■ Borman, Lovell and Anders almost didn’t make it: President Eisenhower, it is now revealed, planned to scrap the man-to-the-moon project in 1960 (too expensive). It was reactivated by JFK because of “America’s competitive and expansive spirit.” … A farmer in Colombia so entranced by the exploit that he has named his triplet sons, born Christmas eve, Borman, Lovell and Anders Aguilar, and will ask the astronauts to be their “spiritual godfathers.” . . . James Mangan, the pr man who formally claimed space about ten years ago, has sent the astronauts passports authorizing them to “trespass on my domain.”
■ On the airline front: France, it turns out, owned 30 per cent of the Middle East Airlines that lost eight planes in the Israeli commando raid in Beirut; U.S. companies own 55 per cent of Lebanese International Airways which lost three planes. . . . International Pilots Association, meeting in Helsinki last week, taking dim view of all this; calling for stricter enforcement of international laws. . . . Mexico has a new law on the books providing a twenty-year sentence for skyjackers. . . . Angola is giving its pilots and crews lessons in karate and judo. . . . ’Tain’t funny, McGee: an Eastern Airlines passenger boarding at Philadelphia for Tampa Christmas eve with wife and child made the mistake of asking the captain: “Is this plane going to Cuba?” He was hustled off and his fare refunded.
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