The Week

■ It is our duty to report that Porte Toile, Italy, is recovering from a crocodile scare after the recapture of a 20-inch circus croc named Jao, that a cow named Mimosa has been exhibited at the annual cattle fair in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, by virtue of having given birth to 17 calves in eight years, that the world’s only Liederkranz cheese factory has been largely destroyed by fire in Van Wert, Ohio, that the Girl Scouts of America are considering a sex education merit badge, that the Soviet Union has expanded acceptance of Diner’s Club cards to cover twelve more of its tourist facilities, that in San Rafael, California, prison inmates Anthony Estrada, 39, and Glen E. Watts, 47, have sued warden Louis Nelson to let them bunk together on grounds they were married in 1971 by mail order, that Prince Makho- sini Diamini, the prime minister, has banned the showing of the Last Tango in Paris in Swaziland, and that an intensive British study of 1,474 portraits indicates that 60 per cent of them were painted with the left cheek forward. Now back to the hearings.

■ Under severe legislative pressure from Congress, the President has now agreed to seek congressional authority for any military action in Indochina after August 15— which means, most immediately, that bombing will have to cease in Cambodia by that date. Practically speaking, bombing will probably cease almost immediately. The announced deadline has the effect of removing from the bombing any military or diplomatic leverage it may have possessed. Perhaps the Administration now hopes, on the basis of understandings with Moscow and Peking, that the Indochinese Communists will be under some restraint. Whether such understandings exist, or will be effective, events alone will show. Meanwhile, the Watergate tide continues to overwhelm us. It is inconceivable that commander in chief Nixon would give way on this point except for Watergate. His fussy insistence on the separation of powers when these call for him to refuse to answer questions from the Senate committee is a contrast to his laying down the mantle of commander in chief.

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■ It is our duty to report that Porte Toile, Italy, is recovering from a crocodile scare after the recapture of a 20-inch circus croc named Jao, that a cow named Mimosa has been exhibited at the annual cattle fair in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, by virtue of having given birth to 17 calves in eight years, that the world’s only Liederkranz cheese factory has been largely destroyed by fire in Van Wert, Ohio, that the Girl Scouts of America are considering a sex education merit badge, that the Soviet Union has expanded acceptance of Diner’s Club cards to cover twelve more of its tourist facilities, that in San Rafael, California, prison inmates Anthony Estrada, 39, and Glen E. Watts, 47, have sued warden Louis Nelson to let them bunk together on grounds they were married in 1971 by mail order, that Prince Makho- sini Diamini, the prime minister, has banned the showing of the Last Tango in Paris in Swaziland, and that an intensive British study of 1,474 portraits indicates that 60 per cent of them were painted with the left cheek forward. Now back to the hearings.

■ Under severe legislative pressure from Congress, the President has now agreed to seek congressional authority for any military action in Indochina after August 15— which means, most immediately, that bombing will have to cease in Cambodia by that date. Practically speaking, bombing will probably cease almost immediately. The announced deadline has the effect of removing from the bombing any military or diplomatic leverage it may have possessed. Perhaps the Administration now hopes, on the basis of understandings with Moscow and Peking, that the Indochinese Communists will be under some restraint. Whether such understandings exist, or will be effective, events alone will show. Meanwhile, the Watergate tide continues to overwhelm us. It is inconceivable that commander in chief Nixon would give way on this point except for Watergate. His fussy insistence on the separation of powers when these call for him to refuse to answer questions from the Senate committee is a contrast to his laying down the mantle of commander in chief.