Trouble on the Road: Press photographers scrambled...

Trouble on the Road: Press photographers scrambled Tuesday to get shots of the bandage on the knee of Miss America, Marjorie Judith Vincent, as she walked out of a Philadelphia hospital. She had been treated for a slight injury in a traffic accident after completing a talk. Vincent and others in the vehicle--all examined and released--were “more shaken than injured,” a university official said.

Heir Male: The Duke of Westminster, Gerald Grosvenor, 40, reputed to be Britain’s richest man, has fathered a son and heir to his title. The 8-pound, 10-ounce boy, named Hugh Richard Louis, born Tuesday, is the new Earl Grosvenor. He is in line to one day inherit his father’s title and the family estate--300 acres in some of London’s ritziest districts, not to mention a 13,000-acre rural spread. Though the duke has two daughters, they lose out: British titles pass through the male line.

Fidel’s Future?: Cuban leader Fidel Castro has died and both the Soviet Union and the United States battle over control of the successor. Such is the plot of a novel just sold to Crown Publishing Group by Marilyn Quayle, who wrote the thriller, “The Rage of the Lamb,” with her sister, Nancy Northcott.

Butter Up: The principles of engineering will get bent out of shape when teams of Purdue University students see who can invent the most complicated device for toasting bread. The winner of the Feb. 16 Rube Goldberg Machine Contest will try to burn teams from other schools in a national contest in March on the West Lafayette, Ind., campus. The contest is named for the cartoonist who drew complicated machines to perform simple tasks. In this case, contestants must use at least 20 steps and the bread must be hot and ready in five minutes.