barrelfuls. . . .”

But, Your Honor: J. Albert Johnson, lawyer for murder accomplice Pamela Smart, hammered away Monday in an Exeter, N.H., court, arguing that his client’s trial was unfair. But Judge Douglas Gray, who had presided over her case, repeatedly cut the lawyer off with firm words. Johnson, desperately: “I’m simply saying that this court made a mistake.” Gray, curtly: “The trial was conducted appropriately.” Smart, a former high school instructor, was convicted in March of coaxing her teen-age lover and two of his friends to kill her husband, Gregory, in May, 1990. The judge did not rule on Johnson’s request for a new trial.

Pass It On: The Cuomo men are driven to make heirlooms of family cars. Gov. Mario Cuomo said his eldest son, Andrew, 33, was in Albany last week for brother Christopher’s 21st birthday. “Andrew turned over to Christopher his pride and joy--his (1975) Corvette, which he has been polishing and honing and painting and fixing for a lifetime,” the governor said. When the elder Cuomo was practicing law, he had given Andrew a 1968 Mercedes he had owned for 10 years.

Look, Up in the Sky: A 12-minute display lit the sky over Stockholm and won for Spain an unofficial fireworks world championship Sunday. Several hundred thousand onlookers applauded the spectacle in the center of the Swedish capital, which is built on islands. The four-man Spanish team won $15,000 to cap an air, water and ground festival.