PEOPLE

The bald eagle may be on the verge of extinction due to DDT, and the one depicted on the jacket of a new record is shedding a tear—not, presumably, over its fate, but over that of America. "America the Beautiful," the jacket copy reads. "An Account of Its Disappearance by Gary McFarland." The orchestral work has been termed "America's first protest symphony—a Picture of Dorian Gray, using our country as its ravaged hero." One movement is called "80 Miles an Hour through Beer-Can Country." "You hear the brass and the electric guitar roaring onto the scene," the 35-year-old composer and jazz musician explains, "and it's like, well, here come the bulldozers."

Howard Cosell a Yalie? For three days as a (paid) Hoyt Fellow at Silliman College. Cosell took part in a class in Russian history, visited a mill-in (Yale's version of a sit-in, which breaks up when academic discipline is threatened) and learned that martinis are not served in the college dining hall. The highlight of Cosell's stay was his confrontation with Sterling Professor of Philosophy Paul Weiss, the author of Sport, A Philosophic Inquiry. "Sports is like a medieval cook," Weiss led off. "There is no cookbook and the big gurus are telling the little gurus what to put in." Cosell retorted that "sports is clearly the human drama in microcosm. It is not a matter of philosophy or abstraction. It is a matter of humanity. We cannot afford to romanticize sports as something apart from society." Nonetheless, he told Weiss that he admired his book and had given copies to Pete Rozelle, Bowie Kuhn, Walter Kennedy and Marvin Miller. "They all said that they didn't understand it," Cosell added. Weiss said his book had been written with civilized man in mind. "That may explain the utter lack of understanding by these men," said Cosell.

Among our more well-traveled families are the Scott Carpenters of Bethesda, Md. Scott Sr., 44, of course, circled the earth three times in four hours and 56 minutes in 1962. Now Scott Jr., 19, has set out on a globe-girdling trip of his own, which will certainly take longer and has so far been much hairier. Scott Jr. and four friends intend to sail around the world in a 44-foot ketch and last week they were in Bermuda after completing the first leg from Norfolk, Va. "We didn't know a thing when we started out," says Scott Jr., "but, boy, have we been learning fast." Indeed, their navigation was so cockeyed they sailed past Bermuda in a thick fog, their engine broke down, their supplies ran out, and before being rescued they lived for two days on the moisture drained from empty vegetable cans. What does Scott Sr. think about his son's cruise? "I think he's a little envious," says Scott Jr.

"O.K., wise guys, let's see what you can do," is, roughly, what LSU Football Coach Charles McClendon said to veteran Baton Rouge Sports Editors Dan Hardesty and Bud Montet, coaches-for-a-day in the annual spring intrasquad game. "I had thought once the game got started that the regular coaches would take over," said a stunned Hardesty, whose team lost 52-18. The score was 24-0 before Hardesty's team scored, and then he tried three consecutive onside kickoffs, miraculously recovering two. Montet's team tried a 59-yard field goal. "That should be some indication of the kind of strategy we were employing," he said. The 10-man coaching staff of Texas A&M, LSU's first opponent this fall, was on hand to scout the Tigers. Said Head Coach Gene Stallings, "I could have stayed home."

Charles Aznavour, the French singer and actor, has always scoffed at exercise. "Look at me," he'd say to athletic friends. "I'm in great shape and I've never done a thing." Friends agreed. "He's like a piece of steel," they'd say. However, for his role as a marathon runner in the movie The Games Aznavour had to run. "When I got started it was exciting," he admitted later. "I would challenge myself and ask what was my time and want to better it. When I began the movie I was doing the 100-meter run in 24 seconds, when I finished I was down to 16 seconds." Singing is his true love, though, and he considers it a sport. "You need all your faculties," he says, "including lungs, stomach, belly. I stand there for two hours at a time, and the slightly nervous feeling helps to keep me slim. You never see a fat French singer," he claims, holding up his index finger. "They are all like this."

TWO PHOTOS