2 Beat Odds of 1 in 700,000,000 by Reaching 100

--William Sexton and his twin sister, Margaret Adams, beat incredible odds to celebrate their 100th birthdays, but Sexton says he knows of no secret to longevity. “If I could write them a recipe, I’d be a millionaire,” he said as about 100 family members and friends gathered in Ashland, Ky., for the birthday party. The Guinness Book of World Records refers to the odds of identical twins both reaching the age of 100 as “said to be 1 in 700,000,000.” Sexton and Mrs. Adams are fraternal twins. She was widowed in 1935, and Sexton has outlived three wives, including one he married at age 82 and who died several years ago. Both of the twins operated groceries at one time. Sexton said he lost his when “the Republicans broke me down during the Depression. I had a big store, a stock of goods worth $20,000. The Depression wiped me out. I had to go back to the mines.” And Sexton joked about the birthday card he received from President Reagan: “If he had known I’m a Democrat, he wouldn’t have sent it.”

--The 1040EZ federal income tax form can be more complicated than it looks. Joyce Ratley of Beaumont, Tex., sent the short form in, expecting a $100 refund. Instead, she got a letter from the Internal Revenue Service telling her she owed $382,810.69. “I was shocked,” said the department store clerk. “I only made $7,922.70.” Ratley, 53, said that she had made a mistake on the form and put the amount withheld for Social Security in the place where she should have entered the amount withheld for income taxes. An IRS computer compounded the mistake by slipping a decimal point a couple of places. The IRS promised to reprocess her return.

--The watchers keep watching but nothing is happening. The giant pandas at Washington’s National Zoo seem to have lost interest in each other. “We’re still waiting,” said Dr. Bob Hoage. The animal romance has gone nowhere since mid-March, the giant panda’s traditional mating period. “Their play behavior has diminished, and we don’t know exactly why,” Hoage said. A Chinese Embassy spokesman said he was not sure why the pandas are avoiding marital relations. “Perhaps it’s the bamboo they eat,” he said.

--Hailed by the Japanese mass media as a possible candidate for the U.S. presidency, Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee A. Iacocca was asked repeatedly about that possibility during a visit to Tokyo. He flatly denied any interest in the job. When asked why not, he replied that facing “adversarial relationships” with Congress, bureaucrats and the press was not “the way I’d like to spend the rest of my life.” Later, responding to another questioner at a news conference, Iacocca said: “I would make a bad President. I will never be President. I am not a politician. I am a businessman. I will live within myself. I like to be in the car business, and I will stay there the rest of my life.”