13 Who Darragh to Be Different

The biggest controversy ever to hit the isolated Kalkaska County hamlet of Darragh, Mich., (population 13) would have the town’s telephones a-jingling--if it had phones. The question dividing those 13 people is whether they need telephone service. According to seven-year resident Jean Seadorf, Darragh has already lost two families who couldn’t manage without a phone. Delores Burns, a retired telephone operator from Grand Rapids, wants a phone for emergency use and for calling her family. Her husband, Bob, says no way. He sides with those who maintain that they already have adequate contact with the world--by keeping their citizens-band radios all tuned to Channel 13, and by picking up and leaving messages at a tavern 15 miles away. Burns concedes that the CB does come in handy. “If you ever need anything, all you have to do is get on the CB and say, ‘Does anybody have a loaf of bread?’ ”

--When Charlie decided to move into the $500-a-night Grand Suite at the RiverPlace Alexis Hotel in Portland, Ore., he didn’t have a reservation and he didn’t have American Express. What the foot-tall nanday conure parrot does have, however, is a sense of style. “He’s right in the scheme of our hotel,” hotel spokeswoman Celinda Knott said. “He matches the green marble perfectly.” The bird made a surprise entrance more than a week ago, startling a maid who was cleaning the luxury suite. Since then, hotel officials have been trying to track down his owner, to no avail. “We’ve gotten a lot of calls from people who lost their parrots,” Knott said. “You’d be surprised at how many are missing, but none of them described one in the same colors as ours.” The parrot was taken home for safekeeping by a hotel bartender, who gave him the name Charlie.

--The English language Gulf News in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, reports that the latest fashion rage to sweep the Gulf region since pop star Michael Jackson and Indian movie star Amitabh caught the public’s fancy is the Ollie North look. “It is sheer comfort under the sweltering heat,” the newspaper said of Lt. Col. North’s close-cropped hair style. It said the look is favored mainly by Englishmen and Palestinians.

--When John Evans turned 110, he decided it was time he did a little traveling. After all, he wasn’t getting any younger. So the Welshman took a 113-mile train ride from Fforestfach, near Swansea, for his first visit to London, wearing a Panama hat and his best suit with a red rose in the buttonhole. He was accompanied by his 76-year-old son, Amwel. Evans, a coal miner for 60 years, is Britain’s oldest man.